As dawn slowly broke over the eastern horizon, James marched - as quietly as possible - with a company of soldiers assigned to help blockade the hive. He was less than thrilled with the assignment, but it was true that his own soldiers would have great difficulty in telling the Changelings from different hives apart in an urban battle.
He felt a sense of anti-climax for the situation, at least for himself. Not that he was eager to be shot, of course, but it felt like he would be missing history in the making.
History's always in the making. You'll get more chances further on. He laughed in his mind, careful not to do it out loud. That was true, but the uncertainty of the future - at least, uncertain in the minds of mere men, ponies, Changelings, and likewise - still harassed him.
"Glad I'm not going to be shot at this time," he heard a soldier nearby whisper.
"And how," one of his companions agreed.
"Shut up, both of you!" came the whispered but harsh voice of a sergeant. "If you bozos give the game away, I'll have the two of you locked up - after I'm done chewing you both between my teeth and spitting you both out."
The sergeant had spoken more words than the first two soldiers had put together, which wasn't to say that he was wrong. Silence was key here. No enemy patrols had been seen yet, but even so, on the off chance that they were there, the Equestrian army, as well as Metamorphosis' troops, had been ordered to keep quiet and speak as little as possible.
One of the Changelings leading them made a sound reminiscent to that of a cricket. That was the signal that they had reached their designated position. As James lifted a hand to stop the column, one of them reached down and began fiddling with a group of five small rocks that were scattered o the ground. Apparently, it was some sort of puzzle required to open a secret doorway, as two pieces of the ground, shaped liked half moons facing each other, lifted from the ground. Another Changeling lifted himself from the hatch (the doorway reminded James more of a hatch on a tank than anything else) and began conversing with the one who had been moving the rocks. It seemed like the guard was satisfied, for he said something that sounded confirmatory and lowered himself back down, closing the hatch again.
"Our comrades are ready," the Changeling said. "Our warriors r' ready ta go when tha Queen gives the word."
"Good," James whispered back. "How long will it be until the battle starts?"
"Gotta wait till tha Queen gets back, and that might be a wee bit." Although the accent wasn't as strong for this particular Changeling, it was obvious that he was from the hive that they were about to liberate. "Can't move till then."
"Well then." James thought about ordering his troops to dig in, even though the sound of digging could be more audible than whispered voices. The wish to keep the operation a surprise for the enemy battled with the desire to prevent casualties. The former won out, though narrowly. He turned to his command. "Set up anti-air cannons, and make sure your guns are all loaded. And remember to do all this as quietly as possible; I don't want the enemy to find out what we're up to until it's too late for them."
He got nods in return, and the soldiers began doing what he had instructed.
I suppose we can only rely on the Queen now, and hope that we don't miss any of the messengers that try to escape...
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Queen Camilla was grateful that she had managed to get back into her hive without being noticed by Chrysalis' soldiers. She had just emerged from a secret entrance with her retainers and hidden the passageway when a couple of those same soldiers rounded a corner and saw them. "You! Puppet!" one of them snarled at her. "The councilors have been looking for you for several hours; they aren't very happy with you, or your miserable excuses for subjects."
Curse them, she thought. They must have pulled one of their surprise visits while I was away. What new atrocities have they committed while I was gone?
"If I were you," the second soldier said, "I wouldn't waste anymore time; get to the palace at once!"
Camilla felt a very familiar sense of indignity that a mere drone from another hive was giving her orders. And the soldier hadn't said your palace; instead, he'd said the palace. It was a small difference, but the sting was there nonetheless. "I'll be there," she said, turning away from them and heading toward her home. And if I'm luckier than I deserve, we'll be free of you forever by the time the sun sets on this day. She didn't say that out loud; they were always listening for such words. But she felt them flare inside her, a fire that could not be quenched.
As she continued to walk through her hive - her city, ponies might say - she saw her subjects going about their business. They tried to do so without taking notice of the occupying troops, often going to great lengths to ignore their existence, but their speech was generally very guarded, and frequent glances down the street betrayed a sense of fear. A group of her subjects were busy whispering to one another; over the past several years, conversations, except inside homes, were whispered, the speakers fearful that they would be overheard and, for some reason or another, hauled off to prison for "interrogation."
