//------------------------------// // 25: Face your darkness, or die crying // Story: Halls of the Changeling King // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// Slouching Three’s forehead touches Eight’s bed, and the drone bolts upright in an attempt to stay awake. He’s been sitting in the dark room for two critical days, occasionally interrupted by a doctor checking Eight’s unchanging state. Eight hasn’t talked to Three since, something which he’s grateful for because any more energy drain could mean him falling asleep and disturbing the carefully maintained stream of love. On the other hole, having someone to keep him company would definitely make staying awake easier. His bleary eyes look at Eight as he hears her mental voice. ”You really are something, you know that?” she says, and the love drain which has brought Three to near collapse stops completely. “Wh-whuh-mhhh…?” Three blinks, then quickly checks the runes on his foreleg for the good old glow. It’s there, soft and weak, so he’s not completely drained, “...miss Eight…?” ”It looks like the old bag of chitin is starting to catch on,” Eight chuckles, ”You should go and have a rest now, Three.” “But you’re still just a husk, miss Eight. With machines breathing and doing heart stuff for you.” ”That’s an order, Three. I don’t need constant love flow anymore, and if I tried to refill and heal instantly, it would hurt you. Just send someone to check up no me from time to time, or do it yourself.” “But-” ”If you’ve got time to argue, you’ve got time to visit the boss and go help him like you did to me.” Three shakes his head, then hangs his head low. ”Wait… don’t tell me he is...” “Oh, no no no,” Three conjures a weak smile, “Well… I must confess to something, miss Eight. I went away for few minutes to check up on the boss last night. I’m sorry. I just couldn’t bear not knowing how he was, and I was falling asleep so I thought stretching my legs would help and-” ”I understand, Three, no matter how stu- risky it was. What did you find?” even Eight can’t hide the fear in her voice. “That I can’t do anything,” Three hides his face with his forelegs, “He’s just lying there, not moving, and I can’t even link up to him. I can barely stay in his room, because I can feel it from him. There’s just… pain. He’s not taking my love when I’m around too. I can’t help him. After all he did for me.. and I can’t help him at all.” ”Pain, huh...” Eight muses, ”That’s good.” “How can you say that, miss Eight?” ”If he’s in pain, no matter how much, then it means he’s still alive and fighting.” “Oh? Oh!” ”So, Three, let me repeat my order. Go away, and have a good night’s sleep. My body will survive on the machines now, I can feel it. You did a great job.” “Okay, miss Eight,” Three stands up on wobbly legs, “Good night.” ”Night, Three.” With that, Three gives Eight a quick peck on the cheek, and wobbles out of the queen’s bedroom. The guards lining the hallway give him few cursory glances when he yawns, but no one tries to question or bother him in any way. Few hallways away, Three pulls on a lamp disguised as fake torch, a section of wall slides away, and then closes behind him. Three can’t be bothered to go back to the emerald mine which in his current state feels continents away, and this place is suitably cool and dark. Letting out one final squeaky yawn, he curls up into a ball, and falls asleep. *** When Three wakes up, he instantly realizes he’s not alone, and perks up his ears. Sitting upright, he notices Six dozing off nearby with his eyes closed, back propped against a wall. “Hmm, Six? Do you need anything?” The other drone’s soft snoring stops as he instantly wakes up. “Oh, ehm, I fell asleep too, didn’t I?” “Mhm. So what’s up?” linking to everyone, Three notices he can sense Two again, although her connection is unusually weak. Still better than nothing, though. “Well...” Six scratches his head, “You know that I like Five, right?” Three immediately blushes because he recalls miss Eight’s soft lips and her few gentle kisses. Lucky boss... “Yep, I do.” “And do you remember how I asked the dwarves in the mine about some tips to make her like me?” “You don’t want to drop a mountain on her and then dig her up to be her hero, do you?” Three raises an eyebrow. “Good memory, but you picked the wrong suggestion. I picked the big diamond one.” “That makes more sense, yeah,” Three nods, breathing out a relieved sigh. “So, I found this big diamond in the restricted deep mines, dug it all by myself, and got it back here. I tried to figure out the next bit, and I think I need help.” “Sure,” Three stretches his legs. He’s still feeling a bit weak, but that’s waning with every passing moment, “What’s the big plan?” “Well,” Six looks away, mumbling, “...Ineedtocutthediamondinthedarkpriestplace...” “What was that?” “I need to cut the diamond in the place where the dark priests live. I heard they have these machines which can cut it in some weird way that makes the diamond glow with even the smallest bit of light. I want Five to light up whenever she looks at it.” “I don’t think she would enjoy being set on fire, but you know her better than I do.” Six facehoofs. “Well, I’m sure I’m gonna need help with this, which is why I’m asking you.” “Why me, though? I’m sure the place will be guarded, and those guys don’t like us very much. They didn’t look like they liked other dwarves very much either. Wouldn’t an infiltrator like Seven be better, with his magic and all?” “Seven wouldn’t go even if I asked, and would just call me stupid,” Six pouts, “Five, you know, I want this to be a surprise, and this won’t be a warrior thing anyway. Two’s been away all the time, and she doesn’t let me link to her. And… well… boss and Eight would say it’s stupid. Look, I tried taking Five out on Beerfest, and it didn’t work. She didn’t mind, but that’s not enough. I NEED this.” Three blinks. In the wake of the tragedy befalling the boss and miss Eight, he had no idea that the only changelings who know exactly what’s going on are boss, miss Eight, Two, and Three himself. Five, Seven, and Six are out of the loop. Which… maybe… is a good thing. No reason to make them sad as well. Granted, this technically means that Three is in charge, seniority-wise as well as ‘actually gives a hug about what is going on elsewhere’-wise. Okay, so what is temporary boss Three going to do? The love between miss Eight and boss has been driving them forward, giving them hope and strength to face everything. It took time to build up too, so who is Three to say that it can’t work with Five and Six? Also, drone bros! “Alright, Six. I’m in. If you sneaking into the dark priest enclave to make a crazy gift for Five doesn’t work, nothing will. But,” Three raises his foreleg, “first things first. Do you know what the machine you’re looking for is?” Six shrugs. “Okay, that’s step three then. Step two, do you have a plan on how to get inside the dark priest enclave?” Three continues, and suppresses a desire to facehoof when Six shrugs again, “Okay, nevermind. How about step one - WHERE is the enclave?” Six now hangs his head, the idea of failing before he even started hitting him hard. Three pats his drone buddy’s head. “You just want Five to have her big diamond at all cost, don’t you.” “Mhm...” “Then we need some time to plan things out,” Three stands up with a determined expression on his face, “because if