Chapter 47
Tobias
Blue crystals jettisoned from every wall and even hung from the ceiling, leaving the stone floor of the caverns uncovered. Considering what we’ve seen on this world already — dragons, unicorns, a castle precariously balanced on a mountain, myself perched on a cloud — you would think that this place would have been a little more extravagant. Still, the size of the crystals was impressive and not regularly seen on Earth.
“Can’t believe I’m down here again,” Twilight muttered to herself. She was leaning against Applejack heavily and every step she took was laboured, but she refused to remain behind and rest. She still wore her peculiar tiara; when Luna had attempted to take it from her, she had clutched the thing between her hooves defensively. To be honest, if I had a magic crown that could make controllers freeze in place, I’d probably hold on to it as well.
“Ya had the option ta stay behind and rest, Twi,” Applejack chided. “Nopony forced ya ta come but yerself.” Like Twilight, she refused to give up her necklace. I wanted to ask why the jewel was shaped like an apple, but decided to leave it for another time.
Even down here there were still controllers, as unmoving as the others the Princesses were collecting. There were a few unicorns and pegasi among them, though humans and taxxon far outnumbered them. Some Changelings were chittering to one another as we passed, glancing our way but otherwise ignoring us.
“Sir Tobias, if you could so kind as to illuminate this passageway we could proceed.” Luna’s voice cut through the darkness and I hurried ahead, setting my wings aflame and lighting the cavern. I honestly was having a hard time staying as a hawk lately. A phoenix just seemed so much more...magical.
It was so much easier to simply stay aloft as a phoenix; I could hover in place almost without moving, barely flapping my wings at all. And this thing could move when it wanted to. Being actually able to help out in battles beyond diving at opponents and raking them with my talons made me feel more useful as well.
<Tobias, does your morph secret some form of chemical that combusts when in contact with the atmospheric gasses?> Ax asked, swerving a stalk eye towards me.
I was momentarily thrown by the odd question and glanced over myself as best I could. <Uh, no, I don’t think so. I’ve just got feathers and skin.>
<Then perhaps there a protein in the feathers that acts a catalyst?>
“No, there is a much simpler answer to phoenix fire,” the princess said. “It is produced from their internal magic reserves and distributed evenly over their feathers.” She paused a moment in thought. “Though if you prefer the original myth, they are simply normal birds which have been blessed by the sun and are able to reproduce its light at will.”
“Oh, yeah, ‘Celestia’s Blessing’, right?” Twilight piped up, suddenly energetic. “They flew so close to the sun that it blessed them for their bravery with angelic songs and brought forth the fire of their hearts.”
<A rather fascinating myth, but surely your species has discovered the true scientific reason,> Ax insisted.
“Was Our explanation of magical distribution not satisfactory?” Luna inquired.
<No, it was not,> Ax said bluntly. <You mean to tell me that you have never studied these creatures in great detail? There is no compendium of strange phenomena or any theories from some of your scientists?> Ax, rather uncharacteristically, was sounding extremely frustrated by this point.
“Ax, man, let it go,” Marco said gently. “It’s a magical land of magic ponies, what more do you need to know?”
<Magic is just a catch-all term for something we do not understand. Even my own race used ‘magic’ at one point in time, but we studied and learnt from our experiments.> His tail twitched slightly as he spoke. <How can an entire species not care?>
“We do care!” Twilight shouted indignantly. “There are schools all over to help unicorns learn how to control their magic, and the Canterlot Library boasts the largest collection of books and recordings of knowledge in all of Equestria.” She lifted her head and seemed to look Ax in all four of his eyes. “And, just so you know, we’re quite fluent in the sciences as well.”
<So you claim, and yet—> Ax was cut off when we rounded a corner and were hit face-first with a wall of sunlight. I dimmed the fire in my feathers and waited for my eyes to adjust to the brightness, but surprisingly it was like nothing had changed for my vision at all.
Looking into the light I saw that we were somewhere on the far side of the mountain. There were several Yeerk ships crashed all over — I guessed the weird rainbow light had reached this far. One Bug Fighter was perched on a cliffside just outside of the cavern, and looking through the windows I could see that the crew of Hork Bajir and Taxxons were also frozen.
“Oh my,” Luna gasped. “We had no idea they were so close...”
“How did they manage to bore through solid rock without alerting any of us?” Twilight wondered.
“Maybe they did this recently, like before the attack?” Marco said. “It wouldn’t take that long from the looks of things.”
