All Is Well That Plots Well
Floydien slumped down in his cell with a sigh. Sitting on his broad flanks, he lifted his cloven hooves and began fiddling listlessly with the manacles around his forelimbs. Not long after, a bizarre buzzing echoed across the hallway immediately outside the prison. Floydien looked up, his brow furrowed in confusion.
Right outside, Jake twirled around. He squinted at a light on the wall that pulsated in time with each buzz. While Floydien stood up and pressed himself against the bars, the large moose walked over and flipped a switch right beside the flashing light. “Uhhhh... Hell's underbellly. Who might I be speaking to?”
The worn-out intercom crackled, its leylines distorted by years of neglect and improper maintenance. “Constable. You hear this—sckrkkdd—good. We have made—scrkkkdd—with the soul sentries. Scrkkkk—not believe what's going on down here.”
“Whoah whoah whoah!” Jake hissed. “Prostate glands, Midnite! Slow down on the low down, girl! What in the Hell are you What in the Helling about?”
Floydien craned his neck to listen through the bars as the intercom continued:
“Scrkkkk—my father's operation and—scrkkk—not at all right. But we—scrkkk—a weakness in the energy—scrkkkk. We might need your help.”
“Wait, you want us to come over there and help you somehow?” Jake's slobbering face scrunched. “I thought we were doing a two-buck prison show.”
Midnite Bastion frowned into the observation room's intercom. “Yes, I know, but we found what we came here for. If there's any hope of stopping this soul sentry mess in its tracks, then Rainbow and I can't do it alone.”
“Scrkkkk! Then just how do you expect us to get there?!”
“He makes a good point,” Rainbow droned from where she continued to hover at the window. “It's like asking a pair of caterpillars to inch their way into the center of a hornet's nest.”
Midnite bit her lip, then brightened. “The fire alarm!”
Rainbow groaned. “You've got to be kidding me...”
“No, for real!” Midnite exclaimed. “This military complex was built with faulty insulation. A lot of the substance inside the walls are flammable. There've been at least three fires in the last five years alone. There just hasn't been enough funding to change everything out completely.”
“Heh... guess every military can't be Ledomare's.”
“I know this place inside and out, including where all of the manaconduits for the alarm systems are.” Midnite smirked viciously. “If I set one off not too far from here, I can throw the whole installation into a panic. Everyone will be busy trying to move the Soul Sentry recruits to safety. Floydien and Jake could easily make their way undetected to our location.”
“So we could—like—smash the crud we've seen?”
“Righto.”
Rainbow shrugged. “Sounds stupid enough.”
“Hey! It's the best thing I can come up with—”
“No, that means I'm all for it.” Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Yeesh... friggin' noob.”
“Oh... uhm...” Midnite blinked, then turned back towards the intercom. “Did you guys hear that?”
“Scrkkkk—you mean the part where she called you a 'noob?'”
“No, the plan, you moose butt!”
“Yup. Sounds risky as Hell. Color me intrigued.”
“Alright. When you hear the alarm go off, run like the wind to Delta Level Three. We'll meet you at the security station and let you both in.”
“Then it's Moose Smash, right?”
“Something to that extent. Over and out.” Midnite Bastion released her grip on the intercom.
So did Jake.
“Well, looks like we've got ourselves a date with disaster, Duke-o,” the moose glubbered.
“Hmmmm...” Floydien took a deep breath. “Seems too light light for bright bright.”
“For once, that one really... truly went over my head, buddy.”
The elk's eyes narrowed. “What is this re-stabbing even going to accomplish? Charcoal boomer's father already has too much power, yes yes yes?”
“I'm pretty sure this is more about giving your fancy airship passage into Val Roa and less about getting back at Midnite's dad. But even still.” Jake smirked as he slid the rusty jail door open. “Would you shy away from accomplishing both in one fart?”
Floydien's ears drooped back as he glanced aside. “Moose boomer is starting to know Floydien too well.”
“I'd make a full-time job of it,” Jake said with a smirk. “If only I wasn't too much in love with kicking the shit out of goblins.” He reached forward, grasping Floydien's antlers. “Here, lemme get you out of them irons.”
“Hrmmmm... Floydien has a bad feeling about this.”
“Now there's the prissy Duke I remember...”
Midnite Bastion trotted over to the long slitted window where Rainbow Dash hovered. “Well, glad we got that worked out.”
“You really think they can get to us without anyone trying to arrest them?” Rainbow asked.
“It's a bit risky. Then again, what wouldn't be at this point?”
