"...So we have a consensus, right guys?" I asked them in a hopeful tone. They murmured among themselves before the captain saluted me.
"Yes sir!" He simply said before blending with the rest. I felt someone patting me on my shoulder and I was surprised to see the night princess looking at me as confused as the changeling queen.
"Yes...?" I asked her.
"Excuse us, but who are you?" She asked, looking at me and at my soldiers. Ah, yeah one of the trigger-happy guys had to show us his reflexes and cut me off. I tried to puff my chest out and extended my wings in my patented presentation pose... which has a very embarrassing abbreviation that I refuse to use.
"I am Prometheus, Firstborn of Gaia! Seeker of Knowledge; Guide of the Trichordians, Doctor in practical and theorical quantum physics... and whatever you want me to be..." I said as I put out my helmet, showing my face to her and winking at her. I need to describe myself a bit as I didn't put any description of my appearance before this. I had my mom's eyes and a darker shade of her hair, but my coat was light brown. My hair was an absolute, mess, but I didn't have time for such trivialities. Ah, I need to say that I obtained at that moment a very red, very painful hoofmark on my face.
"How... how dare you to..." The night princess said, a bit red on her cheeks and a furious look in her eyes. I see...
"Master Scribe, take note. After four thousand, three hundred and twenty-two tries... the phrase still doesn't work. Female reaction strangely similar even in different cultures. Further study is required." I told to my ever-faithful scribe as he took notes in his datapad.
"Noted, your lordship. Anything else?" He asked in a polite tone.
"No, that will be for now. Back to your position". I told him before returning my attention to a very unamused Luna. "It was for scientific purposes."
"You are strange..." Luna murmured as she recalled something "... You are just like her, so odd..."
"I'll take that as a compliment, now you!" I said pointing to Chrysalis.
"What do you want?" she said with disgust. As the reports said, she had very bad attitude towards her superiors. Cute. I touched my holopad and opened one of the docs I had saved in it. I looked at her with a stern frown.
"Queen Chrysalis of the Changelings, you have been found guilty of a failed kidnapping of the all-mother for the benefit of one or a few in detriment of the many. If you desist on your plan and agree to not tell about this encounter to anyone or anypony you will not be harmed." I said to her with a serious tone. She looked at me with her eyes wide open before laughing out loud at my reasonable demands.
"You... you are too much... are you serious?" she asked me, still laughing. I didn't find it funny, so I recited the document.
"If you do not desist you and your minions will be apprehended and punished as it follows. First there will be lashes, followed by donating a third of your agricultural production to the church of Gaia. After that, there will be more lashes followed by a full meal with no dessert because you have been bad. Then there will be lashes before an appointment with the psychologist..." I said as I found the list strange. I heard some of the boys snickering. No... they didn't...
"...Real mature of you guys, hacking my holopad with an edited version of the text. Ha ha. You got your giggles... now who did it?" I asked them, and they all remained silent. Chrysalis and Luna looked pretty lost again. One of my boys creeped in front of me and saluted.
"I did it, sir. Punish me if you must!" he said, trying to look proud and sure of himself.
"It's nice to know that you both are such good friends, but I know that Scratcher did it" I told him, as he jumped in place,
"W-what?" he replied, scared. Everyone made space so leave Scratcher alone, looking petrified.
"It was a good one... right?" He told me, trying to be funny.
"Sergeant Scratcher... This was not the place nor the time. I've been trying to be reasonable with all your 'all-mother' thingy, but really you are nerding out history books and nobody cares." I told him harshly. "So you are going back to the ship and think about what you have done."
"Alright, boss..." he replied, dejected and walking away slowly. I made a head gesture towards three of my guys and they understood the order. They got to each side of Scratcher and held him as they 'escorted' him. "W-what? What is this?" He asked fearfully. My mother was always kind with everyone. But I was not my mother.
"No extranet for you for the next three days, creep." I told him, making everyone except the natives gasp.
"No... No! No, please! Anything but that! I have a raid with the clan in twenty hours! They need a support for the dungeon!" he pleaded. It was cruel, but it had to be done.
"You will have books, don't worry... all of them romance and fiction stories..." I told him with a wide smile.
"Augh! No! I'll be good, I promise! I-" his pleas were cut short as one of the soldiers turned off his comms. I nodded to then as they carried the poor sod away. I turned towards the natives "So, now with the real punishment..."
"I don't know what is this 'extranet' you speak off, but it sounds vital for your... companions. Why did you do that?" Luna asked, somewhat scared. I know, I would be scared too.
"It's pretty damaging, I know. His clan is going to lose rank because of this and they will be out of the tournament for good this time." I told her. "But you know how these online games work. Miss a day and your cyber life is ruined" I told them. Ah, there it is! Now just read this and reach a profitable...
Wait, why did they look at me like that?
It was... a game?
Luna and Chrysalis looked baffled at the odd alicorn and his entourage of odd soldier creatures. Chrysalis made an exasperated grunt.
"I can't believe this! Another one?! I'm surrounded by nerds!" she cried at the heavens. Prometheus snorted at that.
