Queen Erranda and Mother Mae-Eye stood face-to-face in front of the flamboyantly-colored building, while every single drone of the Locust hive hovered behind the latter zombie-like with tired pink eyes rather than the normal orange.

"I knew you couldn't be trusted!" Erranda bared her fanged teeth, "what have you done to my drones?!"

"Didn't I say they're not your kids anymore, Erranda?" Mother Mae-Eye reminded, "you were very nasty to them, so they're safe with me now! You see, deary. My pies are sprinkled with my magic, so that when people eat them up, they get to see their new mother!" She gestured to herself.

Now Erranda understood why her own hive disowned her so harshly; they were influenced by Mae-Eye's powers, and now she had to find a way to snap them out of it.

"My behavior was a mistake on my part," Erranda confessed "and I only wanted them to behave so we can thrive peacefully. And as for you, I will not allow you to take my children from me. Now bring them back, you monster!"

"I can't do that!" Mae-Eye spat, "I gave you a chance to join us in our new family, and then you threw it at my face! I will have to teach you the hard way.

"But don't you worry." Mae-Eye's three eyes glowed magenta, and then magically lifted a fork. She summoned another pie out of thin air, scooped some up with her fork and then pointed it at Queen Erranda. "It'll all be over, very soon. Now open wide!"

The fork with the pie darted at the queen at a breakneck speed. With no time to think ahead, she strafed to her left. And to her right. At the third time, she knocked the fork down into the ground with her front hoof, and Mae-Eye's pink aura faded from it.

"Oh, there you go again!" The witch pointed her spoon-wand at Queen Erranda, and then shot out a bolt of sparkling pink magic.

The queen narrowly avoided the attack by transforming into a crouching leopard. With a loud roar, she pounced at Mae-Eye, knocking her backwards while attempting to rip her apart with her claws. But Mae-Eye showed a surprising amount of strength when she grappled Erranda's leopard form and tossed her away.

Erranda landed safely on her paws before dashing forth for another bout. When she pounced again, Mae-Eye quickly sidestepped out of the way. Erranda tried again, but the result was the same. Upon landing, she once again turned back to her opponent, but this time she stood her ground.

Darn, how did she get so strong?! Queen Erranda thought, I thought she is just an old crone! Well, I guess I shouldn't judge based on looks, so I'll have to try different tactics. But how?

The queen looked closely at Mother Mae-Eye to analyze her; she already knew Mae-Eye was a magic-user, so she had to be careful at what she might do.

"My, don't you look precious as a kitten?" Mae-Eye endeared falsely before summoning a large, floating ball of yarn. "Here, why don't you play with this?" She threw the yarn ball, which rapidly unfurled itself into a spiral, encasing her leopard form before she had time to dodge it.

Queen Erranda struggled to break free, but her leopard form wasn't strong enough. Next she tried chewing through the yarn, but it proved to be much tougher than it looked.

Mother Mae-Eye prepared another forkful of pie, "c'mon, Erranda! Say 'ahh'!"

Queen Erranda tried to think of something fast if she didn't want to be a mindless slave to Mae-Eye. Maybe if she could somehow destroy the yarn, she could escape and release the drones from her control. And she knew just the right form to do it.

Mother Mae-Eye grinned confidently that she got Erranda right where she wanted her, and aimed the fork to Erranda's mouth.

Erranda closed her eyes. Just when Mother Mae-Eye launched another fork of pie at Erranda, a bright orange light covered her body and blocked Mae-Eye's vision for a while. When Mae-Eye regained focus, she gasped when she saw the yarn engulfed in flames, and above it was a phoenix.

"Why you clever little weasel!" Mae-Eye clenched her fists frustratedly. She launched more magic bolts at Erranda's new phoenix form, but her smaller and more agile body allowed her to dodge every shot. When Mother Mae-Eye fired one more shot, the phoenix avoided it again by flying up into the tree branches.

"Drat!" Mae-Eye groaned when she missed her good shot, and now had to look for the darn thing. "Now where did you go?"

The brainwashed changelings behind her looked nervously around for it too. When Mother Mae-Eye wandered far enough away from them, the phoenix flew down into the ground to land. They gasped when they saw the fire bird behind them, who changed into Queen Erranda.

"Don't worry, children." She said, "I'm here to save you."

"Save us?!" One of the drones protested immaturely, "then why did you hurt our mother?! You have to stop it right now!"

