A Nation of Loveby Ultra-the-HedgeToasterChaptersPrologue – History is written by the VictorsChapter 1 – NightmareChapter 2 – "Slice of Love"Chapter 3 – Campfire Tales (part 1)Chapter 4 – Campfire Tales (part 2)Prologue – History is written by the Victors A NATION OF LOVE By Ultra the HedgeToaster Inspired by FanOfMostEverything's A Crazed Gleam This chapter is available as a "synthesized" audio book: [click here] - no background music [click here] - with ambient music loop [overview of all chapters] . . . . Once upon a time, there was a wise and powerful Queen. She cared for all of her children, striving for her Hive to grow strong and powerful. Yet unfortunately, the land she ruled was frail and loveless. All across the land, her children were starving. However, in the neighboring kingdom, love was abundant and magic flowed freely. This kingdom was inhabited by ponies. But the ponies were selfish; instead of sharing from their overflowing abundance, they chose to hoard their love amongst themselves. Changelings could only feed if they disguised themselves as ponies, forced to walk among them always fearful of discovery. The Queen humbly approached the rulers of the pony-kingdom, asking for help to feed her starving children, but the pony-princesses refused. She pleaded for them to see reason, but the selfish pony-princesses just laughed at the Queen. “You cannot have our love.” Said the youngest. “For it is our own.” “We control the dreams.” Said the middle princess. “We can send nightmares into your hive-mind, and make their minds break like brittle.” “We control the sun in the heavens above.” Said the eldest. “We can send down its heat, and make your hives burn!” “Now, begone from our lands!” They spoke as one. Dismayed, the Queen saw no other choice but to leave. Once she had left, the evil pony-princesses laughed: “Hah! There goes the weak and hungry Queen! Let her changelings rot; soon they won't bother us anymore.” “Soon the changelings shall be no more, soon the changelings shall be no more! Hah! This calls for a celebration!” “I know! Let us have a royal wedding! It will show them how much love we have! Hah!” However, unbeknownst to the evil pony-princesses, a brave changeling had snuck into their castle, disguising himself as a pony-guard. He overheard them planning the wedding, and when he sent his message through the hive-mind, the clever Queen hatched a plan. For while the three pony-princesses were powerful, not all were equally so. In a selfless act, a group of fearless changelings captured the youngest of the three pony-princesses, who was also the one who had ordered the wedding. But how could they replace her? The pony-princesses were strong, even the youngest of them. A lone drone would surely be discovered for being too weak! So, the Queen took it upon herself to don the disguise of the youngest princess. While in disguise, the compassionate Queen had to endure many trials pretending to be the evil princess, seeing the ponies flaunt their love that could've fed many of her children fit-to-burst, whereas the ponies could simply feed on grass and fruit. And yet, it was very nearly all for nought. Perhaps it was simply poor luck, or perhaps the Queen had not been able to act as heartless as the evil princess would, but, just as the royal wedding was about to come to a close, her ruse was discovered. The pony-princesses were furious! “I will scorch your lands with the power over the sun!” spoke the elder princess. “I will break your minds with the power over nightmares!” spoke the middle princess. (The youngest princess didn't say anything because she was captured.) All seemed lost! The Queen was struck with dismay. “Oh woe, this day should have been just perfect, yet now all changelingkind is undone! Forgive me, my children, for I have failed you!” “No, you have not failed us, mother,” her children spoke as one, emoting through the hive-mind: Hope, support, unwavering belief, affection. Her children's thoughts gave the Queen the strength she needed, and using the power of the love she had gained while disguised, she defeated the evil princesses and took away their powers over the sun and moon. Love was brought to all the changelings – and the glorious Queen vowed no changeling would ever go hungry again. And that's how Omnifaria was made. . ~~~ . “The end,” Nurture intoned deeply, closing the book. The young nymph sat snug in her pod, pretending to not be sleepy at all. Her muzzle scrunched, Nurture could easily smell the rise of confusion, mixed with curiosity. “But Nunu, what happened to the ponies?” Nurture sighed. It was always about the ponies with this clutch, wasn't it? Too bad that real history didn't make for a good bedtime story. “Well...” Nurture began, stalling for time. “Say, how are your transformation lessons coming along?” “I can already change my colors!” The nymph piped up, not minding the side-topic. “And I can make fur and wood... well, a little...” “That's very good, dear!” Nurture smiled brightly. Though it wasn't like there was any rush for the little ones. “Now, let me ask you a question.” Nurture booped the little changeling's snout, prompting a giggle. “When was the last time you fed?” Again, Gentle's muzzle scrunched, as the little nymph looked up in confusion. “Uhm... dinner was at six?“ “And before that?” “Uh... lunch was at twelve I think?” “And before that?” “Bravery gave me some of her happiness when we went to the arcade and I had already spent all my Cadenzi.” “Okay.” The caretaker chuckled, deciding not to chide her for eating candy before a meal. “But before that?” “Breakfast?” “And before breakfast?” “Uhh...” The nymph pouted adorably at the odd question. “Dinner again, yesterday?” Nurture's insides melted at the sight. “And... when was the last time you *couldn't* feed?” “Couldn't... feed?” Gentle tilted her head. “I don't understand.” “Was there ever a day when you couldn't get love?” “Couldn't get– But love is everywhere!” Unconsciously, Gentle's gaze flicked to her night-lamp buzzing with just the faintest hum of energy. “Yes,” Nurture chuckled. “Today, it is. That is the gift our Queen gave us. But it was not always this way...” The scent of amusement grew stale as the caretaker trailed off. “You see... even after our Queen defeated the pony-princesses, the ponies still didn't want to share their love. And...” Nurture bowed her head. “It was a... different time. Like the story said, changelings had to hide among the ponies just to get by.” She could've said more. She didn't. The pause stretched. Until a tiny voice broke it. “But, what happened to the ponies?” Nurture sighed. No easy way out, was there? “There was fighting. Many... got hurt. But in the end, we won. The ponies... left, and we used their genetic code to build our love-factories.” “That's... That is so sad...” Gentle whimpered slightly. “Why... why couldn't every-one just love each other?” The nymph looked up at her with big, dewy eyes. “Aww, now don't you think about such bad things.” Nurture rustled the little one's dorsal fin. “That was all a very long time ago, and things aren't like that anymore.” The little nymph glanced up at her, and Nurture gave her best reassuring smile. “Our Queen made sure of that.” . . . . . . Author's Note Special thanks go to my editor Reese, and thanks to FanOfMostEverything, for providing both inspiration and aid in writing this story. This story originally spawned from a single sentence in midst of a setting that would otherwise have seemed like nothing more than a bleak alternate future: "You know, ponies have actually been romanticized as of late." That line. That one line. I really liked that one line. And that's how Omnifaria was made. Chapter 1 – Nightmare This chapter is available as a "synthesized" audio book: [click here] - no background music [click here] - with ambient music loop [overview of all chapters] . . None could tell how exactly it had happened. Barely any-ling even had known about her beyond the abstract, let alone that she still existed, hidden away in a dark corner of some old research-facility. She had broken free of her chrysalis, leaving destruction in her wake, spreading hatred and despair. Within just a week, she had taken out several major love- and womb-factories, grinding love-production to a standstill. The military was caught unprepared, not anticipating an attack from within. The Queen herself tried to stop her, but had to be evacuated after nearly getting killed. Rumors spread that the Queen might have to undergo rebirth. The hive-mind was overwhelmed by the ensuing mass-panic, rendering all but short-range ling-to-ling communication impossible. She didn't strike the cities directly. She didn't need to – infrastructure had already collapsed. For the first time in well over a century, the changelings of Omnifaria knew hunger. . ~ . The six changelings slowly trotted deeper into the ruins of the love-factory. Once brightly lit in fractals of green, infrared, and ultraviolet, the factory had gone dark. Only their horn-light revealed the path ahead... and the ghastly sight that greeted them. Every single pod had been ripped open and emptied. Gaping wounds in the hard-resin walls had long-since bled out, hardened ooze and other fluids splattered across the floor. Dim chromatophore displays that had once proudly shown the status of energy-flow were frozen on their final, jumbled warning message requesting immediate maintenance that would never come. The factory was dead. Murdered. One of the six fell to her knees, crying. They all stopped, for a moment. Finding the one responsible wasn't difficult – just follow the hate. Thoughtful Curiosity looked up at the monster. It didn't seem to notice them. She swallowed. “We... we have come to s-stop you!” She spoke out loud. Silence. That had sounded better in her head. The monster dispassionately spared their little group a glance, then went back to cradling one of the love-batteries. That one glance alone froze Thoughtful solid. In that moment, Thoughtful Curiosity felt, like they were intruding on some important task, and how dare they take up its time with their own little unimportant problems. They were small. They were insignificant. The Nightmare could kill them all with a thought. But why bother? They didn't matter. As long as they didn't annoy her. They should just turn around and leave. “NO!” Thoughtful Curiosity broadcasted. No, they couldn't just leave! Not after coming this far! “Omnifaria depends on us!” The thought had come from another. It was all Thoughtful needed to remember that she wasn't alone. That this wasn't about her. This was about everyling! This was about saving Omnifaria! A quick burst of reassurance shared between the group gave her courage to speak further. “We will stop you – with these artifacts!” All six of them stood up straight – even Gentle Caring's fear diminished slightly – and Thoughtful vocalized loud and with purpose: “Faithful Bravery, a guard willing to lay down her life for her pod-mates without a moment's thought represents the aspect of… Loyalty!” The echo of her voice fractured across the hard-resin walls, giving it an otherworldly quality. “Laevigata, a hard-working drone who refused to betray her principles even at a great personal price represents the –“ The monster roared. The fresh wave of even stronger hatred made Thoughtful Curiosity physically recoil. The pony-monster hissed and chattered angrily in a language Thoughtful could not understand. One hoof raised to point at them – no, at the artifacts around their necks. More chattering in its strange dead language. Its horn blazed. Then Thoughtful was suddenly on the ground, pressing against the hard resin of the factory-floor, unable to move. The telekinetic field was too strong. Thoughtful Curiosity could not so much as move a single muscle. The monster growled. This time, she could have sworn she recognized, from her literature studies, the Equestrian word for “insect”. The utter disgust and loathing that accompanied the word was enough for her to guess the beast's meaning. With dawning dread, she realized that the field was tightening, slowly exerting pressure on her chitin. Her mouth filled with the taste of ichor. She had been so foolish... To hope the artifacts from pony-history could stop the monster, somehow? How had she even expected them to work for them, when they were made by ponies? All she had accomplished was to get herself killed – worse yet, to drag the others down with her. From around her, she could feel her hive-mates' fear and dismay. “I'm sorry, I failed you all...” But then she felt something different. Defiance. And, strangely enough, a form of love. She managed to turn her head just enough to see the others. Faithful Bravery gave her a cocky grin. The guard had ichor running from her mouth, but didn't seem to care she was about to be squashed. Laevigata was simply too stubborn to act afraid – she just glared defiantly at the monster, showing it that changelings weren't cowed so easily. Gentle Caring was scared, yet despite this, she didn't close her eyes to the world, but chose to look at those around her. Even now, as it was crushing her with its magic, her only feelings for the pony-creature were those of pity and sorrow. Reassurance radiated what little love she had left at her companions still, and Thoughtful's heart went out to the drone who had already given them so much when she had had so little. Boundless Cheer's unwavering positivity brushed against her thoughts, filling Thoughtful Curiosity with confidence, and she made sure to return the emotion in kind. Thoughtful Curiosity considered each of the five changelings who had grown so close to her. Even in the face of the monster that had wreaked havoc on all Omnifaria, even in the face of blind rage and indiscriminate hatred, even facing imminent death – they all held to each other. No words needed to be spoken. Changelings didn't need to communicate verbally. Thoughtful thought of each of her hive-mates. Her friends. They reciprocated. And together, they were one. Thoughtful had no word for the emotion that filled her, them, and the air around them in a burst of unimaginable magical potential. Perhaps it was kinship, camaraderie, love, and yes, friendship of course, but amplified to an unrecognizable degree by the Elements. Nightmare Cadence did not even raise a shield. The taste of utter disbelief and shock was so strong, that, for a moment, it even tainted the all-encompassing emotion from the Elements. There was a flash of color. Then the nightmare was over. . ~~~ . Cadence jerked upright in bed. “Oh Shiny, I had the most horrible nightmare...” Her husband gently pressed a hoof on her cheek. “Don't worry about it, my love. It was only a bad dream.” With slow, careful hoof-movements, Shining Armor expertly massaged her back. Cadence let out a sigh of contentment. Her Shiny knew exactly how to hit all the right pressure points. Already, the details of the dream were starting to fade. Something about monsters stealing away her Shiny? “Come now, Caddy, you don't want to miss breakfast with your aunts?” . With an impish smile Celestia levitated the entire cake off the table, sneaking it past Luna right over the alicorn's head. However, just as Celestia was about to take a bite from the pastry, a midnight-blue aura snatched it away in mid-air, and instead of tasting the delicious chocolaty goodness, an admonishing wing brushed over her face. “Think of thy diet, sister dearest.” Luna pointed at the bowls of vegetables and fruit arranged on the table. Celestia pouted. She said something to Luna. A piece of cake hit the side of Celestia's head, splattering all over her face. “Captain Armor, protect your princess!” Princess Celestia ordered, readying several carrot- and apple-projectiles. One of the carrots hit Cadence. For a moment, everypony paused. Then Cadence grinned, and picked up a stack of pancakes. It landed right on Celestia's horn, skewering the pancakes, and dripping honey all over the princess' face. A watermelon cannon-ball was shot back in response, splattering harmlessly against Shining Armor's shield. The chaos was in full swing. Cadence giggled. She was among family. She was happy. She was practically radiating love. Cadence never noticed the wavering outlines of two changelings standing off to the side. Gentle Caring smiled sadly. “Thank you for showing me, my Queen.” . . . . . . Author's Note Being the author, judging emotional impact becomes difficult - ironically, I don't like reading dark all that much. I'd like to say this is the "darkest / saddest" chapter for quite a while - and some people may not even perceive it as such – but in truth, I can not say with certainty how something will be received, so I may be wrong. I can say however, that the next chapter is a lot more cheerful, "slice of life" fun. Chapter 2 – "Slice of Love" This chapter is available as a "synthesized" audio book: [click here] - no background music [click here] - with ambient music loop [overview of all chapters] . . . . “Uhm, Gentle Caring? Are you here?” “Oh, is that you Thoughtful?” The muffled voice came distantly from the other side of the unusually irregular, resin-coated door. However, when Thoughtful Curiosity thought “open” at the door, it didn't budge. Eye-ridges furrowed, she realized that it was an outdated model, though none she could recognize. “Caring? Did you unlock your door yet? Wait, do I need to emote a one-time pass-phrase or something?” “Oh, sorry about that... Little Irving can get a bit cranky around changelings he hasn't met.” “Little... Irving...?” Thoughtful poked the door tentatively with a hoof. It emitted an angry buzz in response, and a short burst of slime spattered from a small hole near eye-level – completely missing the changeling, and quickly petering out into a trickle that ran down its frame ineffectively. “Was that... a defense mechanism?” Thoughtful tilted her head, feelings of skepticism rising to the forefront of her mind. Hoof-steps could be heard approaching from the other side. “Now now, Irving, I know it's been a while since I had any-ling over, but Thoughtful Curiosity is a dear friend. And what have I told you about spraying my guests?” The door gave a petulant gurgle in response. “She did? Oh my...” A pause. The sound of chitin rubbing on hard resin. “You're a good security door, Irving, I'm sure she didn't mean it.” Another pause. “Now, please let her in? Please?” Another pause. “I'll even feed you extra for an hour. A whole fifty milliwedds, yummy!” The door slid open so fast Thoughtful could taste the eagerness. “Sorry about that. I picked him up when I was cultivating a security system for the Dhaundax Bank. They wanted to just replace the poor thing with a younger model!” “I wonder why they would do something like that.” Thoughtful thought in the private section of her mind, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, can I get you something to feed on? Old love? Young love? Young Love Light?” “No, thanks.” Thoughtful waved the offer off with a dismissive smile. Not even three steps into the home proper, Thoughtful Curiosity was struck speechless. Tools and organic machines were everywhere. Gentle Caring had access to no less than five high-end genetic computing engines side-by-side, each of different make and model, and fully stocked with mutation-scanner, DNA-printer, and targeted gene editing system. The chromatophore display the size of a wall was merely an afterthought. Thoughtful's mouth watered at the mere sight. The disembodied spare parts, on the other hoof, made her feel a bit squeamish. Thoughtful Curiosity had to tread carefully – an entire colony's worth of cleaning-spiders were scuttling about, fuzzy furry bodies rubbing against floor and walls as they went on their hunt for dust-mites and the occasional bit of detritus for their nests. “Oh, that reminds me...” Thoughtful pondered. “Have you finished repairing my PDA?