//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 - Advancing // Story: Lost Little Wolf // by PrincessColumbia //------------------------------// “Losing people you love affects you. It is buried inside of you and becomes this big, deep hole of ache. It doesn't magically go away, even when you stop officially mourning.” ― Carrie Jones, Captivate "Have we managed to get any messengers past the embargo in the Frozen North?" Chrysalis grilled the half-circle of assembled changelings in front of our throne. "We have not, my Queen," answered one of the generals, "Given how closely the yaks check for any flaws in disguises and what they do once they find said flaws...we didn't want to report fatally smashed scouts." A few shudders made their way through the crowd at this pronouncement. Chrysalis sighed heavily, "Very well; the City-state of Thicket?" A changeling still bedecked in the ceremonial fineries of the deer stepped forward, "King Aspen sends his renewed commitment to our people's shared cause and has instituted a program to renew the Grand Purpose and True Way in his populous." He jingled a bit as he talked, his bells on his headscarves thankfully very small and well-tuned so as to be pleasant, not jangling. I sighed, "Mom..." I attempted quietly. "The hippogryphs?" Another scout stepped forward, "When we arrived at their aerie, the place had been abandoned. We've set up a monitoring station, but no activity has been spotted since." "Mom..." I attempted again, a bit more forcefully. Chrysalis ignored me, "Any word from Lord Torch? He may be a blowhard, but he’s reasonable under the bluster. I know there's no love lost between him and the caribou." The same general who answered the question about the Frozen North replied. "We did receive a response to our message. He will report any incursions into his own lands, but will deal with any caribou invaders. He requests a similar arrangement from us, reiterated that changelings are not to attempt to take any dragon territory, and refused outright to commit any forces outside the Dragon Lands borders." Chrysalis nodded in reply, "About what I expected, to be candid. Any word yet from our scouting party to the Tenochtitlan Basin?" A changeling that I recognized as one of my teachers stepped forward, "Due to the collapse of the regional alliance three centuries ago, we no longer have a central authority to approach. As a result, we've opted to simply create a merchant network to keep our ear to the ground for information and spread our own; there's been some trade with nomads that match the caribou description, but nothing definitive." "Mom!" I interjected before anyone else could interrupt. Chrysalis took a deep breath, "Yes, Chrystal Amber?" she replied. Uh-oh, full name usage, better be careful... "Why haven't I heard anything about contacting Equestria?" "We are not," she spoke in a clipped manner, "Going to approach Equestria in this or any matter." "Well, why not?!" I replied without thinking, "They're literally the largest, wealthiest, and most powerful nation on the planet!" "Chrystal..." Muttered Crystalis. "I mean, the only nation or people that has a better intelligence network is us, and that's because we're ALL spies and intelligencers! And Equestria has their pick of intelligencer savants, it's not like they're slouches, the spy versus spy games that go on between S.M.I.L.E. and us are better than the C.I.A. and K.G.B. during the height of the cold war." At the time, I was too wound up in presenting my case, so I didn't notice when Chrysalis growled just low enough that I could only barely hear it. "Daughter..." "Even discounting their intelligence networks, they just plain have numbers! They outnumber us by at least 100 to 1. They're more likely to have had some sort of contact with the Caribou through sheer surface area." The rest of the room was deathly quiet, and I didn't notice the other changelings backing away from the throne and watching the interchange in something resembling fear. "My daughter, you need to drop this..." "Mom, you need to stop being stubborn about this. Just send an emissary to meet with Princess Celestia..." Anything further I could have said was cut off as Chrysalis lunged at me snarling, "CELESTIA SEALED ME IN A VOLCANO!" I'm not sure I could have prepared for it even if I was expecting it. As it was, I found myself instinctively huddling into as small a ball as possible feeling light tremors shake my body. Shoving the panic aside, I swallowed the lump of fear down before quietly replying, "Yes. That would, indeed, offend." I'd been noticing a minor problem the last few months where my very human