Author's Notes:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HhX2-7gcJzeB1A8e93xW6yNZnaTNYzC2K4eV_SpPheI/edit#

A few weeks later, a shiny black carriage pulled up right outside the library and a regal-looking Queen Chrysalis stepped out. She proceeded to knock on the door of the library for half an hour before she realized no one was there.

She reported that to me an hour later when she found us all chilling at the park. She was rather displeased. Displeased enough to pull me away from a picnic with friends, that’s for sure.

I rubbed the back of my head in her carriage as it started up again. “You didn’t have to throw me in here, you know!” Taya had managed to hop inside before the door closed, at least.

“I didn’t have to, but I think it was funny,” she replied. “And your daughter does not seem to mind.”

“That’s because she’s sadistic. Where are we going?”

“Back to the library, first. You are going to get everything you need to eliminate a mine full of Diamond Dogs. And then we are going to the hive outside this town, where you are going to plan an assault on a mine full of Diamond Dogs. And then you are going to a mine full of Diamond Dogs to kill them all.”

“Sounds simple enough. If you have enough magic, I could have it done in about an hour. Or however long it takes to find all the entrances.”

Her eyes widened. “How much magic would you need?”

I shrugged. “Depends on how big their cave is. How much does it take to make a fireball?”

She gave me an evil grin. “Not much. This might be easier than we thought.”

“I don’t suppose you could give some manner of peace a chance though, could you? I mean, dogs are annoying as hell and Celestia did give me permission to wipe them off the face of Equestria, but still.”

“We could, but I’d rather not.” We arrived at the library just then. The door popped open and Chrysalis exited first. Taya followed her and I was the last out. I opened the door and went on in. Chrysalis followed me in and looked around, somewhat impressed. “We do not have many libraries in the hives,” she commented idly. “Do you mind if I look around?”

“I don’t care. Twilight might, but she’s been a bitch to me lately, so do what you want.”

She walked around. I went on upstairs. Taya stayed below with Chrysalis. I quickly threw my armor on and grabbed all the weapons and gear I needed. I took my axe instead of my sword because apparently it’s important or something. I was back down within fifteen minutes.

Long enough for the two of them to be standing in the center of the room watching me descend with the most innocent of expressions on their faces.

“What did you do?” I asked them.

“Why, what makes you think we did anything, Nav?” Chrysalis asked, sounding somewhat shocked that I would imply such a thing.

“Whatever it was, I hope you got her good,” I said. “Shall we?” They grinned as we all headed to the door. Chrysalis led the way up to the chariot and we all piled in again. “Alright, despite what Celestia may have told you, I’m not a big fan of genocide. I’ll kill them if I have to since the Holocaust never happened here so the Nuremberg defense can be applied, but I’d rather not. So why can’t peace be had?”

“I don’t know what the Holocaust is or what the Nuremberg defense is. Explain.”

“The Holocaust was an attempted genocide against a group of people in my world. The Nuremberg defense was the attempts of the soldiers that helped to get out of trouble. They explained that because they were only following orders, it excused them from whatever horrible things they did. That shit didn’t fly, even with my fucked up people.” I waved a hand. “Enough of that. I saved you so your people wouldn’t die. Why should I commit genocide in your name against another people that have done nothing to me?”

“They break into our tunnels occasionally. When they do, they tend to drag some of my changelings out with them to be used as slave labor. They have, in the past, stolen eggs from my people as well. The gems they steal, I do not mind. The adult changelings they steal, I can get over. But they took eggs, Navarone. Innocent changelings, unborn. If they were allowed to hatch at all, they were raised directly into slavery, never knowing another life. I would not be surprised if the ignorant dogs did not just crush the eggs as soon as they were in their caves, or eat them.”

“I agree that it’s pretty fucked up. But how are you sure these are sanctioned actions? And what manner of revenge have you ordered done to the dogs? There are two sides to every story, Chrysalis.”

“We are not innocent, no. But we did not start the raids, Nav. That, I swear. We have never taken any of their children, for the dogs don’t have any in that mine; it is just adults there.”

“I see. Would it be possible to arrange a meeting with their leaders, then? I would like to talk with them before I decide one way or another.”

She nodded. “Of course. I admit that I hope you will be disappointed, but if you think that you can resolve this peacefully, I will work to do it peacefully. Now that food is no longer a problem, though, we do need more room to expand…”

“I do not want to meet them with a changeling obviously near me. Can you give me a few troops or something and a few wagons? A trading caravan would easily draw some dogs out, I believe. From there, we can make a few disappear and send some of your changelings down to scout the tunnels out to find any slaves down there that might need to be liberated. While they’re doing that, I can begin talking to the dogs, see what’s on their mind about you guys.”

She nodded. “That is possible. The dogs are usually on good terms with the ponies. We’ve never heard of them taking more than one or two ponies alone at a time, and they rarely do that much. A traveling caravan should be safe.”

We planned it out on the way to the hive. About thirty changelings, twenty traders and ten guards. I would be the head of the security detachment. Or rather, I would be the fake head of it; one of the changelings would actually be in charge. Chrysalis would be the head of the actual caravan. Another changeling would lead the scouting expedition into their tunnels. It’s hard to fuck up such a relatively simple plan, right?

…Right?

We made it to the hive in pretty good time. “I warn you, Navarone: when I said you were considered a hero by my changelings, I meant it. Most of the soldiers there at the attack on Canterlot came from this hive, and they all know of you and what you did for them.” We were still in the chariot at the time, and were just about to get out and head down one of the surface tunnels.

“I don’t suppose it’s possible to skip entering the hive, then? I never liked the hero’s welcome. Especially since I’m such a—” My eyes caught Taya glaring at me. “Well, never mind about that. But must we enter the hive?”

Chrysalis grinned. “Now that I know it’ll make you uncomfortable, yes. Just be glad that I won’t make you give any speeches. Although… I don’t suppose you would be willing to carry me in, would you?”

“As in, pick you up in my arms and carry you?” She nodded. “Why?”

“It would be funny.”

“I’m not particularly strong, Chrysalis. That’s why I use weapons instead of punching things. I can barely carry Taya anymore.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Fine. Be that way.” The carriage door opened and she serenely exited, doing her best to look regal. She did a pretty good job, I’ll admit. I followed her out, looking significantly less regal. Given that we didn’t have an audience aside from the carriage changelings, that wasn’t really a problem. Taya joined us as we walked toward a tunnel.

A tunnel that led straight down. Even with my augmented eyes, I couldn’t see the bottom. “Holy hell,” I said, looking down. “How deep is this?”

“Oh, a few hundred meters. We plan most of our entrances like this so we don’t get many… unwanted visitors. It goes straight down,” Chrysalis answered.

“That’s really unsafe, in terms of actual defense. But we can discuss that more when you are actually an ally of Equestria rather than just… whatever you are right now.”

She nodded. “Very well. The few guests we bring down usually have to be brought down with magic. I can do that for you both, or we can fly down. The choice is yours.”

“Is it a massive chamber on the other side? Or is it just a sudden stop?”

“It is a large chamber, yes.” I grinned. “Why?”

“Taya, come on over.” She did. I picked her up. “Hold on as tight as you can.”

“Nav, what are you—” I jumped, after checking to make sure I didn’t have my ring on. I grinned as I turned in the air, falling headfirst down the insanely long tunnel.

After a few long seconds of straight falling, we entered a large chamber. I saw that we still had a few hundred feet before we hit the bottom, so I didn’t open my wings yet. Taya was still holding on as tightly as she could. I saw a large number of changelings looking up from whatever they were doing to see the angelic figure falling from the sky, shrouded by what little sunlight was left down at this depth.

When I was about halfway to the ground, I threw my wings open. It felt like I slammed into a wall of air, and Taya loosened a bit in my arms before normal gravity—normal for Ponyland, that is—asserted itself and we began to glide out of it. I was able to catch a glimpse of Chrysalis following in my wake, and did my best to slow down so she could catch up. I gave her a grin that she met with a glare that slowly resolved into a grin of her own.

She finally drew my attention to an area on the ground where I assumed she wanted us to land. I followed her over to it. There was already a crowd of changelings around it. We landed, her with grace and poise, me with a loud thump as my armored boots hit the stage. Stage? Oh balls. I set Taya down. She looked around before settling as close as she could get to me.

“Greetings, subjects,” Queen Chrysalis said. I say Queen there because she had taken on a considerably queenlier look and voice. “I believe many of you have heard of Sir Navarone.” I felt a large number of eyes shift to me. Felt rather than seen; these changelings didn’t have pupils, their entire eye was blue. She continued, “He is here to visit for a few days. If all goes well, he will be helping us remove the Diamond Dog nuisance. I trust you will all treat him with the respect due a visiting dignitary. And do not feed off him. Do not even ask. The same goes for the little filly next to him. Now please, go about your day.”

The crowd dispersed. It was eerie, how quiet they were. Not silent—there was some talking, but it was all muted. As they started disappearing, I turned to Chrysalis and said, “I think I like it here. The people are a lot quieter than ponies. I somewhat expected cheering.”

She smiled. “Changelings do not cheer. The sounds would carry too far in the tunnels, creating terrible echoes for any of my subjects further in. Most rarely talk at all. Now come, we need to find Ditto to get what we need.” She began walking to what looked like a collection of buildings.

I noticed she didn’t have any guards. “Do you not worry about assassination attempts down here?” I asked as we walked.

She smiled again. “We have few enemies and none that could hide among my changelings. There are a few rogue hives scattered about, but all are small and none wish any harm upon me. Most rogue hives quite like me, but choose to remain away from my rule for some reason or another. A few come back into the fold every now and then, as they fall under hard times. Now that we have food in excess, I believe I will have no trouble convincing most hives to come back. Crime is also a non-issue.”

“Sounds quite nice. Crime is rare in Ponyland, but I had to judge a few food thieves a few weeks ago. Poor starving kids… Hope they’re doing alright.”

She sighed. “That’s not to say we’re a perfect society, Nav. We do have our problems, they just aren’t apparent from an outsider looking in. I had to sacrifice much in order to keep my changelings alive for so long.” She grit her teeth and glared ahead. “And the peace treaty I was forced to sign did not do wonders, either.” She shook her head. “But if that is what it takes to begin changing things, it is a price I am willing to pay. Ask your questions; I’m sure you have more.”

I nodded to the buildings. “Why build things? Why not just carve your homes into the rock?”

“Style, of course. And… as a reminder of the way things once were.” That sounded ominous.

It also wasn’t my business, and from her tone, she didn’t really want to talk about it. “So how are those changelings with different tastes liking the infinite love thing you’ve got going on?”

“When their choice is something they don’t prefer versus nothing, they’ll happily take what they don’t prefer. A few of them like sadness, though, and that is easy enough to replicate given the tools we have. And happiness comes with love. Lust is relatively easy, also. Anger is a lot harder, but… most of my subjects that like anger do not last long.” That also sounds ominous.

