Troubled Times

by GIULIO

Rating: teen
Tags: Sex, Tragedy, Gore, Violence, Dark, Death, Changelings, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 12840

A changeling hive is a living being composed of countless of organisms. Every member plays a key role in the well-being of the hive, though almost all of them can be replaced if needed. But what happens when the heart of the hive, the Queen, dies?

A changeling hive is a living being composed of countless of organisms—the pinnacle of eusociality. Every member plays a key role in the well-being of the hive, though almost all of them can be replaced if needed.

But what happens when the heart of the hive, the Queen, dies?

This is the story of the Badlands Hive.

Published 2016-10-17 21:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-10-19 00:49:23 UTC

Cracks

Queen Chrysalis was dead.

At first there was no immediate sign that her long life had ended: no fever, no spasms, and no farewells. She had simply lied down on the raised platform that was her bedding in the royal chamber and died. As if in a deep sleep, her body was still and prone, her legs and ears relaxed and her eyes closed. Her stillness alone was not enough to warn her children that a catastrophe had struck on the entire hive. She lay there, in fact, as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred; perfectly still as a statue—a macabre remnant of her former self.

Unlike ponies and other vertebrates, who have an internal skeleton surrounded by soft tissue that quickly rots away, changelings are encased in an external skeleton. Their soft tissues shrivel into dry threads and lumps, but their exoskeletons remain—a warrior’s armor fully intact long after the warrior is gone. Hence the workers and drones were at first unaware of their mother’s death. Chrysalis’s silence said nothing, and the odors of her life, still rising from her, signaled, I remain among you. She smelled alive.

Changelings, while possessing very good eyesight and highly developed vocal organs to help create the most convincing of disguises, were still primarily dependent on pheromones when it came to identifying one another. Furthermore, in the dark and dingy innards of a hive, eyesight accounted for little in communication, and the energy spent in speaking usually meant that the spoken word was reserved for situations that required one to be direct. In this aspect, pheromones still reigned supreme within the hive. This evolutionary quirk would prove crucial in the hours following the death of the queen.

This was easily the greatest challenge for the Badlands Hive since the fiasco that was the attack on Canterlot. Yet the workers would carry on undisturbed until they were certain that their queen was dead. Even so, an unnamed something had settled upon them, making them aware that there was a problem without realizing what it was and its extent. So they continued on for a while longer with the precision and expediency expected of a changeling hive, albeit with concern and worry looming in the air. Like a large ship at sea, it could not be easily diverted from its route in spite of the dark clouds on the horizon.

It was an entire day until the ship realized that it had gotten itself into a gale.

Everyone had been on edge in the latter hours, and while it went by unspoken, it still instilled a sense of fright in the hearts of drones and workers. Fortunately —or, arguably, unfortunately— the warriors seemed mostly unaware of the gloom that ruled the dark tunnels of the inner hive. The smell of alarm did spread fast from the chambers of the drones responsible for the queen’s well-being, but it was not strong enough to carry itself to the outer parts near the surface, where the majority of the warriors were stationed, nor was it strong enough to send the changelings who did taste it into a panic. That did not mean that everything was fine, however.

Buzz clicked his tongue. It was his way to show his discomfort with the situation that he knew every drone in the chamber felt. Regardless of what he felt, he kept tending to the food pellets that kept on coming from the respective chambers. All of this crystallized love was enough to feed every changeling present in one sitting. It was not, however, meant for them: this treat was for the Queen and her only.

But the pile of food just kept growing and growing like an unwelcome tumor. Their Queen had not eaten in hours, still asleep according the Kappa podmate changeling among them. He was mostly certain of his assertion, although even he was beginning to smell worried as the stockpile grew. Yet, they still kept working on keeping the love dry with the buzz of their wings.

Again, Buzz clicked his tongue. Then a smell reached to him: focus on your work. He didn’t even need to wonder who had sent him that, recognizing the alpha podmate responsible of feeding the Queen. Good thing that he couldn’t see Buzz’s scowl in the darkness.

It was not long before the Kappa was sent once more to investigate on the Queen. With only the sound of chitin scraping against the soil among the sounds of labor, it was difficult to tell when he actually had left.

So, Buzz and the other drones kept working mostly in silence under the keen nostrils of the overseer.

Suddenly, a piercing shriek erupted from the tunnel leading to the royal chambers, tearing every single drone’s attention from their duty. For a moment, Buzz expected an absolutely livid queen storming in with the carcass of the drone who had so indignantly awoken her from her slumber. He believed that his was a reasonable expectation that every drone in the chamber shared, considering their past experiences thanks to their privileged relationship with the monarch. They knew her better than most of the other members of the Hive.

But there was no furious shouting; no fear-inducing smells that would still even the most grizzled warrior; no stomping of slender hooves. There was only the hurried shuffling of very small hooves. Even before the message was spoken, the pheromones were enough to tell Buzz what had happened: “Dead! The Queen is dead!”

It was then that all of Tartarus broke loose.

Mandible’ ears twitched in anticipation. She looked to see her equal alpha warriors of the different pods, smelling the anxiety in what was the Royal Chamber. The body had since been disposed of by the mortuary workers with no fanfare whatsoever. Royalty or not, every cadaver found within the hive was properly disposed of by the undertakers among the workforce. It was a matter of health: the deep soil was moist as was the air, both full of microbial necromorphs which made the risk of infection a very real one.

The eight assembled warriors were the eldest members of the hive, and, as such, were now the ruling caste of the hive. Soldiers just hours ago, they were now effectively all queens.

Mandible wasn’t sure what to make of the fact that she was now in charge of an entire hive, even if only in part. Instinctually, she was prepared to deal with the death of the Queen, but only with a younger queen still present amongst their numbers. In spite of her newfound importance and responsibility, the hive was still queenless.

The silence in the chamber was palpable and there was very little movement within it, save for the flickering of the soft, green glow of the bioluminescent fungus that was used as a form of illumination within the hive. While no torchlight, it provided enough light to make every warrior’s facial expression visible. They all looked unsure—afraid, almost.

“Why?” one of the warriors, Clava, finally said, breaking the spell of inactivity. “She was only thirty-three; why did she die so young?”

Silence once more: all of the alphas looked to one another for an answer that didn’t come.

“She was not ill, or so the drones claim,” she continued, looking back to the tunnel leading out of the chamber. “Nor was she fatally injured. She was still alive and well the last time we’ve seen her.”

“But how long ago was the last time?” Mandible asked, genuinely curious. “How long ago was it when we have actually seen Queen Chrysalis?”

“A whole week,” mumbled Clypeus, one of the more elder warriors, “right after being blasted all the way from Canterlot. It wasn’t even during a debriefing.”

Clava nodded in agreement. “Yes, when we were still getting back on our hooves she was among us, but stormed off before we could speak to her.”

A murmur of general agreement droned in the room as well as the accompanying pheromones. “Wasn’t she right where that blast came from?” another warrior, Stinger, asked. When the chamber filled with an inquisitive smell and she only got blank stares, she explained, “Perhaps, that magic did something to our Queen. Perhaps that is what killed her.”

Mandible chewed on the idea; it did seem to make a certain amount of sense, but… “Then why weren’t we affected?” she posed. “We were all struck by it, and yet, here we are.”

No answer. None of them seemed to be able to come up with an acceptable answer. With a sigh and a tone laced with venom, she muttered, “Pony magic.”

The end-all and be-all secret weapon of the Equestrians, their magic was not only troublesome by itself, but it was bolstered by the Elements. How and why a species was so favored was a constant source of frustration in the Queen’s reports when undercover. Not even the ponies themselves seemed to fully know the arcane arts that they practiced, making the whole aspect all the more infuriating to the Queen. Mandible could recall the storms that the topic brought upon the strategy chamber; she was among those who huffed irritatingly at the reports of what their magic was capable of. If life was a motherly being, Mandible supposed that it had its favorite child.

The mere notion of such a thing irked the changeling to no end.

“It doesn’t matter how or why,” one of the other alphas, Labrum, said, snapping everyone out of their thoughts with an attention-grabbing smell. “We need to deal with this now. Otherwise, the Hive will not survive.”

