Exploring Equestria

by A_guy_from_Earth

13. Taking a Changeling

Some members of the Team sat in the main laboratory of their ship and discontentedly rapped claws on the arms of their chairs.

“It’s only third our taking, but again our group can’t gather in time!” grumbled Oma. “We can’t keep the “patient” for whole night and day!”
“Well, they have good reasons for being late,” minded Karin. “Edez is finishing the processing of materials about magic, and Affi, since he’s busy, receives reports from other Teams.”
“And Max also is finishing to process the data,” added Bluve.
“I agree, it’s good reasons, but, dammit, we sit here for five supramoments!”
“Have a little more patience,” said Sheim. “They’ll come soon.”
“Are you sure?”
“After eleven decades of working together I can tell how much time different tasks take you. So now, knowing when they started… Yep, they’ll come quite soon.”
“If you say so…”

They waited a little more, and Sheim’s prediction began to come true: soon doors to one of the minor laboratories opened, and Edez came from there.

“You were right,” said Oma, looking at the curator who approached them.
“Like I said,” gladly smiled Sheim.
“Well, how are the results?” asked Kor. “Did you finally draft the total scheme of how locals can do magic?”
“Now I can say yes with confidence,” answered master researcher. “After supramoments of continuous painstaking work and insentient doses of stimulants, I did it.”
“And?” wondered Karin.
“Well, original hypothesis has become the theory without any significant clarifications. But still I’d better tell you everything in detail. Since I’m not a physiologist, Bluve, if I’ll be wrong, correct me, please. So… The basic premise of ability of energy flux control is that their nerves and ETS, as we already know, are closely intertwined. Their brain has direct connection with the main battery or, as they say, magic heart, and thus with all the channels of ETS. If they want, both systems can work as a single block – this needs minimal concentration. Each creature here can perfectly control energy fluxes in own body, and unicorns, having good and quite powerful antenna, can also influence the fluxes and areas of energy concentration that surround them. And what about the process of control itself… Well, it has two components: regulation of the fluxes and areas of concentration and creation of disturbances. Through their nerves – which, I must admit, also have much greater conducting than average for sentients of Known Space – they can influence the fluxes in battery and channels, regulate them as they need and give any order they want. Speaking about the second component, it’s inherent primarily to creatures able for open manifestations, like unicorns, so-called spirits and some other. Knowing the effect what each disturbance has, they just “pull the necessary energy strings”, give very exact and structured commands, and here you go. And thanks to the features of local perfect mix, its composition, power and intensity, locals can create things from pure energy, teleport along the lines of force and do many other things. Skillful combination of two these processes will allow you to cast any spell, using local terminology.”
“Wow, Edez! Everything was absolutely correct!” smiled Bluve. “It was very good for an one who studied biology more than thousand years ago.”
“Thank you.”
“Hm… Now I can understand a lot of stuff that seemed crazy for us,” said Oma.
“And some things that happened to us,” added Sheim
“Yeah, and this too.”
“I wonder…” Karin rubbed her chin. “What about Discord? He is a spirit of chaos, after all – or, well, he’s known as spirit of chaos. We all saw how random he and his magic are. Does he also have to structure his energy to cast the spells? Because it sounds contradictory and quite unlikely.”
“I checked with the data of other Teams, especially Teams Five and Eight, who studied creatures like Discord, and judging by them, structuring of the inner energy fluxes is the only possible way, no matter what peculiarities manifested magic has,” answered Edez. “There are great number of ways of structuring the energy, but it’s still structuring. They have to do it not only for casting the spells, but for maintenance of their lives. It’s biology, and no one can go against it.”
“Oh yeah,” nodded Bluve.
“Discord may prefer chaos, but for making it he has to put his magic in order.”
“Karin was right: you can’t even imagine how contradictory it sounds,” said Oma.
“And does Discord know about this?” asked Zet’rar.

Edez just shrugged and spread his forelimbs.

“I don’t know,” he said.

And right after his words Max came into the room of main laboratory.

