12-2: No mysteries left
One pushes away the slab of stone wall which opens into a high, crystal hallway.
“Oh yessss...” Astray stumbles in, rubbing himself all over in the now actually warm air. He blinks, looks around, and furrows his brows, “Hey, when you said Crystal Empire, I didn’t know you meant the castle itself. Does princess Cadance know?”
“She doesn’t know the exact location, but she knows we have access directly to the castle, yes,” replies One with a smug smirk.
“Aaaand she doesn’t mind,” Contradiction adds her two bits.
“We don’t bother anyone,” One shrugs, “When we need something sorted out quickly, we send infiltrators who just get here and disappear into the city as quickly as possible. In fact, most of us prefer taking the surface route when we have time to spare.”
Bubbles only grunts something as she’s lying limp on Connie’s back, no longer dripping blood everywhere. One might have wounded her, but in absence of any further damage, her wounds closed quite quickly. She’s visibly exhausted, though, barely keeping her eyelids from closing.
The castle security is lacking to say the least, and this time it’s not because of any sleeping spell. While One can’t be sure, she assumes it’s because the royal couple isn’t here, and thus there isn’t much to protect.
One stops by a window indistinguishable from any other on the ground floor of the castle, and taps the underside of the windowsil. The window clicks and opens.
“We’re not leaving through the main gate,” she says, faced with puzzled glances of the Silver Sun group, “I don’t want to sneak all the way to the main gate with you on my tail.”
They climb out quickly and without being spotted. Several minutes later, they’re walking through the late afternoon of the Crystal Empire, drawing surprised glances due to Bubbles as well as their general dishevelled look.
Near the Crystal Heart, One stops, and looks at the others.
“I did what I said, and here you are in one, non-frozen piece. We lost any track of the lich or Star Trail. I don’t know about you, but I can’t resist coming back to the hive and taking a look at how things are going. I’ll be back tomorrow, and then we can take a train to Canterlot. Do you have some bits for a tavern, or do I need to babysit you all the way?”
Astray pats a pouch on his belt next to the pistol holster.
“I think we can take it from here,” he gives One a tired smile, “Thanks.”
“Wait, if your hive is so close that you can make it there and back by tomorrow, then the length of the tunnel doesn’t make sense,” Connie tilts her head.
“I can get there and back in that time, you would still take about a day of forced march. A quick refill from the Crystal Heart is enough to let me do that without any problems. You rent a room in some of the taverns around the square, and I’ll find you later.”
“...bye...” Bubbles waves at her as she heads off back into the castle.
“I don’t know if I made it clear, but I hate her...” Connie frowns and rubs her aching horn, ”She’s really lucky that I don’t hate her enough.”
“Sir Cromach would be proud of you, Connie,” says Astray.
“I know...” the unicorn pouts, “It just irks me that now she thinks she won against me.”
“Take it like this,” Astay smirks, “If you ever get to the position where you need to fight her for real, you’ll have the advantage.”
“I hate you too when you’re right, smartass.”
Bubbles swats Connie’s ear with her foreleg, and mumbles:
“...you don’t...”
***
As One is galloping at full speed through the tunnel, only her insane reaction speed saves her as she spots something akin to a stringy arm ending in sharp claws pass through the wall one her left, and take a swipe at her.
Of course, One isn’t immune to physics, so dodging at such speed makes her nudge the tunnel wall and go bouncing and tumbling forward. In the same way, though, she’s fast enough to harden her chitin and get back on all fours without any harm as soon as her momentum reaches manageable levels.
She isn’t far from the entrance to the castle. In fact, she’s just been accelerating, something only possible inside the straight tunnel. Nothing should be here whatsoever, and yet… the motion is there again in the distance she spent bouncing around. She grows her leg blades, and approaches. There is no way she wouldn’t believe her eyes and tell herself it must have been her imagination, she’s not some silly pony.
When she sees the slithering, shadowy, snake-like creature with two clawed arms and a leech mouth crawl towards her, she bares her fangs, and charges. The singular shadow doesn’t stand a chance as One simply tramples it, making it disappear.
