Foxglove was a well-known face in the Diamond Quarter. A large portion of her business was designing outfits that complemented Changeling jewelry pieces her clients owned, so she spent a lot of time down in the caves looking for companion pieces and staying abreast of the newest designs, as well as buying loose gems for more conventional purposes. She was a little surprised, therefore, to see a Changeling stop and stare at her in wonder as she approached one of her favorite gem vendors just inside the caverns. Foxglove stopped as well and asked, “Can I help you?”
“Oh!” the Changeling said with a start, averting her gaze. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to stare, but I’ve never seen a...”
“Dracony,” Foxglove supplied, and then realized that the Changeling’s eyes weren’t the typical flat blue. “You’re the new ‘ling Princess, aren’t you?” she asked. “Beetroot?” Beetroot gave her a surprised nod. “Your eyes give you away,” Foxglove explained, smirking, “and my cousin’s told me a little about you.”
“Cousin?” Beetroot’s head tilted with confusion, but then her eyes filled with comprehension a second later. “Oh, duh, you must be Foxglove, then.”
“The one and only,” Foxglove confirmed. She crossed one clawed leg in front of the other and bowed. “A pleasure to meet you, Your Highness.”
“Oh please,” Beetroot said, clearly embarrassed, “don’t bow. We Changelings don’t really stand on much formality. Just call me Beetroot.”
“As you wish, Your Highness,” Foxglove replied, straightening up.
Beetroot started to protest, but then she caught the sense of teasing amusement coming off the dracony. “Anyway,” she said, “I really didn’t mean to disturb you, Foxglove. I’ve been told about you, of course, but the images I can get from the Hive Mind just don’t compare to seeing you for myself, and… I’ll just go before I make this any more awkward.”
Foxglove reached out and grabbed the Changeling’s shoulder before she could turn away. “You’re curious,” Foxglove said, “and that’s fine. I’ve been getting looks like the one you were giving me my whole life, and there are only two ways I can deal with that. I choose to enjoy the opportunities it gives me to make connections, because trying to avoid the attention would just be exhausting. Come on,” she nodded toward the store she’d been heading to, “ask me whatever’s on your mind while I do my shopping.” Beetroot started to say something, but then paused as something came to her through the Hive Mind, and then just nodded instead.
Foxglove led Beetroot into the store and approached the Changeling at the counter. “What do you have in sapphire cabochons today, Elytrum?” Foxglove asked.
The Changeling clerk levitated out a tray from beneath the counter and set it on top. “Not much unless you’re ok with less than two carats,” he said.
“I’d heard the Diamond Dogs found a good lode of sapphire just the other day, though,” Foxglove said, sorting through the stones on the tray with a frown.
“Oh, they did,” Elytrum, deadpan. “A real good lode; almost nothing anyling’s willing to consign to the humble cabochon cut yet.”
Foxglove arched an eye-ridge. “Sounds like I might be getting more commissions soon, then,” she said. She lined up several stones along her side of the tray and said, “Luckily, it looks like you have exactly what I need today, at least. I’ll also take a bag of diamond dust – any color – and a snack bag if you’ve got one.”
Elytrum chuckled as he gathered Foxglove’s selections into a velvet bag and brought out a small box and a plain cloth bag to accompany it. “You know I’ve always got your ‘snack bags,’” he said.
“And that’s why I always come here,” Foxglove returned.
Beetroot watched quietly as the dracony and clerk discussed prices, and then followed Foxglove outside after she’d paid. “What’s in the ‘snack bag’?” Beetroot asked.
Foxglove smiled as she opened the cloth bag and pulled out a tiny chip of ruby. “It’s just the bits that get removed to improve a gem’s cut,” she explained. “I can’t bite through or chew gems like a dragon, but I can suck on them like hard candy.” She popped the chip into her mouth. “I prefer these little cast-offs because full gems take way too long to...” She trailed off as she saw a distant, worried expression suddenly cross Beetroot’s face. A quick look around showed a similar look on the three other Changelings who happened to be nearby. “Is something wrong?” she asked.
“Of course-” Beetroot started to snap before remembering that Foxglove wasn’t part of the Hive Mind. With a grim frown, she explained, “The School of Friendship is being evacuated through the... tunnels? The School has underground tunnels?”
“It happened to be built over some of the area’s natural caves,” Foxglove said. “The Diamond Quarter-”
“Right, right,” Beetroot said impatiently, “the Hive’s filling me in.”
