I've always tried to be the level-headed, responsible one.
I mean, being the eldest of four children, and the only boy at that, means that you have to be responsible from a young age. I was five when my sisters were born (Triplets. Yeah, go figure), and naturally, I was expected to be the one to watch over all of them when a sitter wasn't available. Mind you, since my sisters were pretty well behaved, that mostly meant attending a lot of tea parties and learning how to brush out their hair for them, I was able to take it in stride, mostly.
It also required that I sit and watch a number of rather... girly shows growing up, but provided that they were not too 'frilly', I was able to tolerate the experience. In exchange, I learned a number of things about girls in general, as well as how to cook a number of delicious meals: The Trifecta (My nickname for them) loved to cook, and some of their knowledge passed on to me. I met my first girlfriend in home economics (Easy A, and for a sixteen year old boy, being surrounded by girls has a certain appeal). She was nuts for my cheesecake. Every girl I ever met loved my cheesecake, human, equine, or otherwise.
My cheesecake is so good, it can make a mare curl her toes.
Ah, but I digress.
I was being escorted to the changeling's base, their 'hive', with a sizable army in tow. The primary reasons I did not feel like a prisoner were because, one, everyone around me was treating me with the utmost respect, and two, because everyone seemed to be slightly terrified of me. Instead, it was as if I was a visiting member of a foreign delegation... from a nation that could nuke a country to glass if offended.
My opinion of my... escort was fairly positive, honestly. Like most insects, the changelings had the look of a sort of 'living purpose built machine'. While the leg holes were a little surprising, and their overall appearance a bit off-putting, at first, they were definitely well-disciplined: There was not a word of chatter amongst the ranks...
Meanwhile, Skyflower was definitely looking like she felt she was a prisoner. It had been made abundantly clear to her, the first time she tried to bolt, that if she made a second attempt, she'd be losing her walking privileges: They'd literally just tie her to a pole, and carry her the entire way, hanging from her legs. And if she tried to use any spells? Well, then she'd lose her horn privileges. I didn't hear an explanation of that one, but I think that she understood what it meant. Brutal, but undeniably effective. She didn't even breathe a word of complaint the rest of the way.
Honestly, though, I don't think that she had a second spell in her right now: She'd not attempted a anything magical since her little cinnaminny spell burst earlier. She might have used up all of the juice she had with that one shot. I could make a variety of jokes about that, really, but I really don't think that would be appropriate right now. I will admit, though, that it was pretty impressive, as secret moves go.
I later learned that the spell in question was something akin to fireworks. While her name did, in fact, reference a type of flower, it also was a reference to her ability with pyrotechnic spells. Of course, the only real difference between a fireworks launcher and a rocket launcher is if you're aiming at the sky, or at someone. In this case, rather than creating a pretty explosion in the sky, had the blast impacted my face, it would have been like a shaped charge going off on my nose. It would have blown the front of my head out through the back of my skull. So, yes, when we first met, she'd tried to hit me in the face with the magical equivalent of an anti-tank rocket.
Well, one of my oldest and most enduring friendships was with a person whose first words to me, ever, were "Fuck you, sir." And that was from a fourteen year old girl. Life is a little bit crazy, sometimes, and you never know what direction it might take, even before all the magical nonsense starts creeping in. I've learned to take these things in stride.
Anywho, when we came to the hive in question, I was, admittedly, beyond impressed. I was expecting something... insectile. You know, like an honest-to-goodness giant insect hive, or maybe an ant hill. I wasn't expecting it to be constructed like an African termite mound, built from sand and changeling spit. Thing is, instead of looking like something out of a horror story, it looked a bit like the architect of the Emerald City had decided to build a mixture of medieval fortress and fairy-tale palace. It was immense, towering as tall as a skyscraper, and breath-taking to behold. Words cannot truly describe it. A poet would fall to his knees and weep at the sight of one of those structures. Even Skyflower, who had, up until now, remained silent yet still visibly fuming, allowed herself to wear a brief expression of wonder.
She whispered, so quiet I almost missed it, "Our intel was wrong: This isn't a small hive. This is the lair of the queen herself..." The tone managed to convey so much dread that I couldn't help but wonder just what the queen, and these little bug ponies, were like to folks they didn't have the utmost respect for...
