“We’ve found it Mistress!” The drone practically buzzed with excitement as it delivered the message to the queen. “The scouts have returned; they’ve verified its location in an old cave just north of the river, deep in the old woods, my Mistress!”
The Changeling queen looked at her offspring with wariness mixed with expectation, wanting the news to be true but having been disappointed too many times before with this hunt. She nodded at the drone to lead her to the scout, she wanted to hear the details for herself. With a sharp about face the drone trotted back the way it had come, leading its queen to to a small glade where several changelings were using as a landing field, coming and going with their various tasks, all in service of their Mistress. Resting beside a tree, looking worn and hungry stood one of the queen’s scouts; she didn’t know its name nor even recognize it, not that either mattered.
“My queen!” exclaimed the exhausted scout. Her minions didn’t stand on needless ceremony, there was no bowing, no grovelling; they knew their place was to serve their Mistress, they knew their lives were hers. Queen Scyrilia stopped and faced the messenger giving it a look of inquiry, one that demanded information, the scout complied without hesitation. “I have located the creatures lair my queen. I was scouting the northern woods nearly two days from here and I found its trail.” Pausing for breath the drone continued, “I was able to follow the markings of its passage back to its home, your dark radiance. I made sure this is where it returns each time.”
Scyrilia looked pleased at the scout’s report, this might finally be it she thought. “It is late now, we will leave in the morning.”
The drone that had originally brought her news of the scouts return sharply snapped to attention, nodding its head in understanding. “I shall gather a company of warriors to escort you my Mistress, we shall be ready to fly at your command!”
“No,” snapped Scyrilia, then softened her tone to one of contemplation, “no, we shall only take a small force, a larger one may alert the beast to our approach and it will be waiting for us.” As she considered the plan further she spoke nearly as much to the drone as to herself, “In fact I shall go alone, save for the scout who located the creature, he shall attend me.”
“B-but, Mistress, y-you can’t go alo...” The look queen Scyrilia gave the drone withered its resolve mid sentence and it quickly recognized the error of its choice in phrasing. Recoiling in fear of reprisal the drone coward before its mistress. “I’m-m sorry M-mistress, I-i didn’t...”
Turning her back on the stammering drone she called back the scout, still barely standing upright a few paces away, “You have done well to bring me this news scout, rest and revitalize yourself before we leave. You may feed on this one, it obviously has no more use for it’s sustenance.” Without looking behind her, Scyrilia walked back to her shelter smiling as she heard the pitiful whimpering abruptly silenced and the sounds of feeding commence; she was not one to suffer such insolence lightly.
When morning came to the woods the changelings had occupied for their camp all was quiet as though even the plants and creatures of the woods understood the gravity of the queen’s pending task. Queen Scyrilia had not slept, so wound with tension was she that rest would not come. As dawn’s first light shown through the leaves of the trees she located the scout and together they took flight from the glade. Traveling north they headed towards her goal; soon she would have all the love she needed to sustain her brood.
~o0o~
The two changelings barely spoke on their journey to the cave, there was no need. Aside from a handful of commands from the queen, what conversation could truly be had between Scyrilia and her scout? At times she longed for the intellectual stimulation of a good discussion, however these were not those days. Her mind was occupied with anticipation of the beast which she sought and the bounty it possessed for her and her brood.
It took them nearly three days to fly to the location, the changeling queen taking a slower pace than her smaller more agile minion. When the finally landed a kilometer away from the scout’s claimed location of the creature’s lair it was just past dusk. A hush had fallen over the forest here, though whether that was because of the beast’s presence or the newly arrived changeling regent one could not easily say. With stealth the two made their way to the cave, listening for sounds of the monstrous being residing within. They could hear the heavy sounds of breathing from within the darkened cave. The entrance was so dark not even their superior vision, which normally had no trouble seeing at night, could pierce the blackness of the cave.
Whispering, the scout declared to his regent, “I believe it is asleep Mistress, we should be able to approach safely.”
Nodding in agreement the two crept up to the mouth of the cave. It wasn’t until they were a handful of paces from it that they heard the deep rumbling laugh. The beast was awake, and it knew they were there! The changelings paused mid stride as the two glowing red eyes of the Trollolol opened ever so slightly and gazed out at them with smug amusement.
In a moment of rare concern for her offspring Scyrilia shouted to the scout to flee, “FLY, QUICKLY, AWAY FROM HERE!” Turning and dashing away from the awakened terror the scout obeyed its leader, never once thinking she wouldn’t be following with. Scyrilia however had other plans, digging her sieve-like hooves into the cold hard dirt of the forest floor, she lowered her head and pointed her crooked horn towards the chuckling Trollolol.
From within the earthen cavity came a derisive booming voice, “You think you can best me, you pathetic excuse for a two dimensional miscreant? You don’t have what it takes to bring me down!”