“So how long did it take to build this place?”

“A few years. Not that long at all; swarms are great at simple tasks. It took longer to plan than it took to build, I know that much. There are several underground pods around here that are similar, but this is the epicenter of activity and the largest of the pods. Any newer areas are built with less planning, but are still built well enough to last. There haven’t been any cave-ins because of changeling activity in a long time. The dogs have done some things to force cave-ins, and we’re still fixing one pod from when a dragon landed too hard on the area above it, but for the most part, disasters are uncommon. We no longer need most of the substitute food we used to eat, so the workers we had doing that have been mostly assigned to upkeep.” Assigned? Meh.

“What kind of population do you have down here?”

She smiled smugly. “Around five thousand. This is a decently sized hive, which is one of the reasons I want to get rid of the Diamond Dogs.” I wonder why she’s smug about that.

“A nice size, for a city on this world. What’s the size of the main hive?”

“Around ten thousand. What do you mean, this world? What are cities like where you come from?”

“Oh, they have a few million living in them. What’s the main hive like? Similar to this?”

She had stopped. “Million? I remember looking into your mind, but I don’t remember millions!”

“Well, yeah. I don’t know a million people. I was a recluse.” And look where that got me. “When I left there were nearly seven billion on the planet.”

Her mouth dropped.

I was looking around at a few of the changelings near us. “You know, changelings do look a lot lighter than ponies. I might be able to pick one up. What do you think, Taya?”

“You never know until you try.”

I looked back to Chrysalis, who looked like she was still having a hard time imagining seven billion people. I shrugged, leaned over, and scooped her up. “Wow, she is a lot lighter. I bet the regular changelings would weigh about as much as you, Taya.”

“Nav, you can put me down now.”

“I thought you said you wanted me to carry you earlier.”

“I changed my mind. Put me down.” I did and we continued on. “Now, what was your question? I seem to have… well, what was it?”

“What’s the main hive like?”

“Similar to this, but with more changelings out and about. It’s a lot larger and more fancy.”

I noticed something, then: There were no lights. “Taya, how are you seeing?”

“I’m following your voice and avoiding all the glowing eyes.”

“No, that won’t do. Come here.” She did. I picked her up. With my axe on my back, I had to hold her in my arms, but that wasn’t really a problem.

“There will be lights in the planning room, Navarone, and more in every other building. We just don’t keep the city proper lit because we don’t need the lights to see enough to get around.”

“Good. And if I’m going to be here for days, you do have food for her, right?”

“Of course. We have to feed our love slaves something, after all.”

“Awesome. What do you guys use for currency?”

“Chunks of ore. They are actually useful, rather than useless bits. Gold is a terrible metal to do anything with. The only reason it has value is because Celestia forces it to have value.”

“Do you understand the reasoning? Or do you want me to explain it to you?”

“I understand the reasoning. It does not apply to my society. We prefer practicality.”

“And yet you decided to make buildings rather than carve from the rock.”

“These buildings were made from stone. No one says you can’t have both, Nav. They were built with the stone dug out while we carved this pod.”

We were into the city itself, now. The buildings were pretty large, but the entrances were relatively small. It was about like Canterlot, in a way. There was a lot less style, though, and most of the colors were black and green. It reminded me more of my short stay in this world’s Spain than anything else. “Have you ever been to Barcelona or San Sebastian, Chrysalis? This hive reminds me of them, in a way.”

She shook her head. “I’ve never been away from this mainland, Nav. Or rather, I haven’t in any recent time.”

“I suggest it. Some of the places across the sea are quite nice, and you would probably enjoy the Europe party next year. Hell, you might be able to get some changelings into the tournament at the end. I won it this year, but Celestia banned me because of how I won it.”

“Because you were smart, you mean.” I nodded. “I don’t suppose you would be willing to be my military advisor? Ditto knows his craft, I will admit, but we have not been in any open fights recently. We do not know how battle tactics have changed with time.”

“The only conflicts I’ve been involved in were small-time things. I helped plan a great retreat across a hostile country, but that was the biggest thing I’ve done.”

“From what I’ve heard, though, you have a very high success rate.”

“That’s because humans were made for this kind of shit. If you absolutely, positively must kill every motherfucker in the room, call for a human.”

“If you weren’t carrying a filly in your arms and stroking her hair occasionally, I would be quivering in my carapace.”

“That’s part of the reason we’re made for it. We have the ability to disconnect like nothing you’ve ever seen. One minute we’re fighting someone and the next we’re their best friends. It’s harder for some than others and if the fighting is worse than normal it’ll take longer, but we can adapt to just about anything. When I think back to some of the things we’ve done, the only thing I can say is fuck yeah, humanity.”

“Hm. I might have to learn the spell to summon some of you for myself, then…”

“No. I’ve grown to like you too much to have to kill you. This world does not need humans. I still don’t have an honest niche worked out.”

“Well, you’re my dad,” Taya said, breaking her silence.

“That hardly counts, I wouldn’t think.”

“You’re also a knight,” Chrysalis added.

“God, don’t remind me. At least I managed to spell out a sob story to get Luna to revoke my oaths. I’m still a knight, but I’m not forced to follow orders anymore.”

“That is good. I would not want somepony that loved me to have control over me. Though I also can’t imagine somepony loving me at all…”

“That’s actually one of the arguments I used. It was very effective. But no, this world honestly doesn’t need any humans at all. Or I should rather say, the ponies don’t need any humans at all. They are peaceful, and do not desire war or battle. It is a shame I was forced to stay long enough to get trapped there.”

“Someone needs to keep them out of the fire, though,” Chrysalis said. “If you had not been there, I would have ruled them and destroyed them. They need a defender of some kind.”

“There are plenty of races out there that could do just as well of a job as me, or better. Naga, griffins, dragons, even dogs, if you could find some that weren’t total assholes. Luna has a pretty good dragon friend we found just recently that might be willing to help.” I thought it best I leave out the part that I was the one that found him.

“But all of those races have stakes in this world. They all want what is best for their own species. But you… You are the only one of your kind here. It is cruel, what they did to you. It makes you a wonderful tool, though.” I feel like I’ve had this conversation before.

“Yeah.” I felt it best to leave it at that. “How far do we have until we get to wherever we’re going?”

“We’re there now, actually.” We were in front of a building much larger than most of the others around us. It was eerie, looking at all of those buildings but not seeing a single window. There was a single set of large doors in the center of the building and that was that. Chrysalis led the way inside, opening the doors with a green glow. Light actually streamed out of the building.

I set Taya down. My arms were starting to get tired anyway. She followed me as I entered the building behind Chrysalis. Inside was not at all what I was expecting. Instead of a welcoming desk, there was just a directory. There was a single light shining on it. Hallways led off to both sides, with more halls jutting off from those. There was a single hallway going down the center that Chrysalis was walking down already. We hurried to catch up; I wasn’t going to get lost in this fucking place.

There weren’t many lights there, either. Just the one in the entrance, and a light streaming out of every room we passed that had an open door. It was enough for Taya to see, at least. “Chrysalis, this place is depressing as hell,” I finally said.

“It is efficient. We do not have as much magic as the ponies do. We light up the rooms so our workers can see. Any more is a waste of power.”

“So why not just use electricity and light bulbs? You could light up the entire cave that way.”

“What is electricity?”

Oh shit. I explained that concept to Twilight a long time ago and she laughed at me. Everything the ponies have is powered by magic. I wanted to make a generator or something as a proof of concept, but honestly… why? I mean, with the things electricity could do, I could make pegasi and unicorns relatively obsolete.

“Electricity is what people in my world used since we didn’t have magic. Our society was more technologically advanced than the ponies are. Hell, we were more advanced than the ponies will probably ever be; they seem stagnant in terms of technology. But with it, we could create light. We could power cities full of people. It took resources to do, but you could probably substitute those resources with magic. Use a little magic to power the generators to create enormous amounts of electricity. You could power factories, rail cars, light, and so much more.”

Her eyes widened. “And you could teach my changelings this?”

“I could give you the basics. I didn’t know too much about it, but I could make you a really small generator. From there, you would have to let your scientists take over. Honestly, I don’t even know if you could do it within a generation. It took my people a long time to figure out that electricity even had a use, let alone all the science behind it. There’s a lot of physics involved, but if you could dig into my memories and find the things I forgot, it could be done.”

“The Diamond Dogs can wait.” She stopped in the middle of a hall. “Prepare your mind, Navarone!”

I didn’t even have time to stop before she ripped into me. She discarded all of my recent memories, digging deeper she ever had before. You want memories of my past life? TAKE THEM! I gave her everything horrible humanity had ever done to itself. Pictures, statistics, events, names, all the fun stuff. Thank you, 4chan.

She tore herself from my mind, looking at me with a mix of awe and terror. “I didn’t believe you,” she whispered hoarsely. “Millions… billions… Dead. That power. That raw, terrifying, and beautiful power. Unbelievable… and yet true. You did not lie when you said that you did not belong here, Nav. Your kind are monsters. And you are no different. I saw your mind. You have the capacity to kill an entire world without blinking an eye, as long as you can justify it.” She slowly smiled. “You are wasted on the ponies.” She dropped her smile. “But you won’t ever stay here with me. I won’t even ask. We do not have any scientists, not as you would call them. But I know who to give this information to. Now come. We have allowed the others to wait for long enough. We have dogs to deal with.”

“Never rip into my mind like that again. If I ever allow you to enter again, I will guide you.”

She smiled again. “You can’t stop me from doing what I want.”

I slipped my gauntlet off, reached into my breastplate, and pulled out a small bag tied around my neck. I let the ring fall out of the bag and slipped it on. “You wanna bet?”

Her smile turned vicious. Her horn glowed. Nothing happened. Her smile dropped and she narrowed her eyes. Her horn glowed even brighter, illuminating the hall completely. I noticed that a few changelings were standing around us now in both directions. Chrysalis was snarling, her horn glowing brighter and brighter.

“Stay behind me, Taya,” I whispered. She moved. I took a step closer to Chrysalis. She stood her ground. I took another step. Her eyes widened. I stopped right in front of her. I slowly reached out and grasped her horn with the hand not holding the ring. “I could break this off right now, and you would be powerless to stop me. Do not ever underestimate me, Chrysalis. I am a friend, and you will treat me as a friend, or you will find me an enemy. That would end poorly for you. Do we have an understanding?”

Her horn stopped glowing and I released it. “So you’ve found a new toy,” she commented, eying my ring. “Interesting. Very well, Navarone. I would hate to lose such a good… friend.”

I slid my gauntlet on over the hand with the ring. “Then I believe we have left your soldiers to wait long enough. Shall we?”

