Coxa trailed behind me as I finished the conversation with Celestia. Today’s negotiation was wrapping up the last bits, namely the cultural and technological sharing. Given that the Fifth Hive had almost none of that, it was a quick work day.
“Any chance you might share technology from your prior world?” Celestia asked.
“I don’t think so. A lot of that technology requires ridiculous amounts of dependent tech before you can get it to work, and I’m far from an engineer or scientist, so I can give a little bit but for the most part you’re on your own. It’s better that way.”
“I assume you intend to steer us away from potentially deadly inventions?”
“Sorta? Almost all inventions can be deadly in some way, it just falls to application.”
“Of course,” she nodded.
“But I will help where I can when I know of something like safety features. The last thing I’d want is for you to do something like muck about with heavy metals without understanding the necessity of lead shielding.”
“Heavy metals?”
“Deadly stuff. Kills you for just being near it.”
“Oh my. And what of the uses of other new metals, such as the Adamantium and Mithril that your changelings discovered?”
“Err…. Coxa, how much do we know about those metals?”
“Almost nothing,” he offered.
“But you have worked them for thousands of years?” Celestia said.
“We have,” Coxa said, “but only Chrysalis knew the ins and outs of working the metals. She had assistants, true, but her main assistant was, uh… he’s dead. Any info she wrote down is inaccessible to us now, but there’s a good chance there’s plenty of info back in the Fourth Hive’s vault.”
Celestia continued to lead us further down into the palace, “Then we shall learn about it when this war is finished. The unicorns that were assigned to researching the enchantable green metal were quite captivated by the material, and I have to admit I am quite interested, too. Never before have I seen such a capable enchantable material. The wonders that could be accomplished...”
“Good luck getting any,” Coxa snickered.
“I assume it’s quite rare?”
“You could say that,” I laughed. “It’s only available in the deepest layer of the Underhive, as far as I am aware.”
“Underhive?” Celestia asked, interested.
“The source of many of your problems, I bet,” I said. “It’s a cave system located miles beneath our hooves, filled to the brim with all sorts of monsters that want to eat everything in front of their faces. The only species to actually manage to explore any of it are changelings. In fact, I don’t know if any other species have even discovered it.”
“How have you safely explored it, if it is so dangerous?”
“We don’t,” Coxa said.
“We don’t safely explore it,” I added. “To the Hive Eternal, casualties are acceptable. After all, the metal we acquire usually lasts for thousands of years. A drone’s life was worth considerably less.”
“That’s awfully grisly,” Celestia sighed. “Bartering lives for metal. Barbaric.”
“It’s not exactly a practice I intend on reinstating,” I said.
“Then it sounds like Equestria might be able to lend a hoof in that matter. Acquiring more of either of these metals would be a boon of untold value. If we could work together to find a way to safely extract it….”
“... Then we’re more than happy to work together,” I nodded.
“Wonderful,” Celestia remarked. “Just in time, too; we’ve arrived.”
At this point, we were likely near the dungeons, somewhere in the basement of Canterlot Castle. This was where Celestia performed magical experiments, I recalled from briefings from ages past. We had stopped before a pair of thick metal doors that were otherwise nondescript. The guards on either side saluted as Celestia reached forward and pushed them open with a hoof, rather than their magic. I noticed as I passed the doors that every square inch of them was covered in glowing yellow runes.
Ahead, an auditorium-like room that was reminiscent of surgery theaters was filled to the brim on the lower level with different magical machines. Luna and Twilight Sparkle were fiddling with the machines and making marks on a few whiteboards scattered around the center of the room.
Right in the center was a flat metal table, which most of the machines were pointed towards. On its surface was a series of circles, each inscribed with runes of different shapes and sizes.
“This is feeling awfully familiar,” I muttered.
“You’ll be fine, Phasma,” Coxa reassured me. “After all, if you die, who’s going to sign my paycheck?”
“Thorax is in charge if I die. You realize that, right?”
