The tunnel snakes were designed for narrow spaces. Countless generations of growth made them specialized tunnel crawlers. But under the weight of the collapsed tunnel, Carrier could barely think. The space between the fallen stone and the earth was breathtaking in the worst way possible, hot as the flat, leathery scales of his snake form rubbed against the stone's rough surface.
He didn't even know if he was going the right way. Twice already he found himself hitting the walls of the tunnel trying to find the next available path. Multiple more times, he was forced to backtrack because the path he had chosen closed itself off.
At the very least, he could smell the trail he left behind, knowing where he had been and what was a possible new path. Even though the tunnel snake's eyes were designed to see in near-complete darkness, it was difficult to tell the gaps in the rocks apart as Carrier tried more and more.
If it wasn't so tight, he would have hissed has his luck. A sharp fragment of rock had lodged itself in the only gap wide enough for his body to fit through. There was still room to try, but just by feeling it, he knew he'd split himself in half if he did.
Slowly, Carrier wiggled the tail of his snake form. Unlike most of its relative species, the tunnel snake's scales were thin and flattened tightly to their body, so that even though they grew backwards, they couldn't hook and snag onto rocks when they slithered backwards.
That said, it still wasn't easy. He wiggled left, then right, then left, then right, for what must have been twenty or thirty minutes before he felt the open space he had come from. It was much smaller than the gap Halfwing was waiting in, but it was just big enough for Carrier to curl up and move freely around. Once his tail was free the rest of his body was able to slip out.
Carrier rolled off the rocks and lay down on the ground to catch his breath, only just realizing how suffocated he was. The slow and subtle agony was enough to make him give up if he wasn't driven by the only purpose in his life, to serve his princess. He stretched his head up and tested the air, feeling for another draft. A little higher up was yet another path he hadn't taken. He hoisted himself up the rocks skillfully with his form's muscles and thrust himself into another gap again.
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At the point where the tunnel split to another section of the mine, the stone finally began to clear itself up. There the supports were stronger, and it collapsed in a way that left an enormous section of rock holding up the ceiling.
Carrier slithered out and inspected the tunnels. His snake eyes, sensitive to even the slightest change of light, could finally begin to see. The exit was still far away, but a thin ray of dim light sneaked its way through the top of the fallen rocks. That meant it was there was a straight path out, as long as it was wide enough for him to move through it.
But there was something else, too. With the snake's heat sinks, specialized organs at the tip of the nose, he smelled the body heat of a mammal. A pony for sure. But for the size of the stallion, he was really cold.
He took the path that split from the main exit, moving easily through the wide passage, since the tunnel was better reinforced. It may have been narrow to the miners that used it, but its small size meant that the support beams had to work less to help hold up the tunnel.
Once he got closer, Carrier realized there were more sources of heat. It was a pack, no a herd, of eight ponies. Around them were countless more bodies, covered in blankets as a temporary way to lay them to rest. But eight was enough.
He took the chance and turned himself back to his own form. The sudden burst of his remaining magic panicked the ponies. Grown stallions, all of them, they screamed like the children of the slave masters that the princess locked away somewhere in the mine.
"You, just stay back," said the only healthy stallion among them. "We can't trust you."
"Lady Changeling needs your help," he said calmly. "She's still alive, and she can help you rebuild."
"How can we be sure you're not one of the bad ones?"
Carrier sniffed the air and listened. "Some pony's heart rate is irregular. They've taken force to the chest and their heart muscles are traumatized. Another one has blood pooling in their lower chest cavity, based on the smell and sound of their breath. The rest aren't much better, so you don't have much of a choice."
The stallion frowned, it wasn't the answer he was looking for. But, it was the best he was going to get. "Alright, what do you need us to do?"
"Nothing," replied Carrier, "just let me eat the magic from your dying. I'll be able to get every pony out of here afterwards."
"Why just the dying? Wouldn't our less injured-"
"The amount of magic I'm going to take will weaken them, and even the ones without mortal injuries won't be able to survive the process. But I need some of you alive to help clear the rubble, so we might as well kill off the dying."
