The day following the Summit saw the Phoenix bursting with activity. Everywhere Twilight went, her children were going about their daily routine of running the ship. Except now, forty of them were performing the final checks for the expedition.
Twilight was in the middle of personally performing maintenance on one of the larger transports when a caretaker named Gentle Touch pinged her over the hive mind. <Begging your pardon, my queen, but you’ll be pleased to know the secondary hatchery is finally ready for use.>
<At last! I was not looking forward to carrying these eggs into the castle again.> Twilight removed herself from the engine compartment and silently asked the maintenance staff to have someone take over for her. <I’ll be right over. Do you have the projected sustainability and specialization needs?>
<Yes, of course, I had the charts delivered an hour ago. With Equestrian trade on the upswing and the P.C.S. Golden Harvest ready to launch within the month, we’ll be able to sustain a population of five thousand, but I’d feel more comfortable if we kept our numbers at thirty-five hundred until we locate a suitable location to settle.>
<Sounds reasonable,> Twilight admitted. <Having a food surplus is more important than a drone surplus.>
<I suspected you’d agree. As for specialization, I trust we’ll have a ground colony up and running by then. I would suggest an even mix between farmers and tradesponies, although a couple more soldiers couldn’t hurt.>
<Crunch the numbers for me; I want exact figures and the proper alchemical reagents ready by the time I arrive.>
<At once, my queen!>
The Phoenix’s twin hatcheries were a small affair, numbering only a hundred incubators each. Twilight passed the first hatchery with a warm smile at the sight of her eggs and the purple drones tending to them. Many of them were the size of watermelons and would hatch soon. It’ll feel good to finally start laying more often again. Everything will start clicking in place in a month. For every egg I lay, one will hatch, a nymph will form their chrysalis, and a chrysalis will hatch. Even with general development time variation, the hive can ride this cycle all the way up to thirty five hundred without missing a beat!
The prospect of it all was far too exciting for her to hide her enthusiasm. Luckily, the current eggs should hatch before I’m done filling the second hatchery, so I can keep laying for over two weeks! I could lay indefinitely if I halve my production rate. A wandering thought doused some of her burgeoning joy. Wait… that would mean I wouldn’t have any time when I could enjoy some wine or cider. Note to self: figure out how to prevent egg alcohol syndrome… aside from the obvious.
The snaking tubes and wires abruptly ended halfway through the chamber, where the two separate hatchery machines met. Twilight found a trio of lavender drones running tests on some pipework for the inactive incubator. “Gentle Touch, is it ready?”
Gentle jumped at the question. “Y-yes, my queen. We just fixed the last of the faulty pipes, and I have what you asked for right here.” She fished around in her saddlebags to produce a clipboard. “Here are the projected job needs in three years.” As she spoke, the closest incubators were filling with a lavender solution.
Twilight scanned the offered paperwork. “Excellent. Let’s get started right away; I’ve wanted to lay for over a week now.”
A caretaker ran over carrying a pair of large cushions. Twilight took the larger cushion for herself, and over the course of two minutes, she laid twenty eggs. The lavender queen relaxed on her cushion while the caretakers busied themselves with placing the fresh eggs. Twilight idly rubbed her now much thinner and lighter abdomen. She mentally prepared herself to start producing more eggs. “Next time, girls, please make sure the system is actually ready before you give me the go ahead to start ovipositing again.” I know I can hold onto forty for several months, if need be, but it’s very uncomfortable to feel that bloated.
The idea of throwing eggs away for her convenience never crossed Twilight’s mind. Gentle Touch finished her tasks before bowing an apology. “So sorry, my queen. It was entirely my fault.”
“No real harm done,” Twilight replied reassuringly. “Is the alchemy ready?”
“Yes, my queen.”
Twilight stood up while giving herself a mental note to wash herself before departing for the Ebony Castle. “Perfect. Now I want to hurry up and get the alchemy done before I leave for the expedition.” Gentle Touch prepared to relay all of her queen’s instructions to the staff manning the control room. Twilight idly stared at the filled incubators while mental calculations swirled in her head. “I want ten CCs of cordaline, seven and a half of vertain, twenty of zerrial…” Twilight rattled off over thirty additional chemicals as a group of caretakers from the first hatchery arrived to help.
