//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8: Seeing Shadows without Light 
// Story: The Fungus Among Us 
// by Xain Russell 
//------------------------------//


Libraries had always been a reliable sanctum for Twilight. Whenever something was troubling her and it was out of her friends' areas of expertise, the library was always the first place she went. While her friends would often add the sort of perspective that a book could never offer, the issue of the fungus wasn't likely to be something they could help with. Zecora was the exception though, her knowledge of foreign and mysterious flora and fauna might be invaluable in this situation. But while she did send a letter to her through Spike, Twilight would have to depend on the Royal Canterlot Archive until she got a response, at least if she wanted immediate results.

Twilight had enlisted the help of a few librarians to help her search, any book that touched on the subject of fungus was quickly yanked from their shelf and brought to a large table where she'd set up shop. Twilight had made speed reading an art form, and soon she was tearing through stacks of books in her search. The herbology books were replaced within the hour by journals that recounted expeditions to every corner of the known world, then those were replaced by medical texts that had sections of fungal infections.

The hands of the clock whizzed by unseen by Twilight, until the chimes finally rang six o'clock. Twilight grumbled in annoyance. It was dinner time and she hadn't found a thing. The closest she got was an expedition to the great jungles of the south, where explorers had found a fungus that lured small insects into an orifice with a sweet smelling scent before it closed and devoured it. Twilight almost didn't want to stop, she considered sending word with one of the guards that she wouldn't make it. But the idea of stiffing the other three princesses, when it was such a rare occurrence for all of them to have a casual sit down, put a rather bad taste in her mouth.

Still, she wasn't about to let her whole afternoon go to waste, she wanted to be able to present some sort of results to Celestia, Luna, and Cadence come tomorrow. Twilight sighed and shut the last of the books. Getting up, she nodded in thanks to the librarians who had assisted her, then headed to the library entrance where some of her guards stood.

"Tell Princess Celestia, Luna, and Cadence that I shall be late for dinner," She ordered one of the guards, who then dutifully saluted. "I'm going to make a few inquiries of our guests in the dungeons."

"Of course your highness," the guard responded, before lowering his foreleg and leaving.

