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// Better the Carrot than the Array 
// Story: The Substitute Demon 
// by Reykan 
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	Cimmerian chuckled as he left his own dream, the queen being returned to her own form and Luna taking her leave for the night. The smaller alicorn's question had left him in tears as he laughed uproariously. When wasn't there an unstable psychopath running around wrecking the world's shit? The difference, as he'd had to explain to Luna, was that Earth psychopaths weren't monsters that possessed people and made them do crazy things. Not most of the time, anyway. If someone had told him demons actually existed a year ago, he'd probably have patted them on the head and went on his way. Now his very existence on this planet was caused by such a creature trying to escape its exorcism, so who knew for certain any more?
Because Earth monsters were still people, he told them the solution was to either wait for Time to remove the idiot, or a particularly pissed off enemy to speed up the process. Pandinus was understanding of the process, claiming queens often did such things to unstable rivals who were threatening the race's invisibility; Chrysalis was an unfortunate case of a single changeling queen wandering into the woods and launching her attack without any other queens noticing her. Luna was...

Okay, Luna had looked a bit upset at the prospect. Apparently she was a big fan of redeeming everyone, especially after her so-called fall. When he'd try to point out that it wasn't so much her going crazy as her being possessed, her mood had dropped even further, claiming that she'd let herself become weak enough for that. He'd stop trying to justify it after that and just settled for a few hugs; sometimes someone just wanted to feel guilty.

Currently Cimmerian was wandering the dream realm, looking for the orb that would be their sneaky queen, hoping to either learn her location, or maybe even open up dialogue with her. The difficulty in finding her was a monument to just how many people were now living at the Temple. Eventually he managed to figure out the perimeter of the temple in the dream realm and find an orb that wasn't near any others. The only thing that worried him was that it was weak, so weak it reminded him of something.

'Din's dream was like that before she recovered,' he realized, carefully touching it. Such a dream was unstable, the mind not really having the strength to form its own world and working with simple images for dreams. Deciding to take a chance, he inserted images of his own.

Changelings wandering the Temple without disguise, walking right past ponies and griffons as they went about their lives. A nymph chasing after two foals, all three wearing smiles as they played. The fountain, yes the queen had seen it, but he showed what was in it, felt the queen's gnawing hunger when she realized such a thing was just sitting outside, free to any who approach. Finally, he grit his teeth in concentration. This would be the most difficult part. The world seemed to solidify into an actual dream, the alicorn's magic holding together what the changeling couldn't. That was when he got his first good look at his target.

That she was thin was no surprise, but the colors were a shock. A deep forest green was her primary color, her chitin covering every possible inch of flesh in stark contrast to Queen Pandinus. Her short and slick mane was a brown usually reserved for trees, lending the queen a natural camouflage color scheme that likely allowed her to move almost unseen in forests and jungles. She looked around in confusion for a few moments before her amber eyes locked on his approaching figure. He slowly walked up to her with an expressionless face before gently nuzzling her cheek, sending one last image to the confused queen. The cities half-completed southern gate with the morning sun just peaking over the trees.

"Meet me there. We'll help you," he whispered softly.

Even then it was too much of a shock, the dream shattering around him and leaving him in the dream realm once more. The first few times it had happened, he'd actually woken up, the shock of the transition pulling him from the dream realm as well. He shook his head, desperately hoping she got the message before returning to the residents. Many, especially the griffons and the few thestrals, were often plagued by nightmares. Sometimes it felt like his work was never done.

He watched the world around him, even going so far as to brush against a few of the more removed dreams, ending the nightmares of those in neighboring areas. He felt Luna pass him several times, the mare brushing against his own presence gently before returning to her travels, offering advice and encouragement as she'd done for so long before. He avoided such things. He was only in his twenties no matter what was added to his mind, he just didn't feel like he was worthy of such a task. Besides, why step into Luna's territory any more than he had to? The work kept her busy, it gave her something to do.



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They were up and eating breakfast before the dawn. Queen Pandinus was absolutely miserable, following after him in her preference to sleep until noon if she had the opportunity. They ate in companionable silence, enjoying a large, warm omelet for each of them with the queen dozing off against him when she'd finished. After the meal they rose, walking out into the courtyard as the first rays of sunlight hit the Temple of the Shadows. The residents still couldn't decide on a proper name for the town, and he was preparing to throw his own choice into the mix just to end the debate.