“Wait, what?”
Luna and Twilight looked up at us when we entered, but resumed their work. Celestia walked over to one of the machines and began flipping small switches and otherwise calibrating it.
“What do you mean, Thorax will be in charge? What about me?” Coxa asked.
“You’ll still be the one running the Hive, he’ll just be the public face. Think of it like a leadership position with greatly reduced responsibilities,” I explained. “With no King or Queen, the Hive would have to transition to some sort of democracy, anyways. Both ponies and changelings will love Thorax, so it’ll help smooth things out if something goes wrong at some point.”
Coxa huffed, “But I’m still in charge?”
“De facto.”
“.... Whatever. But don’t you dare try to die on us, Phasma. You’ve made my life too complicated and stressful to go and leave me here.”
“Heh, I’ll try not to. Just for you, Coxa.”
Coxa nodded and buzzed his wings, flying up to take a seat in the small amphitheater that circumscribed the operating room.
“Are you doing well, Phasma?” Luna asked me, leaving her machines to stand by my side.
‘Am I doing well?’
“If I’m being honest,” I replied in a lower whisper, “no, not really. But the sooner we get started, the sooner we get through this.”
“I will be at your side every second of the way.”
“Thanks Luna,” I said, pulling her into a hug.
She helped me up onto the table, which I slowly lowered myself onto, until I was laying on my belly. Then, Luna ran me through what was going to happen.
“Okay Phasma. First we will perform an examination of the boundaries of this Nightmare mark. I know where it begins and where it ends, thanks to our sessions together in the Dreamscape, so that should be a shorter part of this. Once we have an accurate idea of what we’re looking at, that is when we will take a more in-depth look at this mark. Using our Flux Prospector here,” she said, patting one machine, “we will be able to safely examine the magical composition of the entirety of the brand. Then, we can map it out and understand how it works. There are plenty of other devices involved, but for the most part, this one will be our primary tool. Any questions so far?”
“I don’t think so, no.”
“Alright. Once we understand the structure of this mark, we should be able to reverse engineer its inner workings, and figure out a way to remove it entirely. There’s some particularly unfortunate enchantments that could be present, so that step will be the most tenuous. We will have to see what we are dealing with before we can make a proper plan. Worst case scenario, we take a long time to figure this out, and you are simply woken up as we work through the problem. It could take days. However, given how short of a time was taken to put the mark on you, I can not see it being particularly complicated.”
“Do we know how long it took the Nightmare to put the mark on me?”
“It was in the Dreamscape, but you described the process as being somewhat short, correct?”
I scratched my head, “I think? It was hard to keep track of time.”
“Given how long one can spend on a single enchantment, this could be considered a rush job. You would know if it was a long time or not.”
“Okay, it was a short time, then.”
“Right. This Nightmare was probably practicing this enchantment, or knew exactly what to create, all things considered. So, this enchantment is likely very well made, just low-tier. Which means that we will have to find the right solution, as many general methods of dissolving the magic will not work. We can brute force it, given that it is low-tier, however….”
“You don’t want to be swinging a mace inside my mind.”
Luna grimaced, “Precisely. Once we have a solution, implementing it will require a few other tools, machines, and strategies that Celestia knows more about. Do you require any information on that stage of the plan?”
I shook my head, “My education on magic is, uh… let’s just say corners were cut. Lots of corners. It’s practically a circle.”
“We will just have to fix that in time.”
“Oh boy, I’ll have to fit that in with my training.”
“Training the body and mind is important, if unpleasant in every sense of the word.”
“At least I’ll have a beautiful mare to take up any free time I would otherwise have,” I winked.
“Alright, we’re ready, Princesses!” Twilight announced.
Luna wrapped up the explanation, “After the mark is destroyed, we will put protective enchantments over the area to make sure nothing unexpected happens, or that no weakness is left. Then, we monitor the area for a few months, testing for responses to outside forces, but it should be clear.”
