Hope cast a spell on herself and Luster so that neither of them would faint or puke from the altitude and speed that Cozy, currently Butter S., flew. The Hive was too far for Hope to teleport to in a single jump, especially with two passengers, but Cozy refused to stop. She wanted to be in and out by teatime.
Hope was sloped against Cozy’s back, forelegs around her neck, whilst Luster was between the latter’s.
She flew fast considering Hope was heavier than she was, as pegasi typically had more streamlined bodies compared to the other tribes. Though not transonic, Cozy flew at a speed far greater than her trip back from Kludgetown. About three-hundred kilometers per hour, or around the average speed of a race car.
Because of her crystal pony physiology, Hope was able to keep her eyes open. Whilst pegasi athletes such as the Wonderbolts often practiced at transonic or even hypersonic speeds, they wore goggles to keep their eyes protected and moist. Cozy forgot hers, and Hope acted as if she didn't know a spell for that, even though Cozy was sure she saw Luster's eyes glow for a second. She must know some sort of 'invisible eyewear' spell—or something!
Cozy looked at her daughter accusingly. "Wind's not bothering you, huh Luster?"
"Hm?"
Look at her, acting like she doesn't know!
Luster awkwardly pushed her mother’s head away by her muzzle.
…How dare you.
“Eyes to the sky, Cozy,” Hope reminded.
“Golly, thanks Hope! We could’ve hit something!”
The sky was empty.
“So,” Cozy said between howling winds, “I really do hope you’ve carefully thought out what you’re about to say to Chrysalis?”
Luster gulped. “I’m… I’m almost done.” She wasn’t, but she feared if she disappointed her mother with a truthful answer she’d drop her—literally—and get a new filly for a daughter. What if this turns into one of those, ‘I’m disappointed that you lied’ type of deals? Wait, doesn't Cozy love lying?
“Cozy, you can’t seriously be expecting Luster to tell Chrysalis the truth,” said Hope.
Cozy sighed. “Lying is fun… Fine. Luster, you’re allowed to lie about it, as long as you give her a good reason why two of her drones aren’t coming back. Got it?”
“But why can’t you do it?” Luster whined.
“Because that’s not the point,” Cozy answered. “Actions have consequences. It’s a lesson I had to learn the hard way. That’s why I always make sure to research everything there is to know about a rule before I break it. For example, if I got caught picking that flower we needed for your teeth earlier, I would’ve had to fight a fine of a hundred bits. I made an informed choice to break it. Sadly, Princesses can just sentence you to whatever they want. Sometimes they have a bad day and take it out on you!”
Hope rolled her eyes. “I think I can make the jump. Just try to get a bit closer to the ground.”
Confrontation loomed closer and closer, leaving a pit in Luster’s stomach. Five minutes later, they landed on a cloud. Hope cast a cloud-walking spell and oriented herself towards their destination. She wanted to try a final time to convince Cozy to turn back, but a single look convinced her it would've been fruitless. Casting an empathetic look towards Luster, the trio disappeared in a flash.
On the other side, Luster was thrown at an angle upwards and caught by Cozy midair. Meanwhile, Hope stumbled and had to catch her breath. The exhaustion a pony feels after completing a marathon was similar to how Hope felt now, except it only affected her magically.
She had to cancel the spell a mile away from their destination; otherwise, they might’ve ended up burnt, separated, or both. So, there they were—in a jungle.
It didn’t matter; they were close.
Hope, unlike Cozy, had brought her satchel, and chugged the magician’s equivalent of an energy drink, which left a dark-blue, luminescent trace around her mouth.
“Gee Hope, I think somepony deserves to sleep in my guest’s room! If you want to nap, that’s totally fine by me! I’ll take Luster there myself, you can go back home. I mean it’s burnt, and this whole thing is sorta your fault, but what are friends that don’t forgive each other?”
“No,” Hope replied, “I’m fine! My horn’s just a bit numb, but I can walk!”
There was a dirt path to follow—a steep one. It took a lot of energy to balance, so it was easier for Hope to run down than to trot. Yet, she failed to keep up with the pegasus.
Luster wouldn’t have minded if she were the one who had to walk. Anything to delay the inevitable.
As Cozy glided over the trees, at a smooth pace that would’ve otherwise been lovely, a village came closer into view. In a patch of land clear of trees were wooden houses, covered by only a moderate number of ivy tendrils.
