• Published 26th Sep 2018
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Evoli Victorious - Starscribe



Long after the event stole all the humans from Earth, changeling queen Evoli is sick of the constant self-destruction of pony civilizations. Maybe if someone with real talent for leadership could take over, her swarm wouldn't go hungry.

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Chapter 11

Decimus and her swarm of controllers fought brutally. Evoli could hear them from outside, and sense the violence through the aid of her own swarm. The deeper they went, the better prepared the enemy became. She could not see into the minds of Decimus and her controllers, but she could ask those on the outskirts through her own controllers’ vocal questions.

The enemy was prepared—with weapons of the ancients, in great numbers. Many of the orphaned controllers died. All the better. We need as few mouths to feed as possible. At least dying in battle would be a good death. She would feel guilty if she had to eat them herself.

But then, as violent as it had been, the battle was over. Evoli’s own changelings still fought brutally in caverns that seemed to go on forever. But instead of resisting her, the troops in these areas seemed mostly to be trying to get away. They were retreating, not trying to hold her back. Because the great queens aren’t there, and they know it. They shouldn’t have been allowed to retreat.

That was the danger of trusting ponies to do the job drones should instead. Ponies cared for their own lives, and so they were poor warriors. But Evoli didn’t hunt down the fleeing enemy—they were food, after all. Once her task was complete, she could gather up the defeated and punish their leaders. The rest would add their magic to her swarm, one way or another.

Decimus eventually emerged from the depths. She hadn’t been leading from the front, though she had been gone for so long that Evoli worried she had been killed in some counterattack. There would’ve been no obvious sign of it, not with a swarm of controllers. They wouldn’t go mad and start killing each other like her own drones would do if she died.

Decimus had been wounded—she had thick bandages on the side of one leg, and walked with the aid of a wooden brace. The kind of weakness that would mean a sure death by one of her sisters. But Decimus had no sisters—only subjugated queens ruling over distant lands to the south. Maybe I’ll replace her when this is over.

“My queen…” She stumbled to a stop outside the Pillar of Stability’s main entrance, lowering her head to Evoli in respect. “I have done as you commanded. Though… I fear the victory might not be as rewarding as we hoped.”

“I doubt that very much.” Evoli walked alongside her, running a wing along the little queen’s back. “Your swarm fought better than I expected. Against superior weapons, in small quarters and darkness. They are to be commended. But tell me—if you have secured the passage I suggested, what is it do you think would displease me?”

“I… discovered the throne room,” she said, looking away from Evoli, speaking very quietly. “There was… I lost friends to get inside. They had a mounted—”

“I’m not concerned with the battle to take it,” Evoli cut her off, voice suddenly harsh. “You will tell me exactly what you discovered there, and you won’t waste words to do it. The great queens were within, then? I know your drones could not defeat them in a battle, no matter how many there were. And you…” She looked down. “Is that where you got that wound?”

Decimus nodded. “F-for you, my queen. I tried to… but we couldn’t win. There are three of them, Evoli. Three queens. I don’t know how to beat them. I think…” She lowered her voice still further. “I think you might want to try to negotiate again. We’ve taken out most of their army, and they have civilians… they’ll probably be willing to give in to your demands now. You can be queen of the whole world.”

“I’m already queen of the world,” Evoli said. “This battle proves it. And a queen has the wisdom to know that she cannot suffer rivals to live.” She tensed for a second, resting one hoof on the curved sword at her back. She felt the spike of fear from Decimus almost as brightly as though it had been a real pony emotion. That’s… not possible. I must be getting hungry if other changelings can trick me like that.

Evoli let go of the handle, laughing. “Relax, Decimus. You have served me faithfully. Loyalty is rewarded.” She gestured to one side. “I’m guessing the enemy didn’t attempt to flee.”

“No,” Decimus answered, backing away from Evoli at a brisk walk. She never turned her back, though, or ran. “Why don’t they? Every queen I ever met could teleport, and there’s three of them. They could be anywhere in the world if they wanted.”

“Because they wish to survive,” Evoli answered, turning away from the cavern’s entrance. “They cannot survive without a swarm to feed them, no less than you or I. If they flee, they will starve. Their only chance is to wait for me to come for them. If I were wise myself I might leave them alone, let them wither away in a guarded cell while I solidify my power… but that would let so much precious magic go to waste. No, I will confront them. And I will triumph, claiming this last sliver of the world for myself. Then, finally, there will be peace.”

Decimus didn’t remain with her, but hurried off as fast as her injury would allow. By the time she returned, her leg was no longer bandaged and bleeding, and there was dry slime on her body instead of dried blood. She had a pair of soldiers on either side—wearing armor salvaged from the enemy, by the look of it. Each one kept well away from Evoli, as though a queen who wasn’t even four feet tall might be able to protect them from her wrath. Your minds make you weak, controllers. You wouldn’t do what was necessary. I bet if I asked you to trade your life for Decimus’s right now, you would selfishly allow the whole swarm to die so you could live.

