Chapter One: Broken Orbit
With Fallenstar Nighthoof and Ace Deus Fenrir
The Dragon Eyes spell shop was closing for the day as the Unicorn who ran the small shop stood atop the hill, looking out over the grassy fields that surrounded his business. In a couple of places a little ways away from the foot of the hill, a few ponies were building their new homes as they settled in.
’Hoofsdale… Never in my life had I thought I would bring another settlement from the ground up…’ he thought to himself with a smile and a shake of his head. ’I suppose I am doomed to inspire those around me regardless of my intentions...’
The Unicorn had a solid black horn that ended in a point, breaching the two-toned red mane that threatened to fall into his eyes, framed by a pair of black glasses that matched the size of his eyes. While his horn was black, his coat was more a deep grey color that neared, but did not touch upon black. Beyond the lenses of his glasses were featured bright, sapphire eyes.
Behind his back the sun was setting as he admired the moon raising before his eyes. Once the moon had fully breached the horizon, however, he decided that sitting around on his plot was not the best way to spend the light of the full moon, descending the hill to make a pass around the town before returning to his home and retiring for the evening.
As he neared the first house, an earth pony watched as he approached with a smile and a wave as he returned the gesture. “Fair evening, Mr. Fenrir!” the stallion called when Ace has come close enough. “I would like you to meet my wife; she just came into town this morning.”
The Unicorn smiled as the Pegasus mare came around a corner within the unfinished home, her belly distended as she carried their foal. Before he continued, he held a hoof to his chest as he dipped into a formal introductory bow.
“A pleasure to meet you; my name is Ace Deus Fenrir,” he said with an unusual accent, pronouncing the name as ‘Ah-chay.’ “As I am sure your kind husband has mentioned, I own the shop on the hill. I look forward to supporting you and your growing family as best as I am able.”
The mare attempted to mimic the bow as best she could in her introduction, “To you as well. My name’s Tempered Steel, and I am Twisted Vine’s wife,” she finished before rising back up, her head askew as she examined the Unicorn more closely. “That’s quite the beautiful cutie mark you have. You say your talent is in magic?”
Ace turned his head for a moment, examining the emblem on his flank more out of reflex than actually needing to see it to know what she spoke of. Ace’s emblem, or ‘cutie mark,’ was that of a solid grey hoof that matched his own grasping a solid white hoof, as though the opposite pony had fallen, silhouetted by the full moon.
Ace turned back to the mare with a kind smile as he spoke, “Actually, my special talent lies more in helping other ponies than in magic itself.” The mare’s smile spread slightly as she nodded, though Twisted Vine laughed at the comment.
“Comes as no surprise, really,” Twisted said when his short bout of laughter had ended. “It’s thanks to Mr. Fenrir here that all of the ponies came here. First a few ponies came to seek out a spell to help somepony in their hometown or in their family, but a few of us decided to just build their homes here. A few have even nominated that he be made mayor; I myself fully endorse it, frankly!”
Ace only shook his head and rose a hoof to halt such an idea. “Please, I only came here to build a quiet little shop for those who seek magic,” he said before lowering his hoof. “I do not wish to be a leader or to raise a settlement. Nevertheless, you are all welcome here, of course - ‘tis far beyond my jurisdiction to tell anypony where they can or cannot build their homes, so long as the land is willing to give. Now, if you would please excuse me, I wish to go and see my friend before I retire for the evening.”
Ace turned and made his way towards the hill opposite his own as Tempered and Twisted waved him off, calling their goodbyes. Ace made his way through the town, waving a greeting to a number of other families along the way, grateful that everypony was doing well.
As he neared the hill, he took a moment to appraise the building that rested atop it; one of the few buildings that had already been fully built, though this was mostly due in fact that it was a small, very utilitarian home that served more as a business to the single inhabitant. The building was small, and haphazardly painted, leaving the paint thicker or thinner in patches. The outside was bare of decoration, except for the sign that hung above the horizontally separated door featuring a Pegasus pulling a hot-air balloon.
Wearing a goofy smile larger than his normal countenance, Ace started up the hill, calling out as he made it nearly half-way. “Striker? Are you home, my friend?” he called, now mounting the crest of the hill. Beyond the hill, he took note of the two hot-air balloon stations; one had a deflated balloon and basket, while the other was bare. With a sigh, Ace turned to start back towards the town until he felt something through his magical senses.
Ace was a Unicorn who spent many years honing his magic as well as learning many ways to make use of it, and the most favored of these techniques was his magical senses: Ace cast his magic around him almost without thinking about it, using the energy and his connection to it to feel everything around him with far more accuracy than all his physical senses combined.
