Resonance

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Written by: Oneimare

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Arc 5 – Ponies after all Chapter 1 – Maternal instinct

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The shadows’ soothing embrace welcomed Delight into a realm of absolute darkness, or she wished for it to be such a mere moment later, when the void took notice of her. No eyes appeared amidst the impenetrable and illimitable black smoke, yet in the maddening silence of nothingness, something seared the changeling with frigid hatred. The worst part came as the initial shock abated to be replaced by recognition—the queen had already briefly known that sensation and, perhaps, that exact place, back when she was but a pegasus travelling with the fallen Princess.

As on cue, the last missing piece—stars—appeared before her eyes, right when the penetrating gaze had become unbearable. However, despite the malignity driving her insane faded away, the light-speckled sky remained, claiming her entire vision.

Delight blinked, then blinked again and, finally, realisation kicked in—she stood in the middle of a crystallised city endlessly reflecting starlight in the maze of its glassy ruins.

Sombra brought her to the distant shores of Vanhoover.

The king, unaffected by the terrifying even if brief journey, had been already treading dilapidated paths of the devastated megalopolis, expecting the changeling to follow him into its sparkling depths. Although she did accept his ‘invitation’, her mind remained in the clutches of shadows—the memory of shadows, the same shades plaguing and torturing the former ruler of Equestria.

Not for a moment the changeling queen doubted the verity of her adviser’s warnings—the history might have lost some of its minute details, but it refused to let Sombra lose his dark fame. Even the horror Delight had just experienced served as proof of the warlock standing behind one of the most grievous tragedies.

And now she obediently followed him into his trap.

Since the meeting in the heart of the desert a bitter taste lingered in her mouth; not only due to the betrayal. The summit reminded her how she still failed to see herself as more than a pegasus whore who kept imagining herself being someone else, something greater; lost and overwhelmed by others, much stronger and smarter than her. With Wire’s desperate pleas echoing in her ears, Delight couldn’t help dreading—she finally got her chance to go down into history, but only to share fate with Luna and others, who fell victim to Sombra’s vile ambitions.

The time for regrets had passed, however; if she were to turn back, a mass grave with her children’s ashes would wait for her at Hope, with one last resting place prepared for their Mother. Such a choice hardly imbued her with confidence in her actions, but it did grant her enough determination to grimly press onward.

Although the jump through the domain of malevolence had carried Delight across half of the continent, Vanhoover differed from the desolation neighbouring Canterlot’s shivering corpse only by the merit of crystal-blighted ruins. Deserted, cold and silent, save for the wind’s lamenting cries carrying the scent of brine from the bay, it daunted the changeling with its catastrophe frozen in time—crystalline glaze encased the skyscrapers and those who once inhabited them, perfectly preserving the past in all its nightmarish glory.

No life flickered inside those semi-transparent statues, yet solemnly passing the ponies caught by the magic explosion mid-action, the changeling queen sensed her emotion-perceiving nature being overloaded with despair and pain. Delight forced herself to cease any thought as her eyes fell on a mare curled around a foal, their tears of fear forever glistening on muzzles screwed in agony—she forced herself to ignore that she followed the one who created this.

Looking straight forward and focused on emptying her mind of anything, she barely noticed how the statues started to move—they milled around, busy with a wide variety of tasks.

The irony couldn’t be escaped—mockery—of the Crystal Ponies making a camp in a place that could have passed for the Crystal Empire, were it not a monument to the boundless cruelty of its last ruler; a camp preparing for a war aimed to reclaim the northern city.

Her arrival aroused barely any reaction; though she barely posed a threat—the amount of weaponry, both conventional and strange prismatic devices of nevertheless obvious intent, left her quivering uneasily. Still ignoring his guest, Sombra headed for one of the ponies and after a quick exchange of words finally spared the changeling a look—an unreadable one at that. Not waiting for her, he then began to climb a mound of broken mortar that would allow him to oversee the encampment.

With a chirr of wings which did startle a few Crystal Ponies, she joined the king.

“What do you want from me?” Delight barked at him the next moment; the Swarm facing extinction gave her no freedom to mince her words and the atmosphere of the place stripped her question of any politeness.

The unicorn smiled in a self-assured manner, in doing so blowing a gale into the embers of Delight’s ire and then further solidifying his success with a condescending non-answer.

