//------------------------------// // Apr. 2014 - Sweat, Flesh, Blood, And Bones - 4. We Will Lurk In Every Shadow // Story: RoMS' Extravaganza // by RoMS //------------------------------// New Version: Stares were riveted on the human girl, stalking each of her moves with a scientific and unnerving interest. Raising the spoon to her lips, Maria was drinking the soup she had been offered earlier. It was a mix of tomato, potato and other different vegetables she had no idea of. It was doughy but tasteful. She was thankful for the stallion or the mare who cooked it for her. She was starving and this pain aching in her belly had lasted for too long. The silence was quasi-religious and only her noisy swallows were twitching everypony’s ears. Raising her eyes she saw half a dozen of ponies all standing at a secured range from her, visibly afraid and paradoxically fascinated. Still dangling over her shoulders, back and legs, her crimson cloth was awfully inconvenient and awkward, she had to readjust it regularly. But, for want of her better alternative, Maria had not left her improvised dress. She was sitting in a vast chamber whose windows were composed of tainted glass narrating some deeds from the past. She glared at one showing six ponies, all of different colours encaging a strange monster within a purple glow. She recognized the six ponies, those she had met in that cave... She told no one, at least for the moment, and hoped nobody… nopony had seen her wince. At both sides of the windows hung the same long, red and silky curtains as the one she had snatched. They were waving eerily under the blow of an invisible wind. The darkness was pregnant outside the windows, and sometimes a creepy howl was heard in the distance. At nightfall, the room had been filled with thousands of candles, giving it the appearance of a gothic cathedral. She snapped out of her daydreaming. Hoofsteps had echoed behind the massive gate of the banquet room. Sliding on their hinges the doors opened without a grating. Three stallions clad in silver-plated armor entered with Ray and Kreps in their tow. The last one was limping, helping himself with a cane. Silently they sat down next to Maria and were served the same frugal meal. Kreps’s eyes wandered over the room. Even if the floor had been washed and the other tables moved, he recognized this place as the one where they had miserably fallen after the lavender unicorn had used her strange glowing trick. A small stain in the seal of a tile gave him the hint. His stare stayed a long time fixed on the tainted glass. Then a gentle smile moved his lips as he fixed the contents of his bowl. He was starving too. Yet, he ate with the utmost difficulty, his throat was aching each time he swallowed and his stomach was in agony. Ray on his own gave little importance to the goings-on around him, in the darkness produced by the biased flames of the candles he struggled finding the spoon. “Is there a problem, sir?” one of the pony soldiers asked. “I… I lost my glasses… I’m really short-sighed,” Ray confessed, ashamed. The soldier nodded and evidenced the spoon with his hoof. Ray thanked him and started eating greedily once he grasped the utensil. “You know what happened to Verd’?” Kreps put forward with hesitation, giving a glance at the unsettling stares of the ponies around. Kreps was trying to talk as low as possible. He quickly found that the room had a perfect echoing structure. He would not be able to hide his words. “He is in intensive care,” Maria answered without a conviction. “They said nothing if he is going to survive.” She dealt the final blow to the specks of joy floating in the air and everyone sunk into an abyssal silent, fixing their bowls. “And the kid?” Ray brought up. Maria nibbled her bottom lip, Kreps drummed the tablecloth with his fingers and a scream erupted in the air. Everyone jumped out of their chair. Powerful steps stomped the ground outside. The wicks of the candles shook and some flames went blown away. From behind the closed threshold a voice started shouting. “Princess Luna, stop! You’re going to…” – The door slammed inward – “…hurt you…” finished a purple pony with a horn and flapping wings. Princess Luna flung herself in the room. Eyes widened and fearful, she drew circles in the middle of the chamber. On her back was cramped the human child, his hand firmly tightened to Luna’s waving mane. Under his harm, a teddy-bear shook under the swerves of the alicorn. Luna rolled on the floor, finally able to get rid of the parasite on her back. The kid stumbled on the floor, his hand riveted to the plush toy. His head hit a tile and droplets of blood ran on his face. He did not cry. In the opening of the door appeared the five friends of the purple pony. They all had a hoof in front of their eyes, ready to swipe it from their forehead to their muzzle in a monumental grouped facehoof that would be remembered for generations. Still on her flank, panting, Luna fixed the human kid with a dominant stare. “This is mine!” The child hissed and Luna jumped on her hooves with a mix of fear and anger in her eyes. She tried to snatch the toy off his hands, but the child’s grunt was enough to make the princess withdraw once again. Raucous laughter rose from the neighbouring table. With her bloodshot eyes, Luna stared in its direction. The two human males were mocking her. Ponies around also had difficulty to shovel down their cravings to burst out in laughs. The girl on the other hoof was scanning the Princess with hawk-eyes. Meanwhile, the kid disappeared under a table. “You?!” Maria said abruptly. Luna shifted her eyes and the revelation popped in her mind. The girl! “You were in my dream!” Maria kept going, her voice more stern than before. She had seen the alicorn when they miserably appeared in that chamber, but she had not paid attention at the moment. Right now, Maria was clearly visualizing the features of the blue coated winged, whatever, pony. She had seen the mighty animal in her dream… before she had even met her. “It’s Our duty to watch upon the dreams of others!” Luna spoke, trying to get the upper hoof on the creature facing her. The three humans became suddenly silent. “You what?” Kreps hissed. “We enter the dreams of our fellow ponies to chase their nightmares away,” the princess answered with proudness. “You sneaked… into our minds,” Maria erupted, gritting her teeth and showing her canines to the assembly. “You spied on us?” The sudden burst of anger dunked everypony’s head in their shoulders. Luna mumbled. Maria was ready to give a final turn to the screw and leap on the alicorn. With a cry, Ray raised his hand, shutting Maria’s mouth up, making her sit slowly. Her stare kept glaring death threats at the alicorn. “The question is how can you enter our mind?” Ray queried the Princess. “Magic,” a purple pony interposed herself between Ray and Luna. “Twilight…” Luna tried, vexed. “And a rational explanation rather than the common ‘shut up it’s magic’,” Ray cut the young princess. Twilight winced, not getting the reference. “No I’m not kidding,” Twilight stomped the ground. “How do you think I teleported you here?” The three humans took a pause… a long unsettling pause. Then their eyes commonly set upon Twilight with an expression of disclosed hatred. The pony swallowed. “You tried to kill us in that cave…” Kreps hissed. Maria studied her spoon, probing the sharpness of its contours. “It was a sleep spell, but of course when I try something simple I have to stumble on something that somehow messed with my magic,” Twilight sniggered sarcastically. “And you were the one who attacked Fluttershy.” Kreps raised a brow. Behind Twilight walked the butter-coated pony he had met earlier. “Twilight, I repeat that it was okay. They saved…” she tried to convince with a voice nearly inaudible. “And your friend, confess that you were going to kill him!” Twilight added without an ounce of attention for Fluttershy. “That you wanted to eat him, you cannibals!” Ray raised a finger, calling for silence. Everypony remarked he was not shocked by these accusations, just strangely