//------------------------------// // Chapter 3 // Story: Twilight Sparkle Becomes a Changeling Queen, Book 1 // by bahatumay //------------------------------// Somewhere deep in the badlands, Twilight stood in the darkness, looking out at the little opening in the rock wall. It was barely a cave; more like a crack in the rock face, really. She glanced over at the disguised Bruch, once more wearing his red pony form. "There," Bruch said, pointing with a foreleg. "That is the least-guarded entrance. It’s far from anything important like food storage or the queen’s chambers, but it’ll get you in." Shining Armor nodded. He turned back to his troops, stepping gingerly as he did. "Strike team, first three going in to check the conditions. Bruch, you hang back for the first part. Once we've set up a command post in the first room, we'll send you in on point. We'll probably be out of here within half an hour. Remember, gentlecolts, we're here to disable, not to kill." The guards saluted and quickly moved into position. Twilight turned to Shining. "Already in charge, eh?" Shining grinned. "Yep. You may be princess, but I'm still calling the shots." "Oh, no," Twilight said firmly. "I'm the little sister. I've always been in charge." "That's what you think, Twily." Shining nudged his sister playfully. "Older siblings always have right of way." Twilight put on the meanest frown she could while trying to suppress a laugh. "Keep talking like that, mister. One royal decree from me and you'll be transferred to latrine duty for the rest of your career!” “Oh, at least that's not too awfully bad. Now if you had assigned me to KP duty, I might have accidentally let slip a few things.” “Like what?” “Like your bedroom habits. You still sleep with Smartypants, don’t you?” Twilight flushed. “There’s nothing wrong with that,” she protested. “Scientific evidence shows no statistically significant correlation between childhood habits that continue on through adolescence and any psychological disorders whatsoever; and even if it did exist, correlation is not enough to assume causation.” “Or how you reacted to your first time in heat?” Twilight frowned, and the start of a blush colored her cheeks. “Ok, that’s not funny anymore.” “You were so adorable, though!” Shining insisted. “You remember, don’t you? The whole ice cream thing, when you-” Twilight shoved him aside and grumbled under her breath, even as her cheeks and ears burned bright red. “Just get your colts into position,” she ordered as she left to be anyplace but there. “Yes, your highness,” Shining smirked. And that’s for using me as a litmus test this morning. * * * Mineral Spark was a large pony. Some ponies in this shock troop group were small, agile, good for quick movement and dexterity, in-and-out-before-you-noticed-anything-wrong ponies. Mineral Spark was not one of those ponies. The small group inched forward inside the cave until they heard weak buzzing noises, definitely changeling wings. With one motion, his squad leader motioned him to take lead. He did so willingly and burst into the room. Lowering his shoulder, he hit the first changeling he could see with a punishing tackle. His target flew across the room and skidded to a stop, raising clouds of dust. The changeling painfully attempted to force himself up, but he failed, and collapsed again with a weak groan. Mineral paused even as he readied himself for retaliation. Something wasn't right. Looking around, he noticed that the gathered changelings barely had enough strength to growl, let alone fight. Some huddled protectively over smaller changelings, much like a mother over her children. The chitin and their eyes all looked… dull. That was the right word. Or perhaps 'lifeless'? 'Hopeless'? He raised a hoof to the side of his helmet and called back to his squad leader. “Captain? Princess? This isn’t an army. This isn't even a resistance force. This is an already defeated group.” * * * Lieutenant Striker paced in front of the changelings. “Alright, you maggots! You're prisoners of the Equestrian crown, now, and as such you have rights! Cross us, and you might lose those rights! I'm talking about the right to not be dead, the right to retain all your limbs, and your right to keep your horns in one piece!” Twilight noticed that all the changelings were flinching at his every word. Were they feeling his anger? She found herself wishing Shining Armor had come inside with them. “We’re going to process you and cuff you together, and we brought plenty of rope. But I won’t be averse to leaving some of you behind!” His angry tone of voice and accompanying hoofstomp made it perfectly clear that any who were left behind would not be leaving again. Twilight