//------------------------------// // 13-2: Shadow over the north // Story: Changelings in Silver Sunlight // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// Contradiction’s mental punch shatters a new reinforced door blocking the tunnel. Bubbles rushes inside into pitch blackness. “There’s nothing- aaah! Something cold tried to grab me!” yelps Bubbles and swipes her claws against the darkness impenetrable even to her eyes. Astray rushes inside, pulling a glimmering crystal out of his pouch that he got from the dwarves. He throws it on the floor. As it hits the solid stone, it hisses, lets out a pulse of light which illuminates the room, and leaves behind a soft glow. Bubbles immediately backs away from an ethereal black arm reaching out of the floor. Where the door was behind them is a stone wall now, and the room appears to stretch into a hallway hundred pony lengths long and as wide as Canterlot ballroom. On the distant end, two elongated purple crystals crackle with power, exchange several arcs of energy, and open a rift in reality between them. “It’s a trap! A pocket dimension!” calls out Connie, “More stable than in Manehatan or Canterlot. Destroy the crystals!” Astray immediately aims his pistol into the distance. He’s a good shot, but the weapon as well as quicksilver bullets aren’t effective past maybe twenty pony lengths at best. One shot proves that without doubt, and the group rush ahead as more cracks in reality start appearing behind them. From those cracks, shadows start crawling out. Connie feels her powers freak out as something seems to search near the crystal rift, tendrils of darkness creeping out and licking the floor. “Destroy the crystals, DESTROY THE CRYSTALS!” she screams from the top of her lungs, her tone high-pitched and far from her usual calm or irritation.  As the first shadow crawls out of a dark crack, Connie helps it by ripping it out and crushing it against the nearest piece of real floor all while running ahead. Bubbles darts between the claws of ever-growing amount of enemies, not bothering to fight them but trying to reach the crystals instead. A shadow rears on its snakelike tail in front of her, which she uses to pounce on its head, and to propel herself forward over the nearest crawling enemies. Astray follows the trail cleared out by Connie, reloading his pistol. A bulge of something massive pushes through the rift, bending even the reality around it. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” Connie screeches in pure horror, “IT MUSTN’T GET OUT, IT MUSTN’T GET OUT!” Astray can’t decribe what happens next, he only feels a gentle push backwards. Ahead, though, shadow after shadow disintegrate along with a slow-moving shockwave pulsing with power away from Connie. However, that’s all Astray needed.  The wave of utter destruction stops before reaching Bubbles who, without any calculations, simply rams into the left crystal. At the same time, Astray, standing with legs apart and holding the pistol with both hands, fires the entire clip into the second crystal. The right crystal cracks with the first shot hit, and shatters with the next two. Bubbles just bites the other one in half, her eyes crossing as a surge of released energy rams her against the ceiling. With something resembling an ethereal sigh which sends chills creeping up everyone’s spine, the main rift closes, and shortly after, the cracks, the shadows, and everything else fades, leving behind only a simple square room with a door in front of which the group are standing and gasping for breath. Aside from Bubbles, who is still crackling with lightining, hair standing on edge. “Amokay!” she sits up suddenly, blinking and turning her head from side to side, lightning still sparking between the tips of her ears occasionally. “Then get moving!” hisses Connie coldly, “No more rifts, we can’t allow any more things like this. We must stop this now!” Without further waiting, she heads through the door and up a set of smooth stairs. She pauses in front of the door at the top as she hears the sound of breaking furniture from the inside, but it’s only a brief stop as when Bubbles arrives with Astray in tow, she telekinetically rips the door off of its hinges, gags a little when the stench of blood and necrotic flesh assaults her nostrils, and rushes into the freezing warehouse where One has just thrown Star Trail against one of many metal workbenches by the wall. To the brief surprise of the arriving group, it’s the workbench that bends, not Star Trail. The lich standing in the back with his horn glowing red looks at the destroyed door of the cellar, and lets out a blast of light Connie’s way. His aim is accurate even over the size of the warehouse, but the projectile isn’t fast enough to hit, so it simply disappears against the wall of the stairwell as all three Silver Sun members