67: Would you kill the Queen to crush the hive? (Hv)
Would you kill the Queen to crush the hive?
Chapter published 13th May 2014
************
“Okay, team, sing it with me; Three... Two... One...” Scoot grinned wildly as hoof met detonator.
“Let’s Rock!”
Even from a safe... ish distance - and with the sound deadening enchants in the ear sections of her uniform kicking in momentarily as soon as the detonator was pressed - Rainbow still wasn’t truly prepared for the sheer teeth-rattlingly loud boom that followed.
Within seconds of Scoot’s carefully controlled detonation vast clouds of dust and particles of debris filled the entire chamber, covering the team and leaving the formerly black fabric of their Shadowbolt outfits as more of a muted grey. With the noise of the explosion still echoing its way around the vast network of caverns, all six squad members beat their wings in order to clear as much of the dusty haze from the chamber as they could. As the smoke cleared and visibility improved, self cleaning enchants in their clothing kicked in, shrugging off the dirt and grime, leaving each uniform as spotlessly clean and dark as it had been minutes before.
With the air cleared, Rainbow was glad to see that Trixie’s little toys had done their job just as well as she had promised, if not better. One heck of a egotistical braggart the unicorn show-mare may have been, but she sure knew her stuff when it came to making things go ‘snap’, ‘crackle’ or ‘pop’. The spells built into her ‘blow-dough’ had channeled virtually all of the explosive force downwards into the rock and had carved a surprisingly neat hole into the chamber floor, more than big enough for a pegasus to fly through into the room below... which was a good thing as that was exactly what they were about to do with it.
“OK, scouts, time to do your stuff!” RD bellowed, “Everypony else, let’s do it by the numbers. Move! Move! Move!”
Before she had even finished shouting, Blue Fire and Dodge Charger were through the hole and gone, their tails disappearing in the badly lit gloom of the throne room itself. With twin cries of “YEAH! LET’S DO THIS!”, Snake and Brick dove into the hole after their team mates, Snake almost bowling the larger stallion over in her eagerness to start bucking flanks and taking names.
Pausing only to check that Scoot was right behind her, Rainbow dropped through the hole and into the immense chamber below.
To say what she found there was organised bedlam would have been giving it too much credit.
Coming to land behind a large pile of rubble - the result of Scoot’s remodeling of the ceiling above - Rainbow flattened herself against the huge piece of rock and poked her head out. Up ahead of her she could see Dodge and Fire darting their way around the room, ducking and diving behind any decrepit old furniture or scattered piles of debris they could find, popping out into view only long enough to clout any unfortunate changelings that stumbled into hooves-reach with their clubs. As the pair worked their magic, Rainbow knew it would only be a matter of seconds before the banter started.
“Oh, horseapples!” *crack* “We’re gunna die.”
Yep, there it was. RD could hear Dodge shouting to her partner above the noise, as much to keep her mind off of her nerves as it was to let Fire know exactly where her more diminutive friend was at any given time.
“We're not gonna die.” Blue Fire shouted back between club-swings, “we can't die, Dodge. And you know why? Because we are so...” *thump* “very...” *crack* “pretty. We are just too pretty for the creator to let us die.” *thump* “Look at this flank, huh? You ever seen booty this fine anywhere else?”
Changeling bodies flew through the air - one still semi conscious, though not for long as landing near Fire’s hindlegs earned it a swift introduction to both a well placed hoof and the land of dreams - as Snake’s mighty form charged between her two much smaller team-mates.
“HAVE IT!” the cyclopic pegasus cried as she grabbed the closest pair of changelings, tossed one to her partner and headbutted the other into oblivion. A swift face/shoe interface on Brick’s part quickly sent his own changeling off to meet his partner’s victim somewhere in lala-land before both kitbashers jumped back off into the fray.
Brick and Snake were obviously taking more of a ‘shock and awe’ approach than their teammates; the two of them barreling through the middle of the room together, making as much noise as ponily possible, the sandmare enchants in their armoured horseshoes taking down targets as quickly and as surely as the scout’s clubs.
While Bronco Team were making definite in-roads into enemy territory, the changelings were putting up a good fight - for every drone that the team took down at least one more seemed to pop up from nowhere.
“Less yapping, more slapping, ladies!” Rainbow shouted as she grabbed two drones and cracked their heads together, “pick your targets, make them count. Scoot, stick with me.”
