//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 // Story: To Serve the Hive // by Minds Eye //------------------------------// His entire body ached from the blows he had taken over the last half hour.  He pushed himself off the ground, ignoring the four hooves where only his two should have been.   “Again.”   Sweat blurred his vision, but Chrysalis’ green eyes were unmistakable.  He wiped the burning drops away.   “I’m waiting.”   Failure.  That was the only alternative.  He charged, and Chrysalis swatted him away with one swing of her hoof.  His head struck the hard stone, and his body rolled to a stop.  He wiped his brow, seeing his hoof stained with blood and the cavern spinning behind it.   “Get up!” Two guards patrolled the moonlit hallway of the second floor, and he followed in his natural form, the soft carpet absorbing the sound of his steps.  The shadows of pegasi outside sweeping across the windows kept his progress in check, just begging another patrol to come from behind and spot him. He avoided the panels of light spilling inside by springing to the opposite wall and pressing himself behind the slight cover of the semi-circular columns, and he checked both ahead and behind him for any sign he had been seen or heard before leaping back to his silent path.  Then he had to dart forward to make up the lost ground between himself and the patrol, hoping the discipline of their routine would maintain his relatively safe buffer.   Hoping.   No plan ever survived completely intact all the way through a mission, but this one had fallen apart far more spectacularly than he could have anticipated.  After all the time he had spent planning and preparing for this night, he resorted to skulking through the halls like a common thief, little better off than if he had infiltrated on his first night and saved himself the confusion of the last two weeks.   It was his own fault.  He had failed to remember Cherry’s plan, and she—   No.  Not failed.  Neglected.   He had watched her leave, had even taken in every detail he could from a distance, and he never let himself look at her through the lens of his mission again.  He had been sentimental.  For a pony.   And he still was, creeping along the halls in his own skin instead of hers, even after she rejected his offer to keep her anonymous. Leaping around the next patch of light, he wondered if he would have been better off coming in blind.  His mind would have been clear that way, unburdened with any thoughts of keeping a pony safe and—   He sank his fangs into his own lip, holding on until he screamed at himself for mercy.  The pain was real right now, just as the swooping shadows of pegasi were real, and the coolness of the wall he was pressed against.  He had one chance, and he had no idea what Cherry would do when she woke up, if she hadn’t already.  The directions she gave him were the only thing that mattered now.   Third floor.  Down the hall.  Across from the stairwell.  The guards continued past the foot of the stairs, and he left their wake, climbing up to see the doors to the throne room closed and barred.  He pointedly looked away from the twig of a tree in the corner as he stalked past it.   No guards stood in his way, and the windows of the hall looked down on a walled in courtyard.  He stepped quickly, deeper and deeper into the heart of the castle, eager to reach his destination before it was time for a patrol to sweep by again. Finding the stairwell was not an issue, as his path led him to its third floor landing, and he could see its spiral winding its way both to the lower floors and higher above.  The two doors across from it were a plain wood, and he pushed against them. Their creaks as they opened ripped through the silence, and he dipped inside and shut them as quickly as he could. A hollow thud announced his presence, moving ahead of him into the corridor, returning strange, rattling echoes. A long line of free-hanging lanterns dangled from the ceiling, casting shadows along the corridor, and their light spilled onto the empty suits of armor mounted at attention along both walls.  His hooves clacked on the bare floor, and he slowed his stride, inspecting the armors along his way.   The first ones he passed closely resembled what he had seen on the guards, but the farther he walked from the door, the more foreign they became, as though he were walking backwards into the past.  The sheer amount of metal both increased and decreased, covering more of the prospective soldier wearing it, or allowing more flexibility.  Heavy plates weighed against each other on one, and across from it, one solid piece covered a mannequin’s back, from the top of the head down to the tail, and nothing else.   As he walked under each lantern, there was enough light to make out the walls behind the armor, and the paintings that hung there.  Most showed a large white pony—Celestia herself, judging from the presence of both wings and a horn—portrayed in some moment of glory.  Darker shapes bowed before her, or some variant of armor he had seen stood beside her, or some other creatures and ponies clasped forelegs under her gaze.   In spite of himself, he admired Celestia for her trophies.  She had lived a long life, and it was only natural to showcase her longevity and achievements.  The display demanded the respect of her visitors, and it certainly earned his.   