//------------------------------// // Chapter Eight: Information // Story: Alicorn Kings and Better Things // by RandomCommentor //------------------------------// Focus: Rose/Petonia Laying on a cloud, up high above the town, away from anything that could bother her, she always enjoyed the peace and quiet that having cloud magic always gave her. Hard to believe my first ever disguise was a unicorn. After I flew for the first time ever, I got scared. But now… Now I feel comforted by the freedom this gives me. Freedom to think. To just relax, and not worry about anything at all. As she finishes her thought, she hears someone flying towards her location. “Huh?” She says aloud, getting up to see who’s approaching. Ventian, somehow having found her location, flaps towards her cloud. “Hi Rose! Hold on, lemme do something…” he says, channeling magic for a moment before a cloud suddenly condenses below him, and he promptly lands on the fluffy structure. Staring at Ventian with a confused look, Rose asks “So… whats up?” He looks at Rose, smiles, and replies “The sky.” To which Rose frowns. “Very creative.” After a moment, Ventian speaks up again. “Anyways, now that we’re alone and nobody can see or hear us, I would like to ask questions about you and changelings.” He says with a confident smile. If earlier is any indication, he may be testing me. To see if he can trust me, or maybe he really IS oblivious? I seriously cant tell. His emotions are so positive that its almost blinding. “So…” Rose reluctantly starts. “Whats your first question?” Ventian’s smile becomes more noticeable. “First off, how does changeling government work? Im assuming most of what I’ve read is false, so please explain everything you can.” “Well that one is easy, there are actually three subspecies of changeling; Royal, Drone and Brood. Royals command the hive they rule over, are larger, tougher, and can survive longer without food than the other two kinds can. Drones are… well, what I am. We are the workers, and gather food and resources. In my hive, we drones help each other as much as we can.” “What about the third kind?” Ventian asks. Rose just looks away. “Its kinda weird to be explaining this to… well, you know. I feel like I should be more reluctant to share, but here I am explaining how my hive works to whats supposed to be my kinds greatest enemy…” Head tilting, Ventian becomes confused. “What do you mean, ‘greatest enemy?’ Im your friend, not an enemy.” “Not you, specifically. Your family. Deoniyas.” Rose states, looking back at the prince. “You know your father has killed my kind before. What do you think he would do to me if he discovered me?” She asks rhetorically. Ventian doesn't answer. “Alright… sorry. Please tell me more about your kind, Lets move on from… that.” He says, not wanting to think about that. “Well, to answer your question, Broods are the ones that take care of the hive’s food storage, Nursery, and medical supply. They raise our larvae and nymphs to adulthood, make sure the hive’s food is properly spread out, and they naturally produce a sort of slime from their hooves that has healing properties.” “Gross.” Ventian says to the last part. “Heh. Yeah, it kinda is. But, the slime can repair most injuries that occur in the hive. Because our natural forms are exoskeletal, the healing slime can be applied directly to a crack or hole in our carapace and it almost instantly fixes it, depending on severity.” “How effective is it on other tissue? Like, can it heal muscle or tendon?” Ventian asks, now thinking about possible applications for this healing product. Rose shakes her head. “It doesn't work well on non-changelings, if thats what you wanted to know. It only heals superficial wounds, but anything below the surface requires surgery, which Brood changelings are also required to know.” “Okay. Got it.” Ventian, having brought a notebook, begins to write everything he has learnt. “Uhm. I probably shouldn't let you keep that.” Rose says, pointing to the book. Ventian looks back at her. “Its not like anyone else reads my notes. Not even my dad does.” Meanwhile… Focus Swap: Aerlan As the king searches through his sons’ notes for anything else that might be useful, he realizes that Ventian is much more observant about things he never even thought of. So this is how he made that bag of holding so quickly… and that knife thats perfectly level is just ridiculous. Not to mention this schematic for a horn ring that only responds to one persons magus, how would anyone even use that?! Most of this I barely understand and its infuriating! Not wanting to get too mad, he leaves the papers where they are and leaves his sons room. Focus Swap: Ventian Shaking his head, Ventian continues. “Anyway, another question I have, do changelings have a hivemind?” Rose squints, her nose scrunching a bit. “Well… its complicated. There are some cases where the queen can lay eggs that produce whats called “Blanks” which are basically mindless drones that cant reproduce, and the queen has personal magical control over them and can give them information via what you would call a hivemind. Its rare for kings to utilize this, as they have to… um… Impregnate female changelings that are basically almost dying of starvation to produce them.” She finishes nervously. Ventian isn't bothered by any of this, however, and continues to write. Looking back up, he asks, “My next question, who were you talking to in that alley? Was that your queen?” Rose just nods and says “Yes, that was my queen. I was just updating her on recent things, I assume you heard some of it?” “Not really.” Ventian says while shaking his head. “I mean, I heard the last part about a sister or whatever, but after hearing your voice I kinda forgot about that. Then I saw you transform.” “And thats when you came around the corner to confront me. Alright then. Is that… all your questions?” She asks. “Well, I’ll think of some