37- Prometheus
The Praetorians turned and started running for the main hallway.
‘If they get away, we’re fucked!’
“Winter Contingency!” I yelled over the Weave.
The loyalists were nearing the entryway to the hallway when reinforcements came down the end of the main hallway to cut off the Praetorians who had stumbled upon us. They had been standing on lookout duty on the side hallways around us, and came as quick as they could when they heard my order.
‘Thank fuck the Weave doesn’t care about having to travel through different mediums like solid walls.’
Five changelings now accosted the Praetorians. They wouldn’t be able to stop them, but they would slow them down long enough for us to get close. The Praetorians knew that, and skidded to a halt as they started to sling spells against the changelings on both sides of them.
The brief chase was over, and the fight had begun.
Oest and I charged past our ranks and into the thick of the five Praetorians.
Swinging madly, the Praetorians moved away from me and started to cast stun spells. Unfortunately for two of them, they stepped back and right into Oest’s hooves. He grabbed two of their helmeted heads and CONKED them together. The Praetorians collapsed as he moved on to duel with a third.
The fourth and the fifth were successfully keeping me on the backhoof as they strung together stun and electricity spells. It was only for the friendly changelings layering their shields over me that I had not been taken out immediately.
A missed swing against number four left God-Splitter embedded in the wall, cracks snaking outwards from the impact. Number five realized that range wasn’t working, and moved in for hoof-to-hoof combat. I abandoned the expensive paperweight, removing it would take too long.
That proved to be the right decision when five opened with a flurry of blows that blew any training I had out of the water.
Some punches were thrown and I managed to catch them all. Unfortunately, that was a bad thing.
So I threw my entire weight at five and we went to the ground, rolling around, kicking with our hind hooves, punching with our fore. Every time one of us would cast a spell, the other would land a smack on the horn, stopping that.
The shields the Lodge members were casting on me had fizzled out when he hit the ground, the precise encompassing matrices unable to handle CQC.
We each tried to use our fangs to impale the other straight through the chitin, but often one’s head was smashed into the ground while the other tried to pull free. Blows to the head also stopped any kind of fang usage.
It was ungraceful. It was painful. And it was exactly how I remembered fights went back on Earth, complete with hits below the belt.
Number four moved to pick me off his compatriots when about nine different stun spells riddled his body, causing him to go down in spasms.
Praetorian number five managed to get his hind hooves under me and kicked me off, sending me flying into the ceiling. His genius was rewarded by six stun spells and one fireball smacking into him and the ground around him.
I fell to the ground with a thud.
I looked over and saw the final Praetorian being swung by her legs into the wall by Oest. The solid SMACK made me wince.
‘Holy crap, that’s gotta crack some chitin plates.’
Just as suddenly as it had begun, the impromptu fight was over.
Changelings quickly secured the three Praetorians that Oest bodied and the two I had taken down with their help.
The small fire was put out as the Praetorian’s hooves, wings, and horns were encased in changeling-slime. They would not be casting anything with that muck on them.
Fifteen against five. Skill can only count for so much when you are thrown around like a ragdoll, experience blunt force trauma to the head, or piled on like a football. Hoofball? I had neglected to look into pony and changeling sports.
I sat there, trying to catch my breath. Oest moved over and offered a hoof. I took it, wrapping my fetlock around his hoof as he pulled me up.
“You ok, Phasma?”
“Yeah. I bit my tongue to the point of bleeding, I’m sore as hell, but I gave that bastard a broken nose in return. You?”
He shrugged. “They weren’t very good. Chrysalis took the best with her.”
I looked over and saw the Praetorians being lined up against the wall in a sitting position.
“What are you, The Mountain That Rides?”
“What?”
“You… Ah, nevermind. Were you always able to just… throw changelings around like they’re dolls?”
“Unlike you, I work out.”
“Hey! I have fight practice with Katydid every afternoon!”
“Not working out.”
‘An inch taller than average, but fifty times as dense with muscle, it seems.’
I looked at the cracks left behind when Oest swung the Praetorian into the wall. They were half as big as those left behind by my literal warhammer.
“When did you get so good at fighting, Oest?”
