Five wakes up, hearing careful hoofsteps, and while her awakening is akin to Eight’s instant awareness, the fact that Five has never lived for long under the constant threat of her own hive means her senses and instincts aren’t as sharp. Still, she’s a good enough warrior to realize that she’s been sleeping in a bed, which heavily contrasts with her last memory of being crushed by tons of rocks and then jiggled on Three’s back in agonizing pain.
Huh, that means Three did get her to safety. And Six, what about Six?
Her attempt to connect to others via hive link fails as she hits a mental wall which she immediately knows is way out of her pay grade as well as that of anyone she knows. However, as she continues to explore the mental obstacle, it shifts, and allows her to pass.
Without giving any sign of being awake, Five tests out various hive links, and finds that only one is open and listening.
”Eight… queen…?” she says with utmost care.
A different, soft voice answers her call instead of Eight’s:
”I’m glad you’re awake, Five.”
”Who… who are you?”
”A friend. You can call me Gem.”
”That mental barrier… is it yours?”
Five hears a chuckle. Not one in her mind, but with her real ears, and opens her eyes.
”Yes, it’s mine. I apologize, it’s a habit of protecting myself from being tracked. This, and messing with others’ memories. I often forget to stop doing it.”
As the mental barrier surrounding Five’s hive mind senses dissipates, the warrior examines an unknown changeling watching her with a calm smile. Her demeanor puts Five at ease, although considering how powerful in comparison this ‘Gem’ is, the warrior doesn’t dare relax too much. Insteads, she opts for careful observation.
Obviously, Gem is an infiltrator. A little chubby for a changeling, but all excess weight is in the perfect places to make her draw everyone’s eye. Maybe that’s why she needs to instinctively mess with minds around her to avoid being remembered. However, Five’s observation doesn’t yield any too useful results. Point one - Gem is a changeling. Point two - her black chitin is streaked with semi-random grey stripes which nonetheless connect on her chest to form a small heart. Whether that is a decoration or something Gem hatched with is unclear. Point three - Gem isn’t physically strong by any measure, and judging by her off-rhythm hoofsteps, she’s got some issue with leg coordination. Point four - if Five wanted to do anything hostile, she’d get creamed despite everything stated earlier. In fact, she doesn’t think she’d even be allowed to move.
With that sorted, Five crawls out of the bed, which makes Gem rush towards her and steady her before she keels over when her hind legs betray her,
“What?” Five croaks through parched throat as Gem helps her sit down.
“Drink this,” she offers Five a vial of something green. The warrior shrugs, and downs the sticky, minty goop. Almost instantly, love fills her like lightning. Some surprised coughing later, Five gathers herself, looking at Gem who is watching this with an amused smile.
“T-Thank you,” Five can’t contain her curiosity, “That was love, wasn’t it?”
“A mix of love and lust trapped in chemically treated changeling goo. You know, so that you can store some for times when love’s hard to find.”
“That’s… I’ve never even heard about something being possible.”
“That’s how it used to be in the old hive, from what I... heard. I just found the right stabilizing agent to stop the natural dispersion and decay. The downside is that you can’t just drain the love from the goo, you need to physically drink it.”
“I’m definitely feeling better already.”
“That dose should fill you up nicely. Your capacity isn’t too high. If you don’t mind me asking, how old are you?”
“A year, give or take,” Five shrugs, then she raises her foreleg, “Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that you’re helping me, but I’m not saying anything else that might compromise me or my hive.”
To her surprise, Gem only nods, and says:
“Then I suppose it’s time to see who else is up.”
Five’s focus is drawn into the hive mind without her having any say in the matter. The darkness shows only the two of them for a moment before the empty space twists, and as if jumping out of a vertical pool of ink, Eight lands, her hooves sending green burning cracks out from the point of impact. Her keenly aware expression is replaced by a dropped jaw instantly when she notices Gem.
“I- you- who- how-” Eight stutters, the locks inside her memory disappearing, revealing the situation with the old queen’s son in its entirety, “...Four, is that really you?”
Other than when meeting the boss and Three, this is the first time Five is seeing Eight burst into tears.
“Yes, it’s me, mom,” Gem walks over, and hugs Eight.
“I- I thought- I thought the paladins… killed you,” it finally dawns on Eight that this isn’t some confused memory or an overactive imagination, and she squeezes Gem so hard her eyes bulge.
“Gghhhhhhh!” Gem gasps for breath, “A lot less… than you’re… doing now...”
