It had been a long time since Twilight was left completely dumbfounded by something. At least to this point, where she was basically standing there mouth agape in surprise. Through the eyes of her scouts, she saw Crystarium flying alone towards them. Them referring to Twilight, her Wraiths, Princess Luna and a small flotilla of Equestrian airships.
The ships were rather simple in design, and their participation in this war was their first real test run as warships. Half a year had passed since Celestia declared war on Crystarium, dozens of small skirmishes had tested both the Cerulean Queen’s and Equestria’s resolve in this war. Slowly but steadily, the casualties became heavier and heavier on Crystarium’s side until Equestria and its allies decided to make one final assault. The Flotilla was currently idling a few miles away from Crystarium’s mountain fortress of a hive cluster, just out of range of the defenders and their spells.
The surprise in seeing the lone queen coming close got her the distance she needed to teleport directly onto the flagship, just a few feet away from where Twilight and Luna were discussing battle strategy.
“Before you draw weapons or channel magic, I am here to offer my terms of surrender.” Crystarium said with as much dignity as she could muster. Twilight’s battle plating instinctively extended. Her statement had bought her some breathing room, though, as she slumped against the railing behind her.
“Medic!” Luna called out ,her tone unsure. Crystarium sported quite a few cuts on what little skin she had and many cracks and lacerations in her chitin bleeding the sickly green-red blood of a Changeling. Her eyes were shaking even as she attempted to appear strong, but couldn’t keep it up for long. The magic she used had strained her and she was starting to show it.
“Make sure none of it is lethal, do what you can.” Luna said quietly to the medic who had rushed over with a satchel of medical supplies. The man cautiously approached the wounded Queen, who gave no protest.
“My terms are that I am to be harmed no further, and that you give my children the swift and painless death they would wish for if they could.” The Cerulean Queen hissed out in pain as the medic tended to the major laceration covering most of her front. Twilight and Luna looked at each other and then back at Crystarium.
“What happened?” Luna asked, but Twilight had just realized what happened. Her looks darkened and she was already sending her invasion swarm in through the hive mind.
“They’ve all gone feral, haven’t they? I have to wonder how you managed to scrape up enough sanity to come here peacefully.” The Lavender Queen said darkly. Luna looked at her at that, even the Princess of the Night could taste the thin string of malice hidden in the words. Crystarium stared at the ground.
“Yes, they’ve gone feral… The only reason I remain sane is because I’ve been investing in Royals… but I went too far… We are forced to keep our hunger for Love unsatiated, to the point of near starvation, lest we go feral. I was forcing the births of too many drones and soldiers, giving not a care to the needs of my children. Now, we all pay the price.” Crystarium explained shakily as her blood loss was slowed by the medic’s work.
Both Crystarium and Luna looked at Twilight in confusion as the girl started chuckling softly.
“You tried to steal or destroy my hive, and failed miserably. You tried to destroy my family, and that backfired. You tried to maintain your place of power and dignity through a war you would never win even if the sun itself crashed down upon us- because the sun itself wants your head. Now you stand here, barely standing even, begging mercy from those you have done nothing but wrong.” The Lavender Queen sneered out, stepping closer to Crystarium.
“Twilight…” Luna said softly, putting a hand on the girl’s shoulder. The mage wanted nothing more than to drive every last scream of pain and horror from the offending Queen’s body, but even without Luna’s hand she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
“There will be no mercy for you, Crystarium. Your children will be put out of their misery with alacrity, but you will be tried and punished for what you’ve done. Not in the Queen’s Court, not even in Equestria’s court. You will be tried in MY court.” Twilight said slowly and methodically, her words gaining fire as she spoke. She was in the other queen’s face now. She could almost literally taste the fear coming from her.
“Pray you have anything of use at all to me, and be glad I’ve grown sick of watching my brood and allies die for this stupid war.” She growled before swiftly turning and storming off the ship, flying straight towards Mira’s hive. Crystarium stared after the girl in shock before being hoisted up to her feet proper by the Princess.
“Until then, your surrender will be honored. My terms for this surrender is that you will assist our forces to the best of your ability through knowledge.” The Princess followed up and practically threw the Queen towards the war table, where one of Twilight’s changelings had taken over her part of the strategy in his queen’s place. Crystarium just nodded, having caught herself on the table, and started slowly revealing the secrets of her defenses little by little.
Twilight was feeling so much fury she could feel tears threatening to fall under the faceplate of her battle plating. She extended her blades as she shot to the front lines, where Equestrians and Changelings alike were cutting swathes through the ferals. There were well over twenty thousand ferals still clinging to their defensive positions and their hives, which Twilight could only attribute to the fact that there were Royals commanding them.
“We’ve got news from Luna, the weakest point is further clockwise around. There’s a collapsed tunnel system that can be excavated to get around the fortifications. Pass it on to the Equestrians.” Twilight grumbled aloud and through the hive mind to her soldiers. She had just arrived at the backlines of the assault.
“My Queen, you really shouldn’t be participating in this fight!” Nilan called, just now catching up. The rest of the wraiths followed closely behind her as they all started moving towards the tunnel regardless of the conversation.
