//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 // Story: Evoli Victorious // by Starscribe //------------------------------// She could see through the eyes of the first drone as it died. She could feel its pain, however shallow and insignificant such creatures were capable of feeling pain. It wasn’t intelligent—none of her new drones were, and so there was no terrible mourning to be had. Every drone asleep in her hive woke at once, hurrying to the armory as those patrolling the outside retreated through the burrows. She got her first glimpse of the attackers—more drones, though they obviously belonged to a different swarm. Another drone died with an arrow in its neck as she consolidated her forces. Evoli pulled the remaining drones inside, where the tight space would prevent them from falling to such unseen assailants. The enemy couldn’t know their burrows, so would have to feel them out and explore them blind. “Get into the treasure room,” Evoli said to her attendants—all males, all attractive, of course. “Don’t get hurt.” “I can feel it!” one of them shouted, an older male named Pitcher. He was the only “refugee” male she had left, the others had all died, left, or were waiting in ice. “We’re under attack! Give me soldiers, and I’ll go out and fight them in your name!” Evoli considered the request with one part of her mind, while most of the rest devoted itself to stalling the invading army in the tunnels. The drones fighting them didn’t seem terribly talented with their combat, or even well organized. Their bodies seemed sunken and shriveled with hunger. It took two of them to every one of Evoli’s, and hers had been badly armed. She had grown soft over so many years without a fight. But not too soft. Their hive had an armory, where armor of lightweight steel sheets and forged weapons were still made according to the ancient craft. It was a far more time-consuming process than back when they’d had electric furnaces to make the ore, but her drones could still do it. Just because the scouts outside hadn’t been armed all the time didn’t mean there weren’t weapons for them to wield. There were just over a hundred of the enemy, at least that was when they stopped coming. Evoli’s hidden scouts reported that at the very back of the army, a queen herself appeared to be in command. The context of the battle changed at once. These drones were starving, and this queen had to be desperate to have come in person. Either that, or quite young, so that she couldn’t get very far from her brood without losing control. Drones that were starving were very difficult to keep from going feral, as Evoli herself had learned. The most energy-intensive part of drones was raising them—they didn’t need much love to live on, if you didn’t care about whether they woke up or not. I could have all of these drones for myself if I kill their queen. Instead of trying to kill as many as possible, her own drones fled out of the way, allowing the army deeper and deeper into the hive. The treasure room alone they could not be allowed to enter—not where the eggs of the next generation were growing, or all the glamour they had stashed there, or her males. Anywhere else, she would let them ransack. Evoli took direct control of a few of her drones, which she in the interim disguised to look brownish instead of orangish. A queen that was in good control of her swarm would never have been fooled by that ruse—but her drones managed to slip into the lines without much difficulty. Evoli herself took shelter in the treasure room as her drones worked their way towards the enemy queen. Whoever you are, coming in person will be your last mistake. A queen doesn’t subject herself to danger. Evoli herself would never even let this queen see her, if she got her way. There was no need to subject herself to that risk. The queen had a few drones closer to her than the others—not drones, males. They were better armored than the others, though not better armed. An honor-guard, perhaps? Evoli couldn’t get much closer than that with her drones, not yet. She would have to wait for an opportunity. As it turned out, Pitcher was the one who gave her that opportunity. He chose that moment to attack, dropping down from a hidden passage. His own armor was ancient, but well-kept, and far superior to what these new changelings wore. Instead of a spear, he had a longbow, one with which he had literally centuries of practice. As Pitcher and his drones attacked the queen’s guard, Evoli herself slipped closer and closer. She finally got a good look at the queen—she was short, and starved-looking. Probably not even twenty years old, by her size and desperation. Evoli hesitated for a moment, thinking of her mother’s face frozen in the ice, looking down on her. What would her mother have done? This poor, starving queen had been driven mad with hunger. She was probably a refugee, since her brown crest didn’t look familiar to Evoli. She had probably never even learned how to control a swarm properly. It is a pity for your sake I am not my mother. Evoli sprung out of the shadows with her drone, plunging its crude spear into the queen’s throat. Her guards cut it down almost instantly after that—but it didn’t matter. “Why?” Her other surviving drone could hear her voice, confused and desperate. A frightened child. “Why did you attack me? After all I’ve done for you?” The queen never got her answer—she died moments later. Without her to control them, the drones descended into madness. Poor Pitcher and his soldiers were suddenly overwhelmed, as instead of fighting with coordination they rushed him, not caring if he killed dozens of them. Once they closed the distance to his archers, the archers stood no chance. The queen’s own males were centermost in the melee, and apparently, they lacked the training or the practice at controlling drones, because they couldn’t restore order. They too died, literally devoured by the drones in their mad hunger. The other drone Evoli had been puppeting died too, along with dozens of the enemy. Changelings needed love to survive, and few