//------------------------------// // Free Labor // Story: The Red Cyclone // by Onomonopia //------------------------------// "What in the infernal hell do you mean that you haven't found Zangief?!" Chrysalis screamed at the guard in front of her, her mane a blazing, green inferno while the guard cowered on the floor before her. "You have got to be kidding me! How do you not find a being that not only can't be mistaken for anything else, but is also that freakin' huge! It's like losing an Ursa in the middle of a town! Why the hell did you even let him out in the first place?!" "I-I'm sorry your highness, but he was just so large and imposing that my partner and I were afraid that if we didn't do what he wanted he would eat us," the changeling guard cowered as he stared straight down at the floor, mortified of what the queen would do to him for his failure. "So we snuck him onto a cart that was heading out of the hive and didn't think anything else of it." "Urgh, I didn't give that idiot enough credit, he's smarter than I thought," Chrysalis mumbled to herself as she sat back in her throne and closed her eyes, wondering what she should do next. "Get out of my sight before I decide to eat you myself!" The guard bowed and sprinted from the throne room, leaving the queen alone with her daughter. "Insectum, you talked to Zangief. Did he give you any hints as to where he might have gone if he fled?" "Sorry mom, but he didn't say anything like that, he mostly just bragged and looked confused," Insectum said softly as she slightly hid behind her notebook in the face of her mothers wrath. Chrysalis sighed as she wrapped a hoof around her daughters neck and pulled her into a quick hug before rising to her hooves and walking towards the window. "Darnitall, that mammoth of an idiot was going to be our ticket to finally one up the ponies, but now he's run off to Faust knows where's he gotten to now," Chrysalis grumbled to herself as the harsh sun beat down on the black and green ruin that rested before her eyes. "Guess it is my fault though, I wasn't exactly a gracious host. I should've just eaten his love and chucked him back out." "Don't talk like that mom, you're too kind to do that," Insectum said as she pressed herself against one of Chrysalis's legs. "I know, but don't let me catch you telling any other changeling that. I have a reputation to uphold after all," Chrysalis responded with a smirk as she nuzzled her daughter. The moment of compassion was interrupted when yelling could be heard outside the castle in the streets below, causing the two to separate as they both stuck their heads out the window. "I can't see what's going on! Stay here Insectum while I..." "Queen Chrysalis!" a guard yelled as he burst into the throne room, skidding across the floor until he came to a stop in front of the queen. But to Chrysalis's surprise, there was a huge smile on his face, something she was not used to seeing. "You have to come quick. I don't think you're going to believe what you'll see." Chrysalis and Insectum both pushed past him and ran for the exit, Chrysalis blowing the doors to her castle open as the two ran out to see the sight...and neither one of them could believe their eyes. Hundreds of changelings were in the streets, all of them looking towards the center of the square with huge smiles on their faces as they all laughed and cheered. But Chrysalis barely noticed that as she looked towards the center of the square, where all eyes should have been drawn. Standing on top of a cart stood the massive Russian frame of one Zangief, who was laughing with sheer delight as he reached down into the cart and chucked out red potions into the crowd, which were then caught and immediately drunken by the happy changelings. "Are those...love potions?" Insectum asked her mother with absolute disbelief in her voice, Chrysalis unable to answer as all she could do was stare dumbfounded at the sight before her. Zangief threw another handful of bottles into the crowd before he turned to see Chrysalis and Insectum, his smile growing even wider at the sight of them. "Pozdravleniya! Welcome to the party!" Zangief laughed as he reached down and grabbed two vials of potion out of one of the crates before chucking them at Chrysalis and Insectum, both of who caught the vials with their magic. They both blankly stared at the genuine love potions for a moment before back to Zangief, who was now on a knee as he gently gave some vials to children that had come for food. Insectum looked up at her mother with hunger in her eyes, her mother nodding before both of them drank the potions, letting out a sigh as their hunger was momentarily quelled. "What the hell are you doing back here?!" Chrysalis yelled as she marched over to Zangief, the crowd parting before her so she could walk right up to him without interference. "I was told that you had escaped, that you had fled from my empire!" Zangief threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh to the sky at her words. "Nonsense! You told me that you were having trouble with bandits that were taking your people's food, so I went and took your food back! I would have been back sooner, but unfortunately I was under a tarp when I went to face them and did not know the route back, so I may have been lost for a day," Zangief said with a shrug and another laugh before he reached down and busted open another crate with his hands, lifting numerous love potions into the air. "Now come and eat my friends, for there is plenty for all!" "Hold on a moment," Insectum butted in as the crowd let out a loud cheer at Zangief's words. "You went into the wasteland and battled a hoard of bandits all to bring back food for the creatures that not only imprisoned you, but waned to use you as a bartering chip and threatened to eat you? Why?" "Because we are friends, you and I!" Zangief laughed as he hefted two more crates onto his arms, cracking them open with a flex of his biceps much to the amazement of the crowd. He continued to distribute the potions to all who asked while Insectum tried to make sense of his words. "And friends help each other!" Zangief finished as he tossed two more bottles to the royalty. "When did we become friends?" Insectum asked after wolfing down her bottle. "When you gave me food back in the castle! Now I return the favor comrade! Drink up!" Insectum and Chrysalis both looked at him with utter disbelief in their eyes, his words still not