Culling of the Hives

by law abiding pony

Rating: teen
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Changelings, Original Character, Queen Chrysalis, Adventure
Length: 102277

The changeling hives have always warred with each other to cull the weak. With Twilight Sparkle's announcement still echoing with the other hives, it is time once again to separate the chaff from the wheat.

Natural selection. It is the byword of every changeling queen who has ever lived. The chief resource that has always curbed the hives' growth used to be love. Now though, with Queen Twilight Sparkle's bloodline capable of producing love on their own, the old guard of changeling morality has seen fit to acquire this ability for the next generation before removing all of their future royal daughters' competitors.

Some queens are far closer to this goal than others.

Editor in Chief: A Bitter Pill, and Boldish42

Published 2014-10-24 18:50:10 UTC
Last updated 2015-04-17 22:51:52 UTC

3: First Contact

The lands surrounding the sphinx colony were blanketed in snow, and the blizzard was determined it stayed that way. Logging Center Flex was just one of dozens hemming the forest down to size, to make way for the latest arriving colonists set to head inland within the week. It was situated along a wide moderately fast flowing river, perfect for sending logs downstream for processing.

The overseer of one such logging team was busy shouting a rhythmic cadence as three winged sphinxes stood on the end of a clearing with four wingless sphinxes with axes standing at the ready.

The winged spellweavers were hovering just off the ground as they made sweep and pulling motions with their forelimbs, churning the earth around a particularly large tree.

“Clear!” shouted the overseer, the weavers forced rock and dirt away from the roots of the tree, weakening it's hold.

“Push!” he ordered with a sense of urgency. The rock and dirt that was removed, now floated up and pushed on the tree.

“Chop!” The lumberjacks moved in on the exposed roots, clearing out each scrap of wood as far from the trunk as possible.

Over the course of five minutes, the tree gave off a deep cracking groan as the high angled push, coupled with the missing roots, finally toppled the wooden ancient.

Further orders were not needed from the overseer. The earth shapers moved on to another tree while the lumberjacks processed the fallen tree. A second team of woodsmen moved in to assist the magi. Behind them all were a small army of foresters and civic planners bundled up and huddling against the cold with a few campfires spread around camp. The planners mapped out where future roads and buildings would be placed while the foresters replanted local tree seeds and uprooted saplings.

The need for wood was massive, and would only grow as winter pressed on and as the ships with inbound colonists increased with every convoy. Every scrap of wood from the strong heartwood, to the roots themselves, were consumed by the burgeoning colony, nothing was wasted. Aside from the various structures and sawmills around the camp, situated right in the middle was arguably the most critical structure to the entire frontier; the pub. Well, for morale at least.

The establishment was the size of a large house, and on this cold snow covered afternoon, well over three dozen workers and a detachment of soldiers were engaging in getting drunk under the table. It was perhaps the only pastime that transcended species and cultures.

While there was a standing order to be on the lookout for more natives, with the exception of Slippery Shadow, not a single soul had even been spotted, let alone found. With no other intelligent natives to check the expansionist sphinxes, the land seemed ripe for the picking. While the Federation was slow to move inland, they were rapidly spreading out along the coast thanks to their strong maritime culture and the sheer overabundance of fish and other large marine animals.

The pub was in the middle of a drinking song about the last war ten years ago when a rather young winged scout burst through the front door with a frantic look on his face. “Legionary!” He cursed the fact that his commanding officer wasn’t at the Guard post.

The bitterly cold blizzard slammed the door wide open, sending the nearby patrons into growling belligerence. “Shut that door before I plant your skull in the ground!”

The scout ignored further spite from the patrons when he saw his commander on the second floor awning leaning against the railing. The scout shut the door and bolted up to his commander and threw up a salute. “Legionary, I spotted more natives to the east roughly ten miles out. My wingmate is keeping an eye on them now.”

The officer both cursed and thanked the fact he had yet to start drinking today. “More of them?” The scout nodded. “Good. Evocati,” he barked at the NCO who was sitting at the nearest table. “Gather a search and recover party. We have more guests to capture for the governor.”

“On it, sir!”

Yet before the evocati could give orders to the surrounding soldiers, the scout shouted to get both the officer and the NCO’s attention. “Actually, sirs, we need to bring this to the governor’s attention straight away. I don’t think we’re equipped for this.”

“Equipped for what?” the Legionary growled earnestly. “Spit it out!”

“We don’t know if they’re the same natives we’ve captured so far because there’s a flying boat headed our way, held aloft by a giant balloon.”

The NCO scoffed at the notion. “A flying boat you say?” he chuckled deeply. “On a balloon of all things? I thought you scouts were sober by choice. You haven’t suddenly discovered the wonders of scotch have you, boy?”

The officer had more faith in the scout corps than his underling. “What kind of boat? Are you sure it wasn’t one of our warsmiths testing a new invention? There’s always at least one trying to get a flying machine to work.”

“Not a chance, sir. It’s on straight course coming in from the east. It even has flags that don’t match up with any of the warsmith families that have immigrated here.” He changed a paw into a hand to fish out a hastily drawn picture of two winged and horned creatures circling a sun and moon.

The frantic look on the scout’s face was disconcerting enough already, the figures on the flag looked too much like the prey they had already captured so far. The idea of a flying boat spoke of technological or magical power none of them expected from the natives, and that alone was something the governor needed to know as soon as possible. “Go to the outpost and get a marathoner to send word of this.”

“As you say, sir,” the scout said hastily before zipping off, again ignoring cries of indignation at leaving the door open.

With his commander taking such a believing stance, the evocati couldn’t help but to rethink his options. “What are your orders, Legionary?”

“Gather every abled body you can find. We don’t have the numbers here in camp to make a show of force, but we can at least prepare for a fight. Send word to the other Legion outposts and to Chevalier Headquarters. We’ll need our best at the front.” As for me, I need to see this air-boat for myself.

“You think they noticed us yet?” Rainbow Dash asked aloud sarcastically as she, her sister, and Luna watched sphinxes swarm on the ground and at a wide berth in the air.

The Crystal Blue was passing over the logging center with no intention on coming to a halt until it reached the colonial capital. They had best-guessed their way so far, but now the road and log filled river gave them a straight run to the coastal town that was just barely visible in the distance.

Tittering a little with a hoof to her mouth, Twilight stopped all pretense of regality and plastered her face to the glass for a closer look. “No. I think we might need to sound the trumpets first. You know, test their auditory senses.”

Rainbow arched a mildly exasperated eyebrow at that. “You could just say ears.”

“Ahh, but what if they have more than just ears? What if their whole body can pick up sound!? This is just too much!”

Rainbow Dash was listening in, and groaned at the over the top exuberance from Twilight. For Luna’s sake, she’s bouncing on her hooftips like a school filly. You’d think the trade convoy attack that started this whole ‘ling’ thing would have her acting more like Rarity or Fluttershy.

Rainbow Dash dismissed her sister stealing a pair of binoculars with an eye roll to focus on security concerns. A small part of her was actually quite touched that Twilight trusted her so completely with everyone’s safety.

The new head of the Jevruun Vrunningee was fully geared up along with two squads of eight drones each, and twice that number in royal guards. Unlike the royals one deck above them, the pony and changeling soldiers remained hidden behind the wooden deck. Reflective portholes allowed eight of them to watch the sphinxes outside without fear of discovery.

Of the sixteen drones, half were of Rainbow Dash’s brood. It was a clear declaration that both queens shared power. Intel watched them, seeing the excited tension race through them. Every last one of Twilight’s drones here were veterans of Rookhaven, and a few other small skirmishes with probing attacks by other queens.

Thunderfury was the only blue changeling to experience real, albeit brief, combat along the railroad between Stripped Gear and Ponyville. That fight’s the very reason he’s in my squad to begin with, Intel mused.

She briefly spoke to the greater bulk of her soldiers on the cloaked ship. Good, they don’t seem to be noticing the Deception at all. Let’s hope they don’t give us a reason to make it noticeable.

As the luxury yacht puttered along with the western ocean becoming more pronounced on the horizon, the sphinxes started to vastly grow in number around the Crystal Blue. Through her looking glass, Rainbow Dash spotted many armored sphinxes either being ordered closer, or were working up the nerve to close in. Not a single airship in sight. Did we slip through the net, or do they not have them at all?

Another matter she noticed was that dozens of the half-griffin things had spyglasses as well. “Can they see us through the glass?”

“No,” Luna replied evenly while keeping her eyes on the town that was still off in the distance. “This ship is named Crystal Blue due to how the glass dome looks like from the outside. They won’t know what we look like until we step outside.”

“Ummm,” Twilight grinned sheepishly at Luna’s oversight. “Aren’t we flying the Equestrian flag? That has both you and your sister prominently displayed on there, after all.”

Luna let the slight embarrassment roll off her withers. “By the time they figure that out, we’ll have already revealed ourselves so I doubt that matters.”

Twilight let the matter with Luna fall away.

The yacht steamed ahead for another hour straight towards the harbor town until a living wall of two hundred fliers formed in front of the ship. With so much attention focused on the Crystal Blue, the Deception climbed four hundred meters above to keep any nosy sphinxes from accidently flying into the cloak bubble.

Not wishing to provoke them further, the Crystal Blue came to a full stop half a kilometer in front of the wall of fliers. A large procession walked out along the road with tall blue flags mounted on an open carriage pulled by a brown beast of burden akin to a rhinoceros that had far too many horns all over its body. Several more sphinxes carried family coat of arms around the carriage. With so many warriors in both the air and on the ground, Ventras waved off any further escorts.

From her perch in the observatory, Luna turned to the queens and an earth pony aide. “Looks like we have the newcomer leader’s attention. Shall we?”

Rainbow Dash glanced at her sister with a playful smirk. “No sense in making our guests wait.”

Within short order, the alicorn, both queens, and one changeling princess moved down to the chariot hangar, where a team of four pegasi were already hitched up and waiting for them. As soon as the bay doors opened, and the chariot departed, the Royal Guard and Queens’ Guard flew out right behind them, numbering a total of forty nine escorts.

A thrill of excitement coursed through Rainbow Dash at the sight of so many creatures that reminded her so much of her old friend, Gilda. “Say, Twilight. How are we going to be able to talk to these guys? Last I checked, your translator spell needed hours to get simple phrases.”

“Let me handle that,” Luna answered for her. “Despite my looks, I’m a rather accomplished linguist myself.” She didn’t afford herself a smile. The tension of the moment coupled with Shadow and the explorers’ fate killed any good humor she had.

The cloud of sphinxes moved to stand or hover behind the virtual line that Ventras formed as he exited the carriage with his majordomo and daughter following up behind him. None of them had time to dress more formally. Rasua barely had time to remove her protective blacksmithing clothing, and was reduced to wearing a soot covered wooly brown blouse with a heavy black jacket on to snuff out the cold. Thaddaeus was the lucky one, as he was already wearing very warm clothing in the form of a furry overcoat. Ventras wore a long sleeved white topped and red bottomed hakama, which Twilight took for something similar to Rarity’s dresses, except for the very masculine style. At least I think the big one’s male.

By contrast, the royals were wearing somewhat matching wind resistant form fitting clothing with Luna’s regalia sitting on top. Twilight’s warm clothing was navy blue with Rainbow’s being a hue of many different colors. Aegis was certainly glad one of the anchor rods in each gauntlet had a warming spell to keep the cold metal from freezing her hooves. Having no faith in her ability to walk upright on snow, Aegis remained on all fours.

The four of them disembarked the large chariot with all of the Guard staying behind to mimic the sphinxes’ forbearance. One of the military scouts glided down and quickly spoke a few words with Ventras before flying off again.

The royals and governor closed the hundred meter distance between their respective carriages. It was only now that both parties could truly size each other up. Thaddeus and Ventras were eye level with the queens, while Resua easily matched Luna’s height. Aegis, who was currently two inches shorter than her original self, felt rather dwarfed by everyone.

Luna would have made her sister proud with her emotionless regal posture, but she couldn’t shake the rather disturbing superior look the center newcomer was not even bothering to hide. He must be feeling quite comfortable with having five times our soldiers. How telling. The whole time both parties were walking towards each other, everyone was studying each other intently.

With the distance closed to speak comfortably with the windy blizzard now slowing down, Luna prepared her translation spell, only for Ventras to speak in nearly perfect Equish, catching them off guard. “I greet you, Princess Luna of the Moonlit Empire. I, Ventras Talarn, High Governor of the Sphinx Federation, welcomes you to our colony; Stratholme.”

Ventras concealed his mirth at the royals’ surprise, but his hunter’s eyes picked up on Luna hiding some humor as well. “I see you have me at a slight disadvantage.” Mentally smiling at the misinformation, Luna made no effort to correct Ventras’ error. “Since you know of me, please allow me to introduce my close friends and allies, the Sister Queens of the changeling city-state Phoenix's Roost. Presenting Queen Twilight Sparkle," she said as she gestured to Twilight.

Twilight gave a slight nod and friendly smile. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Likewise, your majesty.” Ventras and the others internally scoffed at the notion of a monarchy. Such a strange attempt to fix a primitive form of government. It doesn’t matter if it’s one queen or two, a nation should not be ruled by the whims of so few.

"And to her right is her sister, Queen Rainbow Dash."

Ventras and Rainbow locked eyes for a moment before anyone spoke further. He had briefly done the same with Twilight, and what he saw in her eyes confounded him. What is with that gaze… Are they warrior-queens, or iron fisted rulers? “You and your allies are welcome, Queen Rainbow Dash.”

Funny thing, since you’re welcoming us to Equestrian land. Rainbow bit down on that reply before it could leave her lips. “Ventras,” she replied tactlessly. Cultural barriers were not enough to hide her obvious distaste for him.

“Lastly, their heir, Princess Aegis Altair.”

By the First Mother, why did I spend all my time learning to walk instead of first contact training. Oh right, there wasn’t any. Aegis brought a hoof to her mouth to cough nervously. “It is an honor to meet you.”

Ventras snorted with a mirthless grin. “Yes, it is. Let me introduce my Majordomo, Thaddaeus Windscar, and my daughter, Rasua Talarn."

“It is a most welcome honor to be among the first of our kind to greet the leaders of another.” Rasua bowed a little more deeply than Ventras would have allowed towards prey. Yet she saw something in the pony and former ponies’ stance that gave her a torrent of instinctual signals, some of them were conflicting. If she had to pin that feeling down to any one thing, it would be the comfortable confidence that none of the so called ‘prey’ should possess. She vastly preferred to have actual information on the natives before making a judgement call, but any huntress worth her salt knew to trust their instincts. They are not prey. I hope father realizes that before he does something the Federation will regret.

Thaddaeus may not have had Rasua’s insight on the true nature of the foreign leaders in front of him, but he saw what he could only surmise to be a weapon on Aegis’ back. During the introductions, he tried to look at the changeling and pony guards’ weapons. Even from a distance of a hundred meters, he could see the ponies had a small variety of weapons, but they were mostly spears and short swords, ultimately nothing he was concerned about in the least. However, a number of changelings carried weapons that were unmistakable to him. He had studied Trail Mix’s musket long enough to recognize firearms at a glance. Most sphinxes would mistake the rifles for headless spears or quarterstaffs, but one look at Aegis’ unusual weapon told him that these hole riddled creatures were the ones to be cautious about above all others.

He smoothly returned to the conversation when attention shifted to him. “I would be honored to extend our hospitality to you all.” He wanted to say more in terms of maintaining peace, but it was not his place.

Ventras turned and frowned at his majordomo’s genuine courtesy. While Rasua could hide her ill-at-ease well enough against the natives, she utterly failed to do so against her father. Why are they so afraid of prey? He didn’t like it one bit. We are the predators, not them. Perhaps everyone needs to be reminded of that.

Instead of offering the Equestrians passage to his warm manor, the aging governor sought to reaffirm everyone’s position as predator and prey. Tradition and honor demanded as such. This is not for just personal honor, but for the entire Federation! He returned his eyes to Luna with a slick smile. He had been too focused on the rulers themselves to notice the drones’ equipment. “So, for what purpose do you come before us?”

Rainbow Dash gave her sister a questioning look. she queried with more than a little distaste for the governor.

Twilight replied calmly.

Being ignorant of the exchange, Luna spoke. “I have come to secure the release of my explorers, and to negotiate a treaty regarding your seizure of our land.”

“Your land?” That was the perfect angle to use for Ventras to assert everyone’s respective roles. He let a brief howling wind pass before speaking with carefully crafted superior civility. “We were unaware that anyone claimed these lands, seeing how there was no one to be found when we landed here. We’ve barely seen a handful of your people over the years we've been settled here.” He turned to the changelings. “And none of yours.”

“That is why I’m here to negotiate a treaty, rather than use less… pleasant means of persuasion.” Luna fully believed that a careful mix of courtesy and show of force was needed for any first stage negotiations. The griffins and minotaurs know full well of Equestria’s armed forces, which were now backed by the technological might of the sisters’ hive. Unfortunately that was only long after bloody wars with both species that ended far too many lives than either alicorn thought necessary. Our task here today is to make sure a war never happens.

Luna’s choice of words regarding violence was extremely poor. If this had been a few months later when both races got to know each other better, it would have been just fine, but Ventras and every other sphinx within earshot saw it as a sign of weakness. While his daughter and majordomo assumed it was cultural ignorance, Ventras was operating under the lies and half-truths Slippery Shadow had been feeding him, along with his political obligations to tradition and the Federation. As a result, he took the sign of weakness at face value. It didn’t help the fact that prey had just threatened a predator with violence.

Ventras’ expression became as cold as the blizzard snow. “I am more than willing to return your explorer as a sign of good faith, but if this was truly your land, then you should have properly claimed it as such with a physical presence. Why should we abide any treaty when you are incapable of enforcing your claim?”

Rasua nearly freaked at the insult her father dropped on the equines. Why is he antagonizing them so much!? This isn’t a rival faction that we know the strength of. They could have an army of millions for all we know!

Rainbow Dash wanted to step forward, but Twilight held her back with a hoof. “My good governor,” Twilight said placatingly. “We’re all reasonable, civil-minded people.” Her tone grew friendlier as her internal diplomat came out in full. “How about we talk about each other’s position before deciding on anything further?”

Thaddaeus noticed the changeling warriors fidgeting with their weapons, moving them from their backs to being ready to use. He practically jumped at the chance when Ventras leaned towards him, gesturing for his council. He tried his damnedest to keep the edge of panic off his tongue. “I highly suggest we at least agree to talk with them, old friend. There is something highly unsettling about the queens that I can’t put my finger on,” he whispered in the off chance the royals might know their language.

“Do not be fooled by deception, Thaddaeus. Does not the Flarehound burn his surroundings to make it seem like there are more of them? We need only to assert our position of power to dictate the terms of this treaty.” We can always send the army over for conquest later.

“I think it unwise, my lord.” Ventras nearly followed Thaddaeus’ warning in the face of such formal address, yet he was certain to be correct.

Ventras faced an increasingly impatient Luna. She may be the Princess of the Night, but she still hated the cold. Rainbow Dash was scant inches from pushing her way past sister’s hoof, and Twilight was equally close to unleashing her. “Very well, I grant you and your allies free passage through my city for the duration of the talks, and I will still release your explorer as previously mentioned.” The royals picked up on the singular version of ‘explorer’ and hoped that it was due to a miscommunication. “But let us not forget what roles we truly play here,” he said with a dangerous edge. “My soldiers outnumber yours five to one, and while impressive, your flying boat has no weapons at all, does it?

“So if anyone should worry about less pleasant forms of negotiation, it will not be us.”

All Rainbow needed to do at that point was to glance at her sister’s eyes for the hoof to fall. Rainbow flashed the wicked smile of a beast let out of its cage. “Oh, I guarantee it will be you, buddy. We changelings know our role quite well. Observe.”

Within seconds, a barren hill one kilometer to Rainbow’s left disappeared in a collection of fireballs as the Deception unleashed a full broadside. The concussive force of the blasts was so strong that they could be felt by the negotiators. Every sphinx in the area recoiled at the sudden violence, with some dropping out of the air from sheer shock. Their first reaction was to look towards the Crystal Blue, but it was the hanging mass of gunmetal grey steel standing out in stark contrast to the white out of the blizzard. The warship seemed to warp into reality as the very air twisted and squirmed around thanks to the attack destabilizing the cloaking field. The vessel was triple the size of the yacht in front of it, and kept everyone’s gaze fixed upward.

The Deception was hanging at a steep tilt, with its top and bottom guns still smoking from the display of firepower. It rolled back over to hover normally and started to descend downward as the Crystal Blue moved out of the way. The warship’s four main batteries aimed towards the ocean with blanks and fired for effect, driving home that the steel monster demanded center stage.

Twilight allowed her sister to step to the front of the Equestrians to confront Ventras directly. When her movement grabbed his attention, she made a dramatic display to hold her hoof out towards the diving warship in a halting motion. Much to Ventras’ astonishment, without uttering a word, Rainbow Dash commanded the airship to level off and remain at the Crystal Blue’s side.

“Now, we can either do things Twilight and Luna’s way, or we can do it my way.” Rainbow let a large fang filled grin show just how much she was begging for Ventras to give her a reason to do more than flatten hills. “Don’t hit the ling hive, Stocky. You wouldn’t like us when we’re angry.” The moment she finished speaking, half of the Jevruun Vrunningee ignited their flamethrowers and sent off a full ten second stream of fire in front of them to spell out “Queen Rainbow Dash was here” scorched in the earth. Rainbow Dash let the burning oil give the sphinxes some idea on how much a conflict would cost them.

Luna suppressed a scowl at Rainbow’s display though most of that ire was directed at the need for it at all. Can’t say I’m a fan of gunboat diplomacy, but sometimes it’s the only way.

Twilight Sparkle kept her expression neutral throughout it all. One of her half-puppeted drones allowed her to see the display from onboard the Deception.

Rainbow chuckled back.

Twilight admonished teasingly.

Ventras couldn’t believe what he was seeing from Rainbow Dash. Inconceivable. Whatever these changelings are… they are not prey. It seems I vastly underestimated Slippery Shadow. With the realization that he was operating with false information, Ventras tried to save face with a stoic tone of voice. “I concede the position of strength to you.” He bowed curtly, prompting his majordomo and daughter to do the same. Unlike Ventras, the other two breathed sighs of relief that these beings prefered peace. “Might we retire out of this blizzard and begin talks in earnest?”

Thaddaeus and Rasua braced for the response to follow. Rainbow’s iron stare at Ventras ended when she looked backwards at Twilight, seemingly at an unheard request. Without saying a word to the sphinxes, Rainbow Dash backed off to allow Twilight to take her place. The sphinxes were used to body language, but the changelings appeared to take it three steps higher.

Unlike her sister, Twilight Sparkle maintained a friendly face with a beaming smile. “I believe that would be an excellent course of action. Understanding breeds camaraderie, and with camaraderie, peace and friendship.”

“I agree. It is late, how about we begin over a meal?” Luna piped in with just enough urgency to get things moving, but without sounding too impatient. Hopefully we can avoid such vulgar displays in the future.

All the way back in Canterlot, Celestia’s head was pounding from a massive headache as Blue Flare continued giving her a play-by-play recount of first contact with the Federation. A servant dropped some aspirin in her tea before Celestia downed in it one go.

“I must say, Blue, your mother has a certain flair for the theatrics I never really expected to see in her.”

“In her defense,” Blue Flare said after a polite hoof-covered titter, “it seems to have done the trick. Everypony’s moving on to talk inside the coastal town.”

“Be that as it may,” Celestia started, only to be stopped short by a discreet knock on the door. “Yes?”

A guard poked his head in. “Princess Celestia, Bean Counter is here to discuss the rearmament of the Night Guard.”

Celestia suppressed a sigh, and instead gave the world her best regal gentle smile. “Is it so late already?” She looked outside to find the sun would be setting soon, and that she and her sister had their daily dance to do. “Ambassador, please keep me apprised of any further developments.”

“Of course, your highness.” Blue Flare bowed deeply with a warm smile of her own. Like Rolled Scroll, she loved to serve both her queens and the princesses alike. Truth be told, both drones played poker to see who would be the one to have the privilege of keeping Celestia apprised of the situation. With the dismissal, she cantered towards the door right as the guard swung it open. “Barring any emergencies, I’ll have my report ready for you first thing in the morning.”

Hiding among the freshly planted saplings, heedless of the bitter cold blasting against its shell, was a changeling drone who had witnessed everything that had just transpired between the Equestrians and Federation. This breed in particular thrived in winter.

The scout was not alone, as every single hive had at least one drone always watching the Deception. Normally it was insanely difficult once the warship’s cloak was active, but the arrival of the Crystal Blue made tracking the queens’ movements trival.

More than one had been spotted by the warship’s ever vigilant observers, and subsequently killed, but that was why there was always more than one spy. The queen currently puppeting the drone snorted in approval after both parties were retreating to the coast town. You did well to hide your vessel from these newcomers, but it was not difficult at all to follow the pony ship.

“If both queens are here along with their warship, then the time to strike has come at last. The frigate is too far away to respond in time.” The queen left the scout’s body with orders to keep watch. I must inform my allies that the Culling has begun.

4: Meet and Greet

Stratholme was a thriving boomtown when Spinning Compass and her husband first discovered it, and by the time Twilight set hoof within its boundaries the city had tripled in size. The prospect of an untamed land with government subsidized sea travel to all colonists coupled with the seclusion a new continent offered caused the city to overflow with people of all walks of life. While the city proceeded to grow well past the ring of hills that served as a natural wall, vast stretches of dock homes and warehouses began to crowd the shallow waters surrounding the natural harbor. Twilight felt waves of powerful magic emanating from three large stone towers located at the far edge of the docks. As to what they were for, she couldn’t tell without a closer inspection.

Ventras was already profoundly embarrassed from Rainbow Dash’s display of technological power shaming him into conceding the position of power to the natives. That shame was compounded by the presence of sphinx citizens crowding the streets and air to gaze upon the parade of VIPs along the road and the two strange airships above. As if the echoing thunderclaps didn’t cause enough chaos, word among those who had witnessed the display of power spread like wildfire, and the story of the destroyer sized warship materializing out of thin air was on everyone’s lips.

Twilight sat in the Royal Guard drawn carriage with her sister and Luna at her side as Ventras and his escorts guided them towards his Governor’s Manor. The sights and sounds of so many strange new onlookers sent the scholar in her flying into a tizzy as she allowed a filly version of herself to squeal for joy in a private Linkscape. That was the only way she was going to keep from doing the same thing in the real world.

Rainbow Dash was just eating up all the attention. Her prismatic mane already set her apart from the rest of the royals, and the rumormill identified her as the one who commanded the steel behemoth in the air thanks to word of mouth. Rainbow even waved at her “adoring” fans, yet showed impressive restraint by not calling out to them for more praise.

Finding a tactful way to keep Rainbow Dash from making an ass of herself, Luna poignantly cleared her throat and started speaking in Vespid. Luna wasn’t the best at the language, but she was more than passable at it. “Now that we have their attention and, for the moment, their cooperation. We need to learn as much as possible about these sphinxes.”

Rainbow inwardly groaned at having to deal with matters of state, but Twilight was highly enthused. “Right, we need to know if they always value strength over courtesy, and at what times is the opposite true. We need to know body language, slang, what manner of speech to use, the list goes on and on.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, if we screw any of that up, they’d better realize that it’s out of ignorance. And if they don’t, we’ve got two and half thousand tons of firepower to smooth over any social muck ups.”

Twilight arched an eyebrow at her sister and gave an approving hum, while Luna frowned at the idea. “Crude, but in the end, the warship should make treaty negotiations easier.”

“At the very least, it will give us time to show we mean no harm,” Twilight added decisively after catching Luna’s tone, “but that we are more than capable of defending ourselves.”

Aegis, who had been listening intently, absorbing all of the wisdom she could, had something to add. “Assuming they never find out we only have one frigate and the two gunboats back home.” One of which is still in dry dock for another two weeks.

Despite herself, Luna couldn’t help but to give off a light chuckle. “It’s strange how apt the name of your flagship is, Rainbow Dash.”

Twilight was glad that Aegis inserted herself into the conversation, and used it as an excuse to speak to her. “Aegis, I have an important mission for you, one that you’re perfectly suited for as a princess.”

Aegis stiffened into attention out of old habit and saluted her queen-mother. “Name it, and it’ll be done.”

Luna tapped Twilight on the shoulder before she could state Aegis’ objectives. “I should have thought of this earlier. We don’t know how the sphinxes learned Equestrian. It is possible they might be able to pick up a language just by hearing it. You better use your hive mind from here on, no need to speak aloud on my account.”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “Thank you, Luna.” The carriages turned a corner to reveal a large manor situated on a hill.

Rainbow Dash had been listening in and thought of a few things to add.

Twilight scowled at her sister, but Aegis flashed a predatory grin at the prospect. That same grin was seen by every sphinx along the road, and they all knew that grin well.

Twilight groaned used her magic to pinch her brow. <Wonderful, as if she needs more encouragement. Look, Aegis, keep your mind focused on the task at hoof. Even if a romantic outing could loosen her lips, we can’t afford a diplomatic incident on day one, okay?>

Rainbow conceded the point with a submissive shrug with Aegis nodding apologetically. Wanting to derail her sister’s irritation, Rainbow Dash hummed aloud.

Aegis shook her head at the observation.

Twilight allowed with a slight warning tone.

Rainbow jumped in excitement at such a deduction.

Twilight conceded with a thoughtful rub of her chin.

Everyone nodded in agreement, and the order for discretion was passed down throughout the changeling ranks while Rainbow passed the warning on to Princess Luna. A bump in the road returned their attention to the three story tall manor, and only now realized that they were nearly there. The manor was situated on an artificially flattened hill with only a short vine-covered garden fence to denote the edge of the estate.

If Twilight had to guess, she would estimate the manor was roughly a third the size of her childhood home: the Sparkle Estate. That places it much larger than the average house, but still… I will have to see if the size is to denote status alone, or if it’s a live in city hall.

Aside from a layer of white paint to protect the wood from the elements, there was very little colorful decoration. Could be a sign that these sphinxes can’t make dyes in these lands, and importing them is a low priority. Yet if there was any doubt in her mind about the Federation being poor in the arts, the virtual forest of statues that practically covered the whole city threw such thoughts out the window. Twenty lined the driveway alone, while yet more statues and gargoyles dotted the windows and roof of both the manor and on every street corner and building. I can’t help but think they use them as business signs as well.

As the group of royals departed the carriages, Aegis noticed the small dog sized statues along the stairs to the front door were newer than the rest thanks to the slightly richer black paint. Unlike all the other statues, these had an even mix of winged and wingless sphinxes in black priest robes with hoods obscuring their faces. It was only when everyone disembarked from the carriages and started walking up to the front entrance that she saw each priest was holding a gem-capped staff in what looked like a minotaur’s hand in place of their right paw. Hands?! Is that artistic license or for real? Her fixation on the hands abated as her senses touched more heavily on the ingrained magic of the black statues. Those things give me the heebie jeebies. They’re giving off some kind of creepy magic.

The eeriness of the statues was not quite enough to make Aegis warn the others of them. Even so, she used her magic to pull her jacket a little tighter around her chest and hurried up inside where Ventras, Thaddeus, and Rasua bowed and swept a foreleg towards the dining room across the main hall. Ventras was still fuming, but was able to hide it with ease. “I greet you and your houses with all the honor and respect that I can give. Let it be known that no sphinx will harm you while under my roof.”

Even with the double doors being wide open, the interior was much warmer by far, and did much to take the edge off. Twilight let Luna’s greater and older wisdom in diplomacy take the lead while Rainbow Dash was indifferent unless called upon or if there was a threat of violence. The dark alicorn mirrored the sphinxes’ bow, but did not bow quite so low, prompting the queens to do the same. “We thank you for your hospitality. Shall we move straight onto business, or is there an event we need to participate in first?”

Thaddeus couldn’t tell Luna’s tone was sincere or that of warlord patronizing her lessers. I’ll act like it is the former. “It is tradition for our people that those who have the most power during first time negotiations to dictate how negotiations are conducted.”

“I see,” Luna replied evenly. She turned to whisper to Twilight in Vespid. They spoke briefly and without emotion, unwittingly putting the sphinxes on edge. They wondered why they didn’t seem to include Rainbow Dash, but to their confusion, Twilight and Rainbow would meet eyes every so often yet no words seemed to be shared. After a minute or so, Luna turned back to Ventras who had recovered from his bow. “While we came here looking for our explorers, we also came to make new friends, not enemies. In the spirit of such cooperation, and the fact that we stand in your house even if the land is still in dispute, we would like to take part in one of your ceremonies to mark the occasion. Provided my explorers are returned to me without delay.”

Ventras and all the sphinxes who listened in weren’t sure how to take that. Within their own culture, abdicating the right of ceremony, which was viewed differently than simply choosing not to have one, was a sign of cultural poverty on the level of a barbarian. All the rules go out the window with these foreigners, Rasua mused darkly. They’re playing it smart. They want to know more about us, while at the same time revealing less about themselves. But at the same time, that makes it easier to accidentally insult them. She inwardly scoffed. Father’s too old to adapt quickly enough to keep up with an entirely new set of rules.

To his credit, Ventras showed none of the smoldering embarrassment from earlier, and passed himself off as a welcoming host. “If that is what you desire.” He looked all three royals in the eyes to try and sniff out any dissent, anything he could use to gain favor with at least one of them.

Finding none, he moved on. “Today marks the darkest hour of the year, and lowest point on the Great Cycle. A few priests of Lerasium were consecrating my house and evening meal when word of your arrival interrupted the event. I know they are eager to continue. As for your explorers…” Ventras turned to one of the ten guards in the room and barked a short command. “The one we captured recently has been unharmed, and proved to be very talkative.”

“And what of Spinning Compass, and her husband Trail Mix?” Rainbow suddenly snapped. “They better not have been treated unfairly.”

Fearing Ventras would word his response poorly; Thaddeus stepped forward with his head low. “The one calling himself Slippery Shadow resides on the second floor, no doubt aware of your arrival by now. If you mean the two explorers sent here many seasons ago, all we can provide is our deepest apologies.” He hesitated out of respect. “They are dead,” he said apologetically. “If anyone is to blame for it, it is I.”

Twilight feared that was the case. Explorers willing to go this far would have been resourceful enough to get word back sooner. She could feel Rainbow’s indignation surging to match Luna’s own, and feared her sister would act before the princess. She watched Rainbow’s indifferently pursed lips quickly shifted to boiling anger as Thaddeus explained the married couple’s fate. She was in the process of surging forward when Twilight stopped her with a hoof. Rainbow shot her a look between disbelief and fury. Twilight knew Rainbow’s argument the moment it came into being.

The request wasn’t for mercy, or to hold back for diplomacy’s sake, and for that, some part of Rainbow Dash was grateful.

Twilight replied with steel. <If we get there.>

For her part, Luna was equally angry, but also sad for the loss. “You had better to explain yourself, immediately. I tell you now that every one of my loyal subjects is precious to me.”

Ventras knew what his old friend was doing, and as much as he wanted to spare him whatever wrath the royals would demand, he knew that trying to intervene would only dishonor his majordomo and his family name. Rasua, however, was inches from intervening on her oath-brother’s behalf, honor be damned.

Thaddeus took a brief moment to choose his words carefully. “My sister and I were talking on the roof of this very house. I pulled over a clump of hillside to,” He trailed off because he hated sounding childish in front of everyone, and the native rulers only made it worse. “To drop on Rasua to pull her away from her hobby for a moment,” he partially lied to protect Rasua from her bout of laziness. “When I crumbled the dirt, one of the ponies dropped right on top of us. I was so stunned I dropped the rest of the dirt on us. The one who fell tried to jump back up the hill where its mate was waiting for her with a rope. Caught unawares, Rasua was struck with something and was momentarily thrown from the roof. I attempted to halt the ponies’ escape by pulling the hill down around them, while doing so I was hit by the male’s weapon that launched this into my gut.” Thaddeus morphed a paw into a hand, much to the Equestrians’ astonishment, Aegis chief among them, and withdrew a small bag from a pocket. Thaddeus then emptied the contents and presented it to the natives.

Luna’s suspicions abated when she saw the deformed musket ball, and further confirmed when Thaddeus pulled his jacket and underclothing aside to reveal a large dimple-like scar the size of a bit right below his ribcage. Rainbow Dash’s anger waned a little the sight of it with a chilling thought crossing her mind. Yikes. That’s a musket wound alright. What would I have done if some random new creature had shot me? I haven’t seen a firearm among them at all, so I bet they were freaking out.

Thaddeus continued his tale with a stout determined tone. “I was too injured to give chase so I summoned a Chevalier and ordered her to retrieve the fleeing ponies. I was less than clear about how I wanted them retrieved.”

“I can understand your confusion,” Luna said at length. As with Rainbow, her anger was slipping as well, but was by no means disappearing entirely. “But you make it seem that the soldier killed my explorers. They were not fighters or warriors, they were scouts. Why did she feel the need to slay them?”

Rasua knew Thaddeus too well. That idiot will just give no excuse, and these natives will demand his head! Seeing no alternative, she jumped into the conversation before Thaddeus could throw himself to the wolves. “You must understand, your majesties!” Ventras barked a curt command to shush her for speaking out of turn, but she ignored him. “We come from a land where we are the only masters of logic and reason. My brother was too stunned to clarify his orders, and the Chevalier acted out of ignorance until it was too late.”

Out of all of them, Twilight was shocked the most by that. “What?!” She pushed ahead to be just in front of Luna who was far too mired between flabbergasted and doubt to object. “There are changelings, ponies, dragons, zebras, minotaurs, sea serpents, and griffins just to name a few of the intelligent species that inhabit the known world. Do you seriously expect us to believe that your lands gave rise to only one sapient species?”

“As weird as it sounds, it’s all true, your highness,” came a voice from the stairwell a few meters away. Everyone looked up to find Slippery Shadow and his guard escort. The thestral looked no worse for wear. So much so that Luna almost thought he had gained a little weight. Shadow flew over to bow before Luna and the other royals. “I’ve had the pleasure of discussing a great many things with my hosts. They were dumbstruck when I told them of all the races of the world.” He leaned in and whispered to Luna. “Much like I was when I arrived at the hive.”

Luna had been prepared to demand harsh reprisals in the event of her explorers’ death, yet with Shadow being unharmed, she reevaluated her options. Seeing only one recourse that her morals would agree to, Luna elevated her voice a little. “Both nations of the Equestrian Alliance were founded on the principles of peace and friendship. For that, I believe Spinning Compass and Trail Mix would rather have their deaths prevent further loss of life, instead of being an excuse to end more.”

In fear of sounding weak, Luna’s voice took a hard edge. “But I still demand recompense. Two indentured servants, not executions, as payment.” Luna stared directly at Ventras as she spoke. “I have little use for a corpse.”

Every sphinx in the room who could rub two brain cells together instantly saw this as a “Des'tai”, a test of character and honor that Luna had challenged their entire civilization with in one deft stroke. Thaddeus’ thoughts mirrored those of his kind. I’d wager my right eye she’d accept anybody, even a couple of street rats as her servants. But what would that tell these Equestrians about the honor of our people? I for one will not see our glorious civilization be seen as dishonorable barbarians by those who have undoubtedly risen above their prey ancestors.

Rasua cursed that fateful day when the married explorers found Stratholme, and of what Thaddeus’ honor demanded him to do. I won’t allow them to take my oath-brother. Rasua stepped forward before anyone could speak. “I volunteer to serve you.”

“Rasua!” Ventras yelled worriedly, but his daughter pressed on. Even Thaddeus was caught flat footed.

“I am a capable warrior and a renowned blacksmith,” Rasua stated firmly at Luna and the queens, momentarily ignoring her father’s protests. “I know that honor requires my brother accept your demands, but I beseech you that he is too important to the colony’s success to leave. For the good of my people, and that of your lost explorers, allow me to go in Thaddeus’ place.”

“That is acceptable,” Luna replied evenly. Few were able to catch the glint of respect in her eyes. “It would not do well to disrupt the governance of your city.” Thaddeus glowered at his oath-sister, but couldn’t bring himself to speak. “Even so, you are only one of two that I require.”

“There can be only one acceptable choice,” an old thready feminine voice called out from behind the guards to the right. The line of guards parted to reveal two sphinxes, one of each kind, garbed in the same black robes that Aegis noticed on the statues earlier.

The aged wingless female of the pair leaned against her ornate staff as she guided her younger winged male counterpart along with her. “The vision I warned all of you about has come to pass. ‘A blasted hill and terrible warmachine will herald the Great Death. The exiled metal-shaper, and one of the cloth must venture into the howling dark, lest we all be swept away.’”

Rainbow Dash was as skeptical about such things as her sister, but more so out of stubbornness than the need for scientific evidence. Yet the supposed vision only ranked second on her groan-o-meter. “Just how many of you guys speak Equestrian now!?”

Slippery Shadow shrank a little where he stood. “I umm…” He self-consciousnessly clapped his hooves together and sweated at her coming response. “I sort of convinced most of the people in the manor to take the language spell so I would have a bigger audience for my reenactment of Marelet.”

What a foalish idiot. Had she been anywhere else, and if Slippery was an actual soldier, Luna might have taken the time to berate him for the next hour. Nevertheless, Luna was nothing if not cunning. A priest? Or at least a seer, and a willing one at that. One of them could tell me all I want to know about the sphinxes ideology and mentality. Luna leaned over to beckon Twilight into a hushed conversation in Vespid. “An interesting proposal. How would you feel about splitting them up and taking Rasua with you?”

Twilight found it difficult to keep the exasperation out of her voice. “Personally I find this whole punishment thing rather archaic, but I can’t think of a better one other than imprisonment.”

“You know it’s the perfect excuse to learn more about their kind,” Luna retorted as if she was surprised that Twilight wasn’t reading between the lines.

“Believe me, I know. If you’re really dead set on this, we’ll go along with it.” Twilight paused a moment as she listened to her sister over the hive mind. “Plus RD thinks we’d be better off gauging the sphinxes’ level of technology if we had the smith anyway.”

“Then it’s settled.” Luna returned her attention to Ventras who was caught between fear and pride for his daughter’s foolishness and courage. “The priest will come with me to my capital, and your daughter will go with Queen Twilight Sparkle and Queen Rainbow Dash. But I will tell you this: they are not our slaves, nor our property in any way. Nor will they be treated as such. You have my word that both of them will be treated with all due dignity and respect. Their willingness to accept our demands grants them that much.” I had no intention of treating them otherwise, but let them think the opposite, Luna mused. “For the time being, shall we begin this ceremony of yours before talks begin?”

Fear for his daughter coursed through Ventras like lightning. I know she’s a member of the Sestapo, but they never trained her to be a spy. Shaking off his worries for the moment, he nodded at Luna. “If it is my daughter’s wishes, then I agree.”

A solitary black carapace drone hid in a tree on the outer edge of Stripped Gear. It’s painstakingly crafted lithe body easily blended into the backdrop of greenery surrounding it. Here in the equatorial jungle, winter’s frozen touch was rarely felt. The edge of Stripped Gear’s caldera loomed upward with the barest trace of the illusion dome rounding it out, making it impossible to spy what lay within. Ever since Cadista gained access to Equestrian magic, it’s been impossible to scry what she’s doing anymore. Attacking her with an army at this point is far too wasteful, but where there’s a will, there’s a way…

Scattered out along the edge of the hive were the heads and broken thoraxes of hundreds of drones from almost every other changeling hive. The macabre sight was not there to scare away any would-be spies, due to other queens caring nothing for the life of a few drones. A warning on how prepared she is against infiltration. She’s no fool. She knows a large enough swarm could defeat her, but it would undoubtedly be a pyrrhic victory, one the other queens would capitalize on. So she tightens the noose on spying. Well, I’ll just have to see if they measure up to this latest infiltrator.

The queen puppeteering the drone grinned wickedly, even its fangs were dull so they wouldn’t glint in the bright cloudless day. The prospect of the operation sent a primal thrill through the puppet’s mistress. I couldn’t ask for a better test. With nary a whisper, the drone slinked out of the tree.

Negotiating the empty expanse between the tree line and the edge of the caldera was child’s play. The puppet expected there to be guards right behind the illusion dome, but they were not a concern just yet. With the volcano’s edge being a hundred meters high, any guards there would be more concerned about seeing a swarm attack them, than a lone drone.

The puppet reached the edge where the illusion shield and the natural rock of the caldera met. The controlling queen wouldn’t dare to use any magic to peer through. I could magically peer through at this range, wards or not, but I have to expect secondary warning spells are in place.

Without any other recourse, the puppet stuck its head through to the loud din of an industrial hive. The first thing the puppet noticed was the slight polluted haze that permeated the air. The interior of the wall was actually a steel plated rampart with a few fixed gun emplacements built so they couldn’t be turned in towards the hive in the event of being overrun. If the puppet had a better understanding of such technology, it may have noticed the trap door hatches that might have housed hidden weapon platforms. The overbuilt urban center of the hive sickened the puppet. So much wasted effort on unliving technology.

The puppet looked around to find two of Cadista’s drones a few meters to the left who were distracted as they picked apart another hive’s drone with rifle fire further down the wall. The rival spy was cut down with ruthless efficiency, yet that did little to dissuade the puppet’s queen dim view on inorganic technology. With the guards distracted, the puppet pulled itself fully through the shield. My camouflage magic should work even in this urban environment, but I’d better not take any chances.

The distance between the edge of the wall and the drop off of the caldera was short but that was no excuse to be sloppy. Over half of all of the queen’s earlier attempts at infiltrating Stripped Gear ended shortly after underestimating the hive’s defenses. The puppet found a couple metal crates of ammunition to duck behind as two more riflelings flew in at a low hover to aid their kin in searching for more spies. Good, they’re going in the wrong direction. I hope my luck holds.

Waiting a full hour for things to die down and to gauge the patrol patterns of the guards was a serious pain. The infiltrator’s camouflage was made to be sustainable for weeks, but it destabilized badly while moving. Cadista’s guards were good and the puppet saw no less than three other spies try to breach the shield within half an hour. All of them were cut down almost immediately, if not by those on the walls, then by the flying cavalry that always seemed to be a stone’s throw away.

Such attacks were to be expected, and the puppeteering queen didn’t even bat an eyelash at the spectacle. Word has it Cadista’s building something new. For how long I don’t know, but in the end it won’t matter if she’s taken out before she can bring this new weapon to the battlefield.

The infiltrator’s musings were cut short when it saw an opening. The wall guards were being relieved and the flying cavalry were momentarily distracted by their replacements. In a flash of movement, the spy raced to get off the wall and used its hooves to cling to the inner side of the caldera wall. In a moment of impatience, the controlling queen wanted to press the advantage and slip further down towards the urban sprawl below, but caution won out and the puppet stayed where it was.

The act had been fortuitous as the spy soon discovered more teams of cavalry were watching the interior of the walls like hawks. I should have expected as much. Cadista may be a fool when it comes to having intelligent drones and using technology of machine and metal, but when it comes to security… The controlling queen made sure her grunt of approval came from her real body and not the puppet. That is a long way down to the nearest building. I better leave the puppet here overnight to study the patrol paths. Cadista can wait another day.

5: Diplomacy

Rasua was in her room on the third story of the manor packing her possessions away, everything from undergarments to various odds and ends. Thanks to the Deception, she was allowed to take whatever she wished, provided anything dangerous was declared ahead of time. Rasua didn’t take long since she had little beyond work clothing and an assortment of blacksmithing tools. She always kept her trade secret tools in her chambers when not at work. The runed smithing hammer that she paused to study was her particular favorite.

With her room in upheaval, she took the time to shift both forelegs into hands and gently rubbed the expertly crafted handle as one would a lover. I hope I get to continue to shape metal wherever it is they’re taking me. My old master would be spitting curses from the hereafter if he knew his teachings would go to waste.

Before she could put it in its travel case, such was the care she had for the tool, Rasua grabbed some mana infused oil to recharge the runes. She was half way done before a knock on the door broke her concentration. “Enter!”

A guard popped his head in. “Princess Aegis Altair wishes to speak with you.”

“The princess? I thought she’d be busy with the deliberations.”

The guard fully opened the door, allowing Aegis to canter inside. “I’m keeping tabs on it,” she answered for the guard. “But all of it is as I expected it to be. Our side is leveraging our ancient claim to the land and ability to enforce it, while your father and… oath-brother, I believe, are countering with the fact that there was no Equestrian presence in the land and how none of us have been using it in the slightest.”

Rasua stiffened at her new master’s abrupt entry, and did her best to ignore the invasion of privacy. “I see. Is there something you require of me, Princess?” She couldn’t help but to notice the glint of red-ish metal underneath Aegis’ heavy clothing.

“Since you’ll be coming with us to Phoenix's Roost, I thought we should get to know each other better. Perhaps I could even help you pack, if you like.”

Rasua was caught flat-footed by the offer and her mouth hung agape for a brief instant before she waved the guard to leave, and spoke once he shut the door. “I am all for expedience.” How is she going to do that without hands? She better not drool on anything. She pointed at a trio of small painted statues. Aegis immediately identified Ventras and Thaddeus were depicted in two of them, but an unknown winged female with a caring face was the third. “Since that ship of yours is so spacious, I’m taking everything except furniture. So if you could wrap them up, it’d save some time.”

“Of course.” Aegis saw a stack of silky towels next to the statues. If these are of her family, she must love them a great deal. I wonder why she’d let a stranger do this. With the greatest of care, Aegis proceeded to wrap them up with her telekinesis.

Rasua was already familiar with her brother’s own form of telekinesis, so Aegis wielding the same power only produced an inquisitive hum out of Rasua. So that’s how they manage without hands. Does it work with everything or only certain materials like brother’s power? I’ll find out soon enough, and at least I don’t have to worry about drool or skin oil on them.

The pair passed into silence long enough for Aegis to finish wrapping one statue and to begin on the second when Rasua asked a question that was bugging her whole family. “So tell me, Princess, why do you changelings look so much alike? Do you dye your fur and hair to signify which queen you champion or something?”

Aegis couldn’t help but to giggle behind a hoof at the notion, earning a slightly sour look from Rasua. “No, it has nothing to do with social reasons. Any purple changeling you see from our hive is Twilight Sparkle’s child, while all the blue drones came from Rainbow Dash.”

Hive, drone? Rasua stopped packing at the strange ideas Aegis’ comment was giving her. “You mean figuratively, right?” she asked with an edge of fear.

Aegis wrapped up the last statue with a sly grin, completely missing the sphinx's fear. “Nope. My queens can lay up to thirteen eggs a day, and I came from one of them.” Her heart went aflutter. Oh, I can’t wait to lay eggs! To feel the love of thousands, no tens of thousands of children would be divine! Aegis stopped swooning over her future to notice Rasua was staring at her wide-eyed. “We may look like mammals, Rasua, but that’s only skin deep. We changelings are actually much closer to insects than anything else. At least that’s how we think of ourselves.”

Rasua had noticed the gossamer wings, but between the fur and eyes she hadn’t made the connection. Aegis watched her open and shut her mouth repeatedly, but the words never came. “If you’re wondering why I’m telling all this, it's because my queens feel understanding can defeat ignorance induced fear. It’s worked fairly well with the ponies, so they hope it will with your kind as well.”

Vath! As if being technologically superior wasn’t bad enough, now she tells me they’re bugs too? Rasua’s mood sunk rapidly thanks to her entomophobia. She looked away to hide her creeping hyperventilation. J-just don’t focus on that. She’s lying, yeah, just a big joke, that’s all. Her wings ruffled at the thought of maggots, flies, spider webs, and even butterflies. It’s all a lie! she screamed at herself. She has fur, and hair, and, non-bug eyes, and only four limbs, and stuff. She’s a damn mammal, and she’s going to like it!

With her mental gymnastics done, she calmed down enough to look back at Aegis who was inspecting how Rasua had folded her clothes and was trying her best to mimic it. The act alone puzzled her. “Say ahh… Do you always fold your own clothes?”

“And the laundry, and my own weapons’ maintenance,” Aegis replied plainly while turning to look lovingly at the flamethrower strapped on her back.

“Why, aren’t you a princess?”

Aegis had made a point to avoid any obvious undergarments, and only looked at Rasua briefly as she spoke between folding. “I was a soldier before I was a princess, with all the trappings that came with it. I wouldn’t have been chosen to become a royal if I was a self-centered prick. Everypo-everyone has to contribute to the welfare of the hive, and sitting on a pedestal all day complaining about trivial things is unacceptable.” Mother would sooner die than allow me or any future royal daughter become like those self-centered rich “noble” girls from Canterlot.

“I see.” Rasua finished packing her tools and moved several large pieces of luggage over to stuff her clothes in. She was operating under the assumption that she wouldn’t find any tailors suited for her in the heartland of the Equestrian Alliance.

“Well I’ve told you about my people,” Aegis commented as she helped levitate some of Rasua’s larger belongings into a crate. “Could you tell me about yourself and sphinxes in general?” She paused a moment before adding, “like what do you say to distinguish between gender and the possession of wings?”

Rasua looked at her funny before remembering that they had been speaking in Equestrian the whole time. It was also a harmless question enough. “Adult males are called toms while females are called janes. Being a winged sphinx I’m called a Grecian while those like my oath-brother and father are Egyptians. That’s a holdover from the original civilizations both races came from, but our two races united early in recorded history due to the actions of the Prophet Felryan. By the time that old religion died out, unification remained entrenched in our general society and mindset.”

“Fascinating,” Aegis hummed curiously. “That’s far quicker than ponies unified.” Aegis went into the abridged version of Equestrian history revolving mostly around the Hearth’s Warming Eve story. Rasua took the story as heavily sanitized half-truths, but said nothing to potentially insult the changeling princess.

“An interesting tale to be sure,” Rasua focused on how non-bug Aegis acted, which was helped by the fact that she looked mammalian. “Since you told me of your history, it is only fair I do the same. We are a federation of seven nations bound by steel since the last of the Geyser Wars ten years ago. We used to be eight territories within an equal number of empires, but the wars ended up killing off all the royal families in the end, with one province being totally wiped out in the process. After that, the rival army marshals called for a cease fire since it was the ruling caste of the two empires that wanted the war in the first place. Those army marshals ended up becoming the first members of the Council of Seven.”

Aegis was stunned long enough for a small crew of movers to come in and take the luggage and crates away. “How did your people unify so quickly?”

“It’s… complicated.” Rasua remembered stories about the Old Families. “Let’s just say the people were more than happy to see the old imperials lines finally wither away. They were the only ones who really kept our people so divided. Plus one of the marshals declared this was an extension of Prophet Felryan’s will. He tried and failed to resurrect the old religion, but it helped expedite cooperation.” With the movers and all of her possessions being passed over to a parked shuttle out front, Rasua felt it would be a good idea to get one last look of her new home. “Would you like a brief tour of Stratholme tomorrow? I’ll likely not see it again anytime soon, and there are some sites you might find of interest.” I’d like to see if anything catches her eye so I can use that later.

“Sounds cold.” Aegis shivered at the thought of going back outside, and the frozen over window didn’t help at all. “But intriguing nonetheless, I’d like that.” With tomorrow planned, Aegis switched gears. “You said you were a warrior earlier,” she said to pull attention away from the blizzard. “Do you have a weapon of choice?”

“Aye, well, two of them.” Rasua brightened considerably at the question, and dearly wished the question had been brought up earlier. “My new love is my smithing hammer: Thul. I’d never swing him in combat, but with that hammer in my hands, I can forge arms for others to fight with. In that way, I fight with not just my hands, but with all of those who I craft for.”

“I hadn't thought about that line of reasoning before,” Aegis decided to leave out the hive’s assembly lines for the time being. “And the second?”

“The Spark Cannons. Militarily I’d imagine they operate the same way your muskets do, only far too big to carry by hand. They rend the skies with lightning, making flight during combat all but impossible.” She subconsciously rubbed her right foreleg. “I would not be here today were it not for those weapons.”

“I can sympathize with that.” Aegis pulled her pride and joy off her back. “This is my flamethrower: Burny. This guy’s saved my skin more times than I care to count.”

“Flamethrower?” Rasua commented absently, earning a bemused eyebrow out of Aegis. “My people have always excelled at harnessing lightning ever since we witnessed nature brandish it during storms. Yet aside from the cook, hearth, and forge, we’ve never trusted fire or explosive things. Between this flamethrower, the explosions on the hill, and that explosive powder we found on the first explorers, your people must use it far more extensively than sanely possible.”

“I see,” Aegis said at length as Rasua lead them to the kitchens. “So you guys were,” she tried to put it diplomatically, “compelled to concede the position of power to us, due to concerns about our fire based weaponry and having a flying ship?” Rasua nodded with a grimace. “Why didn’t you try to use those cannons on us once we moved into the city to grab power back?”

Rasua paused on the stairs and turned to look at her. “Just because we were caught off guard by your ship’s display of power and the fact that it appeared out of thin air, doesn’t mean we couldn’t think.” Aegis almost recoiled a bit at the taste of venom coming out of Rasua. “We tried making airships before a long time ago, but lightning technology was too far advanced by then, and all the early flying ships were destroyed long before they could ever influence the battlefield.” She wasn’t sure if Equestrians had railroads, which ended up killing any future airships had in the Federation, so Rasua left them out.

“And those early ships were made from wood and rubber hulls, I could tell even at that distance, your warship is made of metal. Which means you found a way to shrug off lightning from thunderstorms, and if you could do that, our cannons are worthless against you.” What Rasua didn’t want to add was how much destruction the flamethrower armed changelings could cause if they targeted the city instead of the guards.

Aegis recalled Gethar’s failed attempts at using lightning against the Deception. “I’m surprised you perceived all that so quickly.”

Well, father wanted to lead that ship into the city until I convinced him lightning would be folly. “A huntress must think quickly or she becomes the prey instead.” Aegis wasn’t actually sure anything she could say would be correct, so she opted for silence. The pair started moving towards the kitchens again. “In any event, I wish to have an early evening meal.” It may be the last chance I can get ribs. “You have no need to join me, princess.”

