30: Into prison!
Three little spiders crawl out of the narrow drain into a dim room with two planks covered by thin blankets serving as bunks on the opposite sides, and a thick wooden door reinforced with metal strips bearing the only connection to the outside world - a small, barred window. There’s a latch on the bottom as well, likely for shoving food inside, but it’s closed right now.
Two seemingly unconscious changelings, their chitin cracked all over and even peeled off in places, revealing green flesh, are lying on the beds, oblivious to the world around them.
”Three, go see in what shape they are. One will tell you what to look for.”
One of the spiders bursts out in green flames, transforming into a bulky changeling drone who immediately shuffles towards the closer prisoner.
At first, I didn’t think ponies could hold changelings, considering the drains with fairly wide space between the bars as well as the door window. However, every captured changeling is outfitted with the same suppressor One is, so shapeshifting is out of the question.
The other two spiders quickly make it up the door and through the window. In the meantime, Three has already taken the changelings’ suppressors off, and One transferred a bit of lust into them through Three, just enough to slowly wake up.
The Canterlot castle prison, or at least this part we know about from hypnotized guards and Three’s scouting, consists of one long, well-lit, grey hallway with a bunch of cells on the sides. It clearly isn’t a place to specifically hold changelings. At the moment, there are four guards scattered around, one standing by the main door, and three standing in intervals covering the whole hallway.
”Hmm, how do we do this? Any movement is sure to cause alarm.”
One chuckles inside my head and presumably the heads of the others.
”Heh, I’ll show you the power of properly used infiltrators, fake king, even the lowest ranks. Eight won’t have to move a muscle. Although it would be a good idea if she moved to the main entrance just in case Four screws this up.”
Four’s spider form faintly shimmers with green light, and gradually she in complete silence turns back into a changeling. However, her chitin reflects light in such way that aside from some slight visual distortion she may as well be invisible.
I feel One’s minor annoyance.
”Leaves a lot to be desired, but she learned the basics. Now let her work.”
The Royal Guard who is the furthest away winces when he feels twin thin fangs pierce his neck, blinks, and doesn’t react anymore, staring blankly at the wall.
After pumping venom into him for a little longer, Four releases her bite, and noiselessly walks over to the second one.
When she’s taking out the third guard, the one says:
“Hey, Solar Shield, what’s that behind you?” when Solar Shield doesn’t react, the guard takes his first and final step during this operation, “Sol-”
*Crunch!*
Dropping her spider form, Eight immediately deactivates the guard with a well-placed uppercut, catches him mid-fall, and quietly lays him down on the floor. After some searching, she holds up a full keyring, and tosses it to still invisible Four who immediately drops her reflective form.
She also drops the keys, realizing that in her shock she bit down too hard. Staring in horror at the Royal Guard now gurgling and foaming as blood pours out of his severed jugular, she mumbles:
”Wait… no... we’re changelings. They’re supposed to love me. We exist to be loved, not to kill.”
Thankfully, Eight comes over and snaps the guard’s neck to end his misery quickly. Four sits down, takes his helmet off, and keeps patting his head while staring into nowhere.
One by one, Eight and Three unlock the cells which hold all the thirty-two unconscious or completely shocked captured changelings, zapping love into every single one until…
...I realize that there’s one more mental link available than we started with. I carefully ‘poke’ at it, and it reacts.
Three opens the last door.
“Ten?” he asks, eyes wide.
”Three?” the infiltrator looking significantly healthier than most other changelings looks up, completely stumped.
Three unscrews Ten’s suppressor, then pokes his head out of the door.
”Hey, miss Eight, I found a friend!”
Eight peeks inside, and facehoofs.
”Great, you… If there was someone I was missing in my life it was ANOTHER paranoid infiltrator.”
Three grins at Ten, and unlocks his shackles.
”See, Ten? She missed you too!”
”I know I’ll probably regret asking, but how did YOU get caught?” Eight glares at him.
