//------------------------------// // Chapter 20 The Good, the Bad and the Changelings // Story: My Daughter Chrysalis // by Scarheart //------------------------------// Edited by Iakovl and DJ_Neon_Lights (formerly Shadowblades) My name is Mike and I am a slave. It wasn’t always like this; I had a home, wealth and a daughter that loved me… Then, I came to Equestria to the aforementioned daughter. And it’s been downhill ever since. Hundreds of minds latched on to mine, learning what I knew, taking my knowledge as their own. I gave it to them freely, without thinking of the consequences. My Queen demanded it and would accept nothing less than my full divulgence. Their interest lay in the human weapons; how to use and deploy them. They learned within minutes what took normal people weeks to grasp. My mind was no longer my own, my actions were dictated by her will. Queen Anisophira might have claimed to be weak, but she held my mind in her grasp. She soothed me, cradling my mind as though it was an infant. There was no apology for taking over my actions and enslaving me to her will, but I was aware of what she was doing. I simply could do nothing to stop her. Those eyes. Those blue eyes glowing with an intensity born of desperation, hunger...and revenge. They wanted to strike back at those who had destroyed their home, taken her hatchlings and she would do anything in her power to see them pay for it, i was just a means to an end. ...And I was teaching them how to fight like a human soldier. US Army training on basic tactics, things I thought I had long forgotten. They came easily to my thoughts and into theirs. Annie simply reached in and plucked them out as easy as pie. When I lifted the rifle I had selected, they did the same, using their magic. They easily picked up on looking down the sights and focusing on the front sight post. All they needed was hours of practice on the range,they had the basics, everything else would come with experience. Oddly enough, I seemed to have control over my own thoughts, like I was in the corner of a small, dark room lit by a dull, yellow light. I felt Annie’s presence as she seemed to cradle this part of me as gently as a mother holds a newborn. What have I done? It’s not you, it’s me. Why? The hatchlings, Mr. Spriggs. It’s for them, for my hive. I might not live for much longer, but that doesn’t mean I can shirk my responsibilities as a queen. My changelings never went to your world. Other queens had done so. Why are you queens so interested in me? Why your mother? Why Chrysalis? You’re missing a queen. I saw her in your memories. What? Who? You heard me, Mr. Spriggs, you’re missing a queen. I allow you to have this amount of free thought because I do not intend to keep you this way any longer than absolutely necessary. My warriors have the means and the knowhow, but they require leadership. I sense the dragon has been defeated. Mother destroyed his heart. She has several dragons under her control, obedient to her only because of the enchantment she placed over their hearts. That being said, it will not prevent the pirates who served their master to give up and flee. They will want blood and the weakness of my hive will invite them to come and destroy as much as they can before the Equestrians can chase them off. We don’t have time for this. My sentries have met members of Celestia’s group. They’re in the tunnels. Your...daughter is with them. Chryssie? Yes. She has great power within her. Even now, I can feel her as she draws closer. Untrained. Raw. She reminds me of when she was young, hundreds of years ago. You didn’t know that, did you? She was once ancient, older than even me. Mother told all of us she regressed, became young again. Death lost its grip on her and she was torn from this world by an unfathomable power. I can see it now. I understand. I sense her bond with you. I have her hive and her hive is you, Mr. Spriggs. I couldn’t tell if it was me talking or if Annie was yapping. It was as though I was talking to myself and worse...responding to myself. I was aware of myself, but yet she was still there with me. We were separate entities speaking with the same voice. It was very confusing, yet I understood when she spoke and when I spoke. It was the same as when Syl had spoken to me days before. God, it was so weird! Hive? It’s our word for an extended family, Mr. Spriggs. I think you should understand that more than any other living being who is not a changeling. You are unaware of how much of a changeling your mind has turned. I was moving as we spoke, guided by her will. My bare feet padded along the uneven floor, heading towards the defensive perimeter. The scouts were warning of movement and the changelings were taking up their positions. The foe was a collection of griffons, ponies, and even some other changelings. It was the pace of desperation that drove me, the queen just in front of me, all outer appearances of weakness replaced by unyielding resolve and rumbling anger. I wanted to find my daughter, to be with her. Anisophira said no. Multiple times. It was her will that drove me, as my body became an extension of what she wanted done. I hated it. She understood I hated this violation, yet was not willing to let me have my freedom