Time passed in the secret swarm hidden beneath Canterlot. Harlequin couldn’t be sure exactly how long it was—time wasn’t something that bugs cared much about, even with the sun and the moon visible briefly through the crystals over her head.
Every day she learned a little more about how to read and write—it wasn’t nearly as hard as she thought. Each letter just stood for a sound, one she could replace in her mind to figure out what the word was supposed to be.
Learning how to write was much harder, since not every word she wanted to make used the letters she expected. Language was old and complicated, with layers of secrets that went back centuries. If she wanted to write her own story, she would need to study for far longer.
The other bugs learned… less well. For them, just communicating at all was a task often too difficult to complete. They showed their emotions in physical ways, buzzing their wings, or rubbing their legs together, or moving up and down when they wanted Harlequin to notice them.
But they were reacting. By her third visit, there weren’t any more open wounds, and the number of drones had stopped dropping. She knew their number, and had learned every possible letter she could use. There were enough bugs down here that she had to use two letters for some of them. But she never forgot a name, even if she only gave it casually. The very act of naming them seemed significant.
One thing Harlequin didn’t do was return to “harvest” love for the swarm. Doing so was a privilege to many of the other love-starved bugs, and so she wasn’t missed. When she was told it was her turn, she just didn’t go. I don’t know how you can stand it.
Harlequin was so occupied caring for her bugs that she barely even noticed the pair of Hydrus’s guards coming upon her one evening, armed with their spears and shields as before.
Her drones were more attentive to these details—they’d long come to associate the guards with danger, with hard duties and bad treatment, so they scattered, vanishing into the cracks and down the slope before Harlequin even realized what was happening. She turned slowly, feeling a growing dread in her chest.
There were only two, the same two she saw often loitering around where bugs harvested. She didn’t know their names. “Hydrus wants me?” she asked, rising to her hooves. “What’s the point of bringing weapons?”
“The drones are strange,” said one of them, casting about in the darkness around himself with the spear. Have you been guarding the brothel for so long that your eyes can’t adjust to the darkness?
“We thought you might be in danger,” said the other. “Heard there were several down here, that you’d gone into the dark. Didn’t come back.”
“I kept them at bay,” Harlequin said noncommittally. She glanced up briefly, eyes fixing on the crystal over their heads. A glow came down through it, telling her everything she needed to know about the time. “Is this just a rescue?”
“No. Hydrus needs you, up above.” He pointed. “No convert to slow you down. Fly straight to the office, and don’t hesitate. Very urgent.”
She obeyed, taking to the air. She spared one last glance for the dark crags and smaller corners of the cavern around her, where the drones she’d been speaking to had vanished at their approach. She could only hope they would stay hidden from Hydrus’s guards a little longer, or that they’d lose interest completely.
They’re still getting their work done. You have no reason to attack them.
She arrived in the office a few minutes later, landing outside and climbing up through the rear entrance. She was no longer intimidated by all the soldiers, or frightened out of going inside.
Hydrus wasn’t alone inside this time—there was a pony waiting there. She hesitated in the doorway, feeling a brief spike of fear in her chest. Ponies meant danger, didn’t they? Yet this one was looking directly at Hydrus, completely undisguised, and she felt only bored.
She was a tall unicorn, taller than Hydrus or Harlequin, with a sharply pointed horn and an angular face. She wore a simple vest, with a symbol along one side. A sun mark cast partway behind a pillar.
I’ve seen that before. It was on the inside of the building Blueblood had taken her.
Suddenly everything made sense.
“Harlequin, you’re here!” Hydrus didn’t stand for her, just pointed at the empty chair. “This is Marquesa, she’s, uh…”
“Supervisor to Charming’s corporate interests, among which include the prison contract he recently took on,” she supplied.
Harlequin had heard more love and affection in the voice of her old queen.
Great. Harlequin sat down, grateful that ponies at least couldn’t sense emotions. This one would have no way of knowing how unhappy she was to be here.
“This is the pony I was telling you about,” Hydrus went on. “She’s my finest. She completed that infiltration for your master so successfully last week.”
“My employer,” Marquesa corrected coldly. “Ponies do not have masters as insects do. Kindly remember that.”
“Yes yes.” Hydrus’s wings buzzed. “Whatever. She’s the pony I trust to accomplish this task. The only one.”
She rose from her seat. “Then you may explain it to her. I tire of the darkness and moisture. I’ll wait in the carriage.” She left without another word, vanishing up the stairs and out of sight.
