Catpone Cerberus

"That is true." Jenna agreed "But it doesn't mean they aren't actively looking." she shifted her position to put less weight on her ribs "Which does...rise a question." "Where are they?" "We are not that far....from the site of the battle." "But besides those helicopters...I haven't seen, heard or even smelled anything."

"That's why I insist we keep going deeper, to figure out what is holding the portal open." Jenna stated "Even if it is starting to seem bit hopeless, since it seems to be so far away." they finally arrived into the residential area, and Jenna started looking around for intact, non-moldy house "I also just realized something, we have been traveling for almost two days based on our clocks, yet we are only starting to near the border of the city." "Our city is big, but it is not this big. it is not '2 days to walk through' big."

@Blitz Boom "They could fight back, thus, it was no longer an unnecessary compromise." Asildae pointed out "Misjudging the capabilities of the other is not an inherent fault of the logic, it's just that, a misjudgement." That logic had worked for them, they didn't spare their neighbors out of kindness or other such reasons, they spared them because war was not worth it at the time; And for creatures that couldn't put up a fight? if they were in the way, they were removed. Asildae looked as Glutton did her thing with the drawing, but didn't react outside a sound of acknowledgement, because as stated, she couldn't really relate, and thus she didn't have much to say in the matter. She didn't pay much mind to the creatures looking at her, mainly because she was looking at them and the city itself with the same curiosity; She had never been in a city, nor had she ever really seen most creatures regardless of knowing about their existence, so she observed with great curiosity. Her curiosity wasn't the kind that a child would have though, it was more analytical, more observant, lacking any awe. Asildae broke out of her observation when Glutton suddenly picked up a pony, giving her a curious look but not commenting on it. She did respond when she was addressed though "Hello there." "Is Naval Nerd your name, or is it just something Glutton calls you?" pony names were weird, Asildae knew that much, but she wasn't sure with this one, as Naval Nerd sounded like a potential insult. "As for helping you, don't know what you expect me to do." "But don't worry, from us two, I'm the one that's more likely to eat you." she then 'smiled' opening her mouth enough for two spider like fangs to show, before sticking out her proboscis and moving it around her mouth as if licking her non-existent lips. While she was of course joking, be it with some truth behind the statement, her lack of facial expressions made it ambiguous enough to be unnerving. ------------- "I do not understand the full nature of souls either." Vaz admitted "Though, if I do find a way to undo the ritual during the lifetime of your branch of the guard, I will inform you or the future members of it, before using it." For the question of contact, Vaz seemed thoughtful for a moment "There is no direct line to contact me." "And while I travel in specific order, it is hard to estimate my location at any one time, because I may spend anything from one day to several years in one place, as time holds no meaning to me anymore." "If my counterpart was to appear, I will know; I could feel him for the short moment the two realms connected, so there is no doubt I would feel him joining our reality." "But, there is one way, though I can't promise it to be fast." he activated his magic once more, and used the magic strings to form a magical symbol in the air. "Draw this symbol and activate it with magic, it is one-way teleport to send non-living material to a place where I store my possessions." "Were you to send a letter through it, I will see it when I visit it." "It does not provide a way for me to respond through it, but I can figure out a way to respond through other means." he would wait for Magma to copy the symbol before extinguishing the magic. "I have one more question before we go our ways, I've analyzed the recording captured by my late colleague, and there is something in kobold language I cannot translate." he then 'spoke' audio in different language in different voice, it was similar to Vaz's voice, but it was more hoarse and somewhat malevolent sounding. There was also an odd quiet echo, as if countless voices were whispering with him. "I take it that it was my counterpart speaking." "It's nothing to be translated, it's a spell." "Basic reanimation spell, he's rising an army." "Those are relatively easy to deal with, since they are as weak as the body used,." "Thank you, that's all I need for now." "Until she has something more to ask, I wish you luck in your own endeavors." ----- Charir didn't comment further, though he did almost mention that he didn't exactly need such advice, since he didn't really dare to mock even those that were his own size; He may have been a death-bringer, but he lacked the over-confidence of his kin, in fact, it would have probably done good for him to learn to be more proud, rather than less. The accident seemed to be slightly sore topic to Ereo based on his reaction to it being mentioned again, not in way of trauma, but rather more in him feeling ashamed about it, while the two others seemed more casual about it. When it came to the electricity butterfly, the reactions were similar to before, where the trio were just curious if anything, and Charir was more visibly amazed by it. When it landed on him, assuming Leviathan didn't keep holding it separate with her magic, it would be absorbed by Charir, without any input by him, and would arch a bit before disappearing as it spread into his scales. Since he was the one addressed most, Ereo would be the one to respond to the question first "The older and more skilled dragons can control it freely, even shape it like you did." "That requires active use of our magic, so I don't know how to do that yet, I need to learn to properly control the basics first." "What I can do, is to harness it, both from outside sources, and through natural generation." the other two stepped a bit to the side as electricity started forming on Ereo's scales in similar manner to how Voltaick's scales had been constantly electrified. "We also don't breath fire, but electricity." "I would show you, but I don't know how to properly control where it goes." a shame again flashed on his face when he said it. As he spoke, Charir reached his foreleg closer to Ereo, which caused some of the electricity to jump into him, which naturally got the attention of the trio "You can just take it?" "That shouldn't happen, you can't just steal it like that, right Ereo?." "No, my scales should hold on to it until I release it." Charir looked at his leg and back at the trio "Steal?" "Yeah, our natural magic keeps it on us, that way we can stay charged up even in rain and water." "We can't just take it from each other like that." "So that means he can just drain your electricity? That's...scary." "And kinda cool." Not really wanting to continue on the topic of how scary he was, as he worried they wouldn't want to interact with him again if they did, Charir tried to move the conversation back to them "I...uh. What can you do? besides change color?" he asked Oreon in the same direct manner he had complimented her with, though this time it was bit more intentional, "I breathe magic instead of fire." "Magic?" "Yes, pure mana." "It does...weird things, I don't control it very well yet." "We usually learn illusion and alteration magic, as those come to us naturally." "I don't know anything cool yet." Charir was now looking at Oreon like she was one of Leviathan's magic showcases. "That sounds interesting." "We do magic too." Vulri joined in, sounding bit envious for the attention the two others got, Charir looked at him "Do you breathe magic too?" "No, I breathe fire, but we are naturally talented in magic, more than most." "What can you do?" "Nothing." "Nothing." Vulri seemed bit embarrassed "Nothing...yet." "Spells are hard...okay?" "But when I do learn them, I'll be better than anyone else!"

