Almost reflexively, Jeremy picked Chrysalis up off the cold stone, and she moaned slightly as Jeremy sat down and laid her across his lap.
“Someone get her some water in case she wakes up,” he ordered, and a few changelings scampered off.
“Is she gonna be okay?” Thorax asked, leaning down to examine her worriedly.
“Stress probably got to her. She’s not hurt, but she could definitely use some rest and relaxation after this,” Jeremy mused.
“Never thought I’d see the day when a changeling queen needed to be taken care of like some infant child,” Eira quipped.
“Not now, Eira,” Jeremy retorted stonily.
Surprised, Eira fell silent, and Jeremy scooted closer to the fire, trying to warm Chrysalis by its heat. “…Forgive me, child. Diligita once told me that changeling queens’ personalities were influenced by those queens that came before them. It is… strange, to me, to see a Queen so… tame. In my days, if a Queen graced you with her presence, let alone her favor, that was a thing to tell only in legends and fables.”
Jeremy sighed, adjusting Chrysalis’ head as she murmured. “She was like that, once. She took it too far.”
Eira shifted uncomfortably. “So I’ve heard…” she muttered.
The two changelings that had left earlier returned with hooves full of freshly melted water, which they tipped into Chrysalis’ mouth as carefully as they dared. She drank deeply, tongue snaking out to scoop up more of the frigid liquor, and her eyes flickered open.
“Wh… what happened?” Chrysalis drowsily murmured, her voice sounding relatively normal.
“Hespera fainted… and took you along with her,” Jeremy explained.
“…Oh,” Chrysalis answered after a moment. She looked up at Eira. “So… would you like to leave this cave? Start over?” she offered.
Eira grinned. “Child,” she laughed, standing up. “I thought you’d never ask.”
In the end, the Windigos didn’t have much to pack up. A few ice sculptures were all they took with them, and Eira viewed these with disgust. “The last of our once great civilization,” she sighed. “Still, if a complete restart is necessary…”
Jeremy raised an eyebrow. “Speaking of which. The North is still frozen. You think there’s a second Windigo colony out there?” he asked.
Eira shrugged. “Without a ‘Windigo hivemind,’ it’s just about impossible to say. It’d be optimistic to think our brethren survived all these years, but… then again, we did.” She paused a moment, thinking. “Speaking of which, you should head back there and free the Tribe of Water – the ‘umbra’.”
Jeremy grinned. “Already done. I invited them to my planet, to gorge on the world’s hatred.”
Eira looked at him in surprise. “And they didn’t try to fight you?” she questioned disbelievingly.
“Oh, they did,” Jeremy dismissed. “But I already had an umbrum as my friend, and he was able to convince the rest.”
Eira whinnied in amusement, the sound more akin to a high-speed wind blowing than a horse’s noise. “Maybe you are worthy to call yourself King. Not by any of the usual methods, mind you…”
Chrysalis chuckled darkly. “He beat me in single combat,” she revealed, and Eira’s jaw dropped.
“Oh, come on! You were starving and half out of your mind. You’d have wiped the floor with me if you had the power you do now,” Jeremy shot back as they headed back down to the ground floor of the icy caverns.
“Like that would even slow you down?” Chrysalis retorted, grinning deviously at him.
Jeremy laughed, but his laughter quickly died down as he caught sight of what was happening at the entrance.
Pharynx and a Windigo were fighting, tussling and rolling around so harshly that the cavern reverberated every time they hit a wall. Pharynx was shapeshifting at such frequency that he looked less like a changeling and more like an olive-green blur of fire and fury, and the Windigo was swirling around this form, darting in at some points and escaping out of others, too quickly to be caught but just slow enough to be seen.
He felt my honor was insulted, Thorax sighed as he stood watching.
Doesn’t look like a very honorable duel, Jeremy observed.
By your rules, maybe. Pharynx isn’t using unfair transformations, and Winter isn’t relying on her wind abilities. Perfectly fair to us, Eira explained, and Jeremy shrugged.
