//------------------------------// // FOTC: Chapter 12 - Inside // Story: Fall of the Changelings // by Dream Whisper //------------------------------// With a deep howl the huge wooden gate slowly swung towards them, blocking out more and more of the spare light until they finally stood in complete darkness. The air was heavy with dust, and a muggy stench penetrated it through and through. While it finally left her the freedom to take off the ground, Rainbow Dash still felt weirdly prohibited. Not that she had never been in a closed room before, yet the complete darkness veiled any space that this room could have had. Only when Twilight’s horn started to glow dimly, Rainbow released the muscles she had tensed without even realizing. She slowly pushed her wings out, spreading her feathers to the fullest, feeling the muscles press against her soft skin. A short sigh of relief escaped her mouth before she could have stopped it. Of course she wasn’t scared of this place, nopony would be scared by shadows dancing dangerously over thick, dark walls accompanied by eerie sounds of cold air rushing through invisible shelves. Suddenly, the light quickly galloped away, towards the giant bookshelves to each side of the hall. It was more than just surprising to actually see bookshelves in the entrance hall. As Twilight’s light grew larger and larger as she tried to read some book, Rainbow could make out that this was not the actual entrance hall. Either they had entered through some back entrance or this castle was just not designed like normal castles should be. Twilight seemed to once again be in her element, finally having something to read. Even though Rainbow Dash had learned there could be enjoyment in reading, she would never have this obsession with any kind of book. Some were nice and action packed, but others just dull and boring. Who in Equestria needed to know the “Quantized effects of magical bursts” except for an egghead like Twilight? “Twilight, deary, I don’t think it is the right time to be skimming through these books in such an inhospitable environment.” Rarity rightfully pointed out. “Excuse me, but what we might find here might be of indescribable value to all of Equestria!” Rarity groaned, but instead of further complaining, she lit her own light and started wandering off into the seemingly uninhabited darkness. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie looked at each other nervously, then followed the quickly fading shine. Rainbow Dash decided to stay even though the books didn’t really seem interesting. Maybe, just maybe, below the giant mountain of rubble a gem awaited her hungry eyes. She started opening the first book that caught her eye, which was rather old, yet it had somehow preserved its beautiful sky blue color. She slowly pushed the heavy cover open while cursing bookmakers for using such unhandy material. Inside, she found an impressively accurate drawing of the anatomy of an alicorn, having a real one standing right behind the picture as comparison. The amount of details was overwhelming and it spurred her on to the next pages. Those however, were filled with hundreds of signs that seemed like letters of long forgotten civilisations. “What the heck is this even…?” When she turned the book around to look at what she had assumed to be its front, she noticed that there was no cover on either side, just the thick blank blue binder. She decided to put the book down onto her stack of supplies and maybe look into it at some point. For now, there were more important things to discover. ‘Mysteries of Magic’ goes in. ‘Seven Journeys’ stays here. ‘Dysfunctional Machines and the Complexity of Engineering.’ … goes in. Twilight quickly skimmed through book after book, either taking it with her or simply dropping it to the ground like a rotten sack of potatoes. It was a shame to drop a single one, but she had neither the capacity nor the time to store them all. ‘Ancient Brews’ … She had a very similar version called ‘Ancient Recipes’. Was that a good sign or a bad sign though? On the one hoof, the book could contain information that she already knew, but on the other hoof it could be a whole new adventure... Goes in. For just a moment, Twilight turned around to look out for her friends. Pinkie Pie and Rarity were both on the other side of what appeared to be a small library of some sorts. While normal libraries had bookshelves throughout the entire room, this one had its walls carved out to make room for these ancient treasures. In the middle of the room there was a giant globe, bigger than anything she had ever seen before. In fact, it was so huge that the architects had decided to cut a giant hole into the ceiling. Such a giant metal globe would have to be immensely heavy, considering it was a couple of hundred hooves high. Four thirds times pi times about 50 hooves cubed with an approximate density of about 7.5kilograms per