“We replenish our ranks!” smiled Bluve.
“Good evening to you too,” Max gave her a nod.
“And what you have been doing?” asked Oma. “Why you are late?”
“I’m sorry for that. You see, I found one very important thing just in seven supramoments before the beginning and I just have to complete it. It wasn’t connected with the current task, but it’s very significant for many other purposes.”
“And what was that thing?”
“I finally figured out correct taxonomy of ponies.”
“Ehm… Pardon me, but I thought that we determined how they taxonomically relate to each other,” said Zet’rar.
“Oh, my friend, we didn’t. There were some serious problems. We couldn’t determine are four kinds of ponies different species or subspecies – results of scans and genome analyses are still processing. We weren’t sure about this until now. You see, analyses provided by ASIs contain only main information, so additional data researcher should get himself. Studying genomes of earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns and seeing how much common they have, I decided to find the exact degree of similarity. It turned out to be incredibly high, but it’s not the thing. I was matching genes looking for different ones, and when I reached the ones that determine development of horn, I found them in genomes of all three kinds.”
“What?”
“Earth ones and pegasi have them too?” exclaimed Bluve.
“Yes! That was the very thing we missed during previous studies,” continued Max. “I don’t know how we could miss it looking for even slightest traces, but… And that’s not all! The same situation is with their wings. The thing is that these genes can be active or not. If both genes are blocked – you are an earth pony, if only one of them is blocked – you are pegasus or unicorn. And, as I think, if all these genes aren’t blocked, you are…”
“An alicorn,” continued Bluve.
“Right. But it’s only a hypothesis now, we still have to confirm it. After this I did some more matching and soon got sure enough to make the statement: degree of similarity is sufficient only for the category of races of one species.”
“Well, Max, this is worth publishing in the Annals of the Institute,” said Edez.
“And I have to wait only eighty seven years for this,” spelled Max.
“Don’t complain. I waited one and a half centuries for my first publication since I became a senior.”
“As you say… So, can we start the procedure?”
“Wait,” said Oma. “Affi hasn’t come yet.”
“Why? I’m here!” they heard a voice and turned to it. Their second curator returned from the ship’s bridge.
“Well, what other Teams are talking about?” asked Edez with a smile.
“Oh, about a lot of things. On some of them I didn’t even try to focus – there were too many topics…”
“Really? I thought that telepathists notice everything!” exclaimed Kor.
“Yes, we do. That’s why I shielded my mind on purpose. These conferences are spontaneous and chaotic, they have no organization. For a telepathist it’s real madhouse.”
“Oh…”
“Yeah… Anyway, there were some really interesting and significant things. I won’t talk about minor tasks and questions that were the greatest part of the conference – if you want, you can look for yourself. Well, during the latest decade there were two major discoveries. First: all sapient creatures of this world can use magic, influence the energy environment. One shouldn’t have an “antenna” like unicorns to manifest it. All other species – dragons, zebras, deer, minotaurs, antelopes, camels, giraffes, elephants, cats, dogs – know their own ways: rituals, effects of places of the highest concentration of energy, special techniques and so on.”
“Well, now it’ll be possible to understand how do they do it,” said Karin.
“Excuse me?”
“Edez drafted the total scheme of how this magic works.”
“Structuring of the energy fluxes and creation of special disturbances in the environment – I’ll explain it to you in detail later,” said senior planetologist.
“Okay,” said Affi. “And the second discovery… Well, it’s quite specific. Some Teams, especially Five and Eight, having analyzed materials from their takings, found that features of the energy environment of this planet can help different creatures successfully hybridize with each other.”
“What?”
“Yes, representatives of different species of this planet, even if they aren’t biologically close to each other, can have common babies. The mechanism is still studied, but the fact is that perfect energy mix can help mix different genes, and makes it perfectly. Great number of local monsters, for example, has parents from different species.”

After these words there was a silence for a moment.

