Gone Mustang

by BurningBright

Chapter Fifteen: Kicking The Hornets Nest

Aberration was joined by a hoof full of others, and waited cautiously for a little while longer. Her heart felt like it was in her mouth, where were the others? Did the queen know what they had planned? Had they been betrayed? Then one by one others stepped from the shadows, a trickle at first then more and more as time went on. Each one stepping up to a cocoon and preparing themselves for the inevitable.

Then as one the group reached out and tore open the cocoons . One by one the green pods burst and Changelings who would once have been nothing but mindless slaves liberated their former prey. The ponies milled about getting more confused and anxious by the moment. A few of the fillies and colts openly wept, uncertain as to what their fate would be.

Watching this from a refuge in the walls Dawn felt unsure what to do, these Hardshells were not like the others, their actions showed that more clearly than anything else could. But these ponies they sought to release seemed weakened. vulnerable from their time in the bubbles. Dawn remembered how little the prey she had taken from the pods had struggled when they had escaped then looking at these ponies she felt a pang of sympathy for them. Some of them looked to be little more than pups, they still had to escape the hive, and looking at them a huge number of them were little more than pups. Many of the others looked old or frail, and one even seemed to be expecting a pup of their own.

Escaping the hive would be a difficult enough task for most of them, looking at them carefully she realised something else, once they did escape they still had the great sands to contend with too. With that she realised that likely many of them would not survive the journey. At that she decided she would do what she could to help them.

The ponies were happy to be free but at a gesture from aberration they were quiet, they came to the realisation that they weren't free yet. Changelings slowly guided them down a side tunnel, the evacuation though was going to take time , and that was one resource that all of them could ill afford. The tunnels were narrow, built for one maybe two changelings to walk along side by side. The panicking escapees were many times that number, and in their eagerness to escape a few of them were starting to push, only hindering the escape further by turning the route into a bottleneck.

Then in the distance dawn heard a familiar noise, the guard had successfully changed early at Queen Chrysalises command, the heavy hoof steps of the larger hardshells were drawing closer. Instinct screamed at dawn to run away, get to cover and pretend not to have seen any of this. Dawn had other plans though, bucking stupid ones, but they were still plans. She was fast and the guards were anything but. Crushing down her need to flee she looked to the tunnel the guards were approaching from, took a deep breath, then started to run towards them.

Aberration was trying her best to keep the evacuation in order, the fact they could not speak Equestrian and had no infiltrators amongst their ranks though made this task much more difficult that it needed to be. She had just seen that filly again too, she was certain of it. Running down one of the side tunnels. Then her blood ran cold as a familiar screech was heard. Then everything became blurred as all Tartarus was let loose.

The scream of course had been the result of a certain earth pony filly, realising that no pony was getting away without a distraction, nonchalant as can be walking up to one of the guards before they could get close enough to the pod room to realise what was taking place. Booting him with both barrels in the thorax with all the strength she could muster. Then taking off down a tunnel as fast as her little legs could take her.

Well it was safe to say the captives, being ponies, flighty creatures at the best of times, were definitely moving now. A few of the more determined Pegasi were lingering behind, making sure the smaller ones were allowed through first. Ever faithful defenders of the herd. The others took off down the narrow tunnels as fast as their hooves could carry them. Unicorns sending a blast of magic back on occasion to deter pursuers. Meanwhile the earth ponies were simply running , heads held low. Any obstacle that got in the way of the stampeding herd soon figuring out that an earth ponies head backed by earth pony strength trying to clear the way was rather indistinguishable from a freight train moving as fast as it could go.

Meanwhile Dawn was making good her own escape, making sure to cause as much chaos as she could along the way. She had tunnels of her own everywhere these days, and she was unlikely to be using them again, after this, after all staying here at this point in time would be hazardous to her health. So she sprinted through the hatchery, screaming and bellowing as loudly as she could as she did so. Turning off down another one of her little tunnels at a full gallop.

Queen Chrysalis was enjoying her bath when all this started, reaching out she tried to work out what all the commotion was. Then just as she was getting out of the bath a scruffy little yellow pony fell through a hole in the ceiling, landing on her head, giving her a poke in the eye. Then taking off at a sprint for the surface.

Dawn heard the irate screech of an incredibly irate alpha, then pondered for a moment if maybe poking her in the eye had been a little bit of a bad idea as she noticed a huge chunk of wall beside her vanishing in a blast of green magic. Suddenly she felt a lot lighter as her body deciding that maybe hanging onto lunch wasn't so important right now, that brought her a few seconds too as the alpha skidded when her holed hoof suddenly skidded in a freshly laid pile of meadowmuffins.

Queen Chrysalis was by this point absolutely furious, not thinking of anything beyond punishing the interloper in her hive. She didn't even seem to notice that only three of her guards had joined her in the pursuit, the rest working hard to undo the havoc back at the hive. That little pony would pay for this.

Dawn ran as fast as she could, but this was sand and she was still only little so before she got too far she found herself unable to run away. So instead she dove into a fissure in the rocks, while all around her the guards searched.