"You guys," she persuaded. "This is your mother, Queen Erranda! That old woman is controlling you with the pies you ate!"

"You're a lying liar-pants-on-fire!" Another changeling yelled, "she's been our mother since... since... umm, forever, and you can't change that!"

"I'm telling you the truth!" The queen insisted, "she is not your-"

"Aha! There you are trying to take my love bugs away from me, you sneaky little vermin!" Queen Erranda and the drones turned to see Mae-Eye, "you can't just tell them I'm not their mother and take off with 'em. Like I said, my pies are made with my magic so they know I am always their mother… for eternity!"

"You know you can't do that with my children, Mae-Eye!" Queen Erranda's tone was low with vindication, "you have no right to steal others' children to just suit your own needs and not theirs. You knew from the first moment we've met that I am where they belong by nature and by right, and I never should have trusted my changelings into your little trap. Now step away from them, you witch!"

"I believe that is quite enough!" Mother Mae-Eye raised her spoon-wand above her head to cast another magic attack, and then flicked it at the changeling queen.

BAM!

"Aaagh!" Queen Erranda took a serious blow from Mae-Eye's magic attack, and was launched backward and then landed at the base of a tree, knocking her down.

Mother Mae-Eye came over to the downed queen, "you've been a terrible guest, Erranda. Consider this silly little charade of ours over!"

She turned to her kitchen/storehouse behind her. "Come with me, my little munchkins. I'm afraid Queen Erranda here won't be joining us after all, so we are going back home. Is mother clear?"

"Yes, mother." The changelings all groaned in a chorus.

"Good. Now why don't you all follow me?" The witch used her wand to open the door to the storage room. "I am going to take you to a nice new home."

Mother Mae-Eye laughed wickedly as she went through the door while the brainwashed changelings followed, and the loud humming of their buzzing roared through the door as they all went to follow her. Eventually, the noise gradually quieted before fading into complete silence.

"Ungh... ough..."

Queen Erranda's body felt numb, and her vision was blurry when she opened her eyes. When she lifted her head up, a wave of dull, intense pain hammered in her head.

What... what did she do to me? She tried to get up, but so much pain went into her head that she felt nauseous.

She laid her head down for a while to wait for her to recover. After her headache quickly went away, she remembered something.

Her changelings.

"No!" she got up quickly and searched frantically around for Mae-Eye and the drones she stole from her, but she couldn't find them outside.

Then she remembered last seeing them get inside the shed before she fell unconscious. She didn't know how long she was out, but she hoped it wasn't so long for it to be too late to save her hive.

Queen Erranda barged into the storage room, where she saw huge piles of empty pie tins from which all the changelings ate, and not a single pie was left uneaten. But there was nopony else inside; only herself.

But this doesn't make sense. She thought, if she took my whole hive inside this little room, they should be here buzzing around!

She eventually wandered to the other end of the room, whose wall was blank all throughout.

Did she just teleport them all someplace?! The queen let out a frustrated sigh, and said out loud, "what am I gonna do?"

She leaned against the wall to ponder.

C-click!

Suddenly, it jerked inward, almost causing her to fall over. She turned around to discover something remarkable; a huge tile of wall she leaned against sank into the surrounding area and then opened slightly, revealing a narrow crack at one side that led to another room.

"Aha," the queen smiled. "A secret doorway! Let's see where you took my babies, Mae-Eye?"

Upon sliding the door open, she saw a very long, straight downward staircase that must have led deep underground. She walked down the steps and then closed the door behind her.

After a while, she was amazed by how far these stairs go down, and it got more and more damp the farther she went. But she could still make out another doorway in the distance.

Finally, she made it to another doorway, only this time it was much more obvious than the secret one back upstairs. She opened it to reveal something a tad unexpected; she came across a dark cave that had an odd brown color, and the stalagmites and stalactites were all shaped more like dull-pointed cones rather than a more concave needle shape, and were colored yellow and orange with white tips. A soft light can be seen from her left beyond the corner.

When she first set foot to the cave, she stepped onto some unusually fine, powdery dirt. Then a bittersweet smell rushed into her nose, a smell she would never find in a cave. There was something very fishy about this place.

"Looks like I'm on the right track," she reassured herself.

Erranda walked across the cave and looked around, and she saw some more odd features, like what were supposed to be raw gems in the walls, but look too dull or plastic to be sure; small puddles colored the same brown as the surrounding "sand"; and round, pony-sized objects that were peppered with tiny crystals and colored similarly to the "gemstones."

