//------------------------------// // 15 - Opportunity // Story: Change: The New Kingdom // by tom117z //------------------------------// This was so unfair! Avia was splayed out across her bed, letting out a huge groan as she mentally sifted through the general chatter of the hive mind. A couple of orders from the guards here, a few general notice broadcasts there… Oh, and the aggravatingly common public bombarding of talk surrounding the Three Tribes of the ponies’ past and this ‘New Kingdom’ that her mother had discovered. ‘She always gets to make the big discoveries,’ she thought to herself with a pout. ‘I’ll get her back for this. Probably. Somehow. Gah!’ The Princess of the Equestrian Hive sighed, sitting up and stretched her wings out with a satisfying click of her back muscles. On top of the floods of chatter around the hive about the historically significant discovery, Avia had just finished with a briefing her mother saw fit to give her over their link. All the gritty details down to the odd crack in the stone walls of Ignis’ castle. She had to admit that it helped, she could almost see the images as her mother had seen them. But it wasn’t the same as actually being there. Though she was also a little mad that they’d shot chains out of a cannon at Uncle Spike, that was not cool. Jerks. The Princess rolled off of her bed and landed on the floor firmly on all four hooves, taking a moment to shrug off any remaining stiffness in her limbs before walking down alongside the rightmost row of bookshelves with her eyes scanning for any of her books on the formerly Undiscovered West. “No, not that one, that’s a fairy tale, that one written by a mad pony… Ah, there you are!” She lit up her curved lavender horn and extracted a book entitled ‘The Hearth’s Warming Incident: An Examination of Equestria’s Foundation’. It was a more recent study written by a mare named Moondancer, an old friend of her mother’s and apparently something of a scholar herself. Clearly, if she’d written this book. It referenced and used data points from a lot of the other tomes she had on the subject but was somewhat designed to be an all-inclusive and up-to-date examination, with a bit of the mare’s own views and theories added in for flare. Well, ‘up-to-date’ was no longer true given recent events. But Avia was fine with this, as was this ‘Moondancer’ she was certain. It just means they get to write more books! She opened the book, taking a moment to glance at the contents page before flicking through to find what she was looking for. It was pretty early on in the book, most of it went into the politics and process of forming the early Equestrian monarchy, but the first couple of chapters were dedicated to the end of the tribes. A small part of the book considering the scarcity of information up until this point, but still a point of interest for the Princess. Mostly because of a specific passage that came to mind. While most evidence from that time indicate that the majority of ponies abandoned their homeland and travelled east, as indicated by the islands between Equestria and the West that remain entirely barren and abandoned since that age (See Appendix 3: Rockhoof’s clan), the lack of evidence from the homeland itself makes a certainty on the subject difficult. Testimony from the Princesses of Equestria would suggest utterance of resentment from some. Princess Celestia herself would claim to have witnessed some families clinging to their homes, but most would be convinced by the perseverance of the wendigos. However, they themselves note they were but foals, and time her diluted their clarity of events. What little survived of Queen Platinum’s correspondence during Discord’s rampage also suggests a disagreement with the nobility. One damaged passage is as follows: “-alas is the will of the noble few, dignified to the- -and to the snow, they shall be swallowed.” While missing much of its content, it would suggest that some of the nobility too were reluctant to depart. If any did remain behind, like the late Queen states, they would have likely perished and become part of the monstrous hordes puppeteered by the icy spirits. Such a little-known theory, unless you happened to be the scholarly type actively researching the Three Tribes. With all the research they had done for the expedition, they never expected to find so much more than old bones and, if they were lucky, a mummified body or two. And yet here they were, those ‘noble few’ and their whole freaking civilisation. “Ahem.” “ARHG!” Avia yelped, throwing her book down onto a nearby table as she turned to see Carduus hobbling into the room. “Carduus!? I thought knocking was a polite thing to do!” He rolled his eyes. “One, I did, you were too absorbed. Second… you know you left your door open, right?” Avia blushed. “Oh! I… Uh… yes?” “I’m sure.” “I was busy!” “Avia, please remember to close your door when you’re alone in your chambers. I didn’t spend years as Captain of the Guard so that the hive’s future could compromise security because you got lazy,” he chided, though with a well-humoured chuckle. “Right, sorry. I was just re-reading