Chapter XXXIX
Chapter XXXIX
“...Where are they?” Sergeant Casianon muttered, his rifle at the ready as he eyed the surrounding ruined city. It was quiet, almost eerily so, and that put every single krin and human present on edge.
“I don’t know, Sergeant, but stay frosty. They’re not going to let us through so easily…” Hazalk muttered, before he reached forward and tapped the human in front of him. “It is too quiet. When was the last time they dropped more reinforcements?”
The human looked a little startled at the sudden question, but kept his eyes forward as they continued to march. “Don’t know. They still some pocket, but they not sent more since we blow out of sky. Don’t know why, but all left in city is all that have. They hide, we find some, but from tell, looks like they on run.”
Captain Hazalk grunted in frustration at that. “They have more troops than that up there. At least two troop transports made it through the defenses, and each is capable of holding ten thousand in cold storage.”
“So saying twenty thousand least?” the human asked, his voice curiously level.
“Yes, though it’s probably more. Each of their other ships would have a small contingent of special forces to defend their ships from possible boarders and to perform other duties. They’ll probably be the ones deployed for the actual abductions, but it wouldn’t be out of the question for Inos to use them in the cities.”
“How many pods?” the human asked, probing for more information.
“Each transport would have about five hundred, making a thousand in all. I don’t know how many they’ve used up to this point, but I’m fairly certain they have more to-Shul!” Hazalk shouted as he quickly started to skitter for a nearby alleyway. He dropped his rifle in the process, as he was far more concerned with his less-armored allies than attacking, choosing to instead pick up and throw the four closest humans to the safety of the nearby allyway as he made a break for it.
It was a good thing, too, because had Hazalk been even the slightest bit slower, the four would have died instantly as plasma began to wash over the column of krin and human soldiers, the rubble of the fallen building that blocked the street ahead of them practically coming to life with enemy loyalists.
What followed were several seconds of pure chaos. Humans and krin were shouting at each other, the bipeds were scrambling for cover, and Hazalk’s crew either shielded humans with their bodies as they fired back or threw nearby allies into cover as softly as they could. Some humans weren’t so lucky, however, and the street quickly filled with the foul steam of the dead as plasma burned through flesh and bone, vaporizing many where they stood.
The casualties weren’t just on the human portion of the column, however, as the attackers seemed more concerned with deliberately targeting Hazalk’s crew, killing several of them as they tried to shield their allies from the fiery death raining down upon them. However, the humans did not forget their allies, and as soon as they were in a more secure position, the humans immediately began firing back at the loyalists. Some were killed immediately, while others were force back into hiding, giving the remaining survivors enough cover to make it to the relative safety of the nearby allyways.
As Hazalk looked out across the now corpse-riddled street, he found himself silently offering a prayer for his fallen crew, as well as the human allies that hadn’t made it. Each one’s bravery was worthy of legend, and Hazalk would be honored to personally recommend each of them when it finally came time to make his own case in front of the Battlewatcher; but that would have to wait.
Now, he still had to make a name for himself, so that the Battlewatcher wouldn’t dismiss his testimony out of hand.
“Are you okay?” Hazalk shouted at the human leader, trying to be heard over the sounds of battle around them.
“Nothing me hurting, but pride and my children,” the soldier snapped back, clearly annoyed that he had walked his people right into that one. “Thanks is being for safety, but is needing reinforce, that is more than is expecting…”
Hazalk nodded as he peeked around the corner. There were certainly a lot of loyalists, though he couldn’t really tell how many for certain. If he were to guess, it was most likely the remnants of a company. “I’d say… sixty? Seventy? I can’t be sure…”
The human didn’t acknowledge him, however, as he was too busy with his radio. “This Is being Vulpine Three, is being take friendly bugs to base, meet distinctly unfriendly bugs. Any in area, meeting is now, southwest of town hall, thirty minutes march!”
What the human actually said was distinctly shorter than that, but through the miracle of the magic that had been placed upon Hazalk, that was the incomprehensible word salad that he had heard. Hazalk was smart enough to work it out, though, and easily figured out that the human was giving their location, as well as calling for reinforcements. The magic seemed to have limitations, however, and did not appear to work on the radio, forcing Hazalk to wait patiently for the human to receive his answer. However, after several nerve-wracking seconds filled with the sounds of almost incomprehensible babbling and weapons fire all around him, he found his patience stretched thin. “What is their answer?”
Slowly at first, the human’s face twisted into an evil-looking display, making the soldier look nothing less than an enraged evgaroth. “Just keeping here. We in for show…” he said before he began shouting to the rest of his troops in the surrounding area. “Pulling is back! Hide down, waiting is for reinforcement!”
“Wait… what do you mean by…” Hazalk started to ask, but stopped when a sound slowly intruded upon his senses. It sounded like a falling bomb, but he had to shake himself at the thought. That can’t possibly be right… The loyalists wouldn’t have brought such short-ranged craft. If they wanted to strike this area, they would… just… he thought as he peeked around the corner. However, all coherent thought was brought to a halt by what he saw.
