The Age of Hunting

by SwordTune

The Hive

There was nothing but dreaming, before the hatching. She didn't know anything else but the instincts implanted through those dreams. How to eat. That was an important dream.

She felt like she was there at the feast. She saw the hive from the eyes of a Queen, watching her drones draw on the magic of the animals around them. Timberwolves crumbled to sticks, chickens and other livestock squealed only for a moment.

But it was the ponies that burned that lesson into her mind. Filled with so much magic, magic which was powered by strong emotion, the ponies could do nothing but fade as the drones drained them of dread, hatred, joy, love, and finally life.

It was a good dream. But then the world had to knock on her egg.

Her first instinct was to curl up, a submissive defence left behind by her primal relationship to lesser drones. But she was not the same as the drones. To ensure her family was safe, she needed to be strong.

She bit voraciously at whatever dared to tear her from her egg-dream, feeling hot liquid drip across her lips and tongue. It tasted foul, salty and bitter, but as long as she was being pulled from her egg, she would fight it. Then suddenly the thing was shoved away.

She fluttered her thin wings and wiped the fluid from her eyes, realizing that it was the same green ichor that flowed in her own body. She shot glances around her surroundings, catching glimpses of the other bodies around her. Somehow she knew they were her sisters.

The one who had torn her out was a sister, and the one who had saved her was the same. She looked at them, wondering briefly at what they were doing, trying to make out the actions of their shadowed silhouettes. She focused so much her head began to hurt.

She opened her mouth to breath the fresh air of the hive. No air came. She choked against the egg of another sister, a lucky one who was about to hatch but could enjoy the dream for a few moments more. The egg was bulging, ready to burst, and it was suffocating her.

It didn't take long to realize what was happening. Her dreams of the hive told her that it was a wide, open cavern with tunnels to fly through and nooks to sleep in. This was not the promised hive, but a pit, and there was not enough space.

Even if her sister would hatch in a few more moments, she knew that was too long. She'd be suffocated by then, or crushed by the egg's weight. Survival instinct took control and she bared her fangs, tearing into the bulbous egg sac until nutrient-rich fluids spilt out.

Immediately, faster than she could have imagined, something bit back. It nipped at her legs first, gnawing at the gaps of her chitinous exoskeleton. But quickly that gnawing turned to a sharp pain in her leg as a fang punctured her protective outer layer.

She wouldn't let this one succeed. Memories of her dreams, her instincts, flashed in her mind. She imagined it was the same for her sister. They were memories of hunting and fighting; the hive was a single unit, but at some point, an ancient generation found the need to fight tenaciously against their own kind.

Before her sister could get a solid footing on the ground, she shoved her horn blindly into the egg sac. There was no seeing past the egg fluid, but she felt her head pierce something hard. The familiar scent of ichor flowed down her head, and she knew she had struck a soft spot under her sister's protective chitin layer.

The biting continued, but slowly it returned to weak gnawing, and finally, her body ceased moving. She tore her head out from her sister's egg sac and gasped her first real breath of air, reading all the scents around her. She was a princess, like all the other sisters in this pit. She sensed drones all around, watching the spectacle as if judging the ones who would rule over them.

But another scent dominated the drones. It commanded respect and fealty, eliciting fear in all the princesses who had the same chance to sense the Queen. But then she noticed something. Somewhere in that frightening scent was pride. Their mother's pride.

Knowing she gained favour in her mother's eyes sparked something feral inside the princess. She turned around and launched herself at the first shadow she saw. Her body collided with her sister's, and together they tumbled over a third body, yet another hatching sister torn from her egg.

The young princess struggled with this sister, who already had her fill of killing as well. She lowered her head to thrust her horn but her sister clearly practised the dream-memory better. She hissed as a stabbing pain shot from one foreleg to the rest of her body.

She thought she would die there, in the pit, the scent of her mother's pride, a pride that was not for her. But this trial was filled with its own surprises. Their other sister, newly hatched, was now just as quick and vicious as they were. The newborn sank her teeth into a wing of the sister who attacked her, tearing through the thin, brittle flesh.

The princess wasted no time. She reached her horn under and thrust it into her attacker's chest, but the attack missed. She was running from the princess, from the fight. Her wing may have been torn, but she still had other means to escape the pit.

She then felt the call as well. Instinct, a distant dream left behind by princesses who suffered this same ordeal thousands of generations ago, commanded her to leave the pit. She didn't realize until she started climbing that the reason was that there was finally enough space to climb.

A dozen dead sisters lay buried under ichor and popped egg sacs. Were they alive, there'd be no space on the walls for them all to climb out. She looked around at the side of the pit. Three other sisters. The newborn who fought with her still clung voraciously to the wing of their sister.

Another, bigger than the rest of them, was making the climb as well. The princess wondered if fighting was even a challenge for that sister. She easily dwarfed the newborn, and could most likely kill two sisters at the same time.