Hearing that, Eight lessens her deathgrip enough for Gem to breathe.
A burning portal appears out of nowhere, letting in another changeling, this time a blond one with golden eyes, whom Five doesn’t know, and whom she can’t sense absolutely anything from.
“MISS ONE!” Gem exclaims, “What are you doing here?”
One. Well, that explains everything, thinks Five. The ‘way above her pay grade’ feeling returns with vengeance. On the other hole, it doesn’t look like anyone is in danger, and they all are friends.
“Apparently, fixing the mess Eight here is in,” One shrugs, “And also testing my awesome new divine slash demonic powers I got from Scream.”
“What?” Gem tilts her head as much as she can, which isn’t much due to Eight’s hug, “Demonic powers?”
“As it turns out, I’ve made it so far as a changeling that with a little help I ascended into a succubus,” One shrugs, and in a burst of fire transforms into her blood red succubus form, and spreads her wings.
“Eeeeh,” Gem shakes her head, “I like you more as a changeling.”
“Yeah, you look like menstruation given life and hair,” Eight sneers, and One just sticks her tongue out in response. The fact that said tongue snakes out so far that it boops Eight’s nose which makes Gem giggle in her embrace is only a detail. Faced with general disapproval, One turns back into a changeling.
“Ye wanna ‘ave a go, mate?” One cracks her neck.
“MISS OOOOOOOOONEEEEEEEE!” a small chitinous comet hits One in the face before she can react.
“Mmmphmphhh-” One scowls under her chitinous gag, and a pink aura grips Three, turning him around One’s head so that he’s sat on the back of her neck, “Shove off, Three!”
Immediately, Three slides down on One’s back, and starts massaging her chitin like a cat preparing a sleeping spot.
“I can do this now, miss One,” the drone announces with pride.
“What? You scratch my back, I scratch- hnnnnnghhh...” One’s eyes cross, and a small wave of fire washes over her chitin, softening it up to let Three work his magic better, “Nevermind, keep going. I think I can keep talking and enjoy this. If I start speaking complete nonsense, it’s his fault.”
“How do we know the difference?” Eight grins, but One is too preoccupied with her tongue lolling out of her mouth. She blinks out of sync and slurps it back into her mouth.
“I shouldn’t be surprised, should I? No one stays dead in this hive,” One looks around, and raises her voice, “Hey, flower pot, you around too?”
“Ummm, me?” Five raises her foreleg.
“A sex change? Eh, could have gone worse,” One shrugs.
Five gives Eight a questioning glance.
“No, One,” says Eight, finally letting Gem go, “As far as we know, Nine really is dead. This is Five. She got the flower pot moniker because, well, they are kinda similar.”
“Too bad, he was a grand piece of chitin,” to Five’s surprise, no one looks displeased by One’s dismissive tone, “Anyway, I think this is the perfect time to catch up on what happened, and to reminisce about the good old days.”
“No, it’s not,” Gem shoots the idea down, standing up and massaging her bruised carapace, “Actually, there couldn’t be a worse time. Boss, anyone?”
“Oh, right...” even One shuts up as Three’s ministrations cease, “Eight told me what happened.”
Grim silence spreads through the hive mind, making Gem clear her throat and speak up again.
“Ooookay, so I suppose no one has any ideas.”
“Sorry,” One shrugs, frowning, “I’m not much of healer, and from what I gathered, this isn’t something love or mind manipulation can solve. I can get into his mind, if it helps.”
“I don’t think this is something he can deal with on his own, pain or not,” Gem shakes her head, “However, I made some interesting discoveries when I studied the poison sample I got from an assassin who tried to kill miss Eight. I think I’m a pretty good field chemist and alchemist, but I’ve never seen anything like this before. This isn’t a poison or a venom, this is… well, under a really strong dwarven microscope it looked like really tiny creatures, no - machines, which adapt to their surroundings and destroy it. I tried using them on a drop of my blood, and even my changeling immune system couldn’t destroy them before they turned the blood into some unhealthy mess. It’s… not biological, that I’m sure of. The good news is that unlike other creatures, our adaptability, especially the fact that we can survive really high acidic factor of our blood, means that our immune system is actually fighting against those… things. The bad news is that it’s not enough, not even close.”
“I’m getting some mixed signals here, Four,” says Eight, “What are you getting at?”
“I think I can figure out a way to fight the ‘poison’, I just need another sample. The one I got came from the already covered blade, and it seems that it needs some special storage not to dissipate.”