When she finally emerged from the cave exit, Erranda's jaws dropped when she found herself overlooking an environment that could only come from a little filly's imagination. It was a vast, absurdly vibrant candy-land complete with giant lollipops for trees, chocolate rivers, and hardened cake frosting for grass (or was it snow?).

In the sky was a giant rainbow sporting all the six basic colors, followed by a rather childlike sun with a widely smiling face, and floating cotton candy clouds.

Wow, Queen Erranda was a little overwhelmed. What level of magic would let her create all this... underground? How the heck am I gonna find them now?

As she looked around, she spotted some colored puffs of smoke rising from beyond the lollipop forest. Upon tracing the smoke puffs, she could make out a large brownish building with windows, thanks to the fact that the stems of the lollipops were much thinner than normal tree trunks.

"This must be it." She tilted her head up at the lollipops, crouched downward and then flew above them.

When she got high enough above the lollipop forest, she saw a gigantic cross between a gingerbread castle and a factory, which was surrounded by a moat of chocolate milk. Multiple tall chimneys, which were made with jelly beans for bricks, spewed out the colored smoke.

With no other sort of building in sight, Queen Erranda was certain this was where Mae-Eye kept the drones, so she flew onward to the building!

By the time she reached the edge of the forest, Queen Erranda landed and got a more detailed look at what could be Mae-Eye's lair. She saw some huge rectangular, candy cane-framed windows along the upper levels of the factory, and some much smaller and more square ones below. At the moat was an arched bridge gated by a pair of giant candy canes on each end, and the road across the bridge led to the main entrance, which took the form of wide-framed double doors decorated with candies.

With all these details in mind, she tried to come up with a plan to get inside and find a way to free her drones from Mother Mae-Eye. She could fly over to one of the bigger windows at the upper levels to get a bird's-eye view of the interior, and plot out their liberation that way. Maybe she could face Mae-Eye once she has restored her whole hive.

But then it came to her mind that she couldn't just break in and face Mae-Eye on her own, especially not against a magician that knocked her unconscious with one strike. She saw right away many distant, moving figures patrolling and guarding the giant factory and the surrounding area.

"Dang, it's guarded." She cursed out loud, "why am I not surprised? Now how am I gonna get in without being caught?"

The easy answer of course was to disguise herself as a little animal and sneak her way inside, but none of her forms seemed to fit in with this sugar-coated environment. She would still stand out from the scenery and arouse suspicion. What she needed was the form of one of the native animals here. But where could she find them?

Queen Erranda turned back to the lollipop forest for an answer, for that should be where she might try a suitable form.

"Hmm..." with that in mind, she went inside the forest.

Not long after, she heard some tweeting nearby. When she searched for the source, she found a flock of four or five birds feeding off the chocolate milk pond. Because of the more foreign environment, their beady black eyes (like those of most creatures) were drastically over-sized compared to their Equestrian counterparts. The ability to fly, combined with their cutesy appearance, should allow her to blend in as she gets inside the castle.

Queen Erranda closed her eyes and concentrated. She pictured the form of one of the birds in the pond, brought that form into her body, and then...

FLASH!!

When she opened her eyes back up, the ground suddenly looked a lot closer to her, and her body a lot lighter. This experience was not unusual for Erranda, because she was in many different forms before.

Just to make sure she succeeded in getting the desired form, she raised her arms to see if they were wings, and indeed they were. She hopped over to the pond to see a reflection of herself, and was able to make out a small bird shape identical to the ones nearby.

"Hey, you!" Erranda was suddenly able to understand their speech in this form. She turned around.

It said again in a male voice, "would you like to have a drink with us?"

"Yeah," a second one said. "You might find a gummy worm inside, too!"

"Umm, no thanks." Queen Erranda said simply, "there's something else I need to do."

"Well, okay." The first one said, "have fun."

With that out of the way, Erranda turned to the factory and then took flight.

Okay, now is to find my drones. I just hope I'm not too late.

She aimed for one of the wide upper windows of the gargantuan gingerbread house and landed by the corner.

When she looked down at the window, she gained an overview of the giant castle/factory, which somewhat resembled an ordinary house kitchen. Down below, she can see platoons of the same type of figures patrolling the castle. The creatures had the same gingerbread theme as the building they are in, in that they were flat and colored dark brown with white frosting for their details, which resembled military uniforms.

Okay, now where is she keeping my kids?

