Lookin for Love
The trip to the port was quiet, no animals willing to attack such a large group even at night. After two days of travel, the group walked into the gates of Port Zarris, once more being greeted at the gate by Sahkest. Unfortunately, the greeting was a bit strained.
"Cimmerian, I need to speak with you. Now. The Talon Mercenary's boss is waiting in my office as well. Something's happened, and it's big." The dragon said, worry evident in his eyes.
"The griffon homelands, correct?" Ted responded. "Most of the griffons that came in with us are refugees, looking for somewhere to start over." Turning to the disguised queen, he asked her to lead the caravan to the inn down the road.
Sahkest frowned, looking over the group and spotting the griffons. "We may not have room for them here. We've come across several smaller ships that were lost in the storm, and the refugees have kept to themselves. Whatever hit them, it scared them badly."
"I already know what hit them." Ted responded, following the drake. "I managed to see a few dreams while they were just coming in from the sea. Any Equestrian Navy ships? Oh, and was one of the ships the Golden Talon?"
"The Golden Talon was found by a patrol wrecked off the coast just south-west of here, no griffons on board, though there were some signs of battle damage. Hard to pick those out on a shipwreck, but the Talon scout's eyes were almost as sharp as his claws. Herrick swears by the scouts reports, too, says he wouldn't muck something like that up."
"I was worried about that." Ted said, even as they entered the office. "We had an Equestrian Navy ship just off the coast, at the abandoned port to the west of us. I think they caught up to the Talon, some of the soldiers mentioned capturing a ship of griffons. I don't think they left anyone on the ship, and there weren't any prisoners that I saw while on their ship."
"You managed to get on one of the hive ships?" A deep voice from inside asked. "I've been told that it's nearly impossible to sneak in, the changeling net is too tight."
"Cimmerian, be known to Herrick Talon, one of the four Talon siblings and the head of the region's Talon branch. Herrick, this is Cimmerian, the one who pulled your merc out of the gnoll den and crushed their military force." Sahkest said, introducing the griffon.
He was large, nearly as powerfully built as Amald, but seeming to favor speed over Amald's choice of power. Just looking at him, Ted knew he wouldn't want to be stuck in a battle against this guy. Giving a polite nod and locking a fetlock around the offered limb, Ted shook the griffon's claw.
"A pleasure to finally meet you, Herrick."
"Sorry, I forget that pony forelimbs aren't made for that kind of thing. You run into such a thing often?"
Ted chuckled at the idea of a pony staring at the offered talon in confusion. "I've had enough experience with claws, talons, paws and hands to know most of the gestures by now."
The griffon nodded taking a seat next to Sahkest, the drake motioning to a nearby cushion for Ted's use.
"We know that the changelings made a huge push out of nowhere, swarming over griffon settlements and driving those that didn't submit out of the country." Sahkest said, grabbing a quill and paper to take notes of the discussions. "Other than that, I haven't been able to get a hold of much. The refugees don't talk much."
"I've heard mentions of pony troops being behind the attacks, but other than hearsay, I've found nothing to confirm it. It wouldn't surprise me in the least, though." Herrick said, both then turning to Ted.
"Prepare to not be surprised then." The alicorn said. "The Mad Queen's using the drones as attack dogs, keeping them enslaved to an array to direct their movements. Remember how I told you I didn't want to give her anymore resources, Kest? Guess what, I have several changelings from a swarm ship that have confirmed that the Mad Queen's using those queens and proto queens she's subjugated as egg factories. Din's given me numbers, and it comes up to about one hundred eggs a week per queen without any other mutations, and that's a definite possibility as well. The number may be higher if she's messed with the queens herself. Most of the drones are feral, going berserk the moment the array is disabled from pain and hunger."
"That's insane." Herrick said. "How are we supposed to hold off those numbers?"
"By not playing fair." Ted answered, reaching into his bag. He set a small metal plate on the table. "This is something I managed to pull off the Equestrian Navy ship before I screwed with the array. After I messed with the array, I dove through the ship and the thing detonated, flash-frying most of the surviving drones. The rest went mad, wiping out the rest of the soldiers. By morning, there were twelve drones left alive. All twelve were sapient, and had banded together in a tower to better protect themselves from the ferals. It's from those drones I received the confirmation about the queens. However, before I reached the array, I saw this rune on the shoulder of every soldier. I had my resident spell-master look over it, I figured it may allow us some control over the drones if they attack us, allowing us to ruin the momentum such a large force brings with it. Shadow Weaver told me it's actually a signal rune, telling those under the control of the array that those wearing it are not viable targets."
"You mean the swarm will ignore someone with the rune?" Herrick asked, a devious grin spreading across his beak.