“You’re not going to interfere and claim that ‘fighting is wrong’?” Chrysalis snarked, looking at Jeremy.
“If it’s an honorable fight, then Pharynx has nothing to learn from an intervention. Besides, trying to interrupt that would just put me back in the hospital,” Jeremy snorted.
“I just hope they don’t hit each other too hard,” Thorax worried.
“Would you lot – ungh! – quit commentating – hrk! – on my fight?!” Pharynx demanded, landing some hard kicks and receiving a few in return.
“Sorry!” Jeremy called back, and fell silent.
Thorax seemed antsy as he watched, shifting on his lime-green hooves as his glance flickered between Pharynx and the ground. Finally, Winter pinned Pharynx to the ground, grinning wickedly down at him.
“I… win…” she panted.
Pharynx snarled up at her. “You’ll win… when I’m… dead…” he growled back, struggling.
No deathmatches, Pharynx. I need you alive, Jeremy reminded him sternly.
Am I… am I allowed to defend my own honor? Thorax asked timidly. Every changeling, Jeremy and Eira looked at him incredulously.
…Yes, Thorax. Yes, you are, Chrysalis answered after a moment, sounding as though she were about to burst out laughing.
Thorax seemingly made up his mind and marched towards Winter and Pharynx, squaring his withers. “I’ll take it from h-here, brother,” he called out, and both Pharynx and Winter looked at him in amazement.
Winter’s expression quickly shifted, however, into a smirk, before erupting into full-blown laughter. “You? You’re going to stop hiding behind your hatchmate’s legs and fight me? I could crush you in a blow!” she jeered.
Angered, Thorax reared back his hoof while she was laughing, and struck her square in the center of her chest.
Winter’s laughter caught in her throat as the sheer force of the blow sent her flying backwards, smacking into the wall with such an echoing crash that she actually indented the stone and ice. Thorax’s furious expression quickly shifted to horror, and he rushed forward, levitating a dazed Winter out of the hole.
“Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to hit you that hard! Are you okay?” he worried, checking over her. She shook off her daze quickly, and looked at him with something like fear.
“Brother… where in the world did you learn to hit like that?” Pharynx queried, having gotten up and staring at Thorax in utter bafflement.
Thorax rubbed his front hooves together in embarrassment. “Well, I… was watching you fight sometimes,” he mumbled.
“Can you normally do that?” Jeremy asked, halfway between disapproval and amusement.
Thorax hesitantly nodded. “I became this strong after… metamorphosing, but… I didn’t want to hurt anybody else, so… I kept it secret,” he softly revealed.
Pharynx’s jaw dropped. “And here I wondered why you were acting so careful! You’ve been holding back on me, brother!” Thorax grinned and looked away in embarrassment.
Winter looked at him curiously, cocking her head, before bowing low. “I accept defeat, King Thorax,” she proclaimed before backing away slowly.
Thorax watched her go in confusion. “Did I just… win?” he asked, utterly baffled. Jeremy shrugged, unsure as well.
Five minutes later, the now-large group had entered through another portal into Manehattan, where night had already fallen. The stares the changelings were receiving before were nothing compared to the ones they were receiving now, as the windigos walked- and in some cases, drifted – uncertainly beside them.
“What are all those lights?” Gwyneira complained.
“Billboards and streetlamps, child. Strange, that they of all things got reinvented…” Eira murmured.
“Perhaps they spread to another culture, and spread back? I agree, that’s interesting,” Star Swirl noted.
“What else around here is familiar to you?” Jeremy asked Eira.
She looked around for a bit. “That… animated picture, over there. We had those, but I don’t think they were quite as sophisticated.”
Jeremy followed her gaze to find a movie theater, bright animated posters advertising the latest picks. So pre-Equestrian civilization had made it to the Technological Age. Progress was set back pretty far, if the three tribes could barely make fire and wooden constructs, he noted with dismay.
