Techorse Short Stories

by Spirals95

#31 - Three Mane Team: Part II

Author's Note:

In this story:

Razor, a kind changeling dedicated to helping others of his kind make an honest living, has been captured. It's up to Techorse and two of his friends to get him back, otherwise there will be no hope for the new changeling colony. Twilight Sparkle doesn't like the idea of them going alone. Will her worries be justified?

Three Mane Team: Part II

Techorse series: #31

By Spirals95

---

In a cave system a few miles away from where Techorse and his friends left to meet with their pegasus contact, the spying changeling eagerly flew through the tunnel system looking for the camp. He followed the trails left behind by the other changelings deep into the center of the mountain they were based in, and entered a jagged section of the cavern where his hive had set up their temporary quarters. Green dome-shaped homes, some still dripping from being freshly added to glowed softly with yellow candle light, each one a small temporary house for each changeling family under Queen Chrysalis. She herself had built a large structure at the back of the cavern with multiple domes, five in total, forming a pentagonal temporary castle. It wasn't her home castle, but it was a suitable home until she could return back to her original kingdom.

Her agent pushed through a pliable flap on the front of the building, and went through a small ribbed entrance constructed out of wood, stone, and changeling goo, until he came to the makeshift throne room.

Queen Chrysalis sat on her throne, a large almost sofa-like structure made of red cushions and obsidian stone, giving it a blackish glow to match her body and slender legs. She welcomed her returning scout with a grin on her face.

"Tell me Cloak, what has our trap brought in?" she asked, standing up from her throne and walking over to her servant, who bowed before her.

"Your majesty, three ponies have been sent to rescue Razor," he answered, "as you expected, they are fully capable of defending themselves from what I could tell. They may be specialists sent by Princess Celestia, or simply wanderers given mercenary work to get Razor back from us."

Queen Chrysalis beat her wings gently, "Very good. Send a detachment of troops to the southern part of the plains in front of our mountain. With any luck, they'll fall for our tricks, and we'll be able to simply bring them in, and let Razor go."

"Let him go!" shouted a shocked Cloak, standing up, "But why?"

"The Equestrians are known for being a loving species, which is why they are such easy creatures to feed off of," explained the queen, "my runaway children, Razor included, have started to believe that this means they could care more for them than I could. I can't stand the thought of my children leaving me. I have a duty to them!"

"I apologize for my arrogance, but I don't see how letting him go after we're through with them is going to help get back the lost ones," argued the changeling, rather upset about the plan making no sense to him.

Chrysalis seemed about to lose her patience, but simply grunted and continued, "You weren't paying attention when we left the main hive then, were you? If we capture some ponies, and indeed my lost ones have grown soft to them, they'll come back on promise that we do not harm them."

"Ah, so we trap the party, and then trade them back for our own!" He said, smirking as he understood what she meant.

She smiled with fangs exposed at him, "We will have our lost ones back soon enough. Go rally up with the others, and fly to the meeting point. Prepare to welcome our new guests."

"Yes m'am!" he responded, turning around and exiting the throne room as fast as his porous legs could carry him.

The Queen looked in the direction of a nearby door, her attention now on her now dry throat, and decided to call for a drink, "I'm still waiting on that drink, Rusty!"

Rusty, her faithful servant and perhaps her only real friend in the traditional sense, emerged from the door with a small silver chalice of peach nectar from the makeshift kitchen. The small male changeling had yellow eyes, making him stand out slightly from the others, and he wore a small blue hat with a red feather attached to the left side. He brought the small fine cup to his queen, and gave it to her, using the limited amount of magic his small pointed horn allowed him. Queen Chrysalis drained the sweet fluid in seconds, and then set the cup down on one of the arms of her temporary throne.

"Ah, thank you. Sometimes I believe you're the only one who listens, Rusty," she said, sighing in relief of her throat ailment.

"I try my best," he answered, "I look forward to seeing our new 'guests'. I have a surprise for them, and you, once we've brought them in."

The servant laughed at his own plans, and Chrysalis couldn't help but slightly smile in anticipation of finding out what her servant had for her.

"A gift, for me?" she asked, a sinister grin spreading across her face.

Rusty nodded and chortled, "I'm sure you'll find it quite satisfying, my liege."

---

Techorse and his friends had reached the swamp described by Nectar. The small bog, covering only a few acres on each side was teeming with chirping insect life, bullfrogs calling out for companionship, and many cattails in standing mud and water. Occasionally a fish would leap out of the cleaner parts of the swamp water to grab at a passing insect in hopes of a catch. A few boulders that had broken off from the mountains and rolled downhill decades ago rested, either covered with moss or baked dry in the sun overhead.

The pegasus scout Princess Celestia had ordered to inspect Chrysalis's encampment was sitting on a small rock in the shade of one of the few trees in the local area. The ominous mountains sat behind him where the changelings were currently hidden. He was a rather wiry light orange stallion with green eyes, a trim blue mane cut, and three pairs of binoculars for a cutie mark.

"Great, you're here!" He said, jumping off of the rock and hovering in the air by flapping his wings, "Queen Chrysalis's camp is inside that mountain behind me. There's only one entrance, but there's multiple tunnels leading throughout that cave system. All of them eventually lead to the camp, but that's all I was able to find out without being caught. You'll have to figure out for yourselves how to get Razor out of there."