fellow changelings had love to offer. But there was one kind of affection shared by all living creatures—the love of life. They could get at that primal source of nourishment by consuming the flesh of intelligent creatures. So they ate each other. Evoli didn’t know how many of the new soldiers she might’ve lost if she left them to their own devices. It was at that moment she emerged from the darkness with her drones, and focused her will on them. They had already dropped their weapons—now they stopped fighting, turning in unison to face her. She could feel their terrible hunger, only partially sated. Their desperation for one to protect them as this dead queen never had. I will care for you, she promised. I have food for all of you. Come to me now and taste it. So they became her swarm, at the modest cost of one experienced male, one mad queen, and a few dozen drones. Integrating them took longer than the battle—a few hours of work to convince each of the new drones to her side. Evoli was glad none of them were intelligent, and that all this queen’s males had been killed. She wasn’t sure what she would’ve done with either group. Probably would’ve had to kill them. I couldn’t have spurned survivors of a previous generation nursing rebellion. For some time after that, her only regret was that she hadn’t been able to kill the queen herself, and thus harvest whatever love she had left. It was a shame whatever she’d been holding had been wasted when she died. A few years passed, and Evoli began to feel the sting of hunger again. As the years went by, she had replaced almost all of her controllers with simple drones, conserving every drop of glamour she could. Her supply of males, ever the mark of status and wealth for a queen, had to be sacrificed as well, locked away with her growing stash of eggs for times of greater wealth that seemed increasingly unlikely to come. Evoli’s own power grew. Her mind expanded, able to control a growing swarm. The thousands that once would’ve taken every ounce of her concentration were now so easy that she barely even had to think about using them. But for all that, the love she harvested just wasn’t enough. She was too old—ancient, so far as queens went. She needed more love than all the drones in her swarm combined, and there was just no way that piecemeal scavenging of love would keep her fed. But as her power grew, Evoli realized there was another source of love, one she hadn’t tapped. One Riley had never touched, but other queens were constantly vying over. Each other. If her drones were stretched to the limit of what they could harvest trying to integrate into pony society, then perhaps she should do what that dead queen had done, only smarter. Evoli’s ancient age might make her the most powerful queen alive—the others would pay tribute to her, or die. Evoli began to arm her subjects. The vast treasuries were emptied to buy supplies for their journey—not only weapons and shelter, but slaves as well. The ponies of that day had a new name for survivors from the old world—Outcasts. They could be bought and sold as slaves, where regular ponies couldn’t be. Evoli now had the power to use them as a food source as well. Her power was great, great enough that she could sense the large groups of changelings across the country. It didn’t matter how hard they tried to hide from her, she could feel their hive-minds, even sense their thoughts when she wanted. Not the queens—they were too powerful for that. But by knowing the drones of her rivals, she could know the state of their hives. The first of her targets was the only other hive as far south as she was, one located in what would’ve been eastern Mexico. It wasn’t a large hive, but it had a very large city to feed on, and its queen had grown complacent in her strength. Evoli’s own army attacked when they least expected. Evoli herself did not even enter the burrow until the battle was over. There were dead drones on the floor—fat and healthy with the spoils of their hunting ground. Spoils they will share with us, from now on. No queen was dead today, though some controllers and males had fought and died. Mostly on the enemy side—what few Evoli retained were back managing the hive. She had not brought anything with her she wasn’t prepared to lose. The queen had a broken wing, and blood dribbling from many scars. Evoli’s own changelings held her prisoner, and so the drones in the whole hive had stopped attacking. If they struck again, Evoli would kill her, and take these drones for herself. She’d done it before. “Who are you?” The queen wasn’t tied up, though there were crossbows pointed at her on her throne. She was nursing her wounds, trying to bandage them up as best she could. Evoli herself was untouched by the battle, since of course she hadn’t been here. “Your new master,” she said, her voice absolutely confident. “Evoli. I am the queen you now serve.” “What makes you think that?” her prisoner hissed, spitting blood onto the ground at her hooves. “I never infringed on your territory. I never broke the terms of the old pact. Why would you violate them and attack us?” Evoli grinned her sharp teeth down at the younger queen. “Because I can.” Then she cast her spell, harvesting the helpless queen for most of the glamour she possessed. Not all of it, since that would’ve made her mad with hunger, and useless as a servant. But most. Evoli didn’t feel hungry. “I am leaving a few drones behind. From now on, you will give them half the love you harvest. If you do not, I will kill you, and take this hunting ground for myself.” The queen cowered in fear, hiding her face behind a broken wing. She nodded. “We will obey,” she squeaked, cowed. “Yes, you will,” Evoli agreed. And she left, a greater queen as her mother had been. This first subject was weak compared to those who had served Riley—but it was a start. Evoli didn’t feel hungry again for a whole week. Then she did, and it was time to find a new target. There was a lot of land for her to conquer, and many younger queens to subjugate. They would all serve their proper master in time.