Ocellus scrunched her eyebrows and concentrated. She tried again then shook her head.
“It looks like something is stopping Starlight’s magic. I can’t reconnect to her communication spell.”
“That’s what we get for trusting magic too much. I don’t think those two are moving either.”
Smolder pulled back one of the huge leaves of the bush they were hiding in and glanced at the two changelings guarding the tunnel. The guards had gone back to chatting about something while glancing around slowly.
“We should have tried to slip in when one of them left earlier.”
“I have an idea. Why don’t I become a guard like them and distract them while you slip in?”
“It’s better than my ideas. Let’s try it.”
She focused. It was easy to remember all the tough, mean guards from before the Change. They had always kept Ocellus from going outside, even though she had always been very curious about things outside the hive. She channeled her old frustration into making the perfect disguise.
“How do I look?” she said in her new gruff voice.
Smolder laughed softly. “You even sound tough. It matches how you look.”
“Good. You get ready to slip in once I have them distracted.”
Smolder climbed up some vines and clung to the side of a tree. Ocellus left her behind and walked over to one of the nearby dirt paths. Her heart was racing, but she tried to look commanding as she stepped out onto the path and galloped toward the guards. She skidded to a stop and saluted.
“Did either of you two see some intruders run by? I was trying to follow their tracks, but the ground isn’t as soft here.” The guards shook their heads. “Well, in that case, I need your help. Come over here, that’s where the tracks leave off.”
“We should stay here,” the smaller guard said. “The queen has others scouting the forest.”
Ocellus stood tall and glared at him. “That may be true, but they aren’t right here. You are. The tracks are just a short way down the path.”
The larger guard stepped forward. “I’ll go. You stay at your post.”
She led him further away down the dirt path to where she and Smolder had crossed it earlier. She could barely see the other guard, but she used her magic to rustle some bushes at the edge of the clearing near the tunnel.
“Yes, these are fresh,” the bigger guard said. “And they go over here.”
She could only hope her little distraction had allowed Smolder to get in. The guard followed the tracks to where they had been hiding only moments earlier. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Smolder was gone.
“They end here,” she said.
“These circle back to the path.”
“Hmm, that’s true. Keep an eye out for them. I need to report to the hive.”
She accompanied the guard back to his post and saluted before stepping into the dimly lit tunnel. Little glowing mushrooms lit the sides, but only enough to barely see. As Ocellus continued toward the hive, Smolder stepped out of the darkness and breathed out a little puff of flame.
“Heh, that was fun. I slipped right past them. And you’re sure this tunnel leads into the hive?”
“Yeah, there’s always at least one deeper tunnel to escape out of, in case anything attacks the top of the hive.”
As they continued, the glowing mushrooms were more plentiful, and glowing pods of changeling goo started to appear in larger and larger amounts. The tunnel opened up into a large room. Jagged rock, wood, and changeling goo formed the walls and ceiling. Several curving pathways all led deeper into the hive. Ocellus walked a few steps down one. She stopped as her mind flashed back to her past.
She chased the other little changelings as they hid in the tunnels. One of the patrolling guards yelled at them and told them to practice their disguises. They were forced back into their main learning chamber, and the guard drilled them in disguises. They flashed between different colors and types of ponies.
A hand on her shoulder shook her out of it. Ocellus looked over. Smolder looked concerned, but she also had the smug look that she had whenever she thought she was winning.
“I checked out the paths. I think we should take that one. It looks like it goes down, but then it goes up some stairs. Are you alright? You’ve just been standing there.”
“I think so. Sorry. This is reminding me of my childhood in the old hive. It’s strange to look back on those memories now. We were taught how to copy ponies and steal their love. Chrysalis never gave up on her goal of conquering Equestria. It’s strange to think she’s still out there, somewhere. But without a hive, I don’t think she can cause too much trouble.”
“I hope so. But I’m glad things changed between dragons and changelings. I once met a very old dragon that said he almost had a whole hive of changelings to snack on, but they tricked him and escaped.”
They stepped into a smaller room with a large pillar in the center. As they walked by it, the pod of changeling goo in the center flashed green then red. A loud pulsing buzz filled the room.
