Hivemind
Sleep was not something I relished. It took too much time, siphoned productivity, and generally left me in a much worse mood at the end of the activity than I started. The only difference today was that instead of just feeling irritated, I was also exhausted.
As I roused myself from my bed, removing the thick down comforters with my hooves and tossing them aside, I felt a stiffness in my joints and a headache coming along. I had a feeling why this was the case, but first I needed to get ready for the day.
I trotted over to the small window and pushed the curtain aside. Instead of the early morning sun greeting me to start my day, I was instead met with dull gray clouds and an onslaught of rain. A sigh escaped my lips as I purveyed the now drenched city of Canterlot laid out before me.
“Rain’s never a good sign…” I muttered as I let the curtains fall back to their natural position and crossed the room to the small bathroom attached to my room. The bedroom was the only space I truly had to myself in my life, everything else I shared, including the bathroom that connected our rooms. Not that I could really complain, it had always been like that. When you’re a twin, you share a little of everything.
Me and my twin sister, Clear, we shared a little bit more than just our birthdays, appearance, and apartment. We had a condition that linked us together for our entire life, which caused our magical talents to be shared and strengthened the closer we were to each other. Conversely, the greater the distance between us meant our magic would grow weaker to the point of near uselessness. Along with weakened magic, it also came with just an overall sense of weariness and general pain.
So, going by my joints and headache, I could assume that my sister was not home and off doing something, most likely something irrelevant and personally frustrating. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my sister. I quite literally could not live without her, but she could be frustrating.
Where I preferred to live a more spartan and militaristic lifestyle, she wanted to be the fun pony that everypony should know. She was outgoing and brash, making decisions without ever truly thinking them through. Luckily, she had me to reign her in when she went too far, when I could muster up the appropriate amount of stubbornness to actually stand my ground with her.
As I turned on the shower and stepped in, pushing aside Clear’s loofa and special shampoo, I focused on our codependence for a moment. Some had labeled it unhealthy, or perhaps inappropriate in some bizarre or fetishistic way, but we simply saw it as survival. What would we be without each other? Magicless unicorns with chronic pain in a city that demanded both fashion and function.
It’s not like we hadn’t tried to be apart for some time, we had. In our younger years we had attempted to go our separate ways and find our callings. Clear had wanted to go to a school for combat magic, while I had wanted to join the guard. Needless to say, our collective disability had prevented that from happening. Now, well now we had found our calling together, we had found purpose in a way that suited our defect and turned our greatest weakness into our greatest strength.
Once done, I got out of the shower and dried off what I could. Without magic it was quite a futile effort to attempt to get completely dry, instead I opted to wear my bathrobe around and let it soak up what I could not get for now.
I left the bathroom, determined to fix my mess of a mane whenever Clear was back home and I had all of my magical faculties back at one-hundred percent. As I trotted through my room, I stopped in front of the one thing that truly stood out in my personal quarters, the armor rack.
On it was my pride and joy, the thing that allowed me to do the strenuous job Clear and I had taken up. It’s sharp and geometric design reflected what little light was allowed through the window, even in the small amount of natural light it was still polished perfectly. I needed to take care of it. It was not just any normal armor, it was specially designed to combat one of the most dangerous predators on the planet.
Changelings.
After the invasion four years ago, the government had been hell bent on getting rid of whatever bugs remained in Equestria. They had guards go door to door, questioning families and using specialized magic to unravel the disguises of the hidden invaders. Within a year the troops were spread too thin and were too ineffective. So, they relied on informants and the country’s intelligence agency to track down rogue changelings. Better yet, Princess Celestia was not happy with the success rate of her guards in capturing the creatures, and instead ordered that all changeling operations be contracted out to private bounty hunters.
That was where Clear and I came in. Our natural bond made us nearly changeling proof. Where usually operators in our line of work went it alone for fear of their partner being used against them by the craft bugs, we had a built in defense system to tell if the pony we were looking at was the real one or a fabrication. That, along with our family’s military background and the training we had received from our father, made us prime candidates for contracts.
It wasn’t the same now, though. Changeling activity had slowed down significantly in the last few months. Where usually we would get somewhere between one to five contracts a month, now we had only seen one job in just three. It was a strain, but I knew deep down that it was good for Equestria to have less incidents.
I moved away from the armor and left my room, exiting into the shared living room. The curtains on the bay windows were thrown open, exposing the whole interior of the apartment to the dreary mood put forward by the weather ponies. I simply sneered at the heavy clouds as I crossed the living space and went to the conjoined kitchen.
It was there that something caught my eye, a note was left on the refrigerator. I quickly made my way over and read the scrap of paper, the writing only legible to those who knew my sister’s particular brand of chicken scratch well. The note indicated that she had gone out to the post-office to see if we had any new contracts sent to us and that she would be back soon.
“Couldn’t wait for me to wake up?” I muttered as I looked at the already prepared pot of coffee sitting on the counter. “Now you’re going to come home soaking wet.” If I didn’t have my magic, neither would she, which meant no levitation to hoist an umbrella or create a barrier above herself. “At least you were nice enough to leave coffee…”
I poured myself a mug and took the first sip longingly. This and the shower helped my aches and pains, but they didn’t get rid of them completely.
“Breach!” The call came from just outside the front door. As I crossed the sparsely decorated living room to open the door for her I felt the telltale swelling at the base of my horn that let me know it really was her. I reached out with my newly returned magic and flipped the lock, allowing her to burst in.
As I said before, we’re identical twins. She’s a perfect copy of me in every way, save the gender. Her royal blue coat glistened from the shower she received outside, and her flowing golden mane stuck to her neck and face. With her magic at full power, she moved the wet locks from her face and exposed her energetic green eyes to me.
“Good news?” I asked, assuming she would only looks so wild if she had heard something. Inwardly, I hoped that it was an easy job. Any job was good, but their last contract over a month ago had been more than rough. A nice capture and contain would be preferable to a fight.
“Good news? You think I would come home with just good news?” Clear stayed in the entryway, still dripping wet. I felt her pull on our collective magic and warm her coat enough that the water on her body evaporated into a cloud of steam. “I have great news!”
Clear had always been one for exaggeration and hyperbole. Her agile mind, while it made her prone to more outbursts than I, was useful in problem situations. It allowed her to come up with a plan that I wouldn’t by thinking outside of the box. It was useful, if not a detriment in quieter moments. I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow at her statement, it was most likely just good news and nothing more.
“High. Value. Target.” My sister took a piece of parchment from her saddlebags and shoved it in my face. “I’m talking the big leagues, Breach. Captain Armor himself wants to brief us on the whole thing.”
I looked over the letter we had received and skimmed the well penned orders. Indeed it was signed by none other than Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor, and indeed it did say the matter was urgent and highly sensitive. Nowhere did it specify a high value target, though.
“Hold on.” I looked at the bottom the page again to make sure I read something right. “One million bits for the completed job?” Never had I heard of a price that high on any job. Usually it was whatever the government felt the job was worth, which was modest at most and paltry the rest of the time. This was an extreme outlier.
“I know, right?!” Clear disappeared into her room, loud rummaging emanating from the den that I would never dare enter. “It’s almost too good!” That was my worry exactly, that it was too good of a deal. The government didn’t put up that kind of money without significant risk to those carrying out the task, and with one million on the line it was safe to assume that Shining Armor thought the job was impossible.
“You’re set on doing this, aren’t you?” I called into Clear’s den. I hoped she would respond with something that indicated a want for a serious conversation. A talk about this job would be beneficial to say the least.
“Our first job in a month and you’re having doubts?” She came out of her room in her dull gray armor, the colors of a sellsword and our uniform. “C’mon, Breach. You’re telling me that you don’t even want to hear him out?”
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t interested,” I retorted. “I’m just a little worried that we’re biting off more than we can chew.” You could tell a lot about a job based on the language of the posting, and with how vague the letter was it was clear that it wasn’t a pleasant job. No one covered details up if they were simple and clean.
“Let’s at least go to the Palace and hear him out.” Clear put a hoof on my shoulder and smiled. “If it sounds like a rotten deal, we’ll bail and come home.” I sighed and hung my head, relenting to my sister. “There we go, now go get on your armor. The letter did say to respond ASAP, and we might as well do it in the flesh.”
She always had a tight grip over me. I too easily doubted myself and was easy to influence and manipulate when she and I had varying opinions. It was my fatal flaw, if I ever had to identify one.
With my mind made up for me, I proceeded to my room. Unlike Clear’s abode, mine was immaculate and tidy, a habit I had picked up from our father, a military stallion with a very strict and demanding temperament. I took after him, while my sister seemed perpetually stuck in her youthful rebellion.
My armor was on an armor stand at the head of my bed, polished and well taken care of. Carefully, I lifted the chest plate from its position and slid it over my head. It was like clockwork, putting on the uniform that I had chosen. Every strap I tightened and ever latch I fastened brought a certain amount of shame. The shame that, because of my connection to Clear, because of our ‘disability’, I would never be a true guard or soldier. I would always be a sellsword because the government saw me as a liability.
Shaking those thoughts away, I finished off my ensemble by putting on my helmet and strapping my sword to my side. Unlike Clear, I fancied myself a swordspony and artist with the blade; she preferred her combat magic. Seeing as how we couldn’t both use combat spells effectively at the same time, I was more than happy to go the more traditional route. Not that I used the sword in a traditional sense. Mine was a one-sided blade, and more often than not I used the blunt side to subdue our targets rather than going in for the kill. If I needed to, however, I would protect myself with all of the power the perfectly sharpened blade provided me.
“C’mon, slowpoke! I want to get to the palace before the sun sets!” I sighed once again as I left my room to join up with Clear. She looked me over and nodded. “Looking professional, brother. You all set?”
“Two conditions.” I leveled my best stern glare at my much shorter sibling. “One: you let me do the talking and negotiating. Two: you put up a shield when we leave so we don’t arrive soaking wet. Just because we’re mercenaries doesn’t mean we have to be ragged and careless.”
“You got yourself a deal,” she replied with a wide smile. “Now c’mon, the palace is waiting!”
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Now I’m not usually one for palaces. My brother, if you could get past his unfriendly exterior and actually ask him about me, would tell you that I’m more meant for a sty than Canterlot. But I gotta admit, there’s something about the jewel of Equestria that makes me as giddy as a filly.
I think it’s just the amount of style that goes into everything, y’know? The high arches and elegant curves or every facet of the edifice just screamed high class and sophistication. I think that everypony sorta craves that kind of importance and style in their lives, and just because I like a little violence sometimes doesn’t mean I’m any different.
I tried to contain the slight bouncing in my trot, but it was just too hard. Aside from the excitement of being in the royal palace, there was also the matter of meeting Shining Armor for the first time face to face. Truth be told, I had more than a little crush on the Prince. I just couldn’t help myself, he was just so damn attractive! So meeting him in the flesh was exciting in more ways than one, and I couldn’t wait!