“Hey, I get hungry too! And I think it’d be interesting to see what kind of food you guys have.”

“I think it’s a fair compromise,” Twilight stated in front of the conference room. “The Alliance is willing to part with sixty thousand square kilometers of land, centered on the logging camp we passed over into Stratholme, and in return, you build a land trade route to Vanhoover in the north, along with guarding and maintaining it for the next decade after completion.” There were other smaller details, like regulations, but she didn’t want to drag it out by speaking of each one. “With that, we can enjoy open borders and trade relations.”

Thaddeus had to admit, he couldn’t have asked for better. “And you also desire to send a diplomatic envoy to the Federation homeland, as well as set up an embassy here.”

“Correct,” Luna replied with carefully measured grace. “I assume you’ll wish to wait for a formal response and diplomatic team from your homeland to arrive. Just remember the land we trade is more of a gift than an actual bargaining chip. If you desire more, you will have to pay full price for it.”

Ventras looked over the two scribes, a sphinx and Slippery Shadow, who were jotting down all the details of the negotiations. “Before we finalize this agreement, I must ask. Why are you not demanding more concessions for so much land? What sort of back dealing are we going to have to put up with?”

Twilight gave him an acknowledging smile, and stood up to pace around the square table where they all sat. “While I do not subscribe to most of them, I whole heartily believe in the thirty fifth Rule of Acquisition: peace is good for business. Demanding what we perceive as the full value of this much land would cost you dearly, and may not be what you would find fair.” She reached Ventras’ chair and gently dragged a wing along the back of it. “Were that to happen, all future relations between the Alliance and Federation would be soured by the notion that we bullied you into giving too many concessions. So we’d prefer to start things off where everyone is happy.” She rounded Ventras’ chair and flashed him a winning fang-filled smile.

The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife. Ventras studied the purple mare intently, it was only now that he felt he truly saw her. “Your words are gentle, and yet...” He turned to look at the Deception through a window. “They have weight.

“Yes... I can see you clearly now, Queen Twilight Sparkle. Your forefathers may have been prey, but you, you are not. I can see it in your eyes, in your stance, in your teeth, you are not prey, you are the prime huntress of your people. For that, you have my respect.

“If you have seen fit to have these ponies be your close allies, then they too are undeserving of the moniker of prey. We would be honored to work alongside you.”

“Wonderful,” Twilight replied as she settled back down in her seat. Celestia’s training served Twilight well as she took the compliment in stride. “I look forward to a prolonged friendship with both you and the Federation.”

While Rainbow Dash was more than happy to remain silent the entire time, Twilight prodded her to add a token voice to the proceedings. “We’ll have the formal papers written up by morning. You can review it to make sure there are no errors before signing it.”

Thaddeus clasped his hands together and bowed graciously. “We’ll be doing the same in our language to send back home.” He had to admit, he felt good about how everything turned out. Thank the stars Ventras didn’t try to push for anything outrageous. We need to keep these fire mongers happy. “We should celebrate! Since the weather would make for a poor hunt and we do not yet have any enclosed stadiums, why not join us in a game of strategy and chance?”

Ever since becoming an officer in the Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash had grown to value strategy games. Helps keep the mind sharp when you can’t get any explosions. “I’ll have a go at it.”

“As will I.” Twilight mirrored her sister’s enthusiasm but for different reasons. Games are an excellent way to learn about culture. “And afterwards we can play some from my homeland as well.”

“An excellent idea,” Ventras agreed, if only so the Equestrians would share some of their culture. “Why don’t we start with the Federation’s most widespread and competitive game?”

A fire was lit under Rainbow Dash the instant “competitive” left Ventras’ mouth. “OOoo, sounds fun.” She raised her eyebrows at Twilight and Luna who nodded with a grin and relented with a sigh respectively. “So how do we play?”

Ventras turned to the soldier behind him. “Evocati, gather all the rule books and other objects for Vaults and Villains from my quarters.”

“Sir!” the soldier replied with a curt salute before leaving.

Rainbow’s alarm bells started ringing at the mention of multiple rule books. Poker only needed a single sheet of paper for its rules, but maybe this will be more like Peril, or Apologize.

Limited small talk ensued as they all waited for the guard to return. Soon enough, the soldier came back with a stack of five books, a few pieces of elaborately painted folding mahogany wood, a couple of sacks, and a large carrying case full of small figurines. Ventras grinned maniacally as he was given a large collection of papers. “I will tell you now that I am a world renowned Vault Lord. I will give you all time to read the rules while I prepare a starter campaign that I’ve always enjoyed. Thaddeus, why don’t you assist them in this?”

“For our new acquaintances, I would do it gladly.” He waved at the three royals to gather closer together as he brought the books over. Rainbow Dash eyed them with intense trepidation, but her time as a WonderBolt’s officer and queen, (along with a helping hand from Twilight’s DNA,) allowed her to keep from rejecting the idea out of hand.

Luna couldn’t help but to be curious, even if she was always bored to tears at board games. All in the name of diplomacy. Tia, you owe me big for this.

Out of all of them, Twilight was beside herself with glee the moment she cracked open the one inch-thick rule book, and started weaving her translation spell. “Okay, girls, this is going to be so. Much. Fun!”

Twilight had Thaddeus move over to her to begin translating the text to speed up the rate at which her language spell could work.

Rainbow replied with a thick helping of sarcasm. I hope Aegis is having more fun than I’ll be for the rest of the day. It was only when she was escorted to a lavatory did Rainbow finally let off the massive groan she had been saving for the past five hours.

“And so that’s how our race came to be what it is today,” Aegis finished with a flourish of a hoof.

Rasua was a poster child for deep thought as she nestled on a bench just outside the manor. The frigid winds helped her think, and calmed her nerves somewhat at the prospect of living inside an insect hive for who knew how long. She calls herself an insect and yet she’s warm blooded! No matter how Aegis described her home, all Rasua could see were beehives, ant hills, whole chambers full of maggot worms writhing in their own mucus, and halls full of chittering clattering insects the size of teenage sphinxes.

“Hey, Rasua, you listening?”

Blushing furiously, the sphinx nodded hastily. “Yes, of course, Princess.” She quickly racked her brain to catch up to the conversation. “You say your kind used to be thestrals like Slippery Shadow. Why did none of you wish to try and change back?”

Aegis had told her briefly about alchemy, but lied about how it could be used on anyone, not just changelings. The last thing she wanted was fear popping up about Rasua potentially getting converted. “I can’t tell you to be honest,” Aegis sat on the bench while trying to mimic Rasua contemplatively rubbing a finger on her chin. “Maybe my ancestors tried and failed, or didn’t think it was possible. I’m sure there could be a way, but nopony’s in a hurry to discover it. At least not anymore, it all happened thousands of years ago after all.”

“I see.” Rasua scanned Aegis’ face as non-confrontational as possible. “So what is it you changelings do for entertainment?”

The first thing that came to Aegis’ mind was sex. She almost said it too, but she caught herself in time. I’ll never understand why non-changeling species tried to hide that universal fact, buuuut I better not risk being so blunt. “We’ve ahh, taken most of our stuff from Equestria. Hoofball mostly, but we have music, dance, theater all that stuff.” She noticed Rasua’s didn’t look impressed in the slightest. I guess they do that sort of stuff too. “While I haven’t participated in one before, every year we hold a technology fair in the hive, during which teams of engineers, scientists, and independent parties can showcase their inventions and discoveries. It's a chance to introduce new things to the world at large and try and get them out to the general public.” Well, outside of the hive anyway. That got a curious hum out of her feline companion, but it wasn’t enough for Aegis. “In fact, we’re going to be hosting the fair in a few weeks. I’d love to see you there.”

“Will metallurgists be there?”

Aegis saw the perfect opportunity to bring hands into the conversation. “Oh yeah, we recently finished building a whole lab for them.” She pulled back the sleeve around her left foreleg to reveal her gauntlet fully for the first time since arriving in Stratholme. “This little number wouldn’t have been possible without them. This alone was enough to give our metallurgists a specialized lab of their own.”

Now Aegis had Rasua’s full attention again. Even a few of the nearby guards risked lapses in their vigilance to try and get a closer look at Aegis’ armor. “What is this thing? If you don’t mind my asking.”

Aegis barely suppressed a squeal as Rasua shifted a paw into a hand to poke at her gauntlet. “This is a prototype meant to give me hands, in a sense.”

“Hands? Are there other species out there that inspired you to make this?” Since Aegis had not given any resistance to her gauntlet being prodded, Rasua shifted to sit closer and started to inspect the gauntlet more closely.

“These are based off minotaurs, but smaller so it could fit me. I’ll show you some pictures of them later.”

“I would like that.”

Aegis gently cleared her throat and tugged her gauntlet free so she could extend the fingers. “I have to admit, I’m still trying to get the hang of using fingers.” Her eyes lit up. “Why don’t you teach some pointers and I’ll give you a grand tour of the hive when we get there.”

The mention of the hive brought the fact that Rasua would be leaving her home and family right back to the forefront, and into a nation revolving around the love of fire. “As you wish, Princess. If there is nothing else, I would prefer to spend this time with family.”

“Oh, sure. Family is a changeling’s whole world, so I don’t mind. Your brother and father are most likely still in the audience chamber.” She wanted to be vague to hide the existence of the hive mind.

“Then I should be there.” If only to be at their side a little while longer. “Can you tell me when your ship will depart?”

“That’ll depend entirely on my aunt and mother. Although I suspect they will want to stay in port for a while and try to break the ice, as we say, to get both of our people to coexist more easily.”

That was a welcome relief. The longer Rasua stayed around, the less time she’d have to spend in a bug hive. Now I just have to conjure a reason to intrude on the deliberations. Maybe pull some fake tradition out of my ass so the Equestrians aren’t offended? They seemed pretty understanding so far.

As Rasua went back inside, Aegis scowled at having to wait for her hand lessons. Great, now what am I going to do? A sudden jump in wind speed cut through Aegis like a frozen knife. Preferably going someplace warm. Plus I think I got plenty of scent samples off of Rasua anyway, so I think I need to move on to some of the stallions, er I mean toms.

She pinged the hive mind to gather some information. Hey! Intel’s squad is off rotation since the cats proved cooperative. Maybe I can catch her and the rest of Squad One at the pub before they go back to the ship to sleep! I can hang with them and get plenty of scents while I’m there, it’s a win-win.

With her mind made up, Aegis raced off to the pub two city blocks away. She took note that two sphinx guards tailed her at a discrete distance, but made no action against them. If Boss Cat’s enthusiastic game fanaticism is any sign, I doubt those guards will try to screw with me.

Much to her surprise, only a scant handful of drones were at the pub. They directed Aegis to the stables on the east side of town. With everyone either staying indoors to escape the blizzard, or looking up at the two airships, there were only a handful of sphinxes that noticed Aegis moving along the streets. Some of the growing criminal underbelly may have considered attempting to kidnap her for ransom were it not for the two burly guards tailing her already.

The hive mind’s chart of Stratholme was still sketchy. Even with the observers on the Deception attempting to build a map, the dense snowfall coupled with the completely unknown function of most of the buildings made locating anything difficult. Nevertheless, a few sphinxes were trudging through the blizzard. Strange visitors or not, life must go on. All Aegis needed to do was ask a question or two, and she found her way to the stables within an hour of leaving the manor.

The stables themselves were situated along a major avenue with one covered, heavily burdened wagon being pulled into the marshalling yard within. Aegis was about to enter the door underneath the sign-statue when she saw Intel and her squad through the closing gates as the wagon entered.

There they are. I should have known Intel would have kept the squad sober until we return to the hive.

With the stables’ roof in the way, flying in was out. So Aegis had to go through the reception area, and was admitted inside to join her kin. She passed through the small office to find Intel’s squad gathered around one of the beasts of burden in its stable, along with a Grecian tom who Aegis assumed was a salesman. Or would that be salestom? He was dressed in a finely tailored suit, and seemed to be trying to calm two Egyptians and one Grecian who looked angrier than Rainbow Dash after Pinkie drank all the cider. It didn’t help that the three belligerents were both armed and armored for battle. Intel was at the front of her squad with Ferrum and Counterspell flanking her. While the changelings were armed, they looked vulnerable with only cold weather uniforms, and no armor of their own.

“You may be high and mighty with your ship above our heads, but down here, I wager I could take all four of you,” the lone Grecian tom jeered.

Aegis saw Intel was keeping a cool head, but Ferrum and Counterspell were on edge. “Until our queens say otherwise, we have no reason to fight you. Why don’t you wait your turn to talk to the salestom?”

Aegis started marching over as one of the Egyptian janes heavily slammed the head of her warhammer on the ground beside her. The tell-tale crack of electricity resounded throughout the chamber. “This is our city, prey. Get out of our way.”

Not one to shy away from a fight, Aegis barked at the group once she was within earshot. “Anypo- anyone want to explain to me what’s going on?”

Thus far, Thunderfury, the fourth member rounding out Squad One, had been staying out of the confrontation by studying the multi-horned blue beast of burden, but the moment he heard Aegis’ voice he raced over to in a prismatic flash to interpose himself between her and the armed assailants.

The level of tension shot up to papable levels among the rest of the changelings, causing them to adopt a defensive posture, yet refrained from drawing their weapons quite yet. The leading sphinx glanced in disgust as the salesman slipped away. None of the antagonistic sphinxes had seen any of the royals up close on their way to Ventras’ manor, and didn’t know what a changeling princess looked like, but from the squad’s reaction they knew Aegis was of importance. “Yeah we got a problem. Your kind barge into our territory like you own the place!”

The jane with the hammer stepped with an equally foul sneer. “You ain’t got the right!”

“Funny,” Aegis replied derisively. “This land belongs to the Equestrian Alliance until the treaty is signed. And our right is floating above your heads with its cannons pointed down.” She saw the rebuke coming before it left their lips. “And I would just love to see you try using lightning to bring it down.”

That stopped the two janes from speaking further, but they still scowled in defiance. The tom wasn’t so easily cowed. “You really think this colony represents the might of the Federation military?!” He scoffed harshly. “The legion alone numbers in the millions, and once the council hears of today, they’ll bring the hammer down on you all.” He stepped forward to glare Aegis down, trying to force his prey to reveal any weakness. “You can act like predators all you want, but your little fire show can’t fight the fact that all of you are prey to the core.”

Aegis nonchalantly brushed some snow off her jacket. “I think the steak I ate for lunch would disagree."

Thunderfury cautioned as he crouched low, ready to spring.

Thunderfury’s warning made Aegis scan the rest of Intel’s squad. Each of them had their kinesis gripping their weapons and were slowly pulling them from their holsters. Counterspell was already flooding his staff with mana to enable highly empowered spells. Thunderfury however made no attempt at subtlety, and summoned his two Quadrinix alloy tech-shields, and had them hovering at his sides, which made the two janes shoulder their weapons as well.

The shields themselves were teardrop shaped and flared out to cover him in a full 270° arc. They also had the tell-tale shimmer of artificial Arcane Wing magic, but Aegis was unfamiliar as to what configuration was active.

Shouldn’t those guards be telling these guys to back off by now?

She didn’t want to turn to look for them out of concern that the sphinxes would use that as an excuse to attack. As it turned out, they didn’t need any further provocation and the tom took to the air so his forelimbs were free to reshape into hands and grabbed his Chu-ko-nu repeating crossbow. “I refuse to allow prey to act as equals!” Spittle flew along with his rage. “Kill the-”

A rainbow blur and the sickening crunch of breaking bones on metal resounded through the stables. Thunderfury’s left shield slammed into the tom’s jaw, fracturing it and knocking several teeth free. The shimmering surface of the shield remolded slightly around the impact area, and added a second kinetic push that sent the tom to the dirt and out cold.

Thunderfury raced back over to stand guard over Aegis. “No one threatens the princess!”

“That will be quite enough,” a feminine voice called out from the office door. Everyone turned to see Aegis’ sphinx guards stroll up to both parties with cold malice. Both janes forgot their Grecian leader and started backing away from the newcomers. “The Sestapo’s here?!”

“Cheese it!”

The two Egyptians tried to make a break for the side fire exit behind the stables. The thus far silent Sestapo agent sighed. “They always try to run.” Pulling out a Chu-ko-nu of his own, he fired two quick shots at the fleeing sphinxes, hitting both in the rump. Trailing wires from the crossbow bolts allowed him to channel electricity through them. The two janes dropped within seconds, prompting his partner to fly over and restrain them.

Eying the changelings with an oily grin, the agent holstered his weapon. “I must thank the lot of you. Baby Face Callion has been a stain upon the Legion for too long. Assaulting a recognized dignitary is the perfect excuse to… discharge him.”

“Is this sort of behavior normal for your citizens?” Intel inquired with as much tact as possible.

The agent’s oily grin vanished and was replaced by a lopsided frown. “We are a very proud people, changelings. Your warship’s stunt stepped on a lot of toes, although personally I find the backlash will be far too amusing to feel insulted myself.”

The comment made Aegis look at the criminals who were being restrained as several normal police officers entered through the office to take them into custody. “That may be so. But I find it difficult to believe any of you would have seen us as anything other than prey had we taken a softer approach.”

The agent laughed wholeheartedly for a good half-minute, long enough for his partner to return. “You may not have realized it, Princess Aegis, but politically, you did the correct thing in asserting your influence. No matter how much my people will squirm about it. That above all else is why I’m greatly looking forward to the coming years.”

His partner interposed herself as the officers gathered up the disgruntled sphinxes behind her. “Come, we have processing to take care of.”

“Yes, your right. Callion has a lot of friends that need,” he paused as if remembering the changelings were still there, “a deft hand.” He turned again towards Aegis. “It has been a pleasure, Princess. But I suggest you return to the governor’s manor when your business here is done. At least for the time being,” he added with a sly wink.

With a slight bow, the two agents excused themselves and departed, but not before running into the salesman within the office. “So that’s where you ran off to. I trust you’ll accept any worthy offering of trade and report back to us immediately.”

Despite the blistering cold weather, the salesman sweated in his suit. “Y-yes of course.”

“Good man,” the lead agent replied with a winning smile and a hand clap on the salesman’s withers before both Sestapo operatives departed to chase after the police.

With everyone gone, Aegis turned to her protectors. “Well that was fun. What brought all of you out here anyway?”

Intel jabbed a hoof at Thunderfury who was in the process of unfolding a long finely tailored weapon teleportation scroll to send his shields back to the ship. “Fury here wanted to see if we could buy a few breeding pairs of the talbuks. That’s what the Feds call those blue beasts in the stables.”

Ferrum giggled at his squadmate. “I told him it’s a bit big to be a pet. Not to mention we could barely fit one in the cargo hold, let alone two.”

All eyes turned to Thunderfury who was muttering to himself while a small abacus click-clacked in front of him. A few moments of silence led Counterspell to groan. “You should really leave the math stuff to good mathematicians.”

“Sush, I can figure it out!”

Aegis glanced at the salesman reentering the stables out of the corner of her eye. “Figure what out? We have no use for anything like these…”

“Talbuks,” Intel provided.

“Right, talbuks back at the hive. We have trolleys and rail carts for transit.”

Thunderfury’s ears shot up and he hastily looked away from his abacus. “It’s not for us though.” He flew into a low hover so he could gesture with his forelegs, his abacus clicking constantly with his movements. “Think of rural Equestria, especially places without a railroad. These talbuks are stronger than even earth ponies, and their wide round feet allow them to walk on Stratholme’s cobblestone roads without damaging them. Since Aunt Applejack already has a small ranch for sheep, pigs, and cows, they could expand that to talbuks and sell them as beasts of burden. I’m sure they would make farm work easier at the very least.”

Counterspell and Aegis had to pause and think on that. Intel caught on right away. “Hey, that’s not a bad idea. Rural Equestria doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to support railroads in every village, but even a small community could tend to a few of these guys if they can graze on grass or hay.”

The salesman was feeling extremely uncomfortable eavesdropping on a conversation in Vespid. “H-have you come to a decision, Mistress Intel ‘La Gence?”

“Huh? Oh, right.” Intel looked to Aegis. “Well I guess since you’re here, it’s your call, Princess.”

Intel’s response was to whistle and look away with an insanely innocent look. Sighing, Aegis looked to Thunderfury who hugged his abacus out of hope for his idea’s acceptance. She pinged her mother to see if she could spare a moment.

Aegis couldn’t help but sense intense amusement and a touch of a competitive edge in her mother’s tone.

Aegis relayed Thunderfury’s plan in its entirety.

she added with disdain.

Aegis flew over to look the beast up close, and saw nothing but the eyes of a dim-witted animal slowly chew on cud. She waved a hoof over its eyes and only got a slow blink and a lazy chew on some feed.

Twilight paused for several seconds as she spoke briefly to Rainbow Dash.

Twilight replied warmly. For the time being, she would operate under the assumption that the talbuk was as animalistic as the sphinxes claimed.

As Aegis set events in motion to buy the animals, Twilight refocused on the game when Rasua returned and immediately asked to join in. Thaddeus had provided the three royal Equestrians with premade character to jumpstart the Vaults and Villains game. What had surprised Twilight most was the stack of papers outlining a hundred premades to choose from.

The three of them played along for different reasons. The interest of diplomacy on Luna’s part, while Twilight had to trade away three days of laying to Rainbow Dash to get her to give more than token involvement. I don’t mind, Twilight mused with a wry grin. I had a few years of laying before she got a chance, so this will help even out the population just the tiniest bit.

Twilight however was more intrigued by the game than any of them. She spoke as she tried to settle on the three best looking character sheets. “I must ask how a game of this nature became a national sport.” She looked up to Ventras for an answer. “We have something remotely similar, but it hasn’t garnered much public spotlight outside of being a hobby.”

Rasua couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly at the impossible idea that something similar to Villains and Vaults could be anything except wildly popular while her father tried to remain diplomatic. “We sphinxes have a long tradition of hunting to prove one’s worth as a predator. We have… less bloody sports to test one’s teamwork and physical prowess. We even have some games that challenge strategic thinking as well.”

He started speaking extremely dramatically to the point of embarrassment on Rasua’s part. “But Vaults and Villains is a test of everyone’s creativity and cultural richness. It is the Vault Lord’s job, nay, privilege to present and direct a riveting tale, while it is the players’ task to bring fresh ideas and plot twists to life.” He tapped his chin before grinning at the Equestrians. “Something I’m sure the three of you will offer in spades.”

Time melted away for Twilight Sparkle as the campaign Ventras picked out cast everyone’s characters into a pitched battle right from the start and didn’t let up for hours. Thaddeus and Rasua’s characters were teamed up with the Equestrians as the gathered party tore through goblins, gnolls, the undead(Rainbow’s particular favorite), and beasts of questionable nature. Everyone tried to keep things simple for the Equestrians by only playing Egyptian sphinx characters.

The campaign lasted for hours, and at the end of a long slog through a virtual sea of monsters and hostile soldiers, the group arrived at the warlord: Warchief Guth the Butcher of Fangly Harbor, who rode upon a large fire breathing winged serpent. Luna took a moment to notice quite a crowd had gathered around the room. At least three dozen guards and servants watched on from the sidelines or up in the rafters.

With a manic grin, Rainbow Dash jabbed a hoof at Ventras after winning the roll of the dice to go first. “I, the masked monk Tiburón Perdido, charge in for a tackle!”

Ventras gave her a set of dice for Rainbow to roll. A hoof pump heralded the results. “Eighteen!”

“Alright,” Ventras started as he formulated what happened next. “You latched onto the rear section of the winged serpent a meter behind the saddle.” He rolled some damage dice before turning to Luna.

“I guess I’ll go ahead and preemptively start casting a healing spell for her.” Everyone else joined the battle with far more caution.

The battle ended up going poorly thanks to some bad rolls and the overall difficulty of the campaign. Through sheer luck, Rasua’s character managed to rip the Warchief’s halberd away, leaving him with only a shield and his winged serpent. It had been a winning move the last time Rasua had played this, but her father’s eyes glinted in predatory malice.

He propped himself up on the table and bellowed in his best intimidating baritone voice. “Foolish mongrels! You think disarming me will save you? Serpent! Fly above these worms and incinerate them from above!” Breaking character, Ventras also added, “Since Guth still has his shield, he casts Omni-Reflect, protecting him and his mount from spells for twenty turns.” He looked upon the horrified faces of the audience and players. “Queen Rainbow Dash, I’ll give you a chance to let go before the mount flies too high.”

Thaddeus and Rasua slouched back in their chairs in defeat as their melee characters were rendered useless, while Luna and Twilight tried to comb the spellbook for a way to break the reflect barrier. Thaddeus was about to announce his intent to duck for cover and look for a discarded crossbow when Rainbow Dash slammed a hoof on the table. “Screw that, I roll to pin.” The room went dead silent. Even the blizzard outside seemed to give pause. Fearing Ventras would null the action as impossible, Rainbow clarified. “I move to grapple the serpent’s wings together so he can’t fly.”

Everyone looks at Ventras. He worked his jaw as an internal war debated on whether or not to accept the action. After a long pause he nods. “Roll it.”

Everyone scrambled over each other to watch Rainbow toss the dice into the center of the table. The whole room followed the dice as they bounced on the table and came to a stop at the center. A collective gasp resounded throughout the chamber while a fang-filled toothy grin cleaved Rainbow’s muzzle. “Natural twenty, baby! Wooo!”

Cheering erupted from the crowd, buying time for the flabbergasted Ventras to recover from the shock. Only a tenth of any fresh party groups ever survive this campaign. Laughing at himself, Ventras made a large sweeping gesture to silence the crowd. “You succeed in grappling the serpent’s wings.” He rolled the dice twice. “And the warchief fails to dislodge you. All three of you plummet to the ground, snapping the winged serpent’s neck and throwing both you and the warchief to the dirt. Roll for fall damage.”

As it turned out, Rainbow’s character was knocked out with several broken bones, but the warchief was still able to shakily climb to his feet, only to find Thaddeus and Rasua waiting to finish him off. Luna weaved a spell to mend Rainbow’s character while Twilight lifted her sister’s foreleg and cheered to the crowd as if she was a sports announcer at Cloudsdale. “And the winner issss Tiburrrrrrrrón Perdidoooooo!”

Ventras closed his campaign book, signaling the end to the game. The whole room thundered in applause, and money changed hands as bookies doled out gamblers’ winnings. Most of the sphinxes were quickly shooed out of the room by the guards within a few minutes after the game was over. Ventras couldn’t help but to feel uplifted by how well the game went, and how enthusiastic the two changelings had gotten halfway through. He gathered up the rule books and several other paraphernalia and put them in their case before walking over and presenting the package to the two queens. “Seeing how you two have taken to the game so strongly, I would like to present to you, all you need to learn the greater depth of Vaults and Villains. Perhaps in the future, one of you can host a campaign of your own design.”

Luna was more than happy to miss such a present while Rainbow Dash took the case in her kinesis. “I gotta say, Venny, a game like that is like living through a Daring Do book, crazy fun stuff.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Ventras replied having no idea what a Daring Do was, “The cooks should be done preparing our evening meal.”

Both queens had noticed the delectable aroma of smoked ribs and steak leaking in through the western doors. Twilight tried to hide her growling gut. “Well if the smell is anything to go by, I’m sure it will be excellent.”

As the night continued on into early morning, both the Equestrians and sphinxes enjoyed a much warmer atmosphere since the game broke what little ice was left after the treaty negotiations were finished. The rumors spreading out from the servant staff about a respectable treaty and the highlights of the game lifted many fears and concerns, allowing its denizens a moderately restful night-early day sleep. Ultimately however, it would not be the actions of leaders who would see peace in their time, but the will of the people. Only time could answer the hundreds of questions that danced in the minds of every citizen of the Sphinx Federation and Equestrian Alliance.

6: Of Spies and Farewells

Author's Note

An early Christmas present to all my readers. hope you like it!

6: Of Spies and Farewells

It took two days for the changeling puppet to carefully slip down into the Stripped Gear proper. Out of sheer luck, the infiltrator ended up next to a bakery. The security was fairly lax this far into the city, allowing the puppet to steal several loaves of bread and a bucket of filtered tap water. It originally tried to use collected rainwater from the building's gutters, but the filth in the runoff looked dangerous, even for the infiltrator’s expected short life.

Of course, laxer security was relative. Every drone between the infiltrator and their queen was a deadly threat. It didn’t matter if they were soldiers or non-combatants, any one of them could alert the whole hive to the spy’s existence. And that would cause Cadista to move to a locked down area until this puppet’s corpse is found.

The puppet was currently stuffing it’s face with stale bread in between two recently emptied dumpsters. Even with a hive mind’s efficiency, there were still a handful of discarded crates that the controlling queen cobbled together into a makeshift shelter and more importantly, a place to drop the massively calorie-burning camouflage. This shelter won’t last more than an hour at most before someone gets suspicious.

The queen used other drones surrounding Stripped Gear to monitor the weather. So far, the skies were clear. Rain would make stealth all but impossible.

There was one other problem that the queen had not accounted for: air pollution. While the shield dome kept the thin layer of smog from leaving the caldera, that did little for anyone in the heart of the hive itself. Out along the walls, it had been tolerable, but now the pollution was a security risk. The queen could suppress the puppet’s need to cough, but the body was starting to suffer.

Damn all this soot. This body’s growing weaker with every breath. The controlling queen recalled the drone’s memories as it descended the walls. The grey tint of the pollution was denser the closer to the shield dome, but only by a marginal amount. The puppeteering queen clapped her hooves. Bravo, Cadista, Bravo. You made it so the shield is actively drawing in the soot by a slight amount. Making it nigh impossible for this body to survive very long where your personal chambers would be. No doubt your entire brood is immune to this poison.

The puppet scrapped a hoof along the blackened wall of the bakery, picking up a large lump of carbon. It must be taxing to keep those steam engines of hers clean enough to function.

A proverbial light went on in the queen’s head. While she had little interest in the technology itself, she was familiar enough with it to know a hive of this size required vast amounts of power. Wait a second… Where is she getting all the power necessary to drive so many machines? I can’t believe that pitiful amount of coal she pulls in from Equestria is sufficient. And, from what I remember from eavesdropping on a of few of her love collectors, Cadista doesn’t use mana to drive much either.

The puppet looked at the ground beneath its hooves, and noticed it was volcanic rock. Yeeees, this is a volcano! Cadista is practically sitting on a time bomb! Her enthusiasm faded a little. Or at least it used to be. This volcano hasn’t blown its top since I’ve walked this planet, so this is either a dead end, Cadista’s keeping the mountain stable, or it’s only active enough to be a source of energy.

A scowl of deep thought appeared on the queen’s muzzle. The last time I abducted one of Cadista’s drones, I remember it saying something about a crystal factory down in the heated depths. Too bad the smart drone managed to wrestle enough control to kill itself before I could learn more.

In any case, she might have some sort of device in place to keep the volcano dormant, and she wouldn’t have built a hive here if it wasn’t sturdy. A wicked grin cleaved the queen’s maw. However… If I can cause a big enough of a disturbance, I might be able to temporarily force her to leave the hive as a precaution. And if she does that, I can rid myself of her once and for all. I better tell my allies to get into position. There’s no telling how much longer Twilight will be distracted by those cat-things in the west. Eager to flee the poisoned air, the puppet recalled a sewer access it passed earlier and retreated for it to slink deeper into the hive in search for the underground crystal factory.

Cadista was standing on the observation platform situated on the left side of the covered hanger deep within Stripped Gear. A new vessel laid before her, while nowhere near as massive as the Ashes of the Phoenix that came before it, it was a marvel of engineering to behold.

The vessel itself was long and flat and measured out to nearly one hundred and sixty meters from bow to stern, and had a beam of just barely twenty meters across. It had no weapons to speak of except for small close range flak cannons ventral mounted on the port and starboard sides. This could be my most powerful far reaching weapon to date, and it isn’t even the ship itself that’s the true threat.

The voice of Brass Excursor was heralded by a high priority ping.

Cadista’s mood darkened.

The heavy weight of concern in Brass’ voice intensified Cadista’s worry.

Cadista ended communications, to refocus on her radically new ship. Things are coming to a head. The next war will begin soon, and if my spies are right, it will all begin here. I didn’t think Polybia had the brass to start it though.

Cadista cast her consciousness far to the north, past Equestria, and deep into the heart of the Chaos Lands where no one roamed except wild things. Out into the now totally abandoned city of Rookhaven, where even the stubborn pride of the old imperials was not enough to eke out a decent living compared to migrating to Alliance territory. One particular area had been flattened out and turned into a proper testing ground so far out of the way that none of the other hives even knew it existed.

There, another new kind of airship was in development, one that was much faster and smaller than any other before it.

Cadista scowled at the lengths she had to go to in order to keep her new weapon a secret. Finally having an outdoor airfield’s been a serious boon now that we can test full sized aircraft, but the sheer distance makes it a logistical nightmare.

Returning her attention to the hangar, Cadista ground her teeth in exasperation. For two hundred years I’ve pursued a way to project my power over vast distances and in a timely manner. Warships like the Deception simply aren’t fast enough. Yet with this ship, I’ll finally have the might necessary to finally secure Twilight’s bloodline. A cruel sneer marred her face. Between Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and now Aegis bearing royal blood, our legacy is secure behind the shield of Equestria, Yumia. We finally fulfilled our purpose.

A cold fury enveloped her, yet it was tempered into loathing indignation. Still, one thing remains that may yet jeopardize my daughters. The only queen who’d dare to take Equestria head on, and she needs to die.

Cadista passed her awareness across the construction crews. Everyone was performing the tenth recheck of all onboard systems with the boilers and engines idling. The only real thing left to do at this point, was the installation of the cloaking crystals. That’s still going to take another week to finish perfecting the crystals, but debugging the ship’s engines will take longer than that anyway. She waited a moment to give her children time to react.

A chorus of affirmatives resounded through the local hive mind as drones rushed to obey, and the vessel would be free of its moorings by the day’s evening.

The main audience chamber of Ventras’ manor was silent save for the scribbling of quills on parchment. The mid afternoon sun shined through several windows now that the blizzard had passed. Twilight Sparkle and the other Equestrian leaders sat on one end of a rectangular table as each in turn signed away, while Ventras and Thaddeus prepared to do the same on the other side. Well over two dozen sphinxes and changelings bore witness to the signing of the Treaty of Stratholme.

Eventually, both language versions of the treaty were passed out to ten sphinxes of rank, and to ten other equestrians, five from Equestria and five from the hive to mark them as official witnesses.

When all was said and done, Luna gave the signatures one last cursory glance before handing over the sphinx language treaty in exchange for the one in Equestrian. “Very good.” She nodded politely to Ventras and Thaddeus. “With everything in order, my colleagues and I wish to return to our respective capitals. We have much to do back home to ensure the comradery this treaty has created will flourish.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Ventras agreed. He bowed out of respect. “You are welcome at my hearth whenever you choose to visit.” He glanced over at Rasua who was doing an admirable job keeping her swimming emotions in check.

Twilight Sparkle didn’t need her empathy to know what he was thinking. “Do not fear, Ventras, as one parent to another, I will make it a point that she is treated with the respect she has earned.”

It wasn’t a guarantee of protection, fortunately, because that would have insulted his pride as a father. “I… Thank you, Queen Twilight Sparkle. May your house stand for a thousand years.”

Hopefully longer than that, Rainbow mused as Twilight finished exchanging pleasantries. I can’t wait to get back to the hive and whip up a huge VnV campaign. I hear Counterspell has aspirations for writing, maybe he can write the first one.

Eager to remove both ships from Federation territory due to the fear the Deception’s painfully visible weapons had caused, everyone loaded up into their respective vessels. Rasua put her curiosity about the warship aside and asked Aegis to guide her to one of the underbelly observation blisters she saw on the way up.

From there, Rasua plastered herself to the glass and gazed out across her home. All the sweat, blood, and tears that went into the first landing upon these shores, and building Stratholme from the ground up surged in her mind. Rasua couldn’t stop a few tears from falling, even with Aegis watching the city by her side.

Rasua spoke with slightly fluttery speech as the warship lazily turned to the east. “It’s such a powerful experience. Building a city from scratch.” She spied Aegis nodding in the corner of her eye, as if a princess would know of such trials. Shoving a surge of indignation to the side, Rasua pointed to the center of the docks. “I still remember Thaddeus and I being the first ones off the landing boats. Once the homeland government received word of the fertile land we found, our colony became a rallying cry for people from all territories to immigrate to.”

At least that’s what Rasua wished to believe. But in her heart, she knew being reassigned to the colonization effort had been tantamount to banishment from the Sestapo. The fact that her father and oath-brother had already set out to lead the expedition had been the perfect excuse for her superiors. I won’t fail the Federation again. I swear it.

“You mean as a point to further solidify and tighten the new unity your people share?” Aegis asked after Rasua fell quiet for too long. The sphinx blinked at her with a vacant expression.

“Oh, yes. That’s right,” Rasua blurted out to recover. She coughed to buy time to recompose herself. Yet as the Deception started to steam away, Rasua couldn’t help but to feel as if she was being separated from her child. Almost every building there stands because of the nails, screws, and tools I made! Why in all the seven seas did I have to do this!? Why couldn’t someone else have stepped up? Why didn’t that monumental idiot Chevalier not go to this bug hive instead!? Why did she have to kill those two explorers?

More and more ‘what ifs’ and ‘why nots’ questions swirled around in Rasua’s mind. The more that sprang up, the further her composure slipped until she was on the verge of a panic attack.

Aegis was only willing to stand by for so long before placing a firm hoof Rasua’s withers. “Hey, hey!” Rasua stopped hyperventilating for a brief moment. “Look, I know this is going to be a rough time. Building a new home, only to have to leave it like this can’t be easy.” She took a softer tone. “You’re a strong person, Rasua. Whether it was calculated or impulsive, you chose to take responsibility and demonstrate the honor of your people.” Rasua seemed to tense the longer Aegis kept her hoof on her, so she removed it. “I don’t know about your people, but with us, the display of real emotion is encouraged. It is how the strong can heal.”

“I… see.” Rasua’s gaze returned to the shrinking city as the ship neared the outskirts. “I ask forgiveness on that. It is a sign of weakness for such a display to anyone other than close family.”

It was about as polite of a dismissal request as Rasua could voice, and Aegis took the hint. “I can understand that. The griffins and minotaurs are a lot like that. I need to go train anyway.” She started heading for the door. “There will be a guard outside if you need anything. We’ll find out how to best use your talents once we reach Phoenix’s Roost.”

“Good,” Rasua said a moment before Aegis could shut the door behind her, “I want to be useful.” If only to keep myself from going mad.

Aegis simply nodded and shut the door, leaving Rasua to mourn the loss of her second home in a single lifetime. For the next hour, her eyes remained glued to Stratholme, and only turned away when the last vestiges of sphinx civilization were obscured by distance and trees. But even as the forest and sky shrouded the colony, a massive gout of lightning danced in the sky, drawing all eyes towards it.

Rasua’s heart fluttered at the send away, and she fell flat on her rump. The Spark Cannons. This is your doing, isn’t it father? The light show was a traditional farewell to a hero of the state. To further hammer the point home that this was indeed a message for her, seven long twisting streaks of stark orange lightning pierced the heavens to form a stylized anvil. Rasua’s tears returned in earnest as she pulled out the necklace bearing her badge of apprenticeship blacksmithing, with its primary rich orange finish in the shape of an anvil.

She squeezed the badge tightly in her hand as her love and pride for her family surged. “I promise you father,” she spoke aloud so her ancestors could hear, “I will bring honor to the Federation and our house. By my soul it shall be.”

With her resolve given strength, Rasua turned to the east to await what new horizons were in store her. A deep rooted fear started to creep up from the depths of her mind, darkening the eastern horizon.

Both queens and Princess Luna watched the lightning show from the observation deck of the Crystal Blue with a mix of emotions ranging from being impressed, to concern. Yet before anyone could voice that concern, the sphinx acolyte, named Pax Diomedes, hummed in approval. “That’s quite a show of respect. I can only hope Metal-Shaper Rasua was able to witness that. There are few greater honors a governor can bestow upon another.”

Twilight visibly calmed at the explanation, thankful they were not being attacked or threatened. One can never be too sure about new civilizations. “Last I heard, she was watching the city fade into the distance, so I’m sure she saw it.”

The priest dipped his head towards the west and kissed his thumb before making a circle gesture on his forehead. “The maiden of the great cycle will be pleased.” Diomedes meditated silently for a minute while the royals returned to their chairs at the port side of the deck, save for Rainbow Dash who hovered around him. When he returned to the present, Diomedes turned towards the sound of Twilight and Luna chatting only to find a face full of Rainbow Dash at eye level. He backed up, exuding surprise that Rainbow was finally able to pick up on with her empathy, but just barely.

“So what’s your deal? You some kind of holy guy?”

Twilight picked up on her sister’s less than diplomatic tone and mannerism, but decided to let Rainbow have her way. No sense in reigning her in all the time, she’ll never learn tact that way.

The priest gave a slightly insulted faux smile. “I’m not sure what you mean by ‘holy’. I am an acolyte of the Great Cycle. A paragon and upholder of the maiden’s laws and morality.”

Rainbow gave him a sardonic look. “Uh huh, sounds like a holy guy to me.” She pulled back to stand to her full height, which made her tower over him. “Something’s been bugging me ever since we got to Stratholme. What were those three towers out by the docks for? They were pumping some mad magic over the whole region.”

“Oh, is that all?” His posture relaxed significantly as he started rummaging around his robes. Now that they were in the warm confines of the Crystal Blue everyone had shed their winter clothing for something looser. The Equestrians had disrobed completely, much to the dismay of the priest. “They are psionic dampeners designed to, as I’m sure you can surmise from the name, suppress psionic abilities. Not only from being used, but also from manifesting in the first place.”

Twilight suddenly lost most of her interest in her conversation with Luna, and quickly asked Rainbow to relay whatever she heard. For her part, Rainbow was equally chilled by the comment, and wasn’t quite able to hide her discomfort. “So you guys don’t like mind readers or something?”

Diomedes visibly shuddered at the mere mention of it. “I don’t know about your kind, your highness, but psychic ability is an uncommon trait among us, and it is the most reviled. They steal thoughts, rip the mind to tatters, and can even pull the blood from your marrow. I tell you now, your highness, such powers are beyond dangerous, and must be stamped out for good.” He caught himself after seeing spittle fly from his mouth. He cleared his throat and tensely brushed the book he found in his pockets. “My apologies. My order makes it a point to seek out those who willingly use such abilities and cleanse them from the Earth.”

At this point, Twilight excused herself from Luna to canter over and join Rainbow’s conversation while the blue queen replied in a less than thrilled tone. “So you just use the towers to protect yourselves?”

“Quite right,” he replied with a curt nod. “A loyal citizen of the Federation, and tenant of the Seven Virtues cannot help it if genetics cursed them with the unlawful ability, and too many dormant users have proven steadfast paragons of righteousness. So the towers keep psychic ability from manifesting in the first place. Partly to save them from the angry mobs, Sestapo, and my order, but also to protect the citizens at large from the profligates who would try to harm them with the abilities as well.”

“Sounds dangerous,” Twilight commented carefully, revealing nothing of her mounting worry that the sphinx might try to flee back to the colony or harm her hive. “How do you differentiate between magic and psychic power?”

I wonder if her words means these Equestrians are familiar with such abilities. This does not bodes well if they do not see the danger of such uncontrollable power. “It’s simple really. Magic uses mana, while psychic powers use a wholly different form of energy we call mutons. I have my ways of detecting such abilities, but you needn’t worry,” he added with a reassuring smile. “Every initiate in my order is tested for dormant abilities, and I have none. Your thoughts are safe from me, your highnesses.”

Rainbow griped. Her instinctive use of the Link rose the hairs on the back of both queens’ necks, but if the priest had detected the hive speak, he made no indication. “Well I’ve got to ah… powder my nose. Have fun with Princess Luna.”

Twilight’s fur was starting to discolor from the heavy sweating on her forehead. Oh this is just great! Now we have to tiphoof around Rasua or she’ll never trust anypony in the hive before she gets to know us! Giving her best fake smile, Twilight tried to look at regally neutral as possible. “I have matters to tend to aboard my ship. Affairs of state and what not. I trust you’ll get along just fine with Princess Luna.” With that, she turned about face and speed trotted out of the room, leaving a very baffled priest behind. As soon as she was out of the room, Twilight teleported back to her quarters on the Deception.

I wonder what that was all about, he mused with a cocked head. Perhaps even talking about such things troubles them greatly. In any case, I better ingratiate myself with the Princess so as to make things easier for myself.

Twilight popped into existence inside her quarters only to find Rainbow Dash struggling to dislodge herself from the tangled pillows and sheets on Twilight’s bed. “I see your teleporting skills still need work, but at least your aim is getting better.”

Rainbow managed to free her head out from the blankets. “I was trying to port into my room. But we’ve got bigger problems.” She rolled off the bed, still prying the sheets off. “There’s no way in Tartarus that we’re going to be able to hide the hive mind for long. Even if that priest, monk, whatever he is, is going to Equestria, we still have Rasua to deal with.”

Deciding to save her sister from any more struggles, Twilight used her magic to peel away the rest of her sheets. “That will be a problem for sure. If our abilities were limited to just the hive mind, I think we could get away with it, in their eyes, but we royals have psychokinesis, along with others things. Although outside of the hive mind most of our psychic abilities overlap with common spells. Sadly, I doubt they’ll care about technicalities.”

Rainbow buzzed her wings to quickly stand up. “I don’t think anyone in the Federation will trust us if they all share that kind of hatred towards it.”

Twilight’s ears wilted a little at the prospect of facing more distrust and possible prejudice. But memories of Equestria gave her renewed hope. “We faced such issues with the Equestrian public in the face of Chrysalis’ invasion and fear of our disguises. Now, most ponies in the world at the very least, see our hive as friends if not true allies. The sphinxes will be no different, save the fears we must overcome.”

“I hope so,” Rainbow replied with more than a little concern. “I guess the first step is getting Rasua and that monk to trust us on some level. If she can trust us, then I bet she can convince her brother and father.”

“And it can snowball from there. An excellent idea, Rainbow.” Twilight had hoped her sister would come to that conclusion, and would have continued the conversation along that line if Aegis hadn’t pinged her mind requesting entry. Twilight broadcasted to both Aegis and Rainbow Dash.

The princess in question entered with a deep seed of concern that nearly everyone in the hive shared after the mass warning about the sphinx’s view of psychics. Aegis managed to walk in on her back legs with only moderate wobbling. “I get that the fear thing is an issue, but we have something else too. Rasua might be able to reverse engineer some of our technology. The only reason they didn’t do anything with Trail Mix’s musket is because they distrust fire.”

“Really?” both queens replied in perfect unison, with Twilight continuing. “I guess we’re mostly okay then. Judging by the equipment of their guards, their steelwork is at least on par with our own, and I think their body armor is more advanced than Equestria’s.”

Rainbow smirked as she thought about it. “Yeah, and since most of our weapons are based around gunpowder, I think we’re mostly in the clear. Even our steam engines might give them pause.”

“I figured as much when she told me,” Aegis commented with concern still etched in her brow. “But subtle things, like our new Quadrinix alloys. Rasua is a blacksmith after all, she’s gotta have extensive metallurgical knowledge. There’s no telling how rich her homeland is with the stuff, or if they even use it at present.”

“Good point,” Rainbow conceded with a slight scowl. “Guess our best bet is to earn her friendship and then go from there. If we start restricting her movements, that’ll backfire quicker than I can fly.”

“I agree,” Twilight felt more than a little pride in her sister at choosing diplomacy over hardliner security. “We’ll play it by ear and adapt. It’s what our kind are best known for,” she added with a wink and a smile.

Feeling some pride in her linage, Aegis smiled in return. “I’ll let the hive know about the plan.” Aegis turned about face, and nearly fell in the process. “And in the meantime, I’m going to get hand lessons from our esteemed guest. Hopefully I’ll be able to hold a rifle again by the time we get back to the Roost.”

“Before you go, Aegis”, Twilight called out with a raised hoof. The princess stopped at the door and turned back to listen. “I just want to say how proud I am of you, for your actions in Stratholme. Not just gathering the necessary scents for disguises, but in your handling of Rasua and the troublemakers in the stables.”

Aegis swelled with pride at the paise while Rainbow joined in. “That was good thinking too. These sphinxes are kinda sorta like griffins. They will only befriend people who have the strength to stand up for themselves and speak their mind. You’re going to end up being a better queen than me one day,” Rainbow added with a sidelong smile.

A massive grin split Aegis’ muzzle. “Thanks, Momma, Aunty.” She rushed over to hug and nuzzle them both. Being told she had brought honor to her royal blood was the sort of praise Aegis yearned for above all others. It wasn’t enough for her to believe in herself. Aegis needed to know others thought she had the makings of a good queen.

The hug lasted barely a minute before an idea that had been lurking in the back of Aegis’ mind came to the surface, causing her to jump back a bit. “Ooo, I just remembered!” The queens looked at her expectantly. “Now, I’ve been thinking, let’s say I do prove the worth of my strain.” Aegis waved down to her bipedal stance for clarification. “It’s still going to take a really long time for me to rework alchemy to make up for it. Plus,” she said while focusing primarily on Rainbow Dash, “Stripped Gear, Equestria, and our hive work, or had worked, really really well with two queens. So I was thinking that maybe you could have a royal daughter to be my counterpart.”

Rainbow hummed in contemplation, looking up to think, only to have Twilight begin nuzzling her affectionately. “I know my rule feels so much more complete with you here, Rainbow. I think Aegis has the right idea.”

For her part, Rainbow Dash leaned into her sister, eager to return the affection and love. “Yeah…” Her tone shifted from contemplative to self-assured. “Yeah! I know I’d never be able to run a hive all by myself.” She took on a mock southern accent. “We’re like two halves of an apple pie!”

Both queens stood up straight to look each other in the eyes. A spark passed between them as they spoke in perfect unison. “And together, we are more than the sum of our parts.”

They nodded before facing a bemused Aegis, and continued speaking in unison. “It’s a good plan, Aegis/my daughter, we’ll figure out the best way to implement it later.”

“Great!” Aegis cheered and buzzed into the air out of excitement. “Well I better leave you two to Link Meditate, I have to get hand lessons from Rasua, bye!” Aegis made haste to leave while Rainbow gave her sister a smug look.

“And I’ll be making some eggs,” Rainbow announced with a manic grin as Aegis left the room. She lightly poked Twilight with a hoof. “You owe me three days of eggs, and I’m cashing in now.”

Twilight shot her sister a sarcastic raised eyebrow as Rainbow concentrated to begin production. “Are you sure? There’s still a week’s supply of royal jelly cider in the ship’s hold with your name on it.”

Rainbow grinned widely as she lovingly rubbed her abdomen. “The jelly tea’s almost as good. Besides, thirty nine more awesome eggs are worth the wait.” She looked back up to her sister who still had an amused look. “Plus, we’ll be escorting Luna’s Crystal Blue Back to Canterlot airspace for the next week or so to make sure some of those rival changelings doesn’t try to foalnap her or something. There’s plenty of time to guzzle that cider.”

“Fair enough,” Twilight giggled. “I’ll give the order to have the ship’s hatchery be brought online.”

The changeling spy within Stripped Gear was cooking in its own chitin. The sewers were becoming swelteringly hot the closer it got to the bowels of Stripped Gear. The stench alone was almost enough to make the puppeting queen abandon the quest entirely.

In all my years, I have rarely found anything that could curl my nose quite like an omnivore’s sewer. For the hundredth time, the spy came to an intersection in the pipes. Security had been almost completely absent, save for steel grates that kept the small denizens of the jungle from reaching sensitive areas. There was only one time she saw a drone down here, and he was too busy repairing a steam pipe to notice the spy creeping by.

The infiltrator was in front of one such grate, testing its encrusted edges to find any weakness when one of the queen’s other spies sent word. Damn, the Deception left that cat-thing town sooner than I expected. Thanks to that cursed cloaking device, there’s no telling if Twilight is escorting the pony airship back, or if she’s sprinting back to Phoenix’s Roost. If I’m going to do something, I better do it within the next twenty four hours.

Suspecting the sewer grate didn’t lead further down towards the geothermal plant, the spy left it alone to follow the steam pipes, and seek out a means to bring about Stripped Gear’s end.

Bonus: Magical Engineering

Author's Note

I wrote this SoL bonus chapter to not only give some extra characterization to low screen time characters, but to give a drama breather as well. Since there is little here that will impact future chapters, if and when I get around to making that bonus story, I'll likely move this chapter there. That's enough prattling, onwards!

Bonus: Magical Engineering

Cargo Bay Two was typically very clean, very orderly, and very exact despite the regular visits from the crew to take or store supplies. Just like the prideful Quartermaster Darktail liked it.

This fine morning however, the lavender drone walked into her normally pristine cargo bay to find it crowded by four large blue animals, and a mixture of hay and straw completely covering the ordinarily shiny floors. The reek of cow pies and a smell not unlike wet dog drowning out the once pleasant lemon pine scent augmented with a delightful hint of oily lubricant. To top it all off, the deep belly, yet nonaggressive, growls and moans from the spiky animals rivaled the Deception’s normally endearing engine hum.

Darktail stood at the entrance to her once immaculate cargo bay, a paragon of order, with a ghastly scowl fixated on the blue drone with a brow so furrowed it might cause scarring. The object of her fury was hovering next to one of the beasts.

The growling mare caught Blitz’s attention as she was cantering by on her way back from breakfast. She took one look at the cargo bay and promptly fell off the ceiling laughing her head off. “Damn Darktail, I thought you were a neat freak.”

“I am, and proud of it.” she bit back through clenched teeth.

Thunderfury replied at length before returning his attention to the bull talbuk. A clipboard, an inkpot and quill, along with his trusty abacus were all held aloft in his magic as he looked deeply into the animal’s unfocused eyes.

Darktail spouted more obscenities at Thunderfury, but he was too focused on his work to notice. Blitz however perked her ears up at the rather inspired tirade, and took mental notes to remember some of the verbal barbs. Both mares entered the cargo bay, one out of indignation with the other out of curiosity. The lone stallion in the bay registered neither of them. “Intelligence Test number twelve…” He said while simultaneously writing it down and clicking a bead on his abacus to the other side. “Okay mister male talbuk… note to self: ask Rasua for talbuk terminology. For now, using cow terms.” He looked up in contemplation while tapping the quill on his chin before he began writing again. “Addendum: find out why cow and minotaur terms are the same thing. Connotation of similar evolutionary path?”

“Would you stop that, and actually promise me you’ll clean up this mess!?” Darktail blustered once she finally reached earshot. “I have a very tight schedule to keep, and that doesn’t involve spiny blue dung factories!” She turned away with more green than lavender in her face. “I think the smell is going to make me puke.”

“You gotta admit, TF, this whole place is going to need to be aired out for like a week when we get back.” Having nothing smaller in her satchel, Blitz grabbed a vice and squeezed her nose shut.

Thunderfury bit his lower lip. He had been thankfully ignoring the smell by throwing himself into his work, and the reminder only made the stench return in full force. “Come on, girls, it’s the dead of winter, and the cargo bay’s barely above freezing. All the dirt and grime in their coat helps keep them warm. You know we can’t heat the entire ship. Just the living quarters and mess hall.” He started petting the bull’s head with calming strokes, eliciting a gentle rumble from the beast. “Besides, if these guys pass their intelligence test, then they’re entitled to just as much creature comforts as the rest of us.” Blitz didn’t really care either way and just shrugged from her hovering position. Darktail’s glowering face and wrathful aura finally made him remember that she had been giving him a demand the whole time. He looked at her with one ear half hanging to one side with the other rigidly straight. “Yes, I promise to help clean up.”

Darktail’s scowl started to abate at his unwitting charm as both mares melted at his completely natural sad puppy dog face. “You’re lucky you ended up being so cute as a boy.” Darktail pulled him into a rough longing kiss, joyfully feeding off his spicy electric love which had grown more intense since he had become a stallion. “See you tonight? Your bunk?”

“Ahhh…” Thunderfury rummaged around his tool belt to pull out a small booklet and flipped to a middle page. “Sorry, Counterspell already scheduled for tonight.” He gave her an apologetic look. “You know how he hates threesomes, even if we didn’t have small bunks.”

Blitz prodded Darktail in the withers. “And you can forget tomorrow night too. Aegis and I got him then,” she said with anticipation in her eyes.

“Gah!” Darktail angrily kicked some straw around. “The Queen-Mothers should make threesomes mandatory. Gotta share, gotta care am I right?” She huffed and her mood wasn’t helped by his helpless shrug and Blitz’s lopsided grin.

“I can tell Resta to wait until Saturday’s regular checkup. If I go last that day, it shouldn’t interfere with her job.” His tone became moderately pleading. “You know how she is. Between overworking herself and creating salve all day, she needs more love than anypony around… well royals notwithstanding,” he added with a helpless shrug.

“Yeah, fine, point made.” Darktail eyed the talbuk lazily chewing on his cud. “I guess that’d make up for trashing my cargo bay. A bit.”

“It’s for a good cause,” Thunderfury whined with sad puppy dog eyes. Darktail refused to be suckered in by them and averted her gaze, causing Blitz to giggle madly. Seeing that he bought some time, Thunderfury’s gaze returned to his clipboard and then scooched his stool to be closer to the bull’s face. “Anyway, if you’re only here to yell at me, could you reschedule that too, so it doesn’t rile up the talbuks? The stablemaster only gave me enough sedative so they wouldn’t mind travel aboard ship.”

Darktail had to think on it for a minute as Thunderfury closely examined the animal’s eyes. Eventually she groaned and cantered back to the exit. “Fine, have fun with your spiky friends. I have to reorganize cargo bay one after somepony decided to shove all my perfectly organized crates around to make a hoofball court!”

Blitz twirled a lock of her prismatic mane with a hoof. “I can help,” she directed at Thunderfury. “Work’s pretty light right now, and Aegis is busy getting hand lessons from Rasua, so there’s not that much for me to do until we get back home.”

Without looking away from the talbuk, Thunderfury levitated his clipboard over. “Awesome. Write down my findings would you, please?”

