Escape from the Wretched Hive

Chapters

Prologue: A Liar
Chapter 1: Discovering Envoys
Chapter 2: Visceral Tactics
Chapter 3: Alternating Minds
Chapter 4: New Endings
Chapter i: They Live
Chapter 0: All Illusions
Chapter -1: Greater Virtues
Epilogue

Prologue: A Liar

The changeling Hive exists beyond any cartography used by pony kind. In a vast wasteland, this grand mountain is the keep of Chrysalis and her loyal brood of emotion-stealing soldiers. Her grand regime keeps all of her followers subservient; there is no great corruption, no falling within the ranks, and no inner wars to be heard of. In this way, the Hive is almost a utopia. There can be no disorder when everyone is the same.

Hoofprints lead away from this peaceful mountain. A misshapen changeling hoof imprints itself into the dust with every step, leaving a withered changeling's tracks. It moves with a broken leg, and sees with a broken eye. It cannot fly with its broken wing. It looks up at you, as a starving child would look upon a crumb. Its neck twitches as it crooks his head.

Its throat quivers, and its voice cracks. "Do you want to hear a story? It’s the only one I know."

Chapter 1: Discovering Envoys

They appeared harmless enough. Two creatures just standing out there in the cold moonlight, staring at our outer guards with those big blue eyes. Then they started taking steps toward our home. We thought they were changelings. They looked like us, talked like us, and walked like us. But Chrysalis... she knew something was off. Their cries echoed from the throne room.

"I want to join you again!"

"I’ll be better this time!"

She asked them how many. How many stray changelings out there wished to join our glorious utopia.

"About a hundred of us. From the South. I’ve trekked a long way to get here!"

She called Boss in, the others and I kept our ears to the door.

"Barbarian, kill these wretches."

Boss wasn’t new to these orders. He was the Royal Executioner, her greatest general. It worried us when there was no screaming; he usually takes his time. After several minutes of silence, the Queen called for some lowly workers. Boss came outside and beckoned us along.

"Those defectors came from a hive to the South. We're to track them down and kill them all."

"An entire hive?" I asked. "By ourselves?"

"Exactly, Carnal," he assured me. "This will be so boring."

"Boring?"

"They just stood there like deaf, blind workers! Not even a scream when I ripped their wings off, broke their limbs... Nothing! It's like beating up a pony corpse!"

Our top assassin interjected. "A kill's a kill, a win's a win. Let's do this!"

"Hey," our cocoonist spoke. "Why did She ask for those workers?"

We found ourselves at the armory. Boss always made sure we all had the best weapons and gear, supplies lasting. For this mission we all had full royal armor, top of the line and making us all feel indestructible. We all got royal weapons, capable of shifting shapes to fit any scenario. As Barb shrunk his special halberd to the size and shape of a dagger, he cleared his throat to finally answer.

"The biggest fight these bastards put up is after they're dead." He led us from the armory to the Hive exit, explaining all the way. "For some reason, when their organs fail and their formlessness catches up to them, they don't just turn to dust like we do. They become this green sludge, like runny pony shit. And like all shit jobs in the Hive, we pass them off to those stupid workers!"

The two other assassins stayed to the back, quiet, as we finally reached open air. We all took off at once, and I stayed right behind Boss as we made our way south toward the enemy hive.

"Why didn't they ever use their wings?" I asked as we flew onward. "I never saw either of them fly. They even climbed up the cliff face to reach our entrance!"

"Who knows," Boss shrugged off. "Just one more advantage we have against them." He sighed. "They said there were a hundred of these guys... Maybe we'll get lucky and a few of them will actually make some noise when we flay their skeletons."

Soon we were in sight of the hive. It was a hole in the ground, and a lone changeling stood over it. Others flew up to it, burst into green flame as though changing forms, and went inside. As we approached, we soon realized that it was no changeling standing over the entrance.

It looked at us with two blue eyes, one naturally big and one a bead growing like a tumor from the base of its horn. Its face also sported an empty eye socket dripping with a green fluid. Only one fang protruded from its snout, with many unnatural edges and spikes. Where the other fang would have been, a constant strand of the green substance flowed to the ground, pooling next to the monster's hoof.

We stared at each other for too long. Not even Boss could come up with words for this freak. Looking behind me, the four others all had shocked faces with no sign of wanting to talk to this thing. Looking back, the creature turned its head slowly as it got a look at all of us. It raised its hoof, revealing that the back half of that leg was missing. It reached for its own mouth, collecting a large amount of ooze and interrupting the flow. It pulled the goop away from the source and stuck its hoof into its own eye socket. It twisted within the hole for a few seconds. When the leg finally returned to its side, the eye hole was now filled with light green. It blinked and crooked its head, causing a drop of green to slide from its empty eye back into its mouth.

It spoke with a cracking voice and a labored breath. "Who is... It that... Must... Remove... Your skin?"

Chapter 2: Visceral Tactics

Boss shook subtly. It seemed even he was grossed out. The disfigured sentry frowned and uncrooked its head, yet it did not step forward. It merely twitched its head in the same frequency as Boss's body.

"Well?" the guard spoke in more of a gasp than an actual breath. A few seconds of continued silence passed before his half-leg moved toward the its oozing mouth a second time.

