32: Into- no, get the hole out!
One's love cavern project worked wonders. By day two, even those changelings who were unconscious or unable to move the whole time woke up and started asking questions. The bad part was, of course, the energy drain. I had no idea how bad it would be. After all, until now Four and Eight were bringing enough love to keep us going and even recover. Over twenty other changelings in life-threatening condition was a completely different cup of tea. Until then, I had no idea how skilled Eight and One really were. The scraps of love the volunteering infiltrators got were barely enough to feed them, and I didn't dare to order them to primarily go for lust, because I was afraid they might still end up like the ones who died of overdose. Even Eight got sick yesterday afternoon, which cost us most of the love Four has been pulling in. Speaking of Four, under One's guidance, she's leagues better than the other infiltrators even despite her physical weakness. It's amazing what we can do if we cooperate. I wish the desperate need for survival wasn't the only thing able to force us to do so.
I'm making it sound worse than it is. We're recovering, but at snail's pace. Despite that, One has been growing more and more nervous.
After we got into their castle prison, freed the prisoners, and killed one of their guards albeit on accident, the ponies haven't made a single move.
"One, where is Three?" I ask just to pass time. I could tap into the drone myself, but I don't sense any panic or worry from him, so I don't waste the energy. The situation has made me a little more conservative.
"Playing with 'Shuffles' again. I tried telling him that a cursed amalgamation of souls created by echoes of blood magic and remnants of living hatred and revenge isn't a good friend, but I'm not the one giving orders around here. Officially, he's patrolling the mine tunnels. You know, the damn abomination killed seventy-six changelings before we realized it was indestructible and found a way around it. The fact that it doesn't seem to want to devour Three astounds me."
"He's smart enough not to get caught," I look out of the window. It's completely dark outside, with close to no lights from any windows from across the street, which means it must be very early morning.
"It actually did corner him twice already, and then it simply left. I would like to explore the phenomenon, but I have my doubts it would show me the same... mercy."
"Eight?"
"She came back few minutes ago. I'm pretty sure she's unloading in the healing cave. She refuses to report to me, and since you don't allow me to force myself inside her, you'll have to rely on my guesswork and whatever information she decides to share," One shrugs. Carefully put, One and Eight don't like each other much. Eight still thinks One will enslave all of us as soon as her suppressor is gone, and One considers Eight an insect with too much ego, I think. It doesn't help matters that if One was actually well-fed and unfettered, that's pretty much what Eight would be in comparison to her, and Eight knows it.
A shiver passes down my spine, followed by confusion and panic that’s not mine.
”Three?”
”Boss, BOOOOSSS!” the drone is screaming from the top of his lungs.
Tapping into him, I see a swirling black vortex of appearing and disappearing mouths viciously tearing into something. Three jumps straight inside, calling for me from the top of his lungs.
”THREE?!”
The living darkness lets him through, revealing a normal mine tunnel. Three quickly looks behind him-
“FACE THE LIGHT!” a heavily armored unicorn’s horn blasts the swirling shadows, which let out an unearthly screech, immediately rolling over the pony and spitting out a chewed out and drained corpse in shreds of steel and gold platemail.
“...your greed killed usss…”
“...your whips buried us here...”
“...your life feeds us...”
“...our hatred sustains us...”
”Boss, boss! Ponies are here and they’re really mad! Shuffles can’t hold them off much longer!”
“Everyone, be on your guard! We might be in danger,” I call out from my real mouth without leaving Three’s mind.
Okay, slowly, slowly. Ignore the necromantic abomination trying to protect my Three for some reason. Are those Royal Guards? No...
A beam of bright white light burns through Shuffles, and another armored unicorn jumps through the darkness before it reconstructs.
“Don’t let the bug escape!” comes an order from further back.
”Look, mister pony,” Three’s slowly backing away from the unicorn levitating a warhammer, ”If it’s about the prisoners, you didn’t know how to feed the poor guys anyway. They were starving,” the unicorn’s hammer begins to glow in tune with his horn, ”And Four is really sorry about your guard friend. She didn’t want to hurt him, it was an accident. She spent the whole day crying afterw-AAAH?!” Three barely dodges the flying weapon by a fumbled jump backwards.
