//------------------------------// // Chapter 16: For the Hills // Story: Five Score: A New Hive // by bossfight1 //------------------------------// Chapter 16: For the Hills May 11th With my magic I pulled the basement door shut just as the the sound of the front door being smashed to bits rang through the house. “One of you, cover this door!!” I ordered. Digit nodded and lit up her horn. A green haze hovered over the door for a moment before thickening into the sticky substance that lined the basement walls and floor. Through the ceiling we could hear someone stomping through the house. Muffled orders were shouted and the footsteps parted, as though the intruders were looking for something. After a tense minute we heard someone jiggling on the handle to the basement door. They tried pressing against the door, to little effect. A sense of cold washed over me as I backed carefully towards the wall. Shift stood at the bottom of the stairs in an aggressive stance, glaring at the door, his horn lit up. To my surprise, Digit did the same, her cheerful attitude gone. Bang. The door shuddered with the impact. We heard more muffled shouts upstairs, and the footsteps converged around the basement door. The intruders seemed to all try to bash the door in simultaneously; the door seemed to buckle, but otherwise remained intact. The intruders yelled something in frustration. “That goo does not budge,” I observed quietly. The intruders had some quiet conversation before their footsteps walked some distance from the door. “Are they giving up?” I asked hopefully. Shift stared at the part of the ceiling the intruders were standing over. “I doubt it…” Some kind of whooshing sound echoed upstairs. For a few seconds there was nothing but silence… Then I heard one of the intruders, even through the floor, say “One… Two… THREE!!” A circle of green suddenly cut clean through the floor below the intruders. Within seconds that portion of floor fell through to the basement, crashing loudly several feet away from me. With a yelp I scrambled away from the rubble as Digit and Shift took up position. Through the new hole in the ceiling came three changelings, their smug, cruel grins visible in the light that poured in from upstairs. They landed on the pieces of floor, their horns lit up. “Not a very luxurious hive…” One of them quipped with a gravelly male voice. “Indeed, Webb…” The second said, with a wistful female voice; her gaze fell on the eggs. “But it seems to have suited Chrysalis well…” The third took notice of me. “Well, look at this!” It said, his voice wheedling and manic. “So it’s true… The ponies are regaining their true forms… Looks like we won’t have to wait long to feed.” His mouth began to water; Digit stood protectively in front of me, scowling with a viciousness I’d have never expected from her. The first changeling, named Webb, laughed. “There’s no point in fighting…” he said. “Our Queen knows of this clutch, and is already on her way to deal with Chrysalis… If all goes well, Chrysalis will be in no position to stand against us. All we need from her is every last egg she can lay…” He glanced at the eggs in the corner. “Those will serve as a good start.” “If you touch those eggs…” Shift hissed. “Your screams will be heard all the way back in Equestria!!” The changelings cackled. “Such viciousness! Such brutality!” Webb snickered, turning to the second. “I must say, Pollen, we may have underestimated our former Queen’s new lackies!” “They certainly give me pause for thought!!” The third guffawed. “Why don’t you two grubs stand aside…” Pollen cooed, approaching Shift. “Several of our brothers are already on their way to acquire the eggs… But don’t think of this as your end. Perhaps Queen Prima will find a place for you in our Hive…” She locked eyes with Shift; her eyes flashed with opportunity. “I can see it in your eyes, Soldier… You wish to serve a Queen so great, so powerful, that our people will thrive for countless generations…” Shift narrowed his eyes; his stance relaxed a little bit. Pollen continued. “Our Hive will span worlds, my brother… Our race will become strong, and under Queen Prima, you may, one day, become more than a Soldier…” Shift looked at the floor, contemplating. My heart sank; this ‘Queen Prima’ sounded like whoever Chris had vowed to look for after finding Liz, the one who was leading these changelings… And it looked like Shift was being tempted to change sides. Now, I wasn’t exactly fond of Shift, mainly due to his stick-up-the-bum attitude, but I couldn’t just sit here and watch him be, more or less, tempted to the dark side. “Shift!” I began before Pollen shot a piercing glare at me. “You’d best learn your place, pony…” she hissed. “Equestria’s time is finished- there is only chaos… and the Hive.” She returned her gaze to Shift. “Yet it doesn’t need to end for you…” I furrowed my brow. She was talking