//------------------------------// // Information and Maps... // Story: Storm Hawks : Equestria. // by Royal //------------------------------// It wasn't long before we reached Chrysalis' home. Of course it would have taken a lot less time if she’d been willing to carry me, but she outright refused to let me get on her back and I couldn't stand being moved telekinetically. So we walked, which was handy because it gave her time to fill me in on those Royal Guard guys. Apparently, they are the soldiers of a nation known as Equestria, which is ruled by, and I'm not joking, ponies. According to her, there is a Royal family, though only three are important. Celestia, a tyrant who oversees the country officially, the Royal Guard are hers. Her sister Luna, who is apparently quite secluded, though she is apparently quite frightening. As for Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, she didn't say much about what she does other than having a separate empire, but she seemed to despise her. "So...this is your...home?" I said, not really believing it until I saw the large looming tower before me. "Yes, it is the Black Spire. This is where I and my subjects survive in the wasteland." She said solemnly as we approached the base of the tower. I'm going to be honest, this tower reminded me of Terra Cyclonia. It consisted of one giant tower supported by arches and spikes, the latter of which appeared to be growing from it. On that basis alone I was intimidated by it, but having a large amount of these Changeling creatures wandering about it made it a LOT more creepy. Though they didn't appear to be in great shape. "What happened to them?" I asked Chrysalis as she lead me through a large gate at the base of the tower. I assumed this was the main entrance, but they all had wings. "We were attacked not long ago, none of us were killed, but many were injured." Chrysalis replied, her tone had quickly become tired and sad as soon as she spoke. "Why were you attacked?" I questioned her, as I trailed behind her, taking in the inner design of the tower. It looked like some sort of a beehive on the inside with multiple floors of hexagonal rooms with a large set of intertwining staircases in the center branching off onto each floor. This design hurt my mind... Chrysalis stopped suddenly, before rounding on me a vicious look on her face. "THEY ATTACKED US FOR EXISTING!" I took an involuntary step back. That was scary, not only for me I noted, all of the Changelings in the hall stopped moving too. Chrysalis looked around before sheepishly turning and walking toward the staircase in the center of the room. I slowly followed while remaining silent. "I'm afraid I can only offer you a place to stay at the Spires peak, the lower rooms are being used to house the wounded, and those who can no longer fly." I didn't answer as I noticed that the rooms we were passing as we ascended did in fact hold injured. Hundreds of them. This place needed help bad. I was so wrapped up in thought, I didn't keep track of where I was going until I walked, embarrassingly enough, into a wall. Chrysalis gave me a 'Are you SERIOUS?!' look, before pointing a hoof at a hole in the wall. "This is where you can stay while in my company, we shall talk later, but for now, rest." She said to me, and I felt no urge to disagree. Which is completely out of character for me, but it seemed like such a good offer. I slowly walked past her into a dark cave-like room that was very dimly lit by several small green crystals in the ceiling. "Oh, I almost forgot. Welcome to the Spire." She said before walking away. I was going to say something, but I figured it wouldn't be worth getting my host mad at me. So I instead began a more thorough inspection of my room. From what I could see, I missed nothing that I didn't see at my first glance, except some sort of a web-like contraption on the wall. Naturally I approached it. I mean if it's in the room I could use it, right? I inspected it, noting that it seemed to be seeping out of the wall at two places. I cautiously touched it, it felt like silk, really soft a smooth. I gently tugged on it, noticing that it slid out from the wall. An idea came to mind, it seemed highly unusual but... I tugged it again, and soon enough it was long enough to be stretched from one section to another. I pressed it firmly against the wall and it stuck to it, hell if I know what this stuff was, but it seemed to be acting how I wanted. I took a step back and glanced over my handy work. I had constructed a very crude hammock. I felt proud. I climbed on. It didn't allow anymore of the silky stuff to slide out, holding me in place. That was convenient. I lay back into it, thinking about what had happened today. I