//------------------------------// // Chapter 31: Offical Reports // Story: Drake's Empire // by Pentel123 //------------------------------// Chapter 31: Official Reports “Good afternoon students. Welcome to the new semester. This is History 347, so if you signed up for a different class at this time, you’re in the wrong place.” Graying orange unicorn with a new pair of saddlebags said, as he walked into the lecture hall and up to the podium. There was a short scramble as a few students left quickly to get to the right class. “Excellent! It seems we have a good diversity of students this semester. Griffins and ponies in the majority as expected, but a fair number of wolves, minotaurs, a few buffalo, yaks, zebras... And even a couple of Saddle Arabians and dragons! This should give us plenty of good discussions throughout this semester. As I said, this is History 347, the founding of the Phoenix Republic. In particular, but not exclusively, focusing on the letters, reports, and journals of Prince Blueblood, the first Equestrian ambassador to the Republic. Before that, the Equestrian liaison sent to ensure that the obligations of the Second Treaty of Ponyville were met,” the professor said as he pulled a stack of syllabi from his saddle bags and passed them to a griffon in the first row. “Syllabi are now being passed around that outline my plan for the semester. As those are being passed around let’s introduce ourselves. I’ll start,” he said coming around in front of the podium. “I am Recognized Bias. I have been a professor here at Forum University’s History department for the past 10 years. Prior to that I was a brigadier general in the PR Army Magic Corps. That followed working my way up the ranks after commissioning from the officer training program at this university and a short stint in the Dragon Guard,” Bias said drawing impressed gazes from various students, and unimpressed looks from others, mostly the foreign students. The class continued normally the students introducing themselves, their hometowns, and fields of study. Once the syllabi were fully passed out, they were discussed. Bias made clear of his expectations and fielded a number of questions. Once they had completed such mundane necessities as the start of a class demands, Bias was able to touch on the main topic of the class. “Before we finish today, I would like to read one of my favorite passages from Blueblood’s Journal. It was the entry of his first night after leaving Fortress Bastion.” * * * * * * * * * Prince Blueblood’s Journal Day 1 in the Wildlands, We are camped under the open stars for the first time in this journey, but likely not the last. Drake’s followers, traveling in what Flim calls the Super Speedy Tank 7000, have served as a vanguard ranging out in front, by several miles. The traders traveling with me are handling the open plain well, but the cosmopolitan students are, much like myself, unused to such open areas and find it disconcerting. Drake is resting nearby. He flew overhead with six changelings around him acting as lookouts against any harpies, and spotters against diamond dog raiders. When I saw him land I noticed twin lines of changeling goo running along his back. Upon further inspection I saw a number of oval shapes in imbedded within. The manner with which the changeling treated them suggest to me that they are eggs of the race. A last hope of a dying species. Speaking of the changelings, he had me meet with them after we stopped today. It was a difficult experience. I remember the Wedding Invasion well, the terror of the attack, the horror of what was planned for us. Yet before me, in their own skin I saw how much like us they are, and how different at the same time. The one who I spoke with this evening is called Brutus, the leader of the remaining changelings, and that is what they are. The Remaining Changelings. The last of their kind. It is terrifying to consider the possiblity of their extinction. The end of a race, even one as disturbing at the changelings is something I cannot rightly wish for. Brutus is himself an interesting sort. He told me they had been forbidden from donning disguises while serving Drake. This, Drake explained, was to help them come into the open and become a part of the world rather than hiding from it and eking out a living in the shadows. Our conversation, though informative, was short, the need to prepare the camp overriding such luxuries as a long talk. Though it was uncomfortable, I look forward to speaking more with Brutus and with others whom I shall be living and working with in the coming months. Looking out my tent at the dry amber grasses which wave in the evening winds, I find myself hopeful and expectant for the days to come. I am sure were any in Canterlot to hear this they would laugh, but there is a majestic beauty to the natural world I find myself experiencing that all the gold and grandeur of pony construction cannot match. Until Tomorrow, Blueblood * * * * * * * * * “That will be all for today,class ” Bias said closing the well-worn book he’d read out of. “Make sure to