mode of thinking seemed to drown out the mental chatter of the hive mind, and only when some emotional spike happened to momentarily "reset" my consciousness would I become aware of what the rest of the changelings relied on instinctively, which explained why the rest of the hive noticed the boiling pot of anger that Chrysalis had become. Chrysalis snorted and declared, "We're done for now. Generals and Captains, prepare your reports and be ready to present them when I call you individually; It's clear we're not going to be getting any sort of alliance to combat the caribou, so we'll have to plan accordingly. I'll be in my quarters." Without waiting for a reply to anyone, she took wing and stormed out of the throne room. As one, the rest of the hive turned to me, a question etched on each of the changeling's faces. I cleared my throat, "OK, Mac, so what’s the next case on the docket?” There was a susurration amongst a group of changelings to my right, and to my great surprise one of them was pushed forward from among the small pack. I blinked, “…and who are you?” “Macao, your highness. My clutch-mates call me Mac for short.” I’m sure had a photographer been there that day, they could have taken a picture and won several artistic awards for, ‘Completely Poleaxed Changeling Queen.’ “Oh…kay… I was just joking…” I muttered under my breath as I turned toward a pair of guards standing near one of the throne room entrances, “I don’t suppose one of you is named ‘Bull’…” A truly massive ‘ling smiled hugely, “That would be me, your highness! Well, actually, my name is Zadiprion Townsendi, but everyone calls me Bull.” A perplexed look fell over his expressive face like a curtain, “…I’m not sure why…” Next to him, a much smaller female changeling guard huffed and growled out in a gravelly voice, “Oh, great, now I’ve got to reset his brain, or he’ll be stuck like that all night.” She hovered up next to his head and thumped him behind his right ear. A big, goofy smile returned to his face, “Gee, thanks Flour!” A young female changeling stepped forward out of the crowd, “Your highness, are…are we really going to do this, have you take over court in your mother’s absence?” I leaned down, “And what’s your name, counselor?” “Er, Harlequin, your highness.” “Oh, please,” a cocky voice interrupted, “Like we’re going to take orders from this hatchling?” I raised my eyebrow, “Uh-huh…and you are?” A soldier changeling with the markings of a logistics worker, probably a low-level executive, who was casually lounging against the foot of the throne replied snidely, “Well you can call me Uncle Dandelion Wasp, your Precociousness.” “Uh-huh,” I repeated, then addressed the room without looking away from Dandelion, “Bull, a little help?” The massive changeling was suddenly standing right behind the arrogant changeling and unleashed a subsonic sound that might have been a growl, but it shook the entire chamber. The smarmy changeling didn’t even blink, “But then, all my good friends call me Dan, your highness.” I chuckled, “Well, I may not be a supreme court justice, but I am a Queen, so let’s make this happen. Take two, this time for real…what’s next on the docket, Mac?” -~/^\~- “…so in short,” I summarized, “Aphid here is accusing Pupa of imitating a pony who’s imitating a changeling because Pupa has been hinting that she wants the latest Spear Senator album that Aphid purchased on his last love collection mission.” The accuser, Aphid, was very clearly the runt of his clutch. Small, obviously weak, and missing a few neural connections even in the hive-mind, I had come to the conclusion he shouldn’t be talking and leave the actual accusation to Dandelion Wasp, who was fulfilling the roll of prosecutor with aplomb and enthusiasm. Poor Pupa, on the other hand, was the changeling version of the Statuesque Blond. Long, sculpted legs, gorgeous proportions, and very clearly took care of her carapace. She was also smart enough to allow Harlequin do the talking for her. It was just as well, because Dandelion was making some very obvious passes at the changeling version of Fleur de Li. The greater the distance between the two, the better. Dandelion stepped forward, “That’s right, ma’am.” I had finally gotten them to stop calling me ‘your highness’ every time they addressed me, “It seems that Short and Clueless here is under the impression that a unicorn is capable of perfectly imitating a changeling that has never been out of the hive for the sole purpose of absconding with an album which is widely available in record stores throughout Equestria.” “Harley,” I turned to the changeling filling the roll of defense counselor who was