“Focus,” Breach stated calmly as we trotted up a flight of stairs that would lead inevitably to Shining Armor’s office. “I need you to focus and calm down.” This wasn’t his usual amount of sternness, either. This was advanced levels of scolding. Even his brow was furrowed over his dark green eyes now. “This isn’t a playdate, it’s a job negotiation. We need to present a professional and unified front, not one of eager schoolfoals.”
I knew he was just trying to make me act like I needed to, but there was a level of condescension there that made me feel like his underling rather than partner. Most of the time his more subtle and tactical approach to things helped level me out in more heated situations, but I just wished that from time to time he would let me be myself. I planned to calm myself before we met with the Captain, I was just trying to get it all out before and instead I got scolded for it.
“I know,” I responded, holding back a level of venom from my words. “I’ll be fine when we’re in there, alright? You gotta trust me.” Breach nodded, but he clearly wasn’t one-hundred percent happy with the response.
At the top of the stairs we were met by a pair of identical guards, both muted gray pegasi in golden armor with spears at the ready. We stopped and Breach presented the stallions with the summons I had gotten from the postal pony. The one closest to myself snatached it away with a wing and read it over quickly.
“You may proceed,” The reading pony announced in a gruff voice. “Captain Armor is in his office.” I was going to ask which was his office, but as the two pegasi parted I saw only a single door at the end of the hall. I looked to my brother, who simply nodded at the door as a signal to start marching.
Once at the door, I reached out with a hoof and knocked on the sturdy wooden frame. No voice beckoned us in, instead a pink glow enveloped the door and it opened far more quickly than anticipated. On the other side was the rather imposing figure of the Captain of the Guard without his armor.
“Breach, Clear. Please, come in.” The stallion was short of words, but long on good looks and muscles. That was fine with me, as it was the way I liked my stallions.
My brother and I stepped into the rather spartan office. The only distinguishing features were the large black oak desk at the far end, a stand with Shining Armor’s trademark purple and gold uniform, and the long wall comprised primarily of windows that ran the length of the room. We followed the Captain towards the far end, where he took a seat at his desk and motioned for us to sit across from him in the provided chairs.
“Thank you for meeting with me on such a short notice, both of you.” Shining Armor spoke cordially and warmly. “It’s an honor to finally meet with our most efficient contractors. I’ve heard nothing but interesting things about the two of you.” Interesting did not mean good, and efficient did not mean the best. I knew that he was sugar coating it, as our last operation didn’t exactly go as planned or as smoothly as the government would’ve hoped.
“It’s our pleasure, Captain Armor,” Breach responded with a polite smiled. I was going to hold to my promise and try to keep my trap shut during this part. “It’s always good to get a summons for work, especially from the Captain of the Guard himself.”
“Well, I would prefer we not waste any time. If I’m being honest, this matter is most urgent and requires immediate attention.” The captain retrieved a folder from his desk and laid it out on the table. The only word that I could make out on it was ‘ZAPPER’ in bolded black letters. “We believe we have located a cell of at most one dozen Changelings holed up in a mansion on the outskirts of Canterlot itself. Intel gathered from one of the bugs you caught last month revealed that there’s some sort of organization there, something that’s coordinating all of these events that have been happening and the increasing Changeling population.”
“Excuse me, Sir.” Breach straightened his posture and leaned towards Shining Armor. “You expect us to deal with a dozen Changelings in a mansion? We work in containment and securing singular or at most three targets.” I would’ve said it differently, something along the lines of ‘You better be fucking joking’, but then again I was never as collected as Breach was.
“We’re not looking to contain them, Breach.” The name on the file clicked with that first sentence. They were looking for a crew to torch the place with no survivors. “After what happened on your last contract, we’ve decided that you’re the only operators we trust to reliably kill any and all Changelings you come across in the mansion. They know our tactics and they won’t be expecting all out violence, so they’ll think they have the upper hoof.”
“The element of surprise,” I commented. “It still sounds a little too risky.” I know I wasn’t supposed to be talking, but I felt like I had to say something. “Twelve on two in a big mansion that we don’t know the layout of is not really that favorable to us.”
“I have to agree with my sister, Captain.” Breach nodded in agreement and tightened his jaw. “I had a feeling that the reward was so high for a reason. I don’t know if we’re up for it, truthfully. It might be too much.” Shining Armor sighed, his shoulder sagging.
“Listen-” The pearl white stallion ran a hoof through his mane. “-I’m going to be straight with you. We sent in a full squad of my best guards to deal with them and none of them came back. If it was up to me, I would go in there with the Elements of Harmony and wipe them out, but it’s not up to me. Princess Celestia has demanded we used contracted operators who know the enemy and how to deal with them quickly and ruthlessly. I offered to just bomb the site from an airship, but I was vetoed and told we needed a comprehensive sweep. The Princess wants this done quick and quiet so we don’t alert the public. The last thing Equestria needs right now is a Changeling panic.”
I looked to Breach, only to find him looking back at me already. We could communicate a lot simply through subtle body language, we had to basically develop our own code to proof ourselves from Changeling infiltration and trickery.
The slight tug at the corner of his mouth let me know he still felt bad about the situation about the whole situation. He still didn’t want to do it. I placed a single hoof ever so gently forwards as if I was repositioning myself in the chair to get comfortable to let Breach know I still wanted to go along with it. In response he blinked, leaving his eyes closed for just a second longer than normal. It was the code movement for death, he didn’t think we would make it out alive. I looked at my chestpiece and brushed away dust that never existed to signal that we would be untouched. There was both a physical and audible silence that followed, both of us were waiting on the other to cave.
“We’ll do it.” Breach was the one to give in, just like he always was. I looked to the Captain with a proud smirk as the authoritative stallion pushed the folder he had across the desk. I was the first one to grab it, now that it was clear I had taken charge.
My brother leaned over as I opened the folder and saw a variety of diagrams and blueprints pertaining to the mansion. They would take time to study and come up with a plan to execute, as the mansion was larger and more complicated than any other building we had ever planned for. If I had to make something up on the fly, I would say the easiest way would be to cast a locking spell on every door and window except the front, go in, seal it behind us and work from there. We had done it before and it worked pretty well, so it was safe to assume it would scale.
“I need you to move out and get it done today.” Shining stood up from his chair. Both Breach and I looked at each other in shock. There was no way! No way we could do something this complex and extreme on such a short notice. I needed to train with my magic, we needed to get fit for this. “I know it’s asking a lot, but I am prepared to give you whatever you need to get this done.”
“Anything?” I asked, my mind racing with thoughts of heavy ordnance and a few royal favors. A hoof to my side let me know that I was stepping out of bounds and to get back on track. “What are we talking, weapons? Logistics?”
“Yes to weapons and yes to logistics. If you want, I can put an airship above you with our best recon and surveillance ponies. Constantly updating magic scans and intelligence transmitted directly to you.” That was more than we had ever had before, and probably more than we would ever see again. A lot of our work relied on being alone and operating with our wits and awareness. A full suite of guardsponies trained to do sweeps and relay information would be a dream.
“So when do we leave?” Breach asked, getting up from his seat as well. I wasn’t gonna move, though. Not until I absolutely had to. With what we were about to do, I wasn’t going to get on my hooves until the situation demanded it.
“I’ll send word down to the docks to prepare a ship for departure. As soon as it’s fitted, you’re going with them.” Here I was hoping that they would send us down the mountain in a train and we could hoof it from there. I hated flying, especially on airships. I never liked how smooth the flights were, just felt unnatural and made me nervous. “If you feel like you need any weapons, then I’ll alert the armory to get clearance for you both.”
“Thank you, sir.” Breach nodded. “I don’t think we’ll need anything from the armory, though. Your equipment isn’t designed to combat Changelings.” I hadn’t even thought of that. For the last few years everything we’d been using had been developed to combat everything the Changelings were about, I forgot that some ponies didn’t have that level of preparedness.
“We’ll head down to the docks.” I hopped up to my hooves, trying to add a bit of levity to the room. “Just give us a day and this mess will be sorted, Captain!” I gave a little mock salute and turned to the door.
“Thank you for the opportunity, Captain. We will not let you down.” Breach held back a sigh as he spoke and gave a more crisp salute, which Shining Armor returned. My brother trudged by me, a displeased scowl spreading across his face. If I had to guess, he probably wasn’t too happy with my attitude
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It was very difficult to not be upset with Clear after that nonsense. I had told her to be professional, and instead she acted like a foal in front of Shining Armor. I know I shouldn’t have expected anything other than her traditional foalish attitude, I had just hoped she could restrain herself for five minutes.
“Really wish we didn’t have to do this by airship, y’know?” She was attempting casual conversation to try and coax me out of my bad mood. It was unfortunate that I wasn’t going to let that happen this time. “I just want a nice train ride, maybe a private military one with an open bar.”
“Drop the act, Clear. I’m going to remain upset with you until you decide to act like an adult.” Truthfully, I was sick of her constant light-heartedness and lazy demeanor. I wanted her to take this seriously, to take our jobs and the lives we were sentenced to take and protect seriously.
“Really? You think just because I gave a little salute and wasn’t a super-serious stooge that I was being a foal?” She stepped in front of me, blocking my path and stopping me in my tracks. “Give me a break, I was just trying to lighten the mood a little.”
“Do you realize what this job is? What it means?” My armored hoof jabbed into her angular chestplate. “We were just told to deliberately take not one, but twelve lives. We were instructed to murder living creatures.” It had been one of the little things that stuck with me. In our tenure we had only killed two Changelings, and that was an accident. To take lives on purpose was nigh unthinkable.
“They’re Changelings, not ponies. You remember what their kind did to Canterlot, the carnage left behind. I can live with killing a few of them, and so should you.” If assumed guilt was her reason for being okay with this, it wasn’t something I could go along with. Not all of the Changelings we had captured had been part of the invasion. Some had been in Equestria long before the invasion and living normal lives in disguises. There was no telling if these Changelings were truly dangerous or if they had taken the royal guards captives for simply trespassing. Either way, murder of possible innocents did not sit well.
“I remember, but I also remember every single one of the Changelings we took in peacefully. You know how territorial they are, you know how they react to intruders. I don’t want to go in ‘horns blazing’, I want to try and talk these Changelings down and see if we can get the guards they’ve taken and bring them in without incident.” I was going to push for a more peaceful resolution, no matter what the Captain had asked for. I believed he was overreacting, for he didn’t know the creatures like I did. His view of them was clouded by hatred and history, it wasn’t to be fully trusted.
“You know what? Fine, whatever.” Clear put up a hoof in surrender and moved out of the way. “We’ll try it your way first.” With that settled, I continued towards the entrance to the docks.