“Sorry,” Foxglove said. “If they’re evacuating through the tunnels though… How do we get there from here?”
Any word yet on just what is happening up there? Beetroot asked the Hive as she, Foxglove, and a half a dozen Changelings ran through the caverns toward where the tunnels under the School of Friendship joined the Diamond Quarter.
Nothing, came a chorus of young mind-voices belonging to those Changelings who were enrolled at the School.
Beetroot started to fret, when a single mind chimed in, The problem is in Princess Twilight’s Castle. I don’t know why the School’s being evacuated.
Details, Mandible, Lorekeeper Tea Leaf demanded before Beetroot could.
One of the Princess’s private students summoned a monster or something by accident, Mandible reported. Some kind of tentacles were tearing through the walls. I don’t know any more than that, sorry. I’m caught up in the crowd running away from the Castle.
“You’re all looking rather grim,” Foxglove said in an affected casual tone, and Beetroot promptly filled her in on what little they’d just learned. To the Changeling Princess’s surprise, Foxglove’s reaction was to relax a little. “Princess Twilight is probably just playing it safe by evacuating the School,” she said. “I’m sure her, Bella, and Citrine will have whatever it is contained soon.”
A black, spiked tentacle striped haphazardly in grey-blue and sickly yellow burst through the roof of the tunnel up ahead and whipped around for several seconds, bringing down a ton of rocks and dirt before digging back upward through one of the walls.
“What was that?” Beetroot and Foxglove exclaimed at once, and then shared frightened looks when they each realized the other didn’t know.
“We have to clear the tunnel,” Foxglove said, leaping forward to starting hauling rocks away. “Quick, before more of those things come!”
“Hold on a second,” Beetroot said, tugging on Foxglove’s tail lightly to get her attention. “We have to do this right, or we’ll just collapse the tunnel more.” Foxglove’s lip curled, but she backed away as the Changelings moved in. Four of them started crawling up the walls, spreading a quick-hardening mucous to form an arching brace for the ceiling. At a mental signal from the builders, Beetroot and the other two Changelings shifted into large burrowing creatures and started clearing away the debris; Foxglove joined them a second later. Dirt flew and rocks were either tossed aside or shoved against the wall for the builders to incorporate into the slowly growing brace, and within a few minutes they’d made it several yards through the debris.
Then, the faint echoes of a new cave-in slowed the work to a crawl, and the Hive Mind went mad with cries for help.
Roof collapse near the upper larder!
Spiky tentacles coming from above!
We’re trapped in the third residential nook!
Beetroot screwed her eyes shut as she tried to sort through all the voices and pinpoint the trouble areas. There were too many, and more kept demanding her attention as the strange tentacles wove in and out through the earth above everyling’s heads. Hold on, she thought, identifying the nearest disaster. She returned to her normal form – the better to run – and started to head off, only to be stopped by a claw gripping her left front leg.
“Where are you going?” Foxglove demanded.
“The whole Quarter’s under attack!” Beetroot replied, trying to pull herself out of the dracony’s grip. “I have to go help!”
“But we still have to clear this,” Foxglove said, waving at the rocks still blocking the tunnel.
“I can’t leave my Hive to-”
Foxglove cut her off by snapping fingers in her face. “Calm down, Princess,” Foxglove said in a quiet but firm tone. “You won’t be doing anyone any favors by panicking. You may be able to hear everything that’s happening, but you can’t physically be everywhere at once, can you?”
“I… of course not,” Beetroot admitted, “but-”
“Then don’t try to be,” Foxglove said. “You’re a Royal Changeling, and as I understand it that means you’re supposed to be the anchor for the Hive Mind; the one everyling looks to for guidance in times like this. So, just calm down and direct them, ok?”
Beetroot was quivering under the strain of the Hive’s fear, but as she looked into Foxglove’s eyes she felt a sense calm flowing into her body. Focusing on the dracony more, Beetroot realized that Foxglove was scared and worried, but was holding those feelings at bay with constructive concern and love for someone who wasn’t present, and she was offering those emotions to Beetroot.
Recalling her tutelage under Queen Cabbage Patch, Beetroot forced her breathing into a slow, deep rhythm that did wonders for quelling her personal fear and clearing her mind. “Thank you, Foxglove,” she said, “I needed that.” She patted the claw gripping her leg and continued, “I’m not going to run off, but I’m probably not going to be much help digging either. Managing everyling is going to require all my attention.”