stepped up. “We’re going to make this quick and easy and as painless as possible,” she said, trying to be the voice of reason. “Line up in groups of thirty, where you’ll be counted and tagged. Line up three across and ten down.” The changelings shuffled into position, most moving very slowly. Perhaps it was because they were weak. Perhaps it was because Queen Chrysalis was missing in action, and they didn’t know where to turn. Unless… Twilight spun around and scanned the gathered guards. “Lightning Spark! Thunder Bolt!” Two unicorn guards snapped to attention. “Princess?” Twilight pointed at a small natural archway, narrow enough that it would only admit three ponies at best. “Stand at that little bottleneck there, and scan all the changelings as they walk by. If any of them have an abnormal magic level, I want to know about it.” “Yes, your highness!” Unseen by any of them, one changeling smirked. * * * Twilight wandered around. The changelings seemed to be cooperative, or at the very least noncombative; but nopony in the guard was breathing easily. Not even Shining Armor's presence helped. Everypony was jumpy; expecting a sneak attack. Stumblings that could have been swings and yawns that could have been bites put everyone on edge, and a few scuffles almost broke out. Lightning’s voice broke through the tension. “Your highness!” Twilight spun around just in time to see the changeling he was scanning turn and punch him right in the face, sending him back into the wall with a punishing ‘crack’ and sending blood running down his face. Twilight lit her horn and shot a stunning spell, but the changeling ducked and sprinted away, breaking through the line of stunned guards and disappearing into the darkness. Twilight quickly followed, in turn followed by a few guards, but skidded to a stop when she entered a large room with a vaulted ceiling. She took a step backwards, scanning the room, when suddenly a levitated rock slammed into the back of her head, leaving a huge gash in its wake. It had been a deadly blow. Had Twilight been but a normal unicorn, her story would have ended here. However, as an alicorn, she had the resilience of an earth pony, which kept her alive; the quick-healing of a pegasus, which brought her eyes back into focus before Chrysalis had fully disappeared from sight; and the magic of a unicorn that let her quickly cast a spell that helped stop her bleeding. The guards rushed over to help her, but Twilight waved them onward. “I'm fine! Get Chrysalis! Go!” As soon as she could stand steadily again, she sprinted after the quickly departing ponies. The hive was a twisted maze, with short doorways and winding pathways carved into jagged rock. Twilight couldn't help but shudder as she jumped over rocks and piles of chitin shards… some of which looked like they had once been living changelings… She skidded to a stop as she saw one of her guards, Thunder Bolt, stuck to the wall by a slab of green goo. “She went that way!” he said, gesturing with his head. Twilight nodded shortly and sprinted off in that direction. The guard turned and watched her go. His lips curled up into a smile… until a powerful blast of magic hit him in the side of his face, stunning him and nearly tearing him from the wall. He grit his teeth and growled. When his eyes refocused, he turned back to see Twilight Sparkle, head lowered, horn glowing, pawing at the ground threateningly. “I know the guards I came with,” she growled. “Bolt has a slight lisp due to a soccer injury.” The guard smiled before bursting into flame. His armor and the slime disappeared into thin air, and there stood Queen Chrysalis. “Not bad… for a maggot. You're smarter than I gave you credit for,” she hissed. “It seems Celestia's pet knows a few good tricks.” “Or you're just losing your touch in your old age,” Twilight Sparkle suggested, fearlessly returning fire. “Don't worry about it. Going senile happens to almost everypony when they reach your age.” Chrysalis's eyes narrowed to slits. “Big words from my next meal.” “I must warn you, I'm probably going to give you indigestion,” Twilight said with a grin. Chrysalis had had enough. Lighting her own horn, she fired a blast of sickly green magic at Twilight. Twilight ducked and it exploded against the rock face behind her. More accurately, it exploded the rock behind her, pulverizing it and sending chips flying hard enough to leave little scratches in Twilight's face. Twilight looked back and raised an eyebrow. “Playing f- for keeps, I see,” she observed, trying but failing to keep a hitch from entering her voice. “You're in my house now, little worm,” Chrysalis spat, shooting another explosive blast. Twilight sprinted to one side, nearly