"For the last time Chrysalis, no!"
"It’s not much! Only 30 pounds!"
"30 pounds of love is not 30 pounds of relief!"
"If you won’t help me then sister Carcen will!"
I was standing at the main gate of Ralisea's hive when a peeved off Chrysalis stormed out with 4 of her guards behind her.
"Ok, what did I miss?"
Zmbreca, the queen of this hive, looked up at me with relief. "Oh Radar, thank the gods your here. Chrysalis came in asking for 30 pounds of emotion to fill there gap. When I denied her, she started a scuffle"
I looked around in the main hall and saw timbers almost as thick as a well-trained solder holding the rock roof up had been torn into more than half way through, some of the decorative stuff like potted plants were shattered and paintings of past hive queens had been turned to shards of emotion jell.
"Must have been one hell of a scuffle, Zmbreca" I said. "Need help with the clean up?"
"Help with replacing those timbers would most certainly help. But I’m more worried about the next hive she goes to." she replied.
"I would think the same, being a little more desperate can create a lot of problems and if she did this here..." I trailed off.
"She could end up starting a civil war between changelings." Zmbreca finished. "She said that she was going to get help from Carcen, and I know that for a fact that she won’t be able to spare the emotion with the new queen on the way."
"Ah yes, she is expecting a new nymph. Which would put her at greater risk if she says no." I said.
"Which is why I want you to get there first," she added. "You are more than capable of helping her out if things do turn farther south than they have here" she said, looking around the room where drones were cleaning the room and preparing to replace the wooden struts.
"I shall do my best." I said before turning out.
................................................................................................................................................
I was running down one of the dirt paths the ponies used to reach Carcen's hive when a stampede of cows came down at me. Not having the time, I roared making them all run the other way. As I started off again, applejack came out of nowhere, not like pinkie pie, but still.
"Hey, I could use some strength here ta help the stampede stop!" she said.
"I truly wish I could but I got things to do," I said. I was about to ask how her brother was after the accident when she ran the other way to catch the stampede.
"I will never understand those ponies" I said to myself.
Back in the everfree forest, I was running to the mountain where Carcen' hive was. The entrance was on the other side, making it so I would have to go around the mountain for the most part. Hopefully Chrysalis wouldn’t dare take flight out here to speed up her time.
When I reached the front gate, which was covered in thick vines and bushes. A dreadnought Changeling stepped out to investigate the rumbling I had caused. Dreadnought changelings were about 3 times the size of a queen. But dreds were more bronze then brains and could barely think outside commands and hardly spoke complicated sentences. It gave a low threatening rumble and released 3 high pitched shrills back into the cave. I returned the rumble with the same monotone and shook my head. Seeing I was friendly, the oversized changeling released two low rumbles into the cave as 10 guards came out.
"I shall get the queen and tell her of your arrival." one said.
"I would prefer that she stay where she is, there are some pressing matters I must speak with her about." I replied.
"As you wish, Radar."
I stepped lightly as I entered. The main hallway was decorated more so then most others in different hives. They had created a smooth flooring with a pattern of different shades of lime green emotion gel, which was easy to crack if hit to hard. The door ways that lead to other parts of the hive were decorated with arches and cloths as doors. The ceiling had well-made chandlers made from gel that was supported by scrap metal. On the end of each branch, was a bio-luminescing form of gel that could light up a large area. Carcen worked hard on decoration and was just making the emotions to feed all of the hive. She liked decorating but she never went over 150 pounds a time when there was a good amount stock piled.
"Right this way, sir" a solder said as he walked down the hallway. We soon came to a large doorway like the one in the canterlot palace. The solder put his horn into a small hole and light spilled through cracks. Light clicking sounds were made to alert whoever was inside that it was being opened.
"One moment, I must see if she is busy." the guard said.
"Please hurry, my news is rather important" I said.
The guard slipped inside and closed the door. I could only hear muffling because of how thick the door was. "The queen may see you now" he said upon his return.