She turned and started down the hall, only to stop when she found some of her people watching us. “Why are you not working?” she demanded.

“Break time,” one of them rasped. “Your majesty is in the way of the break room. We wait until you are clear, as moving past would be disrespectful.”

I could hear her teeth grinding. It was bad enough that I embarrassed her, but doing so in front of her subjects was worse. “You did not see this,” she told them.

“We did not see… what, majesty?” the changeling asked.

She nodded. “Continue, subjects.” They bent their knees slightly, and turned to go back. I suppose that given this building’s layout, they could probably find a different path to wherever they were going. We followed behind them.

“I like changelings more than ponies,” I said when they turned off. “You guys are awesome. If something like that happened between me and Celestia, I probably would have been attacked by any civilian nearby that witnessed it.”

“If you had harmed me, you would not have left this building alive. They know you are a friend and that you would not hurt me. Changelings treat heroes differently than ponies do. We give them respect by giving them privacy and distance, honoring their requests if they make them and they are reasonable. If you were as much a hero to the ponies as you are to us, I believe you would be surrounded constantly as soon as you went to a city. You would not have a single moment of peace.”

“Then it’s a good thing my role as a hero there is small and relatively forgotten. I am known, but I’m not revered. Ponies just know that I fought for Celestia.”

“I fear that it is sadly too late for you to stay here. But if you ever find yourself out of favor in Equestria, you are welcome in the hives. And when I get the plans for this ‘electricity’ to those that need it, you will be nearly as famous as I.” She looked me up and down. “Though probably not for looks.”

“Well, not all of us can be as sexy as me. I’m sorry, Chrysalis, but maybe one day.” I gave her a conciliatory pat on the back. She just shook her head with a small smile.

“Oh, and in case you were wondering, your eggs are doing well.”

“Eggs? What?”

She smiled at me. “You did not know? As the queen of the changelings, I am super fertile. I could breed with any race on the planet.” I wonder if the terror I felt at that was strong enough for her to pick up from where she was. If not, the expression on my face probably did it.

“That’s… that’s not possible. The genetics wouldn’t allow for it. I have forty-six chromosomes. You probably have considerably more. It’s not possible!”

Oh, her smile was terrifying. “I am a changeling, Navarone. My body adapts to whatever I mate with. I don’t know how it does that, but it does. But you need not worry. You do not have to meet your children if you do not wish to. Most fathers never even know they have hatchlings from me, when I choose to look outside my race for mates.”

My mind was terrified by that news. It shouldn’t be possible! Biology can’t allow for that! But… in a world with magic, who knows what’s possible? I gulped slightly. “What will… what will they look like?”

“Oh, like any normal changeling. I suspect their eyes will be different, though. And they’ll definitely be higher class, in terms of intelligence. They will be my first children to enter this world while we have food enough to sustain them well. I expect great things from them. They may have a few of your traits, though. They will never know of you if you do not wish them to, and even if they do learn that you are their father, they will not recognize you as such until you decide you want them to.”

Well, I knew there would be some kind of repercussions from that week of debauchery. I was expecting more pissed off friends and an angry Luna than children, though. It was sobering. But… “In that case, why did you have to tell me about it at all?”

“To make you suffer, of course.”

“I see. And how do I know you aren’t lying about it, then?”

“I can let you see them, if you desire. The only other male I mated with in the time it would have taken to get them to where they are now was that fool Shining Armor, and I did not deem him worthy of making eggs with.”

“He had some pretty powerful magic, though. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

“No. We have a few that are able to use magic, but not many. All of my children can, whether or not the father was able to. They might have been stronger in magic, if Shining Armor had been the father, but they will be strong enough anyway from me. Besides, we currently need thinkers more than we need anything else. Between the two of us, their minds will be made for plotting.”

That’s not really how genetics works, but… fucking magic. With my luck, they’ll be smart enough to track me down and live long enough to make the rest of my life hell. Of course, I could probably also kill them, but… could my conscience really take killing my own kids? That’s fucked up, even for me.

Then again… are they my kids if I didn’t raise them? They’re just kids that happen to have my genes.

“If anything interesting happens with them, keep me updated. I wish you had told me beforehand that you were going to do this, but… I suppose if I don’t have to raise or see them, it will not be a problem. Just don’t tell anyone else.”

“They will not hear it from my mouth, Navarone.” And I don’t think this entry will go with my journals, either.

“What’s wrong with children?” Taya quietly asked.

Oh God. There’s no way I’m coming out of this question well. I opened my mouth to respond, but Chrysalis opened a door with her magic and stepped inside. I followed her in, closing my mouth. Taya followed on my heels, of course.

The room we were in was not that large. There was a table that dominated the center, with a single light over it. A large changeling that I thought might have been Ditto was standing at one end of the table. There were two others next to him that I did not recognize.

Chrysalis stopped at the table and looked to the fellow I thought was Ditto. “We have three things to do. First, get together ten sentient soldiers and twenty sentients that can act as merchants. I don’t care if they’re soldiers or not. Second, find four sentients and a leader for a scouting mission into the dog caves. They have to know how to walk bipedal. Last, find all of our magic users with the strength to cast fire spells.”

The changeling turned to one of the others. “Go through the roster. Pick out four good scouts. You are in charge of leading the scouting mission.” The one he was talking to gave a single nod and looked down to the table, using magic to ruffle through some papers. The big changeling turned to the other one in the room. “Pick twenty-nine sentient soldiers. I will lead them.” The changeling he was talking to gave a nod and started looking through more papers. The big changeling turned to Chrysalis. “We have fifty sentients and three drones here capable enough to use fire spells. Of those, only forty can make fireballs. I can have them here in an hour.”

I don’t know what a sentient is, but Chrysalis talked about intelligence stuff earlier. I suppose drones are the lowest of the low, incapable of acting without orders or something. Sentients are probably those that can act individually.

“The mages can wait, Ditto. Nav wishes to interview the dogs. The scouting mission is the more important of the two. The merchants will be Navarone’s cover as he talks with them. We will need four wagons and some random goods we looted in raids. Nothing we looted from dogs. Gems would be best, if you can find them. The treasury will cover whatever you use.”

Ditto nodded once. “We will have everything prepared in three hours.” My eyebrows rose. That’s a hefty order right there, and an insane time. If he could pull that off, my opinion of the changelings would rise even higher.

“Then we will meet you on the surface. Come, Navarone.” We left the room and started off down the hall. We weren’t going the way we came.

“Can he really do that in three hours?” I asked her.

“Yes. We are efficient, as I said. I don’t know where he’ll get the wagons, but it will be done in three hours.”

“That’s amazing. In my world, it would probably take at least a day to do that much. Especially if you had to pull troops from their families.”

“You may be better at fighting and killing, but we are better at organizing. And you also have to remember that you have massive armies while we have small ones.”

Simply amazing. “Color me impressed, then. So where to now?”

“To drop the ideas and memories of electricity off. If possible, I would ask that you give the changelings I am leading you to a guided tour of everything you can possibly remember about it, as well as everything you think might be useful for it. History lessons, physics lessons—whatever physics is—anything you can think of that might be helpful. If you can guide us to where it is, we can fill in what you forgot from your subconscious. It’s there, but you just don’t know where. We can find it and use it, though we can’t show it to you.”

“I… see. I am not certain that this is a good idea, Chrysalis. I was not what you would consider normal in my world. I spent a lot of time learning how to make things that I shouldn’t know how to make. Alcohol. Explosives. Gunpowder. Low tech guns. Weak generators. I could revolutionize war in this world with what I know. I could make weapons that anyone could use that could destroy buildings. I could make bombs that a changeling could hide in a building that would kill anyone there. I could do so, so much with what is in my head. And I do not want to risk that knowledge getting out to people I may one day have to fight.”

“That’s simple. Don’t show us any of that. Show them what I want to know and we’ll do the rest.”

“I agree on one condition, then. I want Taya to be there with the fellow I’m giving the memories to. I will not risk whoever it is taking more than I am willing to give, and Taya is ridiculously strong in terms of magic.”

“That is not a problem to me, Nav. Though it will take a bit longer if we have to show her how to look into minds.”

“I know how,” Taya quietly said. That was news to me, but then I don’t know most of what she learns in terms of magic. She proudly demonstrates some of it to me, but she knows how I feel about magic so she doesn’t use anything on me. It’s kind of hard to show off mind reading magic without using it on the person you’re showing off to.

Chrysalis pushed another door open and stepped inside. The changelings inside all stopped what they were doing and turned to us. They all blinked in surprise when they saw Chrysalis and a few actually gaped when they saw me.

“What can we help you with, my queen?” one of them finally said, stepping forward slightly.

“I need your best mind reader to look into Sir Navarone’s memories. He will guide you to what you need. Whoever does it has to be able to meld flows.”

One of the other changelings stepped forward and bent his knees slightly. “I am yours, your highness.” He turned to me. “Come, Sir Navarone.” I stepped forward. Taya followed me. “Have you done this before?”

“Yes, but I’ve never had to show memories that are fragmented. I will do my best to keep it simple for you, and you will not understand most of what you see. I don’t suppose you have a chair?”

“We do not.” This is gonna be odd. I gave up most control in my body when Shining Armor was looking in, but then I also had to prepare some very hard defenses. “Who am I melding with?”

“Her,” I said, pointing to Taya. I pulled my gauntlet off while he was considering and removed my ring.

“A pony foal? We’ve done stranger. Come, let us meet in his mind.” With that, his horn glowed green. I zoned out, waiting for his presence to make itself known. It did not take long. “You have control. Good. I do not want to sift through every passing memory.” A moment later, another one joined him. “Let us begin.”

“You are going to learn about electricity,” I said in my mind. “Power without magic.” I gave several memories of electronic marvels quickly. And then I began the lessons. It took over an hour to dredge up everything I could possibly remember. A lot of it was out of order and most of it was fragmentary, but apparently that wasn’t an issue.

With Taya watching him, he never made a move at anything I didn’t want him to see. But he did get more than I wanted him to, through the simple sake that it’s impossible to stay focused on one thing for more than an hour. Especially after you get told you’re going to be a father.

When I gave him everything I could possibly think of, he pulled out of my mind and turned to Chrysalis. “It can be done. Give us five years and the resources we need and we should have a working generator and light bulb variants. Give us twenty years and we can have incredibly efficient factories. A hundred and we can probably have computers. Two hundred and we can leave Equestria so far behind in terms of technology that they’ll be begging us for table scraps.” It was kind of scary, hearing him say that in the same raspy voice most changelings seem to have.

“Begin on light bulbs and factories now. Time will tell about the others,” she answered. “Distribute the important memories. Discard the rest. Forget your focus on magic. Figure this out. Use magic to fill in the blanks only when you have no other choice, and do your best to remove magic from the equation when you can. Navarone’s people did this without magic, just technology. If they can do it, so can we.”

