Maturity
Malich hummed happily to himself as he exited the elevator that lead down to the third sublevel of the Futuristics Medical Research facility. According to reports, the dragon blood had accelerated the parasite growth when introduced directly into the blood stream of the hosts. Where it had once taken months to wait for the parasites to come to maturity, they had done it in only a week! It was truely progress the stallion would have sex with if could only be made flesh.
'Fuck Success and make her your bitch, eh, boss?'
Exactly!
He quickly walked down the hall, taking notice of the disturbing lack of decorations on the walls. White, white walls, white ceilings, white floor, by Tapio's beard this place was creepy. He'd need to seek out some advice on how to make it more homey. Such blandness and alien starality couldn't be good for one's mental health.
He walked into the break room which was, thankfully, much more expressive and warm. Chairs, color, a smell that didn't remind him of lemon flavored disinfectant. Much more pleasant.
"Good morning, Director." Voltair greeted, the Unicorn stallion stood from his chair and bowed low. Malich wasn't sure why, but being bowed to by the pony didn't put him on edge as it would most others. "I assume you're he for he reports. I must warn you, they are disturbing."
"Disturbing how?" Malich asked, accepting the folder handed to them.
The Spackled dark green unicorn listed off all of the effects of allowing a parasite to come to maturity. First there was excessive neurological stimulation as the parasite tapped into the spinal cord, sending the host into a sensory overload of pain in all areas of the brain. Pain, pleasure, thirst, hunger, cold, warmth, everything. After that, the hosts were observed to become exhausted, each complaining of nausea and a burning sensation in their necks and backs. Though that may have been a failure to communicate.
The translation was "Cold fire burning", neither the translator nor Voltare knew what to make of that, but it was all they could get the Zebra to say before all neurological capability was shut down.
From there, the scientists deduced that the parasite had grown much larger than the one Elsa had kept in the tank. They observed moving protrusions from beneath the zebras skin up its limbs while the growing bulge in its stomach began to shift.
Elsa, threatening anyone who tried to stop her, quickly charged forth and placed her ear besides the zebra's mouth to find it still alive. She slit the poor creatures throat, offering it the mercy of a quick death and sliced it open before any other scientist or security agent could stop her.
To the shock of the entire research team, the parasite had grown even bigger than they'd thought, and had matured enough to no longer need the host. At least for a short period of time.
The thing had grown, taking on a quasi-pony form. Though, unlike the changelings observed before, this one still had tenticles and was as small as a foal. It writhed around in what they believed to be confusion at it's hosts sudden death and locked onto one of the researchers. Slowly the changling walked towards him, licking its chops.
Elsa realized what she was seeing and tried to stop it, but it was too late. The changeling had lept forth and latched its fangs onto one of the researcher's necks, its tenticles forcing their way into his mouth, nose, eyes and ears. The episode ended with a scalple jammed and twisted into the developed parasite's skull, but not without the loss of a good doctor.
Upon inspection, they looked to find that the entire digestive track of the zebra was missing. Well, most of it anyways, part of the stomach and lower intestines were present with small teeth marks embedded into the torn flesh. This lead to two conclusions, the lack of mentioned abdominal pain was indicative of organ numbing and the parasite was a quick eater.
However these kinds of disturbing facts were of little concern to Malich, he was afraid there were complications that interfeared with the results. A zebra suffering a gruesome death was hardly worthy of note.
The experiment was observed again on another changeling. This time, the doctors watched it from the outside of a containment field. This time, the changeling burst forth from it's dead host, and looked around, it's amber eyes taking in the surrounding and checking for something with its gangling antenna. Voltare was documented demanding all equipment that could pick up biological wave frequencies be assembled immediately.
It was unlike any changeling they'd ever seen before. It had irises instead of blank bug eyes and more importantly It had a horn, it was a small almost unnoticable protrusion from the forehead, but it was unmistakable. Such a unique feature could only be indicative of one thing, A queen had been born.
"We've been searching through different channels to see if we could find the frequency and waves she uses to communicate to her brood." Voltare informed, closing the file and leaning back in his cushion. "No such luck though. we'll most likely need for her to gain a subordinate before she'll set out a strong enough signal for us to pick up on."
Malich jumped for joy. He did it! He had a queen! And well ahead of his predictions at that, but that was the easy part. The hard part was finding a way of finding her frequency and imitating her wave pasterns. He wasn't sure what the study on that was, but he knew he'd need a team of crack pots to figure it out.
All in all, it had been a good week for the New Wave project.
"You know something, Valiar? You're an alright pony." Shining stammered as he took another swig of gin. Valiar, simply sat and waited to once again refuse the beverage. when offered. The two had been on the outskirts of Canterlot for the past few hours, the red unicorn sitting and listening to the drunken ramblings of his Captain and the fight he'd had with his wife to be. "I know I give you a lot of crap, but you're alright."