troubled. “First, yes we were going to kill him before you arrived,” the listening ponies gasped and gave a hoofstep back from the table. “But he was going to die anyway. It was… mercy.” “Mercy? And cannibalism in that story?” Twilight smirked with disgust. “It was p…” “Silence!” Fluttershy shouted with enough strength that Twilight jumped out of her horseshoes. The gentle pony took place between the two parties. She fixed her friend. “They saved me from a Wyvern,” she spelled slowly – In her back Kreps joined the palm of his hands, praying the god who gifted him somebody who finally knew the lexicon –. “It’s been five hours since I tried to tell you this, but you can be such a mule when you want to!” Twilight’s eyes swelled, her timid Fluttershy, facing her like this. Twilight’s lips shivered, tears rolled on her cheeks. “I… I’m sorry,” Fluttershy whispered, seeing her hurt friend. “I…” “No it’s me who’s sorry. It’s true, I’m a mule…” Twilight gratified her friend with a hug. Ray, Kreps and Maria frowned, sticking their tongues out with disgust, revolted by such a soppy play. Luna was still standing by Twilight side. She had been silent during the argument and she visibly wanted to come back on the leading edge. “Let’s get back to the main topic, would thou? Yes, We entered your dream. Yes, We spied on you, but it was out of curiosity,” she threw, trying to lower her aggressiveness. Luna calmed down and added, “Thou aren’t from this world, are you?” The Mane Six had gathered around the princess, and the last sentence had every stare glued on the trio, who sat at the only table of the vast chamber. Kreps and Ray shared a stressed look, feeling surrounded and defenseless. “I…” Ray initiated. “No, we're not,” Maria slithered in. “I talked with the other princess… Celestia. We come from somewhere else.” Everyone and everypony turned muted, giving place to an atrociously long silence who petrified every party. “What's your world like?” Stares set upon… Applejack. She was curious and as scared as everypony else, but honesty was also her curse. “How did your world make y'all into wrecks?” She mentioned their limp limbs, the skin over their bones, their horrid appearance, everything that made the humans monsters in ponies eyes. “Kreps?” Ray asked. “You’re the best at storytelling when Verd’ is not here. Go ahead.” The German sighed. He swept the room with his sorry eyes. “Earth, the blue planet… A magnificent place four billions years old where life birthed in some random oceans and sprawled over the seas, the earth and the air. There, in some region called Africa a species raised itself to the top of the animal kingdom. Its name was humankind.” Kreps saw the captivated eyes of his audience. He made the suspense last. “Our race thrives upon the lands, scavenging it, digging it, shaping it to our own and sole will. We built self-propelled vehicles that sent us to our moon,” he said pointing the sky through the picture windows. Luna’s jaw fell slightly, dangling at Kreps’s words. “We built engines to go faster than any living creature,” – one of the ponies, a rainbow pegasus standing next to the princess twitched her ears –. “…breaking barriers that we thought forbidden to us. We built machines to free us from any carving. We erected monuments to our own glory, touching the sky with our burning will to compete with deaf and blind gods. We forged our path, imposing our power over everything because we were the only sentient beings on our soil. We master our world with our bare hands.” He showed to everypony the palm of his right hand and closed it violently, mimicking the power within the palm of monarchs. “We built our paved roads, our shining cities and our complex machineries without magic… only with the sweat of our forehead, with the pain in our hands and the blood of hundred anonymous generations. Our cities shone in the mountains, reverberate the light in the plains, brighten the sand of our deserts, interconnected with endless streets where our seven billons brothers agitate like insects within their hive…” Drawing this superior view of his civilisation, Kreps wanted to spread an emotion in the ponies. And he did it well. No mouth was shut, no eyes was neutral. And the frail light of the candles was giving strength to his flawless speech. “So why are y’all so… rotten?” Applejack sniggered, feeling the lie between this sweet talk. “Because he’s saying half the truth,” a limp voice erupted from the gate. Everypony turned around. Celestia was standing next to an improvised wheelchair. Verdugo was sitting limply in it, wrapped in bandages, with intravenous running through his body. He was pale and shivering due to the blood loss he had suffered and pain was easily readable on his ghoulish face. He had difficulties staying awake. Maria and her friends stood up and dashed maniacally to their friend. “You did it!” Ray cried. “A piece of me only,” Verdugo responded, pointing his… missing arm. They all glared at Celestia who held back a bad feeling. “You cut his arm?” Maria spelled slowly with a disclosed anger. The princess tried to answer. Verdugo raised his left hand. “Tis just a flesh wound, won’t be a burden to kick your ass during the next game,” he said to her foster sister – He gave an amused look to Kreps, then to everypony. Oh god he wanted to play a game of “Baraka” –. “But let’s go back to your little story, Kreps.” Verdugo gently asked the stallion pushing his chair to stabilize him in the middle of the gathering. Kreps’s face whitened as Verdugo strated clearing his voice. “What Kreps didn't have the courage to tell you,” he smiled. “The whole fucking thing. Mankind is not a peaceful race. We are warriors with no natural skin armour to protect us, with no claws to defend us, with no teeth to rip off the meat off our enemy’s neck.” He lifted his arm over his head, grunting in pain, showing to every eyes staring at him the truth in his demonstration. “Someday, someone, you can call it Providence, the Almighty, I don’t care… Someone said that man was a yet-to-be god, and swept us over the surface of Earth, destroying with anger and angst the first human’s common work, a tower that reached the sky. It tore apart the prime idiom of our first civilisation to be sure that in the end, we will never be able to take the upper hand on the universe.” Verdugo stared laughing imperceptibly. “But Man is particularly spiteful and revanchist. He gathered in many countries and each of them tried to build his own tower, with its own rules and its own languages. But man isn’t just spiteful against the universe, no… He's a jealous being who looked down at the other's to see what he could steal, copy and use while he would force his own vision down others' throats and minds.” Verdugo snatched a glass of water off the neighbouring table and drunk it in one mouthful. He breathed loudly. “Men, because we can’t say ‘Man’ anymore, tried to make sure that everyone else would follow their own will instead of the other's. So they invented the almighty way of war.” Shivers spread on everypony’s fur. “Men are freewill-gifted wild animals, wolves which search for power and make choices, terrible choices though,” he shook his head in sorrow. “This is why men created culture and society, trying to encage themselves in a set of rules to make sure the beast and the sickness inside stay well-behaved until the end of times.” Verdugo distorted his face with a maddening smile, unveiling his rotten yellow teeth. Some ponies held back the gag in their stomach. “But in fact, men never cease to be violent. Because men encaged themselves, they started getting used to rules and routines. If violence entered the routine nobody will bat an eye, but once the violence or something else come tickling this insanity of repeating the same speech, habits and deeds over and over again… Then everyone loses their minds. And that is exactly what happened. We lost our minds.” Verdugo sniggered; satisfied with the expression of horror the ponies were giving to him. He was even more amused that his three friends had lowered their stares, looking down at their