"There is one thing that would be good to know before we turn back." Jenna pointed out "If any of this spreads." "Because if it does spread, leaving without finding a way to close the portals, would mean that home will look like this too."

"We do need to worry about it now too." Jenna pointed out "For the reason you mentioned" "I'm injured, if they find us again now, I can't put up a fight as effectively."

"Hopefully." Jenna sighed "Doesn't bother me any less though." "We made a mistake...somewhere." "I failed to notice or consider... something." "That can't happen...we have no room for mistakes."

"There is really no point in trying to understand how it works any further than that, since by nature of being supernatural, we likely can't properly understand it." "But it would be nice to know how these things connect to each other, if at all." Jenna said, frustrated at their lack of answers "Find some logic in all of this."

@Blitz Boom When they got close enough to civilization, Asildae stopped grabbing things from the air to eat for now. She watched Glutton to eat the rock and grow new rocks, though she again seemed to be mostly curious about it rather than anything else, at least outwardly, as having no soft skin, or really even facial muscles similar to most creatures, Asildae didn't really emote with her face as clearly, her eyes and body language being the biggest indicator of her emotions. Though she was generally just curious about it, as due to her kind's inability to properly utilize it, their study of it was mainly observing, thus her reaction to it was more analytical than awe. "Why compromise if the other side cannot resist you?" "A compromise is to minimize damage on both sides after all, so if the other side cannot cause damage to you, why bother pleasing them?" "I believe you individualistic creatures call this kind of unnecessary compromise 'compassion'." "Many see it as noble, but in truth, it's a privilege." Asildae stated thoughtfully On Glutton's point on messing with ponies, Asildae let out couple short quiet whistles, likely her version of chuckling "I have a feeling that I can get a reaction out of them by just being myself." "I've learned that herbivore creatures tend to find our ways of feeding repulsive." As they arrived to the city proper, Asildae's gesture turned to match her general, almost regal demeanor, her head held high, and her hands behind her back in confident manner. It did somewhat clash with her general behavior though, considering she didn't seem to really care what others thought of her. The truth was that she wasn't trying to seem like anything specific, she was simply mirroring her mother, she didn't really know the social connotations of certain body language to other creatures, as she had no need to know them. Asildae once more observed the event's happening next to her, she didn't really feel much of anything seeing it, as her different nature caused a disconnect from the whole thing. Being a hive mind, her relationship to her daughters was different, and thus her relationship to young in general, lacked certain warmth; Thus this interaction was merely a curiosity, a quirk of individual minds that she didn't properly understand. It was also worth mentioning that in age only, this filly was possibly older than her, since she had hatched only some seasonal cycles ago, and she didn't quite understand the mind of a child, due to never really having a childhood in that way. "The young of other creatures are fascinating to observe indeed." "Fearful and fearless with no clear logic." "So curious and stubborn, yet also easily manipulated to act and think in certain ways." "They also seem to bring up emotions in others, like happiness in you." "That is something, I can't quite relate to." ------------------------------ Solar hadn't interrupted the conversation, because to him, they hadn't been just standing around. Not only was Vaz's insight important with the potential new threat, but he had also been working the whole time, the data from the remains actively being analyzed in his systems, and various scans running on the pile of sand to make sure there was nothing they had missed; this all was of course unseen from outside, so physically he had indeed just stood there. "I do believe we are done here yes, I cannot find anything else of note here." "I'll gather the pieces, and we are ready to leave; we'll need to notify whoever is in charge of environmental issues, so that they can come and see if the sand needs to be removed." He then materialized a bag from a small compartment in his metal parts, and started carefully collecting the pieces of his former colleague. Vaz spoke meanwhile. "In some ways you could call it time manipulation, but I don't believe time itself is affected in reality." He started "I admit I don't properly understand it myself, but I believe it is more a form of recreation." "Creation of identical copy of sorts." "It is also why my counterpart is so visibly stiff." "He was resurrected, so he does not return to my youthful health, but rather, to the rigid existence of a reanimated corpse." "You are correct that any means of magic nullification has no impact on this effect." "That is because while the ritual itself was magic, the process that keeps me alive, requires no magic to operate." "It is fueled by souls, already in the vessel." "If blocking it is even theoretically possible, it