Tenna had not moved from the laboratory in days, not even at the news that Chrysalis had left the changeling empire in the hooves of Princess Luna, who, according to his spies, was having a rough time as the changelings barely listened to her. But that just further proved his point about how weak the hive changelings had become as Princess Luna was one of the strongest in the land, yet the refused to listen to words of one who is powerful.
'It matters not anyway,' he mused to himself as he stood on a walkway overlooking the scientists working hard at work on his dream down below, finding himself smiling despite himself at how the plan was coming together. Even from high of on the catwalk he could see the exoskeleton laying on the table as the changelings used their minds to make it work exactly as he wanted it to, while other "appropriated" parts and metal that would be needed to complete the design.
'But that it will not be enough for the machine to simply look like him, it must have his moves, his knowledge, all that which make him powerful,' Tenna thought with frustration overtaking his joy as he wished they had the final keys to completing the project. 'That is the last bit of data that we need before we can move on. All I need is-'
"Sir Tenna! We have it!" A smile that took up nearly his entire face spread on the face of the general as he turned to see a changeling rushing over to him, holding a notebook that was filled to the brim with information. "Sir, we got lucky. Zangief challenged the ponies to a fight, which took place in front of an entire stadium filled with both changelings and ponies. From there we were able to record all of his moves and tactics. They're all in here!"
Tenna swiped the notebook from the changeling and hungrily scanned all of the movements and motions that were written down in the book. He nodded at the bear hug and his smile grew even wider when he discovered the armored version of the flying powerbomb, but where his jaw dropped was when he read the report for the Final Atomic Buster.
"I wish you could have been there to see it sir, it was unlike anything I had ever seen," the changeling began to explain about what he saw, yet he was still dumbfounded all the same. "He was trapped within a tornado before he and Dash, that was the ponies name, was launched into the sky. We didn't know what was happening before he came spinning back down with her in the...piledriver position? But whatever it was, it put Dash down, although I have no idea how he did it."
"That is because he is far stronger than I had even dreamed," Tenna said with the fire reignited within as his eyes lusted for any more information on the wrestler. "Yet this book is not entirely complete. There are still one or two moves that he used against me that are not written within these pages. One of them he only seems to use when he is fighting magic wielders and the other he has not shown yet, but he had it ready for me. But this is a start. With this, we can move into the next phase of the plan. Now go, find me the other moves."
The changeling saluted and ran off while Tenna spread his wings, flying down to the scientists who were creating his masterpiece, tossing them the book with the information on the wrestlers moves before walking up to the massive exoskeleton with a large smile. 'Soon. Soon I will hold all the power that you wield and more. But first, there are rumors that Zangief was not alone when he appeared in this land. That there was a machine with him that Chrysalis took as well. But if I know Chrysalis, she did not tell Luna of this machine. And since she does not know of it, she will not miss it.'
←↙↓↘→↗+H
Zangief always enjoyed train rides. Trains were a great way to travel across the motherland and see all of it's beauty up close, able to take it in as the train chugged along through it. What Zangief did not enjoy was being forced to sit on the floor of the train from Canterlot to Ponyville while Chrysalis, Insectum and two of the ponies sat in the chairs that he should have been occupying. After all, Zangief shouldn't sit on the floor.
"Oh don't give us that look Zangief; you know that if you were to sit in the chairs that you'd take up an entire row by yourself," Insectum said, trying to comfort him. But Zangief crossed his arms and turned his head away with a look of pouting.
"Jeez, Insectum's only eight and she acts more mature than you," Chrysalis said with a smirk before looking back over the Fluttershy and Pinkie, those two being the ponies chosen to go back to Ponyville with Chrysalis. Fluttershy was looking at the floor instead of Chrysalis and Pinkie was trying to figure out a way to get out of the green sphere of magic that Chrysalis had trapped her within for bugging her. "You two are awfully quiet? Nothing to say to somepony like me, huh? I'm too scary for you?"