A generic waft of agreement filled the chamber. Satisfied with the response, Labrum went on, “Have our infiltrator cells been notified of what’s happened here? They need to be kept informed.”

“Messengers have been dispatched,” Stinger, the one responsible, said. “It will take some time to let some of our more distant outposts know what’s going on, a month at most. They will be ordered to stand by for further developments.”

A nod: Clypeus looked about. “We need a queen. Do we know Aurelia’s whereabouts?”

“According to the drone who mated with her, she set her sights on the Hayseed Swamps to the east,” Mandible provided, buzzing her wings slightly. “Though he doesn’t know exactly where her hive is.”

“That’s if she even has one,” muttered Clava next Mandible. Her words were not too audible, but the smell that she emitted held a far greater impact than her words.

And what irritated Mandible about it was that the warrior was right; the Hive lost track of Aurelia once she entered the marshlands. The status of her own hive wasn’t the only thing in question: her well-being was an unknown. As much as the Badlands Hive knew, its last daughter queen was rotting somewhere in the Hayseed Swamps, dead as her mother.

“I’ll have scouts begin the search and pull the necessary resources to find her,” Mandible stated. “She may be willing to merge her hive with ours or, if she still hasn’t founded one, she can return to take the old Queen’s place.”

“That’s if she’s willing to do it,” said Clava. “If she is anything like her mother, she will ignore our plight, saying that we’re ‘weak’ or something along those lines.”

A smell of curiosity filled the chamber. “Have you actually met Aurelia?” asked Stinger.

Clava opened her mouth but closed it. “No, I have not,” she finally said. “Have you?” she asked with a cocked eyebrow. A negatory pheromone was the response. “Did anyone here even talk to Aurelia?” Her eyes took a cursory glance at the assembled changelings.

The collective mix of smells of ‘no’s and head shakes was surprising to Mandible: had none of these alphas even bothered to gauge the future queen when she was still a youngling? Her question soon answered itself however, when she realized that none of the warriors here had any tasks that involved the young Aurelia; rearing eggs and younglings fell under the responsibility of nursery drones and workers, not that of warriors.

“We can ask the drones who cared for her if we need to learn more about her personality,” Mandible said. “But the question still remains: what do we do if, for whatever reason, Aurelia cannot be our new queen?”

The exchange of unsure glances and odors made it clear: no one liked the alternative.

A sigh escaped from Mandible. “Alright, we’ll need a count of the Queen’s hisem and any potential suitors who can become part of it. We will split it evenly among us as planned.”

The looks that she got were varied, but they mostly carried surprise. “What do you think we can achieve by going with the contingency plan?” asked Stinger across from Mandible.

Mandible closed her eyes and thought for a moment. “No matter how we look at it, we need a queen,” she said, opening her cyan eyes. “If we cannot find a queen, we’ll make one.”

“And if we can’t?”

All eyes were on Mandible. Repressing the urge to release her panic pheromones or gulping, she let out a slow, even breath.

“Then the Hive is doomed.”

Days passed; the hive soldiered on in spite of the missing vital organ that was its Queen. Unlike the organisms that were part of it, the super organism didn’t feel fear or any sort of trepidation about the lack of a queen capable of maintaining the Hive’s numbers. It was just aware that that particular role had been filled by others who could not fully replace the previous holder of that duty. It knew that it was unwell and that if the problem did not resolve itself soon, it would wither and die a slow death.

But it trucked along, as if nothing were wrong. It was dependent on the changelings that inhabited it like an organism was dependent on its own cells: no matter how much it wanted a solution, it had no say or influence over its own well-being.

As such, the vessel that was the hive sailed through the storm: it was listing; it took in water; it was slowly sinking and risked losing everything. It just did what it could do—survive. For it was at the mercy of the luck of its crew.

“Hello there, young one!”

A small chirp was the sole response of the youngling. With a small smile that went by unseen by the new adult, Seta proceeded to cleaning and applying a natural antiseptic on its exterior. Like most chambers, the nursery was obscured in darkness. Not that it really mattered; the recently emerged changeling (a worker, Seta noted glumly) could easily sense the nursing drone as well as her surroundings.

She squirmed at Seta’s cleaning, buzzing her newly formed wings tentatively and releasing a smell: what are you doing? it said.

That wasn’t quite what she was communicating. Her olfactory message came off more as general anxiety; a lack of experience of chemical communications was the obvious reason as to why that was. Like any newborn, the worker had some difficulty in using her scent glands properly, but in time she would learn. The spoken word would take a while longer, however.

“I’m giving you a bath, silly girl,” Seta chimed playfully, continuing to clean her in spite of her minor protests. His words most likely meant nothing to the young adult, with only one prior occurrence of her in her minute-long life as an adult; she still had no meaning that she could attach to Seta’s words. Still, talking to the currently mute worker helped in an intrinsic manner. It’d make her have an easier time learning speech later on. The scent he released however, meant far more than mere words. Wordlessly, Seta calmed her down with an aura of reassurance.

He kept administering his antiseptically charged saliva on the worker’s exoskeleton. Having emerged just then from her pupa, the exoskeleton was still vulnerable to possible infections. It’d take no more than a full day before her body would adjust itself so as to be prepared to the dingy air of the Hive.

Once finished, he smiled with the satisfaction of a job well done. “Look at you, all cleaned up.” Although neither one of them could actually see the then saliva-coated chitin of the worker, it wasn’t as if she would have corrected him about it.

“Say...” Seta started slowly, acting as if he had just noticed something important. “You’re a sister of mine! The last one of a long line at that.” The worker only chirped in response.

Normally he would have never said this to any recently-emerged youngling as they were all siblings—children of a single queen. But in light of current circumstances, what he said was true: this new worker was from the last egg that Queen Chrysalis had laid about a month back. From now on, all younglings that emerged would be children of the alpha warriors who had taken up the duty of producing offsprings. That is, if a fertile queen wasn’t found in the meantime.

Careful not to make the youngling aware of his concern, Seta sighed. The nursery was mostly barren, with only a few of the more recent pupae that had arrived from the brooding chambers. For his whole life, he wondered who the father was to some of the younglings that he welcomed to the world. Now, he would have to guess as to who the mother would be for the new generations of changelings that he’d have to tend to.

It was a surreal feeling.

Another chirp caught his attention, and he smelled the youngling’s pheromones: what now?

“Now?” Seta said, putting on a small smile. “Now we get you to your clutch mates. Come along now.” He made for the exit, leaving an inviting trail for the youngling to follow.

She followed, just like every youngling before her.

“One prince.”

“Ah-hah! Two tens, then.”

Undercover’s disguised eyebrow shot up, scrutinizing the beige pegasus across the table from him for any tells. If Mirror Image was lying, his disguised face was beautifully blank. Those supposed tens were his last two cards. Suspicious, Undercover looked over his own cards. A ten of spades: didn’t Mirror already put another two tens just a few plays ago?

“Manure,” he said with a cocky grin, leaning over the table to reveal the last two cards on the pile; a ten of diamonds and clubs stared back at him. Undercover’s jaw slackened. “Wait, no. That’s not—”

Now it was Mirror’s turn to grin. His emerald pony eyes shone with no small amount of smug satisfaction, letting Undercover know just how badly he had failed to read the other infiltrator’s poker face. “I dropped one ten and one princess when I said two tens before,” he explained, passing the card pile over to Undercover. “You might not have noticed, Undercover, but I’ve perfected my mask while you have not. That’s what makes me a beta and you a delta. ” His pegasus form was suddenly engulfed in a ball of green fire before it dissipated to reveal his grinning changeling body. “And with that, I’ve won again. You really need to work on your facial control and reading, Undercover.”

Undercover grumbled as he picked up the deck of cards, not bothering to drop his own disguise. He was on the verge of making a snarky comment when a knocking on the door came. The two changelings tensed up at the sound, prompting Mirror to quickly don his disguise again.

Silently, the two infiltrators walked to the door, taking their places at the sides of it. Ready, came the smell from Mirror. Nodding, Undercover asked aloud, “Are there rats outside?”

