Changelings rushed back and forth through the underground fortress as they grabbed whatever medical supplies were within arms reach as they saw their glorious leader return looking like he had been crushed by an Ursa. Tenna was escorted through the halls to the medical wing of the fortress by the changelings he had left to cause a distraction, but to both their and the shock of all the other changelings despite his cracked exoskeleton and bleeding jaw there was a massive grin on his face, like he was the happiest changeling on the planet.
"General Tenna! Sweet Faust, what in Equestria happened to you on your mission?" his advisor asked him with both shock and amazement in his eyes, never having seen the general broken down into such a state before. The changelings that were escorting him sat him down on a medical bed, where the general began to laugh softly to himself while creeping out the other changelings around him.
"The most glorious of things happened on my mission, Thox," Tenna said with a slight giggle in his voice as he stared up at the ceiling, a fire burning in his eyes the likes of which Thox had never seen in his years of aiding the general.
"Did you finally kill both Chrysalis and her daughter? Have you freed the hive from the weaklings that rule it?" Thox asked with hope in his voice, but Tenna shook his head with smile wide as he reached up towards the ceiling.
"No my assistant, I did no such thing. I was in complete control of the situation, had Insectum in my hoof and Chrysalis on the ground before me writhing in pain...and then he showed up," Tenna said with passion, his eyes blazing with desire in them as he sat up, his body shivering at the remembrance of the fight. "A monster the likes of which I had never fought before. I had no knowledge of the beast so I decided to test it and I found...power. Might. The likes of which I have not seen in pony or changeling, not even myself."
"W-what kind of monster could impress you so?" Thox asked, stupefied at the reaction Tenna was giving after having his shell cracked open and his bones broken in a few places.
"Zangief. It is called Zangief!" Tenna replied with a grin that scared the changelings next to him. "At least seven feet tall, all muscle, no fear or worry in it's eyes when he fought me...I thought that I could overpower him by changing my size to match his, much how I defeat wilderbeasts, but all that did was make it easier for him to break me. All of his movements, calculated...precise! He destroyed a spell of mine, did you know that? Hehe, I fired a piercing spell at him and he slapped it away with the back of his hand!"
Thox and the other changelings looked at each other with complete shock, trying to wrap their minds around how a spell that was designed to go through the toughest armor could be...slapped away. "What kind of magic did the beast posses that it was able to dispose of your spell so easily?" Again Tenna began to chuckle to himself, his eyes seeming to be miles away as he continued to remember the fight.
"He has no magic. No horn, no potions and no spell books. All Zangief had was his muscles and he fighting prowess. And before that kind of power...I was absolutely crushed." Tenna began to laugh to himself crazily again and his advisor began to wonder if his brains had been damaged, but then Tenna shot to his hooves and marched out of the room with his dignity once again. "I want changelings out in the field keeping an eye on Zangief and his movements. Thox, come with me. We are going to go visit the project."
Thox could only nod dumbly in response as he raced after Tenna, who was moving like a changeling that had found his purpose again. Tenna barked out orders to any changeling that was close enough to hear and within minutes he had the base moving twice as fast as it had before. The two then walked towards a pair of stairs that were off limits to any expect for those who were allowed down them, meaning that they were practically empty when Tenna and Thox descended.
"If it is my place, why are you so suddenly obsessed with such a creature?" Thox asked Tenna, who stared ahead like a changeling lost deep in thought. "Shouldn't you be focused more on how to kill Chrysalis and bring your strength to the hive? That is what we are here for, after all. To bring her down." Tenna stayed silent as he continued to walk before eventually turning with a grin.
"Thox, what do I value more than anything else in this world?" he asked.
"That would be power," Thox responded, Tenna nodding his head in agreement.
"Yes, power. Absolute power. The power to crush any who stand before you and to lift up the nations of those who bend their knees to you. And do you know what absolute power is?" he asked Thox, who thought about it for a moment before answering with magic. "No you blind fool. Any pony or changeling can use magic. What the ultimate power is is the power to dominate! The power to make knees bend simply by walking by. Power so that you can crush any foe and make them submit to you! The power so that the people stand behind you because they know it is foolish to believe in another! And only one can have that power, can stand atop that peak! The peak where all are below you and no one is better! That is the power I dream of!"
