The ponified human known as the Itinerant King reaches Manehattan, following up on a lead involving shipments of dangerous dark crystals. What dark secrets will he find lurking beneath the skyscrapers?
My name is Daniel Holden, but since coming to Equestria I have been known in public by a number of aliases such as "South Wind" the pegasus, or "Blank Slate" the unicorn. But privately I am known as the "Itinerant King" by those who have sworn their loyalty to me, or have begun to quietly spread my legend. The powerful 'Kingsblood', nanotechnology running through my veins, gives my subjects and I powerful advantages, most of all the ability to communicate and forge a weird extended family, closely bonded even over a great distance. Thus helping to repair not only bodily harm, but also the scars of the painful pasts I was able to rescue them from. Now, while the scattered seeds of my Kingdom grow within Equestria's fertile soil, I am taking a handful of changelings in my employ to Manehattan, to see where my deceased former enemies were shipping dangerous, magical dark crystals. Will I find more ponies in need of rescue? Or just more bad ponies in need of a smackdown? Either way, I'm going to poke into shadows that hide from the light of Celestia's sun and even Luna's moon.
In the network of caverns underneath the quiet rural community of Citrus Hills, there had long been a deep dark secret. There, ponies were secretly imprisoned, and forced to work in secret mines, gathering dark crystals deep beneath the earth. Beyond physically mining them, they were also pressed into empowering them through fear or anger. The crystals reacted to anger by draining it, and a lot of energy, from anypony expressing it nearby. Fear, by contrast, empowered the crystals while strengthening that sense of fear, pushing it into the debilitating flavor of fear. Adrenaline, fight and flight were drained from the pony, leaving them only to cower and beg.
But they made the mistake of foalnapping two of my subjects, the unicorn filly Midnight Oil, and her pegasus mother Fog Dancer. And while they did initially manage to capture me and most of my forces, we were able to turn the tides, free ourselves and the other prisoners, and kill our captors.
With the suppliers of the dark crystals removed, we were free to go with our newly expanded Itinerant Kingdom, and live in relative peace. And I let most of my people do just that. There are many amusing anecdotes from their lives, scattered in the shadows of Equestria, but this story is about what I set out to do with a handful of changelings in Manehattan. You see, the suppliers were dead now, but in their records they had left behind the address of their distributor, or at least the drop off point for the crystals. So rather than leave well enough alone, and wonder whether the buyers would manage to track us down when the supply dried up, we decided to go after them proactively.
And why not hit that hornet's nest with the biggest stick we had? Ponies were notoriously cowardly push-overs in a fight, we had been through some nasty scraps ourselves, and this way only our most combat-ready forces would be exposed to danger. Plus, with the Kingsblood in our veins, we were practically invincible, right?
Beyond that, though, I felt it was the right thing to do. And it's only because of that reason I still have no regrets.
It was raining hard when we rolled into the city, something I thought seemed kind of odd, until I had it explained. In a city on Earth, such as Manhattan as an obvious example, a hard rain like this was just nature being nature, and you had to deal with it. But here in Equestria, weather was intentionally scheduled and managed by teams of pegasi, coordinating with the earth ponies and unicorns to time things in the most favorable way they can manage. So I wondered why anypony would want this much rain in a city. Surely it could be corralled over the local parks if it was just to water the plants.
It turns out, this is how they clean the sky scrapers. Every Wednesday they deluged the city with a thorough downpour to wash away all the dirt and grime from the top to the bottom, starting just after the end of the morning rush hour, and ending just in time for the evening rush hour. During the deluge, normal ponies stayed off the streets unless absolutely necessary. The notes we got about the crystal deliveries showed they always occurred on Wednesday, and now I knew why. Cheap, easy cover. At the expense of personal comfort.
The rain-slicked loading dock we pulled toward had a couple of earth ponies waiting on it for our arrival, with bandanas across their snouts which we had come to expect meant they were infected with the crystals, and would be able to draw power from them rather than having it drawn away. That made me glad our shipment was nothing but painted rocks hidden from view under a tarp. Though it also meant our cover might be blown even before they got up to inspect the cargo. Curiously, there were also a couple of unicorns lurking around on the nearby streets, their own crystal infections openly shown, glittering from their snouts and horns while their eyes, ears and backs of their heads, along with their actual backs, were hidden under dark cloaks that glittered oddly in the shifting light. They seemed really distinctive and noticeable, but the handful of ponies passing them by barely noticed them enough to divert their path a few steps, paying them no more mind than one would typically pay a random tree in the middle of the forest. But they paid a lot of mind to us.
Mirror and I had pulled the wagon the final stretch of the journey, disguised as earth ponies, while Wind Chaser was disguised as a unicorn, riding on the bench and preparing to be our 'face'. We all had bandanas on, hiding our lack of dark crystal infection. But I wasn't sure how hidden that information really was, especially as the dark cloaked unicorns closed in our location. null, meanwhile, was affixed to the bottom of the wagon, serving as a hidden reserve.
Our original plan was simple enough. We subdue or kill the couple of ponies at the loading dock and take on their forms. Changelings could actually pick up the short term memories of whoever they mimic, as long as the subject is present at the time, and that would hopefully give us enough information to move deeper and sneak up on the next layer of guards or what have you, and repeat the process as needed. That plan was already starting to go out the window with the unexpected presence of the dark cloaked unicorns.
If null stayed hidden, we were facing two to one odds. We were confident in our victory, only bothered that the inevitable noise of the fight would draw reinforcements, or possibly allow our quarry to destroy evidence or flee, letting our trail go cold. But it was too late to set up the ideal approach. It was time to deal with the cards we were dealt. So we unhitched ourselves quickly, and spread out a bit to face all comers. That was enough to get the other ponies into action: without a word, the fight was on.
I was the least familiar with magic, so I took on the two earth ponies. Predictably, one of them spun away from me when he got close, going for a double-hooved rear buck. The technique as quite familiar to me from my farming work: a powerful kick like that could knock all the fruit loose from a tree. A larger stallion like Oak Breaker could even snap a trunk if he put his full force into it. While my foe wasn't Oak Breaker's size, I knew I didn't want to be caught in that kick, and coiled back out of his reach, then lunged in during his recoil, keeping his hooves from reaching the ground and making him collapse awkwardly to the ground, a mere second before a brutal roundhouse hoof from the other pony sent me skidding across the pavement.
One thing about having the Kingsblood overclocking my mind.. sometimes I have time to see something coming, almost like it's in slow motion, analyzing every detail of the movement while I have not even the slightest prayer of doing anything about it. No matter how fast the mind is, the muscles still have their limits. And I hadn't seen that kick coming, literally or figuratively, until it was too late. I hadn't even known ponies physically could move like that.
The blow had, however, repositioned me closer to the unicorns holding Mirror at bay. Behind them in fact, though still some distance away. With a flash of green magic, I had a pair of wings at my disposal and used them to produce a sharp burst of speed toward the back of one unicorn's head, and then a sharp burst of torque to produce a roundhouse kick of my own toward the unicorn's snout.
Sadly, I was defeated by the most mundane of techniques. The earth pony that had tried to buck me shouted a warning. The other unicorn snagged me mid-flight in a field of telekinesis just moments before my kick connected, and hurled me back to my own fight. He kept my wings pinned at the sides until a pair of double-hooved bucks slammed into me from both sides at once.
I refused to black out from the immense pain, determined to keep up the fight until we won. Reality, however, overruled my veto. I collapsed into the puddle of my own blood.
Losing me was a crippling loss of morale for my changelings, but also a very practical loss as well. The extra love I had been channeling to them from the rest of the kingdom was lost, and without it they weren't able to hold their own against two unicorns each, much less two unicorns and an earth pony.
Mirror tried surrendering, but they just used it as a chance to close and start brutally beating the poor changeling until he succumbed as well.
Wind Chaser was duly discouraged from surrendering, and encouraged to start fighting dirty. She used her kingsblood to assemble electromagnetics in her forehooves and used those to rip a knife from the belt of each of the unicorns she was facing off with, then fire them off into their necks before they could realize what was going on. A quick spinning hoof before they recovered from the shock sent the embedded knives slashing across their flesh, leaving horrific, potentially deadly injuries.
And then a lightning bolt dropped her to the ground, twitching in uncontrollable spasms as her consciousness quickly faded. They had pegasi in reserve. Of course they did.
Being dead already held certain advantages for null. The dead changeling could cover himself with a layer of copper, just inside his carapace, that worked wonders for keeping lightning at bay, including the EMP shockwave that it sent out. Living bodies couldn't cope with that. The rest of us had managed a compromise, coating our bones with copper to create shielded pockets in our brains and marrow that kept all of our nanospiders from being knocked offline at once, but even that took some constant effort to counter the toxicity.
Being dead also kept him off the radar of the enemy ponies, who swept the area quickly with a life detection spell. Surely, they would only make that mistake so many times before they caught on to null's nature. But we weren't about to pass up a good opportunity. Peeking out from under the wagon, null saw that only the last unicorn bringing up the rear was looking back to check for potential reinforcements, the rest looking where they were going as they headed into the warehouse. So null rolled out between the final two ponies, quickly and as quietly as possible removed the rear guard from the ranks of the living even as he changed into the unicorn's shape, and kicked the body under the wagon while taking his cloak and dagger. It was a horrible place to hide the body, and would buy him very little time before it was uncovered. Inside the wagon, under the rocks would be better, but he couldn't move it in the few seconds before someone would look back and see him. For now, though, it was enough to get him in the door, following the other unicorns and pegasi as they dragged Wind Chaser inside.
The earth ponies, meanwhile, were loading Mirror and I into the back of another wagon, this one laden with sacks of garbage which they used to cover us. Securing themselves to the front, they took off at a modest pace, dragging their haul away from the crime scene.
Inside, the unicorns brought their captive up to another unicorn. null recognized him instantly: the same unicorn that had teleported away from the scene of the carnage under Citrus Hills. "So they did come here after all?" he asked. "Such fools. How many did they send?"
"Three, boss," one of the pegasi said. "At least two of them were changers, like you said."
"Changelings," he corrected. "You do read the newspapers, do you not?"
The pegasus shrugged. "Whatever. They grew horns in the middle of the fight, and I think one had wings for a bit. The other two we beat to a bloody pulp and threw out with the garbage. But this one's just stunned."
One of the unicorns with a bloody neck chimed in. "She had some magic tricks I haven't seen. Like telekinesis, but it wasn't, you know.. 'magic'. She could use it even while we had her horn locked down. And speaking of horns... hers is damn powerful."
"Not any longer," the leader said, placing a horn blocker ring into place on the offending appendage. And then he grabbed for the hammer and nail to hold it in place. He paused a moment, perhaps remembering Midnight Oil popping her ring off despite the nail. But that was no reason to have less precautions in place, only a reason to have more. So he hammered the nail into place, causing her unconscious body to spasm with pain until he was done. "Lock her up, but make sure to keep at least two guards on her at all times! This one deserves some of my 'extra special' attention."
"Right, boss," null agreed. As one of the uninjured unicorns, it just made sense for him to take the first watch.
After several hours, the second shift of guards came in. The injured unicorns were still being treated, so the pegasi were the ones to come in this time.
"How's the prisoner?" the mare of the pair asked.
"She's fine, but she's been pulling some bullshit tricks," the mare of the unicorn guards responded. "When he stepped away to relieve himself," she pointed toward the other unicorn with one hoof, "she tried changing herself into me to fool him when he got back. But the horn blocker ring made it obvious who was who. I'm surprised she was even able to change with it on. And now it looks like she's playing dead or some crap like that. Don't let your guard down around her for a second."
The pegasi looked in through the bars. Their prisoner was lying unconscious, bound and gagged, much more heavily restrained than they remembered her being. "Yeah, no kidding. Best not to take any chances with these change-things around."
A pair of synchronized loud clanging sounds echoed out from the room, followed by nearly synchronous dull thuds.
It was a fair distance from their bunks to the cells where they kept 'persons of interest', so it took a while for the pair of injured unicorns to make the distance. The room right before the cells separated by a secret door was their locker room, and there they found the pegasi just closing up their lockers after putting away the overalls they used for protection in their cover jobs in the warehouse.
"What were those noises we heard?" one of the newcomers asked.
"I don't know. We just got here to start our shift. What did it sound like?" the mare returned.
"Like something hitting metal, and then a thud or something? We should check on the prisoner," the other newcomer said.
The unicorns opened the secret door and headed in, the pegasi following shortly behind.