“The cats are having a feast,” was the response. The two changelings visibly relaxed: Silhouette. They recognized both her pheromones and her feminine voice as if the key phrase wasn’t proof enough of the changeling’s identity.

Undercover unlocked the door and let in the pink unicorn mare with the dark olive mane. After closing the door, he asked, “Any news, Roseberry?” He wiggled his eyebrows in a sardonic fashion.

Undercover took any and all opportunities to practice with facial expressions, no matter how unfitting with the situation or tiring they were. As Mirror Image had painfully reminded him, he needed to improve.

Giving a lopsided smile with too much lipstick applied on it, ‘Roseberry’ said, “The same old: the old timer’s still trying to get a working mare to offer her hoof while in bed.” She gave a roll of the eyes. “As if that’s ever going to happen.”

Mirror Image, now out of his disguise, cocked his eyebrow. “He’s still trying to woo you?”

“What can I say?” the mare said, shrugging. “Some stallions just cannot resist my charms.” With a very sultry bed-eyes look, all the more exaggerated with the heavy eyeshade, she also added, “Although I’ll admit that the ‘Roseberry magic’ helps, just a tad.”

Undercover laughed. “Just a tad?” he parroted, dropping his disguise.

“Well,” Silhouette began, switching back to her normal changeling form, “I suppose hypnotizing them and convincing them that they’re having the time of their lives without actually playing out their fantasies on me counts for a lot more.”

That got the three infiltrators laughing, saturating the small apartment with positive pheromones. With the chuckles ebbing away, Silhouette was the first to recover. “But yes. That one stallion is still trying to get me to marry him. Marrying a prostitute?” With a shake of the head, she looked up with some concern. “It’d definitely attract attention.”

Growing serious, Mirror asked, “Is he going to be trouble?”

“No, he may be a bit annoying, but he’s a good source of love.” She gave a very pony-like shrug. “So long as he doesn’t do anything stupid, I’ll be fine. Speaking of...” Silhouette walked over to a bookcase. She pressed a secret button on the side, and the whole thing slid sideways to reveal a hidden compartment in the wall. Her horn glowed to siphon out the love she had collected for the night, depositing itself within one of the many crystalline food pods in the stash. Once done, she picked one of the fuller ones and began munching on it.

“I still don’t get how the hivelings were starving before the invasion,” Undercover said, looking in the hidden stash. “Getting enough love to feed the whole Hive really shouldn’t be so difficult to warrant a takeover.”

“I’m convinced that it was just a show of force,” Mirror said, resting himself on the couch with a food pellet of his own. “Were things really as bad as they made it out be back home when you were still there?” With no disagreement from the other two he continued, “The Queen just wants to send a message to the Desert and Hill Hives. What better way to convince that you’re the biggest bug of the land than capturing the Princesses and the Bearers as food sources?”

Undercover nodded. “War trophies.”

“Exactly,” Mirror replied, crunching down on the crystallized love. “It’s definitely put the bigger settlements on the lookout for us. Our attack may have failed, but the Queen’s left enough of an impression that it’s been almost two months since then and they’re still doing random searches at the ministry.”

“She did make our jobs more difficult.” Silhouette set her food down. “If we’re having a tougher go of it, I can’t imagine how things are for the Canterlot cell.”

“If there’s even one yet,” Undercover mumbled glumly. The sentiment was mutually shared, if the smells were anything to go by. They’ve heard and read the public captures of infiltrators in the bigger cities like Manehattan and Fillydelphia. No one knew what they did with the prisoners, but the rumors that were the most prevalent involved harsh interrogations and perhaps some form of torture. As far as they knew, all of the infiltrator cells (with the exception of the Canterlot one for obvious reasons) were still functional, if not at full strength. The Delta knew that the Manehattan one was down by at least two infiltrators, while the Fillydelphia cell had lost one. The possibility that their comrades might have revealed the location of this cell, let alone the existence of it, plagued the changelings’ minds. They had already abandoned two of their safe houses when they got wind that somepony was getting curious.

It was part of the changeling’s nature to be able to adapt to changing circumstances. It did not mean that they enjoyed having to reconsider their hideout locations every time the possibility of it being compromised seemed real enough, however.

Mirror finished munching on his pellet. “The Other hives must be pretty upset with our bold move,” he muttered. His tone indicated resentment, but Undercover tasted some smug satisfaction from him. “Don’t think that they came as far as Canterlot, or even here, but—”

A knocking came from the door.

Unlike earlier when Silhouette was behind the door, they knew that it couldn’t have been anyone from their cell; only three infiltrators manned it. Two possibilities remained: either it was a pony or another changeling. While the former was concerning for obvious reasons, the latter wasn’t necessarily reassuring either, especially after Mirror mentioned about the Others. It could have been a single infiltrator, or an entire group of them. Had they come seeking payback?

Regardless—the three of them needed to be prepared for any of those possibilities.

Silhouette hid her food pellet and that of Mirror back into the stash and slid the bookcase back in its place before assuming the identity of Roseberry. Mirror and Undercover took on their disguises and made themselves inconspicuous by setting up their card game on the table.

All was set, and Silhouette made for the door’s peephole. Having her in his view, Undercover could spot the confused look on her pony features, before opening the door. That was surprising enough in it of itself, as protocol dictated that they first asked who was at the door, regardless of the situation. What was more surprising was the almost livid scowl forming on Silhouette, something that he had never seen on Roseberry before.

Outside was a white pegasus with puffy blonde mane and tail, and that was all Undercover needed to see to understand Silhouette’s anger.

Positively fuming, Silhouette tugged hard at the mare and pulled her inside. Once the door shut behind them with a click, she turned to glare at the intruder. “What in Tartarus are you thinking, walking around looking like that?” she seethed. “Don’t you realize how similar you look to the Bearer of the Element of Laughter, you stupid hiveling? Do you have a death wish or something?”

With all pretense dropped and forgotten, every changeling turned to regard the supposed hiveling. As Silhouette pointed out, the mare looked like an exact replica of the infamous Pinkie Pie, albeit with wings and the wrong color scheme. Her ears flattened against her head, followed with a very distinct odor of regret and shame. “S-sorry,” she said, “I didn’t mean to attract attention. I’m just a worker.”

“Of course you are,” Silhouette muttered angrily. “They always have to send a freaking rookie to send us messages.” She brought a hoof to her face, uttering something that was too quiet to make out. “Alright, hiveling,” Silhouette said as she brought her snout right up to the worker’s, “what’s so important that they sent a worker instead of someone who knows how to disguise themselves?”

The worker wilted at the judging stares of the infiltrators, now all out of their disguises. With a sigh, she too dropped her disguise to reveal a petite worker. It took a moment longer before she finally said, “Priority One message: the Queen… Queen Chrysalis is dead.”

For a long moment there was a distinct lack of a reaction from the infiltrators. Undercover only blinked. “Come again?”

“She died in her sleep due to unknown causes,” the worker explained, gauging the elder changelings’ faces. “She died six weeks ago.”

Mirror Image stumbled for a reply. “Wha– who’s Queen now?”

It was definitely definitely shocking news, but it was an eventuality that had to happen sooner or later. It happened sooner, so that granted the message some urgency, but it wouldn’t make it a Priority One; at most, it was a Priority Two, and even then that was pushing it. Of course, the Queen’s next-in-line would take her place. What was her name? Undercover wondered, before recalling Aurelia’s name.

He was about to tell Mirror who it was, but the messenger had another important tidbit to add. “No one,” she said. “Right now we only have the alpha warriors taking care of brooding, but we do not have a queen to take up the throne.”

Now the infiltrators were definitely worried.

“W-w-wait, what happened to Aurelia?” Undercover asked with an edge to his voice. “Why isn’t she Queen?”

Somehow the messenger shrank further in fear. “She left the Hive not long before the attack. Were you not briefed on that?”

Mirror and Undercover exchanged brief glances while Silhouette looked to the floor. “We… we were focused on the sabotage plans,” she slowly said in realization, returning her gaze towards the two infiltrators. “Everyone was too busy working on the attack. The Hive must’ve forgotten to bring us those news.”

