//------------------------------// // 64- Hómēros // Story: Changing Expectations // by KKSlider //------------------------------// “... And then, I was banished to the moon. You know what followed.” I had kept quiet during Luna’s story, slowly accumulating questions to ask at the end. The first one was easy enough to segue into. “How long were you awake on the moon?” “I am not sure. Anywhere from a hundred years to the full thousand. There were periods of rest, and tracking the passage of time was… impossible.” “I’m sorry to hear that.” Luna sighed and shook her head. In an attempt to comfort her, I tried replicating the nuzzling she did earlier. It was an extremely unfamiliar movement, making the end result not at all graceful and very awkward. Still, she chuckled and returned the gesture. “Hey, I’m not used to this. Any of this.” “I know, which means your pitiful attempts mean all the more for it.” “Pitiful?” I asked in mock anger. “It is entertaining seeing you get flustered. Relax, Phasma, you will learn these gestures and shows of affection with practice. We have all the time in the world.” I changed the scene before us from the Milky Way Galaxy back to the quasar that we had first seen. As I watched the object spin slowly, I moved the conversation on. “Were you and your sister born alicorns?” “No. We ascended quite young,” I flinched slightly at that but Luna missed my reaction. “It was a cold winter day when we became alicorns. I was born a pegasus, and my sister was born a unicorn. The large town that our family farm was near was… troubled, to put it lightly. To put it accurately, it was a few bad fights away from outright internal war. Several bad seasons had led to a food shortage, and the earth ponies and pegasi in the town were at each other's throats. Each blamed the other for the hardship, neither realizing that the fault was nopony’s in particular. My sister and I had gone to the market to sell some of the spare firewood we had collected. Only, the feud that split the town had also split the marketplace. I shan’t bore you with the details, but know that Celestia and I started the talks between the two halves of the town. It was like getting blood from a stone, but we did end the hostilities in the end. “Then Celestia devised a method of splitting up any foods in the town, whereas I formulated a distribution system to ensure all had equal access and equal shares of the rations. We even donated all of our spare food to start the process of collecting everything in one place, in the center of town. Harmony must have had plans for our futures, as such a small kindness should not have resulted in ascension. Yet, it did. To this day, neither of us quite understand just what exactly causes a pony to become an alicorn. However, we both agree that the catalyst is to embody every Element of Harmony during a crisis.” “Huh. Are there equivalents for other species?” “Aside from your own royal lineage? Yes, in fact. Prince Chrysomallos was a ram with golden wool, who ruled over the long-destroyed Princedom of Colchis. He could cast magic from his horns, and he even had a pair of wings, too. His subjects enjoyed a golden age under his rule. His life was ended many millennia ago by… Well, the entirety of the old world was lost to that mad tyrant’s chaos. There were a few other perpetuals before that catastrophic epoch.” “That Discord fellow? How many kingdoms did he topple, exactly?” There was a distant, almost imperceptible laugh in the dream when I mentioned the name. For my own sanity, I ignored it. “Considering even our own memory of the time before his reign has become a bit chaotic due to his power, it is impossible to say. Double digits, at the very least. We were not the first champions of Harmony to fight him, but we were the only ones to wield the Elements.” “That’s unfortunate. I can’t imagine losing that many civilizations at once... Do you recall any others?” “There was Prince Ruru, a deer perpetual. Stories told of his magnificent coat of precious gemstones that he wore at all times– even his antlers were encased in rubies and emeralds, though neither of us got the chance to meet him. He and his entire kingdom vanished shortly before Discord’s arrival. Our best guesses and prophecies suggest that he managed to remove his entire kingdom from the timeline, saving them from the chaotic one’s ruination at the cost of their presence in the world.” “That’s quite the feat. Removing an entire kingdom from existence…” “It’s not the first time it’s happened, actually. A close friend to Celestia and I, Princess Amore of the Crystal Empire, suffered the same fate. We… lost contact with her long before Discord’s rise. Her last message was of an encroaching darkness. We attempted to fly to her rescue, but we were too late. The magnificent Crystal Empire had vanished before we could arrive with aid, leaving nothing but a snowy plain that stretched for hundreds miles in every direction. Celestia believes that Amore hid the Empire to save it from the danger it was facing, likely inspiring Chrysomallos’ own demise. I am inclined to agree. We cannot ascertain the Crystal Empire’s fate as we can the Princedom of Colchis; Princess Amore apparently used a spell that