Unlike most other parts of the palace, the docks were integrated into the mountain itself. Deep below the foundations and carved into the very stone, the docks were a marvel of Equestrian persistence and ingenuity. Long metal tethers that were anchored in stone stretched out from the mouth of the cave and attached to ships that were temporarily stationed or getting ready to leave, while a large section of the cave was specially made for vessels in dry dock, either getting outfitted, entirely resupplied, or repaired. I assumed our ship was one of the ones in drydock, as none of the others featured the extensive sensor arrays necessary for our needs.
“Mercs!” The call came from a pony in his Equestrian Golds, the standard uniform for non-combat personnel aboard ships. He was a brown unicorn with piercing blue eyes and a smile. He strode over to us and gave a salute.
“Air Cutter, captain of the E.A.S. Deep Pulse” I returned the salute, as did Clear. “Looks like we’ll be working together for a while, so I figured I would come and meet you. Breach and Clear, correct?” I had met a few captains in my time, mainly when I was younger around my father, and none of them were quite as jovial as Cutter seemed to be.
“Yes, sir,” I responded curtly. “It’s an honor to be asked aboard your ship, Captain Cutter. We look forward to working with you.” I saw Clear roll her eyes out of the corner of my own. Decorum was beyond her, so I wasn’t surprised at her dismissal of it.
“Come, walk with me.” Cutter turned and began weaving his way through the ponies trafficking through the enormous cavern doing their various jobs. Clear and I followed him as best we could, staying just behind the rather quick stallion. We skirted through the noise until we reached the edge of one of the docked ships.
The muted gold hull of the vessel was coated in all kinds of antennae and sensors that I could not even comprehend. Its name ‘Deep Pulse’ was painted across the hull in a shade of dark blue. The balloon of the ship shimmered with golden magic, no doubt a protection spell cast by a high mage. All in all, it was a beautiful ship, if not a bit odd on account of the specialized equipment.
“How old are you, Captain Cutter?” Clear asked, taking her helmet off. Usually I would admonish her for doing such a thing on the job, but I would let it pass this time. We were in the safety of Canterlot, so no harm could come of it now.
“Twenty-five,” the officer responded with a smirk. That was…unique. It took most ponies their whole lives to gain command of a vessel. “I know, pretty young. At the Military Academy of Science and Magic I wrote a paper on the application of pulsed aura refraction to detect bio-magical signatures from extreme distances.” I prided myself on my intelligence and voracious reading habits, but even that sounded like gibberish to me. I could hazard a guess as to what he meant, but it was a poorly educated one. “Basically, I figured out a way to use the magical byproduct from a ship’s leyline drive to pinpoint magical creatures on the ground. That technology was used to develop the Deep Pulse, and after a few years of serving as a science officer, I was promoted to captain.”
“Wow! That’s amazing!” Clear sidled up next to Cutter, her eyes sparkled as if she were a foal eyeing a new toy. “So you’re pretty smart, huh?” I rolled my eyes at her antics and focused on the ship itself. If I understood the basic principle, it was actually brilliant. Using the natural waste of a magical engine wouldn’t arouse suspicion since the ship would emanate it anyway.
“It depends on your definition of the word.” Cutter removed the flat cap from his head and wiped a bit of sweat from his brow. “Shall we go aboard? I would love to hear about your line of work before we launch. It’s not every day you get to encounter Changeling bounty hunters, after all.”
We followed the captain aboard the ship. The interior was not anywhere close to the elegance of the outside. Cramped metal corridors allowed travel from one section of the ship to the next, all connected via a series of bulkheads and steaming tubes. If it weren’t for Cutter, we would’ve gotten lost in the interconnecting tunnels. The constant soft red lighting did not help either, as it made every area look identical to the last.
Eventually our group came to a solid white door, which stood out amongst the red and gray of the tunnels.The captain lit his horn and the door opened with a short whistle. As he entered, everypony on the bridge turned and saluted him.
“At ease,” Cutter told his crew as he made his way to the center of the bridge. The room itself was impressive and at odds with the rest of the interior. A giant window took up the entire nose of the ship, even stretching partially into the floor which allowed an unobstructed view of whatever was below the vessel. The walls of the bridge were lined in stations for pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies alike. The pegasi flitted about the ceiling, fiddling with knobs and screens that the other two races couldn’t operate, while the rest of the crew went from screen to screen, the unicorns charging them with magic and the earth ponies monitoring the technical gibberish displayed. The captain’s position was a raised section in the very middle of the bridge that had a single magical projection hovering in front of it. Cutter lit his horn, causing the image to change from a diagram of the ship to an image of the magical leyline drive that powered the ship.
“Bring shielding up and spool up the drive. I want an immediate report on the Nox levels and status of the antennae.” Cutter looked like a natural, giving orders on the captain’s pedestal. Once he was done with his orders, he turned back to us. “Now, I have to ask what’s up with your armor. It’s not exactly standard issue.”
“Changelings aren’t really a standard enemy, so standard armor doesn’t work against them.” Clear took the lead on this one. She had always been proud of the armor and the strings she had pulled to get her hooves on two sets of it. “One of their main avenues of attack is their teeth, so the angular design of the plating makes it harder for them to get a grip with their biters.” She ran a hoof over the plates on her legs, accentuating the sharp edges and box like design. “The inside is coated in a layer of dragon scales that carry and transmit a weak magical field between plates and uncovered regions of the body, which doesn’t really help with attacks but it stops splatter.”
“Changeling blood is hard to get out of fur?” Cutter asked with a bemused smile. I figured I would take this one for Clear, she just did a lot of the heavy lifting. I could stand to help out a little.
“Changeling blood and saliva is a toxic hallucinogen that can be absorbed through the skin.” Cutter’s smile dropped and his eyebrow raised. “It causes a breakdown of cognitive abilities behind a veil of vivid hallucinations. It is not something you want to come into contact with.”
“Okay, what about the helmets? Most have a hole for the horns, while yours are covered.” That was one of those things I often forgot about, the horn coverings. It was normal for Clear and I, as we had always been more careful with our magical appendages than most.
“Medical condition,” I responded. “We have a shared mana pool, and if one of our horns should break…” I tried not to think about it often, we had been told at a very young age that a broken horn for one of us would be catastrophic for the other, basically overloading the other twins’ system and causing an, and I quote, ‘unavoidable magic cascade that would fry any bio-magical entity nearby’. So we were a little more careful than most. “...it would be very bad.”
“That’s fascinating. So you’re twins?” Clear nodded enthusiastically. “I’ve heard of that before. What’s the technical name for it? It’s escaping me at the moment.”
“Banner-Hocks Syndrome,” Clear said with a smile. “It ain’t so bad. We just have to let the other one know if we’re going to be using the magic for something strenuous. When we were little and the surges hit, it would knock the other one out completely.” I didn’t like to mention that particular side effect, it only brought back more reasons why I was rejected from the guard.
“How long have you been doing this? Since the invasion four years ago?”
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I liked sharing our stories with Captain Cutter, even if Breach wasn’t too happy to do it. It’s fun to sit around and just talk to somepony who isn’t involved in the business. There had been so many odd occurrences and tense moments, that I’d become more than a little numb about how exciting it could be. It wasn’t until you saw how excited somepony else could get that you sorta realized how interesting life was.
“Captain Cutter, we are ready for takeoff. Moorings are free, propellers are ready and the balloon is sealed. On your word.” The voice came from one of the ponies at the front of the bridge who was looking at a smaller magical projection of the ship’s leyline drive. I looked to Cutter to see what he would do.
“Take us out.” The captain turned from us and focused on both the window and projection in front of him. “Set course for the river valley at the base of the mountain, prep scanners immediately and fill overflow tanks. I want to know what’s down there before we even get close.”
The ship started to slowly rise from its place in drydock. I trotted over to the giant window at the nose and looked to see what was happening. We were hovering maybe three feet off of the floor of the cave as the hulking vessel started to inch out of the cavern. To me it looked like a tight fit, like I could practically hear the balloon scraping the ceiling, but to everypony else on board it was business as usual. We broke the threshold and natural light poured into the bridge. It looked like the sun had broken through the clouds while we were inside, not that I would complain.
“What defensive capabilities does this ship have, Captain?” I heard Breach speak, but I focused on the sprawling green landscape below. Everything looked so tiny from up here, like tilt-shift photography almost. It was all so beautiful. “If we shake the bug’s nest and they somehow get out, they’re going to come for the ship.”
“In the event of an emergency, we can drop the drive core from the ship.” I turned around just in time to see the magic projection change from a view of some unintelligible numbers into a simulation of the core dropping from the ship. “Once it’s free, it will quickly destabilize and the unchained magic will detonate before it hits the ground.” The captain turned to look Breach in the eye. “I’ll only do that if the situation is inescapable, because it would eliminate both any Changelings in the area and yourselves.”
Well it was good to know there was a contingency. I appreciated that, even if it would lead to our death. I could really only hope that if it came to that, we would be dead already. From what I’ve heard, death by magical dematerialization is not a fun way to go.
I turned back to the window and tried to clear my head. I wanted to do this job, I really did, but there was still that worry of exactly no prep time, little to no intel, and very uneven odds. It was really starting to break through my overconfidence.
A single tap of a metal clad hoof against the floor alerted me to my brother’s presence beside me. That single audible tap was a greeting, one I returned. I watched him out the periphery of my vision, waiting for the conversation to begin.
It started with an arch of his right eyebrow, indicating a question. Then Breach shifted his weight ever so slightly so his back left hoof dragged across the metal. He was asking if I wanted to leave, if I was okay with just bailing out now. Leave it to him to read me that well from a distance.
I looked off to the right as if to examine something. Turning away from him as a negative to his question. I may have been apprehensive, but I wasn’t a coward or one to back out of an operation, no matter my own wariness.
Breach’s hoof stroked his chin, relaying that he was questioning my judgement. Yeah, that was just what he always did, questioned me when I was sure of something. It was like he was fishing for chinks in my armor. I didn’t cave like him, though.
“I’m going to look over the blueprints and try to formulate a plan.” I dropped our non-verbal communication and adopted a more cold and professional tone with him. “Feel free to join me, Breach.” I trotted off to the very back of the bridge, where a station laid dormant and there was free desk space.
“I think I missed something…” Cutter muttered from his pedestal as he tracked my movement. I ignored him and retrieved the folder from the inside of my armor. The contents spilled onto the desk and I grabbed the architectural blueprints to the house and looked them over.
It didn’t look like a ‘mansion’ per se, it was more akin to a small manor. Two floors; a foyer, study, library, and kitchen on the first and four bedrooms, three baths, and an unmarked room on the second. It could be done with a standard sweep, but the only thing I was worried about was the missing blueprint for the basement. There was a marked stairway leading down to it, but no plans to it. That was disconcerting, as Changelings preferred to set up in dark and dry locations, so flying blind into a basement wasn’t the most ideal situation.
