Harlequin was no stranger to the look of the changeling prison as the pony guards escorted her down. After all, she’d been there when much of it was dug. She knew about each of the fortifications in place, knew where each of the attendant guards would be standing, and was ready for them.
What she didn’t expect was the blacksmith waiting at the end of the ramp. “Another straggler, huh? Will we need to get it out again?”
“Likely,” said one of the guards. “Pretty elaborate scheme going to replace one of us. I’m sure she’ll have a trial.”
“Right then.” The earth pony scratched his beard, looking her up and down for a second. “Alright, changeling. Listen careful if you can. We’re about to put a collar on you. This collar is the only way for you to prove your identity.”
Would I want to? Unless a trial is something I want. It didn’t sound like something she would want, not from the satisfaction the guards felt when they spoke about it.
Harlequin nodded weakly as they measured her, then held her neck out for the collar. The pony blacksmith applied it with a routine that suggested he had done hundreds exactly like it, complete with a little metal disk on the end. “874,” she read. “What is 874?”
“You,” one of the soldiers answered, shoving her forward. “You hid better than most, so your number is up there. Congratulations.” They laughed, though she couldn’t tell what was funny about it.
Then it was through the last set of security doors to where the minecart track traveled into the dark.
“Supplies come down this track twice a day,” said one of her escort ponies, a pegasus with a dark coat and stern eyes. “You don’t want to be anywhere near the track most of the time. Defensive spells will electrocute anything alive that gets close.” He reached to one side, pulling a lever down with dramatic flair while his partner fumbled with the lock on the door. “That’s the defenses turned off. Get to the end before we switch them on again, or…” He didn’t finish the threat, but Harlequin didn’t need him to. His intentions were clear enough.
The door swung open. The path down was lit in the pony way, with regular magical crystals glowing faintly white. “Go on,” said the other. “We’ll count from… thirty. Start running.”
She ran. The collar was tight around her neck, restricting her movements and making it difficult to turn to either side. She could barely look down at her hooves, and stumbled more than once. But her wings were free, and she could catch herself before she fell. The track was already well worn, with scorch marks and piles of indeterminate black sludge on the side. Oh Queens. Did bugs try to fly up here through the defensive spells? It was like the city’s shield all over again.
Every second Harlequin kept a count in her head. She’d just about reached ten when she finally saw the bottom of the track.
Here there was a pile of wooden carts, almost untouched from where they’d dropped their contents. The smell of rotting food was thick, along with the buzzing wings of flies.
She felt it in the air—a faint heat beginning from behind her, getting hotter by the second. The spell was probably designed that way, to pressure creatures away from the tracks rather than killing them instantly when they stepped on them. They didn’t even give me thirty seconds!
Harlequin lowered her head and flew for everything she was worth, into the huge crystal cavern that was the center of the prison. Fire scorched at her tail, melting the layer on her shell. She closed her eyes, kept flying desperately, knowing she would be just another pile of melted sludge if she failed…
She passed over the graveyard of broken minecarts, avoiding a few crystal stalagmites before landing on open ground. For a few seconds she just stood there, catching her breath and letting herself cool down after the heat of the passage.
Ponies had lit the entire thing with their characteristic clumsiness, with glowing crystals on the ceiling illuminating the entrance cavern in white that fractured into every color of the rainbow as it passed through crystals on the wall.
The minecarts hadn’t even been removed from the bottom of the track, their wrapped bundles of supplies left exactly where they had landed. They’d piled up so much that instead of hitting the rubber stoppers, they smacked into the earlier carts and rolled off to spill their supplies all over the place. A cloud of flies as thick as the swarm had ever been hovered around the pony food, without any sign that the changelings had disturbed it.
“Hello?” Harlequin whispered, reaching out instinctively for the comfort of the swarm. But of course it wasn’t here, not even a suggestion of how many bugs might be down here. They had no feelings she could read, so she couldn’t gauge their numbers the way she had guessed there were guards in the field hospital. There are probably 873 others in here, Harlequin. That’s how numbers work.
She kept her head down, creeping forward towards the well. It was a good distance away from the food carts, which was probably good. If all the bad food started falling down there, that certainly wouldn’t have helped the bugs living here. They did still need to drink.