“ She stepped around several more cleaning spiders and... something else, only for a tickling sensation to scuttle up her left foreleg. She looked down to see a thin, rectangular slab of chitin, with full chromatophore display – and eight tiny legs that firmly grasped at the holes in her own leg to climb it. “Even better! I upgraded him!” Gentle Caring's cheery smile was a bit too strong for Thoughtful's taste. “Aww, he missed you!” “Guh...” Thoughtful kept staring down at the device, as it rubbed against her foreleg affectionately. “Why... does my PDA have legs?” “Oh, the little one just wanted to be more helpful!” “But... It doesn't need to have legs, I just need it to send messages, and keep track of my checklists,” Thoughtful pointed out. “Oh, and the organizing apps. To help me... sort... things...” She trailed off. The device had finished its climb and was now nestling on Thoughtful's backplate, right between her wings. It was a particularly sore spot – she had been flying around all day. And the tiny, spindly legs were just the right size to reach into the cracks in between plates and apply just the right amount of pressure. It was the perfect spot. Thoughtful couldn't stop a flicker of relaxed calm from escaping at the unexpected massage. Gentle Caring's slowly widening grin made it clear it hadn't escaped her notice. “Very helpful.” “I don't know...” Thoughful glanced back at the PDA apprehensively. “Oh, don't be like that...” Gentle stroked the PDA across the screen, somehow without accidentally selecting anything. “I also expanded his memory. I just so happened to have the... right parts.” Gentle smiled sadly. Sensing the shift in emotion, the PDA buzzed and trilled, grasping Gentle Caring's foreleg with its own tiny appendages. Gentle's mood shifted, as the small device struggled to climb her foreleg. “Aww...” Gentle cooed. “You're right, let's show Thoughtful what you can do!” It took some false starts, but eventually, the device found its place quite firmly latched on her right foreleg. Demonstratively, Gentle took a couple small steps, the PDA still attached to her leg. “Oh, that's... useful.” Thoughtful suppressed any uncertainties she still felt about Gentle's little “upgrade”. “Here, why don't you take him?” With a sigh equal parts amusement, bewilderment, and mild irritation, Thoughtful Curiosity held out her foreleg and let her Personal Dictyopteric Assistant latch onto it. She looked up, just in time to see another device waddle up to the bioengineer on unsteady legs. The thing looked like it might once have been a basic broadcasting station, but had been modified into Chrysalis-knew-what, complete with eyestalks. Thoughtful wondered if all of Gentle's home appliances had mobility enhancements. “Oh dear, is it the legs again?” Gentle Caring frowned down at the blinking apparatus. “I know you aren't used to them, but if you want to keep them, you have to use them every day, or else they won't get proper bloodflow.” The device blinked and chirped, then flopped upside down. “Awwww...” Gentle cooed. “Alright, I'll see if I can reprogram your genome to make it easier for you. But right now, I've got a friend over, so... just wait a bit, okay?” Thoughtful's mix of confusion and curiosity did not go unnoticed by the other changeling. “Oh, I've memorized the genomes of all my little friends...” Thoughtful opened her mouth to comment on the impossibility of the statement. Then she closed it. Entering the other room, Thoughtful Curiosity's questions got pushed back in the queue by her next observation. A series of toy train-capsules were running along a complex web of wall- and ceiling-mounted tracks, dropping off little chunks of different types of food to food-bowls and countertops, or straight into the fuel-line for some of the machines that didn't have legs. There were at least four dozen train-capsules running all at once, perhaps more, sometimes passing each other by just by mere inches in a complicated dance. As she watched, several of the toy trains changed directions mid-sequence, arranging themselves on the tracks in a way that... resembled a smiley-face? Gentle walked over to the other side of the room, to a somewhat slimy, irregularly shaped wall. No, not a wall, Thoughtful realized, just something occupying the entire height and width of one of the walls. And about half of the room, now that she'd done a quick estimate of the home's dimensions. “Oh, isn't she just the cutest?” Gentle beamed and lovingly patted the wall-sized irregular growth of carapace and slime-secretions on its side. “She loves playing with her trains.” A few more trains joined in on the formation, displaying a wider smile. Idly, Thoughtful took note that the remaining trains had increased speed to compensate for the loss in food-delivery efficiency. Just looking at the blur of activity made her eyes hurt. “So...” Thoughtful ventured slowly. “You've got an industrial-grade free-learning organization engine in your home.” “I'm... I'm just holding on to her until I can find her a new home.” Gentle Caring fidgeted nervously. “I... I wouldn't want to keep her for myself, o-of course not, that wouldn't be fair for the Hive!” Thoughtful's understandably still dumbstruck silence was mistaken for something else. “M-maybe I can find a charity that can take her? I-I-I mean, maybe they need an intelligence to make sure all the funds really go to the right places...” “No no no, it's fine! It's fine.” Thoughtful cut off what might have become a panic-attack. “I was just... wondering, is all.” A pause, in which Thoughtful's face scrunched up in a futile attempt to overcome her confusion. “How...?” “Oh...” Gentle Caring drooped. “They shut down her old home... I was called to uninstall the old equipment...” “AaaaAAAAaaaAAAh! It secreted on my mane! My beautiful mane!” The shrill transmission cut off whatever Gentle had been about to tell her. Gentle Caring was gone so quickly, weaving through and around all of the equipment shuffling, scuttling, walking, lying, flying about everywhere, Thoughtful had to wonder if the bio-engineer had augmented herself, as well. “Reminder to self,” Thoughtful absentmindedly thought at her PDA, which twitched to life on her foreleg. “Ask Gentle Caring about her qualifications and certificates later.” Flying indoors was out – too many small things in the air, too many cramped corridors filled to the ceiling with bio-machinery – so it took Thoughtful a bit to make her way to the front door. The scene she walked in on was one showing averted disaster: Faithful Bravery was emoting something rotten at the door, who bleeped indignantly. Both Boundless Cheer and Reassurance were covered in slime-secretions – one of them more upset than the other, who was adding her own secretions to make the slime into a rubbery ball. Then Laevigata walked in, blinked, and burst out laughing. They spend the rest of the evening just chatting, and playing a few games. Boundless Cheer found an even match in the industrial superintelligence Gentle kept insisting she wasn't keeping for herself. Eventually, Laevigata brought over her saddlebags, clinking with cans and bottles. “Organic Love, only harvested from free-roaming animals?” Thoughtful read out loud. “Laevigata, all love is organic.” “Oh, Ih azzure you, zis very vell dezerves zee label. Just give iht a try.” Laevigata gave her a lopsided fang-toothed grin. “Nozhing like vhat zee love factories churn out.” With a shrug, Thoughtful accepted the container, and fed. Her senses were assaulted with a plethora of flavors, too many to count, each nuance of emotion ever so subtly different. Wild, animalistic emotions mixed with calm and careless feelings of happiness and contentment, blended together into a cocktail of varying nuances of love from many different sources. There was also some flavor of adoration she couldn't quite place. Gentle was simply radiating happiness. “Can I... visit sometime? It tastes beautiful.” . . “But, dear, you simply must let me help you redesign your home, these walls-cavities are simply atrocious!” Reassurance dramatically raised a foreleg to her head. “Simply atrocious! And so last-cycle!” Forelegs extending to match the contours of the wall, she instantly began doing measurements. “A little hard-resin here, a little raw-resin there...” “Raw-resin?” Laevigata interjected into the exchange. “Yes, dear, it's all the rage these days in Plectricona!” “Izn't zat just ze unfinished spittle zat comes outta ze –” “Who's hungry?!?” Boundless Cheer broadcasted openly. “Cause I brought snaaa-aaacks!~” Boundless Cheer wasn't the only one who had developed an appetite. Soon, Laevigata, Boundless Cheer, and Gentle Caring had all brought out a large spread of different emotions, ranging from Delight to Joy to Exuberance. Faithful's contribution was half a six-pack of “Tripple-X” love energy. Boundless was already stuffing her face, and Thoughtful had just taken a sip from Laevigata's special brand of “Organic Love”, when Faithful Bravery submitted the feeling of disapproval. “Hey, aren't you all forgetting something?” “Oh?” Boundless Cheer looked up from playing with Thoughtful's Personal Dictyopteric Assistant – which was odd, since Thoughtful didn't have any games on it. “What'zzat?” Laevigata inquired, about to take a sip herself. “Our thanks to the Queen, duh!” “Gah!” Thoughtful did a perfect spit take, splattering the intangible concept of love all over the table – and her friends. Boundless Cheer giggled. Reassurance shrieked. Laevigata and Faithful Bravery just rolled their eyes. Gentle Caring gasped – though not at her friends' antics. A single, very small cleaning spider skittered onto the table and began vigorously absorbing what little it could, scuttle off to its nest, only to almost instantly rush back to continue its sworn duty. “Oh, Jenny!” Gentle Caring scooped up the tiny spider. “You can't clean all this on your own, it's too much!” The mini-sized cleaning spider waved its barely hair-thin legs around wildly, standing straight to its full height of about two-and-a-half centi-hooves. Gentle Caring sighed. “Please, will you at least let me help you this time?” A hasty apology drenched in embarrassment, an argument with overeager household equipment, handling a PDA trying to help with physical tasks, and an impromptu game of shapeshift-hide-and-seek later, in which Boundless Cheer somehow managed to replace the table while it was still being cleaned, every-ling had calmed and sat down again. They all closed their eyes, and opened their minds to share thoughts. “Thank you, Queen Chrysalis, hive-mother, great protector, and love-bringer, for providing us with this feast to feed upon.” Several variations of “Thank Chrysalis” were broadcasted between the six friends, and into the larger hive-mind, where, if they all thought just hard enough, maybe the Queen would hear them. Thoughtful couldn't help but smile. Chapter 3 – Campfire Tales (part 1) This chapter is available as a "synthesized" audio book: [click here] - no background music [click here] - with ambient music loop [overview of all chapters] . . . . Faithful Bravery let her gaze wander, slowly, to each of her friends; her face was cast in ominous shadows by the crackling fire, transforming her fang-toothed grin into something sinister. The clearing around them was an island in the moonless night, bordered by unsteadily-lit trees quickly fading to darkness. The reflected light of the flames danced and glistened on the nearby sleeping pods hanging from them; Reassurance's resin-woven sleeping pod – or, rather, her makeshift “one-room apartment” built into the canopy of a tree – shimmered with bioluminescent liquid, casting a dim blue glow across the clearing, but this homey radiance did little to push back the night. From beyond the light, only sound reached the group, the screeches and chirps of distant animals and what must have been the rustling of leaves in the wind. They and the fire were all that could be heard, until Faithful Bravery spoke. “It was just a routine check...” she thrummed in a deep, ominous tone. “One of the batteries had gone dark... So the drone went to investigate the dead battery. Because, how could a love-battery just die? They're supposed to last forever!” Thoughtful Curiosity let out a fake cough. Faithful ignored her. “And then...” The glow from Bravery's horn took on a menacing yellowy-green aura, and she slowly waved her forelegs over the campfire. “The dead battery broke out of its cocoon and flew right in the drone's face! And then...” Bravery paused for dramatic effect. “It sucked out all of his love... And when he was weak and tired, even when he felt numb and drained of all emotion... It just kept going, and going... and going...! Until the poor drone was nothing more than an empty shell! Because... the love-battery... wanted its love back! Aaaaall of it... Oooooooooooo!” “Oh, please.” Thoughtful Curiosity scoffed. “Oh? Well then, what did happen in womb-factory #14?” Bravery challenged. Thoughtful rolled her eyes. “I'll tell you what didn't happen. There was no ghost of the pony-princesses possessing the batteries, because ghosts aren't real. It wasn't Nightmare Cadence's wrath, because she's still in her dream-cocoon under high-security wards that would trigger if she so much as sleep-cast a light-spell. And it was definitely not a love-battery breaking out of its stasis and, Chrysalis forbid, attacking someling, because that is so many levels of stupidly impossible, I don't even know where to begin.” Faithful Bravery shared a look with the others. They knew what was coming next. “It's a love-battery! Love! It's right in the name!” Thoughtful threw her hooves up in a burst of annoyance and frustration. “They aren't even physically capable of attacking... anything. Have you seen a love-battery? It's not designed for physical activity!” In a green flash, Thoughtful Curiosity shrank down, body unchanged with one notable exception. Lying on her belly, she demonstratively shuffled her now nubby hooves that barely touched the ground, oblivious to Faithful Bravery's snickering. “There! See? How would something like this even walk?” “Well, maybe it –“ Bravery's mirth was now broadcast openly, earning her a glare. “Maybe it flew?” Another flash, and Thoughtful flapped her now useless, downy wings, raising an eye ridge at Bravery. The aura of mirth became almost tangible, as it was joined by several more changelings. It was only now Thoughtful Curiosity realized she had made a foal of herself. “Or... or, haha, or... Or maybe they used magic? Eh? Eh??” Faithful Bravery nudged the currently stubby changeling, sending her falling over into the grass. One could've cut the taste of mirth with a butter-knife. Thoughtful Curiosity huffed. If they expected her to shorten her horn into a stub, she wasn't gonna give them the satisfaction. Boundless Cheer didn't need the full package, though. A cry of “Snuggle-Bug-Hug!” was her only warning before she was scooped up in an embrace too tight to transform. “Awww, Thoughty, you look so cute!” Thoughtful Curiosity scowled indignantly at Faithful Bravery's laughing fit, but her heart wasn't in it, seeing the rest of her friends' own stifled snickers as Boundless was hugging the resin out of her. With another huff, she concluded her lecture. “Love batteries don't think. They cannot think. All they can do is produce love, it's what they were genetically engineered for. Love batteries aren't sapient. That's the entire point of love-batteries!” “Iht's juzt story, Thoughtful.” Laevigata provided with a shrug. Thoughtful Curiosity pouted. “...It still isn't scientifically accurate. How am I supposed to be scared when I know that the allegedly frightening parts of the story are completely impossible?” “Ghost stories aren’t meant to really scare you, silly!” said Boundless Cheer, holding the diminutive changeling up to her face. “They’re just for fun!” “Yeah,” added Faithful Bravery. “I tried real Fear in college.” She shuddered. “Never doing that again.” There was a pause, as everyling turned to stare at Faithful. Gentle Caring's face, as if in slow motion, morphed into an expression of sheer horror. Thoughtful Curiosity's eyes widened, shocked. “Bravery, that's illegal!” “Hey, I only did it that one time!” Faithful Bravery raised her hooves defensively. “And I didn't even like the stuff! Blegh, it just tastes so” – Bravery emitted a burst of emotion to her friends – “only, like, twenty times worse!” Everyling grimaced at the taste, Reassurance fanning the air as if to disperse the vile emotion, whereas Boundless Cheer tried to scrape it off her tongue with a hoof. Gentle Caring's face took on a slight shade of green. Thoughtful fell from Boundless's embrace, landing in the grass, and quickly transformed back, letting out a short series of coughs. “Urgh, you sure that's only Fear?” Boundless whined. “This tastes like Anxiety and Anguish rounded up the rest of the alphabet and jumped in a blender. And then the blender jumped into another blender too! Blegh!” Laevigata put down her can of love, leveling a glare at the changeling-guard. “Ih didn't have ze appetite anyvay. Bravery ignored the blatant taste of sarcasm from the love-harvester, as she always did. “And besides, it was a college thing. It was the 90s, everyling was doing it.” Bravery shrugged. “I don't get what somelings see in the stuff.” But Gentle Caring still emoted distress. “Hey, don't worry!” Bravery thought