WARNING: This chapter is rated TEEN for descriptions of violence. Reader discretion is advised.
The door closed behind Celestia. In front of her was a metal table, and seated at it was the changeling who was impersonating a royal guard. More specifically, it was one of the same kind of changelings that attacked her kingdom a little more than a month ago...
...and it was sneering at her.
"So, Princess Sunbutt graces my presence herself?" the changeling, a male by the sound of its nasally voice, says mockingly. "I figured you would've had your gilded lackeys come to confront me, so I can say with rare honesty that this is a surprise."
Celestia glared at the changeling as she approached the table.
"You will cease that unpleasantness this instant," she tells him coldly.
"You don't tell me what to-"
The changeling stopped talking as he saw fire ignite in the princesses's eyes, her mane's constant flowing having sped up and the colors adopting a hue closer to orange.
"My patience has been tried greatly today, changeling. Do not make yourself an easy target for my ire."
The changeling persisted.
"And what if I want to be an easy target?" he asked. "Surely, word of my capture has spread, and a rescue will be attempted at some point."
"And what if she does not?" the princess countered. "What if your queen has decided that you have betrayed her, and any rescue she sends is actually an execution squad meant to silence you before you give up any more information?"
The changeling scoffed. "Please, you mean to tell me you think that the queen would think I would betray her? We're taught not to give up anything, no matter what you do to us! So, by all means, do your worst."
The princess's fire died down, and she gave the changeling a smile.
"Very well. We will simply call out Queen Chrysalis and tell her that we have a prisoner and are willing to hear terms of an exchange."
Celestia turned, but not before seeing the changeling's face blanch.
"H-How do you know my queen's name?!"
She turned back with the smirk still on her face.
"You just told me, or at least that is what I will tell her if she contacts me."
There is silence for a few moments, and the changeling regained what little fortitude it could.
"She won't buy it! She'll be able to tell you're lying!"
"Not necessarily. You see, I have heard the name thrown around before, but you have confirmed that that is truly her name, so in a way, saying that you told me her name is true, in a sense."
"How could you have ever heard that name before?"
"Do you really think you're the only changeling we have in custody?"
The regained fortitude disappeared in an instant.
"Now, since it is very clear that you are in a disadvantageous position, perhaps you would be interested in hearing my offer to you?"
Again, the changeling sneered. "Unless it's your love on a silver plate, you can't give me anything!"
Celestia let out a breath before adopting a stern glare. "You're aware of the charges of impersonating a royal guard are you not?"
"Of course! Imprisonment of no less than five years with a maximum allowable of twenty, depending on any accessory crimes the accused is also charged with, barring extremely heinous crimes such as rape or murder."
"And in those last instances?"
"Lifetime imprisonment."
"I would imagine that any one of those lengths of time would be rather harmful to you."
"Not if I've had a big enough snack beforehoof."
"And whose to say you will get one?"
The changeling laughed. "I will because you ponies are too soft, always worried about treating your prisoners right. Back in the hive, creatures that commit slights against us all get the same punishment: cocooned and fed upon."
"So you confess to mistreatment of prisoners?"
"I'm a soldier, not a warden. I know what you're getting at, princess."
"Soldiers are more than capable of committing war crimes," Celestia pointed out. "In fact, many of them have done so under the direct orders of a superior, but they were punished as though the act were carried out of their own volition with no prompting from a leader."
"And what does this mean to me? I know you're not gonna put me on trial publicly! Too much risk for you!"
"Yes, the risk is too great. Not only could you escape, but any others from your hive may see you and either carry out a rescue operation, or decided you've squealed and execute you on the spot."
"And you don't want to risk losing your new little toy."
Celestia's gaze hardened. "You know, cooperation would benefit you far more than resistance right now."
"And me draining you to nothing would benefit me even more!"
Celestia's horn glowed, and the chair the changeling was sitting in morphed into a new shape. The changeling fell to the floor, but upon standing up and attempting to attack the princess, he triped and fell to the ground. Looking to see what tripped him, he saw the metal of the chair had been transfigured into a set of shackles, each one clamped through one of the holes in his hooves.
"I would think long and hard about what you will say when somepony next comes in here to speak with you," Celestia warned as she moved to the door. "You may find them to be far more unpleasant that I."
With that last remark, the princess made her exit.
"What in the name of Faust was that, sister?" Luna asked after her sister shut the door.
"A show of force," she answered, "or at least as good of one as I could make."
"Do you think that that will work?"
"It may, and it may not, but we won't know until we've given him some time to mull over what I told him."
Dionices stepped forward. "It was better than I expected, but it might not be enough. He could spend his time in there developing the magical fortitude to break those shackles, and if he does, well... he's gonna be starving worse than he was before you started questioning him."
