Aegis could see the veins on Twilight's temple throbbing heavily as her mother leveraged every ounce of willpower she had to keep from screaming. The world around Twilight faded away as her mind bent. With her last bit of self-control, Twilight thrust her consciousness into the simplistic pocket of Linkscape she had thrown together.
For the next five minutes, a changeling filly version of Twilight ran in circles while screaming nonstop. Even in this isolated place, her scream echoed faintly throughout the entire hive mind. Every last one of her drones were unnerved by the event, and the queens suffered headaches from it.
Cadista sighed and grumbled as she squelched the scream on her end of the hive mind. Here we go again. Judging by the pitch and tone, she does not appear to be in any danger. Rainbow probably just pranked her... or she feels she's doomed the world again. I'll have to check in later.
Twilight’s hysterical scream petered out slowly; lung capacity meant little in the Linkscape. Once she had regained enough composure to calm down (and revert her appearance to that of her adult self), she forcibly pulled Rainbow and Aegis into the Linkscape consisting of nothing more than a white ground and blue sky.
The new arrivals were disorientated by the forced transfer, but that quickly flipped over to deep concern at Twilight’s twitching face.
Oh no. It’s Want it Need it all over again.
Twilight shoved her muzzle into Rainbow’s face. “What. Did. You. Do!”
Rainbow stumbled backward to get some space. “Whoa, whoa, hold on. I didn’t do anything. It’s the stick-wings that got it in their head that we’re the chosen ones. Even if I failed the stupid test of theirs they’d just make up another one.”
“How in Tartarus do they expect us to ‘tame’ the CHAOS LANDS!??!”
“Ahhh… magic?” Rainbow flinched at the expected marexplosion, but it never came.
A malkavian grin crept over Twilight’s face. “Magic!? Pfffft well why didn’t I think of that?! It’s so obvious!” Twilight turned away toward no point in particular. “Magic will save the day. He he he, why not? Doesn’t it always?!”
“Here’s an idea.” Both queens zeroed in on Aegis who fell flat on her belly at the off-kilter scrutiny her mother was leveling upon her. “We could just ignore the whole thing.”
Twilight’s mad hatter gaze unnerved to her daughter as much as her manic tone. “And have these ponies hounding us the entire time we’re trying to dig? If we just go back to the ship and ignore them they could retaliate! Do you really think we can survive the Chaos Lands and hostile natives?!”
Rainbow was getting increasingly unnerved by the number of loose hairs in Twilight’s mane. How does that even happen in a Linkscape? “Listen, Sis, maybe there’s a double meaning to all this, or we might not have to do anything at all.”
“What do you mean do nothing?” Twilight barked as her eyes bore a hole through her sister’s forehead.
Rainbow wanted nothing more than to calm her sister down. Every second she’s like this, her drones get more and more unstable. “Y-you know, one of those – ah – self-fulfilling prophecies.” I hope that’s what they’re called.
Twilight’s eyes shifted to random points as she processed the idea before centering back on her sister. “Did you think to ask how they expect us to do that!?”
“He’la said the past and future are one in the same. To find one, is to save the other.”
“Damn it all,” Twilight growled. She started pacing between her sister and daughter. “This is why I hate divination.”
Aegis flew into a hover in front of her queen. “This could be easier than we thought. The past could mean the artifacts we need.” Twilight stopped pacing as she mulled over the idea.
Rainbow caught onto the meaning. “Yeah, and if the future bit is us taming the forest then maybe there’s some big bad out there that we can trounce with the Deception.”
Twilight’s scowl wavered between a deep frown to that of a pressed line. “And what if they actually expect us to stay here long term? Our home is back in the Everfree, not the Chaos Lands.”
Aegis was getting rather disconcerted by the barren Linkscape. Only queens could craft them, and every one she had been in so far were works of art rather than this painfully empty space. “Maybe we could create a separate corps of drones dedicated to helping the Tea’la. We don’t have to dedicate our entire hive to taming the land.”
Twilight’s wild emotions fizzled out and she deflated a little. “That… That might work. Prophecy or not, surely they don’t expect this to be an overnight fix.”
Whew. Rainbow sighed before smirking and locking her sister into a friendly neckhold. “And besides, if this actually works, by the time we show some real progress in taming the CL we’ll be ready to hatch some royal daughters and they could use the place for their hive.”
That caused Twilight’s ears to perk straight up. She slowly turned against the neckhold to face her sister. “You really want to have a royal daughter some day?”
Aegis was just as surprised as her mother was. I knew Aunty had embraced her new species, but I didn’t know she was willing to go that far already. She hasn't laid many eggs since her proto-queen days.