Hydrus waited for her to retreat up the steps, seeming more relieved by her departure than anything. “Sometimes I regret cooperating with them,” he whispered. “Every one of these ponies acts like queen of their own swarm.”
You got that impression too. Harlequin almost asked him if he was going to change his mind about the way he treated the drones—but she resisted. For the moment, her own personal reserves hadn’t yet emptied. So long as she kept going on missions, she should be able to take care of them herself.
But will I be converting a new bug each time? The mysterious voice in her dreams hadn’t liked that, and it hadn’t returned since. Maybe it was punishing her.
“I guess you’re sending me out again?” she asked.
“Yes,” he answered. “You’ve seen the others down there. So few of my bugs can understand complex tasks. They only think of their next meal.” Maybe they wouldn’t if you fed them better.
“Regardless, it’s time for us to collect on our partnership with Blueblood. He’s taken the prison contract from Celestia, and with little time to spare. If those bugs starved, we would get awkward questions asked about the rest of the prison, and they might start investigating. We’re going to put an end to it.”
You don’t care if they starve? “We’re going to… what, bring them here?”
“Yes,” Hydrus said. For a second, Harlequin thought she felt something from him, a stir of more complex emotion. He’s not telling me everything. But he hurried forward so fast that she didn’t have the time to ask.
“Our goal is to eventually transition this establishment into something more… recognized. Accidental discovery would be our destruction at this stage. That need not be the case. First the prison will be established nearby—or so the paperwork will say. Then Blueblood’s guards will ‘discover’ our need for love and will look the other way while we try our solution. Which we’ve already done, but nopony will get too picky about the timeline.”
“That… makes sense,” Harlequin said. “But you brought me here. What do I do?”
“You’re going to go with the soldiers, and convince the prisoners that they’re being brought to safety. They’ve become accustomed to the trickle of love they can harvest from guards and visitors. Show them we have more.” He reached into his desk, removing a jar. It glowed bright green, completely filled. She recognized it well, since she’d had to fill one of these herself. So far, there’d been no consequence to her not returning to do so again.
“That sounds easy,” Harlequin said. “Good, even. I just have to go up there and… tell them how safe it is? Share this love with them?”
“That’s the idea,” Hydrus said. “Tell them how safe it is, how much better off they’ll be, and then let the guards get them down here. You’ll be in disguise the whole time, so make sure you stay with the guards.” He leaned across the table suddenly, expression intense. “It’s very important you stay with the pony guards at all times, is that clear?”
She nodded. “Why? They’re part of the swarm too, aren’t they? Are you afraid they’d…?” But she didn’t even finish.
Hydrus vanished from his side of the table, shoving her up against one wall. He was still taller than she was, and much stronger. Whatever emotion he’d been hiding before, it was coming out now. “They’ve been slowly losing their minds over the last two months. Have you seen what that looks like? No, of course you haven’t, you didn’t see anything before the invasion. Well, I have. Chrysalis used to do it to bugs who’d failed her, or were disloyal. Lock them away until they starved.”
He let go, turning towards the window and looking down through the slime into the dimly lit burrow. “The longer you go without food, the more the mind cannibalizes itself. Everything you’ve achieved in understanding the world goes backwards. You forget who you were, forget what you knew, eventually forget your name. Once that happens… you’re worse than a drone. I’ve never seen a bug come back from it.”
He met her eyes again, and she could feel his powerful worry for her safety. It wasn’t affectionate, wasn’t genuine the way she’d felt from Apple Cinnamon or Lord Irongate. Hydrus worried for her because of entirely selfish reasons, he didn’t want to lose a valuable tool.
He’s not betraying me. I’m too useful. The more she understood, the more she felt like everything in the world around her was becoming dangerous. “You think the guards can contain them?”
“Yes,” he answered. “Those bugs are the Queen’s most important, or they were. Her Obsidian court, her leaders. We need to separate the ones who have escaped with their sanity intact from those who haven’t—but that won’t be your job, it will be mine. Just get them here, Harlequin. Once we have our smartest bugs returned to us, what the swarm can do will be greatly expanded. We’ll only be missing a queen.”
She nodded. “Right away.” She made to leave, but Hydrus stopped her in the doorway. “I suggest playing that same unicorn you did last time. Every time you’re seen in the same body, you strengthen that body’s credibility. Ponies expect it to be real.”
He waited for her to change before he finally moved out of the way. “Good luck, Harlequin. Make it back alive, please. I wasn’t lying when I called you the most capable bug I have.”
