Canterlot.
Home of the two Pony Princesses and the capital of Equestria. The peak of northern civilization. The ultimate structure of the Ponies. No city had ever had a higher reputation and no city had ever been more elegant. Legend says it has stood for a thousand years, and that it would stand for thousands more.
Legend was about to be proven wrong.
On this day, we Changelings of the Southern Badlands would take it for our own. It's the perfect strategic position we will need for the plans of our Queen to succeed and without it's Princesses, Equestria will be crushed under our might. The rest of the world shall soon follow, and it will not take long for us to have an unlimited source of power.
I hovered ready and waiting along with the rest of the Hive Royal Army, preparing for the order from the Lieutenant Colonel. We would soon launch our attack on the pathetic magical shield that the Ponies had created in a futile attempt to stop us. Even now, our Queen worked below us, weakening their defenses even further. By absorbing the power being given to a bullshit excuse for a Princess from her peers, subjects and lover, not only would my Queen cripple the creator of the shield, she would become an immortalized God, and rise above every other living thing.
"The order has been given!" Yelled the Lieutenant Colonel, gaining the views of me and my Brethren. "Begin attack pattern beta immediately!" Even before the last syllable had passed his fangs, we began attacking the magical barrier below us. After quickly causing cracks, it wasn't much longer until the entire sphere exploded like glass bulb. "Charge!" We obeyed, charging towards the streets of Canterlot. Before hitting the ground, we put up basic magical defenses as to avoid having to slow for a landing. Once all of us were down, our Lieutenant Colonel barked out more orders.
"Squads A to D, focus on taking out high-priority targets!" The soldiers in the squads mentioned gave a quick salute before flying towards the castle. "E to G, contain the civilians to buildings! Do not attack them unless necessary, we need all of the fuel vessels to be undamaged!" I gave a quick salute with the rest of my and the other two squads and flew upwards to get a clearer view. There were some civilians running not far from us, presumably trying to get to the edge of the city. I called to my Lieutenant and motioned him to come to me. I pointed downwards to the fleeing civilians, earning a hungry grin.
"Nicely spotted, Corporal," he muttered, signalling the rest of our squad. We sped over to them and positioned ourselves from above, then flew downwards, surrounding them. One of them, a Pegasus Pony, tried to fly away in the panic of the others, only to be tackled down by my Lieutenant. We easily took out any that tried to fight us and herded them into a nearby building and let Chite, one of our squad's magic specialists, cast a containment spell to trap them inside. It was over before anyone could even blink. Like dealing with cattle. Starting as a small chuckle, I soon broke out into laughter.
"Jeez, Mawr," Chite murmured, "do you know how creepy that is?" Before I could answer, the voice of Queen emanated from the direction of the castle.
"This day has been just perfect," she sung perfectly, "the kind of day of which I've dreamed since I was small!" A few soldiers flew from a high window of the castle, coming down to where we were. They started discussing orders with some of my squad, but I wasn't paying much attention. I was listening to the beautiful sound of my Queen's voice. "Every Pony I'll soon control, every stallion, mare, and foal, who says a girl can't really have it all?"
As the singing died off, I looked into the window of the building. The Ponies were huddled together. A few were crying, a few were in shock, but most were in too much of a panic to even think straight. I could feel their emotions.
Anger.
Hate.
Fear.
I licked my lips. They felt delicious. It would soon be time to feast. And what a feast it shall be!
Suddenly, the sound of an explosion emanated from the same direction as our Queen's singing had. It happened once more, followed by a blast of energy carrying our Queen and every Changeling it hit flying off into the distance. The energy was speeding up, and was near to hitting my squad.
"Retreat!" Screamed my squad leader before starting to fly away. He didn't have to tell us twice. I flew like a bullet in the opposite direction of the energy blast, beating my wings as hard and fast as I could. A quick glance behind me showed that the energy wasn't affecting civilians, nor anything but us. The energy had almost reached me, but I was so close to safety. If I could just fly a little faster...
My wings suddenly cramped up, making me cry out in pain. I crashed into the pavement and skidded down the street, tearing up my weaker patches of chitin. Through panicked breaths, I opened my eyes and turned my head.
Then the energy wave hit me.
It was the most intense pain I had ever felt. Every one of my cells screamed out in pain. I couldn't see, I couldn't hear, I couldn't even breath.
Everything was drowned out.
Even my consciousness.
My consciousness returned to me slowly. My whole body ached dully, as did my mind. I was lying on my side, on top of something soft. What happened? The thing I was lying on was slightly springy, so it was likely that I was either in or on top of a bed. I suddenly realized there was something wet touching my neck.
It moved.
My eyes snapped open and instinctively threw my head back. If the yelp from behind me wasn't enough to tell I'd hit someone, the added pain on the back of my head was. I flipped myself around to try to face them, much to the dismay of my body.
It was an Earth Pony. Its body coat was orange, its mane was brown and it had an image of three farm shoes on its flank. Though it was hard to tell (it was a Pony after all), it appeared to be male. He was sitting on his rump with his forehooves covering his face, his eyes scrunched shut from the pain. Next to him lay a wash cloth, likely the object previously touching my neck. I looked around.
I appeared to be in some sort of domestic household, on top of a bed. The floor consisted of smooth wooden planks and the walls were thoroughly coated in a yellow paint. On the opposite end of the room to myself was a simple brown door. The walls perpendicular each had an uncreative square window and the wall to my left had a small bookshelf pressed up against it. Glancing down, I could see that I was in the form of a blue Pony. My tail was a light blue, leading me to presume that my mane was also. A quick check with my hooves showed that I was an Earth type. I must have changed just before...