The two waited at the gates for a few minutes, the alicorn growing increasingly worried that his message didn't go through or drove her away when Pandinus walked into the forest with a determined grimace on her muzzle.

"Din? Din talk to me, what's going on?" he asked as he trotted after her.

"I can feel her, them. This way, and keep your emotions in check," she called back before picking up her pace. He had to hurry to keep up and eventually nearly bowled into the queen when she came to a stop in a small clearing. Where he expected to find a single changeling queen in a stare down with Pandinus, he instead found a three-way confrontation. In the first corner was Pandinus and himself. To his right was a second queen, this one different from the one in the dream and in an aggressive stance. The hissing changeling had an amber mane and royal blue chitin. The second queen was more focused on the other group at the moment though. Two more queens stood across from them, both squared off against the single changeling. One of the group was the one from the dream but she stood close to her palette-swapped partner, both wearily eyeing the newcomers and keeping the second queen in sight.

Din immediately set about speaking to them, a series of rapid clicks and wing-flutters drawing the attention of all three queens as she laid down on the ground. The one from the dream's eyes widened upon noticing him, then she looked to her partner for a moment before replying in a way that shocked her ally. The green queen then also laid down, pulling her friend with her as the other mare clicked a fierce retort. The second queen didn't respond verbally, however, merely hissed and snapped at both groups.

"The lone queen is feral, Cimmerian," Pandinus whispered "I don't think we'll be getting through to her."

"Don't think or know?" he replied, moving forward and mentally preparing a few offensive spells.

"That was a general truce. It was one of the first things I learned, as sometimes changelings do get lost or have to work with other hives. The other two recognize it even if one objects, but that one didn't even respond," the queen took a steadying breath. "Do you see the second black spike on her head just behind the horn? Her crown has degraded. She no longer has the capacity to work with others, she won't lay eggs, and any drone she finds won't be claimed, it will be cannibalized for energy."

Cimmerian sighed in defeat. "If you're certain, we should put her do-"

The feral queen hissed upon tasting the surge of sorrow and pity, her eyes focusing on the dark alicorn. He tripped while backing away from her lunge, catching her with his hooves and launching her behind him. He was on his hooves again quickly, cursing the ridiculous situation; he couldn't even be resigned when dealing with changelings, could he? Scratch that, she could probably taste his irritation too.

"Fool, I told you to watch yourself, but you had to focus on her," Pandinus said. She clicked something to the other queens and they backed away, almost disappearing into the forest beyond. "It's the duty of queens to put the mad out of their misery. They will help us."

"If you're certain, I think I've got a plan. She's going to keep trying to feed on me, so we use that," Cimmerian said, focusing on the feral queen in his mind. The response was instantaneous, the queen barreling out of the trees with fangs bared only to be batted aside by a log surrounded in a dark glow. It flailed about for a moment before its hunger once more drove it to look to the alicorn. Without hesitation the feral queen rushed at him, only empty hunger in its eyes.
The lunge was intercepted by a tree branch encased in an ashen aura being used as an improvised spear. The branch shattered on impact but the queen's flight path was altered, sending her flying into a tree to the alicorns right. He immediately launched a shadow blade, drawing a line of green blood as the feral rolled out of the way of the lethal spell. Pandinus struck next, dropping from above in an attempt to crush the beast with her hooves. She missed, earning a cut from a horn swipe even as the feral queen backed away from them. It prepared to charge again when two horns pierced its side and throat.

The two other queens quickly removed themselves from the proximity of the flailing queen before they resumed positions at each others side. Din nodded to the other two before slowly approaching the beast. Using her aura to hold the queen still, Din reared up and brought her hooves down on the queen, ending her.

"What a waste," the stallion muttered before turning to the other two. The other queens were once more reclining on the ground in the pose Din had taken. Both sides faced each other and waited for the other to start.
"Uh, Din? Do I sit next to you, or..."

"No, this is between rulers of- on second thought, yes. Sit here, just a little behind me," his queen said, motioning to her right. As soon as he was seated the older queen hissed and clicked something at Pandinus, obviously not liking the message.

"Equish, he doesn't know our language." Din told them.

The younger was much calmer. "Why include him, why put him beside. Follow you, yes? Queen lead."

"Cimmerian leads the Temple of the Shadows. I, Queen Pandinus, rule the hive but he rules the town the hive is a part of," the healthy queen said simply. "That means that you will be under my rule if you choose to join and I report to him, and I really don't advise against turning down this offer. I can taste your cycling from here."

