In The Rough

by BlackRoseRaven

Two Roads Diverged

Chapter Six: Two Roads Diverged
~BlackRoseRaven

Spike blinked a few times before his eyes slowly opened. The air was humid and his body felt slick, like he had been sweating. But wait, how could he be sweating? And why was everything so dim?

Where was he? Where was Moonbeam?

He tried to sit up, and he couldn't. He panicked for a moment, gasping and struggling, but then groaned and settled when his head gave a throb of pain, wincing a bit before he managed to look down at himself, even as he uselessly pulled against whatever was restraining his arms and legs in the slumped sitting position he was in.

Some kind of goo had been smeared over him. He grimaced in disgust at the sight of it before he rose his head, vaguely remembering what had happened as he blinked a few times to try and get the blurriness out of his vision.

They had been attacked. He had hit a branch; or well, the branch had hit him. The Changelings... but he thought they'd been tracking Diamond Dogs!

Were the Diamond Dogs and the Changelings working together? Or had this just been some freak encounter?

Where was Marina?

Spike grimaced and shook himself out, then he took a slow breath and forced himself to look around as his eyes adjusted to the dimness of the world around him. Even if he couldn't see, the smells, the almost-taste that infiltrated his mouth told him that he was underground: this was some kind of burrow, a crude cell dug out of the earth, lit faintly from the spill of light that fell in from the sole entrance.

There was no door: just a hole in the wall that led down what looked like a cramped passage. Spike looked at this for a moment, then grimaced as he flexed and uselessly tugged against the slimy bonds restraining him.

They were still wet on the outside, but hardening on the inside, like drying cement. He could wiggle ever so slightly, but he didn't think he could actually yank himself loose: not even if he used all his strength.

He bit his lip and struggled again in spite of himself: even knowing what he did, well... it was hard to stop from wiggling at least a little. He looked back down at the slime, studying it intently for a few moments as a few possible solutions went through his mind, but the only one that seemed likely...

Spike steeled himself, and then he took a slow inhale before he grimaced as his mind betrayed him, hissing that there was no way he could do it. He coughed, and a bit of harmless green flame came out of his jaws instead of the focused fire he needed right now.

It probably wouldn't work anyway. It didn't matter that the ponies had kept him small, kept him from becoming strong, that his teeth were dull from eating nothing but gemstones and pony food and his claws were manicured: what was a dragon without his breath? What was he, really?

A lizard. A little lizard, stuck in a bug's web.

He closed his eyes and willed those thoughts away. They weren't helpful.

He tried again, and magical flame came out and uselessly caressed the slime. Spike grimaced and cursed under his breath as some of the looser ooze vanished, feeling a sting of embarrassment: either Twilight or Celestia was going to get an odd gift in the mail.

No, no time to think about that. Besides, maybe it would tell them they were in trouble and... he couldn't handle this alone. He needed help.

He'd been stupid to think he wouldn't need help.

Spike banished those thoughts after a moment, then he took another breath, forcing himself to focus before he leaned down and breathed out a small flame, as concentrated as he could make it, across the slime.

It seared some of the ooze away, but not nearly enough, and Spike grimaced as he felt the heat radiating through the slime, like it was trying to disperse it. He tried to focus on bearing down, making the flame a point, trying to cut with it-

He coughed, and the flame belched out across the slime, making it bubble and boil for a moment, then only harden. Bits and pieces of now brittle ooze pebbled down, and Spike wheezed a little as he spat several times, trying to clear the burning sensation and acrid taste out of his mouth.

The little dragon snuffled a little, then sneezed out smoke before he tried to wipe at his face... but of course he couldn't, because he was still trapped, and helpless. He cursed under his breath, looking down at the hardened ooze: some of it he'd burned away, some of it had become brittle and crumbly, but it felt almost like he had made it worse: the slime sleeve coating his body had just hardened under the outer coating, and he didn't have the stamina to keep hacking away at it with his fire breath.

Spike swore quietly, then he dropped his head. What could he do now? Hope that someone else showed up to save him? Pathetically, that seemed like his only option.

Pathetic. That was what he was.

Spike clenched his eyes shut, trembling for a moment, and then he shook his head quickly, muttering: “Stop it. Stop, come on, there has to be something you can do here...”

