Chapter 7: Playing With Fire
"Did we make that in one of the labs?"
Ocellus sits on the floor of the Throne Room, her saddlebags beside her. She tugs open the flap and reaches in, trying to ignore the green glow. Okay, from now on, anti-Elements in one bag, her supplies in the other.
The changeling nymph fishes out her lantern first. The moment she and Gallus had spotted the patrol in the Grand Hall, Gallus had put out the light and stuffed it in her bag. She doubts he realized which one.
Setting her loyal little lantern to the side, Ocellus reaches in again. This time, she brings out the moonsilver needle. The blue smoke roils lazily in the bulb.
"Ocellus...!" Gallus says warningly.
She glances at him. "I just want to study it. No eye-sticking."
Her friend nods, his eyes still a little narrowed. The blue griffon sits down across from her. "Okay. You sit there. And I'll sit here, ready to wingbeat you if that thing gets anywhere near your eye. Deal?"
Ocellus finds herself feeling thankful for the offer. She smiles. "Deal."
The two sit. Ocellus examines the needle, leaning close (sometimes enough to get a warning feather-ruffle), turning it about, willing it to give up its dark secrets. After several very long minutes, she determines it doesn't have any. It is exactly what it looks like.
"Dark essence," Ocellus announces with grim curiosity. "The drones are injecting themselves with dark essence."
Gallus gives her a blank look. He blinks, then raises a talon to his beak. "Uh... I may have slept through that class."
Ocellus smiles. "You didn't. Or if you did, I did too. I learned about it from Luna after I came here. It's what Nightmare Moon created the entire palace out of. She turned it into marble, glass, furniture, goblets... everything." The changeling looks over at Nightmare Moon's throne, once again taking in its gothic opulence. "She was really very artistic."
Gallus smirks. "I support creepy home decorating as a supervillain fallback position."
Ocellus is struck with an idea. This is pure dark essence. Enough to create something of real power.
Gallus watches as Ocellus gets up, walking towards the near wall. "So how does the stuff Nightmare Moon used to create chairs turn a changeling into... what we fought?"
Ocellus shakes her head. "Try not to think of it that way." She stops in front of the oil painting of Nightmare Moon's Seal. In a turquoise flash, she takes her dragon form. "Dark essence can be used to create anything." She pauses to lift the painting off the wall. "As long as it has a blueprint to work off of."
Gallus' eyebrows rise. "Define anything."
"Objects, creatures..." she answers as she flies over to the alcove with the three onyx pedestals. "Even things with powers."
Ocellus sets the oil painting on the middle capital just as she had before, then returns to where Gallus is sitting. She looks up at the mirror, checking to see if Luna has returned. When she sees her own dragon-form reflected instead, she whispers to Gallus, "I'm pretty sure Luna created the Tantabus out of this stuff."
Gallus stares, dumbfounded, as Ocellus picks up the needle and flies back to the trio of columns with it. He takes a moment to process that. "So primordial stuff of creation, able to make literally anything imaginable... and Nightmare Moon used it to create chairs? For creatures who didn't exist."
Ocellus nods, putting the needle on the first capital and stepping back. "And then she used it to make creatures to sit in those chairs."
Gallus gets up, walking towards her. "But Luna's sane now, right?"
Their conversation is interrupted by a flash of pitch-black fire rising from the first column. The needle dissolves upwards, becoming blue smoke and oily black droplets with sparkles of cerulean light. A lot more sparkles than the contents of the hall stand, Ocellus notes.
Gallus makes a sound as the smoke and oil vanish into bright, spectral flashes above the pillar.
Ocellus turns to watch the third pillar.
Flashes of spectral light above. Smoke and oil pouring out of the ether. The oil spinning into tendrils that weave together. Ocellus finds the process still eerie, but not as menacing as the first time. Rather, it's fascinating.
"What?" Gallus finally asks as the blue smoke is absorbed into the newly re-created seal.
Ocellus lifts it up, examining it. Then shows it off to Gallus, holding it in one draconic claw and the oil painting in the other.
Gallus' eyes dart between the two. "Whoa, now that is cool! Creepy as everything else, but cool."
He flies up, giving Nightmare Moon's Seal a closer look. "So, what is it? Other than really nasty-looking jewelry. Because if that's all it is, it really doesn't go with your... anything."
Dragon-Ocellus answers, "It's how we get outside."
Ocellus and Gallus lay on the floor, looking at the crude map in her notebook.
"I'm already looking forward to your turn Mastering our Ogres & Oubliettes game," Gallus says, unknowingly sending an icicle through Ocellus' heart. "This is good."
Ocellus hopes her friend didn't notice her flinch. "I'm really thinking we should save Wrath for last," she says quickly. "So that leaves the other two. I'm thinking..." she pokes a hoof at a large area at the end of the closer wing. "We go for Greed next."
Gallus rubs beneath his beak in consideration. "What do we know about that part of the palace?"
"Not a lot," Ocellus admits. "But we know the palace armory is in there somewhere..."
Gallus interrupts, "Wait, let me guess." He sits up and waves his talons. "Greed is in the treasury."
"No." Ocellus points at the huge room surrounded by tiny ones at the end. "Greed is in the dungeon."
Gallus' brow furrows. "Why does Nightmare Moon's palace have a dungeon?"
Ocellus looks again to the Grand Mirror. She knows the answer, but it really isn't hers to share.
Luna is still not there. Ocellus is beginning to worry.
"It was... for someone," she answers reluctantly, hoping Gallus won't press.
He does. "For someone? What, Nightmare Moon was creating prisoners as well as table guests? Or..." The griffon's expression turned pained. "That's where Nightmare Moon trapped Celestia when she came back, wasn't it?"
"I think so, yes." The question makes Ocellus wonder how Nightmare Moon got Celestia to the moon. And how the Princess broke free. Did the transformation of Nightmare Moon back to Luna weaken the prison somehow?
Those queries find their way in her growing mental notebook titled Unanswered Questions. She puts the new questions at the bottom.
At the top of the list are "Why are there changelings on the moon?" and "Why is Luna in a changeling pod?" Ocellus somewhat knows the answer to the second one: Queen Elytra is feeding on Luna's memories.
And unlike the portal home, the mirror portal must have gone both ways. At least enough for the black tentacles to come through. And apparently enough for royal jelly too. Besides, Luna wouldn't have taken them on a field trip with no way back. Nor wanted to expose them to anti-Elements to return. But...
Ocellus mentally crosses out "Why is Luna in a changeling pod?" and replaces it with "If the mirror portal goes both ways, why didn't Queen Elytra just come through with her army?
The obvious answer was that she couldn't. Ocellus looks at the quiet doorway, thinking of the drones and the way even their magic couldn't breach the threshold. Then to the Grand Mirror. Luna can only see the palace through mirrors. Only appear in them. And the Grand Mirror is the only one stable enough for a long visit. It made sense.
She crosses off the question.
"Why use us?" Gallus asks, breaking the thick quiet that had fallen over the Throne Room.
Ocellus looks up at him questioningly, her mental notebook still open.
"Going with your idea that the evil queen brought us here to have us grab the anti-Elements," Gallus explains, "Why doesn't this queen just have her drones grab these anti-Elements and open the portal?"
Ocellus' wings flutter as an unpleasant feeling rolls over her. "I-I don't know."
Gallus continues. "To me, that sounds like she's afraid of them. And I get that. Boy do I get that. So I totally get why she doesn't try to grab them herself. But it doesn't strike me that she cares about her drones any more than Chrysalis did. So why not sacrifice them?"
Having been just such a drone once, under just such a queen, the thought does not sit well with Ocellus. Not at all.
She adds another question to her mental notebook.
