Zachary Jenkins has been taken prisoner by Princess Birthright's forces. What horrors await him?
Book 2A: Corporal Zachary Jenkins of the Clerisiac army was captured by Princess Birthright in the battle of New Hoofington, and is now the bratty princess' personal prisoner. The ponies need a Protean test subject to create a ponification potion that can overcome the Proteans' immunity to the original potion, and it looks like they're going to be using Zachary. Can he hold out until he's rescued? Will he even be rescued? Or will he eventually succumb to a successful serum and become the first former Protean newfoal?
And so begins the second installment! This is branch A, with more branches to come in the future. There's now a group for this Saga, and it's right here! Check the forums for information, join if you wish to be alerted whenever a new fic is added to the saga, and if you want in on the project, join and PM me with a request to become a contributor, and I'll gladly promote you to that status!
Corporal Zachary Jenkins of the Dataramp 5th Regiment glared up at his captor as she took him through a swirling multicolored vortex in the middle of a moderately-sized town where New York City once stood. The ponies called this pathetic excuse for a replacement “New Manehattan”.
“I swear to Ahura Mazda that when the others come for me, I’ll personally tear you to pieces!” Zachary yelled as they entered the portal, warping instantly to another world, off to the side of a road.
“Ahura Mazda?” the red armored mare said with a tilt of her head. “A Zoroastrian, huh? Well, just to let you in on something, I’m doing the right thing because it’s the right thing to do, you know. Your religion teaches that maxim, correct?”
“You lie!” Zachary seethed. “Those are words of Druj! There is only one path, and that is Truth! You aren’t following the path! For Truth wouldn’t justify your actions! You aren’t doing the right thing! If you were, you’d turn my human brethren back! What you are doing doesn’t match up with ‘Humata, Hukhta, Huvarshta’ at all!”
“Oh, but my thoughts are good,” the mare protested with an insolent huff. “As are my words and my deeds! You are the one who doesn’t understand! Humans are chaotic, and the universe must be brought into complete harmony! By extension, Proteans must be chaotic as well, for only ponies are truly harmonious!”
“You know nothing of harmony!” Zachary snapped. “If you believe that only your kind can be harmonious, you’re wrong! The Ellecor sometimes live under a system of government called ‘The Great Joining’! All of them become of one mind, thinking the same thoughts, just one mind in many bodies! They willingly converted to that form of government, and when the one yearns to be many again, the Progenitor, Ha Thorth CII, willingly gives up her position as the center of the unimind, gives them their individuality back and changes to a different government! That is an example of harmony you’ve never known! I’ve never known it either, but I admire them for having the courage to trust their leader to that much of an extent as to put their daily lives in her hands!
His captor stopped in mid flight out of shock, and Zachary continued. “Then there’s the government system of my own nation: Proteocracy! The Chimeron is the most flexible adult citizen willing to volunteer for the position, and the senate are very rigid individuals conscripted to serve to balance him out! And one day a month, the entire nation becomes the government, able to make huge changes, expel anyone from office, pass new laws without the usual process, overturn laws with a simple majority vote of the populace regardless of how old the law is, make sweeping changes across the board! Every voice is heard, and no one person has more influence than another! Everyone’s one vote is of equal value to every other vote! On the day of the national forum, even a politician’s voice is no greater than that of a college student working at a burger joint! Even the Chimeron himself has no more influence than anyone else for that day once a month, and anyone in the nation can propose any change they’d like to see! An incredibly plastic and responsive government like that is much more harmonious for the incredible freedom and influence we enjoy! Every voice is heard, and the billions of voices create such wonderful music! Can you claim that you possess that much harmony?”
“That’s a bunch of horse apples,” the armored mare spat as she resumed carrying him up a mountain. “Such a system would never work. Harmony can only be achieved by the whole universe becoming one race, and that race is ponies!”
“Well, good luck with that one,” Zachary chuckled, finally getting the mare to start fuming at his continual resistance to everything she said. “According to the nations of klackon descent, Kholdan is very far away from both Earth and Funestis! I doubt you’ll ever find it! And the universe is vast. Countless galaxies with millions, if not billions of star systems each! You’ll never know if a system has sapient life until you investigate it, and I doubt you’ll ever find every sapient race in the entire universe.”
“SHUT UP!” the mare screeched, diving to the ground to slam Zachary into it. “YOU KNOW NOTHING, YOU STUPID SHAPESHIFTING APE! WE PONIES ARE SUPERIOR TO ALL! I’LL MAKE YOU SUFFER, AND YOU’LL BEG ME FOR MERCY! BUT I, PRINCESS BIRTHRIGHT EQUESTRIS, WILL NOT GRANT YOU RELIEF! NOT UNTIL YOU BECOME ONE OF US!”
“Well, I could always just shapeshift into one of you,” Zachary chuckled in spite of his now-hurting shoulder. “Will that do?”
“NO!” Birthright screamed as she suddenly began flying straight for the top of the mountain, leaving her troops to take the path on their own. “YOU’LL LOOK LIKE ONE OF US, BUT YOU’LL STILL BE THE SAME CHAOTIC APE INSIDE, AND YOU COULD TURN INTO ANYTHING ELSE AT ANY TIME!”
“Geez, lady! Chill out!” Zachary chuckled. “This much anger can’t be good for your health!”
“AND STOP LAUGHING AT ME!” Birthright screeched as they reached a castle in a city on the top of the mountain.
“You’d better behave, or you won’t get your snack!” Zachary teased. Captive or no, he was having fun!
“DON’T YOU TELL ME WHAT TO DO!” Birthright screamed, tears of pure rage flowing down her cheeks as they entered the castle and she continued flying, guards giving the passing pair one glance and shaking their heads. “I’M A PRINCESS! I’M AN ALICORN! COMPARED TO ME, YOU’RE NOTHING!”
They burst through a pair of doors into a throne room where a white Alicorn who was much larger than Birthright was seated. Her eyes were darkened, and there was a slight amount of purple mist leaking from them, but it was almost unnoticeable.
“Great Aunty Celestiaaa!” Birthright bawled as she threw Zachary onto the floor in front of her, still pinned by her magic. “He keeps teasing me! Make him stop!”
“Hey!” Zachary snapped, “It’s not my fault my kidnapper happens to be an insufferable nag!”
He cut off when “Celestia” took him from Birthright’s grip and levitated him right in front of her face.
With her own magic, she levitated his helmet off, then touched his forehead with her horn, which suddenly took on a black aura for a second before she set him down, still trapped by her magic hold.
“So, this is a Protean,” Celestia said simply.
“Yes, Great Aunty,” Birthright sniffled. “He deserves to be punished for mocking me! He’s also the reason we lost New Hoofington!”
“And he shall be punished, my dear great niece, don’t worry about that,” Celestia said with a creepily calm and almost warm voice. “But first, when scanning him, I found that his is indeed not fully human. He looks completely human on the surface, but his cells are in a state of ‘stable flux’, I guess you could put it. He could shapeshift better than a Changeling ever could. And there’s the feel of an insect-like creature in him, as well. He feels similar to a Changeling in that regard, but he’s much more advanced. Able to become practically anything that lives.”
“Well? Are we going to start tests on an upgraded potion?” Birthright asked eagerly.
“Yes,” Celestia replied with a warm smile that chilled Zachary to the bone. “But first, there’s something in his brain that needs taking care of. Someone’s recording everything he sees, hears, feels, tastes and smells. And we can’t have them discover where we’re taking him.”
Zachary’s heart skipped a beat. She knew about the MILQUETOAST implant!
“So that’s why you were so sure you’d be rescued!” Birthright giggled wickedly. “Well, hello there, whoever you are! You’re not getting any more information on this soldier’s experiences unless we want you to!” Turning to Celestia, she suddenly became extremely excited, bouncing up and down while begging, “Great Aunty? Can I do the honors? Can I? Huh? Can I? Pleeeeeease?”
Celestia smiled and replied, “Of course, my dear great niece. The honor’s all yours.”
Zachary struggled as the smaller Alicorn’s horn lit up and he felt something probing the inside of his head. He moved his head from side to side rapidly, keeping the bratty princess from locating his implant.
“Make him stop!” Birthright whined. “I can’t deactivate it if I can’t find it!”
Celestia narrowed her eyes at him and the golden glow from her horn increased. Suddenly, Zachary’s head became locked in place, leaving him completely immobile.
“Thanks, Great Aunty!” Birthright chirped right before Zachary felt the probing sensation lock in on the location he knew his implant had been placed in during surgery.
Celestia smiled, and Birthright’s expression suddenly turned dark and cruel.
“Actually, I have a better idea!” the brat cackled. “I’ll still deactivate it, but how about I give them one last piece of information first? One to show them we mean business? An early start to his punishment?”
“Brilliant idea, Birthright,” Celestia replied with a nod, still using that creepily warm tone that didn’t match the situation. “Do it.”
Zachary felt the probing sensation suddenly envelop his entire implant and start tugging on it mercilessly.
His eyes widened in both fear and incredible pain as the implant was torn from his brain, taking a few nerves with it just to keep the information flowing until it was deactivated.
The implant was pulled through tissue, then burst through his skull, causing him to lose control over his shapeshifting abilities as his body changed into random shapes and colors as he let out a blood-curdling scream of “AHURA MAZDA! SAVE MEEEEE!”
Struggling to remain conscious after such a heavy injury, Zachary’s form returned to human-like, and he watched feebly as Birthright levitated the biorobotic implant in front of his face, nerves still attached to it, all of it dripping with his blood.
“See this?” the brat sneered at Zachary, but actually directing it at whoever was collecting the data on his senses on the other end, “I’m shutting it off now! But don’t worry. We’ll put it back in and boot it back up for you. Only when we’re ready to, that is! Buh-bye!”
And with that, she zapped the implant with a jolt of electricity, and the lights on it winked out.
Zachary could no longer stay conscious, and as the magical grip released him, his already kneeling body crumpled to the ground into a pool of his own blood, skull fragments and broken tissue as everything went dark.
The darkness faded as Zachary slowly came to, incredible pain still present in the part of his head where the bratty princess cruelly tore out his implant.
Looking himself over, he noticed that he was in his civvies, his MonoSkin armor gone.
