Our Past Gives Birth to Our Fears
Ted was shocked by the changeling mare's reaction. They were children, lost in the forest, and her response was to beg him to keep them away from her? Hell, afterwards she started ranting about how he needed to throw them out, that the nymphs would draw the Queen to the temple. She was supposed to be a caretaker of young, how could she make such demands?
He stepped off his bed, pulling the covers over the nymphs and stretching his wings before approaching the panicked bug-pony.
"Mirage. Mirage, calm down and look at me. The spell can't track them here, I made sure of it before I brought them back. The tracking array is too far away." He leaned in and nuzzled the mare. "Why are you so scared of them?"
The changeling was still barely intelligible, now muttering to herself about how they wouldn't get her, not after all she did to escape. Sighing, Ted pulled the changeling under a wing, much like he did with Blur, and tried once again to calm her down.
"Mirage, listen to me. I said the array lost track of them when I found them. I felt it scanning for them, and it passed by after a few moments when I took them into my care." Using his wing to pull her in closer, he asked her. "What happened, Mirage. What happened to your hive that has you acting this scared."
"I can't. I don't want to..." after an encouraging nuzzle, she tried again. Glancing over to the two foals, the bug-pony haltingly started to speak. "W-when the attack first hit the hive, they, did something, something that sent pure fear down the links we shared with Mother. Most changelings were left in a blind panic, before she severed herself from the hive. When she did that, I don't know, something happened where half of the hive went berserk. The other half scattered. I was part of the latter half. It took me, I think it was two days before I could finally shake off the fear that was left over from the connection to Mother. When, when I went back to where to hive was, it was crawling with the pony queen's guards." She glanced over at the nymphs. "I heard the guards saying the queen specifically wanted a bunch of the eggs saved, maybe even a proto-queen if they could find and subdue one, but our hive didn't have one. Princess Zelus had recently left to start her own hive, and a new royal egg had yet to be laid. I, I found out why they wanted the nymphs the next time I got near a big city." She said, burying herself under his wing.
"They, the ponies were using the nymphs as living changeling detectors! The nymphs, they don't know any better, they instinctively form a link with any nearby changelings. It's always been a matter of survival, since a nymph without a link won't be noticed and cared for as well as those with a link to the hive. The ponies turned it against us though; anytime a nymph would react to a pony, they'd hit them with a disruption spell, and catch the changeling! It became almost impossible to enter big cities, and smaller towns were wary of any new ponies entering them because of the pony queen's decree on changelings. Each town had at least one unicorn who could cast a disruption spell, and every time a new pony wanted to stay in the town, they had to be checked. We, we were being starved out of Equestria, so I left. I started running and didn't stop. I, the one time I did, the one time I found a town with a few changelings in it, one of them was captured, and they offered to let him go if he ratted the others out. He did, and I barely got away. Last I saw of him, he was being carted off with the others he ousted, screaming at them for going back on their agreement. He was just a bug to them, what was a promise to him?"
Mirage was finally calming down, though she was keeping Ted between her and the nymphs. "It's always been bad for changelings, we're viewed by most races as monsters at best, mindless parasites at worst. But the turn things have taken since the new pony queen took over has been lethal to the hives. I don't want to run again, I can't do that anymore. I'm literally as far from home as I can get, I have no hive, I don't know what happened to Mother, I have no family. Master, please don't let them find me. Don't make me run again." She sobbed.
"I told you, Mirage, I will do everything in my power to keep everyone here safe." Ted finally said. "I won't ask you to care for them, as I had planned, but I want you to be available for Gleam if she has any questions regarding their care. She will have almost no idea how to treat them, or what to expect. Do this for me, and you can stay as far away from them as you like. In fact, I'd like some of you guys to start excavating a small tunnel in the storage space by the kitchens. We're going to need more storage until we can safely get the jungle cleared and some buildings set up. Can I count on you to oversee that project?"
The changeling brightened up at the idea of being underground again almost instantly. "I-I'll do my best, Master. I wasn't the one in charge of planning the tunnels, though."
"Don't worry about that." The alicorn said, smiling at her improved attitude. "The tunnels are already planned out, just follow the plans in the war-room. Shadow Weaver will have all the details on the project. Go see him."
"Yes Master, I won't let you down!" The shape shifter said as she ran out the door. Ted wasn't sure if it was the prospect of digging or getting away from the nymphs which added to her speed. Speaking of which, he turned to the sleeping foals once more.
