"This can't even go in the fine print."
"Seriously?" Gallus grumps. "We have to go all the way back? I've spent the last few hours getting away from that weird gemstone... Dammit, I knew I should have grabbed that thing! I figured if this was another puzzle, it might be, like, a key or something."
"Why didn't you?" Ocellus asks curiously. She definitely is not upset. Yes, that would have saved them a trip, but the special lining in her saddlebags tells her that Gallus grabbing Envy could have been bad.
Gallus is oddly quiet.
"Gallus?"
With a heavy sigh, the griffon says, "Because I didn't like the way it made me feel. Just being around it felt like... like all those Blue Moon Festivals spent looking in the window at people who... weren't alone and completely miserable."
Gallus looks at her, and Ocellus can see the dark place just being in the anti-Element's vicinity had taken him.
"I looked at it and it was like the first day of winter break all over again, and I was pouring goo powder into the fire of friendship. I just... if it felt like that to just look at it, I didn't want to know how it would feel to touch it."
Gallus sighs, slumping a little. Ocellus hates seeing him that way. She wonders if another hug would be appropriate.
"So what is it anyway?" Gallus finally asks.
Ocellus frowns. Gallus is strong. All of her friends are. But this is like a kick in the stomach. The first in a long series of kicks. "It's like an Element of Harmony, only for a vice. We need it to power a portal..."
"The vice of what?" Gallus spits. "Loneliness and destitution and feeling like you got the shortest stick in a whole world of short sticks?"
Actually, Ocellus thinks, he's taking it pretty well. "Envy."
Gallus raises a talon, pausing in thought. "Oh. I guess that makes sense. Kinda." Another pause. "Envy sucks."
The stained-glass double-doors swing open, and the pair of friends peek through, Ocellus looking left and Gallus looking right. They look back at each other and Ocellus nods. They slip out of the drawing room and into the new hallway.
Gallus walks alongside Ocellus, watching the changeling as she eyes furniture with caution and stops to listen at every door and intersection. When she looks back at him, she can almost see the gears turning in his mind. She wishes she knew what he was thinking. There are some things she hopes he isn't.
"Ocellus?" Gallus whispers as she stops, setting down her lantern to prod an oil painting of batponies, then lift it up to check behind it for hidden plans. Not that she expects to find any that way. "The Elements of Harmony weren't intelligent, right?"
Ocellus' ears twitch. "No, just the Tree," she answers quietly as she rehangs the painting. "And the Treehouse," she adds, just to be thorough.
Gallus nods. "That's what I thought."
Ocellus moves forward again, then stops as a thought shoots through her. Could she have it all wrong? If the anti-Elements are intelligent, could they be behind all of this? The notion is alarming, sinister... and almost immediately begins to fall apart.
Gallus watches her and comments dryly, "Yeah, been down that road. It starts scary and ends stupid. But now I'm thinking something that's not so stupid."
Ocellus cocks her head, curious. "What is that?" she asks, remembering to drop her voice to a whisper halfway through the question.
Gallus' expression sours. "I'm thinking I woke up in that room with Envy because I'm an orphan."
Ocellus' jaw drops. She immediately yearns to tell him how ridiculous that is. But she stops herself because the moment he says it, the idea seems familiar. Like she's been thinking the same thing in the back of her head. Instead, she asks, "What makes you say that?"
The briefest of smiles on the griffon's beak tells Ocellus that it was the right call to take his thoughts seriously rather than dismissing them. "You said the anti-Elements call to creatures who have a connection or weakness to their vice, right?"
Ocellus nods. She had used the word "resonate", but that really wasn't a Gallus word. He was close enough.
"As an orphan, I have a personal relationship with envy," Gallus states bluntly. "So I'm thinking when we got sucked into this palace, Envy pulled me to it."
Ocellus blinks. That is a really fascinating idea. But with a huge flaw. "You weren't drawn to Envy though." She looks into her dear friend's eyes. "You may be an orphan, but with everything you've learned and all the ways you have changed, your resonance with Envy is entirely negative. You were repulsed by it!"
Gallus nods. "Which is where the 'not intelligent' comes in," he tells her. "I don't think it pulled me to it out of a master plan. More..." He twirls a talon. "Instinctual."
Ocellus turns back, holding her lantern high as they approach a suspiciously innocuous credenza. With a trio of innocent-looking goblets sitting on a moonsilver platter. Ocellus thinks better of poking, and instead gives the credenza a wide berth.
"You're making me paranoid," Gallus whispers dourly.
Ocellus considers her friend's logic. She recalls again the words of the changeling now trapped in resin in the Grand Hall: "You're not where you're ssssssupposed to be! Everyone's in the Conservatory waiting for you."
"I think you're right," Ocellus says abruptly, turning to face Gallus (and get in a parting glare at the credenza and goblets). "I was supposed to end up in the Conservatory. That's one room away from where one of the other anti-Elements is."
Gallus raises his eyebrows.
"Changeling queens wield powerful and esoteric magic," Ocellus reasons. "I think Queen Elytra cast a spell to corrupt the mirror portal so that it brought creatures here and deposited them near the anti-Elements that they resonate with."
Gallus considers that a moment. "Okay, that makes sense with Envy. But what about you? What anti-Element is in the... what was it called where you were supposed to show up?"
"The Conservatory. It's a giant greenhouse," she explains, not bothering to clarify that the anti-Element is supposed to be in a room off of the greenhouse. "And Wrath."
"Wrath?" Gallus repeats, his eyes widening in disbelief. "Yeah, because when I think rage, I think Ocellus," he scoffs.
Ocellus wonders if the spell didn't pull through the creatures it was supposed to. Or maybe the queen didn't have any idea who was on the other side and just hoped for the best.
