“So Sky…” Bray trailed off.
“Yes, Bray?”
“How do you know about these things?”
I jumped over a fallen tree and landed awkwardly on three hooves.
“I got a briefer on the kinds of creatures you can run into down in the… Underworld.”
“Underworld? Are you saying these creatures are from Tartarus?”
“No, the world that is under us. Maybe you have a different word for it.”
Search cleared his throat, “Now I may have barely scraped through high school geography, but I’m pretty sure what’s under us is the rest of the crust layer, then the mantle, then the core.”
I sighed, “Then Equestria has no knowledge of what is really beneath their hooves. Within the crust layer lies a significant amount of… space. Caves. Underground oceans. An entire world that has never seen the sun.”
“How do thestrals know about it?” Bray asked.
“There are entrances to the layer. Natural ones are extremely rare but I’m certain there’s one in that infamous Everfree Forest. I’m betting there’s a second, smaller entrance here, in Blackthorn Forest.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“I implied that we have an entrance back at home.”
“Oh. That makes sense. Why do you have an entrance to this Underworld?”
“Well, the uppermost layer has a lot of minerals in it. More abundant than in your average mine.”
I could practically hear Bray’s mind working from behind me.
“Really? How– no wait, why? Why haven’t we heard about this?”
“It’s pretty deep. And, as I’ve alluded to, not empty. There’s more monsters down there than anywhere else. A lot more.”
“So why do thestrals prefer mining it rather than traditional mines?”
I stopped.
“Why…. I suppose that’s because there’s no naturally occurring metal deposits near our home.”
“So then why don’t you move?” Dew asked.
A branch snapped in the distance, causing us all to freeze.
“... Because we prefer staying hidden,” I whispered.
There was a distant growl. Then, silence returned. We waited five minutes before we dared to move on and make noise once again. Our conversation became much quieter.
“Tell us about the Lavellan,” Search said.
“Semi-aquatic subterranean rodents, they prefer making their nests in half-flooded caverns. They’ll eat anything and everything, but have a penchant for favoring insects. They are quite venomous, but thankfully no pony was wounded by their toxic saliva during the attack. Still, I’m certain the rest of the injured had to be treated for infected wounds. Lavellan do not keep their claws clean. Quite the opposite, in fact.”
“Alright. What could have chased them out of their home,” Search followed up.
“... A lot of things. Anything as simple as a cave collapse to a larger creature muscling them out of their hunting grounds.”
“How large can these bigger creatures get?”
I silently thought about that for a moment.
‘Let’s see, what was the largest megafauna that I was told about? Stormrider? Maybe Deep Leviathan? No, it would have to be Uncaring God.’
“So you know about Canterhorn Mountain, right? Yeah, about half the size of that. And I’m certain that we know only of a fraction of what lies beneath us.”
“This sounds like pure fantasy,” Bray muttered.
“If it was, Hooferville wouldn’t have been attacked.”
The rest of the journey was made silently.
Occasionally, we heard movement around us. On rare occasions, we caught glimpses of creatures lurking in the dark underbrush of the forest. Still, we pressed on. On one occasion, a rogue Lavellan, a straggler from the pack, tried to attack us. I simply picked it up and crushed it within my telekinesis.
Eventually, the tracks became more and more grouped up. The Lavellan had ran here much closer together, practically body to body. We were getting close to the source of their horde incursion.
The woods themselves seemed to grow more sinister. The straight trunked trees were replaced with leaning giants, ancient in their own right. The ground was far more uneven, as if we were walking on a field of buried rubble. Eventually, the trees became barren of leaves, leaving them as nothing more than gnarled and twisted sprouts of wood. That didn’t mean we got to see the clear blue sky that we set out under, back at Hooferville.
The sky overhead was overcast. It was threatening to rain on us. The fact that I didn’t bring rain gear didn’t bother me, nor did it bother any of the rest of the team. Our backpacks were made of a waterproof material. It wasn’t magical enchantment, but mundane physical properties. Still, none of us wanted to get soaking wet.
The underbrush simply ran out. It thinned at first, but altogether vanished shortly into the barren biome. Normally, we were walking on trampled bushes, ferns, grass, and other small plants. Now, there was nothing but a cloying mud underhoof. Progress slowed, but we pushed on.
It was silent, I noticed. In the woods proper, there were at least distant bird calls, or the swaying of branches and leaves in the wind. Here in this dead zone, there wasn’t even a wind to move the stagnant air.
