The waves crashed one after another on the hard rocks of the cliff. A lone changeling looked at them thoughtfully. He wore an elegant suit and a pair of square glasses on his muzzle. He was thin but healthy with dark red eyes, fins and tail. He lacked his left fang. His left eye itched.
His name was Schach Spiel.
He always liked the sound of waves. It reminded him of his home hive of Ditrysium. Back there he loved to just sit next to the sea and watch as wave after wave attacked the coast in what seemed like an endless battle between an unstoppable attacker and unmovable defender. At least that's what he imagined.
He could wait for hours in the cold before his mother finally decides that he had been looking at nothing for long enough.
Once or twice he quietly left their home in the night to go back on the sea side. Covered in a warm blanket and a lantern to light his way, he stayed all night watching and dreaming of the ocean. He'd only go back home at the first rays of sunlight.
He was suddenly dragged out of his thoughts as a high squeaky voice captured his attention. A young filly approached him and respectfully bowed. Schach Spiel restrained a frown.
"What is it? " He asked monotonously.
"Master, the guests have departed. Everything is ready and everyone is waiting for you in the meeting room just like you ordered." He responded between two breaths, still bowing. He had run all the way here.
Without a word, Schach Spiel left the side of the cliff. Soon he realized that the filly hadn't followed him and just stayed in her bow. For a second, he hesitated to let her here. Mostly to see how long she'd actually stay before realizing the pointlessness of her action.
"Rise. " He simply ordered with a quiet chuckle.
Quickly, they arrived at his estate. THEIR estate. A ridiculously large manor on the coast on the lake. It was surrounded by nothing but beautiful gardens that looked more like a park than anything. It was a few minutes of walk north from Mead Resort. The richest changelings of the hegemony all dreamed to have their own estate here.
South from Tall Tale, north from Las Pegasus, with a lake and mountains, probably one of the most beautiful places on the continent if not the whole planet. Getting such a property hasn't been easy. The war wasn't even over that all the houses were already taken.
"Then we'll buy a hotel!" He had exclaimed to his constable. His genius plans.
It looked like a madness from an overly rich idiot at the time. It was, and the renovation to transform a luxurious hotel into a proper manor were even more costly than they looked like.
A hotel... Like I could live in such a palace all alone. He thought before opening the two big glasses doors of the terrace.
The afternnon light enter by the large windows and reflected on the floor making all the ballroom take warmer colors.
He entered a large ballroom with large windows covering the eastern wall. Multiples creatures from different races were occupied silently cleaning the windows and floor. They were already clean, Schach Spiel noticed.
"Alright every creature, the play is over. You can go back to your normal routines!" He screamed. He always wondered if the whole manor could hear him when he screamed like that. What was stronger, the echo of the empty halls or the gargantuan size of the structure?
At his words the servant seemed to relax. Some abandoned their work while other continued. Chats started between some.
That was it. All this manor was just a facade for the truth hiding inside it. All Schach Spiel had built was just a fake. Just like his factories and businesses in Mead Bay. Well, the businesses were real and functioned just like any other of his company’s, but it was more of a way to distract unwanted eyes from his machination.
"They work all day and when they're done, they come back home and serve me here. After all, that is the minimum to thank me for giving them a house so generously. " A stupid lie but one that most of the other changelings chooses to accept as the truth. Idiots.
Since the end of the great war, he had taken the opportunity to expand his company all over the continent. It only cemented what he already noticed during his business expansion in Olenia. The occupation system put in place by the changelings was nothing but organized slavery of entire nations. He accepted it at first, firmly believing what he had been explained by Chrysalis propaganda. That it was only what changelings were meant to be, masters.
He wanted his company to be the very best so he needed everything the hegemony could give. Resources, material, land, industry and of course... workers.
Non changeling workers were much cheaper, so he quickly hired a lot of them while reserving the highest places in the company for his fellow changelings. But, as the years passed, he grew curious of those other races. At first it was in a mostly morbid way.
He wanted to understand how those inferiors worked. Why they wouldn't obey and work as effectively as changelings. He took as a hobby to sometimes just go in one of his factories and choose an employ for no particular reasons. Then he would take them into his office and kindly talk with them, showing nothing but friendliness. Then the "funniest" part would begin.
He attached them to a portable table he had specially asked to fabricate. He then proceeded to do his own studies on them. He was an intellectual but not a doctor, so he had to discover everything from scratches.
He tested everything. From reactions to various products and chemicals, to sensitivity test and anatomy all the way to love extraction and more exotic tests. He took a immense pleasure in his studies, he even dissected one of is workers that died on the production line once.
But as he conducted more and more experiences, he started to feel confused. Something was wrong and it became even clearer once he started to experience with pony and other creatures. Nothing was wrong with them. They were different from changelings but apart from that they all seemed quite normal. Nothing in their biology seemed to indicate them as truly inferior.