“I know, but I need to take this fury out on something and I unfortunately don’t have my usual methods of research or reading to do that for me.” Twilight retorted, her blades extending as they neared the collapsed tunnel. She retracted them again as they arrived.
“I understand, Mother, but the front lines? If you get hurt on my watch I don’t know what I’d do…” Her second in command said, her step faltering. Twilight let her harsh grimace turn into the smallest of smiles as she turned back to put a hand on the young lieutenant’s cheek.
“Don’t worry, Nilan. If I get hurt on your watch then your job is to make sure I’m alive and pester me while the medics patch me up.” She said softly, pouring a bit of love into the touch to get the point across. Not waiting for a response, she retracted the touch and turned back towards the rubble and stone with a neutral expression balancing out her current emotions. After a few moments of thinking she put her hand up and slowly a small orb of Lavender energy started forming. When it was the size of a grapefruit she pressed it into the rubble.
With the sound of stone being shredded, not something you really hear every day, the orb acted like the tip of a drill as the energy generated cut swathes of rock around the entire radius of the tunnel. She walked forward, the magic annihilating the stone as if it were darkness being banished by the light of a torch. Equestrian mages followed suit to set up reinforcing spells on the tunnel walls to keep them from collapsing again behind her.
“So what exactly is a Royal?” Luna asked the now captive queen back on the Flotilla. Crystarium scowled, hesitant to blab changeling history and secrets to anyone, let alone an outsider. She huffed when Luna’s stern glare didn’t even budge, though.
“Royals are what we call something akin to lesser queens… I suppose a more traditional term would be Princess. They are birthed in a Royal pod, but modified to still be fully indoctrinated into their queen’s hive mind rather than have their own independent but connected portion. I suppose a more macabre way to put it is a puppet queen, someone to take much of the burden from our minds and delegate them appropriately. I had created four Royals to make up for doubling my numbers, but Love Starvation got in the way of all of that.” The Cerulean Queen explained.
“Is it possible for them to break free from your hive mind to create their own, becoming a true queen?” Luna asked. Twilight’s Strategist suddenly got very nervous at what that implicated.
“My hive mind is long gone. I severed myself from it when they went feral to save my own sanity. I’ve lived through that hell too many times…” Crystarium replied, though the last part was very weak. Almost as if she was starting to not believe it as she looked back towards her hives. She could make out the invading armies clearing the rim of the mountains, the fortifications being destroyed from the inside or behind. Luna noticed the small pang of sorrow the queen’s expression showed.
“Noooo no no no. FOUR more feral queens? That is not ok!” The changeling strategist said, apparently mirroring his queen’s words as his eyes had turned to the Lavender of Twilight’s eyes.
“If they survive…” Luna added. Both changelings remained silent for a moment. “Are you safe?” The princess continued to Twilight.
“Just dusty. We’ breached the inner fortifications just now, we can see all of the hives. It would take months to root the ferals out of all of the tunnels so once we secure a foothold in each hive I’m going to create and detonate arcane annihilation fields that focus on organic material.” Twilight explained, staring at Crystarium the whole time. She too noticed the look on the queen’s face, and could feel the emotions roiling off of her.
“Is it painful?” The defeated queen finally asked. Twilight shook her head.
“As I said, your children will get the mercy you requested. Once the fields have faded we’ll commence search and destroy and recovery for your archives. If you wish anything returned to you after that then you’ll have to go through Luna and her people.” The possessed changeling explained. Crystarium just nodded slowly.
“You know, this is the second time you’ve surrendered -but not until after your forces are decimated or out of your control. I can’t tell if you’re stubborn or just stupid.” Luna said somewhat offhandedly. “From what I hear you’re supposed to be the most noble and regal of the queens, but I’ve only seen masks shattered and facades ruined. What are you really after, Crystarium?” Luna asked when the changeling’s eyes returned to its normal color and shape. Crystarium just stared at her hive, almost regretting her decision. It took her quite a while to finally turn to the Princess and respond.
“I don’t know anymore, Princess Luna. I was after power at first, I wanted it so bad that I was willing to betray the new queen. Then I wanted revenge for being humiliated, then it all just… got out of hand. I can’t remember when it set in, but I think my mind was already fractured long before today…” The Queen replied softly, staring at Luna. The Princess allowed her glare to soften, but only slightly.
“Remorse, regret and recognition are three powerful prerequisites for redemption. You killed one of our citizens in cold blood, not to mention what we don’t know. That alone is worth execution, but that punishment would be pardoned in favor of a more merciful one due to your surrender. That would be my own court, though. I cannot tell you what Twilight will do, but I recommend finding a way to make yourself useful to her.” Luna started. She paused a moment to reform her glare.
“After all, it was her mother’s death that started this war. Her death at your hands. I would stand by her decision even if it was to throw you into the gates of Tartarus as a chew toy for Cerberus.” The princess almost growled out, relinquishing the tiniest bit of sympathy that had formed in the process. Crystarium once again hung her head.
“Twilight Sparkle’s mother… I didn’t… I didn’t just kill her…” The queen started in an almost terrified whisper.