She eventually found Mae-Eye herself rolling some dough on a counter, but for some reason the witch looked a lot bigger than she was before.

There were also about five of Erranda's drones hovering next to her. One of them was tugging at her shirt to grab Mae-Eye's attention, causing her to turn around. They started talking, but Queen Erranda couldn't make out what they were saying beyond the window.

Oh, there's them. But what's she doing with them?

Luckily, Erranda spotted another window right next to her, only that one was opened a crack. Perhaps by eavesdropping from there, she could make out what was going on.

So she flew off from the big window, went across the front of the building, and finally to the other side of the castle, only this time at the lower level. She found a good candy cane to perch on and listen in from.

"...now it's five o'clock, love bugs!" Mother Mae-Eye declared, who, in the drones' influenced eyes, was still in her sugary disguise from earlier, "it's time for bed."

"But mother," one of the changelings complained. "We're not sleepy."

"Early to bed, early to rise, children." Mae-Eye lifted her finger, "now get on to bed. We have a big day tomorrow."

She used her magic to carry them into a giant, old-fashioned cast-iron oven with a big, round bed inside. The oven was not on, so there was no danger of getting burned. Well, not at the moment.

Queen Erranda was vexed, why does their bedroom look like an oven?!

She tucked them in under thick blue blankets and then kissed each of them as she said "good night."

After she closed the oven door, she returned to her matters.

"My, my, my! This is perfect, just perfect!" Mother Mae-Eye chimed gleefully as she went back to rolling her dough. "I've got an entire swarm of creatures to love me! And since they couldn't possibly love me more, I'm going to give them a nice reward; I'll put the rest of them to bed, and then I'll bake them with love! That shall give me enough pies to sell to those ponies up in Baltimore- erm... Baltimare I should say. And then, I shall perform the rest of my plan! He-he! When I love my children, they love me back, and their love for me makes me stronger. The fun really begins when I put them to the oven and bake them all up into pies, and get all of their nourishing affection!"

Queen Erranda was stunned. So this is why she took my drones, she wanted to drain their love for power!

"Once I bake them all up, I'm going to start a business and sell the pies for all the little ponies to eat. After they eat my pies, they become my new children, and with more children I'll make even more pies to sell, while I gain power from all their love! All with love, of course. Then, I rinse and repeat for every other little town in this land of Equestria, eventually reaching their two little princesses and six pony heroes I keep hearing about! And once I get them, and all the other ones in their kingdom, I shall become the most powerful witch anyone has ever seen!

"And once that is over with, it's time for me to head home. There with my new power, I will finally punish those ungrateful Titans for harassing me so! With them out of the way, no one else can stop me from getting all the love I want!"

Mother Mae-Eye let out another maniacal laughter upon concluding her evil agenda.

"...and I get to take over the world." She continued laughing.

Queen Erranda's jaws were agape when she realized it wasn't a matter of just saving her hive anymore, but also all life on Equestria! But who are those "titans" she mentioned? Nevermind that, I have to save my drones before they get pot-roasted!

Mother Mae-Eye summoned some gingerbread men from the shapes she cut out from the dough she prepared, and then brought to life with her magic spoon wand.

"There you go." The gingerbread men got up on their feet, "now go and keep an eye on my castle for me. I don't want anybody ruining it!"

The newly-formed gingerbread men hopped off the counter and onto the floor without breaking, and then walked deeper into the castle. "Now is to put the rest of those Changelings to bed."

She summoned a handheld calculator and started punching some numbers, "let's see here. Precisely one-hundred and thirteen changelings divided by five for each bed minus..."

While Mother Mae-Eye was busy with her calculator, Queen Erranda hurriedly looked for another way in without alerting her and getting caught. But there were no open windows except the one she was perched in front of. She could get inside through the window, but that would surely grab Mae-Eye's attention and probably alert her guards. Erranda could wait until Mae-Eye leaves, but by then there would not be enough time to save even one of her drones from getting baked alive.

Then she thought about the colored smoke from earlier, surely that must come from inside the factory/castle. But where there is smoke, there is fire, so getting inside from those chimneys would not be wise if the smoke or fire were still there.

Mae-Eye finished her calculations, "...times the time needed to make each pie crust equals." She looked intrigued by something, "hmm... Well, I better get to work!" With a poof, the calculator vanished from her hand and then she finally walked away.

Seeing the newfound opportunity, Erranda flew to the window, and watched the old witch walk across the kitchen and climb upstairs to one of the towers. With Mother Mae-Eye gone, as she suspected would take quite a while, Erranda hopped through the open window and swooped down to the floor!