Frustration filled the small apartment living room. “Not that it would have mattered,” Mirror said, “any and every communication between us and the Hive is slow.” He turned to the messenger. “You said that the Queen died just over a month ago, right?” With a nod from the hiveling, the beta huffed. After some minor pacing, he nodded to himself. “Alright—okay. What are our standing orders?”

The worker’s wings buzzed with some renewed confidence. “Orders for Baltimare Infiltrator Cell,” she recited in an even, almost mechanical, voice. “Maintain low profile and continue observation of the population center; avoid any and all contact with foreign infiltrators or cells; wait for further instructions from the Hive.”

The trio kept looking on at the messenger. Eventually, Undercover asked, “And?” With no reply, he threw his head up in fresh frustration. “Great. Just great! Are you seriously telling us that we have no Queen and we’re expected to stay put?” he said with no small amount of disbelief. “We– the Hive needs all the help it can get in times like these! We ought to return to help out.”

“And abandon everything that we built here, Undercover?” Silhouette countered with a hostile tone. “Are you listening to yourself? If we left now, we’d lose all of our contacts and infrastructure that we’ve built up. We need to stay here. You realize how difficult it will be starting again from scratch?”

The tension between the two was palpable, and they stood at odds with each other. Surprisingly enough, Undercover wasn’t the next one to speak, but Mirror. “He’s not entirely wrong…” he muttered, as if he were thinking aloud.

“What?” Silhouette said, staring at her superior as if he had suddenly grown a second horn. Undercover too regarded him with a curious waft.

“Undercover’s got a point, gamma,” he said, lacing the latter word with what sounded like contempt. “We might be of more use back home. I mean, all alphas and no queen?” He shook his head. “That’s a stopgap measure. It’s the best that they can do, but what happens when the alphas’ ovaries begin to run empty and there’s still no queen?” Mirror gave them no chance to respond. “The Other hives are going to find about this; blood’s going to be spilled.”

The response to that was mixed: Undercover nodded, although his anxiety was obvious; the worker reeked of panic; Silhouette’s jaw hung limp, thinking up of a rebuttal that did not come fast enough.

“But… what do we do then?” Silhouette asked tentatively.

His eyes closed, taking in a deep breath through his nostrils. Mirror held it in for a long moment, before letting it out in a slow exhale. Finally, he opened his eyes and looked to the messenger.

“Listen up, hiveling; you have a response to send back.”

The fire crackled as a bit of firewood broke apart into ash, sending embers flying into the chilly night air. Carapace watched the flames blankly, both glad and disappointed that nothing of interest had happened since… actually, she couldn’t remember when was the last time that something happened.

Granted, the death of the Queen a couple of months back was something, but it wasn’t the certain something that she was hoping for. She had once longed for some action in the Western Post at the edge of the Hive’s territory; now, with the Hive’s future uncertain, she would have been grateful if nothing at all happened. But the boredom was beginning to get to her.

She shifted the cloth on her back, a loose dull white garb, ridding herself of some sand that had gotten into some of the wrinkles. Bringing a hoof to rub her eyes, her nostrils scrunched up at the sensation of hairs scratching against the long snout typical of a Saddle Arabian. Carapace never quite liked her guise, since her limbs felt too elongated and the slender frame was something that she still had not gotten used to: she was a warrior after all, not an infiltrator. She was just a prop piece in the backdrop of a Saddle Arabian nomad camp that was the face of the outpost. Of course, the likelihood of a wandering pony or Arabian who so happened to come across them was very low, but it still made the need of a disguised outpost necessary.

The wind picked up somewhat, making the fire waver and the tent flaps shake. While noticeably cooler, Carapace was not bothered by the moderate breeze.

But it did carry something that made her sit up and look.

Looking in the direction of the wind, she spotted a lone torch in the distance approaching the encampment. Carapace smiled instinctually: the porter with the monthly supply was early. While their food and water supplies were still healthy they were getting low. Any abundance of either was welcome. She rose up and walked along the sand ready to greet the porter when Carapace noticed something odd.

It’s coming from the west.

How she hadn’t noticed the rocky hills in the distance behind the porter was baffling in it of itself, but a second whiff of the porter’s smell confirmed it: whoever that changeling was, it was not one from Carapace’s hive.

She acted quickly, getting out of the light of the campfire and hiding in between the tents. She was downwind of the intruder, so perhaps she hadn’t yet been detected. The foreign stench grew stronger as she began to hear the scrapes of hooves on sand approaching. By now, she had dropped her guise, wearing only the baggy white robe.

The hooffalls stopped; an aura of wariness came to Carapace, letting her know that the changeling was now in the camp.

With furious speed, she sprang from her hiding place, fangs bared and wings buzzing. The Other at the campfire, disguised as a dark brown mare pegasus with overstuffed saddlebags, turned with widened eyes. It dropped its mask, but by then Carapace was already all over it.

Her strike was true as her teeth sank into the chitin of the intruder, tasting the copper of her victim’s blue-green blood. Carapace had aimed for the neck, but the Other turned just in time for the maw to bite at its back instead.

It uttered a shriek and promptly bit back, twisting its head to get at Carapace’s vulnerable side. Teeth ripped into her cloth, but she suffered no injuries. With a quick move, Carapace struck the snout of the Other and let go of the back. It staggered back, wings bloodied, and then assumed a battle stance, hissing threateningly.

The warrior snarled back, unleashing as many fear-inducing pheromones as she could. For a moment, the two held their ground, seizing each other up, when the intruder made the first move: a straight on tackle. Carapace leaped upwards and let the changeling barrel beneath her. When she turned in midair, she was surprised to see the intruder making a break for it, with a trail of droplets of blood marking the sand.

Carapace wasted no time in pursuit, but the Other stopped, turned to face her and…

Carapace’s world was devoured by emerald fire. A resounding bang assaulted her senses as she felt herself spiraling down to earth. She landed hard against the rough sand; her garb tore up with the friction and she felt the burn on the exposed parts of her body. Pain surged in her, feeling bits of her face’s chitin being shredded against the sand. She had traveled for several yards before coming to a full stop.

For a long while, Carapace’s entire existence revolved around pain; she was unable to think straight with the pounding head and the pressure at the base of her horn; she couldn’t sense the movement of her limbs through the burning that coursed all over her body. Eventually, the green faded to black and the pain mercifully winked out with the loss of consciousness.

***

Concern: that was the first thing Carapace was aware of. The scents of it almost overwhelmed her nostrils even in her dulled state. The next thing that came into focus was her sense of hearing, as she began to make out the howl of the wind and the crackle of the firewood.

She shifted her head to the side and was rewarded with a dull throbbing pain pulsing through to her head as a result.

“Carapace?” she heard a distant voice ask. “Can you hear me?”

What she had intended to be a clear yes, Carapace only let out a slurred groan. Failing that, she decided to release an affirmative pheromone.

“Alright, good,” the voice said, growing clearer. “Stand still while I help you.”

A tingling sensation ran through Carapace. It was an uncomfortable feeling and her impulse was to fidget; fortunately she stilled herself enough (only kicking once with a hoof and twitching a wing slightly) as she let the cool feeling wash over her.

Eventually it dissipated, and a groan was heard. “I’ve done what I can, Trap Jaw.”

“Carapace,” an authoritative voice said, “I want you to listen closely. Can you do that?”

Surprisingly enough, Carapace managed to nod. “Good. Do you remember what happened?” Another nod. “Can you tell us what happened?”

She slowly opened her eyes, two figures coming into her view. Somehow, she successfully uttered one word: “O-other.”

Seta skittered at a hastened pace, his senses reaching out to make sense of the number of eggs. This was his third run through of nursery as he came up with the same number as before: a hundred and twelve.

He could feel his panic pheromone filling the chamber. This was too small of a clutch. Bigger than that of a single queen, yes, but far too small for eight bearing females. Last clutch that they had laid had thirty eggs more. Discrepancies in clutch numbers were commonplace, but this suggested something that the drone did not want to contemplate.

We’re running out of time.

It must’ve been a mistake; he must have miscounted. He wasn’t the only nursing drone or worker that took stock of the pupae and eggs. Surely he wouldn’t have been the only one to notice if the clutches were growing worryingly smaller. And yet, not a single one of his fellow nurses had reported the concern.

