The pony who had called herself Carol cut through the chilly air above the human planet like a nightmare. She had no source of illumination, but did not need it. Her sharp eyes pierced the night, and what they could not see she could pinpoint with the sensitive ears constantly swiveling about atop her head. She wore nothing but a light satchel, and in the startling chill of an Earth night there was nothing in any world that could take away her joy. Odium permitted her this, as it permitted all joys that served his greater purpose. It approved of finding joy in her work. Make no mistake, she was working.
Flight did not bring her the same kind of innocent thrill as it had when she was an innocent filly, unsullied by the hate that Equestria’s usurpers had instilled in her. She could take no happiness from dreams either, for fear she might find the pretender waiting for her there. The pretender still claimed to care for her children from the first age.
Carol knew the truth. The pretender realized the danger that Nightmare’s sons and daughters represented to the papier-mâché of their “government”, if only they would rise up together. That one had failed her; failed all her ancestors and theirs before them. She had promised a new golden age for the only ponies in all Equestria that had loved her as they ought to.
That had not been what they received.
With a start, she realized she had spotted her target, and swooped into a soundless descent on wings of thick membrane instead of feathers. Carol's real name was True Sight, and for good reason. Even miles up, she could spot a light on the ground with ease and zero in on it.
Pegasi in any world were creatures of day. The land around Alexandria was so vast they never could’ve located the escaped ponies if they had stayed in the dark. They had not, however. Far below her was a house all alone, the sort that Earth’s monsters made. Something in her would not allow her to consider how very similar it looked to the farmhouses in Equestria, right down to the orchards and the white picket fences. That thought slipped through her head like butter sliding down a hot pan, sliding out of her head and into the chill of the night sky.
True Sight would not capture the ponies, not on her own. She needed only to confirm they were actually here, then turn tail and fly back to get help. There was, after all, a changeling queen on the loose. Such beings rated even lower than the monsters of Earth in the way her master saw the world. At least monsters had dreams. Changelings didn’t even have those.
Sight casually noted that the creatures Odium seemed to like the least were those least likely to bow to his rightful rule. Real ponies rarely resisted for long. Humans, even the transformed, could cause difficulty. Changelings? Not one had served her master, not ever.
Even as she thought it, she found herself distracted by other matters. She saw motion from below and felt the wind in her mane, and the thought slipped from her grasp. As she always did, she would soon forget she ever had it. There was a duty to do here tonight, and duty was always joy. A pony was captive to a dangerous monster, and she might not even know it.
Something worked in her then, twisting her thoughts so subtly that she hardly noticed. Sight had felt that touch on her mind for so long that it was not alien anymore, the way she sometimes completely lost her train of thought, the way some memories simply ceased to matter while others suddenly became important. She had lived that way for so long that she couldn’t imagine any other way to live.
Sight forgot her fear, and the facts that there were procedures to follow and a deadly monster nearby were suddenly unimportant. She thought instead of the glory she would win for her master by slaying the beast on her own. She thought of how proud all her brothers and sisters would be, and the joy she would feel at doing the will of her master. She was more than the match of a changeling queen made out of monster. Maybe the real thing would’ve been dangerous to her. “Riley” was not the real thing.
Sight circled the house, attentive for any other sign of motion. Though she had not seen a trace of them, she knew there were deceived ponies near Alexandria tonight. The doctor had been close enough to travel here in just a few hours.
Yet the other group was apparently wiser, because she hadn’t seen them. That would have been the greatest prize tonight. In the absence of it, she would settle for a little pest control.
The house was small, only a single story. There was no motion at the windows or the grounds, other than the ordinary movements of Earth’s animals. The light that came from inside was that of a fireplace, blasting light into the night so intensely she had to look away at first lest she blind herself.
She saw the sleeping form then, resting on one of the gigantic pieces of furniture the lumbering monsters of Earth had used, relaxing in the warmth of the fire.
It was, unmistakably, the changeling. Its thick armor shimmered and danced with the embers of a fire, wicked horn twisting up from her forehead. Sight alighted on a nearby tree, watching for several minutes. She judged the breathing of the young queen, watching to see if there was any sign of consciousness.
She saw none, only the peaceful sleep of a little filly after a hard day. Yet that comparison too slipped away from her, leaving only hatred behind. A full ten minutes went by, and she still saw no sign of another pony, or anything other than the steady rising and falling of her chest.
