The Red Cyclone

by Onomonopia


The Heart of the Hive

"...and those are the salts mines. As I already stated (but probably have to say again for you) that is where we send the rebel changelings that try to overthrow the queen and hurt the other members of the hive," Insectum stated for the mass of muscle besides her that was Zangief, the Red Cyclone looking down at her with a nod as he processed what she was saying.

"It is a fitting punishment for those who cannot remain loyal to their mother country," Zangief agreed as the two walked back towards the main city streets. "I must both thank and question you for taking me for a tour around your hive. While I am grateful for the chance to look around, would it not be easier to simply instruct an underling to give me a tour?"

"Two reasons why we didn't do that. First is my mom believes that if you were left unattended for longer than an hour you would bring about the destruction of the hive by yourself," Insectum explained, her words cutting into Zangief's heart. "The second is that I feel that by doing this I can somewhat repay you for saving all of those children that were taken by the wilderbeasts. If it hadn't been for you, many lives would have been lost. Thank you. You did a great deed for our home."

"You do not need to thank me! To see the children that believe in you smiling after a victory is the greatest joy a wrestler can experience," Zangief laughed. "But I was not impressed with these wilderbeasts that I fought. They had no honor nor did they have any wrestling skill whatsoever. They were even worse then the bears I wrestled in the freezing blizzards back in the motherland!"

"Zangief, can I say something?" Insectum asked hesitantly, taking in a deep breath when Zangief nodded. "You're really weird." Zangief held a hand to his wounded heart while Insectum trotted ahead back into the city limits, smiling and waving at the changelings that greeted her.

"Oh, good morning Princess Insectum!" an elderly changeling said as Insectum walked by, Insectum nodding with a smile.

"Princess Insectum! You are just looking lovely today! Your mother must dot on you quite often," a female changeling observed as she walked by with a huge smile, Insectum thanking her before waving at a pair of changelings who called out to her. Zangief watched the display with curious eyes, stroking his beard as the populace continued to cast praises upon the young princess.

"Your people do truly seem to love you, far more than I have seen them love your mother," Zangief pointed out after a pair of young children offered a flower to Insectum, which she received with a warm smile. "How did you earn his affection? Did you crush a rival wrestler in a steel cage match with only your legs?"

"No, it was nothing that...extreme," Insectum began softly as she gently inhaled the scent of the small flower, smiling gently before placing the flower in her light green mane near her ear. "I was...born, I guess." Knowing that Zangief wouldn't catch on, she took in another breath to continue. "For the longest time, the changelings of the hive were afraid that when my mom died, there would be no one to take up the crown and the hive would erupt into anarchy in a battle for the crown. Mom hadn't had an children for nearly forty years, which is still young by changeling standards, until she finally had me, the first child of hers that hadn't died in childbirth."

"All of her other children...I should apologize to her for any of my harsh words," Zangief muttered as he hung his massive head, Insectum appreciating his sudden understanding of her mom's harsh personality.

"So yeah, the hive exploded into joy when I was born, because that meant that they weren't going to have a war for the crown," Insectum said as she looked up at the burning sun overhead, a frown crossing over her previously smiling face. "Of course, that was before Tenna showed up and tried to ripe the changeling people in two."

"And how does it feel to be so famous? To bask in the presence of so many people that love you?" Zangief asked, knowing full well how great it felt.

"It's...scary." Her answer both confirmed his thoughts that changelings were strange and also made him wonder why she would think such a thing. "To have all of those changelings already looking up to me, expecting so many great things out of me even though I'm barely eight right now...I feel like there's this incredible pressure on my shoulders that I'm never going to be able to lift." Zangief looked down at the changeling princess for a moment before he picked her up with two fingers and placed her on his shoulder.

"I do know what you are talking about, but there are other ways to think about the spotlight," Zangief began as changelings around him began to look and laugh at the sight. "You can think of the spotlight as scary, that all of those people in the crowd are cheering for you and that you might let them down. And sometimes you think the best answer is to block out all of the fans and try to go on all by yourself."

"That's generally what I do," Insectum muttered, getting Zangief to smile.

"But then one day you will run up against a foe who is superior to you in every way, be it strength, speed or brains, and you will find yourself unable to beat them. A foe that, for all your strength, you cannot win against. And this is not an 'if it will happen', it is a 'when'. For no matter how good you are, there is always someone better," Zangief told her, causing fear to rise up in her eyes when she looked at him.

"So what do you do then?" she asked with fear in her voice. "What do you do, when you don't have the power to protect your people?" To her surprise Zangief let out a small smile as a group of changeling children ran up to him, all of them asking to ride around on his shoulders. He agreed and knelt down so they could climb up onto his other arm before he began to speak.

"You let in their cheers, their praise and their love for you. You realize that they are placing their faith in you to win, to fell the unstoppable foe before you. And no matter how strong that foe is, if they are only fighting for themselves they cannot win. But for you, you can no longer think about yourself. You must think of the small, crippled boy in the front row who wishes he could be strong like you. You must think of those who have given up on many things, but still hold faith in you. You will let their cheers fuel your muscles, you will let their belief in you seal away your pain. Because now, no longer fighting for yourself, you are fighting for all those who believe in you. And when you fight for others, for those who hope against hope for you to win, you will achieve a power that no force can match. The power to fell any foe! That is what it means to fight for the people."

The words pierced into Insectum like an arrow through her armor, losing herself to thought while Zangief launched the changelings on his biceps into the air by flexing and laughing as they flew back down.

