Prologue: Summoning
Prologue
The cavern echoed with the hoofsteps of Queen Chrysalis, the green glow from her horn lighting the way. A large retinue of changelings followed her, their eyes always flicking to and fro to make sure that there were no immediate threats in the area. One of them was carrying a large tome on its back, balancing it with a machine like expertise.
She took a left seemingly at random and continued for a good few minutes, passing stalactite after stalactite, stalagmite after stalagmite until they reached a stone-carved pedestal. In front of it was what seemed to be a round altar with a slightly raised platform in the centre. Four torches on each side of the altar caught fire as she approached.
The changeling with the book came over and bowed, allowing her to levitate it off of his back and onto the pedestal in front of her. It had been stolen from the Canterlot Archives in the recent attack on Canterlot, scratches and burn marks on the cover of the book hinting at the effort that had been taken to retrieve it. It did not have a title on it, just a simple brown cover, of what material she was unsure.
She flipped through a few of the pages, pausing now and again to look at the various creatures, until she found what she was looking for. An illustration of the beast she was seeking filled up the first page of the bio. It showed it bipedal, naked and with only a small mane on its head. It was also, she looked again to make sure, a male.
The description had been mostly torn or scratched out and the words ‘DO NOT EVER SUMMON’ were scrawled on the remaining paper. A small part of the description, however, was still readable.
-verfree Forest. This particular being has a property that hitherto has not been observed elsewhere . It is almost completely resistant to most kinds of majicks and nullifies the effects of it when nearby.
Other than this the only place she had been able to get information about them were books on mythology, and even they were very sparing with their description. They were supposed to be big and scary, and they snuck into little foals rooms and ate them up. Now she knew what to get him when he was hungry.
The anti-magic effect would be a problem though. Once she summoned him, the spells and wards that would usually bind a summoned creature to its master would almost definitely be broken, so she had brought offerings, an assortment of pillaged items, just in case.
She turned the page again and looked at the details on summoning a human. It was a lengthy spell and would require all of her energy to pull off. One of the key components was a sentient living sacrifice, a side note explaining that this was one of very few ways to get magic to affect magic-resistant beings.
A changeling came forward from the group and stood next to her. She patted him on the head.
“The hive thanks you for your sacrifice. I can assure you, it will not be in vain,” she said. The changeling nodded, expressionless and sat on the centre of the altar. As cold as the Equestrians thought she was, she really did care for her subjects, just as much as Celestia did for hers, and although she knew it, the ruler of the sun would never admit it.
She started the spell, her eyes glowing green as she uttered more words of the ancient incantations.
---
The Changelings had been there for hours now, waiting for their queen to finish the spell. One of them had taken to sifting through the things they had brought, trying to stave off the boredom it felt. They began to converse amongst themselves.
“When will we return home?” asked one.
“When the monster has been summoned. We’ll need its help to get back our brothers and sisters from those unicorns,” replied another. "The creature is supposed to have-"
“Keep it quiet back there!” Chrysalis shouted. All the changelings shut their mouths.
It was another few minutes before something happened. Everypony had been expecting some kind of flash of light, a noise, anything. What actually happened was a lot less dramatic.
As Luna flew across the night sky, a sudden feeling of emptiness overcame her, sending a shiver down her spine. She felt like something had just come into existence or, more accurately, that nothing had. She had felt the void far away, beyond Equestria’s borders. She was certain it had come from beyond the ocean. She’d have to talk to her sister about this.
The changeling disappeared, and the human materialised into existence in its place dressed in a three-piece suit, holding up a glass. Its eye level was a little higher than hers but if her horn was taken into account, she was still taller. On its face was a short beard. He didn’t seem quite as fearsome as she’d thought and she got a creeping suspicion he was just as soft as the ponies in Equestria. She really hoped that wasn’t the case.
There was a warm smile painted on his face, in fact, Chrysalis could feel the love radiating off of him. She couldn’t see the faces of her subjects, but she was sure beyond a doubt that they were smiling in anticipation of their meal, advancing on the beast.
She turned and gave them a quick glare, reminding them this wasn’t their prey. They cowered under her gaze and retreated into the darkness.
When she looked back it was no longer smiling. Instead its expression had gone blank and it was staring at her. She stared right back at it, waiting for it to do something. After a minute it looked into its glass, as if it wasn’t sure what was in it.