"Which might be why it didn't work," Ocellus suggests. "I don't resonate enough with Wrath, so I ended up in a random hallway."
Gallus absorbs that and nods. "If this is the evil queen's plan, she's scoring zero for two." He stops. "Which makes me think maybe getting Envy is a bad idea."
Ocellus purses her lips, her ears folding back. She'd thought the same thing. Unfortunately, the only way to destroy the portal is to open it, doing exactly what Queen Elytra apparently wants.
And now she can't just smash it the moment the portal manifests. She has to keep it open long enough for Gallus to go through.
They approach the door into the room where Envy resides.
Gallus has described the room beyond as long and narrow, barren of other furniture. Almost a hall except there are no rooms connected to it. At the end is a pedestal with a green, circular stone that, in Gallus' words, "floats and radiates awful".
Ocellus chose not to tell him she was proud of his correct usage of "radiates".
The blue griffon stops at the sight of the door. "For the record, I would rather be spending today getting my talons done with Cozy Glow."
Putting down her lantern, Ocellus snickers at her friend's snark. "Oh? What color?" His stare is the perfect answer.
Ocellus stares at the extravagantly carved slab of blue slate. Engravings depict the battle between Nightmare Moon and Celestia, their figures repeating over and over across nightscapes of clouds and moons shining with crepuscular rays. The doorknob is an amethyst set over the first normal keyhole she has seen.
"It's locked," Gallus tells her. "Trust me. I wouldn't have crawled out through that suffocatingly narrow vinenest if I could have just opened the door."
Ocellus nods. Then blinks. "Wait, what kind of lock?"
"How should I know? I'm not a locksmith."
"I mean, is it magical?" Ocellus asks as she peers at the keyhole. "Like Chancellor Neighsay's locks?" It clearly isn't one requiring Nightmare Moon's Seal.
"No, I think it's just a lock," Gallus says. "There wasn't a keyhole on the inside. But since there is one on this side, I might be able to pick it with my talons." At Ocellus' look, he shrugs. "Yona picked a lock with one of her horns, so how hard could it be?"
Ocellus looks around. Then up. "Or we could crawl back in from above," Ocellus offers, spotting a grated vent.
Gallus gives her a return stare. "Yeeeeah, not for all the bits in the Canterlot treasury. Be my guest. I'm sticking with Plan: Lockpick." The blue griffon sits himself down in front of the door and begins experimentally sticking his talons into the keyhole.
Ocellus flies up to inspect the vent. It looks like it goes into the same duct Gallus crawled through. The light from her lantern barely catches on the vines beyond it. Crawling through would be claustrophobic even for someone without Gallus' phobia. But she doesn't have to be her full size.
Her bat form wouldn't work. She needs to be able to carry her saddlebags. Same with the bunny form. Puckwudgie would work, but it might be good to fly too. Easier than transforming while falling out of the vent inside the room. Bite-acuda?
Ocellus clops her forehooves together. She's got it! Cockatrice.
"Gallus, keep facing the door," she instructs. The changeling nymph has never become a cockatrice before, and there are always some risks when taking on the form of a magical creature for the first time.
Turning into Professor Rarity or Princess Twilight doesn't give her magical telekinesis, much less their full range of spells. But transformed changelings do get a lot of the innate supernatural abilities of the forms they take as well as the physical ones. Her bugbear form not only has the strength of a bugbear but also the ability to fly with wings that cannot support a creature that size without magic. Her dragon form can breathe fire.
Cockatrices have a petrifying gaze. Ocellus has no idea if she will gain that. Or if she will be able to control it if she does. Better to play things safe.
Ocellus concentrates. She's only seen a cockatrice once. They aren't exactly a creature you go looking for in the wild. But Professor Fluttershy had persuaded Silverstream to bring her friend Edith to class...
Thump!
"Ocellus?" Gallus calls, carefully not looking away from the door. "Are you okay?"
"Yes," Ocellus whimpers as she pulls her muzzle up from the carpet. "I just realized what Silverstream was doing back at the Treehouse."
Cockatrice-Ocellus snakes her way through the tangled vines filling the duct. The passage is more spacious than she expected, but the vines cut that in half. No wonder it took Gallus hours to make it down one hallway. Ocellus' heart hurts for her friend.
The vines are like an infestation, she thinks. But that's not right. She has seen the purple-leafed ones connecting to the wall sconces. After the flamethrower performance, it is clear they carry some sort of flammable smoke. A specific variation of the same blue smoke that the three onyx pillars conjure in their crafting ritual. Dark essence.
Ocellus pushes between clusters of dark, rough-barked vines. Half of them snake down through a hole in the duct. The design is elegant. Torches fueled by vines which are concealed behind the walls, not marring the aesthetics of the palace. More hidden vines provide water for the fountains and bathrooms and other necessities.
Only more than half the sconces do not work, and this duct is choked with overgrowth. Nightmare Moon has been gone for years. Most of the servants who cared for the place were put to rest. The Palace of Nightmare Moon is deteriorating.
A faint jade glow ahead -- not the blue fire of the wall sconces nor the lime green of changeling pods -- emanating from the hole of another ceiling vent, this one half-open. The one Gallus must have climbed in through.
With a few flaps of her wings, Cockatrice-Ocellus' undulating flight taking her over the last bramble of vines.
And brings her face to face with a drone.
The black-carapaced drone's ocelli open wide in shock. She hisses predatorily at Ocellus...
...and her face freezes that way as she turns to stone.
The unopened half of the vent groans under the weight of the changeling-sized statue.
NO! Ocellus screams, or at least tries to. What comes out is a shrieking squawk.