Boss grabbed his knife. He charged forward, and the blade elongated and formed his halberd as he brought the handle down. The axe-like blade embedded itself into the monster's skull, splitting its horn and beady eye at once. It opened its mouth to scream. The noise that came out was unlike any I heard before. The green ooze was thrown around from the gaping maw as the sound of claws on a chalkboard met the sound of gurgling vomit. We tried to cover our ears, all except Boss. He just smiled as he pulled the blade out of the monster's forehead. It came back to him covered in the same juices that were now covering most of his armor. He wound up and released a swing. I flinched, looking down to the ground. But I heard it. The sound of protean steel smashing against carapace. Gurgling screams fading to bubbling vomit.
Silence.

I looked up to see a large puddle of green. Barbarian stood on his hinds soaking in it. Juices dripped from his armor and weapon as a sinister grin creased his snout. My eyes followed a small trail of green to a larger puddle, bubbling. I looked back to Boss. He glared at us as he stepped forward and out of the green substance.

"And where the Hell were you assholes on that one?!" he fumed as his hinds shook off the excess ooze. "And did you even hear that thing scream, Carnal?!" He tilted his head back in black-hearted laughter. He looked back to me, but all I could do was shake my head, along with my entire body. "You call yourselves the Queen's Hoof?! The target screams up a symphony and you all just sit here like dumbasses!"

We glanced at each other. The top assassin cleared its throat. "Would... Would you like me on point, Barb?"

"It's 'Boss' to you now, scrub. And no. I'm taking point. These fuckers are way too much fun to kill!" He turned to enter the hive. "And if a single one of you thinks you're sitting this out, then I will bury you alive in the bubbling shit of all the bastards I kill."

We trotted through the puddle and into the hole that was the monster hive. The screams had attracted some attention. As we entered the dark cave, blue eyes approached from all sides. Most were big, normal sized. Some were beady and misplaced in the dark. The creatures reached out to us. The hooves varied in size, shape, and dryness. I tried to ignore it. Then one curled around my hind leg.

I turned quickly, stretching my dagger into a broadsword and bringing the weapon down on the troublesome limb. My attacker was upon me, screaming with that horrible sound. The sword had cut off its foreleg, and its large fangs were now moving toward my face. I instinctively pulled the sword to my other side, right through the creature’s screaming face. Its fluids burst out of what was left of its head and stained my armor. Its corpse slumped over and dissolved into the boiling vomit. Sensing something was off, my tongue reached for my left fang. Some of it had gotten onto my fang. The tongue spent less than a second on the spot, but the taste was so horrible that I had to fight my gag reflex as I tried to wipe the stuff off of my face with my foreleg. It tasted like rotten, unemptied pony intestines. As I spat and spat onto the ground in a futile attempt to get the taste out of my mouth, I could hear Boss laughing. I looked up toward the other blue eyes closing in slowly. I waved my sword around, flinging drops of green everywhere.

Boss moved up, deeper into the hive. “Stop worrying about the grunts, Carnal!” he screamed as his pace accelerated. “We’re here to wipe ‘em all out, sure... But there’s gotta be a Queen here somewhere!”

He laughed and began to gallop deeper in, swinging his halberd around like it was made of foam. He left behind a deep trail of bubbling ooze. Cocoonist flew over it all and the assassins followed on the green. I kept up the back of the pack, making sure none of the monsters tried to grab us again.

Boss kept moving faster and faster. The cocoonist decided to try galloping instead of flying. He landed with too much momentum and slipped. He fell face first into the goop, and too much had gotten into his mouth. The best assassin and another just galloped right past him. The third assassin, one of the quiet ones, pulled out a spear and tried to help the cocoonist up. I went to assist.

The disgusting juices weren’t helping his glands. He retched with a steady flow of cocooning goop flowing out of his jaw. The blue eyes grew closer and closer. The assassin tried his best to poke out the eyes with his spear as I attempted to help the cocoonist off the ground. His hooves kept slipping, despite the stickiness of the slime floor. I looked up in time to see the assassin pull desperately at his spear. It would not budge from its place in the darkness.

The cocoonist screamed something. It was hard to hear through his sounds of choking. As the assassin slipped and fell onto his back, the cocoonist tried again. The sounds reached the assassin’s ears with clarity. He turned to me, our eyes meeting for a fleeting moment.

"It's alive..." he whispered. He turned in time to see his own spear floating over his face. The blade, drenched in green and blue, was inches from his snout. He opened his mouth to speak. "Get--"

The spear flew into his mouth and embedded into the ground underneath. I stared in shock as his body struggled in futility. Somehow he was still alive, but the ooze restrained his limbs. The cocoonist shook me out of my stupor as his body heaved for one more attempt at communication.

"RUN!"

I heard it, but my legs did not. I tried to move away from the cocoonist but my legs would not budge. The green had enveloped my hooves and gripped to them. I swung my sword around to keep the eyes from closing in. Looking down, I saw the cocoonist on his back now. The slime underneath him flowed strangely around him, pulling his armor apart. His mouth opened wide.

"KILL..." he screamed desperately. A combination of his cocooning goop and the dead ooze bubbled over his snout, sticking the jaws together and silencing him before he could finish. It leaked out of the corners of his mouth and then out of his nose. The slime worked its way down the sides of his face and connected to the floor.