Where did it come from? It’s the same thing as in Cadance’s bedroom and in Canterlot.
One smirks. Maybe they haven’t lost the lich’s track completely then. Her enthusiasm withers somewhat when she taps against all the walls in that section of the tunnel, and finds nothing other than solid rock.
I’m going to need a drone or the boss for this, I don’t have the right kind of senses, and preferably Seven in case of any magic bullsh- nonsense.
She cracks her neck, primes her legs, and in a moment she’s gone, leaving behind only stomping of hooves so loud and quick it sounds more like a singular noise than even the fastest gallop.
Eventually, she spots a temporary guard post similar to the one during Brauheim civil war, with two dwarves aiming flamethrowers her way as she’s decellerating. As soon as the guards realize what the bullet previously speeding towards them is, they put the weapons down, and salute.
“Glad to see you again, your Majesty!” says one.
“You too,” One casually hops over the barricade, “What’s all this for?”
“Your Majesty, we’ve encountered several strange, shadow creatures in tunnels leading from this direction, so Six ordered to be on guard. They didn’t seem particularly dangerous, but it looked like they were resistant to certain weapons.”
“Fantastic...” mutters One while rolling her eyes, “Anything else I should know about?”
“This is the only unusual thing we’ve been briefed about, your Majesty,” the guard salutes.
“Thank holes for that,” One salutes back, and heads off to Brauheim. Soon after, she starts sensing hive links. They feel a little odd, but nothing that would make her worry. One always has to count on odd with this hive. That was one thing under Chrysalis - there either was complete order or anomalies to be eradicated.
Nothing obvious that requires my immediate attention. Good. I hate sorting through all memories of everyone at the same time. Makes me feel as if someone put my brain into a blender.
Shortly after, she finds the links she’s been looking for, at least one of them.
“Seven, I hear you’ve been having some problems in my absence.”
“ONE?” Seven blurts out, “Is the summit over already? I thought you had a week or so still left.”
“It’s a long story. Let’s sit down and have a chat.”
“Sure. Should I call Five and Six?”
“Yes. Speaking of the two lovebugs, why can’t I sense them?”
“Umm, well, they’re in the shielded cellar. They’ve been there since we came back from T- uhhhh, nevermind.”
“Came back from wh- Tartarus?!” he obviously can’t bullshit One who immediately pokes into his head, “Do I have to strip your carapace and feed it to you as a suppository?”
“Oh, no no no,” Seven immediately raises his voice in defense, “We sorted that Tartarus part out a while ago. I think you’ll even like what it led to, but… you know what? We really should sit down for that. I was hoping boss would be here too when I heard you, because, well, the council won’t be too happy when they find out.”
***
“I know it’s rich of me to comment on it, but damn you two reek!” One smirks as Five and Six leave the ‘fun cellar’ accompanied by Seven looking rather harrassed.
“Nice to see you again, One,” Six blinks through a mask of sticky juices all over his face… over most of him, in fact.
“I’m glad you’re back. Seven informed us about your return, but where is the boss?” Five’s mind immediately returns to meeting Ten’s soul, “Don’t tell me something happened to him too...”
“Too?” One raises an eyebrow, “Alright, guys, I need a proper report. I’m still brain damaged from all that diplomacy stuff I had to do after the boss disappeared.”
“Wait WHAT?!” Six’s jaw drops.
“You first,” says One.
“I think we should walk and talk, because you’re going to want to see this on your own,” Five nods and leads the way through the castle.
Seven looks at the disgusting gooey mess they’re leaving everywhere before sighing. This would be difficult to explain to the dwarves, even to those familiar with the boss’ and One’s ‘love life’. If only the drones weren’t so bad with washing machines. Those idiots consider those to be bubble baths crossed with an amusement park, and make bets to see who can last inside the longest.
When even Seven gets going, Five starts the report.