or my own sense of free will. I sensed her sorrow, but she needed me and had to ensure I could not resist her desire to protect what was hers. I won’t apologize for protecting what is mine, Mr. Spriggs. I’m nothing more than a puppet, damn it! Yes, you are. But you have the potential to be an effective puppet. Mother said there was something different about your mind….Ah, she’s trying to connect with you. Chryssie? I can’t let her do that. I need you for the moment. It will frustrate her. It will enrage her. It might awaken her enough. Perhaps it will turn the tide. Her sisters will feel her rage and feel her magic. They will remember why they feared her. This is good. They have reached beyond what has been allotted them. They must learn what happens when the balance between chaos and order is in imbalance. We changelings have our place on this world, yet Mother wants more than what has been set aside for her and her children. This is why she cursed me with this painful wasting sickness. This is why my mother has seen fit for me to die. I helped my sister plan Canterlot. I turned on her, betrayed her in order to expose the war to imbalance the scales of Light and Dark. What do I have to do with all of this? It feels as though I’ve been a part of this for a very long time. ...That’s because you have, Mr. Spriggs. The only reason I’m telling you this is because you have become a part of a grander plan, a small cog in a great machine not everyling wants to be a part of. I am one of those. Chrysalis wanted to force the issue. Both of us wanted the same thing, but I wanted to be subtle. She wanted to bring the ponies into our inner conflicts. Why? The Chrysalis you didn’t know had designs on usurping the Empress and to become Empress herself. She needed a glut of love in order to do that and brought in some of her sisters into her plan, myself included. Chrysalis believed if we had enough love to power our magic, a joint operation to bring down Mother would succeed. It wasn’t going to work. Mother is too powerful and Tappis and Tappaz would never turn on her. They are her most loyal queens and only behind Chrysalis in terms of magical ability. Of course, there’s Mother’s personal guard, that soulless pegasus. Pegasus? He’s a monster, Mr. Spriggs. We changelings are fearsome predators in our own right, but that pony...he scares us. Mother has had him for over three hundred years and he’s no longer something you can really consider a pony. She’s altered him in ways, toyed with him. His love for her is unconditional and she has rewarded him accordingly. Gaea Shield is her champion. She has sent him before to discipline her daughters or to kill those she felt were in the way of her machinations. Mother granted him certain gifts, she can speak her voice through him and see what he sees if she so chooses. He could very well be a match against an alicorn, if but for a few minutes. ...I hate him. We exited through one of the tunnels into sunlight. I automatically assumed a crouch as I moved, the other minds telling me there were threats in the area. The shattered face of the cliff was there and the other changelings had taken up defensive positions, breaking up in teams of two. There, they had overlapping fields of fire facing the sea. I stayed near Annie. It’s where she wanted my body as she herself carried two of the rifles. An evil grin splayed terrifyingly across her visage and her eyes gleamed. She wanted payback. She wanted vengeance. She wanted blood. Pirate ships were coming. Two of them. Behind them were several distant dots on the horizon. Elements of the Equestrian fleet. Princess Derp’s ships. Sorry, Celestia, but you done goofed. I don’t know how or why, but you haven’t exactly been that amazing in my eyes. I could feel the minds of the other changelings evaluating their options, questioning each other, then eliminating what they felt were the poorest of them. Flexibility was paramount in their decision making, keeping themselves open to the shifting needs of the hive. It was amazing, even more efficient than the communications of any modern military on Earth. Annie had the final say, listening to her generals and even the concerns of her lowest ranking changelings. Those not fit for duty remained silent and I could even make out the little minds of the hatchlings as they voiced their need for food or a parent. This was pushed down gently and suppressed. Their caretakers kept them as quiet as possible. Yet their voices were added to the hive, fueling the defenders and reminding them what was at stake. They had lost so much to this point. I understood the desperation, now that I was linked to the hive. I felt like I was part of a bad choir group with a lot of people singing off key and I could make out every one of them. Our guests are here. I have asked they be brought to, Mr. Spriggs. I’ve already ordered the evacuation of the nymphs and the wounded. The Equestrians are here to see them to safety. I’m taking an awful risk trusting them with the safety of my hive’s future. Eh, I’m sure they’ve got their hearts in the right place, even if they seem to like letting my brain get raped repeatedly. This is starting to become a theme for me: Come to Equestria! Feel the love as we shred your