Jade - 14th of Megan '15 EoH - Evening
I was in the darkest room I had ever been in. Even in the middle of a mountain, a dark room has some light, just enough to see the barest edges of objects. There was absolutely no light here, but I could sense thousands of people around me.
They were changelings mostly, a few griffons too. I couldn’t see them, but I knew they were there. It was like touch, but not quite. A vague sense of others nearby devoid of sight, sound, or smell.
One by one people vanished from the nothingness. Very soon there was just myself and one other changeling left. I was certain I knew who it was, but as I tried to connect my mind to theirs there was only silence.
Desperate for contact with anyone, I tried again. I failed. I tried again. Failed again.
Then, finally, two words. <Goodbye Jay.>
<No! Wait!> I screamed.
Too late. They were gone. There was truly nothing left in the void.
A faint metallic click hit my ears like the sound of a cave in, a blinding flash of sparks sprang to life before my eyes, conjuring a dim candle-like flame that cast shadows on the nothingness. A half second later and the flame disappeared with a second click, replaced by a dull orange glow, just barely bright enough to reveal the vague outline of an earth pony mare. There was no color, no sharpness of shape, only the vague suggestion of features, and a pale white mouth lit by the orange glow.
The mouth moved, accompanied by a calm, plain, creepy-casual voice. “What are you doing here, kid?”
I tried to reply, but my mind wouldn’t send my words. I tried to speak out loud, but there was no sound.
“You got lucky, you can go back.” The voice mentioned, pausing for a moment as the glow moved to the side for a small puff of smoke. “You don’t have to follow me. Your family, your friends, they will wait for you. You could join them, your odds are fifty-fifty. I give everyone in your condition the choice.”
I felt that I could finally speak. “W-what do you mean?” I asked, fear ringing in my voice.
A second puff of smoke escaped the lips. “You’re mostly dead, kid. Don’t panic, there’s a big difference between mostly dead, and all dead. Mostly dead is slightly alive. So, if you like, I’ll show you the way back. Take a moment and think about life. What do you have that is worth living for?”
I felt my entire mind seize up with a blind panic.
“I don’t want to die!” I screamed, wishing I could run until my legs broke.
The mouth smiled, “There you go kid, that’s the spirit you need to pull through. Just turn around. Go right back the way you came.”
Suddenly I had legs. They could move. They instantly started to move as fast as they could!
I spun around in a half circle and ran blindly. The nothingness slowly started to become black, then the black a pale gray. The feeling of something shaking under me hit me like someone shaking me awake with a hoof, and a moment later my chest exploded in dull, throbbing, agony.
I kept running. The grayness started to become light, shapes fuzzily formed in the corners of my vision. Smells started to finally creep into the shrinking void, and then sounds. Someone was speaking!
The voice called faintly but cheerfully from behind me, “Good luck, kid. I hope I don’t see you anytime soon.”
A sharp splitting pain shot through my head. “Ow!” I whimpered.
My head was all foggy. Where was I? What had I been doing? Who was talking?
A more important question suddenly occurred to me. “Where’s Jasper?” I asked the blurry red and green shape in front of me.
“Hey! Speech! You’re alive!” The voice exclaimed happily. “I’ve been talking for hours hoping you would pull through.”
The person’s tone turned grim. “If Jasper was the person who was with you… I am afraid that by the time I found you two there was nothing I could do. I’m a decent surgeon, but-”
I could feel my own crippling wave of depression ripple outwards as I shut my eyes tightly. It stopped whoever was pulling me on the little wooden cart dead in their tracks. The jolt nearly knocked me off whatever I was laying on.
“Do you smell something?” The voice asked.
My eyes slowly fluttered open, clearing my vision. He was a diamond dog, but short, just a little taller than a pony, and built in a more sleek fashion but still quite athletic looking. He had rusty red and white fur, with most of the white I could see in a shaggy sort of puff around his neck. I had seen a normal dog like him once, dad called it a border collie.
He had a kind face, perky ears which reminded me a lot of a pony’s but had a little fold near the tips, and despite looking to be fifty at the oldest, not that old for a dog, he had the oldest looking mismatched eyes I had ever seen. His left eye was a sky blue, and the right an earthy brown.
He had on more clothing that I had been told dogs wore. A green tunic, sort of a bright olive color, cut plainly and buttoned up the front. A pair of khaki loose fitting but not baggy pants. Leather boots dyed a light brown with laces up the front. A gray canvas belt with a few pouches on it, and a thick dark green woolen cloak just long enough so you could see his tail tip wagging at about knee height under the him.
Weren't dogs supposed to be barbarian savages?
I nodded my head no. “S-sorry… that’s me. Emotovore. Most people can’t sense… Why did she have to die?” I sobbed.