Looking down at the commander, I said, "Impressive. Did you build that yourselves?"
The armored changeling nodded, and said, "Yes, sir. Changeling saliva, mixed with sand, hardens into a solid crystal-like substance. It takes time to build, and a fair bit of effort to maintain, but if well cared for, it makes for an incredibly strong defense... as well as an aesthetically pleasing one."
Nodding, I admitted, "It is quite... moving, yes." Note to self: Just because they were insects, didn't mean that they 'thought' like insects. Giving the bug creature a look, I asked, "Tell me, what is the queen like?"
"I would never speak ill of the queen sir," was his immediate reply.
A very unusual response. However, it immediately rang a loud warning bell in my head, as I realized what it actually might mean...
Back at the KB Toy Store I worked at, the manager was a massive dick. I mean, he was such a mega-dick that other dicks would say that he was a dick. A nun, I swear, once told me that she thought he was a dick: Sweet old lady of eighty years, taking a bunch of little kids from the orphanage she helped run to pick Xmas presents, said that to me in passing, after speaking with him for five minutes. That should tell you all you really needed to know about him.
However, he had very good hearing, and a tendency to listen in on what were supposed to be private conversations... and he would come down like the hammer of the gods upon anyone who whispered a bad word about him. As such, veteran employees would speak very carefully about him, in a sort of code that managed to convey to a careful listener, such as myself, the negative qualities of the subject, without ever actually saying anything bad about him. Reading between the lines, you might call it, or maybe just listening to what was, and was not, being said.
'Never speak ill of the queen' was not necessarily the same as not 'thinking' ill of the queen. Speaking ill of the queen might mean 'Off With Your Head', depending upon the temperament of the ruler, and I'd just heard, a short time ago, that the queen was not in the best of moods. This, I admit, was just a theory, based on personal experience, though. Of course, regardless of species, if you ask a loyal subordinate of their opinion of a respected leader, they'll gush about the great achievements of said superior, and about every admirable quality, either real or imagined, said leader possessed. The fact that the only thing that this commander had to say was that he would not say anything bad about her could easily be taken as an admission that he held a very low opinion of the current leader of the hive.
I decided to test that theory: "Tell me, what was her predecessor like?"
The expression that came over the commander's face was like he'd been asked to describe his favorite superhero. "Oh, the previous queen was very wise, and incredibly brave, sir. She orchestrated many successful infiltrations where we were able to obtain great bounties of love energy to sustain us, with no one the wiser. We could slip in and out through even the most heavily defended cities without leaving a trace..."
Love energy. Weird, but then again, bees ate flower nectar, plants ate sunlight, and Godzilla ate radiation: Everyone has to eat something, right?
Looking at the commander with an expression of pity, I asked, "And the current queen?"
His expression stoic, he simply repeated, "I would never speak ill of the queen, sir."
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a suspicious expression cross Skyflower's face. I couldn't say for certain, but I think that she might have gotten the 'joke'. If she was some sort of aristocrat like I suspected, she was probably far better at reading between the lines than I was...
A small smile curled my lip, and I asked, "What is your name?"
The commander said, simply, "Changelings do not have names, sir."
An eyebrow raised, I asked, "Does the queen have a name?"
Nodding, the commander said, "Her name is Queen Chrysalis, sir."
"Did her predecessor have a name?" I asked, beginning to get an idea of what kind of individual I might soon be speaking with.
"No sir," the commander stated, flatly.
One final thing I needed to check, then. "Has the queen allowed anyone else to have a name?"
"I would never speak ill of the queen, sir," was the immediate reply. That would be no, then.
I read between the lines, and the words both said, and unsaid. The message conveyed was not a good one. The queen, it seemed, was vain: No other changeling bore a name, not even their previous queens. Not sure how that worked, but the changelings had made it work, somehow. The queen, on the other hand, gave herself a name, and did not let anyone else have one. Not only did she want to have that privilege all to herself, she wanted to ensure that she'd go down in history: As the only queen with a name, she'd likely be remembered for untold generations to come, both within the hive and in the records of their allies and enemies. However, the commander had just said that changelings did not have names. Reading between the lines...
...The commander viewed the queen with such disgust that he didn't even consider her to be a real changeling anymore. It was possible that she was a female, adult Prince Joffrey.