As if it were the bolt thrown by an angry god, a streak of fire and spite tore out of the heavens and crashed into the enemy position, throwing rubble everywhere and instantly bathing the whole area in hellish flames. While the fire seemed to incinerate krin soldiers in full combat armor easily enough, it seemed to do little damage to the surrounding buildings. The humans immediately stopped firing, as did Hazalk and his men, as they all watched in awe of the terrible fury on display.
The fire and dust seemed to clear up somewhat, revealing an equine slowly rising from the center of the crater she had caused, her mane and tail aflame as she cast her gaze over the interlopers in her city, as if she were the avatar of the Battlewatcher himself. She was clothed in armor of the purest golden color, and on her flank was emblazoned the sun in all its glory. Not a picture of the sun, but it looked for all the world like the horse goddess had plucked the still shining star from the heavens itself and wore it on her flank as a badge of authority.
For the smallest of moments, no one moved an inch. All anyone could do was watch in awe and terror as the terrible equine of flame turned her gaze to each of the surviving loyalists, as if sizing them each in turn. Then, slowly, a glaive that seemed to be made of fire itself came into being beside her, and her voice echoed out across the desolate city streets. It was in her native tongue, but through the power that had been placed upon Hazalk, he knew exactly what that word meant.
“Come.”
The smarter of the surviving krin loyalists immediately got up and bolted from the terrible goddess, trying desperately to put as much distance between them and her as they could. They were met by a wall of fire blocking their escape, but they charged through anyway, intent on fleeing from the nightmare made flesh and trusting in their armor to protect them.
Years later, Hazalk would wake up in a cold sweat, the memory of their screams as they burned to ash still haunting him, even after all that time.
Other, far braver souls turned their weapons upon the goddess, uselessly emptying their hydrogen cells into her, while those that were closer unsheathed the blades they hid in their arms, desperation in their eyes as they lunged at the goddess. Her glave flew like lightning, piercing chitin and flesh, and killing many before they had even taken a single step forwards.
Then, as if she had grown bored of their struggles, the mighty goddess casually shook her head, her horn brighter than the sun itself. As if summoned by some mysterious call, the wall of flame preventing the loyalist’s escape suddenly rushed to her, incinerating everyone in its path as it collapsed in upon the goddess before it vanished entirely, leaving only the equine standing in the now empty street. She then slowly turned those horrible, beautiful eyes towards Hazalk, and the krin captain immediately felt himself freeze up in abject terror.
Hazalk had been in more wars and battlefields than he would care to count, had seen creatures pulled from the darkest recesses of the mind and loosed upon battalions of sapients, had seen atrocities that would make even the coldest, darkest heart shrink in terror. However, nothing he had ever seen came even remotely close to the look on the goddess’s face when she turned her baleful eyes in Hazalk’s direction.
If he had seen rage or hatred behind those eyes, it would have been understandable. Contempt or disgust as well, as those were all emotions that Hazalk was more than familiar with. However, this… This was something entirely different. Behind those eyes, Hazalk saw no emotion, no mercy, no pity. All Hazalk felt was the weight of a thousand years, a thousand lifetimes, as they judged every aspect that Hazalk ever was, and ever would be… and found him wanting.
The moment lasted for less than a second, but it was enough to cause the krin captain, his crew, and their human escorts, to take a few steps back in alarm.
And then it was gone. The goddess of war had vanished, extinguished into the aether, only to be replaced by the smiling form of Queen Sun. Her ethereal, aurora borealis-like mane fluttered carelessly in a breeze completely different from the one whistling down the streets of her once fair city, its gentle motions a stark counterpoint to the terror it had inspired just seconds before. Slowly, almost lazily, she unfolded her wings, and with a few quick flaps, she closed the gap between her and the rest of the allied forces. Her horn briefly glowed, and Hazalk felt the now familiar tingling sensation of the translation spell being cast upon him, before she cleared her throat with a somewhat bashful cough. “Am sorry is being. Hazalk, have come to retrieve you, and he who knows escort. Come, we having much discuss.”
* * *
“Oh my goodness, Rarity, get more bandages and alcohol ready, we’ve got more coming!” Fluttershy said as she galloped over to the new arrivals. Many of them were covered in terrible burns, some were missing limbs, but thankfully none were as critically wounded as the last batch of refugees.
“Where is my son? Did anyone see him come through here?” one mare started yelling, tears in her eyes, while others started muttering or crying as panic and shock set in.
“Madam Fluttershy, please move them to the medical pod as quickly as possible,” Dionysus said as he transferred the young colt on his back to a nearby Solar Sentinel. “We have another group coming in, and I need to be back there to transport them.”
“Y-yes, sir…” the shy pegasus muttered, before she tried desperately to address the group of ponies. “If… if it would be okay, could you please move…” she tried to say, but her quiet voice was drowned out by the rising terror of the gathered ponies.