But there was something not right about this place, for she felt dizzy when she flew much farther than she thought.

When she landed and looked up, Queen Erranda realized the castle was a "land of giants" where almost everything was scaled to many times their size! The kitchen drawers towered above her like the gates to a celestial realm! She knew this form was small, but she saw the drones get inside the oven and they were normal-sized. But here in the scaled-up environment, her finch-like form would be the size of a fly, and the drones perhaps the size of hamsters. And even in her normal form, she'd be the size of a kitten here.

Whoa! I knew she looked different for a moment. Well, I'd better find others who are still awake.

While she hid beneath one of the big kitchen counters, she looked across the wide room, whose walls were lined with rows of counters and ovens like the ones here. At the space in the middle, eight-foot-tall gingerbread men marched in alert for intruders.

After evading the guards, she found Chitin hovering across the room, but rather than his usual spikes, he sported a very formal hairstyle as though it were his first day of school. Aside from that, his eyes were still purple or pink from Mae-Eye's spell.

Erranda landed in front of him to stop him.

"Huh?" He stopped to see a tiny, beady-eyed bird in front of him. In an orange swirl of magic, it shape-shifted into Queen Erranda, who went up to him.

"Chitin!" She tried shaking him a bit, "wake up!"

He didn't seem to understand, so he said lazily, "but I am awake. And who are you?"

Erranda groaned and rolled her eyes, "this is your mother, Queen Erranda!"

"That's not true," he denied. "Mae-Eye is our mother. She looks way nicer than you, and she gives us all of those delicious pies."

"Well, those pies are her way of tricking you! She cursed them so whoever eats them thinks Mae-Eye is their mother!"

Chitin laughed, "you're lying! Mae-Eye's been our mother since forever and ever!"

"Then do you remember the time you brought me to her shed back in the forest?"

"Uhh..." Chitin looked confused.

"You know, you and Scratt brought our hive to her shed to eat her pies?"

"You mean our house?" He absentmindedly gestured in front him to mean here in Mother Mae-Eye's lair.

Erranda sighed as she began to lose patience. "No, Chitin. It's the one back in Equestria! We were in that forest since this morning!"

Chitin looked at Erranda suspiciously, "I know you're still lying, 'cause I don't remember any of that stuff. Heck, I've never seen you before!"

Drat! Queen Erranda realized, not only did she take my children, she must have taken their memories too!

"But then again, how did you know my name?" He continued naively, "and why do you look like me except bigger and more girly?"

…and their maturity level.

"Because we're both Changelings!" Erranda answered, "and Mae-Eye is not a Changeling! Didn't you ever think about that?"

"She still takes care of us," Chitin persisted. "She fed us, she clothed us, she gave us a home, and more importantly she loves us."

"Because she is tricking you into cooking you alive!" Erranda interrupted, "that way she can steal energy from your affection toward her! I saw her when she said it herself! Why else are there beds inside ovens?!"

"What?" Chitin was struck speechless. For a moment, Queen Erranda thought she finally brought him to his senses. But Chitin's expression grew furious, and he suddenly yelled, "No! I don't care what she looks like or what you say about her, Mother Mae-Eye is still our mother and nothing is gonna change that!"

"Oh for goodness sake, snap out of it!"

Erranda slapped him! At first, she was shocked at what she did to her son. But when he blinked, the pink hue from his eyes faded back into orange.

"Mother?" His voice tone also changed back, "what are you doing here?"

Queen Erranda sighed in relief, thank goodness!

He looked around his surroundings like he suddenly teleported here, "where the heck are we?"

Then he looked up to see his childish hairstyle, and briskly rubbed it back into spikes, "and who the heck messed up with my mane?!"

So it must be my slapping that broke her spell! If I am to wake all the drones this way, I'll need to find a way to do that before Mae-Eye cooks them alive. A light bulb lit up in Queen Erranda's mind, and then she smiled, and I know how to do just that!

When they suddenly heard footsteps behind them, they turned around to see a troupe of angry gingerbread guards march after them.

"I'll explain later," Erranda urged. "We have to wake up the others, quickly!"

"Got it!"

Before the gingerbreads could reach them, Queen Erranda and her son rocketed up and above their heads as they went across the vast kitchen.

As they flew, Chitin began, "okay, maybe now you should explain?"