"Thank you, sir." Valiar replied dutifully, if for no other reason than to give him a reason to speak. There were a lot of words he wanted to say, calling him a drunken, filly whipped plot hole was at the top of that list but he knew better. He understood that the Shining was going to soon be married and have to really settle down in all the bad habbits that most single stallions got to enjoy, but why was he being pulled along for the ride?
He agreed to be Shining's subordinate under the notion that Shining would be a worthy opponent who'd challenge and teach him discipline, but lately it seems like Valiar was the one who needed to be responsible for the two.
"You know something buddy? You need to get laid." Not knowing how to react to that statement, Valiar settled for silence. There was a time to talk and a time to be quiet, and now was the time for quiet.
"You need to find yourself a good mare to settle down with. Heck, maybe two, sure you could handle more though." That was an idea that terrified the red pony. Marriage, being tied down to another pony for the rest of your life, and worse, having foals with them. Granted, the urge did cross his mind from time to time, but having a family required being responsible and disciplined. Two things he was greatly lacking in. What kind of husband or father would he be? The kind who his wife and children resented, that's what.
No, no. He was young and had alot to do before he would even think about a family, if he was ever mature enough at all.
"Awww, C'mon buddy. You think I'm ready for kids?"
Was he really supposed to answer that honestly, because bad things would happen if he did. "Sir?"
Shining took another swig of his drink and sighed, his happy smile giving way to a thoughtful scowl before talking about how he was thinking about everything he was giving up. The alabaster pony recalled all the crazy things he'd done in his life, some of which were very questionable and surprising given his moral compass and reputation. Parties, mares, drugs, drug mare parties, and a few things Valiar wasn't up to date on slang to understand.
"But most of all, it's my freedom. I'll be giving Cadance everything from that day forward. You know?" He turned to look at the red stallion. "We've known eachother since we were kids, but it feels terrifying, giving up everything for her."
"Pardon me, Captain, but haven't you already committed yourself to Equestria anyways? Doesn't seem like that big of a difference to me."
Shining Armor chuckled again, but this time there was no mirth behind it. "You think that's how it works, huh? That being dedicated to a life time monogamous relationship is the same as serving Princess and Country?" He stood up on wobbly hooves and approached before placing his hoof on Valiar's shoulder. "The country doesn't care if I get drunk every night to escape my problems. Cadance does. The country doesn't care if I'm up all hours of the night, Cadance does."
"It's kinda funny and sick in a way, mare marry stallions that remind them of their fathers and stallions marry mares who remind them of their mothers. Maybe that's what everypony wants? To be with someone who'll continue the love and care their parents gave them."
Creepy. No, there was no other way to define that kind of concept, that was just creepy. Though in some sick and twisted way it did make sense. From the interactions Valiar had seen, stallions got lectured by their wives alot, especially Shining. Like a mother would her foal for doing something foolish. He wasn't sure if he was disturbed or intrigued by this revelation. On one hoof he could see the appeal, but on the other wasn't marriage supposed to be between two adults? Adults who viewed each other with admiration and respect?
'Dude, don't think about it too much.'
Shining just snickered, making a quip about how some ponies just wouldn't understand until they were in a relationship. Valiar wasn't sure what the appeal was about relationships. Well, he understood it, but he didn't "get" it. Maybe he was just too preoccupied with bettering his magical capabilities and his love of dueling. Maybe it was how unsafe Equestria was and his feelings of desire to protect it, but starting a family just didn't seem appealing to him.
And situations like this one are exactly why he didn't want to join the guard to protect his countryponies. Inefficient use of his time. Vigilantism was much more his style.
"Well, the Suns going down, guess it's time I told you why I dragged you out here." Shining declared, sobering up quite nicely as he did so. he reached into the side pouch he carried around his neck and offered it to Valiar, who took it to read aloud. "It's a map from an informant. We've received reports of possible activity from the east. They didn't give many details, only that the threat was worth checking out, and I'm sending you to look into it."
"Why me?" His subordinate asked, looking over the map and instructions. He was supposed to go to the city called Las Pegasus and meet up with a lunar pegasus named Shimmering Gale at some tavern at a certain time. He glared at the name, Los Pegasus, the city of the vile and filth of the world. From what he'd been told, it was the play ground of the immoral and the slaves of pleasure. Ironically, the monks had taught him not to judge ponies, as he knew nothing of them, yet saw it fit to judge an entire city. Just one of the many hypocrisies that lead him to abandon the temple.
"Because, you know how to operate alone." Shining replied, that and it wasn't really a government sanctioned mission. This was for his personal reassurance. Word had it that there was going to be something planned for his wedding and he wanted to make sure that nothing would upset his fiancees big day. It was a shaky probability at best, but the stallion didn't want to take chances.
Valiar sighed but accepted his orders without question. It was a simple task, plus it got him out and away from Shining for a while. He'd summarized that, it being a royal event, small threats like these were expected to be made, it wasn't something he was too concerned with.