Twilight brooded while the caretakers carried out her orders. That should do it for strain EP-59, but I need to make sure it works before committing. <Pepper, do you have a moment?>
The drone in question jumped at the sudden address. <A-always for you, my queen.>
<How’s Rich Soil’s progress?>
<Funny you should ask; I’m right here with her, going over arithmetic. She’s a bright little nymph, as expected. She’s a fine addition to the hive.>
Twilight sent the nymph a gentle brush of love upon her mind. <Always good to hear, but I need to know about her magic.>
<Oh, OH! Of course, that’s what you meant. Um, let me think… Well, she is noticeably weaker in her changeling magic, as expected. She’s only been able to show consistent ability with levitation, albeit below the norm, and her disguise control is on par. But she’s demonstrated rather weak abilities beyond that. However, the flower she’s been caring for in her room has tested positive for earth pony magic. It’s obviously nowhere near as potent as an actual earth pony, but it is there.>
<Thank you, Pepper.> Twilight sent both Pepper and Rich Soil a brush of motherly pride over the hive mind. As long as the strain has levitation and disguises, I call it a success. It’s next to impossible to incorporate natural pony magic into a changeling without sacrificing something in return. I'll have to refine the strain to shore up its changeling magical ability later. Twilight returned to the present to find the gathered caretakers waiting for orders. “Strain EP-59 is a success, mark the records accordingly.”
The group cheered at the news, with one of them running off to follow orders. The rest happily drew chalk arrays on the twenty incubators with painstaking attention to detail. Once every array was checked, rechecked, and then checked five more times, Twilight stood in between the two isles of new eggs with her horn glowing bright pink as she gathered her love reserves. Thin tendrils of love snaked out to each incubator. Upon contact, Twilight tripled her love output to hasten the process. The arrays glowed bright pink as the love passed through them before sinking into the eggs. The lavender solution within the incubators luminesced a pale light as the alchemy took hold and changed the eggs to Twilight’s specifications.
One by one, the hive mind expanded to accommodate them, sending an intense thrill of satisfaction down Twilight’s spine. Once was all said and done, Twilight cut off the flow of love and was left feeling incredibly winded; the act had left her love-starved. Glad I can perform alchemy and give the initial love feeding at the same time.
Twilight collapsed on her cushion with laborious breath, and she was promptly swarmed by her caretakers. A warm chuckle escaped her as the changelings hugged their mother, feeding her with all the love they could produce. Twilight sighed contently as she lost herself in the moment. It was times like these when she was a mother first and a queen second.
The group gossiped and chatted for fifteen minutes until Twilight’s love reserves reached normal levels again. These were the times Twilight truly lived for. Each caretaker’s smile and loving embrace pulled at Twilight’s heart. If only I had the time to just sit down and talk with each of my children.
Gentle Touch let her fellow caretakers talk up a storm and was content to rest her head on Twilight’s forelegs, basking in the warm blanket of her mother’s fur and love. A motherly smile crossed Twilight’s features as she brushed aside Gentle’s mane and kissed her on the forehead. <All of you make me so proud,> she broadcast throughout the entire ship. Countless words of thanks and declarations to retain that pride answered her back. I think Yumia said it best. It’s good to be the queen.
After a few more minutes, Twilight gave a silent command. The drones begrudgingly released their hold on their mother, and Twilight resumed her posture as queen. “Thank you, everypony. Now, I want all of you to quintuple check the eggs. If there were any complications in the alchemy process, I want them caught early.”
“At once, my queen!” They all responded in unison before dispersing.
Twilight spied a wall mounted clock. Good; I can take a shower and still remain on schedule.
She was just leaving the hatchery when Gentle Touch trotted up beside her. “Begging your pardon, my queen, but there is one other matter I’d like to discuss.”
“So long as you don’t mind walking with me. What is it?”
“It’s about our alchemy stores.” Twilight’s mood dropped instantly. “Zerrial is a very rare mineral, and is exorbitantly expensive when we can find a supplier. When you factor in the rest of the alchemy supplies, we’re burning bits faster than coal. I know you prefer to allow us to choose our gender, but might I suggest having at least one of the eggs be male to be used as a consort later? It would free up a number of other rare compounds for future experiments.”
Twilight hummed as she contemplated the proposal. “That would still take an additional three and a half years before he’d be ready, and double it for his progeny to reach adulthood.” She hoped it was enough of a reason to drop the idea. It would just feel unfaithful to Ratchet.
“True, but EP-59 is not absolutely necessary for us to be farmers,” Gentle countered. “Not to mention we can undergo rebirth to update a drone’s genetics. We just need to rebirth a drone with the latest strain, and he’d be ready to serve as a consort within two months’ time.”
“A fair point…” Twilight conceded. “Let me think it over for a bit, and I’ll get back with you.”
“As you wish, my queen.”
