//------------------------------//
// XIV. A Mile in Their Horseshoes 
// Story: Uniformity 
// by adcoon 
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The book levitated in front of Bonbon. She looked from Rainbow’s journal to the changeling queen watching her expectantly. “Where is she?” Bonbon said, trying to fill her voice with enough steel to face the queen. “I want to know what you’ve done to my friends.”

“You’ll see her soon enough,” the queen said and dropped the book with a loud thump in front of Bonbon. “Open the book, and I may see fit to make your reunion happen sooner.” The queen’s form shifted, and in her place Rainbow Dash looked down at Bonbon, hovering before her with the impatient look so characteristic of the pegasus.

Bonbon looked down at the book lying at her hooves. The memory of the shock it had given her on the train to Manehattan caused a slight ache in her hoof. She picked up the book and held it in her hooves, but she didn’t open it. She glared back up at the fake Rainbow Dash. “I can’t open it. It’s protected by magic.”

The queen leaned her head down to look Bonbon in the eyes. “Is that the truth?” she asked, her words dripping venom. Her form shifted back to her own, and her horn glowed.

A trace of venom in Bonbon’s veins flared to life and made her body tense. Her lips moved of their own accord to speak the words, “Y-yes. Rainbow Dash never told me how to open the book, or anypony else that I know of.” Bonbon closed her mouth and bit down hard, trying to keep herself from saying anything more.

“I see,” the queen said, disappointed. “Give the book to my daughter,” she commanded.

Bonbon fought the compulsion, but the magic was too strong. She got on her knees and crawled towards the chained and beaten changeling beside the queen. The broken changeling opened her bright green eyes and gazed past Bonbon without reacting to her presence. Bonbon waited a fruitless moment before simply laying the book in the changeling’s chained hooves.

“So be it,” the queen said in a growl of annoyance. She turned to the guards holding the chains. “Take my wretch of a daughter from my sight and make her open the book the hard way. I don’t care how many shocks it takes for her to break it. I will know its contents.”

The guards saluted and dragged away the bound changeling, yanking hard at her chains to get her to crawl and stumble along. Bonbon watched them leave, anger and determination to fight welling up inside her. “How can you do this?” she spat at the queen. “How can you treat your own daughter this way? If you hold Rainbow Dash prisoner, why don’t you just ask her to open the book anyway?”

The queen raised a hoof and struck Bonbon with such force that her legs collapsed beneath her. “And deprive my daughter of her lesson? You dare?” she said and walked around Bonbon, inspecting the prone pony with cool contempt. “My daughter refuses to take my lessons, but sooner or later, and with the right tools, everyone breaks. Even Chrysalis.”

Bonbon pressed a hoof against her cheek and tried not to show tears; the warm wetness of blood stained her hoof, and a loud ringing filled her ears. She remembered the name Chrysalis vaguely. It had been in the newspapers back when the changelings invaded Canterlot. That seemed like very long ago now to her. “Who are you?” she whispered and wished it didn’t sound so much like a whimper. “Is all this because she failed to win Equestria?”

The queen hummed a soft tune somewhere behind Bonbon. For a time she said nothing. “I am Queen Lacewing of the Changelings,” she said and walked back around Bonbon. “I have reigned over these lands for well over two millennia, after my own mother passed away. I have always kept our nation alive in her spirit. Her last wishes have always guided me.

“You are a pony, my dear.” The queen bent down to smile at Bonbon, her horn glowing. Bonbon held up a hoof to shield her eyes from the brief flash of green. When her eyes recovered, she was looking herself in the eyes. “You wouldn’t understand our ways. This is our land, where our roots have been since times so ancient you can’t even fathom,” the false Bonbon said. “It may leave us hungry, but it has always served to make us strong and independent.” 

She raised her head and turned on one leg, dancing gaily around Bonbon. Flowers levitated around her and settled in her hair while she shrunk to the size of a filly. “My daughter is a rebellious filly with ideas too big for her simple head,” she said as she danced and pranced around the glade, looking like a childhood memory of Bonbon. “She is not even worthy of the love I give her in such abundance. She needs to learn if she wishes to one day become a true queen after me, like I once learned from my mother.”

“What do you hope to do with the book?” Bonbon struggled back on her knees and tried to stay fierce. “Do you think you can fool Twilight Sparkle?”

The queen laughed as she turned her tail on Bonbon, giving it a flick and trotting a short distance away. “Chrysalis would leap at that chance, but I only intend to read it. Nothing more.”

“Why?” Bonbon wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but if she could keep the queen amused enough to keep talking, perhaps a chance would present itself.

“Why?” The queen turned and tilted her head at Bonbon. Bonbon wasn’t sure when she had changed to look like Twilight, though she was still a filly. The change was so smooth. “Aren’t you curious what a pretty little princess like me and my lover are sharing in that book? All the juicy details? The state secrets only meant for me, a princess of Equestria, and my loyal consort?” she said in Twilight’s young voice.

“Not really,” Bonbon muttered. Not any more, at least.

Lacewing shook her head. Her mane billowed and spread out like the night sky, changing as she grew tall and dark. “Verily, we doth have our eyes planted all over thy dreams,” she said in the thick archaic voice of Luna and idly trotted around the large glade, beautiful like the night. Bonbon followed her with one eye as she tried to spot any escape. “Thou thinkest we have not figured out what’s happened and told Twilight Sparkle by now? Think again.” She waved a hoof, and Luna was gone, replaced again by the queen of changelings. “I don’t need to open the book to know that its only use to me is information.

“And,” she continued as she turned around. Bonbon quickly covered her attempt at finding an escape by turning her full attention on the queen again. “I expect they will come for Rainbow Dash in force, as sure as rain falls, and that is something none of us want.”

“You’re afraid of a war with Equestria?” Bonbon guessed.

“Don’t tell me you are surprised.” Lacewing stopped in the middle of the clearing. “I have not reigned for two thousand years and kept my subjects safe by provoking the ire of the Sun and Moon. That is why I must look at my daughter’s actions with such gravity. With great power comes great weakness, is what I always say.”

“What?” Bonbon stood up slowly. The side of her head hurt, and her legs were barely able to keep her standing. “That makes no sense.”

“Think about it, my little pony,” she said kindly, standing in the clearing, radiant as the sun, looking at Bonbon with the benevolent smile of Celestia. “My sister Luna and I are certainly powerful, but that very power draws constant threats against us. Because of our great power and status, we are never safe.” She gestured around her, and she was once more the queen of changelings. “Here, no one cares about us. We do not matter, we are no great threat. A few ponies who go missing in the swamp or disappear from outlying farms are no reason to risk an army. We are not strong, our land is not rich, and we starve, but we are much safer than if we drew attention to ourselves or went for the seat of power.

“Better Celestia and Luna remain on their thrones like sitting ducks than us.” In a blink she was Celestia again. “Or swans.” She lay down in the soft grass, spreading her pure white wings like a swan swimming on the sea of green. “Pretty little swans.”

She rose out of the sea and once again became a changeling, striding towards Bonbon. “The worst we ever have to deal with are a few frogs and the occasional young, foolish changeling with silly ideas of a better life for us all. The worst would be for my children to become fat and greedy instead of lean and wise from scarcity.”

Bonbon weighed the value of arguing and found it too small to even consider. She did not want to anger the queen. “So if having us here is a danger, are you going to let us go?”

Lacewing lifted a hoof to her chin as she considered Bonbon. She set off smoothly and soared around the glade, her mane and tail becoming rainbows as she shot Bonbon a teasing grin. “You’re not so slow after all. I intend to return Rainbow Dash safely, as a sign of good will. After all, if you show a little bit of good will, your enemy may decide to let you have a little bit in return as well.”

“What about Lyra and Humble?” Bonbon glowered at the everchanging queen. She couldn’t tell if the queen was mocking her or just teasing.

“What do you care?” Lacewing landed and walked up to Bonbon, wrapping a hoof around her back. There was a green glow, and when it faded, Lyra was standing next to her instead of Rainbow Dash. “Did I ever return your advances?” she said in the mockingly honeyed voice of Lyra. “Did I even care about your feelings? And who is this Humble to you? Some ancient stranger. A nopony and a monster, that’s what she is, my dear.”

“I’m not falling for that,” Bonbon said and gave the changeling a piercing glare.

She just smiled brightly at Bonbon. “Tell you what, if you help me find any other remaining humans, I may just reward you. Give a little, get a little.”

Bonbon narrowed her eyes as she tried to read the intentions of the fake mare leaning on her. “What do you know about humans, and why are you after them?”