Foxglove released her grip and smiled. “That’s fine,” she said, and then looked over her shoulder as the sounds of digging suddenly increased.
A hole appeared in the midst of the rubble, and a beam of pale green light shone through. “Hello?” called a voice that instantly caused Foxglove to radiate joy, “Is anypony there?”
“Mom!” Foxglove exclaimed, rushing over to expand the hole enough to see Sweetie Bell through. “Is everyone ok over there?”
“Just a bit dusty,” Sweetie replied. “This old Cutie Maker Crusader’s been through a lot worse.”
“Good,” Foxglove said, relieved. “We’ll get this cleared away in no time, then. Although,” she glanced toward the rest of the Diamond Quarter with a frown, “it’s probably not going to be any easier getting back to the surface...”
General August Blueblood was, in his humble opinion, the first stallion of his line in the last four generations to actually be worthy of claiming descent from Princess Platinum the Founder. Rather than simply coast through life on the worth of his title and the surprisingly self-sustaining pile of bits that came with it, as had every other Blueblood in living memory, August had decided at an early age to treat the legends of his esteemed ancestors as a standard to measure himself against. He had enlisted in the EUP Frontier Guard, not through the fast-track to officer rank, but as a lowly Private. Within a year, he’d attained the rank of Major.
That had prompted a week-long fight with his family until they finally agreed to let him advance purely on his own merits from then on.
On those merits, General Blueblood was now seen as the best example of what the EUP should be. He was frequently and favorably compared to the late Shining Armor, and it was a common joke among his friends that Blueblood just needed to find himself an alicorn to marry to truly match the great Captain.
While Blueblood appreciated the joke for what it was, he had made it crystal clear that it was never to mentioned within earshot of either Princess Twilight Sparkle or Crystal Empress Flurry Heart.
Princess Twilight was on the General’s mind at the moment, which was natural given the abrupt mobilization order that had come down from Above due to her. Such an order couldn’t be fulfilled quickly, but there were already two full companies of the Frontier Guard waiting on the parade grounds alongside a full shift of the Royal Guard (which, despite what the common civilian might think, were two very distinct branches of the EUP). That, General Blueblood decided as he waited for the officers to finish inspections, would have to do for now.
He cut a striking figure: a unicorn of above-average height wearing golden armor whose enchantments were not necessary to help his coat reach the level of whiteness demanded by EUP standards for on-duty officers. His eyes were the color of the most ideal amethyst and betrayed no hint of impatience or anxiety. His cutie mark, hidden by his armor but replicated below the three rank stars on his peytral, was an olive branch crossed over a spear, symbolizing his dedication to seek after peace even if it required war.
At last, the officers of the three companies approached, saluted, and reported that all was in order. He dismissed them to their places with a salute of his own, and then addressed the companies. “I’m sure you’re all aware that we are deploying to Ponyville,” he said. “You may be wondering why, since Ponyville has long been a peaceful area, and Princess Twilight Sparkle has an even longer history of being able to handle disasters there without the assistance of the Guard. Well, I don’t know what we’re being sent into, but given that city’s history it must be bad. Bad enough for Princess Twilight to actually call on us. Bad enough that Princess Celestia asked me to oversee this operation personally. Bad enough that just on Princess Twilight’s word alone the Guard will be bringing in every pony and auxiliary that isn’t engaged in critical operations. We who stand here now are just the vanguard. Our mission to teleport to Ponyville by amulet gate, assess the situation, establish a forward base if necessary, and protect civilian lives until reinforcements come. Is there any confusion about these orders?”
The assembled guards responded in unison, “Sir, no sir!”
General Blueblood waited a few seconds for any dissenting opinions to muster the courage to speak up. When none came, he nodded in satisfaction and ordered, “Activate gates!” In tandem with a half-dozen unicorns among the companies, he removed a special badge from its hook on his shoulder and poured in magic to activate the portal spell inscribed on it. I need to be where Princess Twilight Sparkle is, he thought as the spell took shape and produced a large, swirling blue portal in the air in front of him. Six larger portals formed in front of the waiting companies, and at the General’s signal everypony started marching through at double-time.
