Five weeks after the events of the wedding
"Now then, how many of you useless sacks of love are still alive!" Chrysalis demand with a stamp of her hoof. She gazed around the clearing angrily, watching as the drones scuttled from place to place in front of her.
Breathless, a drone rushed towards her and threw himself to the ground in front of her in a desperate bow.
"Mmmhhhmm mmmmhhmm!" He spoke, his voice muffled as his face was buried into the ground
Chrysalis ground her teeth and rubbed a hoof to her temple "Get your head out of the ground before I crush it!"
The drone removed it's head from the ground and instead looked at her hooves, not daring to look at her face should he incur her wrath again "There are nine of us your queenlyness"
Chrysalis nodded and looked over at where one drone was unconscious while another cared for it "And how is that one?" She said coldly, pointing with one hoof
The drone winced "Topaz has a broken leg. She's unable to walk."
Chrysalis glared down at him "Topaz?"
The drone shifted uncomfortably "We may, have chosen names..." He said weakly
Chrysalis breathed deeply. "That, is beyond stupid. You are now drone #1, he is drone #2, she can drone #3, then her, him, him, her, him and then...Topaz is drone #9. There, a nice simple naming system."
At this all the drones had stopped working and were staring at her.
"What!?" She demand angrily
Drone #4 raised a hoof and Chrysalis narrowed her eyes and signaled for her to speak
Drone #4 coughed "I don't want to be drone #4. My name is Emerald!"
Drone #8 stood up from where he was helping Topaz "And I'm Onyx!"
Drone #7 also chimed in "Ruby!"
Chrysalis's horn glowed a dark green and the offending changelings were lifted into the air in front of her "We are not having a mutiny of names now. According to Discord we are in the middle of a forest filled with giant spiders, and I don't think he's lying this time! We need to either make our way back to hive or at the very least set up a temporary base in a cave. I am your queen, and you will all obey me!"
A clicking sound echoed out of the tree behind her. Still holding the drones in front of her she turned her head.
A spider, slightly bigger than a changeling drone, slowly slid down a silk thread from a tree to watch the newcomers with it's eight eyes shining in the light of magic. It's hairy legs balanced itself to stare at them and slowly began collecting more threads, creating a stable foundation. Two fangs extended and clicked again and dripped venom, eating it's way into the earth where the drops fell.
Chrysalis gulped nervously. Poking at her magic reserves she was relieved to find a little remaining. Grinning widely she turned to the spider and cast a small stream of fire towards it.
The spider screeched at the sight of the flames and scampered up it's web and away into the darkness of the forest.
Chrysalis's grin stretched further as she turned back to her drones "See! I shall protect you, my subjects. And I shall lead us back to greatness!
At this all the drones began cheering, even the ones still hovering in the air
A second later dozens of huge spiders came running out of the trees from silk threads towards them. Venom burned trails into the ground as they rushed forwards.
Chrysalis shrieked and threw the changelings she held at the spiders screaming "IT'S EVERY CHANGELING FOR THEMSELVES!" And sprinted off into the trees.
The drones all looked at each other before running of after her. The ones who had been thrown bounced of the spiders and ran as fast as they could. Ruby, Sapphire and Onyx quickly collected a screaming Topaz on their way past
A single beam of sunlight pierced the darkness of the cave, illuminating Chrysalis where she gasped for breath. Their were two entrances to the cave and one dimmed as the squad of changelings rushed in. As soon as Ruby, Onyx, Sapphire and Topaz were safely in Diamond and Amethyst took down the roof over the entrance. Stones fell down just as the first spider reached the cave and blocked it's entrance. The other changelings quickly took down the other entrance as well.
Chrysalis took a deep breath and focused. She may be low on power, but she could at least organise her drones.
She barked out her orders "5 O'CLOCK, SPIDERS COMING FROM BELOW!"
Pearl and Onyx rushed over to the position and kicked back the spider legs that crept out of the hole before pushing earth into the hole to seal it.
Hey Chryssy! How you doing?
"REALLY CAN'T TALK!" Chrysalis screamed at nothing. This behavior had been going on a while so the drones remained unaffected "YOU, DRONE #7, BLOCK THE ENTRANCE AT 3 O'CLOCK!"
The changeling ignored the hairy leg that pushed it's way through the rubble surrounding the door "Call me Ruby!"
Chrysalis stared daggers at her "NO! I WILL NOT CALL YOU BY THAT RIDICULOUS NAME! DRONE #3, SUPPORT DRONE #2!"
Onyx stood with his mouth gaping open. "Q-Q-Queen!" He stuttered
"WHAT IS IT DRONE #8!?!?!?" She followed his line of sight up, where a spider had stuck two fangs into the hole in the ceiling and was slowly opening it up "OH TARTARUS THEY'RE COMING THROUGH THE CEILING!!!!!"
Dust filled the air as the roof collapsed in on them. When they air finally cleared they looked up to see four spiders make their way down towards them, clicking in delight. The other drones stopped their work to stare in horror as they descended on them. Web began spinning and blocked of the two entrances. They were completely trapped with no hope of survival
BOOM!
A colossal explosion echoed out throughout the forest. Glowing lines of red, green and blue snaked their way through the sky. Waves of rainbow arced across the horizon and drowned the world in pristine light. At once the hunger died in the spiders eyes. They clicked, but friendly this time and slowly wound themselves back up. Two turned back down and shot web down in front of the stunned changelings, creating a ramp for them to leave the cave easily.
All of them stared at each other in shock. Only Amethyst noticed a few black fragments soar through the sky as well, including a a small curved red thing that spun as it flied towards Canterlot