You did, in fact, get rulers like that, sometimes: Caligula, Ivan the Terrible, Nero, and sundry others, history is full of noble lines that suddenly had a complete nutcase pop up in the family that began dragging the entire kingdom down. Odds were, the queen was from the same mold. However, unlike humans, insects had a biological predisposition to being absolutely loyal to a 'queen'... even if they didn't like her, or felt she was not fit for the position she held. So, they were stuck with her until she died... or they did.
What it boiled down to was this: The commander, through indirect means, was trying to warn me that the Queen was dangerous. Extremely dangerous. And quite possibly insane. She was nothing like the creatures that she led. And if what he'd said earlier was true, the Queen might very well kill Skyflower as look at her when we arrived...
I still thought that what was happening was a dream, hallucination, or a bizarre version of the afterlife. However, even if it was just a dream, I didn't want to watch The Queen Of Hearts decapitate someone in front of me, regardless of how much like a spoiled brat she had acted like earlier.
Nodding, I said, "Thank you for the information, Commander." Reaching over and picking up Skyflower as gently, but also as quickly, as possible, I added, "And thank you for watching my captive for me while we marched. I'll be taking back custody of her, however, if you have no complaints." What little I remembered of the introduction to law class (I took it as an elective) told me that habeus corpus, possession of the body, was very important: If the changelings had the right of habeus corpus, their queen could do as she pleased. If I had possession, on the other hand, I could technically veto anything that the queen might command... so long as I was a guest, not a prisoner.
"None whatsoever, Lord Tirek," he said, nodding. Something in his posture seemed to imply that he fully approved of the maneuver.
Skyflower made to complain, but I pulled her close enough that I could whisper in her ear, and said, "You can either stay in my hand, where you'll probably be safe for the time being, or you can stay with the changelings, who will turn you over to their queen. Your choice."
She shut her mouth with a click, and said no more.
She might have been an arrogant, spoiled brat, but I guess she wasn't a complete idiot...
After a moment, I said, "Well, let's get moving, then."
Nodding, the commander turned back towards the hive, and the soldiers started moving again. That piqued my curiosity: This was the second time that the changelings around me had started moving without being ordered. Well, insects tend to communicate through means other than just verbalization: Pheromones, body language, and bees were even known to communicate with one another through 'dance' (Bees might be workaholics, but at least they understood the vital importance of 'Da Funk' in one's daily life). Some sort of communication was going on that I couldn't immediately perceive, I was certain of that. He might have verbalized the order to attack earlier, but that might have been because his forces were spread out and hidden, meaning they didn't have line of sight. Well, pheromone scents would be almost useless on a windy day, and both body language and dance required you to be watching the one doing the talking, so even with the advantage of those alternate means of communication, sometimes they still had to speak aloud.
Humans are the same way, right? We have verbal language, body language, sign language, written language, and more, all so we can get ideas across, regardless of the situation.
I'd need to keep in mind that the changelings communicated through multiple means, though: If the 'Queen of Hearts' wanted to say 'Off with your head', she might not need to move her lips to do so...
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While the exterior was a combination of functionality and aesthetic beauty, the interior of the hive was primarily built for functionality. It made sense, upon examination: Barring a severe rainstorm or other extreme acts of nature, nothing was likely to remove the exterior decorations of the hive. The interior, on the other hand, was a different story: The halls of the hive saw a lot of foot, or maybe I should say 'hoof', traffic. Because of that, anything decorative would get worn away from the floor, walls, or even the ceiling (I admit, seeing a changeling casually walk across the ceiling is one of the coolest things you'll ever see in a hive), while any sort of decorative statue would just be in the way.
I suspected that anything that wasn't purely functional would be kept by the queen herself. Boy howdy, was I right.
When we reached the throne room, I was not surprised by the statues of the queen. There were dozens of them, lining the walls of the room, and even on second-story balconies (It was a pretty tall throne room). Statues of the queen stood in every conceivable position, with every possible expression, so long as they painted her in a positive light. I wasn't even surprised by the fact that, rather than being made from the modest, yet quite attractive, green crystal of the rest of the hive, her throne was a massive, gaudy affair wrought of gold and gemstones, with red velvet cushions. What did surprise me?
