//------------------------------//
// Act 1 - Not Alone 
// Story: The Locust Hive: Viva Las Pegasus 
// by Petro Beherha 
//------------------------------//

	When Chitin and Scratt returned to Queen Erranda, they informed her of their findings, including the ocean (with the seaweed as proof), and the metal sewer they wanted to use for a hideout. When she asked about the food source, Chitin reasoned that they could fish and hopefully fill everypony's stomachs for a while. Erranda decided to head to the beach the two scouts went to, and the hive disguised itself as a flock of seagulls before flying over so that the ponies in the city won't be alarmed.

When they arrived at the beach, they were thankful that the desert was not endless. They skimmed the waters for fishing spots to catch at least a few fish, though some decided to hunt for something edible among the garbage, or hunt for crabs. It may not be enough to fill the bellies of every single drone, but hopefully it should still be enough to get through the day.

After everypony had their fill, they flocked across the littered beach and approached the sewer pipe Chitin and Scratt found.

So, Erranda began, speaking telepathically from the seagull form. Is this the hideout you're proposing?

Yes, my queen. Chitin nodded, Though it may be maintained by the ponies, so we will need to find a spot in the lower areas so they do not find us.

Then how are we gonna get in without those ponies finding us? Erranda questioned. Surely, they'll be concerned about a whole flock of birds heading into the sewer. They would suspect us.

Scratt raised a wing, couldn't we turn into rats when we get inside?

While the ponies get scared when they encounter a whole pack of mice and have them exterminate us?

Oh, he shrunk down embarrassingly. Right.

Hmm... Queen Erranda thought of a solution to the problem, and she soon found one solution. Why don't we send scouts inside the sewer to check for any ponies. If it is clear, we can all jump in and set up an outpost here. Is that clear?

The changelings were abuzz in agreement, and then they wondered who would take the leap. Queen Erranda flew up onto the "floor" of the pipe, and thoroughly scanned the crowd.

How about you three? She faced a couple of drones bunched up among the crowd, Apis, Cilia, and Gaster.

When the crowd hushed down, they cleared some space for the three scouts, who bunched close together and raised their heads to show themselves.

Yes, our queen? One of them, Cilia, had a female personality.

Erranda hovered back down to the ground. I need the three of you to fly in there, disguise yourselves as rodents and search for any ponies or other races in there. If there are none inside, great. If there are ponies inside, then we will have to remain in the beach. Is that clear?

The three changelings saluted, Yes, ma'am!

Very good, the queen backed away. Move out!

At the queen's command, the three scouts flew up and into the sewer lid, and in orange flashes they shapeshifted into rats, who scurried down deep into the sewer. After about fifteen long minutes, the scouts finally scuttled back from the sewer pipe. The hive looked up to them expectantly, waiting for an answer.

The lead scout, Apis, got up on his hind legs and raised a thumb up. "All clear!"

She faced the sewer pipe again. Alright, let's get inside.

And with that the entire hive went into the sewer pipe in a long line, with Queen Erranda among the lead. After everypony was far enough inside they turned back into their true forms in orange flashes. When they heard the sound of their hooves pounding the ground, they attempted to walk more softly, which quieted the noise down somewhat. Hopefully, it wasn't enough to disturb the inhabitants at the surface. It helped with the noise of the rolling wheels of the chariots and a distant sound of music in the background.

The trail of over a hundred changelings total snaked its way down any stairs they found, and even the surface noise began to die out, leaving behind almost a dead silence. It also grew even darker as there was less light seeping from the surface, and eventually Queen Erranda had to use a glowing horn spell to light the way.

By the time they went into the fourth or fifth floors, a putrid smell appeared. It was similar to the stink from the litter back at the beach, but it was mixed with the smell of decaying flesh, making it much stronger.

"Whew!" one drone waved his hoof in front of his face. "Smells like carcass in here."

"Well, if there are dead animals around here," another changeling complained nervously, "then I don't think this is a safe place."