“Sweet mother of Celestia,” Scoot whistled, uppercutting an unfortunate assailant that had mistakenly thought her a tasty target, “it’s like they’re coming out of the walls.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow paused in her bout of hoofycuffs just long enough to survey the scene, confident her ‘little sis’ could handle herself for the moment, “but so are we! Check it out.”
On the other side of the room, streaming from a hole much the same as the one Bronco Team had sprung from seconds before, were the six pegasi of Apple Team. Squad leader Spitfire barked orders from up high as her own squad spread out across the room, all kicking flank like they were fresh out’a bubblegum and not all happy about it.
While Bronco team were playing an offensive game on the ground, Apple team were gunning for aerial dominance, and one thing they weren’t about to take was ‘no’ for an answer.
With Spitfire and her second-in-command, Sweet Pea, keeping the rest of their team in order - calling orders, warnings and words of encouragement from their positions high in the cavern’s domed roof - the remaining four had split into pairs and were tag-teaming their way across the room, taking down any changeling that took to the air within seconds and generally owning the skies like they’d found it in a bargin bin.
“There!” Scoot shouted from where she was hovering a few body lengths above Rainbow’s head, ducking as a dazed changeling plummeted past her to meet a sudden - and inevitable - full-stop on the wall behind them, “I can see Twilight and Lyra; they’re over there, middle of the room. On that central dias whatsit by the big throne thingy.”
“Good spot,” with just a few beat of her wings, RD was also in the air, soon spying her herdmates on the other side of the room just as Scoot had described, “let’s get over there.”
Keeping low to the ground, their hooves barely a body-length above the floor, the two of them weaved their way across the cavern, greeting any changelings that came their way with the traditional Shadowbolt greeting of a hoof to the face (admittedly it was early days but this was one tradition that was already well on its way to becoming firmly established) they soon reached the centre of the room.
A plainly exhausted Lyra, still standing guard over her fellow unicorn though she could barely stand herself, was waiting for them as they landed.
“Twi!” Rainbow called to her herdmate, alarmed by the way the unicorn was lying on her side, eyes closed and breathing heavily, “you ok?”
Lifting her head, Twilight opened and eye and gave her wife a weak, pained smile. It may not have been the most reassuring smile in the world, but it was still a smile and Rainbow took that as a good sign.
“I’ve been better.” Twilight grimaced before a sudden wave of pain overwhelmed her, forcing her eyes as she tried to will the pain away..
“Okay, Scoot’s going to look you over,” Rainbow moved out of the way so her teammate could get closer to the distressed unicorn, “that okay with you?”
Eyes still closed, Twilight nodded slowly which Scoot took as permission to start checking her over. As Rainbow pulled a reluctant Lyra away from their herdmate, the younger pegasus went to work, checking Twilight’s vitals and asking questions about her condition.
“Hiya, Horny,” Rainbow pulled a shaky Lyra into a hug, “I told you I’d be back.”
“You took your sweet time,“ on any other day Lyra’s return hug would have cracked Rainbow’s spine, “I see you brought the kiddies with you.”
“Yeah, well, they fancied a day out and I didn’t have the heart to leave them at home.” Rainbow let Lyra go, the pegasi both surprised by how weak the grandmaster was, and as impressed as heck that she was even managing to stay upright without help, “Where’s Lero?”
“Over there,” Lyra tossed her head over towards the cavern’s west wall, it was about all the movement she could manage right then. Turning to face the direction that Lyra had indicated, Rainbow couldn’t believe what she saw.
“Mother of Celestia!” she cried, “has he got her in a headlock?”
“Certainly looks like it.”
“Wow. Shame he didn’t do that to Honeydew back when he had the chance.” Rainbow’s eyes went wide as the writhing queen turned, bringing her neck into view and revealing Lero’s hand as it was held against her throat. “Whoah, horseapples, he’s got a blade. I’d better go help him.”
As Rainbow went to move away, a feeble hoof pulled at her hindleg. Turning she found that it was Twilight that was holding her back.
“Don’t let him hurt her.” The unicorn cried weakly, her voice barely audible over the noise of ongoing battle that still surrounded them.
“What?” A wide-eyed Lyra responded with a grunt of shock. “No no no! Rainbow, feel free to hurt her. I’m all for that.”