"Where are the other guards?" one of the unicorns immediately asked.
"Beats me. They should be here. Did they abandon their post?" the pegasus stallion queried.
"Check the prisoner!" the other unicorn ordered, and soon they were looking in through the bars.
"Hey, doesn't she look an awful lot like-" the unicorn didn't finish the sentence, as he was interrupted by a loud, synchronized pair of metallic clangs, followed by a pair of not quite synchronized dull thuds.
The unicorn leader poked his head into the bunk room and stared at the two injured unicorns, playing cards at their sad excuse for a table.
"Something wrong boss?" one of them asked.
"I need you two to search our hideout for the prisoner. Somehow she managed to escape, and hang all four of the other guards. I want her back! Now! Dead or alive. Don't take any more chances with her."
The two unicorns nodded while a string of profanity issued forth. But they were on their feet in seconds, getting out into the base and beginning their search.
Three hours earlier...
Wind Chaser groaned audibly as she regained consciousness. The shielding trick they had adapted, coating their bones in copper to created internal 'faraday cages' to protect their nanospiders from electromagnetic pulses, had only had limited success. But the active nanospiders were able to restore the inactive ones much faster than they could recover on their own. Still, her head was abuzz with pain, still, from the lightning bolt and the intense awareness of damage still being repaired. The copper had even melted a bit from the direct lightning strike, making the toxicity of the copper an even bigger issue as some of it had flowed off through her blood stream while the nanospiders were unable to compensate.
"You're awake? Heh. Too bad for you. Our boss is going to have fun getting information out of you, little filly," one of the unicorns said to her. The other guard, null in disguise, just rolled his eyes, waiting patiently.
The talkative guard kept going with his taunting, going on and on until null got into position and knocked him out with a sharp blow to the head. Simple and effective. null liked that. So he got started immediately on efficiently unlocking the cell, helping Wind Chaser out as she took on the downed guard's form, and then binding and gagging the unicorn tightly. Dissolving the nail in her horn, Wind Chaser was able to remove the magic suppressing ring and pass it to null, who placed it on the guard. It wasn't nailed into place, so it could still be removed, but that would have to be okay for now. They didn't have a fresh nail handy, and the rules they were bound by clearly prevented making one with their kingsblood.
Closing the door behind them, the two changelings took up the guards' positions and waited for their replacements to come. Wind Chaser was still a bit wobbly at first, but she had plenty of time to recover before the pegasi finally came. Let the shell game begin.
The two injured unicorns searched every room of the building quite thoroughly. Ridiculously thoroughly, in fact, even flipping through ledgers and file cabinets as if the missing changeling could somehow be disguised as a sheet of paper. But in the end, they too went missing. The unicorn they called 'boss' was not amused. Four guards dead, and two missing along with a half dozen of their enchanted cloaks. How hard was it to keep one unconscious changeling with a horn blocker under lock and key?!
One thing was for sure... these enemies he had acquired, this 'Itinerant King' and his pawns... he could no longer afford to take them lightly by any measure.
Mirror awoke with a pained groan, looking around blearily. At first he couldn't see anything, but eventually he shifted enough that a thin shaft of light filtered down to his eye. Looking out through it, his eyes confirmed what he nose was registered: he was in a pile of garbage, surrounded by other piles of garbage. The one small comfort was that a majority of the garbage was safely contained in bags.
He closed his eyes, seeing no value in reflecting on what was outside. And he was thankful he had gone mostly nose-blind to it during his unconsciousness. He wanted to shut off his own sense of smell entirely, but Rorrim was still too unresponsive to comply with that request at the moment, too busy rebuilding itself and its host. He focused on his own body's state, assessing his condition. First off, he had a horn and wings manifested, making him look like an alicorn. While it had been a practical choice mid-battle to be able to wield both forms of magic, it would be too attention-grabbing if he was caught that way. So he spent a moment to undo the wings, especially since they were full of fractures anyways, but kept the horn. The bone had been snapped, but the kingsblood had already repaired it, as one of the prerequisites to getting his pain level low enough to regain consciousness. Some of his other breaks had been left lower on the priority list, and some were essentially untreatable until he got himself out of this pile. His internal organs were not yet in good enough state to live without constant intervention by his kingsblood, and there were large chunks of his insides that had actually died, leaving necrotic tissue that would have to be cleared out and regrown.
On top of all that, he had a dizzying array of infections. As part of the integration process, the kingsblood had to permanently disable the body's own immune system, so when the kingsblood itself was disabled the host was open to every manner of infection. Being tossed into a pile of garbage with uncovered open wounds all over his body just ensured that it became a problem sooner rather than later.
In short, he was barely alive. Ultimately he owed his life to the copper shielding on his bones, keeping a portion of his kingsblood active in his brain and marrow when the lightning had struck nearby. Which meant, ironically, that he owed his life to the Canterlot guardpony who had nearly disabled him the first time while he was fleeing from the city and the professor who had outed him as a changeling and forced him to flee. If they hadn't learned that harsh lesson and started shielding themselves from EMP as best they could, he would simply be dead now.
Perhaps it would have been a mercy.
After another hour of healing, Mirror reached out with his senses to see what other subnets he could still reach. Wind Chaser was happy to know he was alive, but was too busy with her own machinations to spare him much thought. null was just as busy, and as cold of a reception as ever, meeting the news of Mirror's survival simply with [Acknowledged.] The King's subnet, Deus Machina, was still unresponsive, leading to concern about his welfare. Since they had hopefully been taken to the same place, Wind Chaser ordered Mirror to start searching for him as soon as possible. If the Itinerant King was dead... well, they needed to know so they could begin deciding the direction of the Kingdom from there.
More distantly, Cherry Blossom answered his calls and was much more comforting than the others. She had a number of messages for him to hear and answer, concerned inquiries from Midnight Oil and Midnight Hunter. He was pleased to hear of their concern, even if Hunter's affections made him a bit uncomfortable. The lunar pegasus stallion had been an enjoyable fling, and he would have liked the chance to develop their relationship further, but it seemed unlikely now and he worried that trying to develop something long distance would just make things harder for Hunter.
Eventually, with his everything still aching, Mirror struggled his way free of the garbage pile and began to look around. With his ears uncovered, the cacophony of the busy city began to assail his ears. And the free flowing air made the stench even harder to ignore. He scraped as much garbage off of himself as he could with his horn's magic before beginning to explore his surroundings.
The garbage pile next to his had a similar burst pattern to his own, suggesting that something somewhere around the size of a pony had emerged from that pile as well. There was a trail of blood leading away from it, making a light trench through the garbage like the pony had been dragged away rather than walking on its own four hooves. Mirror followed the trail, watching the blood quickly become less and the trench harder to follow until he found a pair of ruts on either side of the end of the drag trail. These deeper, narrower ruts extended out to the clear area of the dump up ahead. Beyond, the clear area lead to a gate in the front.
[It looks like maybe he was dragged away and loaded into a truck and driven off,] Cherry Blossom suggested.
Mirror wasn't sure what to do with that suggestion, or whether he should go back and dig in the other piles just to be sure, when he became aware of sobbing from the other side of a pile. "Won't somepony please help?!" the voice said, filled with resigned despair. The voice sounded female, but more than a little raspy as if she had been worn down by sobbing and pleading for some time. It was doubtful anypony would here her here as quiet as she was now. But she had had the good luck to catch Mirror's notice.
Mirror limped his way around the pile until he could see who was crying. It was a pegasus mare with heavy makeup streaming down her face, dressed in the skimpy bits of clothing that highlighted the erogenous zones by hiding them from view and little else. Put simply, she looked like a whore, and not an especially classy one. She looked disheveled, but not injured. However, at her hooves was a stallion who looked like he'd been treated as roughly as Mirror had. It was obvious from a glance he had broken ribs and legs, and it was much less obvious if he was even breathing.
The mare looked up at Mirror, her eyes shimmering pools of tears gathering, waiting to fall. "Please, sir! Won't you please help him?! He needs help! Save him... " her voice dropped even more quiet. "He saved me once, please save him now..."
Mirror didn't answer yet, but merely limped the last of the way to the fallen stallion. It was a massive brute of an earth pony, muscular and covered with scars. Mirror put a hoof on his neck and paused, feeling the heartbeat pulse through him, weakly. Not dead. Yet. So he did what he could. He willed a drop of his blood through a half-closed wound, letting it drop into the stallion's open mouth. "If you live through this," he said quietly to the unconscious stallion, "you owe your life to the Itinerant King. Sorry I couldn't ask first."
The pegasus looked at him strangely, almost as if seeing him for the first time as he plopped down onto his haunches, staring vacantly at the downed stallion. "What did you... are you alright? Do you need me to find a medic for you too?"
Mirror shook his head. "Do you have someplace safe we can rest... and shower? I've done what I can for your friend, but I can't promise miracles. Only the chance for one," he answered.
"Of course, of course! It's not much but.. can you move him safely?" she asked.
"I'll try," Mirror said, sighing as he struggled back to his feet. His horn lit up, and carefully lifted the limp form of the stallion, careful to keep his neck braced.
The mare's apartment was tiny, a 'studio' apartment if you were very generous. It consisted of two rooms. The first held a couch that was covered in sheets and blankets, apparently serving as her bed, and a sink, counter, stove, and refrigerator that served as a kitchen. The other room had only a toilet and shower, apparently assuming the kitchen sink was adequately close by. A low, wide chest of drawers in the middle of the room doubled as the only table. The whole thing was a hundred square-hooves at most. But it was something, and it would have to do.
Mirror washed the stallion first, straining to keep him steady in his telekinetic grip while the mare gently scrubbed him down. She laid out her only towel on the couch after drying him as best she could, and Mirror set him down there gently. That left nothing for him to dry himself with after his own shower, but he did his best with his magic. An actual drying spell would have been helpful, but he didn't know one or even where Midnight Oil could look up such a thing. As he slunk to the ground in the main room against one wall, the mare took her own shower, before requesting a similar drying. Naked, she slunk to the ground next to Mirror, watching the other stallion breath quietly on the couch.
"So what's your name, mysterious stranger?" she finally asked, while resting a hoof lightly on his inner thigh. As a changeling, Mirror could easily sense her affections toward him; gratitude, laced with hints of forced lust. She would probably try to 'reward' him physically, and he wasn't sure how to respond. At this moment he'd probably turn her down out of sheer exhaustion. His body was still struggling to recover, and probably wasn't the safest thing to be touching right now, much less having sex with.
"Mirror," he said, not bothering with a cover name for now. "What's yours.. and do you know his?"
"I'm Apple Core," she said, though she lacked any apple-based cutie mark. In fact her cutie mark, a pair of lacey panties, appeared to have washed down the drain when she showered. "And this is Breaker. 'Stone Breaker' I think he likes to go by, though the orphanage used to call him 'Bone Breaker'." His own cutie mark at least fit, a stone with a massive crack down the center.
"Don't," Mirror said as he caught her wandering hoof with his own. The strain in his voice as he fought his own instincts was obvious, though Apple Core misread the reasons. Mirror was desperately in need of some love, and the King wasn't able to transfer any at the moment. Whores were always slim pickings anyways, doing more for the body than the heart, certainly not worth risking her health over.
"I didn't mean to..." she started objecting, pulling away and behaving herself, but Mirror cut her off by changing the subject.
"How do you know him? Were you in the orphanage together? And do you know what happened to him?"
Apple Core shook her head. "No, I was part of a farm family until I got tired of the hard work and poverty and came here to try and make it big. You can see how well that worked out," she said, gesturing to the tiny apartment. "Back on the farm, my bedroom was bigger than this. But I got into some debt when I got here, and haven't been able to get out of it. I tried paying it off, but the payments kept getting bigger and the interest was out of control. I tried running but they..." she paused, refusing to voice the memories going through her head. "I wasn't always a whore you know. Breaker stepped in a few times when they got too rough with me. That's actually how I met him the first time. They made me watch while they took revenge on him for every bit of defiance I gave them. This..." she pointed at his unconscious body, "this time it wasn't about me. It often wasn't. He takes the lumps for everypony he can. Usually gives as good as he gets... until they pin him down and paying him back double for those as well. I don't even know who he was protecting this time, or if they just finally decided to be done with him."
"Who are 'they'?" Mirror asked, a bit worried for her.
"Vito Calabrese and his thugs. They're bad news.. stay as far away from them as you can. Once they get their hooks in you..." she shook her head.