I won’t be when I’m done with this mission, she realized. Accomplishing this would turn her from a vital bug in the colony to someone who could slip through the cracks. But maybe that was for the best. If she wasn’t so important, maybe she could go out on her own, harvest her own love for the drones. Visit Lord Irongate, maybe…
She stopped in the makeshift classroom on her way out, poking her head in to watch Codex with the harvesters. The space was cramped and uncomfortable by pony standards, with a low ceiling and little floorspace. Half the bugs clung to the walls to listen to him, with Codex and the blackboard the only things that had space on the ground.
He stopped his explanation of “tea etiquette” for a moment, hurrying over to the doorway. “Harlequin? What are you doing up here?”
“Not that,” she said, wrinkling her nose at what he was thinking. “Though I don’t see why you would care.”
“No reason,” he lied, looking quickly away. “Another mission then?”
She nodded. She wanted to tell him—but there were guards everywhere. Hydrus wouldn’t approve. “Not hurting anyone,” she said instead. “A rescue.”
“Good.” He patted her once on the shoulder. “Be safe out there.”
Harlequin blinked, staring at his retreating back as he turned away. A few faint drops of his concern for her slipped down her throat, tasting of warm hearths on snowy mornings.
She left a few moments later, before any other bug could notice her shock.
Typical manager. Abuses his underlings, then wonders why they aren't motivated. To say nothing of making his best employee scout out her replacements.
In any case, looks like ponies will finally appreciate just how badly they botched changeling containment. And Harlequin gets to think about how a changeling could possibly generate edible emotions.
But it's not all sunshine and critical revelations. Yes, using the same disguise builds up some credibility, but it also increases the odds of being recognized by those you'd rather leave in the dark. Which could especially hazardous if Harlequin kew any of those guards...
The amount of drama from both sides which could have been avoided if Luna had bothered with meeting Harlequin directly or at least offered a way of contacting her through Sweetie Drops.
So the mission is to convince starving, half-insane bugs to join Hydrus's little hive. And these bugs are probably the best of the best and could be many times stronger than Harley. Well, this can't go wrong in anyway.
They not on the same level of "development" as Harley is.
Thanks to our little bug, Harley.
In this sort of cutthroat industry, with everyone seen mostly as assets to be used and disposed of, I figure that sometimes the only real difference between "employer" and "master" is probably pronunciation.
Whatever safety guards and protections will be used to protect Harley from the prisoners better be good. A jar of love like that is chum to shark-infested waters.
Very hungry, very angry shark-infested waters...
Looks like you have one right in front of you.
"You're my favorite screwdriver. I don't want to have to buy a new one."
Yup. Like I said, Codex is a good person, he’s just also an idiot with a White Stallion’s Burden attitude. He needed a good tongue-lashing from Harlequin, and now that he’s gotten it he’s stopped seeing her entirely as a charity case that he has the RESPONSIBILITY to help, and more as a person who he wants to help. And hopefully that will extend to all of the other changelings, too.
Harley has considered that the other changelings she’s going after could replace her...but they could also replace Hydrus. And I think the Hive’s Queen situation is one that is gradually working itself out, via Harley.
9770114
Speaking of, I do wonder if SMILE has figured out about Lord Irongate, and if there were consequences for that. I also forget if we know any bug in the prison. Is Pharynx in there, for example? And what’s Thorax been up to?
9770159
A master owes you loyalty, an employer owes you money.
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Money is loyalty, though. Services have been rendered to the satisfaction of the client. Compensation is given willfully. It doesn't go far yes, but still... everyone's an asset. Hydrus the master is no different from Blueblood the employer.
9770163
It's less white man's burden and more him struggling with the concept of helping those who took everything from him. Forgiveness is easy on paper, but it's never that easy to accept having to help people who harmed you in some form, much less being happy about it. He might know inside that he needs them to survive now, and that by teaching them they may find another way to coexist, but that voice was until recently drowned by the other voice that kept yelling 'why should you help them when all they do is take from you?'
I figured she wouldn't, but then that must mean she really did get a lot of love out of converting Irongate if she hasn't yet needed to obtain more, or even begin to suggest that she might be running low.
And she's actively sharing her supply of love with both Codex and the drones through all of this, right?
So she's either got a simply massive amount of love...or she's been getting more from somewhere else. If the latter...I wonder if she's even realized it yet...
Yikes. Considering Chrysalis doesn't really do love and affection, like, at all, that's saying something.
Same diff.