“An alarm trap!” Ocellus raced over to it and touched her horn to the goo. Her magic stopped the alarm.
Smolder carefully looked at each of the many entrances. A bit of smoke escaped from her nostrils. Someone would be coming soon. Ocellus’s ears perked up as she heard the sound of hooves coming closer. Yona and Sandbar trotted into the room.
“Thank goodness we found you!” Sandbar said.
“I heard that loud noise and knew it had to be our friends,” Yona added.
She glanced over to Smolder, who raised an eyebrow. She nodded and transformed into a bugbear. It definitely wasn’t their friends. The two changelings turned back into their normal forms and attacked. A hoof hit Ocellus in the face. She stepped back and shook her head to clear the pain.
“How dare you copy our friends!” Smolder shouted. Flames licked at the corners of her mouth and she breathed a blast of fire at the two soldiers.
One got charred, and the flames caught part of the wall on fire. The fire distracted Ocellus as the guard hit her again. Smolder kept breathing flames at the other guard, and he wasn’t doing a good job of avoiding them.
She paused to wonder how flammable this hive was. It was made of wood, goo, and stone, so it was definitely more flammable than the hive in Equestria. That one was mostly stone. She tried to jump back as the guard swiped at her, but the tip of his hoof caught her leg.
Smolder sent one guard running. He was smoking from the flames. The fire had spread over the entire wall. The other guard fled when both Smolder and Ocellus went after him. Another burst of flames hit the wall near the guard as he ran away.
“It’s a good distraction, but isn’t all this fire going to attract more changelings?”
“Probably, but we’ll be gone before they get here to put it out. Let’s go that way.”
Smolder’s luck in picking good paths continued. They looped through a few confusing rooms and climbed a few more stairways before arriving in the hallway outside the throne room. Another set of guards stood at the entrance.
“There’s no way we’re sneaking in,” Ocellus said. “But I have an idea.”
She transformed to look like one of the guards and tied a loose band of rope around Smolder’s wrists. Her friend could easily slip out of it if needed, but it would look convincing. She marched forward and pulled Smolder along with a rope.
"I've caught the dragon that started the fire!" She yelled to the guards as they spotted her. "The queen shall decide her punishment."
The guards saluted and stepped aside. They opened the large stone doors then shut them just as quickly once they were through.
The throne room looked the same as it had the last time Ocellus had visited. Mushrooms and pods of changeling goo covered the walls. A large stone throne on a raised platform overlooked the room. Half a dozen alcoves held pony servants waiting for the queen's next command. Strangely, no guards were present. The fire must have distracted them all.
“So, you’ve brought me this dangerous dragon who started the fire?” Queen Cordys said as she looked them over. “How very convenient.”
Ocellus had to stop herself from shivering as the queen’s eyes met her own. The queen’s horn flashed and her calm smile creased into an annoyed frown for a moment.
“Very well. Bring her forward. Make her bow before your queen.”
She shoved Smolder down to one knee. The queen’s horn began to glow with a blue light, like the mushrooms, and the light slowly grew brighter as she paced around Smolder.
“Do you think I wouldn’t notice a traitor returning, even in a different disguise? Ocellus, it’s time for me to show you the price of slapping away the hoof offered in friendship and peace to one of my own kind. Will you obey once your friends are under my control? Or will I finally have to try using my mushrooms on a changeling?”
She laughed. Ocellus yanked Smolder back with her magic. The blue beam from the queen’s horn hit where Smolder had been kneeling. Blue mushrooms immediately sprouted and glowing blue spores hung in the air. The queen glared at Ocellus and cast another spell that broke her disguise.
“It was smart of you to distract my guards with so many things. But they shall come to aid me shortly. For now, it’s just you two and me.”
Smolder clenched her fists and flexed her wings. “If you think you can control a dragon, you’re in for a world of hurt.”
“My friends mean more to me than any hive or queen,” Ocellus said. “That’s why I was able to resist your control.”
She tried to change into a bugbear, but the queen’s magic somehow stopped her. Smolder charged and tackled the queen into the throne. She grunted and scowled. Smolder had to hop away to avoid her magic. A faint web of love energy appeared, flowing from the ponies to the queen as she drew on their energy to heal her scratches and bruises.
