When the Mask Falls

by StarChaser01

Chapter 1: Interrogations

Slasher’s head hurt.

That was the first thing he noticed. The second was that he was undisguised, the third that his head really hurt, the fourth was that there was the sound of metal clinking when he moved, the fifth was that this was most definitely NOT the hive or his bed, and finally his head hurt too much to count past five, which was saying something considering that his pony job involved numbers.

FIghting past the pain he managed to open eyes and immediately regretted it as his headache only got worse, causing him to groan.

“Well look who finally decided to wake up.” A voice sneered not too far away, “Wakey wakey little bug.”

Slasher tried to reply with something clever, but the only thing that came out was another groan.

“GET UP!” A second voice shouted as a hoof kicked him in the chest.

Slasher cried out in pain as he felt his chitin crack slightly from the blow as he rolled on his side, his vision threatening to go dark on him again.

“Now now, no need to kick the prisoner,” the first voice said, “there’ll be plenty of time for that after we get some information out of it.”

“Could you two PLEASE not injure my patient further?” Came a third, annoyed voice from his other side.

Cracking his eyes open, Slasher saw that he was in a windowless cell, chained to the floor, with two Royal guards in front of him, and he could sense a third pony behind him.

“Honestly,” the voice behind him said as he felt the telltale tingles of scanning magic “it’s almost as if you two DON’T want to get anything from her.”

‘Her?’ Slasher thought, ‘Oh yeah, anyone not knowing our biology could easily mistake us all for females.’

“I’m not female” Slasher groaned out before coughing, hoping that the doctor/medic would hear.

“Oh? Then explain the lack of male genitalia.” Came the interested voice of his healer.

“Internal” he groaned as he felt his chitin being slid back into place, like a broken bone being set.

“Interesting... I assume that’s so you can disguise as either gender?”

“Partialy”

‘Just keep talking, talking’s good, talking means not passing out and not getting beaten up any more. Just stay useful to them.’ Slasher reassured himself.

“Wow, that’s SO interesting.” Guard 1 said, sarcasm obvious in his voice.

“We know next to nothing about Changelings, any info we can get can be useful” ‘Doc’ snapped back at G1 before asking Slasher another question “A number of jars full of some sort of gel where found in the cellar of the pony you replaced. Care to tell us their function?”

“I didn’t replace anyone, Hard Light is an identity I created years ago.” Slasher replied angrily before answering the question “and that gel contains emotional energy.”

“DON’T LIE TO US! WE KNOW YOU INSECTS CAPTURE PONIES AND IMPERSONATE THEM TO DRAIN THEIR LOVED ONES! NOW TELL US WHERE THE REAL HARD LIGHT IS!” Guard 2 snapped, surprising amounts of anger flaring from him as he did so.

Had Slasher been an Infiltrator, a Gatherer, or even had some warning, he would have been able to prevent his own emotions from being affected by the sudden surge in rage and hatred.

“Go buck yourself! Here I am, not having gotten a decent night’s sleep in a WEEK, chained to the bucking floor, wearing a useless inhibitor ring that’s giving me a headache that can give TARTARUS a run for it’s bits, being kicked with enough force to BREAK MY EXOSKELETON for doing NOTHING! The only reason why I’m answering your questions as nicely as I am is because I was ordered by my Queen to do so!” Slasher snapped “I’m tired, hungry, and in pain. So you can just BUCK OFF!”

“AND WHY WOULD CHRYSALIS WANT YOU TO ANSWER OUR QUESTIONS?!?” G1 shot back.

“THAT TRAITOROUS SLUG IS NOT MY QUEEN!”

The ponies all froze.

“What?” ‘Doc’ asked, stunned.

“Chrysalis is a traitor to her own kind. She broke the two biggest laws we have between our hives: ‘Don’t reveal Changelings to other species as a whole’ and ‘if the reveal is unavoidable, do so in a peaceful fashion’. These laws are to ensure the continued survival of our species, and that SLUG is guilty of treason for breaking them. Death is too good for her now.”

Silence reigned for a good minute before ‘Doc’, bless him, broke the silence.

“Chrysalis isn’t your Queen?”

“I thought I just made that clear. No, Chrysalis is NOT my Queen, Coleoptera is. We don’t even have the same prefered emotion.”

“You don’t? What is your prefered emotion?”

“No, we don’t. And you don’t have a word for my hive’s preferred emotion in your language.”

“Well, what’s the closest translation then?”

Slasher had to think on this one for a bit. “The closest words would be either ‘Love’ or ‘Friendship’.”

“And that’s different from what Chrysalis’s, hive, feed on how?” G1 asked, seemingly torn between anger and curiosity, which was almost in enough concentration for Slasher to passively feed upon.

“HER hive’s prefered emotion is, or was, depends on if that wave wiped them out or not, more of a romantic love,” here he said a word in Changelish, “while my hive prefers love more of as a friend, rather than a significant other.”

“What was that you said? That... chitter?” ‘Doc’ asked while what sounded like a quill on paper came from behind him.

“It was the word in, Changelish, for the emotion that HER hive prefered.” Slasher responded, hesitating as he had to throw together a new word to describe the Changeling language.

“So, you’re bilingual then? Are all Changelings bilingual?” ‘Doc’ asked, still writing what Slasher assumed were notes.