And right before he turned the corner for the next corridor, he saw the moon—as it had been for all the years of his life. He stopped and stared at the black face and elongated horn against the silver backdrop for the first time in months, and the Moon Queen looked out at him over the Equestrian mountaintops of the canvas.   No.  Princess Luna.  Or... Mare in the Moon?   Whatever the ponies called it, she had watched over him on every mission and for every battle he fought.  Her appearance in the sky marked the one time of day he and his family could walk freely and unmasked away from the Hive.  Chrysalis herself had been at a complete loss to explain her sudden disappearance, and the weeks spent until news from Equestria trickled to the caves were the most fearful he could remember.   Pony or no, he was glad to see her one last time.  Events in Equestria had changed the face of the heavens for not just the Hive, but the entire world, and now she would see him off to change the face of Equestria.   He bowed his head and stepped back, then turned and headed for the stairway behind him, stopping cold at its base.   It was ruined.  A section of the steps themselves was simply gone, surrounded by cracks and gashes in the remaining stairs.  A sheet of plastic hung from the wall over a set-up of planks and metal bars.   Shapes flitted by, and he ducked under the scaffolding, cursing under his breath again and again.  Down the hall from the tree, across from the stairwell.  That’s what she said!   Muffled voices came through the thin barrier, and he backed away.  The stairs lead to a museum, so I wanted the doors across from them.  He froze.  Museum...   The loud creak from the doors echoed behind him, and he spun around, bumping one of the armored suits.  It struck the wall, and he pinned it there before it could wobble any further, easing it back into place and ducking behind it as he heard the doors shut.   He knew who had come, who it had to be, but he dreaded it even as her hooves and her voice echoed down the hall.  “I heard that.” Cherry’s voice sent shivers down his spine.  He pressed himself against the wall behind the armor, but he didn’t hear her coming closer.   “We haven’t finished our conversation, and something tells me you won’t be flying out of the hole in the wall.  The door is locked upstairs too, just in case you didn’t get that far yet.”   He leaned his head against the wall, hissing a laugh through his clenched teeth.  Fool.  She got you again.   “I’m not coming after you, either.  You know this door creaks, and I’m not going to give you the time to slip past me.  I’m sitting right here, and we’re going to talk about this.”   She’s not going to— He thought he heard a something settle on the floor, and he crept around his hiding spot, crawling along the floor to the corner, and peered through the legs of the phantom guards to see Cherry Blossom sitting down and staring straight ahead.   Her tail whipped against the floor.  “Fine.  I’ll talk, and you listen, because I know you’re listening.  I woke up on a pillow, Dawn, or whatever I should call you.  If you’re trying to prove you don’t care about me, you aren’t doing a very good job.”   His mouth opened, but his mind caught up to it in time to stop his words.  He pulled himself away, sitting with his back to the wall.   “Is it really this hard to believe I care about you?  Why?  I know more than you wanted me to know.  Whatever Dawn was, I always had the feeling he was being honest with me.  Even when he snapped at me, or when he went quiet, I thought I was seeing someone real.  That was you in those moments, wasn’t it?  You showed me your heart before you showed me your face.  Look me in the eye and tell me I’m wrong.”   He clenched his eyes shut.   “Look me in the eye and tell me you made up everything you shared with me.  Look me in the eye and tell me how standing up for me helped you sneak inside.  Look me in the eye and tell me you lied about courage.”   Escape.  The merciful silence lingered, but his hooves wouldn’t move, nor did he even know which way they needed to go.   “Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t understand how I could care about you.”   Away.  Away from her.  He would have to risk flying out.  Alone.   “You don’t have to do this.  There’s no war for you to fight!  Please, let me help you.  Please.”  Whispers of her ragged breathing reached his ears.  “You don’t deserve what they’ll... I just want you safe.  That’s all.”   Slowly, silently, he walked away, each step feeling heavier than the last.   Her hoof cracked on the floor.  “I know you hear me!”   He stopped, her words wrapping around him like an echo of thunder, replaced with the sounds of the door creaking open, and Cherry’s yelp.   “I could have heard you on the second floor.”   Shining Armor.  He looked back, straining his ears.  Now what?   “I’ve never seen you this high this late at night, Cherry Blossom.  What are you doing here?”   He skittered to the corner, waiting for her response.   “Assertiveness training.  I bought a self-help book, and I didn’t want to bother my neighbors.”  A pause.  “A friend of mine is being very stubborn with me all of a sudden.”   He stopped himself from laughing again and retook his position underneath the armor.  They sat across from each other with the door behind them, Shining Armor in his helmet and backplate, but Cherry Blossom had backed away, turning one side of her face into the shadows. His hoof trembled, remembering its last strike.   “A friend.  I could believe that.”  Shining Armor lowered his head, leveling his eyes at her.  “But it doesn’t explain how you were seen entering both the front and rear entrances.”   Cherry shrugged.  “I came in the front, and then ran around to the back.  I figured it would be faster.”   “Faster to climb stairs by running away from them?”  Shining Armor held his look for a long moment, craning his neck to meet her gaze, but Cherry dipped her face further.  He finally dropped his efforts with a heavy sigh.  “I know you don’t trust me, Cherry.  I let you down when you needed me to find—”   “You know I don’t blame—”   Shining Armor raised a hoof.  “Regardless of my failures, I am good at my job.”  He stepped forward, looking down on her, and Cherry hunched over.  “Every instinct I have is screaming at me that something is going on right under my nose, and I know you have something to do with it.”   The door creaked open again, and two more guards stepped through.  One of them whispered in Shining Armor’s ear, and he nodded in reply.  “Go home, Cherry.  Now.”  He watched her slip through the doorway, and looked at the guards.  “You, keep an eye on her.  Make sure she leaves.  You, make sure this hall is clear.”   The guards saluted as he left, and split up, one following Shining Armor out, and the other heading towards the armor that made his hiding place.   He slid around the corner and took cover behind another suit, calling upon his magic, and the transformation to the pegasus guard swept over him.  He rapped his newly armored hoof on the floor.   “Who’s there?!”   “Whoa!”  He fought back a grin and held up a hoof as the unicorn charged around the corner.  “We thought we heard a scream a minute ago, and then some voices.  Is everything okay?”   The guard relaxed, sighing deeply.  “Yeah, it’s all clear.  I don’t suppose you saw anything strange out there?”   “Not a thing.”   “Good.  Hey, listen.”  He leaned closer.  “Cap is pretty on edge tonight.  It’d be smart for you boys to stick together and keep to the book.”   He nodded.  “Got it.  Thanks for the heads-up.”  He turned away, listening to the guard’s retreating steps, waiting for the sound of the door to drop his disguise and turn back.   The signal came, and he marched back to the door.  He was close.  He had to be, and he believed he knew where to go. How do you trick someone?  Tell them half of the truth. Cherry had fooled him by sending him the right way.  He trusted her directions because of that, and they left one obvious landmark for him to check: the stairwell. No more games.  With the guard’s warning still fresh in his mind, he assumed Dawnbreaker once more.  He wasted no time, taking flight with the pegasi’s silent feathers instead of the hum of his own wings as soon as he stepped out, following the underside of the spiral stairs for a time—charging up the center when he failed to see any other halls or floors connected to them.   His vision blurred, save for the one clear spot amid the tunnel getting larger and larger every time he beat his wings, and all he heard was the rush of wind by his ears until the stairwell emptied into a spacious room.   Bookshelves and potted ferns dotted the walls, and a telescope sat outside an enormous window looking out to the heavens.  He landed in the center of a rug with an image of the sun sewn into it.  His heart raced at the sight of his hooves standing over Celestia’s symbol, but he had not found her yet.  He spotted a door on the far wall, and it swung open on his first step forward. Shining Armor stepped out, and his eyes narrowed as they landed on him.  “You!”  His horn glowed.   Snarling, Dawnbreaker burned away to his true form, and he fired a bolt, which struck Shining Armor’s horn.  He flew forward, closing the distance as the stallion flinched, but his blow struck a disc of purple energy summoned in the blink of an eye.   The Captain snapped out a foreleg, snagging his, horn igniting with another attack.   He twisted his neck, and the bolt of violet energy streaked past his head, far too close.  Shining Armor was too powerful—too well-trained and too versed in the magic arts for him to win an exchange of spells.  He needed to keep the fight on his terms.   Shining yanked his leg down, and he hit the floor, rolling with the momentum and out of the line of fire to lay on his side, still locked hoof-to-hoof with his opponent.   Braced against the floor and, using his weight as an anchor to hold Shining in place, he kicked a hind leg into the stallion’s barrel—unprotected by armor.  He felt the hoof feebly pull against his grip, and he kicked again, slumping the stallion over.  He wrapped his hind legs around Shining Armor’s body and twisted his own, tripping the Captain over himself and sending him crashing down.   He scrambled to his feet, saw Shining Armor sprawled out on his back, and sprang forward, fangs bared.  Shining’s forelegs shot up to catch him, and his jaws snapped shut inches from his target.  He thrashed, lunging forward again and again, but the cold metal of the armored hooves only sank deeper into his skin, never closing those final inches. The hooves pushed him away.  He and Shining Armor traded glares.  A flash of purple caught his eye, and he twisted his head away from the next shot, but he misjudged the target.   Shining Armor’s beam slammed into his chest, and the constant stream of energy blasted him into the air.  His head struck the ceiling, the beam faded, and he crashed to the ground, crushing a potted plant under him.   The world spun around him, and he tried to crawl away.  Too late.  