“I was a guard. They wanted me to be a Praetorian, I said that was boring. I became a guard again because you asked.”
“But weren’t you just hauling things in storage before I recruited you?”
He shrugged.
I groaned. There would be time to question his superchangeling strength and questionable entertainment sources later.
I walked over to the two changelings that were still conscious, the ones I had faced.
Walked might have been a bit too generous; I limped over to the Praetorians.
The one that was rolling with me was the first to speak up.
“You t’aitor–”
I cut him off with a left hook to the face.
“I’m letting you breathe with nothing keeping your muzzle shut. Keep talking, and you’ll be breathing through a drinking straw and speaking sign language.” I stopped and leaned back. “Oest, there is a sign language for mute changelings, right?”
“No.”
“Oh. All the more reason to shut the fuck up, then. Make sure these loyalists don’t do anything stupid.”
I hobbled over and pulled God-Splitter free from the wall.
“Bettah to die for the hive than live fo’ you’self!” He slurred through his broken nose.
I leveled God-Splitter to his head.
“I would say ‘that can be arranged,’ but that would imply that you are dying for the hive. You are dying for Chrysalis. We fight for the hive, for the greater good.”
“The greater good,” the Lodge members around me said in unison.
‘Man, cults are fun. I should have joined them when I was back on Earth. Anyways, time for children’s puzzles, I’ll deal with the patrol-not-checking-in-thing after.’
I left behind the disgraced Praetorian behind as I limped into the vault.
Changelings filtered in behind me and made my way to the center of the vault, where the table, chair, and secret puzzle was. Using telekinesis, I flung the table and chair to the side and stared at the puzzle lock.
Sure enough, I now recognized the symbols for the nine Threads: Together, Magic, Emotion, Change, Flight, Strength, Cunning, Command, and The Great Tapestry. They were strewn through the spirals that made up the lock, amidst more symbols I didn’t know.
I pressed down on Together with my magic halfway, but retracted my telekinesis when an idea struck me.
“Bring over the Praetorian who was oh so pleasant,” I called over my shoulder.
I heard the clip clop of hooves, the shuffle of a body being dragged, and the slurred curses of a ling with a broken nose as the Lodge members did as I asked. I turned to face my new friend as the Lodge members dropped him behind me.
“What is your name, Praetorian?”
“Co’eid, t’aitor.”
“Coeid Taitor?I’ve never heard of a changeling having two parts to their name before.”
“Coh. Reid.”
“Coreid? Well Core, today’s your lucky day. You get to open the most secure door within the entire hive.”
“Mm not gonna help you, t’aitor.”
“Oh you will. Whether it’s with your permanent silence or pushing buttons is up to you. Either way, the door opens. The only thing that changes is how not-hurt you get out of this.”
He huffed, which actually sprayed a bit of the blood that was trickling down his lip.
I pulled off the gel constraints on his hoofs– though I left the gel on his horn and wings– and pointed to the door.
“You will press what I tell you to press, then you will step back and sit down with the rest of the Praetorians. Don’t do as I say, and…. I suppose we’ll find out if this door is trapped?”
He pointed to his encased horn.
“Not going to happen. Use your hooves.”
He huffed again but moved to the closed aperture. Once he got a look at the symbols covering each of the spiraled door segments, he looked at me with a glare.
“Alright Conrad, first press the symbol for Magic, the N…”
I gave him the descriptions of each symbol to press, and each time he slowly shuffled over to the symbol to press it down, careful not to press any others.
When the unwilling Praetorian pressed the final button, the nine line asterisk, he jumped back as a hiss came from the center of the closed aperture.
I saw a small stream of air, the culprit of the hiss, jettison out of the center as the aperture’s segmented door pieces slowly pulled away from the center and into the floor surrounding the opening with a low grinding sound.
‘Higher air pressure? Also, the door must be enchanted to open on its own. No other door does that here, meaning this thing is probably chock full of enchantments. Having someone else open it was definitely a good idea.’
The grinding noise came to an end with a click as the aperture locked open. Seeing that nothing else came out, and that the Praetorian’s face didn’t melt off or anything, I leaned over to look down the hole. Now that I was close, I felt very cold air.