Finally, we arrived at the origin of the horde.
True to my suspicions, it was indeed a cave. I was certain that it led all the way to the Unending Dark. There were no Surface Tunnels here, not this far from the Fourth Hive. Lavellan loved to make their homes in that dark, ominous zone.
The cave itself was in the middle of a stony clearing. The mud had given way to a large pile of rocks, on which the entrance to the cave sat like a dragon on its hoard of gold.
It was still deathly silent.
The other three guards looked to me for guidance.
‘It’d be really nice to be able to fly right about now.’
With a hoof signal, I guided us around the side of the clearing so that we could approach the open cave entrance from the side.
We slowly picked our way across the field of stones. It was hard for me with one metal leg to stay quiet, but I tried my best. Eventually, we made it to the small solid rock mound in the center. I pressed myself up against it, and the ponies followed suit behind me.
I inched my way up to the entrance and peeked around the corner.
Inside was nearly pitch black, but I could see the light from outside illuminate a tunnel that went down into the ground. A stale air that smelled of rot slowly wafted out from the tunnel. Leaning back and towards the ponies, I nodded as I undid the straps on my backpack. We took off our packs and set them gently onto the ground. Then I moved backwards to whisper to them all at once, while keeping the direction that the entrance was in in my view the entire time.
“This is it. We need to collapse the tunnel inside. The more destroyed it is, the better.”
“How can we do that?” Search whispered.
I tapped a stone beneath me with a hoof. All this rock was likely excavated from the tunnel itself. This was certainly not a naturally occurring phenomenon.
“We go in a bit and destroy the ceiling. It will cause a huge portion of the tunnel to collapse in on itself, and likely cause this entire pile of rocks to go in with it. That’s about as best of a seal as we can get. Maybe get a team of pegasi to come in later with explosives to fully seal the tunnel. If we get a small seal in now, it’ll mean that the pegasi can do their work without fear of being attacked.”
“Sounds good,” Search agreed.
“We’ll follow you,” Dew whispered.
“Alright. We need to be ready once the cascade starts. That means we have to move our packs first, then be ready to run for the woods like our tails are on fire.”
We picked up our packs and made our way back to the edge of the clearing. Once we deposited our packs at the beginning of the trail that we used to get here, we went back to the tunnel entrance and got ready to go down.
“Bray. Give us light. I’ll be ready with a shield or force spell in case we get attacked.”
“Got it,” she said as she lit her horn.
I went in first, with Bray slightly behind and to my side. The other two ponies filled in behind us. The tunnel inside was large, maybe twenty hooves across. It also went down at an angle. If it weren’t for the rough and clawed up solid stone ground, I would be worried about losing my balance and falling down.
We went down about fifty hooves. The tunnel ahead was still quiet but I figured that this was good enough.
“Alright,” I whispered. My voice still echoed slightly. “I’ll start cutting into the ceiling. Bray, keep the light up. Focus it a bit down the tunnel if you can. Dew and Search, keep an eye with Bray. If anything comes, we need to get out of here as soon as possible.”
I lit my horn, and started carving into the stone ceiling down a bit from us using Focused Will. The orange laser loudly zapped through the air and bit into the soft stone ceiling.
As I focused on carving out an equal layer of stone, Dew called out shortly after I started.
“There’s something moving ahead!”
‘Already?! There must be a small cavern ahead before the tunnel continues down!’
“Out!” I whisper-yelled.
The ponies turned and started climbing out of the tunnel. I lit my horn and beamed a light down the tunnel. Sure enough, the tunnel leveled out about three hundred hooves further. Then, something massive walked into my spotlight, hissing angrily.
‘Oh fuck me.’
I spun on my hooves and launched myself upwards. I scrambled for purchase on the uneven, rocky tunnel ground as I galloped upwards. Ahead, the ponies had glanced backwards at the sudden sound of me moving fast, and had quickly realized that they too needed to speed up. No longer concerned about the sound we were making, I yelled a warning.
“It’s a megafauna! Get out and get ready for a fight!”
The ponies leaped out from the tunnel ahead of me. I neared the entrance too, but my right foreleg slipped and I lost all footing and slammed into the ground with a wheeze. Spinning around and onto my back, I lit the tunnel behind me once more and was greeted to a sight of the monster already halfway up the tunnel.