we get caught then they’ll take your diamond away and that’s that… in the best case,” Three adds, frowning. A moment of careful pondering later he looks up- “Eep!” -at Six reverently staring at him. “You’re really smart, you know that?” says Six, leaving Three at loss for words. Even temporary leadership is a new and unexplored territory, “Without you, I would have rushed off and gotten myself lost or worse - caught.” “Thank you?” “So, what do we do… boss?” asks Six. “Temporary boss.” “What do we do, temp boss?” *** As the door of the council room opens after the daily meeting, Granite lets out a tired sigh before noticing Three sitting by the opposite wall, trailing him with his eyes. A shiver immediately runs down the dwarf’s spine when Three stands up. “Good morning, mister Granite,” says Three, his cheerful tone dispelling Granite’s paranoia about bad news regarding the death of the queen or much worse... the king, albeit the later one is only a matter of time. Granted, the king has survived the brass spike poison longer than anything before, but Granite saw that during his last visit, the king’s carapace was sickly and greying. “Is anything wrong, Three?” More wrong than before? “Nothing new, mister Granite, other than that miss Eight is slowly getting better,” Three shakes his head, much to Granite’s relief. No news is good news, “But I want to ask you something. Can I?” The loremaster doesn’t question anymore how a limbless changeling with snapped spine and ripped out heart can be getting better. “Sure, go ahead.” “Where do the dark priests live?” What? “In their enclave much deeper than Brauheim.” “Oh, I heard that too, but I mean where is it really?” Granite rubs his beard. “It’s near the ancient istrium mines, I don’t know where exactly. When I was there as a neophyte, I wasn’t allowed to leave the vicinity of the enclave, and after I refused to… to...” his expression darkens, “to undergo the final ritual, I got knocked out and woke up back in Brauheim.” “Is there anyone who knows where their home is?” “Why do you want to know that?” “Ummm… I don’t wanna lie, so… do I have to answer that?” “Three, you don’t want to do something stupid, such as attacking the place as revenge for what they did to the king, do you?” Horrified Three vigorously shakes his head. “No, definitely not! I just… well… Six has this plan, and he needs some dark priest stuff for it.” “You know I can’t let you go there. Religious excuses aside, if the queen is getting better, then she’ll kill me and likely half of the city if she finds out.” Three pouts. “Well, umm… I’m third in senator- señorita- seniority after boss and miss Eight, which means I’m in charge… maybe? So you can’t stop me or Six.” “That’s not how rulership of Brauheim works,” Granite tilts his head, now equally amused and worried. “Oh...” Three withers, “And if I transform into the boss and tell you to let us go down there?” Granite can’t handle listening to Three’s attempts at being deviously manipulative anymore. It’s like watching a cave spider attempting to work out astrophysics. “Look, Three, I understand I can’t keep you locked up, but I really don’t want you to get hurt, and not only because I’d be the one who has to explain it later. How about you level with me about your plan, and I tell you if there’s something I know that might help?” “Okay!” Three looks around. The council members have left the room already, so he trots inside, followed by Granite who closes the door behind them, “So, it’s like this-” He relays how Six got his big diamond, and what he means to do next with it. To his mild surprise, Granite looks rather impressed with Six’s feat. “-and now he wants to cut the diamond so that it glows.” Aaaand here comes the facehoof. Or… not? “It might come as a shock to you, but this ISN’T the dumbest engagement or wedding gift idea I’ve ever heard BY FAR,” Granite only nods and sighs, “I’d urge you to reconsider, but I suppose it would be pointless.” “Six really wants this, and he would do it alone if I didn’t help, mister Granite. I told him this would be dangerous, but he needs even what little help I can offer.” Granite closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, then opens them. “If you want to have at least some chance, you need to look like them. Thankfully, that isn’t difficult, because all you need are the robes, which aren’t anything special, and you can shapeshift. You won’t be able to imitate dark guards, because no one outside the enclave has their power armors. You can already avoid the changeling alarms. Once inside, you want the crafting sector. The machines you need look like big boxes with an indentation in the center and big mechanical arms around it. The arms bear lasers which will cut your diamond in few minutes at most.” Three nods after listening intently. “Is there anyone who can tell us where the dark priest home with the lazy boxes is?” They’re gonna die... “I doubt that, unless you catch and question some dark priest. During my day, they came and went freely, but under your king, things might be different.” “Thank you very much for all the help, mister Granite.” “Good luck, Three, and if anything goes even remotely wrong, run as fast as you can. I doubt I’d survive for long if I had to recap what happened to the queen.” As Three rushes off, Granite sends a quick prayer to the ancestors. *** Step two. “I would like two of those, miss, please,” Three points to a brown robe slightly over his size displayed on a ponnequin by the store window. The mare smiles, and returns with the presented clothing, both pieces expertly folded, which she places on the counter. “Five gold pieces each, or you can pay in gems, of course.” Three, wearing no clothes or a belt with a pouch, pats himself, making it completely obvious that he forgot the crucial part of the transaction. “Ummm...” he looks at the vendor mare, “Can we borrow them then? Or I can bring you some emeralds later.” “I’m sorry, mister changeling, but I can’t just give away my wares-” Three gives her his best pleading and dejected look. “-no no matter, not even if you look at me like that. No, don’t you wibble at me- hnnngh!” the mare suddenly clutches her chest. “Pretty pleeeeeeeeease,” the wibble of Three’s lower lip intensifies. As the mare gasps for breath and her eyes roll back, Six can’t handle it anymore and steps in front of Three. “Stop it, you heart attack inducing machine, I have the money-” *Thud!