Descent into darkness. She had expected to feel uneasy, returning to the hive. Though she had already transformed her body back into its original form, the sensation of the surface was what felt natural to her.
The lichen patches along the cave walls were dim, fuzzy lights compared to the shimmering stars. And the life that thrived here, the vile lizards and rats, meant nothing to her now. But it made her feel safe. Everything in this little underground world was hers. The drones listened to her command, the ponies were her prisoners and prey, and no violent action by surface competitors could reach so far into the depths of the hive.
The pack bobbed through the stone formations that filled the cave. When she was young, such things seemed like wonderful defences. But now her mind was sharper, and her instincts read straight through the obstacles, forming the path meters ahead in her mind.
Of course, the same could not be said for the prey. With their weight and binds, it took three days of trotting and flying to get back, and though the male had come to terms with his situation, he did not make the trip any easier. Unaccustomed to the utter darkness of the hive he tripped and stumbled even at the points when the tunnel was straight, falling over rocks and stalagmites.
Spectra hissed at hunter-drones to force them along. Scrapes and bruises wouldn't damage their magic, and she was eager to see what her sisters had brought to the hive.
A wave of nostalgia swarmed Spectra's nose as her pack entered the main cavern of the hive. The slightly sour air from the glowing fungal patches and the ever-present sounds of life scrapping to survive in the dark recesses of the hive brought memories from when she had first learned to hunt.
"Princess!"
Spectra turned her head to a worker-drone hurrying across the cavern. She immediately noticed the small differences now. The drone ran from a tunnel that had not existed before. In other parts of the hive, where there was once solid stone, there were the formations of new tunnels.
The worker-drone collapsed on the floor and bent his head to the ground. "We finish cavern, larder. New place for prey."
"A larder?" Spectra raised a brow, turning to the captain. "He means a prison of my own, for my prey?"
The captain nodded. "You must grow independent, and thus keep to your own stockpile of magic."
Spectra expected at least a few words of welcome. But it seemed her mother the Queen had no time to teach her daughters the little things. The hive was still growing under her mother's command. If she wanted to rule it one day, she had to keep up by herself.
"I've drained them both enough on the way here," Spectra said, casting a glance at Lunti and Chevron. "Take them to it, then. I'll be down to inspect it myself after I've met with my mother and sisters."
The captained echoed a series of clicks through the hive, commanding the hunter-drones to follow the new tunnel to their princess' own prey pantry. The two ponies weren't hard to lead anymore. Robbed of sight, their most valued attribute, their other senses were so dulled by pampered surface life that they had no way of knowing what went on around them.
"I wonder what else has happened," Spectra said to herself. There was no set time on when they needed to return with prey. For all she knew, she was the first. Or, Tenacity and her other sisters had already returned. She was interested to hear which one of them blundered at Marblestop.
Spectra raised her nose. Being born on the surface might have made ponies' senses dull, but it only enhanced Spectra's. Where she once struggled to track her sisters and hunt for the littlest of prey, she could now clearly see everything purely on scent and sound alone.
"Majesta and Tenacity," she noted, tilting her head around to refocus on the distant reaches of the hive. But Halfwing wasn't anywhere in the range of her senses.
She never liked Halfwing anyways. That sister she had fought with since the hatching caverns kept her bitterness, long after they had left their birthing pits. And even though it was Tenacity who had ripped off one of her wings, she still had enough hatred for the both of them.
Spectra shrugged and started wandering the hive. She didn't care which sister she met first, though, between her other sisters, she enjoyed Tenacity's company the most. Regardless, she was curious to see how her prodigal sister, Majesta, had managed in the surface world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The hive's new caverns managed to disorient Spectra's developed awareness. Nothing could compare to the vastness of the surface world, but looping tunnels and cave systems managed to throw her off for a while. She felt compelled as a princess to inspect the worker-drones' work.
Wherever they worked, they left their marks. Divots existed where the worker-drones had placed their acid slime. Because of their weaker stature, magic, and inability to act on their own, the only benefit of the worker-drones was their acidic saliva.
Spectra realized she never noticed them working before. But now, after having had to work for herself, everything jumped out at her. There were still streaks in the stone where acidic residue was left behind to trickle into the cracks of the stone. Changeling acid wasn't strong, but there was more than enough to spread across an entire wall and erode it away slowly.
Spectra wondered. Her species enjoyed discreet, tactful actions, but perhaps not everything needed to be done so slowly. A few hammers and mining chisels could carve away at the acid-eaten walls with no effort.
