//------------------------------// // 14 - Rumours // Story: Change: The New Kingdom // by tom117z //------------------------------// Home was a welcome sight indeed. The zeppelins of The New Kingdom had escorted the HMS Clover the Clever a good way from their coastline before they’d finally turned back and left them to their journey. And even then, Twilight wasn’t so sure it was because they were far enough away that they felt safe more so than they feared going any further out towards Equestria. Or perhaps they weren’t fuelled for such a journey, who was to say? Either way, once everything had been packed onto the ship and all ponies and changelings were accounted for, they had set off back to Vanhoover and made it to the friendly shore without further incident. It may have been far sooner than any of them had expected, but given recent events, most of the ponies and changelings on board could breathe a sigh of relief upon stepping onto those familiar docks. Lingering disappointment from those scholarly few looking to make their next great discoveries in the land of their ancestors, perhaps. But ultimately the initial contact with The New Kingdom, while tense, hadn’t been a complete disaster. Given how much worse a misunderstanding between them could have been, that was a victory. And that only served to make the high towers of Canterlot an ever so much sweeter sight. A heavy contrast to the muted colours of Unicornia, however comparable the alicorns at the top were, the familiar hustle and bustle of ponies of all kinds, not to mention those of a decidedly less equine nature, all intermingling as the norm. If only King Ignis could see it, or so Twilight idly thought to herself. To show the long-lost cousins of the Equestrians that they didn’t need to be fearful of what lay beyond their own walls. That the reign of the wendigos was long past. Sure, there were always troubles to combat to keep such a peace, Twilight knew that better than most, but it was worth it for those colourful streets and happy faces she could see down below. “Are you alright?” Façade asked his wife, banking to be in flight next to her as they approached the castle. “Your emotions are flaring a tad on the anxious side.” “Sorry to let that show,” she apologised. “But I hope you see the relief in there too.” “Oh yeah, I do. But it’s not my wife’s relief that worries me,” he responded before frowning to himself. “Did that come out wrong? I feel like that came out wrong.” “It depends on what kind of relief you want to give me,” Twilight cheekily said with a purr. “Okay. Stop that.” Twilight laughed to herself, her mind briefly wandering to another she once knew who had a similar reaction. But she shook those ancient thoughts from her mind, focusing her mind on the present rather than the long past. “I’m just trying to figure out what to tell Celestia and Luna,” she said. “A ‘Hey there, you have a cousin across the ocean who is a benevolent xenophobe’ isn’t the greatest ice breaker.” “To be fair, they know the premise of why we’re back so early. Spike saw to that,” he replied, nodding to the nearby dragon flying with them. “It’ll be fine.” “As fine as it always is,” the Queen replied as she came in for a landing in the castle grounds, her hooves gently touching down alongside her changelings’ while Spike carefully latched onto a tower. “Right. Let’s get this ridiculous misadventure over with before something explodes. Whether that’s because of Discord, The New Kingdom or Avia trying to research the heck out of this discovery.” “The hive will be fine, and Carduus is keeping a close eye on our daughter. Now hurry up, we’re alarming the castle’s staff.” “Yes, sir,” Twilight sarked. “Spike, are you okay sticking around for a little while longer.” “Hey, I’m here for the long haul,” the dragon assured her. “You would be hopeless without me.” “Right. Entirely,” the Queen said with a roll of her eyes. “Guards, remain here for the time being. I will return once I have discussed the present situation with the Princesses of Equestria.” “Yes, my Queen!” came the typical universal reply. Twilight nodded, letting out a breath as the lavender Changeling Queen quickly set forth and ducked into the nearest doorway leading into the depths of the castle. Her mind automatically drew up more parallels as she went, everything from the structural differences to the general demeanours of the ponies around her. ‘I remember when the looks a changeling would receive here were not so different than what I witnessed across the sea,” she mused to herself, a distant twinge occurring on her chest. “Back when there were ponies like the one who gave me this scar. But I meant what I said to him back there. We ourselves were much the same, if not worse. That doesn’t mean we can’t change for the better.” And she was hopeful of such an event. After all, from her admittedly brief view, it looked like he was genuinely loved by his subjects. A hero of a distant rebellion, giving to the poor and rebuilding a dying society… The parallels to the alicorn sisters were staggering if you thought about it. Given a crown out of necessity, rebuilding from just about nothing into a kingdom to stand the test of time. “Twilight?” “Celestia?” Twilight blinked in surprise, not having realised she’d come face to face with those very sisters mid walk! “I didn’t see you there. I was… thinking.” “A study within the confines of one’s own mind palace,” Luna jabbed. “Does that not return memories from times of old?” “Funny,” Twilight deadpanned in turn. “But I was just on my way to the throne room, I didn’t think I’d run into you, well, here!” “A guard informed us of your return. We saw fit to attend to you ourselves.” “Yes, are you okay?” Celestia stepped forward with motherly worry replacing regal grace. “We did receive your message. Another country of ponies? Unicorns? Another alicorn!?” “What was it your mother used to say…?” Luna wondered. “Ah, yes. I believe it was ‘Why is it always you’ that would be