The air outside was frigid and damp. Lily hugged the egg closer to herself. Even the stone path they walked upon seemed frozen to the touch; so it was a relief when they finally reached the hatchery. The hatchery was warm inside, it was always warm. The changelings made use of a natural hot-spring with geothermal energy. Lily thought, ‘what a fine place this is to keep an egg warm, and Chrysalis was wise to put the hatchery here.’
If eggs were hatched using body heat then they received love. Here they only received warmth. Lily never thought that this might be the intention.
Roseluck had never been here before, and Lily had only been here once. As they walked up the path, something stopped the changeling guard who was escorting them. Said guard motioned for the two mares to keep going, and they did.
Not knowing her way around, Roseluck allowed Lily to lead her.
Soon they were deep into the caves of the hatchery. Roseluck gagged slightly from the smell of past egg remnants.
“Lily,” she asked, “do you know what that barrier was?”
“No! It must be there to protect the hatchery.”
“How come we could pass through it, but the guards couldn’t.”
Before Lily could answer, they spotted something white, contrasting with the blacks and dark greens of their surroundings. It was a Stallion. He had a blue mane, and there were bandages around his ribs.
The flower mares approached the Stallion from his backside. Hearing them, he turned around, suddenly, and they were shocked to see a green glow in his eyes. It was a sickly green, like the dripping of the hive.
“Ladies come in,” he called. “I’m so glad that my guards found more survivors. Don’t be afraid.” He motioned for them to sit. He seemed a bit frantic, yet made a clear effort to speak with the dignity and forcefulness of a military Stallion.
Something didn’t sound quite right to Roseluck. The stallion said “my guards,” when referring to those who had brought them here.
“Don’t be frightened ladies. The castle is safe I promise you.”
He did it again she thought. He just referred to the hatchery as a castle. The hatchery is in a cave; it’s not a castle by any stretch of the imagination. Roseluck looked into the green glow of his eyes. He was under a spell, surely he was.
The Stallion introduced himself as Shining Armour, former head guard of Canterlot and current protector of the of the Crystal Empire. He told them that he was using his unicorn magic to make the crystal castle a safe space from the changeling invasion, then his eye twitched a few times.
Lily whispered to Roseluck. "I’ve heard of this guy. He’s Princess Cadence’s husband.”
“Yeah, he’s head guard because he can make pink bubbles of unicorn magic that protect whole cities.”
“Uh huh, he just told us that.”
“He also told us we’re in a castle and he’s protecting us from a changeling invasion.”
Roseluck looked over at him again. Shining Armour just smiled, he stood there surrounded by Chrysalis’ unhatched brood, his eyes still glowing a faint green. One egg shook and made a crinkling sound.
“Should we tell him the truth?”
Lily thought for a moment. “All accounts I’ve heard say that he’s a good guy.”
“Yeah, on the other hand, he has more reason to hate changelings then anypony. Chrysalis imprisoned his wife, took her place, and fed off him for who knows how long.”
“And now here he is protecting a changeling hatchery from… What are we being protected from again?”
“I heard It was something called the pestilence, and that it’s supposed to be an eldrich abomination made of locusts.”
“I’m not telling him.” Lily finally decided.
They both turned, and Shining just smiled again.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
The sound of countless locusts was deafening. To a changeling the undulating pulses would normally be soothing. This however lacked the harmony of naturally occurring locusts. Rather then harmonious, it sounded as though each insect was trying to be heard over and drown out each of the others.
The screeching grew in tempo. Drone wondered if this was the buildup to an attack. Daisy thought the noise so harsh that it must be an attack in of itself.
Daisy now knew that a changelings horn wasn’t a source of magic, only a receiver of sound. Now that Chrysalis had transformed her into a Changeling, she heard her kins true language in small pulses within the larger carrier frequency of their wingbeats.
Not long ago, Chrysalis threatened to transform her and her friends into changelings if they did not obey her. Even more recently Daisy challenged the queen to do just that. It was the first time she’d ever seemed Chrysalis seem flustered, and for a while she wondered if it was even possible for a pony to become a changeling. Eventually Chrysalis did produce that potion, and now here she was with armour, claws, mandibles, wings that buzz, and even her horn. She felt so strong, meat looked appetizing, it was glorious.
Drone vibrated his wings, ordering the other changelings to hold their ground. Daisy was surprised by this voice. It was a kind voice, it didn’t sound as rough or angry as the others, yet it commanded attention. She liked it.
Drone had injured his wing once, protecting the queen. The tendons in the wings became unusually tight when they healed. To him the voice was a source of shame and he usually avoided talking. After all, the changelings who long for mothers love, tend to like his voice a little too much. Singing gets tiresome after a while.
Chrysalis finally arrived. The screeching of the locusts went silent.
Pestilence turned its head ever so slowly. His gaze swept up and down, as though taking in all that Chrysalis was. Next it spoke it a raspy, yet somehow booming voice. “You’re uglier then your mother,” it said.
The idea that this creature even thought she would care about his comment only mildly amused Chrysalis.
“Perhaps if that twit had laid upon your egg, and given it her love, then you’d have been born beautiful.”
Now Chrysalis sneered. That one actually did sting a little.
“Is it so important to you that what you seek to destroy be beautiful. If so, I know some ponies you could focus your attention on. The princesses have star sparkles in their manes.”