Whatever the General had been expecting to find on the other side of the portal, it wasn’t the sight of Ponyville being systematically replaced by a new city of alien towers packed tightly together in perfect, concentric hexagons. Princess Twilight was flying near the border, lancing a beam of pure destructive magic from her horn into a writhing mass of blue- and yellow-striped vines, apparently trying to stop them from weaving together into yet another structure. Two unicorns and the dragon Spike were doing their best to help the Princess by applying liberal amounts of elemental magic, levitated cutting tools, and dragon fire to the black root-like things linking the growing tower to the rest. The vine-root-tentacles were fighting back, lashing about to prevent anyone from being able to hold still and focus on any particular spot, and weaving together rapidly to replace what had been burned away.
General Blueblood took this all in within a second and, without looking at the Guards waiting behind him, pointed and ordered, “Engage!”
The unicorns moved in first, forming a line around the base of the growing building and peppering it with combat spells while politely but firmly pushing the two unicorn mares behind them and out of harm’s way. The orange unicorn protested and tried to continue fighting, but her companion eventually convinced her to fall back and rest. The pegasi flew in then, some to scout the invading city from the sky while the majority engaged the defensive tentacles to keep the spell-slingers safe. What few earth ponies there were among the Guards stayed back, waiting for orders on what ammo to load into their saddle-cannons and where to aim.
Twilight and Spike continued to fight back the growing building alongside the Guard for a couple minutes before disengaging and joining Citrine and Bella in approaching General Blueblood. “About time you guys got here,” Spike said grumpily. “And shouldn’t there be more of you?”
“Reinforcements are already on their way, Sir Spike,” Blueblood said. “This is all I could muster in the short hour since Princess Celestia received your letter.”
“Kalbarant,” Citrine groaned, “has it only been an hour?” She gestured to the sprawling rings of towers. “These things had barely broken out of the castle when Spike sent the letter! Skvetch!” She dropped to her belly, face buried in her forelegs.
Blueblood looked at the towers with growing concern. “If they’ve spread that fast...” he muttered. “Mind if I ask what we’re dealing with here, Princess?” he asked.
“I wish I knew,” Twilight replied. “All I know for certain is that this isn’t anything native to our world, and it seems to spread in perfect rings; it won’t start pushing out again until that last tower there is finished. If only Pesci hadn’t flown off...”
As if summoned, the flying metal pony head flew into view from behind a house and came to a stop in front of Twilight. Its LED eyes were shifted toward the bottom of its display as it said, “My apologies for my absence. It seems that identifying the Krxstiul triggered a panic function that hampered my decision-making algorithms. I managed to end the panic process after alerting a sufficient percentage of the city’s populace. I can at least report that the city is being evacuated.”
General Blueblood eyed Pesci warily. He’d seen the floating computer before, but it was still uncanny how much it resembled a disembodied head. Still, the Princess considered it normal enough, so Blueblood held his tongue.
“Pesci,” Twilight said in clipped tones, “tell us what you know about these… things.”
Pesci bobbed a nod, but hesitated when it turned to look at the black towers. “We are still dangerously close to-”
“Now Pesci,” Twilight snapped. “What is this, and how do we drive it back?”
Pesci’s eyes shifted back to their normal position. “This is a Krxstiul hive,” it said, “or more likely an extension of one of the primary hives. The Krxstiul are a race of creatures from the world of Dormain, located in the sixth universe from Taryn along the Tau’rin Chain. The humans of Dormain consider the Krxstiul to be their mortal enemies, because the Krxstiul seek only to spread themselves across every stretch of arable land and cannot be reasoned with.”
“They can be fought back, though, right?” Citrine asked.
“According to my data,” Pesci said, “which is several decades out of date by now and thus likely completely inaccurate, the Krxstiul occupy roughly one-third of Dormain’s total land and the humans’ primary goal is simply to prevent them from spreading any more. My data on how to combat the Krxstiul is limited, since the Order-naries spent only six months on Dormain and only attempted to enter Krxstiul territory twice in pursuit of the Chaotic Gems.”
Bella noticed that General Blueblood was looking glassy-eyed and slightly slack-jawed. “Hey,” she said, pulling his attention away from Pesci, “are you ok, General?”
Blueblood blinked and tossed his head. “Ahem,” he said, “I… admit I am having difficulty following this explanation. Do we have a chance or not?”
“Not with our current numbers,” Pesci replied, turning to face the fighting Guards. They were putting up a valiant effort, but the walls of the tower farthest from their position had grown more solid and slightly taller. “I hypothesize that to push the Krxstiul back, we will need to gather enough forces to begin demolishing the hive structures at multiple points before the hive reaches stage-one critical mass.”