It was small for a village, consisting of around twenty houses. No roads connected it to the outside world, and there were no neighboring settlements either. There was a river, library, and town hall, but other than that it looked—not much like a kingdom. Definitely not as grandiose as Luster had expected.
As they were about to land, two ponies—both stallions—walked towards them. Each had a spear lined against their shoulder, but they weren’t flimsy wooden sticks with flint heads wrapped by vines. The rods were made of metal; the tips, crystal. It seemed out of place in a village that lacked streetlights.
They turned their heads, squinted, and drew their weapons. Those eyes, that bow, and the redolent scent of her love. They turned to each other wide-eyed, made a gap, and retracted their spearheads upwards.
A wing behind Luster’s neck guided her to where they needed to go. They walked through the town’s main road, with Hope struggling to catch up from behind, as all the inhabitants stared. Luster looked at the windows; the ponies ducked their heads.
A separate guard, a pegasus mare, flew from the town hall’s entrance towards the visitors. Her wings fluttered more rapidly than the average adult pegasus, more like a hummingbird, or a filly—or a changeling.
She was fastidious over those sorts of quirks. If you can’t blend in completely, you can’t leave. The exam to become a scout required participants to mimic a glossary of creatures, beasts, critters, pets, and even a few objects.
“Are you…” The guard didn’t want to say the name without confirmation.
“Oh golly,”—Cozy sniffed under her wing—“Am I that bad?”
“You taste slightly happier…”
“You always were a B- in flattery,” Cozy chuckled. “Go run off to Chryssie and—actually, don’t. I want to surprise her!”
“As you say!” The guard flew a bit further to look at who was under Cozy’s wing. She didn’t question why, only: “Do you want me to carry the foal for you?”
“There’s no need for that.”
The guard nodded and flew into the town hall. Opening a door—which her partner kept open for the visitors—she hurried to one of the rooms and stared at a corner’s base. Her eyes shone fully green, and thus the floor’s illusion was broken.
Hope caught up with the two, panting. “You first.”
Luster looked down at the shaft. Dark. There was a green flash from the bottom, which was when Cozy made her way down. It wasn’t a smooth vertical tunnel; instead, it resembled more of a cave. There was no ladder, no light, and Cozy, who had undone her disguise, called for Luster twice to sit on her back, basically giving her a fillyback ride downwards.
Of course, ponies’ shoulders don’t protrude outwards, so Luster, sweating with fear, had to hold on as if she were a backpack—forelegs around Cozy’s neck, hind legs around her chest.
This tunnel really is shallow, Luster thought. What if I fall and Cozy can’t turn around to catch me?!
Well, it was so tight it was unlikely she’d have enough space to slip past.
What if I get stuck?!
“Don’t scream,” Cozy demanded.
Luster found out why. Cozy didn’t climb down; She free-fell, the tip of a wing skimming the walls. The filly screamed at a high pitch, but voicelessly, without any vibrations in her throat.
Cozy’s hard hooves jammed against the walls and wings parachuted their descent. They stopped, but way above the ground. Luster lit her horn to see what had happened, fearing her mother might’ve been stuck. Three of Cozy’s legs were used to wedge herself in place, whilst the upper side of her left foreleg pushed Luster by her bottom to the top of her head, facing down to be less of a slope.
Luster pushed her legs through her mother’s bow to pull herself up and saw a horizontal crack. “Am I supposed to go through there?” she asked, knowing the answer but hoping for a no.
“That’s right,” Cozy said. “But don’t worry. I’ll be there to guide you.”
“Guide me?”
“It’s best to just get it over with.”
No more words. There was only one way through. Luster tried to find the best angle that her head could fit through: sideways. She sucked in her gut, and in a superhero’s position entered the narrow crack.
There’s no way Mom can fit through here, Luster thought.
It was a cool temperature at least, and not too dusty or damp. By slowly kicking her hind legs, it took five minutes to crawl through ten whole meters.
“Stop!” Cozy shouted. “Go to the hole to the right, then to the second one on the left.”
Luster’s amber torchlight spell revealed the route she was talking about. It sloped downwards, and it was a narrower entrance.
After another five minutes of awkwardly trying to slide her front hooves back, and head inside, where at one point she cried:
“I think I’m stuck!”
Only for Cozy to assure: “Don’t worry. You’re not. If I can fit through, I’m sure you can.”
And for Luster to reply: “But I have a horn!”
And for Cozy to pout and say: “But I thought you said I was chubby?”