Jade light illuminates the drone statue from below. Ocellus hears one of the screws pop out of the vent, falling to the floor below. She immediately envisions the vent breaking, the drone falling to the floor and shattering into stone chucks. In her mind's eye, the chunks transform back into gobbets of bloody flesh and chitin upon her death.
Ocellus swoops forward, staring the statue in the cold stone eyes. REVERT! She thinks the word as hard as she can. Cockatrices can turn their victims back. She knows this. Silverstream is living proof. REVERT! REVERT! REVERT!
Ocellus' talons grip the grating below her. She wraps her wings about the statue's neck, her eyes nearly pressed against it. TURN BACK! Another screw pops loose as Ocellus' weight adds to the mass on the breaking vent.
She wraps the statue's torso in her tail, pulling with all her form's strength. But a changeling-sized chunk of stone is more than she can move. She keeps her eyes locked on the statues', terrified that her foolishness is about to murder the drone.
TURN BACK! REVERT! TURN BACK!
Stone cracks with a flash of light. The drone stumbles forward. The shift is too much for the vent. With a sheering metallic snap, the grating holding them plunges to the floor below. The drone attempts to spread her wings, but Ocellus' tail is wrapped tightly around them. She falls, dragging Cockatrice-Ocellus out of the duct with her.
Ocellus groans, dazed from the fall. She feels pain running through her side and her left forehoof, telling her she has reverted form. The first thing she hears is the click of a lock. The first thing she sees is the jade glow filling the room. Coming from an emerald, ring-shaped stone hovering above a column similar to the black onyx ones.
It's not a ring, she thinks muddily as the shock of the fall fades. The Elements of Harmony shaped themselves into the cutie marks of her professors. It's a new moon.
A dark form steps between her and the light.
"Nice trick," the drone hisses venomously at Ocellus, standing between her and Envy. "I've got a better one!"
The drone pulls out a long, moonsilver needle, identical to the one in Ocellus took from the closet children. Dark blue smoke swirls malevolently in the bulb.
The door opens behind her.
The drone lifts the needle and turns it so the sharp point is aimed at her own face.
No. Ocellus' body freezes, her ocelli refusing to look away, her legs refusing to move. She's not!
A strange feeling of violation wells up in her, like a filth pit in her soul. A memory of an early class with Professor Pie bubbles up from the depths of her mind. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.
That was not a cupcake.
From behind her comes the almost jovial voice of her friend. "That was so easy it's a wonder creatures even bother with locks." Gallus' tone is the very essence of unimpressed. "Any unicorn with a bobby pin and a screwdriver..."
The griffon steps into the room and stops abruptly, his snark dropping away at the sight before him.
The love-starved changeling jabs the needle into her own eye!
Ocellus screams in horror!
The drone screams in pain.
Gallus lets out a yelp.
The drone stumbles back, hissing in agony, the moonsilver needle sticking out of her. The blue smoke broils as the bulb empties into her brain.
"Gah! No-no-no-no-no-no!" Gallus' voice is saturated with revulsion. His wings flap in dismay. "That is not okay!"
Ocellus wants to clutch her own eye in sympathetic pain. Her stomach churns, a hollow flushing washing over her body. The feeling of frost ants crawling through her muscles. Her wings beat in a frenzy beneath her elytra.
Emerald fire flickers around the changeling's body in truncated arcs. Transformation energy repeatedly breaking and aborting like a thousand arcs of static electricity dancing over the changeling's chitin. She collapses on the floor, twitching in agony.
Ocellus' paralysis breaks. She launches to her hooves and gallops towards the suffering drone.
A flash of electric lime arcs from the drone, slamming into Ocellus' breast, throwing her back. She hits the floor, her muscles spasming, her heart beating arrhythmically.
The drone stands up, wobbling, the arcs cascading over her body intensifying. The needle still in her eye. Her face is a rictus of anguish drawn into a clown's grin.
Gallus rushes to his friend's side, holding Ocellus as she stops twitching from the vicious shock. He helps her onto her hooves.
The drone's smile becomes more natural as the crackling and zapping of green across her body diminishes. Ocellus can hear her let out a breath. It sounds like static.
The drone collapses again, her body bursting into a hundred electric-green lights that wash across the floor.
Ocellus' heart and lungs seize, preventing her body from releasing the shriek of horror her soul wants to unleash.
Gallus squawks loudly in alarm, backpedaling until he hits the door, slamming it shut.
The small lights begin to cluster, rising off the floor. Electricity arcs within the clusters in mounting ferocity.
Ocellus hears Gallus gasping. "Since when... can changelings... change into multiple creatures?!!"
Ocellus doesn't believe her eyes could open any wider, but they do. She wants to insist it is impossible, but she is seeing what Gallus is seeing.
Clusters of electric-lime twittermites rise together, forming a vague image of the drone's former face. The swarm-face hisses at her, blasting Ocellus with another bolt of lightning.
"Ocellus!"
It burns! Ocellus falls back to the floor, her body's movements completely out of her control, her mind filled with a storm of white.
Gallus swoops over, grabbing her convulsing body off the floor. Green lightning lashes above and beneath them, barely missing the two friends, filling their nostrils with ozone.
The swarm head crumples, breaking into clusters again. Spreading out as much as the narrow room allows. Shooting lightning between them. Building up power.
Gallus sets Ocellus down next to the door and pulls the handle. It is locked again. "Oh you have got to be kidding me!" he shouts at it in frustration.
Ocellus whimpers, feeling her body obey her again. The feeling comes with pain.
"Got any more of those splork balls?" Gallus asks in desperation.
Ocellus hates shaking her head. It was a good plan. The resin would trap and insulate the twittermites. But they didn't have any more of Queen Elytra's weaponized royal jelly.
Pure dread slams down on the changeling nymph. She goes pale, her ears pasting back, her wings buzzing under her elytra so hard they feel like they will snap off. The realization is but the first boulder in an avalanche of horror:
She has the next best thing.
