Martyr of the Hive

by Taranth

Chapter 4: Alone/Community

Chrysalis was deeply surprised to be waking up.

She was still fuzzy, that much was true. But she woke with a start as the cocoon she had been in was burst open, trying to push to hooves which were weaker than ever. She looked around, blinking her eyes clear until she could focus on the imposing figure of Mutare above her, glaring down.

She managed to produce a weak semblance of a smile. "Something wrong, sister?"

"It seems the Queen somehow got wind of my plan. Would you know anything about this?"

"I doubt it will matter to either of us soon." Chrysalis tried to laugh, but ended up coughing up more of the cocoon's slime instead.

"Very true." The looming black form above her turned, looking at the entrance to the room. "Soon, there will be a grand battle between the Queen and my hive. It will likely shake the very foundations of the Changelings forever."

"I'd say I'm sorry to ruin your plans, but..." Chrysalis cut off in a flurry of coughing. "...I'm really not. I almost hope Mother keeps you alive as an example."

"Ruin my plans? Oh, Chrysalis. You don't understand."

Mutare grinned, leaning down to sit muzzle to muzzle with her captive.

"Everything is going even better than I could have hoped."

"W-what? You can't think you have enough power to defeat the Queen!"

"Hmmm... you'd think that." She smiled enigmatically. "But you don't have all the information yet. You were wondering before how we replaced you and Vicci without being noticed? You're right - no drone could do the trick. It's all about layers! You have to think deeper, my dear. Because if you're already doing something that would get you executed... why not go all-out? If you can't get a drone to do a job..."

Chrysalis' eyes were forced to look away as the flash of green power lit up the room. When she could see again, her antagonist had vanished, and another changeling stood there. She had the same colour scheme as Mutare, but was smaller, different. "Hello, Chrysalis. My name is Aurelia. Pleased to meet you face to face at last - instead of just meeting your face in the mirror!"

"You're..."

"Yes, yes, I'm Mutare's daughter, a new Princess, created without the Queen's knowledge. I know you're not quite at full uptake at the moment, so let me run you through it." Her voice dripped with smug superiority. "I'm the one who's been pretending to be you. I took your little swarm with me while Mutare stayed home. And the Queen, right now, is coming for my mother, and is about to bring her full force to bear in destroying her."

"...So... you're going to pretend to be me, when the Queen gets here... and she'll rescue you, and take you back into the fold." Chrysalis blinked in horror. It was... it was a good plan, and again, there was nothing she could do about it. The other changeling could drain out her personality and make a solid show of it, if she could then hide the body. Aurelia seemed to agree, cackling at the thought.

"Now you're thinking like a real changeling! That'd be a great plan, and it'd probably be what I'd do next... but again, you don't have all the information. As I told you before - it's all about layers. I plan to outlive my mother, but a little more dramatically than that."

"What?"

"Your brood, Chrysalis. As I told you, they loved you, so very, very much. The plan was to... antagonise the pony populace. Start a war, stir up trouble, run home with our tails between our legs. But it went wrong, Chrysalis. Do you know how?"

"...No?" The only thing Chrysalis could do now was keep the princess talking, and as a literally captive audience she really didn't have much choice but to listen.

"We won." Aurelia said quietly, suddenly serious, pacing around the room. "Everything went off almost without a hitch. Only one pony actually noticed anything was wrong at all - one little pony, who knew Cadenza from foalhood and was related to her fiance. And nobody listened to her, until she managed to burst in the door with the real Cadenza.

"Finally the time had come for the grand reveal, and I did a bit of showing off, was ready to get blasted across the castle by Celestia, then run away while your brood fought to protect, well, 'you'. I was ready to put up a bit of a fight... and then you know what happened?"

She drew up, her muzzle suddenly inches from Chrysalis'. "I knocked out Celestia with a single blow."

"What?!" She recoiled back as much as her body could manage, as much from the sudden proximity as the revelation.

