The Dark Secret

by HeartfireFirebrand

Chapter 2: Preparing for Conflict

Sweetie Belle awoke she stayed as her true Arachna self rather then wearing her pony disguise, she was laying on a simple web she had crafted, two Arachna guards bowed “Princess Belle, your mother is awaiting you at the banquet hall.”

Sweetie Belle frowned “Of course, just remember in private it’s Sweetie Belle if you wish to be formal otherwise it’s just Sweetie. Only in public you can me Princess.”

The guards scurried out of the way and bowed “Yes Sweetie Belle.”

Sweetie Belle sighed as she scurried through the large dark blue corridors of the castle, Arachna bowing to her as she passed. She arrived in a large dark blue dining hall with a small wooden round table at the centre, Queen Spinneret was sitting on one side. Sweetie Belle curried over and took a seat on a giant cushion, Sweetie Belle frowned “Spin..” she shook her head “Mum, what is the plan?”

Spinneret smiled “I was planning on just spending some time around the castle with you.”

Sweetie Belle sighed “I’d love to spend some personal time with you but we are at war. They could attack us at any second of the clock, and I want us to be ready.”

Spinneret frowned “So business first then, well then I believe you need to learn how we fight. The guard barracks would be a good place to start.”

Sweetie Belle nodded “Well then let’s go, we don’t have a lot of time.”

Spinneret shook her head “Breakfast first, you must be starving. Maintaining a body of that size must be incredibly difficult and I won’t let you go hungry.”

Before Sweetie Belle could say a word, hundreds of Arachna entered carrying a massive plate the size of the table with several dead hydras on it. Sweetie Belle shifted into her medium sized form as the food was placed on the table and devoured the hydras with ease, she blushed as she delivered a massive earth shaking burp “Excuse me.”

Spinneret laughed heartily “I’m glad you enjoyed your food, burping id s not offensive here. It’s a sign you enjoyed your food.”

Sweetie Belle muttered “Rarity would have been offended by that.”

Spinneret shook her head “Well she is not here right now, besides it is part of your culture. She will have to accept it.”

Sweetie Belle stood up “So you are going to show me to the barracks?”

Spinneret nodded as she finished her own meal “Come with me.” The two Royal Arachna scurried out of the dark blue hallways of the castle, they headed through the white paved roads towards the nearby Barracks, it was a darker blue building with several towers with Arachna standing behind strange bow-like machines.

Sweetie Belle pointed to the machines “What are those?’

Spinneret smiled “It’s our Hives unique weapons, Arbalests. They are similar to a bow but are capable firing much larger arrows, there are two variants the standard defensive ones and the mounted ones on the battlefield.”

Sweetie Belle frowned “How do the mounted ones work?”

Spinneret smiled “It’s a three Arachna unit, one Arachna has it mounted on their back, the second gets arrows, while the third pulled back the strings with their fangs to fire.”

I raised an eyebrow “Have you ever thought of using you shape shifting abilities to give you a better form for fighting at range.”

Spinneret frowned “Several other nests have ranged weapons that could tear apart the hide of anything, evoke our hard exoskeletons are complete protection. Any transformation would be torn apart by attacks.”

Sweetie Belle frowned “That is a conundrum…” she then turned to her mother “wait how advanced is our shapeshifting. I’ve seen changelings before so relative to that.”

Spinneret laughed “We are so much better than them, we can change into anything we want as long as it is not too much larger than us.”

Sweetie Belle focused her power and with a flash of light, a huge Minotaur suit of steel armour was standing there. Sweetie Belle’s laughter echoed inside her metal frame “It worked.”

Spinneret blinked “What did you do?”

Sweetie Belle giggled “I shapeshifted into a suit of armour, it means that I can use weapons usually reserved for a Minotaur” she then frowned “Could other nests replicate this?”

Spinneret shook her head “Unlikely, while many of us could shapeshift perfectly into living things but only my nest went further. Why do you think we were the ones who colonised the Canterlot area, we had the best disguises and thus had no trouble entering the city. After all who suspects rocks?”

Sweetie Belle nodded “We are step closer to stopping Queen Venine.” The two Arachna Royals prepared to integrate this technique into their combat forces as they entered the Barracks.

Author's Note:

I hope you enjoyed this chapter.