"Gallus." Ocellus' voice is dead. She sounds like she has gone into shock. "Use your wings. Corral them."
Ocellus closes her eyes, the avalanche pounding down on her. Hatred. Disgust. Abhorrence. Her body quakes as she forces herself to transform.
Chrysalis opens her eyes.
The twittermite swarm launches another blast at her. Chrysalis-Ocellus grunts, bracing herself, shuddering. But she stands. Changeling queens possess more resilient chitin than love-starved drones, drastically more so than love-filled changelings.
Pharynx is right, Chrysalis-Ocellus thinks. We have become soft.
She looks to her side.
Gallus is staring at her, beak agape. At her look, he shuts it. "Right. On it!"
Lime lightning flashes.
She turns her glare back to the twittermites. She can feel prickles in the back of her skull, sharp needles of aversion. A crawling beneath her chitin. Her very soul is rejecting the form in a shriek of antipathy. She needs to make this fast.
Gallus flies above her, flapping his wings forward as hard as he can, creating gusts too strong for the twittermites to fly against. Washing them into a corner.
They unleash lightning at him. Gallus squawks loudly in pain, his feathers and fur poofing. It takes him a moment to recover, but fortunately the lightning bolt seemed weaker than those which had struck her. The swarm was generating less power when forced together.
With a furious beating of her horrid wings, Chrysalis-Ocellus lifts her repugnant form into the air and begins to spit.
The twittermites lash at her with lightning. Each attack feels weaker than the last.
Chrysalis-Ocellus flies ahead of Gallus. Her chitin will protect her better than his fur. But beneath the courage is a rotten humor. She doesn't mind if this body gets hurt.
She aims where the clusters are largest. Globules of royal jelly form in the back of her throat to be expelled at the electrical insects. The texture is slimy; the taste fills her mouth. Sickly sweet, phlegmy, with a bitter saccharin undertone. Ocellus wants to vomit.
Below and behind her, Gallus keeps the swarm pushed back.
Chrysalis-Ocellus spits again. The electric insects try to scatter as the lime-green mass invades their space. The nucleus of the cluster is enveloped by viscous green, the gobbet dragging them to its rendezvous with the wall. The sticky mass splatters grotesquely, over a score of twittermites spreading across the surface violently, mired in a prison of quickly hardening resin.
I'm looming over them. Ocellus wants to concentrate, get this done and over, but the voice in her head won't stop. Like she used to loom over us. Threatening. Ready to punish.
Another splatter of Chrysalis-spit. The taste is cloying, burrowing up her sinuses. Digging into her brain.
She is a drone, just like me...
No. Was. But not anymore.
Ocellus gives a hiss worthy of a changeling queen. She might wear the form of her worst nightmare, but she is not the true horror here. Whatever this abomination is, it is no longer a changeling.
Chrysalis-Ocellus spits again.
With a flash of turquoise fire, Ocellus is herself again.
Ocellus breathes in short puffs, shaking a bit from the exertion. Her mouth curls in a frown, her eyes clinching in disgust. She wants a bath. She wants to scrub so hard her chitin cracks, as if that could scrub the Chrysalis off of her.
Instead, she takes a deep breath, focusing, trying to steady herself. She let's the breath out. And with that breath, she visualizes exhaling the wretched association. Breathe in. Breathe out. And with each exhalation, the stink of having taken her old queen's form is blown farther away.
It is a technique the councilor of the Feelings Forum taught her not long after she and her friends encountered the Tree of Harmony. You chose what you saw in my roots, not me, the Tree had told them. What she had seen was herself as Chrysalis, and the idea that she had brought that into the caves with her had been the source of more than one nightmare afterwards. She never imagined she would take that form willingly.
Another breath. In. Out. So far away now that the taint of it has disappeared. Ocellus opens her eyes and looks around for where Envy has been knocked to. The room is filled with scorch marks and splatters of bioluminescent resin. The sight of the latter sickens her, knowing this royal jelly came from her mouth.
Her eyes catch on a sliver of silver.
Laying on the floor is another of those... things. A long needle of silvery metal, almost as long as her foreleg. The far end expands into a bulb, like some horrible syringe. Blue smoke swirls within, twisting and dancing hypnotically.
Not far lays a pencil. A little farther, one of her notebooks. Objects spilled from her saddlebags in the fight. Or possibly in the fall. Her gaze is pulled back to the needle.
Ocellus steps closer, examining it.
Changelings can transform into nearly any creature they have studied or interacted with -- the latter producing a more accurate result. Her own repertoire was significant thanks to her time in Equestria, particularly with her trips through the Everfree Forest to the Treehouse. But there are things that changelings simply cannot do. Or, at least, couldn't. This thing changed that.
Ocellus feels an unfamiliar stab in her heart as she realizes her repertoire is no longer that impressive. As a changeling, she has been outclassed. Ocellus' frown deepens, her brow etching in worry. She doesn't know why she should feel that. She's never been competitive about her shapeshifting abilities before. To the contrary, she disliked being known primarily for them. She had joined the Cheer Squad specifically to make herself known for something else.
She steps closer, her eyes fixed on the long, slender needle. The bulb at the end swirls with green smoke (wait, wasn't it blue?), and with it promises of being a better changeling.
"Ocellus?" She hears her friend behind her. Close, but he sounds strangely distant. Hesitant.
Ocellus swallows. Things had changed. Her enemies were other changelings. They outnumbered her. The only chance of destroying the portal, or maybe getting home... the only chance of Gallus getting home!... was to be a better changeling. She needed to do this.
Ocellus reaches out for the smoke needle. It is cold and hard to the touch. The metal looks moonsilver. Shiny and pure, reflecting the green light.
