Chapter 10: A Bad Day
Although he was the queen’s consort, Facere loved his hive and frankly didn’t consider regular patrols to be too below his station. It was good for the morale of his fellow changelings and after all, the eyes he trusted most were his eyes.
It gladdened his heart to see that Mirage also agreed with his style of leadership and the two were now leading a squad in a circuit around the nursery’s corridors.
“How old are you anyway, Facere?” Mirage asked.
“I just reached fifty—”
The princess gawked at Facere. “Wait, you’re fifty?”
“Oh yes. I am not exactly young and spry anymore. But I can still do my part,” said the changeling.
Mirage frowned. “But… shouldn’t you spend more time with your children? I mean, you can right?”
Facere looked pensive. “I can, and Chamelia would let me, but even before this situation, there were too many threats to her and my children for me to rest. Perhaps I might regret this in the future, but I find it… difficult to just spend time with them. I mean, you also seem to enjoy your job as a warrior.”
Averting her gaze, the princess gritted her teeth. “I do, but… recently I’ve been wondering about it. I… I know I need a break from it, but I… I don’t know, I kind of feel ashamed that I need a break.”
“Don’t be. Being a warrior is stressful enough already. You don’t need to worry about whether or not you need a break hanging over your head as well,” said Facere.
“I suppose not--”
Facere cut in, a bit sharply, but not unkindly. “What is your body and mind telling you, Mirage?”
The changeling princess winced. “That I need to wind down… to step back from fighting, after this is over, of course.”
“Then you need to do that. There’s no shame in that.” He fixed his eyes back onto the corridor in front of him. “Speaking of things hanging over our heads, that’s odd.”
Mirage narrowed her eyes at what Facere was pointing to and immediately found herself wondering the same thing.
The Everfree hive’s corridors were normally reinforced with green changeling goo to safeguard against collapses. They were normally dimly lit by small candles placed in alcoves cut into the walls. This was what made the green glow lighting up the roof of the corridor so strange to Mirage and Facere’s eyes.
“Is it a trap?” Mirage asked.
Facere, and most of his patrol was already checking the walls around them.
“If it was it should have sprung and sometimes-Mirage?”
Mirage frowned and blinked as her flank touched something hard behind her. She glanced to her rear and found herself confronted with the puzzled look of the changeling behind her, who she had just bumped into.
“We need to stay still,” she said, and found herself surprised by the high pitch of her voice.
“Mirage, what’s wrong?” Facere asked.
The queen wasn’t sure why she did it, but she put a shield up, surrounding the patrol. “Facere contact Kyria, alert a medical team and a bomb disposal-, damnit, nevermind. Just keep your eyes peeled and don’t move, don’t touch anything. Get your strongest shields up and start… start making sure the area in the shield is safe and free of spells. We might be right over the trap.”
Facere glanced at his hooves with narrow eyes for a moment, before looking back up. “Mirage, I was just about to say that sometimes luminescent cave moss grows on top of our changeling goo, making an odd glow.”
Heart pounding in her chest, Mirage whirled around, horn lit for light, eyes searching, “But—”
“Mirage, if it was a trap, and I have faced a couple of these in my life, they would normally be put around a corner to take the patrol completely by surprise. We would not be having this conversation if it was a competent trap.”
Despite the cool, reassuring tone of Facere’s voice, the queen could not stop her eyes from searching. She remembered why now. She was conducting the procedures for roadside bombs, but… there were no bombs in this era. And yet she couldn’t stop herself from looking.
“But what if it was a trap meant to waylay competent soldiers? I mean—” She forced herself to take a longer breath. “This feels off to me.”
“Why does it feel off?” Facere asked.
“I don’t know!” Mirage wailed, glancing over her shoulder again. “I… my instincts are screaming at me, but my head… tells me to trust you so.” She fixed Facere with wide eyes. “Facere, am I going insane?”
“I think you need to lie down, Mirage,” said Facere. He smiled as disarmingly as he could, though, Mirage could feel the concern in his emotions. “Just take slow breaths, take down your shield and follow me.” He signalled with his hoof to the changelings and they took their shields down.
“No. I—I don’t want to take the shield down,” she gasped.
“Alright, just move with us,” he said, beckoning her with his hoof. Mirage nodded and the patrol turned around, though, Facere continued to back up, his eyes maintaining contact with hers.
She followed, her eyes on him, but her horn still blazing. Every part of her body was tensed, and trembling, ready to bolt. Only her grandfather’s voice kept her from throwing all her magic into her shield.
“That’s it, keep going. We’re going to be fine,” said Facere.
Mirage nodded, and she forced herself to breathe. Her grandfather was right, she was just panicking. There wasn’t anything wrong. It was just all in her head.
“Sorry, I… I don’t know what came over me.” She groaned. “I’m… I really need a break.”