“I know more than anyone alive about humans,” the queen whispered to Bonbon. She let go of Bonbon’s shoulder and stepped back, becoming an old gray stallion, ancient and wise. “It was my very own mother in the guise of a prince’s vizier who cursed Humble thousands of years ago, after Humble tricked the secret of taking a pony’s form from her. When Humble and some of her family survived after all, my mother swore to hunt her down. But she never did find the little worm, and so I swore to keep my mother’s search for the traitor alive. And today, you have brought not just the traitor herself, but a distant relative right into my waiting hooves.”

The queen leaned even closer, her grin so bright it was almost blinding. “And I know that her sister is out there as well. She took us by surprise and escaped our net while we were unprepared, but perhaps you would help me find her and retrieve her in return for your life and your freedom to leave safely with Rainbow Dash.”

“You’re talking about Lightning Dust.” Bonbon’s voice was barely heard as she stared at the queen. “Humble’s sister?”

The queen changed back into Lyra, but for just a second Bonbon caught a glimpse of Lightning Dust’s face in the transformation. “You’re quick, yes. So what will it be?” The queen caressed Bonbon’s cheek. “I think you will find that I can give you much more than the other Lyra ever could, but if you choose to leave, I will not stop you. Provided you do this one thing for me, that is. Follow Rainbow Dash, bring Lightning Dust to me.”

Bonbon pushed the hoof away and took a step back, fixing the changeling with her best steel glare. “You could never be Lyra! And I will never leave her or Humble to you!”

Lacewing shrugged and returned to her own form. “Think about it. You have two days to decide before I will be forced to let Rainbow Dash go, with or without you.” She lifted her head and called out, “Guards!”

Bonbon’s gaze flicked to the strange forest around her. In a last desperate moment, she spun around and galloped as fast as her shaking legs could take her for the trees. If she could only get far enough into the gloom, maybe she could hide and—

Her legs stopped moving beneath her, sending her face into the ground. Bonbon landed on the rough moss and stared up at the figure of the queen looming above her, four guards not far behind. 

“Wrap her up and put her somewhere she can think things over,” Lacewing ordered to the guards behind her before leaning down to whisper to Bonbon. “I can spare your life and make your dreams come true, or I can make your last moments a nightmare you will never wake from again.” For a flicker of a moment, the queen looked like a nightmarish cross between Bonbon and a changeling. “I can always use more children, after all.” 

She stood back up and turned around to leave as the guards surrounded Bonbon.


*          *          *


A viscous green liquid surrounded her, sloshing slowly around her body as she moved. It filled her lungs and stomach, making her feel like she had been puffed full and heavy like a water balloon. When she opened her mouth to breathe or scream, nothing happened; she was neither breathing nor drowning. Bonbon struggled against her prison, but the thick liquid slowed even her most forceful kicks into nothing more than a feeble poke at the green walls of the cocoon.

She tried to scream again, but it only made the nauseating liquid churn in her lungs and fill her with panic. Her limbs grew heavy from kicking, until she could no longer move them if her life depended on it. Bonbon hung, suspended in the liquid, and stared blankly ahead, out of the green-tinted shell of the prison. Panic slowly gave way to clearer thoughts.

The sensation of smooth liquid filling her eyes as she looked around made her want to cry and wipe it off in disgust. She steeled herself, wishing she could breathe, and looked again. She was surrounded by tall trees in a glowing garden, suspended from a branch in one tree. Bonbon gulped as the glow of the light reflected in several cocoons all around her, like the one she was trapped inside. She reluctantly pushed herself up against the inside of her prison, mashing her face against the translucent wall to get a better look.

Each cocoon had a darker shape within, many curled up in foetal balls. Bonbon sank the foul liquid in her mouth and slowly counted, ten … twenty, maybe as many as thirty. How many of them were ponies? How long had they been here? Bonbon tried to make out the shapes, but the cocoons and strange glowing trees turned the whole world into a smudged-out green.

Bonbon turned her head and looked at one of the cocoons nearest to her, staring at the thing dangling from a nearby branch. She kept staring, when something within the other cocoon turned in its churning sludge of green and a pair of equine eyes opened to stare right back at her, full of horror. Bonbon opened her mouth in a silent gasp as their eyes locked on each other, begging for a release that neither could give. Bonbon imagined that her own eyes looked just as pitiful and terrified to the other pony.

They kept eye contact, too afraid to be left alone. Bonbon rested her head against the inside of the shell and wondered who the pony across the void was, and who was missing them even now. She wondered who was missing her, if anypony back home even thought about her. 

Untold hours went by, and Bonbon never broke her gaze with the other pony. The world outside slowly grew darker at the edges, but the lights in the trees remained undimmed. “I miss my friends,” she thought, as if her fellow prisoner could hear her thoughts. “I miss Lyra, and Rainbow Dash. I miss both of them the most. And Humble too, even though …” She trailed off in her thoughts. “I hope they are in a better place than me. Who do you miss?”

The eyes shifted a little but never broke contact. Bonbon could tell that the other pony was speaking to her, too, and it made her feel somehow better. “I’m sure your friends and family are thinking of you,” she thought and attempted a sigh. “I’m sure they all miss you.”

Bonbon’s eyes drooped. She watched her new friend through the green wall and listened to the slow gurgling and churning of the liquid around her. Slowly, her eyes closed, and the world of green gave way to expansive skies full of stars. Bonbon smiled as she watched the millions of tiny dots glittering above in the heavens.

She wasn’t sure if she was still dreaming when a whisper broke through the perfect silence. Bonbon opened her eyes and blinked at the green glow and the slow sloshing of the cocoon. Her eyes scanned the outside world and the rows of cocoons dangling in the trees, but there was no one there. The pony in the other cocoon had closed her eyes and was sleeping, Bonbon supposed.

“Can you hear me?”

Bonbon’s ear twitched. The voice sounded strange, muted yet echoing through the thick liquid. She tried to turn around, but moving was almost impossible. Her reaction must have answered the question, because the voice continued.

“I’m going to be quick. Just nod for yes or shake your head for no. Do you understand?” The voice paused to give her time to answer.

Bonbon nodded slowly, stuck in an awkward position. She furrowed her brow as she listened for the voice, her eyes searching the outside for any signs of who was speaking. There was something distantly familiar about the voice, like she had met the person before.

“Good. I might be able to help you get out of here and save your friends,” the voice whispered. “You will have to trust me, but believe me, you do not have another choice unless you want to abandon your friends to become changeling toys. Will you trust me?”

She tried to place the voice, but the distorting effect of the liquid in her ears and all around her made it impossible to make out who it reminded her of. Still, she could either trust the voice, or hope for another miracle. And miracles rarely came in pairs, so she just had to believe that this was her miracle and not a trick. She nodded slowly and sank the lump of goo in her throat.

“I’m going to give you a poison, and you’re going to meet someone,” the voice said. Bonbon’s eyes widened. “You may not think you can trust her, but give her a chance and hear her out. She is the only one who can help you. Believe me.”

Bonbon squirmed in the cocoon. “Poison?” she thought desperately. That didn’t sound like help at all. She shook her head, unable to protest in any other way.

“Don’t worry,” the voice said. “And good luck. We may not meet again.”

Bonbon tensed and closed her eyes. A minute or more passed before a sharp taste filled her throat like fire. Bonbon gasped and struggled, but the poison was all around her and inside her, spreading through the liquid she was suspended in. The fire flowed down into her stomach and out through her veins, fighting its way to her brain. Bonbon cried out in silence as the world washed away around her.

A shadow moved outside the cocoon, moving on to the other cocoon, the one with the other pony she had talked to. Bonbon stared through the expanding haze of poison, trying to make out the shadow. It looked like neither a pony or a changeling. It was holding something in a claw as it spoke to the other cocoon.

Bonbon made a last effort to struggle her way out of the cocoon, biting at the wall with her teeth, but she was already too weak, and the cocoon remained strong. She reached out a hoof to the pony in the other cocoon, trying to get one last glimpse of her eyes.

The green light swam like swamp water in her vision as she passed out.


*          *          *


A butterfly landed on her nose and tickled her awake. Bonbon sneezed and sat up slowly in the middle of a warm summer glade. The world around her was alive and vivid with plants, thousands of flowers and creepers in warm colors. Massive trees crowded the landscape, bent and winding, large enough for a pony to walk easily along their roots and branches like bridges and pathways under the blue sky. Insects hummed among every leaf and every flower, displaying wings and bodies of spectacular designs.

Bonbon watched the world in foal-like wonder and joy. She held up a hoof for a small colorful fly to land on as she rose to her hooves. The fly brushed its wings and head with its leg before flying off again in search of nectar. Bonbon set her hoof down carefully and looked around in search of anypony else in this strange, wondrous garden.

A honeyed scent led her to a patch of wild plants with long white flowers. Bonbon nibbled at the leaves and sighed as the sweet taste filled her mouth and melted away her thoughts. She gobbled down as much as she could chew, moaning in delight and licking her lips.

Maybe this was some kind of paradise, she thought.