Finally, the four of them reached the top of the pit and pulled themselves up to their mother's legs. The princess looked up but nearly shrieked in horror at the scowling look the Queen cast. Though it wasn't at her. She followed her piercing green eyes to her smaller sister, the newborn.

Sounds rattled from the Queen's throat, vibrating the princess from her exoskeleton to her soft innards. She didn't understand every sound, but some memory of language from her egg-dreams was resurrected, just enough to understand the Queen's displeasure at the newborn.

She watched her mother hiss scalding words at her newborn sister. Smaller than the rest, she already looked weak. Cling bitterly to her sister's wing during the whole climb up was just more proof that she was unfit to join the hive. The Queen cast a glaring look back down into the pit.

Every word she said rattled inside all their minds. Why shouldn't she just throw the newborn back down the pit?

All four sisters cast their eyes back down to their birthplace. The climb they made was farther than they thought. A fall back to the bottom would kill any of them, even the biggest sister.

Unhesitating, the newborn proved her determination to live. Savagery was the way of the hive. They now knew it not from just their egg-dreams, but their own living experiences. The newborn sank her fangs into her sister's already torn wing, biting closer to the joint until she had a strong enough grip.

The hive echoed with the hissing of their sister's pain as the newborn tore the broken wing clean off and spat it back down into the pit.

The princess looked at the two sisters, and then their mother the Queen. That familiar scent of pride returned, but none of them relaxed a muscle.

The Queen stepped back, giving space between the four princesses and their hive of drones.

They didn't know all the words she said, but they understood the meaning. She presented them to her hive, declaring all four as true princesses, and deserving of a naming ceremony. Crude chattering came from the drones. Their words, the sisters could understand.

"The rightful ones! The rightful ones!" The drones rejoiced together, eager to welcome four more leaders into their lives. One by one the drones flew to meet them.

Only then did the princess realize how many were truly watching them. Drones pulled themselves from every nook and crack along the cavern walls, their black, chitinous bodies barely shimmering in the hive's dim lights. The darkness, she realized, was not the lack of light.

No, her dreams told her that the hive was always light enough to see, though just barely, thanks to the glowing fungi that grew on the walls. This darkness, this pitch blankness that left sound and smell as the only reliable senses, was the hive. Every drone covering every inch of fungi and stone.

They descended upon the sisters, carrying them off to a new chamber, where'd they be named and raised, and finally, taught to lead by their mother. Such was what happened for the princesses before them. In the grasp of the hive, each princess hatchling finally relaxed. Whatever would follow, the hive would keep them safe. She closed her eyes and had her first dream outside the egg.

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The naming ceremony was simple. Though the drones, and more so the Queen, expected much from their new princesses, they still did not know many words.

So they were laid out into four equally spaced places on a circle facing each other. Their ingrained mental maps told them that this was the heart of the hive. This was where hunters returned with their bounties, and it was the only place where every other part of the hive was connected.

The storage caverns, the birthing rooms for the other drones, even the exits to the world outside the hive, the four sisters could sense it all by ear and nose. And one day it would all be theirs.

The Queen looked down at her daughter, the newborn. She raised her horn and bathed the young changeling in a green magical aura, changing something about her. Her scent was different, and through reflex, the other sisters bristled with irritation at their sister becoming a threat.

It was magic. Their first taste of magic, personally fed and stored by the Queen into their fresh, unfamiliar vessels. She domineered over her daughter and grinned. She was proud of her daughter's fierce determination, that much they could tell from her words.

"I name you Tenacity," their mother said.

And the drones repeated in unison, "Tenacity." Her name rung into the very stone of the hive.

Then it was the newborn's adversary, the one-winged sister. The Queen's wolfish grin did not go unnoticed, and her words revealed the thoughts behind it. Her daughter had proven herself, but losing her wing was a weakness she would have to carry with her forever.

"I name you Halfwing," the Queen declared and bathed her in magic. Again, the drones repeated her name.

Their biggest sister sat proudly before the Queen, boasting her size and strength for their mother to admire. She smiled down to her strongest daughter.

"You are Majesta," she simply told her. Even to the sisters, their fresh minds understood. The name was formed from another word, and it displayed her majestic glory for all the world to see. She drew in her mother's magic like it was her birthright, relishing the spark of power.

Finally, the Queen set her eyes to her fourth daughter. As she described the last princess, her small heart sank. She was not as big as Majesta and hadn't had the chance to show exceptional ferocity like Tenacity.

"You're just plain across the spectrum, aren't you?" her mother laughed. Then, she tilted her head in thought. "Perhaps having a bit of everything could become your strongest trait." The Queen winked, laughing again at her own imagination of what her daughter could accomplish.

"Fine, I'll name you Spectra," she boomed. And as the final name, the hive boomed louder, planting the echo of her name into the black stone walls like a farmer planting seeds in a field. She raised her horn and cast her green magic over Spectra.