It was these very senses that were now detecting an anomaly somewhere out in the fields… Whatever it was, it was not… It was there, and yet Ace could not feel it - his magic flowed around something, and yet it was not able to detect it. Whatever the disturbance was, it brought a headache to the forefront of his mind as he attempted to focus his senses on it, but could not.
’Anti-Magic Stone?’ Ace thought to himself as he strained his eyes and magic in an attempt to view the unusual entity. ’No, ‘tis much too far inland for it to develop… Whatever this strange pony-shaped mass is, ‘tis alive, and requires further investigation…’
’Now that I’m out of the Hive, what should I do?’ Fallen thought to himself as he looked at the night sky ’By the shadows!’ he swore, having started to use the darkness in his curses. What are these lights in the… sky wasn’t it? He said as he trotted along, now free and marching through some light underbrush.
Not only does this place have strange lights in the ceiling, but it also has these weird things organic things… They’re hard, but feeble at the same time… As he was lost in thought and was contemplating such mysteries, he happened to find out what a stray root could do. Namely, they could make you trip, and proceed to have you fall down the fairly deep ditch right next to said stray root.
As this chain of events occurred and he was rolling towards the bottom, his thought process devolved into something like this: ’Ow, owwww, pain - a cactus? Really?! Just my luck…’ and similar terms of pain and confusion.
As he finally came to a rest at the bottom in a, semi-literal, puddle of pain and bruises, he was glad he had the tougher hide he possessed instead of other changelings carapaces. At least I don’t have to deal with cracks in it, just cuts, scrapes, bruises, contusions, and other ways to beat just about anything up.
As he got up and shook off the pain of the tumble, he heard a very familiar sound. The droning buzz that changelings made whenever they flew, which meant that either relationships with forces outside the hive were good enough that changelings didn’t have to disguise themselves, or they were looking to find someling - and fast. ’I make it out and as soon as they notice I’m gone they go looking to drag me back. As if they will get the chance; time to run!’
He very quickly learned how to run in a forest in what was practically the dead of night. He kept running as the droning sound got louder. ’I really hope that my luck kicks in again,’ he thought as he dodged one of those weird hard-feeble columns ’Why do I have a feeling this is going to get a lot worse before it gets any better?’
Ace proceeded at a slow pace as he nosed his way through the forest, having run the whole way as he had not wished to use his magic for fear of alerting whoever - or whatever - was the source of the strange, disorienting anomaly.
’Whatever this strange creature is, ‘tis drawing closer,’ he thought to himself as he looked around the forest with both his magic as well as his eyesight, his glasses hanging around his neck by a makeshift rope woven from a pair of vines.
Ace was being cautious, the strange creature no longer alone as it ran towards him. In fact, the other entities that followed the anomaly were changelings.
’Has Queen Nyteshade found a way to mask herself from my magic? Surely she would not be so bold as to hurt the ponies in Hoofsdale… What would a Changeling Queen gain from such an endeavor?’
Whatever was happening, the anomaly was making a straight line towards Ace, and not by mistake, he was certain. Through his magical senses, he found a wayward pine - a pine tree with roots above ground, causing a small enclosure just large enough for somepony to take shelter in on a cold night after a long day’s travel.
Ace worked himself into the roots, pulling some of the low hanging boughs of the tree over the opening to better conceal himself, but making sure to keep a slat large enough for him to watch as the strange creature passed by.
Shortly after, it truly did pass by - at first glance, the entity appeared to be a mere changeling, but there were a number of minute differences. First, the being’s body was slightly larger than the average changeling, and the horn was more pronounced - both straight as well as coming to a sharp point on the end, like his own. Secondly, even in the dim light of the forest, the pseudo-changeling lacked the normal sheen that was characteristic for other changelings. Thirdly, the wings were an unusual color, and the filaments of its tail and mane appeared to be small antennae.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, this changeling was scared - looking back over its shoulder as it ran from the others, nearly out of breath from the seemingly lengthy chase. Ace was uncertain what had occurred, but it was clear this creature was no friend of Nyteshade’s Hive, and the enemy of one’s enemy was often a potential ally…
Replacing his glasses with his hooves as the vines that held it fell to the ground, Ace’s horn lit in the black glow of his magic as the pseudo-changeling ran past. What followed happened in the span of a few seconds, though through the overflow of information from his magical senses, Ace had near minutes to react.
First, he pulled back the boughs he use to conceal himself before letting it loose, landing one of the flying changelings square across the muzzle, causing it to careen into another tree down the way. Next, Ace leapt from his hiding place, using his senses to guide a hoof into the side of another’s face, bringing it to drive a divot into the grind with its body.
Ace’s horn glowed brighter as he shot a shard of ice into a third and fourth, bringing them aground as well, though they were not struck as hard as the first two, landing some ways behind him as he confronted the rest of the winged squad of scouts.
