6: Onwards to horror!
“Whoa whoa whoa whoa, slow down a moment!”
“Isn’t this great, boss? She wants to be your bodyguard.”
“And you actually believe her?! What’s stopping her from stabbing us in the back the second we turn around?”
“She doesn’t have anything to stab us with, boss. Even if she took my spear piece she wouldn’t be able to do much harm. It’s really fragile… hehe, but it’s still mine.”
“Listen to the drone, ‘boss’. He’s thought of something you seem to be forgetting.”
She finally lets my hind leg go, which I use immediately to kick myself away from her. I can’t look threatening as I spin in the air and then shuffle backwards, but I muster all the desperate courage I can right now.
“L- l- like w- what?”
Despite her three legs, she’s blindingly fast. When I make the mistake of blinking, the warrior is already towering in front of me as my lids open.
“That if I wanted to squash you, I wouldn’t need to wait for you to turn around… boss.”
“See? She’s a nice lady warrior, boss.”
“No, she’s not. She probably ate at least a hundred other drones before she even got from the hive to this place.”
“That can’t be true! She’s all skinny, and her legs a thin and super long. Really pretty, actually.”
“We don’t get fat, idiot! That’s a pony thing.”
“What did you say, drone?”
“That you look really good despite the leg stump, miss… umm what is your rank?”
“Eight.”
“...we are so freaking dead...”
“You are squirming far too much for that.”
“...so mega dead...”
“Anyway, I didn’t do anything to any drones. Most of them just collapsed on their own.”
“...better than what the queen wanted to use them for… less than workers or chitin shields… just ammo...”
“Drones are supposed to work for the hive.”
“Agreed, boss. I liked carrying eggs, it helped pass time.”
“Shutup! Look, I’m a drone. I’ve been around for only two damn weeks and I’ve carried away enough empty husks into the rotting caves to realize that while there’s nothing wrong with working hard, there’s EVERYTHING wrong with losing all importance whenever a high-rank wants something else. Do you understand how little she cared? I can see into this idiot’s head and I could build a golf course in there. The newest drones weren’t even supposed to think properly, they were just a mass of bodies to blindly crash into some shield or whatever. If I was born like three days later I would be the same. To her, deep down, no one but herself meant anything. We were all just sacrifices. It wouldn’t matter if none of us survived the invasion as long as she won and had plenty of pony bodies to fill with new eggs. Did you think that being a single digit would make you different, more important to her? Heck no! Chrysalis IS NOT MY QUEEN!”
Only now I realize I’ve been rambling with cold sweat dripping down my muzzle and spine. Funny, I had no idea changelings had the proper glands. Considering Eight’s probably about to rip my head off and make it look at my corpse, I’ll have a unique chance for examination, albeit a short one.
Eight nods towards two of the bigger pieces of changeling remains “decorating” the clearing.
“You, drone, retrieve my leg from those two.”
The dummy’s legs move on reflex.
“Don’t you dare help her!”
He stops. Eight chuckles.
“And thus your order overrides mine… boss. You see, hive mind is a strange thing, and some say it has life of its own, separate from the changelings connected to it. Allow the drone to bring me my leg. I would do it myself, but for whatever reason I feel that leaving you… unsupervised is the wrong idea. You are very twitchy, as I said.”
“What’s stopping you from choking me to death with my own tail if you get the leg back?”
“What’s stopping me now?”
“...”
“...”
“That… that me and the dummy don’t have enough love between the two of us to take?”
“Which would change how exactly by me getting my leg back?”
“...”
“Oooh, I know that one! It wouldn’t at all, bo-”
“...bring her the damn leg...”
“On it!”
And so, he invites our untimely demise that much closer. Eight presses her separated foreleg against her stump, and with a spark of green light, the limb reconnects to her body. She takes few careful steps, each followed by a scowl.
“Hmph, weak and numb, but still better than keeling over on accident. Good job, drone.”
“Thanks, miss!”
“Alright, dummy?”
“Yes, boss?”
“This is an order - if- no, when she sucks me dry you are to run as fast as you can to some pony place and do anything you can to survive. Understood?”
“But she’s-”
“Understood?”
“Yes, boss.”
“Good. So what now, Eight? Do we continue this charade?”
She walks over to the closest piece of changeling corpse and kicks it.
“These two… do you know who they were?”
“Oh yes, I recognize that torso sawed in half, that’s- of course not! Judging from the chitin… shards they were pretty high ranks.”
“Nine and Eight, to be accurate. Yesterday, I was Ten. They ambushed me when we were passing above this swamp. After all, I was a lower rank, and they got… bored of messing with drones.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Oh?”
“You were a lower rank. You were weaker. All they needed was to order you to give yourself up you would have obeyed on instinct.”
“Top ranks don’t work like that… boss. That’s only true if the power difference is high enough. Any of the triple-digits could command you before… now, and double-digits could order any triple around. Top ten is a tier of… mostly equals, separated by skill and earned love.”
“Now I get it. Since we had so little love to go around in the hive, the difference between top ranks turned into pure skill.”
She gives me a satisfied and unbelievably smug smile.
“And I beat the two ‘above’ me in a one versus two scenario. Do you still have a problem with me being your bodyguard?”