Mirror just got quiet, thinking, and checking in with Cherry Blossom. He knew what the king would do if he were here. He didn't want to do it, not without a lot more backup than he currently had.
"We should get you away from them. Far away. You don't deserve this... you deserve much better," Mirror said at last.
Apple Core opened her mouth to object, but Stone Breaker cut her off, talking without bothering to sit up. "I agree. But you should give her the blood too before we go. And then, when it's settled in, ask her if she wants to run. Or fight."
My first thought when I regained consciousness was that I was in a changeling feeding pod. I was wrong, but not totally. My subnet, Deus, was able to identify the green goop I was floating in as a somewhat decayed version of the feeding pods' fluid contents, kept in a state of minimal rot by some preservative spell that had been applied a little late. It still had its normal properties, including paralysis and suppressing consciousness, but once I had healed enough Deus was able to compensate. I was still sluggish, however, and could only barely manage to open my eyes.
The goop might have been changeling in origin, but the container it was in was not. It was smooth glass, covered in a bracing mesh of some kind of metal, which explained why Deus couldn't reach any of his kin. The metal was absorbing the radio signals, making it impossible to connect to my subjects, even to let them know I was okay.
But I could at least see out, somewhat. There were a couple of unicorns in lab coats working in some kind of laboratory. The tesla coils gave it a very 'mad scientist' type of vibe, and their mane styles did nothing to dissuade the notion. For a moment I thought they were some kind of miniaturized ponies, until I realized it was just a trick of perspective; at some point I had returned to my human form, and it wasn't until I was looking at the little ponies that I noticed. I got a bit self-conscious when I realized I was a naked human, but pushed those thoughts aside. I had plenty of more important things to worry about than whether some pony scientists had a clear view of my man parts.
[Don't worry, I have a plan and it is in action,] Deus reassured me. That made me a bit nervous, since the nanospiders were not prone to such initiative normally. But as he reviewed it with me I decided it was a decent plan. Devious in its simplicity.
In accordance with the challenge I was bound by, Deus had been deconstructing any part of himself that was removed from my body. That had, understandably, frustrated the scientists. They had some kind of analysis magic that could easily detect Deus' presence: it covered everything in the room in colorful lines when used, with markings and patterns that one familiar with it could 'read' to learn all kinds of insights. But anything filled with nanospiders, such as myself, came up looking like static on a TV screen: the constantly moving, high density information created a sort of information overload that was really obvious if somewhat incomprehensible. So, naturally, they had taken samples to study in isolation. And they had promptly become denatured, the nanotech disassembling itself and leaving plain, boring blood.
While the blood of a mythical creature like a 'human' might ordinarily have been a subject of much interest, the strange static seen within was naturally the subject of the most interest. And so, naturally, they had experimented to see how they could keep it fresh enough to study. Even small samples of my flesh soon denatured themselves, but a sample of blood injected into a living earthworm had remained functional. Better yet, the subject had begun to show incredible properties! The earthworm, deemed one of my 'subordinates' by Deus, was now the size of a medium snake and had a small unicorn-like horn, while otherwise retaining its usual appearance. It clearly responded as though it had sight and hearing despite lacking obvious organs to that effect, and could levitate chalk and answer simple questions, especially mathematical ones, by writing on a chalk board.
The scientists were too enamored with their miraculous success to consider where it was going. The earthworm never did anything to suggest to them it had sapience, or any thoughts more complicated than doing tricks for treats. But in truth it was as smart as any of them and getting smarter, and it had an agenda in mind. If the scientists didn't play along, it would grow big and strong enough and break me out of the tube, and help me escape. But that was only plan B.
An earth stallion in a sharp business suit entered the room, approaching the lead scientist. "So, what do you have that's actually useful? The boss is getting tired of waiting for results."
"Shades! I didn't expect to see you here today," the lead scientist said nervously as she fidgeted. "We've actually gotten amazingly promising results experimenting with hosting the sample in a living body. As you can see here," she began, gesturing to the earthworm.
"A giant earthworm? We need super-soldiers, not garden pests! Get yourselves on the right track, or you're going to find your loans coming due, do you understand me?" he asked, throwing some beakers and test tubes on the floor to shatter in a big mess for dramatic effect.
"Yes, sir, Shades, right away! We'll, uh, we'll have a proof of concept ready by next week..." the scientist offered hastily.
"You'll have a working prototype by tomorrow or we'll find someone who can get real results. Understood?!" the stallion insisted.
The scientist nodded vigorously, until he was satisfied enough to walk away and leave them to their work again. The other scientist came up behind her, levitating a broom and dustpan to start cleaning up the gratuitous mess. "Good thing we started laying out those decoy chemicals for him to smash up, right? Still, how are we going to get anything ready by tomorrow? That's insane. We're not ready for pony trials yet. Where would we even get a volunteer we can trust with this kind of secret?"
The lead scientist sighed, as she slipped right into Deus' plan. "You know where, Miss Beaker. The only question is... will it be you or me?"
"You can't! What if it's deadly to ponies? Or instead of making you smarter, it makes you as dumb as Wormy? No offense, Wormy, you're a really smart earthworm," Bubbling Beaker quickly corrected. 'Wormy' didn't respond, as he generally didn't to such social stimuli. Wormy was hard to offend. "It's too much of a risk... no! I'll do it, then you can measure what happens. If I do end up like Wormy... you'll take care of me, right Miss Burner?"
Bunsen Burner shook her head, tearing up a bit at her friend's loyalty. "I don't know if I could stand to just watch you pass, or lose your mind. I'd rather it was me that had to suffer through it if something bad does happen."
"I feel the same way! And what about if it works?! Do you think they'll just leave us alone? They're going to make us prove that it makes us better fighters, and how else to do that but make us fight? And if we are really successful, they'll just make us fight for them! Oh, Wormy, what should we do?!" Bubbling Beaker cried, hugging the earthworm in her telekinetic grasp.
The earthworm then lifted the chalk in its own telekinetic grasp, and started writing.
Take the blood By taking the blood you agree to lifelong loyalty to the Itinerant King and his designated intermediaries, including but not limited to following all direct and standing orders, particularly those pertaining to the use and distribution of the 'kingsblood'(tm) nanotechnological enhancement substance. Then fight back and free yourselves!
"Wormy! You are a genius!" Bubbling declared.
"Umm, what's that tiny squiggly bit in the middle there?" Bunsen wondered.
"I don't know. Looks like Legalese. I didn't know you spoke Legalese, Wormy! See, he really is a genius!" Bubbling answered.
Bunsen Burner sighed. "I'd worry we might regret this, but I think we should both take the blood. Then whatever happens, we're in it together. Agreed?" she asked as she started hooking up the tube to extract a bit of my blood and inject it directly into herself.
"Way ahead of you," Bubbling Beaker said as she grab a second set of equipment.
"Umm, there's only one access port on the tank, you'll have to wait your turn," Bunsen said.
"Nuh uh. I'm going to extract it from Wormy to see if there's any degradation of the effectiveness by being part of an earthworm for most of a day," Bubbling countered. "SCIENCE!" she yelled, cutting off Bunsen's attempt to argue.
They assumed, incorrectly, that they would need a sample proportionate in size to the creature being affected. While it was unnecessary, it did speed things up. After an hour of taking notes on the changes happening to them, the fever overtook them and they collapsed into each other's embrace. Wormy took the opportunity to lock and bar the door, and drain and unlock my tube.
Bunsen Burner found herself in a bizarre space. I would describe it as 'the Matrix', but her society lacked the cultural reference point. To her it was simply a black void interlaced with constantly shifting streams of green symbols. The symbols, what she saw of them, were all familiar: letters, digits, and so forth. But they changed constantly and without observable pattern. At least she wasn't alone in here. She saw Bubbling Beaker nearby, with Wormy wrapped loosely around her neck, talking to an unfamiliar yellow pegasus stallion, with an upside down compass rose on his flank. He wore an odd circlet made of copper wire, bone fragments and wild flower stems woven together, and cocked a bit at an angle, as if to not take himself too seriously.
"Umm.. hello?" Bunsen offered timidly, as she approached us. We all turned to her, and as I looked at her, I imparted the recognition of who I was into her mind. Both that I was the human who had been in the tank, and that I was the Itinerant King, to whom she was now bound. In that instant she not only knew, but knew that I knew, and that she knew because I willed her to know. "Are you a god?" she asked.
I laughed a bit, shaking my head. "Some call me a king, but some would scoff even at that much. I am.. someone who was granted one wish, and wished for more wishes. And I was lucky enough to phrase it in a way that I got what I asked for, and enough troubles to ensure it never seemed like enough. And you are Bunsen Burner, Bubbling Beaker's friend and colleague. It's a pleasure to meet you properly, or close enough. I owe you my thanks and an apology."
Bubbling waved her closer, grinning happily, "come on, he won't bite, I promise, even though you were right about those pointy teeth." That made her even more nervous until I smiled widely, letting her see that at least my disguise had nothing but flat, herbivorous, pony teeth.
"So, umm... what did you want to thank us for? And apologize for?" her shamed look showed she felt like she owed me an apology.
"I want to thank you for giving me a safe place to recover after my injuries. The, uh, faraday cage was a bit of a problem, as it left my other subjects worrying about me, but other than that. Clever use of the changelings' feeding pods. Perhaps when we are able to set you up in a new lab you'll be able to make even better use of fresh fluids. Though I can't promise that will be soon," I answered the first part.
"Oh! Well, umm, you don't mind that we had you basically locked up and sedated to experiment on you then?" she asked.
"I don't have time to hold a grudge for such a thing, especially since on net you've profited me. Though that brings me to my apology. I need to apologize for Wormy, working on my behalf even if not entirely under my direction, used deception to get you to agree to terms you might not have agreed to otherwise," I pointed out.
"What do you-" her mind was suddenly aware of the fine print on Wormy's directions, and all of their implications. She dropped to her haunches, sitting suddenly. After a few seconds though, she shook her head. "It's okay. I've signed worse contracts. Speaking of which, I imagine you're going to help us out of the last one?" she asked. She was about to begin explaining, but realized she didn't have to.
Her memories streamed past us quickly, along with Bubbling's, mostly in sync with one another, though Bubbling's memories of the events lacked several of the scenes. We watched the two science ponies floundering financially, with very little funding and very expensive materials needed for their investigations. We watched funding grant application after application denied, while the few that were approved were neither lucrative nor especially interesting. But they didn't give up, and finally Shady Bough had approached them, with offers of funding beyond their wildest dreams, and truly interesting research projects. And sure enough.. their now well funded research quickly began to outstrip the boundaries that legal channels had tried to bind them to. The last several months had focused around applications of changeling biology from the dredges they had been able to acquire: changeling corpses and body parts, abandoned feeding pods, occupied and otherwise, and so forth.
It had all been very exciting work, but it had a habit of testing their commitment to morality, and finding them on the wrong side of most ethical questions, whether they wanted to be or not. Their funding had apparently all been a 'loan', with useful inventions their only form of repayment that would be accepted, and the precise bit value never to be mentioned. They had had other colleagues along the way, and when results were not forthcoming they soon had fewer colleagues. The exact fate of those ponies was left to the imagination, but darker assumptions were generally encouraged by 'Shades', and the few muscular individuals that came with him on occasion.
I closed my eyes and considered for a bit once the stream of memories had passed. "The question I have for you, then, is do you want to be bold or cowardly? We can slip away, get away from here. With the kingsblood in you now, we can easily change your fur and mane colors, give you new false cutie marks and disappear from Manehattan. Getting you a new laboratory will be a harder matter, and it may never be as impressive as this one, but I doubt Shades and his associates will be able to find you, and if they do... they'll have more on their hands than they can handle."
Bubbling looked to Bunsen, obviously planning to support whatever choice she made, as was her usual way. She was bright, cheerful, and 'bubbly' but never one to make serious choices for herself if she could help it. Bunsen steeled herself and looked me in the eyes. "So, what's the bold option?"
"We give them what they want. One super-soldier, ready to go. Namely, me. We play along long enough to find out who's backing him, what their agenda is, and why they want super-soldiers. Perhaps along the way we pick up some more inductees. And then..." in the dream-space I manifested a wicked looking scythe, making a slashing gesture that left the blade bloody even though it hadn't hit anything. "There won't be anyone trying to collect your 'debt'."
"Trust a predator to find such a violent solution... though, I doubt the ponies seeking 'super-soldiers' are out for any more peaceful of aims. So... you'd really do all that for us though? I mean, if we flee I'm sure you'll get away free even if we get caught, but if we go with your plan... you'll be in as much danger as we are, if not more. I thought we're suppose to be your slaves now, not the other way around," she said.