"I don't find you scary at all! I think you look funny, with your Swiss cheese like legs. Do you like cheese?" Pinkie asked from within the sphere with a huge smile that only got Chrysalis thinking about learning a muting spell. "What about you Zangief? Do you like cheese?"
"No, I like borscht and vodka, yet sadly I am stranded here without them," Zangief said with a frown before remembering that he was mad at them and looked away again.
"H-how about animals?" the soft voice of Fluttershy meekly asked Zangief, but it was so soft that he hadn't even heard her. Fortunately for him, Insectum was ready with an answer.
"Zangief said that he plays with bears back in his home, so I think he likes bears," Insectum told Fluttershy, the information causing the yellow Pegasus to lift her head out from behind her head and look at Zangief with a small smile in her face.
"Is that true Mr. Zangief? Do you like bears?" she asked him.
"Yes and no. If the bears are worthy wrestlers that I see them as worthy opponents. But if they cannot wrestle then I shall suck them into my vortex and piledrive them until they learn!" Zangief exclaimed with excitement as he shot to his feet, forgetting how small the train car was for him and slamming his head into the metal roof. He cursed in Russian as he sat back down holding his head while Insectum looked up at the new indent of his skull in the ceiling.
Chrysalis cast a glance at Fluttershy and found her look at Zangief with horror on her face, presumably at his answer. "What's the matter Shy, don't like the fact that Zangief wrestles bears? Or the fact that he can go toe to toe with them and win?" Fluttershy retreated behind her mane again and Chrysalis rolled her eyes, turning her attention to the sphere to realize that Pinkie was no longer within it. Chrysalis looked around the train care to find her sitting in front of Zangief, listening to his words carefully.
"So after running the distilled vodka through activated charcoal, what do I do next?" Pinkie asked the Russian, but before he could tell her the secret to the elixir of life Chrysalis picked Pinkie back up and placed her within the sphere once again.
"Please don't tell Pinkie how to make alcohol from your world, I don't want to know what she'd do with that kind of power," Chrysalis said to Zangief as Pinkie struggled to escape the sphere once again. "Why are you even telling her that anyway?"
"If she is going to throw a party for me, I want the drinks to be the best, not whatever kind of watered down alcohol that you drink," Zangief replied with a huff, Chrysalis rolling her eyes as she leaned back in her seat, pushing it back until she was almost laying down. In this position she could see the ponies that had all crowded around the front of the train, whispering to each other while staring at them.
'Or, to be more precise, him,' Chrysalis thought as she followed their gazes as best she could upside down to find the ponies mostly staring at the Russian, who had leaned back against a table to rest and had cracked the base with ease. 'No surprise, he crushed Rainbow Dash in that match, so all of the ponies are probably afraid of him right now. That's how it works with these ponies,' she thought to herself before she looked back at the ponies to see that some of the foals were walking towards Zangief, nervous smiles on their faces as they approached him.
"Um, Mr. Zangief?" Upon hearing his name Zangief pulled himself out of the wreck that used to be a table and looked down at the foals who nervously clumped together, towering over them still despite sitting down. "Um, we...um?"
"Do not worry little ones, you can talk to Zangief about whatever you want," he said with a massive smile that seemed to have a calming effect on the foals, who all looked at each other before screaming all at once.
"That match was soooo cool!"
"How did you do that last move?!"
"Is it true that you wrestle bears?"
To say that Chrysalis was stunned by what the foals were saying would have been an understatement. She was baffled, having never expected this reaction to come from the same ponies who champion Zangief had destroyed. But here they were, talking about how amazed they were at Zangief's match and how cool he had been when he crushed Dash.
"How did you pull of that spinning piledrive without wings?! That's got to be nearly impossible!" a small colt asked him, Zangief letting out a hearty chuckle as he began to flex.
"Because of my years of training my muscles to be able to withstand such a move. But just between us, I created the move when I got sucked into a cyclone while wrestling a bear over five times as heavy as me. And then piledrived it!" The foals eyes went wide at his words, all the while the other four in the chairs looked on with different expressions on their faces, ranging from bafflement to laughter to surprise.