I carefully walked in as the large doors opened. In the middle of the room on the far end, Carcen was laying down on her bed with an assortment of emotional crystals with different shades of green. Her room was lavish with carpeting and mock windows with large bio-luminescing shards of emotion jell behind them enchanted to dim with the sun. I could see from where I stood that her stomach extended about 4 inches on both sides to accommodate the unborn queen. When she looked up and saw me, she had a surprised and worried look on her face.
"Radar, this is a surprise," she said as she looked back into the main hall worriedly.
"I stepped as lightly as I could, nothing got damaged." I said, knowing what she was thinking.
"Oh thank the gods I was about to kill something if I had to replace those tiles." she said with relief.
"Well with what’s coming, that may happen." I said.
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"You remember Chrysalis, right?" I asked.
"Sadly yes," she replied, remembering the events of the last queen meeting. "What is she up to now?"
"Her hive is 30 pounds under their limit, she went to Zmbreca's hive for help and when she turned her down, she started a fight." I said.
"No changeling was hurt now was there?" she asked.
"Not that I know of but there was some major damage, any potted plant was shattered, paintings got shredded and supporting struts had almost been blown in half. And that’s what I saw at first glance." I said. “And before she left her hive, she said that you would help."
"I can’t spare a single ounce" she said "I need as much as possible to keep my strength up with the little one on the way" she said as she looked down at her belly.
"Which is why Zmbreca sent me here, to keep any problems from getting out of hand." I said.
"I hope for both of my sake and the hives sake, that you won’t be needed." she said. "But I have no energy to handle her if things do go down the mountain."
"My queen," a guard said as he walked in, he bowed and looked up to her, "Chrysalis has arrived to talk with you."
"You think you can handle this?" I asked.
"No I do not, but with how determined she is, there is no way around It." she replied, "send her in."
"Yes my queen."
"I shall be by your side for this," I said, trying to soak up the peaceful rest while I could. I walked over and carefully laid down next to her bed. "Do not worry."
The doors locks started to click as the bolts came out of there pins. When the door was unlocked, two of Carcen's guards opened the doors to allow Chrysalis and her 4 guards in, giving them a wide birth.
"Radar" she said in surprise, "I was not expecting you to be here as well."
"It is best to expect the unexpected around me" I said.
"Well, perhaps you can wait outside as I talk with Carcen for a moment." she said.
"Why would I do that? I do not wish to damage the floor with extended periods of high weight on them and I wish to comfort her with all the hormones going everywhere." I replied. Carcen looked at me with a smug smile that said 'good plan'.
"Ok, as you wish," she said. "So Carcen, I believe you have herd of out hives state." she started.
"No" Carcen said abruptly. Somehow, either those hormones were off the walls or she suddenly grew a pair.
"What?" Chrysalis asked, dismayed that Carcen had turned her down already.
"I don’t have the emotions to spare, dear sister. I had to stop all decoration production since I learned that I would be a mother." she said. I could sense anger from Chrysalis so I wiggled myself to be ready to block an attack.
"Oh please," Chrysalis mocked "you must have some storage somewhere. Where else could you get that plate?" she asked.
"These crystals are fresh from the collectors, we have almost no build up and everything must either go to the new queen’s development or to the families of my hive." she said sternly.
"I only need 30 pounds of love" she said with desperation in her voice.
"This hive lives on kindness," Carcen said. "In order to make up 30 pounds of love we would need almost a ton of kindness! A ton that we desperately need."
"If you must have the new queens development unchanged then I think the families could-"
"I will not take a ton of kindness from the families who make up this hive!"
....shit just got real.
"How would you know how to tend to the hive? You spend your time decorating it with emotion jell that could be used to become bigger!" Chrysalis shot.
"I do not wish to become over power, like you have, and have food shortages in the coming years." Carcen said calmly, regaining her figure.
"You know nothing about being queen!" she suddenly shouted. "And as a fellow queen, I shall relive you of your duty’s." she said as she lit up her horn for an attack.
I quickly lunged, moving my body so the armored plates would bounce the shot off of me. I moved as she shot the spell off and landed between the attack and Carcen. Instead of bouncing off, it detonated on my side, singing my sails. I rotated about to counter the attack and jumped at her.