I looked down at my legs, and tried my wings instead. The goop clung to my legs as I lifted myself off the ground. I swung my sword under my hooves, cutting myself free. I flew to the ceiling and perched myself there. It was a good move. These changeling impostors could not cling to walls, and their wings were too weak to fly. Then I saw them surrounding my friends. As they began pulling the armor off the cocoonist I saw my chance to follow his instructions. I hesitated at first. They ripped the wings off of the assassin. I positioned my sword. They pulled the cocoonist's chest plate out of the way. My sword plummeted to the ground, impaling cocoonist on the way. His body turned to ashes, which became absorbed by the liquid on the floor. It shined a bright green for a few short moments.

I lost my protean blade, but at least the monsters couldn't reach me. My eyes followed the path that we got stuck in until the green faded into the darkness. I wondered what became of the two assassins and Boss. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of insectoid wings. I looked down and met the eyes and fang of one of the monsters. It was flying toward me. In spite of all its deformities, the liquid dripping from its eyes, nose, and wings, the monster could fly. I was frozen in fear.

A scream echoed through the tunnel. It was like a distorted call from Chrysalis, if she was sick with whatever disease these things had.

Now everyone was frozen. They all turned. They all trotted. Sloshing through the remains, they all disappeared into the darkness.

I was alone.

Chapter 3: Alternating Minds

I pulled the small dagger out of the goop. I shook the remaining liquid off of it, and the excess shaking soon proved that this was just a small dagger now. I didn't know how the protean blade had lost its shapeshifting powers, but I did know how to use a dagger well enough. I shuddered at the thought of such a close range weapon in this scenario. Tucking the blade inside my armor, I made my way deeper into the monsters’ nest.

I kept my back to the wall, minimizing the chances of being seen or stepping into the green trail I was following. I could hear the hollers of all the hive residents just a bit deeper in. The louder their voices became, the less slime coated the path. I hesitated to step out of my cover. I slowly crawled up the wall again, noticing how rough and unused the walls and ceilings of the tunnel were. Crawling carefully to keep silent, I soon saw the source of all the noise. About 100 of the creatures writhed in a huddled mass before an area lit up by a fresh coat of green along the walls and ceiling. They growled and shrieked like an anxious mob awaiting the execution. In the light, Boss stood bound in chains. One hundred so-called changelings in a hive and apparently not a single one could form a cocoon.

I kept to the far side of the spectacle. My plain dagger wasn’t sharp enough to cut Boss out of the chains, let alone the mess we would get ourselves into. In the sea of hooves, horns, and eyes, not a single one appeared special beyond the common, dripping green deformity. None of these creatures had the physical stature of a changeling Queen, and yet here they were... Organized. Waiting.

Suddenly the scream returned again, louder than ever. Into the lit area emerged a changeling that wasn’t mingling in the crowd... a big one. Its silhouette fluctuated in the center of my vision. It took me a while to focus on it from so far away, only to realize that most of its body was constantly twitching. It was twice as big as a standard changeling, putting it at about Chrysalis’s height. But the head was twice as big as hers. Half of it shook on its own without cease. I stepped a few feet closer, now I was almost a part of this gathering. Looking up again I had to cover my mouth lest a scream break my cover. The changeling did not have a head bigger than Chrysalis’s... it had two the same size. One was like that of a queen, with a waste of a beautiful eye looking over the crowd through a ragged, unkempt mane. I dodged her gaze. The other convulsed behind her snout and horn. Where her right eye would have been, warped flesh connected the socket to the other’s left socket. Its right eye flickered the common blues of a changeling. As she turned her heads, I could see extra limbs and a wing almost hanging off her side. They shook with the same intensity as the misplaced skull. Her body leaked the same green fluid as the others. It dripped from her extra limbs and the extra flesh between the two heads. The extra one could have been drooling it; it was hard to tell from that angle, and the head shaking so much.

Boss was somehow unfazed. He just looked at the monster and laughed. "So you're the Queen of these zombie pricks!"

The Queen took her time turning to him, and the second head's convulsions intensified. Just as her eye would have met Boss's, the other head shook so violently that the neck of the large beast snapped. The sound of exoskeleton cracking made me reach for my throat. I looked back up to see the Queen's head convulsing strangely. A still, bug-eyed changeling face now looked upon the two blues found on Boss's face. Green juices dripped from its snout.

"WHO ARE YOU TO DARE?!" the Queen's deep voiced other head roared.

For the first time in my career, I saw Boss flinch. He almost tripped in his chains, but kept himself upright. The Queen stepped forward. He smiled again. All eyes were on the two or three up front, but only Boss and I were aware of our assassins. The two remaining assassins readied their weapons from the ceiling.

"I'm Barbarian!" Boss said, stalling for time. "And I lead the most effective strike team in the entire Hive of Chrysalis, you two-faced zombie whore!"

The Queen's royal head convulsions intensified as the two assassins dropped from the ceiling, protean spears armed. The talking head's horn glowed as magic enveloped the weaker of the two assassins. Just as quickly, the horrid crack of exoskeleton had the Queen's eye glaring at Boss as her horn glowed to catch the better of the two assassins. Despite one of the horns shaking from its wielder's convulsions, she seemed to be perfectly in control of the two assassins in her grasp.

"He is a suit of armor," the Queen head said. Her countenance shook until...
Crack. "Hardly worth the life." He smiled. "We'll give them purpose." He turned from Boss, throwing the two assassins into the mob in front of me. He kept their weapons by his side as his other head intensified.
Crack. "Arming the dead to fight life?" Boss and I tried to ignore the assassins' screams and the sound of their exoskeletons being ripped apart.
Crack. "Fuel for the fire!" The Queen's male head let out a laugh that made even Boss's skin crawl.

