//------------------------------//
// 12 - Convergence 
// Story: Queen of Equestria 
// by BlackWater 
//------------------------------//








The rush of water rumbled through the otherwise calm needles of the tall pine trees. The damp forest soil turned downhill to a hearty stream that fell in steps to produce the rushing sound. It moved just fast enough not to freeze. At least some manner of luck was indeed on their side, as the sky had opened back up to let some sunshine down. It glimmered off of the moving water and sparkled brilliantly.
Clouds did still hang around overhead, but they did not threaten to pour yet and gave the sun its space. The dark soil pressed like soft clay underhoof. Twilight’s changeling hoofshoes might have appeared dark with the soil upon them, but they were dark already and thus changed only slightly by texture.
Twilight was already flying over the stream and hovering above the place of interest. It was hard to tell if this was a second spot of luck or if luck had left them altogether. She stepped to the water’s edge on her side of the stream, closed her eyes, and began a spacial memory spell. It was advanced magic, but such things had been very attainable since her ascension to an alicorn.
The tall changeling gently set hoof down in the middle of the crater that took up most of the space on this side of the tight clearing. A few pine trees on the rim had even been cracked down near the base from some apparent blast. The soil and the wood both bore signs of familiar impact patterns. They were patterns that Chrysalis in particular knew much of. Changeling magic.
Only one changeling she knew of besides herself had acquired the ability to channel such power. Power that could only be derived from a hive. Her thoughts could be heard by Twilight if she were not busy with the memory spell.
Flux, Chrysalis frowned sadly at the ground beneath her. What did you do?
The entire clearing from tree to tree, including the stream, lit in a mystical purple and green glow. Shapes appeared. Ghosts called forth from the memories of the trees themselves. Twilight was not fooling around. She was serious about finding the changelings and, in turn, Sombra. Chrysalis could feel even her own magic sapping away to fuel the spell. They were going to end this. All of it.
Changeling apparitions buzzed around, their sound as wavy and distorted as the words spoken between their leader and a mysterious haze. No doubt, that was Sombra.
“We don’t need your complicated plots to take over Equestria. The hive will feed without you!” shouted the ghostly Queen Flux. She appeared much smaller than Chrysalis, who stood near her.
A fight ensued. Sombra tried to toss the queen, failed, and was set upon by the swarm. What they were trying to accomplish was uncertain as they failed to have any real effect upon Sombra’s mist form. Their queen, however, began to charge up with a red glow. The memory spell depicted this in a bloody haze.
Chrysalis grimaced. She saw not only this but also the pain in the faces of the other changelings as their own limited energy was drawn as well. Just as Twilight could draw from herself, so could any other hive queen draw from her subjects. Clearly, Flux had decided the swarm was safer drained and without Sombra than with him and minimally fed.
Twilight shielded her eyes as the charge was released and the spell slammed into Sombra’s dispersed form in a blinding blaze of fire still painfully bright in the recent memory of the trees. The alicorn suspected what the end result would be, but was as surprised as Chrysalis when the light lowered to only flames upon the grass and broken pines. Rock and soil had been thrown everywhere. Changelings were scattered as well but unharmed by the spell – only exhausted and limp upon the ground after being drained by it.
Queen Flux laid unmoving upon the ground. Chrysalis stepped close to the ghostly form and saw breathing. She was still alive. The shroud was no more, though. A pony stood in its place. A wounded stallion. Twilight gasped in shock.
“Black magic?!” the deep male unicorn voice of Sombra bellowed. A tremble in his tone made his pain evident, however, even if his hoof clutching his underside did not. “You filthy slave! To think you could copy and combine my magic!”
His words laced with venom but lacked a certain danger to them. Twilight could tell just as Chrysalis did that he had been hurt and drained too much to kill the queen or her changelings. No matter how much he may have desired to do so.
“I will make your deaths painful when I am restored!!” he shouted as strongly and hatefully as he could manage before running off into the forest with a limping gait.
