//------------------------------//
// 5: G-G-G-Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Intentions. 
// Story: Nymphetamine: The Heart's Price 
// by Architect Ironturtle 
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"Sombra?" Alex asked, leaning forward, "Wasn't he that crazy dictator from way back in early Equestria?"

"He was," Chrysalis replied, her buzzing wings undermining her mask of calm, "But he wasn't always as history remembers him. Sombra was born the youngest of five to the Crystal royal line. Even when he was a foal, everypony could tell that he was... off. He seemed kind and compassionate whenever he spoke with somepony, but the palace animals never liked him, and he didn't like them either. In addition, any caretaker assigned to him would soon find themselves in the middle of a disaster of their own making, one that would get them fired from the palace. It was never anything that could be traced back to Sombra, but it made the palace staff wary of him all the same."

"He was a smooth talker then?" Alex asked, one eyebrow quirked. That description sounded familiar, but he wanted more evidence to be sure.

"The most charming you would ever meet," Chrysalis replied, then buzzed her wings in agitation, "This is where I enter the tale. I was a tutor, once, before I became this," she gestured at herself, then sighed, tasting strongly of salt and spice, "The palace hired me to teach the young royal rune carving during his early adult years. I was 24, he was 16, and..."

Chrysalis's horn flared, and Alex was momentarily blinded by a flash of green light. When the spots finally faded from his eyes, Alex's jaw dropped. A luminous unicorn mare had taken Chrysalis's place, one with a pearlescent cream coat, expertly brushed silver mane and tail, and striking sea blue eyes that glinted like gemstones. "Given that I used to look like this," Chrysalis said with a bitter chuckle that sounded far too painful to come from such a melodious voice, "I'm not surprised that he developed feelings for me. Any young stallion in his place would have been hard pressed to avoid them. For most ponies, it would have ended there. Just another crush on their tutor. Not him," She frowned, "He had the Heart's power. I don't know how he got it. He could have been born with it, struck a bargain of some sort, or managed to extract it directly from the heart itself." She shrugged, "I never knew for certain. That he managed to keep it hidden for so long is, in truth, a miracle. One that had horrible consequences."

Another flash, and Chrysalis was back to normal, with the spice returning in full force, "One rotten member of the royal family was all it took to bring us down. I tried to warn King Shifter, but he flattened his ears against me! He insisted that all Sombra need was a little guidance."

She snorted, then said, "You can see how well that turned out."

"Hey, we've all turned a blind eye towards our family's flaws," Alex interjected, "It doesn't excuse him, of course."

"Of course," Chrysalis replied, standing up sharply so she could pace a bit in the confines of the tent, "But it showed me that the entire concept of trying to tame the Heart's power was flawed. You don't have to be a bad pony to abuse it, merely a careless one, and everypony screws up at least once. King's Shifter's guidance wasn't enough to prevent that."

"I take it you have something else in mind then?" Alex probed.

"Eliminate them," Chrysalis stated, " End their line, every last branch, and then destroy the Heart for good measure. It's the only way to be sure. I don't care what it takes, as long as this" she bared her fangs as she gestured to herself, "Never happens to anypony else ever again!"


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"...So that's the story," Shining said as he walked into his temporary office, his seat squeaking sharply as he relaxed behind an unassuming wooden desk, "It's only been a few hours since Alex and our 'mystery mare' disappeared. I've got a hunch they're still in the city, but at this point it's impossible to tell."

Cadance sniffed and nodded, remaining on her hooves as she shut the door behind them with her magic. The office was tiny, barely enough room for the desk and three chairs, including the one Shining now occupied, and painted a dull, unassuming gray. This was a place of labor, not leisure, they said, a sentiment that seemed to permeate the entire building.

Cadance glanced out the only window, grabbing a quick glimpse of the hospital next door as she did so, her expression weary. "I was too late, then," she mumbled, the words only barely escaping her mouth, "If I'd just been a little stronger, a little faster, I could have prevented this."