about Equestria like it was a real place… Yet here they were- changelings, spawned from a queen who wasn’t Chris… One who had given an allegiance to this… ‘Discord’... Chris had mentioned him- someone who’d essentially doomed the characters of the show. My mind practically sagged under everything that was being thrown at it- turning into a pony, witnessing a fucked up kind of alien childbirth, watching someone’s girlfriend get kidnapped, then finding out her kidnappers were aliens themselves… I wondered if it would be too much to ask if I could go out for some fresh air and some time to wrap my head around what was happening. “...This hive…” Shift said, deep in thought, drawing me back into the moment. “...Spanning worlds?” “Yes…” Pollen said, leaning forward seductively. “Our kind would flourish- become a power in the universe second only to Discord himself… And with time, my dear Shift, you could very well lead armies in the conquest of nations!” Shift’s gaze remained fixed on the floor, his eyes practically flashing as he imagined the world promised by this Queen Prima. Digit hadn’t said a word this whole time, staring intently at Shift as though willing to go with whatever he decided to do. “...What of Chrysalis?” Shift asked, peering up at Pollen. “She is to be brought to our Hive, to act as a source of eggs until Queen Prima is capable of laying them herself,” Pollen said, her grin widening. “She won’t put up a struggle… Not once our Queen ‘convinces’ her to… aid us. And even if she decides to struggle, we still have her Royal… and her dear, sweet mate, to motivate her.” I didn’t like the sound of that; ‘convince’ as in ‘apply vicious beatings’, or something else? And ‘Royal’... did she mean Echo? And to top it all off, they still had Liz… like they were never going to lose her... Digit took a slow step back towards me, casting the barest hint of a glance at me. Shift glanced towards Digit, then me, then back at Pollen. He grinned; my heart sank. Then he shot an urgent look at Digit, who nodded and lit up her horn. A green aura surrounded me and quickly flung me through the hole overhead. “RUN!!!” I heard Shift and Digit scream simultaneously as I landed heavily on the kitchen floor. I looked back to see the hole flash like a green strobe light as the five changelings flung magic at each other below, Prima’s drones hissing furiously. I wanted to jump back down there, to help the grubs fight them off, but Digit shouted up. “JUST GO!! MORE WILL COME, JUST RUN-- AUGH!!” A blast of energy flew into her shoulder, shedding bright-blue blood from the pierced chitin. I trotted anxiously, weighing my options. I either run and end up on my own, again… I thought urgently. ...Or I fight, get caught with them, and lose my only chance to get Chris out of that Hive… However the hell I’d do that.  After a few moments that seemed to stretch for hours, I swore loudly before turning and galloping out the front door. I ran across the street, ignoring the neighbors who were peering out their doors and windows at the commotion from Chris’s house. Part of me wanted to yell for them to get back inside or risk being abducted, the same way Chris and Liz were being at this very moment, but I was too worried about being chased by one of the drones back inside. I ran down the alley between the two houses across from Chris’s place, flung open the lid to a dumpster and threw myself bodily inside. The stench was abhorrent, but I didn’t pay it any heed as I pulled the lid down, just enough to keep me hidden but still allowing me to peek at the house. Nothing was following me- Digit and Shift were evidently doing well, distracting the other changelings… I hoped. Flashes of green lit up the windows, and the faintest sounds of magic bolts being flung haphazardly could be heard, even from here. The sound of cars approaching almost made me duck into the dumpster. Three black SUVs pulled up; out of each stepped four black-suited men, who stormed into the house without a word. In seconds the storm of magic roaring from within the house seemed to subside; in less than a minute the fight had ended, though either outcome wasn’t exactly ideal. Either Digit and Shift had lost and would be taken prisoner, or they’d won, only for seven more changelings to storm down and finish them off, then be taken prisoner. My insides sank to the very floor of my hiding place as I watched the house, waiting for movement. Several of the men emerged and scattered around the street. Some of them opened the trunks of the cars and, in groups of two, withdrew heavy-looking metal boxes, big enough to store a human body in, and took them into the house. Others proceeded to tell any neighbors peering outside their doors to go back inside, that this was ‘government business’. Anyone who pressed for information got a quick, icy stare that made their voices die in their mouths. In an amount