“It looks like the front door is the best means of ingress.” Breach stood over me and tapped the blueprints. “As long as we barrier the windows and other doors, of course.” That was the standard procedure, yeah. It was also the plan we had talked about back in Shining Armor’s office.
“I’m thinking we sweep the east wing first, where the library and study are. If there’s enough cover in the library it would be a good hiding spot for the bugs.” It was a big house, and splitting up would usually be ideal, but considering Changelings’ penchant for trickery and ganging up on opponents, that was a bad idea. Instead we would stick together.
“I say we seal off each room after we clear it, make sure we don’t have to check it again.” I nodded at Breach’s suggestion. It would take a little more magic to seal off every room, but hopefully we wouldn’t need to check every room before we found all of the problem monsters.
“Had the same thought.” I concurred with him. I pointed at the stairs in the diagram that led to the basement. “One problem is we don’t have any information on the basement, and if there’s one place I don’t want to go into blind it’s there.” I looked to Breach and studied his face to look for any sign of what he was thinking. To most it would look like he was his usual stoic self, but I knew better. The slightly twitching pupils and subtle lip bite let me know that he was worried about it as well.
“That’s a problem.” Breach came to the same conclusion I had. “I don’t like it, but I think we will have to wing it.” Winging it wasn’t exactly a good way to come out of a situation unscathed. My brother may see me as reckless, but I appreciated the art of tactics and planning just as much as he did. I knew that winging it, even while doing everything right in the process, was dangerous.
“Yeah, figured we would save that for last.” I kept the idea in the back of my head, that despite our rather solid plan, we were still flying into this woefully unprepared. No training in mockups, no second looks, no second guessing. This time right here was all we had, and it scared the hell out of me.
“Sir, we’ve arrived just above the target.” A pony near the front of the bridge called back to the Captain. I stood up from my spot, stuck the folder full of plans inside of my chestpiece and proceeded to the front of the bridge, where I could look below through the glass.
Far below the Deep Pulse, I could barely make out a pitch black roof peeking out between a thick canopy of trees. A winding trail snaked its way through several of the breaks in the green cover, leading from the river itself to the front door of the house. The mansion itself looked relatively intact with no signs of abandonment, as far as I could tell from so high up. At least the roof looked solid, so that was one less thing we had to worry about.
“I’ll escort you both down to the cargo bay.” Cutter stepped down from his pedestal and turned towards the pony who had announced their arrival. “Gator, you have the conn.” The pony nodded as the captain started towards the door. “There’s a transport waiting to take you down. My ponies are already connecting the transport tethers to the ground as we speak.”
“Excuse me, Captain.” Breach addressed Cutter as we both made our way over to his side. “I just thought of something: how are you supposed to get status updates to us while we’re on the ground? It’s not as if we can just send a raven back and forth.” Breach’s question caught me by surprise. I had completely forgotten about that. How were we supposed to stay updated?
“Right!” Cutter reached into the breast pocket of his uniform with his magic and withdrew two metallic objects. “I nearly forgot about that, thank you for reminding me.” That was almost a disaster, hell it was almost catastrophic. “Sub-thaumatic transmitters. They pick up on a certain magical frequency that ponies normally can’t and transmit the data on the wavelength into sound. Put one in your ear and we’ll be able to stay in contact with you the whole way.”
Breach and I glanced at each other and silently agreed upon the next few actions. We took off our helmets, lifted the devices in our magical auras and implanted the small buds in our right ears. It was uncomfortable to say the least, like when you get a fly buzzing around in your ear and it just stays still long enough to piss you off.
“We’ll test the connection when you get to ground.” We followed Cutter and put on our helmets as we went. I struggled to keep my ear from twitching in an attempt to dislodge what was now firmly inside of it. It was a hard fought battle, but one I ultimately won.
Our group snaked its way through the dimly lit corridors of the vessel until we came across a fairly open area. Steel beams slanted from the corners to the ceiling. The floor in the middle of the room was open to the ground below and a giant metal basket sat on its edge. The basket itself was connected to a giant metal wire that was hooked directly onto the ceiling of the bay. If I had to guess, it was supposed to be used to deliver oversized cargo to and from the ship.
“We’ll remain in constant contact and track you through the whole thing.” The captain gave a stiff salute, which both Breach and I returned gladly. “Good luck down there.”
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I rolled my neck, several bones popping and cracking as I did so. The stress and nerves of this operation had built up around my neck and shoulders, something that I did not need at the moment. I needed to be limber and ready to strike, poised to act on a moment’s notice.
The gears on the wired trolley fired up and started to reel the metal box back up into the belly of the Deep Pulse. Briefly, the only thing I saw was our only mode of escape from this slipping away. I still had my reservations about this whole thing, I still thought this the king of all bad ideas.
[Come in Breach and Clear. Can you hear me?]
The captain spoke directly into my ear. I looked around for a split second before remembering the transmitters he had given us. It would take some getting used to, but for now it was just pleasant to have another friendly voice around.
“Loud and clear, Cutter.” The informality of Clear slightly infuriated me. Air Cutter was an officer in the Navy, and he deserved every bit of respect his title afforded him. ‘Captain Cutter’ would have been fine, but ‘Cutter’ just seemed too informal and disrespectful.
[Good. Our sensors are indicating movement inside of the manor. First floor judging from the readings, about ten signatures at the moment. Lots of movement.]
“Understood. We’ll be careful, Captain.” I motioned for Clear to start moving towards the mansion. The ship had dropped us off far enough from the house that we would not disturb anything by communicating verbally, but close enough that it wasn’t that much of a walk.
From above, the area had looked attractive and secluded, perhaps a nice hideaway to get away from the rabble of the city above on the mountain. On the ground it was a different story. Once cared for topiary had become part of the tangled greenery that covered everything. Previously elegant statues that guarded the main path were chipped or crumbled from age and wear.
The front of the mansion itself was flanked by two old and towering oaks. The once pure white edifice had been stained by time and the elements, the paint chipping away on the corners and near the windows and doors. The windows themselves were all either broken or missing entirely, an obvious problem for the mission ahead. This proud home had been abandoned some time ago and left to fend for itself against the elements of the universe.
We trotted up the path, heads on swivels and eyes watching every shadow and sign of movement suspiciously. I knew what the captain had reported, but I just didn’t trust his sensors one-hundred percent. Changelings were tricksters by nature, and if they had even an inkling about how that ship functioned I bet they had a way around it.
[Movement has ceased and signals have stopped. It looks like they disappeared into the basement from the schematics. Our sensors aren’t strong enough to detect them underground. I’ll alert you when they resurface.]
That’s what I was worried about, but I had been too worried about the answer to question Captain Cutter aboard the ship. We really were going to be blind in the basement when it came down to it. Blind with a dozen possibly hostile Changelings and underprepared? It did not look good for us.
I felt a tugging at the base of my skull, a little pull from the magical tether that kept Clear and I connected. It was our way to get the attention of the other twin, use enough magic to alert the other that something needed to be said. I turned my head just in time to see Clear bow her head so her horn was pointing at the door and then she tapped her head silently with a hoof.
‘They know’ was the simple translation. While I wouldn’t be surprised if the Changelings inside had caught wind of our presence and decided to hide, I doubted it. Changelings were creatures of routine and pack mentality. If their internal clocks had told them it was time to go back to their nest, they would’ve all gone together and suddenly. Best to go with caution, though.
I clenched my jaw and drew a line in the dirtied concrete with my hoof, signalling that we should be absolutely quiet. She nodded in response and put a hoof to the door. As the metal of her armor came into contact with the wood, green sparks flew from the meeting spot and caused Clear to retract her hoof quickly.
I lit up my horn and doused it quickly, letting her know that it was magic. Something had put a spell on the door to keep it sealed. Clear nodded in agreement and took a step back from the door. From what I could see, the armor on her hoof was thoroughly blackened by contact with the barrier, but not damaged.
I stepped closer to the door and lit my horn. I may not have been the one talented with combat magic, but I knew more than a few things about locks and protection spells. This one was fairly common in Changeling hideouts, used to stop intruders from coming in and anything else from getting out. It was usually put up when they knew a raid was coming.
The slight pull at the base of my horn alerted me to Clear’s magic use. I turned just in time to witness her lift a stone and chuck it at one of the windows above the front door. Instead of crashing through the glass, it hit a once invisible barrier and harmlessly bounced off. That was not routine, usually they just barred the doors. Hesitantly, I stepped away from the door and fired a short pulse of magic at the siding of the house. Just like the rock and Clear’s hoof, the magic evaporated against a magical fortification. The only difference is that the whole thing felt the impact and a ripple was sent across the entirety of the field. This covered the entire house, top to bottom.
[Is there a problem? You’ve stopped moving.]
I heard Clear sigh audibly at the Captain’s voice. I too wished to be generally left alone while trying to figure something out. This did not warrant an intervention or a status update, it was simply an oddity.
“Changeling barrier around the entire house. We have to work our way through it. Requesting communications blackout for everything except crucial intelligence updates.” I did not wish to be bothered with inane chatter or questions. If we had a problem, I would contact the Deep Pulse and request assistance myself.
[We read you. Going silent.]
I signalled for Clear to come up to the door with me once the communications had ceased. She did so quickly and waited for my plan. I motioned towards the barrier blocking our path and shook my head. Our tested tactic of overloading the shield with magic wouldn’t work on something of this size, especially since it maintained its perceived strength across the entire structure. Instead, I drew my sword from its sheath on my side and held it firmly in my teeth. The barrier had done nothing but scorch the metal armor, so perhaps I could create some leverage in it with my sword. I pointed towards my sister’s horn and spread my hooves apart wide. She needed to grasp onto whatever hole I created and force the barrier open.
After an affirmative nod, I plunged my blade into the barrier. Green magic sparked from the field as my blade connected, but it did not snap or shatter my weapon. It took considerable force, but my sword pierced through the barrier and created a minute opening.
Clear acted quickly and grasped the miniscule open space between the sword and the magic blocking our way. She closed her eyes and concentrated, forcing the opening wider inch by inch. It took less than thirty seconds until there was a hole wide enough to even consider going through. Once satisfied, I withdrew my blade and carefully crept through the portal, opening the front door as I did so.
Once on the other side, I looked to my sister to let her know I was ready. Without any hesitation, she let her magic die and allowed me to take over. My horn snapped to life and held the opening exactly where she had been doing it. Despite just starting on the task, the exhaustion that Clear had accumulated was passed onto me. I strained to keep it open for a brief few seconds, but once Clear was through I let it close with an electrifying zap.
She patted me on the back and gave me a reassuring smile, something I needed at the moment without a doubt. I shook off the wear the collective magic use had put on me and instead focused on the area around me. We were actually inside now, we were officially in danger with every step we took.
The interior of the manor matched the exterior; dilapidated, unkempt, uncared for, and forgotten. Once rich wooden floors were dull and scratched from dust and creatures scurrying across them, pedestals that once likely held artifacts and art pieces were left vacant and cracked. A steady drip of water came from somewhere inside and flowed freely down the grand staircase that flared in the middle of the foyer. Engraved doors hung off their hinges, creaking and swaying ever so slightly as a draft passed through the home.