It was a straight vertical shaft, about twenty hooves deep, ending in a gradual ramp. I called out without looking away.
“Oest, please escort Cordeil here to his friends. And make sure no other Praetorians stumble upon our little party here. I don’t think it’s going to be trapped, so I’m going to scope the place out first. Watch my hammer for me.”
“Be careful,” I heard Oest say from behind me. After floating God-Splitter to the side of the vault, I told Oest, “If I don’t come out in half an hour, come in and get me.”
I jumped into the pit and used my wings to slow my fall.
My hooves made a loud clang as they hit the ground. I couldn’t see more than two hooves in front of me, where the light from the shaft ended.
My breath was visible in the freezing air.
Looking down at where I landed, I tapped my right forehoof on the ground twice.
Clang clang.
‘Metal flooring? Isn’t there a massive shortage of the stuff?’
It was a black metal, the same color as the rest of the hive’s walls. Unlike the hive, it was covered in carvings. Every square inch was taken up by what looked like runes.
Puzzled, I casted a light spell, and the top of my horn started to glow a bright pale blue light. I saw I was in a room with empty tables, hive-gel boxes, and abandoned equipment.
The room itself was not very big, perhaps a quarter of the size of the vault above. On the far end twenty hooves down, there was a door with the Command symbol etched into it in some blue material.
I moved closer to the equipment I saw. It was laying in piles on a table which, as I came closer, I saw was stained red on the top.
The equipment itself was unlike anything I had seen in the hive; it looked modern. Drills, saws, empty glass vials, what looked like a faucet in the back, and strange contraptions with pipes and containers.
‘If I were to guess, this is a magical laboratory, and not a meth lab. This is the first time I’ve seen glass in the entire hive, not even the throne room has the stuff.’
I stepped back and slowly made my way to the empty boxes on the other side of the room, my hooves clanging loudly on the ground despite my cautious movement.
Lifting up the lid on a box on the outskirts, I looked inside. It was hard to tell what exactly its contents were, possibly parts from plants grown in the Greencave or scavenged from the Underhive? Bits and pieces of defeated monsters?
The rest of the boxes, like the opened one, lacked labels. Shaking my head, I dropped the lid and turned around, heading to the door.
‘This is ominous as hell,’ I thought as I stopped in front of the door.
The Command symbol took up the center quarter of it, it was so large. Now that I was very close to it, I could see faint green light coming from the crack beneath the door.
I pressed an ear up against it. Nothing.
I pushed the door open slowly. It swung backwards silently, revealing a short hallway before another door. The green glow was much brighter around that door.
I stood there for a moment, the only sound being my deep, visible breaths. I tilted my head to the side, trying to see the hall at a different angle.
‘If this was a spy movie, there would be invisible laser trip wires in this hallway.’
I used a spell to conjure light steam to fill the hallway, but either fortunately or unfortunately, there were no lasers revealed in the mist. The steam quickly dissipated and left droplets of water clinging to the walls, already starting to freeze. I sensed around for any magic I could feel, but my training in detection was very limited.
“No point in stalling,” I whispered to myself.
I put one hoof across the threshold of the door. Then another. I hunched low and made my way across the room at a snail’s pace.
Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang.
Despite how quiet I was being, the sound of my hoofsteps was loudly banging in my ear, only just overshadowing my own heartbeat as I neared the glowing door.
But it didn’t drown out the growing sounds of chittering and skittering.
In what felt like the blink of an eye, I was across the hallway.
‘No alarm. No tripwires. What is that sound? Do I want to even know?’
I stood up straight and put a hoof against the door.
‘Just open it. There’s nothing alive behind it. This isn’t a horror movie. Open the door.’
My hoof didn’t move.
‘Open the door Phasma.’
I leaned against the door, pushing it open an inch. More green light spilled through. I stopped casting the blue light spell so I could take a peek. From the crack in the door, I saw on a table to the right. It, unlike the ones in the first room, was not empty.
Changeling eggs. Some were cracked open. Others had tubes going into them. That was all I could see from my restricted view.
Taking a deep breath, I pushed the door open.
When my eyes adjusted to the bright green light, I shut the door immediately and collapsed against it, my ragged breaths outpacing even my heart.
