Chapter Seven: The Buried Hive
~BlackRoseRaven
Spike didn't know if he was in a fortress, a temple, or something else entirely: it didn't help that there was webbing and goo from the Changelings all over the place, shaping the structure into something bizarre and alien. Some of the ancient architecture he almost recognized from images he'd seen in history books, but it was clear that the Changelings were trying to shape and twist whatever these grand and beautiful halls had once been into something... else.
That was what Changelings did though, wasn't it? They changed things. He grimaced and shook his head a little before his earfins twitched as they picked up that now-familiar buzzing, the little dragon scrambling to the side and wiggling himself into a cleft in the wall.
Only a few seconds later, a patrol of Changelings moved by, two flying and two walking, all of them armored. Spike stayed as still as possible, holding his breath and trying to quiet even his thoughts, watching as the patrol vanished down the corridor.
Was that a good sign, or a bad one? Were they looking for him, or had he just stumbled into a secure area? Well, of course this area was supposed to be secure, it was clearly some kind of palace... maybe a Hive, from all that goo and growth.
The little dragon carefully wiggled his way back out of the niche in the wall and continued hesitantly down the passage, making himself stay a little more alert. He was getting anxious now: he could feel a weird sort of heat rising around himself, and there was a sense of movement around him, and strange noises that made his scales crawl, like he was being watched, or worse, followed.
He looked anxiously back and forth, but saw nothing: just the hallway, lit by that same eerie iridescence that filled this whole area, throbbing off the phosphorescent fungi and crystals that stood out here and there across the walls. Even when he checked behind him, there was nothing: but still, that sense that he was being watched and followed, it wasn't going away.
Spike frowned uneasily as he followed the wall until he reached a strange hole: the tall, open passage continued past here to a fork, but this little conspicuous hole was large enough for him to fit into if he really wanted to. But what really stuck out to him about it was the fact that it seemed like it had been very purposefully carved through the wall.
The dragon hesitated for only a moment before ducking into it and starting to crawl his way down the narrow passage. He grimaced a bit: it was wet under his claws, and there was a weird heat that pulsed down the corridor, like he had entered some kind of living thing.
There was just enough light to see by, though: he wasn't sure where it was coming from. Sure, his draconic eyes were sharper than a pony's and could see better in the dark, but there was a dim crimson illumination: he wasn't if it actually made it easier or harder to see, with how the stone reflected the red light.
It smelled in here. And he only realized now that while it was comfortable to crawl, if something else came in, he'd have no real way to hide. He bit his lip as he anxiously looked back over his shoulder, then faced ahead and crawled a little faster, trying to make as little noise as he could while covering as much ground as possible.
And then, the very thing he'd been hoping to avoid happened: he heard a sound, and he knew he wasn't alone. He froze in the middle of the tunnel, digging his claws fearfully into the stone, but even as he strained to listen, the strange acoustics made it impossible to guess whether the noise was in front of him or behind him.
He hesitated. He scrambled at the passage, trying to turn around, but then scampering around in a circle when he thought he heard a noise behind him, or in front of him, or somewhere, everywhere-
Spike looked wildly back and forth before he tried to scramble down the passage, and then he squeaked when a Changeling seemed to appear out of nowhere in front of him, the red light making its carapace glint, its large eyes staring into him... no, through him.
Spike froze and stared back, and they simply stood, stock still, looking at one another until Spike flinched and scrambled backwards. The Changeling advanced a step, but no more, stopping in place again, looking at him calmly... emptily, Spike realized, like it didn't actually know he was there.
Spike bit his lip and frowned uneasily before he realized there was something strange about this Changeling. He nervously crawled a step forwards, and when the Changeling didn't move, he leaned in a little, then shivered a bit as he saw it didn't have a horn, or wings. Was this one of the clipped that Marina had talked about in the past?
Did it know he was here? Did it care?
Spike bit his lip, then he slid as tightly to the side of the tunnel as he could and wiggled nervously forward. The Changeling didn't respond and didn't try to move forward until Spike nervously tried to nudge past it, and then it finally shifted slightly to the side, and they managed to squeeze just past one-another.