hoof cubed. Hmm. Okay. That thing was really really heavy. Maybe there was a secret mechanism somewhere to rotate it, or maybe it had to be stationary due to its size. Before Twilight could start wandering around the globe though, the traitorous sound of buzzing insect wings filled the hall. Twilight quickly let her lighting spell go and looked over to Rarity, but her friend had been even faster than her. Now, the room was filled with a depressing silence, only disturbed by the buzzing of wings. The sound of the wings intensified as a low squeaking noise echoed through the room. Light from outside fell into the room, painting two shadows onto the wooden flooring. “Oh, come on. You know I hate to do this…” “Yeah, but it’s ordered. Now shut up and start patrolling your route.” “If she is gone right now, there is no one to check whether we are doing our job or not. Let’s just head back and tell them we are done.” “Don’t you think it would be obvious that we finish our patrol half an hour earlier?” “I hate this.” “I know.” With that, the two shadows started moving into the room. With a quiet clicking noise, hundreds of lights magically flashed, bathing the room in a warm light. Twilight was stunned for a second, not having expected magical lights, but quickly caught herself. Within a single heartbeat she conjured a spell and released it. In her shock, she had used the first spell that came to her mind. She watched in awe as both Changelings were catapulted into the air and immediately released again. While her reaction had come from pure shock, Rarity seemed to have thought such a scenario through already. She quickly closed the door behind the Changelings and signaled Applejack to get her trusty rope out. Applejack, not seeming a bit shocked by the sudden appearance of the two shadows - Then again, their wings had given them away really early. Even though Applejack tried to be as swift as possible, the two Changelings still screamed their souls out before she could use the thick rope to silence them. Now it was merely a matter of time until help would find its way down here. Twilight silently cursed her ignorance of the problem at hand and started to search for that certain aura that seemed to have taken over her every dream. She found it immediately, the thin aura floating through the air like a perfume which you simply cannot forget. To locate its source was the harder part and Twilight started to frantically gallop through the room to make out the direction in which it would intensify. While there seemed to be no immediate threat, it was now only a matter of time until they would be discovered. The result, however, was confusing. The aura seemed to originate from the globe. Why would somepony put such an important amulet inside of a globe? However, the more Twilight thought about it, the more it made sense. If the whole thing was empty, it could very well hide an important secret like the amulet. Now, how would you get into such a metal structure? Teleporting was what came to mind first, but how could she know how the insides of it looked like? She didn’t want to end up half-stuck into a supportive strut. Somehow, she would have to cut through the outer shell and create a hole that could reveal the secrets inside. What spell would be most fit to cut through metal? Physical pressure would probably be less effective than intense heat, but cutting through it? That would require an immense amount of energy and time. They couldn’t just give up now. “Applejack? Can you lock or block the door?” “Eh, sure, but I don’t think that will stop them for long…” Twilight simply ignored that comment and asked Rarity: “Can you try to sense the amulet?” With that, Rarity’s horn started glowing, almost like a signal for Applejack to start barricading the door. Applejack chose to bind the leftover parts of the rope to the door, which would make it impossible to open the door without pushing the two Changelings aside. Then again she knew, that against enough force it simply wouldn’t hold up. She then proceeded to push piles of books in front of the door, slowly building up a suitable hinderance. In the meanwhile, Rarity searched around the room, until she stopped, her expression slightly confused. After a couple of minutes of further searching and stopping, she finally opened her mouth: “Twilight, deary, if I were not as sure as I am, I would probably doubt myself, but it seems as if the amulet is actually below us.” Twilight groaned as she realized that this meant that she had to get back to the drawing board. Her whole plan was ruined now. She had already started conjuring her first attempts at a spell hot enough to feast through the thick iron but nothing had worked. Now, with this piece of information they would have to somehow find a way down under. That, of course, would be easy if they at least knew a teeny tiny bit about this dreaded death hole, but as it stood