13 - When the Queen is Away
As adept as changelings are at organizing and executing small, covert operations, there are those missions that call for far larger parties. In rare instances, both queen and centurion must exit the hive to devote their efforts to the movement. The Chrysalis hive's assault on Canterlot was one such instance.
When both a queen and centurion centurion are absent, it is customary for the queen to appoint a temporary second-in-command to act within this absence. To be entrusted with the resposibilities of such an important position by the very queen is an honor superceded only by recieving the title of centurion itself.
As such, Kytin wore this mantle with the utmost pride. Even with this heavy of a burden upon him, the soldier found himself completely engrossed with one task above all others. He sat upon the balcony just outside his mother's throne room. From there, he could see all that happened within the hive, yet his gaze remained fixed upon the entrance tunnel, waiting for any sort of news to step through it. It was only fitting that his pupilless eyes would be the first to see those entering, even before the two guards posted on either side of the passage.
His wings a blur, Kytin nimbly hopped from branch to branch down to the hive floor. He broke into a dead sprint toward the new arrivals, hailing them the instant he drew within earshot. "Karrin! What are you doing here!? You were part of the attacking party! Where is Her Majesty?"
There was a hesitation that slowed Karrin's response. "I...do not know."
"What kind of answer is that!? What happened in Canterlot!?"
The very words were bitter upon his tongue, but Karrin forced them from his mouth anyway. "Her Majesty...was discovered."
The solemnly delivered news slapped Kytin in the face. For a changeling queen to be discovered was...unheard of. It just didn't happen. For as long as he had been shocked into silence, only one word found its way from Kytin's mouth. "What?"
"The assumption, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, was freed."
"How!?" Kytin's disbelief had reduced his vocabulary to one-word sentences.
"It was this one damned purple unicorn." Karrin snarled "She pulled apart the entire invasion and freed our target. Every single changeling in Canterlot was thrown across the horizon by the retaliation."
"All of them?"
Karrin rounded on his shorter hivemate, fangs bared. "What in Tartarus didn't you understand? This attack on Canterlot was nothing more than an utter failure! How could I make any of this up!?"
"'A failure?'" Kytin echoed. "Impossible! Every last bit of intelligence you and Polen gathered was perfect! The planting! the switch! Everything was executed flawlessly!"
"I know. But what do we have to show for that work?" The soldier sighed dejectedly and began trudging away. "Nothing..."
Kytin made to start after the other changeling, but movement from farther down the tunnel caught the corner of his eye first. He immediately galloped to meet the new arrival. "Vetan! What happened?"
"Timberwolves happened..." he gasped, most of his energy spent in keeping himself upright with only three legs.
"Is that injury troubling you?" Kytin asked, eyeing the pair of fang wounds bright upon his hivemate's shoulder.
"Not really. I've made it this far... It should be fine with some proper attention."
"Very well. Rest up and regain your strength. We need as many available bodies as we can manage. I want you out in tommorow’s rescue party. "
After some quiet hesitation, Vetan nodded slowly. "Sure..." he agreed, exhaustion reducing his answer to a dull monotone.
"You want him to what!? Are you out of your damned mind!?"
Kytin turned to find the owner of the angered voice standing above him. "I beg your pardon, Karrin?"
"You want us to go back out there?" The taller changeling gestured down the tunnel to the forest beyond. "In case you haven't noticed, Vetan is down to three legs! If you send him back out, what do you think the odds of him coming back are? We were lucky to escape the timberwolves the first time!"
The other Chrysalis soldier said nothing, though Karrin could very clearly see the weight of his hivemate's decision within his eyes. "I...know. But what do you think our odds of survival without a queen are? We must find Her Majesty. Sylph too."
"Our odds couldn't possibly be any worse than when she was already on the throne. The only reason we have come to this point, just barely scraping by, is because of her decisions. A new hive, hundreds of our own slain, and now this failure? Forget it. I'm staying inside the hive."
"Hold it!" Kytin hooked a hoof over Karrin's shoulder and spun him back around. "Keep that tone out of your mouth! Those orders were for the hive's best interests and you know it! Dammit, Karrin! I don't want to pull rank on you but, so help me, you will be out searching for Her Majesty in tommorow’s party. I was the one that was made centurion in Sylph's absence and until he returns, it is my orders that you will be following! Have I made myself clear, soldier?"
Karrin held his officer's gaze for a moment before answering. "Crystal..." he finally muttered, turning away.
