Stage 8: Maturation
Applebloom complained the entire way up the mountain as Gold Plum led the pack. They had traveled an incredible distance in just a few hours, already closing in on their first ingredient. According to Zecora, it was a plant that was thought to be impossible to find.
Gold Plum, however, was easily able to pinpoint the general location on bare instinct. Their climb eventually allowed a small rest at the mouth of a cave near the top of the mountain when the filly pointed to something in the back of the cave.
"Wait," Applebloom said as she stopped her ceaseless whining, "is that it?"
Her hoof guided their vision to a small flowering plant with purple and gold petals.
"Good eye, Applebloom! At this rate, we will have all the ingredients soon."
Zecora trotted her way to the back of the cave and climbed up the stone walls to grab the flower off its tiny patch of moss and soil that had formed on the hard surfaces of the caves, and as she turned around to exit the cave she caught Gold Plum and Applebloom running toward her.
She was only able to get out the first word of her rhyme when Gold plum grabbed her pulled her behind one of the boulders, holding her mouth shut. She gradually let go as he peeked around the corner of the rock, and the zebra risked a look as well.
Queen Chrysalis, and a detachment of larger-than-average changelings swarmed around the cave. He had seen the black cloud approaching and managed to pull Applebloom inside before they got close, and he was sure they hadn't seen him. Still, his breaths of air were shallow and his muscles like stone as he listened to the changeling monarch’s rant.
"You idiots!" she screamed, "You said it would be in this cave!"
One of the changeling guards spoke up, his fearful voice mixed in with the harsh insect accent. "It must be higher up, queen mother of the hive!"
"Hmph! I'll be the judge of that!"
Gold Plum's heart began to beat against his armor as the queen walked down the cave and looked around, stopping just short of the boulder all three of them were hiding behind. After a go-around of the nearby rocks, she snorted and stomped back to the mouth of the cave, and her changeling entourage followed.
"There has to be one above us." she stated flatly before flying upwards. Her loyal guards streamed behind her, and after a few seconds of rushing wind and the buzz of changelings wings, the cave was empty.
Applebloom's voice echoed off the huge walls of the cave. "What was that all about?"
Zecora dramatically put her hood over her head. "Judging by the behavior of the queen changeling, we are are looking for the same thing."
Gold Plum groaned. "I'm never going to get used to that."
The dust around Spike's feet formed a small cloud behind him as Twilight continued to drag him along, either oblivious or uncaring to his pleas. Rarity trotted right alongside her friend and attempted to break Twilight's steely, purposeful forward glare.
"Twilight, you've been walking in a straight line for an hour. Where are we going?" the ex-unicorn complained. She lagged behind her companion, mostly to check her wings or cracks in her shell. Even if her white fur was just a disguise, that did not mean she was excused from keeping up appearances.
When Rarity she received no answer, she had enough and walked right in front of Twilight and stopped, staring her in the eye. "I demand to know what's gotten into you!"
Amazingly, Twilight stopped, with Spike immediately let go of the librarian's legs and rubbed his sore arms. She seemed puzzled by Rarity's exclamation at first, and gently tried to push Rarity aside. "Oh. I didn't tell you?"
Spoke continued to rub his arms. "No. You haven't told me or Rarity anything since you wandered out of the cabin!"
Twilight tapped her chin and looked up. "Hmm. I could've sworn. Didn't you hear me?"
Rarity shook her head. "Twilight. The only thing you've said in the past hour was 'I'm hungry.' You've practically ignored us since then!"
"I said we were going to the town up ahead after I said I was hungry. Remember? Beat my wings at subsonic speeds at a low frequency?"
"You what?"
Twilight seemed even more puzzled by Rarity's befuddled expression, and revelation washed over her. "Ooooh. I must have done that without thinking. Sorry."
"It's alright, dear. Now what's this about a town? What happened to finding a cure in the Crystal Empire?"
"We'll get to that! I just have to stop by the town for some...nourishment. After that, we can stick around the Empire for months until we get this fixed!"
Rarity sucked in her breath from the way Twilight emphasized 'nourishment'. "Twilight...what are you doing?"