Sometimes, the soldiers didn't need - or seek - a reason to do things. Two of them approached the speakers. "What are you doing?" one of them demanded sharply.
"N-nothing," one of them, a male, answered. "We were just talking, that's all."
"Talking about us, or about our illustrious Queen, perhaps?" the second soldier asked in a threatening tone.
"No! Why would you think that?"
"Because all you slaves unjustly despise Her Rightful Majesty, that's why," the first soldier said.
"Perhaps if you treated us as equals," a second male in the group said, "and not as slaves-"
He got no further. The second soldier struck him across the face. The speaker yelped, clutching at his muzzle. "You have no right to wish for a higher position," the second soldier said, rage rippling through his voice. "Yours has been set by the High Queen of all Changelings, and you shall accept and like it or else we will slay you as an example to other traitors." He motioned to his comrade. "Take this worthless scum and throw him in prison. Let's see if a few weeks of starvation and interrogation improve his attitude." Addressing the injured civilian, he added, "Don't even think of resisting. We'll kill your friends as potential traitors if you do, and you'll suffer all the horrors we can inflict upon you before you finally die."
"I-I'm coming-" the Changeling said, only to be struck again.
"Your right to speak has been rescinded. Keep your mouth shut, or you'll regret it."
Camilla watched this, enraged. Even more infuriating was that the second soldier, the one to order the arrest turned toward her... and smiled, in a way that said he knew what she was thinking, and that he believed she could, and would, do nothing about it.
You must stick to the plan, she reminded herself. By the end of the day, those bastards will either be dead, or will be in jail themselves, and regretting that they'd ever laid a hoof on my subjects. She didn't think, or speak, in an Irish accent when dealing with her own language; there was no equivalent for such an accent in the Changeling tongue.
That got his attention. "Do not defy us, wretch," the second soldier said, hissing furiously. "We're the ones in power here, and you will accept our decisions or be replaced. Be silent and do not interfere."
Camilla forced herself to keep walking, but as she watched her subject being taken away, she felt the need to be free, to make her own decisions for the good of her own people rather than for the conquerors. As things were, her people had their energy taken from them by invaders who had done nothing to earn it. They had to work for the good of those same invaders, with little of the labor being for their own benefit. The slightest signs of disagreement and dissent were dealt with harshly. Chrysalis' drones acted worse than Canterlot blue bloods, refusing to accept or treat her people as equals. It was long past time for these things to change, as far as she was concerned.
She made her way to the palace, where she nodded to the guards - who were thankfully of her own hive - who nodded back, opened the doors, and allowed her and her followers through.
She groaned inwardly when she saw the councilors waiting for her just across the hall. Without preamble, they both marched right up to her. "Where have you been, you worthless bitch? We've been waiting for six hours for you!" one of them shouted at her.
"If you didn't make your visits a surprise, I might have been ready to receive you," she replied.
"Don't question our methods," the other said, slapping her across the face. "You should have been here. You weren't here. Explain yourself."
"I had to inspect a new district, she said. "We've been expanding the hive, as you know. And I had to make sure it was being done properly. You wouldn't believe how much I had to correct the workers there."
It was all true, in a way. If I count the camp M and her allies have built as a new district, she thought. And it was also true that construction was currently taking place in the hive.
The first of the councilors to address her scoffed. "As if the doings of common drones needed overseeing."
"We expect you to be here in the future when we show up," the second added. "And do not ask us to change our policies. We are in charge. You will adapt to our needs. You should have known that, considering that you've been under us for seven and a half years or so already."
"The Changeling nation requires sacrifices on the behalf of our Illustrious Majesty," the first one said, without waiting for her response. "More energy is needed. You must send more workers and give us more of the energy you have produced. Do not complain; this is the best your miserable, defiant people can aspire to, and if a few of them die, their loss is of no consequence whatsoever."