Kytin shook his head. "How have things fallen this far?" he mouthed. A long sigh escaped his lungs. Everything would be all right. He just needed to relax. The overly fragrant vapors tickling his senses were rather helpful; so much so that the soldier hardly gave pause to their origin.
The instant he stepped back into the hive proper, the gurgle of one's last breath taken through their bleeding throat hit Kytin's ears. He spun around to face the auxilary tunnel the noise had come from to see the only thing that could have possibly made such a day worse. A swarm of amethyst-backed changelings poured from the now unguarded tunnel entrance.
An order instantly flew from the soldier’s mouth. “Miasma soldiers have slain the guard at the auxiliary tunnel! Quickly! Garrison the entrance and secure the hive! Don't let any of them through…” Just as quickly as he had launched into the command, Kytin trailed off. Something wasn’t right here. What was odd was that the normally aggressive changelings, aside from offing the soldier standing guard at the tunnel's mouth, moved no further than the half-circle that they had created. Before he could even bare his fangs at the foreign soldiers, Kytin saw the reason for their tactic make herself known. The already overpowering incense fumes became even more so. Following the oppressive perfumes down the tunnel was a tall silhouette that slowly melted into the matriarch of the enemy hive, Queen Miasma.
She strode up to the line of her soldiers and paused, her voluminous mane swaying about slowly from the change in momentum. Her eyes sparkled with barely contained mirth as they moved across the mass of changelings beginning to gather opposite her soldiers. It was some time before she spoke, but when she did, her voice was one of a haughty champion. "I expected very little resistance from the hive of a failure such as Chrysalis, but to lay out such a welcome for your new queen... I suppose I should be flattered. Nevertheless, it is a start to my praises. Now then, my new subjects, make way for the queen you should have."
A furious snarl appeared on Kytin's mouth at the remark and he sprang for the enemy queen, his fangs out for blood.
Even faster than Kytin's lunge was the lunge of the armored changeling at the queen's side. Before he could even blink, Kytin found himself flat against the ground, a hoof painfully standing upon his throat and the gleaming fangs of Miasma's centurion mere inches from his eyes.
A condescending smile crossed the matriarch's lips. "Oh! I have spoken too quickly! It seems that there is still some resistance within this excuse of a hive. We shall see what can be done about that..." Without waiting for an answer, the queen opened her wings to soar across the mass of changelings, up to the balcony. "A crude excuse for a throne, but it will do." She twirled to address the gathering crowd of both her own children and of Chrysalis'. The mere sight of the success beneath her spurned an elated giggle. "Oh, Chrysalis, how you are missing out! You really should be here! Do any of those present know where your mother is? She should be here to share in this joy! Where is she?"
Understandably, none were too eager to provide an answer to such a question and silence reigned upon the hive floor for a good while. Finally, one voice, tiny against the extreme stillness, spoke up. "She isn't here."
"Just as I had thought! The failure of a queen is also a failure of a mother! Abandoning her own children to seek the conquest of Canterlot! What an absurd notion! And yet, I cannot say that it surprises me." As Miasma's speech fell to her onlookers, she kept her eyes moving across the crowd. One changeling in particular caught her attention. His slight nodding and that...look of serious contemplation suggested he shared the same views as she. Interesting... "Chrysalis has never been one for...intelligent decisions, shall we say. It was only a matter of time before one of her foolish endeavors finally destroyed all she had wrought!" Another giggle found its way from the queen's mouth. Everything had worked perfectly. "How fortunate for you that I should be here to pick up the pieces!" Not all changelings present were as jovial about this turn of events as Miasma. A good number of Chrysalis soldiers within her audience were beginning to voice their disapproval with the odd snarl or hiss of anger. "Enough about the failure that is Chrysalis; do those of you before me choose to willingly cast aside the shame your mother has brought upon you and your hive and accept the rule of a true changeling queen?"
There was no silence this time. A lone voice, this one far more adamant than the last, rose to Miasma on the balcony. "No. The soldiers of your hive have caused us no end of difficulty through the years. You arrive to our hive, uninvited and unwanted, and would ask us to so quickly cast aside our rightful queen and mother? I would never submit to you!"
A contented smile pulled itself over Miasma's features. She mouthed no words to form a reply. Instead, her iridescent elytra clicked once, twice, three times in rapid succession. As the third click rang out above the group, the three of her children closest to the loyalist fell upon him with a vehement enthusiasm.