"Ocellus!"
To become a better changeling, all she has to do...
"Ocellus!" Gallus grabs her shoulder. His voice sounds cross.
Ocellus' mind flashes to the horrible sight of the changeling injecting the smoke directly into her brain.
...is stick it into her eye!
NOPE!
Ocellus backpedals, dropping the needle. It lets out a musical ting as it hits the marble floor. The blue smoke swirls inside its bulb.
She blinks, then looks past it to where Envy lays, the green gemstone glowing, casting light down on where the needle had been. The changeling buzzes her wings, shaking off a shiver.
Then she unslings her saddlebag and scoops up both the needle and the anti-Element, closing the bag's flap and snugging it tightly shut without touching either of its new contents.
Ocellus sways on her hooves. A sense of relief and rationality blows over her like a calming spring wind. There is absolutely no sane reason for her to feel envious of what the drone just did to herself.
Ocellus looks down at the piles of resin, forcing back revulsion and focusing on the twittermites inside. They are alive, of course. Just like the drone in the Grand Hall, and like any creature trapped in a changeling pod. Just like Luna. But are they still a changeling? Did she kill someone when she trapped different parts of the swarm in different ejaculations of royal jelly?
Her heart worries. The rational part of her mind says the changeling ceased to be the moment she became they.
The swarm face suggests otherwise.
Ocellus tries not to think about it.
"Okay, I have to ask, why the eye?!"
Ocellus pauses. How should she know? She is certain that she was at least as freaked out by that as he was. Probably more! Does Gallus just expect her to know why strange changelings from a love-starved hive would do insane things? Just because she's a changeling?
Ocellus loads a look and then shoots it in a direction that isn't her friend. Then does her best to sort out an answer to the question. Not because she knows, but because she is curious -- morbidly curious -- as well.
"Well, the metal looks like moonsilver," she offers. "And we learned in Rarity's class that moonsilver is a soft metal that is good for making jewelry and accessories. So it probably wouldn't go through our chitin."
Her mind flashes back to the fight in the Grand Hall. Firing puckwudgie needles at the love-starved drone, knowing they couldn't pierce his chitin. "And if the stuff inside the bulb has to be injected directly into the brain, there aren't many options. Eyes, roof of the mouth... ears, maybe?" She shudders. "Nostrils?"
Gallus stares. "If those are all options, why would anyone not choose mouth?"
Ocellus feels a surge of frustration. She understands why Gallus is hung up on this. Her own mind is screaming. Her thoughts are fighting against a non-coherent background chorus of eye-eye-eye-eye with layers of ow and ew and a dozen other cringing declarations.
She bites back I don't know! and instead offers, "Well, I guess that would depend on the taste?"
"No. It really wouldn't."
Ocellus sighs and shrugs, simply admitting, "I really have no idea." Gallus nods, accepting that. Ocellus has no doubt this will come up again. But she is happy for the respite.
She looks around. Then over at the blue slate door. Which is still locked. "Looks like we have to head up."
Gallus pales. "How about you head up and unlock the door from the other side for me?" There is a tone of desperation that makes Ocellus feel bad for having even suggested otherwise. "It is really easy. I promise."
Ocellus sighs again, but this time the sigh comes with a smile. "Sure. Don't go anywhere while I'm gone."
Gallus smiles back, chuckling.
She spreads her wings and flies up, climbing into the hole where the vent grating used to be. No more expeditions as a cockatrice. She is sticking to her natural form.
From below, she hears Gallus say, "For the sake of my sanity, I'm going to assume that whatever our friend here doped herself with worked as advertised."
Ocellus turns and looks down from the hole of the broken vent. Gallus sits firmly on the floor, looking back up at her. "What do you mean?"
"I mean what I saw was creepy enough. I don't want to think about her sticking that needle in her eye with no idea what it would do," Gallus says. "Or imagine it did something completely unrelated... and you guys all have the ability to turn into swarms of creatures."
Ocellus blinks. Then smiles brightly. "You mean you didn't know? I'm not only able to turn into a rock, I'm actually all the rocks in Ponyville."
"Ha ha." Gallus leans back on the floor, preparing to wait. "Why not all the rocks in Equestria?"
"Oh, I wouldn't want to invade another 'ling's personal space," Ocellus says as she turns to face the way out, waving her tail membrane at him. "Most of the other cities are already taken. The changeling who is all the rocks in Griffinstone is named Tenna."
Gallus' laugh is golden joy to her ears.
Eeehh, *waffles talon back and forth* depends on the universe. Sometimes they're unfathomable intelligences guiding Equestria towards the greater good, sometimes they're elemental manifestations of pure concepts, and sometimes they're just bizarrely powerful rocks.
If it helps, sapient Elements usually won't put you through something you aren't capable of dealing with.
Funny how that works, isn't it?
Huh, transforming into a swarm. An impressive feat for a master, a particularly unpleasant form of suicide for a novice. It's difficult to maintain a cohesive sense of self spread across so many bodies, if you lose your focus you just, dissolve, like a sandcastle at high tide. There's some bad hoodoo in those needles, that's for sure.
Wonder how many lings are in the castle?
"the goblet dragging them to its rendezvous"
"the gobbet dragging them to its rendezvous"?
"to where Envy lays, the green"
"to where Envy lies, the green"?
Still enjoying this story. :)
It really does. Envy is the only one of the seven deadly sins that doesn’t really ever leave you feeling good. Gluttony, greed, lust, sloth (in it’s modern incarnation of “laziness” as opposed to the original version of “despair to the point of inaction”), and pride (especially pride) all leave you typically feeling good about yourself in some way, while wrath can feel extremely cathartic. Good food, indulgence, or just a sense of superiority for all of them. Envy, ont he other hand, is all about resentment and misery.