Fluttershy could hardly blame them, though. They just left their cities and villages burning as they fled from an unknown, alien army, only to find safe haven in a deep, dark cave surrounded by changelings. There were normal pony soldiers here too, but they didn’t know that, and for all they knew, they had simply traded one danger for another.
“Listen up!” A bubbly, pink voice broke through the rising panicking whinnies that had started to fill the receiving area. Most of the assembled ponies turned, only to see a certain pink party pony perched on the tip of a nearby stalagmite. “These changelings are our friends, and they’ve been super nice to let us in their house and share their treats with us! They only want to help us fight the nasty space bugs, so hurry and show our hosts just how much we ponies are grateful to them!”
Her little speech seemed to do very little to calm everyone’s panic, but at the very least they were quieter now, and more willing to listen. At least, that was up until the one mare who still looked like she was about to faint from hyperventilating piped up. “I don’t care who or what they are! Did you see my son come through here? His name is Peaceful Rain, he’s got-”
“Eight-year old? Grey fur and light blue hair?” Pinkie interrupted her as she turned her head to the side.
The mare immediately perked up at that, her eyes filling with hope. “That’s him! Where is he?”
“Weeeeellll… Last I saw, Rainy was in the nursery playing with the changeling nymphs!” Pinkie said, bouncing a little. “In fact, a lot of your families are here, but some are still missing, and if you want them to get to safety, you’re all going to have to move, and move now! You’re stopping old Dynosaur from going and rescuing more ponies!” she said as she pointed to the changeling in question.
After a little more grumbling, the rescued ponies finally allowed themselves to be swept away by Fluttershy, the nurses, and the surrounding guards, clearing the area and finally allowing Dionysus to leave without taking anyone else with him. “Thank you, Miss Pie,” he said, before falling into a low bow. His horn then ignited into purple fire, before similar flames surrounded him, causing him to slowly sink into the floor. Without another word, the disguised changeling disappeared, but hopefully not permanently.
“You’re welcome!” Pinkie said to the empty patch of floor before she turned and began trotting out of the room to help Fluttershy and the others. Before she had even moved four steps, however, a sound akin to a stoking flame roared into life behind her, causing Pinkie to turn in alarm. She hadn’t expected Dionysus to be back quite so quickly, which probably meant it was someone else, probably one of the changelings that inhabited the nearby villages. Pinkie filled her lungs, ready to call out for help in dealing with another party, but felt the call die in her throat when the incoming group materialized.
There were probably thirty of them, but only three were even remotely pony shaped. The rest all resembled Alex, or rather, how he looked before he started to re-monsterfy. They were mostly dressed in an odd assortment of clothing and hats that had funny, mottled green and brown patterns on them, as well as a collection of boxes that had Alex’s weird, blocky language stamped on them.
One stood out from the group, though, mainly due to her clothing being different and her distinctly less-business-like stance. Her skin was on the darker side, and her long hair was tied back in a ponytail, held together by a pink, scrunchy piece of cloth. On her body she wore a simple red shirt with black pants and black shoes, but on her face she wore a confused, almost panicked expression that only seemed to intensify when she took in the reactions of the ponies already in the room.
The few soldiers that stood guard in the receiving room brought their weapons to bear, but a cry from the changeling in the lead quickly made them raise their spears. “No, wait! The prometheans are with us!”
“Ooooooh!” Pinkie said, before a grin that could outshine the sun graced her lips. As quick as a flash, Pinkie Pie dashed over to the humans, causing many to backpedal slightly in alarm as their personal space was invaded by Ponyville’s premiere party planner. “Are you Alex’s people? Are you here to beat back the bugs? What’s in your boxes? Do you like parties? Do-”
“Miss Pie, please,” The changeling in the lead said as he stepped forward, trying to put some distance between Pinkie and the visitors. “They’re here to help, but you do not have a translation spell, so they cannot understand a word you are saying.”
“Oh! I gotcha!” Pinkie said, before backing up ever so slightly. She looked at the humans, though, as something occurred to her that put a frown on her face. “I just thought that Alex would bring more…”
“Miss Pie, these prometheans are just those that have been assigned to help the refugees. We’ll be bringing in more shortly, but the majority of them are out fighting the alien menace.”
As if a switch had been flipped, Pinkie’s dower demeanor was replaced by a grin that sought to take her ears, and vibrations that threatened to pull her right out of this dimension and into the next. “You mean… There are lots of new friends all over Equestria? And they’re all fighting those mean bug aliens?”
“Yes…” The changeling said, not liking how unhinged Pinkie Pie was acting.
“Quick! Put the spell on me! I can lead them through the hive!” Pinkie said, holding up her hoof like a child in class. “You can go back and get more friends, then!”
“I…” The changeling stammered, before a hoof fell on his shoulder.
He looked back to see the sergeant that had accompanied him, a grim look on his face. “Best do it, Helios. The faster we can move, the quicker we can spread the ~human~ aid.”