"Then why the fascination with Zangief? What does he have to do with your goals?"
"Because he is a being similar to the power I wish for! His strength can crush his foes into submission, his skill can defy any who uses magic against him," Tenna raved as the two of them reached the bottom of the stairs, the doors opening before them. "I saw it in his eyes when he crushed me into nothingness, I saw how not only was he strong, but he had no doubt in his mind that he was strong. He is one who is close to that peak of power! He is one worth watching!"
Tenna ceased his speech there as the two of them walked into the large chamber before them, where the brightest and best changelings were hard at work trying to complete Tenna's ultimate testament to his strength. They all stopped what they were doing as Tenna entered, a smile on his face as he began to bark orders.
"I have sent changeling out to watch Zangief, but I want you to monitor his movements, record his skills and capture anything he does," he ordered to some of the scientist, who nodded before sprinting off. "I want the rest of you to scrap the old plan and begin to work on replicating Zangief himself! I have something magic related that I need to go study."
"But sir, you've been working on this project for years! Surely you wouldn't throw away the ultimate body simply because-"
"I am not throwing away the ultimate body, I am throwing away the trash that I used to believe to be the ultimate body," Tenna said with a smile as he turned to exit the room. "But now I have seen that I was wrong the entire time. But that's the best thing about the robotics division. Creating new bodies for them is like casting a simple spell. It just takes time and knowledge."
←↙↓↘→↗+H
Zangief sighed into his water while sitting off to the side of the massive hallway, lost in his isolation as the changelings all around him partied and danced to music that he had never heard. Unable to eat their food and not sure if he should ingest their drinks, Zangief was the picture of sadness at the massive party. He rested his mighty chin in the palm of his hand while his elbow lay on the small table in front of him, taking tiny sips of his water in-between each sigh.
"Wow, if my mom had known that throwing a party would've gotten you to calm down, she would've called Pinkie Pie days ago," Insectum remarked as she sat in a chair across from Zangief, the Russian sighing in sadness to greet her. "Aw come on Zangief, what's the matter? You're usually so...intense, yet here at the party you suggested you seem so down. Is something the matter? Do you miss your home?" she asked with worry in her voice.
"It is nothing, just...I look around and I see happy faces, faces that I have not seen on the changelings in the time I have been here," he began as he waved a massive arm to encompass all the room. "I know that I should be happy for them, it is just...how can they be so happy at a party and not one of them knows how to do the Cossack Dance?" All of Insectum's empathy for Zangief went right out the window at those lines and she gave him a glare of disbelief.
"You, the mighty wrestler who crushes foes, is upset because the changelings here don't know how to do a dance they didn't know existed?" she asked in a bland tone, slamming her face into the table when Zangief nodded with a sigh. "You remained optimistic in the face of fifteen changelings, smiled as you battled your way through thirty wilderbeasts and kept your laugh when fighting the hives greatest foe, yet changelings not knowing a dance depresses you? Mom's right, you're dumb."
"It is just another reminder that your nation does not know of the majesty that is Mother Russia," Zangief said as he looked out across the dancing changelings. Insectum opened her mouth to say something when she saw her mother hobbling over to them, using her wings to help her move forward.
"Saw that you were over here with just my daughter and I wondered if something was up, but just a look at your face confirms that something's the matter with you," Chrysalis said as she grabbed a chair with her magic and pulled it over to them, sitting down while taking a sip from a love potion. "What's the matter? Just realized how stupid you actually are?"
"He's depressed because we don't know the dance of his people," Insectum said with a role of her eyes as Zangief sighed, Chrysalis taking a page out of her daughters book and introducing her face to the table.