Rainbow let her sister go and stared off into the incredibly bland landscape. “Someday, yeah. I think I’d like to do that. The CL is a place ponies have been content enough to leave be. But…” She looked back at her sister. “We Lings seem to love camping out in the worst places to live. I figure our future royal daughters would love the place.” She shot Twilight a winning smile. “After we till the land a bit.”
If there was one thing Rainbow had learned during her time as a queen, it was how strong the instinct to expand was. She watched as the gears turned in her sister’s brain with a knowing smirk. Twily would never pass up an opportunity to continue our bloodline.
True to form, Twilight eventually nodded. “You’re right. The CL would be an excellent place to found new hives. The danger around here is perfect to hone our biological and technological evolution.”
“I don’t know if I would put it like that, but whatever works, right?”
Aegis felt Intel ping her mind and exchanged a few words. “My queens, the Tea’la are starting to take notice of our vacant bodies. The last thing we need is them thinking our souls were stolen or something.”
With the plan for the future in her mind, Twilight cracked a smile, but she didn’t quite catch Aegis’ warning. My children have amazed me time and time again at their ingenuity in surviving the Everfree. I get it now. We changelings thrive on adversity. However… She could hear the laughter and joy of her children both on the ship above and the hive. I think the other queens possess only half the answer.
Aegis tactfully tugged on her mother’s leg. “My queen, the natives are getting restless.”
“Yes, you’re right.” Twilight shook off her introspective. She nodded to her cyan sister. “Let’s get back and talk things over with He’la. We have work to do.”
Twilight awoke in her body to find a ring of drones trying to keep the worried and concerned Tea’la away from her. She took a moment to gain her bearings and to locate He’la. It didn’t take long when the pony in question tried to jump through the cordon of drones to reach her.
“Your imperial highness! What happened to you and yours?”
Twilight stood and held up a calming hoof. “Fear not, I was merely using a special technique to talk to my sister and guard captain privately.”
The drones had spread talk of comparatively strange magic that many of the Tea’la had never dreamed existed. So it was that the vast majority of them passed it off as just one more unreal magic the royal family possessed. He’la let the drones holding onto her push her back out of the cordon. “Amazing. With such power, you would have no problem taming the forest and rebuilding the empire anew!”
Twilight glanced at her sister out of the corner of her eye. <You really want to do this Sis? We can always tell them to test us again and fail on purpose.>
Rainbow snorted with that competitive edge she was famous for. <Not a chance. I don’t want our hive to just grow, any queen can do that. I won’t be satisfied unless we have to have a purpose bigger than ourselves. What better way than playing our part in some planty prophecy, eh?>
<Right!> Sharing her sister’s smirk, Twilight’s gaze zeroed in on the expectant farseer. “Before I break it down for you, He’la, let me ask you something. Does the old imperial capital or any other cities of the empire still stand, or do you at least know where they were?”
The gathered Tea’la became uncomfortable, most of them gasped or took an involuntary step backward. Both queens noticed it instantly. He’la cleared her throat to hide her own worry. “Rookhaven?” She looked up at the faint ripple that marked the Deception’s position. The steel beast may have strength, but can it withstand Gethar’s wrath? “Yes, we can show the way, but I must warn you away from that place. I do not think even you possess the power to sunder a god.”
“A god? Really?” Rainbow replied with far more sarcasm than Twilight would have liked.
Several Tea’la nodded slowly with one of the stallion elders stepping forward, his head bowed in submission and respect. The drones had eased up on the cordon now that Twilight was on her hooves again. “We would not jest, exalted ones. The old capital is the frozen domain of Gethar himself. To enter it is to let the pains of death enter into your body.”
“Heh!” Rainbow propped herself up on the table to bore a hole through He’la and the elder with a stare that exuded confidence. “Twi and I’ve beat down spirits of chaos, a beefcake power-hungry centaur, and a small army just to name a few. I think we can take on a ‘god’ any day of the week.”
“I pray that you are correct, your highness.” He’la sounded less than convinced, eliciting a grunt of dissatisfaction from Rainbow. “I truly do, for you will need all your power against him.”
The next day, half past noon, Twilight Sparkle was munching on a late breakfast brought about by the late night celebration. She presided over the forward observation blister with Ratchet at her side. The cramped space meant that it was the perfect excuse for queen and prime consort to have the room to themselves.
The sweeping glass offered a panoramic view of the landscape below. As the Deception chugged along, the forest was slowly giving way to a swamp. Drooping green-grey trees poked out of an unnatural mist so dense that it took on the appearance of filthy water. Endless swampland expanded in all directions, untouched by civilization. Even the noonday sun could not dispel the mist hanging over the land. Ratchet’s ear flicked every time he saw a large shape slide just barely out sight.