The soldier's screams of agony as he was rent apart by the the Miasma changelings crashed against Kytin's eardrums. Though at a distance, he could all too clearly tell what was happening. The enemy attacks were not aimed to kill, but rather to damage and maim. The sight of his hivemate's blood so easily spilled was maddening. Kytin squirmed furiously under Arnyx's hoof, desperate to help. "Tennae! Quickly, free him!"
The centurion's hoof fell hard against the back of Kytin's head, cracking his chin upon the stony ground. "Silence, runt!"
No sooner had six soldiers begun moving to assist their hivemate than Miasma barked out an order to counter Kytin's. "Seize them at once!"
Each of the half dozen Chrysalis soldiers was immediately detained by a pair of Miasma's children. The queen nodded to her soldiers and they began shoving their prey into a rough line in front of the crowd. The buzz of Miasma's wings was heard as she drifted to the hive floor, landing before the crude lineup. She paced up and down the line of changelings several times, watching the fear in their eyes and savoring every moment of it. More than once, she would stop before a soldier and stare at him, just to see his eventual reaction.
Collective breaths were let out as the changeling queen finally turned away from the captives.
"Alin. Steran. Step forward." she murmured, her voice deathly calm.
"No! Let me go!"
Miasma whirled, cracking her hoof against the soldier's jaw. When he finally returned his eyes to those of the matriarch, his blood turned to ice.
"Loyalty to an officer of Chrysalis is just as unforgivable as loyalty to the failure herself. I will see that your punishment is befitting for your crime."
"W-what are you-"
There were no words to describe the cry of raw agony that tore from his comrade's throat, though Kytin had seen what had caused it.
Mid-sentence, Miasma's magic wrapped itself around the soldier's head. The flame about the queen's crooked horn sparked once, ripping both of his fangs from his jaw, root and all.
The two purple-backed changelings stepped away, letting the Chrysalis soldier struggle to remain upright against the blinding pain searing through him. Just as he collapsed, the queen's magic again reached out to him, this time encircling his throat.
He was carried up to the female's eye level, where she studied the two bleeding holes that had been his fangs moments before. A slight snarl crossed her lips, presumably at the sight of his bloody grimace. Her eyes hardened ever so slightly.
The soldier's body tensed with shock as a painfully audible snap removed half of his elytra. Instinct opened his mouth to scream, but the spell constricting his neck reduced it to a pathetic gurgle. Another convulsion wracked his body when Miasma pulled off the other half of his wing case. With his wings fully exposed, the matriarch took it upon herself to remove these too, as slowly and as painfully as possible.
As each appendage of his was torn from him, the helpless soldier protested less and less; his body was starting to give up. Miasma knew this too but was not finished with him. She had yet one more punishment planned. She retrieved the discarded four-inch fangs. These were carefully repositioned near the soldier's mouth, just under their former home. Queen Miasma's horn flashed but once and replaced the soldier's fangs - upside down.
He convulsed once more and went completely limp. The magic holding him aloft vanished leaving his horribly torn body to fall to the ground in a crumpled heap. The female changeling looked over her children one last time.
Kytin knew the exact words that were coming from Miasma's mouth, but still dreaded them all the same.
"Slaughter them."
"No!" The sight of the enemy queen literally taking apart his hivemate, not even allowing him to scream... Kytin could not bear to watch the same gruesome spectacle five times more.
Arnyx sensed his prey's understandable reluctance and a terrifying smile crossed his lips. He planted one hoof squarely against the back of Kytin's neck, allowing the soldier just enough air to breathe. One of the holes in his other leg was hooked around his victim's horn. The centurion uncomfortably pulled Kytin's head from the ground up to his mouth. "Pay attention, runt." he hissed.
Seeing as much of his breath was devoted to keeping himself alive and thus not available for a retort, Kytin defiantly squeezed his eyes shut. Arnyx didn't care for such an answer. The pinned soldier felt the centurion's hoof dig even harder into his neck. At the same time, the armored changeling heaved backwards upon his quarry's head until he heard a single ragged cough; the very point where Kytin could no longer breathe. The soldier’s eyes remained shut for a moment more. His imagination was already running wild. He hardly wanted to see what was actually happening. Yet, the hoof slowly choking the life from him didn’t afford too many options. Tentatively, he opened his eyes, only to have sickened awe open them wider.
Wings, horns, all manner of teeth and his hivemates' blood flew everywhere. Kytin saw everything in slowed, grisly detail. All the while, tears burned hot in the soldier's eyes. Tears of absolute rage born from his complete and utter helplessness. As the last of the soldiers' mutilated bodies collapsed upon the hive floor, Kytin finally snapped. He began thrashing like a fish caught on a hook. One of his wildly flailing limbs caught Arnyx a heavy blow upon his chin, swatting him away. The smaller changeling took advantage of the centurion's surprise and was away towards Miasma like a shot. "You bitch! I'll tear out your throat with my own fangs!"