Seta did consider doing another count. The implication that he was right meant that if none of these pupae or eggs contained a youngling queen, the Hive was living on borrowed time. But no, he wasn’t wrong. He had to tell someone.

Knowing that he reeked of fear, he scurried off into the branching tunnel leading out of the nursery.

Crumbling

Buzz was still panting; it had been minutes since his alpha warrior, Mandible, had kept him for an out-of-schedule session of procreation. He wasn’t what one would normally classify as a fit mating candidate (with eight breeding females, the entry bar had to be lowered) but as of late, the sessions and their frequency were wearing him out.

A wave of sympathy reached his olfactory senses. Looking to his side he sensed a fellow podmate, Clasper. Are you well? he asked nonverbally.

Buzz let loose an affirmative waft before sighing. No, he communicated, eliciting an inquisitive smell from Clasper. “Tired,” he huffed, trying to focus his attention on the food before him.

“I figured,” Clasper said. “You’re her favorite, you know. You’ve been with the Alpha the most. How are you even standing?”

Buzz shook his head, flicking his wings. I don’t know. He finally made the effort to masticate the food pellet in his grasp. The resounding crunch was muted with his exhaustion. Fortunately his jaw was not among the parts of his body that ached.

“Who went after you, Buzz?” Clasper asked in between bites.

Buzz was slow on his response. “Ah...” he rubbed his head. “Scape, I think? I wasn’t paying attention.” The drone contemplated whether or not it was even worth the effort to finish the pellet that he had taken the minute bite out of.

The stillness of the feeding chamber was pierced by a distant moan from a tunnel. All of the drones present perked their ears, but otherwise paid no attention to it: having now grown used to it as of late, they knew that it originated from the Alpha’s private chamber.

Buzz had to repress a shiver. Scape didn’t sound like he was having an easy time of it.

Clasper buzzed his wings. “Scape really can’t keep quiet, can he?”

That earned a chuckle from Buzz. No, no he can’t, he communicated. Perhaps he would finish that pellet after all. He needed the energy after all, now that the Alpha was mating so often. That news from the nursery had spurred her attempts to create a new queen to take up the task of leading the Hive. As such, the Alpha’s hisem were feeling the consequences of that obsession.

“I just hope that we’ll get a queen soon,” Clasper muttered, sighing. He swallowed a pellet whole. “As fun as it is being a mate, it is tiring.”

Even though he couldn’t see him, Buzz gave his podmate a leery stare. “Are you not worried about the Hive’s integrity?” he said, working to keep his tone even. “We’re not doing this for fun, you know!”

Put on the defensive, Clasper radiated an apologetic aura. “Of course I am. I’m just trying to stay optimistic.” He groaned. “The concern I can smell in the tunnels is so thick that I sometimes think that I’m going to choke in it. I need some good humor in the air; otherwise I’ll go mad with worry.”

Buzz had to bite back a response; he was about to tell Clasper off, but in truth, he felt the same. Even though no one talked about it, spirits were low in the Hive; no one needed to. The very sensation, as his podmate had said, was just so much that it reverberated within the changelings themselves. Even the younglings were aware of it: the Hive was ill.

The sounds from the Alpha’s chambers died down, and for a moment, peace, though sullen, returned in the feeding chamber. Buzz tried once more to munch on his food, not making much more progress on the pellet.

A waft of urgency snaked inside from one of the outlier tunnels. Buzz and Clasper, being closer to it, were the first to take notice of it. Hooves scraping against the dirt denoted the arrival of a newcomer.

“Message for Alpha Mandible!” a gamma warrior called. “Is she available?”

The chamber filled with laughter. “She is currently indisposed,” one of the epsilon drones said, “you might have to wait a while.”

The warrior seemed unfazed of the innuendo. “It is imperative that she hears this,” she huffed. “When will she be ready?”

Renewed sounds of sex rolled out from the Alpha’s chamber. “A while,” Clasper answered, inspiring a new bout of guffaws and pheromones of entertainment.

The warrior groaned in frustration. “I’ve got to get this message to the other Alphas, so tell your Alpha that she is to convene with her equals.”

“Why, did one of them realize how screwed we are?” a drone quipped. This time, there were no laughs as a flash of green light pierced the darkness. A shriek of pain and a thud followed.

The warrior’s face glowed from her horn’s magic, revealing narrowed eyes and a menacing fanged scowl. The chamber plummeted once more into darkness, and the once tranquil atmosphere was overwhelmed by the authoritative and fear-inducing pheromones.

“You think that this is some joke, drone?” the warrior said in a threatening voice. “You might be fucking yourselves silly with your Alpha, but in case you haven’t noticed, my Alpha is trying to keep the Hive afloat.” She paced in the center of the chamber. “Mandible can try to push out all of her eggs out of her ovipositor as quickly as she can, but it won’t help if we don’t keep a level head.”

“Y-you…!” a drone stuttered.

“I, what, drone?” she seethed, approaching the drone. “You need to get your heads out of your ejaculatory ducts!”

“Mandible shall hear about this!” Clasper said. “You’re out of line!”

The warrior snarled. “I’m a gamma! I have authority over you.” She spat. “But since you’re insistent, then have her hear this: our infiltrators are considering desertion! How’s that for out of line?”

That shut Clasper’s response and that of any other drone. Unwilling to allow the situation from worsening, Buzz stepped in. “Very well, Gamma,” he said evenly, doing his best to hide his exhaustion and pouring out as much bravado in his pheromones as he could. “We’ll let her know of the call. But know that we will also tell her what you have done here.”

He held his breath when the Gamma walked up to him. He felt her breath on his muzzle, knowing that she stood tall over him. She then snorted. “See that you do. Alpha Stinger and the others are waiting for her.” Without any further words, she turned and scrambled through the tunnel to the rest of the Hive.

Several drones were all over the downed changeling who was still writhing from the blast. “Someone get a healer in here!” one of them called out.

“I’ll go,” Clasper volunteered. “Who will inform the Alpha?”

A smell of trepidation was the response from the majority of the drones. Not one of them wanted to risk being the target of Mandible’s ire once she learned about what had happened to her drones.

With a sigh, Buzz said, “I will, since I am her favorite.” Slowly, carefully, he walked to the tunnel leading to the Alpha’s chambers. After all, he thought, who else gets to call her Mandy?

“How dare you?!” A furious Mandible stormed into the conference, flaring her wings.

Clypeus stood up. “Mandible, this is a—”

“Quiet you,” she growled, focusing her attention to one particular alpha. “One of your gammas put one of my hisem into the infirmary, Stinger!”

Stinger, the Alpha sitting in the circle opposite of Mandible, narrowed her eyes. “I know what happened, Mandible,” she said in a calm voice. “She has been disciplined and demoted to epsilon.”

Mandible’s anger was almost overwhelming to the warriors’ olfactory senses as her eyes bulged at Stinger. “‘Demoted to epsilon?’” she repeated mockingly. “You should have her drawn and quartered! She almost killed one of my mating drones!”

Stinger didn’t flinch at her equal’s tirade. “Now, correct me if I’m wrong,” she said, a lopsided smirk forming on her snout, “but it sounds like you’ve grown attached to your hisem, Mandible.”

Mandible’s head recoiled slightly as if it had been physically pushed. “I’m not ‘attached’ to my drones,” she spat, venom tainting her words. “I only wish that they are safe. They are my only hope in creating a queen, after all!” She rubbed her chin. “In fact, one could make the assumption that you purposefully had your Gamma attack one of them to lessen my chances of saving the Hive!”

Stinger rose up, wings flared, hissing slightly. “Don’t you accuse me, Alpha,” she snarled, charging as much spite into the latter word. “I had no part in that.”

Mandible took a step forwards, posing her body and releasing the appropriate pheromones for a challenge. Stinger seemed ready to accept it were it not for their alpha companions stepping in between them.

“Order!” Labrum stated. “Mandible,” she said, regarding the angry warrior, “the warrior under Stinger’s command has been punished according to her crime. She is the one who decides what her underlings deserve.