Gentle turned to leave when Twilight called back at her. Twilight knew her well enough to know that Gentle wouldn’t wait around for authorization. <And Gentle…>
<Yes?>
Twilight steeled herself. This is in the best interests of the hive. <Volunteers only.>
<As you wish, my queen.>
A quick shower later, Twilight proceeded to the main portside hangar where three transports waited to ferry forty drones and one queen to the Ebony Castle. Ratchet was muttering to himself when the local hive mind rang out. <Teams A-C, proceed to your assigned transports immediately. T minus two minutes to departure.>
With the sea of purple-fur charging to their seats, he almost missed Twilight making her way to the central transport with a spring in her step. <You seem happy,> he said, forgetting his troubled thoughts for the moment.
<You have no idea,> Twilight replied before bounding over to kiss him. “I finally got to lay those eggs I’ve been holding for the past week. Gave me some new respect for mammals, carrying a foal for eleven months… yeesh.”
“I can imagine,” Ratchet lied.
“Well come on, we don’t want to hold the schedule up!” Twilight practically shoved Ratchet onto the transport and towards the front where her seat was.
“Um, about that, are you sure I should be going at all? The Home Guard can be very particular about who’s allowed in. I’m not really a part of your hive, remember?”
“Can’t we just say you are?”
He shook his head, trying to convince her before they took off. “No way, each Home Guard drone has the ability to sense anyone around them in a huge radius. They can pick up on the individual’s hive mind connection, and what flavor that connection is.”
“Flavor? That’s an interesting way to put it, but I think I understand… Would you be averse to linking with me directly then? Even with your coat color being different, the HG couldn’t argue that point.”
Ratchet was so intrigued by the comment he didn’t react to Twilight pushing him into a seat or to the transport taking off. “…I’ve never heard of a willing transfer, but I’d like nothing better than to be in your half of the hive mind.”
“Great! I’ll go ahead and ask.” <Mother, is there any chance Ratchet can be transferred to be linked with me directly?>
It was not a question that came to any real surprise, but Cadista had been dreading the day it came. <…I’m loath to give up any of my sons and daughters, but…> I could only handle letting him stay with her because they’re in love.
Twilight’s initial even tone fell into self-admonishment. <If you don’t want to, that’s okay. You’ve already given me so much, it was wrong of me to ask.>
<No, no,> Cadista replied hastily before Twilight withdrew. She heaved a heavy sigh. <It’s never been done, willingly anyway. I know you will watch after my son. Please be sure to link with him quickly; you know how traumatic even a few seconds off the hive mind can be.>
<I do. Thank you very much, Mother.>
<Anything you for, my daughter. I will give him a warning so he can prepare himself.>
Twilight took Ratchet’s hooves in her own and prepared her magic. The moment his voice vanished from the Link, he started hyperventilating and started to whimper out of fear. Twilight acted quickly and poured some of her love reserves into him. Ratchet’s wildly unhinged mind latched onto her love and the link between them was established. She held him tightly while rubbing his mane. “It’s okay, you’re back in the Link.”
Ratchet was stunned to realize he was drenched in sweat. “L—let’s never do that again.”
“Agreed.”
Ratchet’s emotional state leveled off by the time the transports touched down on the ground level of the castle. Twilight cantered out ahead of the pack to meet with a group of Home Guard standing in front of the ground level main entrance. The mesa, upon which the castle rested, was covered in an ancient city long since fallen into ruin.
Every fiber of Twilight’s being wanted to immediately go exploring, but she still had to get permission first. A formality really, but changelings outside of her hive were hidebound to follow tradition. “Captain Thoran, it’s a pleasure to see you.”
Thoran’s group bowed their heads. “The pleasure is ours, Queen Twilight Sparkle. When I first heard you showed interest in our race’s past, I laughed for two straight hours out of the impossibility of such thing.” Twilight shot him an unamused look. “N—now I’m glad I was wrong to think so.” He laughed nervously. “At any rate, you’re more than welcome to investigate the castle and the surrounding mesa to your leisure. However, I trust you won’t mind me posting a few guards with each of your groups. Just to make sure nothing gets damaged.”
“A fair compromise. I’d like a team to investigate the ruins, while the rest of us search the castle itself. All of the other hives, save one, had their archives in the main palace.”
“A prudent course of action, your highness.” Thoran eyed Ratchet, searching his aura. “…I’m surprised you have one of Queen Cadista’s drones with you, yet he tastes like he’s one of yours. Why is that?”
Now I understand why Ratchet said flavor. “He was a—”
“I was a parting gift, from Queen Cadista,” Ratchet interjected hastily. "My new queen here needed a consort of useable genetic material, and I was a perfect match.”