“That idiot got BOTH of us caught,” the rather healthy changeling sharing Ten’s cell scowls at him, “‘Assassination attempt’ on princess Celestia. Ass was definitely involved, though. The rest, not so much.”
”Don’t tell me you tried to seduce the supreme immortal ruler of ponykind, Ten? Because if you do, I might have to beat you to death with your own cock.”
“Please do,” the other changeling nods enthusiastically, “This idiot went there and just started yammering about how amazing she is. Someone used a wide scanning spell immediately and got me as well. When they broke his transformation he just stood there, staring at Celestia’s plot. Damn, Royal Guard life was sweet...”
”Ten, my hearing must be going, because I could swear the changeling just said that you-”
”YES, I WALKED UP TO PRINCESS CELESTIA AND TOLD HER THAT I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT HER GLORIOUS PLOT ANYMORE! ARE YOU HAPPY?” Ten returns Eight's steel gaze.
With One’s help, I let Ten link up with the rest of us properly.
”Ten, I know that I’m supposed to be the boss, but daaaamn...”
It’s getting progressively harder to ignore One’s snickering. Fortunately, Eight isn’t in the mood for nonsense, and keeps her cool in a potential combat situation.
”I’ll castrate you later,” she facehoofs, releasing the second changeling, one of the very few in a good shape, ”You, rank?”
The changeling rubs his horn, experimenting with a bit of magical light.
“I haven’t been a part of the hive for a veeeery long time, lady. Don’t you go and rank me unless you want to hear ‘private Green Shield’.”
Eight’s horn flashes as she scans the changeling.
”Warrior, tier thousand-ish. Go help Three get the others out. He’ll show you our escape route. Or do you want to stay here until you starve?“
“Yeah yeah, I’m going,” the changeling frowns and leaves the cell.
Eight looks at Ten.
”As much as I want to leave you here, you hive-tearing bastard,” she hisses, ”The boss considers you a friend for some reason, and I can’t afford Celestia realizing that all she has to do is let you touch her plot and you’ll spill the beans about everything you know. Out!” she shoves him out of the cell.
”Well, I-” Ten hesitates.
”I can MAKE you unable to talk ever again.”
”Geez, you’ve got some serious anger issues. I heard I give pretty good massages-” Ten withers under Eight’s murderous glare, ”Nevermind.”
As Eight leaves the cell, she gives a single glance to Four who is sitting by the dead guard’s head, ineffectively poking her hooves into the torn neck in order to stop the bleeding. She doesn’t react when I enter her head this time. She feels completely blank.
”Four? Four!”
”He’s d-d-dead, boss...” she whimpers, ”I-I-I killed him.”
”Four, he would have done the same to you if he saw you.”
”But ponies are nice, at least most of them. What miss One showed me when I was hunting… how they treated me… they were all nice. For a moment when I bit him, I saw his life. He has an earthpony marefriend, Brown Leaf. They’ve been together for three years. They live in upper Canterlot. Being in the Royal Guard doesn’t pay that much, but together they managed to get a nice apartment.” she keeps reciting the pony’s history as if reading from a long script.
”Four, we need to get out. I’m sorry how this turned out, but-”
”I killed him, boss. His marefriend can’t afford to pay for their apartment on her own. They’re both young… for ponies, I mean. She’ll have to move back to a different city called ‘Vanhoover’ and live with her parents and get a job there. Her dream was to one day work in the castle as a maid because she adores princess Celestia and-”
I curse myself, because the first thing I feel is pride at Four being able to absorb every detail about the pony’s life within the second or two she had to bite him.
”FOUR!” I interrupt the still talking changeling, ”I. Am. Sorry. We all are here for you to talk to, but we need to get out. Every second we spend here means that little more energy wasted by the barely surviving changelings. If it helps, remember how Ten looked after he landed in Wet Soil- wait, you weren’t there.”
I transmit the image of broken Ten chained to the wall in the cellar of Wet Soil police station. This finally breaks Four out of her stupor.