"Then I shall question him next in a half hour," Luna stated to the group.
"Yes," Celestia agreed. "That was what I was originally thinking."
Luna looked at her sister in confusion. "May I be privy to this plan you seem to have concocted in the last several moments."
Celestia gave her sister a smile. "I think a special use of your abilities would benefit us greatly."
Luna continued looking confused for a moment, but then caught on and grinned widely.
"I get the feeling that this is going to be something that I'm glad I won't be the subject of," Dionices commented as she too understood what the princess was getting at.
The changeling prisoner was working on ideas to help him escape his predicament. The shackles in his legs were forged into solid, uniform rings, and the lengths of chain anchoring them to the floor were made the same way. Put simply, he wasn't prying the links open with something.
His next idea was a concentrated laser blast directed at a link, but the guards would see his horn glowing as he charged up the magic for such a spell and he'd be stopped before he could even begin. However, his persistent rumbling gut made him think that second idea wasn't the worst in the world.
Yeah, the changeling thought to himself, I'll make them think I'm casting a spell and have one come rushing in, and when they gets too close, I suck all the love out of them.
Before he can even begin to put his plan into motion, the door swung open wide, revealing a royal guard with a glare across his face, and his horn glowing.
"You're being transferred prisoner," the guard said loudly and coldly.
"Oh, goodie! I-"
The changeling never finished the sentence. The stallion shot a powerful stun spell across the room and knocked the changeling cold.
When the changeling next awoke, he found himself back at the hive, sitting in the throne room. Looking around, he saw no other changelings present. Only stone walls carved out over centuries, and small, bio-luminescent mushrooms that served as lighting.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't our spy from Canterlot."
He quickly snapped his head around to see who was speaking to him, and emerging from an alcove was the queen herself, cat-like pupils looking at him in her usual, analytical way. Quickly, he jumped to his hooves and bowed.
"Your majesty."
"Save the pleasantries," she spat, making clear what her current mood was. "You are going to explain this to me, right now!"
Her hoof slammed down on the ground, and when she lifted it again, a scroll with a familiar golden seal was resting underneath it.
"Read it!" she commanded. Not wanting to cause further ire, he took the scroll and unfurled it.
"Aloud! I want the hive to hear this!"
The changeling looked up at her, and then noticed sets of blue eyes emerging from the dark spaces in the throne room behind her. Slowly, they moved exposing more eyes and revealing bodies of changelings as they moved in and surrounded the queen and the one apparently on trial.
"Read aloud! Now!"
Flinching, the changeling redirected his attention to the scroll and began speaking aloud.
"Dear Queen Chrysalis, this communication was directed to be sent to you by Princesses Celestia and Luna-"
"Enough!" she cut in as she then used her magic and held the changeling so tightly by his throat that he could barely breathe at all. "Would you care to explain to me exactly how those wretched ponies were able to ascertain my name?"
The changeling made to answer, but the grip on his throat prevented him.
"Oh, I know! Why don't we read further into the letter!"
She snatched up the loose scroll and brought it before her face.
"Dear Queen Chrysalis," she began, "this communication was directed to be sent to you by Princesses Celestia and Luna in the interest of conducting a prisoner exchange. We are willing to trade any changelings we have in our custody in exchange for whatever citizens of our kingdom you have in yours. Equestria understands your curiosity as to how we have come to know where to send this communication, since we have had no formal channels of any kind before the incident that occurred at the wedding between Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and guard captain and now prince consort Shining Armor. Fortunately for us, your subject was able and more than willing to provide us with all the necessary information with which to get in touch with you!"
Upon the last words being uttered, the scroll burst into green flames, and the ashes fell to the floor.
"Now, explain why you were so willing to help THEM!"
The grip on the changeling's neck ceased, and he found himself gasping for breath.
"I... have done... no such-"
A powerful blast sent the changeling skidding across the floor and into a wall. Groaning in pain from a cracked rib, he looked up to see his queen slowly sauntering over to him. His stomach went cold; there was only one time he'd ever seen that gaze, and it proceeded her feeding upon several ponies at once, and all of them to the point of being so drained, they were nothing but catatonic, unfeeling vegetables.
"You obviously did! That scroll was delivered here, by a PONY COURIER! Even worse, a pony courier we had to LET ESCAPE because we no longer have the amount of love to spare chase prey down! That is how bad our current predicament is!"
"N-No... I haven't-"
"STOP LYING YOU TRAITOR! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF YOU! GUARDS!"
Two armored changelings stepped forward immediately.
"Take this sorry excuse of a changeling and hold him in the prisoner's chambers. I will call for him once I have found an appropriate punishment for him."
