//------------------------------// // Chapter 24: A Certain Vote // Story: The Warp Core Conspiracy // by Unwhole Hole //------------------------------// It was a beautiful day in Equestria, and in Canterlot in general. A warm, sunny day on a planet millions of miles away from its long-dead sun in a region where it should have been an icy and uninhabitable wasteland, instead lit by technology with no known origin and by a mechanism totally alien to the ponies who had lived beneath its glow since time immemorial. They were of course not aware of this. Or most were not. Shining Armor fell somewhere in the middle. He was vaguely aware of it, but chose not to care. It did not pertain to his current situation. His situation, on that beautiful day, was to be sitting on a cool marble bench before the great arching windows just over Celestia’s gardens. He stared out toward a hedge maze where some of the students of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns laughed at how lost they were, while other ponies sat amongst the numerous stone statues of various monsters and ponies. Or, rather, what they took to be stone statues. Their actual nature had been erased from history entirely. The sunchokes were in bloom, as were the daylilies. They were surely beautiful, although Shining Armor could not see them. Prolonged exposure to changelings had left him mostly blind. He was able to perceive general motion and shadows, but little more than that. Although he could smell it. The smell of the world he had dwelt in during his youth, when he still dreampt of being Captain of the Guard. He had played in that very maze with his sister, and the statue garden was where he had taken Cadence on their third date. They sat beneath the statue of Discord, which Shining Armor now understood had probably not been the best place to sit. The memories pleased him, even if they were from a lifetime ago. He was not alone. A changeling stood at the edge of the window, mostly in the shadows but in a position where she could look out at the ponies playing and wandering around. She was not an ordinary changeling. Shining Armor had only seen her once or twice before the loss of his vision, but he knew every inch of her chitin-coated body. She was far taller than a normal changeling, with thinner features and much fuller wings. She even had something that resembled hair, which covered the unique growth that emerged from just over her gnarled horn. A tiny, fleshy antenna that closely resembled a crown. “And your thoughts, my Queen?” “Why should you bother asking me? You already told them what we’re doing.” Shining smiled. “Because I am your chief diplomat. You know that.” “Yes. And you should have asked,” she snapped. “So you’re saying you don’t agree with me?” Chrysalis paused, grimacing. Shining could not see the grimace, but he knew it was there. “Of course I agree you pony simpleton. But you are not Queen. I am. If you were a male changeling I would have eaten you by now.” “There is still time. I’m sure I’m quite delicious.” Chrysalis bared her pointed teeth. “No, you would surely taste disgusting.” “That’s not what you said last night.” She growled. “You’re insufferable. I should have taken your sister.” She looked out the window at the food below. “But as much as it pains me to give that horse Cadence anything she wants, I think this is the first time I’ve ever agreed with the both of the two fattest alicorns.” “She is our ally.” Chrysalis sighed. Then she smiled. “Yes, yes. I suppose we ought to give the aging spinster something to give her life at least a little meaning. After all that time she spends underground with her crystals and freaks.” “Chryssi, be nice--” “Don’t call me that in public, you impudent sot!” she hissed. “We’re not in public.” “You know what I mean!” They paused for a time, Shining enjoying the feel of cool air against his body and Chrysalis stewing in her own perpetual grumpiness. “I’ve always known they were there,” she said, at last. “Have you?” “I’ve smelled it. On clear nights. When the air is still. Sometimes it wafts down. Like distant spice. Something that almost isn’t even there. The scent of their love, drifting in from across the stars.” She looked at him, her smile growing. “But I never knew there were so many. Trillions upon trillions of them. For so long we’ve been trapped on this planet, unable to breed to our fullest potential with the puny amount of love these ponies can give us. But with that many...my hive will grow to a scale that spans the cosmos.” “That many implies anonymity, inherently. Hives don't make their own love. Workers collect it from within a society. Changelings could infiltrate every government of every world.” Chrysalis frowned. “We are changelings. We do not infiltrate.” She paused. “We do not intentionally infiltrate.” “Yes you do.” “Well then buck you, pony.” “If you like. Although this time, perhaps not in Celestia’s bed?” Chrysalis paused for a moment. “Indeed. It reeks of hoomin.” “It is my hope,” continued Shining, “that we can infiltrate. Every government on every world. And with that, we could gain control