//------------------------------//
// The Hivers 
// Story: Harry Potter and the Crystal Empire — Intermission 
// by Damaged 
//------------------------------//

Like everyone else, I'd been dragged through the damn portal when it pulsed—moments before it closed. It wouldn't be so bad except for the bugs. Well, bugs was an understatement. Bug implies small, but these things are about the size of a dog, they suck your will to live out at a distance, and if they bite you, you can't move a muscle. 

Looking around the cave, I clung to my hockey stick tightly. It was always dark down here, but at least I knew what time it was and could see.

"Did you see that, Rod?" Daphne asked from beside me. 

Nodding very slowly, I said "Yes" as softly as I could. "I'll bait."

"You sure?" Though she asked, Daphne was already standing up and yawning. She turned and started walking off. "I need a piss. I'll be back in a tick."

I waited for her to go and then made the softest snoring noise I could. They had amazing hearing.

It didn't take them long. Two of them crawled into the light of our fire on their bellies, their blue eyes locked on me. They got closer and closer, twenty feet away, then ten feet, then five. One reached out with its head—jaws opening to reveal their long teeth—when the dull tink of a stone hitting an aluminum baseball bat cut through the air.

The stone hit the first one in the shoulder. A second metal-on-rock sound and another stone came winging in to connect with the head of that first bug.

I jumped to my feet as the second one grabbed the first and tried to drag it off. Daphne passed me at a dead run, swinging her bat down at the bug to get it to leave. My focus was on the downed one. I pulled my rope from the loop on my belt and threaded it through the bug's legs and tied them in a knot just as it started to squirm. 

Twisting the rope around my left fist a few times to get a good grip on it, I brought my hockey stick down and held it against the bug's neck. "I don't know if hitting you here will hurt, but if you don't stop squirming we'll both find out. And don't even think of using your mojo."

Their big blue eye looked up at me, and I'll be damned if I didn't see fear in it. Stop that, Rodney, there's no good down that path. 

"Okay, Rod, I think the other one buzzed off." Daphne loved her fucking puns. The thing was, the bugs did buzz. "You gonna drag it back or will we—I don't know—carry it?"

"I don't want to be anywhere near those fangs. Hey, bug, will it hurt you if we drag you?" The last I said to the bug. When it hissed in reply, I just shrugged. "Okay, Daph, you take one end of this rope and walk behind it, I'll take the other and walk in front. Tie the rope around your wrist."

"Do you think anyone else has caught one like this?" she asked.

I was getting the rope tied around my own wrist and shook my head. "No one has come back with one yet. Hopefully we're the first." 

The march wasn't far. It was down a few tunnels and through a few of those oddly timed caves that opened and closed on their own, and then we saw the fire. The light of it washing over us felt like heaven. "Hey, we got one."

"You what? One of the bugs? Good work!" The guys who were watching the cave entrance were something else. It was only five days ago I'd learned that not only was magic real, but that magic portals could suck people into it, there were wizards who lived secretly among us, and they thought less of everyone who wasn't a wizard. They'd stopped doing that last one lately.

I pointed back to Daphne. "I only played possum and tied 'em up once Daph conked 'em with a rock. They're awake." Untying the rope from my wrist, I looked around to see Daphne doing the same. "You were great, Daph."

"You no-majes are pretty good at—"

A second wizard—err witch is the female term, I think—elbowed the talking one in the ribs. "Shut it, Kennedy. They're stuck here just like us. You don't have to bring that idiocy into this place." She turned back to us. "You did great. I got your friend's name, but you're…" 

"That's Rodney. Best sack of Canadian meat you'll find when you're hunting bugs." Daphne tapped my shoulder lightly with her bat while the witch leaned down to inspect the bug. 

That's when I realized she had a tail. That was something I was coming to terms with. The wizards and witches were all turning into horses. Horses that could do magic and were only a little bigger than the bugs, but horses. It was a strange time to be a furry. "Uh, you didn't tell me your name."

She looked up from the bug. "Azalea. Azalea Bloom." When she looked back down at the bug, she reached out one foot in true human fashion and nudged the thing with her shoe. "It's not moving, is it—"

"I'm not dead." The bug opened its eyes and turned its head slightly. "What do you want?"

I looked at Azalea and she looked back at me in surprise. Well, I figure I might as well start. "You guys to stop attacking us and bring back the people you took."

The bug let out what I had to assume was its version of a laugh—there was a lot of hissing involved. "Firstly, they're ours now. We don't give back food. Secondly, you'll all be our food soon. Thirdly, what makes you think I can do any of that? I'm just a drone."

"Food?" I felt my bile rise and I didn't need to see Azalea's face as she turned away to know she'd turned green. "You eat us…?"

"What? No! We eat your love. Even now I can smell it on you and just—" The bug hissed, its long tongue making an appearance. "Put creatures in pods. Seal up tight. Fill their heads with dreams and eat what comes out."

"So magic?"

The bug just shrugged.

"So what's stopping you—collectively—letting them out?" I crouched down beside the bug, still wary of its fangs, but far more relaxed there were others around us.

"We need to eat. No love, no changelings." The bug shrugged its shoulders as best it could.

Their tone might have been without what I'd call emotion, but I could put things together. "You're starving, you mean?" The twitch in its eye told me I'd hit my mark. Crap. Not only weren't they just mindless bugs, but they were smart, sentient, and starving. Starving, with us as their food source. "Which means that if we keep you here, we're gonna have to feed you."

I lifted my head to look at Azalea, only to feel movement through the rope. The sting in my leg came before I even realized what the movement was. I'd always heard that venom in your blood felt hot, but this was a chilling cold that immediately numbed the pain of its bite. 

The ice in my veins poured up my leg, stealing sensation as it went, then dove into my torso like a frigid spear. When it got to my chest, there was a soft whooshing sound and it poured up into my head. Everything felt hazy. I fell into a crouch beside the bug and started reaching my arms out toward it.

"Get it away from him!" Azalea's words, shouted so loud, managed to get my attention off the cute bug.

Looking up at her, I felt a bubbly excitement start in my belly. I couldn't stop from giggling. "I love you."

"Get it away from everyone and lock it up somewhere. I'll get your friend away so he can't hurt himself." Azalea reached down to me and pulled me upright. Without even a thought—literally—I put my arm around her shoulder. "Come on. Wherever they're taking that thing, I'll take you the other way."

The truth was I'd follow her anywhere she wanted to take me. As we walked, I felt the brush of her tail against my legs again and again. "You're pretty. Can I kiss you?" 

"Thanks, but I'd like to find out what that bug just did to you." 

I mean, she hadn't said no. I tried to lean closer to kiss her, but having to keep walking made it hard. In the end I filed away I can kiss her as a good idea for when we weren't moving. "What—what it did to me? Does to me? Doot to meeee…"

"You seem drunk, but maybe something else in there." She led me all the way to the pickup truck that had been pulled through the portal with us. Helping me up, she had me sit on the bed and lay down. "Now I really hate to use magic here, but if that stuff is going to kill you, I'd like to know."

"Your tail's cute," I said as she drew her wand.

She froze, a soft glow illuminating her wand, and looked down at me. "You are a very strange person, Rodney. Especially for a non-wizard." She muttered some words I couldn't understand, then aimed her wand at my leg.

Magic was pretty much exactly what I thought it would be. Huge flashy effects swirled from her wand and wrapped around my leg. It felt tingly and sparkly. Wait. That was my leg that was sparkly. "That's cool!"

"That wasn't exactly supposed to happen." The way she said it made her sound a strange mix of utterly sure of herself but also a little worried. 

I looked at where she was looking and saw my leg seemed to be made out of some kind of hard, dark plastic. "What do you mean, cutie?"

"Your leg changed—the skin is turning dark. Do you know if any of your parents or grandparents were wizards or witches?" She looked up at me and her eyes seemed to sparkle with the magic she used. 

"I have no idea. Your eyes are amazing." They were both green, but her left one was a little more intense than the right. This was my chance—I had to go for it. "But there's something else that's really interesting."

She looked surprised, then reached a hand up to her own face. "What? Did my face change?"

"Y-Yeah. There was something about your eyelids. Close your eyes for a second." Surely she wouldn't fall for this. It was the oldest trick in the book and she was apparently falling for it. When she closed her eyes I made a "hmmm" sound, then leaned up and kissed her.

Okay, so I was a bit out of practice. Her eyes snapped open, and I saw a moment of fire flare in them, but I had a good three seconds before she jerked back and lifted her hand. Okay, so I probably deserved the slap that was coming. Whatever the bug had done was wearing off, and I could see that bad decisions had been made while I was… What was I? It was like being drunk, but I'd felt so attracted to—to the bug first, but then Azalea had my attention and it was like she was—was everything. 

"I should slap you."

"Yeah you should. I have no idea what that bug did, but I could swear it was like dropping an E." I shook my head to try to clear the lingering effects, though it didn't help. "A lot faster to come on, about a hundred times more intense, and no side eff… Wait, I still feel really thirsty."

"What's an E?" Azalea asked.

I stared at her for several seconds, the lingering emotional high hanging around a little. "A party drug. First tried it a few years back. Kinda fun, leaves you really emotional and in love with the world. This was way more focused. When you got my attention away from the bug, it was like I locked onto you with it. Sorry about the kiss."

"The bug said they feed on love. Their bite makes you love them. It's obviously how they trap prey and lure them off without noise." Sitting back, Azalea tapped her chin thoughtfully. That's when I saw her arm. A soft green crystal, kinda like my leg, was all the way to her wrists. It was a little freaky because it was translucent. "The kiss doesn't need an apology."

That got my full attention. "It was good?"

"It wasn't bad. I just wasn't ready for it." She wasn't acting like I was the most horrible bastard in the world—usually a good sign. "You know wizardkind age slower than no-ma—" She bit back the word. "…than other humans?"

"No-maj seems like a pretty good description. It means no magic, right?" Her blush told me plenty—that it was used derogatorily. Her nod told me I was right. "Well, I don't have any magic, so it's right. As for age, I have no idea. You're cute, and I—"

"I'm almost forty, Rod."

Forty? Shit, she didn't look anything past twenty-five. My lip quirked into a bit of a smile, though, at her shortening of my name. "Can I finish?"

She narrowed her eyes as if preparing for something nasty.

"You're cute, and I don't care how old you are." I nodded to reinforce that fact as the pure truth I tried to force myself to believe. Forty?! "Besides, I don't want to say, 'I kissed a forty-year-old witch when she wasn't looking.' Saying you're cute makes the story much better."

"'Story'?"

I couldn't help but giggle—how long would this poison last, and how could I get some more safely? "Yup, even cute when you're angry." 

It worked! Calling her cute seemed to be a get-out-of-jail-free card. It was a stunning blow every time I'd used it and I was totally filing this information away for later use. Later repeated use. I cleared my throat. "So, about my leg. What's up with that?"

