"If Hitler invaded hell, I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons."
Winston Churchill
Everfree Castle had been reborn. In just a month, the shattered windows and grimy, crumbling halls had been cleaned and repaired as good as new. An entire tower had been converted to barracks, hundreds of makeshift beds lining it. Decisive Blow, a retired rust colored earth pony Guard, had commandeered the courtyard as training grounds for Masquerade's recruits. Well, he said training, but most ponies don't think of training as something causing grown stallions to bawl uncontrollably. Blow got results, though. He just wasn't the... gentlest of instructors.
Fine Dining nearly had a heart attack when he saw the state of the castle's kitchen. The colts who he had conscripted to clean it swore up and down that the ancient and forgotten foodstuffs had achieved sentience and a taste for equine flesh. Dining was a mauve unicorn chef with a reverence for the culinary arts in all of it's forms. He had been locked up when he decided to experiment with human cuisine at his restaurant, La Nourriture Est Amour, and now was Masquerade's head culinary specialist. Solenoid had to admit, the man had a gift. He had managed to make travel rations taste good.
Solenoid was currently standing in the war room, examining his new wings. The room had once been the castle's throne room, but Masquerade had converted it, the frayed tapestries lining the walls replaced with maps.
Glowing Hammer had really outdone himself this time. After the fight with the manticore, the redheaded pegasus had taken it upon himself to improve on Solenoid's prostheses, and improve he had. The inner circuitry was untouched, but gone were the dull ovals that had once adorned the spines of his wings. In their place were three rows of overlapping steel feathers, each pressed into shape and sharpened to a killing edge. His horn too had been altered, lengthened and molded to a spear's point.
"Admiring your toys, Sol?"
Solenoid jumped and whirled around to find Bon Bon. Apparently she had snuck up behind him without him noticing.
Giving her a sheepish grin, he socketed his wings into place.
"I suppose I am, aren't I? By the way, Bon Bon, I've meaning to ask you about something."
She cocked an ear.
"Oh? About what?"
"The changeling hive."
Bon Bon grimaced.
"You're not thinking about trying to get their help, are you?"
Solenoid sighed.
"Listen, we're facing thousands of guards, five of the Elements of Harmony, and the avatar of the sun itself. We need all of the help we can get. What condition was the hive in when you left?"
She huffed.
"I suppose you're right. When I left the hive, we were in major decline. There's no doubt it's gotten worse since, because I can't imagine the Queen trying something as ridiculous as she did unless the hive was outright starving."
A smirk worked its way onto Solenoid's face.
"Starving, eh? Bon Bon, my friend, I do believe we can make a deal here. Where is the hive at?"
"It's in a cave deep within the Badlands. It should have ended up behind the mountains on the southeastern coast."
"Very well. We leave for the Badlands in the morning three days from now. Bring a few dozen ponies, but leave Lyra and Fluttershy. If things work out poorly they can lead in our stead. Now then, pack up some nets, because we're going bug catching."
---
Solenoid jolted awake as the train eased into Dodge Junction. Freeing himself from the pony burrito his cloak had trapped him in, he lifted his saddlebags onto his back and left.
Slipping through the shadows between the crude buildings, he crept out of the sleeping frontier town, guided by the compass in his hoof. The plains glowed eerily under the night sky, and the moon seemed to be the eye of Celestia herself, watching him and plotting his doom. He shook his head; if she could do that, he'd be dead or worse by now.
He soon reached the camp set up by his comrades, and was greeted by a band of ponies and a crackling fire. He called out to the blob of black amongst the sea of color as he rooted through his bag.
"Am I the last one, Bon?"
"Yeah. Did you really have to take such a late train?"
He rolled his eyes as he screwed in his horn.
"In case you haven't realized, I'm a bit more noticeable than the average pony. The less people around to get suspicious, the better."
"That's true, but we need to sleep some time."
Nestling his bags behind his wings, Solenoid snorted
"Pff. Back when I was in the HLF, I slept whenever I could. One time, I went an entire week without sleeping, if you don't count napping whenever someone started ranting about how terrible magic is."
Bon Bon narrowed her eyes.
"That's well and good, but normal ponies need sleep schedules."
"Bon Bon, I'm not sure anyone in Masquerade counts as 'normal'."
She sighed.
"Point. So, we head off at the midnight tremors?"
"Yep. Now, I'm gonna take a nap."
And with that, Solenoid leaned against a tent and started snoring.
---
Crowley loved and scorned his lilac fur. On one hand, he could no longer get sunburned, but on the other hand it was like wearing a heavy coat, and it made the heat of the Badlands that much more unbearable.
"Bon, how about we rest for a bit? I can almost smell my hooves charring."