Ted nodded. "It puts you in the 'not important' category for the swarm. They'll not only ignore you, they'll go out of their way to avoid your path."
The griffon's smile fell for a moment as he settled into a business mode. "How much do you want for it?"
Ted slid the plate across the table to the griffon, a grin on his own face. "As much damage as you can cause the Mad Queen, that's my price. I've had Shadow Weaver copy everything he could get from the array already, he's setting up our guards with their own copies for their armor, and we're currently trying to expand it to an area of effect spell for the protection of a city or town."
"You're joking, right? The minotaurs would pay out their ringed noses for this kind of information. You're just giving it to me?" Griffon asked incredulously.
"Then you can give me a cut if it bothers you. Any and all trouble you can cause the Mad Queen will distract her from her plans. Her forces are so big right now, so bloated and so sure of their superiority they're the perfect target for hit and run tactics." The dark alicorn offered. "Hit her supply lines, hit the things she can't replace easily like the control arrays, hit the actual pony soldiers. Hell, the thought of her soldiers watching as the swarms ignore the minotaur soldiers is hilarious. Just be careful, the drones will attack anything they can sense once the array breaks or shuts down, including each other."
Herrick nodded, grabbing the plate and holding it almost reverently. "I can't tell you how many times she's stopped us cold with those drones. It will be nice to just walk past them and bash some heads in for once."
"You might want to build up a few defenses around here as well, Sahkest." Ted told the drake. "The Equestrians are getting bold. I'd hate to see your town get hit. You're kind of important to us, after all."
The dragon chuckled. "I didn't know anyone cared about me anymore, Cimmerian. I'll keep an ear-hole to the ground. I will ask you to look into taking some of the refugees off our claws. I understand you have changelings, and that's going to be a point against you for a lot of them, but we just don't have the capacity to keep them all here."
The alicorn put a hoof to his chin in thought. "Do you guys have any spare boats?" At their confused looks, Ted looked over to Herrick. "Tell me, how do griffons feel about fish? "
<-(0)->
Ted eventually managed to convince the two that the port to the west of the Temple could be made into a fishing town after it had been cleaned up and the docks repaired. He'd finished the meeting by ha-hoofing his list of supplies over to the drake. Even if nothing else came of the meeting, the Talons would hopefully make the Mad Queen's life absolutely miserable in the next few weeks in a drive for revenge. The inn was much the same as it had been the last time, offering a roof and warm meal, though the port's food stores were taking a hit with the large influx of refugees. What little extra food they'd brought to sell off would net a good price, and they may even pick up more residents looking for someplace to settle. The abandoned port would likely end up housing a good portion of the griffons once it was fixed up, but until such a time, the Temple was the nearest community with room. Not only that, Ted's idea for the Temple didn't stop at it being a small port like Zarris had ended up. If he had his way, the Temple of the Shadows would be a city one day, and all cities needed a good number of citizens. He'd either have to wait until the population boomed, which would take years despite the best efforts some of the new herds were putting forth, or find ways to increase immigration.
'I'll set something up with Sahkest and the N.E.T.C. tomorrow.' He thought as he made his way to bed. He was caught off guard, walking to his bed, to find Din buried in his blankets, slightly shaking.
"Din? Din, it's ok, talk to me." He said, laying down in his bed next to her.
"S-sorry. Bad times here. Remembered was..." She trailed off, shaking her head rapidly attempting to dispel the memories. "I remembered the last time I was here, sorry."
"You don't have to apologize for that." He said, using a wing to pull her closer. "And yes, you can stay here if you need to."
The night passed in easy silence for the alicorn, more dreams were calmed then ever before, leaving him a bit weary by the end of the night, but he felt it was worth it. The issue for him came just before the dawn. While looking out over the dreamscape, he noticed a slight flickering of a dreamer, unable to sleep properly. Moving closer, he first thought the issue would be bad dreams, but the dreamer was actually just drifting in and out of sleep to much to make a proper dream. He circled the oddity a few times, before attempting to get a taste of the dreamer, some type of idea as to who it was.
'Pain, fear, sorrow, hope... pink fur.' Immediately, he returned to his body, making note of just how far the dreamer was. She was inside his field of effect now, and not that long of a flight from his current location. Waking several of the cultists and leaving them with orders to keep working on trading goods for what they needed. Walking to the edge of the town, the sun just beginning to peek over the horizon, he heard a ruffle of feathers behind him. Pandinus, still in her disguise was giving him a dirty look.
"Were you going to tell me you were heading out on some fools errand? Or did you forget what occurred the last time you tried taking care of something on your own?" She chided him.