Hmm. Makes me wonder what ol' Moonbutt's up to then...but more importantly, Harlequin raises a fair point. There's no way she could get away with continuously converting more and more ponies every time she goes out. Someone would eventually notice and put two with two, most especially Hydrus (Harlequin's more pressing issue on this front), and anyway, there's no guarantee at all any new converts would take to it as well as Irongate had--he might've been the exception to the rule, for all we know. It's too risky either way. I mean, suppose you get another Codex out of it? Then where will you be?
Actually, Hydrus, your shady, under-the-table, actions aside (which should really just be on you right now anyway), letting that happen might work to your favor, if only because I highly doubt Equestria could sleep peacefully knowing they had allowed literally hundreds to thousands of creatures starve to death when there may have been more they could've done to stop it. I mean, despite everything, it was clear the ponies were still trying to be humanitarian (ponytarian?) enough to provide a fairly steady supply of food to the prison--they just didn't know it wasn't food the changelings could use. So if they were made aware that this was the case, surely the ponies would act to do something to try and fix it.
What, admittedly, I don't know. Though that might be why Luna's taken the "wait and see" route thus far--the changelings might have worked out their own solution to the problem, what with the brothel and all, so if Luna can prove it's not being detrimental to society on a whole...it's a workable solution. Less than ideal and full of ethical issues, sure, but at least enough to keep the starvation problem at bay for now, or so the impression Hydrus likes to give.
For all we know, Luna might be taking what she's learned already and seeing if she can work out an even better arrangement than the brothel. Or she could be planning a strike to put an end to the practice entirely. Or just quietly waiting and seeing still without alerting Harlequin she's doing so...one of those three.
This plan is still banking on it being Hydrus who is playing Blueblood...but I'm quiet convinced that Blueblood is trying to play Hydrus too, so...I don't think this is going to work out as planned, and it actually makes Hydrus seem oddly naive to not even stop and consider that as a possibility. Does he really think he's got Blueblood wrapped around his hoof so much that he doesn't think Blueblood isn't plotting to double-cross him, or at least use this as a stepping stone to further his own plans?
Oh yes...the VIP changeling prisoners that we've scarcely seen chitin or fin of for several chapters now--the ones which, unless I'm mistaken, weren't the canon fodder like Harlequin and the drones, but rather the changelings of some command authority, near, at, or maybe even above, that of Hydrus's former position in the hive.
Considering there were other changelings deep in the general prison who flatly refused to side with Hydrus, even if it did mean starvation, I somehow doubt the promise of more love is really going to be enough to sway them over to fall in line in front of Hydrus. If nothing else, I absolutely expect some authority challenging from these oncoming VIP changelings.
Besides, its a lie anyway--Hydrus himself already said the brothel alone wasn't enough to gather enough love to feed the many drones he's already got in his "hive"...what really makes him think it'll be any different with the VIPs taken under his wings too? If anything, he's only adding to the mouths to feed.
Now...Hydrus surely knows this, so I can only assume he's got a game plan to address it in some manner. Likely the part of the plan we know he's not telling Harlequin. But then that means he plans to be getting more love from somewhere else, so that raises the question of...where?
Again, if he's planning to do it by double-crossing Blueblood in some manner, I'm sure Blueblood fully expects it and is lying in wait for it. Further, it seems like a poor argument with which to convince these VIPs that you're their guy to follow. So just what is the missing piece to this plan of yours Hydrus that makes you so very confident its going to work without hitch? Or are you just deluded in your own special way, much like how your former queen is/was?
Hmm. I'm gonna take that as a challenge, actually. Let's see if we can prove him wrong on that somewhere down the road, shall we?
Which means he hasn't fully caught on that Harlequin is basically undermining his whole operation from underneath him, whether she means it that way or not. That's a mistake that will surely come back to haunt him.
I suspect that he suspects Harlequin's up to something, though, or at least something isn't adding up about her like before, and I think that worries him...for much of the same reasons--she's more useful to him if she stays in line. And if she doesn't, then no matter how that plays out, it sounds like Hydrus doesn't have anyling he can use to replace her, at least none he's willing to trust like that.
That actually makes me feel a bit smug about it, seeing how much Harlequin just might hinge on his plans, and how much they just might fall apart if you took her out of the formula.
That sounds ominous, as I do NOT trust Hydrus to not use that as an excuse to get rid of his potential political enemies on the grounds that he found their sanity "lacking."
Yeah, about that...I suspect you've already got one, or at least one already in the works.
Oh yes, because that's obviously so important for the hive to learn.
*raises eyebrow* Oh really? Why, Codex, if I didn't know better, I'd say you've actually come to care about her for a change.
Good, because they're going to need each other's support in order to get out of this alive, I suspect.