"Now then, how the hell am I going to get Gleam to agree to this?"
<-(0)->
Surprisingly, Gleam had little complaint about the request, taking the giggling nymphs into her hooves and cooing at how adorable the foals' chirps were. He made it clear to her that while Mirage would be available for questions regarding their care, to keep them clear of her, as she'd been spooked badly by the nymph detection points from pony towns. The mare grew pale at the mention of the checkpoints, looking back to the nymphs.
"Oh my stars. I-I never made the connection before. They, the guards were using children to..."
"Just keep them safe, Gleam. The large number of ponies here should solve their hunger problems, so you shouldn't have any issues in that department. If you do, bring them to me. Oh, and keep them clear of the abandoned storage room near the kitchen, as that's where Mirage will be working." Ted told the mare, before turning and heading back to the main entrance.
It was well after breakfast, and there was still so much more forest to be cleared. Not only that, Mirage had mentioned other towns to the north. After researching the older maps and talking to Shadow Weaver (after the unicorn had stopped begging forgiveness), he learned that there were several abandoned towns nearby, and even an old port town near the sea to the west. It wasn't too far, and the possibility of finding abandoned tools or equipment was too much for the alicorn to pass up. After planning a route, he had Shadow set up an expedition to the town for the following day. Heading back outside into the oddly temperate jungle, he once more started burning away the thicker vegetation, leaving the larger trees to be claimed for wood. It soon became mindless for him, the spell not taking much effort to maintain, and soon, Ted found his mind wandering.
The Nightmare wasn't a name, he knew this. It was a title. He had no name, as far as the cultists knew. Using his own name would be odd as well. With names like Shadow Weaver, Twitch, Fast Parcel, Gleam, Luna, and Celestia, Ted was an anomaly, much less his full name, Theodore. Not only that, what kind of god or demi-god's name was Ted? He'd be laughed out of Olympus! Not to mention he wasn't just Ted anymore, with memories of what appeared to be an extremely long-lived species also in his head. How long did alicorns live, anyway? The memories he had from Lunacae were jumbled enough to not have any reference of time in them, though she'd specifically told him she was banished to the moon for a thousand years. Her sister was also one of the first to greet her when she came back, so Celestia was at least a thousand years old herself. No living thing that Ted knew of grew to be that old, barring trees and simple organisms. How old would he grow?
Before all of this began, Ted was less than middle-aged. Now, he had a couple-hundred years of experience, even if they were a mess, on top of his life, then forty years stuck in a stasis-like state in the armor. How old would he be considered at this point? Did it truly matter if he would live for hundreds of years? Could his Human upbringing stand up to the trials of such a long life? Shaking his head, Ted sighed, knowing that it truly didn't matter at the moment. He was older than most of the ponies he was watching over, and younger than the princesses. Relative age would have to do for now.
Turning back to make sure the ponies were gathering the nearby trees safely, he finished scouring the area within a few yards of the entrance of vegetation, before returning to the entrance and just watching his ponies. Did he really just think that? He knew he was caring for them, and keeping them safe, but to claim them as his own seemed a bit far. Then again, Luna seemed to do that fairly often, as did her sister. Maybe it was just an instinct inherent in his new form? It came naturally enough, almost like using his magic to levitate things instead of holding them with his hands. Or maybe he was only confusing instinct with muscle memory he gained from Luna's memories? Was there even a difference? So many questions, such a deep need for answers, and the one with them wanted him dead. Maybe he could look for Tia when he slept tonight? She was certain to be a good distance away, but he'd found Shadow Weaver easily enough once he focused on the unicorn. The only remaining question would be would it work on someone who currently wasn't dreaming? Luna had said that most ponies were not able to dream due to something the Queen had done. It was worth looking into, at the very least.
He was suddenly bumped by an earth pony dragging several large logs into the temple. The sun was beginning to set after the days work, and the ponies were making their way back to the safety of the temple for the night. Funny, Ted couldn't even consider most of them cultists anymore. The only one who truly fit that description anymore was Weaver. Grabbing several of the larger logs in his own aura, Ted followed his ponies into the temple. Dinner was fairly uneventful, though he did see the older thestrals and the griffon eating in the back by themselves. Blur and Mirage were once again sitting by each other, the pegasus talking animatedly to the shape shifter who seemed to be trying to keep a straight face. Weaver was seated with a few other ponies Ted had yet to learn the names of, and Gleam was keeping all the foals at the same table, though she seemed to have picked up a helper along the way in the form of a young thestral colt. Finishing his meal, he turned to head to his room when he was stopped by nervous stallion.