"Any idea how many of them there are?" asked Techorse, making eye contact.

"Probably more than two hundred. Many of them aren't soldiers though, I counted a lot of workers and servants," answered the scout, "but I'd be careful anyways."

"We will, don't worry," assured the inventor, "we plan on trying to settle this peacefully if possible. "

"I don't see how you can do that, but I'll be hoping for it anyways!" he replied with doubt in his voice, "Anyways, that's the end of my job here. Good luck!"

With that, the pegasus left them alone, soaring off into the sky to head back for his home in Cloudsdale.

"Didn't really give us much information," complained Steiner, scuffing a hoof on the ground.

Shadow Breeze shook his tail gently and twisted his head towards Techorse, "It's all right, really. Since we're going to try to reason with them first, we don't need an alternate path into their hive."

The amulet fastened around his neck by a small gold chain shot a ray of darkness onto the ground, projecting a shadow display of the local area. Shadow Breeze's friends looked at the diagram the pegasus had projected onto the ground.

"All we have to do is follow the mountain trail into this valley," he said, a dotted line of shadows beginning to form on the map.

"Once we're here in the valley, we can try to send a message along asking to trade Razor's return in exchange for money or resources."

"What happens if they reject?" asked Steiner, scowling and cynical, "I suppose we convince them otherwise?"

"Steiner, we're only using our weapons to protect ourselves if we have to. This isn't a game!" said Techorse sternly, "It's just not right to do things by force. Honestly Steiner, I don't know what's been going on, but you've been rather irritable ever since we've started out on this mission. Normally you're pretty welcoming, so what's wrong?"

The soda store owner pushed some of his striped mane out of the way of his eyes, "My father was in Canterlot during the Changeling invasion. One of them broke his leg by sending him down a flight of stairs. Sure, he recovered, but seeing my own parent helpless in bed? I could never forgive that!"

He sighed, and then continued, "Nectar has helped me to see that I need to go on a case by case basis with everypony, and even the ones who aren't ponies. It's just tough for me."

"Well, I understand." Interrupted Shadow Breeze, "It's hard to see a loved one get put in the hospital and not be mad at the party responsible. I could see why you would want to get back at them."
"I know, but you studying diplomacy, you would suggest I sue the changelings for medical damages, right?" he replied, teasing Shadow Breeze.

The graphite colored pegasus raised an eyebrow and shoved Steiner playfully with his front left hoof. It was surprising that Steiner seemed to be lightening up, at first it felt like he didn't like him at all, and now the reason for his mean behavior had been revealed to him. Maybe he would be able to be get along better with him and not simply share Techorse as a mutual friend.

"Now, what happens if we mess up?" asked Steiner, "I'm assuming we have a backup plan, right?"

Techorse nodded, "Remember? I told Twilight before we left that I had put a homing device in my saddle. If something goes wrong, or if the battle saddle gets destroyed, it'll send out an emergency beacon which will be picked up by a tiny radio I gave her. Twilight and the Princess both trust that we can handle ourselves, but I made sure we had something to fall back on."

"Great! Then let's head for the valley and get started," suggested Shadow Breeze, pointing to the mountain with a wing.

They left the swamp and headed for the valley described by the scout. Diplomacy was still an option if they were able to wait for a small number of changelings to come along.

---

A large, calm river flowed the past the valley of the small mountain range the team had been sent to explore. The body of water meandered through the hillside, leaving in its wake oxbow lakes and other isolated ponds. It eventually emptied out into the swamp the three stallions had left earlier, and its source was a larger lake high up in the mountains where there was a small shipyard. The river forked past the hill where Queen Chrysalis and her troops camped, and eventually drained out into the east sea.

The valley itself was a somewhat sparse area, although lush green grass grew along the bank of the river, stones and somewhat less healthy vegetation covered the land to the west, up until the mountain ridge where the occasional cliff dwelling tree or flower made its home. The rocks were large enough to provide perfect cover for someone as small as an Equestrian, and Techorse and company took shelter behind a larger boulder, waiting to see if any of the changelings would pass by without too many allies.

"Do you think they'll even come here?" whispered Shadow Breeze, a little bit of fear in his eyes.

"Of course. This is the easiest way to get water, and they likely make a few runs each day," confirmed Techorse, looking around the edge of the giant gray stone.

"So what do we do?" asked Steiner impatiently.

"When they get here, we negotiate out an agreement," explained Shadow Breeze, "I'm sure they'll accept something for Razor's return."

"That's an incredibly stupid idea!" exclaimed Steiner, "You honestly expect me to believe they'll cooperate?"

"Stop fighting!" declared Techorse, "I see one coming."

The three huddled together behind the rock as they heard a single set of wings come to a buzzing rest, and the soft footsteps of a changeling trooper walking around in the valley. He was humming some kind of a tune to himself, clearly of his own kind's origin as none of the ponies could identify it. Eventually he walked past the stone, and pretended that he did not see any of the team members.

"Um, excuse me!" piped up Shadow Breeze.

Cloak, who had followed them earlier, turned his head quickly and fell over on the ground, putting on a great act of being startled.

He stood up as fast as he had fallen to the ground, and said, "Ah, you startled me!"