Twilight swallowed a lump at the sight as well, but was content to rest her head on her lover’s withers. The observation teams will spot anything that can threaten us. Even if something could, our altitude should be sufficient defense.
“It was a good call dropping the cloak while we’re over the swamp,” Ratchet commented as Twilight shifted her seating. “We’ll be able to save fuel for the journey back out.”
Twilight turned away from her alchemical notes, savoring the coarseness of his fur and oil-tainted musk. “True, but we’ll be leaving a smoke trail behind us now. I hope the smell of it alone is enough to keep any would-be predators at bay.”
He hummed in agreement. “That plant pony’s a weird one. Do you really believe her story that the old capital is out here in the swamps?” He twisted his head around to find a contented Twilight rubbing the back of her neck on his withers, smiling all the while.
“Arya? I do. This is still in the general direction Luna told us it’d be. Even if the old stories and journals said this place used to be a desert…” She glanced outside and gasped as a monstrous beast the size of a building rose up from the mist. There was a second beast grasped within the claws of the first, which proceeded to throw its prey into a group of trees before pouncing. The second crustacean-like creature shrieked so loudly that it rattled the glass before the first’s claws cracked its shell, silencing it forever. The changelings were frozen as both beasts slid back into the mist with the first beginning to feast.
Just what have we gotten ourselves into? She noticed Ratchet shrug it off, even if it still unnerved him. The existence of creatures on par with hydras didn’t surprise Twilight, but it was still disconcerting. Taming these lands for my future royal daughters isn’t going to be easy or quick. Heck, I might need to be reborn once or twice before our hives cover the land.
“Hey!” Ratchet’s call broke Twilight’s brooding as he looked at her out of the corner of his eye. “Don’t worry about it, all of that is future Twilight’s problem.”
“Huh? How did you know what I was thinking?”
Ratchet chuckled and flicked her snout with a wing. “After all these years, you’re as open to me as a book.” He licked the top of her head. “We’re already mapping the land as we go. Once we grab some pots and bones we can come back later with a bigger crew.”
“Heh, I can’t help it.” Twilight chuckled as she rolled over to lay parallel to him. Even with him being a consort, Ratchet was still smaller than his queen. Twilight held his gaze for a few seconds before looking off into space. “Taming the land to make room for the next generation of queens is too exciting.” She gave off an impatient sigh and rolled over to drape herself all over him, squashing the poor engineer under her weight. “If only my estimations didn’t place this project as such a long term gooooal.” She flailed her legs around out of exasperation.
Ratchet belted off a long laugh at her expense. I can count the number of ponies she completely drops the air of royalty around by the number of holes in my right leg. It’s an honor, really.
Twilight narrowed her eyes and pouted at him. “What’s so funny?”
“You,” he teased. Ratchet licked her nose to make her flinch backwards. He chuckled again. “You’re funny when you let that queenly instinct get the better of you.”
“Meh,” Twilight wrapped her legs around him. She huffed, ruffling his mane. “It’s difficult to control myself sometimes.” She briefly rubbed her abdomen. “Especially since I have countless changelings within me, waiting to be brought into the world. I can’t wait until we have a larger food supply so I can start laying in earnest again.”
She sighed contently at the mental image of a full hatchery. Purple and sky blue eggs covering every scrap of space in the room. A wide beaming grin split her face. “Being a queen is so rewarding.” I’m glad Sis came around to that fact as well.
Ratchet rolled his eyes, and blew at the bits of her purple and vanilla mane that had spilled in front of his face. “So you keep saying. Me, I’d rather spend my days in the engine room. And…” He glanced below at the murky wetlands. The clinging mist obscured the dangers lurking below. “Away from this Tartarus pit. Something about the mana around here just feels… wrong.”
“You sense it now, too?” Twilight asked rhetorically. She lit her horn to taste the ambient magic.
“It’s sour to the point of bitterness.” She gave his fur a long lick just to get the taste out of her mouth. He stiffened at the long line of damp fur, but didn’t complain. “The ley lines have been thrown out of sync with the natural flow for a long time, possibly as long as changelings have walked Equis. It’s almost as if they have been ripped out of the earth and tossed into a blender and then left to fester. Just what happened here?” She lifted her hoof up to look at the holes in her leg. What did our foremothers do to turn us from thestrals into changelings and Tea’la?
Ratchet suppressed a shiver as he followed the overwhelming trail of rotten magic. “Whatever it is, it feels like we’re moving in deeper to the broken ley lines.”
“Right where Arya's guiding us to.” Twilight climbed off her prime consort to stand. “I’ve got a really bad feeling about this.”
