Hive Versus Hive

by Impossible Numbers

The Rose-Coloured Ultimatum

Seabreeze waited until the guards prodded his wings with their tusks. It was stronger than prodding his back, as the wings felt every contour of the enamel, and could detect the minuscule slowing and shaking of the jab like pebbles on a mountain slope.

Grimly, he peered down the tube. Breezies didn’t bother with stairs and their ancestors had built straight, downward shafts, simply vertical corridors. He floated to the floor below, noticing as he did so the Flutter Pony guards poking their heads through the exit at the bottom. As soon as he touched down, they drew back and clicked and spat and hissed.

Why are they not sending me back to the honeycomb? Not that he wanted to get encased again, but he hated to think what kind of panic would be spreading through the others. He’d been gone a long time. Even Zephyrine might start to wonder how the Flutter Ponies had punished him, or if she was even going to see him again.

Seabreeze steeled himself with a deep breath.

Behind him, the two flanking guards crawled out of the tube and overtook him. They began a long, spitting talk with their comrades. Beyond them, the grand portal doors loomed, and Seabreeze recognized the seal on the front. A green clover stood out as a stained glass decoration, right down to its leafy veins. Breezies were good at getting the fine details on glasswork. Occasionally, the four guards glanced at him. Their eyes were wide.

Brusquely, the two newcomers swung their heads at him in a “this way” gesture. Shrugging, he flapped his wings and followed.

That Mole Cricket is not the only one getting spooked. Good. They ought to be frightened. I live here, and even I feel funny around the storage vaults.

He landed and stepped gingerly forwards. As he did so, he noticed a pair of guards watching him from each of the side tunnels. They’d been thorough, then; perhaps every vault in the labyrinth was under Flutter Pony control.

His two new followers peered closely at his wings, and he could feel their antennae darting to and fro. Well, they are right to be nervous, he thought darkly.

The guards stood in a semi-circle behind him, waiting for something. Not that it took much imagination to figure out what. Dents and scratches stood out on the door.

The fools! You do not hammer away at it! That is completely the wrong idea!

Feeling strangely cold inside, he stretched his wings forwards and caressed the grey sheen. Gently, he clambered up the glass – slipping once – to hang on to the clover’s leaves. Magic tingled through his extremities. A slight wind caressed the secret locks. Seabreeze gritted his teeth and concentrated.

At once, there was a click. The tingling faded. He dropped down and pushed hard with his head, and in spite of its initial defiant creak, the door swung back. Only a Breezie’s gentle touch, he thought smugly.

The door eased open, revealing beyond it the vast cave. Seabreeze didn’t dare look directly at it, but in any case he’d seen its like a dozen times before. It was simply a hole bored into the earth, with stalagmites and stalactites acting like columns around the edge. Lying in the centre was a vast, sparkling heap of what looked like golden dust.

“Is that all you want?” He rounded on the guards, who to his surprise drew back a step each. “There. You have found our magic pollen. Now can I see my family again?”

No sooner had he spoken, however, when the corridors spewed forth Flutter Ponies. He squealed and ducked as they shot over his head in a humming ceiling of yellow and black. Soon, the hive smothered the heap of pollen and wriggled and squirmed and crawled all over its slopes.

When he rose up again, the four guards were conversing with a fifth, who nodded and disappeared back down the corridors. Things were looking lively once more; the Flutter Ponies began crisscrossing the main chamber, and he guessed they were on all kinds of errands.

What have I done? he thought. They are looking at me with those wide eyes, and they back off when I snap. But no. They cannot be afraid of me, can they?

I wonder what they are talking about. They are making weird gestures like they are moving pieces in front of them, but then they gasp and chatter even more fiercely. I have done something in that game, but what exactly?

He turned back to watch the hive crawling over his food. Not that he was clueless about all the excitement between the guards, but they weren’t going to get any more help from him, and even if he wanted to talk to them, he wasn’t as fluent in Flutter Pony as Piffle.

Two more Flutter Ponies joined in the chatter behind him – he wished he could’ve told them apart – and then he felt a tap on his shoulder. One of the newcomers stepped back hurriedly when he turned around.

“Hello,” said the male Flutter Pony, tusks and teeth struggling over the syllables. He bowed his head hastily. “Big Breezie. It is an honour! I am Burningrose. I speak your language and I speak their language. We need to talk now.”