"Yes, your majesty," both answered in unison, grabbing the changeling by a leg and dragging him as he kicked to get free.
"I haven't betrayed the hive!"
"I am done listening to your pleas."
Queen Chrysalis turned her back on the changeling as she buzzed her wings and moved to sit atop her throne.
The guards had unceremoniously tossed the injured changeling into a cell, which was nothing more than a space big enough to stand and move around a little, with a wall that had slits cut into it to resemble prison bars, and a section of wall that opened by special spell. Worst of all, though, were the quartz crystals embedded on the back wall, their special magic preventing the use of a changeling's own magic while residing in the cell.
For the moment, the changeling was alone, and he managed to sit up despite his injured rib.
"Way to go, Setae," he mumbled as he tried to get himself as comfortable as possible. "You have a simple assignment to spy on the royal guard and the princesses in Canterlot, and they not only sus you out, but somehow manage to get information to find the hive. The queen won't believe you, and now you're probably due for execution."
He paused in his speech as he realized something.
"Wait - why didn't she just kill me up in the throne room?"
"Because she wants to make you suffer before she puts you out of your misery."
Setae turned and looked in the direction of the voice. Across and a cell down from his own was another changeling, but this one looked more gaunt than usual.
"You look terrible," Setae told the new changeling. "How long have you been down here?"
"Since before the queen tried to take Canterlot."
"That was going on almost three months ago. Haven't you been provided any rations?"
"No, I haven't," the other changeling answered as they moved to be better seen between the bars. In addition to the gaunt appearance, several wounds decorated the changeling's face, many of which appeared to be rather fresh.
"They're not feeding you?" Setae asked in shock. "That's not right."
"No, it is. The queen ordered all non-essential love expendeture to cease immediately, and that means no rations for prisoners."
Setae went pale upon hearing this. "So you've slowly been starving to death down here for three months?!"
The other changeling nodded. "My body is cannibalizing itself in lieu of not receiving love. I don't know how much longer I can go, but I don't think the queen wants to find out anyway."
"What do you mean? Are you gonna be executed?"
"Yes, and in the worst way. She'll have as many other lings as possible surround me and feed on me simultaneously. With the last bits of love out of my body, I won't be able to support myself, and my death will be painful. The only mercy is that I will go quickly."
"What did you even do to deserve that?"
"I was found out."
"You were found out?"
"Yep. I was scouting out some of the area around Canterlot to get some intelligence before the attack during the wedding, especially regarding Princess Cadance, but she spotted me and it forced the queen's hoof, causing her to capture and detain the princess well before she was ready. I was sent back a prisoner, and with the failure of the operation, I was branded a traitor."
Setae blanched even further; this changeling's story was not much different from his own. Was he bound to suffer the same fate?
"What did you do to get stuck down here?" the other changeling asked.
"I was sent to spy on Canterlot in order to get intelligence for a future invasion."
"Sounds a bit familiar."
"Yeah, well, get ready for more deja vu; I was found out too."
"The two of us must have the worst luck in the whole hive."
Setae chuckled. "Yeah. Well, Princess Celestia interrogated me herself, and a bit later, I must've been recaptured, because the last thing I remember was getting blasted by a royal guard and waking up in the throne room here."
"That's about the same for me. I made to get away and was intercepted by another squad. I got dragged back here and tossed into a cell without a second thought."
There was a pause for a few seconds before Setae then asked. "What's your name?"
"Melanogaster, but I usually get called Mel."
"Well, guess we're in up to our necks for this one, huh, Mel?"
"Yeah, I guess we are. What's your name?"
"Setae."
"Ha! Like those couches ponies have."
"I guess."
The two say nothing for a while, thinking over their respective situations. An hour later, Mel asks Setae a question.
"Have you ever thought about why we do things the way we do?"
Setae, who had laid down on one side, gingerly stood up and walked over to look out the bars. "What do you mean?"
Mel stood up and approached the bars as well. "I mean, we feed on love, but we always attack villages and take prisoners to cocoon and feed off of. Haven't you ever thought 'Maybe we should try something else'?"
Setae blinked. "What are you talking about? How else are we supposed to get it?"
"I don't know. Not attacking other creatures?"
Setae gasped, then cursed himself as his rib acted up. "Are you insane?! That thought right there is treason!"
"And that means what to me?" Mel countered. "I'm being held here as a traitor anyway, and I'm on the verge of being executed, so what's the point of avoiding having those thoughts?"
Setae opened his mouth to speak, but stopped. If he was about to be killed, why worry about the repercussions?