What surprised me was how... radically different in appearance the queen was, in comparison to the rest of her subjects. I mean, I know that the 'queens' of most insect species tend to be bigger and somewhat different in appearance, but I'd honestly expected her to just be a larger version of her subjects. Instead, it was like someone had taken the worst physical aspects of a pony and a changeling, mixed them together, and then gave her a dozen turns on the rack to stretch her out. Nothing seemed to be made to the right proportions: Her head, for example, was noticeably too small for her body. Her legs and neck? Too long. Her torso? Way too thin. Someone needed to give that girl a sandwich. Seriously. Unlike her subjects, she just seemed... wrong, on an almost fundamental level. I've heard some folks say later that they found her 'exotically attractive', but I just found her repulsive, personally.
And speaking with her did not do anything to change my opinion.
"And who," the queen began, disinterest oozing from her tone, "are you?" Ball one, right then and there. I mean, I'm sorry, but she could have pretended to be interested in the gigantic, well-muscled centaur who had just stepped into her throne room.
The captain stepped forward, then said, "My queen, this is Lord Tirek. He..."
That was a far as he got before the queen shot a burst of energy from her horn, knocking the changeling off of his hooves and sending him flying. The queen, anger clear upon her face, shouted, "Do not speak unless you are spoken to first!" Strike one. I happened to like the commander. If she'd killed him with that shot...
The commander rose, a visible dent in his chest armor, but seeming none the worse for wear. The queen scowled at the rising bug, but said nothing more. The commander, once on his hooves, simply stood there, silently. I'm sure he had a lot he wished to say, like how there was apparently an army of equine soldiers who now knew that the changelings were here, but the queen's orders overrode his desire to warn his ruler that everyone needed to pack up and leave, pronto.
Turning back towards me, an expression of... interest was now on the queen's face. No, scratch that: Interest was not the right word. It was avarice. She wanted me. No, not in that way, you perv: She wanted to possess me, or something that I had...
The queen was an awful poker player, I'll say that much right now. She didn't have any skill whatsoever in hiding her intentions. At that moment, I felt like I was being sized up, and not in a fun or sexy way: I was being examined like a bull at the market... or for slaughter.
I was being evaluated as a pawn, or maybe a rook. A piece to be used. Nothing more.
Ball two. Two more balls, and I'd be walking out of here, end of story. I'm sorry, but the royal bug-skank was making me super-uncomfortable. Two more strikes, and...
Well, we'll get to that.
"So this is the infamous Lord Tirek himself," Queen Chrysalis said, looking me up and down again as she began circling me. "The Terror Of Equestria. The prisoner who escaped Tartarus. The one who stole the magic from all the ponies of Equestria, turned Discord against his friends, and stole the power of both the princesses and the embodiment of Chaos itself... and lost it all after being hit by a rainbow." She snickered, then continued, "I'd heard that you were locked back up in Tartarus. What are you doing out here, in my domain?"
Okay, it seemed that the individual that everyone thought I was... was the world's biggest asshat. Seriously. What the fuck? I must have been having the worst day ever. I mean, really? I was this world's version of Atilla the Hun or Genghis Khan? How the hell does that happen?
Still, I tried to play it cool. If she found out that I wasn't someone... useful, I might find the queen turning one of those energy blasts towards me. Giving the queen a glare, I said, gruffly, "I do not see how that is any of your business." I was tempted to cross my arms over my chest, but I was still holding Skyflower. I didn't think that she would appreciate being swung around like that. "Your servants told me that you would want to speak with me. Say your piece and be done with it. I have things I planned to do today."
I had a sinking feeling now in my chest: The queen had me mistaken for someone else. Someone with a bad reputation. However, she and her subjects had not tried to kick me out. Her subjects, I suspected, simply didn't want to antagonize 'The Terror Of Equestria'. Although... maybe they had an ulterior motive for being here, upon reflection. The queen, on the other hand...
She wanted me to repeat the original Tirek's previous actions, only this time under her banner.
"I want to propose," she purred, "an alliance. A... mutually beneficial arrangement." She continued circling me, flipping her tail in a manner I was terrified she thought might have been alluring. "My subjects need love energy to survive, and you desire the magic energy that the ponies possess. Join me, become my vassal. I see no reason why the two of us couldn't sate both of our... desires at once." The way she said that last part. Ew. Ball three, right there.
