The rest of the night played out smoothly. Except for when someone dared Thorax to drink an entire mug of coffee in one go. For the rest of the night, Thorax was hovering an inch off the ground.
Coxa and I caught up while sitting in a booth, watching the lings at the main table play card games. He was doing a part time job as a data entry clerk in Manehattan. He was as enthusiastic about that as one could possibly be. Meaning he was pretty much begging me to rescue him from the cubicle farm.
We also talked briefly about Thorax.
“When he told us that the secret to not dying was to literally be ourselves, I told him he was full of shit,” Coxa said while twirling an empty glass.
“Then?”
“Then he brought enough love for us to top off tonight. Speaking of which, you should probably eat before you go on this cool adventure of yours.”
“Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder.”
“It ain’t free. I expect a full time position of doing important shit as payment. Anyways, Thorax. Figures he’d discover how to save our species through some gay shit. Makes you wonder just what his future is; the fact that he managed to find a solution to the starvation, regardless of how feasible it is, could be enough for him to Ascend to a royal changeling.”
I cringed at the A-word.
“Oh, sorry Phasma. I sorta didn’t think about the other meaning of that. You probably don’t even know the stories about King Cortex or Queen Corpora. I ain’t talking about lobotomization, I’m talking about actually changing from a drone to a royal.”
“That can happen?”
“Somehow. It’s anyone’s guess as to exactly how it is, but theories are that Panar chooses exemplary changelings to help guide our kind. So these two drones, Cortex and Corpora, were actually siblings. It’s one of the only tales from the First Hive that we still have. They led survivors from its mysterious collapse to the second hive.
“They saved so many lives– really, our species as a whole– that when they arrived at wherever the Second Hive is, they ascended to royalty. They were already a Prince and Princess, but were biologically drones. Unfortunately, that’s all we have of the tale. It could have something to do with the potentially large amount of love they had at the time. They had to take food with them for the long journey, theoretically. It could have to do with the fact that they saved the species. It could be because they sneezed and farted at the same time.”
Coxa shrugged.
Something had caught my attention, “... Royals can have drone offspring?”
“Apparently.”
‘Man, I really know very little about my own body. Bug-mom didn’t even give me the talk about the birds and the bees… Honestly, that’s probably for the best. She’d probably tell me something stupid like how it’s my duty to not have any offspring while she’s alive, and that I will literally end the Hive if I even consider having a nymph.’
“And these two royals, they ruled in a diarchy?”
“Yeah, there seems to be some precedent for that on Equus.”
“So theoretically, Thorax could be my… equal?”
“Stranger shit has happened. No wait, it hasn’t. But Thorax becoming a King or Prince is about as expected as finding out that ponies can love changelings. At this point, I wouldn’t even be surprised if Canterlot Mountain stands up and walks away into the sunset. Or if Queen Chrysalis suddenly repents and begs for forgiveness.”
“Maybe not the last one.”
“Yeah probably not. It’ll be a cold day in Hell before the Queen actually feels sorry for what she did.”
I pursed my lips as I watched a changeling laugh as he scooped up the chips from the pot.
“... What if she did?”
“What?”
“What if she did try to bridge the gap between us. Not saying that she’ll feel sorry, just that she doesn’t want to fight.”
“I’d say that’s a trap that only a moron would fall for.”
“I know. I’m saying hypothetically, what if it wasn’t a trap?”
Coxa rubbed his chin, “There’s a reason why there’s almost always only one or two royals alive at a time.”
“Heh, no need to tell me. A prince or princess might be the most valuable tool in your arsenal, but eventually they will gun for your position.”
“Exactly. How would you two coexist?”
“How did King Cortex and Queen Corpora coexist?”
“No one knows. The fact that they were siblings might have something to do with it, but…”
“But siblings kill each other far more often than they kill their parents in monarchies.”
“Probably, yeah. So, how do you think you two could coexist?”
“... I don’t think we could. Not unless she essentially fucks off and lives her life away from the Hive. As long as she’s here, there will always be a distrust between us.”
“Strange how that happens. Turns out, murdering your son’s siblings means he doesn’t trust you.”
“Isn’t it weird? How about Thorax and I? Could we coexist?”
We both turned to look at Thorax. He was hovering above his seat, fidgeting with his hoof of cards. When one changeling revealed their cards, thorax stuck his tongue out the side of his muzzle as he concentrated.
“Coexist? Sure. But I think if it comes down to it, Thorax would beat you in a fight. If only for the fact that no one is actually willing to hurt him.”
“Ha! Do you think we can use that against the Magistrates?”
“Well you did have him train to be a guard.”