"I don't know how long you've spent around ponies, but I've been doing infiltration since I was out of nymphhood. I've replaced fathers, sons, and on occasion, wives and daughters. One thing I've always noticed is that the strongest love is when they come together and feel it for one another. Whenever we go to get it, it's always pretending to love somepony to get them to fall for our disguise, and then we suck it out of them until there's nothing left and move on."
"I gotta be honest with you about something: that first kind of love is way stronger and way better than that second kind."
"Well, if that's really the case, why doesn't the queen tell us to gather love that way instead of how we do it now?" Setae countered.
"I don't know," Mel answered, "but the only thing I can come up with is that the queen is afraid of us getting too strong?"
Setae looked at Mel in a mix of shock and anger. "What exactly do you mean?"
"Think about it - each time we feed, we get stronger. Speaking purely in hypotheticals, a single changeling could feed on enough love to get strong enough to overthrow the queen."
"Do not speak such heresy to me!" Setae spat at Mel, the anger in his voice clear as day.
"I am only speaking in hypotheticals," Mel defended himself. "All I'm saying is that the potential for such a thing exists, even if no ling in the hive would dare to act on such a desire, but that's my point. We are so starved because the queen is afraid one of us will figure it out and get the courage to stand up to her."
"You're saying that she's starving us in order to stave off a hypothetical attempt at usurpation?"
"That's the general idea."
"Well then, you are nothing but a worthless traitor! Don't ever speak to me again!"
Setae turned away from the window and sat down, careful to avoid agitating his injured rib.
"As you wish, but I wouldn't be too surprised if that were the truth."
Setae ignored Mel as he laid down on his good side and drifted off to sleep.
A bucket of ice cold water dumped on his head brought Setae out of his slumber in a hurry.
"GAH!"
"The queen has demanded your presence, and we're not dragging you there like we dragged you here the last time!"
Setae looked up to see the two guards on either side of the now-open wall cavity. Rising to his hooves and grunting due to his cracked rib, he fell in line between the two and marched with them to the throne room.
Nothing was said as they went, but Setae took notice that Mel was not in his cell anymore. Perhaps the queen called him before she called me? he mused to himself.
A short trip through some winding tunnels ended in the large set of purple doors that marked the entrance to the throne room. The guards took up post on either side and opened them, with the one on Setae's left making a sharp gesture to go inside. Needing no further prodding, the changeling made his way inside.
The throne room's entrance continued down a vaulted corridor. Once past it, he looked around to see the throne room empty, save for the large black throne situated in the center.
"Welcome, traitor."
Setae heard the voice of the queen coming from all directions, and looked around to identify where specifically it originated from.
"Oh? A bit confused as to where I am? Well then, let me make it EASY FOR YOU!"
The loud shout made Setae flinch. A bright flash directly in front and around him showed the quickly morphing form of Queen Chrysalis. In a stunning display of changeling abilities, she morphed herself into a large, concave mural of the throne room, which had shielded more than a thousand or so changelings crammed into the space, all looking at him and hissing.
"So that was the game then, was it?" she asked in an accusatory tone. "You gained outside information and wanted to make sure you got back to your mastermind in order to share the intelligence and plot against the hive?"
"No, your highness!" Setae pleaded. "I've done nothing of the sort."
A sudden, massive pressure snapped the cracked rib in his side, causing Setae to scream in pain and wheeze as his breaths became labored.
"Keep denying it all you want! You won't be living too much longer anyways."
Setae looked up to see the changeling crowd surrounding him and hissing, ready for the queen to give the command to drain him and end his existence.
"I want the throne room clear!" the queen suddenly barked out. "I have something I want to say to these prisoners that is for their ears only. You all will be readmitted once I have finished."
The throne room emptied out as each changeling moved to wait outside. With only the queen and Setae remaining, the changeling monarch resumed her speech.
"I must hoof it to you, Melanogaster. Despite how much I absolutely despise you, putting the puzzle pieces together was child's play for you, wasn't it?"
Setae looked around the room, but did not see Mel anywhere.
"Do you require assistance, Setae?" The queen asked, her tone now mocking. "Well then, here's a hint: look up."
Following the instruction, Setae looked up to see Mel wrapped in a cocoon, his mind in the half asleep, half awake state that prey was always in when cocooned.
"He makes for a nice decoration, doesn't he? Well, as much as I would like to leave him up there, I have punishments to dole out."
A blast of green magic from her horn causes the cocoon to burst open, Mel falling from the ceiling to the floor and avoiding the cracking of his skull on the stone by his front hooves cushioning his fall, though at the cost of either a broken or disjointed leg.
Mel suddenly awoke and screamed as the pain registered in his mind.
"Shut up, traitor!" Queen Chrysalis spat at him. "You deserve far worse. In fact, you will get far worse in just a moment."