A layer of green slime coated the ground near the well, covering up the little wall ponies had built along it and leading deeper into the caves. Harlequin stepped onto it easily, feeling the slight yield under her hooves and relaxing. It was nice to be near something familiar. Maybe there are good things about this. I barely even got my name. There are other bugs who would be better at saving everyone. I’m not the one they should expect to do the saving.
Harlequin moved mostly by reflex. She lowered the bucket by the crank, drew up some water, splashed it on her face. The crisp chill helped clear her mind—it was the only clear thing in her whole world. All the pony light in the world couldn’t make the cave feel less bleak.
We’re all going to starve down here. Her own appetite for love had grown since her earliest memories—how long could she go without a meal? She probably could’ve lasted for a month before being blasted with that spell. But whatever it was, it had taken away most of her reserves when it took her illusion away. She would have to be careful with her magic, or else…
What difference does it make? Everyone’s going to starve down here. The ponies understand us so badly they’re still sending their own food down to rot. How had none of the important bugs explained how they worked? Unless the ponies didn’t even listen.
Harlequin could feel the slimy floor sink slightly behind her, and she spun around, kicking the bucket back down into the darkness. A drone emerged from the gloom, looking a little emaciated and with only one of its wings intact. It barely seemed to even see Harlequin.
But it was still the first changeling she’d met under friendly circumstances. She moved out of the way of the well, smiling in spite of herself. “Sister,” she said. “Where is the Swarm?”
The changeling looked at her as she approached, one wing and the missing stump of her other wing twitching weakly. As she got closer, Harlequin could see makeshift buckets wrapped around her back, and little grooves in her shell from repetitive strain. This bug had been doing the same thing for so long she was hurting from it.
“Hey,” Harlequin stuck out a wing in front of her, forcing the bug to meet her eyes. “Can you talk?”
She could see recognition in its eyes, or thought she could. Without their mental connection, she couldn’t be sure. I’m fumbling in the dark. How is the Swarm supposed to get anything done like this? “That harness is hurting you, here. Let me… get it off.” Harlequin lifted with a little magic, undoing the rope. It was rough twine braided together, probably made of the stuff securing pony food packages. The harness came off, revealing faint wounds underneath from where the rope had bit through her shell.
The drone didn’t fight her. As Harlequin worked, she seemed to grow more alert, her mouth half open. She didn’t look much older, but Harlequin was nearly a full head taller. “There. How’s that?”
“Alone.” The drone’s voice shook, obviously a great strain to say even that.
Harlequin nodded weakly, kicking the harness away. “Yeah.”
“You… are.” The drone fixed her with desperate eyes, her whole body shaking. “Queen?”
“No.” She whimpered, eyes scanning the space around them for anything she could use to treat the drone’s wounds. Harlequin hadn’t been a doctor, and she’d never held any of those parts of Swarm lore. But she had watched pony doctors treat Codex just yesterday. She could copy just fine.
“Fill that bucket, bring it over here. Let’s see what we can do about that shoulder.”
“Hurt.”
“Yeah, I can see that. I’ll help. Uh…” She hesitated. “Do you have a name?”
“Name.” She picked up the bucket in her mouth, so at least she understood that part.
“Name, uh… alright. I think the way this works is… we start with a letter? You can be… S. Is that okay?”
“S!” the drone repeated, grinning at her. One of her fangs was missing. “S!”
Harlequin nodded, moving past her to where the pony supplies had fallen. The cloud of insects were thick enough that seeing anything was difficult, their buzzing angry. But while these bugs might’ve bit and stung at ponies with their weak coats, a changeling shell was too strong. She didn’t need to fear them, so long as she was careful with her eyes.
Had the ponies sent anything she could use?
Most of the broken containers were sacks of grain, the same stuff ponies made into their stew to feed guards and others. Grain wouldn’t help S, but… there, those boxes were marked differently! Harlequin levitated one out, settling it on the ground far from the pile. There was a bright red symbol on the side, the same one she’d seen all over the field hospital. She fumbled with the latch, then pushed it open.
Bundles of white cloth were inside, along with little bottles marked with tiny writing. She recognized the word on the one she needed: “Antiseptic.”
“Okay S, bring the water over here, and sit down.”