comfort at Gentle, putting a hoof on her shoulder for emphasis. “I said I only tried it once, I wasn't some crazy self-destructive fear-junkie.” “That's not it...” Gentle Caring shook her head. “But... the Fear had to come from somewhere...” “Huh?” “Someling must've re-wired a love-battery, or modded their chrysalis to give them nightmares...” Gentle Caring rubbed a hoof across her eyes. “It's horrible someling would do that... I just feel sorry for the poor things...” Everyling paused. “Gentle...” Reassurance emoted concern and comfort at the bio-engineer. “You know they aren't sapient...” Thoughtful frowned questioningly. “I'm pretty sure you of all changelings should know – you must've studied them in college... Right? Historical inventions of early Omnifaria? The dawn of the Industrial Age? Artificial love-production? Emotioneering?” Gentle Caring made a non-committal sound, pawing the ground with a hoof. “Zey aren't like your...” Laevigata paused, searching for the words. “Ah, ze 'little friendss' ya have in ze house.” “I know...” Gentle Caring still didn't look up. “But they still feel, don't they?” The five friends shared uncertain glances. Laevigata approached the sad changeling. “Ih've vorked at ze love-factories, ya know.” Laevigata put a hoof on Gentle's shoulder, emoting sympathy. “If iht helps, ze ponies don't...” She paused, hoof raised to her chin. “Hmm, how you zay it... Zey don't... remember anyzing?” Laevigata's muzzle scrunched in thought, but Thoughtful Curiosity had her back. “Love-batteries don't have long-term memory. Meaning, they lack the necessary means to even experience trauma – or if they did, it wouldn't last more than a few minutes before they went back to being all happy and loving again.” Thoughtful frowned. “And the correct biological term would be equus amore, not pony. Those are two entirely different subspecies!” “Cadence, cadanze, makes no difference.” Laevigata shrugged. “It izn't like yer gonna run into any real ponies around zhese parts anyvay, so Ih don't zee how any-ling could get ze two confused.” “I guess you're right...” Gentle sighed. “I just... don't like it when any creature gets hurt.” “Awww,” Boundless Cheer cooed, as she wrapped her forelimbs around the startled changeling. All eight of them, because she'd turned herself into a spider. After a beat, Laevigata and Faithful, standing closest, found themselves dragged into a hug also. Reassurance, with a good-natured roll of her eyes, placed a dainty hoof on the outer shell of the tangled-up mess of chitin and mane-fins, part of the group hug in spirit rather than in the crammed center getting her fins bent. Boundless waved the last straggler over into the group hug, but Thoughtful Curiosity just stared absentmindedly into the campfire. “Can't get the two confused...” She scowled, at nothing in particular. “Tell that to the Minotaurs,” she thought bitterly. “Pardon, vhat was zat?” Thoughtful Curiosity startled, realizing only too late she had thought openly. She turned to looked to her friends, tangled somewhat comically in a twenty-legged embrace. Faithful was trying unsuccessfully to push her way out from somewhere inside the hug, emoting mild annoyance and discomfort, but the others' emotions were primarily that of curiosity and concern, with even the hug's instigator distracted from it. “Ponies and modern love-batteries are two completely different things,” Thoughtful insisted, an undertone of urgency in her transmission. “Ih... didn't say zey weren't.” Laevigata raised an eyeridge, the distinct smell of confusion wafting off the love-harvester. “...Vhy are you so upzet about zis?” Thoughtful looked to each of her friends in turn – but found only incomprehension. She sighed. Her next broadcast was quiet, subdued, almost a private thought. “Did you know that most minotaurs think we still use ponies to fuel our economy? Real, thinking ponies?” “Vait, vhat?” Laevigata reeled back at the statement, just as Boundless transformed back, leaving five startled changelings to tumble into the dirt and grass. For once, not even Reassurance voiced a complaint. “Yes...” Thoughtful grimaced. “Most of them... they think we're all monsters that eat pony-foals for breakfast.” “What!?” Reassurance gasped, scandalized. “What kind of barbarians do they take us for?! Why, the thought of it alone!” “Yeah! And I bet pony-foals don't even taste good!” Boundless Cheer chipped in. “If they accuse us of eating something, it should at least be tasty!” She leaned over to Faithful Bravery and quietly vocalized into her ear-fin, so as to not have her thought overheard by the others. “...’Foals’ are pony-nymphs, right?” Her gaze grew unfocused for several seconds, as she raised a foreleg to her chin in thought. “And wouldn't it make more sense to eat the grown-up ponies anyway? Cause they'd be bigger...” “Chitin rust,” Laevigata cursed. “Vhat do zey think ze love factories are for? Vhy do zey think we 'ave ze genetic engineering of ze love batteries?! Vhy would we uze real ponies?! Zhat's 'orrible!” “Oh, come on!” Faithful Bravery grit her teeth, seething, frustration leaking from her every pore. “This isn't the Dark Ages anymore! No-ling would ever do something like that now!” “I, uhm,” Gentle Caring thought quietly. “I can, uhm, understand why they would think that...” She hadn't thought quietly enough. All eyes were on her. “We, uhm, did take away the ponies' land, and... and then locked up all the ponies, and... and... and t-then we took all their l-love... a-a-and n-now, now all the ponies are... are...” Both Reassurance and Boundless Cheer were by her side in an instant, radiating warmth and compassion. Laevigata followed, while Thoughtful still blinked rapidly in shock. “I wasn't really planning on eating any ponies,” Boundless spoke softly. “It was just a joke, I'm actually on a strict no-pony diet.” “Gentle... We've been over this... It's not your fault.” Faithful Bravery spoke, uncharacteristically quietly. “All of that was, like, hundreds of years ago, and you weren't even born.” “Actually, it was around 140 years ago when the last–“ Thoughtful cut herself off abruptly when Faithful shot her a harsh wave of mixed emotions best interpreted as “Thoughtful, you are my friend and you know that, but if you don't shut up rightnow I will make you stop talking.” “Eheheh,” Thoughtful squeaked. “Sorry.” She decided, right then and there, never to bring up the old statistics comparing pony-love output to that of the first-generation equus amore models, and the most likely economic decision behind dropping ponies as a love source. “It’s been a long time,” Faithful said firmly. “Even if the minotaurs can’t get that through their heads for some reason.” “You know, that might be why they're trying to downplay Nightmare Cadence so much in the news,” Thoughtful pondered out loud. “Make her out to be some creature that escaped from Tartarus, rather than a princess-pony. Bad PR.” A sense of unease went through the group at the reminder of their near-death experience. Laevigata frowned, unable to suppress the feeling of disapproval. Though at Thoughtful Curiosity's inquisitive prompt, she put on a smile and forced out a vaguely positive emotion, deciding to drop the issue for now. “Vhat's Thar... thar'russ?” she inquired instead, her tongue flicking out in an attempt to vocalize the strange name. “What, you've never heard of Tartarus?” Faithful's eye-ridges shot up. “It's where the pony-princesses sent their prisoners. Well. The ones they didn't turn to stone or blast into the sun or whatever.” “Turned 'em to stone and shot 'em into ze sun.” Laevigata gave her a flat look. “Riiiiight.” “To the moon, actually,” Thoughtful interjected helpfully. Laevigata turned to her, one eye-ridge raised. “The night-princess of the ponies attempted a coup,” Thoughtful elaborated. “And she was sentenced to one thousand years of solitary confinement on the moon. I read they also turned the previous ruler of Equestria to stone and put his statue on public display, though there's some debate on the subject.” Laevigata's disbelief was palpable. “Zhat's... zhat's jusst messed up.” “I quite agree,” Reassurance joined in on the conversation. “Why, for all the things she did, I wouldn't wish such a fate even on Nightmare Cadence!” A shiver went through the group. “Urg, can we change the subject?” Faithful Bravery groaned. “All this Fear reminds me of college again.” Both Thoughtful and Reassurance gave her a strange look, for entirely different reasons. The others didn't notice the discrepancy. There was a lull in the conversation. A silence that reeked of awkwardness, no-ling sure what to say. A lone animal rustled somewhere in the bushes, before swiftly making its retreat. The silence stretched on. It was Boundless Cheer who broke it. “How did we even get to being all serious-like?” She wondered. “This evening is supposed to be fun! We're out in the woods, on a super-creepy moonless night, spooky infrared shadows all around us, with oooooonly the liiiiight of our campfire to protec'c'c'c'c'ct ussssssss from the daaaaarrrrrrknessssssssss!~” Her eyes faded from black pools of nothingness back to their natural blue, and the menacing red glow subsided from her horn. She shrugged. “You know, just hanging out with friends. ...Can't we just go back to that?” “Yeah,” Faithful Bravery nodded. “I had a lot more fun telling horror stories before everything became about politics somehow.” “I must say I quite agree with Faithful,” Reassurance broadcasted, a bit sheepishly. “While I find tales of horror not quite my taste, I believe it is preferable to, uhm... our earlier topic of discussion.” Laevigata wordlessly sent out her approval. After a second, Thoughtful Curiosity nodded with mild indifference. “Alright! Storytime!” Faithful Bravery rubbed her hooves eagerly. “So... who wants to hear the legend of the nightmare-moon?” Gentle Caring flinched. “Could we... uhm, maybe tell stories that aren't so scary?” “Fine.” Faithful rolled her eyes. “What about the vampire-ponies of Kan-tah-lott Castle?” “Uhm, I'm not sure...” “The headless unicorn? The loveless ghost of the Mantis Hive? The flooded Hive of Queen Acidic and the Kelpies? The vengeful spirit of Tizoc?” There was a tinge of exasperated desperation in her broadcast as Gentle Caring’s anxiety became more and more pungent. “…The fall of Queen Mayfly? ...The slightly stressful scourge of the slobbering Smoozer?” Gentle's feelings on the subject were clear. “What about the battle at the Blazing Peaks of Mt. Aldrial? Where the Queen fought a dragon the size of a mountain? Inside a volcano?” Faithful was grasping at strands now. “That one isn't even about ghosts, and the Queen wins – isn't that 'not-scary' enough?” “Uhm, Ih already know zhat one.” “Seen the movie.” “Me too.” “I've read at least twelve different interpretations of that legend. ...And I've seen the movie. The book was better.” “I... I don't like stories about scary dragons.” Gentle's discomfort was palpable. “Urgh!” Faithful's head slumped into her hooves. “I'm sorry...” Gentle thought very quietly. “I just... I don't like hearing scary stories...” Faithful peeked at the other changeling through a hole in her hooves. One could practically smell the luciferase reacting. “Say, Gentle... why don't you tell us a story?” “What? Me?” Gentle Caring let out a small chirp of fright. “I– I'm no good at telling stories!” Faithful gave her a flat look at first, but her emotions gave her away. “Come on, you used to tell the best stories back when we were nymphs, you've got a real talent for it!” “Oh, but, I don't know...” Her eyes cast down, Gentle nervously pawed the ground. Yet her nervousness was soon smothered by a steady stream of encouragement. Gentle Caring looked up to find her friends all smiling at her. Boundless already had a bag of chips. They needn't have said anything more. Gentle Caring smiled back. “Well, there's this story my old caretaker Nurture used to tell me...” Unconsciously, she ran a hoof through the long strands of her mane-fin. “Have you ever heard of... the Crystal Empire?” Author's Note I hope this chapter clarifies a bit more about what love batteries are, as it was described in the setting established by FanOfMostEverything's A Crazed Gleam. There were a lot of comments I wanted to address on the subject but couldn't. Say what you will about the rest of their "history", the fact is that modern love batteries are, effectively, genetically engineered animals, optimized for maximum love-output. There... is not much "pony" about them left. A very, very, very special thanks to FanOfMostEverything and Reese, for being both my editors and brainstormers, providing sentences when I couldn't think of any, and sticking with me the entire time despite my slow pace. You guys are awesome! Chapter 4 – Campfire Tales (part 2) This chapter is available as a "synthesized" audio book: [click here] - no background music [click here] - with ambient music loop [overview of all chapters] Far up in the Frozen North, at the borders of Omnifaria, there once stood, or so legend says, a beautiful pony-kingdom, an empire of pure crystal that held great power, with love flowing through its very streets and joy coloring even the skies above... until one day, it vanished, taking all of its riches and love with it. For years and years, many sought to find the secrets of the lost pony-empire, to find out what had happened to it, or even just to prove it was ever real. And so, in the early days of Omnifaria, it came to pass that a small group of explorers set out to climb the Crystal Mountains, seeking truth in the legends. But the travelers were ambushed by a snowstorm – it came practically out of nowhere! They tried calling out for help, but the snowstorm had cut off their connection to the hive mind. The travelers couldn't get a signal out to call for help, and the storm was getting worse by the minute! With the air thick with snow, flying became impossible! And, worst of all, they'd been caught in the middle of climbing the mountainside, stuck to the wall, unable to go back or forth without risking a fall. With their legs shifted into pikes, driven into the icy mountain wall, they thought they could wait out the storm – at first. But, as the hours passed, it became clear this was no ordinary storm – it was magical! It simply would not end! Slowly but steadily, the snow was wearing down their reserves, as it seeped into all the little cracks on their chitin, under their plates, and buried their faces in layers of ice. After hours and hours of weathering the storm, one of the group grew restless, and decided enough was enough; before his hive mates had even sensed his conviction, he had already taken several shaky steps up the mountain. His comrades could only watch in horror as his grip failed and he plummeted, vanishing behind a curtain of white. If only he had waited a little longer – almost as if satisfied with claiming a victim, the storm soon subsided, leaving the group to climb down the mountain, journey abandoned, in search of their fallen friend. But the snow had swallowed any and all traces; there was nothing to be found. Even a full-scale search team, once assembled, had no luck finding the fallen changeling, their search hindered by the freezing weather and communication difficulties. It was a lost cause for sure! So, imagine every-ling's surprise when, upon the sixth day, a signal, distorted and weak, came through the hive-mind, asking for help. They found the changeling on a small plateau near the base of the mountain, wings bandaged, his body wrapped in warm cloths and carrying a small bag he had not previously possessed. “What happened?” they asked. “How did you survive?” And he told them a most peculiar tale; of a hidden hive of changelings with butterfly wings and carapaces in every color of the aurora. Some with horns, some without, some with bigger wings, some with gemstones embedded into their necks. Eyes of every shade of orange, green, blue and purple, all in a single hive. “Surely, they were just wearing disguises?” they said to him, for none had ever heard of a changeling breed like this before. But this, he denied. “They were all always in their natural form,” or so he claimed. That they had rescued him from the blizzard, and taken care of some ghastly spirits on the mountain that had been causing the storm. And while it seemed unlikely, but not impossible for genetic experimentation to have produced such an unusual sub-species of changeling, what next he claimed was downright unimaginable: For while the changelings of this small hive certainly had love for each other, they had very little to share. He inquired about their love storage, questioned how they kept themselves fed in these cold mountains, but they didn't seem to understand. When he asked for food, they offered him fruits and meat, nothing more. In all his time there, he never saw them feed, only eat of the fruits of their underground gardens and meats they brought in from the mountain. They barely had a hive mind of their own, no centralized structure, little in the way of telepathy. And yet they healed him, nursed him back to health as best they could with their minimal love, even negotiated calm skies with the wind-spirits that had caused the snow-storm earlier. “Where was the entrance to this hive?” his hivemates asked. But he couldn't say. They had known he could not have stayed with them, that he needed more love to survive than what they could offer – and one night, he had gone to sleep in their hive, and woken up the next day in a tent of woven resin and cloth out on the mountain, with plenty of fruits and meats to last him the day. He had felt a weak connection to the hive mind, had reached out for help, and that was all he knew. With his tale shared on the hive mind, many more grew curious and set out to explore the mountains of the Frozen North, not just searching for the crystal city of the ponies, but also the mysterious, abstinent aurora-changelings. Yet, even with a hundred drones searching, even with the best equipment, none could weather the climb, forced to turn around by the wind spirits' harsh storms, or simply to vanish without a trace, just like the pony-empire had... Soon, it came to pass that the Crystal Mountains were declared a hazardous zone, unfit for settlement, too dangerous to explore. And so it remains until this day... “But, every once in a while, someling will ignore the Queen's warnings, and venture deep into the Frozen North, to climb the Crystal Mountains, in search of fame and treasure...” Gentle Caring thrummed the last bit of her story in a tone she hoped sounded ominous and foreboding. “They say that sometimes, if the skies are clear on a moonless night, you can see crystalline shimmers on the mountain, and hear strange whispers on the hive mind...” Gentle let her voice trail off into silence, signifying the end of her retelling. The silence continued. No-ling was saying anything. Five pairs of blazing blue orbs were just staring at her blankly, emotions momentarily obscured as the wind had picked up quite a bit, sending what were surely clouds of disapproving pheromones drifting off into the forest. Gentle was too afraid to probe psychically. Gentle Caring's face fell. “Oh. Oh, uhm... I'm s-sorry if you didn't like it...” “Didn't like it?” Faithful Bravery burst out incredulously. “Didn't LIKE it?! Gentle, that. was. AWESOME!” The eager buzz of her wings flung gusts of excitement-pheromones at Gentle Caring. “And just what were those weird changelings that didn't feed on love?!” Faithful Bravery gushed. “Were they, like, some sort of spliced pony-changeling hybrid experiment lost to history, or something?! And how were they related to that ancient pony-civilization from the start?” “Yeah! Go Gentle!” Boundless Cheer cheered. “Woooo!” Laevigata let out a chirping whistle, radiating approval and respect. “My word!” Reassurance raised a foreleg to her chest, emoting stunned admiration. “That was quite a story, Gentle,” Thoughtful broadcasted, intrigued. “I've never heard of these 'aurora-changelings' or a... 