Had a little realization there, did you? Good, because that'll open the door to so much more than you might presently think, Harlequin.
9770159
Oh, worse than that, I'm betting they're better and of higher rank than Hydrus. So even if they weren't half-insane, Hydrus's plan is to basically be the lowly underling telling the CEO to stand aside and let him be in charge of everything instead.
You can probably imagine how that'll go.
9770163
See, you get it too. I don't know how Hydrus thinks he's going to get these guys to fall in line, not unless he has some trump card he hasn't told us about yet (which is possible--remember, he deliberately didn't tell Harlequin all the details of the plan).
9770409
Eh...there's still some "white man's burden" in there too, though its a more recent development. Codex seems to have gotten it in his head that if he can't reverse his situation, then he can "fix" the changelings if he can convince them to behave more like ponies. I don't doubt he's using his class to try and achieve precisely this goal, too (why else would he be even bothering to teach them about tea etiquette of all things? I mean, really, Codex, get your priorities straight, here! There's probably far more pressing things to be teaching them than that). Anyway, he needs to stop thinking of the changelings as something "less than" and more both as equals, and more as a race that are unique and can find their own way that is better than before, not something to be just turned into effectively more "ponies."
I mean, look at the changedlings in recent seasons of the show. They may have adopted friendship like the ponies, but they've otherwise been left to develop their own ways and cultures in life, separate from the ponies. As it should be.
9770527
He's the wrong pony to teach them that though. I mean, he has this really huge problem of his own of being a pony mind in a changeling body that he has to deal with first. And even after that, his view of changelings is inherently tainted by loss. He lost his life, his family, he can't eat normal food anymore, he has to 'steal' love from other ponies (or get 'stolen' love from other changelings) to survive now. To him, changelings are lesser, because in his limited experience changelings only take, and take, and take, and never give back.
Which... to be fair, isn't exactly inaccurate either. Until the Thorax reform, changelings are inherently parasitic. They learn from you, they get love from you, but they never give back. The very concept of doing something for ponies to get something from ponies is completely new grounds to them, and even Harlequin is struggling with all the new emotions it brings. Which is why Hydrus is bungling it up so spectacularly by making brothels and dealing with the shadier nobility, whose hungry greed is at least recognizable to him.
9770558
All of which is true, but from a writing perspective, that is, of course, precisely why Codex is even still around in the story. He needs to figure this all out for himself, and the sooner he does so, the better off he'll be. Honestly, he's smart enough that I'd like to think he'd have figured it out by now if he didn't keep letting his biases epically trip him up. Biases, I might add, he seems quite comfortable with keeping. He's already gotten plenty of clues that things are not as he wants to see them in just Harlequin alone, but more often than not, he's chosen to overlook that in favor of keeping his bias. Probably for the same reason you cite for Hydrus bungling his own operation--it's familiar to him. And he's not yet prepared to see beyond it.
But he needs to be. Because if he doesn't find a way to do it himself soon, it's going to be forced upon him before the end whether he wants it to or not--I don't see how he could avoid it with the directions the story seems to be going.
9770569
Indeed, though I think it's less familiarity and more comfort that makes him keep his biases and overlook Harlequin's growth. Harlequin is, after all, the changeling who took everything from him. And it's hard to look at someone who took everything from you and see something else than the person who took everything from you. It's easier to just imagine that person is trying to use you.
But he's making progress, seeing how Harlequin can actually taste concern for her from him now.
9770163
Power IS a responsibility!
9770883
Well, yes, but there's a subtle but important distinction between helping someone merely because of a feeling of responsibility, and helping someone because you just want to help them.
9770895
Spider-Man helps BECAUSE of his sense of responsibility. What he WANTS is to be a professional wrestler.
Apparently Hydrus needs a mirror in that spiffy office.
Seems like he's letting more of himself slip than intended. Someling haunted by that sort of memory would likely be driven to survive and hoard what they could at all costs... pity that it just means he ends up perpetuating the cycle.
Two letters, makes sense. It's like getting to the end of the first 26 columns in an Excel file, gotta start over at AA.
Honestly, that's not a bad plan.
Oh shit.
I don't know what is going through Hydrus's mind anymore. Not sure if it's just trying to make Harlyquin understand what the starvation actually means, reinforcing her place, or something of both.
An edible emotion from Codex? Is this something of the skittle metamorphosis, or is this something different? A mystery
9772921
And then when you run out of names you wrap around so many times that you just...
This story reads like someone threw in a window or a vase... and now they are gluing it back together, shard by shard.