”P-P-onies did that… to us?” Four scrambles on all fours, walking towards the cell we used to get inside through, ”B-But we just wanted some love… right?”
”We don’t know the details, because we haven’t been there. One, Ten, and the survivors we’re getting out of here were. From what I heard, we definitely didn’t come to Canterlot in peace.”
I’m not going to bother her with more details about the hive mind’s bloodlust.
”Alright, everyone accounted for?” I ask. I’m not able to link to any of the rescued changelings other than Ten.
Three answers before Eight can.
”Boss, I didn’t find any more while I was scouting the drains. I think the ponies kept all changelings in this part of the dungeon.”
”They obviously didn’t want to anypony to know about survivors to prevent possible panic. The city is in relative peace considering the invasion happened only few weeks ago and the guards are still on edge,” adds Eight, ”Whoever is behind this knows how to keep general population under control.”
”Okay, get home safe, and we’ll see if we have enough love to help all those guys.”
***
“One, what’s going on?” I ask, walking between the nine collapsed changelings foaming at the mouth and staring blankly at the ceiling while they shiver uncontrollably.
The ones who could still at least move have gone upstairs under Eight’s guidance. Three has been left behind in the mines to stay on watch for any ponies potentially on their tracks, saying he doesn’t mind playing with Shuffles.
No, don’t ask me how he made friends with some deadly abomination which made Chrysalis’ vanguard of infiltrators tiphoof around it, or IF he actually made friends with it come to think of it. He seems to be in his element down there in the tunnels, so as long as he doesn’t do anything stupid he can stay there.
”As I said, too much lust, too much damage, too little love,” One shrugs, ”So, fake king, what do we do? We don’t have the love to save them, because the transformations they needed to get through the small drains were too exhausting, and they won’t recover. Their bodies are shutting down, and they are painfully aware of all that’s happening. It’s your time to pretend you’re a real king right now, because this will happen to more of them soon. We don’t have the resources, and the ponies will be looking for us soon, because the escape won’t go unpunished. What are you going to do, Chrysalis? Let the hive slowly starve, or go for one last desperate move?” One grins, but there’s no humor in it.
“Are you sure we can’t help them?”
”I definitely can HELP them, I just can’t SAVE them. And no, I won’t do it without your direct order. This is your responsibility, and you must own it.”
Just like Eight, One knows the weight of this kind of ‘help’. Once again, I’m reminded of how inexperienced I am compared to them. Is there something to hive mind’s claims? Is there really no hope for peace and prosperity other than conquest?
I look at the dying changelings groaning in pain, tears streaking from their unseeing eyes.
Will this keep happening again and again?
Looking at the ground, I sigh.
“Can you kill them quickly, One?”
”In comparison to this?” she nods to a changeling who has just bitten his tongue off and starts choking on his own blood.
She watches him, but doesn’t move.
MY decision.
“End it, One. I can’t stand-” the noise, really. The gurgling, the wheezing and helpless grunting. The echoes of pain I feel even through their unlinked minds, “-this.”
One scowls at me and bares her fangs before moving.
”Then you better learn quickly, because ‘this’ has been our life for centuries,” she puts her foreleg to the choking changeling’s head. I’m expecting something fast and gruesome like when Eight snapped the guard’s neck, but all that happens is that the changeling immediately completely stops moving. One by one, she stops the misery of the others in the same way, and finally there is silence, ”Good job. Lesson one, Chrysalis, don’t waste resources on pointless endeavours.”
“Please don’t call me that.”
Her mirthless grin grows even colder and fills with cruelty.
”You’re repeating your steps, Chrysalis. The steps that led us to 'prosperity and happiness'.”
“Damn it,” I growl, punching the nearest wall.
I did exactly what One wanted me to, what was the smart choice.
Maybe that’s what Chrysalis did as well?
No. NO! I care about them. She didn’t care about anyone other than herself. No matter what I have to do I care about them, even those whose death I had to order.
Do I?
