//------------------------------// // Chapter 23. Deception and Paranoia. // Story: Skeletor, Master of The Empire. // by Hotel_Chicken //------------------------------// The chaotic frenzy of falling snow in the Frozen North nearly blinded Thorax and the two guards who were escorting him to some place called, “The Crystal Empire”. Thorax had no idea where they were actually going, and only learned the name of the Empire due to the idle chatter of the two guards as they lamented their dismissal from the expedition to another unknown place called the “Ruva” Kingdom. Whenever one of the guards would take the opportunity to speak to Thorax, or rather, Thorite, he would give noncommittal and vague responses to appease their curiosity. Through their responses and questions, Thorax was able to find out that they were a group of earth ponies pretending to be something called a crystal pony, yet another thing that the changeling had never heard of before. As far as he was aware, the only races of ponies were alicorns, earth ponies, unicorns, pegasi, and the elusive thestrals, so Thorax was fairly certain that they were just role-playing ponies who were holding a festival or something. Though, the fact that they chose to hold a large role-playing event in the Frozen North allowed a small seed of doubt in his own theories to be planted into his mind. If there was an Empire in the Frozen North or another race of ponies, then Thorax would have assumed that somepony would have mentioned it at some point. Even during his time as a geography teacher for a class of ponies in Appleloosa, Thorax never read anything that alluded to there being any hospitable place in the Frozen North aside from Yakyakistan, and he was certain that Mrs. Pages’ lectures about species and races never included anything about “crystal” ponies. Thorax was fairly certain that the two ponies were lying to him, and briefly debated how far he could get away from the two role playing ponies. While he could certainly fly for a mile or two in the frozen terrain, he’d have nowhere to go once he dropped his disguise and flew away. The only thing keeping him from taking that risk was the fact that they were heading to the source of love was, which meant that no matter what, Thorax would be going where the guards were regardless of being escorted or not. With no idea of what would happen if he stayed or galloped away, Thorax chose to continue to follow thee “crystal” ponies to the “Crystal Empire”. After blindly trotting through the constant storm of snow, Thorax suddenly found himself on the other side of a large dome made of pure love. A clear blue sky hung overhead, piercing the clouds that hovered above the Empire so that the rays of the sun could shine down on them. The light of the sun reflected off of the disheveled crystal buildings and towers that were erected all around him, causing his eyes to wander the rooftops until his gaze was drawn to the streets themselves. At that moment, it became abundantly clear to the changeling that his entire view of the old armored guards was wrong. The Crystal Empire was real, they were real, and the love... It was intoxicating. He stared in awe at the lively streets full of ponies walking by, each one talking casually or trading gossip without a care in the world, completely free of the paranoia that had gripped most places after the failed changeling invasion of Canterlot. Even Yakyakistan, a place that was much farther away than the Crystal Empire was, had heard the news about the shapeshifting race, causing them to become more cautious around each other. In many ways, working as a bar tender helped allude suspicion towards Thorax since the yaks who came in quickly became too drunk to care or accuse him of being a shapeshifter. But even then, Thorax would get some dirty looks from the drunk patrons who believed that anyone who wasn’t them could have been a changeling. It was odd for Thorax to see any creatures, especially ponies, who were just so carefree, almost as if they didn’t fear the threat of changelings at all. Thorax could still taste some trace amounts of fear and worry in the air, but it was much more diluted than the feelings of love and hope that was in the Empire. Back when Thorax was hitchhiking from Canterlot to the border of the Frozen North, Thorax would regularly gag on the toxic amounts of mistrust and terror that permeated the air. The love around him was a desperate breath of fresh air for the emotion eating insect, filling his shrunken stomach almost instantly with the intense amounts of love in the air. Thorax unconsciously licked his shrunken down canines as he felt the thick amount of love in the air passively enter his body. “You okay there, buddy?” One of the guards asked. “Oh, uh, y-yeah. Just… Just happy to be back, I guess,” Thorax replied as he continued to salivate over the amount of love in the Empire. “You and me both,” the other guard commented. “It’s kind of weird to think that it’s finally over, that he’s finally gone for good. It feels like a dream sometimes, doesn’t it?” “Uh… Yeah, I’m sure glad that he’s gone,” Thorax said