//------------------------------// // The Collection // Story: Shellstrings // by shortskirtsandexplosions //------------------------------// Blue Crescent – "Collection" Chamber Schwissssssh! A metal door flanked by armed guards slid open to the obnoxious buzz of cricket song. Princess Plasma stepped in, followed by Chief Agent Horizons and the rest of the League. Entering the spacious white laboratory, the group found themselves staring at several cubicle chambers framed in translucent armored sheets. Garnet shuffled to a stop, grimacing. "By the Crystal Heart," the stallion murmured. He gulped. "Are these...?" Equine-shaped insectoids lingered in each compartment. Most lay dormant, some clinging to the walls with their limbs coiled tightly to their glossy black exoskeletons. One rested on its side, twitching while another flitted about with wrestless spasms. "First time seeing changelings in the flesh, Sergeant?" Horizons remarked, leaning on her metal prosthetic. "Or perhaps—in this case—the chitin?" Garnet shuddered. "I heard of the treachery of Chancellor Barr, but I never thought I'd see her mutated minions up close." "'Chancellor Barr?'" Sharp Quill remarked. "The original name to Queen Chrysalis," Horizons explained. "At least... according to Sergeant Garnet and his fellow survivors at the Crystal Empire." She turned to look at the other agents. "A curious detail lost to history. Perhaps Prince Miller intended it for some reason..." Betsy watched, mouth agape. The rhinoceros snorted. "How did you find these bastards?" She glanced at the head of Blue Nova Industries. "We thought they had all cleared out of Canterlot during the Royal Wedding." "They had," Princess Plasma said. The eucorn tossed her auburn mane back and continued, "But—perhaps—if the League had not disbanded when it did... then you would have stumbled upon these much sooner than the agents of Trottingham did." She took a deep breath. "Although... one cannot blame you for taking defensive measures upon the return of the Bug Bear." "You didn't answer her question," Haze remarked, eyeslits squinting. "How did you find these... drones?" "Out in the wild," Plasma explained. "From what I understand, two were located in the Everfree Forest. Two more were found outside of Ghastly Gorge." She gestured. "The rest were found in the arid plains to the south." "Did..." Sharp Quill grimaced through her metal beak. "...did you locate any of Chrysalis' hives?" "No." Plasma shook her head. "And from how malnourished these creatures have been, it's sufficient to say that they had been far removed from any nesting place." She took a deep breath. "Our top scientists believe that they had been sent out... to forage." "To forage?" Betsy belched. "What the Hell for?" Before Plasma could answer, the door slid open again. A familiar scientist stumbled in, breathless. "Your H-Highness! I'm s-so sorry!" He doubled over, panting. "If I-I had known you were g-going to show off the Collection, I would h-have arrived sooner!" "That's quite alright, Professor Ball Bearings," Plasma said with a smile. She patted his shoulder and gestured before the translucent cubicles. "By all means. Be my guest. We were just discussing the 'forage' hypothesis." "Oh... oh y-yes!" The Professor nodded shakily, adjusting his oversized labcoat. "As you've pr-probably already surmised, the creatures operate under a hive mind which—presumably—is controlled by the Queen herself." He gulped and paced down the chambers, gesturing at each insectoid figure. "These drones in p-particular had been sent out in key cardinal directions... uhm... with one express purpose in mind. Like a worker ant might be instinctually committed to a single t-task." "Just what kind of task?" Haze asked. "We... uh..." Ball Bearings fidgeted. "We're n-not sure... but... ehm..." He pointed a nervous hoof at one of the "sleeping" drones. "All of them were in various states of malnourishment... but..." His brow furrowed. "Three of the healthiest ones displayed a c-common pattern... namely they were discovered in close proximity t-to an animal or being who h-had been rendered comatose." "Rendered comatose?" Betsy remarked. "What had the shitstains done to them?" "Well... there was a coyote in the desert that had b-been paralyzed... as if the drone sucked its nervous system d-dry of all energy." Ball Bearings gulped. "And then the fat one—in that chamber? Yeah... uh... it was f-found in an earthen burrow full of catatonic jackrabbits. And... uh... the skinny one? The one moving around?" He pointed at a buzzing drone that skittered circles in its cell. "It was found in the desert with... uhm... an entire caravan of