would likely be lethal to you yourself too, for you would also nullify your own soul, whatever that would entail." a terrifying concept really, what would it even mean to nullify the soul of a living creature? "As for the suggested methods, I have no experience to state their effectiveness." "But you are likely right in the possible failure points, especially if my counterpart is not hindered by things like pain." "We can't know for sure, if he even has vital organs left, as we do not know just how alive he is." "Again, using the ritual for bringing someone back from dead was not something we considered, so all I can do is guess." "Is there something more you seek from me?" "I have told what I know could assist in countering one like myself, and if I am still around in such a case, I would also seek to help to counter them." "But, I have no reason to return to the capital, as I now know that those I seek, live in the town nearby, so until you have further questions, this is where we part ways." "I have one, what is this?" Solar once again projected an image, again from the point of view of the pony who's remains they found, though this time, the other Vaz had wrapped her in green, glowing, string like tendrils, coming from his fingers, and her field of view was more limited, as damage had appeared on the lenses of her artificial eyes. "Ah, that's simply how lot of my magic works." Vaz's eyes lit up, as green, glowing string like magic shot out from one of his hands, wrapping around a nearby stick, which he then moved around before snapping it in half. The 'strings' then retracted back to his hand, and his eyes returned to normal. "It allows me to control the flow of magic better, letting me use more or less magic as needed." "It also makes it easier to do several things at once." ------------------- Charir didn't really have the context for cheating when it came to relationships, mainly because having a relationship where such was even possible was not exactly a common place among his kind, so while a permanent partner sounded nice, and he understood why breaking of one's trust was a big deal, what leviathan said didn't translate properly to him, as he simply understood it as the father betraying the mother, without any context on what kind of betrayal it was. He was surprised about what he learned about Leviathan's mother, but not shocked, partly because he knew she had grown up with some other creatures, diamond dogs as she called them, though he didn't know what those actually were. The other part why he wasn't particularly shocked, was because only really knowing his own mother, he had no reason to think it wasn't normal among dragon mothers to be so...volatile. "Mothers' really like to punish their young over fathers' actions huh?" He simply remarked "I do sometimes wonder why mother did not just smash my egg, she clearly despised father, and me." he didn't sound sad about it, in fact, he was awfully casual saying it. Everyone waited Leviathan to do her orb thing before speaking, Charir being the only one visibly fascinated by it, while the three others were just curious what she was doing, as magic wasn't exactly rare around here, so it didn't really impress anyone as much as it did Charir. Though depending on how fast it traveled, they spoke before it reached its goal, as it was a good distance away. For the larger dragon's reaction, while it was too far to see expressions, it gave a wave back, and brought their forelegs on the side of the lake, leaning on them in relaxed manner, they were unsurprisingly aquatic in nature, having webbed feet and fins, and while rest of their body was still hidden underwater, the shorter looking legs implied they were similar in shape to the green youngling, so likely one of the 'serpents', as Werodex had called them. "It's natural." the young female responded, clearly happy about the compliment, as a rainbow of colors moved through her body before she returned to the white pearlescent color and transparent horns and claws "But I still need practice to properly control it." the green one cut in "Yeah, she keeps disappearing." to which the female responded with "At least I don't send my friends to treatment by almost electrocuting them to death." "It was one time! And why did you bring me into this? He's the one being a jerk" "Because he can't do anything-" she was cut short from all things, Charir, who just interrupted the argument with "I think it is nice." "The color thing." "You are pretty" Which seemed to take the trio off guard, causing the female once again briefly go camouflage for a moment before turning white again, and both of the males also were surprised by the directness. Charir in turn was bit surprised they were so surprised, as he lacked the social experience to know why calling someone pleasant to look at among his age group could cause any kind of reaction. "I can also do electricity, but I don't know how yet, it just happens." "I'm called Charir." "I'm Oreon" The white female responded first, surprised by the sudden compliment, especially coming from a Death-bringer "It's nice to meet you both." "Ereo" said the Voltaick's kin, and the green one finished with "Vulri". "You can also control electricity?" Ereo then asked "Yes, but I don't know how yet." "I think my father was your kind." the two others looked at Ereo, who responded defensively "Don't look at me, I don't know who it is"