At the alicorn's look of confusion she explained. "They're cycling emotion back and forth. It allows two changelings to last much longer on the same amount of emotion, but it often ends with the changelings becoming ill and needing to go through a cleansing. They can't even touch love at the moment without getting sick, not of the potency we have back at the Temple. They'd become violently ill."

Turning back to the two queens, Din continued "You will also limit your laying as much as you can. Our changeling population is quite large at the moment, and Cimmerian would like more sources of emotion before we increase our numbers too much more. True drones are fine, as they don't eat much, but limit yourselves to your minimum clutch. Finally, the two of you will fill the role of operators in the hive once you've recovered sufficiently. I don't have any at the moment, and the hive has grown large enough that I can't keep track of everything."

The brown queen jumped to her hooves, pacing back and forth for a few moments while spitting, hissing and generally not acting very pleased at the terms. A few more stomps and a pleading look from her counterpart, and she slumped. The deal was sour, but it was that or death. The smaller queen looked curiously at Cimmerian and Pandinus.

"What about link? Mad Queen always find links, what different?" she asked. She stood up, slowly circling Din and taking note of her form. "So safe, willing to be weak? Why help?"

"My presence interrupts the array she uses to detect magic and links. The hive is over one hundred strong and none feel the pressure of Her array. The lack of chitin is for me," Cimmerian answered, grinning at Din. "Don't think I didn't recognize what you did that for. You made yourself easier to cuddle," he joked before turning back to the queens. "Why help? Because about two months ago she looked like you do now and she's learning to empathize, not just be empathic. Here you have a future, first as, operators? Yes, first as operators, then later as full queens over your own hives," he trailed off, gesturing for Pandinus to continue.

"I'd like to deny that, but he's right, there is a difference between being empathic and having empathy. Put yourself in another's situation, and you may find yourself much more willing to help them. You both know as well as I do that in any other instance the idea of helping another queen in your condition would be laughed at and thus has never been done, so we're going to be using the same rules as lost drones. Give yourselves to my hive, and you will be cared for. Once you repay the emotion it cost to recover, you may leave if you wish," she said before giggling. "I don't think that will be happening though."

At the older queen's angry hiss, Din broke into laughter. "I don't mean paying back the emotion won't be happening, that's easy; I mean breaking off won't happen. Why would you return to just surviving when you could be well fed and sleeping soundly at night? I'm certain you're taking shifts to watch while the other sleeps, what if you were both able to sleep the entire night? Sleep in a nest full of other changelings, your bellies full and the buzzing of the link at the back of your minds? Walk through the hive, knowing that your eggs are safe, and that they will not go hungry? That is the offer. Your aide and loyalty for food and shelter you will find nowhere else."

The queens stared at each other for a moment before the senior queen pulled her junior after her, both walking into the jungle and out of earshot.

"Din? Aren't you worried they may try something?" the alicorn asked.

"They'll accept. Agreements and meetings between queens are the only times lies and deception are prohibited by tradition, otherwise the hives would be in constant war and nothing would be accomplished. If the meeting was between drone proxies, then lying would be acceptable, but we're face to face. Also, they can't look at me and think my health is a trick. Even a disguise that would hide holes would be detectable by other queens at this range. As for betraying once they're linked? It would be betraying the agreement, and no queen would do that as no other hive would ever deal with her again," the queen answered.

The stallion hummed thoughtfully for a moment, "Speaking of other queens, they all had crowns. Didn't you say yours would be coming in soon?"

Pandinus looked back over the trees the others had left through, then turned to face him. She bowed her head, and used her magic to part her mane, exposing a small crown just sprouting on the top of her head.
"It's trying to grow, but I keep growing as well, and I believe that's slowing its development."

It looked odd to the dark alicorn, almost like a sea anemone growing in her mane. He leaned in for a closer look and she giggled at his breath touching it, pulling her head back.
"Is there anything on you that's not sensitive when it first comes in?" he asked, shaking his head in exasperation.

The healthy queen smiled in response, pressing up against him and basking in his warm flow of emotions. He wrapped a wing around her, nuzzling her gently as they waited. When it became visible he'd probably have people asking why she had one and he didn't, and that would most likely lead to his people making him a crown of his own. That would be neat, a king among aliens, wearing a silver or gold crown. He snickered, the idea of him sitting in a throne room with first a cardboard crown, then wearing a bottle of alcohol on his head. Too bad he'd probably be the only one to understand the jokes.