The dog sighed a sad, understanding sigh and stepped over to the side of the cart, leaning on one of it’s walls. “I’m sorry. If she had been alive, I would have tried to treat her too. If it’s any condolence, she most certainly died instantly. I doubt there was even time for her to feel pain.”
The image of the griffon raising his crossbow sprang into my mind, an instant later the bolt ripped into Jasper like I was seeing it happen again. I felt a spark of rage build up in my chest, then a sharp shooting pain.
“OW!” I shouted, looking down reflexively.
A heart shaped iron plate was belted to my barrel. Behind it was a burning, searing, hellish pain which slowly faded back into the dull ache I had woken up with. The hay was this for? I gently tapped it with a hoof, producing a slight tinging sound.
“Ah, that.” the dog explained. “Don’t pick at that. Far as I can tell it’s what’s keeping your entrails from becoming your extrales. I know it’s crude, but I was in a hurry. You were in rough shape, and bleeding out fast.”
“Y-you saved me?” I asked in shock, and immediately resolved to not pick at it.
He nodded. “Yes. My name is David, may I have your name?”
I remembered he said that he was a doctor or something before, but it only really just now hit me. This diamond dog saved my life. Why?
“Jade… Why did you help me?” I asked, desperate to know, “I… don’t you eat-”
David shook his head, “Back where I come from, we don’t eat bugs. Besides, I don’t eat my food raw and based on what cauterizing your kind’s flesh smells like, you probably taste like the rotten asshole of a road killed skunk that’s been over boiled in cheap beer.”
“What!?” I asked, eyes widening in disgusted shock at his colorful answer.
“Oh. I had to burn some of the hole shut. It smelled… very bad. Sure I eat meat, but there is no way in hell I would eat anything that smells like your species meat when cooked. So don’t worry. You’re safe from me.” He said offering a sincere smile. “Besides, I have plenty of jerky in the cart.”
I froze as the memory of burning flesh raced through my mind. David was right. It did smell terrible. Of course it did, it was my friends, family, my neighbors…
“Oh… They’re all... “ I sniffed, reflexively curling up into a tight ball, ears falling as the reality of the situation hit me.
I saw David nod. Sympathetically. Knowingly. How in tartarus could he possibly understand!?
“My family… my entire home… all dead…” I moaned.
“I know. I’ve been there. My own home, the homes of countless others. You never forget the first time, but you learn to live with it in time.” David said gently.
How dare he try to trivialize my pain! It’s not like I broke a toy, everyone I knew and loved was dead!
“What do you know?” I demanded angrily. “Have you ever seen your sister die?”
When a changeling’s emotions are unstable, our minds tend to latch onto those of people around us for support. I felt myself link to Dave just as my words hit his consciousness. Normally I would only know the surface thoughts of someone very close to me, but the memories which rushed to David’s mind were so overwhelmingly laced with emotion, and I was so distraught that they rushed through the link like a flood.
A fog covered beach stretched out as far as I could see. I was seeing the world as Dave remembered it. He was in a small rectangular boat, the beach ahead was covered in odd jumbles of metal and wooden fortifications. A huge wall was barely visible at the edge of the fog a way’s up the beach. Directly in front of the boat was a big, square, boxy tower set into the wall with a single slit carved out.
The boat was filled with people of some sort. I couldn’t see them well, the memory was old and fuzzy, but many things still burned vividly in them. The air around the boat was filled with thousands of thunderclaps. Sections of the beach exploded as if a mage threw a spell at them, but without any visual cue, only a horrible screaming sound. All around people screamed, in pain, and various orders.
Suddenly everyone ran forwards out of the boat onto the beach. The memories became so jumbled I couldn’t keep track of anything. It was a blur of bipedal shapes running, mist, dirt, and water. The only clear sound was someone screaming “The sea wall, get to the sea wall!”
Then, suddenly I could make sense of things. I wished I could not. Someone's entire chest filled my view, their body a ripped apart mess, blood pooled under David’s hands as I watched from his perspective as he struggled to get a bundle of cloth over the missing skin and muscle of the writhing and screaming person. “You’re not going to die!” David said in a shaky voice, “You’re not going to die! You’re fine.”
His hands felt wet, and warm. Suddenly a deep relieved joy welled up within his mind. “I did it!” He shouted, turning to someone next to him. “I stopped the bleeding! Get this gauze wrapped around-” there was a loud ripping sound and a spray of blood. The person stopped moving.
“Fuck! Damnit! I-” David’s hands snatched a weapon from the sand, he jumped up, raised the weapon, and two sets of hands instantly grabbed him and pulled him down.
“Get down you idiot! We have others to try and save!” someone screamed.
The memories nearly burned a hole in my mind from the sheer levels of hatred and panic rolled up into them. I looked up, right into David’s eyes, and saw only bitter sadness as he said, “No. Never a sister, but far too many brothers.”
“I-I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have-” I started to apologize.