My memories of the invasion suddenly came flooding back; my Brethren's bodies, twisted up in a shared agony, the horror as the energy relentlessly surged towards me, my Queen's face as she... No... She couldn't have been...
The Pony's eyes slowly opened, revealing them to be coloured a light blue. They flicked to me as he realized I was awake. The pain on his face melted away.
"Uh... Hi," he greeted. He stopped rubbing his forehead and stood up. "How are you feeling?" I need to get into a character until I can figure out what happened.
"W-Where am I?" I asked in a scared, feminine voice, twisting my expression into one of fear. I can use fear to hopefully induce a powerful Floreins Nightingale effect and collect energy. The Pony's eyes widened in realization.
"No-no! It's okay!" He assured me, shaking his hooves as a sign to stop. "I'm here to help you. I found you in the Everfree Forest really badly injured, so I brought you to my home to help you get better."
"Why here? Why not a hospital?"
"Well, Ponyville doesn't really have a hospital. The only thing we've got is Nurse Redheart, but she's retired and only does favours for some Ponies. My own place was the best I could take you to." I changed to a confused expression.
"But, why? Why would you help me like this?"
"I couldn't just leave somepony that was hurt! And, um..." He looked away, blushing and scuffling his hooves. "...I think you look... R-Really... Um..." He swallowed and chuckled nervously. Perfect. I forced myself to blush.
"O-Oh... Well..." I shuffled a little closer to him. "...I like a stallion w-who can..." I paused. "...Take care of his mare..." The Pony's blush intensified, leading to an awkward silence for a few seconds, broken by the Pony clearing his throat.
"D-Do you want me to feed you- No! I mean, uh-! Um! Would you like some breakfast?!" I giggled and nodded, causing the Pony to breath a sigh of relief. "Okay. You stay here and get comfortable while I go and get you some food." The Pony had just reached the door when he stopped and faced me again. "Oh, I never introduced myself. My name's Caramel, what's yours?"
"I'm Blueberry Passion." Not my best persona name, but not bad for improvisation. The Pony smiled.
"It's nice to meet you, Blueberry." I smiled back.
"You too, Caramel."
As I ate the food the Pony had brought up to me, we conversed. I learned that he had broken up with a romantic interest somewhat recently. This was good for me, as it meant I could exploit it to increase his feelings for me. The pain was already dulling with the energy I had taken from him so far and it wouldn't take more than a few days to absorb enough to restore myself to perfect health.
With my Blueberry Passion persona easily seducing the Pony, I could worry about a more important matters such as what became of my Queen and hive. It was unlikely that I was in the best or worst case scenario, meaning that while many of my Brethren could be in the best of places, many more were likely dead. That including my Queen...
"Are you okay?" Asked the Pony, bringing my focus back to reality. "You seem sad all of a sudden." Crap, I've got to work this into the character somehow now...
"I-It's just," I started, "when I'm better, I'll have to leave you..." The Pony cocked his head in confusion.
"Why do say that?" I looked down.
"You wouldn't a s-stupid little mare like me hanging around..." The Pony placed a hoof on my chin and lifted up my face.
"Blueberry," he started gently, "you shouldn't say those things about yourself."
"But... Why not?" We stared deep into each other's eyes. Our faces grew closer.
"Because they're not true." We drew even closer to each other, and our lips met. His emotions were coursing through his mind faster than even the blood in his veins. I reverted back to my original form and did a bit of quick magic to knock him out, with him being none the wiser. The Pony's body fell to the floor in a heap. As long as I keep him unconscious and alive, he should act as a constant source of energy. I should hide his body in case any visitors see him. I tried lifting him with magic, only to receive a sharp pang of pain. Crap, knocking him out must have used up the only magic I'd built up. I'll just have to leave him for now. I wandered out of the room and into his kitchen to try and find some painkillers.
The kitchen itself was fairly standard; stone panel flooring, a single oven, a simple sink. Nothing obvious stood out to me as to indicate where the Pony kept his drugs, so I started sifting through drawers and cupboards. It didn't take long to find a cupboard containing a colourful variety of bottles and boxes. The cupboard was a little too high to reach properly so, after changing back into Blueberry Passion, I climbed up onto the counter to sift through the medicine.
But of course, as luck would have it, there were no painkillers. I groaned. Just great. Going outside to buy some in this form would be too risky. I can't disguise myself as the Pony upstairs either, there'll be too high a chance that I'll run into someone wanting to talk to him about the relationship that was ended recently. I sighed and climbed down from the counter. I'll just have to tough it out as I recover using the Pony's energies.
My thoughts drifted once again to my Queen and hive. There wasn't even any way of knowing how long I had been unconscious, so I had no way of knowing how badly my Brethren were injured by comparison of myself. Maybe the Pony has a copy of today's newspaper lying around. If so, I could discover the date and, if I'm lucky, it may even have articles about the attack. I searched around the house for a newspaper, but unfortunately found nothing. Damn.
The idea of going outside re-entered my mind. Well, I did need painkiller anyway... For a moment I stood there, wondering whether it was really worth the risk. The need to know about my Queen overshadowed the thoughts of risk, and it wasn't long before I caved in. There's no way for me to justify this as a good idea, but... I sighed. I need to go outside and gather information.