rush inside and into the fray. One spits at Star Trail whose ribage is showing, the acid slowly stripping away even more of his flesh. Despite gradually losing his left side mobility, Star Trail is still a formidable opponent, especially when One can’t turn her back to the lich. Thankfully, that’s a problem that currently seems to be solving itself. As Connie rushes forward, tentacles sprouting from the floor and throwing workbench after workbench at the lich who has to shoot them down, Bubbles darts past her at much greater speed, using the cover of the central set of tables to her advantage. They both are enough of a distraction to allow Astray in the back to look for a clear shot at the right time. Within less than five seconds, Bubbles has managed to flank the lich, and darts towards him from the side, jaws open. The lich reacts quickly, though, and she finds herself flying off hit by something knocking the wind out of her and making her whole front itch and burn. “Silver dust and simple telekinesis?” Astray furrows his brows. That’s never been a standard defense of any mage he fought before, strictly because it wouldn’t do anything to a normal pony other than a bruise and some light scratches. Was the lich able to identify what Bubbles is this fast, or did he know beforehoof? He aims and fires at the lich’s head, chipping a small fragment off of its horn and stopping whatever spell was about to hit Connie. The lich stumbles backwards, and the nearest of Connie’s tentacles slams down on him, protective spells crackling and breaking, but slowing the blow enough to only push the lich away. The ever-grinning skull with eyes glowing red flicks its horn, and something akin to a grey cube appears around Connie, quickly fading along with her. “HEY!” Bubbles quickly pats herself to dust herself off and clean the silver out of the scratches, nods at Astray who nods back, and charges at the lich. The satyr has three quicksilver bullets left. He needs to make those count. He takes the steady firing range position, something that would have him killed in any fight where he would need to dodge, aims as the lich looks away from him down at approaching Bubbles, and pulls the trigger. However, that is the mistake. The lich completely ignores Bubbles as she bites its hind leg off easily, and fires a bolt of dark energy at Astray. The spell twists the air around and sends chills down even Bubbles’ spine. What’s worse, it hits Astray directly in the chest. Bubbles can see something like blue mist being ripped out of the satyr as his eyes roll back, and despite any blood or visible physical damage, he keels backwards, the pistol falling from his hands. “Astray? ASTRAY?!” Bubbles screams, rushing past the lich as she forgets her situation and surroundings completely. To something inside her, that spell seemed definitely fatal.  She stops by the satyr who isn’t breathing, moving, and is getting colder and colder with each second in this freezing warehouse. She saw him dead once during the training, during the death arena spell when she didn’t know it was all fake, and this brings back all the horror and pain from that experience, and doubles it with the knowledge that this is one hundred percent real. With a roar, One rips Star Trail’s ribcage open, and finds what definitely shouldn’t be there. In place of the heart is a reinforced leathery pouch glowing purple from the inside. Whatever it is, it must be important. An impact from behind sends her tumbling forward, and she feels her strength rapidly leaving her, her immense love reserves burning out within moments. Star Trail kicks her away, rolls to the side, and gets back on all four just as she does. One growls as she notices Bubbles crying over what she presumes to be Astray’s corpse. Contradiction is nowhere to be seen either.  All in all, not great. Not lost either, though. Sudden overwhelming odds are nothing new to One, and she’s far from panicking. Whatever draining magic the lich hit her with did its job, but she’s still a warrior made to be extremely efficient even with very little love, and there’s the beating of the Crystal Heart in the distance. As long as she can conserve love and dodge more spells like that, time is on her side. Barrel ripped open in half and one foreleg almost completely skeletal at this point, Star Trail still approaches her, although much more carefully. He knows he’s there as a meat shield for the lich who should be able to solve the situation on his own eventually. Both the lich’s head and Star Trail’s snap to something behind her at the same time, convincing her they’re not faking it. The following blasts of buckshot from Five passing by like a blur shatter Star Trail’s fake heart, sending pieces of some pulsating purple crystal scattering around. One can sense Seven as well, and a quick look backwards reveals