//------------------------------// // 14 - Thorns of Truth // Story: Storm Of Secrets // by Beware The Carpenter //------------------------------// “Storm is an Everfree Ranger.” Shining Armor's voice was flat, as though he realized that it was hopeless to get anywhere without telling the truth and had consigned himself to telling all; pricking Twilight's ears with the promise of new information. “The Everfree Rangers are an elite band of warriors who live in the forest, spending their lives and their blood to keep us safe from the monsters therein. If it was not for them, we would have all been killed many, many years ago.” Applejack jolted when he mentioned the woods, “They live in the forest! Are they all crazy ponies? Who knows what kinds of nasty critters live in there?” “The Everfree Rangers know exactly what's in the forest, and that is why they are there—to make sure that the things that are in the forest stay there. That's why they're called the Everfree Rangers, they are sworn to keep Equestria ever-free from the forest creatures, and the price they pay is their blood and their minds.” “Oh yeah? Like what?” Shining Armor turned to Twilight, “What do you know about changelings?” “Emotional parasites,” responded Twilight quickly, “In their undisguised form they appear as small, black, insectile alicorns but they can take the form of virtually any pony, (though most of them have trouble hiding their fangs), and then feed off the love that others have for them. They reproduce like bees, with between two hundred to a thousand changelings per hive, controlled by their queens, who are the only ones with magic beyond metamorphosis, and share some sort of a hive mind, the extent of which is yet to be determined. They can alter their size but not weight, which based on limited data, is on average, considerably less than an average pony, accounting for their weaker physical strength. They can remain undetected in a settlement for months, feeding off the population, but if they stay that long then the detrimental affects to their victim’s health becomes obvious. They prefer to draw out the feeding process over several months to optimize feeding opportunities but if they believe they’ve been discovered they will try to take as much of the remaining energy as they can at once by,” Twilight swallowed, “Drinking the blood of their victims dry. No one knows where they come from, and tracking the movement of nomadic changeling hives is difficult, but it’s believed there are at least three hives active on the continent though some believe there could be as many as nine. Historical sightings of changelings are abundant but need to be considered in the accuracy of the source, did the witness have motive to lie and would they have been able to differentiate between a real changeling and a unicorn casting a magical disguise, but the first confirmed encounter was in the-” “Enough Twily,” Said Shining Armor, holding out his hoof; “You’re right except on two accounts. Firstly, there are some changelings who aren’t queens who are mild telepaths who can read your mind and draw out images of your loved ones without seeing them, secondly there are somewhere between twenty to thirty hives in the Everfree Forest alone.” “So that’s what Storm does in the forest,” asked Rainbow Dash intrigued, “Fights changelings?” “They’re not half of it.” warned Shining Armor, “Twilight’s books can tell you about emotional parasites like changelings or windigos, but what her books won't tell you about are the terrormongers, who feed off fear. They're strong selective telepaths, able to read your mind, and almost instantly know what you’re afraid of; and they're able to project hallucinations of almost anything, sounds and smells included. When they find a prey they begin throwing ghostly illusions into its mind, designed to scare it. As the victim becomes more and more terrified, the terrormonger feeds off the fear, using that energy to make the nightmare grow worse and worse. They can feed for days off a single prey, savoring its horror as they invade every thought and memory. If the prey cannot either destroy the terrormonger, or escape; the terrormonger will keep feeding until the prey dies. They aren't able to feed off the fear of the non-sentients of the forest; like manticores or cockatrice, but they can still fill their minds with visions that bend animals to their will; and can wield packs of forest animals, mad with terror, as weapons augmented by scores of phantom creatures so you never know if what you're fighting is real, of if you're leaving your back open to a real enemy. They work together with the changelings in an alliance we can only guess has something to do with ponies clinging more tightly to each other when they're scared. Together they stream by the thousands from somewhere in the unreachable depths of the Everfree Forest; always trying to move northwards into Equestria and blocked only by the Rangers.” The three friends looked blankly at Shining Armor for a few moments and then Twilight asked the obvious. “Why haven't we heard of this before?” “Simple: Terrormongers can smell fear from miles away; they're drawn to it like moths to light and feed off it like maggots on rotten fruit. The more people know about the war, the more people worry, and the Terrormongers grow stronger, and more motivated to push their attack. If the general population realized how close they lived to destruction, it could cause panic; inviting the terrormongers to make an all out invasion, and giving them the strength to do it. The masses of Equestria have no idea of the war that is waged, or the sacrifices that are made, to keep the peace which most of them take for granted. But if we are to survive, that's the way it has to be. That is also why none of you must ever breathe a word of this to ANYPONY unless the situation is absolutely critical.” “How long?” asked Twilight slowly, “How long has this been going on?” “Since the fall of Discord; and since Celestia and Luna sealed most or Discord's creations in Tartarous.” “But that's!” “More than a thousand years.” Finished Shining Armor, “During which hundreds of thousands have died, and hundreds of millions have lived in safety. If we were to go public with this, and resort to mass recruitment; tens of thousands would die at least, and there is a good chance we would lose everyone. If Celestia chooses to have a few hundred die each year instead... that is her prerogative. Silent Storm is one of the Rangers, we don't know exactly where he is posted, but we do know it’s at the uttermost forefront of the protected wood. Now