//------------------------------// // 16 - The Wild Wilderness // Story: Change: Queen of The Hive // by tom117z //------------------------------// The Next Day, the Northern Forest “Put those embers out,” Broad Sword commanded. “Good luck; any fires started by dragons have to burn out by themselves,” Spike snarked in response. Lavender magic quickly smothered the smouldering wreckage of the campfire and extinguished what was left of the flames with ease, the Changeling Queen responsible throwing the bemused dragon a smug look. Spike huffed, crossing his arms. “Spoilsport.” The group of ten had camped the night in the forest, huddled under the overhang of a rocky outcropping, with each member taking it in turns to keep watch two at a time. They had decided it was a good idea never to leave one of their group alone, and to always have another watch their backs. They didn’t want to test what else the forest had the throw at them after the previous day’s events. So far, however, there was nothing. All had continued to be quiet throughout the night, no sign of their attackers or any other creature hostile or otherwise. The night had been silent, and now that the day was rising, all they could hear was the chirping of some distant birds welcoming the sun. Broad Sword directed his two subordinates to make sure all of their equipment and supplies were all packed and accounted for while the three changeling guards continued to secure the perimeter. Queen Twilight and Spike helped the two guards with the saddlebags while Broad Sword and Shining Armor proceeded to check up on a groggy Vladimir. The thestral in question sat propped against a tree with his helmet sat by his side. He kept glancing down towards his missing wing, now having had time to sit down and think about things. That was the curse the night had brought them, lamentation of the losses they had suffered. “You alright there, Vlad?” Shining Armor asked in concern. “You look a bit spaced out.” “Go ahead and lose a wing and a lot of blood with it, and then tell me if you can run a marathon afterwards,” Vladimir deadpanned. “Or walk through some blasted forest.” Both white stallions cringed at his reply. “Hey, we’ll be at the hive soon,” Broad Sword stated. “We’ll get you some help there.” “Yeah, right,” Vladimir sarcastically replied. “Have you forgotten the whole reason we’re here?” “Well, best case scenario is that the hive is empty,” Broad Sword said. “But they might have left something helpful behind. At the very least, we could use their medical facilities.” Vladimir sighed. “We can hope.” The Captain of the Lunar Guard steadily got up to his hooves, refusing help from his fellow ponies. Next, he replaced his helmet back into his head, stretching out his one remaining wing to try and banish the stiffness. “Sorry if I’m being a bit short with you,” Vladimir apologised. “I’m not exactly in the greatest of moods.” “None of us are,” Shining Armor replied in understanding. “This whole situation isn’t exactly great for morale. But we have to roll with the punches.” Vladimir smirked. “I think you have it worst of all, Shining.” The Prince looked at his friend in confusion. “I got out of that pretty intact, so why would I have worse than the rest of you?” The thestral chuckled in an almost sinister fashion. “Because I don’t have an alicorn wife to go back to, and then have to explain to said wife why I was here in the first place. Combine that with exactly what has gone down here and, well…” Shining Armor groaned. “Yeah. You didn’t hear Twily go off on me, but it pales in comparison to what Cady is going to do.” “I hope you like sofas,” Broad Sword jabbed. Shining dragged a hoof down his own face. “Oh shut up, that’s an order.” “Sorry, I’m under the strict command of Queen Twilight Sparkle,” Broad Sword retorted. “You, if I recall, are a stowaway.” Shining Armor groaned again. “Then again…” Broad Sword’s tone lessened slightly. “When Scarlet finds out about what happened she is going to kill me too. We kinda promised her that nothing bad would happen during this mission.” “This,” Vladimir started up, pointing between his friends and shook his hoof. “This is why I’m not married.” “I think you just lack our charms when it comes to the mares,” Shining Armor managed a jab of his own. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll find a perfectly acceptable lady thestral one day.” Vladimir didn’t respond, simply electing to role his eyes. While the three had had their conversation, the others had finished packing up the campsite. They distributed the saddlebags between them, with Vladimir carrying the least due to his condition and subsequent lack of strength. Then, they left the campsite behind and headed deeper into the forest. To get to their destination they would have to move through the forest until they reached the mountains; the Queen had scouted out their route from the air and had seen a pathway from the forest leading through the mountain, undoubtedly used by Draco’s hive to cart to and from the hive what they couldn’t carry by air. The pathway led upwards a little ways before cutting through a gap in the mountains, hopefully directly to the hive from there. As far as they could tell, it was their only reasonable option. And so they continued on through the forest, passing by trees both ancient and new. As with the previous day, all wildlife seemed to leave them alone, staying far away from the group as they moved through the trees. The journey was made largely in silence, the ponies and changelings all on constant alert, the attack from the day before all still fresh in their memories. They had already lost more than half of their force and they were determined to