With a great force of will she left the rest of the flowers and turned around, licking her chops and wondering if maybe she should have just one more taste. She looked up and froze, the remains of the last flower dropping from her mouth.

A tall and majestic changeling watched her from the edge of the glade. Thoughts of flight flashed through Bonbon’s mind even as her legs took it upon themselves and set off in a gallop for the nearest patch of trees to hide behind.

She had turned to run away from the changeling, but somehow she now found herself running straight towards her. Bonbon dug her hooves into the soft earth and skidded to a halt, gasping in fright at the towering figure in front of her. “H-how …”

“Do not fear me,” the changeling spoke. Her voice was weak, and her eyes looked haunted.

Bonbon stared at the changeling. She remembered the queen, and the cocoon, and the broken changeling in chains. “Chrysalis?” she said, her lips forming the question by reflex.

“Queen Chrysalis, to you,” the changeling replied. Bonbon noticed that her body was shaking, and she had to struggle to stand, but there were no signs of the wounds she had been suffering earlier.

“Sorry. Where are we?” Bonbon stood back up slowly and kept her distance from the changeling. “How did I get here?”

“It is a mindscape, a garden crafted from my thoughts, a refuge for my mind where I am safe to rest within myself,” Chrysalis said as she took an unsteady step into the glade past Bonbon. She spoke with the tone of a queen to a subject, commanding and without wavering, even as her body shook with the effort. “It is something like a dream, if that helps you. You are here because I have need of you, and you of me.”

Bonbon watched Chrysalis walk, trying to make sense of the situation and her place within it. She watched as Chrysalis stumbled to one knee. Without thinking, Bonbon moved over to help her up and support her.

Chrysalis sneered and threw her aside. “Do not presume to humiliate me, pony. I do not need your help to walk,” she said and forced herself back on her legs. “I am a queen of changelings, I am stronger than your pitiful mind can comprehend.”

“I was only—” Bonbon tried to speak, rubbing her flank where she had hit the ground.

“Follow and listen,” Chrysalis snapped as she continued stubbornly on her own, “and spare me any of your false pity or concern.”

Bonbon stood up and watched Chrysalis for a moment, then she sighed and followed behind the changeling. “I’m listening,” she said, deciding to play along.

“Good,” Chrysalis said as she stepped onto the massive root of a tree and began walking along the gnarled path into the treetops. “What my useful servant gave you was a rare and precious poison which makes your true thoughts invisible to the queen and the hive, and gives me assurance to speak with you in secrecy. It is a substance reviled and forbidden among changelings, on pain of very painful and slow death at the hooves of the queen, if she finds out.”

“I didn’t think I ever needed any more proof that you are all horrible monsters,” Bonbon muttered as she watched her steps on the wide but uneven root.

“I heard that,” Chrysalis glared back at Bonbon. “Your ignorance is not surprising. There is only room for one queen among changelings. It is the expectation of every young queen that she must kill her mother to take her place, thereby proving her worth as queen. My mother proudly murdered her mother after decades of careful plotting and two failed coups before that. The poison I use is foul play because it makes it too easy, tradition would say. A queen who is found guilty of using it has only proven that she is not truly worthy.”

Chrysalis paused to collect her strength before making a short jump to another branch. She stumbled slightly in the landing, but brushed it off as if it was nothing. “I have no patience for such nonsense. My mother is full of it, and she would not hesitate to lose her only daughter in the name of tradition. But a true queen would take any advantage she can get, at any cost.”

Bonbon took a moment to consider her jump before making it, landing safely behind Chrysalis. “Who was it that gave me the poison?”

“That is none of your concern,” Chrysalis snapped. “Suffice it to say that I can not trust other changelings while my mother is alive. Even the ones I manage to poison are still loyal to her and may betray me. That is why I need you and your rainbow-colored friend to help me stage a coup and kill my mother, since I am unable to face her myself.

“In return, I will let you and your friends go on your way, and no changeling in this land will hinder your passage.” Chrysalis stopped at the top of a wooden arch and turned carefully. “You are not going to leave this land without the blessing of its queen—you would not get very far, trust me—so I suggest you take my offer while you can.”

Bonbon stopped and looked at Chrysalis, trying to read her insectile eyes. “All my friends? What about the two humans, Lyra and Humble?”

Chrysalis huffed and looked up at the canopy. “My mother is obsessed with my grandmother’s pointless vendettas against the humans. They are a dead race, unimportant. There is nothing left but a few stragglers, and I have better things to do than hunt them down or care what they do. Our hive has been starving in this infested hay hole for longer than Celestia and Luna have ruled the heavens, all because of cowardly queens too caught up in tradition.

“It is high time for change,” she said. “It is time we lived like lords and ladies, not dirty beggars.”

“So if I help you overthrow your mother, I will also be to blame for another invasion of Equestria in the future?” Bonbon scowled at the changeling.

Chrysalis turned and looked at Bonbon. “Would you rather leave your two friends here, or see what my mother plans to do with your body if you refuse her? No, I thought not,” she said before Bonbon could answer. “If you say otherwise, you are a liar.”

She began walking again. “You have no other choice. Now follow. Your friend should arrive shortly, then we can get down to business.” She scowled at the path. “And rest.”


*          *          *


“No way, no how!” Rainbow Dash circled around Bonbon, pointing her hoof. Bonbon glanced at where Chrysalis was resting herself on a pillow of silk in a small gazebo some distance away. Rainbow looked at Bonbon. “That’s Chrysalis! She’s the wretched, evil … thing that invaded Canterlot and wrecked the royal wedding! I say we show her what we think of her!” she said and set off in a rush for the changeling.

Bonbon snatched at her tail. “Get down!” she groaned as she dug her hooves into the rough bark of the branch and pulled the pegasus out of the air.

“Oh come on!” Rainbow complained as she sat down and folded her hooves over her chest. “I am so tired of this. I want to smack that bug in her face and pull our tails the hay out of here!”

“And how do you suggest we do that?” Bonbon shot back at her. “I’m stuck in a cocoon back in the real world, and I bet you are too. And what of our friends? Are you just going to leave them?”

Rainbow Dash pouted her lips and scowled. “I say we take the queen’s offer. Then, when she lets us go, we rush back in and pull Lyra out of there right under their noses.”

“Lyra and Humble,” Bonbon snapped.

“Seriously?” Rainbow Dash huffed. “You want to save her?”

Bonbon took a step forward and stuck her face in Rainbow Dash’s. “We are not leaving without both!” she snarled and bared her teeth, her eyes boring into Rainbow’s skull. “And we’re helping Chrysalis too!”

Rainbow Dash pulled back, a look of shock on her face. “What the hay is wrong with you?” she said after recovering enough to collect herself. “She’s a—”

“What the hay is wrong with you?” Bonbon poked Rainbow hard in the chest. “Humble has done horrible things, and Chrysalis is an unrepentant monster, but no one deserves to be tortured! Look at her!” Bonbon pointed at Chrysalis. A slack-jawed Rainbow Dash blinked and followed her hoof. “She can barely stand on her own legs, even in her dreams. Her mother is making her open your stupid book by force, just to teach her some awful lesson. Do you have any idea how much that thing hurts?”

Bonbon directed Rainbow’s face back at her. “You can not begin to imagine what Humble has been through, or how much pain and sorrow she is in right now. Are you really so callous that you would leave another to torture and eternal suffering? Would you rather shun and punish them forever than trying to make them see their mistakes? If so, you are no better than Chrysalis or her mother, and that is a fact! And I have my doubts about Chrysalis; at least she cares for her subjects and their suffering.” Bonbon narrowed her eyes at the stunned pegasus. “You are worse than Chrysalis! And you are not worthy of Celestia’s favor, or friends like Fluttershy, who understand the value of kindness and mercy!”

Rainbow Dash stared at Bonbon, her mouth open. A faint whimpering noise escaped her, but failed to form any words. Rainbow Dash frowned and averted her eyes, trying to hide sudden tears while looking fierce. “… Celestia I hate you.”

“Good! You should feel bad about yourself,” Bonbon said. “Now shut your yap and get your tail in gear. We’re helping!” She turned her tail and stomped off towards Chrysalis, not even caring if Rainbow Dash followed or not.

Chrysalis opened an eye as Bonbon’s hooves sounded on the wooden steps carved into the living branch leading up to the gazebo. She lifted her head and regarded Bonbon with contempt. “Are you done pitying me?”

“No,” Bonbon said as she walked across the wooden floor of the gazebo and stood in front of Chrysalis. “We accept.”

Chrysalis looked past Bonbon as Rainbow Dash slinked up behind her, eyes looking at the floor and ears drooping. Chrysalis looked back at Bonbon. “Fine. It’s not like I have any other useful tools I can turn to. I guess we’re stuck with each other, then.”