I'm sorry, but seriously, it was like being propositioned by something that looked like a pony who took a ride with a fly in Doctor Brundle's telepod. It was like watching a Xenomorph performing a striptease. I think I threw up in my mouth a little right then...
Alright, alright, I'll move on.
My response was simple, and to the point. "No. Not interested."
The queen stopped, directly in front of me, and looked sincerely confused. "No?" Her expression moved quickly to anger, as she repeated, "No?!"
I tried using reason. Bad idea: You can't reason with crazy people. Still, I tried. "As you said yourself, I was defeated, then locked back up in Tartarus. Again. You think I'm in a hurry to go back, now that I am free?" Perfectly understandable, right? You're out of jail, you don't want to go back, so you go lay low. You either needed to be a complete idiot, or have a titanic set of brass cajones (Look up John Dillinger sometime for an example of that. Bad man, impressively audacious bank robber. He robbed two police armories to get the stuff he needed to rob more banks), to immediately go back to committing your crimes right after escaping.
I heard a surprised noise from Skyflower, still in my grasp. I don't think that she was expecting that statement from 'Lord Tirek'. Apparently, Lord Tirek wasn't exactly the brightest of fellows...
Chrysalis, however, wasn't having it. I'm fairly certain, looking back, that she was a megalomaniac, in addition to being a psychotic and a narcissist. A dangerous combination: The world began and ended with her, she was in love with having power and with using that power to do as she pleased... and she had no problem with hurting others if she wanted to. Refusing her? Unthinkable. I might as well have just backhanded her and called her a skank to her face as refused her 'gracious offer'.
Of course, had she made this offer with the real Lord Tirek, and he accepted, I am pretty sure that she'd only have worked with him until she got what she wanted, and then stabbed him in the back. Given what I've since learned of Tirek, though, it might have been a race to see who betrayed whom first...
Her voice becoming rather shrill with anger, she practically screamed, "YOU DARE TO REFUSE ME!?" Her horn flared with magic, and her face contorted into a vicious snarl. "I AM THE QUEEN OF THE CHANGELINGS! YOU WILL SERVE ME, OR YOU WILL SUFFER MY WRATH!!!"
Strike two. Skyflower's antics had amused me, primarily because she was an adult, in a military outfit, who was behaving like a spoiled child. The fact that she was a cute little pony made her endearing, as strange as it might sound. Chrysalis? Completely different story, and not simply because she wasn't easy on the eyes.
The queen had treated one of her subordinates like dirt, blasting him just for introducing me, rather than letting me do it myself. Skyflower might have disregarded her subordinate's recommendation, and cursed out her other subordinates because they'd hesitated to attack me, but she'd at least kept it to just words... in spite of her ability to launch explosive blasts from her head-spike. Chrysalis, an individual in a position of higher authority, and who ruled over an army of subjects who, I believed, were biologically incapable of disobeying her, had just shot someone simply for speaking out of turn. It was like the difference between Paris Hilton and Elizabeth Bathory...
This was not going to end well. I just knew it...
I had a strong suspicion that the main reason that the commander had brought me here was because he wanted me to get into a fight with the Queen: Magic-Stealing Asshat Versus Psycho-Bitch Queen, winner take all. He probably thought that, best case scenario, we'd destroy one another. Worst case, I killed the queen, and went on my merry way, since I apparently had a bigger beef with the ponies than with the changelings.
...I didn't want to do any real fighting, though: Having been raised with three sisters, to me, hitting a woman was unthinkable. If my sisters ever got word of me striking a lady, they'd skin me alive (Figuratively, not literally. Honestly, given what they'd actually do to me, being skinned alive would be the 'vegetarian' option. You have not been scolded until you've been scolded by triplets).
Even if the queen had been a king, well, let's be honest here: I was no wizard. I was a college graduate with a degree in structural engineering. I make things, I don't break things. Sure, I took part in the Boxing Club, but I was no Mike Tyson. I could go twelve rounds, mainly due to footwork and being able to bob and weave, but I'd never won by knockout. Worse, this body was still strange and unfamiliar to me: If I'd tried anything more complex than walking, I was likely to trip over my own feet/hooves. All I could be certain of was that I was big and strong right now. However, I could also 'catch' magic, so that was a plus. However, since I didn't want to hurt a girl, and lacked a magical means of restraining her, I'd have to do things the old fashioned way.
