//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 - Perfecting // Story: Lost Little Wolf // by PrincessColumbia //------------------------------// Chapter 11 – Perfecting “Depression is the flaw in love. To be creatures who love, we must be creatures who can despair at what we lose, and depression is the mechanism of that despair.” ―Andrew Solomon,The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression As the days without word of the Caribou stretched into weeks, then months, the alert level of the hive went down. Chrysalis became less volatile and things started to return to normal. After nearly two years, Chrysalis decided that a diplomatic visit was in order to Thicket, a city state buried deep in the heart of the Everfree Forest. This was my first major trip out of the hive, and the first where I wouldn't be returning to my comfortable, quiet room in the royal quarters. Our travel itinerary had us stop by the whistle-stop town of Wanderlust (where Chrysalis had taken me and the other young changelings years prior on a day trip) to catch the train heading north through the Macintosh Hills, switch trains at Ponyville, and then hop off the moving train at a location known only to changelings and (as I would come to find out) Reindeer. Sleep the first night was a little hard to come by. I'd gone from being in nearly complete bedtime isolation, both mental and physical, to being surrounded by ponies (and changelings in disguise) and mom riding right next to me. In addition to the sounds and motion of the train, there was the sounds, smells (eugh!), and emotions of the ponies, plus the limited hivemind that would grow and shrink as we passed by and through communities large enough to host enough changelings for love collection operations. It was finally just plain exhaustion that caused me to drop off into dreams, and when I finally did Nightmare Moon greeted me amidst the dark tunnels of the hive. "My dear friend, how art thou?" she smiled as she gave me a neck-hug that equinoids used when they wanted to show casual affection. I refrained from pointing out that her "Nightmare" visage was slipping. That had begun a little over a year and a half ago, and I made the mistake of calling her "Luna" and pointing it out. That had set her off on a tantrum and numerous attempts to frighten me by modifying my dreams. For someone who suffered night terrors, attempts from a friend to frighten me were akin to attending a Halloween "haunted house" put on by a well-meaning but severely inexperienced youth pastor from a community church; mostly jump-scares and attempts to frighten me into what the "scare-er" thought was the correct path. Much like the brain made of jello, the attempts were more pathetic than anything truly frightening. "Bleh, I've decided I hate travel as a changeling. Too much clatter and chatter and...noise to really enjoy the road trip." As though the words acted as a summoning spell, the dream abruptly changed and we were once again in my van, this time re-creating my road trip from Phoenix, Arizona to Spokane, Washington. "Oh, goody! You haven't shown me this part of your human experience before, where are we?" The child-like smile on Moon's face gave me a chuckle. I surveilled the countryside as I drove, Dream-Logic allowing me to do so without opposable thumbs or even really thinking about it. "I'd say we're in southern Utah somewhere. I expect we'll find a gas station coming up here soon, it's probably the only one in a hundred-mile stretch, which is what makes this particular bit of freeway stick out in my memory." Sure enough, a fuel-station and rest stop that had been new sometime in the 1960's came into view. The dream railroaded the van into pulling over for a fuel top-off, and both Nightmare and I broke out into laughter when a thoroughly confused Chrysalis stepped out of the convenience store. --=-- Nightmare Moon opted for the back seat, partaking in my memories of road trip snacks (chips, crackers, trail mix, beverages both caffeinated and non, and a moon pie that she wouldn't stop giggling at the thought of) while Momma Chrysalis took the passenger seat. “So because we’re on a road trip, we must engage in this silly fantasy?” queried Chrysalis. “Mom, c’mon, it’s not any sillier than the full-bed seats that we’re laying in in the waking world.” I replied, pulling out my old iPod and cuing up my favorite road tripping music. “Besides,” Moon interrupted from the back seat, “This is the only way I get to experience new things until the ‘thousandth year of my sister’s reign.” Animosity over Celestia was one of the ways the two had bonded after their initial meetings, and while I would roll my eyes whenever they started in, I had heard enough similar bitch sessions from my aunts when I was a kid to let it bother me or attempt to correct their perceptions. "Actually, mom, I remember a while back you said something about Sombra having something to do with the Caribou, which