Spectra expelled the air out of her lungs and squeezed through the narrow opening to the new cavern. It would be days before the acid wore away enough to make the cavern easily accessible. She almost thought she would have to take another breath and crush herself in the cavern entrance, but in the final push, the Changeling acid was wet enough for her to slip through and stumble in front of her sisters.
There were four seats around a table of stone that melded with the cave floor. They almost looked like the thrones the council members at Riverfork sat on, only less polished in its designs. Her eyes distracted, Spectra slipped on a puddle of Changeling acid as she entered.
She looked up, rubbing her head and seeing Tenacity standing over her. "Hello, sis."
Spectra reached up and dragged her sister down. "Tena! Glad to see the surface didn't eat you up."
"Ha!" her sister laughed, pushing them apart. "I should be saying that to you. I've been waiting months for you come back." Tenacity pointed her horn at Majesta. "She only came back a few weeks ago."
Spectra stood up. "So, how'd the hunt go for you two?"
"Perfect," Tenacity beamed. "Though I bet you can't guess how many ponies I brought back."
"It's not the amount that matters," Majesta said. "I only needed one."
Spectra nodded. "Mine sort of came in a pair."
Their sister returned to her chair, leaning into the stone's carved shaped. "I caught eight," she said with a sinister grin.
Spectra thought she was lying at first. Eight? She would have had to march them all to the hive, as there weren't enough hunter-drones to carry that much weight. Still, Majesta spoke as if it were true.
"They barely have any love in them," Majesta scolded. "You grabbed the first stallions who doted on that disguise of yours." Spectra could tell her sister was mostly annoyed by Tena's boasting, but she spoke so defensively that she wondered if she was a bit sensitive about her single catch.
"How'd you replace so many ponies?" Spectra asked, taking a seat on one of the thrones.
Majesta threw her hooves over her head. "This will be wonderful to hear again."
"I didn't bother," Tenacity answered, choosing to ignore Majesta. "We hunted in a mountain city further north of the river. It was so secluded there was no way word would spread of our actions there."
"A city?" Spectra asked. Nothing in the groundskeeper's notes mentioned cities. Villages, towns, hamlets, but the word city never came up.
"Imagine a town, but much bigger," Tenacity answered. "About three or four hundred thousand ponies live there."
Spectra's jaw dropped. Combined with Marblestop's refugees, she estimated Riverfork didn't exceed fifty thousand ponies. She tried imagining what the city would look like, with housing districts as vast as Riverfork's farms, but the image failed to come to mind.
"Still reckless," Majesta countered, slapping a hoof on the table. "You could've taken time to establish relationships so you wouldn't have to start from scratch the next time you hunted."
"And if I did, I'd be stuck with one stallion like you."
Spectra decided she didn't like Majesta's bristling magic. Sitting by her at the table, she saw that her sister still had the size and strength of a brute. She and Tenacity were similarly sized, slightly taller than their drones, but Majesta towered over them still. She was somewhere between them and their mother's height, with an equally terrifying reserve of magic.
"So, I guess it's no surprise the cripple's the last one to show up."
"Underestimate her and you'll be dead," Majesta warned.
Spectra was taken aback by the sudden threat. Majesta was strong but never stood up for anyone else but herself. Spectra opened her mouth to say something back, but Tenacity caught her shoulder.
"Let her finish."
Tenacity suddenly deferring, even to Majesta, was unusual. Spectra sat back and listened.
"I don't believe our sister will be returning to the hive," Majesta continued. "I ran into the captain of her pack during my return to the hive. He was badly wounded until he couldn't walk. Had I returned a day or two later, he would have died."
Those words shocked Spectra. Captains were not chosen by their followers, nor by birthright. The only quality was the Queen's favour, which could only be gained through unmatched cunning and depravity among one's siblings. How could a Changeling like that suffer so much damage?
"What happened to him?" Spectra asked.
"Wondered the same. He said Halfwing went crazy the moment she was allowed to hunt in Marblestop," she said. "The youngest hunter-drones obeyed her without question, and together they managed to force most of the others to submit."
"Instead of hunting," Spectra realized, "she started attacking every pony in the village."
Majesta cut her story short. "You heard?"
"Heard?" Spectra chuckled at her fortune. "I dare say I was in the thick of it. I disguised myself as a Marblestop blacksmith when I went to Riverfork. Halfwing's mental break caused more trouble for me than you can imagine."