“... Oh Panar, is Thorax going to inevitably kill me?”
“The day he becomes a royal is the day you know your life is on a time limit, despite your near-immortality. He will literally kill you with kindness.”
“... I can’t even be mad at him.”
Coxa shook his head, “It’s impossible.”
Thorax threw his cards down onto the table, sending a piece of paper with the rules written on it flying off to the side. With a triumphant cheer, he took all the chips from the center of the table.
I shifted the tightness of the straps on my chest, trying to balance out the weight. I was wearing a large backpack provided by Captain Lance for use during the investigation. With one leg being metal, my center of balance was slightly off, leading to the backpack settling strangle on my back.
I had swapped out some of the provisions within the backpack secretly. The exiles had given me the last of the spare love that Thorax brought, just in case the investigation took a long time or if I needed an emergency boost.
I covered my mouth with a metal hoof as I yawned. It was early. Like, before noon early. I had no business being awake, but needs must. As it was, I was currently waiting on Captain lance to finish having my payment loaded onto a carriage being pulled by an earth pony. The cart itself had a few boxes of what little I was bringing with me out of the town, and Captain Lance was having a lowly Private carry a small wooden chest filled with bits. The entire down payment, in full. As I watched the poor pegasus Private struggle to strap down the chest, Captain Lance walked over to me.
“Morning, Far Sky.”
“Good morning, Captain Lance.”
“Are you sure there’s no chance of you staying?”
“Unfortunately. We all have our purpose in life, and mine is not here.”
“In that case, I must formally thank you for your brief service within the Hooferville Guard. If you ever need a place to crash or a job, there’ll always be a room in the Guard Station for you.”
“Thank you, Captain. And thank you for the generous amount of bits.”
“The least I can do is max out the budget for you. The stipend we receive from Canterlot will be reviewed next week, and any bits not used is bits we don’t get next quarter, so rewarding you is a convenient way to keep what we have.”
“And here I was, thinking you did it out of the kindness of your heart.”
“That’s no small part of it. Seriously Sky, I don’t think there’s a single pony in this town who would disagree with the payment, or offering you a permanent position within the Guard.”
“That’s… nice to know. I suppose I’ll always have a fallback plan, eh?”
“Yes, you do.”
Captain Lance rubbed his chin as he examined the cart and its puller.
“Where exactly is the cart going?”
“Manehattan. I have a distant family member who will let me stay at their place as I start getting ready to go home. I can store my stuff at their home, and the pony pulling the cart knows full well where to drop off the cart.”
“You’re just trusting everything– including my bits– to this pony?”
The dark green earth pony’s ears flicked towards us as we talked about him, but he kept silent.
“He says he’s a friend of my cousin– uh, that’s who I am staying with– and if he tries to run off with my shit, he knows there’s no place on Equus where he can hide from me.”
In truth, I wasn’t worried in the slightest about the security of my items and bits. The reason being that the pony pulling the cart was Thalamus. He wanted to show his appreciation for his rescue and volunteered to get all the stuff to Manehattan, where Thorax and Coxa would arrange for some place to store it. Preferably, some place where we can stay as well.
“Well, I suppose I’ll trust your judgement, then. Are you ready to start your investigation?”
I rolled my shoulders, jostling the backpack.
“I am.”
“Great. Let me go introduce you to the team that will be accompanying you.”
I waved a goodbye to Thalamus and followed Captain Lance as he led the way back inside the Guard Station. He stopped me outside of the locker room and went inside to check on the team. I yawned again as I counted the seconds pass by.
“Alright, they’re ready,” Lance said as he opened the door and held it open. I frowned as I looked at the ponies that followed him out.
Three ponies exited the locker room, each wearing their grey guard-issued armor and with large packs on their backs similar to mine. The earth pony carried a short spear, sort of like a pilum. The pegasus had two sets of long claws at the end of his front hooves. The unicorn had no visible weapon. That was all well and fine. The problem was that they weren’t strangers.
“Hi Far Sky!” Bray Call waved to me.
“Thought we were going to stay home while you went off risking your life?” Quick Search asked as he stopped in front of me.
“Hello,” Warm Dew said.
“... Why am I surprised?”
“We’re coming with!” Bray cheered.
“Honestly, why am I surprised? I should have seen this coming. No, you three are not coming with me.”
“We are,” Dew replied.
“You do realize that this is going to be very dangerous, right?”
Search shook his head, “We are guardsponies, Sky. Putting our lives between danger and innocent ponies is our job description.”
I huffed, “I mean real danger. Not heatstroke, or dealing with the thirteenth complaint about the restrictions on parking a cart on the street this week.”
