//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Thunderchild // Story: The Humans in Equestria Club // by billymorph //------------------------------// I stood in the middle of Times Square, surrounded, and ignored, by the teeming mass of humanity. “Phsh, and they say we breed like locust,” Queen Chrysalis observed, watching with practiced disinterest at the innumerable people swarming past us. No one reacted to our presence, but then why would they? We were just watching a memory; from the pounding in my head, I guessed I was actually hanging upside down in a cocoon somewhere. “Excuse me, which one of us is being eaten here?” I grumbled, tapping my hoof on the ground. I wondered how my brain knew what asphalt beneath hooves felt like. Maybe it just made it up. Chrysalis laughed. “Neither of us. You would know it if I were feeding on you. I understand it’s... unpleasant. No, you’re here because I wanted to ask you a few questions.” She shot me a vicious smile. My pinions rattled as I shuddered. “Yeah, I don’t think that’s happening, really.” “I don’t recall telling you you had a choice.” Ah, so that was how it was going to be. I tried to fight her; but if I slowed her down by a single second then I didn’t notice. The changeling Queen paced a pitted hoof on my forehead and the world exploded. Dimly I was aware that I was screaming, but the part of my mind that monologues was so far disconnected from the parts that were in screaming agony, that I couldn’t consider the pain as anything but an abstract horror. Chrysalis picked apart precious memories, half remembered news items, and echos of teenage hormones all with the same air of casual disregard one would show to their laundry as they separated lights from darks. Perhaps that’s all my life was to her. “You’re a very strange species, you know that?” Chrysalis observed, reclining in a deep armchair, looking, over her horn rimmed spectacles, at a book of memories that had a worrying resemblance to my childhood diary . I shook my head, or at least shook my mind as I didn’t seem overly attached to limbs at the time. Chrysalis’ form flickered, replaced by a floating digital avatar of the Queen, surrounded by glowing screens. Another flick had her on a throne of gold, a doomsday sized tome before her. Another put her in a lycra suit, a large Star Trek dataslate clasped in her hooves. Her eyes narrowed, and there was a crack as I went whirling across the non-space of my mind, stars dancing before my eyes. “Too strange, sometimes,” she continued, resetting the world to be an ethereal plain. It was an exact match to-- Spoilers! --Twilight’s ascension scene. By Chrysalis’ grin, that was deliberate. “You know, the changelings have always dominated this world,” she continued, almost conversationally, as a documentary on the Romans drifted past. “We are the survivors. Empires rise and fall. Species come and go. But when all their monuments are buried and their bones are dust, we’re still here.” She shook her head. “Maybe that’s why you humans are so intent on self-destruction. There’s nothing to rein you in.” I rolled my eyes. Yeah, that was just what we needed, a race of emotional vampires, farming us. That would solve all of humanity’s ills. “It would solve mine,” Chrysalis pointed out, baring her fangs at me. “In fact, one of these would solve all my problems.” A nuclear detonation flashed in the bubble before us, the nightmare shockwave tearing Canterlot to shreds. “Ponies may control the sun, but humans are the only species to mass produce death... well maybe the gryphons.” More pictures flashed past. Tanks. Bombs. Artillery. Emaciated survivors of death camps. Mounted knights. Great steel ships. All the fruits of humanity’s attempts to kill other humans. “And all so quickly. Ponies have been forging tools for ten thousand years and they don’t have a fraction of the power humanity has managed to amass.” Power stations flashed past. Dams. Cities that sprawled for a hundred miles. Man walking on the Moon. Ships the size of small towns. The memories paused a moment on my own foray back to Earth, and I saw myself frozen in mid air, wings spread wide in desperation as street lights shattered around me. “So pointless,” she continued, as if discussing the weather. “In a year you’ll be extinct. For all your weapons and science, the ponies will wipe you out because of an foolish accident.” She clapped her forehooves together and everything came rushing back. Memories, emotions, hopes, fear and pain, so much pain, slammed into me and I collapsed screaming into the emptiness of my mind. It felt like being torn limb from limb, then reassembled by a blind taxidermist. Shattered memories tried to form up alongside ragged emotions, and the two proceeded to grind their way through the tortured recesses of my brain back to their homes. I could barely keep track of self in the jumbled mass of past, present and future. I couldn’t keep track of how long it took; it could have been an eternity, it could have been a heartbeat, but after all too much pain it was over, and I found myself floating in the ethereal dreamscape. Chrysalis stepped towards me, a look of contempt fixed upon her face. “...Why?” I croaked. “The pain? Because your mind is weak,” she explained. “Pathetic, even. I expect better from one of the pegasi, even a fake such as you.” I brought my hooves up to my throbbing temples. “Why do this?” I repeated, fighting down the urge to be sick. The changeling Queen smiled. It was oddly warm. “Well, that is a very long story, but as you’re going to be here awhile.” She pulled a low throne out of thin air and sat next to my drifting form. “Now, this story is very dear to me; it was my mother’s, so don’t interrupt.” Chrysalis bared her fangs at me, her eyes shining with menace. No snark for a little while then. Chrysalis smiled to herself, cleared her throat and, dropping into a surprisingly gentle tone, began. “Long ago, when this land had no name, equines ruled the world. Ponies, buffalo, caribou or hippogryph; their fields were rich, their mastery of magics absolute, and a thousand cities covered the land, from the salt swept Pegasi Isles in the west, through