Twilight forcibly hid any reaction while Thoran studied Ratchet’s taller than average height. “Well, you certainly look like a consort… Rather odd that someone like Queen Cadista would willingly part with a drone. Does he speak true, Queen Twilight?”
“H—he does, yes…” she stuttered out of mild surprise rather than jumping to cover a lie.
Thoran’s gaze lingered on Ratchet for a bit longer before turning away. “Very well. You’re more than welcome to any part of the mesa. But do try to leave things as they were; the Home Guard is barely large enough to keep the castle together, and we just don’t have the dronepower to restore anything.”
“We’ll use the utmost caution.” She turned around to address her drones. They were already unloading their equipment and forming up into groups. <Okay, everypony, listen up! Groups A and B will search the palace for the archives as the primary objective. Group C will search the outside ruins for anything of note. Secondary objectives are to take lots and lots of pictures. …Just, save a roll of film or two for important finds.> A few moans of disappointment came from the cameralings. I know them too well to let that one slide. She turned to Ratchet, who was still a little out of sorts from the transfer. <Are you good to go, or should you wait with the transports?>
<N—no, I’m fine. It’s just… different, is all.>
<What do you mean? We’ve always been part of the same hive mind.>
<True, but… it feels like your side of the Link is more orderly… refined almost. It’s difficult to describe any other way.>
Twilight nuzzled him affectionately. <I’ll take that as a compliment. If you need to take a break to catch your breath, let me know, okay?>
<Thanks, I think I will.> He located a moss covered bench nearby and flopped down on it.
Twilight frowned at his apparent weariness. “Captain Thoran, you mind giving us five minutes?”
He cast Ratchet a disapproving scowl. “Take as long as you need, Your Highness. Although I’m rather surprised you would take a consort into field work with you.”
“He’s more than just a gene bank, Captain.”
“I meant no offense, your highness,” Thoran placated. “I just find it unusual, that’s all.”
Some of Twilight’s annoyance bled away as she gave Ratchet a curious glance, but his veiled expression revealed nothing. “Unusual how?”
“I wouldn’t dare presume to tell a queen what she should do with her own hive. Forget I said anything.”
“No, tell me! Why is it unusual?”
"It's no big deal, my queen," Ratchet soothed to try and give Thoran an out, but Twilight would have none of it.
"I asked you a question," Twilight growled.
Thoran started sweating profusely. Holy ground or not, Twilight had taken offense and was well within her rights to kill him on the spot. Not that she would have, but he didn't know that. “Well… from what we Home Guard overhear, a consort’s body devotes a lot of energy into remaining fertile for your use. Personal feelings aside, of course, but consorts are there for breeding, not normal drone work. T—that is, from the guesswork we’ve pieced together, I’m probably completely wrong.” Twilight’s glower weakened a bit, giving Thoran his opening. “How about I give you ten minutes; there’s no deadline, after all.”
With a tip of his helmet, Thoran bid a hasty retreat. Blah, let him go. He’s right, after all. I’m just glad we have enough food so Ratchet isn’t held back by his metabolism. <Team A, we’ll enter the castle in ten minutes, see what you can find around the gatehouse in that time. Ferrum, that doesn’t mean you can wander off for self-pleasure!>
Twilight snickered at the distant curses as she walked over to Ratchet. “Feeling better?”
He moved over so she could join him on the bench. “Much, yes. I didn’t think transferring would take so much out of me.”
“Glad to hear it,” she replied with a relieved smile. Twilight leaned against him and studied the ruins around her. The past age had not been kind to the old city. It didn’t help that many of the structures had been made of earthworks and hardened wax. Outside of the castle, the only structures taller than Twilight were a few scattered wind beaten walls that had lost their paint long ago. In the stillness, the sound of buzzing wings and hoofsteps could be heard with a backdrop of a gentle breeze blowing around the mesa.
Despite the mixture of natural and artificial beauty around her, Twilight couldn’t stop thinking about the love of her life. “Ratchet… you don’t really see yourself as a gene bank, do you?”