“Alrighty.” Blitz replied cheerfully while taking the clipboard and other items into her magic. There’s no way I’m landing. I might end up with crap on, or worse, in my leg holes. She skimmed the densely packed words already written on several pages. “It seems like these guys don’t have much more than a blip on the ol intelligence chart.”

When the talbuk failed to show any interest in the assortment of colorful basic shapes Thunderfury held in front of the bull’s eyes, he sighed a reply. “No, it doesn’t look like it. The sedatives are only there to keep them calm enough to travel. I can try again once we get them out into open pastures, but I’m not holding out much hope.”

“Well then it looks like the sphinxes were selling them as advertised: big ol dumb beasts of burden.”

The bull snorted loudly and moved towards one of the three females. Both drones winced as the bull started getting amorous, with Blitz giving her brother a bemused look. “I thought you said they were sedated.”

“They are,” he deadpanned with an arched eyebrow at the bull. “I think something like this was mentioned in the manual the stablemaster sold me.” Thunderfury gathering his things and taking to the air. “How about we collate my finding over some tea? A few of our siblings promised to watch over the animals for the day and should be here any second now.”

Logically, Blitz felt rather odd how the instinctual actions of a couple of animals made her ill-at-ease, and yet walking in on her siblings doing the same acts wouldn’t faze her in the least. I can ponder the mysteries of double standards later. “Sounds good, but you better shower first.” A particularly bad smell wafted over her nose. Ugh, I think I need a shower just from being here.

Blitz zipped away, leaving Thunderfury to sniff and recoil at his hooves.

As it turned out, pouring over data about a field of study you not only have zero experience, and only a cursory interest in, proved to be a laborious task that tea only barely assisted with. Never the less, Blitz plowed through it, if only to have an excuse to remain close to Thunderfury. It really sucks our clutch all ended up going different paths. We really only get to see each other every other weekend.

“The cows scored really well on following the commands the stable master told us about, but they don’t seem to respond at all to anything else,” Thunderfury said out of the blue. Blitz looked up from her notes to see Thunderfury was scratching his chin, looking for all intents and purposes to have not a care in the world.

“Maybe Aunty Applejack would be better at finding any spark of intelligence,” Blitz suggested while sending a link request to the mess hall’s galley staff for more tea. “Assuming there’s one to be found at all.” Thunderfury nodded silently, letting the conversation fade away.

The mess hall itself was busy with well over two dozen drones chatting away in both the physical plane and via the Link. The furniture consisted of bolted down round tables and mass produced metal chairs with worn down cushions barely a pancake thick. The ever present thrum of the engines and the hiss of steam felt like a small piece of the hive, giving both Blitz and Thunderfury a longing to return home.

When Thunderfury didn’t answer right away, Blitz let him be. She smiled in delight when a fresh pot of tea arrived and quickly thanked the overworked waitress. Pouring, Blitz refilled both of their cups and started nursing her own. Idly, she let her mind wander the hive mind and thought she’d check in on one of the very few persistent linkscapes across the hive mind.

The Deception’s mess hall faded away as Blitz’s consciousness was thrust into a massive forum with information kiosks evenly spread out for half a kilometer. The ground beneath her hooves was grated metal, below which a maze of gears and pistons churned away. The kiosks were completely covered in post-it notes of all the latest developments and announcements. Only the queens were capable of hive-wide verbal announcements. To get around that limitation, everyone else came here.

Hundreds of lavender, sky blue, and grey drones came and went, each reading various tidbits of information. Some stopped to chat with friends or discuss issues. It didn’t matter which kiosk Blitz went to, as all of the posted notes were identical between them. The strain of keeping this information center running at all hours was a taxing effort, so a cadre of specially tailored drones was bred for fabricating and holding persistent Linkscapes together so the queens were free to focus on other events.

Blitz appeared near the crowded ceiling. The whole room was well lit, but aside from a few dim lamps, there was no discernable light source. I don’t know who will really care, but I might as well post our findings on the talbuks.

Finding the closest kiosk, Blitz flew over and reached for one of the blocks of notes and grabbed one to start writing down. A quill manifested into reality at her whim and she labeled the note appropriately before it expanded and continued to do so the longer she wrote.

She got half way done when Gentle Touch appeared in the center kiosk and grabbed a microphone to, in effect, cheat her way into making a mass vocal announcement across the archives. “Attention all factory workers and engineers of Phoenix’s Roost. Starting next week, all factories and work equipment will be limited to biannual upgrades only. The budget can’t handle constant equipment replacement every time an incremental improvement is discovered. Upgrades from here on will be staggered. See Directive 8B-0531 for further details. That is all.”

Bummer, Blitz mused morosely. There go my plans to implement my latest version of Aegis’ finger design. Buuut I guess that means I have more time to further refine it.

Blitz put the finishing touches on her talbuk findings and discarded the quill after signing her name to the document. She gave it to the drone manning the kiosk. “Don’t copy it all just yet. My clutchmate Thunderfury should be here soon to add more to it.”

The grey secretary nodded and tucked the document below her seat. “I’ll be sure he’s sent here when he arrives at the archive.”

As if on cue, Thunderfury appeared by her side. “There you are! Oh cool, you already started posting the data, thanks!”

Identifying him immediately, the secretary retrieved Blitz’s post-it note and gave it to Thunderfury who started adding to it right away. Blitz grinned sheepishly and brushed a lock of red and orange hair out of her eyes. “Just trying to help.”

Thunderfury engrossed himself in copying down all that he had learned, along with drawing a little doodle of the talbuks with exaggerated smiley faces and horns a bit longer than normal. There was something to be said about drones who were less than five years of age.

The grey secretary noticed, but did not react to Blitz’s dreamy eyes, and Thunderfury being wholly ignorant of it. I swear, these love-drones are the weirdest bunch of loonies I’ve ever seen. A few minutes later Thunderfury gave the document back to the secretary and she gave an unamused hum at the doodle. Mother, what have you wrought by mixing ponies with us changelings?

Blitz couldn’t hide her huge grin once Thunderfury looked back at her. “So what do you wanna do now?”

“Hmm. I should probably tune up my tech-shields. That sphinx’s jaw I plowed through must have been denser than I thought, because the arcane wing emitters have been spotty ever since.”

“Ha!” Blitz cheered with a competitive smirk and pointed at herself. “Momma hasn’t had a better engineer than me yet! I’d love to see what I can do for you. Why don’t you bring the shields to my workshop?”

Thunderfury’s face lit up like the sun. “Really?! You’d do that for me?”

“Of course, silly. What are siblings for, right?” Blitz shot him a winning smile. Sure I was supposed to be reviewing Aegis’ spare gauntlets, but I’m sure she won’t mind.

The pair downed their tea and pinged the waitress before leaving. Blitz all but blasted her way into her workshop while shuffling for the light. The workshop was the same calculated level of order as she left it the night previously. As expected, since no one had been in the workshop since Blitz’s last visit. It helped that this particular machine shop was not the primary engineering bay for fixing and repair work aboard the warship, so it only saw light use outside of battle.

Okay, I’ve got like five minutes before TF gets back from the armory. She raced over to her primary tool chest and pulled out several large heavy drawers. Within each were racks upon racks of carefully calibrated tools of the trade. Sadly, her fairly young age meant that she was only truly proficient in less than a quarter of them. Both queen-mothers were under the belief that every drone had to strike a balance between Link gifted knowledge and real working experience, hence why Blitz was so specialized in one field.

I hope I can actually do something to help. She scratched behind her ear. Well, besides just repairing the thing. She cringed at the thought of being in over her head as she sifted through her tools, making doubly sure she knew where everything was. What if I can’t even repair it!? I’m good at robotics and Aegis’ armor, not tech-shields. I’d never even heard of a tech shield until Thunder told me about it! What if it’s totally beyond me that not even a brain dump could help me!?

Blitz was about to ping the hive mind to get that very information, but she stopped herself and started nervously biting her hooves. I can’t do that! What if Thunder hears my request and finds out I don’t know anything about his shields? Then he’ll go somewhere else to get them fixed, and my chances will be ruined!

“Hey, Blitz.”

“Ahhh!” Blitz jumped out of her skin and into the air before she turned around to find Thunderfury at the door with his shields.

He looked at her with bemusement. “Should… I come back later, maybe?”

“No no no no,” Blitz gushed as she flashed what she hoped was a composed smile, but it only served to make her look a little loony. “I was just making sure everything is good to go for you and your shield!”

It was only now that Blitz finally registered the two items held in the stallion’s rich cerise colored magic. She'd never seen them before, but they didn't seem too different compared to most things she was used to working on. That allowed her to calm down a little. Thunderfury played it off as if he didn’t notice her sweating profusely. I’m sure she’ll do fine… or at least not damage my babies. Plus, she might do better if I wasn’t watching. Sis gets all weird when we’re alone… aside from mattress gymnastics anyway.

“I’d love to watch you work, but the guys down at the cargo bay’ve been telling me the talbuks have been getting rowdy, so I need to try and help calm them down.” He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck as Blitz’s mood visibly deflated. “Sides, I know how to wield them, but repairing work like my shields is above me.”

“Oh…” Blitz’s ears and face wilted, then she realized what good fortune his absence was. That means I can ping for the shield’s inventor without him noticing! “Ah, well, that’s okay. I should have your shields all fixed up before too long then.”

Thunderfury carefully placed his tech-shields on the nearest clear workbench. “Great, see ya soon.” He slid past Blitz, but not before planting a loving kiss on her cheek. “love ya, sis.”

“Love you too.” Although Thunderfury didn’t see it as he left, Blitz placed a hoof on the cheek, and swooned. Blitz had been kissed plenty of times before, and her libido rivaled that of even Aegis herself, but this was from her, admittedly, favorite clutchmate. As if logic needed even more reasons to shake its head at her, she had been with Thunderfury more times than she could count in this year alone. Even in a society where love was plentiful and free, she still treasured Thunderfury’s the most by far.

Blitz felt a warm smile grace her features. He trusts me with his weapons. If Aegis is anything to go by, warriors love their weapons almost as much as the queen-mothers themselves. A great weight of responsibility and duty fell on her shoulders, but now she felt the drive and will to bear it.

She turned to the shields with that same grin shifting to smugness. “Right, as if I’d let him down. Let’s do this!” She looked around for paper and a quill. Okay, as second-momma Twilight always says: checklists are the key to organized success.

“Let’s see,” she thought aloud as she started scribbling. “First up, get info from the designer. I’m sure Uncle Ratchet knows. Second, find the break, third fix the break, fourth, profit!” Her grin faded as she reviewed her list. “…Maybe I need more detail than that. Well, I still need to talk to the designer first either way.”

Clearing her mind, and failing, Blitz focused her mind’s eye on Ratchet.

The grey stallion hissed as the boiler he was working on suddenly blew a gasket and started rattling horribly with steam beginning to rupture out of several pipes. “Somepony shut it down, do it now!” He and three other engineers raced to use enough ice magic to cool the boiler down before it exploded or the scalding high-pressure steam could obscure the whole factory.

The boiler banged and clattered deafeningly as the titanic forces within stressed the metalwork to its limits. A drone by the control board sweated profusely as she looked at the dials. “The fire’s out… And… the pressure build up is slowing. It’s stable!”

Once the machine was safe, Ratchet groaned irately. “Damn it all! Okay, boys and girls, take it apart and find out what went wrong; three pints to the one who finds it, a keg if you can correct it by sundown.”

He pulled an oily rag and wiped up some of the sweat and grime from his face, only now realizing someone had been pinging him incessantly. The fact that it was such a formal ping, finally grabbed his attention. Blitz – Scion of Rainbow Dash – Engineer 5th class – robotics division.

Formal pings were considered by most to be a better form of ‘hello’ than that word alone. Both sending and reading the pings was taught during nymphhood as a training method for sharpening the mind. For one of Ratchet’s age, reading a formal ping took less than a second.

Uh oh, he only gets like that when things explode. Blitz did her best to keep a business tone.

Ratchet was stopped short on giving his next orders to his crew. Thunderfury? He’s part of First Squad for the Jevruun Vrunningee. , he said while going from irritated to stoic.

Blitz sighed in relief, her elation evident in her tone.

He started barking orders to the clean-up team to make sure they didn’t damage anything, and effectively dismissed Blitz.

Not that she noticed as her mind was already back in the archives and obtained the document within half an hour. Once her consciousness returned to the workshop, Blitz finally looked at the shields on the bench.

They were lying face up on the mana-inert resin bench. They bore a slight concave with an overall teardrop shape. Blitz noticed there was a stylized bird, a phoenix she assumed, on the bottom with its burning wings flared to form the edges of the lower half. Arcing lightning was painted along the top of an otherwise navy blue shield. She looked at the other shield to find the same pattern. No doubt to keep enemies from guessing that each shield has a different purpose. I wonder how often Thunderfury has to repaint this between sparring practice. To the untrained eye, there was no visible evidence of the hardened and thin machine within the shield’s contours.

Now that Blitz had knowledge straight from the designer’s notes, she knew the tracing lines were more like minute channels that ran along the entire length of the shields in jagged harsh angles. They still possessed a strange beauty about them, though. Yes… these are the amplification channels. These help enhance the force of the arcane wing at the expense of costing more mana to maintain. The notes said the emitters were along the back though.

Blitz attempted to turn the shield over, but found her telekinesis slipped all around the shield, but failed to grab hold of it. “What the? Is it supposed to do that?”

She browsed deeper into the notes, only to find a single line on the issue.

As per protocol RD – info-sec – 0192, the weapons have been attuned to react only to the royals linked to the commissioner, Queen Rainbow Dash, and the owner.

“Oh that’s just great!” Blitz growled. “Well there's a practical use for Aegis' hands.”

As every other changeling before her, save her mother, Blitz was spoiled by telekinesis and had difficulty flipping the shield over so she could see the underside. There she found several prongs with the tell-tale reddish hue of Quadrinix alloys. The prongs themselves were arrayed in a grid pattern and were barely an inch high. Obviously not meant to be held with a hoof… or hands for that matter.

“Well the emitters are embedded within the shield, so I’ll need a mana probe to find the problem,” she thought aloud while rifling through the proper drawer. Despite its simple name, each mana probe was calibrated to possess an identifying carrier wave when a changeling used it. In effect, the shield would only reveal its secrets to Twilight’s bloodline of hybrid changelings wielding this mass produced tool.

Blitz felt her magical senses pass through the probe and into the depths of the shield. Hmmm… let’s see. According to the notes, the emitters should hold steady at 10 joules from the probe’s current setting. Starting from the top to the bottom, Blitz moved methodically across the shield until she found what she was looking for. Two emitters just shy of the center area were reading at 9.2 joules.

Pleased with herself so far, Blitz continued along the rest of the shield to make sure the rest of the emitters were functioning. Okay, now according to the notes, this means there could be other problems causing the emitters to underperform. I better follow the guidelines by the numbers.

Over an hour passed before her scanning was complete. Her own thoroughness and excitement kept her enamored with the shield’s exquisite construction. With a gentle grin, Blitz rubbed her chin as she contemplated a way to fix the error without going into the notes again. Can’t challenge myself if I keep looking at someone else’s notes. So the problem was that the emitter had improperly mixed alloy, which made it too brittle to smash into a sphinx skull. Far too weak for a shield in any situation.

She smirked as an idea sparked in her head. “I bet my grey aunts and uncles would say the whole weapon is a wash, but they don’t know Quadrinix like I do.”

After working on Aegis’ armor for as long as she did, Blitz always kept a stock of carbonated water and acid batteries in the workshop. It might damage the paint, but I think TF can forgive me this once… I hope.

Pulling out the same large container she had worked on Aegis’ armor in, Blitz started pouring in the carbonated water, and set up the batteries to electrify the water. Once that was done, she crunched the data in her mind and on several pieces of paper. So, there’s too much iron and not enough carbon in the emitter. So I need a mana tunneler to keep from damaging the healthy metal.

Blitz used her magic to grab two clamps to place on the shield’s prongs and carefully dropped it into the water. From there, she unlocked the swing arm bearing the two meters square mana tunneler. Missing lunch entirely, it took her two and a half hours after that to calibrate the tunneler to her exacting specifications, and another hour just to make sure her calculations were absolutely correct.

Blitz held her twenty page long checklist, the last page consisting of ‘recheck the checklist’, as she finally reached the last page’s first check. “Correct the error.”

Taking a deep calming breath, Blitz connected the circuit to electrify the water and channeled her magic into the tunneler. The various instruments she had set up started measuring the metal composition, its structure, and a timer set to cut off the tunneler with more precision than Blitz could do alone.

By the time the clock cut the tunneler off, Blitz was tired, sweaty, and felt drained to the point of collapse. But it was done. Breathlessly, Blitz cut the electricity and took the shield out using the clamps. She levitated it back over to the workbench and used an electro-void stone to quickly pull all remaining traces of mana out before it could become detrimental to the metal.

Once the shield was dried off, Blitz frowned sadly at the ruined paint. The phoenix and lightning was reduced to a thick morass that was slowly trying to fall off the sides of the shield. “Yeaaaa… mana tunneling saves the surrounding metal, but doesn’t do much for salve-resin based paint.”

Before she could even think of what to do about it, there was a knock on the door, accompanied by Thunderfury’s ping over the hive mind. Blitz nearly freaked the instant Thunderfury’s smiling face barged its way into her workshop. “Heyya, Blitz, sorry I was gone for so long. The guys wanted me to watch the animals for the entire afternoon shift cause of a favor I owed them.”

Blitz buzzed into a low hover in front of the shields. “Oh that’s no problem. I actually, um, just finished fixing the problem…”

Thunderfury caught onto her saddening expression, and tried to counter it with joviality. “Wow, all in one day? I thought you’d have to tear it apart or tell me to live with the defect.” He fully entered the room carting a take-out box of steaming food. “I brought you some of the meatloaf they were serving since no pony had seen you around.”

A thundering growl from Blitz’s stomach made her blush furiously enough to land and cover her belly with a foreleg. “Thanks, I guess I got carried away.” The act revealed the shields behind her. Thunderfury’s excitement shot up and he quickly levitated the food to rest on the side of the bench.

“But you’re finished right?” he asked as he flew over to inspect her work, only to quietly whine at the state of the shield’s paint job. Blitz started biting her hooves as Thunderfury cradled the shield in his forelegs. What used to be a beautiful work of art had been reduced to a befuddled mess of colors. “It’s practically destroyed.” Blitz whimpered at him while he took the shield full into his magic to test it out.

Thunderfury’s scowl slowly turned into a sullen expression as he tested multiple styles of Arcane Wing on the shield. “Well, the paint’s trashed, but the shield feels as good as new.” He turned to Blitz after putting the shield down and squashed her into a massive hug. Despite his grave displeasure at the ruined paintwork, the shield itself was worth far more. “Thanks for all your work, sis. I’m sure it wasn’t easy.”

Relief flooded Blitz and she sunk into the loving embrace, even if it was tinted with the bitter spice of irritation. Some of her snarkiness forced its way to the surface. “No, it wasn’t. I still haven’t had a chance to clean up the mess.” He looked around to find the basin of water that sloshed gently to the sway of the ship along the air currents. The mana tunneler still hung low over their heads while electrical wires were wrapped tightly around the basin. His indignation at the melted paint waned as Blitz telekinetically removed the wires from the batteries and placed the glass covers back onto the leads. He could tell just by her weaker love stream that his sister was heavily fatigued.

“So it seems.” He detached himself to look at his shield again. “I’m no artist, but I can always have Fresca repaint it. She already agreed to fix it whenever the paint got too mucked up.”

Whew, that’s a load off. With the most potentially dangerous items stored away, Blitz tore into the meatloaf while Thunderfury tested the mana weight of the restored item.

He took both shields into his mana and move over to a mildly open corner of the machine shop and started practicing various defensive stances. Blitz watched his lithe movements with a smile masked by the heavily salted food she stuffed into her maw. Thunderfury chafed at how little room he had to work with. He was constantly having to curtail his movements to avoid bumping into things, but the smoothness of how his mana flowed through the repaired shield excited him to no end. “It’s a lot more responsive now. I love it!”

Gushing with pride, Blitz watched her brother give the best form of flattery her line of work could produce: a client happy with her work. As she ate, a thought occurred to her. I wonder if I’ll have the time to get more in-depth knowledge of embedded mana emitters. I could improve Aegis’ armor like that one day.

Such thoughts sailed to the back of her mind as food and her brother’s martial exercises resumed the forefront. Getting tired of the cramped space, and not wanting to accidentally hit something fragile, Thunderfury stopped practicing. “Why don’t we go to the cargo bay? I can show you some of my moves while also keeping an eye on the talbuks.”

The idea of being near those stinky animals made Bitz wrinkle her nose, but the prospect of seeing her brother’s lithe movements with the shields was greatly enticing. “I’d love to, right after I finish cleaning up around here.”

It was not long before the clutchmates were in the cargo bay again. One enjoying his repaired tools of war, while Blitz was happy just to see him happy. The show lasted until sleep finally beckoned them for the night.

At least that’s how it happened with Thunderfury. Before Blitz could bed down for the night, Rainbow Dash’s voice bounced in her head.

Blitz gave Ferrum and his cot a forlorn look. She leaned down to whisper to him so she wouldn’t bother the hundred other drones in the crew quarters. “Sorry Ferrum, I’ll be back later, mother wants me.”

He nodded and pulled out a spell book from under the bed. “That’s cool, I’ll wait for you.”

“Thanks.” With that, Blitz hurried through the ship as the night shift took over. It wasn’t long before she found herself in front of Rainbow’s quarters, the two Queens’ Guards nodded to her and let her pass.

Despite her history in the Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash was even more informal than Twilight Sparkle, outside of military action at least. Even so, Blitz entered the queen’s quarters and stood at rigid attention near the door as it closed behind her.

Rainbow’s quarters were covered in maps of the Jungle and all the surrounding lands around Alliance territory. Several books of military tactics and logistic strategy were piled everywhere with a few trashy romance novels hidden within a few Daring Do books. The blue queen herself was shamelessly guzzling royal tea straight from the pot. She wiped her muzzle dry and faced Blitz with a sly grin. “Come on, is that any way to greet me?”

Blitz’s stoic posture melted to bubbling giddiness and she flew over to glomp her mother into a bear hug. Missing an hour or so of sleep was well worth the cost of Rainbow’s intoxicating love. Rainbow squashed her daughter right back for a minute before letting go. “Alright, Squirt, I called you up here because I didn’t want you freaking out and pissing off the other drones.”

Blitz grew heavily concerned and fell into a hover so she’d be slightly below eye level with her queen-mother. That concern shifted into confusion as she spoke. “Freak out about what?”

“Well it’s like this,” Rainbow started with a steady tone so she betrayed nothing. “Twilight and I’ve been thinking about a bunch of stuff, namingly Aegis and her future hive.”

Rainbow fixed Blitz with a knowing smirk. “I gotta say first though, this is not an order, nor is it a request. I am simply giving you an offer.” Rainbow purposely trailed off to leave Blitz hanging in suspense. “How would you like to enter the running to be my first royal daughter and counterpart to Aegis?”

Now back to your regularly(HA!) scheduled plot chapters.

8: Muster for Battle

Aboard the Deception within her guest cabin, Rasua was kneeling at the foot of her bed. It was close to nightfall and she was wearing a simple white nightgown, praying with her hands clasped and head bowed to the north (courtesy of the compass she brought with her). The simplistic circular device was a gift from a priest in her childhood as a tool that would guide her in the physical world just as the Maiden of the Great Cycle guided her morality.

The blacksmith was eternally grateful for the strictly electric, if harsh, lighting the ship possessed. Rasua made it a point to introduce the changelings to the concept of lampshades. With the overabundance of fire-based technology, Rasua feared the changelings resorted to candle and torchlight alone.

After clearing her mind, Rasua took the compass into her hands and prayed. There was no set principles of communion with the sphinx patron deity, as dogma was extremely sparse. Not even the compass had any real connection, save for what Rasua set for herself.

The deity’s only purpose was twofold: to watch over and protect the Eternal Cycle of the universe, and to guide the morality of all. Everything else from the workings of nature to the afterlife was left to mortals to figure out entirely on their own. In accordance to her family’s tradition, Rasua had two pungent sticks of incense burning at either side of her. The lack of a visible flame was enough to placate the species-wide pyrophobia that the sphinxes suffered from. Whether that fear was part of their racial psyche, or a product of their culture would leave Twilight in scholarly delight for years, if she had the time.

Rasua would have preferred her old phonograph to fill the air with chanting monks, but she had to settle for the rhythmic (and admittedly calming) churning of gears and steam. It was reminiscent of her blacksmithing apprenticeship.

Blessed and eternal Cyrkle. This daughter of the skies beseeches you for the strength to endure and flow with the waxing of this new cycle upon which I am bound to, the courage to face its inevitable waning, and the wisdom to never stray from the Great Cycle.

Rasua would have continued for several minutes were it not for heavy urgent knocking on her door. The fire conscious sphinx extinguished her incense with a finger and thumb before speaking out, the sound of scuffing metal instantly told her who was at the door. “Yes, Princess Aegis?”

The royal all but burst through the door with the look of a soldier with troubling news, and looking unsteady on two legs. “Pack your things, you need to move to the Crystal Blue for the rest of the voyage into Alliance territory.” She would have had others assist, but the cabin was so small that having more people would have made things clumsy.

The hasty worried look upon Aegis’ face got the sphinx to bolt up onto all fours to face her fully. “Why, did I incur some form of insult?”

Aegis waved her off. “No, but we just received word from an ally of ours to the south that her hive is under siege,” Aegis blurted out with just enough self-control to keep the words from running into each other. Her tone grew even heavier. “We’re heading to war.” Rasua’s face grew dark. “The Deception’ll be moving off at full steam as soon as you're relocated. The Crystal Blue will take you to Canterlot and Princess Luna will arrange transit from there to Phoenix’s Roost for you.”

A number of things ran through Rasua’s mind, with personal pride chief among them. War? That must be why they only brought a single warship to Stratholme. The rest must be on deployment. This will be the perfect chance to see these changelings in real combat and get a measure of their strengths and weaknesses. Her mind made up, Rasua affixed Aegis with a determined gaze. “I may be a smith, but I am a daughter of the Federation, and a decent warrior in my own right. I made an oath to serve you, and I won’t-”

Aegis cut her off with a quick swipe of a hoof and an impatient buzz of her wings. “You don’t understand. This isn’t just some skirmish, this is going to be a full on war with armies in the hundreds of thousands, and this ship is going right into the middle of it.”

Rasua was just barely too young to have participated in the war that ended up forging the Federation ten years prior, and it chafed her badly to have missed such a chance to win honor and prestige for her family and nation. “In the off chance you forgot our earlier conversation, my people are no strangers to war.” That put a damper on Aegis’ argument, causing her to give a scrunched frown.

Sensing she had taken the initiative, Rasua pressed on. “If I may be so bold, you act to protect me out of ignorance about my people’s customs and history. For the moment, I am a servant to your house, and it would a grievous dishonor to my name and my family’s honor to simply sit out of a conflict when I am fit and able to serve.”

It wasn’t the whole truth, but there was enough of it there to make it sound convincing. Even then, Aegis was dubious. “Look, this fight’s just been us changelings. We don’t even want to get Equestria involved in this if we can help it. Besides, what do you think your father and country would say if you died in our war?”

Rasua gave a harmless yet determined scowl. “He would hope I died with distinction and that I proved to this new world that a sphinx’s word is honorable. My service to your house was not given lightly, nor do I wish it to be taken lightly either. To do otherwise would be insulting to us both.”

As much as Aegis wished she could pass the buck to either queen-mother, Twilight had given her full discretion on how to handle Rasua for the foreseeable future. While it was not stated directly, Aegis knew it was just one more test her mother presented her on her road to becoming queen.

Aegis gave her a hard look, but eventually gave an approving snort and slight grin. “Alright, have it your way. I suggest writing your father to let him know. We’re not too far from Stratholme, so mother can get it delivered.”

“Thank you. You’ll have my letter within the hour.”

Giving a curt nod, Aegis left Rasua to her thoughts. Most of those centered on her family and the stories of war that were still fresh in the minds of the entire Federation.

As those thoughts turned to the prospect of battle, Rasua moved to her chest of drawers. She pulled it open to reveal a long gold inlaid box that took up the entire length of the drawer. Sphinx calligraphy covered its surface in a way that it looked like a painting instead of inscription. She popped the simple latch to reveal a collection of spherical cut gems that would have left Spike salivating. To even someone as magically talented as Twilight Sparkle, anyone would have seen only that. Yet to a sphinx, they were so much more.

I was hoping I wouldn’t have to use these while I remained in service to these bugs. But it looks like I have little option. Father would kill me for not taking every precaution against an unknown enemy.

Luna was taking advantage of a rare thing aboard luxury yachts, especially those of Equestrian make, a workout room. The dark mare loved chocolate as much as her sister loved cake, and as a result, she had to hit the weights to keep her slim figure. At the moment however, Luna was enjoying one of the overlooked inventions to come out of Phoenix’s Roost: the treadmill; or more accurately, a powered treadmill designed solely for personal exercise.

At present, Luna was running at a comfortable gallop while several guards joined in on their daily workout routine. The Lunar Guard captain was not about to let a milk run back to Canterlot be an excuse for slouching. As such, a full squad of both Equestrian and former imperial thestrals were working out alongside their princess.

Luna had been greatly honored by how many imperials who wished to join her personal guard. Unfortunately, the number of requests was so great she had to turn most of them away.

Slippery Shadow stood beside Luna’s treadmill bearing a water bottle on his back and two towels hanging on his outstretched wings. “While I’m honored that both you and the queens came all this way to rescue me, isn’t there somepony else who could do this?”

Luna gave him a humored toothy smile. The timer on the treadmill started ringing, signaling her to slow down to cool off. “Perhaps, *huff* but the servants are quite busy, *puff* Plus you're a scout and spy. *huff* There’s not much you can do with *puff* your skill set until you can be properly *huff* debriefed at the castle.”

His ears wilted while trying carefully to stay on Luna’s amused side. He offered her the bottle which was gladly taken. “I’m a world renowned storyteller… This is what I get for filling the sphinxes’ heads with my homeland’s epic tales. Isn’t it?”

A couple of the guards within earshot gave Slippery the stink eye, while Luna made an effort to be less than miffed. “I probably learned more about the Moonlit Empire's folklore in Stratholme than even exists on paper. I had to spend twelve hours with Thaddeus correcting all the misinformation between the Empire and Equestria that might have caused issues later on.”

Slippery shrugged and gave an innocent lopsided grin. “Well, I thought it was a good idea.”

“Don’t misunderstand,” Luna reassured after guzzling half the water and trading the bottle for the towel. She took a few moments to get her breathing under control. “It was smart of you, and most likely saved your life, but it still gave me a migraine. So you get to be my workout assistant.” She let him sulk a little before continuing with a sly grin, “and then get a pay-grade increase once we get back to the castle.”

The prospect of more money causes his ears to perk straight up and smoothed away much of Slippery’s irritation, giving way to a self-satisfied grin. His dreams of what he could do with more bits fell away when a bright lavender-orange flash heralded Twilight Sparkle’s arrival via teleport.

The queen was beset with a badly worried expression with a curious distracted look. “Princess Luna, Stripped Gear’s under siege by the other queens. The fighting will start in less than half an hour.”

The room’s atmosphere heated up in an instant with Luna forgetting her workout. “Do you know who it is, is it Chrysalis’ doing?”

“It’s possible, but mother’s not jumping to conclusions just yet,” Twilight replied with a head shake.

Luna turned to the Guard captain who was standing at attention between her and the queen. “Sure Aim, gather everypony except squad three and prepare to be teleported over to the Deception. Don’t bother equipping everything, just pile it up to be teleported all at once. You’ve got five minutes.”

Snapping a curt salute, Aim barked a reply. “Yes, ma’am!” He did not need to order the rest of the guards to move as they repeated his salute before everyone stormed out to the passenger quarters.

Slippery Shadow put the bottle down with shaky nerves. His lackluster brave front failed to hide the stress he still felt at being surrounded by prideful predators for a week, where one wrong move could have ended his life over a cooking fire. “What do you require of me, your majesty?”

“Stay here and guard our feline guest with the rest of the Lunar Guard. The Crystal Blue will still be headed back to Canterlot, but I’m sure there are some rival changelings who might attack the yacht. No doubt they expect the Deception to break off shortly.”

“My thoughts exactly,” Twilight piped in. “I’ve already sent word to Celestia via my ambassadors, and sent a letter to Spike in case Chrysalis tries another assassination to stir up more trouble.”

“Good thinking,” Luna replied with an approving nod. “I had hoped this would not have happened while I was away from Canterlot, but I brought my arms and armor to be safe. Allow me to retrieve them before your warship breaks off.”

“Of course,” Twilight said with thinly veiled worry, “I’ll get RD to teleport the guards over.” I’m pretty sure she can manage that if she aims for the wide open space of the cargo bay. Being reminded of the cargo bay also brought the talbuks to the forefront of her mind. The prospect of bringing animals into a warzone didn’t sit well with her in the slightest. she barked, just barely waiting long enough for him to respond.

Reluctant understanding and painful woe at the loss of his pet project tinted the bodyguard’s tone.

Returning to the here and now, Twilight gave Luna a gracious smile. “Thank you for helping. I don’t know how much my ship will be able to accomplish though. Even at full steam we’re more than two days away from my mother’s hive.”

Luna’s form dispersed into an inky starry mist the moved rapidly through the ship to her quarters. She arrived in time to witness Twilight teleport into the adjacent hallway and walk inside. “We’ll only know that when we get there, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna removed a large chest from her closet and started peeling off the wards so it could be safely teleported. “I’m sure you will do what you can over the hive mind. I only hope that will give us a chance to arrive in time to lend military aid.”

It was a prospect that Twilight quietly fumed over, but could do little about save to order the warship to proceed with all due haste. However, she was filled with hope that Luna jumped to her aid without a second thought. “I know we’re allies on paper, and that most ponies are still iffy about us changelings,” Twilight began yet was interrupted by Luna raising a hoof for silence.

“I know where you’re going with this Twilight Sparkle, and the holier-than-thou games the nobility and media play are of no concern to me when a good friend is involved.” She would have paused to give Twilight a reassuring look, but time was of the essence. “You saved me from the Nightmare and granted a priceless boon to my theserals. I don’t need a treaty to come to your aid.”

Twilight’s heart swelled with hope and pride for the ironclad friendship between them. For longer than she wanted to admit, there had always been a thin thread of fear that Celestia and Luna might share the hesitation of the aristocracy if only to placate them. As Luna gathered her equipment, Twilight filled her in on the dire situation unfolding over Cadista’s ancient home.

The overcast night skies just west of Stripped Gear rumbled and buzzed as an aging gunship chugged through the air, blasting its way towards the hive. Its side mounted flak cannons were firing behind it at the wall of drones scarcely twenty meters behind it. A sickly green shield powered by the horde deflected nearly everything the gunship threw at them.

Individual stormtroopers pushed out from behind the moving shield wall, only to get cut down from flak shrapnel. The shipmaster grimaced at the sheer mass of the enemy trying to envelop his gunship in the shield so the hostile drones could tear the ship apart with impunity. The gunship’s very limited supply of void stone laced rounds had been depleted all too rapidly, leaving the shield free to protect its casters.

Cadista’s hive meditation pounded in the back of the crews’ heads, honing their reflexes and surging their courage to face the countless mass. More often than not, it caused a mad touch of mania.

“Come on you mindless bunch of savages!” The two gunners on either side of the cabin cackled manically as their guns chugged away. The throng of shield drones couldn’t keep a perfect shield-front with the mad twists and jinks the gunship forced them to follow. The airship banked left as hard as its engines could muster, causing a break in formation. With their mother’s efforts surging their response time, both gunners barely took a moment to adjust to the thinned shield as the formation attempted to adapt.

Knowing this moment was coming, the gunners switched modes and fired all four barrels of their flak canons at once, busting through the shield and mauling dozens of drones each. “Die, die, die!!” the gunners howled with hive meditation induced bloodlust.

The swarm reformed with all the speed that a unified mind allowed, sealing the breaches as fast as they formed, repelling the gunship’s firepower once more.

Rainbow Dash’s voice resounded in his mind.

the shipmaster replied with a savage grin. “You heard the queen, turbines to full!”

The helmsman put the gunship into a steep dive. The forward view of the bridge was lit up by the burning farmlands below as more drones continued to skirmish on the ground. All to buy Twilight as much time as possible to repair the hive’s defenses. Rifle fire and streaming flamethrowers were met by the organic living war machine of the enemy.

Manic induced bloodlust faced up against savage fang and spell blow, causing the battlefield to be awash with fire, blood, and mana so thick it evaporated as a glowing blue mist in the full moon night. There were no clean front lines here. Tunnels between the fields and Stripped Gear allowed commandos to appear deep behind enemies lines to bury them in burning oil and musket fire.

Yet the enemy cared nothing for psychological warfare that would have turned the other races. Even as they were being perforated by rifle fire and burned alive as oil seeped in through the cracks of their chitin, the hostile drones carved a bloody swath across the countryside.

For every ten savage blood soaked drones the hostile queens threw at the military might of Stripped Gear, higher magi drones, wielded directly by the queens themselves, churned the earth and sky. Tunnel networks were destroyed as the very soil itself burst forth, exposing the tunnelers to their would be victims.

Small tornados made fortified positions all but impossible to hold. Only the combined efforts of Cadista’s own magi or the passage of an airship’s artificial pegasi magic calmed the skies.

“We’re not making a dent in that shield so long as we’re going straight.” The shipmaster grumbled as they passed through one such tornado before it could properly form.

Both flak cannons turned and started raking the ground with lead, tearing away at even the toughest shock troopers embattled below. However, as the gunship started to level off, the drones giving chase behind them stopped casting the shield and switched to firing hundreds of kinetic bolts.

A virtual hailstorm of acidic green bolts of mana tore at the gunship, shattering glass, and denting armor to the breaking point. Before the gunners could return fire, one of the engines was torn from its mounting, sending the gunship down in flames. It crashed into a grain silo, prompting most of the chasing drones to face the second gunship that had arrived too late. Some of those drones fired off a few small fireballs, just enough to ignite the powdered grain. The resulting explosion killed the remaining crew, and flattened most of the nearby combatants.

However, the second gunship had longer range than the swarm anticipated and it rained flak down on them from afar, decimating the attackers before they could reform their shield. Each time the drones attempted to get close enough to reform the collective shield, the gunship would fire on them, dropping broken bodies and chunks to the dirt. With the situation untenable, the controlling queen dispersed the survivors to flee into the foothills to reform later.

Damn it! Rainbow cursed from within the Deception at the gunship’s loss.

With the lowlands around Stripped Gear’s south and western lands lost, the defenders performed an organized retreat under Rainbow’s direction. As small groups pulled back, the assaulting ground troops attempted to push the advantage, only to run into the waiting guns, flamethrowers, and clockwerks hiding in ambush. Once the first group set up a new ambush, the second group fell back. It took the assaulting queen three ambushes before finally pulling most of her forces back to switch to long range spell casting.

Ultimately though, the ground forces and the swarming clouds of drones giving her gunships a run for their money was not the biggest of Rainbow’s worries. Thrashing about just inside the battlespace were three gigantic burrowing behemoth drones that nearly reached a fourth the size of Stripped Gear alone. The lava chambers and heated rock kept them from burrowing any closer to Stripped Gear. Even so, thousands of enemy drones blanketed the chittering and crawling town sized drones as more constantly poured out from within the leviathans.

From the dozens of aerial scouts serving as Rainbow’s eyes, she saw that for every inch of ground Cadista’s drones gave up to the enemy, hundreds of worker drones were crawling over the dead. Each worker picked up the broken bodies of the dead and flew back to the closest leviathan. I don’t get it, why are they taking the bodies back? They can’t rebirth the dead, right?

There was a lull in the battle thanks to the invaders holding back their forces. As Rainbow took stock of the battlefield, she discovered there were four points where the enemy was within a kilometer of the caldera. The swarms of shield drones were gathering in those areas.

Rainbow Dash watched closely as the gunboat moved in and started shelling the region. As she expected, the thousand drones cast their massed shields before the gunboat reached optimal firing position. The shelling rippled across the combined magical might of the drones, forming cracks every time the high explosive shells hit their mark. Yet with so many drones powering the barrier, the cracks were repaired before the cannons could be reloaded.

A new swarm poured out of the nearest leviathan, and charged straight at the gunship.

Unlike her sister, who was able to sit still while communing with so many drones at once, Rainbow Dash was pacing around the bridge of the Deception. While Captain Rourke was able to keep the bridge crew focused on their duties, she couldn’t help but to share in their uneasiness at the battle to come. I don’t get it. Everything Granny Caddy said about typical Ling tactics is that they swarm en masse to quickly overwhelm the opponent. So why are they using different strategies?

Rainbow briefly thought to ask Cadista for advice. That won’t work, she’s still doing Hive Med. Her next instinct was to ask her sister. Rainbow sent Twilight a brief recap of the situation.

The former unicorn was brainstorming ways to speed up the activation of the coal power plant and any way to get the heavy guns out of their enclosures. As such, she couldn’t give Rainbow any more than a few moments.

Twilight reluctantly left Rainbow to her own council. She came to a halt and started hovering in place. Fast and bloody. Well it’s already bloody, but since they’re bunkering down into a siege, they’re expecting this to be a long fight. If things go like it did at the Battle for Razor Gorge, the besiegers lost almost no pony while the defenders were completely wiped out. Wait…

That’s gotta be it! They don’t think this is going to be a short war. Granny has allies, and I bet the guys attacking us have even more enemies. They must be saving their drones for future battles…or…

Luna barged into the bridge with a series of rolled up maps she had taken from Rainbow’s chambers. “I thought you might need these if we plan on flying straight into the jungle.”

Even though she didn’t have as much practice with high level multitasking, Rainbow gave Luna all the attention she could spare. “Thanks. I’ll need your help figuring out the enemy’s battle strategy.”

Three of Luna’s thestral aides came in behind the princess and set up a fold out table, allowing Luna to unfurl the most relevant map detailing the terrain around Stripped Gear. Rainbow sent orders to her infantry to fall back to the walls with some staying behind to wait in ambush or to set up teleport beacons. Numerous small field artillery was being set up along the ramparts and were already firing on the unshielded targets, hoping to intercept anyone before reaching the shields.

Rainbow moved over to the map and took several offered green and red flags from an aide. “The enemy has taken up positions along the west and southern farmlands. Granny’s been stockpiling ammo ever since my first Summit pow-wow, so I’m not worried about running out.”

Rainbow marked the the road between the hive proper and the rail outpost to the north. “The new ship Cadista just built is being escorted out by two gunships and should be clear of the battlefield shortly. It looks like the attackers don’t care about it enough to pursue.”

Luna tried to wrap her head around the alien form of warfare. She was used to Equestrian, minotaur, and Griffin technology and tactics, but the stark differences between the technophilic changelings, and the living weapons of the other queens left her with little useful advice to give.

With a menacing frown, Rainbow planted three flags around the skirmish with Polybia’s force earlier, which was uncomfortably close to that same northerly road. “That nut Polybia used the blood of her own kids to act as a portal. I had to station granny’s only corvette-destroyer, the Dagger to plug the hole.”

While she had poor abilities with teleportation, portal magic was something of a hobby for Luna. “Blood magic or not, using rock salt and ground mandrake root will destabilize any portal.”

“Really?” Rainbow replied with confusion that was mirrored by Rourke. “Granny should have some at hive. I’ll get a team to deliver it.”

“It takes time however, and would have been more effective if the materials were already present, but it’ll work.”

“I’ll take what I can get,” Rainbow snorted with approval. “Hopefully they can get it done with one of the corvettes Cadista still has.”

Luna’s eyes followed the red flags and long wooden blocks showing trooper positions as Rainbow took the time to finish placing the rest. The situation looked grim, but unfortunately, the flags and wooden colored blocks only painted half the picture. “What about troop strength? How big of a force are we facing?”

“Granny’s advisors are telling me we’re looking at three maybe four hives worth of drones. Though I’m going to assume five just to be safe.” The ordinarily boisterous mare was beset by heavy worry lines and more than a little nervous sweat. “There’s no telling who or how many might be waiting in reserve.”

“That could be well over half a million drones,” Luna gasped with true fear. The armies of old and even modern times rarely numbered over one hundred thousand at any one battlefield. The prospect of half a million bearing down on Stripped Gear was all too telling.

“Yeah,” Rainbow commented irritability. “So I’m trying to wear them down to a more manageable level.” She momentarily closed her eyes to focus more intently on directing Stripped Gear’s defenses. “At least it’s pretty obvious who's fighting us. Since Granny ID’d Polybia as the one who created the blood portal, its gotta be Chrysalis and her cronies.”

Luna was lost in thought while Captain Rourke fly over to hover above the map. The shipmaster used a baton to point at the northeastern portion of the map with just enough noise to rouse both royals. “What about around here? Are they intentionally leaving an escape route?”

Rainbow took several seconds to respond as she tried to bring herself to the present. “No idea. The few scouts I have in the area haven’t reported anything so far, but we’re stretched thin. I’ve have the majority of Granny’s assets facing the enemy.” Rainbow took a small airship figurine and slid it across the map in a curved line through the empty section. “That’s where I’m going to have the Deception move in to slide up to those big bloated drones under cloak and take them down. I bet if we trash them, the other queens will bug out.”

Rainbow Dash slipped back to her command while Luna studied the map, with a changeling occasionally moving flags around so Rainbow could focus. However, the more Luna tried to read the battlefield, the darker her thoughts became. She waited for Rainbow Dash to be more aware of the present before speaking in a grim tone. “What if flying in to Cadista’s rescue is a mistake?”

Just about everybody within earshot did a double take. Were it not for their friendship, Rainbow might have slugged Luna for even saying that. “What do you mean a mistake?” she growled. “We can’t just abandon Granny!”

Luna gave her a critically contemplative look and fully turned to face the fretful queen. “Think about it, Rainbow Dash. The three of us are all in one ship, and Cadista is isolated in a siege. This situation rings too strongly with how Sombra attempted to eliminate both Celestia, myself, and half of our army at the last battle of Red Snow. His forces had General Star Field completely surrounded with the Equestrian army’s backs against a canyon. Celestia and I planned to run ahead of our reinforcing army to create a light bridge for Star Field to cross.

“The canyon looked completely empty until we created the bridge.” Rainbow wished she could cut the story short, but Twilight was able to get a few of the heavier guns into position, allowing Rainbow’s forces to open fire on the artillery positions outside. The concentration to coordinate that effort mean Rainbow could only continue to listen to Luna.

“As soon as the majority of Star Field’s troops were on the bridge, Sombra sprung his trap. He had three dozen gargoyles attack us, ripping our personal guards apart, and tearing my sister and I from the sky. The bridge collapsed without us to keep it intact, and every non-pegasus fell to their deaths. Between the fall and the gargoyles, my sister sustained wounds that would have killed a lesser pony, and I wasn’t much better.

“We would have died there were it not for the pegasi throwing themselves at the gargoyles and bodily intercepting Sombra’s spell to give their companions time to grab us and flee.”

Luna stepped around the table to be face to face with an irate Rainbow Dash, while giving a stern yet respectful expression of her own. “We go into that warzone, we could most assuredly cause massive damage, but we’d be walking straight into a trap.”

Rainbow Dash was silent for a full minute. Luna assumed she was warring between her steadfast loyalty, an attribute Luna respected greatly, and the military mind that Rainbow had been gifted with by the Wonderbolts and queenhood. Strategically, Luna saw little hope against such numbers arrayed against Stripped Gear, made even worse with the hive’s crippled defenses.

What Luna couldn’t know, is that that Rainbow’s internal conflict lasted all of two seconds. She spent that minute devising a plan so bold that few sound minded people would even contemplate. “…Yes. It is a trap.” She turned her gaze from the map up to Luna. “It’s a honeypot trap. If anything they’ll expect us to do one of two things: reveal ourselves early along here,” she pointed at the empty northwestern section. “Or that we’ll decloak right above those three big crawling drones.”

A predatory smirk marred Rainbow’s muzzle as she stamped the ship figurine right on top of the two closest land crawlers. “Let them spring their trap! We’ll strike them with such shock and awe that even those miserable queens will give pause. Even if we can’t save the hive, we can still save Granny along with my aunts and uncles.”

“With nothing but this ship and its crew?” Luna cautioned with a deep frown. “You don’t have enough ammunition!”

Rainbow Dash moved around to Luna’s side of the table and brought over a baton that had been sitting unused on the side of the table. A calculating mischievous sneer creased her muzzle. “We don’t need a victory to win.”

“And what may I ask, could give you that idea?” Luna replied with a grim tone. Her concern mounted when Rainbow’s gaze glanced at the horizon, but Luna thought Rainbow’s gaze was fixed on the bright full moon. “You know full well Tia and I have forbidden ourselves to use the sun or moon for any purpose outside of maintaining the day and night. Even if we hadn't, it is a slippery slope I dare not follow twice.”

Rainbow Dash only scoffed in reply, entirely missing Luna’s rapidly dropping mood at the bad memories. “The only thing I want the sun and moon to do-,” Rainbow paused as her plan took shape in her mind. Her personally redesigned wings buzzing with power and excitement enough to cause a heavy draft in the darkened bridge. “-is to watch.”

Author's Note

I put together the rest of the pre-book 2 timeline for interested parties.

I also figured it would be more efficient to place the PSA blog answers here. So her are some of them.

"Can Rainbow Dash still achieve the sonic rainboom as a queen? If not, why, and if she can, how many of her kids can do slash have done it as well?"

The answer is no, she can not. This is mostly due to her larger size, Ling wings being incapable of such speeds, and the fact that her magic is much more diffused away from her wings. Namingly to her horn and reproductive system. This is true even after redesigning her wings.

Some of her kids are capable of pseudo- rainbooms that have more concussive force rather than colorful explosion, but their bodies have to be specifically designed to create it, just having redesigned wings is insufficient. Unfortunately, that means their magic is gravely limited in all other functions.

blog question 2: "How did Rainbow Dashs parents react on her becomming a Changeling Queen?" Seriously am I the only one who thought about that?"

This is still partially undecided. I'm waiting for the next season to see if RD's parents ever show up so i can get a measure of their personalities. So i probably won't mention them for a while.

but if i was going to do a chapter on it, i'd go with both parents being alive and well. RD gets her devout sense of loyalty from her parents. Neither one of them knew how to react to a ling princess for a daughter, but they stuck by her regardless.

As for Scootaloo... her fellow crusaders had to talk her out of getting rebirthed.

Editor's note: Who thinks that Absinthe would be Rarity's alcoholic beverage of choice?"

9: Sword of the Skies

Cargo bay two was dark save for deep red lights across the walls. Two rows of Jevruun Vrunningee tensed for the battle they’d spent the last fifty hours preparing for. Luna’s Royal Guard remained hidden within the ship as a reserve for the time being. Thunderfury, Ferrum, and Rasua stood in contemplative silence directly in front of the large bay doors, waiting for them to open. The thrum of the great propeller engines would have been almost overpowering this close to the edge were it not for the protective earmuffs everyone possessed. The ship rocked against some turbulence, sending a thrill of nerves across the thirty gathered warriors. The rest of the infantry waited with Intel in cargo bay one on the other side of the ship.

The queens had been too busy for anyone to inquire on the state of their grandmother’s hive, so the soldiers sat in pensive anticipation. The only thing they could pick up was constant chatter from their aunts and uncles, oddly distorted by some unknown force on the battlefield. Many double checked their weapons and armor. Most of it was a light aluminum alloy scale weave that still allowed flight over heavier steel. It was one thing both Twilight and Rainbow had all but demanded after the massive casualties in Rookhaven.

Thunderfury was checking over Aegis’ twin spare fuel canisters while silently wishing she would stay out of the fighting. Aegis has got to remember she’s a princess now. She’s too valuable to be out in front anymore. But it’s a bit late to try and talk her out of it now.

Ignorant of Thunderfury’s mounting worry, Rasua stood by the others in tight quarters, yet still felt very much apart from them. Not that she dwelled on it very much since she was busy with her own preparations and fearful musings. I don’t know if Queen Rainbow Dash is crazy or a genius. I give her the short list of spells I can replicate, and she jumps on three of them. A massive weight of responsibility and fear pressed down on her. Now she’s basing the whole attack on me of all people. Just because the other changeling nations would never expect sphinx magic, let alone know how to counter it.

Casting such thoughts aside, Rasua held four out of twelve precious stone orbs in her hands, and spoke words of power that were lost to the winds for most. “With my serenade, I call upon your aid.”

Those who were not otherwise distracted watched the lone sphinx with curiosity as she breathed a gentle green mist onto the four orbs, which started glowing the same color. Ultimately the changelings forewent asking her about it due to the ear protection. Rasua deposited the glowing gems in a tightly fastened satchel and locked each orb in place with a socket. She took another set of spherical gems into her hands.

“Censored, silenced, rebuked, denied.” This time, Rasua’s breath took on a bluish purple, as did the jewels shortly after.

She repeated the process with the second set before pulling out the last of her gems. This time, the words of power left an oily, dark touch on all nearby, making their skin crawl. “Demons of shadow, hate, and death, I bring your terror upon my breath.” An inky black miasma heaved its way out of Rasua’s mouth and greedily sank into the four awaiting gems. An extremely unwanted side effect of the spell was horrid breath that could curdle milk.

Some of the unnerved changelings might have asked why Rasua was apparently wielding dark magic, were they not under strict orders from Rainbow Dash to leave the sphinx to her spells. Aegis gritted her teeth at the prospect of working side by side with a dark magic user. I know Aunty closely examined Rasua’s list of spells and asked for that one specifically. So why did she ask for dark magic of all things? Any investigation was cut short when the cargo bay doors clanged loudly before yawning open into the skies beyond.

Everyone moved to look down at the burning battlefield almost two kilometers below. It was just past midnight so the raging firestorms charring the once bountiful farmlands below lit up the whole area around the caldera in harsh orange and reds. The hive itself was also ablaze in many places. The great shield tower, which had stood since long before Cadista’s current incarnation, was completely gone. Only a wreck of steel remained of it.

Sporadic fires across multiple other sections of the hive burned within heavy, blue, mana-rich mists. Seven large globs of blue mana lurched up and over the caldera wall to hit the hive within. Large orange shields were brought up, and intercepted all of them, though the massive magical artillery shot on the far west side busted through the shield, yet destabilized in the process, spilling caustic mana below.

The skies above Stripped Gear itself were awash with small black clouds and tracer rounds as the hive’s anti-air defenses focused on the latest assault trying to run the gauntlet. The hive’s own artillery still thundered in answer, but were far too few for Aegis’ liking who still remembered walking along Stripped Gear’s walls which once bristled with more guns than she could count.

As the Deception slinked its way through the skies, what was left of the south and eastern face of the caldera came into view. Fury and lust for revenge surged after the gathered soldiers saw how whole sections of Stripped Gear were in ruins and a huge area of the walls had been demolished all the way down to the forest floor. Even the corvette-destroyer, Dagger, had been brought down, and crashed near the palace. Yet the ship’s single dorsal turret was still active, and adding its voice to the remaining defenses.

The only thing that gave Aegis and her soldiers any sense of satisfaction was the virtual carpet of chitin bound corpses that covered the battlefield both in and out of the caldera. A humorless smirk marred Aegis’ muzzle at how the number of grey bodies were by far the vast minority of the dead.

The bombardment against the wall had been so heavy that the whole area was almost fully obscured by dense clouds of loose blue mana, a hallmark to the titanic magical forces levied against Stripped Gear. From what little I was able to pick up from momma’s filtering of grandma’s defense chatter, those giant crawlers double as biological artillery platforms.

A snaking green shield wormed its way from the farmlands to the breach in the wall, protecting the mass drone assault all the way up to the last few seconds before reaching the remaining infantry along the walls and inner courtyard. Principal among the defenders were flamethrowers, which, while effective at keeping the enemy back, could do nothing about the shield beyond due to their short range.

Spears of burning mana bolts spilled forth from behind the shield, answering the defender’s rifle fire. Aegis had to clamp down on all four legs to keep the wind from sucking her out of the doors. The propellers were louder than ever, but even they couldn’t drown out all of the sounds of battle below.

Rainbow Dash’s voice cut through the shock of such a battlefield.

Aegis stepped aside to let five sky blue drones perch at the lip of the bay doors. Their wings unfurled, revealing they actually had four, with the second pair of wings behind the first. None of the Queens’ Guard had paid much attention to Rainbow Dash’s pet wing project, only knowing that these five drones had opted to be rebirthed to have them.

Thunderfury cocked his head in curiosity at his unique brothers and sisters. They had two sets of wings. The front pair looked like normal changeling wings, while the second pair was angled backwards and more akin to a dragonfly. As the group waited for Rainbow’s command, the four wings were held very close together, far too close to flap without hitting each other. Thunderfury had seen this strain in action before only once, and knew full well those wings were the strangest in the world for one reason: they didn’t flap.

Momma’s secret weapon, he mused with dark anticipation, and to think Aunty Twilight said bringing them for first contact was overkill. His eyes wandered down their lean frames to see there were no holes in their legs, wings, or anywhere else.

A humorless smirk crossed their faces as each of their wings started glowing bright cerise. Their wings didn’t buzz at all, they simply stayed rigid as they pulled in more mana.

A blast of magic from the gap between their wings sent the drones behind them reeling as the Boom Team blasted out of the cargo bay.

Aegis and the others barely had time to recover when Rainbow spoke again.

Aegis shoved her way towards Rasua. Knowing she’d never be able to hear her, Aegis opted to use simplistic sign language to get Rasua ready to go.

The sphinx held her shield close to her chest. It was the only item in the changeling armory she was moderately proficient with, or dared to use.

Up on the bridge, Rainbow Dash used what was left of her scouts in the field to identify the best targets. Twilight assures me Cadista’s crew can hold the walls for at least another hour. So I can focus on the big meaty targets. You take out the logistics, you kill the army; warfare 101.

