Around two hours earlier.
Mingled among the School of Friendship’s student body was an unassuming pink furred unicorn filly. She had been attending since the beginning of the new semester and her grades had been moderate enough for her remain unobtrusive among her peers. During lessons she occasionally asked questions and raised her hoof to answer them. With group projects she did a satisfactory amount of work to keep her classmates happy but never enough to stand out above them. After all, a good infiltrator wouldn’t want it any other way.
Her real name was Weevil and she was her queen’s eyes and ears, scouting within one of her most dangerous enemy’s strongholds. Or that’s how the juvenile changeling preferred to picture it, anyway.
So far her day had been typical, though there was a rumor going around about a few students who accidently let a wild beast loose in their dorm room. However that all changed the moment she spotted what Ocellus was carrying in a pocket of her saddle bag. A changeling nymph and not the colorful dissenter kind.
Weevil’s mind raced to come up with a scenario as to why the double-crosser changeling would have a poor helpless normal nymph in her possession, one that smelled similar to her queen too, and she could only come up with one answer. She. Stole. It.
Then a pink eraser smacked her on the tip of her snout, snapping her out of her thoughts and to the displeased expression on the little nymphs face. Weevil wasn’t a dumb changeling but she did have a tendency to take things out of context. So, to her, the nymph was calling out for help and not just pelting her for staring too long.
She felt bad for the little changeling’s predicament but she’d blow her cover if she just jumped in to save her right there and then; so she turned tail and ran off down the hall to the school’s library. Unobserved among the shelves she quickly transformed into a light sea green pegasus and flew out an open window into the clear sky above Ponyville. Using some clouds for cover, she made her way to the Everfree forest.
When she spotted a twisted dead tree in the middle of a small clearing, she plunged downward. Her wings flared out to slow her decent once she passed the canopy and as soon as her hooves touched the soft grass she galloped off into the tree line.
“Aphid! Are you there?” she hissed out in a loud whisper, “I have something important to tell you!”
Something dropped down with a thud behind her and upon turning around she was muzzle to muzzle with an apricot colored pegasus mare.
“I hope this is important Weevil,” the other pegasus said, “it’s been a very bad day at the hive and the queen has everyling searching for a-“
“A nymph!” Weevil interrupted.
“What?” Aphid balked.
“There is a changeling nymph at the school and not the bad kind!” spouted Weevil, “but she is in the clutches of the enemy and we need to save her!”
“Come with me, we have to get back to the hive,” Aphid said as her features became deadly serious.
One hour and fifteen minutes earlier.
The hive was a swarm of chaos. Drones raced through the tunnels passing reports back to the throne room detailing extensive chamber by chamber searches. Two unconscious changeling mares had been placed on beds of moss near one corner of the throne room, carefully being tended to by a third changeling, and would periodically be wracked with spasming coughs.
Odonate had placed himself in the center of the room, listening to the constantly incoming reports and barking out orders, as an infuriated queen Chrysalis paced across the chamber floor behind him.
“Aphid! Weevil!” called out Odonate as the older changeling stomped up to them. “What do you know?”
“She’s at the school.” Aphid panted, trying to catch her breath from the frenzied flight to get back as quickly as possible.
With his eyes widening enough to stretch the scars on his face, Odonate stopped dead in his tracks.
“She’s at the school,” Aphid repeated. “Weevil spotted her there with one of the traitor changelings.”
“Are you sure?” he hissed, looking Weevil in the eyes.
“Yes,” Weevil, who had been debriefed on the situation, nodded. “She’s looks and smells undeniably like the queen, it has to be her.”
The old guard’s jaw worked like he was grinding up a mouth full of rocks as he took a second to think over the ramifications of the situation presented to him. Unfortunately for him it was interrupted a moment later.
“My Queen!” shouted out Mosquito as she careened into the room, clutching an item against her chest. “I found something!”
“So much for chain of command,” Odonate grumbled to himself before looking back at Aphid and Weevil. “Come with me.”
Weevil followed the other two changelings as they quickly trotted up to Chrysalis who was using her magic to levitate a scroll before her. A feral scowl twisted the queen’s mouth as she read over the document and it felt like the air around them was being sapped of its warmth. The changeling matron’s eyes glowed so fiercely that Weevil thought the paper would spontaneously burst into flames. Once she finished reading it Chrysalis passed the scroll off to Odonate.
“Where did you find this?” the queen asked Mosquito, hissing through her clenched teeth.
“It was in Leeches room,” Mosquito answered, “hidden in a hollowed out stalagmite. I sort of just bumped into it and the cap fell right off.”
“Find Leech NOW!” Chrysalis roared out causing the nearby changelings to wince and her voice to echo throughout the complex.