I missed her as she went to flank but I took a guard who was charging an attack. I reared up and threw the guard at her, forcing her to fire prematurely, missing Carcen by a mile. Carcen made a B-line to the door and hurriedly unlocked it. When the door was opening, Chrysalis tried to force it closed with her magic. To counter this, I backed up so that my tail was in the way, giving Carcen just enough room to squeak by.
I heard her call for help and armor clattering to the seen. Ten solders came through the hole my tail had kept open and attacked her. She had to cut the spell and start to fight as I opened the doors wider and backed out. My tail was sore from the door being shoved into it but it was worth it. After a few seconds of rest, I waked over to the fight. When Chrysalis was about to slay a guard, I reached down and grabbed her main in my teeth, picking her up and off the floor, and out of the fight.
"Put me down you incomparable beast! Or I shall have you slain by my army!" she shouted.
In response, I swung my head back and sent her off the full length of the main hall and out the door. "Next time you come begging for emotions and start a fight, I’ll take your head off!" I bellowed after her, making the chandlers shudder.
Carcen walked up to me, flanked by 5 guards on each side. "Thank you for your assistance in this matter, mother will hear of this and she will be punished."
"I just hope she gets the message this time around." I said. Knowing that this would not be the last run in with her. Chrysalis’s four guards had started to sneak off when Carcen and her guards went looking. I walked to them and blocked there path. When they knew they were trapped, one with rusted armor walked up, "step aside or we will be forced to slay you."
"Son," I started, "you are going to need an army if you want to slay Me." some of Carcen's guards had trotted up and most held out iron rings that would serve as hoof cuffs.
"Then you leave me no choice." he said, he then lunged into the air, and dove down at me with a rough iron spear. I side stepped and he went into the floor. A lowed cracking resonated through the chamber when he hit. When he got up, Carcen's guards backed away as they saw that the cracking sound had come from the floor tiles.
Three tiles were completely destroyed and a fourth had been cracked in half. When Carcen saw what had happened, her eyes started to glow, but I swung my head in front of her. "You do not have the strength to continue the attack and to keep the new queen safe," I warned. "Best to let me handle this."
Her eyes returned to their original lime green and she stepped back, giving me a nod. I turned back to the changeling who had damaged the floor and looked right at him in the eyes. "I am going to give you the count of three to leave this hive before I make it so that they will bury you in an old soup can."
"You don’t scare me." he replied.
"3!" I said quickly as I scooped him up in my jaws.
"WHAT HAPPENED TO 1 AND 2?!?!" he yelled out. I bashed his head, which was hanging out of my teeth, into the wall twice. I increased the preacher and in less than a second, his exoskeleton cracked open. The taste of changeling blood had no effect on me, I didn’t like it nor did I hate it. As he screamed in pain, I through him at a Dreadnought who had arrived as support and the screams quickly stopped as he was impaled by the Dreads horn, nearly tearing him in half.
The other three changelings, after seeing what had happened to their comrade, stared in disbelief. "Ok you three, same deal, leave in three-" but before I finished, they all raced out of the hive like a bat out of hell.
"You couldn’t have done it any cleaner?" Carcen said, looking at the blood on the wall and now dripping off of the dread, who was trying to take the body off his horn.
"If I did it any cleaner then the other may have given more of a fight." I replied as I walked over to the dread to assist him. When I got there, I reached up with my hand and slowly lifted the body of the former guard off the dreads horn. A grope of guards came over and took the body into a bag so it could be disposed of, guards of an attacking hive were burned more often than not.
"So, anything else?" I asked Carcen.
"Well, now that you mention it, there has been some sort of havoc down in Ponyville and one of our collectors has been injured in the commotion." she stated, "I would like you to return her here if possible, she is with the other collectors as of now."
"Well, being the giant carnivore I am, how will I not attract attention?" I asked.
"She is on the outskirts of town at the moment, she is due to report in at one of the side caves soon, and she will have help by 2 other collectors, her pony Identity is..."