is the primary reason we're on this trip," I deftly inserted into the conversation, "Care to elaborate on that?" Nightmare Moon paused in guzzling a Mountain Dew, "Wait, what? What does that horrible, mewling coward of a stallion have to do with the reindeer?!" "Not reindeer," replied Chrysalis, "Caribou. There is a distinct difference." "Kinda like the difference between Vulcans and Romulans?" I offered. At their blank stares, I blushed and said, "Never mind, forgot who I was talking to." "After we had pulled out of Timbucktu..." Began Chrysalis. Nightmare leaned forward to put her head between mine and mom's, "That was you? Well, yes, I suppose in retrospect that does make sense," Moon pondered, "But why did you attack Timbucktu in the first place?" I rolled my eyes, "I'll explain later, Moony." "After we had pulled out of Timbucktu, I dedicated as many resources as we could spare and still keep the hive functioning to the search for the Caribou. Having only known of them from our encounter in the pegasii city, we had only the physical descriptions to go on." "Both overt and discreet inquiries to the surrounding nations gave us enough clues to venture into the Frozen North. This, coupled with a sudden cessation of all reports from the changelings that were stationed in the Crystal Empire were enough to warrant an investigation." "We had no railroads at the time, of course, so it was an over-land journey, and one that was laden with confusion as I led our investigatory teams north; many of the ponies we spoke to gave us vague warnings of the Empire being lost, but as they were mostly operating off of rumor and hearsay, the image painted for us was unclear, more of what one might expect of a devastated nation-state that had been abandoned to the elements." "When we arrived at the spot the Empire was supposed to be, we found...nothing." Moon gave out a pained sigh, "Yes, I recall what was left." Chrysalis turned in her seat to her fellow immortal, "I frequently forget that you were there. I'm afraid your sister has rather overshadowed you in history by this point. Even the Crystal Empire has been largely forgotten." The surge of hatred banished the clouds of loss in Nightmare Moon's eyes as she focused on Chrysalis, "Do not concern yourself with forgetting my actions, or the consequences of them. Even my little ponies gave the credit nearly entirely to my sister upon our return from the North. It was our combined efforts that defeated Sombra, though how he engineered the entire Empire to simply...disappear like it did...I can guess, I simply cannot say for certain." "I have...suspicions." interjected Chrysalis, "Perhaps you can tell us what happened and we can piece together the events into a tangible whole." Moon nodded firmly and began her own tale. [^]<^>|^| My sister and I had been hearing tales of a unicorn supremacist taking over the Crystal Empire, and given the nature of the magic inherent in the Crystal Ponies, it began to affect other places in Equestria as well. As young as the nation was at the time, a mere 500 years old and still recovering from Discord's tyranny, we couldn't afford to let anything that would fracture our nation remain stagnant for long. We departed for the Frozen North after only the sparest of planning. We initially had considered bringing an army, but with the schism between the unicorns and the rest of Equestria meant that we'd have to leave our most formidable combat magic behind, and taking a contingent of earth ponies and pegasii would have weakened the position of both tribes at home, leaving them vulnerable to the nascent unicorn supremacy movement. We made the choice to go alone, relying on our overwhelmingly powerful alicorn nature to take the place of an army. To our horror, the crystal ponies had been thoroughly brainwashed. We were attacked outright, and it quickly became apparent that we were targeted merely because we were female. Once we realized that, it wasn't much of a revelation to discover that all the attacking soldiers were males under the full body plating and helmets of Sombra's military. The helms contained some sort of crystal lattice, shaped from the very black crystals that the evil king coveted. Once we determined that, discovering Somra's location was quite easy; we used a magical resonance cascade and traced the source of the magical signal to the Crystal Palace. As we flew inward toward the city center, the magic thrumming through the black crystals began hammering our psyche. We had to retreat some ways in order to perform mind-purging magic on each other. My sister suggested we find a way to dismantle the magical lattice that infested the city at least somewhat so as to eliminate its effects on us long enough to complete our mission. We determined that while the black crystals were conducting and amplifying the magic, the source of the signal was inside compounds scattered throughout the city. [^]<^>|^| "I suspect," said