"He who marches onto the battlefield in textbook formations and wages war as if it were an accounting exercise is bound to lose. If you want to win, you have to fight dirty."
–General Ulysses S. Cant, 97 CE
Changeling nature was hard to describe; despite the presence of a hive mind, changelings did have a sense of individuality. The influence of the hive mind could affect the general thoughts and feelings of a changeling, but it took a powerful member of the species, such as a Queen, to exert control through the hive mind. Even then, dominating changelings in such a manner would quickly prove taxing — when a queen needed more control over her subjects, it was far more common to delegate responsibility through the hive hierarchy.
That being said, the general biology and upbringing of a changeling meant that they favored certain behaviors, even when cut off from the hive mind. For example, a changeling had to be willing to manipulate others to sustain itself, especially outside of the hive. When Creme Brulee wanted something, such as getting a dangerous mission for the honor and glory, he felt a remarkable drop in his motivation to be honest.
He did not have a good idea of the hive's layout; as a lowly worker, he had only been to the fungus farms, hatchery, recycling pool, and mines. And while his transformation magic might have been decent, he had never had the nerve or charisma to become an infiltrator. But things were different now; he had so many ponies who believed in his capacity to change for the better, and their faith in him burned away any remaining doubts in his mind.
The hive needed to be mapped. It would be mapped. The ponies Chrysalis kidnapped needed to be freed. They would be, come hell or high water. Creme Brulee would no longer be a coward, in his own eyes and in those of his friends.
As he watched the entrance to his hive, however, he realized that there was one slight flaw in his plan; he had no idea how he would sneak in. There had always been a password, and it surely had changed by now. There was no way he could just waltz in without anyone batting an eyelid.
"A pony for your thoughts?"
Creme Brulee nearly jumped out of his exoskeleton and spun around to see an armored changeling casually trotting up behind him. "Oh, um, hi there! You kinda crept up on me."
"Sorry," the guard shrugged. "Just patrolling the perimeter. I take it you're on break and enjoying the view?" The guard sat down next to him and pulled out a canteen. "Lovely night, isn't it?"
"Yeah." Creme's mouth went dry as he struggled to come up with a cover story. "Can I have some of that water?"
The guard tossed it over to him. "Sure, you look tired. Long trip?"
"Very long."
"Feels like you got a good harvest out of it, I can practically feel the love flowing out of your body." The guard looked around shiftily and whispered. "Hey, can you do a fellow changeling a favor and spare a bit before you turn it over to the egg–counters at the repository?"
They touched horns, and there was a brief flash of green. The guard leaned back and sighed. "Thanks, I owe you one."
"No problem, we've got to stick together, right?" Creme winked at him and handed the canteen back, before walking into the hive. The guard waved and went back to staring at the night sky.
The inside of the hive was far quieter than Creme remembered. His hoofsteps echoed in the tunnels, only interrupted by the grumbling of the occasional bored sentry, or worker slaving away on the night shift. Neither were as abundant compared to the pre–Canterlot days, when the hive was always bustling with activity. It was impossible to say how many had been lost in the aftermath of that disaster. A few, no doubt, found better homes in Equestria — one of his friends in Ponyville ended up doing just that, with two marefriends, no less — but the majority must have died. There was no way defectors could have resulted in such a drastic reduction in population.
For all the changes, the repository was still in the same place. Located in roughly in the center of the hive, it was one of the most secure locations. Only the hatchery and Chrysalis's private chambers had comparable protection. He stepped into the dull green glow of the cocoons and was waved towards the nearest empty one by a bored clerk. Creme deposited a generous helping of love energy into the cocoon, while keeping an eye on the ponies floating around him.
The number of abductees had increased since he had left. There were at least two dozen, possibly more. Most were earth ponies — presumably, they were easier to capture than unicorns, or pegasi. He began counting off the ponies, taking careful note of their age, type, and gender.
The seventh one he counted caused him to blink twice: a khaki pegasus mare with a greyscale mane and a compass rose on her flank. There was no mistaking her for anyone other than Daring Do. It was impossible: she was a fictional character. She belonged in a popular young adult novel series. She was floating in a cocoon right in front of him.
Ponyfeathers.
The Everfree Forest had always been poorly understood by the ponies who lived near it. Celestia had abandoned it in her grief over banishing her own sister, while ponies shied away from the place of Luna's fall out of superstition and fear. Nature reclaimed the forest for its own, and, after a thousand years of neglect, had become too well entrenched to remove. The forest was openly hostile to outsiders, and any pony in their right mind would steer clear of it. Yet the forest's danger would soon become an asset, as it provided an ideal defense for the old castle, and its future changeling residents.