enthusiastically. “Well, take care of yourself, Thorite. Me and Red Flag are gonna go to the Crystal Castle. You should go to Amethyst avenue and get something to eat,” the guard said before he and his partner trotted towards the enormous castle. As they left, Thorax realized that they were heading towards the epicenter of love that he had sensed before. Thorax felt his mouth water his eyes traced the many towers of the Crystal Castle, looking for any hint of where the love was the most condensed. At the base of the castle, Thorax could feel a large gathering of ponies exchanging immense amounts of love with each other, freely sharing it without any fear of being drained by a changeling infiltrator. A primal desire to take as much love as he could rose inside of Thorax. His stomach growled with enough force to wake a hibernating bear, causing him to wince in pain as he remembered how desperately hungry he was for love. His eyes darted from one pony to the next as he looked for the best target to incapacitate and replace for a day or two before he put them back. All he would have to do is drink alcohol excessively while he was disguised and the actual pony he replaced would be convinced by their friends that any memory loss was an effect of “their” heavy drinking. He’d get the love he needed to not starve to death, and the pony he replaced would get a pat on the back for being a party animal. It would be quick, easy, and relatively painless if he chose the correct target. As his eyes roamed the crowd for the perfect pony to impersonate, Thorax trotted towards the large source of love to passively absorb it from a distance. His secondary-tongue uncoiled from under his primary tongue, cleaning his canines with the serpentine like organ as it wrapped around the tips of his retracted fangs. Everything inside of him screamed at him to just pounce on a pony and drain them emotionally. His nostrils flared and his mind buzzed with anticipation as he came closer to the castle, driving him closer to the breaking point of losing his composure and just pouncing on the next pony he saw. Thorax desperately fought against his primal instincts as he finally found a crowd of ponies surrounding the anomalous source of love. He struggled to keep his breathing under control as he maneuvered through the small crowd. Short and shallow breaths allowed Thorax to breath in trace amounts of love magic, feeding off of the positive emotions in the ponies around him. Hints of fear and worry were peppered in the sea of positive emotions, but were so subtle that Thorax barely noticed them. His eyes finally settled on the source of immense love once he got to the front of the crowd, a beautiful heart made of crystal that was spinning on a pedestal in the center of the plaza. Thorax’s disguise nearly faltered at the hypnotic sight of pure, crystalized, love spinning a few yards away from him. He quickly backed away from the heart in a moment of clarity, causing him to accidentally bump into the stallion behind him. “Oh! S-sorry!” Thorax apologized before he trotted away from the large gathering of ponies. The primal instincts inside of him screamed to absorb as much love as he could from the odd art piece, but his rational thoughts kept him from making an irreversible mistake. If he pounced on the strange crystal and absorbed the love in it in front of a large crowd of ponies, then he would have marked himself for death once his disguise fell. As much as he wanted a meal, he valued his life and safety above the painful hunger that he had felt since hatching. He couldn’t allow himself to give in to his primal urges, so, Thorax decided to get away from the heart before he couldn’t resist the temptation any longer. As he trotted away from the small crowd of ponies, Thorax went over his plan to gather love to live. Though, as he reworked the plan to replace somepony in a more secluded part of the Empire, Thorax noticed that the distressing hunger that had persisted for his entire life had been slightly satiated. While he was by no means full, he was far less hungry than he had been in months. In fact, he could hardly remember the last time he could call himself content with his hunger. Instead of making him feel happy, like all his dreams of finding great amounts of love had led him to believe in, he felt strangely numb to the new sensation. “I’m… I’m not hungry?” He questioned as he began to pat his barrel with a hoof. Once he had grasped how strange his predicament was for a changeling, a large feeling of worry and concern began to wash over him. He felt terrifyingly empty without his constant starvation, as if he had lost an integral part of who he was. All changelings were driven either by a need to survive or a need to protect the hive, the entire point of their lives was to eat and serve their queen. Thorax had renounced his queen by galloping away to Yakyakistan, abandoning his many brothers and sisters as he looked for a new place to gather love. He had found a place where he could live in peace for the rest of his life, somewhere that he wasn’t always hungry, it was everything he had ever