The Rise of the Windigo King

"No, but they are the only ones whose very biology supports it. You can't possibly hope to tell me that your 'old' hive was any bucking better."

"Are you even listening?!" Clan shouts, glaring for a bit before sighing. "Fine, fine... Tell me, do you know how nutrient rich love is? Our biology actually supports us keeping ponies happy! Okay, some examples: Long-lost sailors that wash ashore and settle down to reunite with their families, ponies with terminal illnesses that have a miraculous recovery with a heartfelt reunion, long lost siblings that finally return home? Not all of the cases of these are us, but think, aren't the ponies involved happier because of an innocent lie? We feed off of that, and most of us make sure to show control and not bucking drain it! So please, research the culture and biology of a species more before you try to say they're monsters, "Doctor"." She almost hisses.

"And it's all a lie! Can you honestly tell me any of those families or lovers or widows would be okay with this farce?! And the probability of two pony-hating changeling hives attacking a city that I could know of is so low as to be comical, if it's as you say, so don't tell me most of you are benevolent."

"So what you're saying is that it's better for one to starve than to live off a lie that doesn't even hurt them?!" Clan shouts, glaring him down. "And tell me, do you not realize the political power of Canterlot? If someone invaded there, they could just pose as those in power and rule over Equestria with an iron hoof! And please, most ponies aren't killers or evil, but you still have crime gangs that go from city to city wreaking havoc, don't you? Check your own logic, Torch, because it's not adding up!"

At this point Aoi figures Torch isn't likely to listen to Clan's logic and could perhaps use a non-changeling opinion on the matter. So she flies up and knocks on the force field. "Excuse my interrupting Torch, but what Clandestine is saying is largely true. Though I cannot vouch for the opinion of those who are fed on by changelings in the ways she mentioned. I have had dealing with changelings before and there are at least as many if not more non-violent hives like Hydrophilia's, which is where I believe Clandestine came from. Changelings are as much people as ponies or dragons or any other race and their groups don't all behave the same or believe in the same values. Even the hives in Neighpon are drastically different from each other. Also if I thought Clandestine was a threat I would not have allowed her to accompany us, and you should take it as a very good sign that she went out of her way to voluntarily reveal her identity as a changeling to us."

After a pause to note the separation of subjects she says, "I wish to give you my condolences on your loss."

After another little pause, "Oh and on the subject of monsters, pony or not, I have news I bring from the sea ponies. A few days ago a boat of the Royal Knights of the Ruby headed into the maw and several other boats of theirs went elsewhere."

“Speaking of monsters in pony form…” Death Ray muttered under his breath – Aoi having suddenly reminded him of the fanatics in red.

Following the Neighponese princess’s lead, the Doctor trotted up to Torch’s force field and tapped on it too, speaking up as he said, “Torch! This is… this is getting a little out of hoof even for me… I… well… I can understand your need for vengeance – a lot of villains I know have… similarly tragic backstories…”

*And mental breakdowns…* GREGG added helpfully in the Doctor's mind.

*Not helping.*

“The monologue was great too. Really it was… And... also…” Death Ray sighed, lowering his gaze, “I’m… well… For what it's worth, I’m sorry to hear about your parents…”

"But this…?" The Doctor gestured to the force field, shaking his head firmly, “This is going too far! You’re… you’re blaming your parents’ deaths on the entirety of the changeling race… but the entire race didn’t murder your parents! That was just two groups of psychopaths!”

Death Ray paused to think for a moment, and then his eyes went wide with recognition. He practically punched the force field as he added, “And… and what about those Knights of the Ruby nutjobs?! The ones Princess here just mentioned?” Dr. D nodded towards Aoi, “You were there! You saw them murder all those innocent ponies back on Junna – but the Knights weren’t changelings! They were a bunch of unicorns and griffons – remember? What? Does that mean that unicorns and griffons are all bloodthirsty fanatics? Murderers? Monsters?!  Just… just because of what one group of sociopaths have done?!”

The Doc pressed his face up against the force field and yelled, “LISTEN TO ME TORCH! BUCK! LISTEN TO THE BUCKIN' PRINCESS FOR CRYING OUT DISCORD! She knows what she’s talking about… for once… and she’s telling you that not every changeling is evil! Are you still ready to condemn the entire race for what only two groups have done? Every changeling grandparent and great grandparent? Every mother and father? Every child? -Because changelings have children too – or didn’t you know?”

Death Ray’s thoughts turned to Dream, remembering that first time he gave her the clockwork butterfly, how she'd had such a pure look of innocence, awe, and wonder... The Doctor’s eyes started to water as he spat out the word, “BUCK! When we get back to Junna, Torch, I'll… I’ll introduce you to one little changeling girl… ” Death Ray paused, “She’s just the sweetest little girl you’ll ever meet… The purest, sweetest little girl... you met her at the Junna museum… you helped save her mother…” Death Ray smashed his hoof against the field so hard it hurt, “-and she is NOT a monster!”

“You think all changelings are the same…” The Doctor didn’t know how much of this was sinking in, or if Torch was even listening anymore – but he didn’t care. This was something he needed to say, “You think all changelings are monsters, just… just because they need love and emotion to survive…?

“NEWS FLASH GENIUS! WE’RE NO BUCKIN’ DIFFERENT!!!

