//------------------------------// // 45- Iliad // Story: Changing Expectations // by KKSlider //------------------------------// Queen Chrysalis would be at Canterlot Castle by now, either dealing with or having dealt with Princess Celestia... ‘One empty tube–’ I shook my head and continued on. We were flying above Middle Canterlot now. I could see changelings pursuing fleeing ponies occasionally, though the vast majority of the force was still working their way through Lower Canterlot. As we flew above the city, I stared down at the ground, picking out small details. An overturned stall here, a group of ponies galloping towards the city center there. I even caught a glimpse of a yellow pony tending to a garden in their backyard, either unaware or uncaring of what was happening in the city. There would be plenty of time to admire the city later. Lots of time. After a bit of flying, Canterlot Castle, which was forever looming over the grand city, gradually became larger and larger as we neared. I had to admit, Princess Celestia knows how to build a beautiful castle. Or at least order subordinates to build one. It lay in the geographical center of the city, with roads extending out like spokes from a wheel hub. The immediate area around it was a plaza filled with different stalls, a few stages, and scattered greenery. At the front of the castle and facing the entrance to the city was a large statue of Princess Celestia, rearing back with wings spread high and wide. The castle itself was a monument of towering snow white walls, colored windows that shone in the moonlight, and of course more open nature spaces. The towers of the castle were adorned with gold trimming, so much so that I was doubting that it was even real gilded gold and not another substance painted gold yellow. Atop the tallest tower, stretching high above the cityscape, the end of a massive telescope jutted out the end of a vertical opening in the purple, union-shaped roof. ‘Was Princess Celestia a fan of astronomy? Or was she just checking up on her prisoner on the moon?’ As my group flew closer and closer, I began to pick out more details about the castle. Blurs which must have been birds previously roosting in the trees of the castle garden now flying away from the castle and the loud noises that awoke them. The stained glass windows had shapes resembling ponies, but a few of them– specifically at the keep, near what had to be the throne room– had been blown out. Or blown in, I couldn’t tell at this distance. And finally, I saw changelings. The Infiltrators and Underhive Scarabs that weren’t on the attack against the perimeter wall were all swarming the castle, moving from tower to tower, balcony to balcony, and from pony to pony. I watched as a pegasus in a black french maid’s outfit tried to make a break for it out on a particularly high balcony, only to get grabbed and dragged down by a changeling watching that area of the castle. The changelings behind me followed my lead as I landed in front of the main doors of the castle, past the opened portcullis of the main gateway. Two changelings wearing Praetorian gear were standing at attention on either side. The doors themselves, massive birch wood beams banded with gold plating, seemed to be partially ripped off their metal hinges and resting slanted against the walls on either side. “Where is Queen Chrysalis?” The one on the left responded, “Inside, My Prince!” I nodded, and headed inside. The front foyer had a black and white checkerboard stone flooring, with red carpet laying across the center, leading from the front door to the center of the room, where it split to either side where light and dark wood doors sat, and straight ahead, to a grand staircase, covered in similar red fabric. The walls kept in theme with the castle with large white sections decorated with more gold, or again a metal similarly looking to gold, trimming and etchings. Great banners hung on the walls against purple backgrounds, the banners’ contents ranging from simplistic diamonds and other geometric shapes, to what I assumed to be the standards of Royal Guard divisions. Those last ones were the most interesting, often with roman numerals, pictures of ponies in golden armor, and different medals pinned to them. The staircase did not go an entire floor up, merely splitting off to either side when it hit a low wall with a gold, bejeweled railing on top. On this wall, a painting of Princess Celestia hung. She was looking at the viewer, smiling as she strode through a garden. ‘Smiling in paintings was unheard of, right? I’m getting sidetracked again…’ I did not come here to sight-see. Queen Chrysalis was somewhere in this almost-pristine castle, and I was betting I knew just where to find her. ‘Where is the throne room?’ I was about to look around for clues when a sign at the base of the staircase caught my eye. ‘All petitioners please head up this staircase and straight ahead. Please form an orderly line.’ “Well that’s convenient.” “What is?” I nearly jumped as Oest appeared at my side. I pointed at the sign. “We don't need to hunt down where Chrysalis is. That is, unless she is off smashing the place up. I wouldn’t put that past her.” The staircase led to a large, grand hallway that gave me serious Déjà vu. More stained glass windows; most of them were smashed out but the ones that were intact depicted stories that I recalled were about Equestria’s history. One had Celestia with three smaller pictures above of the sun rising, full in the sky, and setting. Another had Royal Guards stabbing towards a dragon. ‘But not hitting it. That time I recall they simply herded it away from their empire, too afraid to actually try to break its natural scale chainmail.’ Again, I admonished myself for getting distracted. I was here to do a job. We continued down the hall at a brisk pace. At the end of the hall I saw again two massive doors, nearly ripped off their hinges. Beyond them lay what must have been the throne room. The group stopped in the hallway, just before the threshold of the throne room. White marble flooring, utterly massive stained glass windows, a dominating red carpet rolled all the way to the throne, a captivating vaulted ceiling with exposed ribs and countless stained wood boards, held steadfast to the ceiling with gold embroidered and filigreed ribs painted black. There were massive equally spaced ionic columns, each bearing a carved sun at the top where they touched the edge of the vaulted ceiling. Then there was the throne. I imagined that once, it was a massive golden symbol of power. Where Chrysalis’s was a blue metal thing that dominated the room, this was a golden mountain that dominated not just the room, but the world itself. Half of it was missing. Many of the windows were blown out. Several columns had been ripped apart at varying heights. The breathtaking ceiling was not spared the devastation, either. Queen Chrysalis was sitting on the remains of the gold throne, the gold and red velvet backing ripped off. She had a sinister grin on her face as she watched me enter and do a three-sixty spin as I took in the room. “Prince Phasmatodea! The Throne of Canterlot Castle, and by extension the world, is mine at last!” ‘Smug bastard.’ “Queen Chrysalis. Your battle with Princess Celestia went well?” “Oh, it will. She and her niece must have fled the moment her spies heard of my imminent arrival!” ‘Gone? The touted paragon of all virtues fled her keep, abandoning her precious ponies? What?’ “Then what put up such a fight as to warrant this much damage?” “As if there is any other foe in existence which could give me pause! No, I simply decided that some redecorating was in order.” “You... Alrighty then.” “Tell me Prince Phasma. You flew over the city as you came here, what did you see?” “The gleaming capital of the race that stood at the top of the world?” “And what is this city worth?” “As it is without the Princesses? Nothing.” “Find Captain Shining Armor. He’ll know where the Princesses have gone.” ‘Did she say find the Captain?’ “Didn’t you have to engage him to force him to drop the shields? How did he get away?” “I played with my food, but he’s an opponent not to be underestimated.” ‘Can’t you do anything right? You claim the throne is yours yet you’ve accomplished nothing at all!’ I was calm enough to control my responses, though. It would do no one any good if I got axed before I could link up with Nightmare Moon. “And where might your quarry have scurried off to?” “To where the fighting’s the thickest.” “I came all this way just to head back to the perimeter wall?” “You came to Canterlot Castle to pick up the trail of your prey. Go, find him, and find the Princesses. I’ll try to bait out the Sun Tyrant.” ‘Need me to do anything else while I’m at it? Give you a backrub, perhaps? Scrub your hooves? Do your fucking job for you?’ “Then deliver to you Princess Celestia’s location so you can deal with her?” “Nnhahahaha, she cannot hide forever!” Chrysalis laughed, just before blasting out another window. ‘Nightmare better get here sooner rather than later, or I swear I’ll kill her with my own two hooves!’ We soared over the city, scanning for fights. There were plumes of smoke rising into the air now; some of the fires were extinguished and produced the most smoke, but for every building put out, two more took its place. It was a Sisyphean task that was taking up a lot of lings’ time and effort to combat. Now that Outer Canterlot was mostly secure, the invasion moved inward, towards Middle Canterlot. That’s where Captain Shining Armor would most likely be. “I’m not seeing anything from this high up!” I called out over my shoulder to Oestridae. “I’m landing!” I dropped height quickly, and the small cloud of changelings spaced out behind me did the same. When my hooves set down onto the cobblestone road beneath us in Middle Canterlot, the Will of The Nine set down both on the road and on top of some of the nearby houses. Oest, sticking to me like glue, landed by my side. “Right. Up for a stroll through Canterlot?” Oest just glared at me. As we made our way through the once busy street of one of the main roads, I got a good look at the invasion in action. For the most part, buildings were cleared SWAT-style, as I had taught the Legions. The reason for this was quite simple: Canterlot is a unicorn city. By and large the biggest demographic of the city was unicorns, and therefore anti-magic measures were required to safely clear each building and subdue each pony. But that was the boring way of doing things. Some lings took the risk and broke away from the rule brook and let loose. I saw a pony being chased down a side alley as a ling taunted her. A few changelings must have gotten really bored, as three Great Uttu were spitting web globs at fleeing ponies down a street that split off to the side of the one we were traveling down, slowly chasing them on eight legs. Once their yellow-striped spider forms disappeared around a bend, chittering with laughter as they went, I continued on. We saw a few changelings fed off a few ponies that were podded already, under the watchful eyes of nearby Praetorians. ‘So long as this is regulated… I know what happens when a city is really sacked, this is much more tame.’ In fact, we witnessed an instance of the potential reckless and abandon that was kept subdued by the Praetorian forces. When a large group of earth ponies barricaded themselves within a hotel, my group and I saw a ling outside changed into a massive Millipore. The changeling rapidly grew in size until it was thirty hooves long, forty three segments long, and his black carapace taking on an oily black tinged with red hues. It clacked two massive sharpened mandibles that had more in common with chainsaws than bug parts before facing the barricaded hotel. Thundering forward on a hundred legs before rearing back and up and slamming down on the building, shattering many of the wooden walls and caving the roof in. ‘So that’s what a Millipore looks like.’ When it started prying off bits of the wooden ceiling, I looked around and saw three Praetorians similarly watching it all unfold, no doubt impressed by the display. “Hey! You three! Reprimand that changeling for potentially killing ponies! And for unregulated feeding, there’s no way he could sustain that transformation on rations alone!” They had saluted when I addressed them, before rushing off to bring the overzealous changeling in. As they group casted a anti-change spell, the rest of the changelings that were part of the rogue’s squad rushed into the opening, dragging out ponies that were stunned from the sudden appearance of an Underhive monster. ‘Not that they know what the Underhive even is…’ Above all else, the most noticeable thing I witnessed firsthoof was the very air of the city. It reeked of fear, the tantalizing emotion forming almost tangible waves that washed through the city blocks. I made a mental note to grab a snack for myself later. As I stood there by the collapsed hotel, daydreaming of the taste of love, a changeling had flown up to me, stopping and saluting before me. “My Prince!” He grabbed my attention. “Yes?” “The 302nd has encountered an issue that requires your immediate attention! I am thankful to find you so soon, My Prince…” “Go on, my changeling.” “There’s a pony shield up a couple blocks away. Nothing we throw at it seems to even scratch the thing!” “That is marvelous news! Show me.” The shield was as I had hoped, pink. It was at least fifty hooves in diameter, encompassing an entire building within as well as portions of the neighboring ones. Three squads of changelings stood by, patiently waiting for me to bring home their food. ‘A coffee shop? That’s where you’re making your stand?’ I swung God-Splitter to my side before tapping the shield with a hoof. “Hello? Are there ponies in here?” I saw shapes in the window of the shop move around, before the windows were covered up with what I presumed was overturned furniture. The chairs and tables on the patio out in front were all pushed over, as their occupants celebrating the holiday had rushed inside when the invasion came. “Helloooo?! I’m looking for a Captain Shining Armor!” I yelled at the shield. There were muffled voices coming from within, but no clear response. ‘This isn’t going to work but it’s worth a try.’ I pulled God-Splitter to the side before projecting the head forward, swinging it on the tether spell. It hit the shield with a very satisfying thud. Satisfying, and not completely disappointing. It was immune to being dispelled, and though I only managed to make it flicker briefly into a more transparent hue of pink, I had confirmed that it was maintained by the one and only Captain Shining Armor. “Ooooh Shining Armor! I’m a big fan of yours, I’m just here to ask you a few questions!” “Like buck you are!” A slightly-muffled yell from within both the shield and the building responded. ‘He’s got an impressive pair of lungs. I bet barking all those orders for years must’ve helped.’ “I just need to know where the two Princesses are, then I’ll be on my way…! Say, what are you even doing here, Captain Armor? What’s a wolf doing hiding amongst these rats?!” “I’m not telling you and you’re not getting in!” ‘He’s right. The only way forward is to bait him out.’ “Hmm… A shop in the middle of downtown Canterlot… Is there someone inside you care about? A wife? Sibling? Parent? Friend? Come on, I am dying of curiosity out here!” “You can wait out there all you want, we’re not leaving!” “Oh you will, you will!” I turned to one of the changelings watching. “Get me a pony foal. I don’t care where you find one, just get one." Then, I asked over the Weave, "The rest of you, are you any good at group illusion casting?”