The alicorn rolled his eyes, before taking off, the queen following soon after. The two of them flew for several hours, Ted just beginning to feel the strain when he felt he was nearing his goal. Pandinus dove down while he was still looking around, and he followed her to a small cave overlooking the coast. It was dark, but there was a sign of a fire the night before just outside, and both were not hindered in the slightest by the darkness; the queen because of her subterranean nature, and Ted because the darkness was kind of his thing now. As they entered a larger chamber inside, they both froze, looking for the source of an odd rumbling sound. Both dove in separate directions a moment later, as a large pair of hooves came down on their previous location.
Looking up, Ted was greeted by the sight of the largest changeling he'd ever seen. It was easily the size of a house, with enough armor plating to make a tank jealous.
"Why is there a giant changeling in a small cave?!?" Ted yelled over at the queen.
"It's a behemoth. They excel at digging, and are both the assault class of changeling as well as the hives final defense" She shouted from the other side of the room, she lit up her horn and launched a large chunk of rock at the giant, even as it bellowed in rage at their presence.
"Why am I just now learning about these things?" Ted yelled as he launched a volley of shadow blades at the creature, most diffusing uselessly against the runed plating on the behemoth's chest and neck.
"It didn't seem relevant at the time." Din answered, dodging a charge as the creature slammed into the far wall. "There hasn't been enough resources available to hives to maintain such a large creature for a long time. They're almost unheard of these days." Looking around the cave, the queen laughed loudly. "I want it. Cimmerian, hold it against the wall for a moment, I have an idea."
"Oh, yea, that shouldn't be a problem with a multi-ton monster with magic resistant armor." Ted shouted at her. Nevertheless he lit up his horn, not bothering with trying to grip the creature, but merely pushing it against the far wall with all his strength. The behemoth almost walked through the field as if it wasn't there, driving its hooves once more into the location Ted was occupying. The alicorn flapped his wings, throwing himself back and nearly stumbling on the uneven ground. With a grunt he tried again, this time using his full strength. The creature was pushed into the far wall and began to struggle, nearly breaking free before Pandinus swooped in, several stalactites with reinforcement runes quickly etched into their sides. She drove them into the beasts holes, pinning it against the far wall and leaving it in a daze before she landed on its snout, attempting to subjugate it and link it to her hive.
"Well?" Ted asked, huffing with exertion.
"Hm? Oh, you can let go, he has no leverage at the moment." Pandinus said, before turning her attention back to the giant changeling. "Odd."
"What's odd, you know, besides the obvious here." Ted asked her.
"It's linked already, not feral. A royal link too, much like my own. Why would the Mad Queen not chase the link down."
"Because she, she already got what she wanted." A weak voice called out from the back of the cave. Instantly the behemoth renewed its struggles, but the voice called out to it.
"It's ok, Vis. Calm down."
The behemoth's struggles stopped and it relaxed despite its odd position. Ted looked over to the voice, and was instantly in the air. He landed before the mare, smiling at her. "Are you Cadance? Your aunt has asked me to help you."
She smiled, though everything beyond her muzzle was hidden by a cloak. "Aunt Luna mentioned an alicorn out here, yes. She, didn't mention the changeling queen though." She said, her eyes going to Pandinus despite her disguise.
"How do you...oh, I see." Din said, walking up to the smaller mare while dropping her disguise. "I wondered what I was sensing."
Ted's question was answered a moment later as a head popped out from behind the alicorns legs, a small changeling nymph that clung to Cadance fiercely. Ted merely smiled at the hatchling warmly, his radiated happiness drawing a shy smile from the nymph as she relaxed slightly in his presence.
"We can move this outside. I can see what I'm doing here, but I'd much rather be in the open air for introductions."
The group followed him outside, Pandinus even removing the stakes from the behemoths legs and horn, thus allowing it to tunnel outside. Once they were in the open air, Ted took his first good look at his newest charge.
The princess was ragged, her eyes showing a lack of sleep and her cheeks slightly sunken from lack of proper nourishment. Even with the cracks on her horn, visible now that her hood was down, she still carried herself gracefully. The nymph was small, but had the spark of intelligence in its eyes. The slit eyes were a fierce azure, while her dirty mane and tail were a multi-toned blue. The nymph wasn't starved, like many of the changelings Ted had run across, but she certainly didn't look particularly healthy at the moment.
As for the behemoth? Well, there really wasn't much to define it, besides the sheer size of the creature. When he'd mentioned it to the queen, she merely shrugged.
"The behemoths were created for battle. As strange as you may find it, sapience was never considered very important for its roles."
Ted then offered the princess and her companions the same safety he'd offered everyone else so far, the queen backing up his promises and adding her own experiences to the offer. It wasn't hard to convince the ex-princess to join them, Ted even offering to carry Cadance and the nymph back to the Temple. The moment Cadance decided to follow them, the behemoth rose, standing ready to follow at its own lumbering pace while the hatchling climbed up on the alicorn's back. Before Ted could walk over to pick her up, though, Din stormed over to her, hissing in anger.