"Sorry," said Shadow Breeze, "we're diplomats from Canterlot. We wanted to negotiate the release of Razor."

"Very well!" he answered, "Of course I need to know what's in it for us."

Shadow Breeze opened up his grey saddlebags and took out a small scroll. A small beam of shadow energy came out of his amulet and gently floated the paper over to the spy, who stomped on the paper with a perforated leg and started to scan it over quickly with his cyan colored eyes.

"Hmm, let's see. Rights to sell goods in Equestria, raw gold and silver. These are all very good offers, ponies, but of course I can't accept them myself. The Queen will need to see this," Cloak said, rolling up the scroll and kicking it back towards Shadow Breeze, who recollected the now dusty offer.

Techorse looked behind the rock, making sure that there weren't any other changelings in the area.

"Then we'll just follow you back," said Shadow Breeze.

The spy noticed Techorse's look behind and said, "As you can see, we're a reasonable hive. I assure you that Razor's capture was simply a big misunderstanding. Come with me and we'll see what can be done."

Steiner thought about saying something, since the whole situation seemed weird, but he didn't want to be called out anymore on being rude, so he kept his mouth closed and his ears attentive. When his friends left to go follow the changeling back to the hive, he carefully looked around.

Eventually, the changeling turned around and stopped the part in its tracks.

"You know something?" he said rhetorically, "I honestly believed better of you. Trust is never something a changeling fails to take advantage of. I'm surprised you never saw that in Razor."

Roughly two dozen changelings arrived on the scene. Six of them joined their leader Cloak at the front, and the remainder behind to cut off escape.

"I knew it!" shouted Steiner.

Techorse muttered, "Of course. I can't believe we fell for this."

Shadow Breeze complained, "Hey! Wait a minute! We're diplomats. You can't do this to us!"

"Can't we?" laughed Cloak darkly.

The changelings were closing in. Some of them were engulfed in green flashes of light as they disguised themselves as Techorse and his friends. But that's when Techorse noticed something about the changelings. They could take on the image, form, and even what they were wearing on as a disguise, but it was unlikely that they were able to copy attacks. A few of the changelings did not disguise themselves so as to make use of their magic projectile attacks. Their small stubby horns glowed, charging up for a shot.

"Looks like this is unavoidable," he said as his friends backed up into a circle, "look for the ones that don't have a saddle gadget out, a glowing amulet, or chucking sodas."

"Right," said Steiner, dropping into a battle position, his head down and his legs spread out.

He scraped a hoof on the ground fiercely. The changelings charged towards the middle, firing magic blasts and rushing in to sow confusion amongst the three. Techorse immediately opened fire with his laser cannons, sending yellow bolts of energy down the range. One of the changelings disguised as Steiner was not expecting the attack, and suffered a burst of laser fire, burning his outside and sending him flying backwards as the energy projectiles exploded on him. Techorse's cannons retracted back into his saddle as he switched rapidly to his missile launcher, and then with a mental flicker, a pair of rockets left the racks at his sides and streamed forward. The changelings did not know what to make of the projectiles, and the two impacted together in front of three of them, scattering them like dry leaves.
One of the magic bolts managed to hit Techorse in the back leg, toppling him as he screamed.

Steiner turned around and faced the changeling that had caused the injury, his small horn still smoking from the shot. The unicorn pony took out an orange can of soda and shook it up rapidly with his horn, thousands of micro vibrations per second agitated the soda, which was intentionally over-carbonated. The can swelled slightly from the building pressure, and then Steiner launched it with a magic toss. It hit the ground in front of the changeling, and the impact caused the seal on the can to burst. An orange flavored explosion consumed the hapless the changeling and tossed him to the ground furiously.

By now the ponies were caught in a furious melee with their enemies, as they had overtaken them. Techorse delivered a fierce punch with his robotic fists into a changeling's side, knocking him down just as another one pounced him from behind. Shadow Breeze's amulet fired off a ball of energy, which immediately turned into a cartoonish bomb that rolled along the ground, sparking with intent as it made its way into an attacking group and exploded with a sharp bang, sending two more of the enemy flying like they were thrown toys.

"Woah, I didn't know you could do that!" awed Techorse, looking at the tiny crater left by the blast.

"Yeah, it's what happens when I discharge all of my amulet's energy at once. I call it the shadow bomb," he said, smirking.

Techorse ducked a swing from a changeling's leg and returned fire with a blast from his lasers.

"Let's fall back to the rocks!" shouted Steiner over the sounds of blasts, "We'll be able to fight hem on our own terms!"

The three friends ran away, through the gap in the enemy's ranks left by the shadow grenade. The changelings who weren't unconscious, roughly 18 of them, followed them back into the rock field.
As they retreated, Techorse activated his homing beacon. He knew that there was no way he or his friends were going to evade capture. If the signal made it through to Twilight though, there was a chance she could come up with a plan to help save them and Razor too.

---

The small radio started to beep loudly, and Twilight's ears drooped as she picked up the device from a small table in the throne room.

"Oh no," she said sadly, "Techorse activated the homing beacon. Something's happened."

"What? What's happened!" demanded Pinkie Pie, jumping up and down next to Twilight.

