Old War Dog

Queen Chrysalis found her mind wondering during today's court. Usually she would be able to give her complete attention to those who wished to speak with her, no matter how trivial the request, but she just could not find the will to do it today.

For one, it had been a day since her delving session with the human known as Ricard Lupus. She had learned much from her relatively short time scouring his mind and memories. He was very honorable by most standards despite his own code. He was unmatched in the art of combat. He was somewhat vain and greedy, as many of his memories were of him taking up assignments many would consider morally ambiguous for large sums of money or exotic plants and artifacts for him to add to his Villa's collection. Yet he was also very generous as for every job he took purely for gold, he took five more at a price many poor villages could afford or for free if he found the cause to be just. The man was introverted as well, something very rare in this world, though it was far from being bad as he was quiet and loyal almost to a fault to those who earned his respect.

That last piece of information was the most important. It was what had made her so generous towards him, despite having no obligation to. It served only to help her, actually. After all, she needed him.

She needed him.

Those three words left a bad taste on her tongue but it didn't make them any less true. She knew not his exact age, for the only memory she had seen that mentioned it had said he was nearing eighty years of age and that had been deeper in his mind than the more recent memories. Despite that, she could confidently say that he had spent at least sixty of those years fighting and waging wars. And that was what she needed. A leader with experience. An, as that Lord Commander had called Ricard, old war dog.

The Changeling Kingdom was at war, the first in nearly three centuries, and neither she nor her people had any expedience with it. Thankfully, neither did those accursed Equestrians, for they hadn't seen war for more than seven hundred years, but that only worried her more. She had read the ancient tomes of her people's military history as well as those of the minotaurs and gryphons and even the Equestrians themselves. Conflicts where young and inexperienced armies did far more damage to themselves than the enemy often left a nation in ruin for decades, if not outright destroyed.

The thought that her own kingdom would suffer such a fate had often left her retching behind the closed doors of her personal chambers as vivid images of her land in flames and her people being slaughtered played in her mind. Briefly she cursed her failed invasion of Equestria's capital. She had been so close to victory and ensuring the permanent safety of her people. And then that damned Twilight Sparkle had to find and free that wretched princess, exposing her just as victory was within her grasp.

She should have killed them both and yet she hadn't had the stomach to. Now her people would pay the price of her weakness.

Chrysalis shook her head of such thoughts, though it was barely perceptible as she was still in court. No, her people would not pay. Not if she was able to gain Ricard's loyalty. He was in her debt for now, ensuring his service to her for some time. But eventually he would deem his debt payed and leave, as he had done to many others.

She had a plan though. She had payed great attention to that king for whom Ricard had been so loyal as to give half his life to. He had been kind and generous to his subjects and foreigners alike. When his nation was at war he had been brutal in the defense of his land and merciful when his enemies laid beaten and bloody at his feet, often supporting them until their nation was once again able to sustain itself, gaining many allies in the process. Most importantly, as Ricard remembered, the man was well and truly a king and not someone who just had the title.

She was sure that earning Ricard's loyalty would not prove too difficult. She had been surprised by the amount of respect she had felt flowing off of him while interacting with her simply because of the way she held herself. Then there was the fact that she did indeed care deeply for her people and her generosity when she had offered him a place to stay in her kingdom. She already had much going in her favor. If she continued to play her cards right, his indebted service would turn into absolute loyalty within a few weeks.

She would need to stay careful though. One screw up would have consequences far more severe than her failure at Canterlot.

Chrysalis was shaken from her thoughts as the voice of Sev greeted her, "Good afternoon, your majesty."

Chrysalis smiled at the healer. "Ah, Healer Sev. I take it that our guest has finally awoken?" she asked.

Sev nodded. "Yes, just an hour ago actually. I would have alerted you sooner but I figured it would have been wiser to wait till the end of court when the were fewer people taking up your time."

Chrysalis blinked and looked out one of the large windows of her throne room. She frowned as she realized that nearly six hours had passed since she had opened court and she had not payed attention to even one changeling that had wished to speak with her. She turned to the changeling standing to the right of her and he held up several scrolls with his magic filled with many requests without prompt. She nodded in gratitude and made a note to give the scribe a raise for compensating for her lapse in etiquette.