mind and your sanity right before your eyes! Quite the melodramatic proclamation, Mr. Spriggs. It’s bullshit, Annie. The whole hivemind came to a screeching halt, save for the oddly out-of-place sound of a cricket chirping in our bonded minds. The queen touched my mind in a way I thought might have been a hug...or a spanking. Maybe both? I was reminded at the same time of her title and her desire I call her by her full name. Annie are you okay? Are you okay, Annie? Suddenly the song was being shared with everybody, and at a time best used for preparing for incoming baddies. Michael Jackson reached from the grave and gave everyone Thriller Fever. Luckily, no dancing broke out, though there was some serious humming going on in the air. Annie was not a happy changeling queen. I was suddenly on the ground, grovelling at her feet while she told everybody to shut up, both with her mind and her voice. Both were penetrating and typically female. What? How did she put up with you? Chrysalis? No. Queen Felu. Who? ...I think now is the time for this part of your mind to rest until after the battle… Goddamn it, who do you— Daddy was close, I could feel him...and smell his stinky feet, unpleasant yet nostalgic smell right now. The paths he took were easily picked up by my nose and I didn’t even have to put my nose to the floor! Our escorts weaved us through a complex series of tunnels that rose and fell seemingly without rhyme or reason. Fleur followed them without complaint, as well as the others, but Anzealous was being a little jerk. He muttered constantly under his breath as we went along. “Terrible...terrible...simply terrible…” I could feel his terror. He was barely able to contain himself as he trudged along like a little boy on his way to a very long grounding. Blinking, realization struck, and I found myself suddenly stifling the urge to laugh. Could it be? I looked back at him. He was staring glumly at the floor as if his life could be measured in minutes, the hangman’s noose awaiting him. “She’s your mommy, isn’t she?” I wondered teasingly, flicking my tongue out gleefully. His emotions surged as he stared at me agape and filled with horror. No. Freaking. Way. “~Annie’s your mommy! Annie’s your mommy!~” I sang like a demented twelve-year-old schoolyard bully. Daddy would not approve. “Emeraude!” Fleur glared at me over her shoulder like a disapproving mother. “That is not the proper way for a lady to behave! You will apologize, oiu?” “No, it’s all right,” Anzealous sighed tiredly. “Yes, Queen Anisophira is my mother. I have not been home for more than thirty years.” I immediately was curious and asked the inevitable question. “What happened?” Fleur went on, muttering to herself, “Je vous jure, les enfants ces jours-ci!” “I know what that means!” “Good! Then you know what it means to be called a child in two languages.” The former ambassador was chuckling nervously. “Don’t worry about an apology. She’s my mother and it’s my fault our relationship soured.” He looked at me as I slowed down enough for him to come up alongside me. “You still love her, don’t you?” I asked. “Naturally. She is my mother, after all.” “That makes you a prince, doesn’t it?” “Yes and no.” He gave me a half grin that held no warmth. Just regret. “Like the ponies, changelings are a matriarchal society. Our queens are also long-lived. I am in line for the throne, but should that happen, I would be the puppet for a mate of Grandmother’s choosing. Mother wanted me to stay and help develop what we had going on in our hive, which was being little more than a fishing village pilfering love from sailors we rescued from shipwrecks during the hurricane season.” “You were ambitious,” I told him knowingly. The fat little bug sighed and winced. “Yes. Still am, actually. I didn’t want to spend my life helping my mother rule over our small kingdom while the world turned beyond our borders. Why, I wanted us to join the world! I wanted the other great races to see us as equals! I wanted to establish relations, pave a new road to better my hive! Mother would have none of it.” “She kicked you out?” “No,” he sighed, a very unhappy changeling. “I stripped myself from the hive and became a Gray. I sought out Queen Druanae after spending several years trying to figure out just what I wanted to do with my life.” He was avoiding saying a lot, that much was clear. What was spoken to this point was escalating his anxiety. “Can you feel your father?” he asked curiously. “Yeah, I can,” I replied. “Something’s...off.” He blinked, then became peevish. “Oh, Mother...what have you done?” The defeat in his voice was coupled with a new sort of fear. Fear of me. “What?” I demanded in a suddenly aggressive tone. He shied from me, shaking his head. “I can’t say!” he squeaked. “Fleur, can we please hurry?” I asked as something heavy began to form in my heart. “She’s done something to Daddy!” I could feel Daddy, but I couldn’t connect with him like I usually could. Anzealous cleared his throat. “It’s temporary! I’ve touched the hivemind and she needs him to train her soldiers in a moment on how to use human weapons. I’m surprised she let me in, actually.” He said the last part more to himself and with some confusion. The world came to a dead stop. I grabbed