Tenacity and Majesta traded glances now, surprise written clearly on the faces as well as their scent.
Tenacity nudged her. "Sis, you don't seem worried enough about this."
"She messed up," Spectra said. "Why should I worry?"
Tenacity furrowed her brow. "Because mother hasn't considered it a failure. Halfwing's taken an entire village in the name of the hive, and from what her captain said, she's there to stay. Hidden or not, she's gotten too strong too fast."
Spectra turned to Majesta. "Is this real? Surely mother can't accept what she's done!"
Her bigger sister simply shrugged. "Mother's power here is secure. If Halfwing proves to be better for the hive's future by starting her own splinter hive at this age, none of us will even get see the throne."
Spectra gritted her fang's at Majesta's assessment. For the past six months, she thought she had fed off her sister's failure, using the refugees to turn Marina Fisher into a hero, an idol among the Marblestop survivors. Even if she had succeeded, it was all moot compared to the range of power Halfwing had now.
She went back to the groundskeeper's lessons. Marblestop was a village of thirty-thousand ponies. If Seiris's consensus of the refugees was even remotely accurate, then no more than a third of that population made it to Riverfork.
Twenty thousand. That left twenty thousand ponies as Halfwing's larder. A fraction of that was more than all their hunts combined.
Spectra shouted, blasting a bolt of green magic at the table. "How did she manage to take a whole village?" She seethed, slamming a hoof against the stone.
"Don't get worked up," Tenacity grabbed Spectra's face to calm her down. "The captain Majesta saved agreed to help us. He's rallying every lieutenant he can dominate to make us a pack big enough to tear Marblestop open and find Halfwing."
"Yes," Majesta confirmed. "As has my own captain."
She tilted her head up and Spectra almost wanted to reel back. The cold, heartless eyes of her sister were replaced with some kind of bloodlust, fueled by the primal thirst to secure her power and eliminate a rival. Spectra saw it and felt it pumping in her chest too.
They were sisters, family, born together in the same hole. But as princesses, the strongest instinct implanted in them from their egg-dreams was a need to become queens.
Majesta's fangs glistened and reflected the pale light of the small fungal patches growing in the cavern. "It's time to go to war."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So princess Halfwing drove those refugees to us," Spectra's captain summarized after she had finished telling him what she heard from her sisters. "I'm impressed she managed to interfere with your hunt along the way."
"Captain, I am your princess," Spectra growled at Halfwing's name. "My sister is a failure as a Changelings and a leader. It was sheer chance her actions caused us trouble. She is my rival and deserves death for getting in my way." They paced around a small feeding area just outside Spectra's larder.
She didn't need to try hard to read the pride in her captain's magic. The hunt had bonded them, master and subordinate. Her will would become his actions, and he would share in her success.
"In that case, I'll handle gathering more hunter-drones as well," he said. "If princess Majesta's pack is any larger than ours, she will have the credit at the end of the war."
"Do it," Spectra agreed. "And, before you go, give me counsel. What would my mother do in this situation?"
"In a war?" The captain scratched his head. "The hive's had relative peace during your mother's rule. Previous captains have talked about war with a griffon prince, however. It happened when the Queen was just a princess like you."
"And?"
"I don't have the egg-dream," he answered, "but I heard that the Queen back then brought with her a herd of captured ponies so she wouldn't go hungry during the siege."
He pointed his horn to the cage door that opened to the prey's pens. "I know you'll probably want to feed to relax, my advice to you is to keep one alive enough to take with you when we leave."
"And the rest of the pack?" Spectra asked. "I won't ignore the importance of my army. There's no use feeding the head of a snake if its tail withers away."
"We're not like you, princess," the captain smiled. "I will make sure the hunter-drones are content with feeding on lesser prey for now."
Spectra gave a pleased nod and dismissed him. Even if Halfwing was pulling ahead in their sisterly competition, the success of her hunt was still purposeful. She hated being forced to catch up with the cripple. Nevertheless, she would catch up.
Walking deeper into the tunnel she came across a locked metal door. It was one of the few useful things the hive stole from pony villages. A guard-drone stood mindlessly guarding it, barely even recognizing Spectra. Waved a hoof in front of him, testing the drone's programming.
She remembered a lesson from her mother, months ago when her brain had barely formed. There were special hunter-drones born to guard the hive and its caverns. Spectra guessed it was a similar to how the groundskeepers were born. The guard-drones wouldn't recognize anything except unwanted intruders.