feet with shame. “More than three years ago, a trigger was pressed and our world ceased to exist as we knew it. People grabbed their weapons and threw themselves at each others’ throats, trying to do something that rules and unnatural instincts tried to make them forget… survival, simple survival,” he circled his neck with his hand, imitating strangulation. “We ripped each others’ faces, we killed, we raped, we scavenged, we ate, we hated… words can’t suffice, but keep this image in your mind that Kreps tried to hide. We may have the nature bend before ourselves, but we never break the truth lying, hidden, deep within every human’s heart… the truth that in the end we are all monsters, bound by blood.” His three friends had taken a seat, shaking from these revelations. Verdugo had brought back ‘good old’ memories. He was even more satisfied by the graveyard silence stagnant in the air. “What is that trigger you’re talking about?” Celestia hazarded herself with an irrepressible fear shaking her hooves. Verdugo’s smile grew creepier, keeping the suspense aloft. He spelled with delight, pointing at Celestia’s tattoo over her stifle. “The sun simply decided to wipe off the earth our six thousand years of history and four millions years of evolution; and leaded us to kill each other in a global bloodbath that saw six billions people put… to the sword.” He laughed. “You should see the look on your faces,” he spelled with amusement and turned to look at his friends. “What? Truth never killed people, did it?” Everypony had slid their eyes on Celestia. She was blemish, having difficulty keeping her composure. “Don’t you freak out Princess, you told me on the way that you raise the sun and other things. Not that I don’t believe that absolute monarchy is a stable regime, but why are you so shaken by a simple sun?” “I really move the sun at my will, mister,” Celestia despised the disrespectful human. To her avail, her horn suddenly glowed white and the sun jet from the horizon outside the palace. A second later Luna’s horn glowed a dark blue and the moon took back its rightful place up in the night sky. Verdugo smiled with amusement, Kreps slapped himself and Maria hid her face behind the palm of her hand. “I think I’m gonna hate this place,” Ray sighed, blasé. Accompanied with her sister and the Mane-Six, Celestia left the room a knot firmly tied in her stomach, melted in bile of anger and unfathomable sadness. The five humans stayed in, drinking their mixed food. The kid had kept the plush and was now tearing off its obsidian eyes with his teeth. “I think you sealed up our fate Verd’…” Maria sighed with despair. “I made a choice. Don’t wanna blame me for this.” “You and your choices… You’ll kill all of us someday. You really had to make yourself the villain of the story?” Verdugo gave a last laugh before catching the soup bowl with his left hand and lift it to his mouth, drinking it with greed. He scanned his friends. “Apparently they have locked away all of our remaining weapons,” Verdugo stated with an atrocious pragmatism, mentioning they had left they metal case in the meadow before the wyvern’s assault. “And your box, Kreps?” The German shook his head. Everyone sighed, understanding they were short on their options. ϧ α ϼ ϖ ϡ ϖ ϼ α ϧ “We can’t keep them,” Luna struck the table with her hoof. “You heard that Verdugo? They are monsters!” “I don’t want to look like a human,” Twilight added, sniggering with her comparison. “But I’m with Luna on this idea. They were ready to kill their own ‘friend’. Can you believe that?!” The small chamber displayed little furniture, a long and oval table covered with a purple leathered cover and a rack where a cowmare hat dangled. The walls were upholstered with red covers and over a sleeping hearth stood crossed a sword and a scroll, carved in the same piece of silver. Stares fixed both Luna and Twilight. Among them were Celestia, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Leading Hooves, the right arm stallion of Shining Armor who had been dragged there from under his bed sheets. “Stop jumping over the cart Twilight,” Applejack tried to reason her. “We don’t really know about them, maybe they were joking or lying!” “They are monsters, you heard them. They confess they were murderers and other stuff that creep me out so much I don’t want to bring it on the top of the agenda.” “Twilight!” Celestia erupted, using the Canterlot voice. Twilight dunked her head, terrified by the sudden vocal burst of her beloved teacher. “Twilight,” Celestia added with a more gentle tone. “Don’t overcommit yourself, your mind blurs and refuses to see other’s points of view when you’re angry. Don’t you remember what I taught you?” “Yes Princess, I’m sorry,” the concerned lavender alicorn replied, shameful. “Nopony can be bad to the core Twilight,” Fluttershy tried. “They are not ponies, remember.” “They are from an advanced civilisation, if what they said is true. Don’t you understand what does that mean…” Rarity added, sparks in her eyes. “They said their civilisation has been blown away.” “They built super-fast machines!!” Rainbow cried, bursting her wings and flying in the air to get muzzle to muzzle with Twilight. “That may be a lie to trick us,” Twilight sniggered, pushing aside Rainbow’s face. Everypony sighed, stuck in a dead end. “They need care and kindness,” Fluttershy advanced shyly. “We can all see they had suffered. Look, even that guy, Verdugo… He got his arm cut and he didn’t seem to care about it. And… that poor girl, ponies whispered about her ‘cutie mark’.” “He was going to die Fluttershy,” Luna rolled her eyes. “We think that We would trade a hoof for staying alive, who wouldn’t? And for that girl…” “Cease about it,” Celestia sighed. “I promised Maria we won’t talk about it until she is ready to speak about it by herself.” Everypony shut up, worried looks plaguing their features. “Fluttershy is right,” Rarity tagged with her friend, breaking the silence. “How can we be the Elements of Harmony if we can’t give them a chance to prove they are good, or at least not as bad as they look.” Rarity had glued in her eyes the horrible appearance of the humans. Pigs were the only convenient comparison she had. But the girl had washed herself, and yes, she could give them a chance. Maybe she would learn about their fashion, they were wearing clothes and visibly, the girl had displayed cleverness to keep her modesty safe. “You could learn innumerable things from them Twilight,” Celestia smiled, having found the right incentives for her faithful student. And she was right, stars of greed sparked in Twilight’s eyes. “And if we keep them, I’ll throw them a welcoming party!” Pinkie Pie finally burst after being silent all along, overwhelmed by the cries and screams everypony had been shooting at eachother. “I won’t let them leave the castle for the moment Pinkie, I think you’ll have to do it with a restrained audience or wait until I am assured they are… safe for my little ponies to see and deal with them,” Celestia cut in her joy. “I must agree with Twilight and my sister on this point. Even if we give them a chance, I still consider them as dangerous. The Royal Guard is examining their possessions right now. This is why I’ve woken you up Leading.” The stallion snapped out of his sitting nap. “Yes, sure Princess. They had on them a load of weapons, swords, axes, and…” – Leading Hooves casted a glance at Twilight –. “… Three strange cylinders with the weapon you brought. We still don’t know how it works but we are acting with precautions. And I don’t want to take a side in your disputes, but the edges of their weapons are dirty and used… and not on something inert.” Nopony dared counter his statement. Days passed… ϧ α ϼ ϖ ϡ ϖ ϼ α ϧ Plunged in the dark, the hive was buzzing under the agitation of thousands of changelings, busy fulfilling the tasks they were given at birth and that they would carry on until the bells of death tolled for them. Thousands of glowing eyes were moving in tidy lines endlessly, a designed objective in their minds. Moving forward, drilling through the mass of his