read the next entry, Ambush at an Oasis, by next class so we can discuss it then.” With those parting words the class was dismissed and went about the rest of their day. From their dismissal to the next class most of them ignored the assignment, then shortly before class many skimmed through it quickly, or asked the few that had read it to fill them in. They spoke quickly sharing what they had read and what they had gotten out of it as Professor Bias entered the room. * * * * * * * * * Prince Blueblood’s Journal Day 2 in the Wildlands Today I saw the fragile mortality of life, and it was very nearly my own. Perhaps should anyone ever read this following my passing I should explain what happened, that you might too know the dangers of this wild landscape that has lost its beauty. Now it is filled with lurking dangers that will strike without a moment’s notice. We resumed our travels in the morning. Drake and his changeling guard once against taking to the air whilst the unicorn powered contraption ranged out ahead. The stallions pulling my carriage clad themselves in armor as they had yesterday, but many of the merchant’s pullers eschewed such protection, believing that there would be sufficient warning to don the armor if it should become necessary. Myself, I was not quite yet prepared to trust Drake and his followers and so wore some basic mail and kept my helm and short sword handy. I am glad I did. As Celestia’s sun was just beginning its descent, we stopped at a small oasis. Really it was little more than a broad mud puddle, the dry landscape sucking up the water before it could travel far, but the heart of it was a clear spring bubbling up from beneath the ground. While we had water left from Bastion, Drake landed and suggested that we refill here, stating that it was the last water source for some time that he recalled on his last passage through this area. This was confirmed by Flim. As we began filling our containers a griffin fell from the sky into the student carriage that had remained on the perimeter, the students thankfully out of it at the time. This cause a burst of movement from Drake who leapt over us straight to the griffin before calling Flim over. I went to join them and overheard them speaking. The griffin was another associate of theirs named Kestrel or something like that. He spoke of being ambushed, somepony, or rather somegriffin being taken or dead. He was quite incoherent, but Drake seemed to understand him. I know this because today I saw a dragon rage, a slow burning fire that was steadily fed fuel. When he saw me his eyes glowed with a power and he seemed to grow with each passing second. “Get everyone moving now, and run.” he told me before lifting into the air. Flim ran past me the griffin on his back, muttering to himself about not again and revenge at the same time. I ran back and told everypony of move, to follow Flim who was already closing the doors of his machine and beginning to move west. Confused they followed my orders as I stood atop my carriage, watching as Drake circled above. Once we were out of the mud and on the move he let loose. Lighting rained down from his maw crashing into the oasis. At first I was confused, but it became clear what he was doing as a pack of diamond dogs popped to the surface throwing spears at him, only to miss as he soared above them. I watched as they fought. The dogs began fleeing the mud, the water in it conducting enough of the lighting that Drake could harm them. Then they hit dry dirt and burrowed down. Drake roared, a frustrated howl, as he dived down where they had burrowed, crashing into the ground, but unable to reach them. The changelings around him buzzed along the ground and he took off after them. A horrifying visage of rage racing along the ground guided by black blurs. I would later learn that the changelings were tracking the diamond dogs, as they rushed towards us. Then the ponies pulling the student carriage disappeared beneath the earth, the carriage tilting upwards and beginning to go down. It was about to disappear beneath the earth when a much larger Drake reached out with his good hand and pulled it up. The screams of the students audible to me from where I stood. The pullers were gone as he pulled it up and he loosed his fury into the hole, driving the dogs above ground all around us. The guards pulling my carriage unhooked themselves circling around with the traders and their wagons. We took defensive positions onboard the vehicles, fearing an underground attack. Flim’s contraption zoomed by us, the unicorn in question standing on top, beside the minotaur I had seen at Bastion. Both brandished weapons, a large maul for the minotaur, and a spear in Flim’s magic. They crashed into the dogs, Flim yelling something about a brother. This was my first true view of the fragility of life, watching the dogs smashed to a pulp and smeared across the front of the vehicle. I will not lie, not here in this journal. I retched. The battle raged outside of the circle we had created. Drake, the changelings and his other followers battling