Spike looked anxiously back over his shoulder at the clipped Changeling, but since it didn't seem to be in any hurry and hadn't given a single acknowledgment to him – apart from not stomping over him, that was – he somehow didn't feel like it was going to run and tell the guards where he was. And all he could do was move forward and try to get out of this tunnel, anyway.
That didn't take very long, at least: after only a minute more of crawling, he emerged from the tunnel into a room that was covered in Changeling webbing and goo. He bit his lip nervously as he looked back and forth: illuminated beneath weak, flickering crystal lamps, he could see Changelings, sleeping or simply standing around, staring emptily at nothing. They were all clipped, he saw: all detached from the world, all eerily empty.
The dragon carefully stood up: his eyes roved around the room as he carefully began to walk through this nest of Changelings, but they all ignored him. He chewed nervously on his lip as he headed towards the only other exit he could see... or rather, the only exit that wasn't another crawlspace, since as he walked through the room, he noted plenty of small holes all over the walls.
On the other side of the room was a crude cut through the wall, which was large enough to allow two Changelings to pass side-by-side through if they wanted. The corridor beyond ramped downwards, and he saw less stone and architecture, and more fleshy walls: he could feel the heat emanating up from below, and he wondered what that meant, and where it could possibly be coming from.
Well, there wasn't really anything he could do at this point but continue, was there? And so, with that in mind, Spike sighed before he started to nervously make his way down, deeper into the Changeling Hive, to find whatever was awaiting him in the fetid darkness below.
Marina grimaced as she carefully slipped her way down the narrow trench leading towards the Changeling Hive, wading through muck and grime. She was following small, glimmering beacons that were only visible to her cybernetic eye: Marina knew they weren't really there, that it was just some kind of data projection to help her find her way, but that didn't make it any less weird or distracting.
And distractions weren't good right now, as every so often a Diamond Dog would approach the edge of the trench, or a Changeling patrol would buzz by, and she needed all her senses and every trick she had at her disposal to make sure she could hide in time.
There weren't a lot of hiding spots in this disgusting outflow, but the muck was deep enough she could hide under it and be mostly concealed, and here and there were niches or overhangs she could slip beneath.
She could see the culvert ahead... or well, the cavern entrance, really. But they had clearly learned from their last Hive, because there were tight metal bars across the exit, further strengthened by webbing and cemented goo. Marina eyed it uneasily as she approached, then frowned when Overwatch asked her quietly: “Do you have a tool to get through that?”
Marina hesitated, so Octavia answered for her: she hated it when they talked over her like this, but appreciated being kept in the loop. “Not without making a lot of noise. I thought you guaranteed us a way in, Overwatch.”
“There are no guarantees on the battlefield, you know this. Plans meet reality and reality always wins.” Overwatch replied briskly, before he added: “The side of the drain looks vulnerable. Can you do something there?”
Marina began to approach, then winced as she heard a shifting above before she quickly slid to the side and pressed into the wall, holding her breath as a large, bulky shape leaned over the top of the ditch. It looked back and forth, then down: Marina was sure that the Diamond Dog must be able to see her, that she was caught, and she slowly steadied herself as her mechanical limbs began to tense-
The Diamond Dog spat, then retreated with a grumble. And Marina slowly relaxed, closing her eyes with a quiet sigh, letting her body loosen up before she carefully, quietly waded her way forwards, murmuring: “Too close. I need to get out of here.”
“The only way out is forwards. How's the rock look?” Overwatch nudged, and Marina scowled even as she leaned forwards, testing the stone: from the water and likely the hammering in of the metal bars, it had gotten softer. Soft enough, that with a bit of shoving, she was able to move some of it out of the way.
It splashed, and Marina looked back over her shoulder with a grimace, the sound sounding so much louder in this little culvert. But Octavia was quick to remind her: “Don't look back. The faster you move forward, the faster you're out of danger.”
“She who hesitates is lost.” Marina mumbled, and she gritted her teeth as she pushed her way into the slightly-wider gap between the bar and the rock wall, cursing under her breath as she felt her body catch and her metal limbs grind against the bar. She took a breath and backed off for a moment, resisting the urge to check over her shoulder as she shook herself out and made herself calm down, and then she took another breath and focused her Changeling magic, trying to believe herself thinner.