the bountiful lands of the sun, to the east, where dragons still dwell. And do you know what they did with this golden age of light and reason?” She paused, looking at me expectantly. I shook my head. “Of course you don’t. They used it kill. For glory. For mayfly gods. For harmony and chaos they fought and died with a smile on their lips, singing the songs of fallen heroes.” Chrysalis grinned, her voice turned vicious for a moment. “All because the changelings had won.” My surprise must have shown my face, as, if anything, her vicious grin grew wider. “Oh yes, each great city was ruled by a Queen. Some openly, some from the shadows, but rest assured, there wasn’t a single creature in all the corners of the world that didn’t worship us. Of course, we are a fractious race. There’s a unity of thought and purpose within the hive yes, but beyond that nothing but mistrust and ill intentions, as it should be. When we fought between ourselves, by proxy or with sting and fang within our hives, we were strong and ruled. When we sought to unify, well...” Chrysalis shook her head. It was a very deliberate, almost as if she were copying the original teller’s motions, not imposing her own. “There was a great Queen who, through guile and intrigue, formed a league of six cities. Stood together, no one hive could destroy them and, one by one, the other cities of the world burned. Despite forbidden magics, great warriors and frantic attempts at unity, it was just ten years before the six stood atop the world, ruling an empire without peer.” She sighed. “It lasted six months. Their long-suppressed natures came to the fore and, one by one, they betrayed and fought and died, till only the greatest Queen survived. You can not begin to understand the power she wielded. One will. One hive. She dominated all the lands of this world and yet that was not enough for her.” Chrysalis turned to me. “What, little pony, do you think she did with power?” I shook my head again. “You should know, you have met her after all.” A vision of Canterlot appeared before me, scarred by war and swarming with Changelings. “She climbed to the highest tower, of the city built on the world’s highest peak, and drew upon a nation’s worth of love and devotion. She reached up to the heavens and stole the sun.” “Hang on, you’re telling me that--” A blast of energy set my tumbling head over heels, screaming as my brain tried to escape out of my ears. “No interruptions!” Chrysalis screamed, as I struggled to gather my scrambled wits. “Now,” she continued, at a far more normal volume. “Yes, I was talking about your darling Celestia. It was she who shattered the world, who tore the golden cities down and ushered in a dark age that nearly destroyed the world. Millions died, little pony, drained of love and life. She froze their hearts in her mad quest and to this day the world hasn’t recovered for her touch.” She shook her head. “Well, that’s what I was told anyway.” She smiled at me, though I shudder to call anything that bared fangs that large a smile. “Now, what do you think I learned from that?” I fixed her with a petulant glare and, seeing I wasn’t about to get psionically bitch slapped again, suggested, “that hubris can burn everyone around you as well?” “Heh,” Chrysalis let loose an ugly bark of laughter. “No, you stupid pony. It means that if you succeed, you’ll become a god. The sun is right there for the taking.” I cocked a brow at her. There was hubris, and then there was hubris. “Really, you of all ponies don’t understand?” Chrysalis pressed, stepping forward and taking me by the chin. “I’ve seen your mind, Alex. It’s so much more interesting than Celestia’s usual rats. You have the will of a ruler.” I rolled my eyes, but she continued unabated. “Don’t believe me? Tell me then, why do you lead your little Club? Crystal Cog has the knowledge to change the world, but you don’t let him no matter how much he wants to. Star Charge has the will and vision to make everyone happy, but you don’t want that either. You are the worst choice of a bad bunch, but you hold on to power anyway, and do you want to know why?” “I have a feeling you’re going to tell me either way.” She ignored me. “Because you love power, Alex. You’ve spent your life on the sidelines looking in, always meaningless, always passed over, but in Equestria you are important. Everyone knows your name, and you love it. But you knew that if you ever let control slip through your fingers, then you’d be nothing. Again.” There were times when I really wished I could still clench my fists. “That is not true,” I growled, glaring daggers at the changeling Queen. “Ha!” she cackled. “Have you ever wondered why everything to do with the Club is so difficult? Why you can’t make anything better no matter how hard you try? It’s because you want them to fail. You want them to suffer. The moment your little Club members can stand on their own hooves you become--” She paused, dragging out her final word. “--irrelevant.” “That is not true!” I snarled, wrenching my head out of her grasp. I can’t say which one scared me more, the idea that I was sabotaging the Club, or the idea that they might abandon me once everything calmed down. “Of course it is,” she continued, stalking around me. “You’re afraid, Alex. Always afraid of consequences. Always dragging them down with you. It would be so much easier if you just gave up the charade. Stop leading. Rule.” “I am not going to betray them!” “But Alex, you already have.” “LIAR!” The world shattered, Chrysalis vanishing into dust, leaving nothing but a vicious fanged grin behind. My eyes flickered open, and I found that my first guess had been more or less accurate. I was upside down in a cocoon, suspended a few feet above ground in small cell, though cell might have been an overly grandiose term for a narrow cleft in the rock. Queen Chrysalis stood before me, blinking in confusion. That only lasted a moment, though, before a far more familiar look of contempt replaced it. “Really? That was your big defiant act? After all that, all you manage is consciousness? You really are pathetic.” “Whatever you want from me,” I snapped, glaring at her. “You aren’t getting