“They’re eating them like starved dragons! Where’s the line with you freaks?!”

The laugh faded. "It knows about rules," the male voice grumbled loudly to itself. The heads turned sharply.
Crack. “Oh?” the female voice said, her attention fixed on the prisoner. “Whatever do you mean?”

“You keep eating changelings like this and you’ll only end up destroying yourselves!”

Crack. “It thinks it knows us.” The male head smiled. “It is mistaken.”
Crack. “All it knows is destruction.” The female lifted a weapon to its own snout with her magic.
Crack. The male’s snout was now before the weapon. “All it thinks is war.”

It spat its green juice onto the weapon. It bubbled and hissed inside the aura. The weapon fell to the ground a simple spear, its protean power drained. The aura had stayed put, keeping the bubbling juices in the air. Magic pulled the bubbles into the male’s mouth. The female’s horn stopped glowing, but her head kept twitching.

“All you want is life.”
Crack. “You are looking to buy time.”
Crack. “You are out of time.”

Boss shook his head. “You guys are crazy... I mean... you are crazy! Let me out of here!”

The entire body turned. “How many arrived?” The male asked the room, before cracking into convulsions.

The heads in the crowd swirled around as they tried to discern whether or not I could exist. I took my helmet off and tossed it away; no one in the crowd wore one. I shrugged to those who looked toward me, and they quickly turned back toward one another. It was only then that I realized I was still covered in the ooze from before. Somehow it was the perfect disguise. Finally, one of the monsters flew into the air and scanned the room quickly. I kept a straight face, trying my best to hide my fear as the familiar face moved toward the Queen.

"There was at least one more, perfect one," it said in its broken voice to the Queen. "I would have eaten it if you hadn't called us."

"And you are sure it's not here?" she asked, scanning the room again.

It shook its head. "It probably ran."

Crack. "Get the outer guard."

"But he was--"

"Then bring a bucket!" He gestured toward Boss with his right hoof.

The changeling nodded and flew away, out of the area and heading toward the surface. I waited for the commotion to rise so I could sneak out. I hated leaving Boss alone for this long, but I hated the idea of being found out more. As I reached the exit, I could see the changeling scooping his friend into a bucket with its magic. I readied my knife.

"Are you alright, Affection?" it asked the full bucket of goop. "You're looking a little down... Here, let me repay you." It retched as its horn glowed. The quiet assassin's dagger appeared, pulled out of the creature's throat. "You've done the same for me."

The blade turned toward the changeling's eye and closed the distance with a quick stab. It emerged covered in bright blue eye pulp. Green fluid leaked to the ground as magic dipped the blade into the bucket. It lit up as the changeling pulled the now clean blade back out, and the freak found itself hypnotized with the patterns of the shiny goop.

I approached slowly, my knife drawn. It turned from the bucket too soon for me to get close enough. It stared at me with its right eye, its other bled the green fluid all the way down its cheek. It winked at me. Most of its other eye remained in its head with a large hole in the center. But it was still open. It didn't blink or wince a single time.

"Doesn't that hurt?" I asked it, having nothing else come to mind.

It smiled, bringing its lips a little closer to the stream of green. "Pain. That is the body telling the mind that it is damaged. Why would I feel pain?"

"You... You have a body and a mind... Don't you?"

"I gave up my body a long time ago," its voice cracked. "It is but a cage for the soul. Now, without limitations, I can truly be free. Free of pain and discomfort."

This thing wasn't making any sense. "How do you know when you're dying? And didn't a bunch of you scream when we killed you?"

A smile and a frown fought a short battle for the changeling's one-fanged face. "That was a scare reaction. Even the immortals may fear the darkness in the depths of the heartless." It crooked its head the wrong way, allowing juices to touch the corner if its smirk. "Did you think you could kill us?"

"Every creature can be killed..."

"And you believe that?" I nodded back. "Then why are you so scared of blood?" The freak's tongue collected the ooze at the corner of its mouth before receding and swallowing. "You know, if you are not happy with the common mortality... You could join us."

"I pull a knife on you and you offer me an olive branch?"

"Only because you really, really don't look like you want to use it..." It stepped towards me, smiling.

I put the knife away. "What do I have to do?"

"Take the bucket. Be sure not to lose a single drop. The others won't touch you as long as you hold it." It trotted past me.

I approached the bucket, only to discover that the gatherer had left the assassin's blade on the ground. I quickly stowed it in my armor before picking up the bucket with my magic; the goop was heavier than it looked.

As we trotted back inside, I wondered if it would really be this easy. It sounded like I was going to be trotting right up to the Queen, and all I could think of was those two knives in my armor.

It looked back at me. I smiled back.

Chapter 4: New Endings

"Please make room, ev'rybody!" the Queen's female head yelled.

The crowd split, moving to either side as we trotted in between. Boss was still alive, still bound in chains. I trotted up and into the lit area. I stood there, holding the bucket. I was so focused, I did not even flinch when her head snapped to make way for the male one.

"Guard, what have you done?" he asked my bleeding companion.

"Affection would have stagnated."

"And you stabbed yourself?"

It nodded.

The neck snapped again. "That was not of your concern," the female voice said. The neck snapped. "Redemption, thank you." The male head smiled, blood still dripping from its lips and fangs. I could not tell if he was being sincere.