The three big crawler drones were much closer to the walls now. A dense acid green shield blanketed each one as they inched ever closer to the hive walls. “Captain, I think our targets have already marked themselves.” She gave a toothy smirk at the prospect of revenge for her fallen aunts and uncles. “You may fire when ready.”

Captain Rourke adjusted the naval hat of her predecessor as she made sure void stone shells were loaded. Several more seconds later, all main gunners reported they finished zeroing in.

With the Deception tilted at an angle, the four main deck turrets lined up at a single crawler. The first salvo of void stone shells roared, disrupting the cloaking field. Poor luck saw only three of them striking home. Even so, the green shield collapsed almost instantly with most of the casters either dead or soon to be.

The thunderclap of fire and detonation focused a million eyes upon the flagship of Phoenix’s Roost hanging above the western wall of the hive below. No one had a chance to respond before the next salvo cracked the sky, and implanted themselves in the nearest crawler. The massive drone peeled off an unholy screech of incomparable pain before it exploded in a mountain of blood and broken bodies.

As one, the massive throng of changelings that had been waiting for Twilight Sparkle to reveal herself answered back with a deafening unsettling howl before surging through the air. Yet the Deception’s gunners were faster. They quickly cycled targets and destroyed the second crawling behemoth before most of the enemy could get off the ground.

Each one of the hostile drones answered by bringing up a blackish purple shield around them, giving the impression that the very earth itself was awash with black magic and was rising to greet the warship.

Through her eyes within Stripped Gear, Twilight was too paralyzed in awe and terror to stop her ship’s gunners from loading the next round of void shells. Rainbow Dash only huffed at the sight. “They’re making this too easy.”

The four deck guns spoke, launching shells so fast the waiting infantry in the cargo bays could see the contrails. The shells exploded several meters short of the target area, throwing void powder in all directions. The Deception’s crew watched, eagerly awaiting the mass to plummet back down. However, not a single hostile drone even flinched, and sped right past the void stone. Only the smaller AA cannons inflicted mild casualties due to the shield.

Rainbow’s jaw gaped in stunned silence as the black magic shields kept closing in. With the voice of a hundred thousand drones, the controlling queen behind them jeered. “As predictable as ever, Queen Rainbow Dash. You should have stayed in Equestria!”

Rausa freaked at the same voice coming out of tens of thousands of mouths at once, and scurried closer to Aegis.

“Wait… that sounded like Silandrus! Why is she here?” Rainbow Dash growled. And to think my original plan was to bombard Sticky Spit’s hive.

Twilight barked to the gunners and her sister.

Rainbow Dash cursed, but wasted no time.

The gunners had already been on the move since Twilight’s warning.

Rainbow Dash angrily kicked the railing around the bridge’s windows. “You think you know me, Silandrus? Think you read my file do you?” Gotta buy time for my gunners to get the void stones out.

Raptor stood up on the small tuft of black cloud with a malicious smirk as he warmed up his wings. Charging headlong into the carpet of hostile drones, Raptor and his four squadmates dove down from above the warship, blitzing past it as Aegis’ troopers started to blanket the frigate.

Rainbow Dash saw them pass, yet her pride was crushed by the weight of the enemy ahead of them.

Raptor saw the black cloud rushing towards him with such speed that he howled at the thrill of it. The all encompassing Weave of the World started to warp around him. Yet his strength alone was not enough, which is why his squad formed up around him in wedge formation to combine their efforts.

By now, the rival drones saw them, and saw the radical build up in mana pressure. Silandrus had a number of the closest drones drop their shields to launch spells, but they barely got a shot off before it was too late. Raptor’s squad broke the mana-barrier barely ten meters in front of the enemy.

A massive conical shock wave cracked near the center of the enemy formation, plowing through the swarm like a scythe through so much wheat. The collective shield collapsed almost in its entirety as the rippling wave of mana swept through the battlefield, giving pause to the battle on the ground and rocking the Deception.

The glass on the frigate’s bridge shuddered within its frame, but held firm. Rainbow’s two personal bodyguards stood closer to her, wary of the glass breaking as it did in Rookhaven. “Have a little more faith in my refit, guys.” Rainbow relished the familiar magical tidal wave that had earned her cutie mark all those years ago. Yet she only gave herself an instant of satisfaction before giving the order.

Knowing Raptor’s team had fled the kill zone, the gunners let loose with a storm of lead rain. From her perch near the cargo bay doors, Rasua watched in fascinated horror as distant drones fell by the dozens, then the hundreds. Even the smaller, close in, anti-air guns started chattering, barely bothering to aim at any target along the port side because it was nearly impossible to miss, such was the number of their enemy. Every casualty took two more with them as the injured struck their kin on the way down.

The lone sphinx fully expected the forces arrayed against them to flee in the face of such fury. They have no airships of their own, no weapons that can reach us, or they’d have used it already. No one would throw themselves against such an imbalance of force. It is folly.

Aegis suffered no such misconception, and tightened her grip on Burny. Now’s the time. She turned to Rasua and motioned for her to remove her earmuffs. <“All hands,”> she yelled both vocally and over the hive mind, <“Spread out along the surface deck, and stay out of the heavy cannons’ way!">

Both Aegis and Intel’s platoons flew out to blanket the Deception. Intel’s solely changeling platoon latched themselves to the ventral section of the ship, staying clear of the propellers. Aegis took her troops along with Rasua to the dorsal side. After settling into her position, Aegis watched the living cloud get torn to pieces and yet none of it riled her like the others nearby. Stop toying with us, Silandrus. Show your true strength.

As if answering Aegis’ challenge, dozens of dense tendrils of black smoke jabbed up from the broken remains of the crawlers and sped through the mass of dying changelings. The heavy firepower from both the warship and the remaining anti-air artillery from Stripped Gear below switched focus onto the frighteningly fast spires of smoke, but they took much more damage to bring down. Even the few that were blow from the sky were quickly replaced by more screaming out of the pulped crawlers.

Aegis lit her horn fully expecting Twilight’s next order.

“Oorah!” the infantry cheered back. From within a specially modified spell augmentation room, Twilight Sparkle leveraged her pony lineage to bring forth a bright orange-tinted purple shield, springing to life barely two meters away from the hull, forcing Aegis to remain on all fours. Well over a dozen drones added their strength to the queen’s spell. Scant second later, the shadowy tendrils collided with the barrier to reveal hissing furnaces of primordial rage. Furnaces of rage that were packed inside the shells of bulky muscle bound drones bearing slitted eyes. Even as the drones started flying around the shield to evade the platoon's defensive fire, their chitin bulked up and hardened, allow them to take several rounds before finally being felled.

One of them impacted almost in front of Rasua, causing her to stumble backwards at the sight of it. These black chitin clad chittering insects were exactly what Rasua feared most in coming here, causing her to shuffle backwards. Only her pride as a predator kept Rasua on her feet.

Aegis watched as the smoky drones started encircling the warship, completely blanketing it in an inky black cloud making it impossible to see beyond the shield.

Twilight shouted after several tried futile to shoot the drones.

Thanks to her gauntlets leaving the bottom of her hooves free, Aegis used her wall-walking to keep standing as the warship under her hooves banked to move north. The shield itself started flickering as hostile changelings started to ram it.

Gunfire and flamethrowers joined the mounted batteries, hoping to hit something. Rasua shuffled to the side of the smaller mounted AA gun that was chattering as fast as it could be reloaded. This is madness! What kind of enemy just throws themselves against such power?

The shield impacts were happening faster and faster as more hostile drones reached the blinded warship. Aegis had to stop channeling the shield before her grip on Burny failed entirely. “I will not die here! I still have a hive to make!” She screamed in rage while adjusting Burny to a wide spray and charring a dozen drones in seconds.

“For every one you kill, ten more will take its place,” Silandrus scoffed almost patronizingly. “Cadista has failed to teach you discretion, Twilight Sparkle. A shame my lesson will not be have time to be taken to heart.”

Rasua saw more and more of Aegis’ squad begin to give out on the shield and the impacts were only increasing. I hope this works on changeling magic. I don’t have enough spell-gems to test it earlier. Focusing on four of her imbued orbs, Rasua lifted a hand to the sky and a chorus of ghostly sphinx ancestors materialized at her side. “With our song of heavenly aid, none of you shall be afraid!”

The chorus of Rasua’s ancestors sang a divine hymn that pierced the din of war like butter, bringing pause to everyone who heard it. Loose mana from the Weave itself was pulled in by the chorus with Rasua’s outstretched hand being the focus. Two of the linked orbs dimmed and shattered into dust as Rasua directed that mana to Twilight and the friendly changelings, bolstering their spent energies.

Aegis snorted approvingly, and started lending her renewed strength to the shield while pouring on more ribbons of fire from Burny. Her actions spurred the others to do the same, yet their progress was still hampered by the deep black smokescreen.

The shield itself reformed completely with Twilight’s full might backed by the seemingly depthless well of mana the serenade offered. It almost looked like the shield would hold forever, yet as fast as the wellspring of magic appeared, it vanished once the last of Rasua’s orbs blackened and fractured. The ghostly sphinxes disappeared as quickly as they came, taking their bounty of mana with them.

“A fascinating spell,” Silandrus bellowed from thousands of voices. “I’ll have to take you alive to learn how it works.”

Silandrus’ gloating was cut short by the blast wave of a second pseudo-rainboom tearing through the gathered mass of changelings once more. The magical nature of the shockwave cleared the smokescreen and obliterated half of the shadowy drones along with them.

Rainbow Dash cheered loudly. “Did you forget about them already, you old hag!”

Raptor and the others struggled to change course, and all but careened through the dazed enemy to crash back into the cargo bay close to death’s door from mana exhaustion. Their magic was spent, having been too far away to benefit from Rasua’s spell.

Rainbow ordered the medics to tend to them after getting her bearings. Her pride for the Boom team was without measure for the sacrifice they fully volunteered for. Good thing the medics know to put them on life support after making a rainboom. The battle forced Rainbow Dash to pull her thoughts away from her children. So we made it over the northern face of SG. I hope we were enough of a distraction for Granny to evacuate.

Twilight Sparkle all but barged into her sister’s mind.

Rainbow paused to think of a plan.

Twilight grimaced at the odds of success. She felt there was little purpose stating their poor chances.

She switched over to Aegis.

Rainbow Dash leaned on the railing with mounting anticipation as the ship’s ventral weapons as they turned their might upon the shielded ground forces. Silandrus saw the blunder when the firepower against her was cut in half. Seems my allies have forced Rainbow’s hoof. Now to break that shield and end Cadista’s bloodline!

Lifting up the battered remnants of her air force, Silandrus still had nearly fifty thousand drones on the battlefield. Since Rainbow Dash was kind enough to eliminate the rest of my outdated drones, it’s time to reveal the fruits of my research.

Scattered among the remaining air force, hundreds of Silandrus’ dedicated spellweavers cast an enchantment all across the rest of her army. Once the enchantment took hold, the long range shelling from the Deception and scant few remaining AA batteries from Stripped Gear found nothing but ethereal targets.

It didn’t matter if it was explosive or magical; none of the shells or flak touched Silandrus’ air force. The mass sped through the air as fast as their wings could take them in a giant spear formation. Rainbow Dash and Aegis stared as the living weapons charged headlong, completely unaffected by their defensive firepower.

Despite the heavy modifications to the ancient enchantment, Twilight knew what it was the instant the warship’s firepower proved useless. Thinking quickly, she altered the shield, giving it a pale yellow light. Thank the First Mother for Celestia’s tutelage.

Rasua and all the others on top of the Deception flinched the moment the spear of ethereal drones collided with the shield. Silandrus had fully expected to pass right through, but recovered from the failure all too quickly. “Clever, Queen Twilight Sparkle, but I still expected more from you.”

Aegis’ infantry resumed their attacks, only to find their bullets passed right through the ethereal swarm eating away at the shield. Only the flamethrowers managed to bring them down, but even Burny took several seconds to bring down a single drone. It wasn’t long before Silandrus’ brood fully blanketed the barrier, and started draining the shield via their horns. To make matters worse, they used the stolen mana to repair their bodies, making the flamethrowers even less effective.

“It’s a shame really. I saw so much potential in your bloodline, and you threw it all away to protect an outdated queen. Such soft Equestrian values have gotten you killed.”

“Says the queen with cobwebs in her holes!” Rainbow Dash growled at the insult. If there’s one thing I hate it’s being ignored! “Don’t act like I’m not here you old hag!” she yelled at the nearest puppeted drone, but got no response.

That’ll change reeeal quick! Rainbow Dash dug her hooves into the wooden deck of the bridge right as Twilight spoke from within her chambers.

Twilight’s tone grew frightfully worried.

Ending the conversation, Rainbow Dash jumped out of the bridge’s hatch and started spreading her royal pheromones, using her wings to push them towards the drones. Rainbow Dash hoped the pheromones would work on a being able to pass through bullets, but for several agonizing seconds it seemed that would not be the case. Right before Rainbow Dash was about to give up the pheromones in lieu of brute psychic invasion, the four closest puppets began to lose their slitted eyes as Silandrus' grip on them loosened. “Gotcha!” I bet sis would kill to figure out how my personal perfume worked on these guys.

Rainbow Dash sneered as she spun back around to face her victims, and made sure her side of the hive mind was heavily filtered. Acting quickly, she pointed her horn at the nearest one and forced her psychic will upon the drone.

Being so close to the drone who was already being compromised by Rainbow’s pheromones, it was almost trivial to break into Silandrus’ hive mind. What awaited her on the other side, however, was nigh horrifying. Instead of the welcoming subtle forum of Rainbow’s native hive mind, Silandrus’ Link was completely monotone. There was no deviation in the hundred thousand voices echoing the singular dominating voice which Rainbow Dash immediately assumed was Silandrus herself.

Silandrus growled so loudly it burst a blood vessel in Rainbow Dash’s horn. Silandrus latched onto Rainbow’s mind, keeping her from disconnecting.

Rainbow Dash nearly fell off the side of the ship after Silandrus pressed down on her with such force she incapacitated the upstart queen. Rainbow prodded, only infuriating the old queen even further.

Silandrus imposed so much psychic pressure on Rainbow’s mind, she couldn’t even think of a retort.

Meanwhile, Aegis was shaking a shell shocked Rasua violently to break through to her. She ripped off the jane’s ear muffs to yell at her. “Hey, you signed up for this, now snap out of it! We need that spell pronto!”

Rasua’s world seemed to slow to a crawl and sound was muffled like someone shoved a pillow into her ears. The snarling teenager sized insects coupled with the deafening buzzing of their wings finally caused Rasua’s brain to overload. Even Aegis’ shaking didn’t fully register, only a blurry blob roughly shaped like a changeling. Rasua absently felt something grip her head and forced her to look Aegis in the face. The panicking princess held up a brown satchel and waved it in front of her. Satchel?... My satchel. The spell!

The noise of war returned as Rasua’s vision snapped back into focus just in time to hear Aegis screaming at her. “Cast the spell! Do it now before my Aunt dies, or so help me I’ll toss you out to the wolves!”

“M-my apologies, Princess.” Burning with shame and purpose, Rasua snapped the satchel back and shoved one paw inside to touch the spherical jewels. Aegis let her go so Rasua could lift her other paw out. Even before she called upon the words of power, her breath took on the tell-tale color of dark magic. “Demons of fear, misery, and pain, I call upon you for my personal gain!”

All four orbs cracked and shattered as dark magic poured from Rasua’s mouth to her outstretched hand before flashing forward into the eyes of Silandrus’ drones that had been eating away at the dwindling shield directly in front of her.

Meanwhile, deep inside the ship, meditating in a dark room, Luna received her signal from a changeling attendant. Using her power over the Dreamscape, Luna’s mind jumped into Rainbow Dash thanks to her hybrid pony/changeling nature and then passed into Silandrus’ hive mind. To Luna, the hive mind looked like a barren dreamscape, with a massive bright violet light surrounded by extremely dim motes of light. Each one was tethered to the center by a tight cord. Rainbow Dash’s presence was flickering wildly as Silandrus assaulted her with all manner of psychic attacks. Rainbow’s mental defenses had been brushed aside in a matter of seconds by the elder queen. Currently, Silandrus was taking her time in punishing the upstart queen for the grave insult of invading her hive mind.

Luna was subtle in her trespass, and went unnoticed by Silandrus thanks to the battle and Rainbow Dash serving as crucial distractions. The Princess of Dreams saw the effects of Rasua’s spell as shadowy demons eating away at the fading lights they were latched onto.

With her own version of shadow magic, Luna’s horn darkened to pitch black. She took those waking nightmares and with a wide sweeping arc of her horn, spread them across every single point of light within the vast hive mind, flooding it with countless illusions that fed on fear.

The ancient queen wasn’t even the slightest bit affected when the nightmares were only attacking a handful of her drones. The illusionary demons were simply drowned out by the unified voice of the Link and diminished by the simple minds of the drones. Silandrus might have even shrugged off a few thousand. However, when every last one of her puppets was hit by Rasua’s terrors, their combined might quickly sped down the connection and straight at Silandrus herself. Well over a hundred thousand demonic nightmares hit her like a freight train, and the unequine scream of absolute terror shattered her mind like so much glass.

Silandrus’ hive mind became unstable as she fell into a fear induced seizure. Knowing the dangers of staying in the mindscape of a broken mind, Luna hurried towards Rainbow Dash and severed her connection to Silandrus’ drones. The Princess of the Night returned to her body which was just outside Twilight’s spell-amplification chamber. She could already see the lavender mare was near collapse herself from keeping the shield up, but her slow recovering breath revealed Rainbow’s trick worked. “Stay and rest, Twilight Sparkle, I will tend to your sister’s wounds.”

“T-thank you,” Twilight wheezed with a nod as she finally let go of the shield spell. If anypony could heal psychic injuries, Luna would be the one.

Aegis watched in morbid fascination as the hostile drones writhed, yelling in agony, while clawing at their heads trying to rid themselves of the waking nightmares. Without a unifying purpose, the panic-riddled, link-severed drones fell from the skies, thrashing helplessly before colliding with the ground. Those few who managed to survive the crash, or retained enough sanity to glide down, scattered to the four winds. If they somehow survive long enough for the illusions to fade, they’ll probably end up going feral, Aegis mused darkly.

Rasua was shaky on her paws and wheezing breath. Holy piss, how am I still alive? Images of the frightfully violent and revolting insectoids flashed in her mind’s eye, chilling her to the bone. She had to hold her hands together to keep them shivering. Yet despite that fear, she was gravely suspicious at the unanticipated reach of her fear spell. That was a very weak spell. I can only conjure illusions to afflict one or two targets, four at the very most. Even then it should only last a few seconds. How in blazes did it spread to every last one of them?

Queen Rainbow Dash had omitted how, exactly, her illusion spell would be useful. Only that Rasua was to cast it when commanded. Leveraging the clout her fear spell surely earned her, Rasua forced herself to stop shaking, and failed. She marched over to Aegis fully ready to demand an explanation. “There is something about your kind that you have failed to enlighten me about, isn’t there?”

Aegis was not cheering the victory like many of her kin, and looked up from adjusting Burny to find a trembling yet accusatory sphinx glaring at her. “We all have our secrets, Rasua. Now’s not the time. We haven’t won yet.”

The sphinx couldn’t argue with that after the distance sounds of battle caught her ears. During the course of Silandrus’ attack, the Deception had drifted almost two kilometers northeast. Aegis pointed at the burning hive below where the fires were getting out of control and the distant crump of explosions still resounded through the caldera. “If you can hold yourself together this time,” Aegis had to bite her tongue to keep from venting on Rasua. “We’re moving out as soon as we rearm.”

Even with Rasua’s spell being the keystone to Rainbow Dash’s plan, Aegis was furious that Rasua froze at the critical moment while her aunt was being assailed by Silandrus’ vastly superior psychic prowess. Is that all the vaunted predatory species is capable of? Whimpering in the corner? I’ve seen rookie ponies with more bravery. Biting down on her disgust, Aegis kept her tone neutral. “Now get back inside, the main guns need the deck clear so they can bombard the enemy positions outside the hive without having to worry about us getting in the way.”

Aegis spread the same order to the rest of the infantry. Rasua wrestled with her desire for answers, and the shame she felt at choking at the worst time possible. Thaddeus would never let me live this down if he found out, and I’d be a laughingstock for years in the colony.

Determined to prove herself, and earn those answers, Rasua followed after the irate princess. I bet if I personally save their allied queen down there, I’d earn her respect.

Twilight teleported up to the bridge to find a crowd gathered around Luna and Rainbow Dash. The princess’s horn was aglow as her magic sank into Rainbow Dash. Had Rainbow Dash been in anyone else’s care, Twilight would be traumatizing herself at the prospect of losing her sister. Thankfully, Luna’s calm exterior soothed much of the gathered changelings’ worries.

“Fear not, everypony,” Luna said after a long silence. “It seems Rainbow Dash’s mind is far stronger than I remember. The damage was bad, but repairable. She only needs a few hours sleep.”

Sighing in relief, Twilight laid down on her belly next to her sister and Luna. “That’s probably her royal blood talking. Mother always said I would never last more than a few minutes against an older queen. Rainbow must have taken that as a sign that she could last at least that long too.”

“As brave as she is reckless,” Luna remarked with a head shake, “but sometimes that’s what it takes to win.”

“We’re only half way there,” Twilight replied darkly. “Mother’s had to retreat to the palace and hatchery. Stripped Gear is overrun everywhere else.”

A few medics arrived and the two royals allowed them to take Rainbow Dash away on a stretcher. Luna didn’t wait to watch them leave. “There is no time to be lost. We have to move on Stripped Gear as soon as we are able.”

The thundering rattle of cannon fire informed Twilight that Aegis had already moved her platoon off the surface of the ship as the gunners began shelling the remaining invader’s positions outside of the hive. With Silandrus’ defeat, her forces were melting back into the jungle, yet the other queens remained inside the city.

The damage had been dealt, Stripped Gear was in flames, and the besiegers at the palace were expendable. Twilight tried to spy on the enemy positions via what remained of her mother’s personal guard, but most of them were busy barricading the interior of the palace to buy time for Twilight’s troops to arrive.

Author's Note

Ye thought I would leave a cliffhanger like that for weeks on end? PUH!

10: Old Friend

Deep within Stripped Gear’s royal palace, Cadista remained in her hive-trance. She was being carried on a stretcher through the timeless brass hallways of her ancient home to a panic room at the far north end of the palace.

Watchful Eye guided the party of twenty one Queen’s Guard and civilians to their destination. The power was completely out through most of the hive, causing the weakening wall lights to cast whole sections in dancing flickering shadows. The building shuddered with rivulets of dust falling upon the fleeing drones.

Flexi Lawnder, an engineer who was caught in the palace fighting, struggled to keep her half of Cadista’s stretcher off the ground. Her ears were cast backwards at the seemingly omnipresent sounds of battle. Deep groaning cracks, gunfire, and explosions rang in her ears. The grating baritone of clockwerks echoed behind the group as the invaders fought their way through the rear guard.

Watchful barked as the group made it into the grand throne room just south of the castle’s center. Flexi carefully put her queen’s stretcher down as the soldiers raced throughout the room at Watchful’s orders.

Even with Cadista’s hive meditation bolstering her spirits, Flexi was no soldier. She only partially watched as more of her siblings ran in through the primary grand entry doors and the three service entrances along all but the northern face of the chamber. The throne room itself was extremely large and empty, save for the throne itself and the necessary support pillars. Most of the walls were adorned with brass with Stripped Gear’s flag draped along the walls and pillars at regular intervals.

For a brief moment, Flexi had hoped the arriving drones were more soldiers, reinforcements coming in from the breached city beyond. Yet the lion’s share of the new arrivals were cooks, engineers, and everything in between. None of them carried anything save for the clothes on their backs. As far as Flexi could see, there was only one armored soldier for every thirty civilians.

Still remaining near her queen, Flexi saw a brother buzz over to Watchful Eye and salute. “Sir, these are all we could save from the shelter at D section. Bayonet says there’s no hope for the other shelters along the southern districts. The enemy is pushing to surround the palace before trying to break in.”

Watchful ground his teeth in cool rage. “That’s no longer the case. Queen Thereena’s drones have already broken into the upper levels, thinking mother would have been holed up in her chambers. It’s all we can do to stall them.” Watchful held up a bandaged hoof up for the officer to wait when he noticed the last of the civilians were being pulled inside by what was left of Stripped Gear’s once two thousand strong Hive Guard.

After waiting for a series of acknowledgements, Watchful tried to inquire the status of the Deception through the hive mind. This is bad. Not only is the ship blinded by a smokescreen, it’s Silandrus of all lings who’s attacking them. It’ll kill morale, but we have to wake mother up.

He turned to Flexi who was trying to pass the minutes by making sure Cadista was in a comfortable prone position. “Flexi Lawnder,” the mare eeped at the address, “assist us in waking her.”

“Y-yes, sir!” Thirty changelings closed in behind the two drones and combined their meager psychic power. It wasn’t much, given the communication oriented nature of a drone’s abilities. Outside of normal Link communication, the gathered changelings were only capable of causing a small psychic blip, but it was enough for Cadista’s horn to detect, causing her to awaken with a start.

Within the span of a second, Cadista could feel just how much quieter the background noise of her side of the hive mind was. Leveraging her centuries of rule, Cadista shoved her grief aside. I knew this was coming for decades.

The drones as one gave a collective gasp, feeling as if their fighting spirit fled them as their queen’s benediction gave way. Cadista took a few moments to sift through the Link to discover what had happened since beginning her meditation. For two days, Twilight and Rainbow’s coordination had kept the rival queens at bay. Granted my meditation assisted greatly in the defense, but the actions of the other queens don’t make sense. Were they stalling just long enough to wait for the Deception to arrive?

Catching up to the present, Cadista looked through what few remaining scouts she still had to find the Deception being cleared of the smokescreen by a pseudo-rainboom. Heh, looks like Twilight and Rainbow can handle themselves just fine without me distracting them. Not that I’m in any position to render aid. The best thing I can do for them now is give them a reason to fall back to Phoenix’s Roost.

The current battlescape within the hive itself was too chaotic to get a proper picture. Luckily, Watchful had been keeping himself appraised of the situation. ’“Captain Watchful Eye, you ordered a general evacuation?”

“Yes, my queen,” he replied curtly while snapping a salute. “The enemy hives arrayed against us consists of Thereena and Nubile,” Cadista’s breath quickened at the news, “they’ve been the ones attacking us for the past two days, but they fell back an hour before Twilight and Rainbow arrived. Silandrus is the one assaulting the Deception as we speak. As for who’s sieging us on the ground is currently unknown.”

Cadista’s ears fell flat and she scowled deeply. “I knew it was only a matter of time before the other queens attacked me, but I was so sure it would have been Chrysalis and her allies first.”

Watchful idly surveyed his troops bringing up several old clockwerks from hidden alcoves in the walls. “Speaking of Chrysalis, one of my scouts spotted some of Chrysalis’ drones along what’s left of the Buler Ranch. She’s watching us, but hasn’t acted yet.”

“Pah, she’s probably eating popcorn as she watches my hive burn.” Cadista stood up to her full height.

Several Queen’s Guard moved over to the raised dais bearing the throne and pressed down a secret switch under the chair itself. Luckily, Cadista’s previous incarnation had the foresight to use mana engines rather than steam driven gears, which allowed the dais to lift two meters up while the floor three meters in front of the throne slid away to reveal stairs. Faint lights crackled to life within the painfully narrow tunnel that could only take refugees in single file. Dust and stagnant air wafted out, but the sense of safety flowed with it.

“Watchful, Gather a small team to lead the way for the civilians. Just enough troops to push back any beasts that might have nested on the other side.”

“At once, my queen.” He pointed at seven riflelings and one flammenwerfer. “Form up on the flamer and secure the exit.”

Deciding to stay as a part of the rear guard, Cadista waited for the civilians to follow the squad, giving her one last chance to look upon her throne room. Memories and ghosts, both new and old passed through her eyes. Yumia. First I lost you, and now I’m losing our home. Watchful Eye tensed when he saw Cadista silently weeping.

Cadista’s heart sunk even lower as her scouts revealed the ethereal drone attack on the Deception was looking grim. My soul, my hive, and now I’m about to lose my purpose in life. And there’s not a damn thing I can do to save any of it!

The whole room jumped as three of the sealed southern doors banged in their frames with such force all three dented inwards. The civilians panicked and left whatever belongings they had with them to try and cram their way into the tunnel. The soldiers surrounded Cadista while the active clockwerks took position near the doors along the ground and in the air.

Watchful Eye barked orders to his troops. “Everypony, form ranks on me!”

Soldiers raced over to Watchful with rifles in their magic. Cadista flew over to get behind the three rows of riflelings as they formed up. The doors boomed again, with two of them warping badly, but still remaining fully closed.

Cadista commanded with regal authority.

The soldiers were shaping up the formation poorly. Fatigue after fighting for two days, and the aftershock of the hive meditation made them sluggish, and they were not alone. Those few remaining survivors found themselves needing time to catch their breath and focus on the task at hand. Those directly engaged with the enemy didn’t have that luxury, and were either in full retreat, or being overrun.

The same was not true for the hostiles swarming through the streets. The last few artillery and anti air emplacements laid abandoned or destroyed along all but the far northern wall. Only the fact that their queen was still alive gave the scattered army some will to keep fighting.

The third crash on the doors caused the primary doors directly in front of the rifle formation to buckle with the center iris torn open. Cadista could see the massive battering drone’s horn poking through the opening. Its deep grumbling breath was nearly lost to the din of her riflelings finally getting into formation with the front rank standing at the ready with bayonets fixed.

They waited for the final crash to bring down the doors, but instead, a stone wrapped in magic came flying through the hole landing in front of the infantry. The closest drone identified it immediately, picked it up and presented it to Cadista. “My queen, it is the Stone of Parlay!”

As soon as the soldier picked up the stone, the attacking swarm pulled back and halted their assault hive wide. In the few places where Cadista’s drones were still putting up resistance, the hostiles ducked behind whatever cover they could find.

Watchful and Cadista quickly noticed this as reports started flooding them of the strange activity. Jumping at the unexpected lifeline for her children, Cadista bounded over the soldiers and took the stone in her magic. <Everypony, hold your fire and positions. The enemy has declared parlay.>

Confusion and hundreds of questions flooded the Link, so Cadista delegated it to Watchful Eye. Cadista shared many of those questions herself as she walked over to the hole in the warped door. The rules are clear. No one is to move or fight within the battlefield until parlay is concluded. At the very least this will give my children time to recover.

Cadista stopped twenty paces from the broken door when a smallish red drone squeezed through the rent doors. Once inside, it flew over to hover in front of Cadista where it’s monocolored eyes shifted to bare the slitted eyes of its queen. Cadista’s heart caught in her throat, but she didn’t betray her surprise. “Kreesus…?” Cadista managed to say evenly towards the seething puppet. “So you’ve turned against me as well?”

“Did you honestly expect anything else, Cadista?” Kreesus growled, making no effort to maintain a regal image. “How was I supposed to act after Twilight Sparkle revealed her ability to produce love?”

“To be honest, I thought you’d be thrilled, if jealous.”

“Jealousy,” Kreesus fumed with disgust. “There is no word that can adequately describe how it felt to have my oldest friend crush everything I’ve ever worked on with what should have been nothing more than a fool’s errand.” The puppet started to pace in front of Cadista. “Evolve, adapt, and thrive. This is the code our species lives by. We see a trait we want, and we change ourselves to possess it. That is how it has always been. It is our power, the First Mother’s gift to us all.”

Cadista despaired at the three hundred year friendship being torn to pieces in front of her. “I told you all along what I was planning. You rebuked every request to assist me on my fool’s errand, until I stopped bothering to ask. Even after Yumia’s death when I needed help in the project more than ever, you flat out refused to aid me. We shared a mutual defense pact. We agreed to defend each other, not share all of our alchemical secrets. So you’ll just have to forgive me if I require at least some measure of compensation for the knowledge both Yumia and I spent two lifetimes alone to acquire, old friend. Even if all I’d ever require from you would be but a token. Some modicum of payment for my life’s work.”

“A token?” Kreesus scoffed incredulously. “And what could I possibly offer to equal love production?” Kreesus barked back, barely containing her fury and depression. “Love is something we’ve never been able to produce. No matter what I tried these past few years. Alchemy, cloning Twilight’s drones, even mating with one of her consorts,” Cadista recoiled at the last comment while Kreesus shuddered with revulsion. It was a well-known fact that mating with another queen’s consort was considered a loathsome act, no matter what was to be gained. The fact that Twilight and Rainbow Dash shared consorts regularly was a constant source of rude gossip within the jungle.

“I spent everything... everything I had on the four princesses I gained from that…pairing,” the puppet spat. “And every last one of them lost the ability to love within a year. And the worst of it is that Twilight Sparkle and her sister let it happen!”

Cadista was planning on reprimanding Twilight about her apparent lax security, when Kreesus’ words made her stop short. “She what?”

“You didn’t know?” Kreesus huffed dismissively. “It doesn’t matter now. Whether Twilight was taunting us by making it too easy, or she knew trying to stop us was folly is irrelevant now. Silandrus has promised me and several others that she could give us the secret to a love producing daughter, if we helped her with this invasion, and so here I am.”

“We used to be allies, Kreesus, and I dare say honorable friends as well.” Cadista could see the conflicted doubt and determination in the puppets’ eyes which mirrored her own. “We could have arranged something for the secret if you had just asked.”

Kreesus was so taken aback by the statement that the puppet stumbled a little. It spoke with blatant surprise. “You insult me. I would think even now, you’d be honest with me.”

“I am being honest, Kreesus, I would have gladly traded with you. I’ve been sitting on an honorable exchange with you for the past seven years, waiting for you to ask.” Cadista looked through the eyes of her scattered children at the broken and burning ruins of Stripped Gear. Could she have been the one who sabotaged the geothermal plant, or did she tell the real infiltrator how to bypass the wall? “So why didn’t you? Did your pride stop you, or was it your honor as a queen?”

The puppet’s ears fell back as a snarl marred its lips. “And what could possibly be an honorable exchange for the secret of love production? Food, protection, alchemical secrets?” The wings of Kreesus’ puppet buzzed angrily. “Nothing, not a damn thing compares to love production. No matter what your offer would request of me, it could never be enough, not for this. I would be honor-bound to become little more than your servant, but not just me, but my royal children as well, and countless generations afterwards for so valuable a gift. My bloodline would become your vassal for an eternity!”

Cadista said nothing as Kreesus vented. In her heart, she knew her old friend spoke the truth. It would be like discovering a way to no longer need food or water, Kreesus’ pride and honor as queen would demand no less of her. Even so, she just doesn’t understand what it means to love… Just like all the other queens.

“So no,” Kreesus said after giving herself a moment to calm down. “I choose to side with Silandrus. We’ve tried going directly for Twilight’s bloodline, but that always ends in failure. So,” she said with forced neutrality, “we decided that going after you, the architect of love production, would be easier.

“As for my agreement with Silandrus, the payment between us is simple. I use my knowledge of your defenses to capture you, and she will be the one to extract the information from you. I’ll have my love producing daughter, without being made a slave neither by my honor nor to you.”

Cadista affixed the puppet with a cold stare. “…So you traded the disgrace of obsoletion for the dishonor of betrayal?”

The puppet snorted disapprovingly. “Such is our world. I would rather live with tarnished honor, than to exist with none at all. I dare you to say you wouldn’t do the same.”

Cadista said nothing, she couldn’t, without some degree of a lie. A brief check over the hive mind showed that the Deception was still surrounded by Silandrus’ drones, and the ship’s shield was fading fast. “What are your terms for parlay?”

Taking a moment to shore up enough poise to adopt a regal stance. “Surrender yourself to me, and I will allow the rest of your drones to live, since I know you care far too much for them. Silandrus has also agreed to effectively hold your old flagship hostage, once she finishes dealing with its shield. Give yourself up, and she will allow your daughters to go free.”

Cadista couldn’t help but to hesitate at the offer. If I agree, I’d save Twilight and Rainbow, but in doing so, I would still put their lives at risk. They’d no doubt try to rescue me, no matter how much I tell them not to.

She barely had half a minute to think before Rainbow Dash’s presence within the Link started fluctuating badly from Silandrus’ psychic assault. Since Hive Meditation left the practitioner nearly dead to the world, Cadista was wholly ignorant of Rainbow’s plan. Cadista panicked. What? Did Rainbow Dash actually try to invade Silandrus’ hive mind? What a reckless child!

Rainbow’s voiceless agony was palpable to Cadista. As if every pulse of pain was caused by her hesitation. Yet the answer to Kreesus’ offer proved elusive. To think Kreesus just handed me the reigns of our species’ future. Can I trust Twilight and Rainbow to save themselves, and let them be the sole face of the next generation, or do I give up and start the whole cycle all over again. The other queens would create a whole new generation, and our species would continue to stagnate… Cadista wrestled with herself, against time and Rainbow’s increasing agony. Forgive me, Twilight, for forcing you to inherit our species’ problems anew. “I’ll do it, Kreesus,” Cadista forcibly held in a choked sob as she took her crown off and presented it to the puppet.

Before Kreesus could register the acceptance, let alone take the crown, Watchful Eye and every remaining changeling present yelled their protests. “You can’t do this, my queen,” he raced over to interpose himself between Cadista and the puppet. “It looks dire, but have faith in your daughters!” Having served at his queen’s side for decades, he knew exactly what she was thinking.

“Time is running out, Cadista,” Kreesus’ puppet barked impatiently. “I have more than enough forces inside Stripped Gear to take you by force, if need be. Our old friendship is the only reason I’m extending you the offer of saving your daughters.”

A war raged within Cadista with the rising panic of Rainbow Dash’s wildly flickering presence within the Link, and the absurd prospect that her daughters were more in control than she realized. She brushed Twilight’s mind, though she was too distracted to notice Cadista’s slight touch, the elder queen realized something. She’s not in panic mode about RD…

“I grow tired of asking, Cadista, so this will be the last time.” Kreesus said with an almost hostile tone, snapping Cadista out of her reverie. “Surrender, or both of your daughters will die, and I will capture you regardless.”

Watchful studied his queen’s absent gaze, searching for what course she would take. “Please,” he hissed in a whisper. “You have raised them well, have faith.”

Cadista closed her eyes and took a quick deep breath. When she opened them again, she cast the puppet in an ironclad gaze of conviction. “No.” She pulled her crown away and placed it back upon her brow. “My daughters no longer need my protection. At least for today,” she added with no small amount of sass. The words had barely left her lips when Silandrus’ drones fell away from the Deception like an avalanche.

The surge of jubilation across the hive mind renewed Cadista’s faith in her daughters and shot Kreesus a superior smirk as the puppet’s eyes went vacant as its master tried to figure why Silandrus was backing off prematurely.

“Your offer is now void, Kreesus,” Cadista sneered with immense satisfaction. “My daughters have beaten Silandrus quite handedly. If you want to save any of your drones, I suggest you retreat immediately…” The puppet cast a baleful glare at a smirking Cadista. “Given our old friendship, I’ll even go so far as to tell the warship’s gunners to give your forces a safe corridor to retreat through.”

Within Fluffy, Kreesus was violently shaking Silandrus’ emissary drone, but all she was getting out of it was insane screaming and thrashing. She backed off when she saw the exterior effects of Rasua’s spell, dark blobs of ink darting across the drones’ eyes. With no knowledge of Rasua or Luna’s part in Silandrus’ downfall, Kreesus’ thoughts went wild with speculation. No! Twilight must have gotten an agent within Silandrus’ hive! Cadista must have been planning counter infiltration like this for decades if she got to her!

With Silandrus seemingly gone insane thanks to a spell, and her friendship with Cadista ruined, Kreesus’ hopes and dreams of a loving royal daughter crashed and burned. Her visions of a good future fell apart. She was irrevocably obsolete, and now the secret to creating a loving royal daughter would never be hers, and she knew it.

Pure absolute despair made both Kreesus and her puppet in the palace throne room collapse. It feebly raised its head to face Cadista. “W-why did you have to create Twilight Sparkle? Why did you have to do the impossible?”

Cadista assumed her former friend was referring to Twilight for what she was, rather than who she was. She gave Kreesus a firm look of disapproval. “Because, for all the changing our species does, we were unbelievably stagnant in our ways. Twilight’s my answer to that problem.”

She would have said more, but Kreesus’ puppet shot up to its hooves. “So that’s all I ever was to you? A problem to correct!?”

Choking on her own words, Cadista blustered to reply. “Our ways, yes, not you. I would have given you the secret once I was sure-”

“Forget it!” Kreesus screamed in a fit of rage. “Forget you, forget your precious future, and forget your love production! We’ve lived without it since our race began.” Kreesus’ boiling fury came to a head when she telekinetically yanked the Stone of Parly from Cadista’s magic and flung it back through the hole in the door. “Do your precious daughter a favor and die!”

With Parley technically concluded the moment the stone left the room, the civilians were quick to flee down the escape tunnel while the soldiers moved in to attack the puppet. “I will see you dead and buried, old friend.” The puppet’s horn started glowing as mana began leaking out of it.

Not one to risk a hostile spell, Watchful waved a hoof at the puppet right as Cadista was taking to the air to flee. “Fire, kill it now!”

Two dozen rounds perforated the puppet where it fell dead on the spot. Yet the spell’s light only grew. Taking what remained of the corpse’s mana, the spell devoured the puppet and converted the mass into unstable mana.

Cadista’s heart dropped as the sphere of mana started to thrash about within its weakening confines.

Seeing there was no time, Watchful telekinetically grabbed his queen and flung her over and clear through the crowded opening into the escape tunnel. Between trying to recover from the toss and the tangle of limbs she was now mired in, Cadista tried to get back on her hooves only to see Watchful’s magic ensnare the door lever and close it.

His actions caused the fleeing civilians to pause, giving the door the clearance it needed to seal shut right as the mana bomb exploded, killing Watchful and all those nearby. Cadista finally climbed back to her hooves in time to feel the ground rumble deeply as if an earthquake struck the hive.

Each and every one of Kreesus’ invaders within the castle resumed the assault with all of the manic fury of their queen, yet Cadista and her drones were no longer the primary target.

Several of Cadista’s drones started pelting her with warnings from all over the palace with one driving the point home.

The other reports told Cadista the same thing was happening all over the palace, including the massive load bearing pillars that flanked the throne room. Kreesus is trying to bring the castle right down on top of me! She finished struggling to her hooves and jabbed a leg down the tunnel. “Move it, we have to get out from under the palace before it falls!”

From her perch on the bridge, Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the Deception’s crew could only listen on in horror as the hive mind exploded with chatter from all of the changelings still within the palace. They didn’t listen for long when the whole southern face of the castle started to groan and break under its own weight. Aegis was madly running her fingers through her mane, carelessly pulling strands out as they got caught in the joints. “Isn’t there anything we can do?”

Aegis looked to Twilight for answers, and luckily for her sanity, her mother had some. “We can’t stop the collapse, but we can secure the exit points along the northern road.”

Nodding quickly, Aegis raced off to the armory to better equip herself for the task.

Captain Rourke also took the initiative and barked a command at the helmsman. “Bring the ship around bearing zero one seven point two. Descend to seven hundred meters.”

The ceiling of Cadista’s tunnel rattled and broke as the weight of the castle crashed down on top of it, threatening to crush all of them. “Damn you, Kreesus!” she screamed as both she and the five closest drones sprinted down the tunnel. The passageway was so short that Cadista had to lean her head down to keep her horn from scraping the ceiling. Did we royals used to be shorter when this was built?

Flexi Lawnder was directly in front of her queen, and couldn’t stop herself from glancing behind her at every boom and crash from above. A monumental shuddering from above sundered the ceiling, collapsing the passageway behind them. She yelped in panic as the raining stones crushed one of her brothers.

“You want that to be you?” Cadista berated Flexi when she unwittingly slowed down a little. “Keep running!”

Flexi poured on as much speed as she could. The tunnel was starting to snake to the east. Several lights along the way were shattered by the collapsing castle above, spilling glass along the floor. Dust was now constantly falling with several small gears toppling in from above. Cadista cursed her height at trying to avoid the debris and loose stone above.

Within her hive, Kreesus watched the last few remaining pillars buckle and collapse, finally causing the castle to give up the ghost and fully collapse in on itself. Her fury was too great to care one wit about the drones she lost in the destruction. “Damn you and your ambition, Cadista. We had such a good thing going until you ruined it all with Twilight Sparkle.”

A chunk of stone fell on Cadista, ripping her left wing, yet she was too hopped up on adrenaline to feel it. Flexi started to slow down again, her legs unable to handle it, so Cadista scooped her up in her magic and kept pushing on.

The collapsing tunnel behind them sped up and finally overtook the changelings. The weight of the castle caught up to the group with a calamitous thunder of falling stone and screeching metal. Cadista instinctively reacted by flinging Flexi forward as far as her magic could throw her.

Flexi rolled with the toss before getting back on her hooves. Even with her heart booming in her chest, she noticed the tunnel had finally stopped falling in on them. She checked over her body for injury, and side from a few abrasions and cuts, she was whole. “We’re… we’re alive? Ha ha, we’re aaaalive!”

One of her fellow survivors screamed in panic and jump over her back towards the castle. Confused, Flexi looked back to gape in horror at the sight of her mother stuck under tons of rock.

“W-we have to free her!” Flexi yelled back at the others, “Go get help!” The rest of the drones hesitated just a moment, but continued down the narrow tunnel, giving Flexi and the other drone enough room to work with.

Cadista’s breathing was heavy, but luckily it didn’t look like any ribs were broken. A slab of stone was kept from crushing her hip thanks to a steel strut, but her hind legs seemed to be pinned in the rubble. The queen herself was barely conscious after a small rock hit her in the head, where blood had started to seep from the wound. As Flexi administered salve to whatever cuts she could reach, Twilight Sparkle tried and failed to get any meaningful information out of the barely lucid queen, so she switched to the drone.

Though she tried to keep her voice stable, there was a deep undercurrent of fear and panic in her tone.

Flexi was glad her mind’s voice was moderately stable as she couldn’t stop from sobbing at her mother’s state.

Twilight Sparkle wrung her hooves with bits of her mane starting to frizzle at how long it was taking for the ship to move on station above the disguised tunnel exits. Sure enough, her scouts reported a large number of Kreesus’ forces waiting for the sealed doors to open. To think mother trusted Kreesus with so much, just to get betrayed like this. Word of Cadista’s plight had nearly sent Twilight over the edge on her panic-o-meter.

Luna watched the purple mare pace back and forth in the air. An attaché had been keeping Luna apprised of all relevant Link chatter. “I know what you’re thinking, Twilight Sparkle. But you’re the only queen left who’s fit and active, with your sister recovering. You need to stay on the ship and in command.”

Little did she know, Luna was saying the same thing Twilight had been repeating in her mind ever since the castle started to collapse. Twilight needed to keep saying it over and over again, just to keep herself on the bridge. “Believe me, Luna, I know,” she heaved a heavy breath to keep her emotions under control for a while longer. “I want to pull mother out of there, but somepony needs to to stay in command.”

Twilight commanded with all of her sense of urgency.

Aegis was already back from the armory and standing at the lip of cargo bay two’s outer doors.

Discharging what was left of the Deception’s heavy flak munitions in a single volley for each entrance, the terrain surrounding the tunnel exits were blasted clean of life, changeling or not. By the time the dust cleared around Cadista’s exit point, Aegis’ squad had already descended upon Kreesus’ bewildered troops, spreading musket shot and burning oil at everything that moved.

Believing Cadista was dead or dying, Kreesus pulled back most of her surviving soldiers, but kept a few behind to act as scouts. Just in the off chance that Cadista somehow survived.

Aegis took a hard landing on a boulder around the rocky nook where the tunnel exit was hidden.

The skirmish was short lived, only Thunderfury and three other soldiers managed to catch or find any of the enemy. Only a few scattered broken bodies from the earlier salvo remained as the Queen’s Guard set up a perimeter.

By now, the early morning sun was peeking over the horizon. The whole area reeked of fire and ash from the hive to the south.

The large boulder rolled aside painfully slow on ungreased screeching gears. A flood of grey drones swarmed out as soon as the opening was wide enough to accommodate them. Aegis stood by the entrance, waving the flux of drones out while others directed them to the waiting airship above.

Intel reported from half a kilometer away in the deep jungle.

Captain Rourke returned calmly. There was a tense pause.

Aegis hummed at the exchange. Kreesus might have known about the tunnel exits, but wasn’t sure which one was granny’s? Rasua caught Aegis’ attention by coming in for a landing.

“Princess Aegis,” the sphinx said from above. Rasua landed beside her and gave a hasty bow. “I heard from Princess Luna’s aide that your allied queen is pinned under a metal bar.” Rasua pulled her runed smithing hammer out and presented it. “It may not be much, but if I can momentarily strengthen or remove it, that could make the difference in pulling the queen out without as much risk for a second collapse.”

Aegis remembered Rausa’s admiration for that hammer, and some of its abilities. “Alright, we move as soon as the last refugee exits the tunnel.” Aegis briefly looked at the darkened passageway before turning back to Rasua. “And she’s my grandmother, not just an ally.”

“…Ah.”

The last drone ran out right as one of Aegis’ platoon officers flew in and saluted. ‘We’ll keep the area clear enough to bring a shuttle down for the wounded.”

“Good, send Resta down in here too for granny, I’m going on ahead.” Leaving Burny with the platoon sergeant, Aegis ran into the catastrophically narrow passageway with Rasua in tow. The mad dash down two and a half kilometers of dark snaking tunnels took its toll on Aegis thanks to her gauntlets, but she didn’t care. She carried every bit of her mother’s desire to save Cadista, and a little thing like muscle fatigue meant nothing compared to the task at hand.

Rasua found keeping pace with Aegis rather easy if a bit cramped, given her larger size, but her mind wandered back to her moment of cognitive paralysis in the battle. I will redeem my honor as a predator, I swear it!

The sound of labored work and cursing met the pair’s ears, signaling they were nearing the collapse. Orange horn light lit the otherwise darkened chamber where Flexi and one other drone were arguing on how to extract their queen-mother. As for herself, Cadista was only semi-lucid since she kept trying to go to sleep, but Flexi was afraid she’d never wake up again.

“You two, out of the way,” Aegis commanded curtly, “we’ll handle it from here.”

Not wanting to argue with a princess, Flexi and her counterpart walked along the walls to get above Aegis and Rasua. Flexi stopped before leaving. “Please save her, she’s all we have left now.”

“That’s not true,” Aegis called back. “You have us.”

Aegis didn’t see Flexi pause at that and nodded in thanks before leaving. “Okay, Granny, just hold tight. We’ll get you out of here and into a warm bed before you know it.”

Royal bug and sphinx alike inspected the damage. Cadista was pinned between a metal strut on top of her, and several large rocks below. It was only the shape of the strut itself that saved her life however, as it gave her barrel just enough room to keep the tons of rock above from crushing her.

The metal was bent in the front where a stone had deformed it to bend downward. Had Cadista’s neck been an inch to the left when she fell, the steel would have cut straight through.

The stone around Cadista’s belly was lodged in tight, and had proved too much for Flexi to remove. The queen herself had more patches of salve covered wounds than visible fur, but it was clear that there were some open wounds that Flexi couldn’t reach, due to the pooling blood.

Leveraging her mother’s breathing technique to calm down, Aegis turned to Rasua. “Okay, first off, we need to get that metal beam bent back up so we can move her. Can you do that without harming her?”

Aegis let Rasua climb over her so she could be up close with the metal. She placed the edge of her hammer on the metal strut, causing one of the runes to reshape itself into a symbol Aegis didn’t recognize. “This is ordinary steel. A bit too much carbon, but workable. It will take all of my hammer’s power to keep the metal cold so it doesn’t scald her.”

Giving the sphinx ample room, Aegis watched as Rasua fished for a pouch and poured white powder all over her right hand and the smithing hammer’s grip. The runes came alive as she struck the offending metal bar with a resounding crack. The steel snapped cleanly off, just above her neck, while leaving the rest of the strut intact. Aegis and Rasua froze as the rocks above let small pebbles rain down on them, but otherwise held fast. Letting go of a breath she didn’t know she was holding, Rasua holstered her tool. “It’ll take days for my hammer to recharge, but that got the job done.”

Rasua fell back to allow Aegis in close again. With the steel now only acting to hold the debris up, all that was left was to remove the stones under Cadista. Aegis recalled the stones she had to jump over to get here, assuming they were signs of Flexi’s previous efforts.

All of the loose stones had been thrown further down the hallway, with two large irregular rocks keeping Cadista firmly pinned. “If I pull the one on the left, the other should fall just enough to get granny out of here.”

“How many times have I told you not to call me that?” Cadista wheezed as she slowly became more lucid. She hissed in agony, refusing to cry out.

“You can be mad at me later, Granny,” Aegis quipped as she latched her magic onto the stone, “right now I have to save you.”

Cadista only partially saw the two beings in front of her. With her blood loss increasing, her vision was still swimming, and her side of the hive mind was starting to darken.

Tugging with all her might, the offending stone refused to budge even one inch. A minute passed with Aegis fervently trying to remove the stone, even going so far as to try and wiggle it free.

“I am no earthmover,” Rasua commented from behind Aegis. The princess looked behind her to see Rasua had shifted her paws into hands. “But perhaps I can lend my strength as well?”

Aegis sat there and blinked at the blacksmith before smacking herself. “Duh!” Ignoring Rasua’s confusion, Aegis opened her gauntlet's fingers and grabbed onto the offending stone. “I may not have fine motor skills like you,” she grunted as Aegis leveraged both her magic and hand strength against the stone, “But I have a good bit of strength at least.”

With a loud grinding noise, the rock started to come loose. With Rasua grabbing Aegis’ barrel and adding to her efforts, the two finally pulled the stone out, causing the injured queen to slide free.

Not even giving herself a moment’s rest, Aegis carefully picked Cadista up in her magic and levitated the feebly protesting queen in front of the pair for salve patch inspection. Both changeling and sphinx alike were stunned in horror when one of Cadista’s hind legs was completely missing, having been completely torn off by a second metal beam. Thus far the metal had been slowing the bleeding, but now that the leg stump was exposed, the hemorrhaging restarted in earnest. “No, no, NO!” Aegis slipped under Cadista and spat a large glob of salve over the wound while Rasua ripped a sleeve off her shirt and grabbed the steel bar she had broken off to form a tourniquet.

“You’re not going to die, you hear me, gramma!” Aegis screamed between spitting more salve on the stump.

Cadista was limp during the whole thing. She was about to fall unconscious when she looked further down the hallway’s flicking lights. But she didn’t see a barely lit tunnel, instead she saw a glimmering silver light with a familiar figure in the distance beckoning her forward.

Yumia? Is that really you?

Oblivious to her impromptu medics, she thought she saw the figure start running towards her. Have I done enough, Yumia? Can I finally be at your side again?

Tears of profound relief and joy flowed down her cheeks as Cadista tried to reach forward with her good leg. In her ailing mind, the figure finally resolved itself to be her long dead soul mate. Yumia wore a proud smile, making Cadista sob the long deep scars away and tried even harder to reach forward. All she wanted at that moment was to touch her, to feel Yumia’s embrace once more.

Have I made you proud, mother?

Yumia was close enough to touch now, and silently nodded to the question. The specter reached forward and grasped Cadista’s outstretched hoof.

“Princess, Blacksmith Rasua, make way,” Resta called out as she stepped over the stones between her and the group. Aegis was shakily staring at the leg stump. The hemorrhaging had been so bad it kept rupturing the salve before Aegis could get a thick enough covering. Several tense moments passed with each second surging Aegis’ panic, but thanks to the the tightly bound tourniquet, the blood loss finally abated enough to be sealed.

Resta found Rausa awkwardly propping herself up on the wall with her foreleg elbows and wings while carefully trying to find a way to keep the tourniquet from unraveling. As for Aegis, she had her mechanical hands hovering around the salve drenched stump and manically eyeing it in the thin hope that her salve will hold.

Cadista’s section of the Link was far too quiet, but seemed stable for the moment. The blood loss was taking its toll on Cadista. “I did it, Yumia. We, we won. I’m ready to j… join,” she muttered before falling unconscious.

Aegis’ frightful panic was only getting worse at Cadista’s deteriorating mental state which was mirrored by the wavering chatter on her section of the hive mind. Resta’s timely arrival with two blood packs and a med-kit gave the princess something else to focus on with her nervous energy.

With her work done for the moment, Rasua let go of the tourniquet and shimmied as high up the wall as she could go to allow the medic access to Cadista. With professional alacrity, Resta implanted two needles into the now unconscious queen, and got the packs flowing into her patient. “She’s going into shock, we need to find and treat all remaining open wounds.” She nodded in clinical approval at how many patches of salve were already on Cadista. “I’ll hold the queen now, but I need you to keep the blood packs up high, princess.”

“On it.” Aegis obeyed quickly, letting Resta take Cadista into her telekinesis.

“We need to move her further down the tunnel so the ceiling is safe enough for you to walk on and patch anything on her back. The tunnel’s too narrow to flip her over safely.

With Rausa feeling she was no longer needed, she backed off. “I’ll leave to get out of your way.”

Neither changeling noticed as they carefully moved Cadista on down until Aegis could latch onto the ceiling. From there, she could see Cadista’s wings were completely ruined, but thankfully, most of the wounds had clotted over on their own accord. That didn’t stop her from spitting the last of her salve on anything that looked like flowing blood.

“Can’t we just get mother to teleport her back to the ship?” Aegis asked frantically. “We should be well clear of the anti-teleportation field Kreesus blanketed the hive with.”

Grunting in mild disapproval, Resta focused on moving Cadista carefully down the tunnel. “Teleporting an injured person is highly dangerous, and can worsen the wounds considerably in the process.”

Resta’s professional disposition was made even worse by the mere mention of teleporting at all. “Stupid mages and their stupid magic. ‘Teleporting solves everything.’ Let’s just teleport here and there and everywhere.”