“What happens at ‘stage-one critical mass’?” Blueblood asked.
Pesci’s answer was drowned out by a sudden chorus of high-pitched shrieks from the depths of the Krxstiul hive. The Guards fell back from their assault on the growing tower, hooves pressed against their flattened ears as the shrieks grew closer, louder, and more numerous. The weaving vines quickly finished their task, and the new tower began pulsating. Within seconds, as the shrieking reached a pitch that caused Blueblood’s vision to start swimming, something inside the tower added its voice to the alien chorus.
Kriiiixxx
Kriiiiixxx
Kriiiiiiiiixst
Posey stepped out of her shower and shook the water from her coat before wrapping her damp mane up in a fresh towel. It felt like it had taken over an hour to feel clean after the morning she’d had tending to the newest residents of the animal sanctuary. “I’ll have to make a note,” she said as she stepped out into her upstairs hallway, “to never let salamanders anywhere near the borogrove pond again.” She heaved a sigh upon reaching the stairs. “I’m going to need help cleaning everything. Prism will be willing, of course. I wonder if I’d be able to drag Bella or Citrine out...” She trailed off as spotted something odd out of the corner of her eye. Backing up, she looked out her window and saw that the sky was not blue. She couldn’t say what color it was, but it was certainly not the normal blue, and the horizon was a lot closer to her house than it had any right to be.
“Discord,” Posey said flatly. She felt a little guilty about immediately jumping to that conclusion, but there really wasn’t any other possible explanation. Removing the towel from her mane and tossing it onto the couch, Posey stepped out her front door to get a better look at whatever Discord was up to.
Posey’s cottage and the surrounding yard, up to and including the rabbit hutch and chicken coop, was floating in the chaotic void of the pocket dimension Discord called home. Off to Posey’s left, linked to the cottage yard by a twisting bridge, was the entirety of the animal sanctuary, appearing to be upside down from Posey’s perspective but subject to a different gravity than the cottage, since nothing she could see there looked to be in danger of falling off. Near the helix bridge, Discord was reclining on a mauve pool chair with a large bowl of what might be popcorn and looking at a large wooden box with a glass screen.
Discord seemed to be amused by the box, or whatever was inside it, but Posey paid it no mind as she marched over to him, parked herself in front of the box, and asked, “What is going on, Discord?”
“Posey!” Discord replied with a broad smile. With a snap of his claw, he conjured up a second, smaller pool chair next to his. “Your timing is perfect,” he said, moving her onto the chair with his tail, “I think we’re about to get our first real look at the monsters! Cotton ball?” He held out the bowl to her.
“No thanks,” Posey said. She bit back her impatience, recalling her grandmother’s “rules” for managing the draconequus. The most relevant one was that it was a lot easier to get a straight answer from Discord if you played along with his current game a little first. She settled into her seat and looked at the box Discord was watching. The screen showed a pegasus-eye view of Ponyville’s north side, except that everything from Princess Twilight’s Castle to the edge of Carousel Boutique Neighborhood had been replaced by a hexagonal web of black, chitinous towers. “What are we watching?” Posey asked.
“What happens when a certain too-smart-for-her-own-good unicorn goes forward with a plan that even I told her was a bad idea,” Discord answered. He stuck some cotton balls in his mouth and grimaced. “Bleh, needs some gin.”
“Discord,” Posey began, determined not to get sidetracked.
“One second,” Discord cut her off. He stretched his arm out and turned a dial on the box, and the view zoomed in close to where a number of Royal Guards were retreating from one of the towers. “I think this is it,” Discord said excitedly.
Sure enough, a large number of creatures suddenly charged out from among the towers. Clad in the same blue- and yellow-striped chitin as the structures, they had been all but invisible until emerging onto the Ponyville streets. At first glance, they looked like spiny spiders nearly the size of a pony, but as Discord dialed the view in closer and the Guard ponies engaged them, it became clear they had no relation to arachnids. For starters, they had five legs rather than eight – three in back that propelled them forward in erratic hops and mighty leaps and two in front that had long, serrated pincers that ended in sharp points. Their heads, the top halves of which consisted of a single dome-shaped compound eye, sat above rather than in line with the rest of their bodies and had fanged, dripping mouths more fit for a mammalian predator than any insect Posey had ever seen. No sound came from Discord’s viewing box, but judging by the pained angles of everypony’s ears, Posey guessed the monsters were making rather unpleasant noises.