Gallus is strangely silent. The griffon has turned away from her, staring out over the barren waste of gray. Letting the nothingness wash over him. Ocellus puts a hoof on his back, between his wings muscles. Just letting him know she is there.
"Was the moral of the field trip: be thankful for what you have?" Gallus asks quietly. "If so, congratulations Luna. For the first time ever, I'd rather be in Griffonstone."
Ocellus has no response. She rubs his back a little with her hoof. She hopes it is as calming to griffons as it is to changelings. She also hopes it isn't as intimate. Griffons don't have elytra that they have to open to let some creature touch them there; they aren't making themselves vulnerable.
Gallus shrugs away. "Ready to go?"
Ocellus nods, backing up. She watches the griffon struggle with his saddlepack.
"At least this time we are better prepared," Ocellus notes as she puts Nightmare Moon's Seal into the saddlebag not reserved for anti-Elements. "I have the Seal, and I have this."
"Great. I'm sure that will help a lot," Gallus comments as Ocellus reaches down and scoops up the royal jelly sprayer. "Do you even know what it is?"
Ocellus nods. "I've seen one of these before. Remember that thing I used to stop the spraying fire? Just after I found you?"
"How could I forget?"
"This sprays a faster-drying stream of the same... goo." Ocellus turns the odd weapon over in her hooves, examining the clear tank. The transparent material isn't glass. The tank is dented slightly -- not cracked -- from hitting the Nightmare Moon in the head. The cylinder is half-full of glowing green queen spittle, a barrier similar to the surface of the orbs keeping the liquid under high pressure.
Gallus considers that, holding out a talon. "So a drone armed with one of these could take down multiple creatures with a wave of the nozzle?"
Ocellus doesn't answer. It isn't really a question. The griffon is just working things through aloud. Finally, he concludes, "What I'm looking at is a changeling weapon of war."
The changeling looks at her friend. That is an odd tone for Gallus. But the griffin sets her mind at ease with an off-talon explanation.
"Some of my homework made me look at the griffin weapons from before King Grover."
Ocellus nods, understanding all too well how a class assignment can seep into extracurricular activities. And Gallus' observation is certainly not wrong. This could incapacitate multiple... prey. Leaving them ready for feeding.
She turns the changeling "weapon of war" around, her ocelli tracing over the hose and nozzle. The changeling nymph frowns as she gives the trigger switch a closer look. It is small, sharp and hook-like, looking difficult to manage with a hoof. And the trigger is built far enough back from the nozzle that it would take a separate hoof to trigger while aiming... but that wasn't how the drone who attacked her was using it.
"That... would be really scary if she could make her sick-up in bulk," Gallus adds.
Ocellus scowls up at him. "It's an oral secretion, not sick-up." A pause. "And she can."
"I retract my lack of terror."
Ocellus points towards the three onyx pillars. "Those artifacts are all over Nightmare Moon's Palace. And if they can make anything out of dark essence so long as they have a plan, I imagine they can also do so with a sample."
Gallus falls back to his haunches. "At what point does this stop getting worse?"
Ocellus holds the hose, trying to figure out how the drone was using it. Realization dawns on her with the taste of ashes.
"Here," she says, holding the royal jelly sprayer out to Gallus. "You'll be able to aim and fire this with your talons much better than I can with my hooves."
Gallus blinks, not taking it. "Okay, I'll bite. Why would Queen Elytra make her weapon easier for griffons to use than her own drones?"
Ocellus sighs. "She didn't. It's meant to be fired by flexing their foreleg muscles. But I can't grip it the way they can because my forelegs don't have holes."
Gallus stares a moment longer, then takes the changeling weapon of war. "Hurrah," he deadpans, "I get the vomit cannon."
Ocellus whines slightly. "Can we not call it that?"
The room is pitch black.
Faint blue light pours in from the arched doorway as the door creaks slowly open. Ocellus and Gallus peek their heads into the opening.
The griffon whispers, "Changelings can't just become darkness, right?" The nymph shoots him a look, growling slightly.
"I'm going to shoot it," Gallus decides.
"Shoot what?" Ocellus asks. "The darkness?"
Fwoo-splurch.
A few goblets of glowing lime arch through the air. One impacts a chair, tipping it backwards as the jelly washes over it, hardening into resin before the chair's back can hit the floor. The others splatter against wooden barrels that line slate shelves.
The illumination reveals walls of barrels, a table with a few goblets and a candelabra, several urns on the floor, and a stone archway with stairs leading down. The palace buttery.
With a flash of green, one of the goblets transforms into a black carapaced drone.
Fwooo-shplurk.
Gallus gives no chance to attack before encasing the drone in bioluminescent resin. "I'm about ready to start shooting every goblet I see, just to be safe."
Ocellus can't blame him, but worries about the limited jelly in the tank. She moves in cautiously, her body shivering. The freezing cold bites at her ears and gnaws painfully on her membranes. Any drink in the barrels must be frozen solid. Her teeth chatter.
The stairs down will take them into the dungeon's wing. Despite the descent, Ocellus knows the buttery is one of the only rooms in Nightmare Moon's Palace that is actually underground. Instead, the stairs trace the moon's uneven surface which falls away into a shallow valley on the back side of the palace.
Thunk!
Ocellus jumps, spinning as two more bangs sound behind her. Her heart hammers; her breath is caught in her throat. She sees Gallus picking up the remaining goblets and beating them a few times on the table.
Relief makes her legs wobbly. Gallus finishes, then pulls out his own notepad, ink and quill. After a few scribbles, he sticks identical notes to each of the goblets:
Not a changeling.
Ocellus huffs. Really? Puffing her cheeks, she whispers harshly, "You do know we can change into notes too, right?"
Gallus freezes. Then swiftly caps the inkwell and puts the notepad, ink and quill away.
Ocellus lets out a longsuffering breath. "Come on," she huffs again, waving for Gallus to follow as she moves towards the stairwell.
As Gallus follows, a small smile forms on his beak. "Does that mean you could literally be my homework?"
Ocellus groans.
"I'm not asking to cheat," Gallus persists. "I just think Professor Pie would get a kick out of that."
Ocellus begins down the curving stone steps. She has to admit, Gallus might be right about that. She carefully couches her words. "Okay. If we get home, I'll do it. Once." She hears Gallus ruffle his wings. "But in return, I want you to stop being even more paranoid than I am. I need you to keep me sane."
Gallus falls strangely silent again.
The silence draws out. Their descent takes them past a small, crescent-shaped window. Through it, she can see the stars. And floating among them, home.
Gallus swallows. "Okay."
They reach the bottom of the stairs. The hallway beyond is a disaster.
The ceiling tiles have collapsed, leaving dangling vines everywhere. Walls are cracked. Pillars have crumbled. The far end of the hallway is illuminated by fire -- patches of orange flame consuming furniture and climbing the walls. Halfway to them, the hallway floor has collapsed into the rooms below.
"Moonquake?" Gallus offers.
"That hit only this wing?" Ocellus questions. She is staring at the fires. Their warm light is a stark contrast to the purple carpeting, sapphire columns and cornflower walls. They are the first flames she has seen here that aren't blue.
Gallus watches from a safe distance as Ocellus pulls open the pair of stained-glass doors. After having inspected the frames from back where Gallus is sitting. She doesn't blame him. She really doesn't. But the prickly feet of agitation are crawling up the back of her brain.
She wishes the feeling would go away. She's being unfair. She's feeling paranoid too. And she's not sure it even is paranoia anymore. Just fear.
The doors swing apart to reveal a long maze of shelves filled with bottles of wine. Many shelves are tipped or toppled. Over half the bottles are broken. Sharp glass and frozen liquid cover most of the floor. Fortunately, both she and Gallus can fly.
