The Vault Initiative

by rockyrobben

Chapter 3

But all was not well in the castle-upon-high where the Goddesses stood watching the world. For, as the Goddess of Night turned to converse with her sister, she saw nothing but a flash of light. She thought nothing of it, as the Goddess of the Sun tended to favour isolation during times of stress.

Three days. Three days was the limit, the point where the world could not recover. And still the Goddess of the Sun had not returned. Fearing the worst, the Goddess of Night spread forth her senses, but could not find her sister. The Goddess had left this world, but her charge remained.

---

Oh, Celestia, it had touched me!

"You monster!" I picked up a discarded brick with my magic and threw it at her with all my strength.

Her magic, a haunting green aura, slapped the brick midflight and it smashed into the window of an old passenger carriage.

She was the cause for the war. She made us cower in this hole. She made us all slaves!

I snarled and scraped my hoof along the floor. "It's all your fault!"

I threw a rotted chunk of wooden cross-section like a spear. It sailed over her head and exploded in a shower of splinters against a storage container. Her stupid bloody ears drooped and her eyes glistened with fresh tears.

A disgusting green bubble materialised around me and cut off my magic to everything outside it. Three separate chunks of rock fell back to the ground with a crash.

I beat my hooves against the shield, but it held firm. I howled as I fired a small bolt of energy, only for it to reflect and sear my side.

"Coward," I screamed, "Let me go and face me like a true pony!" The bubble rippled from my attacks.

She walked so close that I could have strangled her if it were not for the translucent barrier. She tried and failed several times to look into my eyes, her gaze falling back to my hooves.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I promised to protect him, but they caught me first." She looked to the roof. Fresh tears rolled down her cheeks. "I should have been there. I should have fought with you...died with you. But I could not. I had to live."

She sobbed. "I failed in my duty. All my Brothers died in front of my eyes, and I did nothing. But now, I have a chance to fulfil my duty to you, and he returns to me poisoned by hate."

"You think I care?" I roared. "I hope you die a slow and painful death! Celestia knows your race deserves it!"

She put a hoof on the barrier. "I can't believe that you could say that. I...I won't believe it. No son of Twilight Sparkle could go against everything she stood for."

"Stop talking about her!" I bucked at the shield and slammed my head into the other side. "You don't care about her! You made a deal with the Dogs to enslave us while you live in luxury."

The shield wrapped around my body like a second skin, paralysing me. I floated over to Amanita, who dropped her disguise. Those freaky, blue, glowing eyes had no irises or retinas. How could it actually see? I kicked, writhed and struggled just so I could get out of that piercing gaze.

"The Diamond Dogs betrayed Changeling and Pony alike!" it said in a scratchy voice, as if it were talking through the flu. I noticed the small pointy fangs hang down either side of its jaw as if the black carapace armour was not enough of an intimidation factor...

...Or it would have been, but this Changeling had decided to give its back, from its jewelled collar down to where a tail should have been, a coat of mint green paint. On its rear, it had painted on its fake cutie mark. It was simply three rings, done in silver paint, all interlinked to form a propeller-like shape in the middle.

"My duty to my hive forced me to surrender to those dogs! I wanted to fight and die with your mother, but I cannot get myself killed. I am the Daughter. I am the only one that can become Elder and restart the hive. The fate of the Changelings rests in my hooves. And I had to watch each of my Brothers die one by one, while chained to the Matriarchs chair like a pet!"

It stomped and snorted. "There is no such thing as suicide for me, Dusk. A Changeling's life is about duty, and mine is to live."

It turned back to me; its blue gaze made want to curl up into a ball and disappear. "I wish I was a pony. I wish I could make that ultimate choice. I want to be free!"

It stood there, chest rising and falling, its plate armour scraping over each other. After a moment, its head dropped to my hooves and it released a drawn out sigh. "I'm not going to kill you."

It released its magic and I crumpled on the ground.

"I respect Twilight far too much to do that. In a way, I saw her as Mother, or, in your dialect, as my queen."

"She was the bravest, strongest, wisest pony I knew. She had a brilliant plan for this shelter and she shared it with me because she believed in the power of unity."

I lifted myself off the floor, my legs struggling to support my weight. It was all too much. How could this creature admire my mother? What was its game?

"But, it no longer matters," she said. "We were betrayed and our plans lay in ruins."

She gave another weak smile, "At least you are here. Maybe I can finally honour my promise to her."

"Yeah, well," I said, firing up my horn once more and lifting a chunk of rock. "What stops me from just killing you now?"

"Because I know the way out," she said as she pointed to the gem like bulge in my sack, "And where to resurrect Celestia."

---

Following a Changeling, especially one that spoke about Mum with unsuppressed awe, was a betrayal of everything I stood for. But, I could not deny that she --and I use the term 'she' in the loosest way possible-- knew where she was going.