“Why so hostile?”

The fires of the changeling’s wrath abruptly died from the icy touch of horror—when she realised her senses could forever probe the shadows in place of the stallion’s emotions and still find nothing; she had to rely on observation and so far Sombra’s mask of smugness had shown only perfection.

Her dragon-like eyes should have met the king’s gaze, differing only in colour, as that of an equal, yet Delight couldn’t help but shiver as his slitted crimson pupils pinned her akin to a forlorn moth and for once she got a chance to know how it feels to be read like an open book.

Mustering all calmness she possessed to meet the attempt at intimidation with dignity, she coolly noted, “I haven’t heard a single good thing about you.”

Sombra deflected her accusation by infusing his already poisonous grin with lethal sweetness and finished his riposte with another mocking question, “Are you sure you should be trusting the words of those who turn tail on you so readily?”

“It’s not only Wire.” Delight’s lips twitched struggling to cover her fangs. “Everyone I know considers you a threat.”

“Everyone…” The king shook his head, echoing her words in a disdainful tone; his smile then turned into a sneer. “How do they treat you and your children, Queen Heterocera?”

The changeling’s heart skipped a beat—how did he know? Did someone tip Sombra off about the Technocracy and their recent ‘deed’? She barely stopped herself in time from shaking her head vigorously as another thought clashed with the swelling dread—it could be just a shot in the dark. However, the suggestion brought little ease—only reignited her insecurities. For years she had her horn locked with the Stalliongrad’s proverbial one, but this—this was a real deal, not some self-delusional dummies who could be laughed at most of the time.

None of that respect went into her curt reply:

“That’s none of your business.”

The queen’s brusque manners continued to rebound from the king’s predatory smile with all but audible pings—they seemed only to fuel his self-confidence and, in turn, it steadily eroded Delight’s composure.

“There is a time and place to show arrogance,” Sombra began, his voice devoid of warning tones, though; and, of course, laden with condescension. “But it is not here and not now—you have no such liberty, changeling.”

Delight glared at him, her forked tongue coiling behind her teeth, ready to spit what boiled on her mind in his arrogant face.

The stallion continued, “I am not the one who took your freedom from you, for my Empire is not the enemy of the Swarm and has never been. Chrysalis and I have never met bodily, nor did I have the honour to know the Swarm’s founder herself and Quicksilver’s successor in the same fashion, but we have always had an understanding you are sorely lacking.”

Postponing speaking her mind as much out of curiosity as due to common sense, Delight barked, “...Which is?”

“We walk the same path.”

“Never,” she refused vehemently.

Regarding her with a pitiful expression, Sombra took a few steps towards the edge of the hill’s summit.

“Take a look at those ponies,” he prompted Delight to share his view. “What can you say about them?”

She didn’t even turn her head, nearly spitting her words out, “All I see is my children on death’s door and you wasting my time—their time. Tell me what you want from me and I’ll be on my way, trying to save them before it’s too late.”

The unicorn gave her a long level look, which was met with fury swelling in emerald eyes.

His next question, however, caught Delight off guard, “As someone who knew her better, tell me, was Chrysalis a monster?”

A scowl contorted her features and then a flood of memories eased her visage into a peculiar expression of many nuances. She barely knew the previous queen, but those few moments—mere days before cruel fate forced her to inherit the throne—let her witness kindness and wisdom born from caring for countless generations of children. In the hearts of changelings, an ache still lingered, echoing in Delight with envy driving her to become worth the same reverence and love.

The queen also remembered a thousand masks of ruthlessness and cunning worn by her predecessor, ultimately—the cost Chrysalis paid for her missteps.

“She made some… questionable choices,” Delight had to reluctantly admit.

“Why?”

No longer fogged by the visions of days past, a glare of green eyes focused on the king’s sly mien with renewed intensity.

“You aren’t going to trick me like this,” the changeling hissed. “I’m not stupid.”

“Only blind,” Sombra scoffed. Something other than disdain appeared in his tone, “Those who told you to despise me are the same people who turned my Empire into a slaughterhouse—they are the same people who spit on you every day. Would you dare to deny that?”

Delight could only silently glower at him whilst questions seethed madly in her mind.

