Pupa was sneaking glances back over her withers at Twilight and her unicorn friend, Rarity, as she trotted quickly to stay alongside her mother. She was wary of the alicorn who wanted to take away her playmate, and wished the troublesome pony could have just been sent away. Or perhaps even better, placed in a cocoon. There was no chance of that though, and she understood why. Outside of the hive the ponies greatly outnumbered changelings and for all of their safety, her mother had to make a deal with them.
At one point when the nymph peeked back at the interlopers, the alicorn gave her a smile. Pupa frowned in response, scampered up one of her parent’s legs and took a seat on Chrysalis’s back. While she wasn’t exactly frightened by the alicorn, mostly due to her mother being at her side, the nymph had taken Chrysalis’s earlier warning to heart. It also helped ease her mind that Odonate along with a few other changelings were following right behind the two ponies.
Along the way the unicorn let out a sudden shriek that caused every creature in the area to go on guard and more changelings to come swarming in from every direction. All it turned out to be was just a droplet of cold water that had landed on her back and Rarity sheepishly apologized for the sudden outburst. With a nod from her mother the gathered changelings dispersed afterwards.
“There’s no need for the dramatics Rarity,” her mother teased the unicorn, “not over a little water.”
“I was not being dramatic,” said the unicorn defensively, “I was only a little surprised.”
“One would think you should be used to the aspects of being underground,” Chrysalis smirked.
“I’m not sure I follow what you mean,” Rarity said with a quirked eyebrow.
“Your gem hunting excursions,” her mother clarified. “You go on them quite often. Well you use to, but I suppose you’re much busier now owning, what was it, three boutiques?”
“You, you know about all of my shops?” asked the unicorn, looking a little stricken.
“Of course,” Chrysalis chuckled, “I’ve even visited Carousel Boutique a few times in the past, personally.”
“Y-you have?” stammered Rarity.
“That’s right,” confirmed her mother in a sing song tone. “Anyway, here we are. The yak and dragoness are right ahead.
Chrysalis lead the procession of changelings and ponies into a dimly lit cavern where inside multiple dark green cells had been constructed from resin. Only one was occupied by a single large lone figure.
“Yona!” cried out Twilight, hastily trotting up to the transparent lime colored membrane that separated the yak from everyling else.
“Twilight!” resounded Yona who pressed her front hooves against the elastic like barrier. “Did changelings capture pony too?”
“No, no, we’re here to bring you back to the school,” said the alicorn as she started to look for something behind the yak. “Where’s Smolder?”
“I’m right here,” the dragon’s voice called out, sounding rather annoyed.
“I’m sorry, but we can’t see you, dear” said Rarity as she trotted up to stand next to the alicorn.
“Ugh, Yona, turn around,” said Smolder.
Frowning slightly, the yak turned halfway around and Rarity drew in a sharp breath at the sight. Large clumps of Yona’s fur remained matted together with leftover sticky mucus from the trap she fell into and something appeared to be stuck against her shaggy hide.
“Smolder!” gasped Twilight.
The unhappy looking dragoness was adhered to the yak’s side, stretched across her back in a pose reminiscent of a starfish.
“Can you just get me down,” grumbled Smolder, “Yona’s fur is itchy and it’s driving me crazy!”
“Why did you leave them like this?!” the alicorn shouted to her mother while she searched around the cell for a way to open it. “You said they were unharmed!”
“They are unharmed, Sparkle,” Chrysalis sighed and rolled her eyes. “We just didn’t have the time to fully separate the dragon from the yak.”
“How do we get them apart?” questioned Rarity.
“Shave the yak,” her mother said, causing Yona to turn around swiftly.
“No shave yak!” Yona said in terror, “Yona likes her fur!”
“Then you’ll have to soak them in something acidic,” shrugged Chrysalis, “try lemon juice.”
“Yona’s mother would use peanut butter to get sap out of fur,” the yak added.
“Smolder, Yona, we’ll get you two separated as soon as we get back to Ponyville,” promised Twilight.
“Oh great,” grumbled Smolder from out of sight, “every creature at the school will get to see me like this…”
During the exchange between the ponies and the creatures in the cell, a changeling had flown into the room with information for her mother. Once he had finished updating the queen, she waved him off and turned back to the alicorn.
“Right, so if we’re all finished here may we move on?” Chrysalis asked with a tinge of derision as she used her magic to part the membrane and free the prisoners. “The guards have already been placed outside and we still have one more stop to make…”
Pupa trotted in the front of everyone else now, her eyes narrowed in determination as she homed in on the cavern holding Sandbar, Gallus and Silverstream. She was sure Sandbar was going to choose to go with the hive and prove the alicorn wrong.
‘Why wouldn’t he want to stay?’ she thought, ‘He was in a pod and I let him out. Now he’s treated like any other member of the hive instead of just another meal. I share my food with him, I even gave him the juiciest grub.’
The nymph didn’t even slow down when she reached the threshold of the cavern and startled Weevil by walking right between her legs. Inside Sandbar was laying down on his belly, looking happy while chatting away with the griffin and hippogriff. Though his mane had returned back to its messy state and no longer resembled a frill, his fur was still dyed a vibrant black and he still wore the prosthetic wings and horn.