some of the information we had one the New Kingdom. Or, well, lack of information at least. Ponies being left behind is barely mentioned in any of these studies, and it’s always a hoofnote at best.” “It’s not so different from our own people, really.” “What do you mean?” “We forgot we were once ruled by a genocidal maniac, for one,” he pointed out. “The whole world saw fit to forget the suffering of the dark ages.” “Hardly by choice, people just sucked at writing things down back then,” Avia noted. “That and keeping those writings intact.” “Hm. I take it you’ve been talking to your mother?” “Yeah. She wants me to stick around at the hive for the time being.” “You don’t sound too pleased.” “Ya think?” she deadpanned. “I get it, I still need to get used to being all royal and stuff. But I still get to be jealous, alright?” “Hah, I suppose you have that right. Just keep it on the down-low, I’m sure you don’t want a lecture from your mother on responsibility when she gets back,” Carduus warned. “Not that she has any room to talk. The things I could tell you about the Queen when she was your age.” Avia smirked. “What you haven’t told me already? Or Uncle Spike. If she knew the half of it…” “A secret between us, then,” he replied cheekily. “So, think you can find anything helpful in those books of yours?” “I don’t think so. I was more looking because I wanted to clear my head. But it’s all outdated information now. I bet they could tell us so much more…” “Even if you are stuck here, you can still help her,” the black changeling suggested. “Suggestions, ideas, even any information you do scrounge up. You don’t have to be entirely out of the loop, you know.” Avia smiled. “I suppose you’re right. Thank the hives for the egregore, huh? Hm, alright. Enough feeling sorry for myself, what’s next on the agenda.” “Now you ask, I believe there was some trouble in the atrium this morning you might have some input on…” Canterlot The changeling drone gave a slow breath out as he walked through the Equestrian Hive’s embassy, trying to look inconspicuous. He did blend well enough in with the other changelings around, his yellow chitin swimming amongst the blues, greens and other pastel colourations. Though it was the guards that gave him pause. Pony guards he could handle, but he could feel the stares of those blue armoured drones wherever he went. But he was more scared about the eyes of Vulgaris he could just feel on him. He just wished the Queen would give him easier assignments. He might be assigned to their own embassy, but that didn’t mean he could just waltz around those of the other hives with impunity. There were plenty of places he couldn’t go, and this was a place were shapeshifting would be of no help. If he tried, a dozen alarms would be going off and wards would forcibly eject him from the spell right as the guards ejected him at high velocity into a prison cell. Still, he just counted his lucky stars the information he was after wasn’t exactly classified or locked away. Just immersing himself in the chatter of the other drones was enough to slowly piece together the full story of the expedition. In fact, Twilight Sparkle’s drones seemed to be in the process of actively briefing the other hives. It made sense, a previously unknown nation of unknown intent was a pretty big deal, one the council needed to know of in case of future negotiation… or threats. So long as that remained the case he was fine, he didn’t want to think about what would happen if the Queen asked him to do something more clandes- “Going somewhere?” the thestral asked. “Ulp!” The drone stopped, gulping as he realised that he had just about walked into two very important-looking guards. Actually, now that he looked at them, he was pretty sure they were the captains. “Um, just h-heading back to my own embassy, so…” “Leave the kid alone, Vlad,” Valiant said with a tap on the thestral’s shoulder. “I think you’re intimidating him.” “Intimidating? Me? Never,” he jokingly dismissed before turning his gaze back to the changeling. “But you should watch where you’re going, civilian. Running yourself at high speeds into a guard isn’t the best of ideas.” “Sorry! I’m just late for a meeting with my boss.” The best lies are technical truths… “I see. Well, get going.” “Yes, sir! Sorry about that…” “It’s fine,” Valiant assured. “Have a good day.” The drone hurriedly slinked off, keeping one ear open as the two ponies started to disappear into the embassy while the changeling made his way out through the front entrance and onto the street beyond. “You are night and day to your pops, Kid,” Captain Vladimir claimed. “Broad would have been pissed at someone running headfirst into him. Horns are pointy, ya know?” Valiant scoffed. “He was probably just as unnerved by everything like everyone else. It’s like every politician in the city has gone mad.” “They weren’t all mad before?” “Touché.” The changeling moved out of earshot, releasing a relieved sigh as he glanced around the Canterlot street. More changelings, the highest concentration anyone would find in the city since it was their embassies on this street, though