it.” She rolled her eyes. “I have everything, Alex. I have your false Queen. I have your knowledge. I have your body, though I have no idea what I’d want with it. What more could you give me?” I glowered at her. There was, very little else I could do. The cocoon held me too tight to even flex my wings and, if I’m going to be honest, I’d failed to even slow Chrysalis down last time we’d faced off. “That’s what I thought. It’s a shame really, you could have been great, if you’d sided with me. But instead you’re going to be food.” A shudder ran down my spine, as the monster casually discussed my death. “The Elements will find me,” I told her, more to hear someone say it than anything else. Another wicked smile crossed her face. “They can’t, and it’ll all your fault. A powerful mage like Twilight Sparkle can track mares by their love of objects, of friends and of self. But you don’t even have a favourite coffee mug.” She laughed. “Good bye Alex. I’ll see you again, if I have need of you. I doubt I will though.” She stalked away, leaving me in darkness. Time passed slowly in the blackness of the hive. With no clock to mark the time, no steady rise and fall of the sun, no blessed relief of sleep, minutes became hours and hours became minutes as I hung in the dark. The strange magics of the cocoon seemed to preserve me somewhere between waking and sleeping, between life and death, and for a while I dreamed. I dreamed that I had died down there, discarded and never found. I dreamed I was back on earth, still a pony and running for my life. I dreamed of Canterbury, burning beneath green fire. I dreamed of Ponyville wiped away by an atomic blast. I dreamed of myself as an air-pirate captain. Riding to the rescue. I dreamed of Twilight, shattering the barrier. I dreamed of Rose, screaming in pain. I dreamed of a pair of drones standing before me. That was all I dreamed, as moments later I was dumped unceremoniously out of the cocoon and landed on my head. “Argh!” That was one wake up call I did not want to repeat. “Ow,” I groaned, rubbing my bruised noggin with a hoof. The pain at least convinced me I was actually awake for once. Muttering to myself, and ignoring the twinges of underused muscles, I stumbled to my hooves. The two drones looked impassively on and half forgotten dreams of vicious drones and ripping fangs danced around my head. I found myself longing for the pink eyed, clumsy but earnest drones of Rose’s hive. Stretching out my wings I found a new shard of agony buried in a cluster of muscles my brain still wasn’t completely convinced I should own, but at least my wings were at least on the way to recovery. I shuddered. There was no sign of bandages, nor did they feel particularly sore. How long had I hung in the cocoon? I had no way to know, but it had to have been days at the very least. It had felt like years. “So...?” I began, popping my neck muscles, looking at the drones expectantly. “Queen. Come.” I sighed. So even Chrysalis’ drones were dumber than a sack of hammers. Good to know. Not very helpful, though. “And I’m just expected to come quietly?” I snapped, tensing my wings and trying to touch the aether. The weather magic was weak so far underground, however, and less than a trickle greeted me. It seemed that I was not going to be attempting any daring escapes on my own. “Yes,” one hissed, then, much to my amazement, winked. I was so taken aback that, for a moment, I was lost for words. “Excuse me?” I said at last, goggling. “Come. Alex,” it pressed, tossing it’s head towards the door. “Queen.” Somewhat bemused, I took a few hesitant steps towards the exit, and, when the changelings continued to just look on expectantly, a few more. Beyond the narrow portal was a cramped passage, clawed out of the rock and black as pitch. A few strands of icor hung from the ceiling, casting a weak emerald glow across the space, but it did little more than throw confusing shadows across the uneven floor. It was, frankly, terrifying. I could feel the weight of the rock above me, pressing down like a physical weight on me; but that wasn’t half as awful as the cloying darkness of the changeling tunnels, which seemed to reach out to me, leaching the very colour out of my coat. Shuddering, I looked back, as if to ask the drones whether they really wanted me to go that way, but of course, they were silent. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I stepped out into the corridor. The drones took up position in front and behind me and I was herded up the steadily rising passage; the silence only broken by my swearing as I cracked my hooves against the rocky floor. The journey was not a short one; twisting passages forked and merged leaving me with no idea of where I was nor how far we had come. For a while I tried to keep track of the route, but it was impossible and instead I chased my thoughts around and around. Chrysalis had said we weren’t to meet again, which meant either something had changed, or I was walking to my execution. Shaking my head I tried to banish the grim throughs, but they clung like the gloom that surrounded me. My footsteps were leaden, and every so often the drone at my rear would snap at me to pick up the pace. My attempts to delay the inevitable did little, beyond a chipping hoof. Much to my relief we encountered almost no other changelings, and even the few we came across were singletons, rushing about on some unknown erand. Before long my prison march lead us to the top of the hive, or at least what I assumed was the top. There had not been a single window, but the tunnels had never led down. The passage opened through a broken wall and into a huge room and, despite the darkness, I was taken aback. A ruined temple lay before me, wide red flagstones covered the floor, caked in a hundred years of dust and grime, elegantly carved pillars reached up to the roof, which itself was lost to the gloom, somewhere above my head. It put me in mind of the Parthenon, though buried beneath the earth, falling to pieces and lit by unearthly green light secreted by a race of sapient horse/bug monster things. So not that much like the Parthenon. Part of me wondered if Indiana Jones was about