“No,” Twilight shook her head, opening her eyes to look up at Rainbow, “she’s confused, desperate. They’re sick, she needs our help. Don’t hurt her... help her. Please.”
“NO,” Lyra shouted, as if she was unable to believe what she was hearing, ”strike now, while we have the advantage. Play to win, that’s what sensei taught us. Remove the head and you remove the threat.”
“No,” Twilight’s breathing became heavier, “she’s just trying to save her young.”
“NO!” Lyra feebly stamped a hoof in a way that would have cracked stone had she been at full power, “Then that’s all the more reason to take her out now! There’s nothing more dangerous than a threatened mother, you never know what they’ll do.”
Lyra was angry, really really angry. Rainbow could see it in her eyes. She’d never seen the usually unflappable grandmaster as furious and as determined as she was right now.
And to be honest, it was a bit scary.
“She’s weakened, we have her.” Lyra turned her gaze to Rainbow, her eyes changing from angry to pleading, “she had her chance... she made her move and she lost. We should put her down for good, now, while we still can.”
“No, we can’t.” Twilight pulled her hoof back from Rainbow’s leg and held it against her own chest as she coughed. “She’s crazy, yes, but I don’t think she’s evil. She needs our help, really needs it... she just doesn’t know how to ask for it.”
“Don’t trust them,” Lyra grabbed Rainbow by the shoulders, “you can never trust them. I learnt that that hard way, when they invaded Canterlot. I was on to them, I had her sussed, but they caught me, used me, turned me... turned me into a puppet. They took away from me what was mine, the only thing that was still mine...”
Releasing her herdmate’s shoulder, Lyra tapped a forehoof against her head, as if she was trying to knock an idea loose and failing miserably.
“I spent years getting my head, my life, back under my own control... and then she took it all away from me again, the one thing that was mine! Just like that! They twisted me into some kind of brainwashed drone. We can’t trust them, any of them... ever! I’ll never forgive them for what they did to me, what they made me do. We have to deal with them now, all of them. Before it’s too late!”
Rainbow turned to see what how Lero was doing. The human was still wrapped around the changeling queen, clinging tightly with his legs clamped around her barrel and an arm around her neck. She was standing very very still, but she was still alive though the expression on her face transcended species... she was obviously terrified.
Turning back to Lyra, Rainbow paused for a second before responding to her herdmate’s plea.
“You know why I was given the element of loyalty?” the pegasi asked. “Because sometimes it’s about making the hard decisions, the unpopular choices that no mare should have to make. Sometimes you’ve gotta make that call, cos nopony else will... or should ever have to. And then you’ve gotta have the strength to stand by that decision, no matter what happens next.”
Pulling Lyra towards her, Rainbow hugged her wife tightly, knowing that what she was about to say would ruffle a few feathers.
“So here’s my decision.”
The pegasus let her unicorn herdmate go, but not without making sure that Lyra could see the look in her eyes, the expression that said the choice was made and there’d be no arguments about it.
“We’re saving them, all of them. No one dies today, not on my watch, not if I can help it.”
Lyra opened her mouth to speak but said nothing. Instead she rocked back and forth on weary hooves, her agitation plastered across her features as an internal battle raged deep within her.
From the floor behind her came Twilight’s voice, her words shaky and forced through laboured breathing as Scootaloo busied around her.
“Lyra, you know she’s right,” the pregnant mare said, her words not much more than a hoarse whisper. “We’re not monsters... and I don’t think that they are either. We’re scared and desperate, all of us... but we can still fix this.”
As Twilight’s words sank in, Lyra hung her head, her body visibly sagging as anger and frustration and pent-up energy fled from her form.
“Go,” she said quietly, “do what you want.”
“Good girl,“ Rainbow pulled the minty unicorn into another hug, ”it’ll work out, I promise.”
Ending the hug, Rainbow lifted Lyra’s head with a forehoof and placed a quick kiss on her forehead, just below her horn. Lyra tried to give her a small smile in return, but her heart just wasn’t in it.
Reaching down to where Scootaloo was still checking Twilight’s form over, Rainbow cast an eye over the proceedings and was satisfied that there was nothing immediately life threatening about her herdmate’s condition.
“Scoot, do what you can for Twi, I’m gunna go help Lero. I’ll be back in a minute, I promise.”