The one-eyed creature turned and trotted back into the crowd, leaving me with the Queen's male eye staring me down. He looked from me to the bucket and back.

"Put the bucket down."

"I was told it was the only thing keeping me alive."

And crack. "That was then and this is now." Crack. "You need not fear us."

"CARNAL!" Boss screamed from his chains. "DON'T DO THIS! WHATEVER THEY TOLD YOU, DON'T BELIEVE THEM!"

"Quiet, mortal fool!" the Queen hissed at the prisoner. With a snap, the female head turned to me. "You have your own soul, Carnal." Crack. "You choose what you want." He watched my eyes go from one Boss to the other. "Give us the bucket."

I looked toward Boss, who shook his head in fear. I looked back to the Queen, who smiled as they snapped to the female head. They crooked their heads, the left still convulsing, and the female eye looked upon me almost proud that I had come this far.

I smiled back. I moved the bucket to the right and watched her gaze follow it. I threw the bucket to the side, it landed with a loud crash and spilled its glowing contents all over the floor. The Queen had turned her entire head to follow it, leaving her neck at the mercy of the useless male head. I unsheathed one of the blades and moved to stab the neck under the convulsions. Nothing cracked, but I heard her take a breath. Suddenly the male was still and snarling. I dodged his bite at the cost of accuracy; my blade embedded itself into his shoulder. Despite the blade, its large foreleg lifted up in an attempt to crush me. I dodged the stomp, unsheathed the other knife, and found myself underneath the Queen. I shoved the blade as far as it could go into the center of their chest. Blood gushed out from the wound, and the female head screamed.

Hooves grabbed me from behind. Barbarian had escaped his chains and was pulling me to safety. The Queen's shrieks of bloody murder echoed through the complex as Barbarian and I galloped away. The entire mob, still split from before, were frozen in shock. Or so we thought. Just as we reached the daylight, Barbarian screamed as a blade stabbed through his back. The one-eyed monster appeared from behind him, its magic wielding a bloody knife. It scratched its own hoof with the blade, maintaining eye contact with me as a spark landed at my wounded boss's feet. Barbarian burst into a green flame. His screams of agony made me shudder away from the monster. I turned and ran back toward the Hive. I tried to forget what had just happened, but I knew I'd have to report it. I shook off the thought as I left Boss's killer and the other monsters in the dust. I just had to get back to the Hive. My Hive.

I raced across the badlands, my hooves carrying me as fast they could. Of course, I was soon out of breath. All of my limbs ached like never before, even my wings. I looked behind me; the wretched hive was beyond the horizon and the horrors contained therein were a distant story of the past. I looked ahead of me and saw the great tower ahead, bathing in the morning light.

But wasn't it noon when I stabbed the Queen?

I looked behind me again. Nothing was there except the usual sights. It may have taken hours to get here without flight, but I never experienced nighttime. Had the Sun refused to go down? I took a careful step forward. Clouds began to gray the skies, darkening the landscape. My wings lifted me off the ground and to the entrance, despite the aches they felt. I shrugged off the odd weather and celestial bodies; no point in telling Chrysalis what She already knew.

"...No point in telling you what you already know," a scratchy and ominous, yet familiar voice spoke from behind me.

I turned around to find myself still alone. The Moon was up, but not for much longer now. I looked over the shadowy grounds. A pair of guards joined me at the edge, standing on my left and looking down upon the darkness. The one closest to me looked at me with just one of his eyes; he didn't bother turning his head to get a better view. His hoof motioned back toward the inside of the Hive and I realized I was already late to give my report.

Then I saw them in the corner of my eye. I somehow stopped worrying about the Queen. I simply looked into the dark, and the two pairs of blue eyes looked back. No deformities, no blood, and a familiar scent in the air. I turned to the guards, ready to order the pursuers killed, but they were gone. I galloped into the threshold of the Hive and looked for them. No trail. I would have to fight alone. I sighed and readied myself. Dusting myself off, I realized my armor was gone. I never took it off, yet it was not on me. I could feel parts of my body laze into a state of fuzzy, poking spikes. I looked back toward the entrance of the Hive.

It stood there. Eye stabbed and bleeding, the wretch just stood there. My limbs resisted my commands, still asleep. Asleep. I laughed as the monster took its steps toward me.

"You can't kill me!" I chastised. "I'll wake up, and you'll cease to exist!"

The monster hissed, and two twisted fangs appeared from its upper jaw. The closer the fangs got, the more I wished my legs would move. Then I felt its jaws on my throat. The impossible twist of its head and the unmistakable crack of my own neck snapping.

I screamed. The world warped into darkness and then into a bedroom. I was sitting up in my bed and a cold sweat. I felt my neck and found nothing amiss. I looked around and saw the rest of my troop in their beds. Barbarian didn't have the biggest one; the two assassins shared that. I shook and stretched myself awake enough to get out of bed. I trotted leisurely to the entrance of our Hive, happy enough that the nightmare was over.

I looked over the edge of the cliff and saw two changelings stare back at me in the cold moonlight.

Chapter i: They Live

I asked them why they came here. They told me they wanted to join the Hive. I just stood there, watching them enter the throne room and the five changelings crowding around the door to listen in on the conversation. Something was off. It was like I had been here before. I watched the executioner go into the room. I heard the horrible scream of dying wretches. It echoed through the walls of the Hive and forced me to look down. Blood. I was bleeding. I looked over my hooves, no wounds. I started feeling my snout. One fang. My tongue reached for the empty spot; it was dry. I moved my tongue to the corner of my mouth; it was wet with tasteless blood. I closed my right eye and found complete darkness. When did I lose my left eye?