“We were right next to you during the attack. This is part of our job,” Search explained.
“Technically, this is a separate contract in which we will be paid very well,” Bray interrupted.
Dew said tersely, “We’re coming. It’s not up to you.”
I looked over to the Captain, who nodded slowly.
“But I’ve barely known you guys for a month!”
Bray rolled her eyes, “Don’t think it’s all about you. This money is enough to get me out of this town and to university.”
“It’ll be for a down payment on a new house for me,” Search explained.
“More money is always good.”
“But… Damn it all. Fine, whatever. But if it– agh, nevermind. Let’s just… go. I assume you’re all ready to go?”
They all nodded.
“Wonderful. F–Bucking wonderful. Listen to what I say, do as I do. Since I actually know what we are hunting, I’ll be taking the lead.”
Bray rubbed her chin, “Captain Lance said they are lavallern, right?”
“Lavellan. And we’re just tracking their point of origin. They had to be fleeing from something, be it a collapsed cavern, or something else. We have to find out what forced them to the surface, and see if it’s going to keep being a problem.”
“Got it!” Bray saluted.
Dew shrugged.
“You going to be okay in a leadership position?” Search asked.
I had to repress a smile.
“I think I’ll manage.”
The great doors to Hooferville slowly closed behind us as we examined the carnage that lay at the base of the walls.
There was a bit of clearing between the stone walls and the treeline, as was customary for defenses. Pressed up against the base of the huge wall was a long pile of burnt Lavellan bodies. Cleanup crews had burnt the remains earlier, and eventually the remains would be removed from the base of the wall and either buried or burnt to ash. As it was, their charred bodies lay in heaps against clawed stone. In two spots, a huge pile of dirt signaled the start of the now collapsed tunnels that the rats used to invade the town.
Compared to the pristine town-side of the wall, this side looked hundreds of years old. The frequent damage it took from wild animals and the now-rare attacks had weathered it considerably. It wore old scars and gouges like a war veteran, proudly boosting their immortality.
I exhaled slowly and examined the tracks leading to the wall.
There were hundreds of marks on the muddy ground. All of them led further back into the forest. Likely, there would be numerous marks stretching all the way back to the point of origin of the horde. It seems that this was not to be the difficult part of the job.
Bray and Search were trying their best to not gag at the horrible smell of burnt flesh. They covered their noses with a hoof as they cringed and blinked tears out of their eyes. Dew had grimaced greatly but seemed to not struggle as much. As for myself, months at the hive had made me learn how to mentally block smells out to an unfortunately accurate degree.
“Alright. Let’s get a move on,” I ordered.
The squad formed up around and behind me, with Bray on my left, Search on my right, and Dew behind me. Turning our backs to Hooferville, we descended into Blackthorn Forest. As we stuck to the tracks, the thick branches of the tall trees cut us off from the sky above, and eventually the trunks blocked the sight of the grey walls behind us.
Churned mud, broken branches, eviscerated trunks of trees, and of course an ever present rotting smell that I could detect led the way deeper into the woods.
How long till they 'll find out? Money's on soon
There is no way this mission goes smoothly. Not for Phasma.
This chapter raises several more questions about Warm Dew. He may actually end up on our side, but not out of the goodness of his heart.
I have a bad feeling
Nice
i.imgflip.com/57reoa.jpg
Since Phasma has made contacts with other changelings, is he finally going to get his leg fixed? After this little adventure perhaps?
I am interested in seeing how Phasma's friends react to who he really is.
10795052
I actually stared at that line for at least five minutes, trying to rephrase it to be less... abrasive. Sadly, any changes loses its comedic value. As it is, Coxa (and really, all other changelings) aren't really homophobic, they're just memeing for lack of a better word.
Good shit don’t fuck it up slider
#royalflush
"So how many death flags do you want?"
"Yes."
It'll be interesting to see how the ponies react to whatever they find in the forest
You know, the way it’s being phrased, i really don’t think I’d actually mind if thorax became a royal changeling in this story. I think i trust your writing skills enough to do it well.
Everything Coxa said about Thorax is dead on accurate. Cinnabug is a national treasure of the Fifth Hive.
Oh, the entire crew is coming along? Well, now there is no way this goes smoothly. Place your bets everyone: what will go to shit? Will someone die, or will Phasma's bugginess be discovered?
This fic is featured with every chapter that means this has been featured 78 times!
Rodents of unusual size? I don't think they exist.
10795096
Phas's true nature will be or has been already discovered. Nice chapter and I can't wait to see how it goes wrong.