“I’ll give you the short version of our Tartarus trip, because it directly leads to… our current conundrum. After you left, Seven was super set on surprising the boss with the throne room being finished when you came back, but the bedrock we discovered there meant it would be impossible to clear even in months,” she nods sideways at Seven, “So he decided to summon some helpers, namely demons.”
“In theory it worked, if we’re to be completely accurat-” Seven shuts up, catching One’s curious turn of her head. Five grins, and continues.
“He summoned Comfort, thank holes, or the whole city would likely be swarming with something nasty by now, and she wasn’t too happy about being called for digging instead of dicking for once. She stole one of the dwarven diggers, those ridiculously complicated and expensive things, and she broke it by ramming it into the bedrock wall. Dwarves weren’t happy, and said we would have to work it off by doing the work of the digger in the deep core shafts, which meant all our drones had to stop doing any work in the hive if we were to fix this before you came back. Six had to diplomatically sort and manage this in addition to his normal life.”
“And then Seven had another magnificent idea...” Six mumbles, rolling his eyes.
“Hey!” Seven pouts, looking his way. To One’s surprise, Six looks away.
“You know what? I’m sorry. I know you meant well, and I can’t even imagine how difficult it must be working with what you have inside your head.”
“Keep going, Five,” says One.
“Well, Seven had the idea that when I was unable to provide the relief and relaxation Six needed as he was running himself ragged, we should summon a professional.”
“Holes fu- guide me backwards, not another demon...” One facehoofs.
“There is no better professional than a succubus!” Seven grumbles, looking directly into the hallway ahead.
“Seven messed up the ritual, and the succubus took Six to Tartarus. Thankfully, he managed to send me, himself, and Stompy there as well to get him back, only to a completely wrong part. I don’t need to describe everything for you, I hope, but we met Ten’s soul there who told us what was going on in Canterlot. That’s why we knew that bad stuff was going on with the summit.”
“Understood,” One nods.
“Hey, One...” Five takes a quick break, “Ten was there with some big changeling called Nine.”
To her surprise, a genuine smile creeps on One’s muzzle.
“Flower Pot.”
“Yes?” Five blinks.
“No, I mean we used to call Nine Flower Pot before I started joking and calling you that. He was like you in a way, not much for individualism, duty to the hive over all and so on. He was a low rank warrior, but he had the courage and dedication of top ten easy. Mare magnet too, the silent, strong, and hot type,” One shakes her head, “But he’s irrevocably in the past, and so I assume is Ten. We can reminisce when we’re all back here and safe.”
“Yes, One,” the corner of Five’s mouth curls up, “Well, there isn’t too much left. Ten and Nine helped us get deeper into Tartarus where we found agent WooD.”
“Should I know the name?”
“The griffon who was after your sword.”
“Oh, neat, so that drop into magma really did kill him. Eat that, catbird,” One punches the air in victory.
“Eeeerm… not exactly,” Five hesitates, “You see, he survived it, and he spent a long time observing Brauheim before he found us and kinda followed us through Seven’s magic circle.”
“How- what the fu- holes?!” One’s eye twitches, “He KNOWS about Brauheim? A holes-damned fanatic griffon? Please tell me you killed him before I have to explain this to the boss and worse, the fu- damn council.”
“I would like to continue my report instead, please,” Five looks away.
“Fiiiine...” hisses One, “After all this is over, I will send an infiltrator to the Griffon Empire and start scrubbing the minds of everyone who got into contact with that guy,” she catches Five’s now pleading look, “Okay, continue.”
“One, we wouldn’t have gotten Six back without him, and his price for help was… your sword,” Five stops with a meaningful pause.
“Yeah, so?” One looks at her.
“You’re… not mad about that?”
“Five, it’s a fuc- damn sword. I don’t use swords. Swords are slow and stupid weapons for a changeling. I had it on me because it looked official to the dwarves, and because I found it, so it was my sword. That’s all. And technically the boss’ sword as well.”
