//------------------------------// // Chapter the Sixth - History lesson // Story: The Betrayed // by Thadius0 //------------------------------// It was a week later, and Abel had finally managed to get the pain from transformations back down to a dull twinge. Overall, his life hadn't changed much. Go out and about, help local businesses with their accounting needs, help with a bit of paperwork over at City Hall... The only real difference is that Rarity and Twilight hadn't called him over to help with the organizing like they normally would, and Abel knew why. Of course, he had told them all to research a spell that would deaden their sense of smell before he would show them everything about himself, and to arrange for a day off for all of them at the same time. When asked why, he replied, “I would rather do it all at once, and in front of you all at once. I also know that my basement is no bed of roses, but it's a part of what I am.” Abel rolled out of bed and nudged Ferrix with a hoof. “C'mon, boy. Time to get up. Got another busy day today.” Ferrix cracked an eye open. Perhaps you do. I am but a fox. I need do nothing. Abel grinned. “Except that somehow, Rainbow Dash figured out who's been placing those fake clouds in her sky. And is looking to exact vengeance.” Ferrix looked at Abel with both eyes. You didn't. Abel put a hoof to his chest. “Me, tell her anything willingly? Perish the thought. I merely overheard her muttering to herself about tricky foxes. Guess she figured it out from that 'skilled at illusions' comment I made.” That was a week ago. Abel shrugged. “She's also had weather duties to catch up on. Guess she had a free moment and puzzled it out herself.” Ferrix shuddered. I've seen what that mare can do on a pranking spree. I have no desire to be on the wrong end of one. Abel laughed. “Too late for that. I'll mail your remains to your relatives. Assuming I can find enough.” And then there was a knocking at the door. Both Abel and Ferrix's head rotated to where the front door was. “I wasn't expecting anyone, were you?” Indeed not. Perhaps you should go look. Yours is the only home with a lock and a warding system to rival most of Canterlot. Those poor ponies must be so confused that they can't just walk in. Abel walked downstairs through his bland house to the front door and eyed it warily. Putting his head to the door so that his left ear pressed up against it, he called out, “Who is it?” “Us!” “Us who, Twilight?” “Us six who know, Balanced!” Abel sighed, put on his disguise, and opened the door, noticing the six mares on his front lawn. “Hello, girls. And have you come up with a spell to deaden your sense of smell for later?” Twilight nodded. “It took me a few days, but I found a simple charm for deadening smells, but it was meant to be used only on oneself. So after a bit of experimenting, I managed to make a spell that could be used on anypony, and we tested it at Sugar Cube Corner. We couldn't smell a thing, which means it works.” Abel looked at Twilight a little more carefully. “And...how much sleep have you gotten lately, Twilight?” Twilight looked around sheepishly. “Well, I didn't have a whole lot, but then Pinkie said something about you being here today even if I slept away all the exhaustion, so...” Abel looked at Pinkie Pie. “Wait, you were the voice of reason?” Pinkie huffed and crossed her forelegs. “Why is everypony always surprised by that?” Abel looked in the direction of Canterlot. “Okay, I'm fairly sure you being the voice of reason is a sign of the apocalypse, closely followed by Discord getting loose. I'll have to set an alarm spell around his statue, soon.” The other mares laughed, and Abel grinned, going over to Pinkie and hugging her. “Aw, you know I jest, Pinkster.” Pinkie finally laughed and hugged Abel back. “Yeah, but your sarcasm sometimes hurts.” Abel nodded and turned to Twilight. “But seriously, if she was a voice of reason, how bad were you?” It was Applejack who intervened this time. “Worse than me after that whole applebuck season nonsense.” Abel let out a low whistle. “That bad. Geeze. Okay, well, you all look rested, so...” Abel stepped back into his house, held the door open, and mock-bowed to the mares. “Come into my parlor, said the spider to the fly.” The mares grimaced at that, but entered nonetheless. “Seriously creepy, Balanced” Abel grinned and shut the door behind the mares, motioning to his living room, where an armchair and several cushions waited. “Well, Dash, it serves two purposes. I'm not sure if you noticed the faint hum of magic in the air...” Twilight and Rarity nodded, and Abel continued. “But that's from the massive amounts of wards I have on this place to keep it safe, sound, standing, etc. It keeps everyone and everything out unless I explicitly invite it in. That phrase