the fat little bug with my magic and jerked him off his hooves until he dangled in front of me, muzzle to muzzle. “WHAT!?” “Emeraude, your father is safe and protected,” the white unicorn told me. “Trust your instincts. I know enough about changelings to see the queen here is acting surprisingly transparent...for a changeling.” “Are you sure it’s a good idea to let changelings have human weapons? I know what a firearm can do, Fleur!” “What is done is done, oui? We shall deal with it at the correct time. Now is not that time, mon fille. Put poor Anzealous down, if you please.” “Mother was always honest enough to be considered a pony,” lamented Anzealous through the wheezing by my grip on his neck. “Could you put me down?” I grudgingly relaxed and dropped him like a bad habit. He recovered rather quickly and was hovering on his wings, preventing his round rump from bouncing off the floor. I was disappointed. “Thank you.” I grunted like a cave woman tired of seeing her mate leaving dead animals piling up in front of the cave without cleaning them first. Then, I felt this enormous pressure from a good distance away...maybe five or six miles. It was in the general direction of Luna and it felt like a very dark release of magic. I hissed in surprised as my horn began to tingle...a tingle more associated with having the legs and bodies of thousands of bugs crawling over it. “Fleur!” “Death magic!” she cried. “Forbidden!” she seethed with sudden rage. “Changeling magic? No. Something older.” She hurried, her voice having fallen to something of being at a thoughtful loss. “Come! We must find Queen Anisophira!” I was really confused. Who died? Luna? Was there even death involved? Why did it feel so sickening to my stomach? Why was there panic in Fleur’s tone? Ahead of us was a din of changeling activity. Then we were suddenly fighting a flow of changelings all over the floors, the walls, and the ceilings. They were going in the opposite direction we had come. Mothers bore their kids on their backs, other changelings carried what they could. It had the look and feel of an evacuation. Startled eyes of solid blue immediately found me and locked on as they passed, some changelings stopping dead in their tracks and causing a pileup of sputtering angry refugees. I could make out their voices quite clearly, but had no clue what they were saying. I could feel their words and those emotions required no translation. It saddened me. The corridor finally opened before us and we were bathed in the light of the rising sun. The buzzing of wings went off and on, some faintly along the jagged face of the cliff I could now make out. Anzealous spoke to one of the guards, asking a question. The guard shifted on his hooves and stared about the cliff face before nodding to himself and pointing. Daddy stood out easily as I looked in the direction indicated. I smiled when I first saw him, but it slowly died on my lips as I realized what he was holding. His face bore a dreamy smile, and I felt nothing but adoration coming from him. Adoration for that tall, scrawny thing standing next to him. “Why does he have a gun?” I demanded to no one in particular. I went up to Fleur urgently, nervous and now scared shitless. “Fleur! Why does he have a gun?” The unicorn’s jaw was set and she frowned darkly. “She has his mind under her influence. This is disgraceful!” The mare shouted the last sentence, her voice and timbre shifting to reflect her anger. It was something rarely stoked and I could feel her fury. Reflexively, I shied from her, assuming a submissive posture. “Do not cower, Chrysalis,” she said, using my name, her voice crisp and cold. “Stand. You are a queen. Be a queen before another queen. Take back what is yours.” Fleur’s eyes flashed with a savagery I didn’t even know she possessed. I did not miss her using my name, and not the one she had lovingly bestowed upon me. I could not flinch. I dare not flinch! “For now, be silent. Be still, oui?” Her tone shifted, became softer. Those eyes of hers flashed her desire for me to understand. The emotions wafting from her made me feel as though she was giving me an invisible nuzzle, brief and to the point. She turned her attention to the stoic queen and the man standing next to her. “Queen Anisophira!” she called out, unamused and bristling with restrained fury. “You will release your hold on the human Michael Spriggs.” Aside and to me, she hissed, “Be a queen, Emeraude. She will expect no less from you.” Anzealous nodded, his fear palpable. The skinny queen observed us imperiously before faintly inclining her head. “Approach,” she commanded. Her guards were scattered about her presence, eyeing us dangerously. I felt their fear. The queen suffered no such feeling. Her magic crackled around her and I could see it as I shifted my sight by quietly reading her with a spell. She showed none of the potential of say Luna or Celestia, but she and Fleur were a close match. As for skill? I had no idea. She dismissed me and focused her attention on the white clad unicorn stepping confidently towards her. “Death magic stirs in the air, Queen Anisophira,” Fleur announced, accusing in her mannerisms. The statement in her words was thinly veiled with her contempt. “I have felt flame snuffed