The radio device displayed a small message in red letters across its screen:

"We're under attack. Too many of them. Will be captured. Send help."

"The boys have run into trouble," stated Twilight, "it looks like the option for peace is out the window now."

"So to war it is!" said Arbiter, bearing his teeth, "Let's get the guards outfitted with their armor, spears and swords. We'll get Razor back, one way or another."

Twilight really didn't want to see that kind of a terrible thing happening to Equestria, and the look on Princess Celestia's face indicated that too. They stared at each other for a few seconds to try and formulate a plan that would avoid terrible conflict.

Pinkie Pie, however, had a small splinter of inspiration in her mind. It was a very sneaky, silly idea. But it might be something that would both avoid a war, and rescue their friends, while at the same time providing Arbiter a chance to defend them if necessary.

"I've got an idea!" she announced cheerfully, giving the other ponies in a room a broad smile, "But we're gonna need Rarity for this one! It's a really good secret mission!"

"What did you have in mind, Pinkie Pie?" asked a curious Princess Celestia.

The pink colored mare jittered with excitement, and then laid out her plan in great detail. As Arbiter listened, his eyes widened in surprise at just how intricate and tactical, yet completely idiotic the plan was. Still, Pinkie Pie's idea would mean very little risk to the stallions under his leadership, and he owed it to them and their families to carry through with Pinkie's plan.

---

Techorse heard his last reload spin into place, the final two missiles out of ten he had stocked in his saddle. Fifteen minutes of fighting had resulted in a destroyed laser cannon, several burns from the changeling's magic blast, and a saddle that threatened to overheat at any time. He fired the last pair of rockets, which narrowly missed one of the six remaining changelings. His other friends were running out supplies too, Steiner was out of sodas, and Shadow Breeze's amulet was failing to hold enough of a charge to launch a bomb.

Two of the still fighting changelings opened their mouths and lifted their forked tongues. A pair of streams of green goop shot out from tubes underneath their tongues, emptying themselves onto poor Steiner. The unicorn was glued firmly to the ground, green slime sticking to his legs and coat.

"Euuuuugh!" he cried, disgusted by what the changelings had done to him.

Shadow Breeze flapped his wings, and flew high up into the air, before dropping himself down on one of the spitting foes. In response, another one of the changelings to the right spat the contents of his goop glands all over Shadow Breeze, kicking him over and cementing him in place. Techorse attempted to resist the tactic with his remaining laser cannon, but a magical blast blew off the other metal barrel before he could even get off a shot. The spy brushed a wisp of smoke from his own horn, and then promptly spewed his goop on the inventor.

Soon reinforcements arrived, and they in turn finished what the spy and his team had started. Techorse and his friends found themselves cocooned, and were carried off along with the injured changelings back into the hive. They said nothing, figuring their small prisons could not allow sound to escape, as no light could enter the dried goop had been piled up so thick.

---

A small eternity seemed to pass for Techorse until he began to see a small fissure appear in the wall of the structure he was trapped inside of. The container was being opened by its own power, apparently the structure was only a temporary prison.

Shadow Breeze squinted as his eyes tried to adjust to the lights inside the hive. He and his friends had been stuck in some kind of prison cell based on the metal bars in front of him, but the rest of the room just appeared to be a reddish stone, a clue that iron composed a lot of the mountain. The three collected themselves and let their eyes fully adjust to the light before they started talking to each other, rather glum about their being captured.

"Oh, I'm so sorry about all this," said Shadow Breeze sadly, "I just wanted this to be peaceful. Now we're going to have horrible things done to us!"

Steiner nodded, "Chrysalis is going to pick something horrible for us, I just know it. But what will it be?"

"She'll probably make us into pony salad sandwiches!" cried Shadow Breeze.

Steiner added, "Or turn us into matching designer hoofbags!"

"Guys, relax!" laughed Techorse, "Changelings are herbivores just like us, Shadow. And could you even imagine Queen Chrysalis with a purse, Steiner?"

"I guess that is a bit silly," giggled the stallion, "guess we're all still a bit scared."

Techorse admitted, "Me too."

The bars on the small prison cell were grinding open slowly, and a changeling appeared before them, keys still on his left leg. It was rusty, who dropped the key ring to the ground and allowed the three ponies to exit the cell. They were surprised at their sudden release by this unknown visitor, but Shadow Breeze accepted the token.

"Thanks for letting us out," he said to Rusty.

The other two ponies shook their tails out of the leftover dried goop crusted on them. They then turned their attentions to Rusty and noted that they hadn't seen him before.

"You're quite welcome," answered the servant to Shadow Breeze, "my name is Rusty. I am Queen Chrysalis' servant and housekeeper."

"So you're the butler?" asked Steiner.

"I guess you could call it that, but I'm more of a trusted advisor," he explained with a noticeably happy tone, "The Queen frequently tells me everything."

Steiner, however, noticed that the cell door was still open. He didn't waste any time, and immediately pounced on Rusty, his hat falling off his head. A tan hoof was raised to strike.

"Wait! Stop!" the mortified servant begged, "Please don't hurt me, I just want to talk!"

"Steiner, he came alone and released all of us," said Techorse desperately, "he outnumbered himself on purpose to try and gain a little trust."

"But we can't trust them, remember what that one said earlier?" reminded Steiner, sarcasm in his voice.