The magic immediately sought out her body, filling her with power she only knew of from her egg-dreams. But this was different, it was real. The magic shot through her body, jolting every muscle and sharpening senses that were already honed after millennia of evolution. Spectra realized that this was the power her kind felt whenever they fed on magic, and she couldn't wait for when she would feed on her own prey.

The Queen now turned to the rest of the hive. "I am Queen Chrysalis, daughter of the last Chrysalis and grand-daughter of the Chrysalis before her. From this day on you serve my daughters, second only to me. Now fly, fly and serve the glory of the hive!"

The caverns hummed in an uproar, filled with the sound of drones taking off to resume their duties to the hive, working harder than ever for their new princesses. Over half of the dark silhouettes headed down the widest tunnel, the exit shaft to the outside world. Others flew themselves to the storage caverns, preparing the caverns for all the food the hive would need.

Spectra could smell other hatching grounds. Another tunnel leading deeper into the earth was one of the biggest, after the exit tunnel of course. She could smell egg sac fluid of newborn hunter-drones. A narrower tunnel opened beside its neighbour, leading to worker-drone caverns.

Her egg-dreams told her that the workers were the most numerous, and had the largest caverns, but their eggs usually lay dormant for months. Down there thousands of eggs waited so a few could be called on to replace dead workers. The massive reserve ensured the hive would never lack a stable labour force.

Tenacity crept up beside her, looking at the tunnels with the same wonder in her eyes. Spectra looked at her sister, muscles still ready to twitch from the pit, but one look from her sister's eyes calmed her. Tenacity knew she was the one who tackled Halfwing out of the way. And that was enough.

"Your Highnesses," announced a drone from one of the many shafts. All four sisters turned to the hunter-drone. He stepped out from the path that led back down to their brood cavern, followed by a host of worker drones carrying the deformed, lifeless husks of their eggs sacs.

More and more came, and Spectra realized that it was the salvaged remains of all the eggs, even those of their dead sisters.

Instinctively her stomach rumbled, and she rushed for the eggs as soon as it was set in the middle of the cavern floor. Her sisters all apparently felt the exact same urge, as they all burst for the nutrient-rich fluids remaining inside the eggs.

First, they ate plenty, drinking up the slimy albumen that surrounded their growing yolks in protein. The workers were clumsy, simple-minded Changelings, and piled the eggs together for the princesses. Spectra snapped her jaw at remaining egg sac and dragged it out from under the pile.

Though it was half full, that was more than what most of the other eggs had. She stuck her head into the hole where her sister had been torn out and sucked on the egg fluid. She gorged herself her senses were almost drowned out. Almost.

Halfwing's remaining wing fluttered and bristled in irritation, its unique sound betraying her attempt at a surprise attack. Spectra pulled herself out of the egg just in time to react to Halfwing's fangs. She dropped under her sister and with two powerful hind legs bucked her against the cavern wall.

Normally any violence against a princess would send a swarm against the aggressor, but both princesses knew that the drones would not interfere with a fight between sisters.

Halfwing cracked her back, slowly realigning her chitin layers back in place. Her eyes glared at Spectra and her egg, but she didn't challenge her again, instead of returning to the rest of the egg pile to collect her own fill of albumen. Spectra turned back to her egg to see Tenacity had dragged her own egg nearer to hers.

She smiled at Spectra, happy to see the sister who tried to kill her at birth was now running, wings folded. Spectra effused a snort of amusement before returning to her egg, content to lick the nutritious fluid from the leathery inner barrier of the egg sac.

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The hunter-drones finally returned.

In time, the egg sacs were not enough. The first few days the sisters gorged themselves. After a week they were still content with the remains stuck to the shells' insides. But after two months, they gnawed on dried, leathery sacs to pass the time.

The hunters-drones always brought back amazing things. They hunted not only food but trinkets from encounters with the other races.

The four sisters clustered around the Queen, who awaited the return of her hunter-drones alongside her daughters. Seeing this, the leader of the hunting pack dropped to the ground and knelt before his Queen.

"We didn't expect you today, Queen Chrysalis." The hunter-drone said. The princesses were getting better at words now, their egg-dreams reinforced by the constant chattering around them from the drones.

"Just leave the haul here, captain." She rolled her eyes at the display of submission, even though she relished the power. "I have lessons for my daughters."

The hunter-drone nodded, then barked an order to his pack in a brutish hiss. They all landed, quickly leaving everything they had hunted, before rushing down to the hunter caverns to retire for the day.

Filled with curiosity, Spectra and her sisters grabbed at the first thing they saw. Tenacity dragged with her a crude cage made of sticks and straw, with a small bird trapped inside and terrified. Majesta wasted no time with her trinket, crushing the head of a snake and draping it around her neck, like a pony scarf that their mother once mentioned.

Halfwing bit greedily at a rare thing in the hunter's haul: a metal lock box, barely big enough to fit two rats. Ponies didn't often make things like that out of metal. Very few of their kind can shape metal with magic, and using heat is impossible when the hunting ground has no unicorn.

