//------------------------------// // Chapter 13. Hearts and Dreams. // Story: The Zerging of Equestria // by Runa //------------------------------// SPOILER ALERT!!!! for, A Nightmare in Equestria. I nudged the body to wakefulness. The body was still in working order, which was odd. I wondered at the properties of the flame which the entity had burned us with. The eye opened, and I saw a ceiling made of stone. I commanded the body to rise. As I did so, I checked on the state of Dahaka. We may have had disagreements, but Dahaka was still the overarching force which, in a strange way, I had to obey. Dahaka was unconscious. Those memories that the entity known as Johnny had given him were still assaulting him. I fully righted myself and saw a cell door. I heard groaning behind me. I turned and saw the entity known as Johnny. I turned away and began to study the door for ways to break it. I heard the entity say, “”Uggh, you mother bugger, making me do things on my vacation.” And then I heard the entity crack his joints behind me. I thought of how the entity's body could be improved. I found a rusty section and began sawing away at it with a razor sharp claw. The entity started walking towards me, and said, ”You know, I’ve yet to find someone who would lock the door to an empty dungeon.”” The entity stopped about a meter behind me. I replied, “But why would it be unsealed? It would not make sense to keep a containment chamber unsealed.” The entity sighed, something that seemed to be common to humans, tapped me on the shoulder, something that I considered attacking him for, and directed my attention to the rest of the dungeon. It then said, ”Can you count how many prisoners are currently in here?” I replied, “Zero. And while I can see why you would make such an argument, they would probably have taken into account the probability of something like this happening.” I finished cutting through that part of the bar, then selected another part of the same bar. The entity replied, ”Yes, they took precautions for those teleporting into the cell, obviously. I mean, it’s not like anything that could teleport in could do the same to leave.” I paused for a moment, thinking on the paradoxical word’s, then replied, “You are either using sarcasm, or you are extremely dense. But either way, the possibility of a situation like ours is not negligible.” I heard the sound of the entity’s hand making contact with its face, what is the purpose of such an action? The entity then said, ”Right, well, I’m going to grab your shoulder in a few moments so don’t freak out on me or anything.” In the time before his hand came into contact with my body, I considered dodging. But the entity didn’t seem to be intent on hurting the body, so I let its hand touch the body. We caught on fire again, something that was extremely displeasurable. We burned up, and rematerialized in what was probably the entity’s home. There was a Timberwolf pup in the shack, it growled at me. I then said, “Never do that again. It is unpleasant in the extreme.” The entity chuckled, pointed to a root, thd said, ”Just sit on that root for a bit, I’ll be right back.” He then went down a flight of stairs while I contemplated telling him that it was anatomically impossible to sit. The Timberwolf pup advanced toward me when he was out of sight, and tried to bite me. I slapped the pup across the floor, considering killing it. It then got back up and tried the same thing again. This time I picked it up while it squirmed. I then used one hand to hold it while the other was poised to strike. But the entity came back up the stairs. I turned and saw an anchor. I dropped the pup as I considered that the likelihood of me obtaining the anchor would be increased by not killing it. The entity gained an expression, which I believed to be ‘smirking’, and held up the anchor in one hand. He then said, “”You’re a leader of sorts, let’s see how well you can negotiate.” I responded quickly, only taking a millisecond to make a response, as I believed to know what the entity’s ‘prime directive’ was. “You seem to think that I was made with negotiation in mind. But it also seems that you wish for things to die. My return to my realm will mean the death of many things. And I will be able to come back here to kill many things. I think that having things die is your prime directive. So by letting me have the anchor, I will be able to help you fulfill your prime directive.” he grabbed a chair, turned it around, and sat on it as he looked at me. it then said, ”Look Optimus,” He held up two claws after moving the egg to its other hand, ”I only want two things from you. Death was never really my main objective but everyone likes to think so and I can’t be bothered to correct them.” He scraped his claw along one of the walls, drawing a crude picture of what I assumed to be me. ”First thing I want, is to give you a