It was their last try, and they had failed. They were at their full strength at the start of the attack. Now there numbers dwindled. Their loss here would surely seal their doom. A tall figure stood alone in the middle of a barren valley. She had retreated to a safe distance from the oppressive heat surging through the air from her enemy. Many of her kin were not so lucky.
Piles of charred chitin littered the area. The wall appeared to taunt her. It was always the same. That twisted red fire curling and twisting in on itself as it moved slowly after her. It gave her an ominous feeling, like she was being watched. Like whatever cruelty fell upon her would be the vindictive laughter of the spells caster. She had not made a dent. The flames would consume them.
Queen Chrysalis heard a buzzing behind her and turned to see a small scout changeling. He was gasping for breath and there were burn marks all over his body. Exhausted from flying, the small changeling dropped to the ground leaving him with only enough strength to mutter, “My Queen... The spearhead attack failed…” She knew he would not last much longer. “We used all the reserves of our love. We have failed you…”
Even in death he took serving her as top priority. It was a property shared by all her drones, from the soldier class dying on the battlefield, to the worker class, tending to her nest at the cost of their own health. This one did not have any information for her she did not already possess. She could afford to dismiss him.
“You have served your queen well,” she said. She gave what could be considered a smile and his body relaxed and slumped to the earth. She would leave him there. There was no value to be had in the dead. She would have to shake off her looming dread to salvage the remains of her army before it was all gone.
A breeze kicked up which produced small whirlwinds of dust and char. It also renewed the scent of smouldering flesh. The Queen thought she would have had gotten used to it by now. After weeks of losing countless lives to its heat, she turned towards the breeze and was faced with her nemesis.
Their first loss came at the loss of their old hive site. They had occupied it for nearly one hundred years. It was an ideal spot, surrounded by prey. They had never faced such a threat before. They had no evacuation plan. They moved what they could, but still the flames came at them. They filled the tunnels, vaporising the bio-matter they used to coat its walls. The nursery was still half full. She didn’t like to think about what must have happened to the larva.
The fire was not yet content. Flying away served only to delay the inevitable. They had tried to fly over it. It resulted only in a squadron of drones steamed on the inside. They had tried to douse it with lake water from large containers made by her workers from spit and clay. The fire could evaporate any water effortlessly. When it reached the lake itself, it simply burned straight over the top. Some of the water evaporated away, but it was mostly unaffected. Today, they had fought it.
Love was a powerful magic. It was one she had once thought of as nothing but food, but later learned that it had more uses. The wall was a spell. With enough magic of their own, they could surely break through. Chrysalis had trained all the remaining soldiers for the final attack. Their execution was flawless, but their power was overwhelmed by an order of magnitudes. They could no more fight the fire than an ant could stand up to her.
A strange whistling now emanated from the piles of bodies. It was the wind passing through the holes in the changeling's bodies. It produced a tune that Chrysalis found nostalgic. It reminded her of her time as a larva. She had lived under her mother, the ancient queen of a hive even larger than her own. Court musicians would play music for her by using their own bodies as instruments. The sounds worked to sooth her. She had never understood why, as the music served no purpose, but she would not fight against it. The sounds not were not the product of dedicated musicians, but the unruly cacophony of nature on her dead children.
I could return to Mother... Warn her about what has happened. No! I can't go running back to her. Not when I set out on my own, but... maybe she can help? Chrysalis was conflicted. It would be shameful to return. She would have to submit herself to another’s will once more. That was a thing for children. Her mother was not cruel though. If she asked for help, she would at least be considered.
I could ask my sisters. I heard they all have successful hives. But what if my turning to them only leads the enemy to their hive? She stamped her hoof in frustration. Was there nothing she could do? She sighed and relived some of the memories of her sisters. Atropa, the youngest, loved to play with her food before brutally draining it of all life and emotions. Maybe I could go to her. Her brute strength could certainly help me. Chrysalis processed the thought before realising her mistake, I already tried brute strength, and it served nothing but to weaken myself further.
There was Carabi. She was the most gifted of the changeling princesses. Chemical adaptations in her body allowed her to spit a burning acid from her mouth. But another memory caused her to dismiss the idea. Carabi's acid actually caused a violent explosion. If nothing else, the acid would just cause the Wall to become even more destructive.
Maybe her oldest sister, Dynasta could help? She was the oldest and strongest of the changeling princesses. Her thick carapace allowed her to lead an invasion on a trading center in Saddle Arabia. Arrows, rocks, swords, spears, and even magic merely glanced off of her thick armored skin. Weak prey didn't even see it coming. Reminds me of the time I almost conquered Canterlot... But her inability to capture Canterlot made her realize that even if you could survive the fire, you still had to put it out. And only Dynasta's tribe would be left standing. Chrysalis frowned. We certainly can't have that.
Chrysalis didn't even consider her other sister, Pyrr, the wooly changeling. Born with a strange fur coat, Pyrr was a strange sight around Mother's Hive who often spent her time sleeping or rolling around. She would have disowned such a creature if she were her hive mother. But it was not her place to argue with those more powerful. There would certainly be no help from her now either way.
The decision had been made. She would gather up what she had left and go to her mother’s hive. Any too slow to outrun the flames would be left behind. She would have to be fast, or risk the fire destroying her mother’s hive too. It was something she didn’t even want to admit to herself she was risking, but if her mother found out, she could destroy chrysalis in her fury. She shouted the order to enter into traveling formation with her. When it looked like the trickle of soldiers heading towards her had died out, she took flight at speed. Her destination was a part of Equestria unmapped by ponies, for any trace of resistance would have been long ago wiped out. The changeling fortress: the Hall of Mother.