//------------------------------//
// Liberating the Hive (Chapter-6) 
// Story: Bugs and Steel 
// by Beta-17 
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     Panzer Shriek’s door burst with knocking. Panzer verbaly answered the knock ordering the one knocking to come in.

“General! I think our cover is blown. One of the commandos was found out.” Talon stood in front of Panzer’s desk. After the German War Machine had gained the status of General he appointed Fangs and Talon to commanding officers, and overall his right hand men. Venom was his personal mechanic. Each one of them now wore a hat similar to Panzer’s he wore a navy blue trench coat.

“Vell, is zere any good news?” Panzer seemed very nonchalant for somebody who’s plans have just been figured out.

“Well for one the recon units that caught wind of it quickly changed personas so at least three have yet to be found.” Talon informed; Panzer smiled.

“Zey are smarter zen I first thought.” Panzer stood up and began to walk out of the office gesturing for Talon to follow. The changeling officer followed the General of the now Military state. Panzer walked proudly past the propaganda posters many depicting a Changeling wearing a new uniform, a shiny new helmet and an MP40 sheathed on its shoulder. Most of the posters where emblazoned with promises of reclaiming what the hive had lost; others were encouraging joining the ranks of the Grand Army of the Hive. The two walked past construction sites and waved to several hive comrades saluting them on the street, their patriotic spirit was soaring.

“Look around you Talon, everybody is happy, zere spirits have been lifted. For ze first time in years zey have ambition, passion, determination, and loyalty to ze Hive.” The metal man spoke as if he was giving a speech to a crowd of hundreds. Talon was inspired but still felt the burden of knowing their plans were being uncovered.

“But what about the Pony population, surely once the Solar Empire finds out that we have three of its citizens held here they’ll declare war. Do we even have a plan of attack?” Talon questioned.

“Ha, Talon, out plan is attack. If zey decide to strike it makes zem look like ze bad guys. Bad guys who attempted to exterminate an entire race by denying zem ze basics for survival.” Panzer spoke triumphantly. They continued down the street, crossing small businesses, and manufacturing plants.

Chrysalis looked out on her Hive from a cliff side and while she was overjoyed that her subjects were happy and prosperous she knew that it wouldn’t end here. She decided to end her hike early and began to descend the mountain. She looked to the sky; the brown overcast had been purified by the new orchards and with the trees came rain. The newly cleaned skies where now being permeated with the aromas of fresh cooked foods and smoke from coal power plants, and steel mills. On her stroll back down the mountainside she came across a gray brick wall. Her curiosity obligated her to investigate. She flew up and over the wall, from the outside there where two buildings, one appeared to be an infirmary and the other, a coal power plant. She walked into the infirmary and indeed found several changelings recovering from injuries, most of which were drones suffering from work injuries. She looked upon them like a mother looks at her sick child, she had sympathy though was proud of their hard work. She began to notice that all the injured where drones, the doctors where accompanied by an advisor. The advisors carried a piece of chalk, he would go up to one of the injured and either mark the foreleg of the injured drone with an X or a check. Those with a check were then tended to by the doctor; those with an X got wheeled into a back room. Chrysalis then realized that the doorway that the wheel-outs where taken through lead to the coal power plant. She made her way outside and found an entrance for the plant, inside she was mortified. She watched as the rejected drones that were still alive executed and then thrown into the furnaces of the plant.