He forced himself to open his eyes and look down at what he could see, if only to distract himself, to give himself a second's more hope. But the damage his fire had done wasn't enough. His fire had just made it worse, and if anything it seemed like his magic breath had made more of it vanish-

Spike blinked, then stared for a moment before he wondered if that was the answer: while he couldn't 'deliver' more than a small package, 'sending' objects, on the other hand, was something he'd gotten quite a lot of practice in.

The dragon bit his lip, then he decided that either way, it wouldn't matter: he would escape or not, and he could worry about what Celestia or Twilight thought of whatever he accidentally dropped on them later.

But he hesitated, and trembled for a moment, because he was afraid. He was afraid of failing, and almost as afraid of succeeding, because what was he going to do even if he did free himself?

No. That was stupid. He couldn't get caught up in that.

He breathed slowly, then he forced himself to focus before he leaned over and breathed out green fire across the cracked sleeve covering his body. The fire danced and sparkled, gleaming over the hardened slime, consuming it in whirls and flashes of emerald.

A faintly-smoldering crater was left behind, and Spike wheezed out his breath before he gave an awkward smile. It hadn't been as much as he'd hoped, but the shell was indeed broken up enough that his magic could displace it.

It wasn't enough yet, but Spike concentrated and instead focused his fire breath, cutting carefully through more of the slimy shell, breaking the brittle cocoon up further. That was followed by another exhale of magic, sending more of the cocoon who-knew-where, and then another short burst of flame.

His mouth hurt. He felt light-headed and like he was going to throw up. But he forced himself to keep going, to keep weakening and loosening the cocoon until, finally, he was able to slowly and painfully tear one of his arms free with a gasp from the inner sleeve. He hung for a few moments like that, breathing hard, claw twitching at the end of his limb as he let the whirl in his head settle.

He blinked a few times, then spat to the side before he finally straightened. He flexed his now-free claw a few times, then pushed at the brittle edge of the cocoon: it cracked easily from external pressure, and within only a minute or so, Spike was able to finally flop loose and free from the prison, grimacing as he wiped slime from his scales before he picked himself shakily up and muttered: “Okay. What now?”

Well, there wasn't a whole lot of choice, was there? He was in a dirt cell, and the only way in or out was the tunnel in front of him. He didn't let himself stop to think, carefully moving forwards to the end of the passage before he bit his lip as he leaned out, biting his lip nervously as he found himself in another, wider tunnel, this one lit by glowing gemstones placed every so often along the ceiling and walls at seemingly-random intervals.

There were a few other holes in the wall here: he snuck down one of these tunnels and found himself in what seemed like another empty cell. He studied this for a moment, then made his way back out, silently sliding his claw along the dirt passage: it felt familiar. And now that he had time to think...

Diamond Dogs dug out burrows like this, didn't they? And Changelings trapped their victims in cocoons, although he had no idea why his had been different. Had they had plans for him, maybe, other than feeding on him?

He wasn't sure he wanted to know.

He made his way down the larger tunnel, and was somehow unsurprised to find it connected to a fork: this burrow was likely to be nothing but a labyrinth of passages, and he was just going to have to wander until he found something... or something found him, as the case could be.

“Go right.” Spike muttered: that was the first rule of a maze, wasn't it? Choose one direction and just keep taking turns until you hit a dead end. Then backtrack until you reached a different turn, and repeat the process.

It wasn't ideal, but he didn't have much of a choice.

Spike turned right at the fork, and was almost immediately confronted with a dead end. He scowled in disgust and turned around, heading in the opposite direction until he reached an offshoot.

He peeked around this, and frowned as he saw it was dark: he thought he could hear noises, however, coming from down the tunnel. But that didn't make a lot of sense: why would there be noise but no light?

Spike lingered for a moment, then carefully slipped into the tunnel. He stuck close to the walls as he made his way down, nervous: what if there were worse things than Diamond Dogs lingering in these tunnels?

Soon, the tunnel opened up into a larger space, and Spike frowned as he realized there were lantern lights at the end of this cavern. And working by lantern, he could see several Diamond Dogs, grumbling and huffing as they tore at the walls.