The remaining bottles hold dark liquid, except for a few scattered ones that glow with an inviting yet alien cerulean light. Ocellus' thoughts return to Professor Rarity's wine tasting class, and she wonders how these wines taste. She's smart enough not to test them.
Gallus flies in behind her, looking nervously at all the bottles. The broken shelves. He swivels the sprayer around, trying to be prepared for an attack from any direction.
The far corner of the room is charred black. Everything in an area the size of her dorm room is burned to charcoal. Some of it is still glowing a deep, angry crimson with specks of bright orange.
A bottle slips from one of the canted shelves, smashing to the floor.
Ocellus' heart skips a beat. Gallus knocks past her, beating his wings, backing away, nozzle pointed at the shattered bottle. Then he aims up at the shelf, as if expecting to find a cat pushing bottles off.
"Gallus..." Ocellus says with measured calm. "It's okay." This time. She remembers the candle in the creepy dining room. How much it scared her.
And that candle was a changeling.
The smashed bottle isn't. If it hadn't broken into shards, she might not be so certain.
Gallus lowers the nozzle, hovering. He lets out a breath. She can see it creating vapor in the frigid air. "Okay, I'm going to say something. I've been trying to figure out how to say it since before we got to the Throne Room, because I don't want to be offensive or say it the wrong way..."
Ocellus cringes inside. This is what she has been worried about. She knows what is coming. But she's pinned in the lights of it.
"...but you changelings are scary," Gallus admits. "Really scary."
He might as well have slashed her open with his claws!
"U-us changelings?" Ocellus squeaks. "Y-you mean like me and them?" She waves a hoof, trying to indicate the hive that has been attacking them. "I'm scary?!"
She doesn't want to hear this. She doesn't want Gallus to associate her with changelings like these. She doesn't want her friends to be afraid of her!
Gallus cringes. "No! Well, yeah. You're not like them, Ocellus. But you could be."
I could be a love-starved monster. Ocellus backs away from Gallus. The dream from the night before avalanches through her mind. Spreading her forelegs, trying to share. Trying to change. But she couldn't. No transformation. Just falling into darkness.
"You think..." Ocellus feels like she is dying. "Do you think I'm going to become one of them again??"
"No! Gah!" Gallus grimaces in frustration. He balls a talon to his face, clinching his eyes shut. "I'm saying this all wrong!"
"No," Ocellus says quietly, nearly whispering. "I think you're saying it right." Her voice is trembling. She feels like her chitin is being peeled off. She wants to run and hide. Bury herself in the rubble of this horrible place.
"No, I'm not!" he barks back. Gallus bites his beak shut, realizing he is shouting at her. The griffon takes a deep breath.
"Listen, I've never been scared of changelings before," Gallus tries again, each word dropping like an anvil. "When I thought of changelings, I didn't think of Chrysalis or black drones with holes in their legs. I thought of you. And I've never thought of you as scary. Heck, with your meditation and Feelings Forums and stuff, I thought of you all as harmless."
"Harmless," Ocellus repeats flatly.
Gallus' ears paste back. His tail curls about himself. "Yeah." He looks away, unable to meet her gaze. Everywhere else, all he sees is the ruined wine celler. "But this place is like a huge, horrible lesson."
"And now?" she asks timidly. Hating to. Needing to. Fearing the answer. She couldn't live with her friends thinking of her as a monster! It would be better not to have friends at all.
Gallus' eyes clench shut. "Right now, changelings terrify me."
Ocellus feels the world drop out from under her. Numbness builds from the pit of her stomach, spreading through her body. She opens her receptors as wide as she can, horrified that she is tasting nothing.
Of course I'm tasting nothing! Ocellus scolds herself bitterly, trying to rein in her own panic. He's not feeling love right now. He's just scared.
A full-body shudder ripples through her. Her breath comes out shaky, creating little puffs of vapor in the air.
"I'm sorry," Gallus says. "But I'm not sure what I should be sorry for more. Letting this hive change how I see you. Or treating your hive as harmless because you don't show off just how fearsome and dangerous you can be."
He's scared. We're both just scared. Ocellus repeats the words like a mantra.
Like a revelation laced with poison, the mantra is broken with the thought: And he's right to be. We are scary.
Gallus looks down. Then flies a little farther into the room to find a place to land that is not covered in broken glass. He touches down on the edge of the scorched zone, then turns and looks up at her.
"Either way, I feel like I've been a crappy friend."
Ocellus stares, feeling gutted. She doesn't know what to say. Part of her wants to break down in tears. Part of her wants to scream at him. Part of her wants to hug him and tell him it is all okay.
It is not all okay. Nothing is all okay.
Gallus turns away from her, staring at the charred floor. His head is bowed. His tail drags through the soot.
This place is every nightmare she's ever had coming to life. More than anything, she just wants to scream.
Gallus walks away from her. Not far. Just enough to give her some distance from him.
Her desire to flee shatters. The void is filled with an overwhelming -- almost primitive -- need to grab this and fix it. To keep herself from losing her friendship.
Ocellus feels like nails are being hammered into her breast. She closes the distance. "G-Gallus?" Her voice is trembling. She has no idea what she is going to say.
Gallus doesn't look at her. He continues to stare down, picking at the burnt remains with a talon.
"G-Gallus, I..." Ocellus feels tears spilling from her eyes. Anger and hurt and loneliness mix into a soup of anguish.
Gallus picks something up off the blackened floor.
In a burst of anger, Ocellus shouts, "Gallus, look at me!"
The griffon turns to face her, silently holding up a scorched moonsilver needle. The bulb is empty.
Ocellus looks past him. The destruction spreads out from a center where the floor has been incinerated down into the marble. The core is shaped like the shadow of a drone.
Let's stick her! See what happens!
The nymph lands next to her friend, staring at the needle. She shudders.
Gallus' eyes are red. He too has been crying. But right now, sadness has been replaced with a look that says I think we're in trouble.
Ocellus nods. She pulls at a memory, finding it difficult. Like it is mired in syrup.
For the sake of my sanity, I'm going to assume that whatever our friend here doped herself with worked as advertised.
She doubts that now. Doubts it very much. The idea was beyond macabre. These drones were toying with raw power, stuffing it into their heads with no idea what it would do to them. It was playing with suicide!
Ocellus feels her hindlegs give out, the personal horror of her friend's fear mixing with an existential one.
For months, she's felt like she's somehow losing her grip on who she is, or has lost it entirely. And these drones are destroying who they are! Letting dark essence transform them into something else entirely, with no say in what they are becoming. Even kill them. Intentionally throwing themselves away!
Ocellus feels her body trembling. Her thoughts are collapsing into an abyss.
Gallus drops the needle and grabs her before she can start crying, burying her head into his chest feathers. His pungent dander assaults her nostrils. And the taste of boysenberries and salmon and sake permeates her receptors.
"I've got you, Ocellus. Let it out. I've got you."
Ocellus ducks under the toppled column that bisects the hallway. Piles of wreckage create narrows in the passage. The entire level above is rubble, crushing down on this one. The vaulting above sags between snapped ribbings where the ceiling hasn't already caved. Orange light flickers in a doorway ahead, the room on that side apparently ablaze.
More flames flicker at the end of the hallway. The double doors at the end are at odd angles, the frame cracked and pressing down. Even if they can reach the door into the dungeon itself, Ocellus isn't certain they can open it.
The entire wing groans ominously. Dust and bits of rubble rain down between splits in the arches above.
She looks back at Gallus. The griffon has stopped at the fallen column. Ocellus can see that between his saddlepack and the royal jelly thrower, he can't crawl under it. Her friend holds up one talon, signaling for her to wait as he examines the space between the column and the half-collapsed roof above, determining if he needs to take anything off, or if he can wiggle through.
She feels for him. The tight space will only be for a foreleg's length, but phobias don't care.