Twilight considered taking off in that direction immediately, but Chrysalis held up a hole-ridden hoof. Some of the fallen changelings were crawling as best they could to their fallen queen. Twilight hesitated only because she agreed what happened here could be quite important. The first changeling to reach and touch Queen Flux was able to prop himself up against her and called out.
“We must get her to the cave. The prisoners still have energy enough to save her,” the buzzy male croaked with a painfully dry voice. “Cell Weaver! Horn Lock! Recover quickly! We must pursue Traitor Sombra. He is mortal and injured now. If we finish him tonight then the hive will be safe from his predations!”
Two other changelings – guards that looked the toughest – nodded but did not get up immediately. They were as drained as the others and after some minutes of rest they got to their hooves with cries and tears of pain. It was too much for them but they knew the alternative was death at Sombra’s hooves. Chrysalis cringed and felt something strange in her eyes as the spell finally died.
The swirls of purple and green light fell with a crash to the damp ground. The ghosts did likewise and faded into nothing with the sweep of a simple cold breeze. Twilight furrowed her brows and leaped across the stream to Chrysalis. She hugged her changeling.
“Why?” Chrysalis tried to shake the tears at the corners of her eyes.
Her queen knew what she was really asking. “You raised those changelings,” she answered with a solemn mood. “You know each one personally. They may have turned on you in the past and you vowed never to care again...but some feelings bury themselves deep inside. We forget why we feel them at all.”
Chrysalis pulled back from Twilight. “They wanted me dead,” she almost whispered, feeling the conflict within herself.
“They are not our enemies here,” Twilight frowned, though not at Chrysalis. “Not anymore. They were just used by Sombra. This may be an opportunity to end the pain and suffering. If we’re not too late. I told you to do what you thought best with them because I know who you’ve become.”
“Do you not wish to repay them for all of the damage they have wrought upon Equestria?” Chrysalis was surprised even as she felt her queen’s feelings on the matter over the hivemind.
“It’s a vicious cycle,” Twilight looked to the trees. “If we don’t take each chance to end it, then there will always be a vendetta to fulfill.”
There was a silence between them. Twilight took a deep breath. The spell had used a good amount of her magic but she wasn’t counting on her raw power to overcome Sombra. This revelation had put them very close to him. The events here couldn’t have been more than a day ago.
Chrysalis looked back up from the soil her hooves pressed into. “Were you thinking that when you saved me?”
Twilight looked back from the trees Sombra had headed through. She saw the vulnerable look on her changeling’s face. “You were about to die in that cycle. All lives are precious and I wanted you to see that and know there was a life outside of revenge.”
The much taller shape-shifter thought about that. She knew it was true, but it gave her a special feeling when she let it sink in. Freeing.
“We should get moving,” Twilight gave a hum of thought.
Chrysalis knew how normal this had become for Twilight. She liked how her queen could take every turn of tribulation in stride. Even if was beyond her confidence to handle. “Complicated schemes are more likely to fail, you know.”
The purple pony shrugged and fluttered forth on her feathery wings. They headed back into the trees and the deeper shade therein. “Sombra may be wounded still, but we would be foalish to assume his power is weakened. He’s smart. Our best chance is your hidden spell. His own dark-changeling magic is over a thousand years old. Your relatively newer magic can trick him. I’ve gone over the combinations five thousand three hundred eight times with partial hivemind power prior to partitioning. The only offense that can potentially work is a dark-trigger medium-complex application absorption trap cast on a changeling with a minimum of a two hundred year magical generation sphere.”
“Right,” Chrysalis pretended to understand. She could use the hivemind if she cared enough and if Twilight hadn’t cast a temporary hivemind dampening spell to prevent ruination of their plan. But neither was true. “Just remind me to have us try some of my other magic in bed sometime. I can think of a thousand hot-”
“Shh!” Twilight hissed.
Both the alicorn and shape-shifter landed hoof-down on the forest floor. There was indeed a sound that came over the occasional breeze and birdsong of the coniferous forest. Voices in the distance. Unintelligible at first but then slowly coming into focus.