“And Stinger,” she said, turning her head to the opposite warrior, “you must supervise your warriors better so as not to cause this friction between us.” At the small scoff from Stinger, she also added, “Don’t antagonize Mandible.”

Clypeus nodded. “The two of you are not the only ones who are struggling to save the Hive. Save your petty rivalry for when after the Hive is safe once more.”

Slowly, unwillingly, the two alphas tore themselves out of the combat stances and took their seats, still meeting the others’ eyes.

“Now then,” the elder began, “we have received some grave news from some of our more distant cells. I trust you all know the details?” A waft of agreement reached her nostrils; she nodded. “Good—as you all know, infiltrator desertion is a grave concern. While the search for a new queen still takes precedence, we must address this situation.

“Additionally,” she continued, “reports from both Ponyville and Appleloosa suggest increased foreign activity.”

The chamber grew somber. Nobody said it, but the smells were clear: the Other hives were behind this.

“Baltimare, Fillydelphia, and Vanhoover,” Stinger listed off. “Vanhoover is very far and can be abandoned if need be and Baltimare’s small size allows us to shift our focus elsewhere.” Her eyes flicked across the alphas around her. “Fillydelphia’s too valuable a city for us to consider dismantling the cell there.”

“What about Manehattan?” Clypeus asked.

“We have received no word from that cell,” Stinger replied. “It could be that the messenger has been intercepted.”

Mandible scowled: regardless of the contempt that she held towards Stinger, she wasn’t one to lie when it came to messengers. “Perhaps the Hill Hive might have something to do with it,” she said. “Reports from our western posts indicate that they are concentrating their forces.”

Clypeus clicked her teeth. “Do you think that the Others are preparing for an assault?”

“It’s entirely possible,” Stinger answered. “They may have gotten wind of Chrysalis’s death.”

“A leak?” Labrum posed. A shrug was Stinger’s only response.

“However they’ve figured it out, we need to be ready for a possible attack,” Clypeus said, her tone even. Her attentive eyes turned to Clava. “How are our forces?”

The Alpha brought her forehooves together, taking a moment to respond. “Mandible’s efforts to produce a queen,” —her eyes flicked over to the mentioned warrior, who scowled in annoyance— “as misguided as they may be, have proven to be helpful.” She waved a hoof indicating everyone present. “All of our efforts in fact, have given a boost to our warrior count. We should have more warriors than the Hill Hive. Possibly more so than all of the Others’ forces combined.”

Stinger scowled. “But most of the new warriors are still young,” she pointed out. “Not only that, they only heed the alpha that birthed them.”

For once, Stinger had actually provided something that Mandible had forgotten: when there is a queen, all of the Hive’s warriors abide to her words because they are her daughters. In a situation where there are multiple mothers, however, it was more complicated. They were all still of the same Hive and would willingly die to defend it, but with differing loyalties to their superiors meant that command wasn’t as clear cut as it would have normally been.

In essence, it meant that Mandible would have to coordinate with Stinger and the others. She grimaced inwardly.

“You forget, Stinger, that we don’t simply up and attack one another,” Clava said, leaning in close, releasing a small amount of inviting pheromones. The others drew in closer, watching the Alpha expectantly. She uttered a single word: “Tournaments.”

Everyone nodded in understanding. “True,” Clypeus said, “so long as we have the numbers and the pomp, they wouldn’t dare attack.”

“But if they do know that we’re queenless, wouldn’t the Hill Hive still try something?” Mandible paused as the others turned to face her. “We really need to look to the Hive’s defense rather than some meaningless outpost.”

“But what if the Others don’t?” Stinger rebutted, her scowl evident. “We don’t want to give up an outpost for free. We’ll appear weak, and if we appear weak, they’ll put on more pressure on our borders.”

Mandible’s pheromones of protest were drowned out by those of approval from the other alphas, so much so that her nostrils felt overwhelmed. “It is agreed then,” Clypeus gathered, in spite of Mandible’s interjection. “Spread the smell: mobilize the warriors for tournaments.”

The veteran warriors began to move and shift, pheromones wafting along with them. Only Mandible stood still, emanating almost nothing.

It took a considerable amount of effort to keep the Alpha from fuming her true feelings; had the others caught wind of them, they would have felt a chill run along their backs.

“Pod, atten-shun!”

Carapace squared her shoulders and snapped her eyes towards the horizon as did twenty-nine other warriors.

It was a warm day, with the sun beating down hard on Carapace’s already warm chitin, as well her still tender wounds. She didn’t so much as flinch when she felt one of her deeper wounds burn in the heat.

The Beta paced along the rank, somehow managing to look through every warrior present, pumping the air with dominance and authority, stomping down on the barren ground with heavy hooves. The hairline fractures of the dried dirt grew in size and number underneath those hooves.

“The Hive is paramount!” she bellowed. “We’ve all known this since we first emerged as younglings.” The Beta stopped in front of a warrior not too far from Carapace’s left. “But as of three months, a truer statement has never been uttered.”

The warrior whom the Beta was currently doing her best to melt with her stare stood like a statue.

“By now all of you know that our leaders are running out of time,” the pod leader continued, resuming her slow, plodding pacing. “If the Others catch even a whiff of what’s happened, they will be upon us like crazed parasprites that have been starved for a month!”

She stopped her pacing once more, this time settling herself at the center of the rank. “We cannot, I repeat, cannot, allow that. The veterans among you already know what’s coming, but for the sake for the newcomers I will explain:

“We do not fight the Others when it can be helped,” the pod leader stated aloud, as if reciting an old military verse. “But we can sure as Tartarus get them to stick their muzzles elsewhere! How you may ask?”

She eyed the warriors and kept her nostrils flared in case someone decided to give a dumb answer. Neither sound nor smell came.

“We show them who’s the bigger, nastier ‘ling! And who might that be?”

“We are!” chorused the rank.

“Louder!” barked the Beta.

“We are!” responded the aligned warriors with more gusto and an exertion of intimidating smells.

“Exactly!” The Beta grinned. “Now that’s the attitude I’m looking for when we throw down with our tournaments! File your fangs, sharpen your horns, add war paint for all I care; just make yourselves look meaner than the Other bitch that’ll be facing you!”

The pod leader returned to pacing along the line. “But it won’t be that simple. A single warrior of ours can look meaner than any of the Others, but alone, a warrior will be useless.” Her keen eyes scanned her pod squad’s faces. “Our brothers and sisters work together to sustain the Hive and scour for food, and we,” —she waved a hoof to indicate the whole pod— “are the hide and fangs of the Hive. We are stronger united, sisters!”

The expected symphony of hisses and plethora of smells of approval rolled out from the thirty warriors.

Belatedly, Carapace noticed that the warrior to her right, a newly reared warrior, was oddly inert.

“You’re not my sister.”

The hisses ceased. The pheromones dissipated. The Beta’s eyes seemed to bulge out even more so than usual.

“Who the fuck just said that?!”

Carapace and the warrior flanking the offending changeling, a zeta, merely glanced at her. “You’re not my sister,” she repeated, eyes still set on the rolling horizon.

The pod leader flew up to the warrior, standing just under a head taller than the younger changeling. She took a deep sniff before regarding the Zeta with what looked like undirected frustration.

“Are you trying to pamper me up? Getting me all emotional so that you can feast on me?” The Beta snarled.

“No ma’am, just stating a fact,” the Zeta reported, eyes unmoving and ears unflinching.

For a moment the pod leader actually seemed nonplussed. “Who do you serve, Zeta?”

“Alpha Man—” A swift hoof strike interrupted the response, making the warrior stumble. She did manage to keep herself from falling.

“Wrong fucking answer!” yelled the Beta. “You serve the Hive first!”

The Zeta coughed, slowly resuming her previous stance, this time with a shut eye. “Yes ma’am,” she replied quietly.

“What’s that? I didn’t quite hear you.”

“Yes ma’am,” the warrior repeated.

The pod leader closed in on the Zeta’s face, muzzles almost touching. “Speak up!” she shouted.

“Yes ma’am!”

Another blur brought the warrior crumbling to the floor. This time she cried out in pain.