“What about your other ally? The one who gave us the poison?” Bonbon asked.

“I need to keep him in reserve in case you fail. One of the great shames of living out here in the middle of nowhere is a lack of ready servants. That’s how my mother keeps herself safe from her daughter. With only changelings and a few precious ponies who are barely enough to feed the tribe, it’s nearly impossible for me to scheme against her.

“Well, here’s the plan,” Chrysalis said as she adjusted herself on the pillow for more comfort. “I need you to get close to my mother and poison her. My other servant has left a hidden cache of potent poison for you near a small pond in the woods. All you have to do is make my mother inhale the poison. I will give you directions and instruct you on how to get around the hive.”

“Ugh,” Rainbow Dash groaned behind Bonbon.

Bonbon wasn’t sure she liked the idea of killing either. “Do we have to … Can’t we just give her enough that she’ll be too weak to fight you and us?”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Worthless. And what then? I couldn’t lift a hoof against her in this state, no matter how weak she is,” she said. “And as long as there is any life left in her, the hive will remain loyal to her and would overwhelm us all. My only hope is to kill her and take the crown before anyone is the wiser. So I suggest you develop a taste for killing if you want to live. Be thankful I gave you poison instead of a hatchet.

“If it helps your weakling conscience, know that she expects nothing less of me. But enough,” the changeling frowned and waved a hoof at the questions. “I can’t let you out of your cocoons. You would be discovered instantly and captured, probably tortured and killed.”

“Then how are we going to get close to the queen?” Bonbon raised an eyebrow.

Chrysalis grinned. “The poison inside you does more than mask your thoughts to the Queen. All changelings belong to the hive, and their minds are connected. You might say the poison masks that connection and creates another between those poisoned. It allows me to speak with you here in my personal mindspace, but there are other things I can do, and I happen to have a pair of useful changelings infected with the poison.”

“Where is this going?” Rainbow Dash said in a voice that matched Bonbon’s unease. “No wait, I don’t think I care to hear it.”

“You will switch minds. No one will suspect two changelings here, especially with the poison masking your real thoughts. Meanwhile, the two changelings, who are unaware of this and might otherwise betray me despite the poison, will be safely away inside your heads … inside cocoons where they can’t speak a word.” Chrysalis’ grin widened, displaying a gleaming pair of fangs. “It is the perfect plan, assuming you two can learn to act like changelings before the sun rises. If you can’t … well, I hope you don’t find out.”

“Uh …” Rainbow Dash looked at Bonbon and backed away slightly.

Bonbon felt sick to her stomach as she listened to the plan. “This is … a lot. How do we know we can trust you?”

“Why would you ever think you could?” Chrysalis smiled sweetly. “But you have no choice, after all. I’m nice that I’m even asking you. But we do want to help each other, so I’m sure you will see the logic in this arrangement. You need a queen’s favor to escape with your lives and your friends; I need you to save my hive from my mother.”

She chuckled. “Perhaps you should see it as the experience of a lifetime. Few ponies can say they know what it’s like being a changeling … and most of those don’t get that experience in such a favorable way.”

Bonbon and Rainbow Dash looked at each other. “I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Rainbow said. “But I guess you’re right. We don’t really have a choice,” she muttered and scuffed at the ground with a hoof.

Chrysalis smiled. “There’s a good little pony.”


*          *          *


Bonbon opened her eyes and immediately dropped as the world disappeared beneath her hooves. The ground came flying up towards her in a dizzying swirl of green and brown. She cried out and waved her hooves frantically, closing her eyes shut as air rushed past her body.

Her fast descent was abruptly halted. Bonbon was hoisted back into the air with a jerking motion which made her nearly lose the contents of her stomach. A pair of hooves wrapped around her body, and a labored buzzing hummed in her ear. Bonbon opened her eyes slowly and breathed in as she looked at the green world now so very close. One second later and she would have crashed into the ground at full speed.

“Ah!” Her rescuer cried out and swayed violently. The buzzing became erratic, and before Bonbon could cry out herself, she was falling once more.

She landed hard against the forest floor, and something landed heavily on top of her. “Ow …” she moaned and tried to stretch her legs, hoping none of them had been broken. She blew something out of her eyes and sighed, looking up at the trees around them. 

The forest looked odd, like everything had more edges than it should. Bonbon furrowed her brow and gazed further up, through the leaves and branches. “What’s wrong with the sky?” she asked herself aloud. The patches of green sky and rays of yellow sunlight was immediately forgotten as she heard the voice. “What’s wrong with my voice?”

“Ugh, stupid wings,” someone said behind her, and the one who had caught her crawled off her back, standing on unsteady legs. “Wait, what the … Oh hay no!”

Bonbon lifted a hoof to her mouth and stopped, staring at the hoof in front of her face. “Oh …” she said, her voice breaking and eyes widening. “Oh Celestia …”

“I think I’m going to be sick …” the other voice announced.

Bonbon sat up and stared at her black hoof, three prominent holes piercing the chitinous limb. She looked down at her body, taking in the dark carapace and transparent wings. In a trance, she reached up a hoof to feel her face, running the hoof along the edges of the sharp horn in her forehead. “We’re … we’re really changelings,” she said and breathed in deep to stop herself from screaming.

“This … ugh, this is disgusting,” the changeling who Bonbon assumed was really Rainbow Dash said as she spat out a mouthful of something green and sticky. “Ugh … oh damn, not again …” she groaned before sticking her head in a bush.

“W-what are we going to do?” Bonbon said and stared as Rainbow emptied her stomach in the bush. 

Rainbow Dash groaned and spat before pulling her head back out and wiping her mouth with a hoof. “Damn it,” she moaned. “This was your horrible idea. I say we get the job done and get the hay out before I start to develop a taste for bugs and rotten fruit. Sweet Celestia, that taste! What did this one eat? No … no, don’t tell me!”

Bonbon frowned and poked her new wings with a hoof. She carefully spread them out and tried to give them a few flaps. “I guess we really have no choice,” she sighed and wrinkled her nose at the strange feeling and use of unfamiliar muscles. “How do you use these things?”

“Don’t look at me,” Rainbow said and spat again, sticking her tongue out and grimacing. “These wings are hopeless,” she said and flapped them a bit. “They’re way too light, and I’m not used to … buzzing.” She flapped the wings with a frown.

“I’m sure you’ll get used to them.” 

“Celestia I hope not!” 

Bonbon stood up. She had no doubt that Rainbow would find it much more natural than Bonbon ever would, once she got used to it.

Rainbow Dash kicked the ground and looked around. “So uh … I guess we need to find that poison and get on with it, right?”

“I … guess,” Bonbon said and stared at the path ahead. “Chrysalis said we should head south from here, I think.” She lifted a hoof to the new horn in her head again and winced. “And this is another thing I wish I knew how to use.”

“Friggin’ magic, yeah,” Rainbow groaned and began stalking down the road. “Come on.”

“Says the pony who’s dating the Princess of Magic herself,” Bonbon teased.

Rainbow looked down and sulked. “Twilight doesn’t count,” she said and went silent.

Bonbon shook her head and followed, aware that everything around her looked and felt different. She could have believed that she was still dreaming, if it wasn’t for her gut. She realized that she was starving too, but she wasn’t sure any of the plants here would satisfy her, or what changelings even ate other than love. She didn’t want to think too much about it either.

Rainbow Dash flapped her wings and lifted off the ground tentatively, turning around herself in mid air to study the way her new wings buzzed. Bonbon frowned at how quickly she seemed to take to it, even quicker than Bonbon had expected, and despite Rainbow’s supposed reservations. Bonbon tried a few times herself, but it didn’t make her any wiser on how to fly. She was going to have to keep trying if she wanted to avoid attention from other changelings.

As they passed through winding passages, following the instructions Chrysalis had given them before the dream ended, more and more changelings buzzed past them in the tree tops. Bonbon could feel their presence even when she couldn’t see them, and occasional greetings and fragments of thoughts flashed through her mind. It was a disorienting sensation, like being at a party full of high-society ghosts gossipping in her ears. She was relieved that none of them stopped or gave them any attention. It seemed Chrysalis had been right that their disguise would not raise suspicion, as long as they did not do anything to draw attention.

“I think I see it,” Rainbow Dash said and pushed some low-hanging branches aside for Bonbon.

Bonbon ducked under the branches and drifted unsteadily around a tree. She looked around until she saw the small pond nestled among the trees and surrounded by green plants. “Looks like it,” she said and approached the edge of the water, landing with some difficulty and stopping herself before she tumbled forwards into the lake. “Alright, that went pretty well.”

Rainbow Dash landed next to her with something approaching practiced ease and looked around along the little pond. “I’m gonna take this side,” she said and pointed to the right.