Of course, the Queen's Reservoir was guarded by dangers far worse than a single drone. It made Spectra wonder at how many secrets did only their mother know about? As it stood, she only knew the existence of hunter-drone variants. It was the Queen who found them and trained them. If she could simply learn that kind of power her from mother, Halfwing wouldn't stand a chance.
"Open the door," Spectra commanded her drone. Its eyes flickered for a moment as if her words gave the drone a spark of life. It didn't show any acknowledgement of Spectra. The drone just pulled the door's keys from the small satchel slung over its back and unlocked the door. Once that task was finished, it returned to its mindless guarding position.
Inside, the cavern glowed slightly brighter than the rest of the hive. To accommodate the weakened eyes of the ponies, glowing fungal patches were planted along the cavern floor, illuminating the room just enough so they wouldn't go insane in the darkness.
"Wha-"
Spectra turned to Chevron's voice. The stallion had a rope tied around his neck like a leash, with the other end bound around a heavy stone. She could see pieces of glowing fungi on the ground, some torn up and some chewed. Specks of the fungi even covered Chevron's mouth. It was a sudden reminder that she and the pack had forgotten to feed the ponies.
"Is that you?" he called out, squinting in the dim light. "You were that Changeling, weren't you? The one who replaced that Marblestop girl!"
Spectra sneered at him. Replaced? She wanted to laugh at how he believed at one point Marina was actually a pony. Just a few meters away, Lunti was tied to a rock as well.
"Yes it's me," she answered Chevron. "However, if this form terrifies you..."
Spectra reached inward and pooled her magic into her stomach. With their emotions fueling her, the transformation came easily. She burned the magic away, using its power to reconfigure her flesh.
In a flash of green light, Spectra was gone, and Gentry stood before the two ponies. "I could be some pony else if it makes you more comfortable." She looked down at herself. "Though I suppose this isn't what you wanted to see."
Spectra couldn't help but smile at Lunti's expression. Her eyes were nearly useless in the dim, but her ears recognized her father's voice immediately.
"Don't look at me like that," Spectra turned her voice into a masculine snarl. "I gave my daughter everything. The disloyal whore you've become is not the little filly I loved."
Lunti choked, holding back tears in her eyes. Despite knowing who was speaking under that voice, she couldn't help but let out her emotions. Spectra tasted it all in the air. Genuine repent, mixed with fear, was written across Lunti's magic.
Spectra released her body from Gentry's form, returning to her true self.
"Why not just kill us already?" Chevron's head was hung low but Spectra could still hear the anger quivering in his voice.
A thought popped into Spectra's mind, and she transformed again. This time, taking the form of Espera Voxa. She approached Chevron, wrapping her hooves around the stallion. Voxa didn't have the youthful charm that Seiris commanded among mares, but nevertheless her natural shape and matured control drove male bodies crazy, regardless of their conscious fears.
"Wouldn't it be better for the both of us," she whispered into his ears, tracing her tongue along it, "if you stayed around just a bit longer?" Her mouth hovered close to his and pinched his jaw open between her hooves. She breathed in, drawing on his magic until Chevron began convulsing.
The force of magic leaving his body had arrested his lungs, like a pony struggling to breathe in a vicious fit of vomiting. Spectra didn't mind. He'd pass out soon enough once she drew enough magic.
She dropped his head onto a patch of glowing mushrooms when she finished. Spectra gave a sigh of satisfaction, relaxing and letting her magic gently return her to her true body. It felt good to feed on him, but she knew she could never bring him along to fight her sister. Chevron wasn't old by any means, but neither was he young. Thanks to a life of luxury, his body was long past its prime.
Spectra glanced over at Lunti who lay petrified on the ground. "Bet you never did that with him, did you?"
Lunti's eyes widened. "It was you who told my father..."
"Of course I did. I needed to separate you from the pony most likely to know the difference between you and your replacement."
"You ruined my life!"
Spectra looked around the dim cavern. "Well, yes."
"Why me?" Her voice shook, half with rage and half with fear. "Why not the Marblestop officers, or Reiter, or-"
"Reiter?" Spectra rushed Lunti, filling her legs with magic to move impossibly fast and pin Lunti down in a patch of fungi. "So you never did love him, did you? You're happy to have him take your place here."
Lunti coughed as the some of the fungi cluttered around her face. The impact blurred her vision, making it even harder to see in the dim light. But when the cavern cleared up, the face lit by the gentle blue hue of the fungi was not Spectra's black chitinous carapace, but Reiter's.
