//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Strange Happenings in the Hive // by ZealousHeretic //------------------------------// “Interestingly enough, members of the Changeling race may or may not have excellent night vision. Since some members spend most of their time on the surface, infiltrating and collecting sustenance for the hive, they lose the near-perfect night vision this race is capable of and have to resort to light or night vision spells to see in the darker tunnels. By many accounts, having consulted with many changelings, it takes years to build up their night vision and mere hours to lose it. So make sure to try a bright flare spell if you’re confronted by them, especially if it’s night.”—excerpt from a guest chapter, by Trusty Tome, on dealing with changelings, should they get aggressive in On Changelings __________________________________________________________________________ Camo stayed on top of Illusion until he could feel the princess was far away. Unfortunately for him, Illusion was waiting for him twitch, then she would make her move. Illusion delivered a crushing blow to a spot no male wanted to get hit. The pain sent him to the ground, gritting his teeth as copious amounts of tears streamed from his eyes, an explosion of light and color affecting his vision due to the intensity of the pain he was experiencing. Illusion was still unable to get up as all of her remaining energy was used to strike Camo. He slowly recovered and made his way to the vial of magic suppressor. He could’ve probably blocked it, but he was in a bad position anyway and as a rule, holed hooves aren’t great for blocking blows, so he took that hit. Camo grabbed the vial and made his way back to Illusion. “Here, drink this,” Camo said, placing the vial by Illusion’s head and keeping his expression neutral, “I worked very hard to get it for you.” “You didn’t have to,” Illusion replied, she struggled a bit to drink the potion, laying on her side made the process rather difficult, “You should’ve waited, that was much too close.” “Magic overdose isn’t a joke, Illusion,” Camo growled, “It’s not something you can just endure and walk away fine.” “Last I checked I was supposed be leading this mission,” Illusion glared, “Don’t disobey orders again.” “Well it seems the trend of changeling leaders overestimating themselves continues,” Camo said, rolling his eyes, “And the mission is pretty much over, by the look on the princess’s face, she was getting out of here as soon as possible, so we just have to wait for you to recover and then we’re going back to the medical ward.” “So now you’re giving me orders, huh?” Illusion said, slowly getting up, her unfocused eyes staring off into space in Camo’s general direction. “Ilusion, you need to rest,” Camo pleaded, “That fever you have is messing with your head.” “You think you can order me around and I’ll just take it?” Illusion snarled, trying to move towards Camo, but her legs gave out after a single step, “You pathetic deaf worm!” Camo sighed. “Dammit,” he muttered as he shot a knock-out spell that hit Illusion straight in the face, “You’re pretty cunty when you’re on a fever-induced rage.” Ok, Camo, think, what the hell am I going to do now? he thought. With Illusion out cold on the ground that meant he’d have to carry her, but there was no way he could carry both of them back to the medical ward. He could only carry them one at a time. He’d have to choose. Illusion, aside from the recent fever-induced rage episode, had been nothing but kind to him. She was arguably his best friend, assuming changelings are allowed to have those, since they’re supposed to be efficient and emotionless love parasites. On the other hoof, if Queen Chrysalis found out that he left the creature in the tunnels, well, Camo wouldn’t have to worry about Illusion being mad about him kissing her, since he’d probably be dead. Then again, if he took the creature first, and went back for Illusion, then he’d be leaving the creature defenseless and the other changelings might try to do something to gain the favor of the queen, possibly hurting the creature, accidental or otherwise. I could always wait and hope the queen sends a drone out into the tunnels to find us, that’d be the best option, since whoever she sends could carry the creature. Camo reasoned, before sitting down by Illusion and deciding to wait until help arrived. He was a bit hungry after having to use his knock-out spell twice, probably couldn’t use it again. Since the love princess was here though, there was probably more love magic to eat. All he needed to do was bear the pain for a while, everything