Clack clack clack clack clack–
I pressed a hoof up against the bottom of my jaw, stopping the shivering.
‘In. And out. Breathe. Breathe.’
I had a long day of sitting around doing nothing. Despite that, I felt exhausted. The fight early had taken a lot of energy out of me, but that was nothing compared to just looking into the next room.
I shut my eyes, trying to gather the strength to stand back up and go in there. It took two minutes of sitting in that cold, dark hallway to do so, the only company being the sounds of my breathing.
‘That’s it, breathe.’
I put my hooves beneath me and pushed off of the cold floor, turning to face the door once again. This time, I threw it open and stepped inside, not giving myself the chance to be a coward again. The door stopped perpendicular to the doorway, covering up what was immediately to my left.
The sounds of insects scuttling about and chittering reached speaking-level loudness. Still, my breathing cut through it like it wasn’t even there.
This final room was a large, circular one. On the right, in the five o’clock position, was a table that curved along the wall to the two o’clock position. There were about nine eggs with a bit of spacing in between them, in various states of destruction. The farthest one looked whole. All of them were hooked up to tubes which went to a series of opaque containers at the far end of the table.
The rest of the room was filled with vats, big enough to house an entire royal changeling, equally spaced apart, starting straight ahead at the twelve position.
I knew that was a very accurate description, because that’s exactly what they held.
Two princes.
Three princesses.
Five occupied vats in total.
‘My brothers and sisters.’
I saw blue and red hair, silver elytra, and brown and yellow manes. Five sets of colors. Five royals hanging limply in translucent green liquid, the source of the light in the room. A few were missing limbs. Many were scarred and cracked and beat to hell. The princes had manes in the style of ponies, the princesses had long hair that swayed slowly in the green liquid. All of them had twisted horns, holes in their chitins, and...
All of them had a number of tubes connected to their temples and the back of their heads.
A few had extra tubes. One Prince was missing his lower jaw and had several tubes going up into the top of his mouth and the back of his throat. A princess was missing the back half of her barrel, her hindlegs completely gone, with a large number of tubes taking their place.
And in the center, a pedestal with one worn down book. I knew it would hold answers to questions I didn’t want to even ask.
The door slowly swung shut behind me as I limped over to the book.
Clang. Clang. Clang. Clang.
I looked down at the old tome.
“Ascension,” I read the title aloud, desperate to hear anything other than my own breathing and those god-forsaken skittering sounds.
With a shaking hoof, I flipped it open, not daring to use any magic on the thing. Words were faded, pages were missing, but there was plenty in the book. Plenty I didn’t understand, but recognized from the reports I read in the vault as medical and magical theories, experiments, and reports.
The best I could tell, the entire tome was dedicated to the process of “Ascension,” where the chosen “Aspect of Panarthropo’s Command” would be elevated to the highest and holiest level of existence.
I recalled that the few books I skimmed in the vault from the Third Hive often overused holiness in their descriptions of magic.
‘This is a very old book, recovered from the Third Hive. It must be the most important one, to be down here.’
The book referred to the Ascension ritual as being the most revered piece of knowledge recovered from the First Hive. Attached in the middle was the few pages recovered from a book from the First Hive. They were completely yellow with age and threatened to crumble in my loose, careful grip. They were written in a language I did not know.
‘The changelings had a language, now lost to time?’
The last page of the recovered section showed a royal with a large crown, and changelings bowing to them. There was a circle on the center of the crown that seemed to radiate out something. Light, energy, I couldn’t tell.
I skimmed through the pages of the rest of the book, not understanding most of it. At least, until the diagrams started showing up. My eyes shot upward towards the princes and princess suspended in the green liquid.
The diagrams were brains, with labels attached to each part, and guides for which sections to remove and where to insert tubes to pump magical energies.
‘Lobotomization.’
My eyes moved to the two princesses on the left side of the room.
‘One of those might be Princess Procho, the last royal. She said Procho died, but why would I believe anything that Chrysalis says at this point?’
I staggered over to the two princesses. Their vats were next to each other, letting me get close to both at once. One had light red hair and elytra, almost pink it was so lightly colored. The other had a deep blue, like it was the abyssal depths of an ocean.