to swing down and rescue me, or Daring Do. Come to think of it, I hadn’t yet found out if she was fictional or not. Your thoughts take you strange places when you don’t want to think of your destination. Passing a humungous marble statue of a winged buffalo, which may or may not have been based off a real creature (I have no idea what’s allowed when it comes to Equestrian biology), we paused before the doors of a small sanctuary. “Queen,” the dones said simply, before stepping forward to open the ancient portal. I took a deep breath as the hinges squeaked in protest. Whatever I faced, I would do so with my chin up and ready to buck, no matter how futile either might be. There was a muted thud from the doors and I stepped forwards into the dark. “Alex,” Rose sighed, raising her head off the floor. “You made it.” I froze. Well, I guess I had been promised a Queen, but no one had mentioned which one I’d be seeing. Behind me the drones began to close the ancient doors, as I stared dumbfounded at my friend. Rose lay in chains; thick bands of iron shackled her legs, her neck, and around her barrel. They glowed with their own unearthly radiance, providing the only illumination in the room beyond the chained Queen’s glowing eyes. Rose did not look well. Her mane was ragged and torn, thick lines of white marred her blackened carapace, and she bore several dripping wounds. She looked upon me with naked relief, though there may have been just a touch of desperate hunger buried in there. “Umm...” I began, casting around for any other surprises in the small chamber. “Well this is a nice surprise. Well done, Alex, a quip worthy of the great Daring Do herself. “Yes. I’m not as pathetic as Chrysalis seems to think,” she gasped, trying and failing to raise her head off the floor. The drones hurried over to her, their eyes changing colour to rose red as they nuzzled their trapped queen. For a moment Rose just lay there, eyes closed as she accepted their attention. Then she pulled herself up to her knees and fixed me with a stare. “Alex,” she began, breathing hard. “I need you to get these chains off me.” She rattled her bonds. “Right.” I trotted over to the chained Queen. There was no lock; the chains were all tied to a thick bar of iron near the center of her back, inscribed with a dozen intricate runes. “How?” “It’s emotional magic. Get mad.” I cocked my head at her. “Why would that help?” Rose growled. “It’s a Prime spell, designed to be opened by a surge of emotion. It can’t be opened from the inside, but if you just picture something you hate and buck the lock...” I grinned, as the drones scampered out of my way. Now, that I could do. With a vision of Chrysalis’ smarmy face fixed firmly in my mind I allowed myself to indulge in the brief fantasy of kicking her damned head in, then took position in front of Rose. Turning on the spot I sighted down my spine, paused a moment to fill in the satisfying crunch of Chrysalis’ skull beneath my hooves to my mental picture, and kicked like my life depended on it. The lock shattered, sending white hot shards spinning around the room, and I flailed my hind leg wildly as one of the burning fragments clung to my hoof. I dropped onto my haunches and fanned the injured hoof with a wing, as Rose disentangled herself from the chains. The thick bands of iron were smoking, vanishing into mist even before my eyes; it’s a testament to just how weird physics gets in Equestria that I didn’t bat an eyelid at that. “Thank you Alex,” Rose sighed, struggling to her feet. “I knew you’d come through.” I shook my head. “Really? Because right now I’m really confused.” “Ah, well while I catch my breath,” Rose sighed, as the two drones stepped forwards. “This is Thomas, and this is Charlie.” They nodded in turn. “When we came through the barrier we were... smarter, than the average drone. I was able to slip them into Chrysalis’ hivemind after she knocked us out, with hidden orders to bring you to me when the Hive was quiet.” “...That seems like a long shot,” I admitted, wincing as I tested my singed hoof on the floor. I’d live. “What about guards?” Rose frowned. “Why would a hive-mind need guards?” For just this occasion, but I wasn’t going to look a gift pony in the mouth. “Okay, so what’s our next move.” For a moment the Queen frowned, glancing between her two drones. “First, we need to find a storeroom. If I can top up on emotional energy we stand a good chance of getting out of here. Once we do that, we can sneak into the northern passageways and get as far from the Hive as we can before Chrysalis notices we’re gone. I don’t know how long we have till some drone will check on my cell, so we’d better hurry. “Right; storeroom, escape tunnel, leg it. Lead on.” Storeroom turned out to be the wrong word. The actual room was some combination of a greek amphitheater and a nest from the movie Alien. Thick, chitinous pedestals dotted the tiered rows, each topped by a pony sized crystal glowing with green eldritch energies. After the gloom of the hive, the room was almost too bright to look at, with hundreds of crystals casting their eerie luminescence. The glow did nothing the ease the shivers running down my spine. “Do I have to worry about facehuggers?” I hissed, as we snuck our way down a set of well worn stairs. “Hush,” she murmured, picking a row at random. “There may be drones nearby.” I rolled my eyes, but stayed quiet. Rose paused before one of the crystal spheres. “Okay, I’m going to try and disconnect this. Watch my back.” Rose’s drones spread out, leaving me standing next to the Queen, looking bemused. “So, how exactly do you know what to do here?” I asked, glancing around. “I may be stealing a large amount of information from Chrysalis’ hive-mind,” she admitted, her horn glowing in sympathy with the crystal. I blinked. “Is that safe?” Rose shrugged, as green nodules lit up across the pillar. “Probably not. Now excuse me, I have to unlock this.” Shaking my head, I watched for a few long, boring moments, before wandering away. I had no idea how the mane six managed these adventures. So far I’d managed to get myself brainwashed, kidnapped, dragged around by Rose’s drones and was now trailing