more intermingled with some pony diplomats and the odd noble shooting both the shapeshifters and their buildings dirty looks. He looked up towards the castle, he eyes particularly lingering on the purple dragon now latched onto the mountainside above it. Trying to keep his nerves from re-emerging, he elected to return to his usual day job as a love collector. Just passively collecting their much-needed energy so he could add his surplus to the containers back in his own embassy and, alongside the others, return to the hive sooner rather than later… On that note, the drone was pretty sure he just spotted a changeling/pony couple walking amongst the crowd. He bet that made his job all the easier, lucky sod. There was that one unicorn mare he knew at the local florist; she had a nice smile. If only Queen Vulgaris would allow such a thing… “Getting distracted, infiltrator?” “Um! No! I… have more information to report, my Queen!” At the other end of the hive link, back at the hive that the drone called home, Queen Vulgaris was pacing in front of a large set of doors with an impatient look on her face. She continued to twirl the black stone irritably in her magic, quite wishing her little drone would hurry up and deliver the information she so desired. “Then do so, if you would please. The quicker you do, the quicker you can complete your primary task and return home.” “Home would be nice, my Queen.” “So, what exactly is the situation with this ‘New Kingdom’?” “They are ponies, as I initially reported. Their ruler is an alicorn called Ignis, and I have heard reports that the ponies there are not exactly welcoming to outsiders. They’ve been isolated since the wendigos wiped out a lot of their people, so don’t trust people outside their own borders. The King has shown some hesitant interest in the alicorns, apparently. But from what I’ve heard, no one is really sure how future meetings are going to go. The ponies and drones of Twilight Sparkle’s hive are hopeful, but drones from other hives sound less optimistic.” Vulgaris hummed, idly wondering if this would result in a council being called at the First Hive. But that was of little matter for the moment. But what was of matter… A King, an alicorn, distrusting of Equestria. Oh yes, Twilight Sparkle would soon make him putty in her hooves if she had her way. But what if someone was to… ‘warn’ this individual about the corrupting influence of Equestria. After all, if the changelings were now beholden to them, the New Kingdom would fare little better. Perhaps she had finally found a potential ally against Twilight Sparkle. A temporary one. Of course. She would not trade one pony overlord for another. An alliance of convenience might be in order. But she would have to play it carefully, getting this ‘Ignis’ to trust her words over Twilight’s would require delicate manoeuvring. But then again, he didn’t need him to trust her, just to trust Equestria even less. And how, were she to succeed, to use it to her advantage? How could she have the changelings follow? She had much to consider, but one step at a time. First came Ignis, the Queen finding herself believing that a meeting was in order. Oh, but she would have to conduct this task alone. Her hive was rife with potential leaks of her plans, all too many sympathetic to the ponies. Like that ‘love collector’ who gave her the information, she could sense his thoughts regarding that female. How could one find attraction in a chitin-less being she could never know… But she would do this right. Not the hammer of Crudelis and Immortalis, rushing off with armies to meet the ponies head-on in a doomed effort. No, she would be the scalpel and do things as any good changeling should. Pull the strings, and let the ponies do the dirty work themselves. Vulgaris opened the door, letting herself into a chamber filled with pedestals containing various items of interest. Old artefacts of sentimental value, such as the fragments of her daughter’s maturation cocoon. Other items held more practical value, weapons and devices, one such pedestal being presently empty. At least, until she gently placed down the black rock onto its surface and released her hold. Humming to herself in satisfaction, she turned to one last exhibit. It sat right at the end, the pride of her little vault. Its once shimmering surface was charred and burnt nearly beyond recognition, its central jewel was cracked, and many fragments of it had shattered altogether to create a crater-filled shadow of its former glory. Once a symbol of power, battered and beaten into nothingness by the wrath of the sun. Getting it here had been no small effort, smuggling it away in the aftermath of Immortalis’ mad assault. But a drone had done so, and so the rest of the world believed it to have turned to ash. But alas, it was not so. And now the once-powerful object, killer of Draco, sat on full display as just another trophy. A reminder of what its creator wrought, and what shall never be again. And for all the misery it caused Vulgaris, now it was little more than a pathetic trinket in a vault. A fitting end to the regalia of the Empress.