She did not fear the strange things that some of these beings could do to the minds of ponies. Her master was greater than they; he would protect her if the creature woke. Yet it wouldn’t. If she did her job now, it would never wake again.
Since she was only a scout, True Sight had none of the powerful human weapons that could kill a pony from great distance; the ones that left metal in your chest and took a skilled doctor to remove. She hadn’t been intended to fight tonight.
Night Speaker would forgive her when she returned with the little demon’s head. Or whatever part of it Odium required her to carry. She kept a little knife with her, the kind made from obsidian and sharpened with unicorn magic. The blade, thus made from the frozen blood of the planet, had magical properties that no metal blade could match.
It could cut through the thick chitin of a changeling queen. It would only take one thrust; carefully timed. Even if she couldn’t convince the pegasus to come back with her then, she would be out of danger. Cloudy Skies would see reason.
And if she didn’t, their master would make her see. That was the way of things. The luxury of choosing to make the wrong choice would be taken away. The world was in too much danger to allow ponies to risk failure. Maybe in a few decades, when the true Lord of ponies sat atop the throne again. Not now.
When Sight determined waiting would no longer improve her odds, she made her way on silent hooves up to the edge of the farmhouse. Nopony anywhere could match the stealth of a bat who didn’t want to be heard. She took each step carefully, blending her movements into the natural sounds of the night. The chirping of crickets and the hooting of owls covered her steps, and the creek of the door, and the sound of sliding fabric as she removed her ritual dagger from its sheath.
The thought of invoking such violence on another pony absolutely revolted her. This thing was no pony, though. An act of depravity transformed to an act of justice. As she crept up on the changeling, she let the night surround and embrace her. In the darkness outside, she would’ve been invisible.
Under the false light of human technology, the magic of her species worked flawlessly. The fire that burned a few feet from the sleeping changeling was not false light, but true heat from wood once living. There was magic in that; enough that she knew she would be seen by anypony looking for her. It didn’t matter when there was nopony awake to see you. Soon, there would be nopony alive.
She hardly noticed as she stepped off the wood of one part of the floor and onto a thick carpet, though it wasn’t quite so soft as she would’ve expected. She stopped, rising up to her hind legs above the resting body. She transferred her dagger from her mouth to her front hooves, preparing to bear down on the sleeping form of the changeling queen. Alien joy surged in her, triumph that was not her own but that was still owed to her, somehow.
She never got to strike. She felt sudden, white-hot agony travel up her legs, sending her whole body into convulsions. Loud clicking sounded in her ears, and she couldn’t determine the source. As she fell, the pain got much worse. Wherever the strange magic touched, it made her whole body extend and flex completely without her suggesting it. Nausea filled her, though it wasn’t actually severe enough to make her throw up. She lost her knife, twitching and spasming wildly on the ground.
The changeling queen sat up, pushing off her blanket. There was no sleepiness in her eyes. Her voice bubbled with childlike mirth, with the strange echoes characteristic of her species. “I think you got her Sky. You can stop.” The burning sensation stopped, though her body kept twitching and flopping around the floor for a few seconds more. Her vision was still watery, and she could only make out vague details.
She heard the voice of the pegasus quite distinctly, coming from a few feet away. “Guess so. I didn’t know these things worked on horses.”
“It’s cuz we’re so tiny.” The changeling rounded on her, leaning over the edge of the couch and baring her teeth at Sight.
Just like that, their roles were reversed. Queens were dangerous creatures; far more dangerous than common ponies. To be captured by one was certain death, or much worse. The doctrine told her that she would be lucky if this one killed her. At least she would die as herself that way.
There was something worse than the pain of it, though. The pride and elation in her mind hadn’t faded. The touch of her master’s influence continued to approve of her. It didn’t fill her with anger, didn’t give her the strength to turn and run. Rather, it filled her head with flax and cotton and stole all will to fight.
Did her master… want her dead? She had no strength, and could do no more than lay on her back and wait for whatever the changeling was about to do. What had she done? True Sight had been willing to give up everything to come to this world! She had given up her comfortable life, given up the chance of ever seeing her loved ones again. Ultimately, she had sacrificed a lifetime of dreams on Odium’s altar.