"I knew something was wrong with that link." She said, gripping the mare's muzzle with her hooves. " Tell me how? How are you doing it?"
"Din, what are you talking about? What's wrong with the link?" Ted asked. He moved to take the queens hooves away when the queen brushed a part of the alicorn's ragged mane back, revealing a strange scar burned into the mare's fur.
"She's the source of the royal link, not the proto queen." Din said coldly. "That's why the behemoth listened to her. They're linked to you, aren't they?"
The mare just nodded, tears forming at the reminder. The other two changelings immediately responded, far faster than Ted knew should have been possible, confirming the queen's theory and causing Cadance to wince at the mental pressure of the hive's concern.
"Stop trying to comfort her." Pandinus softly told the nymph. "She is not like us, hatchling. Your pressing in concern only increases her discomfort."
The darker alicorn looked around nervously, not sure what he could do to help. "Anything you can do for her, Din?"
"Not here, not without a pod to heal the scars." The queen answered "And even then, if the array is deep enough, like burned into the bone, it won't just go away. There's a reason changelings find the idea of turning ponies into more changelings so absurd. The pony mind is not meant for this kind of burden, for this kind of communication. It would end up breaking most of them."
"That's why you've been having trouble sleeping, isn't it?" Ted asked Cadance. "You can't sleep properly over the noise."
The mare bobbed her head, still massaging it with her hooves. It left him at a loss of what to do.
"Din, is there any way to ease it off of her?"
"The only thing I could do for her here and now would be to allow her to link with me." The queen answered. "Right now she's the center of her link, and that pressure's what's hurting her."
"Don't." The mare mumbled out. "She's watching the link. She thought it was funny, watching me jump at voices that weren't there. Watching me cringe every time they try talking to me. She'll find you too if you link with us."
Pandinus scoffed. "I'm going to be subsuming your hive, drawing it into my own. My hive is protected from the Mad Queen's eyes by Cimmerian. I can prepare a small partition of the link if you wish. It will be a weak link, and only between us."
Ted nodded. "That's why she sent you out here, isn't it? She wanted to see how long it took you to go mad from the pressure."
"Or if I survived long enough to be turned on by Amare as a food source once she grew large enough." Cadance said, clinging tightly to the nymph with her forelegs. "She knew I wouldn't let Amare go, that I wouldn't hurt her. She's all I have left of him."
"We'll take care of you, Cadance, I promise, ok?" Ted assured her. "I'll even get Luna to help me later, we'll take you to see your Aunt Tia, ok?"
The mares face bloomed into a pained smile, hope just now starting to show. "You can do that? She, the queen put up that dream-inhibiting array."
"How do you think I found you, Cadance?" He said, nuzzling her. The poor thing was barely the size of a grown stallion at the moment, leaving him to tower over her. "I speak to Luna often, and have visited Tia a few times. I think she'd love to see you again." He looked up, seeing the queen approaching.
"I trust Din, and I want you to as well. She'll help you."
"H-how can you be sure?" Cadance asked, apprehension increasing as the queen stepped up to her. The nymph and the behemoth were growling at the queen slightly, unsure of why but knowing the queen's presence upset their own queen.
"Because she's too invested in bedding me to damage her chances by hurting you." he said with a grin.
"I'm getting tired of you using that line, Cimmerian. You're going to owe me big for this one." The queen said as she leaned her horn down to the pink alicorn's damaged horn. The queen's eyes focused on Cadance for a moment before she began, a grin creeping across her face. "I know, I'll help you now, and you'll teach me what you know of pursuing a stallion. After that, we'll call it even, ok? I'll even cut you from the link the moment you're ready, and you can go on your way, where ever it may take you." She whispered into the pink alicorn's ears.
The pink mare stared off into the distance, contemplating the option, before nodding. "Just make sure Amare and Vis are kept safe."
"The behemoth will be an issue, but I will do my best. Amare, though? I'll treat the proto queen as my own daughter." Pandinus said quietly. "I swear it to you."