After giving Twilight what she hoped was her most confident grin, Rainbow turned and made her way across the bedlam that was the throne room, hoping that by now her stallion hadn’t done anything that they couldn’t fix.
As Rainbow drew closer to where Lero and the Queen struggled, the human must have said something to the queen as she suddenly started writhing and twisting and generally doing her best to throw the human from her back again.
Once she came to with a scant few body-lengths of the tussling pair, the pegasus could just about make out the hissed conversation between the two of them.
“You can't be serious?” the queen asked, her voice wavering, fear spread thickly through her otherwise raspy and guttural tones.
“Try me,” the human whispered into her ear as his hand pushed whatever it was he was using as a blade further into the queen’s neck, her eyes opening wider as the cutting edge pushed its way deeper into her flesh.
With his attention focused solely on his unwilling steed, his teeth clenched and brow furrowed with both a deep determination and something else that Rainbow had never seen before. So intent was he on his... well, ‘prey’ was the only word that came to mind... that the human didn’t notice his wife standing just a few feet away from him.
“Hey, big guy,” Rainbow called softly, hoping that she wouldn’t spook him. Making him jump right now could end really badly for his captive and, much as she knew Lyra wouldn't mind, negotiations didn’t usually end well when one party was dead.
Quickly? Yes. Favourably? No.
The way her stallion’s bloodied hand remained wrapped around his makeshift blade while the other curled its fingers against his victim’s neck...
The way that his teeth were clenched so hard that blood was now mixing with the spittle around the edges of his mouth...
The way his eyes shifted almost imperceptibly from the side of the terrified queen’s face to her own...
The way he sized her up, just for a second...
...and she knew, just knew, that in that split second, in some some small, deeply buried part of her lover’s brain, his predator’s instincts had been sizing her up as a potential target.
Rainbow had never, ever been scared of her stallion before today, but in that brief moment, as ancient prey species instincts kicked into life deep in her own brain, she’d never been so truly frightened in her life.
“Hey, Lero,“ Rainbow said softly, pushing any fear she might be feeling aside, “think maybe you could let go of her for me?”
His eyes never leaving hers, Lero shook his head by just the tiniest amount, a barely perceptible movement that she wouldn't have seen had she not been looking right at him.
“Not happening,” he growled through clenched teeth, “you might be one of these changeling things. How do I know this isn’t a trick?”
The human’s hand gripped even tighter at the changeling’s neck, causing her to gasp for breath. Queen Aurelia’s eyes, the only thing she dare move right now, flicked back and forth between her captor and the only thing right now that seemed to be delaying her death.
“Good point, you’ve got me there,“ Rainbow agreed, the queen squeaking in dismay as the rest of her life flashed before her eyes- it was distressingly short.
“Hey, how about something a changeling wouldn’t know about us?“ Rainbow asked.
“Go on,” Lero grunted, still not taking his eyes off of the pegasus.
“Okay, so you know I’m the element of loyalty...”
“Oh, come on! Even the changelings know that.” Lero snapped, pulling the queen’s head closer to his face. “You knew that, right?”
Grimacing in pain, the queen nodded very slowly and very, very carefully.
“Yes...” she sputtered, “we knew that.”
“See”, Lero grinned, the blood on his teeth was not an attractive look, “they knew that.”
“Well, yeah.” Rainbow agreed, quickly adding while she still had her stallion’s attention, “But here’s the thing, big guy, I’m the element of loyalty for a reason. Like Luna said, it’s not just about being true to your friends, but also about being true to yourself, and encouraging others to do the same. What was it you said, years ago? Back when we let Rainbow Connection go for good? ‘To this above all...’?”
Letting her words hang in the air, Rainbow prayed that, even in this deranged and irrational state, Lero would be able to remember that day all those years ago. When they’d laid to rest a mare who’d been a good friend to him... and had been even more than that to Rainbow herself. In truth, who could be closer to you than another version of yourself?
She didn’t have to wait long for Lero to respond, her words floating back to her. As the words passed his lips his fingers loosened around the queen’s neck, the changeling at least now free to breathe even though he still held her quite tightly...
’To this above all, to thine own self be true.‘
“Yes,” Rainbow almost shouted with relief, “we should be true to ourselves, and you should be true to you, always! And this? This isn't you.”
With a sweep of one wing, Rainbow took in Lero and the Queen, his fingers on her throat, his hand against the oozing wound on her neck.