"Do you remember that old female who gave us the pies?" Queen Erranda explained, "she's actually a witch! She enchanted the pies into making our whole hive think she was our mother, and now she's trying to draw power from us by baking us into pies!"

"What?!"

"Yes, so our job now is to wake them up and then we can get the heck out of here!"

"How are we going to wake them up? Do you know a spell that can counter hers?"

"Not a spell, we slap them awake." Erranda showed a stiff front hoof.

"Ah! Got it, mother!"

It wasn't long before they found Scratt scrambling in an open cupboard for something while wearing blue colored, full-body foal's pajamas with rabbit ears.

Chitin did a facehoof upon seeing this, and then flew up to him. When Scratt noticed Chitin, he freaked out and tried to block his view by standing on his hind legs and spreading his arms side-to-side. "It wasn't me! Honest!"

Slap!

Scratt's pink eyes turned back to orange, and after checking himself, his cheeks flushed red.

"Uhh... guys?" Scratt asked nervously, "why am I in a rabbit suit?"

"Trust me," Chitin warned. "You don't want to know."

"Yeah" Scratt said sarcastically as he unzipped the rabbit suit and tossed it out, "whatever."

When they hovered back down to a counter below, Scratt demanded, "now can any of you tell me what's going on?"

"Yes," Erranda summerised the situation. "We need to save the rest of the hive from Mother Mae-Eye before they get cooked!"

"Wait," Scratt was appalled, "she put that rabbit suit on me?!"

"Unfortunately, yes." Chitin admitted.

"Oh road apples," Scratt sulked. "I should've known!"

The trio heard more gingerbreads behind them coming to attack them.

"Let's take flight!" Erranda commanded, and they did so. They flew towards the nearest one of the ovens.

"Are you sure that's where our guys are at?" Scratt asked dubiously.

Erranda replies, "yes. Mother Mae-Eye is keeping the others inside these ovens disguised as bedrooms, so that when she cooks them she will feed off their loving her."

"Yikes," Scratt paused. "Are you sure she's not Queen Chrysalis in disguise?"

Erranda nodded. "Yes, I'm sure."

The three changelings arrived next to an oven, and Erranda told Chitin, "Chitin, check through the door and see if they're inside!"

"Yes, mother!" He hovered in front of the oven hatch and peered through it, and found a bed with five drones sleeping in pajamas.

"There are five of them inside," Chitin called out to the other two. "They are sleeping now."

"Is the oven turned on?" Erranda called back.

"No, mother." he answered. "There is no heat coming off from it."

"Good," she did not notice more gingerbreads hoisting themselves up the counter with candy canes, and Scratt panicking from it. "Now we need to get inside, wake them up, and slap them to break Mae-Eye's spells."

Scratt frantically poked Erranda to get her attention.

"What?!" Erranda snapped to Scratt, only to gasp when she saw Mother Mae-Eye's minions surrounding them. Erranda and her team readied themselves for combat, and Chitin joined in.

"Oh crud," Scratt cursed.

"We'll have to fight our way through!" Queen Erranda exclaimed, "we need to get to those drones as fast as possible! Get ready!"

Erranda and Chitin's horns glowed orange as they prepared spells, while Scratt nervously did a cheap martial arts stance. In the opposition, the gingerbreads stood ready with some of them wielding candy canes of Queen Erranda's height.

"Attack!" They fought the gingerbread men with spells and physical attacks. Erranda shot them with magic bolts from her horn, which broke apart the gingerbreads where they hit. Chitin broke them by bucking and chopping them in half with his hooves, but more minions kept on coming.

"Ya! Ha! Hya!" Scratt let out some slow punches and karate hoof kicks at one gingerbread man, who blocked his every attempt. After that, the gingerbread man punched inside of Scratt's mouth and pinned him against the wall. It grinned. However, Scratt bit hard into the "hand", freaking out the gingerbread man. After a few seconds, Scratt ate part of the "hand", causing the gingerbread man to mutely scream in pain.

"Mmm, delicious!" Scratt said with his mouthful before swallowing it.

Aha, another idea formed in Erranda's mind when she saw Scratt bite off the gingerbread man. Those creatures are just big walking cookies! Maybe if we wake more and more drones, I'll have them eat her minions as we bring more and more of our swarm! But there's too many of them for just the three of us to eat, we'll need those drones inside that oven to help us!

"Chitin!" Erranda shouted, "you must fly inside the oven and slap those drones awake! When they do, tell them to help us and eat these creatures here!"

