Chapter 56 - Invading The Hive
We stepped out into a landscape that had a few stunted trees, scraggly bushes, a few rocks, and much sandy soil. So this was the perimeter of the Badlands? Not a very inviting place but I felt pleased that the Equestrian Army Engineer Corps had already managed to equip even this remote area with an emergency teleportation portal. Actually, it was areas like these that needed them as a priority because there were no pony settlements around to act on Equestria’s behalf. An invading force might well try to avoid detection by coming through unpopulated parts of the country. Of course, they would have to deal with rather hostile territory. Ahead of me, I could see that even this sparse vegetation petered out into a nearly barren desert. Of the changeling hive, however, I could see nothing.
“Are you sure we’re in the right place?” I asked.
Moon Dancer pointed in a roughly southern direction. “As I said, it’s hidden from pony view, but it’s about ten miles that way. I can feel it.”
“You can take a changeling out of the hive but you can’t take the hive out of the changeling, right?”
“Something like that,” she acknowledged sourly.
“Mark, please don’t bring up our connection to the hive,” Thorax said. “Neither of us likes to be reminded that we were once part of Chrysalis’ ambitions.”
“Sorry. Anyway, everypony have a look around for a suitable spot to set up camp. We have the rest of the day and the night to kill, and this close to the hive, it’s best to be inconspicuous.”
Trixie’s days as an itinerant entertainer served her well. She quickly scoped out an ideal spot nestled between some huge boulders that would conceal us from ground patrols. Carefully arranged fly sheets over our tents rendered them inconspicuous to aerial surveillance. I checked the area from above and deemed it adequate. Short of military-grade camouflage, we were never going to be invisible.
Next came the worst part – waiting. We had nothing to do besides discuss strategies for when we had gained access to the hive. When night fell, we turned in early because we couldn’t risk any sort of light or fire. Thankfully, Trixie and I had a tent to ourselves, so we got in a bit of personal time together. Starlight and Penny shared a second tent while Thorax and Moon Dancer were in the third. I got the impression that Moonie wanted to chat with her former hive-mate now that her identity had been revealed. I figured they both had plenty to talk about. Penny insisted on taking watch duty all night, asserting that one night without sleep would not hinder her performance.
Desert nights are cold! Getting out of our warm sleeping bags in the morning was not a pleasant prospect. Trixie clung to me and demanded ten minutes more. I would have probably given her twenty if it wasn’t for my overly-cheerful bodyguard sticking her nose into the tent.
“Good – you’re awake. I have breakfast ready.”
Trixie and I chorused groans of displeasure while Penny just chuckled. Yeah, neither of us were gritty heroes inured to the rigors of the campaign.
Nonetheless, we did get up and dine on our morning repast. The sun had risen sufficiently to burn the chill out of the air by the time we were ready. There was no point in breaking camp because we did not plan to sleep outside again.
“Should we try one more time?” asked Starlight.
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Calling Discord.”
“Oh, sure.” I had tried yesterday while waiting for Moon Dancer and Spike to return. “Discord! Discord! Discord!”
The silence stretched out for several seconds. I sighed. “We had better get moving. That’s a long march ahead of us.”
“I can save us some time,” Starlight said, powering up her horn. “I’ll teleport us closer.”
“No, don’t!” Moon Dancer exclaimed with alarm.
Either the scholar was too late or Starlight ignored her, but I felt the teleport spell take hold of us. Next moment, we were elsewhere and collapsing on the ground, puking our guts out. We all lay on the sand, groaning in misery for a minute or so before Trixie managed to speak.
“Wh-what happened?”
After a long pause, Moon Dancer replied, “We’re lucky to be alive.”
“I feel like death warmed over,” I groaned.
Moon Dancer said, “That’s because the teleport matrix was disrupted. If Starlight’s spell had been even a little less powerful, we might never have arrived.”
“The Great and Nauseous Trixie wants to know why?”
“As I mentioned yesterday, the hive has protection against all kinds of pony magic. It disrupted Starlight’s spell weave.”
“How’s that possible?” Starlight asked as she tried to test that assertion. Her horn fizzled and popped, but nothing else happened.
Thorax replied, “As Timpani was trying to warn you, Chrysalis’ throne is carved from an ancient dark stone that soaks up outside magic the same way changelings soak up love. Only changeling magic works in its vicinity. It’s how she keeps the hive safe.”
I struggled dizzily to my hooves. “That just made our job a lot harder.” I tried my wings and found that their flight magic was also neutralized. They were just feathery fans now.
“I suggest that we all rest a bit and have a drink of water,” Moon Dancer said as she opened her own flask. “Don’t try to eat anything until the nausea settles down.”
“At least you didn’t have as much actual food to lose,” Penny said queasily.
“No, but I burned through a lot of my love reserves saving us from Starlight’s ill-advised teleport. I was able to tap into her spell to provide it with extra power to reinforce the weave until the completion of the teleport. It’s a good thing that I studied how they work.”
So that’s why we were still alive. “Thanks, Moonie. You’ve earned a big bonus in your next pay packet.”
“First we have to defeat Chrysalis,” Trixie said. “Moon Dancer, are you sure that you’ll be able to conceal us?”
She turned into a crystal changeling drone, shrinking in size. “Please call me Timpani from here forward. I don’t want to put my parents at risk.”
I nodded in agreement, then toward her sparkly appendages. “Nice wings, by the way.”
She turned around to look and gasped. “How did that happen?!”
Thorax said, “I found that when I shared love, my wings did the same thing. You must have been expressing love for your foster parents for years.”
“I had no idea,” the changeling drone said in a dreamy voice. “I haven’t taken this form since I left Baltimare, other than with my parents after the invasion and I didn’t notice then. Well, can’t let anyling see this.” With a burst of green fire, her wings took the shape of a common drone’s.
Penny said, “No, go back to your unicorn form. No sense in giving away an advantage if the enemy doesn’t realize you’re one of them.”
“But… my parents…”
I said, “Penny’s right. Chrysalis won’t believe that your parents are still alive. The way she thinks, she will almost certainly believe you sacrificed them to make your escape more believable.”
“I could never do that… but you’re correct – the Queen would think that way.” Moon Dancer resumed her normal guise and then turned to Trixie. “To answer your question, I’ll be employing the same magic used to conceal that,” Moon Dancer replied, pointing a hoof beyond the ridge.
