The Hidden of the Everfree

by musicman722

Knock, Knock. Anyone Home? (1)

Drip. Drip. Drip.

“Well...there's water at least.” Chrysalis said optimistically as she watched the liquid drip from the ceiling. For months, her Hive had scouted traveled to find the perfect place to regroup and recover their forces after the wedding invasion. Her scouts had found many places to hole up but there was often the danger of dragons, pony patrols and even cave ins, which narrowed down their choices immensly. At this point, Chrysalis wasn't even picky so long as she got a roof over her head and her Hive.

“I'm sorry, my Queen, if it doesn't meet your standards. I shall have the workers fix it up to better suit you.” General Arachne apologized. He was like the standard changeling in body, but his dark green armor and scars set him out as a battle hardened veteran of the Changling Legion. Unlike his body, his armor was polished and shone like new, since nothing less could be presented before his queen.

Chrysalis waved a holed hoof frantically to calm down the zealous soldier, “No, no, that won't be necessary. I want them working to make sure this place is safe for my people. The public's needs come before my needs.”

“As you wish, my Queen.” the general said with a bow. Before the changeling could make another comment about the room, Chrysalis steered the conversation to another topic. “How goes the search for our lost brothers and sisters?”

Contrary to popular belief, changelings were not mass produced like some child's toy each one to look alike. Nor did the Queen give birth to them all on her own like an ant. In fact, they were a lot like any other society with certain families and lineages. The only difference was that they were born into their jobs and rarely changed their work. However, due to the closeness of relations in the hive, it was almost like one big family with the Queen as the mother.

The general's face turned sour as if he ate something bile, “Not good. While we have been able to recover many, it's still a race against the infernal ponies to even find them. I've already lost several good changelings to them.”

“Calm down, Arachne.” Chrysalis said sternly, “Yes we have lost many but not all of them. There is still hope for us.”

Arachne shook his head, “You're right. Apologies milady. These are stressful times. I'll go and finish some more reports.” The armor clad changeling saluted and left without another word. As soon as the makeshift door slammed shut, Chrysalis let out a sigh, “Stressful times indeed, general.”

Chrysalis stepped across the room, taking care not to slip on the damp patches scattered about haphazardly. If this was the best this refuge place had to offer, she feared what conditions her subjects had to endure. They've already had enough casualties from the invasion and post events. She didn't want to lose any more to disease, cave-ins or what other hidden dangers that lurk within these walls. Initially, the plan was to retreat back to the hive out in the desert, but the ponies got there first. Not wanting to risk capture, she took as many changelings as she could and ran. She tried not to remember the screams of the captured and killed kin nor the sounds and smells of their homes burning behind them.

Once Chrysalis reached the hole that acted as the window to the out side world, she laid down and rested, feeling the weight of her job trying to crush her into a million pieces. Staring out into the forest canopy below, she idly watched the occaisonal bird fly by. She sighed, “Why?” she asked. It was a question she always asked ever since she hatched. Why? Why did changelings feed off love? Why wasn't there ever enough food for everyone? Why wouldn't the other nations let them have love? Why did she have to go off and pull an invasion stunt when it was extremely risky? Why didn't it work? Why must they always live so miserably? The questions never stopped.

Chrysalis shook her head, “No. I musn't dwell on that.” she stated firmly, “What's done is done.” However, she couldn't help but wish she could go back to find a better way of doing things. “I just hope the others can make it in time.” Lighting up her horn once more, like she had done for several nights past, she sent out a beacon call. It was only traceable by changelings and even on the off chance that a unicorn or alicorn picked it up, all they would hear is chittering of bugs, nor could they try to trace it back to the source, as was the purpose of the beacon. “There,” she huffed slightly from the effort, “They should be able to get that one this time.”

Turning away from the window, she strode out into the hallway, eager to distract herself from depression. “Mmm, perhaps I should make sure the drones are securing this place from outsiders?”