"For now." Jenna pointed out "And even now...I'm out of action for at least a week." "We won a battle...in a war far older than us." she became notably more serious "There is also the question of...how did they find us in the first place?" "We have been careful, I thought we were doing well." "How long have they been...on our trail?" "Did they just happen to notice us, and sent those things? Or...have they been following us for a while...waiting for us to be isolated?"

"Likely." Jenna agreed "Or at least I can't come up with any logical explanation for the darkness." "The sun is clearly there, we can see it, it just doesn't light anything up." "The portals could in theory be technological, but we haven't seen anything that looks like technology, only the dark beam in the sky."

Jenna shook her head "Unlikely" "There was no mention of such in the journals, besides, the timeline doesn't make sense." "Even with the weirdness that goes on with time here, it's clear this whole thing didn't happen, what, three days ago?" "If the portals were made by the original inhabitants, they would have appeared in our world earlier than they did." "But I admit I have no idea where the things that came out of them came from, and why they were here in the first place." "And who made the portals, since those things were way too mindless to do something like that." "And lastly, what's with the constant, unnatural darkness? What is it linked to? or is it its own thing entirely?"

"Frankly, I hope I never have to see...them again." Jenna stated "Wishful thinking I know...but dragon can dream." she laid down "That's really the only thing I can do...right now." "Hope and dream."

