Changing Expectations

by KKSlider


90- Calydonian


Arc 7: Decaying Orbit


“My King?”

The voice calling out over the howling wind roused me from my deep thinking. The changeling who called out was disguised as a pegasus pulling a long cart specially designed for air transportation. I was sitting in the back of the cart, disguised as a light tan unicorn with light blue eyes and magic, and a black mane.

In our flying formation were three other carts, and five more changlings. Four pegasi, five unicorns including myself, and one earth pony. The non-flyers were sitting inside each of the carts.

“Yes?” I called back.

“We are approaching!” He yelled out as he pointed a hoof ahead of us.

I followed his pointing hoof and saw a yellow peak gently nudging through the thick, previously unbroken floor of dense tree canopy. The ponies had cleared off the top of the temple, as well as a few of the surrounding trees as to make it more visible and accessible from the air. And visible from the air it was, as we approached the site under the crescent moon moonlight.

“Set down nearby,” I commanded the changelings over the Weave.

The formation banked off to the side of the temple and slowly dropped both speed and altitude. A small opening in the jungle canopy allowed us to land somewhat noisily on the forest floor. The small clearing we landed in turned out to be a path that stretched both towards the Third Hive and directly away from it. It seems we found the path the ponies used to travel by hoof.

“Mask up,” I commanded once more.

Each changeling– including myself– put on a white mask over our faces, and a pair of saddlebags over where each of our Cutie Marks would be. The masks covered up our entire faces, leaving only our mouths and lower jaws exposed. We each had a generic Mark, with my own being an infinity symbol, but our disguises had to be layered so that everything was hidden. A mask and piece of clothing covering up our Marks to hide our identities, so the ponies would not suspect that we were changelings. We were merely ponies, coming to raid the digsite. Why? Reasons that we did not need to say.

“We’re all ready, Zero,” One said to me. He was the sole earth pony disguise amongst us. We had to have just a little bit of variety, to make things look legit.

On each mask was a number, painted red right on the forehead. From zero to nine, each of us had a new name and identifier.

As the changelings gathered around me, I reminded them of the plan, “As you remember, numbers only. Pegasi and Six will stay up here and guard whomever we take prisoner. The four others will be with me. We open up the place, make sure it is safe, then start looting. No splitting up. Everyone stays together. Everyone clear?”

Each changeling nodded and affirmed.

“Good.”

I spun on my hooves and led the way down the path. The path, which was made of cut plants and pressed dirt, started to widen out. Ahead, soft yellow light gradually lit the path as we came closer and closer to whatever encampment the archeologists made at the base of the structure.

The sound of rustling leaves and branches, bird calls, frog croaks, and the rare snapping branch slowly gave way to the din of distant conversation. We were not yet close enough to taste the ponies’ emotions, but we were close enough to start hearing them.

Eventually, the treeline halted and gave way to a small tent city. By a rough count, there were at least twenty small tents, several areas covered by a canvas canopy, and three or so large tents. Several of the areas covered by the canopies were filled with boxes, likely containing the expedition’s supplies and findings. Well, if they managed to get in then they would have contained findings. The file Coxa had managed to acquire stated difficulty in opening the door, presence of magic on the door, and extreme reluctance to create an opening by force.

The conversations grew loud enough that we could tell where they were coming from; the biggest tent in the camp. It was in the center, surrounded by an open area with two small campfires which were smoldering quietly, and had a plume of smoke coming out of the back of the tent.

“Surround the tent,” I commanded quietly.

One and Two, came to stand by my side as I approached the main entrance. Three and four lined up behind them, with the rest of the five changelings taking positions around the tent. This close I could taste mild senses of happiness as well as smell stir fry vegetables. We would be crashing the party in the middle of supper, apparently.

“Here goes nothing,” I muttered quietly as I stepped forward and opened the large tent flap.

The interior consisted of two sections. The first and largest was an open area with six long tables, each with ponies sitting at them. The second area was at the far end, and had a portable kitchen area set up. A single pony was tending the kitchen at the moment, and all the rest of the ponies were sitting around the tables talking with each other.