After nearly ten minutes of waiting, the two reverse-colored queens came back out, both looking at the couple in confusion. The younger one trotted up to Pandinus and with one last glance back at her companion, bowed her head.
"Accept. Ask only that treat well. Am Queen Zelus, other is Queen Lestidae."

Pandinus nodded, gesturing to the queen to lay down. "Cimmerian, could you please lay there? And I want her to sit there," Din directed them, having the two lay down on either side of the alicorn. She then directed him to hold a wing over each and begin focus on each of the queen's condition, allowing a little of his emotion to flow over them.
"While I'm linking with them, you will begin their cleansing. It's going to be messy, so hold their heads up if they get weak. Their bodies will need time to readjust to using the fresh emotions."

The alicorn did as was requested, and after about two minutes the queens began wheezing, then sputtering and heaving, a thick glowing green gel being spat out every now and again. Suddenly the younger queen, the first to be linked, shuddered and heaved a large mess of the gel onto the ground at the other queen's hooves before nearly passing out into it. Even as Din finished her work with Zelus, Lestidae was valiantly attempting to contain herself. Pandinus waited for a second, likely hoping the queen would just make her mess before she came too close. She lost her patience however, touching her horn to the older queen. A flash of emotions being transferred pushed Lestidae over the edge; with a whine, the older queen also vomited some of her cycled emotions in front of her, the dark glow of the alicorns magic now keeping both their heads up as Din linked them to herself.

Queen Pandinus slumped slightly, the joining of such powerful entities to her hive leaving her reeling slightly. The other two were asleep, their bodies desperately at work repairing an untold amount of damage they'd sustained over the years. Catching her breath, Din turned to the stallion, levitating the smaller queen onto her back.
"I'll carry Zelus, you can take Lestidae. This was only the beginning of the cleansing, and it is not a pleasant experience. The medical room will be their home over the next week. I'll have a changeling medic staying nearby, ready to remove the cycled emotions as they are ejected."

"Uh, shouldn't we do something about-" Cimmerian's question died on his lips, the form of the feral queen already disintegrating.

"She's similar to the feral drones," the changeling explained, "Nothing holding her together except magic and hunger. By tomorrow, you may not even be able to find any trace of her besides ash and a bit of residual magic. Come, we're putting these away, and I'm going back to bed. I hate mornings."

'Just when I thought I couldn't love her anymore,' the stallion thought with a exaggerated dreamy sigh.



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The queens were dropped off in the medical room and Din left to return to her bed. Cimmerian waited a little longer to make sure they were comfortable, then began to head out the door. He was nearly bulled over as the door was flung open, a small tide of changelings rushing in and looking over the newest additions. Several soon moved closer, earning the ire of the medical staff while some of the changelings realized they knew who was before them. In a flash many were blazing out the door again, spreading the news of the identity of the mystery queens. Some looked disappointed, others were jubilant.

'Didn't even think of what that would do for changeling morale,' He thought, 'Some of them will be happier than ever, knowing their queen or princess survived, others will keep hope that their mother is still out there somewhere. Then there will be those that learn about the feral queen, whose name I never learned. Wait, Zelus. I've heard that name before.'

He was distracted from his thoughts by the sound of children, following their caretaker as she cautiously walked into the room. They stopped by the alicorn, playing and joking quietly , some attempting to draw a reaction out of him, but his eyes were on Mirage. The matron was slowly approaching the younger queen, as if her advance may scare the sleeping queen away. Gently, the mare reached out a hoof, softly stroking the mane out of the ragged queen's face before moving closer, hugging the insensate changeling.  Realizing what was happening, the alicorn led the younglings out the door, leaving the gathered to celebrate the reunion. Mirage would probably be back at full capacity tomorrow, and Zelus wouldn't be going anywhere even after she'd recovered. Not with a familiar face to keep her here.

He led them to the nursery, several looking disappointed at being returned there so quickly, and shut the door behind him with a resounding slam. Several of the kids looked around in confusion before they met his gaze, their eyes widening in realization as several loose feathers were pulled from his wings and began to dance around him. An evil grin spread across his muzzle; he had at least an hour before Miss Goodhooves and Lady Thrisha arrived with the supplies for basic reading and writing classes. There would be no escape for them now.