He cut me off with a raised hand. “You sound young, you just had the worst day of your life. I understand. I went through something similar around your age… You’re what, nineteen? Not more than twenty.”
“Seventeen.” I answered.
David shook his head slowly. “Same age as me then. I understand, I really do. I also know the best way to solve the emotional death spiral you’re in right now. Find a goal, focus on it, forget the present. From what I can tell, most species here have similar physiology. If you don’t make yourself move on, you’ll spend years shellshocked.”
“L-like what?” I asked nervously. He was right. It would be even worse for me as a changeling. My own depression could kill me if it lasted long enough. It would be like drinking a little poison every day.
“Anything.” David replied as he turned around, picked up the cart’s handles and started to walk. “If it helps you feel some resolution for the past, even better. For now… why not talk? I’ve been roaming on my own for about five years now. Even if you don’t want to stick with me, It would be nice to have someone to talk to till I get to Applewood… But as a medic, I’d advise you stay near me till you’re healed. I noticed your species can regenerate, but it seemed very… well, it seemed like not much help.”
I was too embarrassed about having read some of his memories to say anything. It’s rude to peer into someone's private thoughts without permission. I must have been too quiet for too long, because David started talking again.
“Alright, I’ll pick a topic then.” He paused to lever the cart over a rock half buried in the ground. “Oop! Hold that big green canvas box tightly while we go over this bit of ground will you? Thanks. Right, topic… May I ask what you are? I haven’t seen one of your people before.”
I blinked in confusion. How had he not heard of us? Queen Chrysalis's had made us infamous through- oh thank the sun! He wouldn’t have any notions about us!
“I’m a changeling. We’re not too common anymore… there’s been um… One of the hives is sort of… Join us or die.” I said trailing off slowly. “They attacked us this morning…”
I saw David’s ears droop as he flinched. “Ooo. Sorry. You’re a pretty interesting looking bunch. Are you related to unicorns at all?”
That was a bit of a better direction to go in! “No. We evolved as predators, and ponies are our best food source so we adapted to look like them. Er- We don’t actually eat them, we feed on emotional energy. But we need to be close, so you know we had to have ways to pass as a pony even if we can’t shapechange for some reason.”
David turned his head to look back at me, “Wait, you’re a shape shifting psychic vampire?”
I shook my head. “Yes.”
He blinked in confusion, “Er… Yes or no?”
Oh right! Other species used the reverse gestures. “Yes, we’re shape changing… Well vampire is a good way to put it I guess… But like the bats, not actual vampires.” I confirmed.
“Yet, you are predators?” David asked, raising an eyebrow.
I started to shake my head, and then nodded. “Yes.”
“Dose feeding harm your prey?” He asked curiously.
“No, not always. I mean it can but that’s sort of a martial art, and it’s not permanent.” I answered.
“So you eat emotions, without harming people, and are shape shifters.” David shook his head slowly, “Have you at least tried say, living alongside other-”
“Oh! Yes! Sorry!” I interrupted, realizing what he was trying to understand. “We started as predators, but we haven’t been for like, a thousand years. At least, not my hive… We had friends, allies. But not everyling in every hive liked farming.”
“Farming?” David asked, starting to pull the cart again.
“Yeah.” My mind flashed back to scout school. If today hadn’t happened, farming love would have been my job. “You find somepony and while shapechanged, you help them. That way they don’t know you’re a changeling and so they think you are just helping to be nice and not for a meal. It makes them get a genuinely good mood. That way they are more likely to help somepony else, starting a chain of positive emotions. You keep everypony happy by helping a few individuals every day and there’s plenty of food for everyling to eat.”
David nodded. “I can think of a few cities which would really benefit from you guys. Why does anyone object to that? Seems like a pretty safe and efficient way to eat to me.”
That was a hard question to answer. “W-well I’m only freshly pupated-”
“Ew…” David muttered under his breath. “Sorry. Just… Head images. I hope I didn’t offend.”
I nodded my head no. “No. I’ve seen others do it. It’s pretty gross. Not as gross as live birth though.”
David nodded twice. “Yeah, I have to agree with you. I’ve delivered a few kids in my day. Somehow the poor woman’s… parts stretch out so much, like a gaping wound, and then there’s the afterbirth…” He shuddered and took a deep breath, “I can’t imagine how many women out there appreciate morphine thanks to that. Let’s get off this topic, please.”
“Uh, anyways…” I cleared my throat, “I’ve only been an adult for like, a few days. Politics aren't something they talk to you about when you’re a nymph, but from what I’ve overheard… Well, tradition. Somelings think that the old ways are just better. Like Queen Chrysalis and her Swarm.”
I paused for a few long moments to collect myself. “They are the ones who attacked us today.”
David turned to look back at me again, “What? But, the griffons-”
“I think they were working together.” I said bitterly.
“Ah.” David turned back to watch where he was going. “So this Chrysalis, Is she like, the leader of your nation or an ant queen?”