Bon Bon turned her weary gaze towards him.
"Sol, we're almost there. If we take any more breaks, we won't have enough supplies for the return trip."
Solenoid surveyed the endless barrens that surrounded them. Notching an eyebrow, he turned back to her.
"How do you even know we're going in the right direction?"
"I can smell the scents of the foragers that have passed through here."
"Oh? So changelings use pheromones like insects do?"
"Fara-whats?"
He shook his head.
"Nevermind."
After a while, the packed dirt began to give way to craggy gravel, and the mountain range that separated the Badlands from the ocean came into focus, an opening in the rock wall barely visible from this distance.
"Is that the hive?"
Bon Bon nervously shuffled her wings.
"Yeah. We can't just walk in though, we'll be stopped by the guards before we reach the entrance."
Solenoid squinted as he peered towards the growing hole.
"Guards? I don't see any."
"That's because they're hiding. If they were in plain sight we would have been discovered centuries ago."
Nodding, he started to peer at the landscape, trying to catch a glimpse of the sentries that were no doubt watching their approach.
As they neared, he could tell how the hive had gone unnoticed for so long. The entrance was large, yes, but it was obviously natural, and all that could be seen from the outside was bare stone and a faint amber light.
Suddenly, he saw a flash of green and heard a voice shout "Stop!"
His wings instinctively flew up to cover his face, but he froze as a spear point touched the tip of his nose.
He crossed his eyes to look at it. It seemed to be made out of some sort of cloudy crystal, probably dug out of the mountain. On the other end of the spear was a changeling with a short nearly white mane grimacing at him. Shifting his eyes, he could see that the rest of his traveling party was in a similar predicament.
He nervously grinned.
"Er, hello."
The guard spoke in a low phlegmy voice.
"So Equestria's finally sent some ponies to finish us off."
The guard glanced toward towards Bon Bon.
"And they were lead here by a traitor."
Solenoid spoke up at that and started stammering.
"Ah, well, you see, I-er, we, aren't with Equestria at all, really."
The guard just glared at him as he broke out in a cold sweat.
"A-Actually, we're here for, um, the opposite of that. We just want to make you an offer; the hive that is; a-and I'd like to talk to your leader. Uh, pretty please?"
After staring at him for a few seconds, the guard spoke to one of the other guards, none of which had manes at all.
"Eciton, tell the queen about these ponies. Ask her what she wants us to do with them."
The second guard saluted the first and buzzed into the hive.
Now all they could do was wait.
---
"So, uh, how about that hoofball?"
"I don't even know what that is, pony."
"Oh."
---
Twenty very slow and awkward minutes later, Eciton returned, to the relief of everyone involved.
"Sir, the Queen wishes to speak with the leader of these ponies."
The first guard grunted.
"Which of you is the leader?"
Solenoid shrugged.
"Well, uh, I suppose I am."
"It looks like you'll get your audience after all. Vespa, lead him to the queen. Move it, pony."
One of the other guards (was it female?) nodded and made her way into the hive. Solenoid followed her, the short maned guard bringing up the rear.
The simple entrance belied the sheer size of the hive. Though the main path within was only the size of the average street, it reached high up toward the mountain's peak, and was dotted with various side corridors snaking throughout the mountain and reaching what he assumed was very deep underground. It was quite obvious that the hive wasn't built to accommodate anyone without wings. Next to each pathway were a few characters from a language he didn't recognize, and some of the smaller openings had signs next to them, written in what he could only assume was the same language.
The cave walls were dotted with glowing amber orbs, cemented to the wall with a glassy substance. Near the entrance, it was a faded pink, but as Vespa led him through the various side paths, which he suspected was only to confuse and disorient him, he saw violet, blue, brown, and, in the paths which seemed less worn down than the others, green.
He passed a few changelings as he navigated the hive, each of which chittered and fled at the sight of him. Now, he didn't consider himself intimidating in the least, or any pony really, well, except for Decisive Blow, but that wasn't what bothered him. No, what bothered him was how few changelings there were traversing the corridors. He had only seen a handful, but the hive seemed like it was made to house hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of changelings were the hive to extend to some of the neighboring mountains. Even if they were avoiding him, he should have seen many more than he did.
After a while of zig-zagging throughout the hive, they finally stopped in front of a large set of doors, coated in some sort of white metal (Silver? Platinum?) and inlaid with various jewels. Vespa saluted the other guard and flew off into some other part of the hive.
Grasping the door's handle in his magic, the guard pulled it open.
If one were to ask Solenoid to describe Queen Chrysalis, he would say that she was beautiful. Not beautiful like a flower or a classical painting, but like a well made knife; sharp edged, elegant, and very dangerous.