“Dwarves don’t have any,” Eight shakes her head, “This came from the dark priests, and-”
“And those are all dead,” says Five, making Three whimper, “Someone called a Vigil massacred everyone resisting in their enclave deep underground.”
“Well, no resistance if we have to go there and look for another sample?” asks Gem.
Three starts crying.
“I did… Two… gone… I let them out...”
“Stop it this instant!” One levitates Three from her back to face him. To everyone’s surprise, Three goes quiet after a sniffle, fresh tears still streaming from his eyes, “Explain!”
“We… we… Six wanted a gift for Five… big diamond… so we snuck into the enclave to cut it, but then there was loud noise everywhere… and then we saw the fighting. Six wanted to get out… but I… I wanted to know what the bad guy who hurt miss Eight so bad was after… and then we found this big door Six knew about, and there was a talking statue, and when I hugged it… it said something nice, but a smaller door opened and these black… spindlies came out.. and then… then we tried to run...” he ends up looking at Five who sighs, “It’s all my fault...”
“Scream told me and Two what was going on, but when we arrived, those… spindlies, as Three called them, were just crawling out of some gate. I shot a grenade inside, Two used some crazy explosive magic as well, and then I closed the gate. Before, though, one of them managed to somehow… infect or transform Two. She cut herself off with a mental command, and ordered me to get Three and Six out. I don’t know what happened next.”
“I see… that’s why,” Gem frowns.
“Those things are called the Twisted,” says Eight, “I had a quick trip through Granite’s memories while I was trying to figure out more about the memory barriers Four here keeps making. So, Four, that’s why what?”
“I was linked up to Two, trying to be as inconspicuous as possible to figure out how things were down here, and I suddenly felt incredible chaos inside her. I was just busy trying to examine the boss and miss Eight when I felt some sort of mental command from her. It didn’t do much against my link, but… I hate to say it...” Gem lowers her head, “Two’s mind was almost gone when she threw herself from some huge bridge structure down into magma. Then even I lost contact.”
Everyone closes their eyes, and only Eight nods.
“I knew about it deep down, I think. While my body was barely surviving under Three’s ministrations, I was trying to spread my own love drain between him and Two. Unfortunately, Two got locked off few times, which I suppose was your doing, Four, right?”
“Mhm,” Gem nods.
“And when Two got it together, I didn’t want to overdraw our only changeling with command initiative. No offense to Five, Seven, or Three, but you’re better at obeying than on making up a new course of action. Two was very smart in that regard. I drained her through the hive mind only a little, trying to rely mostly on Three, but then I lost contact completely too. I didn’t know what exactly happened, but Two’s death was one of the possibilities,” Eight sighs, “Such waste of potential.”
One clears her throat.
“Ahem! While I like catching up, and despite time slowing down here as we expend energy to make it so, we’re doing EXACTLY what Gem here doesn’t want us to, which is wasting time talking. We know these Twisted things and this Vigil baddie are down there, but there’s also a thing there which might help save the boss. The question is - do we risk it for the biscuit?”
“I don’t want to live in a world without the boss. I don’t care if I die or transform into some walking black mucus spider horse in an attempt to save him,” Eight looks at Gem and One, “Don’t even insult me by asking.”
“I serve the hive,” Five salutes.
“I was living on borrowed time before I got killed,” says unusually serious Three, “Now that mister Wistful, miss Scream, and the boss helped me get back it’s true again. Besides, imagine how well I could hug with those long black legs? And two more too if I get lucky!”
Everyone chuckles, ignoring the fact that Three could just grow them on his own if he tried hard enough. They look at Gem who just tilts her head.
“Really? Let me paraphrase miss Eight - do you really have to ask? Although I’m not much of a fighter… kinda exactly the opposite. I can also stay here and try to ease the boss pain or something. I’ve got few ideas to try out since my last experiment with the ‘poison’.”
“Leave that to me, my little jewel,” One pats her head.
“Are you sure? I can-”
“Gem, I’ve taught you a lot of what I know. You might be one of the most mentally proficient changelings, if not the best one, Chryssie included. Don’t try to compare yourself to me, though. You’re few centuries too young for that. Besides, I actually GET OFF on pain. You go play with tentacles, I’ll go boost the boss’ morale.”
“Hey,” Eight furrows her brows, “Since you’re here, can’t you just stage a rebirth like before?”
“I certainly could, but you don’t have enough true love for that. Stitching a cocoon and possibly boss’ mind together in hopes for having to wait few more years for an uncertain rebirth under way more ghetto circumstances than before can’t be your thing anyway, Eight?”