The changeling nodded. “It will be done.” He turned to the others. All their horns glowed as the rest of them stepped closer to the one guy. Taya and I walked over to Chrysalis.

“If you hold this tech over the ponies, I’ll probably be dispatched to fight you,” I told Chrysalis as we reentered the hall. “And if I have to fight with all the resources of Equestria at my back, I will not make it easy on you.” I wouldn’t, either. I knew how to make a gun, even if I didn’t have the resources. I couldn’t make the things I needed to make a gun. But Celestia could get me what I needed if I was able to show her the memories and let her dig through what I’ve forgotten. I could bring in all kinds of war machines. I just hoped it didn’t come to that.

“They have magic, Nav. They can do anything we’ll be able to do, just using magic instead of using technology. We’ll just have both.” We were finally walking back out the way we came.

We talked on small matters until we got outside. Ha. ‘Outside.’ We were still in a fucking cave. Chrysalis turned to me. “We have an hour before we have to be topside. Is Taya hungry?”

“Why ask me? Taya, are you hungry?” I knew better than to ask.

“Yes.” She’s always willing to eat.

“Then come. I will show you to our feeding hall.” Given what changelings eat, that sounded ominous. She started leading us away. I picked Taya up and followed. “I’ll admit, the taste of the love being produced by the love poison is… off. It is artificial, one could say. But it is better than what we are used to, and it is limitless. The only complaint I have is that we have such a small number of victims to feed off of. I do not suppose there is any way to take some of the dogs prisoner, should it come to that?”

“Not with what I’m going to do, no. They will all die.”

“I see. Will it at least be painful?”

“Oh God yes. Some will burn to death and some will suffocate while burning to death. It’ll be a painful, horrible, gruesome death.” She smiled darkly at that. And I thought humans were fucked up. “That’s why we’re breaking the prisoners out beforehand. Nothing in those tunnels will be living when I’m through, should I decide to attack.”

“Humans are good at war. It is… delicious. Peace would be profitable, but I hope you find them unworthy just so I can see how you kill them.”

“I don’t particularly want to kill them, personally.”

“You don’t have to,” Taya quietly said.

“Oh? And if I deem them as unworthy to stay neighbors, what would you suggest we do instead?” I asked her.

“Scare them away. Make them flee. You don’t have to kill them, daddy.”

“You’ve never fought dogs before. They don’t flee. Most of them are too stupid to run away unless ordered to, and most of those that give orders are too stubborn to run away without some manner of ‘fuck you’ plan.” I learned that from experience and from books. Mostly books, though. “It would take Celestia’s army and the changeling army both to scare them away from their home.” She didn’t respond.

The dining hall was only a few blocks away from the other building, whatever its title was. The last block was walked in silence.

We entered the dining hall. I looked around and one thing came to mind instantly: Oppressive. Holy God. Cells lined the hallway. There was a crank next to each one that looked like it operated a retractable wall. There were ponies in all of the cells and more ponies standing outside the cells, looking in. I assumed those standing outside were changelings. I heard wailing from some cells that didn’t have anyone in front of them, and saw some changelings walking to them and some walking away.

Chrysalis didn’t give any of them a look, just continued through. I carried Taya through, taking some comfort in her presence. This is terrible. I know I came up with this, but… this is just outright terrible. Chrysalis led us through two layers of cells, straight down the center. If I had to guess, I would say there were maybe fifty cells. Half contained ponies and half contained other things. Dogs, griffins, a single naga. I didn’t want to think about how the naga worked; it might be able to rip the cell open.

We ended up in an empty cafeteria. It looked like it could hold around a hundred people. She pointed to the kitchen. “You’ll find what you are looking for there, Taya. You will have to fix your own food, or loot the storage; it is not meal time, so nothing is prepared. Everything within is safe to eat for ponies.”

I carried her into the kitchen. I did not want to leave her alone in this place, I don’t care what kind of security there is. Chrysalis remained in the cafeteria. When we got to the kitchen, I set her down and we looked around.

Mushrooms. Lots and lots of mushrooms. “Taya, do you know how to cook mushrooms?”

“No. Do you?”

“Not a clue. But if they can be eaten when cooked, they can be eaten raw.” That makes sense, right? “They probably just won’t taste that good.” Though they might not taste good even if they were cooked. I can’t imagine changelings putting too much effort into cooking when they feed off emotions.

“Waiting won’t make them taste any better.” She used magic to bring one to her mouth and began eating. “Not… too bad.” She continued eating slowly.

“So what did you think of their prison?” I asked as she continued.

“It has to be done. I don’t like it, but that’s the way it is.”

“My thoughts exactly. I’m glad I’m immune to love poison. Oh, and the new code word is password.”

It didn’t take her long to finish. We left the kitchen and made our way to Chrysalis, who had been joined by Ditto. “The preparations are finished,” she told us. “It is time to return to the surface. Do you want Taya to come with us, or stay here?”

“We aren’t killing the dogs today. We’ll wait until tomorrow, if it comes to that. She can come with us, as long as she stays with the group. I’m going to need to talk to their leaders alone, as one warrior to another.”

“And why, Navarone, would you need to do that?” Chrysalis asked with a bit of a sharp tone.

“Because they don’t like ponies, for one. They won’t speak freely in front of them. And for two, there is a code of sorts among most warriors. It is unspoken and unofficial, but we treat each other with respect until the fighting starts.” Ditto nodded at that. “They’ll talk to a grizzled mercenary traveling with the ponies until he can find a better contract. They might even offer me a job, but I doubt it. Most dogs I’ve run into were arrogant, not one to rely on other races for help.” If they did offer me a job and I decided they needed to die, I would totally ask for an advance just to see if they would give it to me.

“I see. Well, are you ready to return to the surface?”

“Yeah. Is there a quicker way up?”

She smiled as her horn glowed. We teleported topside, appearing next to a few wagons. Changelings stood to attention when they saw us. “Change to your disguises,” Ditto ordered. All of the changelings turned into ponies. A few of them turned into ponies that were the same. It took them a minute to sort out and all have different disguises. “Haulers, hook up to the wagons.” A few of them went to the wagons. Some got hooked on and some helped do the hooking. “Move out.” With that, Ditto changed into his disguise—a large royal guard. Ten of the soldiers were also disguised as guards.

The wagons began to move, trundling off. The rest of the group moved with them. I turned to Chrysalis. “I suppose I will see you when I get back, then.”

“No, I am coming with you.” She turned into a random pony.

I was kind of surprised that she was coming, but we fell in with the group. “Taya, when I break off to talk to their leaders, stay with Chrysalis.” She didn’t answer. I reached down to my belt and grabbed my helmet, setting it on my head.

The terrain around the entrance to the changeling cave was rugged, but there was at least a road of sorts leading away. We were on it now. “So why have you guys never done something like this before?” I asked. “Surely this occurred to you. Disguise as peaceful traders until the dog leaders are outside, then kidnap them and drag them back to your caves.”

Chrysalis and Ditto shared a look. Chrysalis turned back to me. “No, Navarone. That never occurred to us.”

Ditto said, “If you had been us, what would you have done thus far against the dogs?”

“I would have killed them. Anybody that takes my children needs to be put down.” I put a hand on Taya’s head. “But since you didn’t know the easy way of clearing out caves, something like this is what I would have done. Have some of your kind disguise as ponies and some disguise as gnats hiding on the ponies. When you have a good number of dogs outside, start quietly taking them down one by one and replacing them with your changelings. When you have them all, send the disguised changelings in to bring more out. Repeat until you have most of them captured or killed or whatever. If they catch on, kill the prisoners and run like hell. That could net you a sizeable chunk of them in one blow.”

They shared another look.

I continued, “Of course, with magic on your side, there’s quite a bit more you could do to them. If you could find a large reservoir of water near here, you could easily flood their caves. If you wanted to take them over for yourself it wouldn’t be that hard, just use fire to evaporate all the water. Or since they’re dogs, you could probably use a very high pitched sound to incapacitate them and then clean up house while they’re all on the ground writhing. Since you are working with caves and tunnels, you could probably cover the entire system from one area and just let the echoes take care of the rest. Really, there’s a lot you could do.”

“Why did you never think of these, Ditto?” Chrysalis demanded, glaring at him.

“I have no excuse, your highness.” He turned to me. “If you wanted to kill the changelings, how would you do it?”

“In their caves, you mean?” He nodded. “It would be harder, given that you don’t actually live in the tunnels. If I knew every entrance and exit, I would plug the holes and fill the caverns with carbon dioxide. It is odorless and it sinks, meaning it would fall straight to the lowest parts of the cave. You would be dead within minutes. Cleaning the caves out would be hard, though. Or if I really wanted to ruin your day, I would fill the caves full of methane and strike a match.” I smiled. “I bet you could see the explosion from the fucking moon.”

“What is carbon dioxide and methane?”

I gave him a look that said ‘really?’ “You guys are miners. How do you not know about dangerous gases?” He just looked at me. “Okay, have you ever dug into a tunnel and had miners mysteriously die for no reason?” He nodded. “They died from methane poisoning. It is a gas that gets trapped underground until released. It is lighter than air, so it rises to the roof of the tunnels. In my world, miners would carry birds into caves with them. If the birds died, they would get the hell out of there because it meant the air is poisoned. Carbon dioxide is what you get when you exhale. Breathe in, you use oxygen. Breathe out, you get CO2—Er, carbon dioxide.”

“I see. And how do you get rid of it?”

I shrugged. “Methane? Shit, strike a match and it’ll burn. Just make sure the idiot striking the match is expendable; if you’re not lucky, there might be more there than you thought and the entire cave would explode. If you wanted to get it out of your caves, you could just unplug the entrance and leave it open for a few weeks. Carbon dioxide is different. If you had time, you could just lower some trees into the cave and after a few years they should take care of it for you. I guess you could also unplug the entrances and leave it for a long time. It might eventually dispel out.”

“If you were fighting us on an open field, how would you do it?”

“Oh lord. Um. If I had access to human weapons, I would mow you down with machine gun fire, as they did in World War I. If I didn’t and had access to unicorns…” I smiled. “Rolling thunder. If I was fighting on an open field with unicorns under my command, you would die very quickly, unless you could fight back with magic.”

“What is rolling thunder?”

“A campaign from my world in one of the nastiest wars my country fought. It was a gradual campaign of shit fuckery. We started small, blowing up some stuff. Then we got larger and larger until the enemy gave in. Or at least, that was the plan. The enemy didn’t actually give in.” I sighed, shaking my head. “We lost that war because of politics. But it was a stupid war anyway. A stupid war for a stupid time. In this case, I would order the unicorns to start small, killing a few waves of troops. As you kept coming, the resistance would get stronger and stronger until there was nothing left of you or you broke and ran.”