“That’s Beta ma’am to you, you worthless grub!” Stepping away the Beta groaned under her hoof. “You’re disgusting,” she spat. “You’re stinking up my beloved pod, and I will not have that.”

Pointing to both Carapace and the gamma next to the writhing Zeta, she ordered, “Get this reeking piece of Other shit out of my damn sight and nostrils.”

Allowing herself to only release a miniscule affirmative in the air, Carapace and the Gamma both helped the Zeta get on her feet and led her away to the closest entrance to the Hive.

"What the hell were you thinking, Zeta?” muttered the Gamma once they were out of earshot of the pod leader.

Despite wincing on every other step, the Zeta did not utter a single word, only concerning herself to not dawdle.

Now that she was this close, Carapace had to admit: this Zeta did almost stink of Other.

It took her some effort to not give in to the temptation of sinking her fangs into the troublemaker.

Mirror was busy rubbing a hoof against his temple when he sighed. Both Silhouette and Undercover both shared Mirror’s reaction, with Silhouette grumbling and Undercover planting a hoof against his muzzle. The fourth changeling in the room, a drone, tilted his head.

“So let me get this straight,” Mirror began, still massaging his temple. “We’ve got Others threatening the Hive.”

“Affirmative.”

Mirror ceased his ministrations to look at the messenger in the eyes. “And our standing orders haven’t changed?”

“Affirma—”

“Quit trying to be cute, hiveling,” groaned Silhouette. “You’re neither an infiltrator nor a warrior, so stop pretending to be both. Yes, no or even a smell is plenty.”

The drone blinked twice. “Er, yes. That’s what they told me to tell you.”

Mirror looked away, snorting. Undercover approached the drone. “They have received our message, right?” he asked him. With a muted nod and affirmative smell, the infiltrator opened his mouth for a sharp retort before chewing on his lower lip and pawing at the floor.

After a moment, Mirror turned back to the messenger. “What about the other cells? Did they tell you anything about them?”

The drone drew back slightly. “They didn’t tell me anything,” he said. However, the waft emanating from him piqued Undercover’s nose.

“But you know, don’t you?” he prodded.

The smell of panic started to seep into the room. “I don’t think I can tell you,” he said, eyes shifting to each of the three infiltrators. “Look, I think you’re good ‘lings, but I honestly don’t think you ought to know.”

Silhouette laughed. “You want to be an infiltrator, hiveling? Try thinking for yourself and make your own decisions for the better of the Hive, even when the big alphas back home would disagree. Grow some initiative.”

To the hiveling’s credit, he did seem to consider it. Mirror approached the drone. “Please, Epsilon,” he said softly, charging his words with emphatic smells. “If you think we ought to know then tell us.”

Again the Epsilon eyed each of the infiltrators. He sighed. “You didn’t hear this from me, alright?”

“We’re infiltrators, we know how to keep secrets,” Undercover said, allowing himself a smug smile.

A slow nod. “Yeah. Yeah okay.” The Epsilon coughed. “I uh, overheard some of the alphas talking about the other cells—Vanhoover and Fillydelphia, I think. They mentioned that the infiltrators there shared your thoughts on the current ah, situation at the Hive.”

Undercover reflexively smiled to himself and Silhouette pouted pensively. Mirror only blinked, silently urging the drone to go on.

“The alphas, well, they couldn’t seem to agree on what their response to your requests should be.” He looked up in thought. “In fact, when I was given the message by one of them, there was a loud interruption from another of the alphas; said that that was the wrong order.”

This time Undercover scowled. Silhouette’s pout seemed to deepen. “I don’t like how this smells,” she murmured.

“Did you hear anything about the other cells?” Mirror asked.

The smell released was answer enough. “I didn’t. By then I was shoved out of the chamber.”

Undercover thought he heard Mirror mutter something under his breath. With the pheromones he released though, he could tell he was concerned.

“Mirror?” Silhouette said, remarkably quiet. “Do you think it’s happening?”

The Beta didn’t respond, opting to look at a dirty spot on the wooden floor. After a long pause, he turned to the group. “I can’t be sure without actually smelling it for myself,” he murmured. “But there’s already disagreement, the Epsilon here said so.

“How long did it take you to get here?” he asked the messenger.

“Just over two weeks.”

That got Undercover and Silhouette’s brows to rise. “That’s quick,” he said, honestly surprised.

“Guess I was lucky,” the drone said, shrugging.

“No,” Silhouette suddenly interjected, “getting here in just under a month without any training is being lucky. Two weeks is infiltrator standard.” Her expression grew mischievous. “You sure that you’re just a messenger and not an infiltrator?”

The room again began to stink of panic. “I, er...”

“Simmer down, Silhouette,” Mirror said, “I’ve seen betas do worse than him. Just because he—” He suddenly stopped, turning to the drone. “What’s your name?”

The Epsilon blinked. “Alula,” he replied, a curious waft wading around him.

“Right, just because Alula managed to make a difficult journey without attracting any attention to himself doesn’t make him an infiltrator.” Mirror’s eyes were on Silhouette, killing her cocky smile.

Turning back to face Alula, Mirror put on a grin of his own. “However, that does tell me that you’ve got a talent for it. What did you say that your role was back at the Hive?”

Mirror could have sworn that he saw a blue-green tint form underneath Alula’s cheek chitin for the fleetest of moments.

Alula rubbed his neck. “I’m part of Alpha Clava’s caretakers. I mostly take care of her food.”

“What about before?” Undercover asked. “What did you do before that?”

The drone seemed to rub harder. “I ah, was about a month into infiltrator training before the Queen died,” he said quietly.

A general smell and sense of understanding filled the room. “That explains the overly-formal responses then,” Silhouette said, sizing up Alula in a new light. “I take it back; you don’t smell half-bad.”

For his part, Alula appeared unsure how to respond to the compliment, looking on Mirror and Undercover for help. With only a warm smile from Undercover and a thoughtful expression on Mirror, the young drone hesitantly thanked the infiltrator.

The thoughtful expression only deepened as Mirror approached Alula. “Epsilon,” he said evenly, “considering what you have just told us, I am inclined to share something with you.” His expression grew incredibly neutral. “Something that could be considered treasonous.”

Both Undercover and Silhouette perked up at the words. Silhouette almost cried out ‘What!’ whereas Undercover merely bristled.

Alula’s eyes hardened on the Beta. “If you don’t want to hear it, I’ll understand,” Mirror told him, almost whispering. “If you think that the Hive is in the right hooves, I’ll shut up right now and we’ll forget that I’ve said anything.”

Moments passed slowly as both Undercover and Silhouette looked on the drone and their chief infiltrator with baited breath. Unblinking and unflinching, Alula simply released a smell: tell me.

Mirror slowly nodded. “Alright then.” He walked over to the table, inviting the Epsilon to sit opposite of him. After the both of them were seated and the other two infiltrators took their own seats, the Beta brought his hooves together. “We’re convinced that the Hive will collapse, but you probably guessed that if you knew what our response to the Hive was.”

Alula merely nodded, unsure whether adding anything else would have been fruitful or not.

“If what you have told us so far is true, then there is little hope that there will be a hive come back to. So, we have considered every option, and it’s with no pleasure that I say this.” Mirror paused, gauging the young drone’s expression. Surprisingly blank, he noted, smiling inwardly, he’s really got the talent.

It was with a heavy breath when he said, “We’re leaving the Hive.”

Both Silhouette and Undercover’s eyes bore into Alula’s. The drone’s breathing seemed to quicken, but besides that and a solitary blink, he did not respond. Mirror subtly tensed up, already preparing himself to take down the young changeling if he tried to make a break for it.

Please don’t make me kill you, he silently pleaded.

Alula did no such thing. Eventually, he opened his mouth, to shut it close, to open it once more. “You’re abandoning us?”

There was no anger behind his words, nor in the pheromones he pumped out. His question was purely academic. Mirror actually felt uncomfortable by the lack of emotions exerted by the Epsilon.

“We live for the Hive, Epsilon,” Silhouette provided, her tone matching the attentiveness in the room. “But we’re changelings, we have to adapt to changing circumstances—us infiltrators especially.”

Alula’s gaze dropped. “There must be some other way.”