Remember the baseball analogies I used earlier? Four balls, and I had planned on just walking out in disgust. Let them try and stop me: I was more jacked up than Arnold in his prime. I was pretty sure I could make it out without too much trouble. Three strikes?
Three strikes, and I planned on picking up the queen, carrying her outside, and see how well this body could do the Javelin Throw. She had wings, so I was pretty sure that it wouldn't do much else asides from embarrass her and get her out of my face for a bit. By the time she got back, I'd be long gone.
The queen, however, had other ideas. A ball of crackling green energy formed over her head. It was the size of a beach ball, with little bolts of green lighting crackling on its surface...
I lowered Skyflower to the ground, who needed no further prompting to exit the throne room at high speed. The commander, on the other hoof, had moved, so that he was no longer behind me, but off to the side, out of the line of fire. Beyond that, he sat on the sidelines, a silent observer.
I crossed my arms over my chest, and said, in the calmest voice I possibly could, "If you throw that at me, you will be taking things a whole lot further than you will want them to go. Fair warning."
She threw it at me.
Let's make something very clear here: Catching a laser beam like I did earlier? That was mostly luck. Catching a beach ball made of energy? Easy. It moved a heck of a lot slower than the beam did, and was a bigger target. I held up one hand, and stopped it. That easy. I don't know why this body seemed to treat energy like a solid object, but I was not in any position to question it.
Remembering last time, I used a finger from my other hand to take a little bit of energy off of the surface, like frosting off a cake, and tasted it... then immediately spat it out. It was... disgustingly minty. Like a shamrock shake to the twenty-fifth power. I couldn't imagine trying to eat the ball I now held, even if I had forgotten rule number twenty-two from the Evil Overlord List: No matter how tempted I am with the prospect of unlimited power, I will not consume any energy field bigger than my head. That stuff would have made me violent sick to my stomach... and might have blown me to bits if I'd tried it anyways.
Had I known, at the time, that the ball of magical power in question was condensed love energy, I would have had a great many worries and concerns about the nature of the body I now occupied. Instead, I just knew then that I had a ball of explosive power in my palm, and nothing to do with it...
I honestly didn't want to hurt anybody here, so it wasn't like I could just throw it back. Plus, I had no idea just how much damage that puppy could do if it went off. I mean, a sane person wouldn't use, as an opening move, an energy blast that would cause mutually assured destruction, but the queen wasn't striking me as sane.
Chrysalis interrupted my train of thought by launching a laser beam at me. Well, not at me, but at the ball of energy I held. It seemed that she was trying to trigger the detonation that she had expected to occur. Instead, it just grew... and grew...
The commander, still sitting on the sidelines, stood up suddenly, and I swear that something changed about the overall scent in the air...
The ball was getting bigger, now almost as big as I was. Impossibly, it also felt a lot heavier as well. It took both hands now to hold it in midair... and it was getting harder to keep my grip. I didn't know what would happen if I let go of the ball, but I had a suspicion that it would involve a four letter word that rhymed with 'Doom', and would mean the same thing. At this point, the explosion might have leveled the entire castle. However, I think that the queen no longer cared. Like I said, she had a dangerous combination of mental illnesses. She was the type that, if you impaled her upon a spear, she'd push herself down its entire length, just so that she could have a chance at ripping your throat out with her teeth before she died...
I heard a skittering sound behind me. After a few seconds, I saw out of the corner of my eye that changelings were gathering in the throne room. A lot of them. It seemed that the queen had decided to summon reinforcements...
The assembled changelings opened their mouths, and...
The ball started getting lighter. Tendrils began leaching off of the ball, and into the mouths of the surrounding creatures. Within seconds, the ball was back to the size of a beach ball, and within a few seconds more, it was gone.
If the queen had been angry before, she was furious now. "WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS! I'LL HAVE YOUR HEADS FOR THIS TREASON!!!"