“Then I think the secret about Brauheim is safe. Agent WooD was a warrior, and the sword was his mission, not us, not the dwarves.”
One takes a deep breath, and closes her eyes. Warrior’s word and pride are the key here, but how much can she trust it when politics taints it like everything it gets tangled with.
“Keep talking,” says One in the end, expression unreadable for any of the other changelings.
“That’s pretty much it,” Five lets out a sigh of relief at One’s reaction, although a creeping feeling that she might get eradicated later in private doesn’t leave her mind, “We met Comfort again, and all of us got Six back.”
“Well done, though I’m still not seeing the connection to the throne room situation and the council, if you’re saying this Wood isn’t the problem.”
“WooD,” Seven corrects her.
“Shut up and talk.”
“I don’t think that’s physically possible.”
“So will be the shapes I’m going to bend you into if you don’t start explaining, Seven.”
“Fine, fine...” Seven stops, “Hey, I shouldn’t be the one explaining this, it was all Five’s idea!”
“And yours was the screw-up with Tartarus which I reported, hmm?” Five shoots back immediately.
“Six, do I just kill them both and ask the new drones?” One pokes the visibly exhausted drone.
“There were moments since you left when I asked myself the same thing...” is his tired reply, “Seven, please?”
“Damn it, I was hoping he would pick you,” Seven glances at Five, “So, the second part starts with Five’s idea this time, and that’s the one behind all drones glowing and buzzing.”
“HellomissOnegladyou’rebackandImustgobyebzzzzzzzzzzz!” a drone carrying what looks like a cart fully loaded with manual mining equipment flashes past, leaving behind a green trail.
One raises an eyebrow. To her, there’s nothing actually wrong with the drone, other than it exhibiting that strange hive link buzzing she’s been sensing ever since she arrived. That, and it carrying about five times its weight while flying.
“I was wondering where that came from,” One ends up saying.
“You see, seeing the boss and you, and then Six sometimes not able to get proper rest with all that diplomacy stuff and meetings, Five came up with a way to gather love by helping overworked dwarves rest. Sort of a spa, you could day. We put the willing into cocoons, and they get a nice relaxing sleep, or one filled with wet dreams if they want, and then we drain the love or lust from the cocoon. Some stallions weren’t sure about it at first because it made their beards all smooth and shiny, but it was overall a great idea.”
“Okay, so you got a way to gain love, alright. How do we get from there to flying superdrones?”
“We didn’t expect the interest,” Seven waves his forelegs in the air, “Dwarves have been filling all the pods we have every day, twenty-four seven. We’ve managed to shove love crystals pretty much all over the new hive, but there are thousands on the waiting lists. They know we just do it for the love, but some bring gold. We had to build new storage rooms, and upper layer of the hive isn’t at all… hive-y anymore. It’s smooth and it’s like Brauheim...” Seven ends up grumbling, his changeling instincts protesting.
“So Five’s idea was too successful. I assume I can persuade the boss to fu- to get few more changelings,” One shrugs, “Is that the problem with the dwarf council?”
“No, that one’s much worse,” Six sighs, nodding to a heavy, wooden door reinforced with steel ahead, something normally unthinkable inside a hive, “We’re almost in the throne room. You know the rigidity of dwarf customs, you’ll understand.”
With that, he pushes the door which smoothly swings open without nearly any effort, and leads the three inside.
“This is really bad...” One scowls, “On so many levels.”
Five stone steps in a carved into a half-circle lead down to the throne room, which is a dome with walls made of bedrock, with two thrones in the back on a raised dais, one presumably for the boss and one for, well, One. Angular carvings of changelings decorate the smooth floor, forming a straight path leading from the steps down to the thrones. By each side of the path, six pillars bearing fake torches made of love crystals reach all the way to the ceiling.
Granted, while the changeling carvings look like they were made by the drones, and probably drones drunk on something, they are somewhat endearing. Hey, One can even make out Gem with her thick thighs and zebra stripes. When she notices her own, it hits her that she’s the only one scowling.
