//------------------------------// // Chapter 27 — <> // Story: In Sheep's Clothing // by Kydois //------------------------------// THEN Chrysalis I looked up and scowled at the looming rainclouds. Perhaps it was all of my years spent in a drier desert home, but I have never been much of a fan of the traditional Baltimare downpours. Luckily, I would not have to deal with this humidity for long. With a flap of my wings, I touched down gently in front of the manor house serving as the front for the Baltimare Brood. Maids and butlers immediately greeted me, opening the door and welcoming me inside with gracious bows of their heads. Requiem, the broodmother in charge, came to meet me, looking much less disheveled since the last time I saw her. She wore a pair of red earrings as well as a large silver necklace, inset with a large ruby in the center. I nearly scoffed. She had always been overly concerned with such things as her appearance and public image, often meeting me with makeup and fancy outfits. Vain, but as long as it did not interfere with anything, I had no complaints. At least, not vocally. “My Queen,” she said with a deep bow. “It is good to see you again.” “And I to you,” I said with a nod of my head as I shed my disguise. “Rise.” She straightened up. “I have heard the news. My compliments on how you have taken care of the other queen. I am continually astonished at your solutions to the problems that plague us.” I waved it off with a hoof. “The entire hive has done their part in its perfect execution. I only provided a tool and a plan. In any case, I am here to talk about future plans, not the past.” “Of course, My Queen,” Requiem said before gesturing me further in. “If I may, perhaps you’d like to discuss this over tea?” “Lead the way then,” I replied, and she began trotting further inside the manor. It was relatively quiet as we made our way to the tea room, likely a byproduct of the gloomy weather outside. It had started raining at some point, the pitter-patter of raindrops splattering against the window panes providing a constant drone of noise in the background. It was lucky that I managed to get here before it started in earnest, though stormy weather never failed to subdue the atmosphere. Once we arrived, we sat down at one of the small circular tables in the middle. A servant came in carrying a serving tray with a pristine tea set. He carefully placed it on the table and poured out two cups before taking another bow and departing, closing the door behind him. Broodmother Requiem took a small sip, though she flinched at the scalding heat and blew over the top a couple times. “My Queen, now that the other hive is no longer a problem, we can begin rebuilding, yes?” I blew a few breaths over the top myself before taking a sip, though it was not nearly as hot as I thought it was. “Of course. They had no small amount of resources at their disposal, and we can start using some of it to replenish all of our losses. There is also the matter of replacing all of the infiltrators they had in Equestria before anyone gets suspicious, but I have faith that the hive will work quickly.” She nodded. “The Baltimare Brood is already getting infiltrators out thanks to all of the additional supplies and love stores we claimed, though I have a few… other questions,” she said, staring down into her cup. “If I may ask, My Queen, what are your plans for after?” I raised an eyebrow at her. “For after? What do you mean?” “After we have successfully integrated the resources from the other hive and recovered our strength,” she said, taking a sip of her tea. “What then?” I took a sip, giving me time to gather my thoughts. “Hard to say,” I eventually said. “The other two queens were lying low when the outsider hive invaded, but Queen Mimic will not be bothering us any time soon. She was hardly a threat even before. However, the pesky queen in Canterlot could start being a problem again. I will have to look into how she is outmaneuvering us, but I expect to be focusing on her for the foreseeable future. Hopefully, we can resolve that issue before she can recover her hoofing.” She pursed her lips. “And what then, after all the queens are no longer a problem?” I narrowed my eyes. Something felt wrong, and I was immediately put on guard. “You are looking for a specific answer, Broodmother. What is it? Speak.” Requiem glared back at me. “I have heard rumors that you are planning to send envoys to the ponies and reveal our race.” I snorted. “A possibility.” “But for what reason should we reveal ourselves to our prey?” She set her cup down on the table, still glowering at me. “With the defeat of the invading hive, we will be unmatched in our might. If anything, with so much power, our first envoy should be to conquer the ponies ourselves.” I took a sip of my tea. “Idiocy. Do that, and we strangle out our own food source.” She let out a harrumph. “Not if they’re all in pods.” “Then we need to maintain enough pods for everypony, not to mention sustaining it for future generations.” I scoffed at her. It appears she still had a nymph’s grasp on hive