We moved over to see what she was indicating and gaped. In a deep depression in the desert floor, surrounded by low forest that must have benefitted from the meager rainfall all flowing to that point, a very tall and spiky structure rose high into the air with a lot of black specks flying around it. Even from ten miles away, it should have been visible, but only now that we were within the concealing spell could we see the hive. No wonder aerial surveys never spotted it. That was damn effective magic.
I turned to Thorax. “You plan to formally challenge Chrysalis for the leadership of the Crystal Hive, correct? Would the guards recognize a changeling prince’s right to do so and let you through?”
He pondered for a moment. “I don’t… no, I don’t think so. They are more likely to just follow their orders to capture any trespassers. I have to get close enough to provoke her directly. She won’t be able to back down from a challenge made within earshot of her drones. She could never show that kind of weakness and continue to rule the hive.”
When we were all finally fit enough to continue, it was time for Moon Dancer to cast the obscuring spell over us. However, there was a problem.
“I’m too low on energy,” the changeling unicorn explained. “Saving us from Starlight’s teleport took too much out of me.”
Starlight looked guilty but Trixie gave her a nudge and inclined her head towards Moon Dancer. Starlight seemed to understand the unspoken suggestion and they both stepped forward to glom onto the surprised changeling. As they stood there with smiles on their faces with their forelegs wrapped around Moon Dancer, I realized that they were feeding her love. I wasn’t about to let my wife and advisor show me up. Besides, I liked Moonie too. It was a little awkward, but I joined the hug and concentrated on pouring those feelings into her.
After a couple of minutes, Moon Dancer cleared her throat and said, “Thanks, everypony. I feel a lot better now.” Her horn lit briefly and then she nodded in satisfaction. “Done!”
We forged on. Despite the near disaster, we had in fact saved a lot of time covering about nine-tenths of the distance from where the portal had been. Every minute saved was to our advantage.
“Remember to stay together,” Moon Dancer advised in a low voice. “My concealment spell is only effective within a few yards range.”
It was indeed effective. Despite the changeling patrols that occasionally passed over our heads, we were not spotted. It wasn’t long before we stood next to the wall of the hive.
“How do we get in?” I asked. “I can’t fly up to one of those entrances.”
“No problem,” Thorax replied as he tapped the wall.
A hole opened up and he stepped inside.
As we hastened to follow, Moon Dancer explained, “The hive constantly changes too, and it responds to our needs. Ponies like you four would get hopelessly lost though, so don’t get separated from us.”
“What if we do?” I asked and promptly clipped my hoof on the edge of the hole and fell on my face.
Trixie sighed. “Aside from knowing your klutziness anywhere, Trixie thinks we need a code phrase.”
“How about ‘klutzy pegasus’?” Penny suggested with a smirk.
“Oh, ha-ha,” I replied as I got back on my hooves.
Starlight grinned and said, “Works for me.”
“Prince of Equestria and I still can’t get any respect,” I muttered.
We very carefully made our way deeper into the hive, Moon Dancer in the lead. Surprisingly, we encountered no changelings at all for a long while. Thorax assured us that there were plenty around but the majority was engaged in outside activities ranging from patrols to gathering supplies or training. Our ultra-cautious movement from one passage to another slowed us down considerably, but it let us hide from those few of the hive’s inhabitants that we spotted coming. The malleable nature of the hive worked in our favor, with either Thorax or Moonie creating a hidey-hole or obscuring wall for us until the changelings passed. However, we must have spent hours travelling a distance that should have taken us minutes. Then our luck ran out.
A hole opened in a wall unexpectedly and a changeling nearly ran into Trixie. He hissed an alarm before dropping unconscious as Penny’s club found his head. The damage was done though. The alarm could be heard spreading further away and then an ominous hum started approaching.
“Changeling patrol!” exclaimed Thorax.
“If you hide, I can misdirect them,” Moon Dancer suggested.
I shook my head. “Now that the alarm has been sounded, won’t they just keep looking around here until they find us?”
Thorax replied, “Yes. Even if I helped Moon Dancer, they would persist.”
“Trixie has a better idea,” my wife said.
“Better tell us quickly,” Penny urged. “That patrol sounds very close.”
Trixie rummaged in her saddlebag and brought out a pouch which she opened up to reveal what I recognized as her smoke pellets. Hurling one onto the ground would provide a burst of dense white smoke. She passed several to Thorax and Moon Dancer. “This is what I want you to do…”
Not long after Trixie finished her hasty instructions, Penny, Starlight, and I watched as Trixie led the changeling patrol on a merry chase, appearing and disappearing again in a puff of smoke, only to turn up a moment later in a spot much further away. From our hiding place in an alcove, we saw that between two changelings and my wife, the guards were deceived into thinking that the pony intruder was heading in a completely different direction from us. One Trixie came back to join us, kissing me on the cheek as she said, “Klutzy pegasus.” Unlike our changeling allies, she couldn’t move very fast without wings, so she merely initiated the pursuit with a boastful taunt as Thorax and Moonie got into position. It had nearly given me a heart attack when the patrol dived to attack her, but she knew what she was doing and they missed her entirely in the obscuring smoke.
“Well done, darling,” I said.
“Trixie is still Great and Powerful, Skylark Swells,” she reminded me.
“Oh, she is indeed,” I replied with a fond smile.
“Not the time!” Starlight hissed.
“Glimmer is right,” Penny said. “That won’t fool them for long.”
“We still have to wait for our guides,” I replied.
Two Trixies turned up at the same time. One said “Klutzy–” while the other followed with “Pegasus!” Thorax and Moon Dancer resumed their normal forms and beckoned us to follow, which we hastily did. We managed to make quite a lot of progress before we were forced to halt once more.
I said, “I suppose it would have been too much to ask for them not to post guards at strategic places. How are we going to get past them?”
Penny replied, “Time to use some of those fancy doodads we brought with us.”
I sighed. “You know that the moment we do, it’ll focus all their efforts to catch us right in this area?”
“Can’t be helped,” the batpony replied cheerfully as she dug out the various weapons we had stocked up on at Twilight’s castle.
