"My queen!" came the raspy voice of the changeling commander as he entered the room.
It was wide and circular, with the slightly concave walls made out of black chitin and many azure luminous orbs hanging from the ceiling.
"It's queens, dear number Two," said calmly Chrysalis as she turned to regard the newcomer "Princess Cadenza is your queen just as I am."
"Don't worry Chryssy, it's fine, as it is just Cadence," said the pink mare waving a dismissive hoof.
The two mares were seated at a glossy black table, drinking tea and clearing the last doubts before the move-the-hive-plan could start.
"Uhm, yes, I'll be sure to remember that," humbly said the general bowing.
"So, what did you want to tell us? It seemed quite important..." demanded the larger changeling.
"Yes: one of the drones has found your sister and is bringing her here," related the smaller one.
The news made a wide smile find his way on the black queen's muzzle.
"Then don't waste anymore time: go and bring her to me!"
"Uhm, Chrysalis, are you sure it's a good idea? I mean, she wanted to kill you..." murmured her fellow queen as number Two left the room.
"Have faith, Cadence: there's much more in my sister than what met your eyes," answered the first sipping her tea.
Some minutes later, the changeling that had took Octavia's place entered the room holding the sack in her magical grasp and bowed respectfully.
"I must say that putting my sister into a sack wasn't exactly my idea of bringing her back," stated bitterly Chrysalis "But I suppose it did the trick. Now let her out!"
The drone complied to the request, revealing a frightened Lyra, who soon became utterly terrorized upon spotting the black queen.
"C-C-C-C..." she stammered.
"Maybe it's a disguise and I don't know, but I recall this pony is miss Heartstrings, one of my bridesmaids, and not Ashley..." stated Cadence crocking an eyebrow.
"She certainly isn't. You," thundered Chrysalis pointing a hoof towards the much confused drone "What's the meaning of this?"
"I don't understand your majesties, she must have found a way to strengthen her disguise so that we cannot see through it," answered the smaller changeling "I swear I took the right mare!"
"Don't be absurd: in the many hundreds of years of my life I never accomplished such a feat, and she has lived for just a pair of weeks!"
Meanwhile Cadence had left the table, had sat in front of the still stammering Lyra and said: "Miss Heartstrings?"
"C-C-C-C..."
"I believe that what you're trying to say is Chrysalis."
"Chrysalis! Princess! What are you doing here? No, that doesn't matter: please, save me!"
"Deep breaths," ordered the pink queen in a sweet but authoritarian tone.
Lyra complied and calmed down a bit.
"Better?" asked the alicorn offering a caring smile.
"Yes, thank you princess," answered the other with a curtly bow.
"Now, do you have any idea on why this changeling thinks you are Ashley?"
"It was a misunderstanding: I was disguised as her when she entered my room and put me in that rough sack."
"I'm a bit confused, care to elaborate?" asked a raspy voice outside Lyra's field of vision.
When she turned, she saw the imposing form of the changeling queen and started stammering once again.
"Chryssy, what did you do to this mare?" asked Cadence as she started to cradle the unicorn in her cyan aura.
"You know, ponynapping, mind controlling, the usual things..." casually said the black queen.
---
The entrance to the hive, being hidden behind a tangle of illusion, didn't need much surveillance, yet an 'earth pony speleologist' was always around to keep things under control.
"Vinyl, put that fish away!" ordered the changeling.
The trio was hidden in the bushes not far away from where the entrance was and the DJ insisted on wanting to "drop a bass" on the guard to put him to sleep.
"Why? It might work!" protested the unicorn.
"That's not even a bass anyway, it's a carp. Made of rubber. Where did you find it?" asked Bon-Bon eyeing the fish.
"That's unimportant: you wouldn't make Bon-Bon faint, let alone a changeling guard!" explained Ashley.
Vinyl ignored the detractors of her beloved rubber bass ad threw it towards the guard with all her telekinetical strength.
It landed with a loud "squeak" at the guard's hooves.
"What the hay?" murmured the guard looking at the carp before a much larger 'object' fell on his head, making him lose consciousness.
"Ouch! Did you really had to throw me?" asked Vinyl massaging her hindquarters.
"Did you really had to throw that fish?" retorted Ashley as she and Bon-Bon neared the entrance.
"At least you snatched my glasses beforehoof."
"Of course: I didn't want you to get badly hurt!" said the changeling in a slightly offended tone.
"What do we do now?" asked the cream colored mare trying to figure out where the entrance really was.
"Now you stay close to me and do as I say," said Ashley in a gentle but imposing tone "Follow me."
And so, the three of them, covered by the changeling's invisibility spell, entered the hive.
---
The trio of unlikely saviors proceeded in silence through the twisting tunnels of the hive, past groups of drones busy in their tasks.
Ashley navigated them towards the various feeding grounds in search for Octavia, sure that whatever her sister wouldn't harm Lyra.
It took them a good hour to find the mare they were searching for, but freeing her was a whole different problem: the wide square room was filled with hungry drones.
"It's not going to work girls: they'll discover us as soon as we touch the cocoon!" said Ashley shaking her head.
"Then what are we gonna do? Hope that your sister accepts your offer?" asked Vinyl "That has just as much possibilities of success as this one..."
"Vinyl, that spell you used to avoid those fans last week, do you remember it?" asked Bon-Bon hinting that she had a plan.
"The one to change my mane and coat color? Sure, why?"
"Are you able to cast it on Ashley?"
"While I agree her mane could use a restyling," Vinyl's comment received an angry exclamation from the changeling "But are you sure it's a good time to think about fashion?"
"I think it's just the right time..."
A quarter of hour later, queen Chrysalis entered the feeding ground where Octavia was held and, as the drones let her pass and bowed, directed herself towards the gray mare's cocoon.
"My queen, wouldn't you like a fresher treat? She has been here for a bit already..." offered a drone with red streaks on his back as the queen took the cocoon in her telekinetical grasp.
"Don't worry, she will be fine," assured Chrysalis offering a smile before leaving.
She reached her chamber where she gently put Octavia on the bed before letting out a sigh.
"Girls, come out, I'm back."
"I still think that using your sister room was a bad idea..." said Bon-Bon as she and Viny got out from under the bed.
"This is one of the two rooms where drones don't enter without permission. Now return me to my normal colors: green makes me too flashy..." said 'Chrysalis' while using her sharp horn to tear apart the cocoon.
Once free from her green prison, Octavia slowly woke up and looked around her. She immediately spotted two colorful splashes that she identified as Vinyl and Bon-Bon, who she hugged, then saw a third darker stain in the background that she couldn't recognize.
"It's all right Tavi, I'm here," said her marefriend patting her back.