//------------------------------//
// Violet 
// Story: A Song Of Silk And Steel 
// by SilverNotes 
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Deer were so delightfully easy to fool.

Their king had been at Canterlot for the wedding, and present when the swarm had struck. A friend of Celestia's, come to join her on what had been intended as a joyous day. It had left the deer even more disoriented than the ponies, as it could take so much longer for each individual pocket within each forest to finally hear the news that there was an invasion going on at all and that the king was anywhere but on his Everfree throne.

Forests were terrible for a direct assault, and so the approach had been an elegantly simple one. Dispatch a drone, or two, or three, in the form of a deer, and have them be found. Feign being lost, frightened, even delirious, and have them bring news of the strange creatures who'd descended from the sky to attack. With the contact with other species so infrequent, the infiltrators would only need to omit the fact that the invaders were shapeshifters, and they wouldn't know until it was too late. 

After all, they'd never level suspicions at a fellow deer. It was unthinkable that they'd act against each other, and so the changeling could wait in the species' collective blind spot until it was time to set the fire.

A number of infiltrators had been sent to try to find the Thicket, but only one had reached them. The lone drone didn't know what had befallen the others, whether they'd given up or if the dangers of the Everfree Forest had picked them off. He'd simply done as he'd been ordered, waited for the right moment, and struck. It'd been an even better result than expected, in fact, because the deer had put out a call to ponies.

Anything that could think was capable of loving something, and sapient species had all the more potential nourishment. But all the same, no matter how far the swarm had roamed, they had never found a creature with love quite as delectably potent as a pony's. He'd been fighting the whole time to still act like a wounded deer, when inside he was giddy, already imagining how the swarm would celebrate him for bringing them such a bounty.

And then that unicorn had struck him down with such ruthless precision that he hadn't expected food to be capable of. Rarity. Ponies could have incredibly on-the-snout names, and there wasn't a better description of the beatdown he'd received.

He'd woken up several minutes ago, and hadn't moved a muscle. That wasn't by choice, but because he'd woken up to find his head and neck the only things capable of moving. The rest was buried in freshly-dug earth, and attempting to dig himself out by grasping at dirt with magic projected from an aching horn was moving at a snail's pace. By the time he got out, the trail would be cold, and he'd end up going back to the swarm empty-hooved.

If he went back. Maybe he could fly off somewhere else, try the desperate refugee trick again, and the second time to bring back food would be the charm. The queen would probably only throw him out of the palace window once if he still had something to show for it. Instead of however many times it took for her to get bored with hearing him holler and hit the ground.

Yeah, that was the ticket. He'd sweep it all under the rug and try again. He just needed to get out of the dirt first.

He managed to get one leg free before he heard the distant howling. 





Night had fallen, and Rarity rested in the centre of the refugee village, watching ponies and deer chatting with one another around her. Mr. Roar had left after their return, off to roam the forest as manticores were wont to do. He hadn't seemed to know what to do with all the profuse thanks from so many creatures, and she imagined that he'd take some extended solitude to recover from so much social interaction.

But he'd be back. He had friends here, more than he'd had before.

She saw the other ponies she'd been travelling with speaking with a cluster of foals, and there was no mistaking who the dusty grey unicorn filly was the daughter of, not with that soft yellow to her mane and eyes. Rarity couldn't quite hear what everyone was saying, but that was fine, as the enthusiasm showed through in their tones. A little fawn soon approached, roughly the same size of the foals if one didn't take into account the long, spindly legs, and was promptly surrounded by the excited ponies talking all at once.

Sweetie Belle wasn't among the group, and Cheerilee had helpfully informed her that she'd laid down early, as had been expected. The body needed rest to process a large meal, especially after having been malnourished. Rarity was certain she'd be following her before long. The altercation with the drone still had her buzzing with some adrenaline, but that wouldn't last forever, and she'd been surviving on very little rest for far too long.

Her head drooped, eyes starting to close, finally feeling like it may be safe to sleep--

"Hey!"

Rarity's head jerked up again as one of the foals came racing toward her, and it took a moment for her groggy mind to recall that the little pegasus was the one who had introduced herself as Scootaloo. "Yes, dear?"

If the drowsiness in her voice deterred the enthusiastic filly any, she didn't show it, tiny wings flapping at such high speed that they almost buzzed. "Bramble said you fought all the changelings in the deer village! Is that true?"

Rarity glanced at the group of children, took a guess that Bramble was the fawn in the centre, and then smiled Scootaloo. "I most certainly did." After all, it still counted if all was one. Her smile widened as more foals perked up their ears and started to walk over. "Would you like to know how?"

Scootaloo's eyes widened. "Yeah!" The other approaching foals repeated the sentiment in a wave of excited voices, but hers still cut through to be audible above them. "Teach us how to be changeling-fighters!"

Rarity noticed several adults rotating their ears toward her as well, ponies and deer alike, and as she got to her hooves, she made a point to toss her head dramatically, purple curls bouncing as she said, "Then listen carefully, darlings, because you're about to learn from an expert."

Time for the encore performance.

