(The next morning...)
He was alone. Again.
He had soared through the air for what felt like an eternity, and then he slammed into the side of the mountain, punching through a wall of ice and falling into a pile of snow in the cave behind it. There he lay in the bitter cold, brooding and meditating.
He had to give that Prince credit where it was due, it was indeed a magnificent throw. It had landed precisely where he predicted it would. All according to plan.
It had taken a lot of effort to punch through that Unicorn’s mental defenses to plant the suggestion, but he managed to succeed after a few tries. The Prince never even suspected a thing. Good. Let the brat rest. Shining Armor would get his comeuppance soon enough.
So for now, he simply lay there, conserving his energy. His thoughts spread out across the mountains until he found what he was searching for --- a camp of hundreds, disguised in white near the Empire. So many voices, so many thoughts, so many dreams. So much potential.
He reached out and touched one mind, a young female at the edge of the camp. He smiled inwardly as he felt her thoughts flow over his. He was just another voice of the Hivemind as far as she was concerned, nothing more. Using her as a conduit, he explored the vast, expansive maze of voices until he found the one he desired above all the others.
After a few moments, he found it. It wasn’t that hard to find; all the Changelings of the Hive were connected to it, after all.
Come to Mount Everhoof. I am waiting there for you. You will know my Voice and I will answer you. You seek your True Potential...I can provide it. Come to me.
The seed of his suggestion planted within the Hivemind, he retreated from the Changeling’s mind and returned to his meditation. Now he would watch and wait.
Floating was a sensation that Flash had not experienced in a long time, not since his swim test in basic training. It was strange, yet not unwelcome. It almost felt like he was in his mother’s womb again.
His mother...memories flooded into his mind, and he smiled. The crisp cold air of a quiet spring morning in Canterlot, wet with dew and bits of ice, followed by the smell of her blueberry pie wafting through the breeze. He loved her pies. Freshly made every other morning, and they always made him feel at home. She always made him feel safe.
He was safe, and he continued to float. He sighed deeply, breathing in the sweet smell of blueberries and hearing his mother’s gentle calls for him to return to the dining room. He felt his body glide over the floor and find solace within the warmth of his childhood home, in stark contrast to the cold outside. He felt his mothers’ wings embrace him from behind, and he sank deeply into it, feeling the fluff of her feathers tickle his face.
And yet...something was off. He didn’t know how he knew, he just knew. The masquerade was almost perfect, but as if it was instinct buried deep within him, something told him that what he was feeling was wrong. He wasn’t meant to be here. This place was meant for others not like him.
And then the vision started to change, as little by little the cracks and imperfections began to reveal themselves to his mind’s eye. The embrace was warm, but it felt...stiff. His mother was tense, and her embrace was not one of love, but of entrapment. Suddenly feeling uncomfortable, he wiggled around, trying to untangle himself from her wings, but her embrace tightened. The warmth disappeared, replaced by a cold clamminess and...wetness? The smell of blueberries changed too. The sweetness remained, but it was sickly and gross.
What’s happening? he thought frantically. Why can’t I move? Where am I?
His chest tightening, Flash opened his eyes and stared, seeing his reflection on a green, slightly translucent casing. He waved his hooves in a panicked motion, realizing he was swimming in green slime. He was trapped and hooked up with wiry tendrils in a Changeling pod, and he couldn’t breathe!
Ripping off the tendrils, he bucked his rear hooves against the walls of his prison and let out a muffled yell of frustration as it refused to give. He kept kicking. Then he punched. Then he rammed his head. Then he began slamming his entire body against the side of the pod, over and over again.
Finally a crack appeared, and it spidered up to the pod’s lid. One final body slam and he broke through, coughing and spluttering. Slime poured from his mouth as his body expelled it from his body, and he began crawling away, looking around as he did.
He was at the edge of a camp of some sort, and multiple other pods lay next to his own, many with Ponies inside them. The Changelings had been busy, it seemed. Some of the Ponies he recognized as Praetorians, other as Palace servants. None of them were awake like him, all trapped within their own visions of comfort and love --- perfect for storage and future feasting.
His cloudy thoughts were still racing as he wiped the slime away from his face and eyes. Why was he able to escape and the others couldn’t? Had the Changelings made a small mistake when they podded him? He glanced down at his wound, seeing it patched up. Perhaps that was it? A small abnormality that was enough to throw off their calculations?
As his mind debated with itself, he rolled on the ground to wipe off the remaining slime and shook his wings loose. He was missing his weapons and armor, but not his wits. He had to get back to the city and mobilize the Praetorians before it was too late. He took careful notice of the Ponies who had been captured, whispered a silent plea for their safety, then took off into the air. He wanted to save them, but he couldn’t do it without help.
As he took to the air, a Changeling patrol turned the corner and stumbled upon the remains of his pod. A screeching alarm was raised, lights were shone into the sky, and several Changelings fired bolts and bolas at him. This time, however, he was prepared. He dodged every bolt and avoided every bola, even managing to catch one out of the air and throw it back at one of the pursuing Changelings, sending him tumbling out of the sky.
He flew with all haste towards the city, passing over the remains of the Crop Duster plantation as he went. The house had somehow crumbled in on itself, and the ground around it was peppered with pits, tunnels, and deep chasms. He didn’t know what had happened in there since he escaped, and hoped that Shining Armor was safe, but he had a new mission now. He had to save the Empire.