was going to be fine. Or so he thought, until he heard the creature getting up behind him. __________________________________________________________________________ Chrysalis was almost done feeding her hive, it was almost a shame that none had accidentally died in between feeding times so she could save a little extra for herself, almost. It had been months since the last death. I suppose with that overconfident doctor, that means it’s been less than an hour since the last death, Chrysalis thought. How dare he ruin my streak. Cadance was heading towards the surface, by Chrysalis’s estimate. It was abnormally early for that.The last dozen changelings could wait for their feeding, it was the medical bay anyway, they had been a rather disappointing bunch as of late. Chrysalis made her way to cut off Cadance at the surface. It was quite easy, considering the drone guiding the princess always took a longer way to everywhere and the fact that Chrysalis knew these tunnels perfectly. She arrived at her chosen cut off point and waited for Cadance’s group to turn the corner. When they did, Chrysalis cleared her throat to address Cadance, but stopped. Princess Cadance looked almost the same as she always did, but there was something off. She’s not in awe of my overwhelming greatness, if it were that then she’d of looked like this ages ago, Chrysalis thought, unwittingly staring directly at Cadance. “See something you like?” Cadance deadpanned. “No, the opposite actually,” Chrysalis replied, “Though I am wondering what you saw that made you so flustered.” How could she possibly tell, I almost managed to forget that thing happened, Cadance had to stop herself from wincing, I’d hate for those drones to get in trouble for doing something natural, even if I think it’s gross when they do it. “I’m just growing a little tired of all the extra traveling I’ve had to do since the treaty, I’m probably going to ask if Twilight can do the next visit or two, her or Luna, that is.” Chrysalis winced. Luna never got over the coma spell Chrysalis put on her when she was disguised as Cadance. It was reasonable that she hadn’t, it was incredibly embarrassing to sleep through an invasion and wake up without knowing anything happened at all. If Luna conducted the search then it wouldn’t be nearly as relaxed as Cadance’s searches had become. Chrysalis wasn’t trying to do anything major, at the moment anyway, save keeping Ae-aron a secret, but having a spiteful princess turning every stone in her hive didn’t sound enjoyable. “I’d offer you the full hospitality of the changelings, but I imagine it’s less than what you’re fancy train can muster.” “It’s the thought that counts, thanks,” Cadance replied, “This will be the first time we part with some marginally kind words.” Chrysalis’s eyes widened. “Your flanks are too—” She began, but Cadance teleported her, and her whole delegation team, away. Impressive, Chrysalis thought begrudgingly, I’ll have to be extra rude the next time I see her to counteract this lapse. Cadance was hunched over and panting. “Sorry for teleporting all of you out of the blue like that.” A wave of ‘it’s alright’s and ‘no problem’s sounded. Crystal was standing by Cadance, looking concerned. “Are you alright, princess? That look like it took a lot out of you.” Cadance smiled. “It was worth it to annoy Chrysalis.” __________________________________________________________________________ “Uh, h-hey there little guy,” That happens to be as tall as me, Camo managed to say, keeping his voice as even and soothing as possible. The creature only mumbled and rubbed his eyes. “Who’s there?” it asked, searching around for the source of Camo’s voice, Can it not see me? Camo thought. “Uh, I’m here, my name is Camo,” he said nervously, trying to keep the situation calm, “Your name is Ae-aron, right?” “Almost,” the creature replied, looking in Camo’s general direction, "My name is Aaron." So he can hear well enough, though I’m surprised it doesn’t wonder why I know its name, Camo chuckled internally, I wonder how it can survive its own wailing. “A-are you a boy or girl?” “Y-you can’t tell?” Aaron asked in reply, tears beginning to well up in his eyes. Uh, no, no, I’m a little hard of hearing,” Camo said quickly, “So I can’t go by sound, and it’s so dark down here. Aaron wiped his eyes. “Oh, ok, sorry for crying—er, actually I wasn’t crying, because I’m a boy.” Nice save me, Camo thought. “They don’t? Like ever?” Camo asked, feigning interest and trying to figure out how to keep this conversation going until he figured out what to do, “That’s pretty cool.” “Yeah,” Aaron replied, nodding excitedly. Camo stalled