"They are to me," she replied.
"No one of importance cares what you think," the second councilor said. "And this will be done, or you and your... people, will suffer for it."
Damn you both. "I will - reluctantly - obey."
For that, she got struck again. "We told you not to complain. Do as we have instructed without fuss."
"Fine." Now get out of my sight! she barely kept herself from screaming. Grinning to one another, as though they knew what she wanted to say to them, they walked out of her palace.
"Shut the doors behind them," she ordered the guards. "And gather my most capable officials and officers; I will be meeting them in the throne room for... an emergency meeting."
"We hear and obey, Your Majesty," they replied. One of them added, "I wouldn't miss either of those scumbags, I wouldn't.
"I know how you feel, Mealworm," Camilla answered. "Hopefully, what transpires later will accomplish that."
She made her way over to the throne room and sat down on the massive, gilded chair. She lifted a hoof to her chin and sighed.
One way or another, my hive will be free again, but what will it cost us?
The Changelings she had called for arrived fifteen minutes later. They were all capable, having proven their worth over and over again. Drone 1194, more commonly known as Sylvia, was her chief advisor and friend. Drone 8943, alias Aphid, was known for hard work and for inspiring the same in others; it was he who was in charge of constructing the new district. Borealis had once been the best Changeling in the hive at making light shows - had, that is, until the act was banned by Chrysalis' councilors; the official reason was that the lights could portray secret messages, but Camilla suspected that the councilors simply wanted her subjects to work more, and cutting out "needless distractions" could accomplish that... and wiping out joyful activities would severely damage hope, making it less likely that they would revolt.
"I think ya all know what we're here fer," Camilla began; she enjoyed using the Equestrian language when she got the chance to.
"Ta give the feckin' duffers what for, ya mean," Borealis replied.
"Aye." She should have known that Borealis would have been the most eager to mix it up with the enemy. Unlike ponies, Changelings did not have cutie marks, but that didn't mean that they didn't have things they were good at, or that they didn't enjoy those talents. Borealis' talents had been suppressed for years. He would want to get them back. And it was unlikely that his concern was just for himself; the whole reason he had enjoyed putting on light shows was to provide entertainment for exhausted drones who had worked all day. He cared about the rest of the hive.
"Well, 'bout time," Aphid said, a very hungry look on his face. "Can't have drones workin' eighteen hours a day. I may enjoy hard work, but there's such a thing as crossin' tha limits. Labor can't be constant, and that what the gobdaws are wantin'.
"Well said." Aphid liked hard work, but he wanted to be fair about it. Currently, drones were being forced to their limits, and if the pressure continued, workers would start dying on the job from over-exhaustion.
Only Sylvia still appeared uncertain. "Ya sure, Mi'lady, that this'll succeed?"
That question was very much like her. She was always trying to make sure the Camilla made the best choices. Sometimes, she'd had good reason to be concerned, as sometimes things had gone wrong when Camilla had ignored her advice. After a few times of that, she listened much more closely.
"I'm sure," she answered. "We canna just sit here and wait fer the war ta end. We must make our stand, and that right soon. Today, in fact."
"Today?" Sylvia said, eyes opening wide. "Ya sure we've had enough time ta prepare?"
"Aye. The ponies and M's troops have taken their positions 'round our hive, ta block any of them what try to escape."
"We better get to it, then," Aphid said. "They'll find out soon if we don't, and it'll go worse fer us then."
"I suppose..." Sylvia still didn't seem convinced. "I'm assumin' there's no goin' back now?"
"Aye."
Sylvia remained silent for a few seconds, then sighed and said, "I will do me part for this venture, yer Majesty, have no fear o' tha."
"I won't." She turned back to Aphid. "Are our warriors in place?"
"Aye, yer Majesty, all of 'em. Might be we'll give the git a bit o' a surprise," he said, smiling at that. "When do ya want us ta go?"
"When I give the order." When she realized that failed to satisfy, the Queen added, "An hour or two. Have they they noticed anything?"