Ratchet put his manual down to join his queen in observing the horizon. “Could you imagine if we had to walk the whole way?”
“Agh, that’d be horrible!”
Before either one of them could speak further, Riposte addressed both of them over the hive mind. <My queen, I think we found something up ahead.>
Twilight shared a glanced with Ratchet before nabbing the two spyglasses off the bulkhead and giving one to her consort. Jutting out of the mist, gleaming pillars of marble reflected the sunlight with such a luminous shine that it made both of them rub their eyes just to make sure they weren’t seeing things. “There’s something practically glowing out there. <Rainbow Dash, where are you?>
<Stuffing my face in the mess hall with Stick-Wings, what’s up?> Rainbow was glad she could speak via the hive mind with a mouth full of dried rations. Not that she would let conversation interrupt a meal, of course.
<Good, you’re with her already. Gear up some clockwerks, we’re nearly there.>
A manic grin spread across Rainbow’s muzzle for a split second before she wrapped Arya in her telekinesis and bolted for the door. <I’m on it!!>
“Going where, your imperiaalll?!” Arya screeched as she was dragged along, narrowly avoiding all of the tables and drones the whole way through.
Twilight ignored the mild cries of alarm marking her sister’s wake. Aegis and her squad are off duty right now, but she’d give me those sad puppy eyes for months if I didn’t let her lead the vanguard.
Minutes earlier, sweat, labored breathing, and a variety of odors clung to the claustrophobic four-bunk room. Intel rolled off of Aegis and fell a short drop onto the floor. “So, how was it?”
Aegis was still basking in the afterglow, and was staring up at the top bunk with a stupid grin on her face. “Not bad at all.” She turned to look at her clutchmate with teasing grin. “You’ve improved, that’s for sure. If I had to grade you, I’d place you in third behind Ferrum and Riposte.”
He grunted from the effort of standing up. “I’m sensing a ‘but’ in there.”
Aegis chuckled. “But, you still did a lot better in bed as a mare. You have no real talent as a stallion, plus you never did get your voice any lower than a countertenor.” She saw him starting to look crestfallen and stumbled to quickly rectify that. “But, you’re high on the list because you can kiss like a god and are a master of foreplay.”
“Pah!” The compliment did the trick, and Intel scoffed with faux irritation. He nudged Aegis over so he could lay down next to her. Of all of their siblings, Intel felt the closest to his clutchmates, Aegis most of all. “If that's the case, why were you screaming my name a minute ago?” She shrugged wordlessly, but that didn’t stop him from nuzzling her with a content yet thoughtful sigh. “Still…” Aegis saw he was still hanging off the side of the bed and scooted over to give him some more room, only to find herself squished between him and the wall. That, however, was a small price to pay for his comfort. “I do kinda miss the mare side of things,” he said at last. “Ferrum, on the other hoof, I don't think he'll ever go back.”
“Yeah, he’s taken quite a shine to it. As for you though, why don’t you switch back over when we go home? The other queens will be placated with the artifacts, and there won’t be much of a need for us soldiers while we build our numbers for a few decades or so.”
Intel tapped his chin as Aegis started nuzzling him. “Well, our clutch has been sitting at an imbalanced ratio of 3:1 long enough already, and I haven’t seen any noticeable improvement in our combat effectiveness because of that.”
Aegis shuffled to look him dead in the eye with a malkavian grin. “Yes, Intel, return to the mare side. It is your destiny!” she egged on overdramatically while ribbing him.
Intel arched an amused eyebrow at her. “Say, just about all of our siblings have tried both genders for at least a little while, but you’ve never tried out stallionhood. Why is that?”
“Doesn’t appeal to me,” Aegis rolled over to face the wall and buzzed her wing a little to get them stiff enough for flight.
“Why not?” Intel walked over to gently massage his sister’s back along her wing shoulders to loosen them up. “Mother always encourages us to live life to the fullest, and experiencing both genders from time to time is part of that.”
Aegis sighed contently at Intel’s soothing touch. It was his personal way of cooling down from such activities which made him her favorite romp partner. “Going male doesn’t coincide with my life’s goal.”
“Huh? What goal could possibly exclude being a stallion?” he asked while moving on to her lower back. He snickered at her right hind leg wiggling whenever he loosened a knot. As he eased their recent activity out of her wing muscles, he caught a glimpse of a faint, complex pattern etched by the longitudinal veins in her wings. Intrigued, he brought up a horn light, only to see there was nothing actually there. Must be my imagination.
Aegis was slow in her response. “One of these days, I’m going to truly prove myself to momma, and earn the right to be reborn as a royal daughter.”