“Oh, you’re awake!” A green unicorn in a lab coat and goggles said as he trotted up to Zachary, who was shackled to a heavy cement block with chains that allowed some movement, but not enough to attempt an escape. “Sorry about chaining you up, but we have to make sure you don’t escape! We had to remove that suit, too, since reports say it can enhance your strength through applications of gravity.”
Zachary put a hand to the side of his head where he’d been injured, finding bandages covering it.
“Oh, we couldn’t just let you die, of course,” the unicorn said as he turned around and returned to working with a vat and bubbling beakers. “We need a test subject, after all, so we patched you up. Partially, anyway.”
“Yes,” the stallion replied without turning around. “We need to modify the potion to overcome your immunity, you see. And without a Protean to study, we’d have no chance of success.”
Zachary shifted to the form of a klackon while the unicorn’s back was still turned, making his limbs thinner and longer. But right as he was about to simply slip out of the shackles now that his limbs were too skinny for them, the unicorn paused to turn his head to the side to cough. He spun around completely after noticing what Zachary was doing.
“What the buck?” the unicorn squealed. “You really can shapeshift!”
Shouting at the top of his lungs, the unicorn called for help: “The test subject is escaping! I need assistance!”
Slipping his arms and legs out of the shackles, Zachary shifted again, into the form of a human/typhoeus hybrid, opening his mouth, ready to breathe biochaotic flame at his captor, who was now cowering, staring at him in horror.
“You know nothing about Proteans,” Zachary said simply, aiming straight up and firing the breath at the ceiling instead, corroding the tiles and setting the wooden frame on fire. Next, he spread the dragon-like wings he’d formed on his back and flew up through the hole, finding himself surrounded by ponies in glowing full body armor.
“We are the Royal Special Forces!” a muscular pony shouted. “We’re part of the real military of Equestria! Without your equipment, you’re no threat to us! We outnumber you fifty-to-one, and without your armor, you won’t stand a chance!”
“Well, I’d rather die than surrender,” Zachary spat, biochaotic sparks flying from his mouth. “No way am I going to let you make me a lab rat for you to test some kind of enslavement brew on! If I don’t escape, I’ll make sure I die, for I know you need me alive.”
Suddenly, a spell hit Zachary in the back of the head, scrambling his thoughts, causing him to shift back into his default form before a stun spell hit him as well, causing him to collapse to the ground.
“Your devotion to your people is honorable, I’ll give you that,” a unicorn soldier said as he levitated Zachary’s limp form onto his back before heading for the stairs leading back down to the testing room. “But good soldier or no, you’re still the enemy, and we need you alive.”
After arriving at the lab, the soldier addressed the unicorn in the lab coat:
“Doctor Frothy Batch, here’s your test subject back. How did he escape?”
Frothy Batch took the Protean in his own orange magical grip as he ran a hoof through his wiry purple mane, then scratched his head.
“He shapeshifted into a human-sized bipedal ant and used the thinner limbs to simply slip out of the shackles,” the unicorn doctor replied as he set the stunned prisoner down next to the cement block. “Is there anything we can do about that?”
“There is, Doctor,” the soldier replied before casting a spell on the shackles, making them glow yellow. “Now they’ll change size with him, preventing him from becoming spindly enough to escape again.”
“Perfect!” Doctor Batch exclaimed before securing the improved shackles to his lab rat’s legs and wrists. “Please send word to Princesses Celestia and Birthright. I’ve studied his DNA, and I think I’ve at least made some progress.”
Yes, at once, Doctor,” the soldier said before teleporting away.
“I know you won’t forgive me now,” Doctor Batch said to Zachary, who was slowly regaining use of his limbs, “but once you’re a pony, I’m sure all will be forgiven.”
“Screw you, dirtbag,” Zachary muttered as he tried to shapeshift again, recalling the lessons from the three restored humans on how to imitate the menace he was facing, but adding his own twist.
“Trying to shapeshift to escape again, are we?” Batch said with a smile and a shake of his head. “I’m afraid that won’t work this time around.”
“Who said I’m trying to escape?” Zachary growled as his limbs grew thicker and stronger, dark teal fur coated his body, a short and spiky orange tail sprouted from slightly below his waist, his brown hair shifted into a short and spiky orange mane, his head became pony-like, a long spiral horn sprouted from his forehead, and large feathery wings sprouted from his back. He remained standing upright and kept his hands and feet, basically turning into a syncretic fusion of human and Alicorn.
He doubled over, panting from the exertion to concentrate on such a change, but quickly gained a second wind as he stood up, taking the cement block with him.
“”I’m not trying to escape,” Zachary sneered. “No, I’m going to destroy your feeble attempts to corrupt my race, then take my own life! You need a living test subject, as I recall.”
Zachary’s new horn took on a brown glow as his eyes hadn’t changed color, and he glared right at the vat and beakers on the counter. The items were enveloped in the same glow, but before he could crush them to bits, Celestia teleported into the room and flung a spell at him the instant she saw what he was about to do, knocking him back to the ground and breaking his concentration. This time, he didn’t revert, since his mind hadn’t been affected.
“I see you tried to merge biology like mine with your own,” Celestia noted as she flung another spell at Zachary, who was just getting to his feet, knocking him down again. The cement block was only making things more difficult. “Interesting. Well, we can’t have that, now can we?”
Celestia’s horn glowed a brilliant gold, and Zachary suddenly felt the pain from his implant being ripped out all over again. He let out a blood-curdling scream as he put both hands to his bandages, which were starting to get moist with the blood of a partially-healed wound reopening. The pain scrambled his thoughts, growing more and more intense until his shapeshifting abilities were once again out of his control, and he shifted into many strange conglomerations of parts before reverting to his default human-like appearance again.
Zachary dropped to the ground, whimpering like a broken man.
“Much better,” Celestia said simply. “As I am royalty and you are not, it’s far better for you to be on the ground in my presence, you chaotic ape.” Turning to Doctor Batch, she said, “My great niece sends her apologies for being unable to attend. She has pressing matters of preparing for her next battle to attend to.”
Turning to Zachary, the unicorn detached the shackles from the cement block with his magic, connecting them to a metal table instead. Next, he levitated Zachary onto it, grabbed an empty bottle with his magic, and scooped a purple liquid out of the vat with it.
“This is my first attempt at what I call the ‘ultra ponification serum’. ‘Formula #1’, you could say,” Doctor Batch explained to Celestia as Zachary slowly returned to his senses. “After intensely studying the subject’s unique DNA structure and brain functionality, I think I have something that should at least be able to put a dent in his defenses, so we might be able to see some results here. I tested a small amount of it on a sample of his cells that were taken from the site of injury before magic was applied to partially heal him, and the results were promising. They fought back, but they did get restructured into pony cells in the end.”
“Let’s see how well it works when he’s awake, shall we, Doctor?” Celestia suggested with a sinister smile.
“Of course, Princess,” the unicorn replied before forcing the concoction down Zachary’s throat.
Flaring pain welled up inside Zachary’s body as he felt something assaulting every cell it came into contact with, attempting to rewrite them. The worst part was that his immunity wasn’t completely working to halt it!
“Why aren’t I totally immune?” Zachary growled as he manually started controlling his cells, using his mind’s manipulation of them to force them to fight back better.
“Oh, I figured out the chemical in your cellular structure that enables such resistance and formulated a counter to it, effectively weakening the automatic defenses,” Doctor Batch said proudly. “It doesn’t fully work yet, fails completely without ingestion, and I doubt it’ll be able to get through your whole body at this time, but I’m sure we’ll see some surface results.”
“Not on your life, bastard!” Zachary roared as he started focusing on his default form, sending the commands to shift into it over and over to his cells, continually reverting every cell before it could be fully altered. “I’m still in charge of every piece of my body from the smallest cell to all of my joints, and I tell them what to do!”
His hands started to solidify into hooves, but he sent another signal through his body, and every ponified cell shifted back, for their Protean nature wasn’t so simple to erase.
Celestia and Frothy gasped in shock when they saw the forming hooves revert back into hands so quickly.
“He’s using his shapeshifting abilities to fight it!” Frothy squeaked. “I didn’t anticipate this! I weakened his automatic defenses, but he’s employing his mind as a manual one!”
Beads of sweat gathered on Zachary’s forehead as he continued to fight. The serum was starting to leave his bloodstream as another waste product, but it still tried to corrupt every cell it touched.
A tail started to form, but it was quickly sucked back in, the potion growing weaker as it started to flow out into his kidneys, at which point it completely lost all of its power, allowing his automatic defenses to kick back in, making him totally immune again.
“Take that, you silly horse!” Zachary whooped in triumph. “You gotta do better than that! A lot better!”
“Very well,” Frothy said as he levitated a set of notes, an inkwell and a quill over to himself. “I accept your challenge, ape. Your race is more formidable than we anticipated, but it’s only a matter of time before we find a way to overcome all of your defenses.” Turning to Celestia, he bowed and said, “My apologies for such a disappointing display, Princess. I hope to have a Formula #2’ ready to show you soon. I think I’ll try turning that shapeshifting ability against him. If I can actually make the potion hijack his shapeshifting powers, I could manage to essentially make him defeat himself.”
“No need to apologize, Doctor,” Celestia replied warmly while draping a wing over the unicorn. “It was only your first attempt, after all. And your new proposal sounds like it would be very interesting to watch, even if it failed. I’ll make sure Birthright can make it to watch the next one.”
“You monsters!” Zachary snapped, “Proteanhood was supposed to be the ultimate gift we were going to give humanity! Being able to become anything you want to be with the only truly unbreakable limit being the full extent of your imagination is a wonderful state of being! It’s the pinnacle of human and klackon development! There is nothing more perfect, more beautiful, more wonderful, than the nature of Proteus Sapiens except for that of the creator, Ahura Mazda! Our people wanted to have a taste of the wonder of divine nature, and we found it! And with it came great happiness!”
Tears began streaming down the Protean’s cheeks as he glared at the two ponies. “From every aspect, the Protean being is the pinnacle of mortal development, where it is impossible to go further, for anything we could possibly need, we could transform to have! Magic? Just add one of your horns! Flight? Any kind of wings! There are many to choose from! More strength? Just turn into something with more muscle mass or redistribute one’s own mass into more muscle! What can you possibly offer us that would be worth giving all of that and more up for?”