"Oh, aye. Can't hardly move drones around without someone gettin' suspicious. Luckily, I was able ta tell 'em that it had ta do with the work I've been doin', and tha these drones movin' about were on errands I've ordered them on."
"Good. Will they notice anything from now to the point of the uprising?"
"I doubt it, ma'am, but as always I could be wrong."
"Hmmm. Make sure that, no matter what happens, ya take tha nursery an' keep it safe, no matter what it costs ya."
"Aye, we'll take it and protect it, yer Majesty, even should it cost us a thousand lives 'r more."
"Don' say tha. We aren't losin' a thousand drones. They can' have tha many of their own in our hive. We'll lick 'em*, its a matter o' gettin' it done."
She looked around at them all. It was with a jolt that she realized that some of these faces might not report to her again after the battle. It was the one thing that even briefly made her wonder whether or not fighting would be the best idea. However, if something didn't change soon, the whole hive would be put at risk. Losing more energy would be disastrous, especially when they were already giving so much already.
"This be somethin' we must do," she continued. "We'll be starvin' before long. I have o'er thirty thousand o' my people ta look out fer, and I won' just sit by n' let 'em die one by one. No more tyranny, no more beatin's, no more jailin' people what don't deserve it. From now on, we make our own destiny, not have it shaped by the buggers what seek ta rule o'er us."
"An' bout bloody time, too," Borealis agreed.
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Borealis wasn't feeling quite as confident about an hour later, as he crouched in a building, hiding from the enemy patrols on the top floor of a tall building. The Changelings loyal to Chrysalis were well protected by armor, carried spears, and, from the behavior they displayed, would be utterly ruthless. If they captured anyone in arms against them, they would not be merciful, he knew that.
On the other side of that argument was, how much damage, how much suffering, and how many deaths would they caused if they stayed? He knew the answers all too well; too much, too much, and too many, respectively. Throwing them out now might be costly, but it would be much more so over time if it didn't happen.
I always enjoyed putting on a show. They thought it would be better if we remained miserable, and tried to cut that out of my life. I've only been able to keep up my talent by practicing in secret, and then all I could do is maintain what I already knew. Who knows how far along I'd be now if they hadn't come?
There was no answer to that; what would have been was hidden forever from the knowledge of mere people. Now was the time to fight, and try to make up for seven lost years.
The current plan was for a troop of warriors under his command to capture the nursery in a lightning strike; after the young were rescued and moved to a safe location, his force would then help to encircle the enemy, who would hopefully be stuck in the middle of the hive by then, surrounded by a hostile populace pelting them with bolts of energy from their horns. Aphid's division would try to ambush enemy patrols and eliminate them one by one; failing that, he would block their way toward the nursery and try to keep them from escaping. Considering the rebel numbers, the outcome, in any case, was a foregone conclusion. The casualties suffered were not. There were about a thousand garrison troops in the hive, and these would be outnumbered something like thirty to thirty five to one.
It's up to me to make this go right, Borealis thought to himself. My father was a soldier. I rarely thought about the battle he fought and died in until now. Perhaps I've been trying to suppress it, trying to act as if it never happened; then I wouldn't have to believe that he died without success. Well, da, I'll try to make you proud of me, wherever you are. I never considered life a fighter. All I ever wanted to do was entertain. But the only way I can do that is fight now, for a better tomorrow.
"I think it might be time now," one of the warriors fighting with him said.
"Oh, is it?"
"Yes, I think so."
"Well, we best get on with it." Borealis raised a hoof to signal to another group across the way to begin their assault. Then he flew out the window, followed by several of his group.
None of the guards noticed. They were busy watching drones walking by and making sure they didn't get too close.
Borealis and two others landed on one of the guards on the roof; the guard was knocked down, and one of the other Changelings stuffed a hoof in the mouth of the soldier so he couldn't scream. The guard bit down, hard, but the hard chitin hoof, unable to feel the impact, remained unhurt.
"Gag him and bind him," Borealis whispered, "and make sure he and his friends stay that way."