Twilight's disguise melted away, revealing her changeling form. Her wings lifted her body and let her hover a foot off the ground. "Just setting up a mini-hive. I should have the whoooole town under control in just a few days!"
The librarian flew off towards the barely-visible buildings peeking over the horizon before the white changeling-pony could interrupt her.
Rarity stood there, her hair frizzled. She turned to Spike, whose expression had become determined and hard. He appeared to pull up the scales on his waist like a pair of pants and walked ahead of Rarity, towards he town.
"Spike? Don't tell me you've gone crazy too!"
He turned halfway and pointed towards the retreating dot that was the librarian. "I've been dealing with Twilight's bouts of crazy since I was born," he said, snapping his fingers, "I'll have Twilight back to normal in no time."
Rarity trusted Spike's confidence, and let him lead the way on the road ahead.
Rarity doubted Spike's confidence. When they arrived in the quaint little town of Clover Fields, it did not seem like Twilight had managed to take over the population just yet, and Spike's self-proclaimed "dragon sense" had failed to produce a pony that was actually Twilight in disguise.
"I still don't understand what she's planning." Rarity wondered aloud as Spike gave an eye of harsh scrutiny to each passerby; it earned them more than a few strange looks.
"She said she was hungry, and something about minions."
Despite their situation, Rarity laughed. "Twilight is the last pony I know to raise an army of minions. Besides you, Spike."
The dragon rolled his eyes at the joke and continued to look at each pony for any sign of strange behavior. Their travels eventually led them to the town library, a little red building nestled under a large oak.
Spike chided himself for his foolishness and smacked himself in the head. "Duh! How could I forget the library!" He stopped Rarity as she walked toward the door. "Wait! If she's in there, she's probably replaced the librarian."
"Hmmmm. Should we sneak around back?"
"Hold on. I wanna get a peek inside first." Spike replied, walking over to the window and motioning to Rarity to lift him up. Her magic slowly levitated him onto the windowsill, and he pressed his face against the glass.
The library's selection was much smaller than the hollowed-out tree of Ponyville's, and the pony that appeared to be the librarian flipped through a small book. The small brown unicorn oblivious to the dragon and little phoenix just outside the window.
"What's the she doing?" Rarity asked.
"Reading a book. It's gotta be her."
Peewee attempted to communicate that they were both, but his pleas were simply ignored as complaints of hunger.
Spike hopped from the window. "I couldn't tell what she was reading; probably a list of how she's going to take over this town. We've gotta figure out a way to catch her before she pulls another Smartypants riot!" he exclaimed as he hit the open palm of his hand with a fist.
Rarity crouched down. "What's the plan?"
Spike dug into another one of his pockets and produced a small book. “I always knew that an emergency book would come in handy! I'll place it at the door, knock, and we jump her when she comes out!"
The fashionista really hated to admit that Spike had come up with a good idea, considering that most of his plans (usually to gain her affection) were comically transparent and ill-conceived. She nodded for Spike to place the book, and as soon as it was at the foot of the door, the dragon knocked three times; they both sped around to the side of the building when they saw the door handle turn.
The door opened, and the librarian swiveled her ahead around the entrance. It was not until she was prepared to head back inside that she noticed the book at her hooves.
The pony leaned down and peered through her thin spectacles to poke at it. She looked around once more for any sign of the pony that abandoned the poor book, and finally picked it up with her magic. When her back was turned, Rarity and Spike struck.
The librarian's glasses flew off as she was tackled by the unicorn and tiny dragon threw their weight upon her with such force that all three flew inside and the door slammed behind them. The librarian tried to wrench herself free as she screamed at them. "Hooligans! Bandits! Let me go this instant!"
The librarian continued to struggle underneath them as Twilight's voice broke through. "What are you two doing?"
Rarity gritted her teeth as their captive continued to fight. "Sorry, Twilight, but this is for your own good!"
"Well yeah," Twilight answered, "But I didn't think you'd take the initiative."
Spike went still. Twilight's reply did not come from the librarian.