”RUN, THREE!”
”Eeeeeeeep!” Three legs it.
“Focus your magic, paladins!” comes another order. This time, Shuffles’ ethereal scream feels less like pure rage, and more like agony.
A quick look backwards shows the unicorn right on Three’s tail, and a tentacle of raw dark magic ripping another unicorn in half before Three’s abominable friend bursts into mist, and flees through six more of these ‘paladins’ further into the mines, stopping only for a moment to rip a chunk out of one’s neck.
“KILL THE BUG!”
Rocks between Three’s hind legs erupt. scattering sharp shards of stone everywhere. Thankfully, Three’s drone carapace is tough, and he barely feels it.
”Boooooooooossssssssss!” Three’s leading the ponies straight to us.
Hmm, can we set up a trap-
I feel more panic from upstairs following the sound of breaking glass.
”Tsch! I knew this was too good to be true,” curses One and starts barking orders at the few changelings scattered on the ground floor of our hideout.
Damn it! They’re coming from everywhere. How did we not notice anything?
The main entrance shatters, scattering shards of wood everywhere. The first armored pony to burst through immediately meets Eight’s hind legs bucking him backwards. Guess unicorns CAN fly with enough of an incentive.
”Three, I need you to lead the guys chasing you around. They’re here too and we can’t deal with this many of them. They look like they know what they’re doing.”
”I dunno if I can, boss,” he calls out to the empty mine shafts as another bit of wall right in front of him shatters under a blast of magic, covering him in dust and shrapnel.
Damn it, I can’t make him risk his life like this.
Damn it, damn it, damn it!
”You have to, Three. If we’re surrounded, we’ll all screwed.”
Cutting the link, I notice all changelings have cleared out already, save for Eight and One.
”We gotta go!” One shoves me backwards.
I feel the chaos from upstairs, and realize that from the six changelings there I can feel only two.
“There are changelings upstairs!” I object, very slowly backing off.
Something small breaks the window, immediately getting punted back by Eight standing right beside it.
One flash, explosion, and some screaming later, Eight quickly peeks out and smirks.
”That surprised them a bit. Let’s go, let’s go!” she rushes towards One and me, ”These guys are a bit too armored for my liking.”
”Ugh, amateur...” One rolls her eyes.
“Not a good time, you two,” I cut them off, “Eight, orders - go up there and save the-“ four of the links are already gone, ”DAMN IT- two changelings still alive.”
”SCREW WHOEVER IS UP THERE!” she roars in my face so loudly even One’s ears splay back, ”We can make more changelings whenever! You are important, they are just bodies. If they have to die so that you can survive, that’s the perfect use for them!”
“That was an order, Eight,” I say quietly, “Four is up there. Go.”
”You stupid BRAINDEAD, IDIOTIC, MORON-” she doesn’t stop screaming insults even while she’s stomping up the stairs to the upper floor.
One grabs my mane, and pulls hard.
”Well done, Chrysalis, mind breaking her to obey you, but now move your ass or we’ll all be sorry.”
“We should wait for them-”
”You mean give Eight THREE targets to protect instead of one?”
An earthpony almost as tall as One and about three times her bulk shimmering with protective magic charges through the entrance and straight at us. As he gets closer to One, she moves like a dancer to the side, trips him up in one fluid movement, grabs his forelegs, the two make a pirouette together on their hind legs right before One rams a thin, chitin spike growing out of her hoof through the visor of his helmet. The pony drops dead immediately.
”Your watchdog might prefer brutality, but I’d go for grace any day,” she smiles, throwing the paladin’s huge sword with wide blade towards the stairs up, ”NOW can we go?”
There’s some sense in her advice, as usual.
“They got Riot Breaker! MOVE! MOVE!” another pony peeks through the doorway, which is my cue to finally haul ass.
As One and I rush through the cellar, I toss two pairs of saddlebags onto her and myself. You never know when these will be useful.