“Right...” Rainbow nodded. “So, like...” She pointed out the window. “You've seriously... seriously haven't seen those things before?”
“No. But...” Midnite gulped as she stood by the pegasus' side. “Have you?”
Rainbow slowly shook her head. “No... but believe-you-me when I say that it fits Chrysalis' m/o to a T.”
Outside and down below, reindeer squatted in dense lines. The recruits were garbed in dull gray robes, and their antlers glowed with dim brilliance. Their heads nodded in rhythmic motions, all the while their muzzles let loose a guttural chant that combined into a deep bass hum. The entire chamber below resonated with the concentrated mantra. One by one, green beams of illumination washed over them. When the emerald field made contact with the recruits, they each exhaled dramatically, losing the full volume of their lungs. Within seconds, their eyes glowed bright green, and soon the pulse of their antlers strobed to match it.
As dramatic as this was, it didn't compared to the bizarre sight of the source of the energy that was rapidly converting the recruits into soul sentries. Positioned on brass pedestals spread evenly across the wall of the long chamber were large organic structures—pulsating pupae of grotesque proportions. These enormous cocoons emanated a sickly green light from deep within, and every thirty seconds they would flicker, spreading the light out in a luminescent cloud. The glow swiftly funneled into wavering streams that swept across the seated recruits like loose spider webs in a summer breeze. As soon as they made contact with the reindeer, the recipients reacted immediately, their expressions turning vacant as the glow transferred to their eyes and antlers, converting them completely.
“I thought—like—becoming a soul sentry was supposed to take months of intense training and meditation.” Rainbow Dash turned to squint at Midnite. “Y'know... on account of the 'denial of self and emotions' and all that noise.”
“It's never... ever supposed to happen this quickly,” Midnite said, shaking her head. She pointed and spat, “And it's never involved gigantic green bug turds either!”
“Shhhh! Shhhhh!” Rainbow placed her hooves on Midnite's shoulders, quieting her before the reindeer below could hear. “Well, obviously Chrysalis has found a way to put the ritual into full gear.”
“Please tell me you've seen crud like that before.”
“What? Those cocoon thingies?” Rainbow glanced down, watching as non-soul-sentry guards trotted up and down the line, carefully observing the “ritual” in progress. “No. Never have. But it certainly fits Chrysalis'... uh... insect-ness.”
Midnite shivered, clenching her teeth.
“It's the Noble Jury's understanding that Chrysalis quite literally hatched every single one of her minions. Y'know, like a Queen Bee? So... if you ask me... laying a giant cocoon like some mutant mother hen isn't such a bizarre stretch.”
“Are you trying to tell me that here are changelings inside those things?”
“I... I've no idea,” Rainbow Dash shook her head.
“But I thought you said she lost control of the hive mind!” Midnite squeaked. “Otherwise she'd be using a bunch of shape-shifting drones to try and take over Val Roa like she's done in other kingdoms!”
“Well, maybe she still doesn't have that power and yet she's laying eggs anyways.” Rainbow shrugged. “Only, like, they're hard-boiled, and she's using them to magnify another power of hers.”
“Another power?”
“What we're seeing down here is probably the same sort of thing that Chrysalis is using to control Fishberry, Sharp Quill, and Saikano.” Rainbow pointed. “Only, in this case, she's used it to hijack Val Roa's Soul Sentry program.”
“God in heaven...”
Rainbow glared at her. “You've seriously never seen this sort of crud before?”
Midnite gulped. “I've seen my fair share of Soul Sentry rituals... but nothing like this.”
“Lemme guess. Your father put you on assignment these past few months so you'd constantly be busy or something?”
Midnite sighed, gradually nodding.
“Heh. Looks like Chrysalis has thought of everything.” Rainbow turned to stare down into the chamber. “Except that we'd be in this deep... prepared to kick her operation in the groin.”
“Just what can we do?”
“Exactly what I suggested a few minutes ago.” Rainbow gestured. “We get our flanks down there. We reunite with Floydien and Jake. And—together—we start toppling those dang cocoons over and smashing them.”
“All of them?”
“As many as we can.” Rainbow smirked. “The way I figure it, those thingies are what Chrysalis uses to control the Soul Sentries. And if the so-called ritual is really this paper thin...”
“Then destroying them should free up most of the recruits who were recruited to Chrysalis' cause,” Midnite murmured. “They'd become their former selves, since they didn't go through the actual training in full.”
“Righto.”