with all the innocent questions he could think of. Where was this guy from? A city Camo had not heard of. What was it like there? Hot sometimes, and cold at others times, only Aaron used many more words to say it. It was clear that Aaron was quite young and lacked the awareness to provide any meaningful answer. At least Camo didn’t have to worry about taking notes, the information he was getting wasn’t going to be useful to anyone. He asked the questions anyway, the last thing anyone needed was this youngling realizing he was alone and blind in a tunnel with a stranger. That wouldn’t help anyone. Aaron seemed to be happy anytime someone was speaking, in even the seconds of silence between topics his face would fill with uncertainty and he would start biting on his thumb. This little guy changed emotions like the queen changed her advisors, when she used to have them anyway. The safest thing to do in this situation would be to wait for Illusion to wake up and hope she wasn’t still fever-crazy. Since that would take quite a while and Camo was running out of conversation topics, that option was out. The only other thing Camo could think of was getting Aaron to follow him back to the medical ward while he carried Illusion. But getting him to follow and keep up in the dark would require contact, which might make things uncomfortable considering Camo didn’t know if it would lead to him having a magical overdose. There was also the fact that there was no way to know how Aaron would react to the changelings back at the infirmary once they reached it since it was dimly lit so he could see, unlike in these tunnels. Camo couldn’t exactly make Aaron wait here while he took Illusion to the medical ward, so bringing him there was really the only option. “I think I know the way to some light,” Camo said, interrupting whatever Aaron had been saying, “Would you like to go?” “How can you know where anything is when it’s so dark?” Aaron asked, tilting his head. “I can see in the dark,” Camo replied impatiently, “Now, I, and many of my fellow changelings, will probably look pretty different than what you’re used to, are you going to get scared? “I—uh—” Aaron struggled to form words and took a half step back. “You said boys don’t cry, right? Do they get scared?” “N-no.” “Do you want to get out of the dark?” Camo asked, taking an audible step towards Aaron. Aaron stepped back again and answered quietly. “Y-yes.” “Are you going to get scared when you see what I look like?” “I—uh, I don’t know.” Aaron replied, stopping his retreat. “How scary looking are you?” “I’m going to light up the tunnels just a little, I’m black and look a little like a bug, are you ready?” Camo asked charging a weak light spell. “Er—ok,” Aaron replied hesitantly. “The light will be red, so be prepared for that.” Camo said, right before releasing the spell. The tunnel was awash in a dull red glow. A tiny red ball of light hovered about a foot above Camo’s head. Thank the hive the light doesn’t go below my head, Camo thought, That would make a scary image. Aaron’s eyes widened at the sight of Camo and he looked like he wanted to bolt. Thankfully he didn’t and he quickly noticed Illusion lying on the ground. “Who’s that?” Aaron asked, pointing at Illusion. “My friend, she’s a bit, uh,” Camo replied, rubbing the back of his neck with his hoof, “Sick, that’s why I’d like to move, she needs to get to the infirmary.” “What’s an infirmary?” Aaron asked, his brow furrowed. “Uh, a place with doctors,” Camo answered, “Oh, and before you panic, this light will go out soon. I’m going to pick up my friend and I want you to grab my tail so you can follow me in the dark.” Aaron looked unsure, he held his hands in front of himself and and seemed to teeter totter on whatever appendage he had in lieu of hind hooves. “Couldn’t you maybe keep the light on?” “I can’t, I’m sorry, but I don’t have the energy,” Camo replied, noticing Aaron’s disappointment, he quickly added, “But, it’ll be alright, you just have to hold on and follow me and we’ll be talking the whole time.” “O-ok,” Aaron replied, not sounding entirely convinced. Camo didn’t have much time until the spell ran out, so he rushed over and got Illusion on his back. She was much heavier that Aaron would be, not that Camo would tell her that, but he knew he could make it back to the medical ward in a reasonable time. Hopefully before Aaron had a chance to give him a magical overdose. Camo doubted that Aaron did it on purpose, he could be wrong of course, but it was probably just some freaky alien side effect that no one understood yet. So there was no point freaking out over something you didn’t