*****

“June! Where are you?” the lowly drone called out, “Stop playing games June. I need to get back to work and I can't do that when you're hiding like this.” The drone poked his head into a hole big enough for a small changeling. Unfortunately, this blocked his view from the dark shape dropping right above him.

“Love from Above!” the shape said as it landed and latched onto the drone with a giggle. The drone yelped in surprise, banging his head on the roof of the hole, to which the filly on his back giggled even more.

“Come on, Monty~,” June sang teasingly, “You couldn't find a glowing rock if someling pointed it out. Let's play again!” She bounced on the drone's back as she said the last part.

Monty gave her a frustrated glare, “No, Junebug. I have to get you back to the pods. I need to get to work and I can't do that if you're running off and getting lost. Also, quit calling me Monty. My name is Mantis, you know.” Truthfully, he didn't much care what his little sister called him, but he had to assert his authority before she got out of control. It was hard enough when their parents went missing after the invasion, so Mantis had to work double time just to support the two of them.

Junebug tought about it for a second before saying, “Nah, I like Monty better.” she said, cutely sticking her tounge out.

Mantis rolled his eyes and trotted down the tunnel, “Come on, We need to get back, or I'll be late for work.”

“Fine,” June said with a pout, until her face turned into a mischievous smile, “But first, Tag! You're it!” In a flash, she darted off down one of the side tunnels.

“Wha- Oh Come on!” Mantis grumbled to himself as he prepared to follow her down the tunnels. He tread carefully around the tunnel walls. He had heard about the cave ins in other sections of the new hideout and since this area was still in the list of places to fix up, he was wary of any cracks he saw. 'Of course, June had to pick a place that could potentially kill us or trap us down here. If it did, I don't think anyling would be close enough to hear it.' he thought, skittering around a small pebble that fell down, 'Calm down, just get your sister and bug out of here.' Mantis chuckled nervously at his own joke. Anything that could belay his fear was welcome at this point.

“Nyah! Can't catch me!” he heard June's voice echo across the tunnel. He picked up the pace and followed the noise around a corner. The path seemed to slowly curve downward here. Tried as he might, Mantis couldn't shake the feeling that he was walking down to the catacombs of the caves. Anything that might have lived here before probably piled it's bones at the very bottom. 'Come to think of it,' he thought, 'This is probably the deepest I've seen the tunnels go, and I've been all over the place with work.'

“June?” he called out gently, in case his voice disturbed the rocks enough that they wanted to silence him. “June! Get out of there! We're not supposed to be here! This place could come down any second now!”

“Only if you find me~” she called back, somehow sounding even farther down the tunnel. Mantis facehooved and kept trotting, grumbling all the way. After a while, the tunnel finally opened up into a large cavern. The algae that covered the walls glowed dimly, enough to give off an ambient light and create colorful patterns and streaks. Mantis could faintly hear the sound of water running down into the pool in the back of the cavern. This same pool had the same algae at the bottom, refracting the light across the room. It would have been breath taking if Mantis wasn't so focused on finding Junebug.

Mantis trotted down the path that led to the cave floor, gravel crunching underneath his hooves. “June! Get out here now!” Mantis screeched.

June huffed from somewhere, “Fine. You're such a stinkbug.” She grunted as she attempted to show herself, then suddenly stopped, “Uh oh.”

“Uh oh?” Mantis said worriedly, “You shouldn't be saying 'uh oh'! What did you do?!”

“I...I think I'm stuck.” she said.

Mantis facehooved with a sigh, “Where are you? I'll get you out.”

“Over here, near the pool.” Even if she didn't exactly say where, Mantis was close enough that he could've pinpointed her location. During one of his steps, he heard a snap and looked down to see that his hoof crushed a pale white bone. Mantis reeled back in shock when he suddenly realized that random bones were scattered everywhere around him. The only reason he never saw them, nor the one under his hoof was due to the algae covering them.