“And if the unicorns could not help you?”

“Then it would devolve into a very ugly melee. You would probably have air superiority, but I think ponies are heavier and probably stronger than changelings. I was able to pick Chrysalis up with no problems, while I can barely shift an earth pony. It would be an interesting fight.”

“How would you deal with infiltrators?”

“Check your blood. You guys have green blood, ponies have red. Go into a room, tell everyone to not move and that you would kill the first motherfucker that makes a move to a door. Then you take a knife and make shallow slices on each pony in the room. Those that bleed green die while those that bleed red get healed and sent out.”

“I am glad we are allies, Navarone,” Ditto said.

“So am I,” I answered. “So how far is it to their caves, anyway?”

“Not far now,” Chrysalis said. “The entrances are over that hill.” She nodded to a small hill we were walking to.

“What kind of sentries do they have?”

“Terrible ones,” Ditto answered. “They won’t know we’re coming until we get over the hill. But they’ll be hiding, so you probably can’t see them. Whatever else I can say about them, they know how to hide.”

We topped the hill. I got my first look at the dog territory. I’m glad I don’t have trypophobia. There were holes all over the place. I looked to Chrysalis. “And I thought your legs were bad! What the hell kind of organizational scheme do these idiots have?”

“They don’t,” she answered smugly. “Every hole leads into their tunnels. It’s a warren down there, and if we didn’t know the way, our scouts would never return. The dogs are miners, until they feel like being warriors.” Fucking dwarves, then. They shouldn’t be that hard to eliminate. I just hope I don’t have to.

We got down to a good place to stop and Chrysalis called for her people to do so. “Make camp, everypony. We’ll stop here for the night and continue on tomorrow. Maybe if we’re lucky, the dogs here will want some trade.”

The changelings wheeled the four wagons into a defensive perimeter and clustered the queen inside. The guards took up positions at each corner and on top of the wagons. A few of the changelings wandered out to peer in holes, trying to look like interested traders. They were doing a pretty good job of acting, in my opinion.

It took half an hour, but a few heads finally poked out of holes. They watched us for a few minutes before disappearing. Five minutes later, a group came out of one of the holes. They walked over to our wagon slowly. I noticed the dogs here were incredibly hunched over, making most of them shorter than I am. I figured that was because they were miners, but I could have been wrong.

There were three obvious warriors and one dog dressed in what looked like a vest or something. When they got close enough to our wagons to be heard, the one in a vest called out, “What do ponies want in our land?”

Chrysalis walked to the edge of the encampment. “We’re traders, dog. We’re just passing through for the night, but if any of your kind wishes to browse our wares, we will not turn down the business.”

The dog in the vest turned to one of the warriors and whispered something. The dog ran back to the tunnel he came from and dove down it. While wearing plate armor and wielding a spear.

Dogs, man… They aren’t that bright. The dog with the vest pointed to me. “What is that winged freak?”

I stepped forward. “I am Navarone, a human mercenary. I’m traveling with these ponies until I can find a better job. I don’t suppose you have any contracts you need fulfilled?”

His eyes widened. “We have heard of you, human! You won the tournament at that party!” He grinned, showing yellowed teeth. “You cheat, but you fight good. Come, we can talk about your career.”

“Only if we stay within sight of the encampment. I’ve heard of a few disappearances around this area. No offense, but I think I prefer being careful.”

“You have nothing to fear from us, human. But we can stay close.”

I started picking my way across the short field to him. I stepped across several holes, doing my best to avoid them. As I got closer, I noticed how large the two warriors were. They could probably crush a changeling just by punching it. They might be able to pull me in half. Well, they’re miners. They’re going to be strong.

“So, you are looking for a job?” the dog asked when I got close enough.

“Yeah.” Thankfully, they didn’t smell bad. I suppose dogs have stronger noses than I do, so keeping clean would be important to them. “I overstayed my welcome with the ponies. Celestia was not happy that I betrayed her people like that in the tournament.” I shrugged. “It was time to move on to greener pastures. You guys have anything for me to do?”

“Yes. Much work. We need pony slaves to pull carts. We need to kill a small nest of changelings. We need to plan better defenses for our home. This was supposed to be a small colony of dogs, but with all of the hostile creatures around us, that idea quickly fell through. We couldn’t just abandon this territory since it was so full of… gems…” At this point he salivated slightly before shaking his head. “We are miners. We want to bring our families here, but it is too unsafe for them. We have been doing our best to kill the changeling scum, but they do not take the hints.”

“Why kill them? Why not try to live in peace?”

He shook his head. “No peace with them. They must be destroyed or removed.”

“That’s senseless. Why is peace impossible?”

He growled slightly. “You have lived among ponies too long. Changelings and dogs do not mix. Peace can’t exist between us. We need slaves and we need their caves, so we will fight until they are dead.”

“And there is no way to convince you or them otherwise?”

He shrugged. “No. But that is good for you, eh? You help us kill them off, we pay you in gems. Lots of gems.”

I shook my head. “I do not fight wars. If you heard about my fight in the tournament, you should know that.”

He grinned. “I do know that. Which is why I want you to do something else for us. Kill their queen. A bug without a head is a dead bug.”

I pretended to think for a moment. “It would take a little while. Do you know where her home is?”

He nodded. “Somewhere near a pony village called Appaloosa. I do not know more than that. You bring us her head, we pay you much.”

I took a moment to pretend to consider. “Very well,” I finally said. “But I will need some supplies, and they might not be cheap. I would ask for a small advance, if possible.”

He nodded once. “I did not think you would come cheap.” He turned to one of the two dogs with us, leaned in close, and whispered something to it. That dog turned and dove down another tunnel. I noticed at this time that several unarmed dogs, smaller than the soldiers, were walking from one of the holes to the wagons. A lot of them had bulging bags.

I turned back to the dog. “When my job is complete, who do I come back to, to ask for payment?”

“I am Fido,” he told me. “You can ask for me, Spot, or Rover.” I almost burst into laughter. I managed to stop myself at a small smile that was partially hidden by the helmet I was still wearing for some reason.

I reached up and pulled it off. “I am Navarone,” I said as I moved it to the hook on my belt. The dog looked at my eyes for probably the first time and his own widened a bit. I nodded. “Yeah. A curse from Luna. A punishment for my actions. Such is life, for an unwanted creature in Equestria. Maybe with the money from killing the queen, I will be able to afford a cure of sorts.”

“Did you not get paid for the tournament?”

“Confiscated by Celestia for cheating. All fifteen hundred bits, gone. And I’ve been banned from competing again.”

He shook his head sadly. “The ponies are cruel. But then, we aren’t so clean ourselves. You can help us get revenge on them, after you take care of the changelings. There is a village of ponies nearby. In that village is a white unicorn with the most annoying voice you have ever heard.” Says the pot to the kettle. “Cut her tongue out and bring her here and we’ll pay you good.”

“I know that unicorn. I’ll think about it.”

“Good. We should not have let her escape, but by the time we realized how bad she was, her friends had already come to help her. Celestia might not notice one or two ponies missing, but six and a dragon would bring her ire down upon us.”

Before I could say anything, the soldier Fido had sent down came back up with a bag in his hands. He ran to us and handed it to Fido, who passed it to me. I couldn’t feel what was inside through the gauntlets, but I heard it clinking enough to know it was jewels. And it was a large bag, too.

“Isn’t this a little much for an advance?” I asked, hefting it.

“This is a tough job. But I know you can do it. You are well worth it, Navarone. You do this job and you’ll get twenty more of those bags to your name. If you bring us the white pony, you’ll get three.” That’s a fortune in my world. Here? Fuck if I know.

“I’ll have to finish my contract with the pony caravan, and then I’ll be off immediately to kill the queen. I should be in Appaloosa before the month ends.”

“I cannot wait. As soon as she is dead, come here. Even if you refuse to help us in an open fight, you can help us plan raids on the changelings. They will be off balance when the queen dies. We will need to keep them that way so they won’t be able to initiate any large counterattack.”

“I will do that, then. I assume I will be paid when the changelings here are dead?”

“Of course. There are a lot of bad things the ponies say about dogs. Most of them are true. But of all the bad things they say, we are loyal to those that help us, even if it is only for pay. You scratch our back, we scratch yours, yes?”

I smiled. “Yes.”

When we got back to the caves the next day, I told Chrysalis all about the conversation. “And I conclude with this: They need to die.” I heard Taya sigh.

“Yes, they do,” she answered. “I am surprised to see you taking our side on this, after all they offered you. Twenty large bags of gems for my head? I’m somewhat insulted, but that is enough to buy an army. We can have your magic users ready whenever you call for them, Navarone.”

“I want them just before dawn. The sentries will be tired and less likely to notice us. We can kill all the rest of the dogs in their sleep.”

She gave a vicious grin. “So are you finally going to tell us your plan?”

“Yeah. It’s simple. Shoot fireballs down every cave entrance repeatedly. The fire will consume the air in the tunnels and suck the rest of the oxygen out from the inside, creating a virtual vacuum inside. The dogs that don’t burn to death immediately will suffocate.”

She looked surprised. “That’s all?”

“Yeah. I told you, we know a lot about science. More than the ponies ever will, probably. Dogs need oxygen to survive. Fire needs oxygen to survive. Fire consumes oxygen faster than dogs do. If you use enough fire, the caves will be cleared of oxygen. Thus, those that don’t burn will suffocate. Everything within should die.”

She smiled. “Then it is a good thing we broke all of their prisoners out today.” The dogs had three ponies and a whopping one hundred forty seven changeling prisoners. I don’t know how they were keeping the changelings alive. The ponies were currently being held in the changeling caves, and would be taken back with me when I returned to Ponyville. I gave them the big bag of gems the dogs gave me, to split up amongst themselves. Not personally, of course; I sent the bag with some changelings that were delivering food to their chamber, along with a note.

“Yeah. Stupid fucking dogs…” I did feel a little bad about what I was going to do. They were nice to me. But at the same time, they were dicks to everyone else. Getting rid of them was for the best.

…Right?

“So… What do you changelings do in your spare time around here?” I asked after a little while of silence.

“Sex. Talk. Some of the hatchlings explore the caves. Changelings do not have much free time. And this is not free time, either. Right now, we are walking to a meeting.” Well, we were definitely walking somewhere. Fuck all if I knew where to, though.

“Is this a meeting for you or a meeting for me?”

“For both of us. But mostly you. We do not have much in the way of a military school or an auditorium, but we do have an announcement area. You are going to talk with the officers in my army about tactics.”

“Hold on, what? I don’t have any kind of speech prepared!”

“You don’t have to give them a speech, Nav. They will ask you questions and present scenarios. You will tell them how you would solve the scenarios given various armies and various technologies and magic. If you honestly do not know or cannot think of an answer, don’t worry. I know you weren’t a military man.”