brothers, a changeling was limping toward the deepest stages of the cyclopean construction. The walls were blackened by sick mucus produced by the builders. Everything was ruled by the dogma of efficiency. Everything had to have a place and was meant to not drift away from it. Those who failed to follow this order successfully were ineluctably thrown away. They became useless for the hive. He stood firmly in front of a greenish bioluminescent gate. A changeling’s crown was stamped on it, likely burned with an ember. He gulped, felling nauseous as a powerful surge of magic crawled from under the door like the tongue of an undisclosed monster, licking his face, tasting a petrified prey like a predator before his deadly leap. The gates gritted on its biologic hinges and a rotten air slapped the changeling’s muzzle. He winced; a violent light was creeping out of the chamber too. He took a long and deep breath and entered. In the light, the changeling’s feature became more explicit. Small clumps of dark green mane were sprouting out of his back and head, hiding his eyes slightly. Numerous scars were grieving his exoskeleton. He stepped forward, queasy and jumped swiftly when the huge door slammed in his back. He wiped the sweat of his forehead, running in his blue eyes. His shredded wings whizzed in the hair, throwing a painful aching in his body. He kneeled in the light, tilting his head in a message of fear and respect. “My Queen,” he implored with respect. “Oh, my dear Pathog you can call me by my true name,” Chrysalis replied with a grin of amusement. “Yes… mother.” Chrysalis was lying on a construct made of thousands of hatched eggs, all solidified into a throne of horror. The light was blooming from the celling where an opening filled with mirrors was reverberating the light from the surface. Pathog laid his eyes on the queen, his mother. She never fully recovered from the attack on Equestria. One of her legs was twisted in the wrong way and a scar was slashing over her face. Her wings were also damaged. Yet, they were growing back, slowly, for a year and a half now they had been reshaping into their original form. “Come to me my son,” she said with gentleness. “It has been so long since I had a discussion with you or your brothers.” The changeling went stoic. “Have you heard me? Come here!” “I, I can’t,” the changeling sobbed. “Vector and Host are dead, I’m sorry.” One of Chrysalis's hollowed hooves slid off her couch in awe, tiny tears rolled from her eyes, twinkling in the brightening light falling from the hole above her. The despair… She felt it pulling her down like a heavy anchor, down into the murky waters of oblivion. First she had lost a war and a majority of her people… now, she had lost two sons… Only one remained. Without his approval, Chrysalis grabbed Pathog with a disincarnated claw of green sparkling magic and dragged him to her side, hugging him in a mother like reflex, like a toy she could use to keep the sorrow away. Pathog struggled at first, but as he was unable to fight back this wave of affection and the godly strength of her mother, he gave up. “I’m so sorry, it all went wrong. We had tracked down that pony from Celestia’s peons. We wanted to mug her for you, to make you proud. But that monster came up and took us down and…” Chrysalis put her hoof on his lips, forcing a smile from her own. “Hush now, it’s okay…” “No, it’s not okay, there were these five smooth-faced, blood-stained, reeking monsters walking on two legs. They flashed out in front of me. But I was not deceived. There are monsters in Equestria now.” Pathog casted a glance at her sorrowful mother. She was lost in her thoughts, tears still dropping. With gentleness Pathog wiped them off her cheeks and dried them in his mane. Back in the cave he had been shaken by the creatures’ appearance. It was only after his escape he finally understood what happened that day. He had made his way back to the South, down to the Badlands where the hive had withered over the last centuries. But with the help of the changeling’s he had found while withdrawing, he did not come back with empty hooves. “Mother, I have something more to tell you.” Chrysalis looked down at him, tightening her loving embrace, swallowing a gag of sadness. “Yes my child?” “We found a metal case in Equestria while I was escorted back here. We haven’t opened it yet. Do you want to be the first to see it? I think it belonged to the creatures I saw.” Chrysalis nodded, unconvinced but unwilling to hurt her last son’s feelings. Pathog clapped his twisted hooves and two changelings entered pushing the gate inward and carrying an imposing metal case. With the help of her magic, Chrysalis blew up the lock and opened it. She drew out a long sword splattered with dried blood. The smell was unbearable, thicker than the horrid smell of her own room. The queen’s muzzle winced under the repetitive assaults of this stench. Dropping it, the queen started rumbling in the case. Bemused and curious she spread the contents of the trunk on the floor. She watched clueless on a dozen of strangely shaped objects she knew nothing about. Everything was rusted and dusty, and horribly stained with nothing but blood. The monsters Pathog had described were apparently warriors with an impressive technologic advance in weaponry. With her magic she lifted up a strange cylinder, approximately four feet long. Circled with a wooden protection, the cylinder displayed another large but smaller twin on what seemed to be its top. At each end was a convex lens. She looked through with curiosity. It was a magnifying glass, and a good one in spite of the cracks tearing the ledges of one. Stuck to it was a strange rectangular and metallic system. She tried to take it off. Facing a small resistance she forced the system with her magic. The rectangle container dropped on the floor and five brass cones bounced around, rolling randomly in the corners of the room. There were similar shaped objects in the case. All had different lengths and weights but presented in the end the same blueprint; a brass cylinder which first end showed a tiny recess circled with numbers and letters. The other end differed. The diameter was diminishing rapidly and encaged a metallic tip. Chrysalis broke it and black particles fell on the ground. The queen titled her head toward the small pyramid of dark specks, trying to smell it. She sneezed repetitively; a few dark grains had got into her muzzle. “Are you alright mother?” Pathog asked with angst. “Yes, yes it’s nothing, just dirt…” she defended herself. Chrysalis shaped the small heap of particles with her heel, drawing a line from it. “Bring me some fire,” she ordered. “I think I know what it is.” Pathog, snatched a candle from Chrysalis’s chamber desk. The queen grabbed it with violence and let it drop on the compound. It instantly took fire and crackled in front of her. A horrid smile chased the sorrow off her face while random sparks of light lit her features. “How did you…” Pathog hesitated, still stunned by the chemical reaction. “I’m old my son, I’ve seen a lot in this world mortals would not dare imagine. Griffons and ponies use the powder for fireworks,” – she grabbed another cartridge –. “But it seemed that our intruders have made some deadly weapons from it.” Pathog swallowed, it had been a long time since he had seen her mother with a smile this wide. It was not joy or sadness… but a grin betraying the birthing shenanigans and deceptions she was assembling in the tortuous twists and turns of her mind. “Pathog,” Chrysalis ordered as her son came to attention. “Take a note please; I have some letters to send.” Her smile was contagious. She started laughing maniacally, forgetting about her damaged leg. Pathog followed her fit of madness. He was happier than ever, his mother was back in track. The laughter burst out of her lungs and spread in the corridors of the hive, reaching everylings’ ears. The insanity of her voice sprawled in their minds and the Hive shook under the hooves of the changelings, more agitated than ever, joining in with the queen’s cry of