She struggled to escape her shame, but Spectra pressed her down with supernatural strength, threatening to break her bones in the struggle. Lunti very quickly gave up, realizing she could never win in a contest of strength.
"Calm down, Lunti." Spectra breathed in her ear, speaking with Reiter's voice. "Isn't this what you wanted? It sure seemed like it."
She expected the pony to stay submissive, confident in the effect fear would have. Instead, Spectra flinched backwards, wiping the saliva Lunti had spat in her face.
"Lu-lu," she growled, pushing herself off the ground. "That's what Reiter called me. You're not him, and I don't care what you say or do, I won't let you ruin my memories of him."
Spectra was surprised by her performance. But it excited her. The thrill of subduing her prey, breaking that resistant spirit, ignited her primal urge to hunt. Some ancient egg-dream of prowling through the forest, hunting on the surface like the other beasts that roamed, rattled in Spectra's mind and told her to pounce.
But, she bit back the urge just a little and let go of Reiter's form. "Since you'll be seeing a lot of me from now on, I guess it's best you got familiar with what I really look like."
Spectra hummed her wings and went for Lunti again, this time pinning her against a pillar carved out by a worker-drone to look like a stalagmite. The mare grunted from the impact but remained defiant, trying her best to glare into Spectra's eyes in the nearly complete darkness.
"You'll see the surface soon, Lu-lu," Spectra taunted the same way she had with Chevron, tasting her by running her tongue along the edge of her neck and ear.
"You've already had him," Lunti hissed back. "I'm surprised you keep your figure with this kind of appetite." Lunti tried laughing at her own rebellious humour, but the force of Spectra's wings compressed her lungs until it took all her effort just to breathe.
"I'm saving you for something special." Spectra gently nibbled her soft, supple skin. She wasn't as fit as a soldier but her youth kept her body in far better shape than Chevron's. Spectra still wasn't certain she would survive marching on Halfwing's pack, but it was a better chance.
Lunti's jaw clenched and her muscles tensed, holding her firmly in place as Spectra's fangs ran lightly along her skin. One wrong move and she could be torn to shreds, either by accident or by Spectra's will.
Slowly, Spectra loosened her pressure and they both slumped onto the ground. Lunti wiggled, searching for a way to free herself. But even Spectra's loosened grip help her firmly.
"Not yet," Spectra spoke softly into's Lunti's mouth, the skin of their lips rubbing together. "I can still have a little taste, before I save the rest of you for later."
The first few draws were light, the magic so weak it could barely hold itself in a physical fog as Spectra breathed it in. But every defiant breath of Lunti was sweet and sour and never stopped sending chills along the princess' carapace. She broke off the connect for a moment, only to lick her lips.
Lunti gasped for air but stopped short as Spectra drained harder, pulling more forcefully as their faces pressed into each other. Lunti struggled now, shaking as Chevron had, unable to breathe. After a few agonizing seconds, Spectra broke off again, this time giving Lunti a chance to recover.
The mare coughed, her body quivering from the shock of losing its magic. "Please, don't take more," she pleaded. Spectra leered at her. No matter how rebellious she thought she could be, ponies valued their lives so much more. But Lunti was much more lively than Chevron.
"You can give so much more," Spectra replied, leaning into her again.
"No!" Lunti turned away, but Spectra pulled their lips together again. She wrapped her hooves around Lunti's bare back, pressing their bodies and squeezing the air from Lunti's chest again. The taste of fear and death might have been bland, but it was worth it to get to the rush of adrenaline pumping through her primitive body.
Once again, she dropped Lunti and let her catch her breath. Now tears were running along her cheeks, one of the many involuntary reactions ponies had to pain.
"Don't do it," Lunti gasped. "Again."
Spectra let out a chuckle. "My sweet thing, this is all you're going to know from now on." Without hesitation Spectra grabbed the rope around Lunti's neck and pulled her in, draining her magic with even more force than before.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The room wouldn't stop moving. So much magic flowed through her hooves that she couldn't stop her hooves from shaking. Spectra slumped down, sitting on flowstone in the central cavern that sloped up and reached the ceiling. The heart was beating and her biology reacted naturally to the emotions she had stolen.
She may have been manipulative, but now what little love Lunti had for others amplified. Spectra found it ironic that she would wish for love when she became all alone. What thoughts did she have now?
Spectra stood up when she heard her captain coming up from the hunter-drone caverns.