Odonate exhaled loudly through his nostrils as he finished the scroll and rolled it back up.
“Weevil, inform her highness what you’ve discovered,” he instructed, his tone grim.
The weight of Chrysalis’s focus fell so fully on Weevil it almost caused her legs to buckle out from under her. The changelings mouth opened and closed like a gasping fish out of water and she almost flinched out of her chitin when Odonate placed a reassuring hoof on her withers. She took a deep breath and told the queen exactly what she witnessed back at the school.
“Leech is gone,” Phasmid reported as he landed next to Odonate. “He was last seen early this morning flying northwest.”
“I want the five of you to gather everyling in the hive,” Chrysalis instructed them. “Quickly.”
Forty five minutes earlier.
The entirety of the hive’s population had been gathered into the throne room. Odonate, Phasmid, and Weevil stood in rigid attention to the left of the throne while Aphid, Mosquito and a third changeling mirrored them on the right. Above them all stood Chrysalis.
“As you all already know, there has been an attack on our hive,” the matron reported to her subjects, “W-what-”
A brief wave of murmurs passed through the room when Chrysalis’s voice wavered and she took a moment to compose herself.
“What many of you may not know is that this act was carried out by a coward,” she continued, her voice echoing out of sync, “against those who couldn’t defend themselves!”
The gathering of changelings quieted fully.
“Following instructions penned by Twilight Sparkle and in cooperation with Thorax, a changeling from our hive named Leech entered the nursery in the middle of the night. He used an unknown debilitating substance on Katydid and Lacewing, the two caretakers, who are still suffering from its effects. He then proceeded to… commit several acts of, carnage.”
Weevil couldn’t help but cringe at the thought and noticed many others around her did as well.
“However the filth spared one cocoon and left the hive with it in his possession,” the queen hissed. “He was last seen heading north in the direction of the pony settlement. Our enemies plan is to use the nymph as a bargaining chip for the surrender of our hive to Thorax.”
A protest of angry hisses and complaints rose from the assembly and Chrysalis had to create a flash of magical green light from her horn to get them to quiet back down. She then nodded to Odonate who stepped forward in front of the throne to face the crowd.
“While we can’t be one hundred percent certain, we have to assume the hives location is known to the Equestrians,” he stated, “and so we will have to evacuate to a new location. Half of you will gather up essentials, the eggs from the nursery and our disabled caretakers for transport to Rambling Rock Ridge. We know there have been sightings of diamond dogs in that area, but they tend to stay along the bottom of the canyon while we will be taking refuge in the caves on the cliff face. Still, remain vigilant.”
Odonate motioned to the other five changelings to his left and right to step forward.
“Phasmid, Weevil, Aphid, Mosquito, Vespid and myself will be escorting her highness in a strike assault on the princess’s school,” he continued briefing. “We have visual confirmation that the stolen nymph is currently in the possession of a representative from Thorax’s hive and we will be making an attempt to rescue her. The rest of you will be inserting yourselves, under disguise, among the local residents. We need you for the last part of our mission.”
Noooooooooooooooo!
Eeeeeeee!
And then shit went down
Ah... so that other queen is making a move.
Not the younglings!
Treason for a better life or betrayal for another hive? That is the question.
Well darn
The rival hive
Killed children
REEEEEEEEEE
So Leech actually killed or helped to kill changeling children on behalf of his new queen. Those two are pretty much as good as dead, I'd say. Excellent chapter!
I....I knew it was Leech, but I didn't think he would smash the cocoons. I hope he spared more than just Puppa/Pepper
anyone else sense a massive territorial war coming between the three changeling hives
*bows head in silence for those who were lost*
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Infanticide is one of those truly disgusting acts, and whoever did it deserves the wrath of an enraged Chrysalis upon their person.
Now my main question is, did Leech actually do it, or is he being set up to take the fall by another? It may be that he turned down Cicada's offer off-screen, but kept silent about what she was doing. Only now he's being framed by someone who DID side with Cicada. Because it's never as clear-cut as you would like it to be. Heck, it may even be Cicada had nothing to do with it and a hitherto unknown fourth party is involved, for reasons I have no clue about.
Thank you very much for the consistent updates. They've been a morning treat for me every other day.
Chryssie don't do anything stupid now
Ok... we've reached a new level of cruelty here. So without further ado
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/018/590/Zerg_Rush_by_banjo2E.jpg
9492883
This was the prequel to the previous couple chapters.