"Yes," Shining said, looking over some paperwork on his desk, "You could have." Normally he wouldn't say stuff like that, he wasn't cruel, but he just couldn't muster the willpower to be respectful at the moment. Also, Cadance truly was responsible, so he couldn't assure her it wasn't her fault like the good coltfriend he should be. Her... actions, didn't hurt quite as much when he focused on his anger.

For a moment silence fell, allowing the faint background noises of the street to bleed into the room. Cadance opened her mouth once, then twice, before finally saying, "So, now what?"

"Now what?" Shining echoed, still not looking at her, "Now I get to work organizing the search, and you go off and do... whatever." He waved a hoof in general direction, "Frankly, you've done enough here."

Cadance winced, then rallied, "This is my mess, Shining," she said softly, "I should help fix it."

Shining looked up at that, his expression hardening, "Oh, so you're finally owning up to it? Where was this yesterday, or better yet, three months ago when this whole clusterbuck," Cadance gaped, Shining never swore, "Got started!?"

Cadance opened her mouth to reply but Shining cut her off, getting out of his desk to start pacing in the confines of the office, "I mean, I was sort-of ok with you're whole, 'I need to sleep with every sapient species on the planet to fully understand what love is,' idea. I didn't like it, but I could understand where you were coming from. It made sense, in a twisted-romantic sort of way. This," he jabbed a hoof at his desk, indicating a photo of Alex that had been included with the files, "Doesn't! Honestly, Cadance, what the Tartarus were you thinking!?"

Cadance's mouth moved soundlessly as Shining fought to get his temper under control, before grasping at the only thing she thought might help him understand. "Hairless," she said, giving him her best pleading look.

Shining stared at her, clearly unimpressed, "Dragons don't have hair," he said simply, "Besides, you did that race already."

"This is different," Cadance snapped back, "Dragons have scales, griffons have feathers, more creatures than I can name have fur, but Alex just has skin. It makes for a unique experience. And his package," she smiled a little despite herself, which got her an incredulous look from Shining.

"Really?" He asked, "That's what you're going with this time?"

Cadance didn't respond out loud, instead holding her hooves just under six inches apart for scale. Shining's jaw dropped. "You're joking," he spat. Cadance only smiled wider. "Seriously?" Shining continued, his voice rising with his temper, "That's twice as big as mine!*"

"And according to Alex, among his own kind he's quite average," Cadance sighed wistfully, "Human mares are so lucky."

Shining's face had turned beet red, and he stomped away from her for a few seconds as he tried to bring himself under control. "Honestly, Cadance," he growled, "You've done enough damage as is. Just, please," When he turned to look at her the utter exhaustion on his face made her heart wrench, "Don't make it any worse."

Cadance wobbled for a moment, unbalanced by Shining's outburst, then stepped forward to hug him, to try to take a portion of his burden onto her withers as she had in the past. Shining leaned backwards, seemingly without thinking about it, and Cadance froze, then wilted, before turning and leaving the office without a word. It wasn't until she was halfway down the street that she finally allowed the tears to fall.


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"Wait, wait, wait!" Alex exclaimed, holding his hands up, "You want to kill them!?"

Chrysalis's words were as hard as ice, "The power of the Heart managed to survive the banishment of the Empire. Simple curse removal rituals will not be sufficient, assuming one powerful enough even exists, and as I already told you, simply killing the wielder will only result in the gift being passed on to one of her siblings. It's the only way." Alex was twitching in a way that couldn't possibly be comfortable, causing Chrysalis to give him a queer look. "Are you quite all right?"

"Just give me a moment, will you? I can't... that... that..." The situation washed over him like a splash of arctic seawater. Kill off an entire family just to contain a curse, even if it was a curse that struck on a regular basis despite their best efforts to contain it? It had no easy answer, one way or the other, and the pressure to respond was crushing him. He had to get rid of it before he could think straight, let alone make a sound decision.

"Could you give me a minute please?" He asked, holding up a finger, "I need to process this."

Chrysalis huffed, but nodded, returning to her spot on the couch.

Alex closed his eyes, and split himself into three. Persuasion generally came in three forms: logical, emotional, and moral. He'd first heard of this trick in a fictional story about Socrates fighting corruption in ancient Greece, but that didn't hamper its ability to simplify complex issues in the slightest.