around like a third wheel. The constant unknown, the dark and the prickling sensation of being watched was slowly doing my head in. I found myself longing for a late night, alone in my office with a mug of coffee, a warm blanket and a comforting stack of paperwork. “Rose...?” I began. “Still working,” she hissed back. I sighed, then poked one of the crystals with a hoof. It ignored me in it’s entirety. Sighing, I dropped onto my haunches, fanning myself with my wings. Staying in one place was killing me. I wanted to move. I wanted to fly. It was as irritating as hell, as I distinctly remember not being so fidgety as a human, but that didn’t change the fact I now hated just waiting around when someone was in trouble. Especially if that someone was me. Rose’s off key humming wasn’t helping matters, either. “Stop humming,” Rose snapped, glaring at me. I blinked. “I’m not--” A changeling drone stepped onto our tier. It was a little thing, its carapace still a greyish white rather than the adult black. A woven harness was draped across its back, which held a feather duster and a set of scrupulously clean cloths. Its burbling hum ceased in an instant as it caught sight of us and it froze, like a deer in the headlights. “Oh bollocks,” I swore. The neophyte drone’s wings sparked into life and it leapt into the air, emitting a chittering keen as it winged away. The alarm call echoed through the hall for a moment, before a dozen more angry snarls reverberated through the halls. “Rose!” I yelled, scrambling over to the Queen who was still fiddling with the damned crystal. “Just a few more seconds.” “We don’t have them!” A hundred changeling drones poured into the room. Through ancient doors, through cracks in the walls, from vents and from holes in floor, their many hooves and beating wings turned the empty stillness of the hive into a thrumming cacophony. I stretched out my wings, backing up against Rose as another hundred arrived, and a hundred more. Rose’s drones joined me, forming a pathetic line of flesh between the horde and the Queen, who-- “Got it!” There was a crack and I was suddenly flooded with relief that all my friends had turned up for my party. Shaking my head, and cursing emotional magic, I turned to see a lightning-bright beam of energy arcing between Rose’s horn and the crystal. The Queen seemed lost in the moment, her eyes shut, a rapturous smile on her face; it was as if she'd just been welcomed home. The drones chose that moment to charge. The thunder of a thousand hooves on stone, and a hundred wings savaging their air deafened me, as the horde barrelled towards us. Rose didn't react in the slightest. I spread my wings, ready to make a break for the first gap I saw, then kicked myself as I realised I was literally standing next to the local equivalent of a tank of kerosene. Acting on more instinct than sound judgement, I leapt at the crystallised emotion, snatching the crystal sphere out of the air and bearing it to the ground. For a moment the emotions threatened to overwhelm me, a rush of rage, of lust, of love, of joy and infinitely more, but adrenaline is good at stopping such introspection. The changelings were mere feet away when I took a deep draft of Prime into myself, and it was then, my bones fizzing with energy, I realised I had no idea how any emotion spells work. So I just went for something I could imagine Chrysalis saying. “KNEEL!” I roared, slamming my hooves down on the sphere. It exploded, sending a shockwave of sickly green energy roaring across the room. The changelings dropped to the floor, touching their heads to the floor in supplication. “Huh,” I said, after a long moment of stunned silence. “I did not expect that to work.” Rose shook herself, leaping to her feet and dragging her drones with her. “Well don’t just stand there, fly you fool!” She kicked off, her wings flickering into life. Groaning, I threw myself after, wincing with every beat as my wings screamed in protest. The drones below were -- slowly -- pulling themselves together, and before we’d reached ceiling height I heard the familiar hum of wings as they took to the air. Rose squeaked through a crack in the ceiling, with me  hot on her fetlocks. Tucking in my wings, I landed in a narrow tunnel, but Rose was already galloping away and I shot after her. “Was a 'Lord of the Rings' reference really necessary?” I snapped, desperately trying to keep my feet as we galloped through the darkened tunnel. “Shut up and run!” A drone suddenly appeared in our way, hissing in defiance. It lasted all of half a second before Rose’s magic picked it up and smashed it against the wall. The three crowding in behind it were more of an issue, and bolts of eldritch fire streamed down the passage towards us. Rose took a hit to the shoulder and staggered. Her drones leapt to her defence, squeezing around their monarch and hurling themselves at Chrysalis’ spawn. They slammed together, and the sound of tearing chitin and insectile screams filled the air. We raced past the battle, Rose not even pausing to help and, well, I couldn’t tell the difference between the two sides. “Rose--” I began, as we thundered away. “Shut up and run!” she roared, glaring over her shoulder at me, tears in her eyes. We left Thomas and Charlie to fight their doomed battle, the drumming of our hooves drowning out their deaths as they bought us precious seconds of freedom. A hundred yards later the tunnel opened up into a wide flagstone passage, and we skidded to a halt. A dozen changeling drones stood before us; Rose kindled her horn. “Alex, get ready to run,” she said, drawing herself up to her full height. “Just run and don’t stop.” I looked up at the Rose. “I’m not leaving,” I told her, setting my jaw and spreading my wings. “Alex! You don’t have to die here.” Hooffalls echoed behind us, and the drones before us began to advance. “I don’t think that’s been a choice,” I admitted, and-- I felt the aether sing, a tingling pressure in my wings that grew and grew as something plummeted towards us. Throwing my weight at her I dragged Rose out of the way moments before the ceiling exploded inwards, sending rocks, dust and a rather irate Rainbow Dash