"So, how's my army?" she asked as he approached.
"It wasn't hard to take the younger lieutenants from the other captains," he said, "but I've hit a snag. I think you should have a look at it."
"Too big for you to handle?" Spectra mocked him.
But he simply accepted her remark. "He's in the fighting pit, below the main hunter-drone cavern."
The way to the hunter-drone cavern was exactly how Spectra remembered it. Its twists and obstacles felt less intimidating now, however. With her age came a better awareness of her surroundings, and she quickly moved through the maze as easily as the captain.
"I never heard about the fighting pit," Spectra said as they neared the cavern. "And I don't have any egg-dreams of it."
"Of course not," her captain replied. "It wasn't necessary for you to know about it. As powerful as our egg-dreams are, there are limits to how much information they can teach."
"So why are we going there?"
They hopped down a small ledge and entered the cavern. It had grown slightly larger, deepened and expanded by worker-drones and their acid. Regardless, the number of hunter-drones and their birthing-pits made the larger cavern feel just as cramped.
The captain gestured a hoof to a tunnel on the left that led down. "The oldest and strongest hunter-drones go there to make or answer formal challenges. One captain's past his prime now."
Spectra chuffed at the captain. "So you thought you could challenge him, but ended up needing my help?"
They lowered their heads as they entered the tunnel and went down its uneven descent. "No. His favour with the Queen supersedes my right to challenge him. Only you can win him over, your highness."
"What?" It wasn't the thought of subduing a hunter-drone that surprised her, but that her mother allowed such a status at all. The hive chose its strongest based on merit. Those who couldn't survive the process were killed off to leave room for the strong.
She didn't believe her mother would bother protecting a simple hunter-drone from other challenges, no matter how experienced a captain he was. Among the ponies, she had learned that hiding behind titles always caused one to grow lax.
But Spectra could hear the sounds long before they reach it. They weren't Changeling sounds. From the fighting pit came low, guttural reverberations. They were the sounds of large predatory reptiles and mammals.
"Hold on, what kind of fighting is this?" This time the captain didn't reply. He ducked down, slipping through the gap at the end of the tunnel where the sounds were coming from.
"I guess that's means I'll see it for myself," Spectra sighed, squeezing through.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A shallow pool of water filled the centre of the cavern. And in it, a massive reptile struggled to clamp its jaws around a tiger.
Spectra watched them trade blows. In a seamless transition, the tiger transformed into a sleeker mammal, one that resembled a slender cat, that could dash circles around the crocodile. The tiger returned as easily as it disappeared, now behind the reptile, and pouncing before it could react.
The crocodile started moving, but not before the tiger's claws sank into and scraped at its enemy's eyes and nose. It was only seconds before the crocodile changed, returning to its original Changeling body.
"We use everything at our disposal," the captain said. He stood by the entrance, waiting for Spectra.
"So, who's the old captain?"
Her captain pointed to the tiger, roaring over its blinded opponent. "He goes by Zorne, a name he picked up decades ago on the surface."
Decades. Spectra wasn't even a year old. She watched Zorne grab the blinded Changeling in his tiger jaws and throw him out of the water, roaring at the other hunter-drones who were watching, as if taunting them to fight.
"I thought other drones couldn't challenge him," she said to the captain.
He nodded. "Doesn't stop him from challenging others. I tried to taunt him myself, but like I said, he's beyond my status. I can't even get him to look at me."
She understood the feeling of superiority, but it still irked her that a hunter-drone would ignore her personal captain. So she stepped forward.
Her hooves clacked along the hard bedrock floor, turning to sloshing sounds as the water reached halfway between her hooves and knees. She approached the captain, staring him down. Even in his tiger body, his eyes flashed a look of recognition.
"I can smell a whelp on you," he growled, raising his nose to sniff the air. "Your captain thought he could come in here and fight, just because he serves a princess." He had the form of a tiger, but inside his throat, the vocal chords were altered, creating something between a Changeling's chatter and a tiger's growl.
Spectra snarled back, but he continued. "What is service to a princess compared to fighting beside the Queen? I've pulled her out of more trouble than you've experienced the few short months you've been alive."
"Will you be able to swallow that pride when I beat you, captain?" Spectra hissed, already charging her horn with magic.
"It won't come to that point," the old captain laughed. "But go ahead, challenge me."
Without warning, Spectra launched a volley of magic bolts at Zorne, exploding the water into mist. In the corner of her vision, she saw a paw swing out from the mist. She leaned back, but the razor edge of the claws managed to scratch her chitin.