Thunderball stood on top of the highest spire, surveying the forest and ruins beneath him. A new wall was needed to keep out undesirable flora and fauna. The crumbling buildings would be renovated, and the dungeons beneath expanded to provide a more natural habitat for changelings. Besides, a tunnel to the cave where the Tree of Harmony grew was sorely needed — a magic source of such potency could not be left unsecured.
He spread his wings and glided down into the castle library, surrounded by spiders and ancient tomes. How the books had survived a thousand years of exposure was anyone's guess. In fact, most of the abandoned belongings, from suits of armor to ancient tapestries, were remarkably well preserved. Even the fallen statue of Celestia in the courtyard fountain looked as new as the day it was chiseled out of marble. Perhaps some of the protective wards Star–Swirl the Bearded had laid on the castle had held up through the centuries?
There was a burst of hoofsteps from the foyer, and Thunderball stepped out to see Creme Brulee lying on the ground in a desperate attempt to catch his breath.
"Creme! Where've you been? You've been gone all week!"
"Went home," he panted. "Got problems."
Thunderball looked around warily. "Something chasing you?"
The leaves on the border of the clearing rustled; Thunderball walked outside prepared himself to face off against some unspeakable monstrosity, only to see Daisy stepping out of the bushes. The rest of his cousins soon followed in tow, each with the same agitated expression on their face.
"What did you do this time?" Thunderball pointed at Daisy with his hoof. "Out with it, what happened?"
She lowered her head and stared at the ground. "I would prefer to talk about this inside."
Thunderball turned away from her wordlessly and went back into the foyer. "Creme, what's going on?"
"Well, I talked with Daisy and she convinced me to go back to the hive and see how many ponies Chrysalis had kidnapped…" He trailed off as Thunderball shot Daisy a vicious glare.
"I thought I told you to leave my friends out of this," Thunderball hissed.
Daisy gave a weary sigh. "Hear him out, there's more."
"And, um, there's twenty seven ponies… including Daring Do."
"Wait, the Daring Do? I thought she was fictional!" Thunderball looked between Creme Brulee and Daisy in confusion. "Ok, well, that's still not too bad. We need to tell the Princesses right away, but nopony's in imminent danger or anything."
"Let him finish, it gets worse," Daisy groaned.
"Um, right. So, changelings have this thing where the sift through a captive's surface thoughts, dreams, and memories. We use it to better impersonate ponies we replace."
"Chrysalis is planning on replacing Daring Do?"
"No." Daisy ground her hoof into the floor. "But we've been working with Daring Do to secure powerful artifacts."
"So, let me get this straight." Thunderball walked up to Daisy and lifted her head up so he could look into her eyes. "You went behind my back and manipulated my friend into taking an incredibly dangerous recon mission. You shared the existence of our house, and its assets, with an outsider, in hopes of adding Celestia–knows–what to our armory. And now a bug queen stands to learn about us if she gets lucky rooting around in somepony's brain."
He pushed her against a crumbling stone pillar. "What is your problem?"
"I screwed up, ok?" Tears leaked down Daisy's muzzle as she collapsed onto the ground. "Happy? You were right, and I was wrong. We should have left it to Celestia."
Thunderball stared at Daisy in shock for a moment before gently cradling her body against his and stroking her mane. "No, I'm not happy. I didn't mean to hurt you, I just… well, I wouldn't call it the worst thing to happen to us since the Lunar Rebellion, but it's up there."
"But you can still fix it, right?" Creme asked.
"Yeah, we'll go in guns blazing." Dive Bomb soared through the air, letting loose with a flurry of punches. "Kick down the door, take what's ours, and toss a few bombs around t' cover out escape. Chrysalis won't even know what hit her."
He found himself restrained by a telekinetic field as Flash Point abruptly brought him to the ground. "Somewhere underneath all that bluster and bravado was a hint of a good plan."
"Ooh, are you thinking of a daring rescue?" Phrase Mark jumped up and down in excitement. "I love it!"
Thunderball looked at them in disbelief. "You can't be serious. Merry, back me up on this."
Meriwether tapped her prosthetic leg. "Sorry, pone, but it's better than sitting around rotting away from the inside."
"You're all barking mad." Thunderball closed his eyes and rested his head against the pillar. "And I'm crazier than all of you, because I want to lead it."
Meriwether whinnied and hugged him from behind. "Welcome back to the herd! What are your orders?"
Thunderball brushed her off and helped Daisy to her hooves. "First, I know you had plans for infiltrating the hive. I want to see them, along with all the equipment you can gather without raising any eyebrows from the house elders."