Damn right I wasn’t. I was a computer nerd. I didn’t even like RTS games. I could make war plans and I could play small time fights by ear, but I don’t think I could actually lead troops in a fight. And I don’t think I could actually lead a war. I could discuss theoretical tactics, but I don’t think I could write out military plans. Planning supply lines, food distributions, civilian management, and all of that would go way over my head. I could just do what I could with common sense and hoped the rest worked out.

“So do you really expect Taya to sit through an entire presentation of that?”

Chrysalis looked at the filly huddled in my arms for a moment before looking at me. “Yes, I do. She would be safe in the hive, but I do not think you would allow her to be away from you for long.”

Damn right I wouldn’t. I didn’t answer her, though. “Can I at least get out of this armor? I’ve been in it for way too long.”

“I am not stopping you from being comfortable, Nav.”

“You haven’t exactly given me a room. I don’t really have anywhere to put it if I took it off.”

“Remove it and I will teleport it all to the room you and Taya will be given when she retires for the night.”

“It can wait until we get to the entryway of the auditorium.”

Her horn lit up and we appeared in the entryway of the auditorium. I set Taya down and began taking my armor off. It disappeared piece by piece, until I was left with the underclothes I was wearing. Which meant… “Dammit, I don’t have any shoes.”

“You’ll get over it,” Chrysalis said as she began walking down a side hall. I sighed and followed her, my bare feet prickling a bit on the cold floor. At least the floors in this cave were really smooth. Taya followed behind me, of course.

We didn’t go far before Chrysalis opened a door and stepped inside. We followed her into what was apparently a stage. There was a table and a bare stone chair on the stage. I looked into the audience and saw glowing blue eyes staring at me from hundreds of faces. Other than those eyes and a single light that barely did anything in the center of the room, it was completely dark.

Oh lord. Chrysalis walked up to the front of the stage. Her horn glowed for a moment before she said in a very magnified voice, “Navarone is here to answer any military questions you might have. Present him your scenarios and he will try to answer them.” With that, she turned to me. Her horn glowed for a moment. “Sit, Nav,” she said in her normal voice. “Your voice will be magnified, so you don’t have to scream to be heard.” Slaanesh disapproves.

I sat down in the chair and leaned back as far as my wings would let me. Taya hopped up a second later, which I wasn’t expecting her to do. In a less formal setting, sure. Here?

Well, fuck ‘em. I didn’t really want to do this anyway. Besides, changelings didn’t seem big on pony traditions anyway.

Chrysalis acted as the moderator of the massive forum. I was asked hundreds of questions and was given dozens of scenarios. I did okay on the questions and good on the scenarios, I think. A lot of the tactics I said went over their heads when they asked about what humans would do or when I started talking about a technology or gas or something they didn’t know about. They had no clue what a cannon was, for example, so my plan of using a cannon to take down a dragon made no sense to them. It would be hard to do anyway, but they are resistant to magic, so it would probably be the easiest way to do it.

Still, I like to think I did well enough. I had to call for water a few times because my throat was so dry even though I was talking quietly. Taya was, of course, hungry by the time we finished.

So the creepy as fuck dining hall was where we went next. As we were walking there, I said, “So you aren’t disappointed, are you?”

“I was surprised by some of your answers,” Chrysalis said. “But not disappointed, no. I understand that you have limitations. Using civilian changelings to disguise as prisoners so you can trade them away is ingenious, if underhanded. And napalm is just… fascinating. Oh, the things we could do with that…”

“And it’s a good thing you don’t have it, I think. I only ever plan on giving the recipe to that mess away in extreme emergencies.”

“Of course, of course.” We were at the prison. She pushed the door open and we entered. There were fewer ponies in cells this time. When we got to the mess hall, we learned why: Apparently it was feeding time. Taya and I got to the line as Chrysalis transformed into the same pony she had been during the trading thing. She walked to a table with three ponies that looked very ragged and very, very scared. They were picking at their food weakly, casting furtive glances around themselves.

When Taya got her tray, we joined them at the table. The three immediately focused in on me. “I’ve heard of you,” one of them whispered. “You’re the hooman. What are you doing in Tartarus?”

“This isn’t Tartarus, bro,” I said. “You’re in a changeling cave after getting rescued from a dog cave. Soon, you’ll be coming with me to Ponyville. From there, you’re on your own. With the gems you three got, you should be able to get home, wherever home is for you.”

“Oh, and have all of these ponies been rescued too?” the mare of their group demanded.

“Oh heavens no! They’re all criminals. Celestia gave them to the changelings as food, along with a shipment of love poison.” They all looked at me dumbfounded. “A lot has changed since you’ve been gone, apparently. I’m surprised you were being held that long.”

The first guy that spoke snorted. “I’ll believe we’re free when we get released.” He turned back to his mushroom stew, or whatever it was.

I just shrugged and zoned out, happy that I was no longer being grilled by military changelings anymore. Taya didn’t take long to eat, thankfully. We stood to go, but the fellow that had yet to speak up stopped us. He stared me in the eye with a hard expression. “Why now, human? Why did you rescue us now?”

“Because tomorrow we are going to kill all the dogs,” I answered in a dull voice. We continued out. I think I saw a grim smile on his face before I turned away. Taya dropped her tray off and we left the horrid place. “So where to now?” I asked.

“Your chambers, if you are ready to retire for the night.”

“Taya?” She answered with an adorable yawn. “Good enough for me. Lead the way, Chrysalis.” She started walking and I followed, Taya in my arms. I turned down to the filly. “You’ve been practicing at being cute again, haven’t you?”

“Maybe.”

“Well, keep it up. Cuteness has solved a few of our problems so far. It might be able to do more later.”

“Navarone, are you trying to weaponize cuteness?” Chrysalis asked, turning back to us.

“Taya, show her your skills.”

She did. Chrysalis was old and tough, though. She wouldn’t break from a barely trained filly. I let Taya stop after a few seconds of the assault.

Chrysalis nodded in approval. “With some more practice, you might be dangerous. I’ll remember that, Nav. Cuteness doesn’t really belong on the battlefield, but I can think of uses for it elsewhere.”

“Yeah, I used it to get out of punishment for some of the crazy shit I did during the week you and I met. She’s gotten better at it now, though.”

“I see. And does she ever use it against you?”

“She doesn’t have to. I’m not exactly a good father, Chrysalis. She doesn’t do anything wrong, so I never have to punish her. She never requests things I don’t think she should have, so I never have to tell her no. The only reason she would have to use cuteness on me is for practice.”

Taya reached around my neck with her front legs and mumbled something into my chest.

“I’m going to assume that was something kind,” I answered her mumbles. “So where are we staying, anyway?”

For some reason, Chrysalis grinned at that. “There is a room next to mine that has not been used for a while. You will stay there. Our two rooms are connected by a door, if you should need anything.”

“Cool. Why isn’t that room used?”

“It is the room of my consort, if I had one.”

“Oh.” Well, I was rather distinctly uncomfortable upon hearing that. It’s not like I’d really mind fucking Chrysalis again, assuming I could use a contraceptive, but with Taya right next door? Meh. I assume there was a reason she was giving me that room. A reason that didn’t involve sex.

Either way, she didn’t tell me what that reason was.

“So Chrysalis, why don’t all the changelings have magic? They all seem to have horns.” That was one thing I noticed. I don’t think I’ve really described the regular ones, so I might as well go ahead and do that: They were all about the size of ponies. Each one was pitch black, had glowing blue eyes with no pupils, had insect wings and a horn, and holes in their feet like Chrysalis. Their teeth were sharp and they looked pretty vicious. A few, like Doppel, Chrysalis, and Ditto, had pupils, but most didn’t.

She was silent for a while. “I think you already know the answer to that,” she said after some time. Her tone was very dark.

“If I knew, I wouldn’t have asked. But it is obviously a painful subject, so don’t worry about it.”

“I see. Ask your…” She stopped, mouth open. I don’t know what she was trying to say. After a moment, she sighed. “Ask Celestia. She may tell you.”

We walked the rest of the way in silence. The bedrooms were considerably more opulent than the rest of the city, though even that wasn’t saying much. The mattress was considerably harder than anything I was used to, so I was glad that we were still in the edge end of summer. I still had a few weeks of staying up all night.

I put Taya to bed and began to work on more plagiarism. I had sold off all of Shakespeare’s plays. If I hadn’t been rich before, I would have been shocked at the money coming in from them. Apparently no one in Equestria ever thought to write tragedies.

I got a few quiet and unpleasant reminders from Celestia about that very fact when she found out who the author was. It honestly wasn’t that hard to figure out who I was, since I’m the only one that would be writing a story about humans—other than maybe Lyra. It was too late to recall the things I had already written, but she made me promise to run everything new by her first. I was currently copying Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

I still get pangs of guilt from copying their works, but I put a dedication to the authors in each book I write, as well as an explanation that I’m just bringing the books from my world to theirs, with a few slight modifications when I couldn’t remember things exactly.

My main thought as I wrote was that it would be so much easier with a computer.

Either way, I was really into it. Which is why I was rather shocked when my chair was violently swiveled around. Thankfully, the quill I was writing with was lifted so I didn’t leave a large streak of ink across the page.

“Chrysalis, why are you shaped like Luna?” I whispered.

“To see how you would react.” She turned back to her real form. “I’m a bit disappointed in you, Nav. Not even a flicker of love.”

“You don’t say. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was watching, though. She tends to do that quite a bit, unless I’m wearing my ring.”

“Oh, she doesn’t trust her beloved? What a shame…” Chrysalis reached out and ran a fucked up hoof down my chest. I didn’t react.

“I think it’s boredom more than anything. There’s not much to do when you rule when everyone is asleep. Given that, she watches me to see what I get up to in the night hours.”

“Oh? And what do you tend to do?”

“Write. Walk. Read, if I can find a book I haven’t read two or three times already. Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”

She pouted as best she could with fangs. “I’m lonely and my bed is cold.”

“Get a blanket and a teddy bear. In my experience, mares are really comfortable to sleep against, so try finding one of those. Or get one of your changelings to turn into one.”

“I had something else in mind.”

“If you already have a plan in mind, why did you need to come and see me?”

“You know how this is the chamber of my consort, yes?”

“Yeah. You told us that while you were leading us here.”

“And you know what role the consort usually takes?”

“Yeah. They fuck the ruler.”

“Indeed.” She took a step closer to me and leaned her head in a bit. “And I was just wondering if…” She was trying to sound seductive. “…you would tuck me in and read me a bedtime story.” She was whispering at that last bit, her eyes half-lidded.

“Sure.” I stood up and reached under her, picking her up with relative ease. I marveled to myself at how much lighter changelings are. Wonder what causes that. Maybe that’s why they put holes in their legs.