She rolled away, taking the scrapes on her carapace from the rough stone beneath the water just to put some distance between them. Spectra was up moments later, horn levelled and ready. But the tiger was not there. The mist settled, and in the darkness of the cavern, she saw the dim fungal-light shine off a pale legless reptile.
Instinct took over and drove Spectra away from it. But in the water the snake moved effortlessly, barring its fangs. She spread her wings to hover beyond the animal's reach, but the water had her. It weighed her wings down and left her open to the burning pain in her leg.
Spectra collapsed, clutching where the snake had bit her. Its venom was so potent that her lungs were already tightening. She flooded her system with magic, pumping energy into her fat-body. Unique to Changelings and insects alike, the fat-body served the function of the liver; charged with magic, it would metabolize the snake's venom quicker.
The flash of energy lit up the entire cavern for a moment. Every drone reeled back, blinded by the sudden contrast of light and dark. Spectra took the break to force herself up. The snake's venom would not kill her as long as she channelled magic into ichor. Yet, she felt her body slacking, becoming unresponsive to her will.
Spectra cursed herself. She was sure there was an animal in nature resistant to the snake's venom, but she didn't know it. She had only ever fed on cows and deer and other game. She had no idea where to begin to transform into more useful animals. Zorne, on the other hoof, was now a bear.
He brought up his claws and swiped down into the water, tearing open Spectra's exoskeleton and bleeding her ichor into the water. Again, she was forced to send magic to the injury, speeding up the clotting and killing off the nerves to stop the pain.
Relying on magic would not work, that much was clear. Straight blasts were predictable and easy to avoid. Spectra ran for the other end of the water, slipping left and right to avoid the bear's deadly strikes. She dropped below the captain's swings and surged her magic throughout her body.
Flesh twisted as her organs melted away and reformed. Chitin turned to skin and bone, but most important of all was the horns. Spectra felt the weight of her head drag down as antlers expanded from her skull instantly. She focused all her magic on the stag's liver. She was wise enough to not let the venom catch her off guard.
"Good," the bear growled with pleasure. Spectra knew that if weren't for the bear's physiology, Zorne would be smiling. She could smell the adrenaline in his body. According to the groundskeeper's note, ponies called the sensation fight or flight. Zorne smelled like he only felt the fight.
Spectra turned and bolted as he gave chase. The bear bounded across the fighting pit in three great leaps but crashed backwards into the water from the powerful legs of Spectra's stag transformation. She drove her hooves into the stone, forcing a turn and charging back at the old captain.
She tried moving fast but it was too late. The force of the captain's claws raked across Spectra's neck like an iron blade through cloth. The gash sprayed mammalian blood into the water. There was no sense of its dark red in the dim cavern, but Spectra felt the energy of her warm-blooded body spreading farther and farther.
Once again she brought her magic to bear, burning up the energy to take another form. She dashed around the bear as a guard hound, the kind Riverfork farmers kept out in the countryside. Her jaws sank into the back of the bear, but it did very little to pierce its thick fur.
Zorne roared and fell on his back. He rolled and thrashed, crushing Spectra under his weight. But she would not let go. She burst with energy and darted out from under Zorne as a cat. He bellowed in reply, crouching on fours. Spectra squinted as he became a ball of green light as well. From the flash came a snapping jaw of an alligator.
Spectra leapt above him, letting her cat's body follow its instincts. She landed on top of the alligator and clung tightly to his nose, hoping to all gods that she would not be bitten in half. Drawing on her dwindling reserves of magic, she willed herself to transform into a cow.
Her massive form fell on top of Zorn, crushing shut his alligator jaw. She wanted to smirk at him, to tell him to swallow his pride now that his mouth was shut. But as she looked into his eyes, she was blinded by a radiant green magic. Zorne returned to his original form, using his smaller size to slip away.
As a predator animal, dodging blasts of magic was simple. But Spectra was a sitting cow and Zorne's magic was already charged. She panicked to her hooves too late, feeling her back crack against ground.
She shook the water from her face, but the old captain was already on her. The point of the horn pressed against her neck, hot with magic.
"I'll follow you when you become Queen, but not before," he hissed.
The venom, the injuries, and fighting Zorne, she couldn't send magic to every task without her reserve of power draining. But Zorne was essential. Majesta was the strongest and had the loyalty of Halfwing's former captain as well as her own. She could easily claim she contributed the most to the war. If she was seen as the victor, the other hunter-drones would follow her lead without hesitation.