"You're really the worst, you know that?" Chrysalis asked with a laugh, but instead of the big, bolstering answers she usually got all Zangief did in reply was sigh. Chrysalis looked at his depressed face for a moment before looking down at her missing leg and then to her daughter, her demeanor softening as she remembered what Zangief did for them. "Look...if it bothers you so much why don't you just go show the changelings how to dance?"
Zangief's face lit up like fireworks and he shot out of the chair faster than either of them thought possible, knocking over the table as he left. He rushed to the changelings that were playing musical instruments and whispered something to them, causing the musicians to look at each other and shrug before they started to play a style of music that sounded odd to the changeling queen and princess.
"Everyone gather round!" he cried out as he captured the center of the room, accidentally knocking away changelings that had been standing there. "I have watched how you party and while it is not bad, I have seen that you do not know how to dance. This is not your fault as you have never heard of Mother Russia, but fortunately for you, I am here to show you!"
The moment he said this he began to dance a dance so odd that all of the changelings couldn't help but stop and stare at the massive man who took up the floor spotlight. He started by running in a quick circle before kicking out his leg and tapping the toe in a certain pattern, his boots making sounds as he did so. He swung his arms wide as he moved his legs back and forth, almost like he was trying to keep his balance on a rocking ship. But just in case the changelings weren't impressed yet, Zangief busted out the ultimate move.
He crossed his arms and dropped down into a crouched position, but to the utter shock of the changelings he began to kick one leg out before reeling it and kicking out the other leg so quickly that his upper body barely moved. He had a huge smile on his face as he did this, watching all of the changelings watch on with disbelief...but others with interest. He then began to dance forward in the same position, getting laughs and gasps of amazement out of the changelings watching.
"Well don't just stand around and watch! I have shown you the basics, now join in the dance!" he yelled out with a laugh as he began to throw his arms to the side while still kicking his legs, the image causing both Chrysalis and Insectum to share a glance of amazement as other changelings tried to join in, trying to time their movements to the music.
"That was nice of you to let him do that," Insectum said to Chrysalis, who continued to look on with a small smile on her face as the laughing Zangief showed the changelings his dance. She then caught herself and quickly took a drink, shrugging off her daughters words.
"Yeah yeah, don't remind me. Now if you'll excuse me daughter, I have an issue to go attend to," she began as she got up, but with a small sigh she saw that Zangief was now walking over to them.
"Look at that! They are all so much happier now and so am I!" he said with a mighty bellow as he laughed, looking down at Chrysalis to see that she still wore a frown upon her face. "What is the matter? Are you upset that you cannot dance?"
"No you dumb gorilla, I'm upset because our food storage is almost empty again," she countered with as much scorn as she could muster, but it barely amounted to any change in her tone.
"But I took the food back from the bandits."
"Yes, but that was only for a week or two at best. Not to mention love potions are like eating fast food for us, they're not healthy all the time," she informed him as she began to walk off, still grumbling to Zangief. "What we need are beings that feel actual love that we can feed off of, like the ponies or zebras. But that's going to take diplomacy and that's not my best suit. Come Insectum."
Zangief frowned as the mother and daughter walked off, turning his bearded face to look back at all of the happy faces, knowing that the smiles would vanish if they were to go hungry again. He then turned his gaze towards some of the changeling children that were trying the Cossack Dance with huge smiles on their faces and when he thought of how those smiles might vanish his mind was made up.
'I will get them the food that they need!' he thought with determination as he began to look around, remembering what Chrysalis had just said about ponies or zebras. He didn't understand why they needed to feed off the love of beasts of burden or zoo animals, but what he did know was that they held the food he needed. All he needed now was to find a way to get to one of them and he knew just who to go to for that. His eyes spied two guards at the end of the hallway he knew well and he marched over to them with a smile on his face.
"Hello my friends!" he yelled as he picked them up and crushed them with his arms again in a hug.
"Oh no, he's back!" one of the guards panicked while the other simply rolled his eyes.
"Shut up and calm down. Zangief just probably wants something," he said with wisdom as he looked up in to the face of the Russian, who smiled as he nodded his head.
"Indeed you are right friend! Tell me, how easily can you sneak me onto a train?"