From Eternia to Equestria

by deathtap

Chapter 7: The Fracture - Part 4

"This isn't right!" Haze shouted as he stood before Tender.

Wherever they were, it was clear that it was either underground or somewhere where light did not seem to be welcome. They could not see anything apart from the stallion who stood alone in the middle of what seemed to be a large room, the only source of light was from somewhere high above them that fell only on the pegasus, and the mare.

"You said they would not be harmed. How could you trap them?"

"You see to know quite a lot, despite your being here," Tender replied.

"Do not think that I don't know about the tower in Rift. I may not be a unicorn, but there are other ways to communicate across the ether besides magic. The Elements are there to help you!"

"Yet you are here."

"I had to try and talk sense into you," Haze shouted. "How can you allow this to happen? They are your friends!"

"They were going to kill my changelings. That I cannot allow. What kind of Element would I be if I did not treasure their lives as well? They are living beings too. They deserve to live. You think that I would allow you to kill them-"

Haze took a step towards her. "No! We are trying to save them! Save them and you!"

"Me?" Tender giggled. "Save me from what?"

"From yourself!" Haze retorted. "Listen to me, Tender. You cannot allow harm to befall the other Elements. If they are killed you will have all of Equestria turn on you. You cannot afford a war against the rest of the kingdom. You will lose!"

"No, Haze. I won't."

"Y-you were seriously considering war?" The stallion was clearly not expecting that, or hoped that it was not true.

"I had to. I have not spent this long as ruler without learning a few things about running an empire."

"Empire? You're the magistrate of part of a kingdom, Tender! Not the ruler of a newly formed kingdom!"

"I might as well have been!" Tender shouted. "You had all forgotten I existed! None of you came to visit me in all these long years, and none of you had any inkling to even write a simple letter! You know how long it has been since I have heard from any of you prior to this..." her voice tapered off. That was clearly hiding something.

"You cannot fight Equestria. You will lose! The Elements will-"

"Are you forgetting something? I am an Element. And while I still have my Element the powers of Castle Greyskull cannot be used against me."

Haze gritted his teeth. "We were not going to fight you!"

"Really? Then why did your peers sneak into Rift, kill some of my guards and tried to assassinate me in my personal chambers?"

"We were trying to stop you from..."

"From?" Tender prompted, it was clear she wanted him to finish what he wanted to say.

"From yourself."

"From myself. Ah. So, you killed my guards to protect me from myself? That sounds like something Swift would do. After all, that is all he knows what to do now. If others seem to be a threat to him, then he has no qualms of ensuring that the threat is no longer a concern. How many equines has he murdered to ensure that his utopia is maintained?"

Haze was stunned. "You cannot seriously believe that?"

"Oh, I don't have to believe it. I know. Don't you think it's strange that any voices of dissent are silenced after a visit by the Element of Loyalty?" Tender smiled when Haze did not respond. "See? Even you have suspected it as well."

"Our prince would never allow-"

"You are a fool, Haze! You choose not to see what is in front of you. Only when the Prince is dead can we truly be free of his tyranny," Tender stated, her eyes flashing a hint of green as it flowed through. "He must die."

"Y-you can't be serious. What you say is borderlines paranoia! Do you even hear what is coming out of your mouth? You are accusing the prince of murdering dissenters based on what? If what you say is true, then there would be no free press, no courts, no... anything that involves the equestrians ability to go against their government! That is all a pack of lies! Just last week there were protests regarding-"

"Do not dare speak to me about those meaningless campaigns! They are clearly organized by those loyal to Swift to trick equines like you to think that you are free, but you're not. No, no, no. You're not. I know. I know."

"You can't-"

"Can't what? I am the princess of the changelings, Haze. You all pawned the responsibility of their lives into my hooves! You all shouldered me with the burden of that responsibility." She looked up, suddenly looking exhausted. "Was I not supposed to care for them as a mother would her own children?"

"You wanted to take them, Tender. Your kindness and devotion have done wonderful things for the kind-"

"You have the ability to be the prince along with me. The changelings are not evil, just different." Her voice suddenly changed, and a feverish look came across her face.

Haze recognized it, and it horrified him. This was the look of someone who had been consumed by power. The same look that Spirit had.

Tender pressed on. "I can control them, Haze. I can feel them. Each one of them are like a part of me. I can teach them to be ponies again. I can save them. I just need time."

Haze took a step back despite himself. "Then I will get you the time you require, Tender. Just... stop this."