Unfortunately, even she can’t avoid the elephant in the room for long, or more likely the thirty inactive Silversmith mechs in perfect condition standing in ranks and lining the way to the thrones, six as big as Stompy and the rest about One’s height and build. The sides of the round room are filled with weaponry they last saw when Three found Stompy under the old Silversmith prison.
“Dwarves will go to war for this if they ever find out...” One breathes out.
“It gets worse,” Six nods with a bitter smile.
“HOW EXACTLY IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?!” One’s eyes bulge.
Six walks about halfway to the thrones, clears his throat, and says:
“The queen is present.”
As one, all the mechs kneel. Six looks at One who is looking at all this, jaw dropped.
“Here is the problem, One,” says Six, “Stompy was the only major working mech the dwarves salvaged from under the old prison. This cache was untouched by the war with the Twisted. Everything is good as new.”
One takes a deep breath, closes her eyes, and breathes out with glacial slowness. Her next words are both physical as well as hive mind orders to absolutely everyone.
“I want guards here, I want this place locked, and I want drones listening for any dwarf digger that might go this way on accident. I want a fucking puppy looking for lost little dwarves and barking if it helps. Until the boss comes, this is a total secret, and if anyone even breathes a suggestive word to any dwarf about this, it’s the order for the entire hive to immediately kill the dwarf as well as the changeling. Boss will talk this out with the council when he comes back, and he will figure out a deal with them that will be beneficial for both sides. There will be no war for technology and history, and we will live happily with tons of love from the city above. When the boss gets back, understood?”
The ‘yes’ response from the hive mind is immediate and unanimous.
“Now for the second order of business - the shadows,” One continues, pointing to the tunnel back to Brauheim, and walking with the others in tow.
“Seven has been doing some research with Granite,” Six nods to the taller changeling who clears his throat apprehensively.
“I would like to tell you I have something definitive, but I don’t. Even my… granted knowledge didn’t give me many clues, though it did pretty much scream those few at me, but it was enough to get by in the dwarf ancestor- Silversmith archives. Those guys could genuinely measure anything, including the destabilization of reality itself.”
“The simple version, Seven, my head is already going ow ow,” One rubs one of her temples.
“Alright. In short, the shadows come from a place called the void, although calling it a place is- nevermind,” he stops when he hears One sigh, “The old reports mention two major kinds of shadows - one vulnerable to physical interaction but completely immune to most kinds of energy, and one kind which is mostly immaterial but easily dispersed by energy.”
“So I got lucky we got attacked in Canterlot by the physical kind, as well as on the way here?”
“Nope!” Seven smiles widely, “That’s one thing I figured out during our encounters. If we changelings use love to enhance ourselves, we can easily kick ass of both kinds because we’re using both energy and physical damage at the same time.”
“How does me making my hooves firmer count as damage? I mean, without the strictly punching harder explanation.”
“You… wanted the simple version, didn’t you?” Seven raises an eyebrow.
“Try to dumb it down, but enough so that I can understand at least some of the context.”
“Hmmm, okay. Let’s just say that using energy doesn’t hurt them in the way we are used to. They don’t burn or get electrocuted. They are like holes, and energy is filling them. If you fill a hole, it disappears.”
“So they’re draining my love.”
“Exactly. Dwarves have to figure out what they are against by trial and error. We don’t, we just get physical.”
“I love problems that solve themselves,” One smirks, “Anything else you can tell me?”
“Nothing that wouldn’t just be a history lesson,” Seven shrugs, “Long time ago, it seems that the dwarves secretly cooperated with some big unicorn wizard Starswirl the Bearded as well as some minotaurs to craft weapons from a crystals called istrium the dwarves mine occasionally for power sources. The methods on how to forge the crystals into metal have been lost, so I didn’t dig into it further. The chassis of the mechs is made of that thing, which is also why the dwarves would definitely love one for chemistry experiments they don’t dare try with Stompy as their sole working one. Even while I was hopped on love and without sleep, there’s just too much fractured information in the old archives. It’s going to take centuries to go through.”