“Queens generally lead the hive. But some just sort of live on their own.” I explained. “See, I’m an adult now, but if I’m not around other lings for a long time and I can get enough to eat I’ll become a Queen and then I can start my own hive. Not all of us get to be one, but it’s considered to be like um…”
I trailed off and bit my lip in thought. Spoken languages sucked so hard… I hated needing a specific word to convey a concept to someone! Just sending them the concept is so much more efficient and they never misunderstand you!
“A super-adult I guess. I don’t know the word for it in Equish.” I said finally.
“Ah, so a bit of both. Cool!” David said with a nod.
I took a deep breath to calm down, and did my best to remember everything I knew Chrysalis. After all they were in the area, and David hadn’t heard of them… “So, Queen Chrysalis is probably the worst changeling alive. She thinks we were all better off as a united swarm with one hive, instead of the many little ones we have now… I think she’s related to the Hive Queens who used to rule us all, but I don’t know for sure.
“She has been flying around from hive to hive, to make changeling’s follow her… and… kills anyling who refuses to.” I paused to try and push the images of her swarm in the sky from my mind. “The whole Sapphire Hive just joined her on principal hundreds of years ago, and she’s been using them to raze any town she comes across, and do all of her raiding.
“They say she once found Equestria itself and actually attacked it, and even defeated the Sun in battle, but lost the war… I know that Equestria is well, a Myth, but something had to have beaten her because she vanished for a long time and then came back worse than ever…”
David was quiet for a few moments before sighing sadly and saying, “It’s rare that someone gets worse than leading a warband, forcing their ideology on others, and enacting a scorched-earth campaign… I’m sorry.”
I looked down at the long grass rolling under the cart as it went by. “Yeah… I heard dad telling mom that Chrysalis was only offering the strongest changeling’s to join her swarm now… and that she learned how our species was controlled in the ancient days so she can actually control the whole swarm like her own body if she wants… That sounds like something to do if you wanted to have a rematch with an Alicorn.”
“Alicorn?” David asked in confusion.
I blinked, looking up instantly. “How do you not know about Alicorns?”
“I’m not from here. Whole different land.” He answered.
“Really?” Hearing about another land would definitely take my mind off of… things. I liked hearing stories. “Like, another continent? I’ve heard there are ships that can cross the sea!”
He nodded. “Yeah basically. I… I probably shouldn’t tell you too much but I can say a few things. Indulge me though, what’s an Alicorn?”
The story of Alicorns was one of my favorite ones. Dad told it to me almost every night when I was little. It made me feel a bit better to get to tell it to someone. “Legends say that when the world was new the Gods created too many things to control by themselves. So they decided to give some of their creations the responsibility and power to do a certain task for them. They looked to the mortal races they had made and found ponykind worthy of this blessing, and gave them each a little tiny bit of godly power.
“That’s what their cutiemarks are, that little bit of divine power which gives them a unique talent. Like, you know how they all seem to know exactly what to do in life and be happy? That’s why! A divine spark makes them really good at that one thing. The symbol is a clue about what it is.”
David nodded eagerly, “I was wondering what those were, and how that one colt was working iron like modeling clay… without heating it. Or using magic.”
I gave him a smile, even though he couldn’t see it. I wish I had gotten to see that pony, as a scout I could not only mimic the shape of a pony I had observed long enough, but also mimic their talent. To a degree at least, I would only be as powerful at it as my love reserve allowed me to be. It would have been really fun to try molding iron like that though.
“Yeah!” I exclaimed eagerly before continuing, “We learned in school that there are some really weird ones too. Some are less powerful or less obvious than others though. The divine spark they got is stronger in some ponies than others. Now, some ponies special talent is so strong, and related to something so basic or important that the legends say they could do things like make the sun set, or the stars shine.
“If these ponies are pure of heart, and pass a test to prove they are the greatest at what they do, they become an Alicorn. They gain the abilities of all three pony races, their special talent gets even more powerful, and according to the legend, they are immortal, and will only die if someone is able to kill them. Like, disease, age, accidents, that doesn't matter. They will keep living until killed intentionally by something else. That whole time they are alive, they are like um… mini-gods? What's the word for-”
“Demigods.” David answered. “I get it. As a reward for being the best they are made to govern the laws of nature around whatever they do best. Right?”
Ah so that was the word. I’d have to remember it. “Yep! Or at least… so the stories say. I don’t know if anyone’s ever seen one.” I sighed sadly. “The Legends say that they all live in a place called Equestria. Which is a part of the world that’s special, and just… better.”
David nodded. I was starting to get used to that meaning approval. ”That’s a pretty cool Mythology. You’ll have to tell me more of it sometime. I’ve always liked a good story. Now, I want you to understand that in my opinion a deal is a deal. You can ask me anything you want to know, and I’ll tell you. But, there are a few things that I don’t want people to know, I might put myself in danger if word got out of a few things, and there are other things I know which shouldn’t get out there… But I’ll talk about nearly anything you want to know. Alright?”