Barbarian came out of the throne room; the doors slammed shut behind him. Everything became brighter. Knocked out of my stupor, I looked around again. No blood. Both fangs. Both eyes. Was I imagining things? He beckoned me and the rest of the troop along.

“Those defectors came from a hive to the South. We’re to track them down and kill them all.”

Those last few words bounced in my head for too long, giving me a bad headache. Then there were words in my throat: those doubtful words that a past me wanted to say. I swallowed them. I replaced them with something better.

“I’m not going.” I sat down on the cool stone ground of the Hive. I crossed my forelegs. “And you guys shouldn’t either.”

They all sighed at once. Even the quiet assassins. The top assassin looked back toward me with disgust in its eyes.

“You would.” It sneered.

“It’s a suicide mission!” I insisted.

“Leaving us to die...” one of the quiet ones said with a deeper voice than I had ever expected.

“Just sitting here alone then?” the other one spoke up, with a voice not unlike Chrysalis’s.

“Come on, Carnal... Please,” the first pleaded in its still strangely deep voice.

I shook my head. “You guys never talk! You never said anything the first time!"

“Well,” the top assassin began to explain. “The breeder still had his heart, and Barbarian still had his jaw last time.”

I looked past the three, the cocoonist was coughing up what appeared to be a mixture of blood and his standard slime. Barbarian turned back toward me, fear in his eyes and his tongue hanging limp as his lower jaw was missing completely. Drop by drop, blood slowly made its way down that tongue until finally splashing into a pool. The pool spread faster and faster as the blood poured from Barbarian's mouth. The blood spread across the floor, making its way toward me. I was too shocked to move. The goop touched my hooves.
Everything went dark.
The five's presence vanished.
I was not alone.

Crack. Crack. Crack...

Their wretched Queen appeared behind me from the shadows, heads twitching in the darkness. I was no longer on the cold stone ground of the Hive. Both of its heads fought over that same position. The cracking would not stop. Their teeth gnashed at me with each pass. The mouths were filled with fangs, crooked and almost chattering as it took bites out of the air behind me. Its body twisted as it shambled toward me. I ran from it. It shambled faster. It stayed just behind me, despite my speed. I saw a light in the distance... Green like blood, but flickering like a fire. I could feel the heads' breaths on my tail as the gnashing loomed closer and closer. I jumped through the flame. The light pushed the heads back. They faded into the darkness. I tried to catch my breath. Then the laughter started. Like changeling soldier laughter before a fight, but twisted like a hyena being disemboweled. I tried to ignore the voices. I looked into the fire. Beautiful patterns of flame danced without a source. Then they slowly moved together before a spark ignited into a new form...

Barbarian's jawless face burst from the flame, making that horrible scream. The sound ricocheted inside my head. Covering my ears did nothing. I curled into a ball. It would not relent. I closed my eyes tightly to shield from the light of the face. The scream continued. A tear dripped down my snout.

It tasted like blood.

Then there was total darkness, and unholy silence.

Chapter 0: All Illusions

I woke up in my bed and a cold sweat. I looked around me; the other bunks were vacant. All four of them. Unkempt as though their respective owners had already shuffled into the light of day. The closer I looked at the bunks, the more green they became. Stained in blood. I tried to look away. I saw green on the walls now, but instead of splotches, they were words. I tried to fly up to them, but my wings wouldn't budge. I trotted closer to the walls to decipher the messages:

Nightmares are poison.
Fueled by fear incarnate.
Made by one's weakness.

But what is a dream?
Collection of thoughts unbound.
The soul's own playground.

How to control dreams?
It's a projection of self.
Your mind is the key.

Controlling nightmares?
A difficult endeavor.
Betray any fears.
...
Feed the devourer.
Stay true to your history.
Foresee the future.

"Do you like them?" a familiar changeling voice called out from the darkness.

I didn't place it well at first. I thought it was the top assassin, but something seemed off. I looked back toward the walls. They were plain. I looked down toward the beds. On each stained bed sat a sheet of paper. On each paper was written one of the messages. Barbarian, the cocoonist, the top assassin, and the two quiet ones each had a paper on their empty beds.

"Don't you want to read yours?" the voice whispered.

I looked back toward my own bed. A piece of paper lay folded on it. My magic picked it up and pulled it close to me. I sat down and reached for the paper with my hoof. It stayed at my side, defying my commands. I sighed, and opened the paper with my magic:

Remember one thing:
In the subconscious, the mind
Has many shortcuts.
...
If your mind gets lost,
Then a shortcut is misplaced.
You may not be home.
...
This does not mean that
Your mind will draw blanks in dreams.
Misplaced thoughts will rule.

"What does this even mean? That I'm in some nightmare? Why can't I just wake up?" I seemed to be complaining to the darkness.

Finally, the darkness stirred. "Listen, you need to calm down," the familiar, yet unidentified voice said.

"I want to go home. I was on my way home and now everything repeats itself every night!"

"You need to calm down," it repeated with no emotion.

"No, not every night... I haven't been to this bed since I left that wretched hive!" I listened more carefully to the words I was saying. "Who says 'wretched?' That hive was an abomination! A horrid slaughterhouse! Why would I ever use such a weird word?"