She considers turning into a bugbear and removing the column, but she doesn't want to frighten him. Which she knows is stupid. He's seen her as a bugbear plenty of times and never been frightened of her.
She turns her gaze forward again. The flickering orange light pouring from the open doorway ahead has grown brighter.
Ocellus wishes she could go back in time and undo the last... no, no she doesn't. Not when she thinks of how Gallus held her. How his love tastes. That love told her she has nothing to fear. She just needs to listen to it.
Much brighter.
Ocellus' brow furrows.
A changeling-shaped mass of flame steps out into the hall.
Her eyes widen and her thoughts crash. Instead of fear, the nymph is overcome with severe disorientation. I'm not seeing this.
The raging, changeling-shaped fire turns and stalks towards her, cackling deeply, its voice like a raging furnace. It leaves burning hoofprints in the stone floor. The air in the hallway is no longer freezing.
Ocellus begins to back up.
I am not seeing this!
Ruined tapestries ignite from the ambient heat as it draws near them. The air becomes dry, smelling scorched and brittle. The fire creature's cackling becomes a deep roar. Ocellus feels her ocelli dry and her membranes shrivel in the blast of furnace heat.
"Changelings can become fire?"
Ocellus hears Gallus scream the question as the monstrosity draws closer. Stunned, she turns to him, her voice rising in denial. "What? No! That..." she gasps, lungs scorching. "That's not even a thing! Fire isn't... fire's a reaction, not a..." She coughs painfully. "It's like running. You can run. You can't turn into running!"
Gallus aims over the top of the toppled column and unleashes a stream of lime jelly at the fire-thing. The jelly hisses, sizzling as it flies through the creature, unimpeded by anything solid. The hallway fills with the acrid, saccharine smell of cooked queen resin.
It isn't on fire. It IS fire!
Ocellus stammers, coughing again, ducking back under the fallen column. "But.... but... "
"I think it's time to go," Gallus insists, grabbing her.
It's not possible! Ocellus feels the world shift sickeningly sideways. She couldn't be seeing this! Where is its brain? How does it even think if its brain is fire?!
Ocellus feels Gallus scoop her up as the griffin takes to the air, flying away from the changeling-shaped mass of flame. She stares at the impossible creature as the floor falls away beneath her. Watches flames flare out in a mockery of wings and sees the living flame soar after them. Unattached to anything burning.
Ocellus has the overwhelming urge to lecture the reality-breaking vision in her best former-Headmare Twilight voice. "You're not possible!" Ocellus shouts at it in rising hysteria. "You are not scientifically possible!"
"It doesn't care!" Gallus retorts.
For the second time tonight, she clings to Gallus as he carries her. Under other circumstances, she would admire his strength and stamina. All the power of a lion and all the might of an eagle.
Gallus wings back through the wine cellar, dodging shelves filled with glass bottles.
With a powerful lion kick, he slams the stained glass doors shut as they shoot between them. The glass rattles and cracks, a few shards of colored glass falling to the ruined floor.
Ocellus feels herself arcing through the air in freefall as Gallus hurls her and spins around. She barely has time to brace before slamming face-first into the cushioned back of a couch. The impact knocks the couch over, sending her rolling off of it, coming to a stop against a pillar of onyx.
Gasping, she looks up and sees the face of the moon. With moonsilver forks. She's at the foot of another grandmare clock.
This one, she notes, isn't ticking.
Fwooo-shhhhhplk.
Ocellus pulls herself up, looking over the toppled sofa to see Gallus spraying resin down the split between the stained-glass doors. The room beyond is glowing brightly.
Smart, she thinks, physically but not emotionally sore at being tossed like her lantern.
Fire washes against the glass. But the fire abomination doesn't seem to have any strength. It can't crack the sealing resin. It cannot even break the glass.
"Get the cracks above and below too!" she calls out to him. If the... fire'ling has no mass, it might be able to go under the cracks.
Gallus nods, then turns to target a hole where one of the panes shattered. A vaguely hoof-shaped gout of flame is worming through. The normally fast-hardening resin dries on contact, blocking the hole.
Ocellus sits back, unable to do anything but watch and hope the sprayer doesn't run out of jelly before Gallus can finish.
"Ocellus!" The voice from behind her makes her jump. She spins, looking around. Then down at the shards of a shattered mirror.
"Luna!" Relief floods through her despite the mounting heat. She stares down at the eye of Luna looking back at her. "I was worried. Where did you go?"
"I am sorry. I felt something through the mirror. I was trying to investigate," Luna says. "I did..."
And she is gone. If a full hall stand mirror cannot sustain her long, it is probably a miracle Luna was able to talk to her at all.
The room is blazing with light now. She hears the sprayer sputtering. Gallus backs up to her, sweating profusely in the mounting heat.
"It's out," he says, and for a moment she fears he means the fire'ling. But she sees the sprayer's tank is empty. Gallus pulls it off, tossing it to the floor.
But it could be useful later, Ocellus thinks. If they could get more of the enhanced, quick-hardening jelly. And figure out how to refill it. But they can't count on either, and Gallus' ability to move around in the palace has already been hampered once by carrying the extra bulk. She doesn't blame him.
Ocellus turns towards the doors, but the light coming through the glass is too bright to look at.
"I think it's trying to melt the glass!" Gallus looks to her in a panic. "Does stained glass melt?"
Oh yes. Yes it does. Ocellus nods.
"...lus! Take the door to your left!" Luna calls to her. "There should be an..."
Ocellus blinks. "Left!" She turns. There is no door. But there is a broken armoire. One door hangs off a single hinge, and through it she can see a hole through its back and the wall behind it big enough to climb through. "This way!"
"...ful. And watch out for... moonsharks..." The last word is muffled, reminding her of how Smolder will muffle her words when she is embarrassed about something.
"What did she say?" Gallus stammers as Ocellus runs for the armoire. She throws it open, clambering through, Gallus right behind her.
"I think we've given the fire'ling the slip." Gallus looks back around what's left of the corner. "But not for long. If we're going to really do this..."
Ocellus hovers before the massive door of carved purple stone. Intricate lacework of silver and adventurine create a mosaic of stellar imagery.
The shimmering magical lock hovers before it, suspended by ghostly chains. The indentation on its face matches the Seal in the changeling's hooves.
Physically, she feels ready. The room beyond the armoire was a bathroom. There was a horrifying stain on the far wall among a sea of broken tiles. A stain that churned and atrophied, manifesting another bat-pony specter.
"Nightmare Moon's version of a first aid kit?" Gallus had suggested as the roiling vapor healed them. "Because when you're ruler of eternal night, even your medical supplies should be subservient."
Ocellus agreed, not voicing her suspicion that with the decaying of the palace, something has gone disturbingly wrong.
Physically, she is ready. Mentally? Outside that door is the most absolute of deserts.
Ocellus pushes the Seal into place. The chains collapse from the lock with a loud, metallic SHUNK! The lock vanishes and the door swings open.
Ocellus quickly learns she was wrong about being ready. Luna had warned her the air was thinner, but she is still caught by surprise as opening an exterior door causes an outrush of air.
The changeling nymph is blown through the exitway, hurling into soft regolith and sliding to a stop several yards from the exterior steps.
Ocellus is thankful she managed to close her eyelids the instant before impact. Her eyes are spared being full of moondirt. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for her mouth.
The changeling nymph blasts a cough, expelling as much of the pale dirt from her mouth as she can. The inside of her muzzle feels textured in grit. The taste burrows into her tongue -- like a morbid offspring of ash and chalk.
She hears Gallus flapping his wings above her.
"Eh, are you okay?"
Ocellus coughs again. "I hate the moon."