By the dim light of the lanterns, Spike could also see building materials and other supplies: brick and wood, barrels and crates, the distinct tint and outline of beams that had been added to the wall here and there. The dragon was tempted to creep closer, but then a shift in the shadows made him draw quickly back, trembling a little as he saw green eyes flash in the darkness, looking back and forth.

The eyes seemed to look right at him for a moment before they were drawn towards the Diamond Dogs when one of them clanged its claws into something with a yelp, and the Changeling buzzed into the dim light with a scowl, looking down at the Diamond Dog nursing its injured paw as the other complained: “Too many big rocks!”

The Changeling grumbled, then zapped the injured Diamond Dog: but to Spike's surprise, the Diamond Dog didn't flinch or whine, but instead gave a sigh of relief, shaking his paw out before he apologized: “We do better.”

“Go back to work.” the Changeling said, but his tone wasn't really what Spike had expected either: he sounded awkward, not angry or annoyed. Spike studied it, watching as the Changeling flitted off to its perch in the darkness.

Spike didn't linger: he shifted backwards and carefully made his way back to the mouth of the dark tunnel. He grimaced and crouched, making himself as small as possible against the dirt wall as he heard movement and voices, however, and a few moments later, a massive Diamond Dog and two Changelings in armor walked by, likely heading in the direction of his cell. And they didn't sound very happy, either.

“-after we finish this interrogation. Then we need your drones to expand our food storage again. The four new ponies we've added have made it cramped.” said one of the Changelings, and Spike's eyes widened in surprise.

The Diamond Dog snorted, then answered contemptibly: “Not drones, but pack. Even if lesser, still pack. We rush enough. No more rushing.”

“You will do as...” the other Changeling started, and then it flinched when the Diamond Dog carelessly swung a front limb out and knocked him into the wall. The little procession stopped, and Spike winced as he scurried to the other side of the tunnel and pressed into a niche in the wall to avoid being seen.

He could hear them shift, and there was a palpable enmity in the air. But then there was a snort, and when Spike peeked around the corner, he saw the Diamond Dog was moving on and the Changelings were grouchily following.

He bit his lip, studying their retreating backs for a few moments, and then he shook his head and turned away, anxiously hurrying down the way they had come. Now he was in trouble: once they found out that he had escaped, they'd start scouring this burrow for him, and there was nothing he could do-

No, no, there was always something! Spike cursed under his breath as he took turns on wild hunches more than strategy now, and he was only glad this place seemed empty: he guessed that the Changelings had to be in some other section, and the Diamond Dogs were all busy digging new tunnels, it sounded like, and expanding these burrows and generally-

A howl faintly reached Spike's ears, but it was immediately amplified by several more dogs that joined in: he guessed that was an alarm. The little dragon skidded around a corner, then winced and threw himself into a dark tunnel, scuttling into a hollow beneath a large rock.

He was lucky: only a few moments later, a Diamond Dog tromped past, and he heard the buzz of Changelings as well. He had no idea where they were going, and even less idea what he should do: if he stayed here, they'd probably eventually sniff him out. But if he moved, he'd definitely be caught, and a lot sooner, too!

The little dragon shivered for a moment, then winced as he heard something else storm past. He didn't know why, but the sound of something else rushing by made him suddenly far more afraid of sitting here and being caught than doing nothing, so he shoved himself free, tossing a fearful look over his shoulder before he hurried down the dirt hall in the direction the dogs and Changelings had come from: if everyone was going that way, well, it only made sense to try and run in the opposite direction, right?

God, he had no idea what he was doing.

He turned a corner and staggered into an open room, staring around the dirt cavern in surprise before he flung himself to the side, landing with a flump behind a pile of bricks as several Diamond Dogs started to look towards him. He cursed his luck as he heard one of them growl at him, crawling quickly away as he desperately looked for a hiding place-

There!

The little dragon skittered into an overturned barrel, holding his breath as if that would help him not make any noise: he clenched his eyes shut and tucked his limbs and tail in as tightly as he could, staring out the open end of the barrel and watching as the Diamond Dog prowled by.

It began to lean down, and Spike flinched before he had to hold in a sigh of relief when someone snapped: “Hey! I can't hold this all day!”