The Royal Guard contingent there may have been small, but it was well supplied with everything that could possibly be needed to defend their princess. Frustratingly, several had to be discarded due to needing pony magic to activate them, but there were still a few useful ones that did not rely on a mana supply. I had introduced the ponies to the concept of pepper spray, inspired by the fiery meals at the Tasty Treat. The huge eyes of many species were an inviting target. Alchemists had concocted various potions that provided everything from smoke bombs to high explosives. Egg-sized balls shattered to produce a fine sticky web that could thoroughly entangle an enemy. Then there was my favorite because I invented it – the slap taser. Little discs which were actually super-capacitors that were pre-energized or pegasi could charge up with electricity supplied the power to disable an opponent by zapping exactly like a mini lightning bolt. I gave Crimson Boulder a hard time with those!
“Just remember that those were meant to be used by a squad of well-trained ponies, not one Guard and several civvies.”
“That’s why I’ll be doing all the fighting. The rest of you get past while I draw them away.”
“What?! We can’t just let you do this by yourself!” Trixie exclaimed.
Penumbra gave Trixie and then the rest of us a deadly serious look. “That’s exactly what you’re going to do. I’m a Royal Guard and that’s my job. Don’t worry about me – I might not be able to fly, but the rest of me is fighting fit. Crimson has been drilling me for months on flightless combat.”
“She’s right,” I said. “Let’s not forget our objective.”
The others didn’t like it but they knew there was no alternative. I wished Penny good luck as she made like a ninja and disappeared. A minute later on the opposite side of the chamber, the thestral stepped out of the shadows and called out to the guards, “Can anypony show me where the bathroom is? I seem to have taken a wrong turn somewhere.”
As much as I would have loved to watch the mayhem, as soon as the changelings that were blocking our way had moved to capture the intruder, the rest of us started sneaking to the tunnel. Penny kept up a loud running commentary as she cheerfully kicked butt, so we knew she was still in the fight long after we had passed from the guards’ view.
“Whoops! Did I do that?”
“Is that leg supposed to bend that way?”
“What? You don’t like capsaicin squirted in your eyes? You probably don’t like spicy food either, do you?”
“Don’t you know it’s impolite to touch a lady there?” *CRUNCH*
“I hear chitin takes weeks to heal. Ooh! Make that months.”
“Didn’t I tell you not to step in that glue?”
“Ew! Do you know how hard it is to get ichor out of battle vests?”
“One at a time, colts! I promise to dance with you all eventually.”
“Now see what you did to my second-best sword?!”
Angry chittering and distance drowned out the rest, but I would have loved to have heard them. Even with the benefits of her weapons, the batpony surely would not be able to last much longer anyway. I prayed that they didn’t harm her too much in subduing her. None of us was under the illusion that she had a prayer of defeating them all.
Moonie confidently led us upwards through the hive for quite a while before we hit our next snag. A bend in the tunnel disgorged us into a chamber with two exits. In front of one stood Penumbra with an unconscious changeling by her side.
“It’s about time you got here,” she said. “That shortcut I got out of one of the guards was quicker than I thought.”
Starlight said, “Blame Mark Wells. He’s so klutzy that he slowed us down.”
The batpony nodded. “No matter – we’re all together again. Follow me. The changeling said this is the way to the throne room.” She turned and headed up the left tunnel.
Looking at my companions, I knew that they all realized that this Penumbra was a fake.
Moon Dancer murmured, “Classic trap.” She sighed. “Somepony has to spring it, and I have the best chance of turning the tables. She won’t be expecting a unicorn who can actually do magic in the hive.” She started to step forward.
“No, wait!” Starlight said, extending a hoof to block the disguised changeling. “You’re right, Moon Dancer, you do stand the best chance, while I’m completely useless without my magic. Let me spring the trap while you prepare to knock her out.”
Moon Dancer looked ready to argue, but when Penumbra’s voice came down the tunnel saying, “Will you ponies hurry up!”, we could not delay any longer.
“Go, Glimmy,” I said. “And stay safe! You too, Moon Dancer.”
Starlight nodded and trotted for the left tunnel and Moon Dancer followed her shortly after. We didn’t dally either. We headed down the right tunnel but we hadn’t gotten too far before I heard the telltale sound of magic blasts. Starlight’s plan had worked, but the way the attacks continued told me that there were far more changelings in that tunnel than Moonie would likely be able to deal with.
“How much longer to the throne room, Thorax?” Trixie asked.
“I’m not sure. The fake Penumbra did tell one truth – that tunnel was the fastest route there. This one kind of loops around a bit.”
“As long as we can get to the throne room, the plan can still work,” I said. “Let’s try to get there without being spotted again.”
Perhaps we had fooled the changelings into thinking we were taking a more direct route, or maybe we just got lucky, but we didn’t encounter any more of the enemy. Not that we had thrown caution to the wind. While we continued with a bit more alacrity than before, we still took pains to not be seen. No sense tempting fate. We would have enough to deal with when we got to our goal.
When Thorax finally opened an entrance to a vast room, I knew that we had reached our destination. On one side, raised above the floor on a pedestal made from the normal hive material was an enormous throne carved from a single piece of ebon rock. That had to be the source of the pony-magic nullifying field. I hoped that one of the explosives that I had packed could solve that particular problem.
Trixie distracted me by prodding me and pointing up. That’s when I saw all the cocoons suspended from the ceiling directly above the throne. Their translucent walls let me identify a large number of their inhabitants. I spotted Applejack first, then Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie. There were partially obscured pods behind them but I could see one held Princess Cadance. Horrifyingly, unlike Trixie had been, they seemed to be awake and aware of what was happening but helpless to do anything. Then I noticed an extra-large one next to Fluttershy that held a draconequus. As I had feared, Chrysalis had taken out one of our most powerful allies. My heart sank as I realized that any explosion powerful enough to destroy the rock throne would create enough shrapnel to eviscerate the cocoons above them and the inhabitants inside. The chemical explosive that I had reserved just for this purpose was now useless.
“Watch out! It’s a trap!”
I recognized Moon Dancer’s voice coming from further along the ceiling. I focused on that area and spotted a changeling apparently glued to the roof, her sparkly wings identifying her. The cocoons next to her held Penny and Starlight. But it was the maniacal laughter coming from nearby that drew my attention away from my friends. Crawling from between the two cocoons came the Changeling Queen.
“It seems my uninvited guests have finally arrived. You didn’t seriously think that you could invade my domain with impunity, did you? Even with the help of these two traitors, you never were a threat.”
At that point, numerous holes opened up in the walls of the throne room and changelings poured out, surrounding us. They stripped the three of us of our saddlebags and herded us forward as Chrysalis flew down from the ceiling to meet us at the foot of the pedestal.