It was huge. Despite the size of the tunnel, it was taking up the entirety of it as it squeezed its way upwards.
The first thing I saw was a maw full of yellow incisors, each the size of one of my legs. They were each caked in black and red substances. Former meals, I guessed.
Then I saw its eyes. Yellow, with black slits trained in on me. They were also huge.
When it reached out a paw to grip the ground and pull itself further up the tunnel, I got a good look at its claws. They were four hooves in length each, with three per paw. They were covered in dried blood and mud in equal amounts.
My mind thought of one only thing that could truly encompass the entirety of the megafauna that was climbing up towards me. On earth, it was a phenomenon that fascinated ancient humanity. When rats would get their tails entwined and tangled, they formed what was called a Rat King.
But this thing? This thing was alone, yet it could be called nothing less than the King of all Rats.
The gigantic rat hissed once more as in the span of ten seconds it closed another hundred hooves of distance. I looked up at the ceiling it was approaching. Specs of dust were floating down from it, and I watched a chunk of stone become loose and fall to the ground, clattering as it bounced off the floor and into the face of the Rat King.
Pulling a massive amount of mana from my internal pool, I blasted the weak ceiling above and in front of the Rat King. Immediately, the blinding flash of orange blocked out any other sight in the tunnel. I didn’t cut the spell off until all I heard was the cracking of stone and the collapsing of the tunnel.
I felt a magic envelope plating around my barrel and I was pulled out from the tunnel as it started to collapse. I lay on my back, blinking out the burned spots on my eyesight as the ponies started to yell all at once.
“What the Tartarus was that?”
“Why did you stop? Are you okay?”
“Did you kill that thing?”
They were all looking down at me with concern. Bray had pulled me out of the collapsing tunnel with her magic, and seemed to be relieved that I was okay. I coughed from the dust of the collapsed cave and tried to get back to my hooves. Bray helped me up.
“I’m fine. I just slipped and fell.”
“Your metal leg?” Bray asked.
“Yeah.”
I looked back to the stone mound in the center of the clearing. It had collapsed in on itself and was starting to form a stone sinkhole in the middle of the clearing. I started to back up from the sinking stone pit but I felt my hind legs protest in pain. I had banged them up considerably as I was pulled out of the collapsing tunnel, but there were no obvious signs of damage.
‘That’s going to bruise up.’
“Well? Did you get it?” Dew asked.
The stones pieces were still sinking down, but were now slowing down as the pit started to be filled.
“Hopefully–”
A massive claw broke through the center of the pit.
“–No nevermind.”
I scrambled backwards towards our packs. The ponies stood in shock for a moment before joining me in the rush towards the edge of the clearing. When we arrived, they backed off the stones and stood on the exposed roots of the dead trees.
“Now what?” Search breathlessly asked me.
“Give me a moment!” I yelled as I grabbed my pack and started digging through it. I would likely need a boost in case things got bad. “Is that Rat King thing hurt?”
“It’s hard to tell, but it looks mostly fine,” Search called back.
“Rat King?” Dew asked.
“Would any other name fit?”
“Rat King.” Dew confirmed.
I found what I was looking for and started emptying the three small pots of pure love that I had brought with me. The pink gas slowed my mind as I inhaled all three stores at once.
‘Gah, so good! It’s been way too long since I had the good stuff! Mmmmmm….’
I sat back onto my haunches, removing my muzzle from the backpack. The ponies were focused on the Rat King for the time being. I giggled at the absurdity of the situation. This was such an eventful life compared to my old one.
“Sky? Sky?! Far Sky, what’s the plan?!”
Search’s yelling brought me back down to Earth. No, back down to Equus.
“Huh?”
“How do we kill the bucking thing?”
The Rat King had finally pulled itself clear of the rockslide and was circling around, sniffing the air. Now that it was free from the confined tunnel, it towered over the clearing, easily thirty hooves tall. It froze and homed in its beady yellow eyes on our location. Bray started firing off smaller beams of Focused Will at the Rat King, but the monster simply shrugged them off and continued its leisurely walk towards us.
“Now we kill the fucker,” I giggled.
“We can’t fight that thing!” Bray yelled at me.
“It’s suicide!” Dew agreed.
I felt power starting to flow into my mana pool once again. Despite the huge drain previously, the pure love brought me back to levels I had before the Battle of Canterlot. I began discarding the standard issue grey metal guard armor that I was wearing.