She clapped a hoof against the wooden arm of her throne several times. When the dim chatter of the room had stopped, the scribe raised his voice so as to be heard throughout the large room. "The Royal Court of her Majesty, Queen Chrysalis, is hereby closed until tomorrow." And with that all the changelings, minus the guards and Sev filed out through the large wooden double doors of the throne room.

"Have these scrolls delivered to my chambers as soon as possible," she ordered the scribe. He nodded and quickly left as well without a word. The Queen of the Changelings rose from her throne and descended down the raised dais where Sev waited patiently. "Let us go properly greet our guest then, shall we?"

"Of course you majesty."

It did not take them long to reach the medical wards of the castle and enter the room Ricard had been placed in. He was just putting on the his last article of newly repaired clothing, his longcoat, when they came in. He nodded towards them. "Your Majesty, Sev," he greeted politely.

Sev nodded in response while Chrysalis returned the greeting. "I see you are moving around with relative ease," she noted as Ricard slowly twisted his torso from side to side.

"Relatively, yes," he agreed with a hint of humor. "I must say that your healers are quite skilled. The last time I had been as injured as Sev here had explained to me, I spent the better part of a year resting before I could move about without wincing at every step."

"Proper application of magic during critical stages of recovery can exponentially reduce the amount of time one needs to recover from injuries," Sev informed helpfully.

"Hmm yes, magic. You'll have to forgive me if I seem rude at the mention of it but where I'm from magic isn't real, or not so far as it is here." Sev just waved a woof dismissively, not offended in the least by Ricard's disbelieving tone. Ricard turned his full attention to Chrysalis and smiled. "I must admit, it's a relief to see you again," he chuckled at her confused look. "I was beginning to wonder if I had gone mad."

"Ah. Well I suppose it's a good thing you're not then, hmm?" she teased lightly with an amused smirk. She turned and motioned for Ricard to follow her and he did. Before he left the room though, Sev caught his attention.

"It was a pleasure speaking with you, Mr. Lupus. I have some other patients to attend to, so I won't be joining you. Do come visit me some time, you're quite fascinating to speak with," he requested with a smile. Before Sev had gone off to inform Chrysalis of Ricard's consciousness the two had shared a rather nice conversation mostly revolving around introducing themselves. Rarely were any of Sev's patients so fun to talk to. Maybe it had something to do with Ricard being from a completely different world.

Ricard nodded. "It was a pleasure meeting you as well, Sev."

As soon as Ricard joined Chrysalis outside the room, the two left the medical wards. For a time neither spoke, which was fine by Ricard since it gave him time to examine his surroundings while Chrysalis led him wherever.

As they walked, the pair passed through many sparsely decorated circular hallways with a single red rug that stretched all the way around them and what felt like dozens of staircases of varying length. Some hallways were decorated with many green, silver, and purple tapestries with an emblem of stylized outline of a heart and insect wings to the sides. Other hallways had portraits and busts of different changelings lining the walls. The rest, however, had huge windows twice as tall as he was that allowed him to look out and, to his shock, see that he was hundreds of feet above the tree line of a dense forest. When he looked up, he saw an absolutely enormous canopy of thick branches and leaves stretching hundreds of feet in every direction.

Chrysalis had found it rather amusing when he had simply stated that they were in a giant tree like it was the most normal thing for him. She had simply nodded and said completely seriously, "An Archtree, to be precise." He just stiffly nodded, speechless.

Eventually, the pair reached a large domed chamber with three large platforms that were attached to several pillars of metal each. "What is this place," Ricard asked as he gazed about the chamber. While it was completely empty now, he was sure that when it was in use the chamber could hold several hundred people with more than enough room for comfort.

"This is one of three lift hub chamber in the castle," she explained. "As I'm sure you noticed, my 'castle' is in fact the entire archtree, which I'm sure you also noticed is rather big." Ricard huffed at the understatement and Chrysalis chuckled. "These chambers are the only possible way of traveling up the archtree without being killed on sight. There are dozens of other smaller, single lifts as well throughout the tree that are independent of one another but if one needs to reach the upper levels, they must pass through these."

Ricard whistled, impressed, as the pair stepped onto one of the platforms. With a flash of green light from Chrysalis' horn, the platform began a smooth descent. "This is quite an impressive bit of technology. Not only is it convenient but it also acts as an effective choke point for invading forces," he noted with approval.