He looked around quickly. The other guards on the roof had been similarly neutralized. There was no alarm, so he assumed that this part of the plan had been unnoticed.
"Right," he said, once the guards had been securely bounded and gagged. "Now, let's get on with it."
He waved at the drones who were on the street below. Someone must have been watching, because all of a sudden, the pedestrians stopped walking about and turned to face the guards.
"Now!" Without further ado, he and his command dived on the enemy below as the crowd charged. The guards had no time to try to resist; swarmed from above and below in a surprise attack, they were captured just as quickly as their comrades on the roof.
"Traitors!" one of the captured guards yelled. "We'll-"
Someone stuck him, hard, in the head with a hoof. The guard slumped, knocked out cold.
"Next time, I'll gut you," said the Changeling who had knocked him unconscious.
Borealis wasn't onboard with that kind of idea. I don't like them, but that doesn't mean I have to become one of them in order to beat them. He was all for kicking the invaders out, but not for sinking to their level.
"Alright, we'll go inside and make sure none of them are hiding there." He pulled open the door and walked in, followed by eight or so others.
For a few minutes, they found nothing but sleeping Changeling infants, warmly wrapped in towels and placed on pillows. Borealis, looking upon them, almost felt like falling asleep right then and there. He shook his head as he reminded himself that he had a job to do.
They walked up the stairs and opened a door. A Changeling was busy looking after one of the young that had awoken. The drone looked up in surprise. "Wh-wha? What are you doing here?"
"Are you the only one in the whole hive who doesn't know what's going on?" one of the drones with Borealis asked. "We're freeing our hive from Chrysalis' bastards, and we're making sure none of her scum are hiding here."
Borealis felt something in his heart fall the instant the words were out. The drone before them smirked. "So, you traitors chose to rebel against Her Majesty? You'll pay most dearly for that!" The drone picked up the infant he had been tending to.
"Let him go! NOW!"
"Silence! If any of you so much as take another step toward me, this child will die!"
Borealis took a step back, horrified. "You wouldn't do that...!"
"I said silence! And I will. Now, if you wish for the hatchling to live, you will surrender yourselves-"
That was as far as he got. Suddenly, the enemy drone gasped and fell. Borealis grasped the infant Changeling in his magic before the child could hit the floor.
A Changeling of his own hive was standing behind the drone who was now obviously one of the occupiers. "Glad I'm not too late," she said, taking the child from Borealis. "They kept a few of their garrison in the nursery itself, not just outside of it. I just remembered and was on my way to warn you."
"Partly my fault. I'd seen their soldiers for so long that I assumed they'd all be in armor and carrying spears. Should have reckoned that they might have a few out of uniform here."
"Well, what's done is done." The female Changeling - apparently a nurse - took the infant and laid it back in its cradle. "Little guy barely woke up," she commented as the child yawned and fell fast asleep again.
"Perhaps that's for the best," Borealis said. "Now he won't have a traumatic event etched into his memories."
"Perhaps." The nurse made sure the infant was snug inside his coverings before looking at them once more. "Now go out there, and make sure this child will have a bright future."
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Aphid watched as a patrol of Chrysalis' soldiers marched down the street. Both of them marched confidently, sure that no one would dare to attack them, that no one would stand up to them, and sure that they were right.
That wasn't how things went, not this time. After Aphid saw light flickering from the nursery roof, he screeched, "Attack!" and, dozens following him, he charged the invaders.
The soldiers stopped and stared, stunned by the assault. Then one of them grasped his spear in his magic, preparing to throw it. He never got the chance; several bolts of green energy struck him, and he fell over, twitching. His comrade stood up on two legs and brandished his spear. It did him no good; he was also blasted, by two dozen bolts or more. He fell to join his companion in death.
Up and down the street, similar scenes were occurring; patrols, caught off guard, were either struck by bolts fired without warning or were rushed by the angry fighters, who, either by magic or by swarm attack, were brought down, one after the other. Not all of them died before they got a chance to hit back; screams of wounded hivemates rose above the buzz of angry wings and the battle cries of the opposing sides. But nowhere, or at least nowhere Aphid could see, were the enemy able to stop the sudden attack, or even slow it down.