“Plan B, maybe?” Eight raises an eyebrow.
One laughs.
“You know me by now, Eight. I don’t give anything for free. Plan Z more like.”
“ONE-!” Eight barks at the divine changeling who disconnects from the hive mind and her hive image disappears. In the real world, One teleports away as well before Eight can do anything.
The warrior knows the futility of arguing, though, and doesn’t pursue her despite knowing One would be in the boss’ suite, if not immediately, then soon enough.
Eight examines the changeling map of the underground. It seems that one of the dwarven tunnels leading from the place where she got destroyed by the Vigil has collapsed on Five, but the route down to the complex from the castle is still alright. They might find a route to use from down there, or if it’s completely locked off by the flooding seals then their exploration would at least be safe.
”Everyone, grab what you feel comfortable with. Tell Granite it’s an emergency if need be. Dwarves have some mining helmets which are enclosed. They’re trash for protection, but they might help if we get puked on,” she broadcasts the mental message while picking up pace.
”That might be counterproductive,” says Gem, ”The less stuff we carry with us, the better. I’m going to need my saddlebags with vials, and you can grab some weapons, but keep it to minimum. You can’t turn invisible like miss One and I can, but I can make potions which make us invisible and don’t let out any magical signature unlike spells. It doesn’t work on inanimate objects, though.”
”Alright then,” Eight turns around, much to the surprise of few guards scattered throughout the hallway, ”Take only what you need, and meet me at the ravine.”
As she pings a spot on the mental map, she feels everyone move.
”Shouldn’t we go get Seven and Six?” asks Five.
”Six wouldn’t be useful, I think. Seven might, but since we can’t waste time by gathering love and we’re not in the best shape other than One and Four- Gem, let’s leave them as they are. Besides, if everything fails, there will need to be someone to help the dwarves deal with the problems. I don’t suppose One here is willing to spend time here.”
”Without you, boss, and Gem? Hole no!” they can feel One roll her eyes just from her voice.
”There you have it.”
The hive is back, and it’s time to do all they can to save their boss.
***
”Okay, this is something...” the gathering group hear One’s speak in their heads, ”I’ve never seen someone in so much pain. Didn’t think it was possible without immediately frying their brain too, yet our little boss drone still seems… usable. Looks like a dry birch branch, though.”
”Can you really get through to him?” asks Eight.
”If there is still a ‘him’ to get to, then I can.”
”Then tell him we’re all waiting.”
”Sure, I’ll tell him you’re all sitting on your asses and WAITING!” One sneers, ”I won’t leave out that this Two changeling is dead, and that you were all begging me to save you.”
”One!”
”Oh shut up, I’m trying to work here,” One’s link disappears again.
Everyone has gathered at the deep ravine right above the long staircase leading into the depths, and they’re all waiting at Gem who has cut herself, and is mixing her shapeshifting blood into several vials. Short time later, she presents a corked one to each member of the expedition. Five stows away her grenade launcher, and grabs the drink. Three puts his own into a tiny hole in his leg. As it turns out, cup holders are just overgrown vial holders. Eight stops practicing sword swings, and uses Three’s example to hold her vial as well.
”Potions to prevent detection like I promised. They make you invisible, dampen noise, and make you intangible to scrying magic. Since we can communicate silently, we should be mostly safe unless whatever is down there has some strange senses. Wait, don’t drink them yet!” she stops Five already about to bite the cork, ”These doses can last for about an hour, but let’s not waste them in case we need to find a different route.”
Eight looks downwards where a glowing thread of a magma flow lights the distant darkness.
”Let’s not bother with stairs,” she spreads her wings, and jumps. Everyone follows, keeping their eyes peeled for any movement.
To their relief, they don’t meet or even hear any Twisted as they get down, enter the ancient tunnels, and eventually end up facing flooding seals blocking every known route to the dark priest enclave.
”Well then,” she pouts, ”I suppose a decision about our next step is in order. We know the last seal leads to the cave-in from where Seven somehow must have saved Six. I’ve got weird map update I don’t recall any of us making, so I suppose it was his doing. The first one is a detour, and this one should lead to a tunnel joining the more direct route.”
”Who’s to say there isn’t another cave-in behind this seal too?” asks Five.
”Three, will you?” Eight nods to the drone who taps his hooves against the sides of the tunnel, the floor, and in the end the metal of the seal itself.