havoc. Chrysalis howled, her sharp teeth shining under the pit of light. “Let’s watch the castle burn!” Old Version: Stares were riveted on the human girl, stalking each of her moves with a scientific and unnerving interest. Raising the spoon to her lips, Maria was drinking the soup she had been offered earlier. It was a mix of tomato, potato and other different vegetables she had no idea of. It was doughy but tasteful. She was thankful for the stallion or the mare who cooked it for her. She was starving and this pain aching in her belly had lasted for too long. The silence was quasi-religious and only her noisy swallows were twitching everypony’s ears. Raising her eyes she saw half a dozen of ponies all standing at a secured range from her, visibly afraid and paradoxically fascinated. Still dangling over her shoulders, back and legs, her crimson cloth was awfully inconvenient and awkward, she had to readjust it regularly. But, for want of her better alternative, Maria had not left her improvised dress. She was sitting in a vast chamber whose windows were composed of tainted glass narrating some deeds from the past. She glared at one showing six ponies, all of different colours encaging a strange monster within a purple glow. She recognized the six ponies, those she had met in that cave... She told no one, at least for the moment, and hoped nobody… nopony had seen her wince. At both sides of the windows hung the same long, red and silky curtains as the one she had snatched. They were waving eerily under the blow of an invisible wind. The darkness was pregnant outside the windows, and sometimes a creepy howl was heard in the distance. At nightfall, the room had been filled with thousands of candles, giving it the appearance of a gothic cathedral. She snapped out of her daydreaming. Hoofsteps had echoed behind the massive gate of the banquet room. Sliding on their hinges the doors opened without a grating. Three stallions clad in silver-plated armor entered with Ray and Kreps in their tow. The last one was limping, helping himself with a cane. Silently they sat down next to Maria and were served the same frugal meal. Kreps’s eyes wandered over the room. Even if the floor had been washed and the other tables moved, he recognized this place as the one where they had miserably fallen after the lavender unicorn had used her strange glowing trick. A small stain in the seal of a tile gave him the hint. His stare stayed a long time fixed on the tainted glass. Then a gentle smile moved his lips as he fixed the contents of his bowl. He was starving too. Yet, he ate with the utmost difficulty, his throat was aching each time he swallowed and his stomach was in agony. Ray on his own gave little importance to the goings-on around him, in the darkness produced by the biased flames of the candles he struggled finding the spoon. “Is there a problem, sir?” one of the pony soldiers asked. “I… I lost my glasses… I’m really short-sighed,” Ray confessed, ashamed. The soldier nodded and evidenced the spoon with his hoof. Ray thanked him and started eating greedily once he grasped the utensil. “You know what happened to Verd’?” Kreps put forward with hesitation, giving a glance at the unsettling stares of the ponies around. Kreps was trying to talk as low as possible. He quickly found that the room had a perfect echoing structure. He would not be able to hide his words. “He is in intensive care,” Maria answered without a conviction. “They said nothing if he is going to survive.” She dealt the final blow to the specks of joy floating in the air and everyone sunk into an abyssal silent, fixing their bowls. “And the kid?” Ray brought up. Maria nibbled her bottom lip, Kreps drummed the tablecloth with his fingers and a scream erupted in the air. Everyone jumped out of their chair. Powerful steps stomped the ground outside. The wicks of the candles shook and some flames went blown away. From behind the closed threshold a voice started shouting. “Princess Luna, stop! You’re going to…” – The door slammed inward – “…hurt you…” finished a purple pony with a horn and flapping wings. Princess Luna flung herself in the room. Eyes widened and fearful, she drew circles in the middle of the chamber. On her back was cramped the human child, his hand firmly tightened to Luna’s waving mane. Under his harm, a teddy-bear shook under the swerves of the alicorn. Luna rolled on the floor, finally able to get rid of the parasite on her back. The kid stumbled on the floor, his hand riveted to the plush toy. His head hit a tile and droplets of blood ran on his face. He did not cry. In the opening of the door appeared the five friends of the purple pony. They all had a hoof in front of their eyes, ready to swipe it from their forehead to their muzzle in a monumental grouped facehoof that would be remembered for generations. Still on her flank, panting, Luna fixed the human kid with a dominant stare. “This is mine!” The child hissed and Luna jumped on her hooves with a mix of fear and anger in her eyes. She tried to snatch the toy off his hands, but the child’s grunt was enough to make the princess withdraw once again. Raucous laughter rose from the neighbouring table. With her bloodshot eyes, Luna stared in its direction. The two human males were mocking her. Ponies around also had difficulty to shovel down their cravings to burst out in laughs. The girl on the other hoof was scanning the Princess with hawk-eyes. Meanwhile, the kid disappeared under a table. “You?!” Maria said abruptly. Luna shifted her eyes and the revelation popped in her mind. The girl! “You were in my dream!” Maria kept going, her voice more stern than before. She had seen the alicorn when they miserably appeared in that chamber, but she had not paid attention at the moment. Right now, Maria was clearly visualizing the features of the blue coated winged, whatever, pony. She had seen the mighty animal in her dream… before she had even met her. “It’s Our duty to watch upon the dreams of others!” Luna spoke, trying to get the upper hoof on the creature facing her. The three humans became suddenly silent. “You what?” Kreps hissed. “We enter the dreams of our fellow ponies to chase their nightmares away,” the princess answered with proudness. “You sneaked… into our minds,” Maria erupted, gritting her teeth and showing her canines to the assembly. “You spied on us?” The sudden burst of anger dunked everypony’s head in their shoulders. Luna mumbled. Maria was ready to give a final turn to the screw and leap on the alicorn. With a cry, Ray raised his hand, shutting Maria’s mouth up, making her sit slowly. Her stare kept glaring death threats at the alicorn. “The question is how can you enter our mind?” Ray queried the Princess. “Magic,” a purple pony interposed herself between Ray and Luna. “Twilight…” Luna tried, vexed. “And a rational explanation rather than the common ‘shut up it’s magic’,” Ray cut the young princess. Twilight winced, not getting the reference. “No I’m not kidding,” Twilight stomped the ground. “How do you think I teleported you here?” The three humans took a pause… a long unsettling pause. Then their eyes commonly set upon Twilight with an expression of disclosed hatred. The pony swallowed. “You tried to kill us in that cave…” Kreps hissed. Maria studied her spoon, probing the sharpness of its contours. “It was a sleep spell, but of course when I try something simple I have to stumble on something that somehow messed with my magic,” Twilight sniggered sarcastically. “And you were the one who attacked Fluttershy.” Kreps raised a brow. Behind Twilight walked the butter-coated pony he had met earlier. “Twilight, I repeat that it was okay. They saved…” she tried to convince with a voice nearly inaudible. “And your friend, confess that you were going to kill him!” Twilight added without an ounce of attention for Fluttershy. “That you wanted to eat him, you cannibals!” Ray raised a finger, calling for silence. Everypony remarked he was not shocked by these accusations, just strangely troubled. “First, yes we were going to kill him before you arrived,” the listening ponies gasped