"Shh! Keep it down, Buzz! We don't want anypony hearing us, do we?"

"But I thought there were no ponies here, Archie," Buzz whispered back. "Apis and the others said so."

"How can we trust that he's talking about the whole place at all times?" Archie argued, "just because he said so doesn't make him right. Who knows, some ponies or even some other weird creature might've came in by now."

Unbeknownst to them, something did come in the sewers. A pony-sized creature climbed along the dark ceiling, and squinted its solid purple eyes as it monitored the changelings' movements.

The Locust Hive continued along the stinking passage, all the while growing more concerned if this is really a good place to set up camp. What if they could not go back? What if something lurked down there that devours anything that invades its lair?

Suddenly, Scratt's rear hoof got stuck on something.

"Huh?"

He looked to see that he stepped on some pink, sticky, and rather smelly goo.

"Aww, great." Scratt tried to pull himself out of the ball of goo, but he was still stuck.

"Uhh, guys?" He called out, "A little help here?"

Archie and some of his fellow drones rolled their eyes when they saw him, so they quickly came to his aid. And so about three drones grabbed him by the leg and then pulled his body in unison. After a few seconds, they were sent backwards from the force, and he was set free.

Scratt sighed in relief, "thanks."

"Don't mention it," Archie said. "Now can you try not to do this again, Scratt?"

"Ha ha ha," Scratt mocked sarcastically. "Very funny, Archie."

"Just saying. Now," Archie added, "let's hurry back to the others before we l-"

HISS!!!

Something leaped down from the ceiling and tacked down Archie. "Ahh! Help! It's attacking my face!"

That thing turned out to be another changeling, but its colors were purple rather than orange, its wings were shaped differently, and it had no antennae.

"Hang on, buddy!" The others rushed to his rescue, "we've got this!"

Archie and the other changeling fought, punched, kicked, and bit each other as they tried to pull it off of him. Meanwhile, Queen Erranda and the rest of the hive turned toward the fighting and they rushed to their rescue.

Thankfully, the rival changeling was already out cold by the time they came. But a groaning Archie already suffered some wounds, including a bleeding bite mark on one side of his neck.

"What's going on?" Queen Erranda demanded, "what happened?"

"Another changeling attacked him, ma'am." Buzz reported to her, "Archie beat him, but he's been injured."

"Damn..." The queen fell silent as she looked at the unconscious rival, which could only mean one thing. A different hive of changelings already owns this place.

But underneath the city? She thought, is this why none of the ponies come here? I should have suspected this.

"I am afraid another hive has already settled themselves here", she announced to her drones. "So we will have to move out of this sewer and examine the city from the shore."

But it wasn't long before more rival drones crawled from both sides of the passage.

"Uhh... guys?" Scratt warned fearfully, "we've got company."

The rest of the Locust Hive found themselves surrounded by more strange drones, probably all soldiers, climbing along the walls and poised for combat. The Locusts did the same.

"But first," Erranda added. "We will have to fight our way out!"

The fighting produced a cacophony of shouts and commotion. Scratt and several others used some amateur martial arts moves, while Queen Erranda and Chitin launched magic bolts and some basic elemental spells, though the latter mostly resorted to hoof-to-hoof combat.

Scratt attempted some novice punches and kicks at an enemy changeling, but when he missed each time, the enemy changeling laughed at him. But he was interrupted by a hard kick to the face from Chitin that sent him flying against the wall.

"Wow, thanks." Scratt said.

"Don't thank me yet," Chitin responded without turning, "we have to keep fighting." He went on to fire beams on three more foes.

Queen Erranda attacked surrounding enemy drones with some magic spells. Sometimes she froze them into ice blocks with a freezing spell, or electrocuted them by sticking her horn onto one of them and then using a lightning spell. Meanwhile almost a dozen of her own drones protected her from the enemy's attacks.

