If I was to say yesterday's revelations had been explosive, I suspected I would get lynched by my friends. I wondered if the queen even realized what had happened to her. Had she felt anything as her body atomized, then recombined in violent combustion? Was her soul left standing exactly where her body had been, wondering what the hell had just happened? What of her daughter and granddaughter? Had the initial explosion killed them or had they lived through their uncontrolled flights until their subsequent, messy impact against the walls?
It must have been very stressful for the ponies up in H'ven City too, with a great chunk of the sky turning black, accompanied by a window rattling boom. No doubt, there would be doomsayers running about, stirring up trouble, mostly for themselves.
I could imagine the bedlam in all of the structural-integrity monitoring stations, as the needles on their vibration detectors literally swung off the charts. The shock had probably knocked them all off their gimbals, damaged the filters that blocked out noise from everyday life, and generally played havoc with the other parts of the system. Even if the vibrations hadn't been felt down in Hell, the damage to the pipework of the Mane Way must have had alerts lighting up. I did not think that would lead them to sending up a repair party, though, as it was too close to ground-level to risk. They would be wondering if we were involved, as we had not reported back.
Having spent the remainder of the previous day, and the following night sleeping in the clinic, I was feeling somewhat better. My headache had receded, and now I was just sore. By the time the day was over, I figured my body would have sorted itself out to the point I was fully functional again. My bandages had not been replaced when they had been removed, this morning. Likewise, the bandages of Cacha and Maisie, both of whom were in this ward with me. For the moment, Cacha's and Maisie's ward was serving as the throne room, Cacha's bed serving as the throne, and Cacha herself as the royal cushion.
"First things first," I said to the changeling drone that stood before me, "4K1 instructed 4K4 to investigate, and possibly replace, the computer in the distribution node that was used to trap us. That computer is not to be replaced. I want 4K4's report delivered personally to Maisie or myself."
"Yes, Your Majesty," the drone said.
"Second thing. All hostility towards Hellites or Hellspawn is to cease immediately. They are to be left to their own devices, if discovered. They are not to be disturbed. Any staff member of Central who objects to this is to be relieved of their duty immediately, and brought to the outer ring of Central for re-education. I will want to see them personally."
"As you wish, Your Majesty. The princess has already issued a similar ordinance. I shall update it to include the re-education requirement for those that object."
"And could you have Princess Kakuun call in at her earliest convenience?"
"I shall inform her that she is required."
"You may go." I dismissed the drone, who immediately buzzed out of the room with some enthusiastic wing flapping. Apparently, she had been a royal aide before, and had been off duty when I had disintegrated the former monarch. She held no grudge.
"So, you really are the queen now," Cacha said. "I really thought you were joking when you told us, this morning."
"If you had woken yesterday, you might have been in the loop, but you seemed content enough to sleep the day away," I said with a smirk.
"I don't think being unconscious with a severe concussion counts as sleeping," Cacha said.
"It wasn't particularly pleasant being awake, with a pounding head, either," I said.
"Maybe you were just standing in a better place than us when the room exploded."
"Maybe I was, not that any place in there was particularly good, although, admittedly, the location in which the former queen was standing was the absolute worst. You really must see the new access point I installed. At about thirty degrees from horizontal, it even went through the Mane Way itself, and everything else between me and the sky."
"That is some serious destruction! At least we now know how to get out of Habitat Eleven if we can't open the doors. We will just get you to install a new one!"
"As a last, desperate step, sure, but until we really know what is outside, opening a door with some care would be a lot smarter."
"How so? If we have to leave because Habitat Eleven fails, we have no choice but to leave," Maisie said.
"That would be a last, desperate step, wouldn't it? We have a couple hundred years, give or take, to work out how to get out there. Ideally, we will work it out soon, then we can send out parties to investigate what it is like out there, giving us a couple hundred years to prepare for it, if it's really bad, or a couple hundred years to establish a new city, if it's good."
"You've really put a lot of thought into this, haven't you?" Maisie asked.
"Are you kidding? These are just basic ideas!" I said. "Plans rarely survive an encounter with reality."
Our conversation was interrupted by the sound of approaching hooves: small ones. Princess Kakuun tended to walk, rather than buzzing about, as per a lot of the drones we had met, so we were ready for her when she walked into the ward.
"Aneki, you wished to see me?" she said, politely.
"Thank you, yes, Kakuun. I did. I have questions regarding something the former queen said."
"Yes?"
"What did the former queen mean when she called us your source of food? Do you eat ponies?"
Kakuun took a sudden step back, practically recoiling from the question. Cacha flinched beside me. Had I misheard the former queen? It would certainly account for that reaction.