“Do you see how much power and love I can get from my adoring subjects?” Cordys asked. “As long as they’re here, they’ll give me all they have until they collapse. But if you’re not above hurting innocent ponies, you could go after them to weaken me.”
The queen chuckled and it made Ocellus’s skin crawl. It all felt so wrong, and it reminded her of the many times she hadn’t stood up to Queen Chrysalis.
Ocellus, focus!
She gritted her teeth and dug her hooves in as she charged at Cordys. As the queen danced back, she hit her with a good kick.
“It’s wrong to take away their freedom like this!”
More love flowed to the queen and healed the bruise from the kick. “Is it? They know nothing but the purpose and happiness of serving me. What more do they need?”
Cordys growled and her horn glowed. A sudden popping noise sounded from near the door, and the shouts of two changeling guards grew closer. Ocellus spun around to see what was happening. Starlight was catching her breath as her horn stopped glowing.
“Phew.” Starlight wiped a drop of sweat off her forehead. “It took all I had to get us in here, so we better make this quick. Ocellus, Smolder, are you okay? We’re here to help.”
Cordys sized up Starlight with a glance. “So that’s the one I’ve been blocking with my counterspells. I’ll be more than happy to control someone so magically powerful. Guards, help me capture these creatures.”
The two changelings moved to fight the pairs of Yona and Sandbar and Gallus and Silverstream. Starlight moved forward to help face the queen. Ocellus charged again.
“I’m not letting you control them!”
She was swatted aside by the queen’s hoof. Magical blasts flew in the air until one hit Starlight. A burst of the mushrooms started growing from under her fur. Smolder jumped and scored a good slash across the queen’s flank, but it started to heal immediately. Cordys stepped back as four more changeling soldiers rushed in.
One of them stood between Ocellus and the queen. He was smaller, but he looked lean and fast. She could feel her transformation magic was no longer blocked, so she roared as she transformed into a bugbear and swiped at the soldier.
He stepped back and bared his fangs after she scored a few hits. Behind him, she thought she glimpsed Starlight turn to attack Yona as the queen’s crown began to glow with a blue light, but she had to go back to focusing on the fight as the soldier ran at her. She knocked him back with a flurry of swipes. He came at her again and kicked her hard in the stomach. Her shield amulet activated and stopped most of the hit. He kicked her shoulder as he backed away from her claws. A flash of magic hit his side and blasted him away.
“I’m fighting her control,” Starlight said. “But it’s hard. At least I could help you.”
She had a moment to catch her breath and looked around at the chaos of battle. Silverstream and Gallus ran up to Starlight and helped her remove the rest of the glowing blue mushrooms. Several of the guards were down. Yona and Sandbar were fighting the one that remained. Yona headbutted the changeling and it went down. Across the room, Smolder grunted as the queen shoved her back. A patch of blue mushrooms was spreading across Smolder’s side.
The queen’s horn and crown glowed blue. Smolder’s eyes faintly glowed the same color as she turned toward Ocellus.
“Yes, go attack your best friend. Show her the cost of defying me!”
She took a step back. “Smolder? Smolder! Please. Fight this!”
Smolder growled. Smoke curled up from the sides of her mouth. She jumped back a moment too late as a dart of flame came directly from her best friend’s mouth. The burn hurt where it had scorched her chest carapace, but the situation was what hurt more.
Yona slammed down onto the queen. Cordys yelped and pushed the yak off her with magic as she drew in love. The faint lines of love energy came from the ponies, but also from Smolder. The dragon slumped as part of her emotional energy was siphoned off.
“Sandbar! Listen to Yona! Not to those evil mushrooms!”
The queen had hit Sandbar with her magic when Ocellus hadn’t been looking. He and Smolder both faced off against their friends while the queen threw spells. Yona pinned Sandbar and scraped off a few of the mushrooms. Smolder growled and took a deep breath.
“Please, no!” Ocellus yelled. “You’re my best friend, Smolder. We can fight this!”
