//------------------------------// // 36 - Nightmare // Story: Change // by tom117z //------------------------------// The Badlands Hive Carduus, Spike and Twilight Sparkle stood in a small side room connecting to the hive’s main storage chambers. These rooms were adjacent to the central love reservoir and contained what seemed to be unlimited supplies of food, equipment, building materials, weapons and everything else they could possibly need. The room they currently inhabited was a plain square shape, with a central table that had various utensils spilled out all over it. Spike the Dragon glanced over a list of names one last time, before putting down that particular scroll and picking up another in his claws. “And that is the guard roster arranged,” Spike scribbled a check next to the completed task. “Now that we know who’s coming and who’s not, we just need to pack.” Carduus snorted. “I swear, ever since you two came along this hive has been on a tighter schedule than ever in its entire thousand year history.” Spike chuckled at the Captain’s comment. “Well what can I say? We pride ourselves on not being tardy, right Twilight?” Twilight nodded in return, with a smile on her face. “Most definitely.” Carduus could do naught but shake his head. Twilight looked down at a checklist of her own, scanning through a few pages intently. She nodded whenever she saw everything was in order, scribbled in a few notes here and there as reminders for later, and after everything was ordered in a way she was happy with she gave a satisfied sigh and placed the list down onto a nearby table. “Alright then, everything is ordered into a few easy steps, consisting of most important to least important. And then each section of importance is listed in the most logical order with a nice little numerical guide to-" “Whoa Princess, we get it,” Carduus stopped Twilight in her ranting tracks. “It’s organised, I’m sure we’ll manage from here.” Twilight grinned sheepishly, lowering herself slightly. “Yes, of course! Sorry I almost got carried away there… again...” She chuckled to herself. Carduus raised an amused eyebrow. With a cough, Twilight stood up straight again. “Anyway… Will you be OK sorting this without me for a little while? It’s been a few hours so Pinkie’s party should have calmed a bit. I really need to talk to them, to explain things.” “You can count on us, your highness,” Carduus said, throwing a salute. “We’ll have everything arranged for when you get back.” “Thanks, if you need my help at any point I’m a single ping over the hive mind away,” Twilight assured, before trotting over to the single wooden door acting as an entrance and exit to the room, and leaving the other two to it. Rolling his eyes, Carduus walked up to the wooden table and picked up Twilight’s checklist, a small creased frown appeared on his features as he read the top of page one. “Step one, please take a moment to go over the list at least three times, and take in every detail, making sure you understand the importance of- seriously?” Carduus looked rather bemused by it all. A common thing when it came to Twilight and her checklists. “She’s just being thorough,” Spike shrugged, taking the checklist from Carduus’ grasp. “I know but… can we just skip that first step? Just this once?” Spike gave Carduus a fang filled smirk. “No pony, or changeling, defies the checklist.” Spike picked up a quill, and promptly began step one. Carduus deflated. The Crystal Empire The royal carriage made its way down the long highway leading directly to the very front of the palace ahead. The journey was smooth and comfortable, thanks to the material the road; a surface that, along with the rest of the empire, was made of cut crystal. Other carriages came and went down various side streets, all giving the royal carriage right of way. The crystal ponies went about their day-to-day lives as they walked down the pathways either side, entering and exiting the various houses and establishments lining them. Many stopped to gawk as the carriage passed them, foals and fillies waved with gleeful grins and the odd pony even bowed as they passed, all knowing that at least one of their royals would be riding within. Even though the windows, from the outside, were blacked out. “Oh my gosh, I love this place!” Scarlet near squeed as she looked out the window. “It’s so different from anywhere in Equestria I’ve ever been! And I’ve been to pretty much all of it in the EUP some time or another.” “Well I’m glad you like it,” Shining Armor said. “We’ve put a lot of time and effort in bringing this place up to speed with the modern world. It’s not been entirely easy for the crystal ponies, most of whom were born well over a thousand years ago. The economy was nothing. Their farming practices, education system, all obsolete. Among other things.” Shining sighed. “There were so many problems. I know there are some crystal ponies who, at first, would have preferred to remain a city state separate from Equestria. But they couldn’t have denied that on their own this city would have simply wasted away in the snow.” “At least they’ve kept their cultural identity,” Vladimir pointed out. “My kind lost much of ours after