She reared onto her hind hooves, finding her balance as she did her best to project her voice, so that even those who hadn't yet started their approach would hear her clearly. "What you must always, always remember, is that a changeling has three strengths: concealment, the ability to both fly and cast, and numbers. So to defeat them, you must remove these advantages, one by one."

She started to gesture with her front legs, making a grand sweeping motion with both. "Concealment, we can already undo thanks to our lovely friend, Zecora, but it's about knowing precisely what to do once they have been revealed. First, you need to ground them. Once those wings are open to fly, they're vulnerable, and if they can't fly, they can't signal the swarm. Get your hooves or your magic on whatever you can and aim for the wings the moment they open, and they'll shred like poor-quality fabrics. Then you..."





"And then she changed back right in front of the whole wedding, right at the moment that we broke through the shield! The pony princess tried to stop her, but our queen was too strong, and--"

"What are you doing?"

The drone yelped. He'd been on his hind legs, gesturing with his front limbs, and the sudden voice had him falling over in shock and staring up at the armoured changeling who'd been standing behind him. Compound eyes were bright with fear and hole-ridden legs kicked feebly at the air as he choked out a high-pitched, "G-general!" He'd been surrounded by grubs, and several of them hissed, huddling behind him as they glared at the new presence. "I was just... j-just..."

All the while, General Vixen's expression was blank and impassive. "You were playing with the grubs again when Her Royal Majesty needs all hooves on the ground to secure our latest conquest." She sighed deeply. "Thorax, I know you're not a soldier, but when we're on the attack, every--"

"Everyone has to do their part." He started to get to his hooves again. Multiple clinging grubs delayed the process. "I know."

The wreckage of an apartment building had become an impromptu hatchery, each individual apartment cleared of its furniture and coated in green resin. Burns, cracks, and other damage from the struggle of ousting the original inhabitants were well-covered by said resin and the broken remnants of several hatched eggs, and each individual grub was the same as the last, only their faces and underdeveloped front legs covered in black chitin while the rest was white, fuzzy flesh like giant caterpillars. 

The influx of love from their systematic conquest had provided the resources for plenty of eggs, and they were filling the building, floor by floor, with the clutches. It would take time for these newborns to be ready to properly join the swarm, but when they did, their ranks would swell massively.

Once finished with Equestria, they would have the might to take on anything. Even to march on the Dragonlands and drive the Dragon Lord to his knees.

Not that the queen had much interest in such a place. Dragons rarely had love for anything but themselves, and that sort of love was practically empty calories.

"Thorax..." Vixen shook her head. "Stop looking like a kicked nymph. No changeling gets special treatment--"

"Except for you."

Her wings buzzed and gaze sharpened. "Excuse me?"

Thorax immediately cringed. "I'm sorry, General! I didn't say anything, General! I'll get to work gathering up ponies, right now!"

He opened his wings in record time and rushed past her with the kind of speed that could make one think he had a manticore on his tail. General Vixen caught the grub that had been thrown from his back in her magic, and carefully set them back down with the others. The entire group of them hissed at her, and she wasn't sure if it was purely hunger or because they were upset that their unofficial caretaker had vanished.

She could chase him down and reprimand him if she really wanted to. She could drag him out in front of as many other drones as possible and verbally eviscerate him in front of them. It would be more generous than the queen would have done in response to backtalk, as she had a penchant for making her displeasure known via high-speed impact with hard surfaces.

Or the time that she'd hurled a drone into lava, because he'd been a special kind of idiot and the lava had been available.

She shook her head. It was Thorax. The changeling with the world's softest shell. If anything, him having found a bit of bite was an improvement. Besides, Pharynx was good at keeping him from embarrassing the swarm too much.

So instead, she turned away from the pile of hissing grubs, opened her own wings, and went back to work. She had several more slackers to hunt down and kick back into action.

The grubs only had to care about eating and growing, but once they were old enough, their work would similarly never be done.





"You're very good with the foals..."

Rarity had been laying with her legs tucked beneath her and chin resting in the grass, and Fluttershy flinched in regret when the words made her visibly startle and lift her head again. She reminded herself that the new unicorn would likely be jumpy for a while, and silently berated herself for forgetting. There was no upset in Rarity's eyes, however, and after a moment she gave a weak smile. "I wasn't always... but thank you."

She nodded at the spot next to her in invitation, and Fluttershy took it, carefully lowering herself down to lay next to her. Her folded wing brushed lightly against Rarity's side, and when there was no negative reaction to the contact, she didn't move it. "You could've fooled me. You looked right at home talking to them."

In another corner of the village, foals full of new changeling-fighting knowledge were proving difficult to coax into sleeping, as they instead chased each other around and argued over who had to play the infiltrator in their newest game.

Foals were so resilient. If she just closed her eyes and listened to them, right now, it would be like nothing had changed at all, instead of everything.

Rarity gave a small breath of a laugh, but there wasn't any real mirth in it. "I enjoy public speaking, but foals..." A look of deep regret fell over her features. "Well, I will just say that Sweetie Belle has some unflattering memories of me and leave it at that. We haven't always gotten along."