He must have meant the Technocracy’s scheme—so he had learnt about it somehow, after all. Either his spies showed her changelings not fit to hold a candle to their surveillance or the Machine Goddess had shared with him things the queen would have rather have kept private.

Either way, the king had posed an impossible challenge for her; she tried, anyway.

“Your methods are just as despicable—you have no honour.”

Sombra slowly shook his head.

“What is your honour worth now? Is it going to save your Swarm?” The stallion went on before Delight got a chance to defend herself, “You answered those questions already, Heterocera, when you followed me into the portal.”

The warlock knew what to say—the changeling suddenly found herself unable to meet his eyes, undoubtedly brimming with satisfaction. With all her bravado, she did ignore her advisor’s imploration and had stepped into this realm of ancient shadows and crystal gravestones to seek help amidst them.

Turning into a slash of writhing smoky darkness, Sombra leapt from the mound of ruins, leaving the queen to awkwardly stand alone. Despite the difference in the constitution, Delight had never towered over the unicorn, she suddenly realised; not even now, then he stood far below her.

“You stand before me, high and mighty, on top of the hill of morality, but it’s an island sinking!” the king declared from there. “Waves of hatred are going to wash you away—it’s the nature of things that you can’t hope to defy.” He spread his hooves to point at the ponies readying themselves for a battle that shouldn’t be. “Do you think I wanted this?”

For a moment Delight almost succumbed to his conviction, then her gaze wandered above his crown and crooked horn, beyond the premises of the exiled ponies’ refuge. Eyes, black from sheer terror looked back at her… past her, staring death in the face. The statue would display what the king tried to justify till salty winds finally interred the poor pony, ground crystal into fine ash.

Like bile, rage rose in the changelings’ throat.

“How dare you say that, standing in the city your order turned into… into… this!?” She bellowed. “You started this endless bloodshed!”

“Did I?” Sombra’s eyes burned with unbridled hatred and fanged jaws snapped at Delight. “Did I banish the whole nation into oblivion for a thousand years? Did I barge into another country armed with one of the most dangerous artefacts, ready to attack its ruler just because he refused to bow time and time again?”

“There was a reason why you were banished—the same reason why they hurried to do it again!” The queen hotly retorted;

There had to be a good reason…right?

The changeling didn’t take her words back, but nor could she deny—she rehearsed a history written too long ago and retold too many times to be trusted implicitly.

The wrath in the king’s eyes faded, letting hubris return, though not without a sudden and surprising suggestion of melancholy; the latter appeared more distinctly in his words.

“Independence is all I wanted, for myself and my people—so we could prosper and not cower in the shadow of the demi-gods as reliable as a keg of powder.” He snorted and, just like that, bitterness replaced his douleur. “But of course, you should trust the judgement of your precious Princesses, who couldn’t live peacefully even with each other or oneselves.”

“Luna’s corruption is your fault.”

“I only warned her, but her lust for power was stronger than any sense.” Seeing doubt still ruling Delight’s face, he taunted her, “Do you think I’m lying? Then why did she do it for the second time? I wasn’t around to whisper in her ear.”

The queen refused to fall for the bait; Sombra either sprinkled salt on her fresh wounds or dared her to argue about things she only had heard about… more often than not from biassed sources. The king masterfully fed her half-truths, twisting or omitting nuances mattering the most.

However, Delight had followed him here and couldn’t leave yet.

“Why should I trust you?”

Sombra chuckled.

“A good question. I can ask it, too,” he answered with a timberwolfish grin. “It would be wise not to trust me, but neither would it be smart to think anyone else is on your side. None of them understands how it is to be considered monsters, to be outcasts blamed for only one simple thing—exercising our right to survive and our freedom to thrive.”

Receiving a silent glare, he changed tactics, continuing with far less zeal in his tone, “I admit I went too far in saving the Crystal Empire and that is worse—I still failed, thus making my… their horrible sacrifice for nothing. But are you going to let your children perish if you have to get your hooves dirty? Are you, Heterocera?”

The king patiently watched Delight’s muzzle twitching as she struggled to admit:

“No.”

An hour ago she would have left without even bothering to reply—yesterday she wouldn’t have considered coming here. Sombra tried to deceive her with his every word, yet his lies didn’t equal nonsense.