She risked glancing back at her princess. “Do you have any idea the stresses teleporting puts on the body? It’d be healthier being drunk for a week then to teleport even once!”

“Okay, sorry I asked, can we please focus on saving granny’s life!?”

The pair found a shuttle and more medical staff waiting for them. The Deception was now hanging very close to the entrance, waiting to take Cadista away.

Creeping in the underbrush, a red drone watched with keen interest. She might die yet, Kreesus mused darkly. My old friend always said she’d never agree to rebirthing herself anymore.

Content to simply wait and see Cadista’s eventual fate, Kreesus turned her attention to a different jungle hive. I wonder if Chrysalis would be willing to… part with a loving daughter of hers.

Author's Note

Major kudos as always to my editors for putting up with my grueling pace.

More on queen honor next chapter.

almost stopped the chapter at Cadista seeing Yumia, but i figured that was too evil of a cliffhanger.

11: Refugees

Unconsciousness was never quiet for most changelings. The hive mind, a part of their self-identity, was always audible. Yet as one particular changeling awoke, the Link’s morning greeting was accompanied by bodily pain, both sore and deep, and abrasive stiffness.

Cadista cracked her eyes open and blinked a few times to find herself staring at a hospital ceiling. The worst part about that ceiling was it was definitely not part of the Silver City. “No… I’m back here.”

“Mother!” Cadista struggled to turn her head to the voice. Twilight surged forward to dominate Cadista’s field of view. The purple mare’s face was stained by old tears and her eyes had mostly recovered from being bloodshot. “You’re awake!”

“Granny!” Rainbow Dash’s face partially shoved Twilight’s aside, making both young queens smush each other. “I knew an old crone like you would pull through.”

“As kind as ever, Rainbow Dash,” Cadista choked out dryly. Twilight pressed some buttons on the bed to help lift Cadista’s head up. Rainbow Dash fetched a cup of water and helped the old queen sip it down.

“I thought I was going to go bald from the thought of losing you,” Twilight said as she called over the link for the doctors attention.

Rainbow Dash refilled Cadista’s drink and gave it back. “That’s when I told sis your presence in the Link was only faint, not fading away like we feared. After that it was just a matter of waiting for you to wake up.”

Now that Cadista’s vision was clearing, she could see the meticulously clean hospital room was actually a whole ward with her area curtained off. White neon lights cast her space into semi-harsh brightness. She was laying on her side with two of her legs suspended by cables and covered in casts. By the feel of it, her body was covered in gauze, but the distinct lack of a fourth leg was painfully clear. The news her senses brought back worried Cadista greatly. “How long have I been out?”

“A week and a half,” Twilight replied while trying to wipe her tears away.

Cadista nodded slowly, or at least tried to without wincing in pain. She could sift through the hive mind to catch back up from the lost time, but the pounding migraine creeping up on her stayed her hoof. She couldn’t even summon the willpower to use magic to scratch an itch. “How many of my children survived?” she croaked out.

Twilight was silent, unable to speak without her voice cracking. Rainbow Dash however, had always been the one to deliver next-of-kin letters to the families of all Wonderbolts in her command. “We only saved five hundred and twenty three,” she said, barely holding onto her composure. The loss of so many voices upon the Link was painfully apparent to all within the hive mind. “Including the fifty nymphs you had. We’ll be holding a Day of Mourning when you’re well enough to attend.”

“So many survived?” Cadista’s heart soared a little. “Even with your assistance, I was sure I would have lost so much more.”

“It would have been more if it wasn’t for…” Twilight grit her teeth and quieted. She averted her gaze in burning shame. Cadista looked to Rainbow Dash, assuming she would finish her sister’s sentence, but she too remained silent. The flash of anger in both of them was palpable.

“If it wasn’t for what?” Cadista demanded weakly, trying to add some edge to her voice. Pain shot through her body, making her grunt in agony.

“…Chrysalis,” Rainbow Dash said at length. “Right as we were trying to get all your drones to the train depot for evacuation, Thereena and Nubile had been lying in wait between Stripped Gear and the train outpost for us. The ground and air was filled with your kids, so our ship couldn’t open fire on their drones as they were converging on us, but Chrysalis and her sisters’ goon squad came in and wrecked face. They left us alone, and just focused on Thereena and Nubile.”

“The five of them fought it out while we made our escape,” Twilight finished. “We never bothered to find out who won.”

Cadista was caught between stunned surprise and a flash of anger that agitated her wounds. “Why would she help us?! You didn’t cut a deal with her I hope.”

Rainbow Dash made a sound of disgust and stuck her tongue out. “No way! I’d rather go a year without eggs before asking Sticky Spit for a favor.”

“Doesn’t matter now,” Twilight said bitterly. “Even if she doesn’t try to press for a favor, she’ll hang this over our heads for decades.”

Cadista couldn’t think of anything to say. With tired eyes, she let her head fall back to the pillow. Even with more survivors than Cadista had hoped for, the loss of the hive, and Kreesus’ betrayal bore down like a crushing vice. Yet the worst of it all was Yumia’s absence.

You were holding me close for the first time in forever. Why did you send me back? Haven’t I suffered long enough without you? Cadista’s silence was deafening to Twilight and Rainbow. Even her voice on the Link was diminished. She let out a long weary sigh.

Wanting to break the silence, Twilight scooted closer to the bed. “We thought the strain of the hive mind was keeping you in a coma, so we… sort of…” She clapped her hooves nervously, but Cadista didn’t seem to break from her blank stare at the ceiling. “RD and I started severing some of your drones and linking them to us for the time being.”

Even then, the elder queen was lost in emotional turmoil. Cadista’s link presence had shriveled down to what it had been while she was unconscious, making those drones still linked to her nigh impossible to hear. “Leave me, please.”

Twilight started to get choked up, but Rainbow Dash had seen it before. It’s the same with all the families I’ve delivered the bad news to. Even I can tell this is a pain deeper than the loss of her hive and kids. She walked over and laid a hoof on Twilight.

Twilight lingered by her mother’s bedside a while longer before acquiescing to Rainbow’s suggestion, but not before giving Cadista a long loving nuzzle. The pair solemnly departed through the privacy screen to find Resta and a few of other medical staff. “Take care of Granny, she’s in a bad way.”

I’d have never guessed, Resta mused darkly. All that played on her face and aura was a subdued clinical smile. “I understand, my queen.” She started going over the chart on her clipboard. “However, before you go,” she called out to Twilight and Rainbow Dash before they could leave earshot.

The ward’s nearby patients, all twenty of them, were some of the less lucky survivors of Stripped Gear. Most of them were in stable condition, but none of those in this ward were fortunate enough to escape with all limbs intact, or attached. Twilight whispered into Rainbow’s ear, before the blue queen continued on. Twilight turned back around to face the Chief Resident. “Yes?”

“I must insist that while her return to consciousness is a good sign,” she paused as two nurses flew overhead to attend to Cadista, “she’s not out of the woods yet.”

Twilight saw her nearby brothers and sisters’ originally uplifted faces sink back down. “Perhaps we should continue this conversation elsewhere.”

Resta took to the air and made for her private office down at the far end of the building, stopping only sporadically to offer quick advice to the nurses who came up to her. Twilight patiently followed after her, knowing Resta’s workload was still immense. The pair made it to Resta’s office, which was as much a paragon of organization as Twilight herself.

Resta briefly searched for Cadista’s file from a cabinet before restarting.

The setting sun bathed the office in rich oranges and reds. Twilight frowned at the diagnosis, and from having to lift a hoof up to shield her eyes. Resta grumbled in supreme disapproval, and chewed on her quill to keep from voicing a barb.

“That’s where it can become tricky,” Resta commented after lapsing to vocalized speech since they were alone. “In all honesty, with the amount of damage she sustained, I want to put her in a life support pod to heal. Buuut,” she added with dry irritation, “That’s only one step away from rebirthing, and we know she’ll shoot that one down.”

“I’ll try to convince her otherwise,” Twilight offered with dismal hope of success.

“Mmm, wouldn’t that be a nice surprise. You cave into her wishes too easily, my queen.” Twilight scowled at her, but couldn’t deny the truth of it.

Resta only sighed in exasperation. “Unfortunately, even if you dragged her to a pod, it will only serve to accelerate healing. The process won’t heal organ scarring nor replace the missing leg. Plus any bones we couldn’t set right wouldn’t miraculously be perfect again either.” Resta rattled off numerous other injuries that Twilight was already familiar with. Even so, her mood lifted slightly at the doctor mentioning various improvements, or at least stable conditions.

“How soon can she be up and about?” Twilight added with a bit of regal authority. “If she doesn’t use a pod?”

Resta huffed in mild exasperation as she poured over her clipboard. “I’m guessing maybe two months bed rest at the most before trying to walk around, with some serious time off for fitting a prosthetic and physical therapy after that.”

Twilight absorbed it all silently. If she was honest with herself, she was just happy her mother’s life wasn’t in danger anymore. “I’ll have Ratchet commission one for her since Blitz is currently testing for a new career path.”

Resta nodded slowly to signal a slight switch in topics. She closed her file and tucked it inside a pocket of her doctor’s coat. “The other thing I must mention, even if it should be obvious, is that Cadista is going to go through mental shock and undoubtedly depression as well. Her loss of life, home, and limbs is going to be difficult to bear. I strongly suggest you and Auntie-momma to spend as much time with her as you can spare.”

“Of course we will,” Twilight replied with mild surprise that Resta needed to voice that concern at all. “But for now, mother wants some space.”

“Not exactly what I expected…” Resta rubbed her chin contemplatively. “But I’m a surgeon, not a psychiatrist. I’ll post a nurse to her in the event that she needs somepony, and doesn’t call out for one. You can never be too sure when it comes to depression.”

Twilight grimaced and couldn’t help but to look back at the door to the ward. “You don’t think she’d do anything to hurt herself, do you?” The icy cold touch of terror gripped her heart.

“I don’t know, but I’d rather not take any chances, hence the nurse.” Resta took a moment to give the ward staff several orders. “In the meantime, leave her to my care.”

“…Very well.” Swallowing her fear, Twilight pinged her mother, but Cadista only desired to be left alone with her thoughts. I hope she gets better.

The renovations to turn Phoenix Roost’s old colony ship into a proper castle were well nearly complete. While it may have been local civic engineers and immigrated ones from Stripped Gear that got everything into shape, it was Rarity’s keen eye for style and fashion that brought tactful color and cheer to the ship turned castle. She was also the primary reason the castle conversion was still unfinished.

The room where Aegis and Blitz currently resided in was one such example. A banner bearing the same phoenix and storm cloud design that was borne on Thunderfury’s shields hung beside two windows with the lounge furniture matching the color scheme. Rarity was beyond delighted that her color patterns were meshing so well with the drones and the furniture they used.

Sadly, this was entirely lost on Blitz who was sitting on a blue couch while Aegis paced back and forth on her back legs. The blue drone had to admit Aegis was becoming rather adept at walking upright. “We’re starting testing now of all times? What if the war reaches us here?”

Aegis stopped pacing and gave Blitz a reassuring small half-smile. “The queenly duo and I don’t think the other hives will risk striking us here. Luna’s got eyes on every single infiltrator and love collector in the alliance, and Celestia made sure the griffins and minotaurs are only a few steps behind us. If an army sets one hoof in our territory, they all get booted out. Besides, from what our scouts report, the other queens are more interested in fighting each other right now.” Aegis glanced at the closed door and windows conspiratorially. “Look, you’re not exactly cleared to know this, but since you’re in the princess running, I’ll let you in on this one. Granny’s generals and Aunty both agree that the attack on Stripped Gear was as much about kidnapping grandma as it was about getting Equestrian interests out of the jungle.”

“I suppose that makes sense. But they’ll keep trying to get love production.”

“True,” Aegis conceded with a shrug. “Nevertheless though, we can’t put everything on hold just because we have enemies.”

“Oh, alright.” Blitz suppressed a nervous shudder and pulled her legs in closer to her barrel.

“Now, as you know, I’ll be making my own hive in five or six years thereabouts.” Damn I wish somepony could figure out an exact timeline for this. Maybe one of the mathematicians? “I also agree with both our mothers’ idea of making my hive a diarchy. So…” she gave Blitz a come-hither look just to get a blush out of the blue mare. “Here we are.”

“Okay,” Blitz’s muzzle scrunched at the princess’ teasing under such a serious meeting. “So what do you need me to do?”

“Just a few questions. First off, now that you’ve had some time to think on it, do you want to be my partner for the next thousand or more years?”

Blitz turned away and looked down at the sofa cushion. “I don’t know. Neither one of us can claim to be even ten years old yet. I mean, I love you, but I love everypony in the hive. This sort of thing is crazy big to think about.”

“Well you got one up on me.” Blitz gave Aegis a confused look while the princess shrugged helplessly. “Back when momma was testing me, I didn’t really think about the long run. I had eggs on the mind and little else.”

“Oh yeah? At least now you’ve expanded to pyrophilia and nymphomania,” Blitz smirked while looking up contemplatively. “Oh wait…”

Aegis gave her a sardonic smirk and eyebrow. “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

Blitz gave her a deadpan scowl.

Aegis couldn’t hide the bubbling laughter pushing its way to the surface. My future partner needs a sense of humor. “Anyway,” she said slightly dismissively. “Here’s a scenario. If you had full say on what alchemical enhancements you wanted for a royal rebirth, what would you want? Generally I mean.”

Blitz perked up and pulled one of Aegis’ forelegs in close to admire her handiwork. “To be honest, I think it would be a good idea to mirror you. If we both had upright walking, then we could just modify everything we build to accommodate for it. This is a pretty big change, so we’d be better off if everypony’s working with the same arms and legs, right?”

“Interesting.” Blitz let go of Aegis’ hoof so she could flex her fingers. The joints hissed and whirred quietly as she thought. Floria suggested having no alterations done to her, to counterbalance my more radical alterations. A tried and true method, sure, but unimaginative. Gaia Waltz said roughly the same thing as Floria, just with auntie’s sonic rainboom wings added in. Those wings are great in low numbers, but I don’t think that’d be that good for half the hive. Momma said it’s a frivolous adaptation to anypony outside of special forces. Especially since I would be the military arm of the hive.

Synergera had it in her head to rebirth herself into a semi-aquatic form of all things. I guess that’d work for a coastal hive location like she suggested, but that wouldn’t really compliment my alterations. She’d be better off waiting for the next set of royal daughters to push that idea. Lastly there was Rusty Hammer and her crazy of idea of retooling the salve gland to produce crude oil. She shuddered at the last thought and tried to rub the taste off her tongue with her teeth.

In an exercise in improving hand dexterity, Aegis walked over to the desk and wrote down Blitz’s response by hoof, or actually hand this time. The purple mare scowled at her abysmal penmanship which made chicken scratch look like it came from a printing press. She tried rewriting Blitz’s answers over and over again while muttering curses at the unwieldy digits. Blitz was starting to get antsy from the long silence before remembering she brought a book with her and started reading up on the latest developments her grey aunts and uncles had managed to save from Stripped Gear. Miffed by her difficulty, Aegis pulled a chair over to continue working.

Half an inkpot and four pages later, Aegis finally pieced together enough of Blitz’s response to paper. I’ll just have to write it again later by horn before putting it to file. “Okay,” she said with a cheery smile and slightly disheveled mane after spinning around in her chair towards Blitz. The blue drone winced at the irritated eye tick Aegis was suffering and coughed while pointing at the lukewarm glass of cider. “Ooo good idea!” Aegis took half the beverage in one gulp and slammed it back down on the desk with a satisfied smile. “Thanks.” She stood back up to begin pacing. “Right, so…” Aegis ran a hand through her mane in an unconscious effort to smooth it back out. “If we became partners, where would you prefer to colonize?”

Blitz moved a bookmark in place before closing her tome. She fixed Aegis with a thoughtful look. “That’s easy. We should put ourselves along the Steamrunner River.”

“You mean the one mother named on our way over to Stratholme?” Aegis tapped her chin, and hummed in thought. “Why’s that? So we can keep a check on Federation expansion?”

Blitz smiled happily at being able to go into detail. “It would create a definitive western border, to be sure, but the river itself is key.” Wish this room had a map to work with. “That river runs only twenty kilometers from Ponyville, so a short land route is possible between the river and Ponyville. Not to mention it's calm in most places, so it would be excellent for non-airship trade until a railroad is made.” Blitz started falling into an excited lecture mode. “Not only that, but it would put us in closer contact with sphinxes, and more importantly, their hands.”

Now she had Aegis’ real attention, causing her to stop pacing with both ears angled forward. Blitz smirked at being able to reacquire Aegis’ undivided attention during a lecture. “Since Rasua morphs her hands and paws back and forth so completely, that means their bones must be able to shift along with the muscle and skin.”

Aegis recalled the numerous hand lessons Rasua gave her with a growing smile. “Yeah… that’s right! Her hands don’t even have the cat claws, just something she called ‘nails’. Even granny was shocked when I told her about that.”

Blitz’s beaming smile mirrored that of her princess. “To think natural evolution is still teaching us so many fascinating designs. If we could incorporate that limited form of shapeshifting into ourselves, we wouldn’t need gauntlets! We could keep our hooves for wall walking and quadruped movement, and have organic hands and maybe even toes too!”

A predatory grin slowly crept over Aegis muzzle the more she thought about it. “Yeah… Yeah. Yeah! That’s not a bad plan at all.” Blitz may just be an engineer, but she’s got some damn good ideas on alchemical possibilities that even I didn’t think about. Hell, I should have, since the whole biped thing was my shtick.

A voice over the Link jarred both changelings out of their scheming. Thunderfury butted in without a ping.

Aegis gave Blitz a troubled brow furrow.

Aegis tsked irritably. Guess we’ll have to air out the fact we’re a psychic species then. “Blitz, I gotta say, I am mighty impressed. I’ll get back with you later today or tonight to finish up.”

Nodding in agreement, Blitz buzzed around the room to gather her belongings. “Okay. I have to go over some things with my department anyway. I’ll see you then.”

With Thunderfury and several other soldiers keeping an eye on Rasua, Aegis found the lone sphinx had moved away from the diner. Instead, Thunderfury directed Aegis towards the Clover Library. The library was a bibliophile’s dream and one of the grandest buildings in the hive, complete with matching flags of Phoenix’s Roost and Equestria. It even rivaled Ratchet’s manufactorium just four blocks away. The primary reading room was filled with drones of grey, blue, and purple in a five story spiraling tower. Aegis came in from the open skylight to find Rasua on a second story balcony chair. A gaggle of drones were researching at the table next to the fidgeting sphinx.

Aegis raced down to stop in a hover next to the blacksmith’s table. “Afternoon, Rasua. I take it you’ve finished settling in.”

Rasua closed her book with a loud clap. “I have.” She gave Aegis a neutral expression, but her eyes darted to the two Queen’s Guard hiding by a bookshelf and a table across the room. There’s a thin line between being among friends, and a nest of vipers. “A very impressive home you’ve built for yourselves. A far cry from the…” Rasua twirled a paw in the air while try to word it properly. “The pulsating organic mass of an insect hive I was expecting.”

“So glad we defied expectations,” Aegis replied sardonically with an amused raised eyebrow.

Shifting uncomfortably, Rasua shrugged off her embarrassment. “I doubt you’re here for small chat. What can I do for you, Princess?” she asked in a calm and respectful tone.

Aegis crossed her forelegs and gave her guest a knowing scowl. “You can tell me why you’re spying on my siblings.”

All of the drones nearby quieted and slunk away from the confrontation. The quick evacuation put Rasua on edge, but she tried not to show it. Even with that attempt at self-control, Rasua couldn’t hide that edge of fear. “I may be here to pay a blood debt, but I will return home one day. Can you truly blame me for wanting to learn more about your kind? Especially since you always seem evasive about my questions of the existence of psykers among you.”

Aegis landed and took a chair at Rasua’s table. “Fine then. You want the whole truth?”

“It’d be refreshing change of pace.” Rasua leaned back in her seat. “Not that our little game of 'Hide the Cheese' hasn't been fun.”

I know Momma’s prepping me for rule with all these stupid royal tests, but damn I wish she’d let somepony else handle this. Aegis worked her jaw while her lips were in a pressed line. “You asked me if there were any ‘psykers’ among my species after we fled from Stripped Gear.” Rasua nodded curtly. “Yes,” Aegis stated flatly. “Every last changeling is psychic.”

Rasua’s heart went cold. Everything seemed to slow down, and while her eyes were entirely focused on Aegis, Rasua’s other senses seemed to work overtime to locate the remaining changelings in the room. As her brain finished processing the declaration, her predatory pride wrestled with her fight or flight instinct. “Y-your entire race?!”

“Yyyuupp.” Aegis deadpanned. “After hearing how much you sphinxes love psychics from that Order priest, you can imagine why we were wary about telling you.”

“The Order likes to exaggerate the dangers, but there is reason for my people’s need to… regulate psykers.” Rasua didn’t bother trying to hide her breathing exercises in her attempt to stop hyperventilating and to get her heart rate back down. Images of Silandrus’ drones speaking with one voice sent chills down her spine.

“Well there’s no need for that with us,” Aegis stated flatly. “Aside from royals like myself, the only thing changelings can do on the psi front is some empathy along with communication, but even then, we can only communicate with each other. No mind reading. We also passively feed on love. Even with a royal’s expanded abilities, much of it is mirrored by unicorn styled magic anyway so we’ve never seen a problem.”

“But it is a problem,” Rasua banged the table for emphasis. “Maybe not for you, but what about the other races of the world? The ponies, those tree… things, and all the others you’ve told me about. Do they have psykers or defenses against them?”

“I say again,” Aegis bit back with weakening patience, “only royals like myself have anything outside of intra-hive communication and some empathy. The other races have no more reason to fear us than any other sentient being. Why do you have such a phobia against it?”

Trading answers for answers? Very well. With her breathing more or less under control, Rasua adopted a normal sitting posture. “The people from my province, unlike everyone else, have never had a problem with psykers as a whole. I think they are a great boon, but it requires a paragon of morality to be welcomed by me. So after seeing your once strong ally betray you,” Rasua pointed a finger at Aegis, “And other royals sending thousands of their own citizens off to die by your guns, and then spiting Queen Cadista by razing her city state to the ground, your species doesn’t strike me as one with a strong moral fabric.

“That reminds me far more of the debased royal families of old kingdoms. You commit incest on a disgustingly grand scale, and I doubt your queens don’t partake in it either. Then you tell me just yesterday that your queens toy with the genetics of the drones to force them into a single defined role.”

“Oh get off your moral high,” Aegis rebuked, cutting Rasua’s growling tirade short. “You’re going to sit there and impose your sense of morality on a culture that developed on an entirely different continent? You know next to nothing of us.” Aegis’ scowl deepened to match Rasua’s stubborn look. “I’m not going to bother lecturing you on why incest is practically a necessity for our species because I don’t have the patience to educate yet another species where love is only an emotion to you.”

Aegis’ glare hardened to the point of making Rasua instinctively uncomfortable. “But let me smack you with some knowledge. It’s every queen’s moral obligation to design each drone to fit whatever role they need to fill.” Rasua moved to speak but Aegis leaned forward and jabbed a gauntleted hoof at her. “And even then, if a drone wants to choose a different career, they can!” she added while wrapping her gauntleted hoof on the table. “Just ask Gear Ratio!"

Rasua moved a hand forward and was about to retort when Aegis cut her off. “I don’t want to hear one word about hypocrisy, because I used to be a drone myself. If my queen had asked it of me, I’d have gladly been redesigned to anything the hive required. Without question, because they deserve such loyalty.

“And don’t you dare lump my queens in with scum like Kreesus and the rest of them. Between the four of us, my fellow royals allow any drone to have individuality, and sapience like any other civilization. My aunt is the embodiment of loyalty itself! So shut up about morality before you dig yourself into a hole you can’t fly out of.”

Rasua felt like she was forced to reevaluate her stance since Aegis was too furious to give her a word in edgewise. Thankfully, Aegis’ silence gave her time to think. Rasua’s face went through a range of emotions before settling on troubled before she muffled a gasp of inspiration. “My most sincere apologies, Princess Aegis. I spoke out of ignorance.” She glanced out of a window and spied a few thestrals and Tea’la. “You surprise me to be sure. I suppose the sheer number of refugees you’ve accumulated between those bat ponies, tree things, and now the grey changelings can attest to that.”

Aegis’ face went from angry to confusion. “We’re still trying to find places for them in the alliance, since we can’t properly house them all here. What of it?”

“If you were speaking with the Order, then you must know what my people do with Psykers. I have never truly agreed with that doctrine. Morality is a psykers’ saving grace. If they use that power for the good of the people, than it is no different than blacksmithing or any other tool or technology.

“You say you’re moral people, then I challenge you to prove it, by offering asylum to any and all Psykira.” Seeing the confusion on Aegis’ face, Rasua clarified. “It’s my homeland’s word for moral psykers. I feel it would be better that they live outside of the Federation, than…” Rasua caught herself before finishing. “Well, better than what irrational fear causes my kin to do.”

“That’s not something I can offer,” Aegis countered. “Even if we did, we simply don’t have room here in PR. We’re going to need to send well over half of Granny’s drones to settle in Equestria.”

“If that map I saw of Equestria was accurate, your alliance is quite expansive. All the Psykira would require is somewhere to live without persecution. A sad fact of life within the Federation, I grant you, but my people have been harmed badly by psykers who abused their power.” Rasua picked at her left paw. “I want to believe you, my friend, can show the rest of my kin how to properly conduct themselves.”

Aegis cast a triumphant smirk at the blacksmith. “I’ll pass it on to my queens so they can discuss it with the Princesses. Although I doubt they’d fall into the same trap your people did. But I gotta ask, how are you going to get those, Psykira?” She asked, Rasua giving a nod at her pronunciation. “Over here?”

“You just concern yourself about accommodating them, I’ll worry about helping them immigrate here,” Rasua said with all the guile of a used car salesman. “I just need to write a letter for my colleagues, assuming your queens really are that generous and agree.”

“Well I know we will!” Aegis shot back strongly.

Nodding submissively, Rasua left her seat. “I concede to your superiority, Princess.” With a deep bow, the blacksmith departed the library through a nearby window.

Feeling smug, Aegis leaned back in her chair feeling rather good with the defense of her people. At least for half a minute until her ears fell along with her smile. “Wait, what? …I think I just got played.”

Unbeknownst to Aegis, Rasua made a beeline straight to her quarters to finally give in to her panic attack. She wrapped her blanket around herself and started rocking back and forth on the bed. Rasua held her smithing hammer close for comfort. “A whole race of psykers!? Damn it all to Futhnar! What did I do to deserve this?”

She skipped meals for the rest of the day to hide in her room.

In the wee hours of the following morning, Cadista awoke to a world of throbbing pain and phantom aches. Gentle snoring made her look over to find Twilight Sparkle had pulled a second bed over and was sleeping next to her. Even Rainbow Dash was snoozing on a cushion with her circlet/crown glowing with a noise nullification spell. The former ponies exuded so much love for their mother, or adopted grandmother, that it brought a tear to Cadista’s eye.

With her good hoof, Cadista reached forward and gently rubbed Twilight’s mane, causing the sleeping mare to smile lightly. They nearly got themselves killed trying to save me. That’s exactly how Chrysalis took away my… She choked up at the thought of it. Even with centuries under her belt, Cadista’s emotional control fell apart.

Not even caring if anyone was around to see her in such a miserable state, Cadista wept as quietly as she could. The few on duty nurses who poked their heads in at the muffled sobbing departed quickly to give the old matriarch her space.

Minutes passed like hours as Cadista bled away so much loss and pain, yet more always kept rising up. By the time the early signs of sunrise pouring in from the east side queen sized windows, Cadista had gathered enough of her wits to start thinking. There’s no use in trying to rebuild my hive. It would cost far more than my hidden savings. It doesn’t help that Twilight is trying to strengthen her own economy to properly support Aegis when she moves on to found her own hive.

A small part of her mind chose that particular moment to remind her that a non-sapient drone base would be far more capable at rebuilding a hive from complete scratch. Between housing my children and the cost of medical supplies for healing all the wounded…

No matter what strategy she could think of, despair was all that met her for every plan she came up with to rebuild Stripped Gear. Retaking the caldera would be folly with the magma chamber no longer being regulated. Even if it wasn’t, that’s money that could be pumped into PR or Aegis’ hive.

While drones were more than happy to work themselves to death for their queen, a technological society such as theirs was nigh impossible to build without outside materiel assistance.

You could always just stay with Phoenix's Roost, said a desperate voice within her. Cadista shot it down almost immediately. Even if it is with Twilight and Rainbow, no hive should ever have three queens. The Bonding between Twi and RD would be broken if I did that.

Just as she was about to cast the idea out the window entirely, a moment of dark genius struck her. My life as a queen died with my hive.

A loud yawn from Twilight broke off Cadista’s musings. The purple mare blearily dragged her head up just in time for Gentle Touch to push her way through the privacy curtain with a platter of steaming coffee mugs in her magic. “A quick pep up for you, your majesties.”

“You’re too good to me, Gentle.” Twilight gave a tired grin to the cup of java presented to her.

“Resta disapproves, but some caffeine can lift anypony’s spirits.” Noticing Cadista was awake, Twilight’s majordomo offered a cup to her as well.

“I could use any lift I can get at this point,” Cadista replied dryly. She hissed in pain trying to orient her head so she could drink normally.

With Rainbow stirring as well, Gentle served her too. Seeing her mother awake, Twilight laid a cautiously gentle hoof on the mangled matriarch. What could she say to her tear stained mother? In the face of such profound loss, Twilight had no idea how to begin healing her mother. “...How are you feeling?”

Wanting to lose herself in the cup of coffee, Cadista drained her beverage in tense silence. By the time she finished, Rainbow Dash was more or less awake. “As bad as I look,” Cadista deadpanned while trying to gesture at herself with a hoof.

“I know it’s bad, Granny, but once you’re back on your hooves, we can set you up with a new hive here in Equestria.” Rainbow stood up to pop her stiff joints. “I know even the nobles wouldn’t complain to have somepony else stand between them and the Chaos Lands.”

“It’s the best we can do on such short notice,” Twilight added forlornly. She snuck in a quick but loving nuzzle.

“Twilight, my child, I am too old for that anymore.” Twilight and Rainbow gave each other a mildly terrified look. “There is no scenario where I rebuild my hive.”

“Now wait a minute,” Rainbow challenged heatedly. “Sure you’re injured, but we saved a whole bunch of your kids. There’s no reason you can’t start rebuilding immediately!”

“You really think PR’s struggling economy is going to be able to handle that?” Cadista replied with a hint of deep sadness. Rainbow looked to Twilight who averted her gaze from both of them, knowing full well the budget was in the red now that Cadista’s refugees were settling in. Equestrian relief aid was on its way, but it was ultimately a short term solution.

“We’ll find a way!” Rainbow declared with spittle flying out. “I mean, you, you, have to! You can’t let Kreesus win like this!”

“This isn’t about Kressus,” Cadista rebuked sternly with anger flashing in her eyes. “We are Queens. The welfare of the hive is our top priority. Since mine is gone,” she spat with tears. “We have to look to the future, and that means sacrificing my reconstruction to bolster Phoenix's Roost.”

Twilight glanced to Gentle Touch to silently dismiss her before turning back to her sister. “I-I’m sure this is just a temporary measure.” Cadista’s quiet refusal only heightened Twilight’s mounting panic. “You lay just enough to keep yourself sane, we host your current children, and send off who we can to find jobs in Equestria or abroad. Once we get Aegis’ hive off the ground, we can refocus on rebuilding Stripped Gear.”

Yumia’s welcoming smile backdropped by the Silver City flashed in Cadista’s mind. “I don’t want to rebuild.”

The bickering sisters’ jaws fell open. “You can’t be serious,” Rainbow blurted out first. “Weren’t you the one who taught us a queen is nothing without the hive?”

“Mother, please, I know we lost a lot recently, but that’s no reason-”

“Enough!” Cadista growled. The harshness of the pained fury cowed the sisters. “It is my decision to make.” She kept a hard expression long enough to assert her authority. “I am old, and now I am hiveless. If I could produce love, then I would be willing to wait that long, but I am obsolete. Any efforts rebuilding my hive would be better spent on getting a second pairing of royal daughters from you two.”

“I don’t care if you’re obsolete,” Twilight cried. “You always told me there should never be more than two queens per hive because it causes too many problems.” Twilight’s fear of Cadista’s implied plan was threatening to push her over the emotional edge. “But why can’t you live out of town, and just use our hatchery? You could take the Deception back as a small temporary hive, just don’t k-- don’t harm yourself, please!” She threw herself on Cadista, eliciting pained yelps out of her.

Cadista was caught between being insulted and touched. She bore Twilight’s crushing embrace only because she couldn’t physically push her off. “Girl, would you stop with the hysterics. I have no intention of committing suicide.”

Twilight was too busy trying to love her mother out of harming herself to really hear her. Rainbow Dash on the other hand stood there confused. “If you don’t want to stay in PR, you don’t want a temporary hive, or to rebuild in general, then what are you going to do?”

Sniffling, Twilight looked up to her mother’s eyes, waiting for an answer. Cadista caved in and nuzzled her back, if only so Twilight would recompose herself. “I don’t have any details worked out yet, but I have a general idea.” Twilight leaned back onto her bed as Cadista gave both of them a demanding glare. “And don’t try to talk me out of it.” She waited a bit to make sure each of them wordlessly nodded. Yumia’s beckoning face flashed in Cadista’s vision. Shaking herself to clear her clouding thoughts, Cadista forced herself to speak evenly.

“Now, since you know we queens have the ability to alter ourselves via alchemy, I know of a way to remain here without disrupting the two-queen rule.”

Ambassadors Rolled Scroll and Blue Flare joined each other at Blue’s royal apartment balcony for breakfast. Despite her genetically enhanced grace, Blue was worse than her mother in the morning. Her mane was scraggly and her usually melodious voice matched Rainbow’s raspy tone almost to a tee.

Rolled Scroll, by contrast, had woken up an hour earlier, and was impeccably dressed in some of Rarity’s finest clothes. If he disapproved of Blue’s current appearance, he made no indication of it in either body language or his aura. In fact, he was feeling rather playful today, and Blue Flare snickered at him while toying with her pancakes.

“Going in a dress for today’s court? You know how much that bothers Representative Heavyweight. He can’t decide if he wants to court you or spit curses behind your back.”

Rolled tittered at the thought and pecked at his waffles. “One of these days I’ll get him to embarrass himself enough to ruin his credibility, and end his opposition to resolution 49-B.”

“Then you should go with the topaz dress clip. I hear he has a thing for that gem,” Blue suggested conspiratorially.

Rolled Scroll cooed at the news, but any further discussions were interrupted by a theseral Night Guard who flew in from the lower levels. He looked briefly at Rolled Scroll, yet failed to recognize him, but he knew Blue Flare on sight. With Phoenix Roost’s drones becoming a mildly more common sight in Canterlot, he made a mental note of the mystery mare but pressed on. “Ambassador, ma’ lady,” he said politely while withdrawing a letter from a slot in his armor. “This letter from the Canterlot Reserve arrived for both you and Rolled Scroll.”

Only wanting to toy with those in court, Rolled Scroll played the part of a guest, and let Blue Flare speak for them. “Thank you, Corporal Gleaming Blade, I’ll be sure to relay it to him.”

Taking the letter into her magic, the guard saluted and flew off. Blue found there were actually two identical letters in the envelope and gave one to her counterpart. Both drones hummed with interest. “So,” Blue started, “Grandma is transferring all of her trade profits and businesses over to our hive.”

“Indeed,” Rolled gasped. “Do my eyes deceive me or was she sitting on a thirty million bit bank account?”

“Well, she was trading finished machine goods and salve for coal and steel,” Blue commented after her morning sluggishness faded a bit. “It’d make sense she was making a profit.”

“Point taken,” Rolled conceded. “Either way, if this is used carefully, it could be exactly what the hive needs to be seriously profitable.”

“Even with Grandma’s drones coming in, this would allow our mothers to continue expanding our industrial base.”

“Well isn’t that fascinating news,” called a trill voice from above.

Both changelings looked up to find an ebony drone with reptilian eyes hanging on the outer wall above them. Blue Flare’s mental morning fog evaporated immediately with both drones shoving their chairs away to make ready to fight. Blue Flare fired off a quick bolt of magic to which the chitin clad changeling deflected with an enchanted hoof into the marble wall.

“Is that anyway to greet a friend?” the puppet teased while dropping a rock on top of Blue’s pancakes.

The mare was distracted enough to actually look at the rock to find it was the Stone of Parlay. Picking it up in her magic, Blue Flare looked back up at the puppet for ruining her beloved pancakes with her Searing Glare of Aggressive Diplomacy. “What do you want, Chrysalis?”

“Such hostility,” Chrysalis purred as the puppet detached from the ceiling and disguised itself as an ordinary pony so the guards wouldn’t interrupt them. Both ambassadors backed towards the bedroom to keep the the puppet out and deny it from possibly casting any magical surveillance spells. “I suppose a simple drone wouldn’t understand proper manners. It’s a wonder you’re allowed to play politics.”

Letting the insult roll off of him, Rolled Scroll gave the puppet a flat look. “You have called for parlay. State your business and be off with you.”

Chrysalis huffed in mocking approval. “I thought you’d like to know that Silandrus is dead. Killed by her own feral drones. Whatever you did to her, I must say bravo, bravo,” she added while clapping her hooves.

“You should take the lesson to heart, Chrysalis,” Blue Flare replied with a thinly veiled threat. She cursed not brushing her mane earlier, rendering her attempt at intimidation comical. “Don’t screw with us. Now, say your piece and bugger off.”

“No time for chit-chat? Or should I wait for your queens to puppet you for small talk?”

Rolled Scroll turned his nose up at the puppet. “We may be bound by the Laws of Parlay, Chrysalis, but the ponies are not. Give me a reason to keep them from tearing you apart when my eight o’clock appointment arrives.”

Chrysalis couldn’t help but to laugh. “Haven’t you guessed yet? I am your eight o’clock.”

Blue Flare risked a scathing glare at her counterpart.

Rolled chided.

Chrysalis’ leering smile wanned a little. “Ahh,” she cooed wistfully, “I see much of your mothers in both of you, both good and bad.” She received a couple of bemused expressions at that. “Either way, I wish to offer your queens a deal.”

12: Upgrades and Downgrades

Rolled Scroll and Blue Flare stood their ground while giving each other questioning looks before returning their focus to Chrysalis’ puppet. “What sort of deal?” they asked in unison.

If Chrysalis had any spite towards the ambassadors’ queens not being summoned immediately she didn’t show it. “I highly doubt you have any authority to agree or disagree with anything I have to say. So why don’t you stop stalling and get their attention?”

Neither drone cared much to humor Chrysalis, but the rules of parley were clear. “Very well,” Scroll replied flatly.

With Blue Flare following his lead, the drones communed briefly and closed their eyes. A scant few seconds later, they opened them again to reveal their mothers’ eyes. Twilight kept her puppet’s stance neutral and poised. Rainbow Dash, however, instantly fell into a combat stance with her horn and wings glowing with lethal intent.

Despite herself, Chrysalis wondered if the blue queen would actually attack her. With Kreesus’ betrayal, I doubt either one of them think there’s any use in abiding the Summit’s laws.

Thankfully for all involved, the attack never came. Rainbow held herself in check without Twilight’s intervention. Chrysalis took a moment to recompose her demeanor before any concern could show through. “Is that any way to greet a friend after I cleared the way for your little evacuation effort?”

“Don’t pretend you helped out of the goodness of your heart,” Rainbow spat angrily. “You’re here to get a favor out of us.”

Chrysalis glanced at Twilight who remained unreadable, even going so far as to mask her emotional aura. “It’s a bargaining chip, sure, but we are under the laws of parley. I did not lie when I said I had a deal for you, not a demand for recompense.”

“Those laws,” Twilight butted in with a calculated flat tone, “do not require us to repay you since we never asked for your help.”

Chrysalis flashed a toothy smirk of approval. “And my sisters said you were soft.” Chrysalis got the satisfaction of getting a faint irritated brow wrinkle from Twilight. “Perhaps you still are, but more out of necessity than anything else I think.”

“I can accept being softer than you since I can produce love,” Twilight countered with a derisive sneer.

“Ha, I am no stranger to different forms of strength, young one.” Chrysalis went so far as to nod in respect. “Silandrus was the very best of the old guard, and look where all that strength got her compared to a little ingenuity from you?”

Rainbow asked her sister while keeping her eyes fixed on Chrysalis.

Twilight warned. “We’re too busy to play your games, Chrysalis. What do you want?”

Chrysalis snorted in snide amusement. “Undoubtedly.” She ran a teasing hoof over her puppet’s mane. “I want both of you, and Cadista if she still lives, to never colonize the jungle ever again. Including any of your royal daughters, both present and future. In return, I will stay away from Equestria and its allies. Minus my love collectors of course,” she added just slowly enough to not tip her hand.

“You want the jungle all to yourself?” Rainbow growled with grit teeth.

“I knew someone as dense as you could understand if I was blunt enough,” Chrysalis sneered. “Although, I’m more than willing to allow you unhindered passage should you wish to enact revenge against Kreesus,” she added as if she was giving a supreme gift. For the living embodiment of loyalty itself, it might be just that. “And Summit meetings, of course.”

Twilight left her sister to dream up schemes of righteous vengeance and focused more on Chrysalis. “We still have the Deception, gunships, and now a new capital ship. With Equestria behind us, and Luna’s guards keeping track of your infiltrators, you can’t threaten us with military action or espionage, you have nothing to threaten us with that we can’t answer.”

“Come now, Queen Twilight Sparkle, there’s no need for propaganda between us.” Chrysalis’ demeanor soured and turned slightly threatening. “You and I both know that none of you could stop all of my infiltrators, let alone detect them all in time should I give the word. In fact…” Chrysalis looked up and to the left as if she was distracted. “It seems as if the dragon matriarch’s horde includes some rather volatile gemstones.” A look of horror crossed Twilight and Rainbow’s faces. “If I recall correctly, those are the same ones a certain green and purple drake gifted her as recompense to keep war between them and Equestria from happening. It would be a horrid tragedy for anything to happen…” Chrysalis created a small firework style explosion of mana to her left.

“Damn your black heart,” Rainbow Dash spat venomously.

“You can think what you want of me.” Much to the hybrids’ surprise, Chrysalis flared with insulted anger of her own. “I do what is necessary! Do we have an accord or not?”

Twilight glowered with rage at her adopted brother basically being held for ransom. Yet with Cadista losing the will to rebuild, it was ultimately not a terrible offer. “I want all of your infiltrators out of Equestria. The collectors can stay, but no more spying. No more sabotage like that!”

“And I want you to defuse those gem bombs!” Rainbow Dash demanded heatedly.

“And anything else you set up as contingencies,” Twilight finished.

Smirking all the while, Chrysalis narrowed her eyes in victory. “I need to hear the words. Do you agree? I stay out of the alliance, and you mostly stay away from the jungle.”

“Agreed,” both former equestrians answered in unison. “Now give us all your sabotage plans!”

The unified speech disturbed Chrysalis greatly, but she was quick to assume it was an intimidation tactic. “So our words are bound by law. I would give all those plans, but they don’t exist.”

“What are talking about?” Twilight growled heatedly, “under Parley, lying is forbidden.”

“And I haven’t. Those explosive gems were a contingency plan Silandrus set in motion.” Rainbow Dash still didn’t believe her, but Twilight held more respect for Parley than her sister. Thus far, she had never heard of Chrysalis ever betraying those laws. “You’d be surprised at all of the schemes and plans our race’s late matriarch had written down. I must admit it was quite humbling.”

“As if you could feel humility,” Rainbow snapped.

“That’s rich coming from you,” Chrysalis rebuked with a sly grin. “In respect to the thorough account of your investigation into the history of our species, Queen Twilight Sparkle, I will of course give you a full record of all of Silandrus’ activities against your alliance. That should square our accounts.” With all of the territory my bloodline will acquire with them out of the picture, I can finally form a true changeling empire.

“We’ll need it in writing,” Twilight demanded. “Along with your sisters’ signatures as well.”

“I’ll have my people contact yours,” Chrysalis replied with mockery more at pony businessmen rather than the queens in front of her.

Chrysalis turned to leave, retrieving her Stone of Parley from where Blue Flare had dropped it. Twilight called out to her with a snide tone of her own. “I hope you’re treating my grandchildren properly.” Chrysalis turned her head back to the purple puppet wearing a knowing half-smile. “It’d be a tragedy for this accord to be nulled if I catch word they’re being mistreated.”

Chrysalis glanced at Rainbow Dash who mirrored her sister’s smug look. “Give us a reason, please.”

In spite of the sisters’ threats, Chrysalis covered her mouth and started laughing with far too much mirth for her rivals’ liking. Twilight and Rainbow’s mood soured even further at Chrysalis’ apparent flippancy. “You, you know,” Chrysalis finally managed between chuckles, “my sisters were so sure that neither of you found out about that. But,” she waggled a hoof at Twilight, “I knew, I knew, you were smarter than that.”

“Flattery will get you nowhere with me, Chrysalis. I have given you my warning. Our brood will leave the jungle to you, on the condition my grandchildren are properly cared for.”

Oh, there are so many definitions of ‘proper care’ these days. “Humor me, for a moment, won’t you, Queen Twilight Sparkle? Why did you let my sisters and I walk in and out unscathed? I have my theories, but it doesn’t hurt to ask directly.”

“Because we’re not going to put in all the security measures it would take to keep you and the others away from our sons,” Rainbow Dash answered for the pair. “And even if we did take those measures, one of you was bound to find a way regardless, and our sons’ suffering would have been meaningless. Besides…”

The two sisters started speaking as one. “By having our grandchildren, the changeling species as a whole, will either evolve further than you think, or your prize will turn sour.” Chrysalis was now fully unnerved by the perfect choirs between her rivals. While she fully believed the two queens were linked to the same hive mind, such matching speech should only be possible with puppets. “We believe our daughters and granddaughters will reshape the changeling species for the better. Provided you don’t kill them for failing to produce love.”

They’ve wound themselves closer together than a unified hive mind should permit. Much of Chrysalis’ earlier mirth evaporated. I need time to think on this little wrinkle. “I will keep that in mind.” Donning a pegasus royal guard disguise, the ebony drone fled through the open balcony.

Rainbow Dash would have asked if Chrysalis would be true to her word, but Twilight’s contemplative demeanor was all she needed to know her sister thought she would. “So what do we do? Leave our grandkids to Sticky Spit and the rest of them, or try rescuing them?”

Twilight shook her head, but her gaze remained unfocused as she thought. “They’d be as much our children, as they are of the other queens. Aside from the next Summit council, we have no way of knowing who has laid our grandchildren. The others would hide those daughters as much as possible.”

“Wait a minute,” Rainbow Dash said with alarm, “don’t the rules say a queen has to petition the Summit leader for one to be called? But we can’t vote on a new one until all the other queens stop fighting each other!”

Twilight nodded, knowing what her sister was going for. “We all played to Chrysalis’ benefit, and anypony else who has our grandchildren.” She stopped and looked down at herself. Crap, I forgot I’m still using Scroll’s body. “We’ll talk this over in our own bodies.”

Giving thanks to their ambassadors, the queens faded from their bodies. Blue Flare shivered with excitement after riding out the feeling of her queen possessing her. “Ahhhh, yeesss!” She started buzzing her wings to cool herself. “Being one with mother like that is utter bliss.” Blue Flare rolled around on the floor, hugging herself to get the feeling to last as long as possible.

Typically, Rolled Scroll would join her, but the news worried him greatly. Mother’s playing a dangerous game. I wonder what our hive’s freedom will cost us in the future.

Cadista was inside Twilight’s alchemical supply warehouse, fishing for various reagents. Several harshly bright white lights along the ceiling provided ample light to the labels of each vial or crate. The grey queen was still wrapped up in gauze and casts. Her regenerating wings were only barely starting to bud, and would be useless for another month or so.

Limping all the way from the hospital she was supposed to be stuck in wasn’t exactly an easy feat, but the Day of Mourning from yesterday had cleared her head enough to motivate her. The clatter of her crutches resounded as she found what she was looking for and used her magic to pull a wheeled cart over. After filling some empty containers of the amounts she needed, Cadista was about to move on when the door creaked open, revealing an exasperated Twilight Sparkle. “Mother! You’re supposed to be in bed until you can be fitted for a prosthetic.”

Cadista shook an ornery hoof at her daughter and grumbled impatiently. “I don’t have time for that, and fitting me now would be a waste of time.”

Judging from the amount of fire and drive in Cadista’s tone, Twilight guessed she didn’t plan on hurting herself. “Why not? Have you finally reconsidered rebirth to heal?” she asked with surging hope.

“No, I have not,” Cadista replied flatly. She paused in her search to cast an eye at Twilight. “I will say no more until you can figure out my motive on your own.” That should buy me a few seconds to keep searching.

Half of Twilight was miffed about not getting a straight answer, while the other half was glad her mother’s mood was high enough to give her a test. “Well…” she took a deep breath while slipping right into her comfort zone. “You snuck in here without telling anypony, except for these two who are still connected to you,” Twilight pointed to her brothers supporting their mother, “thus you made sure no link-chatter passed through me. Plus there’s the fact you didn’t ask me about my stock. So, you wanted to come here in secret.

“It can’t be rebirth research since you keep shutting that idea down. It wouldn’t be for drone research since you could do that via puppet while resting your body. You mentioned a prosthetic won’t matter yet so this is obviously something that you need to do before bothering with a new leg which could only mean. That. You…” Twilight gasped at the shock of comprehension. “You want to use alchemy on yourself without a rebirth.” She looked at the reagent laden cart. “You wouldn’t need that many supplies if this was something small.”

She rushed over to look at what Cadista had gathered and started listing all her mother had collected. “You’re… You’re trying to dilute your royal blood!”

Cadista grabbed a bottle and placed it in the cart, only for Twilight to snatch it up and inspect the label. “Not dilute,” she looked at her mother with horror, “You want to suppress it completely!”

“Very good, my daughter.” Cadista saw that she had everything she needed and summoned one of her sons to take the cart, and the other to help her walk to a mixing lab. “It is my solution to the ‘three queen’ problem we have.”

“B-but you’ll cripple yourself!” Twilight chased after her limping mother. “You’ve been a royal for who knows how many lifetimes! You’d be destroying part of who you are!”

Cadista was leaning heavily on her military son who bore her weight without complaint. “I lost half of who I was to Chrysalis all those years ago. Losing a bit more won’t make much of a difference.” Not if I do this, she mused, keeping the thought tightly to herself.

“You don’t need to do this!” Twilight whisper-screamed, trying to keep from panicking the drones they were passing. “You could set up a temporary hive in Equestria. Princess Celestia and Luna have already invited you to set up shop in Manehattan!”

“I told you, I’m not rebuilding. I only have two roles left in life, and one of them is being your mentor.” Cadista looked into the eyes of her nervous and loving daughter. “There’s not much left that I can teach you, young one. Even if Stripped Gear had not been attacked, you would have surpassed me within a decade at the very most. Any resources used to rebuild my hive would be better spent for Aegis or your next pair of royal daughters.”

Cadista hobbled into the mixing room and flicked the lights on. As with the storehouse before it, the mixing/alchemical research lab was spotless to an extreme. Several glass pots ranging from small milliliters to large vats were all arranged from smallest to largest. The typical cleaning chemical smell was absent due to the large ventilation fan on the roof to keep the cleaning fumes from contaminating the alchemical components.

Twilight stuck her head in from the hallway as Cadista made herself at home. “No matter what I say, or any argument I use, you’re going through with this anyway, aren’t you?” Sad reservation colored her voice.

“Your sister isn’t the only one who can be stubborn.” Cadista let her sons set the reagents on the table so she could look at her morose daughter. “I have to do this, Twilight.” Her gaze fell as her mind wandered to Kreesus. We are such prideful fools, the lot of us. Was I the one who betrayed Kreesus first? Was she only returning the favor? So many happy memories between the grey and red queens flashed past her mind’s eyes. Each of them tainted by the destruction of Stripped Gear. I have tried, but Twilight and Rainbow would never understand Kreesus or her actions. Not like I do.

Twilight buzzed over to join her mother’s side, forcing Cadista to abandon her brooding. “Then at least let me help you. Two minds are better than one.”

Despite herself, Cadista snorted in pained amusement. A week was not enough to be able to laugh without her ribs hurting. “Hence why Phoenix’s Roost and Equestria are as successful as they are.” Her mood grew stern. “Before we continue. Why did you allow the other queens to mate with your sons?”

Twilight used her magic to turn the mixers on and pull over several beakers. “You mean besides having to force all of my drones to be female, and keeping my consorts locked within their rooms so spies can’t get to them?”

“Now is not the time to be cute, honey.”

“As you wish, mother. It’s because of Gethar’s curse.”

Cadista paused to contemplate what she knew of it. Ultimately she didn’t see much in it, just the rantings of a vengeful spirit. “What of it?”

“That curse was so strong he bound it completely into our species, and it’s still active even today.” Twilight glanced at Cadista’s disbelieving face. “It’s the whole reason we die without love, and how most of us cannot produce usable love. I can’t test it, but I think the curse latched onto our nervous system especially, which would explain why that system is the most affected by the curse.”

“I see… Strong curses can taint an entire family line until the end of days.” Cadista found it difficult to focus on her alchemy. “But if you’re thinking you’re immune due to you being a pony originally, that wouldn’t explain why other pony transformees have never produced love before.”

“Ahh, but you yourself told me that all other former ponies before me were completely converted into a full changeling. You left most of my brain as a pony. As a result, all of my children, and Rainbow since her pseudo-rebirth was based on Aegis, have mostly pony brains. I came to that conclusion after figuring out why some of Ratchet’s children couldn’t produce love, and yet every single one of my other drones could produce it at their hatching day.”

“Interesting,” Cadista said with mounting pride. “So you realized that your strain always allows love, but any diluting of that runs a good chance of that production failing.”

“Yup! That’s why I am exceedingly careful every time I alter my children’s nervous system.”

Cadista still wasn’t fully satisfied yet. “But that still leaves a chance the other queens could get a loving daughter.”

“Not quite,” Twilight rebuffed with a rapidly fading smile. She finished setting the lab up for her mother, and waiting for Cadista to finish her own set up. “Some of my other children have stopped being able to produce love on their own, even after becoming adults.”

That stunned Cadista more than Kreesus’ betrayal. The fact that this was the first she had heard of it, and that it would happen at all. “What?! Why?”

That caused Twilight’s mood to sour further into disappointment and sadness. “They became hateful and anti-social. Something you’d think a loving hive mind would suppress, but it happened regardless.”

“Such is the risk of allowing drones to be sapient,” Cadista added sympathetically. The context of Twilight’s comment finally sunk in. “You knew the other queens were raised harshly to survive not only the jungles, but other queens as well.”

“You taught me that,” Twilight interjected.

“That I did. So between that, your diluted blood, and their harsh upbringing, the chance of a rival queen producing a loving daughter are almost non-existent!”

“Precisely!” Twilight replied triumphantly with some of her good humor returning. “The only way to salvage them would be to raise those daughters the Equestrian way. So long as the current queens keep trying to have my loving granddaughters, the very heart and soul of our species will become Equestrian.”

Cadista huffed out of disbelief before chuckling out of sheer pride. Not even her pained ribs could dampen her mirth. “Twilight, my dear, geniuses are a dime a dozen compared to you.”

“Thank you, mother. I just wish my sons’ freedom didn’t come at the cost of my granddaughters’ suffering.”

Cadista leveled a steely gaze at her morose daughter. “You made a hard decision, as any queen must do for the good of the hive.” She met Twilight’s gaze. Despite her pain, Cadista could see her daughter would make the same decision all over again. Biting back the pain of torn muscle and mending bones, Cadista nuzzled Twilight, halting the onset of tears. “You are a stronger queen than I am, Twilight. And I have never been prouder to call you my daughter.”

Relishing her mother’s intense pride, Twilight nuzzled her back. Some of the weight of her choice lifted at Cadista’s approval, but only just. It was in that moment that she realized the hidden meaning in her mother’s praise. She’s making a hard choice, just as I did…

The hiss of steam announced the mixers were ready, prompting Twilight to separate from Cadista. “So, where do we start?”

Blitz stood by Aegis’ side with the last of her filled memory crystals resting on the ground next to her. Four caretakers were putting the finishing touches on the rebirth pod in front of the future royal. The pod itself was the size of a queen to give the alchemical mixture enough space to fully saturate its future occupant. The highly complex alchemical components had been meticulously crafted by Twilight the previous day, and waited in a vat hanging above the pod.

The blue drone stared at her fractured reflection in the crystal, gazing mostly at her softly glowing eyes. Her fur was still damp from the extensive shower to clean out any contaminants in her fur and hooves. Blitz still found it difficult to imagine having royal eyes. Aegis stood by her side on two legs, which was quickly becoming her de facto posture. The purple princess squeezed Blitz into a sidelong hug, which ended up with Blitz pressed against Aegis’ kidneys. “Hey, what’s with the squashed face? You’re totally perfect for this.”

“Glad you think so,” Blitz fiddled with her hooves. “How can you be so sure? This isn’t just being an engineer. We’re going to rule a whole hive. This is historic!” She looked at Aegis’ incredulously self-assured face. “No matter what, we’re going to shape the future, and I don’t know if I’m the best option! What if somepony better than me didn’t enter the running?”

“Then they weren’t better,” Aegis stated flatly. “You volunteered where others didn’t. You’re crazy smart in all the ways I’m not. I think we’ll be even better than our mommas for sure!”

“Your modesty always surprises me,” Rainbow Dash quipped as she came in for a landing. By now, the caretakers were ready for Blitz to enter the chrysalis, and stood by on the elevated platforms above the pod.

Aegis only shrugged, but kept her tone respectful. “Hey, I’ll be the first to say you and momma make an awesome possum team, but Blitz and I were like, designed for each other. Or soon will be,” She added with a smirk.