eyeing Pupa with poorly disguised envy, “Does the accused have anything to say in her defense?” “Ma’am, it seems that Aphid has a history of accusing Pupa of stealing a wide variety of things, from breakfast items to random belongings. This is just another in a long string of such claims and like the others this one remains unfounded.” “So not guilty?” “Yes, your highness, not guilty.” “Very well, case is dismissed, and I’m going to ask a question that’s been bothering me; Aphid, do you even own a record player?” The somewhat dimwitted changeling seemed to ponder this for a moment, “Uh…” Flour Beetle turned to Bull, “Look at that, someone who’s even slower than you.” The very large changeling turned to his partner, “Uh…” Flour sighed, “Never mind, it’s a dead heat.” Macao had managed to dig up a pony-style gavel in the two hours I’d been playing judge, one I happily clacked against the throne’s ‘arm’ (the thing was huge, I’m not sure it actually qualified for traditional chair terminology), “All right, that’s a wrap for now, court is in recess until we can all get something to eat.” I nearly leapt out of my exoskeleton when I heard Chrysalis speak up behind me, “I see you’ve managed to abscond with my court, daughter.” I whipped around, the gavel clattering to the floor. The changelings around us pretended to be about their business, but it was obvious that they were lingering far longer than they needed. Hesitantly, I looked up to see Chrysalis’s lips curled up ever so slightly and an amused twinkle was in her eye. “Sooo…sorry about interrupting court, mom.” I offered. After only a moment’s hesitation, she pulled me in for a hug, “I apologize, as well. I should not have snapped at you like that. My dealings with Celestia…it’s a sore subject for me.” I pushed back gently to look up at her, “Yeah, you’re going to have to explain the history to me. That wasn’t exactly explored in the show.” “Given that the caribou are in no way appropriate for children, I can easily understand that part of our history might be glossed over.” She said with a touch of dark humor in her voice. “Wait, what?!” I gasped, “What do the caribou have to do with your history with Celestia?” She began walking me in the direction of our quarters, “My dear Chrystal, they have everything to do with it…” -=%@’ Over 1,000 years ago… “You see, my daughter, we changelings never used to have any direct dealings with the ponies. We mostly stuck to the shadows of pony society to collect love and feed the hive.” “That was until Timbucktu.” Timbucktu was a pegasus cloud city that sat over the peaks of three mountains, rather similar to the Windy City strides two peaks in modern Equestria. I had begun receiving reports that the general culture had begun growing more and more militant, that females of all races were beginning to be treated as second-class citizens, or even worse, being stripped of their citizenship entirely. Rather than forming herds, as had been the tradition amongst ponies up to then, where the females chose their stallions carefully based on which would best serve the herd going forward, the stallions were forming harems; the individual stallion choosing the mares of the harem based on which was most ‘pleasing’ to the stallion. When some of my changelings began being selected because their disguise forms were naturally more visually appealing than their pony mares, I began to get first hand reports from inside the harems; Unicorn mares having their horns lopped off, pegasus mares having their primaries clipped. In the most extreme cases, even the earth pony mares weren’t spared; their flexor tendons were cut and allowed to heal wrong, or even removed entirely. I attempted forming some sort of coalition at the time, but nothing could be formed in time to accomplish. The hippogryphs were too far removed, the Equestrian states were too busy trying to cobble together a government that wouldn’t fall back into three squabbling tribes again, and besides which their recently crowned Princesses were off in the Frozen North fighting King Sombra. I would only later make the connection between Sombra and the caribou…perhaps if I had been able to warn the Princesses, the Crystal Empire might have been saved. But then, I wouldn’t encounter my first caribou until around the same time as the fall of the Empire. With no chance of international support arriving in any sort of timely manner, I gathered as many changelings as I could and moved on Timbucktu. The reports were understated. Mares were unable to walk down the street unaccompanied by a male ‘lest they be accused of being whores and raped in the street. Foals being taught that