Her attention turned back to Setae.
"I don't take kindly to traitors, as you can see. Of course, neither did you, or at least, up until you became one."
"Your highness!" Setae pleaded. "I am not a traitor. I don't know how the ponies got that information, but it was not through me!"
"Please," Chrysalis scoffed. "You were in their custody, and while in their custody, we received that communication. There are no other changelings from our hive held prisoner there, and no other hive knows of our location. Who else could have told them but you?"
Setae didn't have an answer, as badly as he wanted one.
The queen called forth her magic and blocked off the entrance to the throne room, preventing any other changelings from entering.
"Besides, that is not the only way you have betrayed the hive."
"M-My queen?"
"There can be only one to lead the hive, and there can be no usurpation. You know of my greatest secret, and for that, you must be eliminated."
"W-What?!"
Chrysalis chuckled. "Exactly what I mean. I must rule, and there must be none who oppose me."
Setae's stomach dropped. With that admission, the queen confirmed what Mel had told him. She didn't want any changelings to compete against her for a claim to the throne, so she did whatever to prevent it, including executing any changeling that threatened it.
"So it's true," he finally answered, a defeated tone in his voice. "You starve our hive to prevent any changeling from getting strong enough to oppose you."
The queen cackled maniacally. "That is only a part of it. With all of you so starved for love, you all practically turn against one another for whatever scraps you can get, which keeps all of you at each other's throats. Hard to organize a resistance if you can't trust the one right beside you, isn't it?"
It all made sense when he thought about it. With no ability to trust any other changeling, resisting the queen was essentially suicide, and with the starvation feeding into that, it ensured that it would practically stay that way.
"Why? I can't think of any changeling that wants to disobey and challenge you."
"And you never will. Whenever I find a potential threat, I eliminate it, much like I will do with this sorry excuse of a traitor here."
"And then me."
"HA! No, you will be made an example of. I think draining you to near death and stringing you up in Canterlot Square with a message telling the ponies to kill future prisoners will both eliminate future attempts to contact us and discourage any future failures."
Setae's jaw dropped. Being drained and left to the mercy of the ponies? He'd starve to death for sure!
"Please!" he pleaded. "I won't tell a soul!"
"Of course you won't, because the dead don't speak!"
The queen's horn ignited, and a field of green magic enveloped Mel, raising him up in front of the queen.
"Now, watch what happens to your compatriot as he finds out what punishment traitors truly deserve!"
The queen's mouth opened wide and a stream of pink energy practically exploded out of Mel, the changeling groaning as the energy and love left his body and found its way to Chrysalis's maw.
"...Setae," Mel forced out, weakening by the second, "ru...run!"
Setae would've taken the advice, but the queen cut off the only way out of the throne room. He was forced to watch what he had seen happen to countless ponies and other various races that the changelings had labeled prey...
...and he would be next.
Heart pounding a mile a minute and stomach now demanding the immediate evacuation of all its contents, Setae was forced to plant his flank in an effort to avoid succumbing to a panic attack.
Mel, however, was in as bad of sorts as a changeling can get, and getting worse by the second. Soon enough, he curled up into the ball as absolutely debilitating hunger pains wracked his body, his mouth forcing out air in inaudible screams, his eyes occasionally focusing on Setae as he silently pleaded for his suffering to end.
Then, his body went slack, his eyes unfocused and glazed over, and his lungs let out a breath for the very last time.
Melanogaster was dead, drained of every last possible reserve of love in his body.
The pink stream finally cut off and the queen released the spell, Mel's lifeless body falling to the floor like and flailing like a rag doll. She walked over to the corpse and sneered at it.
"They say the last sense to go before the brain is too damaged to function anymore is hearing, so just know that your little attempt at a coup has failed miserably."
Igniting her horn, the queen shot a stream of fire at the body, incinerating it into ash. Once Melanogaster was completely no more, Chrysalis turned her attention back to Setae.
"Now you see what happens to those who betray the hive, and in a week, you'll meet with the same fate."
Setae said nothing. The queen moved the stones and called for two guards to take him back to his cell. As they walked, the two armored changelings threw snide comments at the prisoner, proclaiming the superiority of the changeling race and the absolute rule of the queen. Only when he was back in his cell did he make any kind of reaction.
The normally stoic changeling fell to the floor and did the most un-changelinglike thing he'd ever done: he broke down into tears.
Melanogaster, a changeling whose only crime was speculating more than he should have, was now dead, and in a week, Setae would be joining him. He would have little to nothing left by that point; a consequence of the queen not allowing him any love rations whatsoever. When that time came, his only hope would be that he didn't suffer for as long as Melanogaster did.