Delight had no allies she could trust, she had nobody to help her with the Swarm standing on a brink of being undone in the same green fire that had brought it to existence.

He might have bent the truth about how circumstances had led him to commit great atrocities. On the other hoof, Chrysalis had done regrettable things to postpone her children’s death.

According to the cruel laws of reality, it seemed the changeling race had no other way to survive without being the monsters everyone had made out of them. The changeling queen would have to side with Sombra not because she agreed with him, but because there was no other option left—they left her no other choice.

“But you don’t have to,” the king broke her sorrowful reverie and it took Delight a few moments to realise he referred to her answer. As she regained her wits, the stallion continued, “Together we will be stronger, we won’t have to sink to the level of monsters everyone thinks us to be.”

The way he as if had read her thoughts sent shivers down Delight’s spine, but a spark of hope banished the creeping cold—Sombra showed himself a worthy opponent in mind games, but she wasn’t a nobody herself. Given time, she might be able to subtly sway his intentions away from bloodshed. And he might have not exaggerated about them sharing forces leading to less violence.

“What are your conditions?” she tentatively asked.

Despite his triumph, the unicorn smiled no more and no less than usual; his expression still carried a sinister portent.

“Just a military alliance for now.”

The queen squinted at him. “For now?”

“It can continue even after I reclaim what is rightfully mine and put my sword down.” Sombra shrugged as if he spoke about something of no consequence. “The Crystal Empire isn’t lacking in goods to trade. That is what makes it a coveted prize for anyone—I expect intervention the moment it’s liberated from the TCE’s clutches.”

The way he said that, staring Delight in the eyes, left little room for interpretation.

“Does it mean my current alliances have to be broken?” she still asked.

“Depends on if they accept my ascendance,” the king levelly replied. “Why do you worry? Half of them have stabbed you in the back already and the rest are going to watch your kind become extinct.”

The summit that had led her there offered proof succinct enough—none cared if the Swarm vanished; on the other hoof, the meeting took place because of something more grave…

“And what about the Machine Goddess’ plan?”

“Please, don’t make me take back my word—you have to be insane to think she was telling the truth,” Sombra snorted.

Unless the equinoid sovereign had tried to play Delight like a fiddle, too, the visit paid to the Spire had hinted at what the Machine Goddess told everyone; the changeling queen frowned—something was wrong with the world, definitely.

She tried to weakly object, “But I’ve seen the numbers, the graphs…”

“The Crystal Heart is a gemstone more potent than all the power banks of Stalliongrad combined and she wants it for her Unity. Rainbow Dash made a good point—the Machine Goddess tried to feed us a bunch of lies. Why did she never mention the other gods, for example? They hold power incomparable to that of us, a disorganised group of mortals.” Delight stared at the king, her mind making its own conclusions, though not that different. “She just wants more power to challenge the Technocracy and let her children return to the streets—a goal I can understand, but by doing so she denies the two of us our rightful chance to rise from the dirt.”

Something was going on and there had to be an explanation—it looked too deliberate to be an accident. Who stood behind it? The Machine Goddess came to mind as the first suspect… but why would she do that? Delight knew her before she ascended to godhood and nothing foreshadowed such schemes, whatever goal they served. Perhaps, the Unity, still harbouring hatred towards organic life, influenced her actions? It suggested a horrible picture, with events like Black Star being orchestrated…

Delight’s eyes met the unreadable look of the ancient king.

What lay beyond his arrogance? Why did he crave to reclaim the Crystal Empire so insistently? Was it him pulling the strings, attached even to a god?

None of that would matter for a pile of ashes, however.

Stifling a sigh, she extended her hoof towards the grinning stallion.

But before he got a chance to return the gesture, the queen abruptly retracted her limb.

“Until my children are safe and their future is secured, there is no deal. I’ll personally help you to retake the Crystal Empire and the moment you deliver on your promise, my Praetorians will be ready to defend it with their lives.”

Offering only herself to fulfil the role of an army flooded Sombra’s blood-red eyes with doubt and so Delight hurried to add, “Don’t underestimate my value in battle.”

A few moments of consideration later, the iron-clad hoof was in the air.

“I accept your conditions.”

