Fall of Equestria: Insurrection

Ka'leth flew low over the desert's sparse foliage, his gossamer wings creating a hypnotic buzz. With a roll, he dove into a shallow canyon and landed beside a thin stream. With a chitinous hand, the changeling drone pushed aside a young cactus, and dipped his face in the warm water, lapping up the liquid of life with his forked tongue. Tossing his head back as he swallowed, he relished the sensation of the refreshing fluid trickle down his parched throat. With a sigh, he opened his eyes and gazed skyward. Once he would have shot skyward, darting to the atmosphere's thin outskirts before letting himself drop. The cool air rushing over his armored body and whistling through the holes in his legs.

Shaking his head, reality rushed back at him. Where once Pegasi had delivered rain to the mountains in the north, swelling the gorge in which he stood with with cold snow melt, the clouds drifted with the air currents as the now uncontrolled sun heated the land below, silently obeying the laws of nature. Now, the normally steady river had become a thin, snaking trickle, brown with silt. The Queen, in her wisdom, had dispersed the hive when it became clear that the drought would be punishing, and that they could not be sustained. Ka'leth, skeptical of his ruler's decree, had elected to stay behind. Sustained by the faint echoes of love as the desert's creatures continued their blessedly ignorant lives, he was able to move freely to find a new source of water. However, wherever he journeyed, from the salty ocean to the east, to the stagnant marshes in the west, he could not find a single spot in the hive's lands other than this solitary rivulet that he could survive on.

Perhaps he should have joined his fellow changelings as they disguised themselves as stallions, devouring the openly flowing lust that flooded the corrupted nation. He had tried, but lust was not love. Where love had filled him and made him content, while lust merely staved off starvation and tore at his consciousness. No, he would remain here in his home, like his ancestors had, only leaving when the drought finally drove him away.

Flying out of the ravine, he spotted a large, low cloud to the north. It was unusual, but not completely alien to the dry landscape. Too small and thin to bring rain, he flew towards it to cool off in it's shadow before returning to his den.

His den? An inspiration filled him: if he could guide the cloud to the old hive to the north, it would cool and condense as night fell, pooling at the bottom of the cavern that he called home. He would be set for months! With a loud buzz, he surged towards it, running his tongue along his fangs in anticipation of the wonderful sensation of drinking cool water. Green magic surged along his horn and grasped the cloud. It seemed light for it's size, but he was too distracted by his excitement to care.

Inside, Rainbow Dash and her comrades started as the cloud around them began to shift. Lightning Dust spread her wings to investigate, but Spitfire held her back and put a finger to her lips. It had been two days since their escape and were slowly gaining the strength back in their wings, but they were far too weak to run far or fight more than a couple of attackers. Wait, she motioned to the three mares. They could feel the aura of telekinesis around them, and hear a buzz like a mosquito in their ear, but they had yet to see or hear a stallion. For several minutes, she held her hand out before crawling to a small hole in the wall of the cloud.

Silently, Rainbow Dash scooped a section of the floor out as they passed into a shadow. Another cloud? She peered down through the hole to discover a stone, stalagmite covered floor passing beneath.

"Look down!" Her whisper was quiet, but urgent, and the other mares quickly dug their own holes to observe their situation. As they watched, the dim passage rose away into a massive cavern. The glistening walls looked more like a trachea that Dash had dissected in a field trauma course, than rock, oozing a green muck. She stared at the thick fluid as a gob fell from an outcropping. As it plummeted, she remembered where she had seen the substance and heard the annoying hum before.

Her ears twitched as she tried to pinpoint the source and gestured to her Spitfire. One enemy. Armed. In cover. She pointed to the far wall of the cloud. The captain nodded. Fleetfoot, flank left. Lightning Dust, flank right. I’ll go under. Rainbow Dash, Takedown.

They positioned themselves, wings spread.

3, motioned the captain, satisfied with their formation.

The mares planted their hooves, ready to sprint through the cloud.

2.

Rainbow glanced at her naked body. What she wouldn’t give a bra and panties to cover herself.

1.

As one, they burst through the wall. Rainbow dove at the unsuspecting changeling. Using her momentum, she slammed him into the cavern floor As she spun Ka'leth into a headlock, the other mares scanned the chamber for other enemies. Feeling her grip begin to fail, she shoved the drone to an stalagtite and pinned him.

Satisfied that they were alone, Spitfire patted him down before emptying his rucksack. His knife, canteen, tarp, medical supplies, clothes... all were roughly dumped onto the rock and examined. Ka'leth offered no resistance. He felt the cyan mare's forearm beneath his chin, her hand grasping his head. One tiny twist....

"He's clean." Spitfire proclaimed.

Lightning lighted on the ledge as Dash took him down. "Cap, I've only gotten cold water from a hose for five years now. I'm no fragment flower, but I can tell you that that" she nodded to the changeling "is not clean."

Dash pulled a rope from the pile of his belongings and bound his wrists before sitting him against the wall. Shaking the stars from his eyes, he summed up his captors. "Mareth!?" The panicked utterance was distorted by his forked tongue and parched throat, but understandable.

"Who the fuck are you?" Spitfire hissed at the changeling as she strapped the knife to her leg.

"Firth Thargent Ka'leth. I am a Changeling drone."

"No shit." Lightning Dust was trying on a pair of kakhi trousers and a jacket. The clothes were tight on her, the smallest of the mares, but they covered her. Fleetfoot nodded approvingly.

Dash knelt by him calmly and studied him. "Where is the hive?"

"We're in it, mith Dash."

"What the hay happened?" Fleetfoot looked about.

"Dainn did this?"

He nodded. "Indirectly. You pegathi aren't exactly the thame." He snorted. "When you thtopped controlling the weather, the rain thtopped too."

"Oh, cry me a river." Spitfire snorted derisively. "At least half of you weren't brainwashed, bound, and beaten into submission"

"No. We died." All four mares looked at their prisoner. "We feed on love, yeth. Even the perversion that fillth Equesthtria fulfillth our bathic needth, but we thtill need water."

"So your hive dissolved. Why should we care?" Lightning Dust's cold tone made Dash shiver. "Hell, we should be celebrating that we needn't defend against you anymore."

" Oh, you're thtill on about Canterlot? It'th been theven yearth!" He paused "And I thtill have thome cracked chitin from that damned Pinkie'th can-"

In an instant, he had been hoisted by the neck so his hooves dangled without purchase. Rainbow Dash squeezed on the changeling's neck, making his eyes bulge. "One more word, bug," she hissed, "one more word against my friends and I'll make you envy your dead."

"Lieutenant-" Fleetfoot began to scold Rainbow, but she continued heedlessly.

"Five years. FIVE BUCKING YEARS, we have been raped and beaten. That 'damned' filly was hit by it so hard that it broke her. Rarity and Fluttershy brainwashed, and CELESTIA KNOWS how Twilight got corrupted!" She released his neck and let him collapse, gasping to the floor.

"I meant no offenth-"

"The hell you didn't-"

"That's enough Lieutenant," Spitfire gently put a hand on Dash's shoulder, "you two can settle this later." Rainbow nodded to her superior and flapped off to ease her flaring temper. Spitfire watched her claw her way into their cloud with a huff before turning to the Changeling. "Now, You will tell us everything you know."