Ace leapt off the ground, grasping a branch as he ascended, causing one of the charging foes to meet the ground rather than flesh. Before he dismounted, he planted a hind hoof into the chest of another enemy, sending it soaring over his head before landing atop the previous enemy - causing him to lose his balance and fall while the others barreled towards him.
’I had to have the luck to get chased by the scouts, the fastest, most annoying, most aggravating ‘lings of the whole hive,’ Fallen thought to himself. ’My luck just keeps getting better and better...’
He started to get tired and had just passed a particularly funny looking hard-feeble cylinder-thing when he heard one of the scouts make a noise, as if it were hit by one of the praetorians. He turned around, his hooves skidding to a stop on the soft ground, and saw… something fighting the swarm of scouts. Not only that but it was winning.
He looked at it, and while it did resemble a changeling at first glance, it appeared to be made out of some kind of moldy leather kind of like his own, though it looked to be much less durable than his own hide. Despite the creature’s apparent frailty, he was still standing his own against the scouts, and was appearing to be winning.
’I am fairly sure that it is using magic, but I can’t see right now. It does appear to need some help against them though, and what ‘ling wouldn’t oblige a favor like this?’
He immediately turned his arm into, for lack of a better term, something resembling an old-fashioned dagger with many jagged edges on one side while the other had a smooth, clean, edge. Before it had fully formed, he had already jumped onto and gored one of the scouts with his horn, stabbing another one that was too close with the mostly finished blade hard enough to thrust the blade through to the other side, which he promptly wretched out with enough force to nearly split it in twain.
“Hahaha, I haven’t ever had this much fun!” he giggled as he flipped over the two dead changeling scouts and leapt into the midst of the swarm. By this time, both of his forelegs were transformed and his body had been altered enough to fight on his hind legs.
Fallen landed with a flourish of his blades, splattering the entrails of another pursuer onto the surroundings before lunging at the next nearest target. As his blade sundered the poor ‘ling’s body into a bloody pulp, he sensed another one behind him and proceeded to turn his tail into a long, bladed whip which promptly beheaded the ‘ling.
’This is fun, but I want some more. Maybe…’ With only a thought and a notion, Fallen permitted his body to dissolve, becoming a fluid that he manipulated as easily as one would control their own body. In the same way as he liquefied his body, he shifted sections of his new form into weapons - blades, sharp tendrils and various whips - that easily redefined pain to all those they struck; which fortunately included only the 'lings who had been so foolish as to chase an evolved specimen. He began to giggle madly as he released all the pent-up frustration, pain, suffering, and hatred he had held in himself for his entire life.
Ace fended off his foes with hoof and horn, might and magic, while still observing the peculiar ‘ally’ he had accrued through his actions. That is, he believed the being was an ally, as it made no open aggression against him, and truly did seem fully capable of aggression as it tore through the few changelings who had made it past him like a Pegasus through clouds on a sunny day.
Turning his attention back to his own battle - quite forcefully as a changeling tackled into his middle - he planted a glowing hoof through the foe’s skull, its empty skull providing little resistance before he threw its corpse onto another foe to free up his attention.
Ace spared only a moment to look over his shoulder to confirm the well-being of his comrade, unable to detect him in his magical senses, as he was accustomed to, before he spun his weight into a hind hoof to buck another changeling into a nearby tree, causing the body to fall to the forest floor in a slump.
Ace’s horn lit in his magical glow once more, this time far more brightly as the black light escalated in scale, growing brighter and brighter still. ’Fangs and talons, a misfire? Now? Oh no, I have to warn him!’
Ace spun on his hooves as he dodged to the side of a swooping attacker before raising a hoof to his mouth, calling out to the unusual creature that had somehow turned into an unusual puddle. “Take cover, it is not safe here!” he managed before his body started pulsing in pain, his horn becoming a blinding beacon in the moonlit woods.
’I could have sworn that I heard that thing yell run, as if that’s going to happen! I’m having way too much fun!’ Fallen thought as he continued to butcher the scouts, when he realized he was hearing something that sounded a lot like what happened when two ‘lings rubbed their wings together and shocked one another, except a thousand-fold louder.
’This is either going to hurt or do nothing… Please do nothing. He silently pleaded for the blast not to do anything too harmful to him when he realized it had already passed, a wave of crackling black energy that seemed to render the changelings unconscious as it passed. “Wow. Now that was cool, you ok whatever you are?” he asked, somewhat concerned about the one who had helped him. “That blast looked like it would have… Never mind,”
Fallen noticed whatever it was seemed to be unconscious. ’I am going to have to ask a lot of questions when it wakes up. Maybe I should start with what in the night it is.’ He sighed as he reformed.
“Guess I might as well make camp for the night then.”