She was behind them. He turned around and saw nothing until one of bookcases seemed to shimmer.Twilight, still in her changeling form, appeared from the distortion and stepped forward.
Spike was too shocked to move and Rarity still held down the pony she believed to be her friend as the formerly lilac-colored pony walked up behind Rarity and zapped the librarian with a green ray of energy. It barely missed the disguised unicorn, who jumped out of the way as the protesting pony's threats instantly ceased.
Rarity scrambled back up and whipped around to see her friend. "Twilight! But we—"
Twilight stepped to Spike and shut his open jaw before she explained herself. "I thought I was going to have to take over this town all by myself! I am so glad you two saw some reason for once!"
Rarity stomped her hoof. "Now see here! Reason has nothing to do with you zapping ponies all over the place!"
"I didn't zap her."
"What?"
"Well, I did, but it didn't hurt or anything. She's just unconscious so one of the swarm can replace her."
"What are you talking about?"
"You know, the infinite horde of the changelings? Well, mine's pretty small for now, but it'll get bigger!"
Rarity could question Twilight no further as several more shimmers formed around her, and changelings appeared around the back of the transformed unicorn.
"Eek!" Rarity shrieked, "Twilight! Behind you!"
Twilight turned her head and back, then smiled. "Whoops! completely forgot! Rarity, meet my drones!"
Spike shook himself to clarity. "Your what!?"
"Oh yeah, they've been a huge help."
"When did you get drones!?"
"When we were staying at that cabin at night. You'll never guess what they said!" she said, clopping her hole-filled limbs with excitement.
Spike and Rarity's eyes met to confirm the dread the other felt. Peewee cupped his face within his chubby wings.
Twilight grinned widely as she announced the news. "They've recognized me as their new queen!"
The next item on Zecora's list led them to a forest to find a special kind of fruit from a plant long forgotten about. Along the way they still were forced to duck under the limbs of nearby trees to avoid detection by flying pegasi looking for Gold Plum, since he now topped every most-wanted list in the country.
When they got closer to their target, the patrols thinned out, and when Gold Plum felt like they were right on top of their destination, they stopped altogether. He pointed where he felt the fruit was, and they stepped lightly to avoid detection.
Gold Plum told his companions that it felt like it was right around the corner when he parted a push and immediately grabbed the two and held them down. After last time, neither questioned his action. He ever-so-slowly parted a section of the bushes to see Queen Chrysalis yet again, talking to two cocoons suspended from the branches of a tree. Gold squinted, and recoiled when he recognized the queen's prisoners.
Princess Luna and Princess Celestia themselves, alive but wholly unconscious as they remained entombed in their sticky traps.
Gold Plum and the other two were not surprised in the least when the extravagant queen began to gloat over the two unaware princesses.
"Hah! You know, Celestia, I really should have known I could do this again considering that I beat you the first time around. Heck, I even did it when your sister was around to help you!" She pushed Celestia's cocoon, and it swayed to and fro as she continued, "You two just sleep nice and night while I fix up a little brew. My drones say the secret ingredient is a real killer! Bwahahahahaha!"
Gold Plum's curiosity got the better of him, and he risked a whisper to Zecora. "What's she talking about?"
Zecora pointed to a bubbling cauldron just a few feet away from both of the princesses. "See that big black pot, bubbling hot? We may want to use the potion to cure our friends now, but she seeks to use it for a purpose most foul."
Gold Plum had enough. He grabbed Zecora and through gritted teeth uttered his demand. "What. Is. She. Doing. No rhyming."
"Chrysalis is making the same potion as us, but will use the life force from the princesses to corrupt it and make her all-powerful."
He let go and continued to observe the still-laughing queen through his hiding spot. "Yeah, that could be a problem."
One of the changelings timidly walked up to Chrysalis and tapped her shoulder, shivering when her cruel eyes met his. He chittered something do her, and the queen sighed.
"What do you mean you can't find the fourth ingredient?"
The changeling rattled off more clicks, and Chrysalis knocked him out of her way as her wings began to beat.
"If you want something done!" she shouted, and soared from the clearing.
