Easy Access, the Story of Quill

by Graphite Quill

Act. 2 The Forgotten Mare Pt.2

Author's Note:

This one jumps around allot POV wise so just a reminder: This --> -=-=- -=-=- with nothing in the middle means 3rd person POV, but if there's a name in the middle like this --> -=-=- Bob -=-=- then it means that it's that character's POV. Once I get past this 3 part section there should be less POV shifts, or at least they'll be more spread out. This section with the changelings was NOT in the original planned story progression so I'm still trying to figure some stuff out and where exactly I'm taking certain aspects of this portion of the story. Anyways, with that run-on sentence out of the way, I hope you all enjoy! Peace fellow pones! {T}

-=-=- Graphite -=-=-

Crux, Manta, Thesa, and I walked side by side patrolling the halls of the hive. Why? I have no fucking clue, we're in the middle of nowhere in a giant structure made of stone and shaped exactly like all the mountains around it. Oh and about a hundred magical traps set up along the only entrance, all designed to ignore changelings and unconscious creatures. Doesn't matter to the Queen though, patrols are constantly kept up by her guard and any 'ling that doesn't show up for their patrol gets demoted to drone. Easy job but horrible food rations.

Speaking of jobs, I've basically gone from prisoner to indentured guard. Queen bitch realized early on that I couldn't be held captive for long, so instead she just tries to keep me inside the hive and allows me to roam mostly free. They've even stopped trying to keep me from escaping, not that they could anyways. After being captured my first priority was getting Cara to safety, and that's when they learned not to fuck with my kid. Needless to say I've made them aware of just how 'uncooperative' I could be and they decided to be more lenient with my captivity. Don't get me wrong I am still a prisoner, no matter how many times I escape they always find me and with just a quick stun spell when I'm asleep I'm theirs again. Normally I'd rely on my magic to shield me but I've been feeling off lately. My magic is sluggish and randomly stops working or just changes effects. After my third escape I cast a magic absorbing shield on myself so any spells that hit me would just power up the shield, however when I fell asleep the spell changed and ended up amplifying the changelings magic when they found me. I couldn't move for the next thirty six hours and all attempts at a counter spell failed.

"What's got you so pissed G?" Tes asked as we turned down another corridor.

"More than likely he's thinking about his impotence in magic again." Crux said with a smirk.

Manta put a hoof on my shoulder then spoke. "Don't listen to him Graphite, I'm sure you'll figure out what's going on with your magic soon. Who knows maybe it's being cause by the darkstone thro-"

"Silence your tongue you fool!" Crux hissed in anger. "Acquaintance or not he's still our prisoner. Imagine if the Queen heard you speak of such things to a pony!" With a grimace he added, "No offence." while looking at me.

I just shrugged ignoring the rest of their conversation and looked over to Thesa. "He talking about the throne that blocks all but changeling magic?" I asked.

"Yup." Came her simple response.

"Wanna go get something to eat?" I asked knowing that the other two would be arguing for a while.

"And shirk patrol duty? Hay yeah I do!"

-=-=-=- -=-=-=-

Queen Chrysalis paced around the throne contemplating her next move on Equestria. Graphite obviously knew of her plans for the wedding and always found a way out of explaining his knowledge. Her main theory was that one of her more pony-like changelings warned the ponies, but then she would remember that he seemed to only hint at it while being captured in front of the princesses. Did they know as well? Which of her subjects betrayed their own species? Could it be one of the three imbeciles that followed him all over the hive? Thorax? The Queen laughed aloud at the thought of such a weak submissive changeling taking a chance of being caught for treason.

Her deliberations were cut short by the sound of an alarm sounding from below.

"Petulant worm!" With an annoyed huff Chrysalis stomped on an activation rune and waited while the throne and the platform around it to lower into the harvesting chamber. Silencing the alarm with another stomp she walked past hundreds of cocooned ponies, both alive and skeletonized, straight to the culprit that set off the alarm. Suspended inside a glowing green mass of changeling gel was a pure black pegasus mare. She sat wide eyed staring at the bug Queen unable to do anything but blink.

"WHY DO YOU TEST MY PATIENCE! STAY! ASLEEP!" She screamed as she let loose a charged knockout spell. Her tail twitched in anger as she considered lowering food production and eliminating this headache of a pony. "You're lucky you produce so much love, you infuriating little buffet."

Unbeknownst to her in her enraged state, another set of eyes watched from afar doing his best to ignore the ghoulish environment around him. He watched as the queen berated the unconscious pony and decided to leave while he had the chance. He silently returned to the throne and flew up through the vertical shaft into the throne room. He decided then and there that he needed to make his move soon, but he'd need help on such short notice. Luckily he knew just who to turn to.