“Uh... what... have I been drugged?” She realised it was a male.
“I can assure you that I have done no such thing. I summoned you here human,” she said.
The words didn’t seem to process in his head but after a few seconds he spoke again.
“Summoned? Like, magic?” his tone held disbelief in it. He had probably thought his resistance to magic to be immunity to magic.
“Ah, yes, you probably aren’t used to magic are you?” she said, forcing a smile. He shook his head. “I’m... sorry if it caused you any discomfort.”
-William-
“It’s no problem,” William responded automatically. His brain had kicked into autopilot as he tried to figure out what was going on. He did however note her slightly surprised reaction to his answer. Whatever she was.
Not really sure on what to do next he took a swig of the water in his glass. One minute he’s making a toast at his sister’s wedding, the next he’s standing in a cavern with a cheese-legged unicorn insect... whatever it was telling him she’d used magic to summon him. He didn’t know what to make of it. She also knew what he was, which prompted a whole other host of questions to spring into his head.
He wondered what his next course of action should be.
“I don’t suppose you could send me back?” he asked, his voice a little shaky now. She looked down sadly.
“Sadly no, human. As you may know, your resistance to magic makes it hard or even impossible to perform spells on you. It isn’t within my power to do such a thing.”
“...oh...” Apparently magic did exist. And he was resistant to it. That was... quite cool actually. But no time to dwell on that. “Then how’d you get me here?”
She paused for a moment, as though she wasn’t expecting that question from him.
“W-well, you aren’t immune to all magic. Summoning, for example still works on you. To unsummon you requires a whole different set of spells and even more energy, neither of which I have.’ She looked completely serious.
He wasn’t sure if she was telling the truth or not, but he didn’t have any knowledge to test it against, so he would just have to take her word. He had initially thought about stating that magic didn’t exist, but realised that him being transported to another world (Or maybe he really was just drugged?) should be proof enough to blow his statement straight out of the water. Again they went silent.
“So, why did you summon me then?” This was the only question he could think to ask.
She seemed to sadden again.
“For your help.” This caught him off guard. “You see human, I am Queen Chrysalis, and as a queen it’s my duty to my subjects to keep them safe, fed and out of harms way.” She started pacing. “For the longest time my children and I were roaming the world, looking for somewhere to settle down peacefully. Everywhere we went was freezing cold, infested by monsters or was completely devoid of anything we could sustain ourselves with. Then we found Equestria.”
“The inhabitants weren’t all out to kill us, the sun was warm and the land rich. I went to the capital and begged their leader Celestia to let us stay, but, she turned us down. Normally we would have just gone along to find another kingdom, but while I was meeting her she had her army forcibly subdue my changelings!”
He vaguely remembered changelings from a book on folklore he once read. What was it they ate...
“Now she keeps them prisoner, forcing them to work for her. These few are all that are left.”
A dozen changelings walked out of the darkness and assembled behind their queen.
It was apparent from her explanation that this ‘Celestia’ was some kind of tyrant. What wasn’t apparent was why they needed him to be there.
“What good will I do? How am I supposed to do anything? In fact, how do you even know what I am?” he asked getting more frustrated as his brain made more and more connections. His head started to feel light.
She looked quite irked at his sudden outburst but quickly hid it.
“I found out about your kind from books, though not very much was said, just that you could resist magic, which answers your next question. You naturally disrupt magical fields! My children are being held by magical shields and wards which I can’t crack because I’m too weak now.”
Now that he looked, he realised that she did seem a little lethargic. Even the Changelings seemed exhausted from what he now assumed was hunger.
“You just need to get close to the shields and that’s it. No more, no less.”
That sounded quite easily, actually. His only real problem was, ignoring the fact that he was now on another world, what reason was there to help them. Sure it was probably the right thing to do, but she had brought him wherever here was and wasn’t able to send him back, he really didn’t feel like he was getting anything out of it if it ended with him being left to die at the end, alone in an alien world.
As if she could sense his thoughts she added, “If you help us, I can find a way to get you back home. If you can free more of my subjects then I will be more powerful. If I’m more powerful... I’m sure you can see where this is going. So what’s your decision?”
William could definitely see where this was going. He looked at his other options and realised there were none. It was help her or... whatever awaited him in this world.