not lose a single other soul. As they went, they were able to occasionally spy disturbances in the forest. Signs of activity, and evidence could be found on the forest floor of others having been there long before the group that now walked it. Some of these were simple tree stumps, places where wood had been harvested and taken away some time previously while saplings had thoughtfully been replanted to replace the harvested tree. Some of the other signs they spotted, however, were far more worrying. Tools. On several occasions they spotted tools, and even logs loaded into carts, all abandoned without a care in the world. It was as if the workers had simply stopped what they were doing, discarded their tools, and then left without another word. It didn’t take a detective to figure out who had been working there, the drones of Queen Draco were the only ones it could have been. The Queen would stop to examine each of these few sites as they encountered them, working through in her head exactly what happened to them. It was at one such site that she finally spoke. “It was so sudden,” Twilight stated. “They had been working, and then they just stopped and left. Whatever happened to them to cause that red magic leaking from their eyes, it must be the reason for this behaviour.” “Draco cut her drones off from her hive mind,” Spike pointed out. “Her drones back in Canterlot, and in the Crystal Empire. All of them were severed from the hive at the same time.” “So did these changelings stick around after their Queen did that, or go home?” Shining asked. “The way I see it,” Twilight continued. “They either returned to the hive to see what had happened, walking into whatever caused Draco to do what she did. Or they stayed put a while longer, and whatever it is found them instead. “Are we in a horror movie?” Spike asked, momentarily shivering. "I certainly hope not," Twilight commented. "What about one of those television shows?" “What’s a television?” Broad Sword enquired. “It doesn’t matter,” Twilight cut in, she didn’t have time to explain details from beyond the mirror portal. “We need to keep moving.” “Did you hear that?” Vladimir suddenly stated, his ears twitching. They all stood up tall, listening out for whatever the thestral had heard. “What did you hear?” Shining Armor whispered just loud enough for the others to hear. “I’m not sure,” he replied, also whispering. “Some rustling I think, movement.” Glancing towards the guards and nodding, Queen Twilight wordlessly commanded all of them to slowly spread out and search the area, communicating it to her changelings verbally over the hive mind for good measure. Making sure they could see each other at all times, they began to fan out across the area, keeping their eyes peeled. Growling emerged from one of the bushes, the Solar Guard who’d been approaching stopping dead in their tracks. Slowly, the guard began to silently gesture towards foliage in question to inform the others that something there. Only for that something to pounce out from the bushes right towards the guard. Luckily for that particular guard, the second Solar Guard was quick enough to draw their blade and intercept the creature mid-pounce, his blade meeting flesh and tearing through it. A loud whimper was quickly followed by a thud as the creature went off course and landed dead on the floor, its throat cut. “Sir,” the first guard called back at Captain Broad Sword, examining the corpse. “Wolves.” A howl heralded the rest of the pack jumping forth from the bushes, intent on avenging the fallen member of their pack. Broad Sword growled. “Oh give us a break!” The feral animals struck forth with their fangs bearing down upon the group, the first two being immediately struck lifelessly backwards by a slash of lavender magic, the Changeling Queen not missing a beat. Several of the beasts crowded around Vladimir, sensing him to be the weakest and easiest prey among the intruders to the forest. They encircled the thestral as he stood ready with his blade drawn, his allies all busy dealing with the sizable pack. The first struck forwards, only for Vladimir to duck to one side and administer a swift buck to the leaping wolf’s chest. The second and third attacked together; normally in such a situation Vladimir would simply take to the skies and use air superiority to combat the animals, but this was no longer an option. He swung his sword at one wolf, just catching it and causing the animal to flinch backwards away from him before just as quickly swinging the weapon around to catch the second wolf, the blade embedding itself in the side of its torso. Then the original wolf returned. Nearby, many of the wolves were blasted back and temporarily dazed by a surge of magic from the Queen, all the others standing protectively around her. It was here that Shining Armor happened to glance to one side and realise that Captain Vladimir had been split from the rest of them and cornered, the thestral now grappling with a wolf with his sword still embedded within a dead one. Worse still was that another wolf, with a gash already present from Vladimir’s blade, was returning to finish its prey. Shining Armor did a quick teleport directly next to the already injured wolf, proceeding to behead it in one fell swoop. He then hit the wolf grappling with Vladimir with a bolt of magic, freeing his friend from its grasp. “I had it handled,” was Vladimir’s words of thanks. “I know you did,” the Prince sarcastically responded. “Come on.” As the two ponies ran to re-join the group, the remaining dozen or so wolves regrouped, stubbornly refusing to retreat despite their serious casualties and lack of deaths from those they hunted. “They’re tenacious,” one