"Subjects, not slaves. And protecting his subjects is a key part of what a good king does. I'll let you make this choice, but make it quickly. Our window of opportunity to escape is getting slimmer as we speak, and either plan requires us to start preparing before Shades comes back."
Bunsen Burner silently wished she were a bravery pony, and her eyes opened wide in surprise as she felt her kingsblood melting her fears away, removing them from her very thought processes. Her eyes focused on mine once again, fears cast aside in favor of determination. "Fortune favors the bold. Besides, you could use a few more super-soldiers in your camp."
I nodded. "And super-scientists."
"And super-earthworms!" Bubbling added.
Their fevers breaking, it was time to wake up and get to work.
Not needing to sleep meant that null and Wind Chaser didn't need to find a place to hole up to lay low. They could simply be adrift, changing their appearance when no one was looking and meandering about town, reconnoitering. After their murderous getaway, they weren't eager to slip back in to deal with the black crystal users. Security would be too tight, risks too great, and there wasn't an objective in mind to pursue.
They had tried checking out the dumps, but by the time they got there, I was gone and Mirror's situation was stable. So they searched for whatever vehicle might have taken me away, hoping for some sign, like a bloody bumper, that would give it away.
They spotted a bloodied bumper in a back alley, at the same moment they spotted two pairs of ponies, talking in front of that rear bumper. They kept walking out of sight, pretending not to have noticed. Wind Chaser loitered nearby, looking bored, while null looped around, managing to squirm his way under the truck unnoticed. He was getting quite experienced at sneaking under undercarriages.
The ponies nearest the truck were a small but confident looking earth pony stallion, and a twitchy looking pegasus mare, probably a lookout. The others were a couple of unicorns, looking generally nervous about the whole thing. The others were clearly adults, but the unicorns looked young, like adolescents. One didn't even have her cutie mark yet.
"You're sure this will work?" the blank flank asked. "It'll give me the confidence to go up there on stage?"
"Stage fright? Pfft. No problem. With just a snort of this powder, you'll be ready for facing off with dragons! Here, you can have a free sample, but only one. Don't waste it," the earth pony claimed, offering a small packet of something.
null was close enough to hear, but he couldn't see much from his position, and getting a clear view risked being clearly in view. They weren't sure if this drug deal had anything to do with them, but there weren't that many trucks in Manehattan, or Equestria in general, and there was a bloody bumper. So null affixed himself to the bottom of the truck, committing to find out where it went.
The drug deal concluded fairly quickly, as this time it was just a free sample, to get the buyers hooked. That meant whatever it was was probably highly addictive, on top of its desirable properties. The unicorns left the alley, walking right past Wind Chaser without paying her any mind. The changeling was in the form of a unicorn as they passed, and quickly slipped open their saddlebags and floated the packet into her own hoof without alerting them.
Meanwhile, the engine roared to life, and the truck made its way off, its driver oblivious to the dead changeling affixed to the undercarriage. They stopped several more times in various alleys, making similar deals before heading for a warehouse down by the docks. null quietly traced their movements, patiently listening in on each deal with the boredom-proof patience of a machine.
Opening the packet, once she was clear, Wind Chaser realized what they were peddling instantly. The dark crystals from the mines, ground up, perhaps enchanted in some way. A single snort would remove fears temporarily? A larger dose, or repeated exposure was probably what caused the crystal growths on our adversaries' snouts, and the ability to instill fear in others. Their fearlessness helped make them dangerous, but also foalish. And now they were trying to give it to others, more or less at random? But why? Was it just for the bits? Some kind of recruitment?
We didn't have answers yet, but we did have a spy in their warehouse now. And as we listened in, somepony else found their warehouse as well. "I found you! I need more. Give me another hit! I've given you more than enough already, give me what I need!" The pony sounded desperate, at a guess he was suffering some form of withdrawal symptoms.
"I told you already, no bits no powder. Come back when you have the bits," one of the other ponies replied.
"If you won't give it to me... I'll just have to take it from you!" the pony replied before a brief altercation. Moments later, the pony's head was on the ground, staring right at null with disturbingly dilated pupils until they jerked about randomly, not seeming to focus on any given thing for long.
"Brave enough to attack us, huh? Little shit!" several harsh kicks rang out with the sound of snapping bone. "Maybe the boss will have a use for you after all. Drop him in the pit, boys!"
null watched the pony dragged off into the interior, quickly losing sight of him. When the ponies were out of view, he checked quickly, finding himself free of observers and quickly moved from the undercarriage into the warehouse, moving from hiding place to hiding place as silently as he could.
null was able to catch up to the ponies while hiding atop a high shelf, watching as they got their new victim to 'the pit'. It was a hole in the ground, perhaps ten feet deep, but considerably wider, covered by a metal grate with a single locked portion in the middle that could be opened.
"Guess what time it is?" the shorter drug dealer asked, as he got over the grating. "That's right! It's promotion time. We got a newcomer going in, so one of you can come out and start training as one of our soldiers. All you got to do is beat everypony else down there into unconsciousness. Last pony standing 'wins'. We got plenty of powdered courage for our soldiers, and good food too. So? Who wants to train?"
The fighting that broke out was brutal. The few ponies who hoped to simply stay locked up rather than fight for the dubious honor were left alone until only one real fighter was left, who then pummeled them into unconsciousness quickly. And as promised, the winner was lifted out of the pit, while the newcomer was dropped into place roughly. So this was their game then... recruit addicts as some kind of soldiers? null followed after them, hoping to take the new recruit's place and find out what all they were up to.
He explored a bit, but the narrow corridors they had gone into left no cover for sneaking, and it made it too risky. Conferring with the others mentally, he came up with a suitable plan though. The opening to the pit latched shut, but didn't have a proper lock. So he opened it as quietly as he could, descended into the pit in the guise of a pegasus, grabbed one of the unconscious earth ponies and carried him out. He dragged the pony out to the street, where Wind Chaser was able to take him away to the nearest hospital, then dropped back into the pit, pulling it closed behind him and magnetically pulling the latch back shut. Then he dropped to the ground, disguised himself as the earth pony and collapsed onto the ground, feigning unconsciousness.
Taking what little was worth carrying, the former whore Apple Core relinquished her apartment, returning the key to the landlady. [It's official now. I'm an Itinerant] she thought to the others waiting outside, before stepping out to join them. Stone Breaker was already disguised, his kingsblood filling his fur with dye from the inside and changing his colors and cutie mark to mask his identity, while Mirror used his changeling magic to similar end with a unicorn disguise, but Apple Core had needed her own colors to make this final transaction, as a courtesy to her landlady, before leaving.
They had intended to correct that oversight shortly, using a convenient hiding place like a public restroom stall to get her out of view long enough to exude her own dye, but they were set upon surprisingly fast. A trio of large earth pony stallions, easily a match for Stone Breaker in size, approached them, led by a smaller unicorn mare whose mean streak Stone Breaker and Apple Core were well acquainted with.
"Going somewhere, sweetheart?" the unicorn asked. "I don't recall you paying off your debts just yet. Do you need a little... reminder, of just how much you owe?"
There was no way they were here this soon by coincidence. The landlady must have tipped them off during the paperwork, somehow.
"Leave her alone, she doesn't owe you anything," Stone Breaker, a bit surprised himself to hear that his kingsblood had subtly changed the pitch of his voice, deepening it just enough to avoid being recognized.
"What's this? You've already found another poor sap to 'protect' you? Listen here, boy," the unicorn said, her magic grabbing Stone Breaker by the neck and dragging him down face to face with her. "Run back to mommy, while you still have legs to run on. This is the only warning you're going to get."
A loud snap rang out, following by a horrifying scream of pain. As the large earth ponies looked, they saw Mirror's forehoof withdraw from the unicorn's horn where dozens of cracks spread out from the point of impact like a spider web. The fight thusly joined, one of the stallions turned quickly, aiming a doublehooved buck at Stone Breaker's face. The stallion, with well honed combat experience now aided by the kingsblood's abilities to improve his reaction speed, caught both hooves with his own forehooves. Holding them off the ground and forcing them apart, he made himself an opening and leaned in, quickly turning the opposing stallion into a gelding with a ruthless bite.
Seeing the blood on the unicorn's horn and Stone Breaker's muzzle, the other two stallions instantly lost the will to fight, turning to flee instead at a full gallop, leaving their injured comrades to the tender mercies of Apple Core's new friends. The two defeated ponies looked up fearfully at the ponies standing over them from where they had collapsed to the ground, holding their respective injuries defensively as they cried from pain.
"Come on. Let's get them to the hospital," Stone Breaker said to Mirror, a resigned look on his face.
At that, the adjustment to his voice was no longer enough to avoid recognition. "Stone Breaker?!" the unicorn mare accused. "How? We killed you! I saw the body."
"Yeah, yeah, you killed me, Crimson Flare. Lucky for you, it's not worth it to me to kill you back," replied, not bothering to disguise his voice anymore. He lifted the unicorn onto Mirror's back, before dragging the sobbing gelding onto his own.
"You might as well have! Do you think the boss will just forgive an embarrassing failure like this? Even if they can restore my horn? And what if they can't?! At least we would have the mercy to finish somepony off..." Crimson whined.
"I'm with Crimson on this one," Apple Core offered. "Or can we at least just drop them and get out of here? They don't deserve this kind of help."
Mirror took a moment to wipe the blood off of Stone Breaker's face with her magic, lest it be too obvious where the injuries came from. "Well we do have another form of help we could give," she offered, confirming mentally what she was referring to.
"NO!" Stone Breaker objected. "Don't even joke about that! They get a free trip to the hospital, and that's it!"
"What are you going on about?" Crimson asked, barely keeping in the conversation, pushing through the pain. "Spill it. You have some kind of... miracle cure, don't you? It's how Stone Breaker is walking around after what they did to him."
"Our boss does. Only for those who swear loyalty to him, though. And if you think your boss is rough on those who turn away from him, our boss has ways you don't even want to imagine to ensure that those oaths are upheld," Mirror explained, vaguely.
Crimson thought about it a moment, and then just sighed, slumping on Mirror's back in defeat. "Forget it then. I ain't getting caught between two bosses."
With that, it was settled. The rest of the walk to the hospital was wordless, if not exactly silent. The Itinerants left the injured in the emergency room without explanation, their injuries plenty obvious for the staff to identify. In a nearby shopping center, they slipped into the public restrooms separately, and emerged later with new coloration, only to reunite a few blocks away.
Apple Core thought to the others over their link. [It's great that we got away unharmed and all, really it is, but someone should do something about them. Something a bit more lasting than running away, and a bit more impactful than just hospitalizing a couple of mooks,] Apple Core mused. [And by someone, I mean you two, because who else would even be willing to try?]
[What did you have in mind?] Mirror questioned, a bit surprised at her forwardness. He had assumed she would be all for running as quickly as possible, but something seemed to have shifted in her outlook.
Apple Core started walking, leading the others through the city. [Well, Vito Calabrese has a lot of money, right? All of it ill gotten. Most of it, anyways. But what if he didn't? Would his thugs keep working for him? Or for that matter, the staff at his cover businesses? And without the thugs, how long would he be able to control those he bullies into submission?]
[You're thinking of robbing the mob?] Stone breaker asked. [I wouldn't have taken you to be so brazen. You feeling alright Apple?]
[Never better! Maybe it's just the rush... seeing you guys win like that. You made it look easy! And maybe it really was? We've got these great new powers, and we can heal back from practically anything! We can't just let it all go to waste, hiding from everypony. We should put our new strengths to good use. For justice!] the mare exclaimed, a grin appearing on her face.
A cough from somepony standing in a nearby alley as she passed caused Apple Core to jump away, pulling up into a haphazard fighting stance before she realized it was nothing, and mumbled an apology to the startled bystander. There was silence in their link for a minute as the mood of her declaration was ruined.
[Back alley ambushes aside, you seem almost like a new pony, Apple Core. It's... good to see. But I don't think we should rush headlong into something like this. I'm all for paying Vito Calabrese back tenfold, but this isn't something we can do hastily. We need to do some scouting first, make sure we know what we're doing. And some training wouldn't be a waste of time. Your stance was quite sloppy just now. And all things considered, I'd prefer you keep a distance in a fight,] Stone Breaker said, breaking the silence.