“What about Chrysalis' minions?” Midnite remarked. “I mean... uhh... her top minions?”
“You mean Fishberry, Sharp Quill, and Daddy Dearest?”
Midnite merely bit her lip.
Rainbow sighed. “One thing at a time, girl. If what we have here is an opportunity to disrupt the perimeter that's blocking the Noble Jury, then I'm all for it. We're in a race against time, after all. We've got a Coronation and a Goblin Armada to worry about, among other things.”
“Right...” Midnite took a deep breath. “So... the alarms?”
“I thought you'd never ask.” Rainbow flapped her wings and shot towards the door. “Let's get this crap over with.”
Midnite stood in place, staring out the window.
“... ... ...Yoo-hoo. Sexy Sailor Midnite.” Rainbow waved. “We doing this or not?”
“Right...” Midnite nodded, shuddering. “Right... we're doing this.” She marched over.
“Hey...” Rainbow craned her neck. “I know it ain't easy—what, with this being something you and your fellow Val Roans have always believed in. But you know what you've seen! Chrysalis has taken something that was supremely awesome about your culture and completely perverted into something that she—”
“You don't need to give me the motivational speech,” Midnite grumbled, trotting firmly out the door and breaking into a sprint down the hallway. “I know who I should be pissed at.”
Rainbow shrugged and flew swiftly after her. “Well, so long as we got that in common...”
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Jake for Jury duty: denied
Let the stabby stab begin.
images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/screaming-eagle-mark-hughes.jpg
DESPICABLE
Did Jake just make a prison sex joke?
Pucker up your assholes, and shit will only hit the fan in a figurative sense.
5355729
The Soul Sentry program, the NASA of Val Roa
Is that anything like Hulk Smash?
All of our heads, Jake.
My thoughts on the cocoons:
1. Moar changelings
2. Big, super changelings
3. Conduits to power Chrysalis.
Tension... building...
I'm liking this. Hopefully when the shit hits the fan we'll have something to hide behind. Let's see how this plays out. For the glory of Zadubadabu.
Shit hits fan in 3, 2, 1...
Thirty situps, ):(. Knock 'em out!
5355729
i.imgur.com/aGIkWSV.jpg
GASP! OH NOEZ
I'll admit...I kinda like mind control stuff. And I like what I'm reading so far. >:)
5355958
images.fineartamerica.com/images-medium-large/screaming-eagle-ira-runyan.jpg
I KNOW RIGHT DO THESE MELON FUDGES EVEN USA
Ahhhhhh.
Nows a good time to wander off and see what the other three, Noone expects the Spanish Inquisition, our main weapon is suprise and fear. Our Two main weapons are fear and suprise.
We now return you to our regularly scheduled comedy duo. Mooscome and Whyse.
Things are about to get really, really fun. Unless, of course, someone dies. I have a bad feeling that Floydien may not see the end of this installment.
[lip-biting intensifies]
5356467
I bet he gains back some memory right before he gone.
The more I read the more I believe that Chrysalis isn't controlling anything. Maybe she's the one being controlled.
Time to get this destruction started!
waiting for the trap to be sprung
5356945
I was just thinking exactly the same thing.
Wait, is this it? Have I finally caught up? Thank goodness! I started Austreoh a month or two back, and I never thought I'd catch up!
Presumably the biggest flank-kicking since Rainbow shut down the Blue Shelf mining facility back in Eljunbyro. And when that happens, things happen.
5356945 you stole the words right out of my mouth
Y'know what, all the suspects are just too obvious. My money's on either Mamunia, Jet, or Eine's unnamed servant.
You sure?
5357779 welcome, fellow Noble Juror!
Well.. If the line of Soul Sentries goes down than the goblins will be able to punch right through. Maybe less goblins will have to die.
Maybe the Jury's going to stop them and convince them to go the way of Harmony.
This plan seems like it will go well.
hopefully are hopes aren't dashed as usual. 
-Spirit
This seems hopeful. However, I fear what those cocoons may hold within them. It'd be pretty bad if there really were changelings in there, if only because it's messed up.
Im going to repeat myself, but... I. FRIGGIN'. SHIP. IT.
The harmonic pulse severed her connection with the existing brood. The jury has been assuming that she's unable to start a new one. Perhaps they're wrong...
Sounds like a big assumption, really - that mind-control thing could still be permanent or self-sustaining.
I've got a bad feeling about Midnite...
....are we in Soma now?
Don't complain Dash. For once you didn't have to Friendship Speech someone into going along with a Stupid Plan.