Two Locust drones pinned down one rival by each arm as Archie threw various attacks at him like a punching bag, and then ended with a strong uppercut from the chin that sent him against the ceiling. The three changelings gave a high five.

The fight went on as both hives fought each other through punching, kicking, biting, headbutting, throwing, spells, and so on. But the Locusts hardly moved a few inches outward, and more rival changelings poured in.

"Who would dare to invade my resort without my permission?!" A bitter, accented female voice roared against the chaos and stopped everypony in their tracks. The changelings from the other hive froze in fear, and in a flash they formed up a sort of royal guard formation where they stood on either side of the passage.

The Locusts turned around to see a large, shadowy figure of about Queen Erranda's size, fronted by two changelings holding incense burners in their mouths. The figure's eyes were visible from the darkness as bright pink ovals distorted by fury. When she stepped into the dim light, she was revealed to be what might've been the queen of the sewer changelings. The first thing the Locusts noticed were the torn cheeks that revealed her rearmost molars, giving the appearance of a perpetual and fleshy, yet skeletal grin. Strips of intact flesh defined the border between the cheek holes and her true mouth. Her purple mane and tail were wavy with two prominent holes on each bang, but otherwise well-combed. And finally her thin horn had no holes, but they bent forward at the base and curved upward in a sickle shape.

The other queen glared at Queen Erranda. "Who are you, and what are you doing here in my lair? Well?! Spit it out!"

Queen Erranda bared her teeth disapprovingly at her demeanor, but she calmed herself and straightened.

"Forgive us for our intrusion," she tried reasoning politely. "We had not known that you and your hive were here. I am Erranda, Queen of the Locust Hive. We are nomads who travel the lands to suit our needs."

"Nomads?" The other queen's frown disappeared into that of intrigue. After a brief pause, she gestured to herself in a dramatic pose. "Well, I am the most lovely and sophisticated Queen Miasma. I came all the way from Manehattan for a luxurious getaway here in Las Pegasus. And my wonderful subjects here are the Misma Hive, and they keep me in company and the hive running smoothly." Queen Miasma regained her mean look, and demanded, "and why don't you wandering savages intrude the ponies up in the city? There is no shortage of love there, or at least desire."

"No," Erranda corrected. "Not love, food and drink. We have traveled the desert for days living off the local shrubs, and have had no water to drink from. The water from the ocean did nothing to satisfy our thirst. We can still feed on love or a similar energy when necessary, but we still need to eat solid food to survive."

"Then why don't you just feed off the garbage dumps outside," Miasma asked skeptically. "Or perhaps the ponies loafing at the beach instead of breaking in so rudely into our lair?!"

When Miasma stomped sternly forward, Queen Erranda was struck by a strong smell. It wasn't quite the same rotten stink of the underlings, but more of a chemical smell that still nauseated her, because she was accustomed to more natural smells such as flowers, herbs, and even rotting carcasses.

Queen Miasma took a few loud whiffs and jerked back in disgust, "And your smell," she groaned. "I suppose you have no concept of hygiene, either!"

Queen Erranda held her nose with a hoof, and returned the insult. "And you smell strange yourself, Queen Miasma."

"What was that?!"

Miasma's sudden shout made Scratt yelp and jump so high he hit the ceiling and cracked the surface. When he fell back down, he felt dizzy with stars in his vision and rubbed the bump on his head. Some of Miasma's drones snickered at his misfortune.

"Ouch." He winced painfully.

"First you waltz into my property, then you cause chaos with my subjects, and now you so rudely insult my most graceful form?!" She gritted through her teeth, "one more move like that and you will be promptly... escorted out!"

Queen Erranda inched back at the warning, gritting her teeth a little. 	

"I know this place stinks like rot," she said as she pulled out an ornate, half empty glass vial of perfume. "But believe me, Queen Erranda, when I tell you I don't enjoy it either. That is why I have some lovely perfume here."