“Coming, coming.” grumbled the Diamond Dog, and Spike slowly exhaled as the canine left, grumbling the whole time.

Spike waited a few moments before he allowed his body to uncurl, laying back in the barrel for a moment before he carefully wiggled his way out, doing his best not to make any noise. He bit his lip as he stood up enough to peer past the pile of supplies, nervously studying the Diamond Dogs working away at the cavern wall.

They had built some kind of support system, and now it looked like they were bricking it over... was this going to be some kind of underground castle, or a fortress? Was that why there were Changeling soldiers here? Maybe that also explained why he had seen that large, mean-looking Diamond Dog...

Spike chewed on his lip, but then he shook his head and turned himself away from the distraction. He had to try and find the others, and Marina.

Where was Marina? But no, Spike forced those thoughts away too before they could get started as he snuck his way towards another tunnel. He slipped down it, then grimaced as he saw a Diamond Dog turn the corner ahead: thankfully, walking away from him, not towards him. But it still worried him: there was a lot more activity here than he had anticipated.

Spike leaned around the corner of the tunnel, looking in the direction the Diamond Dog had gone, and he grimaced as he saw a large, open room beyond filled with grumbling canines. It looked like a massive den of some kind: a roughshod barracks, maybe?

Spike bit his lip, then he looked over his shoulder, down the other passage: it looked wide and kind of fancy, with a few unevenly-spaced pillars and half-constructed walls. But like everything else he had seen, it was unfinished: why was everything in a state of half-repair?

He nervously made his way down this hall, keeping close to the side and resisting the urge to look back at the Diamond Dog den: if he looked back, he'd be more likely to miss anyone ahead of him, and that was a lot more worrisome than some half-asleep canine looking up and seeing some purple shape in the hallway. He was careful to move around the pillars, using them for cover as much as possible, and he couldn't help but notice that some of these structures actually seemed older, as if they had been here for years and years...

The hallway gently curved, and Spike slipped across it to peer around the edge of the turn before he shivered in surprise as he found himself staring out into a massive cavern beyond, filled with ruins. His eyes roved back and forth in amazement: it looked like it had once been some kind of underground castle or city, but most of it had collapsed, and there were weird gray walls and helixes hanging from the ceiling. They looked familiar, but they were so large that it took Spike a moment to realize what they reminded him of.

Wasp nests. They looked like that after they had died and been abandoned. Spike shivered a little as he slipped out of the cave mouth and into the cavern, crouching on the rocky, jagged slope leading down towards the ruins as his eyes roved back and forth with awe; because as terrifying as this was, it was beautiful, too.

His worries were confirmed as he saw several Changelings buzz up from the temple towards the ceiling, and Spike nervously watched this group until they vanished behind a fold of decaying nest.

Was this an old hive, then? Were the Changelings trying to bring it back to life? And the Diamond Dogs had clearly been adding to it...

That reminded him that he didn't have the time to dally. He shook himself quickly out, then took a breath before he bit his lip and began to hurry down to the ruins of the castle, trembling with fear but making himself move as quickly and safely as his shaking claws would allow.

There was only one obvious place to go. And so, even if he knew it was going to end badly, he was going to go there.

He wasn't going to let fear win and fail these ponies again, when he could still do something to fix this.

Marina grimaced as she hid for a moment in the underbrush, suffocating her magic as much as possible as Changelings buzzed by above: soldiers, she noted, not just drones. These searched for a few moments before they turned around and returned to the mound of ruins they had come from.

Marina wasn't sure if it was a natural or artificial structure ahead: maybe it had once been a hilltop or a mound of some kind, but now it looked like it had been hollowed out into some sort of hive-like structure. Marina had seen these 'bases' before, but they weren't usually so busy: she could sense dozens of Changelings inside, and there were Diamond Dogs patrolling the outskirts as well.

If she had only been a little faster, she might have been able to catch the Diamond Dogs before they had met up with a patrol of Changelings... but once she had seen the Changelings, she had known that as badly as she wanted to save those poor ponies, she had no choice but to be quiet, and tail the Diamond Dogs instead of risking fighting them. They were being watched now, after all.

And now, here she was, outside of a nest in a barren tundra, hiding in the tall grasses and only hoping that she wouldn't be seen. This whole hillside was probably hollow, and she could sense a strange familiarity beneath her: a pulse, like the pulse the Hive had, but weaker.