“Damn, I hope Eight and Four will get out of there safely,” I send a mental image of five more paladins possibly waiting for her in the main room.
”Well, by forcing her to go save Four, you didn’t help it, really.”
“That’s the thing, One, I didn’t force myself into Eight’s head,” I smile back, “I didn’t have to.”
”I think I’ll start calling you the king of hearts, if we get out of this alive.”
And so, we run to the healing cave.
Thankfully, my link to Four is still active.
***
The poor infiltrator hiding under the bed struggles not to breathe as the door to the bedroom breaks, and she sees the heavy, spiked horseshoes stomp around.
“Two bugs down,” reports a deep, rumbling voice.
“No no no, I’ll go quiet-” the buzzing plea ends in a gurgle.
“Three down,” calls out a different one, “We should move, the downstairs group is encountering heavy resistance.”
“And the mines?” asks the deep voice.
“They fought off the blood magic anomaly, and are chasing a single changeling to prevent a warning. Commander doesn’t want a single one of them to get out.”
“Damn old idiot. Four dead already is too high of a cost for a favour...” grumbles the voice in the room. Then the pony says loudly, “Secure the main hall, the spell is showing another two signatures.”
“AAH!” comes from outside, quickly cut off.
“One signature,” mutters the paladin in the room, “Five dead, one left, if the spell is working correctly.”
A hoof grips the underside of the bedframe. Four bites into her own fetlock to stop the incoming whimper.
The bed flies up, slamming against the wall. Through Four’s teary eyes, I see another huge unicorn paladin, his oversized sword hovering next to him.
”I’m s-s-sorry,” Four doesn’t let her eyes off of him, speaking as fast as she can in a trembling voice, ”I di-didn’t m-m-mean to bite your pony fr-friend. That other pony s-saw me and I got scared and he knew I was there and I bit down and then he was bleeding and I tried to stop it but there was more and more and more and my hooves were too small to hold it all in and-” her eyes bulge as she floats upwards, her neck surrounded by a white glow.
The unicorn shakes his head.
“I know the old idiot doesn’t approve of the trials, but he used to be Celestia’s friend. He should trust her and Luna’s judgement,” he mumbles to himself before his eyes snap back to Four hanging limply in his telekinesis. Thanks to her hard carapace, the fact that he’s holding her by the neck doesn’t bother her too much, “Did you kill Bright Spear? The prison guard,” he adds when Four only wobbles her legs in the air.
Four hangs her head, and breathes out:
”Yes, I did. I’m really sorry. I know about his life, his marefriend, his family… I can’t forget… I didn’t want to do it, but the other guard saw me and-”
The unicorn shakes her, looking her straight in the eyes.
“How old are you, changeling?”
”T-Three weeks or so. I-I don’t r-r-remember much from when I was a larva.”
He growls to himself.
“Smiting darkness… not killing foals… freaking Star-”
Another paladin crashes through the wall, his head hanging only on several tendons as Eight covered in blood and dust dislodges a piece of broken door expertly rammed between his armor and helmet.
She growls, baring her fangs at the unicorn holding Four.
”You get one chance to put her down before I put you down.”
To her amazement, the unicorn actually sets Four on the floor.
Then he whistles.
Two more sharp whistles answer immediately.
However, as soon as the first one rings, Eight has already punched the paladin’s horn and is pummeling him while he’s trying to punch back as well as cover his head. He is too slow, though, inside his armor, so Eight trips him up, lands on him, presses a chitin blade growing from her hoof to his neck, and-
”Miss Eight, no, please!” yells Four.
The blade cuts the straps of the paladin’s helmet off, and in the next instant Eight’s other foreleg slams into his uncovered temple.
”On my back, Four, and hold tight!”
The comparatively tiny infiltrator wraps her forelegs around Eight’s neck.
The first paladin peeking through the hole in the wall faces his companion’s sword flying his way and being barely deflected by some protective magic barrier.
Eight receives my mental flash regarding the group of paladins rushing through the main entrance, and changes her course to the left from the stairs down.
”Four, I need to drain you.”
”O-Of course, miss Eight.”