of an ancient being. The very world groans under the weight of such loss.” “Yes,” replied the queen with a sneer. “I could not help but feel it. Look to the horizon, to where a storm of magic was created and even now falls apart. A battle of wills as the Night Princess confronted the Storm Serpent. Child, cease your attempts.” Fleur looked at me, quirking an eyebrow. As they had been speaking, I tried to reach Daddy. I met nothing but a wall. “Let him go!” The queen regarded me coolly. “You have the ability to take control from me. You are a stronger changeling than me.” “Sois tout de même!” hissed the unicorn. “I don’t want to hurt him,” I cried, surging forward. My disguise fell away in green flames, revealing my true form. “You have no right to treat him like this! He is a human being!” Guards leapt in front of us, but the queen screeched a keening sound. They drooped their ears and slid away from the path leading up to her. I forged ahead, going past Fleur. She hissed at me to stop, but I ignored her. Holding my head erect and proudly, any fear and trepidation I might have had was gone as I focused on Daddy. My anger...I could taste it on my tongue. It stung my eyes. My fury drove my heart. “What would you do to protect your children, Chrysalis?” asked Anisophira, unmoving from her spot. “What lengths would you go to prevent the deaths of those who see you not only as their ruler, but their mother?” She pointed a hoof to the horizon. “Do you see the death coming? Do you see the ships of those who would raze this place and slaughter the innocents because their master failed?” “Get rid of the guns,” I snarled. Oh, I did not ignore the fact changelings were wielding assault rifles. For some reason, I was expecting Chinese made AK47s. These appeared to be weaponry of the United States armed forces. Silly me. “No,” replied the changeling. “I will not surrender a great equalizer.” She looked behind me. “Anzealous. You’ve gotten fat, my son.” The queen then began to speak to him in her language and he responded hesitantly. They went back and forth for a few moments until she stamped a holed hoof, a come here! gesture if ever there was one. Like a spoiled child finally discovering he was really in trouble, Anzealous trudged forward with his tail tucked between his legs. His gossamer wings splayed out and down towards the ground and he kept his neck out straight in front of his body. When he was finally before the queen, there was a moment of pause. The look on her face twitched with smouldering anger, and she raised a hoof as if to strike. She brought it down swiftly, and the fat bug flinched. The blow never came. Anisophira hovered her hoof an inch from his cheek before upturning it and guiding the edge under her son’s chin. His head was lifted until their eyes met. She then reached out with her other hoof and drew him into an embrace. Anzealous let out a startled squeak, completely taken by surprise. Of all the beings in the immediate area he turned to for support with those pathetic, pleading eyes, why did he choose me? Oh, hell no! I told him with a snort and a glare. “So, the act of defending your kids requires you to steal from nations that could squash you like a bug without breaking a sweat?” Shaking my head, I hope she understood the ramifications. It made me pause as I considered my own words. What if the United States found a way to get a portal here? What if it was something worse? A rogue state? I understood a little bit of how this world and the Earth I grew up on were linked. Celestia had a way to get back and forth and even had research teams scattered around the globe. Unlike Daddy, this was stuff I would love to challenge my mind with. Working on cars is more fun, though. I miss Twilight. My car, not the princess! Sheesh! A Mustang will always top a pony. The queen released her son. Anzealous looked embarrassed and completely lost. “Don’t change the subject,” I growled. “The guns. Lose them. My father. Restore him.” She gave me a mirthless grin. “Or you’ll do what, sister? I doubt you have the experience nor the acumen to force me to do anything. Not anymore, at any rate. Druanae already warned me of who you are and I accepted it, despite the glaring fact you supposedly killed yourself after losing your hive. You were better off lost in your madness.” “This is not the time for arguing,” interrupted Fleur de Lis. She came to my side and inclined her head politely to the queen. It was barely returned. “I represent Equestria on the behalf of the diarchy. The Princesses Celestia and Luna extend their hooves to the Anisophira Hive under the protection from persecution from the Changeling Empire.” She produced a neatly rolled scroll from within her clothing and drifted it over to the changeling queen. “Fleur,” I protested, wagging a wild hoof at the closest changeling within view carrying a boom stick. “Guns!” “This is neither the place nor the time,” she said, shaking her head. “She does bring up a point in defending her hive and the offspring of her subjects, Emeraude. The details can be worked out with the princesses. Neither you nor I are in a position to argue the morality, oui?” I grumbled, looked away. I felt like a six-year-old filly again under her withering glare. “Learn