“Wouldn’t take long? Ah think even a unicorn would have trouble movin’ this much rock,” Applejack cut in. “An’ no offense, but y’all ain’t exactly the strongest creatures around.”
<They would have used tools to move and bore through the rock, much more advanced than any you currently have at your technological level,> Ax replied.
“You late!”
The voice cut into our conversation and all six heads swerved to look at the lone Changeling that had seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Given their camouflage ability, I wonder if they can turn invisible, I wondered idly. Regardless, the Changeling hovered up beside us and gave an impatient look.
“Queen wait for long time. She and human prince find something.” It paused for a moment, as if trying to remember. “Small version of flying boat used to find Hive.”
<Wait, Illusion?> I asked, to which the Changeling nodded.
“Yes. You not know me?”
“Irrelevant,” Luna said. “What did Chrysalis and Prince Jake discover?”
“Come! See!” Illusion said before buzzing down the cliff side.
“...I guess we’re supposed to follow,” Marco muttered. “Does he realize I can’t jump down a sheer drop?”
“And We thought you humans had ingenuity,” Luna said before her horn lit up in midnight-blue light. The same light then covered Marco, Ax, Twilight, and Applejack, who were then lifted a few inches off the ground.
“Two minutes and I could’ve been an osprey or a seagull,” Marco grumbled.
Ax’s stalk eyes were twisting and turning all over. <I thought this planet lacked gravity-manipulation capabilities.>
“Levitation spells are the most fundamental of base magics,” Twilight replied matter of factly.
“Now is not the time to discuss this,” the Princess said, cutting off Ax before he could argue the point further. She simply leapt off the edge of the cliff after Illusion, carrying everyone besides me in her aura and gently floated down. I spread my own wings and followed after her with little more than a thought.
Not thirty feet down the mountain was another cave, though this one was at least twice the size of the one we’d exited from. Inside I could see something made of metal — at first I thought it was a Bug Fighter, but upon closer inspection I rejected that idea on the grounds that the thing was too big. Changelings were all over the ship, inspecting it and moving paralyzed controllers to the side. And as we continued our descent I was able to see Jake, Rachel, and Cassie talking with the Changeling Queen. It was almost surreal, seeing three humans talking and smiling with some weird cockroach-horse creature without the humans getting eaten.
“It’s not polite to keep royalty waiting,” the Queen said without even turning to look at us. Illusion flew over and landed beside her, staring straight ahead at Jake and the others, his chest puffed out proudly.
“A Princess is never late. She arrives precisely when she means to,” Luna curtly replied. “Now, what is it you have discovered?”
“An excellent question, sister,” a regal voice spoke from the pathway in the back of the cave. A white light illuminated the entrance, revealing the white princess Rainbow had called Celestia. Speaking of the pegasus, she was right beside the princess, along with Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie — all still wearing their respective magic necklaces.
“Twilight, what are you doing?” Rarity said once she laid eyes on Twilight. “You should be resting and recuperating.”
“I’m fine, Rarity,” Twilight insisted as she and the others were let down by Luna. “There’s more important matters at hoof.”
“How could anything be more important than your health, Twilight?” Rarity persisted.
“Our nation, and all the citizens who live in it,” Twilight said defensively. Rarity seemed abashed by her response and didn’t say anything further.
“There will be time for these discussions later,” Celestia said before turning to Jake and the others. “Now then, you were saying what you have discovered?”
“Yes, we found a Yeerk spacecraft, your highnesses,” Cassie said, even bowing a little at both Celestia and Luna. “We were just thinking over some plans on how it might help us against the mothership.”
<It is merely a transport ship, lacking even a fraction of the firepower required to incapacitate a Yeerk Mothership,> Ax stated. <At best we might be able to load it with spare explosives and disable the engines, but that will still leave their communications and relaying abilities operational.>
“Even if we hit an engine and bring it down?” Jake asked. I saw Rainbow wince at the mention of crashing a ship, though she tried to hide it.
<I do not believe attacking a single engine will suffice. We would need to hit all three engines simultaneously in order to force the mother ship to fall out of geosynchronous orbit, and depending on how far up they are flying they may well be able to make moderate repairs to survive the crash.> He paused a moment. <And even if they are unable to survive, they would still be able to send a distress beacon.>
“Assuming it’s even still there,” the Changeling Queen cut in. Everyone looked at her, to which she continued, “I’m just saying. Your invasion fails, you don’t stick around. You retreat and regroup.”