"Magic here is—different. There's a lot more of it and it seems to infect the user and turn them into… You've seen already. You're the first regular human it has affected in any way. I don't know how and I don't know why, but I think it has something to do with that venom combined with my magic." She bit her lip and looked at my leg again. "It's also spreading."

Okay. So being a furry had never included the idea of turning into something. I gulped and sat up more to look down at my leg. It looked the same. "Are you sure?"

"The dark shade had stopped at your knee before. Now it's a finger-width above it. Not much, but it is spreading." Azalea carefully put her wand away and then leaned down to look at my leg closer. "I can actually see your pores darkening one by one."

Sitting up fully, I leaned forward and tried to see—just as she turned her head toward me. Our heads connected, but not painfully. This time the kiss was startling for both of us. She stared into my eyes with surprise in hers, I just raised a single eyebrow in challenge. Alright, she'd started this one and she knew how I felt, where was she going to take it?

The kiss was… inexperienced would be an understatement. She kissed a little better than a wet fish when she was actually trying—which she was. I tried not to giggle but it became too much and I had to break it and actually laugh.

"What?!"

I was right the first time—she was cute when she was angry. "You. How many guys have you kissed?"

Her pale cheeks turned red with her blush and her eyes widened further. Okay, she was cute when embarrassed too. "That's none of your—"

"Look. Just relax. Don't focus on trying to push or rub or anything. Just think of my lips as a strawberry. No teeth, just try to feel your way around the strawberry. Now, let's try that again." I reached out and pulled her toward me.

This time, with my arms around her, Azalea seemed to relax more and just kiss. I'll give her marks for relaxing and not trying to suck my tongue out through my mouth, but she was now a little too passive. 

Well, there was a solution for this that I'd learned from a cute girl who only ever spoke French. A little push from my tongue and I heard a groan from her, and then she came alive. 

"Now here I come to check up on my Canadian buddy and finding him making out with a witch?" Daphne's voice startled both of us, but it was Azalea who pulled out of the kiss. "Oh no, don't let me stop you. Just put a sock on the handle or something next time, why-don't-ya?"

"But we weren't—" Azalea's voice cut short. When I looked why, it was because Daphne was walking away.

I reached a hand out and ran my finger and thumb along her jaw to her chin. "That was much better. I think this practice went well."

"Practice?" Turning back toward me, Azalea looked confused. "But it wasn't—"

"If you think I'm not going to kiss you again, you just wait and see. Now, what do we do about my leg?" I asked.





I didn't get another chance immediately. Talking about my leg again had led to her wanting to examine it more, which led to her telling the other wizards and witches about it, which led to them wanting to inspect it. 

When one wizard lifted his wand, however, I had had enough. "No. Hold up. It was magic that started this. Adding more could do who-knows-what to me."

"How dare you speak to—" The wizard, the one I remembered as Kennedy, was glaring at me and raising his wand, but was interrupted by two others who grabbed his wand-arm and then shoved him away from me. "What are you doing? He's just a—"

I hadn't expected Azalea to slap him. Honestly, I didn't really think no-maj was that much of a slur, but she apparently had opinions. "Kennedy, in case you hadn't noticed, Rod is the reason we have one of the bugs caught at all. These people are putting their lives on the line to help, and you threaten them?" She had her wand out and with the way Kennedy looked at it, it might as well have been a pistol aimed at him. "You are the worst kind of wizard."

"You know, if either of you two start blasting, you'll turn into little horses, right?" I asked.

Azalea and Kennedy both turned to look at me.

"Well, it's true. I have nothing against little horses, but I think you should put your big-boy pants on and face the fact that you need to save your magic for when you might actually need it." I shoved myself off the bed of the truck and stood up—aware of how much different my left leg felt—and started walking off toward the other side of camp.

No one seemed to follow me, not that I cared. I reached the makeshift cage the bug was in and kicked it to wake them up. "Hey! What'd you do to me?"

The bug opened just one eye and looked up at me.

I got angry. I kicked the cage again. "I'm talking to you. What'd you do—?"

"You smell like food." Its words froze me. "My venom was nice, yes? Hold your leg there and I'll bite you again."

The bug was slow about standing up, moving like a cat that knew it had a big fish in its food bowl. It turned slowly and stretched, then walked closer to where I stood. 

It took me far too long to fight down the desire to let it bite my leg again and pull my leg from the side of the cage. "No. I don't think I will."

"Are you sure? Remember how it made you feel? Just lean a little closer and I'll only bite you a little. Just a itsy-bitsy taste of what it felt like to fall unconditionally in love." I hated how damn good they made it sound.

Every fiber of my being wanted to ride that drug again. I wanted to let it bite me, poison me, and it was only having dealt with drugs in my life before that I could say, "No." I closed my eyes, firmly shoving away all the feelings that led to me wanting what the bug was offering.

A flash of green light hit my closed eyes and I snapped them open. "Azalea? Why are you in—Where'd the bug go?"

"It's in front of you, Rod. Step back from the cage," Azalea's voice said from behind me.

Azalea's voice surprised me, and I spun around, but in the process the Azalea in the cage grabbed my arm and pulled me backward against it. I could feel her soft breasts against my back and her breath on the back of my neck.

"Open the cage and let me free, or I pump him with so much of my venom he won't be able to think straight for the rest of his short life." The breath against my neck changed to the brush of fangs—long fangs. 

"W-Wait. Please. Just give me a chance to think. Okay, so you're like some kind of shapechanger, right?" I asked, trying to ignore the lick against my bare neck. "O-Okay, and you want love, right?"

"I like where this is going. If you help me slip more of my hive-mates into your little group here, you and your friend can walk out of the hive safely." The bug's voice was so close to Azalea's, but now there was a slight hiss to it. "This plan gets you free—completely free—and I can even promise that you can both leave the hive without anyling harming you."

"What's it saying to you?" the real Azalea asked. "Bug, I don't care what deal he makes, I'll kill you the moment the door of that cage opens."

I squeezed my eyes closed. "Please stop trying to help."

"Do we have a deal?" the bug asked, and ran its fangs along my neck again.

I only had a moment to see a red flash reflect in Azalea's eyes before the bug's grip went limp. Azalea grabbed me (the real Azalea) and pulled me away from the bars of the cage. Both of us looked first at the bug—its form once more its own—and then we looked to who'd cast the spell. 

"Kennedy?" I asked.

"You were right." Kennedy slid his wand away into his robes. "It's not easy for me to say this, but you were absolutely right. I've been a wizard too long and forgotten my roots." He walked over and held out his hand.

Well, there was my stereotypical nature shining through—I shoved out my hand and took his to shake it. "For what it matters, at least your magic found out something far more interesting than what's going on with my leg." I nodded toward the cage. "That is something I don't think any of us saw coming."

"Why'd you come over here?" Azalea's hand found mine and for all we weren't trying to advertise we were an item, I wouldn't have let go for anything. 

"Well, I mean, it's obvious. Can the bug move?" I asked. When Kennedy shook his head, I reached into the cage and tapped on its leg. The sound wasn't hollow, but there was a hardness to the flesh beyond skin. Then I tapped on my leg. It made the same sound. "Whatever normally its poison does, and I don't think it knew what was happening to me, with your magic I think I'm…" I didn't want to finish it, but I could see in Azalea's face that she knew what I was getting at.

"Shit." Azalea looked down her arm at where we were holding hands. "And it's still spreading?"

"Yeah. Near as I can tell it doesn't seem to be slowing. So am I going to turn into one of them?" I couldn't help shaking. It was one thing to make jokes with Azalea about her turning into a horse, especially with the coat she seemed to be getting, and quite another for me to become a horse-monster.

"If it's anything like Howlover's changes, you're going to end up looking exactly like them." As she said it, Azalea wrapped her arms around me. 

"What's up?" I asked her. Shouldn't it be me freaking out?

"The first nice guy who's also cute, and you're not going to be human much longer. It's not fair." She squeezed me, and I put my arms around her.

Kissing the top of her head, I tried to think what to say. She was twice my age and—Oh! "Well, we'll be little horses together, then. At least until you lot figure out how to fix all this."

"He's right." Kennedy's words surprised both of us enough to turn our heads to look at him. "We'll figure this out and get home and get everyone back to normal. I promise you that." He picked that as his parting comment and marched off to leave us alone.

"Well, if he thinks I'm right, then I'm right. Who knows, maybe I can infiltrate the bugs and get us a way out of this hole?" I looked down at Azalea, only to see her eyes rolling up into her head as she slumped weakly in my arms. "What—?" I turned my head and saw the bug staring at us, its mouth open wide as something—something pink—seemed to coalesce and pour into its throat. 

"You bastard!" My shout broke Azalea from her stupor enough to stand on her own, which is when I stepped back to that cage with my fist balled and slung my best punch at the bug.

The creature stepped back from the bars and looked at me. "I heard you're going to be joining the hive. Our queen has ways of ensuring every changeling's loyalty." Licking its lips with its obscenely long tongue, the bug grinned. "And I got a free meal. Thank you." I have to give it credit, the bastard knew how to use sarcasm.

I tried to grab at it, but the bug didn't even bother to try to bite me. It just sat at the back of its cage looking smug. "Come here and let me—"

"Rod?" Azalea's voice sounded fragile. I turned and looked at her, seeing she'd sat down on the ground where I'd left her. 

Well, I might be turning into a monster, and I might want to kill the damn bug, but I was still man enough to know when it was time to be a knight in shining armor. Walking over to Azalea, I scooped her up in my arms—robes and all—and carried her off to where her makeshift bed was.





A full day passed while we did nothing but reinforce our position. The problem of our food supply (which amounted to a hotdog cart full of bread, dogs, and condiments and half the contents of a Chinese restaurant) was partially solved by Howlover, the first horse-wizard. Clutching her wand in her teeth, she'd been able to stop the food we had from going off and could duplicate it.

Hotdogs with fried noodles wasn't exactly the greatest meal, but it was one we were getting used to, and it had plenty of energy if nothing else. When I asked why they couldn't just keep duplicating it forever, Azalea had bopped me on the shoulder and given me a half-hour talk about why that doesn't work.

My leg was getting stranger. From my thigh down was black, hard chitin that only gave way to softer flesh around my knee joint and the odd, backward-facing joint further down from that. I'd given up on shoes for that foot, since the hoof it now ended in was fine enough for walking on. 

Just one and a bit days, and my leg was done completely and I was looking at the black creeping over my ass and hip. At least Azalea would be joining me in little-horsedom. Her arms had both turned that amazing translucent green all the way from her fingertips to her shoulders. At least, I think it was only as far as her shoulders—we had been cuddling whenever someone wasn't looking, but undressing was a bit further down the road yet. It was one thing to share warmth in a cold cave and another to break all decency.

"Azalea, Rod?" Kennedy's voice surprised me. I had Azalea sitting between my legs while I massaged her shoulders through her robes—it had been my latest-greatest idea for getting her to take her robes off, but it hadn't worked. "Sorry to intrude, but you're the only two I trust."

That got my attention. Kennedy was pretty tight with the other wizards and witches, or so I'd seen. "What's the matter, eh?" Ugh. How did that slip out? I hadn't ehed in years.