Arnyx's surprise was short-lived and he was soon after the Chrysalis soldier, outpacing him for the second time today. His fangs found their mark in Kytin's back leg. A heave of the centurion's head swung the other changeling from his hooves and slammed him head-first into a particularly large rock on the hive floor. Arnyx was instantly back in his prey's face, fangs on full display. "That was the worst thing you could have possibly done..."
Despite the angry centurion's hot breath pressing itself into his face, Kytin's squirming continued unabated. "Wait until Her Majesty Chrysalis returns! She'll mount your throat on her-ghkk!" The crack of Arnyx' hoof against his jaw effectively silenced him, though Kytin's pale blue eyes remained hard. The newfound blood within his mouth was promptly spit back into the centurion's face, earning his shoulder a painful stab from the other changeling's horn.
"Petulant little brat!" Arnyx kicked the smaller creature in his chin, knocking his head back into the stony ground.
The sounds of the two battling changelings echoed throughout the hive, falling upon the ears of the visiting matriarch, interrupting her speech. She calmed her irritated wings long enough for them to carry her to the hive floor.
Kytin's stubbornness had finally broken Arnyx's temper and the centurion had resorted to brutally kicking the prone soldier in a fruitless attempt to dull the adamant gleam in his eyes. He stopped only when a bolt of concussive magic exploded against his flank and sent him to the ground.
"That's awfully big of a centurion, mindlessly beating a pinned soldier like that."
Kytin coughed. "V-Vetan?"
"Two soldiers standing against a centurion of the Miasma hive? Very well. I shall tear the two of you apart!" Before he had a chance to strike, Arnyx was eased aside by a gentle hoof.
"Do not trouble yourself, my child. The stubbornness these two have inherited from Chrysalis is broken by one thing only."
The same murderous magic that had taken their hivemates clenched the necks of the two Chrysalis soldiers. That would have been their end, were it not for a familiar voice.
"Queen Miasma, your Majesty? A moment, if I may?"
Kytin recognized the voice instantly. You traitorous swine! You wouldn't dare!
The matriarch paused, surprised at the civil, respectful voice. Curious, she glanced over her shoulder to find its owner. "Oh? And who might you be?"
"Karrin, your Majesty." he replied, taking a short bow.
"Well, Karrin, if you truly wish to place yourself within my good graces, know that I am not overly fond of interruptions. Make your point with haste."
"I do apologize for the interruption, your Majesty, but I can now see that yours is the leadership that this hive needs, quite unlike my two poor excuses for hivemates. They are...quite insistent upon their old loyalties. Why not let them test if such loyalty is enough to keep them alive?"
Another short pause. “You have my attention.” she replied, returning the pair to the ground.
"Nightfall is in a few hours. Timberwolves begin their hunting at nightfall."
"Hmmm... I do appreciate creative punishments. However...to let two changelings walk free is far too many."
"You go, Kytin." Vetan offered. "I am injured enough as it is."
"Oh no. Both of you will be going. After some 'adjustments.' Answer something for me, Karrin. These timberwolves, do they enjoy the scent of blood?"
"One would assume so."
"Then it is settled. We wouldn't want you to hide that wonderful scent, now would we?"
Forced by the queen's cruel magic, Vetan's horn snapped at its base, sending him to the ground in pain.
Kytin immediately jumped to his brother's side to help him stand. "How dare you!?"
"And as for you, I have had enough of your mouth."
"Please, your Majesty, allow me." Arnyx shoved Kytin away from his hivemate, pinning him with a hoof to his chest. His other hoof forced the changeling's mouth open. A magenta aura surrounded the centurion's horn, shortly doing the same to Kytin's fangs.
One sharp yank later and the soldier let out a guttural snarl as his fangs were savagely torn from his mouth by their roots.
"You have the use of your magic, but never again will your fangs taste blood. Your hivemate has use of his fangs, but no magic with which to hide himself. Each of you is one half of a whole changeling. Seeing as you are so intent on defending each other, go ahead!"
With Kytin supporting his crippled brother, the pair trudged from the hive, shown out by the jeers and laughter of Miasma and her children. Above all else they heard the victorious laughter of their hivemate Karrin.
-------------------------
"Get back here, intruder! We told you to stay out of Honeycomb territory!"