of time that made me somewhat impressed at the changelings’ efficiency, several men emerged, carrying the crates which appeared to be loaded down with something… Like eggs. Or nearly full-grown changelings. “What happened, Locust?” One of the men asked, approaching another who appeared to be one of the changelings who’d first arrived. “They fought back,” the one called Locust said bitterly. “Such a shame…” Said another, in the tone of voice I recognized as Pollen’s. “But it makes no difference; Queen Prima will have them seeing our way before long.” Another suited changeling emerged from the house. “What of the… witness, that escaped?” “She can’t have gotten far,” Pollen said dismissively. “Sweep the area and find her.” I was too scared to be annoyed at them constantly referring to me as a ‘she’. The men loaded the crates into the SUVs. Some of them got into two of the cars and drove off, while the occupants of the third spread out, searching for me. I lowered the lid delicately and hugged myself in my forelegs. I was scared. They were gonna find me, and I was gonna end up like Bedford, who they’d probably loaded into one of those crates as well. I screwed my eyes shut, praying to every last god I could think of, begging that I wouldn’t be found. Even if I wasn’t found, what would happen? Chris was gone, Liz was gone, the grubs were gone… It was just me. By myself. Again. Tears stung in my eyes as the disparity of the situation struck home. I curled up on the floor of the dumpster, the acrid stench forgotten. All I could do was hide beneath the multiple pizza boxes and hope like hell anyone who looked in here wouldn’t be thorough. The lid opened with a squeak; my insides froze. For a moment, there was silence. Then a cruel, quiet chortle. “Your tail is poking out, little pony.” I felt a hand grasp tightly around the roots of my tail. I was pulled out from the pizza boxes. I looked up in terror at my assailant, who grinned viciously at me. “I…” he began to call out. A pipe suddenly swung vertically from the right, smashing the man in the face. He stumbled back, clutching his nose, which was now bleeding a viscous green blood. The person with the pipe, a guy somewhat older than me, wearing a sports jacket and hat, thrust the pipe in a stabbing motion. The pipe plunged into the man’s throat; his eyes bulged in shock for a moment, then his entire body began to glow green. He convulsed for a moment before his entire form melted into a puddle of green slime. My rescuer dropped the pipe with a disconcertingly loud ‘clang’. He looked at me. “Move!!” He hissed before spinning around. I didn’t hesitate. I clambered out of the dumpster and hurried after him as he hurried to the other side of the alley. We emerged on the far side of the street, where the guy approached the driver side of a black car, similar to the ones the changelings had arrived in. He fumbled with the keys before unlocking it. “Get in!” He said. I heard a yell from the street we’d fled. I dared to look back; the suited men had found their liquidized ally, and had caught sight of me. I spun around and sprinted towards the car; my rescuer opened the passenger side door, allowing me to leap inside. I yanked the door shut with my magic as the man shifted into drive and sped down the street. I carefully climbed into the backseat. “Thank you…” I panted. “Seriously, thank you…” “What the flying fuck is going on?!” The man cried, sounding unhinged by the night’s events. “Long story…” I panted. “My name’s Trix--” I paused in irritation. “Ray. My name’s Ray.” “I’m Dane,” the man said. I perked up and looked at him in the rearview. “...Chris told me about you.” I said warily. “You’re the son of that guy who kidnapped Liz… Or so it seemed at the time.” “Listen, I don’t know what the fuck my dad’s doing, all right?!” He attested. “All I know is, your buddy Chris took my car for a joyride…” “From what I can tell, it was to get back at you for getting Liz fired…” I murmured. Dane shook his head. “I-I don’t… URGH! Not important! He had me identify who took my car using the webcam in my dashboard. I told him it was Chris, and last night I hear that they took Liz! I headed to the warehouse where they were keeping her…” “How’d you know where it was?” I asked. “I… kinda took one of the radios off of one of the guys on my dad’s security detail,” Dane said, somewhat guiltily. “When my dad refused to let me know what he was doing I was just… curious. I kept the thing and heard they were taking ‘Ms. Pierce’ to the warehouse off Maple Street, near the Kennebec, so I headed there to ask my dad what was happening.” He took a shuddering breath. “When I saw my dad, I could… see something was wrong with him… His eyes, they were like… glassed over. I noticed a little bit after he bailed me out, but now his eyes are basically… Like he’s sleepwalking, they’re unfocused, you know? Something’s wrong