"That creature, the bug." Kennedy seemed like he didn't want to look at us directly, gazing everywhere but at where we sat. "It could mimic Azalea perfectly."

"I like to think," Azalea said, "that it was doing a pretty bad job of it, but go on."

"What if some of them have already caught people. Rod, when you and your friend were out and caught the bug, did you see her with your eyes every second you were out hunting? How would you know if one of them replaced her while its friends dragged her off?" His words chilled me and completely soured my mood. What if… Dammit.

"Then we're in a lot of trouble. Your Stupifying charm knocked it out and broke its—its disguise. Right?" Azalea rocked her shoulders in my grip as if prodding me to continue. 

Well, if she wanted a massage, and was distracted, now was my best chance… Working my hands up and along the curve of her neck, I brought them back down under her collar and gently eased the neck of the robes a little wider and started work on her shoulders again. "Don't mind me, I have no clue how your magic works."

"For someone with no clue, you beat any of us to catching one, and you understood how Gramp's Law of Elemental Transfiguration and the rules it inspired stop us from just creating food."

"No," I said, "I just nodded a lot while you told me what amounts to no, we can't make food out of nothing."

Under my hands, her skin was that same green color as it was on her arms. How many spells had she been casting?

"Can we really cast a stunner at everyone here in case they're a bug in disguise?" Kennedy asked, blushing and still looking anywhere but at us.

"Not really. Howlover is already overworked keeping us in food. I had to cast some spells earlier to get us enough water to boil the hotdogs she created, then more to actually boil the water." She looked back over her shoulder at me with one eye, then dipped her face down a little. She had been hiding the spread, then.

"Besides," I said. "Put yourselves in a bug's shoes. If you saw us going around and stunning people one by one, that'd be the tip-off, wouldn't it?"

Kennedy snorted. "You might not know how magic works, Rod, but you know how to think. I hadn't even gotten that angle, and you're right. So what's another way we can unmask them? Would they know what their cover knows? Would there be some kind of magic involved?"

"Well, there's one way to find out," I said. "I hate it, and if it were for any other reason I'd be running the other way as fast as I could, but if we give the bug something, it might tell us."

"No. That's not something I want." Kennedy's tone was sharp and firm. It surprised me, given his previous thoughts on me. "I might have been an idiot before and not seen things correctly, but I can't let that happen again. If anyone will give that beast food, it will be me."

Together, we walked to where its cage was and the occupant of it. "Hey. We need some answers and you need food, right?" Kennedy asked.

Opening its glowing eyes, the bug made a soft hissing sound. "I don't need food that badly." Turning its head, it looked at me—probably even through me.

"What if I gave the food?" I asked.

"What do you need to know?" The way the bug talked was odd. It wasn't using its tongue—at least I figured it wasn't because of its length—and its lips barely moved. 

Azalea's hand on my shoulder tightened, but I couldn't expect anyone here to give their all unless I would too. "How many of you have infiltrated our group? When you transform, do you get any information about the creature you become?"

The bug's face split into a big smile. It looked up at me and then slowly unfolded its body and stood. "For a taste of your love, I'll answer the second one, but that means biting." Its eyes were glowing a little brighter as it stared at me. "I won't be gentle."

Its previous bite seemed to itch, and I felt the drug it'd put into me sing out for more of the same. "Both questions, or you get nothing." I held its look, trying to not show it how I actually felt.

"Very well. But first, indulge me in one thing." The bug leaned forward so its nose was at the edge of its cage. "Tell me how much you enjoy my venom."

When I started laughing, Azalea grabbed my shoulder a bit tighter and pulled me back. "Rod?"

"I don't enjoy your bloody venom at all you stupid bug. It's addictive as all hell, that I can tell, but enjoy it? Piss off." I crouched down at the cage and looked the bug in its eyes. "You think this is the first time I've put something addictive in my body? You're just another pusher who thinks he's got something you desperately need—but it's only something you want. Now, tell me the answers."

The bug was barely a few inches from me. If it really wanted, it could probably make a grab for it. "Second one now, then the first after you let me bite." Did it sound petulant? Had I gotten under its skin? Well, good.

"Go ahead. If you try to double-cross me on this, I'm gonna have the nice wizard there go to town on you. Got it?" It was the best threat I could come up with under the circumstances. The bug knew that Kennedy was able to use magic, so why not use him as a threat?

"We changelings use a little bit of magic to get a reading on something before we turn into it. We don't get any special knowledge or anything like that. At least, I don't." The bug leaned forward and flicked its tongue out at my fingers. "Now feed me."

I turned back to Azalea and let out a sigh. "A deal's a deal." 

She, in turn, surprised me by wrapping her arms around me and kissing me. She was getting better, it seemed, though it might have been raw enthusiasm. She leaned back and blinked a few times, then blushed.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're gorgeous when you blush?" I asked, which only made her blush more. "I'm sure I'll be all gooey and silly after this. You have my permission to slap me if I get carried away."

"Assuming I want to slap you. Go on, just don't be a martyr." She let me go slowly, as if unwilling to.

Turning back to the bug, it looked excited. I crouched down and then sat before its cage. "Do my other damn leg. It sucks these things aren't symmetrical."

"That wasn't part of the deal." It moved fast, lunging forward and grabbing my arm—sinking its fangs in until it closed its mouth around me. 

I looked down at the thing, its eyes rolling up to meet mine. Their eyes were strange, almost-but-not-quite uniform. Beautiful. The venom was pumping through my body, and the bug was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen in my life. I reached my other arm out and huddled forward, rubbing behind one of its ears.

Slowly, very slowly, it opened its mouth and levered its fangs out of my flesh. The wound didn't hurt nearly as much as it should. Was it like with mosquitoes? Didn't they have saliva that numbed the bite?

It opened its mouth and all the adoration and love I held in my heart started to be sucked out. It leaned closer, it's gaping throat near my chest as it drank the happiness and wonder in the world away—but I couldn't stop loving it. A moment later, or so it seemed, the world started getting fuzzy and I started to fall sideways.

The bug drew back from me while I struggled to keep myself conscious. "Delicious. You creatures are more tasty even than ponies. I cannot wait until we capture you all."

Even the revulsion I felt at the idea of becoming bugfood wasn't enough to stop the happy vibes from flowing. I reached out a hand toward the bug, only to have Azalea take hold of my wrist and start to pull me away.

The bug's laughter froze my soul. "Silly creature. Even now—even almost passing out—you still want to feed me more. If you come close again, I'll bite your other leg for you." 

"Shh, don't reply, Rod. Come on and we can kiss again." Azalea's voice stole my attention away from the bug and I looked into her beautiful green eyes. 

"Hey, bug, why don't you answer the question now?" Kennedy's voice seemed a long way away as Azalea helped me to my feet again and let me rest on her shoulder. 

"I love you, Azalea Bloom." I tried to whisper the words into her ear, but even to my ears it came out as a half-drunk slur. Then, when I leaned close to nibble her earlobe, I accidentally knocked my head against hers. "S-Sorry."

"No, the poison's making you love me."

"Ish not."

Her giggling died a moment later as she heaved me onto my bedroll. "Was that true what you said about drugs and pushers?" Stepping behind me, she sat down so her legs were each side of my body.

Leaning back, I felt the softness of her body under her robes support me. With my attention turning to the new topic, I sighed. "Yeah."

Her hands found my shoulders, pushing me forward a little, and then she started to slowly massage me. If I wasn't already bitten by the love-bug, I'd be melting at her feet in bliss. "If we didn't have this crazy magic I could—That is I still could, but it would—"

"I beat molly, I can get past this. The massage helps." Reaching down beside me, my hands felt her legs and I stroked back—under her robes—to find her thighs. "And the little bastard bit my arm. Now I'll be all lop-sided."

When her lips brushed my ear, I just about jumped. A shiver ran down my spine and I leaned back against her again. "I don't care if you're lop-sided. No more dealing with that damn bug, okay? We can get out of this without its help."

"I'm scared, Azalea."

"Shh. I'll take care of you tonight. Just relax."





Falling asleep in a beautiful witch's arms, wrapped in her warmth and with her promise to look out for me—how else could my dream start but relaxed and cozy. I turned in Azalea's arms and leaned in and kissed her.

The dream was turning even better. Somehow her robes turned into a slim nightgown and for the first time since meeting her, I saw—I saw—

"You want another bite. Admit it."

My blood ran cold as Azalea's face melted into that of a bug and she lunged at me—mouth opening unnaturally wide as she closed it on my collarbone and—

"Stop." The voice, not Azalea's and not the bug's, shook the very dream around me. For a moment it felt like I'd wake up, but cobalt light flared everywhere and gripped me tight. "Begone, nightmare. This creature's dreams are not fit for you."

The Azalea/bug was gone and I watched as a blue unicorn stepped into view. She radiated power unlike anything I'd felt—which was a steadily growing group now that I knew about magic. "Who are you?"

"My name is Luna, and I'm here to help." Her voice was so rich and warm that I could have just melted into it alone. As she spoke, however, Luna flared a pair of wings on her back impressively. "You know of the changelings?"

The word rang a bell. "The bugs? Yeah. Something happened in our world and it sucked a bunch of us through a portal, or so a friend called it. It closed off just as quick as it opened, and now we're stuck in a cave in what bug called its hive." 

"I feared as much. My sister has organized a rescue, but we will never be able to get into the hive itself. If you can get out, we can escort you back to safety." The way Luna spoke made it sound like she was in charge or something. Or partially. She did say her sister.

"I'll let the others know. Is there anything you can tell us about these changelings? One bit me, and when a friend used—"

"Do not let them bite you a second time. The effects of their poisons increase with application in both strength and duration." She paused, and I realized I must have had that look on my face. "How many times have they bitten you?"

"Just twice."

Luna looked furious. Dark black shadows shivered around the edge of her as she trembled with fury. "I will come there myself to fetch you. Do not let them bite you or anyone else again. If you can get free, do so."

The dream seemed to snap, breaking apart as a rush of black bodies drove Luna out of my head and jerked me from sleep.





Jolting awake, I felt a finger curling through the hair on my head and combing it with its siblings. "A-Azalea?"

"I don't think Kennedy would be doing this. Did you rest well, Rod?" Her voice was soft and caring with an edge of worry.

"I dreamed about a horse—no, a blue unicorn with wings. She seemed to be so real. She said—said I might be in trouble for getting bitten twice." I tried to shift around to face her, but Azalea's arms were too insistent and I couldn't muster enough willpower to slip free. "I don't think it was just a dream."

"Nothing in this world is just anything. The bug told Kennedy that no one has been replaced yet. He said it was strange but it seemed far more content to talk after feeding off you again, and that it even told him about recent skirmishes with the nation of—get this—Equestria. It's ruled by…" When Azalea trailed off, I wondered if she was going to continue. "Two ponies with horns and wings, one white and one dark blue."

"She—Luna—said her sister was organizing a rescue force. That must be the white one." The more I spoke, the clearer my thoughts became. I tried to move again but caught sight of my arm. 