Cozy: “Really?! I’d lo - I - I mean, I don’t want to paint your stupid talons! I-idiot.”
Well that is some grade-A bullshit that Ocellus has to put up with now. I’mma guess that she’s not going to be holding onto that syringe for much longer.
How long will this story be?
Longer or shorter than FOE?
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Why would it have to be bad? They're just neuromods.
10152191 Much shorter. I expect roughly 18 chapters, plus prologue and epilogue. The chapters themselves will average 5-6K.
Oh yes the joy of neuromods. I wonder if these also come with the side effect on memory loss.
So are the other anti-elements aspects of the seven deadly sins too?
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Envy has a positive side as well: It allows you to live vicariously whatever you believe is so positive about the object of your envy, be it real or imagined. This type of wish fulfillment can be very pleasurable, and can even give you the drive to overcome whatever challenges are between your current reality, and what you desire to become.
But even if the deadly sins are positive in small doses, and even unavoidable, indulging in them is very dangerous, and they feed themselves continuously. Gluttony, greed, and lust are never sated, and will demand greater and greater pleasures; Sloth eventually drags you into apathy and inaction; Wrath burns ever hotter and more destructive; Pride drives you blind. And yes, envy will eventually leave you hollow and resentful, feeling like nothing you have is ever enough.
Really enjoying the story so far! It has that indescribable something which made FoE so special. Can't wait to see where you take some of the mysteries you are setting up, and if you will adapt some of the game's more interesting revelations.
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I think that alone answers the question of why.
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I guess it will be around 100k words in total, a very suitable length for free time reading.
So, I'd like to inquire: may I translate your story and share it on fimtale? I'll keep all the relevant information, incuding the author, the cover art, and a link to here.
I'm sure my friends will be very excited that you're writing a new story. They also love your story FoE!
Waiting for your permission.
10153853 I am honored by your request.
As long as you A) are respectful of the story, the characters and the fans, B) translate it as accurately as you can, without adding or removing things, and C) don't try to make any money off the story, you absolutely have my permission!
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One really could make an argument on how intelligent the elements are or are not, but going off just what we're given in the show, it can really go either way.
In this case, the fic doesn't really rule out one or the other per se--I would argue that even an instinctual act as Gallus suggested would still count as some form of intelligence--but rather more leaves the subject open for debate, maybe to explore in more detail later.
Whatever the case, Gallus does raise a good point--him ending up where he did does seem like it was no accident.
EDIT: Gallus and Ocellus assume that because they don't seem to match well with the anti-elements they assume they were supposed to be "paired" with, that's a hiccup in whatever the master plan is.
But...what if that's the point? Since each anti-element doesn't have full influence over them, maybe the plan is that they can safely handle and carry said element without succumbing to its influence and loose sight of whatever goal they have. And since they're required to open the portal, something the moonlings definitely want, and haven't been shown to be aware of NNM's charmed purse for safely carrying them...
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I think it's safe to say at this point that, whatever the number is, it's still too many.
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Well, there's a chapter called mooncrash that should answer that.
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if there are only four I wouldn't imagine so.
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Yeah, but like combinations of them maybe?
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Introducing Sloth and Pride 2: Slide.
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Not like that, like something in the middle, like Sloth+Gluttony: Laziness or Pride+Wrath: Control
I see what you did there
Yeah, I'm never going to catch up before the fic is done, but, keep going time. Ocellus finally has a party member to help her, so that's good. Now, how will the Queen up her game to keep things a threat? And when will we finally find out how the buck Changelings got on the moon in the first place?
Also no idea what the chapter tile means beyond the obvious.
So, time to navigate the finer point of contract law? Between that and the cupcake, it's making me think Pinkie Pie.
Face it, you would totally expect for Pinkie Pie to be able to draw up contracts that would make Asmodeus himself weep at the number of hidden clauses and secret meaning in the plain text that make sure everything woks out perfectly the way she wants.
Yes, one of the primary rules of anything like this. Loot ALL the things! You silly bird. Though, given this is kind of got a survival horror theme going, and those tend to be very limiting in how much you can carry, just marking where it is and coming back when you find out when you need it isn't a totally bad idea. But still better to grab it all and drop them in some central location that minimized backtracking.
Ohh, and yeah cause.... he's got some envy issues when it comes to the others, given how utterly crap is life is, compared to theirs. Well except maybe Smolder, but that's more on how Dragons treat the whole idea of 'family' in the first place. So she's fine with it.
Awwwwwww... Ocellus.. hug that birb!
Yes, you've spent enough time around Pinkie Pie to know more hugs are almost never not a good idea!
heh, and also glad she's got one of the best snarkers of the group around first. What can I say, Dresden's trained me to really appreciate good snark.
Wait, wasn't the lantern encased in the goo explosion she used to snuff out the fire?
Okay, here's the plan, every time you enter a room, just immediately toss EVERYTHING in the room into a huge pile, checking every piece for blueprints as you go. Also, try to find a long and hopefully pointy metal rod you can poke things with first.
That depends on your continuity. Though in most post Season 4 'verses, no they are at best just extensions of the Trees own power.
Really would have been great to see that come up at any point in Season 9 again.
Huh, kind of, cuase.. what would they even be trying to do? So, not smart, just, One Ring type objects that resonate with your vices and tempt you into giving in, but not really thinking entities in their own rights.
Do tell. Cause yeah, lots of bad things that could be going on.