Spectra remembered their mother's lessons as she dug her head through the pile of animal carcasses and pony trinkets. She finally found something that caught her eye more than the food. A thin metal band, made from an expensive and flexible metal ponies rarely used.

"That's a pony bracelet," the Queen told her. She tilted her head and hinted at one that Spectra already had. "How does it compare?"

Spectra looked at her foreleg. Chewing at her egg sac's leather eventually caused a strip of the shell to tear off. Days ago, she decided to do something with it to pass the time, eventually weaving the leathery strip into a circular band that stuck on the rough edges of her chitin.

It wrapped around tightly and refused to let go, a reminder that she was a survivor out of sixteen. The metal pony bracelet just seemed empty and meaningless in comparison.

"It's just pony junk," she answered her mother's inquiry.

The Queen's eyes gleamed. "But they still love it all, don't they? Or else they wouldn't put so much effort into making it."

"Because ponies are dumb," Halfwing retorted.

Their mother growled. "Your Queen is teaching, do not interrupt!" Halfwing retracted herself at the sudden burst from her mother but continued to listen.

"When you're disguised as a pony, hunting for the hive," she explained to them, "you will see how ponies value their trinkets. They put a lot of value into pretty things, and so there are many ways you can play with their emotions just by giving or taking some petty gifts."

She rose, signalling that the lesson was over, and left them to their own interests. The princesses only briefly watched with curiosity as their mother flew up to the top of the hive, where her throne room was. But they didn't watch for long, suspicious that another sister would take something they wanted to play with, eat, or both.

Spectra tossed the bracelet aside and dug through her side of the pile, sniffing out some creature to snack on. Amidst the junk, she found a cat. Its legs were broken, likely in a useless attempt at fighting the hunter-drones, however, its emotions were still rich.

She dragged it out from under the pile of pony junk, drawing the gaze of the rest of her sisters. They didn't move toward her, even if they were mesmerized by the scent of the cat's emotions.

There was a basic fear of death, reinforced by its injured legs, but that was just an appetizer. Spectra sniffed the cat, which made no sound in return as it was still reeling from shock. Along with fear were deeper emotions of confusion, even anger at the hunter-drones. But most intoxicating of all was love.

In its scent, she could infer what had happened to it. The cat had been a pet, and most likely trusted the form that hunter-drone used to approach it. Now it realized it had been betrayed, and longed for the comfort and safety of its real owner and its home.

Spectra widened her jaw, taking in the scent of the emotions, almost tasting it in the air. Magic was attracted to, and controlled by, powerful emotions. It was her instinct to feed on the magic, empowering herself until the prey was a barely living husk. But as she tasted the emotions in the air, no magic came.

She didn't understand. She saw it countless times in her egg-dreams. She knew what it would feel like when she tasted magic for the first time. But the disappointment taught her to know her place. She was still a young princess, incapable of things she already understood.

She looked at her sisters, and they too realized that they wouldn't be able to feed directly on magic either. They were too young, and for now, they were relegated to drawing magic off of the flesh they ate.

Spectra sighed and closed her jaw over the cat's neck. It mewed weakly, but only for a second, before going limp. The emotions instantly left its body, dissipating the magic with it. Spectra felt this and then tore rabidly into the cat's abdomen, swallowing chunks of blood and muscle, eating as much as she could before all the magic left its body.

Her sisters did the same with their meals. They grabbed fresh animals who hid below the pile of pony junk, killing them quickly and sinking their fangs into the flesh. Majesta even tossed aside her long dead snake, throwing it at Tenacity to slow her down and keep her from grabbing the fatter rabbits who were now panicking in the junk pile.

Spectra licked her lips. A half-eaten corpse of the cat remained, but there was no use in continuing. She tasted the blood on her mouth, savouring the last strands of magic within it before it became completely empty.

Then she returned to the pile. While her sisters tore at their kills, she spotted another chicken stuffing itself in the back of a crooked pony-made cage. The poor thing exuded fear, strengthened by having no path of escape. Spectra figured she would be generous, and give the animal the escape it wanted.

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There is life in everything. You will learn to conquer it to suit your needs. The Queen's lessons rung in Spectra's mind as she stalked the hive with Tenacity. Even the glowing lichen on the hive walls was alive and served their eyes by providing enough light to see.

They rarely left the heart of the hive. Why would they? Hunter-drones brought food for them, and worker-drones were always cleaning after them.

But today was a day to test their limits. The hunter-drones were late with their haul from the outside world, and the sisters wanted to know why.

"Do you think hunting outside is as hard as they say?" Tenacity wondered. "We should ask Mother to let us hunt with the drones."

"The Queen will say no," Spectra replied. "Did you already forget about Halfwing?"