tumbling to the floor. The column of light was blinding after the eternal darkness of the hive, and it only got worse as, without missing a beat, Rainbow Dash hurled a bolt of lightning from her wings; blowing apart a drone, the blast taking three more down with it. Blinking back tears I staggered backwards, dodging under busts of fire from the changelings. Their shots were wild and moments later halted entirely, as a far more competent pegasus than I charged into the mass, wings blazing with power. Next through the hole in the roof was, of all ponies, Rarity. The pristine unicorn dropped to the floor, as light on her hooves as a feather, an elegant rapier clasped in her magical grasp. For a moment she stood unblemished in the column of light, then a drone leapt at her and, in a flurry of motion the beast lost its head and Rarity was charging to Dash’s aid. Nothing that came within three feet of her lasted more than a half second before being driven back at swordpoint. “Told you I could sense them!” Dash called over her shoulder, as Applejack lowered herself into the passage. “Yeah, yeah, I hear ya’,” Applejack grumbled. “I’ll get you ya’ bits when we’re done here.” She turned to us, ignoring the fierce brawl behind her. “Good to see you, sugarcube; thought we’d have to go a mite further to find ya’, but I ain't complaining. You two good to fly?” There was a very equine scream from behind her, as Rarity ran through a Twilight doppelganger. Applejack’s ear flickered, but otherwise she didn’t react. “Umm, yeah,” I said at last. With one last, horrified, glance at the melee, I threw myself up, through and hole and into blessed sunlight. I had all of half a second to appreciate the view before I was tackled by a giant mass of cotton candy. “Alex!” Pinkie exclaimed, and I found myself flat on my back staring up at an impossibly wide smile. “I knew we’d find you. I knew it, I knew it, I-- Hold that thought.” With my head still spinning, the hurricane of sugar fueled mania hurled herself at Rose, chattering like a loon. Unable to keep the grin off my face I pulled myself to my feet and looked around. We were stood on a low hill of reddish earth, in the shadow of a great mountain. Beyond, the land was broken and scared, dry as a bone and dotted only by the occasional cactus. Already I could feel the heat of the sun beating down on me, a sensation I’d almost forgotten after spending so long in the cave, but the view only kept my attention for a moment. Hovering quite inexplicably, a hundred feet away, was a flying ship. “Ahoy, Alex!” Crystal Cog called from the bridge, waving his tricorn hat. I still have no idea where he got it from. For a moment my brain failed to process the insanity of the situation. The ship was not large, a glorified yacht at best, but it was filled with Club members. Six pegasi were harnessed to the prow like an impromptu sled team, four unicorns stood at each corner, each powering some arcane spellworking beneath their hooves, while two teams of ponies on each side busied themselves around a complex mechanism. More incongruous than anything else was the ship’s name, Thunderchild. I wondered just who was nuts enough to decide to name their vessel after a ship doomed to die succeeding. Rarity hurtled out of the hole, a bloody wound marring her perfect coat, followed by a rather harried Applejack. “Come on, Pinkie!” she yelled, clasping her stenton to her head as she galloped towards the ship. “Save the party for when we ain’t got changelings crawling up our tails!” There was a concussive blast as Rainbow Dash tore her way out of the ground, a few changeling stings screaming through the air after her. Everyone else took that as a cue to run for the ship, and I took to the air, winging my way across the gap. An empty space opened amidships and I came down amidst the chaos. “Crystal Cog,” Applejack continued, bounding up onto the deck in a single powerful leap. “Get us the hay out of here. “Don’t need to tell me twice,” the colt yelled back. “Engine room, full power!” The ‘engines’ collectively shot him a dirty look, but took to the air. As Pinkie pulled Rarity, clearly in pain, aboard, Thunderchild began to pick up speed, racing away from the changelings who were boiling out of the earth behind us. “Dash! Get your rainbow butt in the air, and tell the Princesses we’re getting the hay outa’ dodge,” Applejack continued, galloping up to the aftcastle as the pegasus saluted and shot off into the sky. “Crystal Cog. Run out the guns. We’re going to have the ‘ole hive afta’ us before you can say ‘applebuckin’’.” “You heard her, get those guns ready!” The deck exploded into motion, as the pastel ponies made ready for war. Trying to stay out of anyone’s way I stumbled into the shadow of the aftcastle, and almost backed over Fluttershy. “Oh, Alex, you’re okay,” Fluttershy murmured, around a thick roll of gauze. Before her lay Rarity, and I couldn’t tell what was paining the unicorn more, her foreleg wound, or Pinkie’s constant babble, as the pink pony hovered around her. “Rarity, everything is going to be just fine. Twilight has all sorts of healing spells so don’t you worry even for a second. Not one second do you hear me? Of course you do. And don’t worry about the stain, that’ll come right out. Oh! Not that it has to, come out. Rarity? Rarity? Why aren’t you responding? Oh no! Go into the light Rarity! Or... don’t go into the light! I can never remember which one it is. Stay exactly the right distance away from the light!” The ragged gash on Rarity’s leg was deep, cutting through muscle and to the bone. She caught my horrified look. “Oh don’t worry about me darling,” Rarity said, a very forced smile on her lips as Fluttershy bandaged the wound, and Pinkie continued her tirade, now on the subject of socks. “I’ve had far worse on our adventures.” “I got the healing char--” Star Charge skidded to a halt at he saw me, a clutch of purple crystals bobbing along in his telekinetic field. “Ah, hello Alex.” I stared at the stallion in open mouthed shock. Now, Crystal Cog I could see charging off after Rose and I. In fact, I could see him leaping at the chance to pull a few toys out of his bag of