She didn't know if it worked or not: she knew she couldn't change her mass, or her size by more than a few inches. But maybe those few inches were what let her painfully squeeze her way past the bars, gasping as she stumbled into the tunnel beyond. She looked back in spite of herself, and she saw the shadow of a Diamond Dog on the murk, could hear grumbling and mumbling past the culvert, and the mare cursed under her breath before she let the magic recede, throwing it on before shakily plunging forwards through the tunnel, the noise of her strides echoing through the passage, not yet daring to light up her horn and only feeling her way through the sludge.
Marina slowed as the muck grew deeper around her, and she shivered a bit. The stink was strangely familiar, almost nostalgic, but for there to be this much castoff already, she knew that it meant the Changelings had to have been here for a while. How long had they been building their Hive for? How many resources had Chrysalis sacrificed? What was-
A green light gleamed ahead, and she heard voices: Marina immediately lowered herself into the muck, resisting the urge to plunge, as she held her breath and drew carefully backwards. In the distance, she could just make out two Changelings, both faintly illuminated by the backlight from their glowing horns, scanning the murk and muck: thankfully, they focused on the area around themselves, only doing a quick sweep of the tunnels beyond.
She noticed they were at the maw of some kind of tunnel, and they obviously weren't swimming, but walking on what sounded like wooden planks. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but they seemed angry, maybe on-edge... had she been spotted?
They did another scan of the area, then left. Marina hesitantly made her way forwards, even as Octavia asked in a low voice over the communicator: “Are they on alert?”
“This is... wrong.” Marina murmured: lower than a whisper, but she knew they'd both hear all the same. She couldn't explain why it felt wrong... at least, not until she found herself swimming, paddling awkwardly through the filthy muck until she reached the walkway the Changelings had been on, and she grimaced as she uneasily pulled herself up a little, looking back and forth.
This wasn't a drainage pool. This was some kind of dammed-off area, and she could see caverns beyond, lit up by crystalline lights. There was some kind of guard house off to one side of where she was, and now that her eyes were adjusting to the low light, she could see Changeling patrols constantly flying around the interior of this surprisingly-large area. She also noted ruins that littered the bottom of this cave... was this some kind of collapsed city?
A ruined city that the Changelings had just about taken over, with their goo and slime everywhere, but Marina could feel that so much of this was already dying. She could feel a pulse now, too: like a weak heartbeat, and when she strained her eyes she could swear she could see faint trails of light, pulsing in time with that beat of the hive, stretching like tentacles out of the collapsed building in the center of the Hive cavern.
“I imagine there's some kind of piping that connects this drainage pool to wherever the muck is coming from. The composition here seems more liquid than solid.” remarked Overwatch. “What produces this kind of... uh... sewage, for lack of a better word?”
“It's not sewage.” was all Marina could think to say, grimacing a bit and not wanting to think about the fact that yes, with all these Diamond Dogs around, it might in fact be... no, I've got enough to deal with. “I thought you had... a map or something.”
“We have thermal scans and estimates and vague ideas.” Overwatch corrected. “In real practice, our below-ground scanning doesn't amount to a lot, especially not with all these complex structures. Do you think you can get closer, or should you try and go below the surface?”
Marina grimaced: she didn't relish the idea of swimming down into this sludge to find out if Overwatch was right or not about the piping. Well, that and... “I don't think I can hold my breath for that long. And even if I could, I assume the flow from the pipes might be too strong, or worse, the castoff might be corrosive.”
Overwatch mused, then asked: “Can you map a route for her, Octavia? It looks like there's a lot of activity, but there should be some kind of way through.”
Octavia didn't reply as Marina carefully pulled herself up onto the walkway. She kept her body low even as she shook herself off, muck pattering down over the filthy boards of the dam as she looked out over the cavern beyond.
“I think I see a way down.” she said after a moment: there was definitely some kind of path to her right, away from the guardhouse. She turned, moving carefully and quietly through the darkness, constantly checking above for Changelings. In the dim light, she didn't think they'd be able to see her very well, and if they sent out a pulse to check if she was a Changeling or not, she could at least send a vague pulse back, or just ignore it and hope they didn't pick up anything odd about her.