“No, it’s necessary.”
Bray Call’s unicorn magic wouldn’t suffice here. Nor would the blades of Warm Dew’s battle claws. The single spear that Quick Search was armed with would be of little use against the twenty hoof tall Rat King that now prowled towards us.
From the moment that the guards had revealed that they would join me here, I suspected this outcome. Honestly, anything else would have been a surprise. I would have liked to avoid this unnecessary drama, but I simply couldn’t pass up the substantial amount of bits that was offered. The amount of damage that three guards knowing my identity could do was huge, but then again I could try to wipe their memory. It should theoretically work. Should.
“Get back to Hooferville. I’ll deal with the Rat King.”
“Like Tartarus we’re leaving you!” Search yelled as he readied his spear.
‘Dragon? No, I don’t know how they biologically produce fire. Still, their scale armor and claws make for a good backup plan.’
“We took this job knowing the risks!” Dew supported.
‘Anything from the Underhive? I haven’t seen any personally that is big enough to defeat this disgusting thing.’
“A Guard puts themselves between danger and ponies!” Bray cheered as she let out a barrage of fire bolts. They singed the Rat King’s fur, but it otherwise ignored the attacks.
‘Something from human fiction? Xenomorph is too small, Godzilla is too big, what could– oh!’
I backed up from the ponies as they prepared to fight the Rat King and undid the straps keeping my metal leg tied to me. I needed a bit of space and didn’t want to destroy the prosthetic while I still needed it, after all. Tyranid Carnifexs were not small in the slightest.
I was giddy, both from love and from the prospect of doing something I always wanted to.
Bray Call wiped the sweat from her brow.
The spellfire she casted upon the brutish thing was to no effect. It somehow simply ignored the attacks, as if its hide was so thick that laser beams simply bounced off of it. Not even her limited array of elemental spells could do much more than slow down the thing. So instead she had focused on slowing it down by disrupting the ground beneath it. Minor transformation spells to turn dirt into mud led to the thing sinking down as the stone floor became more fluid. Icing spells made the ground slick as it approached, forcing it to slow down even more.
All this to buy time for whatever Far Sky was planning.
Bray really hoped that he had something good up his sleeve, as this thing looked very hungry.
As she threw a few fire bolts to keep its eyes closed, she noticed a flash of orange emanating from behind her, as well as the sound of fire burning. Turning her head, she saw something outright unnatural. It was huge, as big as the Rat King if it stood on its hindlegs. The creature behind her was actually standing on his hindlegs, but it certainly wasn’t a rat. And though it had hooves, it certainly wasn’t a pony neither.
It stood on two hindlegs that ended in hooves. It was hunched over, with four forelegs sticking out from its upper torso. These limbs were almost entirely made of massive scythe-like appendages. The creature’s head was half purple segmented plating, half white snarling maw. It was blunter, as if it didn’t have a muzzle. The torso itself was massive, towering above even the scythe limbs, with, oval extensions jutting out from the back. A thick white tail jutted out the back that ended in a red dual-bladed axe.
The entire thing was purple and white, with the scythes, hooves, and the occasional spikes being blood red. It looked like a horrible monster right out of an Ogres & Oubliettes game.
The bipedal monster roared and charged the Rat King.
Bray had realized that she stopped casting spells out of shock. She shared a look with Dew and Search as they watched the two monsters start dueling. The scythe monster tackled the Rat King and flung it across the entire clearing, charging after it. When they clashed again, The Rat King began to claw and bite at the scythe monster, while the scythe Monster swung its massive red scythes down onto the Rat King, as well as hiss from its massive toothed mouth.
“What…?” Bray couldn’t even formulate words. This was such a non sequitur from their stand that she was still trying to figure out what was happening. Warm Dew, however, seemed to have no such confusion.
“I knew it,” he smiled.
“What the hell is that thing?” Search asked, relaxing his grip on the spear.
Bray flinched as a scythe plunged into the back of the Rat King.
“That was Far Sky.”
“What?!” Bray and Search exclaimed at the same time.
“Didn’t you see him transform? I knew he was a changeling! I knew it!”
Bray huffed, “I was kinda focused on the big rat about to make us into dinner!”