That small action was not lost on the mare, whose expression went cold for a moment as she narrowed her eyes at the stallion before her. Then, in the next moment, it softened. She leaned forward and rested her hoof on the arm of her throne shaking her head sadly as if she were pitying him. "You don't get it, do you? Swift has already made up his mind about me."

"Please, Tender. I believe that you have been infected." It wasn't a question.

"Ah, you call it an infection, but you are wrong. It is... enlightenment. Did you know that I can see things through each and every one of my changelings? I can smell what their noses detect. I know their thoughts like they are my own. Our minds are all connected together? As each one breathes and lives, I can feel their life force flowing through them into me. They will do whatever I want, whatever I wish, whatever I say." Tender Heart eyes turned green as she stood up from her throne. A black chair carved out from the same material that littered her newly made capital. "I am their one and only princesses. No. No, I am more than that. I am their queen, and they love me, as will you."

"How can anyone love that which they fear, Tender? You're going against everything you've ever believed in!" Haze shouted trying to get her to understand. "Please listen to me!"

"No, you listen. When I had asked you to come with me, to stay here with me, what did you say?" She screamed. "What did you say?"

Haze eyes began to water. "You think I wanted to do that? Do you really think that I wanted to leave you? It was the burden of our responsibility as the Elements-"

"You got married."

That silenced him. He closed his eyes and gulped. "Y-yes. I got married."

"Why? If you really loved me, then why did you get married to another? Why didn't you marry me?"

The stallion could not respond. His mouth opened several times, but nothing came out. Instead he just looked down at the floor. He could not bring himself to face her.

"Tell me!" she shouted throwing something at him.

The pegasus dodged it easily, the projectile colliding with something at the far end. He looked up at her. "I was lonely. I needed someone."

"But why not me? Why did you choose her? You knew that I was waiting for you! You knew that I wanted you to come for me! You knew it all! And yet you went and married that..." she growled and stamped her hoof on the ground. "Why?"

"I... I didn't want you to love me anymore. I thought... I thought that if I got married you would find someone else to take your love. I... I am so sorry."

The mare narrowed her eyes. "You said you loved me-"

"I still love you, Tender! I wouldn't be here if I didn't." Haze expression looked pained. "I'm sorry."

Tender calmed herself and leaned back on her throne. She looked amused. "Sorry? You're sorry?" She let out a cruel laugh. "Sorry? You want me to stop based on an apology which is nearly fifty years too late?"

Haze opened his mouth to respond, but Tender held her hoof up shutting him up.

"What was I supposed to do? Rot here alone? You left me when I needed someone the most. Perhaps it is your fault that I have become this way?"

"Y-you could have found someone else to love! Every single equine in Equestria loves you! Still does," Haze stated. "There isn't anyone who doesn't adore you."

"I only wanted you." The words were like daggers.

"I..." Haze could not answer.

"But what you said is true. Many still do love me. Especially my changelings." Her expression darkened again. "I will not allow them, innocent and pure, to be sent off into Tartarus without a fight! They were there for me when I needed them, unlike you."

"I said I was sorry," Haze replied as gently as he could. "I made a stupid, stupid mistake."

"True."

"But don't take it out on the rest of Equestria. Don't bring it to the brink of another war. Please. Let our fight remain between the two of us. Don't let our children see the horrors of war."

There was a long silence before Tender spoke. "I wanted children once. Your children. Now you have offspring from that, and I have none."

"T-they have done nothing wrong. It is my fault, not theirs. Their only crime was that they were born of a foolish father, please don't take it out on them."

Tender looked at Haze for a moment, her eyes narrow. "Fine. If the other Elements bow before me and shows fealty towards me then I will make sure that they are not harmed. I will allow the rest of Equestria to live their lives in peace."

"That is what you want?"

"That is what I demand." Tender sat back down on slowly, her eyes still glowing in that eery light.

"T-then I will ask Swift to-"

"You are a bad liar, Haze. Perhaps it is because of your Element. You are Honesty, after all. You know that Swift will not listen to you anymore than you will listen to me. All you are trying to do is protect the prince because if he dies, this kingdom will fall apart."

"I-"

"You are hiding something," Tender interrupted, narrowing her eyes. "I know you too well, Haze. What is it that you are concealing from me?"

The stallion lifted up the recording device and threw it in front of her, the image bouncing on the ground until it came to a stop at her hooves. She looked down at it with an expression of rage.

"You have confessed your wish for rebellion and treason. Now the Elements of Harmony and the rest of Equestria will know of your treachery. My love for you is unquestionable, but my allegiance will always be with this land. My love- no, our love pales in comparison when you place the entire kingdom against it. The lives of our children are... paramount."