they were pretty much done for. Now it was all her fault. “Changeling, what is the way down?” “Well, you could have asked me nicely… and I don’t know. I am as new to this place as you are. Having spent a bit of time in the upper etages doesn’t make this my home. It is just… I like to imagine it as just another weird stop on this strange ride. I don’t even know anymore. After all...” “Yeah, we get it.” Twilight Sparkle couldn’t contain her annoyance. Why in Equestria did they have to pick up the only Changeling in all of Equestria that had to litter their lives with its boring story. As far as information had leaked, he had been in old Equestria and found an amulet and then he was here as a Changeling. Even Applejack could come up with better lies than that. “Applejack, I think we need to get out there now.” The annoyed mare stood there for a second, complexed by that sudden change of order, then contemplating if the new one would have the same result and finally just complying to it. This time however, everypony started to help her. Within less than a minute a stack of books covered two changelings in the corner of the room, while the door was finally accessible again. With this much time lost however, it was no wonder that the first armored Changelings already had made their way down. As Twilight Sparkle stepped into the hallway she was spotted immediately by a group of five Changelings in iron armor. With such heavy armor they would probably not be able to fly, making it impractical for open assaults but all the more practical for closed spaces. Their hollow body is perfectly adapted to their insect wings but that also means that carrying heavy weights during flight is rather difficult for them. Of course the same is true for pegasi, just not as extremely. Guessing by their stance they were prepared to face a group of intruders, but probably not prepared to face the alicorn princess herself. Their armor was thick, but their protection was much more physical than actually of magical kind. She could probably strike three easy hits on the foremost guards with a firebolt and would have enough time to finish the other two off afterwards. Her plan was quickly disturbed as a small explosion shortly behind them knocked them down, throwing bits and pieces of debris throughout the hallway. Twilight quickly looked around in confusion, assessing this newest threat. For a second, just a second, she was shocked in awe as the terrifying image of a monstrous shadow with his green aura towering over her friends was painted before her, just before it vanished as her shock subsided. This time Twilight didn’t even bother about securing the place. Either the missing guards or at least the sound of the explosion would be a dead giveaway. If they still wanted a chance on finishing this project, they would have to go quickly. “Okay, we head over there.” Twilight simply pointed to her left, not really completely sure they would find a way down there. Then again, she really didn’t want to explore to her right as that was the direction the threat was coming from, which would be just like running blindly into their abnormal enemies’ open arms. Even though her mind was unsure, she didn’t show any of it, playing her confident role perfectly. The long corridor was mostly made of thick grey walls in which the white marble served as welcome patterns in which you could lose yourself. This castle must have been built in the times of the second architectural revolution, a truly wonderful time for complex and nifty designs. It is really a shame that most buildings have fallen to one foe or another. The complete beauty of it had probably been ruined by the Changelings in the upper levels, but it was still a wonderful sight to behold. The intricate design had the marble lines split up every so often and curl into spirals that ended in pieces of chiseled art. Each piece told a story of some sorts, mostly of famous unicorns. Although being a unicorn means being able to control levitational fields, the strength of earth ponies and maneuverability of pegasi are nowadays often preferred. Back in the days however, much more attention was given to detail and unicorns had a period of incredible creativity, which was only ended by the shadows that claimed the land. Down. The intricate staircase was a wonderworld of most delicate artwork, beautifully crafted strings of marble dripping down from the top and flowing down deep into the depths of the earth. Even though there were multiple occasions for lamps or lanterns, none were placed. The whole staircase seemed rather mystical in the purple light that streamed from her alicorn friend’s horn. For about five minutes now they had only simply been trotting downwards, and the strong aura had only increased in strength - From the usual whispering it had turned into a manticore’s roar. It had slowly increased beyond a point where she would have to