Was it so easy because I knew there was no helping them, that it was their best shot, or was it because I’m lying to myself now and I didn’t care about changelings I didn’t know and who would eat me just for the hole of it while I was still just a drone?
What if Chrysalis really made all the correct choices under her circumstances… and in the end was left only with the wrong one?
“I shouldn’t be in charge, One. I’m, just a drone. All I know is how to carry eggs.”
”You’ve got bigger things to worry about than what you’re supposed to be, Chrysalis.”
Unfortunately, she’s right.
”Oh don’t sigh like that,” One pats my back, ”If you get me some real love, I might buy you a little time.”
Yeah, but the only infiltrator who had the heart and innocence to gain real love is now unfocused and shaken. If I send out Eight for more lust, more might end like the nine dead here.
This is too much for me.
“One, I need your help.”
"Obviously.”
“Go talk to Four, please.”
”That’s something you should do.”
“I tried. It didn’t help. I think she needs someone who not only means well, but also knows what they’re talking about.”
”I’ll give it a shot, since you’re asking so nicely.”
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Dam..
I'm surprised that he didn't think to just provide them enough "love" to recover a little bit. Make it a two-day operation. Send four out for more after helping the captured lings, then actually rescuing them on the second day. The higher levels of "love" might have made a significant difference. One and eight could do all the work as spiders.
8939975
One can't shapeshift due to the suppressor, and they don't trust her enough to allow her to take it off, considering how powerful she is. Sending her on a mission with someone could be a death sentence for any and all changelings coming with her, if One was playing them. The only reason Eight was able to stop One before was because she's naturally submissive to the boss more than One's commands no matter how much he pisses her off.
Plus, there are hidden events in play here, which I doubt anyone can remember from Imbalanced and Hard to Find the Right Words, and those are Luna's changeling trials (not gonna even pretend most people reading this are familiar with the rest of my stories
). The boss doesn't know about them at the moment, but his suspicion and need for haste came from the idea that the changelings will be checked up on periodically, and if some recovered for no reason at all after all the prison time, it would be suspicious. On top of that, it's not as if they can be certain their activities in Canterlot haven't been noticed.
8938808
It wouldn't be a story of mine if it didn't include mental scars for everyone involved, characters, writer, and readers.
Thank you for updating this story so often.
8940686
Thank you for reading,
8940182
You need to make that evident, otherwise it looks like he is really stupid instead of naive. And why is he suspicious? Leaking a little love from the Four and Eight to keep the captives alive for another day would allow them time to watch and see if the Changlings are being counted.
Or, better yet, have his spy SEE them remove a captive for trial so he KNOWS there is a time limit!
8942763
Then I evidently fucked up at writing the situation.
Ofc, the boss will be subjected to the trial eventually.
8943503
Take a second look at it to make sure I didn't simply miss something, then add the sentence or paragraph that's needed. Thus, future readers won't be left in the dark.
8943512
Tbh I just suck at storytelling. That's all there is.
8943526
So? Learn from your mistakes and soon you won't be saying things like that. My first stories were so bad I was I I was too embarrassed to show one of them to anyone.
You're doing okay so far. better than my current story, which has a 77/10 up/down ratio!
8943614
I re-read the previous chapter. The option with a similar idea was presented and refuted there. 3 was the only one for it, others were against
1:
8:
4:
8946158
Okay. My screw-up. Never mind!
Wouldn’t they tell the guards to be quiet about the changelings in the dungeons then?
They seemed to be quite open about telling it to other ponies back when Four and Eight were gathering love in the earlier chapters
10005860
It depends on the message. In my view the message is "Everything is okay, move along." is still a bit more suspicious then "We defended the city and some of the surviving perpetrators are safely locked up so that we can interrogate them to make sure nothing like that happens ever again."
Similar to torture being a good information source regarding terrorism. It's been proven thousand times over it doesn't work, but the simpler part of the population just feels safer if they think the bad guys are getting what they deserve. (Even if it has no connection to reality)
Poor Four, the end of her innocence...