@Blitz Boom "It is not the daily upkeep that concerns me, the hive can run itself even without a queen for a good while, assuming no outside queen takes over, and even the most incapable queen has the basic capabilities by instinct." Asildae stated "But rather, it is our neighbors that pose a threat." "My mother was excellent at keeping them in control, a combination of diplomacy and power that kept stupid ideas out of their minds." "She taught me her secrets, something my sister never got to know." "To put it simply, I worry our neighbors, as unimpressive as they are, may still surpass my sister in aptitude." "Which could be a threat to the hive while I'm gone." "But, at the same time, it may provide useful tool for my repossession." Even now, as the buildings came into view, Asildae grabbed any prey that came too close to her, though she no longer took off to get something from further away, so her victims now consisted mainly of insects that flew or crawled too close; It may be that there was something else common between her and Glutton than just their agreements, as Asildae had at this point eaten quite a lot for someone of her size, even if it was in form of goo. "Say, as we are nearing this settlement, is there any social norms I should keep in mind?" "I don't particularly care if I'm seen as unusual, but I rather not make accidental enemies because of some silly rule I'm not aware of." Equestria was indeed a weird place, and Asildae observed it all, even if it may have seem like she was more focused on catching food than paying attention to anything, partly to learn, and partly for safety, ------------ Magma's reassurances didn't quite hit what Vaz had meant, as Vaz's thoughts were on a more existential issue, the ritual and his variants on potential futures, was it his fate to fail the ritual? was there no existence where it did what it was supposed to do? Though, Magma did touch another thing he had been thinking now and then. Active degradation was not a concern to him, as his mind, like his body, kept renewing, keeping him at the mental state he was; thus his comment on injuries being undone rather than healing. Rather his concern was his mental limits, something his memory had already reached, thus him forgetting things; It wasn't that he was forgetful, quite the opposite, his memory was quite good for a kobold, rather, a kobold's mind was simply not meant to remember several centuries of memories, and he had reached the biological limit. It was easy to deal with memory issues like that, as he kept journals for that exact reason, storing them in a place he could access magically, though funnily enough, he currently couldn't recall where the place was physically. But what about other parts of his mind? what would happen when he reached his emotional limit, if such existed? He did not address the topic though, only gave Magma a thoughtful nod to acknowledge her input. "I start by stating that I am merely speculating, as I have not tested covering myself with molten stone." "Assuming you have the element of surprise, eliminating any potential magical means he has to stop you from covering him in the first place, I see no reason why it would work any worse or better than any other means of continuous damage." "In case he feels no pain, the weight alone could work to slow him down if nothing else." "I would also argue that if it is the case that he lacks a rational mind, to call him a living being is not an accurate statement." "As in such a case, he would be simply a possessed corpse that imitates a living creature." "How permanent such action would be even if successful, I am not certain." "Because as stated, it could still take longer than your existence, to exhaust the energy keeping him alive." "To come up with proper action, you must understand my, and by extension, his nature." "We do not simply heal from an injury, rather, the injury gets undone." he ripped a single scale off his arm and dropped it, causing a deep enough wound to slightly draw blood, and in almost an instant, with a momentary green glow, the missing scale was back before the one he had ripped off had had time to land on the ground. "I am not ageless in the way you may often think with immortality, rather, my body has frozen to the age and state it was in when I completed the ritual." "In case of an injury, I do not grow new to replace what is lost, but rather, the energy from the souls is used to remake what was lost as it was." "Depleting this energy is what you would need to do." "The challenge is, that even if the source of injury is constant, like in the case of being trapped in lava, the state of injury isn't." "Our body would always, even if only for a moment, return to its fully intact state." "In one hand, this means more energy is spent, quickening the process of running out, but in the other, it also means chances to escape, to counter your methods." ----------------------------- Charir didn't really know what to think on Leviathan's first point. First of all, the fact that Leviathan was allowed to help Ruby in the first place, or that she was close enough to her treasure to even potentially show interest in messing with it, were already massive shows of trust to Charir, it simply did not happen among their kind, until