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// 6 Honour 
// Story: The Canterlot Hive 
// by Bronyxy 
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Canterlot blinked in the aftermath of the blinding flash of love magic. A collective gasp could be heard rising from everypony, as in an instant, the horror of the occupying force disappeared as if waking from a bad dream. In the distance, a purple sheen could be seen gently fading as the wave of magic spread outwards, carrying away with it not just the soldiers of an invading army, but their hopes and dreams of domination.

What was left behind was not quite the same as what had been there before the attempted invasion; the air somehow seemed to be clearer and the sun shining just a little more brightly, as if the dawn of a new hope now permeated throughout the city.

Guards who had fought valiantly to protect Equestria and its Princesses against the overwhelming numbers of changelings, had found themselves bound and restrained with anything the changelings could find at hoof. They had been tied to lamp posts, railings and even each other in an attempt to subdue their resistance, until such time as their Queen could arrive and weave them into cocoons for further use as commodities to support her new hive.

Chrysalis had performed her reconnaissance of Canterlot weeks previously, and had smuggled a few of her most trusted changelings in to prepare the abandoned caves under the city for the new hive, before Shining Armor had reinforced his protection spell and made passage across the barrier impossible. There they had worked tirelessly, nourished by the love of a few ponies who had been most swept along by the forthcoming event, and had foolishly been caught alone; Minuette, Lyra and Twinkleshine.

The only reminders of Chrysalis’ short reign of terror were the cocoons. It was just as well their occupants had not found themselves suddenly released, considering the height above the floor where they had been attached, suspended by nothing more than a tough glutinous thread.

Ponies in the castle were quick to muster in the throne room, where the pegasi flew up to see if they could bring down those who were now looking forward to their release more than ever. Even though descended from a fierce warrior tribe, they found they could not break through the deceptively tough threads that held the cocoons stubbornly in place, and after some brief head scratching, word was sent to the kitchen for a chef with the sharpest knife that could be found. The only member of the kitchen staff found by the messenger to be in attendance was a trainee pegasus, unusual in a discipline traditionally dominated by earth ponies and unicorns.

Pomme Frite was most definitely not the typical pony to be serving there in a number of ways. He was large for his age; not fat, but strong. He had always been treated warily by his peers because he looked so intimidating, and in his isolation, gradually became immersed in stories about the Pillars of old Equestria. He had looked forward to his parents reading to him every night and especially relished stories about Rockhoof, whom he tried to model himself after, right down to the braid in his mane. He would have grown a beard too, but was far too young to carry it off successfully; however, he wasn’t one to be deterred by such details, and proudly showed off the few little tufts of hair that sprouted on his chin.

His parents had originally intended for him to follow the family grocery business, and he had embarked on the prospect of shop work with gusto, intimidating every one of the customers from the moment they came in, if not downright scaring them right out of the shop. With takings plummeting, his parents decided that it would be safer to encourage their son towards a profession that limited his contact with the general public, and when an opening was advertised in the castle kitchens, pushed hard for his admission, confirming insistently that cooking had been his life-long passion. It hadn’t been, and that soon became obvious.

Ponies watched him with interest, not so much so that they may learn some marvellous new culinary techniques, but more to see what disaster would befall the hapless young stallion next. In fact, the only reason he was there at all today was to tidy up the remains of a particularly unsuccessful culinary experiment he called ‘spicy egg and ice-cream surprise’ before anypony else could get to see or smell what had happened.

When the messenger stated that a chef with a large knife was required to release the suspended ponies, his ears pricked up and he grabbed a particularly deadly looking cleaver he had named Doris, before racing off along the corridor to the throne room.

Ponies flinched as they saw him coming; whether this was due to the dangerous looking knife he was wielding or the manic gleam in his eye was open to debate, but they certainly all parted to give him space, pressing themselves tightly against the walls just in case his fearsome looking intent would linger on them for more than an uncomfortable fleeting second. 

On approaching the main doors to the throne room, he leapt into the air, skimming over the heads of three ponies who were just walking in, offering up a battle cry of “Geronimo!” in his elation. Everypony turned to see the cause of the disturbance, especially the three flower sellers immediately underneath him, who all looked up to see him wielding his cleaver and fainted at the sight, one of them uttering, “The horror, the horror …”

The ponies trapped within their green cocoons looked down apprehensively at the cleaver wielding pegasus with a mixture of wildly conflicted thoughts. Whilst all were looking forward to being released, the fearsome sight of their rescuer led them all to wish that he attend to some other pony first, so if there were to be some unfortunate accident with the knife, then hopefully he would either stop or be overpowered by other pegasi before progressing any further. Hopefully.

Pomme Frite quickly scanned the array of cocoons and aimed for the largest, from within which a pair of lilac coloured eyes peered out from behind a mane of blue, green and purple. She caught sight of the knife and its owner, and decided that it may be prudent to have a few healing spells ready, so warmed her horn up with a soft yellow glow, just in case.

He hovered as close as he could to the cocoon and reached out, hacking into the thread that suspended the Diarch of the Day from the ceiling, while a pair of unicorns below cast a levitation spell to ensure she didn’t accidentally fall to the floor. He was proud of Doris who did her job admirably, and upon severing the cocoon from its resting place, watched happily as Princess Celestia was lowered to the ground to be freed.

While the medics rushed around beneath him seeing to the needs of the injured, he progressed from one gift-wrapped pony to the next, happy that he was being recognised for doing a good job. He also hoped that his good work here would go some way towards offsetting the despair that would inevitably be directed towards him by his colleagues, once they pieced together the clues indelibly welded to the kitchen equipment that bore sorrowful witness to the lingering remains of his ‘spicy egg and ice-cream surprise’.

Twilight meanwhile did not even wait to see if her beloved mentor was alright, but went instead straight to Chief Thunderhooves, where she found a pair of medics working on him.
“Friend of Rainbow Dash” he nodded respectfully, “I see you and your friend were successful.”
“Yes, yes we were, thanks to you and your braves” she replied, casting a look at his bandaged and splinted foreleg, “Are you going to be alright?”
“Those apple pies” he began, totally ignoring the question, “You will uphold our agreement?”
“Of course” she giggled.
“Good” he replied earnestly, “Honour matters.”