Instead of discussing with Delight the details of the upcoming battle, the king dissolved into a cloud of pitch-black smoke, leaving the changeling to reflect on her decision.

The unfulfilled hope of the king starting to pay her some respect after they made a pact caused her features to twitch in annoyance, but her bitterness didn’t linger for long—perhaps, the preparations demanded his immediate presence; though, Sombra still could have warned her.

Either way, the position on top of the hill gave her an unsettling view of Vanhoover’s crystallised streets, but hid from her the intricacies of the little army gathered in its ruins. Fluttering down, she considered taking another form, timely preventing herself from exercising her habit; thankfully, the hurrying around ponies didn’t even acknowledge her presence as is.

The compound served mostly as a depot with almost no tents or edifices meant to house soldiers, who lacked in numbers, anyway. The glimmering equines running around carried long lists, checking the countless crates, whilst the others paid attention to dark crystals attached to the boxes.

Wandering amidst the supplies led Delight to one container with its lid open, revealing its content—swords. Snorting at the thought of a fencer charging at a TCE soldier armed with an automatic gun, she approached the primitive weapons. Picking up one of them into her magic, she couldn’t help but further doubt their usefulness—the thin blades would undoubtedly shatter against the tempered blue steel of the TCE’s heavy armours.

“They’re enchanted.” Delight nearly dropped the sword out of her telekinetic aura—a Crystal Pony managed to sneak on her; paying no mind to how she startled the changeling, the mare continued, “They don’t break and cut through anything.”

Deciding to be not nitpicky as ‘enchanting’ stood for what unicorns did rather than the peculiar way Crystal Ponies had with gemstones, the queen remembered something about the protection her Praetorian Guard ‘inherited’ from the Royal Guard.

“What about enchanted armour?”

The war ended centuries ago, but the vicious razor-sharp swords posed such a threat, the runes meant to harden metal against them were still in use—just in case a relic of days long gone suddenly resurfaced. The TCE forces stationed at the Crystal Empire would have their armours enchanted, too, as it didn’t have to be arcanium.

The mare shrugged. “We came up with a counter-enchantment.”

“Won’t your enemies come up with a counter-counter-enchantment?”

“Dead don’t come up with enchantments,” she deadpanned, looking Delight straight in the eyes with an unimpressed stare.

The changeling put the sword back and as the moments passed, she realised the mare still stood by her side, patiently waiting. Set to leave the precious weapons, Delight stepped away, then stopped.

“Your king…” she tentatively addressed the Crystal Pony. “What do you think of him?”

“Very direct for a changeling,” the mare commented with one eyebrow raised. “You could have taken the form of one of us and just spied.”

Whereas Sombra preached about understanding how everyone considered changelings nothing but rats scuttling around and learning secrets they shouldn’t know, his words didn’t seem to have reached his followers’ hearts.

“You wouldn’t have appreciated that, would you?”

“Obviously,” the Crystal Pony snorted, ignoring Delight’s benevolence; she then started to check the agates embedded into the crate’s corners. “And we’d have caught you instantly.”

It wouldn’t have been naive to think the king hadn’t prepared to deal with the Swarm, though the idea of someone deliberately—and successfully—finding a way to counter her main advantage in warfare brought no confidence in the deal she had just made with Sombra; not that having him as an enemy would have been better.

“Do you still want to know?” the mare yanked Delight out of her thoughts—she finished examining the box and seemed ready to leave.

The queen nodded.

“Our king is harsh, but fair and with him, we know no fear—only hope. None of us here are from the Crystal Empire, we are descendants of those who managed to flee from the north before it became an inescapable trap. But it is our home and we want it back, we want to see our brethren free.”

“He’s a hero to you,” Delight concluded.

In the eyes of those Crystal Ponies, he shone as brightly as Chrysalis… or herself for the changelings.

“King Sombra returned to bring justice.”

For a moment Delight considered asking about Sombra desecrating the dead during the war, creating abominable crystal golems. Or how he used mind control to send less willing to fight for him.

Was it an adequate price for justice?

But…

Could she trust those stories or their context? Wouldn’t she do the same if it was the only way to save her children?

“Thank you for your answer,” she dismally uttered.

Concerned both about running into more Crystal Ponies who proved not to be as welcoming as they appeared initially and about her role in the soon-to-begin attack on the northern kingdom, Delight no longer wasted her time—she sought the king.