“Oh you really do, but better safe than sorry. Misplaced instincts is better than having no instincts at all,” said Facere nonchalantly.
Mirage nodded and wiped a tear from her eye. “I… sorry. I… can we talk after we get to a safe place?”
“Of course Mirage,” said Facere, nodding, wide smile on his face. She returned his smile.
And that was when an ear-splitting pain burst into her horn and pitch darkness fell over them like a cape. The last thing she saw was the beginnings of a look of horror on her grandfather’s face, and him pouncing toward her.
Kyria was playing dolls with Chrysalis and Alternia when the ground seemed to jiggle under her flank. She thought for a moment she had sat down for too long, but the two sisters blinked at one another.
“The ground bounced?” squeaked Alternia, setting aside Mara, her changeling doll made of dyed cloth and stuffed with straw.
“It does that sometimes,” said Chrysalis self-assuredly, as only a child can be. She raised her changeling doll, Thorax, into the air and spun it around. “Whee!”
Kyria nodded. “Yes it sometimes-”
Kyria… Help…
She sprang to her hooves. Mirage!? Mirage! But all she could feel was shock and confusion. Putting her borrowed doll “Luna” down, Kyria smiled as calmly as she could to her aunt and mother. “Alternia, Chrysalis, sorry but I need to go.”
“What’s wrong—”
“Mirage is hurt. Sorry, I need to go!” Kyria gestured for a changeling to come over. “You, take care of them and be on the alert, this may be a distraction. I’ll look for them.” And she was through the door, running down the corridor, tracing the patrol route they had taken, her communication crystal in her magic.
Thera! Sarar! Mirage is hurt, there seems to be an explosion!
There was silence over the link before Sarar shrieked. What!
I’m looking into it! Sarar, Thera?
I am getting up, scrambling the infirmary, said Thera.
I am heading to the nursery, yelled Sarar.
Thanks.
Her eyes peeled, Kyria thundered through the corridors. In what seemed like hours, she searched the empty corridors, heart in her throat.
She didn’t so much as stumble on to them as she walked into the carnage. What looked like simple darkness ahead revealed itself to be crumpled dirt and sections of hardened green goo.
Trotting up, Kyria lit her horn, eyes wide as the light showed the earth shifting. Unthinking, she scrabbled at the dirt, brushing it behind her, hooves flailing and shoving hardened green goo aside.
“Mirage! Facere! Say something! Anything!”
She brushed by a hoof which grasped her. She daren’t yank on it, but she did her best to clear it out, revealing a choking changeling.
By now, more workers were here, drawn by the cave-in, they furiously brushed back earth with their hooves, extricating their fellows. She dug beside them, wiping aside tears with the back of her hoof, using her magic to help.
Some changeling dragged Kyria back, and she struggled against the hoof on her shoulder, until she realized it was Thera.
“You need to let them work!” snapped the white queen.
“But—”
“They know how to get changelings out of a cave in. Do you?” she demanded.
“Mirage and Facere are in there! I…” Kyria bit back her sob. “I… Okay.”
Some of the remaining suddenly shifted, surrounded by a blue glow, before settling back down.
“Mirage! That’s her magic-”
More dirt shifted and with the help of the workers present, they revealed Facere’s hindquarters, then the changeling himself. He was unconscious and there was a nasty gash on his forehead. Kyria winced as the changeling medics quickly lifted him onto a stretcher and took him away.
“Will he—”
“I don’t know,” said Thera.
And next was Mirage, who gasped as her face was revealed. The dirt seemed to have collapsed around her so it was easy to free her. But she was groggy and muttering incoherently.
“Good. You take care of her, I’m heading back to the nursery,” said Thera, opening a portal.
Kyria noded, and watched, tears in her eyes, as her sister was lifted onto a stretcher.
Alternia and Chrysalis were restless when Thera stepped through the portal. Sarar was looking out of the door, ignoring the two, and leaving their pleas for the sorry changeling guards trying to calm them down.
Rattling off the password, Thera got the affirmative response from Sarar and nodded.
“Did the infiltrator come by?” she asked.
“No. It’s been quiet,” said Sarar, tension clear in her voice.
Thera nodded, but didn’t approach Sarar, just in case. Long practiced caution made her send a message through the communication crystal. Sarar, are you in the nursery?
Yes. sent back Sarar, giving Thera a knowing look. “What happened?” she asked.
“The infiltrator triggered a cave-in. Or set up a trap to trigger a cave in. The patrol, including Mirage and Facere, are dazed or unconscious, but alive,” said Thera.
Sarar’s eyes widened with horror. “How? We patrol here fairly frequently and Facere is sharp.”
“I am not sure. I suspect the infiltrator was nearby to trigger the trap, but… it is too early to guess. Kyria’s with them.”