entirely registering with them. "We chain him up, shoot at him, threaten to eat him and he forgets all of that and fights against bandits to feed us all because you let him have some chicken?" Chrysalis asked her daughter with no emotion in her voice, Insectum slowly nodding her head in reply. "He is beyond an idiot. He has to be the dumbest creature I have ever encountered." Insectum would have agreed, but then she saw two small changelings that were only skin and bone underneath their exoskeletons come up to the Red Cyclone for food. And to her surprise, she saw the hearty smile on Zangief's face be replaced by a smaller, but far more caring one as he reached down and tore open another crate that he placed before them, telling them that it was all theirs. And while she looked at the scene, her own soft smile spread on her face as she thought back to what he had said about children. "Maybe he is an idiot mother. But I have a feeling he uses his heart more than his brains." ←↙↓↘→↗+H Zangief was all the hive was talking about after he had brought back a cart filled to the brim with food and none of the changelings could think ill of him, except for Chrysalis who firmly believed that he was the dumbest being under the sun. But even she couldn't deny for that the first time in years morale was higher than it had been and she knew that she had to take advantage of the situation before things got worse again. 'And fortunately for me, it seems that the oaf is inclined to help do whatever little thing we ask for, if we put a little spin on it,' Chrysalis chuckled to herself as she sat on her throne, awaiting the Russian to enter through the doors. 'But while I wait might as well look for something that I can have him do for me. Let's see,' Chrysalis mused as she grabbed the checklist that Insectum made for her that rested besides her throne. 'Hmm, with his might I could trick him into helping us repair some of the buildings that have fallen into disrepair across the town. That actually doesn't seem like too bad an idea,' Chrysalis considered as she took a swing from the vial that rested on the table next to her. 'Maybe I should make him fight one of the wilderbeasts that plague us so. Would be fun to watch...no chrysalis, my changelings come before my own amusement.' her thoughts were cut off as the doors swung open and Zangief lumbered inside, a smile on his face as Insectum trailed behind him. "Greetings, Queen Chrysalis. I heard that you wished to have words with me?" Zangief asked as he crossed his arms. "Indeed I did Zangief. I wanted to apologize for the way I treated you when you first got here. I realize now how wrong of me it was," Chrysalis half sobbed with a tear in her eye. Both Zangief and Insectum looked at Chrysalis at disbelief, neither one believing the words that were coming out of her mouth. "I was only so cruel because I was so worried about my changelings starving." "What?" Insectum and Zangief both asked at the same time as Chrysalis wiped a tear away from her eye, both of them put off by the display. "However, I am afraid that there is still so much wrong with the changeling empire. The buildings are in disrepair and are constantly falling down around us," Chrysalis sadly said as she held a hoof to her head and leaned back, sighing sadly. "If only we had somepony who could help us in our hour of need." "Is it truly as bad as she says" Zangief asked Insectum, who gave him a slow nod while never taking her narrowed eyes off of her mother. Zangief lowered his chin onto his chest for a moment before he looked up with fire in his eyes. "Very well then! I shall go find someone who can help you rebuild your empire!" he yelled before turning towards the door. "I was talking about you, moron!" Chrysalis screamed at him before she caught herself and quickly became pitiable again. "I mean, you are just so strong and powerful that I am certain that you would be able to repair all of the buildings with little to no effort. Unless you believe them to be too much for you to handle?" Chrysalis was smiling on the inside when she saw the fire burn in Zangief's eyes at her words and she had to turn her head so he didn't see her snicker when he laughed. "You believe that something as trivial as lifting heavy objects or holding up buildings in a challenge to the mighty Red Cyclone?!" Zangief laughed with defiance in his voice as his fiery eyes glared defiantly at Chrysalis. "It will be no effort to me at all! As a matter of fact, I will use it to train myself to become even stronger! Just you watch Chrysalis, I shall show you what Russian might can do!" He lumbered out of the room with fire in his movements, slamming the doors behind him as he left. The moment he was gone Chrysalis fell over out of her throne and began to laugh on the floor, where he daughter looked at her with an eye roll. "That was far too easy! I can't believe that little performance actually worked!" Chrysalis cackled as she struggled to right herself, having to lean against her throne for support as her body was wracked with laughter. "I mean, I didn't even have to try with that. All I said was "hey, those buildings are stronger are too heavy for you" and he went off to show that they weren't! It's too good!" "So wait, did you just manipulate him into doing something for us that we should be doing?" Insectum asked with confusion. "For free, dear daughter, never forget the free part," Chrysalis sighed as she wiped a genuine tear away from her eye as she stood back up. "When you are ruler once I am gone, you will find that there are times when you'll have to trick others into doing things for you for the greater good of the hive. Besides, Zangief clearly showed that he had no objections to the idea and he'll use it as training. See? Everypony's happy." "I don't know how I feel about this," Insectum muttered before Chrysalis put a hoof around her shoulder and pulled her into a hug. "I mean, he just went out of his way to retrieve all of that food for us and now we're just going to manipulate him? It just doesn't feel right." "Second rule for when you become ruler, your morals go out the window," Chrysalis taut as she let her daughter go. "You do what's best for your people, no matter the cost or what you think is right. Now come on, how about we go scare some travelers?" insectum perked up at that and happily hopped onto her mothers back, the two of them flying out the window and off into the sky.