07 - The Castle
We had reached the castle’s stairs, and the balcony above kept the rain from pouring on us. On Twilight at least. I had a wing above me since it had started to rain. Yet, I was still bloated plenty from Rarity’s bath treatment.
Twilight slowly folded her wing. The upper part of it was wet from the rain and dripped water from the side. The feathers on the bottom were moist from touching my soaked coat. She twitched when the plastered feathers touched her dry barrel.
I was eager to go to her basement. It would give me a chance to dry up without catching a cold. Out in the open, every little breeze felt like a spray of cold water.
When I tried to enter her castle, she raised a foreleg in my path. “Wait!” She lifted the hoof to her face and examined it as if there was something stuck in it.
I opened my eyes wide. It looked as if she was turning into her alien self again.
She almost yelled at her hoof, “The pieces don’t fit!” Her eyes pierced me. “What has your sudden interest in detection spells have to do with you being wet from mane to tail? It doesn’t connect. You look as if you’ve been detected by a pond.”
“Oh, that...” I wanted to answer, but the door to the castle suddenly opened, and I got distracted.
Spiked peeked out. “I heard a discussion closing in, and I assumed it was you, Twilight.” He glanced at me.
Pressing my eyebrows together and puckering my forehead usually helped me think. At the time, however, that secret trick of mine didn’t help me out, at all. The train of my thoughts was lost, and I forgot even what the question was.
“I’m glad you’re talking to real ponies”—Spike looked back at Twilight—“and not just to yourself like you sometimes do.” He pointed a claw at me without taking his eyes off her. “Why did you let her get all wet? You have umbrellas growing out of your back, for pity's sake!”
“I did my part, even getting all moist after I found her. She, however, has been in that condition even before my interaction with her.” She shoved her way past Spike and whispered, “For some undetermined reason...”
“I do hope we’re both talking about the rain.” After Twilight’s lack of response, he turned to me. “So, Sweetie Belle. What brings you, of all ponies, to the Friendship Rainbow Kingdom Castle? I bet it’s the bad weather, and not you wishing to trash yet another library by trying to get a librarian cutie mark!” Spike grumbled. “That did happen in this timeline, yes? You already got it out of your system, right? Right?”
“You’re in on it, too? Can everypony please just stop with these alternate dimensions non-sen-sen-sess.” It was too late. My head officially hurt “I don’t want to be a stinky librarian, okay?”
He sighed with relief.
“I take offense at the use of that adjective!” Yelled Twilight without looking back.
“And just so you know,” I continued my tantrum. “I think Tirek was even worse at being a librarian than I was.” I hit a hoof on the ground to put more weight on my point.
“Well, he did blow up The Golden Oaks Library, I’ll give you that... Still, it’s debatable.” Spike grinned.
I pinned both ears forward and whipped my tail left and right while I gazed at him. My teeth were clenched, and that was the real reason why I just puffed through my nostrils instead of giving him a very smart response, which I could totally come up with if I wanted to.
“So, if you’re not here to wreak havoc on our humble home, then what was it that brought you to this joyful place?”
I relaxed my muscles and shrugged my shoulders. “I’m just here to get probed in Twilight’s dungeon.”
Spike’s jaw dropped, eyes widened. He slowly turned his head to Twilight, lifting up a claw in her direction. It seemed as if he wanted to say something, but his mouth refused to move.
Twilight glanced back at him and raised an eyebrow. Sighing, she looked forward again. “It’s not what it sounds like!”
His jaw finally managed to move, “This timeline is bad, as well.”
She kept walking toward the downward stairs at the side of the hallway without giving any response.
I stopped under the doorframe at Spike’s side. After raising a hoof to my snout, I whispered in his ear. “I think Twilight thinks I’m special.” My eyes opened wide, and I showed him the biggest smile I had in my collection of smiles.
He put one claw on my shoulder and used the other one to cover the space between my ear and his mouth. “We all think you’re—special,” he whispered back to me.
My smile grew so big that the corners of my mouth hurt. I looked toward the basement and gasped at the empty corridor. Twilight was out of my sight. “Later, Spike!”
I hopped to the basement entrance and caught up with Twilight on the stairs.