"I know! The goddess of the sun! At midday! At first I thought it was just that she'd just been massively overestimated or something, or maybe I'd taken out a body double? It's what we'd do. But then I realised... I was strong.

"Because for the last few weeks... I've had hundreds, hundreds of drones who love you, who adore you, who are unendingly, beautifully, heart-wrenchingly loyal to you above all others... focusing all that beautiful Loyalty on me."

Chrysalis felt an almost physical pain - overwhelming even the actual physical pain she was in right now - at the thought of her beautiful children being fooled, having their loyalty fed on like common ponies. Mutare's brood had always been the most recognised of the changelings among the ponies - though even they were rarely caught - and the start of the rumours that they fed on love, for indeed, Loyalty was so often a key part of such.

But changelings gained far more sustenance when what they ate was stolen, not given freely. And her whole brood had given their loyalty to who they thought was her... and...

"So I found myself having won. Celestia captured. And then I could have picked up the Elements of Harmony! Oh, I barely knew what to do with myself. If I could get the elements... then we'd win forever."

She paced. Chrysalis boggled at the thought. The Elements of Harmony - the pure incarnations of the very concepts they fed upon. If they could be harnessed by the Changelings... it might mean unlimited power.

" And then... then I let my guard down for a second." Aurelia snarled. "I thought I'd won. But then they manage to snap the fiance out of it, and combine their powers into the biggest work of magic I've ever seen. It was as if we'd just had the castle thrown at us. Squashed like bugs. For a moment, I didn't think I was going to survive.

"But your beautiful, loyal little drones pulled through for me. Every single one of them." The smaller changeling princess smiled with horrible satisfaction. "They died for you, Chrysalis. The last thought on every single one of their minds was that they would give up their lives for you, so loyal were they."

Chrysalis gave out a horrible scream, trying to leap again at her tormentor, thinking of nothing but hurting this monster who had fed off the sacrifice of every one of her beautiful children. Even if her legs had obeyed her whim, before she had even finished crouching, green magic wrapped around her like metal plating, holding her in place, unable to move an inch. Aurelia's horn glowed with so much power it was almost painful to look at, though she seemed to be barely paying attention.

She writhed hopelessly and let out another strangled banshee wail before her muzzle was clamped shut and she was brought face to face once again with the other changeling.

"They died for you." She purred, moving close to her captive, taunting her with her powerlessness. "Every one of them, a final act of pure Loyalty... and Kindness I suppose as well, but that hardly matters, does it? And I not only came out of it unharmed... but far, far stronger than ever. I could match Celestia before. I think now I can take out our Queen herself, especially if she is weakened and distracted in combat with my mother, and the fraction of this power I fed to her to show her my loyalty was still strong."

Chrysalis struggled, but could not so much as open her mouth, such were her bonds. If she were a pony, she might have wept, then. This monster had sacrificed her precious children, and through that become unto a physical goddess, and she could do absolutely nothing about it.

"And that, I think, is what I am going to do. My mother had her plans, and they were good ones, but honestly? They're fairly moot at this point. So I just thought I'd come down and thank you, Chrysalis, while mother weakens the Queen. If it wasn't for you and the kindness you showed your drones... I don't think I'd have this opportunity. And I just wanted someone to know - I think I may have enjoyed the whole monologue-reveal thing a little too much when I was back in Canterlot. I'll have to break that habit."

She moved up to Chrysalis, smiling wide. "And so, here we stand. Your brood died for me. Your name is cursed by changeling and pony alike. Everything you have ever stood for is now destroyed. And I'm the only one who truly knows how responsible you are for the new world order to come."

Chrysalis fought her bonds, but it was like being buried in stone. They gave not an inch, as the green-lined horn grew closer. Only her eyes could move, watching its progress as it inched towards her head.

"Loyalty forced on someone with magic is usually not very appetising... it's almost sickly, to be honest. But I think I will always take time to savour it from you. Goodbye, Chrysalis. It's been a pleasure being you."

And the world turned green, then black...