“Harmony,” Celestia stated simply. “For all the gifts you claim to have, we gave the humans something better: harmony.”
“That’s not harmony!” Zachary spat as he was levitated away from the table and his shackles were re-chained to the cement block. “It’s mind control! Harmony comes in many forms! It took teamwork on a national level for us to open the EarthGate, and teamwork is a form of harmony! Every living thing is capable of both harmony and chaos! There’s a bit of both in everything! Even you aren’t perfectly harmonious! No one is except for Ahura Mazda! Your words of Druj don’t fool me! If you were a being of pure harmony, you would’ve tried to teach the humans how to achieve world peace, not transform them! And if the inside of the barrier had actually been able to kill the non-magical, you’d do everything in your power to stop it! And if you were truly harmonious, you wouldn’t be trying to fight us, but instead try to come to a consensus with us! To achieve harmony, a group needs consensus between them! You are no better than we are, and you know it! You ponies are no more harmonious than we are!”
“If you want to believe all that, very well,” Celestia replied. “But you’ll see the truth soon enough. Your suffering will end, I can promise you that. But it will only come by you becoming one of us.”
With that, her horn glowed gold again, and Zachary suddenly started to feel sleep creeping in. “I’m not done talking to you yet!” he shouted, swallowing a yawn. He held it down for fifteen seconds, and the fatigue lifted a little. His training to fight fatigue on the battlefield was proving quite useful. “You may want to make me tired, but it takes more than that to put me under! I’ve been trained at a MILQUETOAST facility, and I have my own personal on-field experiences, to boot! I was a veteran before I had my first battle, and after seeing battle multiple times, I’ve learned even more! I know plenty of mental exercises to keep me alert!”
Celestia’s lips curled down in a grimace, and she cast the spell again, stronger this time.
Zachary bit back a yawn, but focused his transformative abilities for a form that one of his friends from when he was a Private taught him to cheat the need for sleep, even though shifting out of it would then make all the lost sleep hit him like a sack of bricks.
“Oh,” Zachary forced through a yawn, “Did you know bullfrogs never sleep?” He sneered and shifted to the form of an anthropomorphic bullfrog, all tiredness leaving him, for this form had no need for sleep.
“Now, as I was saying,” Zachary chuckled, “Just by observing the ponies I’ve seen here so far, including you, none of you are purely harmonious. Not a single one. Think on that for a second, why don’tcha?”
Stunned that the sleep spell now had no impact, Zachary’s words started flowing into Celestia’s thoughts, making her doubt her own actions for a couple seconds, her eyes brightening and the mist from them fading for those couple seconds before she shook herself and used the pain spell to ruin Zachary’s transformation, then quickly cast the sleep spell again the instant his body stopped shifting into random forms and resumed his default form. The blackness closed in, but Zachary fell asleep on the cold floor with a smirk from the knowledge that he’d gotten the Princess to doubt herself and her actions, if only for a second or two.
Eyes darkened and leaking mist once again, Celestia stormed off, leaving Doctor Frothy Batch alone with the sleeping Protean.
Zachary grunted as he was being shaken awake by the unicorn in the lab coat, growling as he sat up.
“We kept you asleep for a few days so I could work in peace, but Princesses Celestia and Birthright are here to watch the next test,” Frothy explained as he detached the shackles from the block with his magic and reconnected them to the table. “Formula #2 is ready.”
The unicorn levitated Zachary onto the table, and Zachary got a good look at the despicable princess who’d torn out his implant, finally without her armor. Deep blue with burning red eyes, bat wings, a horn, and a symbol of a gold sword crossed with a silver one on each flank, she grinned wickedly at him in anticipation.
“This is gonna be so much fun!” the smaller Alicorn squealed like a little girl would over something she found exciting. “I can’t wait to see him squirm! Right, Great Aunty?”
Celestia turned to look at her great niece and nodded before the two of them returned to observing what was about to happen to Zachary.
“You dirtbags aren’t going to get me to beg you for mercy, no matter how much you try!” Zachary growled as he moved his head to the side to dodge the bottle of green fluid that Frothy Batch was trying to force him to drink. “I was born a Protean, and I’ll die a Protean! You can’t take the ultimate gift my forefathers worked so hard for from me!”
“Well, we’ll see about that,” the unicorn chemist said before locking Zachary’s head in place with his magic and forcing the contents of the bottle down his throat, just like last time. “Now to observe the effects of Formula #2: intended to hijack the transformative qualities of Protean DNA to make it do the ponification for us.”
Zachary suddenly cried out in agony as pain enveloped his entire body, his cells beginning to rebel against him and change shape under their own power without his consent.
Thinking quickly, Zachary started sending signals all over his body to turn into something else: The membranes of his cells started to grow thicker outer casings, resulting in cell walls coating all of them, making it impossible for the potion’s influence to spread to them, for it couldn’t even get inside the newly-walled cells.
Zachary’s movement was hindered by the rigidness of the walls, but he wasn’t entirely immobile, so he slowly bit back cries of agony and smirked instead.
“I don’t get it!” Doctor Batch exclaimed. “At first, I could detect it working perfectly, but it suddenly stopped cold! Only about five percent of him is ponified, and it’s all on the inside!”
“Ever hear of bacteria, Doc?” Zachary chuckled through the pain as he focused on expanding the cell walls to coat the rebellious cells to isolate them from the influence of the potion. “They’ve got cell walls, just like plants do. Your new brew can get through a cell membrane, but it can’t get through a cell wall, so I converted every cell that hadn’t been affected yet into Protean cells with walls, blocking the potion from doing further damage!”
Focusing harder, Zachary sent orders to the hijacked cells, commanding them to shift back into Protean cells, but to keep the walls. With no further influence from the potion due to the walls blocking any more of it from getting absorbed, the cells slowly returned to obeying him and returned to normal, just with cell walls encasing them.
The pain started to die down, and Birthright was looking very disappointed, while Celestia’s right eye twitched in anger. Eventually, the potion’s effects left his body, and Zachary let the cell walls vanish to regain full mobility.
“I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again,” Zachary chuckled. “You’ll have to do a lot better than that, Doc!”
Frothy Batch huffed and turned to his notes, scribbling furiously, his face red with rage.
Turning to the Princesses, Zachary cracked a huge smile and added, “if my people really are something disgusting that needs to be assimilated, why are our defenses so great? You remove one defense, there’s always another ready to stop you. What if ponifying us really is impossible? What then?”
Birthright just stared in disbelief, shaking her head and backing away slowly, while Celestia was so stunned that once again, Zachary’s words started to filter into her mind, bringing forth the same doubt as last time, brightening her eyes a little and dissipating some of the mist rising from them.
Taking advantage of the situation, Zachary continued his assault on her mind with his words, intent on increasing the doubt further to see if he could get through to her this time.
“The ponification process causes pain, while inducing artificial Protean evolution doesn’t,” he continued. “How could the painless one with so many benefits and virtually no drawbacks be the morally wrong one when the alternative causes so much pain and heavily restricts the affected?”
Celestia’s doubt grew even stronger, extremely unsure at the moment if she really had been doing the right thing like she thought she had.
Her eyes almost completely cleared up, the mist became so faint, it could barely be seen at all, and she slowly tried to answer the Clerisiac soldier, but all that she could reply with was, “I… I don’t know. I’m not quite sure, anymore.”
Birthright gasped and stared at her great aunt as if she’d grown a second head, but before Zachary could press his advantage even further, Doctor Batch cleared his throat, snapping Celestia out of it, the darkness and mist returning in full force.
“Princesses, I believe that we should speed up the rate of experiments on our test subject. I still don’t have a perfect solution, but I believe that by combining the concepts of Formula Numbers One and Two, I’ll have a better chance. I’ll still need some more ideas to throw in, and we need to get this done in a timely manner.”
“Very well,” Celestia replied after shaking herself. “Once you have a formula that you’re quite sure will succeed, let me know, and we’ll reinstall his implant so they can see how much better it is to be a pony.”
Zachary filed that information away for later and started to think of an escape plan that could utilize the implant. But for the time being, Doctor Batch once again disconnected him from the table, then reattached him to the cement block.
“Now, I’ll need to stop putting him in hibernation between tests,“ Batch added. “This means that he’ll need to be properly nourished until a successful serum is created. Princess Celestia, may I request that you inform the mess hall upstairs that they’re going to have to provide him with three meals a day? Three human meals?”
“I can do that, Doctor,” Celestia replied. “You are much too busy to contact them yourself, and Birthright has another campaign to prepare for. The Proteans are assembling near New Manehattan, so we need to be able to repel them there at all costs, for we must protect the portal there. Our side of it is too close to Canterlot for us to be able to afford them gaining control of it.”
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” Batch said with a bow. “I appreciate this very much.”
Celestia nodded, and then the two Princesses teleported away, leaving Frothy Batch alone with his lab rat.
“I see you’ve been trying to press your nonsensical philosophies on our beloved Princess,” Batch growled at Zachary, eyes narrowed. “You’ll find that she isn’t going to break from your words. Try all you want, ape-bug. You won’t succeed.”
Batch turned around to return to work on his next formula, and Zachary just sat there, thinking to himself. That’s what you think, he thought with a silent chuckle. It may take some time, but if I never manage to escape, I’ll continue my assault until she finally gives in. I don’t care if it takes years!
Weeks passed, with daily testing slowly driving Zachary closer and closer to the edge of his sanity. Most formulas were complete and utter failures, some required him to fight back a bit, but a few were far too close for comfort, and those worried him the most, slowly fracturing his mind and degrading his mental health bit by bit.
The fractures weren’t caused by any weakness on his part, though. The potions that came too close for comfort were the ones that actually started forcing a separate identity into him, making it harder to fight back while a warped version of himself became a second opponent, dividing his attention.
It was this other self that the formulas were trying to form that he was terrified of. This “Thunder Twist” character was starting to be an even greater threat than the attempts to transform his body was. This entity who was attempting to cage his Protean self and take his place could not be allowed to win. Every time a test that forced that entity into his mind happened, he was forced to fight on two fronts instead of one, and if he couldn’t figure something out, it would only be a matter of time before “Corporal Zachary Jenkins of the Dataramp Fifth Regiment” became little more than a memory, and “Thunder Twist” would take his place.