"You are thinking too hard. You're exhausted. Please, calm down."

"How can I be exhausted in a dream?!" I screamed at it.

"How can you be exhausted in reality?" it hissed back. "You are awake for most of the day and yet somehow your soul always calls for rest. It is a mystery even to me."

I looked at the paper still in my magic. I looked back at the darkness. "Who even wrote these? And why are they all weird sounding?"

"It is a form of poetry written in alternating lines of 5 and 7 syllables. It is called Haiku. And it is the most beautiful form our language can take," the voice explained almost cheerfully, filled with some form of pride.

"And why's that?"

Light almost blinded me. Now I could see the door to our bunks opened, and the silhouette of the top assassin standing in the light. But the silhouette only had a single fang.

"Only they can tell you. Follow me."

The changeling disappeared into the light.

I followed. Now we were in the throne room. I had only been here once before, when I was assigned to Barbarian’s troop. She said if I did well enough I’d get my own troop someday. Until then, this the very best She could offer to any elite.

“Soldier Elite. Second in Command,” I whispered to myself.

Chrysalis sat upon the throne. The gems of the room glowed a brighter green than usual. She was practically a beacon of light. I stepped toward her.
The one-fanged, one-eyed wretch appeared before me, rising out of my shadow as though it were a doorway inside the floor.

"Tell her," it said in the familiar voice.

"Tell her what?" I asked calmly.

"Tell her of the recurring nightmare, of what became of your friends." It stepped aside, crooking its head with a smirk and sitting down as though the report would take a while.

"How much detail?"

It sighed. "Every detail. The whole story."

I trotted past it, my head down as I tried to think of where to begin. When I looked up, I saw the exit to the Hive. The five waited for me in the light.

"I have to watch them die again," I thought out loud.

"Please try to keep a steady breath," the voice whispered.

Saying that wasn't helping. "Why?! What's going to happen?" I screamed.

"You will lose track of reality. The darkness will close back in."

"And then what?" I asked, turning away from the light back toward the bleeding changeling.

"Then we try again. From the start," it explained.

"I can't do this again. I ran from that wret--horrible place and I won't go back!"

The light from the exit disappeared.

"Please calm down."

I shook my head. "Let me out of here. I want to go back to my real home."

"If you would revisit the other hive, you would see why that is no longer possible."

The green light around us faded. Its eye and blood glowed in the darkness.

"I'm not going."

A gust of wind chilled my spine.

"You have so many stories in this little brain of yours." The eye and blood stayed still in the dark even as it talked. "They are colliding and causing your resistance." It closed both of its eyes. The luminescent blood were sucked back inside of its broken eye, and both became invisible beneath the cloak of darkness.

"What are you talking about?!" I screamed into the utter blackness.

The response came from behind me, the voice was unrecognizable. "The biggest problem with history is that the dead are defenseless."

I looked around, unable to see the source of the voice. I spun around in the dark over and over looking for any kind of light. Suddenly there were four blue eyes. It was the quiet assassins.

"Are you guys alright?" I called out to them.

"You cannot save them!" the deeper voice called out.
"How could you help them when you..." the feminine voice called out.
"Cannot save yourself!" the male finished.

It was the two-headed Queen. The four eyes turned to two, and the glowing flesh and blood illuminated their fangs. It rose up to twice their height. It shambled towards me, but this time there was no light to run to. I stood my ground.

"What are you?!" I screamed at it.

"It is perfection. It is harmony. It is life eternal!" the voice called out.

"Shut up, Redemption!" the male head screamed back at the darkness.
"We will answer for ourselves."
"For we speak the truth."

It paused for a moment

"We are the cycle."
"The infinite loop of bloodshed."
"Loop of life and death."

"What cycle?" I asked them.

"What do you feel now?" he asked.
"What will you do about it?" she asked.
"How will they feel then?"

Another pause.

"You have lost your friends."
"You would kill to avenge them."
"Now more are stricken."

"Stricken with what?"

"Feeling so much grief."
"Fuel for the deadly sins."
"Spreads everywhere."

"What?"

"The cycle of death."
"Fleeing from the dying light."
"The cycle of life."

"Who are you?"

"We are Advantage," he said.
"We trot in the light of day," she added.
"As you do in dark."

"What do you want from me?"

"Only a story."
"Tell us the one about them."
"With all the details."

"I'm not sure I know the ending..." I admitted, shaking in the darkness.

"Oh, I'm sure they can help with that!" Redemption called out. "They can help with anything!"

They stepped over me.

Blood dripped from the knife in their shoulder. Blood poured from the wound in their chest. It bled onto my head. Redemption grabbed me from behind. He threw me out from under them. I landed on my back. The heads loomed over me. The male lunged at me. I tried to shield from their fangs, but they took my forelegs. He chewed them in front of me as I screamed. I was in their Hive again, with the mob behind me screaming for more blood.

"You cannibals! You zombies! You fucking freaks!" Barbarian screamed from the side, still bound in chains.

"If you can't use it,"
Crack. "You do not deserve a mouth!"
Crack. "Let alone a soul."

I was out of breath and missing both forelegs. I was still on my back and, without my front legs, had no idea how to get back up. He chastised them as they approached. I watched as the female horn took the dumped goop from the filthy dirt and lifted it towards them. The goop was not nearly as bright as I remembered. They stood over Barbarian. The male head's horn began to glow.