“Hardly,” he scoffed before spying an eavesdropping Home Guard. <I haven’t fertilized an egg for years now. I wore protection last night, remember?>
Twilight nuzzled him while draping a wing over him. <I’m sorry, really, but you know why I can’t let you.>
Ratchet was taken aback by her apologetic tone. <Why should you be sorry? I’m the one who told you I was unsuitable. Any drones I sire run a high risk of not being able to produce love. And at the end of the day, my genes are too common be worth it at all. It’s better this way; I thought we agreed to that.>
Twilight still found it difficult to believe that he was the one who originally wanted to cease siring eggs, and Twilight’s mental gymnastics somehow worked its way into blaming herself. <I know, I know… but I still feel guilty over it. No matter what I tried, I couldn’t correct the problem with alchemy.>
<Twilight, if there’s anyone who should feel guilty, it’s me.>
“What? Why?!” she cried out in astonishment before switching back to the Link. <You can’t help that!>
<Maybe not, but I’m wasting too much of your time when you could be finding more suitable consorts.> He wasn’t sure whose job that was, but he wanted to make a point.
Twilight’s mouth hung open for several seconds. <Ratchet Altair! You are never a waste of my time! How can you even say that!?>
Horseapples! <Errm, what I mean is, I need to help you find suitable candidates among the hive for possible consorts. A—and I’ve been negligent in that.>
If Twilight’s Ultimate Fanged Scowl of Doom could kill, Ratchet would have been one seriously dead bug. <Ratchet, you’re the only one I will ever have those kinds of feeling for.>
Were it not for Twilight’s painful glower, Ratchet would have given a scowl of his own. <Twilight, you know that form of love is not why queens take consorts. Mother has twelve at any given time, remember? Plus, I’ve seen the requisition forms for alchemical reagents. We burned through a year’s worth of zerrial in a month! We can’t keep using such high level alchemy for every single egg! It's untenable.>
<Why do you think I’ve negotiated for full on open trade with Equestria, we can afford it.> Her heart wasn’t in the rebuttal, and he knew it.
<Twi, my love, that’s like saying you’re flushing bits down the toilet simply because you can. The hive, you, need to have consorts that can perform the function I’m unsuited for.> He dragged her quivering chin over to face him. His stern, but loving, expression met her wavering one. “Twilight, I will always love you. You know that, right?”
“I love you too, Ratchet,” she whimpered.
<For the sake of the hive’s future, I beg of you to take up more consorts. It won’t diminish the love we share, I promise you.>
The sheer cost of the rare alchemical reagents was bothering her significantly. Cadista would never admit it, but Twilight knew procuring the supplies she needed was close to crippling her hive’s economy. My first obligation is to the hive. Somehow the words rang slightly hollow, but her duty as queen demanded it of her. <Alright, Ratchet, I’ll have Gentle Touch bring up a list of candidates. But I want to make this crystal clear: I love all my drones as my children, but you are my second half.>
<Heh, and what’s the other half?> he replied, not fully understanding the idiom.
She shot him a wane smirk and pecked his cheek. <The hive.>
The couple was just climbing to their hooves, when Thoran buzzed back over while jabbing a hoof at the transports. “By the First Mother, what are those!?”
All three turned to witness three metallic changelings emerge from each transport. The bronze finish on their steel skin and clanking joints attested to their inorganic nature. Several of Twilight’s drones were puzzled by the dumbstruck Home Guard rushing over to surround the automata. The robots were loaded down with saddlebags and crates and completely ignored the black drones as they deposited their supplies near the purple changelings.
“Oh, those are the Clockwerks. Artificial changelings. They’re mostly harmless.”
Thoran kept glancing back and forth between Twilight and the Clockwerks as Twilight’s brood started doling out the supplies. “Artificial changelings?!” He let off a heavy sigh before landing. “Why am I even surprised at this point?” I swear, queens these days. First it was those walking biological weapons of Polybia, the so called “specters” from Jstrul, and now it’s artificial changelings. “I suppose I don’t have any issue with you bringing them then, just please don’t let them damage anything.”
“I wouldn’t dream of harming anything here.” At least, I hope it doesn’t come to that.
The group Twilight brought with her into the castle consisted of her original four escorts, who rarely left her side outside of the Phoenix, eleven other drones, Thoran, and one Clockwerk. Thoran kept stealing wary glances at the unnerving metallic changeling.
However, Thoran’s mood jumped several levels higher once Twilight’s group entered the Castle proper and she started asking questions. “These tapestries,” she pointed out to those hanging from the entry hall’s rafters. “The style seems oddly familiar… but I can’t put my hoof on where I’ve seen it.”
The group glanced up at the navy blue and silver tapestries depicting heavily stylized figures that could only be guessed to be changelings in some sort of battle with a shape or group too abstract to identify. Thoran grinned at them with pride. “You like them? Restoring those was my life’s work until I became captain.”
Aegis gave him a bemused smile. “Doesn’t take much to make captain in the HG, does it?”
Thoran shot her a scathing glare right as Riposte slapped her upside the head, eliciting a mischievous snicker out of her. “Forgive Aegis, please, continue.”