Princess Luna was banished, and Equestrian culture began to override our own. It’s only thanks to Princess Luna’s efforts now that some of the old thestral traditions are beginning to make a comeback.” “Annexation can cause problems like that,” Shining admitted. “But this place means a lot to Cadance, it's part of her family’s history, part of her. She takes her role as the Crystal Princess very seriously, and is adamant about keeping the empire intact as it is.” Scarlet tore herself away from the window and looked at Shining. “Oh yeah, Princess Cadance is descended from Queen Amore, right?” Shining nodded. “Yes. As she found out in her early teens.” “In her teens? She didn’t know before then?” “She found out on her ascension from Pegasus to alicorn, defeating a dark magic wielder named Prisma with her own innate love magic. She never really knew her biological parents, they abandoned her in some forest as a child with nought but a name. Her real parents though, were earth ponies who found and raised her. They are a nice couple, we just visited them a few weeks back.” “When I was a recruit, I was on the team tasked with tracking down her biological parents,” Broad Sword chimed in. “We never did find them though.” “It’s for the best,” Shining Armor grimaced. “Ponies like that don’t deserve a wonderful mare like Cady as a daughter.” Shining’s attention was caught by something else out the window, a shadow creeping over the carriage as they passed under the palace. “Ah, we have arrived.” Sure enough, the carriage slowly crept to a halt, several servants were ready and waiting to receive the luggage on arrival. Shining Armor opened the carriage door and stepped outside, his guests following shortly behind as the servants shot past to grab everything, and bring it to the guest rooms assigned to the three visitors in the palace itself. In the middle of the organised chaos, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza herself slid her way through the other ponies to greet the arrivals, Princess Flurry Heart sat contently on her back between her two large pink wings. “There you are!” Cadance walked up to her husband, and gave him a quick nuzzle, before she turned to the rest of the group. “I trust the trip was comfortable?” “Your highness!” Both Vladimir and Broad Sword snapped to attention out of habit, causing the other three to roll their eyes. “Come on dear,” Scarlet jabbed her husband in the ribs. “You can stop embarrassing yourself now.” Cadance tittered behind a hoof. “She is right you know. You are our personal guests, so I won’t have any of that this week, if you don’t mind.” “Er… sorry,” Vladimir rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. “Force of habit; when you are Captain of the Guard for seven years without any leave, stuff tends to stick.” Cadance’s eyes locked onto Broad Sword and Scarlet. “And there are the newlyweds, I always love to see a true romance flourish like this.” Shining rolled his eyes behind his wife’s back, but she noticed and he received a swat from her tail across his face. “Cadance,” Scarlet greeted cheerfully. “It’s good to see you again, and I really must thank you again for officiating at our wedding!” “A Captain of the Royal Guard and an officer of the EUP. After everything you two have done, I just had to perform the ceremony!” Cadance beamed. “Besides, as the Princess of Love, how could I resist?” Flurry Heart poked her head up above her mother's, looking curiously down onto the new ponies. “Hello there!” Scarlet said to the young princess. “You must be Flurry Heart. Oh you are adorable,” she said, booping the baby alicorn on the nose. Flurry Heart gurgled happily at the attention, burying herself in her mother’s mane. “I think she likes you,” Cadance chuckled. “Come on, let’s get you all inside. Once you get settled in, we can show you around the palace.” Cadance pointed a wing towards the palace’s entrance, and Shining led Broad Sword and Vladimir forward while Cadance and Scarlet Snow took up the rear. “And you can tell me all about the honeymoon,” Cadance whispered into Scarlet’s ear, mischievous grin on her face. A somewhat evil smile crept onto Scarlet’s muzzle. “Oh, I plan to.” With that, Celestia’s sun began to set into the horizon. Badlands Twilight walked into the large atrium that sat in the very centre of the hive. And found it empty. Obvious signs of Pinkie’s party were everywhere, from streamers to confetti from Pinkie’s party cannon. A few tables and chairs were broken, probably from Rainbow Dash’s flying brigade of mischief. But now the atrium was quiet. And it wasn’t just that the party had ended. There wasn’t a soul in sight. “Hello?” Twilight called out, receiving no reply to her call. Twilight flew up to the exact spot where she and her friends had been sitting earlier. She saw what little was left of their drinks and meals still on the table, though there was no sign of the ponies themselves. “Rarity? Applejack? Anypony?” Twilight tried again. And still Twilight could see and hear nothing but the sound of her own hooves echoing through the vast cavern. “Mother, do you know where my friends are?” Twilight decided to see if Chrysalis knew something