“Alright,” Bonbon said as Rainbow Dash took wing again and began poking around in the reeds and among the stones at the edge of the pond. Bonbon turned and trotted the other way around. Her eyes looked upwards, trying to make out the horn in her forehead. She sighed and focused her attention on some scrub by the side of the pond. Maybe if she just imagined really hard …

Green light flickered at the top of her vision, throwing small sparks on her nose. Bonbon wriggled her muzzle and concentrated. How was it Lyra had described doing magic? Bonbon tried to recall. “Like a dance … with strings,” she muttered. “Everything has a resonance, I just have to resonate with it and then …” Bonbon wet her dry lips and tilted her head, watching the dark green plants and sniffing the air. “How do plants resonate with me?”

A faint humming sounded in her head, different from the faint hum of changeling voices, traveling through her horn and down her spine. She closed her eyes and shivered, trying not to let her focus slip as she kept the image of the plants in her mind. She could feel the strain on her horn and was almost ready to drop it when she felt the leaves, like a tingle in her forehead. Surprised, Bonbon squeaked, and the glow of magic vanished in a burst of green along with the sensation of the plants.

“Got it!” Rainbow Dash called from the other side of the pond as Bonbon recovered. Bonbon turned and looked as Rainbow Dash held up a small bag from behind a rock. Rainbow opened the bag and poked her face in.

“Rainbow, what are you—Don’t stick your nose in the bag of poison!” Bonbon said with a sense of urgency as she watched Rainbow Dash with her head in the bag. “We’re supposed to just make the queen breathe it, remember?”

“Oh, uh,” Rainbow pulled her face back out and grinned, rubbing the back of her head. “Good call. Anyway, uh …” she said and pulled out something. “There’s a map in here too.”

Bonbon spread her wings and carefully crossed the pond, landing with some effort next to Rainbow Dash. She turned around and tilted her head to look at the crude map outlining the paths and spots of interest in the forest. “How thoughtful.”

A long, sharp note of alarm made them both jump. Bonbon spun around, looking all around her, until she realized that the alarm had been inside her head. In the distance, swarms of changelings burst out of the canopy and flocked towards the south. A thousand distant voices chimed along with the alarm, calling the hive to action.

“Oh buck,” Rainbow Dash grimaced and rubbed her head. “It’s in my head. You hear it too?”

Bonbon nodded. 

“Think we should follow?”

Bonbon gnawed on her lip, then dug into the mud by the edge of the pond. “I don’t think we want to find out what they do to changelings who don’t heed a call like that. Sounded big.” She drew a thick line of mud like a lightning bolt across Rainbow’s flank, like a rough cutie mark, then repeated the procedure on herself. “Now I can recognize you,” she said. “I swear, all these bugs look the same.” 

“Good thinking,” Rainbow Dash said and took off. “Let’s go!”


*          *          *


Cries of “Fire Bellies” and “The Leapers” echoed in their heads from every direction as they finally caught up with the back of the swarms headed south. Bonbon wobbled in the air and huffed for breath, buzzing her wings to stay aloft. She had to admit to herself that she was definitely not in good shape for flying, and the constant clamor of calls made her head feel like it might burst like an overripe melon.

Rainbow Dash urged her on, but Bonbon wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep this up. “You don’t think they mean dragons?” she gasped in between struggling for breath as Rainbow paused beside her.

“Dunno. Who cares?” Rainbow shrugged. “Big, clumsy lizards don’t frighten me.”

“Say that again when they roast your flank,” Bonbon muttered. The buzzing swarm of black in front of her made it hard to see anything going on ahead. Bonbon pulled up a bit, trying to get a better look. Flashes of orange lit up the forest somewhere ahead. Bonbon could hear the cries and clamor of fighting now.

Rainbow Dash hung in the air above her. “Dragons are big,” she said and picked up her pace. “I don’t see anything that big ahead. Unless they’re just babies, like Spike.”

The billowing swarm of bodies ahead took a dive, soaring down through the clouds towards the battle. Bonbon tried to keep up with Rainbow Dash as they descended with the swarm. 

“You two! Hey!” a voice called out.

Bonbon turned her head as another changeling came in from the side, glaring at them. “Uh, yes?” she said in quick response.

“Didn’t you get your orders?” the changeling barked. “You’re to take the left flank and cut off the enemy from the east.”

“Uh, sorry,” Bonbon tried to hide her panting and the wobbling of her flight.

“Must have missed it, sir!” Rainbow chirped in the proper military fashion of a soldier responding to her superior.

“Yes,” Bonbon agreed with a quick nod. “What exactly are we up against?”

The changeling gave Bonbon a narrow look. “Are you deaf? The fire-bellied water leapers are attacking from the south again. How did you not—” An explosion behind them ended any further scrutiny. The changeling swiveled around on the spot and cursed. “Get to it!” he barked before racing off again.

Rainbow pulled Bonbon around and took off towards the left of the swarm. “Damn,” she said simply, her brow furrowed and eyes narrowed at the scene ahead.

“Sorry,” Bonbon muttered. “I can’t make head or tail of all this noise in my head.”

“Me neither,” Rainbow grumbled. “Just means we gotta come up with a plan, and I’ve got the perfect one. Okay, just listen—” Another explosion interrupted her for a moment. She and Bonbon glanced down through the swarm where the explosion had been. The swamps and forests were charred and torn up by the frantic fighting, changelings swarming in and out among each other in wild chaos to evade long gouts of roaring flame. And yet, no two changelings ever seemed to get in the way of each other.

Giant creatures leaped across the shallow water and muddy ground on leathery black wings, occasionally taking to the air in great leaps, soaring among the swarms of changelings before landing again. They looked to Bonbon like massive frogs without legs, moving by their bat-like wings alone while swinging long tails with deadly stingers at the changelings. When they opened their jaws and croaked, long tongues of flame licked the air and any changelings unfortunate enough to be caught in the way.

“Cool!” Rainbow Dash said beside Bonbon, whose reaction was stunned silence. “Okay, so here’s the plan,” she continued without pause. “We’re going to go down there and kick those ugly things back to where they came from and show everyone how awesome and kick-tail we are. Everyone will be so impressed that the queen will make us her personal guard or something, and bam! We’re in.” She looked at Bonbon with a wide grin.

Bonbon gave her friend a skeptical look. “Yes, that’s a great plan,” she said with a deadpan expression to cover the thick, dripping layer of sarcasm. “Except, I can barely stay in the air.”

“Pfft!” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “You just gotta believe it,” she said and spun around, darting down towards the action. “Just follow my lead and make sure you kick tail!”

Bonbon dodged wildly through the swarming mass of changelings, trying not to bump into any as she raced to keep Rainbow Dash within sight. She received several looks from changelings she nearly collided with, but she didn’t have time to pay them any attention. It was impossible for her to make sense of the voices in her head, and she had no time to stop and try to get a better sense of what they were telling her.

A long gout of flame erupted to her left. Bonbon gasped and swerved to the right, colliding with another changeling in flight. The changeling hissed at her and pushed her off. Bonbon barely managed to catch herself before she hit the ground. She spun around, trying to catch a glimpse of where Rainbow Dash had gone, and came face to face with a giant frog. Bonbon opened her mouth to scream as she stumbled back.

The monster opened its mouth, its throat burning like the sun. Bonbon stumbled and buzzed her wings desperately to get out of the way when something fell from the sky and landed on the back of the frog. The monster shut its mouth and swallowed …

“Uh oh,” Bonbon muttered as she saw the eyes of the frog bulge outwards and its body swelling.

“Haha! Take that, you—” the changeling standing atop the ailing frog cheered. Her cheer was cut off when she noticed what was going on. “Oh,” she said and leaped into the air, buzzing wildly.

The bright explosion threw Bonbon off her hooves and through a swarm of changelings, all of which dove uncontrollably out of the way around her. She collided with another swarm of changelings holding back a  bunch of frogs, and tumbled into the mud and brackish water behind them. Shaking and sputtering, she crawled out of the muck and wiped the mud out of her eyes.

The sight before her was utter chaos. Changelings were strewn everywhere from the explosion and collisions, and the frogs were quickly rampaging across the wasteland, unhindered. Rainbow Dash was picking herself out of a tree, along with several other changelings she had brought down with her in the crash.

Bonbon ducked and rolled over in the mud as a frog leaped at her and swung its deadly tail. She brought her legs up and kicked the beast in the side of its face. The frog croaked and let out a burst of wild flames, charring several changelings who had charged back in to aid. Bonbon gulped and looked around.

It didn’t take her long to spot Rainbow Dash. She was bucking and wrestling with frogs, while the changelings around her cursed and dodged every wild blow and lick of flames. It was hopeless, the entire teamwork of the changelings ruined by just two who did not follow the mental cues being broadcast.