“Okay. Thank you for all of this, Luna,” I said, nervously tapping my hooves together.
“Thank you for risking so much for Equestria and I. You helped save Equestria, and even if you did not, we would still do all of this altruistically. You picked your friends well.”
“I sure did.”
“Luna, are you ready?” Celestia asked.
“I am,” Luna said, not leaving my side.
“King Phasma, are you ready?”
I swallowed, “I am.”
“Luna has explained what’s going to happen?” Celestia asked.
“I have,” Luna said.
“Excellent. Once you wake up, this will all be behind us.”
“If I wake up,” I muttered under my breath.
Luna squeezed one of my hooves, “You’ll be fine. I promise.”
Twilight appeared next to Luna, “Thank you for this opportunity, King Phasma! This is a fantastic opportunity, and I promise you are in good hooves! Both of the Princesses are here, after all!”
“Thank you, Twilight,” I said, unsure how to feel about her reassurance.
‘I guess having the two foremost experts in magic here is better than any alternative.’
“Yeah, what she said!” Coxa yelled from somewhere above us.
The machines whirred and began to glow and hum, and several were moved close to the table I was laying on.
‘–feel the thing as it seared something onto me–’
I cringed, recoiling away from Luna. Still, she wouldn’t let go.
“Phasma?” Celestia asked, noticing the movement.
“I’m fine,” I growled.
“I’m with you,” Luna said. “You are not fine, but you are in good company.”
“I said I’m–”
One instrument pointed an appendage that looked awfully a lot like a massive needle towards my head.
‘–the jagged blade pulled itself free of my head–’
“–not f-fine,” I admitted, gritting my teeth.
I was shaking all over, and struggling to breathe.
“Your fears are well founded, but you have to listen to me,” Luna stressed. I nodded, and she continued, “Telling you to relax is a counterproductive solution. So instead, why don’t you tell me something? Tell me how reforming the Fifth Hive is going.”
I nodded again, “Uh, we’re almost done switching to a paycheck method of rewarding changelings for their work. It costs a lot more than our previous method of assigning money based on requests, since changelings love to skate by on the absolute minimum and dedicate everything to the Hive, but in time I think they will learn to appreciate capitalism. The money we’re losing is honestly fine in the long run, as we were running out of good ways to spend it all.”
“You mentioned a desire to write a constitution long ago, did you not?”
I swallowed, “Yeah, yeah. We’ve been too busy to write it right now, what with the war still going on, but I’ve been talking about the base points with the First Fang and Cricket. They all agree to a degree, but ultimately refuse to allow any sort of election within the Fifth Hive. They want to keep me as supreme leader, something I’m kinda okay with, and keep the Fifth Hive as a meritocracy, which honestly just puts more stress on me. I’ll have to personally pick out every leader under the current model, which means I’ll have to change the Hive’s power structure so that fewer changelings report directly to me. This hooves-on method might be Chrysalis’s favorite approach, as it ensures absolute loyalty and control, but as the Hive gets bigger, it will only make things worse for me. Anyways, they agree with the guaranteeing of rights for drones and all that, and overall are happy with what I’m suggesting we do.”
“We need to begin the procedure,” Celestia reminded Luna.
“Yes, I know, sister. Phasma, I am going to initiate the rune– that one right beneath your head– and you will start to feel fatigued. Keep talking and telling me about your Hive, okay?”
Her horn glowed cyan, as did the rune circle directly beneath my head.
“Okay,” I said. “The military is still under mandatory service at the moment, but… uh… that’s because we’re still at war,” I yawned. “That works fast.”
“Keep talking to me,” Luna said.
“I’d love to move away from the mandatory service, given our species’ closeness to extinction, but I just can’t right now. Eventually, we might… go to a few years service… requirement,” I yawned again. My eyes were getting heavier, “since that’s what the changelings want…. But…”
I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore.
