Equestria. A land of beauty which stretched as far as the eye could see, filled with intense beauty. Its sun shone, encasing each and every city in its bright orange glow as to protect all who dwell beneath it with its warm rays. The sky's were a beautiful light blue with little to no clouds floating over the huge towns and cities below, Even the breath taking city in the sky, Cloudsdale.
Each city and town were just as friendly as each other, it was a wonder how little crime there was. But that may have been due to the good natured ponies who always seemed happy. If there was even just one thing that the cities of Equestria had in common, it was its joyful citizens. You couldn't even go for a walk without receiving a wave or a friendly "Hi" from at least one pony, even if that pony seemed a complete stranger.
The entire land was ruled by two princesses. One which raised the sun at the end of night and one who raised the moon at the end of the day. These two highly praised leaders were seen to be caring and very protective of their subjects, willing to help them out in anyway they could. These two rulers believed strongly in peace and held strong relationships with many of the other species that inhabited Equestria. From Griffons to Zebras to even the mighty minotaurs of the East. All except for one species which had been cast off from all others.
Within Equestria was a land of nothingness littered with sand and dead trees. It was there that the once beautiful sun was now seen as nothing more than a big ball of fire which desired nothing more than to roast your flesh and kill you from dehydration, after that the only useful purpose you could serve anymore was to become a first class meal to any of the ravenous vultures that stalked the wasteland from the sky.
Placed directly in the middle of what many preferred to call "The Badlands", standing out from the sandy dunes was a large object. From a distance it could be mistaken for being no more than a simple mirage, but it was far from one. The object was as real as the sun itself.
The large object was in truth, a hive. It stood over three hundred feet tall and its outside layer was a mixture of green and black. It took on a cylinder type shape which increased in diameter from the top to the bottom making the hive look a little more like a tower than anything else. What was even more interesting was that the hive was even bigger underneath the ground than it was on top.
The underneath part of the hive had been greatly hollowed out by over an incredible seven hundred feet wide both horizontally and vertically. The entire area was known as a colonization sphere. It was located a little over fifty feet underneath the tower type part of the hive. The fifty foot gap was reinforced with rock and sandstone to prevent the tower hive from sinking into the sphere hive, and it worked like a charm. The reinforced area had shown no signs of collapsing ever since its construction more than five hundred years ago.
However the underground sphere was not an empty husk built for no reason. Within it were many rocky areas and walkways, crafted from an unknown black material. This black material was also used to build giant flat half moon shaped objects onto the sides on the sphere which were roughly A hundred and ten foot wide each. Of course, these crescents weren't build without a reason. Resting on each crescent (In which there were fifty nine in total) where many small structures which could easily be recognized as homes. But that was all there was, no stores, no businesses, no theaters or any other type of public building, just simple houses.
Each house was made out of even more black material but instead of just being pieced together like the walkways and giant cresents had been, each and every house had been beautifully crafted giving it the illusion of having pillars and tiles. It gave a "Roman" type look to the multiple towns encased within the sphere. Many would easily see the black material which encased the buildings to be somewhat sticky looking in appearance. But if anypony felt it, they would soon discover that it was hardly sticky at all, in fact it was just as tough and stable as the supports above the sphere. Each home stood at the same height at fifteen feet tall and had been organised into lines and rows making the mini towns look more military than civilian.
With this incredible city lying underground everypony would have expected the city to be pitch black, if they ever knew of its existence, but it was far from dark. At the very bottom of the sphere was a small orb no bigger than a pony which rested on a ten foot podium. Many of the occupants considered this orb to be the hives pride as it was found during the construction of the hive itself. The orb shone as brightly as the sun outside did, its light seemed to stretch on forever but its limits held at the spheres rocky walls. But its beauty was far from unseen as every ray of light sparkled upon each cresent, upon each home.
As for its creators, they were the race who had attacked the main city of ponykind threatening to take over it, nearly succeeding as they did if not for being repelled by the one thing they fed on. Love. Normally love was used as an energy source as well as food for this particular species, but the love that had been their downfall was too strong, too pure and too much for the entire race to handle, making their bodies reject it instead of consuming it. Ever since, all other species have casted the creatures aside, wanting nothing to do with them. And that was fine with them. After all, what kind of sane being would want to be friends with a changeling?
After their humiliating defeat, the queen Chrysalis had ordered each changeling who remained at the hive during the attack to be put on trial to explain their actions. Over thirty six changelings had stayed at the hive, either to defend the hive or to refusing to topple a peaceful government. All thirty six so far had been found guilty by their queen and had been sentenced to the dungeons. After five days of these changelings being tried and courted, the final changeling was forced to step forward. This is where his story begins.