Were they trying to move the Hive? Was that what this was, some desperate gamble to bring their Hive closer to the food source? But that was madness: without a proper way to move hive nodes and larva, they would severely deplete the Hive's love stores in transport and they would face starvation...

Unless... but no. That would mean war!

Marina shivered as she watched a Diamond Dog trudge by, dressed in ill-fitting armor and dragging a cudgel with it. Maybe not war, precisely, but close enough: Diamond Dog raiders were crude but effective, and Marina knew they had been used in the past by the Hive. But that had been long ago: she only knew about it because those tenuous treaties they had always held with the canines were an important part of the Hive's history.

There were a lot of reasons they didn't use Diamond Dogs, after all: they were rough, they were violent, their tactics often drew unnecessary attention, and the canines were known to help themselves to the 'leftovers.' Changelings had long ago given up brutal, war-like tactics for more clandestine operations for a good reason, after all: they simply weren't built for out-and-out combat, aside from the Queensguard.

But in the past, crueler Queens had used the sheer numbers of the Hive and alliances with Diamond Dogs and other 'lower order' species to stage vicious raids on civilizations, taking entire villages by storm with their hordes and leaving with a bounty of victims to be turned into food for the Hive.

But brazen attacks meant everyone knew who was responsible, and that was how many Hives had ended up being wiped out. Changelings didn't have the strength of earth ponies, the flight talents of pegasi, or the magic of unicorns, and they were often cowards by nature. When they didn't have the advantages of fear and numbers and powerful allies, when their training didn't matter in the face of overwhelming odds, they always just... gave up.

That was their instinct, after all: follow orders. And when there were no orders left to follow, they just fell apart.

Marina shook her head, silently studying this unknown before her. If Chrysalis was desperate enough to move the Hive and prepare for an all-out attack, then what kind of state had the Hive been left in after the Equestrians attacked it? Was this... her fault?

No, that was stupid. She hadn't attacked Equestria. And she knew that the Equestrians had taken every measure to preserve life.

She looked down for a moment, chewing on her lip before she closed her eyes and took a breath. Then she straightened a bit as she looked back and forth, reaching carefully out with her Changeling senses and using the camera in her eye to augment her view of the world.

Three Diamond Dog patrols, spaced widely out... they wouldn't be able to smell her, she would just smell like another Changeling to them, but if they saw her that would be a different story.

Above, there were regular Changeling patrols passing by, as well as drones heading in and out of the fortress. And there were... yes, there were other Changelings moving along the ground. That was probably her way in.

She carefully slipped back down into the underbrush, letting her senses dull, quieting her magic as she slid through the grasses, disturbing them as little as possible. Then she winced as a faint beep went off before Octavia's voice asked quietly: “What's going on?”

“I don't think I can talk right now, Octavia...” Marina whispered as she stopped, looking anxiously back and forth before she added in spite of herself: “It looks like the Changelings have moved their Hive. I think they kidnapped my friends, too.”

“I thought you said Diamond Dogs kidnapped your friends?” Octavia asked uneasily, before she muttered: “I'm locking on to your position now. I'll inform the Luciferin and Her Majesty. Princess Celestia will want-”

“I'm going to get them back. I can't leave Moonbeam in there, not after everything she's already gone through.” Marina snapped, and then she flinched and covered her own muzzle, closing her eyes and taking a slow breath before she repeated in a quieter voice: “I'm going in.”

Octavia was silent for a moment, and then she said quietly: “Give me five minutes, Marina. Move to a safe location and wait, just for five minutes. Can you do that?”

Marina didn't want to. She was afraid of being caught, of waiting too long, of missing her opportunity to slip inside: not that she knew if that opportunity had already come and gone, of course. But she also trusted Octavia, for better or worse, more than she trusted herself.

“Okay.” she relented, and Octavia was gone before she could put any conditions on that agreement... not that she would have been able to think of anything, anyway. Octavia was going to do whatever she felt like, after all, and there wasn't anything Marina could do to stop her: she guessed they were similar in that respect. Or maybe Marina had just learned it from the earth pony.