quickly, little older sister,” mused the changeling queen. I gave her my divided attention. “You’ve returned to a nest of snakes. Trust none of us. Not me. Not Druanae. None of the queens, your sisters. We will try and turn you into a weapon to use against each other.” Okay, I was officially confused and also scared witless. “What do you mean?” “Exactly as it sounds,” she purred, looking at Daddy with a look of insatiable hunger. “I only say this now so I can remove myself from the equation. I do not wish to play the game any longer. It has destroyed me. I will not live for much longer, so the matter is moot.” I moved again, toward her, focusing on why I was mad. As I opened my mouth to shout, she cut me off. “I will release him when there is no longer an immediate threat to those I care about. Do I make myself clear?” Fleur answered for me. “Agreed. What assurances do I have you will restore him as you found him?” “He is as fragile as he is stubborn. A most unusual mind,” Anisophira said with a half smile. “I assure you, he will be fine. A bit upset, perhaps, but as fine as can be expected, given his mental scars. The Empress has touched him. As has another queen. Felu’s touch, if am not mistaking her magic signature.” A troubled cloud formed over her face. A guard chirped respectfully at his queen, bowing as he spoke. “They come!” The queen began to chitter loudly, rising off the ground on her hooves and baring her fangs. Her soldiers darted behind boulders and rocks, their eyes searching the skies. “Lady Fleur, Chrysalis. I’d rather have you two with the refugees, but your magic might be more useful along the defensive perimeter. We just need time.” She gestured at the incoming pirate ships. “Long enough to stall them. If they’re any good, the pirates will have unicorns servicing their offensive and defensive capabilities.” “Death magic!” hissed Fleur, but letting the distractions pull her from her outrage. It was in the forefront of her mind and she wanted to address it, that spell. Claiming it to be a forbidden magic had left her frazzled internally. “Emeraude, you will help me with the shielding, non?” I did a quick head count. We had less than fifty defenders. I had no idea how many pirates were on the incoming ships, but judging from their size, it wouldn’t be too far of a stretch to guess we were against three to five hundred baddies. My heart started pounding in my chest and my throat was suddenly dry. I nodded to Fleur, trying very hard to not be scared. My knees betrayed me. Fleur’s voice soothed me. “I am here, mon fille. Lean on me and do as I say. Think of protecting your papa.” I watched as lion birds swooped in, feeling their supreme confidence and their simmering anger. Their god was dead and they wanted blood. Too bad their only weapons were talons, beaks, and blades of all sorts. They gleamed in the broken sunlight shafting through the crumbling storm clouds. Then, at an unspoken command, the changelings unleashed hell, the sound of roaring gunfire upon the unsuspecting griffons. I could hear Daddy’s voice as he calmly instructed them in a language most of them couldn’t understand. I heard little of his voice over the deafening repeating shots echoing throughout the cliffs. “Aim small!” he shouted. “Shoot when you are ready! Don’t force the shot!” It was as though he was an instructor on the range. But it wasn’t him, not really. He was a puppet following the strings being pulled by Anisophira. The smirk she gave me was pointed. Griffons screamed and fell, some dead, most wounded. Most fell into the violent surf and was dashed upon the rocks mercilessly. I clamped my hooves over my ears and screamed, bawling at the horror unleashed all around me. They returned fire with what looked like musketts, though it was hard to tell other than they were long, single-shot rifles. Fleur pulled me to my hooves, whispering calming words and encouraging me with gentle nuzzles. All while keeping a shield up with her magic. It was one of those one-way shields, letting objects leave, but letting nothing in. The major drawback was it kept oxygen from getting in. If she left it up long enough, those under it would suffocate. “Ah, warfare. It is not for all,” said a voice suddenly on my other side. The changeling queen watched the unfolding battle, her eyes darting everywhere. She gave some of her attention to me. “The sting of battle. The cries of pain. The sounds of death all around you. What purpose does it serve, my little sister? Be you the attacker or the defender, what purpose is all this violence? To get something you want? To keep others from getting what you have? You were once adamant in starting a war you could not win. You once promised us all an empire separate from Mother’s. Look. Over there.” I managed to see through my tears to where she wanted me to focus. Daddy was calmly taking shots from behind a jutting rock, his face full of grim determination. I had never seen anything like that on his face before. He was a lot more accurate than the changelings. He was the Reaper, and he was collecting his souls. “His training serves him well,” Anisophira commented with a slender amount of respect. “I should fear facing other trained monkeys like him. So easily manipulated. So