* The vendor mare keels over behind the counter, falling completely silent. “Crap… now we’ve got a dead dwarf on our hooves,” Six facehoofs. “What? NO!” Three, in sudden panic at hearing the words, bounces over the counter straight ON the mare’s chest on accident, making her cough and resume gasping, “Are you okay, miss?” “No… free… stuff...” the mare wheezes, “Ughh… my chest...” Three carefully crawls off of her. “Now I’ve seen everything,” Six smacks his face into the counter, then pulls out the required gold from his pouch, and puts it on the table, “Let’s go, Three. I’ve paid for the robes.” “Neat!” this time Three simply walks around the counter, and before the two changeling leave, he calls at the groaning vendor, “Thank you for the cheap price on the clothes, miss. I’ll bring you some emeralds later anyway!” “Hnnnngh...” Ded. *** “Do you have any idea where we’re going?” asks Six after Three leads him down into the enormous ravine where Eight followed the dark priest assassin. “Well, not really, but this is my best guess. When the dark priest poisoned the boss, miss Eight followed him this way, and then she met this Vigil thingy who ripped her to bits.” Six’s wings stop, and he drops like a rock for a moment before he realizes what Three just said. “WHAT HAPPENED TO WHO WHEN?!” Buzzing down next to him, Three recapitulates to Six the events of the past few days. Jaw dropped and eyes wide, Six listens, not daring to interrupt. “WHY DID NO ONE-” “Shhhhh!” Three puts his hoof to Six's mouth. “Why does no one know this?!” Six might be whispering, but the incredulity in his voice is palpable. “I dunno,” Three shrugs, “I guess you aren’t used to reporting too much. Seven has been spending time in the library-” ”I’ve borrowed nerd bug in the wake of recent assassination and a suicide-by-Vigil attempt events,” Scream’s golden wings plop out nearby as the alicorn’s ethereal form appears, ”And the short answer to your question, replaceable bug, is that nerd bug is busy working for me, slave bug is guarding him like she’s been doing forever, and waiting for more orders from smart bug which won’t come, because somepony has screwed with her head, she knows it, and is hella depressed and ran away.” “Okay, once again and slower this time,” Six facehoofs, “Everything went to shit over the past three days HOW?!” ”Boss bug, dead or dying. Punch bug, barely alive amputee corpse. Smart bug, knocked out, dazed, and confused. Nerd bug, I borrowed him for a while. Slave bug, doing her best flower pot impression. You two… what ARE you two actually doing here?” “Six wants to cut that big diamond in his bag using some dark priest machine, but we don’t know where they live.” ”So you’re following the route the assassin went. Be careful not to step into the punch bug bits,” Scream nods to the pile of Eight’s limbs which Three swept together before dragging her back up into the castle. “...oh holes...” Six gags, “...someone, someTHING did this to EIGHT...?” ”Oh right, if you meet a Vigil, run.” “You haven’t told us what that Vigil thing IS!” Six scowls at Scream. ”Okay, quickly - there’s this cult which worships one of the three gods of Equus, actual gods, not demigods like us alicorns. That god is an asshole, and I’m trying to stop his plan of returning to this world. No, before you ask, you can’t help. I’ve got better allies working on this. So, these cultists call themselves the Vigil, and have received certain powers for their service. The elder ones can adapt to anything. If there’s a limit, we haven’t found it yet. This means that if you can’t obliterate one instantly, don’t touch them, because next time they’ll be completely immune to what you tried last time. Punch bug tried raw strength, but that’s something the Vigils have more than enough experience with from facing my associates.” “Okay then, we’re to avoid them at all costs, got it,” Six nods, “but what is one doing here?” Scream shrugs. ”No clue. They aren’t too smart, considering their higher functions are controlled more by their hive mind than them, so one might have simply taken a wrong turn at Albuquerque.” “You don’t believe that one bit, do you?” Six raises an eyebrow. ”Nope. Left here,” Scream nods to the tunnel. “Cool. Do you know where the dark priests live?” asks Three. ”Nah,” Scream waves her hoof, ”There’s directions on the wall.” The mess of pictograms, runes. strange writing makes no sense to Three or Six despite them both being fairly competent in dwarvish by now. “You can understand this?” Six nods to the passing wall. ”Yeah, these are some physics equations regarding heat transfer through metals.” “Oh, like the dwarves use in their geothermal power plants, right?” Both Three and Scream stop, staring at Six who shifts uncomfortably. “Hey, you know that boss signed me and Five to Hard Reset’s class, don’t you?” ”Note to self - rename disposable bug.” “You’ll be super smart soon!” Three cheers. ”Volume down, will you?” Scream smacks Three over the head, her hoof harmlessly passing through, ”The Silversmith prison is near, and voices carry far down here.” “What do you mean by prison? And Silversmith?” Six gives her a suspicious stare. ”Do I look like a history teacher?” Scream rolls her eyes, ”I’ve done some digging and remembering since I found your boss, and I’m pretty sure that what dwarves call dark priests are just some other dwarves who found a Silversmith prison, or were sent there ages ago, and when their ‘ancestors’ disappeared they kept using the technology or something. This is guesswork really. However, the signs on the walls don’t point to any other structure, so I assumed what they called an enclave is that.” “Aaand the Silversmith thing?” ”One of the oldest civilizations on Equus. They survived Void fucking up the surface by moving deep down, so while other races got nearly wiped out before Void was stopped, these guys flourished and advanced way ahead of others.” “I have no idea what you’re talking about...” Six shakes his head. ”Old history. Not important anyway.” “Wait, didn’t you say some Void was your friend?” Three scratches his head, recalling Scream’s massage talk, “Are you a baddie, miss Scream?” ”Details details. Now, if I were you I’d put those robes on and change into something bald. I doubt even your changeling charm would be enough to make the shortstack fanatics let you inside.” “Right!” Six stops, “Everything I’ve heard today about history or the boss’ predicament is way above drone pay grade. We’re here to make Five’s dream come true!” ”Does she even know she has a diamond dream?” “Don’t sweat the unimportant stuff. Now, Three, let’s transform and check each other’s disguises.” A couple of whoosh noises later, two bald and bearded dwarves are staring at each other, accompanied by a maniacal laughter of an invisible golden alicorn. “Okay, Three. Nice try, but you can’t have glowing purple beard,” Six’s explains patiently. “It’s like my runes, and if we lose a lamp we won’t need to turn back-” “Beards don’t glow, Three. Not even the dark priest ones. I’ve met quite a few of them while working under Eight. AND NO PURPLE!” *Whoosh!* “Better, better,” Six appreciates Three’s second attempt, “But no pink either. Pick a shade of brown, black, white, or rusty, maybe a bit blond if you want.” Another whoosh leaves Six in the company of a very passable dark priest. Almost. “Okay, that’s good, but there’s one more thing.” “What?” asks Three in a voice like crunching gravel. “I’ve never seen a happy and smiling dark priest. I think we need you to… you know… scowl like this.” Three tries. ”Now you just look constipated,” comments Scream. Three tries again. It’s not better. Is there an expression for an adorable elderly dwarf scrunching his face? A scrunched face that would yell ‘Get on my lawn, foals, I got candy!’ without the obvious molestation subtext? ”Try to imagine you’re facing the guy who poisoned boss bug but you can’t say anything because- theeeere you go,” Scream winks sideways at Six when Three’s expression finally matches his disguise. Only short few moments later, two scowling dark priests leave the tunnel network, and enter a giant cavern resembling Brauheim castle square on smaller scale with a metal bridge crossing a ravine between them and a structure which has to be the dark priest enclave. Despite their hearts jackhammering, neither Six nor Three move a facial muscle when two dwarves bulging with black armor covering their entire bodies stop them. One of the dark guards says something which sounds like the clearing of a particularly stuck throat. It either isn’t dwarvish, or their helmets are muffling their words to incoherence. ”Scream?” Six asks mentally as time slows down. ”He wants to know the password,” says the alicorn, ”They’re speaking some garbled hybrid of Silversmith and dwarvish. I can barely understand them. Taking into account their language and religious fanaticism, I’m getting the feeling they might be retarded.” ”Damn it!” curses Six, ”Any ideas?” ”Run?” Scream raises an eyebrow, ”I doubt any feat of speed aside from falling down a cliff is their forte.” ”I’m not leaving without a unique diamond for Five!” Six frowns. ”How about being thrown out in pieces?” Three loudly clears his throat. Not inside the hive mind, but in reality. The guards grumble something again. “Hueaarhghhrhgh!” Three does the same thing, only louder. The guards take a step back, both grunting at the same time. “HURGK!” Three spits on the floor. The guards take their place by the side of a tall double door made of white metal which slides into the wall. Undisturbed, Six and Three walk into a sterile, steel-looking, metal corridor inside with occasional barred windows on the sides and a dark priest passing in the distance. ”What did- how did you-?” Six shakes his head. ”Those helmets looked like you couldn’t hear much in them, and their language is really growly, so I tried to grumble the word they said for a password to set up I had a weird accent, then a dwarven word for ‘is’ IN the same accent, and then I just cleared my throat.” ”I don’t know if the dwarves are mentally challenged or you are a genius, but this certainly is a point for the former,” Scream facehoofs. ”No, that actually IS genius!” Six exclaims while his dark priest face remains passive, ”Just like the dwarves in Brauheim who have lived for so long with dark priests in charge that they can’t often even imagine defying one, the dark priests are so secluded and full of themselves they can barely imagine a normal dwarf coming here, especially if the common knowledge is that they simply don’t know where their enclave is. A dwarf would never talk back to a dark priest, and Three must have said something similar enough to the password. If their changeling alarm hasn’t gone off, they must have felt safe enough or lazy enough not to push us. Possibly there’s a punishment for a guard for hindering a dark priest doing their job?” ”Not important,” Scream interrupts Six’s musing, ”We’re inside, so what now?” ”Mister Granite said to look for a crafting sector,” says Three. ”That way then,” Scream nods ahead, ”Third corridor to the right.” ”Where did you read that?” asks Six while following Scream through the enclave, ”There’s nothing written on the walls here.” ”There is, only it’s invisible to normal eyes - hair thin carvings all over white walls filled with infrared dye. My best guess is that since this was originally a prison, the builders didn’t want prisoners to simply see the knowledge on the walls. Though it looks like they just shoved some fantasy literature-” Scream goes silent. ”Miss Scream?” Three looks at the alicorn. ”Hmmmm...” the alicorn frowns, then distractedly mumbles, ”That way to arts and crafts,” while pointing to the next corridor to the left and not stopping to read the wall, ”fifth to seventh door right. I’ll be right there, I just...” she sits down, staring at the lower part of the corridor. ”Let’s go,” Six physically nudges Three, ”Two dark priests staring at a ‘blank’ wall are sure to draw attention.” No one bothers them as they enter what Screams identifies as the central hub of the enclave - a multi-story oval area hosting an indoor park. On the sides there are corridors leading further into the depths of the enclave. The upper floors, however, as far as they can see are filled with small doors, possibly to personal rooms? Following Scream’s instructions, the two end up in a spacious workshop with workbenches by the walls and box-like machines scattered all over the place. Three immediately recognizes the multiple mechanical arms of the diamond cutter thingy from mister Granite’s description, and walks over, pointing at it while clearing his throat. There are two other dark priests in the workshop, each seemingly busy at his workbench. Allowing himself a un-dark priestly smile, Five triumphantly takes out the big diamond, and puts it into the indentation in the middle of the top part of the machine’s chassis. Nothing happens. ”Aaany idea what to do next?” Six pokes the machine. Scream walks around, then points at a square panel with glassy, black center. ”Try touching it,” she says. As soon as Six pokes it, the panel lights up with various multicolored squares covered in writing. He barely stifles a surprised squeak upon which one of the dark priests looks up from his workbench. Three, keeping an eye on the others, nods his way, the dwarf returns the gesture, and keeps working. ”Are these… like buttons?” Six furrows his bushy dwarven brows, ”But they aren’t real. They’re just made of floating light. How does this work?” he pokes one at random, and the entire screen changes into a similar yet different image. ”Beats me,” Scream shrugs, ”I’m more the magic kind of alicorn, technomagic at best. This is technology beyond everything even the griffons have. On the other hoof, we don’t need to know why it works to operate it… maybe. Touch the red square on the bottom right. The runes on it read ‘return’.” As soon as Six does it, the original screen returns as advertised. ”Good, we’re back. What now?” asks Six, clearly eager. Scream doesn’t look so excited, though. ”I… am not sure...” ”Can’t you read it?” ”I can READ it. That doesn’t mean it makes sense to me. For example, the top ‘button’ on the list reads ‘load custom procedure’. I can read the descriptions just fine, I just have no clue what’s going to happen when you touch them.” ”Alright, alright, the smart pony is stumped,” Six mumbles, ”Time for dummies!” and he pokes the first floating button made of light. The arms of the device buzz, move around the indentation, and then stop. ”No procedure found,” Scream reads the writing on a suddenly appearing big red floater, ”Yeah, you’re missing something- ahhh, this could work!” she points to another smaller button, one of two under the… error message? ”Switch to manual.” ”That might work,” Six beams, quickly realizes what he’s doing, and resumes his dark priestly scowling, ”And it’ll be even better if I cut it myself,” he touches the pointed out button. A weird two concentric circles made of many more buttons appears, and the device’s arms twitch when Six touches one. He pokes the screen multiple times, but the arms always just twitch. ”Scream, any ideas what the controls ARE?” ”The stuff written on the segments of the circle are numbers. I would assume the big circle corresponds to the amount of arms, but what the small one is for is beyond me. Try...” Scream hums, ”Try not just poking one arm control, but hold it and move it around.” Three’s eyes go wide when Six does as instructed, and the required arm moves along with him sliding his hoof on the screen. ”Holy moly! I wish I had that many legs. I could hug...” Three counts under his breath, ”two and a half times