dirty human tricks, (case in point the Thunderchild), but Star Charge I saw more as the kind of pony to hold a party on my grave. “What are you doing here?” I demanded. He rolled his eyes, passing the crystals over to Fluttershy. “First aid.” Looking around, I could spot at least half a dozen of Star Charge’s usual cronies. Out of everything that had happened, somehow Star Charge raising a finger... hoof, to help me was by far the least expected. “But in general,” he continued, shrugging. “Well, I figured if a capital V villain like Chrysalis wanted to get rid of you and Rose, then you must have been doing something right.” “Changelings at two o’clock!” I whipped around, just past the pegasi team I could just make out a black blot of changeling drones pouring out of a wide mouthed cave. “Thirty points to port on my mark!” Crystal Cog hollered back, as the drones began to charge. “Ready on starboard guns, hold fire till thirty yards!” With ease of practice a three pony team took position on each gun. One earth pony behind the sights, bracing the cannon-sized mass of metal and machinery, a second to one side, a belt of ammunition in their hooves, and a unicorn stood behind them, holding a hemispherical mantle of magic around the barrel. For a moment I felt my brain try to rebel. I recognised those guns. There wasn’t a human alive that wouldn’t have, and I can only blame exhaustion on not noticing them immediately. Crystal Cog had built machine guns.  Maxim guns specifically. He’d brought the very symbol of industrial slaughter to Equestria. “Mark!” The Thunderchild tipped as the pegasi executed a sharp banked turn, sending at least one unprepared soul skidding across the deck. The changeling drones took wing, magics swirling around their horns and a barrage of fire came our way. “Hold! Hold!” Cog roared, as the blots went wide, glancing off the hull or going high over our heads. The changelings didn’t seem to have much speed in the air, though they were closing, I could see we would soon overtake them and then be away. “Fire!” The guns roared, great throaty booms that vanished into the swirling cacophony of sound from the twin machine guns. Hot slugs screamed aways from the Thunderchild, tracing ribbons of fire through the sky. Their shooting was even less than accurate than the changelings, but the small swarm of creatures was a much larger and squishier target and I watched shattered bodies fall to the earth. Not all of whom died from the impact. “Ahead, ahead!” a desperate voice screamed. A second swarm had appeared, right in our path and was already firing. The stings were far more controlled from the ambushing group, and the pegasus team bore the brunt of the storm. I watched a Club member take a hit to the wing and tumble out of formation. The pegasi were harnessed in a line of three, and when he fell his two wingmates were dragged down with him. There was an equine scream as the lead pony was dragged out of the air and the team were pulled down, out of my sight. I heard nothing else over the roar of the guns, but only two of the team made it back aboard, shaking off the remains of their harness, one with her hooves wrapped around her glassy eyed comrade. “Starboard eighty!” Cog roared, wrenching on the wheel, even as the Thunderchild threatened to stall. A reserve trio of pegasi, well, two pegasi and a gryphon, leapt from the prow and almost flew into the other team in their haste. Through more luck than good judgement they avoided fouling any lines and the deck swung like a pendulum as the ship went into a terrifyingly tight turn. The injured pegasi and his buddy staggered over to Fluttershy’s first aid station, and I had to leap out of the way. It was almost my last move; a bolt of green fire screamed through the air half an inch from my ear and I found myself clutching the deck with no clear idea how I’d got there. The first swarm of changelings kept us under a steady barrage of fire from range, but the ambushing second were right on top of us. The port guns roared, pouring round after round into the charging swarm, but we’d lost speed in the handover and the turn and, though the drones died in dozens, or even hundreds, still more filled the sky behind them. Before I could blink, they were on the deck with us. I found myself face to face with a drone, for maybe half a second, before someone set off a cannon next to my head and it vanished in a spray of viscera. “Blasted things,” Applejack snarled, throwing away her shotgun and charging into the melee. A hobbling Rarity was right behind her, sword once again flashing as the pair of Element bearers drove back the drones. “Alex! Fluttershy needs help!” Pinkie screamed in my ear, before she bounded off to help her friends. The deck beneath me bucked as the ship accelerated, finally beginning to draw away from the drones. Shaking my head, I realised I’d done nothing but stand there like a sack of potatoes for the entire battle and hurried back to Fluttershy’s first aid post, which was already beginning to look like a triage station. “Just pass me what I ask for,” the pink haired pegasus snapped. I stared dumbly at her for a moment. “The supplies, she repeated almost too quiet to hear, pointing at a chest of medical tools. “Don’t... don’t watch the... battle.” She shuddered. “Just focus on saving lives.” I nodded, and set about laying out bandages and the wounded Club members that had managed to drag themselves away from the melee. We seemed to be winning, I noted, unable to keep focused on the task at hand. We’d outpaced the changeling’s reinforcements and the trio of Element bearers had driven the few remaining drones back to the prow, where they fought and died to the last drone. “Great work, people!” Cog yelled from the bridge; somewhere he’d lost his hat and picked up a rather worrying headwound. “We’re home free!” The steaming guns fell silent as we raced away from the baying swarm, and I breathed a sigh of relief. “Look out!” Pinkie screamed, vibrating across the deck. I whipped around, trying to see what had set off the Pinkie Sense, and so I was looking in just the right direction as Queen Chrysalis unveiled both herself and a third swarm