The Heart of Pleasure
By Haunter Rayne
Ch 82 – A Changeling Kingdom pt 1

- Two Days Later -

“You know Rayne, everything about this seems highly suspicious to me.” Maud asked as she finished organizing her surveying equipment.

“Hey wait a minute now.” Rayne chuckled in his defense. “This is the second morning in a row that you’ve started off by accusing me of something.”

“Then stop being guilty of something.” She replied to him with her steady stare.

“Ouch, wow. My snide quip really is rubbing off on you.” Rayne laughed a little more uneasy now.

Maud just continued to stare at him saying, “So you’re not planning something for me when we go out today?” Then she extended an envelope with a letter addressed specifically to her from the Royal Canterlot Geological Committee inside.

Rayne rubbed the back of his neck guiltily as he said, “Hey now, just because I happened to take Applejack and Rainbow Dash out for a nice date... Then I threw an amazing party for Zecora and also took Starlight out dancing… And now you receive a once in a life time summons from the Canterlot community of your dreams... That doesn’t mean that I’m planning for you to be next for a surprise or anything. I just need your help today is all.”

“I’m sorry Rayne, but Pinkie is a better liar than you are.”

“Ouch again.” He stated as he was honestly impressed with how she could always keep him on his toes. “Hey listen to me.” He told her as he put their supplies down and stepped forward to hold her her hoof. “I promise not to pressure you into anything that you wouldn’t enjoy. I really do need your help today. I can’t do this without you. And yeah, maybe I have an expression of my thanks waiting for you afterwards. But I wouldn’t be doing that unless it was for something that I KNEW you were going to appreciate.”

“Alright Rayne. Don’t worry, I trust you.” She said in her deadpan tone.

“Are you ready to go?”

“Yes.” She nodded before hauling a large saddle pack full of mining tools over her shoulder while leaving a smaller pack of maps and empty sample containers for Rayne to carry.

He rolled his eyes with a smile before levitating the heavy saddle from the small mare to over his own shoulders and giving her the lighter pack to carry instead. “Seriously Maud, are you going to be like this the whole way?”

“As long as it makes you smile at me like that.” She replied without missing a beat.

“Uh oh, Maud’s funny side is coming out!’ He teased as he playfully nudged against her. Then the two carried what they needed to the doorway before Rayne teleported them both to town.

- Meanwhile in the Castle of Friendship -

“Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!” Pinkie Pie shouted as the map table displayed her cutie mark twirling around with Fluttershy’s over the Changeling Kingdom. “It’s been so long since the map table has called me that I almost forgot about our plan! Are we still looking to see if Rayne is involved with this?! And that’s on top of finding a friendship problem! What if I can’t tell the changelings apart?!”

“It really does add to the pressure of being called by the map in the first place.” Fluttershy stated.

Twilight sighed as she looked around to all of her friends. “You know what? I think that I may have been wrong about the whole thing in the first place. I was so desperate to find an answer that I may have been grasping at straws all along. I’m starting to second guess if Rayne had anything to do with the cutie map fiasco to begin with.”

“No Twilight, it wasn’t your fault!” Starlight argued. “I was the one who came up with that idea, not you. And it was a good theory. It made sense at the time!”

“Yes but Dash and Daring Do didn’t see any trace of Rayne while they were on their mission. Furthermore, Discord was here helping us keep watch as Raybe worked at the day spa all day long. So whether it was a good theory or not, it no longer adds up."

From across the room the Draconequus just sucked in sharply through his teeth. Feeling a bit annoyed by this gesture Starlight looked over and grumbled, “Something to add?”

At first looked like he was going to ignore her but when Fluttershy looked his way he stepped up with a sigh. “Oh, well, I have some theories of my own. But even I can’t quite make sense of all the puzzle pieces we have.” He told the lot of them. “Even though I would certainly like some answers.” He growled under his breath.

“Uh, what was that now?” Applejack asked him.

Discord leaned backwards over the map table just for the effect of agitating Twilight. “Okay so you made a hypothesis and it didn’t pan out how you suspected. But what is it that we DO know? Rainbow Dash and Ms. Do claim they didn’t recognize Rayne when they traveled to Griffonstone. But you DID meet ANOTHER creature there who you didn’t expect to encounter, now didn’t you?”

The pegasus thought about her trip for a moment before asking, “You mean the panther?”

“The panther!” Discord cheered aloud. He rolled onto his tummy now and kicked his hooves in the air lazily. “You encountered that sinister hell cat while on your journey. So undeniably, at least HE was there during your cutie mark mission. Even if you were not aware of it at the start.”