Gold Plum surveyed the campsite. Chrysalis probably thought it was well-hidden, as she only had a couple of her larger guards plus many more skinny drones guarding the cocoons and the queen's potion.
The guard waited until he knew Chrysalis was well out of earshot, stood up, and cracked his neck.
"Gold Plum!" Applebloom said, "You're gonna get us caught!"
Gold cracked his neck the other way, and looked at Applebloom. "Hey, Bowtie. You know I could have easily fought off those guards back at Canterlot?"
"Uh, I guess?"
"You know what I didn't?"
"Uh..."
"They were my friends. Well, except for Mirror Mirror. But I could have easily opened up a lot of positions in the guard back there. Even if they hated me, I'm not turning traitor just because the winds aren't blowing my way right now."
"Huh?"
"I'm saying, I'm not one of the lieutenants of the guard for no reason. Zecora, cover her eyes. This ain't gonna be pretty."
Zecora complied, and Gold Plum let out a fearsome war cry as every changeling in the camp turned to face him. His disguise dropped as he ran into the camp; his first victim was a random drone and the last thing it saw before a large circling ring of stars was one of his own with a red eye.
The zebra had to look away herself as the sound of hitting and hissing erupted, and gradually faded away. She turned back when the last sounds of battle faded; the last of the larger changelings was woozy and covered in bruises, and fell over when Gold Plum gave him a light push. The changeling hit the dirt with a thud, his tongue rolling out of his head.
His work completed, he rushed over to the two cocoons and ripped them open with the jagged edges of his changeling horn. He freed Luna first, and then Celestia as they spilled onto the ground with Gold doing his best to cushion their fall.
Luna was the first to wake; her eyes slowly opened as she lazily moved her glance up to the armor-clad changeling, who smiled down on her.
"Gold...Plum?" she managed to mutter.
His smile grew larger and he nodded.
It likely came as a complete surprise to him when Luna's face crinkled in anger and she jerked her head forward with blinding speed to headbutt Gold Plum. The guard's armor deflected Luna's horn away from his head, but did nothing to cushion the impact of the actual blow. The princess' eyes glazed over when the deed was done and she went limp once more.
Gold Plum joined her; he hit the ground next to her in a complete daze and mumbled nonsense about seaponies before unawareness took him.
Stats
Page generated in 0.04 seconds
Total duration
1,042 users online
1,574,180 hits today, 2,054,621 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
And Twilight's gone of the deep end and into the abyss, where Plum's seaponies live
Seriously, when did that happen? 'goes back and reads the story again'
Well
Twilights officialy over the deepend
And i dont think luna likes gold
All hail queen Twilight !
I'll come back after there's less weird shit
Why did Luna headbutt gold?
I think Twilight finally cracked.
Well, Twilight might have completely forgotten which side she's on, but she's still Twilight.
But if she's hungry, she could've just commanded Spike to ogle Rarity for easy
s. I suppose that just shows how far she's gone, though.
1976378
It'll be in the next chapter.
She thinks Gold Plum betrayed her and her sister, since Celestia told her about Gold being a changeling some time ago. Luna never really trusted him after that.
Clover field i see what you did there
Twilight wants to be the new changeling queen... The situation is going haywire... and that Gold Plum is one hard guard. I can't wait to see what happens next. Keep up the good work.
Celestia knock some sense into your sister please.
Yes!!! Corruption, at long last!!!!
And now the natural instincts of the Changeling begin settling in.
Reminds me of Zerg infestation.
nice chapter
I WILL FOLLOW YOU QUEEN TWILIGHT!
1976591 all that's missing now is some blood and a couple of killings
Oh No Twi has finally gone crazy
Twilight, you so cray cray.
Shoo be Doo, Shoo shoo be doo
FOR THE TWI SWARM!
And now I shall visualize seapony-changelings.
Shoop be doo
*buzz*
Shoop Shoop be doo
I don't know... the quality of this chapter just doesn't seem up to par from the previous ones... the time tables also a little screwed up... going a little to fast here and there makes it not so clear.
though I do have to say there are some interesting developments.
Well, Twilight's lost it, Gold's out cold, and pretty much everyone else is useless.