the two dragons already had a trusting relationship, so clearly Leviathan had made some kind of an impact on Ruby, either that or Ruby had seen her as so puny that she posed no threat, which was possible too. The family point he also didn't really agree on, mainly because being 'just her friend' seemed quite a lot closer than any family he had seen from his own kind, granted, he acknowledged that their understanding of 'family' was currently very different. Her compliment, while it felt nice, also confused him slightly, mainly because the concept of 'cute' in the way she meant it was still foreign to him, and had it come from one of his kind, it would have been an insult. not that he showed the confusion, as he looked mostly thoughtful, thinking through what had been said. The explanation of 'honey' got similar thoughtful reaction, he understood the concept, but he didn't fully understand why sweet things you ate were terms of affection, but then again, he barely knew the word for 'affection'. He listened equally intensely at Leviathan's take on family, so intensely in fact, that he was caught bit off guard when she placed her hand on him, not in a bad way, but it was clear he had been very into her monologue. He didn't have any comments on it specifically, mainly because he had to think through what she had said before forming any deeper thoughts about it, so he just responded with "I think, I want that too?" "I don't want to be like mother." "I don't want my daughter to want to kill me." he was talking about Ruby here, granted she didn't want to kill her father specifically, but in his mind, Charir imagined himself being more involved with his potential offspring, so he compared himself to his mother in this matter, even if among their kind the father didn't usually really matter enough for anyone to want them dead. On Leviathan's latest comments, Charir responded in uncharacteristically serious tone "It is the most horrible place I know, I rather slice my own throat than live there again." it was probably the closest he had gone to Ruby's coldness naturally, he had no love for his home, though his tone went up right away, as he continued "This side, it is more nice, lot more." As the Lake, and bit later that massive structure that was the library came to view, they would experience the first dragons approaching them. It was a group of young dragons, about head taller than Charir all of them, though it was hard to say if they were older than him, or if the size difference was because he was a runt. It was a group of three specifically, all different kinds; One was similar in build to Charir, though their scales were notably thinner, and even more significantly, their scales were pearlescent white, and their horn and claws were transparent, also sharing the pearlescent look of their scales. Second was a longer, almost snake like dragon, they had no wings, and had relatively short legs, their scales various shades of green. The last one was one of Voltaick's kind, though unlike Voltaick, this one wasn't constantly charged with electricity. They were flying from the direction of the library, when one of them spotted the duo, and after some hesitation, they made their way towards them. When they got closer, there seemed to be some kind of minor argument, likely about who would say hi first, as the trio seemed a bit wary, which was understandable, at least to Charir, who was also wary of the trio. Ultimately, it was the Voltaick's kin that was in front when the group approached, his voice revealing him to be male "Hi, you are the visitors right?" "We have never seen a Death-Bringer from close." the green one joined in, he too was a male "There is of course Elder Dask, but she's so large, that we can only see her from far away." the third one didn't say anything yet, instead they looked at Charir in curious manner, before their scales and horns started changing color, turning them to the same colors as Charir, which obviously got Charir's attention, which in turn got the green one's attention, and he remarked "Don't mind her, She does that." this caused her to look embarrassed and change colors again, though not to the pearlescent white that was likely her base color, but rather ones matching the environment, making her harder to see. They had also gotten someone else's attention, as in the lake, among the various aquatic dragons, one dragon was looking at them, a blue one, the size or build was hard to conclude at this point, as it was a distance away, and only the head was above water, but it was at least Ruby's size, likely larger. They however didn't do anything yet, just observed, and it could be none of them even noticed it, Charir didn't at least, as he was focused on the dragons close by.

"Unlikely" Jenna stated "Only thing they could have, would be clues on what they were....but that doesn't help in locating Elders." "Besides, we heard and saw the helicopters....Talon has already cleaned the site up, if there was something...it's no longer there."

"Based on those journals, neither did the original inhabitants." Jenna reminded "Other than that everything just kinda died." "Everything but the mold." "I do feel that this whole portal and time breaking thing is disconnected from that, a separate event."