Many of the monsters pounced at the Guard ponies and those with them – Princess Twilight, Spike, Citrine, and Bella – trying to pin their targets down or, failing that, to catch and break legs before plunging their fangs toward the pony’s backs. The Guard’s armor managed to protect them from the bites, and the creatures weren’t able to leap high enough to catch Twilight, Spike, or any pegasus, but Bella and Citrine were lacking either of those protections and had to keep dodging around to keep an armored Guard pony between them and the creatures.
Not all of the things stood and fought, though. About one in four broke around the melee and spread out through Ponyville, on the hunt.
“Discord,” Posey said, voice quivering, “is this real? Are we watching something that’s happening right now?!”
“I wish I were making this up,” Discord answered.
Posey surged to her hooves. “Then why are you just sitting here?” she demanded. “Do something!”
“I did do something,” Discord pointed out, gesturing to Posey’s house and the animal sanctuary. “I moved you and all the animals you’re taking care of well out of harm’s way. I also cleared away that mess around the borogrove pond for you.”
“I… Ok, thank you,” Posey said, “but surely you can do more to help.”
“I’d love to,” Discord said, sounding less than sincere, “but when things like this happen, I tend to be the first one every creature blames for it. I’d spend more time defending my honor than actually doing any good.”
Posey pouted and pondered for a bit until she came up with the perfect counter-argument. “But you said this was the fault of a too-smart-for-her-own-good unicorn. Did you mean Citrine? Is this what she wanted to talk to you about a few days ago?”
“Got it in one,” Discord said, slightly disgruntled.
Posey hid a smirk, suspecting that Discord had already figured out where she was going. She pressed on anyway so as not to leave any ambiguity that he could use. “So, if this is Citrine’s fault,” she said, “then Princess Twilight already knows that and won’t let anypony point hooves at you. Besides,” she gave Discord her most charming smile, “why settle for just being my hero when you could a hero to the whole city by, I don’t know, saving creatures from those monsters that didn’t stop to fight the Guard?”
Discord’s sour expression vanished when Posey said the word “hero,” and by the time she’d finished speaking he had a scheming smile on his face. “A hero to the whole city, you say?” He banished his bowl of cotton balls with a snap and sprang upright. “I like the sound of that.” He snapped again and both he and Posey were dressed in garishly bright spandex costumes with pictures of their faces embroidered on the chests. “Come, Filly Wonder,” Discord said while striking a dramatic pose, “to the Chaos-boat!”
“Hold on-” Posey started to protest, but Discord paid her no heed as he changed the pool chairs into a rowboat, placed himself and Posey inside, and then launched the boat through a portal to Ponyville.
A rainbow-striped shape flew through the skies over Ponyville, but for once no one stopped to regard it with fond or nostalgic smiles. The city was emptying, and the first wave of Krxstiul drones had dealt a harsh blow to the morale of the Guard.
Having to fight for one’s survival was not an unknown condition in Equestria, even in this era of Friendship shared between all the known lands. The Frontier Guard was well-known (at least by those who bothered to learn the difference between it and the Royal Guard) for bravely facing the largest and most dangerous monsters that lurked in the wild areas near Equestria’s borders on a regular basis, but even they were not accustomed to dealing out death. The guiding philosophy of war in Equestria, and indeed most of the “civilized” world, was to break the enemy’s will to fight and convince their leaders to consider negotiation instead. The Guard fought not kill, but to wound, incapacitate, and capture or drive off those who would threaten the lives of ponies or their allies.
The Krxstiul were not particularly tough to hurt; their chitin provided little appreciable protection against spear-thrusts and kicks, they proved to be as vulnerable to the Guard’s standard combat spells as any normal-sized unarmored foe, and they were easily blinded by covering their single compound eye with adhesive gels. They displayed no group tactics, with each drone simply going after the closest non-Krxstiul they saw. And yet, no matter how many wounds they suffered or how often they were sent flying through the air back toward their territory, the Krxstiul would not break until they were all unable to move.
And more of them kept showing up, with several slipping past the main fighting in pursuit, presumably, of more ponies to attack.
When the first set of Guard reinforcements arrived, General Blueblood had sent one soldier back to Canterlot to emphasize the need for as much horsepower as possible, along with a formal request for military aid to every ally of Equestria. Then, setting the fresh faces to relieve those on the front line, the General had called for a withdrawal to a more defensible position. Princess Twilight and her talking metal pony head hadn’t been happy about just giving up ground to the Krxstiul, but they couldn’t argue with the numbers.
