The Nether Wars

by Blackdrag-rose

1: Home Sweet Home

Northern stretched her legs as she and her sisters deboarded the train that transported changelings, ponies, and a variety of goods from the Hive to Canterlot. The train always came to a stop on what was becoming a village or town of sorts on the surface of the Hive, seeing how some changelings wanted to live like their pony counterparts. They had built the town in the style of Ponyville, as to honor the Elements and all the crazy things that happened in that place, which included the large three acre apple farm that Harvest worked in all the time.

Northern wanted to go to her room, pull off her armor that protected against most spells, maybe take a nice hot shower, and then throw herself on her bed so she could rest. Harvest and Echo, usually going to the east of the Hive at the same time, were fully rested and were planning on working, or rather learning more about her bat friends in Echo's case. Harvest had said something about checking on the apples and maybe taking some of them down to add them to their dinner tonight, if they were ripe enough to eat. Northern hoped she'd see her father that night, mostly because he had been busy for the last few days and he hadn't had the time to really be there.

Her royal guards Shimmer and Ironside, the same two who had allowed her to escape from her room four year ago, saluted her as she reached the entrance to the underground part of the Hive. Most of her fellow changelings had moved to the village, leaving the vast part of the actual Hive empty for Northern, her sisters, her parents, all their guards, and a couple of cooks. Northern wondered what the cooks were going to make for the night, but the main thing was that she didn't get lost going down the wrong turn...in the tunnels.

She turned her head and smacked herself with a hoof, realizing that she had gone down the second right tunnel instead of the first left tunnel and was now wandering in circles. That was the consequence for over thinking something and not paying attention, which meant she was going to retrace her steps and figure out the path back to the surface. Then she could take the correct path back to her chambers and finally get out of her armor. Seriously, she was dying for a shower at this point.

~The Badlands, surface~

Harvest smiled as she trotted down the rows of her apple orchard, seeing half a dozen already ripe apples hanging on a bunch of the trees. She had put a lot of work into the trees and now she could reap the rewards of her labor, giving her family and the vast number of changelings something delicious to munch on. Most of the changeling were developing a taste for apples and all sorts of other foods they were just beginning to discover.

She kicked a tree and it rained apples into the waiting baskets below, giving the changelings around her a look as they followed her movements and bucked their respective trees. She had learned how to farm from Applejack and then she had, in turn, taught a hooffull of changelings how to farm and care for the trees as a whole. It had taken some doing, on the part of her students that is, but after a few weeks of teaching her parents had a fully operational work force of farmers. As such they had farm houses, housing and storage areas, built around their trees, also modeled after Sweet Apple Acres of Ponyville.

Yeah, the changelings were all about copying those around them.

Her sister flew over her head and landed on a branch of a tree ahead of her, grinning like a little filly who was having a blast and didn't care what others were doing. Around her were a couple of bats, who happily landed on the branches and hung upside down as they stared at Harvest. Despite the fact that they were her sister's friends Harvest didn't care much for the winged rascals and they, in complete retaliation, didn't care for her much. The only reason she hadn't chased them away was because her mother told her not to and the only reason they hadn't ruined her trees was because they ate apples all the time.

"Come on down here Echo," Harvest called to her sister, "you can't spend all afternoon up in the trees, not when mom wants us clean and presentable for dinner tonight."

"Then why are you still working Harvest?" Echo asked, tilting her head as she stared at her, "Northern is likely already washing up so she can rest up, but your here working your tail off."

Harvest sighed and turned around, heading back to the tunnel entrance on the outskirts of the orchard. The changelings around her continued to work, ignoring Harvest as her sister landed beside her. They fought all the time, either with their words or with their hooves, but in the end they always gave up and just agreed to disagree. Besides, their mom had mentioned that they needed to be presentable for dinner that night and they weren't going to show up covered in dirt.

~Two hours later~

Northern sighed, she really hated getting dressed up nicely for the dinners that her mother threw every now and then. She wasn't the only one dressed up, seeing how both of her sisters had been forced into high society dresses, no doubt supplied by Rarity, and they stood alone at the moment. Northern was supposed to be dressed in a light blue dress that had a couple of stars on it, Harvest in what might have been an orange colored cross between cowpony and city clothing, and Echo wore a light green dress that always moved whenever she wanted to move her wings.

The three of them had been tricked; their mother had told them that they were having dinner that night and that was it, but what she had really meant was that she was inviting nobles from all over Equestria to a gala of sorts. Ponies from Manehatten, Canterlot, Appleloosa, Las Pegasus, and even Ponyville were gathered together and mingling with each other. Northern noticed that the princesses arrived in pairs, Celestia and Luna arriving with their respective guard captains, Cadence and Shining Armor dressed in their crystal armor, and Twilight with an orange coated pegasus stallion. Northern had never met the stallion before, but tonight was not the time for meeting complete strangers.

Their mother was dressed up in a flowing green gown mixed with swirls of blue, giving her an elegant appearance as she practically floated over to where the princesses were. Northern kept an eye on her mother, knowing that something was bound to happen at some point and was making a mental note of where her mother was, in case of an attack. While she did she noticed that Sunset Shimmer, dressed in what was a dress that combined a bright red with a nice yellow color, just like her mane.

"Princesses, it is good to have you all here," Viscarias smiled, "I was afraid that you were all going to be tied down somewhere and would be unable to make it."

"Nonsense Viscarias," Celestia said, waving a hoof as she looked over the crowds, "When the Queen of the Changelings hosts a party it isn't wise to just not arrive. I was hoping something like this was going to happen, because we have some excellent news for you."

"Really?" Viscarias asked, confused and curious at the same time, "And what would that be?"

"You won the war game," Luna announced loudly, causing the assembled ponies and changelings to look their way and begin to cheer for the Queen, "and there's one more guest that has yet to arrive."

Before Viscarias could respond there was a gust of wind above the assembled ponies, like a mini tempest had suddenly activated and the wind whipped around in rapid succession. Right before any of the ponies could panic the tempest opened up and died down, but what emerged surprised some and others weren't so surprised. King Eclipse, still clad in his royal battle armor, landed in a small clearing next to the princesses, allowing his magic to shimmer and change the armor to his royal aquamarine jewelry. He may not have been in his werepyre form, but his changeling king form could still install some fear into the hearts of his enemies.

"After weeks of hard work we have decided that your husband has earned the right to ignore us for a long time," Luna continued, Eclipse giving her a look before kissing Viscarias on the cheek, "Right now we're here to enjoy this gala and enjoy the company of those around us."

Northern smiled again; she may have been tricked into wearing a dress, but for the first time in eight long years the changelings had finally won a war game. And her father was there to enjoy their victory with his family.