"I thought you loved me more than anything," Tender replied, her voice mocking him.

"Not when the lives of so many hang in the balance. I should have never doubted Swift's words. I should have listened. I am a fool."

Tender stood up and as she did her body changed. Holes formed in her legs and hooves. A horn appeared from her head as it formed a sharp, long protrusion and the wings on her back shifted to form into a very familiar shape. She was a changeling.

"You have been infected," Haze stated, confirming his own fears.

"As I said, it is not an infection. It is rebirth." Tender tilted her head to one side and grinned, two long fangs glinting in the light. "Any last words?"

"I love you, Tender Heart. I love your kind, gentle, wonderful ways. I love how you cared for all living things, even that which didn't deserve your affection. But you are not her! Not anymore. You are... evil." Haze drew his blade. "Forgive me. I did this to you. And I will fix everything."

"Fix? Fix what? I am not broken. It is this kingdom that is fractured. And I will have you. If you will not follow me of your own free will, then I will make you. I will show you that you love me. I will make you love me. You will love me!" she screamed, her voice reaching a crescendo that made the girls cover their ears.

"I belong to no one," Haze whispered as all around him green eyes began to penetrate the blackness. From the ceiling above him all the way up to behind the throne Tender sat upon. Everywhere. Eyes of changelings could be seen. "You have already murdered so many equestrians with your poison. Your wish to be loved by all has cause you to infect so many innocents!"

"Does it not bother you that this could have all been avoided if you had stayed with me?" Tender replied ignoring his words. "If you had only stayed by my side, maybe this would have never come to pass."

Haze gripped his sword between his teeth. "Then I will atone for that."

Tender Heart's body changed back to its original form as she started laughing. As she did, the glowing eyes that surrounded them closed in on the lone stallion standing his ground as the swarm closed in around him.

"Forgive me, friends," Haze whispered as the avalanche of changelings rushed towards him. "Forgive this old fool."

The feed cut out seconds later.

"Oh no..." Fluttershy whispered. "That poor stallion."

Unbeknownst to the others, the words spoken by Tender resonated within the shy mare. She had uttered the same phrase during the Grand Galloping Gala when the animals in Celestia's garden refused to befriend her. She was so desperate for their affection that she had completely lost it. A horrifying thought crept up through her bones. What if the Element of Kindness still had a problem even after all this time? What that even possible? But she had proven herself a master of her Element as well. Discord had tried to corrupt her and yet she had managed to keep true to herself almost beating the Spirit of Chaos at his own game in the maze.

"What do you think happened do him?" Applejack asked. "Do you think he made it out alive?"

"Against those odds?" Rarity put in. "Highly doubtful."

Rainbow breathed out heavily. "Tsh. Ya right. I could take on all those changelings on my own. If I could do it, he could do it."

"Rainbow, these aren't the same changelings we fought. These are... bigger," Rarity stated.

The image faded back in almost immediately after Rarity's declaration.

They now found themselves moving down a hallway, fires burning drapes and furniture as they moved on by. Whoever was carrying the camera was hurrying along behind three large stallions, one of who was easily recognizable.

Swift was leading the way, and it was clear that he was being flanked by Destrier and Midnight. They could not discern who was carrying the recorder, but he was easily keeping up with them. They were decked out in full armor and armed with weapons.

"Tender! Show yourself!" the alicorn shouted.

Just then the doors on the far end slowly opened and the group quickly made their way through. Swift pushed inside paying no heed to what was inside and stood in the middle of the room. The girls recognized the place instantly. They had seen these very room seconds ago, but now with the fires burning the entire room was alight and if it weren't for them, the room would have actually looked very pleasant. Almost similar to Celestia's throne room high above them.

"Welcome to my home, Your Highness. It is a pleasure-"

"Save it. Where is Haze." It was not a question.

"Haze? What makes you think he's here?" the voice asked.

Swift eyes narrowed. "Your trap in Rift failed, Tender. Once we informed the city that you had betrayed us and our kind we wasted no time in hunting down what was left of your changelings."

"I know."

"You know?" Midnight asked, stepping in front of Swift.

"Yes. I felt their lives snuffed out. Those that were lucky. The rest you've locked away deep inside that infernal prison."

"How can you know this? Not unless..." the unicorn shook his head. "Oh no. Not you, Tender. By the Power of Grayskull, how could that happen to you?"

"Do you really think that Tartarus will hold them?" Tender said as she stepped out of a small alcove along with a large number of changelings in full armor. She had ignored Midnight's words and was staring directly at Swift. "Are you really so depraved of intelligence that you actually think that-"

"I've unlocked the cells within."