Thoran didn’t notice Twilight giving her son an approving smile. “Anyway, the tapestries along the ground floor depict the various battles against the jungle’s denizens as the First Mother carved the first hive out of the mesa’s previous inhabitants.”
Twilight gave a silent order, and her escorts took to the air to snap several pictures of the various tapestries and other historic artwork scattered across the halls and corridors. “Do we have any depictions of times before we started building a civilization? Preserved cave art, perhaps?”
“Afraid not,” Thoran replied woefully. “These tapestries are among the oldest surviving records we have. There was a large fire that burned much of the lower levels a few thousand years ago.”
“That’s not good,” Aegis commented upon landing. “I hope the archives survived.”
“That’s what we’re here to find out. Let’s break up into teams of three and search the north side. B team has the south. Contact me if you find anything big.”
“Yes, my queen!”
Hours melted away into days, and days turned in a week of ultimately fruitless searching. Twilight and her usual retinue were resting inside one of the dozen storehouses on the ground level. The room was covered wall to wall with murals that would leave a historian busy for years.
Thoran was chewing on a sandwich while brooding over the lack of success and constant bombardment of questions from not only Twilight, but all of her brood as well. I don’t have to take this anymore. The southwest wing is crumbling and we’ve had to devote so many able bodies away from maintenance that it’ll take a whole year to catch up.
He glanced at Aegis, who was tapping the wall with her ear pressed against it. Every so often, she would move to different section of wall, and tap away at both the wall and his sanity. He was about to ask her to stop that infernal tapping, when Twilight trotted over while gnawing on a meat-laden leg bone. “What room is this? I haven’t seen many chambers dedicated to murals like this.”
Always with the questions. There I was begging for a queen to care about us for more than being custodians and I get the one who can’t go five minutes without asking something. Shoring up his best public face, Thoran dipped his head in respect before actually contemplating her question. “This is the Vale of Heroines. And it’s not a bunch of different murals, but a single piece, showing the First Mother’s victory over a rebelling queen.”
Twilight studied the rather violent depictions of battle and death with a curious eye. “Why would ‘Heroines’ be plural then?”
“Some other queens remained loyal to the first,” Thoran explained with increasing enthusiasm. He was a historian at heart, after all. “This is the earliest historic record that remains intact to this day.”
Ferrum fluttered over, delivering a water skin to Twilight. “I’ve been meaning to ask you, how does the Home Guard hive mind work since you don’t have a queen?”
The question piqued Twilight’s curiosity, and left Thoran flat-hooved. “I ahh… I’m… not sure, exactly. I’ve never given it much thought.”
That turned everyone’s heads, save Aegis, who was still absorbed in her search. “What do you mean ‘not sure’?” Ratchet replied as he stopped tinkering with the Clockwerk. “Are you designed to link solely with each other or something?”
“No, we have a central nexus that acts like a queen, I think, but I’ve never seen it. I don’t think anyone has.”
An artificial queen? Is that even possible!? She was about to voice that question when Aegis shouted out.
“Ah ha!! I think I found something!” Everyone trotted over. “Captain Thoran, is there anything behind this wall?”
“Not for several meters. This is all solid rock.”
A wicked smile flashed over Aegis’ face as she stood back with her horn aglow. “Wanna bet?”
“Aegis…what are you doing?”
“Watch, Mother.” Aegis fired a lavender-orange bolt at the wall, blasting out a golf ball sized dent in the wall, sending a small plume of dust everywhere.
“What are you doing!?” Thoran screeched. “You can’t destroy sacred property!” He recoiled at the damaged drywall and the once pristine mural it once held. “D—do you know how long it took to restore this!? Your Highness, I demand restitution!”
“Hold, Thoran! Aegis, what did you find?”
The drone in question blew away some of the dust and took a flashlight off her belt and shined it upon the hole she made. “It’s hollow, Mother.” She peered into the hole. “There’s a staircase in there; deep too.”
“Very good. Everypony, take pictures of the mural.” She turned to Thoran, who was trapped between fury and curiosity. “I’ll be glad to give any restitution necessary, but I’m afraid we’ll need to tear down this wall. This could be exactly what we’ve been looking for!”
Thoran wrestled with himself long enough for Twilight’s drones to finish their photography. Well…what do I have to lose? She’ll pay to restore the mural, and she’s recording it so it’s not fully lost, and there’s a chance that this could be the archives. “I hope you’re right.”
Seeing his agreement, Twilight faced the Clockwerk. “Clockwerk unit Vespun: instructions, clear a large enough opening through the indicated wall to allow my passage.”
