The equine formerly known as Sprinkleshine, now a changeling named Choctal, trotted to the pile of chitin serving as a front desk. A bored receptionist watched as she approached, his face cast in an eerie green glow that would have frightened most ponies away. Indeed, his main job was to do exactly that: making sure any ponies outside stayed outside, and anyone inside stayed inside. But as she approached, he could only muster a roll of his pupil-less eyes.
“Again, Choc?” He sighed. “What is it, third time this week?”
She mustered a weak, shivering smile. “Fourth, actually. Mandible was on duty last night.”
“Thought things might be different if you tried a different time of day, huh?” He asked. Her flinch was all the answer he needed, and her presence told him how well that visit had panned out. He let out another sigh. He’d long since given up trying to talk her out of going down to the cell blocks. Instead, he laid a tray made of more chitin in front of her. “You know the drill: leave any sharp objects behind. Attempting to smuggle contraband into the cell blocks is a royal offense punishable by up to ten years’ hard labor and five years’ imprisonment. Please acknowledge that you understand these rules as they have been told to you.”
Choctal pushed the tray back. “I understand.” She said in a neutral, well-rehearsed tone of voice.
“I’m sure you do.” He grumbled as he shoved the tray back into its place behind the desk and produced a small, pale, wormlike creature, it’s end taken up by a large, gaping mouth. His voice droned on: “This is a magic-suppression worm. I am going to place it on your horn. While it is on, you will not be able to transform or feed. Any attempt to remove it by anyone who is not a Swarm Incarceration Center staff member will result in long-term side effects including but not limited to: an inability to transform, love anemia, magical feedback poisoning, and long-term malnutrition. You may not remove it yourself, you must return to this desk to have it removed. Do you understand?”
Again, Choctal nodded, already leaning towards him with her horn presented. He sighed as he prodded the worm’s stomach, causing it to stiffen, its mouth gaping. In a flash, he slid it over the tip of her horn, and a moment later, its teeth sank in with a quivering little squeal. “You may proceed.” He said, gesturing to the dark cavern past the desk with one hoof while the other sank against a series of small, glowing bumps behind his desk.
She nodded with a tiny smile. “Th-thanks, Frank.”
He grunted in acknowledgment. In the cavern, the rapid flush of liquid being siphoned from a pod echoed back to them. As she always did, Choctal let in a long, shivering breath before trotting on into the cavern’s dim, green glow.
“Good luck,” the guard muttered under his breath, watching the small mare leave.
The trot through the dark felt almost like a trot through the nursery. The deep, green glow and combination of darkness could have led most changelings to mistake the caverns for one of a thousand others in the Hive, were it not for the large masses of chitin on the walls, each filled with neon green liquids and a dark shape floating somewhere within. Choctal kept her eyes forward. She knew it was impossible for anyone in this cavern to possibly see her, but there was always that possibility in her mind. Rapists, murderers, mad scientists with no compunctions about experimentation on captured changelings...the ponies here had committed crimes against the Swarm far beyond anything that could be compensated by a trip to the love pool and a quick mind-wipe. The ponies were here for the long haul, to pay the Swarm back using time from their lives. But Choctal was here for someone a little more complicated than that. At least, she thought so.
She paused at the last pod, the only one that had been recently drained, the only one holding a prisoner Chrysalis herself had been adamant about returning to the Badlands. The only remaining prisoner from the changeling occupation of the Crystal Empire.
“Petals,” she whispered, gazing in at the frazzled, sopping-wet mare laying on the floor of the pod.
In response, the unicorn coughed up a bit more goo and glared from behind her soaking mane.
Offering that same weak smile, Choctal took her seat before the pod, her flank knowing just where to sit for a perfectly comfortable experience. “I...went back to Ponyville today. Rarity says she’s missed you around the Boutique. Said she still keeps those earrings you liked so much in stock, for if...when you come back.”
Petalgrown didn’t respond, only glared from behind her mane.
“They’re getting ready for the Summer Sun Celebration...even those two ex-soldiers are getting into it, but I guess dating a couple Elements of Harmony means you get roped into everything major in town.” She let out a giggle that sounded hollow to her own ears. “They...they’re nice together, you know? See them around town all the time, just doing random couples stuff...dinner dates and strolling and all…”
She trailed off as a tear found its way down her cheek. “Dammit, here I go…” she whispered. Choctal let out a shivering sigh, turning away from the pod as her shoulders started to hitch with the beginnings of sobs. When she had herself under control again, she finally continued.
“I’m...so sorry, Petals…” she whimpered. “I knew. I knew how you felt all along.”
The other mare’s breathing paused.
“I wanted to return your feelings, but if you got too close and found out what I was, that’d be it! The Swarm would’ve transferred me after faking Sprinkleshine’s death! We never would’ve seen eachother again! And I…” she looked away, her fang sinking into her lip. “Didn’t have enough confidence in myself to think I could keep it from you. Not if you got that close.”
Petalgrown let out a breath, her one visible eye widening.
“So...there,” she sighed. “There it is. We never happened because I’m a damned coward, and thought being with you in some capacity was better than risking losing you forever.” She rose from her seat, eyes on the floor. A neon tear trickled down a black cheek. “Maybe I was wrong, maybe it would’ve been worth it. Maybe...we could’ve avoided all of this if I’d just confessed everything to you.”
She shook her head, and when she looked up again, her gaze held the most pitying look, the kind you reserve for madponies in asylums who spent their days ranting at walls. “None of that excuses what you did, I know that. Nymphs, Petals, nymphs! I...maybe...I thought you were better. And...I hope that was just part of some temporary insanity, but…”
She let out a long breath, standing from her spot on the floor. “I believe that less with every day that goes by.” Her breath came out in a long quiver as she turned away. “Goodbye, Petals. I’ll...see you tomorrow.”
The changeling loped out of the cell blocks, the lights from the pods dimming as she went. In the darkness, the facade dropped as the goo began to cycle back into the pod. “I’m sorry, Sprinkles,” Petalgrown whispered. “Please, just leave…”
And the goo rose above her head, subsuming her tears with its mass.