Seabreeze cocked his head and peeked at the four guards, who were huddling behind Burningrose as though he were a shield. Interesting. He skewed his lips into a smile, which made one of them step backwards.

“Did you learn to speak Breezie from Dragon Lily?” he said.

“No. I was her teacher. She started younger than I started.”

“What do you want?”

And now he was paying attention, he was starting to see differences in the Flutter Ponies crawling through the chamber. He spotted a wingless one scurrying along, and then later a pale one with no stripes or wings. Vaguely, he remembered Dragon Lily’s talk about different stages.

“The question,” said Burningrose, and here Seabreeze focused on his features and noticed a slight gleam on his mane, “is what do you want, Big Breezie? We are here to help you.”

“Help me? By invading my home and playing games with me? You must be” – he caught his tongue, stepped backwards, and smoothed down the storm on his face – “very confused. What is going on?”

The first two guards said something. Burningrose stepped aside to bring them into a triangle, and spittle and hisses went back and forth for a few seconds. Here and there, Seabreeze was sure he picked up words like “Vox” and “Dragon Lily” and “Fairy Ring”. All the Flutter Ponies present shuffled uncomfortably. Quietly, the two non-speaking guards detached themselves and hurried past him, but not without throwing a glance each. He noticed their brows were shiny.

Seabreeze’s… well, translator – he supposed the creature was his official translator now – turned to him. “My friends Confetti Cinders and Inferno want you to know that we mean no harm.”

In the vault, the buzzing and crackle of moving bodies was joined by the echoes of Flutter Pony conversation. Dragon Lily didn’t need a lot of witnesses, it seemed. He wondered how much the hive trusted each other’s gossip.

But then, he remembered Piffle once telling him how all the Flutter Ponies in their hive were sisters and brothers. The old Breezie had never found out who the parents were, or even if they had any. At the time, he’d laughed it off as traveller’s tales. Now…

The three in front of him were staring. Although their eyes were wide, he couldn’t help focusing on their tusks. Their sharp, suddenly far-too-long tusks.

Maybe now was a good time to give the “niceness” an airing.

“I want to know,” he said as politely as he dared, “just what you are doing here.”

Burningrose nodded. “We will show you more. Come with me.”

They went down the tunnel, one guard in front of him, one guard behind him, and Burningrose far out in front. Up ahead, he heard the thunder of some giant creature.

Flutter Ponies scattered about the next chamber, even crawling on the cave ceiling. Seabreeze turned to the new vault door, but the white mushroom symbol was untouched. Beside it, a gaping maw peered out onto darkness, and coming the other way –

Seabreeze averted his gaze at once.

“You must learn,” said Burningrose, his voice trembling slightly. “Our purpose is not ill will. We are a curious species. This is our first time in the vaults.”

“There should never be a first time,” said Seabreeze without thinking, though when it caught up, his brain said: We never let there be a first time for anyone but ourselves. Of course they are curious! Yet, do they have to be so… destructive about it?

“Look.” His translator pointed back at the hole.

A gigantic, gleaming, oil-black spike impaled the air and plunged further and further. The thing seemed way too long, and yet two more spikes ploughed on from either side. Seabreeze tried not to squeak.

From around the chamber, pale wingless things either scurried on six legs or wriggled on their bellies towards the emerging beast. Its head was nothing more than a bulbous base for the three horns, and when its domed black armour came through, the body looked far too small to support those horns. It was a trident with sticks for legs.

On its back, the Flutter Pony yelled something and cracked a blade of grass as a whip. The thing stood unnaturally still.

“But that is a –” Seabreeze grimaced and flapped his wings to take off, only to feel the prickle of warning tusks along their lengths. The guards had moved quickly.

“It is a Trident Rhinoceros Beetle.” Burningrose nodded sagely. “Tougher than rocks and good in the dark. No. Look behind it.”

The beetle groaned, and the young Flutter Ponies clambered or slithered over its yoked wingcase and onto the sled of bark. White caps glowed, and they held up the mushrooms and ran antennae over them or tasted them with nibbling teeth.

“Have you ever taken the ingredients out and examined them?” said Burningrose, apparently to the distant young.

Seabreeze shrugged; he might as well play along. “Yes. Of course. We have to check the Breezie magic is inside them before World Harvest.”

“No, you are mistaken. You have done the same thing every year. Without thinking. Without looking. Without asking the right questions.”

“What? What kind of questions?”