of their political processes.” Chrysalis raised a nonexistent eyebrow. “And why would I want to do that?” “To create lasting galactic peace. Ruled from the shadows. By you, of course.” “And what use do I have for peace?” Shining smiled. “Because then they can stop wasting energy on making war, and make love instead.” Chrysalis smiled. She approached Shining kissed him, which considering the length of the changeling tongue, their quantity of viscous and slightly acrid saliva, and the sheer number of teeth present in her mouth, was a bit of an experience. At the very least Shining Armor had lost his gag reflex, and now he actually somewhat enjoyed it. He felt a familiar draining sensation in the process as well, and he grew slightly weaker. He had also grown to enjoy that as well. There was little other choice. “And you quite excel at the manufacture of love, don’t you, my little pony?” There was a sound of hoofsteps, followed by the quiet sound of bones cracking and joints reconfiguring. Shining armor looked up to see two figure approaching. One smelled strongly of licorice, being Luna, and the other was a changeling. All changelings smelled vaguely cheesy, but this one had a distinct aroma. The smell of his specialest stepdaughter. “Shining Armor!” announced Luna, with her characteristically loud voice. She approached, probably smiling, to find Shining Armor speaking with a generic, interchangeable unicorn-like changeling guard. Ocellus was beside her, rendered in her pony form. “Ocellus? Have you given up on your human form?” She blushed and looked away. “I...I really like it, and it’s so good for writing, but when I tried to walk I fell right on my face. I’m not used to two legs.” “Then you need more practice.” “Or course. I will work on it right away!” “We were conversing with your bug-daughter during the recess from these boring deliberations,” announced Luna, again with obnoxious volume. “And look what we hath discovered concerning her body! Show him, small bug-horse-child! Show him the thing! THE THING!” Ocellus sighed, and shifted her body. Her face was still rendered roughly as its pony form, although with larger eyes closer to what hers actually looked like. She maintained her body chitin, though, including her sparkly blue wings. Luna was at this point almost jumping up and down with excitement. Ocellus took a breath and then, blushing, rubbed her wings against her body. The vibration made a loud chirping sound. “HUZZAH!” cried Luna, gleefully. “She hath produced a sound like a vast cricket or in the manner of a medium-sized locust! This pleases us! It pleases us so much!” “It’s a lot lower than a real cricket,” admitted Ocellus. “Nay, child, neigh! Thou doth not know the sheer scale of moon-crickets, they are quite large, and you sound as they do with great verisimilitude!” Ocellus seemed somewhat frightened by the implication of her-sized crickets. “That’s—big..” “Indeed!” Luna sighed. “Why, ever year, it is our Hearthswarming tradition to gather our greatest warriors and hold a quest to slay the mightiest of crickets! We then roast it and serve it as a feast to all our guests! The feasting upon the flesh of the Great Cricket is indeed a wonderful tradition! And as Princess we always partake of the best piece!” “What’s...the best piece?” “The brains, of course!” Ocellus nearly fainted. “Although we shalt not eat thine flesh, dear child, you sound too pretty. Additionally you are small and narrow and lack adequate meat to form a proper feast. Unless we took up the slack with delicious stuffing.” Shining sighed. “Are you seriously implying in front of the changeling king that you intend to eat us?” “Why? Do you not partake of us? Doth it not make sense that if thou art meant to suck us of our love that we might, in turn, sick you at once? Then we shalt both be sucked!” Ocellus turned a shade of green so deep that even Shining Armor could see it. Not out of nausea—although it was a strong possibility—but from her changeling blood rushing to her face. Even the mysterious generic guard beside Shining Armor snickered slightly. It was apparent, of course, that Luna had no idea aware of the implications of her statement. “Perhaps we will be much less of a drain once we are able to suck humans.” Luna rolled her eyes. “Now thou doth soundeth too much like my sister.” “She and I both share a number of ideals.” He turned slowly to the changeling guard. “Could you leave us? Both of you? I need to discuss the proceedings with the Princess.” The guard bowed. “Of course.” An uncharacteristically toothy smile crossed his face. “Come here, Ocellus. Let’s find you a thick and juicy stallion for lunch.” Ocellus, somehow, blushed a deep shade of green and grew desperately pale at once. “Y—yes, of course, but—can we start with a petite mare, maybe?” “No.” Ocellus was promptly dragged away by the ‘guard’, and Shining Armor was left alone with Luna—or more specifically, a superficial fragment of Luna. A thin skin of Luna over the surface of a much more ancient and powerful pony, one watching perpetually through a pair of teal cat-like eyes. A pony that even