//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: On The Job // Story: Back to the Swarm // by PointlessGizmo //------------------------------// Chrysalis rose from her throne and made her way down the steps leading up to it, towards the now paralyzed-with-fear Leech. The royal chamber's only lighting was a hole in the ceiling directly above the throne, illuminating it and the surrounding area like a huge natural spotlight. The outer edges of the room were almost completely dark - when standing inside the light it was impossible to see anything that wasn't illuminated. Leech looked around frantically, but couldn't see Switcher or the sentry guards, who were all standing in the darkness by the room's entrance. Nothing outside of the circle of light seemed to exist - it was just Chrysalis and himself. She reached the bottom of the steps and approached Leech. "Well, 1017" she began. "My faithful General tells me you've been having quite the adventure. You've been all around Equestria and beyond, and even discovered friendship outside of the swarm! My my, you've led an exciting existence indeed these last few months." "Um...it... was... OK, Leech guezzezz..." mumbled Leech, attempting to avoid eye contact with the Queen. Chrysalis chuckled and placed a hoof under Leech's chin, tilting his head up and forcing him to look at her. "OK? It sounds pretty thrilling to me. Living a carefree life of traveling, gorging on all the love you can eat..." she continued sweetly. Then, her smile vanished as her face crumpled into a scowl, and her tone became increasingly harsh. "...ignoring the plight of your swarm, abandoning your queen, TURNING YOUR BACK ON YOUR KIND AND YOUR VERY NATURE AS A CHANGELING! HOW DARE YOU!" she roared, her face getting progressively closer to Leech's until their noses nearly touched. Leech, trembling with terror at this stage attempted to give a response. "Leech didn't......um.......er......but you...and then..." he fumbled nervously. He was cut off by the Queen's hoof releasing his chin, and then fiercely batting him across the face, causing the beleaguered changeling to fall onto his side. He quickly used his tongue to check that his newly-regrowing fang was intact - luckily, it was. As Leech raised a hoof to rub at his now-sore face, he was sure he heard a muted sniggering emanating from the surrounding darkness. He didn't know for sure, but Leech thought the voice sounded like General Switcher's. He didn't have time to dwell on this however, as green magic surrounded him, and Chrysalis levitated his fallen form from the ground. She turned him upright and held him up level with her own face. "NO EXCUSES!" she thundered, setting Leech back down on the ground, standing on his hooves. She then seemed to regain her cool as she addressed Leech once more. "However, there is still a way you can redeem yourself and help your swarm - a special job that only a changeling of your caliber is suited for." she explained. "But, you will need to be tested for competence first - I understand that you do not have a great track record for this. I can only hope your outside experiences have improved your abilities since then. You will return to your previous maintenance duties, and General Switcher will assess your performance and report back to me. Understood?" Leech just nodded. He'd agree to anything to end this discussion. "Then it is settled." said Chrysalis, a slight smile returning to her face. "Guards - take 1017 to the extension site so he can begin his first task. General Switcher will join you shortly." With this, one of the sentry drones stepped into the light and gestured to Leech to follow him. Leech was only too keen to leave the royal chamber at this point, and eagerly raced off after the two guards. Switcher stepped out of the darkness and approached Chrysalis. She turned to the General, with a twisted smile across her face. "So, what do you reckon his chances are?" she sneered. "Of passing his 'test'? Very likely, I'd say." affirmed Switcher. "Excellent." responded Chrysalis. "If he does turn out to be suitable, we can continue with the next phase of the plan. Now, leave me be. I have preparations to make, and you have a drone to monitor." With this, Switcher gave a salute to his Queen and flew out of the royal chamber, bound for the site where Leech would be working. ---------- Leech and the two guards had walked through a seemingly endless maze of narrow hive corridors, until they approached the entrance to a cave in the cliff face itself. The hive had been deliberately built in this location because it backed onto a part of the cliff that was littered with caves and openings. This meant that the changelings could expand their nest into the caves themselves when the time was right. The three entered the cave, and came to an area lit only by lanterns that burnt with the same kind of green flame that changelings produced when using their magic. The guards explained to Leech that this cave was to be converted into a storage area, to store supplies that would be used in the swarm's upcoming second invasion of Canterlot. Leech looked and sure enough, all around them drones worked hard removing stalagmites and stalactites, constructing storage chambers from rocks, mud and wax, and tunnelling through the rock to create light and ventilation channels. There were far fewer maintenance drones than Leech remembered working with previously - the losses from the Canterlot invasion were greater than he had thought. Scout, solider and even siege drones had been roped in to help with the construction. Presently, General Switcher arrived. He spoke to the two guards. "You two are dismissed." he said briskly. "Resume your duties at the royal chamber. I will handle things here. Now GO!" The guards wasted no time in scurrying out of the cave and back into the hive. Switcher's attention turned to Leech. "Very well then, 1017. As per the Queen's orders, I shall start you off on something simple. Even you should be able to handle this. Your first task is to remove that large stalagmite over there." he explained, pointing