"Cadance hurt us!" Pathos shouted, opening the debate, "She hurt us, and True Strike, and a bunch of other people! If Sombra hurt Chrysalis even half as badly, we should support her in every way! Besides, he sounds like an actual, diagnosable psychopath! There's no cure for that."

"Following this path would mean killing innocents," Ethos countered, "Sure, Cadance may have hurt us, but what about her parents? Her brothers and sisters? We've never even met them, and to condemn them to death based on her actions would be sick and wrong. On top of that, one thousand years was enough time for the English royal line to become distantly related to every single person on the European Continent. No doubt the Crystals will be just as pervasive. How can we justify killing some random family who just happened to be the many-greats grandchild of a Crystal Royal? The Hippocampi know what they're getting into when they attack our ships. They made a choice. Cadance's family didn't."

"Also," Logos began, "Since attempting regicide will have consequences far beyond simply containing a curse, the obvious best solution is to remove said curse. If that's not possible then some way to restrict its spread is optimal. Actually, now that I think about it we're missing a bit of data."

"Chrysalis," Alex asked, "Why didn't you kill them when the Empire first fell? It would have been much easier, wouldn't it?"

"It's not that simple," Chrysalis snapped, then composed herself, "One of the first things Sombra did when he took power was kill all his competition. At first I wasn't even aware that any of them had survived. After that, well... the last living heir was Mothwing's son, and her dying wish was for me to take care of him. You see, our connection to the heart was severed when the Empire vanished. Queen Mimic, my sisters, my mentors, all of them just curled up and waited for the end after that."

Chrysalis bared her fangs in a smile of cold triumph, letting off a strong waft of dark chocolate as her posture straightened, "Not me," she spat out, "I wanted to live. I learned how to drain emotions from other ponies. I figured out how to store them, and share them with other Changelings. And I, not Mimic, not Shifter, ME! I rallied our children, the 630 Changelings who weren't content to pass away alongside the Empire, and I led them to safety."

She leaned back with a smirk, still tasting of chocolate, and sighed happily.

"Wait wait wait," Alex cut in, narrowing his eyes at her, "What do you mean 630 Changelings!? I thought you said they were only nine or so?"

"Nine Greater Changelings, and that's not important right now," Chrysalis said dismissively, "I shall tell you more when it's time to meet them. In any case, I couldn't act directly against the sole surviving heir or any of his offspring until he had passed away. My oath prevented it. In any case, by the time I could have acted, I had learned that the Crystal empire would return at some point in the future."

Alex blinked, then shrugged mentally as Chrysalis added, "I searched for a way to determine when, but found only the royals themselves. When they were restored to full power, the empire would come back, and Sombra and the Heart with them."

"And since the job wouldn't be finished until Sombra was dead, attacking before then would simply leave you blind," Alex concluded, "So you've been stuck waiting ever since."

"Essentially, yes," Chrysalis confirmed, "Furthermore, I had no way of knowing how long that wait would be. I needed a way to preserve my followers and myself, so that when Sombra returned we would be ready to face him. That was when I learned how to use the goo we make from excess emotional magic to act as a stasis pod, and sealed the changeling race away. We've woken up a few times since then, in response to various incidents involving misfiring love spells, but for the most part we slept."

She smiled, a fierce, proud grin fueled by anger and what Alex guessed was anticipation, "If your attacker isn't the one we've been waiting for, it most certainly will be her child. The Empire is almost back, and when it is I will finally be free to act. My only regret is that I wasn't able to help you until it was already too late. For that, I am truly sorry."

Alex was silent for a long moment. While outwardly calm, he was in fact busily squashing the indignation that Chrysalis hadn't woken up sooner and saved him from turning into a Changeling, despite knowing the resentment had no basis in reality. Only once he'd gotten his emotions under control again did he dare to speak. "Thank you, Chrysalis. I think I know what I need to now."

"So you will help us then?" Chrysalis asked, her eyes sparkling in anticipation as she leaned forward.

"Give me a few minutes," Alex said evasively, "This isn't exactly like deciding what to have for dinner."