He was taken aback by the audacity of it all before he broke down into laughter. “Right, and after that I get to come back as a unicorn to be a living memorial of mother’s roots.”
“That would be rather amusing, but you’d miss flight too much… If you remembered what it felt like at least.” Aegis flipped around and planted a lustful kiss on him, to which Intel eagerly reciprocated. The sheer amount of love he poured into the act could keep Aegis fed for hours. He may not be all that good in bed, but by the First Mother is he a great kisser. Aegis let him take over the loving embrace for half a minute before speaking again. <But I’m being serious. One of these days, momma will rebirth me into a royal, just you wait and see.>
Intel broke the kiss to give her a strange look. “Of all of our siblings, I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anypony wanting to be a queen.”
Aegis took to the air to let Intel take her place on the bed. She started massaging the tightly bound stiffness out of his wing muscles. “I asked around, but I haven’t noted anypony else either. It’s strange, if you ask me.”
“I’d rather avoid having to lay eggs all the time, plus I don’t have the mindset to wield alchemy the way mother does.” Intel melted into the sweat (and other fluid)-soaked mattress. Blah, I knew I shouldn’t have let her talk me into using my bunk. He fell silent to fully enjoy the massage until Aegis moved on to his legs, rubbing his muscles into loose putty.
Aegis was more than happy to return the favor. She furrowed her brow as the veins in his wings seemed to form an unnatural starburst pattern, yet as soon as she lit her horn to take a better look, it was gone. Weird.
“So.” He dragged his sister out of her inspection, and she squelched her light. “Have you asked mother about that? Being reborn out of merit is one thing, but to come back as a royal seems out of any of our reach. Especially since Aunty became one only recently.”
He moaned in comfort as Aegis lovingly kneaded his neck. “You never know. With our queens’ new goals for the Chaos Lands, they’ll need more royal daughters soon enough.”
Intel found his thoughts becoming sluggish at her gentle touch. “I hadn’t thought of that. Still, becoming a royal and all the muck that goes with it? Sounds like such a drag.”
Any further conversation was stifled by Twilight barking over the hive mind. <Aegis, Intel, clean yourselves up already and get ready to scramble! We’re nearing our destination… you’re not going to believe this.>
<Yes, my queen!> they shouted in unison before bolting to the showers. Or at least Aegis did. Due to the massage, Intel's body didn't want to respond, his muscles being too relaxed, resulting in him crashing to the floor hard.
“Get up ya lump of meat, we got work to do!” Aegis growled playfully as she wrapped her brother in her telekinesis and took off to the showers with him in tow.
“Right behind you, Sis.”
Aegis kicked the hatch open to the semi-busy bathroom and threw her brother into the nearest empty stall. “How does momma always know when I’m doing the nasty?” Aegis grumbled as she shivered at the momentarily cold water.
“You might want to trying not screaming into the hive mind during climax,” her brother offered with a smirk. With adrenaline pumping in his veins, Intel was able to stand on his own again.
Aegis wasted no time in lathering her brother up as he did the same to her. “This is no time to be snide, Intel, we gotta boogie!”
By the time the core members of the Jevruun Vrunningee reported to the bridge, both queens and Arya were already there. Aegis could feel that the ship was slowly descending, its bow pointed below the horizon. What lay beyond hushed every voice onboard.
Spreading out from a stark border at the edge of the swamp sat the lost city of Rookhaven. The fabled white city of sparkling marble shone forth with the color of moonlight. It sprawled out before them with an otherworldly beauty seemingly untouched by nature or time. The clinging mist was completely absent, revealing cobbled streets, homes, wooden carts, vendor stalls, everything imaginable in a living city, including countless thestrals. Only something was wrong. Everyone on board felt it, and it didn’t take them long to see it.
Arya shivered on the floor, her wooden wings rattled noisily. “Lost ones! Lost in time, lost in space, bad omens abound. The ribbons of the world are twisted and broken.”
As far as the eye and spyglass could see, hundreds if not thousands of thestrals were frozen in mid-flight as if they were trying to flee from the center of the city; but they weren’t alone. Countless mutated ponies were attacking many of the thestrals, with their numbers increasing the closer towards the center as everyone looked.
Rainbow Dash held a scowl so fierce it seemed as if her lips might fall right off her face as she examined the motionless scene before them. She looked at one of the lost ones frozen in place as it raked its hoof-turned-claws right through a stallion’s wings. Even though she couldn’t make it out at this distance, she knew the civilian’s face was likely frozen in a mask of terror and pain. Everywhere she looked, there were more mutants, or ‘lost ones’ as Arya kept calling them. Each of them were in the process of chasing, attacking, or eating the panicked civilians or grossly outnumbered soldiers.