“Many of our artifacts were of stone and metal, child. It may be that they survived the war, and ponies simply began reusing them,” Eira pointed out.
Star Swirl and A.K. Yearling’s jaws dropped in perfect unison. “You mean all those ‘modern artifacts’ I’ve been finding in ancient temples weren’t the result of transdimensional meddling?” Star Swirl exclaimed in outrage.
Eira shrugged. “Probably,” she dismissed.
“Did Equestria have an unusually fast technological progression? That would be consistent with finding and reusing more advanced technology,” Jeremy pointed out to Star Swirl.
He stroked his beard in thought. “I don’t have many points of reference to go off of, but now that you mention it, we didn’t have much of that incubation period of stone and wooden tools that other civilizations did. We just… skipped straight to aluminum and brass roughly fifty years after founding the country.”
Eira, was iron or steel ever used in your civilization? Jeremy asked curiously.
“Iron’s rare, child. Only found in meteorites, as far as I remember. Nickel and cobalt were a bit easier to find, but we didn’t use it for much architecturally. Stone was our preferred medium,” Eira answered out loud.
“Iron’s not rare anymore,” Star Swirl snorted. “We found a deposit deeper within Canterlot, as well as a few elsewhere. It’s roughly as common as nickel now.” Eira digested this information with a frown. They stopped in front of the hotel that they had left earlier that morning, and Chrysalis briefly glanced at their new accompaniment.
“Hmm…” she trailed off. Can I convince the hotel to allow us more rooms? she asked.
Unlikely. And I don’t think Yearling has enough vouchers for everyone here. Maybe you could send the Windigos through to the hive? Jeremy posited.
But then they’d be wandering around, lost… I don’t think Nightmare Moon would be very happy at having to watch the hive and introduce them to modern society. Pity I can’t be in two places at once… Chrysalis noted.
I could go back with them, if you like, Thorax offered uncertainly.
Chrysalis looked at him – first in surprise, then in appraisal. That’s a good idea, Thorax. Are you sure you want to miss out on the rest of the expedition, though? she wondered.
I… I think I have my answers. The rest is just historical stuff, right? Well… less alive historical stuff, Thorax noted with a glance at the Windigos.
NEVER call me old again, child, Eira huffed. That being said, we’ll go to the hive. Hopefully it’s up to snuff – you’d better believe I’ll be criticizing every inch of it I can find, she snorted.
“What are we all standing around for?” A. K. Yearling asked irritably, shifting from leg to leg.
Jeremy started as he realized they’d been standing there for a good five minutes. “Sorry, mental conversation. We’ve decided to move the Windigos over to the hive for now, because we don’t think you have enough vouchers for this hotel.”
A. K. checked her bag briefly before nodding. “Yeah, I don’t. What about the rest of us?” she asked.
Jeremy looked at Eira. “Eira, you’d probably know this better than anyone. Where, exactly, was Diligita’s hive located?”
Eira chuckled. “Flattery will get you everywhere, little one. It was south and a touch west of here, located under another mountain range.”
Star Swirl looked at Jeremy. “Foal Mountain, I should think. Though I’m unaware of it having a cave system… I was imprisoned quite close to there, in the town of Hollow Shades,” he explained to Jeremy.
“Looks like we’re heading there, then. It’s probably little more than a ruin after all this time, but if it’s underground we might be able to find something preserved from both the explosion and time,” Jeremy mused.
“I’m coming, too,” Eira decided firmly.
“Me, as well,” Star Swirl added.
“I’ve got three more vouchers here. Anyone else?” A. K. asked, holding them out and looking around. Nobody answered her, however, and after a while the pegasus shrugged and stuffed one of the slips of paper back into her saddlebag. “Alright. Queen Chrysalis, you can send the Windigos through while I talk to the bellhop,” Yearling called over her shoulder as she walked into the hotel.
Chrysalis made to go after her, a snarl making its way to her lips, but stopped herself. Should she be allowed to… order me around like that? she asked, looking at Jeremy.