Chrysalis frowned, but backed up a bit.

"Ok," Ethos said, resuming their internal debate, "It seems Mrs. Bug Queen here has a sense of honor. That's a point in her favor, even if genocide is still unfeasible."

"That's hyperbole," Pathos shot back, "We don't actually know that's what it will take."

"I maintain," Logos said, cutting off the argument before it could devolve into insult slinging, "That killing the bearers of the curse is ineffective. They are likely too numerous to permanently remove, in addition to public relations issues and retaliation from the Crown. However, we will require her services to help master our new self, and getting revenge on Cadance is still a top priority."

"I believe you meant justice," Ethos corrected, "But the answer is obvious either way. We should offer to help Chrysalis to keep an eye on her while pursuing other alternatives. Hmm, ways to remove or suppress the curse... Maybe something tying into a form of birth control? It'll be better than killing them all, that's for sure."

Pathos projected a mental image of Chrysalis teaching Alex how to feed, and nodded his approval.

"That will require research," Logos said, "But we can do that later. All in favor?"

Alex opened his eyes. The result was a forgone conclusion by that point. "I'll help," he said, "If you teach me how to handle this," he gestured to himself, "And drag Cadance's crimes into the light. Also, I'd prefer that we hold off on direct action until the Empire returns. That way we can strike all at once and keep the element of surprise," In addition to buying me enough time to come with an alternative to mass murder, he didn't say aloud.

"It would be my pleasure," Chrysalis said with a knowing smile, and stuck out her hoof. Alex reached out and shook it, noting the thick skin that felt so similar to his own before they separated.

"Thank you," Alex said. The silence stretched. "So," he said, "Now what?"

"Now, Chrysalis replied with a smirk, "I believe you owe me a story."

"Fair enough," Alex replied, and cast his thoughts back, "As you have probably guessed by now, I am not native to Equestria. In fact, I am from another world entirely. Don't bother asking me how I got here, I don't know and all my efforts to find out have proven fruitless. It was a freak magical accident and I doubt it will happen a second time."

Chrysalis paused with her mouth open, the question poised on her tongue already answered, "In any case, my world, as I mentioned before, doesn't have magic in any noticeable amount. We have no immortals guiding our societies, or if we do they keep themselves out of sight. No Royal Sisters, no Dragon Lords, nothing. You would call our world... chaotic, and you would not be wrong."

"As for me personally," Alex sighed, "I was raised by a modest family living in northern Texas, a 'region,' of my home country. By the way, when I say modest, I mean, 'As wealthy as you would call a minor lord, but because everyone is that rich it doesn't stand out.' It's one of the perks of runaway technology. I had two little brothers, Raymond the bookworm and Colson the gearhead, who I loved to pieces when they weren't breaking my stuff into pieces."

He let out a wistful chuckle, "Mom loved fighting, couldn't get enough of it. Martial arts, medieval combat, paintball, target practice, you name it, she did it. The only things that came close to that passion were her love for Dad and the effort she put into teaching my brothers and I what she'd learned."

"Dad, by contrast, was anything but a fighter. His passion was building things, all sorts of things. Metalworking, woodworking, construction, mechanical tinkering, electronics, he dabbled in all of it at one point or another in his life. One of the constants was armor though. He built most of Mom's gear, and helped me make my first set. That's how they met actually: Mom's helmet got stuck on her head in one of her battles, and she had to hire Dad to pound it out enough for her to escape."

He laughed softly, and Chrysalis joined in, "Everything I know about armor, I learned from him. He even helped me draft the plans for this place," Alex gestured at the tent around him, "What kind of trailer to mount it on, how to make it fold up just so so I could pull it from event to event, all sorts of fine tuning. I doubt it would work half as well as it does if he hadn't contributed."

Alex stretched a bit and shifted his weight, "They were always pushing us to excel, my brothers and I, and eventually it paid off. We got accepted at some fancy colleges, and parted ways for a bit. I became a chemist, and made sure new products were safe before they hit the market. Last I heard Raymond had gotten an intern position at a law firm and Colson was working at a startup company designing some kind of robot after graduating early. I never did really understand him when he started talking about his work," He added to himself.