is a sort of skeleton key, allowing anything in until I close the door.” Twilight nodded absently, and said the first thing that came to mind. “And the second reason?” Abel grinned, hopping into his chair, while the mares settled themselves on the cushions. “Well, like Dash said, it's creepy. Anypony that hears it tends to not want to come in, and I'm a stallion that likes to keep to himself. And you all know why, so let's dispense with the whole dance.” With a small burst of magic, the window blinds throughout the house were drawn, and with another, Abel's disguise was peeled back, leaving the white changeling sitting in the chair. Ferrix wandered in and positioned himself at the right side of the chair, and Abel nodded to the mares. “Alright, we're all comfy...hang on a tick.” Abel looked to the fireplace and ignited it with another burst, leaving the room soaking in the warmth. Abel turned back to his guests and nodded. “Okay, we're all comfy, and now we'll be warm. I recently restocked the kitchen, and I'm assuming you all ate before you came over anyways. So I just have to worry about lunch and dinner for you lot, which I think I can manage. And Twilight has a spell for deadening smells, which will be useful, as we'll end this little Question and Answer segment, however long it is, with a tour of my basement. So.” Abel looked to Twilight and grinned. “Do your worst.” Twilight grinned back. ----- Three hours. Three bloody hours! Three hours of nonstop questions! Thankfully he'd opened up with a simple request. One that put a halt on him transforming into anypony else, especially anypony present. Because, as he'd explained, it still hurt. The only reason Twilight hadn't monopolized the entire thing is because Abel had insisted that the others also get a chance to ask their questions. As he'd put it, “I think you've got more questions than they do, and they might ask some of the same ones you want to. This way, they get their curiosity satiated as well. Plus, they might ask a question you might not have thought of.” Of course, the thought that she'd missed a question to ask had put her into a miniature fit as she triple checked her lists. Which gave everyone else time to ask their questions. But now it was lunchtime, and after that, it would be Twilight's turn. Abel knew exactly which question she'd ask, sooner or later, and so he began to prepare himself. Soon enough, the mares wandered back into the living room, and Abel nodded at them. Twilight sat on her hindquarters, looked at one of her lists, and looked at Abel. Abel cleared his throat, and Twilight grinned. “So, about this history from before written history that you have access to...” Abel sighed. “Right. Okay, our story begins loooooong ago.” And instantly, Pinkie managed to pass out popcorn to the other mares. Abel blinked a few times in surprise, but accepted it as Pinkie being Pinkie, and continued his rendition. “This is, like, dawn of known time stuff, okay? Once, there were only changelings. And they were all white, like myself. They drew magic out of the air, and sustained themselves. And one day, they realized that drawing magic from living things helped sustain them more than just ambient magic. So after a few false starts, they realized that being the shepherds of the land, promoting good growth and peace, would leave them with more living things to draw off of. And as long as they were careful, they would have no need to draw all the magic out of a living thing to feed themselves. And for a time, things were good. A Hive in an area was a sign that the area was being taken care of.” The mares nodded, so far it made sense. “It started to change, though. Black changelings were being born, and none had any knowledge of how to take care of them. They did not eat the same as the white ones. None knew what they fed on.” Abel looked to the floor, and softly whispered, “It took...over a hundred little changelings dying from starvation...before anyone worked out how to feed them.” The mares were silent. Abel didn't blame them. “Eventually, the spell was complete. With the right spell cast, one of the white changelings could focus energy through themselves, into a matrix designed to convert it to emotional energy, and exhale it, thus giving the black changelings their food. Changelings can't feed on other changelings, its a natural defense mechanism. Our bodies keep our energy on lockdown 24/7. But with this spell, white changelings could exhale exactly what the black ones needed. And so things worked, for a time.” Abel looked at Twilight and softly asked a question. “But then, something changed. What do you suppose it was?” Twilight thought for a moment, before her eyes widened. “Ponies.” Abel nodded. “The changelings met the ponies. Their first two meetings went well. They met the Earth