“Right…” Helios muttered, before closing his eyes in concentration. “Just hold on, this will only take a second.”
Pinkie felt a tingling sensation in her throat and ears, and before the changeling had even finished the spell, she began to bounce in place, beyond ready to fulfil her task. “Okay, humans! My name is Pinkie Pie, and I will be your guide today! If you would just follow me, we can get started!”
“Thank you, Pink,” the apparent leader said as he took a step forward. “We needing place stuff. Is medical, food, can help. Take to place to store?”
“Just follow me, and I’ll be happy to lead you!” Without another word, Pinkie turned and began pronking away, confident that the humans would follow her deeper into the changeling hive of Providence.
It took them a little while to get through the twisting, constantly changing structure of the hive, but due partially to Pinkie’s luck, and the fact that the patriarch of the hive didn’t want them to get lost, the group quickly found themselves in the changeling storehouse. “You can leave your things here! If you need to get to them again, just tell a changeling! They’ll be happy to help!”
The assembled humans gave her a smattering of thanks as they quickly began sorting and storing their cargo. As they worked, the one human with the different clothing stepped closer to Pinkie, a question in her eyes. “Excusing is me, but… Are you one Alex calling… The Pink One?” she asked, her voice a little bit hesitant.
“Yepperooni! That’s me!” Pinkie said, bouncing excitedly. “Alex mentioned me? What did he say?”
“Just… That you being throw best parties,” the human said, a grateful smile on her face. “I am Valiant One. Just wanting thanking you, Pink One. What Alex saying, you do amazing for him. Thanking for you to taking care, thanking for you to looking out. Thanking you, bringing him back to me.”
Pinkie looked at the human for a few seconds, her grin never diminishing even slightly. “Well, you’re welcome!” she said, before she bounced up to the human and wrapped her front hooves around her midsection in a happy hug. “Alex is my friend, and that’s what friends do, silly! Thank you for coming to our rescue!”
The human looked distinctly uncomfortable by the sudden show of affection, but after glancing around, and receiving no help from the others, she finally set a single hand on the poofy pink pony’s head. “...What friends are being for?” she asked, choppily mirroring Pinkie’s earlier sentiment.
“Does that make us friends, now?” Pinkie asked as she turned her head up to look at the human’s face.
“We being friendly already. Any friend Alex my being friend, after all!” the human said, before she tried to pry the pink pony away from her.
Slowly, reluctantly, Pinkie Pie let go of her new human friend, before she shot a look to the others in the room. Most of their boxes were put away, but they still carried a few. “What are those for?” Pinkie asked curiously as she pointed towards their cargo.
“Is medic supply. Rest, spare,” the lead human said, before gesturing towards the boxes they had piled up. “Take us to hurt. We heal, now.”
“Okay! Follow me, new friends! Let’s save Equestria!” Pinkie shouted, before she lead the charge out of the small storage room. The bemused humans followed her, somewhat less enthusiastic, but nevertheless swept up by her excitement and raw emotion.
After all, there were very few things in the universe that could resist the charms of The Pink One.
* * *
“Yes, is understanding that magic is doing absorb heat, but why?” Doctor Father-Who-Bakes asked as he eyed the barely perceivable runes that covered the standard guard’s armor. “If magic is being all powerful, why not is being just destroying heat, or converting to something else?”
“Because even magic has rules to follow, one of the most important being Clover the Clever’s law of energy conservation, which states-”
“Is it being that energy cannot being destroyed or create?” the human scientist asked, a hopeful glint in his eye.
Twilight looked like she was caught off guard by that, which frankly surprised Spike. Up to this point she had been prepared for every question that the humans had thrown at her, but the human paraphrasing Clover the Clever? She frankly looked a bit shaken. “You… you know about that law? But how could you have tested it without magic?”
“There being ways. If theory is truth telling, then specific laws being universal,” the human proclaimed proudly. “If magic is following that order, then other orders be important too? How about being speed light universal limit? New Town’s three orders? Rules of energy?”
Twilight immediately turned to Spike, a mad glint in her eye. “Make a note to ask about all of those laws later… But… put the speed of light lower on the priority list...” she said, causing the short dragon to quickly begin scribbling on his paper. She barely gave Spike the time to catch up before she turned her attention back to the human. “If I remember correctly, Alex said something about the speed of light, but that’s easier to understand without magic. If you measured the speed of light, figuring that one out would be as simple as running a few mathematical equations. But the others…”
“Evening Twinkle, all those being math we figuring. Can show, but later. Universe follows order. Very good that find magic follows order too, but not important being. Is important this, though,” the human said as he tapped the armor again. “Understand not destroy heat, but why is not converting? Turn to other energy should being?”