She felt her way over to the path, where it stretched along the wall and ramped down to the bottom of the cavern. She shivered a bit as her eyes roved down, and she noticed not just leaks in the dam, but dozens of clipped Changelings industriously working all along the structure. They looked starved and exhausted, even with how emotionless they were: it pained her to see them like this.
She lingered for a moment, until Octavia said quietly: “Keep going, Marina. You can't do anything for them right now.”
“Yes. I know.” Marina shook her head quickly, then she turned her eyes forwards, taking a breath before she continued down the path, keeping close to the mountain wall and her eyes focused on the cavern ahead.
Sneaking down wasn't a problem: the problems began once she reached the floor of the cavern, where there was a stretch of empty rock plateau without any visible cover. Marina grimaced, looking up at the air above and watching as a patrol of Changelings buzzed by: they were going past much more frequently now. Had something riled them up?
Marina was half-tempted to try and listen in on the pulse of the Hive: god, even after all this time, it still called to her. There was still that natural instinct to just... defer to what the Hive was saying, even with how weak that heartbeat was.
Marina shook her head, forcing herself away from that temptation as Octavia said quietly: “There appears to be some kind of structure approximately forty paces away. Do you think you can reach it?”
“I can't seen an entrance, though.” Marina said uneasily as the aforementioned structure lit up in her vision: without Octavia's help, she never would have seen it. And even if it was closer than the other ruins... “That's still a long distance to cover. With all this activity, they have to have noticed me...”
“No.” Overwatch said after a moment, and he sounded surprisingly sure of himself. “Their activity appears to be centered around that large structure, what seems like the core of the Hive they're trying to build... I have to say, this is quite a bit larger than the previous Hive, however.”
“No, it's not.” Marina murmured, unable to help herself as she looked up at the dried, paper-like tatters hanging from the roof of the cave: they likely looked like massive nest-pieces to the ponies, but she knew what they actually were: hanging barracks, something that her Hive-knowledge told her had been very popular in the old days, but they no longer had the numbers or the strength to put to proper use.
No, the real Hive was below the ground, under the ruins. Changelings felt safer under the earth: even a cavern like this, wide and open, was too much space for them to feel safe. They liked tunnels, labyrinths, catacombs, and most of all, places where there was just enough room to fly, but not enough to do so comfortably.
“I do have to ask.” Overwatch said suddenly. “Do you find it strange at all you managed to breach this Hive in the same manner you did the last?”
“No. Changelings are... we're creatures of habit.” Marina murmured, shaking her head. “We just do what we're told. If the Queen told us that putting up those bars was good enough, we wouldn't think twice about it. But... I don't know how the Diamond Dogs are going to react.”
“Diamond Dogs aren't smart, but many Equestrians overestimate just how stupid they are, as well. Keep on the move.” advised Overwatch.
Marina looked up, watching as another trio of Changelings buzzed by above. She followed them uneasily with her eyes to one of the outer paper structures, watching how they alighted for a moment on instinct: she didn't think any living Changeling had ever used the floating barracks, and yet...
“Is that how strong our instincts are? Or is the whisper of the Hive still that strong?” Marina murmured, and then she shook her head and discarded those thoughts for now, taking the moment that this gave her to hurry across the open floor to the outlined structure, pressing her body against it and carefully moving along the side of the ruin.
She found a hole that she slipped into, but was disappointed to find it wasn't much more than that: a shallow hole in the wall. But it gave her a moment to rest out of sight and get her bearings again as Overwatch muttered: “Strange. Activity appears to be increasing. Our scans aren't very accurate but this looks like agitation...”
Marina opened her mouth, and then she shivered and grasped at her head with one hoof as she felt a... a shudder in the heartbeat of the Hive. It wasn't that it gave an order: it was a reflex because there was an outside, an intruder, getting too close to the heart of the Hive, and the Hive was crying out to be defended, for help...
Her instincts and responses were so hardwired she automatically began to step out of hiding, and it was only Octavia's voice that snapped her back to reality: “What was that? All my readings spiked at once, are you under attack?”
“No, n-no.” Marina forced herself to stop, biting her lip as she almost reluctantly pulled herself mentally away from that connection with the Hive, and she felt the Hive... call for her? Whimper, whisper? She didn't have the words, but it was stretching out to her, trying to get her attention, begging, pleading...