“I’m very glad you decided, by your own volition, to volunteer for this experiment.” Twilight put a hoof on my behind and pushed me in front of her.
Feeling special to be invited to her private basement, I strode forward. I’ve never been down there before. “Experiment?”
“Indeed. I’ve spent quite some time upgrading my puppy.”
I knew about Twilight’s pet owl, but I’ve never seen a dog in her castle before. “That’s awesome!” Why she’d keep it in the basement was beyond me, though.
“Indeed! I just can’t let Pinkie Pie pretend that she’s defying laws of physics. I won’t stand for such blasphemy.”
“Whaa...”
“And how can her mane prehensility even work? I’ll get to the bottom of her, even if it kills her. Well, the latter, obviously, won’t happen. Surely, I’ll get my answer even before the autopsy. You see, with my latest tinkering on my puppy, I can now measure even the tiniest variations of bio-magic discharges. With all that extra juicy data I’m bound to figure it out!”
I stopped at the thick giant circle mounted on a giant square platform.
Twilight stepped beside me. “Let me introduce you to my precious.” She pointed with a hoof at the construction. “Here’s my pet project.”
I looked around, but couldn’t see her puppy anywhere. And who would call their dog Project? Then again, it was Twilight’s puppy, so the nerd name kind of made sense.
She stood up on her hind legs, bending over a thick pipe and arrays of coiled cables to press a button on the platform.
A metallic bang echoed through the basement when four shackles on the inner surface of the cylinder mounted on the platform snapped open. She let out a squeak and clapped her forehooves together.
Both forehooves swept on the metallic plating of the big machine accompanied by sighs of delight. Purring, she brushed her cheeks against them while curling the wires with a hoof. Her head wiggled among the cables and tubes while her belly leaned against the upright pipe that was mounted on the edge of the platform. “Mmm.” She slid a hind leg up and down the tube, letting out a soft moan after each stroke.
I tried looking away, but there were more hugantic machines everywhere. I didn’t know exactly what scared me, but if I had to guess, I’d say: everything.
There was something shiny on the desk in the corner near the stairs. It was interesting enough to distract me from my technophobia in development. I walked closer to investigate.
The table was filled with crystals. Most of them were black, but there were a few that were very bright, shining rainbow colors on the wall.
Among the gems lay a gray necklace. It had a black nugget implanted within it.
I got goosebumps when I reached toward it with a forehoof.
“Sweetie Belle!” Twilight yelled, “Don’t touch that!”
I froze just before my hoof connected with the necklace. Shivers ran down my spine. Lowering my shoulders, I slowly turned my head to Twilight and whispered, “Is it dangerous?” I gradually pulled back the touchy leg.
“No, it’s not dangerous. Actually, it’s the opposite. The amulet is supposed to protect ponies from the forces of evil.”
“Why won’t you let me poke at it then?” My curious leg rose again.
“It’s not meant to be worn by an innocent pony like you, Sweetie Belle.”
I forced my leg back on the floor and shifted my weight on it, so it wouldn’t get any more bright ideas.
“You see, there are some dangerous creatures out there. Convincing them to behave is not easy if they have magic on their side.” She glanced at me “But you don’t have to worry about any of that. Those that are still left will be taken care of by us princesses. I estimate that the chance of you meeting one of them is moderate at worst.”
“One of the mean Unicorns?” I asked.
“Well, there are some deviant Unicorns out there as well, but I was mostly referring to changelings.”
“Those black ponies who attacked Canterlot at that wedding?”
“Well, they’re not really ponies anymore.”
“Anymore? Was there a time they were ponies?”
“Mhm.” She nodded. “In fact, they originate from Alicorns.”
I gasped at that. “There used to be even more Alicorns out there? I thought your kind were rare.”
Twilight sat down before me. “A millennium ago, many Alicorns lived among the general population. After they got themselves exiled for plotting against Celestia, they sought to better themselves.”
“So, they regretted being mean?” I asked.
“They regretted getting defeated. The presumption of nobility remained strong in their minds, but the populace at large sided with Celestia and marked them an enemy to Equestria. The adoration they craved remained unfulfilled and only grew stronger with time. They believed themselves worthy of love, and they intended to force that view on others. What they couldn’t gain by consent, they’d take by force.”