Ponies, who could promote growth and were strong, and the Pegasi, who could manipulate weather. These things would help the changelings greatly in their whole 'being the shepherds of the land' bit that they were invested in. And then the changelings met the Unicorns.” Abel looked to the fire, gathering his thoughts. “And that's when they threw that creed straight to Tarturus. They met a race of ponies that could consciously manipulate the magical field. That were so magical, they were like wildfires in pony form, and they were the moths.” Abel looked back to the mares. “There are two events from that time in the Archive. The First Incursion, as it is called, was a complete success by changeling standards. All the white changelings rallied an army together. They found a small unicorn village, raided it, and carried off all the townsfolk. To drain them over a period of several days.” Abel looked back to the fire. “They had, unfortunately, left a small pegasus survivor, and his story got back to the Princesses. Of bug-like ponies as white as a cloud descending on the town and taking all the unicorns away. They followed the flight pattern of the swarm, and found a pile of desiccated corpses. All of them unicorns, all of them drained dry of their magic.” Abel looked back to the mares. “There was no second incursion. When they found out what the changelings had done to their subjects, the Princesses were furious. They located the swarm, and destroyed it. Utterly.” Abel sighed and looked to the floor. “And that upset the balance back at the Hives. With so many white changelings gone, the ratio of white to black went from three to one to one to one. Thus leading to the second major event.” Abel looked at the fire, his expression now one of rage. “Chrysalis. She had been born at this time, and had found the spell to make Hive Minds. She tinkered with it, experimenting, learning how it could be altered. And she cast it, improperly, and tying herself to it as well. She did not hold the right meanings in mind, merely the ones she wanted. However, at the time, it worked. She united what was left under her. And then she blamed the wrath of the Princesses on the white changelings.” Abel was slightly shaking now. “In a way, she was right. A little. But she cast us out. She called us filthy albinos, and that she and hers alone would be worthy of leading the changelings into a bold new future where they did not bow to ponies. She authorized the hunting and killing of white changelings, and in their desperation, a final band of survivors went to the one being that might be able to hide them. They plead their case, begged for mercy.” Abel smiled grimly. “And Discord agreed. He hid their coloration, but not their genetics. So they mingled back into the Hives. Managed to hide themselves. But every so often, an Albino would crop up. There hadn't been one for a few hundred years before me, so it was looking likely that Chrysalis had finally found all the traces of the white changelings and snuffed them out. But somewhere along the line, she missed me.” Abel turned back to the mares. “And THAT...is the entire history of Albino Changelings in a nutshell.” The mares were silent for a moment, until Applejack spoke up. “That ol' coot Discord hid the white changelings by changing their colors?” Abel nodded at her. “Keep in mind, this was WAY back. He was something like...a tiny wisp compared to his form today. He still enjoyed chaos, true. And the disharmony between the two types of changelings fed him, which is why he was both loathe to aid, but felt like he owed it to the changelings to do something. He wouldn't get as bad as he is until after a few more major disharmonius events.” The mares were silent a moment longer, and the only sound was that of Twilight's quill making notes. Finally, she looked up from her parchment and directed her tear-filled eyes towards Abel. “Albinos have had it that bad?” Abel chuckled. “You act like I'm every albino ever. I'm fine. I got over it.” Abel looked towards the fire and muttered the word 'eventually' to himself, before looking back at the mares. “So! Who wants to see my basement, where I keep all my freaky changeling stuff?” Six hooves shot into the air, and Abel smiled. “Right, well, get that spell up, Twilight, and let's get this over with.” Abel hopped out of his chair and went over to the stairs, followed by the six mares. Ferrix had decided to take a nap, and Twilight's horn was glowing slightly. Abel opened a door in the side of the staircase, revealing the downward stairs, and a crimson mist wafted out. Had any present actually possessed an olfactory sense, they would have gagged. “Abel, are you okay? I didn't include you in my spell, I figured you had a means to protect yourself...” Abel merely tapped his snout. “Changeling. I