“Trust us, we’ve thought long and hard over this,” Undercover replied. “Unless we’re extremely lucky soon and either they birth a new queen or by some miracle Aurelia’s alive and willing to adopt her mother’s hive.” He shrugged. “You’ve said it yourself: the alphas are divided.”

Mirror’s eyes almost seemed to glow. “There will be blood, Alula. Innocents will be killed.”

Alula grew silent. After a spell, he glanced back at Mirror. “What if you’re wrong?”

The Beta shrugged. “If we’re wrong, we’ll face the consequences then. But until then, we prepare for the worst.”

The drone sat in thought, eyes shifting to each of the infiltrators and ears twitching once. “What do you want to do?”

Undercover and Silhouette exchanged glances before looking to Mirror. “Mirror?” Silhouette asked.

“We need to get into contact with every cell that we can reach.” Mirror looked to Alula. “You said both Vanhoover and Fillydelphia had come to the same conclusion as us, correct?”

Alula tilted his head slightly. “I didn’t. That’s what the alphas seemed to have been saying though.”

Mirror nodded. “Alright. Well, we’ll reach out to both of them, and maybe Manehattan and Ponyville if we get the chance. We’re going to see if they want to group up so that we’ll improve our chances out there.” He stopped, licking his left fang for a moment. “We will have to hide ourselves very well. And if we’re found out...”

The words hung in the air. “By the ponies?” Alula prodded.

The corners of Mirror’s mouth twitched. “Well, them too, but honestly? I’m more concerned of the Others. Heck, even anyling from the Hive that decides that we’ve grown too independent would be worse.”

Alula placed a hoof on the table, offering a comforting waft. “I shall not raise a stink.” His ears perked up. “In fact, I want to help.” His eyes grew steely. “Just tell me what to do.”

Mirror grasped the hoof. Thank you, he communicated nonverbally, thinking it more fitting than the spoken word.

Undercover placed his own hoof to the table. “You’re in this, Epsilon,” he said. “We’ll help you during these times.”

Grinning all the while, Silhouette added hers to the others’ hooves. “Just stick with me, and I’ll make you into an infiltrator by my damn self.”

The laughter was loud enough to perk up the ear of a passing unicorn outside, but not much else. Fortunately the veritable cloud of accompanying pheromones billowing out the window went by unnoticed.

“Alright,” Mirror began, “this is what we’re going to do.”

Buzz lay on the raised platform, panting from the third mounting this evening. His duct had already retreated into his shell, but he felt something akin to a phantom pain to where it had been just minutes prior. His mouth felt dry; his wings were tired from their exertion during and after mounting; his eyes, while difficult to tell in the dark, felt unfocused. One thing that he could tell for certain was the almost dizzying amounts of musk that both he and Alpha Mandible had exerted previously.

Off to his right, he could sense the warrior cleaning herself. This was part of what the drone considered as their routine as of late: for a few minutes she’d clean herself up, then sit next to Buzz, silently enjoying his company for a few minutes longer.

Hatcher below, how had he ever considered that being in a hisem would’ve been fun?

There was a momentary lull as Alpha Mandible fluttered her wings to cool herself. Soon afterwards Buzz could feel her warmth as she settled herself next to him.

Belatedly, the drone noticed that she wasn’t lying down however. Turning to face her, he could barely see her form. Where his sight failed, his nose picked up on a faint waft of tension among the various smells of sex.

Had he done something wrong? Buzz had heard from the other drones that Scape had displeased the Alpha during one of their sessions, and had been kicked out of the hisem and put into the pod responsible for her wellbeing.

Not that I would mind if it were me, he thought to himself.

Regardless of his superior’s current mood, he felt obligated to ask if she was well. There was no response to his probing smells. Feeling somewhat brave, Buzz said aloud, “Alpha?”

Still no response. It took Buzz some effort to not let his fear known.

“Was my performance, ah, satisfactory?” he asked, slightly out of breath.

He thought he saw Mandible’s ear flick. “Excellent as always, Buzz,” she said sweetly, not bothering to turn her head towards him.

It was a compliment, but it didn’t feel like one. At least the drone didn’t do anything wrong. At least, I don’t think so.

“Tell me, Buzz,” Mandible piped up suddenly, “do you think that what I’m doing is for the good of the Hive?”

Buzz actually blinked, completely caught off guard. Whenever there was a conversation between the two, if there was one at all, politics was not among the discussed subjects. The most Hive-related topic that they had spoken about was whether or not the Alpha should have cut down on the hisem.

“Of course,” he said automatically. It was true: even if Buzz didn’t necessarily agree with the way that the warrior went about helping the Hive, she was helping.

Sullenness slowly replaced the musk within the chamber. Buzz felt his pulse quicken.

“You are aware of the upcoming tournament, right Buzz?” the Alpha asked, her gaze still fixed on something that Buzz couldn’t quite see.

“Of course,” he repeated. How couldn’t he have been aware of it? The news had drowned the tunnels in pheromones for the last week. Clasper’s grumblings in particular have been louder than usual.

Mandible turned to look, her face devoid of any discernible expression. “Do you trust me?”

Buzz had to work especially hard to not swallow back the heart that had jumped into his throat. “Yes, Mandy.”

He thought that he saw a glimmer of a toothy grin, even though it was very dark. “I like you,” Mandible cooed. “I really do.” She finally lay down next to the smaller male, sighing as she lowered herself onto the platform.

The two sat in silence: Mandible stared at the dirt ceiling above with no real point of focus; Buzz stole occasional glances at the Alpha warrior just a breath away from him, unsure as to whether relax or tense up. The breath that he felt was like ice on his warm shell.

If changelings had the physiological capacity to sweat, Buzz was fairly certain that he would be drenched in it right about now.

“Buzz, listen very carefully.” Mandible’s words, while audibly soft, held a weight that Buzz couldn’t ignore. “When the tournament starts, get yourself out of the nursing chambers.”

Buzz felt a chill. He knew he’d regret asking, but… “Why the nursery, Mandy?”

“Just don’t,” she snapped, still in a half-whisper. Soon afterwards Buzz heard Mandible muttering something under her breath. He thought he made out ‘wouldn’t hurt you.’

His mind, despite being wrought with exhaustion and tension, raced to understand what the Alpha had just implied. Wouldn’t hurt me? he asked himself. That meant that someling would have been present in the nursery to do said harm upon him. But why the nursery? The grubs and pupae were of no threat to anyone. Really, only the nursing drones and workers would do anything dangerous, but they would only attack if—

Buzz’s breathing stilled and his eyes widened. A small part of him worried that the Alpha would have noticed it, but his mind was focused on the dangerous realization:

She’s going to kill younglings.

A familiar lump formed in his throat again, if perhaps larger than before. Thoughts shot this way and that in Buzz’s head, quickly weighing his options. He was just a delta, what authority did he have outside of Mandible’s hisem? Who should I warn? He paused. Should I warn anyone?

Protection of the Hive’s eggs and younglings was something that was intrinsic in all changelings barring Others. It was quite unthinkable to kill your own siblings before they had the chance to walk on four hooves. How in Tartarus had Mandible even come to plan the murder of her own si—

For a second time his breathing stilled. They aren’t her siblings, Buzz understood. He had heard murmurs among the tunnels about some of the newly reared warriors causing trouble or being involved in fights. There hadn’t been many of them, but…

“Buzz?”

The drone’s breathing stopped for a third time.

“Yes?”

He suddenly felt a muzzle caressing his frill. “Stay safe,” Mandible whispered.

Buzz hesitated on returning the caress; too long. Mandible drew back slowly. “What’s wrong?”

There was that lump again, grown to an even greater size.

Perhaps too quickly, the drone gave a caress of his own. “Sorry, I’m worried about this tournament.”

It wasn’t a lie: he was concerned about what the tournament would bring, though he wasn’t concerning himself about the Others as much as he was before.

The Alpha seemed to accept his statement, returning the caress in the way that he should have. A silent hum reverberated within the two of them. “Mm. Who isn’t?”

He allowed a small amount of affirmative smells. He was careful not to add, ‘but not for the same reasons.’