“Well, in theory, that should work. However, in practice, it’s highly impractical,” Twilight said, before she waved the humans over to a nearby table. Spike looked up from where he had been dutifully taking notes, before he quickly ran to where the others were gathering, only stopping once he had regained Twilight’s side. Once he was there, he put down the scroll and helped Twilight set up the experiment. It only took them a few short seconds, as they already had a number of runes set up on the table in anticipation to whatever questions the humans might ask, and as such really only needed a single candle for the demonstration. A simple puff from Spike was all it took to get the experiment started, and almost immediately, the rune underneath the stick to began to glow. “Doctor Father-Who-Bakes, could you please reach out and touch this point right here?” Twilight asked as she highlighted a small circle that was connected to the rune by a single line of arcanite.
The doctor gave Twilight a worried look, but he still reached out and touched it tentatively, only to pull it back almost immediately, clearly fearing some kind of unknown reaction. Spike nearly burst out laughing at the human’s nervous reaction, but he barely managed to hold it in, only receiving a mild look of disapproval from his surrogate sister. The humans didn’t even notice, however, as they were all too focused on the runes in front of them, and more importantly, Twilight’s cautious human test subject. Doctor Father-Who-Bakes seemed to take courage after nothing horrible happened, and reached out again, this time pressing his palm into the circle with a bit more confidence. “Is... slight tingle, but all is being…” he muttered.
“Our best converting runes are only able to change a thousandth of the imputed heat per second into other forms of energy. It is theorized that we might be able to do so more efficiently, but there has been no real need for such converters, as it’s far more efficient to simply turn mana directly into the required energy,” Twilight told him as she gestured towards the rune. “As you might guess, it would be far too inefficient to be useful in armor. Instead, we’ve found it is far more efficient to store the energy, then release it later. Our armor is equipped with a special rune that can radiate out any stored energy back into the atmosphere safely over the course of several days. Of course, it is much quicker to simply transfer that energy into a safer storage vessel to repurpose it later, which is what we’ve been doing with the used armor sets that are returned to the armory. However, as you can guess, the krin’s weapons are able to output far more heat energy than our current model is able to store efficiently. This could be solved if we added external storage devices, but that would take far too much time and arcanite than we currently have available to us.”
“Or could use heat weapon…” one of the doctors muttered as he quickly scribbled a few things down.
He attracted a few odd looks from the assembled equestrians, but it was quickly forgotten when Doctor Father-Who-Bakes started talking again. “How long is being to make runes for armor?”
“It mainly depends on the skill of the runesmith, but… a day or two for a single set of armor?” Twilight asked, before turning to her faithful assistant. Spike leafed through the notes he was holding, before he looked up and gave her a thumb’s up sign. “Yes, a day at best. I’m sorry, but given everything we know, it is doubtful that we have the time to equip your soldiers with our armor.”
“”Thank you Evening Twinkle, letting us talking about this second,” Doctor Father-Who-Bakes said, before he entered an impromptu huddle with his fellow human scientists.
Twilight let out a relieved sigh, before taking the proffered glass of water that Doctor Beaker offered her. “Thank you, Lab Beaker. They are insatiable…” she said as she took a drink.
“Ugh?” Beaker asked as he cocked an eyebrow.
“Irritated? Why would it bother me?” Twilight asked, completely confused by the question. “It’s been forever since I’ve had someone who’s actually willing to listen to one of my lectures! It’s absolutely wonderful! I’m just relieved that I haven’t stepped on a cultural landmine yet!”
“Well, technically you already did…” Spike deadpanned, his memory quickly drifting to a few hours ago when they were first introduced to the ‘lead scientist.’
Twilight looked a little sheepish at that. “I… I still don’t understand why Doctor Son-Of-Pony-Friend ran out like that, but the others said not to worry, so-”
“He looked like he saw a ghost,” Spike muttered. “I think you might have broken him, to be honest.”
Twilight glared at Spike for a second, but luckily for the small dragon, he was saved from her retort by the timely arrival of one of the guards. “I’m sorry if I am interrupting, Miss Sparkle,” he said as he gave a slight bow. “But Captain Armor has requested your presence. He says it’s important.”
Twilight gave the soldier an annoyed look, but quickly shook off her irritation. “Yes, of course. I’ll be there in a moment,” she said, before she turned to Spike. “Spike, please take today’s minutes to my room and file them with the rest. After that, feel free to take the rest of the day off.”
“Are you sure, Twilight?” Spike asked, his uncertainty rising. The young drake felt absolutely powerless hiding in the castle, and knowing that he could help their new allies understand magic had given him a sense of purpose. It made him feel that somehow, in some small way, he was helping those outside as they fought off the invasion.
“I’m sure, Spike. Try and get some sleep, I know you didn’t sleep well last night,” she told him before she gently ruffled his spines with her hoof. “I promise you, if I need something, I will wake you up.”
“No, I’m fine, Twilight! I can… can…” he tried to stifle a yawn, but he just couldn’t help it, as his tired, aching body betrayed him.
“Go to bed, Spike,” Twilight said, before turning him towards the door and giving him a firm swat in that direction. “I promise you, we’ll all still be here when you wake up.”