I feel Eight’s surprise at the immediate and effortless transfer of energy initiated by Four.
Her hooves glow green, she stands up on her hind legs, and slams down as hard as she can.
The two HEAVILY armored paladins rushing towards her break through the crumbling floor as green shimmer around Eight signals her significantly dropping the density of her chitin and as such her weight. Grinning, she returns to the stairs and rushes down, levitating up the heavy sword lying on one of the final steps which One threw previously.
The paladins on the ground floor are still recovering from the ceiling as well as their two comrades dropping on them. A matter which Eight helps immediately by hacking at a broken wooden beam which wedged itself into a corner and until now has been providing the last remnants of support for the not-dropped chunks.
“Hey, two mor- aaaaaaaaaaaah?!”
The rumbling noise and cloud of dust follow Eight’s mad dash to the cellar.
***
One and I barrel through the tunnel mouth into our healing cavern where we’re immediately intercepted by Ten.
”What’s the plan? I woke everyone up, and split changelings into pairs who will carry those who can’t walk properly,” he reports.
“Great job, Ten,” I let out a relieved breath. At least something isn’t going horribly wrong. I grab One’s and mine saddlebags, and toss them to him, “Take the healing love thingies, put them in these, and get moving.”
He looks around.
”We can take only four in these, and there’s a bunch more. Shouldn’t we carry some?”
“We need to move as fast as we can. If there’s someone who can use telekinesis continuously then they can carry more, but otherwise leave the crystals here. The ponies are on our tails.”
Speaking of tails, I tap into Three who is gasping for breath, his legs pistoning as fast as they can. He can’t focus properly anymore, so the best I get out of him is an approximation of where he is inside the tunnel network.
I’m not leaving him behind.
“Ten, you’re leading the escape. I’m going to find Three and get him back. One?”
”Yes, Chrysalis?”
“First, stop calling me that! Second, are you getting out with the others, or are you coming with me?”
”The amount of resources and risk tied to saving your Three is insanely high compared to his value.”
“Not what I asked, One.”
Her eye twitches.
”You know, fake king, I think I’m starting to understand why your watchdog keeps screaming at you,” One sighs, ”Yeah yeah, we’re going to get Three.”
“Excellent,” I allow myself a quick grin, “Ten, get them out safely.”
He salutes.
”Now that’s an order I don’t mind obeying.”
Mad stomping echoes through the tunnels when nearly everyone is out of the cave, which soon reveals Eight galloping towards us with Four on her back, the little infiltrator beaming like a lighthouse.
The two stop in front of me, Eight’s now jagged paladin broadsword still hovering next to her.
”Got her back, safe and sound, but if she goes ‘wheeeee!’ while she’s hanging from my neck one more time I’ll have to gag her,” Eight takes a calmer breath.
Giggling Four jumps off of Eight’s back.
“Thank you, Eight,” I give her a quick bow, “Now I need you to lead the escape in case there are more ponies already waiting.”
She nods.
”Alright, let’s go.”
“Umm...” I start.
Eight turns back towards me, grinding her teeth.
”What… now…?!”
“Three isn’t back yet. One and I are about to go look for him.”
A thunderclap rumbles through the cave. Four is covering her head, I’m staring wide-eyed at the two hooves a short distance away from my muzzle, and Eight’s jaw drops when she realizes that her punch with the full weight of her behind it about to knock me out has been physically stopped by One’s casually raised single foreleg.
”You heard your orders, watchdog,” One shakes her foreleg, wincing as she examines the thin cracks in the chitin.
Eight, on the other hoof, is simply glaring at One with a mix of shock, awe, and pure horror.
“Eight, please, take Four and go. You are the best changeling to keep the wounded safe… or safer,” I plead.
One narrows her eyes as Eight walks close enough for her muzzle to touch mine.
”We will have WORDS, King. For now, if you want to live, don’t take her suppressor off no matter what, although… right now I’m seriously tempted by the idea of killing your enslaved ass,” with a furious huff, she pokes Four’s chest, ”We’re going.”
Four nods and silently follows Eight who breaks into run.