Fluttershy shrugged a little. "I think that's just part of being siblings. We lose patience with even the ponies we love sometimes."

Rarity looked at her for a silent moment, and Fluttershy quickly got the impression that she was being studied. "You sound as if you speak from experience, darling." The pain must been obvious on her face, because she hastily added, "You don't need to talk about it. I don't mean to pry into--"

Everypony carefully didn't speak of the lost, as they already knew that each of them had been cut off from somepony as town after town went dark. Nopony had asked her before now. And so the words fell out.

"My brother was in Cloudsdale." Fluttershy stared down at the ground, until the burning in her eyes of forming tears demanded she close them. "With my parents. We got on each other's nerves all the time, but I still... I don't know what happened to--"

Unicorns didn't have wings to drape over other ponies. They had to offer comfort in other ways. And with her eyes shut, she didn't notice Rarity moving until the weight settled. She opened her eyes, tears falling as she blinked, and realized that Rarity had laid her head across her withers.

"I'm sorry." They were only two words, but the sorrow within them had their own weight.

Fluttershy closed her eyes again, and the two mares laid in silence. Ponies, deer, and zebra alike left them be, politely turning away and busying themselves with other things. All of them were familiar with creatures in mourning, and so the two were given an illusion of privacy as Fluttershy silently wept.





It was usually advised to feed on pegasi first, with how much easier it was for them to get away. Keeping them as long term love sources was having a literal flight risk on their hooves every single day, and it was hard to take the fight out of such creatures when they knew that all it took was one slip from their captors to give them the opportunity to take to the skies.

Green resin bound the wings of several ponies, as they were led down the city street. The buildings were much like they always were in the places the swarm invaded, broken and burned husks, with more green holding together the places that had been determined as ideal shelters for the army, the newborns, or the herds of food.

There were also several places where a persistent fog lingered in the air, each droplet of vapour humming with magic. It was a different sort of wreckage, the kind left behind when cloud structures once reinforced into selectively solid forms were forcibly dispersed. It, along with the high number of pegasi being rounded up by drones, were the strongest lingering evidence that this had not been a conquest of one city, but two. Some more evidence were the numerous remnants of personal objects that looked to have shattered after a fall from a great height.

Vixen watched it from the highest vantage point she had, and did so amongst more burnt ruins. Where had once been a series of letters large enough to see from anywhere in the city was now ash.

How charitable Cloudsdale had been, for having been flying over Applewood when they'd arrived, and providing two birds--or rather, two pegasi--to strike out of the air with a single stone. Another absolutely perfect day--

"The blue one's loose!"

"Don't let her get away!"

Every colour of the rainbow streaked past Vixen's vision at once, followed by drones taking to the air in a frantic hail of buzzing. Her own wings opened as well, her armoured body lurching into the air to help intercept. Pegasi were faster than changelings, especially when it came to accelerating across open sky, which made outnumbering them in the air all the more important to corral them long enough to bring them to the ground.

It was the same of set of maneuvers, every time. Herd the pony toward clouds that they would need to punch through, or more solid obstacles that they couldn't. Cornering them was ideal, but mostly it was about slowing them down. If they rammed into a drone in the process, that was fine too, because the impact would be harder on the pegasus than the changeling. Then close in from all directions, including above and below, and go for the wings, so that they fell onto the drones below to be carried back to the ground.

One pegasus versus a dozen drones would stand no chance. It would just be a small taste of almost-freedom, and then she'd be bound again with the others.

But this wasn't an ordinary pegasus, and Vixen realized it only when the force of the sonic boom cracked the air.

The sheer force sent her hurtling back, and she flipped hooves over horn several times as every cloud in the sky vanished in a wave of colour. It felt like she could taste the magic that had been set loose, searing through with a unnatural heat, and it took time for her to tell up from down, or feel less like she'd had a full-body dip in a bath of hot peppers.

When she came to her senses, the mare was long gone.





Fluttershy had fallen asleep like that, and Rarity was in no hurry to move as she listened to her slow, steady breathing. There were worse positions to sleep in than using a pegasus as a pillow, even if the feathers did tickle a bit, and she found herself smiling as she closed her eyes.

Then they snapped open again, her head jerking upward with a sharp inhale of breath.

Rarity froze, her ears rotating, but no one seemed to have noticed that. Blackthorn had taken the first watch of the night--he'd insisted on it, and she imagined he considered it the first part of repaying the debt--but he was still as a statue, facing away from her, and so she let out a quiet sigh of relief.

She supposed she should have expected this. Sleep hadn't been a true reprieve for a while.

She just hadn't been braced for the memory of the drone, screaming as the disguise burned away, to replay itself so soon.

Rarity turned her head, her eyes seeking out the shelter that she'd seen Zecora walk into upon retiring for the night, and her gaze narrowed, as questions of what precisely the salve did flowed through her mind anew. 

Just how powerful are you, my new friend?

It was a question that only time would answer, and so she slowly lowered her head again. Fluttershy made a small sound in her sleep upon resuming her pillow duties, but otherwise didn't stir.

The smile came back, if a slight one. She would sort out what to think about the zebra in time. But this one...

She had potential.