[Lightning's no good, at least not if there's friendlies anywhere near your target. I learned the hard way how it messes with the kingsblood, even if it doesn't hit directly,] Mirror pointed out. [We should get you some kind of ranged weapon... with our magnetic abilities, some throwing knives could work great.]
[And a new name!] Apple Core interjected. [Something braver. Dashing!] She flapped her wings a few times as she thought. [I know. Call me Sky Ranger!]
[I'll call you that when you've shown me you earned it,] Stone Breaker replied with a playful grin.
[Alright. Let's make this happen!] the newly renamed Sky Ranger proclaimed.
They started by getting themselves a table and eating a nice meal, as they cased one of the restaurants Vito used to launder his money.
When Shady Bough returned to the lab the next day, I was properly disguised again as a pegasus, though I went for a red and black color scheme, and a sword breaking through a shield as my faked cutie mark. Shady looked at me in surprise a moment, before turning to Bunsen Burner. "This the test subject?" he queried.
"Yes, of course," the science mare confirmed, nodding nervously. "Did you want to see what he can do?"
"Yes, but not here," Shady said, taking a moment to eye the modified changeling pod I had been in when he saw me last. It was cloudy now, with a vague shape floating within, a decoy that proved enough for his scrutiny. "Come with me, all three of you. We have a meeting to get to. "
There were two other earth ponies flanking him when he arrived. The mare fell into step beside him as he lead the way out of the building, while the stallion held back long enough to fall in beside us. "You'd best be ready for a fight," he said to me, looking me over. It was clear he wasn't impressed by what he saw.
"I can take on anything," I boasted, flexing my wings and grinning fiercely. They still weren't impressed, but they didn't stop us from coming along.
Shady muttered to the mare beside him, however, likely thinking we couldn't hear him. "I can't believe we're presenting these dregs. Oh well. Too late now. Hopefully the boss is content to take out his wrath on them and not us."
While that wasn't encouraging, we had a fair idea what we were getting into when we decided on the 'bold' plan. I was actually more concerned with whether we would be pressed to harm an innocent during our demonstration than whether we ourselves would be hurt. We still didn't know anything about this 'boss', but we were going to find out.
"Do you have any more of that science stuff?" Shady asked. "We need more than just a pegasus to represent us. One of each tribe," he said, looking pointedly at Bunsen Burner.
"I'll do it!" Bubbling Beaker said, jumping in between Shady and Bunsen. "I had one of the test samples too," she admitted.
"I thought as much. Give Cracked Whip a dose too," Shady ordered, pointing to the mare.
"A standard dose takes about a full day to take effect, and can be crippling until then. Do we have time for that?" Bunsen countered.
"We have an hour," Shady said. "So give her a massive dose. If it doesn't work, we're dead anyways."
"Oh, can Wormy be our earth pony instead?" Bubbling asked, holding up the massive earthworm. "Earth worm, earth pony, close enough?"
The earth pony stallions were duly insulted, while Cracked looked uncertain, trying to decide between joining her tribesponies in being offended, or supporting the idea that could keep her from taking an extra large dose of an under tested drug.
"That will be our plan B," Shady suggested. "Now dose her up."
Bunsen sighed. "Alright, give me a second," she said, turning away and letting her labcoat obscure what she was doing, as she filled a large syringe with a concentrated dose of the fractal spiders, drawn from her own blood. "Do I have your consent to take this drug, with all of its implications and side effects?" she asked the mare.
"What do you care?" Cracked snapped back.
"This drug can have very serious, potentially undiscovered side effects, including but not limited to increased appetite, unusual vulnerabilities, weight gain, and mental changes," Bunsen said. "If you don't agree to the risks, you can't have it."
"If you don't take it, you'll risk my wrath," Shady said.
"Why don't you take it instead?" I asked Shady.
Cracked spoke up before Shady and I could come to blows. "I'll take it, risks and all. Gimme."
The syringe quickly emptied, before we continued our little trek. Fortunately, we were getting into a van I had to pretend not to recognize. So we didn't have to carry the unconscious mare for very long.
"Where am I?" Cracked Whip asked as she found herself in a field of grass and flowers that seemed to stretch on infinitely in all directions. It was impossible. Even if she had been abducted and carried to the largest, flattest plain in the world, there would be mountains visible in the distance.
"Welcome to Elysium," a filly said, having appeared soundlessly before the large mare while Cracked was looking behind her.
"Is this some kind of dream?" Cracked guessed. "Or what?"
"We call it the 'fever dream'. When you have ingested the Kingsblood, your body naturally becomes feverish in an attempt to fight back against the unknown, causing you to lose consciousness until the Kingsblood is fully integrated. Meanwhile, this gives us a chance to meet you. Hello, and welcome to the Itinerant Kingdom. I am Nightmare Core. Nice to meet you, Cracked Whip," the filly explained.
There was a bit of awkward silence as Cracked reeled a moment, trying to figure out just what was going on, then reeled harder from the new and unexpected feed of information directly into her mind, answering her questions while flooding it with new ones. Nightmare Core stood passively and patiently, her mind occupied with plenty of other matters that simply standing here in a field with the new recruit was no bother to her. For one, she was calculating the sway of each individual blade of grass in a simulated wind to project into Cracked's mind to maintain this facade.
"No!" Cracked said, gritting her teeth.
"No?" Nightmare questioned, pretending to need to. She already knew, but wanted Cracked to talk through it.
"You can't just steal my loyalties like this! I'm a part of the Revolution. You can't just claim me for your own group and force me to help destroy the Revolution from within like that!" Cracked objected.
"You did give your consent for any side effects, including mental changes," Nightmare Core replied. "However, there are still two alternatives available to you."
"And just what are those?" Cracked asked, half relieved that the presence in her mind chose not to simply dump the knowledge into her again.
"You can choose to reject the Kingsblood now, and have it denature itself immediately, while taking all of your memories from the fever dream with it. You'll awaken shortly, weakened and vulnerable, but you'll be your own mare again. Or you can choose to die. You will simply never awaken, and the sciencemares will call it an overdose," Nightmare offered.
"Those are basically the same choice," Cracked groused. "If not this, then Shady Boughs. If not Shady, the boss."
"What was your Revolution going to accomplish that was worth working for such a bloodthirsty organization?" Nightmare questioned.
"We're going to dethrone the princesses and welcome the black king back into power, then live our days as part of the new ruling caste," Cracked claimed. "When the power shifts, you'll regret being on the wrong side of the king."
"Well, now you have a new king," Nightmare offered. "One who treats his subjects much better."
Cracked grumbled more, slowly coming to accept her fate. "Alright... just who and where is this new king?"
The mare before me slowly opened her eyes, looked up at me from where she had been laid in the back of the van, and swore loudly.
Breakfast in the pit was a sad, pathetic affair. Discarded scraps of hayfries and other foods were poured into the grate above, raining into the middle of the chamber below, where hungry ponies fought each other tooth and hoof for. null sat back and watched passively, not bothering to move, until the frenzy died down with the disappearance of the last of the pathetic morsels.
Fed as much as they would be, the ponies settled back, a bit more alert for the calories and exercise, but bored now with nothing to pay attention to.
"I am going to win the next promotion battle," null stated, without inflection. He didn't shout, but it was loud enough for everypony in the small place to hear clearly, without question.
"What did you say?" one of the pegasi asked accusingly. He had done well in the last match, but ultimately failed. And he had done well at the contest over breakfast as well.
"I am going to win the next promotion battle," null repeated exactly.
One of the unicorns shook his head quietly, while the angry pegasus charged the disguised, dead changeling. null sidestepped easily, spinning around to land a kick on the pegasus' back as he passed, adding to his momentum and bouncing him off a wall painfully before a second, downward kick redirected him into the floor. Winded, the pegasus lay still for the moment, recovering.
"After my victory, the Itinerant King and his followers will rescue all who are in this pit and set you free. I recommend using that opportunity to join the Itinerant Kingdom. If you chose not to, I recommend leaving Manehattan," null explained without emotion.
"Why do you want to win so much?" a unicorn mare asked. "Why become one of their soldiers?"
"Then I will know the location of their soldiers," null explained.
There was silence for a moment.
"You're full of it," the downed pegasus accused, climbing to his hooves. "Just trying to throw us off our game with some stupid mind games."
"I am going to win the next promotion battle," null repeated. "If you fight hard, you may increase the length and degree of your suffering." After a moment he added, "perhaps if you do not, your pride will suffer." A shrug would have been very appropriate at that moment, but was not forthcoming.
"There's something off about him," a pegasus mare pointed out. "Like some kind of zombie or golem or something."
"Obviously," the unicorn stallion agreed. "Have any of you heard of this 'Itinerant King' he mentioned."
"Only some legend among the farmfolk," an earth pony mare pointed out. "Supposedly he rescues seasonal workers from, well, things like this." She gestured broadly. "Never heard of him doing any good for city folk though. Anypony's guess if he's even real."
Several ponies looked to null expectantly, but he merely stood there passively, blinking every 15 seconds exactly, but otherwise motionless.
"You can fight the golem if you want," the unicorn stallion said to the beaten pegasus. "It'll make his victory more convincing for our captors."
When lunch came, the struggle for food was a lot tamer than usual, with everypony glancing at the 'golem' before taking their share of the slop. A few squabbles left some with a bit more or less, but they weren't wasting their energy fighting over it anymore. A little hope had gone a long way.
"I'm going to win," the pegasus stallion pointed out, with more bravado than confidence. null looked at him blankly, while everypony else ignored him, causing him to slink off to a corner and glower angrily.
The earth pony mare sidled up to null's side. "Are you really with the Itinerant King?" she asked him quietly.
null nodded, and they sat in silence a moment. "I'm going to join him too then," she said after a moment.
"You don't know anything about him. He could be just as bad," the unicorn mare pointed out.
"He couldn't be, or he wouldn't have sent somepony to rescue us," the earth pony countered.
"That still remains to be proven," said the unicorn stallion. "Why not simply rescue us all now?"
The murmured among themselves in uncertainly, while null stood by.
"So here's the choice," Wind Chaser said to the unicorn mare she had pinned down, hoof painfully pressed against her horn to keep her from using it. "You can join us, do whatever my King says, and enjoy all the benefits and downsides of living the Itinerant lifestyle. Or you can sit here and deal with the withdrawal symptoms from your stupid mistake all on your own."
"That's... that's it? I thought you were going to kill me or something," the mare said worriedly. "But can't I have a little more first?"
"NO! Bad mare," the hoofstrike hammered the point home without any lasting damage. "If you do join, we have ways to mitigate the effects, but they're not something we can share with outsiders. So... your choice?"
"Buck you. I don't need to join your little club," the unicorn relied.
"That's fine. Just stay here for now then, okay?" Wind replied, before a flash of green fire revealed her true form. The mare beneath her squeaked out in surprised and a bit of disgust, but no fear. She was quite uncomfortable with the process and Wind exuded a sticky slime onto each of her ankles, pinning her to her own bed, however.
"Why are you even doing this? What are you going to do?" she demanded.
"'You' are going to go rescue some ponies your drug dealers have foalnapped," Wind answered as she assumed the unicorn's likeness, cutie mark and all. She even copied the little black flecks of crystal growing from her snout.
"They'll kill me," the true unicorn alleged, still with no fear. She did make a modest try at freeing herself from her bonds.
"Maybe, but if all goes well they'll already be dead," Wind pointed out before pausing. She sighed deeply. "When did that start seeming okay?... we have got to stop getting involved in such dark dealings."
"So you're just going to leave me here?" the stuck mare asked.
"The goo will get more brittle as it dries, you can break yourself out eventually," Wind said dismissively as she walked away.
Wind Chaser stormed into the warehouse, stomping her way straight toward the two bored looking guards within. "More. Give me more, now," she demanded, seething in her unicorn role. Her horn glowed with power in warning.
"Oh, ho, ho. I didn't think this one would be ripe just yet, but here she is," said an earth pony mare. "Did you bring your bits, honey?"
"Don't 'honey' me," Wind Chaser demanded. "I'm not afraid of you. Give me what I want, or I'll make you fear me."
Painful as it was, Wind Chaser soon got what she wanted. [I really need to find a new path in life, one that doesn't keep me seeking out savage beatings. At least nopony tried to rape me this time.]
"Hey, down there. Guess what time it is? Promotion time! Now who wants to get out of that hole and make room for the newcomer?" the mare asked, tauntingly.