“Marina.” Overwatch said crisply. “Clear your head, dear, you don't have time to linger. If the Hive is becoming agitated you should go to ground and-”
“No, I... I need to get inside.” Marina muttered, looking back and forth. “Octavia, how do I get to that structure up there? The ruins. The ruins must lead down to the core of the Hive.”
“Marina, you have no way of knowing that. Nor do I think I can map you a safe route. Just look.” Octavia answered, and Marina grimaced as her cybernetic eye gleamed, lighting up the now-agitated Changelings that had taken to the air, flying in almost wild circles as they organized themselves.
She knew what was going to happen: when the Hive was in danger, the Changelings would blockade and fortify every possible entrance, while the Queensguard moved to take care of the threat. Either the Changelings would catch the intruder trying to escape, or the Queensguard would... and if the Queensguard caught whoever was down there, they would kill them.
There was no good answer here: even if she moved as quietly and carefully as possible and magically avoided detection, whoever was getting too close to the core was going to die. It had to be one of her friends, she knew that it had to be, and she couldn't let them die, could she?
She could run. Charge to the heart of the Hive. Try to get whoever it was out of there. But she had a tiny window where the Changelings would all be confused and one wrong turn would ruin everything. And even if she managed to somehow save whoever was down there, there would be no escape. They'd be lucky if they were caught by a patrol instead of the Queensguard, at least then there was a chance they'd be imprisoned and not executed...
“Marina.” Overwatch said quietly but firmly, bringing her back to reality. “I don't know what's going on, but I do know that you are working on a tight schedule. Make a decision.”
Marina knew he was right. And out of desperation, she reached out to the Hive, and she felt it immediately reconnect with her, telling her what to do and where to go, calling her down to it-
Marina felt a plan half-forming in her head as she began to scramble up the ruins, even as Octavia snapped in her ears that this was ill-advised. She guessed that was a fancy way of saying she was being stupid, but even when eyes passed over her, right now all the Changelings saw was another Changeling. Even with her gear and mechanical limbs, she was just another Changeling to them, being called by the Hive-
A Diamond Dog snarled and jumped in front of her: she didn't know from here and she didn't care. It was huge, beastly, and leaned down to bark, and Marina didn't have the time to deal with it as she snapped her horn forward and blasted it in the face with a flare of green light, making it scream and stumble backwards, covering its sensitive eyes.
Marina leapt around it, ignoring the sweep of one paw even as it scratched against her side. Her metal legs caught her and propelled her onward, and she heard the dog snarl and spin around, heard it running after her as the Changelings above buzzed and shouted: but they were still confused from the signal from the Hive, still trying to organize themselves.
The Hive was guiding her: it was her ally as much as her enemy, that almost-sentient pulse warning Changelings even as it called her towards it on the sharpest, quickest route. It called Marina to a gap in the wall she didn't think even Octavia would have been able to detect for her, and she leapt towards it.
But the Diamond Dog behind her leapt after her, catching her by the back with both front paws and slamming her down on her stomach. She cried out in shock and pain before she felt its claws seize into her shoulders as it pinned her and threw itself over her, its drool dripping over her neck as it snorted steam over her, its claws digging through her hide as it tried to scrabble on top of her, that heavy body threatening to crush her.
Marina tried to kick backwards, but the dog shifted forward. Its jaws snapped at her, flaying the end of her ear open, and the mare gasped in pain before she slammed a metal hoof forwards, half out of panic and half out of instinct. It shattered a large rock loose from the ground in front of her, and without hesitating, Marina picked it up with her magic and flung it blindly backwards as hard as she could.
The Diamond Dog screamed as the rock slammed with a meaty thunk into its face. It stumbled, and Marina immediately slammed both rear hooves hard back into its body, knocking the Diamond Dog crashing and rolling down the side of the mountainous pile of rocks.
She leapt up to her hooves, stumbling towards that gap in the wall before she squeezed into it with a gasp. She heard the Diamond Dog roar in fury and frustration behind her, but she didn't look back, even when it shoved a paw into the crevice to claw after her.
Marina almost fell into a tunnel beyond, gritting her teeth as she shook herself quickly out before she winced when dust and pebbles hailed against her when the Diamond Dog threw itself angrily against the crevice. She saw the rock creaking, stumbling backwards, but it was Octavia that made her move when she snapped: “Get out of there!”