his front hoof to a thin but very tall stalagmite which protruded from the dry, dusty cave floor near the entrance. "And make sure you do it right - remember, I am watching your every movement, hatchling!" Leech approached the stalagmite, and chuckled to himself. Now was the time to put his plan into action - Chrysalis seemed incredibly mad at him already, so it wouldn't take much to make her so angry that she would exile him forever. All Leech had to do was foul up every task he was given. Then he would surely fail his test, be deemed unworthy of the special job, and be kicked out and free to go back to his life with Trixie. And fortunately for Leech, fouling up was something that came naturally to him! "Thizz will be eazzy!" he buzzed delightedly, being careful not to let General Switcher overhear. Using his solid front leg spurs, he carefully chipped away at the base of the stalagmite. He walked in steady circles around the rocky projection, chipping evenly as he went. After some time and many circumnavigations of the stalagmite, he had chipped away the base so that it was only a couple of inches thick in the middle. Now all he had to do was give it a little push with his magic, and make it fall down. It was a lot like felling a tree in many ways, except using his feet instead of an axe. And it wasn't a tree. And it was made of stone. And it was in a cave. But apart from that, just like chopping down an Oak. Making a note of where General Switcher was standing, and his position relative to the now unsteady stalagmite, Leech lit up his horn, and its aura enveloped the pointed rock. With a quick flick of his head, there was an almighty crack as the last remnant of the stalagmite's base gave way and the stone structure began to topple... ...straight towards General Switcher. The General caught onto what was happening just too late to get out of the way. There was an ear-splitting crash, and a thick cloud of dust was kicked up by the stalagmite falling onto its side. As the dust began to settle, Leech heard shouting and cursing coming from where the stalagmite lay. When the dust cleared, Leech saw the source - a very irate General Switcher, who had been pinned underneath the end of the stalagmite as it had fallen. His thick exoskeleton had protected him from any real injury, since it was only the tip of the stalagmite that had him pinned. Leech had planned for this - he didn't want to hurt the General. Well, not seriously, anyway. Whilst the General wasn't badly hurt, he was extremely annoyed. After squeezing out from underneath the fallen speleothem and giving Leech one of his trademark verbal beatings, the fuming Switcher took Leech to where the storage chambers were being built ---------- "Well, you're off to a lousy start." growled Switcher, rubbing his bruised carapace. "Perhaps you will fare better at this. My hopes aren't high, mind you. All you need to do here is mix the mortar that the other workers will use to build the walls for these chambers." Leech observed, and could see that several maintenance drones and a siege drone were arranging rocks from broken-up stalagmites and stalactites to form walls. To adhere these rocks together, they were using a mixture of mud and changeling wax, a thick, yellow fluid that was produced by certain classes of drones. Leech had worked with this type or mortar many times in the past - it was meant to be an 80/20 mixture of mud/wax respectively. He'd also gotten these ratios mixed up many times before, producing a mostly-wax mortar. This of course never hardened properly and immediately liquidized whenever the temperature increased sufficiently. This had led to several walls collapsing, on one occasion even onto the Queen herself! "Leech mezz thizz up zzso many times already without trying - will be eazzy to do thizz time!" he said inwardly. Collecting the ingredients together, he decided to go for a mixture that absolutely would not work - he quickly concocted a batch of mortar that was 90 percent wax and just 10 percent mud. The mud gave the mortar most of its structural integrity, whilst the wax merely acted as a hardener - with so little mud, this mixture wouldn't hold anything together! Leech couldn't help but notice that it looked a little off-color, so he scooped up some dust from the cave floor and mixed it in to give it a more convincing hue and texture. He passed the freshly-made pot of mortar to the nearest drone. The drones, so engrossed in their task, didn't question the slightly odd consistency of the adhesive and slathered it between the rocks. Before long, the wall was finished and the drones had moved onto their next task. General Switcher approached the wall to inspect it. "Well, this seems in order." he said, almost sounding disappointed. "Seems like you mixed the mortar decently enough." He gave the wall a firm prod with his hoof, and was alarmed when it flexed. "1017, what in the name of Chrysalis did you..." he froze in horror as the wall wobbled, teetered, and then began to fall... straight towards him. He didn't have time to say anything before being levelled by a barrage of falling stone. Leech couldn't help himself and fell about the cave floor, buzzing and laughing like Pinkie Pie after an extended pranking session. He quickly recovered and put on a serious face before Switcher emerged from the rock pile, even more angry than before. Leech received another hoof around the face for his trouble, and the now outraged general grabbed Leech by his wings with his teeth and dragged him away from the construction site. ---------- Now out of the cave and back in the hive, Switcher dragged Leech to a chamber filled with many ball-shaped, cocoon-like pods around half the size of a changeling drone. These were filled with a thick, translucent olive green fluid. Leech recognized this substance immediately as Necrosia. Leech had heard of Necrosia before - it was usually a rare substance, said to contain the very essence of a changeling's body structure. Leech found Necrosia unnerving - whilst it could be used to heal injured changelings faster (this was