That was really odd for someone to say. My mind flashed back to the glimpse of his memories. Suddenly his words made more sense, wherever he was from, they had some terrifying spells at their disposal.
“That’s fair. There’s stuff I would rather not talk about too.” I said. Clearing my throat I decided that David deserved to know what I had seen in his mind. “So… something you should know. My species is mildly telepathic, and um, it’s not normally possible but I’m not… okay right now, and earlier you remembered some things with super intense emotions so I um… I saw the memories.”
David froze mid step. “You what?” he asked in a dangerous tone of voice.
“I-I’m sorry! Like, really really sorry! Your mind is your personal sanctuary! I… I didn’t mean to intrude. I’m hurt, I needed a connection… It was just instinct!” I apologize in as sincere a tone. “I really, really mean it when i say I can’t do it again! I can only consciously do it with close friends.”
David nodded slowly, set the cart down, and turned around to face me. His eyes were deadly serious, as serious as dad’s when he had talked to me about magic and how to use it responsibly. “Okay. Good. I’m not mad that you can read minds. I am aware that magic exists, I assumed that at some point, I would find someone who could do it. What I want to know is, exactly what did you see in my head?”
I gulped, my barrel burned as muscles in it pulled funny from the gulp. “Ow… Everything was really blurry. I didn’t see much. A battle, bipeds, dogs like you I guess. It was on a beach, people… were… it was… I saw you trying to save someone burned so bad all their fur was gone. He didn’t make it. That’s all.”
“You don’t have anymore detail than that?” David asked in that same serious tone.
I shook my head. “No. There was to much pain and rage… Negative emotions are toxic to us. It made it hard to focus on anything in the memories.”
David sighed in relief and nodded, to himself I guess. His smile came back slowly. “Good. Good.” Then he blinked in surprise. “Wait, back up, negative emotion is poison to you? You guys can only eat like, joy, love, and pride? How the hell are you not symbiotes?”
I shrugged. “Why do things fall?”
“Because all objects with mass attract each other with a force directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the distance between them! Negative emotions are poison. How did you ancestors even hunt for...“ David threw up his hands and stomped off a few paces.
I watched him sputter and pace back and forth ranting for a few minutes, before coming back. I had no idea what he was even talking about. His reaction was pretty funny to watch though.
“Okay. I’m fine now. Just… the… absurdity… Ask a question. I’m going to pull my wagon.” David groaned, picking up the handles and starting to walk again.
“Um… Could you tell me what that battle was about?” I asked. Somehow talking about a different battle than the one from this morning felt like a good way to not focus on my own problems. “I… I’ve never heard of doctors being sent out onto a battlefield.”
David nodded slowly. “Sure. I’ll give you the short version. A long time ago, five whole generations ago, back in nineteen-thirty-nine, a truly evil person decided that his particular ‘subspecies’ was the perfect life form, and that only they should be allowed to control anything. He was very charismatic, and managed to become the leader of his nation which he whipped up into a warmachine so powerful and evil that he became the thing anyone of my species will compare something else to to check how evil it is.
“This person was so evil, that he got thousands of people to round up millions of people of groups he thought were inferior to his own and had them killed assembly line style. Think of the most efficient way you can to kill a hundred people. This was worse. The whole time that was going on, he also took over every other country with a border next to his, until he almost controlled a whole continent.
“Eventually, my nation was asked to help fight against him. So we did… after one of that evil person’s own allies attacked us. I lost my dad in that attack. I was young and stupid, so I went right to the army recruiter the day we got the letter… I had moral objections to killing, but I still felt I needed to serve, so I joined the army as a medic. I got fast tracked through medical school, basic training, and pushed into service just in time for that battle you saw.
“It was a beach called Omaha, and it was part of a brazen, insane, suicidal landing to launch a whole invasion of everywhere the Nazis had taken over-”
“Is that what the evil guy’s species was called?” I asked curiously.
David paused for a moment. “You know… I like how you put that. It sure as hell feels like they weren't my kind… But it’s important to remember they were. We can be purely evil, or astonishingly good… It’s important to remember that. But yeah, they were called Nazis. They never saw that landing coming ether.
“We steamrolled over them… It cost a lot of young men their lives, it cost many more people their homes, their property… The sheer amount of infrastructure, history, and time lost to those six years that it probably set our species back a few decades of progress to repair the dammages. But we won.
“Pushed them right back to their homeland, then their capital city. Their leader wimped out and killed himself in a bunker as we stormed the place… The whole war made me the ma-er, dog, I am today. No one appreciates life the same way as people who became adults surrounded by death, evil, and terror. I… I’d rather not focus on that part of my life much more today.”