She showed Erranda the perfume bottle that contained a liquid which smelled somewhat like mint mixed with a strong alcohol-like chemical, and then sprayed the blue mist on her face.



So that's where the smell is coming from, Erranda thought.

Miasma set it back down. "It's a shame you do not enjoy it as much as I do, Erranda. Oh well," she shrugged. "I suppose you'll have to get used to it."

While Queen Miasma lectured, a weary, fatigued pony with heavy eyes of the same solid color as the Miasma changelings hobbled near Scratt.

The slave pony was called a "husk", a term for beings who were victims of a Changeling's pursuits, where they drained so much love from their victims that they turned into mindless servants for its mother hive. Husks were often used for physical labor, where they maintained the structure of and cleaning the changeling hive's burrow or habitat, as well as to help carry the queen's eggs.

The Locust Hive rarely used husks, as they were usually either too far from civilization or they traveled too frequently for them to keep up. Whenever they did have husks, they were used briefly before they were either sent back where they were found or provided its changelings with a quick meal.

Scratt watched the husk drag a filthy, damp cloth against his hoof while holding a pail of soapy water in his mouth. He set the pail down, dunked the cloth in the water, and feebly held it up to scrub the dirt and fungus off the wall.

The spooked Scratt turned to a Miasma changeling next to him, and then asked him plainly as he pointed at the husk. "Hey, are you gonna eat that?"

The Miasma changeling turned away and groaned in disgust.

"What?" Scratt grinned nervously as he shrugged, "just asking."

"Now," Miasma went on. "Considering how the lot of you are wanderers, how long do you plan on staying in our city?"

"As much time as needed to gather enough food and water for all of us," Erranda informed. "It may take days or even a few weeks before we move elsewhere."

"As long as it's nowhere near our lair, then I think we are both in good terms. So are you savages about to leave or do you want to loiter here for a little longer? I don't know how much more I can tolerate your presence."

Queen Erranda still felt offended by her insults, but she held it in to avoid unnecessary trouble - or even another fight. She answered. "We will leave, yes. But-"

"Then go," Queen Miasma interrupted. "Leave our sewers and do not return, and do move quickly before I change my mind."

Queen Erranda was going to ask for information or directions to some decent food sources in the city, or at least better ones than scarce fish, crabs, and loads and loads of rotten scraps. But the interruption forced her to reconsider, since Queen Miasma was clearly not the type to welcome visitors. Changelings are normally very territorial creatures, including her own swarm, but Queen Erranda had to acknowledge the Miasma Hive's personal space.

She took a deep breath and sighed, "very well."

She turned around and slowly trotted back the way they came. "Come on, everypony," she told her subjects. "We're heading back outside."

The rest of the hive followed her, but Scratt stood bewildered. "But wait a minute," he protested. "What about the-?"

"We're moving out, Scratt." Chitin informed him as he passed by, "this is no place for us."

Scratt groaned in complaint, and joined his peers with his head down.

By the time the Locusts were almost out of sight, Queen Miasma added, "and don't let the sewer lid hit you on your way out!"





The Locusts finally made it back up to the first level, but not quite at the exit. They huddled together far enough away from the storm drains where the ponies above were unable to hear them, or at least make out what they were saying.

Scratt went up to the queen and stammered, "w-where are we going, queenie? We're not eating back at the junk pile now, are we?"

"Yes we are," Queen Erranda replied sternly to him. "We have no other choice, Queen Miasma and her subjects already beat us to it and they made it clear that these sewers are their own. It's better than having them kill us in a territorial dispute, especially with our lack of strength."

"But what about the city?" Scratt pressured, "I thought we're making a base for our feeding raid!"

"I know that, Scratt." She told him, "but we'll have to make due with what we have. After all," he gave a sly grin. "We haven't forgotten about our mission here."

Scratt blinked. "You mean," he asked hopefully. "We're still gonna eat? ...At the city, I mean?"