just shifted it away for a moment. Even with what little sense I have in my natural form, I don't like the smell of this place. I have to get rid of it for a minute and slowly bring it back so that I get acclimated to it. That is, if I intend to spend any real length of time down here.” The staircase was fairly long and not long after, the mares noticed that it was less of a staircase and more of a tunnel cut into the earth. Pinkie chipped in her opinion then. “Abel, this is a lot bigger than when I saw your basement that one time...” At this, the tunnel swerved slightly and opened up into a massive cave. Abel grinned at the stunned expressions on the faces of his six companions. “Well Pinks, I maaaaay have done a bit of digging, along with the other changelings in town, to find a nice sized cave to hold all of this in. After all, feeding every week tends to build up a stockpile...” The center of the cave was dominated by a huge pillar of crystal that seemed to glow a slight crimson color, and built right up next to the walls were deep red bins, filled with a pink gelatin substance. There had to be twenty on the ground, with a few jutting out from the wall. Three tunnel openings in the walls intrigued the girls, but Abel had decided to put on his best showpony impersonation, thus distracting them for a moment. “Welcome to my underground lair! The crystal is my device for sorting out the miscellaneous magic that I may have absorbed throughout the day. It also really helps after a feeding day. The bins contain gel that has been infused with raw magic, and every bin is a different 'flavor'. I'm a bit picky about my food touching. The bins themselves are made with a different type of gel that was treated and hardened so that they could hold the gel without any side effects. Had to abandon barrels after a bit, they kept corroding after a month, and spending that much money on barrels would get suspicious.” Abel gestured to the leftmost tunnel entrance. “That's where I store things I'm still experimenting with, along with my notes. It's a bit disorganized in there. I mean, I can find everything, but other changelings tend to get lost in there. And they have the Hive Mind helping them.” Abel pointed at the rightmost tunnel. “That's where I'm storing any mementos or freaky artifacts I create or stumble across. Like my stolen Chaos Magic.” Noting the glint in Twilight's eye, Abel hurried to add, “But it's also protected by quite a few wards that only I can actually get past, so it's pretty safe.” And gesturing towards the final tunnel entrance, Abel explained its purpose. “And that one connects to the safehouse for changelings here in Ponyville, in case one or the other needs fast transportation. We're actually trying to hook up all the safehouses with a tunnel system, but it'll take time. Changelings are good at tunneling, but we have to get it right. Otherwise, well, who knows what we'll find underground?” The mares slowly went from one bin to another, finding that the only thing that differed between them was the slight hue each one gave off, and then slowly separated. Pinkie was absolutely enthralled with the crystal, as it occasionally had a different color of magic pass through it. Rarity was looking at the laboratory with distaste, noticing that nothing seemed to have any sort of proper place. Twilight hovered outside the tunnel to the storage room, and the others mostly huddled together. Abel wandered over to the laboratory, rummaged for a bit, and emerged holding a glass flask with pink gelatin inside it. “Time for an experiment, I'm bored.” The mares immediately focused on Abel as he placed the flask in front of one of the bins. His horn lit up crimson, the bin also glowed, and then slowly the glow in the bin faded. However, the flask began to glow brightly, flaring up higher and higher, until finally the bin was no longer glowing, and the flask resembled a miniature star. Abel was panting slightly, and glanced at the flask. Immediately, the glass turned black, and Abel smiled. “Well, looks like my backup plan is a success. Now I just have to replicate it...” Twilight came over and prodded the now-black flask with a hoof. “What did you do?” Abel grinned. “I just transferred all the magic out of that bin, and into this flask. Considering that bin was close to a one-to-one ratio, I'm pretty sure I stumbled upon the best sort of gelatin known to changeling kind.” Twilight now regarded the flask with a modicum of fear. “How...can you store that much magic in one spot? What is that stuff made of?” Abel shrugged. “I'm not privy to all the internal processes that go on in my body. That would require someone to have, I dunno, cared. I do know that gelatin was the product of a careful amount of Zap Apple Jam and Sweet Apple Cider, plus a few fresh baked