The defenders had set up their base in front of City Hall, declining the Mayor’s offer to set up inside in case they needed to pull out quickly. That was where Prism had found them and volunteered to help. Both General Blueblood and Princess Twilight had accepted the offer without hesitation and sent Prism to the west side of town in search of a certain Creature of Interest.
When Prism returned to the base, he was alone. He alighted near to where Twilight and Blueblood were conferring over a large map of Ponyville that was in the process of being covered by little tiles. Bella and Citrine were casting transformation spells on a pile of pebbles to produce more tiles as the Princess or Blueblood called for them. Most of the tiles were flat black hexagons, representing the Krxstiul structures that were slowing replacing the original Ponyville buildings. From the looks of things, the creation of a new ring of towers was already well underway.
Neither Twilight nor Blueblood noticed Prism’s arrival right away, but he had their full attention when he blurted out, “Posey’s house is gone.”
“Gone?!” the Princess exclaimed. Her eyes snapped back to the map and she started measuring distances frantically. “But that doesn’t fit the pattern of expansion that we’ve observed! If the Krxstiul aren’t conforming to the expanding ring pattern anymore, then-”
“It wasn’t the Krxstiul,” Prism cut in. “I didn’t even see any of the drones near there. Posey’s cottage is just gone, like something scooped it and the yard right up and moved it somewhere else. Her animal sanctuary is missing too.”
Princess Twilight blinked at Prism in bewilderment for a moment, and then most of the tension fled from her face as she rolled her eyes. “Oh,” she said, “I’d bet anything that’s Discord’s handiwork, then. He saw what was coming and got Posey and her charges out of harms’ way.”
“Yeah, I kinda suspected the same,” Prism said, sourly. “That’s typical for him, isn’t it? Big trouble strikes, and he just disappears before anypony can ask him to actually help.”
“Only if it was his fault in the first place, usually” Spike corrected, “and even then, he’s never been able to resist popping in to brag or heckle us.”
“So,” General Blueblood asked, “should we continue to search for him, or just wait him out?”
Twilight thought. “I do have a spell that will summon him from wherever he’s hiding,” she said, “but without the Elements of Harmony, it takes a lot of time to cast, and Discord always gets a bit belligerent when someone forces him to do anything he doesn’t want to do.” She shook her head. “No, it’s not that urgent yet,” she concluded.
“Anything else you need from me then, Princess?” Prism asked, standing at attention. If not, he thought, then I’m scouring the length of breadth of Ponyville for that-
“Has anyone heard anything from the Diamond Quarter yet?” Bella asked.
Twilight’s eyes bugged out. “No!” she realized. “The School evacuation!” She looked around the square frantically, then turned to Prism. “Prism,” she said, “go find me a Changeling, any Changeling! I need to know if the students are ok!”
“Aye aye,” Prism said with a salute.
“Can you look for Foxglove while you’re at it?” Citrine asked just before the pegasus took off. “I think she was gem shopping today, but...”
Prism gave Citrine a reassuring smile. He didn’t know Foxglove all that well, but there was no mistaking her in a crowd. “I’ll keep an eye out,” he promised, and then leaped into the sky.
Prism stayed high and flew in a zig-zag pattern as he worked his way to the east, keeping an eye out for Changelings or trouble. To the north, blue lights flashed as more and more Guard companies arrived, racing to create a complete defensive line before the Krxstiul hive completed the latest ring and began pushing outward again. A mist was starting to form from the center of the hive, blurring the details on the innermost rings of towers. Several Pegasus Guards and a couple wings of Griffon Knights (by far the quickest of Equestria’s allies to respond to the cry for help) were flying in patterns over the Krxstiul territory, but none had yet worked up the courage to attempt to attack any of the structures. The remainder of the fliers were combing Ponyville for Krxstiul drones, swooping down to try and drive any they found back toward the hive. Strangely, although Prism saw a few such fights, he saw no sign of any civilians, in danger or otherwise. The order to evacuate Ponyville had come swiftly after the Krxstiul had broken out of the castle and ponies were generally quick to follow the herd, but even so the streets should have still been full of bodies fleeing with Krxstiul drones hot on their heels.