easily trained to kill without remorse. This is why I am bowing out of this little arms race between my sisters, Chrysalis.” She ignored my tears and the glare from the unicorn supporting me. “I won’t let my hive fall in a race to destruction. Unlike Mother and her flank- kissing daughters, I want my children to know happiness and to have a sense of self worth. If this condemns me, so be it.” “This is such bullshit!” I suddenly screamed at her, the rage overwhelming my fears. “You’re a monster! He’s done nothing to you!” Yeah, I’m trying to carry an argument in the middle of a battle. I’m a teenager. Teenagers do lots of dumb things, like prioritizing things in a backwards manner. We’re walking bundles of emotional chaos. Don’t tell me you weren’t a teenager at some point in your life, doing things you would later look back and give yourself a facepalm. Didn’t think so. Amused, the queen took a step back, regarded Daddy, then came back to me. “You have assimilated a lot of his personality, sister and made it your own. You speak alike and even use the same profanities...if that is what this ‘bullshit’ is. Why you would want a bull minotaur’s manure is beyond me.” I snarled at her. “Bon. Feel that anger. Hold that anger. Repress your fears. They will kill you if you let them take over your senses.” Fleur was speaking as calmly as if we were sitting to tea. “There is nothing to do now other than fight to live. We must protect those who cannot protect themselves. I need you, Emeraude. Are you with me?” She dropped her shield as the pounding claws of the griffons pushed her to her limits. Unlike Shining Armor, she was not a master at defensive magic. She exhaled, frowning in irritation as the attackers breached her defenses. They simply fell to the bullets of the scattered defenders. Some of the defenders fell, but the line was holding. “Yes,” sneered the queen. “Don’t be a simpering hatchling and be a queen.” “At least I won’t be a monster like you.” She laughed. It was not a pleasant sound. “We’re changelings, you and I. We were born monsters!” “Your Majesty,” Fleur cut in smoothly. “There is a battle currently underway. Perhaps it requires your attention, non?” “Or course,” she replied through a wax smile. “The ships are turning their broadsides to us.” A griffon landed in front of her. She smirked as it flopped, one wing bloodied. It squawked at her in fear once it realized it was face-to-face with a queen. Her magic sizzled from her horn, blasting the helpless pirate over the ledge and onto the rocks below. “Those lovely shields of yours would be most useful right now, Lady Fleur.” “Emeraude, link your magic with mine.” I nodded and pointedly ignored the grinning changeling queen. Closing my eyes, I felt out for her magic with my own. She took a gentle hold and coaxed me to match her output into a reinforced shield, adding to what she already had up. My magic sight could see the linking of our magic. Not a lot of magic users utilize a spell meant to give unicorn foals a visual aid, but I did it out of habit. Fleur smiled tightly. “Good. Queen Anisophira, if you would be so kind as to withdraw your forces into the tunnels?” “Where’d Anzealous go?” I asked suddenly. “Never you mind him,” shushed the unicorn. “Focus on the barrier, just as I taught you.” “Why don’t they give up?” I asked, staring at the ships as they were in the middle of turning. I could make out the cannons bristling from their hulls. “I mean, the dragon’s dead, isn’t it?” “Griffons are honor bound to complete a fallen leader’s final wishes,” explained the queen as her soldiers finished off the griffons within the new barrier. Some were already making for the tunnels scattered along the face of the cliff. “I suspect the officers on those ships are griffons. Surprising there are no pegasi. Their unicorns are putting up shields. They’re expecting a counter attack. The human weapons have caught them completely off guard.” She licked her lips and fangs, then grinned savagely. I found that hard to believe. There was an airship out there with a hundred human kids that would beg to differ. Or was it? This was all very confusing. I couldn’t spare the time in thinking about it. “They’ll fight until they win or until they die. Their ancestors are watching,” she finished sadly, despite her determined stance. “If they win, that means all of us are dead or slaves. We have no choice.” “We could have just taken the changelings deeper into Equestrian territory!” I protested. “Aren’t we in Equestria?” “Focus!” she snapped. Both ships fired broadsides and my view was filled with fire and billowing, angry smoke. Immediately, my mind was pounded as if a bunch of bowling balls were being thrown at my skull. I reeled, but Fleur steadied me. “All of my changelings are inside!’ called Anisophira. Fleur then said, “Emeraude, end the spell.” I found myself sobbing as I did so, not realizing I had been crying the whole time. Fleur nickered lightly, then nudged me after the queen. Daddy did not give me so much as a glance as he scanned the skies over the sights of his rifle. He looked so scary! “Clear!” he growled to Anisophira. She nodded in satisfaction. “Let’s go. The Equestrians can finish up here. You did well, my champion.” I glared at the back of her head as her tail swished the stone floor in her wake. Champion? Him for her? Over my dead body! Anzealous was ushered out from a hiding spot by his mother. I was not at all surprised to see he was letting her order him around. For a moment, I could see how alike they were in the face. They shared the same horn. We followed after them, trotting quickly without a second look back. As we went, my mind wandered and settled on her. Anisophira’s aura wobbled and she was putting considerable mental effort into maintaining it. She was also incredibly skinny, almost sickly. The queen of this hive was not a healthy specimen. I leaned into Fleur, a question on my face. Before I could ask it, the unicorn who was also my teacher and my friend nodded, answering it with neither pity nor anger. Disappointment? I could feel a twinge of it. I didn’t pity her. I was glad she was dying. After what she did to Daddy? Screw her. “Such tasty emotions,” she chuckled dryly, glancing at me over her shoulder. “I’ll release him in good time, my darling little older sister. I don’t intend to harm what is currently the entirety of your hive. Even I am not so foolish as to try and tempt your anger and untapped potential in that manner.” She was mocking me! “No, she isn’t,” whispered Fleur into my ear. “I don’t have to read your mind in order to read your body, mon fille.” “I don’t know her,” I growled, snorting through my nostrils. “She’s going around like she’s got a chip on her shoulder and I feel like it’s my fault. That’s not fair, Fleur! I didn’t do anything to her and I don’t understand any of this stuff going on! I’m confused, my Daddy is a puppet, and I think I really am going to do something epically stupid.” “The princesses will know how to handle this,” she assured me. Behind us, we could hear the roaring cannons. The tunnels echoed the battle in a ghostly manner. The walls reverberated from the shooting. I noted how some of the changeling soldiers were taking overwatch positions along the tunnels, peeling back one by one, always keeping us and each other covered as they retreated. It was weird seeing them hovering assault rifles near their heads. After several minutes of nothing but the sounds of hooves on stone and buzzing wings, I felt an enormous pressure at the base of my horn. It made me flinch and falter in my steps. It wasn’t natural magic. It wasn’t unicorn magic. It certainly wasn’t changeling magic. “ Teleportation spell,” growled Fleur with a nervous whicker. “Magie ancienne…c'est gigantesque!” Her voice rattled nervously as she said to herself, “Ce n'est pas les princesses.” “Come with me!” shouted Anisophira. “It’s over where my changelings are!” There was panic suddenly in her voice. Her soldiers abandoned any show of cover and swarmed past us. They were angry and I could feel their desperation. We burst into the open, back the way we had come. There were buzzing sounds all around us as well as a tall equine figure awaiting us. Anisophira chittered angrily, masking her fear that had grown rapidly since the unicorn’s declaration. She made a beeline for a group of changelings hissing and displaying their wings while surrounding a lot of green cocoon thingies. I hadn’t seen them before. They looked like thay had...changeling babies in them? Daddy had his rifle up and ready, his fingers adjusting on the grip as he scanned for targets and waited for orders. His face was stern and grim, ready to unleash death from his rifle. The thought terrified me. Daddy wasn’t a killer! Daddy was my dad! Hundreds of changelings in a lighter hue of grayish brown hovered in position, cutting off any retreat and filling the sky. I had never seen so many. The darker changelings of Anisophira’s hive were in a defensive circle, with the nymphs in the middle with their caretakers, as well as the other non combatants. The few soldiers remaining in the hive had established a perimeter and growled and hissed at the newcomers. Quint Orca and the others were separated from the others but seemed unharmed. He was yelling at the lighter-colored changelings, the string of profanities falling from his mouth like an open spigot of filth. Fleur made a beeline for the ponies, only to be cut off by a swarm of guards. I wasn’t paying attention to her. I saw a very impressive-looking queen from whom the colors of these new changelings emulated. Her mane was like the color of fall leaves, hanging with wild abandon over her neck and shoulders. Amber harlequin eyes peered fearlessly from beneath a remarkably straight horn bearing two large holes in seperate diagonals right through them. Unlike Anisophira, she was vibrant. Like Anisophira, she was arrogant and carried a barely concealed sneer through her fangs. This was the vision of a queen I had imagined, though I wouldn’t exactly say it was something I’d emulate any time soon. Too much bitch in her attitude. Her glare was levelled at the skinny queen, focused and angry. Daddy caught her eye and I felt...regret?...shame…? ...Guilt? “What have you done with my consort?” she demanded in a voice filled with furious hornets. It was sort of like hearing Angelina Jolie with a British accent layered over four or five times. “Consort?” I blurted incredulously. “Daddy? What the hell?!”