losing a piece of her tail in the process. Twilight instantly knew what she had to do. She had no other choice, really. She turned and ran. From behind, she heard Chrysalis sigh. “Why do they always run?” she grumbled before quickly giving chase. * * * Twilight was at a serious disadvantage. She didn't know the hive’s inner workings, and more than once she turned right into a dead end. Once she escaped annihilation only by quickly teleporting behind Chrysalis the instant before she fired. She had to run with her head down while ducking and weaving, and she had to try and focus on her attacks, all while avoiding Chrysalis's taunts. “You're out of your element, little maggot,” Chrysalis called, shooting another blast of changeling magic that converted another rock into smithereens. Twilight somehow found her way into a large room, with huge pointed arches, beautiful pillars, and other elements of gothic architecture. Twilight couldn't help but skid to a stop. “Whoa, look at that! You don't see architecture like this anymore.” “See what?” Chrysalis asked. “This gothic architecture. This is a huge pointed arch, and I mean huge. This is a perfect example of weight distribution at its finest. You know how long it took ponies to figure this out?” Chrysalis chuckled. “Ponies? Oh, the arrogance! No, no; that was our doing.” “What?” “Changelings invented this style,” Chrysalis said proudly, gently brushing a hoof against one of the supports. “You'd be surprised just how much of your modern architecture you ponies owe to us changelings. The pointed arch, and before that the corbeled arch, the Corinthian pillar style; all kinds of things, really.” “Fascinating...” Both suddenly snapped out of their trance. “Oh. Right,” Twilight remembered. “Mortal enemies and such.” She teleported out of the way to behind a pillar, just in time to avoid a blast of energy that went through the wall. Twilight lowered her head and sprinted, barely avoiding another blast that disintegrated another pillar, and entered one of the alcoves and into a smaller tunnel, this one low enough that Chrysalis was forced to land and give chase on hoof. As soon as she'd run a good fifty paces, Twilight spun around. “My turn,” she said, lighting her horn and firing blast after blast of purple energy at Chrysalis, filling the room with dust and rock particles. When the smoke cleared, Chrysalis stood unscathed. She blinked, surprised, and then smirked. “You missed, little maggot,” she snarled. “My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight hissed, casting a purple shield over herself. She took a step backwards until she was up against the wall. “And I never miss.” With a grunt of effort, she shifted her weight and bucked the wall with all the earth pony magic she could muster, and all at once, the cavern collapsed. Chrysalis’s eyes widened. Flaring her wings, she lifted up and did her best to dodge the falling rocks, but her luck had finally run out. She had been too far in to escape. When the dust and rock shards had cleared again, the queen was trapped under piles of rubble. Green slime oozed from the numerous cuts on her body; what wasn't already crushed under the rocky debris, that is. “Clever nymph,” Chrysalis groaned. “Clever, clever nymph…” Her voice trailed off and she began to cough violently, expelling green splatters of changeling blood with every hacking cough. Twilight let her shield fade. “I claim victory,” she said solemnly. Chrysalis might have tried to say something bitingly sarcastic in reply, but it was drowned out in the next fit of coughing. A small green bubble of phlegm formed over her lips, and then popped. “Any last words?” Twilight asked, stepping closer to her defeated enemy. “Just one,” Chrysalis whispered. "It'd better be 'sorry'," Twilight murmured, taking a step closer. Chrysalis coughed once more… before rearing out and jabbing her fangs into Twilight's foreleg. Twilight screamed and stumbled backwards, pressing another hoof to the site to stop the bleeding. “Enjoy,” Chrysalis whispered through gritted teeth, her expression an unreadable mixture of pain and something else. She reverted to her natural changeling tongue as she spoke her last words, “Haneo hawait zerwha tsarmem,” before collapsing and gasping her last. Twilight took a stumbling step backwards, her hoof still pressed against her injury. A sharp pain coursed through her chest. Her head swam, and black spots appeared in the corner of her vision. Her breath came faster, more ragged. Was a changeling bite venomous? It must have been; Twilight stumbled once more before her hooves suddenly refused to respond. She collapsed, falling on her face, and her whole world slowly faded to black.