To her relief, one of the tents with its flap rolled up revealed the stallion sitting at the table with numerous maps and papers strewn over it. She invited herself in, to match unceremonious treatment from before. Though, seeing the shadow of approval on the king’s muzzle as he acknowledged her entrance with a glace reflected in her mind with disappointment in herself.

“What would be my role in the battle?” Delight cut straight to the chase. Recalling everything she knew about the distant place, she asked another question, the one she should have brought up first. “How are you going to deal with the Windigo?”

“Sojourning into Zebrica was the first thing I did after my… return. After some research and”—Sombra momentarily paused and his muzzle donned an expression greatly disturbing Delight—“negotiations, it yielded a solution to the Windigo problem.”

He cryptically and unsettlingly smiled.

For an inexplicable reason Delight had no interest whatsoever in prying into what the stallion discovered in those mystic lands; history held too many examples of how already questionable practices of striped equines were twisted into something truly ghastly.

“As for your role…” Sombra continued only to trail off, with a thoughtful expression. “My army might be little, but it is efficient and should be more than enough. However, some air support would be nice, if you are up to it.”

A splash of emerald momentarily lit up the tent, spilling onto the gem-encrusted pavement outside and a gryphon’s wingtips brushed the tarpaulin.

The king nodded. “Suit yourself with any weapon.”

Delight reverted her transformation and approached the table; her eyes studied the maps for a few moments and she frowned.

“Don’t you have anything fresher than this?”

Nothing but ancient plans, yellowed with age if they hadn’t been damaged by the elements in the first place, offered her an insight into the Crystal Empire’s structure and geography—as it met the siege by the Equestrian army.

“The Windigo don’t allow any reconnaissance to take place,” Sombra commented calmly, though a note of frustration slipped into his voice nonetheless.

“So, you don’t know what awaits us there?” Delight barely prevented herself from cringing at ‘us’.

“My people are ready for anything,” the king retorted without missing a beat. “It shouldn’t be a problem for changelings to adapt, either.”

The queen knew her children would be able to face any peril and find a solution to any problem—being no longer confined to the Sky Palace let them expand their already vast repertoire of forms to take.

But something else caught her attention in the stallion’s challenge.

“What do you know about my Swarm?”

Right now it didn’t bother her what Sombra might know about her weaknesses, Delight cared if he could tell her something she didn’t know.

Sombra stared at the maps; however, his clouded gaze betrayed his thoughts wandering elsewhere.

Finally, he spoke, “Duchess Quicksilver wasn’t a scholar as notable as the Princess Platinum’s court wizard—Starswirl—but she did spend a bit too much time nosing through his scrolls. When I started my journey, she had long abdicated her title and isolated herself far to the north, studying the Windigo along with a group of similarly lunatic followers.

“Their actions weren’t welcomed or approved—came to be forbidden even—but nobody was willing to track down the insane hag hiding in the blizzard’s bosom. And then, rumours started to appear about horrible equines with charcoal coats and moth-eaten limbs that had emerged from the distant snows; those monsters were driven from everywhere. Years later a quaint community sprung in the heart of infertile wasteland, offering refuge to all outcasts.”

“Did you get to meet her, the first changeling queen?” Delight asked hopefully.

“Very regrettably, no.” The king shook his head and added wistfully, “The way she cheated Harmony seems awfully similar to my methods—we could have learnt much from each other.”

Suppressing a sigh and pouring a lot of effort to banish disappointment from her voice, Delight commented, “I hoped to hear something more than just an old legend.”

“You should have listened more carefully,” Sombra snorted, earning a glare from the changeling queen. “Either way, in the case the TCE destroyed the invaluable vault of knowledge at the Crystal Empire”—Delight’s eyes snapped open—“such a possibility shouldn’t be written off, knowing them, I should be able to figure out the nature of the changelings, since you missed the part where Quicksilver harboured an unhealthy fascination with entities feeding on hatred.”

Author's Note

English isn't my native language; though I try my best and use various tools to aid myself, I'm aware that a result is far from perfect. That said, if you notice anything that you think should be fixed—please let me know.

I hope you've enjoyed reading this story so far.
Stay awesome.