................................................................................................................................................
I walked to Ponyville with a store of relief set with healing powers on my tail, so thin, no one would notice it unless they put a high powered microscope up to it. I was walking around the outskirts of town, head held low to avoid being spotted when I saw a mare wandering to the forest. She appeared to be elder, had a brown coat and a white mane. I recognized her as Mayor Mare, the Mayor of Ponyville. She had a slight limp and was trying her best not to raze suspicion.
I walked to where she would most likely enter the forest and laid down. When she reached me, I let out a slight gurgle, startling her at first, but when she saw me, a wave of relief washed over the disguised changeling.
"My Radar, do not sneak up on me like that, I fear my hart cannot take much more." she said.
"Sorry about giving you the jumps, but Carcen has sent me with the relief package." I replied.
"Oh good, I was starting to think she had given up on me, being the old girl I Am." she replied.
"Now why would she give up on one of the most experienced relief collectors? Now let’s get to that contact cave so I can administer it." I replied. She was in fact, one of the older collectors and was due to retire within a year and start to train the new generation, but with all the ties she made in town, it would make things complicated.
"So what is your real name?" I asked her as I carried her in my right hand.
"My real name is Nita" she replied.
"Ok Nita, we are almost there, let’s hope we don’t get any more surprises or your hart may fail on us."
"Yes that would be very... oh what was the word, I just had it."
"Un-wishful?" I asked.
"Yes, un-wishful, to have that happen so close to safety."
when we reached the cave, a bright lime green fire enveloped her sowing a changeling, her neck fin had turned a much lighter shade of lime green with age and her eyes had darkened, her dorsal plate has also shown signs of wear and tear, becoming brittle as her time on the field came closer to an end, she also had a large gash in her exoskeleton that showed her vulnerable flesh, there was no blood which meant that the internal membrane had held.
The 2 other changelings were already at the cave and had a makeshift home set up. I put her down on the bed and shifted the healing emotions from my tail to my hand in a small stream, forming a good size crystal from one of my claws. One of the assisting drones took the crystal in his magic and administered it to Nita.
The gash slowly closed up as the crystal shrunk to nothing. When it was done, Nita moved her leg as to test it. "Much better."
"I hope so, we need what we can get for the queen." one of the drones said.
"Well, I think it’s time to get you back before they notice your missing." I said. "I can take you to the edge of the forest."
................................................................................................................................................
That day had come and gone as the moon rise over the mountains. I was sitting next to Luna at canterlot palace. The guards on duty went into a full 'headless chicken panic' mode when I walked up but thankfully, Celestia was at the gate to ashier them I was no harm, but most still didn’t trust me.
As I sat under the arch on the open balcony, as to not make it tear off and fall, I thought about what to say. She had been back barely a week and I could tell that the mental and physical strain had been doing quite the number on her.
"So,” started, "is this one of your works," I said looking up at the night time sky, "or is it a forgery?".
"I helped, but sister help mostly." she replied.
"Don’t worry, you will get back into gear sooner or later." I replied back.
"How dose thou, err... How does one... no, not that..." she said, trying to fixate on the new way the pony talked.
"How do you" I said, "its 'how do you know'".
"Thank tho-you" she said, catching herself.
"I know because everything, mortal and immortal, evolved into their surroundings, look at me, I have gone as far away from the last time we saw each other 1000 years ago. And I haven’t been known about until a week ago."
"Perhaps tho-oh cursed, you, have a point." she said. She looked up at me and had a puzzled look on her face. "But how will the ponies in the town thing about me?"
"For the time being, they will think you are some sort of monster, but given time, that image will fade away." I said.
"I know, but my past has been too painful for them to forget easily."
"The past, is history, while the future , is a mystery, but now, is a gift, that is why they call it the present" I said.
"Who told you that?" she asked.
"Some crazy old turtle." I replied.
She gave a light chuckle and got up, "it is time I begin to reattach myself to this new equestria, so I have some studying to catch up on."
"And I guess I’ll take my leave my self, don’t need the day shift to come in thinking I’m trying to eat you." I said.