“Yeah. Were you taking in the sights– no nevermind that, what do you mean Far Sky is a changeling? You’re telling me he turned into that?” Search asked as he pointed at the scythe monster. As he pointed at it, the Rat King threw the monster– Far Sky– off of it and hacked at him with its long claws.
“No, a giant monster came out of nowhere to save our hides. Yes, that’s Far Sky!”
Bray watched the giants fight. It was certainly something. But… what?
“Why? How? What?” She asked.
“Come on, none of you found his constant lying and avoidance of his history to be suspicious? Or the fact that he claims to have such an abusive family? Can you name any family in Hooferville that dysfunctional?”
Bray couldn’t. From Search’s silence, he couldn’t either. What Far Sky had described about his family was nothing short of something right out of pre-unification pony tribes.
They all sat in silence– except for the brief moment where they were sent half an inch into the air when Far Sky pile drive the Rat King into the ground– as they thought.
“Did you suspect him the entire time?” Search asked.
“Yeah? Didn’t you?”
“I entertained the notion, but he’s a nice guy. You really thought the stallion that got brain freeze from eating ice cream so quickly was a monstrous invader that attacked Canterlot and Southern Equestria?”
“But changelings are evil!” Bray exclaimed. “They invaded Canterlot! Burnt it to the ground! They foalnapped entire villages!”
“Mhmm,” Dew agreed. “Which is why I am very interested in finding out why this changeling doesn’t seem to be outwardly evil.”
They paused their conversation as Far Sky roared a challenge and bloodied his scythes once more. Bray once again cringed at the sight. She was prepared to kill things to protect ponies, but this? This was… brutal. Messy. Nothing like being a Guard at all.
“I knew he was a changeling from the beginning,” Dew continued. “I just couldn’t prove it. But the whole nice pony routine? I didn’t trust it…. Not at first…”
“And now?” Bray asked.
“... I think there is more happening than we know. If Far Sky is a changeling, why didn’t he just hide during the breach? Why doesn’t he just leave us right now and fly away, rather than fight in our stead? What’s going on with Princess Celestia?”
“Princess Daybreaker,” Bray corrected.
“Exactly. Something fishy is going on in Canterlot…”
“So…?” Bray pressed.
“So let’s wait this out and find out just who Far Sky is, and what the Tartarus is going on.”
I panted heavily from the exertion and pulled my top scythe limbs free as the Rat King fell limp. It had bitten through the toughened chitin exterior I had formed around me. Whatever Tyranids had, I had no idea how it was structured, so I went with the plating of a Millipore, though twice as thick. I should have gone thicker, as the jagged sword-like teeth of the Rat King punctured right through.
I kicked its corpse for good measure and turned to look at where I left the pack. To my surprise, the ponies were still there. They hadn’t fled, but instead watched from a distance. They looked about as worried and concerned as spectators of a Football game.
‘Huh. Well I hope they enjoyed the show! Not that they could have helped. In fact, staying out of the way was probably the best thing they could do…’
Bray waved.
‘.... What?’
I slowly made my way across the torn-up clearing, stopping just in front of them. My limbs sagged down from tiredness.
“Far Sky?” Search asked.
I nodded slowly.
“Can we talk to you? The real you?”
‘They want me to drop my current form? And talk? Why? Shouldn’t they, you know, be running away?’
Despite the risks of transitioning into an inherently less dangerous form in front of three ponies that could potentially be plotting to capture me, I decided to humor my curiosity. I channeled energy into the Thread of Change and undid my fictional form. However, I wasn’t so foolish as to give away my royal survival, and instead opted to disguise myself as a normal changeling. One with three legs, at least.
Immediately, the puncture wounds became more pronounced as I transitioned into my changeling form. It wasn’t as devastating as changing into a non-changeling form with wounds, but it wasn’t pretty. Red blood was leaking out from several places along my barrel. I sealed the punctures using a simple first aid spell that Bray had taught me.
When they saw my chitinous form, I tasted their emotions; Search was confused, Dew was vindicated, and Bray was concerned.
Wait, Bray was concerned?
“You’re hurt!”
She dug into her pack and retrieved a first aid kit.
I was at a loss for words.
‘These are ponies. Shouldn’t they, you know, hate me? Or fear me? Even the Princess of Love had a harsher greeting for me…’
Bray opened a medkit and started applying disinfectants and bandages onto my barrel.
“What are you doing?” I asked in my normal changeling voice. It had a bit more reverb to it than when I was a pony, but otherwise sounded pretty much the same. Another failure of my panicked disguise.