“They most likely don’t know about the failure,” Jake said. “Which is why we need to do this as quickly as possible.” He crossed his arms across his chest. “That said, we can’t attack the ship, and we definitely can’t sneak onboard. I’m open to ideas.”
A long awkward silence held in the air, eventually broken by Marco. “Oh, good, nobody has a plan. Let’s just go home, then. Things will work out perfectly in the end, I’m sure.”
Twilight glared at him, some of her energy having seemingly returned. “How can you just give up like that? Aren’t we important enough to help?” Her horn sparked with magic, I guess would be the word, and something sparked in my own mind.
<Actually, guys, I think I have an idea.> Everyone turned to look at me and for a moment I felt rather nervous about having so many eyes on me, but I shook it off and looked at Twilight. <Of course, it will require your help, Twilight. I can’t order you to help, but—>
“Nonsense,” she cut me off with a smile. “I’ll be happy to help.”
“Wherever Twilight goes, I’m in too!” Rainbow jumped in exuberantly. One by one, the other ponies reached pitched in their own words of loyalty and stood beside Twilight. It was almost poetic, the way these six stood by each other.
<Alright, here’s what I’m thinking we do...>
ERMAHGERD IT UPDATES!!!!
*le sigh* will read later...
On the one hand, Ax is right in that "magic" is usually a term used for exactly that.
On the other hand, Ax doesn't seem to realize that magic as the ponies know it is just another field of science to be studied.
I suppose that didn't make much sense. Basically, Ax keeps looking for alternative explanations for the phenomena he is witnessing simply because he doesn't like that it has the label of "magic". In this case, the explanation for the phenomena IS magic, but in this case magic is being used to describe a documented field of study a la magnetism instead of being the catch-all term it usually is.
You'd think he'd be more willing to relax and deal with this sort of thing rationally since, you know, Ellimist and Crayak... But I suppose that's just the way Ax is. He always was a bit of a Straw Vulcan.
But if they are in geosynchronous orbit, why would disabling the engines do anything at all? Eh, I'm just going to chalk this one up to "Sci-Fi Orbital Mechanics". Animorphs always was a "soft" sci-fi series anyway.
3008571 Or it's possible that they're holding an artificial geosynch much closer to the planet, by keeping their engines burning and the cruise control on. Expensive, extravagant, and ultimately pointless, but hey. When you've got a big shiny spaceship, sometimes you just want to show off.
(Disclaimer: the opinions expressed above probably have no bearing on what the author actually had in mind and represent little more than wild speculation. Thank you and have a nice day. )
So, when did Luna find the time to read Lord of the Rings?
3008630 Your opinions mirror the reality of the series in question. The main villain is as cliche as could possibly be imagined, and showboats just because he can. Any orders, no matter how nonsensical, cannot be questioned or failed upon penalty of death.
Death, which may be issued anyway upon said villains whim.
Villain who lets the documented and confirmed SON of his greatest enemy just walk away, because the kid was a trashy punk. While at the same time attempting to convert an entire major city. Because trashy punk who no one will ever miss, who just HAPPENS to be the SON of your most hated opponent, isn't worth controlling as a warm body / trophy / agent for the youth demographic.
It also never occurs to him that the kid was bluffing. The leader of mind controlling alien masters of deception gets deceived, on a personal level...
Man, you really do capture this series pretty well. Right down to Aximili's obnoxiously frustrating obstinacy, inability to learn from experience, and shitty head-in-the-sand scientific process.
The only character that almost always infuriated me more than Ax was Cassie, I swear...
3008641
Would they be able to ? Considering how advanced they are in comparison to the species they rule over, (and I'm not going to spoil the further plot of this story by revealing future occurrences) their brains could act like giant bug-zappers.
Tobias is a human stuck in a hawks form fyi. read the first 40 books if i recal correctly.
Why am I only finding out about this now? Animorphs was one of my favorite series growing up and this is going straight to my read later folder for when I have the time to inhale close to 50 chapters of what I am sure will be awesomeness.
You're a faggoat.
I don't always read pony fics with humans in it, but when I do, the humans are animorphs!
Okay, I was about to go to bed then this hit the featured box. BE RIGHT BACK IN 6 HOURS WHEN I FINISH READING
I have to say, this is incredibly well done. Hats off to your guys, best books mixed with best show creates best universe in existence. Keep it going!
And strive for a better ending than our poor shapeshifting heroes suffered last time.
