King Phobia (Ready)

[StrongCopper]

Name:

King 'Scarecrow' Phobiaus

Alias: The Nightmare King

 

Gender:

Male

Age:

Adult

Species:

Altered Changeling (Unreformed)

Eye colour:

Dark Orange

Coat:

Black Carapace

Mane/Tail:

Dark Orange and fin like.

Physique:

Once upon a time, Scarecrow was an old school, unreformed changeling, albeit one that was physically a little taller but leaner then the norm. However, an extended period isolated from other changelings, his obsession with the emotion of fear in its many forms and experimentation to change his diet from love to fear has resulted in a much different being then the infiltrator he was once. 

 

Standing as tall as the former hack of a Queen that once dared to usurp what should have been the greatest triumph in hive history and bungled it, King Phobiaus has embraced his newfound royal status by a 'crown' of curved and scary looking horns that has grown around the jagged knife that is his original horn. 

Residence:

Moves around, but has their primary lair hidden in the depths of Bridlewood.

Occupation:

Scary/Urban Myth/Horror story villain.

King of his Hive (which consists only of himself).

Cutie Mark:

N/A

Unique Traits:

Veteran Solder:

Much like the rest of the Changeling Hive when it was under the command of Queen Chrysalis, Scarecrow was trained in combat in order to be a useful solder during the original Canterlot Invasion. While he may have abandoned the hive soon after, the passing moons and the strife caused by the loss of magic has ensured that these skills have never quite gone out of practice.

 

Veteran Infiltrator:

Prior to the Canterlot Invasion and the mass conscript efforts of the Hive to maximize it's pool of Solders, Scarecrow was an infiltrator for the Hive. His profession was to select a target, if possible do a background check on said target to get an idea of history, personal relationships ect, replace the target, then either gather love or perform whatever task was required for his mission and get out with no one being the wiser. He was actually fairly good at this, to the point that he was actually deeply insulted that Queen Chrysalis replaced Princess Cadence herself rather then ask him to step up and do it. The fact that the Queen was terrible at pretending to be a pony beyond knowing how to use sexual appeal to her advantage only deepened the insult. She didn't even do a basic background check and got blind sided by a freaking future Sister in Law the Princess of Food foalsat!

 

Many moons have passed since then... and while the loss of magic caused difficulties for an extended period of time due to the inability to shapeshift, Scarecrow merely considered this 'playing on hard mode' as he continued to refine his skills in stalking various ponies since the tribes divided. Now that magic has returned, so has his ability to shapeshift. 

 

Naturally Empathic:

While it might surprise many, Scarecrow is a natural empath. He is easily able to read the emotions of others and with a bit of time and effort can figure out the deeper causes of these emotions as well. Not only is this employed in adding him in the harvesting of various types of fear, but he actively takes full advantage of it when he actively pursues his new 'profession'. 

 

Altered Biology:

With Scarecrow's obsession with Fear, it was only a matter of time before he dedicated himself to the process of trying to work out how to consume it as a primary foodstuff rather then the love that once fed him. What makes him different from the many changelings who tried to alter their emotional diet in the past is the fact that he was successful. King Phobiaus is, as far as he is aware, the only Changeling who thrives on the fears and terrors of others.

 

If this trait can be passed on is unknown, since he has never bothered to start up his own hive. Maybe one day.

 

History:

Back when he was just an infiltrator named Scarecrow, the changeling got to experience Equestria during the waning years of Princess Celestia's rule and witnessed the transference of power from the Princess of the Sun to the Princess of Friendship. He took part in the invasion of Canterlot during the royal wedding of Princess Cadence and, when he was expelled from the city by said princess, opted to abandon the hive in pursuit of his own obsessive need to inspire fear in others. 

 

He witnessed the Fall of Equestria, finding the chaos and terror to be a great feast to be enjoyed once he figured out how to properly consume the fear he adored so much. As the tribes divided and compressed into the settlements that would endure to the modern era and magic disappeared from the world, Scarecrow had his fun but he was aware that adjustments were going to have to happen to his way of life due to the loss of his shapeshifting.

 

Selecting to make his lair in the depths of Bridlewood where he would be nearby to the unicorns, Scarecrow went into the first of many hibernation sleeps in order to pass the time... and emerged changed into the royal that proclaimed himself King Phobiaus. Finding the magic-less, divided world of ponies to be a wonderful playground, King Phobiaus would spend time each cycle of being awake that tensions between the tribes always remained somewhat high. He would slip out into the world and visit Maretime Bay, Zephyr Heights and of course Bridlewood itself in order to... stir the pot as it were. Leaving evidence of the other tribes while causing mischief without being seen. Enough to continue to fuel the paranoia and distrust that was already abundant.

