//------------------------------// // 51. Operation Highland's Edge Part 2 // Story: The Atlantean-Dominion War // by The Atlantean //------------------------------// Mirage walked down a tunnel to clear her mind. She had just picked out her commanders for the many squads her Changeling detachment was going to be divided into. Meanwhile, her colleagues did the same with their own troops. As she walked down the poorly lit tunnel, she heard chatter and instinctively moved to the wall. It was a language she recognized - the language of the Hive. Mirage crept closer until she could make out individual words. By that time, she was nearly at a door with simmering firelight shining through its frame. “You know the plan, imbecile!” “My Queen, I have become fond of this form. It is quite comfortable. But it causes me to forget my place.” Mirage could hear the frustration in the queen’s voice. Evidently, this wasn’t the first time the underling had forgotten what to do. “You must wait until they are out of eyeshot and earshot of other groups, then take them out one by one. The Changelings are of most importance; it has been years since Queen Duplicate’s Hive has breached the surface. Her daughter will make an excellent bargaining chip. But remember to not harm her. Is that clear?” “Yes, my Queen. It will be done.” Mirage slowly backed away from the door as silently as possible. This was bad. She had to warn the others. The door began to creak open. In a moment of panic, Mirage cast the first spell that came to mind. Instantly, her body was enveloped in a flash of green and she turned into a normal Changeling, bald head and everything. Solitaire walked out of the room. “Oh! You’ve come back from your patrol! Tell me, do the ponies suspect a thing?” “No, sir,” she replied. Thankfully, her transformation changed her voice box to sound fully grown. The pronunciation could use some work, though. “Perfect! Take a break, but get back to work by noon.” “Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.” Mirage waited until Solitaire rounded a bend, then transformed back into herself in a flash of green. She let out a breath she’d been holding. Those last couple of minutes felt weird. Relieved, she walked into the room. It was Solitaire’s personal quarters, but there had to be a massive wealth of knowledge in here, like how in the world the Earth pony from Port Snowfall could speak the Changeling language! She started with the desk in the corner. Opening its single drawer, she found nothing. No papers were on the desk either. Five minutes of searching the entire room revealed no indication of who the queen was, where she was based, and how many ponies had been impersonated. Another five minutes, and she was out of time. Mirage left everything where it was and left as discreetly as possible. On her way to Treetop, she found Crimson and pulled him into a side corridor. “Mirage!” he yelped. “What do you want?” “We have a problem,” she whispered. “You know that search pattern we’re gonna use tomorrow?” “Yeah, I know it. It’s ingenious.” “It’s a trap.” Crimson was taken aback. “How do you know?” “I overheard Solitaire - well, a Changeling disguised as him. Look, he spoke to some queen using the Changeling language. Only a Changeling can do that. And not only did he do that, but the queen sounded exasperated!” “We need to tell Treetop,” he said after a moment to collect his thoughts. “That’s what I was going to do! You think you can help me?” “Sure. I just came from him. He’s really annoyed right now, but at least he’s still open to information.” They eased back into the central tunnel and headed to the colonel’s workroom. Knocking on the door, Crimson went in first. “Treetop, we have a problem.” “Is it your assignment?” Treetop didn’t even look up from his papers. He shuffled them and kept going through documents. “No, sir. It’s-” “Well, then you don’t have a reason to have a problem. Anything else?” Crimson was stunned. “No, sir.” “Alright then. You know where the door is.” Treetop started reading the next paper in his pile. Crimson walked out and shrugged to the Changeling Princess. “That was weird. He’s never put work before his us like that before.” “Then we have to assume they already got him,” Mirage said. “Do you think Platinum or Southern Lights can be trusted?” “Well, normally I would, but I’d also normally trust Treetop. Assume the worst and we’re the only combat-trained ponies left. What would you do?” “Get a medic to treat our wounds,” she instantly replied. “Exactly. We should get Lieutenant Thorn and stay together.” A few minutes later, Rose Thorn sighed as she heard their story. “It just doesn’t make sense, Warrant Dawn,” she said. “Even if you were telling the truth, how do I know you aren’t a Changeling yourself?” “Uh…” “He isn’t,” Mirage stated. “I know I’m a Changeling, but my mother is Queen Kate.” Rose immediately understood what she meant. A lot of the Changelings she treated had referred to the Emberforge Valley Queen on the offhoof, using that name as a code to tell their comrades which hive they were from. Because of that, she could trust Mirage. And Mirage trusted Crimson. “Give me a minute to pack my things.” ------------------------------------------- “Are you sure this is safe?” Rose asked. “Yeah. I had one of my guys scout it out - the line goes really far into the Highlands,” Mirage replied. “Sure, but is the line safe?” The three stood at the beginning to the underground line to Griffonstone. An open-topped magic train purred behind them, ready to drive into the menacingly dark tunnel. Compared to the central caverns, it was night. Considering that many ponies had complained about how dim it was in the central tunnels, that was pitch-black. After a moment, Mirage spoke again. “Yeah.” The trio boarded. Rose grimaced, but climbed onto the train anyway. Mirage pushed the brake button, and the engine hummed forward. It began slow, but quickly ramped up speed, barreling down the tunnel fast enough to make the distance-marker glowstones go by