<-(0)->
She giggled to herself, seeing the signal to a particular link finally go dark. She idly wondered what it had taken, whether the pretty pony princess had finally snapped and tried to kill them both, or if they ended up killing her. Maybe it was even some predator, bringing low the great demigod while she was weak from creeping insanity? Which end occurred didn't matter, as either meant the alicorn was out of the way, and if she ended up killing the nymph, she would shatter completely. She turned back to the report on the storm that some of her ships had stubbornly tried to sail through in pursuit of the griffon refugees. At least six ships were missing now, three of which were no longer even giving pings from their control arrays. Two more were adrift in the Mareianic Ocean, nothing allotting for their presence but the steady pinging of the control arrays. The last known positions and predicted routes were written out on a large map, but with the huge storm that had rolled through the area, completely beyond the control of the pegasi, there wasn't any guarantee the fools were alive. Even if they were, she'd have them tossed into the dungeons, maybe using them to further some of her more recent experiments. Feral changelings just didn't have any concept of pain. Not like ponies, anyway.
The attack had gone about as well as could have been predicted, though. What losses she did incur were either to the swarms, which were negligible, or due to idiocy and glory hounds. She had the mutant bird's lands, what did she want the mutants themselves for?
"The attack on High Talon?" She asked the soldier delivering the reports.
"No unexpected losses, Ma'am." He said robotically.
"Good, as soon as the last bits of major resistance are put down, prepare the forces to hit the main Minoan fortress city. I want them cut off from every direction, full swarms watching every point of interest." She giggled to herself at how easy this was turning out to be. "It probably won't take half as long as the griffons did, the minotaurs live in a temperate area so the drones won't die so fast there."
"At your command, my Queen." He said, pressing a hoof over his chest before making his way out of the room. She watched him go, his blue tail contrasting wonderfully with his white fur and purple gilded armor as he walked out the door. She wished she'd thought of her current idea before she'd released the alicorn. Sure the nymph was a great idea. It was inspired, really. But she couldn't help but wonder how the pink alicorn would have reacted if she claimed the alicorn's stallion for herself right in front of her. It wasn't like it was her brother, after all. No, it was Twilight's brother.
That made it perfectly fine in her book.
Boom, there it is. A few more chapters, then I'm going to cut this off and set up a second story. This is getting a bit long.
Almost as long as Din's been getting denied. Eh? Anyone? 
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Huzzah! Update!
Yes, I'm going to keep doing this just to make sure you know how much I enjoy it when this fic updates.
>The ending
I figured Shining wouldn't have given up his wife so easily. I didn't think it was that bad though.
I hate it when people do that. It makes zero sense. As if breaking a story up makes the story shorter. News flash: addition is commutative. All it does is make the story marginally harder to follow.
Honestly, that's a major blunder right there. You absolutely shouldn't have glossed over that like this. It was huge opportunity to establish Cadence's character straight away, as well as her attitude to her rescuers and their attitude to her own group. That is not something where you can go with 'tell' rather than 'show,' not when it comes to a named and probably pivotally important character.
6294988
I agree.
the nightmare is having weird thoughts! someone get an adult!
Three chapters in three days? Wow.
I'm loving the material, but please don't go burning yourself out! It would be a tragedy for this to be added to my dead-fics pile!
6295012 You must be new here. We've gotten 3 chapters a day before, with 1-2 every single other day for weeks straight.
I'd love to have that kind of inspiration and drive.
Jesus fuck that got like fucking disturbing at the end
6295026 The Nightmare riding Twilight is... damn... and remember that the one riding Luna made the armour able to heighten all senses, and shunted the pain unto Luna, they just live for tormenting everyone around them... host and victim alike.
You have Cadance finally show up in chapter #42.
Coincidence? I think not!
6295026
Yeah, if the story keeps that up, it definitely needs to be tagged Dark, too. Because brainwashed rape-incest? Not the kind of Adventure I was expecting out of this. Probably deserves a bump up to Mature, too.
6295002 hmm, sorry. I don't know how often I can do that shpeal before it gets to be droning noise. I may go back and change it if that's the case.
6294988
And such comments are worded rudely. Congrats. As for breaking a story like that, it happens all the time with any book series you care to name. Its called connected narrative. An overarching story broken into installments. The idea is to stop a single book, on in this case fic, from being insanely lengthy. You really want to sit and read something a hundred chapters long, or have it split into more manageable halves?
6295061
That why I meant it would have been an opportunity for characterization. Demonstrate Cadence's sympathy for the changeling experience by preferentially talking to the queen instead of Ted, make her question the sudden appearance of a gender-swapped Nightmare Moon lookalike, anything. It doesn't have to be a boring spiel unless you make it that way.
So Nightmare Twilight is getting comfortable in her ivory tower.
Nothing could possibly ruin her ambitions.
Certainly not the sudden ineffectiveness of her
Zergling RushChangeling Swarm...Growing blind spot over by the Marianic Ocean...
Sudden spinal injection of Celestia and Luna?
And given that this Nightmare has been high on triumph for however long...
She is not going to be quick enough to compensate for the sudden turning of fortune's.
Add in Cadenza is soon to get the Bug Bacta Tank Treatment... there will soon be Two full powered alicorns opposing her...