I nodded, I completely understood. “I won’t ever be able to forget today… will I?”
“No,” David replied, “I haven’t in seventy-nine years. But, you’ll learn to live with it, and you’ll grow from it.”
“Whoa, hold it!” I raised a hoof, instantly wincing at the pain in my chest from doing so. “There is no way under the sun that you are that old! You don’t look a day over fifty!” I objected.
“I know! It’s completely awesome! Rejuvenation potion! All of the joint pain just vanish- wait…” David’s face scrunched up in confusion, “Your tone… How old do you think dogs live to be?”
“Um… Eight hundred is the oldest our hive knew-”
“Eight hundred?!” David exclaimed, eyes widening, ears and tail standing up in an alarmed joy. “Sweet! Things are about a fifteen hundred equivalent now! I’ll get to see the whole industrial rev-”
I gave David the most suspicious look I have ever given anyone. He coughed into his hand awkwardly. “Er, I mean, yeah that sounds about right…”
“You weren't always a diamond dog were you?” I asked.
“I plead the fifth.” David replied.
I tilted my head in confusion.
“I have the right to not incriminate myself with my own testimony.” David explained.
“So, then, you weren't.” I said firmly.
“I neither confirm nor deny your accusations. Another question, please.” David asked.
Maybe he ran away from his homeland to escape someone… Because as someling trained to infiltrate places, he was making all the novice mistakes and not keeping his story straight. But at least he was being honest. Sort of. I decided to trust David for the moment.
“Okay…” I said slowly. There was an important question that I wanted to ask him anyways. “H-how do you keep going? After all of that I mean?”
“You find something worth living for.” David answered, “Then you do it. Mine came in nineteen-sixty-nine. We did something so big that it made me realize what our species purpose was… But the words to express it best had existed in fiction before then. We made a part of our fiction real, that’s how much we wanted it.”
“What was it?” I asked curiously.
“Eh… you wouldn’t believe me if I told you. But I’ll tell you what keeps me going. What my mission in life is. Especially since now that I’m here I get to actually live it and not just read about it in the papers and screens.” David informed.
He paused for a moment. I think he was going for dramatic effect, but it just didn’t work, becoming a frustrating silence until he spoke again. “The whole purpose of living is to learn, to discover, to explore. To seek out new life, new things, and new civilizations. To boldly go where no one has gone before, and in so doing bring people together in the new frontier to work out ways to make the world a better place. Whether that is a literal frontier beyond civilization, or a new field of science, or even just the home of a new people you have never met before.
“In short Jade, the point of life is to make a meaning out of it to suit yourself, and in so doing try to better the lives of everyone you can. In short short, keep learning new things, do what good you can for the world.”
I was taken aback. His words made a lot of sense. I wished I had something to say to it, but I couldn’t put any words together to say anything appropriate. “H… how old are you?” I finally managed to ask.
“Apparently I’m barely an adult… But I’ve lived long enough to know that the world is constantly changing, so there’s always more to see, and always more to do. But more importantly, that good people need to work to make the world better than it is now. Otherwise… well…”
He shook his head slowly, “I’m sorry I’ve been making you talk a lot. You should try to get some sleep. Hole through your chest and what not.”
That was even more wise sounding than his views on life. I curled up more comfortably atop the cart and gave him a nod. “That’s a good idea… Night.”
“Night. Sleep well. Don’t die on me now, I don’t have a shovel back there to dig a grave with,” David joked.
I couldn't help but giggle for a bit. What can I say? Sometimes morbid humor is funny.
I know I'm praising you too much, and eventually you will have an ego-supernova, but I'd just like to say that that Death scene was actually awesome. I really want to see more near-death experiences now, as morbid as that sounds.
Ooooo. Afterlife waiting room of sorts, I'm guessing? With those griffons there, sounds like David's trap was more fatal than disabling.
Now that was a relatively friendly and helpful Death. I kind of hope that even in this AU of the main series she has a chance at a relationship with Pinkie.
(To save time, I'll start shipping Jade and David now.) ()
He's a combat medic? Interesting.
Dang, sounds like the Diamond hive was a pretty decent place if that was their approach towards emotion farming.
Huh, I was wondering after the WWII story.
This could be really interesting if Jade ends up building a new hive that incorporates some of David's philosophy.
THAT. WAS. BUCKING. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, so we have a WWII vet who lived Omaha beach (hell incarnate as I understand), is also a science fiction nerd, and also somehow came to Equestria as a Diamond dog border collie, I do not have the words to describe how much yes I give this!!!
The amount of world building in this chapter alone, just awesome! Keep it up, and we will keep reading!
6470618 Death is consistent across my stories. No not the concept, the character. That's her name. She's not a bad person realy.
6470627 Thanks! I'm known for my twists apparently :) I'm glad you're liking it.
Once again I give my voice to those who would see this continue.