This should be interesting
Hmm.
I'm not going to really start to worry about Twilight until she starts laying eggs.
If Chrysalis comes back before everyone is up and about, they are so, so screwed.
It's worse than we thought. She's become a queen, not a drone/worker. If the same's happening to Rarity then there's going to be a clash of queens.
Someone must animate this. It will be the cutest thing ever!
Well, that escalated quickly. Makes me wonder what will happen, it is going to be interesting to see if the group makes it out of there and Luna finds out that the Changeling is the one that saved them. And never betrayed them. I'm going to love seeing later near the end of the story if the guards that attacked Golden Plumb will be regretting attacking him now.
i.imgur.com/ZsI8b.png I'm completely sane
WRONG
that ending... wtf? EXPLAIN YOURSELF!!!
I eagerly accept my new overlord.
D'awww! Even as the newfound Queen Twiling is still adorkable.
I get the feeling Celly and Luna got themselves captured on purpose and i really hope that's the case, seeing two beeings capable of moving sun and moon knocked the buck out with so little effort sucked.
And as the cherry on top Twiqueen seems to be gathering and army.
I can already see it: Chryssie come back home, into her throne room and finds Twilight sitting there with the most adorkable 'Yay! This will be a very interesting letter to the Princess! Oh and uuuh as for you, you are demoted to drone untill further notice'
Yeeeaaaaah, Twi's lost it. Which is actually kind of funny, because I was expecting Rarity to lose it first, but oh well.
Oh for the love of The Nine.
BAD TWILIGHT! *Smacks Twilight with a rolled-up newspaper.* BAD PONY! No feeding on the love of others! BAD!
Twilight as a changeling queen... not sure if i should join her, or buy a shotgun with anti-magic shells.
All hail Queen Twilight.
I can now imagine Twilight coming to the rescue of Canterlot, beating Chrysalis and then occupying Canterlot as her new Hive.
So can drones elevate themselves to queen status or do they have to be born a queen? Or in Twilight's case, cast a spell and accidentally adding a changling wing to their biochemistry. Does that make Rarity a queen as well?
Yaaay the Princesses are free!!
Noooo Twilight's totally losing it!! And where did she get the drones from, again? I don't remember any changelings at the cabin...
Also Gold Plum is a total boss. New favorite guard
ponychangeling obtained. But obviously he and Luna have had a...falling out of sorts...ehehe...Now just waiting for you to run out of words that end in 'tion.' Won't be long...
Well, Twilight's Changeling nature seems to be overpowering her, and it's only a matter of time before Rarity's effects her as well. Maybe she will accidentally feed on Spike's love again and she will like it so much that it will finally push her over the edge too, and then Twilight and Rarity will start ruling the new hive together while Spike desperately tries to knock them out of it.
By the way, when will Twilight and Rarity start laying eggs? Since that is one of the primary jobs of the queen in an insect hive.
1976303
Chapter 6, there was that knock on the door that Twilight answered. Now it all makes perfect sense.
"Chapter" 8? Not "Stage" 8?
1976329
*sigh* i'll get my sandman and force-a nature as well as my BONK!!
Twilight. Wat R U Doin. Stahp!
1981682
I think it's because it was a changling queen's wing that got spliced into them, so yes, i think Rarity is also a queen.
1979998
Then a battle takes place, but with Rarity's hive supporting Twilight, it doesn't last very long...
1976375 Ditto here...or possibly when there's even more.
1988607
Then how did a changling queen's wing get in there? Hmmmm, the plot thickens, though there is a small question about how one old changling wing could turn two ponies into changlings. You should think it would be only partial.
1992763
I don't know how the wing got there, but it could be possible that Changling DNA can replicate itself in a suitable host. Therefore, when they got transfused with the wing, the DNA started to spread.
1993417
You would have to use Equestrian physics and biology there, cause DNA doesn't quite function that way. Using the fantasy author's favorite tool; maybe the magic of a changling has corruptive effects once fused into the body of a pony. I suppose it would work as a catalyst or enzyme in this case. This would also imply that there was some residual magic left in the wing specimen.
more soon?