Dash tried to ponder the implications of this but was coming up short on ideas. “Okay. So I supposed that’s true. What about it?”

“Well...” Discord purred until Twilight lost her patience and levitated him off the table with a glare. “Oh fine. Anyways, who else do we KNOW was present either during or after the friendship mission of our dear friend Applejack here? If not Rayne, then who else showed up after it all seemed said and done?”

“The panther...” Twilight whispered as she froze in surprise. “Yes, he hunted Tirek down but there would have been no reason for him to do that unless he already knew that Tirek had been freed!” She surmised out loud as the others looked like they were starting to catch on.

Discord sneered quietly to himself while thinking, “Okay Rayne, we’re friends so I won't straight on back stab you. But I don’t have to make it easy for you either. Let’s see you work your way out of this one.”

Twilight continued to rant on as everypony else was listening with their full attention. “He must have been hiding somewhere nearby when Rayne and Applejack went to Tartarus! And he was there again when Dash traveled to the Griffon Empire!”

Now Applejack outstretched a hoof with desperate look upon her face. “Uh, Twilight? If you could stop there for a moment? I don’ want you to freak out or nuthin but you do realize that means-” But she stopped mid sentence at the sight of the princess sulking with her head down on the table.

“Uhhhh… No, I get it Applejack.” Twilight mumbled in defeat. “It means that the panther was probably there in the Crystal Empire too. It was Celestia’s vision of Sombra screaming out. We’ve seen it now ourselves with King Aspen how the panther would likely respond to adversity. And I’m sure, whether good or bad, that Sombra is still not the type to give into the demands of an opposing force. My friendship mission was probably to save Sombra or somepony close to him but the panther beat me there before I could figure it all out.”

“Twilight dearest...” Rarity began but stopped with the princess sat back up and shook he head.

“No, I’m alright. I don’t think I will ever fully understand what happened but it doesn’t matter because I’ve moved passed it. What matters now is what we do going forward. And while I don’t want to interfere with Fluttershy’s or Pinkie’s mission, I fear that this may take all of us!”

Now there were confused faces all around. “A-all of us?” Fluttershy asked as she looked around to the group.

Starlight put her off up on the table as she asked, “Twilight? Could you explain to us what you mean?”

With a nod the princess spoke up. “We know that the panther is willing to kill when he deems it necessary. Tirek is proof enough of that. And with the Everfree Forest incident we know that the panther could bring an entire country to war, even if it's just for his own amusement it seems. Furthermore, I can only speculate that the evil King Sombra regained his power only to be thwarted by the panther just as quickly. This feline is making decisions that shape the very nature on Equestria. And even though it seems that he may be on our side, who's to say what his real motivations are?"

Discord scoffed and floated upside down in the air. “You’re thinking that he may become a threat to the changelings.” He groaned, taking it upon himself to move the plot along.

To this everypony gasped and Twilight nodded. “That's right. It is my fear that Fluttershy and Pinkie have been called to save King Thorax from experiencing the same fate as King Aspen, or worse King Sombra. But this is all speculation and clearly I’ve been wrong before. This is THEIR friendship mission so it needs to be completed by them. However, given the abnormal amount of danger running loose in Equestria I must insist that we all go to watch over them even if it is just to keep every creature safe.”

They all seemed to nod as the mane six along with Starlight and Spike prepared to journey to the Changeling Kingdom. All except for Discord that is who remained floating behind. “Uh Discord? Aren’t you coming with us? What if something happens to Fluttershy?” The little dragon asked as the rest looked back watching their exchange.

“Don’t try to use my friendship with Fluttershy to manipulate me Spike. That isn’t what good friends do.” The Draconequus retorted while keeping his arms crossed. “I have no intention of traveling all the way to that bug hive when clearly my talents aren’t needed in this case. The map already specified who is required for this problem so the simple fact that you ALL are going already seems like overkill enough. Besides, if anything DOES happen to Fluttershy I shall now hold you personally responsible.” Discord glared as Spike gulped and raced to rejoin the others.

- At the Castle of the Changeling's -

The stone monolith that housed the colorful creatures stretched high up into the sky. The dark stone stood in contrast to the near rainbow patterned insect ponies who colonized within. The changelings all lived in their natural states while they were at home. They ran around on four hooves just like ponies, except it was natural for all of them to be born with wings and horns.

Instead of having fur their bodies were made of a hard chitin armor that served as their exoskeleton. However since the efforts of Starlight Glimmer and friends, the changelings were now a multitude of different pastels instead of their historic black. Their most common colors ranged from soft greens, blues, pinks, and yellows but many of them had even a wider ranger than that.