concentrate for it. For the first time, though, there was another sound aside from the steady sound of hooves rushing down a marble staircase. Now, the sound of chanting and armor somewhere in the distance above them mixed into the melodic chorus. Abruptly their journey stopped in front of a thick marble door. Not a wooden door, not an iron door, but instead a beautifully chiselled marble door. Behind it, she could feel the aura pulsing intensely. Before they strode in, Rarity had a bit of time to inspect the wonderful carvings. It showed a circle of unicorns all standing around what seemed to be a giant altar. On top of the altar another unicorn, the carvings implying great power or beauty. With a slow rumbling noise, the door was slowly pushed to the side by Twilight’s magic. Although there had been no obvious way to open the door other than levitation magic, the sudden screech screaming into everypony’s ears made it seem as if Twilight was breaking some ancient mechanism. After the horrible sound was gone, it took a couple of heartbeats until Rarity’s hearing had returned to a point at which she could perceive the steady clanging of the Changelings’ armor. “Uhhh, shiny!” Although what had been said had been nothing but Pinkie’s usual reaction to anything that was particularly shiny, Rarity couldn’t have said it any better. The entire room was brightly lit in red by six giant rubies hung in the ceiling. However, not just any raw rubies, but instead most delightfully carved jewels. Instead of being in one solid piece only the edges were left over, presenting the shining red outline of a dodecahedron. Inside of each jewel was a source of light, which spread the light throughout the whole room. In the middle of the room was a hexagonal pedestal made from a dark red marble. It was a room of beauty, presenting it’s core in every possible manner of design. The entire room seemed to flow towards this pedestal, every line drawing her view in to it. At the same time as her brain was simply stunned by the visual design, the visual perfection of this room, her horn was instead drawn in towards the middle of the room. She couldn’t help but to step up the golden stairs leading to the pedestal. Her horn tingled in excitement as the source of the overwhelming aura came closer and closer with each step she took. The aura surrounded her fully now, allowing her to indulge in the wonderful tingling feeling in her horn. She closed her eyes for a minute, just going with the feeling, letting her body react naturally to the surrounding magic, drawing her ever closer. The strong aura felt like a bright sun burning before her, pleasurable warmth radiating in all directions. When Rarity opened her eyes again, she expected to see a giant gemstone, radiating with the most wonderful aura she had ever felt. Instead, the aura came from the empty pedestal. Rarity couldn’t help but to feel betrayed by the golden plating on the marble, where clearly once had been an object of great beauty. She was strangely disappointed, almost as if somepony had denied her the great trophy, even though whatever had been there had never been hers. Instead of holding a grudge against it, though, she decided to bath further in the aura. ”It’s not here? IT. IS. NOT. HERE?!” Twilight’s voice cracked as she screamed the last words. As Rarity turned around, she was slightly shocked at the flames of anger burning in Twilight’s eyes. The lack of sleep really didn’t do her well. After this little mission, Rarity would most definitely get Twilight a nice long relaxing mudbath. “Well, at least we now know it was here once.” Pinkie replied, not without pulling a detective hat and a matching pipe out of her mane. Either Pinkie’s mane was filled with all sorts of junk or it was some undiscovered portal. With Pinkie’s ‘Pinkie sense’, the latter seemed awfully probable. “Yeah, but now we are trapped down here!” Rainbow Dash replied while Twilight started searching around frantically, mumbling something into her mane from time from time. Rarity, however, continued to sense the aura, almost like a perfume you couldn’t get enough of. It was just so… good. “Twilight! Can y’all help me with this darn door?” It was clearly Applejack’s voice, strained from the exhaustion of trying to push the marble doors back into their place. A distant voice, a voice lost in time. Rarity closed her eyes again and listened to the silence in her thoughts. The image of the radiating red amulet slowly pushed itself through the thick black fog behind her closed eyelids, its warmth encompassing her soothingly. Somewhere in the distance she could hear the sickening screeching of the marble doors, but it was all so far away. It was so bright, so warm and it only got brighter and warmer. “We are trapped!” somepony yelled somewhere. Rarity was at her very core now, and there was no worry to be had, everything blown into the distance by the