And for Luster to reply softly: “I only meant your face…”
And the conversation ended because she really didn’t need her mom bringing that up right now.
She made it through.
There was more space on the other side, enough for her to stand up to walk to the second exit, which wasn’t far. After a few more steps, the route ended. It was a drop. Based on the sides, a very deep drop. How deep? Luster wasn’t going to peek her head over to find out—not on that thin edge.
She was startled when she was grabbed by two hooves that emerged from the dark.
“Are you okay?” Cozy asked.
Luster nodded.
“Good.”
Her mother kept one of her legs in front of her, and, to avoid the drama, pounced and grabbed her as they fell down the shaft. Cozy slowly flipped forwards to land smoothly on her hooves. There were teeth marks on Luster’s lower lip, but at least they were on the ground.
“Finally,” said Hope. “I was getting worried. You do know you could’ve just waited for me to catch my breath, and I could’ve teleported the two of you here, right?”
Once Luster caught her breath, she looked at her mother. Her horn was scorching red.
I did all that for no reason?!
Her mother only half managed to subdue a smile. A side-glare and second-long scowl got her daughter to face forwards.
In a smoothly surfaced, spacious hallway lit by bright, luminescent flowers, was Hope, surrounded by a squad of undisguised changeling guards. One of them was the ‘mare’ from before, but neither Luster nor Hope could tell.
“Right this way,” instructed the previously mare—now their guide.
She walked them down the hallway, to a tunnel that looked the exact same as any of the other tens of thousands of tunnels that made up the labyrinth known as the Hive. But for those that grew up there, it was simply a direct route.
They traveled in circles, shifting upwards only to shift back down, reaching one end only to fall a level and go back towards the direction they came.
“Can’t you just teleport us?” Luster whined.
Hope shook her neck. “Chrysalis doesn’t let me use my magic in this place.”
Hope was only able to teleport to that one specific room near the hallway, one of the more heavily patrolled areas. Only after a lot of convincing, and a few embarrassing moments, did Chrysalis finally relent by allowing her that one room, and because of whom she was friends with.
Luster doubted the Hive had that many rooms to justify all this walking. Changeling must sure love digging tunnels… She followed Hope leftwards.
“No you two, it’s this way.” The guide peeked her head from a hole through the ceiling.
The unicorns needed a moment to groan.
“I swear, each time I turn around this place changes its layout,” Hope said.
Luster’s brain cogs turned. “Maybe if I looked behind, then it won’t happen?”
Hope giggled. “You can try that, but I’m not carrying you.”
Luster looked back. There was nopony there… Seems even Mom got lost.
“Baah!” Hope screamed, nearly falling from the high-above tunnel had Cozy not grabbed her by the cloak. Of course, she wouldn’t have been startled if the other hadn’t popped her head out of nowhere.
Cozy retreated into her hole, reappeared out of another to grab her daughter, and flew back up, past Hope, and into the center of the Hive—the main intersection, where every major tunnel line intertwined.
A massive well, dark, ginormous, and deep. Hundreds of tunnels connected to it, and it held several times as many drones. There were no bridges across, as Hope was painfully aware, whose eyes darted to a cliff-side path that circled up to where the others were—without rails, intended to transport only heavy goods. Crystal ponies were quite heavy. The ceiling was sprinkled with cyan, sparkling mushrooms, an underground tribe’s makeshift stars, bright enough to make a city dweller jealous. The ground, meanwhile, was an abyss, with only the gray tip of a rock spire visible.
It was hard for Luster not to notice the number of heads turned towards her. She hoped those looks were for Mom.
“Woah!” shouted a drone next to her, who faded into the void.
It dropped the larvae it was carrying between its mouth.
Hero’s instincts kicked in. Luster tried to save it, but her magic was just as muffled as Hope’s.
On that same level, another drone swooped in and grabbed the silent hatchling.
Five pairs of eyes were at the bottom (not including the many others): Luster’s, Cozy’s, Hope’s, and the two drones'.
About seven seconds pass. Splash! The bottom of the well was surface to an intricate network of underwater caves. That was when Luster saw that Cozy had her hoof out, exactly where the drone tripped.
“Pretty deep, huh?” Cozy said, eyes fixated on the other drone—the one with the larvae. She bent her hind leg.
Luster smashed her head.
“Ow.”
“How could you do that?!” Luster scolded. The drones were aghast by her bravery, or stupidity. At least those expressions were readable.