“Yeah, I have to be in order to have any chance of blending in. And no, not all Changelings are bilingual. Only those who have to interact with those outside of the hive are required to be bilingual.”

“I see...” ‘Doc’ muttered as he continued to write in silence for a few seconds.

“So Doc, how badly beat up am I?” Slasher broke the silence, surprising the guards with his question.

“We’re the one’s asking the questions prisoner.” G1 said, with only a hint of anger in his voice.

“No, it’s okay, he does deserve to know his own condition.” ‘Doc’ replied back, almost absentmindedly, “and the back of your head has quite a few cracks along it, as does your barrel where the Captain kicked you.”

‘Wait, ‘Captain’? As in Captain Shining Armor? The one whose wedding took place the day of the invasion? That... explains the amount of hate radiating off of him.’

“Yeah, for a Unicorn he’s got one heck of a kick.” Slasher chuckled weakly, quickly regretting it as his chest hurt from the action.

“It’s not a good idea to insult him, especially when he’s in the room.” ‘Doc’ advised as Shining's glare increased in intensity.

“I wasn’t insulting him, I was complimenting him on how strong his kick was. To be able to crack the shell of a Solder class Changeling in one blow is quite the feat.” Slasher replied honestly.

“Solder class? Could you explain these, ‘classes’?” ‘Doc’ asked, trying to steer the discussion in a less dangerous direction.

“Sure, I could explain the different classes to you, you’ve got clearance from my Queen.” Slasher replied with a bit of a grin.

After waiting for a few seconds, ‘Doc’ groaned and asked “Will you explain the different Changeling classes to us at this point in time?”

“Fine, ruin my fun why don’t you? When a Changeling hatches from their egg, they are referred to as a ‘Nymph’ or a ‘Grub’, sort of like ‘Child’ or ‘Kid’ in your language. As they grow, they’ll develop into one of the following classes: ‘Infiltrator’, ‘Gatherer’, ‘Solder’, ‘Drone’, or, if one of their parents is one, ‘Princess’. These classes aren’t fixed, however, as it’s quite common to have something who fits into multiple classes. For example, my mother is an Agent, an Infiltrator/Solder mix. Most of these classes are self-explanatory for the most part. Any questions?”

“What do you mean by ‘Princess’?” G1 asked, anger almost gone.

“Well, while there can only be one Queen per hive, there can be multiple Changelings per hive that physically can be considered a Queen. They are the rarest class, and are just below the Queen politically. Think of them as the royals or nobles of Equestrian society.”

‘How many pages does that pony have?’ Slasher thought to himself as ‘Doc’ continued writing.

“What other... mixed classes are there?” G1 asked when ‘Doc’ failed to ask a question.

“Well, there are ‘Harvesters’, ‘Agents’, ‘Spies’, and ‘Elites’. Please note that the names only a ‘best fit’ due to Equestrian not having the correct words. Other mixes exist but don’t have specific titles to go with them, for various reasons.”

“Such as?” ‘Doc’ asked.

“Such as what?” Slasher asked, confused.

“What are some of those reasons?”

“Ah. Think about this, what would you call a Gatherer/Drone mix? Dones, for the most part, lack the specialization that a Gatherer needs to do their job.”

“Sounds like Drones get the short end of the stick.” G1 muttered.

“Not as much as you would think,” Slasher pointed out. “Drones keep the hive running. They are the builders, the bakers, the everyday individual. Without them, the hive would quite literally fall apart.”

“Well, this is interesting” A new voice said from behind the guards.

“Your Majesty!” The three ponies said as they bowed to somepony just out of Slasher’s sight.

“At ease,” the voice said as princess Luna walked into view “We have come to see the prisoner with Our own eyes, and from what We have seen, they belong in a hospital bed, not a dungeon cell.”

“But, but” Shining stammered.

“Forgive me if I don’t bow your Highness, but I’m in too much pain to move right now.” Slasher said from his spot on the floor.

“Thy transgression can be forgiven for now,” Luna commented as a touch of amusement floated off her. “Interrogator, what hast thou discovered?”

‘Interrogator? THIS was an interrogation? I was expecting more bright lights, a table, and food just out of reach.’

“Well your Majesty, the subject has been quite cooperative, however many of their claims have yet to be supported by outside evidence.” ‘Doc’ said “I can have a full report to you within the hour.”

“See that thy do so, We must depart to perform Our duties. See to it that the prisoner has something to lay on that won’t aggravate their injuries. It wouldn’t do to cause unnecessary suffering to our source of information,” Luna declared, seeming to direct the last part at Shining whose anger flared slightly, before departing.

‘Doc’ and Shining left soon after, leaving Slasher with G1 who also exited the cell before locking the door behind him, staying about a leg’s length from the bars.

Closing his eyes, Slasher could feel his headache returning with a vengeance now that the distraction was gone.

‘As SOON as noone’s watching I’m shifting to an Earth pony to get this damn thing off me.’ He thought bitterly as he focused on G1’s emotional output, waiting for some sign that he was clear to do so, and to keep his mind off of his headache.

Author's Note:

Questions, comments, concerns go in the comment section as usual, you know the drill.

Comments

[Cross Lament]

I imagine Shining is going to be in for a bad day once someone reports his behaviour...

[StarChaser01]

7120362 Oh he will.

Especially when Cadance (Cadence?) finds out...