Chrysalis ran away from the plant, tears in her eyes. She didn’t know where she was running but she refused to stay there. Though she knew all too well that accidents happened she would never have conjured in her worst nightmares that her metaphorical children would be executed and burnt to feed a relentless war machine. She knew that she was the aggressor during the first siege on Canterlot, but she had no choice the Hive’s homeland was, as far as she knew dead. After Panzer helped redeem the land and begin churning out goods like food, she felt it necessary to award him by giving him some relevance in the Hive. She later regretted that action. Once he took the title of General she knew that fixing and satisfied citizens wasn’t enough. Panzer was an Imperialist, and would never rest until he had the world in his control. Such action would require using her to gain a following then stabbing her in the back and taking power for himself. The changeling queen dried the tears flowing from her un-burnt eye. She couldn’t go after Panzer directly because the entire Swarm would back him up and she would be rejected by her own people. She couldn’t turn to the Solar Empire because she had tried to dominate its capitol. Assistance from the Crystal Empire was out of the question; after all she attempted to hijack the royal wedding. She was trapped, she mentally kicked herself, she knew he was dangerous, she told herself not to trust him, but somehow he managed to snake his way past her precautions, and now he was uprooting her, making her redundant, Irrelevant. 

The changeling queen somberly dragged her hooves back through town. She didn’t even try to mask her dull mood. She found herself in a café sitting quietly, plotting to overthrow her underminer. Unfortunately her plans now where as bad as they were before, no plan B, mostly improvised. She took a swig of the black coffee, unsweetened, no cream. The bitter taste made her scrunch up her muzzle but the taste of her beverage was miniscule in comparison to her other problems. She finished her cup, and finally had an idea worth attempting. It would take time and would boil down to the last second in the end, but she figured she could pull it off. With a fraction of her confidence regained she stood up from the table, leaving a tip for the waiter.

The bell over the door tinkled when it swung open and Chrysalis walked outside, she had taken a few steps forward and stopped suddenly upon hearing a strange noise. The sun was almost down painting the newly thriving metropolis soothing lavender. The alley way beside the dinner was light by one light over the side door of the eatery; she stared down the dark walkway having heard a strange noise from behind a dumpster. She slowly crept into the alley taking care not to give away her position. She rounded the corner of the dumpster and there, eyes wide, pupils the size of peas, fearing for her life was a little white unicorn filly. Sweetiebelle was too terrified to speak, her mouth opened as a faint noise began to grow louder from the little unicorn. Chrysalis quickly grabbed Sweetie, placing a hoof over her mouth; she kicked and struggled before she slowed down her attempts at escape Sweetie then realized that Chrysalis was talking.

“Sssshhhh, don’t scream, do you really want a mob of vengeful changelings to hear you?” The queen spoke almost sympathetically. She removed her hoof so the filly could speak.

“You, you aren’t going to eat me?” Sweetiebelle choked out in a high pitched squeak. Chrysalis only laughed.

“You really think a pony coming from a dinner has the apatite to eat another pony? Besides I’m pretty sure you’d just taste like marshmallows, and I don’t like junk food.” The changeling queen was starting to enjoy the kid’s company. She looked over to a pile of discarded boxes, grabbed ahold of one, unfolded it and held it in front of Sweetie.

“Both one of us wants you to be seen, get in this and I can bring you to a safer and quite frankly cleaner place.” Chrysalis held the box patiently. Sweetie put her trust in the scared queen and got in the box. Chrysalis closed the top and made her way quickly over to her private quarters in the town hall. The cardboard flaps on the top of the box popped open, Sweetiebelle clambered out and looked around the large room.

“You are Queen Chrysalis right?” Sweetie was now more curious then afraid.

“I am.” The tall slender queen responded.

“If you don’t mind me asking why did you attack Canterlot? This place looks amazing, why would you want to leave and start a war?” Sweetie now asked questions Chrysalis hadn’t expected.

“It wasn’t like this three months ago.” Chrysalis began to come clean, confessing and describing all the events of the past few months to the little unicorn. She felt the weight on her shoulders lighten more and more as she spoke her mind. Sweetie listened intently taking in every word the queen spoke, though upon hearing about the metal man by the name of Panzer she didn’t seem surprised by his description, only by his existence. Chrysalis finished spinning the tale of the months past and sweetie spoke up.

“So Red isn’t alone. If this Panzer guy is anything like Red maybe Red can help.” Sweetie innocently suggested not knowing the history between the Russian pacifist and the German War machine. Red had never told the Crusaders about his war stories on account that he felt them to be too young to know about the horrors of the kind of war he had seen.

