Ch.31 "King Avalanche" part 3
Chrysalis Wins
Ch. 31 “King Avalanche” part 3
“Hey, what’s a little tyke like you roamin’ around at this hour for?”
An orange coated village guard noticed a blue foal waddle into the village. The small pony stumbled around, as if it wasn’t comfortable using its stubby legs.
Another guard walked over to the young pony, before lightly seizing him. A quick glance by the two earth pony guards, allowed them to see the young one was a pegasus, who promptly scoffed at the discovery.
“Sodden Earth, I think this little one fell off a cloud. Irresponsible pegasus gits, dumpin’ their foals on us.”
“What should we do with him?”
“Hmm, guess we could give em’ to the courier tomorrow. Pegasus foals really aren’t our problem. Got enough mouths to feed as is, let alone dem snobbish unicorns.”
“Right, though what about tonight. You planning on holding him till dawn ,?”
“Nah, that’ll be you job.”
“Hey!”
The blue foal was shoved roughly into the orange guards hooves, who groaned in annoyance, reluctantly pulling the small pony over.
“Alright little one, no loud noises, this was supposed to be another uneventful evening.”
The guard became unsettled when the foal looked up at him, with a devious and predatory stare.
“But what about my friends?”
“W-what?”
The guard was surprised that the foal spoke, he almost seemed too young for that. Though, what really disturbed the guard was when the little foals eye’s flashed green, and a small gust of wind blew back the hairs on his face.
The foal was gone and a wall of black had replaced it. In utter confusion the orange pelted guard shook his head a few times to make sure his vision was clear. When the black mass moved it was already too late to distinguish where it was.
A gigantic hoof connected with the unfortunate guard's head, knocking him clean off his hooves. The earth pony lay on the ground, out cold. His fellow guard started to shout, before he was also clobbered by a hoof that was wide as a tree trunk.
The massive royal changeling looked over the two downed earth ponies, then lowered his mouth close to them and began to inhale deeply. Both of the guards lost their color, and fidgeted in an agitated state. They weren’t dead, but in the midst of atrocious nightmares.
The royal flashed his red-oranges eyes towards the tall grass. Between the tall blades of foliage emerged an assortment of ragged changelings. Sentinels, drones, and vanguard, all them came out in a mixed horde.
“I’ll awaken them, herd the stragglers towards the traps…”
Avalanche spoke as quietly as his booming voice could manage, and waited for his small swarm to get into position. Soon there were changelings settled near the entrances of each of the thatched homes, with the changelings out numbering the ponies by a fair margin. Surrounding them would not be difficult.
Once the king was satisfied with the position of his subjects he reared back on his hind legs, before inhaling a particularly hearty breath. Then with a crash of thunder, his front hooves collided with the earth in front of him as he let out a roar that shook the homes throughout the village.
The reaction was almost immediate, several startled ponies opened their doors to investigate the source of the disturbance. As soon as they set hoof into the street, several changelings pounced out of their hiding places, angrily hissing with their fangs barred .
Surprise, shock and fear broke across the small populace, prompting them to flee the horrid creatures in unorganized chaos. Those that tried to re-enter their homes were blocked by three or four changelings a piece, while the few found the determination to try and force their way back in.
As the ponies that ran in chaotic fear, there was a method to their attackers’ movements. The changelings pursued and herded them away from the rural structures to a trap they had prepared earlier.
When the terrified ponies made it several strides outside of the village they found their hooves caught in a sticky substance, and rendered immobile. Before they realized the trap laid before them, the changelings had successfully corralled dozens of them into a wide patch of it.
The ring of slime completely surrounded the entirety of the small village, and caught securely the hooves of any earth pony that stepped onto it. When the group of changelings finished chasing their prey into the trap, they went back to the village to help capture the rest.
The young and elderly were pulled forcefully out of their homes, dragged to the slime that surrounded the town. Terrified cries and screams from the ponies accompanied the atmosphere of hisses and growls from the changelings.
As the last few ponies were grouped and captured, a three legged sentinel approached King Avalanche. This sentinel also had a gouged eye, burnt orange mane, and only one wing. He spoke to the royal with a guttural voice.
“It appears as easy as promised, High King.”
“Then feast Scraps.”
“Surely.”
Scraps hobbled towards the place where ponies were held captive, his guttural voice addressing the other members of the swarm, informing them it was time to eat.
Avalanche sat contentedly on the sidelines, observing his swarm reap their reward. There was about one pony per three changelings, with each of them scrambling like hogs to a trough to suck up what love they could.