Trying to fight back the weeping, he ultimately failed and openly sobbed, just trying to keep the sound from being heard by the guards that may or may not be nearby.
"Go ahead traitor. Not like you could embarrass yourself any worse than you already have."
At that point, Setae didn't even bother hiding it anymore. He cried until he had no more energy and fell asleep.
When Setae next awoke, he found himself in a different cell. Examining the features, he realized that he was in a pony cell, which meant that what he just experienced was all a dream.
"If that was a dream, why did I dream of the queen doing that?" he mused to himself.
"Because that is what you fear she will do to you," a voice answered him.
Jumping and turning to face the voice, Setae found none other than the princess of the night herself watching from behind a set of bars.
"Hmph, what would you know about fear?" the changeling asked, a snide tone in his voice.
"Quite a bit, seeing as it is one of my royal duties to assist those under my rule with their nightmares."
"Oh, so scary! Another pony didn't want to be a pony's friend! They didn't get the blue ribbon in the baking contest!"
"They didn't escape the pack of timberwolves and were torn limb from limb," Princess Luna cut in, her eyes narrowing and the faintest hint of slits forming in them.
Setae stopped talking and looked at her. "Seriously?"
"Parents abandoning young foals, unrequited loves from crushes, being brutally murdered by one they thought was their best friend. I have seen all of it, and I have seen the brutality of your queen as she killed Melanogaster and incinerated his body."
The changeling looked shocked for a moment, but then glared. "Of course, you found a way into my dreams. That leads me to question now whether it was really a nightmare or a dream built by your own machinations."
Luna glared back. "Even if it were of my own creation, it can only be constructed of the actual fears that you yourself feel, so from what I gleaned, you are quite afraid of your queen."
"I fear no creature!" Setae spat back, adding a hiss to punctuate the point further.
Luna, rather than be frightened by such a display, stood up tall and ignited her horn, forcing Setae against the wall with the same force as Celestia had earlier in the interview room.
"And I do not fear you! Your kind may be able to change into more intimidating forms, but I have mastered the dark. As the young foals would say, the boogeymare checks her closet for me."
Setae chuckled. "I strongly doubt that."
Luna narrowed her eyes and allowed her horn to extinguish. When she did, two things happened:
Setae was released from the pressure of the princess's hold, and the room went completely dark.
Looking around, Setae saw nothing. Even the outline of objects mere inches from him were concealed by darkness.
"If you think this will scare me, then you are quite wrong."
A sudden hiss in his ear caused him to turn, but smack his face into something hard and metal. Recoiling, he rubbed at his face with a hoof, but stopped as he felt pain erupt from the area he touched.
"You cursed wench!" he cried out. "I just broke my muzzle!"
"Are you sure?" came Princess Luna's reply. "Perhaps you'd like to feel it again?"
"As if I needed another-"
Setae was cut off as what felt like a foam ball collided with his face.
"You stupid-"
His muzzle no longer felt any pain.
"What the?"
"I can make you experience a great many things, changeling, but I am limited only to your experiences and feelings. After all, it is your mind that is actually creating your nightmares. All I do is provide the right amount of influence."
"So you admit it?!" Setae said accusingly. "You made that nightmare for me!"
"Only your mind can create nightmares, and everything in them is a result of your fears and dreads. I only brought those fears to the surface, and nothing more."
"As if I should believe you!"
Without warning, a golden rope shot forth and bound between the changeling's legs, tying him up and preventing him from moving.
"What is this?"
"That," Luna answered, "is a special lasso from the Element of Honesty. My sister gave it a very special enchantment: anyone who is bound by that lasso is also bound to tell only the truth as they know it. If you attempt to lie, it will become increasingly more painful until you relent and tell the truth. So, with that in mind, please tell me: do you fear your queen?"
Setae went to spit a lie, but a sudden, and incredibly horrible pain traveled through his legs and into his chest, practically robbing him of oxygen.
"Now that you know that that item is legitimate, let me ask you again - Do you fear your queen?"
Again, Setae attempted to lie, and again, was given an excruciating level of pain, decidedly worse than the last.
"It is impossible for the lasso to take your life, but it is entirely possible that I will continue asking this question until you pass out from pain, which I will then allow you to recover from and return later to continue asking this question. I will not give up until I have an answer."
"F-Fu-AAAH!!"
The pain was the worst yet, and this time, it seemed to linger for longer. Once it abated, Setae was left panting. Another dose of that, and he'd pass out.
"You are no hero, changeling! You accomplish nothing by hiding information from us, and will only hurt yourself further by continuing this! Answer my question! Do you fear your queen?!"