Midway to my shoulder my skin was black and it didn't stop all the way to my fingers. I reached a finger of my left hand over and tapped the dark skin—it was hard, too. "How much longer before I end up needing to eat love, too?"

"We'll worry about that bridge when we come to it. Apart from this"—she gestured at my arm and leg—"how do you feel?"

"Like it pulled something out of me. It's kinda easier to deal with this though. Its bite makes me—It's like E times a hundred. I looked at the bug and was instantly in love with it. Like, head-over-heels. But then it took that away." Turning against her, I wrapped my arms around Azalea and clung to her.

Azalea's arms slid around my back and held me. What little of the bug's poison was still in me wasn't needed for me to love her. Okay, so it might have started more as lust mixed with magic venom, but I really liked her. "You aren't to get bitten by that thing again, do you hear me, Rod?" After a while of neither of us saying anything, she sighed. "Rod, you don't have to be the tough guy to take all the hits. You've already done a lot to help us, let us help you now."

"It's just that I feel like I need to be helping and active. I want to protect you." The last bit had slipped out in a rush.

"And you have, maybe too much. I'm a witch, Rod, let me use my power and protect you for a little bit." When she kissed me, I felt a surge in warmth both inside and out. Tilting my head a little let her deepen her angle and lean a little over me.

We were both right. I wanted to protect her, but thanks to my efforts I wasn't able to right now. I remembered back to her standing between me and whatever it had been Kennedy was going to do, and I found my lips curling against hers, forming a smile.

When she broke the kiss (because I certainly had no plans to), she let out a sigh. "I mean it, but at the same time I don't think we're getting out of here without a lot of work."

"Yeah. At the best I think we're going to have to meet Luna halfway. At first she didn't sound like they would be able to get to us, but she got angry and told me they'd try. So how do we fight them and get out? If we had some guns it'd be a lot easier." Much as I was loathe to admit it, the American ideal of a gun on every hip was sorely needed right now—so why didn't they have them?

"Much as I normally don't admire the second amendment, it would have been convenient to have someone with a rifle or two get pulled into this. That leaves us with just magic." Azalea held up her crystalline hands and sighed. "You know, it's about time I faced reality and got this over with. You need a witch who's confident with her casting, not someone who fears every spell's cost."

"What do you mean? Are you—?"

Azalea stood up slowly, kissing my cheek to distract me enough to let her go. When she drew her wand, I finally realized what she meant to do, but it was too late. Chanting words I could scarcely follow, she began to whip her wand around and made bright lights flicker around.

Every time she shouted a word and gestured with her wand, she changed more. The crystal pattern climbed up her neck and I watched her face push out into a muzzle while a pair of pointy ears topped her head. Then… she stopped changing. She slung spell after spell, grunting and cursing between words, but nothing else changed. What was most astounding of all was the horn that now protruded from just above her forehead. 

Unicorn.

Standing up, I walked over to her and reached for her wrist—the one holding her wand. "Hey, I think it's done with you. Calm down."

"But it's not done!"

"You seem done." Reaching up to her shoulders, I took a firm grip on her robes and pulled them down from her shoulders. This pulled her arms in against her side and stopped her casting. "Azalea Bloom, this is it."

She stared at me for a few moments, her big (bigger than they'd been) eyes wide and her mouth slightly open. Then she slowly adjusted her clothes to pull her robes up and free her arms more fully. "Why didn't I change fully?"

"Okay, so if we assume that you haven't changed fully, could it be bigger spells are needed? How many big spells did Howlover cast to get how she is?"

"N-None. It was lots of little stuff, sorta. Nothing bigger than what I just did. Ugh, this mouth is annoying to talk with—there's too much tongue in here." Azalea reached her free hand up to poke at her mouth. "I guess I look pretty weird now, right?"

"Okay, so there's something about me you should probably know." I reached my inky-black finger under her chin and tilted it up so I could look along her cute little snout and into her eyes.

"You're not serious?" Looking at me with a grin slowly growing on her face, Azalea looked about to break into laughter. "I'm all fuzzy now and I've got these—"

I didn't give her a chance, kissing her cute lips just once before breaking contact again. "I'll keep going until I've convinced you."

"Is that an incentive not to be convi—" 

I kissed her again and got her to smile a little.

"—nced. You don't mind this?" She leaned forward and kissed me this time, and there was no way in hell I would recoil or not give the kiss my full attention. Azalea, however, was quick to pull back. "You really are okay with this?"

I kissed her again, though she actually giggled mid-kiss this time. When I pulled back once more, I realized that this was definitely not going to get in the way. "Are we done, or will you need more kissing?"

"Definitely more, but that can wait. I need to talk to Kennedy and the others about—about this." Azalea gestured to herself for emphasis, though I could figure the extent of what she meant. 

"You want some support?"

She looked about to say something, paused, then smiled. "I've got this, but if you want to come, feel free."

I'd made my mind up to go with her, but I was still curious. "What were you going to say?"

"I was going to say it's not really the kind of stuff for non-wizardkind, but that's not how we have to think here. We have to work together, like I said, or we're going to get literally eaten." She held out her hand to me and I reached out to take it.

"Just make sure to use small words so I can follow along." 





We'd found the other wizards and witches discussing Kennedy's findings. Of the six that had wound up here, Howlover and Kennedy were the only two I knew apart from Azalea. Azalea's look earned immediate questions, to which she'd explained what had happened. She got another round of questions that, surprisingly, followed the same track I'd gone down.

"What about your horn? Did it do anything while you were casting?" Kennedy asked.

Azalea looked at me. "Horn?"

"Yeah, uh, I'd forgotten about that some time around when I was trying to calm down a witch." I tried to look far more innocent than I felt while she glared at me, then closed her eyes. "It looks good on you."

"I'll get back to that later. So far, all I know is, I can cast magic with my wand without repercussion. Right now, apart from Howlover and myself, all of you are hoarding every spell. I did this because, as a witch, I couldn't live like that." She sounded like she'd given up on the horn thing, but I knew well enough that we'd be talking about it in private. "But there's more you're going to want to hear. Rod had a strange dream."

I expected them all to scoff and roll their eyes, but the five of them looked at me with curious anticipation. "After I let the bug bite me so Kennedy could get some info out of it, I passed out and dreamt of a pony. She was dark blue with wings and a horn"—I nodded toward Azalea—"and she seemed able to make the dream like one of… what do they call it?"

"A lucid dream?" a witch asked. "Sorry, I don't think we've been introduced. My name is Stefanie Wandwave."

"Thanks, Stefanie." I said. "It was exactly that. While she was there, we both talked and thought clearly and she explained a few things to me. First is that she and her sister have an army marching for us to help. Second, at least at first, she said they wouldn't be able to enter the hive, but when I explained what was happening, she said she'd try. Her name was Luna."

"Could we apparate everyone out? One by one?" the youngest of the wizards asked. He looked to be no more than about sixteen at most. "That'd work, right?"

"You don't have your apparition license yet, do you Bandy?" Azalea asked. When the teen shook his head, Azalea nodded. "Well, we'd need a target to get to. You can't apparate without a target without splinching."

"splinching?" I asked. "Small words for the non-wizard, remember?"

"An accident. Usually takes several specialist wizards to straighten out, often leaves the splinchee with something inside-out for the rest of their life." Howlover's description was enough for me to never want to do anything that resulted in splinching.

"Okay, but you can carry someone with it." I nodded to the teenage wizard. "And you can do this apparition over and over? It sounds like teleporting."

"Pretty much," the teen wizard said. "It can also leave you feeling really sick, particularly if you do several in a row."

"Right, but sick is better than eaten. If you took someone with you—someone who can look after themselves, and did this apparition thing across each cave, trying to head up every time, you could get out. And then, once you're out, you could come back in here and take another wizard out as well," I said, "and skip all the little steps in the middle."

As I described it, the teen looked more and more excited. "It'd be just like skipping a stone across a pond, only, when it gets to the other side, you can just throw the stones back and forth."

"It sounds dangerous." Azalea looked at me with as much honesty in her face as I think she could muster. "But if things become anymore dangerous here we might just have to face up to that. Why don't we file that away?"

The others all nodded to that.

"Then we need to fight our way out," I said.

"I like the way you think, Rodney Johnstone. I like it indeed. Are you sure there's not a trace of wizardry in your family?" the sixth of the wizards asked. He was a nice-looking old man with glasses, smile-lines all around his face, and a heavy five-o'clock shadow. The latter was caused by the fact we hadn't exactly had a chance to shave and shower for several days now. When I shook my head, he smiled. "Well, enough that you have a good head on your shoulders. My name's Albert, Albert Hornswaggle. I don't know if my great-grandson Bandy here has introduced himself or not either, but like him I find myself curious as to what your plan is."

I had to wonder how old a wizard had to be that he would look old, given Azalea was in her forties and looked twenty. "Well, sir, the most important thing is to contact this Luna again and find out when she and her army will be ready to protect us. There's no point exhausting ourselves getting out of this hole if the bugs just swarm out and drag us back in. We need to coordinate anything we do. Also, asking her for advice on fighting the bugs would probably be smart, too."

"Good head on your shoulders, lad. Shame you haven't got any magic in you—you'd make a fine wizard. So, what does everyone else have?" Albert looked around the others. "Anyone?"

"I don't think any of us are Aurors or trained to fight. I'm certainly not." Azalea's hand squeezed mine, but for what reason I didn't know. "We should ask around the others. You never know when someone you thought insignificant turns out to be far more than you realized." 

"We may not all be Aurors, but that doesn't mean we can't use stunners to knock them out. Kennedy proved they work with the captured bug." Albert's words were inspiring, or so it seemed. All the wizards and witches seemed to sit up a little straighter. "But you are wrong, Miss Bloom, we do have a wizard with us who is trained for such combat. Or, rather, he is training for it." He turned his gaze to look at Bandy. "Lad?"

Everyone turned to look at the kid. He seemed like he'd barely be 18—but I had to remind myself that he'd be old enough to join the army in that case. 

"I—I was in training for the Special Auror devision at MACUSA. It was a new group working under the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I can teach you some spells if you want, but it—it would mean I'm going to change, right?"

Albert sighed and nodded. "It would seem that way, Bandy. There's no telling how much, or so it seems, but you will change." 

"Then I'll change. How can I stand back when everything I always wanted to be is right here? I want to protect people, wizard; witch; and——." He nodded to me. "It's time I put my mouth where my heart is. Okay, let me see your stunners."

Standing up, I was acutely aware of a sense of resignation among them. Howlover and Azalea aside, the rest had been fighting to keep their humanity. "I'll go talk to the others. Hopefully someone knows a thing or two about the kind of fighting we're going to need to do."

Kennedy still looked a little out of sorts with having me around their little meeting, but he seemed far more tolerant now. Maybe it was just a fear thing? I bit my lip as I realized the horror they were facing was the same as my own. I'd been an insensitive bastard. "Thanks. For what you're doing, I mean. I think I know a little of what you're all dealing with"—I tapped my right arm with the knuckles of my left and got a good thok sound—"and I appreciate this."