Soon the once colorful array of ponies were but faded hues of their former selves, falling limply into the slimy prison. . Yet despite the debilitated state of their captives, some of the changelings still tried to drain more in a futile effort.
With a flash of white in his eyes, Avalanche bellowed out to the members of his swarm.
“Enough, this village has given us what it can. It is time to move to the next.”
A quiet swish cut through the air, followed shortly by a clang. With slight surprise Avalanche looked down to his hooves, catching site of a spear bouncing off of the ground. The metal tip was bent.
It must have just hit him, yet he didn’t feel it, his thick chitin skin proving impregnable to such a feeble weapon.
He looked up to search for the one who attacked him, finding one of the previously unconscious guards back on his hooves. . He stared at the royal changeling with a defiant grimace, despite the not even being the height of Avalanche’s knees.
“It’s gonna take more than one hit to bring me down!”
Avalanche, deciding to oblige his challenge, unleashed another strike to his helmeted head. The blow left a substantial dent, with the guard not getting back up. With a dismissive sniff Avalanche turned back to the swarm.
“Are you still hungry my changelings!”
There was a chorus of agreeable hisses in reply. Avalanche smiled broadly, dragon territory could rot for all he cared, he was on a new path, one that would be a glorious triumph for the swarm.
“Then we rest for the night. Trap any visitors that come to this village in the morning. Tomorrow, we hunt again.”
Avalanche turned to pick up the two fallen guards next to him with his magic,, quickly tossing them with the rest of the emotionally decimated ponies. He hummed contentedly as he did so, feeling his boldness growing with his appetite. This little heartwarming village was a good taste of what they could have, and he was eager for more.
---
“Oh Trottersville, how delicious you were, especially after so many years of meager regurgitated vanguard rations.”
“And you just left them there? Like that? But what about…”
Chrysalis looked up to the older Avalanche who sat next to her, cocking an eyebrow at him. The older king seemed lost in his amusement, even as the modern queen looked back to the memory that was presented.
She had to remind herself she would only get the answers that he chose to leave behind. Perhaps the consequences would be revealed shortly, thus it was best to avoid voicing questions that may or may not be answered. A series of new scenes flickered in rapid succession in front of the two royal changelings, with Avalanche musing onward.
“After Trottersville came Stotterton, then Eartham, Tailwind, and others. All earth pony towns. Given my swarms limited energy and various injuries, they were the best targets to start with. We struck at night, when they slept, using the element of surprise as much as we could. With each hunt we became more successful, moving faster than word was able to spread. Within a few short weeks we had gathered enough love to fully restore our bodies after so long .”
Indeed, as the montages of activities blurred past Chrysalis she noticed the burnt and scratched up changelings heal from their wounds. Wings grew back, as did lost limbs, eyes, and patches of gouged chitin were all recovered.
“Soon we discovered strength beyond mere basic functionality, and the prey we could hunt expanded. The pegasi in the sky were available to us, and I set about to take the love that roamed through the clouds.”
A small cloud town came to Chrysalis’s view, with her vision soon filled with the sight of changelings in pursuit of the airborne ponies. Dark forms pursued their colorful counterparts, darting around patches of cumulus in almost a hostile game of tag.
“Pegasi may have the hearts of warriors, but they don’t fly very well without their feathers… The recently acquired boost to our magical energy gave us the edge needed to capture such nimble prey.”
As Chrysalis watched, she saw the small flighty groups of pegasi being caught in the grasp of green changeling auras. They methodically plucked the ponies’ feathers and tossed them onto clouds, leaving them stranded. The now flightless pegasi were easy pickings for the changelings, who upon thoroughly draining their captives would push the clouds down close to the ground.
“Ah yes, needed to make sure the pegasi didn’t accidentally kill themselves afterwards. Can’t drain them later if they’re dead after, hehehe.” And the swarm grew, tripling in numbers within a year. Eventually we were running circles around the pony villages, on the ground or the air. I was careful to keep them sufficiently drained and weak, so that none of them would recover enough to pose a real threat, but allowed them enough energy to go about their basic functions.
Anyway, unicorns were a particularly tricky crowd to get a hoof around. Their use of magic was diverse, though more problematic was the castles they resided in. While not as numerous as earth ponies or pegasi, their castles were concentrated centers for their populaces and very defensible.
Unfortunately word of the raids had made it to unicorn ears, prompting them to construct frustratingly challenging magical barriers.. As much as I hate to find a wall I can’t break, I had to respect their gift for defense.”