She quietly creeped through the underbrush, making her way around the possible hive, getting e better view of the tundra that surrounded it and its defenses and inhabitants: she could see a few structures here and there around the mound, all of which seemed occupied. Were they guard posts, or storage sheds, or civilian structures? Maybe burrow markers, or... a way in?

She watched as several Changelings flew down to one of the structures and disappeared inside it: they didn't come back out, but that didn't tell Marina much. With her mechanical limbs it was going to be just about impossible for her to-

“Marina, can you hear me?” asked a quiet, curt voice from her communicator, and she blinked in surprise before nodding, then cursing herself.

“Yes.” she answered, not thinking to ask the obvious, but thankfully Octavia politely slipped in:

“Your uplink is stable for now. Marina, I trust you remember Overwatch. I've asked him to assist and provide intelligence. I will coordinate and offer analysis, but Overwatch has resources and information that I do not.”

Marina winced, and Overwatch remarked in his casual voice: “Let's think of this as a little trial run. Maybe it'll help you change your mind about that little job offer I made you. We could still use your talents, after all.”

“Enough chatter, Overwatch. We need to know what we're dealing with here.” Octavia said curtly.

Overwatch clucked his tongue, then he explained in clipped, professional tones: “Thermals indicate massive activity, chiefly underground. We have no solid historical data, but anecdotal records mention a 'war of beasts' and a 'purging' that occurred here. This may be an abandoned Hive.”

“How much of the Hive could be left?” Octavia mused, before she asked: “What about the presence of Diamond Dogs?”

“Diamond Dogs are mercenaries by nature. I wouldn't be surprised if they had some deal with the Changelings: Changelings want ponies, Diamond Dogs want gemstones and material goods commonly kept by ponies.” Overwatch said, before he added in a sharper, quieter voice: “You have guests moving in on your three o'clock.”

Marina winced, then she scrambled backwards, managing to hide herself behind a fallen log just in time. She peered over it, watching anxiously as several Diamond Dogs prowled into the area, followed by a Changeling who was looking in all directions. Before he could see her, Marina ducked down, but she was still close enough to clearly hear as he hissed: “See? Someone was just here!”

“Could be anything. Could be Changeling scrounging. Could be Diamond Dog taking nap.” retorted the Diamond Dog in the lead with a shrug, as his cohorts sniggered.

The Changeling growled, then snapped: “Search the area! The intruder might still be here, we can-”

Then the Changeling squeaked, and Marina couldn't help but lean up and peek out over the log again, and she shivered a little at the sight of the Changeling, pinned under one paw like the poor bug it was. “No. Your Queen already ask too much. We get done jobs first, then we do other jobs. Enough interruptions. You want pony? You go find pony yourself.”

The Diamond Dog flicked the Changeling away like a toy, sending him rolling backwards into the tall grasses, and the other Diamond Dogs laughed as their boss turned and sauntered away. They followed after a moment, and only after the Diamond Dogs were gone did the Changeling emerge from the grasses, glaring after them.

He brushed himself off, then uneasily looked around: Marina ducked again, but held still even as she heard the Changeling shift. It was only a few moments before the Changeling cursed, then took off into the air, and the sound of his wings faded quickly into the distance.

“They know I'm here.” Marina muttered.

“Correction: they know someone is out there.” said Overwatch crisply. “And even aware that there's some intruder, they don't have the interest or the personnel to spare looking very hard, it seems. Let's use this knowledge to our advantage: Miss Octavia, if you could forward this route to Marina, I'm sure it will be quite helpful in getting her inside.”

Marina frowned, then bit her lip as a map scrawled across her cybernetic eye before markers lit up across it. She had just enough time to take in the route they traced before the map vanished, Octavia saying calmly: “I've created a digital trail for you to follow. If you move along this route, you should not be detected.”

“As long as you exercise a bit of caution. We could be wrong.” Overwatch said with a strange joviality. “But no matter what happens, we'll get you out of the frying pan. You have my word on that.”

“As long as it's not into the fire.” Marina muttered, and then she took a slow breath before she straightened and started forwards, silently wondering to herself how long Equestria had known about this Hive, and how she had ended up getting dragged into this mess again.

But maybe it was just her fate, to be forever trapped between Changelings and ponies, just as she was herself.