"But what about you?!" He hesitated in concern for the queen's safety.

"Don't worry!" Queen Erranda assured him, "we'll be fine, go quickly!"

"Got it!" Chitin narrowly avoided a fist from a gingerbread man when he zoomed upward and hovered to the stove. When he got inside, he hovered above the sleeping changelings and landed softly on the mattress.

When Chitin slowly approached then, one drone opened a pink eye, "huh?"

Slap!! Pam pap-pap-pap! Smack!

The five drones groaned in pain as they got out of bed.

"Hey!" One of the drones shouted, "what did ya do that f-?!" Their eyes turned to normal color. "Prince Chitin?! What are you doing here?"

"What are we doing here?" Another one asked.

"And why are we wearing these ridiculous clothes?!" They tried taking their pajamas off.

"No time to explain," Chitin urged. "We have to help the Queen, she is in trouble!"

"What?!" The drones were alarmed, "well we gotta get moving!"

"Yeah!" Another agreed.

"Follow me," Chitin commanded. "She and Scratt are just nearby!"

"Yes, sir!" They all said in unison as they followed Chitin through the exhaust holes and to the counter, where Erranda set up a bubble shield around she and Scratt to fend off the gingerbread men.

"There!" Chitin pointed, "eat the creatures! Quickly!"

"Oh cool!" They licked their lips, "we're hungry!"

As the gingerbreads banged on the bubble shield, Chitin and the five drones dove down on them, distracting them from their assault. Erranda dispersed her shield spell, and she and Scratt joined in eating the gingerbread men. The gingerbreads became overwhelmed at getting eaten by eight changelings, and they fled. Queen Erranda watched them jump down the edge as they panicked, clearing the space of the enemy.

"There," she affirmed. "That should hold them off."

After explaining the situation to her re-awakened drones, Queen Erranda informed them about her plan. To break Mother Mae-Eye's influence, they must split into two groups, and each group is assigned to different beds to wake more drones from. The two groups grow in size as more and more drones are restored, and would eventually meet at the last oven available. Along the way, they get to feed off any gingerbread minions that get in the way. Once the entire hive is restored, they must leave Mae-Eye's castle through the front gates and go back to Equestria. And they must do all that before Mother Mae-Eye comes back to discover their activities.

Once everyone understood the plan, Queen Erranda assigned two groups of four units each. The first group was composed of three drones and Queen Erranda as the leader, while the second was composed of Scratt, two other drones, and Chitin as the leader. The two groups split up to the ovens in two directions, with Erranda's group going to the back and Chitin's group to the front. There were twenty-four total oven/beds in the whole kitchen, minus the one they already did, which meant they each had to do eleven or twelve each.

When they reached their next ovens, both groups faced some more gingerbread men, who tried to stop them from breaking Mae-Eye's spell from the drones. Having learned from their first encounter, they just flew past the ground-bound soldiers and squeezed through the gaps in the door, and slapped more changelings awake, adding to their numbers. There were about four or five changelings per bed.

As they moved on, sometimes the two groups would just eat the gingerbread men before freeing the sleeping drones. In case there were too many minions to handle on their own, they would just pass them. But as their numbers grew, they gradually led to the former.

By the time about half the hive was restored, some gingerbreads came back flying in life-sized toy planes that fired pocket-sized pies at the changelings. Thankfully, Chitin solved this problem by assigning half of his group to attack the pilots, while the other half focused on waking the influenced changelings.

By the time the two came back together, the hive was almost complete and they were down to one last oven.

"Did you get everypony?" Erranda asked Chitin.

"Including my starters," Chitin told her, "I've counted about fifty!"

"Good! Same here," Erranda gestured to the drones behind her. "It looks like we're down to a few more."

Realizing the sheer number and power of their adversaries, one gingerbread man whistled loudly to assemble every one of its comrades that remained in the kitchen. They set themselves into formation, stacked themselves up on each other, and then fused together to form into something larger, creating a huge shadow that loomed over the hive.

"Huh?" Queen Erranda, Chitin, and the rest of the hive turned around to see something form out of the gingerbread men! Eventually, it transformed into a giant, monstrous version of the gingerbread men which sported candy corns for teeth and claws, and frosting for drool dripping from its mouth. Its frosting design resembled an old-fashioned military uniform with shoulder pads and a red, heart-shaped badge at the left side of the torso.

RROOOAAAARRR!!!

Its breath blew hard enough to blow their manes and turn them frizzy, and they had to set their manes back straight.