The robotic changeling stared at its master and followed her hoof to the cracked false wall. “Directive received. Executing.” Vespun’s joints hissed and clanked as it approached the wall. Its head cocked back and forth as it surveyed the obstruction.
Twilight gently slapped herself with a hoof. “Clockwerk unit Vespun: instructions, suspend current directive.”
The robot frozen in place. “Complying.”
<Can somepony remove its saddlebags? It’s not designed to account for the altered center of gravity.>
A few nearby drones complied, allowing Twilight to speak again. “Clockwerk unit Vespun: instructions, resume previous directive.”
“Affirmative.” With an about face, Vespun bucked the wall with such force that the resulting boom and crumbling rock pained everyone’s ears.
Dust filled the surrounding area, making everyone back off or suffer a coughing fit. Twilight weaved a spell to clear the air to find the hole was large enough for her to duck inside and have two changelings side by side. “Clockwerk unit Vespun: resume default posture.”
“Understood.”
Twilight suppressed a snicker at Thoran’s astonishment. She summoned a horn light to illuminate their path. The stairs descended so far down into the mesa that her spell only revealed inky blackness and wax covered walls.
Riposte inspected the walls as the group moved in. “Yup, this is definitely ancient changeling make. The wax construction is exactly the same style used in the last two ruined hives we investigated.”
“Excellent. Good job, Aegis.” <All teams! Reconverge on my location, we have some spelunking to do.>
Within an hour, all forty lavender changelings arrived, as did an equal number of Home Guard after Thoran gave a similar order.
There was an air of excitement coursing through the gathered changelings. Twilight’s brood was greatly affected by her own eagerness to get started. “Okay, listen up! We have no idea what’s down there, so we’re staying together this time. We could run into a nest of quarray eels again, or the area could be loaded with traps like the last hive we went to. Keep a sharp eye out, and call out anything suspicious.”
With Aegis’ squad taking point, Twilight lead the group down into the forgotten section of the castle. The stairs went on for seemingly forever, with only flashlights bringing any warmth to the lightless depths. The deeper they went, the more agitated the Home Guard became.
Thoran was trying to stare ahead and ignore the cold chill crawling up his spine. Begone from here. He tried to swivel his ears and look for the source.
Am I hearing things?
Leave, now!
That wasn’t a physical sound…
He strained both his ears and Link senses to try and hear it, but the voice did not speak again. <Anyone else getting some weird vibes out this place?>
<Not really, Captain.>
<I swear I heard something.>
<The First Mother doesn’t want us down here, sir. This place just feels off limits.>
The stairs finally deposited them in a great cavern that could easily act as a hangar for some of Stripped Gear’s smaller airships. The ground was artificially flattened from use in ages past, but that was so long ago that stalagmites were starting to form in various places. Twilight and her drones were abuzz with excitement. “We found it! This has got to be the archives! Alright everypony, start searching for a way to get inside, but stay vigilant for traps.”
With various cheers and hollers, the purple drones swarmed over the area, armed with flashlights and archeological tools. Ratchet stood by Twilight with a perplexed expression. That expression was shared by the Home Guard standing dumbfounded around Twilight and her Clockwerks.
“Um, begging your pardon, your highness, but what they looking at? There’s nothing here but an empty chamber.”
Twilight looked at him as if he had grown a second head. “What are you talking about?”
<Um, Honey, why they all going about like they found a giant laboratory or something?>
“Wha—are you serious!?” Ratchet met Twilight’s incredulous look with a simple shrug. Every single Home Guard drone was looking at the throng of Twilight’s children swarm over seemingly empty space. “There’s a whole lost era structure down here!”
By the way Twilight’s drones were acting, it was obvious to Ratchet that something had to be there. “Can you try tapping your vision into me?”
“Yeah, sure.”
Within a few seconds, Ratchet saw a large ten by thirty meter dark stone structure materialize out of thin air. Already, most of the flashlights had been put on fixed stands to illuminate the area, and the drones were hovering or standing around it, too cautious to touch it for fear of setting off any traps.
Twilight was about to go join them when one of her sons flew over and bowed towards her. “My queen, this is simply a fascinating discovery! There’s a multiphased perception filter matrix etched into the decorative exterior.”
Twilight clicked her tongue. “Let me guess: it’s meant to render the archive invisible to changelings.”
Riposte smirked with pride for his mother. “Astute as ever, my queen. Did you gather that from the Link chatter?”
“No, actually.” That got a confused look out of him as she turned to face Thoran. “It appears that’s why you can’t see it.” It seems having a hybrid brain is more useful than I thought.