Ocellus groans, rising from the regolith, coughing and spitting profusely. But even when she no longer feels the grit against her cheeks and tongue, or coating the roof of her mouth, she can't stop tasting it. She yearns to run back inside and find the fountain or the nearest functional sink.
"Not a huge fan myself. You don't think Luna was serious about moonsharks, do you?" Gallus asks, sliding oddly in the air before landing next to her. "I'm thinking we should walk, because flying is... weird."
The moon doesn't look any more hospitable from the outside. But the windows had shielded them from the smell. She doesn't even have a reference for it. The closest words she can conjure to describe it are chalky, bitter and most of all spent.
Ocellus looks around. The palace itself is beautiful, rising up against the black of space. Dark, regal spires topped with crowns of arctic blue rise above walls of lavender and plum, reinforced with graceful flying buttresses. The topmost spire's crown weaves sensuously upwards to a bright crescent moon that shines like the beacon of a lighthouse.
"She's already on the moon," Gallus notes dryly. "Isn't that redundant?"
Ocellus bites back the urge to praise him for the proper use of "redundant". Even as Nightmare Moon, Luna really was an artist. Idly, she wonders why Luna hasn't spent more time with Professor Rarity.
Ocellus turns and looks at the post-apocalyptic wreckage of the back wing.
"I don't want to risk it," she says, spreading her elytra and beating her wings. And beating them harder. And harder.
Ocellus is panting as she finally lifts off the regolith. She feels much lighter, but there isn't as much air to push against. Once she gets moving, she finds it difficult to change direction. Flying on the moon reminds her of the time Professor Pie took them ice skating. Like the air is slick.
After several minutes of overcorrecting, the nymph finally gets herself moving in the right direction. The wing ends in the dungeon, the upper floors of which form a grand, domed colosseum.
Or it did. Even from here, she can see there is almost nothing left of the dome. What surprises her is that the debris is scattered outwards across the regolith.
"This wasn't a moonquake," Gallus calls up to her, noticing the same. "More like an explosion."
She looks down to see Gallus has given up flying. The griffon flew only high enough to land on top of the nearest broken buttress. As she watches, he leaps from one high point to the next, keeping well above the surface of the moon. Gallus makes jumping look a lot easier than flying.
As they reach the collapsed colosseum that forms the upper reaches of the dungeon, the cause of the destruction becomes apparent.
"That's not a moonshark," Gallus says needlessly. "That's a dragon."
Ocellus pulls up short. Well, she tries to. The slippery air doesn't cooperate, and she finds herself arcing towards the towering shape of the dragon. The creature is at least thirty feet tall. Ocellus once accompanied Smolder on a visit to the Dragon Lands; she has seen full-grown dragons before. And while no (ex) Dragon Lord Torch, this one is big even by adult standards.
The dragon raises her head, blotting out part of the sky, and ROARS. The moon seems to shake with her might.
Out of the corner of her eye, Ocellus sees something moving through the regolith. An enormous shape -- although enormous has suddenly become very relative -- glides beneath the surface, ash-grey fins coursing through the moondirt.
The dragon turns her massive head towards the movement. A huge fist comes down, claws digging into the moon's surface and pulling something out.
That must be what Gallus looks like fishing, Ocellus thinks wildly. But what the dragon has torn from the moon is no fish. Nightmare Moon clearly designed her moonsharks based on quarry eels!
Ocellus flaps her wings, slowing but not stopping. The weak gravity of the moon is pulling her downward. She realizes she is going to land in the colosseum. With the dragon.
The dragon opens her maw, showing rows of deadly teeth. And breathes. A geyser of flame cooks the gray and black moon-cousin of the quarry eel.
In the light of the fire, Ocellus can make out the rich, fiery scales of the dragon. The deep purple of her spines. The beautiful buttery yellow of her horns.
"Sm-Smolder?"
Ocellus' ears fold back flat against her skull. She knows what she is seeing. Smolder once told her about the magical malady that dragons can suffer if they allow themselves to become too greedy.
The anti-Elements resonate with their vices. They draw creatures vulnerable to them.
Smolder turns towards her, the dragon's eyes burning with fearsome and unnatural golden light.
"OCELLUS!"
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If this is a crossover with the video game Prey, then there should be a crossover tag. Why isn't there a crossover tag?
10157940 Because it isn't a crossover.
Here's the text in the title that you missed:
We're totally calling it that.
Also, the moment the story started talking about burnt-out sections of the castle, I knew who was going to turn up next. Even after the fire'ling.
DUN DUN DUN!
YES! Loving this story so much! And ooooh, now we get Smolder! I would've thought she'd appear last of Ocellus' friends, but I'm happy to be wrong.
This should be interesting ... and hey, at least the moonsharks aren't a threat. Win-win!
Yeah, now I want to see that. Also, I'm assuming Smolder turned up by greed and ran away from it after it made her grow?
Unfortunately, I haven't read yet the rest of the chapters because of my own projects and works, but... by just reading the intro, I can tell you that this... THIS IS 20% COOLER THAN I EXPECTED. AND I EXPECTED TOO MUCH BY NOW. Good job, mate!
So, Greed-Smolder recognizes Ocellus. This is both very good and very bad. Good that she has retained her sanity, sense of self, and memories, but bad because she is probably about a third the size of the current tallest Godzilla (119.8 meters if someone wishes to do the math) and filled with nothing but greed and fire. Can't wait to see the resolution to this problem.
I'M ATTACKING THE DARKNESS!
TRAUMA DETECTED
10158319
But... correct me if I’m wrong, but Kevin’s a grown drone, not a grub. If you put a picture of him next to Ocellus, he’s clearly older, no?
So this is one of those moons that has breathable air on it? Nifty.
Lots of former questions answered. Love your little Ocellus and Gallus banter, way to quote best pony! The scale of Smolder's greed is a fire that can't be quenched ;)
She said the title of the thing.
10158347 (re: 10158319) Actually, Kevin is scaled to the size of blank-flanked foals. And this is in a Season 5 episode, where the wedding was at the end of Season 2, so the grub has had time to grow into a child.
Ocellus is comparable in age to young adult pony, as evidenced by Sandbar who has a cutie mark and is virtually the same size as their teachers.
I imagine Kevin, in that S5 episode, is roughly the age Ocellus was back in S2 for the Canterlot wedding. (And, correspondingly, the age of the broom closet adolescents.)
Silly Ocellus! Anything's possible with magic!
Here we go; calling it now: "Smolder WANT!"
Keep going! ;)
We are calling it that.
I bet Gallus gives great hugs.
I mean...magic. This is a ridiculous world of magic. Although this is, admittedly, especially ridiculous. Plus you gotta wonder how you think when you’re a cup or a rock or whatever. Especially a rock with eyes. What are your eyes sending signals to?
It (moon dust) apparently smells like gunpowder, which given the ubiquity of fireworks and Trixie in Ponyville, Ocellus might recognize. It’s also horribly toxic in real life - that’s among the things that Portal 2 got right - but I imagine this isn’t that kind of story, what with there being air on the moon. And moon sharks.
Whoooo Smolder! Now with Ocellus here, her hoard can be complete.
Hmm, so Envy has Gallus and agreed has Smolder. There are five more possible sins and three more possible students. We know about Wrath...not sure if the fourth son was mentioned, did I miss it? Sorry if I did. I’m going to assume it’s Pride.
I can imagine Pride snagging Yona...so who’s Wrath? Neither Sandbar nor Silverstream seem like they’d fit. On the other hand I could see Sandbar as Pride, and Yona feels like she could maybe fit Wrath…
If it’s even Pride. Sloth (in the original sense of “despair to the point of inaction”) could easily snag Silverstream or Yona.
10159044 Thanks!
I love detailed comments like this!
10159044
Keep in mind these anti-Elements were urges that resonated with Nightmare Moon, so I think we can safely cross Sloth off the list.