Her sister shook her head. The last time the hunter-drones sent a pack to hunt, their sister asked to lead. Apparently, she believed her egg-dreams were enough experience to lead the drones better than the captain. Their mother responded by pulling on her one good wing, hissing threats about how she would die within the hour she left the safety of the hive.

It was a harsh reminder that they lived at their mother's will.

"Halfwing doesn't think, she just wants to fight anything she can get her fangs into," Tenacity remarked. Spectra had to stifle a laugh. Her smaller sister didn't seem much different.

The tunnel to the hunter-drone cavern was like a maze. Paths broke off and twisted back, some leading to dead-ends and others leading back to the entrance. Stalagmites and stalactites gave the tunnel its own fangs, with small glowing fungi sprouting from the moist cracks in the stone.

Any intruder would never find their way to the hunter-drone's cavern. A perfect defence for the hive's fighting forces. Lucky for Spectra and Tenacity, the two of them remembered their egg-dreams vividly.

As the two sisters clamoured through the narrow gaps between rocks, they found chitinous shreds on the ground, left behind by clumsy drone hatchlings who tried their way through the maze. Any Changeling who wasn't a princess had to learn the maze the hard way.

The hunter-drone cavern was the darkest part of the hive. Spectra and her sister blinked for a moment, their eyes taking a moment to adjust to the dark. What little magic they had was still strong enough to sharpen their eyes, but even magic couldn't make eyes see light that wasn't there.

They entered, and Spectra's other senses reached out around the cavern. From the centre of the hive, she could only guess what went on in the hunter-drones' nests, but now she had full reign of the place. Small caves were burrowed into sporadically spaced out along the cavern walls.

Each was big enough for only one drone, but Spectra could still smell the warming scent of egg albumen along the cavern walls. Like the princesses, eggs were crammed into each cave, forcing the newborn drones to fight for the right to live. The only way for drones to get a cave for themselves was to kill off the ones they were born with.

In the pitch black cavern, primitive hissing came from the youngest hunter-drones. They were born around the same time as the princesses and would be the generation to follow them into maturity. Instinct drove the young drones to bow and grovel on the cavern ground, prostrating themselves before their rightful rulers.

But their older brothers did not have the same fealty. One hunter-drone, bulkier than all the rest, approached the princesses with a glare in his eyes. Dim lichen light glistened off his eyes as he greeted them with a rough grunt.

"The last pack to leave is still out there," Tenacity said first. She stepped ahead of Spectra, who carefully watched as other hunter-drones inched toward them. "Send out more to bring food for the hive."

The drone bristled, rattling the plates on his back. They didn't look like they were a part of him, and quickly Spectra realized they were armour plates. The drone was no bigger than his other brothers, the armour simply made him bulkier.

However, the truth made him no less intimidating. The armour he wore was made from the chitinous carapaces of the brothers he had defeated. Some were small plates, likely trophies from the brothers he killed when they hatched. Others were much larger; he had challenged them for dominance, and now wore their exoskeleton as proof of his strength.

"The Queen made me a captain," he gibed. "I may have to make sure you're alive, but I don't take orders from you."

Tenacity flashed a scowl, then twisted her head to the younger hunter-drones who were spying the encounter from the edges of the cavern.

"Take your brothers out to hunt," she growled. This time the young drones could not resist the command from a princess of their generation. The strongest of them tentatively nodded and took flight for the mouth of the cavern.

In a burst of power, their captain lashed out his horn, knocking the younger drone from the sky. He sank his fangs into the back of the younger's neck, careful not to inflict lethal damage, but still making sure it hurt. He twisted his head and flung the younger drone back into the cavern.

Spectra bristled her wings now. While her sister stood her ground against the captain, the other elder drones had formed an arch around them, shutting them out of the cave. Still, she stepped forward, supporting her sister's challenge to the hunter-drone captain.

"What will we eat, then?" she asked the captain. "Do you want all four princesses down here, demanding food?"

The captain snorted, and laughter echoed from the other hunter-drones at his side. "Princess Halfwing would sooner kill Princess Tenacity than work with her. If you want to eat, hunt like a real Changeling."

The two sisters flexed their wings, showing their irritation at the captain's goading. He was their brother and drone, and they were his princesses. He dared to speak to them like that? But when he didn't move a muscle at their display, Spectra realized something was wrong.

Tenacity wouldn't give up so easily, but it was clear their mother was the chief authority here. Their drone brothers fought brutally to earn the confidence of the Queen. Even if the sisters were born to be rulers, the hive couldn't grow on birthright alone.

The hunter drones blocking them out were older, stronger, and more experienced. Their hunting grounds expanded beyond the hive, where they could drain pure magic from ponies. As it stood, the two of them were hungry, and still, they hadn't had their first taste of raw magic.

"Tena," Spectra said bitterly. "Let's go see where Majesta went. She must have some food stashed away."

Tenacity shot a look of surprise at her sister, stubbornly planting her legs where she stood. But, as she looked at her sister, her gaze shifted to see the two dozen drones standing against them, blocking them from going deeper into the cave.