“Don’t count us out, Mad Queen,” I snarled.
Chrysalis cackled. “I am your doom, pony! Look on me and despair!”
I smacked my lips, my unimpressed gaze unchanging. “OK, I'll bite. What are you going to do? Put your eggs in us and have the grubs explode out of our chests?”
Chrysalis recoiled, her mouth agape. “Ick! That is disgusting! Of course not!”
I tilted my head. “So maybe you'll melt the flesh off our bones, mold us into giant cakes, then eat us while we are still alive?”
Chrysalis clopped her forehooves over her ears. “Bleh! That's just ... just ... I can't believe a happy-go-lucky pony could even think such a thing!”
I frowned. “Then maybe you'll pre-digest us by—”
Chrysalis ran behind the throne and I could hear the sound of vomiting for several seconds. Eventually, she came back, wide-eyed and wiping acid from her mouth.
I shrugged. “So why, exactly, am I supposed to be afraid of you?”
Chrysalis stopped moving entirely. After several seconds, she looked at Trixie. “I can see why he likes you. He is completely insane.”
“The Great and Wise Trixie knows insanity when she sees it, and it isn’t her husband that she’s looking at now.”
Chrysalis snarled. “Great and wise? You have delusions of replacing Celestia and you think that makes you powerful? I defeated Celestia – you lot are nothing to me!”
I said, “Maybe not, but Thorax here is your superior in every way.”
Chrysalis’ lips curled in contempt as she glanced at Thorax who was cowering under her gaze. “This mentally defective aberration? He’s not a true changeling. His very form is a mockery of crystal changelings. I don’t know how you managed to evolve him to a prince, but I already have enough royalty under my control. I don’t need a freak contaminating my hive.”
Thorax trembled and looked at me but I shook my head. It was too soon yet. Thorax had a precise sense of the time of day while inside the hive. I had asked what it was just before we entered the chamber and, despite the delays getting here, we were still ahead of schedule. I had to buy us some time. “Thorax learned the true meaning of friendship and that is how he has grown to be so much greater than the mere drone that got left behind after your failed invasion of Canterlot. Timpani turned her back on you when you tried to destroy the friendships she made as a filly. They both risked everything to try to rescue our friends. That is the power of friendship.”
Chrysalis just laughed in my face. “The power to lead you into a trap, you mean. I do have to thank you, Mark Wells. My operation would not have been a complete success without your help. A few ponies escaped my grasp and you thoughtfully brought them to the center of my hive. Well done.”
I refused to let her bait me and just returned her stare levelly.
My lack of a shred of anger or irritation at her remarks wiped the smile off the changeling queen’s face. She narrowed her eyes and her gaze bored into me. “You are not a pony, are you?”
I blinked then smirked. “Well, I look like a duck, walk like a duck, and quack like a duck, so I must be a pony, don't you think?”
She smiled. “You left out ‘think like a duck’ which is something you can't quite do in either form you take, can you?”
I regarded her a bit longer as I considered her words. “The nondescript earth pony that turned into a pegasus back in Ponyville?” Chrysalis said nothing but did not try to deny it. “It seems a bit of a coincidence that it was there at the time.”
I got to see the queen’s fangs again. “Oh, it was no coincidence at all. I had my spies everywhere when Tirek was advancing from Baltimare. I learned of your plans to disable the centaur or have him killed by Zecora’s poisons if you failed. To aid this, I had one of my drones inform Tirek that the princesses were to be found in Ponyville rather than Canterlot. By doing so, he was not bolstered by the magic of the hundreds of ponies who remained. Instead, he marched off to his defeat. By hastening the return of the magic to the little ponies, I saved many lives that day, wouldn't you agree?”
I was genuinely surprised. I thought only Zecora and I knew about the backup plan. The venom of a dozen tiny snails, scrapings from the back of a colorful frog, and a white fungus; all placed on the tips of blow-darts that she thankfully did not need to use. If Tirek had started to drain the town, that would have been Zecora’s cue to emerge from her hiding spot behind him. One way or the other, the centaur would have been dead within twenty-four hours. The changeling queen's intelligence-gathering acumen was beyond what I had imagined.
She continued. “Do not believe I was working for the good of you ponies. Eventually, Tirek would have come for me and my children. He had already drained some of them in Baltimare and the surrounding areas. Unlike ponies, my kind dies instantly when deprived of magic because our power derives from love energy. When all of this is drained, our disguises fail and hearts stop beating. It was only luck, the recall of all drones from Equestria's armed forces, and quick retrieval of the corpses that prevented them from being discovered.”
“And the ponies that had seen the corpses?”
She waved a hoof absently. “They were forced to forget the last day of their lives. I do not waste food without reason.”
I paused as I evaluated my response. Might as well go with it. I looked her directly in the eyes. “That confirms what I first thought about your species. Under your leadership, they could have a symbiotic relationship with ponies. I’ve been to another world where crystal changelings and ponies live in peace together. You and Cadance both married Shining Armor there.”
The changeling queen scoffed. “You lie.”
“Do I?” I turned to a changeling guard nearby. “You! Open my right saddlebag. Pull out the photo in the very front of the compartment.”
After getting a nod from his queen, the drone went to my saddlebags on the floor nearby and retrieved the image of Shining Armor, Cadance, Chryssy, and Peytral in front of the Golden Oak Library. The very happy and healthy Chryssy. The same could be said for her family. When the drone gave the photo to Chrysalis, I had the pleasure of seeing her reel in shock. The hoof holding the picture shook while the other ran through her mane as she apparently tried to compose herself.
“You could have had that same level of happiness and fulfilment if you had chosen differently. But let’s get back to what your changelings are to ponies right now. You are just parasites, aren't you? Do you know the definition of the word? Unable to live without us, you take from your host while returning nothing.”
Chrysalis sneered. “Be careful, Prince.”
I smiled. “It only stings because it's true. What is your plan for when Tirek escapes again? Or the next time a threat comes along that doesn't fall down when you throw your swarm at it? You don't have one, do you? You depend on ponies to protect you from threats because you are incapable of protecting yourself. In other words, you rely on the host creature.”
She snarled as she towered over me. “You are just like all the ponies you claim to serve. You can't see beyond your deluded sense of self-importance.”