10159176
I dunno, I think you could make an argument for Sloth in the original sense. Her misery, anger, and hopelessness at ever actually being acknowledged or loved by ponies was one of the big things that turned her to darkness.
The mental image of Smolder the dress wearing dragon being huge is very strange indeed.
Am I the only one wanting Ocellus to use one of the needles and get a cool power?
10159180
The original sense? I'm not sure how you figure spiritual apathy and inactivity applied strongly to either Luna or Nightmare Moon. There aren't any explicitly religious observances canon to the show, so we have nothing to go on there. The one thing we do know is that she is the only pony in canon who can actively dreamwalk. In my book that makes her the most spiritually active pony on the planet.
Additionally, I will acknowledge Luna felt miserable and angry, but I believe you'll find there is no canon support for her feeling hopeless, nor should there be. It was her desire to claim primacy at any cost that caused her fall*, not a belief that there was nothing she could do. Luna is many things, but I don't feel she has ever been an apathetic pony.
*See season 4, end of episode 1 for Luna's transformation to Nightmare Moon.
10159362
Aquinas defines sloth as: “sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good... [it] is evil in its effect, if it so oppresses man as to draw him away entirely from good deeds.” A 1992 catechism issues by John Paul II further elaborated, “acedia or spiritual sloth goes so far as to refuse the joy that comes from God and to be repelled by divine goodness.”
The Orthodox faith, in the Philokalia, actually outright replaces “sloth” with dejection, too, meaning that the idea of equating one with the other goes back to at least around the 4th century AD.
Again, I can see how this could be argued as applying to Luna. Depression is a natural fit; given that has been argued as applying to Luna so many times by the fandom that I scarcely should need to repeat it here. When Luna embraces the darkness and became Nightmare Moon, she could be argued to have actively rejected the good, divine gifts of Harmony (standing in for God here) and was repelled by Harmony’s elements (I.e., God’s virtues).
There is of course a case to be made against it, too, I’m just putting forth ways it could easily be justified, should Kkat want to use Sloth as a sin here.
10153657 It does read nicely, ups the pacing. Though I was writing one of my stories earlier today and found myself writing in present tense when the story is in past tense. Made me lol.
10159384
And yet, the justification for linking Luna to Sloth remains weak.
First of all, Luna was at least a two time savior of Equestria. Though not explicitly stated in the show, it's also reasonable to believe she guarded ponies' dreams before her fall. She did not therefore neglect to begin good; she got tired of her deeds being ignored in favor of her sister even though Luna was doing much good. (Psst! That's two other deadly sins there. No Sloth detected.)
But even supposing we accepted that towards the end she began to neglect her duties, the problem with using that particular definition of sloth is the very reason it fell out of favor, namely that it is overly generalized. "Neglecting to begin good" overlaps so heavily with the other deadly sins as to make that phrase all but meaningless. All of the deadly sins cause one to "neglect to do good". That leaves only "sluggishness of the mind" to distinguish Sloth, and I'm sorry, but there is nothing in canon to support Luna at any point being "sluggish of mind". No, if she neglected her duties, it was not out of sluggishness of mind but rather the influence of one or more other deadly sins.
As for the idea that dejection is a deadly sin...nope, I will never support that interpretation. Deadly, potentially yes. A sin? Perhaps if willfully wallowing, but Luna was not hung up on an old disappointment of which she wouldn't let go nor was she refusing to confront the source of her woes. Rather she was frustrated with an ongoing problem that she had been unable to solve. We don't know how much effort she put into trying other methods, but I have a hard time believing someone who opposed both Sombra and Discord would not have made some other effort before resorting to "Hey, let's be evil!" (And add on two other deadly sins.)
And for the record, I'm sure there were moments when Luna was sad, but fanon aside, there is no canon support for Luna suffering long term depression before her fall. Her demeanor in the show is reflective of a) many, many regrets, and b) being something of a stranger in a strange land. I believe the glimpses we see of her in seasons 8 and 9 are closer to how she was prior to her fall when she used to enjoy playing in the Castle of Two Sisters.
Now all that said, I'm not claiming that depressed Luna explicitly goes against canon. I'm merely stating that the implications indicate she was not depressed, but if fanfic authors went only by the explicit facts and strongest implications, there would be a LOT fewer ship fics! There would also be fewer fics of other types, and many of them have merits completely independent of how closely they stick to canon.
*cough*Falout:Equestria*cough*
"and Gallus lay on the floor"
"and Gallus lie on the floor"?
"between his wings muscles"
"between his wing muscles"?
"more of enhanced, quick-hardening"
"more of the enhanced, quick-hardening"?
"Ocellus runs for armoire"
"Ocellus runs for the armoire"?
"She doesn't even have a reference for it."
I wonder if it still smells of gunpowder, and she just hasn't encountered gunpowder?
""Isn't that redundant.""
""Isn't that redundant?""? Or was the period deliberate to denote flatness or somesuch thing?
"An enormous shape -- although enormous has suddenly become very relative -- glides beneath the surface, ash-grey fins coursing through the moondirt"
...So, why exactly did Nightmare Moon make moonsharks? :D
Though apparently she made them well enough that they're still around.
Well. I did suspect, but how will they deal with this? :D
Damn, 10158174 beat me to it.
10159044
Well, let's put it this way. A being made of fire wouldn't be too much of a stretch when you consider that you can change the state of energy, but not create it.
Magic/mana is a state of energy, and fire/heat is produced when excited particles bounce all over the place (I think that's how that is).
Neural activity in your brain is electrical, and your body produces/uses chemical energy when you eat food, sound energy when you listen and talk, and so on and so forth.
Somehow the fire-ling has somehow managed to translate all the various energies and magic that create their being into pure heat and fire, including the electrical activity in its brain.
Its entire thought processes are still there, it can still see, hear, etc, it's just operating of a different wavelength of energy entirely.
So, how much longer till Gallus figures out the whole plan, and who/what will they find or have to deal with next?
Well, who among their group has a bit of a thing with fire?
Is something you NEVER want to hear in any movie, as it never leads to anything good......... And not sure what that has to do with the story, but it's still never a good thing to hear.
Yeah, probably a good idea.
Just, keep the flap on your saddlebag closed..... but yes, would help to know what that thing is..... Luna? Any help here?
Good plan given your lack of a stick to bop her with. Or a spray bottle.
Heh, I get the feeling that should be the default assumption with you.
Does fit how Luna is usually seen as the more artistic of the Sisters, and holds to at least her being the better patron of the arts going by her and Celestia's differing reactions to it.
Huh, that works too.
Also, if the pillars only breakdown stuff made of dark essence, try putting the good tank on it, I want to see if the goo inside counts or not.
Ehhhh, while it might have been what it would have constructed it's physical form out of if it emerged, why would a creature who exists only inside of dreams require any sort of physical form that is made out of anything? Granted, Luna might have based the form she gave it in the dream on what that stuff looks like, but not quite the same thing.
Let's face it, if we had something we could sculpt into anything, we'd end up just using it to play Minecraft with too. And also try to find that perfect home decor set you can never actually get every piece of in Animal Crossing.
Meh, sanity is over rated.
Also, this is a being who has seen inside of Pinkie Pie's dreams...........
We've already established NMM was playing mine........ wait wait wait.. she built a house, furniture.... created a bunch of beings who followed her directions while also have a bit of a will of their own and could ignore them in favor of something else now and then...
She wasn't playing Minecraft or Animal Crossing.... she was playing The Sims! Quick, check the grounds for a pool without a ladder to get in or out of it with!
Alright, so they can figure out where to go without Luna, but did Luna tell her how to actually create the portal and how to destroy it afterwards? And also, where the hell is she and why hasn't she checked in with them now that they are in the throne room?