"I don't get it," Chrysalis asked, causing the fillies to yelp as they hid behind Zangief's leg and looked up at her with fear. "Zangief is a creature from another land who defeated one of your Element's of Harmony in one of the most devastating moves that I've ever seen. And yet you idolize him like he's your hero or something?"
"Well yeah, didn't you see the match?" one of the braver fillies asked Chrysalis, who raised an eyebrow in response. "Anypony who can pull of that kind of come from behind victory against Rainbow Dash is a legend! Seriously, he piledrived her out of a tornado! No other wrestler in Equestrian history has ever attempted anything like it!"
"That is because they are not Zangief! Now then, who wants to hear about the time that I fought polar bears in the icy north?" Zangief asked them, all three of the foals planting their flanks onto the floor in front of Zangief and looking up at him with wonder as he began to weave his tale. And all the while Chrysalis looked at the scene while slowly shaking her head.
"I will never understand you ponies," Chrysalis eventually said as she brought her chair back up and leaned against it, casting a glance sideways to see that her daughter was listening in on the story as well, causing the queen to sigh in frustration as she turned her gaze towards Zangief. 'Nor will I ever understand you.'
"He's...really nice for someone so...imposing," Fluttershy whispered meekly from her seat, having ventured out from behind her mane again to watch as Zangief recreated how he put a polar bear into a headlock. "I thought that he would be scary, but after being so close it seems that he's...just nice."
"Yeah don't let his looks fool you Fluttershy, when he's not wrestling he's a giant softy who hasn't got a brain," Chrysalis said as she closed her eyes and tried to ignore the wrestlers story. "But when he is wrestling, stay the heck out of his way or he'll do to you what he did to Dash." Chrysalis thought that he words would terrify Shy and have her make another funny face, but to the queen's disappointment all her words did was cause Fluttershy to look at Zangief with curiosity.
"...and then the gas station exploded and took out a good number of cars and buildings, but I emerged that day victorious!" Zangief proclaimed with a laugh as he finished his story, the foals and Insectum all applauding once he had finished. Zangief cast a quick glance at the parents of the ponies and figured that he had separated them long enough. "Now all of you go back to your mothers and tell them of the tale I told you. That way they can know of the mighty Zangief!"
The foals all nodded and raced back up the car to their parents, completely losing their minds as they all tried to repeat the story at the same time. Zangief chuckled to himself as he turned back towards the others, finding that Chrysalis was giving him a look. "What? What did I do?"
"I am always going to be confused by how you're able to do that," Chrysalis muttered, refusing to say anymore as the conductor of the train called out to all the ponies that they had reached their destination. They all rose to their hooves as the train slid to a strop, Zangief rising as well but once again he forgot about the roof. Chrysalis was glad that she didn't have to pay any of the bills as she and her daughter walked off the train after the ponies who were still trying to make sense of what their foals were telling them.
"Alright you two, I've got one question left. Whose house are we staying at?" Chrysalis asked Fluttershy and the recently freed Pinkie Pie.
"You...can stay at mine," Fluttershy offered, causing both Chrysalis and Insectum to raise their eyebrows with shock. "I mean, if you want to. You don't have to stay that long if you don't want." Chrysalis narrowed her eyes for a second, wondering why such a cowardly pony would be the first to volunteer. Then her answer ripped the door frame off of the train.
"Curses, these doorframes continue to attack me when I do not expect it!" Zangief roared as he emerged from the train with a metal doorframe pinning his arms to the side. Insectum rolled her eyes as she went to free Zangief once again, but as she did this Chrysalis cast a quick glance at She to see her hid a small smile with her hoof. There was her reason.
"Alright Shy, so be it. Sorry Pinkie, maybe next time," Chrysalis said as Pinkie pouted. "Come on daughter, you and the doorframe will need to follow Fluttershy to where we'll be staying. Let's hope that we can all get along," Chrysalis finished with a small chuckle.
"Um, I am still stuck."