Spectra siphoned the remains of her magic, ignoring the venom and bleeding to take the form of a cat. The loose skin of the animal allowed her to slip from Zorne's horn. She dug her feline claws into the stone and pounced on Zorne's back, clawing her way up to his face.
She tore at his ears, but Zorne used magic to retract them. She moved onto his nose, but he quickly grew another layer of chitin over it. All the while he thrashed around, trying to get her away. It hurt to cling on, but Spectra pushed through the pain, focusing only on her goal. Nothing else mattered but winning.
She bit at his face, sinking claw and teeth into one of his eyes the same way he had mangled the eyes of his earlier opponent. The move enraged Zorne to no end. He opened his jaw to hiss, but what came out was a horrifying sound trumpeting sound.
His nose became like a snake, his legs were the size of tree stumps. And the fangs that once lined his jaw changed and expanded into two massive spears.
The monster grabbed Spectra with its trunk and slammed her against the ceiling of the cavern, shattering dozens of needle-like stalactites on her skin. It threw her down into the water only to fling her around with a sweep of its tusks.
Spectra wretched blood into the water. She imagined that in the light of day it'd be red with the blood of her animals by now. But she was still alive. Her muscles were numbed by the remaining venom in her system, and it made her actions sporadic. However, she survived. At the expense of her health, she used the last of her magic to thicken her skin so that even Zorne's monstrous form would not kill her.
It was all for naught, it seemed. Even as she tried to stand up, the faint light of fungal patches seemed to fade into darkness. The last thing she heard before her senses went was her captain rushing to pull her from the fighting pit.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Are you insane?"
"I've brought plenty of whelps to near-death. I knew what I was doing."
"She's the Queen's daughter!"
"If birthright was everything my brother wouldn't have needed years of training to become a groundskeeper."
"I don't care. You took your test too far!"
"She's fine."
"The princess didn't have any magic left. She was weaker than the day she was born."
The hissing of the older and younger captains faded away. Spectra didn't know how long they yelled at each other. Their conversation would come and go along with her consciousness. But there was also a scent around her. One she hadn't smelled in a very long time. Her mother's pride.
Her vision was blurred, but she still knew that the figure standing beside her was the Queen.
"I expected this from your sister," her mother whispered. "She bites off more than she can chew sometimes. Like when she tore off your sister's wing."
She laughed. The Queen of the Changelings, the mother who watched her clutch of daughters murder each other for the right to live, actually laughed.
"And now you're all going to face Halfwing." Spectra couldn't tell if her mother sighed, or if her hearing was simply losing focus again. "I hope Tenacity realizes that she'll be your sister's first target. Of course, I think you'd be the next one."
Spectra wanted to say something. She tried to just nod her head, but nothing seemed to work. Whatever she willed herself to do only remained as thoughts. She watched as the dark figure standing by her moved away, barking at the captains to end their bickering.
"What is the absolute rule of this hive?" she asked them.
The both of them answered in one voice. "To serve you, my Queen."
"Then that noise coming out of your mouth is pointless," she told them. "Zorne has no reason to regret his actions. He fought as I have always commanded him to. And now I command him to serve my daughter Spectra."
There was a pause, and for a moment Spectra though she was about to lose consciousness again. But the Queen's voice cut through the silence. "She lives. It's proof enough to me that she's worthy, so it will be enough for Zorne as well."
"Yes, your highness."
Spectra took a long breath. She never did stand a chance against Zorne. The difference in power and experience was too great. But always adapting, even in a no-win situation, was the most important. There was no telling what she'd find in Marblestop. She didn't get to give up simply because fighting her sister seemed impossible.
"Take care of this gift, daughter," her mother returned, blocking out the light from the glowing fungi around Spectra.
She felt her mother's hair drape over her face. "You've done well up to this point. But nearly anyone can withstand adversity, my child. To test one's true character, give them power."
Spectra understood. It was no wonder why their mother didn't force Halfwing to return to the hive. This was an opportunity for her as well. This way, their mother could find the strongest leader among all four of them, just by watching how they conducted the war.
Like everything, it was just another test. But it didn't matter. She'd pass them like all the rest. I will have Halfwing's head. Spectra felt her mind slipping from exhaustion again, but this time she welcomed it. She preserved the image of her sister dying at her hooves and imagined the scent of her mother's pride. With those thoughts, she willing fell back to sleep.