with my dad… He had me put in my house, basically under house-arrest, guarded by his… well, guards.” “Then, when things couldn’t get anymore confusing, this big-ass bug horse… thing breaks into my house and demands to know where Liz is…” “Chris, right…” I said. “He said he was gonna have a ‘chat’ with you… He didn’t know whether or not you were in on it.” “Well, I’m NOT!!” Dane yelled. “Why would he think I’d be involved?!” I raised an eyebrow. “You’re the son of the guy who did it, I think you’re involved by default…” I peered out the windows; we were heading up Route 17 now. “Where are we going?” I asked. “Out of town…” Dane said quickly. “We’re gonna go to my friend’s place and hole up, till things quiet down.” “Won’t he be a little… confused as to what he’s harboring?” “He owes me some favors,” Dane said curtly. “So what happened when Chris got to your place?” I asked. “I told him where Liz was… Then he stopped like he’d heard… something, I said something and he told me to be quiet. Then one of my guards came in… Chris did something, some kind of magic, that sent the guard tumbling but… It didn’t do anything. The guard got right up, called the other two in, and they…” Dane shook his head; it was clear he was hoping this was all a dream. “They turned into more of those… bug things…” “Changelings,” I said. “They… change form and… feed off love.” Dane looked back at me, perplexed. “How the fuck does that work!?” “Eyes on the road!!” I said urgently. Dane looked back and swerved us back into our lane just as another car drove past, honking angrily. “So anyway…” Dane said, once he was done panting heavily with terror. “Chris and those changelings didn’t seem to like each other… They fought, and Chris looked like she-- or, he, I don’t know-- had the upper hand… He… killed two of them, they turned into slime like that guy back there, but the third just screamed some… nonsense about ‘she’... I don’t know who he was talking about, he flew out the door before Chris could ask. Then Chris took my cell and flew off without a word, I think to find Liz…” “I took the radio and listened in; they gave an address to some ‘clutch’ or something, so I used Google Maps to find the place and… found Chris’s place.” “Why?” I asked. “Because it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that whatever’s happening with these… changelings, is what’s causing my dad to do this crazy shit.” He took a breath. “I parked on that far street and did, like, a stake-out… I saw some guys go in, there were some loud noises, then I saw you running from the place. I saw you hide in the dumpster and… You know the rest.” He looked back at me. “That’s basically everything… What’s going on?” After a pause, his eyes widened. “...And what the hell are you?” Given everything that had happened to him tonight, I couldn’t blame him for being less surprised at the fact he was driving a pony around. “I’m… a unicorn, I guess… Uh, last week, I… started turning into this… pony. I was convinced I was alone, until I spotted Chris speeding around the park in your car. He took that changeling form- or, Chrysalis- and flew off. He wasn’t that good a flier so I managed to follow him back to his place.” “Apparently we- him and I- were… characters from some old kid’s show… My Little Pony, I think… There was some talk about how it got this big fanbase of dudes, ‘cause apparently the show’s actually good- and it is, I took a look- so that’s how he knew who we were… And apparently we’re not alone; he thinks there are people turning into ponies all around the country- hell, maybe even the whole world…” “So what’s the deal with the rest of those… changelings?” Dane asked, looking back at the road. “Are they her-- his, children?” “He did lay some eggs…” I said. “...But only three of them have hatched. I don’t know where the others came from- they mentioned someone named ‘Queen Prima’, who sounds like another changeling queen… But it sounds like she knows much more about what’s happening than Chris does. From what I can guess, she must be why your dad’s acting all… loopy. It sounds like they were gonna take Chris to their Hive and… take the eggs he lays.” I put a hoof to Dane’s shoulder. “We have to find him and Liz.” Dane cast a disbelieving look at me. “And how do we do that?” “We just… urgh, I don’t know!” I snapped, laying my head against the back of the driver seat. “But we can’t just do nothing!!” I sighed. “Though it looks like we don’t have a choice… We have no clue where this Hive is, for starters…” “Actually…” Dane said slowly. “There’s a backpack behind my seat, the radio’s in there.” I reached into the bag and withdrew the walkie talkie with my magic. “I’ve been hearing some chatter about some place off West River Road… Something about bringing ‘acquisitions’ there. Dunno what that means, but they were never so cryptic before last week...” I tilted my head to the