"Yes. Why would we stand around and die in this desert? In fact," she shifted her red-orange eyes to the rest of the hive. "I am about to tell this to everypony else. Join in with the others when you can, Scratt."

"Sure thing, ma'am!" He nodded before slipping into the chattering crowd.

The Locust Queen moved to the scummy brick wall opposite of the downward stairs.

"All of you, listen." The queen announced; she waited for the crowd to settle down. "It is unfortunate to know that what was about to be our new burrow has been taken by a much larger hive, and so we will have to settle back to the beaches. But this matters not, for we still have the city nearby. Therefore, I shall assign three scouting parties to enter the city and gather as much information about it as we can so we may perform our raid soon. Once our raid is done, we shall leave this accursed desert and move to greener pastures. Gather yourselves!"

The changelings all stiffened themselves into a uniform, militant pose. Queen Erranda scanned the crowd once more as she decided on how many and which scouts to send into the possible dangers of the city. After a suspenseful minute, she called out each member of each party by name. "The first group will be composed of Chitin, Scratt, Apis, Cilia, and Gaster. The leader, of course, shall be Chitin."

"Yes, mother!" He affirmed upon address.

After the queen finished her role call, she finally commanded. "Alright, my subjects. Follow me!"

The Locust Hive followed Erranda to the front of the exit they came in from, which led back to the bright outdoors with the deep blue ocean contrasting against the sky. The three assigned scouting parties placed themselves in front of the exit, with Chitin's group in the middle. Erranda stood facing them from behind them. Behind her the rest of the hive watched the scene in hope, or rather in pleading, that the scouting parties find some spots for food quickly so they can live another day.

Queen Erranda shouted, "ready!"

The scouts crouched down in preparation to head out the exit.

"Shift!"

Then they shapeshifted into seagulls while still crouching down and at ready.

At last, the queen raised her front right hoof.

"And... go!"

At the wave of her hoof, they ran out and flew out of the pipe. When they gained enough altitude, they veered the other direction to enter the heart of the Las Pegasus.





Back in the sewers, Queen Miasma bathed herself in a round room in a tub, which was filled with soapy sewer water with a variety of dead flowers and old bath toys. Normally she was averse to bathing in water, due to it reminding her of Queen Myxine, who led an aquatic hive of changelings. But after observing the activities of elite ponies back in Manehattan, she thought she could give bathing a try. To her surprise, she felt relaxed, which was a rare gem in a life full of frustration.

But this particular day was different, for even though she was in pleasent-smelling bath water, the thought of the intruders still lingered in her mind. There was something off about this Locust Hive. They can still feed off of love, but they said that just food will serve them. Don't changelings eat food to create the material for their cocoons, rather than to survive like other creatures? And why did they choose to barge into her sewer resort out of all the places in Las Pegasus? They could easily live off the ambient love from the ponies at the beach or anywhere else in the city, like how Queen Chrysalis did in her brief conquest of Canterlot during a royal wedding. Did those loathsome Locust Hive freaks really leave to bother somepony else? In fact, did they leave at all?

There was only one way to find out.	

"Butler!" She called out loudly.

A changeling wearing a ragged tuxedo zipped in front of her and stood upright. "Yes, your highness?"

"I have an assignment for you," Queen Miasma briefed. "Head over to the upper levels and check to see if our little visitors are completely gone from our property, search everywhere in case they are hiding or in disguises. Tout de suite!"

The butler nodded. "Yes, your highness!"

He flew out of the pool room and into the halls.

"And you two!" The queen snapped to a pair of drones nearby, who froze and faced her, shaking with fear. "Fetch me some more soap, lemon flavor! I want to be nice and glamorous for the gathering tonight, and don't keep me waiting!"

"Yes ma'am!" The two drones gave a quick salute and then dashed to a small room nearby.

She sighed heavily as she sank deeper into the water so her mouth almost touched the surface, and grumbled more quietly. "I can still smell their stench from here."

She magically grabbed the bottle and sprayed more perfume on herself.