 

Bridlewood and the unicorns were a personal favorite target for the King's attentions. Not just because of how convenient it was to get to them in comparison to the other tribes from the comforts of home, but simply because of how superstitious and easy to scare their home forest made them. A unreasonable number of the superstitions and creatures that go bump in the night that the unicorns are frightened of and tell stories about were originally made by King Phobiaus for the sole intent of messing with them. Not all of them, of course; The wood does contain a rather high amount of things to be weary and scared of, but a fair few simply don't truly exist outside of evidence that the bored changeling king created.

 

One of the horror stories that the unicorns speak of is of King Phobiaus himself, through they personally refer to him as the Nightmare King: A giant creature of shadow and terror that is only vaguely in an equine shape that lurks somewhere in the deep woods and only occasionally leaves the depths to torment them. Whenever the Nightmare King comes to play, they will single out a unicorn to be their target. The exact course of events varies from victim to victim, but the hunt generally ends with the victim seeing the terrifying, bug like face of the King himself at the height of terror before blacking out and losing all memory of what happens next.

 

While these victims are generally fine after this final confrontation and are left alone afterwards, they are clearly drained of... something. It can also be weeks, months, even years in some cases before the unicorn can feel fear about anything again. The general agreement is that whatever happens once the Nightmare King moves in for the final blow is so terrifying that the ability for them to feel fear is literally overloaded to the point that it completely shuts down, taking an unknown amount of time to recover. 

 

The truth is that, after letting them 'stew' in their fears until it reaches a boiling point, King Phobiaus moves in and drains them dry of their fears. The process is rather intense for the victim, since the mind and body generally doesn't know how to process an overpowering emotion being sucked out of it. Blacking out and not remembering what happened is simply a natural response to an unnatural situation. The inability to feel fear afterwards is simply a result of the body simply not having any more fear to give at the time: It's tapped out in needs time to recover. This recovery normally only takes a couple of weeks at most, but there have been situations where a pony has taken months or even years to recover; This is not intentional on King Phobiaus' part and truthfully he doesn't know what decides how fast a pony recovers, but he studies it all the same.

 

Only recently awakening, the changeling king has noticed two differences.

 

The first is the return of magic, which personally he is all for. 

 

However, the tension and fear between the tribes seems to have lessened to a considerable degree while he was asleep, to the point where they are visiting each other cities and intermingling. That is... problematic.

 

 

Character Personality:

Even when he was young, Scarecrow had a fascination with fear. This was interpreted as a desire to be feared, which was a positive trait for a drone to have back in the days of Queen Chrysalis' rule and marked him as a natural 'go-getter', but while it did result in him getting favorable attention and more of the Hive's limited resources Scarecrow's interest was always in the emotion itself rather then having it directly focused on him. Fear by itself was an emotion that caused the body to surge with a new found strength, but when it was mixed with other emotions it heightened them... made them so intense! And everyone had their own unique blend! 

 

Once he encountered ponies, this interest quickly grew into a obsession. An addiction that he was able to find justifications and praise for as he channeled it into his work and the benefit of the Hive. While this was enough for a time, like all addictions it started to grow to the point where his duties weren't enough to cover his desire. Duty and loyalty to Hive and Queen were actively starting to hamper his research and efforts to enjoy his craft, through this wouldn't to a head until the the failed Invasion of Canterlot. Combined with Queen Chrysalis' somewhat insulting performance at his job, once the Invasion was cast out Scarecrow simply abandoned the Hive to freely pursue his own interests.

 

Scarecrow doesn't care about ponies beyond the fact that they are an easy source of food and entertainment for him. They are a prey species after all. That being said, he can still develop favorites both to encourage love in and haunt in a variety of ways. That being said, it is still rare for him to hurt a pony unless it is absolutely necessary; This is due to pure, logical pragmatism rather then traditional morality. Physical wounds tend to draw the attention of the authorities and give credible evidence that something happened to one of his playthings where psychological attacks can be excused as 'just in their heads'. 

 

Since becoming King Phobiaus and having to endure an unknown amount of time without magic or the ability to shapeshift, he simply accepted it as part of the challenge and continued on as normal, seeing and reaping the benefits of keeping a divided ponykind on edge and paranoid about each other. 

Character Summary:

An Old School rogue Changeling from the pre-fall days with an obsession with the emotion of fear and a love of either playing the part of the 'Urban Legend' monster or outright starting new ones. Has become something new due to experimentation and the biological need for a royal to fill the void around him to be a changeling king that eats fear.

[SteelEagle]