The stallion gawked at him. "You have to be joking."
"Lady Changeling is deeper in the tunnel," he continued. "With magic, we can save her. I'll be able to levitate rocks into place to support the tunnel once we start clearing out the blockage."
"So you want us to choose who gets to live and die?"
Carrier snarled. "I don't care who makes the sacrifice. My only focus is to save my princess."
"I'll do it," said one of the other ponies who was clutching his stomach. "I'm dead anyway, one of those manticores tore deep into my gut. Even with pressure, I can still feel it bleeding."
"If it means every pony else gets to leave this damned place," grunted another, "then I'm ready to see the Spirits."
Another two volunteered, the ones Carrier had already sensed were on the brink of death. They all agreed that for their comrades to survive, they were willing to give up all their magic.
Carrier nodded and walked past the stallion, who was still shocked that his fellow soldiers were ready to give themselves up. But hesitant or not, he was just another soldier pony who happened to escape injury during the fight. Carrier didn't need his permission to begin replenishing his magic.
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Fresh air. The breeze in the open sky was magnificent in the winter. It bit the surface of her carapace just enough to sharpen her wits and alert her to every scent and sound of the surface world.
Tenacity couldn't wait to feel it again.
She dragged a massive slab of stone behind her and shoved it under the gap that her drones were holding up with their backs. She lodged it against the wall of the tunnel like a triangle, pushing it deeper against the crumbling rocks until it reached the next open space.
Her fight with Halfwing decimated the landscape of the cavern of crystals. On one hoof, it was partly why the tunnel was so unstable in the first place. The shockwaves from the explosive crystals caught by stray magic were enough to send cracks through the mountain. But the damage also left behind countless fragments of stone big enough, and strong enough, to hold open passages through the blockage.
"How much longer do we have to go?" Tenacity asked her lieutenant.
"I can't say for sure," she replied, "but I think we're approaching the point where we rescued Spectra."
Tenacity nodded. She and both her sisters brought two packs with them as their army. Now both her captains were dead, leaving one last lieutenant, now technically the captain, and three other hunter-drones.
"Lieu," Tenacity said, the name she decided to call her new captain. "I'm going back to bring the next piece of stone."
"We'll continue on and see if we can make another gap," she answered.
Tenacity nodded and limped back, crawling through the half dozen other gaps they had opened up. Her injuries from Halfwing had barely healed, and scraping her chitin against the stone only made it worse. But complaining was not a luxury she had at the moment. If she managed to ply her way through the tunnel, then she could see about getting proper treatment.
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"Are you sure that piece is going to hold?" asked the healthy stallion as he pulled a cracked rock out from the entrance. The faint rays of sunlight were now finally widening, but as he pulled more away, other stones threatened to fill the gap.
Carrier levitated two heavy, brick-shaped stones on either side of the gap that he was digging up. They were taking from the top of the blockage, limiting the risk of all the stones crashing down on them, but the mountain above them was still unstable. Large sections of rocks were held up by what had collapsed below, and Carrier at to be certain that every stone he placed was in a key position to hold their share of the weight.
"I'll tell you when I'm not sure," he said. "We're almost there, so keep digging."
The other injured ponies, the ones whose injuries weren't about to kill them, helped by moving the rubble away, pushing it to the back of their offshoot of the mine. Occasionally, Carrier would keep a piece of stone if it was large and regular enough be used to support the rest of the mountain pressing down on them.
"Oh Spirits!" the stallion shouted, recoiling from a rock he had pulled away. He tumbled down, luckily taking the force of his fall on his muscular shoulders and back.
Carrier immediately recognized the smell that had been released. He thought it was just his own stress and adrenaline, but there was no doubt that the crumbled black forms trapped under the rocks were Changelings. He counted two horns protruding from the rock, two hunter-drones from Spectra or Majesta's packs.