We can't let the councilors get away. Camilla herself said they would go on trial, and that's damn well what's going to happen. "Some of you, follow me to councilors' lodgings; the rest are to continue to assault in earnest!" he shouted. No one objected, which was nice for a change; as a forepony (well, technically foreling or something like that, but that sounded stupid in his opinion), his workers would usually complain to him about one thing or the other.
Everywhere he looked, the enemy were being caught and defeated in detail by superior numbers. Some of them managed to pull away from their attackers, but they were hotly pursued. No doubt some would be warned about the attack and find somewhere to hole up and defend, but for now, everything was going for the rebellion. The enemy had been caught utterly by surprise, never imagining that the people they held down would revolt against them. The shock of that, combined with the attack itself, was enough to allow the rebels to move on with minimal casualties, in spite of the enemy's armor and weapons.
Unfortunately, the building where the councilors dwelt was several minutes away, long enough for over a hundred of the enemy to arrive in time to defend it. Other groups of soldiers began to arrive just as the rebels got within range of the building.
Aphid cursed. The councilors and their soldiers must have made a contingency plan of sorts, which involved the councilors' home as the fall back point. He was just beginning to hope that they might be able to pull off a cheap victory. That wasn't going to happen now.
He sent forward about a hundred of his own warriors to lay siege to the building, which was two stories tall and had several windows. Bolts of energy flew from both sides.
Hopefully none of them escape the ring outside, he thought.
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Shield rested under one of the withered trees that littered the landscape. The Badlands offered little shelter, so sleepy soldiers had to make do with what litter there was.
Shield was sleepy, but he refused to close his eyes. While his unit wasn't involved in the main battle, it was still required to keep an eye out for any enemies that would try to escape.
"There's one," he said, pointing a hoof at a flying figure some distance away.
A battery of anti-air guns nearby lost no time preparing to fire. Pegasi were also getting ready to intercept the enemy if he managed to escape the field of fire.
The figure was easily identified as a Changeling; there was no doubt about that. However, Shield couldn't see whether he had a headband on, which would indicate that the approaching flyer was an ally.
"Get me a pair of binoculars," he ordered. One of the crew of the nearest cannon threw him a pair. "Thank you." He lifted them to his eyes.
The Changeling wasn't wearing a headband of any sort. That was all Shield needed to know. "Its not one of ours; Fire!"
The gunners immediately let loose a barrage against the enemy flyer. Their battery wasn't the only one to do so; well over a dozen or so guns had opened up. It was a lot more than was necessary; Shield felt that the quartermasters would have screamed their heads off at the inefficiency. Inefficient or not, it got the job done; the enemy flyer fell out of the sky.
"Go get him," Shield ordered a squad of pegasi standing nearby. "Tie him up if he's still alive and bring him to our camp."
The squad saluted and flew off. Shortly afterwards, he saw them flying back toward the Equestrian lines, the enemy Changeling being held up by two of them.
A few minutes later, a battery down the line opened fire on another enemy who was trying to escape. Shield nodded. The enemy were trying hard. Not that they were succeeding, but they were trying. It didn't mean they'd get past it. Occasionally, from positions a mile away or more, green jets of light flew up to intercept escaping enemies. They wouldn't get past the line. Shield knew that deep down.
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Camilla watched from a distance as her forces continued the fight. Although hundreds of the occupiers had been dealt with, hundreds more had managed to hole up in the building where the councilors lived. Now a full scale siege was underway.
She flew toward the fighting, watching the whole thing unfold. A group of her subjects attempted to suddenly storm the building; they were repulsed, with the survivors dragging, or trying to drag, dead and wounded comrades with them. Thousands kept shooting at the besieged building, keeping it under fire as Aphid and the other commanders no doubt tried to rally for a second attack. The enemy were shooting back; she had to dodge several bolts that the defenders had shot before she reached a safe sport behind one of the buildings across from the enemy stronghold.