“How does Breezie magic work? How do the ingredients fit together? Is there a way we could make our own, so we are not weakened if the Fairy Ring stops working? You have… excuse me, it is hard to translate… I think the best word is ‘sleep-walked’. You have ‘sleep-walked’ for centuries.”

The two guards – he forgot their names – said something. Up ahead, the beetle shook a larva off its brow horn irritably.

“My friends say you need to be on our side. They say you will understand, because you are not a Breezie. They say in the game of Hive Versus Hive, you played like a Flutter Pony.”

Around them, more Flutter Ponies closed in. They were watching the discussion and chattering amongst themselves. One of the guards behind him laughed and joined the chatter.

He wished they didn’t. There were far too many tusks near his wings.

“Perhaps,” Seabreeze said, narrowing his eyes, “I would like to know what ‘your side’ is up to. No one has ever done this before.”

“No one has ever beaten Dragon Lily before.” Burningrose tried not to smirk.

“I did not beat her. I cheated!”

“Did you? Or did you pretend to cheat?” The translator’s face flashed a smirk. “We are both pioneers. Breezies have stagnated for centuries, but now we hear stories of the Last Minuters who did things differently. Vox Tailblade had the right idea, but she went about it wrong. That Ring Portal belongs to all of us. It is only fair.”

“You know why we could never let anyone else through. It is far too dangerous without protection.”

“Oh? Do you know that this is true, or is this what you’ve taught yourself to say?”

Burningrose waved the crowd aside, and the two guards scuttled forwards and waved him through. As they scurried along the tunnel to the next chamber, Seabreeze noticed a couple of larvae wriggling and panting to keep up with him, despite the sharp chatter of the guards.

Oh no, he thought, they are going to keep talking and talking and talking. They will not keep talking forever. I must talk back at some point. But what do I say? Sorry, I cannot help you? Or yes, yes, I think you are doing the right thing by hurting my fellow Breezies?

One of the larvae headbutted his twiggy leg and hissed and spat at him. He looked helplessly at the translator, but no one said anything until they reached the next crowded chamber. The silvery sheen crinkled under their steps; this place was coated in a layer of tinfoil, and when he glanced down his own smooth reflection glanced back.

“In a few days,” said Burningrose, turning around, “the other species will be coming to the Fairy Ring.”

“Are they on your side?” snapped Seabreeze. “Or are they coming to kick you out?”

“We’ve invited a few of them, but most will be coming to kick us out. They will be on our side when Vox Dragon Lily talks to them.”

Aha… “I have a feeling there is going to be a lot of talk about sweeping out the old ways and bringing in the new ones. Did Vox Tailblade get swept out with it?”

Around him, the hissing and spitting reached ear-breaking point. Both guards crouched down and their wings were a blur, cutting through the sounds and beating down the chatter until the whole chamber was silent. Both pairs of wings snapped back into place.

The larva headbutted him again. He suppressed the urge to kick it.

“It can’t be that dangerous,” said Burningrose, “if Breezies can go forth and gather ingredients. We do not believe there is such a thing as Breezie magic. It is just sparkle and trickery.”

Oh really? Then why does everyone here look like they are about to flee if I sneeze loudly? Why are the guards shuffling their clawed feet? You can sense the magic. You just do not want to admit it to my face because you have stepped your foot deep into it, and now you cannot get it back out again. And I know you are desperate because you are asking for my help.

“What do you want me to do?” he said, loudly and clearly.

Foil crinkled under their fidgeting legs. Burningrose cocked an antenna as a low-level clicking and spluttering ran around the gathered circle of mouths. Once more, the larva headbutted his leg.

“What?” he snapped at it.

A ripple of hushed shock smothered the low-level chatter.

“However,” continued the translator, eyeing up the frozen faces around him, “some of the more… superstitious ones are feeling unhappy. We cannot take some of our beasts into the vaults of the catacombs, or 'dungeons' as you call them now –”

“The Mole Cricket?” Seabreeze hoped, hoped, hoped the silence held out for a little longer. Everyone’s gaze was on him.

“The Rhinoceros Beetles won’t go down some of the tunnels either. They refuse to enter this metal one.”

Somewhere around his leg, Seabreeze heard the clicking of tiny tusks. Burningrose tried a small smile.

“Little Sparklash there wants to ask you a question.” He knelt down, and his wings stretched out as though barring his neighbours’ paths. After a back-and-forth of chatter, he rose up again. “She wishes to know about the… Fey Ponies.”