He sighed.
“I’ll do it.”
Stats
Page generated in 0.02 seconds
Total duration
946 users online
121,974 hits today, 2,314,256 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Meanwhile…
His eyes were clenched shut waiting for the pane or some other sensation. He felt tingly for a moment but nothing else really happened. Slowly he opened his eyes to reveal his normal hole ridden hooves. He lifted one of them and poked himself a couple of times.
“I’m alive! I’m still alive!” He shouted in joy, hovering up and doing a quick spin in the air before settling back down to see…
Creatures, al sat around dozens of round tables looking rather shocked. But not just any creatures, creatures that roughly resembled the one Chrysalis meant to summon.
Somewhere in the back ground a glass smashed against the floor.
Smiling sheepishly he searched for something to say. “Uh… Hi!” He guessed the Queens interpretation of the spell hadn’t been the best.
My thoughts (In emoticons):
Anyway, good story, i'll be keeping up with this.
1861700 Best "MEANWHILE" I've ever read. Here, have a moustache
1861700 have TWO mustaches
1861700 This needs to be a side story now
1861700 That should totally be a story of its own.
1861700 All of the yes.
1861700
Throwing my vote in for side story. Make it happen
My name is William. And so I caught immediate interest. Liking the story so far.
My name is William. And so I caught immediate interest. Liking the story so far.
Very interesting concept. I suppose that you could have made the human a bit more familiar or relatable to the audience, but all the same this seems interesting. The perspective difference for ponies versus Changelings (is one evil? if so which?) definitely gives quite a bit to work with; i will track this to see if you expand well upon that concept.
Also, as a sidenote, it's hilarious that Chrysalis points out that she cares about her subjects as much as Celestia does right before using one in a ritualistic sacrifice. XD
Sonofagoddamnbiscut! Humans resistant to magic has been in my head for ages!!!
1861700
Equal Exchange - All my yes.
shiggy diggy doo dah
1861700 you deserve a reward for that.
Wow, ok this guy is clearly an idiot. Some demonic-looking thing just grabs you out of your dimension and drops a bunch of self-serving explanations upon you... and sure enough, he believes it right away.
Frankly, if this happened to me, even if it was the PONIES who summoned me, I'd be suspicious as hell. After all, THERE IS NO WAY TO KNOW WHAT THE TRUTH IS!!!
Also, the little loophole that interdimensional summoning magic works on him is way too plot-convenient. There must then be the implication that other magic can be 'modified' to resemble the structure of those spell to then affect him, or something akin to that.
Also, merely being immune to magic isn't that much of an advantage. The earth ponies, given what they can accomplish in the show, are tens of times stronger than a human. A single solid buck would throw his rib cage through his spine. Or just break his neck... human necks are the WEAKEST per size in the entire mammal family. That is biological fact. Horses have quite strong necks.
Also, the idea that ponies would want changeling slaves is rather... odd. Generally, you don't keep slaves that have powers far beyond your own which could have even the potential to be used against you. The ponies killing every changeling they find I can believe. But keeping them? Except for a few in zoos under heavy guard, I just don't see it being a sensible thing anypony with a lick of self-preservation would do.
i give it 8 out of 12 yays
You have impressed me good sir. I'm reading the prologue, and I noticed that when you switched viewpoints between Chrysalis, the changelings, and the human, you only did it at scene breakds.
Nobody does that!
Seems ok but a bit rushed
I like it. ON TO THE NEXT CHAPTER
This is intriguing I do believe I will read it
This looks interesting so far.
1861700 As some of the others have said, I would like to see this side of the story too.
This looks very interesting. Hope it turns out to be so
I think the guy should have freaked out a bit more though...
1872681 Yeah i'm sure it's not possible he's, firstly in shock but not showing it and secondly that he has yet to make up his mind, saying something is easy, it doesn't mean you believe it if demons had summoned me and asked me to do something i doubt i would be inclined to say no outright and risk being butt raped or eaten alive.
MUCH better start than most stories of this sort. I can already tell this is going to be a good one.
That was one of the most calm characters I've ever read about after being summoned into another world.
5299073 More like he hasn't had the time to process it yet.
Huh, nice start. Poor sacrificial changeling, though.
He made a wedding toast with WATER? This guys a complete psycho