Author's Note

Here's hoping more of you like this chapter

Harsh Hive of the Queen

Chapter 2

When Steelwing came to he found himself in a dank cell not much more than five feet all around him, thick bars gated off the only opening to his left as he sat up off the cold, rocky earth, his limbs trembling slightly as the paralysis spell began to wear off completely. The wells were of black stone that reflected an eerie green light that illuminated from large stones on the ceilings, allowing him to see there were many other prison cells other than his, tilting his head and peering through the bars he could see some of the other ponies, but nothing too distinguishing. Now I'm here but, no guards outside the cell...how can I investigate further trapped like this? Deciding to do what anypony in his imprisoned situation like this would do, he began yelling loud as his dry throat would let him. "Hey! Where am I!? Where the fuck did you bring me!?" He shouted, throwing questions out for ten minutes and occasionally just yelling, hoping someone would get tired of the racket. However the only response that greeted him once his voice was ragged was low groaning of pain and confusion from the cells further down than his own in the long corridor.

After what seemed like hours slipping in and out of troubled sleep, Steelwing finally hear hoof steps approaching down to his cell, two ponies by the sound of it, or well, Changelings. He stood a bit shakily at first but, felt a little stronger than before as the two creatures came to a stop at the other side of his bared cell. The two figures looked to be no taller than young teenagers, pushing only a few inches over five feet high. Both however were near-identical; both having short pointed horns with a few degrees curvature to them, periwinkle blue eyes that bugged out somewhat from their black, gaunt-ish black heads and small fangs protruding from their upper jaw; their whole bodies were black and had a reflective quality when shifted the right angle, except a six-inch band around their abdomens which was a dark grey color, behind them he could just make out small, frail wings folded against their bodies. Their short tails were torn and deformed as the rest of them and their manes were short with a web like look rather than hair. Over all the most disturbing feature beyond their too-large eyes had to be that all along their arms and lower legs down to their hooves were holes of varying sizes. One even looked like he was missing the last two fingers on his hand because the holes were so bad, the other only had a stub of the lower arm that reminded Steel of mauled and mushed-up Swiss cheese where points poked out at random, the bone underneath not knowing what to form so instead settled for jagged lumps.

The Changeling to the left spoke first, his voice brittle and a hissing undertone to it, "looks like the 'honored' guest is strong enough to walk now."'

To the right, the twin with the stubby arm whispered, "She did say to bring him once he appeared strong enough. No snacking though." The partner guard nodded in agreement. Steel wasn't interested in their agenda just yet though, he still felt overwhelmingly weak compared to how he normally felt after resting.

He sneered and grasped the bars to where his knuckles turned white under his thin coat of pale grey fur. "What the fuck did you do to me?!" They hissed in response and threw open the door, despite their frail-looking forms and smaller build, they hauled him out effortlessly. The one with both arms pinned him against the bars once the door slammed shut,

"Shut up! We did nothing! Our mother brought you here after luring you in close since you were so far into our domain! She stunned you with her powers, and is blocking your own; you are under the Princesses' watch no more!" His face was inches from Steels, his small fangs bared threateningly before the other one nudged his arm to let the magic-less pony down. To his horror, Steel indeed found he couldn't summon his magic more than to make his horn glow, and that merely served as a nightlight in a place like this. They snickered at his attempts then proceeded to push him on through the corridor and up an uneven stairwell.

All around them was the same dim light, and as the moved he began to see that the brighter light was not radiating from the stones like in the cell hall but large cocoons against the slopping walls of the rocky tunnels they walked through; inside them appeared to be more Changelings growing in the green cocoons. This made Steelwing pause in his walking, the changeling drone with the stub of an arm poked his hard to keep going down through the nightmare-ish place. Even worse, as the ventured deeper into the tunnels -the hive, he saw real ponies of all kinds, pegasi were rare while most were earth ponies. Regardless of their kind, most all looked to be malnourished or starving, a filly no older than twelve years old happened to bump into the stubbed-arm changeling with a dull look to her eyes with large baskets clutched in her hands. She was instantly shoved to the ground with a sneer of offence from the drone. "Stupid husk! Watch where you walk!"

The filly fell, tears forming as her baskets dropped, spilling what looked like grain of some sort as she slowly reached to her exposed legs, now cut from the jagged rocks embedded in the ground. "Creed! You moron, you can't do that!" Steel looked hatefully to a trim, changeling he assumed was another drone but, soon realized from the longer mane and thin lashes surrounding parriwinkle eyes that this was a barely-recognizable female! Who would've thought? Even the Princesses assumed only drones followed a main Queen of each hive. Steelwing also caught a glimpse of how much more deformed she was compared to hte other two beside him before her body flashed a dim green, then there stood and older mare in a checkered pink dress. She knelt down to the filly and held her up to her body, hugging gently as she whispered, "come sweetie, you have to keep going Lilydrop. You get to eat and sleep soon as you're done with your chores."

The filly shook her head weakly, tears sluggishly dripping down her dirtied white cheeks. "I don't want to Auntie Maylynn. I hurt," she began weeping harder, visibly trembling. "I hurt all over."

"Please," the false mare cooed."You're such as strong girl, I trust you and I need your help..."

"Can I have an oa-oatmeal cookie before bed? I'm so...hungry."

"Of course sweetie. Lets clean this up and get it down to the cellar, hm?"

"Y-Yeah." The filly slowly began scooping up the spilled grain under the watchful eyes of the chengeling female. MEanwhile the drones nudged him forward.

After turning a corner, away from the grim scene, Steel turned on them, scorn filling his eyes. "What the fuck, was all that?!" he growled, willing his power to do something, but to no avail.

"Life. Now keep moving, we're almost there."

"Not a chance! You either tell me what shit hole I've been brought to now, or drag me to wherever it is you are herding me to!!"

From ahead of them, Steel heard a sultry, even sweet in nature voice echo down a well of stairs to them, drawing his attention away from the drones. The voice was purely female as two piercing venom-green, and dark turquoise eyes with cat like pupils stared right at him as a figure descended the stairs. "Very well, stubborn Steelwing. If its answers you desire, follow me." He could just make out her shiny turquoise tail and mane before she turned to go back up the light-less area of the stairs. One of the drones finally pushed him forward after a hesitent few minutes, Steel stumbled and scraped his palms and part of his arm on a jagged rock before righting himself and slowly going to then up the stairs while his simple pony eyes tried to adjust to the utter black. He was thankful that the walls surrounding the stairs were smooth, so that he could follow the way up easier. It wasn't like he could afford to run now. Soon he couldn't even see his own nose but, kept going up, listening to the light steps of the female's hoof steps. "You have questions, right? Speak."

Steelwing had to swallow a few times to try and get his dry throat to cooperate. " What, are you. All the ones here who aren't, pony?" He knew the answer, but what other question would any other prisoner ask in such a case? It felt like an eternity before she bothered to answer, during which time Steel stumbled a few times due to uneven stairs.

"We are Changelings. I am their Queen, Queen Chrysalis. I rule the largest Hive in all of Equestria. If not for the Elements of Harmony and two newlywed ponies...I would also be on the way to ruling Equestria and Canterlot as well."