//------------------------------// // 103- Hermes // Story: Changing Expectations // by KKSlider //------------------------------// Elder Sanguine sighed, “Daring Do already covered the most interesting topic, namely yourself… Where were you when you came into contact with this Nightmare?” I chuckled, “In a city that no longer exists. One filled to the brim with Nightmares.” “I… I am not sure how to react to that,” Sanguine said. “With fear?” “That’s a good reaction. How? Where? Why? How?!” “It was a changeling city. The Nightmares, they are an old enemies of ours apparently. Brought the entire civilization to its end. It was our only city at the time… Further, it seems that the previous two civilizations could have been ended by these Nightmares.” “How long ago did this happen?” “Little over two thousands years ago.” She blinked, “You have been fighting the Rot longer than even us?” “Potentially much, much longer.” “By the moon. Just how much devastation have they brought upon this world?” “Quite a bit. They’re not even done yet.” Sanguine stared at me, “What do you mean?” “I mean that the monster that was unleashed upon Vallachia was just a grunt. A minion. A nobody. The real big bads have names. I had to detonate a star to bury one.” “... Buck.” I prodded Daring. She grunted in response and slowly began to wake up. “Buck is right, Elder Sanguine. I know of… five or so named Nightmares. Nightmare Moon’s, Daybreaker’s, and then three more: Sloth, Gluttony, and Epitaph. This Epitaph fellow seems to be the Nightmare’s king, though a more apt description would probably be warlord. Might makes right in their society, and betrayal amongst their own kind is expected. Sloth tried to possess me in the same fashion that Princesses Luna and Celestia were and are, and Gluttony possessed an ancient changeling king. He’s the one I blew up. I don’t think it survived that, but the Nightmare part of it probably did, at the very least.” “This is most troubling,” Sanguine stammered, “most troubling! We have no records of the Nightmares possessing names outside of the ones we assigned to them after each hunt! You say these named ones are the powerful generals that have possessed the alicorns?” “And more, yes.” Sanguine gave a half bow from her seated position, “Thank you for this information, King Phasma, this is of the utmost importance–” “Their king, this Epitaph? He’s apparently sealed away, but not for much longer. The Nightmares are freeing him. Or have freed him. Or will. They weren’t exactly clear.” “... I see. I will inform the rest of this, too. Do you have any… good news?” I shrugged, “Aside from the fact that Gluttony is either dead or dispelled or whatever? No? I don’t think so.” “This is a most dire development. To think that those corrupted spawn have monsters of their own that can match an alicorn in power, let alone possess them… It would explain much. It was previously thought that anypony could be ensnared and feasted upon by these monsters, alicorns included. A hierarchy and difference in power would explain why the Nightmares do not all go for the alicorns, instead of going for us lowly thestrals. Or, other ponies, I suppose.” “Hmm? Whaa? What did I miss?” Daring mumbled. She rubbed her face and then stretched, giving out a big yawn. “What was… talking?” I rolled my eyes, “Welcome back to the waking world, Daring Do.” “Pri– King Phasma! I had the strangest dream. I dreamt that you said that–” “No, that wasn’t a dream.” Sanguine chuckled as Daring became extremely confused. “No, it had to. You said that Princess Celestia was evil, and that Princess Luna was with you. Like, with you with you. You know, like, likes you.” “You’re confusing me, Daring.” “See!” She yelled. “... You were saying, Sanguine?” “I had finished my question,” She answered. “It is only fair that you ask one in turn.” “Yeah alright– where the hell are my people?” “They had fled the city. I sent for them to be retrieved, as you wished.” “Why did they flee?” “One of them sensed the cleansing ritual was going to fail. He attempted to evacuate the others. By attempted to, I mean he fled and left the safety of the others to us.” I facehooved, “Who?” “His name is Aorta.” “Aorta? Really? I expected better from him. Oh well, progress is progress. Many changelings are still extremely self-centered, but that is changing over time.” “That is unfortunate to hear. Not to change the topic at hoof, but about the Nightmares…?” “Yes?” “Is there any more information you can give us? This seems to be much bigger than anypony realizes.” “You’re right in that regard. No pony realizes just how big of a problem the Nightmares will become. I can teach you guys a spell– and point out its most important part– that was quite effective against the Nightmares. Long lost ancient lore and all that.” “That sounds like it could have useful applications. Sadly, we have only a hooffull of ponies capable of casting magic. But those that can are quite capable of enchanting, so any magical countermeasure could still be