'How long have these bones been down here?' he wondered, which led to a more morbid thought, 'What lived down here?' Not wanting to stay in the stunning cavern anymore, he rushed over to his sister while avoiding any more bones in his path. He rounded a rock pile near the water and saw Junebug's front end stick out of the rock limply with a small pout on her face. If his mind wasn't currently occupied by the danger the cave represented, he would have laughed a bit at the site.

“I think my chitin got caught on the rock.” June said as she held out a hoof while propping herself up with the other, “Can you pull me out?”

Mantis inspected the rock around her, “How do you even manage this?” he asked idly. June swatted him on the nose.

“Just pull me out, Monty. It's not funny.” she said in an unamused tone.

“Alright, alright. I will.” Mantis grasped her fore legs in his and pulled back. He didn't want to waste energy with magic or risk hurting her with a magic bolt, that is, if he could make one. It was not like he actually had much magical talent beyond shapeshifting and mediocre levitation to begin with, since he was only a lowly drone.

After a minute of pulling, they were still stuck in the same spot. “Jeeze, did you find something to eat when you got in there?” Mantis asked as he pulled. Junebug was about to protest when she suddenly came loose, sending the two of them into the water. Almost instantly, the both of them jumped out of the water yelling, “Cold!” over and over. In a flash, they stood on the shore, bodies dripping and gossamer wings damp.

“C-come on, we need to go.” Mantis said with a slight shiver.

“Y-y-yeah, sure.” June replied, her teeth chattering, she took a step and cried out in sudden pain.

“What?” Mantis looked over to June and saw that her back end was covered in scrapes and gashes from the pulling. A few of them were bleeding quite profusely as the ichor dribbled into the water. “Hold on, June.” Mantis said consolingly as he hawked up some goo and spread them across the wounds. The goo that changelings produce have a number of special properties from holding things in place to medicinal purposes. In fact, a standard changeling birth room was in fact cleaner than the ones ponies use at their sanitized hospitals.

Junebug hissed as the goo cleaned the wounds and sealed them temporarily. “T-thanks.” she murmured.

“Don't mention it. Let's just get out of here and hope you've learned your lesson about running off.” Mantis said as he placed her on his back and immediately trotted off to the exit, “It's already hard enough for me to pull double shifts without having to try to keep you in line.”

“O-okay. Sorry.” June mumbled. They made the rest of the trip back in silence. All the way, Mantis wondered about the strange cave and resolved to get the inspection teams down there once he got back.

*****

Cold. Wet. Dark.

That is my prison.

Time here has flown like the bars of my cage, seemingly stagnant but ripples from the outside forces coming through, only to remind me of how long I've been trapped.

I've lost count of the time. How long has is been since I was trapped? Months? Years? Decades? Millenea? So long since I've last hunted, the time and my cage serving double to weaken my powers and sap my strength.

Cold. Wet. Dark. Sweet.

That is my-wait.

Sweet?

I groggily feel around and barely catch a small tendril of blood that has entered my cage. I taste it but it is unlike any I've known. Not the saltiness of the gryphons, nor the saccharine of a pony, nor even the juicy greasy taste of a minotaur. It's sweet, but diluted and not just by my cage. The owner of this blood tasted as if they could be sweeter, almost immeasurably so. The question of it's owner's species irritated me to no end as I could not ever answer it. Time may pass and memories fade, but never will I forget a taste.

I need more. I must have more

I consumed as much of the tendril as I could find, letting it give me energy. Curious, I tried my newfound strength against the bars of my cage. I latched upon rock after rock, lifting myself towards the surface. However, with each step forward, the cage did it's purpose by trying to sap my strength. I went full blast, trying to get every step out of my energy. In the end, I landed at the edge of my cage, freedom just out of reach, teasing me about my predicament.

No matter.

I was close enough that should my new prey come back, I could snatch them from here. Now I just had to wait. A feat that will never be beyond me even if this new prey didn't ever return.

But they will. They always do.