“How does that tie in to the problem of the shadows?”
“Oh right! Well, istrium isn’t natural. Rather it appears through the same rifts as the shadows, that’s what the unicorn mage figured out. He was studying how to open those rifts for some reason, probably connected to the weapon.”
“A weapon that opens rifts and summons shadows maybe?” One’s mind immediately focuses on the idea of someone having a weapon like that, namely the lich. On the other hole, in Canterlot he was using magic, not some… reality ruining sword or gun or anything. No, she just doesn’t know enough to make a clear judgement.
“A hypothesis that definitely comes to mind, but we really don’t have any proof. Though if you shared your memories of Canterlot, I might see something I recognize.”
“Yeeeeah, I wanted to avoid that, but if it’s not me absorbing all your memories into one huge headache I think I can handle that,” One stops, taps her hoof against the floor, and hums to herself, “You know what? Show me around the hive and this spa thing Five came up with. I might take some love crystals with me as a snack.”
“Sure thing,” Five gives her a quick bow, and leads the way.
***
The next day, One stops by the Crystal Heart to replenish the energy lost by the usual gallop from Brauheim, and immediately looks upwards at Bubbles who jumps down from one of the pillars supporting the Crystal Heart spire.
“Hey!” she greets One, “Ready to go home?”
“I am home, almost,” replies One.
“Oh, ehh, right,” Bubbles scratches her ear, “I meant-”
“I know what you meant,” One looks down at her companion withering under her cold demeanor, “Lead the way.”
“Miss Connie and Astray are still at the inn. You made it here much earlier than we though.”
“Then what are you doing here?”
“Stretching, climbing, running around. I don’t need as much rest to recover as ponies do, and the Crystal Heart feels warm and fuzzy.”
“Alright,” One shrugs. After their fight, she reclassified Bubbles as only a minor threat in her head, which lets her act more at ease around her.
“Ummm… does it help if I say I’m sorry?”
“What?” One looks down into the two huge eyeballs looking straight up at her accompanied by splayed ears. And with Bubbles, it’s a lot of ear floppery.
She looks like a small ball of pure sorry. Too bad for her I was trained for this by Three.
“For what I did with the minotaurs. I know you don’t like us, and I wasn’t diplomatic at all about this-”
“Forgiven,” says One.
“Really, just like that?” Bubbles doesn’t stop staring.
“Yes, but if you attack me again, I’ll get mad for real this time.”
Bubbles’ ears flop from side to side as she shakes her head with vigor.
“If we’re friends, we’re friends.”
“We’re allies,” One corrects her, “And you should be telling that to that crazy black and white unicorn, not to me.”
“What crazy black and white unicorn?” asks Contradiction, approaching from the back.
“You,” says One, fully aware Connie and Astray were on the way, “Or do you know a different one?”
“Come on, let’s not resume the ‘the bigger badass’ contest,” Astray raises his arm, “Miss One, we saw you and Bubbles, so we grabbed our things, and we’re ready to go check the train to Canterlot. We still have time for lunch on the way.”
“Good, there’s something I really need to discuss with my king- what?” One notices Contradiction glaring at her, and a moment later she feels a small tentacle wrap around her foreleg.
“You fought a void shadow since you left yesterday,” states Connie. It’s not a question, she knows it.
“Get that tentacle off of me before I do with it what some of Comfort’s summoners want her to perform,” One wiggles her leg, and the tentacle moves with it but with no resistance as if it wasn’t there. She doesn’t try anything like kicking, because as much as she would hate to admit it, she’s curious.
“It was exactly the same shadow as those we were swarmed with in Manehattan, and those in Canterlot before we jumped through that stupid portal. For some reason, Harmony’s touch is reacting to those. My best assumption is that it was locked in the void, so it knows how it feels. Thank stars it’s there again and hopefully forever this time,” Astray and Bubbles look as if they know what that meant, but One is left dry, “Alright, we need to check that out. Going back to Canterlot won’t solve anything if there’s a clue to follow.”