“Tell me this Torch…” Death Ray took a deep breath, sighed once more, and closed his eyes, “Tell me this… Would you have survived without the love of your family… the love of your friends? Would you be the pony you are today if not for everything they’d done for you? Everything they'd given you. All the love… all the love and emotion they'd given you since you were a colt?” The Doctor thought back, back to his own unhappy childhood, and he bit his lip, “Believe me. It… it hurts when you’re not shown that love...” He thought of Sweet Dream and Halynn, “And it hurts more when there’s no love in your life…

“Torch… you think that feeding off emotions makes changelings less like us… but I say that’s not true…” Death Ray shook his head slowly, “It makes them more. More like us. More like ponies, and griffons, and hippogriffs... and... and even..." The Doctor looked up at Aoi quizzically, "...crystal... pony... dragon... mutants...?...I think..." He turned back to Torch, "But bottom line - we all feed off emotions. Without them, we’re nothing!”

Hovering beside him, GREGG's red eye zoomed in on the Doctor's tear ducts - then a slot in his gold casing popped open and a tissue slid out. *Here you go sir.*

Taking the tissue, the Doctor dabbed his eyes, then blew his nose, *Thanks GREGG... I... I think I may have gotten a little carried away there...*

Aoi turns to Death Ray and ignoring the "for once" says, "That was well said. Except for the part where you implied Torch is a villain...."

Healing Torch, stunned, says nothing. His horn flickers ever so slightly, and then putters out, dissipating the force field. He sits, eyes and face blank. Then, ever so slowly, he begins to cry. Not in great, wracking sobs, or pitiful whimpers, but in clear, despairing tones, weeping for a past that can never be recovered, and time wasted, time he could have... should have... would have spent treasuring what matters. "Then it didn't matter... none of it. None of the time I've spent searching and preparing. Nothing. I can't let that happen. I can't."

Clan stares, confused for a bit before slowly realizing, and gently putting a hoof on his shoulder. "It's alright... It's alright... Just let it all out, you're not the one to blame... It's okay." She said, very softly and with a caring tone.

Torch faces screws up, and his horn flares. There's a blinding flash.
((Activating Burning Bastion's blinding effect: 1 of 2 used today.))

"GAH!" Clan yelled out in pain, stepping back and placing the hoof that used to be on Torch's shoulder in front of her own eyes in an attempt to block out some of the light.

A searing green light pierces your eyes like looking directly into a lighthouse at point blank, originating from the tip of Torch's horn. You hear someone yell "ACH, ME GOOD EYE!" and someone else laughing as green and yellow spots flood your vision and slowly give way back to regular sight. There's also a loud wet splat sound nearby as you try to blink your eyes clear.

When you can see again, you notice that the first mate is laughing at your misfortune, his own eyes protected by the thick welding goggles he wears while the captain introduces you to new and colorful vocabulary as he grasps his non-glass eye. Torch seems to have vanished and in his place one of the sea ponies appears to have launched itself out of the water and onto the deck. It crawls around with wet flopping sounds quietly murmuring "bright shiny?" as it investigates.

Clan almost mimics some of the captain's vocabulary, rubbing her eyes and blinking the last bit of remaining spots out of them. She then watches the sea pony for a bit, before laughing a bit, moving to where Aoi was. "Hey! I need to talk to you for a bit!"

Aoi stops in the midst of moving towards the sea pony situation and turns to face Clan, "Alright. Do you wish to speak here? If so, you may proceed."

"Right, so, do you have any gems or jewelry that's particularly shiny? Because it looks like at least one of them likes those, and we can use that as a trade for information." Clan commented.

Aoi gives Clan a blank look, looks at herself to see she's still shiny, looks back to Clan somewhat confused, especially considering the information she just said she'd gotten from the sea ponies, and shakes her head to clear the confusion. "I believe I have already gained all the useful information from them that they are willing to part with. Unless there is something specific you wish to know about. In which case I suggest we simply ask, rather that pay for something we do not need to."

Clan pauses for a bit, before pressing her hoof to her own face. "Right, sorry, got too caught up in the moment dealing with Torch, I suppose..."

Aoi makes a face that reveals she's not sure exactly what to think about that but it isn't positive probably and then goes to try and toss the sea pony back into the sea.

Ragnarok peers over the side of the deck. "Should we go after him or allow him to work though his emotions by himself?"

The seaponies in the water all stop what they're doing and turn to look up at Ragnarok in an almost synchronized motion. Some of them dip under the water for a moment and shoot back out several feet into the air to look at her eye to eye before falling back. One of them eventually eventually asks during its jumps. "Wow! ... there are ... a lot of you ... up there! ... Why is that?"

The seapony on deck twists around around as Aoi tries to throw him back, chewing on a stick of dynamite as it does. It drops the stick and spits a little spray of ink at her before flopping off the deck while making 'woop'ing noises.

Aoi gives an annoyed look at the ink and then dives off the ship into the water, only being submerged for a second or two, and yet comes back up with a fish in her claws as she flies back up to the deck. Where she then looks at the ink squirting sea pony and chomps down on the fish in a deliberate manner.

((Acrobatics for fish catching: 11 + 10 = 21.))

The sea pony claps its fins together like a sea lion with a big grin on its face. It doesn't seem like it quite got the intent.

Aoi sighs. Well at least she had a fish and was no longer covered in ink.

Ragnarok waits for the seapony to jump once again before quickly answering the question. " We are headed into the maw." The next time the seapony jumps up she asks a question of her own. "Did a green unicorn just dive in to the sea?"

The seapony brings one of its fins to its chin in thought, then flails as this causes it to lose control as it falls back down again. A few moments it jumps back up again. "Nope ... no green unicorns!" It exclaims happily before falling back to the waves and jumping again. "Why are you ... going in there?"