Daisy swallowed and looked up at him. "Most of the good stuff is under lock and key, but we have prototype combat vests lying around Meriwether's workshop, and Flash Point has a few magical trinkets in her lab, along with some of the weapons Daring Do helped us… relieve an antiques collector of. Give me three days, and I'll have everything ready in Appeloosa."
"Good." Thunderball turned to Creme Brulee. "Second: Creme, I want you to know that you're under no obligation to help, but if you're willing, I'd like you to go over the layout and defenses of the hive in detail. Anything that'll help us get in and out undetected."
Creme gave him a long, hard look. "Are you planning on rescuing Daring Do, or everypony?"
"It would be more practical to extract a single pony, and let Celestia negotiate for the rest. That being said…" Thunderball took in a deep breath, "The main reason I left my family was because I had a tendency to put honor before reason. I'm honestly not sure I could just leave ponies behind."
Creme Brulee began sweating as he paced back and forth in the foyer. "The hive won't make it without any ponies to feed on! They'll either starve or be forced to attack ponies again."
"I know," Thunderball said softly. "But are you willing to just let them hold innocent ponies hostage? For Celestia–knows how long?"
"I don't like it, but not every changeling in the hive is evil! Some just have no other choice. I can't let them starve."
"I understand your position." Thunderball gave Creme a gentle hug. "We'll focus on Daring Do, alright? Nothing fancy or heroic, just a simple rescue mission. Everypony else is Celestia's concern."
Creme hesitated and then shook Thunderball's hoof. "Deal."
Thunderball smiled and turned back to the group. "Third, I would like for a good, stiff, drink."
The six ponies sat in the castle's crumbling library as Creme Brulee drew a rough map of the hive. In the distant past, it had been a simple desert cave carved out of a giant rock formation by water and wind, but thanks to centuries of ceaseless toil by workers, it boasted a substantial tunnel network and additional chambers deep beneath the surface.
"It's a nightmare," Thunderball grumbled, as he nursed one of Dive Bomb's flasks. "Only way in or out is through several tightly controlled passages, unless we want to move through solid stone or desert sand. And we can bet this one's got tighter security than the one I raided with my SAS team, seeing as how the bug queen herself lives here."
Daisy traced the lower chambers with her hoof. "It is not an insurmountable obstacle. Tell me, what are the bottom levels used for?"
"Those?" Creme looked surprised. "Storage, but they've been empty for most of my time with the hive — we haven't had enough of anything to put in there for a long time."
"Hm." Daisy pursed her lips. "And where's the pod farm?"
Creme pointed to a room close to the center of the hive. "Right there. One of the most difficult areas to access, aside from Chrysalis's private bedchambers. The only upside is that, while the tunnels to the inner hive are heavily guarded, movement around the hive itself is not. Chrysalis doesn't have much to fear from internal dissent; most of the menial laborers and troops aren't too bright or rebellious."
There was a glimmer of excitement in Daisy's eyes. "So you're saying it's easy sailing once we're past security?"
"Well, um, no… you see, one of the things that helps us detect intruders are pheromones. Anything in the hive that gives off the wrong scent's going to get investigated. Probably the reason Thunderball's attempt at infiltration went so badly." Creme quickly blanched. "Sorry, um, that came out wrong…"
"No, it's good to know," Thunderball sighed. "Alright, so we need to alter our scent. Thoughts?"
Flash Point raised her hoof. "Pheromones are chemicals, sweetheart. If you got me a sample, I could conjure up all we'd need to pass as changelings. Just remember to put on deodorant before we go in."
"What about changeling sights an' senses?" Dive Bomb asked. "Smelling like 'em won't do us much good if they hear us coming, and I know they have some sort of psychic hive–mind connecting 'em."
Thunderball shook his head. "I took a peek at Twilight's notes a few days ago, and changelings have good low–light vision and hearing. Not better than thestrals, though, and certainly inferior to a pony using the proper equipment."
"An' the hive–mind?"
"Not a problem if we take out changelings fast enough. For most changelings, it functions as a subconscious influence, not a direct communications link. If enough of them get scared, or if we run into a changeling with a strong sense of individuality, we might be in trouble, but we should be able to avoid that."
Dive Bomb leaned back and smiled. "Well, that's all I needed t' know. What else is left, infiltration an' exfiltration?"
"I could augmet a teleportation spell," Phrase Mark offered. "Of course, I might end up merging us with solid rock if the coordinates are off, or scramble our molecules if she's set up a displacement field, so I'd prefer something else."
Merwiether scratched her chin with her prosthetic leg. "Well, if we're exhausted our options, we should call in a few favors. Who do we know that can dig through sand?"