with the dogs over the students, who were still trapped within their carriage. One of my guards started to move to help them, but was stopped by the other who merely shook his head. Fortunately he listened for a moment later, one of the merchantpony’s guards fell backwards a spear protruding from his chest. A pair of dogs jumped up to where he had been standing, ugly clubs in their paws. The battle had come to us. The dogs flowed like water behind their vanguard or came up on the inside, dragging the fallen mercenary away beneath the ground. I am not a fighter, but I’d heard the stories, the tales of what happens to those captured by these unwashed monsters. Though I’d never before seen battle, my guards and I did not stand idly by. I was afraid, like nothing I have ever been, but did I not promise myself to do Auntie Celestia proud, to be worthy of the faith she bestowed upon me with this position. It is late and I am beginning to ramble. Sufficient to say, I joined the fray, using my magic to stab at the dogs while my guards used their pikes to menace them and keep them back. We withstood them for I don’t know how long, but sweat ran down my back, blood flowed from the carriages, both pony and diamond dog, and the dogs continued coming, the mercenaries and the guards were injured, one guard had been knocked out. We fought over his body; the dogs trying to taking him, us trying to save him, and prevent them from flanking us. Something hit me in the side, knocking me down to the ground outside the ring. The impact knocked me breathless and I struggled to roll from my back as one of the dogs towered over me, a rusted trident in his paws. For all the evil I wish to attribute to him, what struck me most was the dumb look on his face, as if he felt nothing but simple did his job. There was no warrior ethos, no grand purpose to his life, just doing what had to be done. My life flashed before my eyes as the trident descended towards me. The things I had done, the ponies I loved, and my regrets at failing when a blue blur shot through my vision and a pink mist was all the remained of the one that nearly ended me. The battle ended quickly from there. Drake and his allies had saved the students. The dogs tried to focus on the remaining ponies in the circle, hence the attack that had knocked me down before he could come to our aid. Despite his fresh injuries Drake had not let up and came straight to our aid. As I looked around, I saw corpses littering the ground, almost all of them the dogs, but one of the changelings had fallen, two more were injured. All three lay on top the student carriage, one whom I recall having a fair bit of medical schooling looking after them. A full accounting, later this evening after we set up camp, would show that we had lost the two pullers and three mercenaries to the dogs, another four mercenaries dead, a pair of the traders mortally wounded and expected not to survive the night. One changeling is gone, two are wounded, and nearly half the eggs were smashed. The queen’s egg is unharmed though. I am alive, but I now know that life out here is not a gentle existence. For those that live in this waste, they have my respect and sympathy. * * * * * * * * * “A stark reminder of what the Green Sea was once like indeed,” Bias said as they finished an overview to start the class, “but what does this really mean for us, and the founding of the Republic?” One of the wolves stood to answer, as tradition dictated. “Sir, it shows why Drake would be so zealous in his persecution of the diamond dogs.” “A good answer, any others?” “Sir,” a griffin hen said standing as the wolf sat down, “that griffin was Kestrel the Survivor of one of the teams sent out by Drake when he had first went to Equestria right?” “Indeed, The leader of the second team, and the only one to escape capture or death when they were ambushed by both harpies and diamond dogs.” “Well his survival means that Drake would get the story direct rather than from a second hand source.” “Okay, and what will that do for him? Someone else answer.” “It lets him know the nature of the threat against him and how coordinated it is,” A dragoness said raising her neck up rather than standing at her full height. “All good analysis of these event but no one has hit on the main point,” Bias said. “Think of the recent film, Death of a Parasprite.” “Sir, is it that Blueblood’s experiences would give him insight into the struggle of survival and loss at the hands of the Fallen races that would drive Drake to act so extremely in the Massacre at Appaloosa, and thereby help him calm tensions in the aftermath between the infant Phoenix Republic and the Diarchy of Equestria?” one of the ponies said. “Exactly. No other event during his tenure was quite such a close call as this battle was. It also showed him the lengths Drake would go to defend those around him. Rather than abandon anyone, Drake had fought to save everyone, and did not chastise the ponies for circling up and trying to fight back,” The class breathed a sigh of relief and Bias went on with his lecture talking about the differences between the life most ponies of the time knew and life in the Wildlands. The class listened and took notes as he spoke. “Since we have Friday off, we will have a quiz on Monday on the next topic. Blueblood first official report. Otherwise enjoy your weekend and have some fun,” Bias said dismissing the class. * * * * * * * * * Official Report to Princess Celestia Prince Blueblood Official Liaison 15, Flower’s Bloom 2 ARL Subject: Emerald, the new Changeling Queen. 