Eventually the lift reached the end of its journey in another huge chamber. Out in the adjacent hall, Ricard immediately noted how busy it seemed. Dozens of changelings were going back and forth, some carrying towers of paper with their magic, others had large bags filled with all manner of things strapped onto their backs, and quite a large number of armored changelings standing off to the side while the occasional pair could be seen patrolling about.

There was something that caught his attention though. "Your majesty, if it's not out of place, what is wrong with some of your people's eyes?" Indeed, many of the changelings had normal eyes like Chrysalis and Ricard, but there were also a number of them, including all of the guards, who had completely blue compound eyes.

If Chrysalis was offended or upset about the question, she didn't show it. "Those are my Leginas, titled after the ancient King Legina. They are bound to me, physically and mentally, by way of primeval rituals. Everything they know, I know, everything they feel, I feel, and vice versa when I allow it. Everyone of my personal guard, the entirety our capital's military forces, as well as the castle staff are apart of what you could call a hive mind linked to myself."

"And those who aren't?" Ricard asked, slightly disturbed.

Chrysalis looked at him from the corner of her eyes, slightly frowning at the feeling of discomfort coming from him. She did not mention it though as he did not seem so disturbed to let it affect him anymore than seemed natural whenever a non-changeling heard of the Leginas. "Regular citizens whose duties are not bound solely to the castle and are not part of the capital's military forces."

They moved into the hall, the crowd parting and flowing around the two naturally. Those who weren't in a rush managed a respectful nod towards Chrysalis before they moved on with their business. "Why do they not seem shocked to see me?" Ricard asked, genuinely confused. He was thrice their height so it wasn't because they couldn't see him and from the way Chrysalis had talked to him before it didn't seem like his kind were very common, if at all existent in this world.

"You are with me," she exclaimed as if that explained everything. And Ricard was sure it did but held his tongue for her to continue. "As far as they're concerned, if you are important enough to travel by my side then it would do them well not to insult you by gawking. Word of you will spread quickly and at most you'll receive the occasional glance or fascinated child during your time here."

Ricard chuckled and Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. "Oh, it's nothing," he said, waving a hand dismissively, "it's just in my world I couldn't go to a single city without the entire populace gawking and either praising me or throwing curses at me like they were sweets." He let out another chuckle and scratched at his mustache. "I remember a particularly creative one that could have put most sailors and poets to shame."

Chrysalis too chuckled as she tried to imagine such a curse. Sailors and poets were unmatched in the art of wordplay and with each passing moment it grew harder to hold back her amusement. Eventually though she managed to reign herself in. "I can only imagine," she chuckled.

A few minutes and several stair cases down, the pair arrived at another lift hub noticeably more active than the first one. They had to wait several minutes before one lift finally came up, loaded with dozens of large crates that were quickly moved to a storage area off to the side where changelings went about removing objects and then refilling them other things for the next trip down. "Come," Chrysalis said, "not even the Queen gets lift privileges, so we might as well get on before it gets too packed."

And indeed it did get packed. What looked to be barely under a hundred changelings were packed together, the soft chatter of business passing between them. Ricard also saw what Chrysalis had meant when even the Queen didn't get privileges the two of them were jostled back and forth, as respectably as the others could manage, until they were standing nearly in the middle of the platform with no more than an inch to move in any direction.

Ricard grunted as the lift operator's horn flashed green and sent the lift on its way down. "I loath complaining but might I ask why none of them are flying?" he asked, giving a significant glance toward the wings on every changeling's back. Several of them glanced at him before returning to their own conversation.

"Security measures," she said simply, to which Ricard just nodded in understanding.

The crowd dispersed quickly once the lift reached the bottom. As Chrysalis and Ricard left the lift chamber, Ricard could only whistle in awe at the next room. No, he couldn't properly call it a room for it could have housed an entire citadel. There were hundreds of thick, metal reinforced stone pillars reaching up towards the ceiling, a complete mess of roots thicker than entire rivers that also made up the walls, making a natural dome made of great wooden tendrils. He could see hundreds of windows on each pillar alone while dozens of bridges spanned between the pillars, some made of stone, others wood and rope, and all the largest bridges being made of metal.