"Please, I'm expert in tech systems and recreational programs. What are you, from the floppy disk era or something?" he said in an offended tone.
"What is a 'nerd'?" Luna asked, confused by this. Chrysalis pointed at Prometheus, her face contorting between panic and rage.
"This is a nerd! They play games all the time even when they are grown stallions or mares, and they 'nerd out' in tight groups. They are the bane of our existence!" Chrysalis said. The sea of starfish people protested at that with phrases in the line of 'that's just a stereotype' and 'get a life, troll', which confused Luna to no end. Clearly Chrysalis was not a troll, she was a changeling.
"Queen Chrysalis, are you a troll?" Luna asked in seriousness, making Chrysalis choke on her words.
"What? No!" she exclaimed. Prometheus coughed a bit to call their attentions.
"Now now, don't make me be the moderator on this. So, the real document..." He said, pointing to that strange light coming out of his foreleg "Queen Chrysalis, if you don't desist in your dark schemes you will be lashed and... seriously dudes, where was the last time we checked this crap?" He asked to the starfish aliens. They managed to shrug in confusion, making Prometheus so frustrated that he struck himself in the forehead.
"Ok! No lashes! Alright, let's see the rest... huh... sounds reasonable..." He said out loud "Got it. Let's do this again... Queen Chrysalis, if you don't desist you will be brought to our ship where you will be imprisoned for a period of one month. Do you want to do this the easy way... or the hard way?" Prometheus said with a stern voice. Chrysalis laughed and sauntered towards him, making the little soldiers uneasy.
"Why don't you tell me? I know how to play those games too..." She said in a seductive voice. Luna was ready to charge as she saw Prometheus blush a bit, but the steel in his eyes assured her fears.
"You have chosen... poorly" He simply said as one little slot in his armor opened. Suddenly a muffled sound was heard and suddenly Chrysalis was on the ground, paralyzed. Three more of those were heard and the changelings around her fell paralyzed as well. Luna looked horrified.
"What did you do!?" she yelled at them, only for Prometheus to have his hoof.
"Don't worry, It's nothing lethal. I'll be delivering these back to their homes" He told her as some of the creatures creeped towards the downed changelings, somehow making themselves invisible and baffling Luna.
"Incredible... but... were you not going to imprison them?" She asked, and Prometheus smiled in a way that reminded her of Gaia.
"Ah, but she tried to use her charms on me, not tried to kidnap my mother, right?" He replied with a smirk, making Luna chuckle.
"That is true" Luna replied, looking at the male alicorn with interest as she examined his body. He didn't look pretty strong and he was on the pudgy side... He reminded her of Celestia and her cakes.
"Finished with your observations? Fascinating behavior I must say... It's an instinctual response or just mere curiosity?" He asked her as he got uncomfortably close. It seemed that it ran in the family. Luna retreated a bit and blushed, not used to be caught off guard.
"Just curiosity!" She quickly replied. Prometheus cocked his head as he looked at her before nodding.
"Ah, I see... Well, it seems that we need to pack up and leave soon. Sorry if we disrupted your day, this will not be a common occurrence I promise" He said in a calm voice as he checked Gaia.
"You were spying on your mother?" Luna asked.
"Don't judge as I was a bad guy, Princess. I love my mother to death but she is... a free spirit. And many times people without moral will try to use her for their own nefarious purposes" He said, looking sadly at his mother. "...Never again" he whispered. before Luna was able to ask about that ominous phrase he turned towards her with a smile.
"Thank you for taking care of her, and don't worry about leaving her alone. We will be watching her... I don't want that to see her vacation ruined and see her sad. She needs this." He said to Luna with determination.
"You are welcome, Prometheus." Luna said quickly, making him smile at her. She noticed that the starfish people disappeared again, leaving the peaceful garden as it were before the changelings came... but she didn't feel magic at all... How can they do that? Luna was pulled out of her thoughts as she felt her hoof being held by somepony. She quickly found that it was Prometheus just before he kissed her hoof and smiled at her.
"Again, sorry for the trouble, princess but I need to ask you a small favor. Don't tell my mother about this incident, please. You can tell your sister but by all that holy... don't tell my mother that we were here. Would you do that for me?" He asked her. Luna nodded quickly, her face reddened a bit. He smirked and ran way to the bushes. "Take care! I'll see you in a few weeks, if all goes well" He said as he disappeared from sight.
Luna, still blushing, was confused by all of this. Just what in Tartarus happened? Why did he kiss her hoof without royal permission? ...and why did she let him do that? She was going to tell her sister about this when she heard some voices.
"Guys... I'm dying in embarrassment here... why did you tell me that I have to do that?" Prometheus said, apparently invisible but still around.
"Dude, did you see her? I bet she is gorgeous for your race. You never had a girlfriend and we just put two and two together, boss." other voice said.
"... She has a mean slap... my face hurts... Besides, I need to level up my warlock and check on the science blogs about warp theory. I have no time for girls" He replied, making several voices groan.
"Dude!" they said at the same time. There was silence and Luna thought that they left when she heard Prometheus again.
"Well... she was kinda cute..."