Tender took a step forwards. "You didn't."

"Yes. I did. If your changelings can survive the horrors of the abyss, then I'm sure that they'll escape. One day, perhaps. They'll live, for a time. After all, you know what else is down there, Heart. You help us put them in there."

The changeling shook with anger, her voice an expression of complete and utter hatred for the prince.

"Where is Haze."

For a moment the changeling queen was silent as she tried to stare down the stallion. But he was not going to give her the pleasure of looking away. "If you want to see him so badly, then so be it."

A beam of light swung over to a strange object on the ceiling, and within its confines, hanging upside in some sort of green ooze, was the Element of Honesty himself.

"Uncle!" a voice shouted and Rusty pushed past the camera holder. He stood next to Midnight looking up for a moment before glaring at Tender Heart. "What have you done to him?"

Tender laughed. "What have I done? I have given him a new life. I have given him the chance to see my love. To see how much he means to me. I've enlightened him to a perfect world. Shown him the true meaning of happiness, peace and love. I am doing all this to teach him that I'm right and you're wrong. He is... being reborn."

"No!" the earth pony growled. "Y-y-you monster! He loved you! How could you do this to him?"

"No. He loves me. Our love will never die." Tender looked at the pod on the ceiling, her expression softening and a horrifying picture of warped affection and madness. She actually thought her words were true. "You are mine."

An explosion of light and fire erupted above the cocoon as whatever was holding it was destroyed. It cracked off from the ceiling and started to fall towards the ground. Midnight's horn glowed, his dark-violet magic engulfing the entire object as he set it down on the ground gently.

The girls all knew what they were seeing. It was the same thing that had entrapped Celestia when she was overpowered by Chrysalis during the invasion, only this one was a lot bigger.

"No! Don't touch him!" Tender shouted taking a step towards the cocoon-like thing.

Swift stomped his hoof effectively stopping the changeling and her entire battalion in their tracks.

"Hang on," Midnight said before Rusty got too close. "Don't do anything. Any sudden movements might kill him. Give me a second to figure out what it is."

"So, this is how you change our kind into yours?" Swift asked as he walked towards Tender.

"Ignorant as usual, prince. You know nothing of our kind," Tender bit her jaw when she said that but stepped back away from the advancing alicorn, her changeling guards putting themselves in front of her.

"You think you can control this?" Swift replied, narrowing his eyes. "After I had told you never to allow yourself to infect yourself? You did not listen!"

Tender advanced a step. "Do you want to know what it's like taking care of them all? To love them all?"

"You don't love any of them. You were prepared to sacrifice many to keep us from leaving Rift. Your main concern about those condemned in Tartarus was the numbers you would have to rebuild rather than for each individual being. You have been taken by the one thing that I have spent years trying to prevent."

"What are you talking about?" Tender asked.

"Absolute power corrupts absolutely. You have an army at your disposal that will do anything you desire at your merest whim. Without a leader to control them, the changelings would have to answer to themselves. It would have taken time, but eventually they would have learned to live for themselves. I spent years destroying any being that declared themselves as the changeling queen, but I never suspected that you would allow yourself to become one."

"What are you saying?"

"I am saying that you are the one that condemned them. You, their supposed savior. It is because of you that they are now being hunted across the continent," Swift roared, making Tender retreat further into her guard. "Now, because of you, there will be war. Because you-"

"Shut up!" Tender screeched. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

"Swift! Your Highness! Haze... he's still... he's..."

The prince rushed towards the pod and knelt down on his forelegs. Haze coughed out some of the green sludge and smiled at them.

"I am sorry. Sorry to you especially, Destrier. I had thought that I was doing a favor, but now I know. I had refused to believe it all this time, but it's apparent. The changeling is not a curse. It is a disease. It needs to be culled. It needs to be," the pegasus coughed out more green ooze. "M-my mind is going. I want to die as myself, not as some mindless slave. Spare me that. I beg of you."

There was a long moment where none of them said anything.

Finally it was Rusty who stepped in. "Howdy, uncle."

"R-Rusty... you have grown so much since... since then." He laughed weakly and reached for his nephew with a hoof.

Rusty held onto it with both of his own and placed it close to his chest. Already his fur started to change color.

"Y-you take care of this land... you take care of our kind. Y-you do what it takes to make sure that this will never happen again. Promise me this."

"I promise," Rusty said fighting the tears. "I will protect Equestria."

"End it. End it now," Haze pleaded. "I can already feel m-my mind being... taken."

Rusty took a dagger from a sheath on his hoof and placed blade over Haze's heart. "Good bye, uncle."