"Fine," she turned, flying back with Spectra through the tunnel they came.

Once out of earshot of the hunter-drones, Spectra let go a breath she didn't know she was holding. She thought the pit they were born in was the trial that determined their destiny to rule. But that destiny came with conditions. Before they were destined for greatness, they'd be destined to face hardships.

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Spectra sniffed around the heart of the hive, tracking her sisters' scent. Halfwing did little to cover her trail. It was obvious she was somewhere among the worker-drones, likely trying to exploit their weaker wills to get one of them to give up their food.

But Majesta was another story. She was the biggest of them all, and always bullied her way to the fattest animals that the hunter-drones brought in. Yet, any dream of outsmarting her brute strength washed away as Spectra tried to pick out her scent.

It looped in and out of tunnels, crossing with the smells of drones and the pests that scurried around the hive. Any path that smelled like it could be Majesta also had a chance of just being a worker-drone carving out a new tunnel, or a snail chewing at a patch of fungi.

"Any luck?" Tenacity flew down from an overhanging shelf that overlooked the rest of the cavern. "She definitely lost me."

"She has food," Spectra growled. "Why else would she cover her tracks?"

"Maybe Halfwing's looking for a fight again," Tenacity answered. They both laughed at the idea that their larger sister would bother hiding from the crippled one.

"No use scrambling around the entire hive," Spectra added. She looked at the centre of the cavern, where their meals were always placed. Scraps of half eaten rabbits, boars, and even a bull, were scattered on the stone floor. They were all ravenous eaters, and by the time they found Majesta, all her food would likely be gone.

Tenacity huffed. "Could bother Halfwing again, but it's no fun anymore."

Spectra looked again at the cavern. She smelled the ground, picking apart the scent of the corpses until she found something still alive. A rat had passed by and picked at the remaining meat. She turned her head and chased the scent until her nose struck a crack in the wall.

Her sister chuckled, recognizing what she was thinking of. "If it were that easy I wouldn't be hunting down Majesta with you."

"Laugh all you want, Tena," Spectra snarled. "But I think I know why her scent's covered up so much. She's not hiding from us. She's baiting the prey that's already in the hive."

Tenacity's face twisted and she turned her nose up. "The pests in here are barely worth anything. There's hardly a shred of emotion in them."

It was true. Though any of the princesses could have smelled out the rats, their fear and joy were basic, driven by instinct. Having barely any magic inside them, they tasted as good alive as they did dead.

Still, they were growing princesses, and magic wouldn't be able to make a body out of nothing. Magical or not, they needed something to eat.

"You heard the hunter-drones," Spectra jeered at her sister's stubbornness. "Find your own food. If you think tracking our sister is easier than hunting a rat, then go ahead."

She stepped over the pile of discard flesh and picked out a relatively fresh chicken leg as bait. Tenacity may have been her closest sister, but Spectra wasn't going to waste effort convincing her to help. She didn't need a partner to set a trap for a simple-minded rodent, and without Tenacity looming at her side, it meant there wouldn't be a need to share.

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As hard as it was to admit, the first few hunts turned out difficult. Spectra quickly realized not to sneer at the instincts of lesser animals. The rats were a lot like her sister Tenacity. Small, quick, and vicious, the first time she tried to catch a rat that was drawn to her bait scratched her nose and absconded with the chicken leg.

The hunts after that were no more successful. She tried every trick her young mind could formulate. She found that the rats too had a sensitive nose, but if she smeared herself with the remains from the carcass pile, the rats wouldn't sense her hiding in a nearby nook.

But even if they crawled within pouncing range, their soft bodies were adept at scurrying up from under her hooves. Worse, if she tried to bite them and swallow them whole immediately, the rats would return bites of their own against her tongue.

Every failure, however, taught her more. If catching them wasn't possible, then she would have to strike them down. The first time she pounced with an intent to strike, her leg broke the neck of the rat, killing it instantly. Whatever magic was in it left just as quick.

As simple as the rodents were, they were alive, and thus had at least some magic within them. If she wanted to gain strength, she needed the rats alive when she ate them.

Her hunger ate away at her strength over the days, until she thought she would collapse and become a feast for the rats in an ironic twist. But her weakened state turned out to be a blessing. Her hits were softer, and slowly, she learned how much force a rat could take before it died.

It took a week, but in her hooves was a rat, still breathing and lying still. She wanted to have some pride in her perseverance, but a primal egg-dream spurred her instincts, telling her to feast. She lifted the simple creature up and opened her jaw, sliding its slender, hairy body down her throat until it hit her stomach.

Her body reacted, pulling apart the traces of magic inside the rat, while the rest of its body slowly digested. Spectra thought she would be satisfied, but having just a taste seemed only to sharpen her hunger more.

But the meal did other things to her as well. The rush of the kill heightened her senses once again, connecting her ears and nose to the hive's sounds and smells, piercing through the dim fungi. She almost didn't notice the Changeling creeping into the tunnel she chose to hunt in.