Right, because of the whole, being where you think the heart of the Hive is right now.
1. Alright story, now you are just being a plot tease by not mentioning the fourth one when it would be perfectly natural to do so. Money is still on Pride.
2. And who do we know who has a biologically ingrained affinity for greed?
Can you say 'Shopping Trip!'? Time get some good stuff!
I really want to make a joke about NMM having installed a NSFW fanmod of the Sims game for that specific dungeon...... Then again given some of the stuff that's in just the base game..... it could have just been regular DLC.
Also, because what evil lair of villainy is complete without a dungeon?
Yeah, she's not the only one.
Okay, so back to earlier, if she was going to lock her up in there, why seal everything else and claim she was making Tia live in the house? Again, not full on plot hole, but still a bit of mixed messaging due to how the same information is delivered in ways the imply different things.
Also some really good questions.
Yes, two really important question. I have a theory on the first one, on the second.... the only ones I can think of imply some very, very bad things all around.
Okay, so change it to 'HOW did Luna get in a pod."
And boom! There's the big question. There is a lot going on here you do not know enough to understand. I'd prioritize finding answers to those before doing anything else.
I do love they are taking the time to think about these questions. Could have spent more time trying to answer them, but they are at least thinking about it. Cause, as you've noticed, these things have been bugging me from the start. So, now to wait till they find some answers.
Ouch, harsh... but earned.
Ohhh, interesting little insight there, very nice little look at how social cues could work for them.
... Yeah, pretty much. Though isn't really good for large group combat due to being so wide spread that friendly fire would be inevitable in large melees. But, he gets the jist of it, it's something meant to take down a lot of foes fast.
1. Semantics, he's just calling it like he sees it.
2. Well..... fuck.
Ah, well... there goes the reason I wanted to see if the weapon broke down on the pillar, wanted to see if what the Queen made was made out of that stuff, to see if maybe the Moonlings were just entities formed of the Dark Essence themselves, but, yeah she could just be using the essence to copy it.
Hey, take any use of those things you can get I guess. Does give a better gripping surface then hooves I guess.
Ye, I really am so glad we got our snarky boi so quickly.
Well, at this point.... I still doubt that, but they could become something that looks too dark to make out as something else I guess.
.......................
I just.... what do you say to that!? And it works in context! Damn... just.. damn.....
Well, they have a new room clearing procedure, at least while they have ammo.
I'm with him, just, you know, if not for ammo issues.
This is new... heat going down, or this area of the palace just have really crappy insulation?
pffffffffft, though watch them learn to turn into ones with those notes on them.
Damnit Gallus, stop being so hilarious! No wait, don't.
........ you know, he's not wrong.
Okay, once again, it's not paranoia when there really are an unknown number of enemies out to get you who can look like anything, that's just proper caution.
Did she skip the time they ran Tomb of Horrors?
So, the section that is close to where Greed was kept is utterly trashed, and is on fire? On the plus side I don't think you need to worry about changelings for a bit.
Take a goblet and toss it through the doors to check.
Already answered that one.
Score!
If nothing else, you now have something to make Molotov's out of.
Awwwwwww, the bottle could also make one hell of a good club.
Yeah, there really is no 'too paranoid' in this situation.
Damnit Gallus... 'Moonlings'
Also yes Ocellus, but at the same time, any of your group can be scary given the right circumstance..... except maybe Sandbar....
Not really.. I totally get what you mean and you are not wrong, she's just a tad bit extra sensitive to this topic at the moment.
Yes, but in your case for the wrong reason you think that.
Once again, he's not wrong Ocellus. Skittlebugs are just made for hugging, not being afraid of.
I was with you up till now bird boy. Ocellus has nothing to do with this, you KNOW she has nothing to do with this, and she looks different enough from the Moonlings that there is little reason to associate them with each other like that. So yeah, now you are pushing things a bit too far.
See above, and ask Fluttershy how terrifying dragons can be. Gallus just showed a griffon on the prowl can be freaking terrifyingly good at hunting you, Silverstream... okay the only thing I can think is being scared of her snapping because she's already odd enough and pulling a cupcakes. But they are part griffon and could be just as good at hunting. Yaks, just try to be even remotely smashable near a group of pissed off yaks.
Well..... crap..... this is even more not good then poor Rainbow-Bug-Horse needing loves. Though she needs that too!
I know this is meant to be dramatic and big and such, but having just binged Changeling Space Program, all I can think is 'Yeah that sounds about right for changelings'. This is the group whose first attempts at getting into space included a giant slingshot, and a cardboard box taped on top of a trash can full of fireworks.
There we go, good big feathered teddy Gallus.
Well, yay. Now you have to worry about the whole damn thing falling on top of you as well, this place gets better and better.
Also who knows when moving one thing will trigger a collapse.
Well...... fuck... make with the spraying!
Gotta say, did not see that one coming, but makes sense.
Gotta suck to be the ling who turns into water and just kind of splashes down into the carpet.
MOONLINGS!
And at this point, why are you even surprised?
Pffft, and the fact it's logically impossible is what breaks her.... how long have you known Pinkie Pie? Or, just, ponies in general? I mean, you generate fire when you shift, this is just taking that and merging it with the shift itself.
Okay,so it's not solid enough for the jelly to stick to, and too large for it to be snuffed out by the stream at once
Where's a cleric with Create Water when you need one?
Or a breach to the outside, Luna did say there was air there, but it wasn't as thick as in the house.
She definitely learned well from Purple Smart.
Bad timing to make that have the impact you want, cause all I'm thinking is the season finale for MHA and Endeavor's epicness in it.
"Now vanish in puff of logic!"
Good aim.
Huh, well then........ also 'for now'
So what bad thing happens when all four do start ticking?
That's what I figured, though is it hot enough to just melt the hardened resin?
Good question, and why the hell has no being but Ocellus seen you yet? Luna, you have a lot of explaining to do!
Okay, he heard her.
Also... moonsharks? That sounds just as epic as it does terrifying.
Of course! Also, be glad for these things being around to patch you up! Are thy single use?
Okay Luna, it's called an air lock! Or failing that, just put a basic barrier in front of the door that holds back atmosphere!
Nummy
When has that stopped any super villain? You need to keep the theme going with your evil lair Gallus, get with the program.
They seem to have so much in common, like talking together should be totally natural for them.
Ohhhh, and what's beyond the Thunderdome?
Or not thunderdome time.... still, yeah, something big went down here.
Ah, hey Smolder, and I see you've found Greed.
Duuun dun.... duuun dun.... dun-dun dun-dun dun-dun...
Eel sharks..... guess it helps moving through rock.
"Want a snack? It's fresh roasted!"
Yeah, that should have been obvious if you thought about it Ocellus.... on the plus side, she's cohernt enough to know who this is and speak more then Smolder Want! So..... well, this is going to be intresting.
10172892 Always look forward to these! Thank you again, Seraphem!
So, we have Envy, Greed, and Wrath so far. I'm thinking that the last one is almost certainly Pride, but the fact that it hasn't been named makes me doubt that. Seems a little too obvious. I didn't even realize the dragon was Smolder until Ocellus did.
Of course the orange and purple dragon under the influence of Greed would be Smolder! Smolder recognizes Ocellus but I can still picture them coming into conflict trying secure the anti-element. I doubt Greed will give up its hold on Smolder easily.
Yeah, she wouldn't be reacting this strongly to what Gallus said if they were almost any other situation. Gallus must think she's getting this way just because of what he said and the stress they're under. It's not like he knows much about her identity issues and nightmares.
I get where she's coming from. The fireling is freaky. Changing into "inanimate" objects is kinda out there, but those are at least solid. Flame is highly energetic matter produced from a reaction. So far we've seen changeling equivalents of voltaic and thermal phantoms, and I have a sinking feeling regarding what the equivalent of an etheric phantom will be.