The drone who fell was fine; they all were used to this sort of treatment. It was safest for them to ‘play along’ when incidents like this happen, not making it too obvious how they survive. Such events were much more common in Cozy’s earlier days, and no one dared to tell her off. Only Chrysalis had that power, and if you brought it up with her there was a ninety percent chance she’d tell you to suck it up. It did seem a bit silly, complaining to the queen herself about being cut in line, or when she loitered in some place she shouldn’t be, or when she brought up your grades on a holiday, but it really was annoying. They all had to be so disciplined and orderly, but none of those rules extended to Cozy.
A complex, collaborative effort was required to discuss these sorts of topics, drone-to-drone. Cozy's guards, stationed outside her room at night, judged by her snoring whether she was truly asleep. It helped that Chrysalis, for her and only her, maintained a bedtime schedule, only because Cozy was simply too much. But it only meant Chrysalis’ location had to be more strictly monitored. Patrols would hide in the tunnels and, when out of sight, would update their location to their nests.
The result: they could gossip about Cozy. Imagine if she had to do guard's training or hoof drills! She wouldn't even have the discipline to stand still.
Occasionally, once the first scouts were sent out, they’d share smuggled ‘outside stuff’, such as snacks or comics. Once, a nest figured out how to power a ‘lamp’. They were discovered staring at it the next morning.
Another time, they brought back a JoyBoy that, after a month of fearing eventual discovery and the consequences of secrecy, was shared with Cozy, who confiscated it and never shared it back—except on one occasion. Stuck on a level and to prove it was impossible, she offered the handheld to a nearby drone. It won on the first try. After she mocked both the game and drone as stupid, she threw the device to the floor, stomped on it, jumped on it, spat on it, extolled chess, and left. The drone took extra long routes to avoid her after that.
Being on her ‘friends list’ was a dream for many. After all, she was older and cooler, a filly so dangerous even Tartarus failed to contain her. Her image was cemented in the Pantheon of Villains, as one of Equestria’s biggest baddies, and the smallest. But of course, she only associates with real villains, like Mom or Tirek—not drones, and they were painfully aware of that.
“Well?” Luster asked, forelegs crossed.
“To show how deep it was. And because I felt like it, duh.”
“You should apologize!” the filly commanded.
“Don’t you have somecreature you’re supposed to apologize to?” Cozy looked up and rubbed her chin to try to recall who it was. “A certain supervillain…” She looked at Luster with her head upside down.
Luster maintained her tough look, despite how difficult it was. She squinted at Cozy, menacingly.
“Alright, alright. I’m sorry,” Cozy said.
“He can’t hear that. Say it louder!”
“Golly, somefilly’s bossy today.” Cozy shouted: “I’m sorry!” Her voice echoed. That tactic would not have worked with Chrysalis.
Hope finally arrived in the claws of a roc, a large and majestic bird of prey.
It transformed back into their guide. “This way.”
“Actually,” Cozy suggested, “I can lead us the rest of the way there. Dismissed!” She moved her by the muzzle over the ledge. Initially hovering in place, she dropped like a fly to escape Cozy’s stare.
They slid down a tunnel, past a few drones. Cozy guided Luster, and by extension Hope, through branches and paths until they fell from the ceiling and arrived outside their destination. There were two guards, one on each side of the main door. Both wore, unlike their surface counterparts, cobalt-blue headgear, chest plates, and had spears identical to the ones before, only these matched the color of the armor pieces.
It didn’t matter; they knew who Cozy and Hope were. They turned ninety degrees towards each other, stomped the legs closest to the trio (opposite the direction they turned), grabbed the door handles, and marched back. Cozy remembered when she had to act like that.
The trio entered the antechamber of Queen Chrysalis’ throne room. Between each pillar half-submerged into the walls was a painting, and under that was either a statue or an artifact atop a pedestal. Each art piece depicted key events in historical Changeling attacks. They were either stolen or recovered based on who you asked, and were protected by invisible, magical anti-vandalism enchantments, and by the guards, of which (in the room) there were currently eight. Four for the doors, and one for each of the indoor balconies that were placed in the top middle of each wall.
After a showcase identical from before, the doors to the throne room were finally open.
There wasn’t an empty seat. There weren’t any false reveals or tricks to be played. Only the inevitable—Queen Chrysalis, sat atop her throne.
The village above had killed a few of Luster's fears. Those fears were now revived.