In the next instant, she felt something worse than the alien magic that had paralyzed her. She felt her master’s presence flee, leaving her utterly and completely alone. Left to die, or worse.
Only that wasn’t what happened. “Sorry about the taser.” Sky rested a hoof on the strange object she had carried, which Sight could now see had something metallic connecting it to the floor. Actually, she was wrapped in metal, though it was something she hadn’t noticed. Metal wires finer than any Equestrian smith could draw, thin enough she should’ve been able to snap them. She hadn’t, though. Whatever they were made from was stronger than steel. “It’s just, we have a few questions for you.” Sky closed the distance, looking far angrier than Riley. Actually, the Changeling began to retreat, looking almost bored.
“Don’t fight, or I’ll have to zap you again. We just want to talk.” She nodded, her face growing dark. “I actually mean that! Not like when Ryan said it and he did all sortsa magic to me…” She shivered. “We’re actually just going to talk.”
“Torture.” She coughed, her voice coming out ragged. She nodded towards the thing in her hand. “That… is an enchanted torture device, yes? You’re going to shock me with it until I betray my master?” That would never happen! It didn’t matter if she felt more alone now than ever. It didn’t matter that she had apparently been betrayed into the hooves of the enemy. Sky was evil, and she was probably a slave to the changeling.
“No.” Sky said it so quietly, so disarmingly, that Carol knew immediately it was true. “We just want to ask why you’re doing this.” She sat down on her haunches. “And hopefully, convince you to help us get Adrian back. But if we can’t…” She shrugged. “We’ll let you go. We’ll let you go anyway. What are we supposed to do with a hostage?”
The changeling nodded. “It doesn’t make sense to keep you trapped once we’re done. Neither of us is willing to hurt you, so keeping a hostage will be dumb.”
Everything True Sight knew told her the pony and the monster were lying. Yet everything she knew about the way to judge behavior told her they were telling the truth. It was far more effective than torture ever could have been. She had been mentally prepared for torture all her life. Kindness, on the other hand, honesty… those were far more painful.
“Here.” Without warning, Sky tossed a blanket over her shoulder. She kicked the knife away with a hoof, then helped Sight into a sitting position. Sight was too weak to fight, but she wouldn’t have even if she could. Striking out against a pony that was helping her just wasn’t part of the spectrum of things she could do. It was beyond her capacity. Her entire world, a world of moral absolutes until moments before, had suddenly gone gray.
This was going to be a difficult night.
Oh boy, i've enjoyed this story a lot this summer. It's pretty much taken up all of my hours spent reading this summer.
No, really, I enjoyed it. I can bet it was amusing for all the others reading this story as well.
They must've had fun decoding all of your chapters' codes, haha.
I just liked these cute little pictures that were made for this story and pretty much the story itself.
And the best part were all the great stories that came out of this, perhaps The First Unicorn on Earth and maybe even Thud? And I have no doubt that these stories will be going away anytime soon.
But yeah, this story and it's brother/sister was a great addition to Fimfiction, so I thank you for that.
Well, there's not much left readers. Better hold onto your
buttsflanks and get ready for Starscribe's final chapters.Here we go fellas.
By the way, I REALLY
HATED ALL OF YOUR STUPID DECRYPTIONSLIKED ALL OF THESE GREAT IDEAS AND THE TEAMWORK THAT WENT INTO DECODING STARSCRIBE'S PUZZLES. But the real question is; why guys. Why. SERIOUSLY. HALF OF THIS STORY'S COMMENTS SECTION IS JUST, "WELL, WE'VE TRIED insert encryption style BUT IT DOESN'T SEEM TO MAKE SENSE." I really hope you enjoyed this story thoroughly, and didn't just sit in the comments sections, trying to find a meaning to all the runes.But yeah, that's what the code leads up to. To sum up that wall of text, it leads up to: A dairy queen coupon
P.S. Starscribe, plz no moar codes. they make my brains hurts. ;(
6342574
Disturbing look into a controlled mind. The description of thoughts slipping away or becoming suddenly unimportant is just chilling.
At least it looks like there's hope for a better future for Sight now.
Two corrections.
bare down -- bear down
And it's spelled:
Papier-mâché
Home stretch already? Wow.
Nice to see what Riley and Sky are doing.
