7: Call to Arms
Needless to say, the party assembled in Twilight’s chambers back at the hive certainly weren’t expecting Twilight to appear in the middle of the room in a huff. She was about to start yelling and screaming every obscenity she knew to vent, but paused when she saw the people in her room.
“Oh yeah… I forgot I let you guys stay here…” She said, pushing her fury back. For now at least. The other elements of harmony gave her a worried look.
“Darling I know that look, even on you. Something went wrong, didn’t it?” Rarity asked.
“Wasn’t that thing supposed to last for like a week? Did they kick you out?” Dash practically demanded, frustrated at the fact that Twilight was furious about something. As usual she seemed like she was going to fly off and kick someone.
“Yes… and yes… We started early since everyone was present…” She started and told the tale. By the end of it she was sitting on her bed, a hand over Chrysalis’, trying not to start screaming again.
“That… That BITCH!” Dash and Applejack yelled out almost simultaneously. Twilight would have laughed if she hadn’t been thinking the same thing for the past hour.
“Oh no… A War?!” Fluttershy squeaked. Even Pinkie’s hair threatened to flatten out at the news. It immediately puffed back up as her usual gasping ‘I have a party for this!’ face appeared.
“No Pinkie… no parties… we need to prepare and you need to leave. I won’t let you get hurt in this war.” Twilight stopped her, looking at her friends.
“Yeah? Well I’M not letting YOU get hurt in it either! Equestria is your ally, you can definitely convince the Princesses to mobilize the night guard and probably bring the military out from the police reserves again.” Dash started rambling.
“Dash, I’m not going to ask that of the princesses… There’s something I discovered that Chrysalis and I had only assumed based on our past. Due to the curse not allowing us to maintain high amounts of love, we can’t really maintain high populations. Chrysalis ignored that when we flourished, though, and let her people enjoy being satiated for so long. And now, the curse is halted no matter how much we have, so we’ve grown even more. All of the other queens’ populations combined are less than a fourth of mine... “ Twilight explained.
“And I’m not going to fight a full blown war. I have no intentions of attacking, she declared a two month grace period to prepare and can’t rescind her declaration of war until there is actual conflict. My defenders alone triple her population, and if I need to I can use the hunters to go on the offensive. Most of the other hives live in seclusion, away from fauna and civilization. They may be experienced at fighting each other, but we’re experienced at defending ourselves from the worst the world has to throw at us.” She continued, sighing as she stood.
“No attacking? Twi, you can’t be serious.” Dash groaned.
“While I’m no fighter, even I think that isn’t the best idea…” Rarity said.
“But attacking could provoke the other queens, right?” Fluttershy asked. Twilight thought for a moment and nodded. “Well then I think you’re doing the right thing Twilight. Even a hungry predator knows when to back off when it runs into a wall.” The shy valkyrie continued.
“Flutters is right sugarcube, If all you’re doing is defending then there isn’t much to piss the others off. Even if they think you’re weak this one is the strongest right? If she can’t touch you then they sure as hay can’t.” Applejack chimed in. Twilight’s smile was returning as her fury was slowly bleeding away into happiness that her friends were trying to support here.
“Well, either way, I’m going to tell the Princesses and Spitfire if you don’t and at least see if I can be here. The Wonderbolts are more than just stunt fliers, you know.” Dash growled, crossing her arms. Twilight was about to refuse her before Fluttershy spoke up.
“And I’ll stay and help too, I mean I’m no good in a fight but I can help anyone that gets hurt!” Fluttershy squeaked, though her eyes definitely showed determination.
“I just HAVE to throw at least TWO parties, keep the morale high and all! I’ll even get into the kitchens and make sure food is EXTRA tasty!” Pinkie happily squealed out as she was practically bouncing on her feet.
“Darling I’m no architect, but I’ve seen nothing along the lines of fortifications around here. If you’re going to fight a defensive war then you can’t just hold the door closed and hope they go away.” Rarity said, throwing out a dramatic gesture towards the general direction of the main entrance to the hive.
“I’ve been training up the Militia with Mac ever since the original invasion, I can whip your defenders into proper soldiers, with Dash’s help of course.” Applejack added before Twilight could react to any of it. There was a very strong sense of determination in the love they were radiating now. Twilight wanted nothing more than to protest and ship them off back to Ponyville or Canterlot so that they stayed safe. But when she could practically see their emotions and how much they wanted to do this, she couldn’t get the words out.
“Fine… but when that two month mark hits you’re not going anywhere NEAR the fighting.” Twilight relented. The group all cheered and hugged Twilight as one, fatting up her already overstuffed love reserves. She couldn’t help but smile. It fell to a frown when she felt two disturbances in the hive mind.
The first was Ceren, trying to get her attention to finish explaining her newest discovery. The second was far more worrying. Another spy had been discovered, they had literally just entered the hive.Twilight’s brood were humoring it for now, but they wanted to know what Twilight wanted to do.
“Stay here girls, I have a few things to take care of. If you get hungry or want to get started, just stick your heads out of the hole and ask for help. I’ll have a few guards posted for you.” The queen said as she untangled herself from her friends.
“Oh shit did something happen?” Dash asked.
“I don’t know yet.” Was all that the Valkyrie got in response as Twilight shot out of the room on her gossamer wings. The group looked at each other with worry.
She went immediately to where the spy was attempting to look like he was working on something. Really he seemed to just be staring around in wonder. He noticed Twilight and almost visibly paled. He took a deep breath and walked up to her when she landed near him.
“Who is your Queen, and what are your intentions here?” Twilight demanded curtly. She refrained from outright attacking the thing yet, only half of the other queens wanted her head right now.