A quick mental tap reveals that Three is actually quite close. I mark a spot on his mental map where we should meet, and hope that his panicking mind picked up on it.
“Let’s go, One.”
”As you command, fake king,” she chuckles.
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Oh shit things are picking up.
So the Paladins attack on Star Trail orders, a former paladin who has no official power anymore and counts as civilian (and isnt what anyone would call reasonable), lost multiple paladins on this attack and killed several defenceless/surrendering changelings which goes against the direct orders of the princesses?
Thats the kind of fuckup that can and should get an entire order disbanded.
8968220
"It's not cheating if you don't get caught"
And they probably don't plan on taking credit.
8968031
Only for a moment, don't get too excited :P
8968220
You have no idea how much it means to have someone put two and two together, even in silly side stories like EiM and Words (though I didn't even try to be subtle). Reading continuity is hard to find around here.
Anyway, let's look at it from a different point of view. The paladins are hunting a rogue group of changelings, who knows how big, who have already infiltrated the Royal Guard and messed with their heads as well as rejoined with thirty more from prison after taking out more Royal Guards and murdering one. The royal orders aren't explicitly not to harm anyone, only to let any found changelings who are surrendering do so, and after all, there are no witnesses to any of the changelings trying to surrender, right? So unless they use Luna's lie detection ability, which is used only in rare cases (and currently for the trials with Blaze and Chokey), dead pallys will be hailed as heroes, and Star Trail might even regain some of his standing after trying to kill Fury in front of Celestia, because he was right about the changeling filth all along.
If this was real life, this is how it would go, and it still might. I have some 5 chapters written ahead, and should return to writing this after I estabilish some basic stuff in Legacy of Light.
8968553
It's not cheating if you lie about the rules, the players, and the game.
8969315
The more lies you rely on as foundation, the more tenuous your position and the further the fall you have ahead of you.
8969315
Interestingly Star Trail regaining some of his standing might be the thing that will bring the whole situation to light.
The paladins are already criticizing him during the attack and will continue to do so afterwards even if they dont talk about it outside of the order. This would only be made worse if he gains some amount of commanding power and they get to experience his less than stellar leadership qualities and his sadism (i also think him incapable of ending the critique and rumors about him since his response would be choleric screaming and ordering overblown punishmends without checking for actual guild which would only aid the paladins turning against him).
8969786
It's more that Star Trail has an exemplary paladin service record which is why before the Riverside incident with Puff and Fury he still had some influence. Plus, paladins are full of ponies he served with, and police/military have tendency to stick together no matter what. He has friends who, just like he did, lost companions during their decades of service to changelings. His remaining influence doesn't stem from rank, since he doesn't have any, but from personal relationships with other paladins who are riled up from the recent invasion. Of course, if any solid proof is found, ST would be in trouble with Celestia. On the other hand, who would believe HIVE changelings, not those who lived in Canterlot before, of proven murder? His only real risk is Luna getting involved personally for the solid mind reading.
Amusingly enough, the trigger which caused Star Trail to blow up completely (Puff)… I wonder if he'll realize the irony of what his actions will cause (Bad Nameless, no spoilers!).
8969779
Or in the case of reality, lie until lie becomes truth (yes, I am a broken cynic who doesn't believe in people at all).
8969926
No amount of lies can ever become truth, only by people's innaction can the illusion be left to stand. Active investigation begets active obfuscation, which brings suspicion and leads to more widespread and in-depth investigation.
Reading the comments, I am coming to believe there is a part of the story that i am missing.
8972439
Not exactly. If you keep reading only this, you'll get all the information you need eventually.
Comments are super spoilery now due to the fact that all my stories are set in the same world, and certain events affect more of them. But, if you want more lore while waiting for updates, Hard To Find The Right Words is the story which would illuminate this one a bit more.
How many times was Three either in danger, or seemed like he was in danger?
Ugh. Paladins. Those assholes are basically THE defacto bad guys in ANY setting.
remove
10933098
I'm starting to get the feeling that the only value of this story is as a punching bag full of typos.