3008939
Yeah, he just seems unable to grasp that magic, in Equestria, isn't some catch-all word for "stuff we do not understand." Instead it is a somewhat exact and measurable term for a quantifiable and qualifiable force. Next he'll yell at human scientists for using phrases like "Gravity" and "Energy." I'm sure Twilight could probably sit him down and show him a long equation, probably with an anatomy chart, that explained how precisely how the magic was distributed in a Phoenix to allow them to do their thing. She could probably do the same for every aspect of magic, really. It is her specialty after all.
He wouldn't understand it, of course.
And just over 6 hours later I want to dig out all my old Animorph books and am eagerly awaiting the next chapter of this.
3008765
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"A Princess is never late. She arrives precisely when she means to."
Seriously, LOTR Fellowship of the Ring reference? EPIC!!!
3016464 You're kinda late with your reply, dude. I asked that question over a year ago.
Why not just have Celestia grip the ship and hurl it into the sun? I mean, she does raise and set the thing, right? What's something less than a quarter the size of their moon?
3009816
He's a gay goat?
3019410 Just repeating what others have said. I didn't really draw the connection to it until somebody else did-and it's not about all the little details. Just whom the perceived audience is, not necessarily what it is.
Love the LotR ref
3008571
Geosynchronous orbit simply means that it takes the object one sidereal day (23h 56m 4s for Earth) to complete a circuit of the planet. The term has nothing to do with what effort is expended to maintain the orbit.
Geosynchronous is often incorrectly used as a synonym for geostationary, which is a circular geosynchronous orbit with zero inclination (ie, flies above the equator).
No orbit around Earth requires zero station-keeping, although a geostationary orbit requires the smallest amount. Even our moon does not maintain a constant orbit, and since we do not have the means to perform station-keeping on it, eventually it will leave our orbit and go rogue.
And yes, station-keeping requires fuel.
3030768
I admit it, I did assume a geosynchronous orbit there.
I feel great shame at this mistake.
So I suppose we can assume that 3008630 is correct and the Yeerks are holding an incredibly inefficient geostationary orbit that requires a ton of energy to be put into station-keeping... but then again they have the technology to make it so HOVERING AN ENTIRE SHIP IN PLACE A FEW HUNDRED METERS OFF THE GROUND is a trivial matter, so why the hell not.
3008765 Probably when she was stuck on the moon for a thousand years.
Use elements on it. Wait, would what is basically light do any damage to a ship?
Well, Twilight could explain Magic to Ax the way Sunstar did to Donnie in my yet to be published TMNT crossover FIM.
"While we call it magic, I think a better term is mind power. My horn is hollow, and right below it is a mass of nerves called the cornucopia. It's still not fully understood, but the gist of it is that the horn acts like a funnel which allows me to focus my power. The mind is powerful but in most species, it is contained and can not affect the outside world. In a Unicorn, the mind is not contained. It has a way to the outside world through the horn. To master magic, one has to hone their mind first. An easily distracted Unicorn is a dangerous thing. Do you get it now?"
Well that was certainly a fun ride. Looking forward for more, if or when it comes.
Keep going! ;)
Oh Twilight, you have no sense of humor! Can't you see that Marcus is one of the sarcastic types?
3125406 I- what? Well. . .
I made my online alias Melvin G. Biv because it sounded like a good idea at the time, so a rainbow-fied default Facebook profile image seemed like a natural fit.
I am still shocked that you've managed to keep this story going for so long. It's been a great read, and seeing the catharsis of the elements being used was absolutely divine.
that being said, I'm looking forward to seeing what Tobias's big idea is. This story is clearly reaching its climax, and I can't wait to see the final defeat of the yeerks.
3137485
she still dies though...
TOBIAS!!!
Sorry.
3137485
Heh, read your comment and was reminded of when I read a book that made me become physically ill (seriously, it made me so paranoid of a disease that I became mysophobic for years. Never read heavily-detailed and medically-accurate books when you're young, especially if you're only 9). The funny thing was that it was the Hot Zone, a book about the Ebola and Marburg viruses. Ah, the possibility of organ liquefaction and a bloody death (the book was pretty explicit about the symptoms and was pretty accurate, although I feel like some of it was a little hyped... who knows though? Ebola's most lethal strain has a 90% mortality rate-- it's a freaking monster, so it might not be hyped at all) really took a number on my youth psyche... hehe...
I can't believe you mad a Lord of The Rings referance with Luna, Awesome.
taxxons (or Taxxons)
secrete
Yeah seeing a fight scene between animorphs and yeerks that includes tobias as a pheonix would probably be too awesome for words. It would look like if you crossed a scene from the Avengers with a scene from Narnia.