Her eyes were not a blank blue, but were green with slitted pupils. She had a long unkempt aqua colored mane which lacked the fin that protruded from the manes of other changelings, and her tail was long enough to trail across the floor. Parting her mane was a long horn, edged like a twisted dagger, and perched atop her head was a small black crown topped with green turquoise. Like her subjects, she had a pad on her back, but hers was green rather than blue, and she had a band of the same color around her abdomen as well. Her body was sleek, but it also had a gaunt look to it that spoke of a long time without a proper meal. She sat upon a stone throne that was flush to the floor; it must have been carved along with the room itself.
"So, you're the pony that has stumbled upon our hive."
"Hmph. I wouldn't say stumbled. I'm from a group called Masquerade, and like I told this guard, we're here to make you an offer."
"And why would a group of ponies want anything to do with us?"
"Because we need the help of the changelings to take down Celestia."
Chrysalis raised an eyebrow.
"You want to dethrone your perfect, loving ruler?"
Solenoid grit his teeth.
"Chrysalis, Celestia has gone completely off of her fucking rocker. She's locking up anypony who disagrees with her, she's brainwashing any of those she can't afford to lock up, and she's turning humans into her goddamn pony shaped puppets! If I hadn't dosed myself with nanites before I drank the ponification serum, I'd be another one of her grinning dolls. Equestria is cancerous and Celestia the the big fat tumor growing out of it."
She smirked.
"And? Why should we care if Celestia loses her mind? We've spent thousands and thousands of years with no mind to Equestrian affairs. Why should that change now?"
He stared her in the eyes.
"Because your race is dying. They were starving to death when you tried to invade Equestria, and now there can't be more than a few thousand changelings left in this city. Because Celestia is terrified by everything that isn't a pony. No Equestrian citizen may enter Griffonia, and there's no doubt that after she's done with humanity she'll go after them. And who do you think she'll 'purify' after them? I bet she'll want revenge for the royal wedding. But the biggest reason you should help us? If you help us, we'll help you. There's plenty of ponies at our headquarters that will be willing to give your people love, and once we rebuild the Equestrian government, I promise you that your people will be afforded the same rights as any citizens under the law."
The queen and the stared at each other in silence for a few moments, before Chyrsalis directed her gaze towards the guard.
"Clavata, keep watch over him for a moment."
"Yes, your majesty."
She disappeared into a corridor in the corner of the room for a few minutes, before returning with a wooden chalice and a knife grasped in her magic.
"Commander, you may leave us."
Clavata saluted her.
"Yes, my queen."
As he left, Solenoid raised an eyebrow at Chrysalis.
"Commander?"
"As you said before, the hive is in dire straits."
Setting the chalice on the floor between the two of them, she sat down on the ground and motioned for him to do the same.
"I can't trust you on your words alone, and you would be an idiot to trust me not to betray you. This is important to both of us, however, and so I propose we swear a blood oath."
"A blood oath?"
"Yes. It's a magical promise that may only be broken under penalty of death. Each of us will add our blood to the cup, and I will cast the spell upon it. You will have to add your own magic, and one of us will swear an oath. The other will accept and drink some of the blood, before swearing their own oath. The first will accept and drink the rest, and the spell will be complete."
Solenoid thought for a moment before gulping.
"Fine."
Chrysalis nodded and plunged the knife into her leg, breaching tough chitin with a crack. Holding it over the cup, blood trickled into it as her magic soon sealed the wound. She passed the knife to him, and he wiped the knife off with his fur, before slicing into his skin. His blood, brighter and thicker than hers, soon joined it in the cup, swirling together. The changeling shot a bolt of magic into the blood, and it soon glowed a dim green. Solenoid poured his own magic into it, and the cup glowed a bright yellow.
Looking him in the eyes, she spoke.
"I, Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings, do swear upon my blood and my life that my hive shall ally with Masquerade to overthrow Celestia, Princess of Equestria, and that I and it will peacefully join the new country created by them."
He nodded, and said "I accept."
Gagging slightly, he forced down some of the coppery mixture. He spoke once he cleared his mouth and throat.
"I, Solenoid, leader of Masquerade, formerly Alan Crowley, do swear upon my blood and my life to ally with Queen Chrysalis and her hive to overthrow Celestia, Princess of Equestria, and that in the new government created they will have rights equal to all other citizens, and that they will have proportional representation in it."
The changeling queen was silent, staring at him for a minute before speaking.
"I accept."
Gripping the cup with her magic, she gulped down the remaining blood. For a second, he felt a constricting sensation, like he was choking, but it passed.
"Was that it?"
"Yes."
Grinning, he leapt up and shook Chrysalis' hoof.
"Welcome to Masquerade, Queenie!"
"Don't call me that."