“What the buck are you doing?” two changelings shouted at her as the frogs rampaged all around them, driving the changelings back. Bonbon backed away, unsteady on her muddy wings, feeling her cheeks flush with shame. She had no answer.

“Idiots!” several changelings cried, and others chimed in.

“Fall back! Retreat!” the voices roared in her mind, and the hive responded. As the frogs swarmed behind them, Bonbon was shoved and driven into retreat with the rest of the hive. Rainbow Dash was lost somewhere in the crowd.


*          *          *


“So much for your brilliant plan,” Bonbon grumbled and nearly gagged at the sight as she leaned in to look down the great cauldron full of live cockroaches, crawling and struggling for purchase against each other. “Bloody hay!”

“Hey, it’s not my fault that changelings can’t hold their own in a fight,” Rainbow Dash sulked as she shoved a large glass of swarming butterflies aside with a groan. “What the hay is up with this anyway? Why can’t they just stick with eating love, not … ugh, bugs!”

“I think this is fruit,” Bonbon said, breathing through her mouth. It didn’t help much. “Rotten, maggot-infested fruit,” she added. “I don’t think they can get enough love out here. Or maybe they need other food to live too.”

“Well, maybe if they learned to eat hay and cupcakes instead, they wouldn’t be so awful in a fight,” Rainbow Dash said. “I can’t believe we’re stuck here, making this … yuck! I swear I’m going to starve to death if I don’t get out of here soon.”

“Less chatter, more cooking!” one of the other changelings called from the other side of the ‘kitchen’, which was more like a garden with tables and winding trails where changelings milled about with plates of bugs. Several changelings glared at them before returning to work.

“Let’s just be glad this is the worst they did to us after that fiasco,” Bonbon whispered and began stirring the sickening gruel of rotten fruit. “At least they didn’t start questioning us.”

“Not yet,” Rainbow Dash said and grimaced as she emptied a glass full of flies into a bowl of honey. “How are we going to get close to the queen now?” she whispered.

Bonbon glanced around them at the changelings milling about. “She has to eat too, right?” she said. “If we can find out which of the food is for her, we can poison it.”

“How?” Rainbow Dash took a peek around as well but quickly looked back at her work when one of the changelings looked up at them. “They probably make her food somewhere else. There are probably guards.”

“One moment, let me think,” Bonbon said. She looked down and shook a pair of beetles off her hoof. Her eyes lingered on a plate of the small creepy crawlies wriggling their legs in futility against the sticky sugar. “I’ll just have to ask someone. You wait here, I’ll be back in a moment,” she said and concentrated.

“What?” Rainbow Dash looked at her. “Ask them? Oh sure, that’ll work.”

Bonbon ignored her. Her horn gave off a faint glow as she recalled her earlier success and tried to replicate it. A moment later she felt the wood of the plate and lifted it slowly from the table. The plate levitated off the table and floated in the air, a bit wobbly but not too bad. Bonbon grinned and turned around. “Don’t worry, I’ve got this. Just hoof me the poison.”

Rainbow Dash slipped the small bundle out of her tail and hoofed it to Bonbon when no one was watching. She watched Bonbon walk off with the plate floating unsteadily beside her. “Showoff,” she grumbled and turned, narrowing her eyes at a beetle scuttling across the table. “Come on. Lift, you stupid bug! Levitate, dammit!” she muttered. The beetle continued its escape, happily ignoring her commands. “Stupid magic!”

Bonbon chuckled, sensing Rainbow’s frustration even at a distance. The chuckle nearly made her lose her focus on the plate, but she managed to catch herself in time and steady her grip. She walked confidently across the kitchen space, quickly picking out a changeling who looked busy. The key would be to look like this was all according to her orders. “Where does the queen want her beetles?” she asked the other changeling, hoping it would work.

“What?” the changeling looked at her briefly, then returned to fumbling with his work. He looked stressed, which fit Bonbon perfectly.

“The queen,” Bonbon repeated. “Where do I put her food?”

“Through the gate,” the changeling said, distracted, and pointed a hoof off quickly towards a gate covered in blooming creepers. “Over there.”

“Thanks,” Bonbon said and trotted off towards the gate. “That was easy,” she thought. Now all she had to do was walk in there and sprinkle the queen’s food with the poison without any guards noticing, then get back to Rainbow Dash and wait. 

“Wait a minute …”

Bonbon felt herself freeze. “Just keep walking,” she thought, hoping it would work. “Pretend you didn’t hear,” she added to herself.

“Hey!” the other changeling called again. “The queen doesn’t get anything from us.”

Bonbon cursed under her breath and turned around, facing the changeling as he caught up with her. “Are you sure? I was told—”

“Of course I’m sure.” The changeling said and gave her a closer look. “The queen never gets her food from this section.”

“Oh, my mistake,” Bonbon said and turned around slowly. She was about to slink back to Rainbow Dash when something exploded in a great flash of green fire and nearly threw her backwards. Bonbon startled and dropped her plate. “Ah!”

The whole kitchen was aflame with green fire and alive with changelings panicking and trying to put it out. In the middle of it all, Rainbow Dash was thrashing the place and yelling, trying to put out the magic flames from her horn with her hooves. This only seemed to make it worse.

Everyone’s attention was on the fiery spectacle, and in an instant the changeling who had stopped her had forgotten all about Bonbon and the queen’s food. Bonbon glanced around and saw her chance. She turned quickly and slipped through the gate after a trio of changelings and a pair of guards came rushing out in the other direction.

The other section was lavishly decorated and overgrown with hedges full of flowers, insects humming among the leaves. Bonbon quickly scanned the tables, hurrying up to the plates of treats prepared for the queen. She glanced down at the small pouch of poison in her hoof. “There’s not nearly enough for all of that food,” she muttered, struck by sudden uncertainty. If the queen didn’t eat the food she poisoned, it would all be wasted.

Through the gate she could hear the shouts and chaos of all the changelings trying to put out the magical fire. “Good job, Rainbow,” she whispered and gnawed on her lip. “Okay, okay, I can do this,” she said and took a deep breath as she surveyed the plates.

“Eeny meeny miny …” Bonbon pointed at each plate in turn. “Moe!” she said and stopped at a plate of what looked like honey-roasted ants. “Please let her eat this,” she said as she emptied the poison over the plate and shuffled the ants until the powder was absorbed and invisible in the honey glaze. “Yum yum. Let’s hope she can’t taste the difference.” Bonbon had no idea what the poison tasted like, and no desire to test it first. “Sweet Luna, I hope this works!”

Job done to the best of her ability, Bonbon rushed back out, an awful taste in her mouth. “I’m a would-be murderer,” she thought, finding the air hard to breathe at the thought. She was so lost in that thought that she didn’t notice until she collided with a pair of changelings rushing towards the fire with buckets of water. The contents of the buckets splashed on the ground, wasted.

Bonbon blinked and sighed as she lifted a dripping hoof. “Sorry.”


*          *          *


“So these are the two fools who have caused us so much trouble?” The queen looked down at Bonbon and Rainbow Dash from her throne of thorns as servants milled about the royal glade. She had changed to wearing armor of black metal and dark emerald green. 

Rainbow Dash was still smoking lightly from her magical mishap, her short mane and tail reduced to stubs. She grumbled something under her breath which Bonbon couldn’t hear.

“Yes, My Queen,” one of the other changelings said, bowing before the queen. “They lost us half the southern region to the frogs and burned down half the kitchen. We are still struggling to hold back the invaders because of them.”

The queen leaned forward and gazed long and hard at them. Her face revealed nothing of her thoughts, and the faint but constant buzzing of voices in Bonbon’s head had nothing to offer either, at least not as far as Bonbon could tell, but she had proven several times today that what she could tell from these voices was not much in the first place.

“What would you have us do with them, Your Highness?” another changeling asked.

The queen tapped the thorny throne, her thoughtful gaze fixed upon them. “What do you have to say for yourselves?” she said finally, turning her gaze on Bonbon.

Bonbon looked around at the changelings all around them. Perhaps her new perspective was telling her now what she had only heard of before, but it was clear that they were all exhausted and starving. How much love did they get out here in the swamps? She looked back at the queen waiting for their answer. “We are tired and hungry, Your Highness,” she said, voicing what she hoped and thought was a common feeling among the hive. “We can’t fight or work well when we haven’t fed.”

“Others manage what you claim you can’t,” the queen said and looked at Rainbow Dash. “Are you so worthless?” Rainbow Dash bristled at the insult but bit her tongue to stay silent. The queen stood up, towering over them in her armor. “Or are you saboteurs and betrayers?” she hissed and looked at her guards as if they too were keeping things from her. “Has my useless daughter finally fallen to the lowest pits of dishonor and turned to a weakling’s poison? Answer!” The queen’s voice thundered through the glade.