"Treason," I heard the commander say, as he stepped towards the queen. "An interesting choice of words, coming from you. Treason is the crime of betraying one's country." Looking a little smug, he continued, "Over the last three years, you have implemented terribly strict rationing of love energy, stating that there was so little to spare that we could not even afford to expend any on the priming of any of the eggs now sitting in the hatchery for birth. And yet, you just expended with that little display enough power to feed a hive ten times our size for three centuries. Tell me, where did you suddenly get that power from?"
I couldn't believe it: The commander had just used me as a patsy in a sting operation!
The queen still seemed furious, but even I could see that she seemed to be sweating. "THAT IS NONE OF YOUR CONCERN," She bellowed, trying to bluster her way out of the current situation.
The commander gave a smile that clearly had no humor to it. "Actually, it is, your highness." His expression turning stern, he stated, "When you demanded that, when you took the throne, we change from quiet infiltration to violent conquest, I kept quiet, since it was your right to make that change if you willed it. Likewise, when you insisted that you take point on all pre-invasion operations, in spite of having no acting skills, and little to no skill in gathering intelligence, I kept silent, because that was also within your rights." Advancing, angrily, he continued, hatred beginning to color his tone, "When you had us invade Equestria, a country far larger than we could ever hope to hold, I kept quiet, because it was your right to declare which countries we should target. When you decided that your first act, after our ejection from Canterlot, was to launch a petty revenge scheme against Twilight Sparkle and her friends, when such an action was against our best interests, I kept silent, because under our laws, you had the right to do so." Sparks striking from his hooves, the commander practically shouted as he closed the remaining distance, "WHEN YOU DEMANDED THAT ANY EGG BEARING THE MARK OF ROYALTY, THE MARK THAT THE HATCHLING WOULD BE YOUR SUCCESSOR, BE SMASHED ON SIGHT, I KEPT QUIET, BECAUSE AS TERRIBLE AS THAT WAS, THERE WAS NO LAW TO PREVENT YOU FROM DOING SO!!!"
The commander, bare inches from the queen, and his expression so stony that it might have been etched from granite, said, in a calm tone far the more terrifying than all the shouting in the world, "When you murdered my mate, and crushed our egg, just because she hid from you the fact that it was a queen's egg, I said nothing, even though every fiber of my being screamed for vengeance, because you had done nothing that violated our laws. Perhaps the laws of common decency, but not 'our' laws."
Turning away from her, he said, loud enough for all to hear, "But now, you have, before the entire hive, been shown to be guilty of breaking our greatest law: All love must be shared between all members within the hive equally! The first law! The most sacred law of our kind! You have been found guilty of hording love, at a time when love is scarce! In fact, love is scarce because you were hording it! You have broken the law that has been in place since the first changelings banded together to form a hive, and shall hold true until there no longer exists a single bug to remember it! Without that law, we cannot have a hive! We cannot hope to thrive as a species!" After a few paces, he stopped, and turned to face the queen once more, stating, "The penalty for breaking that law, regardless of rank, is death."
The queen looked more than a little scared now. I suspected that, like Skyflower had done earlier, she'd blown her entire mystical payload in that one failed attack. She didn't have anything left to protect herself with...
"You cannot do this," Chrysalis stated, attempting to look regal, but her shaking legs and visible sweat made that a little difficult. "I am your queen!"
"I can," the commander said, simply. Then he gestured towards the rest of the gathered changelings and added, "We can. And we will. You are queen no more." There was a subtle change in the smell on the air, and as one, the entire hive advanced upon their queen.
There was a great deal of screaming, but blessedly, the press of bodies prevented me from seeing what was actually happening. However, given that the screams went on for a very, very long time, it certainly wasn't quick.
I turned around, and walked out of the room, unable to stomach what was going on, and distraught that I had been a part of it. From the sound of things, the queen had definitely not been a good bug, and maybe she deserved what was happening. I don't know, things like this had been far beyond my proverbial pay-grade even before I'd ended up here... wherever or whatever here might have been. However, that didn't mean that I wanted to be a part of what was going on in there. Besides, psychotic or not, megalomaniac or not, irredeemable monster or not... in the end, when the queen died, she sounded just like any other girl would while being ripped apart by an angry mob.
Sorry. I wish I could make a joke right now, say something to lighten the mood, but there's really nothing funny about what happened in there.