From what I gathered in this chapter and its author note...We're about to fight...For the Motherland!
oh, snap! Things just took a turn. Looks like even the native Equestrians are just puppets. Ryan might even be the only "true" believer out of the whole lot.
It seems like Alex and crew have found Sky and Riley. I don't remember Sky having that taser when she left Alexandria, and it would be a simple matter for the HPI to track a lone bat pony searching the wilderness so they could set up a trap for them. And that's not even counting the fact that, if they were still on their own, Sky and Riley wouldn't be able to let Carol go and still have any hope of escape.
So the only question left now: What is Archive's master plan? (Since she's totally saving the world and protecting all of her peoples, she gets her alicorn name for this).
6342637
Don't forget that "creeking" door.
Never underestimate the power of the Magic of Friendship to penetrate even the hardest shell!
Of course, softening them up with 50,000 volts for a few dozen seconds probably doesn't hurt either!
This was great, I do hope True Sight will soon see reason again and realize what has been going on. Let Sky heal her.
Mmm. Delicious irony.
As others have predicted, nothing is more odious to Odium than those who it cannot control. Changelings just have too alien a mindset for it to get its hooks into them.
True Sight is now operating outside the boundaries of her programming. It should be very interesting to see how that goes, especially given that Odium has left her for dead. It can probably snap her up again easily, but in the meantime, her worldview is going to get seriously warped. Or unwarped.
Also, that distinction between true and false lgiht is bringing me to the verge of tearing my hair out. Freaking magic, man. What makes one fusion reactor so special just because it happens to be a star?
Pretty sure that's supposed to be chitin. Unless Riley's literally covered in molluscs.
Yep. Riley's a hard counter, all right. She's already fooled one of their best scouts.
Mind manipulation has got to be the most insidious and creepy thing that can be done to someone, and it tends to make my skin crawl when I read it. I'm glad that True Sight might have a chance of escaping that fate.
By the way, is it just a difference between American and British spellings for this? (I'm Australian, BTW.)
I would spell that as storey. It at least differentiates between a level of a house and a tale. I'm forever adjusting my own stories to cater to American readers.
Chitin, not Chiton.
Sky, don't be sorry to the cultist. She tried to kill your friend.
So Odium caught True Sught as "rebound" from her family line not having Nightmare Moon's promises fulfilled?
Another thing I notced is that Odium's mind tampering seems to be a lot more subtler than expected: on top of normal adoctrination is seems not to force new thoughts but change how important they are. Maybe so the line of thought would seem more natural to the pony?
Does that mean... they could have untransformed humans among their ranks?
SkyLainey: Cry me a river. At least you had a comfortable life to give up.yeah! Riley for Alexandria's new badass!
6342689 Considering that a wood fire is considered true light, it might be the manufacturing process for making light bulbs, their components and such alters the magic saturation of the materials. Of course, my idea has a major flaw: magic is a new force in the universe, so everything should have been equally saturated...
New idea: living things react differently to magic than non-living, with a pooling of sorts. Perhaps it's electricity that makes bulbs and such false light. By that hypothesis, a nuclear reactor would have true light, just not the electricity produced.
6342620
Shush.
Odium has already forgiven us for breaking his codes (and all the other codes). So will you...
GSIGYWQO NTS FWGYSQB MQQWQIZ KLBB OWSPYD DLVA-BCQO QMG WPY NSVB QMM WW MBSQL NTS WQGQ KDQNUBJ NID HKM HQLW KBMDWML MBBEUK.
No, seriously.
Well somepony is going to be sporting the newest fashion in criminal coture. Good thing they just happened to have one on hoof.
I really hope that Odium is dealt with soon and in a permanent fashion. That kind of brainwashing and mental manipulation just ticks me the hell off. Fall out can take a while so long as Odium is purged from existance.
Do you have plans for a followup once the epilogue is posted? Or will you have the story restat, in a sense, with a new cast in new locations?
I can't imagine how awful thats gotta feel with such a small body there. Worse that you have no ground out either, or likely not as much resistance either, despite flight and genetics given to absorbing a glancing blow. On the brightside, i can see a fun round of pass the joybuzzer when they get ahold of him.
6342701
Yes, that is a matter of AmE vs. BrE.
Alright, +1 brainwashed cultist... and whatever things are brainwashing her obviously are kind of a coward. Whenever demon or magic or whatever.