Aphid and Borealis were sitting together, discussing what course of action they should take next. Camilla walked right up to them. "Ah, m'lady," Aphid said, first to notice her. "What the bloomin' hell r' ya thinkin' comin' down here ta get shot, pardon me language?"
"I'm yer Queen. I can do whatever the bloody heck I please, includin' come to tha forefront o' battle. Now, what do ya got planned to deal with their infestation here?"
"Right," Borealis said, looking worried but too knowledgeable to voice his concerns. "We tried rushin' 'em."
"I saw. That dinna work."
"I guess not," Aphid agreed reluctantly. "On'y thing left is rush 'em from all directions, air an' ground."
Camilla took a brief look around the corner. The enemy would not move from that location, and she was utterly sure that they would reject a demand to surrender, and she wasn't going to risk the life of a messenger of her own for such a dubious job. Storming the place would be expensive; she'd be able to afford it, but she preferred to keep as many of her subjects alive as possible.
"Maybe we oughta ask the ponies fer some o' their cannons," she said at last.
Aphid and Borealis looked at each other before replying. "Ya sure they'd be willin' ta part with 'em?" Aphid asked.
"I think so." In fact, Camilla wasn't quite sure, but the Equestrians were, at least for now, allies; her hive and their country had the same enemy in this battle.
"What abou' tha damage to surroundin' buildin's?" Aphid asked.
"Wha about them? A few of them knocked down would be better than wastin' the lives o' hundreds tryin' ta storm that place. An' who knows? Maybe the pony gunners r' good enough ta hit what they're aimin' at."
"An' what r' we supposed ta do in the meantime?" Borealis asked - demanded, really.
"Hold 'em a' bay. I'll go an' tell 'em ta give us some."
"Ya can't be going ou' there yerself!" Aphid said, shocked. "They'll blast ya, same as they'll blast the buggers."
"Ya canna tell me what ta do. I'm goin', and ya canna stop me!" With that, Camilla cast a shield around herself and took flight.
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James crouched next to a battery of anti-air cannons, watching carefully for flying enemies. So far, this particular battery, as well as those near it, had knocked down three escaping enemies. Other than that, however, there was nothing else going on. He yawned before taking a drink from his canteen.
"Ugh, I'll never get used to this place," one of the gunners said. "Just about everything here is dead except us."
"And it's almost as hot as the desert," a comrade agreed.
"You lugs just keep an eye out," the gun captain ordered. "If we miss any of them because you two were dilly-dallying around, you'll both end up canned."
James grunted. He wasn't someone who particularly liked laying down the law himself, but he had to agree with the gun captain here.
Without any warning, the secret entrance that he had seen earlier opened. James reached for his revolver, but quickly arrested the motion; it was the head of a Changeling Queen, and there was only one who could be coming out from there.
"Ah, there y' are," the Queen said, sounding relieved.
"What's going on down there?"
"We're winnin'; most o' them r' dead or taken ta jail. But there's a couple hundred o' 'em holed up in the councilors' house. Can ya spare a few cannons ta clear 'em out?"
"What about collateral damage?"
Camilla shrugged. "On'y other way is drown 'em in our own bodies, and I wan' as many o' me people as possible ta live. When we win, then we can rebuild."
It was a logical argument. "I guess we can spare a few guns, if we've essentially won the fight. I'll have a battery sent right down."
"Thank ya. Ya don' know what this means ta me."
"You got a bigger entrance somewhere? Our guns won't fit down that little hole."
"Oh, aye. The main entrance. I'll lead the soldiers to it meself. Just give ta me and we'll finish this thing."
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It was well over and hour and a half later before the Queen was able to return with the cannons, four medium-sized, breach-loading guns and their ammunition. James had decided to come along, seeing as the Equestrian army could take care of things on the surface.
Camilla expected to be shot at from ambush by soldiers they had missed. However, her fears proved groundless. No such ambush materialized. In fact, the hive seemed deserted. Few of her own people were in sight; most were, no doubt, either at the site of the siege or else were keeping an eye on that fight.