“You would know something about that, wouldn't you? You are the reason that the rest of the crystal changelings live in desperation and hunger. Your pride is what keeps you from asking for aid. Your delusion that changelings are superior to all other races is the only thing holding them back from evolving to their full potential. Yet you still cling to the belief that you are the only one able to lead them when the opposite is true. Your changelings are perfectly capable of guiding themselves but you don't allow it.”
She smiled in a way I did not like, looking like a true predator. “Ah, but there is where you are projecting what you know to be true about ponies, aren't you? It is they who cannot function without leaders telling them what to do. I saw the panic in the streets when rumors of the Sisters’ disappearance became a certainty among the common rabble.” She waved a hoof at the cocoons hanging above her throne. “As you can see, I've replaced everypony in a position of authority with my drones. Now all ponies can have the same leader – me. I have already won.”
I matched her smug grin with my best steak-eating carnivorous smile. That made hers slip a bit. “Are you sure?”
She was an emotion-eater, so I let her soak in my confidence for several seconds. She said, “You obviously believe I have overlooked something.”
I shrugged. “Why don't you check in with your drones who are leading the ponies right now? Just so you can tell me how well they are doing.”
The queen frowned at me for a long moment before touching a device hanging around her neck. I heard a buzzing noise come from the mechanism, but nothing else. Chrysalis gave me a hard stare then pressed several places on the object in quick succession. The buzzing continued for perhaps half a minute when it stopped with another jab of her hoof.
I smirked. “I'm guessing they have all been captured or are on the run at this point. They just couldn't prove they knew all the little details of the lives of those they were replacing. I reckon you can't count on ponies being predictable any longer, can you? It's almost like you can't imagine exactly what they will do when they arrive at your hive, isn't it?”
I started to move closer to her but was stopped by the large guard drones that flanked us. “It's not too late. We can help your changelings, but this is your last chance to do so as their leader. Once ponies and changelings start dying again, I won’t be able to stop it, especially if anypony you have trapped here is harmed. No pony will stop until you are dead and resting on a huge pile of corpses of your children. Their lives would be wasted because you did not have the courage to see anything beyond your personal ambitions. Then the surviving crystal changelings will be integrated with ponies and your name and your failure will live in infamy for both races until the end of days.”
For the first time, I saw hesitation in the changelings around me. They looked at each other rather than standing steadfastly with their queen.
Chrysalis moved up to within an inch of my face and hissed. “You are nothing! All ponies will bow to me. My hive will rule them all.”
I turned away from her and walked towards the pods above the throne. “Put me up there with my friends. I might as well await the inevitable there.”
Thorax raised his head proudly and spoke with authority. “No, Mark Wells – this is where it ends. Queen Chrysalis – I challenge you to the right to rule this hive!” He levitated his royal jewelry out of his nearby saddlebags and put them on.
Chrysalis laughed scornfully. “It takes more than evolving into a changeling prince to lead a hive. It takes power, strength, and iron will! You cannot defeat me while I have an entire hive backing my rule.”
A rumble shook the hive, startling Chrysalis. Thorax smiled more confidently. “You’re right, Queen Chrysalis. But I am strong in ways that you may never understand. That’s why I make friends, not capture them and use them.” The short rumbling sound happened again and again at regular intervals, slowly getting louder.
The changelings surrounding us were perturbed and Chrysalis ordered some to investigate the unexpected noise. Chrysalis scowled at Thorax. “Idiot! You’re not worth the risk of keeping you around where you can subvert my subjects. I will take the love that you have gained from your pony princess and use it to conquer all of Equestria.”
“I think not!” Thorax replied with the most confident and commanding tone that I’d ever heard from my friend before. He lowered his horns to fire a magic blast at Chrysalis.
The changeling queen deflected the attack and riposted with one of her own, but Thorax stopped it with a shield as his wings carried him upwards. Chrysalis also took to the air and fired again. They continued to exchange powerful magical blows, neither of them finding their target. Meanwhile, the rumbling shakes grew stronger and the changelings grew more confused. One returned from a tunnel overhead and tried to get the queen’s attention, but Chrysalis was focused on her battle with Thorax. He had closed the distance and was grappling with the Queen. After dishing out more punishment than he took, Thorax almost had control of Chrysalis with a choke hold from behind when she slipped away. A series of horn blasts allowed her to get to a safe distance.
As the fight continued, despite the immense amount of power that he had stored due to the love of an alicorn princess and all his friends, Thorax’s spells began to falter. Chrysalis, on the other hoof, was obviously drawing on reserves from elsewhere. Once again, it seemed that she was taking from what belonged to the entire hive for her own selfish purposes.
Chrysalis laughed. “Where’s your power now, Thorax?”
Just then, part of the roof and wall shattered, raining down resin and stone. Three enormous steel blades lined up in a row poked through high on one wall, shortly followed by another three perhaps twenty meters further away. Thorax smiled.
“My power is in my friends. That leads to alliances. While some of those allies are capturing your infiltrators, others have come to join me in my fight against your tyranny!” While he had been talking, the blades had withdrawn to reappear further down the wall, making two lines of wide punctures in the resin. Two more lines were quickly punched through along the top and bottom, creating a huge square of damaged wall. Metal encased claw tips burst through the punctures on either side, flexed inward, and pulled the entire section of the hive away, revealing the sky outside.
A huge dragon head poked through the hole in the hive, totally oblivious to the attacks on him made by the changelings. The dragon smiled. “There you are, little ponies. I love these clever gauntlets you made for me! There are a couple of dragons I’ll use them on when I get home!”
“About time you got here, Torch!” I called out, noticing he was wearing a vest of some sort. Standing on his back were a couple of nocturne ponies using projectile weapons to battle the flying changelings.
“Stupid anti-magic field slowed us down,” he rumbled.
I pointed with a hoof. “Destroy Chrysalis’ throne! It’s the source of the field!”
Chrysalis screamed, “NO! Protect the throne at all costs!” She turned her attention away from Thorax, but he had been anticipating the gigantic dragon’s arrival and wasn’t distracted. He took full advantage of the situation and renewed his attack on the Queen, scoring a direct hit at the base of one of her wings. She screamed and lost altitude quickly.
Meanwhile, Torch tried to pull his head back out of the hole, but his massive horns caught on the remaining portions of the wall. He frowned and wrenched his head backward, tearing out yet another large section. Then he reached in with a massive arm and smashed the throne with one enormous hive-shaking blow.