A new landscape came into view. There was a castle on a hill, surrounded by a light pink magical shield. The younger Avalanche, along with his numerous horde of changelings, all stood in a nearby forest, staring at the defended city. Many of the changelings were licking their lips eagerly, eyes almost manic with hunger.. Chrysalis began to wonder what they planned to do, when the older king Avalanche continued his commentary.
“Instead of trying to smash it apart, we simply denied them one necessity, food. It would only be a matter of time before denial would make the unicorns too weak to cast magic. For starving unicorns don’t cast magical very well, much like starving changelings. Though, what made the effort so easy was the unicorns dependence on earth ponies, who were now at my mercy. The routine raids on the earth ponies made it difficult for them to farm. I would try to let them have enough energy to live, but a few food shortages may have been my fault. Oh, and, and, HAHAHAHAHAHA!”
Avalanche’s laughter boomed inside the well of memories, forcing Chrysalis to put her hooves over her ears to block out the deafening noise. Too bad there wasn’t any kind of volume control for the well.
“Probably what made this so easy, was how quick the tribes were to blame each other for their problems. Their hatred for each other was so thick, it left a bitter after taste with the positive emotions we ate. Their disunity was quite pathetic, though it was what made my swarms rise possible. Can you imagine if they had something like us royals to unite them? Not the petty unicorn royalty, but something to get their tribes to actually work together, like a earthacornisus, er something. Ha! My ghost will shake if that day ever comes…”
Chrysalis paused it right there and scoffed at the ancient king.
“Oh ho ho, so you didn’t have any alicorns in your time huh? You had it easy, guh, If only I could show you how much you jinxed the future for us all…”
She rubbed her forehead slowly before mustering the will to keep listening. With a casual wave and flash of magic, Chrysalis let Avalanche resume his talks.
“When the earth ponies wanted unicorn help, the unicorns denied them. Their numbers were already small, thus spreading outside of their castles would put them at risk for my raids. A risk they’re pompous little arses simply wouldn’t take. So that brings us back to that castle we see here. It turned out differently than I expected… and, well, I’ve made smarter decisions…”
In the distance the magical pink barrier started to fizzle, and fade. As soon as weakness was detected the swarm of changelings started to buzz their wings, heading towards the stone walls with great vigor.
The older Avalanche sped up the scene a bit, before the barrier was finally down. Younger Avalanche led swarm in the air and settled down upon the walls of the castle, so he could watch as his swarm went headlong into the city.
The unicorns within appeared extremely emaciated given the lack of food, but to changeling eyes they were still full of emotion. Ripe with snobbish pride. They greedily descended on the pony population with mouths wide open and eager.
A sudden gale whipped over the city, and a giant shadow passed by, sending many changelings spiraling out of control through the air. None of that however, was as horrifying as the colossal gout of flame that brushed over the top of the city. Many changelings fell in burnt cinders.
For the first time since Chrysalis had seen him, fear was stricken across the younger Avalanche’s red-orange eyes. His gaze bolted skyward, as his gut instinct confirmed his fear.
A pale form loomed over the city, whose breadth clouded many of the structures with its shadow. Wings that created monstrous gales beat down over the castle, and knocked down any loose particles.
Ponies were blown off their hooves, changelings blown out of the air, and the enormous pearlescent beast laughed. A laugh that made Avalanche’s voice pale in comparison. One moment later the titanic creature landed down amongst the city, casually crushing buildings in its wanton carelessness. Words of insidious nature and tone came from his long, fang filled maw.
“I missed my cricket snacks, why ever did you leave? It matters not, but I must thank you for opening the gem box of this city. I’ve had my eye on it for some time.”
With earth shattering steps the great white dragon strode forward, leaving a path of carnage behind his advance. His destination was clear, the epicenter of the city, where the unicorns kept their vast treasury of gems and other valuables. It snapped at the air whenever it came close to a fleeing changeling, sometimes even successfully snatching one.
Young Avalanche was still on the wall, at a loss of what to do. When he was in dragon territory the goal had always been to simply evade and avoid. Now one of the beasts, a larger one at that , was here to pillage HIS territory. Eventually fear turned to anger and possessiveness. He jumped from his place on the wall and flew towards the scaled monster. During the flight he changed his hooves to claws.
“ARCHWAY!”
That got the dragon to stop his stride, turning to the source that called his name. Archway narrowed his cold, grey eyes to focus on the giant changeling that approached him. The sight brought a grin across his wide maw, salivating through the rows of serrated teeth that promised death to all. .
“A cricket that’s more than a mouthful, that’s a surprise. And this one even knows my name, how flattering.”
“These ponies are mine, you infernal lizard!”