“Sit.” That was something she understood. She grinned proudly as she looked up, apparently expecting praise for it.
“This is… going to hurt while I do it,” Harlequin said, as gently as she could. “It hurt Codex. But he got better after. If you let me do this, you will get better. Okay?”
“Okay.” S sounded uneasy, but she continued watching with trust. Harlequin could practically see what she was thinking through her expression—that was the trust every bug felt for the ones who fed them. It was gratitude for love received.
Harlequin blinked, checking her reserves by reflex. It was exactly how she thought—she hadn’t been feeding this drone. Must just be old instincts. You’re not as good at reading expressions as you think you are, Harlequin.
She worked by the faint white glow of magical lights, using pony tools and imitated pony strategies. Changelings had their own ways of helping injured drones to heal, secret methods that the Swarm could’ve shown her. But failing that, some bandages and antiseptic weren’t the worst thing in the world.
After an hour of work, Harlequin could feel the weight of exhaustion on her shoulders. She’d gone through most of the bandages and both bottles of antiseptic—but S’s body looked much better. Instead of open wounds seeping blood, there were now bandages on her back, over the stump of her wing. She looked much better, her eyes less glazed and her cheeks no longer sallow.
“Queen,” S said, when she was done. “Queen here. You.”
“No. But I’ll try to protect you like one. If you… want to stay with me for awhile.”
“Yes!” S exclaimed, bouncing up and down beside her. Probably shouldn’t be moving like that. Those bandages are barely holding you together.
“Alright, alright.” She rested one leg on her shoulder. “Slow down, S. Why don’t you… see if you can show me the way you came. I’d like to meet whoever is in charge down here.” Harliquin took one last glance at the railway leading up, then turned her back on the ponies above. She followed S into the darkness of the prison.
More pony war crimes. I hope Celestia gets chewed out for this.
Mmyes, some petty entertainment for the pony guards. That make you two feel you're so special, huh?
Either that, or they just didn't run fast enough. Those guards and their petty entertainments and all.
Yeah, not surprised. And not happy about it, either.
As for the rest...mixed feelings. In theory, so long as the ponies continue to supply adequate supplies for all of their changeling captives, the prison doesn't sound that awful. At the very least, I've heard of far worse than this. The magicked entrance isn't even that awful either...assuming the guards operating it weren't so...what's the word I want to use...malicious? Cruel? Sadistic?
No, the real problem is the ponies continued failure to recognize that the supplies they are so nicely sending down are either of no use to the changelings, or, like the case of the first aid kit Harlequin recovered, too unfamiliar for them to know how to use. The ponies don't realize it, though, and clearly have made no effort to even try to realize it, to even check if the changelings are using them or are even staying healthy. I greatly suspect most of the ponies currently wouldn't even care. In their minds, if the changelings all died off anyway, that's one less problem for them to deal with. I wouldn't even be surprised if the pony argument is that it's not them giving the changelings the wrong supplies that's the issue, its the changelings are just choosing not to use them, and who are they to stop them?
Of course, that doesn't mean they are any less to blame. If the ponies permit this to continue, then they're no better than the changelings in the first place, and giving the changelings absolutely no reason not to demonize them more. If anything, the ponies are only setting themselves up for yet another invasion somewhere down the line, as characters such as Chrysalis seek to spread the changeling domain, and the followers will have no motivation to try and stop it. Why would they, at this point?
That all said, I hope Harlequin is recalled again to stand trial before the ponies as implied, because that will most likely be her one--and probably only-- chance to spread awareness of what's really going on, and have any chance of fixing it.
I kinda wish Harlequin had been given one last chance to speak or even just interact in some manner with Sigil before getting thrown down into this pit of a prison, but...
I like the idea of drones promoting to Queen in their absence like the ending of the alien campaign in the AvP (2010) game.
Harlequin would be a much better queen than Chrysalis. I wonder what's needed for the biological coronation. I also wonder what may come of that trial. It's a chance to clarify things ponies don't know they don't know... but they may not listen, assuming they even ask the right questions.
9531848
Bold? Assume? Did i say anything that effect?
How bold of you to assume that i am assuming that when i didn't say that. She don't know. That is what i assume.