The red princess was the one missing her back half. The blue princess looked comparatively fine at first glance, she still was covered in scars and gouges, but then I noticed the abundance of the tubes at the back of her head. The entire back half of her skull had to be missing to fit in that many.
Both had numerous scars and marks from surgery on their skulls.
“Procho? Are you… there? Can you even hear me?”
Skittering.
“Hello?”
Scuttling.
If they could hear me, they had no way of even responding. I reluctantly went back to the podium in the center. I looked back down at Ascension, and forced myself to start reading again. I was reaching the conclusion of the process in the notes.
“... Thus achieving the desired aura of the Weave. Doesn’t that mean…? Are these…?”
I skimmed ahead and got to the conclusion of the reports and confirmed what I had feared. A simplistic image of a circle around a city-looking structure. It was labeled with a curvy N.
“The royals are what’s projecting the Weave throughout the hive.”
I dropped the book back onto the pedestal and limped over to the vat in the twelve position of the room.
The occupant was the silver prince. His right hindleg was gone, and his right foreleg was cut off halfway down. Burn marks stretched across his body, starting from the right side and tapering out towards the left. His mane, what remained to the left of the burns, undulated slowly in the nearly-transparent light green liquid.
“Reprocessing. The rebels weren’t murdered and thrown into the recycling vats, they were lobotomized and turned into projectors for the Weave!”
The chittering and skittering never quieted down while I was in the room, and so close to the prince, it was loud, but still any sounds I made cut right through it.
“They’re still alive in there. Their hearts are still beating.”
My legs started to shake and I collapsed onto my flank. I pressed a hoof to my heart.
‘I felt my own stop as I… as I laid there in my own hot blood. My heart had to stop before I moved on.’
“They’re trapped in there! How long have they been dying but unable to die?! Oh god, I have to free them!”
Before I could even start conjuring an elemental spell to destroy the desecration to life, I came to a horrible realization.
‘If I free them, the Weave will rescind from throughout the hive. Everyone will know what I did, including Eucharis. If I kill them now, Eucharis will know something has gone wrong, and will contact Chrysalis. I could try to cut off his communications before that, but he will still know, and his absence from the invasion will tip off Chrysalis.’
‘I’ll have to return here after I kill Chrysalis. Only then will it be safe. And I will kill Chrysalis. If not me, then who?’
I was already starting to forget any attempt at peace when I exiled Thorax, but this steeled my resolve. I had abandoned all plans of coming to Chrysalis with a peace offer. Queen Chrysalis of the Fourth Hive must die.
‘All my fears, even the ones I thought were from rampant paranoia, all proven true. I can’t believe I even thought there was a chance for peace between us–’
I had turned around to leave, but froze.
To the right of the door, covered up by it when it was opened, was an empty vat.
Empty.
Waiting for an occupant.
Waiting for me, if I had rebelled and failed.
Trapped forever in a living tomb. Lobotomized, ripped apart, and unable to die and move onto the next life. Maybe there’ll be nothing left of me by the end of my rebellion but a brain. A brain put in the vat, hooked up and pumped full of energy and unknown fluids.
I vomited, and then I staggered my way to the door. The sticky changeling-slime I got on my hoofs caused me to trip over and fall onto the cold ground. I pulled myself to the door, nearly clawing at it as I pulled it open, trying to avoid looking at my own coffin on the right. I shut the door behind me, and curled up against it.
“– Phas! Phasma!”
“Th... Thorax?” I weakly called.
“What the hell happened?”
I lifted my head up from behind my hooves and saw Oest. He was looking down at me with a very concerned look. He must have come down here after I didn’t come up after half an hour.
“My… family.”
“What?”
I offered a hoof to him, and he used his magic to wipe off the slime before he took it and pulled me up off the ground. I stumbled as I got up, nearly tripping on my own hooves.
“Go, see for yourself. Words can’t describe,” I said while starting to limp down the hall, pressed up against the side for support.
I heard his hooves clanging behind me as he went to the vat room, his pace far quicker than my own. The skittering slowly faded away as I limped my way out of the hallway and into the first room. I made it to the chute back to the upper vault before Oest returned.