"Oh, that. I can see why you could think that," Kakuun said. "No, we do not eat ponies, although what we do eat may be just as repulsive to you. We feed on your love, and we do it through deception."
Well, at least they weren't roasting us, or feeding on our freshly killed carcases. On the other hoof, eating love was not something I could comprehend.
"How could you possibly feed on something so intangible? Take Cacha here; she loves me, but I cannot feel that love." I felt Cacha stiffen beside me. "All I receive is her expressions of that love. I need to read her body language, understand what she says, and what she actually means by what she says, to know that she loves me. Even then, I could misinterpret something and that could drive a wedge between us, leading to dislike and eventually to hate. So how can you eat something that cannot exist outside of the lover's own mind? Just, how?"
"As you say, you cannot feel somepony's love for you, but we can, through magic," Kakuun said, tapping her weird horn with a hoof. "That should be no surprise; we are all magical beings. We drain off... harvest the energy your body puts into those feelings. You get a little more tired, and eat more to compensate."
"Is that all?" Cacha asked. "It sounds pretty harmless so far."
"So, how do you go about harvesting this love? Is that what you wish to keep hidden? Is it something reprehensible?" I asked.
"Do you remember when you were at school, there was always a popular filly or colt who everyone had a crush on? They would have had a colt-friend or filly-friend, or maybe even more than one, yet they always moved away and you never heard of them again. That pony was a young changeling. Occasionally, just occasionally, one of their old loves would catch up with them, or they simply couldn't get away from them, even becoming so ensnared as to love that pony back. In those cases, the changeling would marry their pony sweetheart, but they would remain childless. That would cause grief if it was known," Kakuun said.
"It may, or maybe the pony involved would simply love their partner too much to care," I said.
"Perhaps. To these mixed couples, and to regular ponies who were childless, we would supply an orphan if they really wanted a child. These orphans were, of course, more changeling young. Again, we deceive.
"It goes on. Popular musicians, actors and actresses are often changelings. In these positions, it is possible to mass-harvest huge amounts of love to share among those of our hive."
"What you have said so far still doesn't warrant killing off anypony who can see you," I said.
"I know," Kakuun agreed.
"How many of there are you? Are you putting ponies in danger?" I asked.
"There would be a ratio of one to a hundred or so. If there are many more changelings than that, it is too taxing on the ponies. We don't want to kill our food source, do we? We need to feed lightly on many so as to not destroy the balance."
"Why do you have teeth, then?" Maisie asked. That was a good point.
"We cannot live on love alone. It supplies us with energy, but we still need to eat something with which we can build our bodies."
"Fair enough," I said. "If that is all there is to it, I don't see why our two kinds can't simply live in harmony, so what haven't you told us?"
"From what I have been able to learn from old writings, those of our kind were not invited to live in this Habitat. Perhaps it was because we were hidden, or perhaps it was because we were hated. We smuggled ourselves on board, where we lived in the shadows, trying to stay out of sight of you Hellites. When we became desperate, our queens overthrew your leaders, took on their form and took control. We then mingled with your society and began to feed. At that point, it was imperative to kill any who could see us, lest we, and what our queens had done, be discovered."
"Shit. You could have tried asking," Cacha said.
"Desperation, fear or arrogance prevented that," Kakuun said, "however, as the only remaining queen of my kind, I do not intend to repeat the mistake. Queen Aneki, my species is in your hooves. I beg you treat us kindly."
"I will," I said. "I need to learn more about your kind, what happened to our old rulers, and the missing pony races. Changes will need to be made. We have some time, but not a lot. This habitat will not last beyond two hundred years."
Kakuun gasped. "We have that little time remaining? How can you be certain?"
"Easy. Habitat Eleven uses fuel to power everything. That fuel is almost gone. Things have gone very wrong, and we have lived in here longer than we were ever meant to."
"My idiot mother really should have taken me seriously," Kakuun muttered. "How long have you known this? Why didn't your kind find some way to let us know?"
"Being hunted didn't make communication easy, did it?" I asked. "But, in truth, we have not known this for very long. Again, your ancestors are to blame. By eliminating unicorns, they eliminated the very ability required to read the engine's displays."
"But you are a unicorn!" Kakuun pointed at my head.
"And that is why I could read the displays. I've only had a functional horn for a short time, thanks to it being restored. None of the other Hellites had horns." Maybe Discernment had one by now, and Brainstorm and Stormie did too, but the comment was true to the situation before my descent to Hell.
"What a mess we've created for ourselves," Kakuun said. "No doubt there are other nasty occurrences hidden in our past. I beg you will forgive us those, when they too are revealed."
"Like me being vivisected?" I asked. "Who would have authorized that? The previous queen's comments implied she knew about the Hellite modifier, and that it wasn't contagious, at least to changelings, yet I was examined for weeks so the ponies at Central could learn more about the Hellite modifier."
