Children of the Night

Children of the night

Chapter 20

Mass destruction

Moonsinger trotted through the forest, Bright Light and Flametail at her sides. A few hooves behind them, her platoon followed the trio. She could have reached the edge of the Everfree forest an hour ago, but had chosen not to. She was a field commander now and had to consider all the variables and options. That much atleast she had learned from Celestia.

"Are you sure about this dear?"

"Yes Light. This has to be done, and maybe.... if I had done this a long time ago, then we might never have faced this crisis."

"But we never really had any reason to do it Moonsinger. Killing is, by our mothers rules, only allowed in defense."

"I know Flametail, but we are on the offense now. We must take every advantage we can get, and this has to be done if we are to stand a chance."

Flametail and Bright Light sighed. Moonsinger had made up her mind, even so both of them had tried to talk her out of it. Her orders were quite clear. Was she not back in twenty minutes, they were to go to Hoofington without her, and assume she had not made it. Both of them didn't like it, but she was right. The Changelings needed to be dealt with, but the children of the night had so far refrained from whiping them out. Moonsinger however, was now intending to do just that, or atleast to cut off their reinforcements. Bright Light hated the idea that his wife would kill children, but he had not been able to convince her to stop.... Instead all his pleading had only made her decide to go alone...

He turned back one single time as he and Flametail walked back to the platoon. Moonsinger however, was already gone.... Bright Light hoped, that his wife would atleast make it quick...

Moonsinger galloped through the night. She had left her platoon in a safe distance away, so nopony would get hurt. She still had a bit of a problem completly controling her talent, but she had to do this. She was safe, since the moon would never hurt her.

Coming to a stop, she could see the Changeling hive only a few hundred meters away. It was a sight that had no equal. The hive rose up into the air several hundred hooves and was wound like a screw. It's simetry was wonderfull, and the smell radiating from it was sweet and pleasant. Moonsinger regretted what she was about to do, but would not falter. This had to be done. Closing her eyes, and replacing her natural eyesight with the view of the moon, she gallopped into the hive and began to sing.

Celestia had reached a point close to the edge of the forest with her platoon, but had chosen to stay inside for the time being. Besides, her soldiers were creatures of the night, so they would have to rest during her day, which was soon to begin. Just as she wanted to give the order to set up camp, the ground beneath her hooves began to shake and a sound like a million thunderbolts made every fiber in her body vibrate. Also.... the mana she felt... She left her squad behind, while they tried to stay on her hooves, or atleast keep each other from falling onto each other, and flew upwards. In the east, she could see a giant dustcloud rising into the air. From the moon, that was still in the sky, she saw millions of spears made of light, rain down on the place from where the dustclouds point of origin was. She immideatly knew what her niece had done, and a smile played around her mouth.

"So you did listen to what I tried to teach you...."

Luna also felt the mana that was raining down on the Changeling hive, but did nothing to stop it. She facehooved, and shook her head.

"Damn you Moonsinger. Didn't I tell you NOT to use it in battle?"

Even so, she had to admit that it was a necessary course of action. The hive would have been taken out sooner or later, and doing it this way, was the quickest and safest way. She didn't like it however. Luna had wanted to turn to the hive, once she had checked the wasteland southeast of Appleloosa for hiding Changelings, but now Moonsinger had taken that out of her hooves....

Moonsinger was panting hard when she stopped her song. Where the hive had been only minutes ago, there was now only a deep shaft, that went down several hundred hooves. She had to sing longer then she had anticipated, so she had overexerted herself a little, but it was done.... The Changeling hive was no more. She had jsut killed millions of Changelings, many of who were not even hatched yet.....

"Get that over there! No, not there. Over into the northwest tunnel I ment."

Diamond adressed one of her Drones. As soon as Cadence had given her permission to do so, she had began to build her own hive, beneath the Chrystal castle. Her Drones were not yet all named, since she had to breed them fast, with barely being ablte to give them some genetic memory, but she had changed them. She, like any queen, had the ability to change her underlings to her needs. Her mother had chosen to make her drones as deadly as possible, but Diamond had bred hers to be able to live alongside ponies. Their bodyfluids would no longer change or poison ponies. She would be the only one to still have that trait.

"So I take it the costruction is going well?"

She heard Cadences voice from behind, and turned to face her. The princess had almost completly turned now, and needed her... asisstance from time to time to stop her symptoms of withdrawl.