The Palace loomed before him, and he dipped low. A Praetorian, luckily not one that he recognized from the pods, waved him down, and Flash landed before him. Before the Praetorian could speak, Flash pulled him aside and explained the situation.
Within seconds, the alarm was sounded.
The takeover had gone smoothly; almost far too smoothly for Pharynx’s liking. The Palace’s defenders were greatly weakened without their Prince, Princess, and Captain to lead them effectively, and had fallen to the Changeling infiltrators quite easily. Pharynx, now in a Shining Armor disguise, sat on the Crystal Throne, his hooves steepled in front of him as he thought about his brother. Thorax’s new ability with his wings was both troubling and intriguing. From what the two eyewitnesses could tell, his wings looked nothing like any Changeling they had ever seen, not even the Queen. It was as if he had mutated or evolved somehow.
Just what had these Ponies done to him?
Pharynx sighed, and was about to call for one of his elites when there came a crackling sound from the scarab stones on the table near the throne. The Queen was calling for him.
He quickly got up off the throne and returned to his natural form, kneeling on the carpet in front of the stones as they formed into an orb again. The image of the Queen, angry and looking beaten, stared down at him.
“Your Majesty,” Pharynx began. “To what do I owe--?”
“Shut up and listen!” Chrysalis hissed. “We have been betrayed! You are to take your troops and retreat from the Empire. Fall back to the base immediately! I am enacting Protocol 57!”
Pharynx looked up in shock. Protocol 57 meant complete abandonment of the Hive and relocation. “But...my Queen! The Palace is ours! Why would we--?”
“Treason, that’s why!” Chrysalis roared. “Your traitorous brother Thorax led a rebellion in the Hive with the help of his miserable Pony friends. The Hive has turned against me, and have mutated into unholy abominations of our noble race! The outposts at Canterlot and Ponyville have also pledged allegiance to Thorax and have declared him their king!”
Pharynx’s jaw dropped. “Thorax...a king?” He was almost proud.
“Yes!” Chrysalis answered. “Words cannot describe the judgment I will impart upon him if I ever see his face again. To my knowledge, you and your troops are the only loyal Changelings I have left. You are to fall back to the base camp and relocate to the cliffs of Mount Everhoof. We can regroup in the caves there until we can create a new plan.”
Pharynx saluted. “At once, my Queen! The true Hive shall live on in your name!”
As soon as the Queen’s face disappeared, Pharynx sprung into action. He sent an urgent message over the Hivemind for all the elites in the Palace to enact Protocol 57 and fall back to the camp, telling them it was an order from their Queen. It certainly set a fire under their wings to hurry.
At that moment, a panicked and wounded Changeling barged into the throne room and flung himself at Pharynx’s hooves, his breathing heavy. “General, news from the base. Captain Sentry has escaped, and is mobilizing the Praetorian Guard against us! They’ve already retaken the lower levels of the Palace, including the courtyard and the Crystal Heart. They’re on their way here!”
Pharynx roared and kicked at the throne, causing cracks to appear in its side. He was hoping that he’d be able to take the Heart with them, but Captain Sentry now made that impossible. “Bugger it all! On your hooves, we’re leaving!”
“Sir?”
“The takeover of Equestria has failed, and the Hive has turned traitor. Protocol 57 is now in order. The Queen is on her way here, and we need to relocate the camp. MOVE!!”
Despite his fatigue and wounds, the Changeling shot up off the ground and practically flung himself out of the windows, falling briefly before righting himself in the air and flying away. Pharynx followed him shortly after, just seconds before a platoon of Praetorians tore into the throne room in righteous fury, Flash Sentry leading them.
Pharynx spared one look back at the Palace, seeing a Praetorian wave the flag of the Crystal Empire from the throne room, much to the cheer of the populace and soldiers down below. The Changeling general’s scowl grew deeper and he continued flying northwest. Thorax would pay for this. The whole Hive would pay for this!
(A continent away...)
The jungles of Halflinger Grove were thick and often rainy, but despite the heat, it certainly beat the heat of the Eastern Dragon Lair just north of it. Not to mention that the view was to die for. Millions of trees as far as the eye could see, and a Dragon’s eye could see quite far.
Garble and Smolder, brother and sister, counted themselves lucky as two of the few Dragons to have such a view. It was almost as if it was an honorary part of their hoard: theirs and no one else’s. Each morning when Celestia’s sun went up they would do their stretches and get ready for a new day, and this day was no different. They didn’t care about what the rest of the world was up to. This was their world, and it was perfect.
So when Smolder suddenly spotted something on the horizon that wasn’t there the night before, it quickly threw their schedule into disarray. Garble scrambled over the rocky entrance of their cave, narrowing his thin slits for eyes at the sight before them. Smolder hid behind his large legs but poked her head fearfully out from behind.
It was large and round, whatever it was; and purple. Spiralling in the air like some kind of magical storm, it spat out lightning and sounded like thunder, and seemed to grow bigger before their eyes. Through it they could see fire and floating rocks.
They may not have cared much about the rest of the world, but they knew what a portal was, and this was the biggest one they had ever seen (granted, it was the only portal they had ever seen, but they had heard tales of others). It covered several miles' worth of Halflinger Grove, and was situated between two enormous lakes.
Then something emerged.
And the jaws of both Dragons dropped.