Now time for some healing~
6342884
FWIW, if I'm right about the nature of Odium, it isn't killable because it isn't 'alive' in the classical sense of the word. It's a disembodied extra-dimensional intelligence.
The most that they can hope to do is to somehow work out how to prevent it from accessing our dimensional plane ever again. I'm wondering if it is something as simple as showing the Magic of Friendship (as typified by one of the qualities of the Elements), given that it fled True Sight the moment that Cloudy started showing her true kindness. However, there is always the possibility that it will find another pack of malcontents somewhere to exploit.
I wonder if it would be possible to trap it or even kill it by limiting it to one host and then using the HPI's anti-magic technology on it?
6342777
Nope, I haven't tried it once. Never going to.
Odium, bite my not so shiny ass.
I'm kinda confused as to what's happening here.
6342574
Yes, of course, the good guys don't always win, or even survive. It would be somewhat rage inducing if they didn't though!
Though having a bittersweet ending wouldn't be all bad. I sometimes watch the new Disney Channel original movies, and if you know anything about Disney Channel you know that eventually the good guys will win and there is always a happy ending. One of their newest movies even talked about how all movies should have happy endings before ending not-so-happily. There were so many messages of kids freaking out because this was likely the first movie they've ever seen with a bittersweet ending haha.
Ok, so it seems this dark magic influence can be removed from a pony.
So the only questions are "what's the range on a Hummingbird Anti-Thaumic Field?", "Is Night Speaker just a puppet, too?", and if #2 is no, "Do you want him tenderized or flambé'd?"
Not bad, Riley and Sky. I had a feeling that that was going to be a setup, the build up just screamed that it was.
I find it interesting that even the "true believers" from Equestria are under mind control. Do we have a single cultist in the lot that isn't being mentally conditioned to stay in line?
So "The Deceiver" is actually Luna. Nightmare Moon has got something to do with this, I bet.
Sorry, Sight, but working for dark omnicidal abominations is really a poor career choice. I mean, the benefits alone are terrible- you should see the co-pays on dentist visits!
6343114
You miss the big point. It's an interdimensional intelligence that works via magic. This world has magic absorbing/disrupting machines. Drop that on Odium and bye-bye.
Chilling look at the brainwashing there. And right on for the good guys actually getting a hoof up on things.
6343823
There is a huge assumption there: "Works through magic". That isn't a given yet.
Batponies are the best, I hope this one clears her head and joins Alexandria!
I'm a bit nervous why Odium seemed happy to leave True Sight at that moment though. It seemed like it did this on purpose, which would indicate that it has something to gain. Does it plan to let Sight become close to them, then reassert control in a critical moment? Hopefully it won't get the chance.
6342649
Ultimately, this could prove extremely beneficial to Alex's fledgling society, if they manage to save the cultists from this Odium being. Native Equestrians have a lot of knowledge and magical skills that will be helpful, and can teach them to Alexandria far better and faster than the books can.
6344204
Yeah, that would make things a lot easier, on a lot of different fronts.
Though there's a part of me that's a little worried about how easily Odium gave Carol up to Riley and Sky. It's definitely possible that Carol was right, that Odium was intentionally trying to get rid of her, but that seems a little too convenient. I dunno, I might just be paranoid, but this smells like a trap.
Another chapter, another tantalizing clue. "His" throne, eh?
No, no we are not. Even if you had to slow the train down to one chapter a week, you just keep chugging right along, and we'll keep feeding you coal. An almost empty world is a big place, and I'm sure there are many other things going on that haven't been discovered yet. Plenty of possibilities and story ideas if you so choose.
I mention this of course for the purely selfish reason that your work has rapidly become my favorite story on site, and I'll offer up butter by the pound if it will help keep those tracks greased, and that train running smoothly.
6344154
Oh? So you think this bit is irrelevant and means nothing?
He felt something shift in the aircraft, and another sudden wave of discomfort. He felt the icy chill of the anti-thaumic shield on his soul, strangling the strength from him. Yet as it did, he felt his mind clear. It was the best the shield had ever felt, like being splashed with cold water after having a little too much drink.
I'm going to put it out now, and draw parallels between the Odium cult, and the Kali cult in Temple of Doom. Odium is just a mythical figure, those devoted to him have been drugged, and intense pain breaks the brainwashing.