Thousands upon thousands of changelings moved about the chamber, most by hoof while many others flew about the chamber in teams carrying large amounts of supplies to some of the thicker pillars with large platforms. Ricard wasn't sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him but he could have sworn that he also saw hundreds of changelings simply walking up the sides of some pillars.

And in the center of it all was the pillar that housed the, now relatively insignificant, lift hub.

Chrysalis could only bask in the absolute awe radiating off of Ricard. In fact, his astonishment was so great that many changelings within a few dozen feet stopped to take it in. While it did nothing to restore their magical reserves, awe did a great deal to relieve mental stress. Most of them didn't stay long to feed though, as they had business to attend to, but left with a bit more energy in their steps. Chrysalis could stay though and for the several minutes that Ricard had been struck dumb, the Queen of the changelings felt all her worries wash away and be replaced by a lasting, warm feeling. It was euphoric.

Sadly, most good things came to an end and Ricard's awe was not one of the few that did. Once he regained his bearings, what was once a raging river of emotion reduced itself to a small stream. Still, it did wonders for Chrysalis.

"This is... I'm not sure what to say to this. It's beyond comprehension!" Ricard whispered. He turned to Chrysalis, eyes wide like a child. "This is simply amazing."

Chrysalis smiled. "What you see before you is the result of centuries of hard work and strong leadership. Even if the entire changeling nation were to collapse, the history of our people would be forever preserved here," she said with pride before her features sagged slightly in uncertainty. "It is my hope prevent such an outcome, though." There! She had planted the first seed. With everything that she had shown him so far, it would no doubt be a certainty for her to earn his loyalty. But that would come in time. So long as he viewed his service to her as repayment for his debt and repayment alone, then his loyalty would be far more unpredictable.

"What do you mean?" he asked, taking her bait. Perfect.

Chrysalis nodded toward what Ricard could only assume was a long carriage made of metal, though the lack of wheels and the pair of metal rods attached to the bottom that extended well beyond his sight in the sea of changelings said otherwise. A Legina stood at attention nearby and opened the carriage door to let them in, though Ricard had to duck down a little. They took their seats in the relatively lavish cabin and soon the the carriage began moving once the Legina was at the helm, speeding past the crowds. Ricard once again admired the convenient and advanced technology that the changelings seemed to have in abundance before turning his attention towards Chrysalis.

The Queen of changelings sighed and leaned back into the soft cushions, wondering how to start. She needed to guide him into aiding her military directly and she had to do it in a way that wasn't too obvious. Eventually she figured out where to begin. "First, I should tell you that this world is not as... violent, for lack of a better word, as yours. If I remember right, you once served a nation that had been at war with another on eight separate occasions in the span of five decades. There have only been six wars in the past four hundred years."

She paused as the carriage entered a tunnel, bathing the cabin in darkness before light from an unseen source filled it again. "It's been nearly three hundred years since the changelings had waged any kind of war. When I said it was my hope to prevent the fall of our nation, I truly meant it because now we are at war with arguably the most powerful nation on the planet."

Ricard leaned backed and clasped his hands, already guessing where this was going. "And this generation is completely unprepared for war, both in terms of mentality and experience," he said flatly.

Chrysalis nodded, not having to worry about faking the fear that showed on her face from the implications of his words. "Yes, we've had books and scrolls to pass on past knowledge, and indeed our armies are well versed in the theory of fighting, but all they know is just that, theory. I fear that, when the time comes to put that theory to the test, they will crack under the pressure." She shuddered as images of panicked changelings thrashing about in the chaos of battle, all thoughts besides surviving pushed to the back of their minds until they were violently slaughtered.

She shook her head. No, she had the key to preventing that right in front of her and, to her great relief, she felt a steely determination radiate off of Ricard. She had him. "It seems you're in need of someone with experience in warfare," he said quietly.

She nodded, suddenly unable to speak and confused as tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.

He smiled a kind smile before speaking again. "It just so happens that I need to repay a debt. Perhaps you'd take my service and knowledge as sufficient payment?"

Chrysalis nodded again, tears now flowing freely, though she refused to show any more weakness beyond that. "Yes, that will do just fine," she whispered just as the carriage exited the tunnel, filling the cabin with warm, natural light and the splendid image of the changeling capital, Novo.

To Ricard, the environment was awe inspiring.

To Chrysalis, it filled her with something she hadn't dared to have before Ricard's arrival. Hope.