9492925
nnnnnuuuuuuoooooooooooooo
9492932
I know, but from what we see here she has clearly planned something else that will probably serve as a distraction
Well, that sound like good old manipulation. There is still hope for the whole thing not to go completely south though and lie with the uniqueness of Pepper. The kidnapper was most likely counting on her being a normal nymph, but she have her developed cognitive ability from being human which mean what she can tell to Chrysalis about how the others treated her should make Chrysy notice that something just don't add up if she is half the manipulator she should be. I mean, what kind of kidnapper let their hostage freely trash up a room, let her drain a pony of love willingly and more or less give her freedom of movement? Especially if said kidnapper is supposed to be responsible for the death of the other nymphs somehow.
More please this getting intense
Like I said, 3 way war coming.
9492925
If they had the numbers then this wouldn't have been a problem.
Acts of carnage? Well shit, I just lost a ten dollar bet...
And with that little amount of information, the Queen was puppetered like a fool.
The rational mind might wonder: why target as-yet-useless grubs, why so specific a target, and why said target was apparently held unguarded by anyone considered competent. Sadly, rational thought is not soon coming...
Keep going! ;)
9493534
Why target helpless cocoons? Simple throw Chryissy into a blind rage while thwarting her plans to rebuild her forces. Spare Pepper cause well if you can't be a Queen you can control the next one. Chrysalis on the rampage gets herself killed by the Princesses and you keep Pepper around as a puppet ruler.
9493958
But it would be more effective to directly target the Queen, whose chambers should have equal security to the hatchery, thereby greatly reducing the hive's options. After all, more eggs can be laid, but if the primary layer is slain the ability to recoup is drastically reduced and a bigger setback than theft of a royal nymph. After all, your plan can trivially be done anytime afterward because the biggest force of opposition would be eliminated and you can re-educate at leisure once she's gone.
Besides, all this flies in the face of the pony MO; know thy enemy and all that.
This is why careful observation would reveal the truth: it's incredibly unlikely for things to be as Chrysalis assumes, even if she only passively knew anything about pony behavior and culture (which, she should, having infiltrated for a not-insignificant amount of time).
Killing the young? Yeah, you just went from upstart queen/hive to someone who is kill on sight to everyone in Chrysalis' hive forever. Sure, you'll deceive her for a bit, but it's only a matter of time till the truth comes out. Chrysalis might demean and hate ponies, but she doesn't come across as stupid.
Chrysalis is weakened, but she's a lot more experienced here, and she has an established hive. Barring plot armor, this is a very easy move to doom a fledgling hive.
9494059
That is assuming her hive is actually a fledgling one in the first place. We don't truly know how fearsome her hive truly is. I don't think hers is gigantic, but probably not fledgling. I would assume that Thorax still has the largest of the three, And Chrysalis has proven herself powerful enough to go hoof to hoof against the Princesses in combat. Even though she is in a weakened state now, a sinister and clever foe would set the two against them, even if they are not a fledgling hive.
9494202
Well.. she's been a queen.. not all that long. It's heavily implied her position gave her enough mojo to change. I suppose she could have gathered up an armies' worth of non-reformed changelings or laid a bunch of eggs years ago.. but I won't hold my breath.
There's gonna be a TURF WAR!
Here's the big question, did he actually kill? Or did he fake it?
Gee, let me think... an obviously-incriminating scroll MADE OF EASILY DESTROYABLE PAPER was conveniently left behind to incriminate Twilight and Thorax.
I'm sure it's tooooooootally legit.
Seriously, this is Scooby-Doo-level scape-goating.
War is opon us. It will not end without casulties after all that is already lost... Tarterus knows no wrath more grim than that of a griefing Mother...
So......new best enemy?
9496469
Bro, the queen literally incapable Of giving a shit. Her baby (favorite one too) just gotten kidnapped (or lingnapped) and the evidence pointed to her 2 worst enemies. She wont care if the evidence is real or not, she just gonna get her baby back and f* all who stand on her way
(sry about my grammar btw)
9496469
I loled at that last bit. But I got to agree with SammyUnderwood on this one. Who cares, in the heat of the moment she just wanted her nymph back. In depth investigation can come later...if ever.
Welp, Leech is going to suffer like nobody ever has.
9910204
12 Nymph murdered result in a horrible death BUT 12 of Chrysalis Nymphs? O yeah... His death screams will be probably lasting for days!
VENGANCE SHALL BE HERS!
Great chapter
9632296
look like she's up for a rainbow laser blast lol
The only retreat is towards the enemy lines
Sooner or later Chrysalis will get her Hooves on Leech and Cicada.
The game will be short but brutal...
So Leech is now a murderer, and Cicada is an enabler.
Ooooh, so that is how the cocoon got lost, it was moved by Leech, serving under Cicada!
Vengeance shall be had.
Shouldn't this way 'later'
Time for the sound to drop... hard!