"There's no service here...so contact is not an option before we can keep moving." Jenna stated "And I don't know enough to know where to start.".... "I only knew what was relevant to my job."

"There is also the potential that we are just not seeing something." Jenna said thoughtfully "What I mean is, there's clearly something supernatural going on with this whole thing, so should we really assume that we can perceive everything?"

@Blitz Boom Just to inform you a bit on what I'm planning to do. I have only few of existing dragon characters for the Homelands (even Werodex I made up for the RP, though in her case I have been meaning to make a character similar to her), so while couple of the already existing ones may appear at some points, When the duo reaches the part with more dragons around, I will be creating some "temporary" characters too as we go depending on what fits, that won't have pictures and such. I'm mainly saying this because those characters obviously won't have thought out backstories and such, and it will likely show in how I write them Basically NPCs is what I'm saying.

@Blitz Boom "Loyalty based on what one provides, is only strong as long as you can provide more than others." Asildae mused, it probably wasn't a surprise that a hivemind didn't really see the positives of a non-hivemind system, and would never fully understand such things; in the same way how other creatures probably didn't like the idea of a hivemind, due to them being used to the individualism of separate mind. "You can have your fun if you wish to come with me, it has been a while after all, and it is likely that my sister outnumbers me, so there will be plenty to try and come for you." "Just try to keep it outside, easier to clean up." "The physical hive also has anti-magical properties due to how we build them, so it could be bad for your health to go inside." she didn't really care what happened to her likely to exists sister's daughters, she would obviously take control of them in case of victory, but she had no reason to wish for them to be spared. "Truthfully, if she does not outnumber me after all these cycles, she is even more incompetent than I assume, for reproduction is one of the easiest parts of being a queen." it was of course relative, she wasn't saying that creating hundreds of eggs was in any way pleasant, but compared to everything that related to being the leader of a hivemind, it was quite simple and easy, with the hive doing everything necessary by instinct. "Assuming of course the hive isn't already dead from her utter ineptness." it was a potential that had to be acknowledged too, as far as she knew, it could be there was no hive left to take back. "That would be a shame." ---- Solar wasn't as worried, because he had been approaching the whole issue from the point of unpredictability from the start. He knew things didn't appear in the same order as they left his word, based on both the mentioned example of his equipment, and the fact that things he knew had disappeared before he was taken, were yet to appear here; To him that obviously meant that either something, likely whatever was in-between, didn't follow the rules of time, or there was other places where things ended up. Or as he now assumed due to this whole thing, it was likely both. Another reason why his worry didn't increase, was because to him it didn't really matter when something was taken, for it to be dangerous, it wasn't like there was any time in the last millennia when some kind of battle wasn't going on in his world, so a risk of actively hostile forces appearing always existed. "I appreciate it, but it is you who is likely more concerned about my other self than I." "My questions on him are merely curiosity, though one does make me somber. Is it my fate to become this?" "Am I doomed to hurt my kin like this in every potential?" "But that aside, I may still look into the place again, as I believe I stumbled upon them long time ago, maybe it possesses new information, or maybe not, it shall be seen." Solar turned off the projection "Do you have advice on how we should handle the situation if your counterpart was to end up here?" Vaz shook his head "If I knew, I wouldn't be here talking to you." "The only thing I can say, is that I and he, are not forever." "I may exist long enough to be called immortal and undying, but in truth, there is a limit." "We are limited by the souls we gather with the ritual, and redoing it would take much time and preparation." "So were you to capture him and keep him in state of constant injury, he would die eventually." "However, as I do not know the limit for myself, and even less for him, it could still take until the end of time." "So it is better to wish you never need to worry about it, and if you do, that there is some of me left in that mind." For the Macabre clan, for Solar's part, he had never heard of them, so their equivalent in his world had never made a name for themselves. Granted, he didn't know their location, so he didn't even know which empire's territory they would land on in the first place. For guesses on their fate, he would have few if he would have thought about it. 1. they exist in relative peace, likely working for the empire they are under, be it willfully or not. 2. They are dead or hiding. Or 3. their family line was among the waves of immigrants the fled Equestria at the start, and they are living somewhere in the rest of the world. He did know that magics like that had been studied by the Empires in the past, but they were generally met with similar issues than biological modification, and were replaced with more easily controllable methods. The sisters also weren't fans of the immortality part of that research, as it challenged their place as something special. ------ "I thought it was you who keeps her calm, she tolerates you a lot." Charir remarked, he didn't think he had any kind of effect on Ruby, even if he was still wondering why she saved him in the first place. Even getting the gift jewelry from her, which was still around his horn, was explained by her wanting to be able to locate him better from distance, even if it still meant the world to him, since he had never been given anything before, especially not from his own kind. The timing of his question may have been bit odd in the big picture, but to him, it made perfect sense. They were alone, just two of them, and they could understand each other, Charir didn't know when would be the next time it would be like this, and he wanted to keep it between the two, without even Ruby, as he still felt the need to be tough around his sister, even if she hadn't critiqued him once, and seemed to tolerate such acts from Leviathan even herself. Charir listened to the response thoughtfully, though when Leviathan said she was proud of him, his eyes sparkled form happiness, even if he tried to act like it wasn't the biggest ego boost he had gotten in his life, sure she had communicated it before, and had caused similar reaction in Charir, but hearing it so directly was a special kind of feeling that Charir would hold on to for a long while. He also learned a curious aspect about language, specifically with Leviathan calling him 'adorable little whelpling; he did know equivalent words, but in his language, such words were pretty much always meant as an insult, yet he didn't feel insulted, due to how Leviathan said them. He of course knew that how things were said was important part of meaning, that's how he was able to somewhat understand Leviathan's intentions before without understanding the language, but he had never considered that insults could have a positive meaning too, especially since he still didn't quite understand the concept of positive cuteness, as to him it was just a synonym for weak....lot of their insults were just different ways to call someone weak if one thought about it actually. "Isn't honey what some insects make, funny word for endearment." Charir pointed out, seemingly amused by it, his tone was generally more joyful as he failed to hide that Leviathan's words made him feel warm inside, though again, he would have not been able to put to words why exactly. "And I...." he seemed to be struggling to find the right words "...I am happy you are so...nice?" he still wasn't sure if he did pick the right words "I guessed it was positive every time you do those things, but I didn't want to assume." "Nobody has ever treated me like that." the mood in his tone lowered as he continued "Everyone is always so..." he tried to think for words for a moment, but decided to just imitate instead, pulling his face to the cold expression Ruby was known for, and gestured at it, before letting his emotions show again because he didn't actually know how to stay emotionless. "...that or angry." "You said you feel like we are family?" "Is that what family is supposed to be? Being nice? Showing affection?" "Not just instinct? Learning to survive?" They would likely end up moving in the direction of the library, as due to the shape of the land and how the roads and structures were made, that was where everything eventually led, mainly because that was the direction where everything was, the other directions that weren't towards the Death-bringer side, were mainly filled with caves like the one where they were staying in. And while there was constantly movement, different types of dragons flying here and there, nobody paid much mind to the two small dragons, at most glancing in their direction, at least for now.