“Fucking great!” swore Zet’rar. “We worked on genome integration technology for friggin four million years, and they can have it right here and have no need to think about it!”
“Well, we had to combine genes of representatives of different planets, and these guys are people of one planet, after all.”
“I know. But still, dammit, I can’t understand how different species of this planet, like giraffes and elephants, can have common babies?”
“It puzzles me too, but it’s the fact. Even the weirdest hybridization isn’t a problem here.”
“Interesting news, I must say,” spelled Sheim.
“Yeah,” nodded Max. “The Annals of this year will be much thicker and much more amazing and bizarre than usual.”
“L-let’s better pass to our current task,” offered Bluve.

Her friends and colleagues agreed, and they approached the chamber where tall thin black pony-like creature with membranous wings, curved horn and long green mane was lying.

Max and Bluve together with Zet’rar initiated the process. Once again eight manipulators with extra precise particle scanners appeared from the floor and began their odd dance.

“Remind me, please, why we took her instead of an usual member of the hive?” asked Affi, looking at the figure of queen behind the field barrier.
“Well, it was easier to adjust the biological beacon on her,” said Edez, looked at Kor and grinned. “Thanks to some souvenirs…”
“And, by the way, go big or go home!” added Bluve.

Manipulators meanwhile continued to execute the scanning program. Soon researchers started to get the data – at first general views, but with every second scan became more and more precise. In a couple of supramoments they will know the location of each particle in the queen’s body, and they can explore her species in detail. But first some general features.

And the first glance even at initial low-resolution scan revealed strange and significant characteristics.

“Well I’ll be damned…” spelled Max.
“Heh…” nervously grinned Bluve.
“I know that in the field of biology I don’t understand shit,” said Kor, “but I know that such structure is atypical.”
“Jeez, they look more like some creatures Teams Five and Eight are dealing with,” said Affi.
“I’d say that they are insects outside, but ponies inside,” uttered Max. “Just look at this! They have both endo- and exoskeletons! Structure of their joints almost identical to arthropods, their epithelial tissues are chitin – well, not entirely: greater part of their epithelium is so-called quasi-chitin, something average between usual chitin and usual skin and that’s why, by the way, queen has hair – their wings are the same that insects have… But their internal organs are identical to ponies: they have lungs, not tracheae, four-chamber heart, stomach, intestines, liver, kidneys, pancreas… And they also have ETS absolutely similar to ponies’.”
“They are like a combination of insects and ponies,” said Bluve.
“Hm… Well, it does match with the legend,” said Karin.
“Pardon me, what legend?”
“There is a story about genesis of changelings. According it, they came from murky rotten swamp where only flies and mosquitoes lived and a lot of ponies died every year. Then something generated a spark of dark magic, and this caused the appearing of these creatures. Unfortunately, where was this swamp no one can tell.”
“Well, all of us saw that places of high energy concentration here can do great wonders…” said Edez. “I think that this legend is true.”
“All the evidences favor this version,” said Max. “We can’t find that swamp, so…”
“Why? We can,” objected Affi. “It’s known that she has been leading all the changelings since the very beginning, and if so, I can get inside her memory and find the location of the swamp.”
“And then we’ll be able to send a probe there,” continued Zet’rar.
“Probe? Is it safe?”
“Yeah. Teams Two and Three had already executed some explorations with probes, and they were successful: no one noticed the devices, and they got all the data what they wanted. So, just a couple of shields and fields, and here you go!”
“And where were our brains before?.. If so, then we can send all the probes to distant parts of the country, where we’ll never be able to get,” offered Sheim. “We can cover all the area!”
“Why it hadn’t been done before?” wondered Oma.
“Well, organizers of the expedition were afraid that locals might find the probes, so they didn’t include this into original program,” explained Edez. “But now, having successful experiences, I think that the Institute will allow it.”
“Then it’s great!”

Suddenly Bluve stood up and went to one of the refrigerators.

“What are you going to do?” Max asked her.
“Oh, I just wonder what makes queen so different from regular changelings,” she answered. “So I decided to compare her genome with genomes of her subordinates. Luckily, now we have some samples…”

She took one container and put it into built-it scanner of main terminal of the laboratory. Then junior medic initiated the scanning and selective comparing of the genes. The main scanner has already begun the determination of locations of the particles in queen’s body, so in two thirds of supramoment both procedures will define all the genes – comparison itself is a matter of a couple of moments. They just have to wait.