“You’re a lover, not a fighter, big guy. A father and a teacher and a provider and all those other great things... but you're not a killer, this isn’t you.”
Stepping closer, a single wing outstretched, the pegasus gently brushed a wingtip against her mate’s face.
“Come down from there, please, before you do something we can’t undo.”
With his lover’s wing against his cheek, Lero looked around the cavern for the first time since he’d seen his chance and made his desperate move.
From his wife’s face his eyes roamed around the room, taking in the the few remaining changing guards still standing as they were herded into small groups, to the Shadowbolts doing the herding, from the piles of debris and broken furniture that littered to room to where he could make out the green of Lyra’s coat and the purple of Scootaloo’s mane as they tended to Twilight as she lay against the remains of the queen’s throne.
It was over... it really was over.
Releasing his hold on the queen’s neck, Lero lifted a leg as if to get off of his captive’s barrel, though his rapidly fleeing strength meant that he more slid from her back and into his wife’s waiting hooves. With the queen all but forgotten, the two embraced like their lives depended on it, the tired, battered and bloody human pulling the smaller mare against his chest with every ounce of what little strength he had left.
“You came back!“ the human cried into Rainbow’s shoulder as she returned the hug.
“Of course.” Rainbow stroked at her mate’s hair as he collapsed into her, the human falling to his knees as if all of his bones had suddenly been turned into rubber and were no longer strong enough to hold him up. “Didn’t I say I would? Dashie always delivers, you know that.”
While the two recently reunited lovebirds were... busy - Lero was reeeally glad to be rescued, and it seemed RD was just as glad that he was still alive to be rescued - Blue Fire and Dodge Charger arrived on the scene.
The pair of scouts quickly took up guard positions on either side of the changeling queen, making it quite obvious to the defeated monarch that she was to stay exactly where she was. They also made it plain that if she didn't do as she was told then not only would they make sure that she wouldn’t make it far but they’d be sure to do it with a smile on their faces. Dodge was very emphatic about this point.
After giving their squad leader a few more precious seconds with her husband, Fire cleared her throat in order to get Rainbow’s attention.
“Hey, boss,” she asked, “what you want done with Queeny here?”
“Err, what? Nothing.” Rainbow self consciously pushed an errant portion of her mane back out of her face “That’s for the princesses to decide. Just make sure she doesn’t try anything until they can get here.”
“Yes, ma’am. Already on it, ma’am.” Fire smirked as her fearless leader wiped at her face with a forehoof. Kissing a sweaty, bloody, dirt-covered human had left marks all over the mouth part of her uniform that she was only managing to smear around rather than clean off.
“Ahem, yeah, carry on then.” Rainbow gave up on cleaning her outfit when she noticed that whatever Lero had jammed into the Queen’s throat was not only still in there but that it was also obviously causing her a not inconsiderable amount of discomfort.
“And see if you can get one of Apple Team’s medics over here to get whatever’s in her neck out without hurting her,” she added.
“It changes nothing, little pony,” the queen muttered sadly, “we’re still done for. If we do not die today, we will still die some other day.”
“Hey lady, don’t give up so easy!” leaning forward, Rainbow poked the large changeling in the chest with the forehoof that wasn't holding her stallion up, “you're not dead yet, so there’s still hope. The show’s not over ‘till the fat griffin sings.”
“The fat...?” Queen Aurelia tilted her head, wincing as the movement caused the edge of Lero’s blade to dig further into her flesh, “what does an overweight griffin have do with anything?”
As she smiled down at Lero, one of his arms slung around her shoulders as he sagged against her side, Rainbow pulled the human into another hug.
“Never mind, “ she said, “I’m sure Lero will have a great time explaining that one to you some other time. Right now let’s just-”
“Hey! Sis!”
Scoot’s frantic shout drew everyone's attention. “You’d better get over here. This doesn't look- urgh!”
“What is it?” Rainbow called back, finding turning in place harder to do while propping up a large, semi-collapsed human. When she did manage to to get a good look at her young teammate she found that the orange pegasus’ uniform was soaking wet and the front of her mane was plastered to her face and dripping with something that definitely wasn't water.
“Oh by Luna, this doesn’t look good.” Lyra called out, wiping at Scoot’s face as the younger mare started pulling medical supplies from within the many pouches on her belt. “Twi’s waters just broke. We’re foaling over here!”