“Phasma. What was…?”
“My siblings. Dying but unable to die. Trapped forever. Have to free them after Chrysalis dies. Can’t do it before. Chrysalis, she… Oest, do you know what she did? Can you understand it? She didn’t kill them, no, that would be too kind. She trapped them forever in their own bodies. Cutting and pulling out piece by piece till they couldn’t even breathe. You have to die to move onto the next life, you know that, right?”
I stared at the strange etchings on the ground as I spoke.
“The last Princess was Procho, and she ‘died’ over two hundred years ago. How many centuries have they been in there? Have they been driven mad by the isolation? Have they been asleep the entire time? There’s only two ways this all ends. Either we win, or you all die and she traps me here, forever. Forever, Oest! I can’t… We can’t fail. The price is too high.”
I looked back up at Ostridea. He was frowning, but still held his tongue.
“This… This changes nothing, Oest. We are going to kill Chrysalis, and then we will grant these royals the release they so desperately need. We are going to fix all these problems that my own mother let fester in the darkness as she went and played with ponies.”
“Are you sure? That they are in there?”
“I… Yes, Oest. I know it without a shadow of a doubt. They are still in there. Unable to blink, twitch, or scream. The soul stays in the body until the heart stops.”
“How do you know?”
‘Experience.’
“Please don’t ask me that. I just do.”
He looked back towards the door leading to the chamber, then back at me.
“I believe you.”
I looked up the vertical chute, the light from the vault shining down onto me. I was well and truly exhausted. But I would not stop until I was dead, or worse.
“Help me get outta here.”
Oest wrapped his hooves around my barrel, and helped me fly up and out of the laboratory.
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What. the. FUCK?!
I DID NOT SEE THIS COMING AT ALL. Jesus, I thought Chrysalis was just a bad leader. Not capable of doing that.
Oh. My. God.
Holy crap, are deliberately making her the pony Satan? 'Cause holy shit that's dark.
10610780
i.pinimg.com/originals/14/7d/7e/147d7e5e1da3cd282d265b80f40f8cf2.gif
Oh god, oh god. But hey first update after a year and a month.
The fine line of madness and genius is often at the point of the dagger point or in the end of the scapple at this point. More to know before the promised day.
Welp, now we know where his sudden desires for power come from
and Phasma needs to train more after that, how is he going to defeat her if his plan fails and he has to fight her, he can barely cope with the changelings behind his back against the squad.
10610825
Yes, my mistake
So, The Weave is artificial?
*grabs crucifix, pours a circle of salt and sits in the center* Klaatu Barada Nikto!
finally i waited since last year for this chapter
is this why the hive is running out of love? with them being pretty much routers and servers for the weave its likely they take up quite a bit of enerygy so maby that could be the case? maby they can be saved?
10610780
Damn, that's one way of keeping the peace.
https://youtu.be/dK_OKGELcn0
So now we know a bit more about what Chrysalis' suspicions were. And how monumentally screwed she is, because Phasma has gone out of his way to ensure that killing him will barely even harm the revolution, much less stop it.
Shame that his siblings probably can't be saved and regeneration,healing in a cocoon,probably won't work
Or maybe if left for a long time they would regenerate everything they lost.
10610830
Good question .
Either the Weave really envelops the whole world , but this setup from changelings royals works like antennas, signal amplifiers, to get a better signal.
Or the Weave is fake and in reality, it just a LAN/Homegroup network,and there is not external/outside Weave
I wonder what Nightmare Moon will do when he will tell her what his mother done.
Maybe this way Chrysalis will die ,by furious Nightmare Moon.
While Nightmare Moon hates Celestia,she probably doesn't want to kill her.
She wants to defeat her ,show her who is better,etc
The whole sibling rivalry thing,I hate you but still love you , thing.
So because of that , the thought of someone doing it to her sister , would make her furious and she would sympathize with Phasma.
Especially now ,that she probably sees him as her first friend in a long time and potentially more.
Okay where is the Dark tag for this story cus it need one now.
Oh no no No, don't kill her we are not a monster unlike her
Let's just put her in that spare vat we have and make sure that she can make up for her mistakes for eternity
Woah.