uttered.” “Then next time perhaps you should invite yourself to the expedition to unknown lands. But to answer your question, Celestia, I’m fine. Intrigued, a little surprised maybe, but things could have gone so much worse.” Celestia breathed a sigh of relief, nuzzling her daughter-figure on the cheek. “I am quite glad to hear that; this was a far more stressful situation than I’d wanted for you. I’d hoped for it to be a more relaxing change of pace for you, despite Discord’s machinations.” “I’m hardly a foal anymore, you know I can look after myself and those under me. Besides, I do consider this to be a worthy challenge.” “A challenge indeed. To think, those left behind upon our great exodus would build something so vast yet so well obscured for all this time…” Luna noted, walking aside and glancing out a window at the horizon. “I remember little from that time. But the bite of the cold is not something that fades.” “And neither have they forgotten, if I’m reading Spike’s words correctly,” Celestia added. “This… ‘Ignis’, another alicorn… It hardly seems possible. Finding Cadance after a millennium was a shock, Flurry’s birth more so. And now to discover one of our own kind has existed for some time already.” “A couple of centuries at least,” Twilight clarified. “He described leading a rebellion against a corrupt monarch. The people than practically forced a crown onto his head at a young age and had him fix their mess.” “His ‘Discord’,” Luna remarked. “Alicorns were never one for obscurity, were we?” “By design or otherwise,” Celestia agreed. “Well-liked by his people, but fearful of what exists across the sea. How many adventurous souls vanished trying to cross their territory I have to wonder?” “They lived if it’s any consolation,” the Queen informed them. “Trapped there, but alive.” “Yet the act remains an immoral one,” Luna replied disapprovingly. Celestia nodded along with her sister’s point. “I have to agree. However, under the circumstances, it may be a point we must forgive. They are out of touch with the world, this meeting may be just what they need to realise that time has improved much in the world.” Twilight hummed. “Out of touch, yes, but not entirely out of date. They have some comparable technology, if a bit more rudimentary in its design. Zeppelins and other air transport, rotorcraft included, though a lack of firearms. I would pin their technology at being more or less where we were when I was still your student. With some variance when taking into account cultural differences and similar conditions.” “Twilight, I hope you’re not sizing them up for a fight?” “I’m a Changeling Queen, I may hold the virtues of friendship first and foremost, but I’m always sizing up for a fight.” “Then we shall hold that as a resort should the Magic of Friendship fall upon deaf ears,” Luna noted with a hint of amusement. “Yes, but let’s hope that’s just idle paranoia,” Celestia said with an irritated glance at both of them. “Did he express any interest in diplomatic overture?” “From what I gathered, there is a general sentiment to be left alone,” Twilight explained. “However, the King’s advisor and assistant, Assisting Hoof, I got a sense that he might be reluctantly supportive. Maybe. The Captain of the Guard, meanwhile, was entirely against our presence.” “A Captain is want to be protective of his realm, I can understand his view,” Luna mused. “But what of the King himself? His left and right hoof ponies aside, he as a person.” “If it was just me, I don’t think we’d have much of a chance. That would be a change too soon and far too quickly. However, he expressed some knowledge of you, Celestia. And when I told him about four other alicorns, he seemed incredibly interested in what I had to say.” “Two centuries of being the only one of your kind… Yes, I can imagine so,” the Princess of the Sun said. “Then this is where we must start. I will pen him a message myself expressing interest in an exchange of knowledge and history, though we should not forward any true diplomatic proposal right away.” “I see, get the stallion comfortable with our coexistence before we widen the conversation to include the futures of our two nations,” Luna agreed. “Pen pals,” Twilight quipped. “The start of many distant friendships.” “A little more formal, but I concede the comparison.” “But,” Celestia continued. “If my introduction gets a positive result, the rest of Equestria’s alicorns should join in. I do believe that Flurry Heart, as the youngest of us, would be a particular voice he should hear. An insight into our current times in its purest form.” “Just don’t let Cadenza start planning political marriages,” Luna dryly remarked. “If it was anypony she planned to marry off, it’d be one of you two. She’s surprisingly critical when it comes to Flurry’s choice of partners,” Twilight said with a small smirk. “I’ll… be sure to curb that train of thought before it manifests into something too devious,” Celestia decided, shuddering to think what her niece’s latest schemes to find her a significant other might bring. “I’ll have Valiant brief Vladimir on the specifics also, just in case.” “Well, it appears we have, at the very least, a basis of a plan to deal with this unexpected situation,” the lunar alicorn stated. “Yet another entity of the ancient past rears its head. This is most delicate, and the past thirty-five years of peace and stability could be upset should we handle this incorrectly. And recalling the unrest and chaos of the previous conflict, I… I do not wish to see such things again. I have wrought too much myself and seen too much for that.” Celestia gave her young sister a small smile, placing an alabaster wing over her and giving her a loving nuzzle on the head in a gesture of comfort. “Oh, my little sister. You always felt things far more deeply than you would dare let on.” “I reject the implication.” The larger mare chuckled. “Of course. But we won’t let it come to that. We’ve worked too hard since the rampage of Immortalis to