I poked my head around every corner, expecting an ambush, but finding another empty corridor. The Changeling-in-a-pony-body had no such hesitancy.

The Changeling said that pony architecture was 'higgledy-piggledy' at best, and the resulting maze was the reason why the Dogs did not live here.

"If you want proof, visit Canterlot Castle," she had said.

Her tail kept twitching while I became the recipient to her many, deliberately blank, gazes. My gut rumbled that something was off. I bit on the Changeling's tail and quickly shoved her against the wall with my foreleg pressed against her neck, ready to choke her.

My entire body felt like a coiled spring, ready to explode. "I may not know where I am," I said through gritted teeth, "But I know when I'm being led into a trap! Where are you taking me?"

The hairs on the back of my neck rose as she just stared at me with those sorrow-filled eyes. She pressed a hoof on my leg as if she actually expected me to release her. Her eyes suddenly widened.

"We are on the same side," she said. "I only want what is best for our peoples."

I pressed a little tighter. "Liar!"

She gasped and struggled underneath me. Her horn blazed to life, but a slap with my free hoof left her reeling. "Your quest...will only end...in failure. Celestia...is dead."

"You know nothing!" I said, slamming her head against the wall. "She did not die, she teleported away. I have her gem! I can use it to find her, and bring her back."

"It won't...work." Amanita gasped as her eyes started to roll backwards.

I growled and ignored the growing pain as my muscles screamed for me to relent. Another part of me told me to stop. I was about to kill a pony.

She's not a pony. She's a filthy Changeling!

But, no matter how many times I told myself of the insidious black insect hiding underneath that skin, all I saw was a desperate mare struggling for her life.

She knew more about my Mother than I did. She was at the betrayal and knew why it happened...and she wore a collar. She was no enemy.

Amanita relaxed and her head drooped. She no longer struggled in my embrace.

Celestia...damn it! I screamed at the wall and released her.

A moment passed as she drank the air with a tortured gasp. Weak, trembling, and with tears in her eyes, she waited for me to finish the job.

"Why won't it work?" I said in a barely restrained voice.

She flinched at the venom in my words. "Your mother...she has already cast your spell. She found her."

"And where is she?" I shouted. "Where is Princess Celestia?"

Amanita recoiled as if expecting a blow. "I'm taking you to what is left of her."

The world stopped. No, that isn't true! My hooves fell from underneath me as dizziness set in, distorting my vision.

It was not true! It was a filthy Changeling lie! If it was not, then there was no hope.

All strength left my voice "Lies," I said. Tears welled in my eyes.

Amanita rose and offered me a hoof, "Let me show you."

I batted away the token of friendship and pushed myself up, "Fine. Show me."

---

We walked down the remaining corridors in silence. Amanita's posture looked as tense as I felt and every so often, she glanced back at me as if she expected a dog flexing its claws behind her. The fact that she kept looking at me sent shivers down my spine. It took all my will to not apologise to her and give her a hug. She was a Changeling: my enemy, not a Pony.

Amanita pushed open both the double doors and strode in, eager to get where she wanted to go. "This is what I wanted to show you," she said. "This is Twilight's library. This is your home."

I knew already. As soon as I stepped on the dusty carpet and inhaled the scent of ink and pages, I remembered. I had been here before.

I lived here.

I explored the room, ignoring the tickle of dust in the back of my throat. Books filled the many shelves that covered every centimetre of wall in this place. Boxes, each labelled with one of many of Equestria's libraries, spilled singed literature onto the dust-clogged rugs. On a desk, a magnifying glass rested on a heavily singed manuscript while a quill lay on the blank pages of a fresh book. The entire space sparkled with what my brain told me were gem crumbs.

It was Spike's mess! I remembered the little grumpy dragon as he pored through old books ciphering as much as he could from the wreckage. I smiled. He let me try a sapphire once. I almost broke my teeth.

"Over here," said Amanita.

I trotted into a small bedroom. I staggered as I remembered the bed I used to sleep in. The stars on my duvet still shone as bright as those on my rear.

I placed a hoof on my bed and tucked in the corners in a habit I thought I had long since forgotten. This used to be a room for a foal free of any burden. That foal had been what the pictures in the hall represented: happy.

But those days ended many years ago. And that foal died when Mum did.

Amanita snuffled and rubbed a hoof over her muzzle. I looked at her red and puffy eyes just as she returned it back to the open ledger on my bed next to her.

The folder was entitled 'The Vault Initiative'.

Heavily inked pages spilled out and onto the floor, but she had eyes only on one sheet of paper. I spied what looked like to be a contract. I could not make the bulk of the text, but I saw the signatures: The paw print (which covered the entire page), Amanita, and Twilight Sparkle.