“Q-Queen Mira, I came here to request an audience with you…” The spy stuttered out, which would mean he’s not quite a spy.
“A Messenger then? Or is Mira attempting Diplomacy?” Twilight asked out loud, her curiosity overriding her anger for now.
“Uh… B-Both?” The messenger replied. Twilight sighed.
“She is welcome to come here, though any hostilities will be met in kind. She should know I’m going to be very hesitant to trust her after what happened.” The queen finally said after a few long moments of contemplation. The messenger nodded.
“This was expected. As a show of good faith, she has promised to bring to you the encryption cipher for the secret she gave you.” The messenger replied. Twilight hummed at that before nodding.
“It would be a start…” She agreed. “Go to your queen and tell her to come. Make sure she does not attempt to hide herself once she is in the forest, at least from us. Otherwise she will be assumed an enemy spy or probing attack.” She continued. The messenger nodded and shot off out of the still open door. There was certainly some fear in his gait, but there was even more relief. Twilight let out a long sigh and turned towards the research areas to find Ceren.
What she found in Ceren’s lab was a sight to see. She vaguely remembered the girl talking to her about a new type of material they had created but she lost track of the explanation when things at the dinner were heating up. It looked almost like there was rebirthing pod made of metal in the experimentation chamber, and a few others scattered around the various workstations.
“Oh, there you are! So, how much went through one ear and out the other?” The girl in question piped up when Twilight entered.
“More than I’d care to admit… give me the summary and forward me a full report later.” The queen said. Ceren nodded and turned towards the pod in the experimentation chamber.
“So we were honestly just playing around with ideas and to pass the time I plugged a terrible idea into the transmutation array, which is what Samuel is calling the array we invented, and used it on a pod leftover from our chitin reinforcement experiments. This happened.” Ceren explained as they entered the chamber and Twilight could see the pod in full. The pod itself seemed to be made out of something akin to steel, Twilight recognized it as what their current carapace reinforcement was modelled after.
Inside, though, was a different story. There was a liquid solution as normal, though the solution wasn’t normal. It seemed to almost be metallic in nature as the murky liquid shone in the room’s light. Just barely visible inside was what looked like a malformed orb of metal. Twilight didn’t immediately recognize it, and it didn’t look like it was the same as what the pod was made of.
“We’re calling it Biometal. My queen, it grows. The tiny bit we took out a little while ago stopped growing, but it was easy to craft and mould.” Ceren started and retrieved what looked like a dagger from a nearby workstation. She held it out to Twilight and the queen took it. She could feel the difference from normal iron or steel.
“This is… quite the discovery…” Twilight said softly as she started examining it with every scanning spell she knew of. The mass of metal crafted expertly into a dagger felt almost alive, though it was nonliving. She couldn’t tell all that much about it besides that, though. Ceren’s expression definitely said that there was more to know, though, so she handed it back and waited.
“The stupid idea that made it all happen was me inputting an experimental formula for a new strain of black metal. I had basically thrown the formula for it and your brand’s translated array together and removed anything that didn’t fit well enough in. Turns out, black metal combined with your element of magic created a pseudo-living metal.” The mage explained. Twilight took it all in and tried to make sense of it.
“So this was an accident? You really need to parse out all of the details next time… but good work.” Twilight said, putting a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Start testing its properties, I want to know if it’s a viable template for our chitin and how easy we can integrate it into our technology research. Weaponization is secondary to those two.” She listed off. Ceren did a cute salute and shot back towards her workstation with the dagger to write up experiments.
Twilight’s mood was definitely elated by the chance discovery, though as she put it into the back of her mind to think on it later she couldn’t help but think about Chrysalis.
“I hope I haven’t condemned your hive…” She whispered more to herself as she turned to return to her chambers. Her friends had obviously decided to take the initiative on their plans and were already gone when she returned. She took her usual position sitting next to Chrysalis to fully immerse herself in the hive mind. She saw Fluttershy finding the medical branch on her own, Applejack asking around for the Defenders’ barracks, Rarity inspecting the outer walls of the hive, Pinkie commandeering an entire mess hall to cook in and saw Dash shooting off towards ponyville. She smiled and let the time fly, she loved immersing herself like this.
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Sweet, but intriguing. Like apricot icecream.
Inb4 changeling t-1000.
Didn't notice any errors this time .Nice chapter.
8015124 wow really? And here I thought I was getting worse lol
8015712
I have a question:
Whether(yes or not) this new living metal was inspired by Eldar wraithbone,because if it has similar properties then is a chance that golems made of this material can be controlled remotely with the help of Hive mind.
Ps.I have strange feeling that when fight will start, Twilight will already have combat vehicles, sky battleship(or two) and perhaps even some type of power armor, all of it arcane powered,it looks even more probably now with that new metal(if he is similar to wraithbone),
Also
combined with
well i still need more power
(as long as it is reasonable)
s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fa/b4/9f/fab49f65bf26a2b291c837434363e6ca.jpg
because I really love overkill
8016479 The Biometal is of my own creation, I invented it like 7 years ago for an original story that was lost on my old computer. I've reused the concept loosely in things like Seeker, but this'll be the first time I've done it in full. And you overestimate the ability to research and produce what would be hundreds of years worth of technology in two months lol.
And yeah, I love a bit of overkill too.
it makes losing that much more powerful.
8016479 Overkill? REASONABLE?
Not possible.
8016646
Hey all I'm going to say is this. It's twilight, what else?
Apparently Changeling spies are bloody useless, they are instantly discovered and even humoured.
8767120
It's like someone who has never watched anime or read a comic in their lives walking into comic con.
8767199
Still you'd think those who are supposed to be spies would be better at spying