'He's right,' she thought to herself as she looked at the crowd of changelings that had formed around them to watch the spectacle, smiling softly at all of them as they laughed and cheered for Zangief. 'I need to remember that they are my strength, that I fight and will rule for my people. That is where my power will lie!'

"Are you ready, princess?" Zangief asked her, his booming voice snapping her out of her thoughts and she looked at him with confusion.

"Am I ready for what?" she asked in reply, not liking when both Zangief and the crowd of changelings around her began to laugh.

"To see how far the mighty muscles of Zangief can launch you!" Zangief laughed before flexing with all his wrestling ferocity, the force driving his bicep, and in turn Insectum, straight up. She screamed in both fear and amusement as she went sailing, only to catch herself with her wings and fly back down onto Zangief's shoulder.

'You really aren't that bad after all,' she thought as he started to flex again for the crowd, who whistled and cheered for him. 'But you're still an idiot.'

←↙↓↘→↗+H

Buried deep under the ground, far deeper than even the queen of the changelings knew lay a building that was built with only one purpose in mind: war. It was large enough to have multiple rooms that could house hundreds of soldiers and ever corridor and point was designed to allow the defending forces to have the upper hand. There were only three entrances to the underground fortress and they were all heavily guarded by the toughest of changelings.

Inside the fortress hundreds of changelings were hard at work, each of them knowing their task and that they had to carry it out. many of the insects barely spoke with the others as they completed their jobs, for they had almost nothing in common with one another. But the one unifying factor that enabled them to all work together was a hatred, a hatred of a changeling that they did believe deserved to sit upon the throne that should not belong to her. To them they believed that only the strongest changeling should rest upon that throne. And they knew that the changeling they worked for was the strongest.

"And all of the supplies were lost?" Tenna growled as he stared at a picture hanging on the wall, not wanting to fill his vision with the failure that lay beaten on the floor behind him for their foolishness. "We gave you the best medicines when we found you beaten and broken out in the desert because we believed that you had fallen victim to a force far more powerful than you, but now I am being told that you were all defeated by ONE foe?"

"B-but it wasn't a foe that we have ever seen before!" one of the changelings shouted out, trying to defend their defeat. "It was some sort of massive monstrosity, the likes of which I've never seen! It...slapped away our spells like they meant nothing and took us apart while laughing! It was-" Tenna turned and fired a piercing spell into the heart of the changeling, dropping him without another word. He then walked over to the other changeling, his giant frame completely casting the other changeling in his shadow as he shook with fear.

"And what is your excuse for being defeated?" he asked him in a near whisper.

"I have no excuse, we were completely crushed," he said quietly as he hung his head. Tenna let a thin smile cross his lips at those words and he turned and walked over to his desk again.

"You may live. But now you see what I think of those who make up excuses for their failures," he said menacingly as he turned his armored face back towards the changeling, who was still hanging his head. "We are the strongest changelings, the ones who knew that our previous hive was becoming soft. We do not make excuses for our failures, we accept them and then do not let them happen again. Remember that. Now out." The changeling left without another word while another with red markings over it's eyes entered.

"There reports have been confirmed. It's seems that Chrysalis does have some sort of new pet that crushed our forces with ease."

"I care not. They are the strongest, they should know better than to lose," Tenna replied coldly as he turned to face the new changeling. "Have you done what I have asked you to do?" The changeling nodded with a smile, Tenna not returning the gesture as he walked over to his desk and looked down at the large map on the surface of it. "Then we are almost ready."

"Attacking the main hive will be a very risky action. We cannot currently defeat their numbers with our power and we would lose if we tried. We need an ace in the hole," the other changeling advised as he looked down at the map as well with cautious eyes.

"What do you recommend?" Tenna asked the advisor, who thought about it for a moment before another smile crossed his face.

"The changelings of the hive might be weak alone, but they draw their strength from their love of the royal family and how much they seem to care of the people," he said with a laugh as he drew a knife and drove it into a certain room in the castle. "If we wish to break the changelings of the hive, then we must strike them at their most vulnerable point. We must strike here!"

"At the queen?"

"No. At their heart."

"Insectum," Tenna muttered with a small smirk as he caught on to the plan, his mind immediately beginning to think of a way to kill the "princess". "No, killing her in her room would be a waste of a chance," he muttered as his mind shifted into another direction. "if we do so, then the hive might make her into a martyr and then will fight even harder."

"Then what do you believe we should do?"

"We will take her and use her as leverage over the queen," Tenna decided as he briskily walked away from the desk and to where his soldiers awaited their orders. "if we have her precious daughter then we might be able to have her surrender the land to us without hesitation."

"A brilliant idea."

"Yes, but too large a force would be caught or detected before we reached the city. Therefor, only five of us shall sneak into the city and take the princess without Chrysalis ever knowing...actually, having her know might break her all the quicker," Tenna added with a snicker before he regained his professional composure. "But we will have to move soon. My instincts are telling me that a storm is on the way."

"Then you should take your troops and leave now. Storms here tend to come fast and brutalize anypony who is unfortunate to be caught within them," his adviosor added, Tenna nodding as he prepared to move out. "And speaking of taking precautions, do you have an plans to deal with that strange new creature that Chrysalis now has within her castle?"

"Why should I fear such a creature? It was lucky that I sent fools to deal with the securing of previsions instead of personally going," Tenna growled while taking blades off of a weapons rack. "If that creature wishes to fight me, then it shall have it's wish granted. And then I shall kill it."