mares being subservient to stallions was the natural order of things. And within minutes of my forces landing in the midst of Timbucktu that the true nature of the threat was revealed. I was marching at the head of a column of my soldiers down a road, its name lost to time, when I encountered my first caribou shaman. I was using my magic to rip off the veils being forced on mares (and showing to the world the abuse heaped on them by this twisted patriarchy that had sprung up in less than a generation) when I was interrupted by a shouted insult. “You, [female-perversion-monster]…” ‘@&=- “Whoah, whoah, whoah…’female perversion monster?’” I interrupted. Chrysalis smirked down at me, “It’s a slang-word from a fifteen-hundred-year-old dialect of a loan word from a dead language. The actual word is ‘tshufižatsalláfkibu’ and its most exact translation would be ‘female whore shadow,’ but that doesn’t precisely convey the intent behind the word.” I glowered at my goblet, filled with pomegranate juice, and forced myself to swallow some down around the bad taste that always seemed to come up whenever I read a fic involving the caribou. “Basically, they called you the worst form of whore they could.” She nodded while taking a bite of her own meal, “I am curious, though; how is it a story meant for young children includes the caribou?” I put down my goblet and sighed, “It didn’t. You can thank some…knuckle-draggers for that little contribution to pony-lore.” It was Chrysalis’ turn to be confused by language. “’Knuckle-draggers’? I understand the individual words, but the phrase…how does someone dragging their knuckles equate to the negative emotion you’re attaching to it?” “Ah,” I chuckled, allowing one of our usual anthropological discussions to lighten the mood, even if just a little, “Around midway through the 1800’s, the ‘Theory of Evolution’ was introduced to the public at large. While it remained controversial even to the day of my death, the notion was that humans had descended from apes was enough to create whole brand-new ways to discriminate against our fellow man. If you wanted to imply that someone was less well bred, less ‘evolved,’ one accused them of being ape-like in some fashion. Since most apes were quadrupedal instead of bipedal, if you were a ‘knuckle-dragger,’ you were basically being accused of being sub-human. Over the nearly two centuries since the phrase entered popular use, it moved from the purely racist connotations into something that you used against someone who had allowed some more base aspect to rule their intellect. Treating women as sub-human, for example, is considered an extremely primitive, proto-human mode of thought, so the use of the term in this context is to accuse them of being sub-human themselves, thereby dehumanizing them sufficiently to allow a sane person to not spiral into depression based on the realization that you might actually be related to the damned fools.” She nodded again in understanding, “So how did the caribou enter into it?” I picked up a sandwich and took a small bite before replying, “You remember how I told you about how the show’s creator accidentally made a show that would appeal to adults as well as kids, just because she didn’t follow the ‘girl’s entertainment’ formula?” At her nod, I continued, “Well, as more and more adults were exposed to the show and the fandom, by simple law of numbers that meant that we’d wind up with a statistically predictable percentage of deviants that liked some aspect of the show, but who missed the fuckin’ point.” “Ah,” interjected Chrysalis, “I believe I can fill in the blanks. Some fraction of a percentage of people ‘created’ the concept of the caribou, and this concept managed to take root in the larger collective canon of the show and its lore.” “Precisely,” I nodded in relief. I really wasn’t relishing rehashing the initial stories of ‘Fall of Equestria’ to Chrysalis, even if she’d lived through something like it. “Fortunately, anyone who published a ‘pure’ caribou story about the subjugation of females was pushed out of the fandom like a body rejecting an infection. It only took a few months for anyone posting any such story had to do it anonymously. Only a couple of months after that came the first ‘reaction’ fics, the ones where Celestia would tear apart the caribou single-handedly, or some long-forgotten tech would be woken up by a pony and the caribou would suddenly find their asses handed to them, that sort of thing.” Chrysalis gave me a warm smile at that, “You’ll have to tell me some of those in more detail, sometime. They sound like stories after my own heart.” We shared a knowing, predatory