"Cloak is not as understanding as I am!" panicked Rusty, "I swear I'm telling the truth, please! I want to see Razor let go, maybe for a different reason than you ponies, but still…"

Steiner got off of Rusty, and the changeling carefully put his hat back on and stood up.

"All right," said Techorse, "tell us why you want to help us."

"Well, you see, Queen Chrysalis isn't exactly the original queen of this hive," he said, still shaky from the scare Steiner had given him, "A long time ago, a different king and queen ruled our hive, and they were terrible to their subjects. Often we went cold or hungry. Queen Chrysalis started as the daughter of a pair of changelings who had gotten fed up with the old king and queen's rule, and decided to break the ultimate rule."

"What's the 'ultimate rule'?" asked Shadow Breeze, tilting his head in confusion.

Rusty swallowed hard and continued, "Changeling kings and queens, as you might notice, are larger and stronger than an ordinary changeling. To become that, they are fed a concoction of chemicals made from flowers from a hooful of ancient sites known only to us. This special thick potion is called royal jelly, and it's highly illegal to make it if you're not the king or queen. This is how the royal family continues its line, by feeding their offspring royal jelly generation after generation!"

"So it's a mutagen," mused Techorse, putting a hoof to his chin in thought.

"Muta-what?" asked Rusty.

"A mutagen. It's a chemical that mutates living things' DNA. Changelings must have their DNA mutated in order to grow as large as Chrysalis has." He explained, "So I'm guessing that her parents must have snuck her out to the flower fields and fed her the jelly!"

"Exactly," nodded Rusty, "soon Chrysalis grew big and strong, and ousted the tyrannical king and queen. But, before she defeated them, the old king and queen zapped her parents with some kind of magic that transported them to an unknown area in the world. Chrysalis searched for years but could never find her mom or dad. So she treats us like family, caring for us and trying to fill our needs for love and food."

Steiner's ears sank back, and his eyes fell in pity.

"That's quite sad," he admitted.

"You have to understand that Chrysalis is only looking out for our best interests," he said, "I care about her very much, in fact, I may be her only true friend. "

"Even so, ponies don't like getting fed off of," said Techorse.

"No offense, but you seemed like an easy target, and the Queen wanted more love available for us," Rusty explained.

"I can't necessarily blame you. You need that emotional energy to process your food and survive,” Techorse continued, "But Razor's idea is to simply have you earn it rather than rip it away from us. It's less damaging to both parties."

"I know that," grunted Rusty, "but my Queen does not know that. She's hurt, and she's willing to do anything to care for us while satisfying that pain from her parents being lost."

Shadow Breeze smiled as he understood and said, "So that's why you wanted to help. You believe we can help you explain that to Chrysalis, so that she'll let Razor go."

"Well, no," said Rusty, laughing nervously, "see, there's this one little part that I don't think any of you will like, but is necessary for all this to work."

"What's that?" asked Shadow Breeze.

Rusty took a deep breath, and then let out the bad news, "Razor's model is to have us be willingly given our love and emotional energy, right?"

"Right…" trailed the three ponies, having a small clue as to where this was going.

"Well…" continued Rusty, "In order for this to work, you kind of have to let Queen Chrysalis feed off of you."

Shadow Breeze's eyes widened in terror, and he nearly fainted from the statement. Techorse felt his heart skip a beat, but soon it turned out to just be racing out of fear. Steiner's blood ran cold, knowing exactly what that meant.

"Wh-what?" he asked, shocked.

"Don't panic!" said Rusty, waving a right leg and frowning, hoping to calm down the ponies, "If you willingly give Chrysalis some love so she can eat today, it will prove to her that Razor was right and that his system works. Maybe then we can come to some kind of peace agreement."

The ponies were still mortified at the thought. They had seen some of the victims from the attack on Canterlot. They had gaunt faces, trembled in fear constantly, and had required weeks of therapy to return to normal. Even then they still felt as if they could never trust another pony until they had made dead sure they were actually a pony and not a changeling in disguise. The toll of being fed on was enormous if the subject was drained dry. Being unable to show love or happiness was costly to a pony, who absolutely needed those emotions to stay sane.

Shadow Breeze nonetheless, was a diplomat, and sometimes creating peace meant making a big sacrifice.

So he said to Rusty, "I'll do it."

His friends looked at him like he was crazy at first, but eventually realized there was no other way around it, and joined him.

Rusty led them out of the cell, and towards the throne room. As they walked through the halls, Techorse asked,

"Why didn't you join Razor's colony? You seem nice, Rusty."

He answered, "I honestly do care about Chrysalis. We knew each other growing up, and although everything changed when everything unfolded, I still want to be a friend to her."

Techorse nodded and knew Rusty was telling the truth.

---

When they entered the throne room, it had been changed significantly since the away team had left to capture the ponies. Decorative lamps and tables had been set up, filled with plates of fresh fruit and juice to drink in bright chalices. Queen Chrysalis got up from her seat and welcomed in her new guests.

"Ah, so you must be the three stallions I've been told about," she snickered, "I expected more out of Techorse, the supposed hero who defeated the Wizard. You managed to put several of my own in the medical room of the hive, but were beaten with just our goop."