As I stepped inside and the four disguised changelings followed, the conversations each fell off as every head in the tent one by one turned towards us. There were nine pegasi, seven earth ponies, and three unicorns. Most were wearing dirty canvas shirts, with sleeves rolled up, stained in mud or plant matter, and a couple cuts.

Us, with our masks and saddlebags, stood out completely from them.

“Who are…” The closest pegasus to us began to say, but she trailed off.

“Hello,” I began, “I’m looking for whoever is in charge of security?”

“You’re not from the University or Guard,” an observant pony pointed out.

I smiled, “Nopony is in charge of security? Splendid! That certainly makes my job easier. As of this moment, I am taking authority over this site. Who was in charge here?”

A unicorn stood up, “What on Equus do you think you're doing–?”

The unicorn was knocked backwards and clattered loudly into the table behind him as a stunning bolt knocked him clean off his hooves. The ponies at the table behind him all lurched back from him as he landed messily into their trays of food.

‘Ah, now there’s the taste of fear that I know.’

I cleared my throat, “Ahem, I asked, who was in charge here?” When no one answered, I pointed to the closest pony, the pegasus from before, “You. Who was in charge?”

The pegasus tried to scoot back away from me, but the pony behind her meant that she couldn’t get away.

“Uh. It’s, uh, Director Trowel.”

“Director Trowel?” I asked before looking around the room. “Who is Director Trowel….? None of you? Clearly, I need to set some rules for you all; you all will do as we say, will refrain from speaking to each other, and you will stay here in this tent. Don’t do anything stupid, and nopony will be harmed. Do something stupid,” I looked pointedly at the unicorn who was being removed from the table by his colleagues, “And we’re going to have trouble. You don’t want to see what happens when we stop playing nice. Not everypony’s here, then? Who is missing, and where are they?”

“Who are you?” An earth pony asked from one of the sides of the tent.

I slowly walked over to him and looked down at him. “I am Zero. Who are you?”

“Err… I am Doctor P–”

“Incorrect. You are silent. All of you are silent,” I said loudly while sweeping my gaze across the tent. “None of you will speak unless spoken to. You will all follow orders. None of you will try to be a hero. Do all that, and none of you will get hurt. Now, how many ponies are missing from this tent, and where are they?”


“I’m telling you, I don’t know what magic this is!” Dr. Legacy said exasperatedly.

Dr. Dazzle threw her hooves into the air, “What do you mean, you don’t know? You just told me it’s enchantment!”

Legacy groaned, “Yeah! I did! I didn’t say I knew what enchantment it was! You’re asking me to find a needle in a haystack the size of Manehattan! Do you realize just how big of a field of study enchantment is? Not to mention, this thing is old! There’s no way it’s a modern spell, which means it’s an ancient one. I don’t know ancient magic!”

“You’re the expert on ancient magic!”

“... Okay, maybe I am. But still!”

Director Trowel interrupted, “Ponies, please! We’re going to get nowhere by arguing. Dr. Legacy, have you investigated Updraft’s theory?”

“Psh! As if! There’s no way a language that requires magic as part of it could ever function!”

“Why not?”

“Because! It’s stupid and won’t really help us open the door. Even if it was true, given the fact that we don’t know how the language is pronounced, if it’s opened with a verbal command then it’ll be locked forever.”

Dazzle shook her head, “Well considering we’ve been staring at this door for three weeks now and still can’t even chip it, you better come up with something before we have to start petitioning the Crown to come and help investigate. That would mean we’re all off the site, and we don’t get credit, and we don’t get our names on any fancy awards.”

Legacy gasped, “Oh no! Not my awards!”

“Yeah, your awards. Now, how do we open this thing?”

“I still think it has something to do with the tiny hole in the center.”

Director Trowel facehooved, “Let’s just wrap this up, okay? We’re missing dinner already.”

“What’s on the menu?” Legacy asked.

“What do you think?”

“... Stir fry?”

“You got it in one.”

“Horseapples, I’m sick of the stuff.”

“Quiet!” Dazzle interrupted. The two stallions stopped and stared at her.

“What is it?” Trowel asked.

“Do you hear that?”

“No,” Tawel and Legacy said.

Dazzle squinted, “Exactly. Why is the camp quiet?”