1) The purpose of this report is to detail the birth of the new Changeling Queen Emerald. 2) This morning, as we broke camp and prepared for our second to last day of travel, the unicorn Trixie the Great and Powerful, whom is current working for the dragon Drake Rex, informed me that my presence was required by said dragon. I made my way to where he had bedded down that night, and found him with his followers and the changelings arranged around the glowing pink egg of the changeling queen. It was very bright and rocking gently back and forth. Drake had a smirk on his face though the changelings seemed uneasy. I stood out of the way near the other ponies present. After a few moment the egg began to break, black cracks standing out against the light it threw off. At last the shell fell away revealing the new queen. She rolled out of the remains of the shell, giving me my first good look at her. Furless, her skin was a dark charcoal grey, her shell yet unformed. She had teal tuffs of something hair-like for a mane and tail, her horn was small and fairly straight, but what stood out were her wings. Whereas all changelings have insect wings she had small leather wings which she flapped experimentally. At this point I took a closer look and saw that her front legs ended in claws instead of hooves, and her face was decidedly more reptilian than pony. She looked like a hybrid between a dragon and a changeling, I was not alone in finding this odd. The changelings bristled angrily at her appearance. Brutus spoke up questioning her form and demanding an answer. Drake, who until now had been quiet, offered a possibility which is quoted here. “I am not sure, but the egg was bathed in my blood at one point. As you are likely aware dragon blood has potent magical properties. Add your race’s magical shapeshifting abilities and it’s possible that some of it was absorbed into the egg thereby altered her development into what we see here.” Brutus, Scissor, Peggy, Judas, and Mission, the changelings, did not seem satisfied with this explanation and promised an extensive discussion on this in the future, remaining on guard until I had left. Drake then leaned in and greeted the confused foal that had been playfully flailing around during the exchange, ignorant of all that was happening. “Hello Emerald,” he said drawing her attention for the first time. With her eyes on him, he carefully scooped her up in his hand. She fit comfortably in his palm, but only just. “That’s right your name is Emerald, and I am your father. Welcome to the world.” At those worlds Emerald just giggled, sounding every bit like a newborn foal in that moment. She held out her forelegs to him and when he leaned in she hugged his snout. At that point I had seen enough and excused myself to compose this report. 3) It is my opinion that, at this time, the neither changelings or their new queen pose an immediate threat to Equestria. Additional to see the dragon, whom I have only seen playing the game of politics, fighting, or expecting an attack smiling and showing genuine care towards the foal makes me believe that he is not so dangerous as another in his place might be. If he can truly feel love and care of somepony then a productive relationship may well be possible and profitable both for Equestria and whatever he is creating out here. That said it is too early to be sure. I will report anything more I learn as is appropriate and will continue to remain skeptical but open minded if only to ensure that I fulfill my duties in good faith. Prince Vlad Blueblood Prince Vladimir Blueblood Royal Equestrian Liaison * * * * * * * * * “Welcome back everyone I hope you fun weekend. The quiz question is on the board, write down you answer then turn it in up here,” Bias said as the class settled in. “The next two days we will be discussing the implications of this first report from Prince Blueblood, and the potential implications it might have had on early Equestrian-Republic relations.” Thus began two classes of in depth discussion on the nature of early relations and how the republic was almost completely dependent on Equestria for food and skilled laborers to rebuild Forum and feed its growing population. Included was discussion of how this affected the current relationship between the two nations and political policy in the Republic. At the end of the last class he assigned two separate readings then promised a good surprise for Friday, but refused to say what it was. The students left, convinced a test was inbound while Bias chuckled to himself certain no one would figure it out. * * * * * * * * *