I was surprised to see, just outside the throne room, Skyflower was sitting by the door, her hooves clamped over her ears, trying to block out the noise... and failing: Hooves aren't the best tools to do that kind of thing with. I was surprised to see her still around. When the screaming finally stopped, I observed, "I expected you to be long gone."
Still visibly rattled, she managed to stammer out, "I... I'm an o-officer of the E-E-Equestrian Army. I c-c-c-couldn't leave without first observing what w-w-w-w-was going to happen when two of my c-country's greatest enemies clashed..."
I snorted, and said, "Right." I'll admit, I felt a little bit more respect for her at that moment then I had before: Her earlier temper tantrums aside, she had risked her life to try and get information that she felt would be vitally important. "Well," I stated, a little more gruffly than I really wanted to, "You saw. Get moving."
Looking up at me in shock, she asked, "You're just letting me go? You're not going to...?"
"...Eat your magic?" I asked, finishing her question for her. I jerked a thumb towards the throne room and said, "What happened in there has left me with a bad case of indigestion. I doubt I could stomach anything so... saccharine right now."
Looking me up and down, Skyflower asked the last question I had expected. "Who are you? You look like Tirek, and you sound like Tirek, but you don't talk or act like him."
In spite of the terrible first impression she'd made, it seemed that she really did have a brain inside that head of hers. I was about to tell her the truth, when I heard the sound of advancing hooves. "I'll explain later," I said, holding a finger to my lips.
The commander stepped out, then turned towards me and saluted. "I apologize for getting you involved in our internal affairs, Lord Tirek," he stated, his tone more than a little worried. "I also beg your forbearance in taking any form of retribution against us for placing your safety at risk..."
I took a deep breath, ready to give the commander an earful...
When you murdered my mate, and crushed our egg...
Then let it out in a long sigh. Insect, pony, or human, could you blame him for what he'd just done? At that moment, I didn't have enough anger in me to even raise my voice at him. "Don't worry about it. And... my condolences for your mate." Looking the commander over as he visibly relaxed, I asked, "So, what now?"
The commander stated, "We will wait for a new queen's egg to appear, and when it does, we will ensure that it will remain safe and undamaged until it hatches. From there, we will ensure that she is raised to be a paragon of her kind... unlike her predecessor." After a moment, he added, "In the meantime, we shall do what changelings have done since the first days of creation: Survive."
After a moment, he bowed, then said, "And allow me to extend to you and your captive the hospitality of our hive. Sunset is coming soon, and it is dangerous to venture into the woods at night. Come the morning, if you wish to leave, you may do so."
Looking at Skyflower, then back at the commander, I nodded, then said, "Very well." Hopefully, this was all just a dream or a hallucination, and I'd wake up in the morning, safe and snug in my bed. I had yet to come to grips with the fact that my life had been irrevocably changed, else I would have just sat huddled in a corner, sucking my thumb and whimpering for the rest of my life...
-----------------------------------------
Meanwhile, miles away in a city called Canterlot, events were transpiring that would ensure that tomorrow would be a busy day...
"You are certain of this?" Celestia asked, her expression one of terrible worry.
Luna nodded, then said, "I am, sister. Tirek is missing from Tartarus once more. It seems that the message we just received regarding his sudden return is accurate."
Celestia gulped, then said, "And he may well be in league with the changelings, now."
Luna understood her sister's worry: The changeling invasion had taken everyone by surprise, as had their second assault, a few weeks later, targeting Twilight Sparkle and her friends in particular. The fact that, since then, the changelings had remained off the radar had left both sisters edgy, especially since their queen had proven herself strong enough to injure an alicorn during their last encounter. Between Tirek and the changelings, the situation looked terribly grim...
"I can have Twilight and her friends summoned within the hour," Luna began...
Celestia raised a hoof, and said, "Not yet. I would spare her a second confrontation with Tirek, if at all possible. As of yet, she and her friends have yet to reawaken the power they used to defeat the foul beast the first time. Besides, Twilight is still grieving the loss of her home, and the fond memories she'd experienced within." Turning thoughtful, she said, "Instead, summon Discord. I suspect that he'll be more than eager to settle accounts with his 'former friend'."