"That would be most unpleasant, perhaps I shall see you the next sunrise?"
“It’s called 'tomorrow' and perhaps." I replied. As I was leaving, I could hear her rolling the work 'tomorrow' around in her mouth.
................................................................................................................................................
I was back at my lake. A fresh hydra laid near me. It had died on the beach and was here when I came, so I filled my stomach and laid down on a large area of trampled foliage that was where I sleep. I had so much going through my mind that I didn’t see Rainbow dash come into the area.
"Hey, Radar, you awake?" she asked suddenly. Drifting back from the dream world I was just entering, I looked at the multi colored pegasi.
"Well, I am now, what do you need?" I asked, still half asleep.
"Well, I was flying by when I saw you going to canterlot castle when I saw a burn mark on your side." she said.
If I wasn’t awake then, I was now, and the only thing I thought 'aw crap'.
"Ya, what about it?" I asked, making myself sound sleepy to avoided suspicion.
"Well, I know your big, and can have a bit of an anger problem." she said, "but I was wondering how you got a burn like that."
"A dragon got a bit mad," I said, "just got grazed by him in the fight but he left."
"Ok," she said. "How come you didn’t get me?"
"Ok, let’s look at the options," I said, "one, fight a dragon alone and drive him off. Or two, call in a pegasi who could only way at least 100 pounds to a fight where two giants who way more than 20 tons each were fighting in."
"So, you were trying to keep your man hood."
"I guess you could call it that."
"So, you ok? You seem kind of tensed or something." she asked.
"I’m fine," I said, "just trying to figure out how my life will go now that you ponies are in it."
"Well, I’ll make it ausumer." she said.
"I don’t think that’s a word."
"Well, it is now." she said. "Well, just wanted to see how you were doing so..."
"Ok, why did you really come here?" I asked. It was her turn to be shocked.
"Well, when I first saw you, you were like, an unstoppable beast that would eat a god if he wanted to. Now, you are like some sort of genital giant. I was wondering, which one you were."
"Well, it depends on my mood. When I first saw you, you were attacking my friend". I said. “now, I would like to get some sleep" I said, adding a yawn to get my point across.
"Oh ya, well, don’t ov-" by then, I had fallen asleep.
.......................................................................................................................................................
The morning was like any other: wake up, get some food, drink, and work on my home to make it more comfortable, as long as something didn’t tear through and make problems.
The sky was dark with clouds so I was working on the shelter I made some time ago. And by some time, I mean about 300 years ago. It had a leaky roof so I just took a tree worth of branches and put them on the spot of where the leak was. When I had finished the checkup, the rain started. I backed into it and laid down, the ponies didn’t need to deal with this. They controlled the weather in those parts. Here, Mother Nature took its cores and rained at random, or so it seemed.
In the shelter, I started to think about the past. Memory’s came up and ideas from the past emerged.
.................................................................................................................................................
The night was young when I walked through the forest. I had been having those pains again that meant I was evolving again. So I relaxed some form a 20 foot tall carnivore could find. The two, three foot horns above my eyes lead the path as I trumped through the mud, as it had been raining recently. I was climbing a mountain path up to a Plato when I heard something behind me. When I turned to look, there was a Manticore behind me. Knowing what would happen in a fight with one of them, I ran up the mountain at 40 mph as the beast chased me, but fell back.
When I dared look back. I ran right into a large bolder that popped in from nowhere. My horns ached from the hit but I kept going. I didn’t know what it was but some sort of sound came from the path up ahead. When I approached it, I came to a line of bushes that appeared to be rather well maintained. Hoping nothing was behind them, I poked my head through them to find an ode arrangement of materials and more bushes that were smaller and had appeared to have been uprooted and placed in white cloth.
I looked around when I spotted some sort of waterfall in the center of it all, in a circle and white with granite, it had some sort of creature on top carved in stone. When I took a closer look, I saw another creature at its base, perhaps it was getting a drink. But upon further inspection, I found that it has wings and one horn on its forehead. It had a dark blue coloring to it and was rather small. About 4.5 feet.