in a blur. Luckily, the trains were noiseless, but they did have to go into the system and reroute this specific train from a southern line to get it. Since the trains were reassigned all the time, nopony would expect a thing. Suddenly, the moon appeared above them, its cratered mare staring down on her newest night wanderers. Crimson looked up from his gun at the sudden natural light. He’d been using a glowstone to see the rifle, but now moonlight made everything much clearer. Rose stared to the right, realizing that they were over a valley. Mirage saw the tunnel ahead of them, at least a few miles down the line. She decided to take in the scenery. The valley was beautiful. The reds, oranges, and browns combined with the night to make varying shades of black and midnight blue. Rock spires that made craggy shadows in the day looked smooth now. Soft moonlight rained down, giving the land a silver glow it could get at no other time. Stars dotted the sky, but some were obscured by the nearby mountains. A great band of densely packed stars filled the center of the sky, stretching across from horizon to horizon. Then the earth swallowed them again, but for a very short time. After a minute, they could see the valley again. The rickety wooden bridge below the creaked and groaned with their passage. Rose unconsciously leaned over to look at the bridge, an apprehensive look plastered on her face. The bridge ended, but the rails continued on the surface. Then the train stopped humming and hit every bump in the road. Mirage looked ahead just as they came to a stop. “Looks like we ran out of track.” Crimson was the first off the train, grabbing his equipment as he jumped. Rose went second, taking a bit more time to gather her stuff, and Mirage was last. The Changeling was unlucky enough to have landed on a gun, yelping as she tried desperately to regain her balance. “Wait… Crimson, take a look at this.” The Pegasus stared at the weapon Mirage now held in her magic. “Foot-long bayonet, single-shot, muzzle-loader. Tin production label. Segmented stock, matchlock system, simple rear sight. This is an Atlantean musket. But what’s it doing in the middle of the Highlands? Sarge never came to this area.” Rose backed into the two when she saw other things: muskets, piles of rail segments and wooden planks, and safety equipment. “I think we found the Rangers,” she said. Crimson readied his repeater, Mirage brandished her sword, and Rose prepared to cast a defensive spell when a figure materialized in the moonlight. It walked slowly, just as apprehensive as the three. “Who are? Whisperers?” it asked. “Atlantean,” Crimson replied. “Hail from Summercrest.” “Hail from Frostgar. Puddle jumpers.” “Coal-heads.” The figure laughed. “Finally, somepony who gets it!” It approached, revealing itself as a battered coal-black Earth pony stallion with a fiery cutie mark. His dusty-gray mane and tail revealed themselves as Rose lit her horn. “Ranger Coal Dust, reporting for duty.” “Warrant Crimson Dawn, Second Coastal. This is Nurse Lieutenant Thorn and Princess Mirage of the Emberforge Valley Changeling Hive,” Crimson introduced, gesturing to the other two as he mentioned them. “Thorn? Like Solitaire’s daughter Rose Thorn?” “Yeah, why?” Coal Dust’s jaw dropped and his eyes widened in shock. “Oh, this is not good… I’m probably the last Ranger who isn’t in Echo’s emotion farm. And now she’s just gotten herself veteran troops and could get Solitaire’s filly, too. Ohhhh, nooooo…” “She actually has Dad?” Rose asked. “Yes, ma’am,” he gulped. “Do you know where the hive is?” Crimson asked. Coal Dust nodded and pointed down. “We’re on top of it. But I don’t know how to get in.” “Then how do you know where it is?” He shrugged. “There’s more than one entrance. I got out of the one of there,” she said, gesturing to where he’d emerged minutes earlier, “but it collapsed behind me. We need to leave before this place is swarming with guards and hopefully find another entrance.” Mirage cast her own spell and immediately started walking back the way the train had come. The others followed her back to the tracks and across the second bridge. Without the weight of the train, it complained much less. Mirage continued to the short tunnel leading the first bridge she’d crossed on the train, then tapped on the wall. She felt along it, walking back and forth. Confident she found what she was looking for, Mirage charged up her horn and blasted the wall. Instead of ricocheting back into her face, the rock blew inwards, caving in to reveal a fairly large side tunnel that arched in two directions. She walked in, and everypony followed. “That wasn’t an entrance,” Mirage explained as they walked. “This is a tunnel connected to the Hive that happened to be really close to the outdoors. All I had to do was find it.” “Won’t they know you just knocked down their wall?” Coal Dust asked. “Nope. Changeling hives almost never guard their walls, just the doors. Mother had an early-warning system throughout the entire hive, but she was a little paranoid about invasion. Hives really don’t have a reason to guard a wall of rock otherwise.” Holding up a hoof, she said, “Wait. Guard ahead.” “How do you-” Coal Dust started to ask, but Crimson covered his muzzle. “Shh!” the Pegasus whispered harshly. Coal Dust nodded, more frightened by the gun than his tone. He tiptoed to Mirage, who was swiveling her ears around. Suddenly, the Changeling slammed a guard with a white-hot bolt of lightning, instantly turning him to ash. The Earth pony backed up as quietly as he could. “The coast is clear,” Mirage whispered, led the group on. Eventually, they made it to a large cavern, larger than the one Treetop had his troops camp in. from their high vantage point, they could see thousands of cocoons, half of them empty, but easily enough to hold the Second, Third, and the Rangers. Some were being filled now; Changeling guards put sedated ponies into their gooey prisons as the four watched. “By Harmony,” Rose gasped. “They’re capturing everyone.”