The top room of the hive was buzzing with activity. Over a hundred changelings stood at each side of the room to make way for the last so called traitor to the hive. Seeing how changelings rarely had trials, Chrysalis believed that building one was a waste of time and resources. How she regretted that decision as she now had no choice but to hold each and every trial in her own throne room.
Her face was plastered with a bored expression that was begging for relief as she sat in her oversized throne. Luckily for herself the last tried changeling made his way through the two massive chitin doors, escorted by a spear wielding drone on each side. As he walked ever closer towards the other side of the room, the changeling that were buzzing around stopped and sat down in rows like an assembly line and Chrysalis's bored expression slowly turned into a wicked grin upon recognizing the warrior, not by sight, but because of a golden necklace shaped like a heart which was worn round the particular changelings neck.
"Well well well. High Drone 011! What a pleasant surprise". She spoke mockingly to the fully armored drone now in front of her.
"Queen Chrysalis". 011 begun, ready to defend himself, as no one else would have wanted to defend them. Either that or they were too afraid that defending a traitor to the hive would lead to them being punished as well.
"There is no reason for myself nor the changelings before me to have been tried for defending our own homes".
Chrysalis scowled at the high drone.
"In case you are not aware high drone 011! Your crime is listed as desertion! At your rank, you should have been one of the first warriors to have engaged in battle during the invasion on Canterlot city, do you not think"?
"One drone, regardless of their rank, would have made little to no difference your highness. Plus, I feel that a greater defense for the hive is a necessity".
To 011's surprise, Chrysalis chuckled at his reply.
"Our hive has lasted for over five hundred years. It needs no protection little high drone".
011 felt his anger rise.
"After all, I would have thought payback against those weak ponies was something you desired after what happened to your precious Sally".
That was the last straw for 011. Losing all formality he had held he shouted at the queen.
"QUEEN OR NOT, YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SPEAK HER NAME! DO NOT BELIEVE THAT I'VE FORGOTTEN THE ORDERS YOU GAVE THAT SEALED HER FATE"!
There was no doubt that Chrysalis was surprised and angered to hear one of her own subjects speak to her in such a rude and disrespectful tone. Her smug smile was wiped off of her face and was replaced with silent anger. However she knew that he was right which got her to ease up only slightly. Her actions had been the cause of Sally's untimely death. But this did not matter to her, at least not anymore.
"After two years I would have expected you to move on, as have I. But unless you have forgotten, you are here to explain your reasons for ignoring orders, not personal matters"!
"...As Queen of the hive I would have expected you to increase defenses around the hive! You say that the attack on Canterlot was an attempt to gain control of Equestria".
"It was, and we would have succeeded if not-".
"You spoke a half truth. Have you forgotten the reason you attacked"?
011 turned to face the drones behind him.
"We had two other colonization spheres like the one below us. We were a proud race with no quarrel against every sentient species of Equestria".
The changelings 011 turned to nodded their heads in agreement. He then turned his head back to face Chrysalis whose face had turned from anger to one of fear, although 011 was the only one to notice it.
"But once you, Chrysalis, you forced us to dig deeper into the earth to expand the kingdom and to hide in secret from the rest of the world. And once you made us dig deep enough, well let us say that we unlocked the gates of Tartarus that fateful day. After the Ara-".
011 began to struggle as he felt his neck tighten, not on emotions but as he soon noticed, by a green ring placed round his neck. He then looked up to Chrysalis to see her horn glowing. It didn't take a genius to realize what was going to happen.
Chrysalis rose from her throne and over to 011 who couldn't move his body due to the ring beginning to tighten itself. 011 knew he had crossed the line. And there was nothing he could do about it. Even the changelings behind him cowered in fear at the power of their queen.
"I believe we've heard enough out of you high drone. You are to be hereby banished from the hive for not only deserting your role in the Canterlot attack, but for speaking against your royal queen. May the spirits have mercy upon your soul"!
The next thing 011 knew, he was blinded by a green light. The ring round his neck evaporated into thin air and 011 was forced to shut his eyes before he was blinded.
After sensing the light had faded, 011 opened his eyes to see that he now stood in the middle of the everfree forest, controlled by neither ponies or changelings.
011 looked around carefully to see if anything was watching him. He saw nothing, but that didn't mean to say that there wasn't something there in the dark, waiting for the right moment to attack. Even still, 011 knew that either way he was safe for a little while. He then looked down, barely seeing the golden heart necklace round his chest. He then spoke something in his own changeling language before heading in some random direction, hoping that he wouldn't have to spend too long in this dreadful place.