Chrysalis, "That those were the original Caribou forts." Nightmare Moon and I had cajoled Momma Chrysalis into drinking a Red Bull, something she was only sipping at. I saw it as an opportunity to experiment; what would the dream-induced effects of a dream-created energy drink be on a dreamer? Moony saw it as a practical joke; whether Chrysalis got wired in the dream or the pseudo-caffeine tricked her system into waking up, it'd be a net win for Nightmare Moon. I think Chrysalis had a hunch we were up to shenanigans, ergo the sipping instead of the quaffing we were encouraging her to do. "What would the Caribou have wanted with Sombra, anyway?" Inquired Nightmare Moon. "The Crystal Empire is fairly far afield from the reindeer's usual stomping grounds from what I understand. Isn't their city in the midst of the Everfree Forest?" "Again, the reindeer are a different people from the caribou." Chrysalis reiterated, "In both cases, they're actually ideally suited to the Frozen North. Once upon a time they were a nomadic people who roamed the northern stretches of the world. It was actually the Crystal Empire's original Imperial actions that drove them southward." She took another sip and looked off into the distance of the Idaho farmlands contemplatively, "The Caribou may have been attempting to reclaim their traditional lands, they're rather fundamentalist like that." "In any case, the Caribou don't begin their invasions outright. They are patient, they observe, they send in scouts masquerading as merchants or travelers or explorers, they find a male in the city they seek to take over who is sympathetic to their way of life, ideally one who feels that females should be subject to males, and it's an added bonus if the mark is a petty tyrant who feels they should be the ruler of not just the city, but has larger goals on creating an empire of their own." "Once they've found their ally, they use them as a front; they purchase land for their first compound, then seed it with a control crystal. They build the compound around it, hiring from the locals to staff and guard it to avoid arousing suspicion. Once the crystal is of sufficient size, they bring in their priests, who start casting the necessary spells to begin their mind control on the area around the compound. They will then build other compounds in a hexagonal pattern until they've covered the whole city, or as near to the whole city as is physically possible. Once the final compound is complete, they merely need wait until all the males are brainwashed and all the females are subjugated. A handful of caribou can take over an entire city the size of Manehattan if given the time to do so, and nobody will be the wiser for it until it's too late." There was silence in the van as Chrysalis took another sip. Nightmare Moon and I were simply gawking at her, suddenly speechless at this calm recitation of the Caribou battle plan, as well as slightly stunned at the evil, subtle ruthlessness of it. She turned to face us, "I've encountered them numerous times in the past thousand years. I've had ample opportunity to study their methods." Moon cleared her throat and resumed her story. [^]<^>|^| We did not find any rein...Caribou. We simply found and dismantled the crystals inside the structures, and we quickly determined that an appropriately tuned magical pulse into the control crystals at the right moment of their collapse would cause a cascade failure in the nearby black crystals.Celestia preferred to leave the magical challenges to me, so it became my task to tear apart the crystals while she took down the waves of soldiers that Sombra sent after us as mercifully as she could. It took hours, but we finally made our way into the heart of the city and the Crystal Palace itself. We were unable to locate the Crystal Heart, and this was probably what caused the loss of the Empire. Sombra proved too much of a challenge, having mastered the ability to harness the black crystals to discorporate himself. It was also his weakness, as we later found out. As we climbed the steps to the Crystal Heart platform, Sombra materialized before us and issued a challenge. Once again, Celestia engaged in combat as I dealt with the crystals arrayed around us. In the place of the Crystal Heart was a large black crystal, similar in growth and design to the Caribou control crystals, but very clearly made by Sombra himself. [^]<^>|^| "This crystal," interrupted Chrysalis, "How do you know it was Sombra's design?" "Mostly physical differences,lattice structure, geometry, size and composition, that sort of thing." Replied Nightmare Moon. Mom was contemplative for a few moments, then spoke up, "This does explain a few things, actually. Specifically,what we found at the site of the Imperial Seat, or rather, where it should have been." "How do you mean?" I asked. Chrysalis grabbed a quick breath, as though steeling herself, "We found the bodies of over four-hundred caribou. The bodies