In response Archway swished his tail, with force powerful enough to completely level several of the buildings behind him. Terrified screams erupted from the ponies who hadn’t fully vacated the premise, with some were silenced under the shower of stone and timber that trailed the dragon’s tail.
“Are they?”
Avalanche didn’t reply with words, rather his red-orange eyes flashed a brilliant white as a mental command was bellowed out to his scattered swarm.
“To me changelings! We shall gouge his eyes, cut the leather of his wings, and burrow into his ears. Make this beast suffer for everything we have endured. Dragons no longer decide our fate!”
The mental shout was unmistakably clear, and the terrified changelings felt compelled to obey his order. Much of the furious indignation that emanated from Avalanche circulated in his fellow swarm members, who felt their fear being replaced by royally inspired anger.
Avalanche ignited his horn, wreathing his body with magical energy. He had much more fuel to burn that he ever had before, possessed with the determination to apply it.
Like a bolt of lightning, the giant royal dashed up to the titanic reptilian and slashed at an exposed grey eye. He only made it just past the beast when an agonized roar broke Avalanche’s focus, slowing him down.
The pause slowed him enough to be caught by one of the dragon’s flailing wings, throwing him into a downward spiral,straight into a street vendor’s stand. Many kinds of basketry and other weaved goods exploded in all directions from the impact of the collision.
The giant equine groaned in dishevelment, struggling to rise from the ruined crater of market goods. An angry shopkeeper burst out of the building the vendor was attached to.
“What in Tartarus is going on!”
It was an unusually tall lean unicorn mare, who had a white coat, and long pink mane and tail. There was no mark on her flank, but the voice and face made it unmistakable who she was. Chrysalis gawked at the scene, her jaw fell when a shorter blue unicorn followed out behind her sister, leaving no room for doubt.
“A dragon is what’s going on.”
Avalanche rose out of the ruined vendor,shaking off the wooden articles piled all over his frame. The two unicorns were surprised when the shattered store wares had apparently come alive, in the form of a changeling larger than any pony had seen no less. Neither of the sisters spoke, but backed away slightly.
“I’m going to carve his other eye right out!”
The king grumbled angrily, his forelegs in their claw morphed state, preparing for flight. The earth trembled under the pressure of a vehement stomp, with the equines barely able to keep their hooves under them. The two unicorn sisters looked out into the city, their pupils shrinking to pinpricks when they realized what the cataclysmic disturbance had come about.
The taller white unicorn turned to the enormous changeling, then the dragon, and back to the changeling. Confused, she took a tentative step out of the house.
“You’re not going to fight it… Are you?”
The furious titanic monster in the distance rounded about, and searched with lethal intent. He had one of his eyes closed tightly shut, distractedly batting away at changelings that tried to go for his vulnerable areas.
To the horror of the two unicorn mares and the displeasure of the royal changeling, a colossal grey eye looked down their street, zeroing in on his target. Miniature earthquakes heralded the dragon’s angry advance.
“Would you prefer me not to? Get to safety ponies, I’ll come for you later.”
Avalanche deftly seized the two unicorn mares between his forelegs, and with dexterity that belied his size, dropped them safely outside the city walls. Barely a moment before the dragon’s claws annihilated the home the two sisters had just been.
---
Chrysalis stopped the scene right there and turned to her viewer companion t. She seethed breaths between her fangs, futilely trying to form some words to convey her growing anger.
“Do you even… GAH!”
She wanted to shout curses, but her mind whirled in a confused mess as she tried to comprehend the scene that took place. Her hooves stomped along ground in a little tantrum.
“This brings up so MANY questions!”
Before the queen could fully start to rant about the possible ways that scenario could have played out, another voice interrupted her.
“MY QUEEN, MY QUEEN! There you are!”
It was Colony, voicing great deal of concern, almost to the edge of panic. Chrysalis groaned in frustration, even as she used her magic to put the well of memories back to it’s place of rest. She slowed her breaths and tried to recompose herself.
“What is it Colony?”
“The sun should have been lowered two hours ago, and I was worried something had happened.”
“Oh, is that all? Very well I’ll see to it, I have other things that need to be addressed anyway.”
The queen and her drone left the chamber of the mountain complex, allowing Chrysalis to set her eyes to the sky. She could resume her trip to the past tomorrow, but she would need to talk to Shade. They still needed to hunt down the element mares and Sombra’s infernal amulet.
With her two tone eyes faced towards the heavens, she prepared to cast the necessary spells. The sun was successfully lowered, and now came the time to try out the new spell Celestia had shown her earlier. The Changeling Queen was still a little apprehensive, as she wondered what new sensations the moon might introduce.