the stumbling changeling surrounded by floating runes which coalesce into a ball that floats over to a seemingly random place of the warehouse, and fades. Afterwards, Seven starts shuffling over to Astray and Bubbles. Where the ball vanished, tentacles appear out of nowhere, and as if ripping open some invisible prison, Connie appears. The lich disappears in a flash. “No, not this time!” growls Connie, and the tentacles reach to the place where he was a moment ago, their tips disappearing into the solid air as if it was the surface of a lake. They tense up, and start pulling back. With a mighty heave, they drag the lich out of a teleportation spell, and slam it against the floor. Connie’s horn flashes, and a brutal push of telekinesis which makes the walls of the warehouse shake turns the whole skeleton into dust. The ensuing silence is broken only by heavy breathing and Bubbles’ sobbing. “Seven?” asks One as the mage examines Astray. “He’s not dead. This is some kind of a continuous energy draining spell with a secondary summoning component that I can’t quickly identify supposed to happen when the target dies. But he has minutes at best. I don’t know what’s causing it, but it’s not magic, it’s different.” “Does the term divinity mean something to you?” “Yes, is that supposed to be it?” “The lich was trying to drain divinity from Celestia, Luna, and others.” “If the effect is at least partially divine, then I would need something divine or demonic to at least slow the spell down.” “Demonic?” asks One. “Two sides of the same coin. No time to explain in detail.” “Bubbles,” One rushes over and shakes the demonette, “Seven can help, but he needs your assistance.” “Anything!” Bubbles immediately nods, “Anything... anything… just help him...” “She’s part demon,” One explains to Seven, “Do what you can.” “This might-” Seven’s horn starts glowing again, “No, that will hurt. I apologize in advance.” As threads of magic cast by Seven begin the long process of binding Astray and Bubbles together, the demonette can only scream her lungs out. *** “-and then miss One and this… Contradiction unicorn opted to stay in the Crystal Empire to keep looking for the lich and Star Trail, because it was clear that the warehouse was their main hideout. Contradiction ordered the Crystal Guards to get Astray and Bubbles to Canterlot, because if divinity was involved, there would be experts here. I’m here to bring a hive memory copy of the events to you and the story to everyone else, boss,” Six finishes retelling the events. “So,” Cromach speaks out first, “I think our goal is clear. We know where Arcane Hex was operating from. although I’m not sure how or why-” “I can clear that up for you,” Luna interrupts him, “In the same way Arcane Hex was behind a lot of tweaks of the castle wards, after king Sombra was defeated, the wizard orders were tasked to secure the Crystal Castle in a similar way.” “Aaaand you obviously brought the experts on board, I get it,” Cromach nods, “So he was using both the Crystal Castle wards and Canterlot wards to travel around, or specifically between those two points.” “Doesn’t that mean he can still operate at full power in the Crystal Empire?” I ask, not seeing the victorious point here. “No, dear beardy,” Cromach smirks at me, “It means he has no choice but to still operate from the Crystal Empire if he wants to outrun the clock on the stolen divinity destroying him like Magnus said.” “Then we have to go there as soon as possible,” I say, “I can’t let that guy roam free. If Star Trail is this close to my hive...” I end up only sighing. “I wish I could be of any help, but with the castle unprotected, I need to stay here. I can send guards if you want,” offers Luna. “Don’t worry about it, your Majesty,” I give her a tired smile. Hesitant knocking on the door of Cromach’s office makes us all look up. “Come in!” Cromach calls out. With a smile, Anvil walks in. A moment of questioning silence later, the exhausted figures of Astray and Bubbles shuffle inside as well. To everyone’s relief, Astray looks strangely okay considering the shape he was brought in. Bruises? Yes. Rotting flesh? No. Cromach’s relieved chuckle boosts the mood of everyone.  “I would hug you, but you look as if you’d break,” he says. “Well...” Astray starts, pauses, rubs Bubbles behind the ear, and then scratches his own head, “I don’t know where to start.” “Alright, let me help,” Cromach looks at the two, “When can you grab a gun and go with us to the Crystal Empire for some payback?” “I don’t feel like it, but princess Celestia said we’ll be okay tomorrow or the day after at most,” says Bubbles without the usual cheer, though. “That does sound great. Where’s the big but?” “King Beard,” Astray straightens up, “What your changeling wizard did to save us was makeshift at best, and… the way I understand it is that what’s keeping me alive against the power of the curse is Bubbles’ lifeforce. Well, princess Celestia couldn’t unbind us without killing me, so she strengthened the bond instead and made it permanent.” “I’m so sorry...” I look down at the carpet. “I didn’t mean it in any negative way, your Majesty,” Astray adds quickly, “Without your changelings, I would be dead already, and some powerful demon would be rampaging through the Crystal Empire. That’s what the curse does - it kills the target and uses the burned soul to summon something terrible from Tartarus. I’m just saying that I don’t have too long to live, and when I go, Bubbles goes as well.”   “How long?” asks Cromach, voice cracking. “No one knows,” Astray shrugs, “That depends on Bubbles here.” “I’ll do a ton of exercise every day and eat all the vegetables to be as healthy as I can and keep us together for long!” Bubbles smiles from ear to ear. It’s a little forced, but the hope is there. “Astray… I can let you go with a pension or have you teach at the headquarters. You’ve earned it hundred times over,” says Cromach. “I’d rather not, sir,” Astray salutes, “Princess Celestia said that the bond between us isn’t going to limit us in any ways other than lifespan and the distance we can be away from each other. I’ll be ready to shoot again after some sleep. Physically, whatever the curse did at first was just the loss of lifeforce Bubbles is replenishing right now, and she herself only got some silver-based scratches.” “Then we’re taking the overnight train to the Crystal Empire tomorrow. Beardo, how about you?” “I’ll have to check with Gem as to whom I need to leave here for the summit, but I’m coming no matter what.” “Did you forget that Celestia ended the thing?” Anvil interrupts me, quickly adding, “Your Majesty.”  “I thought it was over just for those who needed to go home,” I raise an eyebrow. “One - I think that counts. Two - since some rulers said they had to leave already, after you left with Six everyone came to the agreement that any unfinished business between kingdoms will be dealt with by diplomats who can remain here until the official date. Rulers are always here to appear in front of other rulers anyway, so if you don’t have anything you need to polish off, you’re free to leave without any diplomatic consequences. It’s officially all over.” Is it real? Is this whole stupid thing really finished? Can I get back home focus on punching the everliving snot out of Star Trail for the final time? “I still do have something I need to see to, though,” I say, looking at Cromach, “I’ll tell you if something changes.” “Sure thing,” the griffon shrugs. “What’s that, boss?” asks Six. “Eleven,” I sigh, and stand up, “If you excuse me, this is hive business. Nothing you can help with.” “Ah, your little anomalous changeling,” Luna nods, “My guards informed me. Good luck.” With a bow, Six and I leave. ***  Early in the morning, I feel a gentle tap inside my mind as I’m sitting on the roof again, watching the sunrise, something the position of Canterlot makes easy to do. Six is asleep in one of our guest rooms, both physically and mentally exhausted after everything.  “Boss! Boss! Bossbossbossboss!” “Three? Is it done? How is Eleven?” “Come here. You need to see this.” I dive off of the roof, and stop in front of our window which Three opens for me. The room is crowded. I blink at the unbelievable spectacle as I feel four new threads in the tapesty of the hive mind, and just stare. There is no pile of unmoving Elevens in the corner anymore. Instead, the ten tiny changelings are swarming around the room, bouncing on furniture, and playing with each other as well as Three. On Gem’s bed, there’s a new and yet familiar changeling who smiles at me. He’s bigger than Three, about the size of a normal infiltrator, and his carapace is smooth, black, but with a tinge of blue. He looks at me. All Elevens stop as one, and in the next instant pile on me with giggling and laughing. Within a second, I’m wearing an armor made of living changelings while one is sitting on my head, holding on by my horn. “Is that you, Eleven?” I look at the new body which must be from one of Cryo’s eggs. “Totally, boss!” he salutes, “I feel weird, though.” “The reaction of Eleven’s mind was completely different from anything I’ve seen before,” Gem speaks up, clearly exhausted, “All the other bodies latched to this one when I showed them the way. I think Eleven is different now.” “I have so many legs!” exclaims Eleven. “You’ve had those all the time,” I comment, not seeing the first problem and trying to avoid the second elephant in the room for as long as I can. “No no no no, I had so many heads too! Now I have only one,” he explains, failing to explain anything. “I need someone smarter for this. Gem?” I give my daughter a pleading look. “Well, I think Eleven is a bit more