zebras. Travelers from the far south, we think." "What... had it done to the zebras?" Garnet asked. "Oh... eheh... uhm... it's really quite fascinating." Ball Bearings tried to smile, but then grimaced. "Well... tragic, really. But... uhm..." "Just answer the question, Professor," Plasma gently insisted. "Ahem..." The stallion waved a hoof. "The zebras were... uhm... uh... found in... uhm... a cave where they had been... ehm... st-stuck to the walls with viscous fluid... pr-presumably discharged by the drone as a means of restraint." He gulped. "A-a-and... while the zebras were still in full physical capacity... it would s-seem as though they had all suffered irreversible brain damage." "Did they survive?" Sharp Quill asked. Ball Bearings looked at the Princess. Plasma took a deep breath. "The entire family is resting currently in the safe confines of the Trottingham Sanitarium. It would appear as though the damage to their cognitive processes is permanent." "Mmmm... yes..." Ball Bearings nodded. "No doubt the doing of the drone that you see moving about b-before you here. It would appear as though... uhm... the sapping of the zebras' mental faculty sustained it." "So..." Garnet gulped. "It was feasting." "Well... yes? And... uhm... n-no..." Ball Bearings fidgeted. "Care to explain, Professor?" Horizons muttered. "Well..." He shuffled down the chambers, pointing at the creatures. "We've experimented with giving the drones various different kinds of sustenance. Changelings are capable of eating the same kind of physical foods as regular equines... but it's... uhm... likely j-just a ruse... something they do while in metamorphic phases to m-maintain the illusion of being something that they're not. In fact..." He pointed at a few of the dormant subjects. "Many of them have outright refused to eat or drink any of the samples we've provided them. To keep them alive for... uh... further studies, we've had to resort to intraveniously force-feeding them." "So they're purposefully trying to expire?" Haze asked. "Not quite... there were... uh... five more subjects than what you see before you now. And... uhm... upon capture they... uh..." He smiled nervously. "Eheh... they terminated themselves." "Terminated themselves?" Ball Bearings nodded. "It would appear as though each drone is biologically equipped with... uhm... some sort of suicidal... uh... suicidal gland." He gestured at his stubbled chin. "Just below the mandibles there's a pair of vacuoles full of a chemical agent that—when burst from the inside—releases poisonous enzymes that... uhm... destroy the changeling's immune system from the inside out. It's... uh..." He winced. "It's a very slow death... and likely very painful." "Shit nuggets," Betsy exhaled. "Talk about commitment." "If they weren't feasting on the wildlife and zebras for sustenance..." Haze glanced at the chambers. "...why did they prey on those victims to begin with?" "I... don't believe they were preying for themselves." Ball Bearings pointed at the one moving changeling. "This one... when Plasma's agents stumbled upon it?" He gulped. "It was... uhm... sending out sonic vibrations through the desert air. That's h-how they caught it so easily. It didn't put up any resistance... j-just... uh... kept emitting this high-pitched noise. I theorize that it could have been heard by a fellow drone over five miles away." "What was it calling for, exactly?" "We... uh... weren't entirely certain at first. Which is precisely why I began a key experiment." Ball Bearings rushed over to show off a series of speakers and high tech computational devices. "I found a way to... uh... eheh... recreate the sound and... erm... broadcast it over the chambers of the Collection here." "And...?" "Each of the changelings froze." Ball Bearings gulped. "They... uh... stopped what they were doing... and then proceeded to mimic the sound... as if it was s-some sort of biological... social necessity. Princess Plasma ordered me to cease the experiment as soon as we realized that the sound was being amplified loudly enough to be heard beyond Canterlot... for... uhm... the discerning ear, of course. To us—it's barely even white noise." "What were you afraid that they were calling?" Garnet asked. "Not what... but... uhm... whom..." Ball Bearings took a shuddering breath. "We here at Blue Crescent... uh... postulate that Queen Chrysalis—the source of the hive mind—is weak." "Weak?" "Ill. Starving. The source of the malnourishment that's running rampant through each living sample we've stumbled upon." Ball Bearings glanced at the others. "And... quite likely... uh... she's been sending these drones out to find proper hosts to feed