Even though he beat the newfoal mind that was trying to take over every time, each fight drove him closer to the edge, and he could almost sense a lingering presence of the warped version of himself in the back of his mind, waiting to be reawakened by the next potion powerful enough to force the clash to occur again.
The fights were getting more frequent. In fact, on the previous day, “Thunder Twist” actually spoke to him!
As Formula #33 started to hijack Zachary’s cells, he started shifting his cells into the newest defense he’d concocted: anti-ponification cells. These cells walled with organic steel formed a temporary defense system that would collect information on the chemical makeup of the serum, then generate and secrete a chemical that would neutralize it. It required concentration, but Zachary wasn’t going to lose.
The presence started rising up in him again as his brain became affected, the serum trying to warp his sense of self to put down any desire to resist.
Already concentrating on the protective cells, Zachary split his focus to remind himself of who he was: He was Zachary Jenkins. He was born in Dataramp twenty years ago to loving parents. At the age of three, his family converted to the Zoroastrian faith—
‘And all of that matters, why?’ his own voice cut into his thoughts, confusing him.
‘Why am I asking myself such a dumb question?’ Zachary thought before shaking his head. ‘Focus, Zack! No doubting! Continuing on: I grew up in orbit as the oldest of ten children—’
Suddenly, an image appeared in his mind: a dark purple pegasus stallion with a spiky yellow mane and tail, as well as chocolate brown eyes. The entity opened its mouth and spoke. But it was using Zachary’s own voice!
‘Really, now, why put up all this resistance?’ Thunder Twist asked with a shake of his head. ‘Give up on all this ‘Zachary Jenkins’ nonsense! You’ll love it as a pony, I promise! Would I lie to you? Of course not! You never lie, and I’m just who you’ll be once you just let it happen, so I never lie, either.’
‘You aren’t me,’ Zachary’s thoughts snapped at the creature. ‘I recognize words of Druj when I hear them, and there wasn’t any Truth among anything you just said.’
Thunder Twist’s image backed up slightly, and Zachary prepared to banish the presence from his mind with one powerful shove, but didn’t get the chance. The Newfoal presence trying to replace him suddenly lunged forward, and though Zachary was still in the physical realm, he suddenly found himself in an internal struggle that felt very real.
‘Queen Celestia will love you!’ Thunder Twist shouted as he grappled with Zachary’s inner self. ‘Just let go! You’ll finally find peace as a pony! The Lalande 21185 System never stops fighting entirely. You know that. Even when all seven nations are enjoying systemwide peace, the Eco-Sphere Defenders continue to make all others in the system suffer! If you just allow yourself to become me, Queen Celestia can accomplish what no human, klackon or Protean has been able to do for six thousand years! She can end the Barbarian menace once and for all!’
‘I don’t need her love, and I doubt she’d have any better luck against Gibbora’s forces than we’ve had!’ Zachary’s thoughts shot back as he imagined himself in his Singulon suit before backhanding the corruption trying to consume him. ‘If you really are me, then what about what the three unponified people said? They described life as a newfoal as a long, seemingly endless nightmare! They were overjoyed to have their old selves back!’
‘They just didn’t understand!’ Thunder Twist snapped as he checked his backwards flight with his wings and dove in again. ‘Turning back into humans made their wicked and chaotic sides resurface, instantly warping their minds into thinking they were better off after being restored! Now, just give in! I’m you after all! And you will become me, for in the end, being a pony is so much fun!’
“I’m not you!” Zachary suddenly screamed aloud as he forced the presence out of his mind. “I’ll never be you! Screw you, Thunder Twist! I’ll never let myself become you!”
Doctor Batch stared at Zachary in complete shock as the effects of the potion faded, not expecting the outburst at all.
After regaining his composure, Doctor Batch returned Zachary to the cement block and broke into a wide grin.
“So, this version of the serum actually forces the Newfoal personality into the subject’s mind?” the chemist mused as he started jotting down notes like a stallion possessed. “With something like this, I think with a few tweaks, I’ll have the perfect potion by tomorrow! Well, except for the whole ‘must be ingested part’. But that can wait.” Turning to Zachary, he grinned excitedly and said, “I think I’ll call the Princesses to watch Formula #34’s effects tomorrow. We’ll finally give you your implant back, too! I mean, we’ll need to give your people a good sense of what it feels like to have all of your impurities stripped away and become a completely harmonious pony!”
It was now the following day, and Doctor Batch was in an incredibly good mood, giddily awaiting Celestia and her great niece.
“Oh! That must be them!” the unicorn chemist exclaimed excitedly when a knock sounded on the door to his lab. “Come in! It’s not locked!”
The door opened, and the two Princesses Frothy had been expecting entered, along with five unicorn surgeons.
“By the look of things, you brought it, right?” Frothy asked, jumping up and down in anticipation.
Birthright sneered and levitated Zachary’s MILQUETOAST implant into plain view, then used a small jolt from her horn to start the device up again, the lights on it coming to life.
“I promise you, you’ll all pay for this!” Zachary growled as he was once again transferred from the cement block to the metal table.
“Quiet, please,” the lead surgeon demanded as she used her magic to remove Zachary’s bandages. “Brain surgery is delicate work. We don’t want you to become a vegetable, because we won’t be able to see if you would’ve still been able to fight back if you suffer significant brain damage. But ponifying a vegetable would still have its purposes, so don’t even think that you can ruin everything by making us mess up. Ponification repairs brain damage because it restructures the brain, so we’d still have your memories to work with. Trust me, you’ll gain nothing by making us mess up. I can guarantee it.”
As the surgeons went to work cutting Zachary’s wound open, Zachary tried to focus on something else: escape. This was his final chance. If he didn’t escape or succeed in killing himself, he was pretty sure that the newest formula would overwhelm him this time.
He grit his teeth as they started to gingerly connect his nerve endings to the proper places on the implant. Still, he continued to think. What options did he have left? His many different kinds of defenses could block the transformation, but he had barely stopped “Thunder Twist” from taking over the last time, and he was absolutely certain his captor had focused mostly on improving whatever was in that cocktail of magic and science that tried to suppress him early. He had to be fast, but what could he do?
As the last nerve was connected and the surgeons started using their magic to regrow the bone and tissue, sealing the implant back in its proper spot, Zachary decided on an option. It was the only one he could think of, but he sent an order to his cells that was absolutely crazy in his opinion, with a suicidal failsafe command in case it failed.
The one thing he couldn’t command his cells to do was to self-destruct, ending his life. But he did have an alternative in case the insane plan failed: he sent orders to his immune system to destroy any cells with DNA that didn’t match their own. That way, if he failed to stop the process, the cells would destroy every single ponified cell they ran across, since he knew that ponification scrambled the DNA, unlike Protean transformations, which simply created temporary additions. Such an event would result in his own death, for if the destroyer cells became ponified, they’d then seek out every cell that was still Protean and destroy them, making it where the process couldn’t possibly complete. Even if he succeeded, he knew he’d lose some cells to his own immune system, for he couldn’t prevent all of his cells from getting corrupted.
Once the injury had vanished as if it had never existed and the implant was fully operational, Birthright looked him in the eyes and once again addressed MILQUETOAST through his eyes and ears.
“Hello again!” she giggled wickedly. “I hope you all pay close attention to this soldier’s senses! We’ve found a way to ponify him! You’re going to discover what it feels like to be transformed into the pinnacle of harmony and perfection! It’ll hurt, but that’s only because having everything impure removed happens to be painful. Anyway, watch! Zachary Jenkins will soon be no more! A new pony will soon be joining our lovely herd!”
Frothy took the new potion, which was orange, and forced it down Zachary’s throat. His body flared with pain, but the instructions he gave his cells took effect as soon as his blocking cells detected the potion. Right before the potion would touch a cell, it would transform on its own, becoming a Protean pony cell, and since pony cells were ignored by the potion, the potion would move on to the next cell, which would also transform before it could be touched.
The presence welled up in his mind again, and Thunder Twist started screaming at him:
‘What are you doing?’ the presence demanded, confused. ‘The potion has to do it! If you’ve decided to give in, just let the potion do it! You can’t imitate it and get the same results! Stop! Please!’
‘I’m not giving in,’ Zachary mentally chuckled at Thunder Twist. ‘This is my final defense. I’ve got nothing else left that I can think of, and I’m not even sure if this’ll work out. There’s so many ways it could go wrong, but it seems to be working fine so far. Thanks for giving me a means to escape, by the way.’
As Thunder Twist shrieked, begging him to stop and just embrace becoming a pony, Zachary decided to put on a show for the ponies to make the “ponification” seem more genuine.
Rolling from side to side, Zachary put his hands to his ears, pretending that he was trying to block the voice out when he was actually finding the desperate pleas of the corrupting presence quite entertaining. After all, Thunder Twist had just gone from an unbeatable foe to his ticket to freedom. It was quite ironic.
“SHUT UP!” he screamed. “YOU AREN’T ME! STOP IT! I DON’T WANT TO BE ONE OF YOU! I’M ZACHARY JENKINS, NOT THUNDER TWIST!”
Birthright cackled at the sight of what she thought was Zachary’s complete and utter defeat, and Celestia smiled, a look of triumph on her muzzle as she thought the same thing.
The first part of Zachary’s surface to be breached was a spiky yellow tail sprouting from below his waist, followed by his hair turning into a spiky yellow mane.
“NO! STOP! I DON’T WANNA BE A PONY!” Zachary screamed, still keeping up his act. It felt like lying, and the taste of Druj in his mouth sickened him, but he continued, for this was a matter of life or death.
Hooves started to form, and Zachary’s body and limbs started to shorten to accommodate the size of a pony frame.
“WHY CAN’T I STOP IT?” Zachary fake-sobbed, forcing tears to his eyes to give the appearance of a man who was starting to break. “I’M SUPPOSED TO BE IMMUNE! ALL OF MY TRICKS AREN’T WORKING!”
Suddenly, his head started to shift to that of a pony, and dark purple fur sprang from every pore on his body, followed by his legs starting to reverse direction.