They all looked at my arm, and I saw Bandy gulp visibly. Not knowing what else to say, I turned and left them there to work out what they could do and what their plans were.

There was about thirty of us here—non-wizard/witches—and it was to the main group that I approached. 

Daphne was sitting there talking with the others. When she saw me, she raised an eyebrow. "What's up, Rod? Your friends freaking out or something?"

"Yeah, and I kinda get why. Azalea got fed up not using her magic and just wanted to get it over with—so she cast a heap of spells and didn't wind up like Howlover. They're trying to work out why and work out how they can be useful in us getting out of here." I noticed a few of them seemed to twitch at mention of magic or spells. I guess there are bigots on both sides of this fence. "But there's something else."

I explained the dream to them, going through it a little easier now I'd had practice. When I got to the end, I wasn't terribly surprised to see a lot of disbelieving looks. "Kennedy got a description of the blue pony from the bug earlier."

"Okay, and where does that leave us? It's not like we can just walk out of here. We don't even know where out is." I didn't know half of the people here, but the one who spoke was one of the ones who'd been twitchy about my talking of magic.

"Jake you idiot. It leaves us in a fucking hole filled with monsters. He's just trying to tell us we might have a damn chance in hell of getting out," someone said, then others started arguing for one side or the other.

"But this is all unnatural!"

"We need to get out sometime!"

I lifted my hand to my forehead and rubbed. Apparently it was going to be one of those days. "Look, either we work this out or the bugs come in and pick us off one by one! You know what they do with us, right?!"

My first few words were lost to the argument, but people went quiet to hear because at the heart of every emotionally stable and smart human was a caveman who wanted to hear about the scary things outside their cave. 

"Well?" I asked. When there was a soft mumble among the group that I took to be yes, I continued. "They will bite you until all you can think about is how much you love everything, then they stuff you into some kind of pod, and then they eat that love. You live out the rest of your days drugged up to your ears and in hell. I've felt what it's like when one feeds—it's not fun.

"So keep arguing about fucking semantics. Keep this bullshit facade of this being someone else's problem. Keep waiting around for the bugs to get in here and bite you, because if you keep doing this, that's what'll happen.

"I'm not saying these others are nice people. I'm not saying that the wizards over there will be saints. All I'm saying is that we put survival first and worry about arguing the finer points of theology when we're not trapped in a hole with monsters all around."

The group were quiet. It took a few minutes for a woman to ask, "How do you know so much about them?" Her eyes were flicking from my arm to my leg and back.

"Because he's turning into one!"

I was pleased to see someone thump the guy who'd spoken in the shoulder. "The one we have bit me and fed from me. Before you ask, it really sucks—both parts. The reason for this and this"—I tapped my arm gestured to my leg—"is because someone tried to work out what the poison they inject does and the magic made this happen. And before you ask, no, I don't hold a grudge for that."

"But what can we do?" That, I realized, was Daphne. She had a cunning smile that told me she was baiting for me.

Best not to give away that this was exactly what I wanted asked. I tried to roll my eyes a little. "Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but I have no idea how to fight—and I mean really fight. But, when it comes to getting the hell out of here and fighting through a bunch of bugs to do it, I'm happy to learn. Is there anyone here with any military or police experience?"

"Howard has. He used to be a cop before he retired," a woman toward the back said.

The man beside her looked like a weed. He was tall and gray-haired, wearing an old sweatshirt that looked like it had seen better days (kinda like all of our clothing right now). "Yeah, I was. What of it?"

"Got any tips or ideas, because all I know is how to swing a hockey stick so it'll take someone's shins out." I gave him my best Canadian Smile, the one that had gotten me all the way from the border to New York on the kindness of strangers.

"You don't need a cop. You need someone who's done martial arts." The old guy—Howard—smirked at me. "I won't say I'm any good, but I learned a few things that way. Staves would be your best bet. They can be made out of anything and even a novice can thump one of them bugs with a length of wood."

It was such a simple idea, and so similar to me using a hockey stick, that I was stunned at it. "Can you get some people to help you search for staves and then see about getting some targets to practice on?"





The day went well. All the guys grabbed up our improvised weapons, and most of the women did too. I guess I always knew some of them wouldn't go for it, but seeing a young lady complain about breaking a nail actually stung. This would be a fight for our lives, and she was ready to give up just because it would be unfashionable and unladylike to fight.

"You look grumpy."

"I am grumpy. They would have still been arguing as the bugs came in to bite them if I hadn't used my secret weapon." I couldn't help myself, I let out a little moan as Azalea's thumbs pressed hard into the muscles where my collarbone met my neck.

"You have a secret weapon?" As she spoke, she adjusted her grip and rolled her thumbs down and along my shoulders. "What is it?"

"I'll tell you, but only because you keep doing—ohhh—that. I yelled at them, then I used my Canadian look." When she took her hands off my shoulders, I actually let out a little whine. "Why'd you stop?"

"Use this look on me. I gotta see this."

When she sat down in front of me, I realized that at some point she'd taken her robes off. I'd seen bits and pieces, but I'd never seen Azalea Bloom just wearing her charcoal skirt and white shirt. The amazing green crystal her body had become only made her more beautiful—at least in my eyes.

Looking at her, I gave her my best smile, tilted my head a little, and hoped for the best.

"That's… honestly pretty good. I can see why it worked on other people." She reached one emerald digit up and tapped my nose. "But I am wise to your sneaky, Canadian ways." She looked down at my chest and reached her other hand out to place it on the hard black stuff that my skin had become, in the middle of my chest. "How are you feeling about all this?"

"Honestly? About the same as you did earlier. I want it over with so I can start to adjust to whatever I'm going to turn into. If I become a bug, well, at least I can change to look like my old self." I looked down at her hand and sighed. "It's strange how hard it is. Like an insect."

"Except at your joints. Here." Her hand trailed up my chest to my shoulder and her fingers traced the joint there. "I don't think you're going to become a bug all the way. Maybe you'll just be like me?"

"Yeah. At least I could still hold your hand that way. Did you guys figure out how your horn works? It's gotta be magical, right?" I reached my still-human hand up and brushed her forehead first, then gently touched the base of her horn. The look on her face as I did so almost made me pull away.

Biting her lip, Azalea blushed up a storm. "N-No idea. It could be magical, but for now I'll stick to using my wand. I kno—know it works." As she spoke, and stumbled on her words, she leaned forward a little.

"A little sensitive?" I asked.

"Y-Yeah."

"Want me to stop?" I let my finger slide along the side of her horn. It was remarkable how warm it was. I wonder if deer antlers are like this?

Her smile grew while her eyes seemed to lose a little focus. "O-Only if you want me to—to be able to think straight." 

"Azalea Bloom, you're the smartest, most beautiful woman I've ever met, you thinking straight is what's so attractive about you." I drew my finger down to the base of her horn and started pulling it back—but she leaned forward to follow the touch. It was only when her lips bumped mine that I was able to remove my hand from her horn completely, though now I had her in a kiss.

Something burned hotter inside of me when we kissed. It was like a small inferno that just grew stronger and stronger the longer we were together. Was this love? Was I in love with her, despite that damn bug's attempts to eat all my love?

Azalea broke the kiss first. "What did you just do?"

The heat was still there, but it didn't get stronger anymore. Azalea, however, had my attention with her serious tone. "W-What do you mean?"

"It was like there was some kind of magical connection between us. I could feel you—" She stopped and closed her eyes. "Rod, firstly, don't panic about this, okay?"

"Telling me not to panic is a great way to ensure I panic. What shouldn't I panic about so much that I panic?" It was only mostly a joke. Mostly.

"I think I just felt you draining some of the love out of me, like how you explained the bug did. Don't"—she grabbed my arm, stopping me from recoiling—"think of this as a bad thing. You're still you, Rod, and I don't think whatever this is is inherently bad." Her eyes pinned mine despite my desire to turn and run—she wouldn't let me.

"But I—" I ran headlong (metaphorically) into the brick wall that I'd put up for myself. "I'm turning into a bug. I already knew that. So what does this mean?"

"It means, I think, that you might get some kind of magic out of it too. What is the bug able to do? I hate that we have to keep doing this, but maybe talking to the one we have might help?" Holding up a hand, Azalea added, "But only talking. Not offering it food or anything."

"You said—" I blew out a breath. "Don't let me get close to it and don't get close to it either."

Looking at my left arm, the one that wasn't fully black yet, I could see the blackness spreading—far faster than before. "It's sped up."

"But you still have your hand on the right. That must mean that you're like me. You won't go any further. Howlover said she never had a point where her hands turned to crystal—they turned into crystal hooves." We started walking toward the location of the cage. "I can ask it myself, if you want. I don't like threatening creatures, but given how it acted so far…" 

"No. No, I need to stand up to them." I put my arm around her shoulders and pulled her against me. Azalea was warm, so full of life and beauty. I was becoming what, a half-bug love-vampire? "Are there any creatures like these bugs back home?"

"Bits and pieces. The Brits have some nasties that feed off hope and happiness. They're kinda like wraiths, or so I hear. Shapechanging is something that's a little rare, though there are werewolves and such that do it." Azalea ticked off her fingers as she spoke, which led me to believe she was working through a set of traits she'd identified in the bug. "And the venomous bite is something odd, but hardly unique. Even normal snakes can give a deadly bite, though I don't think I've ever seen something that uses its venom to induce that kind of reaction before."

"You know a lot about monsters and stuff?" As I walked, I could feel the changes speeding up. Before it had been Azalea's magic that had made it start, but if I'd eaten some of her love, did that mean I was fueling it myself now? 

"Not really. Mostly rumors. I'm a city-girl. I make my living selling cars and trying my damnedest to avoid using anything magical to do it. All the magic in the world doesn't help you if you can't afford to buy food or pay rent." 

"That's just so—so mundane. You really sell cars?" It was good to have a distraction from what was happening to my body, what was happening to everyone here, and what was about to happen. 

"New ones, yeah. I have a suit I wear and everything. What, you think I spend all day wandering the street in my robes? This is sort of—sort of like armor. My boss doesn't have a shred of magic, but his father was a wizard. He understands it's a good idea to keep a witch on the premises." She let out a sad sigh. "I bet he's wondering where I am."

We were getting close to the cage and both of us fell silent as we got withing hearing distance of it. The bug lifted its head and looked at us. "You don't smell so delicious anymore. Did your shell catch up with you?"

"My what?"

"Shell." The bug reached a hoof back and tapped at its midsection, which made a sort of thok thok thok sound. "Your friend still smells goo"—its head snapped around to look at me directly and its eyes widened—"d. You fed from them!"

"You did this to him. What is going on?" Azalea asked.

"Tsk tsk tsk. We both did this to him. I provided the venom, you provided the magic. It's strange how mutable your kind is. If I didn't know better, I'd say you smell almost like a pony." The bug stood up slowly and walked to the bars before reaching its head through. "Come closer and I can check."