In particular I enjoyed the little reference to The Princess Bride at the top.
6470665
Yep. She dose large batches in groups. Keeps the paperwork tidy. As for the griffons that counts those which were killed inside the hive in the battle you didn't see too.
So dose she, but her job doesn't pay very well so a big romantic gift is out of the question.
Heh... It's not easy to ship a confirmed bachelor with a bug girl.
No, actually. Combat Medic is the modern version of that job and there are some BIG differences in the training and methods. Notably the fact that modern medics are not concitered non-combatants because no one follows the Geneva conventions, so they get WAY MORE actual fighting training and are basically a marine with a medical degree, and not a surgeon who can shoot okay. So it's more accurate to call him a Hospital Corpsmen.
They were one of the more civilized hives, yes. Their education wasn't very good though. Being the nice guy rarely earns you much cash in a medieval world.
Glad you're enjoying things!
Thanks for the error spotting! I don't have an editor for this one yet.
Chapter three answers this question. Also there's a fandom word for transformed HiEs?
Pun not forgiven, it was hilarious! Again, chapter three.
Glad to be keeping you on edge!
6470802 Omaha was bad. SO bad that it set the standard by which my gramps judged everything else for the rest of his life (no David is not based on him. But I am using some of his war stories later...). TO the point where my gramps once got out of a ticket for parking by saying "Son, if you think this is bad you should have seen my parking job on Omaha." But that was probably because that made the cop crack up.
I'm glad you're liking things, and naturally they will continue to chug along :3
6471211 Just for getting that reference, I'm going to do chapter four right now.
6471228
In this fandom we can ship anything with anything!
6471269 True, we would make a great post company.
I love black humour way too much...
So! Sounds like David isn't quite what he seems... which means we have a wounded changeling, last of her hive, who doesn't even know Equestria is real, travelling with a diamond dog who wasn't always, sounds like he used to be an American human, probably doesn't know Equestria is real, and didn't know about alicorns, and my reader-sense is telling me they're going to end up in Equestria, after Chrysalis got herself beaten...
Any bets on how long it'll be before Charlie dances the Foxtrot?
6464598 Except... it sounds like he's an American human turned d-dog...
6471439
0:1 odds on faster than they can de-ass themselves from the current zone of action.
6471542 Awww... no Charlie Foxtrot? Oh well, still loving the story! Can't wait to see what happens next...
6471719 Oh no you misunderstood me, I thought you would get the military lingo since you used CF there. In plane English "The manure will strike the air current induction apparatus before the people in question are able to remove themselves from their present location."
6471754 I use slang from lots of places, probably because I love linguistics and the like. I just figured that 0:1 meant 0 times out of 1, or not happening. But odds always mess me up. Eh.
But hey, CF inbound sounds fun! Can't wait to see Jade's reaction to the revelation that Equestria is a real place.
And on a side note, since I do those a lot, my name used to be Jade, so there's a little bit of me that goes I'm in a story? when I read this. Kind of amusing. :P
6471777 Ah! Yeah 1:1 would be more logical for certainty, but it realy means 50-50. 0:1 is used for betting odds for 100% chance of happening because you won't earn any winnings off of such a bet. You get 0 for each 1 you put in. 1:1 meanwhile means your cash is matched, 2:1 means it is doubled...
/me puts on her pondering hat... "Humm..."
Did she owe anyone money?
Did you mean, "raze"?
The plot thickens like delicious gravy. Also, collie diamond dog!
6471910 No I meant raise, as in float. She levitates them at her enemies mass driver style! XD Sorry about that I'll fix it.
6471814 ...You just explained betting odds better than anyone I've ever asked, including my stats teacher. Thank you for clearing that up!
6471950 Huh... this makes 8 things I have explained better than people's teachers... Perhaps I'm good at it. Mabey I should go through college again and become a teacher.
6470618 Meep's Death for the Equis-verse is concentrated awesome. We've seen a little more of Death in her other stories (Beneath the Sands and Upon the Skies, mostly the latter).
6470802
Agreed. So agreed!
heh Dave's an all-around badass. This is going to be quite fun. I wonder....Dave was a hospital corpsman, that's plain (and you outright stated it in a comment). They go through all the same training as the Marines...including hand to hand and knife-fighting. So does that mean that Dave's going to teach Jade the Marine Corps way of wielding that oversized knife of hers? As I expect they're going to keep travelling together for a while, teaching the young changeling how to better defend herself will be to both of their benefit.
6471248
Excellent!
My knowledge of somewhat obscure pop culture helps once again.
6471910
The last few panels of this Schlock Mercenary strip are somewhat relevant here, I think.
6471172 AWESOME.
>I blinked in confusion. How had her not heard of us? Queen Chrysalis's had made us infamous through- oh thank the sun! He wouldn’t have any notions about us!
he, not her.