I immediately felt my wings come alive with magic again. Amidst the chaos, I transformed into pegacorn form and flew up to the cocoons. I started cutting them open, releasing their occupants and lowering them to the floor by levitation while fighting off the occasional changeling trying to stop me. Suddenly, I was surrounded by batponies running interference and protecting the area of the floor where I was placing the freed ponies.
From my right, I heard, “Keep going, sir!” I only had a brief glimpse of Major Dusky Wings before he seemed to disappear then reappear behind a changeling headed for me. That let me concentrate on just getting my friends out of their prisons.
The tide of the battle turned as dozens of dragons, griffons, and pegasi poured into the opening made by Torch after having flown from where they were waiting outside the influence of the anti-magic field while the behemoth lumbered to the hive. These were quickly followed by unicorns and earth ponies arriving by levitation and the occasional teleport. Resin balls spat by the changelings would not stick to the Equestrian armor, and dragons caught in the stuff were quickly freed to rejoin the fight. Many of the Equestrian force wore a multi-colored flashing light, designating them as a friendly. It could be duplicated with changeling magic, but only after having time to observe the sequence of colors used – time that the crystal changelings did not have. With this as a guide, spells that incapacitated groups of changelings were directed at combatants that otherwise looked like allies. As Chrysalis’ support disappeared, more ponies joined Thorax, first of whom was Twilight who bolstered him with her love. As more of his friends joined her, his attacks on Chrysalis grew stronger. The changeling horde protecting their queen was whittled away until a powerful blast from Thorax broke through Chrysalis’ shield and impacted the side of her head. She collapsed with a scream of pain and went limp.
Thorax raised his head and announced in a voice augmented by Twilight’s magic, “Chrysalis is defeated. I declare that I, King Thorax, am now the leader of the Crystal Hive. All fighting must cease!”
The changelings immediately stopped their assault, conditioned to respond unhesitatingly to their ruler. With the cessation of hostilities, our allies also cautiously ceased their attacks.
I flew down to join Thorax and the others, switching back to my normal form, uncaring that I had been seen by so many as Marklestia. Perhaps things would change for me because of today’s events, but I had known that it would happen inevitably one day. It had never been my intention to keep my secret forever, only preserving it for its surprise value. Between the inhabitants of Ponyville and Seaquestria, plus Chrysalis’ spying, that secret had been getting a little thin anyway.
As Royal Guards snapped two nullstone horn-rings onto Chrysalis and manacled her limbs, I suddenly realized that we hadn’t made plans for after winning the battle. “What happens now?”
The changelings were milling about uncertainly, suddenly directionless after so long under Chrysalis’ rule. A slightly mocking voice came from among them.
“Typical. You finally get a spine but you still don’t think ahead.”
Thorax blinked in surprise and looked toward where one slightly larger than average changeling was pushing himself through the crowd. “Pharynx?”
The changeling marched right up to the new ruler of the hive, ignoring Twilight and Penumbra’s attempts to push him back. “So, you’re a King now? I knew if I kicked your butt often enough, you’d finally make something of yourself. Never would have guessed it would be this, but you have a long way to go before you can replace what Chrysalis meant for the Crystal Hive. The pony has it right – what are you going to do now, little brother?”
Brother? Now that was an interesting twist. I was intrigued to see where this was going. So far, it seemed that Pharynx was the practical sort.
Thorax seemed to firm his stance. “All hostile actions against ponies and their allies must stop immediately.”
“Better take Chrysalis’ communication device then,” Pharynx suggested.
“You take it, Pharynx. You were Chrysalis’ general, so I can’t see why you can’t be mine too if you accept my rule.”
His brother smiled. “My only desire is to protect the hive. If you can do that, I will follow you, King Thorax. Don’t disappoint me.”
“I’ll try not to, Pharynx. With the help of my friends, I intend to remake this hive into something much greater.”
Pharynx shook his head and smiled ruefully. “Friends with ponies, griffons, and dragons… what have we come to?” He walked over to where the unconscious Chrysalis was being held and removed the pendant from her neck and placed it around his own. Just as the former Queen had done, Pharynx pressed a series of locations on the device as he walked away.
I chose to trust Thorax’s judgement with regards to his brother’s loyalty to him and turned back to the problem at hoof. The dragons had already withdrawn and some pegasi, thestrals, and griffons had retreated to watchful perches. The changelings waited for orders. “You surely have some idea of what you want to do, don’t you? After all, taking over from Chrysalis was your eventual goal.”
Thorax nodded. “Yes, although this happened a lot sooner than I anticipated. I’m going to need a lot of help, and I want Twilight to be by my side while I reorganize the hive. Can you and Princess Trixie handle the royal duties without her for a while?”
I looked at my wife who nodded and gave me a wink. I replied, “I don’t know if we can spare her at the moment. We have a lot of cleaning up to do in the wake of this attempt to overthrow Equestria.”
Thorax looked disappointed. “I suppose you’re right, Mark.”
“On the other hoof,” I continued, “we couldn’t very well keep a wife away from her husband, could we?”
“What?!” Twilight and Thorax chorused.
Trixie said, “Nark Cells and I have had enough of your excuses, Twilight Sparkle. Everypony knows how you two feel about each other, so formalize it. Now seems to be a good time.”
Twilight stared at her aghast. “What? Right here, right now?”
“Trixie will throw you a big formal ceremony at a later date. You have just one choice – do you want Trixie or her husband to perform the ceremony?”
“Oh, no no no no no! I don’t think so.” Princess Cadance walked up, one foreleg cradling Flurry Heart. “I missed out on performing the last Royal Wedding. Nothing short of a natural disaster will prevent me from officiating this one.”
Flurry Heart stretched and yawned in her mother’s grasp. My stomach felt like it dropped to my hooves when I saw she was not wearing her magic-regulating mane clip. The foal looked around curiously at the scene around her: ponies, changelings, griffons, and the wreckage of a battlefield complete with a gigantic dragon head poking in from the outside, jesting with a hovering batpony. Apparently unimpressed, the foal curled up again and snuggled up against her mother.
Shining Armor came up next to his wife. “I can take her for you, dear.”
Before she could answer, I said, “If she’s happy like that, let’s just let the adorable natural disaster sleep until you can get a hair clip on her again.”
Shining Armor looked at his daughter and blanched. “Umm… Yeah. Good idea.”
“Would you perform the ceremony, Princess Cadance?” Thorax asked.
