//------------------------------// // 26 Surprise! // Story: The Queen is Dead // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// Lily - 26th of Plantation ‘15 EoH - Noon I wish David wasn’t so tight lipped about his past, wherever he had received his education, it needed to be a place ponies knew about. Other worlds existed in other dimensions and powerful mages could bridge these realms. If we could get ponies going to wherever David did, and probably solve a few of Theoretical Thaumaturgy’s big questions! It wasn’t that he knew more than me about Natural Physics, or most wizards for that matter. It was that he thought completely differently about certain concepts. This was a clearly alien perspective, but it was still fundamentally correct at it’s core. Like the way David thought of electrons existing in orbitals rather than in a cloud. It was technically as accurate as the way I learned it and the math even worked out when I tried it myself. Sure, it was a very simplified way of thinking about it, but that let the mind do some pretty interesting things with electrons. Interesting things like work out a system to check if atoms could bond, which resembled a jigsaw puzzle. That was much different from the probability calculations I had been taught, and I rather liked it. David’s alien thought processes did have their drawbacks, but over all they let him make leaps of logic which actually worked most of the time. In just two days I had managed to guide him into basic mastery of his thermal spell, show him how to make small amounts of light, and gotten a little bit of progress into telekinesis. Though he was going to need at least a few weeks to get use to doing anything with TK at all. Floating a marble an inch above your hoof, or hand, is one thing. Moving that marble in a way you want it to move is another. Still, he was very good at mastering the fundamentals. If he were a unicorn I would be doing everything I could to get him into any Arcane College. As it was, he could be one of the best non-unicorn mages I was aware of if he kept learning after our adventure. At the moment I had David working more on conjuring fire and ice. He was up to forming balls of each in his hand from thin air, the first point where someone could think about using thermal spells offensively actually. Grabbing an opponent and freezing a joint solid was a pretty good tactic, and with David’s cunning, the limits of what he could do now were probably more of a help than a hindrance. I turned away from watching David rapidly switching between conjuring flames and frost in the same hand to stare at the papers atop my desk. He didn’t need my help to do basic exercises anymore, and I’d never fancied battlemagic. I’ve always prefered magic’s more subtle uses. Magic is a powerful force. If you know what you are doing, you can use it to do anything. So why limit protecting yourself to firebolts, lasers, and force missiles? David was right about the danger we were walking into, and his total focus on gaining any edge he could reminded me that I wasn’t exactly good to go hoof to hoof with the whole Swarm ether. I too had to try to improve myself. I had been a bit foolish despite realizing this and dedicated the first two days of our hotel stay to finishing the spell I had been working on. I still hadn’t tested it on a living person, or a dead one for that matter, but when I had cast it without a target the spell held stable, so in theory it was done. At least that was ready for use if ever needed. It had also led me to what I needed to do to improve my own abilities. That single spell would take all of the energy I had to cast. My reserve of magic was abysmal. A problem I solved by remembering a piece of lore about a likely mythical creature, the Wendigo. An obscure creature said to be spawned from the corpses of dead ponies who were eaten alive which had one very interesting property. They absorbed heat. Most ponies don’t think much of the heat, it’s just warmth after all, right? Wrong. It takes a surprising amount of energy to heat the air of a small room just one degree. So I enchanted the ear-chain I drunk-got to cool the air around me in a three pony long radius by ten degrees by absorbing the heat and storing the energy inside the three small emeralds set into little sockets attached to the chain. It was working alright, the gold was substandard, and the emeralds were a bit cheap so the enchantment wasn’t as efficient as I hoped, but over the last two days it had filled up with about a week’s worth of energy and seemed to be capped there. Even better, I sort of liked how it looked on me. It was a nice contrast to the hoops in my other ear, and the short chain dangled just the right amount between it’s two hoops to look nice. It finished the look the others started. I felt nice and pretty even without a dress thanks to those little links and my bracelets, and now they also greatly boosted my spellcasting capabilities! Not bad at all for a crudely bodged together series of first year charms! Faust’s mane, I really needed to work on enchanting. I did have all of my other piercings and my bracelets. I could see if any of them might take some