“Wait, Red, is he another machine?” Chrysalis was not hopeful.

“Yeah, he’s a funny looking thing, walks on two legs, no wings and no horn. He talks with a funny accent too.” Sweetie informed the queen about the other Mechanical. At this point in time the little unicorn felt it safe to ask a question that had been burning in the back of her mind and eating away at her heart.

“Uh, Ms. Chrysalis, I got here on a train. I was following my friends but when we got to the train station we got found and were being taken somewhere. I got away but I would like to know where my friends are, and if they are okay.” Sweetie was cautious but honest with her question. Chrysalis’ face turned pail when she realized where the filly’s friends would be.

“Panzer had them taken to a harvesting chamber, they are the reason that the Hive members are controlling weather, using magic, and yielding so much from crop fields. Their magic is being syphoned to fuel the Hive.” The queen felt it best to remain honest with the kid.

“Hold still” Chrysalis casted a short-term spell on the filly, disguising her pony body as a changeling. “There, now we can go look for these friends of yours.” 

Chrysalis and the disguised Sweetiebelle made their way through the streets. The queen noticed a severe lack of Hive comrades in the streets. Then she remembered, today was D-day, today was the day Panzer executed his master plan. At this exact moment the Grand Army of the Hive was marching its way toward the capitol of the Solar Empire and would arrive in a matter of hours. The clock was ticking.

The two came up to a menacing looking building, inside they found three rigs each one holding onto a pony, the Unicorn’s rig was drawing some kind of purple aura. The Pegasus’ rig generated a blue aura, and the rig Applejack was latched into was drawing from her a green aura. The longer the machine ran the duller the coats of the captives became. A pair of makeshift harnesses held onto Scootaloo and Applebloom doing the same to them as the older ponies. All of the captives hung limp, they were all still alive but incapacitated. Chrysalis sighed internally as she unhooked Applejack, she knew that by unhooking these ponies the land would begin to decay once more, but perhaps with some upkeep perhaps they could try to maintain the ground’s fertility. The rest of the ponies where then released one by one, being moved aside as the once respected queen moved on to trying to preserve some of the magic the machine had extracted, she wouldn’t be taking more, but she could try to store what they had. The magic was transferred to a big tank like vat and was sealed for later use. Sweetie was confused by Chrysalis’ next actions. She began to smash the controls of the machine decommissioning it, dismantling it past the point of repair.

“Try waking them, we need to stop by the Archives and the armory before I can help you get back to the Solar Empire.” Chrysalis was being thorough in the destruction of the contraption. Applejack was the first to stir; her eye opened and was greeted with Sweetie’s young white face, just as Chrysalis stopped behind her to check on the incapacitated ponies.

“Sweetie, behind you!” The orange cowpony shouted trying to warn the filly. But Sweetie just smiled seeing that her friends where okay. Applejack slowly regained her motor control and attempted to shield Sweetie from the changeling queen.

“Sweetiebelle, when the others get up, I want you to lead them back to my office in the town hall. I have some business to attend to; when I arrive at the office you six need to be ready to go. If the train is still here we may have a chance of beating Panzer to Canterlot.” Chrysalis instructed the filly and turned to leave, taking a small canister of unicorn magic aura from the vat. With every passing second, Applejack was regaining her strength and was not just curious but almost afraid of why Sweetie didn’t flinch at the fact that the Queen of the changeling horde was right behind her. Applejack spontaneously came up with a theory, Sweetie must be a changeling. Most of the cowpony’s strength had come back and she was ready to hold her own.

“Sweetie, if that’s really you.” She didn’t know how to finish the sentence.

“It’s me Applejack, trust me, would a changeling know about the time Applebloom got into the Cellar and got into the hard cider?” Sweetie smiled at the memory of how Applebloom was acting after the cider, unable to speak clearly and barely able to stand. Applejack scowled wishing that any other memory could have been used to convince her that was not a proud moment in her role as legal guardian. The two began waking the other ponies.

