Devourer

by Croabadrake

Chapter Five: Devourer's Dream

Luna waited for the glow through her eyelids to recede before she opened them. She was surrounded by a dark void again, but this time there were objects floating around. Some objects were small while others were large, while the range of the numerous objects’ natures varied: some objects were fairly normal, like a chair here or a flower there; others were strange, such as a large gray cylinder of some sort filled with holes or a small whirlpool made of what looked to be stone. Luna recognized that she was not fully in the dream yet, as it sometimes happened: instead, her being was still aligning with it, and until then she could glimpse little bits and pieces of the dreamer’s psyche. Of course, what she saw was very rarely of any use but it was still usually interesting.

After a moment and several more odd objects floating by, Luna felt her hooves touch solid ground. Sort of. She couldn’t see it, but she was on a flat surface, almost as though she were standing on glass. This was common, too, for dreams that didn’t have a distinct setting. The void changed from near-black to a light, smoke-like color and consistency. She could still catch glimpses of the normal void through the smoke appearance; yet again, normal for some dreams.

Luna suddenly heard laughter nearby. A large group of ponies were laughing. She turned to find the noise, and as she finally fully aligned herself with the dream the image faded into view.

There was a large, round table surrounded by ponies. Several of them she recognized as ponies that had gone missing around the castle, but some of them appeared to be normal ponies that could have come from anywhere. They were all eating from plates on the table, and anything they didn’t like was pushed through a hole behind the plates and disappeared. At one end of the table sat….. the thing.

The table was obviously made for pony use, which made the creature look even bigger than the reports described. It sat cross-legged and towered over its end of the table, though its arms were more than long enough to reach the food on its plate. It was covered in black plating highly similar to that of the changelings, but there were small gaps that opened up in some places as it moved, revealing grey flesh. Its head resembled a dragon’s more than a changeling’s though it had no horns, hair, or ridges to decorate it. It had no tail and no wings, further differentiating it from actual changelings, and its feet were similar to clawed hooves. Its arms were extremely long, long enough to easily reach its knees if it were to stand up straight, and ended in actual hand-like claws.

Luna drew back for a moment before she noticed that it was laughing and socializing with the ponies at the table. Its voice was rough, but not too different from what one would expect from any normal pony save for the fact that its voice seemed gender-neutral. Most of the conversation seemed to be concentrated on it, with the other ponies asking it questions about itself; they addressed it as “Devourer”. Luna stood by quietly, listening and being thankful that she was capable of willing herself to not be seen by the dreamer.

“Devourer!” a maid pony said after swallowing a large bite of bread, “why are you so tall?”

“Good question!” it replied with a laugh. “I guess I’m just so tall so I can see who’s around me!”

For some reason this seemed hilarious to the group, and they broke out into a fresh bout of laughter. When they began to calm down, a sophisticated looking mare spoke.

“Devourer! How much work do you put into your tunnels?”

“Ah, I put a little bit of myself into every tunnel! Not by choice, though, thanks to the unmagical aura I leave around! You could say, it’s a….. hygiene problem!”

Again, they all began laughing. That question was interesting. Luna thought it over while they continued to laugh. So Shining Armor’s theory was right in that it had tunnels going through the floors and walls of the castle. How could it fit though? Some of the walls were barely thick enough for a normal pony, much less something like the Devourer. She looked at it again and noticed that its plating had joints that could possibly allow it to flatten itself out: that must be how. If it was using the tunnels to capture ponies… Luna shuddered, hoping that they were alright. Another pony, one that seemed to be one of her missing guards, began to speak.

“Devourer, Devourer!” he cried. “Why do you eat so much?”

Immediately, the joyful atmosphere dissipated. Everyone, including the guard that asked the question, suddenly fell silent all at once. Luna grew tense.

“Why…… do I eat so much?” The Devourer repeated. It wasn’t looking at anypony in particular, but its gaze instead seemed to be wandering across them all. They looked back at it with silent, worried expressions.

It placed its hands on the table and pushed downward to help itself stand up slowly. When it reached its full height, Luna was again grateful that the huge creature couldn’t see her.

“I…. eat……. Because I can,” it said slowly and somberly. It turned away from the table. “I eat…… because I….. I hunger…” it continued, its voice faltering a little bit. Luna heard it draw a sharp breath as it turned back towards the table clutching its head and closing its eyes. The table and those surrounding it faded away while the creature remained. It stayed in this position with heavy, unsteady breathing for several tense moments.

“WHY!?” it suddenly shouted, making Luna jump. It turned around a third time to face the massive vortex of silver liquid that was suddenly forming in the sky. “WHY!?” it yelled again as the vortex slowed its circular movement to a crawl. The creature took several stomping steps in its direction while holding its claws out at it.

“WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!?” it screamed. “You thought yourself kind enough to bless me with life-unending, but then you gave me hunger-insatiable!? Father, you know I loved you! Father, you know I loved what you did and what you created! I served you faithfully, and I served your creations faithfully. For a time, I even served under your greatest creation, your own acolyte as he brought chaos and destruction into this world! I lived with the hunger through all of that time, through all of those tasks, using it for the purpose that you gave it to me for! I devoured as much as I could, and it wasn’t good enough for you!”

