//------------------------------// // Chapter 12: Chains and Changelings // Story: Banished // by Sixpence //------------------------------// Life, it happens to all of us, and then we die. Well, most of us do. So far I had been ‘lucky’, it had been a little over forty years since my arrival, and as far as I could tell I had not aged a day. I had taken refuge in what had once been a church of some sort, at least it looked like one. It had once had a beautiful vaulted ceiling, and there were remnants of stone pews lined up in rows pointed towards a broken altar. What surprised me was that there were no religious symbols anywhere, none that I recognised anyhow. The wooden doors to the entrance had long since rotted away, only rusted metal was evident where the hinges once were. Behind the altar there had once been stained glass windows, but only shards of coloured glass were left, some still in their frames but most of it on the tiled floor. The church itself was the only building left standing in what I assumed had once been a small town. Stone walls and crumbled foundations were all that was left sticking out of the lush vegetation covering the forest floor. I had often taken refuge in places like these, despite the lingering creepiness of such ghost towns. There were times when I had become tired of my endless walking, and tried to settle down, sometimes for years at a time until a strong wanderlust once more descended upon me. I had even tried to rebuild some of the houses, just to try to find a reason to settle down properly, but the loneliness was often the biggest reason why I left. Even before I got the urge to walk once more, I had left places I had tried to make into a home due to the crushing feeling of not having anyone around me. The staff clattered noisily to the ground as I slid down to the ground along the wall behind the altar. At least parts of the roof were still present, giving me shelter from the pouring rain outside. It was still rather early in the morning when… something happened. The ground shifted and changed, a sweet smell started permeating the air. It smelled almost like chocolate. I tried lifting my hand from the floor, but found that it was stuck to it. The smell of sweets and sugar became stronger, and I noticed that the floor had become rock-candy, sticking me to the floor like a fly on a half melted lollypop. Suddenly the light of the overcast day outside disappeared and the rain stopped. It was almost as if it had become night in an instant. Then the light was back for only a moment before it once more disappeared. A laugh rolled through the air as I tried to get loose. “Hello?” I called out, as much in hope as in fear. Maybe someone was there? Someone to talk to? I’d take anything I got, just to talk to someone again. No one answered. The world had become silent. Not even the sounds of the forest were present. It was completely and utterly quiet. Eerily so. Something slithered behind me, just out of sight as I tried to move my head against the gooey rock sticking to my hair. “Is there anyone there? Please!” I was so caught up in the thought of someone else being present, that the fact that I had become stuck to what had once been solid stone was only barely registering in my mind. “Such a shame…” A voice whispered, barely heard even in the dead silence of the church. It was almost as if I was imagining it. “... llowed to interfere. How boring…” Then everything went back to normal. Well, the sounds of the forest once more appeared in a rush of noise that was almost overwhelming even in the relative shelter of the ruinous church, and I was no longer stuck to the floor and wall. My hands and hair weren’t even feeling sticky. It was almost as if I had imagined it, in fact I almost managed to convince myself of that until the light suddenly changed once more, scaring me out of my wits. Once I dared venture outside, I saw that the sun and the moon were switching places in no conceivable pattern. It was utterly confusing, and it scared me. Thinking that it might be this place, it being cursed or something like that; I grabbed my staff and ran, never looking back. Once I reached the edge of the forest, almost a full day after I began, the world returned to normalcy. The sun was about to set. This nightmare of a day was finally over, and I collapsed against a tree. I wanted to look back at the forest, now more lively than when I had entered, but I didn’t. The animals were probably as confused as I was after that. Instead I settled down, resting the staff over my knees, and fell asleep. --- “It’s coming to.” A voice on the edge of my hearing announced. It sounded male and unfamiliar. I remained still, feeling cold iron against my wrists and cold stone against my backside. For some reason I felt alone. With a slight start I realized that the feeling was the lack of the empathetic link I somehow shared with Chrysalis. It was a feeling I had grown so used to over the last few weeks that its absence felt alien and cold. “We know you’re awake, creature. No reason for these theatrics.” Another voice announced, this one was more familiar. It was the voice of the leader of the griffins. Decanus something. I warily opened my