There were conversations not a minute ago, muted by the thick fabric of the mess tent and the distance across the camp. Now, the entire camp was quiet.

The Director groaned, “What is it now? C’mon, let’s go see. I think somepony is coming over here anyways.”

“N–” Dazzle began to argue, but cut herself off when she heard hoofsteps approaching. Thinking quickly, she spun around and dashed off to hide within a small pile of crates that contained the tools that the team would use to clean and prepare the site and the items within.

This wasn’t even the first time she had to quickly dive into cover to hide in the middle of an archeology site. Unfortunately, it was a niche skill that she had a lot of practice in.


A unicorn and an earth pony were standing in front of the massive circular door that sat at the base of the temple-looking structure. A few gas lanterns were situated around the space, illuminating the area for the ponies to work. There were bugs flying around the lights, and the sound of insects slowly took over the ambiance of the jungle.

They watched as I slowly approached with One and Two.

“Who are you?” The earth pony asked.

“Zero,” I said simply.

“Never heard of you,” the unicorn retorted.

“That’s the idea. Now, you two missed dinner, so I have to catch you up personally. I’m in control of this site now. You do as I order, and you won’t get hurt. It’s that simple.”

“Great, one of those bandit gangs,” the earth pony said with an eye roll. “Listen pal, this here is literal history. Do you know what damage you’ll be doing by defacing it? How much history will be lost?”

“I wouldn’t worry about that. I am perfectly aware of what is here and how valuable it is. Both of you will walk in front of my friend Two here, and head back to the main tent, where you will wait quietly with the others.”

The earth pony had other ideas, “Listen, I don’t think you quite understand where you are. We’re less than fifty miles from the E.U.P.. You won’t be going anywhere with anything you try to rob. They will track you down and take back whatever you stole from here. That’s how this always works. Graverobbers, tomb raiders, site plunderers, you’re all the same.”

“Cool story. Now shut up and start walking,” I ordered as I pointed behind me.

“Hey Trowel? Why don’t we just, you know, fight back?” The unicorn asked.

‘The earth pony is Director Trowel? That would explain some things.’

“Because of this,” I explained. Then I hit the unicorn with an especially powerful stun blast, knocking him back and hitting the cleaned-off smooth surface of the temple.

‘Okay, that was probably way too much power.’

Trowel gasped and galloped over to his friend, who was comically smoking from the horn.

“You– gah! Why did you do that?! I could have talked him down!”

“Some only learn the hard way, and I’d rather not be here longer than I have to. Help your friend back to the tent,” I spat. Really though, I felt a tad bit bad. The unicorn was just pointing out the obvious. Obvious from his perspective, at least.

The pony growled at me, but slowly lifted his dazed friend up off the ground and onto his back. He then slowly started walking past us and further into the camp. Two followed after and kept an eye on their progress.

“Make sure all the unicorns have nullifiers on,” I commanded all the changelings over the Weave after thinking for a bit.

I sighed, “Alright. With the rest of the numbers patrolling the camp, we should be good now. Now, time for the big ol’ door.”

I paused and tasted the air. There was a lingering sense of fear. It faded over time.

“Well, what have we got here?”

The large door and the structure behind it was made out of faded tan stone, and was covered in etchings. There was the massive three pointed crown in the center, and there was a ring of smaller symbols that circumscribed the door.

One, a changeling named Aorta, walked up to the door to inspect it. He was chosen to be One, the second in command of the team, as he was knowledgeable in changeling symbols and old mythology.

“This is the Third, alright,” he confirmed.

“And the rest of the symbols? What do they say?”

“It says… ‘ Through sacrifice, achieve an understanding of Her work. Through understanding, Ascend.”

That sent a shiver up my spine.

“That obelisk looking symbol means Ascend?”

“Yes, Zero.”

“... Fuck me sideways, I’m not going to like what we’re going to uncover, am I?”

One hesitated, “Probably not, Zero.”

“Now that I think about it, that damned book was from here. That book from the Ascension Chamber.”

“It is likely they created that book here, after pooling together what knowledge they recovered after the fall of the Second, Zero.”

‘... Too much to gain from here. I’ll just have to swallow my fears and press on. My changelings need every advantage they can get in these dangerous times. And that means awesome artifacts and magical MacGuffins.’