It was a little rude. Not worth pursuing, though, Jeremy denied.
Chrysalis sighed, and her horn lit up green before she fired a bolt of energy at the hotel wall. It expanded into a swirling portal, through which Nightmare Moon looked at them with some surprise. Several of the smaller changelings were curled up around her, and it looked as though she’d been playing with them for quite a while.
“Finished already?” she wondered, looking past Jeremy and Chrysalis at the Windigos.
“Not quite, we’ve got one more planned stop and possibly something after that. We’re sending these Windigos and Thorax back to the Hive for now because we don’t have room for them here,” Jeremy explained. One of the little ones noticed him, and sprung up, tottering over on unsteady hooves. If Jeremy was remembering its face correctly, this particular little one had just grown out of the larval stage a few days ago.
“Moon play with us lots!” they accused, pointing an imperious hoof at him. “Why you no play more like her?”
Jeremy chuckled even as Chrysalis groaned. “Sorry, kiddo,” he apologized, picking them up and rubbing their snout with a finger. “Dad’s gotta take care of a bunch of boring adult stuff. If it were up to me, I’d be playing with you all the time, as much as you wanted. But… somebody’s gotta deal with all this silly grown-up nonsense,” he explained, kissing their forehead. The tiny changeling grumbled at this, evidently unconvinced.
“The King and Queen do many things that aren’t playing, but are just as important. We have to keep you safe, after all,” Chrysalis added with a smooch of her own.
“No… play more important!” the tiny changeling begged.
“Don’t worry, little ‘ling! I can play with you!” Thorax announced, lifting the changeling out of Jeremy’s grasp and balancing them on his much larger snout.
“Yeey!” the little one cheered, sticking out its tongue at Jeremy and Chrysalis as Thorax carried them back through the portal. Jeremy grinned at their antics, while Chrysalis simply rolled her eyes.
“Anyway… all you other Windigos can follow Thorax through that portal to our hive. It’s… probably not what you’re used to, but we promise we’ll do our best to make you feel at home and safe,” Jeremy explained to the rest of the group.
“Maybe we can finally figure out the friendship fire here!” Gwyneira excitedly proclaimed, jumping through as a gust of cold wind washed past Jeremy and Chrysalis.
“Unlikely… but it beats looking at boring ice sculptures all day,” Winter scoffed, pushing past them and daintily stepping through. The rest of the Windigos followed, albeit with uncertain glances at the glossy black and green changeling throne room.
Once they were gone, Chrysalis closed the portal and turned back to the remainder of the group. “We’re finished for the night. Get some rest, and report at eight in the morning sharp. We’ll likely be spending more time searching than speaking tomorrow,” she ordered, and the assorted changelings saluted before making their way into the hotel.
“Eight? No, no, I’m much too old to be getting up at eight,” Eira complained.
“You’re either old enough for Thorax to call you old, or young enough to deal with it. Can’t have it both ways, Eira,” Jeremy pointed out, and Star Swirl chuckled.
“He’s got you there,” the elderly unicorn agreed.
Eira grumbled under her breath. …Fine, but I won’t like it, she added mentally. Chrysalis snorted with amusement, and on that note, the four of them made for their beds.
“There you are!” Sam called out as soon as Jeremy and Chrysalis entered the shared hallway. It seemed the other six humans had been having some kind of discussion, and Avery hurriedly stowed a few papers at their approach.
“Sorry we’re late, we uh… kind of discovered a living Windigo colony. Pretty cool, huh?” Jeremy remarked, taking a seat by Sam.
“That… wow. They survived, all these years?” Sam wondered, and Jeremy shrugged.
“Survival’s the right word for it. They weren’t exactly living life to the fullest.”
You can say that again! Eira chimed in, still secluded in her room.
“What’cha talking about?” Jeremy wondered.
“Uh… well, Element stuff, mostly. Nick figured out how to use his Element of Generosity today!” Sam announced.