I'm also guessing that Amare is Chrysalis's daughter via Shining...
That made it perfectly fine in her book.
I want her dead.
Well, as long as you don't cancel!
God, even reading and commenting on stories is a pain with this Windows 10! I think I'll go back to 7
6295010 She is an adult.
6295098 I would still be running Windows XP, if I could.
Din's getting blue balled!!, well, if she were a guy then, yea . . . .
6295026
For you and me both buddy... me thinks Twilights going to be so screwed up if they get the Nightmare out of her that she might just go bonkers
6295064 If you want a good example of that, look at The Chase which is now sitting at somewhere around 700, damn near 800 chapters. Just the fact I fell behind on reading made me stop reading it all together.
Shufflin an switchin, slidin an hidin, the rebellion grows and grows.
A city is going to be far too easy to spot from overflight, so the forest is going to be tweaked to be as bad as the Everfree? Chaotic weather, multiple continous layers of cloud, plus jungle surroubndings, maybe with tunnels drilled out to teh jmine and towns with tree vents and other ventilation methods?
Yaay, its Rifin.
Wait, no it isnt.. Sorry Vis a vis behemoth.
Trouble is with that runic array on Cadence, will we find out justhow good the Mad Queen is at Surface Detail?
BRILLIANT.
BTW: I have an idea. Have Shadow reverse engineer a spell that reverses the properties of the enemy rune signals. This way, if necessary, you can retreat your forces and sic the enemy's own swarm on them, remotely if necessary. Or perhaps an AoE signal scrambler if a Pyrrhic victory is called for.
EDIT: On second thought... Perhaps not. Ordering Shadow to do this seems a bit OoC for the current Ted. Now that I'm thinking of the aftermath that such spells would have... But then again...
Maybe, CADENCE is the one who does it. Maybe she hates Twilight enough to take a peek at Ted's notes and go kamikaze on the Brood Queen stockpile. Tragic, dramatic... I think that would make an excellent twist. She has experience with a Royal Link, love magic, and the Heart. It makes sense that she could do such a thing.
Additionally, has Twilight attacked Scorpan/Tirek's homeland? Has Sombra's horn been retrieved? And finally, just where is Discord and what happened to him? Ooh, that also begs the question; what of Tartarus? I've been thinking about these things and would appreciate an eventual answer. With your excellent world building skills, I'm sure you'll tackle these topics quite satisfactorily.
6295064
When its a physical book, it does make sense. Lugging around a 5000 page novel is just going to hurt.
But, you know, this is digital. Whether its 10 or 10000 pages long, its still going to weigh the same, and take the same amount of time to read in one chunk or multiple chunks. Plus, clicking around multiple installments gets sometimes annoying, unless there's a theme you're going with that necessitates the splitting.
For example, if each "story" is one major story arc, then yeah, splitting it does kinda make sense. Its basically a different story. But if its all basically one continuous timeline, then there isn't much reason to. The only fic I've read where splitting up basically the same timeline make sense is the Austraeoh series. Each title is sort of thematically signifigant, and a sorta important item or concept that has that name.
Plus, the author of Austraeoh has a thing for making each installment 200 chapters.
Interesting turn of events. Cadence finally gets a change for the better and Ted's team gets a major player that, despite present wounds incurred, will be a valuable asset once she's healed up again.
While it's kind of coming from nowhere, the fact the Mad Queen is claiming Shining as her personal consort isn't that much of a surprise. The Mad Queen is probably getting a kick out of how much it torments Twilight on top of it.
Twilight might feel like everyone around her believes it's all her doing and not the parasite, so it's open to see her resisting more or something if someone she loves tells her they know she's just as much of a prisoner. How she'll cope if she's set free is a whole different matter though.
These kinds of demented things will make it all the sweeter when things start to turn around. Minotaurs are probably going to surprise her a lot, now that they might have a way to make the drones ignore them. There might not be a way for the Mad Queen to easily counter the change, not to mention the idea is there now. Knowing it's possible, even if it's re-secured, so to speak, means the other races will have ideas on how to discover the new version.
And anyone that wasn't seeing the major dark turn coming wasn't really thinking about the direction things have been heading, or what the scale and severity was alluding to. It has to get worse from here before things can start getting better.
Wow, I mean. Wow. Kill that nightmare. Exorcize it with extreme prejudice because that thing is a real monster. Oh and you can tell that twilight never read the evil overlords list, because now the nightmare is making some truly classic mistakes.
6295201
I completely and unreservedly disagree. A darkish turn? Yes, anyone should have seen that. It's been established that the antagonist has been doing some horrible things, even if it has been kept off-screen and distant, which is appropriate to its rating. The griffins were a good example of things taking a dark turn in a reasonably expected fashion.