She giggled as I carried her through the door that connected the two rooms. Her room was quite like mine, but the bed was a hell of a lot softer. I reached down with one hand and pulled the blanket away from the bed and gently eased Chrysalis down on her back. She lay there, looking up at me with those awesome green eyes. I slowly pulled the covers up around her. She grinned when she felt their sweet warmth.

I reached down beside her bed and picked up a book that was resting there. “The Three Little Ponies,” I intoned aloud as I began to read. It was basically the three little pigs, but with ponies and changelings instead. The end had the changeling alerting his swarm and they attacked the brick house, whittling it down with a massive swarm of changelings. The three ponies ended up being feasted on until they died.

“The end,” I said at last, closing the book. She gave a sweet little sigh and closed her eyes. “Goodnight, sweet queen,” I whispered, standing up from a chair next to her bed. I quietly walked back to my room, gently shutting the door behind me. “Welp, that was officially the weirdest thing I have ever done.” I went back to writing.

Chrysalis entered again a few hours later. I don’t know what time it was, but I knew it was time for the assault. I began to put on my armor, staying as quiet as possible. I knew I couldn’t take Taya with me today, and I didn’t want her asking to be taken.

I know she woke up because I heard her breathing change, but she didn’t get up. I followed Chrysalis outside and put my boots on in the hall. My mood was slowly growing darker.

I am about to kill an entire colony of people that showed me kindness.

Chrysalis, perhaps sensing my mood—but more likely because she wasn’t a morning person—stayed silent as we stalked through the cave to meet the troops. It took us about a quarter of an hour to get to where they were all standing. Chrysalis led me to the front of the group and nodded at me to talk.

“Greetings, soldiers,” I said in a voice loud enough to carry to them all but quiet enough that it couldn’t be heard too much farther away. “Today, we are going to kill the Diamond Dogs. The plan is relatively simple. We fly above their cave entrances and shoot fireballs down them for as long as you can maintain them. Any questions?”

After a moment, one of the changelings actually raised a hoof. I nodded at him. “Is that it?”

“Yes. The fire will eat the air inside their caves. The dogs that don’t burn to death will suffocate. Any other questions?” There weren’t. I nodded to Chrysalis.

She nodded to Ditto. “Move out,” he ordered. We all took to the air, flying up the shaft that led out of the changeling caves.

I turned to Chrysalis as we flew. “I probably should have asked this before, but are there any tunnels that connect your caves to the Diamond Dog caves?”

“Yes, but they were fully sealed off last night and every other soldier in the hive is watching over them right now.”

We made good time to the dog caves. The changelings didn’t waste any time getting into position and Ditto didn’t waste any time signaling them. It took about ten minutes from the start of my short speech to get to the fire raining down.

I watched silently from my perch on the hill overlooking the caves. It felt wrong. Very, very wrong.

While the mages were shooting fireballs down, a few other soldiers that Ditto brought with us hunted the sentries. They were quickly found. Chrysalis teleported them to the caves personally, a smug expression on her face.

None of them recognized me, thankfully. I don’t think I could have looked them in the face if they had. Then again, I didn’t do much of that anyway. I just watched the fire streak down and hit the caves, bouncing down. Some of the rocks around the entrances were so hot that they were melting. Most of the sand and dirt had long since turned to glass.

And still the fire came. A long time ago I would have thought the display beautiful.

Now? Now… Now I just felt a hollowness inside, watching it. I knew what that fire was doing. There were no screams—there couldn’t be, with the air inside so hot that it would char their lungs if they opened their mouth or breathed in.

Occasionally I found myself watching the changelings as they worked. None smiled, none frowned. Just another day on the job for them. I found myself somewhat envious. After Chrysalis took care of the sentries, she joined in. She was the only one that had any expression at all, and that was a massive grin as she shot streams of green fire into several entrances at once.

There couldn’t be a single survivor inside the tunnels. The only dogs that lived were the sentries. I think I felt more sorry for the sentries than I did for those that died.

Four hours after it began, it ended. A few of the changelings had to drift off from the group to join me at my perch. They were all able to create fireballs, but not all of them were strong enough to sustain them for that long. I think there at the end, Chrysalis was just shooting fire therapeutically.

She landed gracefully in front of us. Even from where we were, we could feel the heat radiating off the field. She walked up to me, beaming. “Even if we didn’t kill them all, that was fun!”

I looked up at her with a dead expression. “Yeah. Can we go get Taya and the ponies and go home?”

She shook her head, her smile dropping a bit. “Not just yet. You can go home tomorrow after you help us make sure the caves are clear.”

“What?” I’d like to think my tone was dangerous there. A few of the changelings near us shifted.

She cast a quick look around her. She knew she could force me to stay, but that doing so would be a bad idea. “We can talk about it when we get back to the caves.” She looked up to her troops. “You have done well, troops. Let us return to the hive. You all have the rest of the day off to recover.”

There was no cheering and little whispering. We took off and went back to the changeling cave, as simple as that. Chrysalis and I began to walk back to her abode. “So why are you in such a hurry to leave, Nav?” she asked as we walked. “I thought you didn’t much care for the ponies.”

The last time I saw someone smile like that was when Kat was torturing that assassin. “Killing those dogs like that put a bad taste in my mouth. I want to get home so I can try to put it behind me.”

“You said it yourself, Nav: They needed to be put down. They tried to get you to kill me! They were a threat to me and to the ponies, and if you weren’t useful to them, they probably would have been a threat to you as well.”

I know she was right and I couldn’t help but hate her for it. “They were kind to me. Offered me jobs and a place to live. Hell, if I looked stronger, they probably would have offered me honest work. Knowing I might have to betray them, I was kind. That dog did not hate you and I don’t think he hated the ponies. It was just a matter-of-fact refusal to see sense. They did not want peace because they did not want peace. I can’t wrap my head around that, and it’s driving me mad. The only thing in my mind right now is… ‘if he had known, would he have taken peace?’” I shook my head, trying to work it out in my mind.

“It isn’t something you can dwell on, Nav. I have made hard decisions like this in the past. I’ve killed my own subjects… my own children because of lack of food. It was a quick death versus starvation. If you had not helped us, more would have died. I would have wasted untold numbers of changelings killing all of the dogs in the caves. It would have been hellish. Peace was impossible, so killing became the only way of resolution.”

And you enjoyed every minute of it. “This ain’t my first rodeo, Chrysalis. I want to say I’m inured to it by now, but this was worse than the last time I did this. I felt bad the last time, but that was mostly because it was my knife that cut throats. It was my flaming bolt that killed all the women and children. I heard the screams as they burned alive. It was bad. But I didn’t have any chance to talk to any of them until afterwards, and he eventually thanked me for it. But here…” I sighed, shaking my head. “I’ll get over it. It’ll take me a while, but I’ll get over it. And I refuse to go anywhere near their tunnels until they’re cleaned, so don’t even bother asking.”

“Will you at least consent to staying here until we search their tunnels? You don’t have to go near the tunnels yourself, but I want you nearby in case we run into any resistance.”

I sighed. “Fine.” I’m doing this because I have to. Just gotta remember that. “It should be cooled off enough to begin exploring tonight. I suggest opening the entrances you have in your caves and going in that way. If you have any way of cancelling out smell, give it to your troops. I don’t think it will be pleasant in there.”

“I will deal with them.”

“So tell me more about changeling society, I guess. I know that you are fertile, but what about the others? Do changelings have families?”

“Yes, they do. There are three real layers of changeling society: Drones, sentients, and the intelligentsia. I am not proud of it, but we did what we had to do in order to survive. Drones do not do much in the way of thinking. They do the common labor. Mining, mindless swarm fighting, construction, things like that. The sentients are the common class. They do most of the labor that requires thought, and make up the bulk of the army. Troops are most useful if they have initiative, after all. The intelligentsia are the planners of changeling society. The ‘scientists’ that you gave the information to yesterday were some of them. Ditto is one. I am one. You can tell who we are by our pupils. I honestly don’t know why the smartest of us have them while the others don’t, but that’s the way it is. Any of them can have families if they want, but most drones don’t. Interbreeding between groups is allowed and now that food supplies are stable, it will be encouraged. There is no longer a reason for a divided society.”

“I wish humans could see the same thing. There’s a place in my world called India. For a long time, you were born into a very rigid division and that is where you stayed no matter what. If you were the lowest, you stayed the lowest. If you were the highest, you stayed the highest. It didn’t matter if you were the smartest son of a bitch alive, if you were born in the low class, you stayed there. When I left, it was a little better in some places, but not by much and not everywhere.”

“Well, it is somewhat the same here. The only difference is that all of the drones actually are born stupid. Any that show signs of intelligence are quickly brought away from the drones and given to the sentients. I don’t like taking hatchlings away from parents, but I dislike wasted potential even more. I expect it will take a few generations to have changeling society back to the way it should be.”

“Will you ever move out of these caves and back to the open?”

She looked around. Saw the darkness, the oppressiveness. Saw the dull looks on the faces of her subjects. I don’t know what all she saw. Maybe she was looking at it with a rose tint. “I do not think so, Navarone,” she finally said. “With electricity coming up, I think things will get happier down here.”

“There was a cave of naga I ran into a while back. They had their caverns lit up with massive amounts of torches on the roof, put into the shape of constellations in the sky. It was hard for them to keep the torches lit, but when they could it was beautiful.”

She shook her head. “What about… what was it? Carbon dioxide, you said? Wouldn’t that be a problem?”

“I thought so too, actually. They didn’t have any problems with it. Though they also spend most of their time under the water. It might have had something to do with the shaft they had leading to the surface, though.”

“Either way, that is not something I consider worth the time. We have to get our wood from Equestrian forests. For the most part, we steal it with no worries of getting caught. But now that we are allies, it will be harder to do.”

“Couldn’t you start a new colony up north in Canada and loot the shit out of their trees?”

“I don’t know what Canada is, but north is griffin territory. We do not like griffins. We do not like them at all.”

“Then you shouldn’t feel any compunctions about stealing from them!”

She shook her head. “No, Nav. We don’t like them and they really don’t like us. If they saw any of my changelings, they would not stop until the swarm was dead. And the griffins are fully capable of taking down a small colony.”

“Eh, whatever. What about far west, in a place like Montana or something? I don’t think Celestia has anything up there.”

“I don’t know what Montana is. We don’t know too much about the areas in the far west. We know about Appaloosa, but our knowledge doesn’t go farther west than the buffalo territories out there.”

“That’s disconcerting. It’s like no race on this planet has any kind of wanderlust at all. When I get tired of the damn ponies, I’m going to slip on my ring and explore the world for a few years. Link up trade routes, build roads, become an adventurer, loot treasure, all that fun stuff.”