wanted in life. And now, he had nothing else to really live for in his life. The constant struggle to keep himself fed was gone, he abandoned his hive, he had no goals or desires. He was in paradise without a purpose. As he briefly lamented over realizing how his dream left him without a real purpose in life, an odd thought struck him about how the other changelings would feel in his position and he suddenly realized how he hadn’t lost his purpose yet, not if he could bring the rest of the hive to the Crystal Empire. “I have to tell the others!” Thorax exclaimed as he began to gallop down the streets. His legs galloped as quickly as his thoughts, each step marked a new thought of how his plan would work. First, he’d need to go to the Bad-Lands in the south of Equestria to return to the hive, and then he would need to convince the queen that the Crystal Empire was a much better place to set up a hive, and then he’d have to desperately beg not to get beheaded for leaving the hive in the first place. As his thoughts galloped faster than his own legs, Thorax failed to stop himself from galloping straight into a lemon-yellow coat and a mulberry-purple colored mane, sending them both tumbling to the ground after Thorax plowed right into him. “Oh my gosh, I’m so, so, so, sorry!” Thorax profusely apologized as he got off of the stallion. “It’s fine, don’t worry,” the yellow stallion said as he accepted Thorax’s hoof. “In a hurry to get to Amethyst Avenue for lunch?” He asked as he got up off of the ground. “Uh, y-yeah. I skipped breakfast so—” “You skipped breakfast?” The stallion interrupted in a surprised tone. “No wonder you’re in a hurry. Don’t worry, there’ll be plenty for everypony. Say, I don’t think I’ve seen you on Amethyst avenue before actually. What’s your name?” “Oh! I-I’m Thorite,” Thorax said as he held out a hoof to the stallion. “Nice to meet you, Thorite. I’m Track Record, but you can just call me Track,” Track Record said as he shook “Thorite’s” hoof. “I run a little shop on Amethyst Avenue, but I don’t remember seeing you there. Do you help out at one of the other shops?” “No, I uh… I guess I haven’t gotten to your shop yet. What’s it called?” “Lardy Bread’s. It was named after… my mom.” “Ah, yup. I was going to go there, but I never got around to it,” Thorax lied. “It’s a really nice-looking place by the way. It really makes it stand out.” “Well, I just got lucky. It’s a pretty worn down, and there’s a good amount of wear and tear, but it’s better than what most ponies have after Sombra took over. Was your house able to survive?” “Uh… N-no, it uh… fell down,” Thorax lied again as he began to piece together the Empire’s recent history. So far, he knew that somepony named Sombra was in charge recently or was still in charge, and he did something that destroyed most of the Crystal Empire. “Ah, sorry to hear that. Are you staying with one of the nobles or at the Church of Faust on Sapphire street?” “The church,” Thorax quickly replied. “It’s nice, though I do miss my old house. At least the clergy-mares are nice.” “Wait, there are clergy-mares working there already?” Track Record asked. “I didn’t think Sombra let any of them live. I’m glad there’s still somepony to still spread the word of Faust.” “Yeah, they were lucky,” Thorax commented idly as he filed away that tidbit of information. A church without clergy-mares was like a bakery without a baker, or a castle without a leader. Apparently, whoever “Sombra” was, they were responsible for more than just the badly damaged buildings. Gathering information about the Empire was just as important, if not more-so, as telling the hive about the odd crystal centerpiece in the plaza. “Hey, you said you owned Lardy Bread’s, right?” Thorax asked. “Are you heading over there now for the lunch rush?”
 “Oh my gosh, you’re right! Come on, I’ll give you some bread and a bit of jam to go with it.” “Thanks! Oh, but I uh… Don’t have any bits to pay,” Thorax admitted as he remembered that he had lost his satchel somewhere in the wasteland of the Frozen North. “Don’t worry, most ponies don’t have any. Besides, it’s lunch time… Have the other shops been charging you at lunch time?” “Well, it’s lunch so I have to pay… Right?” “Only if you’re getting more than you need. Everypony gets the same amount for breakfast, lunch, and dinner unless they manage to pay for extra or get food in-between. If somepony’s been charging you for lunch, then the guards should probably hear about that,” Track Record stated as he began trotting down the street with Thorax in tow. “Oh! Yeah, that’s what I meant. I was paying for extra food with the bits I had saved up, and I only just ran out. I’m actually going to need to get a job soon to earn more.” “Well, I heard that the royal guard is looking for volunteers. If you’re lucky, maybe you’ll get to meet with Lord Skeletor too!” “Won’t I need training to be a guard?” Thorax asked as he also wondered who Lord “Skeleton” was. If Thorax had to guess, then he would assume that Lord Skeleton was the pony in charge of the Crystal Empire, though he had no idea if they were a crystal pony like everypony