“AHURA MAZDA! PLEASE! SAVE ME!” he cried, getting ready for the final part of the act as the final piece started to breach the surface: the wings. “SAVE ME! SAVE… Save… Saved! I’ve been saved from what I thought I was meant to be!” The wings burst from his body, and the transformation was complete. But he was still in control. He’d lost a few cells to the orders he sent his immune system, but for the most part, the corruption had failed. Even the Thunder Twist in his head finally stopped his crying and shut up for good.
“Thank you, Doctor!” “Thunder Twist” said as they finally undid his shackles. “I know better now! This really is better! Praise Queen Celestia!”
“Why thank you, my little pony,” Celestia replied with a warm smile. “If I may ask, what is your name?”
“It’s Thunder Twist, my Queen,” Zachary replied. He was really getting sick of lying. He was pretty sure he’d lose his lunch if he had to lie for too much longer. “Now that I’ve seen your glorious light, may I go outside? I’d like to take the suit I used to wear when I didn’t know better, if you don’t mind. I’d like to dispose of it myself.”
“I see no harm in that,” Celestia replied before nodding to Birthright, who lit up her horn and teleported the black MonoSkin suit from somewhere and gave it to Zachary, who laid it across his back.
“Doctor Batch,” Zachary said as they started up the stairs to the ground floor of the complex, all of them on hoof except for him. He was using the wings this form provided him. “You were right. Now, I do forgive you. You were only doing the right thing all along, and I was the one who didn’t know better.”
“Why thank you, Mr. Twist,” the unicorn chemist replied. “And don’t worry about how you acted as a Protean. That was just the chaos in you lashing out.”
Upon reaching the front door of the complex, the procession left the building, and Zachary looked around at the scenery to give MILQUETOAST the best visual information on the location of the facility as he could.
“Canterlot is beautiful, isn’t it, Thunder Twist?” Birthright gushed, suddenly very friendly.
“Yes, it is,” Zachary replied, relieved that he was finally able to say something truthful.
After flying forward a couple yards, Zachary turned around and waved at the unsuspecting ponies, then his capacity for lying reached its limit, and to avoid breaking down from how disgusted he felt, he said, “Once again, thank you all…”
Celestia smiled and opened her mouth to say something, but Zachary spoke right over her, “…for being utter morons and buying this whole charade!”
The ponies gasped as Zachary transformed in midair, taking on the form of a human/typhoeus hybrid, then blocked a spell thrown at him by Celestia with his massive wings that were far superior than the wings he had to use for the past few minutes. What good were wings that couldn’t be used for anything but flight? These ones could double as shields!
While easily blocking magic attacks, Zachary pulled his MonoSkin armor on over his lower body, then added a unicorn horn to his forehead and cast a spell that he’d been taught while training to use unicorn magic. The spell enchanted the armor, allowing it to mold itself over his hybrid body and leave gaps for his wings and his dragon-like jaws.
“Sorry, but you’ll have to find another guinea pig, losers!” Zachary taunted as he flew higher, stopping about two hundred feet above their heads. To continue speaking, he added the soul-wrenching shrieks the biochaotic dragons were capable of to his voice to allow them to still hear him: “FAREWELL, PRINCESSES! YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THE LAST OF ZACHARY JENKINS! I’VE GOT A LOT TO DO BEFORE I GO HOME! MY PLAN WAS SIMPLY TO ESCAPE AND FOLLOW MY INSTINCTS AFTER THAT! TREAD CAREFULLY, FOR ANY LIVING THING YOU SEE COULD BE ME!”
Using the unicorn horn again, Zachary teleported back to the room he’d been confined in for over a month, took a deep breath, and unleashed biochaotic flame over everything in the room. The shackles, the metal table, every single iteration of the ultra ponification serum except for the newest one… everything was reduced to useless sludge except for a single bottle of Formula #34 and all of Doctor Frothy Batch’s notes. He took both of those items, stuffed them into pockets in his armor, and lit up his temporary horn to teleport again right as the group reentered the room, drawn by the smell of biochaotic destruction.
“Sorry! Looks like you have to start over from scratch, too!” Zachary chuckled before launching a biochaotic fireball at Celestia to stop whatever spell she had been about to use, then teleported away as the white Alicorn shrieked in agony.
Arriving at the base of the mountain, Zachary cast a spell on his armor to turn it and his civvies into saddlebags just like the ones the spies used, while at the same time turning into a very bland-looking taupe earth pony with a taupe mane and tail in the most plain male style possible, taupe eyes, and a Cutie Mark of a black circle with a diagonal line through it, indicating a special talent in, ironically, being “nothing special”.
Chuckling to himself over how he’d just turned himself into the most boring pony ever, Zachary trotted along the road towards a town south of the portal he was brought through over a month ago, hoping to do some spying of his own. In fact, just to make sure he’d have help, he spoke aloud to the empty road, “I’ll need spies to assist me. I’m planning on sneaking around the town ahead and obtaining information. Use the portal in the town where New York City used to be, and meet me in the town to the south of the other end. Keep an eye out for an all-taupe stallion with a circle and diagonal line Cutie Mark. That’ll be me.” His message to MILQUETOAST complete, Zachary resumed walking, hoping that the spies wouldn’t take too long to arrive.
Zachary slowly trotted into the town south of the portal, barely giving the “Welcome to Ponyville” sign a second glance. He had no idea what awaited him, and at the moment, he didn’t care. Six earth ponies with curly or poofy manes gasped when they saw him and ran off, which was a bit confusing to him, but he shrugged and kept moving. Apparently, a bland appearance wouldn’t always guarantee blending in. But even if he couldn’t fully avoid all attention, no one here knew he wasn’t a pony except for him, which was good.
Continuing through the town, Zachary found that most ponies barely gave him a second glance, meaning that the group of six were probably not the norm around here. His current form made him mostly unmemorable, which was the whole point of changing to the most neutral tone in existence: most wouldn’t pay him that much attention.
After entering a back alley, Zachary looked around to make sure no one had paid any attention to him, then shifted his form from an earth pony to a unicorn so he could use magic, which he used immediately.
He didn’t have actual spy training, but he’d still learned some things about eavesdropping with magic, just in case. He magically enhanced his hearing so he could easily pick up conversations, then waited for any sounds or words to catch his interest while munching on a closbeast teriyaki MRE taken from a pocket in his disguised armor.
After cursing how the pony mouth only had molars, Zachary shifted some of his teeth into more appropriate teeth for what he was eating and continued to wait. The conversations he heard were interesting, yes, but there was little useful information to glean from them.
But, after another hour, his patience paid off.
“Lyra, honey,” a male voice whispered, just barely caught by Zachary’s enhanced hearing, “It’s almost time for today’s meeting. We’d better hurry if we’re to address the secession movement again. Do you remember today’s secret location?”
“Applejack’s cellar, Worthy,” a female voice whispered back. “The children will most likely already be there. I heard there’s going to be some really big news this time.”
“Besides the news we’re bringing?” the male voice asked quietly.
“”Yes,” the female voice replied. “Something about the Everfree, I think.”
The voices fell silent after that, and Zachary poked his head out of the alley to see a mint green unicorn mare and a blue unicorn stallion headed towards a road leading to the outskirts of the town.
Thinking quickly, Zachary dispelled the eavesdropping spell and teleported to the farthest point on the road they were headed for that he could see, then shifted his colors to a camouflage pattern to blend in.
After the pair passed him, he carefully and silently followed them, genuinely curious about a “secession movement”. Maybe he could find sympathizers among them.
The pair didn’t notice him once as he followed them along the path, all the way to a farm, where he hung back and waited while they approached a farmhouse and knocked on the door three times.
Zachary didn’t pay attention to the exchange between the couple and the orange mare who answered the door, instead memorizing the appearance of the foyer of the building. After the pair had disappeared into the building, Zachary waited for three minutes to be sure that they wouldn’t see him, then teleported into the building.
He heard nothing at all. Apparently, this meeting was soundproofed in some way or another. But, no matter how well something was soundproofed, there was always a way to pick up sound, for even the tiniest vibrations could still be picked up with the right reception.
After taking a couple seconds to think, Zachary changed his ears to resemble massive bat ears. The increased sensitivity allowed him to barely make out muffled sounds from further ahead, so he trotted forward and searched the building until he found a hidden staircase where the sounds were loudest. It was still almost impossible to hear, but this had to be the way in.
After temporarily shifting a hoof into a hand, Zachary pulled back the box covering the staircase and began his descent.
As soon as he passed the box, the sounds of speech were no longer muffled, and he hissed in pain from the assault on his extra-sensitive ears before shifting them back into normal pony ones and moving the box back into place.
With that done, Zachary shifted the hand back into a hoof and continued onwards. Many voices were speaking at the same time, so it was incredibly difficult to make out what any one voice said.
As he reached the bottom of the staircase, Zachary stopped and listened carefully as the voices stopped.
“Order, order! This meeting of the Ponyville Secession Movement will come to order!” the voice of the green mare from before declared. “First, it has come to my attention that somepony had news concerning the Everfree Forest to present at the start of this meeting. Could said pony please speak up and tell all present about it?”
“That pony would be me, Sugarcube,” a female voice drawled. “Cousin Valencia Orange from Manehattan sent meh a letter a couple weeks ago. She swears she saw Trixie in Manehattan befer they chased her outta town. Said she were headin’ fer the Everfree.”
“Trixie?” a musical female voice cut in. “You mean the same Trixie who can’t perform anywhere because of her anti-ponification views and made her entire wagon disappear while surrounded by the Solar Flares? That Trixie?”
“Yep, Melody, that Trixie,” the mare with the drawl replied. “Valencia’s certain she’ll wind up in Ponyville from the path she was takin’.”
“Well, we’ll probably need somepony to meet her to let her know she’s safe here,” the blue stallion’s voice spoke up. “Applebloom? Could you do that for us?”
“‘Course Ah can!” another mare answered with a similar drawl to that of the mare who spoke earlier. “Pip can handle the kids while Ah’m gone!”
“Thank you, Applebloom,” the green mare’s voice said. “Now, I also have news for everypony. Apparently, the military lost a battle on Earth over a month ago. Some force defeated Princess Birthright’s personal unit and drove all newfoals and trueponies out of New Hoofington. If we could get into contact with them, it would be most helpful. Does anypony have any ideas?”