The pegasus in the pit quickly tried to scramble to his hooves, but found his chin struck before he could finish righting himself, the force of null's blow knocking his forehead into the wall. He was down in moments, before the fight could really get started. The rest of the fight was just for show, the other ponies making like they were fighting while really looking for an excuse to play dead. The guards above groused a bit at the lack of brutality of it, but dutifully recovered null from the pit before shoving Wind Chaser in.
"Oof, this one's heavy," one of the guards complained. "We obviously fed you lot too much," he joked.
"Congratulations on the promotion!" another said, slapping null on the withers. "Come on, let me show you to your new, much better life!"
"The Itinerant King is going to save us," the earth pony mare told the newcomer.
Wind Chaser smiled at her a moment, before a moment of sadness washed over her, remembering the fate of a previous pony who had made such claims, before smiling again. "That's what I'm here for. You said you were interesting in joining?"
"How did you? You? But you're a mare," the pony objected, confused.
"Never said I was the king," Wind Chaser pointed out. "You can't expect the king to perform every rescue in person, can you? He has subjects for that. Anypony here wants to become one... well, just stick around after we get out of here, and I'll help you through the process. But first..."
A wave of green fire revealed the changeling for what she was momentarily, before she took on the guise of a pegasus herself. Taking flight, she got up to the door in the grating above and flipped upside down, magnetically adhering herself in place while she touched a hoof to the lock and closed her eyes, focusing.
"Was that a changeling?" the unicorn mare questioned.
"This itinerant king has quite the cast of characters working for him," the unicorn stallion concluded. "One wonders if he even has a use for ordinary ponies."
"In this life, ponies don't stay 'ordinary' all that long," Wind Chaser pointed out, as she swung open the grate door.
"I thought the Itinerant King was the mortal enemy of changelings," the earth pony mare pointed out.
"Only the bad ones," Wind Chaser explained. "And only if they stay that way. Those who are willing to risk their lives to save the innocent are always welcome to join. Especially those whose lives are, shall we say, in need of repair." She reached a hoof down and nopony had to wonder what she meant. The earth pony mare raised a hoof to meet her and was soon flipped up onto the top of the grating.
"What about him?" asked a pegasus mare, pointing out the truly unconscious pegasus stallion.
"Pass him up," Wind Chaser pointed out, dangling impossibly from her hind hooves. "He's getting out too. Stubborn males get rescued too."
Half the pit had been emptied when the sound of tires squeeling alerted them to an oncoming truck. The drug dealers, seeing what was going on as they returned to the warehouse, decided to use the vehicle as a projectile.
"Get the others out fast!" Wind Chaser demanded, and a pegasus dove back for another pony, while unicorn horns lifted others through the hole. Wind Chaser herself drew heavily on everything the kingdom had to offer, quickly doing her best dragon impersonation. Seeing what they were going to crash into, the drug dealers slammed on the gas pedal, hoping to get even more speed and force to strike the enlarged changeling. But she had no intention of being hit. Claws dug into the edges of the grate over the pit and she pulled it up quickly, just before the truck could reach.
They had no time to change course or brake, as the truck fell ten feet into the pit below, quickly exploding in true cinematic flair and removing all question of the drivers' fate.
Wind Chaser reverted to her true form, spent and panting, with blood using from multiple shrapnel wounds where her fake dragon scales had failed to live up to the reputation of the real thing. The earth pony mare tossed the bleeding changeling onto her back, then found a blanket the guards had used to toss over her and hide her from view.
"Come on," the earth pony mare said. "We're free."
[Alright, so what's the plan?] Apple Core asked her partners in crime mentally, while she placed an order for some pasta.
Stone Breaker and Mirror observed their surroundings subtly while waiting their turn to order. Looking in opposite directions due to their seating, the ability to transfer visual information between them gave all three a great view of the entire restaurant at once. [Those two,] Stone Breaker said, indicating a couple of larger stallions in a booth. [They work for Calabrese, hired muscle.]
"Eat quickly," one of the stallions said to the other, quietly enough they mistakenly thought they wouldn't be overheard. "The boss needs us down by the docks in an hour. Ready to 'work'." Given that they were professional thugs, that must have meant violence of some kind. But that also meant opportunity.
Stone Breaker and Mirror slipped off to the stallions' room when the thugs were getting close to finishing their meals, taking up positions in stalls to change their appearance. Stone Breaker had the right build, and merely had to change his fur colors again, including a dyed copy of one of the thugs' cutie marks. He lacked the thug's hat, which could give them away, while Mirror simply did as changelings do and matched the other thug perfectly, cheap suit and all, even down to the smell of excessive cologne.
Apple Core kept an eye on things, enjoying her pasta nice and hot as it arrived, while keeping an eye on the thugs. If they left, the heist would depend on the other ponies' lack of attention to detail. Often reliable, but never a sure thing. As it happened, they headed for the stallions' room themselves.
While they were relieving themselves, Mirror used a subtle bit of changeling magic to suppress their thoughts for a bit, making them a little less aware of their surroundings while Stone Breaker smoothly swiped the hat off one head. They were out the door before the thugs had even finished pissing, never noticing any other ponies had been present.
They trotted into the kitchen area like they owned the place, and were dutifully ignored as they made their way to the back office. Sure enough, there was a safe there, and they went up to it, Mirror glowering at the staff just enough to ensure they didn't get too interested, while Stone Breaker slowly turned the combination lock.
The kingsblood made each click quite audible, despite the low volume, and in a minute he had the safe open, and its contents in hoof as he made his way out the back exit.
"Where are you going with that?" somepony finally dared to ask. He looked to be the manager.
"The boss needs it," Mirror replied, with his victims' own voice. His tone allowed for no argument, and none was made.
Meanwhile, the real thugs made their own exit out the front door, one of them complaining absently about a draft. A waitress, seeing them leave, nearly made it back into the kitchen in time to see their dopplegangers, but Apple Core called her over, stalling her a moment with a request for to-go boxes for the other two meals.
"That was easy," Sky Ranger said as she sat on the bed in their new hotel room.
"Too easy," Mirror added, sitting undisguised on a cushion out of view from the room's window, in case a pegasus flew by.
"It won't be that easy ever again," Stone Breaker pointed out, back to his own coloration. The hat was gone, left in a dumpster in a random alley. "They were sloppy because they were careless, because they didn't know what they were up against. In the future, they'll realize their ponies can be impersonated, even if they don't know how. They'll get more and more careful."
"Then we should strike again, fast, before they even realize we struck the first time," Sky Ranger pointed out.
"Who are you, and what have you done with my innocent little Apple Core?" Stone Breaker questioned with a grin.
"I told you, I'm Sky Ranger now."
"Alright, if we're going to strike again fast, we need to get going soon. Where do we hit?" Mirror asked, looking to Stone Breaker.
"Why am I suddenly in charge?" the stallion said, a bit taken aback.
"You're the one who knows all Vito's business. More so than either of us, at least," Mirror pointed out. "Especially me."
Stone Breaker sighed, looking out the window for a bit while he thought. "Alright... then here's where we go next."
"So what did you gather us all here for," Clockwork Wing began, fidgeting a bit, and causing the wooden frame on her back to strike noisily against the machine that dominated the room. The earth pony had invented a pair of cloth wings that worked great for flying downward. Upward... well, she had other inventions for that.
"Hay, be careful!" Golden Spanner chided. The unicorn stallion checked quickly for damage, before proceeding to show some readouts from his own invention. "Look at this here... here, here and here."
"What am I looking at?" Clockwork said, observing some various spikes in a set of wiggly graphs.
"Those are radio waves. On frequencies nopony is licensed to use," Golden said. "Somepony's started using them, and aggressively."
"And...?" Greased Lightning asked, the oil-stained pegasus mare glaring at the papers. "Are we supposed to be the radio police now?"
"What are they even saying?" Clockwork asked.
"That's just it... they're making all kinds of seemingly random screeching noises. But look at this," Golden replied, bringing out yet another graph. This showed 8 separate lines, with spikes at very regular intervals, but a seemingly random pattern as to which lines had spikes at any given interval. Sometimes many of the lines spiked at the same point, other times only one or two. "They seem to use clusters of different frequencies at once, always in exponents of 2. There's some kind of communication going on there, I'm sure of it, but it's nothing like our simple broadcasts of Equine speech, or even music. And it's fast. This graph has over a thousand distinct pulses of communication, but it's just the printout of a single second. I think there's only one explanation for this."
"This ought to be good," Greased said, though her tone was anything but optimistic.
"Aliens," Golden said, looking at them both with determined confidence.
The mares were silent for nearly a minute before Greased started laughing uncontrollably.
"Okay, so, aside from the fact they could just be some kind of inventors like us, or something, why the sudden meeting? Did you have anything other than just radio waves to report?" Clockwork asked.
"Well, nothing other than radio waves, but you might want to hear this anyways. Up until a few days ago, the signals were always coming from the west. The distant west. I've been trying to work out a way to figure out their exact location by using multiple antennae to see the difference in timing between when the signal arrives at each one. The math is hard, and time consuming, but I've gotten a basic feel for it. But here's the thing. Starting a couple days ago some of the signals have been closer. Much closer. Occasionally north, south, or east in fact," Golden explained.
The mares were silent again, this time more thoughtfully. They all knew what that meant, but Golden spelled it out anyways. "They're here. In our city. Not all of them. At least three, but I'd guess three groups."
"Where," Greased Lightning calmly demanded.
"I don't know yet," Golden said. "I told you the math is slow and hard. I think we need to bring in somepony with a math related cutie mark. Preferrably a mathemagician."
Greased was on her way out the door without a word.
"Good work, Golden. I don't know if they're aliens or what, but we're going to find out," Clockwork said before she started heading out as well. She paused at the door and looked back at the stallion with a furrowed brow for a few seconds. But... why? She shook her head and trotted out. Because none of us can leave a good mystery unsolved. That'll have to be reason enough.
We made our way into a warehouse near the docks, one layer back, lest it be visible from the water. It seemed a sensible enough place for nefarious dealings, if horribly cliched. Shady Boughs unlocked the door for us, then lead us along a winding path between the unmarked crates before we entered a freight elevator.
It worried us, but we didn't show it. The metallic cage we were in ate our signal completely, cutting us off from all the others. But with four Itinerants here, and only two others, thoroughly deceived by us, we weren't all that worried for our immediate safety. Cracked Whip smirked at me quietly, enjoying my discomfort. She was about as disloyal to our cause as an Itinerant could be, and I wasn't looking forward to the likely need to start overriding her free will. It was so much better to start with ponies that were genuinely loyal to begin with.
Once we were all within the cage, Shady pressed the space beneath the last floor button, and the elevator car started shakily making its way down below the ground floor. Cute secret entrance. We descended two stories before the doors opened, letting us out into a concrete space. The high ceiling, and the warehouse above, were held up by massive concrete columns, simple but effective. It looked a lot like a parking structure from Earth, but much less well lit. It also spread out remarkably broad, extending under perhaps a dozen warehouses before ending in stone walls interrupted with the occasional tunnel.
Shady brought our attention in a new direction, leading the way toward a dimly lit area. A dais rose up, its contents hidden in darkness thorough enough that even Deus couldn't spot anything within, but could calculate that reflected light should have brought it a few shades lighter. A circular area under the dais was ringed with small orbs of magical light. On the side opposite the dais, a stallion in a fine suit waited smugly, surrounded by a half dozen ponies of various tribes. The earth ponies were massive and muscular, the pegasi lean and agile looking. The unicorns weren't much to look at, but that didn't mean they weren't trouble.
A second group came into the light opposite our approach, five ponies all with black crystal growths on their snouts, some a bit more than others. They all looked serious, like soldiers, or even robots. They stopped a few hooves back from the edge of the ring, except a single unicorn who stepped up just to the edge, and bowed toward the dais briefly. Finally, we approached from the remaining side, the dais to our left. Shady stepped forward to the line, giving a brief bow of his own, before everypony stood, waiting expectantly.
"Greetings," called a voice from the platform. Light began to dimly illuminate it from behind, red light allowing only the silhouette of a pony to come through. Most features were impossible to make out, but the presence of wings was undeniable, and the horn on its face clearly visible as well. Deus had to help me hold back a groan. Much of the platform was still unnaturally shadowed, and I couldn't be sure if there was anything else up there. "As per our pact, I have collected the dues from each of your organizations. And as per our pact, we will now hold our annual tournament."
There was a brief murmuring among the ponies on all sides. It was clear most of the ponies present hadn't been properly informed of what they were coming here for. Nopony seemed all that intimidated though. Shady tried to hide his nervousness, but didn't do well enough to fool me, though.