"Uh, excuse me, Nightmare, sir. I, that is, we were wondering, if you could, recognize our herd." The Earth Stallion asked, hugging an equally nervous earth mare to his side. Ted stopped cold, staring at the two, no emotion on his face. It took him nearly a minute before he could relate Luna's memories of the term herd to the proper analogue in human culture. They were asking him to preside over their wedding.
The complete lack of reaction did no favors for the earth pony couple, as the nervous smiles slowly faded from their faces. "Uh, never mind sir, sorry to bother you."
"Wait, I was just caught flat-footed." Ted said with a start, motioning for them to stop. At the confused glances of the couple, he tried again. "I was caught off guard. I cannot say I've had anyone ask that of me before."
'What the absolute hell is the world coming to when people come to me for marriage vows?' He thought to himself. "Do you have anything to exchange?" At the affirmative nods of the couple, he forged ahead. "Okay, I think I have an idea. Tomorrow I've got an expedition to oversee, but after that I don't have anything planned. Decide on a date, then let me know. I'll compare it against anything that comes up in the meantime. The ritual room should work, right?"
The mare looked jubilant, but the stallion nervously asked him, "But sir, the ritual room, it was the place of your rebirth. W-we wouldn't want to-"
"Nonsense, it was the place of my rebirth, and it will be the place of the creation of your family. It's also not being used for anything at the moment, as far as I'm aware. Besides, it will be something to brag about to the grandfoals, right?" Ted finished with a smirk.
"G-grandfoals?" The stallion gibbered. Ted almost felt sorry for the guy as the mare dragged him off, giggling to herself. Yet another thing the alicorn needed to study up on, he supposed. He couldn't remember Luna having done a wedding before, so he'd have to read up on it himself.
The things he did for his ponies.
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Ayup, this is Definitely Twilight. That's the sick kind of logic she'd dream up, most likely while influenced by the original Nightmare.
Things are going downhill steadily out there, certainly if whole towns and even ports are being abandoned.
Watch out for the scale, square, cube and rabbit laws. Then again, digging tunnels gives far more effective surface area than just on the actual surface, but means food per population needs to be mainly underground.
Wonder how ponies do on Quorn. Griffons on cave fish etc?
The port might be abandoned, but given abandoned ports are a magnet for those who dont want to stay in civilisation, will it be completely empty, or will there be a spare hermit with a direct alarm back to the guard?
Can we say what he finds?
Yo! Hit us up with a world download!
6001864 Very plausible. Twilight certainly has more reason to hate changelings than most, for specifically targeting her family, when they invaded.
That plot point about taking away ponies' dreams keeps making me think of that season 5 unicorn villain. Her name escapes me at the moment, so Imma call her Communist Twilight.
6001919 starlight glimmer? That would be quite odd, and fit her, if her equalism took over Equestria while she stole the Cutie Marks of all ponies, driving out and exterminating all other species.
You think some of those fans from marvel might be bronies and be just as stin-gy and catch you in the act of doing something completely okay and call you out for it when it really doesn't matter? Seriously, if you gave the same direction 18 times to 5 different places i would not care, why? because it does not take away from the overall story and also does not take away from the allure, ergo, you really shouldn't have gone through the effort but i applaud you anyways.
I'm still hoping for a out of left field twist for the Queens identity. like Evil!Corrupted!Cadence, or Mary Sue the Red and Black Alicorn.
or maybe even AlicornAmulet!Trixie. Although I can't see Trixie being such a xenophobic dictator. That said, there hasn't been a single mention of a wheel in the entire fic, maybe The Pony Queen Destroyed All Knowledge of Their Existence! *Bum Bum Buuuummmm*
this is by far the best written story I've ever read.
6001919 Indeed, that'd be a very possible situation as well... But I feel as if it doesn't Fit, you know?
Luna referred to someone as The Traitor, which means that it'd be someone close to her and Celestia. And even though Starlight was powerful enough to steal cutiemarks, that was by an artifact and I doubt she'd have the real know-how to figure out how Changelings work.
We're dealing with someone Smart, Powerful, Ruthless and close enough to Luna to make her not want to take the Traitors name in her mouth.