Amanita sniffed and rubbed the tears of her shoulder. "This was the beginning of a better future," she said. "This was the start of true unity."

I noticed the chest to her other side. Amanita shifted from hoof to hoof and edged away as I approached.

The chest was already open. My heart thundered as I looked over the side, dreading whatever was inside.

My heart stopped beating.

I picked up four golden horseshoes made for unnaturally large hooves, a three pointed crown, and a necklace without its gem. I rotated them mid air and played with the buckles, unable to comprehend.

No. It cannot be...

I hesitated, but slowly lifted Celestia's gem from the sack on my back. With a click, the gem returned home.

It was true. Celestia was dead. There was no hope.

"It can't end like this!" I threw the pointless objects, with the traitorous gem that had once consumed my life, back into the chest with such force the lid slammed shut. "Where are you Celestia?"

I could not hold back the tears. All I had fought for, everything I believed, was a lie. Everypony had been right. I was deluded. Oh, Celestia. The Abandoner. The Deceiver. The Monster-Under-the-Bed. Where are you?

"Come out!" I shouted. "Reveal yourself! Accept your bloody responsibility and help us!" I threw the crate across the room and out of the door. It crashed into a bookshelf, toppling hundreds of books in a flutter of pages.

"Do you not care? Is that it? Did you actually leave us all to die?"

We were dead. There was no Celestia. There was no salvation.

I flipped the bed with my magic. I could feel wetness rolling down my cheeks.

"Then fine! Oh, Celestia. Murderer-of-Millions. Enslaver-of-Nations. Butcher-of-my-Mother. You caused this!"

I found myself in the library, tipping shelves and throwing books at walls. "I HATE YOU!"

"I hate you!"

"I hate you."

Something warm wrapped around me. Amanita's touch was hesitant, and her body tensed as I twitched.

"I...hate you," Another flurry of tears misted my eyes as wracking sobs disabled my body. I clutched at the warmth and buried my muzzle into Amanita's mane.

She stiffened, but I soon felt the gentle touch of her hoof as she comforted me. I clung to her for dear life, still whispering, "I hate you."

Amanita hushed me softly, as if consoling a foal. "Do not blame your Celestia; it was never her intention to let the world burn. In fact, Twilight mentioned that Celestia flat out refused to move the sun for many years, saying the consequences would be far too great."

A moment of silence, broken only by the sound of my blasted sniffling, wrapped around us like a comforting blanket. I felt Amanita relax into me. "If you truly wish for something to hate, then hate Mother...Chrysalis," she practically hissed the name, "For she truly is the monster that you depict all Changelings to be."

"She is the monster that ignored her duty. She failed to guide me in the ways of leading the hive; she failed to kill and replace the Elder --Egg Layer-- when it was time for her to die; and she started a war so that the scents that made her heavy-with-eggs ceased to be."

"She thought nothing about her duty to her hive. And then she assassinated your leader, just after the spell that doomed us all, so that she could rule the Ponies as Mother forever and grow fat and lazy on their emotions."

The fire within smouldered. How could she say this? Every story, recorded on page or by word, cursed the Changelings loyalty. At no point was any dissonance or reluctance to fight ever recorded. They all fought with a singular aim: to destroy Ponykind.

"Then why did you not stop her. Why did the Changelings fight?" I asked.

"We did not want this!" Her voice echoed around the library as if four more Amanitas suddenly appeared. "But our duty was to obey her!"

Sure it was. "Lies," I said.

"No! You do not understand! A Changeling's duty is like a Pony's cutie mark: it is part of their very being. To go against it is the worst kind of wrong, which is why Chrysalis is evil."

"And...and," she sniffled and stared at the ground. It was like watching a flood gate open and drown me in guilt and shame. "I was an untrained Daughter. I could have stopped her, but I was too ignorant to challenge her."

"But, I am ignorant no more. Seeing this place has reminded me of my duty to my kind and yours. It is time that we rise up and create a better world."

She stood up, leaving me huddled on the floor blubbering like a foal. "Dusk Light, it is time for you to follow that which Twilight started. It is time that you stood upon your own hooves and did the duty that your Celestia would want you to do."

I imagined the Alpha burning underneath my hooves. A smile crept upon my face and I rubbed the tears from my eyes. "It is time, I think, that the Dogs were shown the meaning of your 'unity'," I said. Strength returned to my hooves, and I took Amanita's waiting insectoid hoof. A warm smile crept upon her fanged face, which was still creepy with those piercing blue eyes. For now, she would be my friend and ally.

The Dogs were going to wish they had never been born. I'm sorry Celestia, Betrayer-of-my-Soul, this revenge is mine and mine alone to take.