And meanwhile they could focus on other problems.

“I wonder…” uttered Sheim. “Why do they need these holes on legs and wings, and how such thing could develop?”
“If I had such legs, I’d use them for whistling,” said Zet’rar.
“Well, that’s you. I wonder about them.”
“I read in one book about how changelings got them,” said Karin.
“Wait, got their holes?”
“Yes. Originally they haven’t any. Their wings and legs were solid when they… appeared. They got holes after one incident which happened nine hundred and sixteen years ago. They attacked the city of Trot, but princess Celestia came to rescue. She used one incredibly powerful spell on changelings, and it just pierced them through in some places. Since then they had these holes.”
“So, they are remnants of former wounds?” said Kor.
“Well, turns out that yes.”
“And these damages caused some changes in their organisms. They adapted,” said Bluve. “Look!” she pointed to the first, low-resolution scanogram. “They have not finger bones. Probably they were damaged so greatly that after some time they just atrophied.”
“Yes…” nodded Max. “Almost half of their legs have only an exoskeleton. But thanks to muscles that remain they preserved former mobility of the limbs.”
“They adapted rather quickly, don’t you think?” said Kor.
“Well, probably they cured themselves, and perfect mix had its effect.”

They had no more questions for the moment, so they just ceased talking and began to wait. Some time they spent in relative silence, which was disturbed only with rare signals of different devices. Researchers just looked at the holoscreens of scanners and studied the materials. Eventually the term had passed, and another signal annunciated that the genome scanning and comparison are finished. New holoscreen with information about the results appeared above the main control panel. Team One focused on it.

“Well…” spelled Bluve when she looked through the data. “It’s not what I expected.”
“Me too,” said Max. “Almost all selected genes of queen and regular changeling turned out to be absolutely identical! She is different only because some rare additional ones.”
“Well, there are some creatures in Known Space different from each other only thanks to additional genes,” noticed Affi.
“Yes, but it’s strange to see this mechanism here. It’s not typical for this planet as I know. There were only few reports about such phenomena from other Teams, and it was inherent only to small and low-developed creatures.”
“They are partly insects, after all,” said Zet’rar.
“Maybe, maybe… Wait a little…”
“What’s wrong?” worried Bluve.
“Algorithm also selected for comparison the group of genes responsible for formation and development of the eyes. For queen and regular changelings they are identical too!”
“What? How?” exclaimed Sheim and Kor.
“Eyes of queen and average ones are absolutely different, we all saw it!” exclaimed Karin. “How these genes can be identical?”
“I don’t kno… Wait…” Max paused and looked closer at the data. He read it for a while and then, suddenly for others, just sat down with opened mouth. “No way,” he spelled.
“What did you find?” asked Edez.
“According to the genetic code… Entirely blue eyes aren’t typical for changelings.”
“What?”
“Their natural color of the eyes is similar to their queen. And, that means, to ponies – I remember some characteristic markers, and there is great number of similar ones for both species.”
“You mean regular changeling should have eyes similar to average pony?” said Kor.
“Yes.”
“Then why the color is different?” wondered Zet’rar.
“I have no idea. I can only assume that the reason is some admixture that we haven’t noticed. We should explore an average changeling for confirmation.”
“So… we’ll execute another taking?”
“It’ll be better to try some observation from the side first. Then, if it won’t help, we’ll take a changeling for brief exploration.”

One more signal sounded throughout the laboratory.

“Ah!” exclaimed Bluve. “The main scanner has finished its work.”
“Good.”
“I remembered what we forgot,” suddenly said Oma.
“And what is it?”
“We were so busy with the surface and minor tasks that we forgot about the main feature of changelings: how do they consume love?”
“Right! So… ehm… where to start?”
“I read that these guys literally “drink” love. I think it means that absorption occurs through the mouth.”
“Okay,” said Max, magnified the scanogram of queen’s head and rotated it.
“Aha! Here’s the reason!” exclaimed Bluve and pointed to relatively small formation near the tonsils. “They have a cluster of ETS cells here. It’s much bigger for a typical channel. It looks more like… additional battery.”
“Agree. It’s like a minor copy of the main organ.”
“Hm… Max, can you display the energy spectrum of this organ?” said Edez.
“Yes. And I think I understand what you are looking for…”

He typed the command, and soon information about the spectrum appeared on new holoscreen.