I kept my sword in my mouth, not willing to sheath it until the mission was done. We slowly trotted across the foyer, watching every doorway and shadow as if it would jump out and carry us away. Every squeaky floorboard sent my nerves over the edge, every errant sound that came from the bowels of the house made me want to exit the building with each passing moment.
Something was not right here, there should be a sign of Changeling occupation. Normally they would have their iridescent green slime coating the corners of rooms, sacs for potential victims ready and waiting for an innocent pony. Instead there was nothing, just an abandoned house.
As we made our way across the foyer and to the east wing hall, a skittering noise caught my attention. It was quick and light, like chitin striking wood, like cockroaches in the walls. Clear must have heard it as well, as her horn sparked to life.
We turned the corner to look down the hall and saw two doors adjacent to each other opened wide. One was precariously hanging on by the thread of a screw, the library’s door if I remembered the blueprints correctly. A shadow placed across the surface, the caster being somewhere inside of the room.
Clear tapped on my shoulder and pointed at the door. I nodded and advanced slowly down the hall. I made sure to be careful, avoiding any cracked or semi-torn up floorboards to reduce the noise I produced.
My heart caught in my throat as the shadow disappeared from the door. I stopped dead and waited, waited for the bug to jump out of the room and leap at me. I waited for a fight. It never came, though. A few tense moments later and I started towards the door once again. As we inched closer, a very faint sound of a crackling fire came from the room.
In that moment, I relaxed. The library had a fireplace and the Changeling was cold, it was the logical explanation. I had gotten caught up in the moment and forgot that at the end of all of this these creatures still deserved some amount of our sympathy. They deserved a cautious approach, but they did not deserve my fear.
With that in mind, I advanced on the door with renewed confidence that I could talk the creature down. I could negotiate and make the changeling come in peacefully, without the usual beatings or bludgeonings. I needed to show Clear that killing wasn’t necessary for this operation if we could just be patient and cooperative.
I turned the corner, the blunt side of my blade ready in case the creature did attack unprovoked. Across the room a busted fireplace had a roaring fire going inside. The elegant flames silhouetted our target, who was curled up in front of the fire. It looked different from a normal changeling though, at least from what I could tell from the silhouetted visage. Mainly through the absence of a horn protruding from its head. My first thought was that it was disguised, but that notion quickly vanished.
The thing rose to its hooves and turned, alerted to our presence by something. What stood there was not a changeling, nor was it a pony. What should have been thick black chitin was a semi-transparent shell that allowed an obfuscated view of the internals of the creature, its guts and organs pulsing and jiggling within the sickly casing. The head was the right shape, but had a hole in the crown of its head in place of a horn and its dull yellowed eyes removed all similarities to anything normal. The final thing I noticed as the grotesque abomination came into full view was the very full mouth it possessed. Most changelings had two primary fangs and a few more teeth situated towards the back of the mouth; this one had rows of sharpened enamel coating it’s saliva-dripping jaws.
“What in Celestia’s name…” Clear said from behind me. It was a sentiment I shared, but could not bring myself to utter. I was in shock, plain and simple. I couldn’t move, even as the creature flared spiny twigs that were once its wings, I couldn’t think.
It wasn’t until the monstrosity leapt at me that my brain started working again. My training kicked in and my reflexes went into action. I sturdied my stance and brought the blunt of my weapon to bear. The swing of my blade caught the creature in the mouth, shattering some of the teeth with a sickening crack. The deformed changeling flew back from the hit, slamming into the bricking of the fireplace. The translucent casing of the creature allowed me to see the visceral consequences of the impact, as one of the organs towards its back punctured and began to fill the creature with a thick green liquid.
The creature got back to its hooves somehow, despite the obvious internal injuries. To anything else that would have been crippling pain, but this creature shrugged it off and assumed a combative stance. I adjusted my sword, flipping it so the next blow I dealt would be lethal. Whatever this thing was, it was much softer than a normal changeling. My sword, or even Clear’s magic, would make quick work of it.
The monstrosity leapt at me again. I brought my blade across my body and sliced the beast as it soared through the air. Instead of hitting the body, the creature had shifted in midair and made me catch it’s front right hoof. Once the extremity had been severed from its host, the stump spewed the viscous green liquid that was filling up its body cavity. The spray caught me in the face, the built in magic field keeping it off of my skin but not stopping it from obscuring my vision.
Before I could react, even to wipe the gunk from my face, the abomination vaulted through the air and knocked me to the ground. I tried to keep my sword firmly in my grasp, but it was the first thing the deformed changeling went for. Its more powerful jaws tore it from my own.
“CLEAR!” I shouted, now defenseless. My hooves found purchase on the body of my assailant. The pressure I exerted caused the soft and rubbery exoskeleton of the creature to give but not break. I tried to hold back the thoughts of a blood filled balloon, but found that I could not.
Where my sight was lacking, my sense of hearing picked up. The thing on top of me was snapping its jaws, attempting to get a bite of me. If Clear didn’t hurry up, it would be successful. I tried to push it off with all of my might, but only succeeded in letting my hooves slip out of position.
That was its chance. My hooves slipped, the creature acted. Before I knew what was happening the feeling of dozens of razor-like teeth penetrating the backside of my foreleg, where my armor did not cover, rushed through my body. I struggled and let out a blood curdling scream, which caused the creature to clamp its jaws down tighter on my flesh.
It was at that moment that I heard the charging of a spell. A small *pop* went through the room as a burst of magic found the creature's abdomen. I could see just enough to make out the internal organs of the monster rupturing, the thick green blood pouring out violently from both the entry wound and the guts of the thing. Its jaw loosened, but the pain did not relent.
I pushed the corpse of the changeling off of myself with my good forehoof and rolled over onto my stomach. I fired up my horn and used my magic to wipe away the gunk that had accumulated on my helmet’s magical visor. When I saw my hoof, I nearly passed out.
Crimson blood flowed from innumerable punctures in my skin, staining my usually blue coat a dark red. I probed one cautiously with my magic to see how deep the wound went, and the answer was deeper than I needed them to be.
“Not good…” I muttered. I attempted to put pressure on it, but found the act extremely painful. In a pinch, I could probably walk on it. For now though, I was crippled.
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I stared at the body of the sick changeling, my mind glassed over with a flurry of destructive thoughts. I had just killed a living thing, again. Just like last time, just like the last op. I thought I had gotten over it, I thought that I was some kind of killer now. I thought so wrong.
The trauma of murdering another living thing, no matter what species, stays with you. After everything went to shit last month and I had killed those changelings, it messed me up a lot. A lot more than I had admitted to Breach, and a lot more than I let show. You don’t just move past that, you don’t just forget the life leaving their eyes or the last gasps of air. No matter how much you were told to hate them.
I had done the right thing this time, right? Last time, I acted without thinking, but this time Breach needed my help. This thing had hurt him, I needed to do something. I needed to help my brother.
‘Did you need to kill it?’ asked the traitorous voice in my head, spurring more questions. Could I have disabled it without a killshot? Could I have used a concussive spell to blast it away? Could I have just levitated it off of him? If so, why hadn’t I? Why did I decide to kill it?
“Clear.” Breach groaned out as he took to his three good hooves. His dangling blood-soaked hoof held high off of the ground. “Clear, you alright?” I expected him to yell at me for not doing something sooner, for not acting quicker. I needed him to get mad at me, not sympathetic and worrying.
“Yeah.” I nodded and tore my eyes off of the lifeless body I had created. “Yeah, yeah, I’m good.” I cleared my throat and mentally reset myself, quickly crossing the distance between us and gingerly taking his injured leg in my magic. “You, though. I don’t think you’re okay.” I examined the wound, trying to push the image of the once-alive creature that caused them out of my mind. “Those are deep…”
[What’s happened? We’re getting some kind of interference. Didn’t catch what you were saying.]
“We ran into…something,” Breach started out as I identified all of his wounds and began to slip slivers of magic into each of them. “It attacked us and took a bite out of my leg.” All at once I caused the magic in the bite wounds to heat up, cauterizing them. Breach grit his teeth and tensed up all of the muscles in his body in response.
[Our sensors didn’t pick up anything. What was it?]
“Yeah, we know you didn’t pick it up!” I shot back angrily. I looked back at Breach’s wounds and decided they were properly closed for now. With that done, and not wanting to hear anymore of Cutter’s bullshit, I took the little transceiver from my ear and threw it on the ground. I didn’t need to deal with him right now.
“It looked like a sick changeling. Discolored, exoskeleton not fully formed, and missing its horn and wings. It attacked on sight, and was very aggressive.” Breach spoke to the captain, now a conversation I was not part of. “Yes, Captain, my thoughts exactly.”
As the two stallions carried on their little talk, I helped Breach to his hooves. He placed pressure on his injured leg and winced, but fought to stay on all fours. He nodded, letting me know he was good to stand on his own. I relinquished my grip and stood back, watching my brother take a few tentative steps on his own.
“Yes, captain. We will alert you if we run into any more of these things.” Breach sighed and looked at me. I could see the internal debate he was having whether or not to speak out loud so the captain could hear him, or to keep it silent. He chose the second option and motioned around the room with his bad hoof, rotating his head as he did so. He wanted to search the library some more.
In response I put my hoof to my temple and gave it a little spin, letting him know that he was crazy. I didn’t want to run into another one of those things, and he wasn’t fit to fight. I wanted to move on and find the changelings we were here for, not those other things.
He pointed at the seeping corpse in the middle of the floor and then his hoof, finally he pointed towards the direction of Canterlot. He was right, sadly, we couldn’t let whatever the hell these things were get out this close to Canterlot.
I shrugged, unable to come up with a cogent argument. I just-I really didn’t want to do that. I didn’t feel like killing these things any more today. I didn’t feel like murder. Without a way to tell him no, I sighed and followed him.
Despite my hesitation, my training kicked in and my horn lit up. Every bookshelf was checked, every corner was cleared and every cranny was canvassed as we made our way across the room. It wasn’t until we were at the opposite end of the library that we came across something.
It was a gruesome sight. Two bookcases were toppled over at the end of their rows, bright blue blood splattered across the tomes that were dislodged from their places. The body of a normal changeling, or at least what was left of one, was on the floor next to the bookcases. Its carapace was torn open along its belly and viscera was strewn about. The lifeless eyes were staring ahead, and a scream permanently etched onto its features. I turned away and tried to push the image out of my head.
Breach tapped me on the shoulder, making me turn around. I tried to make eye contact with only him and not look at the corpse. He pointed towards the other body in the room, the sick changeling, and then back to the normal changeling. He thought that the thing that attacked us killed this one.