"Sorry brothers," he said. There was no love lost between hunter-drones, but they didn't necessarily hate each other either. Every drone had their role to play in the hive, and none of them could be blamed for what they were ordered to do.
"Sorry," said the stallion. "I think I removed a piece of his face when I panicked." He lifted up a stone with a smeared black spot on its bottom.
Carrier didn't mind. Changelings didn't have burial rights for their dead, unlike ponies. But, he could smell the reluctance in the pony. His blood was flushed with adrenaline from the scare, and his skin filled with blood as his heart raced to pump his body with energy.
"They should be treated with respect," he lied. "Take a break, I'll handle their bodies."
The stallion exhaled, his muscles relaxing as a calmer aura washed over his magic. "Alright. I think I'll sit down over there. Just, uh, call me over when you're ready."
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Halfwing knocked her head against tunnel when she heard crumbling. She had fallen asleep, but for how long, she didn't know. Long enough for her drones to feel fatigued, that was for sure. Without magic, it was a matter of time before they began to feel lethargic. Already they were taking shifts to guard her, as one hunter-drone slept, the other kept watch.
Halfwing coughed. The air was beginning to thin now. There was definitely air trailing into the mine from outside, she could feel the faintest draft through the cracks in the rocks, but it wasn't nearly enough.
She pressed her head against the tunnel, listening for sounds on the other side of the wall. Through the stone, her sensitive ears picked up some rumblings. The sound got louder until finally a rock on her side of the blockage shifted and fell to the ground.
"Good work," she whispered, rising to see if there was anything she could do from their side.
Her drone stood alert, his boredom replaced by duty. "I think I hear something coming from behind us too, princess."
Halfwing nodded. Tenacity was behind them, but she had yet to affect the rocks on their side of the tunnel. As long as Carrier kept his pace, they would escape before her.
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Tenacity and her lieutenant pushed hard with a slab of stone into the space they had cleared. There was still a thick layer of rocks ahead, but removing them without some support was impossible. One of her drones squeezed through the gap and kicked at the rocks, trying to shake up some on the opposite side and loosen the ones on theirs.
He suddenly stopped and crawled back out. "I can hear voices on the other side of the wall, princess."
"Voices?" Tenacity lowered her head and listened. They were muffled, but the sounds behind the rocks were too complex to be simple echoes. The rhythmic clicks and clacks and hisses were Changeling voices, no doubt. It had to be Halfwing.
"She must be stuck," Tenacity said, a grin flashing across her face. But the shoulder-high ceiling of the tunnel that forced her to crouch down reminded her of what she needed to do, and who she had to focus her hatred on. She had been emotional enough to trust that her closest sister, Spectra, would stand by her side like they did when they were hatchlings. Meanwhile, Majesta had manipulated her bloodlust against Halfwing and allowed her to go into the mines.
Tenacity thought before that her bigger sister was just humouring her desire, but now she wanted to slap herself in the face for letting Majesta control her so easily. But getting revenge on Majesta meant working with Halfwing to escape. Considering the state they were in, giving up on tormenting her sister was something she was willing to do.
"Get me through, now," she ordered her drones as she leaned against the stone to prop up the collapsing rocks above.
The seriousness of her tone drove her drones to put all their effort in. One after the other, they slipped into the gap and cleared as much stone as they could before coming out to rest and let another drone take over. They grabbed and pulled on their side, and once they felt a draft of air funnel through a small crack between the rocks, they began kicking violently at what was left.
Tenacity lost her footing when the blockage blew apart and the piece of stone they were using to hold up the boulders above them scratched against the tunnel walls as it slid into place.
Her drones were quick to file out, confronting the next section to make sure it was safe, but Tenacity was too eager to wait. She knew if she wanted to make her sister reconcile, she'd couldn't let her drones come off as too aggressive. She went through, followed by her lieutenant, and confronted Halfwing's gaze immediately.
Instincts told her to fight. Tenacity, more so than her other sisters she believed, had an ingrained taste for violence. But they were not in a position to be fighting among themselves, a flaw both she and her sister had that Majesta took advantage of.