“If it were up to me, I would take you with me, but this is… politics,” One frowns.
Connie sighs.
“Look, we followed a lich who could summon these shadows at will through a portal that spat us out nearby. Now we know it wasn’t just a trap, but that the portal was collapsing and took us almost to the right place. I don’t care if there’s something you need to keep secret, but my job is to end the threat to the summit, that’s all. We all report to Cromach, and he handles all that politics stuff. None of us will say a word to anyone else but him if it means that much to you, but I need you to understand something that we haven’t made clear. We are all dead creatures walking. I lived the horror, and those two know at least a little,” Connie glances at Astray and Bubbles who look down at the crystal street, “We were cursed by knowing what’s out there, what the real threats to this world are. It gets really difficult to care about anything else these days. This guy is fucking with the void, the place where we shoved an insane god. Opening a rift there is a threat to EVERYTHING, because shadows are the tamest and least problematic shit that can crawl back out!”
I guess that if Five could trust the griffon fanatic, I might give accepting the help of this one a shot too. Holes… if we end up being chased out of Brauheim for breaking the secrecy agreement…
Oh screw it, this is my decision as One. If the dwarves give the boss trouble about this, I’m giving myself up for any punishment they deem fit as long as they let the others stay.
One grits her teeth, and raises her foreleg.
“You will not wander off under any circumstances. You will obey me to the letter no matter what. Unless you agree with those conditions, I’m taking you back to Canterlot. I will wipe any knowledge about our tunnel from your head, or I’ll take you back in a bodybag or die trying.”
“We want the lich,” Connie pauses and corrects herself, “No, we want the void to stay closed. I’m not dealing with those fucking eyeballs inside my brain for months again. Deal.”
“Yay, changeling hive!” Bubbles beams. Her ears flop down under Connie’s withering stare, “Alright, all serious now.”
Astray pats her head which makes her perk up instantly.
“We have a mission, and we can stick to it without sightseeing,” he says, nodding at One.
I can’t help feeling I’m making a huge ass mistake…
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So Bubbles reacts to love energy? Interesting. I wonder what would happen if she ever visited the succubus palace, or simply ate a love crystal for that matter.
10019848
She reacts to love and lust, she's part succubus, part murder demon after all. But she's more a mortal with demonic advantages than a working demon, so she would be just a visitor like Five among the succubi.
10019950
Ah alas, Connie would be so much more useful as a mind puppet to someone with more experience and appreciation of her talents~
For both the portals to Tartarus and the crystal heart I would think they would be heavily warded on both sides, probably only the size of a few bits, just enough to let energy through, and almost impossible to notice even without any measures specifically taken to avoid it being noticed like concealment and notice-me-not spells. An entrance to the portal would be similar to the actual physical entrance back to the hive in the crystal palace, integrated into the surrounding terrain and all but impossible to see or find unless you knew it was there.
I must admit I forgot about Celestias power limitations, so that's on me. Of course I only said he'd be HARDER to kill than most of the gods by endgame, not that he stood a chance against Flow. Although considering what you have recently revealed about void creatures and how they can be filled with energy, Boss may actually be uniquely well suited to fighting them. If for some reason they didn't have the swords, and were unconscious. But all the same.
(I am currently working off the theory that Flow is Blazes latest incarnation having had his talent adapt void energy to himself and having kept the swords.)
10020078
- Now tell me a single person who wouldn't be.
- Rules of Tartarus make it impossible to have another fixed entrance point. It wouldn't be much of a prison, would it? Temporary projections for demons work, and the one-use energy boost Red Bull artefact idea could eventually be done, permanent gate not. There isn't anything like enough wards. As for two points in the same reality/dimension like the Crystal Heart and the hive, it would need some sort of guiding physical construction to make the portal. If, let's say, Cadance allowed the changelings to build someting into or around the crystal spire then yes, but it would still need energy, because it's a mid-range portal. And no, it can't run on Crystal Heart's love, the construction wouldn't be a changeling (and dwarves wouldn't go to the surface with enough brainpower to study the energy emissions and way to use those).