'Crystal-Empire' before, is that something your caretaker came up with, or – “ “Oh no.” Gentle shook her head vigorously. “Nurture used to tell me all sorts of stories and old legends when I was a nymph. This was one of my favorites...” Thoughtful was about to inquire further, but was cut off by an excited Faithful Bravery grabbing Gentle in a sideways hug. “...And you know what?” she thought loudly, proudly addressing the rest of the group. “This bug here doesn't even need to look up notes on the hive mind, she's got it all in here!” She playfully tapped Gentle's head with a hoof, eliciting a startled “eep!” Thoughtful was taken aback, dismissing the camping-activities-guide-, campfire-safety-, forest-survival-, stargazing-, and outdoor-sleeping-pod-setup-checklists as well as the notes she'd thought up during Gentle Caring's story from the back of her mind, openly radiating incredulity. “Wait, what? How?” “Oh, uhm, it's nothing, really.” Gentle blushed shyly. “I keep longer genome sequences in my head, stories aren't that hard to remember.” “Nothing?!” Reassurance flared up her own feelings of shock and disbelief. “Oh no, dear, that is not nothing – that's a talent! However did you not get chosen for a position in the entertainment caste?!” Reassurance gasped, scandalized, covering her mouth with a hoof. “Don't tell me you rejected your assignment!” “Uhm...” Gentle shrunk visibly. “Gentle, you've got a real talent! And in the entertainment caste, no less! Oh, the glamor! The fame! The set-designs! However could you say no to such an opportunity!” “Uhm, I really rather wouldn't...” “Pah, evaluazion izn't everyzing.” Laevigata rolled her eyes at her friends' antics. She raised an eye-ridge questioningly at the self-proclaimed 'interior design sculptor'. “Bezides, Ih recall you zaying somezing about rejecting ze assignment zey gave you?” “That's different.” Reassurance scoffed. “They assigned me to work in construction – construction! Can you imagine it?! Me, working on a construction site?! Seldom has there been a misassessment of talent as grave as this!” “Isn't what you're doing technically the same thing, only indoors?” Faithful asked. Reassurance let out a gasp of indignation. “Why, Faithful Bravery, how could you ever compare my designs to something as mundane as an office building!” “...Oh Chryzalis, ‘ere ve go again.” Laevigata facehoofed. Thoughtful Curiosity didn't really take note of her friends arguing, too absorbed in the pursuit of knowledge. What had begun as an absent-minded query to the hive mind when Gentle had been preoccupied quickly became a larger search for “aurora changelings” and a “crystal empire”. She wasn't having much luck finding reliable sources. “The Unicorn of the Pleitran Jungle: Truth or Hoax?” “100% Proof! Top 10 Reasons why Ponies are secretly controlling the Government” “Top 25 pony-sightings (Year 202 Edition) #legit #nodisguise” “15 facts you WON'T BELIEVE you DIDN'T KNOW about earth-ponies!” “Movie Magic: The effects and transformations behind 'Pegasopony' explained” “Breaking down the Pony Craze: Why we love a species we drove to extinction.” “GENETICS MONTHLY – On the likelihood of ponies surviving into the modern era” “PONY PRANK GONE WRONG! FUNNY!! MUST WATCH!!! #qualitydisguise #gullible #ponyphiles” “REAL FOOTAGE of PEGASUS in flight over Kzylacata!” “The Ponies Are Out There – Five still unexplained pony sightings” “Vampony Princesses 2 – It Came From Equestria (new trailer!)” “Give your chitin that special aurora-rainbow shine with this one easy trick...” “Pop-Queen Aurora's new album hitting stores on Neigh 1st – pre-order now to receive the limited-time emotiogrammed special edition!” “Goofy disguise? Bad face? Floppy wings? LEARN TO TRANSFORM LIKE A PRO!! Say goodbye to the uncanny valley!! ORDER NOW! ONLY 39.99 CADENZI!!!!” “I was a unicorn prince in my previous cycle – The True Story and Autobiography (BUY NOW, 60% OFF!)” “Ugh, stupid intrusive thoughts...” Thoughtful grumbled to herself, her focus momentarily diverted from a promising article. “Equestrian Myths and Legends: The Crystal Empire” Apparently the Crystal Empire had indeed been an old pony-legend; a rich empire entirely made of precious stone, allegedly inhabited by a genetic offshoot of earth-ponies that appeared as crystal themselves – which wasn't plausible even with current biomancy – and an evil king making the entire kingdom vanish overnight. How would that work? The energy requirements for teleporting just a small town would be absurd, let alone a whole kingdom! Did they mean to say it had been destroyed overnight? It'd certainly be more plausible. Yet according to the folklore, the Crystal Empire would return after 1000 years... Which, upon further research, had come and gone about two hundred years ago. That would put it right at the time of the Founding War, which she had studied well enough to know no such event had occurred. Still, it made for a lovely story. Apparently Honeycomb Studios thought so too, because querying for “aurora changelings” only brought up gossip for an upcoming romance film “re-imagining” the Crystal Empire myth, fittingly starring pop-singer 'Aurora', who in turn was cross-promoting the movie with several themed music albums, further muddling the search results. Thoughtful realized that she'd lost track of the conversation going on in the background, once again getting lost in her searches. Not only that, but both Boundless Cheer and Laevigata had apparently wandered off in the interim. “Reassurance... I'm sorry,” Faithful admitted with a scent of reluctance. “I guess I'm just not the artsy type, like, I mean, not much of that in the guard you know?” She rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. “And I'm sorry for trying to pressure you, Gentle,” Reassurance let out a sigh. “I suppose it does make sense you went into bioengineering instead of an acting career...” Her expression grew thoughtful. “Though, don't you think they could use a bioengineer for practical effects?” “Uhm,” Gentle blinked, surprise and contemplation wafting in the air. “Now that you mention it... The aliens in 'Invasion of the Killer-Mammals 6' did look fake...” “Yes, dear, you certainly could –“ Reassurance blinked. Her muzzle scrunched, and one eye-ridge raised as if in slow motion. “You've... watched that ghastly atrocity of a film? A horror film?” She shook her head, as if to physically clear a bad thought. “Gentle, dear, don't take this the wrong way, but... that does not seem very... like you.” “Oh, uhm... It was... not so bad?” Gentle Caring shrunk in on herself, a fresh wave of uncertainty radiating off of her. Thoughtful's curiosity mixed with Reassurance's confusion. Faithful Bravery let her face fall into her hooves, and groaned. “We did it for a dare in High School, because some jerks kept making fun of us. Figured we'd show 'em who's too scared of a dumb movie.” Thoughtful Curiosity frowned. “You mean you did.” Reassurance gave voice to the other changeling's thoughts, sending out feelings of disapproval. “And you dragged poor terrified Gentle with you.” However, instead of the expected guilt, Faithful Bravery just emitted a burst of annoyance. “Yeah, well, that's not quite how it turned out.” “Oh?” “They almost threw us out of the cinema because Gentle's giggling was distracting the other moviegoers.” Reassurance blinked. Thoughtful Curiosity opened her mouth, then closed it. Faithful Bravery let out a sigh. Slowly, they turned to a deeply blushing Gentle Caring, who was radiating awkwardness. “I, uhm, I thought it was funny,” Gentle thought quietly. Reassurance blinked. Thoughtful Curiosity opened her mouth, then closed it. Faithful Bravery just rolled her eyes. “I mean...” The bio-engineer nervously fiddled with a strand of her mane-fin. “Everyling knows that mammals don't lay eggs, except for monotremes, and they got the minimum gestation period wrong, and the way their joints moved was so silly – how did they expect us to believe the Chitin Eater can gallop on two hooves when her center of mass is so off-balance? And, and vertebrates don't even have exoskeletons, why would they evolve to feed on chitin? Haha, chitin is a polymer of amino sugars, not amino acids!” Gentle stifled a giggle. “And also, it's clearly female, but, haha, but, but, but, they keep saying it, it has no gender, which, haha, which, hahahaha!” Gentle Caring fell over, clutching her sides. “They, they, haha, they confused gender with sex! And they're saying she doesn't have any, a-a-and, and, and, and, and then she sprays acid from her mammary glands! Ahahahahah!” Thoughtful and Reassurance shared a glance. It only served to confirm their shared sense of befuddlement. Faithful Bravery shook her head with a dejected sigh. “I can never look at the monsters in horror-films the same way ever again...” Gentle, meanwhile, just kept on giggling. “Oh, I get it,” Thoughtful's face brightened. “Amino sugars and amino acids, heh. I suppose that is a little funny.” Reassurance grasped at the only straw she could. “...Hold on, did you say you watched it in your school-years? I was under the impression the movie came out more recently.” “You're thinking of 'Invasion of the Killer-Mammals 6'.” Faithful responded, expression still deadpan. “I was talking about when we went to see the first one.” Thoughtful opened her mouth. Then she closed it. Reassurance blinked. Then she blinked with her inner eye-lids. The three of them looked down at the bio-engineer, rolling in the grass, giggling maniacally. “Enzymes! They meant enzymes! Ahahahihihi!” “I... see.” Reassurance nodded dumbly. “How'd you know about the movie anyway?” Faithful Bravery queried. “I didn't think you'd be into horror either.” Reassurance waved her off. “Oh, I was going out with this drone, Zethrax – positively huge, hooves like tree trunks, and he had this accent...” Staring off into the starry sky, Reassurance let out a sigh, fluttering her inner eyelids. “Just the thought of those big, strong hooves holding me...” Thoughtful sent Faithful a mild reprimand for making gagging motions behind Reassurance's back. Reassurance's wistful nostalgia churned, turning sour. “Well. As it turned out, he couldn't stand the sight of ichor. Not even on the silver screen. I spent the evening thinking he'd spit up resin at me at any moment. And of course he was too proud to leave, and I was stuck sitting through two hours of watching that horrid, ahem, film.” Thoughtful noticed the strong scent of Gentle Caring's mirth fading, replaced by embarrassment. Gentle blushed crimson, hiding behind her mane. “Uhm. I, uhm, thought it was a good movie series. I mean, if all of you think it's bad, then it probably is. Sorry.” “Oh, ah, no no, dear, it's alright.” “Yeah, yeah, it's cool, it's cool.” “I've never seen that film series, so I cannot make an informed judgment about its quality.” Thoughtful felt Faithful's disapproval coming from right behind her. “ But I'm sure it's decent if you say so,” Thoughtful added hastily. Laevigata returned carrying a large wooden barrel, finding all four changelings sharing a group hug. “You zee?” Laevigata smiled. “It no haz to be like ze movies with ze avkward misunderstandings and ze drama; Iz better to talk zings out right avay, no?” She took a moment to get a better grip on the barrel, counter-balancing the shifting weight of its viscous contents before the container could escape her grasp. A loud rustle from the bushes made Laevigata turn around, noticing the shadowy silhouette of an animal in hiding, and two red eyes peer out at her from in-between the thicket. Then she noticed another pair of eyes. And then another. And another. And then the creature rose from the bushes, and Laevigata looked up. Eight pairs of glowing, beady red eyes stared down at her, towering over her, from a disproportionately large head stuck on an elongated body with bulges on its torso and midsection, standing upright on two unnaturally thin hindlegs. The creature's maw stretched into a smile that was all teeth and saliva and a bulbous, fat tongue. Laevigata dropped her barrel of love. Thoughtful let out a startled shriek. Reassurance and Faithful screamed. Gentle Caring fell over laughing. “Raaaawr, I am the Chitin-Eater from the planet Uolululoa! Rawr rawr!” The monstrosity stifled a very un-monstrous giggle behind one of its fleshy arms. “I have come to eat your shells! Rawr! Raaa– woah!” The creature took two steps out into the clearing, then flailed its arms in an attempt to balance itself – and then fell over. Gentle Caring let out a guffaw loud enough to rouse the recycled, rolling on the ground, laughing uncontrollably. Reassurance and Faithful Bravery let go of each other, suddenly a lot more interested in the surrounding trees and very decidedly not broadcasting any emotions whatsoever. “Chitin-rust, Boundless!” Laevigata fumed. “Ih nearly had my hemolymph curdled!” Scowling, she examined the dropped barrel for damage. There wasn't any, thankfully, and the love harvester let out a breath of relief. “Hehe...” The monstrous pale face with its sixteen tiny eyes grinned sheepishly up at her from where it had fallen. “Sorry, Laevi.” Laevigata glared at her, feelings of irritation and annoyance replacing fear. Gentle kept on radiating joy and laughter in the background. Feelings of irritation mixed with feelings of relief and a trickle of amusement. “Heh. Yer got me good.” Laevigata shook her head. She uncorked the barrel, inhaling the sweet whiff of pink love-energy that wafted up, a satisfied chitter escaping her throat. “Ahh, zis is ze good sstuff.” A glint of reflected firelight drew her attention to something lying on the ground. “Look out, puny changelings! I am the scaaary Chitin Eater!” Boundless Cheer stalked towards a still giggle-writhing Gentle Caring struggling to breathe. “I'm an eeeeevil mammalalal – mamammamal? mammalade. – from space!” Her big fleshy tongue made an exaggerated slurping noise. “I'm gonna recycle your shells into soup-bowls! And theeeeen I'm gonna make fruit-sooooup! ...Or whatever soup mammammalalas eat. Ooooooooohooooo!" Boundless waved her currently spindly flesh-arms about in a decidedly not scary manner. Gentle Caring, who'd barely just caught her breath, fell on her back again, hindlegs peddling in the air as she chirped incoherently in another bout of laughter. “Hey, Chitin Eater,” Laevigata addressed the disguised changeling. “Before ya rezycle uz, don't ya zhink ya shouldh do ze rezycl'ing vor somezing elze first??" She pointed at the empty bag of chips Boundless had evidently forgotten about completely. “Huh?” Boundless looked down to, where Laevigata was pointing. Seeing the crumpled, empty soft-resin bag, she gasped. A bright green blush of embarrassment further broke the illusion of a mammalian alien, and a sheepish Boundless Cheer scurried to pick up her garbage. Perhaps a bit too hastily so – and the towering monstrosity of flesh and spindly limbs promptly tripped over her own hindlegs, stumbled forwards... and slipped on the empty bag she'd been trying to pick up, sending her falling backwards to land on her fleshy rump with a plop. “...Hey, where'd my trash go?” The dread-Chitin Eater turned her head this way and that, sixteen tiny red eyes blinking in confusion. Then the empty bag of chips landed on her head. At this, Gentle Caring had to laugh so hard her vocal cords went out of alignment. Boundless triumphantly grabbed the empty soft-resin bag and stuffed it into the backpack they'd brought for their refuse. “Hey! That's the glass-sac!” Thoughtful Curiosity exclaimed. And a second later: “No, that one's for metals and alloys!” And a moment later: “No, that's– ...Just give it to me.” Boundless, still in her Chitin Eater-form, took two steps – and then tripped, again. Gentle Caring struggled to inquire telepathically if she was alright, though Boundless's emotions made it pretty clear she was none the worse for wear. “I... I guess her center of balance really is off like you said,” Faithful Bravery commented with a chuckle directed at Gentle Caring, who promptly underwent another dual-toned asynchronous giggle-fit. Reassurance let out a rather unladylike snort, immediately covering her mouth with a hoof afterwards. She looked at the group, mortified. For a moment, her friends simply stared back at her, broadcasting nothing. Then the dam broke, and the entire group burst into laughter. All in all, the six friends had a great time. Bottles of distilled love clinked, stories were shared, and while Thoughtful Curiosity organized and re-organized their garbage for improved recycling efficiency, Boundless Cheer encouraged Gentle Caring into play-acting their own re-imagining of an Attack of the Killer-Mammals film, a performance that soon had everyling in stitches, Faithful Bravery and Reassurance most of all. Earlier worries about politics and historical tragedies were soon forgotten. Chittering laughter rang through the clearing, as pheromones of mirth and happiness drifted into the surrounding forest. Author's Note “The Unicorn of the Pleitran Jungle: Truth or Hoax?” That's the trouble with a country full of shapeshifters, isn't it? Once again, a very, very, very special thanks to FanOfMostEverything and Reese for providing vital brainstorming and editing support. ...By the way, I fixed the audio books for chapters 1 and 2. (Not like anybody seems to have noticed anything was wrong. )