“No need for that, ma’am,” Zachary suddenly spoke up after returning to the taupe earth pony form he’d adopted earlier. “You don’t need to go to all that trouble.”
The group gasped as Zachary trotted around the corner and revealed himself.
“Who are you?” the blue stallion demanded as he approached Zachary with a look of distrust on his face, horn sparking furiously. “Were you sent by Princess Celestia? Are you a spy for the crown?”
“Oh, my apologies,” Zachary replied with a shake of his head. “I didn’t mean to give the wrong impression. I’m not an enemy. I’m a friend. Watch.”
With the slightest of thoughts, Zachary returned to his default form, his armor and civvies automatically regaining their proper shape and covering him once more. He immediately removed his helmet to reveal his human appearance and said, “I would have nothing to gain from aiding your enemies, for as you can see, I’m what your enemies desire to destroy.”
The room gasped again, this time in disbelief.
“A human?” the green mare exclaimed. “But humans can’t survive in a magical environment! How is this possible?”
“Simple,” Zachary replied. “You were lied to. Humans can survive just fine in a magical environment. But even so, I’m not human. I’m from the army that beat back Birthright’s forces.” After walking all the way to the center of the room where the green mare was standing, he held out a hand and said, “Corporal Zachary Jenkins of the Dataramp Fifth Regiment at your service. I’m a member of military of the Proteocracy of Clericorum.”
“Lyra Heartstrings,” the mare replied after meeting his hand with a hoof for a shake. “It’s an honor to meet you, sir. But you said you aren’t human. What are you, then?”
“A Protean,” Zachary answered simply. “That’s how I was able to transform from a pony to the form you see now. I come from another star system. My ancestors left Earth over six thousand years ago to help found a colony on the planet Centaurus, orbiting the closest star to Earth besides Earth’s sun. The ship never made it, and instead crashed after being warped to another star system: the Lalande 21185 system, eight light years from Earth. We combined our biology with that of a race of humanoid ant people called klackons and became Proteans: the pinnacle of human and klackon development. We can change shape and appearance to become practically anything that lives. We are now trying to liberate Earth so we can share the gift of Proteanhood with our Terran brethren.”
“Are there more of you here?” a stallion asked.
“Not in Equestria,” Zachary replied with a shake of his head. “I was taken captive by Princess Birthright after helping win the Battle for Washington, D.C.. Proteans are immune to virtually everything, and Celestia wanted to find a way to overcome this so a new ponification potion could work on us. I was stuck as their lab rat for a little over a month before I managed to escape. I destroyed all of their progress in my escape with the exception of the newest version of the potion and the notes used to make it. I stole both items to take back to my people so we can create a counter to it to stay a step ahead of Celestia.”
“Why didn’t you help Earth during the Conversion War?” a mare demanded. “You could’ve prevented all of this!”
“We didn’t have the technology to get here yet,” Zachary replied sadly. “My people only recently developed the EarthGate, which is how we made it back to Earth. We plan to undo everything that happened, though.”
“How?” another stallion asked. “Ponification is permanent!”
“We would beg to differ,” Zachary replied with a warm smile. “Doctor Fleck M. Eureka has managed to deponify three former newfoals already. They were artificially evolved into Proteans, and they provided us with much of the knowledge we’ve been using in this war so far.”
The ponies in the room stared at Zachary in stunned silence, so he continued.
“There will be more Proteans coming to Equestria soon, though,” he added. “I’ve sent a message asking for a group of spies to be sent to assist me. And now that they know that there’s a secession movement, they’ll be even more eager to assist.”
“Wait, how do they already know?” Lyra asked in confusion.
“Simple,” Zachary chuckled. “I have an implant in my brain that records all of the experiences of my senses to be used to train future soldiers so they’ll be veterans before they fight their first real battle. They see everything I see, hear everything I hear, and so on. I don’t have the means to turn the implant off, myself, but whenever I go on leave, they turn it off so I can have my privacy.”
“So, would they be able to send troops to help us secede?” the blue stallion asked hopefully.
“Absolutely,” Zachary said with a nod. “Just say the word, and we’ll provide you with whatever you need to make your revolution a success.”
“We’ll need to meet with Princess Twilight Sparkle, first,” the stallion explained. “She’s who we plan on placing in charge of our new nation once we’ve broken away. She won’t let us actually start the secession until we can be sure that we won’t be wiped out by Celestia’s forces.”
“Well, with Protean help, I assure you that you’ll come out on top,” Zachary replied. “Let’s go see her, shall we?”
“We shall,” the stallion replied before announcing to the assembled ponies, “this meeting is now closed! The next meeting location will be Ponyville Elementary’s basement, a week from now. Begin preparations for our big move in the meantime. Dismissed!”
As the ponies dispersed, Zachary shifted back into the form of an all-taupe earth pony and followed Lyra and the stallion (who revealed his name to be “Noteworthy”) out of the cellar, through the farmhouse, and onto the road back to town.
“So, how long have you been opposing Celestia?” Zachary asked quietly as the group of three followed the path back to town.
“Thirty-five years,” Noteworthy replied just as quietly. “We—well, mostly my darling wife, here—organized protests against ponification, demanding that research be put into finding a way to either stop the barrier’s advance or enable humans to survive in a magical environment while still being human.” Suddenly, the blue unicorn stallion grit his teeth and growled. “We had no idea that Celestia was lying about humans being unable to survive inside the barrier.”
Before Zachary could ask another question, Lyra added her own whispers to the discussion. “Celestia interrupted one of our rallies with an announcement that both of our demands were impossible, and the ponies with us started to riot as a result. The Special Forces put down the riot, and Celestia then had us put under house arrest until the Conversion War ended. Our four children were still allowed to leave the house, but only under strict government watch. She lifted our sentence after she won the war.”
“But apparently, she was foolish to do so, right?” Zachary observed. “You’ve started a secession movement, and I doubt she wants to deal with a full-blown rebellion.”
“Yes, that was an error on her part,” Noteworthy agreed, nodding as they made it back into town. “Now, we’ll have to keep quiet until we reach the castle, so just follow us and don’t do anything that could attract attention to yourself.”
Zachary nodded, and they made their way to the tree-castle in silence.
Inside the castle, the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle, looked over a stack of reports from the towns around Ponyville and sighed. There were many willing to aid in Lyra and Noteworthy’s revolution, but most were civilians, and the few who weren’t were former Royal Guards who were either retired, or quit after growing fed up with the Conversion War. She couldn’t allow these ponies to fight to the death for her, it just wasn’t right.
She’d already seen too much death while she slaved away to create that wretched potion forty years ago. The screams of the humans who were killed by the failed attempts still haunted her dreams, and she couldn’t bring herself to allow that much death to happen again. Besides, Celestia had the Solar Flares and the Special Forces, who were far better trained for combat than the Royal Guard, and Princess Birthright now had her own division of super-soldiers termed “The Death Blades”, and they would utterly slaughter anypony not on par with them.
Tossing aside most of the sheets in frustration, Twilight stopped when her eyes noticed one final letter. It was still bound, but with a seal she didn’t recognize: a heart with ragged insect wings.
Curious, she opened the letter, and read it:
Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,
My name is Queen Skitter, current Queen of the Changelings. I am the daughter of the late Queen Chrysalis, whose death was unfortunately brought about by your actions. However, I am not writing this letter as a threat. I do not wish to avenge my mother, for she was foolish in trying to attack Equestria, and her death was a well-deserved punishment. Under my rule, the Changelings have reformed, and we would never pull the kind of stunt my mother pulled.
The reason I am writing this letter is to beg for your help. Our hive is dying, being slowly killed off by a tainted food source: the Newfoals. We are unable to tell a Newfoal apart from a truepony, so some of the love brought back to our hive is tainted, and that taint is what is poisoning my precious subjects. Newfoals seem to have great adoration for Celestia, but it’s unnatural and wrong. I fear for the well-being of my hive, and I have been forced to resort to the use of a taste-tester for all the love I myself consume so that I don’t get poisoned, myself, for I have no heir as of yet.
If there is anything you can do to remove the Newfoals so that we may live without fear, we will give you anything in return. The lands south of our hive are full of resources that are useless for us, but ponies would likely find very useful. If you would have us fight for you for any reason, we would be at your command until such a conflict were over.
With great humility,
Skitter Queen of the Changeling Empire Mother of the Last Hive
Twilight blinked and re-read the letter in shock. The Changelings would have to be quite desperate to beg ponies for help, after all, there was still anti-Changeling sentiment throughout Equestria, and likely many ponies would gladly let them go extinct. This would require some thought before sending an answer.
But before she could ponder the matter, her husband, Prince Flash Sentry entered the throne room from off to the side and trotted over to her, taking a seat in the throne that had been added for him next to her own.
“Rough day, sweetheart?” He asked, nuzzling her affectionately.
Twilight sighted and nodded before giving her husband the letter from Queen Skitter.
After reading it over, Flash whistled in amazement and returned the letter to Twilight. “So, they want our help, huh? Well… They said they’d fight for us, so they could help make the revolution a success. But how could we possibly get rid of the Newfoals in their area?”
“I don’t know,” Twilight groaned. “If there was a way to reverse that infernal potion Celestia had me make, then we could attempt that, but there’s no known way to reverse it! I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to bring myself to forgive her for using me like that!”
Flash put a hoof on her shoulder to calm her down. “Honey, it’s okay. Please don’t shout. You’ll worry the children.”
Twilight blinked, then took deep, calming breaths before speaking again. “Sorry about that, Flash, honey. By the way, how are they doing right now?”
Flash chuckled warmly at the thought of their children before answering. “Dusk Gale and Mirage are playing together right now, and Astro Gleam is fast asleep in his crib. I wish I could play with the little guy more, but you know what happens when he gets excited.”
Twilight nodded. Astro was an infant Alicorn colt, and being a baby, he didn’t understand the danger he was in and let loose large amounts of magic when he got excited.