harder than now! Is that right, miss Scream?” ”No, there’s twelve arms, so three times as much.” ”Awww, I just wanted to show I knew fractions to look smarter.” ”Maybe next time,” Scream shrugs, then looks at the device the arms of which move around quickly as Six is getting the hang of the controls. ”Hmmm, what does this do?” impatient, Six tries more buttons, and the window turns to complete mess of lines and the picture of the rough diamond overlaid over the control circles, ”Grrrrr… I don’t understand any of this!” ”Thaaaat makes two of us...” Scream is watching the screen now with a raised eyebrow, ”The writing on the top means ‘preview’, but that’s all I know. Maybe it shows how the diamond will look after you cut it like this?” ”Alright, let’s give it a shot then. If I’m right, this should only shave the diamond a little bit,” Six presses the return button, and then the big one Scream translates as ‘Start’. The tips of the arms glow red for a moment, a beam of crimson shoots out at the gem, and… ...nothing happens. The diamond remains untouched, and the screen returns to the one with controls. ”Oh, this might be the problem,” Scream looks closer, ”You’ve got the power set to thirty out of a hundred. Maybe it’s too little for a diamond.” Two careful attempts later, Six frowns, and pulls the power bar all the way to the right, aligns the arms so that the light coming from them hits the gem at the same spot, and says: ”Okay, this SHOULD shave the diamond on one side, or if it doesn’t we know this machine can’t do it.” Then he pushes the button. Twelve red beams hit the gem. For a moment, not much seems to be happening until- *Tink!* With a sound of a shattering window, the diamond explodes into shards which scatter all over the workshop. The sharp burst of shrapnel leaves both Six and Three on the floor, bleeding. The two dark priests jump up from their own projects, and immediately rush over. ”Are you okay?” Scream translates the words of the first one. Three waves his hoof, and uses the dark priest to stand up. “Oh no… no… no no no...” mumbles Six out loud, ignoring the blood from his numerous cuts, and crawling on the floor to scoop the diamond shards. As Three wipes his face, the dark priests notice Six’s muttering in common dwarvish. They stand up, and- “INDERZEN!” A siren starts blaring. ”Ooooh crap, that means ‘Intruder’,” Scream quickly turns her head from side to side, ”If I were you, I’d think of a way to knock or kill these two, and get the hay out immediately.” “Five’s diamond...” Six completely ignores Scream, now openly crying. To everyone’s surprise and some muttered prayers by Scream, the dark priests rush off without any questions. ”Six, come on,” Three grabs the other drone’s shoulder, and shakes him. “But Five’s diamond...” ”Look, idiot,” Scream raises her voice, ”I don’t know which dumbass told you you can BUY love. You can buy shittons of lust, that I agree with, but I doubt that’s what you want, considering slave bug offered you a free ride and you refused. I went along with this because it was fun and because I can’t just float around without you nearby, and this place is more interesting than most of the surface.” ”I wanted to show her how much I loved her with this!” Six cries, shoving more and more shards into the pockets of his robe. ”Hug bug, can you sense any other changeling around?” ”No, miss Scream,” replies Three after a moment of focusing. ”Then they either don’t know where you are or who the intruder is, or… or the alarm isn’t going off because of you. Strangely enough, I don’t like any of those options. Diamond’s gone, so slap sad bug and LET’S GO!” Scream rolls her eyes as Three instead of punching some sense into Six helps him gather the diamond shards. When it’s done, Six still looks dejected, but apparently ready to leave. ”Fucking finally,” Scream looks out of the room, ”Dwarves rushing everywhere. Got any idea how to get out in case the entrance is sealed?” ”T-The air vents?” Six offers, wiping his eyes. The dwarves running around don’t pay much attention to him and Three despite the barely healed wounds. ”I haven’t seen any,” Three shakes his head, ”The air is coming from these tiny slits in the ceiling. We can’t get through those.” ”The main entrance it is then,” Scream’s tone grows unusually serious, ”Let’s hope whoever the intruder is is keeping the security busy.” No one really pays the two fake dark priests any attention until they reach the central hub of the enclave, and a gruesome sight greets them. Dozens of corpses in shredded power armors are strewn around. The beautiful park which was still green less than half an hour ago is now on fire, trees are broken or charred, and bullet holes cover most decorative masonry. Despite the already bloody hell, the massacre isn’t over as more dark guards and dark priests are shooting, attacking, or throwing stuff at a seemingly untouched solitary figure much taller than they are. ”Is that a pony?” asks Three while peeking out of the corridor. ”Not anymore...” says Scream bitterly, ”The divine power he… it had to harness to survive what the dwarves threw at it must have eradicated whatever little equinity still remained in the Vigil.” ”Wait, Vigil?” Three furrows his brows, ”Is this the guy who hurt miss Eight?” ”Yep,” the alicorn nods, ”and the good part is that it’s not looking your way, so haul ass, both of you.” Holding their breath and hugging the wall, which amidst the pained screaming and gunfire seems unnecessary, the two circle around the back of the Vigil towards the corridor leading to the main entrance. As they’re about halfway through, The Vigil raises his hind leg while casually biting through the neck plate of a melee guard’s power armor. The hind leg transforms into a rapidly shooting out tentacle which wraps around Six’s barrel. “EEEP!” the drone squeaks, and green fire bursts out him, leaving the robe in the Vigil’s vastly extended grasp while the now smaller changeling slips out of the tentacle and gallops forward. Three doesn’t wait for anything, drops all pretense of sneaking, and follows Six. At least until a stray beam of light hits him, cutting cleanly through his robe, and leaving a burning hole in his leg. “Owowowowowow!” Three stumbles, but Six, hearing his yelp, jumps to his side to steady him while he shapeshifts back into a changeling as well. Thanking their luck, they finally get into the main corridor where Three pulls out his gift dwarf king helmet and puts it on. ”Much better.” ”We’re almost out. Let’s go, let’s go!” hope grows within Six, which dies immediately when he turns his head and notices Three hasn’t moved, ”Come oooooooon!” ”Six, this guy nearly killed miss Eight. Shouldn’t we try to find out what he wants?” ”NO! That’s even MORE of a reason to get the hole out,” objects Six. Scream shakes her head. “I agree with hug bug on this. The Vigil must have a reason for being here, and I have no idea what it is. As risky as it’s going to be, this could be a threat to everyone, and it needs to be stopped or at least identified.” Six glares at Scream. “Look, I don’t know who you really are, but you know a lot already. We’re just DRONES! We can’t turn invisible, we can’t fight, we can’t even flee as fast if everything goes crotchtits up. We need to know SOMETHING before we can help.” Scream growls, sighs, facehoofs, then rolls her eyes, and in the end slumps her