Sarar winced and glanced at Thera. “Do you think the infiltrator was targeting Mirage and Facere on purpose?”
The white queen shook her head. “He or she would target us, not a drone and an unascended Queen. What surprises me is that they’re alive.”
“I know. So… judging by their pattern of behaviour, they will be targeting the nursery.”
“Yes. Keep your wits about you, Sarar,” Thera muttered.
“Mirage… please… wake up….”
“Kyria?” Mirage groaned. Her horn hurt and her eyelids felt so damn heavy.
“Mirage! Oh thank Celestia!”
Alternia’s eldest daughter opened her eyes and immediately winced at the ear-splitting headache. “What…happened.”
“There was a trap that collapsed the corridor around you. Somehow you all survived, but grandfather’s unconscious.”
The princess groaned, trying to push herself up. “The nursery-”
“Sarar and Thera are watching it. You need to lie down!” snapped Kyria.
“How long was I out? I need to-” Mirage asked, but her younger sister pressed her firmly back into the bed.
“Can you stop thinking about your job and rest, Mirage?”
The princess groaned and let her head flop onto her pillow. “Alright alright, but tell me, has that damn infiltrator attacked us?”
Kyria shook her head. “Not yet. We’re not sure why, but it’s been quiet.”
Mirage frowned. “That’s… that’s ridiculous, he or she had the best distraction possible. Are you absolutely sure the infiltrator has not made a move?”
“Positive,” said Kyria. Her sister tried to get up, but found a glass of water in front of her. Sighing, Mirage took it and quietly sipped it.
“Mirage, can you not… go out again and just stay with mom and our aunts?”
The older changeling winced. “I… I don’t want to, but I think I need to… I think the only reason we didn’t die was because I was…” Mirage glanced at her sister. “I had a panic attack.”
Kyria didn’t say anything, she just kept watching Mirage with a level, unreadable gaze. So she continued.
“I had put a shield up because there was some green light on the ceiling and no trap. Grandfather was trying to calm me down, but my instincts and my training for hidden bombs, well I thought the trap was to fool us into a false sense of security. I… I panicked, I shouldn’t have done that, but I was right. I… I think I’m getting a better read on the infiltrator Kyria. If I can confront her a few more times--”
“Oh. I hear you, but you need to be extremely careful.” Kyria swallowed and wrapped her hooves around her sister. “Mirage, if we… if we lost you…”
“I know.” She slowly extricated herself from the hug and lay back in the cushions. “I will be as careful as I can.”
“Good. I’ll tell Sarar and Thera they probably should take a rest. The infiltrator doesn’t seem to be attacking.”
“Alright.” Mirage nestled herself into the bed and yawned, her exhaustion catching up to her.
Mirage woke up to a quiet infirmary at what seemed to be the dead of night. She blinked, looking around as she pushed the covers off of her.
Four guards were in the infirmary, and Kyria was sleeping in a small cot moved next to her bed. Her sister was sucking part of her hoof, which was a bad habit of hers when she slept.
Chuckling, Mirage pushed herself out of her bed. She needed a walk, as she knew she wasn’t sleeping any longer.
“I’m just heading to the nursery,” said Mirage, opening a portal. The guards nodded and she stepped through.
The guards at the entrance of the doorway braced themselves, but relaxed as she trotted through and gave the pass phrase. They did watch her as she went through the door and trotted to the beds of her mother and aunts.
Belladonna was tucked nicely into her crib, mouth slightly agape. In the larger crib next to her, was Simulacris, limbs askew, covers kicked half on and off. Mirage gave them a passing glance before heading to the beds.
Chrysalis had her hooves wrapped around a toy changeling of straw and wool. Of course, she had it the wrong way up so she was resting her cheek on the toy’s flank. Mirage dearly wished she could take a photograph, but that would wake up the sleeping changeling.
Taking a moment to brace herself, Mirage trotted over to her mother, and jumped a few inches into the air.
“OH! Mo-mghff!” Mirage managed to muffle her mouth in time with both hooves as she saw Alternia’s blue eyes peek through the dark.
“Eeep!” Alternia ducked back under her green blanket, forming a small green hill, which shuffled slightly as she peaked out from under the blanket.
“Mirage?”
“Oh, Alternia. I… sorry, I was just… I just wanted to see you.”
The little changeling frowned, “It’s very late.”
“I know. I…” Mirage shut her eyes, shaking her head. She knew what she really wanted. She wanted her mother to hug her and tell her, everything’s alright. She wanted to sit by her father’s side and listen to him read a story. She wanted…
“Mirage, what’s wrong?” asked the little changeling.
“I… I just miss my parents, Alternia.” Sitting down next to the bed, Mirage brushed a lock of her mother’s mane from her cheek. And for just a moment, she wanted to just tell her mother everything that she would face, everything she would go through. If only to protect the innocence staring up at her.