"That brings us to how I ended up here."  It never got any easier, telling his story, though at least he didn't stumble over himself as much anymore, "Every year my family gets back together at a big SCA event, that's a club we're all a part of, and we just have fun together. I was on my way there two years ago when I got horribly lost on a bunch of back roads. I don't know what the hell was up with that forest, but it was the last time I ever saw my homeworld."

Alex leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest, "I came out in the woods just north of town, and I've been living here ever since. I've probably been declared dead by this point, since that's what happens when people vanish without a trace and take a good chunk of their stuff with them. Even if I somehow manage to make it back someday, the life I had has long since vanished. But yeah, that's how I got to Equestria. Now, what would you like to know about my homeworld?"

Everything, as it turned out, and Alex was kept busy answering her questions until long after the sun had set.


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Sergeant Shifter was brooding, and given the state of the hive it would be hard to blame him. You know things are bad when 'falling apart at the seams' can be used to phrase something mildly. As much as he hated to admit it, the truth couldn't be denied: the hive was toast. Kaput. Utterly and irrevocably beyond repair. The Changelings couldn't stay there anymore, not without risking life and limb on a daily basis, and that meant one thing: moving.

With a groan of frustration, Sergeant Shifter slammed his head against his desk, accidentally spearing one of the reports detailing yet another collapsed tunnel on the tip of his horn. Rather than using his hooves or magic to brush it off, he just let it sit there for a while as he tried to come up with any way he could to avoid the logistical nightmare that was pulling up stake. None of his subordinates would have dared to comment, even if any had seen him like this. Most of them were too respectful, and the few that weren't had been given punishment assignments for similar transgressions in the past. They'd caught on quickly enough.

When no better options miraculously revealed themselves, the Changeling in Charge sucked it up, and used a good chunk of his remaining magic to open a Hivelink to his queen. "Your majesty," he began, shaking his head a little and causing the report to brush against his fin, "I'm afraid I bear ill news. We can't stay here anymore," He winced as a small chunk of stone fell from the ceiling, bouncing off his head and rolling along his spine, "This place isn't safe."

Instead of the incredulity or annoyance he had expected, only a weary resignation greeted his words, "I had a feeling you might say that," Queen Chrysalis told him, "We would have had to move regardless, though. The Badlands are hardly the best place to stage operations in the far north. Pack up everything that still works, and come find me. Cities these days are much larger than they used to be. I believe we can make a new home easily enough here," Shifter sensed a touch of distaste, "Or in one of the neighboring villages."

"As you wish, my Queen," Shifter answered, bowing his head even though Chrysalis wasn't actually present. Her Majesty nodded, and cut the link, allowing Shifter to go out to issue the orders. After he brushed off the papers stuck to his horn, of course.


88888888


"Here," Alex said, tossing Chrysalis an apple, "I try to save apples that weren't grown locally for special occasions since they're so expensive, but I think this qualifies." The pair were sitting at the picnic table with the lamp turned down low so as not to alert the lone guard standing outside. The shift had changed while they were talking, and the moon was now busying climbing the ladder of the heavens. Chrysalis bit into it, nodding appreciatively, and watched with baited breath as Alex took a bite of his, then snickered to herself when he almost spat it out in surprise.

"It's bland!" He exclaimed, staring at the fruit in confusion, "I know Sweet Apple Acres only makes the best, so what the hell?"

"It's another side effect," Chrysalis told him, "Our sense of taste is muffled when it comes to normal food. We usually mix up emotion gels to use as sauce to compensate."

"Oh," Alex said, before taking another bite, "That sucks. At least I can still feel the texture."

Chrysalis nodded, then asked, "Is there anything you need to do before we can get started on our arrangement?"

Alex chewed thoughtfully, then swallowed and said, "I need my stuff back. The guard took a good chunk of it as evidence, including books from home and my shield. I can't replace either of those, and if we're really going up against an ancient dictator we're going to need every advantage we can get."

Chrysalis smiled, keeping her lips closed against a mouthful of food, "I guess we'll have to take them back then," she said slyly.