"For those who have not heard the rules before, this tournament is quite simple. Each organization will put forth champions of each tribe. Those before me are allowed two entrants per round, while the other groups have used their respective arts to improve their champions. Each tribe will fight among its own for the right to join my side, and be at the vanguard of the revolution. When only one side's champion lives, the ring will release them to enjoy my hospitality while the next fight begins. And for the next year, each organization's funding will be based on the number of wins they secured," our shadowy host explained. "Now come forth, earth ponies. Your match is first."
The pony across from us with the least crystals on his snout stepped forward stoically into the ring, expressionlessly awaiting the call to begin the match. Cracked Whip plodded forward, scowling openly at me before refocusing her attention. Two somewhat-familiar looking bruisers passed the suited stallion, looking a little nervous as they entered. It was subtle, but a hint of growth on the other stallion's crystal growth helped confirm their fear was feeding into it.
The moment all four ponies were within the ring of lights, a translucent sphere surrounded them, locking them all within, and preventing any interference. I wasn't sure what it would do to unicorn magic, but we weren't about to start experimenting just then. With a unicorn match expected shortly, we had an obvious guess.
"No then... begin!" the shadowy figure demanded. The crystal crusted pony leaped into action immediately and literally, a forehoof coming down sharply across the snout of one of the bruisers, the one with a mussy mane that looked like it spent too much time under a now-absent hat. The blow drew blood, but the bruiser drew up onto his hind legs, lashing out with hooves of his own. The did him little good, as the vicious stallion beneath him pushed forward through the assault, dug his shoulder into the underbelly, and plowed him back into the sphere.
Fortunately for the thug, the sphere didn't explode, or electrocute him, or any such nonsense. It did, however, hold firm, and that was trouble enough. Pinned in place against it, he was vulnerable to a series of blows from the black crystalled pony, but at least that pony had limited range of motion for those blows while holding him in place.
His partner moved to intervene, planting a double-hooved buck squarely in his opponent's side, knocking him free and letting the trapped pony slink to the ground. But the thug looked pained as his hooves came down, still aching from colliding with something a bit more solid than he had anticipated. He didn't have long to think about it, though, as a spinning hoof strike cracked into his snout.
Cracked Whip finished her spin, landing on her front hooves and turning it into a buck of her own, knocking one thug into the other, and leaving both tangled in a heap. This left her alone to face the crystalled on for the moment, as he came charging toward her. "Come and get it, blighter!" she taunted before suddenly rolling back onto her back. As the stallion's momentum carried him over her, she pulled her hind legs under him and kicked up, launching him up.
The stallion bounced off the top of the sphere before coming back down, adjusting himself midair to come down hoof first on her chest with a sickening crack. The air whooshed out of her and she fell back to the ground, lying still.
"We surrender!" one of the thugs declared, just finishing getting to his hooves, a look of sheer terror in his eyes. His partner nodded in agreement.
"That isn't an option," the pony on the dais said. "And anypony that would surrender doesn't have the spine to be in my revolutionary army."
The crystals on the stallion's snout grew noticeably, as the fearful thugs backed away until their fear slowly shifted character. They froze up, unable to even run away as the stallion approached to finish them off. Seconds later, the translucent shell disappeared, and a set of stairs extended from the dais, inviting him up to a platform below the shadowy host. He calmly trotted up the stairs, settling into place to watch the rest of the proceedings.
"Sir, do you mind if we, umm, reclaim the body? We believe an autopsy will help us continue our scientific research," Bunsen dared to request.
"Sure, take them all if you like," the voice replied.
"That's okay, we've had plenty of ordinary pony corpses," she said with a nervous laugh, as her magic pulled Cracked Whip back over to us. A couple clops from the dais summoned an earth pony with a push broom who quickly swept aside the other results from the previous match.
"Pegasi, it is your turn. Into the ring," the host announced.
I stepped in eagerly, grinning and flexing like an idiot. I could tell it was working, as the two ordinary pegasi stepped in smirking at me, even as they drew knives from someplace. Thinking back, nopony had mentioned a rule against weapons.
The crystal infected pegasus that entered opposite me was just as unarmed as I was, but had a cruel grin to his face that looked downright predatory. As soon as he had entered, the sphere reformed, larger this time. It still passed through the ground at the same circle of lights, but extended wider above, and ultimately was just as wide at the ceiling as the ground. That left a bit more airspace, even out over the other groups, more maneuvering room for the speedy fliers. But on the dais side, the sphere was cut off by a sheer vertical wall of a side, keeping us from getting too close to our benefactor. Too bad, I had hoped for a good look during my flyby.
This time the thugs didn't bother to wait for the word 'begin'. They both had their first volley of knives airborne by the time the word came, and were drawing the next as they flew upward by the time the syllables were uttered. They had clearly picked their first target, unsurprising after last round, and were giving it their all. Their target charged up at them, quickly bleeding from several wounds as he closed, nearly reaching one before they wisely scattered.
He turned, taking a bare moment to decide which he would pursue before my own hind hoof came down on his head in an axe kick, knocking him down several hooves before his wings could catch him. He charged up at me again, and I charged down at him. I lost the game of chicken, veering off to pass in front of him and receiving a few glancing hoof blows for my trouble, while my electromagnetism dug the knives in his back in deeper and raked them down his back, drawing more blood without anypony noticing much.
The match got kind of boring for a bit there. The three of us dodged about, avoiding the crystal crusted pegasus while the thugs tried to pot shot him with more thrown knives, before at last he simply dropped out of the air and stopped moving. Fearlessness only got you so far when you were leaking blood everywhere you flew.
I landed in the middle of the ring and stood up on my hind hooves, a position that was awkward and unnatural for a pony, but just fine for me. I crossed my hooves before me, spread my wings behind me, using a bit of flight magic to stabilize myself and watched one of the circling pegasi gather up some more knives. A mare, I realized idly, while the stallion moved to the opposite side, gathering a few blades himself. It was fun towering over them like this, but didn't do much to impress a flighted race.
I had an odd position here. I needed to beat them both, and to look super-equine in doing so, but keep as many of my tricks a secret as I could. So I waited, letting them make the first move. I didn't have to wait too long before the stallion charged toward me on quiet but not silent wings, while the mare threw a pair of knives at me in a quick volley. Magnetism subtly correcting their course, I caught them in my own hooves before twisting and in the same motion hurling them into her partner. He was close enough to crash into me from sheer momentum, and would have dug his own blades into my sides if I hadn't repelled them. I kicked him off, twisting free just in time to avoid the next volley, almost completely. Fragments of feathers fell free behind me from the close shave.
The stallion was starting to recover as I charged over him, digging one of the blades deeper into him with a hoof before pulling it out. I used it to block one of the blades from the next volley while I caught the other, then charged the mare. She bolted to the side to dodge, but I threw my blades at her with deadly force and accuracy, both passing through her torso entirely before bouncing off the shield and lodging in her neck. The stallion roared out at this, something incoherent that was probably a name, before charging blindly at me.
I held my ground, winging only a hooflength out of the way as he passed, and grabbing him by the neck, I spun to add a little more momentum to his flight, heaving him into the shell. I drew a knife out of my side, where he had just managed to lodge it, and threw it at him before he could recover, blinding him rather permanently on one side.
The noises of pain and shock were horrible, so I quickly did what I could for him, finishing the fight with one final mercy. I was breathing heavily as the shield came down, though physically I wasn't the least exhausted. Slowly I trotted up the stairs to reach the winners' platform, settling next to the earth pony.
Having blood on my own hooves... physically, doing the deed myself. It was something I was unaccustomed to, and hoped never to get over entirely. I considered myself responsible for every life my subjects ended, regardless of reason, but that was intellectual. This was visceral. And as the adrenal fled my veins, I barely kept my lunch from fleeing my gut. But my face didn't show the slightest hint of this weakness, just a cocky grin. Only four others knew what torment I was enduring.
One of them pronk across the circle of lights even before the next match was announced. It was obvious at this point, wasn't it? Bubbling Beaker waved cheerfully at the other unicorns as they waited to enter the ring, letting the janitor finish his morbid duty first.
"I see they put all their eggs in one basket," a cyan-furred mare commented to the lime-green mare beside her. "This one looks like she hasn't even realized this is a fight yet."
The lime one sniggered before pointing at the other contestant, whose arrival triggered the bubble closing to the same size as the earth pony match. "Watch out for that one, though. I can't even tell which one's his horn." The unicorn stallion representing the crystal harvesters had several large black crystals protruding from his snout, three of which exceeded his actual horn in size. At this point, he could probably wield them as a deadly weapon if he tried.
"Begin," the shadowy figure above commanded. Bubbling began pronking in place, her excited motions doing nothing to threaten the other unicorns. The mares surrounded themselves in basic shields immediately, while the crystal-clad stallion ignored them, stalking toward Bubbling as his horn and the crystals began to glow with magic.
Black magic reached into Bubbling Beaker's mind, instilling thoughts of fear and horror into her mind, doing everything possible to strip away her innocence and give food for the crystal.
Bubbling reared up suddenly, a look reminiscent of terror plastered on her face as both forehooves left to her cheeks. Her voice rang out, loudly, unnaturally loudly, but not in a scream of fear. It was the scream of a filly who had just found the cutest dress in the world on clearance, or just been glanced at by the hottest colt in school... terrifyingly pure joy that would make anypony wince, if just from the earsplitting high pitched loudness.
It wasn't just any pitch though. It was the right pitch. And it wasn't just loud. Her horn glowed with power, amplifying the volume. The two unicorn mares collapsed to the ground, holding their ears to try to keep them from going deaf. The shield offered some protection to those of us outside, at least nullifying the magical amplification, but we were all cringing at the least. The stallion, however, collapsed to the ground, bleeding profusely from the shards of shattered crystal that had exploded from his snout.
Bubbling had only a moment to look proud and enjoy her triumph before a pair of force blasts bounced her off the wall, leaving her lying still on the ground, one eye staring at the pair in unblinking shock.
When the sphere didn't come down, the two mares looked at each other with confused concern. "Hay now," the cyan one said. "We won didn't we?"
"I won't repeat the terms of victory," the voice from the dais calmly informed.
"What's that supposed to... aaaarrggh!" she said, her question interrupted by a gout of flames. "Emerald, why?!"
"I won't be the one swept onto the ashheap," Emerald pointed out, playing out another spell on her horn and summoning a timberwolf to her side. The creature leaped upon the cyan unicorn, claws and teeth digging into her side even as the wolf caught alight from the smoldering fur.
"Augh, get off of me!" the other mare commended, a pulse of magic knocking the wooden creature off of her and blowing out the flames. What little of it reached Emerald simply forced her to flinch, but it was time enough to summon a spray of sharp shards of ice.
As spells flew back and forth between the mares, they failed to notice their boss trying to get their attention. The sphere did enough to block sound that he couldn't be heard over their threats, recriminations, and spells. Neither mare noticed a slowly rising water level within the sphere, either, until it reached their knees. They paused to look around, suddenly noticing a pair of insulated wires reaching out from the unblinking unicorn, one under each of them. As they began to put two and two together they both started vibrating uncontrollably, nearly chewing off their own tongues in their attempt to say something about it, as bubbles streamed up under each of them.
Bubbling stood once her battery was discharged, wrapping herself in a bubble of force as she smiled at them and began pronking obnoxiously. "Silly wizards. Science always wins!" she taunted.
"Science? You mean dirty tricks! I'll kill you," the cyan mare promised angrily.
"Not if I kill her first!" Emerald pointed out, before a gout of flame began to emerge from her horn.
For a moment the sphere was filled with a blinding bright light. Then the sphere dropped, its trigger met, and a rush of heat and pressure knocked everypony over, singing fur and bruising flesh. A cloud of steam filled the room, slowly dissipating to a mere haze as Bubbling Beaker pronked her way up the stairs to join me.
"Science!" we shouted in unison, sharing a hoof bump when she arrived.
"Vito Calabrese," the shadowy figure above us began. "You have disappointed me with your recruiting this time. You will have to learn to do more with less this next year, and bring me worthy competitors next time. Your share of my support will go to Shady Boughs' think tank this year. Do not disappoint me again."
"You mean my share of my money," the stallion groused, even as he bowed his singed head. Turning, he awkwardly made his exit in his now-ruined suit. Just one more expense to a strained budget. Fortunately it wasn't that strained of a budget. His dues were only half of what his various business ventures generated, so even with none of it returned his group was the richest, at least in terms of bits.