“I mean, hoo-wee! Never thought I’d be gettin’ on as well with...well...y’all know. Workin’ just dandy, though!”
Twilight looked to Chrysalis with an excited joy and glee.
Chrysalis flattened her brows and rolled her eyes. How the Spinner did Applebarn get here? she thought.
It did, of course, occur to Twilight that she might only be hearing an Applejack who was a changeling in disguise. However, there was no reason for a changeling to do that before at least knowing they were around and she was certain they hadn’t been seen yet. The hivemind was very well partitioned at this point and thus the connection she would have had with Applejack was too hazy to confirm. She’d play it safe and they would keep their readiness.
With a nod, Chrysalis took the lead and they walked a distance farther through the increasingly mountainous forest. When the voices become close enough, she hailed. “Apple...jack!”
Twilight facehoofed. Chrysalis had almost gone for one of her joking nicknames and then corrected. Her manners were barely improved over the pony she was hailing. Well, perhaps that was too harsh on the farmpony. In any case, Twilight put a hoof to her changeling’s shoulder to let her know to be on guard. 
They could see the opposing party now through a half dozen trees. The two ponies and three changelings all stopped and turned. Twilight recognized only Applejack. The other pony she hadn’t seen before and the three changelings looked very much like average changelings, though one looked dead tired. Her suspicion went up a thousand fold but the logic of the group failed to make sense as a trap.
Both groups tread the remaining distance until they were together on the crest of one of the forest’s jagged moss-infested hills. Applejack gave a friendly greeting and immediately assured her friends that the changelings were on good terms. Chrysalis made the true changelings with Applejack stare in shock. This was certainly not the most clear-cut manner for either side to meet each other again.
“This is a pleasant surprise,” Twilight forced herself hard to hide her doubts. “You’ve discovered the changeling camp? What’s going on here?”
“Long story we ain’t got an afternoon for. The short is we’ve made a deal. As for Sombra, there’s a spot of trouble with that,” Applejack’s eyes turned to Chrysalis. “Maybe you can be some help. They might have some strength with you.”
“Me?” Chrysalis rose her brows. This was getting too complicated. She hadn’t anticipated dealing with her old hive through Applejack of all ponies. “You may need to explain first. Who…?”
“Real quick now. Rara,” Applejack nearly bounced with a pleasant mood, introducing her friend. “My fillyfriend from when I was just a lil’ Apple.”
“Colortura is my full name,” the smiling but somewhat haggard looking mare dipped in a bow first to Chrysalis and then to Twilight.  “Pleased to meet you.”
Applejack proceeded with the others. “These here changelings are 720, Honey Glue, and Cell Weaver. I’ll give you the full story later but I reckon y’all are in a hurry.”
“How’d you guess,” Chrysalis deadpanned.
Twilight nudged her in annoyance.
“I mean, yeah!” Chrysalis corrected. “Sombra is still out there!”
“That’s why we set out to find you,” 720 spoke up in a somewhat feminine buzz. “Applejack told us you would be in the area and we figured you might have found our last confrontation with the Traitor Sombra.”
“You know where he is?!” Twilight asked eagerly. Her heart sped up.
“Almost,” Cell Weaver answered. He was the particularly tired-looking one. “Even after changing some of our spent units with our covers in the city, we just haven’t had the energy to catch up. We are so close and thoughts of desertion could cost us dearly.”
Both Twilight and Chrysalis caught the heated gaze shot back from Weaver to the two changelings beside him. Clearly, the long version of the story had a few more details that Twilight would have to grab via the hivemind later. Now, there was no time.
“Let’s hurry then,” Chrysalis insisted after taking Twilight’s knowing look. “You or one of your companions can lead the way for me and Twilight while the others head back to the safety of the city.”
“You sure y’all don’t want my help?” Applejack cocked her head and pointed her gaze at Twilight. “This here void magic might work real well against Sombra. Even considered it myself when we were back at camp.”
