Hidden in Plain Sight

by ShadowGear

Chapter 4: The Alliance Between Hives

Chrysalis and her army laid scattered across the land. She had landed close enough to her Hive to be able to see it. Looking around, she could see Changelings picking themselves out of the craters caused by their ejection from Canterlot.

"Drones! I want a damage report! See how many we've lost!" she ordered to some of the drones that had already recovered. Chrysalis then flew towards the Hive to find her throne room. Once she arrived, she began to use her magic to clean herself up and harvest some love from her private cocoons.

It wasn't long before Carapace arrived. With him were two other Changelings Elytra and Fang. They bowed and allowed Carapace to speak. "My Queen! We went through the roster and there is only one Changeling unaccounted for," he said with a bit of fear from this somewhat bad news.

Queen Chrysalis raised an eyebrow at the Colonel. "Which Changeling is it?" she asked.

"Sc-Sclerite! My Queen!"

Queen Chrysalis shifted in her seat. "Sclerite? My apprentice is the only one missing?" She said in disbelief but judging by the expressions of her drones she could tell they weren't joking. "Prepare a meeting through our communication scarabs. I want to speak to the other Queens about this," she ordered. The Changelings saluted and walked out through a hole that suddenly appeared in the wall. When she was alone she sighed, "Don't worry Sclerite. We'll find you and bring you home safely," she said to herself.

"How can we be sure he's even alive? The Equestrians have probably already found and killed him by now," Fang stated.

"As much as I hate him for all the privileges he doesn't deserve, I'm really worried about him. He could be starving to death, cold and alone." Elytra suggested.

"Don't worry about him," said Carapace. "I've watched Sclerite grow from the day he began training as a larva. If any Changeling could survive out there long enough for a rescue it would be him."

Thorax heard the conversation as the Changelings went by. Sclerite was missing? Maybe he had found a reason to leave the Hive, and what about those six ponies whose friendship had helped them defeat a few squads of Changelings? There must be something about ponies and friendship worth discovering. He would have to go out on his own to discover that meaning but if he did, he could never come back. Thorax thought for a bit before making up his mind. He was going to go out and discover the meaning of friendship despite any repercussions from Queen Chrysalis for desertion.

Meanwhile Carapace, Elytra and Fang arrived at the Hive's storage. They grabbed out four little scarabs and proceeded back to Queen Chrysalis' throne room. When they had returned they placed the scarabs on the floor and arranged them in a square-like formation before leaving the room to allow Queen Chrysalis some privacy with the other Queens. The scarabs began to activate and soon an image of the other Queens appeared. They all looked similar to Chrysalis with only small color differences. Some would make the mistake of assuming they were all sisters based on the resemblance.

The red Changeling Queen Formic was the first to speak. "Hey Chrysalis! I heard you attempted a preemptive strike on Canterlot. Care to explain how that went?" she said mockingly

Queen Chrysalis rolled her eyes, "this is not a good time for that right now. Right now I need your help." those last few words drew all their attentions.

The yellow Changeling Queen Siphon was the most surprised out of all the Queens. "That was relatively quick. Luckily for you I have an entire fleet of my newest ships ready to fight the Equestrians on my command."

"That is not the kind of help I need!" Chrysalis yelled. "My apprentice Sclerite went missing after the battle. My Hive is in no condition to search Equestria for him. That is why I need you. If you help find him and return him to my Hive I will reward each of you with one cocooned pony."

That was a generous offer. Only Chrysalis' hive was able to make cocoons. It was the most effective way at preserving and storing food and was not an offer that should be thrown away.

"Alright, with that out of the way. Siphon, you said you had a new ship?"

"Yeah! We call it a U-ship. We're finally got past prototyping and are mass producing these ships. It is a ship designed to go underwater and attack other ships from concealment. We've used it to great effect at disrupting Equestrian sea trade with the Griffin kingdom. It hasn't done that much against the Equestrians but the Griffin kingdom just had an economic collapse." Queen Siphon said.

Queen Formic decided to pitch in. "Very impressive, but I would suggest using magic siphoning minerals if you haven't already. I've built F-tanks from that material and it has been able to absorb magic from the land and from the occasional pony. That is an incredibly reliable power source for any machine."

The purple Changeling Queen Venom looked a little annoyed. "Shouldn't we be discussing how to find and get Sclerite rather than wasting time talking about new weapons of war?"

"Hmm? Oh right! I have an idea on where to look first," said Queen Chrysalis.