It's kind of scary to think what that Odium force thing (whatever it is) can do to ponies. Carol probably didn't even join the cult by choice but now she's been indoctrinated for so long that she'd forgotten there could be any other way to live. It's very ominous.
On a side note, where the buck did Sky get a taser???
Hey Starscribe, are you sure you didn't take inspiration from Fallout: Equestria when writing this story??? I didn't see any examples in this chapter specifically but all throughout this story, I keep seeing parallels to Fallout: Equestria. Here's one such example.
41.media.tumblr.com/355807b4003d4a0eb34f048dde5c4107/tumblr_nr09zwtbB91rsmidfo1_1280.png
img02.deviantart.net/e2e9/i/2012/172/a/b/fallout__equestria_by_rhodarein-d54d3kn.png
6342701 I suddenly hate English language...
6343114 There are ways to kill Immaterial Immortal beings...Especially when your power is along the line of Creation and Destruction and Nature.
6344990
I'd just consider that coincidence
... I can only wonder how these guys will handle being separated from their homes once they are broken free from Odium's control. I even wonder if Night Speaker is being controlled.
On a lighter note I can't help but imagine Sky shouting "FRIENDSHIP MOTHERF**KER!" as she fired the taser.
Did her master... want her captured alive?! 'Cause that's sure as hell what this seems to be telling us, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it's goal is in doing so!
6342742
I highly doubt it. Untransformed humans can't even be in the same neighborhood with anything from Equestria without their minds being ripped out and tossed into the furnace at the center of the universe; how would it have gotten through all the thaumic shielding they have to carry around everywhere they go? Plus there's the instinctual revulsion towards the human race and all their works that it has apparently instilled into its minions, which, as this chapter observes, is a tactic generally reserved for those it cannot directly control. Still, been wrong before.
6346812
It sounds like it decided she could no longer win, and it's basing its ideas of what would happen next on the actions of Equestrian changelings, and possibly some of that would be stuff that could affect it too, as long as it was still possessing her.
It didn't at all consider that Riley (it seems to assume the changeling queen is in charge) might just take her captive and then treat her well.
6347065
Ah! Now there's an angle I hadn't considered: interfacing with a changeling mind mightn't be merely impossible for it, but actually harmful somehow! That would certainly explain why it scarpered as soon as Carol was confirmed helpless.
So, Odium thinks it's created a martyr in Carol, when what it's actually done is set one of its puppets free to think for herself? For the first time in at least a dozen chapters, I am now solidly optimistic about Alexandria's chances of achieving a clear-cut Golden Ending from all this.
6344229
Certainly a trap, but for who?
Odium seems to despise changelings, likely because they have different minds it cannot control...
But it could ALSO just be Three Tribe Supremacist, and Carol is just outside that line...
Or just considers all its minions utterly expendable.
The fact that they came to conquer and yet are dead set on scrubbing both Earth and Equestrian history is troubling.
That she doesn't know what a TASER is only highlights how ignorant of the world they are trying to conquer they are.
They have been here for MONTHS infiltrating camps with subtlety, and yet she just claimed the taser is a magic stick.
If knowledge of all types is taboo to them, what could the endgame be? Nebulous god and his sharp stick savages?
6349283
Well, the endgame is that Odium just wants power and control. You're certainly right in saying that he doesn't care about his minions, either now or in the future. As long as they're subservient to him, what their lives are like is irrelevant.
As far as who the trap is for, I think Riley. Odium is woefully ignorant of humans and human mentalities, but he knows the races of Equestria well. He would know that Riley would have noticed Carol outside by sensing her emotions. So if Carol had reported back to Alexandria, Riley and Sky would have just moved.
The command to kill Riley was a gamble on Odium's part; one that he wins no matter the outcome. If the attack had succeeded, Riley would be dead and he would have gotten what he wanted. And if the attack failed, Carol becomes dead weight, buying Odium more time to get other ponies there before Riley and Sky have a chance to move.
But if I'm right in my belief that they've already met up with Alex and her group, then Odium's minions are gonna be in for a bad time.
On a side note, I am a little surprised that nobody has gone bonkers over the (technically) gender neutral aspect of Riley's name. Granted I think most readers have gotten the point of "OMG were they gender flipped", but I don't think anybody has asked if she was a little boy at any point.