"We don't control all aspects of what is going on in Central, nor do we let them know all of what we know. In fact, the three former generations of queens knew less than I did about Habitat Eleven because they paid the old writings no heed. So, when the scientists at Central wanted to learn more, the obvious solution was to examine a Hellite, wasn't it, and no, I wasn't in the loop."
"But you seem to know about it now. You weren't surprised at all."
"I put out a request for all that was known about the three Hellites I had in the clinic, and have been reading the briefs as they come through. There were mentions of one that matched Cacha's description, nothing at all on Maisie before she was captured, and of course, on you, Aneki, quite a portfolio, going right back to your birth."
"I want to pay a visit to that facility," I said, darkly.
"I shall make it so. What name do you wish to go there under? Queen Aneki?"
"No. I want one of those codes you guys all use."
"As you wish. I shall prepare one for myself as well, and will take on the form of a pony for the visit."
"That reminds me," I said. "The queen mentioned her mother being a winged unicorn. Was that just her guise?"
Kakuun nodded. "Yes, she was really a changeling."
"So why did the queen need us? Couldn't she simply have taken on the form of a winged unicorn herself?"
Kakuun shook her head. "According to the writings, there were only two winged unicorns, alicorns, in Habitat Eleven. Mother and daughter, both were very old. The daughter was infected with the Hellite modifier and vanished soon after. The mother lived, in captivity, for centuries, allowing the generations of changeling queens to take her form, and her role. She died not long after the former queen's mother stole her identity and form, and with her death, her form was denied to us. We cannot copy a corpse."
"Princess Moon Glow was the name of the real, original... alicorn... leader?" I asked.
"That is correct."
"Tell me, if you need to use a living pony as your sample, what has become of all of other ponies your drones have sampled so they can live in pony society. What about the ponies the queens were sampling?"
"That is something you perhaps will find repulsive," Kakuun said. "Sometimes we merely copy a pony that lives on the other side of the city. It is unlikely that we will ever bump into that pony, after the original, discrete copying, but if we do, it's oh wow! you look just like me. We could be twins! or some other such similar response. For the other times, I request you follow me, and see for yourself."
Kakuun's destination was a lot closer than I had expected. In fact, we didn't even leave the clinic, merely moving to a parallel corridor, several drones falling in, alongside us. One noticeable difference was that all of the doors in this corridor were closed, and locked from the outside. Kakuun led us to the third door, where she stopped. The drones opening the door, then moving inside, took on a stance of readiness.
"Come," Kakuun said. "See our shame." She walked into the ward... or should I say, cell.
The walls and floor were soft, padded, and made from shiny, easily washed material, which, even now, needed washing, as it was splattered with saliva, food scraps, and... was that pony excrement? Pushing herself against the far wall, shaking, and foaming at the mouth was a pony with a black coat, pale green hair and bright green eyes. On her forehead, she had the bony nub of a stunted horn. It took me a few moments of staring, in utter shock, before I realized this wretched creature was the base for the appearance the former queen, her daughter and granddaughter had been using.
"This is disgusting," Cacha said, flatly. "Now I can see why changelings need to hide their existence. What have you done to this poor mare?"
"We have done nothing, but feed, bathe and care for her," Kakuun said.
"Then, why is she like this?"
"She is one of society's unfortunates. She is mad, insane, incapable of living with others. Give her a chance, and she will attack, biting, trying to kill. She is the result of ponies that were too closely related, bearing foals. If we were truly kind, she would have been put out of her misery, but instead, we keep her here, so we have a pony we can copy."
Kakuun shimmered green in her own magic for a moment, and when it dissipated, a filly sized version of the insane mare stood before us.
"This particular mare is reserved for royal use only, although I have memorized her form, and no longer need access to her, myself. We chose her because she has similar colors to our own, and for the convenience of her having a horn, even if it is disabled."
"Allow me," I said, taking steps towards the mad mare, who hissed and spat at me, while backing herself harder against the wall.
I was not sure anything could be done for her, but I wanted to try something; I wanted to reach into her mind, to see if I could help, or even understand. Mentally, I pieced together a spell based on the code of the language learning spell, writing in failsafes that would prevent her madness being written into my mind. I only wished to look, not to learn to behave like her.
The spell completed, I reached for her with my magic, entering her mind, exploring, trying to comprehend. All encompassing fear, and desperation clawed at me; perception was totally distorted. I could find no logic, no sense and no understanding in there. Perhaps she was so different to me that I simply couldn't understand what I was experiencing, or perhaps this really was her personal hell. Seeing nowhere I could even write information into her mind, I could not perceive how I could correct her views. She really was beyond help. Unable to stand it anymore, I dropped the spell, and stepped back.