amulet. Her body started tingling as the amulet got closer and closer, electrifying her body. She had to admit that the feeling was really pleasurable. Her breath started to come out in short, soft pants as her body seemed to radiate enjoyment. The air had become so hot though, that her attempts to grasp air only resulted in burning lungs. Her body still felt so incredibly good, but her lungs seemed to fail their purpose. Something as cold as ice suddenly touched her body, forcing her to open her eyes. Twilight stared directly into her eyes, but the flame seemed to have made place for fear and concern. It took Rarity a moment to realize that Twilight was moving her mouth, but she could just not hear whatever Twilight was trying to say. Rarity looked around, confused as to where they actually were. The warmth of the sun warmed her entire body and it seemed to be very bright here. As Rarity looked around, she slowly realized that they all were somewhere in the black desert. The sky was blue and cloudless, but it wasn’t hot as wind blew softly over their bodies. Well, cloudless except for the strange red streak spreading through the sky above them. “Wow, that was awesome!” burst out her pegasus friend, while Twilight didn’t seem as enthusiastic about their great escape: “I… It could have killed us…” “I ahm sure as hay that you just saved us, darlin’ . If those fiends would’ve gotten into the room, we would’ve had one huge problem on our hooves dealin’ with those darn insects - no offense.” For the first time in - something above an hour - the Changeling opened his mouth to speak: “None taken.” Even though before she hadn’t noticed it, now the Changeling seemed strangely creepy for not having talked in such a long time. “I would actually prefer not even being mentioned with them in one sentence, though. I … I am still not used to the idea of actually… well… being one.” A bit more quietly he added “Sometimes it doesn’t let me sleep at night.” Now, for the first time she was eerily reminded of the fact that that Changeling had once been a normal pony. How would she feel if she would be transformed into such an… strange animal? Those Changelings… were they all once normal ponies? That couldn’t possibly be… Maybe just the big ones? Speaking of things she wondered about, though: “Do you also see that giant red cloud above us? I…” “A giant red cloud? Erm…” Rainbow Dash looked up into the sky and waved her hoof around. “I don’t see anything.” “Well, it could be an aftereffect of the teleportation spell I used to get us out of there…” Twilight suggested, her voice still strained from exhaustion. “... but I really doubt it… I see it too.” “Are you serious?” yelled Rainbow Dash. Applejack was a bit calmer about the situation, even though her expression was still filled with concern. “Darlin’, somethin’ might have messed with ya head there…” “Ermm… Give me a second, girls.” Without further explanation, Twilight just jumped into the air and with a couple of flaps of her wings she was gone. You could see on Rainbow’s face that she wanted to follow Twilight, but she kept her hooves on the ground nonetheless. After soaring through the cloud for a couple of seconds, Twilight came gliding down again. It was incredible to see how fast she had mastered the art of flight, gliding effortlessly through the air. Rarity had to admit that she was a tiny bit jealous of the freedom that flight presented. Usually she would have satisfied the monster inside by telling it that she had magic. Now, that would have worked if Twilight had not been an alicorn. Now she was left with a nagging beast inside and she couldn’t do much more than to simply suppress her envy. “Okay, almost what I had thought. It seems to be some kind of physical manifestation of the aura that has some kind of interference with our horns. I… I don’t really why it’s there and why we can see it, but it must mean something?” She ended her sentence sounding rather questioning instead of her usual determination. “What now?” Everypony turned around to the pink pony from whom had come this unexpected question. Pinkie wasn’t the kind of pony to ask such important question, but then again she was probably the only one direct enough to ask it this plain out. Well, the question was actually quite hard to answer. Nopony had thought about what to do afterwards or -as it was the case- when they failed their mission. “We could follow the crazy candy colored cloud trail…” Pinkie Pie suggested. With no real other trace, that may be their only option. It felt weird to rely on a strange, unknown phenomenon that had just appeared seconds ago, but what else should they do? Just turn around and leave their business unfinished and let the nightmares continue to torment their dear friend until the end of time? No, they would venture out into the unknown, an odyssey of danger, a romantic adventure that would lead them to the end of the world.