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Another day, another report of lost supply caravans and resources. It was starting to shake her grip, both on the world in general and her grip on her host. The Mad Queen had dragged the first few messengers off to her own personal entertainment room, but by now she was becoming increasingly dead to the reports. Honestly, if not for the continued love being directed at Twilight from somewhere, she'd have already subsumed the mare, but Celestia never gave up on her. Now the white alicorn's faith was unshakable, the Queen's charade having been uncovered. Luna didn't seem connected, citing ignorance, but was she truly as out of the loop as she implied? It was impossible to know, and her host had now taken up her old position, constantly heckling her and telling her how things were slipping out of her grip.

'Celestia knows something you don't.'
'Cadance is still out there, so is somepony else who is willing to stop you.'
'He wants to help me, he'll save us. I know he will, he'll stop us, stop you, and everypony will be happy again!'
'Everything you've done will be for nothing!'

She grit her teeth, causing the soldier who'd delivered the report the squirm in fear. As much as she relished such reactions, indifference was preferable. Even if she killed Celestia and Luna, there were others out there holding out for her host, in fact in the last month she'd felt the number almost triple. It was a stab in her gut, and a breath of fresh air to Twilight. Love was being directed at her once again, her body grasping at it desperately amid the miasma of hatred and fear she'd been drowning in. Why? Why was it the most powerful creatures on the planet, those most likely to fall to a Nightmare's possession, were fueled by love? She couldn't start feeding until she'd properly possessed the mare, as the pain of her feeding on such emotions would have driven Twilight away from her instantaneously. She could attempt to destroy everything here, letting the minotaurs destroy the army and unleashing the changelings on the world, her brood queens pumping out egg after egg and constantly reinforcing a mindless swarm of fear and death that would descend on the world, but they would burn out quickly and she'd be left defenseless. Magic was becoming more difficult. Even some of the spells she'd pulled from the mare were no longer available to her, Twilight having separated herself enough mentally to no longer give the Nightmare access to her plethora of spells and knowledge, and the Nightmare hadn't bothered memorizing anything from the mare, figuring she was as good as gone.

"My Queen! Urgent report from the border against the minotaur lands!" A courier shouted as she flew into the office. The mare hoofed over the report and saluted. The Nightmare sighed, breaking the seal and reading the message.

Minotaurs launched probing attacks against patrols. Changeling screens ineffective. Border units request immediate reinforcements as well as supplies to fortify positions. Casualties unknown ATT. Awaiting further orders.


Cunning Linguist, HRH Communications Unit Commander
	


To the surprise of both individuals, the Mad Queen burst into laughter, tears rolling down her eyes. She slammed a hoof on the table, unable to breath for a few moments before the Nightmare managed to wrest back control, terrified by her sudden loss of control. She slapped her hooves over her muzzle, eyes wide in shock.
'No, there's no way it's gotten that bad!' Nightmare thought. It was just a lapse, just a desperate push that likely took every ounce of Twilight's mental fortitude to push past her control.

"Draft. I need more soldiers if the changelings wont work," the Mad Queen muttered. Her eyes widened, a grin on her muzzle. 
"Put a notice out to the thestrals. Join the Equestrian military, and I won't have to cleanse them. They have to prove themselves though; if they do really well, I'll even pardon their families. I also want a general recruitment drive. Our enemies will be attacking, and the changelings may not work against this force. Shining, I want you to grab a large group of specialists, and I want you to find out where He is. We crush whoever it is that's sabotaging us, and we'll have a much easier time of things. I want His skull, do you hear me? I want to take it to Celestia, and shatter it on the floor in front of her! I also want supplies moved to the warfront. We'll crush the minotaurs, we need to hit them yesterday. Anything they ask for, get to them, understand?"

The cost was inconsequential, because as soon as every other major power was dead, she'd let Equestria tear itself apart as well. Everyone would place the blame at her hooves, and then not even Celestia's unshakable love could save Twilight. In the meantime she'd have to find a threat to keep the mare in line. She was really starting to regret throwing away Cadance. If she still had the mare, she'd be able to threaten the pink alicorn's life to keep Twilight in line.

Ah, that was perfect, perhaps the idea of moving a few changeling units to various towns and cities. Most had empty caves and warehouses nearby, they'd never know the changelings were there till they 'escaped her control'.

Twilight immediately withdrew, and the Mad Queen grinned again. Minor setbacks. She wouldn't lose where it counted.