Rainbow snorted in amusement before looking to her pensive daughter. “It’s not too late. You can still back out if you want. You know I won’t think any less of you. I was freaked at the idea of becoming a queen myself, you know.”

Rainbow’s early days as a full changeling were was hardly a secret. Blitz looked up at her proud mother with a searching gaze. “But you weren’t really left with a choice like I am. How can you or Aegis be certain that I’m the best pick?”

“We can’t,” Rainbow stated bluntly, catching Blitz a little off guard with the admission. Rainbow Dash knew exactly how to answer Blitz’s question after living with ‘Miss OCD’ herself for so long. “You’re an engineer, Blitzy, your whole world is numbers and exact measurements. But when it comes to rule, sometimes you just gotta go with your gut. Your tests can tell a lot, but we can only stack the deck to a point. Ultimately it’s a leap of faith.” Rainbow knelt down and squashed Blitz into a motherly bear hug. “I know you’ll do me proud, my girl. You’re too awesome to fail, and that’s a fact!”

Emboldened by her mother’s love and assurances, Blitz returned the hug with all her strength. For a long minute, Rainbow Dash kept embracing her daughter for as long as Blitz needed. Eventually, Blitz broke the embrace and flew up to the hole on top of the chrysalis. “I’ll do everything I can to be worthy of this, momma. I promise you that.”

“I know you will, champ,” Rainbow flew up to hoof bump her.

With that, Blitz squeezed through the hole face-first and shimmied herself to stand upright in the cramped pod. The caretakers pulled a hose from the alchemical vat above and started pouring it in. The thick liquid was thankfully warm as it splashed across Blitz’s back and weighed her wings down. Through the barely transparent wax shell, Blitz could see Aegis and Rainbow placing a hoof on the side.

Smiling, Blitz was filled with courage, and placed her own hoof to meet theirs. There they remained until the thick blue liquid reached her head. Rainbow sent over some calming thoughts to suppress Blitz’s instinctive fear of drowning.

Exhaling as much air as possible, Blitz dunked her head under the oxygenated liquid and breathed in as much as possible. She coughed a few times as she expelled the last of the air. The alchemical components took hold shortly after filling her lungs, causing Blitz to fall into a deep sleep.

The caretakers finished filling up the rest of the chrysalis. Once done, they left a valve on top and attached a crane to the pod so it could be lifted up to the hundreds of hatchery racks so it could be safe and sound until Blitz was ready to emerge.

Rainbow Dash made sure to keep a close eye on Blitz’s hive-voice, and eagerly awaited the day she would reawaken. Aegis’ wings were buzzing as dreams of her future hive, standing side by side with Blitz, filled her with impatient excitement. “Sis’ made sure that when Blitz awakens, that both of you will have the same physical maturation. That way you should become proto-queens at the same time.”

“Sounds good to me.” Aegis took to the air and orbited her aunt a few times out of sheer delight. “I’m about to freak out here! Blitz is freaking perfect! Our hive’s totally going to rock!” As she orbited Rainbow Dash, Aegis looked out across the hatchery, and the rows upon rows of purple and blue chrysalises. One of these days those will be our eggs, Blitz. She ached to have Burny with her so she could spew a ring of fire around in celebration. Well maybe not right there with the eggs.

“It’s a lot of work,” Rainbow said knowingly, causing Aegis to drop back to two hooves. “What are you going to do to make that future hive of yours stronger while Blitz is fermenting?”

Aegis rocked back and forth on her back legs, relishing how much easier bipedal movement was becoming. “Well I need to finish mastering my strain.” She swept a foreleg – no, her arms at her legs. That’s what the minotaurs call their upper limbs. I don’t care if they still qualify as legs, because at some point, I’ll be getting those shifting hands from the sphinxes. Shaking her internal reflection away, Aegis refocused on Rainbow Dash. “I’ve already got half of that done. Now I just need to work on my hands.”

Aegis saw the veiled look of disappointment from Rainbow Dash, and spoke quickly before her aunt could speak. “I mean, since I’m going to be the hive’s general that also includes martial prowess. I need to learn how to adapt hoof-to-hoof combat so that I can teach it to my kids.” Or would that be hoof-to-hand now?

“If that’s what you think is best,” Rainbow Dash replied crytically before taking to the air and buzzed towards the exit.

Aegis wanted to stay for a little longer and look up at Blitz’s cocoon.

With Rainbow Dash seemingly satisfied for now, Aegis smiled up at Blitz. We’re going to change the world, you and I. I can’t wait to get started!

However, such thoughts of conquest of the history books were cut short by Rainbow Dash. There was an air of teasing that colored her voice, much to Aegis’ chagrin.

A shiver ran through Aegis’ spine at the prospect.

A figurative storm cloud boomed over Aegis’ head. She groaned while leaping into the air to find the fearful sphinx.

Rainbow somehow managed to let off a nasal laugh over the Link.

Rainbow cheered with a sly grin. By now she was outside and found a large cloud high in the air. As if I ever get a chance to just nap anymore. Ah well, I finally have some time to investigate that ‘carrier’ Granny’s crew had been working on.

13: Carrier has Arrived

Rainbow Dash left the hatchery with profound pride in Blitz for committing to a royal rebirth, but also in herself as well. Blitz’s initial hesitation drew up some strong memories as Rainbow made her way over to the covered airship hangar. That reminds me so much of how scared I was when I found out I was a royal bug. But now…

She looked around at all the changelings buzzing around the hive, with a growing portion of them sharing her rainbow mane and blue color. If I told my old self I’d rather be a queen than a Wonderbolt anyway, she’d probably deck me upside the head. And now I’ve got a royal daughter.

The thought of it drove her queenly expansionist instincts to new heights. I’m giving rise to more hives. Once Aegis and Blitz are all settled in… I want more royal daughters. I think Twi will agree that we should blanket the Chaos lands with our hives. And once Blitz’s hive is ready, she’ll no doubt create her own royal daughters so we can do it even faster!

Rainbow swooned to the mental picture of hive mind of that size, a chorus filled with millions of voices. Just thinking about that far off day excited her to the point where she was getting heated. By the time she arrived at the hangar, her pheromones were in overdrive, not that she noticed. I can never thank Aegis enough for giving me that circlet!

However, no matter how much her life as a queen made Rainbow Dash happy, there was always one thing in the back of her mind that yearned for the past. The omnipresent buzz of her gossamer wings was comforting, but it was no replacement for the sound of feathers upon the wind. I don’t care how alchemically hard it is, one of these days I’ll get my feathers back. Granny already had us become more pony like by giving us fur and proper manes. There’s no reason I can’t figure out the wings someday.

Fortunately for the drones inside the closed hangar, the warship within distracted Rainbow Dash enough to subdue her queenly instincts, and by extension, her pheromones as well.

The so called “carrier” was lit up by large numbers of lights and one way skylights. It was actually fifty meters longer than the Deception, but much to Rainbow's confusion it only had a paltry number of small anti-air guns. Well whatever it is, they certainly aren’t calling it a carrier of big guns.

Rainbow Dash scowled at that as she continued to inspect the exterior. The top of the ship looked more akin to a short stretch of road than anything else, with what she assumed was a command tower off to one side. Rainbow circled the hangar’s interior to get a view of the ship from all sides. Overall the ship looked like a long square box, although tapering towards the front a ways. Along the sides of the ship were two boxy wings where large propeller engines sat idle. Finally, both sides had what looked like long thick steam pipes just outside a matching dimple in the hull which ran from a few meters beyond the stern to what looked like a big exterior mana engine that easily dwarfed a queen.

Curiosity drove Rainbow to inspect the steam pipes a little closer. Why have pipes on the outside? Two pipes split off from the engine and curved back to being parallel with a much thicker third one running straight out the back. Support scaffolding crisscrossed the three all the way to the stern where the two outer pipes reconnected in the shape of a flat circle with the center pipe doing the same to form two circles of pipes.

The other big thing that caught Rainbow’s eye was the complete lack of lift propellers that were supposed to keep the ship from falling. Sure it has forward propellers, but how does this thing get any lift? Should I even bother mentioning those paltry deck guns? I hope Granny didn’t send us a fancy new freighter. Sure we could use one, but everyone from SG was saying this is a fancy new weapons platform.

Seeing nothing else of interest, Rainbow flew towards the command tower. Numerous drones of all three coat colors covered the vessel. Though it was mostly the grey ones showing the purple and blues how to crew the ship.

The command tower itself had far too much open window for Rainbow’s liking for what she assumed was the bridge. As she expected, Captain Rourke was present along with four grey drones. Rainbow hailed them over the Link before teleporting through the glass.

“My queen,” the group announced together with polite shallow bows before Rourke spoke alone. “Chief Scientist White Phosphorus was just explaining the command center to me. I have to say, this vessel is by far the most interesting weapon to date.”

Rainbow had to suppress from rolling her eyes, but she couldn’t help but give a disillusioned scowl. “Then you know something I don’t, ‘cause this all looks like a big fancy freighter to me.”

White Phosphorus would have berated anyone who insulted his brainchild other than a queen. Thankfully for him, Rourke spoke for him in a much more amused tone than he was capable of. “Well, my queen, you’re half right.” Both she and Rainbow looked to the scientist.

“Yes, well, you see, your highness, it is not the ship itself that is dangerous, I grant you.” He spoke with a grumbling tone that betrayed years of being mocked by his colleagues. He still took vindictive pride that only Cadista saw the merit. “This vessel is designed to carry, service, and launch the real threat this ship brings to bear.”

“Care to show me?” Rainbow Dash replied with mild interest. “I don’t know what could be more threatening than creating bigger guns.”

White Phosphorus turned towards the stairs, mostly so he could hide his vindictive smirk. “Sometimes it’s not the size of the gun you use, but how you wield it. Come, I’ll show you!”

Giving an amused snort, the comment reminded Rainbow of her military career. Just like Spitfire always said, the right amount of force at the right spot makes all the difference. Alright, I’ll bite, Whitey. She followed after him with the rest of the group lining up behind her. She was led through various aluminum corridors where passing drones stood at attention at Rainbow’s passing. Guess having all steel is too heavy.

The group quickly found themselves within a large hangar. Heh, a hangar within a hangar. Rainbow was about to voice a colorful barb when White Phosphorus pointed with a wing at a small vehicle as he kept walking. “This is the true weapon of my carrier.”

“It’s a little small for a gunship isn’t it?”

“Some of the pilots got it in their heads to call this a biplane,” Coal Chute replied with a slight chuckle to hopefully break the ice a bit. “On account of the two sets of forward wings. I think it’s a simple and apt name for its type.”

Rainbow took careful examination of the biplane. It was nine meters long with two straight wings in front, with one a half a meter above the other. A third set of shorter wings in the form of an inverted ‘T” was located at the tail. Only a single propeller engine sat at the front.

The frame itself looked to be of extremely sturdy construction, thought Rainbow admitted she knew little of manufacturing methods. Two large flak cannons were slung under the lower wing near the fuselage, with the barrels being just beyond the edge of the propeller blades. There was an open cockpit for a single pilot with only a small windshield in front.

The cannons had feeds snaking to the section behind the pilot. Finally, there was a repeat of the carrier’s exterior curved piping that ran from the bottom of the engine to the tail. Rainbow finally clicked that the piping looked sort of like a tubular hollow sword with a circular end instead of a sharp tip.

Rainbow Dash had seen enough fancy gadgets and gizmos to know White Phosphorus was just begging to be asked how the machine worked. “You know, I’m just going to leave the explanations on how this thing gets off the ground to my sister. Just tell me about why we should dedicate so many resources to them.”

“As you wish,” White Phosphorus said with supreme effort to keep a growl out of his voice at such disinterest. “The problem with warships like the Deception is that they are slow and vulnerable to attack once entering the combat zone. Let’s be real here. The other queens have been watching us for hundreds of years. One day they’ll figure out how to use that mana artillery they used on my home against a high flying warship. The further away we are from those launchers the better.

“Both Yumia and Mother Cadista’s anticipated that for a long time,” White Phosphorus continued with a prideful smile. “She’s been working on these single pilot aircraft designs off and on far longer than she was trying to redesign Queen Twilight Sparkle. You’re looking at the culmination of countless years of airship developments. ” Rainbow Dash gave him a disbelieving eyebrow at such a claim.

“That’s impressive and all that,” Rainbow yawned, ready for a nap, “but that doesn’t really answer my question.”

One of White Phosphorus’ brothers saw he was about to explode and stepped forward to head him off. “Queen Rainbow Dash, simply put, this aircraft can reach long distance targets, at far greater range than the Deception’s guns can reach. It can move ten times faster, strike a distant target and return. And with this ship acting as a mobile hangar, we have potentially unlimited range for them.”

After spending so much time with the Deception, Rainbow Dash had a thing with big guns. “It doesn’t seem like a game changer to me. Still…” The more she thought about it, the more her military mind searched for possible uses. “These probably would have been useful during the last siege.”

White Phosphorus jumped on the thought. “My thoughts exactly, your highness. In fact, had you been in command of this vessel instead of the Deception you could have projected your firepower a good eight hours sooner.”

“Maybe, but these small things don’t have the staying power of my flagship,” Rainbow countered evenly. “And every new tech requires more repair time than stuff that’s tried and true.”

“Your highness,” White Phosphorus insisted with all the tact he could muster. “The world changes daily and the other hives evolve just as quickly. As stalwart as your defense of the Deception was, it nearly failed. We need to keep expanding our arsenal to keep up. With mother’s trade assets being transferred over to Phoenix’s Roost, there’s no reason we can’t finish outfitting the carrier to be a potent weapon.”

Rainbow Dash glanced around the hangar deck. There were several other aircraft, but most of them were incomplete or in some obvious state of disrepair. “How many of these things do you have available?”

Coal Chute tried to mask his embarrassment. “Only one is operational for now. We lost most of our parts and other fighters when our hive was laid to waste. We barely managed to save the blueprints for everything, but at the cost of most of the ship’s crew, including the pilots. Hence why we’re training some of your naval staff.”

“So you have a ship with turrets taken off a gunship and only one aircraft to its name. Is that fair to say?”

Captain Rourke politely cleared her throat and spoke with the measured calm Rainbow had come to expect from her. “To be fair, my queen, the carrier was barely into its first trial run when the attacks started. It’s a testament to its design that it made it from SG to the Roost without breaking down.” The grey drones warmed up under the praise. “At the very least, Cadista saw the merit for it. I think we should trust her wisdom and vision.”

An inch. Even with Rourke’s advice, Rainbow was just an inch from scraping the ship for parts to build a proper ship of the line. “Aside from having to devote a factory or two to building the aircraft, and constructing a second hangar for it, is there any other major support infrastructure we’re going to need to bring the carrier up to snuff?”

White Phosphorus and the others shuffled around nervously. Their silence only proved to exasperate Rainbow Dash even further. “Well, your majesty, there is the slight issue of needing a pegasi-mana enriched fuel for the steam engines for the ship to rise. I won’t trouble you with the laundry list of various compounds of the mixture, but I can tell you that fabricating it would only require an expansion on your oil refinery.”

Even though she was the hive’s overall commander, Rainbow Dash knew exactly the productive capacity of the hive’s armories, including oil refinement. “You do know all of our ships still run on coal right? We only have a refinery for flamethrowers, lubricants, and whatever else my sister requires. We’re nowhere near ready to supply this fuel guzzler!”

“And the biplanes,” Rourke added flatly. ‘Their new engines require it as well.” Rainbow Dash couldn’t help it any longer and dragged a hoof across her face out of supreme annoyance. “Even with these logistical problems, my queen, I still think this will be an excellent addition. Just remember the historic arguments of those championing the first crude firearms over crossbows.”

Of all the things Yumia and Cadista forgot of their history, only the recordings of those arguments survived to this day. She thought over it for close to five minutes before Rainbow heaved a sigh. “You guys are lucky we got a big cash injection. Write up what you need and pass it on to the treasury.” She started cantering back the way she came. “I want demonstrations within the week.”

The group of engineers and one scientist cheered, even if a bit prematurely and quickly thanking Rourke for her assistance before brainstorming how to abide Rainbow’s command. For her part, Rourke took the gratitude with more than a little enthusiasm before calling out to her aunt.

Author's Note

Will Rasua overcome her phobia? Will the sphinx fall for Aegis? Will Rainbow Dash realize her horn has been a clip on all along? Will Ratchet ever invent Q-tips?!

Potentially find out next time on CotH!

Yes, this was only a mini-chapter.

14: Alchemy

If there were two things that could surmount fear, it would be thirst and hunger. Rasua had put on an air of stoic calm as she made her way from the ambassador quarters of the castle and out to the closest food court.

Every drone she passed was courteous enough. Most gave passing greetings, and casual acknowledgements. None of them seemed to be trying to liquefy her brain with mind bullets, so that was a plus. I’m going to be stuck in this techno bug hive for who knows how long. If they do end up frying my brain, I at least want to die with a full stomach.

Unbeknownst to her, Aegis had Intel and her squad on standing orders to shadow Rasua the moment she left the ambassador wing.

Intel was perched upon a cloud above the dining area when Rasua arrived.

Aegis was cantering past the Tree of Harmony and hit the barrier just outside the cave. The barrier itself felt like soft taffy as she shoved her way through.

Intel unfurled her spyglass to take a closer look. Rasua flagged down a waitress with what looked like a friendly, if perhaps neutral expression. Intel’s query towards the waitress drew the same conclusion. She couldn’t help but chuckle at that particular memory.

In her attempt to exit the cave, Aegis had got her left leg caught in the barrier, and was now buzzing her wings and scrabbling on the ground in a bid to free herself. Aw come on! Moooom! Why did you have to retune the shield frequency on me!

It took a minute, but Aegis was finally able to yank her leg free.

Rasua was discovering the wonderful world of waffles and maple syrup. The exquisite sugary delight was interrupted by the waitress returning with an omelet and bacon laden plate right as Aegis came in for a landing next to the table.

“Heyya, Rasua, glad to see you finally poked your head out of your bedroom. Mind if I join you?”

“This is your city, Princess, you can sit wherever you please,” Rasua replied with forced warmness.

Aegis was starting to get better at reading Rasua’s emotional aura, and was able to pierce the friendly mask to find the undercurrent of fear. “Still, I think it’s polite to at least ask.”

The pair lapsed into silence long enough for each of them to take a bite. “So are you finally chill with all of us being… psykers, I think you said?”

“I have come to the realization that I have been letting my fear get the better of me, and as such I am making a poor example for my species.”

“Fear can be a powerful influence,” Aegis replied evenly with a mouth full of egg. “But I’m glad you are at least trying to see us as more than just brain-stealing insects.”

The constant buzzing sound from all the flying drones still brought shivers up her spine. “Y-yes, well, it helps that you’re sapient and at least look half mammal.”

“All is well then...” Aegis trailed off as she enjoyed a few more bites and some apple juice. The pause started to worry Rausa. “Except for one thing.”

And so falls the other anklet. Rasua’s fork paused in front of her mouth. The syrup threatened to drop onto her lap as she tried to guess as to why Aegis’ tone with mildly sour. “And that is?”

Aegis chewed her food for a couple of bites to make Rasua sweat. “This agreement to have some of your psyker friends settle in Alliance territory.” She stabbed an egg laden fork at her pensive feline associate. “You played me like a drum to get that agreement for nothing more than to show you we Lings are moral people.”

To her credit, Rasua looked insulted. “I don’t know what you're talking about it.”

“Oh don’t gimme that!” Aegis snarked back. “A show of morality for sanctuary for a whole group of people?”

“Are you saying you’re backing out now?” Rasua replied with condescending tone.

It was Aegis’ turn to finally set terms. “No, we’ll still help you with it, but we need a couple of concessions from you to show that we are all honorable people.”

Rasua chewed her latest bite very slowly to think. “I brought little money with me.”

“Nothing so materialistic as that,” Aegis replied with a slight chuckle. “First off, if these sphinxes are settling Alliance territory, they will not be some outpost of the Federation. They have to become citizens of the Alliance, with all the allegiances that entails. Since your own people can’t stand them, that shouldn’t be an issue.”

“I can pass that along to my contacts,” Rasua replied with a small amount of disappointment. “Some might not agree to that.”

“Well they will have to if they want to come here,” Aegis replied coldly. “The second thing I want is some of your blood.”

Rasua gave Aegis a look like she was crazy. “What could you possibly want my blood for!?”

“Because I want those,” Aegis pointed a mechanical finger at Rasua’s hands. “These metal hands are clunky, and a pain the flank for numerous reasons. If I could peel the alchemical secret to shifting flesh and blood hands out of your blood, then I’d be one very happy bug.”

Does she really have to keep reminding me she’s an insect? Rasua started nervously wringing her hands. “You don’t need to actually do anything to my hands, do you?”

“Nothing outside of just drawing some blood.” Aegis smiled, purposely showing off her fangs.

“…I can agree to that,” Rasua started with a bit of fire, “but I remember what you said about altering yourselves after others. I want assurances that you will destroy any information you gain about any other part of my body. It’s a matter of personal privacy.” Not that a race of psykers could understand the concept.

“You have my word,” Aegis replied with a victorious smirk. She was practically salivating at the prospect of having morphing hands. “So as a sign of good faith, why don’t you come down with me to the clinic to get that blood taken care of right after breakfast, and then we’ll make sure your letter back to Stratholme gets there in good time.”

Rasua had little choice in the matter but to extend her trust on the matter. “That’s fair. However, I would like to ask some questions first.”

“As long it’s not classified,” Aegis returned agreeably. She took the time to polish off her omelet and paused before ordering a second one. The gears started churning in her head as she suppressed a growing grin. If she asks what I think she’ll ask.

“I think I remember you mentioning that any drone would willingly agree to… something you called a rebirth.”

Rasua’s request brought Aegis back to the present. “That’s right.”

“What does this rebirth process entail, exactly?”

“No one’s ever really asked that before, I don’t think.” Aegis was suddenly aware of how problematic a true answer might be. “Well… the root alchemy compounds, array carved into the pod or floor, and the right spellwork first put the person to sleep and cuts off all pain reception. Then the body basically breaks down into a liquid with the person’s consciousness temporarily transplanted to nerve clusters that line the cocoon.”

“Y-you liquefy?! So each rebirth kills you?”

“N-no, not really. Like I said, your consciousness is transferred to nerve clusters that are mapped to your patterns before the person is fully liquefied. After the body’s gone, the rest of the alchemical formula is filtered into the cocoon to reshape the body to the desired format. This is what allows us to avoid having like… 200 year old brains in the body of a teenager or whatever. The body reforms around the nerve clusters and then BOOM, a whole new you.”

“That’s too outrageous to be real!” Rasua insisted with disbelief written all over her face. “Surely you’re toying with me.”

Aegis leaned back and shrugged with a snide grin. “Hey, just because you don’t believe something, doesn’t make it false. I’d show you the soup Blitz will be in about a month if the hatchery wasn’t strictly off limits to non-changelings.”

“How can you be so blasé about such… insanity?!” Rasua managed to keep her volume conversational, but her tone was anything but.

As if right on cue, the waitress arrived with two bowls of chunky chicken soup for each of them. “Why? You ask.” Aegis dipped her spoon in and lifted out several bits of meat and vegetables. “Because this was me a few months ago.”

Rasua frowned at the changeling princess who was doing her best to stay serious. However, Rasua’s unamused scowl proved too much for her. Aegis’ spoon clattered loudly on the table as she started laughing uproariously, clutching her gut when her sides started to hurt. Most of the surrounding changeling simply rolled their eyes at her and continued on their way.

“Normally I’d fear risking a diplomatic incident with this, but, Princess Aegis, you are such a tool.”

Through teary eyes, Aegis looked up at Rasua who was doing everything in her power to not look like she was pouting. “Bwha ha ha ha! Y-you actually bought it!”

To think a crown princess is allowed to act so… so… childish! Despite her irritation, Rasua felt the corner of her lips arch upward. “So what is the real truth?”

Aegis let her giggles run out before picking herself off the ground and waved off some of her siblings who were worried she might actually laugh to death this time. She reclaimed her seat and shot Rasua a winning smile. “I’ll give you the simplified version. Alchemy is a combination of spellcraft, chemistry, and biological manipulation that we’ve been perfecting for the past millennium or three. The alchemical spells are so complex most of them have to be etched in multi-layered arrays. We’re talking up towards thirty arrays on a single strain.

“The arrays and spells act like guides and instructions. It changes each cell one at a time, using the alchemy components as fuel/food for the cell changes. Certain chemicals together allow for certain alterations. The contents of the alchemical slurry inside the cocoon also act as life support. Now, while alchemy is technically possible without the components, it will feed off of the recipient's own body without them and can result in death.” Which is why Aunty nearly died when she was turning.

“Consequently, rebirthing allows us to recover from just about any wound, and all non-magical diseases since the alchemy hits that stuff at the same time, so that’s another plus. The whole alchemical process is much more involved than that, but there’s no way I can explain it all. It really is it’s own field of study. One that only the queens can truly master.”

Rasua hummed in between spoonfuls of soup. It was quite good actually, and she resolved to find out what it was called later. “Certainly a fascinating method of pseudo-reincarnation. However, the way you previously mentioned this rebirthing thing, it sounded like a personal sacrifice on the drone’s part. If they’re getting a new body, then why is that?”

Aegis lost much of her mirth, and proceeded to was dunk a cracker in her soup while she framed her response. “Simply put, any drone-rebirth erases the person’s memories. They still have their root personality intact, but none of their experiences.”

“Drone-rebirth? You mean there’s more than one type?”

“Ah, yeah. I underwent a royal rebirth. For all we know about alchemy we…” Aegis hated that it was her turn to be embarrassed. “We don’t actually know why alcohol and,” she caught herself before giving away too much, ”and it’s companion substances allows royals to retain most of their memories, while drones can’t.”

Rasua quietly ate as she digested the information. “So… do you also use this drone-rebirth as a form of personality execution for criminals?”

Aegis’ mood soured greatly. “We - we had to do it once. Granny’s done it a whole bunch of times over the centuries.”

Execution was by no means a rare sentence in the Federation. I remember having to execute my fair share of rogue psykers and other criminals. “For a people who have no hesitation to use fire as a means of war,” Rasua glanced at Burny strapped to Aegis’s back, “You have such strong attachments to those of the same hive. These criminals got the punishment they deserved didn’t they?”

“Pah, as if a non-changeling could understand. It’s bad enough that criminals are starting to pop up amongst my brothers and sisters from time to time, but the worst part is their hive voice becomes so bitter and resentful. It becomes painful to hear amongst the chorus if you get too close to them.”

Hive-voice? That’s one way to put it. “Well you have my sympathies. So… Those drones that sacrifice themselves to be reborn. Why can’t they keep their memories like you did?”

“Because they didn’t undergo a royal rebirth,” Aegis replied as if it was obvious.

“And why would making every rebirth a royal one be bad?”

Aegis had to remind herself that Rasua was asking out of ignorance. “Royals like myself are rare because of two major factors: our intense desire to lay eggs and expand the hive, and the proto-queen stage of our life-cycle. As a proto queen, we have to lay eggs. Around five hundred of them over the course of a month and a half. So our species would grow uncontrollably if every rebirth was a royal one.” I mean, sure we princesses require like four times as much love as a drone just to function, but that’s a moot point as long as I get rutted every day. A familiar itch in her loins urged to be scratched. I’m glad that’s the funnest workout in the world.

Rasua recoiled a bit at the excited princess, only she assumed Aegis was imagining laying eggs. I think it might be a good idea to avoid mentioning the possibility of aborting the eggs. “So can’t you take the brain restructuring part of the royal rebirth and use it in the drone version for non-criminals?”

“Not to my knowledge.” Aegis polished off the last of her meal, and saw Rasua had done the same. “Come on, we can keep talking on the way to the clinic, and maybe burn off a bit of those big meals while we’re at it.”

The pair jogged through the city as Aegis continued. “I’m not as proficient in alchemy as my queens, but what I do know, is that the science essentially is split into two fundamentally different disciplines. Royal and drone. It’s not a simple matter of throwing alcohol and the companion substances in the cocoon and think you’re going to get a royal version of that drone. Say like, if I wanted to have a strain with stronger wings, I would use a variance 46-B9 array pattern with…”

Aegis caught herself almost giving away secrets again. “A formula mixture with a classified amount of mana. But if I put the royal mixture into that, the poor drone could end up with two heads and less brain cells. Believe me, we’ve tried, but the complications are just crazily convoluted. Royals require a vastly more complicated mix that I’m still learning.”

She gave various other harmless facts about alchemy as the pair returned to the castle and into the bowels of the former colony ship. Rasua wasn’t too familiar with the palace, but it seemed odd to go so deep. “Shouldn’t a clinic be much closer to where all the people are?”

“Yeah, see about that, that was the original plan. Then I contacted momma about it, and she said we should head over to her alchemy lab instead.”

Does she even know what she’s doing half the time? She didn’t stop talking the whole way either, so she ‘spoke’ with her mother at the same time as me? Rasua mused worriedly as Aegis skidded to a stop in front of a large set of double doors. The two Queens’ Guards glanced between Aegis and Rasua before stepping aside for them to pass.

Aegis entered without knocking, leading Rasua into a large room, and a massive wall of chemical odors. It was the same lab where Twilight had assisted Cadista in her alchemy project, the results of which sat in four sealed vats off to one side against the wall. The gentle hum of the stirring motors mixing them would fill the air for the next two days.

Rasua quickly noticed two additional Queens’ Guards on the inside as well, though they remained outwardly silent.

Twilight Sparkle was in the middle of a large waxed wooden floor with a dizzyingly complex array drawn in chalk around a glass basin filled with a murky silver liquid. A second array was on the low lying ceiling on that section of the room which Rasua realized was twenty layers of thick glass pancaked together on sliders that moved into the adjacent room. Finally, there was a briolette cut crystal that Rasua could have mistaken for a massive spear tip.

The purple matriarch’s horn was alight with the same lavender/orange glow that filled the various arrays. “Ah, good you’re both here.”

Twilight stepped away from the glass basin and gestured Rasua towards a sink. “You’re in luck, Aegis. I was planning on analyzing this dead timber wolf,” she tilted her head at a pile of lumber sitting in a cage, “for its secrets. Rasua, would you kindly wash up to your shoulders? We need to eliminate as many contaminates as possible.”

Washing up gave the wayward blacksmith just enough time to truly take in the enormity of the alchemy lab. It doesn’t seem that far off from the chemistry labs of my homeland.

Aegis on the other hand was over by the timber wolf cage kicking the inert logs. “Momma, you weren’t planning on actually making a wooden drone strain were you?”

“Ha! No, I wanted to analyze the magic so I could make moving statues and possibly improve our clockwerk designs. Aside from Rarity’s help, we don’t have enough artistry around here. Besides, the Tea’la would be a better source of information for that kind of project.”

Rasua stepped towards Twilight and gave a respectful bow. “I am ready, your majesty.”

“Good to hear you volunteered for this.” Twilight’s warm tone belied the sourness of her hive-voice.

The guilty princess shrunk down at Twilight’s stink eye.

“Alright, Smith Rasua, all you need to do is dunk your arm – um - leg… forelimbs! Dunk them into the tub here and nothing else. That way we won’t get any other parts of you analyzed.”

Rasua looked dubiously at the chemical soup in front of her. “I thought you would only take a blood sample, your majesty.”

Twilight gave Aegis a questioning glance, only to find her looking at all of the arrays with a bewildered expression. “My daughter was mistaken. Blood only tells us so much.”

The roiling silver colored concoction let off a large bubble, making Rasua’s wings shiver. “I hope this won’t cause me any sort of illness.”

“You don’t have any cut skin do you? Even a rash or scab would be very problematic,” Twilight cautioned. The three of them searched every inch of her forelimbs before deeming them unblemished. “Excellent, now put them in so we can begin. This will take a while, so get comfortable.” Rasua cringed at the cold fluid, but complied without complaint. “Oh, I almost forgot. Shift one paw into a hand, but leave the other as a paw. That way we’ll get information on both.”

“Sounds reasonable enough.” Rasua complied and watched Twilight charge her horn for the activation switch.

“Now hold still. If I do this wrong, it’ll hurt a little. If I do it right, it’ll hurt a lot,” Twilight deadpanned.

“Wait, what?!” Rasua shrieked as the light of the arrays doubled in brightness and the crystal sent a beam of purple light into the alchemical tub. The liquid started glowing with magic, making Rasua flinch away, but she kept her forelimbs in place.

A few seconds passed with there being a distinct lack of pain or even a numbing sensation. “Ah, I must have done it perfectly then!” Twilight declared. Rasua looked back at the glowing tub before turning towards Twilight who was struggling between mirth and regret. “Sorry, sometimes I let my sister’s influence get the better of me.”

Aegis had enough tact to keep a hoof covering her snickering face, but little else. Rasua decided to pointedly ignore the princess. “It is not the worst surprise I’ve had since I came here. So I have to ask, is Princess Aegis the only one interested in my hands?”

An unspoken conversation passed between mother and daughter with Twilight internally sighing. Sometimes I have to double check her purple fur to make sure she’s my daughter. “Aegis has it in her head that she needs hands. With your species, I can understand the need, but all changelings have telekinesis, so hands seem a bit redundant. It’s important to remember that making a strain overly complex causes unnecessary waste and more ways for things to go wrong.”

“You laugh, scoff, and make fun, momma, but I’ll prove you wrong about hands,” Aegis said with an excited buzz of her wings and a smile to match. “With Blitz and me armed with arms, we’ll be the best hive yet, you watch!”

“I certainly hope you are,” Twilight replied before refocusing on the crystal above Rasua. First Mother knows how many resources I’m putting into this grand experiment of hers. “Are you comfortable, Rasua?”

“Enough, your highness.” About as much as I can be with this slurry seeping into my fur, yuck.

“Excellent.” Twilight looked deep within the crystal to see several arcane formulas taking shape within. “Good, the information is coming in nice and clean. It’ll take the analytical arrays some time to filter out the errors caused by contaminates. Not even washing can eradicate it all.”

Rasua shifted on her haunches, thankful that Twilight had the presence of mind to pull a cushion over, even if it was flat from constant use. “How long did you say this would take?”

“About four hours,” Twilight replied quickly. “We’ll need to repeat the process once or twice more depending on how clean the data is.”

Oh happy day.

Aegis stepped up to observe the process more closely. Even with Blitz taking the role of the civic queen, Aegis still wanted to learn everything about her royal duties.

Rasua eventually resigned herself to playing guinea pig. Well it doesn’t look like these changelings will get much out of this little donation to the cause. If Queen Twilight is that dubious about my hands, then she might order Aegis to give up on it. Then I’ll have conceded to one of their ‘requests’ with them gaining nothing from it. Either way, a win-win for me. Suddenly, the icky feeling of the lukewarm slurry covering her arms wasn’t so bad anymore.

A clock on the wall ticked away for several minutes before Aegis looked at Twilight. “Momma. Will we be able to integrate these new hands into Blitz before she hatches?”

Seeking to glean anything about alchemy, Rasua listened intently. Plus there wasn’t exactly anything else she could do. For her part, Twilight's eyes remained glued to the ever expanding information in the crystal. Even I can’t keep up with this. I’ll have to create a Linkscape later to study it all. “I probably won’t have this worked out for some time.” She guided Aegis’ eye to the swirling cloud of arcane symbols and graphs that were forming into the crystal

This was the first time Aegis had witnessed alchemical sampling and the data looked more akin to a fluid work of art than anything scientific.

Aegis butted in,

Aegis felt all warm and fuzzy at earning her mother’s pride. It was always more intense whenever she was learning scholarly pursuits.

Rasua rolled her eyes as the two audibly silent changelings squashed each other in bear hugs, but said nothing. That stupid psi-talk of theirs is so damned rude to everyone else in the room.

Twilight let go of the hug and refocused on her work, with Aegis hovering nearby to help in any way she could. Small talk between Aegis and Rasua allowed the pair to pass the time when Twilight wasn’t directing her daughter’s attention to key points in the alchemical scanning process.

Even though Twilight had no interest in gaining hands for herself, she was still fascinated that the sphinx’s natural evolution would cause them to gain such a natural and highly specific shapeshifting. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think they were two different species who were perfectly fused into one.

Sadly, Twilight’s excitement over new scientific discoveries was interrupted by Gentle Touch.

Is she serious? I was going to spend the whole night with Ratchet on a romantic night out.

Twilight hummed in thanks.

Gentle started with supreme sarcasm.

Twilight half-raged,

Twilight was starting to lose focus on the data from the crystal.

Rainbow may be content with just being a general, but I need to bring her back in on this so she can learn how to curb the money hungry research teams.

Author's Note

Will the talbuks devour Applejack's orchard? Will Twilight find out she is actually her own grandmother? Will Cadista ever walk into Mordor? Will Blitz wake up as a minotaur gone wrong?!

Possibly none of this and more, next time on CotH!!

15: Concerns of Tomorrow

The Queen of Planning herself had done it! Together with Gentle Touch and her civic planners they leveraged the life out of every last bit that Cadista had granted her. The economy of Phoenix’s Roost was getting the booster shot it so desperately needed. Between numerous purchases of building materials, food, and enough coal to keep her merchant fleet operational for the year, Twilight’s planning would start making dividends within six months.

Most importantly to the queens, egg production was back into full blast. A term Rainbow Dash found most amusing.

At the moment, Twilight was ‘marinating’ a clutch as she walked into her alchemy lab. Much to her surprise, she found Aegis studying her notes on Rasua’s forelimbs. The purple princess had not gone so far as to break out any reagents or pull out the glass-bound arrays though. “So, you finally have something to make you interested in alchemy?”

Aegis dropped the scrolls and buzzed over to nuzzle her queen-mother. Several drones started filtering into the room behind Twilight. Aegis greeted each of them good morning before refocusing on Twilight. “If you made Aunty learn alchemy, then it’s only fair to Blitz that I do the same.”

“Uh huh, and this sudden desire wouldn’t stem from the prospect of hands, would it?” Twilight replied with sly narrowed eyes.

“Hey, it worked with Aunty and her wings.” Aegis shrugged while grinning sheepishly up at her mother.

“Ha! Well, let’s see if I can instill more interest beyond just hands by the time we’re done. Come along, and take notes on everything. I roped in all of mother’s alchemists so we should cut down on research time with this many minds.”

“Where is Gramma anyway?”

Twilight aura and voice became rigidly neutral. “She had some things to take care of before she scrambled herself.”

The fires over Stripped Gear were long gone. The once glorious and proud techno-city sat in utter ruin with heavy columns of steam and ash drifting from cracks in the ground as the caldera stirred at a lethargic rate. Lava bubbled up after overwhelming the subterranean crystal factory and oozed up through the sewers. It would not be too long before the volcano reclaimed what it owned.

For a hive that was completely ruined and a ticking time bomb for an eruption, Stripped Gear was not abandoned. Cadista walked through the broken buildings and corpse covered streets. Clouds of carrion birds and insects blanketed the whole area even though the feast of flesh was winding down.

Even the Day of Mourning could not completely heal the wounds upon her heart. She refused to dwell on it however. If I start thinking about any of this… I don’t know if I could summon the will to leave alive.

A mountain of broken brass and steel towered in front of Cadista who stopped a few blocks away from it. She could make out various balconies, her old quarters, and even the receiving hall where Celestia first met Twilight after her rebirth. I should recreate that room in a crystal. That at least needs to be remembered.

Thankfully, Cadista’s destination was not in the palace itself, but the adjacent hatchery. The angle at which the palace collapsed gave her hope that the object of her search wasn’t buried under tons of rubble.

The hatchery entrance was rather nondescript by design with just a slightly larger than normal iris door. Ghosts of the past haunted Cadista’s vision. She could almost see the Honor Guard still standing in front of the now ruined door that had been compromised by the collapse.

Cadista carefully avoided the twisted metal around the entrance before stepping into the darkened downward slanted corridor. The palace’s destruction had cracked the ceiling in several places, but nothing looked like it was on the brink of imminent collapse. Instead it was the nose burning volcanic gasses which worried Cadista more than anything. Damn, the nursery is the lowest point of the hatchery. If I had waited any longer to come here, I don’t think even a heat suit would keep me from cooking...

Luckily Cadista had prepared for this. She wore a silvery full body suit with cooling runes and enchantments draping every square inch of it. She opened her saddle bag and pulled out a gas mask and donned it quickly. Bringing up a flashlight, Cadista hobbled on three legs through the low ceiling passageway into the hatchery beyond. To think my height is now a detriment.

A wandering thought nagged at her that she should have puppeted a drone for this. No. I have to do this in person.

It didn’t take long to arrive at the abandoned hatchery. The once well lit room now had several dim lights crowding the walls and ground.

Now that she was no longer in the tight corridor, Cadista could look out into the vast chamber. The glass tubes that had bore eggs for generations were mostly smashed and broken with only a few escaping destruction.

Ruptured steam pipes and dislodged gears blanketed the walls and ground below. Errant sounds bounced around the room from a handful of chitin bound drones scavenging the area with light spells guiding their greedy eyes.

Cadista’s ire surged at the extent to which the ground-floor air vents and pipes had been broken open by the careless drones. Figures. Even if these strains can survive this heat, not many reagents could. A look at some of the drones revealed several bladders along their legs and barrel that contained the spoils. Well, if they’re so content to steal from me, it’s only right I return the favor.

Cadista noted that several flights of stairs were still intact and crept down them as quietly as possible on three legs. The half dozen thieves were too focused on eating the reagents, filling their bladders with anything of worth. As soon as Cadista got close to the ground, she mentally latched onto each drone without their notice. ... Strange, I can’t tell what queen they belong to. Looks like somepony is learning how to better hide their hive signature. Either way, I better subvert them before she realizes I’m here.

Since the suit and ambient heat made pheromone use impossible, Cadista summoned up a massive burst of psionic power. She blasted into the six drones’ minds and quickly severed them from their hive mind.

The thieves gathered in a circle around Cadista and genuflected. While Rainbow Dash would have needed to use her pheromones, Cadista’s ancient will was more than enough to dominate six non-puppeted drones. Not exactly sure what to do with these husks when I leave. Killing them might be suspect, and I don’t want anypony thinking I was here.

Leaving the problem for later, Cadista indicated to an intact door off to the western end where the nursery was.

Without a word, the six drones leveled their horns at the door and blasted the door. All the attack did was char the paint.

Cadista shook her head in annoyance. The six fired off a deep freeze spell and then started ramming the door to break it. A good try, but the hatchery doors won’t weaken under freezing temperatures. No point in letting them just stand there uselessly.

Cadista sensed the metal was starting to grow hot from the magma below, but not quite to the point where the gears should be compromised. The cold should have worked. I guess the door construction was better than I remember. Fortune smiled upon her as Cadista worked her magic to crank the gears manually after disengaging the lock.

She only waited until the door was half open before squeezing through into the nursery. “Glad this room’s vents and pipes were all along the ceiling.” Cadista checked her suit for damage before looking for the spot where Twilight Sparkle’s chrysalis had been located.

The chrysalis’ location had been completely deliberate. Half of that was because this was the spot where Yumia and Cadista had always rebirthed themselves. The other half lay in the floor. Cadista leaned down on stiff joints. Between the staples keeping some of her stitches in place, and the gauze still wrapped around her chest, it took supreme effort to not only dissipate her pain across the hive mind, but to do so without Twilight finding out. She doesn’t need to know I’ve been here until I return.

Cadista scanned the steel plated floor with her magic and found a latch that responded only to her magical hoofprint. She pulled the plate off to find a grey urn with a sealed cover. It was a rather plain object with a single handle on one side and a stylized gear imprint. Yumia. I would never be able to rest unless our ashes were scattered together.

A shuddering sob shook Cadista to her bones as she held the urn as tight as she dared. “You watched over Twilight when she became one of us. Thank you for protecting her against the formless beast of her wandering dreams. It is only right that you protect Blitz during her rebirth.” A small bit of mirth crept into her mind. Aegis had Burny to keep her safe after all.

Cadista tucked the urn into a padded section of her saddlebag and turned to leave. Not wanting to stay in the shattered ruins of her multi-lifelong home lest it rob her of all will to live. Cadista departed the hatchery and made towards the waiting gunship beyond the hive’s walls. The commandeered drones obediently trailing behind their new mistress.

Even so, that didn’t stop her from taking one last look at Stripped Gear once she reached the lip of the caldera. Kreesus. Do I listen to my heart or do I listen to Twilight’s in how I should deal with you?

One of the drones caught her eye, making her scowl. “Well, at the very least you six will make excellent alchemy subjects after we pry some secrets out of you. Who knows, you might make good intelligent drones some day.”

“We live by your will, our queen,” they replied in perfect unison.

Cadista groaned. “I can barely stand six of you doing that. I don’t know how the other queens can actually enjoy such mindless children. Come along then.”

It took some wheeling and cajoling, but Cadista finally got Twilight to stop nagging her about going back to the jungle without having to play the ‘recovering my soulmate’s ashes’ card. It helped that Cadista was able to present six able and willing alchemy subjects, especially since Twilight was loath to do such testing on her intelligent children.

Cadista hobbled through the hatchery of Phoenix’s Roost with her soulmate’s urn wrapped in silk. A few caretakers flittered to and fro; making sure each cocoon’s occupant was in good health and topped off with love. There was a rhythmic order to it all that surpassed even Cadista’s cadre of caretakers.

I’ll tell her the real reason I went back home later when she won’t feel so guilt ridden about not getting to my hive quickly enough to save it.

Cadista passed all the way through to the nursery. She had expected to have to call a caretaker to lower Blitz’s chrysalis from the upper racks, but as it turned out, it was down on the ground floor. She startled a little to find Aegis curled up in front of Blitz’s pod reading a thick notebook. Shouldn’t she be at the marshaling yard doing ballet with Burny?

Keeping the urn secured in her saddlebag, Cadista limped forward and drew Aegis’ attention in the process. “Studying your mother’s alchemy notes, I see.”

Aegis jumped to hind legs with a quick wing buzz. “Hey, Gramma! You caught me. I just wanted to keep Blitz company while I studied.”

Cadista smirked and shook her head. Still doesn’t have any forbearance towards me. She’s gotten even worse since becoming a princess. I blame her mother. “Strange what it takes to get you to sit and study.”

“Yeah… well.” Aegis turned back to Blitz’s pod. “While I work with Mom at night, I like to spend my mornings down here with Blitz. She’s going to be my other half after all. I can’t wait till she wakes up so I can link my mind directly with her, ya know, instead of mom and Aunty being a proxy between us.”

Cadista hummed contemplatively at the bipedal princess. “And what does ‘other half’ mean to you, young one?”

“Exactly that,” Aegis deadpanned. She leaned gently against Blitz’s pod, letting her love for her passively feed her counterpart. Cadista’s disapproving eye gave Aegis the creeps. Gramma wants more than a simple explanation. “Well, we’ve all seen how wound together momma and aunty are. They flow around each other like water, catching problems the other misses. Although sometimes I think they do that on purpose, overlook things that is, to leave problems the other is better at dealing with. Whenever they’re in the same room they talk in unison a lot, sometimes whole speeches. It’s really cool.

“I like to think that mom and aunty have become two hemispheres of a single brain. I want to be like that with Blitz as quickly as possible. Maybe before we even become proto-queens.”

Cadista was assailed by old memories of Yumia. I see. So I was right. When two queens share a single hive and love each other as Yumia and I did, they reach a heightened level of understanding between them. Though perhaps brain hemispheres is a bit much.

“Well I’m glad to see you taking care of your counterpart.” Cadista pulled out the urn and gently removed the cloth before showing it to Aegis. She drew up enough composure to keep her voice level as Aegis inspected the urn from afar. “These are Yumia’s ashes. It was her last wish to watch over the love producing daughter, your mother, our efforts would eventually create.”

“Oh,” Aegis replied awkwardly and fluttered her wings out of anxiety. “I guess it worked since mom turned out to be a pretty solid queen, am I right?”

If Cadista caught onto Aegis nervousness, she made no show of it. “I like to think Yumia would be happy to watch over another princess. After all, you can’t stay down here in the nursery all the time.”

“But isn’t she already watching us from the Silver City?”

Cadista nodded as she hobbled over to sit next to Aegis. “She is. I guess I’m just a sentimental old mare.”

“Well…” Aegis scuffed her hoof on the resin floor. “If you really think Yumia would be willing to watch over Blitz I’ll take all the help I can get.”

Cadista couldn’t help but to smile at Aegis’ stalwart protection of Blitz. It was more than just innate loyalty shared by all those of the same hive. It was real love that came from Blitz choosing to be her life-long companion with her only hesitation being whether or not she was the correct choice for Aegis. That is the bedrock for what should follow for centuries to come. “It might do nothing,” Cadista admitted. She noticed a maintenance panel behind Blitz’s cocoon and popped it open. There was just enough space for the urn. “But I like to think Yumia’s presence here is meaningful.”

Aegis watched Cadista’s reverent actions with sorrow. “She must have been the world to you.”

Cadista lovingly rubbed the urn before closing the panel. “She was.” Cadista turned to give Aegis a warning look. “Bonded queens are strong together… but when ones dies.” Cadista debated on whether or not she should tell the truth. She affixed Aegis a stern gaze. “Part of the survivor dies with her.”

“If that's true... then all this time it must have been very hard on you.” Aegis hugged her grandmother to try and cheer her up. “Depression isn’t healthy to suppress you know.”

“Perhaps.” Cadista gave a quick hug in return before taking to the air. “Just make sure of one thing, Aegis. You are the soldier, and Blitz the scholar. Protect her, Aegis, do what I could not.”

“Ha, you don’t even need to tell me once! Blitz’ll never be hurt so long as I’m at her side.” Aegis clenched her metal fist and stared at Cadista with burning passion. “Believe it!”

Ventras sat the head of his audience chamber going over a written proposal of new zoning legislation to accommodate the flood of immigrants. A collection of half-finished letters he was writing to the Federal government were scattered on the conference table, though most of them just required his final signature. Between him and Thaddeus, the pair had written all of the necessary process reports and made sure taxes were collected and waiting for the currently docked naval ship to end shore leave before sending the letters and tax money back to the homeland.

However, one letter in particular was for the Council of Thirteen itself. Even as his read the rezoning proposal, the council letter was still at the forefront of his mind. I need funds to buy whatever tech the changelings are willing to part with, and some they’re not. Luckily, the Alliance values gold, unluckily, I need more solid evidence outside of a single display of power. Otherwise I’ll never sell it to the council to fund purchasing fire weapons. After all, every tom has his price.

In the mean time, I might be able to scrounge up enough funds to buy a shuttle of theirs at least. Anything to give some insight into an aerial navy.

Ventras’ review over the legislation halted when he heard the main doors open and the blizzard outside dusted the whole floor with snow. The frigid cold blasting its way inside before the guards could close it. Thaddeus marched in from the cold with a face to match as he scanned the few gathered politicians seated around the table. He turned to the court spell-dancer who was waiting in attendance. “Heldera, we require a privacy screen.”

“As you wish, Majordomo.” It was a common request, so Heldera already had the necessary scrolls prepared. She held one hand on one of the scrolls and had the other open towards Ventras and the Thaddeus. “Prying eyes and straining ears are trouble, so protect those here and make it double.” Everyone save the spell-singer and two of Ventras’ most trusted guards left for the west wing out of traditional courtesy to continue their work.

A slight sheen enveloped the room and coalesced around the governor and majordomo. To anyone else, anything the pair said would be gibberish along with their mouth movements being desynchronized with what they were really saying.

“I hope you bear news from my daughter.”

“I do, in fact, although the news is beyond troubling, and yet intriguing all the same.” Thaddeus produced two envelopes. The first bore a broken wax seal of her family crest with the second bearing the intact mark of the Sestapo. “These changelings are far more dangerous than I ever thought possible.”

Ventras furrowed his brow, and took the letters and started reading the one meant for him.

Dear Father, and Oath-brother who always reads my father’s mail.

I have been well treated as far as I can tell. My needs are met, and I have been given time to acclimate to their society. But I will not waste paper on needless details.

Your concerns were accurate. These changelings have psykers after all, but the problem is that they ARE ALL PSYKERS!

Yes, every last one of them has at least some measure of psychic ability ranging from the most common capabilities of empathy and intraspecies communication to outright psionic attacks on account of the royal caste. You must be careful when dealing with any changeling diplomat or traders outside of a muton damping field because even their weakest members can get a read on your emotions. Fortunately for diplomacy, I expect any diplomat to have an understanding of that precaution, and that those fields don’t interfere with their seemingly limitless communication range. I must warn you, father, that the worst part is that these psionic abilities are so pervasive among their kind that they seem to have no code of conduct regarding the use of these abilities, and use them on an almost minute by minute basis.

Ventras’ hand was shaking from a mix of utter horror and, heaven help him, morbid curiosity in equal measures. “By the Eternal Cycle. My little huntress is stuck in the middle of a nest of psykers!?”

“Aye, my lord. We are blessed to have been born in our… liberal province. I think that alone kept her sane. As for these pskyer changelings, I can only hope that their royal family follows some moral code akin to the Psykira. At the very least, far more than our imperial families did.”

Ventras brooded over the first contact visit. “…Queen Twilight Sparkle showed restraint in demonstrating her ship’s destructive power until my ignorance forced her hand. I can only hope they show similar self-control with their psionics as well.”

“That hope is all we have,” Thaddeus replied with deep concern coloring his tone. “Or else she could be their mind puppet when and if she returns. This letter might be censored if she is already under their influence.”

Ventras reclaimed the envelope and sighed in relief at finding two pin feathers within. One was completely covered in soot while the other had red dye on it. “No. At least not yet. The wording and these feathers tell me her will hasn’t been compromised. Her training would have allowed her some measure of protection from being fully enslaved.”

Thaddeus could only hope his old friend was correct.

As mentioned previously, the changelings have no psionic regulation to speak of. Princess Aegis Altair described their reasoning as if we were to regulate the use of our hands. Psionics are such an integral part of their lives that their society would break down without it. And before you try, I have attempted to suppress Aegis’ psionics with my apprenticeship medallion, with her cooperation of course. But our methods only seem to deny them their empathy, not the intraspecies communication.

Ventras cooed at that little tidbit. “So not only can our towers block their empathy, but suppression medallions can do that as well. That might explain why the two queens always seemed to hesitate a little every time before speaking.”

“I thought that as well, Ventras. Though she never states as much in her letter, I fear greatly for Rasua. Being around all those psykers will undoubtedly diminish the dampening effect of her medallion. As far as I know, the Sestapo doesn’t test its low level members for psionic abilities.”

“Yes, I’m sure my daughter is well aware of that as well,” Ventras replied worriedly. “I’ll have extra dampeners sent to her.”

The other bit of information I have is that the Deception is as destructive as we feared. On our way to the changeling city, we were summoned as reinforcements to a besieged ally. Upon arrival we were beset by hundreds of thousand hostile changelings.

They are a highly divided people.

These changelings were very different from those who hail from Phoenix's Roost. These were more like insects. Clad in chitin and apparently possessing a complete lack of self-preservation. They threw themselves into the warship’s weapons en masse, and were slaughtered wholesale. I still think our own lightning cannons could have performed far more favorably against so many unprotected fliers.

However, even with such destructive power, the hostile changelings nearly overwhelmed us twice. You would be proud to know that I assisted in repulsing both assaults with our final victory in the skies being only possible because of my actions. For that, I have garnered an extreme amount of respect. Even if Princess Aegis Altair fails to act like it.

Ventras was caught between being troubled by such a numerous enemy that could overwhelm such a mighty warship, and intense pride in his daughter bringing honor to family and nation alike. Well done, my little huntress. I will have to make sure to send some of those Grecian Delights that she loves so much.

Oddly enough though, it seems the Deception is the only large warship they have. There are other smaller airships called gunboats, but nothing comparable to the frigate itself. Queen Twilight Sparkle and Queen Rainbow Dash rule a highly industrialized citystate of about ten thousand. However, it is still only a single city for the time being. Equestria is the one who has the lion’s share of the Alliance’s territory and population.

“Cel’thera! I should have known they were playing us like fools. Only a single true warship!?”

“To be fair, old friend,” Thaddeus placated. “I think the Deception along with its marine contingent would have been enough to cause catastrophic damage if we had called their bluff. Though I must give them credit for properly naming that vessel.”

Ventras grumbled in mutual respect. “Nevertheless, it changes little. We have nothing that can bring down a lightning immune airship. We’re going to need to fight fire with fire to do that.”

“I’m sure the council will come to the same conclusion.”

“Let us hope.”

I have included other critical details by the numbers on a third letter which should arrive within a week or so. Please be sure that Sestapo Commander Flarasa receives this letter’s companion.

May summer’s showers always enrich your harvest.

Your loving daughter,
Rasua Talarn

Ventras looked up at Thaddeus who was gritting his teeth. “The rest is most intruiging indeed.”

Reaching into a chest pocket, Ventras withdrew a small pouch and flipped the letter over to sprinkle the contents onto the back. As soon as he blew the dust away a shorter message appeared.

The railroad has a final station.

Ventras hummed with profound amusement. “Well, well. It looks like things are going to get very exciting around here. Thaddeus, we have preparations to make for ‘special’ immigrants, and we’ll have the backing of the local Sestapo as well.”

“This is a dangerous game, old friend,” Thaddeus warned. “We must exercise extreme caution.”

“Have no fear, my friend,” Ventras replied as he took a candle and burned his daughter’s letter. “I will not repeat the mistake of hubris after the fiasco with the Changelings’ display of power. We let the Sestapo do most of the work. The rest of us will just stay out of their way.”

Twilight Sparkle sighed in utter relaxation as she wiggled her way deeper into the steaming hot jacuzzi overlooking the gorgeous night sky. The balcony used to be the forward observation deck of the Ashes of the Phoenix, but now it was wide open to the cold night air.

Rarity’s expert touch had brought it to life with a few strategically placed palm trees, and the floor completely covered in sand to give it that ‘at the beach’ feel. Various other details such as mini-tiki huts, a bamboo bar, a stereo system that played ocean noises, and lounge chairs rounded out the look and atmosphere. It wasn’t her usual style, but when given a canvas as massive as a castle, the fashionista branched out.