Bonbon trembled and bowed even lower, scraping her chin against the ground. “No! We would never betray you, My Queen!” she said, begging for some miracle change of heart from the queen. “We are ever loyal to you,” she added.

The queen gazed down at them, turning her head to glare at Rainbow Dash. “Is that so?”

Bonbon wished she could give Rainbow a sharp poke in the side, but there were too many eyes on them. She could only hope Rainbow didn’t do or say anything stupid.

Rainbow Dash looked up an inch, after a tense silence, and finally nodded. “We would never betray you, Your Highness,” she echoed.

“I see,” the queen said. She watched them for a long time in silence. “If your words are true, then you are merely pathetic and useless. Either way, you would poison and weaken the hive with your existence. The swarm can not tolerate incompetence, no more than it can treachery.” 

“We’ll prove our worth!” Rainbow Dash blurted out, looking up at the queen.

“Guards,” the queen said before Rainbow Dash could continue. “Tie their wings down with stones and let them face the frogs on their own. If they survive and drive back the enemy from our southern lands, they have proven they worth. Bring my daughter, I would have her watch.”

“We’ll buck those frogs back to where they came!” Rainbow Dash said, filling her voice with all her bluster, but Bonbon detected a hint of a shiver in it still. “You’ll see.”

“So I will,” the queen said and watched as the guards grabbed them and tied their wings down hard. “Or perhaps I will see you become frog food. Either way, I shall enjoy it.”


*          *          *


The cliff overlooked the vast landscape below. A river wound through the green swamps and forests like a gray snake slithering through tall grass, and everywhere the bright red and green of the frogs dotted the landscape. Bonbon gazed down from the edge of the cliff at their doom. There was no way they could fight all those frogs, just the two of them. It was a suicide mission, and the queen knew it. Everyone knew it. 

Behind them, the guards carried their queen atop her throne. Chrysalis knelt beside her on the cold ground, beaten and broken. Servants and guards swarmed around them, bringing plates of snacks for the ‘festivities’. Bonbon prayed that one of the plates contained the poison. She wasn’t sure if it would save them, but she couldn’t see any other hope now.

The queen lifted a hoof. “Let them walk down and face their fate,” she ordered her guard. “If they refuse, throw them off the cliff.”

The guards pushed and prodded them towards the narrow path winding down the tall cliffside. Bonbon took a few steps down the path and glanced back at where the changelings were watching them. The queen smirked as she offered a plate of snacks to her daughter. Bonbon couldn’t see what the plate contained. Chrysalis trembled as she took the offer, her jaw shaking as she opened her mouth and chewed. Bonbon imagined she could see the fear in her eyes. Did Chrysalis know that one of the plates was poisoned? Did the queen?

“When we get out of reach,” Rainbow Dash whispered behind her, “we’ll slip off the stones on our wings and take flight. We’ll flee and hide.”

“They’ll shoot us down the moment they see us fly,” Bonbon said. The hopelessness felt like a stone in her gut. “There’s no way we could escape that many changelings.”

“There’s no way we can fight that many frogs either,” Rainbow Dash said. It was a rare admission coming from the Wonderbolt, and it spoke to the truth of their doom. “If we can’t fly, then we’ll hide and sneak past the frogs instead. Find somewhere safe.”

“We’re walking in plain sight,” Bonbon remarked. “There’s no way the frogs haven’t already seen us up here on the cliff. They’d have to be half blind to not spot us long before we reach the bottom.”

“Well, maybe they are,” Rainbow Dash said, frustration filling her voice. “Maybe they are blind. Dammit, Bonbon. Just … dammit! Stop thinking so much and just believe for a moment! I swear, we’ll get out of this somehow!”

Bonbon said nothing. She kept her eyes downcast on the world of green and red below as she walked, one small step at a time. She could see the frogs moving already, swarming towards the cliff like a hungry wave ready to swallow them up. 

She gazed up. Above them, already far away, the queen stood at the edge of the cliff in her regal armor, Chrysalis by her side looking worse than ever. The queen smirked as she looked down at them from on high.

“Look out!” Rainbow Dash shoved her aside and rushed past, slamming into an oncoming frog. Bonbon blinked as the frog tumbled off the side of the cliff, leaving a long trail of fire behind. She had only looked away for a second, and the frogs were already upon them. 

Rainbow Dash spun around and bucked another frog in the face as it charged up the cliff at them. “If we stay here on the cliff,” she called between kicks, “they can only get at us one or two at a time.”

“Except they have wings,” Bonbon pointed out as frogs appeared from the side, flapping their great leathery wings.

“Stop doing that!” Rainbow Dash shouted, her eye twitching. “Just … shut up and fight!”

“I don’t think they can fly very well, though,” Bonbon muttered, too low for Rainbow Dash to hear. “They just kinda jump, like chickens,” she added before a frog landed behind her. Bonbon yelped and kicked out, feeling her hooves connect with the soft, wet skin of the beast. 

Another slammed into her from above. Bonbon cried and stumbled, balancing on the edge as the frog turned. “Help!” she cried as she felt her hooves slip on the cliffs.

Rainbow Dash spun around and leaped into the air to avoid a gout of flame, which fried two frogs behind her instead. “Bon!” she called and reached out to grab Bonbon’s hoof.

Bonbon reached for Rainbow’s hoof, but too late. Her hooves lost their grip on the edge, and she hit her shoulder on the rocks as she tumbled off the side of the cliff, the green world below rushing up towards her. “Rainbow!”

Rainbow Dash kicked a frog and used the force of the kick to set off from the cliff, diving after Bonbon like a bullet. She caught Bonbon around the waist and pulled her up, gritting her teeth and groaning from the strain as she unfolded her heavy wings. She pulled herself and Bonbon slowly into a wild and uncontrolled glide, soaring like a skipping stone above the treetops. “I … can’t …” she groaned through her teeth, unable to beat her wings with the stones and Bonbon weighing her down.

Bonbon closed her eyes as they crashed through the canopy, breaking branches with their bodies before landing in a pool of green water. Bonbon gasped as she struggled through the surface, flailing her legs hard to keep from sinking. The stones pulled her under, but she refused to give up. Changeling hooves were not made for swimming, she realized as the water flowed through the holes without offering much resistance.

Beside her, Rainbow Dash broke the surface with a wild gasp and flailed at the water. “Gah! Bonbon!” she managed to cry before disappearing below the water again.

Bonbon grabbed Rainbow Dash and felt her hind hooves sink into the bottom of the lake. Breathing in quickly, she set off from the bottom towards the edge of the water, pulling Rainbow Dash with her. The water felt like hooves pulling at her, heavy and resisting. She moved as if in slow motion, fighting her way through the pond with Rainbow Dash. 

She could hear the croaks of frogs swarming and crashing through the woods all around. She caught sight of the first one breaking out of the trees as she reached the shore and let go of her coughing friend. Bonbon nearly collapsed but forced herself to stay upright as the frog came charging at them. She spun out of the way and kicked it in the side, sending it flying into a tree, before she collapsed to her knees.

“Rainbow Dash!” she called and coughed up water. “We have to get away!”

Rainbow Dash stumbled to her legs. “Run,” she said and spat out a lungful of green water. “If … if you can.”

Bonbon crawled towards her before pulling herself to her legs unsteadily. “What about—”

“I’m right behind you,” she growled. “Run!”

Bonbon looked over her shoulder as frogs burst through the bushes and into view. She spun around and stumbled as fast as her legs could carry her through the forest, away from the frogs. She didn’t look back to see if Rainbow Dash was following. She didn’t think she was.

Her legs regained their strength as she ran, barreling through the forest. She could hear the frogs behind her and see the flashes of flame. She dared not look back. She had no idea where she was or which direction she was running in when she broke free of the trees and stumbled out into the open swampland, the winding shore of the river in sight. Frogs were all around her, hundreds, if not more. Bonbon stopped and stared, her heart like a stone.

More frogs came charging out of the forest behind her. Bonbon spun around and jumped back, bringing her hooves down on the first who came at her, jumping off its head to land on the back of another. The frog spun around, swinging its tail at her. Bonbon lost her balance, tumbling off the frog and landing in the mud. 

She rolled over and kicked out at the frog but found nothing but air. More swarmed in around her. Far off and high above the valley of green, Bonbon could see the queen, standing tall atop the cliff. Bonbon kicked and flailed her legs, trying to scramble to her hooves. 

The queen raised a hoof to her face and seemed to shrink a head or two where she stood. Bonbon struggled to push the frogs off of her, rolling out of the way of a lick of flame. The smell of her tail burning filled her lungs and made her cough. 

In a brief glimpse as she jumped to her legs, Bonbon saw the queen bent over, lying on her knees. She spun around and bucked a frog only to be pummeled from the side by another, tumbling into the dirt with the frog atop her. She felt the terrible weight push down on her, burying her face in the deep mud. Her lungs burned like a furnace, screaming for air, but she could not move.