else or an alicorn like Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. “It’s not a real guard position, just a volunteer force that helps keep the law enforced until new guards can be trained. I was actually thinking about putting down my pin roller and pick up a spear to help out. My friend, Fresh Bake, could run my bakery for me while I’d be volunteering, so ponies would still get to eat,” Track Record explained as he continued to lead Thorax to Amethyst Avenue. While Track Value continued to speak, Throax absorbed his words as if he were a sponge, taking in as much valuable information as he could. In only a matter sentences, Thorax was able to piece together a few parts of the Crystal Empire’s culture and practices. If he managed to ask the right questions, and feign his actual knowledge in return, then Thorax would be able to learn a decent number of things that could help in his new mission. As long as Thorax played the role of “Thorite” and didn’t make any contradicting statements, then he would be able to know everything about the Crystal Empire in a matter of days. Skeletor yawned into the palm of his hand as he left the council meeting room after the other ponies had already left. His meeting with the construction team had went on for a little bit longer than what was intended, and Skeletor had barely clung to consciousness as the meeting progressed. The construction team was making decent progress in the Crystal Empire’s reconstruction, and was working diligently to make sure the streets and houses were repaired efficiently and quickly. Unfortunately, many buildings were beyond repair and would need to be rebuilt from the ground up, so most of the team’s efforts were being put into the noble homes and the Church of Faust so ponies could take up residence in the large manners and the church while their own homes were either fixed or rebuilt entirely. Skeletor was immensely thankful for the talents of the construction team and openly applauded their work so far while also apologizing for not helping them. He had made up the excuse that fixing the all the buildings in the Empire would take too heavy of a toll on his magical abilities, effectively leaving him bedridden for a few weeks. In reality however, he just didn’t want to accidentally make Picasso’s fantasy fun house an actual building in the Crystal Empire because of his subpar magic, so he left most of the actual construction work to the professionals while he offered his own services in lifting heavier rubble. If he had to estimate, Skeletor would assume that he could lift at least two times his own body weight, if not more, with his own muscles. Levitation magic however allowed him to lift even more than that, which in-turn made it much easier for him to help clean up the streets in his off hours. After giving his excuse as to why he couldn't wave his hand and have the buildings magically fixed, the conversation quickly descended into the financial need for tools, materials, and other necessities like safety equipment. Skeletor allowed Avid Value to handle that side of the conversation since he had a better grasp of what they were saying than Skeletor did. Once that part of the meeting was finally finished, and an agreement was made to give the construction workers extended lunch breaks so they wouldn't have to pay for meals between lunch and dinner during their off hours, the meeting concluded with a plan to use any salvageable rubble for repairs and send a mining team to the crystal farms to gather materials to build with. Apparently, crystals quite literally grew out of the ground in the Frozen North. Skeletor didn't question or care how it was possible for crystals to grow since questioning the laws of nature on the strange planet usually gave him a migraine and a severe case of terrible existentialism. He had enough on his plate to worry about without wondering how rocks grew out of the ground like vegetables. Once the meeting was over, the other ponies were dismissed for an early lunch while Skeletor went over a few papers, trying desperately to understand the structure of pay and cost for the construction team. Just like his conversations with Avid Value, most of the information went right over Skeletor's head and simply became a jumbled mess of fractions and mathematical equations that threw him for a loop. After a few more minutes of looking over the confusing papers, Skeletor placed them back on the table and left to get lunch before he had to mentally prepare for court. While he was walking towards dining hall for lunch, Skeletor's gaze lazily followed the maids who were trotting around cleaning and "beautifying" the halls of the castle. Every one of them worked diligently to recapture the hidden beauty of the Crystal Castle, hanging new portraits of Princess Amore and cleaning the vases full of brilliant orange crystals that radiated a literal sense of warmth that made the halls feel more comfortable to Skeletor and the crystal ponies. Skeletor suppressed another yawn before he lightly slapped himself in the jaw to wake himself up, and he silently reminded himself that he