She smirked at that. “Why would you need to loot treasure? You already own the majority shares in a soon-to-be lucrative changeling mine.”

“Um. What?”

“Oh come now, Nav! You saved my life and the lives of all of my subjects by proxy. And now you come here to this little hive and not only help us destroy the Diamond Dogs, but give us the means to escape the darkness. You will be rewarded! And Celestia has already agreed to it, so don’t even bother saying she wouldn’t allow it.”

“Would it help if I said please?”

“No. No it would not. You are going to be a very rich stallion soon, Nav.”

“I already am a very rich man. I have a large amount of money made from helping the princesses, I have even more from winning the tournament at Maris, and when I sold some of the books I wrote I got even more fucking bits. I could open a damn bank I have so much green. Er, gold. Whatever.”

“Well, a little more never hurt anypony. Although this won’t exactly be ‘a little.’ We saw some of the carts the dogs wheeled out of those mines. That place is so full of gems it isn’t even funny.”

“And you don’t think their homeland will fight to take it back?”

“What the ponies don’t realize is that the Diamond Dog mining corporation is a criminal front,” she answered. “We followed their wagons, saw where they were being unloaded. The other dogs won’t bother even investigating their loss, though the criminals they worked for might be somewhat more upset about it. But to risk an open war within Equestria’s borders is suicide. They will gnash their teeth and wring their paws, but we own their mine, now.” She giggled. “Well, mostly you. I’m sure you’ll find something to do with all of those gems.”

My left eye twitched a bit. Well, Rarity is going to have a gem-gasm when I tell her. “I’ll figure something out. A friend of mine knows a spell that allows her to detect gems. Do any of your people know that spell?”

“No. No we don’t. You will have her teach me this spell so I can teach it to some of my miners.” She grinned wider. “Output will explode with this spell.”

It took me a long time to figure this out, but I think Equestria is a video game. I started penniless and alone, with only my good lucks and natural charm. I grinded charisma for a while and used that to ingratiate myself with the princesses and all of the ponies. Then I started grinding crossbow accuracy and cross-classed a bit with knives. I started off at shit tasks with low pay and worked my way up to hard tasks with ever-increasing pay, and pushed my way through society’s ranks, starting from the outsider and ending up the right hand man of the ruler of the strongest country in the world and a personal friend of the queen of the changelings and an ally of several other people.

I wish I could turn the game off for a while. There was a long period of time back when I was young when I wished anything interesting would happen. I got over that when I started reading a lot, when I realized what ‘interesting’ meant. Then I just wished to live in a world of peace. Well, I got my second wish. And then I learned what a world of peace takes to maintain, and I got my first wish.

Life sucks, and then you die. Unless you lose the ability to die because princesses keep healing you when you get close to death and you can’t die of old age anymore. So I guess life just sucks.

We made good time to our chambers, at least. Taya was up and about, reading through the stuff I had written. I was using her as my basic proof-reader. Twilight fine-tuned everything.

She looked up as we entered. “Password?” I asked.

“Password,” she answered. “How did it go?”

“The way it had to,” I answered with a sigh. I started dropping the armor. Chrysalis looked on in amusement. When I had everything off, I turned to her. “Well, what now?”

“First, feed me. The spells I cast earlier sucked a lot of my strength out.” We stepped close to each other. Her horn lit up and she took what she needed with a smile. “Now, I believe Taya needs to eat.” Taya looked up at that. “Yes, she does. Shall we?”

We most definitely did. Chrysalis led the way back to the mess hall. “So why are you leading us everywhere personally?” I asked her as we sat down at an empty table. We got there at a meal time, so there was plenty to eat. “Don’t you have, like, queenly shit to do?”

She waved a hoof. “I have advisors that can take my place for a few days. They managed while I was imprisoned within Canterlot, and while I was pretending to be Mi Amore Cadenza. Besides, the most important event in my kingdom is happening right here.”

I looked around. “Ponies eating?” I asked after a moment.

She slapped me across the face with magic. At least it wasn’t very hard, like Rarity. Taya glared at her for a moment before turning back to her mushroom marsala.

I looked at her mushroom thing. “There better not be wine in that,” I said to Chrysalis.

“What is wine?”

“Another alcohol. So there really isn’t anything more important happening than killing the Diamond Dogs?”

“Not just that, Nav. You. You are one of the only non-changelings we have peacefully hosted in our caves in a very long time. The only one here that has or is allowed to feed off you is me, unless you give express permission. So you are a peaceful guest here for a purpose other than food. And you are here on behalf of an ally nation of ponies. So you are a high ranking official from another peaceful nation here to help us in our time of need. I would be insulting Equestria if I did not show you around myself.”

“Well, you’re more fun than most of the changelings. None of the officers in that crowd last night laughed at any of my jokes.” Chrysalis smiled at a few, but she didn’t laugh. “And you seem to have a personality, while none of the others do that I’ve seen. Doppel was all over the place with her moods and personalities. Crazy bitch punched me in the face one day. I came out on top, but still!”

“As I recall, you also punched me in the face.”

“Yeah, but you deserved it! I just knocked on your door. She opened it, grabbed me, threw me inside, and jumped on me, demanded an answer to a question, and punched me in the face when I gave a smartass response.”

“It sounds to me like you deserved it,” Chrysalis answered with a grin.

“Yeah, well, she got hers. Speaking of maids, though, I noticed you don’t seem to have one this time. What happened?”

“I do not usually have a maid. Doppel flew with the army without me knowing. She is one of the serving staff assigned to my palace at the main hive. She is… protective of me, I suppose. I was surprised and somewhat pleased to find that she was there to help me through that hard time.”

“I’m glad you had a friend as well. I’m surprised Celestia allowed it, but it is a good thing she did.”

“I did have a friend, Nav. And… thank you.”

“I don’t usually accept thanks for things like this, but you are welcome. I knew you were in a dark place and I knew I could help. I’m glad I took the time to. You know I’ll come if you call, unless my services are required elsewhere.”

“If I call? Are your ears so good as to hear me from Appaloosa?”

I grinned. “Ask your scientists about telephones. I showed him those as well. They could probably make them, eventually. Since all your hives are apparently connected, you could run telephone wires to every hive you have with no issue.”

“I could ask them… or you could tell me. What is a telephone?”

“A way to instantly communicate. On my world, one person could be standing on one side of the world and another person could be standing on the other side and they could talk nearly instantly to each other through a telephone. Every word one person says will be transmitted to the other person and vice versa, and it’s nearly instant, just a few milliseconds off.”

“Amazing. It’s like dragon fire, but with words rather than letters!”

“And anyone can do it. We also have a way to instantly send letters, though they aren’t actual paper letters. It’s some really fascinating stuff. I’ve always wanted to bring some of this tech to Equestria, but Twilight always giggles as she’s writing the letters to the princess about it. I don’t know if she thinks I’m lying or what, but I don’t think she would be much help.”

“You’ve never showed her any of the memories of your past life?”

“Hell no. You remember what you saw. I would be banished from Equestria if I let any of those memories get out. Not even Celestia has seen them. And no one knows my real name yet.”

“I see. Then I shall not discuss my findings with her, as I had planned. I suppose this technology is ours for the keeping, then.”

“When you start making tech, I want some of it. Whenever I move out of Twilight’s house, I want a house that isn’t dependent on magic to run. I miss electricity.”

“I can understand that, given the dependence your world has on it. You will have all that you need from us, of course. After all, none of it would exist if you didn’t tell us how to do it.”

“Awesome.” Taya had finished her food. “So now what?”

“Well, I don’t have anything specific planned, but… Well, no, I don’t think you would be interested in that.”

I shrugged. “So we got a bit of free time?”

She looked disappointed that I didn’t inquire as to what it is I wouldn’t be interested in. “Yes, I have nothing planned. If you are interested, we could talk to more of the intelligentsia. I’m sure you humans have all sorts of strange ideas we could use to increase productivity here in the hive.”

“So another large Q and A session? Neat.”

“Q and A… Question and answer?” I nodded. “Yes. I understand that you do not know what we have in terms of technology, so we will ask you general questions. You will answer as best you can.”

“Easy enough. How long should it take to get together a crowd?”

“Less than an hour. The discussion you had with the military changelings made its rounds, and the civilians want their own shot at you.”

“Chrysalis, no offense, but how do you know all of this? I mean, the changelings seem completely expressionless while around me. I haven’t seen any of them make any reaction to me like I’m a big hero or anything. They seem completely neutral around me.”

“They don’t know what to make of you, that’s why. They don’t want to offend you. The one that asked you a question earlier today, before the assault, was terrified.” I sure couldn’t tell. I was starting to think Chrysalis was either insane or trying to show off something that wasn’t there. She keeps saying things about how much of a hero I am but how they show it differently, but I haven’t seen any emotions here at all. It’s getting to be a bit creepy.

But given that I was trapped here for a bit longer, I was going to stay silent on the matter and just smile and nod. She led us to the auditorium and left us there for almost exactly one hour. Taya was showing off magic when changelings began to shuffle in and take seats. Chrysalis joined us on the stage a few minutes later. She acted as moderator again and I was given questions about everything under the sun. Including the sun, actually. Quite a few asked me if I knew how Celestia was controlling the sun.

I did okay, I suppose. I only know so much. I like to think I’m smart and that I have some decent common sense, but some of their questions were really fucking out there. And I mean ‘fucking’ out there literally. Some asked about sex. I covered Taya’s ears and answered them after giving Chrysalis a glare for letting the questions through.

I don’t even know how long we were there. I just know it took a long time and a lot of thinking. I needed a chalkboard to answer some of their questions, to draw diagrams or something. We took a break to eat and then went right back to it.

Before long, it was time to put Taya back to bed. Chrysalis had me read her another bedtime story, which just seemed creepy as fuck and extremely out of character. But given that she let me pet her earlier, it doesn’t seem that odd. Either way, I did that and went back to writing for a long time.

When morning came—what we assumed was morning, given that we couldn’t see the sun—Chrysalis came into my room and announced, “All of the Diamond Dogs are dead. Not a single one survived.”

“Woopty doo.” I didn’t sound very excited.

She rolled her eyes. “You two can go home after you eat and gather the ponies you are taking with you.”

I began gathering my armor and slipping it on. When I had everything, we all took off to the dining area. “So how are we going to get the ponies out of the cave?” I asked as we walked.

“The same way we got them in. Surround them with changelings and fly.”

“You can’t just teleport them?”

“Well, I could. But I do not make it a point to teleport just anypony.”

“Whatever. So when should I start getting shipments of gems?”

“The first is going with you on your way back. I will unfortunately be unable to return with you, but I will send a few drones with you as carriers and a sentient to learn the spell from your friend.”

“Alright. Now, what kinda gem level are we talking about here? Like, a few hundred this trip?”

For some reason, she smiled at that and refused to answer.