A light blue pegasus stallion heavily landed on a couch next to the doors, passing right in front of Schach Spiel and taking him out of his memories. He stretched all his length like a cat, waving a hoof at Schach. His eyes were bright yellow just like the rest of the room.
The changeling smiled back and proceeded to advance deeper in his home.
He descended the stairs toward the more obscure parts of the building. He noticed how the number of servants decreased from the upper levels. Most of them were naked, preferring to wear no clothes at all rather than ones of slaves. Schach understood that and didn't impose any dress code outside off the upper levels of the manor.
Here the light was only provided by artificial lighting. The sun was too far above the concrete to reach them.
Walls, floor and ceiling of wood and fine rocks left their place to conrete and hard stone. Some light bulbs had broken, leaving spaces of obscurity in the maze of corridors.
He had divided it into three distinct parts. What he called the public decorum, the personnel's quarters, and the secret conduits.
The first encompassed all the rooms in which guests were authorized to move freely without Schach needing to be there. The second was reserved for servants and normally a guest couldn't go in without Schach surveillance. The last one was not supposed to be seen by any unauthorized personnel. If any creature were to enter it without permission well... it would be their last initiative.
Often, he would be the one executing trespassers. After all, it wasn't like he had never killed anyone himself... when his company had grown into a continental sized corporation, and he could allocate more and more time to those creatures that he wanted to study so avidly.
Worst, he even started to grow quite fascinated by all those lifeforms. When talking to them he tried to ask more personal questions to each of them. He wanted to know his subjects, not their race, capacities, or anything the propaganda already taught him but them personally.
Sometimes he totally forgot to run any test on them, only listening to their life stories for hours. Their biology looked more and more fascinating with each subject. Everything about them was fascinating in his eyes.
Willing subjects were the best. He could do so much more with them, especially if they were intellectuals with whom he could have long talks.
One time, as he was writing in his journal, it hit him like a train. He realized after all these tests, after all these talks, that nothing was wrong with the non-changelings. The real problem was the changelings. They were the ones enslaving all those creatures, they were the ones slowly destroying a continent, they were the ones who couldn't understand the beauty of all those creatures.
We are the ones destroying all those beauties.
He passed next to a group of three earth ponies carrying crates of food from the reserves to the underground kitchens. Like everyone in the manor, they looked healthier than the average equestrian servant.
Guest often asked him why his servants were so healthy. He always answered with a joke or a fake explanation. They usually accepted it. The worst were the inspection in his factories.
He tried his best to make the life of his workers less miserable no matter their race. Money was more than enough to buy any possible dissenter from denouncing his practices to authorities and even if they did, he could buy the inspectors or use his status as a shield against suspicions.
He had surrounded himself with only changelings that shared at least a bit of his ideas so he wasn't scared of his colleagues, but he still lived in fear of the VOPS or queens guards one day knocking on his door or assassinating him.
A grey earth pony carrying a box of apples and peers almost lost his balance.
Schach jumped to help him, preventing the fall. He noticed the pony twisted left hind leg. His whole leg must have been broken and never healed well. It was clear that this pony would never walk well again.
The camps...
"Thanks. " The earth pony said.
" You're welcome. " Schach responded. " Are you sure you can carry these boxes? Because your leg seems to think otherwise."
" Nah, it's fine. I worked for month with this leg in much harsher conditions. I can carry a few fruits."
" Still be careful though. I wouldn't like to find you with a definitely broken leg in the middle of a fruit compote."
The pony chuckle and continued his way with the two others. Schach continued in the opposite direction.
The look in this pony eyes had something to it. He had lost the gloomy face that ponies saved from working camps all wore. This look of sadness, of a creature having lost faith in life. His eyes had something in them, a glimmer.
A glimmer of determination. One that could light his path, that made him continue his life even after everything he had suffered.
As lost himself in thoughts again as he continued his walk.
He finally stood before a metal door; an armed changeling was guarding it. Waiting to open it.
After everything he had done, all the horrors he had committed on these poor innocents, Schach had realized the truth. The problem was the hegemony itself. It needed to be changed into a better system.
The way the queen had always promoted was wrong, it would lead them all to doom. Every single ones of these beautiful creatures mattered just as much as any changeling.
He was going to change his company for them, change this manor into a sanctuary in which they could live a better life hidden from the cruel rule of the queen. They'd pretend to be slaves in front of guest, but they would be free inside these walls until he could gain enough power to act on all the hegemony.
Things needed to change. And he was going to change them. One day they'll all life together in harmony.
The glimmer in this pony eye was not determination, it was something far stronger, something he had given him. Hope.
His horn glowed, with a flick of magic he took off his glasses and glass eye and put on his black eye patch on his left eye. He calmly entered the room.