were located about where the Crystal Palace was supposed to be. We believe that Sombra had buried them in a sub-basement." There was once again stunned silence in the van, this time accompanied by the patter of rain against the windows. [^]<^>|^| Celestia was having some rather severe difficulty in fighting Sombra. "Prithee, what is the delay, sister?!" I snapped out at her as I scanned the crystal lattice for weakness. A dome of light sprung up around me as I worked on the crystal, just before the vile smoke that was Sombra's incorporeal form slammed into it; the sound like a war drum echoed in the tiny chamber, vibrating the crystal as much as my ears. Celestia landed next to me, easily passing through her own shield, "Tis his infernal gaseous form, Lulu. 'Fighting smoke' is an understatement!" So saying, she overloaded the shield with magic, causing it to explode outward, momentarily ejecting the dark mist a considerable distance. "Thou knowest we would be rid of at least half the challenge were't that crystal not powering the fiend." I rolled my eyes at her, "Verily, if only there was somepony available who Starswirl considered gifted in magic present in this battle, mayhap we might be able to defeat King Sombra's vile traps!" Celestia fired a beam of solar energy at a portion of Sombra's cloud that was beginning to re-form, frustrating his efforts to attack us again. "Sarcasm suits thee not, sister." My scans finally yielded results at that moment, revealing not just the frequency but also the cipher to the magical spell that was controlling the populous. "It suits Us well enough, sister!" I shouted triumphantly as I triggered the harmonics to overload the black crystal. The black control crystal shattered, and like a stone splashing in the center of a pond, the black resonance crystals shattered in a wave outward from us. As the caribou control crystals exploded mightily, taking their compounds with them, we heard Sombra's voice carried through his smokey form, "Noooooo!" "Huzzah, sister!" shouted Celestia, "Thou hast defeated the dark king!" Then, to our horror, the very city around us began to discorporate into nothing. [^]<^>|^| "We...that is I believe that when the resonance crystals shattered, the spell that controlled Sombra's corporeal form blasted outward, causing the city to simply...vanish into the mist, along with any crystal pony unlucky enough to be caught in it. They were biologically attuned to the magic of the Empire, after all; what affects the Empire, affects the crystal ponies and vice versa." Moon hung her head, clearly reliving the sting of having victory snatched away from her in a tragic deus ex machina that she couldn't have foreseen. We sat in silence, the solitude of the open road slowly retreating to a small city as the vehicle once again directed itself to a truck stop where I had gone for food and to sleep for the night on the original trip that inspired the dream in my human life. Chrysalis spoke as she examined the bright neon lights of the city signage, "Sombra must have studied the caribou's magic and hijacked it for his own purposes, then killed them as soon as he no longer had use for them." "It probably wasn't even hard," I chimed in, "I'm betting the caribou hadn't even bothered to modify their spell once they got the basic functionality down. He probably just had to tinker with a control crystal until one of its basic routines crashed, then that would have given him the entry into the rest of the system. Given he was an expert at crystal magic, by the time he was done I'd bet he knew the system better than the original caribou that made the crystals in the first place." Now it was the two immortal's turn to look at me slack-jawed. "What? I was an engineer and hacker in my human life. Magic isn't a whole lot different from coding and system engineering." Chrysalis shook her head, "Well, be that as it may, our expedition to the Frozen North wasn't the only one. Right after we found the dead caribou, we were confronted with live reindeer." As soon as Mom dropped that particular conversational bomb, a train whistle blew, and the city outside the van started to vanish. "Aw, man!" I exclaimed, "I'm starting to wake up!" Nightmare lunged forward in a hug, "I'll see you tomorrow night, thanks for the memory of the snacks!" -~/^\~- I awoke with a tiny snort, "Sure thi...damnit!" I was back in the waking world, once again disguised as a teenaged unicorn with metal wing cutie mark. Next to me, Chrysalis (disguised as a pink unicorn with a startling resemblance to Princess Cadence but with a treble clef cutie mark) woke up,"Language, my daughter." I stuck my tongue out at her. "Don't think you're off the hook about the next part of the story." I groused. She merely giggled as she magicked our luggage out from under our seat, the disguised scouts and soldiers that were our entourage surreptitiously mirroring her actions as the train pulled into Ponyville Station.