"Yeah, it works out pretty well. I also have to thank you and your subjects for your help. Without them I don't think we would be this far along by now."

"But how is it even possible that you can breed drones... You were the only Changeling I brought here."

"Well, don't tell me you thought I was a virgin. I actually had many lovers in my mothers hive. Also, as a queen I could store their seed, and use it here."

"Oh... ehm... but... how is it that they are already big enough to work? I mean... It's been only three days since I gave you permission."

"This is quite easy. The average drone takes only twentyfour hours to reach a fully grown state. What takes another day, is for them to learn how to control their bodies and urges. After that, they are just like any other adult pony. They have all the knowledge they need, through genetic memory. It's quite the usefull stuff to have. Passing on memories that way I mean. Saves the need for schools."

"So... is this as you imagined?"

"Not yet. I have not been able to come up with many names. Maybe I will start naming them with Ponynames, or let them choose for themself. I want to run my hive differently from my mother anyway."

"But..... Tell me, why do they look so different? Your drones are silver, while the Changelings I know are all black."

"That is the result of my alterations in their genome. Genetics is a subject that we Changelings have quite the knowledge of, since every Queen has the ability to alter her drones. These drones are weaker then the ones in my mothers hive, but that also means they don't need to feed as much. I did this, in consideration of our bargain."

"I appreciate it, and you can count on me to keep my end of it. But if your hive grows too much, I don't know if I can provide enough love for all of you."

"Oh don't you worry about this Cadence. You actually won't have to do so much. My Changelings are now no longer poisonous to Ponies. Also due to that gene having been removed, there will be no change like yours if any of them has intercourse with one of your ponies. As a result, if you would allow it ofcourse, a few of my drones have already spoken their wish to start a buisness in your realm."

"A buisness? What kind of buisness?"

"Our powers to change can not only be used to decieve you know. My drones aren't exclusivly male either, like in my mothers hive. Those females are unable to breed, but they have the wish to start a ... well to sell certain services."

"You mean your drones are actually asking me for permission to sell their bodies to my ponies????"

"Well.... If you want to put it that way... yes."

"Well.... if you promise me that my ponies will be safe, I guess there is no harm in allowing it."

"Thank you Cadence. I am sure they will be gratefull. Also your ponies will have the possibility to sleep with whoever they want. I guess their buisness will get quite popular."

Cadence began to giggle.

"No kidding. But I must ask you to put an age limit on that service. I don't want the foals to use it."

"Noted and agreed. Well then, but that surely wasn't your reason to come down here, was it Cadence?"

"We know each other for such little time, and yet you know me almost too well already."

Diamond sighed, and kissed Cadence passsionatly, exchanging as much salvia with her as possible.

"Better?"

Cadences eyes were unfocused for a moment, but she recovered quickly.

"Much better. Thank you for you trouble."

It was Diamonds turn to giggle.

"No need to thank me. Every time we do this, I get a little love from you, and I still hope you will come around and give a little... more action a try."

Cadence gave Diamond a fake pout.

"As if. I think I have had enough intercourse with Changelings for a lifetime."

"Your choice, but you don't know what your missing. A queen is different from a drone."

The two friends hugged laughing. This was a joke between them, since Cadence had no memory of having sex with Changelings. Diamond had removed them afterall. The two walked down several tunnels, with Diamond giving orders to her drones now and then. So far she had bred about two hundred drones, and more eggs were getting ready inside of her. Not bigger then a chickens egg, she could lay about a hundred eggs a time. But, after this war was over, she would stop breeding, and only keep her hive at a certain number. That had several reasons. One of them was that she feared to become more and more like her mother, were she to breed to many underlings at once. The other was that she was not intending to make it look like she was preparing an invasion of her own. Diamond truly considered Cadence a friend, even so she did not know the princess for verry long, she just couldn't help it.

Freka'da worked on a tunnel while she watched her queen talk with the pony princess. She felt warm inside, while she absorbed some of the love radiating from the princess. It was ok to do so, and it was enough to satisfy her hunger for a day or more. She didn't know, since she as only three days old after all. But so far, this was only the second time she had taken a little love from her, and she wouldn't have had to. She had just done so, because it was so tasty. In fact, after feeding a little after she had hatched, she was not hungry at all. Freka'da was wondering just how long she would be able to go without feeding....