eyes and was greeted by the cold interior of a cell. It seemed to be underground. The walls were slightly damp, and a grated opening high up on a wall on the wall opposite the cell showed me the underside of a hedge or something like that. Outside my cell stood three gryphons, all decked out in armor, and only one was recognizable as the leader I had met previously. “What do you want.” I grumbled and coughed, the damp air was thick and uncomfortable. “You’re under arrest for the assault on my troops.” The gryphon in charge sighed and inspected one of his talons. “Three of which are hospitalized with minor wounds, and one suffering from a crushed windpipe. The accusations levelled against you are quite severe, so I recommend that you cooperate.” I chuckled and tested the chains that bound me to the wall. “Ask what you wish. I’m pretty sure you won’t be satisfied with my answers anyway.” The chains were quite sturdy, and there was no give when I tried to pull on them. “What’s with the chains? Afraid I’ll somehow crush your little cell-doors and escape with my super-strength?” The Decanus smiled in a way that made my spine tingle. “It is merely a precaution. The only people we have seen like you are the minotaurs, and they are quite strong. We can only assume that you are some sort of hybrid.” I spit into the dust on the floor, it didn’t even have the decency to whirl. It was too damp. “I’m no hybrid of anything.” “Maybe not. But I somehow do not believe that you are able to listen in on the changelings hive-mind naturally. In fact we would like to ask you a couple of questions about your… companion.” He smirked at my scowl. “Don’t worry, we’re taking care of her as we speak. She’s not a threat to us, not like you.” “What do you mean?” I asked, worried about my friend. “If you do anything to her…” The thread rang emptily through the cell as I pulled as hard as I could on the chains with little effect. He chuckled and tsk’ed. “We have our methods. After their little… incident in Equestria they are not so much a threat to us. As soon as we get her to drop her disguise and talk, we’ll let her go.” I sneered. “I don’t believe you.” The gryphon shrugged. “Didn’t expect that you would, but it is the truth. Provided…” He let the sentence unfinished. “Provided what?” I asked, for some reason I couldn’t feel any real malice from him. It was with another shock that I realised that I could actually feel him. He was putting on an air of bravado, but I could feel uncertainty and some fear. When I turned to his companions I realised that I could feel them too, all they had was malice towards me, anger that I hurt their friends. “Provided that she cooperates of course. We don’t kill people without reason.” He answered. “But their queen is wanted dead or alive by the ponies.” The last part was said with a sneer, and I felt a flare of disgust. This guy certainly had no love for the ponies. “Her location would be very valuable to us. Or even just a confirmation of her demise would be good enough.” I couldn’t tell them that the pony they were currently interrogating was the one they were looking for, and after his statement I could only hope that Chrysalis was strong enough to withstand whatever technique they were using on her. “Their queen?” I said with as straight a face as I could muster, pulling the chains to distract them from my widened eyes. “Yes. I believe she goes by the name of Chrysalis.” He answered without taking his eyes off me. “But you already knew that, didn’t you.” It wasn’t as much a question as a statement. The chains rattled, but the nail, or whatever actually fastened it to the wall held. “You’re assuming an awful lot.” I said with a frown, trying to sell the lie. “I didn’t even know they had a queen. For all I know, they could be following a damn coconut.” It wasn’t too far from the truth, Chrysalis could be kinda thick. The gryphon sighed and turned to leave. “If you don’t know, then maybe one of your other friends know. We have… methods for extracting whatever knowledge people hide.” He nodded to the two guards, and together they began walking towards what I assumed was the exit. “We will be back for you in the morning. I suggest you get some rest, you’ll need it.” With that he was gone, and I was left alone in the dimly lit, damp cell. --- It didn’t take long before I started getting bored, pulling and yanking on the chain obviously didn’t do anything, and I didn’t have much leeway to move. I could barely lie down on my stomach as the chains held my arms out behind me, it was uncomfortable as hell, and the only sound in the dungeon was the slow drip of water from somewhere I couldn’t see. Around an hour later I felt something. It was as if something uncomfortable was pressed against my back, even if I knew there was nothing there. A few seconds later it flared with pain, and I heard a scream in my mind. It felt familiar, all too familiar. They were torturing Chrysalis. I quickly got to my feet, and started pulling as hard as I could against the restraints. They didn’t budge. Then a second flare of pain came, this time higher on my back near the neck, again accompanied by a scream. It was louder this time, and I imagined that I could