I realized that I was in the land of self-proclaimed mammals that called themselves 'ponies'. I knew them, but I don’t think they knew me, making my presence a rather un-comfortable one, but I stayed in the bush. The 'pony' by the waterfall seemed to be upset about something as it had barely moved and emitted some sort of sounds, faint, but still there. 'Perhaps it needs help' I thought to myself.
Making the least amount of damage to the bush as possible, I slowly walked up to it. I had reached about 30 feet to it when it must have herd something and turned at me. A look of horror fell on its face and the horn suddenly glowed. I started to back up in surprise but suddenly a beam of light was expelled from the mammal’s horn. I swung sideways to try to dodge it but took the hit, nocking me off my feet.
When I tried to get back up, the mammal was staring right at me. "Why doth thou attack me?" it replied in a famine voice, soft but in control.
She thought I was attacking her, how could I have missed that?
I stayed on the ground, trying to think of a way to speak there language or communicate at least, when some sort of serpent came out of nowhere. It looked like someone went into a zoos graveyard, dug up parts of the animals, and put them together to make this.
"So, thou has had fun at thou wedding?" it said, in a tone that sounded mockingly.
"Discord, what has thou done." she replied.
"Oh nothing of importance, just switched the grooms feeling for you," it replied.
"Have thou not tormented me enough?" the pony asked.
"I’m only getting started, my dear Luna." this discord said. So her name was Luna. That part I had learned. But then it appeared that discord was walking closer to Luna as she tried to back away, but a dark dome took shape above us, secluding them from any outside interruptions.
So, seeing I was the only one able to help, I lunged at discord and landed a hit on his hip with my left horn. Luna jumped back in surprise as discord yelled in pain. I backed away and swung at him with my spiked tail. He tried to doge but has the outer most spike land a hit about 3 feet above the first wound that was gushing a large amount of blood now. I backed off to see where I stood in this fight. Discord had 2 major holes in him and the look of shock and fear were on his face.
I gave off a quick roar, trying to make him back down. He may have been taller than me, but I was about 5 tons and he had to be less than one. Having the advantage, I started to circle him, studying him. He twisted to try to watch me but he winced as his wounds protested. When he turned to look at them, that’s when I strike.
I rushed at him, reaching a good 20 miles per hour in the sort distance and jumped at him, both feet leading and my 4 clawed hands reedy to tear into him. When I made contact, he disappeared and reappeared behind me. When I turned to face him, some sort of wood that felt cold wrapped around me. I struggled to get out but to no prevail.
"Perhaps that should calm thou foul beast!" discord yelled. As he charged up a final attack, a light beam struck him in the side of the head. I looked over to where the beam came from to find Luna, standing strong. At this point, I started up my radar, something I had ever since I was a multi-celled organism. I let it charge up as discord got up from the hit Luna had put on him. When he had his full attention on her, I let the sound wave out.
It hit him and sent him through the black dome. Luna used a light beam to unwind the cold tree that I was in and ran to discord, I did the same.
"You may have won this round," he said, I noticed that his wounds were healing and were almost gone. "But in the end, you all shall die." he said before he disappeared.
I looked behind me to make sure he wasn’t there when Luna spoke. "Thou has saved me," she started. "But you are only a beast from the forest, how could thou care, or even understand me?"
I tried to think of how to reply, when a thought crossed my mind. What would happen if I channeled the sound from my radar into waves like she did from her mouth? So I gave it a try.
"e-expect Th-the unkno-unknown from m-me" I stammers with my first words, which sounded as deep as they could get.
"Thou can speak?!?" Luna said, surprised.
"Ju-just start-starting to." I replied.
"Now perhaps I may properly thank thou for the service."
"No n-need," I started. "Al-all I ask I-is that tho-thou do o-one thi-thing"
"What would this be?" she asked.
"Thou mu-must never sp-speak of m-me to oth-others," I said, "No hun-hunters re-required."
"It shall be done" she said.
................................................................................................................................................
I came out of the memory as a lightning bolt landed near the shelter. Today was going to be a long day...