“Wrong, beast! I shall destroy you and take what you have viciously stolen from so many!” With a shout Scyrilia let for a blast of neon green energy from her horn, sending it unerringly into the blackness, aiming right between the two glowing red eyes. As the viridian light flashed, pushing back the light-less void around the creature she saw it wince with what she hoped was pain.
“HrraaaaarrrrrghahahAHAHAHA!” the Trollolol seemed to cry out, only to quickly begin laughing as though the charge of power had merely tickled it. “Heh, well if I’d known you were just here to titillate me I would have saved some dinner for you,” mocked the irritating monstrosity. In response the changeling queen unleashed a furious barrage of energy, throwing nearly every spell she knew a the creature. The trollolol merely laughed more, reveling in her inept attempts to subvert its defenses.
Without any perceptible action the Trollolol began doing what it did best, Scyrilia could feel her life force being sucked from her as wave after wave of palpable malfeasance washed over her. She could feel her energy, her hard earned love being drained away, carried towards her foe.
She knew this was going to be a difficult battle but she had never expected it to be this bad, already she could feel herself slipping away, losing her confidence. “Such a worthless creature you are,” it chided, the creature’s tone dripping with derision. “King Sombra could have made a better showing than this. Changeling QUEEN? HA, you won’t be able to DRAG your way out of this one dearie! Why don’t you take your little horde and vanish? Quit botherin’ me. It’s not like you have any real place in this world. I mean where do you even come from?” The ceaseless taunts hit her like hammer blows each time. She could feel her heart seizing up inside as the words seemed to mimic her own cruel thoughts.
The red eyes seemed to gloat as they watched Scyrilia drop to her knees, her legs no longer having the power to support her. She tried one more feeble blast of magic, which fizzled and died centimeters from the Trollolol; She had nothing left. It was as she was about to just lay her head down in the dirt, giving her task up as a failure that she remembered what she had learned during her research into this creature. She had come seeking the love it had stolen from all those around it. The trollolol was rumored to drain the life from its prey by stealing its will, its love, its essence and trapping it away in a magical box. It was also believe to be nothing more than a figment; no one believed it actually existed, thinking it to be merely an old pony tale meant to frighten the gullible.
Scyrilia had known it was no mere pony tale, but she began to wonder about the rest of it. What if the old scholars had been right? Her drones had brought here centuries worth of information, distilled to its useful bits, about the trollolol. Maybe what they’d found and relayed to her hadn’t been useless disbelief by the scholars. What if it had been more than that?
Summoning the last reserves of strength she attempted to stand. Her legs wanted nothing more than to stay where they were, so each attempt brought here only halting upwards before one or more of her legs would give out and collapse beneath her. Unwilling to give up without trying this last thing Scyrilia kept trying, all the while the trollolol continue taunting her, mocking her efforts to thwart it. On the fifth try she finally managed to push herself upright, expelling the breath she’d held as she exerted all her will into the simple act of standing.
“Now it is time to see what you really are you foul creature!” intoned the struggling polymorphic pony. Slowly she resumed her advance, no longer spending energy to fuel her magic, it was all she could do to put one hoof in front of the other. “I will suffer you vile litany no longer, trollolol!”
“Oh why don’t you go back and cry about it to your minions you pathetic excuse for a princess wannabe,” chided trollolol, though the changeling thought she could detect a tinge of worry creeping into its commentary. She clung to that and used it to move herself forward a few more paces, she was nearly at the cave entrance.
With one last grunt of effort she stepped into the cave. She could still hear trollolol abusing her, but it was as though she’d stepped passed some kind of barrier. The words no longer seemed to effect her as they had outside the cavern, from behind the invisible wall they almost seemed humorous and pathetic in nature. “They were right,” Scyrilia mused. “it was nothing more than a figment, an illusion all this time.” Astonished that she had allowed herself to be harmed by such a creature, much less a mere illusion, the changeling queen stepped boldly down through the cave, seeking her treasured reward.
It sat on a altar at the back of the cave, a small slab of stone, glowing with a lambent white light on one of it’s surfaces. Within she could see the tendrils of love and worth stolen from countless ponies around Equestria. To Scyrilia it was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen, to her it was a source of love and sustenance that would feed her and her brood for ages to come without fear of discovery or reprisal from Celestia or the rest of her princessly ilk. Scyrilia had seen well what had happened to Chrysilis and had taken to heart the folly of attempting to confront the pony princess on her on turf.
Taking the magical slate in her magical grip Scyrilia exited the cave. The Trollolol unable to prevent her departure, swiftly becoming little more than a fleeting memory in the back of her mind. Stretching her gossamer wings she took to the air, and flew towards her waiting scout who hovered half a kilometer away, confident his queen would prevail. Together they took their prize back to the hive. With a food source acquired she need only find a safe place for her and her children to reside, safe from the meddlesome influence of ponykind. Things were looking good for Scyrilia and her brood.
Yes, today was a good day indeed.