she didn’t, or had missed. No reply. “Mother?” Still nothing. Twilight was dumbfounded. She tried again, and again. Both times she received only dead silence. She then tried contacting Carduus, Panacea, several of her guards, random drones across the hive, and even little Iuvenes. Not one responded. “W-wha…” Twilight stammered as she tried to rid herself of the creeping sense of loneliness coming down upon her. That was when a hoof touched her shoulder. With a frightened gasp, Twilight whipped around to face whoever crept up on her, fangs bared out of instinct. Instead of a pony or a changeling, she found a long corridor. “Huh? Wasn’t I just in the atrium?” Twilight said out loud, extremely confused. With little choice, she began to walk down the corridor. And so she walked, and she walked, and she walked some more. And yet the corridor never seemed to end. Twilight was more than a little nervous now. However, tired of making no progress, she decided to backtrack and see if she missed anything. The walk back was far shorter than it should have been, and it led to a single wooden door. Slowly, she pushed the door open, cautiously making her way inside. That was when she saw the bodies. Twilight stood there, frozen, literally unable to move as she looked down onto the six corpses in the room. And she recognised all of them. Three were some of the changeling guards she had with them on the day she was injured, and two more were members of the Solar Guard she also had with her that day. All of them were killed by the assassins. The final was the broken body of Sergeant Longshot, his battered crossbow laying just a few metres away, blood soaked into the frame. “What is this?! Where am I?” Twilight screamed out, tears breaching her eyes. “They died for you Twilight…” A figure appeared in the very edges of Twilight's vision, its appearance flickering violently between the figure of the then Commander Broad Sword, and a changeling. But both were deformed, and horrifying in appearance. “They died BECAUSE OF YOU, Twilight.” “N-no. You killed them! But you’re dead, mother killed you! How are you here?” “Isn’t it obvious?” the figure questioned, but didn’t go any further into it. “How many more will die before you just let me kill you?” “W-what?” “How many more will die for you?” The figure repeated. Twilight blinked, and when she opened her eyes again there were many, many more bodies. She could see her friends, family, and the princesses. All lying in pools of their own blood. “No! What have you done?!” “Finished the job. Queen-,” The name, the one that had eluded Twilight’s memory for so long, came as little more than static to Twilight’s ears, “-sends her regards.” A knife flicked past Twilight, held in a putrid green aura. The changeling princess desperately tried to move, to call on her magic. To do something. And yet all she could do was look on the knife as it slowly moved towards her heart. “ENOUGH!” A blue beam of magic shot through the air, evaporating both the figure and the knife that was just inches from Twilight. “P-princess Luna?” Twilight gasped as she found her motor functions return to her. The guardian of dreams approached Twilight with a sympathetic smile. “Are you well, Twilight Sparkle?” “I… think so?” Luna nodded. “Good. It is early morning and my sister will soon raise the sun, so perhaps it will be best to leave this place and rise from your bed. Do not fear, I will ensure your dreams tonight are not as disturbing as this.” Before Twilight could say anything further, Luna placed her horn on Twilight and sent a jolt of blue magic through her. Twilight awoke with a start. Breathing heavily she looked over at her surroundings. She was in her own bed, and a nearby clock on her desk displayed the time at being a little past four in the morning. With an annoyed groan at her memories of the nightmare, Twilight slumped back down onto her pillow. “Sugarcube?” a groggy Applejack called from the sofa she slept on. Twilight remembered the previous night. She had told her friends of their trip being cut short. They were disappointed, but understood. To make the most of the single night they had, they decided to have a slumber party in Twilight’s room. Now they were all either crashed out on the sofas in the centre of the room, or on mattresses a few drones had brought in. Their snores reached Twilight’s ears, and yet she found their mere presence comforting after what she had just experienced. “Applejack? You’re awake?” “Am now,” was the reply. “What time is it?” “Four.” Applejack groaned. “Did ya have a nightmare or summit?” “Yeah, about… you know, that day.” Applejack sighed. “Want to talk about it?” “There is nothing to be said that hasn’t been said before. I just wish I could remember the name. At least Luna saved me from the ending.” “Try not to think about it too much. So, we getting up or what? I’m used to rising before the Princess’ sun.” “Nah, that’s alright,” Twilight said. “We should get away with a couple more hours.” “Well alright, jus’ take it easy, ya hear.” “Don’t worry AJ, I will.” Silence followed that, and soon Applejack was asleep once more. Twilight however, laid awake for the remaining hours of darkness.