Something put each of them where they were, and matched each of the Young Six with a totem they'd most respond too, and the other two somewhere else. Hard to say without knowing what the other three vices are, but given 'Wrath' is a good contender, that one is designed for YAK SMASH! What were the other two I called? Greed... yeah that's Smolder. Not that she's ever been greedy per se, but we know how bad Dragons are at handling it. And yeah looking at my list, 'jealousy' and 'envy' are kind of the same thing, so changing one out for 'wrath'. Also called 'Pride' and, hard to see that fitting any of the others, except Yona as well. Hell, it might fit her personally better then Wrath. Maybe Silverstream for Wrath? Girl has some pent up issues. And, Sandbar..... he's just way too.. the embodiment of 'Dull Surprise' to really see anything fitting him as a vice.
Heh, so, not something placing them there, but the portal just kind of spitting them out at random, and the totems each pulling in the one they resonate with to show up near them?That could make sense. With the other two just kind of plopping down at true random.
At the conscious level, yes. But mostly for how the association with it reminded him of the crap he felt while feeling the emotion. It's still something he does feel deeply. And, all it did was make him feel the envy, not offer to give him what he wanted to sate it.
I'd say even that is giving it too much credit. More, it's just a passive force pulling anything the resonates to it, more like a magnet then anything else.
Good! Learn to be. And once you are, know, you aren't paranoid enough!
Wait, wait wait wait......... are we going back to the comic's origin for the changelings? Cause... that... that pretty well solves so many issues if that's what is going on. If their main hive is the Conservatory..... the plants grew, getting corrupted by the Totem near them... recreating things...... Though, that does then raise the question of where's the sixth Young Six if the sixth corridor they got stuffed into didn't have the Hive in it, or did they just get caught, or lost? Also, if one of the four is near the main hive... okay still some questions. But have an idea of an answer to one of the big ones. Next biggest, why do they want Ocellus? And, if this is right, was it like magnets, and the Totem near there repulsed her for being antithetical to it's vice?
Okay, called two! And, yeah, really hard to see Ocellus and 'wrath' going together. Do these ones not get how Skittlebugs work?
Listen to the birb!
So why do it? Again, if she could do this on her own, why hasn't she? Take the Totems and hide them even better somewhere at random on the moon. Or get Luna to work out how to draw the blueprints to make something capable of providing enough upward momentum to one of the Totems to put it into Lunar orbit.
And for the massive argument between them over who should go through and who should stay.
Ohhh line. sounds so ominous and scary, and it is, but also full accurate.
Eh, bad, but not the worst. Now, hold a tea party with her featuring Gilda's pre-Pinkie Pie Griffon Scones, then you know things are VERY serious.
Odd she'd pick that design, without tweaking it to her winning. Though, this is meant to be a negative emotional nexus, but I'd call that design for Wrath. If it's meant to show NMM's connection to the Vice, would be better to show the ponies are worshiping Celestia and/or ignoring her.
Gotta include some lockpicking, don't you? We all know if the real master Lock picker in the pony multiverse were here, that door would already be opened, just to spite it for daring to be locked in the first place.
(Okay, that got a really funny series of events running in my head, ending with Calamity trying to deal with the horrors of being stuck in a genre that gives him massively limit inventory space to loot stuff into.)
Given every time we've seen a cockatrice turn something to stone, there was a kind of distortion effect and a clear change in their expression. It kind of implies activating that ability is a conscious, if automatic then locking eyes, choice.
Pretty sure changelings do have at least basic TK ability like unicorns. I'd say it does come off as likely weaker, but still there. But yeah, it's Disguise Self, all the looks, none of the powers.
NVM, it's 'beast shape'. Some of the powers, but a few are just too hax to pull off. (But Warcat gives me Pounce and Rake and that's all I need)
That is every damn flying creature in Equestria outside of the actual birds. So not really that special
Though on a side note, this does feel a bit jarring with how earlier, she was lamenting not having acquired certain forms like they were something she had to work on, versus now just having to be familiar with the creature enough. Granted this way does feel like it works better with what we've seen, and the earlier still works as she doesn't have something ready to go, but still kind of feels a bit, like the two parts don't mesh well. Not enough for this to feel a full retcon/plot hole, just enough that it feels like how the story portrays it shifted without altering the underlying facts.
Okay, fair point to the above counter if it not being automatic.
Like she said 'Getting stoned'. But yes, oh that reaction was great.
So, if this is the same duct, why didn't he slip out that grating? I can see it being too small, but would think he'd at least have tossed the grate off of it to try getting out through.
Which is what fuels the lights.... ohhh that is rather clever. So the vines are meant to be spreading everywhere, they serve as the places plumbing.
Hence why Luna wanted to come get those socks before the whole place just collapsed on top of them and buried them.
If it's not larger... see above. I figured he was still in the ducts so far down the hallway cause he was trying to see if it would get him past the barrier.
So there are drones in the hallways... see again, why do they need Ocellus?
Oops.... well that's a potent weapon Ocellus could use.... and it even keeps her not hurting them, given she can unfreeze them later. Seen fics where cockatrice stoning is used as emergency stasis for wounded ponies.
Granted, the safe part only counts if they are on the ground when you do it.....
Huh.... so are the rest other phases of it? Also, nice going Gallus, so what's that bring your lockpick skill up to now, like 20?
why story...... whyyyyyyyy!?
Story..... story...
Nice..... very nice.
No, no it is not... what is with this lately? I mean sure, that crook who Kirashima faced didn't jab the drugs into his eye... but he still had a freaking giant metal blade spring out from it afterwards... but still.... stop with the eyes and stabby things!
This is the point where you shapeshift yourself some pants, so the phrase 'pants to be darkened' actually applies.
Since they started jabbing themselves into the eye with evil gas needles, weren't you paying attention?
Also, would a bee swarm count as one or multiple creatures? Granny Weatherwax made pretty clear it was one.
Damnit....... you loos points at lockpicking now, pick the locks and make sure they STAY picked.