"Until we meet again," he replied and smiled.

Rusty pushed the blade down.

A horrific scream of anguish echoed throughout the hall and Tender plowed through the lot of them and threw herself onto Haze's fresh corpse.

"Barbarians! He was alive! He was living!" Tender shouted. "No. No, no, no. Please. Please don't... no. I-I'm sorry. I was just... p-please! S-save him! S-save him! You must! You-"

None of them moved.

"H-how can you stand there and let him die! R-Rusty, he's your uncle, surely you cannot-"

"You had already killed him."

Tender blinked, then looked at Midnight. "Y-you can save him with your magic!"

"If he were a pony, maybe. But he no longer is one. His physiology is different from ours."

"B-but... I-I-I... s-someone! H-help me!" Tender trotted to the camera holder. "Percheron. Y-you can help, right? You can..."

Percheron put a hoof on the mare's shoulder. "There is nothing I can do for him. Nothing. Nothing at all."

Tender turned to Destrier, who just shook his head slowly.

That only left one.

"Y-you... you wouldn't let your comrade die like this, would you?"

Swift took a step towards the mare. "He was dead the moment you infected yourself. The moment you became the queen of these monsters."

"They are not monsters!" Tender screamed.

"I should have never forbidden you to infect yourself." Swift said shaking his head sadly.

"What?" Destrier stated looking at his prince. "You put the idea into her head?"

"I had stated that we would not be able to understand them because they were no longer equines like us. That the only way to really help them would be from within. To become one of them, to learn what it would be like to think as they do. I had specifically asked Tender never to humor such a thought, ever. Over the years they have formed some sort of society within ours, keeping to themselves for the most part. We never found out what the ate, but they tilled the fields, helped our kind build cities, worked at numerous mundane tasks, all without complaint or argument."

"Yes. They were your slaves. Obedient, uncomplaining slaves who did your bidding without a second though," Tender replied rocking Haze's body backwards and forwards slowly. "What kind of a life is that?"

"At least they were not hostile. Our peoples got along peacefully. Then you tried to teach them how to be individuals, to gain back what they had once lost."

"Yes... yes I did, but they could not understand." Tender smiled drunkenly. "I needed to know."

"That was when you reconnected what is increasingly apparent to be a major network of thought, where your thought dominates the entire legion. Much like a queen bee and her hive. A hive-mind. It is the same way that Hordak had complete hold and loyalty over his non-robotic minions."

"Robotic?" Rusty asked. "What is a robotic?"

"Automated creatures made of moving parts that do certain tasks depending on their function," Midnight replied.

This only confused the young stallion further.

"This ends now!" Swift shouted silencing all conversations. "Take her!"

Percheron and Midnight advanced towards the mare.

Suddenly Destrier stood in their way. "No."

The two looked at each other. "What's the meaning of this, Destrier? We have orders from our prince-"

"Who is the reason why Tender Heart is the way she is," the stallion stated. "Tender took what Swift said to heart in order to try and understand the minds of the changelings. Despite that being wrong, the idea was not put into her head. It was planted by you, Your Highness. You are as guilty as she is. You are equally responsible of creating this new threat. If she is to be taken, then so must you."

The others looked at each other as if Destrier had gone mad.

"Do not do this. Misplaced loyalty can be dangerous," Midnight said looking at Swift through the corner of his eye.

"I am loyal to Equestria, Midnight, but I am also loyal to my friends. All of you."

"Incoming!" a shouted called from behind them. "The changelings are coming!"

"Call them off." Midnight said. When it was clear that Tender was not listening, he took a step towards her. "Call them off now!"

"No."

"No?"

"No," Tender stated firmly. She stood up, dropping Haze's body unceremoniously to the ground. "It's about time for a change. I think it's time for my changelings to teach you ponies how to run a nation properly. Prepare to die."

She said it so calmly, as if she were talking about the weather.

"This ends. Right. Now." Swift roared and stepped past them all, including Destrier.

There was a flash of light, followed by a scream before the feed cut off.

"Oh... my..." Fluttershy whispered quietly.

Comments

[Psycho2cool]

I laughed harder than I should have at the story description.

I has the know Idea wai?

[HIEfan]

Such angst!!!!
I must admit that your background story about the changelings is just brilliant!

[Seether00]

Fuck you, Swift. I am siding with Tender Heart.

[nightmaster0]

Great chapter.

[EsotericPhantasm]

So much prologue. Or is this the story in and of itself? A history lesson, and Orko goes to live with the ponies for eternity. Unless you are building towards something. We'll see. Great chapter.