goods from Sugarcube Corner. And I mean fresh. The love and care that you mares put into those things, along with the latent magic of the jam, really helped with the process. I figured it might make a better gel. I never knew it would be this good, I honestly expected another explosion.” “Another?” Abel grinned. “When you attempt to pass the one-to-one ratio, the gel gets unstable if it can't hold it. It sort of starts to melt, become runny, and could react at any time. Uncontrolled explosions of magical power are no picnic. It could be harmless, such as splattering us all. Or it could be very harmful and instead of just looking like a star...Granted, that's only happened once, but we learned never to do that again.” As the mares processed what Abel had said, he walked over to a few bins and muttered to himself. Twilight noticed him nodding a few times while making vague gestures with his hooves, before he finally stopped in front of a few bins. Abel decided to look over his shoulder at the still stunned mares, and grinned. “And now for my next trick.” And with that, Abel called on the stored power he'd situated himself in front of, channeling it into a minor version of the Hive Mind spell, and channeling that through the already active Hive Mind. Abel laid out a clear path for where he wanted the energies of the spell to go, and released them. The spell darted down the tunnel to the safehouse, and Abel panted a bit, worn from his exertions ever-so-slightly. “Ten down, ninety to go.” Abel stood near the crystal spire and placed a hoof on it, sighing slightly. “Oh, this is gonna huuuuurt...” And then Abel began to pull power from all the bins in the room. Streams of crimson power lanced directly into him from all sides, and a circle of deep red fire formed around Abel, warding the mares back. Abel opened his eyes, showing that they were brimming with power, much like the rest of him. And then the spell began to form. The energy shifted from red to infrared, so as to hide the true extent of the spell from the visible light spectrum. Those who could see heat would have seen a lance of energy reach into the heavens, followed by pulses of power creating 'arms' all over Equestria. Each one reached to a major population center before falling back to the ground and branching out to all of Abel's changelings. Fourty-five changelings were filled with the energy to add two changelings each to the hive, and each one picked their targets carefully. Soon enough, Abel's numbers had jumped from fifty to a hundred and fifty. And all throughout the casting, Abel had been screaming. Twilight was the first to Abel's side, being experienced in matters such as overworking the body through highly complex or powerful casting. And in seconds, both of them were unconscious. ----- Abel awoke, hissing in pain. Overworking himself had left him a sharp migraine. Working out the feedback from the hundred new minds in the Hive Mind hadn't been easy, but he'd done it. Eventually. Of course, shoving the responsibility for integrating them properly onto the ones that brought them in was an inelegant solution, but it worked. That, and he really wanted to be conscious again. The first thing he noticed was a blur of orange and cyan in his vision. The second thing he noticed was that he was on his own bed. He quickly worked out that he'd passed out, and the girls had dragged him back upstairs. Abel attempted to move, and the orange blur was at his side in seconds. “Hold on there. We need some answers.” Abel groaned and blinked, his vision slowly coming back into focus. “Didn't we do that?” “Yeah, well, that was BEFORE you cast a crazy-huge spell and both you and Twi fell unconscious afterwards!” Abel jerked his head towards Rainbow Dash and stared at her. “Where is she, and how long has she been out.” Both mares present caught on that it wasn't a question, more of a statement. Applejack spoke up first. “She was in Ponyville General, and last I heard, she's been out as long as you have, a few hours.” Rainbow Dash, to this day, was astounded by the speed at which Abel moved. Though she wouldn't admit it to him, the fact that he put his disguise on and was out the door, running to Ponyville General in no time at all after he'd been told the news, nearly put Dash to shame. Then again, she thought to herself, he's got magic. ----- Twilight Sparkle had been brought in by some of her friends, claiming that she'd gotten too close to a big spell done by another unicorn, and it probably affected her. She'd been berthed in room 121, hooked up to the appropriate vital monitoring equipment, had half a dozen tests run on her, and the doctors were able to determine that except for a lower amount of brain activity than normal, she was perfectly healthy. What perplexed the doctors was that they could