Smart bug. My wife would have been miffed if I’d been chosen. Suited me anyway.
The pink alicorn smiled. “Given the circumstances, I will keep this short. Stand beside her, please.”
Twilight and Thorax hastily took their positions. I saw the rest of the Element Bearers come close. Every changeling in the chamber turned to face their new king and soon-to-be queen. Discord was sobbing uncontrollably, even with Fluttershy patting his arm. He didn’t act this way at my wedding. I’d have to ask him why another time.
“Prince Thorax, do you love this mare and will you forevermore?”
“I do.”
“Princess Twilight, do you love this stallion and will you for all your years?”
“Yes, with all my heart.”
“Before these witnesses of ponies, griffons, and changelings, and by my authority as Princess of the Crystal Empire and Alicorn of Love, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss, and make it a good one because you’re not going to have time to do much else besides work for the next few days.”
They took Cadance’s advice and snogged long and passionately. They got a few catcalls from the griffons and snickers from the mares. A changeling beside me sighed and said, “King of the hive for five minutes and he turns everything upside down.”
I turned and recognized Pharynx. “What are you talking about?”
He gave me a grumpy look. “By marrying her, Twilight Sparkle is now Queen of the Crystal Hive. She now has as much authority as Thorax – more in certain cases.”
“More? Why?”
He looked at me as if I was daft. “Because she’s the new Hive Mother.”
“But changelings and ponies can’t interbreed.”
He stared at me for a long moment before laughing uproariously. Shaking his head, he walked away, still chuckling. Glad I gave him a laugh. He couldn’t seriously mean what I thought he meant though, could he?
“He seems like a fun guy,” Penny commented. I hadn’t even noticed her taking her place by me.
“Yeah. We’ll be dealing with him a bit more in the future because of his position in the hive. I truly hope Thorax’s faith in him isn’t misplaced.”
“My gut tells me he’ll be fine. Might not like what he has to say sometimes, but he has the hive’s interests at heart, and right now, his brother is the hive as far as he’s concerned.”
“You’re probably right. Let’s go congratulate the newlyweds.”
We joined the others in giving Twilight and Thorax our best wishes for their future together. Twilight blushed furiously, but she was smiling all the time. Her husband seemed a little overwhelmed by it all. Cadance hugged the stuffing out of her sister-in-law while Shining was somewhat bemused.
While we were chatting, a small and very young changeling child came up to our group in the company of a female drone. It was unusual in that it had a multi-tone blue mane instead of the ubiquitous frill. The foal tapped on Shining Armor’s leg to get his attention. When the stallion looked down at the child, the changeling gave him a fang-filled yet innocent smile.
“Mommy says that you’re my daddy.”
Conversation immediately ground to a halt and everypony stared at the young changeling with a mane matching Shining’s. Now, I had only heard about how Cadance had been replaced by Chrysalis before the wedding, but even I immediately thought about pre-marital sex which was quite common in this society. And if Chrysalis had kept up the pretense to that point…
The implications were not lost on the stallion as he stared at what was almost certainly his son. We’d never asked Chryssy from the alternate world how she and Shiny had children, but if a pony stallion could impregnate a changeling queen without some sort of compatibility spell, then could a changeling prince and now king do the same for an alicorn mare?
Twilight had gone pale and she gulped. “Guys? You know how I’ve been feeling a bit unwell these past several days? I… I think… it might be morning sickness.”
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It's a good thing the first foal takes less time than the rest, right Twilight? *nudge nudge wink wink*
What a twist!
Love how you answered my question about the whole discord thing with that beetle juice moment. Also I need some more Mark and chryssi talk. I mean come on man that shit was amazingly well written
HAHA! So that was what Pharynx meant! Hilarious!
Love the pic there at the end. Its so adorable!
Welp, another arc is done.
You missed Baltimore in the first half of the chapter once, though.
Heh, I expected Twilight, but damn, her brother too?
Very nice. Could swear I saw a spelling error up there somewhere, but dunno where it was.
Beyond that, I'm rather surprised Discord didn't interrupt the wedding to ask for a joint one, but still, great chapter, especially the surprise at the end. Considering that someone's mother has gone to prison, I wonder how they're going to explain that to him.
9707083
Found and fixed!
What's the little one's name? Shining Armor Junior?
Also, what would Nyx think of a changeling cousin? And a little brother or sister? AND a new daddy?
Stay tuned to this channel for more intriguing developments! As a thrown pie hits the announcer
Shut up, Doomsday Desmond!
So now thorax and twilight married so what Going happen next Will chryssalis reformed?
Suddenly I thought of what could happened if they could send a reformed Chrysalis to help reform a evil Chrysalis
Ha! Can't interbreed huh Twilight? BOOM, IN YO FACE.
Also kudos on Shining for being the first to bridge the changling-pony gap
9707127
I'm thinking Obsidian Armor, because the coloration.
Brilliant chapter, it's so good to see all the overhaul to Equestria's military finally paid off in one flawless operation.
Anybody else see reverse scene of Vader telling Luke that he is his father?
Nymph: I am your son!
Shinning: No... No. It can't be! That's not true! That's impossible!
N: Search your feelings. You know it to be true.
S: Nooooooooooooo!
Cadence: You said you used protection!
Shinning: Duh! I casted a shield over whole Canterlot!
Cadence: *facepalm*
Sorry, but I'm done. The OP isekai just as keikaku bullshit finally made me stop caring about these characters. That combined with the usual "Hur hur, Shiny got raped but we'll ignore it all hurrrrr" implications killed my interest.
The succession is secure! Excellent.
Well technically you could say that Chrysalis did have a princess/prince Changeling, just not what we expected. Well at least Flurry Heart has a sibling to play with when she is a bit older. Loved this chapter Goldy. Can't wait to see where this goes next chapter.
well shoot... great chapter hope to see more soon
Dun dun dun!
I still want to know why and how only changeling magic works in the vicinity of the "dark stone" and where it came from
................meh
Oh come on Chryssie, he hasn't gotten to the really good stuff yet
Ha, love it
I am Pharynx in this scene
Oh cool Flurry has a big brother... and I don't think Cadance will have any real problem with this
MUHAHAHAH HAHA HA haha ha *sigh*..... love it
O M C the art work just makes the hole chapter.
“Mommy says that you’re my daddy.”
this chapter is totally awesome.