centralized now. More than eleven bodies connected by a link, he feels like one body with many, many limbs. Does that help? I’m seeing this for the first time too. We’ll have to wait and see the advantages and disadvantages.” You know what? All these details aren’t important anyway. There’s only one thing. “Will you be okay, Eleven?” “Eleven hundred percent, boss!” the main body stands up, wobbles a bit, and Gem helps him walk off of the bed, “I mean after I get used to having long legs.” Shaking the small Elevens off, I can’t avoid the second thing any longer. In the corner of the room lies Cryo, curled up around four changelings of the same hue and build as the new main Eleven. They are all watching me, intently but in total silence. They’re also poking around inside my head, in that part accessible to general changeling public.  When I take a step towards them, they all untangle themselves from Cryo’s legs, stand up, and finally press their muzzles against the carpet as they kneel before me in perfect sync. “Cryo?” I ask the old queen who looks up at me momentarily before giving her full attention to the four kneeling changelings again. I can see the wet trails on her face coming from her eyes. As little as I can reach into her mind, I know she’s been crying for a long time. At first, I assume she is crushed by what Gem must have done for us all to get here, but then it comes together as I decipher the feelings slowly creeping from her to myself. Gem broke her principles for me, and destroyed a potential life of Cryo’s spawn so that Eleven could recover. That’s not why Cryo is crying. She’s a warrior, she’s been one longer than all of us put together have been alive. One more death means nothing to her after millions, but after centuries, after her failure forced her to personally wipe out her hive… ...after all that… ...she once again brought life into the world, a spark of hope not just for us, but for her broken mind too.  “Gem?” I internally poke her, “You said all her eggs were blank.” “They were, but when I started manipulating Eleven and examining which body would be the best, all of them caught on.” “Gem...” “All of them, dad...” “I know.” “I killed one.” “I know...” “What if it turned out to be the next you, the hope for everyone.” “What if he or she turned out to be Chrysalis?” I object. “What if it turned out to be the next Three?” “I’m sorry… but you did save someone who wasn’t just potential or blind hope, you saved a friend to all of us.” “I know… but knowing isn’t helping anyway...” I walk over and hug her. Or try to, because she pushes me away. “Sorry, dad, but I can’t… not now. I did everything you asked for, and now… now I just need to be alone for a while.” I sigh. “I’m afraid I can’t give you much time, honey,” I say. She gives me a questioning glance, “I take it that you haven’t read mine or Six’s head then yet.” “What is Six doing here?!” she asks, ears splaying back, “Did something happen back home?” “I’ll tell you everything on the way. We’re leaving in the evening, the summit is over. Take the day off,” I stroke her mane, “Do you need a refill? You look exhausted.” She shakes her head, and shuffles out of the room. “I’ll go with her,” says Three immediately. “She needs to be alone now, Three,” I shake my head, “Give her space.” He stops hovering in the air, clearly wanting to say something, but decides against it, instead landing by the still kneeling changelings. There’s no chaos in their minds like there’s in Cryo’s. As far as I can tell, they’re all perfectly healthy fresh additions to our hive. “Stand up,” I test their hive links. They rise immediately. I nod, “Stay with your mom. Right now, she needs you more than I do.” With a synchronized bow, they all sprawl over the huge queen. After all, there is more than enough space. “Three.” “Yes, boss.” “Come with me. We’ll sort everything out so that we can finally leave this cursed place. If I never see Canterlot again, I’ll be a happy changeling.” “What about Shuffles?” “You can visit him whenever you want. Holes know we have the gold at home to build our own set of train tracks if we wanted to.” *** “I hug the skeleton into submission!” Three throws the dice which lands on nineteen. “Awww, almost,” Gem smirks, “The power of friendship just barely fails to ignite within the skeleton, but you still deal...” she rolls her own set of dice, “Oh gosh, eighteen plus six damage. The skeleton crumbles in your hug.” “Shucks, I’m too strong for my own good,” Three shakes his head, “Can I add pillows to my gloves and chestplate?” “You do know we’re the good guys trying to defeat the evil necromancer vampire Mareovich, right? We can’t turn his henchponies as well as him to the good side,” comments Two. “It works in some cases,” Three pouts. “You don’t have enough blacksmithing skill to add pillows, Three,” Gem