needed to take a nap after lunch so he could be fully awake for court. His calm gaze soon hardened as he saw Colonel Kernel, General Cannon Fodder's temporary replacement and his possible ally, trotting towards him. Skeletor wore a neutral mask as Colonel Kernel approached, hiding the storm of emotions and paranoia Skeletor felt inside of himself. He wasn't sure how much he could still trust any of the guards after he found out about Cannon Fodders request to Purity Flame. For a few moments, Skeletor wondered if he was being too paranoid about the whole situation. After all, Cannon Fodder didn't do anything illegal by asking Purity Flame to find out how placebos worked, but he had still gone behind Skeletor's back to do it. If Cannon Fodder was willing to disobey Skeletor's orders, then that spoke volumes about his character. He didn't trust Skeletor, and because of that, Skeletor couldn't trust his general. Skeletor knew that he was being paranoid for doubting every guard just because Cannon Fodder went behind his back, but he preferred being paranoid rather than being oblivious and open to attack. Colonel Kernel's steel cold expression never faltered as he approached Skeletor. The stallion's dark grey coat and dirty blond mane made him stand out against the more brightly colored ponies that lived in the Crystal Empire, giving him a certain air of intimidation that the other brightly colored equines couldn't properly capture. Skeletor did his best to match the colonel's attitude, dawning a regaler and more professional attitude as he spoke to Colonel Kernel. "Good to see you today, colonel," Skeletor said to the battle-hardened veteran. "How are you doing?" “I'm good sir, thank you. I’ve come to report that two of the guards sent on the expedition returned early today, sir,” Colonel Kernel said with a salute. “What? Why? What happened? Are they all alright?” Skeletor asked in rapid succession before he internally chastised himself for letting his mask slip for a moment. “As far as I’m aware, everypony is fine, sir. Red Flag and Cole were ordered to return from the expedition early. Apparently, somepony wandered out of the Empire to head to Yakyakistan and they had to bring them back to the Empire. General Cannon Fodder didn’t want to wait for them to catch back up, so the expedition team continued on without them.” “And everyone is alright?” “Yes, sir. Nopony was hurt.” Skeletor released a sigh of relief as he was assured that everyone was fine. “Good. In that case, we should increase the number of patrols around the edge of the barrier to make sure no one does that again... What about the pony they returned with? Did they go to the infirmary?" "I'm not certain, sir." "I see... Go find the pony who left, make sure they're taken care of, find out why they left, and then report back to me later,” Skeletor commanded. “But he already told us that he was going to Yakyakistan.” “Right, and from what I’ve been told, Yakyakistan is a few weeks away from here. It's that right?” Skeletor asked. “Yes sir.” “And did he have weeks’ worth of food on him? Or any supplies for that matter? Even something as basic as a map, perhaps?” “Uh... The guards trotting with him didn’t say if he did or not.” “Then find them and ask. If he didn't have anything on him, then he was either lying to us, or he was desperate enough to risk starvation to get to Yakyakistan. If so, then why?” He rhetorically asked. Skeletor wasn’t too keen on letting this stallion slip past them. If the mystery pony was involved in whatever Cannon Fodder was planning, then he wanted to know. And, if by some chance that he wasn’t working for Cannon Fodder, then Skeletor wanted to know why a pony would do something as suicidal as walk through a frozen wasteland with nothing on them. Could it have been that pony were attempting to commit suicide by trotting outside of the barrier? If so, then how many other ponies were attempting to commit suicide that way? "Yes sir. I'll go find Red Flag and Cole and ask them. If not, I'll get a description of the pony and have guards sent out to look for them, sir," Colonel Kernel stated firmly before he turned to trot away. As Colonel Kernel left to accomplish his task, Skeletor turned his attention back to the maids working around him, noticing a few ears that were pointed towards him as they worked. Skeletor suddenly found himself wondering how many of the ponies around him were working for Crumb Catcher too. Crumb Catcher had alluded to having his spies in the maid staff of the castle, but hadn't told Skeletor just how many of them were working directly under him. Was Crumb Catcher even loyal to him? Could he trust him? Skeletor quickly shook those thoughts away as he continued to head towards the dining hall. It wouldn't do him any good to start worrying about one of the few ponies he knew he needed to trust. Though, just to be extra cautious, Skeletor decided that his paranoia and worries warranted a few hours’ worth of studying defensive magic that night. If there really was no one in the Empire that he could trust with his life, then he would just have to rely on himself.