She is the leader of the Guard delegating it to Shinning Armor as Captain. In all foriegn relations she IS responsible for what official ponies do even if she doesn't know as The Ruler of Equestria. Who she chews out is her business but she is still responsible.
and there is, the first instance (i think anyway) of Harlequin seeing what changelings true potential is (even if she herself doesn't realizes it yet)
9531916
As much as she's a great character and fun to write around, a box of cornflakes seems like it would do a better job than Chryssie most of the time.
9531652
Command responsibility usually ends with the perpetrator. I doubt Celestia would allow this but with the aftermath of the war, I doubt much of the pony population would mind to be honest. People tend to want people that hurt them punished.
9531843
Given that the remains aren't even cleaned, I'm pretty sure the warden is a rather swell fellow.
A prison break would be the moral choice here. Of course that might lead to more death but better to die then be subjugated. Might inspire the others too.
How many would listen? Or even care? Perhaps Harlequin needs to escape with as many as they can and melt into the countryside. Plan something else later. If nothing else, survival. It's not an ideal solution but she doesn't have much to work with. With the prison looking more like pony Abu Ghraib, she won't last long. And the Warden will probably testify against her. Whose word would be trusted more?
9531916
Should it fail, an escape attempt and the possible violence that might occur may be the only option.
9532302
Gotta give her some credit. Replacing a princess that's loved so much would have made her a god. She just threw all subtlety out the window with the attack if I remember canon MLP right.
And with a hiveminded species, their sense of morality will probably allows leeway in considering drones expendable. The species is what matters, not the individual. And the queen is the reproductive unit and thus the future of the species. Though, if i remember right, hivemind changelings appears to be a fan made thing. I don't remember any sort of confirmation in the show that drones share a hivemind. They're full individuals.
This prison is a nightmare, partly intentional but partly unintentional too. I wonder what the pony reaction is going to be if and when they find out they've effectively been starving children.
I wonder who had the plan that involved S transporting that water bucket. There may be some organization already going on down here, though it might also already be breaking down from starvation considering that S has apparently been operating on autopilot for a while.
Hmn.
The ponies must be really desperate or foolish if they're using a mineshaft as a prison, especially one that's apparently big enough to get lost in. They have no obvious means of observing what's going on inside.
Even if they really intend to use the cave as a death pit and are hoping that the problem would solve itself with changelings dying in the dark, there are lots of assumptions being made here, because for all they know, the changelings could be making a nest, breeding, setting up an ambush for retrieval teams or digging their way out elsewhere.
9532355
It's a strange idea that Celestia should be chewed out for something she probably doesn't know is happening, wouldn't want to happen, and most likely has no way of knowing is happening in the first place other than going down to the dungeons to oversee things up close by herself.
That being said, Cadance and Chrysalis had a whole discussion about what Changelings draw nourishment from in front of the royal wedding receptio, so the idea that not one pony remembers any of that is... strange.
Also, if the Changelings had a Hive Mind during the invasion, how could Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash pretend to be Changelings well enough to fool them? That's always something bugging me with stories like this one, pardon the pun.
9532355
There's really more than one way this all could go, honestly. Jailbreak, convincing ponies, starting some sort of homemade changeling reformation right there in the prison...it's all a potential possibility at this point (though some more likely than others, obviously). It's tough to call just how this might play out currently.
9532506
Well, this is an AU story, so we should keep in mind that not all of the in-show details may still be relevant here in the story. The initial invasion at the wedding is already implied to not have gone as it did in the show, as the invasion was actually successful for more than a day, and the changelings basically had control of Canterlot. Considering the "six" that came and turned the tide when everything went awry for the changelings seemed to have to come in from outside Canterlot, the Mane 6 may not have even been in the city for the invasion to begin at all. Both of those details would change a lot of that in of itself, and it would just cascade from there.
9532506
It is basically a few days after the incident. Ponies are probably still drafting up control measures and Cadance might be still recovering so ponies are probably more concern with her well being than questioning her about any valuable intel so its not entirely impossible that that information hasn't been passed down yet.
The hivemind idea is the first thing people think of with bug people or bug based civilizations. Changelings = bugs = hivemind. What's funny is that real life social insects don't even have hiveminds as they communicate by other means. I suppose the only way its possible is through machine computer type civilizations like Mass Effect's Geth and Reapers (I think).