"Which again goes to the original problem." Jenna stated "Where to start from?" "My contact is deep...in their systems, they have dug out lot of secrets." "But even they...have found no evidence on the topic." "We can't just go and ask someone...those who know, are likely very loyal." "And even if we did find an elder...they could just capture us instead." "Or kill."

"It also feels less bad if we need to defend ourselves, if the target is more monstrous." Jenna added thoughtfully "Though obviously I'd prefer not needing to fight at all."

@Blitz Boom Just in case you have forgotten what Charir is on about with Werodex calling him and Ruby stuff

@Blitz Boom Asildae gave a thoughtful nod "I see, it is curious that these things seem to always centralize in these lands specifically, as there is no information about such things where I come from, even in the oldest of folklore." The loss of free will didn't really concern her, mainly because being a hivemind species meant that she didn't appreciate free will in the same way. After all, as far as she was concerned, even a queen like her, was ultimately just part of the machine already; Sure she was more independent than the average member of her species, but that didn't mean she particularly cared for being alone, in fact, it was quite unpleasant. "Species come and go, that's nature." Asildae remarked, she didn't have much to say on the topic of evolution and extinction, as she had never met these other species, nor was there much about them in the various writings her hive had collected during her mother's and grandmother's reign either. She also wasn't worried for her own species, as their location and way of life was such that it was unlikely that any outside species had the motivation or means to wipe them out. "I have read about these 'Changelings', and have wondered how they keep their hives loyal with their lone minds." "I can imagine our kinds getting along, for we do not compete on anything." She seemed amused by Glutton's comment about her sister being family "I have hundreds of sisters, having to kill one pest has no weight on my conscience." "My other sisters and my daughters hold greater place in my mind." Asildae stated rather bluntly "I have no issues with 'cheating' as you put it, in fact, I'd argue there is no such thing as cheating." "Had I been outsmarted by her, I would concede defeat and start anew." "But I was not, she did nothing to win." "She hid like a coward, and hired someone else to do her work." "That is not the behavior of someone fit to be a queen." "She endangered the entire hive in the short term by bringing armed outsider in, and in long term, her weak leadership will only bring doom." "I seek to take back my hive not because of vengeance, even if there is a personal aspect to it of course, but because it is my duty as the queen." "My hive's safety is my responsibility, and my incompetent sister is putting it in danger." She watched the dragons fly over them, and while she did find the clothing bit odd, she didn't pay too much mind to it, mainly because she didn't know if it was unusual. She knew of dragons, like she knew of ponies, but her knowledge was very limited, and she had no idea how old the information was, so she had no knowledge on what the clothing culture was for dragons in Equestria, or anywhere else in that matter. She did ponder a bit about the materials used, since she did know they could breathe fire; It wasn't genuine curiosity though, more thinking for thinking sake. ------------- Vaz just nodded to Magma's guess for now, as he continued studying the projected version of himself. "Latter." Solar stated "I already knew it may be the case, since my equipment I had with me back home, arrived here a week later than myself." "But this confirms it, since her fate likely predates the findings from the ocean." "But it doesn't change much, as such risk has already been identified before." "After all, the reality anomalies in my world by their nature are unpredictable, and crazed alicorn or long desiccated corpses aren't any more or less likely regardless of non-linear appearance." "But I do admit that I'm happy that Sheez we got was from before this started." He looked at the pile of parts that used to be a pony like him "It could potentially work if you were to heat up her parts, but it isn't necessary, my systems provided enough power to pull the data out." he then turned towards Vaz "You however, what do you mean by unstoppable?" Vaz put his hand on the symbol again. "I can't die." "I'm not invulnerable, I feel pain, and can be injured, but all injuries, even those normally lethal, will heal, or, more accurately, will be undone." "I come from a dying community, a sickness was killing us and making us infertile, our numbers were in freefall." "We tried everything, science, magic, gods, spirits, everything. Nothing worked." "My family had their own research, I believe the closest term in your language, would be necromancy, though not entirely accurate." "It is the foul side of magic, we were as much outcasts as kobolds can be without banishment." "While capable of doing so, we did not wish to reanimate or raise the dead, but to eliminate death altogether, or at least delay it." "We created a ritual, new magic, a project of many generations, and I was the one to finish it." "Without going into much detail, we learned to harvest what your assistant called 'ethereal energy', a powerful energy greater than any magic, after all, nothing is greater than life itself." "It worked." "The plan was to sacrifice few, to give the rest more time, I was to be the first sacrifice, and also the test subject." "As you can tell from me speaking to you here, it didn't go as planned, the effect was reversed." " Thousands of lives given to a single vessel." his voice broke a bit with the last sentence, grief and regret apparent in his words. He gestured at the projection "He has the telltale signs of reanimation, however, he looks alive and healthy." "So with this limited information, my assumption is that, your version of me died at some point, but has been brought back, likely using my family research." "Due to the nature of my current existence, I have a connection to what I assume to be the realm that our souls inhabit, today, I felt a brief presence in there, another connection. Him" "This is why I believe my ritual was used to bring him back." "I am a skilled mage, and due to the nature of my existence, stamina and other normal limits are not a concern." "I do not currently know any spells I could use to do that..." he pointed at the pile of parts "...but I am more than capable to output enough power for that." "I cannot die, and while you could slow me down since I feel pain, you would get tired eventually." "I can reanimate the dead; with some preparation, I could build an army of undead creatures like dragons to lay destruction." "I won't, I have no plans to do anything but try to undo my existence." "But he?" he again pointed at the projection "He hates you." "And having been brought back from death, it's likely that pain doesn't concern him." Vaz's tone became even more serious "Lastly, there's the matter of numbers." "I'm already as powerful as I am, and I only had access to a community on brink of extinction." "From what I was told, my kind is doing fine in your world in population." "So, it is likely that my counterpart had access to larger number of souls, ten thousand, hundred thousand, maybe millions more, which makes him far more powerful than myself." "The one question I cannot answer is, if that really is me, or if it is just a feral creature in my body." "We never studied using the ritual for reanimation, so I have no idea what it does to the vessel's original mind and soul." "Regardless, your world has a dangerous threat to face, and regardless of who wins in the end, destruction and death will be unfathomable on both sides." "I would pray for your home, but gods have never listened to us." ---------- "She did also call me 'protector'" Charir thought out loud, it sounded nice, protector, nicer than what Ruby was called, but it was equally weird to him, because protector? him? he was two cowardly and small to protect anyone or anything. He seemed a bit surprised by the cheek clap since Leviathan hadn't done it before, but not in a bad way, and while there was no smile since it still wasn't natural to him it was clear he wasn't against the scratches either, even if he barely felt it. If you were to ask him why he liked it, he wouldn't have been able to answer, but the reason was his craving for affection, something he had not been provided for most of his life. For the first time the magic that allowed them to understand each other failed a bit too, specifically with the word 'hun', mainly because Charir didn't know any equivalent term in his own language either, but he didn't ask about it because it sounded positive. "Right. You are right." He said "Maybe, both?" he thought about something for a moment "Before we go, question." "What is...this?" he then 'petted' and 'scratched' Leviathan, he didn't actually do it properly, but rather just imitated them to get a point across "And why you do it?" "Don't understand wrong, it is...nice, but what does it mean?"