Magical brainwashing, something that happens in the literal saturday morning cartoon show, turning into sexual violence and incest, though? That's in a class of its own. No, nobody should have seen that coming. The story simply didn't have that kind of tone until now. If you were seriously expecting that, you are either precognitive or were blindly guessing, because that came completely out of the left field even to me.
Doesn't seem to fit the usual pattern of behavior for Nightmare Books. Unlike Nightmare Moon, Purple Badhorse has been smart enough to live by the Evil Overlord list. Everything she's done, until now, has either increased her own power, eliminated a potential threat, or both. Her cruelty has been somewhat tempered by practicality and paranoia.
Letting Cadance go just because the thought of her dying slowly seemed funny would be a departure from her normal behavior.
I'd say either she's getting overconfident, or she's hoping Cadance will lead her to something.
It's not... Creepy!
6295241
Not really, Nightmare Twilight was clearly a few levels above the Saturday Morning mustache twirler, what with the spiteful yet systematic extermination or domination of everything in the most humiliatingly painful way possible.
Spite Celestia and Luna by never letting on it's a Nightmare Parasite and not just an Insane Twilight.
Spite the Elements and Mane 5 by Petrification, keeping Elements occupied ensuring the Mane 5 survive.
Spite Chrysalis by turning her species into expendable cannon fodder.
Spite Equestria by turning into a Parody of itself.
Spite the world by making the formerly peaceful ponies the warmongering imperialists.
Spite her Brother by splitting him and his wife up, and turning him into a mindless puppet.
Spite Candace by tearing apart her wings, shattering her horn, stealing her man, and forcing the minds of her worst nightmares upon her.
And each and every one is magnified upon Twilight.
Everything is designed to cause the maximum pain and torture, why did you think the Sexual ones were off the table?
The Nightmare is supposed to be torturing Twilight more than all others, and tainting that brother sister dynamic certainly counts.
6295348
My point was, up until that point, it was still something that had almost identically been shown in a show aimed at preteens. It's not that obviously dark that you would reasonably expect to go from there to sudden sibling rape out of nowhere.
Also, sex is a sensitive topic. I know most people here are virgins and have no perspective, but to someone who has some life experience and maybe even talked to a rape victim or two, it's simply entirely on a different level.
6295241
Fair enough.
My own perspective is one of open anticipation most of the time. It's not so much that I figure out what's going to happen (most of the time, as some things are almost always predictable or follow a particular process of logic I catch onto) as it is me going through a process of things that aren't possible versus what is still available. One or two clues more, it might well have been something I'd have seen as a likely possibility, rather than simply not being surprised that it happened.
In my mind, it was already at this level of dark, perhaps darker, considering it was a minor point against everything being done to the princesses and the changelings already. Just the scale of the situation with the changelings is so much worse than Shining being forced into being his sister's lover, and so much more terrifying. I already gather the Equestrian military is likely an unwilling participant, at least on the individual level, with open potential for mind spell influences at least on the command level.
That's a big part of why I wasn't surprised. Things were already well into worse.
6295367
I can understand that, I just think it really jumped up a few notches on the grimdark scale with that.
6295348 The mad queen is a few levels above Hitler!
Hey wait a minute, wasn't ted suppose to deliver a message from Celly to sahkest.
HOLY CRAP! 65 PEOPLE READIN THIS AT THE SAME TIME AS ME?
Edit: oh noes forgot to take caps lock off.
Response to chapter title: Hell YEAH I am! There will be love, a lot of love, between an alicorn and a hugglebug.
Must have told him his real name during the party. Now I can't make any stupid puns about Simmering.
I thought Sahkest was the size of a house... Just how is he able to go in and out of these buildings so easily? Maybe he too is a changeling queen... Oooooooooooooooooo
Spitting out 100 eggs a week, and they are the same size and Pan's eggs. That can't be healthy for the queens.
Awwww, poor Dinny. Now it is Ted being a huggacorn.
CADANCE!
img03.deviantart.net/6a9d/i/2012/211/1/7/happy_flying_cadence_by_red_pear-d58v5xr.png
Hee hee-heeheeeeeee, shipping plans.
Last time he tried taking care of something on his own he got bit and then got a hot changeling queen. Seriously, if he is gonna get bit by Cadance, I am excited. Pan better not stop Cadance from biting Ted.
i.imgur.com/tfh7tfX.jpg
This felt like it was fishing for a Batman quote. Though I feel Ted wasn't much molded by the darkness, more like he IS the darkness.
24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m98eyo0NAZ1rr8kveo1_1280.jpg
Oooooo, Pan is getting a new toy!
...