~-~-~-~

"Hoo-ee that was a close one! Don't you two worry yourselves none, those bugs ain't gonna be tryin' anythin' with us here." The voice of their rescuer was music to Spring's ears as the other ponies bustled around them, making sure they were okay and congratulating them on their escape.

"Th-thanks, um, Applejack... I'm Spring Bounty, and this is Papillon."

"Well ya done well getting away!" Applejack gestured with a nod, and soon the whole group was marching away from the scene again, back the way they'd come. "We got a bunch of folks from different villages here, snatched out from under buggy snouts. You'll fit in just fine."

"Oh, thank you!"

"You're... you're one of Celestia's champions!" Blurted Papillon, staring at the orange-coated mare before them. Applejack chuckled, tipping her hat slightly as if to cover her face modestly.

"I s'pose you could say that. When the whole mess started, she tol' us to go around and help whoever we could, while she held Canterlot safe and prepared the counterattack."

"Thank you!" Spring wailed, leaping forward and hugging Applejack tightly, making a few of the other ponies jump. "Oh, I was beginning to wonder if there was anyone left at all!"

"Yeah... well, it ain't been easy." The smile fell off Applejack's face, and a few of the other ponies looked away from her. "There's a few groups around, but some of 'em are just changelings tryin' to get into our heads. And we don't dare send too many messengers from here t' the capital, so we ain't heard much from Celestia lately. But yer safe here with us, that much I can promise you."

She grinned as she gestured forward, as the leading ponies surrounding them split apart to show them... their new home.

It was a rough and tumble thing, nothing on even the small village that Spring was used to. Most of it was tents and shelters, with a few more solid huts complete and several more mid-construction, without the colour or uniqueness of your average pony town - but it looked like a resort compared to sleeping in bushes and caves like they had the past couple of weeks.

"Me an' my friends have little safe havens like this around, and we're rescuin' more and more ponies to come live in them." Applejack waved at the other villagers in the town, who gave a slight cheer in turn. "And you'll be safe here."

"Thank you so much! I knew the Princesses wouldn't let us all down!" Spring bounded in, looking around in wonder as the raiding party split off to take up various tasks throughout the village, leaving Applejack and a couple of others with the newcomers.

"Canterlot'll have everything back together soon, but there's a few rules you have to follow here to make sure everyone stays safe." One of the others spoke up, a tall pegasus stallion in guard armour stated with a stern glare at the two mares, and Applejack nodded in agreement beside him. "No wandering off. If you go out of sight of the village, we can't protect you then."

"They won't dare attack us directly here, but they're not above tryin' tricks to get in."

"They... won't attack here?" Spring tilted her head, and then actually had a good look at the budding settlement.

Tents and huts, farmland, with barely a wooden palisade around the edge. Come to think of it, the population here wasn't really that much higher than that of her own village. They weren't making a solid effort to hide, there weren't a great number of guards...

She shivered. Suddenly, the place didn't actually seem that safe after all.

"Wait... why won't they attack here?" She asked. "They've taken whole cities! Why won't they come here?"

Applejack grinned, leading them on to the centre of town. "The thing you gotta understand about Changelings is, they really ain't that tough. They look nasty, sure, but by themselves they ain't too much trouble in a fair fight. Problem is, they're good at being tricky little buggers, and there's lots of 'em - too many to fight if there's only one or two of you.

"All the villages and towns, they had spies in there already - they knew everything that was goin' on, they replaced important ponies, and caused all sorts of confusion. Half the time the ponies didn't know whether they were attackin' friends or bugs. By the time they sorted everythin' out, it was a whole mess and all the bugs had to do was come and sweep up."

Spring looked down shamefully, memories of the assault on her village coming back clearly. It had been chaos, nobody knowing what was going on, and everyone was just running around frightened and confused, until she'd ended up getting hit by one of those green bolts... then another, and another... and after that, the cocoons.

"But we ain't got any little bugs in our village. If they come for us, we'll be ready for 'em."