Normally this place was open to everyone, but for tonight, Twilight Sparkle and Ratchet had it all to themselves, and she was loving every second of it.

Ratchet was snuggled up next to her, with only his nose above the bubbling water. Between a candlelight dinner, a play put on by the nymphs, and three hours of horseplay, Ratchet was completely worn out. He was more than content to remain latched onto his queen and lover and let the hot water melt away all the tension he had built up in his body.

For her part, Twilight was content to do the same, only that she kept most of her face above water so she could watch the twinkling stars. It would take more than being reborn into a changeling to rid Twilight of her love for the heavens above. Who knows. I might end up living long enough to go there.

Ratchet said while keeping only his nose above water.

Twilight jabbed him playfully in the ribs while letting loose a good laugh. The hit wasn’t enough to make him surface. The fact that her old foalsitter’s book was helping her children this way made Twilight giggle maniacally.

Ratchet pulled himself up to the surface and planted a kiss on her check. Twilight shifted so he could hold her in his forelegs.

Those same forelegs that helped guide her along her chosen path. Twilight started channeling a spell to cool their body cores so neither of them would overheat. No reason we need to cut this night short on account of a little boiling.

Twilight buried herself into Ratchet’s embrace. She relished this all too rare time she had with him beyond just sleeping in the same bed. Yet it created some mild conflict within her. She loved nights with him, but as queen, Twilight was one half of the heart and soul of the hive. It was actually difficult for her to want to set aside time away from always improving her home.

I think RD’s right. I needed this so I can give even more of myself to the hive.

Nuzzling deeper into Ratchet’s soaked fur, Twilight let half of her mind lose itself in Ratchet’s company, while the other half communed with the Link. I am more than just a nexus, more than a queen-mother. The hive is an extension of me and my sister.

Twilight felt her awareness filter through thousands of eyes, feeling what her children felt, hearing what they heard, all with Ratchet acting like an anchor. The sensation went beyond mere words. Love, joy, surprise, mirth, irritation, delight, anger, lust, she felt it all as her children felt them.

Ratchet’s voice cut through to Twilight, making her shrink back into herself. Twilight had to blink as her awareness returned to normal.

“We have one hour, ten minutes, and thirty eight seconds before I should get to bed. We can talk about whatever.”

Ratchet knew exactly what that meant. The hive was everything to her, as was expected from a queen. What that meant to Ratchet was that she wanted to talk about it. “So how’d it go with the new capital ship we got? I heard you weren’t happy with the preliminary budget allocation.”

“Oh ho ho, no I most definitely was not! I had to curtail all that spending to a fifth of their original estimate. Just enough for them to make changes to the oil refinery and make a few of those biplanes of theirs. Did you get a chance to see them yet?”

Ratchet knew it didn’t take much. All he had to do was speak of engineering so that Twilight would swing the conversation around to a more precise topic. All of it so she wouldn’t lose that romantic touch to the night. I’m so glad she dove into engineering like she did. I wouldn’t be able to hold a real conversation with her otherwise.

“Only briefly, sadly. I was called away before I could see much.”

“Did you at least get a chance to investigate the Octavia fluid? Truly remarkable stuff.”

“Octavia? Must have missed it.”

Twilight look a long sluggish breath and dunked her head under water.

Ratchet nuzzled her lovingly. Even though Twilight couldn’t feed off that love, she wouldn’t trade him for anyone. “So… what? Is it a replacement for coal and oil or is it steam 2.0?”

Twilight raised her head out of the water and let go of her breath. “If anything, it would be the coolant, actually. Octavia, far and above anything else, is an excellent magic conductor. It absorbs the pegasi magic our engines generate and allows them to spread the field over a far greater area. This allows greater engine efficiency. Once energized with magic, the Octavia is pumped through the external pipes that loop around the hull. The pipes have catalyzing rods in them distributed along their lengths. The rods cause the Octavia to release its stored magic, and that means the pegasi magic can be released along the length of the ship. As a result, one sufficiently powerful engine can lift an entire ship.”

Ratchet hugged her tight, only for Twilight to return it. “Seems a little too complex for such a small combat vehicle though. A lot of things can go wrong with it, and the pilot would be too busy flying to fix anything.”

“Then we better make sure nothing does,” she responded with a long yawn.

Twilight’s snuggle was interrupted by the familiar feeling of eggs dropping into the ready position. I can wait to get them fertilized until the morning, right now is Ratchet Time. Twilight adjusted her cool spell to extend over her egg sack before refocusing on Ratchet. She fell asleep in his forelegs shortly after that. Ratchet took over the spell to keep their bodies cool and held her tight to keep her head above water. It helped that he was nearly as tall as she was.

Ratchet smiled at the former librarian’s peaceful face. It was the same expression she always wore when she was snuggled up to him. With a slight laugh, he magically pulled her wet mane away from her eyes and kissed her muzzle. Rest easy, my love.

Author's Note

Will the hijacked drones turn into the Mane 6's body doubles? Will Rasua ever find true love's kiss? Will Twilight accidentally cast a want-it-need it spell on a talbuk? Can Cadista candidly create corndogs? Will Lun... I mean Batmare ever defeat Two-Mare?

Maybe some of this and moooore! Next time on the next Hive book!

1: Reconstitution

Deep within a chittering hive of the Cresnox Jungle, chitin shelled changelings writhed in anticipation. Today was a day of truth. Deep in the bowels of their hive, a vast cavern housed over a thousand prisoners from Equestria alone. Every last one of them in that dim lit prison was encased in a green pod keeping them in a blissful dream.

Drones crawled all over the pods, making sure their chief sources of love remained alive and bountiful. Unwanted and forgotten by their own governments, the criminals satiated the boundless hunger of a trio of princess changelings situated in the center of the circular cave. Numerous love crystals, both full and drained laid scattered around the princesses while Queen Chrysalis herself silently studied her latest brood.

The princesses only partially resembled their mother. Chrysalis’ signature black chitin covered the young changelings’ neck, the upper forelegs, and the front half of their barrel. Chitin also covered the top of their hip, but the hind legs, lower forelegs, flanks, and face were all covered in light purple furry skin. Their translucent gossamer wings had a hint of blue to them, save for the leading edges baring stark crimson colors. Their deep emerald reptilian eyes were wide with a child’s curiosity. Most of their manes and tails were colored dark purple, and had stripes of cerulean along the left-center.

All three of them looked up at their mother with wonder and a hint of fear. Sensing as much, Chrysalis knelt down to give them a caring hug. “There, there my little ones. You are always safe with momma.”

Mimicking her love collectors was getting easier, and Chrysalis felt genuine warmth for the three little nymphs wrapped around her forelegs. She looked down at the nymph in the center. The little one’s aura glowed in a way that was still novel to Chrysalis, an aura that emanated love. The rich syrupy flavor of intended love was unmistakable.

The nymph on the left gave her mother love as well, but Chrysalis’ mood soured when the nymph on the right failed to produce love. The children noticed their mother’s falling mood. Those that could produce love clung tightly to their mother, whimpering all the while. The love they were producing turned bitter with the flavor of fear. The third nymph couldn’t understand why her mother was angry with her, and started whimpering for forgiveness.

Destroying this failure might be a mistake. I’ll have to find another use for her. Doing her best to look reassuring, Chrysalis stroked the third nymph’s mane, calming all three of them in the process.

Buzzing wings brought Chrysalis’ gaze up to two of her sisters’ drones. Both of which were already puppets of their queens. “Yeelindrus, Jstrul, how fares your progeny?” While Jstrul’s puppet was mostly calm, Yeelindrus’ was seething.

“I’ve followed your first plan so far,” Jstrul’s puppet replied with mixed resentment. “All three are still producing love. I try to keep them together so they can feed each other. Thus far, they are responding well to instruction.”

Chrysalis looked to her youngest sister’s puppet with the obvious question on her lips. Yeelindrus grumbled, having never been able to hide her emotions through her puppet. Chrysalis’ hardening look brought enough fear to break through the anger. “I have failed. Chiccadi doesn’t produce love anymore. All three of my royal children are worthless!” she hissed with barely contained malice. “I should just kill the useless love sinks.”

“Must you always fail at everything,” Jstrul sneered. Yeelindrus’ puppet bolted forward to kill the other drone, but was stopped short by Chrysalis’ telekinesis. “Not in front of the nymphs, dear sisters.” The nymphs cowered around their mother. “This confirms my theory; both Twilight’s blood and an overly caring upbringing are necessary. We cannot raise them like mother did us, if we want them to keep producing love.”

Chrysalis levitated a few teething toys over and let the nymphs distract themselves. With their mother seemingly placated, the love they produced surged upward as they stayed close to Chrysalis for warmth and protection. The surge did not go unnoticed by Chrysalis.

“Yet mother’s ways are what allowed us to thrive as queens,” Jstrul stated defiantly while stamping a hoof on the ground. “This soft approach may allow them to produce love, but they will be failures as adults.”

“She’s right about that,” Yeelindrus commented begrudgingly. “We are only alive today because mother’s cruelty was necessary to survive the jungles, and I hate her for that.”

“Which is why I allowed you to be the one to slit her throat,” Chrysalis replied evenly so her own hatred would go unnoticed by the nymphs.

“So what do we do?” Jstrul half demanded of her elder sister. “Sneak back into the Everfree Forest to hypnotize one of Twilight’s consorts again?”

Chrysalis summoned several caretakers to take the nymphs back to their chambers. “No, we don’t have the time anymore. We must enact phase one now while the other queens think we are still marshalling our forces. We have been fortunate to hide our royal daughters thus far, but they will soon be old enough to send ripples through our respective hive minds.”

Jstrul bowed to her older sister. “I will make preparations immediately.”

“As will I, dear sister.”

“One thing before I go,” Jstrul said before she let go of her puppet. “What of Phoenix’s Roost? You have yet to tell us what must be done with those two.”

“Yes, we’ll have enough trouble getting rid of the competition in the jungle as it is, the last thing we’ll need are Equestrians sticking their snouts were they don’t belong.”

Chrysalis chuckled darkly at her sisters’ concerns. “Never mind the hybrids. I will make sure they have no reason to interfere. We can deal with them once the jungle is ours.”

Roughly a thousand miles north, pillars of smoke rose from the center of a huge swath of clear cut forest. Surrounding the concentrated mass of buildings in the center were sweeping fields of fallow farmlands that were now blanketed in several feet of snow. Even with a cadre of drones using earth pony magic, none of them had mastered the art of a winter growing season. Their only source of food outside of trade, were two greenhouse airships, and they could never produce enough.

Winter was in full swing in Equestria, and the Everfree forest, it seemed, wanted to outdo the pony driven storm systems by dumping four times as much snow than any weather team would ever permit. Rainbow Dash often commented how the Forest’s wild nature was taunting both pony and changeling alike with harsher untameable weather.

Amidst the soot and snow covered hive, Twilight Sparkle was starting to suffer a migraine over the figures she, Gentle Touch, and half a dozen other accountants were going over. Of all the changeling hives in existence, only two ever had need for currency, and the all mighty bit was always in short supply in Phoenix’s Roost.

Within a cramped room in her palace, Twilight Sparkle wiped her brow of sweat to keep the ledger she was crouched over dry. A wall vent pumped hot air into the squarish room, giving the five bean-counting changelings a comparatively rare comfort. Aside from the gentle sound of scribbling quills, and the droning vent, abacuses ticked constantly.

Twilight Sparkle didn’t like what she saw in the numbers, but she was never one to shy away from hard evidence. “We’ll have to cut the PR campaign entirely. There’s no way we can afford it anymore.” Not if RD and I wish to keep our egg production at full.

Gentle Touch sighed in agreement, but one of the younger accountants looked up from his work and spoke with a cautionary tone. “Are you sure that is wise, my queen? Our original estimates said it would take another five years or so before we achieve the same level of acceptance as griffins or donkeys have in the eyes of the typical pony. Cutting it off now could prolong that effort by a decade.”

“We’ll just have to keep our progress going with normal interactions from here on,” Gentle Touch replied diplomatically. She had been the one to originally suggest cutting the program, and she gave an internal sigh of relief that her queen had finally came around.

“If we’re going along those lines, my queen,” piped up another accountant, “we might want to reevaluate Princess Luna’s proposal to arm the Night Guard with the rifles she requested.”

“For the last time, Ticket Counter…” Twilight pinched her muzzle as a migraine started hammering from inside her skull. “…We may not have much choice, will we?” The fear of her rifles and cannons ending up in the hands of armies across the continent had stayed her hoof at selling weapons up until now, but the hive’s future was at stake. I don’t want us start mooching off of Equestria by asking for hoof-outs.

This was the first time Twilight had shown hesitation on this matter, giving Ticket Counter the courage he needed. Even then, he knew to be careful. “We keep it restricted to the Equestrian military only. We are allied with them after all.”

Twilight had one of the other accountants adjust his overall estimates. “It would go a long way, but Luna’s request was fairly small. It won’t be enough.”

Having his championed proposal accepted, Ticket wisely resumed his seat. He left it to others to come forward, and he didn’t have to wait long. The youngest accountant, a mare by the name of Dividends, started speaking while rechecking her findings on a scroll. “Then what about stopping egg production entirely.” Twilight felt a chill at the suggestion. “Our biggest expenditure by far is food and nursery maintenance.”

“We can’t afford to stop now,” Twilight replied with forced emotionlessness. She couldn’t afford to let emotions drive this decision. “We need as many drones as possible for supporting Stripped Gear when the other queens go to war.”

“With all due respect, my queen,” Dividends pressed with more than a little worry at giving the proposal. It was common knowledge among the hive that both queens relished laying eggs every day. “We also need war materials to support grandmother even more so than we need soldiers at this point. Not to mention that in all likelihood, any eggs you or Aunty lay from here on will contribute nothing to the war by the time they’re adults.”

Twilight sighed wearily. Her queenly instincts to lay eggs had been sated for three years straight. The idea of lessening her laying rate shook her badly. Leveraging her experience, Twilight silenced that ill-at-ease from projecting too far over the Link. “Okay, cutting back on egg production would allow us to ease up on several other restrictions.” We could afford repurposing factory two back to war production which would allow us to manufacture the supplies Rainbow’s been too embarrassed to ask for. “But we still have to think long term. I’ll talk to Rainbow about curbing production down to one fourth.”

Gentle Touch listened to the group hurry to reallocate the various budgets. She joined in the activity as well. It wasn’t long before an idea to occur to her. She looked up to Twilight who was visibly less tense, and was actually chuckling a little. Seems like her quick discussion with Rainbow Dash went well. But if we’re going to start selling more than just manufactured civic goods to Equestria… “Curbing egg production is a great start, my queen,” Twilight and a few others turned to listen. As Twilight’s chief advisor, Gentle’s words carried almost as much weight as either queen. “But I must press the need to seriously consider the implications of accepting Luna’s request. We may only be equipping and supplying her Night Guard at the moment, should Equestria be brought into a… peacekeeping action, we may have to shift more of our industrial base to war production. Ever since the dragon matriarch’s assassination, seemingly by a group of ponies, our alliance has been on high alert. If—”

“Spike will never let a war break out,” Twilight cut in with stern belief. “Put more faith in my little brother than that.” A pang of pride and longingness traced her thoughts.

I knew she’d react this way, but I had to voice it. Gentle Touch raised her hooves in defeat and sat back down.

Twilight’s eyes recentered on the ledger, but her mind was on her scaly brother in Canterlot. If he hadn’t stayed with the last Great Dragon migration while I was searching for Rookhaven, he’d never have had enough clout with the rest of the dragonkin to act as an ambassador. I know Chrysalis was behind the assassination, but there’s no damn proof. Awfully convenient timing when mother’s spies tell me things are about to blow up in the jungle. I just wish her pride and posturing didn’t keep her from emigrating up here, or at least into the southern Chaos Lands.

The room settled back into relative silence. The overarching adjustments to the budget may have been decided upon, but the minute details still needed work. Before Twilight could dive too deeply into the wonderously exciting world of budget balancing, a strong pulse resonated throughout the hive mind. Having heard it once before, Twilight instantly knew what it was. Aegis is waking, at last.

All along the northwestern fields, two hundred changelings marched in step with their rifles strapped to their sides. A group of five drill sergeants made sure the mixed group of lavender and light blue drones moved in tight formation.

Trying her best to ignore the bone-bitingly frigid winds, Rainbow Dash observed the first company of riflelings that had an even mix between Twilight’s and Rainbow’s drones. Strapped across her back and in-between her buzzing wings, Rainbow Dash bore the weight of a particular flamethrower. Its name was engraved above the trigger guard: ‘Burny’.

While Rainbow had prepared and polished the weapon for the main event expected to occur before sundown, her primary focus was on the stone faced riflelings below. A group of thirty were alternating between marching on the ground in tight shoulder to shoulder formation and flying in a loose rectangle. The platoon she was focusing on at the moment had smoothly transitioned from a sprint around the inner hive to marching on the ground. They’re finally starting to shape up. The small grin she had faltered when a number of her children fumbled in rearing up into firing stance along a line formation. Slowly, at least. At the order to open fire, the front rank’s wings buzzed in a short burst of heavy force to counteract the expected recoil. The wind pushed the back rank’s rifles up, and some of them off their hooves entirely. They keep getting messed up by the soldier in front of them. I keep forgetting you can’t just brain dump my skill with handling turbulence into them. I’m going to have to find a way to correct that. There’s got to be a better way than to just ‘guess’ how much wingpower to use.

Shouting from the sergeants got everyone to get back in line within seconds to repeat the exercise. At the NCOs’ order, the soldiers’ first rank fired out into the open field, yet all anyone got was a resounding series of ‘clicks’. The back row recovered slightly faster from the first rank’s backwash. Another single word order commanded the first rank to kneel and begin using their telekinesis to mimic reloading, while the rank behind them dry fired as well.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t help but to drag a hoof over her face out of exasperation. Why did I have to pressure Twi so much to upgrade the army’s standard firearm to rifles? What good is a better weapon if we can’t even afford the powder and ball to train anypony to use them?! The poor state of the training program brought Rainbow’s insistence on retrofitting the Deception to the forefront of her mind. It was only recently that Rainbow came to realize just how expensive upgrading a warship actually was. Every day it sits in dry dock is another shipment it can’t make. At least the ship will be ready to launch in a week or so. Maybe I should just tell Sis that I’ll stop egg production so we can begin cutting food costs.

As with Twilight a few minutes later, Rainbow Dash felt her gut twist at the idea of lower her egg rate, let alone stopping it all together. It had become too much a part of her daily life, the thought of diminishing the growth of her children made her feel cold inside. “Stupid Summit. I knew the love reveal was big, but… We should be pouring our money into growing the hive, a thriving community, not a damned army!”

Fast movement off to the right caught Rainbow’s eye, and lifted her spirits a little. Flying in a chevron formation, three squadrons of Rainbow’s children engaged each other in a dogfight with two squads of purple drones hovering below to catch anyone who fell. Rainbow could feel the excitement, competitiveness, and snarkiness of her fliers, with a dash of fear added in. A fear of losing. I know that feeling all too well. Rainbow Dash let a proud grin cross her muzzle at the stunts her drones were pulling. Even if these drones were from unaltered clutches during Rainbow’s proto-queen stage, some of them were already proving stronger fliers than others.

Had she been her old self, Rainbow would have trumped it up to old fashioned drive to win, but Queen Rainbow Dash had to think more deeply on it. The longer she watched her prized fliers, the more curious she became. If they’re clones of me, then why are some better than others? Diet? More exercise? Is it possible that maybe they aren’t one hundred percent clones after all?

A pulse across the hive mind brought a huge, fang-filled toothy grin to her face. “Looks like Aegis is finally done baking.” Rainbow’s horn glowed brightly before she winked out existence, and reappeared near the Cave of Harmony. While black and grey pillars of smoke were starting to be a permanent fixture in the skies above, the ground and soil was meticulously cared for and cleansed by the Tea’la.

In fact, five Tea’la were in plant form around the entrance to the cave, both on the floor, and the top of the cave along the wall. They were held fast by their roots going deep. Their pollen absent during these frigid months. The Tea’la remained as guardians around the Tree, protecting both it and the changelings young from anything that may harm either.

Rainbow Dash nearly ran into Arya who was about to settle into plant form herself in one particularly inviting beam of sunlight she had just cleared of snow. “Oh, Ruler Rainbow!” She ran over, bringing the prismatic queen to an impatient halt. “Have you told sister about idea?”

Rainbow Dash could sense her sister was already down in the nursery. Aegis was moments from waking. It took monumental effort to avoid making excuses to brush the Tea’la off. “Arya, we’ve always made sure the soil anywhere near the Tree has been pollution free, and the new factories will not jeopardize that.” Arya raised a hoof and made to speak as Rainbow tried to leave, but Rainbow cut her off. “No, we still don’t have a budget to build a shield dome to capture the air pollution. You’ll have to do without it for a few more years or so. We're not going to be able to put enough focus into civilian needs until the shit storm down in the jungle either blows over or after it explodes. We'll be glad to build the air scrubbers once it's all over. Now, bye see ya later!”

Arya huffed as Rainbow sped off into the underground nursery. “So much fear of battle. I’d think she need bed mate, but she get one every day.” With nothing else to do at the moment, Arya cantered back over to the sunbeam and began to root herself. “When does fear end, and living begin?”

Rainbow left a prismatic contrail behind her on her path to the nursery. She blitzed past several drones before her wings kicked up a small tornado to come to a stop at the closed door to the nursery. Once the wind died down, she slammed a hoof on the wall panel to open the door. The massive chamber beyond still gave Rainbow pause, even after nearly four years of being a queen.

Inside were over three and a half thousand chrysalises, with an even split between lavender and blue pods. They were all attached in huge rows stretching two hundred chrysalises each. Massive reinforced concrete pillars bent the rows in a slight concave and supported the arched roof above. Catwalks, feed tubes, and steam pipes crisscrossed everywhere in an OCD level of organization and neatness.

With Twi’s drones running the show down here, I’m shocked they don’t have all of my kids on one side, and her kids on the other.

Casting the thought aside, Rainbow flew up and into one of the holes in the dense rows of pods left for safe flight. She sailed past thirty columns and took a sharp right to arrive at the hatching and cocooning center. Even with Aegis emerging from her chrysalis, other caretakers had to make sure the day’s twenty four nymphs were safely enclosed in their chrysalises before moving them to vacant spots later.

A small crowd had gather around the hatching area. Rainbow Dash saw her sister was already present, along with Aegis’ clutchmates. “Noo, I’m late! I’m late, cuuuurrrsssses!” By the time Rainbow finally landed with a heavy thud, Aegis was already trying to stand on shaky hooves while Intel and Ferrum helped her stand. The new princess looked exactly as she used to, save for possessing royal eyes and being a centimeter or two shorter than when she entered the cocoon. Aegis looked around at the gathered changelings right as Rainbow Dash flew over to hover beside her. “Hey kiddo, how was your nap?”

“Umm, very good, my queen,” Aegis replied with more than a little trepidation in her tone. “I guess.”

“Here, my daughter,” Twilight levitated a head-sized pale teal crystal shaped like the center starburst of Twilight’s cutie mark. Aegis’ confusion was painfully evident on both her face and emotional aura. “Before you entered your metaphormosis, you transcribed your memories into crystals like this.” Aegis took the crystal into her magic as Twilight surrendered it. At a silent command from Rainbow, everyone else gave the new princess some room.

“My memories are in that thing? Is that why I can’t remember anything before today?” Aegis’ wings buzzed at the irritating purple fluid covering her completely.

Rainbow Dash made sure to hide Burny behind her back for the moment and stepped forward to speak reassuringly. “Not exactly.” She gently tapped Aegis’ head. “They never left, they’re just hiding. Before entering your pod, you said to use this one first.”

“Umm, okay.” Aegis rotated the crystal in her magic to study it. Truth be told, she had no idea how to use it. A knowing glance from Twilight towards her sister gave Rainbow Dash the go ahead to gift Aegis the simple knowledge required.

Aegis glanced at Rainbow as the knowledge passed between them, but silent encouragement from both queens gave her every reason to trust them. The highly familiar two lavender drones behind her also nodded towards the crystal. She looked back at the gem with a mental shrug. Well, it’s not like I have anything else to do, except shower.

The crystal glowed with faint purple light as Aegis linked her mind with it. She gasped and her eyes widened as memories flooded into her: her last day as a drone, her dreams, along with her most important memories of Twilight, Rainbow, and her clutchmates. Various other crucial bits and pieces that Drone Aegis felt were critical to reestablish her personality as quickly as possible.

It took a minute to fully dive into the contents of the crystal and the moment her magic left the device, Aegis fainted to the deck. Intel and Ferrum were quick to pick her back up as Twilight used her magic to scan the princess’ snout for injury. “I feared as much. Such a sharp intake of important memories would require a short reboot.”

Ferrum hefted his sticky royal sister onto his back. “How long will she be out? Not another six months I hope.”

Rainbow Dash let off a snarky chuckle. “Hardly. She’ll be out of it long enough for us to clean her up in the showers. She should be up around the time we finish drying her off.”

In short order, the two queens and two drones got Aegis washed up and dry. Yet Aegis slept through that as well. So she was brought up to her new quarters, adjacent to Twilight and Rainbow's own in the reformed heart of the Ashes of the Phoenix: Phoenix Castle. The venerable colony ship had been broken down into pieces, save for this section. Deck plating had been reformed to convert the section to a rather plain, rectangular castle, bereft of any real exterior artwork. Rarity's plans for decorating the exterior had, sadly, never been fit into the budget.

Aegis awoke on a queen sized bed an hour later. Intel was sitting at the foot of the bed while reading a book. Ferrum was passing the time oiling Riposte’s blade. Rainbow Dash and Twilight were meditating on floor cushions. The prismatic queen had taken the flamethrower off and laid it down in front of her.

“Burny!” All eyes shot towards the blur of purple that bolted forward and scooped the weapon up. Aegis hugged the flamethrower tightly, nuzzling and kissing Burny all over. “I missed you so much!”

Twilight Sparkle huffed in exasperation. Great, I’ve got a pyromaniac for a royal daughter. I had half hoped she’d forget that, but at least she’s happy.

A supremely sour expression marred Ferrum’s features as he turned to Intel. “I can’t believe of everypony here, she goes for the flamer first.”

Missing her brother’s comment, Aegis looked up to her queens. “Momma, Aunty! I’d say I missed you, but it only feels like I went into the cocoon yesterday.”

Snickering all the while, Twilight wrapped her first hatchling up in a bear hug. The purple queen relished Aegis’ return to the waking world. “Well we certainly missed you.”

Aegis yelped as a cyan hoof ruffed up her mane. “I figured you’d want your hot coltfriend to be the first thing you see.”

Rainbow Dash joined in the hug with Intel and Ferrum joining the love buffet shortly thereafter. Aegis’ massive thirst for love was quickly slaked within seconds, but the five changelings remained in the loving embrace for over a minute before it broke. Now free of the tangle of limbs, Aegis turned to her siblings, with her eyes centering on Intel.

“By, the First Mother, you finally switched back to mare!” Intel rubbed the back of her head in mild embarrassment at Aegis’ enthusiasm. “When did that happen?”

“About two weeks before you went in the pod yourself. Apparently you still don’t remember that.”

“Oh,” Aegis chuckled nervously. “I’m sure I left it in one of my other memory crystals. Can you tell me why you went back to your old self?”

Intel’s ears flicked a bit in thought. “Well with you leaving the Jevruun Vrunningee, and my promotion to your old position, I went over our best troops to bring our squad back up to full strength since Riposte’s… retirement.” Although the pain of their beloved brother’s death had been blunted to near imperceivable levels by time and the Days of Mourning, Intel still felt reverence to the fallen was called for. “Counterspell will be taking over magical support, and Thunderfury has taken up the last spot. And since I fully champion asymmetrical arms doctrine, it didn’t make sense to have all four of us as stallions, so I switched, simple as that.”

Aegis’ ears wilted slightly at the reasoning. “And here I hoped you did it for more than practicality.” Intel tilted her head briefly with a lopsided grin. Aegis hummed in contemplation. She would have turned to catch up with Ferrum, but enough of her old captain’s mindset was present that it forced her to look into the replacements. “Thunderfury? I don’t remember him.”

“He’s one of my first hatchlings,” Rainbow Dash stated with fathomless pride. “He may not have had much of a chance to show it in real combat, but he’s fine addition to your old squad.”

Ferrum chuckled lightly. “He’s coarse and unrefined, but he’s got your speed in spades, Aunty.”

The group chatted the afternoon away and through lunch, before the needs of the hive required the attention of the queens. Before either queen could leave, Ferrum and Intel made for the door, but Aegis called out to the latter. “So, sis, now that you’re a mare again, does that mean you took your full name back?”

Intel hung by the door with a smile on her face. “I admit, Intel ‘La Gence didn’t sound like a stallion’s name. But since that’s no longer a problem, then yes I will.” She smirked at Aegis’ obvious approval before turning to the queenly pair. “My queens.”

As Intel ‘la Gence departed, both Twilight and Rainbow’s mood shifted to queen mode. Aegis climbed off the bed to stand before her queens in an equally serious manner. She may have only accessed a few crystals, but she could easily tell when it was time for business.

“Now, Aegis,” Twilight began with a flat stern tone. “I suppose it should be obvious, but I feel it needs to be stated to punctuate the fact. Your life as a drone and bodyguard is over.”

Rainbow Dash smoothly started talking as Twilight fell quiet. “You’ve got two jobs to do before you mature into a proto-queen.”

“First,” Twilight continued, “you have to expand your fields of expertise. As you are undoubtedly aware, you are removed from all normal duties. I’ll be training you personally on matters of magic and civic rule.”

“And while you may not think it once you finish recovering the rest of your memories,” Rainbow Dash cut with perfect timing. “You are in need of at least a cursory understanding of large scale military tactics. Not only for the day you form your own hive, but also for our current military forces. When the war breaks out in the jungle, and we expect that it will happen sooner rather than later, you’ll be my direct lieutenant.”

Each task laid before her only stoked Aegis’ determination even further. She stood tall with her wings raised and her head held high. This is what I fought for. They’re not saying anything I didn’t already expect. Mother has put so much trust and faith in me to grant me royal blood. I promise you this, my queens, I will not fail you. Aegis made sure to keep her eyes fixed on which ever queen was speaking at the time. “And what is my second task?”

Rainbow gave her sister a ‘this is all yours’ look and remained quiet. Twilight’s expression turned a touch harder. “I don’t know if you can tell, as you really haven’t had a chance to walk around. Your rebirth was a complete success. From my last scans of your chrysalis, I was able to grant you most of the alterations you wanted. I assume the form you wanted was in your first memory crystal.”

“Oh yeah.” Aegis searched herself, and felt the new muscle memory Twilight had implanted in her. Pushing off with her forelegs, Aegis merely thought to stand on her hind legs. The muscles and bones in her legs felt stronger and thicker. She had only been barely aware of the difference until now. Even though she felt uneasy with her new posture, she could already tell her reshaped legs and backbone could handle an upright posture quite comfortably. Aegis had a stupid grin on her face at looking upon the room at such a high standing vantage point, for about half a second.

Aegis was unable to compensate for a sudden shift in her balance, and face planted the ground before anyone could catch her. “Ooow!”

Rainbow Dash snickered as the new princess rubbed her head with her hooves. Rainbow used her magic to help the ailing changeling sit up on her haunches. “I know flying and walking on four legs is easy, but we have no innate reference for bipedal movement, so you’re going to have to learn that on your own.”

“Owwie… Well that can’t be too bad.”

“I hope so,” Twilight used her magic to help her daughter back onto four hooves. She could see Aegis’ whole skeleton returning to its normal form within seconds. “Unfortunately, minotaurs don’t exactly believe in physical therapy, so we were out of luck on that end.”

“Just makes life more interesting this way,” Aegis assured while trying to hide her mild ill-at-ease under several layers of excitement. “But I noticed my front hooves didn’t change at all. Wasn’t I supposed to get hands and fingers like a minotaur?”

Twilight groaned out of disappointment. “There was only so much I could do in good conscience. The goal I had in mind was to grant you both quad and bipedal locomotion, but without any noticeable difference between you and any other changeling while you’re on four legs. Reworking both your skeletal structure and musculature to support both four and two legged movement was far more difficult and complicated than I originally imagined.” Twilight’s sour expression melted into a short lived grin as she bent down to inspect her daughter’s legs. It brought her no small amount of pride to see Aegis had shaped up so well. “I got the idea for toes from Spike. Despite his age, he’s shown some remarkable hoof - er well, footwork at times that I’ve never see out of a minotaur.” Her expression fell. “Sadly after multiple tests with a robotic mock up, toes were proving to be quite troublesome while you’re on four legs. So I had to leave your hooves as they are. In addition, I couldn’t give you cloven hooves, like a minotaur, without sacrificing your wall walking abilities.”

Twilight’s horn glowed softly as she cast a spell to ease her daughter’s pained snout, and stood back up. “As for the front hooves, hands and fingers are criminally impossible to accomplish with alchemy. Between adjusting your musculature to reshaping your skeleton, the alchemy between those and forming hands causes far too many incompatibilities to accomplish.” Aegis looked on with wilted ears as Twilight watched her with sad eyes. “It was either bipedal locomotion, or hands and feet. I felt the former was more important than the latter. I might be able to figure it out eventually, but by the time I did, you’d have died of old age.”

“You should have seen her,” Rainbow commented with subtle praise. “Sis had half the caretakers and twenty scientists tied up for two years giving you what you have. From what I remember, Granny Cadista and Yumia usually worked alone on alchemical research, but time is of the essence.”

“Crazy.” Even with her spotty memory, Aegis knew her siblings were brilliant scientists. She knew her changes were far outside the norm, but had assumed it was simple for her mother to accomplish. “Well, I guess I have something to shoot for the day I can make a royal daughter of my own someday.”

As Aegis studied her legs, Twilight and Rainbow glanced at each other.

Aegis was broken out of her study when point Rainbow Dash piped up. “There’s only one problem with the alterations my sister’s implemented.” Aegis’ face scrunched and her wings quivered out of sudden worry.

Twilight Sparkle hated to say it, but she had learned long ago to own her failures. “After Cadista came over to check my work on you…” Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat. “She discovered your genetic code is so different from the rest of us, that you are unable to access any known alchemical strains for your future brood.”

Aegis’ face fell and her lip quivered bit. “Y-you mean my strain is a failure? How can I be a proper queen, let alone have functioning hive, if I can’t access different strains?!”

Twilight didn’t bother trying to spread Aegis’ mounting despair across the hive mind to blunt the impact. We royals have to shoulder our decisions and their consequences. “It will be difficult, but the other races of the world get along just fine with only one general form, the minotaurs, griffins, and zebras to name a few.”

“But it’s not our way,” Aegis insisted with barely contained panic. “I’d be a laughing stock!”

“Our way is to adapt, as well as to evolve,” Rainbow Dash reminded her with an edge of steel. Aegis looked up at her aunt with reddening eyes. “The extent of your alterations is deep, but you are not alchemically inert. You may not be able to use any existing templates, but this is hardly unheard of among our people. Granny Caddy said there have been several cases where a successful queen had been advanced too far for currently known alchemy.”

“Such as when Mother and Yumia shed their chitin in lieu of endoskeletons. Like them, you’ll have to completely rewrite alchemy from scratch to work with your particular strain.” Twilight tried to sound reassuring, yet it was having only limited success with Aegis. Maybe a joke will work? “Just be glad your expected lifespan gained a zero.”

It wasn’t the end of the world, but it was close. Aegis sat on her haunches with her vision fixed on her back legs, the source of her miserable state. “I take it there’s no chance I can be reborn into a more malleable strain?”

“It’s entirely possible,” Twilight admitted evenly. Just prohibitively expensive in reagents. She draped a caring hoof along her daughter’s back. “You championed this evolutionary direction for two months before I caved in. I’m sure you will regain that stance once you finish restoring your memories. As such, Rainbow and I feel it would be a disservice to you, to not give you a chance to make this work.”

Aegis nodded slightly as Rainbow interjected. “And by work, we mean for your entire hive. It would be one thing to have a bunch of drones with two legs, but for this to be the baseline template for an entire hive…” Rainbow Dash sucked in air between clinched teeth. “Meh, you, my little Aegy, have proven to be inventive if nothing else. If anypony can prove your template can work as a baseline, it’d be you.”

Aegis’ brow furrowed as her mother stepped back to resume fully regal posture. “Then it looks like I have work to do. How long do I have to prove this can work for a queen?”

“Five, maybe six years,” Twilight answered with a definitive tone. “Even before finding out about the alchemy issue, you agreed to undergo a second rebirth into a less… radical evolution, should your alterations prove untenable.”

“Huh,” Aegis searched her scant few memories. “That’s longer than you two had.”

Both queens laughed at their own expense. Rainbow Dash wiped a tear away, still giggling. “You didn’t honestly think we’d push you into a one month trial period did you? ‘Cause you’ve always been a ling, it was possible to make sure you had a more natural royal maturation pace. Not to mention we would rather have you become a queen during a time of peace.”

“Ah… well, that sounds perfectly reasonable. Still, considering the track record you two have, I wanted to double check,” Aegis replied with a sheepish grin. Rainbow rolled her eyes. “But that sounds more than fair to me.” She looked down at her forelegs. “I guess I can try to find something else to make up for the lack of fingers and toes.”

“I have every confidence you will, my daughter. I set aside a very reasonable budget for you to do just that.”

“Try not to go over it,” Rainbow added teasingly. Yet Aegis could tell she was very worried. As to what, she couldn’t tell.

Twilight hummed in agreement. “For now though, the two of us have matters of state to tend to which can’t wait any longer, and you need time to learn how to walk again.”

“Yeah, don’t trip up!” Rainbow snarked playfully as she started gathering mana on her horn. “I’ll send Resta up here to assist you.” Without further ado, both queens’ horns lit up and they teleported out of the room.

“Can do,” Aegis said with sarcasm to match her Aunt. She looked down at her back legs with a scowl. “You two cost a ton more than I ever thought you would.” Wrapping her forelegs around the bed, Aegis forced herself to stand back up on two legs. “So I need to make sure it was worth it.” Now that Aegis was back on two legs, she took a minute to notice her legs were in the same shape of the minotaurs they were based on.

“Quality work.” She could feel the untrained muscle was strong and could move quite smoothly, should she learn how to walk properly. “Even when I figure all this out,” she looked at her left fore hoof, “there’s no point to it if I can’t make hands out of you.”

Aegis kept one hoof on the side of the bed and looked around her room. A workbench caught her attention. “If momma couldn’t figure out an alchemical way do that, then maybe I can get an engineer to find a mechanical answer.”

A few minutes and three faceplants later, Aegis wobbled on two legs with only one hoof on the bed. Inch by agonizing inch, she slowly let go of the bed. Aegis had stood on two legs before, but only with her tail and buzzing wings to keep her steady. She couldn’t exactly get rid of her tail, but she kept her wings firmly planted against her barrel to keep from cheating.

By now, her forelegs were outwardly extended, moving back and forth along with her tail to keep upright. “Well, I think mother’s improved muscle memory seems to be working.” Her balance shifted, causing her to flail wildly to keep from falling. “Maybe not as good as I had hoped.”

A knock on the door and a ping over the hive mind distracted her just enough to keel over completely. Aegis firmly planted her snout into the carpeted floor. “Ah the floor, how are you my old friend?”

Resta poked her head in and heard the pained princess moaning on the floor, unmoving. “Have I come at a bad time, sister?”

“Noooo…” Aegis peeled her bruised nose off the floor and grabbed the bed again to stand back up. “But if this keeps up, I might need you to bandage me up.”

Resta fully entered the room to stand by her royal sister’s side. “Then it’s a good thing our aunt informed me to bring a first aid kit. Her faith in this little venture is well known.” Aegis was back up and trying to find her balance again. “I guess I’ll just stay here and babysit you and catch you if you try to fall again.”

“Trust me doc, I’m not tryyy!” Aegis’s miserable snout was inches from a painful revisit to the floor, but Resta’s magic brought her back up. “Heh, thanks.”

“Of course, my princess.”

Aegis thought there might have been a ghost of sarcasm in the medic's tone. She tried to sniff it out, but Resta concealed it well, if it was ever there to begin with. The rest of the day and the following weeks would be quite difficult indeed.

In Canterlot Castle, Luna was in her chambers burning the midday oil when a thestral messenger slipped in and bowed before her scroll covered desk. “Princess Luna, I bear a message from the explorer hired for the western coasts. The seal is marked for your eyes only.”

Luna’s tired eyes narrowed at the news. “Very well, hoof it over.”

The Night Guard removed the scroll from his folded wing with his teeth before Luna wrapped it in her telekinesis. She promptly broke the seal and started reading. Her eyes widened at their contents, but soon settled in for playful curiosity. “Sergeant, have somepony go fetch Rolled Scroll and my sister. It seems there is a new wrinkle in the fabric of our world.”

2: A Mechanical Solution to an Alchemical Problem

Princess Luna loomed in her darkened abode within Canterlot Castle. Her personal study had just barely enough candlelight to allow her to read comfortably with her heightened night vision. Overburdened bookshelves lined two of the walls while the third held the focus of her attention; a massive and detailed map of the known world. Her desk occupied the wall near the door out of an old paranoid habit of never having her back to the door for any real length of time.

Celestia was seated at a small round table sipping tea, with Luna's untouched cup resting nearby. Luna was pouring over the charts and letters her field agent had sent her barely an hour ago as Celestia observed the grand map from a distance. “You know sister, I would be glad to assist you in updating the maps if you brightened the room enough for me to see my hoof in front of my face.”

“The dark helps me think,” Luna mused quietly. But I could use some help to speed things along. With a brief flash of her horn, several oil lanterns floated out from one of the bookshelves and arrayed themselves to hang from empty hooks on the ceiling. Luna smirked playfully at her distracted sister and flicked the lantern on all at once, blasting the room into midday brightness.

“Much better, thank you.” Celestia drank the last of her tea with Luna pouting slightly at not getting any sort of reaction out of her supposed to be blinded sister. “I have to say, this plan of yours is quite ingenious, if a bit dangerous. I only wish we could be sure that the contingency plan won’t backfire on us.”

Luna’s reply was caught short by a knock on the door, followed by a thestral guard’s head poking inside. “Ambassadors Rolled Scroll and Blue Flare are waiting outside.”

Luna eagerly turned away from the map at the news of the arrival of her two favorite ambassadors. “Excellent, send them in.”

With a nod, the guard retreated and swung the door open wide to reveal the oddest pair of diplomats Equestria had seen in living memory. Rolled Scroll was a known sight among the royal courts, and his appearance was the principal reason why. He was effeminate to the point of being able to pass off as a mare, and did so quite often. While his manner of dress was always tactful, it wasn’t exactly welcome among the staunchly traditionalist nobility. A fact Twilight found most amusing, as such she gave her son carte blanche to dress as he wished. Only the industrial and technological power of Phoenix's Roost gave his words the heavy weight they carried among the nobility.

Blue Flare by contrast was a strong and tall mare that carried a profound sense of beauty with her. She leveraged her mother-given rainbow mane to great effect to accent the bright colors of her flowing gown dress. Flare carried herself with almost artificially perfected grace.

While the mannerisms of the two changelings, who always acted together, might confuse all but the wisest and most knowledgeable of the Royal Sister’s courtiers, Celestia understood them within two days of Flare’s introduction. The first to represent the drones, and the other their queens, a mystery Twilight left for others to discover. She nodded her head in respect. “Thank you for coming, ambassadors.”

“A pleasure as always, your highness,” Flare purred with a wink to her lavender counterpart and a curtsy.

“How might the hive be of service?” Scroll continued with his falsetto voice and a deep bow.

Luna grabbed a pointing baton, but held it under her wing for now. “This will take a bit, so you might want to grab a seat.” With a nod, both changelings took the satin cushions surrounding the tea table and sat down so they could easily observe the map. Luna noticed the changelings were sitting as close to each other as possible. Celestia offered them tea, to which both accepted with gratitude. Once everyone was ready and listening, Luna levitated several scrolls from her desk. “A few years ago, I sent a pair of explorers to map out the western coastline and terrain. Unofficially, it was to investigate the rumors of ghost ships in the area.

"They were ordered to instantly report anything that was out of the ordinary straight away. However, that never happened. At first, I assumed they had completed their survey of the coast without incident and simply moved on to chart the still unknown interior of the Endless Forest.

"It was an expedition expected to last two years before they returned to civilization to resupply and deliver their findings.”

“I take it, the due date came and went,” Blue Flare said between sips of tea. “I hope it was a simple mix up.”

“That might be wishful thinking,” Celestia replied with carefully concealed unease. “From what I’ve read of the reports, we now know there’s a new civilization taking root on our western shores.”

Rolled Scroll hummed inquisitively while Blue Flare’s eyes glinted at the news. Auntie Twi would love to see a new civ. “Who are they? More ponies or a new species entirely?”

“A new race, and we have reason to believe they’re carnivorous.” Luna shuffled through the papers as her sister spoke before finding a few drawings and levitating them over to the drones. “So you might end up with some competition in the meat market,” Celestia teased ever so subtly.

Flare took the document in her magic for both changelings to study. The parchment was torn in places, with a drop of blood or two on some of them. The drawings themselves were done in charcoal. The first few illustrations Rolled Scroll saw were separate body parts. A hastily drawn wing akin to that of a griffin barely registered to him, nor did the feline hind quarters and tail.

Yet it was the simian frontal features and fascinating head that brought a curious coo out of him. The very rough sketches revealed flat faces, absurdly small eyes, and a mouth that seems too small for a carnivore. Well, it’s not like I’m a biologist. “What a strange creature indeed. Are they long lost cousins of the griffins, by chance?”

“That I can’t tell you,” Luna replied with more than a little irritation. “I lost contact with my agent shortly after these missives arrived by dragon fire.”

“Dragon fire?” Blue blurted out with surprise. “Those are some expensive candles, your highness.”

“I’m more worried about the pony,” Luna replied with cool fire. The inexperienced drone sunk in her cushion a little at the implied reprimand. “I’m assuming he, like the explorers I sent before, was taken by these things.”

“That is what I’m afraid of,” Celestia butted in smoothly to give her sister time to cool off. “We need to handle the matter delicately. We can only hope that both the explorers and the scout were unharmed.”

Rolled Scroll sized up the alien creatures, but sadly there was no scale or units of measurement to go by. “I know mother would jump at the chance to visit a new species.” He chuckled darkly with a hoof over his mouth while looking at his blue counterpart. “We wouldn’t exist without mother’s scholarly curiosity about new races now would we?”

Eager to put her faux pas behind her, Blue Flare jumped at the lifeline Scroll gave her. “The hive is at the ready to assist you in this matter, in whatever manner we can give.”

“Glad to hear it,” Celestia replied warmly to reassure Blue, and to keep Luna from giving the drone a verbal lashing. “Now, while it is traditional for either Luna or myself to personally lead first diplomatic contact, we want to have some insurance in case these beings are unwilling to act rationally.”

“In what form, if I may ask?” Scroll replied already expecting the answer to follow.

Luna allowed herself a predatory grin. “Your flagship.”

Sadly, that flagship was held up in dry dock for ten more days before it was declared fit for service again. Most of the seven months it had been laid up was for an overhaul and upgrade of several systems, mostly revolving around the engines and replacement cloak crystals. As a result, the ship ran much smoother, and allowed the gunners to fire accurately at moderately faster speeds. Not that any of the gun crews had time to test that, with the ship immediately heading out to the west.

All that meant to Aegis is that she had steady ground onboard. She was slowly trudging along the central corridor of the Deception. She used wall walking with her front hooves to stay firmly upright on her still very shaky back legs. “Blast it. Hooves like this were never meant for two legs,” she grumbled to herself. Aegis was wearing her old uniform shirt out of sentimentality, and a way to reaffirm the reasons for her dreams of royalty.

Intel was walking beside her, perfectly comfortable on four legs, and couldn’t help but snicker a little every time Aegis checked herself when the airship rocked in the wind. “You know, I could just hold you up with my magic. You keep getting blood on the floor, that stuff’s a pain to clean up you know.”

“No, I got it, really!” Aegis stubbornly insisted. She gently pushed off the wall, and used her wings to stabilize on her back legs. “See?” She wobbled, but flailing her forelegs managed to save her snout another visit to the floor. “I got this.”

Intel watched the princess take a few careful steps forward. Her forelegs were raised outward to keep her balance, and it seemed to be working. “Two weeks out of the shell, and you’re already taking baby steps. I might be impressed if it didn’t take us less than a day to learn to walk on four.”

“Yeah, yeah, keep it up.” She finally stabilized a little better, but had to keep a hoof slightly dragging along the wall to avoid visiting the floor again. “As much as I love seeing that plot of yours, Papa said he had a surprise for me waiting in the machine shop.”

“Just as well,” Intel lamented as she cantered over to Aegis’ side. “I have to check over the diplomatic contact plan with the others.” Instead of leaving right away, Intel lingered around, watching Aegis steadfastly refusing to give up on bipedal walking until she mastered it. Intel couldn’t help but to feel a sense of pride in Aegis’ royal eyes. Well, sis, you dreamed bigger than anypony I know. I hope it all works out for you.

Aegis made it down to an intersection before noticing Intel was still by her side. She risked a light punch to wake her up. “Hey, you alright? I thought you had somewhere to be.”

“Yeah, I’m fine…” Intel sighed with more sadness than she wanted. “It’s just that with Riposte gone, and now you’re out of the Queens’ Guard, I’ve only got Ferrum out of the original four now.”

Aegis stumbled, yet she managed to deftly wrap a foreleg around Intel to rope her up into a tight hug, masking her fall. “What are you talking about? I’m still here, Intel.” The force of the hug pulled Intel full off her hooves and both crumpled in a heap. Aegis ignored the impact and just held her clutchmate even tighter. “The only difference now, is that you guard me, rather than guard beside me.”

“I guess…” Intel sunk into Aegis’ hug, drawing strength from her sister’s affection. But someday you’re going to leave to form a hive of your own.

“Come on girl, we don’t have time to be all mopey.” Intel seemed to react little to Aegis’ prodding, so she switched tactics and brushed a hoof across Intel’s nethers.

“AAHH!” Intel half scream half moaned. She blushed furiously and looked around to find a couple other drones look at her, but kept on walking. “Damn it, Aegis, not here!”

“Fine,” Aegis chuckled lightheartedly look to the right to find a broom closet and opened it with her magic. “How about I cheer you up in there?”

Intel worked her jaw for a few seconds before climbing off her clutchmate. She was feeling mildly low on love, and she remembered that deepening depression was an early sign of love starvation. In the end, Intel couldn’t tell if she was sad because of the situation, or that she hadn’t fed all day. “Okay, but only for ten minutes.”

“Make it twenty. I want to see what other benefits having two legs brings.” Aegis got up and leaned into Intel’s ear, and added a husky quality to her voice. “You can say you were helping me conduct research.”

Intel scowled at her horny sister for a few seconds before relenting. “Fifteen, not a moment longer.”

“Deal,” Aegis purred before pulling Intel into the closet.

Aegis walked into the shipboard machine shop forty five minutes later with a smug grin and more than enough love to satiate her royal hunger for the day. The shop itself was a small affair, as befitting the cramped quarters onboard. A single pair of light bulbs gave more than enough light to illuminate the various machine parts laid out in painstaking organization. Each piece had a tag on it, denoting the work order. Along two of the walls was an array of drawers of various sizes no doubt holding tools waiting to be used.

A painfully bright point of light was coming from the single rainbow-maned engineer in the room, who was welding something Aegis couldn’t see.

The blue drone in question freaked at the sudden address and nearly dropped her welding torch. She shut it off and removed her oversized protective helmet to greet the newcomer. “Hey there, Aegis.” She grinned at the princess. “Welcome to my humble shop.”

Aegis fell back down onto four legs and trotted over to give Blitz a brief hug. “Where’s papa? I thought he had something for me.”

“He was called away to oversee Factory Seven’s refitting, but don’t worry I can handle things for him.” Blitz found a series of cubbyholes with scrolls in them and pulled them all down with her magic to look over each one. “No, no, no, ah here it is.” Blitz skimmed her technical notes in depth before putting them all all back except the one she was reading.

She then walked over to one of the back wall lockers and opened it to reveal a set of small machines. Finding a cleared workbench, Blitz placed them down. “After hearing about the nature of your rebirth, Uncle and I got together to give you a waking up present, but it wasn’t ready until last night.”

There were four boot-like objects in total. All of them had small cables and pipes running through the structure of the boot with four sets of actuators for each. “What are they?”

“A mechanical solution to a biological problem!” Blitz chirped proudly. “Granny Caddy’s been making prosthetic replacement limbs for drones for about two centuries now. Ever since Aunty Twilight thought the minotaurs would be great customers, she commissioned my engineering section to make arms and fingers. So when I heard about your little experiment, Papa and my team modified that design to fit your legs. Go ahead and try them on!”

“Ahh-” Aegis bumbled as one of the smaller boots was thrust onto her left foreleg. “Okay.”

With her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth, Blitz grabbed a headset with a collection of magnifying lenses. Aegis sat on her rump while Blitz held the captive hoof outstretched so she could examine it. “Good, good. Aunty Twi’s predicted measurements of your hoof size were spot on. No surprise coming from the mother of OCD herself. Now, you might feel some discomfort with this next part.”

Fear shot through Aegis. No pony using that phrase ever tells the truth. “What are you doing?”

“Just wait,” Blitz admonished as her magic latched onto three long thin bars and slowly inserted them through the boot and into three of the five holes that Aegis’ leg possessed. A thought struck her, causing Blitz to look up to the table and levitate a cord of bound leather, and shoved it in Aegis’ mouth. “Now, you might feel a little pressure.”

Aegis barely had time to even register the disgusting taste or the request before her hoof and leg felt like molten lead was pumping through her veins all the way up to her neck. “Rrrraaaaooww!!”

She nearly bit the leather in half and ripped her hoof away from Blitz to cradle it as the pain spiked through each hole. She whimpered with the leather in her mouth for a bit before spitting it out. “Damn it all to Flaming Flamingo Friday! Get it oooff!”

Blitz stared at the princess with stunned bemusement. “Sorry, Princess, painkillers weren’t part of the budget. Just be glad the bonding is a one time thing.” Her eyes drifted to the first aid kit by the door with a note taped on it. “Ooohhh wait a second, actually I think they were. My bad.”

She flew over the sobbing princess and grabbed the kit and thrust it open, only to have Aegis bark at her. “Don’t bother, you quack!” The pain subsided slowly, sadly, she would be throbbing for a couple of days if not a week. “What was that for?”

“Ah, hello! That was the finger-boot attaching to your nervous system. Don’t tell me you don’t know anything about how prosthetics work. Last I checked, you’re ex-military.” Aegis shot her a scathing glare with bloodshot eyes. Maybe I should talk about why she shouldn’t rip my head off. “We uhh, we used a corrosion resistant alloy of aluminum and quadrinix. That’s why the boot’s red. We can get it painted later.” Aegis’ mood soured the longer Blitz rambled on. Brilliant, Blitz, juuust brilliant.

“Can I take this thing off?” Aegis grumbled as she tested her weight on the boot. Despite her pained nerves, the fit was otherwise snug and comfortable.

“I don’t see why you’d want to,” Blitz replied with a giggle to lighten the mood. “Once your body gets used to them, they’ll give you everything Aunty Twi couldn’t. Toes to help you stand on two legs, and fingers that’ll let you grab things.”

“Showering and cleaning come to mind.” Aegis’ curt reply caught the engineer up short. Yet once Blitz’s words had a chance to sink in, Aegis took the time to fully examine the metal boot. It felt slightly heavy, with most of the weight around the hoof itself. The top of the boot stopped a few centimeters from her knee, so it didn’t impede dexterity in that respect.

Her concentration on the boot caused it to hiss with steam, thankfully away from her face, and four two jointed fingers popped out of the boot and curled into a fist directly in front of her hoof. They were long enough to curve around the hoof with ease. Hidden within their quadrinix alloyed casing, Aegis could hear whirring gears.

Taking Aegis’ silent curiosity as an excuse to talk, Blitz bounced over to hold the boot with a hoof. “As you can see, our mana steam engines have made great progress lately. The device only needs a few bits of your mana to function, but it can get very tiring after a full day’s use. I’d say if you learned to sleep with these on, it’d retain enough of a charge to where you’d never feel the strain.”

Aegis’ wings buzzed loudly with excitement, the ache in her leg forgotten. “This is awesome! I could probably fight like a minotaur in no time!” Aegis yanked her hoof back to get a closer look. She tried to flex or move the fingers, but aside from slight twitching they remained locked into a fist. “Any reason I can’t move them?”

“You can, just try one at a time. You’re holding the fingers in a ball because you think like a changeling, and not a minotaur.”

“Is that a fact?” Aegis replied derisively. “And how am I supposed to think like a walking steak?”

Blitz just shrugged with a bemused half-grin. “I don’t know. This whole thing was your idea in the first place. I guess you could just think of the fingers like a bunch of tiny legs, or monkey tails, or something grippy.” Blitz shrugged at any further questioning along that route. Honestly, what’s with her fascination with all this whole hand thing when telekinesis is so much easier? I only took this job as a favor for her, and it was a pretty interesting challenge from an engineering standpoint.

“Better than nothing, I guess.” Aegis focused on one finger at a time while Blitz grabbed the other boots and placed them on one by one.

Flying ahead of the cloaked Deception, was the luxury yacht Crystal Blue puttering along at a speed that made the crew of the changeling frigate groan. The yacht was half the length of the warship behind it, but it overflowed with creature comforts the likes of which neither Twilight nor Rainbow Dash had ever expected to enjoy any time soon. With a bitterly harsh winter in full swing outside of pony controlled territory, Princess Luna and the two queens lounged on beach chairs while the entirely glass roof and one side of the wall gave a magnificent view of the snowy forest below. The room was practically a sauna from all the heating vents releasing a steady stream of steam.