grin at that. -=%@’ “You, whore! What do you think you’re doing? Cease your disturbance of the peace and return to your master’s place!” the buck spat out at me. Wary, I glanced over to my soldiers, all of whom were watching me and awaiting orders. I turned back to the caribou, “I have no master, for I am Queen of All Changelings. I shall never bow to another.” “Foolish female!” growled the buck, “If you have no master, you shall become my slaves! Beginning with one so foolish as to call herself a queen!” With that, his antlers lit up, rather similar to the way a unicorn’s horn would, and a staff he held on a mount on his back also lit with sympathetic magic. As it did, I began feeling something pecking at my consciousness. It was as though a voice were attempting to wedge itself into my mind and insert thoughts which weren’t my own. Next to the hive-mind, of course, it was like listening to a single being with a megaphone attempting to drown out the cheering of a stadium full of changelings cheering at the top of their lungs. It was mind control magic, pure and simple; and this ungulate had just attempted it on the Queen of All Changelings. Thanks to my soldiers being so finely attuned to my will, he barely had time to gasp in shock as his life was snuffed out by twenty changeling soldiers all using their magic against him at once. “General!” I snapped to the nearest high-ranking soldier, “Get some scouting units airborne! Find out how many of these antlered creatures there are. If they’re using mind control, that would explain how an entire civilization was changed in just a few years like this.” My only wish about that campaign was that I had been able to bring more changelings. Thanks to the sheer overwhelming numbers of stallions and caribou bucks, we had to be very selective with our strikes. Our scouting parties were able to determine that the caribou had infested the very fabric of Timbucktu like termites. And like termites building up mounds where they lived, the caribou built compounds, fortresses really, inside the city walls. They used pegasii guards. Our initial attacks on them proved them to be heavily mind-controlled, requiring us to forcefully drain them almost entirely of emotion before they stopped mindlessly defending their invaders. The first of the caribou compounds to fall to us revealed the dark secret that kept the ponies enthralled; each one was built around a mana engine, a massive organic crystal lattice that broadcast their messages of male dominance and female subservience throughout the city. We lost an entire squad of changeling to the explosion that resulted from tearing apart the matrix of that first engine. The more I saw of what the caribou wrought, the angrier I became. Who allowed this to happen? Who let the mares of the ponies be so systematically destroyed while this network of mind control magic was laid so thoroughly throughout the city? I fixed my gaze on the palace, and the seat of power of King Orion. I led a strike team, all of us disguised as stallions or bucks, while I ordered the bulk of my forces to drop any disguises, those in harems included, and openly fight to draw out the bulk of the pony and caribou fighting forces. I identified a high ranking pegasus captain and we brought him down. I had to use our own brand of mind magic to put him to sleep and took his form. I returned to the battle, this time within the enemy’s own forces, and began issuing orders that would leave the ponies and caribou vulnerable while I issued commands through the hive mind to the changelings that would press those advantages. Within half an hour, the battle was turning into a rout. I called for retreat even as King Orion was demanding that we remain in the field of battle. My changelings made a fantastic show, giving every impression of nipping at the heels of the retreating defending forces as we piled into the palace and barricaded the doors. Within moments, the arrogant king was ‘debriefing’ me, “What was the meaning of the calls for retreat? And what happened, commander? We went from having overwhelming numbers and clear tactical advantage to nearly losing the city? I demand an explanation!” “I’m afraid it was necessary…” I replied as I engaged the last lock in the barricaded doors. “Necessary for what?!” barked the King. “For this!” I dropped my disguise. Predictably, the coward sent first his soldiers, then his harem after me. The fool had no way of knowing that every mind-controlled servant he sent after me he only made me stronger. I siphoned off the tainted love, forcibly tearing out all the caribou-influenced emotions from the ponies, leaving them