closed my eyes while I thought, I'd need the rest. I didn't sleep after she left. It wasn't because I wasn't tired, I was wrecked, my body ached, my mind was weary and I felt rather sick now that my adrenaline rushes had worn off. I didn't sleep because of what she had said, everything she had brought up was against everything Sky-Knights stood for, now granted I'm no Sky-Knight, but I still like to consider myself a good person. I got off of the web like hammock which was what I assumed was the bed and headed for the entrance of my room. Outside the hive seemed...dead. Nothing else could describe it, there was no movement, no sounds aside from a faint humming I heard coming in, the only light in here was filtered through a large crystal in the ceiling and a few more of those sickly green crystals, exactly like the ones in my room. I started to wander the floor I was on, it was actually huge, I'd say almost five hundred meters across, and as I looked over the edge I'd guess there were about fifty floors altogether. It's a good thing I like heights. I slowly walked to each room on the floor I was on, I noticed that there was a lack of anything other than odd red-glowing orbs of...something on this floor, they looked interesting, though I didn't risk touching them. You know what they say about curiosity... I mean, I don't, but I'm sure you do. As I walked by the chamber the orbs suddenly grew much brighter, now one part of my mind said 'Don't do it.' but the other part said 'So shiny...' so I naturally began to walk towards it. I was less than a foot away from one of the orbs when they began to pulse, it was so amaz- "Don't touch those!" I heard call out behind me, I tore my gaze away from the orbs only to see one of the smaller Changelings we passed by earlier standing at the entrance. It didn't appear to be pleased with me. I stepped away from the orbs. "What are they?" I said to it, pointing at the bright pulsating orb before me. "They are what we use for sustenance, and they are not to be played with." It replied to me- You know what, he has a male voice, it's deep it's commanding, I'm assuming this is a he. He replied to me. "Stop that!" I heard him say again, only to notice I was leaning into the orb again, it just looked so tantalizing... I took a step back and took a deep breathe. Their home, their rules. "So, why can't I touch it?" I said as I walked toward the Changeling, his face seemed completely neutral. "It is not my place to tell you why, just don't." He said to me. "That's not an answer." "Because I said so." "What are you, my mother?" I said to him as we both walked out of the cave. For a brief moment, he seemed to be consumed in a green fire, and I have to admit I leaped back as a slim figure of a mature woman appeared. It was my mother. "Yes." She said in a stern voice before shifting back into a Changeling. "Wha- I- Whe- Wut?" Was all I manage to sputter out as he began to chuckle deeply at me. "How did you do that?!?!" I nearly shouted at him, this was met with him doubling over on himself...how rude. When he finally calmed down enough to speak he regarded me. "I used a simple spell, you thought of her, I simply projected her image upon myself from your memories." He smirked at me. "We are called 'Changelings' for a reason." I laughed a little myself, it was so obvious before pulling a completely serious expression and tone. "Dude, that's creepy." I said to him, we both laughed a little at that. "So, what's your name?" I said to the changeling beside me, noting he had a slight difference to the others from before, there were small red veins traveling through his insectoid wings. "My name is Carapace, and my Queen has already informed me that you are Raider." I blinked. "What do you mean?" "The Queen decided it would be best to have someone escort you around, the Spire is not the safest place for those unaccustomed to it." I nodded slowly, think 'That seemed fair enough.'. "So...you can show me around?" I asked in a quizzical tone, feeling like a child. He smiled at me. "Yes, though some areas are off limits." I cocked an eye at him. "And why's that?" "Because we have smaller frames than you and you would die trying to get through them." That seemed reasonable. "You win this round." Carapace smiled at me. "So, what do you wish to see?" "Oh yeah, cause I know whats around so well." I said in a sarcastic tone, before returning to normal. "You decide, just keep it interesting." His smile broadened. "Very well..." I stood there with a smirk on my face, Carapace had me down to a tee, bringing me straight to their archival room. Only down side is it was at the bottom of the spire, and when I say the bottom I mean the bottom, I had to follow him down