“Helping you.”
“... Don’t bother with the bandages. They’ll just burn away the next time I disguise myself.”
Quick Search and Warm Dew inspected me as they walked up in front of me.
“I knew you were a changeling,” Dew started the conversation.
“Okay. So why didn’t you report me? Or arrest me? Or literally anything but ignore me?”
“I couldn’t be sure. You need proof to arrest a changeling…”
Search had a different line of questions, “So all that talk about thestrals?”
“Lies based on truth. I obviously couldn’t talk about who I was or where I came from. And my family is far from… nice. Or functional. Or non-homicidal.”
“So, who are you?” Search asked.
‘Shit, do I need to come up with a faux name?’
“Please tell us the truth, Far Sky. We just want to know what’s going on.”
I frowned at Search’s comment.
‘With how anti-Canterlot these ponies are, maybe there isn’t a risk of them informing on me. Even if they did, I could still mind control them. Probably. Worst case scenario, there Rat King has three victims…’
The thought left a rancid taste in my mouth and a pain in my chest.
I sighed, “Call me Phas.”
There was no need to rush the reveal.
“Like the changeling Prince?” Dew asked.
There was a need to rush the reveal.
“Uh… yeah.”
“That’s you?” Search pressed.
“Uh… yeah,” I said again.
“You’re the Dread Prince?” Bray asked incredulously as she stepped back from me.
“Technically I’m not a Prince anymore, but yes. That’s me. I’m not how I normally look because I thought I was going to lie to you all.”
Dew’s eyes widened, “You’re the one who defeated Captain Shining Armor?”
“Wiped the floor with him…”
“Horseapples. We don’t stand a chance, do we?”
I glanced back at the Rat King’s corpse.
“One would think that the fight you just saw is a better example than a fight with a single pony.”
“You’re not a giant scary monster right now, are you?”
I glared at Dew.
“I can be one. Why… are we talking? Aren’t you supposed to hunt down changelings?”
“Aren’t changelings supposed to feed on ponies?” Search countered.
“I mean, I have been feeding off you three.”
I chuckled as they became alarmed and glanced at each other.
“The worst symptoms you would have felt is increased drowsiness. I fed off emotions you were naturally feeling, and didn’t pull love from you. That would have been an entirely painful experience.”
Dew quirked an eyebrow, “Changelings can feed off normal emotions without hurting ponies?”
“Of course. It’s not as potent and filling as love, but it is possible for a changeling to survive off of.”
“Then why did you attack Canterlot?” Bray interrupted.
“You can get only so much food from ambient emotions. It’s not enough to feed a second changeling, let alone an entire hive.”
“You weren’t satisfied with foalnapping every pony south of Canterlot?”
“We wanted all of Equestria. No, we wanted the entire world. We have suffered from starvation for so long that any action to end it became justifiable. I did not want our kind to become slaves to Equestria, dependent on it for our survival, so I agreed with the plan to invade Equestria and secure our survival by force. It turns out, coexistence really is the way forward. I was wrong, and now I work to undo that damage.”
Quick Search tapped his chin with a hoof.
“If you’re the Prince Phasmatadea–”
I interrupted Search, “Phasmatodea, just call me Phasma.”
“–then why aren’t you trying to get back to your kind?”
I sighed, “Because they’d likely kill me. Queen Chrysalis wants me dead, to put it simply. I was serious about the whole dysfunctional family thing.”
“Is it because you failed to take Canterlot?” Bray asked.
“No. She was going to kill me even if I succeeded. I was a threat to her continued reign, after all.”
“Why shouldn’t we turn you in to the Crown?” Dew asked slowly. That earned him a partial glare from both Bray and Search.
“Because that’d be shooting yourself in the hoof.”
“How?”
“Queen Chrysalis, my mother, isn’t my only enemy. I’m also working against Daybreaker.”
“How is that a good thing?!” Bray exclaimed.
Search nodded hesitantly, but Dew held his tongue, eager to hear just what I had to say.
“Daybreaker is not Princess Celestia,” I told them firmly.
“She is–”
I cut Bray off, “Not Princess Celestia.”
“How would you know?” Dew interrogated me.
“She was possessed by a Nightmare, an entity of pure evil and malicious intent. It’s the same thing that happened to Princess Luna a thousand years ago, when she became Nightmare Moon.”