side. “How do we know it’s the Hive, though? Why would changelings use radios, it looks like they can talk… telepathically, or something like that.” “It’s not just my dad that’s been acting weird lately…” Dane said gravely. “Some of the guys I’ve known for years who’ve worked for my dad are acting the same way- distant and all that, you know? I’ve been hearing them talk about that place, but I never thought anything of it.” “So we have a lead we’ve pretty much gotten from speculation, and no way to effectively pursue it without being caught or killed…” I droned. “And if this Prima person finds out the son of her pawn is pretty much missing, she’ll know to look for you.” Dane’s knuckles whitened around the steering wheel. “...I’m worried about my dad, you know? He always gave me crap, and I deserved a lot of it, but… I don’t wanna lose him…” He looked back at me. “What about your family? They seen you since you… became a furry?” I shot a death glare at him. “I’m not a furry!” I snapped. I laid down across the backseat. He had a point, though… I hadn’t gotten in contact with my parents in a while, not even a text. I’d kinda drifted apart from my parents and younger sister since I’d moved out here from Vermont, keeping in contact through holidays and the occasional phone call made out of boredom. I wondered if I could ever talk to them again… Or if my disappearance would make that big a difference in their lives. I blinked tears out of my eyes. No, I thought. No, if I find Chris, maybe we can find a way to get things back to the way they were… This Prima person sounds like our best hope, assuming she doesn’t, you know, kill us. I sat up. “We need to go to that place, at least to be sure whether or not it’s the Hive.” “Not tonight,” Dane said. “We should wait till things settle down. In a couple days we’ll head out and take a look.” “But if we don’t go now, who knows what’ll happen to Chris! And Liz! While we stall for time, we’re only giving this Prima chick the time she needs to grow in power! We have to act!!” I was leaning all the way forward now, speaking into Dane’s ear. “Please…” Dane was silent. Then he shook his head. “I can’t… They’re probably on every corner right now looking for us. We’ll take a look tomorrow, maybe during the day where they won’t want to risk open conflict…” “But I’ll be out in the open…” I pointed out. “One… pony is easier to hide than a few hundred,” Dane said. He turned off of the route, and onto a dirt road. “We’re here.”                 -                -                -                -                - “Lucas!” Dane called, banging on the screen door. “It’s Dane! Come on, man, open up!” “You sure he’s here?” I asked, constantly looking over my shoulder in case we were followed. “He’s either here and drunk, or out and getting drunk. LUCAS!!” The inner door swung open. A man with wild, drummer-style hair leaned out the front door. “WHAT?!” He yelled, agitated, his breath stinking of booze. His gaze fell from Dane to me. I saw his eyes widen to the size of dinner plates beneath his bangs. “Is that Trixie?!” He cried. “Well, fuck,” I deadpanned.                 -                -                -                -                - “Make sure she’s secured,” I ordered as the drones- my drones, marched an unresisting Chrysalis into the inner sanctum of the Hive. “Yes, Queen Prima,” they said in perfect unison. They led her to the far corner of the chamber, to a cage that would allow a reasonable amount of space for her, while still allowing us to procure her eggs. It wouldn’t hold her if she tried to escape, but I was confident that wouldn’t be a problem… Not as broken as she was. Though I did have some help. Chrysalis lurched stiffly into the cage. She approached the corner facing the wall, and collapsed, as though death had already taken her. I peered at her through the bars and examined her. At the very base of her tail, the green had faded to a light grey. I smiled. I opted to thank my master for that little ‘tip’. “My queen!” I turned to notice several more drones and soldiers descending into the Hive, carrying heavy metal crates. “We were successful!” The one called Locust said proudly. “We’ve secured the eggs, as well as a drone and a soldier in their prime!” I frowned; there was a hint of fear in his voice. “The entire operation was a success?” I asked. Locust gave a slight quiver. Pollen approached and bowed solemnly. “There was a unicorn there, your highness…” she said. “One of those banished by Lord Discord… She escaped in the ensuing struggle with Chrysalis’ subjects… Someone- a human, most definitely, helped her escape.” I narrowed my eyes at them, then huffed. “It makes no difference.” I turned towards Chrysalis. She was either asleep, or awake and barely listening. “With Chrysalis in our grasp the ponies will soon have nowhere to run… This city, this nation, this planet… will be ours.”