6001997 But she said it was just a staff... not an artifact at the end.
Only ones I can think of who are smart enough to figure out the Changling link are Twilight and maybe Celestia.
6001977 So the WheelGod was there and she destroyed them to keep him powerless... at the end he will use the Wheel of Fate and save our heroin... I mean hero, from completing the death.
Update!
6002026 A stick she found out in the desert at that... Makes you wonder what kind of trees grow in the desert for her to find such a grand stick of Power.
oh carp. weddings are never a good sign with cultists.
then we end up with people like this-
1d4chan.org/images/a/a0/Cultist-chan30.jpg
6002052 Well, legend says in the desert there are the trees of power called... CACTI!
6002053 I should be grateful I cannot see that, right?
Well ain't that a bit interest'in. The nightmare priest. The pony ghost dressed in Holy/( unholy garbs) to join the union of two ponies. Next thing you know everyone will start to use his name as a swear or something. The nightmare 'cultists' group could lay claim to the abandon ports and towns. Maybe even get a few more members along the way. All hail the Nightmare, the new sovereign of changeling kind!
It won't take long for word to spread of a dark alicorn who offers sanctuary to the oppressed in the wilderness.
6001919
Referring to Starlight Glimmer as Communist Twilight... You made my day.
My bet is on twilight but i really hope I'm wrong because the second most common trope besides dictator Celestia is dictator Twilight. I want it to be Cadence or better yet Blueblood.
"All hail queen Blueblood"
"I'm a guy!"
"Reallly?!?"
6002183
"All hail queen Aguy!"
6002183 Except villain blueblood is pretty much an asshole/villain everytime he's used by a villain.
Would be interesting to see Cadence as it though.. Changlings are murdered because they steal/siphon Love which is precious, and you should of course love your queen, love the dictatorship, love the state.
6002116
Patron Alicorn of the changeling race.
Just be careful that they don't all try to accept you as their queen and link with you in a hivemind.
6002269
Wut? I thought nightmare was male in this one?
So far so good, I'm really enjoying the story!!! Keep it up!
Yet another great chapter!
Also, I am really impressed that you put in the work of creating the temple in minecraft in order to insure no continuity errors.
New chapter YAY! And a good one at that.
I have been waiting for ages for this!
Hey, don't you diss the Ted. It's nice and proper Greek, if nothing else. If it's good enough for the pope, it ought to be good enough for a bunch of narcissistic mountain hicks.
6002251
Yes, you make a good point. Blueblood is always the villain. Thinking though I do recall reading one where he acted as he did in the Gala as to avoid gold-diggers as well as on where he was acting like a pompous prick and xenophobe to such a degree that the other nobles where disgusted and would never consider doing or passing any laws that he approved of and another one where he was Twilight's friend and protected her from the harsher aspects of Canterlot I can't remember any of them though.
6002276 Queen would be more of a title in that regard, I think.
6001968 While it may not bother some people, it would bother the hell outa me if I go back and reread the directions and notice this. I have a sort of conditional OCD, where some things set me off, and others don't.
6001864 It's a good guess, but we'll talk aboot that bastard later.
6002053 You say that like it's a bad thing. "Faddah! I gots yew sum new followahs!" "Dammit, Chan, corpses don't do us any good, I told you that last time."
6001977 I immediately thought of Dropbears newest story when you mentioned the alicorn OC, but then I remembered she was half changeling too =( It's okay, I already have an idea for the big bad.
6002668
i never said it was a BAD thing.
besides, corpses are always useful. Just ask Nurglites! (or any Chaos God really)
6002651
It's funny, but a lot of my favourite stories - the ones I'd consider distinguished by being actually good - tend to have it in common that they stand out in part by giving characters like Blueblood more complexity than just that. Having a character who is "always a villain" is something that's good enough for a Saturday morning cartoon... but certainly not for anything that endeavours to go beyond that. In a good story, even the villains have more nuance.
Besides, thinking of him like that really misses the point of those scenes to begin with. Blueblood wasn't there to be the evil bad guy who ruined Rarity's evening, he was an object lesson about being superficial - which Rarity was, by thinking of him as her great love and proverbial "Prince Charming" despite really knowing practically nothing about him but his name. Her part of the gala episode is an exercise in not judging a book by its cover, especially where love is concerned - nevermind what his actual motivation for acting that way was.