enchantment. Ooo! I could make all twenty or so of those piercings into shield charms and have them all overlap at once. Individually their protection would only block a punch, but together they would stop anything that might get through a proper shield at least once! Yes that was a great idea! Now, how did I go about setting up a test matrix to check the energy capacities of bronze and silver? I remember how to do it for gold, but the other metals were probably differ- A loud wet cracking sound from the bathroom completely destroyed my concentration! “Eeeeew!” I groaned, covering my face with my hooves, “Ich wollte nicht sich vorzustellen was könnte dieses Geräusch gemacht haben!” “Azu- er, Lily, everyone’s out here.” David said with an amused grin. “Yeah,” Light giggled, “the only person in the bathroom is-” “Jade!” We all exclaimed in unison. The resulting pile of bodies from us trying to rush to the bathroom at once took a full twenty seconds to untangle. Jade - 26th of Plantation ‘15 EoH - Noon I slammed my shoulder into the side of my cocoon again, another small piece breaking free. More light spilled into the sticky interior. I had to get free, now! Itchy! So much itchy! Itchy for days! Why!? A loud thump, clatter, crunch from the hallway alerted me to other people nearby. Who were- Oh yes, David! I cried urgently, as I slammed away another chunk of pod. The missing chunk was big enough for me to make out the place I was in. I couldn’t quite remember where or how I formed my cocoon, the whole day was fuzzy. I remembered we got off the ship but… not much else. The small bathroom I was in looked super luxurious. There was even a mirror on the wall! I couldn’t see myself in it, because I was apparently in some sort of porcelain bathtub. Did they take me back to the ship for this? The decorations were all sandy rocky stuff and blue, that didn’t match the ship, but it was definitely as fancy. Maybe I was in the crew’s quarters somewhere? They did really love me. But well you know, I did save all of their lives from an angry sea monster. No, that couldn't be it. I wasn’t literally gasping for air through the thick haze of love directed at me. I was off the ship. Then where was I? Oh sweet Sun’s Light! The itchies! Go away! The bathroom door slammed open, David filled the frame, stooped a bit to fit through the doorway, rush over to me and bent down to the hole. “Hay there, is it okay if I help open this? It’s not like a chicken egg is i-” He stopped mid sentence and stared into my exposed eye for a few seconds before asking, “Uh, are her eyes supposed to look like that?” Light pushed her way past Azur in the doorway “Yeah Queen’s eyes are more mammal- Whoa!” Her face scrunched into a sort of confused awe. I didn’t have time for this! Itchies! I begged telepathically, since my mouth was being squished shut by the pod. David nodded and carefully pushed a finger into the crack and began to pull, so I stood up to push with my back. Just as the crack began to widen Azur finally got into the room, stopped moving and exclaimed open mouthed, “Whoa! Sie sehen aus wie blaue diamanten!” “I know.” David grunted, levering the cocoon apart just enough for me to pull my hooves under me and push hard! The Cocoon cracked, popped, and splintered, falling down my sides as I stood up. I only barely noticed the shards as I slammed my nose into the rough looking sandy-stony wall and rubbed it back and forth like I wanted to sand it off! “Itchy itchy itchy itchy!” I shouted before sitting down with a relieved sigh atop my cocoon’s remains. “Ahhh! So… much… better!” I turned to give David an appreciative smile for helping, only to find everyone frozen in shock. My smile turned into a confused frown. “What? My nose itched the entire time… You’d have done that too.” The three of them just kept staring at me. I felt my hearts flutter as panic started to set in. I raised a fuzzy hoof to brush some of my mane out of my eyes- My eyes locked onto my hoof a split second before I moved the familiar silver mane. It was covered in a dark but vivid jade colored long fluffy moth like fuzzy floof! Or whatever that stuff is called. “Uh… I’m fuzzy.” I said, staring shocked at my hoof for a few moments before looking down at the rest of myself to find even more floofy fuzz! David shook his head in a slight, confused sort of way before asking, “Uh, are Queens not supposed to be like that?” “No.” Light answered with an intrigued tone but confused expression. “It’s extremely pretty though!” Azure exclaimed in a heartfelt enough tone to make me trust him. “But… why fuzzy?” I asked no one in particular as I noticed the mirror again and turned it to face me with my magic. The mirror turned extremely easily! I barely put any effort into it at all and it just moved! My aura was only around it for a second! “Whoa! That was really eas- Oooo!” My reflection filled my entire attention the second I saw it. I looked a lot like a pony, except instead of fur I had the fluffy fuz. The color wasn’t uniform, my shell was still pure white, and the fluff there was a bit glittery, and the jade color faded to darker patches around my eyes, muzzle, and hooves. It wasn’t bulky, I