“And here’s your reason,” curator said. “This “additional battery” has negative polarity. And, knowing that ETS is closely connected to nerves, I can safely say that they can easily increase the potential difference, adjust the power, kind, particle and wave parameters and, thus, suck any energy what they want.”
“You think that love… is just an energy?” surprised Oma.
“Team Two reported once that they find that emotional reaction of locals can strongly influence their energetic state and state of the environment, so… Love is not an energy, but it creates a lot of it.”
“No wonder then energy-consuming creatures like changelings had appeared here. Nature tends to use all the possible sources of energy,” said Max.
“Yeah.”
“Eh…” sighed Affi. “Oddities and oddities.”
“Yep, but that’s the thing what makes this world so awesome!”
“Well, you’re right about that.”
“Ehm, pardon me, but what time is it?” a bit shyly asked Sheim. “Because I have a feeling that soon we’ll have to go for our official work.”
“Let’s see…” said Zet’rar. “Yep, dude, you are right. We have to be in the castle in five supramoments.”
“Okay,” said Affi. “Then let’s wind up and bring our patient to her home before she wa…”

And at this moment changeling queen suddenly started to move.

“Oh dammit! She’s waking!”
“I’ll handle it,” said Kor and approached the chamber of the main scanner.

He turned the field barrier off and leaned over the lying queen. She moved again, then heavily rolled onto her back and began to open her eyes. She slowly lifted her eyelids, and her and Kor’s eyes met. All the rest happened in a second. Officer of Team One instantly opened his mouth and his lifetaking fang shot out from his palate. White thorn hit changeling’s neck and pierced through the chitin. Queen twitched, wheezed and in a moment fainted. Kor sucked forces from her for some more seconds, then removed and hided his weapon.

“Done,” he said.
“And how long she’ll be in way out?” asked Max.
“Ehm… Half of a day. Likely.”
“And aren’t you worried about what her subordinates will think about such long royal “sleep” and this wound on her neck?” asked Oma.
“What her subordinates will think is not important. And what about the wound… Bluve, give her some X-127. In a dozen of moments it’ll look just like another spot on her chitin.”
“You know, it’s the second time when you hurt her…” said Edez, rubbing his chin.
“It just happened so! And, by the way, she’s a local villain.”
“And, by the way, how does evil energy taste?” grinned Zet’rar.
“I’m not impressed.”
“Okay, she’s sleeping again, let’s teleport her back to her chambers before other changelings find that she was gone,” said Affi.

Other researchers gave a nod, Zet’rar and Edez came to the control panel and soon changeling queen was brought back to her hive.

“Well, it’s senseless to go to sleep now, so we have some free time,” said Max. “What shall we do?”
“I have an idea,” uttered Sheim. “There is…” he turned and looked at the holoscreens of cameras and scanners of external observation “… no one in two migrograds around, so… After that incident in Everfree Forest we lost all the things what we took in the Castle. So I thought that now we could teleport some stuff from there instead.”
“I like this idea!” grinned Edez.
“Who would doubt that…” sighed Affi.
“Wait! I understand that now we can turn all the shields off, but we need detailed coordinates for this!” said Karin.
“I have them,” answered Sheim.
“And I have detailed panoramic shot of that armory,” added Kor. “We can choose the stuff!”
“Wow, that’s great, dude!”
“I knew that I wouldn’t be alone when it’ll come to this.”
“If so, then awesome!” smiled Karin.
“Okay,” said Oma and Bluve.
“So…” Sheim rubbed his hooves. “Let’s rob then?”

His friends nodded and, having switched off all the instruments in the laboratory, they went to the major teleportation chambers. Some equipping and playing with serious adult’s stuff after long night of work would be exactly what they needed.

Comments

[F]

This story is going well so far. I like it already. :)