-=-=- Graphite -=-=-

"DAMNIT!" I yelped. A wisp of smoke trailing from my horn signaled yet another failed attempt at changing my appearance. I could feel the heat radiating from my fur from the buildup of unused magic, too many more attempts and who knows what might happen. Would I explode or just burst into flames? Why am I even wondering about this? Why am I asking so many questions internally? I'm going insane without magic, which is weird considering I've had it for less than a year. I wonder if magic addiction is a thing..

"Missive for Graphite Quill."

"HOLY FUCK!" I yelled. "Da fuck did you come from!?"

The changeling looked mildly startled but continued to hold the letter out in his light green aura. I scowled as I grabbed the letter with my teeth, I didn't want to accidentally light it on fire with my magic. This is always how the queen gets ahold of me when the wants something from me, and usually it's just information. She had her fill of my 'special' spell when I was still under her influence and for some reason once my magic started acting up she was no longer able to keep ahold of my mind. As far as I'm aware she hasn't tried to drain me nor have I given her any info about Equestria, so I have no idea why she's keeping me here. Realizing I'd been standing still with an envelope in my mouth I spat it out and looked up to find that the changeling that delivered the letter was gone. "Fucking changelings, I swear."

I opened the envelope and unfolded the letter only to be surprised by the nearly blank parchment. It read just a few simple words. 'It's your time to shine Sir Quill.'

-=-=- -=-=-

Thorax watched as the hive's only free roaming pony stared in confusion at the paper. Finally realizing how vague he had been he facehooved and left the pony to wonder for now. He needed to assemble the others and he hoped he wasn't making a mistake involving the currently magicless unicorn. His magic isn't what was needed, it was his ability to reach the queen and distract her for long enough for him and his friends to do what needed to be done. The ponies deserved better than to be slowly drained of their love until death. Coexistence IS possible and he and his group were determined to make that a viable option in the future, but they needed to show the ponies that not all changelings were the same. The group had long since put together all the physical needs for the plan, now it was all logistics. They were going to free the ponies, starting with the oldest prisoners they had.

Changelings were always a secretive race, or at least they were before Chrysalis. Ponies know next to nothing about changelings and their abilities, for instance the magical properties of their stasis goo. Long ago the hive found that certain individuals had more love energy to give than others and every generation had one or two rare specimens. Most ponies when completely drained of love would die from depression and end up dissolving away in their pods, but there were those unlucky enough to be born different. When a changeling captures a creature with this rare quality they are immediately raised nearly to the level of a prince in the hive. Why, you may ask? Willpower. There are some who refuse to succumb to their depression no matter how much they are drained, and for whatever reason after the first draining their body produces inconceivable amounts of extra love. These individuals can feed large portions of the hive by themselves for two hundred or more years if properly suspended in the goo. Changeling stasis goo does more than just drain love energy. It can also slow the aging process, making it possible for them to keep their food production going for as long as the creature lives.

So why attack Equestria then? If one of these rare creatures can feed so many, why not just use them and leave others alone? That's the question that Thorax based his beliefs on. To him the Queen was just a power hungry succubus gaining her power through expending the lives of the changelings she's supposed to protect. The same changelings that will one day be her undoing, at least as long as Thorax's group wasn't caught during the upcoming 'event'. Everything was in place, they finished construction on the escape tunnel, his group had infiltrated the guard to run interference if it came down to that, and no-ling seemed to notice anything was going on. If all went to plan none of his 'lings would come to harm, if anything were to happen it'd be on the ponies to help themselves. Thorax cared about all life but he still prioritized his kind over any other, the ponies could recover from loss but his group couldn't. There was already so few of them that shared his beliefs and it was nearly impossible to find more changelings like him, it's just in their nature to hide their true feelings.

Soon Thorax would have a nice long chat with the resident freepony and with the Queens distraction, large quantities of ponies will mysteriously disappear from the hive. Sure they'll be hunted, but at least they'll be prepared this time. Then there was Graphite Quill. Thorax felt guilty for using the pony in such a way, once the Queen found out about the uprising and escape she'll likely blame Graphite and being her pet won't save him. She will kill him. Sacrifices must be made for the greater good, Sir Quill would surely agree if he knew it would save so many of his kind. At least that's what Thorax kept telling himself, sleep came a little easier when he believed his self assurances.

'It's all for the best.' He thought to himself for the thousandth time that day.

Comments

[Mornings Dew]

Great chapter!

[tsaukpaetra]

Chaos magic must be exercised or it grows too strong.

[ramdom_player201]

He silently returned to the throne and flew up through the vertical shaft into the throne room.

So his wings have started to work now?