She turned to jump out of the way, but her sister was faster. The size and power were unmistakable. It was her sister Majesta, slamming her frailer body up against a stalagmite.

"You?" she hesitated, pulling away. "I thought you were Halfwing."

"You thought I was the cripple?" Spectra shook off the throbbing pain in her back. "That hurts more than the attack did."

Majesta dusted herself off. "You shouldn't mock our sister. Mother says Halfwing will kill you and Tenacity if you don't keep your guard up."

"She'd never let that happen," Spectra denied, but a warning in the back of mind, perhaps instinct or just simple logic, knew that wouldn't always be the case.

Her sister sneered, raising her head in a domineering fashion. "Oh, I'm sure there'd be punishments if our sister pulled it off somehow, but the reality wouldn't change; you'd be dead, and she wouldn't."

Spectra lowered her head at the truth. The hive was bigger than they imagined, even from their dreams, but staying out of each other's way didn't guarantee safety. Sooner or later they'd meet, and it just now dawned on her that she truly didn't have an idea of how strong her crippled sister had grown. If Majesta was cautious about her...

Her sister sniffed the air, casting her enhanced glare down the tunnel. The tunnel was partially dug by worker-drones, and partially a natural underground cave system. Flow-stones, sloped terrain formed by millennia of minerals calcifying along the cave walls, pinched off the passage to the deepest cavern of the hive, where livestock was kept locked up for the Queen to feed on.

"Plenty of food down there, if you're willing to squeeze through," Majesta said, pointing her horn down the tunnel.

Spectra's eyes widened. "You must think I'm as dumb as the drones." Not only was the path to the Queen's Reservoir long and tiresome, but dream-memories also screamed warnings of death if she even attempted to make the journey.

Her sister smirked. "No, I think you're smarter than you let on. But this is my rat tunnel now."

The last words turned from a distant voice to a low but soft growl. The sound was like mother's disapproval, but she was her sister, not the Queen. If she wanted to regain her strength, she'd need to hunt more rats, and this was the best spot. Her larger sister frightened her, lifting her head high to seem even bigger. But the taunt exposed a little too much.

Spectra lunged at her sister's neck, thrashing at the chitin protecting precious veins. Majesta was thrown back by the sudden attack but recovered quickly. She let her size bear the brunt of the attack while she forced horn down, aiming it back.

Spectra was prepared to clash horns, but what came next rattled both her body and mind. A burst of green magic shot through her sister's horn and toppled her to the ground.

She flung her limbs in defence but realized immediately that her sister did not press the advantage. She regained her footing, standing up to see that the burst of magic drained more from her sister than anticipated.

Not wanting Majesta to get a second wind, she thrust her horn at her chest and face. The attacks didn't worry her sister, whose composure was calm as her hooves batted away every strike, but she was on the defensive now.

Eventually, she jumped back beyond Spectra's reach, spreading her wings and taking off out of the tunnel before she gave chase.

Spectra stood confidently as her sister's scent slowly flew from the tunnel. Two lessons were clear after their skirmish. First, Majesta was like any of them, a princess but still young and vulnerable when she stepped beyond her limits. Second, if there was another fight between them, she would not win.

Spectra fluttered her wings open and took to a shelf along the top of the tunnel, resuming her hunt. Majesta would take defeat and learn from it. If she wanted to keep their mother's favour, she knew she needed to match her sister blow for blow. Such a feat would not be possible if she remained as hungry as she was now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spectra covered herself in glowing fungus and masked her scent with the last of her bait. But she wasn't waiting for any plain rat to pass.

In the passing days, her schedule had become regular. She usually tried to catch one or two rats immediately after waking up from her rest.

A few hours later, before hunger truly set in, she'd check the many patches of glowing fungi. Insects adored the stale taste of the lichen that sprouted around the hive, and where the insects ate, there was often a lizard or two eating its fill. Spectra only ever took one for herself, cautious not to over hunt the lichen patches.

Then she tucked herself away to watch the comings and goings of the hunter-drones, hiding tightly in the glowing fungus, settling in with the scent of the rat offal she hid at the back of the fungal patch. Now that the princesses were beginning to prove themselves as hunters, the packs freely entered and left the hive. But they still didn't leave fresh catches for them.

She had to thank her sister Tenacity for noticing the hunter-drones. If not for her, she would have kept to her rat tunnel, foolishly content with mindless rodents. Tenacity took note that the younger drones were always clumsy with their catches.

Usually, alive, their prey had a habit of squirming out of their grasps. Every so often, a drone would be too distracted to even notice that their catch had escaped, and with enough patience, it would be no effort at all to claim the hunter-drones' haul for themselves.

Deeper into the tunnel Tenacity was most likely doing exactly the same as Spectra. They agreed to stay out of each other's way, so they didn't have to worry about fighting over the same scraps. But, she couldn't help wondering for a moment if she really was there. It had been days since she last spotted her sister.