Setae was gripped with the worst pain of all, the sensation radiating through his whole body, and putting him on the verge of vomiting. This time, however, the pain seemed to hold, not abating after a full minute. The changeling actually lost the ability to communicate for several moments before relief came in the rope's spell relenting.
"It's pointless to resist. Sooner or later, you will want relief from that pain, and when you do, it will come spilling from you without a moment's hesitation. So, I ask you one last time, do you fear your queen?"
Setae looked at the alicorn, finally able to make out her form in the darkness; whether she wanted him to see her or not, he didn't know. He thought of a reply, but then he suddenly felt the intense pain ratchet up even worse, as though knives dipped in hot pepper sauce were being jammed into his body over and over again.
That was his threshold. He couldn't take anymore.
"Y-Yes..."
The pain subsided immediately. Not even the lingering after-touch in his nerves remained.
"Why do you fear your queen?"
Setae sat up, but did not dare to look Princess Luna in the eyes. "She has enough power to destroy every last one of us if she wished."
"And yet you place your trust in her, to act in accordance with the wishes and wills of your kind?"
"Y-Ye-"
Again, the intense pain plagued his body.
"N-No!"
"And why don't you?"
Setae was conflicted with himself. On one hoof, he didn't want to betray anything about the hive or his queen, but on the other, he had endured a whole life under the rule of Queen Chrysalis, and was made to endure all of the pain and hardships that entailed, but there was another fact that weighed heaviest on Setae:
Younglings.
Before being made to be an infiltrator, he cared for larva and nymphs in the nursery hive. He fed them, taught them, and in rare instances, nursed them back to health when they became ill. As much as he was warned not to develop attachments, he couldn't help but develop a general overall feelings for the young of the hive, and it created within him a sense of duty to do whatever he could to keep them safe.
Pretty soon, he realized that the changeling young in the nursery hive were going to know the worst hardship of all: starvation. When love rations would become so low, the queen would need to do something about it. Already, she ordered that changelings were not allowed to mate until further notice. Even worse, she ordered several of the expectant mothers to abort their young, only promising that when a solution to the hunger was found, they would be allowed to try again.
Worst of all, however, was the order he had heard the queen give just before he was to leave the hive: destroy all unhatched egg clutches and dispose of the larvae.
It shouldn't have, but it made his stomach turn. All those lives, snuffed out because of a lack of love. They'd never get to grow up and have lives because of a food shortage.
On one hoof, it was probably a mercy to never know of suffering like that and end up dying that way, but on the other, it just felt all kinds of wrong.
"The queen put a stop to breeding."
"You don't trust your queen because she won't let you breed?"
"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!" Setae snapped, glaring at Luna with the vitriol of a thousand changelings behind his eyes. "You ponies and all your love, and yet you hoard it for yourselves! You care nothing for those who don't look anything like you and don't even offer aid unless it suits your kind to do so!"
Luna took the lasso and bound it tightly around Setae's muzzle, preventing the changeling from speaking.
"You listen to this and listen good! All fault of what is or has happened among your kind falls solely on your queen! We never received any kind of plea for aid, and not once have either of our races engaged in any kind of formal dialogue! And as far as our dealings with non-pony races? It is a tad bit difficult to establish peaceful relations when some like the griffins will try to rob our emissaries, or the yaks who perceive any cultural misunderstanding as a deliberate slight against them!"
Setae made an attempt to rebut Luna's remarks, but could only mumble with his muzzle tied shut.
"Now, if you are quite done with your slandering of our rule, perhaps we can get back to my original line of questioning?"
The rope binding the changeling's muzzle slack, allowing him to speak.
"You really think our queen would negotiate with prey?"
The rope found its way back around his muzzle, only bound even tighter.
"You are no predator!" Luna spat back. "Your kind are parasites! Were you to be removed from the existence of Equestria, it would have no negative impact on anypony or anycreature!"
Again, Setae tried to mumble out a coherent response, but failed to do so. Luna moved closer, glaring until the slit-like pupils she once had as Nightmare Moon briefly appeared for a moment.
"However, if your kind were to be the sole race left on Equestria, you would slowly die off from the lack of love from other creatures! You can only feed on one kind of thing, so if you lose that, then you have nothing! A predator would be able to adapt, so how can you call yourself one if you can't even do that?!"
Setae had been struggling, but stopped as he heard Princess Luna's argument.
How could his race survive if there was no more love?
The rope slacked again, allowing him to once again speak.
"Fine. Call us parasites if you wish. That doesn't change the fact that we need to feed off of you to survive, and none of you give us food willingly."
"Perhaps if there was a way that didn't cause us harm, then we would. Alas, there isn't, and there's another point for your kind being nothing more than parasites."