10610974
I dropped the Slice of Life tag for Dark now.
My original reasoning was that there would be a lot of talking and interactions between characters, and only one chapter containing this, but in reflection I see this story is more like Dark stories, rather than Slice of Life.
10610964
It's s still possible they can be saved, maybe if phasma makes friends with cadence they can restore them with love and alicorn magic.
Ah, so she's gone the route of the Angel of Death.
Welp, the shit has landed.
if you count brain dead as being dead then she technically didn't lie about them dying.
Dammit mortality choices suck when they happen to you, well at least Phasma was able to think rationally.
on another note, a horrifying feeling about who Phasma's dad could be is dwelling within my mind. Its been bubbling for a chapters now however I've always told myself that even Chrysalis wouldn't be that evil to do it. This chapter is throwing evidence onto my insane incest hypothesis, I hope its not the case. She can't be that depraved however it would explain the amount of changeling royalty.
If cadance and shining armor can create Flurry heart then the same could be said for a normal changeling and a queen. Then from there it would be changeling prince and queen or keep the original changeling alive in case of a princess.
10610974
Yeah, she even left one empty for herself
This is giving me S.T.A.L.K.E.R vibes.
holy hivemother this got dark fast Oo
10611032
I actually plan on writing a side story that will be heavily inspired by Metro 2033
This is beyond evil... Every singel child of hers...
Chrysalis must die.
10610848
Changeling healing pods can regenerate extream damage ( limb lost ) but even if the brain damage is repaired... Will they ever be sane again?
10610884
Very fitting!
10610964
Even if it works how sane would they be
10610965
Interessting theory. Perhaps there history is fabricated?
10610974
A 'like' for poetic justice but that would need Phasmodias to learn and repeat the processes she did on her familie members...
10610986
Well its a slice of a very dark life...
10610994
Maybe... But Chrysalis forces Changelings to do a lot to the ponys very soon... I doubt they will be very cooperative even if they learn of the burden there race is facing... Extinction
10611036
One chapter to literally change everything!
10611001
But, the echoes. They're not all the way gone. Their voices still ring out, too subtle for any but the most attuned to hear.
Phasma probably would have made a great projector, a changeling body so in tune with the weave, the mind and soul. I wonder if that's why he has memories of his past life.
It's really cool to have a wake-up in Equestria story/reborn in Equestria story that has a real justification behind it.
Well that's horrifying. Don't mind me, I'm just going to curl up into the fetal position in the corner and rock back and forth until the images leave my brain.
10611126
That should cheer you up
reactiongifs.com/r/wa_0.gif
10610986
Ah perfect. Now we can call the story a Dark Romance and no one will suspect anything!
Has anyone complimented you on the titles you choose for the chapters you put out? I understood the ones more relevant to contemporary times: Lazarus, Olympus, Icarus, Selene. I suck at noticing nuance but these parables, people, tales, and, events you reference had stuck out to me since you published this story here. The magic of these titles didn't strike me until now, when you titled Chapter 37 "Prometheus." In other words, I appreciate the connections you've made to other texts. I have this brand new urge to study old lore so as to get a better understanding of the connections you're making!
Getting that feeling while reading fanfiction of all things is new to me. I guess I'm a fan
10611119
He told chrysalis about this which seemed like nothing until a few chapters later she planted evidence to convict a changeling in his inner circle. This begs the question of if those attempted rebellions were real or just fabricated excuses for chrysalis to get rid of royal changelings, use it to enforce her rule, or etc.
example: how did she even learn to manipulate the weave without experimentation, who better to experiment with than traitors.
Okay Google, play "One" by Metallica.
The Aura of Command. What a powerful force.
The real question now, is if the siblings get freed, will the Weave the changelings are connected to collapse? Or just the aura of command within the Weave. It was a little un-clear, but adds excellent suspense.
Fantastic chapter! I really love this kind of dark science.
Holy
Fuck
This was... Something.
Phasma, I hope you make some sort of suicide pill (along with a contingency to free the others) if you fail. I personally would rather not "live" a thousand years like that.