"Drones!" Erranda commanded, "attack!"

The hive swarmed at the monster, but it swung its massive arms to knock off a good portion of the swarm, rendering them dizzy from the spinning.

Queen Erranda pointed her horn at the monster and then launched lightning bolts from it. It zapped the monster at its right arm and left a small burn where it hit.

With an irritated roar, it swung an arm towards Queen Erranda, who instinctively wrapped a magic bubble shield around her. The shield managed to absorb all the damage, but the sheer force of the blow broke the shield and sent her plummeting to the floor!

Chitin felt sweat drop down his cheek as he tried to think of a way to defeat the monster. Dang, he thought. That thing must be strong! At this rate, we're not gonna make it out of this alive!

He saw the heart badge emblazoned on its chest. That thing! Maybe if I strike there, we'll be able to destroy it!

Chitin shifted to a black-feathered gryphon form, and cupped his front paws in front of his beak. "Hey you! Ginger-vitis!" The monster turned its bulk to him, "did you know your breath smells like diamond dog, you big stupid pastry?!"

It roared again before readying another punch at Chitin, who darted toward the heart badge to gain speed. Before the monster could land another punch at Chitin, it missed. When he got into the length of its arms, he curled up into a ball and shifted into a small armadillo.

Crack!

Chitin shot through the heart badge and came out the other side, and eventually landed near the window. The gingerbread abomination did not scream, and instead just froze in place. The drones it knocked down earlier came back to their senses and looked in amazement at what happened, even Erranda did the same.

The monster slowly tilted backwards before eventually falling over toward where Chitin landed. When he uncurled his armadillo form and saw the thing falling down towards him, he quickly shifted into a cheetah and rushed out of the way! Upon finally landing, its head snapped into pieces before the rest of its body broke into huge chunks. It was down.

After the giant monster was destroyed, the last oven was searched and the drones were awakened from Mae-Eye's spell.

"That's the last one," Chitin turned to Queen Erranda. "Is that everypony?"

"Hmm," she put her front hoof on her chin. "Let me check."

She turned to her restored hive so far. "Attention everypony. Group up!" All the drones paid attention to her, "I need to make sure everyone in the Locust Hive is present!"

All the drones, including Scratt, onto the ground and formed rows of squares of 25 drones each, while Queen Erranda and Chitin hovered above them.

"Let's see," Erranda started counting, "twenty-five, fifty, seventy-five, a hundred and... ten, eleven, a-a-and... twelve. Good, that's everypony."

She and Chitin flew down closer to the hive.

"Alright!" She announced, "now that the whole hive is assembled, let's get out of here and go back to Equestria!"

When she turned around, all the drones started beating their wings as they all rose up into a swarm behind her! "Let's go!"

Queen Erranda and Chitin zoomed forth toward the great wide front exit as the hive followed. They closed in on the exit, when suddenly...

POOF!! "And just where do you think you're going?!"

Queen Erranda's swarm screeched to a halt when an enraged 50-foot-tall Mother Mae-Eye teleported in front of the exit and blocked their escape.

"What?!" Erranda, along with the rest of the hive, was baffled. "And just when things were going our way!"

"I thought I heard some racket downstairs, and I should have known it was you!"

Seemingly out of nowhere, an army of more gingerbread men flanked the Locust Hive on one side.

"I found you, I took you in, and then I cared for you in our new home, and now look what you did to my beautiful house!"

Another army flanked the other side.

"I cook, I clean, I feed you, and I clothe you! All those things I do for love, and this is how you repay me?!"

Yet more gingerbreads come up from behind the swarm.

"And especially you, Erranda!" Mae-Eye pointed her giant wooden spoon-wand at her, "you're the one responsible for refusing to join us in our new family, and then promptly corrupting my children!"

Soon the entire hive was surrounded by hordes of Mae-Eye's minions from all across the room and above in the air, trapping them with no hope of escaping.

"And now, I'm going to give all you rascals a good sound spanking!"

Queen Erranda was stricken with terror as Mother Mae-Eye once again cackled loudly.

"Oh, c'mon!" Scratt complained from behind, "we just ate!"

Author's Note

Hello everypony,

I apologize for the late release of this chapter. I wanted to release it by May 8th, but it took longer than I thought, since it had so many seams to bind together. But don't you worry, the next chapter should be a little bit shorter than this one, and then it's on to the epilogue. I hope you all enjoyed my story so far.

~Petro Beherha