//------------------------------// // Adult // Story: Raven’s Last Flight // by Chemtest //------------------------------// “Here, the Five Changelings decreed, in these lands devoid of ponies shall be our home. Our closest allies, our new dear friends, our very way of life, among them we can not live, or we shall become one and the same with them. The Badlands shall be bad no more, they shall be tended to by life immortal. The Red Hive, protectors and warriors, artists and revolutionaries, shall give us the security and the energy to keep moving forward as the ages progress. King Messorem, close friend of King Ordirus, decrees we shall extend this protection to all life in the form of mercenary companies. The Blue Hive, doctors and healers, scientists and scholars, to ensure the Hives never fall victim to a lack of logic and our understanding shall always go onwards. Queen Sana decrees that all will be healed, no matter creed, action, or species, let Blue be the color of healing.” Raven stands, dressed in dark dress robes, inside of the Green Hive, staring in front of him at a green beam of magical light. Behind him stand Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, all of them wearing dark dresses that don’t fit properly, with Sweetie reading a chitin bound book. “The Brown Hive, chefs and keepers, hospitable and hearty, shall ensure that the hospitality of the changeling species is the thing of legends. King Archimagius decrees that every creature in their lands shall be treated to food, wine, and a warm bed, that the Browns may be known worldwide as a place of safety and of refuge. The Green Hive, lovers and lusters, spies and assassins, they shall serve as the invisible hoof of the Hives, ensuring not a single act happens in another land that is not known about. King Morpheus declares that none in outside nations shall know a Green is amongst them, that the Greens shall not be known about by the world at all. Finally, the Yellow Hive, keepers and preservers, animalistic and wise, shall ensure that the Hives never forget the nature which they all come from, and shall protect the natural from the ever advancing artificial. Queen Spring decrees that the Yellows shall ensure all have peace and harmony with nature, that the Yellows will eventually become synonymous with nature itself. Thus, all planted down their flags, and from it sprouted a massive citadel, the Council.” Queen Chrysalis trots up, floating the book from Sweetie Belle, looking down at Raven with a stern look, “You have done well raising undead, Raven. Are you sure that you should also convince the other Kings and Queens? After that bad dream you reported a week ago, I’m worried that you might become too anxious. I am a Queen, I know how to do this. Do you?” He looks over at her, looking right back into her eyes, giving her a curt nod, “I can understand your misgivings, Queen Chrysalis. I shall do well enough. This is not the first time I have parleyed with another, and it shall not be the last, I imagine. The contents of my dreams have little to do with anxiety, and nothing to do with my ability to convince the others.” She cocks an eyebrow, “You could have just said ‘yes’, Raven.” She leans down, looking into his eyes, “I trust you. As you’ve entrusted me with your undead army, I entrust you to get me a living army. You won’t fail me.” He looks right back into her eyes the whole while, and gives her a nod, “I won’t.” She then stands back up, looking at the three fillies, “If I hear about any of you three prisoners trying to sabotage him, then I will personally see you killed in front of your own sisters.” Raven looks back at her, speaking impassively, “Chrysalis, they are my personal assistants and are thus an extension of me. I trust you to treat them with the same respect as you would me.” She snaps her eyes to him, and then back at the fillies, “If you sabotage him, then I will personally have you executed in a field of tulips.” “Chrysalis.” She looks at Raven once more, “The only reason I don’t threaten you with death is because I cannot kill you. Fine.” She looks back at the fillies, nodding her head, “Represent me well. The Hiveway is open.” She then turns and trots away. Sweetie watches her leave, smiling softly, “Wow, I think she could do with being more humerus.” She turns to face Raven, expecting a small smile, only to pause as his face remains impassive, “Or… someone needs to tickle her funny bone?” Raven would stare blankly ahead into the glowing green beam of energy, replaying memories of being ripped apart at his very essence, only to blink, noticing Sweetie Belle’s stare. He looks over at her, “Why are you staring at me?” She slowly shrugs, “I told a bone joke and you usually like those, but you just seemed… distant?” He shakes his head, “I’m only a foot away from you, I am not distant. And my mind is not distracted, it is clear, focused on the task ahead.” Apple Bloom smiles slightly, “Thinking about the task ahead, huh? Wait…” She steps closer with a small grin, “This is stage fright, ain’t it? Like how we feel when we gotta give class presentations. You ain’t actually ‘parleyed’ with others, have ya?” He frowns softly, staring into nothing as his mind flashes through distant memories, fleshy tendrils offering him power, flashes of those same tendrils tearing him and the world apart. He shakes his head, clearing his mind, “I have done it once before. I have the sinking feeling that I came out on the worse side of that deal, in hindsight. This… I don’t know if it’s how you feel, but I doubt it.” His mind thinks over the words of the mare in the dream, finding his destiny, finding value, being a warped piece of a puzzle, “I am merely thinking… what is it I should do?” Scootaloo steps up, putting a hoof on his shoulder, grinning slightly, “You know what, Raven? That’s what everyone asks themselves, you know, what should you do? What’s the thing, what’s the proper words to say to convince people to what you want, should you even want what you want, what’s best for them, what’s best for