of use.” “That’s good to hear. I’ll be sure to write it down and pass it along. Do you know who died? Which changeling, I mean?” “No. I’m afraid the identities of your changelings beyond the one introduced to me are a mystery.” “Suppose I’ll find out when they arrive, then.” “I have a question,” Daring said with her notebook at the ready. “Go ahead,” I shrugged. “Why are you a king? Last I checked, you were a prince.” “Oh that. As part of the whole rebelling against my mother thing, the survivors declared their own hive. Think of each hive like a kingdom, and the race as a whole as an… empire. They declared me to be their king, and that I was the true champion of the hive eternal– emperor of the changeling race. Now, we have myself as King of the Fifth Hive, Champion of the Hive Eternal, and we have Queen Chrysalis of the Fourth Hive, Champion of the Hive Eternal. At least, I’m pretty sure she’s considered the Champion of the Hive Eternal.” “That’s going to end in blood,” Daring pointed out. “Not my blood. I’ve bled enough. Now I’ve got friends who can bleed for me, and with me if need be.” “Friends? Like who?” “My Hive, Luna, and…. Well that might be it.” “I do not think Vallachia can come to your aid in this civil war,” Sanguine announced, “But in this eon-long war against the Nightmares, you have our blades.” “That’s the important war,” I sighed. “I can’t exactly write this into my series,” Daring muttered. “What? What series?” I asked. “Hmm? Oh, I… do some writing on the side. Most of my income in fact comes from writing about my adventures. I see no harm in telling you two because I think you’re both too preoccupied to try to track down my public persona. Not to mention the fact that you’re both not villains. Somehow. Still coming to terms with that if I’m being honest.” “We’re all the heroes of our own story, Daring Do.” “Oh that’s good, I’m writing that down. Mind if I change your dialogue around? That’s a great ender for a villainous monologue.” “As long as you don’t explicitly make changelings the villains. In fact, I would prefer it if you depicted us as… at the very least neutral. The more benevolent, the better.” “Thanks! Don’t expect royalties for this, though.” “That’s acceptable,” I began to say until I got a bright idea, “but I do want a cut from merchandising.” Daring shrugged, “I can do that. Only for the books in which you appear, however.” “Deal.” “Not the conversation I imagined I would have hosted,” Sanguine interrupted, “but I am glad that we are all allies here. Thank you for the information and warning, King Phasma. Vallachia will begin preparing for this war against the Nightmares.” “I’m going to need to tell Division-P about this. All this talk of Nightmares and war is far above my paygrade, and though I don’t exactly have a choice in working for them, I do understand that the Crown needs to know about this.” I frowned, “Daring, that’s not acceptable. Telling them would require you to divulge information about my survival.” “I can leave details out, make up others–” “No. Lying to an organization like that not only could easily fail, but it could even jeopardize your own life. Just… Damn it, you were at the Third, there’s no way you won’t get interrogated about this all.” Daring nodded. “Just… Tell them the truth, I guess. Try to leave out who King Orobouros is as long as you can. I’ll warn Princess Cadence that she needs to censor your report and debriefing.” “She can do that?” “I sure hope so. If not… it’s on my head. I’m the one who went loud, and if my survival is revealed, then it’s a damn good thing that the Fourth Hive is completely surrounded by the Equestrian Royal Guard. Survivors might even flock to the Fifth upon hearing the news.” “Mind if I ask you some questions about the invasion of Canterlot?” Elder Sanguine asked me with a smile. “News travels slowly over the mountains, and we are rather behind on specifics.” “I would also appreciate hearing about it from your point of view,” Daring said. “Every story has two sides to it. If Princess Daybreaker is what you say she is, then there’s surely no small amount of misinformation about your role in the war.” “Maybe not,” I began. I answered questions about me that they both asked, as well as asking a few of my own. I learned about what exactly happened after I passed out, and the specifics behind getting to Trotsylvania. Sanguine was enthusiastic to learn about myself and the changelings in general, probably due in equal parts to my involvement in killing Nightmares and my involvement with Luna. Daring was less enthusiastic; she was probably still stewing over everything that was revealed and deciding whether or not she believed it all. I made a mental note to talk with Princess Cadence as soon as possible. I would need to suppress Daring’s report as soon as possible. ‘It’s getting riskier and riskier having her around, but it’s far too late to do anything else but keep doubling down.’ The two ponies were enthusiastic about learning about changeling transformative abilities. However, since I was pretty much out of energy, I didn’t want to be expending what little I had on transformations. So they had to settle with just descriptions of the process, which I happily supplied them with. I also tried to buy armor for my changelings from the thestrals. Elder Sanguine had to excuse herself for a moment to speak momentarily with the castle’s armorer to get an estimate for prices. She came back with the figures written down on a piece of paper, and hooved it over to me before retaking her seat. I looked the number over. It was large. Very large. I had never handled that much money as a human, but with the financial backing of the Fifth Hive, it was absolutely within the realm of possibilities. “One million bits,” I whistled. “That’s quite the sum of money. As much as I want to put every spare bit we get into growing the business more, I think we can spare this much…. Over time. Does a few months sound good?” “That should suffice. We would require a sizable upfront payment as proof of your potential to pay it back, but we are happy to arm our allies. If you get caught, however, that armor did not come from Vallachia.” “Of course, of course. One million…. That’s quite a lot for a hundred sets of armor.” “A hundred?” Sanguine asked in disbelief. “You are mistaken. That’s the price for ten sets.” I blinked. Then, I slowly folded the piece of paper up and levitated it back over to Sanguine. “Thank you for the offer, Elder, but, uhhh… Let’s keep that on the table for now.” As our conversation was wrapping up, a thestral in the dull metal armor swooped down and landed next to the relaxing Elder. The guard bent low and whispered into Sanguine’s ear. She nodded once, and the newcomer took off almost completely silently. As I concentrated on listening for his takeoff, I heard a distant hum. “Did your soldiers call for backup, King Phasma?” “How should I know? I imagine they would have sent a messenger, why?” “Because there’s an airship approaching the city.” ‘The distant hum.’ “Next time I see them, I’ll ask them, shall I?” “You can’t ask them through your hivemind thingy?” Daring asked. “No. Now I suggest you prepare for the worst and hope for the best.” Sanguine scowled, “What would be the worst?” “E.U.P., Division-P, the tax collectors. You know, the Equestrians?” “What could they do to Vallachia? We’re a peaceful sovereign nation…. For now, at the very least. We have made no secrets of our eagerness to rejoin Princess Luna’s kingdom.” “Not much. But, you’re working with Luna to get rid of Daybreaker, right?” “Cleanse Daybreaker.” “Yeah, that. The last thing you want is their eyes on you before you can make your move.” “That would make things uncomfortable. Yes, I see the point you’re making. Let’s put on a nice face for these ponies, gentlemares.” “I’ll stay here,” Daring declared, “They might be looking for me. Hiding would look very bad.” I disguised myself as Expected Value, the blue unicorn, and began to make my way into the castle when Sanguine called out to me. “King Phasma?” “Yes?” “Stay close by, if you’d please. The best and worst case scenarios would require a quick response from you.” “I’ll stand by the doors.” I did just that. Standing next to the glass bay doors, I watched the airship approach. It started as a distant dot, growing in size as it approached. The hum grew into a buzz as it did so. It was a small, squashed thing, that airship. The airships that had been docked at Canterlot during the invasion, and the few I had seen flying overhead in the metropolis of Manehattan had varied in size, yes, but by far the majority were gargantuan freight haulers. They were galleons of huge proportions, lifted from their places in water and hung from a balloon that was as large as the wooden boat itself was, usually bigger. This airship was more akin to a double deck schooner than those behemoths that ruled the sky. It was no wonder that the thestrals had fought to keep up with it; the sleek white ship was built for speed first and foremost, with cargo space being an afterthought. When the airship finally arrived above the city, I could see thestral patrols flying around the ship. It was only once the airship had begun to slow down that the thestrals could finally maneuver around the ship. ‘Oh right, the default reaction for the thestrals would be to panic and swarm the strange outsiders, not act like everything is normal and be calm. This reaction is their normal reaction.’ The airship turned to the side as it slowed above Trotsylvania, revealing the words Clear Skies painted on its flank, with two stylized clouds flanking the name. As the ship drifted, I saw the blurs of pegasi launching themselves from the top deck of the airship. They swooped down low and fast, coming straight for the castle. The thestrals moved to intercept, but the pegasi swiftly outmaneuvered them and leveraged their sheer speed to propel themselves past any attempts to stop them. The airship finished its drift and halted in place above the city. The pegasi, twelve of them, hurled themselves towards the open air garden in a V-formation. At the very last possible second, they tilted their wings back and halted themselves above the garden. I could see no armor on any of them, but each one was coiled up and ready to spring into a fight. I couldn’t taste any emotion from them, either. Elder Sanguine had risen from her chair and was suddenly flanked by two armored guards, with more thestrals with armor and weapons materializing into the courtyard silently. Landing from the sky, slinking in through side entrances, or otherwise seemingly appearing out of thin air, the garden went from being empty to having around thirty souls in it within ten seconds flat. “Identify yourself!” Elder Sanguine barked. Two of the pegasi leaned in to talk to each other. One pointed a hoof at the main doors to the garden. At me. I was barely visible from my spot to the side of the doors, but they knew where I was immediately. ‘Reinforcements have arrived.’ I stepped out from beside the door and dramatically pushed them open. I strutted out into the courtyard, keeping my eyes on the changelings. When I emerged from the building, the changelings all landed on the ground in front of me. Several thestrals moved to interpose themselves between me and the fake-pegasi, but I brushed past them. The disguised changeling at the front looked me over. I smiled as I recognized his presence in my Weave, despite his disguise. “Sir?! Are you well?” “I will live,” I briskly responded. “You’ve got some nerve dropping into Vallachia like that!” Elder Sanguine yelled as she came over to us. “Introduce yourselves. They know who I am and who we are, so speak honestly,” I ordered over the weave. The lead pegasi nodded to me before turning to address the thestral who stepped up to us. “Hello, pony. I am Captain Katydid. I am here to ensure the safety of King Phasmatodea.” Elder Sanguine huffed but got her anger and frustration into control with the quick expertise of a diplomat and leader. “There are proper procedures to follow, you know.” “I had guessed as much, yes. However, there are calls to service higher than protocol,” the changeling responded. I interrupted, “Before we continue this, did you bring any ponies with you?” Katydid nodded, “The Captain of the airship. None of us know how to fly yet. We told him we needed to pick up somepony very important, very quickly.” “Then we’ll have to keep our disguises on…” I muttered. Then, I smiled and embraced Katydid. He was shocked and only hesitantly returned the embrace after a few moments. “It’s good to see you again, Katydid. I didn’t think it would be anytime soon.” “You have no idea how glad I am to see that you’re alive, My King. King… You’ve been busy, haven’t you?” I ended the hug and nodded, “Always have been. Elder Sanguine, this is Katydid. He trained me how to fight back in the Fourth Hive. Last I checked, he was a Colonel in the Fifth Legion. What happened Katydid? Las Pegasus was too boring for you?” “My brigade was one of a few that were pulled away to help the retreating Swarm Group Center, Your Majesty. During our operations against the E.U.P., our brigade was cut off from the retreat, and we had a bad ambush that turned into a complete rout. Many died, a few were captured, and those of us who escaped hid around here, actually. Not this far out west, though. We keep in touch, as contingency orders, and suddenly word filters back of a certain changeling Prince not being dead. We make contact, get brought all the way over to the Big Apple, and wouldn’t you know it, the certain dead Prince who wasn’t actually dead set up a kingdom within Equestria.” “You introduced yourself as Captain?” “You needed someling to train the others. Thorax recognized me and voluntold me for the position. I am happy to be of service, Your Majesty.” I laughed, “I’m glad you’re here, Captain Katydid.” “Yes well not to interrupt your reunion,” Elder Sanguine interrupted our reunion, “but you have parked your airship in restricted airspace. If you would kindly dock it in the proper location immediately, I won’t bury you in fines or ground your ship. I understand your expedience, but now that it is assuaged, move your ship. Do you have any idea how loud it is to our sensitive ears?!” Katydid looked to me for orders. “Do it. I’ll be aboard shortly.” Katydid nodded to one of the disguised changelings at his side, who saluted and then flew up to the airship. “Hey Captain Katydid, did you pick up the survivors from outside the city? Apparently the changelings all fled when shit hit the fan here…” “I did, Your Majesty. We only approached because a scout reported that everything seemed normal. We sent her after Aorta was debriefed on what happened. He, and everyone else, are waiting on board the ship, Your Majesty.” “Fantastic. Did he say who died?” “Died, sir?” “... I have a lot I need to tell the Hive. Our species has been at war for survival longer than this pitched-war with the ponies, Katydid. And we have been losing.”