“I know,” she replied. “He’s incredibly powerful for being so young, and every time he uses his magic in excitement, the Solar Flares always show up a few hours later, saying Celestia ordered them to ‘search for something’. They always leave without finding him, but I know she sends them to track down the magic signature of a young Alicorn. Flash, if she ever found out about him…”
Flash put a hoof to Twilight’s lips to quiet her before she could become overwhelmed with worry. “Shh… Twilight, you and I both know that we’ll do everything in our power to keep Celestia from discovering Astro. We won’t let her get her hooves on him. As long as we work together, she’ll never know he exists until he’s old enough to protect himself. He has the power to do it, so all we need to do is keep him hidden until he’s old enough to control his magic.”
“Princess?” one of Twilight’s personal guards said, poking his head through the main doors to the throne room. “there’s three ponies here to see you: Lyra Heartstrings, her husband, Noteworthy, and an Earth Pony stallion who refuses to give his name but insists that he must speak with you. Shall I allow them in?”
“Yes,” Twilight commanded. “Grant them entrance at once.”
“You three may enter,” the armored pony told the trio. “The Princess will grant you an audience with her.”
“Thank you, sir,” Zachary said, inclining his head. “My business may be confidential, but I assure you that it’s very important.”
The doors opened, revealing two ponies on thrones: an orange pegasus with a blue mane and tail, and a light purple Alicorn with a purple mane and tail which also had a single pink stripe and a purplish-blue stripe on each. The Alicorn just had to be Princess Twilight Sparkle.
Zachary opened his mouth to speak, but the Alicorn held up a hoof and said, “Please don’t speak quite yet, sir. Due to who your companions are, I must ensure that we are able to discuss things privately.”
Lighting up her horn, the Alicorn cast a spell over the entire room, forming a barrier covering every wall, the ceiling, and the floor.
“There,” she announced with a smile. “Nopony can overhear us now, and my guards already know to bar all access to the throne room when I meet with either of the two unicorns with you.” The Alicorn gave Zachary a curious look and inquired, “Now, the guard told me that you refused to give your name. Can you at least tell us your name?”
“Certainly,” Zachary replied before shifting back to his default humanlike form and removing his Singulon helmet again. “My name is Corporal Zachary Jenkins of the Dataramp Fifth Regiment, member of the Clerisiac army. I’m here to offer the aid of my people to your cause and assist you in breaking away from Equestria. I take it that you’re Princess Twilight Sparkle?”
The mare nodded, but she didn’t say anything, just stared at Zachary in disbelief, much like the stallion seated next to her.
“How is it even possible for you to be here as you are?” the stallion suddenly blurted out.
“Yes, the only humans left are on Mars and Earth’s moon, but their ships get destroyed by the barrier!” Twilight added, regaining some of her composure. “If they tried to get inside, they’d fall to their doom! That’s why the humans from Mars only perform laser strikes from space!”
Zachary chuckled. “Oh, I’m not human. Well, not entirely, anyway,” noticing the confused looks the two seated ponies were giving him, Zachary explained in more detail. “In the Terran year of 2095 A.D., the United States of America launched a colony ship into space, headed for the planet Centaurus, orbiting the nearest star to Earth besides its own sun: Alpha Centauri. In the year 2100, the ship encountered an alien artifact and tried to investigate it, accidentally triggering its defense systems, which warped the ship into a different system: the Lalande 21185 system.
After pausing for a couple seconds, he continued: “The ship broke up while entering the atmosphere of the planet Funestis, and the survivors formed four nations. Over the centuries, they encountered survivors from another colony ship from a different world: the klackons: human-sized, sapient anthropomorphic ants from the planet Kholdan. After thousands of years, the two different races managed to become one race: the pinnacle of human and klackon development: Proteans. Proteans are shape-shifters who can assume the form of anything that lives, including mixing and matching to create brand new forms. I’m a Protean, myself, and the barrier doesn’t work on technology of Protean design. We fought against Princess Birthright’s forces at New Hoofington, and drove them out, liberating the area. Unfortunately, that brat of a princess took me prisoner to be used for experiments on a new ponification potion, for we Proteans are immune to the original potion. I only escaped today.”
“Wait, you mean they’re making a new one?” Twilight shrieked, recoiling in horror. “I thought I’d destroyed all the notes on the potion!”
Zachary blinked, then raised a fist, suddenly angry. “You mean, you’re the one who created the foul brew that turned our human brethren into what they are now?” he demanded. “You’re the one who robbed us of our dream! I’ll—”
Zachary stopped when he felt a hoof on his hip, then looked down to see Noteworthy shaking his head. “She was fooled, like all of us were. She knew humans could survive here, but she thought the barrier would kill them, and thought she was doing the right thing at the time. She was deceived and betrayed by her own mentor.” The unicorn stallion then pointed at the throne where Twilight sat and simply said, “Look.”
Zachary looked at Twilight to see that she was in tears, her face in her hooves. The stallion beside her tried to put a hoof on her shoulder to comfort her, but she didn’t seem to notice.
“Yes, it’s my fault!” Twilight wailed. “I made the potion! I’m the reason your dream was shattered! I’m the reason why the Newfoals even exist! And it’s all my fault, because I trusted Celestia with all my heart! She’d never betrayed me before then, so I didn’t think to question her! I’m sorry! I wish I could undo all of it! And the screams! The terrified screams of every human who died during the tests haunt me to this day! And I deserve it!”
Suddenly, the stallion next to her rapped her firmly on the shoulder to get her attention.
“Twilight, the past can’t be changed,” the stallion said gently. “All we can do is try to make the future better.”
“But Flash—” Twilight tried to reply, but the stallion cut her off.
“No, Twilight,” Flash said with a shake of his head. “Celestia is to blame, not you. She took advantage of your trust in her and put you through an emotional Tartarus. Now, let’s hear Corporal Jenkins’ proposal, okay?”
Twilight nodded, then looked to Zachary, a small spark of hope in her eyes.
“Well, I have good news for you,” he told the seated couple. “It can be undone. Doctor Fleck M. Eureka has managed to deponify three Newfoals and restore their free will. He then artificially evolved them into Proteans. They assisted in training us for this war. I promise you that Clericorum will assist you, even though I don’t have the proper authority to speak on the behalf of my entire nation. That would belong to the Chimeron, and I’ve already sent a message for spies from Clericorum to come here to back me up. One of them will most likely bring a communications device so you can speak to him face-to-face.”
“Thank you, Corporal,” Twilight breathed, wiping away tears from her eyes. “You’ve set my mind at ease on multiple matters with your information and proposal. Would you care to stay for dinner? I’d like to learn more about your people, if you’d allow it.”
“I’d be honored,” Zachary replied with a bow. “And I’ll tell you anything you want to know over dinner.”
“Lyra, Noteworthy, how about you stay for dinner, too?” Flash suggested.
“Prince Sentry, we couldn’t possibly—” Noteworthy tried to reply before Lyra spoke over him.
“We’d love to!” the mint green mare blurted out. “Melody can take care of the other kids, Noteworthy, she’s done it before.”
The blue stallion sighed and nodded before Twilight and Flash got up from their seats and led the way through a side door after Twilight dispelled the soundproofing field.
Just to be safe, Zachary shifted back to the pony form he’d been using before following.
After sitting down to eat, Twilight looked at Flash as if to ask him a question, but neither spoke. However, Flash nodded as if he knew exactly what she wanted.
Motioning for a guard, Flash whispered something in the armored pony’s ear, after which the guard nodded.
“Understood Prince Sentry,” the guard replied. “I’ll send for them at once.”
After the guard left, Zachary cocked an eyebrow as food began to be served. It was all vegetarian, but that was to be expected from a nation of herbivores.
“Oh, don’t worry, Corporal,” Flash chuckled. “Twilight just wants you to meet our children. I also told the guard to not let anypony in here without our permission or in a few other circumstances, so take a load off! I’m sure you’d prefer your hands back, right?”
Zachary did as was suggested, then took off his helmet, placing it on the ground next to his chair. With that done, he served himself up some salad and looked at the princess curiously.
Twilight giggled before explaining. “I can tell there’s something weighing you down, Corporal,” she informed the Protean, causing him to drop his fork in shock. He had been certain that he had kept his frustrations over everything that had transpired since the EarthGate opened safely covered up.
Twilight giggled again and shook her head. “I’ve been an expert on every subject of friendship for a little over forty years, Corporal,” she continued. “That includes reading expressions and body language, no matter how slight it may be. I feel that meeting our children will help you lighten up a bit more on the inside.”
Zachary opened his mouth to argue, but didn’t get the chance when a pegasus colt and a unicorn filly burst through the door, giggling excitedly while a guard followed them, pushing what appeared to be a stroller.
The filly had Twilight’s eye, mane and tail colors, but Flash’s coat. The colt was the reverse, having all of Flash’s features with the exception of having Twilight’s coat.
“Your children have arri—” the guard started to announce before the filly cut him off.
“Mommy! Daddy! We’re here!” she proclaimed. “What’s—”
The filly also cut off after getting a look at Zachary, and simply stared, as did her brother.
“Mom! How’d you do it?” The colt cried out in amazement. “You reversed it! This is so cool!”
“Sorry, Dusk, but he’s here on his own,” Twilight sighed before looking at Zachary and nodding, implying that he should introduce himself.
“Eheh, hey there,” Zachary chuckled nervously. “I’m Zachary Jenkins. I’m from a place separate from both Earth and Equus, where humans have advanced far beyond anything you’ve ever seen, I’m sure.”
“Oh yeah?” the filly challenged. “Prove it!”
“Well, have you seen a human able to do this before?” Zachary chuckled before shapeshifting to the form of a human-alicorn syncretic hybrid.
The siblings’ jaws dropped, unable to believe what they just saw.
“You can shapeshift?” the colt exclaimed. “That’s so cool! Wait! I haven’t given my name yet! Sorry ‘bout that! I’m Dusk Gale! Prince Dusk Gale, if you don’t mind!”
The filly shoved her brother out of the way and gazed at Zachary excitedly as he shifted back to his default form. “Don’t mind my brother, sir. He may be older than me by three years, but he acts like a toddler sometimes.” Putting out her hoof for a shake, she added, “My name is Mirage. I hope you let me study you some time in the future, but that can wait. Mom won’t let me use her lab equipment in the basement yet.” Mirage shot her mother an icy glare with that last statement, but Twilight just giggled.
“Who’s in the stroller?” Zachary asked curiously.