fully understand, in Camo’s opinion anyway. Many would think hearing loss via alchemaic explosion would make someone more careful, but not Camo. Camo moved over to Aaron and wagged his tail a bit. “Quick, grab on before the spell ends.” Aaron tentatively reached out and caught Camo’s moving tail. His grip was quite weak, until the lights went out and it tightened considerably. “Alrighty, are you ready to move?” Camo asked, turning back and seeing Aaron’s worried expression. “I guess so,” Aaron replied, his voice sounding unsure. “Alright, just hold on, if you drop my tail then things will get difficult.” Camo said, before wincing, “And try to keep the pulling to a minimum.” “What’s minimum mean?” “I’ll tell you later.” Camo and Aaron made slow progress through the tunnels. Camo regretted not telling Aaron what ‘minimum’ meant, because it might have saved him some pain. It was clear that Aaron was uneasy so getting to to medical wing might push him over the edge into full blown panic. “How you doing back there?” Camo asked. He turned back to see Aaron now using a two handed grip for extra safety. “I-I’m ok.” “Ok, we’re almost there, we should be able to see the light from the infirmary soon.” Camo said, looking back and giving a smile, only to remember Aaron couldn’t see it. Heh, my smile might look scary to him anyways, Camo thought, looking at Aaron’s fearful expression, It’s probably good he doesn’t see me, the last thing he needs is any more fear. “Ah, there you are, drone,” Chrysalis said, no more than a foot in front of him. Aaron stopped when he heard her voice, and his grip on Camo’s tail was the only thing that stopped Camo from running straight into the queen. “I see you managed to get the creature under control and keep it from the ponies. Well done.” “M-my queen,” Camo stuttered. “Who’s that, Camo?” Aaron asked, looking in the queen’s direction but unable to see her. “Uh, she’s the queen,” Camo said carefully, “Don’t worry, she’s ni—erm, she’s the queen.” Aaron gripped Camo’s tail even tighter. “If you say so.” “Hmm,” Chrysalis finally noticed Illusion on Camo’s back, “Take the good doctor to the medical ward, drone, I’ll take care of the creature.” Camo’s eyes widened. “Are you, uh, sure about that, my queen?” Camo asked, noticing her expression shift to an angry scowl, he quickly added, “The creature has an odd and dangerous effect on us, we should really study him a bit more until we do anything foolhardy.” “Are you implying that I would act foolishly?” “Er—No, we all make mistakes though,” Camo said, lowering his head, “Right?” “Do I make mistakes, Drone?” Canterlot. “Nothing comes to mind, my queen.” “Am I the creature?” Aaron asked, looking confused. “Yeah, cool nickname, right?” “I don’t want to go with the queen, I want to stay with you.” That’s great, but I also want to live. “You might have to adjust that attitude, I’m sure the queen will take good care of you, she’s the one who ordered that you be healed when you were sick, remember?” “No,” Aaron replied quietly, shifting down to a one handed grip on Camo’s tail, “What’s an attitude?” “Uh, I can’t really think of a definition at the moment,” Camo answered, “I’ll have to get back to you on that.” Chrysalis observed the exchange between the pair. They seemed to have hit it off quite well. Then again, the drone might just know how to talk with it. “Drone, I’ll have no more arguments,” Chrysalis interrupted, “The creature is coming with me.” “Oh, uh, of course, my queen,” Camo replied, bowing to her as best he could with Illusion on his back, “He can’t see in this darkness though, you probably noticed that he’s been holding onto my tail …” “I am aware, drone,” Chrysalis retorted, before her horn flared and the tunnel was filled with a dull red glow, “I assume this will suffice.” Aaron’s eyes widened and teared up a bit. “M-m-monster,” he whimpered. Camo’s head shot around. “Uh, no, no, that’s—well,” Camo struggled to find the words while Chrysalis glared while her horn lit up. “She’s not a mon—well, she’s not danger—uh, well, she’s totally fine, I swear.” Aaron wiped his eyes. “R-really? Honest?” I’m lying through my teeth. “Honest, she didn’t go through all the trouble just to hurt you now, you’re gonna be fine.” I hope. Chrysalis’s horn stopped glowing when her spell canceled. “Come along now, we wouldn’t want the drone’s friend to get hurt because you delayed her arrival to the medical ward,” she said to Aaron, who nodded and walked to her side. “Good,” Chrysalis said, nodding, “I no longer have need of you, drone, you may take your comrade to the medical ward.” Camo bowed again and turned to go. He noticed