hear it coming from outside as well. “No!” I yelled and set my feet against the wall, bracing as hard as I could before pulling again. My arms screamed in pain, but I felt something start to give. I pulled harder, sweat beginning to run down my face and chest as I pulled. With a painful ‘pop’ my left arm dislocated, causing me to yell out in pain. I ignored it as best as I could and continued pulling. I was rewarded by the crunching sound of stone against stone, and with a final effort something came loose. Unfortunately for me, it was the entire slab of stone the chains were moored to. It fell right on my legs, and I felt something crunch that was not the stone. I nearly passed out from the intense pain of the stone crushing my legs. The only positive thing was that it made me completely forget about the dislocated shoulder. With a monumental effort I managed to haul the heavy rock off my poor legs and straighten them out before me. My arm was the first to pop back into its socket with a sickening snap as it righted itself. The legs were broken in several places from the stone falling on them, but I could feel whatever it was that took care of my body working its magic. It took almost thirty minutes for my legs to knit themselves back together, and during that time different points on my body flared with pain as some gryphon undoubtedly tried to pry information out of Chrysalis. The other changeling didn’t give out any feelings at all, so I had no idea of it’s condition or location. Even my direct link to Chrysalis didn’t indicate any location. While my legs worked on putting themselves together, I began trying to figure out just how exactly I was going to get out of the cell itself… --- Meanwhile, Chrysalis was splayed out on a wooden rack, legs bound with straps to each corner. It would have disgusted her that the straps were leather, but at the moment she had more pressing matters to attend to. Namely the griffon standing above her with a piece of glowing hot iron held uncomfortably close to her hoof-stump. “Now. We don’t usually do this to our prisoners.” A female gryphon said as she sipped at something hot in a cup. “But, you’ve been extraordinarily uncooperative, and to be honest… changelings are still free grounds due to your recent… activities.” Chrysalis sneered at the gryphoness, she was a Queen, she didn’t fear what the gryphons could do. Right? They had already prodded her with a knife, but the friendly love she had soaked up from Walker made sure that none of the wounds were permanent. If they kept it up for long… that was another matter. “Now. What we want is the same thing we wanted ten minutes ago, when you so gently pulled the feathers out of the neck of the nice officer that tried asking nicely.” She paused and set the cup down on a small table, apparently brought in solely so that she could set her drink down on it. “Where is your queen, the rest of the hive, and which positions have your kind infiltrated in our society?” Chrysalis smiled pleasantly and laid her head back to stare into the whitewashed stone ceiling. “How would I know? I’m just a lowly drone, noling tells me anything. Well, except who to feed ooAAAAH!” The sentence was cut off with a scream as the other gryphon pressed the white-hot metal to her stump. The gryphoness, the interrogator, sighed sadly and wafted a small paper fan in front of her beak to fan away the smell of singed hair. “We know that’s not true.” She lied, they had no idea really. “Why would a lowly drone travel with such an interesting specimen as your friend downstair?” Chrysalis tensed the muscles that had just relaxed from the pain and scowled at the female. “What did you do to him?!” The gryphoness rolled her eyes and waved a claw dismissively. “Oh, nothing.” She grinned “Yet. If you tell us what we want to know… We’ll let you both go.” She walked over to the table Chrysalis was stretched out on and put a finger on the straps. “And don’t think about escaping, these straps are quite sturdy. We held a minotaur for over a week here while his friends were wreaking havoc in the capital.” It was true, it had turned out to be a dead end, and the paperwork afterwards still gave her headaches when she thought about it. “What about the other changeling?” Chrysalis asked, concern leaking into her voice even though she tried to suppress it. He was quite possibly the only changeling left alive besides herself, and if something happened… “Oh, nothing bad. It’s down there” she pointed in a vague direction down at the floor “somewhere. Don’t worry about it, we’ll have time for it soon enough.” The gryphoness smiled unnervingly and lowered her claw unto Chrysalis’ furry leg. “Now, are you going to be a nice changeling, or are Crawford here going to have to… persuade you some more?” “Buck you.” Chrysalis snarled and snapped at the torturer. “Thought not. Crawford, if you please?” --- I flinched as another spike of pain ran through my mind. It was stronger this time, but it helped me focus on my task. My legs were free and fixed, and all that stood between me and relative freedom was the prison bars. They seemed sturdy, but the dungeon was damp, and I imagined that the rock might have become slightly porous