Grumbling slightly, Spike slowly made his way to the door, his ears picking up his surrogate sister’s voice as she started apologizing to the humans for cutting their meeting short. He ignored it, though, partially because he was feeling a little resentful at being sent to bed, and partially because he was just that tired. He spared her one last glance, half-hoping that she would change her mind, but after a few seconds of it not happening, he let out a defeated sigh, and began the long march through the castle back to the room that he and Twilight shared.
The castle was big, though, and it was a lot of ground to cover. Luckily, he knew the layout well, and even knew about a few shortcuts that would cut down the time significantly. After one such shortcut through a ballroom, though, he suddenly came to a halt, his sharp dragon ears picking up what sounded like someone sobbing while muttering to themselves.
Spike looked around for the noise, feeling somewhat uneasy, like he was eavesdropping on something he shouldn’t be privy to. After a couple of seconds, he managed to pinpoint the sound to what looked like a supply closet for the castle’s custodial staff. He raised an eyebrow in confusion, before he quickly walked over to the door and reached for the handle. He was surprised to find the door already slightly ajar, which allowed him to peek into the closet’s sole occupant without disturbing him..
Inside was an earth pony with grey fur and a red mane and tail. On his flank was a heart-shaped cutie mark of some kind, but Spike hardly paid it any attention. Instead, his focus was completely on the pony himself. He seemed to be shaking as he rubbed his hooves together, as if he were wrestling with himself over some monumental decision.
“No… no… It’s all wrong… I’m empty, but… but she said stay here! But I can’t stay here, the hive’s in danger! I can’t just… but…”
Spike’s mind froze as he tried to process what he was hearing. He might have been tired, but the mere mention of the word ‘hive’ set off several alarm bells in his head. He knew that some of the changelings were Equestria’s allies, but not all, and that knowledge alone told Spike all he needed to know. He needed to run, to find the guards and lead them back here.
But something deep inside him prevented him from doing that. It might have been the exhaustion, it might have been the changeling’s panicked, cornered demeanor, or it might have been something else entirely. Whatever it was, Spike found himself opening the door a little wider so he could approach the lone shapeshifter. “Uh… dude? You okay?”
Before the words had finished leaving his mouth, the probably disguised changeling turned, his hooves set wide as he eyed Spike like a cornered animal. “What? Who’s…? Oh, no, no, no, no, no…” he muttered as he tried to back up further, but was foiled in the fact that he was in a tiny closet. “No, please, you can’t have found me, I don’t want to die yet, please…”
“Woah, it’s alright, I promise!” Spike said, holding his hands up in a placating gesture as a nervous smile graced his muzzle. “Why don’t we just… sit down and talk this out? I’m sure that things aren’t as nearly as bad as you think they are!” As if to encourage the shapeshifter, Spike took a seat on the floor, before he patted the tiled surface in front of him.
The changeling’s eyes darted wildly to Spike, the open door, and to each of the various mops and brooms that surrounded them. Finally, when nothing jumped out and ate him, the changeling slowly sat down, his frightened, hunted stare locked onto Spike. “N-N-Now what?” he managed to stutter out.
“Now, we introduce ourselves!” Spike said, his smile becoming a little more genuine. “I’m Spike, and you are?”
“I’m… I’m… I’m… Uh... “ the changeling stuttered, nervous at first, but then he slowed down, as if thinking hard about something. When nothing seemed to come to him, he instead started looking around again, as if seeking out a way out, or a lifeline, and slowly his eyes fell upon his cutie mark, and a bucket in turn. “I’m… Heart… Pail? I’m a… Janitor?”
“Okay, Heart Pail, why don’t you tell me what’s wrong? I’m sure that we’ll be able to help your… family. The princesses are really nice!”
Instead of putting the changeling at ease, though, this only seemed to disturb him further. “No,no, no, they… They’ll kill me for sure! I’ve done too much!” The changeling said as he bolted back to his feet. “I can’t… Just, just let me through!” he shouted, before he dropped his disguise.
Just as Spike suspected, the changeling had light blue eyes and a dark blue shell with beetle-like wings, marking him as one of Chrysalis’s. Spike winced as the changeling pointed his horn at the baby dragon, and Spike could almost see his life pass before his eyes as he shut them, expecting the worst from the crazed, caught shapeshifter.
A second passed, then another, and another. Finally, Spike opened his eyes, only to see the panting changeling grunt as a few errant sparks sputtered from his horn. Finally, after a few seconds of nothing else happening, the changeling collapsed to the ground, utterly spent. "Uh… are you okay, dude?" Spike asked as he slowly got up and poked the prone changeling with a single claw.
"Just… Just finish me…" he whimpered. "Kill me quickly, I'm just so hungry… I can't… I can't stand it anymore…"
Spike just stared at the pitiful sight for a few seconds, before he let out a weary sigh. "Look, ponies aren't as bad as you think… I don't know what your queen told you, but we'd be willing to help you if you'd be willing to give us a chance! Seriously, the princesses are real nice, and we're already working with the other hives. You don't have to keep fighting us!"