“Hey, cool! What’s it do?” Jeremy asked.
“It can turn into anything rare. So, like, if we really needed a key or something and there was only one key that looked like that in the entire world, it would turn into that,” Nick explained.
“That… sounds really useful,” Jeremy noted, and Avery snorted.
“Told you. Anytime someone thinks they’re useless, they turn out to be one of the most powerful characters,” he lectured at Nick, who simply rolled his eyes with a grin.
“Yeah, yeah. I guess it’s cool. I’ve… mostly been using it to transform into super-rare coins,” he admitted.
Jeremy chuckled. “I feel you on that one. The thrill of just holding one, am I right?”
Nick broke into a wide smile. “Finally, someone gets it!” he exclaimed in relief, and the other humans laughed.
“So, what’s the plan for tomorrow?” Sam asked.
“We’re heading down southwest to the ruin of Diligita’s old hive. A Windigo named Eira and Star Swirl the Bearded are also coming,” Jeremy recapped.
“Wait. Star Swirl? As in, the Star Swirl?” Nick asked incredulously.
“Eight hundred and twenty-seven!” Star Swirl called from somewhere off to the right, behind a door.
“And here I thought that was just a changeling messing with me,” Nick grumbled as Jeremy laughed.
“Yeah, him. We found him researching the Windigo colony. Turns out he was super wrong about the whole ‘they started the entire war’ thing. Who knew?”
Avery raised an eyebrow. “Okay, so… who did start the war?” he asked suspiciously.
“Queen Diligita of the changelings orchestrated the whole thing. Supposedly, some beast that devoured love and killed everything in its path was going to attack the planet, so she got rid of all the love in the continent to try and convince it to go away. As far as we know, it worked, too,” Jeremy recapped.
Avery gazed at him unblinkingly, before shrugging. “Huh. Plot twist, I guess,” he replied after a moment.
“Anyway, I’m gonna head to bed. Anyone need anything?” Jeremy asked, to a chorus of ‘no’s. “Cool. Next journey starts tomorrow at eight, so be sure to set your phone alarms,” he informed them as he exited the group. He contentedly entered Chrysalis’ room, the changeling queen herself in tow, and after the usual nightly routine, snuggled up to her again.
“You think you’re going to have another prophetic dream?” she asked.
Jeremy made a noncommittal grunt. “Dunno… guess we’ll find out.” With that, he let sleep overtake him.
The Flower World was cloudy and stormy, much more so than it had been earlier. Dark thunderclouds swirled overhead at paces faster than should be possible, and wind swept through the endless plain so that it appeared every flower was quivering from fear at the oncoming storm. Jeremy looked around in surprise and dismay, unused to seeing such chaos in such an idyllic place. This was his dream world, right? Then why was everything so… chaotic? He had some emotional turmoil at the thought of discovering lost changeling history, but he didn’t think it was this much. This wasn’t a result of his emotional state, then. He looked around curiously. He was still in the patch of black-stemmed, green flowers, in the very center of the clearing. A black rose was here, all the other flowers pointing to it almost as if bowing. A new flower was beside it, gray and wilting and looking quite out-of-place. It looked as though it had once been quite a vibrant flower, but was nearing the end of its lifespan. Jeremy approached the black rose cautiously, unsure if it would accept or reject his advance.
“You’re… the old queen, aren’t you,” he whispered.
The rose stiffened, shying away from him, and without even having to touch it, he caught whispers of its thoughts. Danger! Ruin! Leave! It hissed, unwilling to touch him.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” Jeremy replied, slightly confused.
Liar! Monster! Danger! The flower hissed back.
Anxious, Jeremy backed off. “I’m not here to hurt you,” he repeated from a greater distance, having to shout a little to make his voice heard over the wind. “I’m here to help you, if you would only show me how!”
As if called, two vines wrapped around his legs, forcing him to the ground.