“What, now?” Even with a human in tow, Rainbow was at her herdmate’s side within seconds.
“But she’s not due for months!” she stammered as she dropped Lero off by Twilight’s head before joining Scootaloo and Lyra down by the unicorn’s tail.
“Tell that to the baby!” Scoot grinned wildly as she slathered copious amounts of hoof-cleanser all over her forelimbs, “Okay ladies, best clean yourselves up because ready or not, I think the newest member of the family’s about to arrive.”
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Oh yeah, the "light-hearted" stuff. I'm on to you!
Nice to see Rainbow, of all ponies, is the one keeping her head as everyone else loses theirs... even Lyra.
Good call working in the fact that she was brainwashed by Changelings during the Royal Wedding. Girl's still got issues, despite all. I can't wait to see how all this yet sorts out...
Foal does what foal wants, and it wants out xD. Also great job rainbow and twilight saving their mates from doing something they would regret.
I liked it, especially Lyra losing her calm and demanding harsh consequences as a counterpoint. I found it a bit weird how Rainbow and Scoots went mostly ignored by the Changelings after they reached Lyra and Twilight. The rest of Apple and Bronco team may have kept them busy but it seems strange how not a single changeling went for the easy targets.
Here are some minor typos.
Hmm, for pouring out of the walls would had expected RD to had to fight a little more.
Looking forward to more. As usual still hoping the light hearted stuff involves swim club or the moonshine arc. Keep doing whatcha doin.
4385082
Got 'em... cheers.
A foal that's months premature? Scoot must not be a very good medic if she doesn't understand how dangerous that is.
"Pegasi" is plural, dummy.
4385441
Maybe. Depends on the training, I could completely be wrong but I believe most early medics where trained with the basics to keep wounded alive. I'm sure now a days they have more training but maybe Equestrias military hasn't gotten that far.
I'm guessing the timing is a 9-months / 11-months thing.
You really should consider putting in a ‘chapter zero’ index page detailing where the various arks start and stop as well as which chapters are standalone. With the seemingly random update order, it’s getting really confusing trying to work out what part of the story I’m about to read/currently reading. That aside this is yet another excellent update and I look forward to seeing the rest of this ark play through.
P.S. Word 2010 grammar corrector recommended I change “I’m about to read” to “I is about to read.” Dark times ahead!
Lovely Firefly quote you have there.
~Hearnishere123
4385441
Equine foals take eleven months, but human babies only take 9. I'm guess then next child is going to be mostly human with some traces of pony, like a satyr, instead of mostly pony with some traces of human like the first foal was. It explains why she could barely feel its magic of harmony and why it seems so early to them.
I just hope that the queen of the changeling
and princesses come to a peaceful solution
they are just misunderstood and deserve a chance
Oh come on! I wanted some damn stabbing
We had how many chapters of casually murdering changelings en masse for dash to suddenly be the advocate for peace? The Dash that organized a crack commando raid that was cracking skulls left and right with nary a thought?
boooo
I hope he baby is cute at least.
4385523
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzihls5CVoU
That's what happens when you hybridize with a species with a shorter gestational period, girls.
Also, Dash was... probably right to talk Lero down. If nothing else, he'd regret killing Auriela. We'll see how the princesses take it from here.
Looking forward to more.
About the whole Rainbow Connection thing, you really need to finish that one and I hope from those words, it sounds like Rainbow Connection lingered on in Rainbow Dash after they swap back instead of the final words they say to Connection before swapping back. I'm also glad that they remember of the lesson of reminding their friends who they are. I mean I really, really need to know how Lero fights this curse to get himself back to normal and help Twilight. Anyway you better finish BOTH of those arcs, before going ahead to do light hearted chapters. Because the Swap arc is nowhere near as light hearted as it was when it first written and I'm losing sleep over Lero being brainwashed as the other girls.
A lot here I liked! Such as...
1) Scootaloo more grown up and kicking ass.
2)
3)
<- Such questions this evokes!
4)
And you find a way to tie two of my favorite plot arcs in this Further Tales storyline together:Changelings and The Swap. Exciting!
5)
Ho boy.
Keep 'em coming, buddy!
I very much appreciate the Firefly reference.
Months before due and without medical facilities worth the name… Not a good prognosis.