What would Thorax look like as a non-reformed changeling royal?
Fuck me... I laugh so hard my head start to hurt... Magnificent
One glorious chapter
well he the royal mascot at present wont be long until he got his own merchandise and coffee brand: thorax coffee for when you want that sweet and wholesome feeling
10795041
Also since they are all his friends they are not expendable... Funny enough i didnt see it coming that they before Phasmatodeas team.
10795045
Looking forward to it
10795047
Its the smelling rat corpses. Dont worry that normal.
10795052
Absolutely PRICELESS
10795053
Ones they gace enough love to spare. The leg is a Inconvenients at the moment. Healing it would be after securing enough love for the Fith Hive members and getting everyone max out on love rations.
10795055
Them: "Neat... So can you turn into a mare Phasma?"
10795061
Noling is perfect ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
10795083
No lore to the chapter titel?
10795094
For all i care he can become Faust herself as long rainbow puke Changelings bever come to be... The black variation of them is way cooler
10795096
Hope nobody dies. Phasma can need em all to kick Daybreakers ass should he ecer need sone ponys to speak up...
10795099
Sound legit. I dont kniw to this day how that works...
So many great storys never get featured ones...
10795113
There is impressive fan art actualy. I love the one from ' Off the Mark ' its a amazing story on Fimfiction. Chrysalis started as villain and ends as Bugwaifu ♡
Edit:
10795143
Damn nice slogan. Dont forget the TM
10795096
I'm hoping for discovery, and new friends.
10795159
I would love to read that scene if it happened.
ready
We are /- were
10795159
I doubt a bunch of backwater guardsponies would be of any help with Daybreaker. When he gets to putting together the criminal enterprise though, a bunch of contacts in the local guard might come in handy if Phasma needs to keep a speakeasy out of sight. Though I doubt this bunch would be open to such proposals, especially after it comes out he is a changeling.
Why is it that this is what bugs me the most this chapter? A problem with budgets in general I suppose. "Oh you were financially responsible? We'll just give you less next time. Doesn't matter if something unexpected crops up." It just ensures places will do everything they can to spend their entire budget down to the last penny, whether they actually need things or not.
This isn't even really related to the chapter but I can't help but comment on it! BLARGH!!!
No, he doesn't. Soon as the inquisition gets back to sorting this out, Phasma's secrets will be spilled to the local guards so that they're more likely to report him if he ever turns back up. He'll never be able to come back here.
10795041
You are absolutely correct. This is going to be a right proper Cluster F$%k.
My guess is that it works the same way it is with ponies.
I might be confusing it right now with this fanfic or IDW comics, but I think Celestia and Luna become alicorns after moving sun and moon in front of a big group of ponies.
That if a individual of a species has folowers, they are distinguished to look different from the their followers to not be confused with the rest.
10795096
Will they run into actual Thestrals in the caverns, and they ruin his story?
10795266
Luna probably informed all of them what to do if they meet Phasma
She probably informs them about a lot of things so if Daybrekaer will decide to use thestrals they will already know what's up.
Or when Luna will need an army
10795263
Sad thing that is how it goes with some stuff in RL. Such as disability benefits, the person saves up too much...no more money gets sent as they aren't in `need` of the money apparently. And it worse if the limit is very low so they can't even save up to buy a house or car or whatever so large purchases are impossible.
Governments are....odd.
Should be "We are guardsponies" or "We're"
10795263
Yeah, Phasma knows that, but as far as the guards are concerned, Far Sky got cleared out by the inquisitor and won't be in trouble anymore, so there would be no problems with readmitting him back into the guard. Of course even if Phasma knows that's not true, but he can't very well say that, now can he? Unless the secret comes out on this outing, Far Sky's friends are in for a nasty surprise in a while.
10795266
Oh, that's a good one. Not terribly likely, but certainly a possibility. This would be a delicious train wreck, and might lead to the actual reveal anyways if he can't worm his way out of that one.
I wounder what Phasma will do, should this tunnel lead to the hive, to his friends.
10795263
10795292
Isn't it such a great policy? I actually can recall a story that an IT Director had with this exact policy. The company of course was always looking to cut costs, so this was the policy they pursued. As you both pointed out, it has huge, glaring issues. So the IT Director spoke with the CEO and said not to cut the IT budget, and that he would personally save the company money. Then he went through the database and disabled outdated client access / support, saving the company ten to a hundred times more than they would have if they cut the budget. A much, much better solution.
So it's a stupid policy that is unfortunately common enough to know of.
10795299
So I should probably be clear about this, in case the detail doesn't come up in the next few chapters; the Underhive is big.
Like, big big.