"You hurt her and I'll bite you so hard your—I'll break something." I crouched down well outside of its reach. "You don't sound as hungry, though. You said I was tasty, but was I also filling."

The bug actually looked slightly embarrassed. It recoiled a little and hung its head, then mumbled something.

"Oh. Now you go all quiet? I'm right, aren't I?" I pointed one inky-black index finger at the bug. "You're full and you don't want to admit it."

The bug looked a mix of murderous and embarrassed.

"Let me guess, you don't eat this well with your buddies, huh?" As cocky as I felt, the sensation of hard casing creeping up my neck made it hard to project the level of smug I wanted. "Here are you, living in paradise with so many meals all around you—one practically giving itself to you. What's going to happen if we let you go and you crawl back to your buddies this full?"

"They'll drain me. Or our queen will drain me. Since our defeat in Canterlot, food has been scarce. Too many of us." The bug looked down at its forehooves—hanging its head.

Azalea cleared her throat. "So help us. We're going to get out of here. Help us—guide us out—and we'll make sure you stay well-fed."

Hissing, the bug lifted its head and looked up at Azalea. "Who would let a changeling feed on them? You?" 

"I let him feed. You help us get out of here and you'll find a lot of people will be happy enough to let you feed." She crouched down to look the bug—or changeling, as it called itself—eye to eye. "What's keeping you here, anyway?"

"You don't understand. If I help you—even if I guided you to the shortest possible path to the surface, there will be hundreds of my siblings waiting. You don't even realize where you are, do you? This is a defensible position. If you pushed your front line up further, you'd have access to the lower caves, which would mean water and food for your kind."

"Hundreds?" I asked.

"Hundreds. We attacked Canterlot 5,000 strong. If she finds out how filling your love is, she'll send everybuggy down here. There'll be so many changeling you won't be able to breathe." The changeling stared at me. "You won't stand a chance."

"So we can't ever let you go. Why'd you tell us that?" Azalea asked.

Turning around and laying flat on the floor of its cage, the changeling let out a sigh. "It's nice not being hungry. If I sell you out to Queen Chrysalis, she'll see to it the closest thing to another taste of any of you will be a trickle of love from a pod."

"You know these caves. You know how to defend them and how to make the most of the places they can lead." I reached up to where the black was creeping to the underside of my neck. There was a series of gaps, like with my elbows and knees, to let my head move on my neck. "Show us and you can keep eating well."

"You'd need more than one of us to have a hope."

It was interesting to hear. "How many? And do you think you can trust any—"

"I can trust my nest-mates. You need to keep up your side of the deal. There'll be six of us. If you can keep us all well-fed, we'll show you how to survive down here." The changeling stood up and turned toward us. "Well?"

"How much food do you need? You fed off me twice and Azalea once. How long will that last you?" I asked and stood up.

"That much a week would be enough. It'd be safer if it was three different creatures, too." Walking to the cage, the changeling shapeshifted into a bee and walked through the gap. When we both recoiled, it shapechanged again into a form more like what I felt I was becoming. It stood there—upright—and looked me in the eyes. "I'll need to find my nest-mates."

"We have to just trust you? What's your name?" Azalea asked.

The changeling smiled at us with a cocky, very-human grin. "Mandible. I'll be back in an hour."

All it would take is one shout from either of us and the others would come running and probably kill Mandible. If it was right about calling in its swarm, and it still went ahead and did it, we were not going to get out of here.

"Alright. Keep out of the light and most people will think you're me." I pointed toward the tunnel that left our cave.





"You did what?" Kennedy stared between me and Azalea. "How could you? There was still—" He looked haggard. Like he'd spent a lot of time doing something that he wasn't accustomed to.

"I trust Mandible. I don't think we're going to be getting out of here soon. It admitted there were hundreds of its kin between us and the surface. Even our crazy rapid-teleport idea wouldn't work with that many." Azalea's words were pretty much the same as mine. She gestured to me. "Rod thinks the same thing."

"Yeah I do. The thing that got me the most about this talk with it was how much it showed emotion. I think even the changeling didn't realize how much of an effect a good meal would have. Guess that means I kinda defeated it with love, huh?" As I spoke, I reached up to my face and rubbed at the growing snout that, even as I spoke, was pushing little by little forward.

Scoffing, Kennedy waved a hand in the direction of the entrance. "And if you're wrong—?"

"If we're wrong," I said, "it tells its whole hive we're still down here. Something they already know."

"You weren't wrong." The voice I knew. I turned to see Mandible standing behind me in the shadows. Since the change had risen to my face, I'd found my eyesight getting better. "These are my kin: Wing, Buzz, Bite, Nib, and Claw. You have food for them?" As Mandible spoke, it gestured to each of the other changelings with it.

"Food for us," Bite said.

Six of them all up, but we only had to feed five immediately.

"Take some of mine." As she spoke, Azalea reached out and grabbed my shoulders to pull me closer. I wasn't exactly ready for her kiss, but when her lips touched mine I melted against her.

This time, as I felt the warmth inside her, I also felt five other presences sharing it with me. Jealousy, anger, and more boiled up inside, but she just clung tighter to me and, at last, broke the kiss.

"Stop. Stop feeding from me." Azalea sounded a little drunk as she spoke. 

Mandible moved faster than I would have expected a changeling could move. It smacked at each of its kin. "I told you, they're allies and food. When they say stop, you stop. It's their job to find us food."

The feeding sensation was instantly gone. I looked into Azalea's eyes and saw relief in them. "Are you alright?"

"Y-Yeah. It wasn't too bad—well, it's not bad now. When they were doing it, though, felt pretty horrible." She tilted her head up and gave me no other option than to meet her lips with my own. The heat inside her flared white hot, as if she were renewing all the love they'd drunk from her. I didn't dare feed, not now. 

"Look how much love she still has! Can't we have just a little?" I don't know which of the bugs said it, but it wasn't Mandible.

"No." This was Mandible. I don't know how I could pick its voice out from the other bugs, but it was distinguishable. "What you just had was more than any bug has been given for a long time. I told you these creatures were fair—trust me."

"How are we meant to trust you?" Kennedy's voice broke my mood for kissing Azalea (something I wasn't sure was actually possible).

Azalea was smiling again. The bright warmth of her love felt like a warm blanket to me. "Because Rod trusts them, and Rod's the only one here who's standing up to take the lead."

When the hell did this happen? I couldn't be a leader—I'm a freakin' ex-junkie sports fan who just wanted to see a damn hockey game! 

"Rod—" Mandible's voice again. I couldn't turn my head to see it because my back was to the bugs and Azalea still hadn't let go after the kisses, "sacrificed himself repeatedly to get information out of me. He let me feed until I was almost besotted by him. Then, when I thought everything was hopeless and I'd be ripped apart by either side—he talked to me."

Gently pulling from Azalea's grip just enough to turn, I saw the changelings were all looking up at me.

Sighing out loud, Kennedy shook his head. "And the insane thing is I trust him too—for some of the same reasons. You're not a wizard, Rodney Johnstone, but you understand us enough that I can admire your flexibility. So what do you have planned?"

I wanted to tell them all to just fuck off. This wasn't what I signed on for—I didn't even sign on at all! Instead, my mind raced to work out what we should be doing. "Wizards and changelings only account for two of our three groups. We need to all get together and talk about what we are going to do. First, though, what of the hive? Are they going to attack us soon?"

"Nope," one of the changelings said. "They're waiting for you to starve yourselves and try to run. What I don't get is why Mandible got caught."

"I was hungry, Bite. Like you all were," Mandible said.

"'Were' being the important bit there. If you can find us a safe place and food, we'll keep you all fed." I met the eyes of the changelings. They all looked so much less threatening now I know they're just people looking for food and safety too. Knowing how they normally got food, though, reminded me that we had to be careful with the rest of them. "Come on. Time to get the whole gang together. Kennedy, can you get all the wizards to meet up further in?"

Kennedy looked back toward the entrance to our caves. "We need someone on guard, Rod. They have a right to know what's going on too, but we—"

"Then we'll hold the meeting up here," I said. "Get the wizards and meet us here. I'll go get the rest of us."

It took some time, and I get plenty of strange looks while wandering between each little camp, but I managed to persuade everyone to join the meeting for one important reason—we were going to decide something important. People, I knew, hated to be left out of these kinds of things.

I led the last group up to the entrance myself. There was a bunch of people already there, the group of wizards, and Azalea standing between them all and the changelings. "Just stay calm, I invited them here."

"You invited them? They'll bring the rest of the bugs with them!" The voices of the crowd were almost impossible to pinpoint.

"You're crazy!"

"You're turning into one!"

"Hold it," I said. "I might be crazy and I might be turning into one a bit, but right now they're the best chance we have of surviving. There're thousands of them up there"—I nodded toward the entrance to our cave section—"and they're just waiting for us to run out of food, luck, or patience. We could each take out fifty of them, and they'd still overwhelm us."

"It's true." Mandible's voice silenced everyone before they did more than open their mouths. "Queen Chrysalis and our former hive are waiting. They have time, you don't. We don't."

"So why did you come down here, then?" 

Laughing with a hissing sound, Mandible pointed one hole-filled hoof upward. "Because we're sick of being hungry! Our queen grew our hive too big to be supported on the food we have, and that means no changeling gets more than the bare minimum to live. If you let us feed on you—just a little is enough—then we'll show you where a better spot is. A larger cave with only a single entrance and food you can eat."

"It's a trick!" 

"But what if it isn't?"

That's what I wanted to hear. I cleared my throat. "If it isn't a trick, and we can't get out of here, and we can get to a safer chamber that we can survive in long-term—maybe long enough for our wizard friends to figure a way out of—then we have to take it."

Albert Hornswaggle stepped forward from among the wizards and looked me right in my eyes. "And you believe it's not a trick?"

"They were starving, I could tell that when they fed on Azalea. No one should have to live like that. If they're not sincere, then I don't care. They should be allowed a chance to live." Looking around at everyone, I could see faces tighten at mention of starvation—something we were all facing here. I settled my view on the changelings. "You said you know where there's food for us?"

"Nib found it. Mushrooms and other fungi growing in the deep caves. There's an underground river there too. You'll never find it without us." Mandible stood proud and looked me in the eyes. "You want our help, you feed us. We feed you. We guard each other."

"W-What do you need to eat?" Howard Rourke stepped to the front of the crowd. "Rod there said it was love? I haven't got any love left in me."

Walking up to Howard, one of the changelings that wasn't Mandible looked him up and down, sniffing. Its long tongue snaked out and slid across its mouth—avoiding its fangs. "You stink of love. Lots of love. Can I show you?"

"Sure, but—" Howard's eyes went wide as the changeling opened its mouth and started to suck something. He stared at the changeling for several seconds before tears came to his eyes. "I—I didn't even think I still…"

"You are full of love. You all are. It swirls around you and through you. Feed us, let us show you the love you forgot you had, let us show you by drinking it." Any feeding the changeling had been doing was well over. Howard didn't look any worse for it, apart from the tears on the old man's cheeks. "For that I'll help you. For that I'll show you where I found the food you might eat." That made the changeling Nib.