shoulders in defeat. “I will explain things later when at least punch bug is capable of breathing without machines. This way I’d just have to repeat myself. I SWEAR. Geez, I never thought I’d say something like that. Right now, though, we have a chance to discover something that might save the world, so PLEASE- uurgh… another bad word… go follow that guy.” ”You can go, if you want, Six,” says Three, smiling, ”Someone up in the city will want to hear this anyway. I believe miss Scream that this is important, and that we need to know as much as we can or it will be worse later.” Six looks deeper into the corridor, then closes his eyes and turns around. ”You said it yourself, we drones stick together.” They carefully sneak back out in the open where the dwarf resistance is waning, mostly because of the piles of corpses and limbs surrounding the solitary Vigil. The big equine is now holding a dark priest in his tentacle foreleg, the tip of which crawls into the dwarf’s mouth, and after some violent spasming he stops moving completely, blood flowing from the dwarf’s ears, eyes, and mouth. ”The Vigils have sort of a hive mind, but not like yours. They are more limbs of a higher entity rather than connected individuals,” Scream clicks her teeth, ”I think he’s transforming the dwarf into a part of himself to find something. Something he knows maybe...” ”So… the hive mind is EXACTLY like ours,” comments Six, earning an annoyed stare from the alicorn, ”Wait… you mean another hive mind?” ”Not exactly, as I said-” ”Like endless depth, and something is looking from it at me, trying to suck me in?” Six shivers. ”I’m not an expert on mental issues,” Scream shrugs. ”I think I know what that Vigil thing guy wants,” says Six. Both Scream and Three look at him. An earth-shattering kaboom followed by a wave of heat interrupts Six, eradicating all greenery in the park, and bathing the place in blue flames. ”What now?” Scream groans. Her eyes go wide when she spots the Vigil silently rolling on the floor, trying to douse the strange chemical fire which consumes his flesh to the bone, ”Holy balls… did they actually kill it?” Six and Three creep closer until the Vigil’s struggling stops. He lies there, motionless for few breaths, and then rises back on all fours, thin strands of flesh regrowing before the changelings’ eyes. ”Greeeeeeat, now he’s immune to whatever that almost successful bomb was,” Scream growls in frustration, ”STOP MAKING MY JOB HARDER, YOU IDIOTS!” ”EXPLAIN IMMEDIATELY!” yells Six. ”Didn’t I explain it already? If you don’t kill them outright, they adapt to almost anything and become immune to it. There still are limits, I suppose, but those are getting more blurry with each step their… boss takes towards our world.” The Vigil, now fully recovered, starts walking forward into the complex. ”Looks like he got what he needed from the dwarf’s brain,” says Scream. ”He wants the door!” Six raises his voice, ”That IS on this level and somewhere around.” ”What door?” ”There’s this weird door made of bedrock with carvings that felt as if they were watching me.” ”Then we have to follow it- him- whatever!” They aren’t sure if it’s luck or whether the Vigil is simply laughing at them quietly, but he leads them through the enclave with very little further resistance other than the occasional heroically stupid dark guard to a dead end. He touches few spots on the clean metal wall, leaving blood marks over it, and a hidden door slides open, revealing a bedrock corridor. Keeping a distance they presume is safe-ish, they follow the Vigil through the secret tunnel which eventually joins a different, larger hall that Six recognizes with dread. A short trip later, the two completely silent changelings watch the Vigil approach Six’s massive bedrock doorway. The probably-not-a-pony examines the doorway, each wing of which must weigh a ton, and Scream runs towards it. ”Stay here. Run if he turns around,” she calls out. Even the Vigil is oblivious of her as she flies up to start reading the door from the top, ”They didn’t remember! They thought it was fucking clothes and morals!” she starts yelling out of nowhere, ”Corruption, transformation, PLAGUE. Those morons degraded so much they don’t even know how to read their own fucking language! They knew this would happen. They knew I would be there. They knew HOW I would stop it, but… but I don’t...” Scream goes silent as the gigantic door starts opening outside. Scream’s annoyed expression doesn’t change when she has to fly around to read one wing and then the other as the Vigil’s hook-like tentacled forelegs open the gate enough for him to pass, revealing a rather simple hexagonal room the lights of which turn on when the Vigil steps inside. To the changelings’ surprise, Scream seems to care much more about the door than what it leads to. Their mission, however, is not to satisfy the alicorn’s curiosity, but to find out what the impossibly powerful enemy’s goal is. Now hiding behind the gate cracked open, the drones peek inside the small room. It’s surgically clean, much like the corridors of the dark priest enclave, and opposite the gate is a two ponies tall, hexagonal door made of white metal, on the side of which are two scowling metal statues which look like mechanical ponies. A smaller version of the statues, however, is standing in the center of the room, looking the Vigil from eye to red, gleaming, crystal eye. “So the day has come,” says the metal pony in a very understandable version of common ponish. The Vigil walks past him, and slams his forelegs against the seal with no effect. “How do I open it?” he turns towards the metal pony after two more attempts fail to dent or even scratch the seal. “You stand against everything we fought and died for,” the metal pony glares at the Vigil, “You gave up your equinity for a promise of power, yet you do not understand what such power brings. You are less than a servant, you are only a tool. One like you will never open the seal.” The Vigil roars, grabs the machine pony, and repeatedly rams him into the seal so hard the fake pony ends up as scrap metal. “True, you make for a poor battering ram, ‘tool’.” Afterwards, his neck snaps towards the exit, and his tentacle forelegs shoot out quickly enough to dart past the door and grab Six and Three by the leg each. The panically screaming and flailing drones try to shapeshift and get away, but the Vigil isn’t taken by surprise the second time, and he tosses them towards the seal. “Open it.” “Umm, well,” mutters Six, “We’ve never been here before, and we can’t even read the door and all the stuff, so we’re not really the best guys for the job-” “You open it, or you die,” the Vigil assumes position between the drones and the exit. ”Technically, that’s still better than what’s going to happen if the Vigils succeed,” Scream flies inside with a thoughtful expression, finally done with her reading. Six tries his luck in rushing past the Vigil, and receives a blow which sends him against the wall so hard his skull cracks. Three jumps towards him, cradling the dizzy drone. Six groans, but Three’s presence is helping his fast recovery. ”Miss Scream, got anything?” asks Three. ”About how you two can get out of this?” the alicorn shakes her head, ”No idea, and while I’m not sure what exactly is behind this seal, letting it out is worse than you two dying. Hug bug, if your soul is still strong enough to last a while after he kills you, I’ll ask Void to toss you my way as a massager.” She leans to a plaque on the seal, and reads aloud. ”We, the eternal watchers, will stand guard against the living end,” Scream pats the left statue with her hoof, ”The living end is here, buds, and I wish I had at least few of you alive to help.” Six crumbles on the floor, sobbing. “I won’t get to see Five anymore...” Three flies up to boop the right scowling statue’s nose. “I know you don’t talk like the one shiny pony which the bad guy broke, but cheer up a bit. Even if something bad happens to us, the nasty guy can’t go past you which is the most important thing,” he hugs the statue’s neck. The heads of both statues turn towards Three, and proclaim: “Purest of purpose, we greet you. If you are here, then you must have found a way to finish what we couldn’t. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts, even if the surface will never know of your deeds. Good luck.” “Whuh?” Three buzzes off as the hexagonal seal starts to open, revealing layer after layer of the same strange white metal, accompanied by the Vigil’s maniacal laughter. Standing by the bedrock door, Scream facehoofs. ”I’m pretty sure that in the future we’ll be able to point at this moment with our tentacles and say - yes, this is where it all went to complete shit. Though I had no idea Silversmiths had tech able to measure emotions.” Soon, the segments of the seal slide back into the wall, revealing another hallway of pitch darkness. The Vigil ignores the drones, and walks inside. ”Do we… leave?” asks Six. ”The fuck do YOU think?!” barks Scream, ”We’re done with the research, GO!” ”No more following the bad guy?” asks Three. A long, lanky, spider-like foreleg approaching from the blackness of the previously sealed tunnel reaches out, tapping against the floor. ”Nevermind!” “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” the drones start galloping as more shapes of ponies crossed with spiders crawl on the walls and the ceiling with jerky movements. Unfortunately for the screaming duo, they completely miss the furious thumping from ahead. ”Ahhh, finally,” Scream takes a breath of relief, ”The B team arrived.” Six and Three only see a flash, but for them it’s enough as Six jumps up, all four of his legs clamping around incoming Five’s neck and chest. Three isn’t as lucky, and flops on the ground when Two dodges out of the way. “Scream briefed us on the way,” says Two. “What eldritch abomination is this?” Five stops trying to shake Six off when she sees the first long legs appear in the crack of the open main gate. Only now, Six notices that Five’s right foreleg is unusually thick. Further examination reveals that it’s not only a foreleg at all, but a black tube leading to a pack tied to Five’s barrel. Five aims what has to be some sort of a gun at the door, and flicks her hoof, “Well, nevermind. Bye!” The launched hoof-sized ball disappears between the wings of the partially open gate. The lanky legs follow it, and then the ground shakes. Six hops off of Five. “What?” The legs return, this time followed by a half-melted pony head with black, bulging worm-like tentacles coming from its mouth and eyes. It looks at the changelings. ”LEG IT!” yells Scream. “No,” orders Two, “Five, we’re closing this.” Without a chance to disobey, nor any desire to do so, Five charges towards the big gate, and uses a trick she learned from Three. Two’s already between the wings, gathering magic in her hooves. The long legs grab her from the air, making her grin. “Your expiration date arrived.” The only partially solid head of the creature starts puking on Two from the mouth, covering the changeling in goo and worms. Two doesn’t stop grinning as she shoves the unstable ball of magical plasma through the crack between the gate wings. In that second, extremely heavy projectile known as Five hits one wing of the gate closing it shut and shoving the strange creature back as its legs break off. Five doesn’t wait for anything, and with a strength enhancement, she closes the gate completely. It shakes again when Two’s unstable magic ignites behind it. Speaking of the changeling, she coughs up some black goo and sweeps the worms crawling over her. Others scream and back away from her. “Two?” only Three’s boundless love is strong enough to face the horror as parts of Two’s chitin liquify and tentacles sprout from them. “ThReE?” Two jumps on all fours, “WhAt’S wRoNg?” she clamps her foreleg over her mouth, and a tentacle replacing her tongue darts at Three through a hole in her leg, “Hurk-” she throws up worms. ”Damn...” Scream breathes out. “Two?” Three reaches out to Two who touches his hoof with hers which transforms into another tentacle which she retracts. *Thud!* *Thud!* Two turns her head hundred and eighty degrees without any seeming discomfort as the beating on the closed gate from inside begins. “FiVe, gEt ThEm aWaY!” Two growls, corners of her mouth ripping up to her ears and displaying more rows of teeth than any living creature needs or should have, “tHat’S aN orDEr!” Five resists for a second, then nods, grabs Six, and shoves him on her back. “Three, don’t make me grow a fifth leg to grab you too.” “gO aND TelL mY… mOm,” black tears drip from Two’s eyes, mixing with the drool from her mouth, “...I sCreWed aLl oF YoU. I tOld tHe zEbrA evErYtHinG, AnD noW thIS. DaD is dEaD, anD I beTRayEd… bOth... MoMs… just run...” she ends in a whisper. -LONELINESS- As all Two’s mental links cut off, Five grabs Three’s neck in her mouth, and bolts. Two momentarily suppresses the new boiling chaos inside her head and a looming mental presence vastly more powerful than she is as she hatches a plan. She might be stupid, but she won’t be a threat to others. *** Granite, Steelback, and Iron Rose are sitting in the council room, the minotaur and the loremaster busy with finishing touches on the new mining and trade treaties. Iron Rose herself is just clearing her hooves with a sharp axe while reading the newspaper. “I’m not too keen on the amount of already forged steel,” Granite frowns, “It takes way too much time and effort, but we’re low on chemical fertilizers, so if you could mediate getting those from somewhere, I won’t veto this one.” Steelback rubs his chin. “Zebras make the best kinds, and those are expensive as he-” The door creaks open, letting in the noise of worried dwarves and one set of limping hoofsteps. Granite immediately shoots up from his chair. “KING?!” The changeling king stumbles into the room, immediately steadied by a guard rushing in behind him. His chitin is grey and flaking off, white veins and cracks criss-crossing it from hooves to head. There are holes in his legs like Granite recalls from other changelings including the queen, but the short blue mane now looking like strands of carpet hair and the blue eyes with black circles underneath are doubtlessly his. “Granite...” he croaks, “...the prophecy… darkness… from the depths… is coming...” Everyone’s hair stands on edge. “What? What do you mean?” “...dark priest… prophecy… creatures… released… my changelings… fleeing… Two… gone… swarming… the enclave… everyone dead...” The guards who hear it pale under their helmets. “Close the flooding seals!” orders Granite. In response, three guards rush off immediately, “Post groups of guards at each air vent. Report every fifteen minutes. Spiderweb