In short order, the battery arrived at the site of the battle. Since her departure, nothing much had changed; there were a lot more burn marks everywhere, but otherwise there was little to note.
"How are we supposed to hit that building?" one of the gunners asked. "There's too many other buildings in the way."
"I can deal with tha." Camilla took a deep breath before announcing her presence with a loud screech. Hundreds of Changelings flew toward her. "Help these ponies get their cannons to the top o' the buildin's over yon," she instructed, pointing with a hoof. "An' carry the gunners, while yer at it."
"Wait, what?" one of the gunners, a white unicorn with a ragged mane, said, surprised. "You're not- Whoa!" That was all he managed to get out before he was picked up and carried away.
The pegasi among the gun crews helped carry their heavy pieces to the top of the buildings the Queen had designated. In the meantime, Camilla's subjects kept up a very hot fire on the makeshift fortress, preventing the enemy from getting a clear fix on the situation. Other gunners objected to being carried like dolls, but ultimately, it was the fastest way to get them to the roofs, and Camilla didn't want to waste time.
"You goin' with them?" she asked James.
The general shook his head. "No, I'll do fine on the ground, thank you very much."
They both walked up behind the buildings across the street from the enemy stronghold. "Glad ta see ya hole an' hale, yer Highness," Aphid said. "An' ya brought a friend. This over already?"
"Will be, in a mo."
She heard James taking a deep breath of his own. She didn't bother to stop him from shouting; "You boys going to give up, or are we gonna have to knock your pretty little house down around your ears?"
He got shot at for that. It would have been comical if the situation hadn't been so lethal. James had to jump behind the building to avoid getting hit; six or seven bolts flew through the space he'd been a moment before.
"Fire!" came a yell from somewhere some distance above her.
Boom! The roar was deafening compared to any noise so far made during the battle. Almost in unison with the gun going off was an explosion inside the councilors' dwelling. Two more shots followed, with a fourth behind them. The house was rocked with explosions. Between the time the first gun reloaded and fire again, Camilla could hear screams of pain from inside.
Another volley of shells smashed into the dwelling. The ninth shot the battery fired must have either hit something vital, or else the structure was already close to collapse; either way, with a loud crunching and cracking sound, the building collapsed. The sound was as loud as the noise produced by the cannons. Dust immediately arose from the ruined structure, virtually blocking out the view.
"Now! Attack!" Camilla shouted.
Her subjects were quick to obey. With battle cries and shouts of victory they rushed the ruins.
Surprisingly, here and there a jet of light flew out toward the attackers. A barrage of counterfire, however, was enough to neutralize the feeble resistance.
Aphid was one of the first to reach the wreckage. He quickly scanned the area, then waved, signaling that all was clear. With that, the Queen nodded and moved forward to more closely inspect the shattered building herself.
There wasn't much left. A lot of the black material Changelings used for construction lay around the site, as well as a lot of wood, some of which was on fire. Already, groups of her subjects were coming to put out the blazes before they got out of control.
There were also a lot of bodies in armor. Most were clearly dead, killed by the structure's collapse. A considerable number moved feebly. A few others were also still alive, but didn't move at all; it was if they were in shock at what had happened.
"Get this mess cleaned up," Camilla ordered. "Take tha hurt ones ta one o' our dungeons and care for 'em there, but with tha medicine an' care one o' ours would get; ya ain't ta bully 'em in any way. Take tha dead and place 'em all outside; we'll bury 'em later. Ifn' ya find them councilors, bring 'em ta jail too. We'll try 'em at some point. Pile tha wood and stuff somewhere it can be carted away."
"Tha last, m'lady, is somewhat intaposin' with me own job, ain't it?" Aphid said.
"Well, perhaps," Camilla admitted. "Still, I wan' it done."
"Aye, yer Highness; I'll see to it."
Camilla looked around. Her subjects - her people - seemed a bit tired, but triumphant, even though she noted that the idea that they were free hadn't yet seemed to settle within them.
It will; oh, how it will!
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