Seabreeze glanced up at the hazy reflections, and saw the whole circle lean closer. He had no idea where the other Breezies were, but they were probably stuck in honeycombs all over the place, just to keep them separate so they could never mobilize. Not that they were going to escape. He gulped. Those tusks looked a little… keen.

“Um,” he said.

For the first time since he’d been down there, he was starting to feel heavy-headed, as though his brain had turned to steel. There was too much going on. He clung to this request and held on for dear life.

“Well… Piffle said the whole point of the World Harvest was to give the ingredients as a gift to both the Light and the Dark Fey. Not the real ones, but… um, their spirits, I suppose.”

More chatter between Burningrose and the larva, more frowns and puzzled looks. “You mean,” he said, “the good and the evil Fey Ponies?”

“No! They were just different. I do not know the story very well. All I know is that they both come together on the World Harvest as friends. And,” he added pointedly, “anyone who disturbed the ritual would die a gruesome and painful death soon afterwards. Which is why –”

The larva headbutted him one time too many. He pressed a hoof against it and pushed it away from him, whereupon it squealed.

All around him, the Flutter Ponies exploded with noise.

“W-Wait!” he yelped.

In spite of his efforts to talk over it, the chattering became too loud. Both guards snapped to attention and held wings out. The press of bodies surged forwards, Seabreeze dived into a cower, covered his eyes, and winced when all sound stopped.

When nothing happened for a few seconds, he raised his head. Burningrose faced the wall of Flutter Ponies, glaring at them.

“What is going on?” said Seabreeze.

“You shouldn’t have touched our Little Sparklash.” Against an outburst of chatter, the translator gave an almighty hiss and the wall drew back at once. “One should never hurt or frighten a young Flutter Pony. For most creatures, it is the last thing they ever do. I am sorry. They are very sensitive.”

“I want to see my family,” said Seabreeze. He didn’t get up. “I should not be here.”

Burningrose sighed. “Whatever Confetti Cinders and Inferno say, you are still a Breezie. Very well. I will tell you a secret. I don’t know what to think about you. I hear stories about the Last Minuters who broke out of line. I hear my friends talk about how you think and plot and scheme like a Flutter Pony. But all I see is a Breezie.”

The translator stuck a leg out. Nothing happened for a few seconds.

“You must understand. The old world will grow stagnant and the fey species will grow restless. All will weaken and sicken if we do not act now. Although your fellow Breezies have been captured, this is only out of desperation, not ill will. Our kind want that we carry on your noble work, but more!”

Wearily, Seabreeze reached forwards and placed a tiny hoof on the still-extended claws, to be hauled back to his four feet in a gentle tug.

“We want a chance to break down the old barriers and find out what is lying on the other side. We want to take a world half good and make it better for everyone. Sending only Breezies out into the Big World is not fair and it is only done because nothing else has been tried. Now we will venture forth and try something else instead.”

“What about the World Harvest? You intend to try that too?”

“Yes. We must learn. We must not be denied the secrets. Please listen to me,” said the translator more urgently, almost hissing and spitting. “Do not be a Breezie. There will be lots of species here soon who are not scared of changing things. We want you to be one of them.”

“Fine, fine! I will think about it,” said Seabreeze. Anything to get out of here in one piece.

Besides, he wasn’t just thinking about all the tusks anymore. There were brains behind those tusks.

The larva was staring up at him with its mouth open in awe. Gingerly, he smiled back.

Burningrose inclined his head, and the other Flutter Ponies followed suit. “We will escort you to your fellow Breezies. They will not listen to us, but perhaps they will listen to you. Now I must talk to my fellow Flutter Ponies, so you will have time to think. Think carefully, now. Your choices are clear. But so are the consequences.”

Seabreeze nodded. His expression was as blank as he could make it. Unfortunately, so was the expression of Burningrose. Anything could be happening behind those calm eyes.

Finally, the translator scuttled away, taking most of the crowd with him. When the guards prodded Seabreeze towards the next vault door, he thought about larvae.

They prodded him in the wings, and he thought about weak points.

---

Comments

[Firebirdbtops]

So, things are coming together for seabreeze. Progress, not malice, hug? Flutterpony burden anyone?

[Impossible Numbers]

7729509

Flutterpony burden anyone?

Oh yes, that was one of the things that I enjoyed about writing this chapter. It shows how the Flutter Ponies are convinced they're doing the right thing, even while they're coming across as greedy and threatening to Seabreeze.