A thought struck me. I lit up my horn and created a thin barrier in front of myself and then pointed towards the sick bug’s body. Morphing my magic, I made a biohazard sign. I really hoped my hunch wasn’t right, but with this new development it seemed more and more likely that this place was made to contain these other changelings. It seemed more and more like a prison as more seconds went by.
And we were inside of it.
Breach cocked his head and tapped his ear where the transceiver was lodged. That wasn’t a signal we had, so I guessed he was trying to pick up a signal on the little magical device. He shrugged and looked at me, rolling his eyes. I guess it was more interference from the Deep Pulse.
The sound of hooves hitting hardwood floors made us both shoot our heads up. A soft clicking made us realize it was something we were used to, an actual changeling. It was trying to communicate, most likely trying to find its now-dead companion. If I had to guess, they were the guards of this prison.
“What?” Breach touched his ear again and whispered. “Of course, captain. I just think it would be a better idea to canvass the upper level first and then deal with the basement.” A pause to get a response followed. “I do not believe that splitting up is a good idea, no matter how pressing.” I blinked, surprised that the captain would even suggest such a thing. That wasn’t a good idea, especially in this place. No matter if it was a prison or not, it was a danger to go anywhere alone. “Very well.”
I looked at Breach, he pointed in the direction of the changeling and lifted his hooves in a mock walking motion. He wanted us to follow the damn thing. Out of all of the stupid ideas I had ever heard, that was one of the dumbest. You didn’t follow changelings, you didn’t try to out-subterfuge changelings, and you didn’t go into a place you had no plans for.
So I shook my head adamantly.
Breach pulled me around one of the bookcases as the changeling passed by. Our eyes followed the creature as it passed by silently, it went around the next bookcase where its deceased coworker was.
The sound it produced was equivalent to a sigh, like it almost expected its cohort to win over the sickened counterpart. We stayed silent and still as the changeling chittered something out in its indecipherable language. It passed by once again, it’s sky blue eyes narrowed into angry slits.
Breach turned and poked me in the neck,, and then pointed his hoof at the ground. He wanted me to stay here, simple enough. He then pointed at himself and then the passing changeling. He wanted us to split up? In here?
I shook my head and motioned to his wounded leg and the green oozing corpse we had produced earlier. That was such a bad idea, that was a bad idea beyond bad ideas. If one of those things caught him off guard, it would be the end. He couldn’t fight back at full strength, he couldn’t leverage his sword properly anymore.
Without another word, Breach lit up his horn and produced a shimmering field around himself. I could feel my own magic growing weaker as the field turned from shimmering to solid and reflected the scenery around him. To anypony looking on he was invisible, and it was a good idea, if it didn’t leave me defenseless.
“I’ll be right back, I promise. I’m just going to scout it out and come right back once I see what’s in the basement. Once I leave, just barricade yourself in here. Stay safe.” I sighed, realizing he wasn’t going to budge. Somehow the captain had stuck this idea in his head and it wasn’t going to budge now.
I nodded reluctantly and prepared to be alone with two corpses for however long it took.
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I will admit that it wasn’t my brightest idea, but the captain had been adamant about finding out what was down there. Was I just supposed to ignore such a request? Especially when I was told that he could use my aura to map out the basement area. It was an opportunity I felt I had to take.
I followed the changeling out of the library, being careful of my hooves and placement thereof. We trekked through the halls, myself invisibly and the changeling cautiously. It was interesting to see a changeling not being threatening, but instead scared.
As we went, I followed its gaze, it was looking at every rogue shadow as if it was a potential assailant. A strangely adequate mirror to my own mannerisms when going through the place. Fow now, I felt safe in knowing that I was invisible to most things.
{You’re getting closer}
It was good to get a progress update from Captain Cutter. I hadn’t studied the blueprints as closely as Clear had, so I will admit that I wasn’t sure where exactly where the entrance to the basement was.
I followed the changeling to the end of the hall, where it lit up its horn with a brilliant green light and opened a door. On the other side was a staircase that descended into an inky black nothingness. These bugs had all kinds of natural sensors built in that could help it navigate where it couldn’t see, I was not so lucky. I would have to follow closely and still try to avoid detection.
{You’ll be fine down there. It will all be fine.}
The soothing effect of the captain’s voice was odd to say the least. Obediently, I trotted down the stairs and followed the changeling into the abyss. Each step brought me farther from the light, each step away from my sister made my magic and invisibility weaker. Luckily for me, I wouldn’t need such a spell where nothing could be seen. If the bug had not spotted me yet, it wouldn’t spot me down here.
{Deeper and deeper you come. Closer and closer to me.}
I shook my head at the voice. That wasn’t right, that wasn’t Captain Cutter. This was all wrong. I looked away from the abyss and back up to the lit doorway. Why was I doing this? This was a very bad idea, I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be away from Clear in a place like this, I should’ve never left her alone.
I turned around and began my ascent up the stairs. I needed to get back to Clear and away from whatever was down there. I eagerly went up the stairs, uncaring of sound and only caring about reuniting with my sister. I threw the door open and made my way into the hall.
{DO NOT LEAVE!}
The voice screamed into my mind. A part of my mind wanted me to turn back, wanted me to go back and listen to the voice. I knew I couldn’t, though. I was stronger than that. I galloped down the hall and into the main room.
{Stop him!}
Without warning I heard the all too familiar sound of changeling wings. One of the chitinous creatures landed in front of me, baring its fangs menacingly. I reached for my sword with my magic, only for another one of the changelings to leap onto my back. I bucked wildly to get it off, but only succeeded in opening myself for the one in front of me.
Before I knew how many of them there were, I was piled on to by them. Each one forcing me further and further down until I was encased in a mound of buzzing and snapping violence.
I did the only thing that I could.
I screamed.
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My ears perked up at the sound of Breach’s cry. I raced over to the door and pushed the bookcase I had maneuvered in front of it out of the way. My mind and heart raced as thoughts of what was happening to him came and went. Breach wasn’t one to scream like that, he wasn’t one to get in over his head. He wasn’t supposed to be the one who did the stupid things.
Why did I let him go? Why didn’t I stand up to him? Why had this mess turned me weak? Why did it only take one dead body for me to collapse into uselessness?
All of those questions bounced around my head like so many games of pinball as I barrelled my way down the hall and into the foyer. When I got there I saw a swarm of changelings as black as night carrying the unconscious body of my brother to the other side of the open atrium. My eyes widened and my legs locked. There was no way I could take them all on, no chance in Tartarus. So what was I supposed to do?
“Breach!” I yelled out, hoping that he was close enough to consciousness to hear me. Maybe he would wake up, maybe together we could fight them off and get out of here. Instead I only got a dozen pairs of blue eyes to look back at me.
Instead of attacking me, they just turned back to their destination and kept moving. It was then that my legs decided to start working again and let me pursue them. I was halfway across the room when they disappeared into a door at the opposite end of the hall, letting it slam close behind them.
I slammed into the door with all of my weight, hoping the aged wood would splinter and let me through. Instead it only shimmered bright green and tossed me right back to the ground. I got right back up and fired a few furtive blasts of magic at the barrier. They bounced off of the shimmering shield harmlessly.
“Breach!” I called again as I slammed a hoof into the green menace blocking my way. This was all my fault! I should’ve been stubborn about him not going along! I should’ve saved him from that monster in the library sooner! I should’ve listened to him about not taking this job! I should’ve not botched the last job!
I fell to the floor, a sobbing mess. It was all my fault. I had wanted to prove myself, to show that I wasn’t as foalish as he thought. I wanted to show him that we could do something my way without it screwing up. It was all my fault.
I was drawn out of my misery by a growl coming from behind me. I snapped my head toward the direction of the noise and saw another one of those things standing in the hall. Its dead looking yellow eyes studied me as its packed mouth let loose a low growl. The sickly looking creature stepped closer to me, flaring the twigs on its back that used to be wings.
I took a step back, only to be met with the barrier on the door. I was trapped. I was at a dead end with my only escape being through something that had bested my brother not fifteen minutes ago. With nowhere to go, I flared up my weakened magic and got ready for a fight. I couldn’t use any of my good spells, nothing that would be effective. Breach was too far away for that.
The creature leapt at me, and as it did so I created a barrier underneath its body and pushed it into the ceiling. I didn’t stick around to see how badly it injured the thing, instead I beat hooves and ran under the monster as it fell.
My first thought was to go back to the library and set up a barricade until I could figure out a plan to save. Maybe I could get my radio thing back and call Cutter. My plan was cut short by another one of the diseased changelings coming out of the door opposite the library. Without stopping, I skidded around the corner and into the foyer. I had one last option to escape, and that would be going up.
I cut sharply and headed up the staircase that led to the upper floor. Behind me, the sound of multiple hooves bearing down on me only pushed me to go faster. Without thinking of the blueprints, I cut left and entered the first door I saw that wasn’t splintered or hanging off of its hinges.
I slammed the door behind me and tipped a cabinet that had been resting beside the door over on its side to prevent the abominations from coming in behind me. I pressed my body against the overturned cabinet and dug my hooves into the carpet. The monsters on the other side threw themselves into the door, their soft bodies making light impacts against the sturdy wood. That did not relax me, the fact that the door was holding did not calm my nerves.
Once the onslaught on the door had stopped, I slumped against the cabinet and just stopped doing everything. I stopped thinking, I stopped moving, I stopped crying. I just...I stopped. What could I do? I was powerless, I was alone, I couldn’t contact Cutter, and I was trapped in a room by monsters.
With no more tears to shed, I picked myself up off of the ground and looked around the room I was now stuck in. From what I could tell, it was the unmarked room from the blueprints. Now its purpose showed, it was some kind of trophy room for the previous inhabitant.
Trophies and medals were strewn across every cabinet and available free space on the walls. Littered around the room were cases with various types of equipment; from pool cues and baseball bats to rapiers and even a specialized gryphon firearm in a locked case.
No single pony could be gifted with all of these things, or even know how to use some of the more exotic things here. This house belonged to a collector, who bought and hoarded rare objects and weapons. Maybe that was good news for me, if I knew how to use any of the weapons here. The swords and sabers were Breach’s specialty, and firearms were banned in Equestria. Nopony knew how to use them, not even those of us who were trained in combat.
“Why did it have to be magic?” I muttered as I wandered about the room, taking in all of the possibilities. Most of them either required talent I lacked or magic I didn’t have at the moment. Each and every realization of my situation just sunk my mind further into a downward spiral of depression. I was stuck in here with a bunk special talent and no plan.
I trotted over to the window in hopes of seeing the Deep Pulse. Instead I only realized that the room I was in was facing the back of the house while the ship was out front. In place of the sight I wanted, I was left with the view of a sprawling and dense forest. The silence and serenity of the forest soothed my nerves a little, enough to barely clear my mind.