management. “Why drain them in pods when they can willingly give it to us, and in greater amounts than the old ways? Pods are a logistical nightmare, and you would be insane for thinking that it would work on such a large scale in the long run.” “Better than bowing our heads to prey,” she snapped. “To inferior creatures.” “Times have changed, Broodmother,” I said, straightening up to my full height. “The hive would benefit far more from open relations with the ponies than the pitiful scrounging we force our love collectors through, not to mention what happened when those collectors were targeted, or shall I remind you of what nearly took out your own brood, Requiem.” “So we throw ourselves into the light so that disgusting filth can find us more easily?” She brought her hoof down on the table hard. “Relying on such transient things like goodwill to feed your people, feh. The ponies would never work with us. Better to bring them under our yoke and make sure they never backstab us.” I took another sip of my tea. “If you would monger for war, then you are a short-sighted lunatic.” “And you are a fool,” she said, and her horn lit up in a threatening red. “But I will not let your foolishness ruin—” My sense for danger bade me move. I threw my teacup at her head, where it shattered into a slew of broken porcelain shards and a splash of steaming hot tea. She reared back with a shout of surprise and fired off whatever spell she had prepared into the ceiling. Before she could get her bearings, I took hold of her head in my magic and slammed it into the table, causing the entire table to flip towards her. “Enough!” she bellowed out, and she let out a wave of force, pushing everything in the room away from her and, surprisingly enough, nearly throwing me off balance. She was strong. Much stronger than I had anticipated. Where had she gotten so powerful? My eyes caught a glint of red, and I focused on her necklace. I had only given it a passing thought because I had never seen the real thing, only read descriptions of it. To think that this was how I would finally rest eyes on the fabled Alicorn Amulet. “You are not fit to be queen!” Requiem shouted. She wove another spell quickly, almost before I could see what it was. A crimson barrier formed around the entire room, blocking off all the possible exits and casting the room in a dark bloody red. The rain had grown heavier, and thunder boomed in the distance. “Better than you,” I said, my voice low and even as I summoned my battleaxe. I had always kept it close at hoof in case of emergencies, but I never expected to be threatened by my own hive. I had expected resistance to my new plan, but nothing like this. “Disappointing how even the ponies are more trustworthy than my own broodmothers.” “Don’t you speak of treachery when you were the one to turn your back on your entire race!” She charged up another beam, a powerful stun spell by the looks of it. I moved quickly, deflecting it with my axe. Lightning arced all over the metal head, and I had to distance myself from it lest a stray spark catch me. I backed up, reaching out to the barrier with my magic to assess it. It was not a particularly complex spell, but it was inordinately powerful. It would take time and concentration to break, time that I would not have with someling actively trying to kill me. Or maybe not. Requiem had charged up a stun spell. She wanted to overtake me as queen of the hive, and she could not guarantee that if I was dead. One problem at a time. I wove my next spell and fired it at the ceiling, burning a circle of green glowing runes into the ceiling. I saw her horn light up in red, and she yelped in pain when the ward I had created instantly zapped her horn with a manabolt. I charged in with a downward swing of my axe, hoping to take advantage of her surprise, but she dodged back, shaking her head clear. Her horn glowed again, but when the ward tried to stop her spellcasting this time, the bolt stopped dead at a barrier of churning black mist. There was another bolt, and I soon realized that her shield was swirling faster, as if gathering energy from the repeated magical strikes. “You shall have to do better than that, Chrysalis!” she cried, and I lowered my stance and dug my axe into the ground to brace myself. Her shield detonated in a spectacular wave of force as if a hurricane had torn through the room. The ward burnt out with a burst of green flame, leaving only a dark ashy splotch on the ceiling. I coughed, and it was harder to get a deep breath. She had released something into the air, and my heart felt as if someone was squeezing it. I was on a timer, especially with her plague and pestilence spreading in such an enclosed area. Gathering up my mana, I let loose with a chaos bolt, a manifest of unruly energy. It was unpredictable and fast, almost too quick for either of us to react to, but it managed to hit this time. It slammed her in the chest with a ringing concussive blow, throwing her into the far wall with a crunch of plaster and chitin. With the traitor vulnerable, I tagged her with my next spell, a modified