They went about their lives in communal fashion. They cooked, played, worked, and slept together in large numbers. Furthermore they did not draw lines between work and play in their community. The aspect of doing anything for themselves rather than for their previous queen was still new to them so even mundane tasks were still looked to with excitement.

However they were still a naive and skittish bunch. As such, news of visitors to their land always spread like wide fire through their community. “Thorax! King Thorax!” A group of four changelings came rushing up the stairwell where a particular tall changeling with large antlers sat smiling toward the paintings of their hive’s kinder class.

“Arista? Frenulum? Sclerite? Kevin?” Thorax called in surprise as he set the artwork down. “What’s wrong? Why are you all so excited?”

“We have intruders!” Arista shouted.

“They aren’t intruders, they are guests!” Frenulum turned and argued.

“Well whatever they are, there is more than one of them!” Sclerite worried.

“Oh, does that mean you think they might have brought food?” Kevin asked making everyone in the room frown at him.

“Okay, okay! Slow down all of you.” Thorax called softly. “Please, just tell me calmly what is going on. Are we under attack?”

“Well… no.” The four changelings answered.

Thorax frowned as he stood there waiting but they did not elaborate without him having to question them further. “Okay now you’re being too simple about it. Who or what is invading or visiting us?”

The perky little Arista spoke up again shouting, “It’s two ponies! A unicorn and an earth pony! They are headed this way right now! And they sure are carrying a lot of baggage with them.”

“Baggage?” Thorax asked. “You mean like literal baggage or metaphorical baggage?” He asked but the other changelings just looked up at him confused. “Oh never mind. I’ll teach you about that later. Now you said they are headed this way but there is no pegasus with them? How are they getting here then?”

“Oh well their walking.” Sclerite answered.

“WHAT?! Through the desert?! You know that the lands surrounding our kingdom aren’t safe for any creature to travel on their own!” Thorax called out before he quickly started relaying orders. “Find my brother Pharynx!”

“The captain of the guard? Why?” Kevin asked.

“Because we need to help those ponies!” Thorax shouted.

- - -

Outside in the desert Rayne walked casually with Maud by his side. “You okay luv? It’s not too hot out here for you, is it?”

Maud glanced over to him feeling unsure if he was just being caring or if he were offering to change the weather for her with his magic. “Don’t worry. I’m fine.” She replied as she returned to gazing forward. “Are you sure about your plan Rayne?”

“Yup. This is the way it needs to go in order for me to establish a good relationship with the changelings. We just need to take our time in walking up to give them every chance to see that we’re here.” He stated as they walked along in plain sight of the dark spire in the distance ahead.

All the while Rayne kept his eyes peeled and he was sure that Maud was doing the same. The topography of the Changeling Desert was even rougher than he expected. It was difficult for him to tell at a glance if a stone were once part of Chrysalis’ throne or if it were just a simple rock. But all the while he didn’t as if his magic had suddenly been cut off from him.

“Heh, looks like the welcoming party has finally arrived.” The stallion snickered as a group of eight changelings could then be seen flying toward them at high speeds. “Let’s just hope that they are inviting.” He mumbled as he stepped closer to the mare beside him. He could easily tell that the bugs flying toward them were part of the guard.

“Hurry, we must get you out of this area at once!” A changeling with small red antlers ordered to them. Rayne and Maud looked to each other in surprise when they were suddenly surrounded and grabbed on all sides. “Please forgive us, we are trying to protect you.” The antlered changeling explained as the others gripped hold of the two ponies and began to fly them into the air.

It wasn’t long before Rayne and Maud were escorted through the kingdom. Changelings of different sizes and colors all looked to the visitors with wonder. “You know, the color spectrum of the changeling’s epidermis seems to vary as wide as the that of gemstones.” Maud pointed out as she walked with Rayne. “It’s a wonder that somepony hasn’t come here to try to study the exact range of their variances.”

“Heh, I think that some of them might take offense to that dear.” Rayne chuckled back.

“Hmm.” She replied as they climbed the stairs to the mountain’s peak.

Up on top there was a bit of a large room that carved into the rock with newly added walls and a ceiling built to protect it from the conditions outside. Thorax had a cushy looking throne that looked welcoming as opposed to the previous leader’s intimidating seat of power. “Hello and welcome to you both. I am so relieved that we got you out of the desert safely. You may not know this but the outskirts of our lands are filled with dangers."

Despite her normal deadpan countenance Maud almost smirked to this which Rayne quickly shook his head to her. “It is a pleasure to meet you. You must be King Thorax. The tales of your kindness and majesty have seriously been underplayed.”