”I don’t think there’s anything behind this door, at least not close. No echoes, no weird tremors, nothing,” Three shrugs.
”Alrighty then, let’s go in,” Gem grins, grows a sharp claw, and cuts the frog of her other foreleg. With her blood, she draws a circle on the seal. Contrary to normal changeling green, this blood looks much more like that of a normal pony, only quickly drying up and turning to sticky, rusty dust. She adds more and more until the circle is a thick line rather than a smear, and then waves her hoof at the others, ”Back off a bit, will you?” when everyone scoots a little, she pulls a lighter out of her small saddlebag, the only one she opted to take in addition to her belt of vials, and moves the fire to the drawn circle which immediately sparks and lights up with bright, white, hissing fire.
Gem backs off as well, looks away, and chuckles.
”Tank, DPS, healer, and a mage. Classic. All we need is a good thief for disarming traps. I could almost believe we’re back in the old Castle of Two Sisters, but this time as the adventuring party.”
”I could hug the old me!” Three brightens up.
”Tank, what-DP-what?” Eight furrows her brows, ”What are you talking about?”
”Ogres and Oubliett- eh, nevermind,” Gem waves her hoof, realizing that this is no time nor the place to explain the finer points of a proper dungeon-crawling party structure.
”Wait, are you the mage? You can do MAGIC? That’s so cool!” Three stares at Gem in reverence, ”Seven will be so happy when he meets you. He was working on spells that shoot big, exploding cubes of fire.”
”Umm, well, I’m not the big balls of fire kind of mage, nor cubes for that matter,” Gem blushes a little, ”I really don’t like hurting anyone, but I’m good with potions.”
”She distills a MEAN moonshine from old socks,” One reconnects to the group, revealing that she was listening all along, ”That thing SLAYS! An if boss wanted some more cocaine, she can-”
”I’M NOT A DRUG DEALER, MISS ONE!” retorts Gem heatedly.
”Could have fooled me. I mean, not many alchemists can make changeling venom versions of ecstasy, coke, LSD-”
”Occasionally, AND ONLY FOR FRIENDS!”
”Said the rich changeling who supplies most of the Royal Guard these days right under Sunslut’s nose. I’m not complaining, since your venom makes them horny at the same time, it’s just more house calls for me.”
Gem pouts.
”In my defense, I made a lot of genuine friends in the Royal Guard, and I sell my stuff only for parties or micro doses for guards on back to back shifts.”
”Hey, she once slipped a little something into Sunbutt’s cake which got her so fucked up that she tied Ten to herself under her belly with his head between her thighs, and then flew to Manehattan and back in one night.”
”IT WAS TEN’S BIRTHDAY! That doesn’t count,” Gem is now approaching tomato levels of red without any shapeshifting. Might need the invisibility potion to hide that first.
”She noticed him only the next day in the bathtub when he started drowning!” One’s now laughing her ass off, ”Best birthday present ever. Say, if we ever decide to start a business on the surface again, we’re doing THAT.”
”What’s a birthday?” asks Three.
”THAT is the part you’re interested in?” asks One in disbelief.
”Mhm,” Three nods, undisturbed.
”It’s a day on which a pony was born, and they celebrate it every year. It’s like the day when you either hatched or when your larva turned into a changeling. We changelings don’t really have a thing like that.”
”Mostly because there weren’t that many who survived for longer than a year...” mutters One.
”So, changelings can’t have birthdays and get presents?” asks Three, his ears drooping.
”Sure we can,” Gem pats his head, ”I just added a week to the date of the changeling invasion of Canterlot, which is about right-ish, and I’ve been celebrating it for four years already.”
”So… if I pick today, and count up every day to… a lot, and don’t lose count halfway… I can get a present?” asks Three, trying to grasp the foreign concept.
”Oh, you don’t have to remember that. Ponies have numbers and names for each day, plus calendars.”
”I know what those are! I had one in my coloring book once. They’re like these big heads with tentacles, right?”
”That’s a calamari, I think. No, calendar is a paper list of all days and months in the year, so if you know when your birthday is, you can just see what day is today without having to count yourself.”
”Ohhhhh...”
”Huh, come to think of it, we haven’t really needed to measure time unless on a mission,” Eight hums.
Their internal conversation is interrupted by a loud thud as a thick, burned out disc from the flooding seal drops on the floor, leaving behind a still glowing rim of a hole.
”And they say jet fuel can’t melt steel beams,” Gem grins, ”On top of that, no cave-in anywhere in sight. Down the potions, and let’s move.”