“Oh, that’s our baby brother, Astro Gleam,” Dusk said quietly. “Mom doesn’t want word about him getting out. You know why?”
“Why?” Zachary asked with intrigue.
“Because he’s an Alicorn!” Mirage whispered excitedly. “Take a look for yourself!”
Zachary looked to both parents first, and after both nodded to him, he gently reached into the stroller and brought out the infant Alicorn.
Astro had a powder blue coat and a midnight blue mane. Then, when the little one opened his eyes, they were revealed to be a brilliant silver, shining almost as if his irises were metallic.
Astro cooed happily as Zachary returned him to the stroller, and Zachary couldn’t help but break into a huge grin at the display.
The three foals joined them for the remainder of dinner, Zachary entertaining them with displays of his ability to shapeshift, taking any request they could throw at him and doing his best to mimic whatever they wanted.
As dinner drew to a close, the doors suddenly burst open as three ponies—a green pegasus stallion, an orange unicorn mare, and a violet earth pony mare—stepped into the room. Before Twilight could call for her guards, the stallion held up a hoof and shook his head.
“No need,” he said. “We’re friendly. We’re here at the Corporal’s personal request.”
With that, the three ponies shifted into humanlike forms, their black saddlebags shifting into singulon armor with only a millisecond of delay.
The other Proteans removed their helmets to reveal a dark-skinned man with short brown hair and brown eyes, a fair-skinned woman with long red hair and amber eyes, and a tan-skinned woman with black hair and blue eyes.
“Greetings, Corporal Jenkins,” the man began as Zachary rose to his feet. “I’m Agent Peter Swift, and these are my colleagues, Agents Rachel O'Reilly and Yolanda Hoover.” The fair-skinned woman nodded when the first name was listed, and the tan-skinned woman nodded when the second of two names was mentioned. “We’ve been sent to provide whatever aid we can. In short, we’re at your command, sir.” Agent Swift finished with a salute, and the two female agents mirrored his actions.
“Well, I’m meeting with the leaders of the secession movement right now, actually,” Zachary informed the three spies. “I think you should talk to them, see what they need, for having a friendly state on this side of the portal can only help things along.”
Swift nodded, then all eyes were on him and Twilight as the Princess of Friendship began to ask questions.
“So, first of all,” Twilight began, “I need to know: how difficult is it to reverse the effects of the serum? Celestia duped me into creating it for her, and knowing if there’s anything I can do to help streamline the process if it needs it would ease my conscience a bit.”
“Doctor Fleck M. Eureka has stated that the procedure takes three hours to restore one newfoal back to being fully human in body and mind,” Agent Swift replied. “This is far from ideal, for the potion works in seconds, while reversal takes hours. It is painless, however. In addition, we give the newly restored the offer of artificial Protean evolution, which if accepted, takes about half an hour more.”
“Well, if you could get me in contact with this Doctor Eureka, maybe I could help him,” Twilight suggested. “After all, I’m the one who made that infernal brew in the first place. So I know quite a bit about it, though even I didn’t know it produced mind control effects. Celestia must have cast a spell that twisted the potion’s effects.”
“Well, after this meeting is complete, I’m sure we could get you in contact with him,” Swift said with a nod. “He’s currently educating others in the technique, using captured newfoals for demonstration purposes.”
“Now, how about military aid?” Twilight asked next. “We can’t risk taking any action to secede until we know that Celestia won’t slaughter everypony who resists her.”
“I’ll let the Chimeron himself speak to you about that,” Swift chuckled as he pulled out a device. He pressed a button on it, and the words, “ESTABLISHING A SECURE CHANNEL. PLEASE WAIT.”were suddenly projected into the room, floating in the air for a few seconds before a man wearing what appeared to be a cross between a clerical robe and a lab coat over a business suit had his image projected into the room.
“Greetings!” the man said with a wave and a smile. A smile that Twilight once knew quite well. It was the same kind of smile that Celestia often wore before contact was made with Earth: full of warmth, but also able to make any who saw it feel safer just by being in the presence of the one smiling. “I take it you ponies are the secession movement I’ve heard about?”
Lyra spoke up first. “Yes, sir. I am Lyra Heartstrings, co-organizer of the movement, along with my husband, Noteworthy.” The named stallion waved.
“And I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, future leader of the Kingdom of Friendship, if secession succeeds,” Twilight added.
“Well, Now that I’ve met your movement’s leaders, I guess it’s time to tell you who I am,” the man chuckled. “I am Chimeron Joe dan Bohr CI of the Proteocracy of Clericorum. I lead the most powerful and most advanced nation in the Lalande 21185 system, eight light-years away from Earth. We could benefit greatly from having an allied state on your end of the portal, so your wish is my command. Ask, and my people will gladly give it to you.”
“How many troops can you spare to aid us in our rebellion?” Twilight asked first.
“Straight to the point! I like that in a leader!” Joe chuckled. “Very well, we can have our first troops there tomorrow, and we can continue to send more to assist you daily until you complete your revolution. We will even grant you the knowledge of any technologies we have that may prove helpful to you. Who knows? Maybe by merging magic and technology together, we can both become a powerful force to be reckoned with!”
“I completely agree,” Twilight said with a nod before moving on to her next question: “We have received offers to aid us from a nation that is on the verge of dying because their food source has been corrupted by the large amounts of newfoals. Could you aid us in removing the newfoals from their area so that they will be able to grant us their aid?”
“Hmm…” dan Bohr mused, rubbing his chin in thought. “And who might these potential allies be?”
“They’re called Changelings,” Twilight replied. “They’re like a cross between insects and ponies, and they feed on love. The newfoal’s corrupted affection is what’s poisoning them.”
“Well, I’m sorry, but Clericorum isn’t the best suited for that, given your description of them,” Joe replied sadly.
“What?” Twilight exclaimed in shock, unable to believe her ears.
“Don’t get me wrong, we’re the best suited to cleanse the newfoals,” the Chimeron replied hastily. “But there’s a better nation to assist you with the initial steps of aiding them. Just give me a second, and I’ll use the Marconi Tower to patch the leader of the nation I’m referring to into this call.”
After a few seconds of the Chimeron fiddling with something, a second image appeared alongside him: a human-sized bipedal royal ant wearing a green robe over her form, which had a dark green cloak under it.
“What is it, dan Bohr?” the female ant demanded, sounding quite strained and upset. “I’m in the process of dissolving the Unimind back into individuals! This had better be good!”
“It is, Progenitor, it is,” Joe replied with a smile that even the fierce ant couldn’t help but chuckle at. “We’ve made contact with the secession movement in the nation of the enemy, and they’re in this call with us.”
The ant looked and noticed Twilight for the first time. “Forgive me. How unladylike of me,” the ant said with a bow. “I am Progenitor Ha Torth CII, center mind of the Great Joining of Pun Elleco, the greatest nation to be descended from klackons. I may appear different from dan Bohr, but I’m a Protean, too. My default form just happens to be that of a klackon.”
“Center mind?” Twilight repeated, confused.
“Yes, as in, I am currently one mind in many bodies,” Ha explained. “Unlike the other six nations, who stick to one form of government the entire time, we Ellecor switch back and forth between two government forms depending on the needs of the country. We are able to accumulate great military power and wealth while merged into one mind with me as the center. But alas, I am still one mind, so scientific development and complicated battle strategies are incredibly difficult in this state of being. Right now, I am dissolving the Unimind back into the individuals who make it up, for we’re going to war against an enemy the likes of which no klackon has ever seen. We’ll need all of our greatest military and scientific minds as themselves for this conflict, and some of our precious people have been abducted by a ship that came through the EarthGate. We need to be separate in mind to rescue them. In a few hours, I’ll have changed to the title of ‘Chimeron’, and my nation shall become a proteocracy.”
“Wait, abducted?” Twilight shuddered. “By whom?”
“The ship was piloted by ponies,” the Progenitor said sadly. “As we speak, they are being tested on in the flight back to the Gate. It pains me to give them their individuality back only for them to immediately feel the pain and fear that I’ve been shielding them from, but it must be done. Now, I trust you have something to say to me?”
“Oh!” Twilight exclaimed. “That’s right! I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, and I’m who will be leading the Kingdom of Friendship if we succeed in breaking away from Equestria. We have gotten a plea for aid from the nation of the Changelings. They’re like a fusion of pony and insect, still retaining the social structure of a hive. They feed on love, and there are so many newfoals in their area, that they can’t safely collect their food anymore. Newfoal love poisons them. They’ve promised me and the rebellion anything in return, including military aid.”
“I see,” Progenitor Torth replied. “We may have never known them, but you have described them as sapient insect-like beings, complete with a social structure similar to our own. We can’t let this continue. As the leader of the most powerful nation with klackon technology, I promise you, Twilight Sparkle, that those you wish to aid will receive their aid in the form of Pun Ellec military might! We will round up every newfoal in the vicinity of the Changelings’ hive, and deliver them into the hands of the Clerisy for them to restore. As soon as I finish dissolving the Unimind, I’ll give the orders. Farewell for now! If you wish to speak with me again, just ask the Clerisy to patch you through to me.”
“I will,” Twilight replied with a smile.
“You smile just like dan Bohr does, you know that?” Torth chuckled. “Keep smiling like that, you hear me? It does his people good, and it’ll do your people good, too.”
With that, Ha cut her end of the transmission, and the Clerisiac Chimeron sighed.
“Well, I have to get going, too,” Joe informed them. “We have preparations to make, as well. Corporal Jenkins, you and the agents get some rest. We’ll need you ready to meet the first division of troops tomorrow.”
“Yes, sir,” Zachary replied before the link was cut.
“Well, looks like we’ve got a big day ahead of us tomorrow,” Zachary said to the whole room.
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“So, the agents and I are going to get some rest,” he finished. “Do you have any guest rooms?”
“Follow me, please,“ the guard who had been standing around the whole time said to the group of Proteans. “Guest rooms are this way.”
The four Proteans nodded, shifted into pony forms, then followed the guard as he led them through the castle.
None of the four took in much of what they saw, focusing only on getting some rest. After they arrived at a set of four doors, the guard left, and they each entered a separate room before shifting back into human form, removing their armor, and diving into bed. All four fell asleep in a matter of minutes.