The changeling king almost blushed and with a chuckle he stated, “Oh please, there’s no need to be like that. Truth be told I would much rather be your friend than to be revered as a king. And yes you are correct, my name is Thorax. I am the leader of the changelings.”

“KING!” Every other changeling around the room shouted at him in annoyance.

“Fine… king of the changelings.” He mumbled.

Rayne just gave a lighthearted smirk and walked up to shake hooves with him like equals, knowing he would probably prefer that to him bowing. “My name Rayne and I am a unique pony gifted with the talents of making others happy. This is Maud, my special somepony, and she is the best in her field when it comes to studying geology, gemology, seismology, and geochemistry.”

“Ooooooh.” The other changelings in the room all cooed together.

“Rayne… don’t embarrass me in front of new friends.” Maud complained in her usual tone. The stallion just smirked and gave her a kiss on the cheek which made her turn away from him with a slight blush.

“Awwwww.” The changelings all sighed at the sight of the two of them.

“Ahem.” Thorax called to calm the others of his hive. “Please forgive them. And it is a pleasure to meet you both. I will admit, we know very little about the ways of romance between ponies. So I hope you can forgive the others for becoming excited.”

“Oh? Is that something you would be interested in learning?” Rayne asked with a curious smile.

Thorax, having no skill in hiding his emotions whatsoever, suddenly looked very pleased. “Oh definitely. We’ve received so much assistance from ponies already in learning how to do arts and crafts, celebrating holidays, and political guidance for managing a country. But whenever we’ve asked about things like love and intimacy between ponies they tend to shy away from the topic.”

“Well you’re in luck.” Rayne said as his smile grew into a full on smirk. “You’re standing in front of one of the most romantic ponies in the world.”

Maud was quick to chime in saying, “He isn’t over exaggerating. Rayne really is. I’m not the most expressive of ponies when it comes to my feelings. But even I can't resist him when he tries to make me swoon.”

Now the others began to whisper excitedly until Thorax cleared his throat again. “We would be very interested to learn all that the two of you would be willing to share with us.”

Rayne held the mare tighter to him now before saying, “As long as Maud’s modesty is respected then I would be happy to teach you all I can about pony courtship. But before that, we actually came here in a pursuit of study ourselves. We were hoping to receive your blessing in our endeavors before beginning though.”

“Oh? You want to learn something from us?” Thorax asked.

“Well… not exactly from you. As I stated, Maud here is a geology specialist. And your desert is a unique bio-dome that has never been able to be explored before by pony-kind. It would do wonders for her reputation as a geologist, not to mention her curiosity, if you would allow Maud to be the first to explore and document your surrounding environment.”

Now the others remained quiet as they all looked to their leader nervously. “Oh, is that why you’ve come here? Well I’m sorry Rayne and Maud but I would have to advise against that.”

The two ponies looked to each other before Rayne spoke back up. “Please Thorax. If we can’t do it with your blessing than we would rather not do it at all. Your approval means the world to us. That is why we endeavored to come straight here first. We didn’t want you thinking that we were stealing from you or skulking around for evil deeds.” Rayne told him with a convincing performance of sounding heartfelt.

Altpught Thorax wore an expression of concern as opposed to discontent. “You misunderstand. If you’re interested in studying our rocks or any other aspects of the desert then I would have no problem at all. My blessing I would happily give. But I would be concerned for your safety with you two being out there alone. Our desert is not uninhabited and some of the native creatures can be quite dangerous.”

“Oh, well that is why Maud has brought me along. I’m not just a pleasure pony. I happen to be well versed in using magic for combat. In fact I’m… very well versed you might say.” He said while trying to sound capable but not threatening.

“Hmm.” Thorax pondered as he stepped over to a window to look out at the desert. “You see Rayne, the problem this puts me in is that I have more to worry about than just your safety. You might be capable but what if there was an accident you did not expect? If you or Maud were to be injured, not only would I be unable to forgive myself, what if the leaders of your nation didn’t forgive me? Allowing you to endanger yourselves could spark an intercultural incident.”

“Hmm.” Rayne pondered as he walked up beside Thorax. “I see what youre saying. But that would mean either Maud or myself would have to blame you for the danger we put ourselves in. And that is something neither of us would ever do.” Rayne told him as Maud also nodded her head. “We aren’t fools and we don’t intend to stay within danger should we be attacked.” He explained to the changeling king.

Just then the unicorn teleported both himself and Maud between different points in the room several times. Meanwhile Maud just blinked as if she were unphased. Additionally, the stallion walked over to the window and let loose a mighty blast of energy into the sky which exploded with destructive radiance. “Wheeeeeew!” The other changelings whistled and clapped their hooves at the demonstration.