He felt his hind legs seize up, and his front hooves clawed at the ground desperately before they were frozen as well.  He was lifted upright into the air in a violet haze, spinning around to face his fate.   Shining Armor marched up to him, the focus in his eyes unfazed by his advantage.  “How long have you been in Canterlot?  How many of you are there?”   He struggled, but his limbs refused his commands.  His magic still flowed in his body, but the Captain’s control was too deft for him to match.   Shining forced him to bow, pulling him closer.  “Answer me, and you will be shown leniency.”   He smirked.  “How did it feel to see the threat coming this time?”   The Captain’s glare intensified, and the spell’s grip slackened.   That was all he needed.   He summoned all his strength and broke free, flinging a hoof-ful of soil into the stallion’s face.   Shining Armor roared and backed away, scrubbing his eyes furiously.   He dashed forward, but the Captain still had the discipline to turn away, exposing his armor alone.  He pounded the metal uselessly, and the helmet shielded the back of the neck from his fangs.  Shining Armor gave ground under his barrage, falling back to the center of the room, and he followed, trying to force an opening.   Shining Armor lifted his head, eyes still clenched shut, and his horn burning furiously.  A force field burst forth to intercept his next blow, but this one pushed back, blasting the entire room from the epicenter of Shining’s horn.   The shockwave spun him through the air, and he struck a wall, dropping down to his knees.  The sound of shattering glass reached his ears, and the room before him had been torn asunder, with not a single thing undisturbed.   Shining Armor still wiped at his eyes, panting heavily.   He lurched forward, but shouts came through the window.  He cursed and scanned the devastation, seeing two bookshelves toppled over each other, and one cranny of space separating them.   No time.   He dove into it, focusing his magic on one thought.  Small.  He scraped the shelves, and his body hit the floor under them, erupting in pain.  As if the strain of his battle weren’t enough, the unnatural size of the colt he became forced every muscle that had been loose and flexible into a sudden cramp demanding to be released. Endure.  He lay on his stomach, short tan forelegs folded under him, and grit his teeth as the shouts entered the chamber.   “Sir!”   “Are you alright?”   “A changeling!” Shining Armor screamed.  “There’s a changeling in the castle!  Did you see anything?”   They answered in the negative, and his lungs burned as he forced himself to keep steady, quiet breaths.  A flash of violet light spilled into his crevice, and he turned his head to see Shining Armor launch a series of flares out the ruined window.   “Changeling orders until further notice.  No one travels alone.  Challenge everypony you see.  Every.  Pony.”   One of his hooves pressed into his body, expanding in spite of his will.   “You two, get down to the gate.  No one gets in or out until I give the all clear.  And all of you, find Cherry Blossom!  She knows who this changeling is!”   A black ring formed around his vision.   “Captain, what about the Princess?”   “Not here!  She must have taken her guard to...”   The voices trailed off down the stairs. He reached out a black hoof and crawled out, squeezing through just before the flames consumed his body, forcibly shifting him back.  He collapsed on his back, taking long, greedy gulps of air until the fire spreading from his chest to all the muscles in his body was quenched, and his head felt some semblance of normal again. Not here. His laughter died amid his desperate gasps.  He was alone.  Alone, and right where he needed to be. He struggled to his feet and staggered through the ravaged remains of Celestia’s quarters.  He only had to hide and wait, but time was on his side again.  It would take the guards a matter of minutes at the least to find Celestia and hurry her back—hours if they waited to search the entire castle—more than enough time to find a suitable place. She would be alone.  Alone with him while the ponies sworn to protect her life wasted their time and energy chasing down and questioning the one pony they thought knew something. And she would be alone, too. He stopped. Cherry Blossom would be alone, cornered by heavily armored stallion demanding answers she couldn’t give, no matter how much she wanted to give them.  Even if she made it out of the gate before Shining Armor’s orders were passed on, she was a marked mare. It’s her own fault, he told himself, shaking the image out of his mind.  She had followed him after he gave her every chance to walk away.  He made his way towards the door Shining Armor had used. He stopped again. That was his fault, that Shining Armor had seen Dawnbreaker tonight.  He was the one who confirmed all the Captain’s suspicions of Cherry Blossom. He put a hoof forward, but the rest of his body did not follow it, even with the door just a few steps away. For all he knew, Cherry Blossom had left when Shining Armor told her to.  He gave his word not to use her face again, so why didn’t he hesitate to use one of his own? She’s just a pony. His duty to the Hive was just beyond the door.  He only had to walk through it and wait. He sank to the floor, clutching his skull. Shining Armor had questioned her, and Cherry Blossom had lied. She betrayed her Hive. For him. He charged for one of the broken windows, leaping through and gliding into the night.