you, what’s best for everyone? You just need to close your eyes and take a deep breath, Raven, in and out.” He looks at her, and then nods, slowly closing his eyes, taking a deep breath in, images of an ashamed alicorn laid out in front of him, the world being torn apart around them, then a deep breath out, opening his eyes, the green beam of the Hiveway in front of him, Scootaloo, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle surrounding him, ponies who have made him smile, “I don’t understand you three. When you discovered I was helping Chrysalis, you were against it, you denounced me. But for the weeks since then, you have been helping me. Why?” Apple Bloom trots up to his side, smiling softly, “Sometimes when a friend’s making a mistake, Raven, the best you can do is help soften the fall.” Sweetie Belle smiles and nods, “You’re our friend, and a Crusader. Maybe we don’t like you helping Chrysalis, but a friend in need is a friend in deed… I think that’s what it is.” Scootaloo grins, “Besides, you did save us from being locked in a prison cell eating mushroom soup.” He looks at all of them, and then looks ahead, “You are all wise.” He then takes a deep breath and steps into the green beam, coming out on the other side in a completely different place, a waiting room within a giant tower of chitin. All together, the Crusaders come out behind him, looking around the new place. A new changeling, one with bright blue eyes, comes up to Raven, bowing his head, “Master Raven of the Green Hive, it is a pleasure. The Council awaits you, please, follow me.” He then stands up and trots, with Raven following down a long hallway, until the Blue opens up a new door. Raven steps out, Crusaders behind him, looking at circular room in front of him, a pit of sand where he now stands surrounded by a high ring of five thrones, three of which, Brown, Green and Yellow, are vacant. Sat in the Red Hive is a changeling mare with bright red eyes, a long, jagged scar down one of her sides, looking a bit lion-like in appearance, graceful, prideful, and wise. Within the Blue throne sits both the Brown and Blue king, the Blue king being an elegant and graceful deer-like stallion with bright blue eyes, his whole form slender and slim. Right next to him sits the Brown King, dark brown eyes looking at Raven, his appearance being stout in appearance, looking hearty and a bit shy, yak-like. Raven gives a bow to each of them, “Queen Adobla of the Red Hive, King Nullam of the Blue Hive, King Laevus of the Brown Hive, it is a pleasure to stand before you.” His eyes scan them all, all of them being over two thousand years old, even older then him, all of them having lost someone, “You have been told that I am here for Queen Chrysalis, to convince you all to join her under one banner, so you may attack Celestia and Equestria in one grand assault.” He pauses, trailing off, then quietly speaking, “But instead, I come for perspective. How do you still live as you do?” He looks at the twin kings, “King Nullam, King Laevus, I can practically smell the love radiating off of you. How? Have you not lost too many, lived too long?” Nullam blinks slightly, and then nods, speaking in a voice as elegant as his appearance, “I have lost quite a few. My mother, Queen Sana, died in a blizzard protecting me from the cold. My first love, Princess Celestia, has changed enough to be unrecognizable. I am a doctor, I have lost many patients while in the midst of saving them, and every single loss cut out a little part of my heart. But around Laevus, mortality starts to mean less and less, because every moment with him is worth an eternity without.” Laevus smiles and nuzzles the fellow king, nodding, speaking in a deep yet soft voice, “I lost my father, King Archimagius, to the same blizzard. Many of my friends have been ponies, who have passed over the years. Yet I still have friends, and I still have someone to love. I have them because they make me happy, even if it won’t be for long in the grand scheme of things. A moment spent happy is a valuable moment.” Adobla speaks next from on top of her throne, “Hastam, my husband, died in a duel, and my own son, Artemio, turned into a traitor and a murderer, a shiftless vagabond searching for the meaning to his life. He hurts me whenever I go near, yet still I love. Love isn’t something you can forget, it isn’t something you can tear out, and it’s not something you can suppress for long. It doesn’t matter how long, how hard, how far you run from your want for love and companionship, it’s always there. I can tell it’s inside you as well. You are young of body, and old of mind, but that doesn’t mean you should become numb to the world around you.” He looks down, a pensive frown on his face, images flashing in his mind. A blue alicorn, a happy Griffon, an ashamed Celestia, a battered Chrysalis. More flashes, fire, soldiers, dark forests, a wise scholar, the Crusaders, and he begins to speak, “A thousand years is too long to hold onto a grudge, people change. I’ve changed, forgotten my destiny. I’ve been blind.” He then blinks, and looks around at everything, then back at the Crusaders, “My… friends. Even when I wished to betray your nation, to slay your very home, you were there. I understand now.” Slowly, his hooves begin to glow green, with the tower opening up at the top, a massive hand of chitin gathering under the Crusaders and him, lifting him up into the air. Bleached white bones fly from all the surrounding desert, supporting the pile, with Raven rising higher and higher, his friends stood huddled around him. He looks down upon the gathered monarchs, speaking with a small grin, confidence behind his voice, “Kings and Queen, when Chrysalis asks, tell her that my best was too good for a mare trapped a thousand years in the past.” The skeleton hand then rises higher, carrying them out of the chitin tower, beginning to travel the desert landscape to the north, the sun to the west outlining them all, the first time they’ve seen light in weeks, the first time Raven’s truly seen it in centuries.