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Commiseration

Love at Ground Zero
Chapter 3: Commiseration

Twilight hung there upside down in the cocoon, watching helplessly as the changeling named Mirror transformed into the spitting image of herself. Sounds were muffled within the cocoon, but she could still hear Chrysalis order Mirror to go after her brother and to order the guards to drain her of her energy. She watched as the changelings and Chrysalis dispersed, leaving her alone with three guards that circled around her. She tried using her telekinesis to grab one of the guards, but like a hand trying to reach through a glass window, the cocoon’s shell kept her magic from escaping.

Somehow, this cocoon is keeping me from using my magic through it, which means teleportation is out of the question. There’s got to be a way out of here.

Before she could do anything else, she felt her body growing weaker like a mug of cider being siphoned empty by a straw. She tried to resist, but they were draining her at full power, sucking her dry and she’d be helpless in only a few minutes.

Thinking fast, she gritted her teeth as she concentrated her magic on creating a singularity. Even though the shell prevented her magic from reaching out, it did not hinder her magic within the shell, enabling her to keep the singularity at her chest level. The gravitational pull of the singularity caused the cocoon to squash into a spherical shape. Slowly, the cocoon contracted, pushing into itself until the tip of Twilight’s horn was able to poke through the skin. With all her remaining strength and focus, she blasted a spell down upon the ground with a soft zap. The energies fanned out in all directions, and the ricochet knocked the changelings off their hooves, leaving them on their backs in a daze. Freed from their hold, Twilight increased the strength of the singularity to force the cocoon into an even smaller sphere, allowing her head to poke through. With her head free, she teleported out of the cocoon, leaving behind an empty cocoon that warped back into to shape like a crushed plastic bottle springing back into shape.

With her capturers incapacitated, Twilight paced nervously back and forth in thought. “This is not good. How am I going to get out of here?” She looked about the chamber to find there were five virtually identical tunnels going in different directions. No matter how hard she tried, Twilight could not remember from which direction she had entered. “I can’t teleport through walls and I can’t teleport to the entrance without knowing the way there. If only I can search around without being noticed. Wait, I could use those transformation spells Celestia taught me.”

She searched her memory for pictures of changelings she remembered seeing from books. Eventually, she recalled the picture of a female changeling; one that was scrawny looking with a slightly crooked horn and longer than normal fangs. It was a creepy looking image to Twilight at the time, and she remembered it so clearly because of that. Her horn glowed and in a flash of purple light, she became a perfect image of the changeling from her book. She looked over her new form, examining her insect-esque body and the strange holes in her legs. “What’s the purpose of these holes, anyway?” She was alerted to the sound of hoof steps echoing down the hall and heading toward her direction. As quietly and as inconspicuously as she could, she went down a random tunnel, blindly heading out to wherever it led. She explored the various halls, each one featureless except for the torches that lit up the wall. She could hear the buzzing of wings and the clopping of hooves, but all the activity seemed to be down other paths, leaving Twilight alone as she searched.

“Now, where’s that exit?” said Twilight to herself. “These caves are certainly more intricate than I thought. In fact, I think the changelings must have dug all of these tunnels, but if so, how long have they been here?” She eventually encountered a large circular chamber. The walls were just as gray and featureless as the rest of the tunnels, but there was something else. Along the walls were what appeared to be tubes chiseled out of the rock and the insides coated with green wax. Changelings slid in and out of the tubes as if they were some strange new ride. Over each of these tubes were some kind of characters that Twilight could not. Each one chiseled into the rock.

Her scientific curiosity getting the better of her, Twilight approached one of the tubes and peeked inside it but could not see the other end. It’s some kind of transport but it appears to be horizontal so it doesn’t seem like the changelings can just slide down them. Over the tube was a symbol of some kind: a character that looked like a square with a Z super imposed over it.

As Twilight pondered the meaning of the symbol, she could suddenly hear voices faintly echoing in the tunnels:

“Where did she go?”

“I don’t know, but she couldn’t have gotten far.”

“Should we tell the Queen?”

“No! We must find the prisoner before she finds out.”

Panicked, Twilight crawled into the tube. With a loud squeak, she felt her hooves slide along the slippery wax. As she sat there wondering what to do, she realized that the tube was just large enough to allow her to spread out her wings. Hearing the voices and hooves coming closer, she beat her insect wings and was propelled forward along the slippery passageway. She slid faster and faster into darkness, heading straight for a light at the other end. She popped out and—with a startled yelp—nearly landed face first onto the stone floor. Thankfully, a quick beat of her wings hovered her a mere three inches from a painful face plant on the pavement. With a sigh of relief, she got onto her hooves.

She examined her new surroundings, and beheld an underground world where changelings walked or flew in all directions like the busy streets of Manehattan. All around her was the busy sounds of buzzing wings and the clops of hooves. There were several round structures shaped like rock igloos or cones, all of them serving the function of shops and restaurants like the ones Twilight could find in any city. Some of these buildings were built into the walls and some were built without any kind of stairway or path leading to them. Instead, they all seemed to spread out in haphazard directions as if each building was nothing more than a weed that grew on top of other weeds and into whichever direction had room to grow. She could see several changelings crawling up and down the walls like flies in order to go in and out of the buildings around the city. A large shell covered in bricks and mortared with changeling wax hovered the whole city. Luminescent crystals lined the ceiling, providing light for this underground world.