and gave a hoofstep back from the table. “But he was going to die anyway. It was… mercy.” “Mercy? And cannibalism in that story?” Twilight smirked with disgust. “It was p…” “Silence!” Fluttershy shouted with enough strength that Twilight jumped out of her horseshoes. The gentle pony took place between the two parties. She fixed her friend. “They saved me from a Wyvern,” she spelled slowly – In her back Kreps joined the palm of his hands, praying the god who gifted him somebody who finally knew the lexicon –. “It’s been five hours since I tried to tell you this, but you can be such a mule when you want to!” Twilight’s eyes swelled, her timid Fluttershy, facing her like this. Twilight’s lips shivered, tears rolled on her cheeks. “I… I’m sorry,” Fluttershy whispered, seeing her hurt friend. “I…” “No it’s me who’s sorry. It’s true, I’m a mule…” Twilight gratified her friend with a hug. Ray, Kreps and Maria frowned, sticking their tongues out with disgust, revolted by such a soppy play. Luna was still standing by Twilight side. She had been silent during the argument and she visibly wanted to come back on the leading edge. “Let’s get back to the main topic, would thou? Yes, We entered your dream. Yes, We spied on you, but it was out of curiosity,” she threw, trying to lower her aggressiveness. Luna calmed down and added, “Thou aren’t from this world, are you?” The Mane Six had gathered around the princess, and the last sentence had every stare glued on the trio, who sat at the only table of the vast chamber. Kreps and Ray shared a stressed look, feeling surrounded and defenseless. “I…” Ray initiated. “No, we're not,” Maria slithered in. “I talked with the other princess… Celestia. We come from somewhere else.” Everyone and everypony turned muted, giving place to an atrociously long silence who petrified every party. “What's your world like?” Stares set upon… Applejack. She was curious and as scared as everypony else, but honesty was also her curse. “How did your world make y'all into wrecks?” She mentioned their limp limbs, the skin over their bones, their horrid appearance, everything that made the humans monsters in ponies eyes. “Kreps?” Ray asked. “You’re the best at storytelling when Verd’ is not here. Go ahead.” The German sighed. He swept the room with his sorry eyes. “Earth, the blue planet… A magnificent place four billions years old where life birthed in some random oceans and sprawled over the seas, the earth and the air. There, in some region called Africa a species raised itself to the top of the animal kingdom. Its name was humankind.” Kreps saw the captivated eyes of his audience. He made the suspense last. “Our race thrives upon the lands, scavenging it, digging it, shaping it to our own and sole will. We built self-propelled vehicles that sent us to our moon,” he said pointing the sky through the picture windows. Luna’s jaw fell slightly, dangling at Kreps’s words. “We built engines to go faster than any living creature,” – one of the ponies, a rainbow pegasus standing next to the princess twitched her ears –. “…breaking barriers that we thought forbidden to us. We built machines to free us from any carving. We erected monuments to our own glory, touching the sky with our burning will to compete with deaf and blind gods. We forged our path, imposing our power over everything because we were the only sentient beings on our soil. We master our world with our bare hands.” He showed to everypony the palm of his right hand and closed it violently, mimicking the power within the palm of monarchs. “We built our paved roads, our shining cities and our complex machineries without magic… only with the sweat of our forehead, with the pain in our hands and the blood of hundred anonymous generations. Our cities shone in the mountains, reverberate the light in the plains, brighten the sand of our deserts, interconnected with endless streets where our seven billons brothers agitate like insects within their hive…” Drawing this superior view of his civilisation, Kreps wanted to spread an emotion in the ponies. And he did it well. No mouth was shut, no eyes was neutral. And the frail light of the candles was giving strength to his flawless speech. “So why are y’all so… rotten?” Applejack sniggered, feeling the lie between this sweet talk. “Because he’s saying half the truth,” a limp voice erupted from the gate. Everypony turned around. Celestia was standing next to an improvised wheelchair. Verdugo was sitting limply in it, wrapped in bandages, with intravenous running through his body. He was pale and shivering due to the blood loss he had suffered and pain was easily readable on his ghoulish face. He had difficulties staying awake. Maria and her friends stood up and dashed maniacally to their friend. “You did it!” Ray cried. “A piece of me only,” Verdugo responded, pointing his… missing arm. They all glared at Celestia who held back a bad feeling. “You cut his arm?” Maria spelled slowly with a disclosed anger. The princess tried to answer. Verdugo raised his left hand. “Tis just a flesh wound, won’t be a burden to kick your ass during the next game,” he said to her foster sister – He gave an amused look to Kreps, then to everypony. Oh god he wanted to play a game of “Baraka” –. “But let’s go back to your little story, Kreps.” Verdugo gently asked the stallion pushing his chair to stabilize him in the middle of the gathering. Kreps’s face whitened as Verdugo strated clearing his voice. “What Kreps didn't have the courage to tell you,” he smiled. “The whole fucking thing. Mankind is not a peaceful race. We are warriors with no natural skin armour to protect us, with no claws to defend us, with no teeth to rip off the meat off our enemy’s neck.” He lifted his arm over his head, grunting in pain, showing to every eyes staring at him the truth in his demonstration. “Someday, someone, you can call it Providence, the Almighty, I don’t care… Someone said that man was a yet-to-be god, and swept us over the surface of Earth, destroying with anger and angst the first human’s common work, a tower that reached the sky. It tore apart the prime idiom of our first civilisation to be sure that in the end, we will never be able to take the upper hand on the universe.” Verdugo stared laughing imperceptibly. “But Man is particularly spiteful and revanchist. He gathered in many countries and each of them tried to build his own tower, with its own rules and its own languages. But man isn’t just spiteful against the universe, no… He's a jealous being who looked down at the other's to see what he could steal, copy and use while he would force his own vision down others' throats and minds.” Verdugo snatched a glass of water off the neighbouring table and drunk it in one mouthful. He breathed loudly. “Men, because we can’t say ‘Man’ anymore, tried to make sure that everyone else would follow their own will instead of the other's. So they invented the almighty way of war.” Shivers spread on everypony’s fur. “Men are freewill-gifted wild animals, wolves which search for power and make choices, terrible choices though,” he shook his head in sorrow. “This is why men created culture and society, trying to encage themselves in a set of rules to make sure the beast and the sickness inside stay well-behaved until the end of times.” Verdugo distorted his face with a maddening smile, unveiling his rotten yellow teeth. Some ponies held back the gag in their stomach. “But in fact, men never cease to be violent. Because men encaged themselves, they started getting used to rules and routines. If violence entered the routine nobody will bat an eye, but once the violence or something else come tickling this insanity of repeating the same speech, habits and deeds over and over again… Then everyone loses their minds. And that is exactly what happened. We lost our minds.” Verdugo sniggered; satisfied with the expression of horror the ponies were giving to him. He was even more amused that his three friends had lowered their stares, looking down at their feet with shame. “More than three years ago, a trigger was pressed and our world ceased to exist