of drones dead ahead. There was just enough time for me to fold my ears flat before she let loose a titanic beam of magic right at us. The pegasi team hurled themselves out of the way but, even forewarned, they were too late. The blast glanced off the side of the ship, blowing ponies and machinery away from the rail in a hail of shrapnel and blood. The unicorn that stood on the rear starboard lifter was less lucky, and took the blast head on, vanishing in a detonation of spellwork. Thunderchild dropped away and the keel clipped the ground. I watched the pegasi team bail out of their harness as the keel smashed into the rocks and we tumbled, the whole ship turning upside down. It never occurred to me to fly away from the onrushing catastrophe. The ship dropped towards a final, catastrophic meeting with the earth, when suddenly it just, stopped; held up in a painfully bright corona of magic. For a moment, all was calm as Thunderchild was spun the right way up and began drift gently towards the ground. Then the magic ran out. I hit the deck hard, bouncing my muzzle off the unforgiving boards as the ship was dropped the few remaining feet. The sickening crunch of breaking wood rent the air, followed by the sound of a unicorn collapsing as Rarity dropped unconscious, her horn still sparking erratically. Well, so much for Twilight being the only overpowered spell caster. “DID YOU THINK IT WOULD BE SO EASY!” the changeling Queen bellowed. She was closing fast on the beached Thunderchild, the very image of a vengeful god. Green fire arced around her as she let loose a sky rending bolt of power. Star Charge and his unicorn friends hurled themselves towards it, bringing up a hazy shell of magic around the Thunderchild with a half second to spare. It lasted just about as long; the blast struck the shell like a hammer blow, shattering the thin film of magic and sending the unicorns tumbling to the floor, most clutching their horns. Pinkie, however, had used the precious moment to pull a gun out from behind her back. “HEY!” the pink mare roared, stepping up to the rail. The gun was impossible. a full two pony lengths in size and with a hoof wide barrel; Pinke shouldn’t have been able to lift the thing, but in blatant disregard of physics she stood balanced on her hind legs and trained the cannon on Chrysalis. “You’re making me break a Pinkie Promise!” It would have been fun if she hadn’t been deadly serious. The gun roared, tracer screaming away into the sky. There was no way anypony could have fired the monster of weapon, I dimly recognised it as the gun Cog had pulled off of the Tornado; but Pinkie stood, as steady as a rock, as round after round poured from the barrel. I clamped my hooves over my folded ears as the wall of noise washed over me, watching with elation as Chrysalis’ swarm was shattered by good old fashioned human ingenuity. For a couple seconds it was glorious, the drones fell in droves, and Chrysalis fell back, shielding herself with her magics. Then the gun jammed. “Ah, chestnuts,” Pinkie swore, hammering on the gun to no avail. Chrysalis bellowed in rage and pain as she charged us, her emerald shield held high before her and an eye-searing nimbus of power gathering around her horn. The sky was rent by an explosion and lightning fell around the enraged monarch, one bolt scattering off her shield. A blast of wind knocked the few standing ponies as Rainbow Dash streaked over our heads, strafing the Queen with still more lightning. Bolts of fire chased after the supersonic mare as she raced away, hugging the broken earth. Enraged, the Queen turned back to us, and the world seemed to skip a beat as she unleashed her power. A emerald beam cut through the air with a tortured scream. I barely reacted to it. Too many brushes with death had reduced me to a mere passenger in my own body. I batted an eyebrow when Twilight appeared on the deck next to me, in the familiar flash-pop of a teleportation, and raised an opaque purple shield before Thunderchild. Chrysalis’ spell roared as it struck to the shield and, while Twilight gritted her teeth, the shell didn’t budge an inch. The alicorn raised her wings, let the shield drop, and let loose her own barrage of pink bolts of force that whistled through the air as they tracked in on Chrysalis, who ducked and weaved. “Crystal Cog, get this ship moving!” Twilight snapped, not missing a beat as she continued  hurling arcane fire into the sky. Even the strength of a Princess didn’t seem to be enough to drive the monster back. Chrysalis just kept coming. Her entourage had been wiped out by Pinkie, Rainbow Dash continued to harass her with lightning and Twilight kept up a constant barrage of spellfire, but it hadn’t been enough. The bottom seemed to drop out of my stomach as Chrysalis summoned still more power, so much that I could feel it in my primaries. A burning, tingling sensation that screamed at the primitive pegasus portion of my brain to fly and never look back. Princess Luna was the last to reveal herself and, unlike everypony else, arrived without fanfare or announcement. One moment, the only thing in the sky was an enraged changeling Queen, next the Princess of the Night was just there, right on top of her, swinging a silver sword at Chrysalis. The blade bit deep into the Queen’s shoulder and that seemed to be the final straw for the indomitable Chrysalis. There was an earsplitting crack of a teleport, leaving Luna alone and, at long last, blessed silence fell across the battlefield. “Did we win?” someone asked, as everyone turned I realised it had been me. “For now,” Twilight sighed. “We need to hurry though.” She set off at a gallop towards Cog and his ponies, who were busy hauling an arcana block into the empty cradle, where the rear starboard lifter had been vaporised by Chrysalis. Fluttershy was back to first aid, though she was almost out of supplies, and the pegasi were harnessing themselves to the prow. There was a desperate need to help building up inside of me, to do anything but just sit there like a lemon, but my hooves never got the order. I didn’t move for that spot on the battle scarred deck till Celestia's sun set, six hours later.