Bigly big.
It potentially spans the entire continent, maybe going even further to neighboring ones. No one knows how big it is.
It's inspired by the Underdark, if that gives a scale of reference for you.
10795352
Wow, that's some tunnels all over the place. Where did it all come from, is the Hive built on ruins of Skavenblight or something?
10795364
It's all natural to Equus. I can't exactly give you a geographical history of it, but changelings are pretty much the only species to interact with it (It starts quite a ways underground). Other species may know about it, like the alicorns, but they certainly keep well away. And you don't exactly see expeditions into the Everfree happening, so keeping it secret from the intellectual community isn't really a big importance.
Like the bottom of the ocean. We haven't really explored it as there has been really no reason to (until recently), and it's extremely difficult to get down there. Magnitude that difficulty by a hundred and you get the Underhive.
I expect bad things to happen down that cave BUT then I remembered Phasma is no longer lovestarved so unless they get underhive'd nothing (too) bad should happen there, right? RIGHT???!?!!
10795264
Reminds me of several Fimfiction storys so... Everyones guess is fine i guess?
10795266
That a twist Love it... But i preferred he give it up from himself not by pressure...
10795268
Good point. I doubt any Thestral would ever follow Daybreaker without Blackmail of some kind.
10795292
Germany is a bit better. If you get fucked up in german military the system takes care of your basic needs
10795296
I really hope at the end of the mission or right after it completion he tells em. Maybe they can stay friends...
Friendship is magic
10795344
Indeed. All the upper class needs to do often is talk with the guys below em to solve problems.
10795352
Who knows... Maybe a sapient race is hiding there like the Changeling ones did . . .
10795364
Hm... Wile it sound silly at first... Dont forget Discord disposed of multible races... Perhaps one tried to hide underground from him?
10795373
I could imagen Diamond Dog clans actualy controlling parts of it. High risk - high reward area...
10795374
Tetsleworm out of nowere
Or worse... Justin Biber coming out of one of the holes
10795452
I wouldn't count on Phasma revealing anything of his own volition, he's a smart bug, and doing that would pose too much risk. It's possible the circumstances force him, but we can't exactly be sure how will the crew react. If I remember correctly, some of them fell for Daybreaker's "I'm still Celestia" routine, so I wouldn't be surprised if they had very low opinions of changelings in general.
10795292 10795344
Oh I am familiar with the concept. The school districts of my home state have similar budgets. Each teacher/school gets X amount each year. Either they spend every single penny, every year, or their budget is reduced for the next year. It's so, so, so stupid. Punished for financially responsible instead of rewarded. Some years things may go smoothly and they technically don't have to spend as much, other years, machines, air conditioning systems, water mains may break. No increased budget to account for that though!
They all do it pretty much exactly how Captain Lance did it here. Be frugal/cautious with how they spend it throughout the year, then in the last month/week/day before they have to turn it in for a year, they go on a spending spree with whatever they have left to ensure it's not reduced for the next year.
Such a dumb system.
Ah, but I/we rant. We're a bit off topic here.
10795296
Since none of Phasma's missions can go without some sort of disaster happening, yes I fully expect him to be exposed on this little outing. I would be immensely surprised if he wasn't.
10795352
I figured the underhive was an old kingdom (perhaps the third to mirror dwarves in Golarion who were forever pushed up) that existed in the... Underdark (a fitting name as any)
(Edit: that said, unless you are a fan of that you are unlikely to even consider that. And it still took awhile just to get to Canterlot. The party is going to need to travel twice that time assuming they pick the right direction)
10795527
Oh absolutely. Things seem to be looking up for our bug prince, he's about to go on one final assignment before skipping town, and now we find out all named guards are coming along? The question isn't if anything blows up, it's what and when.
Goddamn you're a fucking moron KK. Not even understanding that identity movements not only do not represent the identity they claim to be as a whole, but thinking that gay people in general are just one big monolith.
I can immediately tell you're well within the Progressive echo chamber with a huge stick up your ass thinking you're morally superior to everyone else because you wave the correct flags and say the politically correct words. You don't even understand you're a small fringe minority compared to the rest of the population.
The biggest thing that makes people hate YOU and LGBT's in general that you people are so incredibly hostile to anyone that calls out your bullshit, you act more like hyper offended Orthodox religious nutjobs than actual Liberals.
this is going to be a interesting adventure.
i wonder how his friends are going to react to see him change not only to a changeling but a royal?
Well, I think it's pretty much guaranteed that Phanta's pony friends figure out his race on this cave sniffin adventure.
Ever get the feeling Dew isn't what he seems?