With Phasma finally asleep, Coxa broke out a portfolio and opened it up, paging through it. This was liable to take a few hours, and Coxa’s job was never done. As the Hive’s representative and one of Phasma’s closest friends, he was here to support and watch over him, however that doesn’t mean he had to stand at attention by his side.
“Why was King Phasma so scared? It’s just an examination,” the pony Twilight Sparkle said.
“King Phasma has a lot of unfortunate experiences with procedures similar to this one, remember?” Princess Luna said, her emotions matching her slightly-cold attitude.
“The lobotomy of his siblings?” Twilight asked. “Surely he understands the difference between this safe procedure and that… barbarism.”
A quick glance up from his work dispelled Coxa’s worries that the ponies were just sitting around, chatting. They were instead discussing this topic while bustling around between the machines. Princess Luna herself was powering the machine closest to Phasma’s head, her horn glowing the same hue as a thin laser that shot into Phasma.
“Fear and rational thinking do not mix,” Princess Celestia said. “He might intuitively understand that he is safe, which is why he agreed to this in the first place, but he can’t help but think about all the horrible things that were done to him, and almost done to him.”
‘We’re going to pay Froghopper how much?!’
Coxa quietly hissed in frustration and confusion. The lead-scout was going to be paid far too much, by his judgement. Then again, he had no experience with how much officers are normally paid. Perhaps a visit to his Equestrian counterpart, whoever that might be, is in order.
“That’s the mark?” Twilight asked.
Princess Luna was slowly drawing on one of the whiteboards closest to her, the marker gripped in her magic while she continued to power the machine and read off of a piece of paper that was slowly protruding from one of its exits.
“Yes,” Princess Luna said simply.
‘Looks like blurred nonsense to me,’ Coxa remarked.
Unfortunately, it was looking more and more like Coxa wouldn’t even have enough paperwork to occupy himself during the procedure. That idea was horrifying, as Coxa found doing this work horribly boring at the best of times. As much as he tried to focus on the papers before him, a small part was always concerned about his close friend and King, sitting still on the table below him.
Eventually, he gave up trying to read the same AAR after having scanned over it three times, and still not remembering who was involved in the battle. Instead, he zoned back in on the ponies, and tried guessing what was happening, what they figured out, and what they planned on doing.
I was having a nightmare again. Fortunately, this was one with a lower-case n. Unfortunately, it was one I had rather hoped to avoid.
Dispelling nightmares that I myself was a victim of was easier said than done. It was like telling your body to stop shaking, or the hairs on your neck to go down; it simply didn’t work that way.
So I had to ignore the corpse sitting upright behind me. I was staring out the window, observing the reconstruction effort of Canterlot. The sight was reconstructed from my memory, so in some places Canterlot was burning, and in others, the reconstruction effort had been finished months ago.
I couldn’t ignore his smell.
It was quiet. Deathly quiet, if I wanted to be ironic. The only sound to be heard was the faint, almost imperceptible buzzing of the flies. The shambling corpse made no noise as it stared at the back of my head. I could feel its gaze, judging me. That sounded cliche, but it was what I felt.
“Please, just… go away,” I muttered uselessly.
Something I didn’t tell Luna was that these nightmares were more frequent than she thought.
‘Probably has to do with the lapse in training. Gah, I’ve got too much shit that I’ve got to be on top of! How am I supposed to handle physical training, combat training, negotiating the Hive’s future, reforming the Hive, and giving Luna and my friends enough time of the day?!’
Luna had been busy, too, hence our lack of Dreamscape training. That led to, or at least was partially to blame for, the frequent nightmares. They had lessened over time… all except this one.
It had only gotten worse.
He was still there, watching me. The same place he had been for the past half-year. The only thing that changed was that he had started to rot away. The stench of decaying flesh overpowered any scent Celestia’s study might have otherwise had.
I absentmindedly noted that the smell was borrowed from the lair of that giant rat I killed way back outside Hooferville.
“You mean nothing to me,” I lied, not even believing myself. “Be gone.”