I once again sighed and raised my head to the ceiling. I had been looking for an answer in the beams, and instead I found a solution. Hanging there by ropes most likely as old as me, was a rusted ship cannon. The old piece of iron swayed gently back and forth from its anchored points.
My mind lit up with various ideas. Maybe I could stack the cabinets and load the thing and use it to blast a hole in the side of the house, that would let me get outside and contact Cutter. Or maybe I could get it down and blast away the messed up changelings on the other side of the door.
Even though I knew our connection didn’t work that way, I still felt like Breach was yelling at me in my head. He was badgering me about unrealistic plans and thinking too lofty about simple problems. With that in mind I took a deep breath and thought about everything about my problem, about what I knew and how it all fit together.
I knew that right now Breach was somewhere in the basement. I knew that right now I was trapped in a second-story room that I couldn’t escape from through the door or window. What’s more, I knew that I was in a room filled to the brim with pointed weapons, a few firearms, and a stupidly large cannon hanging from very old ropes.
Plus, I had something very helpful on my side: the blueprints to the house that I stashed inside my armor while on the ship. I quickly pulled the folder out of my chestpiece with what little magic I had and laid it on the floor. Quickly, I located this unmarked room on the blueprints and looked at the corresponding location on the first floor.
I nearly burst out laughing at the stupid luck of it all. The room I was in was above the stairway leading to the basement, like right above it. If I could break through the floor in the right place somehow, I could bypass the barrier and get down to the basement without a fight.
My eyes drifted up to the cannon hanging precariously from the ceiling.
“Well, turns out the universe doesn’t hate me entirely. That’s nice to know,” I muttered as I looked exactly where the cannon would fall if I managed to cut all the ropes at once. It wasn’t dead center in the room, but it was close. Only question was if that’s where the stairway was. Eye-balling it by way of the blueprints didn’t really help, as it looked like the stairway wasn’t in the center of the room. The only way to figure out for certain would to break through the floor until I found what I was looking for.
With a plan and renewed confidence, I began to look around the room. Every few feet I would stomp as hard as I could and listen. I knew from the blueprints that the staircase had no rooms on either side of it, so the only hollow noise I received back would be my way through.
It took longer than I expected to find the stairway, far too long if I was honest. Aside from taking up time, it also provided more questions than solutions. The damn thing was near one of the far edges of the room. The only way I could get the cannon over there would be either a lot of magic I didn’t have or luck.
I would have to settle for luck.
I broke some of the display cases until I found a bladed weapon that wasn’t dulled to the point of being a shiny club. The only one I found was a staggeringly beautiful dagger with a pearl hilt and a diamond mounted in the blade. It would have to do.
What else would have to do was my current power level. There was nothing I could use to reach the ropes, so I was going to have to rely on what little magic I had to either levitate the blade or fling it with enough accuracy to snap the two ropes on the side I needed to so it would swing and hopefully snap the other two at just the right time to land in just the spot I needed so it would break the floor and let me into the basement.
Like I said, I was settling for luck. A lot of it. Considering the fact that I didn’t trust myself to levitate the blade long enough and at such a distance to do the work I needed, I was going to have to trust my marksmanship.
I did a few test throws, pushing my magic to its absolute limit to see just how much power I could put behind the little blade. It was a lot more than I anticipated, but I was still worried it wasn’t enough. I just closed my eyes and trusted in the process. It all made sense logically, I had planned it all out in my head just like Breach always said I should.
I took a lot of what Breach and I had for granted. We had an invisible connection beyond just our magical one, we could almost read each other's minds beyond our non-verbal communication. Every moment we spent together, there was never a time when we wondered what the other was thinking, there was never really any miscommunication between us. It was something special.
Right now, I could still feel him. That little pulse in the base of my horn let me know that he was still alive and closer than I thought. I knew what he was feeling right now too, he knew I was coming for him. He knew it would take me a while, but he knew I wouldn’t give up.
I narrowed my eyes in concentration at the two lines I needed to cut. I couldn’t do this too many times, I wasn’t strong enough for that. I had five tries at most to cut both of these things at once and hope for the best.
I summoned all of the magic I could and put it behind the knife, closing one of my eyes to get a better view of the target. I let the jeweled dagger fly and watched as in slow motion it sailed down the middle of the cannon, going nowhere close to the ropes. I sighed and retrieved the knife, frustrated with myself. My second attempt was far better than my first, the knife grazing one of the targets.
The third time, as they say, was the charm. The third time I sent that thing flying and watched as it sliced the two ropes in perfect and quick succession. What resulted was the absolute most ridiculous thing I had ever seen. The heavy iron weapon swung on the two remaining ropes, the two remaining connections snapped but not at the time I had hoped. Instead, they snapped too early and sent the damn thing rolling across the floor like the heaviest bowling ball in Equestria.
The cannon smashed through several display cases with reckless abandon until it came to rest against the wall where the stairway was under. There was a groan as the floorboards realized they could not handle the weight of pure iron and a sharp crack as they gave in. The resulting clang from metal hitting stone resonated throughout the entire room, causing several cabinets and cases to fall over and their glass to shatter.
Without much thought or hesitation, I jumped in the resulting hole and into the inky black darkness of the basement. Each step into the underground caused mine and Breach’s link to grow stronger. I could feel my magic coming back, I could feel my brother getting closer.
More importantly, I could feel my rage building. These changelings were going to pay for taking him away, they were going to be sorry for it. I didn’t care about their lives anymore, because I didn’t know what they were doing with Breach’s.
I lit my horn as I descended, I could actually afford to do that now. I reached the bottom of the stairs to find a normal looking cellar. Old wine racks coated the walls and casks littered the open floor. There were no telltale signs of a changeling habitat, no green goop covering the floors and walls, no pods for victims. More importantly, no changelings. They didn’t just disappear, they had to be somewhere nearby. Either they were stealthier than even I gave them credit for, or this was only the entrance to their hive.
It was the latter, go figure. Tucked in the far corner of the room was a hole barely bigger than myself carved into the rock that led into a dim passageway. They went through here, I could feel it. I could feel Breach getting ever closer.
Experimentally, I shot a blast of light into the tunnel, uncaring of possibly alerting whatever changelings were in there. I could handle them now, my magic was more than enough to deal with anything that could come at me through these tunnels. They were barely big enough for me to walk in, so I would at least be dealing with them one at a time.
From what I could see, the tunnels branched off in various ways, most likely creating a maze that only the changelings knew by heart. It would take time, and I just hoped I didn’t run into too much trouble along the way.
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‘Trouble’ was a foreign concept to me. Trouble meant getting caught telling a lie or taking something that wasn’t yours when you were little. Trouble meant somepony getting mad at you for something you did. My concept of trouble did not extend to being carried through tunnels by a horde of changelings.
When they had captured me, I had expected to be knocked out cold. Instead, I had found myself bound and gagged by the green slime the creatures naturally produced. There was no beatings or other harm administered to my body, either. Aside from piling on top of me to subdue me, they had been almost gentle. It was strange to say the least, as it wasn’t the behavior I knew changelings to exhibit.
I had studied the habits of these creatures. They didn’t take ponies places while still awake, instead they usually knocked their prey out and began constructing the pods immediately. I did not see a buildup of the green mucus around my body. So either my armor was preventing it, or they wanted me aware when we arrived at our destination. I hoped for the former, but I admit that the latter left me with a morbid curiosity.
I looked about as my procession made its way through the darkened catacombs they had carved into the rock below the manor. Most of the journey had been made in single file, as the tunnels were barely wide enough for me to fit through without my armor scraping the walls. Now though, it seemed to be opening up a bit. The changeling carrying me in its magic now had a companion at its side and both the beasts were chittering about something.
Soon enough, I found out exactly what they were talking about. The tunnel opened up into a large chamber of sorts with a gargantuan obsidian throne situated in the center of the room. The most distinguishing feature of the area was not the ostentatious throne, nor the currently occupied pods hanging about the domed ceiling. No, it was the Queen laying luxuriously on the gaudy seat, her eyes half lidded and a devious grin playing across her features.
I fought the bonds that held my limbs together and the magic that held my body in place. This was not good, in fact it was very bad! There had been no accounts of ponies surviving a changeling Queen encounter save for those at the wedding. Any other pony, especially contracted operators, who had run into one in the field had never come back. Their bodies were found later and only magical analysis determined it was a Queen.
I did not want to become a body to be discovered later!
I heard her menacing chuckle as I struggled against all that bound me to this place. I knew that I didn’t stand a chance even if I got free, even if I got my sword from the bug that took it, I was outmatched. If I could get into the tunnel system, though! If I could lose them in there and find my way out, I could escape and report this.
“Let him down.” The Queen beckoned her servants, and they complied. I didn’t hit the ground with a thud, but instead was placed gently on the cold and rocky floor. I looked up at the twisted royal above me, panic clearly in my eyes. “Remove his armor, I wish to get a better look at him.”
I felt acidic green magic tear at the straps and buckles that kept me safe. Each piece of my armor was torn away with no small amount of force until just my helmet was left. When one of the chitinous creatures was about to tear that off, the queen extended one of her lengthy limbs, staying her subject’s actions.
“I know your face.” The Queen’s muzzle was nearly pushed against mine as she spoke, her hot and rancid breath pouring across my face. I felt her magic envelope my helmet, and I got the feeling that she could crush my head right then and there if she so wanted. I could feel the power behind the magic, it was astounding. “I know your eyes…” My helmet was launched across the room at blinding speed, crumpling against the far wall as if it was aluminum instead of solid steel.
I closed my eyes and tried to strengthen my resolve. I couldn’t panic, no matter how right it felt. I couldn’t show this weakness in the moment when strength was more important than it had ever been. With great effort and indeterminable amounts of courage, I slowed my breath and opened my eyes to look the Queen dead on. Her slitted pupils studied my face, more malice than I had ever known being barely constrained by her green irises. I furrowed my brow and glared right back at her.
“You’re one of the hunters.” The Queen took to her full height, towering above me by what seemed like miles. Her front two hole-filled hooves were placed on either side of my head. “One of the ponies they send to find us, but you’re not one of the normal ones, are you?” The last few words she practically purred out. “You’re different.”
Her crooked and craggy horn lit up with the sickly green color and tore the slime from my mouth. I opened my mouth to speak, but found an oversized hoof placed on my chest. Pressure was applied until I felt as if my ribs would snap in half and my lungs would pop.
“You killed my children.” My jaw hung agape as the voice turned venomous and the Queen’s snake-like tongue slithered from between her teeth in anger. “My changelings died because of you!”
“I-it attacked me first!” I pleaded between gasps of strained breath. She pressed down harder on my chest until I felt one of the bones in my ribcage give in to the pressure and snap like a twig. I held back a scream as tears started pouring from my eyes. “Th-the thing upstairs, it-it was an accident! I-I wanted to talk to it, b-but it attacked me first!”