Well in the comics, Rarity was corrupted by the Nightmare mk.1, so I suppose any of the Element bearers gone evil could be the big bad.
Both Twilight and Celestia haven't been heard from yet so either of them are likely candidates.
Cadence is too strongly associated with the Crystal Empire to be a plausible anti-CE big bad.
Sombra, Blueblood & Discord are male and thus unlikely to be anything other than Equestria's weirdest Mariachi band... I mean unlikely to be the evil queen, Same goes for Tirek.
Chrysalis is an interesting thought, betray your own people take over Equestria and then the world; with no rival Changelings to replace you.
Starlight Glimmer, Beatrix Lulamoon, any OC pony would not be a close enough associate for Luna to call a traitor. Well without a big build up in the back story, seems like too much work for the author.
Sunset Shimmer is another plausible antagonist, already a traitor once why not again.
The CMC seem unlikely to gain that sort of power though you never know.
Hmmm, I know! The obvious choice for big bad it's Derpy isn't it!
6002668 WHO IS THE QUEEN!?
6002816
Yup. Definitely Derpy.
:)
6002668
Damn, now I want Cultist-chan in this fic. Maybe one of fillies?
6002668 lol i have selective OCD and that doesn't bother me at all lol
Hmmm, who's this Queen I've heard so much of?
Am I the only one who thinks the Queen might be Discord? I mean, as a Lord of Chaos, it makes sence to ask to be referred to nonsensibly, such as by the opposing gender, as well as him wanting to get rid of the changelings after he would have been rid of the mane 6 and princesses. After all, if Chrysalis could outmatch CELESTIA, and Discord couldn't, wouldn't it make sense to illuminate the strong and plausible enemies of oneself? Not only that, but sense Discord, in essence, seems to feed off of pain, and the changelings feed off love, wouldn't the changeling want love to happen, rather than fear or pain? And even if they could feed off it, they would be taking Discord's finite supply, and this be an enemy.
6003299
It makes no sense because Discord is, for everything else you might say about him, ultimately an idiot. He behaves like a force of nature. The kind of structured, systematic, clever exploitation of changeling instincts that the queen employs is something he couldn't do if he wanted to. Not that he would even want to - it's so deep in that giant blind spot he has that he wouldn't consider it even if he thought of it.
6003384
6003299
Discord as the mad queen? Ew! This is absolute order. No war, no differences, just the world as it should be, Dissy would be rolling in his statue at all this Order. In fact, he probably is!
6003397
It's just such a him idea.
You should totally earmark this for later - have a scene about a Discord-powered capital city, with everything run by the 6000 RPM dynamo they plugged his statue into.
You know, at the start of the story the ponies all seemed really cult-like, and, pretty much borderline fanatics. Offering up their children? A lot of them just dying in the Jungle for a chance at resurrecting a dead alicorn? Seems pretty insane.
But, as the sort continues and we get a new perspective on the new Queen, we can really see that maybe they weren't all that insane- Maybe they were all just that desperate? If that is considered, how bad must Equestria truly be? To make parents consider sacrificing their children in an attempt to placate the Nightmare? Maybe they really consider Ted to be Equestria's last hope...
Wow, that Pony queen is one hell of a B****. Effective, ruthless, no mercy, no care for anything that isnt a pony.
A name is what you make of it. Make with it. Actions and deeds.
It matters not if the character if named Flufflypuff the Gentle Breeze when that person is badass enough. Fools will take the name at face value (and pay the price), others will wait to see who is the name and what they do/did.
He is not going to go by the tittle of Lord Night, will he?
I like where this story is going.
Well, Theodore does mean "god's gift", and thus Theo just means 'god'.
What kind of god or demi-god's name was Ted? I'll give you a hint: if he starts exclaiming 'Bully' or 'Deelightful!' Nightmare Sparkle should head for the hills. Teddy Roosevelt was a larger-than-life, grade-A badass.
6006966
Also, the ponies wouldn't know "Ted" from "The Immortal God-Emperor of the Imperium" as long as he doesn't tell them otherwise. Ted, Lord Nightmare would be a fine name.
6001864
But, the original Nightmare is gone. That was made pretty evident at the very start of the story.
Not only that, but this story will need to do find an absolutely mind-blowing explanation as to why Twilight would turn evil without it sounding absolutely stupid and contrived. And if the story would go through the amount of trouble to set up Evil!Twilight, then it might as well replace her with an OC.