I was getting bored of yelling at Eucharis’s still-living corpse. Afraid, yes, but bored.
“They want me to talk to a shrink, you know. They think it will make stuff like you go away. As if talking can do that. It’s an immature viewpoint, I know, but I always hated therapists. Nothing personal, I just find the idea of simplifying people to the discussion of ideas and logical explanations to be…. insulting. As if we’re nothing more than a math problem. Still, they say I have to, so I’ll go.”
I sighed and collapsed against the wall, sitting up against it and staring at the corpse.
His eyes were gone. As was all of his soft-parts, the space between his chitin now occupied by rotten, putrifying organic mush. There was a small swarm of flies buzzing around his head, occasionally landing on his face or flying into one of his empty eye sockets.
He never spoke a word. Never moved. Only stared.
“... Fine, I feel a little bit guilty,” I admitted. “You were the first person I’ve ever killed, and you were, in your own misguided belief, trying to save my life. But you– gah! What was I supposed to…” I grunted and put my head between my hooves. “If I mess up, if I let loose my emotions like I did with you or the Count, then changelings could lose their lives. There’s more at stake now. It doesn’t matter if I was justified or not, the consequences are the same. I just… you all make me so angry!”
Eucharis said nothing.
“You were a shit father,” I said, still not believing myself.
Yet no matter what I said, the corpse never left the room.
“What do you want me to say? That I’m sorry? That I shouldn’t have killed you? You’re not getting either. I’d say live with it, but you can’t exactly do that, can you?”
A distant rumbling made me look up, outside the window. On the horizon, a cyan, gold, and purple storm was rolling its way to Canterlot. I watched a cyan bolt of lightning strike the ground.
“Same color as their magic,” I murmured. “Wonder if that’s my mind’s construct, or the real world influencing the Dreamscape. A question for Luna later.” I sighed, “I guess I can tell you things no one else can know. It’s not like you’re going to tell anyone. And even if you could, if you were some spy or something created by the Nightmares, you’re not going to survive the night, are you?”
Eucharis did not move.
“I think they would be happy. I miss them with all my heart, but I think they would be happy. They were far more of a real family than you or Chrysalis, and they would have been proud to see me with someone who makes me happy. I think they would gladly sacrifice being able to see me again for this, ironically enough. I just wish I could tell them where I was, that I actually am happy. Instead, they buried my body, thinking I was gone for good.
“I told Luna this, actually. I haven’t told anyone else. Not much point, I think. Everyone’s got shit they’re dealing with. Panar, Lacewing was tortured! How could anything I actually went through, aside from the torture, compare to that? I dealt with it a few times, but it was a daily companion for her! I don’t…”
I drew circles on the ground with my hoof.
“I wish Oest was here. Feels like I’m taking two steps back thinking like that, but I can’t help myself. The First Fang is all together, all broken but getting better, but Oestridae isn’t here. It feels like we paid a cost that wasn’t worth it. Maybe that’s the secret? The one time I let go of my, uh, pawns, is the one time I failed and lost everything. Meanwhile, when I try everything I can to save everyone I can, I get the most success. This world really does run on rainbows and friendship…. What do you think, Eucharis?”
It looked almost like he swayed in a breeze, but it was my eyes playing tricks on me.
“They won’t let me. The changelings are becoming more and more resistant to the idea of me being on the front lines. I think if I let them, they would put me in a padded cell with corks on my horn and fangs, not letting me ever have a chance to get hurt. It’s only going to get worse in time. If Celestia thinks she’s fanatically worshipped, she’s got no idea how dedicated drones can be…. Is that a bad thing? Do I have to try to change their behavior? Can I even accomplish that?”
Thanks to my experience in the Dreamscape, I felt something I identified as me starting to wake up. Glancing out the window, I saw the multicolored storm right above the city.
“.... Thanks for the talk, Eucharis. You should get the whole decaying-thing looked at, though. It can’t be healthy.”