Readings lit up in red across her cybernetic eye, and Marina scrambled backwards before spinning and running down this dark, narrow tunnel, scraping painfully against thin walls as the Diamond Dog tore its way through the rock wall behind her, roaring for a moment before it shrieked in pain and surprise when the unstable ceiling above gave way. Marina gasped and choked as she forced herself to keep moving as the tunnel collapsed behind her, feeling the walls of unstable rock shifting around her before she staggered through a broken brick wall with a gasp of surprise, stumbling and nearly falling over as dust vomited out around her hooves, blinking wildly as she coughed a few times.
Two Changelings stared at her in confusion and surprise, and Marina stared back for a moment before she winced when one of the drones howled: “Intruder!”
“Shut up!” Marina shouted, and the drone stared at her in shock before the mare took a breath and let her glammer drop, hating it even as she did it before she snapped: “I'm trying to get to the Hive's heart so I can... I can fix this!”
“What?” The Changelings looked stupefied now, but Marina guessed she'd prefer them confused over hostile as one of them asked: “Wait, we were warned about you! You're-”
“I feel the voice of the Hive as clearly as you do. It's suffering.” Marina said, and it wasn't the words that mattered, it was the way she spoke them, the honesty, as she blurted out: “We need to help it!”
“That's... not our job.” said the other drone, but it sounded hesitant, uneasy. Then all three looked up as a patrol of Changelings hurried into the room, waving spears around, and Marina winced as one of the drones ducked and shouted: “What are you doing?”
“Where's the intruder?” snapped one of the soldiers, but Marina saw he was more frightened than he was angry. He was young, and he wasn't... no, he wasn't a solder. He was just a drone in a too-big helmet that had been forced to carry a spear, and the other Changelings looked just as scared.
They were all so scared.
What the hell was going on?
Marina did the only thing she could think of, trying to sound like she was in charge and in control as she said: “Stop waving that around before you poke someone's eye out!”
“Oh. Sorry.” The Changeling drone shrank a little, then he looked nervously at Marina's mechanical limbs before his eyes roved over the rest of her in confusion. “I... are you a drone? I don't know what you are. Are you the intruder?”
“He said he's here to help.” one of the Changeling drones put in.
“I need to get down to the core. I'm... here to help.” Marina said. That was all she could think to say, and maybe, it was all she needed to say.
She wasn't one of them. Not anymore. But she looked like them, in spite of her cybernetic parts. She spoke their language, knew their signals, and most of all, she could hear the Hive and speak with it still. Just enough, just enough that these confused, scared drones who didn't know what to do hesitated to attack her... and finally, gave in to Changeling instinct and ingrained deference, one of the drones pointing at a passage to the left.
“If you...” He gulped, then whispered, as if he was saying something forbidden: “If you go through the clipped passageways, you can get to the core pretty quickly. I mean, that's... that's against the rules. But we should all be blockading this place off, and you... well...”
He stopped, but Marina only smiled briefly before she nodded once and turned to leave. She only got a few steps, however, before one of the drones blurted: “But the Queensguard will kill you! They'll kill anything that isn't supposed to be near the Hive and... you're not supposed to go down there!”
“That's a chance I'll have to take.” Marina answered, glancing back for a moment before she turned and vanished into the passage.
The drones lingered uneasily together in the room for a few moments, before one of them asked uncertainly: “Shouldn't we catch her or something? She's... different, so she must not be... one of us?”
It was a question more than a statement, and the other drones tried to grasp it, tried to think beyond the simple, easy lives of order and command they had been given, until one of them looked down at the spear he had been forced to carry. It trembled in his telekinetic grip before he grimaced and threw it down, and the others stared in shock as the drone said: “She's... she's dead anyway, the Queensguard will get her. And... I'm not supposed to be a soldier. I don't want to hurt anyone. I want to do what I'm supposed to do and fix the Hive, not fight!”
The other Changelings stared in shock at their companion, who meekly lowered his head. But after a moment, the other drones threw down their weapons as well, and they nodded to each other before they turned and hurried out of the room together, to do as the voice of the Hive told them, to protect their Hive.
Even if that meant not entirely obeying the orders of the Queen and her Queensguard.