Also, a question: What was the "chittering and skittering" noises he heard? From what I understand, the princes/princesses were submerged under some liquid, and thus wouldn't be able to make those kinds of sounds? Was it perhaps something over the weave?
10611675
As ripped apart as there body and brain were they probably cant even think straight to make hole words. Chrysalis would to endure there endless pleads of wishing for death otherwise. The only attempt of communications comes in the most primitive form...
Mousecode! :
" R-e-l-e-a-s-e
u-s
f-r-o-m
t-h-i-s
e-x-i-s-t-a-n-c-e "
10611168 I appreciate the effort, truly. But that video made me uncomfortable. Again, thank you for the effort and the thought.
Me eyes red with anger and rage!!!!!!👹💢👹💢👹💢👹💢👹💢👹💢👹💢👹💢👹💢👹💢👹💢👹💢👹💢👹💢👹
Discord: leo here is a family person he may not get along with them but he still loves them Above All Else
Alucard:WOOOOWand i thought i was a monster.....welp(holds pistol with murderous intent) a bitch gonna die in a slow and painful way👹👹👹👹
10611728
She cant be just killed.
She needs her legs removed so she cant run away from her actions.
She needs her wings cut of to never experience freedome and cant flee to strike another day.
She needs her horn removed so she cant hurt anyone ever again.
She needs to be breeded, so the royal class dont die out.
She literally set herself up so her death means the death of the Changelings royal class and its mental and physical qualitys.
Ones Phasmodias is ready 'physical' to give children/nymphs he needs to breed Chrysalis. At leadz one to three daughters.
A few queens.
Only than is Chrysalis allowed to die.
When the imortal line is secured.
Perhaps starting multible Hives.
One for eatch race!
Phasmodias the Father of Changeling kind.
Leader of the Changeling counsel to gavourment the world from the shadows.
-Peace breeds food.
-Food breeds harmony.
-Harmony breed cooperation.
-Cooperation breed a future for everyone. ♡
10611743
Me looking at this comment then smiling with malicious intent
Alucard:Oooo black soul after my own heart💗💗💗💗💗😈😈😈😈
Freaky
Alriiight now Phasma finally have a good reason to make the first move.
Perhaps he could tell Nightmare Moon about this? Could be very stupid and dangerous, but i'm curious what she might think, and especially if she could read the book to get something useful out of it. (Phasma can just show her the memories of the book in a dream).
Perhaps she could even heal them (Either by herself or using the juicy knowledge from the book)? His brothers and sisters would sure join him against Chrysalis. And having each of them form a new Hive in different parts of the world could only be good for the Changelings.
Oh, and perhaps showing this to some specific changelings might buy their loyalty? I'm thinking about Eucharis, i doubt he knows about it, and if he is indeed his father.... Ħe might understand that his son needs protecting.
"There are no rebels. My brothers and sisters are down there!"
"Come again, did you say brothers and sisters?"
"Affirmative. It's the Winter Contingency."
"May god help us all.."
10610780
Would be a 360-no-scope of a twist if it wasn't Chrysalis who did that, or even knew of the secret lab, but instead is was another changeling... Ooo! Conspiracies galore!
But the easiest explanation is often the right one so, yeah, her little eugenics and recycling program is just another very big nail in this coffin. Thing is, with no moral compass but her own, would Chrysalis even see what she's been doing is "evil" by most standards? "For the greater good", "no choice" and all those tired excuses might be enough to justify it in her own mind. Still, if even NMM says, "Wow, that's messed up dude" then you know it's gotta be Evil with a capital E.
It should be interesting to hear her reaction to what Phasma found in the secret lab.
10611774
Its nessecary really. She is to dangerous to be left alone. Yet her action made sure she must stay alive for the 'greater good' of the hive. I would do the same to a Alicorn if there that twisted.
Queens are the Changeling version of Alicorns.
3 should be enough:
Phasmodias for Equestria
Nr.1 for Griffons
Nr.2 for Zebras
Nr.3 as a backup for Equestria or the other nations. A diplomacy expert. They in turn will have children and the Queen/Royal population will slowly grow over the centuries
Chrysalis is insane but her body can be put to use. After what she did to her own Children and race i think 3 royals ( Queens ) should be enough before she is disposed off.