Come to think of it, Prism realized as he finally approached the Diamond Quarter, shouldn’t there be a lot more Krxstiul running around? I thought I overheard somepony estimating around ninety have slipped past the defenders so far...
A quick flight over the Quarter’s surface level showed no movement, so Prism cautiously landed at the main entrance of the caves and walked inside. After the third and final switch-back of the entry tunnel, he found his way blocked by a makeshift barricade of rocks piled up as high as his shoulder, and several pairs of flat, blue eyes giving him suspicious looks from the other side. “Hey,” Prism said, feeling suddenly nervous, “everything… ok down here?”
“Identify yourself,” one the Changelings demanded.
“Wait,” another one said, “is that Rainbow Dash?”
“No, you dolt,” the first one snapped. “Rainbow Dash died seven years ago!”
“Oh, for Celestia’s sake,” an orange pegasus mare said as she shoved through the ‘lings and approached the barricade, “there’s like a hundred-and-some of you in the Hive and none of you recognize Prism? Honestly. So,” she addressed Prism, “what brings you here, kid?”
Prism swallowed and ran a hoof over his mane. Scootaloo was the only pony in the city who could make Prism feel self-conscious about how he dyed his mane to resemble Rainbow Dash’s, and without even saying a word about it. “Uh, Princess Twilight sent me, ma’am,” he said. “She wants… needs a Changeling with her at City Hall to keep her informed of things down here.”
“You can tell her we’ve suffered some bad cave-ins,” one of the Changelings said, “and between that and looking after the evacuees from the School of Friendship, we’ve got enough problems without letting whatever monsters are responsible know we’re down here.”
Prism bristled. “Is that a no?” he asked. “You’re saying ‘no’ to Princess Twilight?”
“We don’t have to answer to your Princesses,” the Changeling parried.
Scootaloo gave Prism a sympathetic look. “It feels like we’ve been arguing about this forever,” she said. “We’ve got some of the Guards from Twilight’s castle with us, and they won’t even let them leave.”
Prism snorted and flared his wings out, giving the spokes-ling a challenging glare. “Seriously?” he asked. “I always thought Changelings were braver than this. What happened to the Hive that had the courage to invade Canterlot twice, despite the poor odds?”
“Chrysalis’s Follies-” the Changeling started to retort, but Prism cut it off.
“And after that,” the pegasus said, “your ancestors had the courage to throw their lot in with a new Queen who’d barely learned what she actually was. A Queen who, I hear, still has to fight off anxiety attacks. Didn’t she lead you in seizing an entire fleet of airships from the Storm King? Then there was-”
“That’s enough,” shouted a grumpy Changeling voice from deeper into the caves. A moment later, the voice’s owner, Beetroot, walked into view and approached Prism. “Thank you for that inspiring list of accomplishments,” she said, “but it’s not necessary. The situation down here really is dire; half the Hive and all the Diamond Dogs are trapped by cave-ins right now. We just don’t have any hooves to spare to help topside. In fact,” she continued before Prism could protest, “we could use assistance if there’s any to spare and I’d like to know if there’s anyplace safer to send the students from the School of Friendship, so I’ll go back to Princess Twilight with you. And you,” she said with sudden sharpness to the Changeling Prism had been arguing with, “can come along too if you’re so concerned with my safety, Lorekeeper.”
The Lorekeeper looked sour, but he didn’t protest as Beetroot crawled over the barricade, and he joined her a moment later. Prism smiled in satisfaction and turned to lead the way out, but stopped when another voice called, “Hold on! I’m coming too.” Prism looked back to see Foxglove shove her way through the crowd and squeeze through the gap between the ceiling and barricade. Once she’d made it though and smoothed out her fur, Foxglove said, “I need to make sure Citrine got out ok.”
Prism eyed the dracony’s lack of wings with concern. “Citrine’s ok,” he said. “She asked me to look for you, actually. You should just stay here, though. Without wings, you won’t be safe from-”
Foxglove scoffed and shouldered her way past Prism. “The Changelings can turn into something big enough to carry me, if that’s an issue,” she said. “I don’t know much of what’s happening, but I know Citrine’s responsible and she’s going to need me to help her manage the guilt. Now come, on!” She galloped up the tunnel, with Prism and the two Changelings in her wake, and they emerged from the tunnel just as a quintet of Krxstiul drones bounded onto the street. There was only about a second of stillness before the Krxstiul let out their stomach-turning shrieks and pounced.