Twilight’s triumphant smile faded at the state the Home Guard. They were crowding around each other out of fear. Many were shivering, while others were downright quaking in their chitin. “Are you all okay?”
Thoran pulsed a command to shape up over his Link. “Yes, your majesty. Although I must confess that whatever it is you found is… frightening. I think invisibility is not its only defense.”
“I understand.” <I get the feeling this one might be dangerous. I want no slip-ups, everypony!>
A chorus of acknowledgements almost drowned Aegis out. <Mother, I believe we’ve found the entrance.>
<On my way.>
Twilight located Aegis easily enough, and circled around the structure to find her and two other drones writing down the carving around the seemingly flat wall. Aegis looked up from her work at her mother’s arrival.
“Found this.” She pointed at a series of runes. “These look to be the same dialect found in the Rock Gorge hive.”
“That was the oldest hive we’ve searched, until now. Do you have a translation for me?”
“Erm, I do, but it’s not the same self-flattery from the other hives. The part on the left reads: Here within lies the Chamber of Chitin. Any who would steal the knowledge contained within this room shall be stricken from memory, and suffer true death. So saith Oʊ.vɚ Kwiːn Tia’vil’yet, and so it is written.”
Twilight frowned at the warning. Stricken from memory? Could that be why nopony remembers anything of the past beyond the First Mother?
Aegis checked her notes and buzzed over to another part of the wall. “Now, if we go over to the left side of the door, the inscription reads: My passing will herald the final death of the ‘this part’s missing’. The memories will fade and be forgotten. We, The Changed, will live on anew, unburdened. The seals are—. And that’s all of it.”
Twilight studied the rock where the rest of the sentence would have been. “This part doesn’t look like it was defaced. If I had to guess, I’d think the writer stopped before they could finish.”
Ferrum traced a hoof around some damage caused by both blade and spell. “I’m hoping that means Tia’vil’yet didn’t get a chance to destroy the records as planned. There could have been a bloody coup that ended up saving the archive.”
“Hmm, perhaps. Maybe the archive has the answers. In any case, let’s see if we can find the right opening trigger…” Twilight trailed off as she probed the wall with her magic. To the naked eye, the black stone archive would look like little more than a lump of ebony with carvings decorating its surface. To the arcane eye, it had very subtle wards and spells interwoven into the very rock itself. However, to the eyes of the hybrid changeling queen, there was something else there as well.
Aegis scratched her head as her notes only confounded her. “The illusion enchantments keeping the door hidden need to be triggered by something, but there’s no indication as to what.”
“Only the original owner would have known, so I doubt she left hints. But, I think it’s more simplistic than we give it credit for… A royal’s magic,” Twilight replied at length. “That’s got to be it! The queen who built this would have been able to pierce the illusions, and I bet she would have it so only she could open it in case somepony took control of one of her drones.”
“But doesn’t anypony’s magic signature change slowly over time?” Riposte queried. “There’s no way she could ensure her magic would always work.”
“Normally, yes,” Twilight replied with a short squeal of excitement. “But, a queen’s magic signature is irrevocably altered by the use of alchemy, and only queens, like myself, ever use it. Yes, our magic still changes over time, but alchemy always leaves a particular flavor to the practitioner’s signature.”
Don’t the Home Guard have to use it to alter donated eggs? Aegis kept the thought to herself. There’s no stopping mother when she gets like this.
Twilight bounced on her hooves. “Finally! Four years of research and planning has led to. This. Moment!” Her horn lit up with an excited static charge and slid into the door. Keep it calm, Twilight, you still have to keep an eye out for traps. But I get to finally see my race’s origins! I might even get to write the changeling version of Hearth’s Warming Eve!! She squealed and clapped her hooves excitedly, much to the amusement of her children.
A loud click resounded from within the structure, stifling Twilight’s enthusiasm for fear of triggering something lethal. Acidic green magic formed arching lines across the stone surface, and the door revealed itself and opened. A wave of dust and musty old parchment wafted through the gathered changelings.
“Phew, that is rank! I think something died in there.”
Aegis’ words fell on deaf ears, as a green wave of light pulsed from within the archive. The moment it touched them, the already cold air in the chamber dropped below freezing. A psychic whisper started growing into a screeching wail. Twilight’s ears drooped at the sound of it. “That can’t be good.”
<INTRUDERS HAVE BREACHED THE ARCHIVES! ARISE, MY CHILDREN! ARISE AND KILL THEM IN THE NAME OF TIA’VIL’YET!>