"What? How can you be so sure?" Papillon blurted. Spring turned to her friend.

"Oh, that's easy. See, after the Wedding, we started lookin' into how changelings worked - and our own magic too. And as you said, I'm one of Celestia's champions. Specifically, the Element of Honesty." The grin she gave Papillon was suddenly much wider. "And that means I've learnt to tell when somepony ain't what she says she is."

Spring had a feeling she'd missed something. Applejack wasn't really talking to her anymore, and Papillon was backing away from her - at least, until she suddenly ran into the pegasus stallion behind her, glowering down.

"What's going on?" Spring looked around at the group.

"Well, I mighta been wrong. We might have one little bug in our village."

"No, wait! You don't understand, I'm--"

"Get 'er."

The stallion's hoof came down on Papillon faster than she or Spring could react. She was almost instantly flattened against the ground, struggling weakly as her captor held her down on her side, one wing trapped beneath her.

"N-no, please! You can't do this to me, I-I saved her!" Her eyes bulged desperately. "You have to lis--urk!" A second armour-clad hoof found its way to her neck, cutting off her voice as she struggled futilely, choking.

"Applejack, what is he doing? What are you doing? Get off her!" Spring went to help her friend, but Applejack held her back easily, her eyes hard.

"She saved you, sugarcube, but t'weren't outta the goodness of 'er heart. She just wanted help gettin' in here. As if that was gonna work."

"W-what do you mean?" Spring stared down at Papillon, who shook her head frantically, her eyes pleading for help as she fought for breath and desperately pawed at the hoof on her neck, which moved not an inch.

"It means this." Applejack let go of Spring, and moved forward to the trapped pegasus mare. Spring watched on as Applejack turned and raised a hind leg, and bucked the pegasus with full force in the stomach.

Spring gave a strangled yelp at the brutality of the attach, which turned into a scream as her companion convulsed and flashed with green flame, revealing the prone form of a black-armoured bug beneath. A network of cracks webbed out from the site of the kick, leaking blood, and the creature curled up around it, gasping for breath between chittering sobs.

"Wh-what?"

"I'm sorry, Spring. It was just trying to get into the village - you were just there to support its story." Applejack gave her an apologetic look, wiping her hoof off on the grass. "It wasn't your friend."

"But... but she saved me!" Spring stared in horror, unable to take her eyes off the twitching creature before her. The guardspony had not even flinched at the rush of flame, used to the illusionary pyrotechnics, but eased back, sitting his armoured hoof on the creature's insectile wings. It wasn't going anywhere with that wound.

"Changelings will do all sorts of things, say all sorts of things, to get you to trust them. That's why they're so scary. But they can't trick me, Spring. Look at me." She felt a hoof guide her muzzle until she was looking her saviour - and her ex-saviour's enemy - in the eye, instead of the shuddering creature. "Calm down. Breathe."

"She... she said she wanted to go to Canterlot... she needed to speak to the princesses. She... I wouldn't have made it this far if she hadn't..." Her eyes kept flicking to the body on the ground.

"I know it probably seemed real nice. But it just wanted to spy on us. But I promise ya, I won't let any changeling get near ya again. That there's the Honest truth. So long as you stick with us, I can look after you."

"P-please... you have to..." The changeling suddenly rasped. "Have to... tell... important... please listen... trust me... the princesses..." It gave a gasp as the stallion kicked it in the side again, making it fall silent except for laboured breaths.

Applejack and Spring turned to face it as it whimpered. It stared at them with an imploring look - or what might have been an imploring look on a creature who was not fanged, and whose eyes were not soulless and blank.

Spring looked back down at the changeling, shivering. She'd trusted her, every step of the way, from the moment she'd been rescued. She'd never even considered that she might not be what she said. How could this have happened?

"How could I be so stupid?" She whispered, her thoughts finding their way between her lips.

"You're not stupid. Don't be hard on yourself." Applejack smiled grimly. "As I said, they're tricky little bugs."