Aaron waving goodbye and turned to give him a hesitant wave back. “Oh, drone, I almost forgot,” Chrysalis walked over to a startled Camo and fed him love energy. After she finished with him she did the same for Illusion, “That should aid in her recovery and serve as a reward for your success.” Camo stiffly nodded and muttered a thank you before rushing off to the infirmary. “Now then, follow me, Ae-aron,” Chrysalis order, starting to head towards her chambers. “My name is Aaron,” he whined in response. “I don’t care, Ae-aron is more elegant,” Chrysalis retorted. Aaron sniffed and tears returned to his eyes. Chrysalis’s horn flashed in an instant and her ears glowed with a sound blocking spell. Oh bother, if he starts crying then he’ll hurt the nearby drones even if he doesn’t get me. “What I meant to say was,” Chrysalis back tracked, “I don’t care, but since you do, we’ll go with Aaron, but don’t think crying will get you whatever you want around here, my patience is finite.” Aaron dried his eyes once more. “What does finite mean?” “It means that you should stop crying so much.” “I’ll try.” Stop the presses everyone, he says he’ll try, Chrysalis thought, rolling her eyes and continuing to walk while Aaron followed. “Where are we going?” “My chambers.” “What does—?” “My room.” Aaron looked down, pondering something. “Are you a girl?” Chrysalis’s eye twitched. “You can’t tell?” “No.” Chrysalis growled. “Yes, I am a girl, you heard your friend call me ‘queen’ didn’t you?” “Oh yeah,” Aaron replied, “I forgot that.” They walked in silence through the empty tunnels for about a minute. “My mommy said I shouldn’t go into girls’ rooms.” “Well, your mommy isn’t here.” Wait, oh no. “Where is she?” Aaron asked looking concerned. “I—uh—” “A-and w-where am I?” He could hardly speak as he finally realised his situation. Tears spilled from Aaron’s eyes and his mouth opened to emit a wail. Chrysalis managed to get a quick sound blocking spell over Aaron’s head before he could start crying. Which left her with the image of him sobbing, repeatably mouthing the words ‘Where am I’ and ‘Where’s my mommy,’ the only sounds Chrysalis could hear from him were his tears hitting the tunnel floor. Shit. __________________________________________________________________________ Camo really should have really paced himself instead of rushing off. The extra burst of energy he got from the feeding quickly wore off under the weight of his unconscious comrade. Not that he’d ever admit that to Illusion, maybe to some of his buddies while Illusion was on the other side of the hive, but never when Illusion might be even remotely close by. Camo was met with concerned looks when he finally made it to the medical ward. Some looked concerned for Illusion, other looked concerned since they bet money they didn’t have, on Chrysalis executing the pair. Camo had to admit that he would’ve lost that bet as well, since the queen seemed quite displeased with them earlier. He set Illusion down on a bed and left to make another magic suppressor. I really should just make a bunch of these so we have some stocked up. Camo thought while grabbing the ingredients, Then again, we haven’t needed them at all before recently. The potion took a minute to whip up and he was back a Illusion’s side. None of the other doctors bothered treating Illusion while he was away. Either because they were confident that Camo would take care of her or because they still weren’t sure whether the queen would be sparing them or not, so they didn’t want to waste resources. Camo rested his head on the wall by Illusion’s bed. How am I going to fix all this? The boy was with the queen, possibly the worst place he could be. The Equestrian delegation had just come by, so they probably wouldn’t be around again for a while. Finally, to top it all off, Illusion is out of commission due to the magic overload and therefore couldn’t provide any help. This is all going bad far too quickly for my tastes, Camo thought, banging his head against the wall, “Dammit,” he swore, realizing he forgot to give Illusion the potion. Illusion looked worse than before, Camo realized the queen fed her love energy while she was already close to overdosing. Camo rushed to get the potion down her throat. She was unconscious, which made things difficult, but he managed to get her to take sips despite not being awake. This would be so much easier if I could just give her the lotion version, Camo thought frantically, I’d use a suppository, but I don’t think she’d forgive me. When the sweating lessened a bit on Illusion’s brow, Camo sighed in relief and finally laid down on the floor beside her.