But whatever her temptation, Evoli would have to be practical. She had already lost Strand, and potentially much more. She wouldn’t throw the orphan swarm into disarray quite yet.

“Now, to finish this,” she said, sending a wave of her own changelings down the shaft. Only a dozen of them, though there were another dozen or so surrounding them as they followed. She wasn’t about to trust her safety completely to the hooves of such a weak queen.

Evoli remembered the pathway down as completely as though she’d been here yesterday. She knew each lock, each door, each stairwell and trap. Where they passed plenty of bodies of Decimus’s changelings that hadn’t known what was coming until a wall fell on them or they flooded a corridor with water, Evoli could skirt the whole thing without being told.

“There’s less… dead than I expected,” Evoli said, when they were nearing the bottom of the winding shaft. So deep that they’d left the realm of manually dug corridors, and into the abyssal cave that housed the throne and all the other crystal formations. The air was thick and humid here, and filled with the smell of bat droppings. Even the ancient queen Riley hadn’t been able to find and wipe out all their colonies. “With the time it took you to fight your way here, I would’ve expected thousands of dead.”

They passed plenty of Decimus’s changelings along the way—controllers that guarded side entrances, or watched over their own dead lying in respectful slumber. But no prisoners.

“We were cautious going down,” Decimus said from up ahead. “Controllers don’t fight the same way as drones, my queen. And I’m… not old or strong enough to show them how to fight myself. We used pony tactics instead. It takes time, but there are fewer casualties.”

“I suppose I can forgive you that given your results.”

The entrance to the throne room was a straight shaft exactly half a kilometer long, with thick stone blocks set to form walls where none had existed before. There were carvings set into the wall, detailing the exact wording of Riley’s ancient pact. All the laws that wrapped around our necks. All the tricks she used. You tried to rule us with words when you got old and feeble, mother. I’m about to set us free.

But there was another reason the path was so long and straight. Here at last she found some of the dead—a massive pile of them near the entrance, surrounded by soldiers who seemed to be in mourning. And at the end of the hall, more of the human weapons of war. There was changeling blood everywhere.

“It was… a terrible struggle,” Decimus muttered, her voice distant. “Getting to that door. I don’t know how other queens deal with it. When I’m older, and I have drones of my own… I don’t think I could send them somewhere like this to die.”

“Collect your wits,” Evoli scolded, setting off down the hallway and dragging the young queen along beside her. Her own drones made up the rear, cutting off the controller swarm. “Death is a part of life, Decimus. Your changelings gave their lives for the hive. That is the honor of their existence. You should not mourn that they fulfill the measure of their creation. It would be worse to take the opportunity for service from them. Living for themselves, that would be the real curse. Changelings are meant to be part of something bigger, it’s what separates us from ponies. Your swarm has a unique perspective there—and they chose the superior method over one that left them with darkness and confusion.”

Decimus nodded. “Of course, m-my queen. They did. But that doesn’t mean I won’t miss them.”

Evoli felt it again—this time it was grief instead of fear, so bright that she actually stopped walking, staring at the other queen. Decimus stumbled, came to a gasping halt, looked away. “W-what is it, queen?”

The sensation was gone again. It didn’t linger on her body that way it might’ve on a pony, like blood in the water for a shark. It was gone again, back to the shallow echo of emotions that she felt from others of her kind.

“Nothing. It must’ve been nothing.” Evoli could see the end of the tunnel now. There was another group of Decimus’s changelings, facing a sealed stone door with a broken metal lock. They formed two tight ranks behind shields—a pharynx formation, and not a bad one either. Waste of time for changelings, though. Time they spend hiding is time they aren’t using to cut down enemy warriors. More pony selfishness infesting my hive.

Evoli’s drones shoved their way through from behind with contempt, sending a few of the controllers sliding across the floor. Their officers got the idea after that, and they moved out of her way, forming a wide aisle all the way to the door. It swung open just a crack, and cool air drifted out from inside. Strange smells came with it. Mildew, fungus, decay overwhelmed the mineral smells of this dense cave.

And on the ground in front of them was the wreckage of a human device, a cylinder of many small openings with cranks and boxes of bullets. The cause of so many deaths along the tunnel, broken to pieces by Decimus and her brood.

Evoli instructed her drones to watch the door, to enter the instant it seemed that violence had begun. But otherwise, they would only be a distraction. She let them push it open, ready with her magic in case there were more attacks from within. But there were none, only a diffuse blue light. “You will come with me, Decimus. I don’t expect you will be necessary—but I might want a witness. This will be a historic moment. Those guards of yours, however… they may not come. Even controllers might be a liability against the great queens.”

Decimus nodded, whispering something to her guards. They exchanged far more words of hushed conversation than seemed warranted, then she finally hobbled forward beside Evoli. “Alright, my queen. I’m ready.”

Evoli stepped inside to claim her destiny.