later probably. Right now I just wanna stay up here with you. You look lonely up here…” He trails off, looking at her with concern. “Oh. Thank you.” Rose responds, not knowing how to feel. And I thought I was the Empath. How’d he even find me up here? Voicing her thoughts, Rose asks, “How did you find me up here anyway?” Ventian just deadpans. “I looked up and saw that this was only one small cloud in the sky. We’re close enough to the capitol that this areas weather is controlled by pegasi patrols, so I knew an errant cloud was unlikely.” He explains in near-monotone, clearly unimpressed. He isnt done, however, “Are you sure you're a changeling? Because thats twice now that I’ve found you, once by accident even.” He observes, now smiling at the embarrassed pony in front of him. “Well, I'm just out of practice is all. I haven't needed to hide like this since Everf-“ Rose cuts off, looking away and gritting her teeth. “Who? Since what? Okay, now I'm suspicious.” Ventian says, fully wanting to interrogate her. But, other thoughts come, and he decides its not the best option. “On second thought, nevermind. I wont push it if you don't want to say, but I still kinda wanna know.” He says. Rose just sighs. “Thanks. I really don't want to talk about that. Lets just say, that I had a friend a while ago, and if you and him met, then… I don't know what would happen.” Ventian, now concerned, says “Okay, and how would I prevent me meeting this person?” “I havent seen him or… the person thats with him in years, so I dont know where they are. They could be on the other end of the planet, or they could be near this very town… I hope not.” “Why not? They're your friends, right?” Ventian asks, confused now. “Its not a problem with me or Vedaria or anyone else, he-“ Rose, not wanting to say anything else, goes silent. “Alright then, moving on. Is Rose your real name, or is it something else?” He asks, changing the subject. Rose latches onto this immediately. “Yea, my name is actually Petonia. Although everyone just calls me Rose, even other ‘lings. Except for professional or emergency situations.” “Petonia? Sounds similar to petunia.” Ventian observes. “Huh. It does. I… honestly never connected that before. I even worked in a flower shop once, how did I not notice that?” Rose says, looking very confused. “Yeah, names are weird. You did good choosing a modern name and not the traditional Old Therrish names like mine and my family’s. Did you know that my name literally means ‘Free Will’ in that language?” “Really? Hmm… ‘venti’ which means freedom and ‘yedia’, shortened to ‘yean’ meaning willfulness, huh.” “Wait you know Old Therrish? Thats cool.” “Only passing knowledge, I've read some old books before.” “Books are awesome though, right? You can learn so much and share so much too! I might decide to write a book myself, even.” “About what?” “I dunno, but it sounds fun.” Ventian shrugs. “Maybe you could write about your life?” “Nah. Not much important goes on in that thing. Anyway, what stories do you have? Im sure you got a few good ones, they don't even have to be true!” Ventian, now on the subject of stories, asks gleefully, eyes almost sparkling. Rose thinks for a minute. “Alright, Ive got something, a fictional story I read once…” A very long time ago, there was a spirit of pure good and a spirit of pure evil. These two frequently battled over dominion of the world. If these spirits ever stopped fighting, the world would be doomed. One day, a gryphon found these two massive titans battling, and without knowledge of the consequences, he interfered. The black beast of evil was freed from the clutches of the good spirit, and swiftly left the area to create chaos and destruction. The griffon, having been explained to by the spirit of good of what he had just done, felt ashamed. The good spirit, however, wasn't having it, and decided to fuse with the griffon in order to contain the dark spirit once and for all. “Huh. That was a short story, but I understood the purpose. Basically stating that there are consequences to actions you take, even if you don't know what the consequences are.” Ventian observes. Rose, surprised at how quickly he got it, just nods. “Yeah, that was the idea behind that story. Its all fake though, spirits aren't good or evil. But you knew that too I think.” “Yeah, maybe. There could be a pure good or pure evil spirit.” “No, actually. The most evil spirit I can think of is one that likes to trick people.” “Alright, if you say so.” Focus Swap: Cyvern/Everfree “Interesting…” Everfree says, while looking at the Blank changeling that seemed to have started to follow him several hours ago, now dead on the ground in front of Almori. “Who would do this? I thought we established to the other hives not to spy on us anymore?” Almori questions to no-one in particular. “No idea. If we made an unknown enemy, we need to go to a safe place to restock and evaluate. I think our old group is in Adifoll, or around it at least. I’ll look forward to seeing Vedaria again.” Everfree says, fondly remembering the alicorn from several years ago. “Right. Lets go then, we passed their camp the other day, anyway.” The fox says. “What?! That was them? But there were three tents! And I felt five people, did someone else join their group while we were gone?” Feeling kind of left out, Everfree complains. “It has been six years since then, its very likely.” Almori states. “And you really shouldn't use your life detection power to see the inhabitants of things like that. You may see something you don't want to.” “Already happened once. And, honestly, at this point I'm not grossed out by anything anymore.” Everfree says confidently. Before jumping at the sight of a particularly big spider. And totally not squealing like a foal. As the kitsune laughs her tails off, Everfree gets back on track and they both continue to move towards the town they helped create, Adifoll.