Or hurry up and find Yona so she can show you the proper Yakyakistan way to pick locks when not dealing with doors you don't want to get yelled at for using it on.
Try to trick them into forming a face again to look at cockatrice Ocellus?
Ummmmm.... well..... ummmm.....
Somehow, I feel like I should have seen this coming. Also Gallus, be ready, she is going to need ALL the hugs after this.
It just makes you that much more huggable now.
Where's a weather pegasus when you need somepony whose used to face tanking thunderstorms?
So, would injuries carry over though? Or is this going by Animorph rules for that?
Well, you kind of are... at least the upper parts of your tract are doing more or less the same thing.
Well, there is confronting inner demon number one. Yikes... effective and yet... as noted, Gallus HUG HER NOW!
Yay for super charging dark magic juice. So, it different for everyling? Or, just a base boost and what they use it for changes? And, one time use or can they change back? Also, does it have to be the eye? Still many questions.
Oh...oh shit........... she's envious of being able to do that...............
ALL of the NOPE! Twilight running into a snake den on Winter Wrap Up levels of NOPE!
Yeah, these things don't really work on 'sanity' much.
Many questions....
I know, right!?
No, because you are the member of your group who tends to know things.
And there are no other openings?
Gag reflex and hard to aim?
Yes, he wants to know, and you are the one who is best at helping with that. You are the new Not-Quite-Purple Smart.
Ouch, yeah...... she's really not handling this well at all, where are her birb hugs!?
I do get why she's so upset, it's not really mad at Gallus, this whole thing is taking a toll on her, and the questions are making her think about it more then she wants to.
Hehehe, there we go, get a joke in, enjoy some laughter, you both deserve and need it after that.
Also, this is how she knows when you aren't studying Gallus.
Plot Coupon One Get! And yeah, things are getting freakier, but at least now she has a buddy along.
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It's absolutely wonderful to get more of these detailed comments from you.
FYI: I have been writing well ahead of what I have published just to ensure that I could put out new chapters regularly even if something happened that kept me from completing a new chapter a while.
Thankfully, that didn't happen. As a result, the final chapters have been through editing and the epilogue is currently being written. I may post chapters slightly more rapidly once the epilogue is finished and gets through my pre-readers.
Finally back on track on reading more chapters! Sorry this took awhile.
Really nice chapter, really appreciated the banter Ocellus and Gallus, made the chapter more engaging to read.
I'm a bit confused about the needle thing the drone used: not because they stabbed it into their eye, but that apparently changeling chitin is strong enough to prevent needles from going through it. Is this something from the show (just to remind everyone, I haven't caught up with the show yet)? Or was this something you decided was a thing for Prey?
4e. vdd
Yeah, there's something definitely wrong about Chrysalis-Ocellus. ...even if it was admittedly awesome to see, in a creepy manner.
Heck and I thought regular Neuromod installation was bad enough, but no these idiots take it to suicidal levels of crazy. Any Prey Pro will tell you that the needles don't directly go through the eye though and thank goodness for it.
Well at least they got some of the items But apparently the changeling Use a needle to Transform it to multiple creatures that's crazy man And that must be incredibly painful for ocellus for her to shapeshift to Chrysalis After dealing That back in the cave so now They need to be careful even more now
hi hi
The part where Gallus is talking about his experience interacting with the element of envy. I'm not sure I follow what it is that's supposed to be a kick to the stomach. Is it the:
* Envy of seeing a strength in her friends that she feels she lacks herself?
* Unease of seeing her friend in distress?
* Uncertainty of how to comfort her friend and feeling an inclosable distance between them?
* Guilt of having to force her friend to encounter those feelings again?
* Despair from knowing that the situation is overwhelming even her friends whose strength she admires?
* All of the above?
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With regards to the nature of the elements of harmony:
I'm not familiar with the new MLP lore of the divine tree (Whether it's supposed to be an allegorical tree of knowledge or not) but I do recall the old MLP lore, where the Elements of Harmony were found within the hearts of everyone. When given the spark of magic, they sought out and affixed themselves to the appropriate ponies all on their own. In the very beginning, they went looking to find the Elements of Harmony, but they overcame the obstacles in their path themselves as the Elements of Harmony, without them, they were just lifeless rocks.
I'm not going to make any bets based on my interpretation, but I wouldn't be surprised if they act as a lens for what's already in their hearts.
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Reading about the pedestal described as "extravagantly carved," I can't help but imagine Nightmare Moon being reeeeally bored and just going to town engraving all kinds of incredibly intricate things as a way to pass the time while being imprisoned for a thousand years.
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Falling from the vents: Presumably the gravity in Nightmare Moon's palace has been upgraded to more than 1.62 m/s^2.
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"Any unicorn with a bobby pin and a screwdriver."
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On changing into chrysalis:
A shriek of antipathy feels like a good thing. Far better, at least, than the kind of numbness that comes along with resignation and getting used to not being yourself. Or worse, being nobody at all...
I really expected the element near the conservatory to be gluttony. It's right by the food storage area, and it makes sense that a bunch of starved changelings would expect another to appear near it (at least, if you view gluttony more broadly as an unhealthy focus on food and/or ravenous eating of anything available, or maybe take it as sort of an aspirational/desired sin for their species). I can see wrath, though. Chrysalis sure pulled it off a few times...
Loving this so far! I adore the game, and the themes really shine through so far without being a 1:1 translation.
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Hmm... not to sure on that one mate. Some people seem to thrive on making themselves (and others) miserable. As a wise man once said, its not you have it bad, its that other people have it good
So Ocellus can just turn into a changeling queen? What is she, a pawn?
I don't like how ominous the "test questions" from earlier have been, and will likely continue to be.
Absolutely perfect