Chrysalis growled in anger, wishing she hadn’t been so quick to promise Sombra she wouldn’t show up to the cave again. She had some questions she really wanted to ask the white alicorn. With irritated reluctance, she initiated the magic to raise the moon.
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand short intermission incoming 
bleh, i wonder if i would write faster if i didn't stop to sketch so much... but what can i say, i like visuals and music, so, here's some more of that.
teh muzzik i listened to this time around
Mmm, was trying to figure how big i imagined the dragon to be, so this was the first sketch
Then i decided i wanted more of the dragon in the shot, so i zoomed out my perspective a bit, i suck at drawing buildings but hey, here it is.
Then someling landed on someponies' door step 
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.... having a hard buying that he would be so successful. these tactics do not take advantage of the changeling strengths, and more so are inneffective once they face more organized enemies, like the pegasi.
also obviously taking inspiration from that chrysalis backstory... not badly though.
however this entire section of the story feels out of place. why is it here rather than earlier in the tale?
6108246
Weren't you complaining that there was too much going on earlier? Also, you have to remember that pegasi during tribalist times would not bother being organized. Unicorn spells can't reach that far up as a general rule, earth ponies couldn't get to them, and the dragons (the only real threat before the changelings revealed themselves) weren't nimble enough to really catch them. There were no contingencies for fast flyers and they panicked.
6108395 spears, hooves, thunderheads, etc.
the issue is that things were progressing far too rapidly without much pacing.
Would have been better if at least one Earth Pony village had put up a fight. Or maybe some real resisted ce by the Pegasi or the Unicorns not falling back behind there walls.
So the changelings help caused the winndegoes and Hi Tia and Lulu!
Is that it? This new chapter felt shorter... somehow... But no... checking the word count, it's twice as long then the previous two chapters... Drat! Know to wait for the next one.
King Avalanche is a brutal & direct character, but he is not unnecessarily cruel & obviously thinks ahead. he doesn't kill his prey but just leaves them enough so the can do on in life. He isn't wasteful and he's smart, knows how to use his head. I like him!
The sun is so hot it burns whoever attempts to manipulate it. A sole individual would turn to ash if they attempted to do it on their own. A small group would also experience severe burns. It is recommended to use a town worth of individuals to manipulate the sun.
The moon, however, is the exact opposite. It is so cold it will freeze whoever manipulates it. Unlike the sun it is lenient on how many individuals need to control it. The moon has many faces therefore it may or may not take many to manipulate it. Be warned, careless assumption on how many are needed will result in frostbite.
- Astronomical Magic Theory, chapter 3
Avalanche was quite an effective ruler by the looks of this. Ruthless, but effective.
They had one thing ponies didn't have back then, unity.
Gotta say, that dragon looks awesome. So... wait, if Celestia and Luna saw that, did they forget since about the changelings? One would think something like that wouldn't be so easy to forget but then again, they are VERY old.
And it looks like Avalanche brought about the Windigos. Not big surprise.
Question mark instead of that.
Gladly feels better. Or "With pleasure..."
Albania? What? Don't mind me...
Also it's pegasi not pegasai.
6108419 Actually no. The problem is you. Just you.
This story one rightfully told here. When Chrysalis doubts her own way's effectiveness it's time she looked in the past for guidance. We all do that eventually, it's a sign of maturity prevailing over impulse.
In all honesty the trailers of "Lord of War" in World of Warcraft were told in the same way. Short-10 minute stories, with few focused scenes. This story could have bored me to death with exposition of the past. Instead it rightfully chooses active memory to depict those scenes.
Also you assume that changelings' only strength is subtuelty and cunning. I often see that in other writers who follow the show and make the changelings be comically punching bags with 1/3 of pony strength e.t.c. As you can see here this is not the case. Probably there were more changelings then, or maybe they only needed to get close enough to them. In any case this was a surprise attack and it worked...
Also do remember that changelings back then were larger, and probably stronger. Just by looking at their size you would find it easy to guess that they might even have been feeding on much more love than others. Perhaps it is continued starvation that reduces the size of a changeling, or perhaps evolution took a different path generation after generation.
However if you say it is out of place saying that is should be cronologically correct then no... Simply no.
In Greek Epics like Illiad and Odyssey there is a method of narration/writing called "In Media Res". The story begins in the middle and our protagonist tells its' beggining. Usually however this is done in the beggining but relatively speaking for the memory told this IS the beggining.
Also what makes you think that ultimately the pegasi were more organized? Remember this isn't a capital city they invaded. It is not surprising that they were a success.
you are VERY talented