Smolder fought her as they embraced. She called up the memories of all their happy times together, even the simple ones, from their shared life in their dorm room. Harmony’s magic welled up inside her and connected to the same magic in Smolder. Smolder blinked.
“I… I’m trying to fight it. It’s so strong. Sorry, Ocellus. I’d never want to hurt you, but now, I can’t stop myself.” A small tear fell from each of the dragon’s eyes. Smolder’s eyes glowed blue again. She hissed and growled.
She bent backward as a puff of flames hit her face. Her carapace cracked from the heat. She transformed into a dragon to resist the heat and held tight to Smolder. Her friend’s violent struggles calmed as they called on Harmony’s magic again. She clawed away the mushrooms from the orange scales.
“I know this isn’t you, Smolder. Let’s get you free from her control.” She swept off the last of the mushrooms.
They got up. Sandbar was barely standing, but he was free from the mushrooms. Silverstream had her talons locked with Gallus as they wrestled long enough to regain control as Harmony’s magic glowed around them and disintegrated the mushrooms.
“Yona has had enough! No more fighting friends!”
Ocellus gasped as Yona charged straight toward the queen.
Cordys sneered and charged up her spells. They shot at Yona. The white glow of Harmony surrounded the yak and deflected the magic. The queen met the wall in a massive crunch. The stone cracked around where she had hit. The ponies powering the queen with love all collapsed.
Yona grabbed the queen’s crown. “There. Now there will be no more bad magic.”
The queen took several rasping breaths before the last of the love she drained repaired the worst of the cracks in her chitin and stopped her from bleeding. She wiped away the green ichor and bowed her head.
“I give up. It seems you’ve all found a way to overcome my control. What are the terms you want for our surrender?”
“We will be taking your crown,” Starlight said. “There can be no negotiation about that.”
“And you will need to free the ponies who have been under your control,” Ocellus added.
“Free them? That would be terrible for them. I know things are different in Equestria, but here, I gave these ponies a safe place to call home. I gave them purpose. They never needed freedom because there were never any other good places for them to go to.”
She lowered her face and glared at Cordys. “That’s not entirely true and you know it. We found a village of ponies, and they could always choose to go live with Grandeur, Hedron, or Scriptus.”
“Most of those would be worse than living here. That village in the Wastelands barely scrapes by. At least I have a fertile jungle that supports good crops. Unless you’re a dragon or kobold, there isn’t much in Scriptus’s lands. And any who go live with Hedron will inevitably be changed to rely on his magic. He can’t stop that from happening. And Grandeur would put them to work on his schemes. Only those willing to work hard for the griffon would do well there.”
“It matters that they have the ability to choose. If they choose to stay here, then that’s their choice. I’m so sick of queens who want to take the ability to choose away.”
Cordys snorted and slowly stood back up. “Fine. As part of my surrender, I’ll let them choose. But I doubt many will want to leave. You can tell them of their other options, but I’ll remind them of how I’ve taken care of them here. And there are worse masters out there who would still seek to enslave them, like Shade and Nightmare or Storm Surge. Even with all your magic, I don’t think you’ll have a way to take them back to Equestria with you.”
Ocellus looked over at Starlight. Starlight frowned.
“It’s true. We can only cast a version of the spell that brought us here. It won’t have the power to bring others.”
“At least we’ll give them a choice.” She sighed and went over to see how Smolder was doing.
They were all in rough shape after the fight, but Smolder had a lot more energy than her. She hugged her friend.
“Ocellus, are you doing okay?”
“Yeah. It’s just tough to face all this. I imagined what I’d say or do differently if I were to face a changeling queen like Chrysalis again. Cordys is both very similar and very different. I thought I’d be able to make some bold statements about freedom, but the queen has a good reason for much of what she’s done. At least I can tell the ponies and changelings here about what choices they have. That’s enough for me.”
She slumped against Smolder. Warm dragon claws rubbed her back. She nestled in Smolder’s lap as she tried to focus on what she’d say to the village and the other changelings. She had to choose her words carefully, and she wouldn’t have long to convince them. Now that they had six powerful artifacts, they’d be preparing to go home as soon as possible.