Luna herself did not fully perceive. “Yes,” said Luna. “You wished to speak with us.” Shining Armor gestured to the bench. “Won’t you sit, Princess?” “We are a highly vigorous maiden-goddess, we shall stand, thank you.” Shining Armor accepted this, understanding completely that the armor Luna compulsively wore to hide her mottled appearance left her almost incapable of the act of comfortably sitting. “I will sit, if you don’t mind. I’m not as young as I used to be.” “We are well over one thousand years of age greater.” Shining Armor smiled. “Yes. But I don’t have wings, do I? And you don’t get sucked by changelings on a daily and nightly basis.” “Indeed, we do not." She paused "You are quite ill, Shining Armor.” “A small price to pay for peace. Which is why I needed to speak with you.” “Then speaketh, sickly mortal.” Shining Armor did not immediately speaketh, but paused, considering the best way to phrase this. Luna, despite her age, was far more childlike than Celestia and prone to strong reactions. Which meant he needed to be firm, but kind. Just like talking to a larva when it first developed its venom glands. Of course, Luna was no larva. So eventually Shining elected to simply be blunt. “I fear your sister does not fully understand the consequences of what she is trying to get us into.” Luna frowned. “You imply our sister hath been seduced and manipulated. Thou art indeed young, too young to have known her in her youth. That she hath verily been the one who hath performed the seducing.” “Not in that sense. Not by the human.” “Certainly not by the ugly high-elf.” She paused, her eyes widening. “Unless you mean to claim that she hath stolen our doctor from us?!” Shining turned his head, and staring into his green-clouded eyes, Luna immediately silenced. “Not by any person or pony,” he said, “but by the idea of a big, bright new world for her to share her vision. Because she is an idealist and doesn’t understand what true galactic diplomacy would mean.” “We doth not comprehend thine babblings.” “What do you think would happen if Celestia were suddenly placed in a position where she were not in absolute control? Where she no longer had the means to manipulate the fabric of society, to re-write her own history, to produce her absolute vision of Peace and Harmony? How would she react?” “She would spread it. Her ideals, we mean.” “But what if she can’t? What if we find a world of beings so much more powerful than us, so many more of them so stronger, that her words get drowned out? That she can’t force Harmony into the Federation, across all of the cosmos?” Luna paused because she did not know the answer. Or because she did. “She cannot tolerate it,” he said. “Our sister is strong.” “Exactly my point. My stepchildren have been to your moon, Luna. I know what is written on the Lunar Monolith.” “The Lunar Monolith is the mad scribbling of our teenage self, raging and cast out from this world. The false prophecies of Nightmare Moon.” “And yet you haven’t destroyed it. Because it’s the last piece of truth. Of what that War meant. Of how you wept alone for a thousand years while she ruled in your place. Because you defied her vision.” “We resolved this issue. To speak of it is treason. We should have you stripped naked and chained in the dungeon, and we ought to floggeth you personally for speaking such lies of our beloved sister--” “Then do it. But listen first. She will not withstand it. She will lose control. The humans have no idea what she is, what she can do...and what their world will do to her. If we expose her to the cosmos, our world will never know peace.” He paused. “Which is why I will be submitting a vote against the invitation.” Luna did not gasp, but raised an eyebrow. “You will?” “I have to. I have to, for the peace and to...and to...” He began to shake, and the greenness in his eyes cleared only slightly. His voice dropped to a panicked whisper. “And I have to...I have to keep them on this planet. It’s all I can do. It’s all I can do, I have to keep them from spreading...I have to keep them from...it’s all I can do. It’s all I can do...” Luna put her hoof on his shoulder. He recoiled, as if struck, but then seemed to become confused. He shook, an intrinsic tremor, but it slowed. His eyes grew more green, and he smiled again, once more going silent and still. Luna was not sure if she pitied him, or if she admired him. A mortal who had been forced to sacrifice love for peace, and his very being for Equestria. “You cannot hear me speaking,” she said, quietly. He indeed did not, although she imagined that something within him, somewhere, understood. “But I understand. I too shall vote against this bargain. Let them come. My moon shall be a shield against their strongest forces, and together we shall stand firm. Not one of them will set foot on my sister’s world. I shall protect this planet, and I shall protect my sister. Of this, you have my word.” Shining Armor’s gaze was distant, but through the pain of his wretched existence, a slight change occurred in his smile. Not the smile of constant implanted euphoria, but one of the barest relief.