"Hey, sister," Tenacity said, cautiously. "Glad to see you're alive."
Halfwing's aura burned with rage the moment their eyes lined up. It wasn't the same as before. When she had her whole pack, and her ponies, her emotions were fierce but in control. She had believed she was the stronger one. But now, her hatred was covered in desperate fear, a sense of loss that left her completely vulnerable.
"Glad?"
She stepped toward Tenacity.
"Is it because you still have more drones than me? You think now is the time you'll finally kill your sister?"
Tenacity swallowed her instincts, her old dream-memories as a hatchling still screaming to defend herself were suppressed. "This isn't the time to fight. That's how the others put us here in the first place."
She stopped, a leg's reach away from Tenacity. Their drones were pressed to the walls of the tunnel to make space in the tight gap. There was no room for any of their hunter-drones to get in the way.
Tenacity watched her sister carefully. Her scent ricocheted between anger and confusion. Her hooves quivered as they desperately tried to figure out what they were supposed to do.
Tenacity was prepared for the worst, but when Halfwing slammed them both to the ground, the impact still shocked her. Their drones flinched, but neither packs moved to intervene. They could read the scent of the tunnel too and understood that this was a matter between sisters. Their main concern, as Carrier tunnelled through the blockage ahead, was the mine caving down on them.
"You ruined my life," Halfwing growled through gritted fangs. "You stole my wing, why? We were free once we came out of that place so didn't need to do it."
"What else could I do?" Tenacity struggled. "Mother put us in there to fight."
"But she didn't ask you to bully me, to take all the hunting spots at the bottom of the hive, knowing I couldn't get to the higher ledges." Halfwing grew louder, throwing her sharpened words in Tenacity's face. "She didn't ask you to taunt me or treat me like a piece of waste, you did that. It was you. All you."
Changelings couldn't cry, they had no tear ducts to do so, but Tenacity could tell her sister was already there. Her words became shaky as she thrashed around.
"I hate you!"
She bit Halfwing, but they were both exhausted from being trapped in the mine for hours. Her attacks were sluggish, not even able to puncture chitin.
"We have to get out," Tenacity said, pushing Halfwing off. "You have a drone on the other side, don't you? Once we're out, where do you think you're going to go? Majesta and Spectra won't let us back into the hive."
She didn't listen. Halfwing pushed Tenacity against the wall. Her drones stepped aside, squeezing up next to Tenacity's lieutenant and watching.
"Why couldn't you just die?" she wailed, voice turning softer as the tunnel air grew thin. "Mother never believed in me because of what you did. I never belonged in that place."
Tenacity wrapped her forelegs around Halfwing, hugging her. "I get it. I wanted to kill you too. I thought, when we were born together, that you killing me was your purpose."
"I couldn't breathe because your egg sac was pressed against my face when I hatched," Halfwing recalled. Their memories were crystal clear of that encounter, and it surprised her. Spectra didn't seem to think much about what happened in their birthing pit, her memories were already faded. But Tenacity seemed to recall every moment, just like Halfwing did.
"Mother really is a horrible creature," Tenacity said, still holding her sister.
"I'm going to kill her," replied Halfwing, agreeing.
"Well one of us has to, if we want to be the Queen."
The hunter-drones fluttered. Despite their loyalty to their princesses, Queen Chrysalis was still the ultimate authority of the hive. They knew that the Queen would have to die for a princess to take her place, but talk about it still made them uneasy.
Smaller rocks began to roll off their side of the blockage as Carrier began breaking through from the outside. "Princess?" he called. "Hang in there, I found some ponies that were still trapped in the mine, we're almost through now."
"Well, seems like you still have your, um-" Tenacity hesitated for a moment, thinking of a word to use, "-pony hive."
A breath of fresh air finally flooded into the tunnel when a large boulder was pulled out of the blockage. The faint light ahead was a clear sign that they had already opened up the mouth of the mine, leaving just this last barrier between them and freedom.