"...We attacked you, we attacked them… No one would be foolish enough to help an enemy like us…" the changeling choked out. "Who in their right mind would forgive us? Would… would share their love with us?"
Spike eyeballed the changeling for a long, long time, before he finally got down on his knees, and very gently placed a claw on the shapeshifter's head. "I would…" he said softly.
The changeling looked up, as if to argue, but stopped when he looked into Spike's eyes. He saw no guile there, for Spike had none. He was a child, and though he might have been a bit more wise to the evils of the world than most his age, he still hung on to his youthful innocence like a lifesaver, hoping that, deep down, there was good in everyone.
He had to hope that was the case. Spike just didn't think he could live in a world where everything was that dark and evil.
"Come on, let's go see the princesses. I promise, it'll turn out okay!" Spike said as he tried to get the changeling back to his hooves. Surprisingly, the changeling apparently had a little more strength in him, and was able to rise with relative ease. "There we go… now, what was your name again?" Spike asked pointedly.
"I… I'm Thorax…" the changeling said after a few seconds.
"Well, Thorax, I'm Spike the Dragon. It's good to meet you!" Spike said, giving the tired, hungry changeling the biggest, best, most toothy smile he could manage.
"It's… it's good… It's good to meet you too…" Thorax said, his lips curling up ever so slightly. It was the first time Spike had ever seen a changeling smile, and he had to admit, the effect was striking.
It went a long way to make a hated enemy look more like a friend.
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Good chapter
Thanks for the update!
That was great. Definitely looking forward to more.
Another great chapter, as usual.^^
Very nice chapter; I'm glad some of those balls you had up in the air (like Chrysalis) are finally coming down. I'm still hoping for more human magic slinging, or even just Alex using his special-snowflake powers to help the hijacked krin vessels. Just seems like the kind of stuff that would pop up during tense action scenes
Thanks for sharing!
Personally not fan of statements like this since it's basically setting up that Hazalk will survive. Perhaps something akin to "Hazalk was certain that he would hear those screams in his nightmares for years to come."?
What about the snake priest that wanted to teach Valerie? Is that a thread that is getting dropped? Since that seems the perfect path to see how the snake's view of magic differs from Equestria's. Tho I guess that wouldn't be the first thread to be dropped since the Princesses commission for Written Script was probably to teach Alex's their language and thats pretty much taken care of.
"Behind those eyes, Hazalk saw no emotion, no mercy, no pity. All Hazalk felt was the weight of a thousand years, a thousand lifetimes, as they judged every aspect that Hazalk ever was, and ever would be… and found him wanting."
Heh, as figured it was Thorax. Debriefing eminent!
If you can't easily convert energy, but already have storage, perhaps a controlled directed burst release can be designed in to prevent overload?
Daybreaker makes an appearance?
Keep going! ;)
9946129
No no, Valerie wasn't the one learning magic, it was the other girl, can't recall the name...
I wonder what that son of Pony friends real name is.
Thorax?! Yes! >:)
9946192
Nope. It was definitely Valerie. See chapter 26 or XXVI.
9946129
However the snake said, that they'd wait till they could better communicate before they would teach her. And from what I'm reading Valerie hasn't stated that she would stay in Equestria or that she wouldn't take those lessons eventually. And even if she did the former the snake could just come there and teach her there, it might even be more effective since Earth has no magic field while Equus does so she doesn't have to go on their ship to do it.
I know the "new form" the changlings got is out of the question but I do have to wonder with Thorax showing up like this, will we get to see Chrysi's hive become reformed?
9946221
I'd almost expect Hebrew or Arabic for it's origin especially given his reaction.
9946309 9946221 It's Doctor Phillips. You've seen him before.
Oh thank god, that design is a hot piece of shit. Honestly I'd like Chrysalis to come around eventually, I like her.
9946185
Wow
That image was just awesome!
9946314
Will we find out what she did that freaked Dr. Phillips it so badly?
When you're in the middle of true life or death combat, your fight or flight emotions are always going to be maxed out. The only potential difference is that either you are in control, or you are not.
If you are not in control, it doesn't matter if your opponent is ten times stronger, or a thousand times stronger. You will feel exactly the same either way. All of this "emotional imagery" that is used to describe Celestia's power in the middle of combat is non-applicable to any sort of realistic emotional framework.
9946314
Brain: "face, I would like you to meet palm"
Face: "hi!"
Brain: "palm, I would like you to meet face"
*smack*
Brain: "ill just let you two get acquainted".
Does anyone know about what happened?
9946457 Yeah, but I'm telling a story, and it's more interesting this way. Allow me my little flourish, because they make it more fun and more interesting to write and read.