Setae gave no response, not bothering to face Princess Luna or dignify her arguments. For her part, the princess dropped that tangent of discussion and moved back to asking the questions she wanted answered.
"Why were you imitating a guard?"
Setae went to spit a lie at her, but the intense pain of the rope once again returned.
"I didn't impersonate a guard!"
"HA!" Luna scoffed. "You can't seriously tell me you wanted to be a guard for real!"
"As if I wanted to protect your sister's rather sizable flanks."
The rope lashed hard across his face, causing Setae to yelp from the pain.
"Would you care to comment on my sister's posterior again?"
"...No."
"Then keep those comments to yourself," Luna warned as she drew the rope tighter.
"Why were you acting as a guard?"
"I wanted some kind of intelligence to take back to the queen."
"So you know where she is?"
"No, but there's changelings that do, and there's also a series or relays to ensure you ponies don't catch on and find her."
Luna glared. "And did you find anything?"
"Nothing that wasn't already useful to us before the invasion at the wedding."
"I don't know if that's something that should be concerning or a relief."
"All I did find out is you hosted some kind of dignitary, but I wasn't assigned to that patrol; the commanders assigned me to watch the main gate of the city."
“And you made no attempt to sneak away to observe this meeting?”
“I was assigned night patrols; you're expected to sleep during the day, and you're watched by more than one guard. If I had tried to sneak away, they'd have caught on to me, and if I made an attempt to fight, I would've been overwhelmed. Too much risk for an uncertain reward.”
Luna stared at him for several moments, but elected to change topics.
"In your watch, did you let any changelings in?"
"No. There were none to let in."
"And do you know of any in the city?"
"I never ran into any, but I'm sure they're here."
"And what about other hives?"
Setae glared. "If you think I'm going to sell out other hives-"
"While you have this lasso on, I could force you to give up whatever I want you to, but I would prefer to do things differently."
Setae chuckled. "You ponies. All you want to do is the whole friendship thing. Don't you understand that not every creature wants to be your friend?"
"Why do you think we have guards across our whole kingdom?"
"Show pieces to get you riled up?"
Another whip of the lasso hit his muzzle, causing another stab of pain.
"You'd do best not to stoke my ire further. Those guards have been trained by the best, and the best were trained by those before them, all the way up to the first that my sister and I personally trained so many moons ago."
"They didn't look so hot on the wedding day."
SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!
The lasso kept striking until Setae cried out in pain, only stopping when blood started to seep out of the marks on his muzzle.
Luna leaned in with a glare, the lasso held in her magic in front of Setae's face.
"Would thou wish to comment further on the actions of my sister and I?"
Setae returned the glare, but said nothing further.
"That is what I thought."
Luna's horn lit up again and cast a spell at the changeling, putting him to sleep again.
Setae sat at the interrogation table, lightly snoring as he slumbered. Luna, who had sat across from him the entire time since he'd been hit by the sleep spell, stood up and left the room.
"Have you found out anything, sister?"
Celestia moved up to her sister, eager to learn what she may have learned.
"He does not know exactly where his queen is, but there is apparently a network of changelings that lead back to her. Trying to infiltrate this network ourselves would be extraordinarily difficult at best. I don't think that's an avenue that would benefit us to pursue."
"On a more positive note, he is unaware of Dionices, and mostly unaware of the meeting we had with King Apidae."
Celestia raised an eyebrow. "Mostly?"
"He's aware that we hosted a dignitary, but not who that dignitary was."
"Are you sure that he is unaware of all that transpired?"
"I am fairly certain, sister."
Celestia looked at her sister for a few moments, but then let out a breath, looking at her with a smile.
"Very well, sister. We trust that you have succeeded in our endeavor."
A clearing of a throat brought the attention of both princesses to Dionices.
"I don't mean to cast doubt, but you are certain that he is unaware?"
"I am fairly certain," Luna replied. "He described being assigned to perimeter duty for the duration of the meeting, and those guards have a secondary barracks they use away from the castle, so he has not likely infiltrated our meeting."
Dionices bowed her head. "My apologies. I am simply being cautious."
"We know. For now, from what I could deduce, the situation is in hoof at the moment."
"That is good to hear," Dionices answered, the tension visibly disappearing from her body. "I suggest the prisoner be moved before he regains consciousness and have him placed in a cell forthwith."
"We will do as such. What other things should we do now that we have unveiled our impostors?"
"I can help with improving security in regards to the vetting process for new guards, but right now, I think I should meet with a contingent of doctors so that we may jump-start the process of healing the affected ponies so they may return to their families."
Celestia smiled and nodded. "Yes, that would be much appreciated."