"Now... come, my little ponies. Come and feast with me," the voice above said, as a column of wall arose, cutting us off from the rest of the room. The column within began to lower, descending with both the dais and winners platform, now all hidden in shadow.
Clockwork Wing watched from her perch on the edge of the warehouse roof as the last employees trotted off for the night. There was always the risk of being spotted up here, especially by a thestral, but the dim light of the starry sky wasn't enough for most ponies to notice things by. The moon would be out about now, but the higher buildings rising above blocked it out completely. But dim as the light was, it was plenty to see by with her green glasses. Everything looked strange with all the blue and red light automagically converted into green, but combining it all into one color made it much easier for the eyes to pick out contrast in the very dim light.
"Sending a radio pulse now," she said into her sending stone, before pushing a button on a small gadget on her belt. "Pulse sent. Verify triangulation."
"Pulse received on all antennas. Triangulation complete. You're about twenty hooves up from the cluster of signals we previously detected, roughly straight up. It's definitely the right building," Golden Spanner's voice spoke into her ear through the receiving stone clipped into place within. "Be careful, Clockwork. There's no activity there now, but who knows what they left behind?"
"That's what I'm here to find out," she said before pulling the control cables to spread her wooden wing frames wide, the cloth spreading to catch the air as she leaped into a glide. Spiraling downward, she managed to alight behind the two earth pony guards standing a few hooves away with neither party noticing the other. Wings folded in tight against her flanks, she drew a small vial from one of her belt pouches and poured it into the lock. Sticking a pair of thin metal wires in, she attached a battery and the electric shock caused the gel to instantly solidify. A quick turn unlocked the door, and she carefully returned the newly formed key to its vial, removing the current to let it flow back in. Only when the door quietly clicked closed behind her did the two guards in the black cloaks notice enough to turn toward the door, then to each other, and shrug.
"The liquid key worked like a charm, Greased Lightning," Clockwing whispered as she began her search within.
"You weren't doubting me none, were you now?" Greased countered across the link.
"Of course not, just confirming your invention's success," Clockwork pointed out. She got quiet for a time as she looked for anything out of the ordinary. Another quick use of the liquid key got her into the manager's office, where she checked the logs for anything unusual.
Just as things were getting interesting in a dry and boring manner, her thoughts were interrupted by a faked snore. "Come on, mare, you find anything? It's boring here if you don't narrate."
"Maybe... I wish we had a camera here. Well, one suited for this kind of thing. Maybe we can put that on the invention queue," Clockwork suggested. "Anyways, up until the incident, this warehouse was receiving a shipment of onyx every week during the rains. What's curious is that the jewelry stores serviced by the warehouse didn't have any onyx jewelry. Black isn't that popular of a color, but where's it all going if not to the stores?"
"That's all you've got? Unpopular gem shipments?" Lightning complained.
"I'm still reading here. Anyways, the day of incident they have a half written entry crossed out. They were expecting another shipment but it didn't show up, is my guess," Clockwork continued. "So something definitely happened here. Anyways, I'm moving out. I can always come back here a little later."
"Please!" Lightning agreed.
The search of the main warehouse area proved entirely fruitless, aside from the mild note that not a single container was labelled 'Onyx'.
"Just get out of there, Clocks, you're wasting your time, and risking too much for too little," Golden suggested.
"Just a quick pass through the other rooms, and I'll be on my way," she countered. She could at least open every door and look for anything obvious.
She opened the door to the locker rooms and gagged immediately as the smell of rotting flesh assailed her senses. "Clocks! What is it? Speak to me!" Golden said anxiously through their link.
"I'm okay. But somepony isn't. Something dead has been left to rot in here," Clockwork explained, before she began searching. A couple of adjacent lockers seemed to be the source of the smell, but they had combination locks, which she didn't have any special tricks to open.
"Okay, this is seriously creeping me out," Lightning pointed out. "You coming home now?"
"There's another door up ahead," Clockwork objected.
"Probably the showers," Golden suggested. "Be careful Clocks..."
"I'm not going to slip and-" the mare began before letting out a huge gasp. Somepony had installed iron bars to turn the shower stalls into a makeshift prison. Dried blood decorated the walls within. But far more concerning, both gates were open, with two pony corpses hanging by their necks from each. All were rotting, with flies buzzing hungrily about them.
"I-I'm... I'm coming home now. Now!" Clockwork Wing explained, unable to say any more. The mare quickly made her way back to the entrance and threw the door open, galloping past the guards before they could react, and barely registering the feel of their black cloaks rubbing against her fur as she burst forth between them. As they began to pursue, she drew a device from her belt, aiming it at a nearby rooftop and firing a cable out, the grapple at the end securing itself to a corner before she reeled herself up to it. By the time they could find a ladder to climb after her, she was long gone.
As the elevator descended, I weighed my options. This supposed alicorn was obviously a central figure in this organization, perhaps even the central figure. I suspected he wasn't what he appeared to be, but that didn't mean he wasn't powerful and dangerous. Still, being alone in this place with him, or near to it, meant rather favorable conditions for an ambush. As long as he didn't teleport out, he would have no escape and no reinforcements.
"We are going to kill you," the earth pony informed the alicorn blandly. Bubbling Beaker and I were momentary stunned before our resolve showed on our faces and in our stances.
[Why would you say that out loud?!] I questioned mentally. It was Istaran's voice that echoed in my mind though, ringing with amusement. [If you're going to play with my toys, you're going to play by my rules. You gave this pony valid reason to trust you, so to strike would have been a betrayal, more so the longer you kept up your facade. Now your intentions are clear. Have at it.]
For his part, the alicorn laughed. "Ah, so Celestia has finally sent her dogs. I thought it would have been sooner, or else that she would send her best, but you'll do for now." His horn glowed brightly, while a second horn glowed more dimly in the darkness behind him, the second horn's light visible to my eyes but not my companions.
Uncontrollably, I sat down, a vacant expression crossing my face. Bubbling reacted the same, while the earth pony had a slight delay. Internally, I started to feel a bit disconnected. A bit of introspection told me why. My mind had, in a sense, split. The organic part was completely under magical compulsion. But Deus Machina had contingencies for such a thing. The nanomachine network could bypass any nerve, controlling my body like a puppeteer. And it had had constant access to every neuron firing in my brain for some time now. It had created a digital model of my thought processes, and that digital model now was 'me' in a sense... actively thinking through the situation, and ready to assert control of my own body at a moment's notice. I realized it came mostly from my interactions with Elysium, our shared dream world. Rather than use my 'meat brain' fully, Deus and Nightmare Core had arranged to emulate parts of my mind whenever I was 'dreaming'.
Bubbling had no such advantage, however. I could command her subnet if I wanted, but she hadn't been one of us long enough to have a digital 'ghost' like I did. And I had no hope of forcing her horn to do anything useful. I started gathering an inventory from her subnet, however, to know just what other pre-fabricated tricks she had in that labcoat of hers.
And then there was null. I was fairly certain the alicorn hadn't realized yet the earth pony beside me was a dead changeling. That also meant he wouldn't know Cracked Whip had survived the fight with him. After all, the barrier in the fighting ring was set to lower when only one combatant was alive. null was crafty enough to pretend to be mind controlled, but was our foe unable to tell the difference? For that matter, could I strike while supposedly 'mind controlled'?
[It isn't a betrayal,] Istaran's voice assured, with a mental shrug. [It's not your problem if he trusts his own abilities and they fail him. He knows full well what you intend to do.]
"Since you're Celestia's dogs and all, I'll give you a suitable task. A game of fetch! Go and get her favorite dogs for me. The bearers of the Elements of Harmony! With them under my control, or even dead, the tyrant Celestia will fall. Perhaps I'll offer her sister a place in my new regime," the alicorn explained.
I really, really wanted to put this sad sack of horrible cliches out of everyone's misery quickly, but every minute he spent monologuing gave me more information about his plans, and would hopefully help me take down the whole organization, not just splinter it from the top. So I bided my time for now. Besides, I still didn't even know his name.
The scent of blood began to enter the elevator from somewhere. Mixed blood, from an assortment of ponies, enough distinct scents that Deus couldn't give a reliable count. We were getting somewhere, and it wasn't pleasant.
"But first, it's time to start your indoctrination properly. Welcome to the training grounds, my newest recruits. Welcome to the Revolution!" He stood up on his hind legs, throwing his forelegs up and his wings wide in dramatic pose. The movement of the wings didn't feel right to me. I couldn't say for sure, but it was like they had fallen into the uncanny valley... looking just right enough to feel very, deeply wrong. Also, they were red. We finally had enough light to make out that the alicorn was truly black in fur, red in feathers, mane and horn. He hopped down from his perch, not bothering to use his wings to assist his descent, and walked past us, bidding us follow.
From here, it was clear he was much larger than average, a size normally reserved for earth ponies and alicorns. He had a cutie mark that looked to be a fireball; a white round shape surrounded with red flames that matched his other features. I guessed it was proof that some ponies were just destined to be terrible.
The space we were in was massive, a largely natural cave supported by the occasional concrete pillar. There were massive stockpiles of the black crystals all around, and quite a bit else I couldn't identify. There were at least a hundred ponies down here, all bearing black crystal growths on their snouts, withers, along their spines, and even protruding out through their now indecipherable cutie marks. Most of them seemed to be busy sparring with one another rather viciously. The source of the blood was at least quite clear now; none of those sparring was lacking in injuries.
Other devices were visible on some of them, either implanted in one way or another, or worn or wielded. Those were a totally eclectic mix, clearly designed by a variety of ponies rather than an individual with a unifying aesthetic. Bunsen and Bubblings' predecessors, perhaps.
We were lead to a unicorn in a lab coat, a stallion unlike Bubbling and Bunsen. I begged the universe for him to not have a German accent. "Ah, Rising, you bring more recruits?" he inquired of our alleged leader. I mentally sighed in relief. "I'll be right with them," he offered, turning back to what he had been doing, apparently patching up an injured pegasus' wing. Once he was done, he dismissed the pony, who immediately charged off for another round of sparring. These ponies were intense.
"I leave them in your care, Doctor Bones. See that they are properly inducted, then send them on their way. They have their task," Rising said before repeating it to us anyways. "When the doctor releases you, he will send you back up into the city. Get to the town of Ponyville. Get the six mares known as the Element Bearers to come here, by whatever means you see fit. Once we have them out of our way, then we move against the real targets!" He laughed maniacally and I barely resisted the urge to end him then an there. But I waited. We were terribly outnumbered here, insufficiently equipped, and out of contact with the rest of the kingdom. It wasn't time, not yet. The moment passed, and he walked away.
The doctor had me turn around, sit by a table and let him begin injecting me with various substances, before force feeding me a sludge that seemed to be mostly ground up black crystals mixed with a bit of water and for some reason some wheat. Maybe somepony thought that would make it resemble food in some way? I was thankful for the mind control spell making it easier to pull off this deception. I don't think I could have drank it with any kind of control of myself.
I saw a unicorn a distance away checking over the contents of a clipboard while trying to look like she wasn't paying any attention to us. She had far less black crystals on her, less than even Doctor Bones. But she had the same red aura color on her telekenisis as I had seen in the elevator. And though she had been quite quiet, Deus had tracked her hoofsteps the whole way from where she had been hidden in the darkness. Now that I could see her, I memorized her features. Stark white, with an uncommonly long, pointed horn. Her mane was a dull grey, straight and simply styled. All business. She looked a bit underfed; a lean and hungry look to her eyes. Her cutie mark showed a throne, I noted, red cushions on a gold-inlaid mahogany frame.
She set the clipboard back in its place, and let her aura drop a bit, but not completely. Through Deus, I could tell her influence on my mind had faded, but another, similar spell had already taken its place. The sludge... it was a potion of a kind, I concluded. Though from all I had seen, I assumed it was not all potion. Or perhaps one of the injections was the potion? The crystals had their own purpose. One Deus would never allow to come to fruition.
Once Bubbling and null had been similarly treated, the glow in the unicorns' horn finally faded, and she moved on, heading for one of the concrete columns in the distance. She slipped behind it, and didn't re-emerge. Meanwhile, the doctor showed us to another column, revealing a smaller elevator within. "Here you are, you three. This will let you out into the basement of one of the high-rises," he explained. "From there you can let yourselves out into a back alley, and make your way to the train station. Don't dilly-dally. You have an important mission."
And just like that, we were on another, much smaller, elevator.