build this present world, we won’t let it be toppled.” “On that, I can’t agree more…” Twilight muttered, her mind thinking back on the dark Empress and all she brought. Cities, towns and villages destroyed, thousands dead, the annihilation of much of the Equestria she had been raised in. Partially brought about by her own, albeit unwilling, hoof. Decades of rebuilding and reinforcing the friendships and bonds with other nations, expanding the world not through war but through diplomacy and understanding… No, she would not let this bring it all down. For Avia, she would not see the world set aflame once more… A long way from Canterlot… Queen Vulgaris sat atop her throne, a small black stone slowly rotating in front of her, held loosely in her green magical aura. The red Changeling Queen let out a slow fuming breath as her daughter’s defiance rang still fresh in her ears. Imperious, her beloved daughter, now beholden to Twilight Sparkle like the rest of the fools who dared to call themselves the Queens’ Council. And as precious as she was to her, Vulgaris’ heart seethed at her lack of realisation to the predicament this left their race in! ‘To be so reliant on another species, making ‘friends’. What rubbish. We were once the pinnacle of life, now we eat Celestia’s scraps.’ Oh, how her peers would argue the reverse. That before they’d been ‘scavengers’, now they ate better than ever. Perhaps there was an element of truth in that. They ate scraps then, too. But now they just ate gilded scraps instead. They were a lapdog, too cosy and complacent. No, the pinnacle they should be striving for was the empire of old! Immortalis, as monstrous as she was in the total domination of her own kind, wasn’t entirely wrong nor incompetent. If they could just return to that level of power, total control of all the lands around the First Hive, but with the Queens’ Council intact as a governing body… That’s what she thought Crudelis had wanted, but her old friend was little more than a power-mad pawn for the Empress. And Immortalis herself… Well, if there was one good thing that she could say about Twilight Sparkle, it was that she killed that arrogant bitch. Because, of course, she is so much different. But she was, wasn’t she? She had no reason to take full control, to enslave her own kind. That barbarity was the downfall of the Empress and Queen Crudelis. But even with her sights far more reasonable, the supremacy of her kind as a whole rather than for the one, her kind no longer agreed. That underlying fact remained, so she was forced to wait… Still, at least she could make preparations, just in case. Just like the rock that she twirled so casually, the chitin-like object glinting in the lighting flames around the throne room of her hive. So rare, astronomically difficult to produce and expensive to boot. How much it had cost her in trade with another hive just for this sliver, one piece of a larger whole gained in trade with Queen Tempora. The first of its kind to exist since the time of Imperatrix, where it had been used in a red rune that she wore on her person… She had no idea what process the late grandmother of Chrysalis used to turn it from black to red such as it was, let alone alter its properties. This tiny, seemingly insignificant, little object hummed with changeling magic with one clear intent. Nullification. Specifically, the nullification of all magic lacking in a changeling signature. It lacked direction, of course, and would affect all non-changelings with no dictation. Imperatrix’s enhanced rune had been more… refined. Effecting even changelings, but only so long as the user willed it. Such had been the method of attack used by Vespula’s assassin, Serpens. Vulgaris herself had been tempted to try her luck at retrieving it, but she dare not incur the wrath of Imperatrix’s progeny. Not yet. She wasn’t even sure how Tempora had rediscovered the secrets of its creation, and she sure as the hives wasn’t sharing. Understandable, as unstable yet powerful as it was. But now she had this shard. It had cost much and taken such a long time to convince the other Changeling Queen to part with it. And only this small piece, its range reduced from protecting a whole hive to Vulgaris’ immediate surroundings. But it was enough, just in case… “My Queen!” Ah, her ‘love collector’ in Canterlot. She did hope his information would be a little more worth her time than it had been previously… “Yes, drone? What is it?” “Queen Twilight Sparkle appears to be back early from her expedition.” “…Yes. So?” “That’s the thing, your Majesty. There are a lot of murmurings around the city, and I have been wandering the changeling embassies. I overheard a drone from Cocoon’s hive claim she had been talking with the Equestrian Hive’s ambassador. It’s unconfirmed, but I believe they discovered another civilisation in the west. Something about a ‘kingdom’.” Vulgaris frowned, sitting up straight and placing her rock aside for the moment. This news was unexpected, she had never thought anything of the so-called Undiscovered West. The homeland of the ponies, yes. But one supposedly lost to the snows of the wendigos long ago. “You are certain? What kind of kingdom?” “Ponies? I am sorry, my Queen. I will continue to attempt to get clarification. However, they sounded worried. I’m not entirely sure things got off to a smooth start diplomatically speaking.” Vulgaris sighed. More ponies, the last thing she needed! Why did their intrusive species have to- …A poor diplomatic situation, did he say? “How so?” “I don’t know that either, your Majesty. Only that it has Queen Twilight worried.” “Very well, you shall continue to investigate this matter as thoroughly as possible. I want to know everything there is to know about this kingdom. What exactly their relationship with Equestria is at present, and how much they know of our own kind…” “Understood?” Vulgaris hummed to herself, suddenly feeling in a marginally better mood. Perhaps this day would be perfect after all…