“That’s so horrible!”
“They altered their very physiology by utilizing the artificial selection program, seeking to become better. However, the immoral selective process they employed corrupted them on a genetic level.” Her face stiffened. “Nowadays, that cursed group is too far gone to even refer to them as ponies. We call them changelings for their acquired ability to shapeshift.”
“Did that ‘corruption’ make those holes in their bodies?” I asked.
“Indeed” She nodded. “That particular genetic trait helps them with size alterations. But that’s just one of many attributes they acquired with their unnatural selection over the decades. They seek to alter themselves even more in the centuries to come. Their ploy is to spread their corruption all over Equestria. It’s the reason why they attacked Canterlot and Ponyville. They wanted to force the system of artificial breeding into our society, as well. Only the strongest of ponies could prosper if changelings had their way with us.”
“Um... did you wear this necklace when they attacked?”
“I hadn’t even invented it yet then. It was only after the attack on the city that Celestia tasked me with formulating a defense against their magic. You see, normal cells can’t hold the bad changelings that we’ve captured after their invasion. Their arcane abilities are too powerful to be contained by mere walls of a dungeon. Other measures have to be applied if we are to hold them subdued. It was a hard problem to crack and I’ve struggled with it for moons before I worked out a solution. You see, the Crystal Empire has conduits for absorbing channeled energies, so it can be done in principle, but we don’t have those here. I couldn’t utilize redirection of flows the way it was used at the Equestria Games, for instance. The best I could do was adopt the properties of certain crystals in order to...”
“I don’t get it!” I interrupted her tangent. “Does putting on the necklace protect you from a changeling?”
“No, it’s for the changelings actually. It disrupts the inner flow within their neuromuscular system, preventing the willful redirection of energy streams to the horn base.”
My eyes spread wide. She was using big words.
“In short, they can’t use magic if they wear it. But they really, really dislike wearing it. Not so much because of the main outcome but due to severe side effects. Headaches, nausea, loss of balance, throwing up, general sickly feeling, decrease in motor functions, just to name a few of them.
Celestia deemed my prototype necklace immoral, and, on some level, I do agree with her. Still, the only other permanent solution for subduing them is cutting off their horns. It’s what most of them chose after wearing a null field necklace for a brief time.”
“Can I try it on? I love dress-ups!”
“No, I can’t let you do that. Its side effects are unlike anything you’ve ever experienced. I’ve put it on once out of curiosity and had to rip it off my neck right away or I would’ve thrown up on the spot. It was that bad.”
I took a step away from the alien table.
“I am, however, really glad to see some curiosity in you. I commend you for that. You remind me of somepony in your family who strove for greater things. Unfortunately, her scholarly endeavors were cut short when she went all out in a big explosion. There may yet be a big potential within you, too, lurking just beneath the surface, waiting to be discovered, hopefully with not too big of a bang. You really like experiencing new things, don’t you, Sweetie Belle?” She smiled and slightly nodded at me.
“Yeah!” I returned the smile. “Maybe I do like new things.”
“Great!” Her horn glowed brightly. “Let’s get you strapped in then!”
“Wha...”
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Comment section minigames for the The Castle chapter of the story Sweetie Belle Gains a Soul (anypony can play them in the comment section of this story).
GAME 1
Does this story remind you of a song that you know? If yes, post it in the comments in the following format:
- Chapter of the story that this song is relevant to.
- A link or embedded Youtube video of it.
- Percentage of correlation (0% being an unrelated song, 100% being a song written exactly for this story).
- A reason why this song reminded you of this story or the excerpt of the lyrics.
GAME 2
Record yourself reading this story aloud. Upload your mp3 to MLP: Audiobooks, for instance, and paste the link to your audio or video in the comments.
Reward: A spot in the author’s note of this chapter.
Edit: The winner is Deity of a Shadow with his Dramatic Youtube reading.
This chapter reminds me of this >_>
9295749 The lyrics don't really fit, but the video is spot on. We're treading on some slippery slope with this chapter. Just wait until we get to Twilight's dungeon.
Yes. Yes it is.
11722676 Unfortunately, the original timeline was erased. The changes weren't big enough to branch it. So, I guess we're only stuck with bad timelines.