Prologue – History is written by the Victors A NATION OF LOVE By Ultra the HedgeToaster Inspired by FanOfMostEverything's A Crazed Gleam This chapter is available as a "synthesized" audio book: [click here] - no background music [click here] - with ambient music loop [overview of all chapters] . . . . Once upon a time, there was a wise and powerful Queen. She cared for all of her children, striving for her Hive to grow strong and powerful. Yet unfortunately, the land she ruled was frail and loveless. All across the land, her children were starving. However, in the neighboring kingdom, love was abundant and magic flowed freely. This kingdom was inhabited by ponies. But the ponies were selfish; instead of sharing from their overflowing abundance, they chose to hoard their love amongst themselves. Changelings could only feed if they disguised themselves as ponies, forced to walk among them always fearful of discovery. The Queen humbly approached the rulers of the pony-kingdom, asking for help to feed her starving children, but the pony-princesses refused. She pleaded for them to see reason, but the selfish pony-princesses just laughed at the Queen. “You cannot have our love.” Said the youngest. “For it is our own.” “We control the dreams.” Said the middle princess. “We can send nightmares into your hive-mind, and make their minds break like brittle.” “We control the sun in the heavens above.” Said the eldest. “We can send down its heat, and make your hives burn!” “Now, begone from our lands!” They spoke as one. Dismayed, the Queen saw no other choice but to leave. Once she had left, the evil pony-princesses laughed: “Hah! There goes the weak and hungry Queen! Let her changelings rot; soon they won't bother us anymore.” “Soon the changelings shall be no more, soon the changelings shall be no more! Hah! This calls for a celebration!” “I know! Let us have a royal wedding! It will show them how much love we have! Hah!” However, unbeknownst to the evil pony-princesses, a brave changeling had snuck into their castle, disguising himself as a pony-guard. He overheard them planning the wedding, and when he sent his message through the hive-mind, the clever Queen hatched a plan. For while the three pony-princesses were powerful, not all were equally so. In a selfless act, a group of fearless changelings captured the youngest of the three pony-princesses, who was also the one who had ordered the wedding. But how could they replace her? The pony-princesses were strong, even the youngest of them. A lone drone would surely be discovered for being too weak! So, the Queen took it upon herself to don the disguise of the youngest princess. While in disguise, the compassionate Queen had to endure many trials pretending to be the evil princess, seeing the ponies flaunt their love that could've fed many of her children fit-to-burst, whereas the ponies could simply feed on grass and fruit. And yet, it was very nearly all for nought. Perhaps it was simply poor luck, or perhaps the Queen had not been able to act as heartless as the evil princess would, but, just as the royal wedding was about to come to a close, her ruse was discovered. The pony-princesses were furious! “I will scorch your lands with the power over the sun!” spoke the elder princess. “I will break your minds with the power over nightmares!” spoke the middle princess. (The youngest princess didn't say anything because she was captured.) All seemed lost! The Queen was struck with dismay. “Oh woe, this day should have been just perfect, yet now all changelingkind is undone! Forgive me, my children, for I have failed you!” “No, you have not failed us, mother,” her children spoke as one, emoting through the hive-mind: Hope, support, unwavering belief, affection. Her children's thoughts gave the Queen the strength she needed, and using the power of the love she had gained while disguised, she defeated the evil princesses and took away their powers over the sun and moon. Love was brought to all the changelings – and the glorious Queen vowed no changeling would ever go hungry again. And that's how Omnifaria was made. . ~~~ . “The end,” Nurture intoned deeply, closing the book. The young nymph sat snug in her pod, pretending to not be sleepy at all. Her muzzle scrunched, Nurture could easily smell the rise of confusion, mixed with curiosity. “But Nunu, what happened to the ponies?” Nurture sighed. It was always about the ponies with this clutch, wasn't it? Too bad that real history didn't make for a good bedtime story. “Well...” Nurture began, stalling for time. “Say, how are your transformation lessons coming along?” “I can already change my colors!” The nymph piped up, not minding the side-topic. “And I can make fur and wood... well, a little...” “That's very good, dear!” Nurture smiled brightly. Though it wasn't like there was any rush for the little ones. “Now, let me ask you a question.” Nurture booped the little changeling's snout, prompting a giggle. “When was the last time you fed?” Again, Gentle's muzzle scrunched, as the little nymph looked up in confusion. “Uhm... dinner was at six?“ “And before that?” “Uh... lunch was at twelve I think?” “And before that?” “Bravery gave me some of her happiness when we went to the arcade and I had already spent all my Cadenzi.” “Okay.” The caretaker chuckled, deciding not to chide her for eating candy before a meal. “But before that?” “Breakfast?” “And before breakfast?” “Uhh...” The nymph pouted adorably at the odd question. “Dinner again, yesterday?” Nurture's insides melted at the sight. “And... when was the last time you *couldn't* feed?” “Couldn't... feed?” Gentle tilted her head. “I don't understand.” “Was there ever a day when you couldn't get love?” “Couldn't get– But love is everywhere!” Unconsciously, Gentle's gaze flicked to her night-lamp buzzing with just the faintest hum of energy. “Yes,” Nurture chuckled. “Today, it is. That is the gift our Queen gave us. But it was not always this way...” The scent of amusement grew stale as the caretaker trailed off. “You see... even after our Queen defeated the pony-princesses, the ponies still didn't want to share their love. And...” Nurture bowed her head. “It was a... different time. Like the story said, changelings had to hide among the ponies just to get by.” She could've said more. She didn't. The pause stretched. Until a tiny voice broke it. “But, what happened to the ponies?” Nurture sighed. No easy way out, was there? “There was fighting. Many... got hurt. But in the end, we won. The ponies... left, and we used their genetic code to build our love-factories.” “That's... That is so sad...” Gentle whimpered slightly. “Why... why couldn't every-one just love each other?” The nymph looked up at her with big, dewy eyes. “Aww, now don't you think about such bad things.” Nurture rustled the little one's dorsal fin. “That was all a very long time ago, and things aren't like that anymore.” The little nymph glanced up at her, and Nurture gave her best reassuring smile. “Our Queen made sure of that.” . . . . . . Author's Note Special thanks go to my editor Reese, and thanks to FanOfMostEverything, for providing both inspiration and aid in writing this story. This story originally spawned from a single sentence in midst of a setting that would otherwise have seemed like nothing more than a bleak alternate future: "You know, ponies have actually been romanticized as of late." That line. That one line. I really liked that one line. And that's how Omnifaria was made.
Chapter 1 – Nightmare This chapter is available as a "synthesized" audio book: [click here] - no background music [click here] - with ambient music loop [overview of all chapters] . . None could tell how exactly it had happened. Barely any-ling even had known about her beyond the abstract, let alone that she still existed, hidden away in a dark corner of some old research-facility. She had broken free of her chrysalis, leaving destruction in her wake, spreading hatred and despair. Within just a week, she had taken out several major love- and womb-factories, grinding love-production to a standstill. The military was caught unprepared, not anticipating an attack from within. The Queen herself tried to stop her, but had to be evacuated after nearly getting killed. Rumors spread that the Queen might have to undergo rebirth. The hive-mind was overwhelmed by the ensuing mass-panic, rendering all but short-range ling-to-ling communication impossible. She didn't strike the cities directly. She didn't need to – infrastructure had already collapsed. For the first time in well over a century, the changelings of Omnifaria knew hunger. . ~ . The six changelings slowly trotted deeper into the ruins of the love-factory. Once brightly lit in fractals of green, infrared, and ultraviolet, the factory had gone dark. Only their horn-light revealed the path ahead... and the ghastly sight that greeted them. Every single pod had been ripped open and emptied. Gaping wounds in the hard-resin walls had long-since bled out, hardened ooze and other fluids splattered across the floor. Dim chromatophore displays that had once proudly shown the status of energy-flow were frozen on their final, jumbled warning message requesting immediate maintenance that would never come. The factory was dead. Murdered. One of the six fell to her knees, crying. They all stopped, for a moment. Finding the one responsible wasn't difficult – just follow the hate. Thoughtful Curiosity looked up at the monster. It didn't seem to notice them. She swallowed. “We... we have come to s-stop you!” She spoke out loud. Silence. That had sounded better in her head. The monster dispassionately spared their little group a glance, then went back to cradling one of the love-batteries. That one glance alone froze Thoughtful solid. In that moment, Thoughtful Curiosity felt, like they were intruding on some important task, and how dare they take up its time with their own little unimportant problems. They were small. They were insignificant. The Nightmare could kill them all with a thought. But why bother? They didn't matter. As long as they didn't annoy her. They should just turn around and leave. “NO!” Thoughtful Curiosity broadcasted. No, they couldn't just leave! Not after coming this far! “Omnifaria depends on us!” The thought had come from another. It was all Thoughtful needed to remember that she wasn't alone. That this wasn't about her. This was about everyling! This was about saving Omnifaria! A quick burst of reassurance shared between the group gave her courage to speak further. “We will stop you – with these artifacts!” All six of them stood up straight – even Gentle Caring's fear diminished slightly – and Thoughtful vocalized loud and with purpose: “Faithful Bravery, a guard willing to lay down her life for her pod-mates without a moment's thought represents the aspect of… Loyalty!” The echo of her voice fractured across the hard-resin walls, giving it an otherworldly quality. “Laevigata, a hard-working drone who refused to betray her principles even at a great personal price represents the –“ The monster roared. The fresh wave of even stronger hatred made Thoughtful Curiosity physically recoil. The pony-monster hissed and chattered angrily in a language Thoughtful could not understand. One hoof raised to point at them – no, at the artifacts around their necks. More chattering in its strange dead language. Its horn blazed. Then Thoughtful was suddenly on the ground, pressing against the hard resin of the factory-floor, unable to move. The telekinetic field was too strong. Thoughtful Curiosity could not so much as move a single muscle. The monster growled. This time, she could have sworn she recognized, from her literature studies, the Equestrian word for “insect”. The utter disgust and loathing that accompanied the word was enough for her to guess the beast's meaning. With dawning dread, she realized that the field was tightening, slowly exerting pressure on her chitin. Her mouth filled with the taste of ichor. She had been so foolish... To hope the artifacts from pony-history could stop the monster, somehow? How had she even expected them to work for them, when they were made by ponies? All she had accomplished was to get herself killed – worse yet, to drag the others down with her. From around her, she could feel her hive-mates' fear and dismay. “I'm sorry, I failed you all...” But then she felt something different. Defiance. And, strangely enough, a form of love. She managed to turn her head just enough to see the others. Faithful Bravery gave her a cocky grin. The guard had ichor running from her mouth, but didn't seem to care she was about to be squashed. Laevigata was simply too stubborn to act afraid – she just glared defiantly at the monster, showing it that changelings weren't cowed so easily. Gentle Caring was scared, yet despite this, she didn't close her eyes to the world, but chose to look at those around her. Even now, as it was crushing her with its magic, her only feelings for the pony-creature were those of pity and sorrow. Reassurance radiated what little love she had left at her companions still, and Thoughtful's heart went out to the drone who had already given them so much when she had had so little. Boundless Cheer's unwavering positivity brushed against her thoughts, filling Thoughtful Curiosity with confidence, and she made sure to return the emotion in kind. Thoughtful Curiosity considered each of the five changelings who had grown so close to her. Even in the face of the monster that had wreaked havoc on all Omnifaria, even in the face of blind rage and indiscriminate hatred, even facing imminent death – they all held to each other. No words needed to be spoken. Changelings didn't need to communicate verbally. Thoughtful thought of each of her hive-mates. Her friends. They reciprocated. And together, they were one. Thoughtful had no word for the emotion that filled her, them, and the air around them in a burst of unimaginable magical potential. Perhaps it was kinship, camaraderie, love, and yes, friendship of course, but amplified to an unrecognizable degree by the Elements. Nightmare Cadence did not even raise a shield. The taste of utter disbelief and shock was so strong, that, for a moment, it even tainted the all-encompassing emotion from the Elements. There was a flash of color. Then the nightmare was over. . ~~~ . Cadence jerked upright in bed. “Oh Shiny, I had the most horrible nightmare...” Her husband gently pressed a hoof on her cheek. “Don't worry about it, my love. It was only a bad dream.” With slow, careful hoof-movements, Shining Armor expertly massaged her back. Cadence let out a sigh of contentment. Her Shiny knew exactly how to hit all the right pressure points. Already, the details of the dream were starting to fade. Something about monsters stealing away her Shiny? “Come now, Caddy, you don't want to miss breakfast with your aunts?” . With an impish smile Celestia levitated the entire cake off the table, sneaking it past Luna right over the alicorn's head. However, just as Celestia was about to take a bite from the pastry, a midnight-blue aura snatched it away in mid-air, and instead of tasting the delicious chocolaty goodness, an admonishing wing brushed over her face. “Think of thy diet, sister dearest.” Luna pointed at the bowls of vegetables and fruit arranged on the table. Celestia pouted. She said something to Luna. A piece of cake hit the side of Celestia's head, splattering all over her face. “Captain Armor, protect your princess!” Princess Celestia ordered, readying several carrot- and apple-projectiles. One of the carrots hit Cadence. For a moment, everypony paused. Then Cadence grinned, and picked up a stack of pancakes. It landed right on Celestia's horn, skewering the pancakes, and dripping honey all over the princess' face. A watermelon cannon-ball was shot back in response, splattering harmlessly against Shining Armor's shield. The chaos was in full swing. Cadence giggled. She was among family. She was happy. She was practically radiating love. Cadence never noticed the wavering outlines of two changelings standing off to the side. Gentle Caring smiled sadly. “Thank you for showing me, my Queen.” . . . . . . Author's Note Being the author, judging emotional impact becomes difficult - ironically, I don't like reading dark all that much. I'd like to say this is the "darkest / saddest" chapter for quite a while - and some people may not even perceive it as such – but in truth, I can not say with certainty how something will be received, so I may be wrong. I can say however, that the next chapter is a lot more cheerful, "slice of life" fun.