Hay Twilight changelings normally lay eggs several eggs. as in SEVERAL.
Cue she growing like a brood mare and lounging around while Rarity complains that Thorax made her too fat for last week's pregnant wardrobe and now she has the duty, nay, obligation to design an entire new one!
The audacity of some stallions!! 
9707127
She already knows about her daddy, they've been together long enough and children are quite perceptive.
9707306
Tfs for the win
That ending.
oh, that foal at the end reminded me of this:
https://www.deviantart.com/vavacung/art/Patron-Event-The-Adventure-Logs-Of-Young-Queen-554876697
Damn, that changeling kid are pulling all of my heartstrings!!😭
Twilight's gonna be a mommy again?
Speaking of, where is Nyx in all this hullabaloo?
Loved the end of this chapter
Hmm.... That sounds familiar....
- MLP: FiM
- Slice of Life
An indeterminate injury leads a Crusader to discover a secret about herself, one that will change her world forever...or not.That picture at the end is just too cute!
Thank you for the update! Great job!
This also means that Thorax is a Prince of Equestria.
They could, and probably should, announce that this changeling hive is being merged into Equestria. It'll make things... interesting for the Red Queen, but if Equestria has birthright citizenship then they're technically all citizens already anyway, so by rights their hive is secure in its position.
Wow. I should have saved that last clip.
https://m.I may or may not have said it before, but by Celestia, I'm gonna say it now.
Well, Mark? How do you like your words? Baked, boiled or deep fried?
The hero banter was fun. And no nonsensical mass transform scene! Yay!
Tech-enhanced dragons are *terrifying*!
Speaking of foals, Trixie, are you ready to get in on that fun?
Keep going! ;)
9709721
Well, approximate chance of being struck by lightning depends on various factors but in general it's somewhere near 1 to a million. Fortunately enough for fictional characters it's a bit lower that that because otherwise that would mean 100%. So, it's either around 10^(-42) (that's absurdly small number) or 100% if at that point in time chance were exactly one in a million. But that's on the ground.
In his case statistics for plains would be more accurate. "In the 1980s, NASA completed a research project by flying a F-106B jet into 1154 thunderstorms. It was confirmed that lightning struck the jet 637 times." (article here). So, being struck once in a thunderstorm should be ~55.19% which means being struck 7 times in a row should be about 1.56% wich is incredibly unlucky, but not improbable.
9709314
That really dosent make the image any better... Though I suppose it depends on the anime
9707359
Don't let the door hit you on your way out.
9709789
Happy to fulfill your nightmares
oh the future is now going to be in chaos with all that is going on.
WHOA! What a way to end this arc.
Well shit
cdn-img.fimfiction.net/story/r724-1491636931-369649-medium they showed Chrysalis of how her life could've been...
...I mean, come on! He must've spent a little time there and asked a few questions!
Or was it:
9712388
Drones are sterile. I mean, you can't take something that is sterile and make it virile, right? Right???
HA!
#1 Much Awesome. Very epic.
#2 Can anyone remind me what Mark did for the dragons to befriend them to the point of doing battle to help the ponies? I'm drawing a total blank here T_T
#3 Maybe Disord is crying due to the MASSIVE amounts of Chaos this will mean in the future! I mean not only has Chaos been brought to the Changelings, so too will Chaos come to the ponies when they learn about their peace with changelings!!
Plus...a King AND a Queen, with the Queen being a PONY! Pony ROYALTY! That has GOT to lead to crazy shenanigans down the road <3
9707359
I don't think anyone is going to ignore the implications of the rape. It's going to cause some real insanity down the road. It's certainly too early to tell if the Rape aspect will be handled with care or not.
Also: The main character was just a planner. His main strength comes from his ability to plan and empower the ponies, rather than relying mostly on the Diarchs. He's smart and he isn't resting on his laurels, again like with the diarchs. Fuck in this chapter almost all the work was done by EVERYONE ELSE, Mark just dictated orders mostly, while everyone else did the fighting.
I mean if you want to talk OP, STARLIGHT is OP. She has a flying spell which Twilight can't do. She is able to hold her own against an ALICORN, the Alicorn of MAGIC no less. Which should be impossible since Alicorns are basically the Gold Standard. Not only that but...she got a MASSIVE power boost for NO REASON. She wasn't HALF that powerful, before she came at Twilight a 2nd time. Then suddenly she is Equal or BETTER than Twilight. Not only that, but in a shorter period of time she seems to be as well read about magic as say...Twilight or Moondancer. There was never really a good reason given IN CANON for why she's so OP so QUICKLY.
See with Mark his strength is ALWAYS well explained and half of it is just, "I'm going to use a think tank to explore more tech, as well as have the military ACTUALLY trained like a vicious Earth Military, instead of mostly ceremonial palace guards"
I mean in this story it was mostly still Thorax winning the day against Chrysalis. All Mark did was plan and give a speech. Also setting up weapons to be used in multiple scenarios, because he doesn't rest on his laurels. He doesn't just go "Well we have the Elements of Harmony and Discord. Surely nothing can stop us!" The bulk of the work was done by everyone who was NOT Mark. Actually if anything this arc was LESS about Mark being OP in and of himself. He barely did anything himself to stop Chrysalis, as 90% was done by others. He's just the one who got the ball rolling.
Mark's greatest power is to Empower OTHERS. Also: Planning.
9725128
Exactly! Sure, Mark has some very nifty physical abilities that occasionally come in handy, but his real ability is to "do something about it, dammit!" That's why, in spite of his wishes, he's going to be great ruler. He delegates to those best suited to the task and gets rid of the incompetents.
As for the involvement of the dragons... that will be explained in an upcoming chapter.
*dies* that little changeling colt of Shining's is ADORABLE!!! I must see more of him!!!! <3
O fuck...
That cute picture give me Diabetes from the sugar rush sweetness... Best way to go...
9707062
Well done 
One of the very best i ever read...
9707063
Indeed
9707098
For me it was the other way around
9707127
Somehow i enjoyed your comment very mutch
9707153
Damn... Wile i like the idea to make a nice twist i dont like it... Chrysalis is a great villain/anti hero
9707188
BOOM sudden familie grow
9707305
Mark Wells did a lot for Equestria but now he effected so mutch more. Perfect build up with logical and simpel to understand changes. MAGNIFICENT
9707306
I literally burst out so hard in laughter i hurt myself... Respect *brohoof* /)(\