None of the lost ones were the same. Some had claws instead of hooves, others had spines growing out of their back that dripped with venom. Still more were legless with over sized wings and a prehensile tail that bore bony clubs or spikes. Some were the size of a small dogs while others the size of chimeras. If there was one word to describe them all it would be: diverse.
“The mana of this whole area reeks.” I wish Twi hadn’t taught me how to smell and taste this stuff. “Not to mention the carnage all over the place. Just what in blazes is going on here?”
Twilight looked away from the carnage to focus on the smaller details. <Helm, bring us to a halt just outside the city limits.> The roads are cobbled, but everything in between the buildings is sand and dust. Everywhere she looked, breaks in the streets, the spaces between houses, even the dress style that some of more affluent ponies were wearing told her everything she needed to know. “Arya’s right. The whole area’s frozen in time. Whatever apocalypse caused all this, the epicenter took the worst of it.”
Everyone followed Twilight’s pointed hoof to the distant center of Rookhaven. The shredded buildings of the imperial district were surrounded by countless ponies being hunted down by lost ones, although at that distance they were little more than dots.
Aegis ground her teeth at the sight of it all. Great. We get to go down into a funhouse of horrors the size of a city. All we need now are ghosts and vamponies to complete it.
“Aegis,” Twilight commanded with quiet steel. “Round up a Clockwork squad and send them down to make sure it’s safe for the rest of us. I don’t want anyone stuck in time, or whatever might be holding those ponies.”
The four present Jevruun Vrunningee gave a crisp salute before thundering off, with Ferrum remaining behind at Twilight’s silent request. The lavender queen studied her son’s injuries. The welts had shrunk down considerably, but she could tell they still caused him discomfort. <You’re still on sick leave, my son.>
Ferrum squared his withers to put on a show of strength. <I’m fine, really. The venom was short-lived anyway.>
Twilight arched an inquisitive eyebrow and hummed carefully. Her gaze weighed heavily on him. <I don’t like it, but I’m going to need every able drone if we’re going to survive whatever the city has in store for us. Are you truly up for this?>
<Yes, my queen!>
<Good. Get going.>
Ferrum gave a second salute, turned about face, and sprinted off of the bridge. Rainbow Dash glanced away from Arya and excused herself to walk up to her sister. <Twi, you know I’m the first one to jump into a fight, so let me tell you this.> Twilight gave Rainbow a sidelong glance to find her sister was sweating. <I can smell it. If we’re not careful, this whole city could turn into one giant death trap.>
<Wouldn’t be the first time a milk run turned into a warzone.> Twilight nodded at Rainbow, prompting her sister to give out a series of orders. “I’ll be counting on your expertise to survive whatever we find out here.”
Rainbow’s ego got the best of her and a massive grin cleaved her muzzle. “Ha! You worry about collecting pots and dusty old hairpins. The soldiers and I will keep you covered.”
“Right,” Twilight replied with a fire usually only seen in Rainbow Dash. Both sisters locked eyes and shared competitive grins. “We sisters of Phoenix’s Roost will show the other queens what we’re made of.”
Something pulsed between them that resonated with Rainbow in a way she had never felt before, but liked it intensely. The bridge crew and Arya watched the display with keen interest. “Yeah, the Chaos Lands ain’t got nothing on us!”
“So long as we’re together,” Twilight chimed, riding the same thumping pulse her sister was feeling.
“United in our cause!”
“We cannot fail!” Both queens shouted in unison. Twilight’s horn glowed brightly before she teleported both she and her sister to the marshaling bay. Captain Veselov stood there with a befuddled look that was mirrored by most of the bridge crew.
Arya cursed in her native tongue. “Giah! Gethar will not welcome you if you don’t bear the Stone of True Spirit!” She sprinted off to try and catch up.
The fire control officer regained her bearing first and trotted over to him. “When did they start doing that?”
Veselov exhaled slowly and readjusted his naval hat. “Must be a queen thing, or something from their pony days. Either way,” he swept his hoof at the bridge crew. “Standing orders for constant diligence are still in effect! Pony those stations and be ready to lend naval support at a moment’s notice!”
“Sir!” everyone shouted back. Veselov was about to leave it at that, but he sniffed something out among the commotion of the local hive mind: fear. Run away imaginations were leading to terror and it was seeping through his bridge crew. He let off a quiet sigh at the sight. They fear this place. This isn’t like facing down rival queens. Rotten mana, uprooted ley lines, and a city seemingly frozen in time right in the middle of some Mother-damned invasion. Who’s to say those beasts won’t wake up when mother and Aunty set hoof down there. However…
Veselov flew over to his seat and retrieved one of the cigars Fancy Pants had gifted him in Canterlot. He sat down and lit the tobacco with a brief snap of mana. It’s not like mother to jump in like this. I hope it was just to get Aunty fired up because at least one queen has to keep a cool head down there.