9946477 It wasn't shown. Atm it's sort of like a noodle incident.
9946129 it didn't get dropped, it's just not going to be applicable until next book. As for the Written Script story line, yeah, I'm sorry, but that one got dropped. Quite by accident, I might add. The version of the story you guys are getting is the Alpha version. I have a basic idea of what I want to do, but the devil is in the details, and hammering everything out. The version after this, the Beta version, will be the one where I clean up the loose plot threads, tighten down the story, remove the pony, and make it lean, mean and ready for publication. It's kinda why written script and carrot top get removed in the finished version, and several of the old characters become composite characters in the new story.
Suspected that changeling was Thorax before his name was properly revealed
I loves me some changelings!!! I agree though, that the 'new' changeling form wasn't all that great, especially Thorax's form. The only exception being Ocellus. However, I do like the idea of them physically transforming into something new after reversing their parasitic love thing. I have an idea; that maybe you do have a form change, just not Hasbro's cannon form? Something more metal (metaphorical), metal (literal), and spikey. Like... a cross of that one unicorn from Robot Unicorn Attack and the xenomorphs from Aliens.
The more you show off Celestia and Luna the more I have to wonder why they need the humans help. Even though I know that the answer is that they can't be everywhere at once.
9946755 don't worry, that is literally their last moments to flex their might. The rest is gonna be humans.
9946755 also, don't mean to spoil, but even though it looks like things are looking up for our heroes, we aren't finished yet, and the other shoe has yet to drop.
9946755 and finally, they have one weakness that is going to severely limit how involved they will be in future books. Specifically, it relates to their charges.
9946190
Such as, redirect their shots back to the source would certainly be a surprise to the sniping Krin soldiers.
9946480
Ah. So Cthulhu isn't just one of Discord's old college-days drinking buddies, but Discord befriended him to the Mane 6, too. Makes sense.
9946457
In humans.
9946446 It's so awesome it's too large for the embedded image handler.
“Go to bed, Spike,” Twilight said, before turning him towards the door and giving him a firm swat in that direction. “I promise you, we’ll all still be here when you wake up.” Fallout Equestria Flashback xD
9947184
That's one option for a default "I'm not aiming at anything" mode. But, think like a "charged shot", more powerful (because it's not like they stop shooting at you in the interim) and more likely to overcome their own defenses on average due to the combined power.
9946314
well I at least got the general region right even if I didn't go south far enough.
Thorax! Good to see you!
Now, hurry up and get all friendly with Spike. Love to have more Changelings like you (could be).
Yea... about that. We’ve all seen the teleportation. Now that could be slower than light and just to fast for the human eye, but we’ve seen time travel too. And that implies ftl, while not endangering causality (because glimmer hasn’t happened yet).
Alright Twiggles, are you ready to whiteness the power of industrialized manufacture?
Whoo! Book 4 confirmed. Get ready for some emperor hunting and space battles.
9947213
Having name translated like that../ do you need to ask?
9947968 teleportation doesn't break the speed of light because teleportation does not involve movement through space whatsoever. There are a lot of ways in my fic to, technically, reach a destination before your light does, but you never actually move, therefore you never actually break that hard speed limit.
9947968 also, I'm not touching time travel. For the purposes of my fic, you can completely ignore any mlp episode that involves time travel.
9946399
Agreed. Even by MLP standards they went overboard with the frou-frou.
9947968
From what we've seen, the two forms of time travel used in MLP don't violate causality because the spell version creates a closed time loop and the cutie map version does alternate timelines.
Even if teleportation is only half light speed, it takes interplanetary distances before the lag is noticeable to anything but sophisticated measuring equipment.
People who aren't in the business wouldn't realize it, but a means to quickly absorb, store, and release huge amounts of heat energy in a controlled fashion the way those runes do is like porn for engineers.
9948472 9946190 9947184 9947484
Why do you think the scientists entered a huddle afterwards? Or why one muttered "or as a weapon..." after Twilight finished talking? The humans have Plans for those runes. Big Plans. Plans with a capital P whenever they're spelled big.
9948619
*gasps in horror* are we the commentators self-inserting into your fic?!?
9948472
Oh I know. I’m finishing up my first thermo class in engineering school. Mmmmh, sounds like some near Carnot systems with minimal complexity and not moving parts.
9948619
A heat ray, a surface to space beam laser, all the power of the sun focused to a single point.
9948619
9948795
9948880
I know right? You don't even have to have the heat source as part of the device when you can charge your heat capacitors beforehand.
The big thing that magitech gets you is using a magic-based containment fields for fusion reactions. Pocket-sized reactors anyone?
AFAIK the Krin have the science and some knowledge of magic but no actual mages.
Ponies have the mages and magic knowledge but not the science.
Humans have science but no mages or magic know-how
Quzin have all of those things.
Humans + ponies = Quzin level.
If the enemy Krin have half a brain they know this fight is for all the marbles because once a proper human-pony alliance is formed they won't get another shot.
9946185
Broken link... but google found enough examples to get the point across.
That said, while reading that initial blast I was kinda hoping to see some close air support from an A-10 in the form of almost 4200 rounds a minute but they only sent over ground troops with whatever they could carry by hand for now.