as we knew it. People grabbed their weapons and threw themselves at each others’ throats, trying to do something that rules and unnatural instincts tried to make them forget… survival, simple survival,” he circled his neck with his hand, imitating strangulation. “We ripped each others’ faces, we killed, we raped, we scavenged, we ate, we hated… words can’t suffice, but keep this image in your mind that Kreps tried to hide. We may have the nature bend before ourselves, but we never break the truth lying, hidden, deep within every human’s heart… the truth that in the end we are all monsters, bound by blood.” His three friends had taken a seat, shaking from these revelations. Verdugo had brought back ‘good old’ memories. He was even more satisfied by the graveyard silence stagnant in the air. “What is that trigger you’re talking about?” Celestia hazarded herself with an irrepressible fear shaking her hooves. Verdugo’s smile grew creepier, keeping the suspense aloft. He spelled with delight, pointing at Celestia’s tattoo over her stifle. “The sun simply decided to wipe off the earth our six thousand years of history and four millions years of evolution; and leaded us to kill each other in a global bloodbath that saw six billions people put… to the sword.” He laughed. “You should see the look on your faces,” he spelled with amusement and turned to look at his friends. “What? Truth never killed people, did it?” Everypony had slid their eyes on Celestia. She was blemish, having difficulty keeping her composure. “Don’t you freak out Princess, you told me on the way that you raise the sun and other things. Not that I don’t believe that absolute monarchy is a stable regime, but why are you so shaken by a simple sun?” “I really move the sun at my will, mister,” Celestia despised the disrespectful human. To her avail, her horn suddenly glowed white and the sun jet from the horizon outside the palace. A second later Luna’s horn glowed a dark blue and the moon took back its rightful place up in the night sky. Verdugo smiled with amusement, Kreps slapped himself and Maria hid her face behind the palm of her hand. “I think I’m gonna hate this place,” Ray sighed, blasé. Accompanied with her sister and the Mane-Six, Celestia left the room a knot firmly tied in her stomach, melted in bile of anger and unfathomable sadness. The five humans stayed in, drinking their mixed food. The kid had kept the plush and was now tearing off its obsidian eyes with his teeth. “I think you sealed up our fate Verd’…” Maria sighed with despair. “I made a choice. Don’t wanna blame me for this.” “You and your choices… You’ll kill all of us someday. You really had to make yourself the villain of the story?” Verdugo gave a last laugh before catching the soup bowl with his left hand and lift it to his mouth, drinking it with greed. He scanned his friends. “Apparently they have locked away all of our remaining weapons,” Verdugo stated with an atrocious pragmatism, mentioning they had left they metal case in the meadow before the wyvern’s assault. “And your box, Kreps?” The German shook his head. Everyone sighed, understanding they were short on their options. ϧ α ϼ ϖ ϡ ϖ ϼ α ϧ “We can’t keep them,” Luna struck the table with her hoof. “You heard that Verdugo? They are monsters!” “I don’t want to look like a human,” Twilight added, sniggering with her comparison. “But I’m with Luna on this idea. They were ready to kill their own ‘friend’. Can you believe that?!” The small chamber displayed little furniture, a long and oval table covered with a purple leathered cover and a rack where a cowmare hat dangled. The walls were upholstered with red covers and over a sleeping hearth stood crossed a sword and a scroll, carved in the same piece of silver. Stares fixed both Luna and Twilight. Among them were Celestia, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Leading Hooves, the right arm stallion of Shining Armor who had been dragged there from under his bed sheets. “Stop jumping over the cart Twilight,” Applejack tried to reason her. “We don’t really know about them, maybe they were joking or lying!” “They are monsters, you heard them. They confess they were murderers and other stuff that creep me out so much I don’t want to bring it on the top of the agenda.” “Twilight!” Celestia erupted, using the Canterlot voice. Twilight dunked her head, terrified by the sudden vocal burst of her beloved teacher. “Twilight,” Celestia added with a more gentle tone. “Don’t overcommit yourself, your mind blurs and refuses to see other’s points of view when you’re angry. Don’t you remember what I taught you?” “Yes Princess, I’m sorry,” the concerned lavender alicorn replied, shameful. “Nopony can be bad to the core Twilight,” Fluttershy tried. “They are not ponies, remember.” “They are from an advanced civilisation, if what they said is true. Don’t you understand what does that mean…” Rarity added, sparks in her eyes. “They said their civilisation has been blown away.” “They built super-fast machines!!” Rainbow cried, bursting her wings and flying in the air to get muzzle to muzzle with Twilight. “That may be a lie to trick us,” Twilight sniggered, pushing aside Rainbow’s face. Everypony sighed, stuck in a dead end. “They need care and kindness,” Fluttershy advanced shyly. “We can all see they had suffered. Look, even that guy, Verdugo… He got his arm cut and he didn’t seem to care about it. And… that poor girl, ponies whispered about her ‘cutie mark’.” “He was going to die Fluttershy,” Luna rolled her eyes. “We think that We would trade a hoof for staying alive, who wouldn’t? And for that girl…” “Cease about it,” Celestia sighed. “I promised Maria we won’t talk about it until she is ready to speak about it by herself.” Everypony shut up, worried looks plaguing their features. “Fluttershy is right,” Rarity tagged with her friend, breaking the silence. “How can we be the Elements of Harmony if we can’t give them a chance to prove they are good, or at least not as bad as they look.” Rarity had glued in her eyes the horrible appearance of the humans. Pigs were the only convenient comparison she had. But the girl had washed herself, and yes, she could give them a chance. Maybe she would learn about their fashion, they were wearing clothes and visibly, the girl had displayed cleverness to keep her modesty safe. “You could learn innumerable things from them Twilight,” Celestia smiled, having found the right incentives for her faithful student. And she was right, stars of greed sparked in Twilight’s eyes. “And if we keep them, I’ll throw them a welcoming party!” Pinkie Pie finally burst after being silent all along, overwhelmed by the cries and screams everypony had been shooting at eachother. “I won’t let them leave the castle for the moment Pinkie, I think you’ll have to do it with a restrained audience or wait until I am assured they are… safe for my little ponies to see and deal with them,” Celestia cut in her joy. “I must agree with Twilight and my sister on this point. Even if we give them a chance, I still consider them as dangerous. The Royal Guard is examining their possessions right now. This is why I’ve woken you up Leading.” The stallion snapped out of his sitting nap. “Yes, sure Princess. They had on them a load of weapons, swords, axes, and…” – Leading Hooves casted a glance at Twilight –. “… Three strange cylinders with the weapon you brought. We still don’t know how it works but we are acting with precautions. And I don’t want to take a side in your disputes, but the edges of their weapons are dirty and used… and not on something inert.” Nopony dared counter his statement. Days passed… ϧ α ϼ ϖ ϡ ϖ ϼ α ϧ Plunged in the dark, the hive was buzzing under the agitation of thousands of changelings, busy fulfilling the tasks they were given at birth and that they would carry on until the bells of death tolled for them. Thousands of glowing eyes were moving in tidy lines endlessly, a designed objective in their minds. Moving forward, drilling through the mass of his brothers, a changeling was limping toward the deepest stages of the cyclopean construction. The