“Oh… do you want a hug, Mirage? Mom always says that hugs make changelings feel better.”
“I… yes.”
Small legs wrapped around Mirage’s barrel and she couldn’t help but bury her nose into her mother’s mane and hug back. It wasn’t like her mother’s hugs, but… for now, this was enough.
Too soon, Mirage had to let go and tuck Alternia back into bed. The little changeling was tired after all and she was yawning as Mirage pulled the covers over her.
Out of nowhere, mostly because it contrasted so suddenly with the reverie she felt, and the approval she sensed around her… she felt a flash of disdain. It was from a changeling behind her, one of those on guard.
Every sense screaming for her to run, Mirage stiffly stood up and turned around, composing herself. She smiled at the guards present. “Take good care of them.”
The watch captain smiled back. “Don’t worry, we’ll take good care of her.”
Mirage nodded. “I don’t doubt it- though…” she continued to smile. “If you pardon my paranoia, do you mind if you let me know who went in and out of the nursery today?”
“Apart from Sarar and Thera? Just the last shift. Taran over there is doing a double shift though. His replacement got caught in the trap.”
“Oh of course. Carry on—” Mirage blinked, her eyes and senses homing in on a changeling standing beside the watch captain, the one that had been identified as Taran. He was coal black with turquoise-green eyes, and seemed to be the perfect mirror of a changeling guard. He held a shortsword and a buckler at his side.
But all her senses were on alert, and… she was suspicious of something.
“Taran, I’m sorry, but… do you mind if I burn your carapace, just a bit?” Mirage asked, smiling brightly.
“Taran” frowned, as if considered his options for a moment, and bolted, running for the door, he slammed it open and raced away, far faster than any guard ought to have been.
Mirage tore after him, snapping an order for the guards to remain where they were whilst she drew both cutlass and shield.
It was a good thing she did, a spell slammed into her upraised shield, scorching the metal and throwing the device into her face. Redirecting the shield out of her way, Mirage fired a firebolt, which the infiltrator blocked.
The infiltrator is at the nursery! She sent down her mental link, before dodging the infiltrator’s second spell, and charged.
Her cutlass crashed down on the changeling’s buckler. Mirage drew her blade back, trying to get around the buckler, but had to duck as the changeling threw the metal disk at her head. As the princess recovered her balance, the changeling threw it’s sword at Mirage’s neck, forcing her to block it with her shield.
Mirage pushed her shield out of her vision, only to find the changeling gathering pink colored magic at its horn. It was so bright, it cast sharp jagged shadows along the floor, and sparks seemed to fly.
Taking this all in a moment, Mirage threw all her magic into her peytral in a desperate effort to bolster her emergency shield spell.
A beam of pink, tinged with blood-red, smashed into the shield which shone bright blue as it drew on her magic. A high pitched whine deafened the princess and she was thrown off her hooves. It was like she was being punched by some massive hoof the size of a changeling.
In a moment, she was flying, spinning through the air. In the next, she was smashing into the ground, flank-first. Her head slamming so hard into the ground so hard her tiara fell off. Somehow, Mirage managed to scramble to her hooves, to find the infiltrator, more than twenty meters away, glaring at her with narrowed “turquoise” eyes. Sparing a glance at her peytral, Mirage saw to her horror that the emeralds that powered the emergency shield spell were smoking in their insets. Several of them even had hairline cracks.
“Who in Tartarus are you?” whispered the princess.
The changeling, still in the guise of one of the Everfree hive’s guards, smirked and ran away, leaving the princess shaking in the dim hallway.
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Ooh, this is good.
Seriously at this point it can only be a ascented Queen...
Can a fully developed Changeling Queen somehow block the signal warning Queens of one another? Might explain how she moves undetected and get a drop on them.
Extreamly Overcharged TK punch? It literally reached a level a over 1000 years later developed Shield spell that was overcharged as well almost failed...
Wait.. blood red magic that seems to burn trough shields...
Reminds me of a certain spell used in part one of this series..... Eqeustria First anyone?
10082357
Well regarding the signal. Kyria and Mirage are surrounded by ascended queens which well. You get the idea
10082506
No. Equestria First is not part of this. Mainly because Equestria just formed.
10083097
I know that, but the specifics of the spell reminds me of that one spell Which was used to burn Lamia and injured Alternia so much they had to place the arguments, That agricultural spell turned deadly weapon. I don't think its Eqeustria first itself but atleast someone who knows about the spell used atleast.
Its might be far back in the past but who says they are the only time travelers here?
10083040
)
Ops... Right... So mutch or that... I still suspect a fully developed Queen to his behind all the attacks ( in person/pony/ling