Amazing! This must be the heart of the changeling colony or maybe even just a small part of it. I’ve read books on changelings, but I knew nothing about what their cities looked like. Those tubes must be how they get around. There might even be tubes leading throughout Equestria. Twilight was not sure what to do next. She was in the changeling colony, and yet she had no idea where to go from there, where Chrysalis could be, or how to confront her. She could not risk going back the way she came, but she could not stay since the meteor was due to arrive in mere hours. As luck would have it, she noticed a building on ground level and on its side was a row of characters, one of which looked suspiciously like a magic wand. On a hunch, she approached the open entrance. She found what appeared to be an ordinary store that was round like an egg, but lopsided and lumpy both inside and out with uneven shelves that held merchandise. It was almost as if the whole building was made by a foal trying to make a bowl for the first time out of clay.

“Can I help you with something?” said a changeling at the counter.

“Oh, I’m just looking.” Twilight entered the store, examining the various jars of herbs and other ingredients for potion making. As she approached the cashier, she leaned over and noticed that the changeling had the name Ditto printed on the nametag he wore.

“Looks more like you’re looking to get out of trouble.” Ditto eyed her suspiciously.

“Trouble? Uh, what do you mean?”

“I mean why aren’t you in Appleloosa helping the Queen? I thought all the workers were ordered to help.”

“Oh,” said Twilight, momently forgetting that she had disguised herself as a changeling worker. “I’m not playing hooky, it’s just that...well...I’m in a bit of a pickle. You see I—“ Twilight hesitated, unsure of what to say. Her eyes drifted up behind Ditto and that was when she noticed a jar of mandrake roots sitting on the shelf. Mandrake? I might be able to use that.

“You were saying?” said Ditto.

“That mandrake, how fresh is it?”

“It was picked a few days ago. Why do you ask?”

“Well...uh, I need it for...a potion. Yeah...a potion I need for the Queen.”

“All right,” said Ditto as he telekinetically lifted the jar off the shelf, “how many do you need?”

“Just give me two roots and do you have a cloth to wrap it in?”

“Cloth? Normally I’d wrap mandrake in paper.”

“Trust me, it’s better in a cloth.”

“All right, if you say so.”

Doing as he was instructed, Ditto telekinetically picked up two roots from the jar and wrapped them in a cheap cotton cloth. He dropped it down in front of her and said, “There you go. That’ll be 50 silvers.”

Twilight gawked. “What did you say?”

“I said the mandrakes cost 50 silvers.”

Twilight paused in shock. It never occurred to her that the changelings must use different currency than in Equestria. “I’m sorry. I don’t have that much.”

“Is that so? Well, do you have any love to barter with?”

“Love? Oh...of course, I can give you some.”

“Then feed me all you can spare.” He lowered his horn to Twilight, ready to accept the trade.

Twilight grimaced as she tried her best to hide her disgust at how he talked about love as if it was a commodity. She tentatively leaned over so that her horn was touching Ditto’s horn. She closed her eyes and cleared her mind. Rather than concentrating to cast a spell, she instead thought back to her family and friends. She kept her mind only focused on them, remembering only the love she felt for them. As her feelings of love welled up in her heart, and she used her magic to gently direct it out of her body and into Ditto’s horn. It was a strange sensation as if she was drawing her own blood. She could feel her strength wane a little as she fed him her love. When she gave him all she could spare, she disconnected from his horn with a tired sigh.

“Oh wow, that was delicious,” said Ditto. “I haven’t eaten like that in a while.”

“Why?” asked Twilight, raising an eyebrow with curiosity. “Can’t you get more food?”

“Have you been living under rock? Of course I can’t get more. With so little food to go around, the majority of it goes to the workers and the hatchlings. Since all I do is run a store, I always get fewer shares. That’s why Her Excellency is trying to take over Equestria and I hope the plan in Appleloosa works this time because I don’t know how much longer the Hive will last.”

Twilight looked at Ditto in amazement. She had no idea the changelings were starving.

“I better be going,” said Twilight as she picked up the mandrake and tucked it under her wing. “Thanks a lot.” Twilight galloped out of the building, running as fast as she could back to the tube she came through. She hopped in and was propelled through the earth by her wings. As she came out of the other end, a changeling was waiting on the other side. With her wings, she managed to stop short of crashing into him.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there?

The changeling looked at her suspiciously. “What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I was...looking for the rookery and I got lost.”

“Well, you have no business there today. All workers who are not disguised as ponies are required to join the Queen.”

“Oh...o-of course. Where can I find her?”

“Just go down that tunnel.” The changeling pointed a hoof toward a nearby tunnel. From the other end echoed the voices of many changelings

“Thank you.” Twilight ran down the tunnel, knowing she would be suspicious if she did not obey. Once she reached the other end, she could see a group of changelings gathered around Chrysalis inside yet another round chamber. From a distance, she could see that the changelings were gathered around Chrysalis as she stood next to a pony trapped in a cocoon.

“Good work, Mirror,” said Chrysalis to the red changeling before her. “Now we can destroy the princesses once and for all.”

Curious, Twilight crept closer to see the pony inside the cocoon. She gasped in shock to see Shining Armor hanging upside down inside of it.

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