The world darkened, and the sound of frogs dimmed to a faint and distant echo. Bonbon struggled, pushing against the frog with all her strength, but it wouldn’t budge. Her limbs collapsed, and her body lay limp in the mud beneath the beast. She sighed, and gave up the last breath she had along with her last sliver of hope.

Above her, the frogs cheered, she thought. It was already worlds away. The weight on her body dissolved, and she felt light as a feather. For a moment she felt an ease of spirit she had never felt before, then something kicked her in the side, hard.

Bonbon gasped as her head burst back out of the muddy grave and held her hooves up to her face to protect herself. Something struck her again and nearly knocked the precious air from her lungs again. She cried out and rolled into a ball. 

Through the mud and pain, she caught a glimpse. For one brief second she saw the queen stumble and fall, tumbling off the cliff like a stone. A swarm of changelings dove off after her, and all around Bonbon the frogs went wild, trampling past her in a frenzy for the cliffs and the falling queen of their enemy.

Bonbon held her head protectively with her hooves, rolling around wildly in the mud as the frogs trampled over her. She let out a cry as something hard hit her in the back of the head, and the world went black again.


*          *          *


Bonbon vaguely recalled being dragged across the muddy ground. Sharp claws scratched against her chitinous shoulders as her hindquarters trailed behind in the mud and bumped against stones. She remembered being laid down in the grass, and then she remembered nothing.

Something poked her. A hoof, like a small foal nudging at her side. “Bonbon,” a voice whispered. Her mind slowly returned from the dark. It took her a good while to connect the voice to her fleeting memories.

“Rainbow Dash?” she said, her voice so dry it barely made a sound. She turned around slowly and looked at the changeling collapsed by her side. Even now, the faint remains of a lightning bolt drawn in mud graced the bug’s flank. “I thought you were …”

“I thought you …” Rainbow Dash coughed. She looked awful, burn marks and scratches covering her body. “Actually, I really thought I was gone too. I’m not sure I can stand,” she said. “My leg hurts like … argh, like that.” Her face twisted in pain.

Bonbon struggled to sit up, wincing at her own scrapes. A quick check revealed nothing worse, however. She ached as she stood up and looked around. “Did you see who brought us here?” she asked as Rainbow Dash rubbed her aching leg. “Do you know where here is?”

“No,” Rainbow Dash said to both questions. “I don’t remember a thing after, nngh … after those damn frogs knocked me out. I thought I was dead for sure.”

They were at the edge of a forest. Nearby, mounds like large, grassy eggs half-buried in the ground dotted the marshes. “If we can get atop one of those,” she said and pointed, “we might be able to see something.”

“I don’t like the look of those things,” Rainbow Dash said and gave them a suspicious glance. “They’re way too … round to be natural.”

“Maybe, but they’re the tallest things I can see around here. Can you fly?” Bonbon turned back to Rainbow Dash.

“Dunno,” she said and stretched her wings experimentally. “I … think so,” she added.

Bonbon reached out and took hold of Rainbow Dash, helping her to stand. Rainbow winced but managed to stand steadily on three legs. Bonbon brushed her off slightly, then turned back to the hills and spread her wings.

Her body complained as her wings buzzed, but Bonbon ignored it, gritting her teeth as she followed Rainbow Dash towards the largest of the mounds. She landed on the soft, grassy knoll and turned around, scouting the land around them.

“We’re not that far from the cliff,” Rainbow Dash said and pointed. Bonbon looked. Right enough, just off in the distance she could see the tall cliff where they had been thrown to the frogs. “And I don’t see any frogs,” Rainbow Dash added.

“Let’s hope they aren’t just hiding,” Bonbon said and breathed in deep, readying herself for the journey. It might not be far, but her entire body complained about the thought. She told herself it wouldn’t be long before it was over and she would see Lyra again. “I hope,” she added to herself before taking wing again.


*          *          *


Bodies littered the cliff and lands below and above. As many changelings as frogs, by Bonbon’s rough estimate. She wondered what had happened after she passed out. It looked like the changelings had managed to drive off the frogs, because there was no sign of any frogs left, and a few faint voices buzzed in the back of her head. But at what cost had they won?

She landed atop the cliff and looked around. Rainbow Dash landed heavily beside her and glanced down from atop the cliff. She narrowed her eyes. “I think there are changelings still moving down there,” she said. “I can sorta hear them.”

Bonbon leaned over to have a better look. After a while she noticed too. Several black dots were moving around among the dead. “I think they’re searching.”

“For us?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Or their queen,” Bonbon said.

Rainbow Dash turned around and limped on three legs across the ground. “What now? I don’t think I want to be found.”

Bonbon followed, offering Rainbow a hoof as they walked. “We still need to save Lyra and Humble. Let’s …” She thought for a while, going through the plans in her mind. “We need to find Chrysalis. If she’s still alive.”

“Great,” Rainbow Dash groaned and spread her wings again. “Let’s get it over with, then.” 

Bonbon followed, trying to remember the path back. They had not walked far when the distant buzzing of voices returned, filling the back of their minds. Bonbon tried to focus on what they were saying, but it was still hard to make out anything. “How do they ever talk or think like this?” she wondered aloud.

“Dunno,” Rainbow muttered beside her.

As they broke through a patch of trees, they found themselves along a small path. A group of changelings jumped and turned to face them. Rainbow Dash cursed, but Bonbon tried to stay calm. “What happened?” she asked.

The changelings exchanged glances. One of them looked at Bonbon. “The queen wishes to see you both,” he declared.

Bonbon looked at Rainbow Dash. “Which Queen?”

The changelings looked at each other again, like Bonbon had just asked a really stupid question. Possibly the most stupid question for a changeling to ask, she realized. “Queen Chrysalis, of course.”


*          *          *


The throne sat in the large glade once more, and on top, resting on several silk pillows, Chrysalis observed them both. She looked as weak as before, but a triumphant light shone in her eyes. “I see you survived, after all. How fortunate … It would be terribly hard to thank you properly if you had died.”

“What happened?” Bonbon repeated her question.

“We got lucky,” Chrysalis said. “Mother ate your poisoned food. Hook, line, and sinker as you might say. Fortunate that she always had a weakness for ants.”

“I thought she had seen through me,” Bonbon said, ears drooping and tail hanging limp between her legs. The thought that she had just become a murderer kept gnawing at the back of her mind. “And I was afraid you would eat it instead of her.”

“The old fool thought it was safe after I ate it and didn’t become sick,” Chrysalis replied, smiling. “But you see, I made sure not to swallow. I spat it out in the chaos after she fell off the cliff. You did well, or got very lucky. Either way, doesn’t make a difference to me.”

“So … she’s really …” Bonbon sat down.

“Of course,” Chrysalis smiled brightly. “Even if she survived the fall, and the poison, the frogs take no prisoners. I will forever treasure the look on her face when she realized the food had been poisoned after all, and the moment of panic in her eyes when she tumbled off the cliff and caught my eyes. A sweeter sight I cannot imagine.”

“You owe us something!” Rainbow Dash spoke up, taking a three-legged step forward to glare at the new queen. “You said you’d let us and our friends go.”

“Of course, I did say that,” Chrysalis smiled sweetly. “I am a queen of my word, and you have done me a greater service than anyone, greater even than you know.” She looked up at the guards behind them. “Bring the two humans here. Let it be known to the hive that these two and their human friends are free to leave our lands as they please, without harm.” She looked back down at Bonbon and Rainbow Dash and smiled as the guards bowed and hurried off to carry out the order. “As promised, you are free, and your two friends with you.”

Bonbon sighed with relief and lifted a chitinous hoof. “When does this wear off?”

Chrysalis tilted her head, a little smile on her face. “Hmm?”

“You know what! When do we get our bodies back?” Rainbow said, more impatient.

“Oh,” Chrysalis said with a light chuckle. “You don’t like your new bodies?”

“You’re not … giving us our bodies back …” Bonbon mimed, her throat contracting, squeezing the voice from her lips.

Rainbow Dash glared at the queen. “Oh, she will! Or I’ll make her!”

“Ah-ah,” Chrysalis lifted her hoof, indicating the guards lining the glade. “Be glad that I’m letting you and your friends go as agreed.” She smiled at Rainbow Dash’s deathly glare. “And I shall take good care of your bodies. I finally have the perfect way into Equestria. After all, who will they believe? The changeling in your body, or the changeling who merely looks like you?”

Chrysalis laughed as the guards returned, dropping Lyra and Humble in the middle of the glade. Both were unconscious and covered in sickly green liquid. Bonbon thought they looked terribly small and fragile, like children.

“You truly have my thanks,” Chrysalis said. “From the bottom of my heart. I hope you enjoy your exile. Oh, and don’t worry … No one is going to miss you.”