pattern of patrols through the city,” he puts the king’s foreleg over his shoulder to steady the much bigger changeling, “And we need to get you back to your room. I have no idea how you’re still alive despite the brass spike poison, but I’ll be damned if I let you warning us finish you off.” When everyone leaves, Iron Rose picks up a hidden radio. “Patrol ten, do you read me?” The radio beeps, and a voice answers: [Aye, big momma. Loud and clear] “Remember the explosives we planted for Plan Two Cities?” [Aye. What’s going on?] “I’ll explain later. I need you to collapse the tunnels leading to the old istrium mining sites and dark priest enclave.” [Ten minutes.] The radio beeps again. “Let’s see whatever the fanatics released deal with flooding seals AND a series of cave ins,” she stands up and cracks her neck. Much further outside, Granite waves the rather surprised guards standing by the king’s room aside. As they enter, he leads the king to the bedroom of the suite, and… ...spots the king catatonic on the bed. “Wha-” he doesn’t even finish turning his head before his world shuts down. *** With Six on her back, Five gallops through the entrance to the now mostly empty dark priest enclave. She’s going as fast as she can without losing Three, which is a heavy limiting factor, but carrying both drones would be slower. The bedrock hallways of Silversmith origin containing knowledge which the rest of the world would consider a treasure to go into war over mean nothing to any of the changelings. They finally reach a dwarven tunnel when- -an explosion shakes everything so hard that Five trips, sending Six flying ahead. Three, using his wings as well as his legs, avoids tripping and flies past. Five isn’t so lucky, because as soon as she stands up, her body jerks back down again, accompanied by a cloud of dust. It’s suddenly too hard to breathe for some reason. “FIVE!” screams Six when the rumbling stops, and rushes to her. She tries to say something, but there’s no breath to say it with. ”...what… happened...?” she switches to her mental voice which is depressingly weak as well. “It’ll be okay, it’ll be okay, it’ll be okay...” Six keeps mumbling, touching Five’s shoulders without daring to apply any force. “Okay, we can do this, Six,” says Three with panic in his voice. He sits down, and a stream of love envelops Five. It’s not enough, as if it was filling an endless well. Five closes her eyes, and uses a little power to look at herself from Three’s eyes. The ‘hug bug’, as Scream called him much to Five’s amusement, is easier to get into, because he’s calmer than Six, although not by much. Half of her is sticking from under a cave in which quite clearly crushed everything from her midsection down. “We can do this, Six,” says Three after taking a deep breath, “Miss Eight survived from way worse, and we have enough love for Five too. We just need to get her back to the castle-” More rumbling interrupts Three, and with the blaring of sirens, something like a huge metal door starts descending in the distant part of the tunnel. ”...go…!” orders Five, but the drones don’t move. “Three, you’re the love guy here. You kept Eight alive all by yourself.” “Mostly, but Five isn’t as tough, I can feel it. I can’t make myself strong and fast enough AND keep her alive.” Six sighs, grabs Five’s forelegs, and pulls. Five gurgles and foams as her insides spill out of her belly. “All this time I didn’t know what to give you to show you how much I loved you,” Six puts his short horn to hers, “But the answer was right here all the time. Love, just all my love.” Five’s suddenly revitalized head clears as Six collapses in front of her, an empty husk in the span of two seconds. Three, now slightly bigger, slings Five over his back, and bolts forward towards the half-closed floodgate. With green trail behind him, he shoves Five under it first, then quickly shapeshifts into a hoof-sized changeling to run through as well just as the thick, watertight gate seals the tunnel off. Changing back and hoping Five has enough strength to make it until Three can focus on just transfering love, he gallops back to Brauheim. For Five, everything grows dark as she’s jiggled and even the crazy amount of adrenaline can’t stop her from feeling sharp spikes of pain all over. Thankfully, that’s what is keeping her from passing out. At least for a while. Three only grits his teeth when he feels Five go completely limp, Six’s crystallized rose stuck fast in Five’s leg hole. “Gotta go faster, Three and a lot of numbers afterwards!” he mumbles to himself between ragged breaths, “Boss will be so mad if everyone isn’t in top shape when he wakes up.” *** Two limps ahead through the dark tunnels, feeling heavier and heavier. She deliberately took a different route from the one through which the others would be fleeing. The second presence inside her head is gone, but she’s too scared to look down at herself to see what she’s become. The fact that her left foreleg is now a knot of three thick tentacles which she has to unstick from the floor after each step with a wet slurp is just enough for her sanity already fighting foreign compulsions and growing hunger. Time passes as she plods on. Minutes, maybe hours? At some point, she heard a massive rumble from way behind and the whole world trembled, but that was secondary to her final mission. She got Three and Six out, and because she made a mistake doing it, she was like this now. The hive already has a better infiltrator, and Five is good at gathering love no matter what she says, Two has seen to that with her instructions and a small experience bundle inside the hive mind. Now, as she finally reaches the grand bridge, the second place where she remembers being close to a magma stream, and the only place which won’t allow her to chicken out. She opens her mouth to a degree which would allow her to swallow Three or Six whole, and her neck lets out squelching crunches when she turns it one-eighty degrees, bites down on the base of her wing, and rips it off. She barely feels it, and the ease with which the translucent wing came off shows how much physically stronger she is due to the forced transformation. However, whatever the new instincts or force inside her are, they gets the idea what Two wants to do, and her legs give out, making the definitely not changeling anymore keel over into a pile of goo and worms. Ignoring that, Two tears her other wing off. “One last thing… just this one… last… thing...” Two gurgles. It takes all her willpower to shapeshift her left foreleg into something she can control, and the old foreleg with new claws starts dragging her towards the edge of the bridge. A small part of her scared but determined mind can’t let go of the hope that someone smart will come just in time to save her... But no one will. It was her job to save someone, and she did it. She did what little she could for the hive, and it felt good. Five was right all along. With a soft smile completely alien on the monstrous abomination which used to be Two, what little mentally remains from the changeling pulls herself over the edge, and drops. At first, there’s only darkness and wind whistling in her ears, but then an orange glow of flowing magma deep under her starts growing stronger and nearer. Is that a block of ice buried in a tiny island of cooled lava in the middle of a magma stream? “...bye… dad...”