Chapter 2 – "Slice of Love" This chapter is available as a "synthesized" audio book: [click here] - no background music [click here] - with ambient music loop [overview of all chapters] . . . . “Uhm, Gentle Caring? Are you here?” “Oh, is that you Thoughtful?” The muffled voice came distantly from the other side of the unusually irregular, resin-coated door. However, when Thoughtful Curiosity thought “open” at the door, it didn't budge. Eye-ridges furrowed, she realized that it was an outdated model, though none she could recognize. “Caring? Did you unlock your door yet? Wait, do I need to emote a one-time pass-phrase or something?” “Oh, sorry about that... Little Irving can get a bit cranky around changelings he hasn't met.” “Little... Irving...?” Thoughtful poked the door tentatively with a hoof. It emitted an angry buzz in response, and a short burst of slime spattered from a small hole near eye-level – completely missing the changeling, and quickly petering out into a trickle that ran down its frame ineffectively. “Was that... a defense mechanism?” Thoughtful tilted her head, feelings of skepticism rising to the forefront of her mind. Hoof-steps could be heard approaching from the other side. “Now now, Irving, I know it's been a while since I had any-ling over, but Thoughtful Curiosity is a dear friend. And what have I told you about spraying my guests?” The door gave a petulant gurgle in response. “She did? Oh my...” A pause. The sound of chitin rubbing on hard resin. “You're a good security door, Irving, I'm sure she didn't mean it.” Another pause. “Now, please let her in? Please?” Another pause. “I'll even feed you extra for an hour. A whole fifty milliwedds, yummy!” The door slid open so fast Thoughtful could taste the eagerness. “Sorry about that. I picked him up when I was cultivating a security system for the Dhaundax Bank. They wanted to just replace the poor thing with a younger model!” “I wonder why they would do something like that.” Thoughtful thought in the private section of her mind, rolling her eyes. “Anyway, can I get you something to feed on? Old love? Young love? Young Love Light?” “No, thanks.” Thoughtful waved the offer off with a dismissive smile. Not even three steps into the home proper, Thoughtful Curiosity was struck speechless. Tools and organic machines were everywhere. Gentle Caring had access to no less than five high-end genetic computing engines side-by-side, each of different make and model, and fully stocked with mutation-scanner, DNA-printer, and targeted gene editing system. The chromatophore display the size of a wall was merely an afterthought. Thoughtful's mouth watered at the mere sight. The disembodied spare parts, on the other hoof, made her feel a bit squeamish. Thoughtful Curiosity had to tread carefully – an entire colony's worth of cleaning-spiders were scuttling about, fuzzy furry bodies rubbing against floor and walls as they went on their hunt for dust-mites and the occasional bit of detritus for their nests. “Oh, that reminds me...” Thoughtful pondered. “Have you finished repairing my PDA?“ She stepped around several more cleaning spiders and... something else, only for a tickling sensation to scuttle up her left foreleg. She looked down to see a thin, rectangular slab of chitin, with full chromatophore display – and eight tiny legs that firmly grasped at the holes in her own leg to climb it. “Even better! I upgraded him!” Gentle Caring's cheery smile was a bit too strong for Thoughtful's taste. “Aww, he missed you!” “Guh...” Thoughtful kept staring down at the device, as it rubbed against her foreleg affectionately. “Why... does my PDA have legs?” “Oh, the little one just wanted to be more helpful!” “But... It doesn't need to have legs, I just need it to send messages, and keep track of my checklists,” Thoughtful pointed out. “Oh, and the organizing apps. To help me... sort... things...” She trailed off. The device had finished its climb and was now nestling on Thoughtful's backplate, right between her wings. It was a particularly sore spot – she had been flying around all day. And the tiny, spindly legs were just the right size to reach into the cracks in between plates and apply just the right amount of pressure. It was the perfect spot. Thoughtful couldn't stop a flicker of relaxed calm from escaping at the unexpected massage. Gentle Caring's slowly widening grin made it clear it hadn't escaped her notice. “Very helpful.” “I don't know...” Thoughful glanced back at the PDA apprehensively. “Oh, don't be like that...” Gentle stroked the PDA across the screen, somehow without accidentally selecting anything. “I also expanded his memory. I just so happened to have the... right parts.” Gentle smiled sadly. Sensing the shift in emotion, the PDA buzzed and trilled, grasping Gentle Caring's foreleg with its own tiny appendages. Gentle's mood shifted, as the small device struggled to climb her foreleg. “Aww...” Gentle cooed. “You're right, let's show Thoughtful what you can do!” It took some false starts, but eventually, the device found its place quite firmly latched on her right foreleg. Demonstratively, Gentle took a couple small steps, the PDA still attached to her leg. “Oh, that's... useful.” Thoughtful suppressed any uncertainties she still felt about Gentle's little “upgrade”. “Here, why don't you take him?” With a sigh equal parts amusement, bewilderment, and mild irritation, Thoughtful Curiosity held out her foreleg and let her Personal Dictyopteric Assistant latch onto it. She looked up, just in time to see another device waddle up to the bioengineer on unsteady legs. The thing looked like it might once have been a basic broadcasting station, but had been modified into Chrysalis-knew-what, complete with eyestalks. Thoughtful wondered if all of Gentle's home appliances had mobility enhancements. “Oh dear, is it the legs again?” Gentle Caring frowned down at the blinking apparatus. “I know you aren't used to them, but if you want to keep them, you have to use them every day, or else they won't get proper bloodflow.” The device blinked and chirped, then flopped upside down. “Awwww...” Gentle cooed. “Alright, I'll see if I can reprogram your genome to make it easier for you. But right now, I've got a friend over, so... just wait a bit, okay?” Thoughtful's mix of confusion and curiosity did not go unnoticed by the other changeling. “Oh, I've memorized the genomes of all my little friends...” Thoughtful opened her mouth to comment on the impossibility of the statement. Then she closed it. Entering the other room, Thoughtful Curiosity's questions got pushed back in the queue by her next observation. A series of toy train-capsules were running along a complex web of wall- and ceiling-mounted tracks, dropping off little chunks of different types of food to food-bowls and countertops, or straight into the fuel-line for some of the machines that didn't have legs. There were at least four dozen train-capsules running all at once, perhaps more, sometimes passing each other by just by mere inches in a complicated dance. As she watched, several of the toy trains changed directions mid-sequence, arranging themselves on the tracks in a way that... resembled a smiley-face? Gentle walked over to the other side of the room, to a somewhat slimy, irregularly shaped wall. No, not a wall, Thoughtful realized, just something occupying the entire height and width of one of the walls. And about half of the room, now that she'd done a quick estimate of the home's dimensions. “Oh, isn't she just the cutest?” Gentle beamed and lovingly patted the wall-sized irregular growth of carapace and slime-secretions on its side. “She loves playing with her trains.” A few more trains joined in on the formation, displaying a wider smile. Idly, Thoughtful took note that the remaining trains had increased speed to compensate for the loss in food-delivery efficiency. Just looking at the blur of activity made her eyes hurt. “So...” Thoughtful ventured slowly. “You've got an industrial-grade free-learning organization engine in your home.” “I'm... I'm just holding on to her until I can find her a new home.” Gentle Caring fidgeted nervously. “I... I wouldn't want to keep her for myself, o-of course not, that wouldn't be fair for the Hive!” Thoughtful's understandably still dumbstruck silence was mistaken for something else. “M-maybe I can find a charity that can take her? I-I-I mean, maybe they need an intelligence to make sure all the funds really go to the right places...” “No no no, it's fine! It's fine.” Thoughtful cut off what might have become a panic-attack. “I was just... wondering, is all.” A pause, in which Thoughtful's face scrunched up in a futile attempt to overcome her confusion. “How...?” “Oh...” Gentle Caring drooped. “They shut down her old home... I was called to uninstall the old equipment...” “AaaaAAAAaaaAAAh! It secreted on my mane! My beautiful mane!” The shrill transmission cut off whatever Gentle had been about to tell her. Gentle Caring was gone so quickly, weaving through and around all of the equipment shuffling, scuttling, walking, lying, flying about everywhere, Thoughtful had to wonder if the bio-engineer had augmented herself, as well. “Reminder to self,” Thoughtful absentmindedly thought at her PDA, which twitched to life on her foreleg. “Ask Gentle Caring about her qualifications and certificates later.” Flying indoors was out – too many small things in the air, too many cramped corridors filled to the ceiling with bio-machinery – so it took Thoughtful a bit to make her way to the front door. The scene she walked in on was one showing averted disaster: Faithful Bravery was emoting something rotten at the door, who bleeped indignantly. Both Boundless Cheer and Reassurance were covered in slime-secretions – one of them more upset than the other, who was adding her own secretions to make the slime into a rubbery ball. Then Laevigata walked in, blinked, and burst out laughing. They spend the rest of the evening just chatting, and playing a few games. Boundless Cheer found an even match in the industrial superintelligence Gentle kept insisting she wasn't keeping for herself. Eventually, Laevigata brought over her saddlebags, clinking with cans and bottles. “Organic Love, only harvested from free-roaming animals?” Thoughtful read out loud. “Laevigata, all love is organic.” “Oh, Ih azzure you, zis very vell dezerves zee label. Just give iht a try.” Laevigata gave her a lopsided fang-toothed grin. “Nozhing like vhat zee love factories churn out.” With a shrug, Thoughtful accepted the container, and fed. Her senses were assaulted with a plethora of flavors, too many to count, each nuance of emotion ever so subtly different. Wild, animalistic emotions mixed with calm and careless feelings of happiness and contentment, blended together into a cocktail of varying nuances of love from many different sources. There was also some flavor of adoration she couldn't quite place. Gentle was simply radiating happiness. “Can I... visit sometime? It tastes beautiful.” . . “But, dear, you simply must let me help you redesign your home, these walls-cavities are simply atrocious!” Reassurance dramatically raised a foreleg to her head. “Simply atrocious! And so last-cycle!” Forelegs extending to match the contours of the wall, she instantly began doing measurements. “A little hard-resin here, a little raw-resin there...” “Raw-resin?” Laevigata interjected into the exchange. “Yes, dear, it's all the rage these days in Plectricona!” “Izn't zat just ze unfinished spittle zat comes outta ze –” “Who's hungry?!?” Boundless Cheer broadcasted openly. “Cause I brought snaaa-aaacks!~” Boundless Cheer wasn't the only one who had developed an appetite. Soon, Laevigata, Boundless Cheer, and Gentle Caring had all brought out a large spread of different emotions, ranging from Delight to Joy to Exuberance. Faithful's contribution was half a six-pack of “Tripple-X” love energy. Boundless was already stuffing her face, and Thoughtful had just taken a sip from Laevigata's special brand of “Organic Love”, when Faithful Bravery submitted the feeling of disapproval. “Hey, aren't you all forgetting something?” “Oh?” Boundless Cheer looked up from playing with Thoughtful's Personal Dictyopteric Assistant – which was odd, since Thoughtful didn't have any games on it. “What'zzat?” Laevigata inquired, about to take a sip herself. “Our thanks to the Queen, duh!” “Gah!” Thoughtful did a perfect spit take, splattering the intangible concept of love all over the table – and her friends. Boundless Cheer giggled. Reassurance shrieked. Laevigata and Faithful Bravery just rolled their eyes. Gentle Caring gasped – though not at her friends' antics. A single, very small cleaning spider skittered onto the table and began vigorously absorbing what little it could, scuttle off to its nest, only to almost instantly rush back to continue its sworn duty. “Oh, Jenny!” Gentle Caring scooped up the tiny spider. “You can't clean all this on your own, it's too much!” The mini-sized cleaning spider waved its barely hair-thin legs around wildly, standing straight to its full height of about two-and-a-half centi-hooves. Gentle Caring sighed. “Please, will you at least let me help you this time?” A hasty apology drenched in embarrassment, an argument with overeager household equipment, handling a PDA trying to help with physical tasks, and an impromptu game of shapeshift-hide-and-seek later, in which Boundless Cheer somehow managed to replace the table while it was still being cleaned, every-ling had calmed and sat down again. They all closed their eyes, and opened their minds to share thoughts. “Thank you, Queen Chrysalis, hive-mother, great protector, and love-bringer, for providing us with this feast to feed upon.” Several variations of “Thank Chrysalis” were broadcasted between the six friends, and into the larger hive-mind, where, if they all thought just hard enough, maybe the Queen would hear them. Thoughtful couldn't help but smile.
Chapter 3 – Campfire Tales (part 1) This chapter is available as a "synthesized" audio book: [click here] - no background music [click here] - with ambient music loop [overview of all chapters] . . . . Faithful Bravery let her gaze wander, slowly, to each of her friends; her face was cast in ominous shadows by the crackling fire, transforming her fang-toothed grin into something sinister. The clearing around them was an island in the moonless night, bordered by unsteadily-lit trees quickly fading to darkness. The reflected light of the flames danced and glistened on the nearby sleeping pods hanging from them; Reassurance's resin-woven sleeping pod – or, rather, her makeshift “one-room apartment” built into the canopy of a tree – shimmered with bioluminescent liquid, casting a dim blue glow across the clearing, but this homey radiance did little to push back the night. From beyond the light, only sound reached the group, the screeches and chirps of distant animals and what must have been the rustling of leaves in the wind. They and the fire were all that could be heard, until Faithful Bravery spoke. “It was just a routine check...” she thrummed in a deep, ominous tone. “One of the batteries had gone dark... So the drone went to investigate the dead battery. Because, how could a love-battery just die? They're supposed to last forever!” Thoughtful Curiosity let out a fake cough. Faithful ignored her. “And then...” The glow from Bravery's horn took on a menacing yellowy-green aura, and she slowly waved her forelegs over the campfire. “The dead battery broke out of its cocoon and flew right in the drone's face! And then...” Bravery paused for dramatic effect. “It sucked out all of his love... And when he was weak and tired, even when he felt numb and drained of all emotion... It just kept going, and going... and going...! Until the poor drone was nothing more than an empty shell! Because... the love-battery... wanted its love back! Aaaaall of it... Oooooooooooo!” “Oh, please.” Thoughtful Curiosity scoffed. “Oh? Well then, what did happen in womb-factory #14?” Bravery challenged. Thoughtful rolled her eyes. “I'll tell you what didn't happen. There was no ghost of the pony-princesses possessing the batteries, because ghosts aren't real. It wasn't Nightmare Cadence's wrath, because she's still in her dream-cocoon under high-security wards that would trigger if she so much as sleep-cast a light-spell. And it was definitely not a love-battery breaking out of its stasis and, Chrysalis forbid, attacking someling, because that is so many levels of stupidly impossible, I don't even know where to begin.” Faithful Bravery shared a look with the others. They knew what was coming next. “It's a love-battery! Love! It's right in the name!” Thoughtful threw her hooves up in a burst of annoyance and frustration. “They aren't even physically capable of attacking... anything. Have you seen a love-battery? It's not designed for physical activity!” In a green flash, Thoughtful Curiosity shrank down, body unchanged with one notable exception. Lying on her belly, she demonstratively shuffled her now nubby hooves that barely touched the ground, oblivious to Faithful Bravery's snickering. “There! See? How would something like this even walk?” “Well, maybe it –“ Bravery's mirth was now broadcast openly, earning her a glare. “Maybe it flew?” Another flash, and Thoughtful flapped her now useless, downy wings, raising an eye ridge at Bravery. The aura of mirth became almost tangible, as it was joined by several more changelings. It was only now Thoughtful Curiosity realized she had made a foal of herself. “Or... or, haha, or... Or maybe they used magic? Eh? Eh??” Faithful Bravery nudged the currently stubby changeling, sending her falling over into the grass. One could've cut the taste of mirth with a butter-knife. Thoughtful Curiosity huffed. If they expected her to shorten her horn into a stub, she wasn't gonna give them the satisfaction. Boundless Cheer didn't need the full package, though. A cry of “Snuggle-Bug-Hug!” was her only warning before she was scooped up in an embrace too tight to transform. “Awww, Thoughty, you look so cute!” Thoughtful Curiosity scowled indignantly at Faithful Bravery's laughing fit, but her heart wasn't in it, seeing the rest of her friends' own stifled snickers as Boundless was hugging the resin out of her. With another huff, she concluded her lecture. “Love batteries don't think. They cannot think. All they can do is produce love, it's what they were genetically engineered for. Love batteries aren't sapient. That's the entire point of love-batteries!” “Iht's juzt story, Thoughtful.” Laevigata provided with a shrug. Thoughtful Curiosity pouted. “...It still isn't scientifically accurate. How am I supposed to be scared when I know that the allegedly frightening parts of the story are completely impossible?” “Ghost stories aren’t meant to really scare you, silly!” said Boundless Cheer, holding the diminutive changeling up to her face. “They’re just for fun!” “Yeah,” added Faithful Bravery. “I tried real Fear in college.” She shuddered. “Never doing that again.” There was a pause, as everyling turned to stare at Faithful. Gentle Caring's face, as if in slow motion, morphed into an expression of sheer horror. Thoughtful Curiosity's eyes widened, shocked. “Bravery, that's illegal!” “Hey, I only did it that one time!” Faithful Bravery raised her hooves defensively. “And I didn't even like the stuff! Blegh, it just tastes so” – Bravery emitted a burst of emotion to her friends – “only, like, twenty times worse!” Everyling grimaced at the taste, Reassurance fanning the air as if to disperse the vile emotion, whereas Boundless Cheer tried to scrape it off her tongue with a hoof. Gentle Caring's face took on a slight shade of green. Thoughtful fell from Boundless's embrace, landing in the grass, and quickly transformed back, letting out a short series of coughs. “Urgh, you sure that's only Fear?” Boundless whined. “This tastes like Anxiety and Anguish rounded up the rest of the alphabet and jumped in a blender. And then the blender jumped into another blender too! Blegh!” Laevigata put down her can of love, leveling a glare at the changeling-guard. “Ih didn't have ze appetite anyvay. Bravery ignored the blatant taste of sarcasm from the love-harvester, as she always did. “And besides, it was a college thing. It was the 90s, everyling was doing it.” Bravery shrugged. “I don't get what somelings see in the stuff.” But Gentle Caring still emoted distress. “Hey, don't worry!” Bravery thought comfort at Gentle, putting a hoof on her shoulder for emphasis. “I said I only tried it once, I wasn't some crazy