Lifting an arm up to wipe his tears away on a dirty sleeve, Howard crouched down and still wasn't at the same eye-height as Nib. "If that's all it takes to get us somewhere safer, have a bit more."

Nib made short, fast hisses that confused me at first, until I realized it was giggling. "Never in my life have I said this, but I'm full enough for now. We'll take you to the place."

"Hold on!" A woman strode forward and jabbed a finger at me. She looked angry, but I couldn't for the life of me remember her name. "You said we'd be getting out of here! You said we would fight our way through! You said—"

"He didn't know how many of us there are." Mandible walked up to stand beside me. "This—what you have in here—is a tiny fraction of our hive. It is vast and spreads out above and below ground. We are almost at the bottom of it here, and there's half the hive above you—waiting in the tunnels."

"How many—ah, changelings—are in your hive again?" Albert Hornswaggle asked.

"We had five thousand at the attack on Canterlot. Not all of us made it back, but our queen was seeing to fixing the losses." Nib's words stunned everyone. 

Albert sucked in air sharply at the numbers. "And what will happen if they find you here with us?"

"The same that happens to you. They'll suck all the love out of us, only when they do it to us, we die." Nib shrugged its shoulders. "But with you, life will have meaning and more food. Mostly the latter."

Albert turned to look at Howard and the woman who'd voiced her dislike of it. "What are your thoughts? We'll all bear the brunt of feeding them, but you are more numerous and I can respect your differing opinions."

"Five thousand?" The woman looked sobered. "How hard will it be to reach this cave? Can we do it without losing anyone?"

Mandible grinned, showing more than his two huge fangs. "If we silence the guards watching the passages, yes."

It was like a wave of new energy flowing over everyone. Realizing that the changelings would be fighting with us was a kick in the pants. Talk started, and none of it sounded angry anymore.

Howard Rourke looked at me. "When are we going?"

"Tomorrow. I have to talk with someone first."





The dream barely lasted long enough for me to recognize Azalea before I was alone in the dreamspace with Luna again. She looked at me in shock. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"You—Your appearance is very different." She sounded worried, I guess I couldn't blame her. "How goes your preparations?"

"Well, their venom combined with our magic did something that turned me into—" I looked down at myself. The black snout I'd been growing was visible, as was most of my chitinous body where my clothes didn't cover. "… this. It seems to have stopped here, though I can feel fangs growing in. I have no idea how I'll talk then, but so far it's not too bad.

"Our preparations have stopped. Mandible and the others have told us that about half the hive sits between us and free air, so we're not going to try for it. Thousands of changelings versus the few dozen of us?"

Luna's face pulled into a tight grimace. "What are your plans, then? And who is this Mandible?"

Given our last talk, I already knew what her thoughts were going to be on this. "Mandible, Wing, Buzz, Bite, Nib, and Claw are changelings. They have been starving while their queen just makes more of them—no, I don't want to know how that works. The point is, we can give them the food they want and they can lead us to a cave that's safer for us. Somewhere that has food."

"What of our army? What would you have of us?" Luna asked.

"I think it would be safer for all of us if you didn't come. The changelings might be starving, but they have numbers. Mandible estimated over five thousand in total, and they'll be on their home-ground." I sighed and sat down on the cool grass under a moonlight night in my dream. "I want to be out of this place—everyone does—but for now we're going to have to sit tight and take any help we can get down here."

"Perhaps we can provide something yet. A fake rescue and invasion would draw their attention away from you and, so long as we don't directly enter the hive, not put our soldiers in danger." She sat down and looked at me. "It still worries me that you're consorting with changelings. As yet, we have been unable to contact a single one that hasn't been following Queen Chrysalis' every order, and they are extremely deceptive creatures."

"Well, humans have been pretty good at that too. We even made games about it." It was true. I mean, card games have been about deception for a long time, and magic tricks too. "I'd like to keep in touch, though. One day we'll find a way out of here, and when we do it would be nice to have friends waiting for us."

She seemed to think on it and nodded. "We will contact the other humans who have arrived and ask for them to help us work out something. The distraction on the hive will begin in a day. Until then, please stay safe."

"We're not going to be safe until we're out of this hive, but thank you, Luna." I figured I shouldn't use any titles, even if I now knew she was a princess. After all, I was still a good Canadian boy—Queen Elizabeth and her family are the only royalty I should acknowledge.

The dream faded into something far less focused. By the time I woke, I couldn't remember anything but Luna's dream.





Over the following day we trained more. The changelings helped explain their tactics to us, and we worked out ways for them to communicate with us without words—whistles, hisses, stomping hooves. When we actually started moving, we were as ready as a few days of training could make us (which wasn't a lot).

My changes had, thankfully, stopped, but not before gracing my back with a pair of translucent wings and my forehead with a curved, black horn. Not that I wanted to risk using either without more than half a day's training.

Everyone was carrying something. We had some pulling the hotdog cart, others carrying as much extra clothing as they could from suitcases that'd been pulled through the portal with us. On my own back was a suitcase stuffed full of cookware. 

In the distance, down the tunnel we were all getting ready to walk down, I saw movement. "They're coming back."

Mandible was in the lead of three of the six changelings. After just a day I'd managed to work out little differences between them and could at least tell them apart. "Come. Bite and Claw have the guards restrained. We only have a single patrol to ambush and it should be an easy run to the lower caves."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Azalea asked. "Let's go."

"Yeah." I turned to all the people spread out down the tunnel. "We're moving. Come on, and don't forget to keep track of your buddy. If your buddy goes missing, let us know right away."

It was the best plan I could come up with. Get everyone paired up, that way if a loyalist changeling tried to infiltrate our column, someone would notice. I hoped someone would notice, anyway.

Wing and Buzz headed back down the tunnel while we all started moving. Light would have been a problem, but we had wizards at various intervals of our column with light spells letting everyone see. 

Azalea let out a soft sigh. She was walking just behind me, her wand extended to the side and producing light for the first half a dozen people to see where they were walking. "Trust me to fall for a hero." 

I had to fight not to look back at her. Her light was behind me for a reason, and turning to look at it would completely ruin my vision until I adjusted again. "I'm not a hero."

"I'm sorry," Azalea said. "Was it the retired cop or the group of wizards that organized all this and got us help from Mandible and his crew?"

"Her," Mandible said.

"Her? Sorry, I'm not used to your—"

"All changeling workers are female. The warriors are males. Our queen is, of course, female." Mandible gestured vaguely upward and to the side as they mentioned queen. "It's always been like that."

"Huh. Does that mean you could have offspring?"

I spotted a changeling in the distance, mostly because of their eyes. "Is that Buzz or Wing?"

"Neither." Mandible stepped forward and raised her voice. "Who are you? I finally got these creatures to leave the hole they'd secured themselves in, and now you come and ruin it? The queen will be annoyed at this."

"Somebuggy's lying." The changeling didn't take a step forward, but there was a sense of menace coming from it. "Why don't we get Her Majesty to come down? If you're correct, she can praise you right here for your work. If I'm correct, we can—"

There was a dull thud from the direction of the changeling and its eyes closed as they went down. 

"Sorry. They wouldn't let us get a good angle on them. I told them you were coming and we were heading off to get reinforcements. Idiot." Wing stepped into view, grinning and walking with confidence. "Come on, we only have the patrol left to deal with."

With my heart no longer thudding in my chest (at least I hope it's my heart, there's no telling what's going on in my body now) we pushed on past the changeling, only pausing long enough to tie them up.

"Should we just bring them with us? Do you think they'd join our side?" I asked.

"Those ones?" Buzz gestured to the tied up group of three changelings who'd been guarding the tunnel. "No. Too loyal." She sighed. "I would have said the same about myself three days ago."

"We can't carry them and we can't trust them not to try to run if we untie them. Keep moving." Mandible's tone was a sharp rebuke that I had to reluctantly agree with. 

"Okay, everyone, let's keep it moving." After nearly half an hour of making our way along the tunnel there was a split to the left. "This is the split. Kennedy and Daphne, you watch that and move back up when our tail passes it. Got it?"

They were a few people back, but I heard both reply with affirmatives as they shifted into the entrance of that tunnel. 

Mandible gave a sharp chirp with her wings. "Claw, Nib, go with them and keep an eye out. Don't mess around. If there's more than you can handle alone, shout for help. We're one hive now."

It was an odd statement, I thought, given that she'd effectively divided the hive and split off from it. "What do you mean, one hive?"

"You, us. This has never been done before. Food is captured, food is stuffed in pods, food is eaten. Food is never protected and cared for, food isn't talked to or helped. You're not just food, you're part of the hive. One hive."

Ahead, in the silence following Mandible's words, I heard changelings talking. What got my attention wasn't the words, though, it was a three-clip-clop sound of hooves shuffling. 

"Who's that?" I asked Mandible, keeping my voice low.

"Should be Bite and Wing ahead of us. If I had to guess, I'd say they found the patrol." Lowering herself almost to the ground, Mandible said just a little louder, "Lower your light." When another triple-tap came, Mandible hissed softly. "Okay, put your wand away and follow me."

"Me?" Azalea asked.

"Yes. You look enough like food but can fight. Try to look dazed, don't talk except to repeat the last word spoken to you, and stare at me as if I were your food." Straightening up, Mandible started walking forward.

Slipping her wand under her robes, Azalea walked forward behind Mandible. It was probably one of the bravest things I'd seen her do, particularly when she started shuffling and lowered her head to stare at Mandible.

With the lowered light, I didn't see much once they got more than twenty paces ahead of us. Barely heard words and traces of movement came to me from the hall. My ears were far more sensitive to sounds, despite being not much more than elongated human ones. 

"Stupify! Stupify!" Azalea's voice was sharp, and I knew the spell-word from the time Kennedy had used it. 

Pounding my hooves against the tunnel floor, I rushed up just in time for Azalea to use her wand to dimly light the tunnel. Two changelings were laying on the ground at Azalea's hooves, another was ten meters down the tunnel with Mandible standing over them. "Was that all of them?"

"No," Mandible said. "There was another. We have to move fast now!"

"Well, fuck the noise then." I turned and headed back to the column. "One of the patrol got away. We need to move as fast as we can and expect a skirmish front or back while doing it. Pass it back. Plan B."

Plan B was change the spacing in the group so half the wizards were front, half were back, and we just blast our way through anything. Azalea wasn't far behind me. She had her wand out and brought it up to full brightness. "Okay, I'm ready. Mandible?"

Mandible was waiting just ahead, having bound the three changelings up with her goop. Goop that I didn't want to know how to make. She nodded at us and took the lead.

After an hour of moving as quickly as we could, we reached another fork in the tunnel. Mandible nodded toward it. "Right path is down to the caverns we want, left leads up to the heart of the hive. If anything's going to come at us, it'll be from there. This is the only entrance to the lower caverns."