The other guard, and a few others stationed nearby awaiting her command, fell into rank behind her, following her out. Twilight, at first, didn't really like the idea of being followed everywhere by an entourage of armored ponies, but thinking about who she was about to go visit made her think that a little extra protection might not be such a bad thing.

~~~~~

So far, Monarch's plan had gone as smoothly as he could have hoped. He and his infiltrators had easily gotten into the castle through a delivery wagon, clinging to its bottom as the unsuspecting post-stallion escorted them right through the front gate. The guards had done a base scan of the wagon for any illusory magic, but since none of the changelings were in disguise, the scan didn't pick up anything out of the ordinary. Once inside, the four had taken on the appearance of some unassuming guards and made their way in the general direction of the dungeons.

They passed by the staff kitchen, where the castle's maintenance and servants got their daily meals. It also made the meals for the prisoners in the dungeons, so when a group of four guards pushing a trolley stepped out, the changelings altered their speed to ensure that they were close enough to the guards right as the group passed a broom closet. In the blink of an eye, all four changelings pulled a rag out of their armor and shoved it into the face of one of the guards. All four of them hit the floor after only the briefest of struggles, and the changelings quickly dragged their unconscious bodies to the broom closet and tossed them inside after stealing their identification tags. With some minor changes to their disguises to match the guards they had just subdued, they took the trolley and headed to the dungeons.

Now they stood before the double doors, pausing only to let the guards on either side open them for the changelings. Inside of the dungeons, it was eerily silent. The sound of the trolley's wheels and the clacking of metal horseshoes against the stone floor echoed all around them. They passed dozens of empty cells, and stopped at a couple of occupied cells, feeding their occupants in order to keep their appearances up. Soon they came to a lineup of six guards, standing opposite of the cells holding their captive brethren. The closest guard turned and smirked as the food trolleys approached, then reached for the keys attached to his saddle.

"Don't know why we bother feeding them," he said, approaching the first cell door as the trolley stopped. "Not like they eat any of this stuff anyway. I think they believe if they hunger strike long enough, we'll give them a hooker or something to feed off of."

Ignoring, for the moment, the racist misconception of his race, Monarch looked into the cell and saw his brother Swallowtail staring confusedly back at him. Monarch winked, then approached the guard, pulling the rag out again as he did so.

"That's funny sir," Monarch said sneeringly. "But we'd rather have your wife instead. By the way, does this smell like chloroform to you?"

Monarch shoved the rag into the guard's face as he turned around, and three more guards were taken care of by the infiltrators. The fifth guard in the lineup barely had time to bare his spear before the sixth one wrapped his forelegs around his neck, placing him in a strangle hold. All five hostile guards fell to the ground unconscious, Monarch smiled at the sixth as his victim collapsed from oxygen deprivation.

"Nice work, Silence."

"Mmm," Silence grunted.

"Rather impressive all around I must say," Swallowtail said as he pushed the now unlocked cell door and pulled the keys from the lock. "Though I am a little confused as to why you're here brother. I didn't think I was worth sending the Queen's pride and joy directly into the heart of our enemy's capital."

"You're not," Monarch said, smirking as he started to strip the armor off of three of the guards while Swallowtail unlocked the other two cells. "The Ponies' other guest is our priority."

Swallowtail scowled and turned to glare at Monarch. "I told the Sun Princess that there could be no help for us, and that the best thing she could do for our sister was to kill her and burn the corpse. But she's ignorant enough to believe a cure is possible."

"A cure?" Monarch scoffed disbelievingly. "Bah! What reason could she possibly have to help us?"

"I don't know, but she seemed sincere." The last cell swung open and the drone walked out. "The Moon Princess, on the other hoof, is a lot less naive. From the way she was talking, it seemed like she and the rest of the Equestrian government intend to use the fungus as a weapon against us."

"Now that, I believe. And all the more reason to cleanse a good chunk of this place with fire. We're going to need your help though."

"Don't know what you expect me to do," Swallowtail said shaking his head. "I barely have enough energy to keep a disguise for more than a few minutes."

"Silence, and you three," Monarch said, pointing out the infiltrators. "Give him whatever you can spare. Swallowtail, we need you to put up a shield around the cell when we get there and we take out the guards."

Everyone nodded and got started. The four changelings passed enough magic over to Swallowtail for him to cast his spell, then one of the infiltrators took off his armor and handed it over to Swallowtail, who disguised himself to fit it. The other two infiltrators, Monarch, and Swallowtail, all formed up on the food trolleys, then Monarch turned to the remaining four changelings.

"Stash the guards in the cell, then get their armor on and follow up behind us."

Monarch and his group started forward, leaving Silence and his group to clean up. Monarch did a mental rundown of how much time they had. It had been about ten minutes since they'd knocked out the first group of guards, they'd be out for at least thirty minutes. The guards in front of the infected's cell would be down in less than five, leaving fifteen minutes for them to burn and make their escape before an alarm was raised. Hopefully the sight of eight unaccounted for pegasus guards flying in formation away from the castle wouldn't raise enough suspicion for them to be stopped.

They rounded the corner and saw their targets: three guards, two holding spears at attention, the third casting the quarantine spell. Monarch gulped nervously, if they screwed this up, they'd all be captured, or worse infected. But really, that wasn't what made him so tense. The idea of failure wasn't as unsettling as having to see one of his beloved sisters in a horrifying state, and he saw quite enough of that from the memories of Healer Larvus.

Averting his gaze from the cell for the moment, Monarch and the two infiltrators with him focussed their attention on the guards. One of them nodded to them as they were passing, just before Monarch pounced on him, dragging out the chloroform laced rag once more and shoving it in the unsuspecting guards face. The infiltrators did the same with the other two, and the unicorn controlling the quarantine slowly lost all the magic in his horn. When all three guards were down, Monarch turned to see that the field of blue magic over the cell had been replaced with a green one. Then Monarch had to swallow a mouthful of bile as he beheld what was beyond the shield.

The air inside was so thick with spores that it was like a fog had settled in the small ten foot square room. A few places around the room had patches of fungus growing here and there, and the biggest concentration was in the back corner. It didn't take long for Monarch to recognize that this patch was once a changeling. There was enough still visible for him to tell that this was indeed one of his royal brood siblings, but not enough to tell which one. There was so much fungus growing out of its now decaying carapace, that it had even started creeping up the wall it was leaning against.

"By the ancestors," Monarch swore.

A sudden intake of breath could be heard inside the cell, as if in response to the sound of Monarch's voice. The former changeling struggled within its shell of fungus, moaning and crying as it did so. Its body was so weak and fragile now, that every movement was causing something to break.

"Mother help me," Swallowtail said, his eyes bulging out. "She's still alive. Those accursed ponies left her to suffer like this!"

"Who was she?" Monarch said softly. "When they brought her in. Did you see who she was?"

Swallowtail grimaced, not daring to look his brother in the eye. "It was Brimstone."

Monarch sighed, trying hard not to start tearing up as he sparked his horn and stepped toward the shield. He focussed on Brimstone's struggling form, not wanting to look away, determined to pay final respect to the once beautiful nurse.

"Go in peace Brimstone," Monarch said. "May the Queens of old embrace you and the many children you've brought into this world."

And without further delay, the inside of the cell exploded in a roaring inferno. The infiltrators soon joined their magic with Monarch's to insure that the blaze did not falter. Silence and the others soon joined them, all of them disguised as guards for the journey out. Everyone of them stared into the fire, watching as the silhouette of their kinsman crumbled to dust, finally finding release from the fungus.

After five minutes, they ended the blaze. The entirety of the cell's insides were charred black, everything down to the mortar was either incinerated or turned to ash. For a moment, the only sound was the twinkle of Swallowtail's magic.

And then the entrance to the dungeon swung open with a mighty clang, then a few seconds later, Twilight Sparkle and several guards came round the corner. The eight disguised changelings, so distracted by their own vigil, were frozen in place as the Alicorn princess looked from them, to the smoldering cell, to the unconscious guards on the floor. Sparkle's face lit up with confusion and anger, and before even her guards could react, she unleashed a massive shock wave from her horn that hoisted the imposters into the air and dispelled their disguises.

The guards rushed to the levitating changelings, pointing their spears up at them, as the princess ran to the now unshielded cell, gawking at the destruction inside.

"What have you done," she said disbelievingly, before rounding on the captured shape shifters. "What have you done!?"

Monarch snickered in spite of himself, he looked down at the ponies staring coldly up at him and smirked. "For Queen and Swarm."