Twenty clockwerks landed heavily onto the outskirts of Rookhaven. Some cracked the old cobblestone roads while others descended onto the low rooftops of tightly packed houses. One such automaton landed on the edge of a balcony where a frozen thestral mare was being ripped apart by a six legged mutant that only held any similarities to a pony thanks to it's head. Everything else was covered in chitin and serrated green claws.
The emotionless machine regarded the pair with cold logic. First directive achieved. Mission timer of ten minutes proceeding. Secondary objective: eliminate lost ones.
With cold machine efficiency, the clockwerk’s left foreleg opened up to reveal a wicked skysteel blade. The air sung as the blade scythed the mutant’s head clean off its body. Or at least that was the plan. The robot hesitated for a few seconds, waiting for the head to fall off, but it stubbornly remained attached to its body. It retracted the blade and pushed at the lost one’s head, only to find its hoof pass right through as if it was an illusion.
“Anomaly discovered. Nature undeterminable. Logging for further study.” It ignored the pony the mutant was attacking. Even if it could interact with her, she was beyond saving. The clockwerk looked down at the roof it was standing on and tapped it hard with a hoof, then moved on to various other inanimate objects and found each one offered the expected resistance. “Assessment logged.”
It looked around to find its brethren encountering similar circumstances. Thus far, nothing else was reportable so it remained in place to wait for the mission timer to expire.
Back on the bridge of the Deception, Captain Veselov puffed on his cigar as he waited for the ground teams to depart. His stoic vigilance was halted when both he and the helmsman spotted a blue point of light coming from dead center of Rookhaven’s shattered imperial district.
Something stirs in my city.
Veselov rose from his chair as he heard something over the omnipresent thrumming of the engines and coursing wind.
“Captain, do you see that?”
Veselov coolly motioned for silence as he twerked his ears. What was that noise?
When it did not repeat itself he refocused on the light. Could be nothing. A repeating cycle perhaps that we're here to see it start. On the over hoof it could be trouble. <My queen, there’s something going on at the center of the city. A light of some kind.>
Twilight was in the middle of her final checks for their descent to the city below. <I don’t have a bow side view from the marshaling hangar; I need to borrow your eyes.>
<They are yours as always, my queen.>
Within seconds, Veselov’s eyes were replaced by Twilight’s own. She did not dominate him completely, and he was left to move and think freely. Twilight’s heavy presence in his mind grew concerned yet calm, a mostly welcome change from her demeanor on the bridge. Maybe it was for Aunty’s benefit after all. <What do you think it is, my queen?>
<No idea, but the ley energies are starting to move. Benign or not, expect it to be trouble, and keep the ship away from them. If the engines come in contact with that much raw mana they could explode.>
<Aye, my queen.>
Twilight withdrew from her captain to refocus on her immediate surroundings. Around that time, one of the clockwerks returned bearing a crystal. “Primary directive achieved.”
Twilight Sparkle took the offered gem in her magic and signaled Rainbow to join her. Both queens used their magic to peer within it. The collected recordings of all deployed clockwerks. <It doesn’t look like there’s any degradation in the crystal’s matrix, Sis, that means it’s safe to be down there, right?>
<That’s right,> Twilight grinned at her fellow queen. RD may be no good at normal studying, but playing to her flight perception has really paid off. She refocused on the images within the crystal. <It’s Tartarus on Equis down there, but so long as everypony and everything remains frozen, this can be a quick in and out.>
<Smash and grab. We can handle that. The sooner we’re out of here the better.>
<I wouldn’t be so sure,> Twilight warned, eliciting a confused look from her sister as they stopped looking at the crystal’s contents. “That might have worked originally, but we have to take into account your conversion into a queen. Traditional fossils and pottery isn’t going to cut it if we want the other hives to leave us in peace.”
Far from feeling guilty, Rainbow grunted in expectant thrill. “You think we should go raid the castle? There’s got to be some juicy stuff in there.”
“Right!” Twilight replied definitively. “Not to mention we might find a gift or two that would be perfect to give to mother. Something material to symbolize my thanks her for what she’s given me.”