“Yeah! Double now. Why do you care about us if you’re that good? Why not just find the closest sentient creature, drain it, and rejoin the invasion?”
“Queen’s power over her underlings is absolute. She can take anyone’s love if she has enough of her own, no matter their rank, and she also distributes it depending on need. No one other than a potential different queen can touch it. She is the hive’s final... reserve. I cannot drain you, and you gave your own love to me… willingly. Plus, the hive mind speaks to you.”
“How do you know?! The voices? I’ve been connected to the hive mind back in the Badlands and it’s never been like this. I just knew what I needed to know to work. No memories and changeling hissing talking to me.”
“Yes, the hive mind needs you for some reason, and I can get ‘into’ your head easily without being able to force you to do anything.”
“I can do that too, miss.”
“...bet you need signposts to get out...”
“Can you make some, please? Last time I forgot who I was for a while.”
“Do you want to know more, boss?”
“Yeah, none of this is making any sense, or enough sense.”
“Then I guess you have to keep me around until we gather enough love to… refresh my memory. I must have been knocked around by the two a lot more than I thought.”
“You’re kidding. Knowledge for… company?”
“Something like that.”
“Can we keep her, boss? Pleeeeeeease.”
“Is my eye twitching?”
“A lot, boss. Your veins are popping too.”
“Goo- what? We are changelings, you can’t see our veins.”
“I sure can. You have pony eyes like Eight here now. Dark blue, just like your mane and tail. Belly plate too.”
I pat my head. It’s all there. They aren’t crazy. I might be, but they aren’t.
“Fine, we’re taking her with us, but you’re buying her pet food and teaching her to use the litterbox.”
“Miss Eight, this is a swamp. You can relieve yourself anywhere if you need to. I’ll try to get you some love later… somehow… somewhere.”
“See, ‘boss’, I am already fully trained. Your underling did an excellent job in an incredibly short amount of time. You have an eye for picking the best.”
“...two of them… now there’s two of them...”
“There is a town northeast of here. We should head that way if we don’t want to starve.”
“How do you know?”
“The swamp route was carefully planned by infiltrators to avoid pony settlements and prevent a message getting to Canterlot before us. The place I remember was mentioned.”
“I hate listening to you, but I don’t want to run around blindly until we leave just hollow shells. I doubt any one of us has enough love to shapeshift and get some more.”
“I have a plan already.”
“...if she starts draining me, you run. Remember?”
“Clear as day, boss.”
“Then I guess we’re all set. Eight, lead the way, by which I mean - stomp the vegetation so that we can walk through easier. You DO have long legs.”
“Will do, my glorious leader.”
“You’re making fun of me.”
“Of course not, our sole ticket to a bright future.”
“Just be quiet.”
“...of course, King...”
“...Chrysalis is going to kill me so hard...”
Having no other choice, we trudge after Eight through the increasingly wet and hot growth.
***
It’s long past sunset when Eight stops out of nowhere and turns to me. I’m definitely not comfortable with her standing so close.
“The town is nearby, I can sense it.”
“Great, so what was your pl-”
*Crunch!*
“Why is everything spin-?”
*Thud!*
Darkness.
“M- m- m- m- miss, Eight?”
“I order you to give me all your love, drone.”
“Bu- but the boss said-”
“Come over here.”
“But miss-”
Her horn flickers with green light, drawing a tiny wisp of smoke out of the drone’s chest. He falls over, eyes bulging, gasping for breath, and legs helplessly twitching.
“Silence!”
He breathes out, and within few seconds he’s only a completely motionless, empty changeling body. He doesn’t breathe in again.
Eight looks around, and in a burst of emerald flames transforms into a pegasus mare with flowing black mane and light grey coat, keeping her signature long legs.
Without a word, she trots off into the night.
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...
I've been temped to do that once or twice... well, make their head a part of a golf course. Or maybe just put a golfball through their head. In any case, as expected, Number Eight is a total asshat, the drone is a moron and the King is just special. Fun fun.
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8360252
Everyone just wants to survive in the best way they know how.
...I hate her now.
at least it was by some ling he found attractive. dying to the sight of something ugly is never fun.
I want to read this, but the near-complete lack of indication on who's speaking is killing me. It's horribly confusing and kind of irritating.
So, she drained the drones love to save her new leader. I understand, but I don’t like it.
Eight knows what's up. She'll be a valuable asset.
9551976
This. Much this. We assume it's merely rotating consistently, but that's only working about 73 percent of the time.
10185165
Or the worst enemy.
10185166
At that point, I was sure that it would make sense from the way they're speaking. Later, I added color coding, which Fimfiction said I wasn't allowed to, so I had to strip it. Around the second half, it gets tagged with the usual "he said/she said", but considering that I'm not doing any promotions and there isn't anyone reading anything that I'm not currently updating, I never have time to fix it.
10185412
Yeah, mostly because of the "chat log" rule. We understand not having the time to revisit work to fluff the text.
We have Eight pegged on the Foil role at the moment. She'll straighten up the future king, or puppet him out for the good of the swarm!
10185422
A catch like boss will straighten a hardass like her out eeeeeasy
10185412
Hmm how come the color is not allowed? I've seen VARIOUS fics doing that.