tunnels for over thirty minutes and I'd have no idea how to get back up without him. But it was totally worth it, this room was full of scrolls, apparently on spells, history books, novels, and the main prize, maps. Carapace had no issue with giving me the maps, I however had some issues believing what I was seeing. According to the maps, most of which were of Equestria and it's surrounding areas, there was no end of to the land until you hit the sea. So this place really wasn't a Terra, and I really wasn't in the Atmos anymore. Not good....not good at all "What the hell could they have hit me with...?" I mused allowed as I sat back on a bench like protrusion of rocks. "If it was a warp crystal I'd still be in the Atmos...Somewhere, but I'd still be there." I inspected the maps again. I couldn't get anything else from the maps, and I couldn't figure out what they had hit me with for me to end up in this...dimension? Reality? Heck, I had no clue, I just knew I wasn't home. I noticed those green crystals in the ceiling again, and since Carapace was here with me I might actually be able to figure out what type they were. "Hey Carapace?" "Yes, are you ready to leave?" He asked eyeing me with those big blue orbs I assumed were eyes. "No, not yet. But I was wondering, what are those?" I said gesturing to the crystals. "I don't recognise them." He turned and stared at the crystals. "I do not know, I never noticed them until now." I laughed at him. "You missed the green glowing things in the ceiling?" "They weren't glowing earlier." He stated flatly. I thought about that, nothing in this place actually appeared to be running off of crystals as a power source, but I'd still find it hard to believe they just started glowing when I showed up. I made a mental note to ask Chrysalis about it, before deciding I wasn't getting anything down here. "OK, so, what do you guys eat?" I said rising from my seat. Carapace's face took on a confused expression as he considered the question. "You could not consume what my kind uses for sustenance, so the better question is what can you eat." "Fish, meat, vegetables, fruits...basically anything you got." Carapace smiled broadly at me. "We shall see..." It didn't take long for us to make our way to a mess hall type area. I didn't really know how to describe anything in this place, it was all so...alien. Carapace started offering me different selections of foods, most of which I'm pretty sure not even a Wallop could consume. Thankfully, after going through the "Hay" section of the menu, we arrived at fruit, and thank the heavens they had something I could eat. I had never been so happy to see an apple before in my life. He sat beside me on the bench where I was munching on said apple, and I felt now would be a good a time as any to find out some things about this land. "Hey Carapace?" "You need something else?" I gave out a small chuckle before responding. "Well, if you count information, then yeah." I thought for a moment before deciding on a subject. "What can you tell me about magic, I mean is it inherent to all of you, or just Chrysalis?" "You did see me transform earlier, did you not?" He said dryly. "No, no, I mean the levitation and stuff, can you all do that?" "Yes." "What else can you do?" He chuckled. "Cast energy bolts." I smiled. "Now that, sounds awesome, I can do something similar with my sword...with the right crystal that is." I noticed he cocked his head at me. "Your sword has magic?" I laughed. "Not quite, but depending on its power source it can do a lot of different things." "Fascinating." We were both silent for a few minutes after that, and I was unsure as to what could be done next. "So, what now?" I asked him. "You can return to sleep, if you wish." I could genuinely feel my body aching by this point, it was a sound suggestion. "Yeah, I guess that would be the right idea." I got up from the table we were at and started trailing behind Carapace, unsure how to feel about my current situation. Maybe things would be clearer in the morning... Chrysalis had been thinking more and more about the creature since its arrival, and was growing ever more anxious while she awaited her child to inform her about what it had learned. She could have simply used telepathy to keep in contact with him, but that may have distracted him from the task at hoof, a strenuous connection telepathy creates. She heard the doors to her chamber open, and only one of her children was granted permission to interrupt her. "Carapace, you return." "Yes, my Queen." Carapace responded, bowing low despite Chrysalis not even facing him. "Tell me everything." Chrysalis turned slowly as she spoke, the information provided could prove invaluable. "Yes, my Queen..."