She had to stall the creature. She had planned for this day ever since the Pestilence had escaped Tartarus on Tireks coattails. Chrysalis almost felt sorry for her comments about the sparkle haired princesses, considering they had warned her about the creatures escape, with no strings attached.
“It is alright, I will destroy you,” said the creature. “first I will make sure we don’t have to repeat this dance again in a few millennia.”
‘What did that mean?’ Chrysalis wondered.
The mass of locust seemed to loose its shape. It was as though something inside the mass lost its weight and substance, or perhaps teleported away. The locusts became normal and flew off in every direction. As they separated, smoke escaped from the center of the mass.
In contrast to how casually the creature just left, Chrysalis dropped her air of composure and turned frantically to face Drone. “You and Daisy gather the contingency forces,” she ordered. “Move them to the hatchery immediately.”
Daisy wanted to run to the hatchery herself. Nopony had told her so, but she immediately thought that Lily’s egg must be there. Drone motioned for her to go with him in the other direction. She was unsure. She didn’t know what the contingency force was. What made her obey was not her affection for Drone. She knew from the look in Chrysalis’ eyes, she knew that the queen would defend her hatchlings to her last breath.
Even if she would never lay upon their eggs.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Twilight Sparkle sighed. All the mane six were in a dungeon beneath Chrysalis’ castle.
The walls were made of a substance refined from the armoured skin that changelings would shed on a yearly basis. It’s hardness rested somewhere between that of steel and diamond. The bars were the same material. There was no window.
Her magic was lost to her. The changelings had some sort of green slime, that hardened like an epoxy cement. The same slime coated her horn, effectively blocking all her magic.
Their attempt to rescue Lily Valley and Daisy had been a disaster. Now she didn’t know where her brother, Shining Armour, was or if he was even alive. And she had given Chrysalis a powerful mathematical algorithm for transformation spells. What was the queen planning to do with that? Did she have some evil plan to turn all Equestria into changelings? No, that was insane. That many changelings would not have enough to feed upon. Maybe it was just for the six of them. That thought terrified her. She had to get her friends out of this dungeon.
‘C’mon Twilight, think.’ The first step is to get my magic back. There must be a way to dissolve the green cement. How?
First don’t reinvent the wheel. Chrysalis must have her own solvent. What would it be: an acid, a base, an enzyme, heat. Was the slime hot when she applied it to my horn? Did it harden or oxidize? Was there a chemical change?
She shook her head violently, demanding that her brain find a solution.
“Hey stop it Twilight. You’re gonna poke my eye out with that thing.”
Twilight looked up. “Pinkie! What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to get this gunk off your horn, so you can use magic again.”
“How? Do you know its chemical composition.” Twilight didn’t ask how Pinkie got out of her shackles. She was Pinkie after all.
“Sure do. It’s made of honey.”
“Honey.” Twilight lifted one eyebrow incredulously. “Honey is blocking my magic. How can honey block my magic.”
“Maybe the bees used pollen from atropa belladonna," Fluttershy offered. "That blocks magic, although it wouldn’t be poisonous in honey form.”
“Why do you know about poisonous flowers?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Sometimes I help Zecora with her gardening.”
Twilight looked at her friends with pride in her eyes. “So how do you plan to get the honey off of my horn?”
Pinkie grinned. She licked her lips, and inched her face towards the horn.
Slurp, Slurp!
Tingles moved down Twilights entire body. She’d read that the horn was an erogenous zone. Strange that she could live in her own skin her whole life, and never really test that.
“No… Pinkie… Don’t… Stop!”
Pinkie pulled back.
“I said don’t stop!”
XXXXXXXXXXXXX
Daisy took to flying quite quickly, or so she thought. Normally changelings flew lower then pegasi, preferring the stealth of the forests. Instead she flew just above, where there were no obstacles. She still had to watch for updrafts and gusts.
It occurred to her that she didn’t know what the contingency forces were. Had Chrysalis formed some alliance of necessity to protect her unhatched babies. If so, who was the ally? Perhaps it was the princesses, and this would issue a new era of peace. Or maybe Discord, that would be cool, so long as the temperamental draconequus didn’t turn them all into cotton candy. Could it be Griffons, Yaks, a trained Ursa major.
Her thought were interrupted when Drone began descending into a marsh area.
Drone turned to Daisy. Speaking in gentle wingbeats, he instructed her to translate what he said into a speaking language. Daisy had retained her talent for spoken languages, which was elusive to most changelings, save for the ability to mimic others when they shape shifted.
His wings vibrated with a continuous buzz. Daisy’s new horn translated the buzzing into words her mind recognized.
“Friends,” said she, “the era of a 100 years of peace is soon upon us. As promised, we stopped feeding on your kind, and turned our attention to your greater enemy the snakes. For months now, you have enjoyed absolute safety. If we were still your enemies, would we have allowed your numbers to grow to their unprecedented levels. There are now 50 of you for each of us, and we have also secured food so that you could support this population.
As promised, you have not grown lazy, or allowed yourselves to become kept creatures. No, you are all great warriors. Now I ask you to fulfill your end of the agreement. Our horrible enemy now descends upon the hatchery.”
There were some collective gulps from the audience.
“Yes, the hatchery! The pestilence plans to not only destroy us, but our future, our young. Even in the darker days, when we were still enemies, were we ever so cruel to you? Please, my friends, I beg you, fight for us.”
Sounds rose from the audience, like drums of war.