around the bars. Another thing was that my arms were still fixed to the manacles, and a short chain led them to the now loose piece of rock. It only took me a few moments to realize that the griffons had inadvertently given me the tools I needed to escape, as well as a weapon. The rock was heavy, but I managed to lift it. I would have to smash it to be able to move freely, but as long as it held I would have a weapon with fair reach and able to do some damage to anyone in my way. As long as not all of them came at me at once. I hefted the rock and began slowly spinning inside the small cell. The rock barely avoided the walls as I wound up, and with a heave I sent it into the steel bars. The sound made me wince, but the results spoke for themselves; two of the bars were at least a foot wedged out of their original position. There had been a surprising lack of ringing when I hit, but the clamour would undoubtedly attract attention if I didn’t get this done quickly. If there had been a door I’d try aiming for the lock, but there wasn’t, which surprised me. Maybe there was some other way to open it that was for the guards only to know. Another smash, two more bars out of place. On the third hit something in the roof gave, and the bent bars fell to the floor with another loud clang, this time ringing quite a bit. The hole was barely wide enough for me to squeeze through, but I managed to get out. Immediately as my legs left the hole I heard something rattle in the wooden door at the end of the hall. Within a short moment the door was unlocked and a single griffon stepped through, looking somewhat bored. I didn’t give her, don’t ask me how I figured that out, a chance to notice me properly before I charged. Just before she opened her beak to scream, the rock impacted on the side of her head. It crunched, and down she went, something clattered to the floor. Her body slumped to the floor, the side of her head a bloody mess, but she was breathing. I raised the rock to finish her off, but I stopped myself. Something was off. She wasn’t wearing armour. What had clattered to the ground was a plate of food, and my heart skipped a beat. She had only been coming down with food, and I almost killed her. In fact, she might still die. No. I couldn’t think like that, I only did what I had to. She was in my way, and would have alerted the guards if I hadn’t. Why they weren’t already coming was beyond me. I hadn’t exactly been quiet in my escape. Something clanged from the cell right next to the door, making me jump. Inside the cell was a small black creature, covered head to toe… hoof, in chitinous plates. Its eyes were a uniform blue, no iris but for a slight lighting of the blue towards the center. Even so, it was unmistakably staring at me. This had to be the changeling Chrysalis and me had set out to find. The cell it was in was the same as mine, but I could see that the bars were a fair bit more rusted at the bottom, as well as covered in small dents that reminded me of tooth marks. For some reason the changeling wasn’t in chains. With a glance I confirmed that the cell did in fact have manacles, smaller than mine, but they were still there. “All right. Move back from the bars. I’ll get you out of there.” I said and began swinging the stone around once more. The changeling’s eyes widened, but it didn’t move away, instead it waved its forelegs in the air and tried to get my attention. What came out of its mouth wasn’t speech, but a loud chittering, something between a bird and the squeal of an insect. ‘STOP!’ I hadn’t heard it with my ears, but rather a voice inside my head, clearly male. It made me flinch, and I stumbled, sending the rock into the wall on the side instead of the walls with a crunch. And there went my weapon, the stone cracked down the middle, and all I was left with was a long pin welded to a plate somewhere in the middle of the stone itself. No wonder I couldn’t just pull it out. I couldn’t help but wonder how they had gotten the plate into seemingly solid stone, but the indignant changeling staring at me was a bit more pressing. “Well, there went our only weapon…” I muttered and returned the stare. “And the only way to get you out of the cell.” The changeling chittered in a way that felt insulting, and accompanying it was a very low murmur at the back of my head. When I didn’t show any immediate recognition of what it was trying to convey, its irritation only grew. It beckoned me towards it with a holed hoof and gestured for me to show it my hand. With some trepidation I stuck my right hand through the bars, which was a little tricky considering that I was wearing rather thick manacles. I almost flinched away when the changeling pressed its head against my hand, but I kept it still, curious as to what it wanted. Ear scratches? My fingers grazed its horn, and a jolt went up my arm, much like touching a wire connected to a car battery. ‘Hello?’ the voice in my head said, making me jump and retract my hand. The changeling growled in frustration and I smiled sheepishly before putting my hand back on its head. ‘You can hear us, good. There are six levers right outside the door, one for each cell. Pull the one with the number six, and our cell will open.’ He, it was very clearly a he, if the voice was to be believed. He didn’t offer any explanation as to how he was able to talk to me in my head, but another jolt of pain, somewhat muffled this time, reminded me that we were short on time. “Alright, wait here.” I said and looked past the unconscious gryphon on the floor to the door, it was still wide open. Behind the door was a small room, made of stone as the rest, but with a wooden stairway going up one end of it. Along the wall right on the inside was indeed a row of levers, all clearly labeled with roman numerals. The gryphon was now resting against the wall inside the small room after I had very carefully moved her. Her breathing was still even, and the blood had stopped flowing from her headwound, something I took as a good sign. The levers were simple wooden poles that lead to what I assumed was some sort of locking mechanism deeper inside the walls. I could barely spy some metal cogs behind as they caught the flickering torchlight in the room. I pulled the lever marked VI, it felt well oiled and immediately a rush of clicking and whirring was heard from inside the wall. From the hallway I came from the sound of metal sliding against stone sounded, and when I peeked inside I saw that the bars in front of the changeling’s cell was slowly disappearing into the roof. Moments later I was joined by a relieved looking changeling, and it chittered more cheerfully at me before trotting over to the unconscious gryphon. He prodded her, but got no response beside her sliding a bit against the wall. I walked over to them and crouched down. “Do you think she’ll be okay?” I asked with concern. “I think I hit her rather hard. My companion shrugged and motioned for me to put my hand on his horn once again. ‘She’s breathing steadily, she will survive. More than that we cannot tell, we are not doctors.’ He said with another shrug. “We?” I asked, feeling a bit confused. ‘Ye… no, it is not correct. It is only I. Not used to being alone.’ He shivered a bit at the thought. ‘I...’ It felt as if he was testing the word out. ‘I have… always been part of Us. It is unsettling to be apart, to be… individual.’ His words sounded sad, but a particularly vicious jolt of pain from what I was sure had to be Chrysalis pulled my thoughts away as I clutched my head with a wince. The changeling looked at me strangely, as if to ask what was going on. “I… I think they’re… torturing Chrysalis.” I sighed in relief as the pain faded, and the scream disappeared into oblivion. The changeling’s reaction told me that the scream was not audible, why he was unable to feel it himself was rather strange. Both Chrysalis and I had heard his plea for help back on the mountain. The changeling sneered and spit something on the floor in contempt before beckoning me to touch his horn. ‘Let them.’ He said with vehemence that shocked me, wasn’t this his Queen we were talking about? “What? Why?” I said, incredulous, feeling some anger start bubbling towards the surface. “She’s your Queen!” The changeling growled deeply and flashed his sharp teeth and fangs at me before replying. ‘Yes, and she is responsible for our extinction!’ I had no reply to that. What he said felt wrong, and I wanted to dispute it, but Chrysalis had never told me why the changelings were in the state they were. “How? How can she be responsible for the near extinction of her own race?” I put emphasis on ‘near’, because I knew of at least two specimens still very much alive, for the moment at least. ‘She convinced the council that attacking the CAPITAL CITY of the most powerful nation in the WORLD was a great idea!’ He was growling audibly as he ‘talked’, some chittering expletives that I didn’t understand coming out in a steady stream. ‘Challenge the ones that move the sun and the moon? That must be easier than say… infiltrating them, or just just gathering from the outlying villages. And see where it got us!’ He visibly deflated some, his entire body sagging as his eyes began to water. ‘Now our entire race is dead, save her and I...’ I put my other hand on his withers and lifted his chin up with the other hand formerly on his horn. “Look. I understand how this is a difficult situation. Chrysalis has been beside herself with guilt since I found her.” His eyes hardened at my statement. “But you’re alive, who’s to say that you two are the only ones? There could be more of you out there, just you surviving shows us that there’s a chance.” Another scream and a mild jolt of pain ran through my mind. “Chrysalis is my friend, and right now she’s being tortured. If you ever want to confront her about your feelings, you must help me save her.” I smiled gently and rose back to my full height. “So, what do you say? Save her and get some closure, or run away, never to know her point of view?” The changeling seemed to struggle with his thoughts for a moment before he looked up at me, eyes hard with determination. He nodded, and with a flash of green fire he had been replaced by an exact replica of the gryphon on the floor. “You’re right, whatever you are. Let’s go save the Queen.” He… she? said, voice tinged with venom. “I will beat the answers from her myself if I must.”