“But how do you know that?”
“Princess Luna told me.”
“You’ve spoken with the Princess?” Search asked.
I nodded, “And with Nightmare Moon before that. We had an accord to rule Equestria together. Things have… changed. Now I am trying to free Equestria before Daybreaker can put it under lock and key and under a tyrannical rule.”
Search tilted his head, “What’s in it for you?”
“Food? The same reason why we invaded in the first place? Further, my own safety, as well as the safety of my subjects. Daybreaker is already… Torturing them. Torture, and forced enslavement into her investigative secret police, Division-P. They put bomb collars on changelings.”
“You’re lying,” Bray gasped.
“I wish I was. I am on your side, even if my subjects weren’t in danger. I owe that much to Princess Luna; she saved me from a fate exactly the same as Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon.”
“One of these Nightmares?” Search quizzed.
I nodded.
Dew asked the next question, “Now what are you going to do? Go back to your changelings who are fleeing from Daybreaker?”
“Yes and no. I’m not going to tell you what my next move is, but suffice to say, I am staying in Equestria. Changelings cannot survive without ponies, so I must work to somehow bridge the gap I created between our species.”
I glanced towards the path behind them.
“And that starts with leaving Hooferville for good.”
Bray Call sat down on her haunches, “I… don’t understand. You’re saying that Princess Daybreaker isn’t Celestia? That she’s in trouble and needs help?”
“Yes. That is being worked on by, ah, distant friends of mine. I need Princess Celestia back in power. You do, too.”
“She’s evil like Nightmare Moon was?”
“Worse. She’s a patient evil. Aside from these bomb collars, she works slowly, eroding Celestia’s previous influence and sets her plans in motion long before they come to fruition. As for the collars, I’m not entirely sure. It could be that she is banking on the extreme hatred and fear of changelings being enough to help hide their existence, it could be that her inquisition has already gone rogue.”
“Inquisition…” Bray echoed.
When none of the ponies continued their bombardment of questions, I put the disguise of Far Sky back on and grabbed the backpack and prosthetic and started doing the straps.
“Now, I must go find and help the survivors of the Siege of Canterlot. I still have a duty to protect them.”
Search sighed, “So now you’re leaving?”
“So now I’m leaving.”
“I still have so many questions,” Bray trailed off. “Will we ever see each other again? You promised to write, and to teach me magic!”
‘So that’s it then? Ponies really are willing to work with us changelings, even despite what we did. Damn, Luna was so right. Thank Panar she was right. This world works so much differently than Earth.’
“Once this storm blows over, our paths will cross. If they don’t naturally, I’m sure it won’t be hard to find me. I’ll probably be in Canterlot by then. Besides, we have till we reach the main road till we split. If you want to ask questions, now is the time.”
We stopped at the road. To our left, Manehattan. To our right, Hooferville.
“This is where we say goodbye,” I said.
Bray had bandaged my bleeding wounds before we set off. During the way back, they asked a hundred questions about changelings and myself, with no concern about staying quiet. Now, we stood in silence.
“It was nice knowing you, Phasma. Or rather, it was nice knowing Far Sky,” Dew said.
“I hope you remember us and Hooferville. You always can have a place here,” Search reminded me.
“We will see each other again,” Bray sniffed.
“Yes. We will. Even if I don’t come back to Hooferville, we will meet again. Till next time?”
“Till next time,” they each agreed.
Bray pulled me into a short hug when I tried to shake her hoof.
“I’ll miss you, you sourpuss.”
“I won’t miss waking up so damn early in the mornings, but… It really was nice knowing you guys. I’ll miss you, too.”
“You know,” Dew began, “if you were revealed as a changeling when you first arrived, I would have left you for the wolves. The metaphorical ones, up in Canterlot. But for a changeling, you’re not entirely bad.”
“Thanks. For a walking sack of delicious love, you’re not half-bad yourself.”
I turned to Search.
“Hey S– Phasma.”
“Search.”
“... You’ve gone through some tough stuff. Even through your mask, the pain was obvious. Don’t…. Don’t be alone, okay? Friends will help you through this.”
I blinked in surprise.
“Okay,” I said quietly. “I’ll… thank you. I’ll remember that.”
And so, I left.
I waved a goodbye with my metal leg as I walked left down the road, turning my back on Corporal Bray Call, Sergeant Quick Search, and Private Warm Dew.