It was one of those moments where trusting Mandible could have dire consequences. If this was leading us to a trap, we were done for. If it was our new home, we might yet be safe. "Azalea, you and Mandible guard this tunnel. I'll lead everyone down into this place. Where's Stefanie?"

"Here, Rod." Stefanie sounded like she was just about done with running around in the dark. "What do you need?"

"This is our tunnel. I need you to make as much light as you can while we head down, but try to keep it behind Kennedy. I want to ruin the night-vision of anyone who might be down there, but keep ours as good as possible." I started walking down the tunnel myself, leaving Kennedy to catch up and Stefanie to prepare herself. When the column caught up with Stefanie at its head, I nodded. "Let's go."

The tunnel was a steep angle down, and we didn't have far to go before it opened up into a huge cave. Huge enough that when Stefanie made her wand extra-bright, I still couldn't see the ceiling. It had to be a hundred meters high if it was anything. The claustrophobic feeling of the old caves was gone, and the best bit was I couldn't see any of the changelings at all.

Relief flooded me as I stepped aside and turned. "Okay, spread out as far as you can. We have others coming in and we might even have some unwelcome guests. Set your packs down over here and get ready by the entrance. We don't want any of them to get into this cavern."

People were piling into the cave by now. They looked tired and worn down, and who could blame them the way we'd been living? Hotdogs were not long-term food. Then again, whatever was growing down here probably wasn't either, but we could see what the wizards could do with it.

When I saw Bandy and Albert enter the tunnel, I called out, "Where's Azalea and Mandible?"

"Kennedy and Howlover are with them. There's a rush of bugs coming down the tunnel." Albert was practically dragging Bandy behind him. The kid looked like he was ready to run back down the tunnel the moment he was let go. "Bandy, calm down. There's no room for you back there. When they pull back, though, we're going to need to hold the bugs here."

The flow of people into the cave lessened. With the noise everyone was making, I couldn't hear what was going on in the tunnel. Rodney Johnstone, you're an idiot—might as well act like one. "Keep showing everyone what to do, I'm going to help."

Plunging onward, I was working against the flow of people in the narrow tunnel. In places it was barely wide enough for one person, let alone me being able to get past them. By the time I reached the intersection, I had been hearing the spellcasting for some time.

Azalea and Stefanie stood tall above Kennedy (who was crouched) and Howlover (who was standing on all fours). They were slinging a spell every second or so, lighting up the tunnels with yellow and red splashes of light. What surprised me was Claw stood between Kennedy and Howlover, launching blasts of green from her horn.

They seemed to have that under control, so I turned to look the other way. Wing, Buzz, and Bite were turned—their backs to the last few humans making their way into the tunnel beside me—sending their own green blasts at dark targets that were briefly lit up green before the magic struck. 

"Come on, everyone! Move! Move!" My shouts were intended for the last trickle of people, and when they were all in the tunnel leading to our cave, I added. "That's all of them. Start backing up and coming down this tunnel. Albert and Bandy are preparing themselves to take over when you reach the cave."

The two groups backed up until they were at the intersection. "Claw! Fall back and feed, we've still got some more in us here. Wizards, you can fire over our backs?" Bite asked.

"Yeah. Kennedy, Howlover, fall back and let the others take your place as we reach the smaller tunnel. Rod, what's this tunnel like?" Azalea's tone was sharp and to the point. Her eyes never left the tunnel in front of her.

I backed up, making room for them to enter the tunnel. "Really narrow compared to this. At one spot it's barely wide enough for one person with a pack or two people squeezing."

"Perfect!" Stefanie said, before launching another blast of red light down the tunnel. "Can you get a message to Bandy and Albert that we'll hold the tunnel just behind that spot?"

"Will do. I'll tell everyone to get ready for some hungry changelings, too." My reply earned me a flash of blue eyes as Claw turned with a grin. "Come on, I'll show you where the narrow bit is so more than one of us knows of it."

As a smaller group, Claw, Kennedy, and Howlover followed me down the tunnel toward our cave. The spot where it narrowed significantly was obvious enough by the marks on each side of hard things scraping against the walls. 

"This is the narrowest part. Claw, come with me. Kennedy, Howlover, you need to hold this spot and not let anyone past it you can't verify." Though it would ruin my light sensitivity, I turned to face the two wizards. Howlover was still completely a pony, but Kennedy seemed to have stopped from fully changing into a quadrupedal-only stance. Both nodded to me in understanding. "Come on, Claw. We don't know how long they're going to keep…" I realized something felt different. There was a sort of breeze coming from the cave. "There's another way into the cave somewhere. I can feel a breeze."

"That explains why the air isn't stale. Some caves have spouts leading to the surface, others get air from underground streams. This is probably the latter." Claw walked at my side without a hint of disquiet or ill effects from their magic use. "We'll have time to investigate the stream—I know of a good form for doing so."

"You think it's a stream because of how deep we are?"

"Yes. The likelihood of a chimney reaching all the way down here is very low."

"How does a stream bring air in?" The light ahead was getting brighter. Eventually we turned a slight corner in the tunnel and were stepping into the last section. At the end of it, Bandy and Albert stood—wands raised.

"Air gets trapped in fast-moving water as bubbles. It might not seem like much, but if it flows fast it can be a lot." Claw squinted their eyes mostly closed. "Why do your kind make so much light?"

"I heard a story once about the two traits that humans have that nothing else had in our world. The first was being smarter than everything else—which doesn't seem to matter worth a loonie here—and the other is that we can run all day and not stop."

"That's all?"

"That's it. Everything else we're terrible at. That includes seeing in dark places."

Claw broke into some chirping that reminded me how different they were from humans, but at the same time they got the joke. "Bandy, Albert, we're moving the defense line up to the pinch in the cave a few twists back."

"How do we know it's you?" Bandy asked.

I thought back to something I knew that a bug impersonating me wouldn't. "You don't have your apparition license yet." The instant relief on his and Albert's faces was something I could appreciate. "Follow me. Oh, and Claw, ask around for some food. Most people are exhausted, but there'll be someone—I'm sure—who can spare something."

"You know, now that I think about it," Claw said, "having lots of stamina might be a good trait." She smiled at me knowingly and walked into the cave.

Turning, I left the bug to find someone to give them a meal and led the pair to where Kennedy and Howlover were. I was just about to ask them something to verify who they were when light from further down the tunnel flared got my attention. "They're falling back to us, right?"

"Yeah. They've been getting closer and closer. Wait, there, I can see Azalea's robes." Kennedy gestured with a hoof as a red glow illuminated the witch's clothing. We watched as, step by step and spell by spell they approached.

When the group backed all the way to the our side of the constriction, Bandy stood up tall and aimed his wand. "Get down!" The moment everyone in front of him dropped, Bandy started repeating the same words over and over. "Incendio Tria! Incendio Tria! Incendio Tria!"

It was an incredible sight. This is what I always thought magic would be like. He might just be a kid, but Bandy hadn't been slinging spells for the last half an hour and he looked to be literally in his element. 

Fireballs flew from his wand again and again, rushing down the tunnel to the gap and through it. There were screaming sounds that made my blood run cold, but still Bandy kept casting. Only when no more moving black bodies were illuminated by the glowing tunnel walls did he stop his chant.

Panting, Bandy stared down the length of his wand like—like a real wizard. Then he wobbled a little and caught himself on the wall. "I don't think they'll come down in a rush again."

"Wow, kid, you got some heft. Specialize in fire?" Kennedy asked.

"Y-Yeah. That's why I was aiming for government work." Looking so proud of himself, Bandy wiped some sweat off his brow and leaned against the wall. "I need a little break before I can do that again, though. Just a—a little one."

I focused on the tunnel and realized it was still glowing softly with the heat of the spells. "What were you using before?"

"Mostly stunners. A few others to mix things up. They'd just drag the stunned bugs out of the way and more would replace them." Azalea walked up to me and grabbed me up in a hug before planting her fuzzy lips against my smooth ones. The kiss sparked and fizzed with energy but, though I could feel that fire inside her, I forced myself not to feed on her. She broke apart from me and slowly slumped into my grip. "That was some amazing work. I can't believe we got everyone here. How big's the cave?"

"From what I saw, huge. We'll rattle around in there and, better, there's fresh air coming in. We'll have to find out where from, but Claw thinks it's a stream pumping it in. That can be left for later. Even if the air is coming from a tunnel, it'll be a huge long one all the way to the surface." I pulled her tight against my side and could feel how wrung-out she was. "I think we have this under control."

"You big, Canadian idiot." Azalea kissed my cheek. "You have it under control. We're just following your example."





"A week without them trying to push against us. Ever since Bandy started randomizing his shifts on the tunnel, the bugs stopped trying to come. That lad seems as serene as an angel, until he starts casting fireballs." I looked at Luna, feeling relief that she'd continued to maintain contact. It was good to have someone else to talk to who had to deal with being a leader. "The mushrooms that Mandible told us about turned out to be a mix of about 60/40 edible to not so much. We cleared out the inedible ones and are trying to promote the others to spread."

"You have been very lucky."

"I know. Mandible and her family are—They even said they are unique. We were going to try contacting other changelings, but it's not worth the danger. How are things going for you?" When Luna let out a long sigh, I knew I should be trying to get comfortable.

"The two humans from the Ministry of Magic, as they call their organization, have been passed off to me to deal with. They are trying to usurp Equestria and the Crystal Empire by hoof-lengths. Nibbling at laws and restrictions like they were tiny fish, but I see what they're doing." She tossed her wings out to the sides and flopped on the pillows around her like she'd just had every one of her bones removed. 

"They sound like politicians. Your best bet is to pull the rug out from under them in a way they will understand and fear." When Luna lifted her snout from the pile of pillows she was in long enough to make eye-contact, I continued. "Well, you have your own bureaucrats, I'm sure, so pit them against each other. Make committees to look into each and every nibble they try. Ensure that some people—err, ponies—are on all the committees so they can't all be scheduled at once and show them how long it will take to process every one of their requests. Then, as each and every tiny little idea is discussed and finally sent to you for evaluation, claim that you can't make a statement until their other requests are evaluated and then reevaluated in light of the one they just finished."

"How do you know all this?"

"My dad was a politician—a conservative. This kind of insanity was business as usual for him. Just remember the words, 'I couldn't possibly comment on the validity of that idea until it has been reviewed by experts,' and you're going to be able to stall them for years."

She wasn't just looking at me now, Luna was taking notes on a scroll that hovered beside her. Casual magic was something I'd had to get used to, though this was even more casual than what I'd seen Azalea or the other witches and wizards use. 

"I wish I could move things into and out of a dream, though notes would have to wait until after I'd evacuated you." She looked a little defeated at that, and I could understand why. For all the power Equestria seemed to have, she couldn't use it to get us out.

"Just knowing that we will eventually get out and have somewhere to go is enough right now. We need hope, Luna, and you give that to us."

"Rodney Johnstone, you give yourselves hope. In the meantime, stay safe." Luna spread her wings and the shared dream was gone in a wash of cobalt magic.