teleportation spell. In the blink of an eye, both of us shifted in space through a rift in reality, far faster than any conventional teleportation spell, bringing us together just in the middle of our initial positions. It was impossible for Requiem to avoid my axe, and it stopped with a meaty crunch inside her shoulder. My magic coursed through the blade, draining some of her magical stores to replenish the high costs of the spells I had just cast. With a sadistic cackle, I wrenched it out, carving out a large slice of flesh and rendering her foreleg useless. She shrieked in agony and teleported away with a burst of scarlet fire, but not before I could tag her with my next spell. As soon as she reappeared, chains of ethereal jade materialized from her broken breast and anchored themselves into the floor and ceiling, binding her in place. I let out another round of hacking coughs, my vision growing dimmer, but I steeled my strength, channeling another significant portion of my magic into my axe as I charged, bellowing a berserker's call. My aim was true, and my axe buried itself into her neck, but this time, she didn’t cry out. Her eyes, wild and unhinged, had turned to an unnatural red and she instead grinned at me. Her wounds knit before my eyes. Her chitin across her chest became whole, and her shoulder had been healed. My blow, rather than killing her, had only given her strength anew as she drained my magic. Dark magic. Necromancy. Unnatural magic which defied mortal comprehension. She unleashed her next blast at the floor. The ground quaked and I was thrown back, but not before I could get a bite onto my axe and pull it out with me. Her chains broke, and the room was flooded with a thick gas. The stench of decay grew worse, and I let out a hacking cough. My lungs were failing, but it was far from just an airborne contaminant. Dark magic clawed at my body, dragging me down towards oblivion. I sunk down to my knees despite not bearing a single wound, my ears ringing and my vision blurred. I was beside a window, but I knew from the red glow over it that I would only hit the barrier if I were to try to get some fresh air. How great it was to wield a weapon that cuts on its own. I used my axe to pull myself upright again, but the gas still obscured everything in the room. She had hidden her aura. I could not find her through my empathy sense. I kept my senses open, preparing myself for attack. Even the slightest lapse in concentration could lead to my death, yet my blood grew thick and my limbs were reluctant to obey. A disturbance in the cloud, but I was too slow. A familiar spell tagged me in the chest, and I was forced to my knees again, bound to the ground by the same ethereal chains that I had used on her. My axe faltered in my aura, the broad head striking the ground with a heavy thunk. Requiem loomed over me, holding what looked like a large jewelry box in her hoof. Her neck streamed blood that glistened black in the crimson lighting of the room. For the first time in a long time, I felt fear. She charged up a final spell. It brimmed with her unnatural power, far greater than I had ever expected. Paralyzed, I gazed upon the matrix, glowing hot. I saw every single detail of it, burned into my mind at the precipice of defeat. All at once, I felt a pull on my very essence, as if hooks had dug into me and had begun to drag me towards the box she held. At the same time, something foreign was burrowing its way into my body. All of a sudden, I knew. She was going to become queen not by trying to take my magic, but by stealing my body. I was being evicted, torn out without ceremony or care, separated from the font of power that marked me as queen of the hive. My fear turned into determination. With a final burst of magic, I took hold my axe one last time. If she was going to take my body, I was going to make sure she felt it. I aimed my axe at my own neck and hurled it, just as I had finally lost my grip on my own body. — I heard rain. It was dark. My senses felt off. Different than what I was used to. There was a loud thundercrack, and in the flash of light, I made out two dark indistinct shapes as well as an upturned box beside me. One of the shapes moved, pushing itself up and letting out a wet cough as it removed something large from its neck. There was shouting and banging, muffled through the walls. The one who had risen cursed under her breath. There was a bright green glow, and the prone shape was disintegrated, though I thought I caught a glint of silver and red in the ashes left behind. The acrid smell of smoke permeated the air in its absence. It reached out to me, its head turning back and forth. The red that had tinted the entire room dissipated to a cool blue, and I was thrown with incredible force, crashing through a window pane and emerging into the open air. I barreled through the raindrops as I flew upwards. I caught a glimpse of the lights across the horizon, only barely visible through the downpour. A city, perhaps. And then I was falling. Down, down, down. I met the surface of the sea and fell into its watery embrace.