"How did you know about me and Wizard?" demanded a shocked Techorse.

"Oh please," she answered, snarking, "when my soldiers reported a pony with a magic saddle, I remembered the stories from other ponies about a hero named Techorse. These must be your friends Steiner and Shadow Breeze."

"That's right your majesty," answered Shadow Breeze.

"How polite," She mused, enjoying her success far too much.

"Um, ma'am, the ponies have something for you," he said, nudging Techorse who was between his two companions, "This is part two of your surprise. The fresh fruit was only a little piece."

"Do go on," She said, bearing her fangs.

"Well, Queen Chrysalis," said Techorse, "we want to give you some emotional energy so you can enjoy that fruit."

"Hmmm?" she asked, teasing him with a little smile and a fluff of her turquoise hair.

"We want you to be able to feed off of us," explained Shadow Breeze, "if you take just a little bit from each of us, it won't hurt us, and you'll be able to digest the food Rusty brought you."

Queen Chrysalis raised her long neck, and asked in surprise, "You're joking, right? No screaming or begging for mercy?"

"None," said Steiner, trying not to grind his teeth.

"You see, Razor thinks all changelings could get their needs willingly from ponies. We're trying to prove that it's true by offering you some of ours for free," explained Techorse.

"And you think I'm going to let him go just for one little feeding?" she answered, scoffing, "What sense does that make?"

Shadow Breeze began to get nervous again, and his heart pounded away in his chest as he saw Chrysalis bear her fangs. He was sure any second now she was going to sink them into his neck.

"You are my prisoners, and I plan on allowing you to go if and only if Razor and his followers come back to my hive," she said, "there will be no compromises or deals."

"Your majesty!" interrupted Rusty sharply, gaining her attention, "If you take their offer, it's more likely Razor's followers will come back. Keeping them here will only make them resist further. Don't you want them back?"

"I do," she said, calming down.

The changeling queen realized that Rusty was reminding her of her original plan, "I will feed on you three, as you offer. Then, I will send Razor out instead of you. He will go back to his camp and bring his followers back, and then I will release you."

"So you won't squish him?" asked Shadow Breeze.

"No. I will allow him back into our society. I care too much for my children," she answered, "now come closer, and turn around."

The three ponies looked at each other nervously, but obeyed the command. Chrysalis bore her fangs, and then lightly clamped onto the back of each pony's neck. The teeth were far too blunt to pierce their skin, but when she grabbed onto them, her horn glowed as small amounts of energy left the ponies and entered her mouth. Soon she had gotten what she had wanted from all three of them, leaving them feeling slightly tired, but in very good shape. Chrysalis proceeded to dig into the oranges, grapes, and other assorted fruits given to her by Rusty. Once she had finished her meal, she felt far more energetic, and thankfully less cranky.

"That wasn't so bad," sighed Techorse, "couple of minutes and I'll be normal again."

"Define normal," said Steiner.

"Let's uphold our end of the bargain," stated Chrysalis, "Rusty, release Razor and give him his instructions."

Rusty nodded and moved over to a large green pod of goop in the corner of the throne room. Using a quick spell, he cleaved the surface of the pod, and a stunned Razor tumbled out. He slowly regained his footing from his temporary coma induced by being in the pod, and realized he was in front of Techorse.

"Techorse?" he asked, groggy, "You came for me?"

"Yeah," was his sleepy reply, "You're free now."

"I don't know what to say," he continued, touched that he was loved enough to be rescued.

"Razor, you need to go back home and tell your friends to come back. They will not be harmed," said Rusty, pointing at the door, "these ponies are staying until all of you are back. That is the deal."

Razor frowned, his eyes sunk, "Oh… I see. Thanks for saving my life anyways, Techorse. Since we'll be going back to stealing our love, I sure hope to not have to fight you some day. If we do, take it easy on me."

Techorse tried his hardest not to cry as Razor hung his head and slowly left the room.

Steiner looked at the miserable expressions on his friends' faces.

He was fed up with everything he had heard and lost it, yelling at Chrysalis, "You're a monster! We proved to you that our love was earnable and peace was possible. Now you're going to make Razor go back to a life he finds detestable?"

"Rusty, let's follow Razor and find the hive," she said, ignoring him, "we're going to force him to come back so I can get rid of these three pests. In fact, let's bring them with us. I'm getting tired of all this."

"Yes ma'am," he answered, following her out of the room. Before he completely exited, he said to the three quietly, "I'm sorry…"

Two female changeling guards, each one armored and carrying spears, forced the stallions to follow along.

---

Chrysalis, Rusty, Cloak, and a detachment of twenty troops both male and female left the hive and moved for the river. They spotted Razor by one of the bends of the large river, staring at a big wooden object. When they landed near him, they looked in awe at what they were seeing.
It was a large wooden age of sail ship, four decks high and a hundred feet long. Cannons and barrels dotted the top deck, and two masts bore huge canvas sails that caught the wind and pulled the ship down the river. Clearly it had been taken from the shipyard in the mountains, but the hive's troops had never found it. The ponies manning the ship, Celestia's guards in disguise, were wearing fake clip on gold earrings, and wore red and blue striped bandannas on their heads, as well as brown leather jackets and canvas clothing.

Chrysalis made her disgust clear, "Pirates? Seriously?"