looked very sleek, but also very soft, especially the extra fluffy patch around my barrel and neck. My horn was the familiar black glossy chitin, but larger, and about twice as long as before. My mane and tail were still the same silvery color and the same shape, even my braids were intact! But the mane itself was a lot more silky looking, and glittered a little in the light like the fuzz on my shell. My wings were also almost the same dragonfly-like ones, just larger, and little stained glass like markings subtly shimmering to form neat little patterns. But my eyes! Oh my eyes were amazing! They were like a ponies now, and were a pale ice-like blue which matched the center-stone in my Hive’s Queen’s crown exactly! They even glistened in the light. I looked amazing! I couldn’t help but smile at my reflection. However at the same time, “Seriously, why am I fluffy? Not that I don’t like this.” “I don’t know.” Light admitted with a shrug. “Yeah, I’m the least qualified to think of a reason here…” David muttered, scratching the back of his head with one hand. “You look gorgeous by the way…” I felt my hearts flutter at his compliment. Azur suddenly stamped a hoof on the floor, “Ah ha! I got it!” Everyone turned to look at- Hey, when did he get that chain? No bad Jade! Focus! “What?” I asked curiously. “It’s obvious!” He giggled, “She’s what a Queen should look like, und the others are not… er... done! Think about it, Queens are ordinary changelings until they eat enough love to transform. Jade got more love than any changeling alive for a whole month, while most hives are starving.” Light blinked then nodded, clearly impressed. “That makes perfect sense! Other Queens have gotten just enough to trigger their metamorphosis, but not enough to finish it. Food is really scare when you can’t farm it. It makes sense that a Queen could form in a less… expensive body.” David nodded in agreement. “Royal jelly.” “Huh?” I asked, mostly in response to David, but also to everyone else. David gave me a smile, “Back in my old world we have insects called wasps. They are social, do hives, and have Queens. They have castes too, and what caste they get is determined by how much food they get to eat while growing. New Queens form from drones that eat a special food. Lily’s theory makes total sense, you’re the first Queen to get enough food to ‘finish’.” “I guess that makes sense… Oh.” My eyes widened in realization, “Each Queen forms a new hive, and the first drones are clones of her! So the whole hive is descended from that one Queen! So if she’s not right, the whole hive won’t be right either! Our whole species might supposed to be like this, but noling ever finished developing fully.” “Huh.” Azur said, stroking his chin, “That… that would mean a lot of different things.” “Yeah,” Light agreed with a nod, “like for one, it means even here ‘lings can’t thrive. They are only surviving.” I felt my ears droop, it was a weird fuzzy sort of feeling that I wasn’t used too. That was a really depressing thought and I didn’t want to think about it right now. I closed my eyes and did my best to think of absolutely anything else. Oh. My. Gosh. My ears perked up in sudden realization of something I could now do that I never could before! Something amazing, and awesome, and wonderful! I stood up, shook the rest of my cocoon out of my fluff, and smiled while looking into David’s eyes! “I’m on eye level now!” I announced to my favorite Dog before gently pulling him to me in a hug. “Ack!” David sputtered as I held the hug maybe a little too tight. “Jade… ribs!” I eeped and let go, blushing lightly, “Sorry.” “Yeah,” Light said slowly, “Queens are earth pony strong, Jade.” I shuffled my forehooves in embarrassment, “I know… I just forgot about that… I just wanted to hug a guy I love.” It took me three full seconds to realize what I had said. Then I blushed what felt like the brightest red in the world. Because it was true. David had saved my life. Twice. He promised to take me to safety just because he felt it was the right thing to do, no rewards, nothing. He was smart, and fun, and the nicest guy I had ever met. I’d felt horrible when he was gone, and safe when he was around. Of course I loved him. Who wouldn’t love someone like that? Though apparently I was dense as a brick about realizing I loved someone… David spent those moments in a shocked double take. His mismatched eyes started off showing a deep sense of shock and surprise. I could feel his emotions as they zipped between surprise and fear. The fear wasn’t directed at me. It ran way back with David’s own history, I could feel it. Sun’s light, I’d linked this deeply with him, of course I felt something for him! Stupid brain! “Yeah… Uh… Okay.” David said slowly as his eyes soften. I felt his fear die down a little. But it was still there, just beneath the surface. I frowned, “I-I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to-” David grimaced, “Oh god! Right! Emotovore…” He sighed and shook his head slowly. “That’s… that's not directed at you. Or your fault. I… I’ve never had a good life. Never had much money, or fame, or even a comfortable home… I… I never wanted to draw anyone into that