come up with no singular situation or combination of situations that could merely cause a lower rate of brain activity, and yet still have her be non-responsive to the world around her. Fluttershy and Rarity were waiting in the hall. Pinkie had somehow vanished between the lobby and the room. And then Balanced Books passed through at nearly the speed of sound. When the dust settled, the pegasus and the unicorn exchanged a look, and then peered inside Twilight's room, to see Books standing over Twilight with his horn aglow and his eyes screwed shut. Both were about to speak up, probably something about how the one that caused it would not be the best one to try and treat this mystery condition, when the door was slammed shut in a burst of magic. A bubble-like wall then covered the door, and what happened next, they couldn't say. ----- “Welcome to the Hive Mind, Twilight.” A bleak landscape, barren and gray in every direction, surrounded the lavender unicorn. The ground was cracked and dry, with no visible vegetation, living or dead, in any direction. The sky was black and somehow cloudy. She glanced around madly, her horn charged. “Who said that?!” “Oh, nobody much. Just the one who MADE IT!” Abel was suddenly there in front of her in his changeling form. Twilight yelped and lost the charge in her horn, landing on her rump. “Abel? But...” “Baby steps, Twi. What's the last thing you remember?” The impressive voice emanated from Abel's form, though he didn't open his mouth. Twilight answered automatically. “Running up to you after you cast that massive spell. I could sense the flow of magic, the buildup. I knew that you'd overworked yourself, so I wanted to make sure you were okay after a spell like that. Next thing I know, I'm...well, wherever here is.” Abel nodded. “Had you waited one more second. Just one more. We would not be in this position. The energies of the spell had not fully dissipated, which is why I was next to my crystal when I cast. I purposely called more power than I needed to get the job done to me, so as to be sure the job got done. I was next to the crystal so the surplus power would be re-sorted back into the appropriate bins. But when you ran up to me...” Twilight filled in the gaps automatically. “I absorbed some of the energy, and it 'remembered' what spell it had been used to cast, and cast it on me! Okay, so how do we fix this?” Abel shook his head. “We can't.” Twilight blinked. “What.” “This spell was never meant to be undone. I never thought I'd have to! And it was certainly never meant to bring a pony into the Hive Mind! But what's done is done. I CAN help you overcome a few small things, make sure that you're not at risk here...” Before Twilight could ask what the risks were, there were suddenly rings and rings of crimson energy surrounding her. They flashed a few times in unison, and faded. Abel nodded, and Twilight was puzzled. “And that was?” “Passive mental blocks. You can't just stumble in anymore, or accidentally think your way in. It'll also stop you from wandering in in your dreams. In fact, the only way you CAN get here now is to focus on coming here in some sort of meditative state. Figured that was our best choice. It'll help you stop hearing the hundred and fifty other voices that could speak up in your head. You're lucky, y'know. The rest of the changelings are either getting acclimated or helping the new ones get acclimated. Once I heard you'd been out of it since the casting, I had a good idea what went wrong.” Twilight's head was spinning slightly. “So...we're good? The situation is handled?” Abel shrugged. “For now. I suspect later you and I will be meeting each other in here. For the Archive if nothing else. But right now, you need to wake up.” “And how do I do that?” Abel grinned and pounced on her, drawing back a hoof, his mouth suddenly filled with far more teeth, and his hooves jagged and sharp. “WAKE UP!” Twilight screamed. ----- In fact, Twilight awoke screaming as Ab- er, 'Balanced Books' pulled back from her bed. The spell on the door came down, and Rarity and Fluttershy raced in. The fact that their friend was awake took third place, right behind the fact that their friend was screaming, and the fact that the one in front of her had likely caused the scenario. Before any action could be taken against him, Balanced Books had erected a shield between himself and the mares. Raising a hoof to the two intruders, Books looked at Twilight as she ran out of breath. “Y'done?” Twilight gulped down air and nodded before replying. “Don't...don't do that again. That was the scariest thing...” Books shrugged his shoulders. “Eh. Needed you awake. Now. I suggest we gather the rest of your friends and head to a secure location so that I can explain just what happened here to those that need to and want to know.”