erased all written and magical notation of its existence. No prophecy or clairvoyance spell can even hint at its fate.” “Sounds like the world was a lot more filled in ancient history.” “Which is why I rejoiced when you found me. Nightmare Moon, I mean. We lost everypony we knew when we were banished, and our immortal compatriots had long since returned to dust.” “... I suppose the final question I have is one that I had already brought up. You and your stupid idea of moving the world–” “It is not stupid! You just have not seen the beauty of our personal sunrise and sunset. Even Daybreaker, the cold-hearted fire demon, raises the sun with unparalleled grace” “Yeah, uh huh. Whatever you say, honey.” “You will see! In fact… Let us make a wager! I prove it beyond a doubt come ‘marrow night.” “Alright, I’m game. What’re the stakes?” “Once you admit defeat, you shall… apologize to our niece!” “Once– wait, what?” “Our niece. My niece, whatever. Princess Cadenza, and her beau Captain Shining Armor.” “You want me to… apologize? What?” “You tortured a foal in front of the Captain, and have caused considerable stress to Cadence. They both often face terrors at night due to your own actions. Cadence is one of the few kind faces we see often in our daily life, so this must be corrected at once. You did not intentionally mean to psychologically harm them, did you?” “No–” “Perfect! Then you will apologize to them. To start the road to forgiveness, if you will.” I rubbed my forehead with a hoof. “You do realize that I want to keep my survival a secret, right? How the hell am I going to apologize to them without revealing who I am? I’m not even in Canterlot right now!” “You will not need to apologize in person. Though you shall later when possible, it is a simple matter to find them in the Dreamscape. Ha, this shall be the perfect start to your training as well!” “That still has the problem of them knowing that I am alive!” “Yes, it is a concession. However, they will keep it a secret if I ask.” “Luna! I don’t want anyone to know I’m alive!” “You wish to make amends as well as allies, correct? This is the wager.” “You– wh… damn it! Fine! Say that is the penalty for your wild imagination somehow turning out to be true. What could I possibly get from the wager?” Luna tapped her chin, thinking for a moment. “... I will tell your story to the press, up till your fateful duel with Chrysalis in the throne room. There should be no shortage of ponies who will sympathize with your efforts to safeguard your subjects. At the very least, it will dispel the horrid rumors and titles that you are accumulating in death. The end result is support amongst ponies once you reveal yourself.” 'That would make facing Chrysalis a hell of a lot easier. I need all the allies and support I can get.' “You can do that? Why can’t you just do that right now?” “Because I will have to go through Daybreaker first. That means telling her of your deal with Nightmare Moon, and my possible sympathies for changelings. It goes against her desires for what should be printed, but I am sure I can spin it in a positive light for her.” “And you can’t do all that right now because…?” “Because my first priority is getting my sister back. This will possibly jeopardize any standing I have with Daybreaker. She will forever suspect my motives– if she does not already– and make every one of my future moves that much harder.” I gaped at her. “Luna, how could I ask you to–” “There is no risk of that happening. As much as I want to help you, this is not a wager I will lose.” “But still, getting rid of Daybreaker is far more advantageous to me than having good public relations.” “Both would happen. I have done impossible things in the past, and this dangerous subterfuge is far from impossible.” I sighed, “Then we have a wager.” She smiled and clapped her hooves, “Excellent! I am going to have to find a way to gently inform Cadence of your survival… perhaps it won’t even be possible to speak with Captain Shining clandestinely…” Meanwhile, a question at the back of my mind came to the front of it. “... Titles? What are ponies calling me?” The newspaper slowly dropped from my hooves and onto the bed. ‘Well… As far as nicknames go, that’s pretty badass. A massive PR nightmare, but pretty cool.’ The newspaper in question was a few days old. Acquiring it had been easy; I simply asked Nurse Gentle Hoof for some reading material, specifically any newspapers that were printed in my absence. ‘Survivors Describe Horrible Attacks Coordinated By The Dread Prince Phasmatoda of The Changelings,’ was sprawled out in massive letters. ‘The Dread Prince. This reads like bad war propaganda. No, actually, it reads like good war propaganda. Faceless villain, way over-exaggerated stories of attacks and families being ripped apart, and crying children. The front picture is a foal crying for Panar’s sake, how can I compete with that?!’ Luna had said that Daybreaker had taken control of the presses, and sure enough an article titled ‘Sun Times Journalist Found Harboring Changelings’ was on the side of the front page, taking second place below the war propaganda. “Of course they spelled my name wrong, though,” I mumbled to myself quietly. I also quietly cursed the author of the propaganda, a pony named Quick Wit. ‘Bastard. Servicing the military industrial complex by writing propaganda is one thing, but getting my name wrong is another thing entirely!’ A knock on the door brought my attention back to the present. The faint taste of emotions came through. ‘Excitement? Who would be excited to meet me?’ “Come in!” ‘Ah, that’s who.’ Sergeant Quick Search, Private Warm Dew, and Lance Corporal Bray Call. They were too close to each other for me to pick out specifically who was feeling what, but it wasn’t that much of a guess to say that Bray was the one who was excited. The Sergeant had an extremely cheery disposition despite the fact that it was before noon, immediately tipping me off that something was wrong. “Good mornin’, Far Sky. Are you excited?” “Uh… for?” “Today’s the day you are released! You won’t have to spend another night in that boring old hospital bed!” “That’s today?” “Yep!” He cheered as his two underlings– but not lings– nodded. “Oh… alright.” “That’s it? C’mon, you’re finally leaving!” “Yaaaay,” I said with obviously forced cheer. Then, I put on a forced smile. “... We could just leave you here–” “That’s not necessary!” “Thought so. Dew, go get everything sorted with whoever is on duty. While we wait…. Is something wrong, Sky?” “No?” “Why aren’t you happy to finally leave this room? Isn’t it boring here?” I circled my hoof on the blanket covering my hindlegs, looking down. “Uh… yes. But… It’s hard to be excited, you know…” “What? Can you please speak louder?” “I said it’s hard to be excited. I may be leaving the hospital, but I’m forever going to be a… a cripple.” ‘Delicious sympathy. The hunger is down to an ache, and if I’m going to feed then it would help to know if they can tell the symptoms… maybe just a nibble?’ “Oh. I am sorry that you see it that way, but you should look on the bright side of things…. Right Bray?” “Hmm? Oh yes! That was a scary situation you got out of, thanks to your quick wit alone! You should be proud that you’re still going back for seconds rather than, uh… nevermind, that would be insensitive for me to say. Point is, I can’t wait to work together with you, and I hope you’ll enjoy working with us too!” At the mention of the name I glanced down at the papers. “Equestria Daily? You really read that muck?” I looked up and saw the Sergeant craning his neck to look at the newspapers. “I just asked for the news to read. Didn’t exactly get a choice… Is there something wrong with Equestria Daily?” “All they do is print sensational news. Anything that will catch eyes can make it to their front page. You should keep away from that nonsense.” “If you say so…” “I do. So get ready to leave, Dew is getting all the required paperwork to get you discharged.” “... I don’t have things to pack up…” “No th– Darn it, I’m sorry Sky.” He looked over to Bray with pleading eyes. “Sir, you can’t keep hooving him off to me whenever you want him to stop feeling bad about things.” “Sure I can. Now, make with the happiness.” Bray rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry Sky. Once your paycheck starts coming in, you can replace everything you lost pretty quickly. We’ll chip in and help, if needed.” “Thanks.” “No problem, that’s what friends are for.” ‘Friends? These ponies consider me a friend?’ I stared at Bray as she turned around when Dew entered the room. He was carrying a clipboard with a hoof and a sealed pack rested on his back. ‘What strange creatures.’ “Alright, everything’s in order. You just need to sign this paper here and you’re good to go.” I picked up the pen attached to the clipboard and signed Far Sky on the dotted line. The handwriting– hornwriting? I actually wasn’t sure what it was called– looked rather poor. ‘Eh, another aspect of my disguise. Poor education on top of family issues? No, I know I’ll make plenty of slips if I have that… I guess I just have bad hornwriting.’ I pushed the newspapers to the end of the bed and retrieved my prosthetic. After tying the straps across my chest, I got out of the bed. “Great. Let’s head on down to the station,” Sergeant Search smiled as he led the way out. They set a slow pace as we walked out of my room. I had left my room a few times prior to that, mostly for tests and physical therapy, but this would be the last time I got to see its interior. ‘Hopefully the last time.’ Overworked hospital staff, the smell of disinfectant, and patients who looked like they were all miserable. ‘Yep. It’s a hospital. Good detective work, me.’ “On your way out?” I turned and saw Nurse Gentle Hoof walking over. I nodded to him. “Great to hear that! You stay on track with your P.T., you hear?” “Yes Nurse.” “Alright, you take care now, and stay away from packs of wild dire wolves!” “I’ll try, Nurse Gentle.” He waved goodbye which I reciprocated with a nod, and we headed out of the hospital wing, through the empty air conditioned lobby, and finally through the front doors of the hospital. Hooferville was having a busy morning; The streetside cafes were packed. The cobblestone roads were busy with ponies heading to wherever they needed to be. Several pony drawn carts were making their way down the center of the roads, hauling their loads filled with goods or ponies. Sergeant Search led the way through the traffic, heading east through the town. As we walked, I took in the architecture and style of the town. In many ways, it reminded me of the smalltown rural America that I had traveled through on numerous occasions. Storefronts were decorated with beautiful curved brickwork, stylized signs, and large colorful awnings above the myriad of windows gave the town a very lively feel. All around, windows were opened to let in the cool breeze whistling through the town. That breeze was a welcome relief from the sudden heat of the summer sun. ‘Fur. I’m covered in fur. In the middle of summer. Panar, there’s going to be a lot more heat in my future, isn’t there?’ Then there were the ponies themselves. It was like someone went through the paint aisle of a department store and started knocking all the cans onto the ground, spilling their contents across the paved floor. Blues, reds, greys, whites, yellows, and on and on and on. Most of them were in dulled pastel shades. Even the stallions were not spared the massacre of masculinity that occurred before me. A rare pony wore clothing, be it a dress, tuxedo, or something else. More than a few wore hats, usually the large brim kind. And of course, no one wore pants. No one ever did. The air was filled with the smells of fresh food from the cafe, and even fresher food from the ponies themselves. It was all different flavors of happiness, with dashes of contrasting emotions from the odd pony in the crowd. Happiness was not a very palatable dish for a changeling, so I kept my head down and stayed close behind Quick Search. All the ponies were busy with their own lives and paid little attention to the cripple now walking down the street, However, I did see a grey pegasus sitting alone at the edge of the cafe across from the hospital. He glanced at me briefly before returning to his breakfast. With Search leading the front and Dew and Bray on either side of me, I managed to avoid most of the looks of the townsponies as we walked. Two of the newly-acquainted guards often offered greetings and hellos to ponies as we passed. Warm Dew kept quiet, giving me an occasional odd look. ‘Not much of a talker, are you? That makes two of us, I suppose.’ Just as the flow of traffic started to die down and the several-stories-tall buildings started to shrink in height, Search stopped in front of a particular building. Set apart from its neighbors, the large squarish brick building towered over its immediate surroundings. Five stories tall, it was certainly the tallest building this far from the riverside. A white bordered blue background sign sat out in front on a small patch of mowed grass, bearing the words ‘Hooferville Royal Guard Station.’ “Here it is,” the light red pegasus Sergeant leading the way said. “C’mon in, we’ll get you set up.” Climbing the steps that led up to the front door was an unpleasant exercise with my new metal limb but I eventually managed to do it. By the time we entered the double doors, I had worked up a sweat from crossing the town on hoof. ‘This heat certainly doesn’t help. I don’t remember it being this horrid back when I had a chitin exterior.’ The lobby of the station was just as I expected it to be. Cheap chairs, wood paneled walls, a reinforced glass barrier for whoever was at the front desk, and life-giving air conditioning. I didn’t ask how Equestria had AC, I just took the blessing without argument. ‘Probably magic anyways.’ “Morning, Stern,” Search called out as we passed the front desk and through a door next to it. Stern, the white earth pony in a grey metal simplistic guard armor, didn’t acknowledge the Sergeant’s greeting at all. He instead kept reading the newspaper he held in front of him, pausing only to take a long sip from a coffee cup. “Sturdy security team,” I said quietly. Private Dew snorted and shook his head. The rooms past the front lobby were just as stereotypical. Wooden benches, open air offices, glass windows, and desks with paperwork piled on top of. The sides of the main room we entered had wooden doors spaced along it evenly, each labeled with a pony’s name in gold lettering on the glass. Closed shades covered up the sight into each one. Ponies, some in the grey armor, many without, sat at desks, talked at water coolers, or otherwise moved through the room at a leisurely pace. “This here’s the main floor. My office isn’t here.” “Hmm. You all sure do look heavily pressed for more help.” “It’s a very calm day today. Besides, there’s always plenty of guards who are here in the building at all hours. Even the night shift has five or so in here at a time. There’s just always work to be done inside. It’s the patrols that are suffering from staffing issues. Especially in this heat, ponies just love dodging patrol duty.” “Plus, there’s not many unicorns in Hooverville,” Bray added. True to her word, I had spotted few unicorns out in the town. In this main room, I saw only earth ponies and pegasi. “No?” “Nah. We have a lot of earth ponies here ‘cuz of the outlying farms and the marketplace. And there’s a lot of pegasi because of our somewhat-close proximity to Manehattan. This town is a very popular stopping point on the journey west to Vanhoover, leading to a lot of earth pony-drawn and pegasi-flown shipments coming through.” “Ah. That makes a lot of sense.” “They also like to cause trouble,” Dew added. “Dew here believes that these ponies passing through are the ones who cause the most trouble,” Sergeant Search explained. ‘Must be a proud local or something.’ After showing me the main room, he led us to the back of the building where a large staircase led the way up. I suppressed a groan at its sight and started the climb up, favoring only using three limbs instead of using all four. We stopped at around the nine hundredth floor by my reckoning. I could be wrong with that count, though. “This is horrible,” I gasped out. “You’ll get the hang of it, Sky. Anyways, this here’s my office.” Search pointed to one of the first doors and opened it, revealing a large room with a wooden desk, filing cabinets, several chairs, and other boring cop stuff. I was still catching my breath. “This is where we’ll be spending our time when not out on patrol. There’s the locker room on the first floor and personal rooms on the top fifth floor. That’s where you’ll be staying. The cells for the inmates are all located in the basement, but there’s not really a need to show you those. We’ll be booking any offenders in the main room first before heading up here. Don’t worry, you’ll just be filling out paperwork with that. I’ll be the one actually handling any misbehaving ponies.” “Sounds simple enough,” I said, still huffing. “Bray will also walk you through our S.O.P.s and other stuff here. I’ll start arranging your introductory documents while Bray shows you to your room. Dew, I could use your help in here, too.” “Yes sir.” “C’mon Sky, your room is on the next floor up.” Bray led the way out of the room and back to those accursed stairs. I lamented the lack of existence of elevators for the second time as we finished scaling the station to the top and final floor. “I don’t remember suffering this much!” “You’re still fatigued from your, err… Okay, I’m going to be honest; you were a shitshow. You lost so much blood that we were wondering just where you kept it all. You tinged the entire river red for a stretch before you were seen. That’s actually one of the reasons why you were noticed at all. I mean really, who has that much blood in them?” ‘I wonder if my royal body was going into overdrive replacing blood as I lost it. That doesn’t sound physically possible, but then again magic exists. It certainly has to account for a least a portion of all this lost blood… maybe the overdrive ended when the blood loss ended. That would explain why I’ve been feeling drained mana-wise recently.’ “... and this here will be your room,” Bray finished saying. I had missed the first part of whatever she was talking about as she opened the brown wooden door. It had an empty name plate next to it on the wall. Beyond was a very small two-room apartment. The main room had a tiny kitchen, a bed, and a space for some furniture. The second room was a bathroom. “It’s pretty small, I know. But the fact that we even have these at all is something! Most other stations don’t have anything like this. Turns out, this building is very old, going back to the days where it was custom for the few guards the town had to live inside the station completely. That was a long time ago, and since then most of the rooms were renovated to be those offices. Well, offices, meeting rooms, storage rooms, and so on.” “I got the picture.” “Great! So, uh, remember where you’re staying. Since you don’t have stuff to drop off, let’s head back to the Sarg’s office.” I sighed and followed her out. She closed the door and we headed back to the office. I was sitting on the bed in my assigned room. After doing paperwork, Bray had started covering the procedures of being a guard. There were no surprises there. After an eternity, I was given the afternoon to pick out some things for my room. That is to say, I collected some items from a store room. Pillows, blankets, sheets, and other things for my room. What couldn't be retrieved, I bought from a local store using bits that Search gave me. Then, I relaxed and started reading a book that caught my eye while I was in the dusty storeroom. I put down ‘On The Treatise Of Magic’ by some old pony and slowly limped over to the window. It was on the far side of the apartment, near where the bed was. Pulling the faded brown curtains open, I looked out into the starry night sky. I actually had a nice view over the town, seeing off the side and down the road. Not the one in front of the building, but instead one that started behind the station and curved around towards the river. Since I was on the top floor, the building next door didn’t really obstruct the view at all. However, I was not taking in the sights. I was staring up at the night sky. Up there, in the heavens themselves, I saw something that made my head hurt because of the implications. ‘There’s no way. This has got to be an illusion or something…. An illusion that can span half the continent, given that she doesn’t know where I am? Fuck me, there’s no way this can be faked, is there?’ Written in the stars were the words: I TOLD YOU SO. “Panar. Fucking. Damn it!”