on... so that she can regain their strength through them and... come out of hiding... most likely..." Bon Bon—who had been silent all this time—trotted slowly towards the chamber where the one active changeling was still pacing. Her blue eyes narrowed as she murmured, "They feed off of emotion... right?" Her ears twitched. "The changelings. They devour harmonic energies and feed them to their Queen." "Uhm... more or less, that's correct," the Professor said. "But... truth is... we only know how Queen Chrysalis operates when she's at her full potential." Ball Bearings gestured. "From the records kept in the Royal Archives to the accounts hoofed down by the League itself." He looked at Horizons across the chamber. "Chancellor Barr was just transforming when she encountered the apprentices of Clover the Clever." He looked at Bon Bon. "And just before Chief Agent Sugar Cane's... uhm... unfortunate passing in Canterlot, Queen Chrysalis was the strongest and healthiest she had ever been. The same could be said of her entire Hive." The changeling stopped pacing. Wings buzzing, it spun about... its pale blue eyes focusing on Bon Bon across the glass. Bon Bon came to a stop, peering at it. The cricket song drowned out a bit. "And now?" Horizons asked. "Now...?" Ball Bearings sighed, running a hoof through his mane. "Now... uhm... there's no telling what to expect." He gulped. "If Queen Chrysalis is indeed as weak as we hypothesize, then she'll be having to focus her strength on a choice few drones. No doubt they're out there... infiltrating Equestria much like these specimens... attempting to find exceptional food sources for the Queen to feast on and regain her former standing..." "And... just where might Chrysalis be hiding?" Sharp Quill asked. "That..." Princess Plasma stepped forward. "...is what we're hoping you and the rest of the League can discover for us." She glanced at the samples. "My agents were simply lucky to have found these drones. And if the Professor is correct, then we only found them because they had grown weak... feeble. But there could be countless more 'foragers' out there... infiltrating the Equestrian populace... preying upon our families and loved ones as we speak..." "Goddess damn..." Betsy snarled. "Isn't it enough that we gotta deal with all the Tartarusian escapees?" "We have our hard work cut out for us, agents," Horizons said. "But while the prugatorial prisoners may be easier to find..." She pointed her metal limb at the chambers. "These slimy bugs are our chief priority. Right now... even as we speak... they are hiding among us... reading our minds... adapting to our desires... exploiting our fears... and suckling on our most cherished emotions." Bon Bon squinted. The changeling blinked back. Its head twitched—and in a burst of flame, its exoskeleton vanished... replaced by a fuzzy lime green coat. Amber eyes warmly reflected Bon Bon's grimacing expression. Betsy glanced at Bon Bon, then at the rest of the agents. Garnet's shiny brow furrowed. He looked at Ball Bearings. "Professor? What's it doing now?" The stallion gulped. "Probing," he said. "It's the second stage in preying. If it weren't for the antimagic foundation of the chamber it's in... the agent would likely be suffering from the third stage." "And Sweetie Drops would be a vegetable," Haze said. "Affirmative." Bon Bon took a deep breath, her eyes locked on the silly unicorn being mimicked in front of her. "Professor?" she asked without turning her head. "You said that these things can feel pain." She gulped. "How do you know that for sure?" "The... uh... the samples that committed suicide... with the poison glands...?" "Yes...?" "They expressed their torment in... uhm..." Ball Bearings gulped. "...in the forms of the ponies and wildlife that they h-had preyed upon." Bon Bon's ears drooped. As she stared into the amber eyes, her mind ached with the shrill cadence of cricketsong, reaching a skull-splitting fever pitch. Train to Appleloosa – Supply Car "Next stop! Appleloosa! Appleloosa! Next stop!" Lyra gasped, her amber eyes flickering wide open. With a metallic screech, the whole train lurched to a gradual stop. Through the windows of the supply car, the musician spotted arid mesas and buttes interrupting a blue desert sky. She sat up, wincing. "Grnnnggh... ugh..." She stretched her limbs and rubbed her sore back from where she had fallen asleep against a stack of wooden crates. "Mrmmfff... frickin' Goddess... why can't I spend a vacation atop a pile of feathery pillows?" Sighing, she nevertheless picked up her lyre, stuffed it in her saddlebag, and galloped back towards the passenger cars. "Whelp... into the lion's dank..."