"How could you do this to me?" She rounded on the changeling, tears now falling freely. "You tricked me! You told me stories! Just so you could capture more ponies?"

"N-no... warning... only way... needed... to escape..."

"W-what?" She blinked, taken aback.

"War... in the hive... escaped... want to... stop them... help..." the creature cried out in pain, trying to hold its cracked shell together. "Please..."

Spring wavered at the pitable sight - surely at this point, the creature had nothing to gain from continuing to lie - and turned to Applejack, who was giving the creature a curious look. "...You're... are you sure she can't... I mean, you said you're the element of Honesty, can you..."

"There's one way I can be sure if it can be trusted." Applejack stated darkly.

"Really?"

"Oh, certainly." She walked up to the Changeling again. Spring watched curiously, wondering what wonder of Elemental magic she might be about to witness...

Then cried out once again as Applejack reared up, and slammed both her hooves down on the creature's head.

It didn't even have time to cry out.

But Spring thought she would remember that crack-squelch sound for the rest of her life.

Applejack stared pitilessly at the remains on the grass. "The only changeling you can ever trust is a dead one. I told you - they will say anything, pretend anything. But all they want is to steal your love away from you, and capture us all again. Trust me - I've seen it a hundred times before."

For a long moment, she stared at the now mostly-headless body on the ground, until she couldn't take it anymore and looked away, clenching her jaw. Applejack wiped off her hooves again, then moved over to comfort the poor, lost soul.

Finally, as the weight of it all dropped on her, she burst into tears, falling into Applejack. At least she was safe now, safe from the bugs who flew after them and the bugs who pretended to be her friends... thanks to Applejack.

Between her sobs, she swore she'd do her best to help with the village, and keep them all safe, and help any other ponies they could save. Whatever Applejack needed her to do.

And Applejack held her close, letting her get the sobs out of her system, accepting the oaths of another loyal pony.

She smiled, hidden under her wide hat, and her apple-green eyes flashed emerald.

Comments

[Taranth]

I grow tired of silly author's note function!

So... um... it got worse? Almost as worse as my "I'll probably have the next chapter up in the next few days!" Yeah that worked.

But I'm almost finished with the final chapter now. And I really want to get it out ASAP, if only because I have another story idea that won't get out of my head and I swore not to write anything else until I finished this one.

And plus, leaving you all on that note is just cruel, right?

[FlaschenJoe11]

And Applejack just BUCKED UP!!!

Seriously, if she finds out that this could have saved HUNDREDS of PONYLIVES, she will feel BAAAAAAAAD.

EDIT:: And I missed the green eye part. Sorry.

[kildeez]

14 months since update...

*kicks story with toe of shoe* She ain't lookin' too good there, JIm.

J: Naw, no she ain't. Lookin' real sickly there, s'matter a' fact.

[Alondro]

Uhm... we kinda SAW the episode.

It all went down exactly as we, the omniscient voyers, saw it happen.

Chrysalis' little song about dreaming of ruling the world since she was a kid kinda tells the whole story of motivations pretty clearly.

[Alondro]

"There's one way I can be sure if it can be trusted." Applejack stated darkly.

"Really?"

"Oh, certainly." She walked up to the Changeling again. Spring watched curiously, wondering what wonder of Elemental magic she might be about to witness...

Then cried out once again as Applejack reared up, and slammed both her hooves down on the creature's head.

And of course the AJ is a changeling and the changelings will win because, as is always the case in fics like this, they are given NEW and BIGGER more advantageous powers, far greater numbers, and are hyper-competent while the ponies are dumber than usual.

No one at all realizes that AN ELEMENT BEARER WOULD NOT KILL AN INJURED ENEMY!!!!

Seriously, the ponies never kill anything! This act alone would cause quite a bit of concern... as it's the sort of OOC behavior that Twilight noticed in Cadance.

[GrandAdmiral MitthRawN]

well years after i ask will you continue this plsss?? also very nice!