“Wha-?!” Jeremy exclaimed, his knees impacting the dirt with a thump as the rose extended forward, acting more like an eye on a stalk as its stem extended impossibly to get a closer ‘look’ at him. Thorns were appearing all over the rose, and for the first time, Jeremy wished he could awaken from this impossible nightmare. Shivering and struggling to escape his bonds, he felt cold, adrenaline-laden fear suffuse his entire body. The rose was sharpening now, ebony petals aligning into a lethal tip that reminded him eerily of the tip of Chrysalis’ horn.
“Wait… don’t hurt me! I’m not your enemy!” he begged, to no effect. As the tip neared closer and closer, he closed his eyes and looked away, wondering how much it would hurt to die in a dream world.
There was a swish as the blade sliced cleanly through the air…
But it never hit.
Jeremy opened his eyes and stared in shock at the blade just above him. It was posed, quivering just inches from his chest, but not moving forward. Something was pressing into his chest. He looked down, and was greeted with the last sight he expected to see. The green-and-black flower he was used to hugging had appeared in front of him, the inky black roots still covered in dirt from where they had sprung from the ground below. The green petals were all as outstretched as they can go, reminding him of someone heroically standing in front of a weapon to protect an innocent about to be slain. The rose quivered still, trying to poke its way around or through the green, wider flower, but seemed unwilling to simply puncture straight through it.
Traitor, destroyer! Monster, demon, evil! Flee! It hissed and whispered, still trying to get around the stubborn flower protecting him. Feelings of rage and sadness washed over Jeremy, centuries of rage and grief pouring out from the rose as it glowed with a brilliant green inner light. The world around Jeremy vanished into blackness, and he beheld a pair of swirling red eyes staring at him. They looked… familiar… but how was that possible? None of this made sense.
The Flower World slowly returned, coloring back in as though drawn into existence, and Jeremy again gazed at the black rose that was trying so hard to end him. The flower pressing into his chest had wilted somewhat at the onslaught of negative emotions, but it was already recovering. It glowed green, echoing the rose’s glimmering power.
Shield, protector, father, brother. Caretaker, leader, food-gatherer… not a monster. Never a monster, it whispered, seemingly arguing with the rose. Positive emotions radiated from the green, massive flower, washing over Jeremy and the area just as the rage and grief of the black rose had just a minute ago. He felt… warm. Safe. He was acutely aware of someone rubbing his chest, murmuring something comforting and soft into his ears as they tried their best to soothe him.
The rose paused, no longer quivering or attempting to dodge past the larger green flower. Slowly, warily, the bladed tip retracted, until it was once more a simple black rose atop a vivid green stem. It zoomed backward, stem vanishing into the earth until it was once more a normal flower. The vines released their hold on him, and the green flower that had protected his life leaned towards his chest. Jeremy began holding it tightly, just as he had before, letting the comforting and familiar sensation of warmth wash over him. The green flowers around him slowly turned to point at him and their larger counterpart, as if taking notice of this, and he held the larger flower tighter.
“Thank you. You saved my life,” he whispered.
As he held the flower, stroking its petals gently and slowly relaxing, the clouds overhead disappeared, blown away as the sunlight brightened to what it had been before. Finally, when he was as comfortable as he could be, he gently stood up, giving one last tousle to the flower in front of him. That done, he approached the black rose again.
“There must be some way I can help you, now that you’re here. Show me what I need to do,” he whispered again to it, reaching out slowly, gently to touch a single petal.
The rose didn’t shy away this time, and actually pressed forward to bump into his finger faster. A series of images flashed through his mind.
A single tunnel, at the base of a mountain, a shimmering surface of magic disguising the entrance as an outcropping of rock shaped like a heart.
Deep underground, a single door, emblazoned with magical fire in the shape of a glowing green heart, still burning despite a millennium of neglect.
Inside the door, atop the ruined remains of a throne, a single, glimmering crystal of deepest, impossibly clear green.
These images burned themselves into Jeremy’s mind.
He awoke with a gasp.