The creature continued shouting at the vortex as it began to claw the air in front of it, as though it thought it could tear at it from where it stood. “Do I truly have your favor, father!? Did any of your creations, even your acolyte, ever truly have your favor and love!? You abandoned us, father, and that’s why your acolyte failed both times! Why none of your other creations have risen to power, and why I hunger eternally! Father, I….. loved you….. Father…. I said it before, and I will say it again…”

The vortex began to spin faster at the last sentence. Was it actually listening? Was it an actual manifestation of its father, or just how it saw him?

And then the creature’s voice rose even farther, into a mix of unearthly screaming and screeching.
“I. AM. NO LONGER. YOURS. I AM NOT YOURS. I AM NOT YOURS! I AM NOT YOURS! I AM NOT YOURS! I AM NOT YOURS! I AM NOT YOURS! I AM NOT-“

Luna had to cover her ears to block out the sound of its screaming, which had grown near-unbearable in volume. It continued to scream, and it screamed, and it screamed still. For what felt like hours, it screamed nothing but that single sentence over and over and over; over time, its voice began to change. Its voice went from the normal-sounding one to sounding gravelly, and from gravelly to being barely indistinguishable from an intensely loud gurgling. It finally ended with an agonized scream that still deafened Luna even through her covering her ears.
“FATHER CHAOS…….. I AM NOT YOURS!!!”

The creature seemed to stumble forward a few steps. Luna couldn’t tell whether it had lost its balance or if it was trying to reach the vortex. The whirlpool of metal vanished from the sky and the Devourer fell to its knees. It breathed heavily, seemingly on the verge of passing out.

There was a long, long moment of silence as Luna contemplated her options. She felt sorry for it… if what it was talking about was true then it was a creation of a being of pure primordial chaos: the same force that had created Discord, apparently. Even though it was suffering, however, she didn’t want to risk making herself visible to try and comfort it. She didn’t know how it would react to her, even with her good intentions. After a moment, she decided against it: she had much more information than when she entered the dream, and that was good enough. If there came a time to use this personal information to try and defuse a situation then she would do so, but right now she was to remain hidden.

The Devourer eventually stood back up. It stood up straight and Luna noticed that a purple liquid had been trailing out of its eyes as well as several gaps in its armor. Its eyes turned and wandered around the space they were in. It suddenly seemed confused. It began to turn in a circle, starting in the direction opposite Luna, reacting with bewilderment. Could it be that it…?

“Where am I?” It said, its voice no longer pleasantly normal but instead having the same gurgling mixed in with the gravelly voice, the same as when it stopped screaming. “Where… is this place?”

It continued to turn until an image of a large changeling appeared… a changeling royal, it would seem, but it wasn’t Queen Chrysalis. The Devourer saw it and drew back, before immediately falling to one knee and bowing. The unknown changeling queen stepped forward and stopped a few feet in front of it. She spoke.

“Why do you serve us?”

The Devourer remained still for a moment… then it raised its head without changing its stance.

“I serve you… I serve you and all of your kind, the changelings. You showed me kindness in a world thankless of my curses and my appearance. A world that rejected my black armored body and was repulsed by my unending hunger. You… allowed me to stay with you in your hive and you gave me food. You gave me a purpose, allowing me to consume the harmony you made: gave a use to my eating your walls and rooms. You accepted me into your home and even trusted me with the care of the swarm’s young from time to time…”

The purple liquid began to leak from its eyes and some of the holes in its armor again. “You let me sit at your table with your children and you spoke to me, knowing what I was. You promised me that none would know where I came from, promised that the nature of my being was to be lost to your swarm. You gave me something to live for in my eternality, filling an endless hollow. You even went so far as to care for me, you cared about how I felt and how I was doing…..”

The two kept eye contact for a brief moment. Then the creature fell to its other knee as well and moved forward, embracing the changeling queen in an awkward hug. She raised a hoof and returned it with a small smile. Its odd manner of crying stopped as it remained there for a moment. Then, it backed up and met eyes with the changeling queen.

“Q-Queen Spindle, I-I still serve your swarm,” it said shakily. “I still serve them with the same loyalty as when you took me in! Y-your granddaughter, she leads with grace r-resembling your own, a-and we still have success i-in some of our raids! And w-we—“

Queen Spindle held her hoof up and the Devourer stopped. “I know… I know.”

The Devourer gave a smile as uneven as its voice was and seemed happy for a moment. Luna felt good that it was able to find some peace, and was also pleased at finding its connection to the changelings. Perhaps it could be reasoned with if they could meet while awake, but for now—

An expression of shock suddenly came over the Devourer’s face. It stood straight up on its knees, still taller than Luna. Luna was suddenly snapped out of the moment, aware that something was wrong. The Devourer looked away from her, searching for something, and then it looked in her direction. Then, its vision fell downward and it made eye contact with her.

Its eyes began to widen as Luna ejected herself from the dream in a panic.

Comments

[Razzy]

Huh, interesting backstory.

Welp, you pissed him off.