“And trust me when I tell you that even without having magic, Maud is no push over either when threatened.” Rayne chuckled. “We do not intend to make you responsible for our well being. We only ask for your permission and your trust to explore your desert to take some soil samples or collect a few rocks.” Rayne allowed a brief pause before adding, “And I would share it with you anyways, but how about a favor for a favor? The pony courtship practices for your blessing?”

Thorax thought it over for a bit before outstretching his hoof. “Rayne, you have a deal.” The other changelings cheered as the two of them shook hooves. “I don’t know how long your study would take for you two so please feel free to stay here as our guests for as long as you intend to remain in the area.”

“We will. And thank you.” Rayne replied gentlemanly grin. “I’m sure that many of your members probably have chores to attend to during the day and geological research is difficult to do at night. So we will go out to explore the desert for the rest of the day and then return by evening for me to uphold my end of the bargain. How does that sound?”

Thorax nodded before adding, “We will have a meal and a bath ready for the both of you. Is there anything else you would like us to prepare while you are away?”

Rayne thought it over carefully before he suggested, “It would be pretty difficult to teach the entire hive as a whole. I’d suggest letting me teach a small group and they can share the information with others from there. I recommend picking three females and two males for me to teach directly. They should be young adults, no younglings or older changelings please. And they should have confident or energetic personalities.”

- Outside on the Outskirts of the Changeling Kingdom -

“You know, I’m really starting to like how we have all traveled here together.” Fluttershy commented as the large group walked up to the edge of the desert. “Friendship missions are always more fun with more friends.” The pegasus smiled as the others nodded with happy expressions of their own.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, I’m sure I am probably just overreacting.” Twilight told her. “I just want to be sure that both you and our changeling friends all stay. This is YOUR friendship mission with Pinkie and I don’t plan on getting in the way of that.”

“Hehe!” The pink pony cheered as she bounded forward ahead of the group. “Don’t worry everypony! These are changelings! No one is newer to friendship than they are! I’m surprised that the map isn’t sending us back here to help them twice a week!” The rest rolled their eyes as they all stepped into the arid wasteland together.

When they were about half way through their long walk Applejack spoke up with a confident smile. “You know what everypony? Pinkie Pie’s right. Ain’t no reason to cause a big fuss about nothin’. We’re all gonna have a good ol’ time hangin’ out with our changeling buddies and helpin’ em with whatever they need in their road to friendship.”

Just as Applejack finished speaking, almost as if by grand design, there was an explosion from the desert floor right in front of them. Everypony screamed as sand rained down upon them until Twilight raised a shield to block of what was left to fall. Once the air was clear they all found themselves screaming a second time as a massive beast stood towering over them.

A thick hide of dark purple with snarling fangs yellow fangs loomed above. Large arms spread to the sides blocking their advance while razored claws larger than the ponies themselves tapped upon the sand.

“Oh no! It’s the Maulwurf! These creatures are aggressive and extremely dangerous! What’s worse, they are resistance to magic! Everypony run!” Starlight yelled.

Author's Notes:

Alright everyone, I'm sure that the chapter of this title was exciting for you to see! I know that many of you have been waiting for a really long time for Rayne to interact with the changelings. And his visit to their kingdom was long foreshadowed by the cutie map. So now it's time for it to happen! And this will actually be a large three chapter special! So I hope that you all enjoy it!

Okay, getting into the chapter now it seems like Rayne isn't finished yet with the surprises for all of his girls. A letter from the Canterlot Geological Committee? And before, Discord investigating things for him? What exactly could Rayne be planning for her? And of course, I hope you enjoyed their banter together.

As for the mane six, their personal doubts seemed to be throwing them off of Rayne's scent which would have been a fitting reward to him for how careful he had always been. And yet Discord just couldn't help himself but to be a pain in the ass while at the same time not going too far.

So as for the four changelings Arista, Frenulum, Sclerite, and Kevin, I cannot take credit for these names. These are actually cannon characters who have been seen throughout the show. Later on though we will see a few changeling OC's that I created for story arc.

Now was it that Rayne wanted Maud's help with today? Yeah in case it wasn't obvious, he wanted to find a shard of Chrysalis's throne. He wants that magic nullifying power. However, even should he find one that only presents it's own complications. But there will be more on that in the next chapter.

Ooooh. Raybe teaching courtship, that might be fun. At least more fun than Twilight and the others are having. You can expect the Maulwurf to give then quite a challenge.

Now at the very end there I included a map of where I expect the changeling kingdom to be located. I'm not 100% sure but that looks good to me.