he’s out there, in a body that can barely stand, with Cadance, who doesn’t know the first thing about survival or combat, outside of her medical skills.” “How deep?” asked Rainbow Dash. “About five days.” “But how can anyone go that deep?” argued Rainbow Dash, “The trees move, paths change behind you.” “Not if you return by the exact same route you came in by.” corrected Shining Armor, “The forest doesn't move, but the trees resonate a quantum distortion; making the forest bigger on the inside than the outside. On the outskirts it's barely noticeable, but the deeper you go the more it takes hold, and navigation grows more and more twisted. If you move south for one mile, then one mile north-east you might end up five miles from where you began.” “Then how can you navigate at all?” “...We leave markers;” said Shining Armor hesitantly, “Breadcrumbs to map out the forest. You probably don't want to know.” “B.B.” Shining Armor sighed, “All the dragons from Celestia's students have to go somewhere.” “Of course.” answered Twilight, “When they're close to maturation they get released back into the wilds to...” she droned off, her mind filling in the blanks. Everyone knew that academy dragons were taken to the wilds once they started growing up; but it wasn't until Spike's rampage it wasn't common knowledge how fast that could happen, as most academy dragons take at least a week to grow as big as Spike had in one day. Spike however, was one of the very few that turned back into a baby, after his growth spurt. Celestia had told her at the time that one day, probably soon, Spike would mature permanently; and had strongly encouraged that Spike get ready to leave immediately. Both Twilight and Spike had pleaded, and in the end Celestia had relented. Since then Twilight had cherished each day with Spike, waiting for the inevitable, yet so far Spike had resisted any urges to return to what he once was. “But Celestia promised the dragons would be safe!” “They are safe.” answered Shining Armor, “Safer than most things in the forest, including the Rangers as terrormongers and Channellings will avoid attacking them, and there aren't many natural predators that are going to try and prey on them except other dragons. So long as a dragon's hoard is too big for it to easily move it will stay put, and so a developing dragon is very easy to permanently place where we want it. They vary from each other significantly enough in appearance that each of them can easily be identified from distance. We form them into great chains called dragon walls that stretch out over the length of forest, each just far enough from the next so they don't fight over territory.The dragons guard their territories from both Rangers and terrormongers, and will not retreat from a fight, even if they know that they cannot win. The only way to pass them is either with a force large enough to defeat a dragon or in groups too small to attract their attention, no more than ten at the most. This forces both sides to break their armies into dozens of small squads which fight innumerable skirmishes across the breadth of the entire forest, which is advantageous to the smaller army—us.” “Hold on!” growled Rainbow Dash, “You're saying that the whole reason for Twilight taking care of Spike is so that she can raise him into some kind of weapon?” “Partially, but don't make it sound so bad. If the dragons were born in the wild they would spend their childhood alone, and those that survived long enough to mature would gather a hoard and protect it for the rest of their lives. With our involvement they spend their childhood loved and cared for by Celestia’s students as they assist in training the future leaders and magic professors of Equestria. Then, when they mature, they are given an already started hoard which they readily protect, and in doing so protect Equestria. This takes nothing away from their quality of life, it adds to it, meanwhile the benefits to Equestria can hardly be measured.” “But if the Rangers already have dragons in the forest; can't Celestia send a message to the group that's already close to where Storm and Cadance are?” “The fabrics of magic are different in the forest making the dragons unable to send or receive messages once they’ve crossed the border. We can't use drums or horns or anything like that to communicate either. The terrormongers could rip the codes out of any ranger they caught, and every real message would get buried under a thousand fabrications, rendering them useless. The only safe way to spread a message is in person, which takes time given that anyone you see could be a changeling. The fastest way to reach Storm and Cadance will be to go ourselves.” “You’re going?” asked Twilight surprised. “I am, and as Captain of the Royal Guard, I'm assuming command of the mission.” “But you just got here, and are still weak from keeping the shield up for so long.” Twilight reminded him, “The Princess sent you here to rest; there's no way you can go on this mission in your condition.” “My fiancé, my friend, and my body are out there in that forest. None of you could stand a chance making it to Storm's sector without me, and there's no time to wait for reinforcements from Canterlot; every hour counts. I'm coming and that’s final.” “Then I'm coming too.” said Twilight, “The Princess told me to watch you and make sure you were OK. That would be hard to do from Ponyville if you’re in the forest.” Shining Armor glared at her. For a long moment she thought he was going to order her to stay here since it was too dangerous; if he hadn't just drafted Rainbow Dash who was standing right there, he probably would have; “You will do exactly what I say, when I say it; or you will not return alive.” “Agreed.” Shining Armor stood up, brushing bits of grass off his barrel; “Rainbow Dash, get your team. Twilight and I will meet you back at the library in two hours with supplies for the journey.” Twilight stood up too, but nervously; she didn't know what Shining Armor was expecting, but she didn't have nearly enough food in her library for fourteen ponies for four days. Fortunately they were on a farm; “Applejack.” she said, to her friend who'd been so quiet through this entire conversation that Twilight had almost forgotten she was there. “We'll need to buy some supplies.” Applejack gave a small jolt, like she only just realized she was being talked to; she'd turned pale, and Twilight even noticed a thin trickle of blood from where she'd been bighting her lip, but if she was in pain she didn't show it. Applejack looked up at Twilight with tear creased eyes and then whispered, “No.”