Chrysalis looked to Twilight as well. It was hard for them to exchange anything without the ease of the hivemind, but this was simple enough. The void magic was still untested against Sombra and there was the possibility it resonated closely with the dark magic medium, making it too questionable for use in an open fight against him.
“No, we’ve got this,” Chrysalis looked back to Applejack. “She’s more than enough. In bed and otherwise.”
Twilight forced herself from facehoofing again.
Coloratura blushed while Applejack gave a face that spoke something along the lines of “really now.”
“Quickly,” Twilight motioned with her hoof for the changelings to lead on. She didn’t want them to dawdle.
Cell Weaver and 720 led them back in the direction their group had traveled from. Applejack shifted on her hooves as she watched them go. She didn’t like them splitting up as soon as they came across each other. She knew Sombra was on the loose and dangerous but that was why she wanted in. This was just one big mess and she couldn’t begin to wonder how it would clean up – nevermind what she was going to do with the deal she made the changelings.
Colortura put a hoof to the mare’s shoulder. “I’m sure if Queen Twilight says it’s okay then it really is. Come, AJ. We should get somewhere safe.”
Twilight heard those words behind them as they separated deeper into the forest. She only hoped that pony was right. She had made calculations on the best course of action and probabilities of success as well as harm to herself and her friends. This was the best bet. Please Celestia, let her calculations be accurate.
There was tension as they hovered above the ground to pick up speed. They might have gone faster but the changelings were clearly lacking in energy. Cell Weaver in particular. Twilight was unsure how to handle the tension. It was clearly meant for Chrysalis, but a different tension existed for herself. She risked asking a question to distract from the unease.
“By Applejack’s demeanor,” she called out loud enough to be heard over the hum of their wings, “I assume an agreement has been reached for the release of all prisoners.”
Cell Weaver groaned but 720 answered in earnest. Her voice was more cheerful for some reason. “We – Honey Glue and myself – attempted to leave the hive after releasing Colortura for Applejack. She had us agreed to a deal. But when we actually got back to our camp, Applejack refused to leave all the other ponies as prisoners and take only her one friend. One thing led to another and we sort of...got caught. So we came up with a different bargain.”
“Queen Flux,” Cell Weaver interrupted, “was supposed to recover and we were supposed to find Sombra quickly. Neither has happened. Her recovery is too slow and Sombra has managed to remain ahead of our scouts. At this rate, he will recover before us and we will all die!”
“It took until now for Flux to compromise with the ponies?” Chrysalis scoffed. She let on to her feelings too readily.
Twilight shot her a disapproving glare.
720 tried to respond but her meek reply was spoken over by Cell Weaver, who had found enough anger within to soldier through his exhaustion. “She has been an excellent ruler! She does what she does now because she cares so much about us!”
So did I…once, Chrysalis thought. She was all at once irritated and melancholy.
“You’re using your hivemind to take us to the farthest scouts, correct?” Twilight guessed.
“You would know,” Cell Weaver grumbled, but the remark felt more for Chrysalis than the pony.
Indeed, Twilight did know. But not in the way Weaver assumed.
They must have been flying for an hour. Twilight’s sense of urgency was hurt but she knew that the travel was unavoidable. The changelings had to rest a couple of times but continuous twists and turns in the massive unsettled forest made it impossible for them to just point the alicorn and changeling in the right direction. No doubt the directional changes were based on the ongoing progress of the scouts.
When Twilight was going to ask for the eleventh time how close they were, a sound boomed overhead. It looked black and pink. Was that Pinkie? She flew by so quickly that it was hard to tell. Stranger still was a second something that boomed overhead. It was far larger, like one of the small pedal-propelled copters in ponyville. It looked very different, however. It was like a fish in the sky with wings like a bird that didn’t flap or move.
Cell Weaver interrupted Twilight’s concern over the flying objects.
“Don’t stop. He cannot be far now. Our scouts are just over that crest.”