of the changeling guards noted. “Won’t help them though.” The changelings and ponies all readied themselves to swiftly finish the fight, preparing for the wolves’ final suicidal charge at them. Blades gleamed, horns glowed, and Spike’s flames charged within his maw. Not that any of them were utilised as a gargantuan roar echoed and rebounded off the trees, a deep dark shadow sweeping over and covering both the wolves and their intended prey. The wolves saw what was coming, and finally fled, convinced of the fight’s futility. The changeling and ponies, however, all slowly turned around to find out what was the cause of the roar and the shadow, and were faced with something quite potentially unfortunate. A dragon. The dragon towered over the group, its scales brown with a few black highlights on various parts of his body. His eyes were a pure cyan, the vertical slits examining the changelings and ponies with a cautious curiosity. “You are not of this land,” the dragon stated. “The wolves see you as invaders of their territory, a threat to wipe out.” “Unintentional, I assure you,” Queen Twilight replied, seemingly unconcerned by the dragon’s size and amount of teeth, if only due to her diplomatic experience. “We mean you no harm.” The dragon snorted. “That remains to be seen, you have caused quite the excitement as of late.” “We were attacked,” Twilight explained. “We are travelling to the hive of Queen Draco.” “Draco,” the dragon repeated in understanding. “I know of this changeling, long has her hive inhabited the space between the mountains. We have known of them long before those ponies with you even had the knowledge that your race existed.” “Then you must know that they’re in trouble.” “In trouble, or have they become the trouble?” the dragon cryptically questioned. The changelings and ponies glanced between one another in concern. Despite that, however, the Queen kept her eyes solely focused on the form before them. Twilight still had some questions she needed answers to, and the dragon had presented her with the best opportunity to finally do so. “We’re investigating their disappearance,” Twilight informed him. “Dragon Lord Ember made enquiries to the dragons of this land a short while back?” “Ah, the Dragon lord,” he said, his gaze shifting to the far smaller dragon among the group. “You, you I know of. Spike, ally and friend of the Dragon Lord. Yes, I have heard of you.” Spike blinked. “I’m… um, honoured?” The dragon turned his gaze back to the Changeling Queen. “Which means you are Twilight Sparkle. You’ve made a name for yourself throughout the various lands surrounding Equestria, young queen.” “Then you should know our intentions are genuine,” Twilight pointed out. “We only wish to discover what has happened, unless you can simply inform us? What happened to Queen Draco and her hive?” The dragon stood up straight, tapping his chin in contemplation. “I can tell you nothing for certain, I seldom travel directly over the hive. However, I have heard whispers and rumours. Bad omens surround that place, it would be wise to simply forget about it and return to your land of friendship and soft beds.” “We don’t have that luxury,” Twilight retorted, a little disappointed by his answer. “More and more hives and going missing and Draco is the key! We must know the truth if we are to survive.” The dragon studied the Queen’s resolute face, and then promptly laughed. “Then it is, as some might say, your funeral. The safest route is a pass between the mountains the bugs used to ferry materials back and forth from the forest.” Ignoring the derogatory language towards her race, the Changeling Queen simply nodded. “I have heard of such a pass, and am glad to hear it is what I thought.” The dragon nodded in return. “You are welcome, but it is all I can do to help. Even if that wasn’t the case, it is all the help I am willing to provide. This ‘investigation’ of yours is not my concern.” “Then why approach us in the first place?” “I did not know your intentions,” the dragon replied. “But now I do, and my curiosity is sated.” “Very well, then we will bother you no longer,” Twilight stated. “We shall take our leave.” “So be it, but do heed my warning,” the dragon said in a severe tone. “Nothing good will come of this, of that I am certain.” “It is a risk we must take,” Twilight said. “Now, farewell.” The dragon stayed a moment longer, but then simply shook his large head and opened wide his leathery wings. With several beats that created quite the gust, the dragon took to the skies and doubled back towards the mountains, though not in the direction of where the awaiting hive sat. “Well, he was pleasant,” Spike muttered. “I’m still the nicest dragon around.” “I don’t think it’s a competition,” Shining Armor stated. “Still, his warning has certainly given me a bad feeling about this.” “Yes, however unfortunate that is…” Twilight grumbled. “Dragon or no dragon,” Vladimir spoke up, replacing his sword within his sheath. “Daylight won’t last forever, we must press on.” Twilight was in agreement, and their journey thus continued. They never encountered the wolves again, nor any other animal wishing them ill. From their encounter with the cryptic dragon, it was a straight shot to the hive of Queen Draco. The treeline opened up as the mountains began, the pathway they needed being quickly located. As before, there were signs of changelings simply abandoning their tools and leaving, a cartload of logs being one such example, being overturned and laying silently in the middle of the pathway. The walk wasn’t over yet, but at the end of the path was their destination, and it would be there that they would find their answers. Whether they liked them or not.