its most common use, though it was generally only used on the Queen and elite ranking individuals), it also had a much darker purpose. By immersing a non-changeling creature in it - for instance, a pony - the changeling essence would permeate that creature's body and create a synthetic changeling. These tended to be stronger and more durable than natural changelings but required constant mental conditioning to keep them loyal, since the base creature's consciousness and memories survived the alteration process. Due in part to this, conversions were very rare - only a small number of ponies had ever met this fate, with the process usually overseen by Switcher. Those that did were converted because they had discovered the hive's location - and this becoming public knowledge could be disastrous for the swarm. This was the main reason Leech had been so keen to keep Trixie away from this place. General Switcher, who by now had a stagger and a limp to his step, angrily pointed to the pile of pods. "Some of the new storage chambers are finished. These Necrosia pods are to be stored within them - be careful with them, as these are vital for the Queen's new strategy." he snapped. Leech nodded. This much Necrosia would make the changelings much harder to defeat, since they would be able to recover from injuries far more quickly than normal. Leech didn't quite understand where the hive had managed to acquire this much Necrosia, however. Very few changelings knew how it was made or what its ingredients were, and there was a key ingredient that was supposedly hard to come by. Those that did know tended to keep the recipe a highly guarded secret. "Your job is to move these pods from here to the new storage chambers. I trust I don't have to show you how to do that? Just pick a pod up and walk with it until you reach the storage chamber. Then deposit it there and come back for another. IS THAT REALLY SO DIFFICULT?" he snapped sarcastically. "Now, I have to go and get these bumps and bruises tended to - I want the first pile transferred by the time I get back. Clear?" Leech saluted and nodded his head quickly, giving the bedraggled General his biggest grin. Switcher snorted and turned to leave the chamber. He hobbled away down a sloping corridor towards the infirmary. Leech gazed up at the towering pillar of pods. He grinned impishly as his eyes were drawn to the bottom of the pile, to a pod which seemed to be holding a lot of the others up. Seeing his chance to mess up even this most basic of tasks, he wrapped his hooves around the load-bearing pod and began to pull. "Leech... thinkzz... he... will... zzstart... with... thizz... one..." he grunted. With a jerk, the pod came free and the entire pile came tumbling down. Due to a slight incline in the chamber's floor, they all rolled across the room and down the sloping corridor that Switcher had entered before. Within seconds, dozens of the spherical pods had disappeared down the corridor's entrance like pool balls going into a pocket. Leech couldn't help but giggle as he thought of what would happen when General Switcher found out about this. Switcher was still walking down the long, thin, downhill corridor when he swore he could feel the floor vibrating beneath him. He stopped and pondered what in Equestria it could be. Then, a low rumble filled his ears, its volume increasing with each passing second. It seemed to be coming from... behind him. He turned around, and the sight that greeted him caused his jaw to drop. There, bearing down on him, was a tidal wave of Necrosia pods, the width and height of the corridor. There was nowhere to dodge, and they were rolling much faster than he could move. Switcher didn't even bother attempting to evade the spherical onslaught, he merely closed his eyes and awaited the inevitable. With a despairing whoop of horror, the wave of pods hit him full on and swept him away down the corridor. ---------- Later, after the pods had been cleared up and stored in their proper places, Leech found himself in the Royal Chamber once again, standing before Queen Chrysalis. The two guard drones stood behind Leech, and a fuming General Switcher stood beside the Queen. His hackles were raised, and he was glaring and snarling at Leech as if he wanted to pummel the little changeling into dust. He had bandages on his head and front legs, a splint on one of his back legs and a poultice on his carapace. He looked so comical, even the Queen herself had been unable to suppress a laugh when he had entered the chamber. Her attention soon turned to Leech. Leech himself was still nervous, even though his plan was going exactly as he had intended. He wasn't looking forward to the fierce scolding he was surely about to receive, but he was certain he'd done enough to get himself exiled. Chrysalis cleared her throat and addressed him. "Maintenance Drone 1017... General Switcher has informed me that you have comprehensively failed in every single task that you were assigned. Your previous record of incompetence pales compared to the indescribable lack of skill and judgement you have shown during the last 24 hours." Leech attempted to look ashamed. He was so consumed with keeping up his act, he hadn't noticed the total lack of venom in Chrysalis' speech. "From this, I can conclude that you are not fit to be a maintenance worker for this swarm." she continued coolly. "Your experiences with the outside world have clearly made you lose any sense of commitment or focus, and your already feeble mind has been weakened further." "Well, lookzz like Leech izzn't needed here." jabbered Leech hurriedly. "Show Leech exit and Leech will never trouble Chryzzalizz again." "Exit?" enquired Chrysalis. "But why would I want to let you leave?" She leaned in towards Leech, her eyes boring straight into his own. Leech began to tremble as another wicked smile appeared on her face. "This is exactly what I was expecting. Your record of incompetence is the stuff of legends, there really wasn't any other possible outcome!" she grinned, her eyes narrowing. "You have passed your test, with flying colors."