with me. I ignored any feelings for anyone. You know…” Azur and Light shared a quick glance, nodded to each other and slowly backed out of the room. David awkwardly looked up at the ceiling, shuffling one foot against the floor. I looked down, trying to hold back tears. “I… I understand… I’m sorry for making you hurt…” I apologized quietly. David groaned a deep, pained, heartfelt groan. I felt his hand as he gently lifted my chin up to look me in the eyes. “God dammit… I’ve never felt this bad about rejecting anyone. I… I can’t do that to you Jade. I care for you too god damn much I guess…” He sighed, then took a deep breath. “I’ve never done much more than a few dates back in High School, Jade. I’m not some Casanova, if that’s what you think. I’ve spent so long rejecting romance that I… Ah fuck the speech! Heaven help me, but I love you too, you silly bug-girl.” David pulled me into a tight hug, and got a taste of real, honest, made-just-for-me-love. It was heavenly! “Uh Jade… You’re drooling on me.” David informed, slowly letting go. “Eh heh heh… sorry.” I blushed, giving him a little grin. “You’re just delicious!” “Right. Emotovore.” David said shaking his head with a smile. “When we get to Equestria and we’re clear of all this bullshit, I’ll happily see if we click as a couple. I can’t convince myself that I don’t love you, and for an alien bug girl you are god damn breathtaking, even more so now with the fluff. That said, we’re in danger still.” I nodded, blushing at his compliment. “You look great yourself! And to be fair I never thought I would like a biped. Er, you know what I mean.” I cleared my throat and gave him a little kiss on the cheek. “But yeah… We need to make it out of this alive first.” David sighed in relief. “I’m glad you agree. Getting caught mid cuddle by the enemy would be a horrible way to go.” David blinked and slapped a hand to his face in a gesture reminiscent of a facehoof. Facehand? Nah, that sounded terrible. “Right! So, Jade, we need to bring you up to speed.” David said. "While you were out of it, our friend Dusk popped in again and I finally got an explanation out of her.” I winced, “Oh no! It’s bad isn’t it?” “Well…” David bit his lip, took a deep breath and told me everything. I sat and listened as he told me the story. Dusk was the Old Religion’s goddess of Death. He told me why she couldn’t just tell her directly. David even went as far as to mention that despite being a god, Dusk acted like anypony else. The only difference was in what she could do. That gods had rules they had to obey. That Dusk was nice, and wanted to protect mortals. He told me about her plan to kill Chrysalis. How Dusk had the whole Equestrian army waiting in ambush for the Swarm. That we were the bait she used in her trap, and how she hated putting people in harm's way, but knew that the lives of billions couldn’t compare to the lives of two. But also how she had been steering us to guide us safely through as she could manage. I listened to the whole story, taking in everything I could, and as David stopped speaking, I nodded slowly. “Alright… You guys aren't playing a joke on me, right?” “No.” David said honestly. “I do understand why you would think that though.” “So Dusk is actually a goddess?” I asked, giving David a suspicious look. “She is.” He answered. “And she specifically chose us to be the bait because she felt we were the best choice, and still feels bad about putting us in danger?” I asked seriously. “That’s about the size of it.” David confirmed. Well… Death being a guide to mortals in the afterlife did check out with what the priestesses had taught us. “Did she say her mother was Creativity?” I asked giving David a curious look. “Uh… I can’t remember.” David admitted with a small frown. “Ja! She ranted about her mother for hours a few nights ago.” Lily called from the other room. “Apparently she cares more about rocks, trees,and cosmic objects than living creatures.” That also was how it had been taught. "And her father is... ?" I asked poking my head out of the door to look at Azur over on the room's one bed. He frowned, scratched his chin for a moment then finally said, "Ether war or conflict... I can't remember which." That was a third check mark in Dusk's favor. Either someone knew the Old Religion well enough to fake it, unlikely given how few I’d been told still practiced, or this was the real deal. The first option meant a very cunning and learned pony had a plan to rid the world of the Swarm. The latter meant that a Goddess had asked me to perform a service for the world. In both cases the moral thing to do would be to help get rid of the Daemon Queen. Also if Dusk was crazy, I'd seen first hoof what happens when you anger someone powerful. I didn't want a lifelong enemy. Especially if that enemy was Death herself. But most of all, I wanted what had happened to me to never happen to anyone else ever again. No one deserved to see their home and family die in front of them. Not even the person who had destroyed my own. I was in a position to help make sure no one ever would again. There was only one thing I could do. “Well, we had better get on a train then.” I said with a determined nod.