"Well?" Cacha said, seeing I was no longer connected to the mad pony.
"Damned if you do; damned if you don't," I said, shaking my head. "Short of killing her, there is no way to give her peace, yet killing her is wrong. As disgusting as it appears, I cannot fault the way the changelings are handling her."
"Are you sure?" Cacha asked.
"From what I could understand, her greatest desire is total isolation, in that there is no one to fear when she is completely alone. Let us leave her so she can have that peace."
"That was an unexpected response," Kakuun said. "I was sure you would hate us for it."
"Are there others?" I asked.
"Yes. The worst of the worst are kept here. The less affected are kept in institutions in the city itself, and on the most part those institutions are run by ponies. Come now, I will show you."
The trip to Kakuun's second destination was interesting in itself. It was the first time I had ever sat in a passenger transporting vehicle, if you didn't count elevators. We took the Mane Way, of course, being royalty. The hole I had blown through it was already being repaired, a mass of pony engineers and equipment assembled in the central hub near the spoke I had destroyed. Apparently, a lot of detours were required at the moment. The trip itself was very short, with us leaving the Mane Way before we even reached the first ring road. Apparently, the changelings had chosen this location for the facility for their own convenience.
For the excursion, Kakuun had taken on the form of a filly with the same coloring her mother had been displaying, when we first met. I had dressed, over Kakuun's objections, in coveralls of a common worker, as had my two Hellite companions. As such, we looked like regular maintenance ponies. Kakuun was disappointed we hadn't donned something more royal in appearance. Together we entered the large, multi-storey building, bypassed the reception desk, and entered via a door displaying Staff Only.
"An old folks home?" I asked.
"Yes, a home for the infirm," Kakuun said. "Think about it. When we take a pony's form, we take the appearance it had, or will have at our age. You saw that the queen was an older version of the mad mare, yet here I am, a filly. Old ponies are all wrinkled and faded; no pony really remembers what they looked like when they were a foal. We bring some of our newly hatched here, and they take on the form of one of these oldies, then we ship them out into some far part of the city, and nopony is any the wiser."
"So you have a few sources of, well... hosts? No, that's not the right word."
"That's right."
"Are there any other dark secrets?" I asked. "Is there anything else that would make us want to hate you?"
"Probably. I'm only a filly, remember. While I did get to watch what happened in the throne room, and was given lessons, it isn't like I had access to all of what the departments were up to. For example, how they treated you was handled entirely at a different level of Central, and as far as I know, entirely by ponies. Even if any changelings knew about it, they chose not to interfere. I am sure there will be cases of other disturbing behavior."
"Now that I think of it, there is the general control of the masses through the media, isn't there?"
"How else were we meant to pacify our larder, and keep our secrets?" Kakuun asked. "That was just part of us hiding ourselves. You will find other similar conspiracies too, if you look hard enough."
"At least you are being honest with me," I said.
"What are you going to do, now that you have some idea of the situation. Are you going to force us to reveal ourselves?"
"Can you imagine the civil unrest that would cause?" I asked. "It would turn this place into a war zone. It would be the great extermination all over again! The smartest option is for business to continue as usual, with minor changes as needed. The way I see it, you have the tools at your disposal to straighten things out over time."
"What do you mean?"
"You control the media, don't you?" I asked. "Use it. Produce a show in which ponies are brought to love a character, then reveal the character to be a changeling. It's fiction, right? Ponies will love the character without realizing there is anything amiss. Do it again and again. Make the heroes save a changeling hive from some other nasties. Get ponies to love the idea of changelings. Only then do we reveal that some of those living amongst us are changelings. Surprise! Your next door neighbor really is a changeling. Aren't they cute! Maybe it will take a generation to get there, but we have enough time for that."
"Good idea! I will contact the relevant department and assemble a new planning team."
"We can go beyond that too. Stop this there is nothing outside H'ven lie. Start producing stories where ponies go exploring outside. Get ponies used to the idea."
"But we don't know what is out there yet!" Kakuun said. "Even the old writings don't tell much, and things will have changed!"
"So, make something up. It doesn't matter. One story, outside could be a huge blackness in which other habitats also exist, and getting to them means making some sort of smaller ship to travel between them. The next story, the world outside could be populated by ponies that are ten times our size. Or we could be inside a larger habitat, like Habitat Ten was inside this one."
"Oh, I think I understand. We worry about facts when we get them, but in the meantime, we open their minds to other possibilities."
"Do you think you are up to the job?" I asked.
"Yes, yes, yes!" Kakuun bounced.
Oh well, she was still a filly, after all.