backdoor.” I replied, “But why do you want this? I am not of your concern.” He replied in kind, ”Think about it, it is inevitable that when Daka wakes up you’re going to be nothing but a voice in his head. I just want to give you some way of influencing things, nothing too big but just enough so that you can get out your own small commands that he won’t know about.” “It would help my directive to have a, as you put it, ‘back door’. Dahaka has not let the swarm grow. Evolve yes, but not in ways to help the Swarm overcome and consume all.” He clapped my hand and claw together, not seeming to care as he accidentally cut a finger off half way. ”Fantastic then, on to my second request since you can’t have the first without it.” It then had a flame in its hand, which resolved into an unpainted pony doll. The finger caught fire, melting the finger back together. I considered getting some of his biomass to study. ”I would also like you, Prime.” He seemed to think over his words a bit before chuckling and continuing. ”Not in the way you probably thought. What I meant was, when I give you a backdoor I would also like to copy your personality over to this toy. Copy, not move in case you were wondering.” I was confused when he said, ‘Not in the way you probably thought’, but I dismissed it. I didn’t see any problem with the rest of it though, and I wanted some Biomass, so I said, “I see nothing objectionable to copying myself onto a toy. But first, could I have a skin sample? I would like to study your essence.” The entity instantly replied, ”Sure, on the condition that Dahaka does not learn of your… ‘secret project’ until you’ve made something from it.” I added more to the equation. “I would like a section from your brain, heart, and skin. Just the skin would be fine, but the other two will make things go faster.” He thought on it for a moment before shrugging and standing up. Placing his hat on the back of the chair before throwing his sweater on it. Then it said, ”I have no idea what you could use a dead heart for, but I might as well. I’m not really using it anyway.” “So I take it that I can have the whole heart then?” He nodded and placed a claw on his chest. he slowly carved an ‘x’ in the middle of it near the bottom of his neck and pushed his hand in. After a while, his hand reemerged, holding a beating heart. ”Well,” He said panting a bit. The wound seared back together as he said, ”I can’t say that is something I wish to do again, so hurry up and take it before I decide I no longer wish to literally give you my heart that is currently both achey and brakey.” I quickly took the heart, and put it in a pouch on my back for later analysis. “Now for the brain and skin.”He growled at me a bit. ”Do not push your luck right now. I feel empty enough as it is.” “Just the skin then?” He relented and scraped a bit off his arm, before chucking it at me, and putting his sweater back on. I quickly snatched the skin up and put it into the same pouch that his heart was now in. he quickly put his hat back on and grabbed the egg. ”Alright, you got your end of the deal, now it’s my turn. So lie down or something and get sleeping.” I watched the entity go down the stairs, then I made the brain go into a sleeping state. This was something that I had never experienced before. The restful silence was... unnerving. I then began to feel like I was drowning in nothingness. I needed something, ANYTHING to give me substance. I regressed to something that was a part of me, I formed a hive around myself. I didn’t know how I did it, but I did it. Now I was in something, but I still needed something more, so I pulled something more out of myself. I formed manifestations of the essences that I had worked so hard all my existence on. So I began to work. I began analysis of the entity’s essence. But I paused as I thought back on what had happened, had I really just had emotion? But I dismissed it. But there was evidence that dreaming had affected me on some level. I decided that I would never do this ever again. It was then that I felt something reach into me, and with a wrenching sensation, pull out something which I had no words for. I felt empty, lost, gone. But I felt it as something was done to what was pulled out, and heard the ‘snip’. I would have writhed in agony, but the pain was so acute, and so basic, that I was paralyzed. I then felt it as something completely alien was put where the thing was cut once was. It was then that I began to writhe. I felt the hive begin deteriorate. I started reaching for the brain, wanting all of this to end. I felt the anchor in here, somehow. I quickly both started to activate the brain, and to activate the anchor. The anchor sparked first, and the brain soon after. The first thing that I felt after awakening was having a nydus worm swallow me. I then felt Dahaka wake up. So let myself introvert to stabilize, or pass out.