Spectra let her mind wander into memory-dreams while she waited for drones to pass by. She imagined herself older, hunting in the outside world for fresh meat for the hive. Then her mind was in a cave of her own, establishing her own nest of Changelings.

The memory changed again, forming into a raid on a pony village, but she did not have the luxury of delving into it. Her nose sensed a procession of hunter-drones returning from their hunt. In their jaws she heard the squirming of animals; rabbits and chickens and a couple of large deer cried out in terror, their primitive minds slowly realizing what the Changelings would do to them.

"Attention!" shouted the hunter-drone at the head of the line. He turned and stopped his pack at the mouth of the tunnel, lining them up to present everything they had captured. Spectra wondered what they were doing. In a moment, she got her answer.

The Queen approached from above, flying down from her throne room to inspect the hunter-drones, and likely take some of their prey for herself.

"Not a single pony today, captain?" she puzzled as she inspected their ranks. Spectra felt her mouth moisten, the fear of the youngest hunter-drones adding to the scent of the prey.

He bleated at the question. "Insurgents haven't cemented their place yet, your Highness." His eyes looked away from the Queen in fear, but Spectra could smell more complexities to his emotions. It was clearly a sore point for him, that his pack continually failed to bring in a worthy haul. His body swarmed with the smells of anger and shame.

"Look at you," the Queen mocked. "I've lost my appetite. Continue this, and the next thing lost will be your rank as captain."

Spectra sensed a slight shiver of pleasure through the other hunter-drones that stood by him. They all wore armour similar to the captain, made from the chitin of their weaker brothers. All the captain's lieutenants were as vicious as their leader, and all wanted to take his place the moment he lost the confidence of the Queen.

"You can give my share of the meat to my daughter," the Queen said. And then Spectra froze. Could her mother have really sensed her? She didn't even smell herself through all the rat offal she used. The Queen turned and looked directly at her as if her eyes could peel away the patch of lichen she hid under. She was definitely meant Spectra.

"Don't be surprised, my Spectra. Come on out." She extended her leg invitingly.

She didn't want to reveal herself, but refusing her mother would be even worse than if she didn't. Slowly, she wriggled her legs and wings out from under the lichen that had begun to stick to her chitin and pulled herself out of the glowing patch.

The drones stood silently, though the perplexed looks of the youngest hunter-drones said enough. It was a small comfort that her hiding spot wasn't completely useless.

The Queen turned to one of the drones carrying a now exhausted chicken and tore it from its hooves. "Go back to your cavern and find some way to make yourselves useful," she snapped at them after dropping the chicken at Spectra's hooves, who pinned it down before it could rise and escape.

Without hesitation, the hunter-drones flapped their wings in a fury and shot down the maze-like tunnel, letting muscle memory turn the act of navigating the obstacles into second nature.

Once the drones had left, Spectra turned to her mother. "How did you know?"

"As leaders of the hive, we cannot simply hide the way drones do," she said. "To the senses everything else around us, we must not even exist."

Her mother pointed to the patch of lichen. "By scent, there's no way to know it was you. But what business does a rat have doing in a lichen patch at the mouth of the hunter-drone tunnel?"

Spectra didn't understand. Rats and lizards roamed everywhere in the cave, hiding themselves away in small cracks in the walls where Changelings wouldn't bother them.

"They may be everywhere, but they know to avoid hunter-drones," she said, almost as if she could read her daughter's mind. "You put a scent in a place where it didn't belong, and the only thing in the hive who would do that is a young little princess."

"But, you knew me by name," Spectra puzzled.

"That was easy," her mother winked mischievously. "Your other sisters have been trying the same, but they were all caught before you were. By now they would have chosen different methods."

She looked down at the chicken she had taken from the drone. "Think of that as your reward."

Spectra looked down at the chicken, and a scent tickled her nose that she hadn't felt in a long time. The scent of pride, the same scent as when she first conquered her sisters in their birthing pit. But her mother didn't have time to pamper her daughter. Without a tithe from the hunter-drones, she'd need to leave the hive to track down her own meal.

Still, even after she left, the scent lingered. Spectra realized it wasn't her mother's pride, but her own. Pride in accomplishment, in finding one thing that she was best at.

Majesta was capable and calculating, Halfwing and Tenacity were equally ferocious and vengeful. She would have to hone her skills in deception until she met her mother's expectation and could vanish from her prey's reality.

Comments

[Rustic_King]

An interesting start!

[Arkinstone]

hhmmmm. Well, I'm hooked! could use a tiny bit of polishing up, but overall this is really good!

[Starlight Nova]

How do I know this story won't die after only one chapter?

[SwordTune]

8649643
I'm editing the second and writing the third.

[Midnight Might]

We love this! It does an excellent job of slowly making everything more coherent, and really helps you feel like you're right there! We can't wait to read more!