blank slates where none of the evil magic would be able to find a foothold. Eventually, it was just the King. He picked up a spear and shouted at me, “I’ll take you down myself, vile female bug!” I didn’t realize at the time that his attitude towards females was his own and not influenced by the caribou. I wouldn’t understand the caribou always sought out at least one sympathetic male that already allied with their world-view until much later, so I didn’t realize that what I had thought was a mercy would actually be what would sow the seeds of distrust between Celestia and I. “You are a disgrace of a leader!” I snapped at him as he charged me, “You cannot elevate one part of your people by tearing down another!” I seized him in my magic and kicked the spear away with a hoof. “Hopefully when I’m through with you, you will remember the love for your people someone in your position should have.” With that, I drained him of his emotions. As I picked up his crown from where it had fallen off his head and opened the doors, I allowed him to fly off. I wanted any of the city defenders to witness their defeated king fleeing so as to break the morale of the fighting forces. One of my captains at the time approached me, intending to deliver a message from one of my generals in the field. “Your Highness…what of the caribou that were inside?” At that moment I felt a bit of the fool. I hadn’t even realized that none of the invaders had joined in the retreat into the palace. “…there were none. I have a feeling that we may have been played on that count.” I growled, my body attempting to expel the tainted emotions through the magic channels in my eyes, wings, hooves, and horn, “These…caribou are a scourge. No survivors, make every attempt to identify any leaders so we can display their severed heads as a warning. Disable the ponies and any of the other races in the city if at all possible. They’re victims. Destroy all the caribou compounds. What was your message?” The captain smirked darkly, “What we should do with the prisoners, my queen?” I returned his smile and he left to relay my orders. From there, we laid siege to the remainder of the city until every single caribou control crystal was destroyed. We changelings were regarded with distrust and suspicion even as we liberated an entire city. We received no cooperation from the natives, but then, we didn’t ask for it. In the end, we didn’t actually achieve many caribou kills. They were entirely too clever at using their brainwashed pony slaves as shields, throwing entire companies of pegasii at us as they committed a retreat. By the time we had cleared the city, we had managed less than 40 caribou deaths. When we had finished the grim task of purging an entire city’s populous of the magically tainted emotions, we still faced the logistical problem of being a comparatively tiny force that would have to defend a massive metropolis. It was a relief when I received word that a regiment of pegasii from Equestria were approaching in advance of an army of ponies, including unicorns and earth ponies, headed by Celestia herself. She and her sister had apparently finished their campaign in the Frozen North (and subsequently lost the Crystal Empire, though I was unaware of that at the time) and King Orion had relayed his tale of an invading force of bug-like ponies. Naturally, I was ignorant of the lies the king had planted in Princess Celestia’s mind, I just wanted my changelings to be able to leave the blighted city and return home, so we fell back as a wave recedes from a beach as the tide goes out. The “rescuers” never even saw a single changeling, only had reports of a mysterious race of insect-like creatures that drained emotions and destroyed buildings. ‘@&=- “While we saved the populous, the city was lost. Within two generations, the ponies had abandoned the Triple Peaks of Timbucktu, and shortly thereafter the pegasus magic holding the clouds together failed, scattering the city to the winds.” Chrysalis finished her tale with a sip of wine. I nudged the last few bites of sandwich around on my plate, contemplating what I’d learned, “I’m guessing that there’s more to the history between you and Celestia than that.” She nodded, “I think I’ll save more of that tale for another day. I believe our changelings are awaiting their young queen’s continued efforts in court.” I rolled my eyes, “Of course, I take initiative once and I’m given even more to do!” I playfully blew a raspberry at her. She hopped out of her seat and chuckled at my antics, “Just think, one of these days you might even be considered responsible.” I theatrically shuddered, “Perish the thought!”