A rope swung down from the crow's nest of the ship, and a disguised Captain Arbiter, dressed up in his old pirate costume Pinkie Pie had given him earlier, dropped down, landing in front of all the changelings on the bank of the river. The ship had laid anchor, and a boarding ramp of oak wood was being lowered down by the disguised guards.

"Yar!" exclaimed Arbiter, his eyepatch clearly helping his disguise, "I be the dreaded pirate, Captain Arrrrbiter!"

"I didn't know there were pirates anymore," mused Chrysalis, suspecting something, but she played along anyways as her troops assembled in front of her, "sadly boys, we're fresh out of gold coins and buried treasure. Go look elsewhere."

Arbiter looked directly at Techorse, who recoiled slightly when he recognized him. The Captain would have winked at him if the fact that he only had one eye made it indistinguishable from blinking.

Razor mouthed the words "what the?" as Arbiter continued, "We're already loaded up with treasure miss, but we'd like to consider something. It turns out that changeling right there in front of ye, his home is right on top of me great granddaddy's treasure the great captain chromabeard!"

"Is that so?" Said Chrysalis, swishing her tail.

The royal guards had assembled to the sides of arbiter. Five barrels had been rolled out along with them, and for some reason, they required holes in them. The queen noticed the barrels and knew that something had to be up. She hadn't even asked for something in the potential trade yet.

"As it turns out scurvy breath, we were on our way to that housing," she said to Arbiter, "you can have the treasure, we only want the residents."

"That'll never do miss. I promised grand pappy I would never harm a hair on the mane of anypony living on that treasure," he said, a floating metal gauntlet emerged from his side and grabbed his tricorne hat, which he held to his heart.

"How devoted," she said, "but nonetheless, you will be aiding us in retrieving the other changelings on that property."

"You dare challenge me?" he yelled at her, drawing his sword from his sheath. The changelings got ready to attack, as did the royal guards.

"Look, we know you're not really pirates," said Chrysalis, "this is ridiculous. Pirates haven't been around for years, your ship clearly has a motor on the back of it, and furthermore your crew's medical conditions are too good. So who are you?"

The barrels started to shake, and the royal guards nearby backed away as they exploded into splinters. In their place stood Twilight, Nectar, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity.

Chrysalis shouted, "Twilight Sparkle!"

Techorse and his friend smiled at the mares, and Shadow's amulet glowed. Turning around, he quickly blasted the two changeling guards behind them with a shadow grenade, sending them careening away and freeing them.

The purple unicorn glared angrily at her enemy, and lowered her horn, firing off a bolt of magical energy. Chrysalis spread her wings and took off into the air to avoid it. The others all attacked the other changelings, and along with the royal guards, started to give them a sound beating.

Twilight and the Queen separated themselves from the rest of the group and began to fight.

Chrysalis said to her while hovering in the air, "I don't know how you got these mercenaries to fight for just your friends, but it matters little now."

"Good," thought Twilight, "she still doesn't know they're the royal guard."

Chrysalis' scythe like horn glowed furiously as she fired a solid ray of energy at Twilight. She teleported away from the blast behind Chrysalis, narrowly avoiding the stream of light that left a scorching mark in the ground. Twilight fired her magic missile attack, and an elongated projectile of explosive magic struck Chrysalis in the left set of wings, exploding and sending her to the ground screaming. When she recovered from the attack, she angrily charged up a red ray and shot it at Twilight. This time she was unable to teleport away in time, and a bubble of light surrounded her. Chrysalis turned her head back, and Twilight was dragged through the air like a ragdoll. She then flicked her horn forward, and released the spell. Poor Twilight was flung through the air, yelling in terror as she cleared a nearby cliff.

"TWILIGHT!" shouted the other girls in unison.

The changelings took this loss of morale to their advantage, and the pirate-themed guards slowly began to lose the hoof to hoof fight. Chrysalis nursed her injured wing with her teeth, and watched as her children started to win the fight for her.

Twilight landed in the swamp miles away from the action, thankfully she was able to land in a soft patch of marsh to cushion her fall. The slightly shocked mare dragged herself out of the water, and laid her muddy head on the ground, panting as she tried to regain her breath. It was then out of the corner of her eye that she noticed a plant. A very familiar plant that happened to only grow in bog soil, bearing a blue pod facing the sky. Twilight looked at the plant, and she knew exactly what she could do to end this conflict.

---

Chrysalis laughed heartily as Pinkie Pie was pinned down by a pair of changelings. She tried not to scream, and sweated nervously. Shadow Breeze and Fluttershy had also been surrounded, and Techorse found himself trapped with Rarity and Steiner as well. Arbiter had been pushed backed along with his stallions back near the ship, unable to assist their friends.

"It's all over!" said Chrysalis, aiming her horn at the ship, "Once I smash this boat, they'll all be crushed by the pieces!"

"Hold it right there, Chrysalis!" said a voice behind her.

Chrysalis turned to see Twilight standing on top of a boulder.

"Ah, back for more punishment?" she cackled, charging up to attack Twilight instead.

Twilight quickly moved the plant she had taken from the swamp out from behind the boulder, and dropped it in front of herself with a hoof. It was a blue swampland flytrap, snapping furiously from being taken from its home.