Rainbow could feel her sister momentarily expand her presence on the Link to briefly brush upon all of her children’s minds. The ocean of love that washed over her was potent enough to leave the taste of strawberries in Rainbow’s mouth. Can’t really blame her. Rainbow touched the minds of her own nymphs. Although their numbers were but a fraction of Twilight’s own, they were more than enough to move her to tears. Why do they taste like oranges though? The first time my drones’ love tasted like grapes and then bananas after that. Ah whatever. At the end of the day, it’s my kids who make the whole changeling thing worth it, but my sister… She looked at Twilight who turned to match her gaze.
No words passed between them. Silent understanding was all they needed to convey the mirrored thought that passed between them. We're going to show the world what united queens can do!
Rainbow nodded to Twilight before addressing the gathered drones. <The place is safe enough to travel in. We’re moving in with a team on the ground to make sure nothing can ambush the ship as it trails behind us to lend fire support if needed. Let’s go!>
<Yes, my queen!>
The room was filled with the buzzing of a hundred wings as the drones took to the skies. Rainbow jumped after them with Twilight about to join them were it not for a panicking Arya jumping in front of her. “Wait oh imperial one, please beg I do! Take me with you.”
Twilight skidded to a halt and had to flap her wings to keep from ramming into the Tea’la. She sighed and relayed the situation to her sister to keep anyone from worrying at her tardiness. “Is this part of the prophecy?”
Arya nodded quickly. “Yes, but a different separate one. Farseer He’la had a vision before we left the village. If I am absent at the imperial city, all will fail and the land will continue to rot and grow.”
Rot and grow? Twilight passed it off and lit her horn. “Well I can take you down in my magic.”
“Aahhh eeiaa! To be held aloft in the magic of the heralded empress! I am unworthy! Oh, important fact!” Arya pointed her left wooden wing at an irregularly shaped boulder the size of a proto-queen. “We must bring the Stone of True Spirit. To not is to invite death. Certain the farseer was.”
Twilight grimaced at the size of the boulder. Ugh. I could carry it, but I’d rather not do that for too long. I want to save my mana and stamina in case we run into trouble. She scanned the hangar to find an engineer working on a hovercart just as he was putting the finishing touches on its repair. Perfect! <Thanks for the hard work, Socket Wrench, I’ll be taking that off your hooves.>
<Ah… sure thing, Momma.>
Twilight presented the hovercart to Arya and hefted the Stone onto it. The cart’s engine grumbled at the weight, but it wasn’t that much more than the field artillery it was designed to carry. “This thing can remain active for two hours before it’ll need to leech off your mana. Think you can handle that?”
Leech my soul blood? If that’s what it takes! “Yes, heralded one. I would gladly accept this honor to bear the Stone.”
“Very well then.” Twilight’s telekinesis hitched the laden cart upon Arya’s back before levitating both of them off the deck and towards the ground below.
Arya flailed the whole way down, ineffectively flapping her wooden wings from long dormant instincts. “Aiieeeaaaaa! Ancestors watch over meeee!”
Four city blocks away, a clockwerk surveyed the frozen carnage along the rooftops surrounding a small plaza. The scene of death meant nothing to it. Its only directive was to map out the surrounding area before returning to its queen.
Its gaze noted a red ley line heading straight up from the ground and directly towards it. The robot barely reacted in time to leap out of the way. One of its incorporeal mana wings were hit by the barrel sized vein of raw magic.
The clockwerk stumbled on a clothesline but managed to stay upright. It faced its wing to find it flickering wildly before the emitter cracked and exploded. The emitter of the other wing had a piece of steel lodged in the crystal that sputtered and spat before failing as well. “Damage sustained. Contingency directive initializing. Returning to the queens.”
It turned around to come face to face with a snarling lost one. The automaton halted and tried to swing at it in an instant, but its hoof passed right through the frozen mutant. Its logic centers tried to process what it was seeing. Continuity error. Designation: lost one 8845b not in previous location.
A much larger ley line passed right in front of the clockwerk and straight through the lost one. The mutant solidified and bellowed a roar at the robot before biting into its neck, denting the armor. Combat protocol engaged. With an electronic growl, the clockwerk’s right forehoof opened up into a claw and the robot sunk it into the lost one’s barrel. The lost one howled in pain and let go of the robot as the metal claws dug their way to the beast’s backbone. With clanking gears and an exhale of steam, the clockwerk gripped the spine and ripped the lost one away from itself and slammed it straight through the white painted sandstone roof.
The expectant wet splat on the floor below never came. The robot saw that the lost one phased out of time in midair. “Contact with hostiles made. Priority directive: report to the queens.”
A third ley line smaller than a thimble, flashed right through the robot’s knees, frying the majority of its motors. Within moments, three more lost ones swarmed the disabled clockwerk. The mutants made short work of the robot and jumped away before phasing out of time.
Intruders of blood and metal. This place is forbidden to all.