Not THAT kind of toy... I hope. That would wreck my ships...
Um... would this be bad? Cause, uh, changeling linked to queen under Mad Queen's rule, that can be tracked...
Baby queen? Cause I don't know if regular lings have the slit eyes or not in this fic with a clear eyelid. Blue in the case of Chrysalis' drones.
Guess that answered my previous question, but now why did Nightmare Twilight let a proto-queen escape?
Did Twilight force Shining to mate with a changeling queen while Cadance watched? Is Amare the result of that joining? Couldn't be Chrysalis' and Shiny's kid cause the queen would be about 40 years old or something like that.
Could another array or parts of an array be burned onto the bone to fuck up the previous array? Cause, if it won't go away, destroy it instead? But... Cadance can link to Pan... would that make her kinda horny like Din as well? I... I have a dry dock to requisition and foundries to get started on this ship.
If Cim keeps growing as he does... it is gonna be big.
Is this incest? Why would the Nightmare even desire getting a dick? Other than for breaking its host more. That would be painful for Twilight. Hmmm, would that be rape? Weird little moral dilemma there, Twilight is kinda already being mind raped by what the Nightmare is making her see and do. She'll be worse off than Luna and maybe Twilight in The Immortal Game. Twi went through something similar in that story, just it was more intense for less time.
It's gonna happen, I can FEEL it. In my head, just like Cadance's fucked up tattoo.
I like the darkness in this story; not Ted's, but how bleak things are. Though I get the Mad Queen will be surprised if the minotaurs are able to stroll through the changeling swarms and smash the Equestrian soldiers. Minotaurs could deliver some incredibly powerful curb stomps.
6295061
I agree with wlam here, I felt it was a little strange just glossing over it, but I was having too much fun making comments to point out issues I was seeing. Same as all the little grammar errors, I am not pointing those out either, just correcting them in my head. Grammar isn't a motherfucking game.
Shit, I made a long comment. WOOPSIE!
6295367
Yeah, I think this fic really needs a Dark tag...
Twilight has lost soooo much and she doesn't know it yet.
Din doesn't know what she asked of Cadance... sheesh she is going to get a lot of data.
And great rescue...
6295098
How does Windows 10 make it difficult? The browser should function just like it has in the past.
Twilight will hang from the gallows for this. The world cannot be expected to buy the "actually nightmare controlling her" thing as real as it is. Theres a point where you, or what seems to be you, does so much damage, that you end up having to pay for it. Nightmare Library is well past that point. Hopefully twi, in this equestria/world reincarnation is a thing and you get a better take at life next time, but this one? it ends with you being executed to stop the angry nations of the world of pulverizing Equestria in revenge for what your demon-parasite possesed self is doing to it,
6295061
This: 6295070, among other things.
One of the key things you should do during that initial meeting is similar to what you did with the gryphons; have Cadances experiences color how she approaches negotiating her place/security in the temple. Especially since there's an active queen there. If nothing else, I'd expect her to ask more in depth about Din's purpose at the temple.
After all, what does she, herself, want in the long term and will Ted be able to provide it?
I will see your joke, and raise you an "Almost as long as WHAT she's been denied."
Nitpicks:
scout's
any more
too much
fool's
hive's
beast's
alicorn's
behemoth's
Since it seems to be intended as plural, it's birds' (not bird's).
6295540
Personally I've been getting errors and blue screens out the wazoo since I 'upgraded'.
They've slowed down as I've gotten hotfix after hotfix, but it almost doesn't seem worth it.
Seriously considering going back myself.
...yep, that ending happened. When I made the Nightmare Twi FiW plot joke a few chapters back, I was playing it for laughs.
Now... it doesn't really seem funny.
6294988 To avoid new readers seeing dozens of massive chapters and having an archive panic?
6295061 Rule six: "Even if you can only write bunk, make sure your bunk is the best damn bunk the literary world's ever seen."
6295554 I understand, and it's a good idea, but at this point I just saw Cadance as so mentally exhausted she's willing to go along with just about anything to make the noise stop. Luna said an alicorn would help her, she found one while heading to where Luna directed her. She doesn't care what he's offering at this point.
Cadance isn't out of the woods by a long shot
6295071 Chrysalis was a mindless husk years ago, dude.
6295576 Always seems to be the possessives that kill me.
So I looked up changeling behemoth...
mlpforums.com/uploads/monthly_01_2015/post-28161-0-10745300-1420885169.png
10 outa 10 would run in fear again.
6295609
The thing about that is, it would have been perfectly fine - if you had actually shown it. Just cutting Ted off in the middle of his thing with an "Yes, yes, fine, I accept. Can we go there now? Please?" or something like that would have made the point far more effectively than any amount of summing it up ever could.