continues, “Cromach, your turn.” “Song of Luck and Competence on the whole group,” snickers the griffon, “I want to see if Three can turn the next one for real with some buffs.” Gem leans over to him, and hisses quietly. “Look, I allowed him to be a twenty-two base strength minotaur with huge tits whose sole point is to hug enemies into submission. I’m using monk grapple rolls and hoping for the best, but if you keep enabling him, the campaign will get silly!” Cromach’s grin only grows as he glances Anvil’s way. The minotaur isn’t playing, but sitting by the coupe door with a somewhat bored expression. “I must have Anvil try that at some point. She’s got the pillows built in already,” he whispers back. “Dad, your turn,” Gem nods at me sitting on the other side of the coupe. Oh, if it wasn’t obvious, despite everything we’re finishing the OnO campaign we started on the way to Canterlot. It helps kill time and take our mind off of unproductive worries as we’re sitting on the train to the Crystal Empire. “Uhhh,” I hesitate, “I try to hide in the shadows, and while the others are fighting I pick the lock on the door we just passed,” I roll the twenty-sided dice which lands on  one. “Ouch,” Gem winces, “Your lockpick breaks, but the door slams open, revealing a skeleton with a set of hoof blades on his left foreleg.” “I use my quickness of hoof feat which allows me a reactive action when surprised,” I reply immediately, “And I steal the skeleton’s foreleg along with a weapon.” “That’s not stealing, that’s strength check,” argues Gem. “What? No!” I smirk, “Does the skeleton have anything I have to rip off, or can I just unhook the leg from the joint?”   “Okay, coupled roll at best,” she narrows her eyes at me. I roll twice. “Oh for crying out loud,” Gem rolls her eyes, “With the bonus from Cromach’s bardic song, you succeed on both, thus quickly robbing the skeleton guard of both his weapon and his foreleg.” “I put it into my bag to sell later while pretending it’s a special kind of bone spear,” I can’t help snickering. “Done,” Gem sighs, “Two, your turn.” “I was channeling that AoE banishment spell thing.” “Oh right, roll for concentration.” Two rolls. “You fa- oh my bad. Cromach’s bonus gets you over the difficulty check,” Gem clears her throat, “With a mighty blast of golden light illuminating the hallway of the castle, the wave of skeletons pouring from both sides ends as their bones turn to dust and the dark magic holding their souls hostage fails against the onslaught of Two’s holy  banishment. As you blink to regain your vision, you realize that you’re alone,” announces Gem, “Oh, that also means the leg in your backpack turns to dust, dad.” “There goes my gold...” I mumble, “No one buys just a set of rusty hoof blades.”  “I immediately rush off ahead to find something to hug,” says Three. “That’s not smart inside an evil castle,” comments Two, our party’s cleric. “Miss Gem specifically said barbarians didn’t need intelligence,” Three taps his forehead. “I cast expedited retreat on Three so that he can find someone faster,” says Cromach, “It’s a level one spell, I can do that before he gets out of range.” “Roll me luck,” Gem narrows her eyes at him. Sixteen, that’s enough. “Three blurs and disappears into the maze of castle halls,” Gem sighs, “You get another movement action because you’re so fast.” “I go up and find the biggest door I can see.” Gem checks her hoof-drawn map, and facehoofs. “You barge into the throne room. There’s a grey unicorn wearing a dark blue coat with red inlay-” “HUGZ!” Three beams. “He’s not friendly, Three. Roll for initiative.” “Yay, twenty!”  Gem’s eye twitches. “You manage to surprise Mareovich as he’s about to launch his evil monologue, but as you rush over and hug him, you can feel he’s much stronger than his physique should allow. You know you will never crush the vampire into submission.” “I try anyway!” “Look,” Gem throws a character sheet at Three who hasn’t stopped grinning for a second, “He is baseline stronger than you, has an enormous amount of magical protections on his body, and he’s pure evil and broken hearted after his lover got killed by the villagers for being a witch. It’s not mathematically possible for you to win a hugging contest.” Three grabs the sheet, furrows his brows, and mumbles: “Carry the seven… and… and… that means I need to roll… twenty-two?” he looks up at Gem questioningly. “Twenty-four,” Gem corrects him, “And there’s nothing like carry the seven. Even with all the buffs still active from Cromach and Two you still need to roll that.” “Easy,” Three grabs the dice. “On a twenty-sided dice...” Gem throws her forelegs into the air in surrender, “Fine, screw it, roll!” The runes on Three’s body glow brighter, and he throws the dice. The small, rolling objects stops… ...showing twenty-eight. “Yaaaay, we win! Baddies are now goodies.”