- If he had the knowledge on how to use the specific love energy to fill and close void rifts beyond the size that can be reversed by "insert love-fueled fist here", he would be good at it, yes.
- Well, I think I haven't explained it properly then, but void is technically the lack of energy, and the Blades were destroyed by Nightmare. Of course, that doesn't mean they couldn't be reforged, just that they were useless against a complete god already.
10020485
For the love portal, it's a good thing that A: the boss has saved both Cadence's and her sister in laws life, and B: if memory serves (which it often doesn't) the crystal Castle is one giant magic absorber/conductor.
Even if I remember wrong, if the portal only needs power from one side it could be handled from within the hive, using Changelings or old silversmith magic energy sources like the lanterns to keep the portal open until the dwarves can study the waves enough to create a more permant solution. Or if it needs two-way power a silver smith lantern core or changeling on the crystal side to keep it open until the study is successful. Or Seven and the engineer changeling could go on a field trip! While Five makes meaningful gelding motions at Seven if anything happens!
For the lust portal, how about two sets of portals? One from the palace to the main entrance and one from the main entrance to the hive? Could that concept work (disregarding energy for the moment, though I'm sure Comfort could be cajoled into doing/making some less powerful succubus top it off every now and then)?
But the ideal solutions for both portals definitely involves studying passive magic absorbing runes or other methods to create a self sustaining power source for the portals, something I believe exists at least in Canterlot Castle, and Seven could probably figure out if he knew it was possible.
For void, I understand that the plane is a humongous absence of anything at all that quickly devours anything that breaches the fragile membranes of universes, but while in a universe it seems to take on the properties of energy, a shadow counterpart, capable of form and even rudimentary intelligence, perhaps just similar enough to fall within the domain of Blaze's talent?
Slightly off topic questions, how would the twin rings of regeneration affect a changeling? A transformed changeling?
10025479
Six makes a sad face.
I'm not sure about sourcing of that, but since it's stated that the love of the crystal heart can reach all over Equestria, we can assume that at least that Eiffel tower-like spire above it can be an antenna.
- the entire point is not that creating a portal from the hive to the crystal heart wouldn't be possible, it would actually not be that difficult. It's the security that's the problem. Crystal Heart needs to be accessible to the public, and that would make any nearby portal a risk the dwarves specifically would be furious about. It's a low chance but extremely high impact risk to take.
- Tartarus portal (which I assume you mean). This still breaks the one-point prison dimension scheme.
It becomes a living creature or a non-living material, not raw energy.
I can't recall if I stated they were magical or divine, but I assume the effect would be the same as on a pony. Resistance to disease, decay, and a minor boost to regeneration.
Knowing NA sounds plausible.
A prison whose prisoners can be summoned with certain spells. Yes, it sounds effective.
10026884
Gee, I'm gonna be called out on it whether I kill a character or resurrect one.
Demons aren't the prisoners. Guys from the Silent Circle where Void used to be locked up before Choking got him out. And I mean, a prison from where it's next to impossible to escape on one's own is okay.
10026808
- admit it, you just like gore. In that case, read Celestia's Relaxing Vacation :D
- It's really hard to be horny and lustful when you're being repeatedly punched in the face. I hear...
- I could swear there were two, but I might need to re-read Corrupted Lands.
- One would make an excellent Khorne demon lord. She exemplifies everything Khorne stands for. From the bloodthirst to the loyalty and friendship.
10027280
-Well, yeah,
a bit-I’m sure they will find out something.
-Well, she’s more for Slaanesh obviously. Love, lust, and she still have magic, even if she is rarely using it. Oh, and all enjoyment she have from battles. But Khorne demons will be afraid of her. Or not... but they will find out they should be.
alright, i think i missed something; didnt one and the silver sunlight gang go into a void portal or something? how the fuck are they in the north now?