The lavender mare then, with a quick flash from her horn, shot it with a growth spell. Immediately the small plant grew into a twenty foot tall monster, and Twilight jumped on its head. The mighty plant, now with roots big enough to stay mobile and a trap large enough to crunch anything, looked around with its limited senses before letting out a screech that caused everyone to stop fighting and look at the plant.

The swampland flytrap had a small bit of loyalty to Twilight thanks to her improvements in her magic, but more importantly, it was loyal to its hunger and need for nutrients.

Of course, it immediately figured out exactly what it wanted to eat. It wanted nothing more than the biggest, juiciest bug it could find, and the largest thing closest to that was right in front of it!
The plant opened its jaws and lunged for Chrysalis, who screamed and attempted to fly away from the plant. A vine shot out from the massive stem, and entangled the Queen, who cried out in terror as the carnivorous plant flipped her into his mouth and snapped its jaws hard. Chrysalis was unceremoniously swallowed whole by the magically grown plant, just as members of its species had done to Twilight more than a year ago.

Rusty cringed as he watched this happen, and the blue headed swampland flytrap laid down to rest, as it did whenever it engorged itself.

Steiner turned to Shadow Breeze and said slowly, "I… I changed my mind. Plants are pretty cool."

The changelings though, immediately fell to despair and approached Twilight, dropping their weapons and folding their wings humbly. They knew it was over, and carrying on the fight wouldn't do any good without their leader.

"Oh no!" said Rusty, running up to the plant, "Please! Twilight Sparkle, let our Queen go! She doesn't deserve this."

"That's debatable," muttered Arbiter, who was immediately hit in the gut by Rarity.

Twilight pointed with a leg at Rusty and said, "If you let Razor go and promise to never bother his hive again, if you all sign a treaty ensuring that, then I'll get this plant to let Chrysalis go."

"Done!" exclaimed Rusty.

With that, Twilight cast another spell on the plant, and it coughed up Chrysalis, who was traumatized but still alive and well to some degree. The flytrap shrank back to its natural size, and seemed to make a little sighing noise from exhaustion.

"Rusty… I suppose I should thank you," the Queen said, standing up, "I honestly thought Twilight Sparkle had finished me."

"I wouldn't allow that," he said, comforting her.

"Queen Chrysalis," said Twilight, getting her to turn around, "I know this whole thing was over wanting to get Razor's colony back, since I remember you mentioning how much you cared about all your changelings. If you really cared though, wouldn't you want them to live how they wanted to?"

Chrysalis hated to admit it, but Twilight was right, "You'd be correct. With that, I've decided that Razor and his followers may come and go as they please from my castle. The only provision I'm making is no longer treating them as traitors. I'm not signing any treaty, and I value Rusty for how good he is about lying to help me."

"Well it's better than nothing," sighed Techorse.

"Let's depart then," Chrysalis demanded of her troops, "we'll probably meet again Twilight Sparkle. But next time, you'll be on my dinner plate."

"I'm sure of it..." she said, rolling her eyes and shaking her head.

---

The old hive left the friends, going back to the cave to pack up their gear and headed home. Twilight and company returned back to Ponyville along with Nectar and Razor, who decided to visit for a short while at Techorse's castle. All of the friends met outside of Steiner's shop, it was late at night, but the shop at least provided a nice place to talk.

"Thank you so much for helping to save me, Nectar." Said Razor, looking into her eyes, "How can I repay you?"

"Well for starters, a dinner together might be nice!" she said, "I can't drop hints anymore, Razor, I care about you."

"Oh!" he said, blushing, "Well, ok! We can go get dinner together in Ponyville tomorrow evening."
Pinkie Pie laughed as Steiner served everyone in the drink shop a fresh cold root beer, "Nice choice of reward, Nectar."

"I have to thank you girls for saving us too," said Shadow Breeze, playing with his filled mug, "especially you Fluttershy. You even helped me keep the plant!"

Shadow Breeze pointed with a wing to a terracotta pot, with the blue swampland flytrap in it, its leaves stretched out towards the artificial light in the store, and its trap curled into what Twilight could swear was a smile.

"Oh, you're welcome," she answered meekly, "I think those plants could make good pets when they're kept under control. You'll take care of him, right?"

"Of course!" he answered, "I'll even let it outside twice a day to catch insects. Would you like to meet at the garden shop to help me pick out a decoration for the flower pot?"

"I'd love to!" she answered, smiling.

Techorse turned to Twilight and smiled at her, "I guess everything turned out in the end. Hopefully what I told you about Chrysalis from Rusty made sense."

"It did, and I've already sent a letter to the Princess about what we've all learned," she said, "sometimes we don't always know the truth about why others act the way they do. We shouldn't feel bitter, just in case it turns out they have it much worse than we do."

"That's a very good lesson to learn," said Rarity, "it's good to be thankful for what we have."

"Yeah, like free root beers!" cheered Pinkie Pie.

The friends laughed at the joke, which lightened the mood and lifted their spirits. Razor's colony was now safe to continue life out from under Chrysalis's rule, but many of them would still visit, which seemed to satisfy the Queen's need to help the other changelings. It was up to the future to determine if they would end up in conflict with the ponies again. But for now, peace was present, and that was all that mattered.