Twilight was sipping on a heavenly red wine, a luxury she hadn’t tasted in years thanks to the eggs. With the decision to cut egg production to one fourth, both she and Rainbow Dash thought it best to simply go full production one week a month for the time being.

Alcohol had been a much needed distraction from the mounting impulse both queens suffered every day they went without laying. For Twilight at least, the book on griffin culture was a close second. With a warm blanket wrapped around her, and the large book with its wealth of information at her hooftips, Twilight was one extremely happy bug.

Rainbow Dash had drowned herself in alcohol. An empty keg of Sweet Apple Acres' Hard Cider gently rocked between a small table and the sky blue queen’s head which was hanging off the side of the chair. With all of the business coming in from the Jiyya industry, Sweet Apple Acres was profitable enough to give Rainbow Dash a free lifetime supply of cider. Something she was only recently able to take advantage of now that she wasn’t ovipositing every day.

Even with Twilight’s best noise dampener spell, Rainbow’s thundering snores still rattled the floor. Twilight had learned to live with it, even if it normally wasn’t anywhere near as bad as tonight. If Twilight was truly honest with herself, the snoring was a sort of white noise to her now. A sign that her sister was at peace and close by.

Twilight’s concentration was broken by Captain Rourke’s scheduled update. The distraction caused her to look up at Luna who was watching the setting sun with a forlorn expression. Celestia having decided to remain behind in Canterlot, lest the sudden departure of both princesses create a panic.

Twilight’s instincts wanted to probe the ebony alicorn with her empathy, but she caught herself in time. It was an unspoken agreement between the alicorns and queens that the changelings would avoid using their empathy on any one of the three princesses. For the most part it was fairly easily to abide that, but there were times when Twilight couldn’t help but to pick up on flashes of intense emotion. Now was one of those times as the specter of loneliness crept into Luna’s heart.

I can’t imagine what sort of scars a thousand years on the moon would do to somepony, no matter how long they have to heal. While such stark isolation would be a nightmare to most beings, the deathly silence of space and being alone with one’s own thoughts chilled Twilight to her core.

Luna was staring off into space, but Twilight kept picking up brief moments of anger and a sense of urgency. With Rainbow Dash in a drunken stupor, it fell to Twilight to comfort the stoic night princess. “How are you holding up, Luna?”

Luna briefly thought about giving a non-answer. What good is that with an empath around? A waiter refilled Luna’s drink and brought over a bowl of expensive salted nuts. With a flick of a wing, Luna dismissed him, and the three guards in the room.

Twilight removed her blanket and draped it over her sister after propping Rainbow’s head back onto the chair. She scooted her chair over to be next to Luna before sitting down again. From there she remained silent, allowing Luna time to gather her thoughts.

“I admit I am a little concerned about contact. There seem to be powerful wards all over the western shore that makes finding my scout amidst the dreamscape akin to trying to find a single fish from the ocean.”

Twilight gasped at the news. “You don’t think they’re expecting us do you?”

“I have no way of knowing that for sure, Twilight Sparkle. But given the sheer size of the shrouded area, I do not believe so. It could merely be what these half-griffins normally do.”

“Ahh, I see. I hope you’re right. Do you have any idea if your field agent is still alive though?” Twilight inquired carefully. She was grasping at straws to see if she could pull the mare into a conversation.

“Slippery Shadow is a fine operative, and these beings must be most cunning indeed to have captured such a cautious stallion. I doubt they would intentionally kill him. In any event, I will not leave him to rot out here. Alive or dead, I am bringing him home.”

“Well he had to be wearing some equipment if he fire-sent those reports to you. I find it hard to believe these beings would eat him before finding out more about us.”

“Perhaps.” Luna took a slow deep breath to calm herself. I hope the original explorers are still alive as well. “One thing you should never do, Twilight Sparkle, is assume anything with a new species.” She craned her head towards the lavender queen. “That mistake is how you ended up a changeling in the first place, after all.”

“Oh… right.” Awkwardness suddenly filled the room as Twilight shuffled her hooves nervously. “I’m… I’m a little surprised you’ve been able to enjoy the pampering this boat has to offer, what with your valid concerns and all.”

Luna didn’t answer for a few minutes. The pregnant pause was too much for Twilight, who was about to drop the issue right as Luna spoke up. “You get used to such things, eventually. What is it the Guard often say…? ‘Hurry up and wait.’ Yes, that’s it.” Twilight nodded slowly. “Since there is nothing left for me to do until we arrive, there is little gain in brooding until I know Shadow’s fate.”

A minor issue back at the hive drew Twilight’s attention away from Luna, not that the moon princess noticed. Luna was too busy going over how she would present herself to the beings she didn’t even have a name for.

At least we knew what the griffins called themselves when we first officially met. She summoned her scrolls to pore over them again. Barely an hour later, both queens were snoozing on their chairs, content to spend time with Luna. The alicorn might have been touched by the companionship if she hadn’t been so focused on her work. The three royals had spent every day for the past week going over the mountain of possibilities and responses, so the queens decided to rest up early.

Luna finally snapped from her scrolls on an impulse and looked at her sleeping companions. She frowned slightly at them and the night sky in the windows beyond. Just because the crew believes we’ll arrive at the coastal town in the evening, it doesn’t mean we won’t make contact before then. I better get some sleep too while I can. If things go poorly, I may not get another chance until we return to Canterlot.

Before departing for her private cabin, Luna ordered the servants to keep the observation deck’s temperature comfortable for the sleeping queens. Yet like the Dreamwalker herself, Twilight Sparkle would not sleep normally this night.

As her body rested, Twilight’s mind finished fabricating a small dojo within the Linkscape. The room was little more than ten meters square with hard mats for the floor and walls. The dojo was well lit, but there was no identifiable source of light.

Twilight had just completed putting the finishing touches on the wall mounted clock when Aegis appeared, already standing on her hind legs. “Hey momma! You didn’t have to make the dojo for me anymore, I can handle it.”

With a beaming motherly smile, Twilight swept her daughter up in a squishing hug. “You can’t blame me for wanting to dote on you.”

The room was filled with giggling delight as Twilight slipped fully into mother mode. Aegis basked in her mother’s presence, content to let it last as long as possible. She could feel her mother’s pride in her, and that only made the moment that much sweeter.

This was the sixth night Aegis was to spend her sleeping hours in the lucid dreaming world of the Linkscape. Each night Twilight or Rainbow Dash would craft a room for Aegis to train herself in. While this form of training did nothing for her muscles, it did wonders for her muscle memory. Normally it was a rather isolated affair. Intel or some of Aegis’ other close siblings would visit her early on, but only the royals of the hive could rest properly while also spending time in the Linkscape.

As it seemed with every occasion, Twilight had to be the one to break contact. “So how’s your progress so far?”

“Well, it was kinda slow for a little while, but Blitz and Papa’s gifts are making it a lot easier and a bit harder at the same time.”

Twilight was about to inquire as to why, when Blitz materialized and quickly performed a formal bow to Twilight. “Good evening, Queen-Mother, Princess Aegis.”

With practiced grace, Twilight slipped back into queen mode. “Evening, Blitz. I trust everything went well.”

“Oh it was a complete success, my queen!” Blitz flustered before holding out a hoof. A few seconds later, one of Aegis’ mechanical hand gauntlets appeared. “A roaring success if I do say so myself.” She looked pointedly at Aegis. “At least it will be once somepony learns how to use the hand attachments properly.”

“Hey, I said I was sorry.” Aegis grumbled a bit, but everyone could see there was more apology than bite to it. “It’s my first day ya know.”

Twilight arched an eyebrow at the exchange, but neither young mare was willing to share. Blitz simply yawned and let her gauntlet dissolve into the air. “Yes, I know, I already forgave you, mostly. Anyway, if you’ll let me, I should go ahead and recreate them on your hooves to real world conditions.”

Sharing a look with her daughter, Twilight nodded at Blitz. “Go ahead. The sooner you do, the sooner you can get some sleep.”

“Amen to that.”

Knowing her creation inside and out, Blitz brought each of the four gauntlets into being around Aegis’ hooves. The room was already set to mimic real world gravity and other forces as close as possible. Aegis felt her limbs go heavy one by one for an hour as Blitz worked to recreate the gauntlets in excruciating detail. The engineer knew every facet of her creation, and she wanted to make sure Aegis would too. While Twilight knew of the gauntlets, being the one to authorize its budget, she wanted to see them in use. Even if this strain doesn’t work out for a royal, it could have serious potential for a cadre of drones.

With the items in their latest stage of development, Twilight took the time to study the gauntlets, particularly, the back legs. As with the front ones, the ‘foot’ gauntlets were secured in place with bars laced through Aegis’ leg holes. Instead of fingers, three metal toes arrayed out in front which reminded Twilight of Spike’s feet. A solitary and slightly larger toe completed the set on the back of each hoof. It was only when Blitz was testing them that Twilight noticed the toes would fold up and into the gauntlet when Aegis stood on all fours.

“Knowing you, Aegis,” Blitz eventually piped after thoroughly inspecting her work. “You’ll end up wanting to punch and kick things before much longer, so I made sure to reinforce the joints as much as possible. But!” she barked as a manic grin started splitting Aegis’ face. “Do not, I repeat, do not hit anything with your front gauntlets unless the fingers are in the fist configuration. The reinforcement only works while they’re closed like that.”

Aegis lifted her left foreleg up to inspect Blitz’s work. “Use fists to punch, eh? I think I can remember that.”

“Right,” Blitz replied sardonically. “I explained everything else to you earlier. If there’s nothing else…”

Aegis started walking around on all fours to get a feel for the weight. “Seems good to me.” She closed in to give Blitz a peck on the cheek and whispered softly. “How about I thank you later in private?”

“Hmmm…” Blitz tapped her chin with mock contemplation.

Twilight inwardly rolled her eyes and glanced away out of some shadow of embarrassment. Honestly. Mother never warned me how lecherous my kids would end up becoming, and it seems RD’s inclusion didn’t help matters at all. She was very good at disguising her discomfort as being distracted. But curbing it might end up being detrimental. I’d rather my children be overfed with love, than to possibly starve themselves, even a little, out of modesty that I guess isn’t really needed within the hive.

Even with such allowances, Twilight wasn’t going to sit there as Aegis and Blitz started going at it right there in front of her. “Thank you, Blitz,” she said with a mild edge to break the two up. Aegis huffed, but meant nothing of it, while Blitz felt rather embarrassed to keep her queen waiting.

“Sorry, sorry. Whelp, I’ll see you later, Aegis.” Blitz gave Twilight sad puppy dog eyes, sitting on her haunches. It was an act Twilight and Rainbow Dash knew all too well.

With a playful snort, Twilight opened her forelegs to allow Blitz a chance to race forward and cling to her aunt. Aegis waited an impressive five seconds before joining in. “Alright, off to bed with you. You can check Aegis’ progress in the morning.”

“Okaaaay.” Blitz dropped the sad puppy act and hoof bumped Aegis. “See you later Princess!”

A moment later, Blitz vanished, leaving Twilight alone with Aegis. The atmosphere quickly shifted to all business. “Well, you’ve told me about your progress, now I want to see it. I haven’t had a chance all day.”

“Oh you’re going to love these toe things.” Aegis quickly propped herself up, using a kick off with her front legs with a short wing burst to keep her balance. As soon as her stance shifted, her back gauntlets shot its three metal toes forward, giving the princess enough stability to stop using her forelegs to balance.

Aegis easily fell into a rifle firing stance with her legs apart, and her hands woefully empty. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think you rewired my brain a bit to work with toes to begin with.” She tried to show off by spinning in place, only to land flat on her rump. Twilight gave her an amused smirk as Aegis climbed back up. “Well, you get what I’m saying.”

“I do, actually, and I’m glad to see you progressing. Sadly, as much as I would love to stay up all night to help you, Rainbow and I have already worked through the last four nights over this diplomatic meeting, and I don’t think I can handle another night of lucid dreaming. I’ll see you in the morning, Aegis.”

Some days ago…

Chirping crickets gave a deceptively peaceful backdrop to the second night Slippery Shadow twiddled his hooves in a cage adjacent to the Sphinxes’ town hall/ governor’s manor. Luna’s night sky gave the dark colored thestral some comfort. The snow on the ground was kept at bay thanks to the roaring fire pit keeping both Shadow and his guards warm in the cold winter night. The scout looked for all the world to be languishing on his back while scuffing his hooves together, yet his mind was far from inactive.

Three stationary guards around me at all times, plus two of the flying types constantly patrolling the air. They already have a few logging camps and a stable perimeter far outside the city. Do they fear an escape attempt this much, or are they always like this?

His eyes wandered to the closest guard, a wingless female if his estimation was accurate. Reminds me of Bertha, Spirit of Strength.

‘Bertha’ was eyeing the stallion closely. The hungry glint in her eye, and the runed morning star she held did a fine job of planting a cold pit of fear in him. Unlike the lost ones, these beings had the cold calculating intelligence of a sapient predator. Shadow tried to nonchalantly look away, but something told him she knew it was out of fear. Explore the world I said, it’ll be fun to see what the future brought! Bah… maybe I should have taken Queen Twilight Sparkle’s offer to stay with the hive instead. Sure she may be a freakish bug thing, but she’s still a recognized Imperial descendent. Neither Celestia or Luna know or even care of the old ways. He grumbled as the smell of cooked meat over a fire reach him from an open window of the manor. I wouldn’t mind dying in combat. The executioner’s block isn’t exactly what I had planned though, but at least that would have some modicum of respect. I got a super bad feeling about these – whatever they are. How long are they going to let me marinate in my own fear before these bastardized gryphons eat me?

With the guards keeping such a close eye on him, Shadow groaned and tried to sleep on the pile of straw he had for a bed. At least it’s dry after yesterday’s rain.

Yet before he could try to get some sleep, two wingless soldiers exited the backdoor of the manor and talked briefly to the guards. Shadow readied himself for anything as the group moved over to his cage door.

“Ge’ta!” the one with gold trimmed armor commanded. She jabbed a paw at the metal collar and chain in her possession. “Fel da lerma foosh.”

Taking his sweet time, Shadow slowly stood up and stretched to pop his joints. “Yeah, yeah, hold your oats.”

While he had not been tortured thus far, Shadow didn’t want to test his hosts’ hospitality, so he jumped outside and presented his neck for the collar to be slapped on. “Go on girly, I know your knickers are in a bunch. A bit too big for my tastes though.” The lead guard briskly applied the restraint before starting to pull him towards the manor’s rear entrance.

The interior was much like he remembered it the first time he’d been brought here. Statues big and small were scattered about in strategic locations. All of them were painted in a fresco style with pleasing colors. Without his soft shoes, Shadow was painfully aware of his loud hooves as opposed to the nearly silent paws of the feathered felines surrounding him.

He was brought into the main throne room where Thaddaeus stood beside Governor Ventras’ seat of power. The governor and his majordomo had spent a few hours each personally studying the stallion. Between them and the guards, Shadow been able to pick up on their names.

The Majordomo had a small table in front of him, a large blank scroll completely blanketing its surface. Thaddaeus was sitting on his haunches with his forepaws shifted into hands. His left held a black inkpot while the right held a thin brush.

Shadow was entranced by the sphinx’s chanting as he wrote onto the air itself. Foreign runes of black ink hung in the air, waiting for the incantation to finish. The stallion was placed on a simple mat in front of Ventras who was lording over his wooden throne. With a wave of his paw, the guards removed the pony’s restraints.

That fireplace doesn’t look like it’s for cooking. I hope this behemoth doesn’t like his food raw… or still alive. Try as he might, Shadow couldn’t stop his terror from leaking through, earning him a few contemptible glances from the ten guards surrounding the room.

Ventras silently studied Shadow while one of the guards jabbed Shadow to get him to look at her. “Valus!” the guard commander barked. She moved her paw from the base of her throat and sweeping out through her mouth. “Valus!”

“Oh, so you want me to speak?” That got her to stop, and give a mildly pleased look. “Well why didn’t you say so? I love to talk! Let me tell you something else. The old language of the Moonlit Empire was so damned flowery it drove everyone I knew crazy, so I got speech lessons from an old bean name Earl Grey. Dapper fellow, let me tell you. Physically anyway, not in speech, but it was good enough for me to blend into the modern world better, let me tell you what.

"So yeah, apparently you guys can’t understand me, but hey, you’re not telling me to shut up so I was wonder if you guys have a court jester position open, by chance? It's degrading, but its healthier than being on the menu, am I right?”

Shadow paused briefly to notice the ink floating around Thaddaeus was flowing from the inkwell and onto the page, the more he spoke. He chose to ignore it to keep his hosts happy. “You want me tell you about the Labors of Marecules? Great heroine if I do say so myself. It all started with a bout of insanity.”

Ever since Shadow was a little colt he loved the stories the city elders used to tell, and he had felt an itch to find a listening audience for years. Granted, none of the sphinxes could understand him, but if they wanted him to speak, then by golly he would speak.

He did so for hours, on and on he went about the epic tale of Marecules. He even went so far as to act out his favorite parts, only to be prodded by the butt of a spear if he ventured beyond the mat. Despite his stoic outwardly appearance, Ventras had to admit he rather enjoyed the comical dramatic little pony. He held no fear for the dark brown stallion, on the contrary, he was feeling rather attached to the amusing creature. It helped that Equestrian sounded quite melodious, rather than the gruff tongue of the sphinxes.

“So there she was! Staring down the fifty headed dog-beast with nothing more than her wits about her!”

“Git!” one of the guards commanded with a halting gesture. “Ferus malin.”

Shadow stood there with profound sadness in his eyes. “But I was just getting to the best part.”

“Git!” she repeated more forcefully.

He slumped on his mat, and looked to Thaddeus who now had forty scrolls around him. He said something to Ventras who climbed off his throne while trying to hide the crick in his back from sitting too long.

A few attendants shuffled into the room and helped scatter the scrolls all around Ventras, then everyone pulled back to give him space. Shadow watched with intense curiosity as Ventras shifted his front paws into hands, and opening a nearby bag, rubbed powder all over his arms. After closing the bag, he rubbed his hands and made a sweeping motion to cast the powder all over top of the scrolls.

He started chanting while making a strange sign with his fingers interlocked with each other to form a triangle. Ventras chanted quietly at first, slowly growing louder until he peaked right above a normal speaking voice.

The ink from the scrolls started to float up to surround the governor. Finally, he started noisily inhaling the ink which quickly fled into his mouth.

That is the weirdest magic I’ve ever seen, and I even saw arcanum in action once. Shadow got a chill up his spine when Ventras seemed to swallow the mass of ink. A few moments later, he looked Shadow dead in the eyes speaking Equish in the thestral's accent. “So, this is the tongue of prey. How very… interesting.”

“Ohhh, heebe jeebe you know Equestrian.” Shadow’s ears fell flat at Ventras’ knowing toothy grin.

“Is that what you call yourselves? Or just your language?” Ventras slowly, methodically advanced on Shadow. “Know that I am Ventras, First son of Felnarious, and patriarch of this house.”

Shadow was familiar enough with predators to know to keep from showing too much weakness. Maybe not sapient predators, but the analogy probably fit well enough. He tried and failed to prop his ears back to their normal posture. “I’m ahh, my name is Slippery Shadow these days. Not many seem to like the old naming conventions sadly.”

The governor took notice of the odd excuse, it would be a question he would ask later. Do these beings even have titles, or are they that culturally backwards? “Good, cooperation will see you live another day. Now, Slippery Shadow, you’re going to tell me all about your people and where you come from, and in return I’ll let you have better accommodations than the cage outside.”

“Oh?” Shadow’s ears perked right back up again. “Well, if you really want to know all about the Moonlit Empire, then I simply have to tell you about the Labors of Marecules. An absolute need-to-know, but ahh…” His stomach growled noisily, and his throat was dry from regaling folklore for hours. “Any chance I can get some food? Maybe I could tell you all about it over dinner?” He plastered the biggest friendliest smile his fang filled mouth could produce. They’re cat things. I’m sure fangs look fine to them.

Ventras mulled over the idea for a moment before letting off a belly laugh. “You want to dine with us?! Very well then, grass-eater, provide tonight’s entertainment, and you shall live quite comfortably within my walls.”

He switched to his native language. “Thaddeus, prepare a proper room for our guest, but watch him carefully. If he tries to run, throw him back in the cage.”

“At once, Governor.” He barked a few commands and sent the servants scurrying.

Shadow inwardly smirked at how easily it was to exploit the ignorance of others. Such a pity you never asked about Equestria or Phoenix's Roost.

The next several days would be filled with wild tales and outdated strategic information about Shadow’s old homeland, much to his profound amusement.

Author's Note

source

More artwork from the talented hands of Lady GryphonInia.

See you next chapter!

7: Double O Ling

The world around Blitz narrowed to a single point, her mother’s reptilian eyes. It took her half a minute to process the question. “…You want me to be a royal daughter?” she asked with reserved confusion. Rainbow gave her, her signature snarky snort and nod. “W-what makes you think I’d be any good at that? I’m just a fifth level engineer, there’s got to be better picks.”

“Pah,” Rainbow huffed dismissively as she returned to her pot of royal jelly tea. “If I did everything that looked good on paper, I’d be some lame-o back in Cloudsdale with some desk job.” Her brain decided to remind her that quite a few of her drones had such ‘lame-o’ jobs. Well, whatever. They're my kids so their natural awesomeness makes up for it ten times over.

“Look, Blitz, I think you’d make a good queen.” Rainbow’s smirk soured a little at the drone’s panicky expression. “Really.” Rainbow’s horn lit up and she pulled a folder off her desk and started reading. “As strange as it may sound, I’m not looking for an athlete or capable warrior here. You practically aced your Ldog test, Ratchet personally vouched for you since it was you who came up with the more efficient thumb design for Aegis’ gauntlets,” Rainbow was going to continue, but an excited gasp escaped Blitz.

“R-Ratchet actually vouched for me!?”

“Damn right he did,” Rainbow chuckled as if it should have been expected. “He doesn’t like to show excessive pride to his underlings, but he was crazy impressed.”

Blitz had to take a moment to squeal in delight and spin in circled while dancing on her hoof tips. “Yes, yes, yes, yeeeeess!”

Rainbow Dash allowed her daughter to enjoy the moment for a little bit before speaking again. “Twi, Aegis, Ratchet, and I have all drawn up a list of my kids who we think would make good queens, and you were the first.”

“Why ask Aegis?” Blitz replied with slight confusion while spinning back around to face her mother. “I sorta thought older people should decide that.”

There’s that brain of hers. Rainbow nodded with approval. “Normally, yeah. But since this decision directly affects her…” She trailed off to let Blitz come to her own conclusion. When understanding dawned on her daughter, Rainbow continued. “But the biggest thing, is that you have that…” Rainbow tried her best to think of the proper wording. Years ago, she might have been poorly equipped for such a task, but her time as an officer in the Wonderbolts, and Twilight’s assistance later in life, helped Rainbow formulate a half decent pep talk that wasn’t directed at soldiers. “You’re smart, competent, and you have a good strong heart, but more importantly, you have that rare unnamable quality that my old CO, Spitfire, saw in me.”

Blitz listened in rapt attention as Rainbow scrunched her muzzle in miffed confusion. “Something you’d think all of my unaltered kids would have, but whatever.” She affixed her gaze on Blitz, exuding calm motherly warmth. “Apparently having an awesome possum mom isn’t enough for somepony to have the right clay to be shaped into a ruler. I think you have right stuff, and if you want, we can see if I’m right together.”

Blitz sat flat on her rump with her mind going a million miles an hour. Truth be told, Blitz was quite happy with her lot in life as a drone and engineer. A contentedness Aegis seemed to be born without. Sure I planned to one day be chief of the robotics division, if not the whole Engineers’ Corps, but to be remade into a royal!? This isn’t just some job promotion. She’s offering me a chance to be a queen-mother. I don’t think I can do that. I don’t even know how mom does it!

Rainbow Dash sensed her daughter’s mounting panic as the drone’s thoughts threatened to drive her into an anxiety attack. She spoke slightly louder than normal to cut through to Blitz. “Why don’t you give it some thought? Sleep on it, give it a week while I spread the word to the other candidates, and then come back to me on it.”

“Thank you, my queen. I will.” Blitz saw the kind dismissive nod from Rainbow and turned to leave.

Blitz opened the door only for Rainbow to speak up, giving the drone pause. “Before you go,” Blitz turned back to face her mother and saw wisdom in her eyes that Rainbow lacked in her early years. “Just remember one thing: you never know what you’re capable of unless you try. Spitfire and Twilight taught me that, and I’d like to pass that on to all my kids, you included.”

Something sparked in Blitz’s mind. Whether it was a flash of her mother’s own brashness or a lapse in judgment, potentially both, Blitz looked her mother dead in the eye with a determined half-smile. “Yeah, okay. I’ll do it! Aegis won’t have nothing on me!”

Rainbow snorted with a wide approving grin. “Good to hear. We’ll start the competition once we return to the hive. I’ll have spread the word to the other candidates by then. For now, get some sleep, you’ll need it.”

“Yes, my queen.” Blitz bowed her head, an act she scolded herself for forgetting when she entered the room in the first place. Ignoring her embarrassment, she departed for Ferrum’s bunk.

With the matter closed and Blitz leaving, Rainbow turned to her gallon sized stein of royal jelly tea. Now, back to feeding those hungry hungry eggs of mine, she mused while eagerly latching onto the drink.

Blitz was riding high on her mother’s intense pride until halfway to the crew quarters when what she had agreed to finally sunk in and her irises shrunk to pinpricks. “Lingbeans, what have I done!?”

The following morning, Blitz sat at the end of one mess hall table surrounded by her fellow drones, yet she was lost in her own thoughts. She barely got any sleep that night between her romp with Ferrum and being lost in her thoughts about a possible royal rebirth. Blitz’s tired gaze was centered on the bowl of cold cereal she was idly stirring. Every so often she would take a small bite. What am I going to do now? I had the perfect life of an engineer all set for me. Impressed the royalty with my work on the princess’ armor, might have even gotten a chance to be a full on apprentice to Ratchet, maybe even be chief engineer one day.

The spoon clattered out of her magic and into the milk, splashing a little bit around the bowl, but no one else noticed that nor the growing panic in the young drones’ face. Now they think I’m good enough to be a royal?! How can that be? I’m just a fifth level engineer! What if they DO select me and I fail horribly? It wouldn’t just be a machine or two that would act up, I would doom a whole hive! What if my failure is so bad both mothers decide to abandon elevating drones to royals? Blitz started to hyperventilate. What if they only catch my failure after I’m turned into a royal? They’d have to turn me back into a drone, but that would mean losing all my memories! I like my memories! I don’t wanna become a cautionary taaaale! she wailed helplessly, just barely stopping herself from collapsing onto the table. A few of her siblings were about to ask what’s wrong, but were interrupted by a newcomer.

“Mind if I sit here?” a voice called out just loud enough to break through Blitz’s out of control train of thoughts.

The blue engineer looked up with half-mad eyes to see Aegis standing beside her with a warm smile. The princess was standing on her hindlegs with enough stability to look comfortable. Oddly enough, Aegis had no idea what to do with her forelegs, or arms as she liked to call them now, when she wasn’t holding something or on all fours. As a result she opted to just cross them in front of her chest. Aegis still kept her food tray aloft in her magic because she wasn’t too keen on testing her balance with food in hand, though she kept that to herself.

Blitz fumbled to reply after shaking her head. “A-ah- sure,” she waved at the empty seat in front of her, “be my guest.”

While the long bench that serviced the table were built to allow a changeling to rest on their bellies, the design didn’t hamper a biped’s sitting posture. As a result, Aegis took the opportunity to practice sitting like a minotaur. The act caused her to appear much taller than anyone else at the table, only causing Blitz’s panic to rise as she saw the princess as a monument which she had little chance of living up to.

Aegis on the other hand, was a model of giddiness at being able to talk to Blitz away from the machine shop, and spoke while stuffing her maw with jam toast.

Stupid bug! Why couldn’t you keep your mouth shut and just tell momma you’re not cut out for this? Wait, I got it. If I ask the princess why they chose me, then I can debunk them so they’ll spend more time on better candidates! She had to suppress the urge to clap her hooves in victory.

By the time Blitz looked up to Aegis, the princess was giving her an amused look. “You alright there?”

“I… don’t know.” Blitz started wringing her hooves under the table. “Why did you pick me of all people to be your partner? It’s not because I made your gauntlets is it?”

Aegis paused to look at the spoon in her metallic fingers. Her grip was badly flawed and it forced too much wrist movement to get the food to her mouth, but it was there. “I’d be lying if I said that had nothing to do with it.” Aegis took a more relaxed posture and tone. “But the biggest part is two things: I think we mesh well together, and you’re crazy smart. Like, momma smart.” And I’m just crazy, she added with no small amount of good humor.

“But that’s like saying I’m the reddest apple in the tree,” Blitz countered. “There’s plenty of super smart drones other than me.”

Aegis’ smile started to falter. “Well, yeah, but you had the presence of mind to customize the bonding process between my legs and the gauntlets to allow for greater neural activity. Uncle Ratchet didn’t even think of that. He just assumed attaching my nerves to the boots would have been enough.”

Blitz’s frown wavered a little. “That was just an accident. I didn’t really plan that.”

Aegis shrugged while swallowing a bite. “That just means I’ll have to add mad good luck to your resume.” Blitz just rolled her eyes at the smirking princess. “Besides, I’m a soldier, through and through. I need a civilian minded partner to make my future hive more efficient, and you’re perfect for it. Our mommas want to follow Celestia and Luna’s diarchy example of rule, and I gotta agree. Splitting the work is better than a solo job. Not to mention that our hive can grow twice as fast with two queens instead of one.”

Aegis continued with a quick switch to the hive mind as she took the last bite of her toast.

Blitz leaned back with a sour scowl. “And so the other shoe drops.”

Aegis replied with a lopsided grin. That earned Aegis a harmless scowl.

Aegis resumed eating to give Blitz a few moments to think about it all. “The love flavor’s just a bonus.”

After hearing all of that straight from her possible royal counterpart, Blitz felt her spirits lifted, if only just. She looked up from her cereal and deeply into Aegis’ slitted eyes. “You really want me to be your partner, and your shield?”

By now, most of the crowd around them had drifted off to their duty stations, leaving the pair alone. Aegis flew around the end of the table and squashed Blitz in a hug. “If it came down to the wire, there’s no pony I’d rather have than you to be my life long partner.”

Moved to tears, Blitz returned the hug as hard as she could. “Okay, Aegis. I’ll give it my best shot. I, ah, kind of owe you since I forgot to give you the anesthetics when bonding you to your gauntlets.”

Rather than spoil the moment, Aegis let the comment slide. Damn right you do.

Much later that day, the changeling spy within Stripped Gear slunk through the narrow confining passageways to the underground crystal factory. The main access point was too crowded to risk, and the cargo tunnel had been magnetically sealed and warded.

The maintenance tunnel the spy crawled through had exposed pipes and gearworks everywhere along the poorly lit walls and floor. The spy’s abnormally soft hooves allowed it to slink quietly along the metal grated floor. After creeping along at a snail’s pace, the spy at last came upon a door, presumably leading into the factory itself. Unfortunately, there was a drone standing in front, so the spy crouched behind a bend in the passageway.

A simple charm spell would allow me to bypass him, but do I risk getting him to open the door for me? The controlling queen’s magic was subtle enough to gently scan the door for wards, and found two right away. One was to detect forced entry, while the other for detecting telekinetic manipulation. Cadista’s no fool. Those wards are painfully obvious to even a novice spellweaver, it’s a trap. She’s got to have secondary, maybe even tertiary wards to detect anyone tampering with the door or the obvious wards.

The puppet cast its eyes towards the repair drone again. He had several tools at his side while his attention was fixated on a crankshaft he was servicing. A cursory scan revealed he possessed a few mental screens, but the controlling queen had recently taken one of Cadista’s drones, and knew how to pick apart each ward, save the one that kept the spy from totally dominating the intelligent drones. Deactivating that last one without killing the drone is next to impossible. I’ll have to settle for dismantling the others. Without anyone else coming into the tunnel, and the mechanic’s single-mindedness, prying apart each of his protective spells went on uninterrupted. Once she was done, the puppet slipped forward with its horn aglow and moved close enough to whisper in the mechanic’s ear. “I am very tired and forgetful.”

The drone slowly stopped working and his eyes became vacant. “Sssooo tired.”

The puppet weaved a spell to make sure the mechanic vocalized his thoughts. “I can’t seem to remember how to open the door.”

“Can’t remember…” The mechanic droned. The controlling queen loosened her grip on his mind just a bare smidgen. “Oh right… I have to press the button on the ground there,” he pointed at a discreet raised plate of steel. “Then pull the lever by the wall so it doesn’t lockdown.”

The queen was about to release the drone when he absently commented to himself. “I hate that door. The Link always goes silent.”

The puppet froze in shock. None of my captives ever spoke of Link silencing doors. No wonder all my other infiltrations past the wall failed. I always thought my puppets were getting picked off by some hidden guard or possible mechanical defense weapon. She refocused on the pliable drone. “I can’t remember, is it the whole factory that cuts off the Link or not.”

The engineer’s eyes slowly blinked separately. “No… only the doors do when both are closed. But long enough to screw up any of those idiotic rival queens.” The mechanic had a superior grin. “As if dumb drones were better than us.” He spat on the ground in disgust. The act also proved to strengthen his will, loosening the puppeting queen’s charm over him.

Fearing that she might trip the dead-switch ward on the mechanic’s mind, the queen gave him one last minor suggestion. “I think you forgot to finish up further back. You better check on it to be sure.”

“Hey, that’s right.” The drone said with mild worry. “If I had reconnected this shaft without section 58-b in working order, the resulting damage would take all week to fix.”

The puppet side stepped to allow the mechanic to gather his tools and depart. The problem with intelligent minds is that they tend to ramble on and volunteer information when put under the correct charm. A snide grin crossed the queen’s muzzle. The most you can ever truly get from a normal drone is their alchemical secrets. I warned Cadista that these intelligent drones would be the death of her.

Turning her attention to the door, the queen contemplated how she was going to circumvent a momentary breakage in the Link. It’s been a while since I’ve had to implant a series of commands and let a drone act independent of normal instinct. The controlling queen smirked and popped a few joints at the challenge. I better hurry before that drone returns.

It did not take long before the puppet was programmed with a number of actions. The queen released it, allowing the drone to press the correct buttons, and walked inside the doorway, which led straight into a very small room with a second door on the other side. The instant the first set of doors closed the queen’s connection with the spy cut off abruptly. For a being who counted her lifetime in centuries instead of years, the delay felt entirely too long.

My allies are in position, the pawns are in place, but none of it will matter if Cadista isn’t distracted. Her toys of machine and steel are pitiful on offense, but defensively? Any victory would be a hollow one. And she knows it.

The queen’s attention was partially drawn to a battle going on to Stripped Gear’s northern territory next to the road between the hive and its railroad outpost. …Polybia. So she’s on the move as well? Or is it just a probing attack? I don’t think she’s ever attacked Cadista with so many drones before.

The various eyes and ears the queen had in the field showed just how quick the two gunships in the area annihilated the contingent of drones. The queen was unmoved by the two hundred dying drones, their lives were cheap in the Jungle. Even so, the queen was rather disappointed in Polybia as the raiding party was cut down to the last drone. Still, such a paltry amount of information is not worth the cost she paid.

One of her closer scouts was near enough to the carnage to be within spitting distance of the broken changeling corpses. Something about the spilled blood tickled her scout’s magical senses in a disturbing way, but the reappearance of the infiltrator upon the hive mind pulled her attention away.

The queen immediately resumed complete control over her puppet. The infiltrator was standing on a catwalk just inside the crystal factory itself. The very air churned and roiled from the immense heat wafting from the dozens of large water and steam pipes. The largest pipes sank into a hole in the center of the football field sized chamber where an orange hot glow emanated from the lava chamber below.

The room had machinery everywhere, from turbines, heat exchangers, and most intriguingly, the crystal farm. Ten huge vats of Borosilicate heat resistant glass filled with dense semi-opaque brown liquid held the growing future cloaking crystals within. The infiltrator counted twenty two workers who tended the various machinery. No guards, as expected. Time to get to work.

Spotting the first isolated worker, the spy moved in for the kill.

Cadista bore a humorless grin as the titanic hangar doors groaned open upon massive hinges. The brand new flat decked ship was pulled out by a smaller tugboat. The grey queen stood above the hangar doors along the edge so she could watch from above as her latest weapon of war was birthed into the violent world of the changeling jungle.

Those dark thoughts weighed heavily on Cadista. Twilight, I’m glad you did not try to settle your hive here in the jungle. You and your progeny will lead our species along a better path. Of that I am certain. But that will only happen so long as you outlive the old guard, and every day that I hold the other queens here, the better your odds.

By now, the warship had been fully removed from the air dry-dock with the tugboat uncoupling itself from the vessel. The warship was so new, so radically different than anything she had masterminded before, Cadista had been at a loss as to what to classify it as, let alone name it.

Cadista furrowed her brow in mild irritation at the thought. Gah, I’ve been using Equestrian naval classes for so long I didn’t really think that I’d ever have to come up with a new one.

She watched the vessel start to lazily orbit the palace, more to live test the onboard systems than anything else, but the ship still drew many eyes towards it. Cadista didn’t care if any spies managed to sneak a peek at the warship now. It was something new. Something strange and unknown, and that made queens hesitant. “Even with their disdain for my technology, they’re not stupid enough to underestimate it. Not since the incident. They’ll spend months if not years figuring out if this is a new weapon or some odd looking freighter. That should buy more than enough time to work out the remaining errors and install the cloak crystals.

"The only thing it needs at the moment is a name and classification.” Thus far, Cadista had been thinking aloud mostly for her own benefit, but also for the two Queen’s Guard at her side. Unlike Twilight and Rainbow’s guards, Cadista’s were bred to be paranoid. They suspected everyone and everything, including their siblings to be spies unless they could speak to them over the hive mind.

Watchful Eye, her Guard Captain and the drone to Cadista’s right side, hummed while sweeping his gaze for incoming threats. “It’s supposed to carry smaller aircraft into battle right? Those mini-airships?” He received an affirmative grunt from his queen. “Why not classify it as a carrier?”

This time, Cadista actually turned to face him, causing Watchful to shrug. “Keep it simple, stupid. That’s what I always say, er, no offense, my queen.”

Cadista received no response from the other guard, making her scowl. “I was thinking of ‘long range power projection platform’, but… I suppose carrier is easier to say in conversation.”

“It’ll save on ink and page space, that’s for sure,” the thus far silent guard chirped in.

Heaving an exasperated sigh, Cadista conceded. “Very well. Any future ships of this type shall be henceforth known as carriers. Now, to think of a proper name.”

Their brainstorming session didn’t last long before a highly agitated foreman barely waited for Cadista to register his ping before speaking.

The hair stood up on the back of Cadista’s neck at the warning. She hastily scanned the hive mind for those who were on shift down there, and quickly discovered none of their voices were present. Damn, Polybia’s forces must have been a distraction! The timing is too perfect.

Despite the gravity of the situation, the dispatcher was calm and collected. A short pause elapsed.

Watchful Eye and his counterpart shared in their queen’s agitation. “What’s wrong, my queen?”

Cadista began giving out rapid fire commands to the various overseers and foremen. “A spy or even a team of them have somehow broken into the crystal factory. If they damage the wrong pipes, they could cause a wildcat steam buildup that could cause ruptures all over the hive!”

Watchful buzzed into a low hover. “We should evacuate immediately! There’s no way a spy got their way down there without knowing how much damage they could do.”

Cadista’s face was marred with hate. “I’ve lived here for thousands of years, over more lifetimes than I know. I will not abandon it now!” She saw the fearful gaze of her drones, only making her angrier. “Besides, we have contingencies in place if the magma chamber ever got out of our control. Even if the damage is done, the mountain won’t erupt for months.”

“But, my queen, if Chrysalis is on the move, all she has to do is besiege us and wait for the volcano to blow. If we try to evacuate immediately, it might throw her timetable off.”

“Or maybe they want us to panic,” piped up Watchful’s counterpart. “I say we tighten the airship cordon around the hive, prepare to evacuate, and wait to see what the response team finds. If worst comes to worse, we can always relocate to Phoenix’s Roost.”

“As much as I hate imposing on my daughters, it is sound advice.” Everything is secondary to safeguarding Twilight and Rainbow Dash, even my pride.

A few minutes ago, the last surviving drone within the crystal factory had been so absorbed in the read outs of his console that he completely missed the silencing of his coworkers due to the background white noise of the rest of the hive mind. In fact, he didn’t even notice anything out of the ordinary until he felt like something bit him in the back of the neck and a foreleg wrapped around his neck, pulling him away from his work and into the cold embrace of the changeling spy’s poisonous fangs. Within the space of a few seconds, the spy’s toxin cut off the hive mind, effectively blocking any chance the worker could raise an alarm and ended his life a moment later.

With no further need for subtlety, the spy released its camouflage and studied the maze of machines and steam pipes. That’s the problem with cold metal technology. When the drones die, there’s no one left to protect so much vulnerable equipment.

The spy remembered the biggest console it had come across during its elimination of the workers and flew over to it. The mass of dials, levers, readouts, knobs, and switches might have baffled the controlling queen if she cared at all to try and decipher it. I know nothing of these things, but I do know steam can be quite destructive. While I took the time to splash some acid on the smaller turn wheels I came across, these look even more important. If the puppeting queen could put her pride aside, she’d admit she knew nothing of the machine in front of her; however, she knew that everything could break. These red zones along the knobs and levers look dangerous. How careless of me to pull them all. I think it's time to signal my allies to attack.

The spy started pulling levers, twisting knobs, and moving any control to whatever maximum value it possessed. With startling rapidity, the dials and readouts started redlining and the pipes started banging so loud it forced the spy to cover its ears.

A callous grin marred the controlling queen. “Such is the folly of metal technology.”

“Alert! Magma dampening field compromised,” boomed a synthetic feminine voice across the chamber, drawing the puppet’s gaze along the ceiling in an effort to locate the source. “Steam pressure exceeding safety limits. Lockdown protocols in progress.” The spy witnessed several robotic arms folding out from the floor with large orange crystals at the ends. It didn’t take the puppeting queen long to detect the charging frost magic within each of them.

Before any of them could reach their intended position, the infiltrator rushed over to the closest one and spat vicus green globs of acid at the biggest looking piston. The queen had the presence of mind to back off, saving the puppet from the blast of pressurized steam when the acid ate through the piston, causing the arm to collapse and fracturing the delicate crystal in the process. The spy repeated the process to each arm. “Warning, automated failsafe protocol inoperable. Steam production exceeding normal levels. Manual secession of water supply required to prevent cascade failure. Please enact emergency venting and shutdown procedures without delay.”

What the spy couldn’t know was that same warnings were being broadcast all over the hive. Within the crystal factory itself, the white lighting was joined by strobing red warning lights. Yet most alarmingly was the large black crystal appearing from an opening in the center of the room. It started glowing an angry dark purple before flooding the room in the same twisting mana. “Intruder alert,” began repeating itself constantly, though the banging and hissing pipes threatened to drown it out.

The puppet’s horn was in agony as the crystal’s magic burned the spy’s stored mana. The controlling queen severed her sensation of pain from the puppet so she wouldn’t be burdened by it. So you found a way for the machine to defend itself, Cadista? What a shame you didn’t have it react to the possibility of sabotage earlier.

The muffled clank of metal announced the doors opening with pounding hooves and buzzing wings heralding the arrival of two squads of guards from the cargo and main entrances with rifles at the ready. The spy barely had time to notice the protective helmets covering the soldiers’ horns, keeping the mana-burning crystal from affecting them.

“It looks like I’ve worn out my welcome.” The spy turned around and started bucking the control console, smashing it to pieces by the time the fastest soldiers got within weapon's range, and fired upon the spy.

The puppet managed to slide away with a quick green-fire portal spell. Though successful, the feedback from the crystal exploded the puppet’s horn, leaving its vision swimming and awash with blood. The controlling queen had placed the spy at the second largest control board it had seen and started spitting up large globules of highly acidic salve that dripped in between the levers and knobs, ruining the control mechanisms.

The teleport spell was hardly inconspicuous, and the soldiers saw the destination. The spy barely managed to spit up three globs of acid before two riflelings sprinted the distance and peppered the puppet with five bullets, finally ending its life.

Blood and acid dripped from the corpse, causing further damage to the machinery below.

Cadista watched through the eyes of the last soldier to enter the factory. She switched perspective to the engineers moving in behind the soldiers, and fully took control of one. Time was too critical to leave in the hooves of anyone else. “Repair the damage, and bring the power plant back under control!” she commanded to the other drones as the group stormed into the hellish heat that was wafting up from the magma chamber and the warning klaxons only adding to the chaos.

Cadista’s ire mounted as she started getting warning pings from drones all over the hive with one voice giving her serious pause.

Another voice only compounded her fear.

It was a sad truth. With the upcoming war, there were mounting concerns that the constant high pressure on the pipes hive-wide would eventually give out. Now with the geothermal plant dumping far too much steam into the rest of the pipes, blow outs were inevitable. If we blow the release valves, it’ll take hours to bring power back to the turrets along the walls, and days to restore everything, assuming the damage to the plant is minimal.

Still standing upon her perch above the airship dry-dock, Cadista heard metal bangs coming from the pipework beneath her hooves when she heard news from the geothermal engineers. All of which spurned her own puppet on to hurry. Yet all it took was a single look at the smoking and half slagged primary control board to see there was no hope there. Fuming with rage, Cadista’s consciousness invaded the drone who was just arriving at the secondary board only to find all but one dial to be non-functional. “Damn her!” she raged louder than the banging steam pipes. “Both primary control boards have been ruined, it’ll take days, weeks to repair this!

“There’s no other choice,” she growled grimly once she learned of the broken status of the stabilization crystals.

Cadista left the engineer’s body to allow him to follow her orders as her consciousness returned to her body. Her escorts looked upon the hive in horror as steam started to fill the air. Within an hour, the hive would be totally obscured in a dense fog of steam. Watchful Eye’s fearful gaze shifted up to the shield tower and the masking dome above. The constant din of the tower’s machines, a symbol of the hive’s power as old and venerated as Cadista herself shuddered to a halt. Cracks spread rapidly all throughout the orange dome above before it shattered in one massive crack of escaping mana.

Both escorts looked to Cadista with terror gripping their hearts. “My queen, with the steam pipes vented, we won’t be able to lift any of our artillery and wall mounted weapons into firing position! All we have are small arms and the gunships!”

Cadista gritted her teeth and tried to calm herself to think rationally on how to fix everything. A scouts’ report coming in did nothing to help her. The informant was suddenly silenced by one of the invaders’ advance scouts.

Fear and panic started spreading rapidly throughout Stripped Gear with equally worried communications coming in from Phoenix’s Roost, Twilight and Rainbow Dash chief among them. Her daughters’ voices gave Cadista exactly what she needed most: support. Cadista barked just harshly enough to get her daughter to listen.

Rainbow Dash shared her sister’s rising worry.

Cadista turned westward to face the general direction of the oncoming swarms and sat on her haunches. The setting sun baked the sky a dark red as it slipped below the horizon, giving the invading army some measure of cover in the coming darkness.

Twilight and Rainbow knew full well from experience that meditating like that made you nearly deaf to the world and unable to act, save to end the meditation.

Cadista prepared herself to open herself fully to the hive mind as she sent word to her various ambassadors to the allied hives.

Twilight’s demanding tone was laced with profound worry and love.

Cadista replied sagely even as she sent off commands to her drones to prepare for battle. Cadista’s thoughts and tone darkened.

The conversation faded as time forced everyone to act. Panic was sweeping through her hive with terror hot on the heels of news on the invading swarms. Thousands of souls looked to her for guidance and hope. If there was one thing that Twilight had instilled into Cadista through the years, was the power of music. Pulling upon old memories of a time when Yumia still lit up her life, Cadista expanded herself to every single grey drone, and sang an old song Yumia used to sing to her when times were bleak. Cadista sang now it now to give her children the strength to weather the coming storm.

Bonus: To the Fashionmobile!

The hatchery was typically a semi-noisy place. The distant chugging of steam and gears mixed with the ever-present flow of liquid through the tubes snaking all over the place for each cocoon and the laughter of nymphs going to and fro created a welcoming ambience for most changelings.

Aegis paced in front of Blitz’s cocoon with a precise clock hovering in front of her face, though her gaze kept dancing between the chrysalis and the watch.

She pressed her face against the waxy cocoon, trying to see the heavily obscured figure within. Despite Aegis’ insistence, Blitz’s hive voice remained unchanging and she didn’t stir.

She hoped the accusation might get through, but to no avail.

Seeing that hive-speak was failing her, Aegis tried a different tactic and took a long deep breath. “Hatch, hatch, hatch, hatch, hatch, hatch, hatch!” On and on she chanted until she was out of breath and wheezing out the words.

Aegis took a second breath to try again when Twilight spoke.

Dang it, girl, you are going to disturb the other cocoons. I think I need some way to keep you out of the hatchery for a while.

Aegis glanced around and found Gear Ratio doing routine checks on the chrysalises nearby. Aegis buzzed over nonchalantly and wrapped an arm around the chief caretaker. “Hey, ol buddy, ol friend, ol pal, can you do a thrice over on my counterpart here? I think she’s a little sluggish in waking up.”

Gear paused a moment as Twilight spoke to her. “Momma says you better not interfere with our work over this anymore or she’ll find a way to postpone Blitz’s awakening by a month. Just to make sure she becomes a proto-queen before you.”

“She wouldn’t!” Aegis cringed at the thought of Blitz and her being out of sync. A light brush of motherly glowering from the Link was all Aegis needed to flee the hatchery.

Twilight chuckled to herself at her daughter’s antics. Ahh, young love.

Both changeling queens were walking through the palace with Rarity between them. The fashionista was immaculate as usual. “I must say, with no small amount of modesty, that this castle is positively brimming with color now! I can’t thank you two enough for giving me the honor of decorating it.”

Working with the technological motif of the former colony ship’s design, Rarity had blanketed the castle with a brass finish with multiple rooms having differing decor to mix things up. For the most part however, a motif of pistons and gears covered various parts of the exterior and the omnipresent aroma of lubricant and oil drifted throughout the entire hive.

Thankfully, Rarity had grown accustomed to the ‘scent’ long ago. It’s not about what I like, it’s about what the customer likes, and these adorable drones can't seem to get enough of that… fragrance.

Rainbow couldn’t help but to marvel at the gear work below her hooves, visible thanks to the steel grating. Said grating was also covered in resin to protect their hooves. “Gotta say Rarity, I still can't believe you managed to make almost all of these gears actually serve a purpose outside of looks.”

“Well you can thank Steamy and his crew for that. Honestly, his ability to make anything I think up reality is simply amazing. We were able to tie every door and light into the overall machinery to bring form and function to new heights!” Rarity sighed contently at the years of memories and effort coming together so fabulously.

“We can’t thank you enough, Rarity.” As Rarity expected, Twilight was enraptured by the feel of a living castle. “You’ve made our castle a fitting home.”

“It’s was my pleasure, really. And while it was great fun, I do so miss the fashion world. I have a lot of catching up to do.”

Rainbow Dash grinned knowingly. “We figured as much.” Rarity nodded in absent agreement. “So that’s why we think your boutique back in Ponyville just won’t cut it anymore.”

Rarity would have stopped walking out of a flash of sadness had the two queens not kept on trotting ahead. “Well I admit it is probably woefully out of style by now, but that’s nothing a little TLC can’t cure.” She let the comment roll off her with dignity. “Besides, I should really get back home anyway, or else Epaulets will end up raising my little Cloudy Skies and Summer Seas without me.”

Twilight felt truly happy that each of her friends, even bashful Fluttershy, had gone on to have families of their own over the years. In the mind of the changeling queen, individual death was far less terrifying than not leaving behind a legacy. As long as a part of each of my pony friends continues on over my long life, I’ll be happy. Scaring away her inner musings, Twilight was glad to see the door to their destination was up ahead.

“We fully understand, Rarity, but sticking in just Ponyville will make such a career return difficult, so we thought of something to help with that.”

“Oh?” Rarity cooed as Twilight opened the hatch and waved Rarity to enter.

What lay beyond took Rarity’s breath away. All three of them were in one of the much smaller dry-docks used for the gunships. Instead of the usual patrol ship, a vessel that looked like someone took a gleaming brass store and merged it with an airship, turning it into a mobile fashion extravaganza. At least it would be once Rarity had her way with it.

The ship itself was just a bit bigger than Rarity’s old shop/house, and had a collection of six traditional propeller engines, four for lift and two for propulsion. With the Longshot still unproven in battle, neither queen was willing to invest too much into it.

The exterior had a primer coat of paint for protection, and several panels for future advertisements or other purposes that were all left blank. Twilight waved at Steamy and his two assistants who were hovering by the shop front which had plenty of large glass windows for displays. “We knew none of us had the critical eye you do, Rarity, so we thought the next place you decorated would be your own little mobile fashion store. We like to call it the Carousel Floatique!”

“I – I don’t know what to say,” Rarity replied dumbfounded. A tear of joy threatened to spill out. “Can I look inside?”

“Of course, Rares, it’s your home now. If you want to make it that.”

Spotting the gangplank easily enough, Rarity bolted as fast as a dignified lady could. The front room seemed deceptively spacious. Comfortable wooden floors with an oak finish were complemented by wooden walls and ceiling. Steamy followed in after Rarity and the royals. “We remembered you mentioning you wanted to remodel the Carousel Boutique so we left the interior as bare as possible.”

Twilight followed up the blue drone’s comment with one of her own. “Since we were going to leave the fine decorating to you, we figured we’d make the place modular instead.”

Rarity zipped around to inspect each and every facet of the store’s floor. “Ladies… I – I don’t know if I can put it to words.” She turned around to find both queens hovering nearby with excited looks that paled in comparison to her own. “I love it!”

Countless designs raced through Rarity’s mind, colors of all kinds, styles of every shape, and motifs that could make alicorns weep warred with each other for which would be brought forth into life. Rarity nearly dropped her aristocratic poise as she ran over to give both queens a crushing hug. “I never dreamed of having a flying shop before! Oh how all the other designers will be jel - I mean inspired by it.”

Rainbow smirked at the the whole thing. “I knew you’d like it. I mean, who wouldn’t want a flying house, am I right?”

“It’s our way of saying thanks for everything, Rarity,” Twilight commented with a sly look at her tactless sister. “The Floatique is ready to fly. In addition,” she trailed off as Steamy approached with a booklet Rarity knew all too well. “Steamy and Crescent Wrench have volunteered to stay on as pilot and engineer respectively.”

Steamy gave a manly blush. “It’s the least we can do until you or your family learn how to operate and pilot the vessel yourselves. Wrench would be here if she wasn’t busy getting her things packed up.”

Rarity gave a lady-like titter and patted his head. “You’ve been such a big help already, I couldn’t possibly drag you away from your home.”

“It was his idea,” Twilight offered.

Everyone looked in Steamy’s direction for details. “W-well, you know. We have our diplomats, traders, and a few other drones out there, but we’re still pretty isolated here in the hive. I figured we might want to ‘spread our wings’ as you ponies say.”

“Yeah, and you know, he could set up his own engie shop out there one day, or return home. Either way, it’s all good.” Rainbow’s raspy snark was present even when not needed.

“For the time being though,” Twilight cut in, “we already have your tools, the dock, and all the lingpower you need. Whatever you need to bring your latest vision into fruition, it’s on us.”

“Ooohhhh, you spoil me to no end, you know that,” Rarity teased with a dramatic hoof wave. She slid over to Steamy and waved off the booklet. “I already have some ideas on what to make. I think a meshing of my Ponyville home and your technological motif would be perfect for a flying boutique.”

“We’re already happy to help, Miss Rarity.” Steamy flexed his muscles, causing the alabaster mare to blush. Like his predecessor Spike before him, Rarity never went past teasing between Steamy and her. It was a personality quirk her husband actually expected from mares, given that it was typical behavior during the Moonlit Empire’s golden age.

Thundering hooves from the gangplank heralded Aegis’ entry “I didn’t miss it did I?!” she half-yelled while scanning the room.

Before either queen could respond, Rarity waved at the manic princess. “Not at all, not at all. I dare say you’ve arrived just in time.”

“Oh good,” Aegis wiped the sweat off her brow only to find Rarity cantering over to her. “I was worried I’d miss your new shop taking off.”

“So kind of you, Aegy. But your mother’s right, it would be best to add that nice polish right here in the dock. And,” Rarity added with poise, “I think assisting me with this would be an excellent exercise for simultaneous hand and telekinetic work.”

“Ahhh,” Aegis dropped down on all fours. “I would totally love to help you with that, but um,” she looked to Rainbow Dash. “But Aunty and I have to work up some new siege tactics together. Part of my queen training, you understand.”

“Nonsense,” Rainbow Dash announced with a fang filled smirk. The rebuke deflated Aegis, causing her ears to droop. “That can wait for later. I think Rarity’s suggestion is perfect for you.”

Twilight made her way to the door where more drones were lined up and waiting with draft paper and pencils. “I know you’ll do excellent, Aegis. Just think of it as part of your expanding knowledge base, something every queen should have.”

Rainbow Dash was following close behind her sister. “And I need to go over the proposal of turning a freighter into a navy tender. So you guys have fun.”

Rarity butted in just before Aegis could speak. “Don’t worry, ladies, we will.” She looked at Aegis who was doing her damnedest to keep a diplomatically friendly face. “Won’t we, deary?”

Oh happy day. Maybe Blitz’ll wake up to save me from this suffering. She found Rarity looking at her expectantly with a friendly smile. “Ahh, well, why not. I have allll the time in the world it seems.”

Author's Note

Had this idea floating around for a while, and I figured here was the perfect place to put it.

Not just to give Rarity a canon excuse to fly around, but to give you all a link to the sequel.

BEHOLD!!!