//------------------------------// // Chapter Fourteen: Defiance // Story: Gone Mustang // by BurningBright //------------------------------// The rage of a Changeling Queen truly was a terrible thing to behold, the thefts had happened again, more of their precious food taken away. Her fury echoed through the hive mind as the mad queen frantically turned it upside down searching for any trace of those responsible for this. Did they not realise the hive needed that love energy if it was to continue? Traitors all of them, they would be hunted down and drained dry over weeks to pay for this, she vowed to herself. She would make them suffer for every single theft. They were all in on it, the whole hive were stealing the love they needed, the love she needed as petty revenge for the failure of an attack. That was when they had all started to turn against her. Well no matter she would find the instigators of this little rebellion, and she would kill them in the open for all the world to see. It would be slow, it would be agonising, it would be glorious. Then she would redouble her raids. She would take all that she needed to rebuild her hive. Then she would march across Equestria once more at the head of an army. She chuckled to herself as she planned her revenge. The more intelligent of the upper caste of changelings, certainly the ones born with a semblance of an instinct of self preservation knew enough about their queen that they looked worried when the laughter started. When Chrysalis started laughing bad things usually happened. They slipped away as quietly as they could and left her alone to her planning. After a few hours of scheming Chrysalis was feeling more lucid. Taking her leave of the main chambers she stepped through a well worn route that led eventually to her private bathing room. She noticed the signs of some things having been disturbed and felt her anger rising once more, this time though she didn't lose control but focused that rage. Letting it sharpen her thoughts. She glanced around the room once more, then she saw it, a pool of green by the bath, tasting it confirmed what she already suspected. They had used her private bathroom . That meant they must have known her routines. “Clever, so sharp you'll cut yourselves one day, or you would if I didn't plan to cut you before you get the chance” *with a chuckle Chrysalis allowed herself to sink back into the water , a plan to capture the traitors already beginning to take shape in her mind. Aberration was feeling good, she had finally been able to do the right thing. At the same time she was also absolutely terrified. For what her and the others had just done there were punishments far more dire than a mere execution . She tried not to think of what would happen to her if she was to be caught now. She found her mind kept wandering back to that pony too, for a non changeling to survive in the hive must be quite the challenge. Yet they couldn't be much more than a nymph judging by the size of them. She found herself wondering just how they'd survived, not like there was much grass round here. Or anything else they could graze on really come to think about it. That in itself was bizarre, the ponies always seemed to eat plants, so what was this little one eating? By all rights Aberration knew she was supposed to report the intruder in the hive , but if she did that she gave away her ability to think independently. She really could not afford to do that, the fact doing so would probably get her killed was a definite incentive to avoid that action. Not to mention she had no desire to do so, and she found herself quite liking the little pony. Queen be damned that little one wasn't hurting anything. Besides she had more pressing concerns right now than that, there were still ponies trapped in cocoons below. They deserved better than to be reduced to nothing but food for the hive. There had to be a better way and she planned to find it. But the hive would never accept that the ways Queen Chrysalis had taught them were too deeply ingrained, if things were going to change then the only way was for there to be no alternative. The hives hoof would need to be forced if it could not do the right thing voluntarily. If this was going to work she was going to need all the help she could find, carefully reaching out into the hive mind she found and spoke to all her brothers and sisters who were like her. There weren't a lot of them but there were a few who had survived Chrysalis's ruthless scouring of the hive . For this to work she was going to need all the help she could get. Those she spoke to seemed anxious, this wasn't just doing what they could to fight against something that they all agreed was a grave injustice. This was an outright defiance of the queens will. They thought about it for a time before reaching a consensus. It was dangerous and they hated that it was their only option, but Aberration was right. Despite the huge risk it was the right thing to do. They moved tonight. Back in her little burrow in the chamber of bubbles Dawn was beginning to wonder if she had made a mistake, there were more big Hardshells around, the alpha had doubled their number but they didn't seem to be searching. Maybe the littler one from yesterday hadn't told the Alpha about her presence down here.; But that made no sense whatsoever, the little ones all obeyed the alpha without question. They always had done as long as she had been here. The large guards were just standing vigil over the bigger bubbles, Dawn watched carefully sneaking out sometimes but they just stoically held their position never once taking their eyes off the bubbles. Then right on schedule the group stepped away from their post to continue their duties. About five minutes passed and the group from yesterday converged on the cocoons. Dawn didn't have a clue what was going on, what she did know was that things had suddenly gotten interesting.