>“I’m not from here. Whole different land.” He answered.
Aaaagh, keep on making me think he's a human why don't you!
>“Yep! Or at least… so the story’s say.
stories
>I gulped, my barrel burned as muscle sin it pulled funny from the gulp.
Muscle sin. I dunno, maybe being buff is ilegal or something.
>“Because all objects with mass attract each other with a force directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the distance between them!"
AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaagh!!! Huuuuuuuman.
>“Sure. I’ll give you the short version. A long time ago, five whole generations ago, back in nineteen-thirty-nine, a truly evil person decided that his particular ‘subspecies’ was the perfect life form, and that only they should be allowed to control anything."
Damn it! So it's a changeling POV story and a HIE story? Cool.
>“No.” David replied.
whenever you continue outside of quotation marks, you should use a comma ',' instead of a period '.'
A period makes the two things seem separate, whereas the comma makes it a continued structure.
>Mine came in nineteen-sixty-nine.
To the MooooOOOOOOOOOooooon! Beeeeeyaaaaatch!~
> Whole through your chest and what not.”
Hole.
>Don’t die on me now. I don’t have a shovel back there to dig a grave with.” David joked.
Again, comma instead of a period before the quotation mark. Not entirely sure about this, but the period between 'now' and 'I' might also work better as a comma to make it a continued thought.
6473266 Update's made! Thanks! I guess my editor bot still needs some tweaking. Also it's more of a "misfit's questing" story. I'm not realy using the HiE genra's tropes despite the fact that one character was formerly human. Hope that dosent ruin anything for you.
6473333
I actually love HiE, I just came here expecting... NOT HiE. And the fact that he appears to not be the focus of the story is something that REALLY tickles me the right way, I am basically loving this.
Good luck on your future chapters, and hopefully they come swiftly!
6473345 T-5 hours till chapter 4.
Eh, not sure if I like the human angle all that much (probably would have preferred if he was an actual diamond dog, rather than this and having to suffer through all the references he will doubtlessly make that no one will be able to follow), but otherwise this is pretty interesting.
It was neat seeing a changeling hive so radically different from what Chrysalis was shown to be, so it was a shame to see it fall so quickly - though i guess that's what small communities do in the face of powerful warmongers, and sounds like chrissy has one hell of a stick stuck up her rear after getting kicked out of Equestria.
And I guess it's obvious enough that Jade will want to get to Equestria - should be doable enough I think. It sounds like their hive was located inside gryphon borders, and it sounds like the gryphon nation borders Equestria, since they were worried about trade sanctions and all ... though I guess it's possible there's oversea trade, in which case the journey would be much more problematic.
Though somehow I think Jade will have her work cut out for her in trying to make Equestrians like and help her, given the first impression of her species that Chrissy left behind.
6473393 Fear not, I'm not using the HiE tropes very much. I wanted to try to do one in a more serious way for a change. Glad you like everything else though!
Referencing AVGN are we?
6475049 Naturally! The man knows how to properly curse.
6475613 Not only do feathers burn, but thermite is just a mix of rust and aluminum dust, and it burns like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIpa1K51os4
Dam, all these references. I love it.
Wow, so he's a vet, ahold of magic?
I think I need not mention it, but a guy like that would have terminators pissing themselves.
6475634 Yeah. Add int he fact that the WWII hand to hand style used by the US military is now illegal to teach or know even for military use and um... wow. Ever look up what it was? It's called Rough and Tumble (or Gouging) and it's primary attacks involve things like choking the life out of someone while you sue your thumb to remove their eyes, biting off someone's ears or tongue... No wonder the US turned the tide of that war, our soldiers first day of combat training included viewing propaganda to train them first to ignore all moral rules of society, fair play, and human decency...
6475705 wow, never knew that, makes the wars sound a helluva lot scarier, and it's already terrifying
6476545 If you want the realy scary part here's the actual propaganda video used. It's also almost eccential to the way the martial art was used. You had to truly see anyone you were fighting as just an object to destroy. It's one reason we as a society today still think the Nazi's were pure evil (yes they were bad, but we always make them sound like the Devil's Devil. The Devil the Devil is sent to when he's not being evil enough.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RG8XBnlzmaE
6476615 damn, savage af.
It is a pretty solid way of fighting though.
6477499 Yep. That's a martial art meant to kill, not defend. Big diffrence.
Square of the distance!
Mostly dead? That's a Princess Bride reference!!! Instantly a twelve of ten star story just for that!
i rate this story a 2.... OUT OF 2!!!!
6804075 You gotta go, Den Ouda Den...
This fascinates me
So, David was a Human in the Normandy invasion(D-Day), who would have thought.
And on a completely unrelated note, it's ironic that when I read the part with D-Day I started listening to the German national anthen(don't ask)
This guy fought during D-Day?! That's my birthday! (I was born on the anniversary of it in 1997)