walls were blackened by sick mucus produced by the builders. Everything was ruled by the dogma of efficiency. Everything had to have a place and was meant to not drift away from it. Those who failed to follow this order successfully were ineluctably thrown away. They became useless for the hive. He stood firmly in front of a greenish bioluminescent gate. A changeling’s crown was stamped on it, likely burned with an ember. He gulped, felling nauseous as a powerful surge of magic crawled from under the door like the tongue of an undisclosed monster, licking his face, tasting a petrified prey like a predator before his deadly leap. The gates gritted on its biologic hinges and a rotten air slapped the changeling’s muzzle. He winced; a violent light was creeping out of the chamber too. He took a long and deep breath and entered. In the light, the changeling’s feature became more explicit. Small clumps of dark green mane were sprouting out of his back and head, hiding his eyes slightly. Numerous scars were grieving his exoskeleton. He stepped forward, queasy and jumped swiftly when the huge door slammed in his back. He wiped the sweat of his forehead, running in his blue eyes. His shredded wings whizzed in the hair, throwing a painful aching in his body. He kneeled in the light, tilting his head in a message of fear and respect. “My Queen,” he implored with respect. “Oh, my dear Pathog you can call me by my true name,” Chrysalis replied with a grin of amusement. “Yes… mother.” Chrysalis was lying on a construct made of thousands of hatched eggs, all solidified into a throne of horror. The light was blooming from the celling where an opening filled with mirrors was reverberating the light from the surface. Pathog laid his eyes on the queen, his mother. She never fully recovered from the attack on Equestria. One of her legs was twisted in the wrong way and a scar was slashing over her face. Her wings were also damaged. Yet, they were growing back, slowly, for a year and a half now they had been reshaping into their original form. “Come to me my son,” she said with gentleness. “It has been so long since I had a discussion with you or your brothers.” The changeling went stoic. “Have you heard me? Come here!” “I, I can’t,” the changeling sobbed. “Vector and Host are dead, I’m sorry.” One of Chrysalis's hollowed hooves slid off her couch in awe, tiny tears rolled from her eyes, twinkling in the brightening light falling from the hole above her. The despair… She felt it pulling her down like a heavy anchor, down into the murky waters of oblivion. First she had lost a war and a majority of her people… now, she had lost two sons… Only one remained. Without his approval, Chrysalis grabbed Pathog with a disincarnated claw of green sparkling magic and dragged him to her side, hugging him in a mother like reflex, like a toy she could use to keep the sorrow away. Pathog struggled at first, but as he was unable to fight back this wave of affection and the godly strength of her mother, he gave up. “I’m so sorry, it all went wrong. We had tracked down that pony from Celestia’s peons. We wanted to mug her for you, to make you proud. But that monster came up and took us down and…” Chrysalis put her hoof on his lips, forcing a smile from her own. “Hush now, it’s okay…” “No, it’s not okay, there were these five smooth-faced, blood-stained, reeking monsters walking on two legs. They flashed out in front of me. But I was not deceived. There are monsters in Equestria now.” Pathog casted a glance at her sorrowful mother. She was lost in her thoughts, tears still dropping. With gentleness Pathog wiped them off her cheeks and dried them in his mane. Back in the cave he had been shaken by the creatures’ appearance. It was only after his escape he finally understood what happened that day. He had made his way back to the South, down to the Badlands where the hive had withered over the last centuries. But with the help of the changeling’s he had found while withdrawing, he did not come back with empty hooves. “Mother, I have something more to tell you.” Chrysalis looked down at him, tightening her loving embrace, swallowing a gag of sadness. “Yes my child?” “We found a metal case in Equestria while I was escorted back here. We haven’t opened it yet. Do you want to be the first to see it? I think it belonged to the creatures I saw.” Chrysalis nodded, unconvinced but unwilling to hurt her last son’s feelings. Pathog clapped his twisted hooves and two changelings entered pushing the gate inward and carrying an imposing metal case. With the help of her magic, Chrysalis blew up the lock and opened it. She drew out a long sword splattered with dried blood. The smell was unbearable, thicker than the horrid smell of her own room. The queen’s muzzle winced under the repetitive assaults of this stench. Dropping it, the queen started rumbling in the case. Bemused and curious she spread the contents of the trunk on the floor. She watched clueless on a dozen of strangely shaped objects she knew nothing about. Everything was rusted and dusty, and horribly stained with nothing but blood. The monsters Pathog had described were apparently warriors with an impressive technologic advance in weaponry. With her magic she lifted up a strange cylinder, approximately four feet long. Circled with a wooden protection, the cylinder displayed another large but smaller twin on what seemed to be its top. At each end was a convex lens. She looked through with curiosity. It was a magnifying glass, and a good one in spite of the cracks tearing the ledges of one. Stuck to it was a strange rectangular and metallic system. She tried to take it off. Facing a small resistance she forced the system with her magic. The rectangle container dropped on the floor and five brass cones bounced around, rolling randomly in the corners of the room. There were similar shaped objects in the case. All had different lengths and weights but presented in the end the same blueprint; a brass cylinder which first end showed a tiny recess circled with numbers and letters. The other end differed. The diameter was diminishing rapidly and encaged a metallic tip. Chrysalis broke it and black particles fell on the ground. The queen titled her head toward the small pyramid of dark specks, trying to smell it. She sneezed repetitively; a few dark grains had got into her muzzle. “Are you alright mother?” Pathog asked with angst. “Yes, yes it’s nothing, just dirt…” she defended herself. Chrysalis shaped the small heap of particles with her heel, drawing a line from it. “Bring me some fire,” she ordered. “I think I know what it is.” Pathog, snatched a candle from Chrysalis’s chamber desk. The queen grabbed it with violence and let it drop on the compound. It instantly took fire and crackled in front of her. A horrid smile chased the sorrow off her face while random sparks of light lit her features. “How did you…” Pathog hesitated, still stunned by the chemical reaction. “I’m old my son, I’ve seen a lot in this world mortals would not dare imagine. Griffons and ponies use the powder for fireworks,” – she grabbed another cartridge –. “But it seemed that our intruders have made some deadly weapons from it.” Pathog swallowed, it had been a long time since he had seen her mother with a smile this wide. It was not joy or sadness… but a grin betraying the birthing shenanigans and deceptions she was assembling in the tortuous twists and turns of her mind. “Pathog,” Chrysalis ordered as her son came to attention. “Take a note please; I have some letters to send.” Her smile was contagious. She started laughing maniacally, forgetting about her damaged leg. Pathog followed her fit of madness. He was happier than ever, his mother was back in track. The laughter burst out of her lungs and spread in the corridors of the hive, reaching everylings’ ears. The insanity of her voice sprawled in their minds and the Hive shook under the hooves of the changelings, more agitated than ever, joining in with the queen’s cry of havoc. Chrysalis howled, her sharp teeth shining under the pit of light. “Let’s watch the castle burn!”