self-destructive fear-junkie.” “That's not it...” Gentle Caring shook her head. “But... the Fear had to come from somewhere...” “Huh?” “Someling must've re-wired a love-battery, or modded their chrysalis to give them nightmares...” Gentle Caring rubbed a hoof across her eyes. “It's horrible someling would do that... I just feel sorry for the poor things...” Everyling paused. “Gentle...” Reassurance emoted concern and comfort at the bio-engineer. “You know they aren't sapient...” Thoughtful frowned questioningly. “I'm pretty sure you of all changelings should know – you must've studied them in college... Right? Historical inventions of early Omnifaria? The dawn of the Industrial Age? Artificial love-production? Emotioneering?” Gentle Caring made a non-committal sound, pawing the ground with a hoof. “Zey aren't like your...” Laevigata paused, searching for the words. “Ah, ze 'little friendss' ya have in ze house.” “I know...” Gentle Caring still didn't look up. “But they still feel, don't they?” The five friends shared uncertain glances. Laevigata approached the sad changeling. “Ih've vorked at ze love-factories, ya know.” Laevigata put a hoof on Gentle's shoulder, emoting sympathy. “If iht helps, ze ponies don't...” She paused, hoof raised to her chin. “Hmm, how you zay it... Zey don't... remember anyzing?” Laevigata's muzzle scrunched in thought, but Thoughtful Curiosity had her back. “Love-batteries don't have long-term memory. Meaning, they lack the necessary means to even experience trauma – or if they did, it wouldn't last more than a few minutes before they went back to being all happy and loving again.” Thoughtful frowned. “And the correct biological term would be equus amore, not pony. Those are two entirely different subspecies!” “Cadence, cadanze, makes no difference.” Laevigata shrugged. “It izn't like yer gonna run into any real ponies around zhese parts anyvay, so Ih don't zee how any-ling could get ze two confused.” “I guess you're right...” Gentle sighed. “I just... don't like it when any creature gets hurt.” “Awww,” Boundless Cheer cooed, as she wrapped her forelimbs around the startled changeling. All eight of them, because she'd turned herself into a spider. After a beat, Laevigata and Faithful, standing closest, found themselves dragged into a hug also. Reassurance, with a good-natured roll of her eyes, placed a dainty hoof on the outer shell of the tangled-up mess of chitin and mane-fins, part of the group hug in spirit rather than in the crammed center getting her fins bent. Boundless waved the last straggler over into the group hug, but Thoughtful Curiosity just stared absentmindedly into the campfire. “Can't get the two confused...” She scowled, at nothing in particular. “Tell that to the Minotaurs,” she thought bitterly. “Pardon, vhat was zat?” Thoughtful Curiosity startled, realizing only too late she had thought openly. She turned to looked to her friends, tangled somewhat comically in a twenty-legged embrace. Faithful was trying unsuccessfully to push her way out from somewhere inside the hug, emoting mild annoyance and discomfort, but the others' emotions were primarily that of curiosity and concern, with even the hug's instigator distracted from it. “Ponies and modern love-batteries are two completely different things,” Thoughtful insisted, an undertone of urgency in her transmission. “Ih... didn't say zey weren't.” Laevigata raised an eyeridge, the distinct smell of confusion wafting off the love-harvester. “...Vhy are you so upzet about zis?” Thoughtful looked to each of her friends in turn – but found only incomprehension. She sighed. Her next broadcast was quiet, subdued, almost a private thought. “Did you know that most minotaurs think we still use ponies to fuel our economy? Real, thinking ponies?” “Vait, vhat?” Laevigata reeled back at the statement, just as Boundless transformed back, leaving five startled changelings to tumble into the dirt and grass. For once, not even Reassurance voiced a complaint. “Yes...” Thoughtful grimaced. “Most of them... they think we're all monsters that eat pony-foals for breakfast.” “What!?” Reassurance gasped, scandalized. “What kind of barbarians do they take us for?! Why, the thought of it alone!” “Yeah! And I bet pony-foals don't even taste good!” Boundless Cheer chipped in. “If they accuse us of eating something, it should at least be tasty!” She leaned over to Faithful Bravery and quietly vocalized into her ear-fin, so as to not have her thought overheard by the others. “...’Foals’ are pony-nymphs, right?” Her gaze grew unfocused for several seconds, as she raised a foreleg to her chin in thought. “And wouldn't it make more sense to eat the grown-up ponies anyway? Cause they'd be bigger...” “Chitin rust,” Laevigata cursed. “Vhat do zey think ze love factories are for? Vhy do zey think we 'ave ze genetic engineering of ze love batteries?! Vhy would we uze real ponies?! Zhat's 'orrible!” “Oh, come on!” Faithful Bravery grit her teeth, seething, frustration leaking from her every pore. “This isn't the Dark Ages anymore! No-ling would ever do something like that now!” “I, uhm,” Gentle Caring thought quietly. “I can, uhm, understand why they would think that...” She hadn't thought quietly enough. All eyes were on her. “We, uhm, did take away the ponies' land, and... and then locked up all the ponies, and... and... and t-then we took all their l-love... a-a-and n-now, now all the ponies are... are...” Both Reassurance and Boundless Cheer were by her side in an instant, radiating warmth and compassion. Laevigata followed, while Thoughtful still blinked rapidly in shock. “I wasn't really planning on eating any ponies,” Boundless spoke softly. “It was just a joke, I'm actually on a strict no-pony diet.” “Gentle... We've been over this... It's not your fault.” Faithful Bravery spoke, uncharacteristically quietly. “All of that was, like, hundreds of years ago, and you weren't even born.” “Actually, it was around 140 years ago when the last–“ Thoughtful cut herself off abruptly when Faithful shot her a harsh wave of mixed emotions best interpreted as “Thoughtful, you are my friend and you know that, but if you don't shut up rightnow I will make you stop talking.” “Eheheh,” Thoughtful squeaked. “Sorry.” She decided, right then and there, never to bring up the old statistics comparing pony-love output to that of the first-generation equus amore models, and the most likely economic decision behind dropping ponies as a love source. “It’s been a long time,” Faithful said firmly. “Even if the minotaurs can’t get that through their heads for some reason.” “You know, that might be why they're trying to downplay Nightmare Cadence so much in the news,” Thoughtful pondered out loud. “Make her out to be some creature that escaped from Tartarus, rather than a princess-pony. Bad PR.” A sense of unease went through the group at the reminder of their near-death experience. Laevigata frowned, unable to suppress the feeling of disapproval. Though at Thoughtful Curiosity's inquisitive prompt, she put on a smile and forced out a vaguely positive emotion, deciding to drop the issue for now. “Vhat's Thar... thar'russ?” she inquired instead, her tongue flicking out in an attempt to vocalize the strange name. “What, you've never heard of Tartarus?” Faithful's eye-ridges shot up. “It's where the pony-princesses sent their prisoners. Well. The ones they didn't turn to stone or blast into the sun or whatever.” “Turned 'em to stone and shot 'em into ze sun.” Laevigata gave her a flat look. “Riiiiight.” “To the moon, actually,” Thoughtful interjected helpfully. Laevigata turned to her, one eye-ridge raised. “The night-princess of the ponies attempted a coup,” Thoughtful elaborated. “And she was sentenced to one thousand years of solitary confinement on the moon. I read they also turned the previous ruler of Equestria to stone and put his statue on public display, though there's some debate on the subject.” Laevigata's disbelief was palpable. “Zhat's... zhat's jusst messed up.” “I quite agree,” Reassurance joined in on the conversation. “Why, for all the things she did, I wouldn't wish such a fate even on Nightmare Cadence!” A shiver went through the group. “Urg, can we change the subject?” Faithful Bravery groaned. “All this Fear reminds me of college again.” Both Thoughtful and Reassurance gave her a strange look, for entirely different reasons. The others didn't notice the discrepancy. There was a lull in the conversation. A silence that reeked of awkwardness, no-ling sure what to say. A lone animal rustled somewhere in the bushes, before swiftly making its retreat. The silence stretched on. It was Boundless Cheer who broke it. “How did we even get to being all serious-like?” She wondered. “This evening is supposed to be fun! We're out in the woods, on a super-creepy moonless night, spooky infrared shadows all around us, with oooooonly the liiiiight of our campfire to protec'c'c'c'c'ct ussssssss from the daaaaarrrrrrknessssssssss!~” Her eyes faded from black pools of nothingness back to their natural blue, and the menacing red glow subsided from her horn. She shrugged. “You know, just hanging out with friends. ...Can't we just go back to that?” “Yeah,” Faithful Bravery nodded. “I had a lot more fun telling horror stories before everything became about politics somehow.” “I must say I quite agree with Faithful,” Reassurance broadcasted, a bit sheepishly. “While I find tales of horror not quite my taste, I believe it is preferable to, uhm... our earlier topic of discussion.” Laevigata wordlessly sent out her approval. After a second, Thoughtful Curiosity nodded with mild indifference. “Alright! Storytime!” Faithful Bravery rubbed her hooves eagerly. “So... who wants to hear the legend of the nightmare-moon?” Gentle Caring flinched. “Could we... uhm, maybe tell stories that aren't so scary?” “Fine.” Faithful rolled her eyes. “What about the vampire-ponies of Kan-tah-lott Castle?” “Uhm, I'm not sure...” “The headless unicorn? The loveless ghost of the Mantis Hive? The flooded Hive of Queen Acidic and the Kelpies? The vengeful spirit of Tizoc?” There was a tinge of exasperated desperation in her broadcast as Gentle Caring’s anxiety became more and more pungent. “…The fall of Queen Mayfly? ...The slightly stressful scourge of the slobbering Smoozer?” Gentle's feelings on the subject were clear. “What about the battle at the Blazing Peaks of Mt. Aldrial? Where the Queen fought a dragon the size of a mountain? Inside a volcano?” Faithful was grasping at strands now. “That one isn't even about ghosts, and the Queen wins – isn't that 'not-scary' enough?” “Uhm, Ih already know zhat one.” “Seen the movie.” “Me too.” “I've read at least twelve different interpretations of that legend. ...And I've seen the movie. The book was better.” “I... I don't like stories about scary dragons.” Gentle's discomfort was palpable. “Urgh!” Faithful's head slumped into her hooves. “I'm sorry...” Gentle thought very quietly. “I just... I don't like hearing scary stories...” Faithful peeked at the other changeling through a hole in her hooves. One could practically smell the luciferase reacting. “Say, Gentle... why don't you tell us a story?” “What? Me?” Gentle Caring let out a small chirp of fright. “I– I'm no good at telling stories!” Faithful gave her a flat look at first, but her emotions gave her away. “Come on, you used to tell the best stories back when we were nymphs, you've got a real talent for it!” “Oh, but, I don't know...” Her eyes cast down, Gentle nervously pawed the ground. Yet her nervousness was soon smothered by a steady stream of encouragement. Gentle Caring looked up to find her friends all smiling at her. Boundless already had a bag of chips. They needn't have said anything more. Gentle Caring smiled back. “Well, there's this story my old caretaker Nurture used to tell me...” Unconsciously, she ran a hoof through the long strands of her mane-fin. “Have you ever heard of... the Crystal Empire?” Author's Note I hope this chapter clarifies a bit more about what love batteries are, as it was described in the setting established by FanOfMostEverything's A Crazed Gleam. There were a lot of comments I wanted to address on the subject but couldn't. Say what you will about the rest of their "history", the fact is that modern love batteries are, effectively, genetically engineered animals, optimized for maximum love-output. There... is not much "pony" about them left. A very, very, very special thanks to FanOfMostEverything and Reese, for being both my editors and brainstormers, providing sentences when I couldn't think of any, and sticking with me the entire time despite my slow pace. You guys are awesome!
Chapter 4 – Campfire Tales (part 2) This chapter is available as a "synthesized" audio book: [click here] - no background music [click here] - with ambient music loop [overview of all chapters] Far up in the Frozen North, at the borders of Omnifaria, there once stood, or so legend says, a beautiful pony-kingdom, an empire of pure crystal that held great power, with love flowing through its very streets and joy coloring even the skies above... until one day, it vanished, taking all of its riches and love with it. For years and years, many sought to find the secrets of the lost pony-empire, to find out what had happened to it, or even just to prove it was ever real. And so, in the early days of Omnifaria, it came to pass that a small group of explorers set out to climb the Crystal Mountains, seeking truth in the legends. But the travelers were ambushed by a snowstorm – it came practically out of nowhere! They tried calling out for help, but the snowstorm had cut off their connection to the hive mind. The travelers couldn't get a signal out to call for help, and the storm was getting worse by the minute! With the air thick with snow, flying became impossible! And, worst of all, they'd been caught in the middle of climbing the mountainside, stuck to the wall, unable to go back or forth without risking a fall. With their legs shifted into pikes, driven into the icy mountain wall, they thought they could wait out the storm – at first. But, as the hours passed, it became clear this was no ordinary storm – it was magical! It simply would not end! Slowly but steadily, the snow was wearing down their reserves, as it seeped into all the little cracks on their chitin, under their plates, and buried their faces in layers of ice. After hours and hours of weathering the storm, one of the group grew restless, and decided enough was enough; before his hive mates had even sensed his conviction, he had already taken several shaky steps up the mountain. His comrades could only watch in horror as his grip failed and he plummeted, vanishing behind a curtain of white. If only he had waited a little longer – almost as if satisfied with claiming a victim, the storm soon subsided, leaving the group to climb down the mountain, journey abandoned, in search of their fallen friend. But the snow had swallowed any and all traces; there was nothing to be found. Even a full-scale search team, once assembled, had no luck finding the fallen changeling, their search hindered by the freezing weather and communication difficulties. It was a lost cause for sure! So, imagine every-ling's surprise when, upon the sixth day, a signal, distorted and weak, came through the hive-mind, asking for help. They found the changeling on a small plateau near the base of the mountain, wings bandaged, his body wrapped in warm cloths and carrying a small bag he had not previously possessed. “What happened?” they asked. “How did you survive?” And he told them a most peculiar tale; of a hidden hive of changelings with butterfly wings and carapaces in every color of the aurora. Some with horns, some without, some with bigger wings, some with gemstones embedded into their necks. Eyes of every shade of orange, green, blue and purple, all in a single hive. “Surely, they were just wearing disguises?” they said to him, for none had ever heard of a changeling breed like this before. But this, he denied. “They were all always in their natural form,” or so he claimed. That they had rescued him from the blizzard, and taken care of some ghastly spirits on the mountain that had been causing the storm. And while it seemed unlikely, but not impossible for genetic experimentation to have produced such an unusual sub-species of changeling, what next he claimed was downright unimaginable: For while the changelings of this small hive certainly had love for each other, they had very little to share. He inquired about their love storage, questioned how they kept themselves fed in these cold mountains, but they didn't seem to understand. When he asked for food, they offered him fruits and meat, nothing more. In all his time there, he never saw them feed, only eat of the fruits of their underground gardens and meats they brought in from the mountain. They barely had a hive mind of their own, no centralized structure, little in the way of telepathy. And yet they healed him, nursed him back to health as best they could with their minimal love, even negotiated calm skies with the wind-spirits that had caused the snow-storm earlier. “Where was the entrance to this hive?” his hivemates asked. But he couldn't say. They had known he could not have stayed with them, that he needed more love to survive than what they could offer – and one night, he had gone to sleep in their hive, and woken up the next day in a tent of woven resin and cloth out on the mountain, with plenty of fruits and meats to last him the day. He had felt a weak connection to the hive mind, had reached out for help, and that was all he knew. With his tale shared on the hive mind, many more grew curious and set out to explore the mountains of the Frozen North, not just searching for the crystal city of the ponies, but also the mysterious, abstinent aurora-changelings. Yet, even with a hundred drones searching, even with the best equipment, none could weather the climb, forced to turn around by the wind spirits' harsh storms, or simply to vanish without a trace, just like the pony-empire had... Soon, it came to pass that the Crystal Mountains were declared a hazardous zone, unfit for settlement, too dangerous to explore. And so it remains until this day... “But, every once in a while, someling will ignore the Queen's warnings, and venture deep into the Frozen North, to climb the Crystal Mountains, in search of fame and treasure...” Gentle Caring thrummed the last bit of her story in a tone she hoped sounded ominous and foreboding. “They say that sometimes, if the skies are clear on a moonless night, you can see crystalline shimmers on the mountain, and hear strange whispers on the hive mind...” Gentle let her voice trail off into silence, signifying the end of her retelling. The silence continued. No-ling was saying anything. Five pairs of blazing blue orbs were just staring at her blankly, emotions momentarily obscured as the wind had picked up quite a bit, sending what were surely clouds of disapproving pheromones drifting off into the forest. Gentle was too afraid to probe psychically. Gentle Caring's face fell. “Oh. Oh, uhm... I'm s-sorry if you didn't like it...” “Didn't like it?” Faithful Bravery burst out incredulously. “Didn't LIKE it?! Gentle, that. was. AWESOME!” The eager buzz of her wings flung gusts of excitement-pheromones at Gentle Caring. “And just what were those weird changelings that didn't feed on love?!” Faithful Bravery gushed. “Were they, like, some sort of spliced pony-changeling hybrid experiment lost to history, or something?! And how were they related to that ancient pony-civilization from the start?” “Yeah! Go Gentle!” Boundless Cheer cheered. “Woooo!” Laevigata let out a chirping whistle, radiating approval and respect. “My word!” Reassurance raised a foreleg to her chest, emoting stunned admiration. “That was quite a story, Gentle,” Thoughtful broadcasted, intrigued. “I've never heard of these 'aurora-changelings' or a... 