‘He would have removed them if he didn’t like being a changeling,’ she reassured herself as she made her way up to the colt.
“Oh,” Sandbar said as he and his two friends noticed her approach, “hey Pupa.”
Without a word Pupa climbed onto Sandbars back and rested her chin atop his head.
“We’re going to move into a new hive,” she said as she watched the rooms exit for her mother and the alicorn out of the corner of her eyes. “You’re going with us right?”
“Uh…” the colt began but paused, having turned his head to spot the new arrivals. “Princess Twilight, Professor Rarity?”
“Thank goodness you’re all okay,” Twilight breathed out, walking up to the students alongside Rarity and Chrysalis. “Everyponies been so worried.”
“Oh, my, gosh!” squawked Silverstream. “Did they get you too?”
“Dearie me, no,” the unicorn said, “we’re here to take you all back to the school.”
“Hehe!” giggled the hippogriff, throwing her talons into the air and spreading the digits out. “I can’t wait to get this stuff off my wings!”
“How do we know it’s really them and we’re not just being tricked?” Gallus asked dourly, moving his gaze from Twilight to Rarity.
“Darling, I can assure you I’m the real thing,” the unicorn said and used a hoof to adjust her violet mane. “Now let’s get you all out of here and get you cleaned up. Especially you sandbar, that cheap dye is going to ruin your fur.”
A hiss escaped from the nymph directed at the unicorn and she clung tightly to Sandbar causing him to let out a squeak. Slightly taken aback, Rarity flinched away and looked over to Twilight and Chrysalis.
“Colt,” her mother said to Sandbar, keeping her expression neutral, “if given the choice between returning to your kind and leaving with us; which would you prefer?”
Sandbar blinked, appearing slightly confused as he looked between the changeling queen and the two ponies. The amount of time the colt was taking to answer caused the nymph to fidget nervously but she was able to take some solace in the fact that it also seemed to cause the alicorn and unicorn an equal amount of stress.
“I would want to go back to the school,” he said as if it was obvious and causing the nymph to wince slightly.
The alicorn and unicorn both let out a sigh of relief that made Pupa just want to scream. She didn’t get the chance to do anything though as her mother levitated her off Sandbar’s back and placed her at her side. The nymph looked imploringly at her parent to intervene but Chrysalis only frowned and shook her head slightly.
‘I can’t believe this…’ Pupa hissed internally at Sandbar’s betrayal while glaring at the stupid purple alicorn.
Perhaps sensing her turmoil Twilight dared to move closer to the nymph. Chrysalis watched curiously as the alicorn lowered to her belly and held a hoof out to the nymph.
“Pupa,” the alicorn began, “I’m sorry this is so disappointing for you but maybe you could-“
Twilight never got to finish whatever she was going to say because Pupa sunk her fangs into the offending limb in front of her and released a potent dose of her venom into the alicorn’s bloodstream. Crying out in pain Twilight jumped away and pulled her injured leg up against her barrel. The angry nymph just licked the taste of copper from her teeth and watched as the pony staggered a few steps before collapsing onto her side.
“Twilight!” cried out every non-changeling in the room and even got the attention of the yak out in the tunnel causing her to peek in.
Rarity was at the alicorn’s side first, checking the two small wounds on her friend before placing her ear against the princess’s hide. The unicorn rose quickly to her hooves and glared at the changeling queen.
“Did you not just see that?!” the unicorn cried out. “What did she just do?!”
While looking indifferent, her mother stepped over to the fallen alicorn and studied her briefly.
“It’s only a little venom,” Chrysalis said, “she’ll be fine in a few hours but the headache she’ll have won’t be very pleasant.”
“Is that really all you have to say?” admonished Rarity.
“Young changelings don’t have as much control over the amount of venom they release,” her mother added after scanning over the alicorn again. “There might be some nausea too.”
Rarity, now standing on her hind legs motioned back and forth with her front hooves between Chrysalis and the alicorn. The unicorn had a look of complete bafflement and her jaw hung open but it looked like she was unable to make any sound.
Sitting on her parent’s back and looking down from the hive’s main entrance, Pupa watched as the group of creatures below made preparations to return back to their town. The injured pegasus and recently freed guards, groggy and having trouble keeping their balance, were all being loaded into a wooden wagon that was hitched to the back of an orange mare.
Twilight, still asleep, was draped over the back of a pink earth pony, since the wagon was full. A yellow pegasus, that the nymph recognized as Fluttershy, along with Rarity fussed over the alicorn to make sure she was as comfortable as possible. Another pegasus, this one blue with a multicolored mane, would glare up at Pupa and her mother quite often.
“Did I mess everything up?” the nymph asked, her voice a little shaky.
“No,” said her mother.
“I probably shouldn’t have bitten the alicorn…” the nymph whispered.
“It’s not a big deal,” said Chrysalis with a slight hint of amusement.
“You were right…” admitted Pupa.
“About what?” asked her mother, looking back over her withers at her daughter.
“About ponies, and changelings,” the nymph answered as she watched the group below heading off.