Just like that the hoof was lifted. I gasped for breath and attempted to feel my ribs with my constrained hooves. My attention was drawn away from my broken body by one of the most blood-curdling things I had ever heard: the changeling Queen laughed. She threw her head back, her mossy green mane flipping back, and laughed into the chamber.
“Those things are not my children, little pony.” She shook her head, her smile turning devilish once again. “They are failed changelings, deformed ferals that could not adapt to our way of life. I keep them as guard dogs. You killing one of them was a service to the hive if anything.” It was at that moment that I became aware of just how many drones were now in the chamber. Hundreds of pale blue eyes watched from the ceiling as their queen tortured me, their expressions blank and curious. “I am talking about my children in Baltimare! The ones you and your sister slaughtered!”
“H-how…?” That operation had been classified after the fact, the changelings who had been taken in peacefully were memory-wiped and the bodies of the deceased were burned. There should’ve been no way for somepony to know about it. “H-how did you know…?” If I was in danger before, I was dead to rights now.
“Do you think I am not connected to all of my children? Their thoughts, feelings, hunger and power all flow through me every moment of every day. I felt the two you exterminated as their life faded, I could see you in their last memories as they died.” My face went pale as the realization hit. There had always been speculation of a changeling hivemind, but it had never been proven. Even the ones we captured and relocated wouldn’t talk about it or even confirm its existence. It was real, and it was evidence of the lives we took.
“I-I understand.” I nodded and tried to think of what to say. It was said that a good way to ease tensions was to find common ground. I didn’t know if this would work, but it was the one shot I had. “M-my sister and I-” I stopped to cough, putting my bound front hooves over my ribs as I did so. “-we-we’re connected like that. We can sense each other-we can feel each other like that.” For some reason she was still letting me speak, so I kept going. “We didn’t mean to kill those changelings-i-it all just happened. One moment we’re in the house and have one of them cornered and ready to be taken in, and the next I have one on my back and-” I closed my eyes and let my head hit the floor. “-and I’m sorry.” I knew it meant nothing, I knew it was weak. It was all I had, though. All I had were my words and my life, and I was more willing to give up the first rather than the second.
“I care not for your apologies, pony,” the Queen spat. “Your words will not bring them back, your sympathies will not make me whole again.” I thought I spotted tears forming at the corners of the Queen’s eyes, but dismissed that as a trick of the light. “I, Queen Chrysalis, do not accept apologies for lives!” The Queen, Chrysalis, took a breath. “When I lured you down here with that little thing in your ear, I did not expect you to be the pony you are.”
So that’s how she did it. The Deep Pulse communicated with us on frequencies ponies couldn’t use, but the changelings did. It was their hivemind’s frequency, and we had been tapped right in. She had heard everything, she knew we were here and she knew how to split us up.
A hoof connected with my side, sending a sharp pain through my ribs and launching the rest of me into the air. A bolt of poison green magic hit me as I fell, resulting in me flying across the room and into one of the curved walls.
I wanted to black out from the pain. I wanted to give up and just let her do whatever she wanted, but I couldn’t. I knew Clear was still out there, I knew she was still alive and she was coming for me. I could feel that all too familiar pulse in my horn let me know that she was closer than ever. I had to keep fighting.
I had to stay alive for just a bit longer.
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I found my way through the maze-like tunnels pretty easily. It had been difficult at first, but with a combination of following the path that strengthened my magic the most and the immense sound of buzzing wings it had been simple. It wasn’t the journey that was the real problem…it was the destination.
Once the tunnel widened into a domed chamber, I saw my real obstacle. The damn place was packed to the brim with buzzing black bugs, all their eyes turned to a specific edge of the circular room. I couldn’t see what was on the other side, but I assumed it was Breach and they were toying with him.
“I, Queen Chrysalis, do not accept apologies for lives!” My blood went cold as the shout nearly drowned out the buzzing drones. A Queen? The Queen? She was here? We weren’t prepared for that, there was no way to be prepared for it. The only ponies who had ever survived her were at the top of Canterlot half of the time and in the Crystal Empire the other half. What were we supposed to do? “When I lured you down here with that little thing in your ear, I did not expect you to be the pony you are.”
My mind raced with the implications of that last statement. Had she been listening in on us somehow? Had she duplicated Cutter’s voice to trick Breach into splitting up? It just raised more and more questions that I wasn’t sure I wanted the answers to. Right now, I needed to somehow save Breach and get out of here with both of us alive.
I heard magic discharge and briefly saw the dark blue coat of my brother fly into the wall. I held myself back from charging in there and taking them all on myself. I stifled the anger and sadness that was building up inside of me and tried to just look for an opening in the action.
The horde of bugs shifted as something else happened, allowing me to get my first unobstructed view of Breach since he left the library. He was holding his chest and fighting back tears. Without his armor, he was taking the full force of everything inflicted on him, and it showed. In that brief moment, he looked ten years older and twice as frail. My heart sank just knowing that not even he was invincible with all of his intellect and calm nature. Anypony could crack, I was just unlucky enough to see him break.
His bright green eyes locked with mine for a brief instant. I knew he had seen me, and I knew he had looked away to avoid drawing attention to me. I watched as he twitched his goo-bound hooves and held his chest gingerly. He was injured, severely. Beyond the hoof injury he had suffered earlier even. Next he held his hooves up to block a blast of magic fired at him by the towering queen looming over him.
The acidic magic scorched the fur clean off of his hooves and left the skin below blistered. To his credit, he didn’t scream but instead raised his now broiled hoof up to his head and tapped it, covering it up as cowering. He had an idea. The beaten stallion curled up into a ball and tapped his pointed the tip of his good hoof at his horn. The idea involved magic. Finally, he slammed his hoof onto the ground and produced a loud crack.
He wanted to break his horn.
I shook my head vigorously. He couldn’t do that, he wouldn’t! That would kill both of us! I could figure this out! Now that both of us were together again we could figure this out! I knew that as long as we were together we could do anything! That’s what our parents always told us, that’s what we always told ourselves. Now was no different.
In response he nodded very slowly, a sad smile crossing his face. The magic had freed his front hooves from the gunk that had coated him, allowing him a much greater range of motion. He took his last good hoof and touched his chest over his heart, and then his horn.
It meant hero.
He wanted us to go out as heroes.
“Praying will do you no good here, pony. Your gods can’t hear you this deep.” Chrysalis lit her horn for one final magical onslaught, but was stopped by the raised hooves of Breach. She let her horn die as he slowly stood up. Even hobbled by injuries, he was still as calm and poised as ever.
“I just…” Each breath was laboured and difficult, a slight wheeze accompanying each inhalation. “...I want to know why you’re here...why you aren’t with your hive…” I couldn't see her face, but I knew she was smiling, each and every single one of her sharpened teeth on display for him to see.
“I was robbed of my hive by the pony Starlight Glimmer. I was cast out and forced to rebuild here in the middle of nowhere! What was rightfully mine was taken from me by a pony like you! A pony too stupid to give up and die!” As the queen charged her horn for the killing blow, Breach looked me dead in the eyes and waited.
I couldn’t watch my brother die like this, at the hooves of monsters. As the seconds crawled on, I was left with the one decision I never wanted to make. My brother’s life or both of ours’? Nopony should be faced with something like that, ever. But I was, and I only saw one way to go out.
I nodded.
With speed that betrayed his injuries, Breach leapt forward with his head lowered like a ram. His horn punctured the Queen’s shell with a faint crack. The only thing that followed was silence.
“Was that supposed to hurt, pony?” Chrysalis cackled as she encased Breach in her emerald light. She forced Breach’s body down separate from his horn, eliciting a much more terrifying crack than the previous.
Power flowed into my horn, more power than I had ever known or cared to know. It wasn’t just his magical power, it was his life magic pouring into me. An entire other pony worth of magic surged into me through my skull and set my thoughts on fire. All eyes in the room turned to me, and all widened in panic as an electric light burst from my eyes.
It was like I was an overcharged battery with no way to contain the charge. I levitated off of the ground, my mane and tail starting to flow with an ethereal light. Chrysalis yelled something, but I’m not sure. Whatever it was had been drowned out by magic that could no longer be held in, magic that was too powerful for me to even channel into something useful.
It radiated out in powerful and surging waves at first. Rows of changelings went from solid entities to glowing green slag as the waves hit them. The pulses increased in frequency as my body started to fail and the cave started to collapse from the sheer force of the energy being forced out of me.
Eventually the pulses reached a fever pitch and turned into a constant aura of pure, unfiltered and uncontrolled magic. The last thing I heard was a scream, either hers or mine, as the world went from blinding to black.
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Well, this story was intense, for sure. I got drawn into the characters pretty quickly, even though neither are the sort of characters I usually like.
Which is pretty good.
Spoilers ahead:
It's got a lot of tense stuff going on, and I really should have figured out something was wrong when the "captain" was telling them to be reckless, going directly against the cautious and friendly captain in the first place. Well, I mean, I sorta did, but I didn't suspect the voice to be something else, I expected that the captain was showing his "true colors". And am received its not like that.
It's a good ending, though, even though it is a tragic one. It's at least reasonably clear by the end that Chrysalis, for all her righteous "you killed my people!" Probably doesn't really have much of a leg to stand on for righteousness... but also isn't actually entirely wrong. The nuclear option is really all the twins have left, to stop Chrysalis who really does represent a threat to pony society. And I like it, even though it doesn't end well for our protagonists.
I do also like how they were both desiring a better outcome than killing the changelings, though. They were willing to at least try for a peaceful ending, even if there was no peaceful option to begin with.
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I'm glad you enjoyed it. I strayed far from my comfort zone in both themes and overall composition when writing this and I was really hoping for a good payoff.
Thank you for your feedback!
Wow, this story was really impressive! I admit it had a relatively slow start, but dang, that Banner-Hocks Syndrome is a pretty unique idea! I get the feeling it's probably a reference to something? At any rate, it's a pretty neat-o condition, and portrayed in an interesting light! And the two main characters interacted with/played off each other well. Makes me wish I could have seen them on a normal mission!
One of the bits I particularly liked was the passage that looked into Clear's thoughts immediately after she killed the diseased changeling. It struck me as a very believable reaction- she thought she had come to terms with it and that she could harden herself against it, but she was just as vulnerable as before. (Also for some reason the cannon scene was also realistic? Like, of course she's not gonna get the throw on the first try)
Although I do wonder why the changelings ignored Clear. Wouldn't the queen want revenge on both of them? Ah well.
And hooo boy, did it go out with a bang! ...pun unintended. I'm a sucker for dramatic endings, and that was a heart-wrenchingly good one. Awesome job, and thumbs up!
I'm so used to the protagonist(s) finding a way to escape or save the day that I wasn't ready for this outcome. Good work overall.
Well, that was a thing.
RIP everyone at ground zero
Never really comfortable with first person narrators that die and even describe their own demise, but very solid job overall. Now I’ll just have to find some other intense but ultimately happy adventure story.