Chrysalis marched up to the new archives filled with the writings of Panzer’s political propaganda, and his devices for war. The old archive stood, renovated but not in its prime a few blocks away. At Chrysalis’s side was a bottle of whisky, she pulled a rag from her armor’s pocket and stuffed into the neck, with the streets barren of any life, the Hive jumped town for the final assault on the capitol of Canterlot. With a spark from her horn, the rag began burn. She packed a significant force behind her throw, the bottle smashed the window on its way in the building. The bottle shattered on the floor the flaming rag ignited the combustible liquid setting the weapons guides, manuals, and blueprints aflame, the smell of burning paper and ink stung Chrysalis’s nose, and she loved it. The smoke of the inferno swelled as it climbed skyward behind the queen, she had one more stop before she could stop the mechanical terrorist. 

The armory of the Grand Army of the Hive had to be Panzer’s favorite edition to the rebuilt city. It was packed with weapons designed to kill with the most efficiency as possible. She strode into the brick building, the walls where lined with rifles like the MG42, FG42, MP40, MP44, Kar98, and the rocket launcher that Panzer got his name from, the Panzer Shriek anti-tank rocket. Chrysalis walked over to a wall and picked out the heavier caliber MP44. As it hung it had no ammo, she walked behind the glass counter, and gathered several curved magazines, placing them in sleeves on a vest forming the shape of an X across her chest and a bayonet attaching it to the end of the barrel. Chrysalis then walked over to a crate of grenades and proceeded to break them open, dumping the black powder onto the floor. To ensure maximum damage Chrysalis took out another bottle of whisky and primed it just like the last. She ran a distance outside before lighting the rag, it sailed through the air landing with the sound of shattering glass before the black powder ignited. Queen Chrysalis sprinted as fast as she could to prevent being caught in the explosion. What a blast it was, the concussion of the blast shattered windows of buildings at least two blocks away. The air was filled with the sound of bullets popping and flying erratically through the air, Chrysalis thought to herself, it sounds like popcorn.

“What are we waiting for Sweetie; let’s go before everypony comes back!” Applebloom was getting restless and paranoid by the silence. Scootaloo was staring at a smoke cloud to the east and began to get anxious. 

“Yeah, we should go before…” Scootaloo was cut off by a loud explosion that made everypony’s heart skip several beats. They all hit the ground covering their heads. From around the street corner Chrysalis was sprinting full speed toward the group.

“Oh my Celestia, It’s the changelings run for it!” Applebloom turned toward the town hall and banged on the door furiously trying to gain entrance. Sweetie rolled her eyes and greeted Chrysalis with a friendly smile.

“You made it! What did you do?” Sweetie asked keeping the explosion in mind.

“I had to make sure that once what needs to be done is done Panzer’s war machines never see the light of day ever again. I blew up the armory.” Chrysalis’ attempt at a philosophical remark was met with blank stares while the short simple answer received nods. Applejack looked at the rifle slung over Chrysalis’ back with concern. She knew what it was, Red had something similar and she was well aware of what it was capable of.

“We don’t have much time, if the train is still here we can beat the Hive Army.” Chrysalis sputtered quickly and turned to lead the way to the railroad station. To the queen’s relief the old train sat quietly at the station waiting to be used. Chrysalis took a place at the engine and began shoveling coal into the maw of the furnace. The train barely had time to heat up its boiler before it sluggishly heaved and began to move. A few miles down the track the train was running faster than it had ever run before, its wheels sparked as they rounded corners a few parts of the train’s engine began to fall off from the enormous strain the engine was under. There was no plan anymore; Chrysalis had carried out the only part of the plan that was pre-written. From here on out it would all be off the top of her head and like the train she refused to be stopped in ending the tyrannical reign of Panzer.