9532545
Changeling reformation? Maybe for the more independent ones (the leaders), the rest are literally ignorant, confused, afraid babies torn from their mother (hivemind).
Convincing ponies will certainly be hard considering even canon ponies show xenophobic tendencies here and there. Enemies more so. Not to mention no one's probably willing to handout the resource called love. Perhaps, through the mane six will they find redemption since they are the most open-minded ( and probably most accessible). But that depends on how closely this story follows canon mlp. I'm not entirely convinced it's entirely AU. If it does follow canon, this attempt will certainly fail for H. That story is for another hero.
If H doesn't end up dead and the story will follow mlp's timeline, H and whoever else will have to jailbreak maybe through sympathetic ponies, guile, or violence. Otherwise, yes, it is a tough call.
I'm assuming most of us thought we'd see a changeling in the guard. Well, that time has come to pass.
9532641
Tagged Alternate Universe.
It could still be partly AU.
9532641
The changeling reformation idea is admittedly less likely than others, but when thinking about it, I could still see how the story could go in that direction...if so inclined. I don't think it is for obvious reasons, but I threw it out there anyway to prove the point.
9532701
Gotta throw it out there.
It's what happened canonically after all!
9532355
Even slightly before that, she was making bad choices. The princesses get podded... except the pink one you're impersonating. And the other high value prisoner, whom you don't even attempt to replace, just so you can maybe make them kill each other. THEN, you don't check on them killing each other.
I figure she had competent minions to actually arrange plans beyond "I want thing", especially seeing the episode with the clones.
This prison literally feels like hell. Maybe not with constant flames and torture, but in the sense of a dark, enclosed underworld with no apparent egress, yet somehow vast and empty enough to accommodate an ongoing Lynchian waking nightmare of existence.
9532545
My favored plan is her insisting that she meant her oath as a guard, and that she believed the needs of the survivors was more important than her heritage.
9532997
The problem is that I'm not sure Harlequin actually believes that herself currently. That's part of what makes her intentions going forward difficult to gauge, because she's caught in this middle-ground where she can't bring herself to favor one side over the other fully. She doesn't want to abandon her changeling siblings or betray her race, and fully recognizes she was deceiving the ponies and sees that is "bad" in their eyes and accepts that. And yet she recognizes that the ponies were hurt too, sees that wasn't fully justified and or fair for the changelings to have done, and isn't inclined to deal more harm to the ponies either, seeing nothing good coming from it for anyone, and it's just not in her nature. Both sides of these conflict with each other--as she sees it, she can't do one without obstructing the other, and it bothers her greatly. Further, she feels guilty for all of her roles in this thus far, and I worry that's going to hold her back. It already has in small ways.
9532844
It's a concentration camp in all but name, and the ponies either don't know, or don't care that they're literally starving hundreds of young children to death. How Celestia reacts once she realizes whats happening will tell us a great deal about her character in this AU, though i expect the ponies won't realize what's happening until nearly all of the drones are dead.
This chapter only makes me wish for it to be next week already! I wanna see the state of the prisoners, I wanna see what becomes of S, and I DEFINITELY wanna see how this 'You are Queen now' thing turns out.
9532650
This story is set in an AU, that's for sure. But the AU it's a part of as far as I'm aware is very close to show-canon, so it's unlikely to contradict that specifically, but I dunno exactly what Star has planned. Even I can only speculate.
Since Thorax was explicitly mentioned, I imagine he may have a larger role to play before the end.
I'm really enjoying this series. It is great to see things from the other side of this conflict. Keep up the great work.
9531848
9532037
Well, she may bear a certain amount of responsibility depending on how hard she tried to avoid this outcome. Certainly the two guards are at fault; certainly whoever is directly in charge of them is either encouraging them, looking the other way, or not doing enough oversight to catch their misdeeds. After that the responsibility gets fuzzy.
I would say that "chewing out" Celestia would be a pretty gross exaggeration if her sincere intentions for clemency are being thwarted by underlings who hide this fact from her. But on the other hand, they said Harlequin's going to get a trial, right? That is the perfect opportunity to shed light on all this nonsense. Even if a Princess isn't the judge, at least one will certainly be present.
I like S