'Crystal-Empire' before, is that something your caretaker came up with, or – “ “Oh no.” Gentle shook her head vigorously. “Nurture used to tell me all sorts of stories and old legends when I was a nymph. This was one of my favorites...” Thoughtful was about to inquire further, but was cut off by an excited Faithful Bravery grabbing Gentle in a sideways hug. “...And you know what?” she thought loudly, proudly addressing the rest of the group. “This bug here doesn't even need to look up notes on the hive mind, she's got it all in here!” She playfully tapped Gentle's head with a hoof, eliciting a startled “eep!” Thoughtful was taken aback, dismissing the camping-activities-guide-, campfire-safety-, forest-survival-, stargazing-, and outdoor-sleeping-pod-setup-checklists as well as the notes she'd thought up during Gentle Caring's story from the back of her mind, openly radiating incredulity. “Wait, what? How?” “Oh, uhm, it's nothing, really.” Gentle blushed shyly. “I keep longer genome sequences in my head, stories aren't that hard to remember.” “Nothing?!” Reassurance flared up her own feelings of shock and disbelief. “Oh no, dear, that is not nothing – that's a talent! However did you not get chosen for a position in the entertainment caste?!” Reassurance gasped, scandalized, covering her mouth with a hoof. “Don't tell me you rejected your assignment!” “Uhm...” Gentle shrunk visibly. “Gentle, you've got a real talent! And in the entertainment caste, no less! Oh, the glamor! The fame! The set-designs! However could you say no to such an opportunity!” “Uhm, I really rather wouldn't...” “Pah, evaluazion izn't everyzing.” Laevigata rolled her eyes at her friends' antics. She raised an eye-ridge questioningly at the self-proclaimed 'interior design sculptor'. “Bezides, Ih recall you zaying somezing about rejecting ze assignment zey gave you?” “That's different.” Reassurance scoffed. “They assigned me to work in construction – construction! Can you imagine it?! Me, working on a construction site?! Seldom has there been a misassessment of talent as grave as this!” “Isn't what you're doing technically the same thing, only indoors?” Faithful asked. Reassurance let out a gasp of indignation. “Why, Faithful Bravery, how could you ever compare my designs to something as mundane as an office building!” “...Oh Chryzalis, ‘ere ve go again.” Laevigata facehoofed. Thoughtful Curiosity didn't really take note of her friends arguing, too absorbed in the pursuit of knowledge. What had begun as an absent-minded query to the hive mind when Gentle had been preoccupied quickly became a larger search for “aurora changelings” and a “crystal empire”. She wasn't having much luck finding reliable sources. “The Unicorn of the Pleitran Jungle: Truth or Hoax?” “100% Proof! Top 10 Reasons why Ponies are secretly controlling the Government” “Top 25 pony-sightings (Year 202 Edition) #legit #nodisguise” “15 facts you WON'T BELIEVE you DIDN'T KNOW about earth-ponies!” “Movie Magic: The effects and transformations behind 'Pegasopony' explained” “Breaking down the Pony Craze: Why we love a species we drove to extinction.” “GENETICS MONTHLY – On the likelihood of ponies surviving into the modern era” “PONY PRANK GONE WRONG! FUNNY!! MUST WATCH!!! #qualitydisguise #gullible #ponyphiles” “REAL FOOTAGE of PEGASUS in flight over Kzylacata!” “The Ponies Are Out There – Five still unexplained pony sightings” “Vampony Princesses 2 – It Came From Equestria (new trailer!)” “Give your chitin that special aurora-rainbow shine with this one easy trick...” “Pop-Queen Aurora's new album hitting stores on Neigh 1st – pre-order now to receive the limited-time emotiogrammed special edition!” “Goofy disguise? Bad face? Floppy wings? LEARN TO TRANSFORM LIKE A PRO!! Say goodbye to the uncanny valley!! ORDER NOW! ONLY 39.99 CADENZI!!!!” “I was a unicorn prince in my previous cycle – The True Story and Autobiography (BUY NOW, 60% OFF!)” “Ugh, stupid intrusive thoughts...” Thoughtful grumbled to herself, her focus momentarily diverted from a promising article. “Equestrian Myths and Legends: The Crystal Empire” Apparently the Crystal Empire had indeed been an old pony-legend; a rich empire entirely made of precious stone, allegedly inhabited by a genetic offshoot of earth-ponies that appeared as crystal themselves – which wasn't plausible even with current biomancy – and an evil king making the entire kingdom vanish overnight. How would that work? The energy requirements for teleporting just a small town would be absurd, let alone a whole kingdom! Did they mean to say it had been destroyed overnight? It'd certainly be more plausible. Yet according to the folklore, the Crystal Empire would return after 1000 years... Which, upon further research, had come and gone about two hundred years ago. That would put it right at the time of the Founding War, which she had studied well enough to know no such event had occurred. Still, it made for a lovely story. Apparently Honeycomb Studios thought so too, because querying for “aurora changelings” only brought up gossip for an upcoming romance film “re-imagining” the Crystal Empire myth, fittingly starring pop-singer 'Aurora', who in turn was cross-promoting the movie with several themed music albums, further muddling the search results. Thoughtful realized that she'd lost track of the conversation going on in the background, once again getting lost in her searches. Not only that, but both Boundless Cheer and Laevigata had apparently wandered off in the interim. “Reassurance... I'm sorry,” Faithful admitted with a scent of reluctance. “I guess I'm just not the artsy type, like, I mean, not much of that in the guard you know?” She rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. “And I'm sorry for trying to pressure you, Gentle,” Reassurance let out a sigh. “I suppose it does make sense you went into bioengineering instead of an acting career...” Her expression grew thoughtful. “Though, don't you think they could use a bioengineer for practical effects?” “Uhm,” Gentle blinked, surprise and contemplation wafting in the air. “Now that you mention it... The aliens in 'Invasion of the Killer-Mammals 6' did look fake...” “Yes, dear, you certainly could –“ Reassurance blinked. Her muzzle scrunched, and one eye-ridge raised as if in slow motion. “You've... watched that ghastly atrocity of a film? A horror film?” She shook her head, as if to physically clear a bad thought. “Gentle, dear, don't take this the wrong way, but... that does not seem very... like you.” “Oh, uhm... It was... not so bad?” Gentle Caring shrunk in on herself, a fresh wave of uncertainty radiating off of her. Thoughtful's curiosity mixed with Reassurance's confusion. Faithful Bravery let her face fall into her hooves, and groaned. “We did it for a dare in High School, because some jerks kept making fun of us. Figured we'd show 'em who's too scared of a dumb movie.” Thoughtful Curiosity frowned. “You mean you did.” Reassurance gave voice to the other changeling's thoughts, sending out feelings of disapproval. “And you dragged poor terrified Gentle with you.” However, instead of the expected guilt, Faithful Bravery just emitted a burst of annoyance. “Yeah, well, that's not quite how it turned out.” “Oh?” “They almost threw us out of the cinema because Gentle's giggling was distracting the other moviegoers.” Reassurance blinked. Thoughtful Curiosity opened her mouth, then closed it. Faithful Bravery let out a sigh. Slowly, they turned to a deeply blushing Gentle Caring, who was radiating awkwardness. “I, uhm, I thought it was funny,” Gentle thought quietly. Reassurance blinked. Thoughtful Curiosity opened her mouth, then closed it. Faithful Bravery just rolled her eyes. “I mean...” The bio-engineer nervously fiddled with a strand of her mane-fin. “Everyling knows that mammals don't lay eggs, except for monotremes, and they got the minimum gestation period wrong, and the way their joints moved was so silly – how did they expect us to believe the Chitin Eater can gallop on two hooves when her center of mass is so off-balance? And, and vertebrates don't even have exoskeletons, why would they evolve to feed on chitin? Haha, chitin is a polymer of amino sugars, not amino acids!” Gentle stifled a giggle. “And also, it's clearly female, but, haha, but, but, but, they keep saying it, it has no gender, which, haha, which, hahahaha!” Gentle Caring fell over, clutching her sides. “They, they, haha, they confused gender with sex! And they're saying she doesn't have any, a-a-and, and, and, and, and then she sprays acid from her mammary glands! Ahahahahah!” Thoughtful and Reassurance shared a glance. It only served to confirm their shared sense of befuddlement. Faithful Bravery shook her head with a dejected sigh. “I can never look at the monsters in horror-films the same way ever again...” Gentle, meanwhile, just kept on giggling. “Oh, I get it,” Thoughtful's face brightened. “Amino sugars and amino acids, heh. I suppose that is a little funny.” Reassurance grasped at the only straw she could. “...Hold on, did you say you watched it in your school-years? I was under the impression the movie came out more recently.” “You're thinking of 'Invasion of the Killer-Mammals 6'.” Faithful responded, expression still deadpan. “I was talking about when we went to see the first one.” Thoughtful opened her mouth. Then she closed it. Reassurance blinked. Then she blinked with her inner eye-lids. The three of them looked down at the bio-engineer, rolling in the grass, giggling maniacally. “Enzymes! They meant enzymes! Ahahahihihi!” “I... see.” Reassurance nodded dumbly. “How'd you know about the movie anyway?” Faithful Bravery queried. “I didn't think you'd be into horror either.” Reassurance waved her off. “Oh, I was going out with this drone, Zethrax – positively huge, hooves like tree trunks, and he had this accent...” Staring off into the starry sky, Reassurance let out a sigh, fluttering her inner eyelids. “Just the thought of those big, strong hooves holding me...” Thoughtful sent Faithful a mild reprimand for making gagging motions behind Reassurance's back. Reassurance's wistful nostalgia churned, turning sour. “Well. As it turned out, he couldn't stand the sight of ichor. Not even on the silver screen. I spent the evening thinking he'd spit up resin at me at any moment. And of course he was too proud to leave, and I was stuck sitting through two hours of watching that horrid, ahem, film.” Thoughtful noticed the strong scent of Gentle Caring's mirth fading, replaced by embarrassment. Gentle blushed crimson, hiding behind her mane. “Uhm. I, uhm, thought it was a good movie series. I mean, if all of you think it's bad, then it probably is. Sorry.” “Oh, ah, no no, dear, it's alright.” “Yeah, yeah, it's cool, it's cool.” “I've never seen that film series, so I cannot make an informed judgment about its quality.” Thoughtful felt Faithful's disapproval coming from right behind her. “ But I'm sure it's decent if you say so,” Thoughtful added hastily. Laevigata returned carrying a large wooden barrel, finding all four changelings sharing a group hug. “You zee?” Laevigata smiled. “It no haz to be like ze movies with ze avkward misunderstandings and ze drama; Iz better to talk zings out right avay, no?” She took a moment to get a better grip on the barrel, counter-balancing the shifting weight of its viscous contents before the container could escape her grasp. A loud rustle from the bushes made Laevigata turn around, noticing the shadowy silhouette of an animal in hiding, and two red eyes peer out at her from in-between the thicket. Then she noticed another pair of eyes. And then another. And another. And then the creature rose from the bushes, and Laevigata looked up. Eight pairs of glowing, beady red eyes stared down at her, towering over her, from a disproportionately large head stuck on an elongated body with bulges on its torso and midsection, standing upright on two unnaturally thin hindlegs. The creature's maw stretched into a smile that was all teeth and saliva and a bulbous, fat tongue. Laevigata dropped her barrel of love. Thoughtful let out a startled shriek. Reassurance and Faithful screamed. Gentle Caring fell over laughing. “Raaaawr, I am the Chitin-Eater from the planet Uolululoa! Rawr rawr!” The monstrosity stifled a very un-monstrous giggle behind one of its fleshy arms. “I have come to eat your shells! Rawr! Raaa– woah!” The creature took two steps out into the clearing, then flailed its arms in an attempt to balance itself – and then fell over. Gentle Caring let out a guffaw loud enough to rouse the recycled, rolling on the ground, laughing uncontrollably. Reassurance and Faithful Bravery let go of each other, suddenly a lot more interested in the surrounding trees and very decidedly not broadcasting any emotions whatsoever. “Chitin-rust, Boundless!” Laevigata fumed. “Ih nearly had my hemolymph curdled!” Scowling, she examined the dropped barrel for damage. There wasn't any, thankfully, and the love harvester let out a breath of relief. “Hehe...” The monstrous pale face with its sixteen tiny eyes grinned sheepishly up at her from where it had fallen. “Sorry, Laevi.” Laevigata glared at her, feelings of irritation and annoyance replacing fear. Gentle kept on radiating joy and laughter in the background. Feelings of irritation mixed with feelings of relief and a trickle of amusement. “Heh. Yer got me good.” Laevigata shook her head. She uncorked the barrel, inhaling the sweet whiff of pink love-energy that wafted up, a satisfied chitter escaping her throat. “Ahh, zis is ze good sstuff.” A glint of reflected firelight drew her attention to something lying on the ground. “Look out, puny changelings! I am the scaaary Chitin Eater!” Boundless Cheer stalked towards a still giggle-writhing Gentle Caring struggling to breathe. “I'm an eeeeevil mammalalal – mamammamal? mammalade. – from space!” Her big fleshy tongue made an exaggerated slurping noise. “I'm gonna recycle your shells into soup-bowls! And theeeeen I'm gonna make fruit-sooooup! ...Or whatever soup mammammalalas eat. Ooooooooohooooo!" Boundless waved her currently spindly flesh-arms about in a decidedly not scary manner. Gentle Caring, who'd barely just caught her breath, fell on her back again, hindlegs peddling in the air as she chirped incoherently in another bout of laughter. “Hey, Chitin Eater,” Laevigata addressed the disguised changeling. “Before ya rezycle uz, don't ya zhink ya shouldh do ze rezycl'ing vor somezing elze first??" She pointed at the empty bag of chips Boundless had evidently forgotten about completely. “Huh?” Boundless looked down to, where Laevigata was pointing. Seeing the crumpled, empty soft-resin bag, she gasped. A bright green blush of embarrassment further broke the illusion of a mammalian alien, and a sheepish Boundless Cheer scurried to pick up her garbage. Perhaps a bit too hastily so – and the towering monstrosity of flesh and spindly limbs promptly tripped over her own hindlegs, stumbled forwards... and slipped on the empty bag she'd been trying to pick up, sending her falling backwards to land on her fleshy rump with a plop. “...Hey, where'd my trash go?” The dread-Chitin Eater turned her head this way and that, sixteen tiny red eyes blinking in confusion. Then the empty bag of chips landed on her head. At this, Gentle Caring had to laugh so hard her vocal cords went out of alignment. Boundless triumphantly grabbed the empty soft-resin bag and stuffed it into the backpack they'd brought for their refuse. “Hey! That's the glass-sac!” Thoughtful Curiosity exclaimed. And a second later: “No, that one's for metals and alloys!” And a moment later: “No, that's– ...Just give it to me.” Boundless, still in her Chitin Eater-form, took two steps – and then tripped, again. Gentle Caring struggled to inquire telepathically if she was alright, though Boundless's emotions made it pretty clear she was none the worse for wear. “I... I guess her center of balance really is off like you said,” Faithful Bravery commented with a chuckle directed at Gentle Caring, who promptly underwent another dual-toned asynchronous giggle-fit. Reassurance let out a rather unladylike snort, immediately covering her mouth with a hoof afterwards. She looked at the group, mortified. For a moment, her friends simply stared back at her, broadcasting nothing. Then the dam broke, and the entire group burst into laughter. All in all, the six friends had a great time. Bottles of distilled love clinked, stories were shared, and while Thoughtful Curiosity organized and re-organized their garbage for improved recycling efficiency, Boundless Cheer encouraged Gentle Caring into play-acting their own re-imagining of an Attack of the Killer-Mammals film, a performance that soon had everyling in stitches, Faithful Bravery and Reassurance most of all. Earlier worries about politics and historical tragedies were soon forgotten. Chittering laughter rang through the clearing, as pheromones of mirth and happiness drifted into the surrounding forest. Author's Note “The Unicorn of the Pleitran Jungle: Truth or Hoax?” That's the trouble with a country full of shapeshifters, isn't it? Once again, a very, very, very special thanks to FanOfMostEverything and Reese for providing vital brainstorming and editing support. ...By the way, I fixed the audio books for chapters 1 and 2. (Not like anybody seems to have noticed anything was wrong. )