"Oof! Get off of me! I'm only looking for my queen! I don't care about your damned hive!"
A heavy creaking sounded from the branches above the two changelings. "Kytin?"
The prone soldier cracked a dark smile, the pale moonlight revealing his lack of fangs.
Tremors shook the ground underneath the two creatures, immediately followed by a deathly cold snarl. "Step away from him…”
Only a fool would invoke the wrath of Queen Chrysalis and face her alone. Ambrosia's child smartly backed away and left Kytin to return to his hooves.
"It is a relief to see you alive and well, your Majesty."
The first thing any mother notices upon her children is injury. "I would extend the same to you, Kytin, but it is evident that you are far from well. Where did you come by such wounds?"
"It...is a long story, your Majesty."
A caring hoof tilted Kytin's head back, to which he responded by opening his mouth. Chrysalis carefully inspected the two vacancies amidst the rest of his teeth. "I would very much desire to know why my child has been stripped of his fangs. I shall make the time."
"Very well." Kytin sighed.
-------------------------
His queen's reaction to his story was very much what Kytin expected. The tale of the mistreatment of her children had made her absolutely livid, but still she managed to hold her tongue.
"Vetan and I were able to protect each other for several days, but before long he grew too weak to continue. I remained with him until nightfall of that day. We heard the call of an injured timberwolf. The others that we had been eluding moved to respond to such a cry. That was when Vetan insisted I leave. He was sure he would only slow me down. I wanted to stay with him, your Majesty, I truly did."
"I would not have asked you to stay and risk your life too. That is not a responsibility you need shoulder, Kytin."
"But, your Majesty, who knows what could have happened to him?"
"He is no longer suffering." the queen answered simply, moving on from the subject. "I am merely relieved to see that there is still one of my children to carry faith in me."
"'One?' What of Sylph? Has he been...slain?" The words were slow from Kytin's mouth as if their very pronunciation was poisonous.
"I would hope upon hope that he is not, but I cannot rightfully say. We have gone our separate ways. He no longer wished to carry his helm."
"After all his service? How could he make such a decision?"
"Therein is the answer, Kytin. It was his decision. I cannot force respect from Sylph, no more than I could from you or Karrin."
"Speaking of Karrin, what do you plan to do concerning his treason?"
"There is nothing to do. He will always be my child, that shall not change. The decision to follow Miasma is his own. If nothing else, he is one more reason to strangle the life from that vain bitch."
"You really find that a fitting punishment for her greed, don't you?"
A new set of pheromones crossed the queen's senses at the same time the voice reached her ears. She instinctively placed herself between Kytin and the sapphire-backed changeling appearing from the bushes. "Though foolish, I do commend you for approaching a queen undetected."
"Nice of you to finally show, Vesci." Kytin quipped.
"In enemy territory and approaching not one, but two queens; I thought it best to cover my tracks, unlike your reckless charge."
A thin hiss leaked from the queen's throat. "Be mindful of how you speak of my child before me. I suggest you make good with the information you seem to be holding."
"Let me begin by asking you something. How highly do you regard your own life when held in comparison to those of your children?"
The changeling matriarch's emerald eyes moved to look upon both Kytin and the unconscious Polen. "Your point stands." she replied, returning her gaze to Vesci. "Continue."
"As I thought, your lust for revenge has blinded you to the triviality of your so-called plan. To take the queen from the children is a blow hardly felt. But, take the children from the queen and you ensure that her suffering knows no end. I do digress, though. I am sure you are already well aware of both sides of this, are you not?"
A long stare passed between the two changelings. She would never admit it, but Chrysalis knew that Vesci knew what was passing behind her eyes. Hagfish changelings were extremely good at that.
"Her Majesty Queen Myxine has devised a price that Miasma must pay for her excessive greed. Her hive will be flooded, utilizing the sewer system that run alongside its tunnels. Even as we speak, the operation is already well underway."
Chrysalis remained silent. These were not options she had considered. Kytin's recounting had infuriated her. Now, more than ever, did she want to see the enemy queen dead before her. And yet... To even imagine Miasma bearing the same searing pain she had been carrying for so long was indescribably satisfying.
"You have convinced me. Miasma will live to know the death of her entire hive." And as soon as she does, I will see that she lies dead before me.
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I thoroughly enjoy this story. Glad to see an update!
"Who thought it wise to leave a gate to the sewer system unsealed?!"
I feel like this situation might go horribly wrong, somehow, but it seems like a good plan to me.
*Surviving Changelings point to Death Star architect*