I'm doubting whether these changeling amped up on dark essence can even change back, or if they're on a time limit or something. If they could change back, the fireling might have been able to transform into something solid to break down the door.
Gallis is a big awkward dork, and we love him for it.
But yeah, oof, not the way I'd want to re-encounter my...girlfriend? Dragonessfriend?
Her friend nods, his eyes still a little narrowed. The blue griffon sits down across from her. "Okay. You sit there. And I'll sit here, ready to wingbeat you if that thing gets anywhere near your eye. Deal?"
Ocellus finds herself feeling thankful for the offer. She smiles. "Deal."
Aww gallus That's so sweet that you protect her thats awesome of you ❤
I'm sure this was never her idea of this specially putting you guys in danger
Gallus stares a moment longer, then takes the changeling weapon of war. "Hurrah," he deadpans, "I get the vomit cannon."
Ocellus whines slightly. "Can we not call it that?"
OK that actually made me laugh lol
Ocellus huffs. Really? Puffing her cheeks, she whispers harshly, "You do know we can change into notes too, right?"
Gallus freezes. Then swiftly caps the inkwell and puts the notepad, ink and quill away.
Well then I did not know you can do that 😅
lol Seriously gallus 🤣
That would be a funny April fools joke
Yeah That was a poor choice of a word gallus 😥
You can say that again ocellus 😅
Holy macro Looks like they found smolder but apparently the greed Got to her and she turn into a huge dragon yikes Things really Got really up and down between gallus and Ocellus What worst of all that changeling is on fire i mean what I didn't know they can have that kind of power And I wonder how they're gonna bring back smolder back to normal
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I'm pretty sure I saw notes "Not a mimic" in game somewhere... Funny little detail if you pay attention.
idea was that alien can't read and pulling another object from... wherever they pull it out results in getting wrong notes\spelling\etc.
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Personally, I’m partial to “upchuck-chucker”.
hi hi
Hmm, dark essence can be used to make anything. Did it make the changelings out of whole cloth in the first place? And thinking of things that could break out of there, given what put her there, I wonder if Nightmare Moon made a dark copy of Celestia...
(Also, don't use it to make sentient weighted dice to cheat in Ogres & Oubliettes.)
With regards to the prison and unanswered questions. I suppose it's possible that Celestia avoided being kidnapped by hiding out in some kind of magical bunker until the danger was over. Sun-bunker? Sunker? Might explain why Celestia doesn't know what's going on now.
Mental note for later: elytra are inherently protective covers. What is queen elytra protectively covering?
Vomit Cannon: sorry Gallus, but vomit cannon is now canon.
With regards to moon geography, I wonder if there's anything special about being underground. And does being in a naturally formed lava tube count as being underground or not? I don't know about the moon in the story, but I know the real life moon is known for having massive lava tubes.
Lava tube on the moon
With regards to changeling abilities to turn into notes: For a second, I thought about turning into musical notes and quickly discounted it. But then I stopped myself and gave it a second thought. Changelings can violate conservation of mass, why not make use of wave-particle duality and turn into a beam, it'd get you to your destination right quick.
Re:Fires in closed circuit habitats - Aaaaah! Fire! Aaaaah! Put it out! It's consuming your breathable air!
With regards to Gallus opening up about his fears: This is super relatable. I generally try to avoid letting people know how I feel, about my fears, my weaknesses, because there'll be times like this when letting people know hurts them, or is used by them to hurt you. But I can't say that it's a good strategy to keep people at arms length like that either. (Even saying this much feels like I'm being too personal.)
I feel like turning into a wave of light is more plausible than fire.
Although I wonder... if it doesn't have any solid fuel center, it's just fire, perhaps it also isn't consuming oxygen? On one hand I'd hope so, but on the other hand, it'd probably be extinguished if they could trap it somewhere sealed off.
With regards to going outside: Hmm... air on the moon. It's not totally improbable. My concerns about running out of air are probably unfounded now, making me look a bit silly, but that's normal. Technically the Earth's moon in real life could support an atmosphere for some length of time. Just hit it with an icy, nitrogen rich comet every few thousand years to top off the escaping gasses and you could even terraform it... though that'd probably be a real waste in the long run.
(I swear I'm gonna find time to finish this, if it's the last thing I doooo!)
Nope, it happened in the back seat of a firebird like most of lifes surprises
But you're nerds, so you might not know much about that
It might be covered here already, but yeah, changelings might be more adapted for this manner of thing then most. Dark essence is, in theory, creation itself. It can literally be anything one desires if one has the know how, so it could work. But like Adam from Bioshock, futzing around with ones own physiology like that is probably a bad idea.
Which she then more then likely rutted cross eyed.
What? She was a mare who had nothing but time on her hooves and centuries to go. Like the old buzzard wouldn't have constructed her ideal boinkers whose only purpose was to stroke her... ego
For a given value considering we're talking about a species who have a proclivity for flakyness by default.
Like I said, lot of time on her hooves and the thought of being in a scenario of submission that was under her control would be right up her alley.
... What?
Let the old bat live a little
Oh. Never mind.
,,, One hopes the two proposed purposes had little overlap.
The hell...? That has its own upsetting implications. Like, granted, the gryphons were close enough to Equestria proper to not warrant much in need of arms, but its more or less a failed state, thus implying that ponies had for some time allowed their own citizens to live in a squallor.
How do you retract a lack of terror?
Kkat, is this one of them there college things you paid through the nose for to sit and think about?
Because if it is... I wished you alma stayed the course, because this is people at least thinking, as opposed to whats happening there now
That was an over reach on a people who had just come out of a tyranny. Mind Thorax was an abject failure of a leader somewhat, his people were the ones who insisted they abandon their fangs entirely.
"He's teaching them to snarl and hiss."
Good, you skittle hued hippies, because your out in the ass end of fuck all and are to get a figurative bending over barrel by a snaggle toothed the fuck is that! Its Fluttershy all over again!
But apparently you can fill oneself with a lack of things
Razza frazzin youngsters with your spirographs and rock sock em robots and your post modernist talk...
Also I would imagine Dash would take offense at your claims at one being unable to become Speed.
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Hmm... well, if I may be a bit open, I don't think doing the opposite does much good. Namely saying to oneself, this is fine, I'm okay, don't rock the boat or they don't mean it or it doesn't matter. You matter, and your feelings should, in instances outside of immediate disaster or the like, be taken into consideration.
However, as you said, it gives folks ammo. Its why us guys tend not be open by and large. Its not entirely that, mind, but a lot of it.
I think though discretion is the better part of valour in this regard. Be friendly but always willing to tell that encroaching moral busy body or obnoxious relative to fuck off.
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I just love how the adults are handling this. Like they aren't forcing the foals to make nice, but they aren't giving the nymph the boot either. One might speak of Zecora, but she hardly covered herself in glory living out in the Everfree like she was, and once she opened up and stopped her creepy voodoo lady schtick (my personal head canon is she was raised in manehattan by a loving neighponese kirin couple and is an accomplished doctor and alchemist but plays up her ancestry for the rubes ((which is sort of based on an actual couple I know. Raised five kids, two black, one hispanic, two their own. Each one went to college, and two became doctors I might add!)))
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I manage to get by without either
Or at least I never use the former,
Words of blinding brilliance gush forth like a geyser of wisdom as soon as they hit my brain
Video game mechanics really do keep sneaking their way into this story. First Luna spends multiple paragraphs explaining the crafting system, now Gallus turns the whole thing into an FPS with the spray gun, plus there's the magical medkit healing the protagonists in nonspecific ways. I don't think I like this aspect of this story, but then there's plenty of appeal here otherwise.
That one conversation about changelings was really chilling.