“... We keep moving forward.”

“As you command, Zero…” He inspected the door for a minute, “There, uh, doesn't seem to be any obvious way to unseal the door.”

“Nothing’s ever that easy.”

As I began to walk closer to the ruins, the front of the door began to glow red. Not the whole door, just a collection of etchings that covered the central symbol for Command.

“... I don’t like that.”

“Sir! It’s another symbol! Two of them, in fact!”

“Ominous symbols in glowing red that light up when I get close. Pretending that they aren’t massive red flags that tell me to run in the opposite direction, what do they say?”

“They’re damaged. Half-legible. I think that top vortex-looking-one is… sickness?”

I cringed, “Sickness? We’re not exactly equipped to handle biological dangers, One.”

“Nothing could have survived that long in there, Zero. A magical-based plague could have survived maybe for a hooffull of centuries, but this has been sealed for at least two thousand years. Now, the second symbol…”

One crouched low and got close to the door, trying to look at the symbol from all different angles.

“I would guess it meant either… forward… mind…. the Third Hall… or myrmekes.”

“And that last one is…?”

“Under–” he caught himself before saying the word Hive, “Underworld monster. Giant ants, sir.”

“Sickness forward, sickness mind, sickness Third Hall, or sickness myrmekes,” I listed. “So that means either sickness ahead, I guess sickness of the mind or something, a sickness from the Third Hall? Or sends victims to the Third Hall? And finally, sick massive ants. Unless it’s listing two separate threats, we can probably eliminate that last one.”

“Probably, sir.”

“Zero! We have rounded up one straggler from the camp!” Two announced as he approached with two other unicorns.

“Fantastic. Plan is as it was before; the pegasi and a unicorn up top, the rest of us inside.”

“Understood, sir.”

One, Two, Three, and Four will all be accompanying me inside. Everyone but One was a unicorn. This was all planned from the beginning, after all. It was important that we had as many unicorns going in as possible, as we had no idea what threats we would be facing.

“You’re just in time, too,” I said while pointing at the door covered in markings and clowning red runes, “One here just deciphered two hidden symbols that appeared when I came close. The first one is sickness, the other one is… well, we don’t exactly know. It’s probably saying that there is sickness ahead.”

“Sickness, sir? Are we going to be okay?” Four asked.

“Of course,” I said, not actually knowing. “Now, how do we get this open?”

“I might have an idea, sir,” One said as he scraped his hoof against the exact center of the door. “Right here, within Command, there’s a divot. A small hole, too.”

“So we need a key or something?”

“You are the key, sir?”

“... I’m not sticking my horn into a mysterious two-thousand-year-old hole. Either horn.”

“Sir, please! That’s not what I was talking about!”

“Oh. Good. What were you talking about, then?”

One frowned, “Well, you know how religious they were at the time, right?”

“Right.”

“... You have a knife in your saddlebag, right?’

“Just what exactly do you want me to– oh hell, I think I understand. You think it’ll will just drip sideways in?”

He nodded, “It should be pulled in magically, if I am understanding the enchantments correctly.”

“You can tell what enchantment it is?”

“It’s very similar to what we used to draw water out from the tunnels.”

“Ain’t that a neat piece of history. Alright, stand back.”

The changeling backed up from the door as I drew out a small knife from the saddlebag. I lifted my right hoof and made a small incision on my sensitive frog. Blood slowly trickled out. Then it moved upwards, towards the top of my hoof. It then collected at the edge of my hoof, before forming a droplet that slowly extended forward, straight towards the door. We watched as the droplet of blood flew from my hoof horizontally and into the center of the door.

The red glowing symbols pulsed black before fading away. With a loud grinding sound, the circular door began moving to the side. The hallway beyond sloped downwards, and was pitch black. A warm, musty air wafted out, meeting the hot, humid air of the jungle.

Pale blue gemstones on either side of the walls flickered to life, some flickering too much and going out completely. They illuminated a long descent downwards, followed by a turn to the right. After we all leaned down and stared down the lit ramp for a solid thirty seconds, I broke the silence.

“By the ancient law of dibs, I declare this entire temple to be mine. Dibs.”