I tried to look away. I looked up toward the mob. A few of them shambled into the light, upside-down. A horrible snap pulled their attention toward their Queen and my eyelids down tightly to their resting place. The darkness could not protect me from the feeling of exoskeleton hitting my chest. I opened my eyes to a piece of a jaw. I squirmed, but my legs only promised my delivery to the mob. One of them galloped into the light, snatching the piece of jaw in front of me and devouring it. It looked toward me like a rabid manticore would look at a rabbit. Redemption pushed it away and forced it back into the crowd. Then we both looked over to the Queen. The male head's horn glowed, as Barbarian's tongue hung limp from his permanently open mouth. The former boss looked over to me.

"No... Please..." I whispered.

Barbarian's head was pulled back and the blood in her aura was forced down his throat. His gag reflex did little to turn the tide. After it was all either in him or on him, the Queen let him go. He just sat there. Their neck cracked and the female head released him from the chains. His eyes closed. The mob became quiet as his body subtly began to shake. Blood leaked from his eyes. Blood dripped from his nose. It leaked from his own exoskeleton, mixing with the dried stains on his own carapace. The female head smiled as they circled him. With a crack the male was smiling, its fangs dripping in slime. He spat on the ground in front of Barbarian. The prisoner's ears bled and as his eyes opened blood poured from the lids. The increased flow connected his puddle to the spit. The Queen trotted over him, chuckling in that deep, sinister voice while blood dripped over him. The spit glowed a bright green, which spread to Barbarian. It grew brighter and brighter.

He could not scream. But he tried. As the light turned to fire his throat erupted in more fuel. Screeching, gurgling death echoed the room. The mob cheered. Redemption cheered. Both of the heads laughed in a distorted harmony. As all these sounds spun my head around. The sight of so much blood and pain bid my consciousness away. My head fell back, hitting the ground. I closed my eyes.

Everything went dark again.

Chapter -1: Greater Virtues

Redemption stood over me, shaking his head. My forelegs were back. I got up and looked around. Strange patterns covered the walls. Polka dot blue covered the wall behind me in waves. Strange green graffiti covered the wall in front of me. I was so confused.

"Of all the times to lose it," the changeling said. "They hadn't even touched you yet!"

I glared back at him. "I lost my fucking legs!"

He just smiled back. "Yeah, sure. That's your biggest problem."

"Shut the fuck up."

"Calm down. Take a deep breath. Just look at me! You think I gave away my eye or my fang to anything less than our perfect Hive?"

"I. Lost. My. Legs."

"You're not special, pal. Lots of changelings have sacrificed multiple limbs just to join our glorious utopia!" The walls brightened as he spoke.

"Why am I back in this nightmare world?"

"Living Nightmare, to be specific. Reliving, to be accurate..."

His horn glowed and strange black paint warped into stranger shapes on the ground. With a raise of his hoof, the shapes took a three-dimensional form. It was us. I was on the ground, missing my forelegs. His form stood over mine, laughing. The real one trotted up to me and took me toward a discolored splotch in the corner.

"I figure you'd want to sit this next part out then..."

With a flash of his horn the walls spun around the room as the strange patterns became pieces of the scene my mind had so hoped to escape. The mob was behind me, a couple hundred blue eyes like stars in the night sky. Barbarian's remains burned a bright green. The Queen laughed. All were frozen in time.

"Are you ready for the true ending of this story?" he asked me.

"I have my legs back. It can't be that bad."

"Only by mercy." He smirked. "That'd make a good name for a wretcher." He shrugged off the sentiment. "Anyways, here we go!"

I watched as the commotion resumed at full volume. But this time I was on all fours and away from all the disfigured fangs. I watched as one by one they emerged from the darkness. They crowded around the fire. The Queen nodded their heads and trotted towards my now breathing fake. Fake Redemption stood over me still, unfazed by whatever they were doing to Barbarian.

"Please..." the fake soldier's voice quivered.

"That doesn't even sound like me!" I said. Redemption and I both shared a smile.

"Please..." the two-legged changeling continued.

The Queen looked up toward the edge of the darkness. A few stragglers eyed me from afar. Their eyes met. The Royal heads nodded. The stragglers shambled into the light and surrounded me.

"What?" the strange painting asked the Queen with a labored breath.

Fake Redemption put its hoof on the soldier's head. "You have a lot left to give."

"Leave the Life organs!" the male head screamed.

They jumped. The stragglers all jumped onto the fake, ripping its remaining limbs off as the other fake held the head in place. It kept screaming at such a familiar frequency. The snapping of its exoskeleton resonated with my own being. I cringed with each snap and crack. They pulled its wings off. Finally, one snatched its jaw. Another ripped out its tongue. The scream only became more gargled. I tried to close my eyes but the vision behind the lids matched that of the fake, accentuated by the unbearable pains of being torn apart. My eyes sprung back open as I backed into the wall.

Suddenly everything froze.

I caught my breath and tried to look anywhere else. The fake's eyes were half out of his head, dragged by the ravenous wretchers that had nothing left to take. The Queen was nodding their heads for some reason. It was strange to see every body part of Advantage standing perfectly still. Barbarian's remains were still too crowded to see any progress on, though it was certainly not giving off as much light.

"That's enough of this story," Redemption said.

I looked back at him. "Am I... Am I dead?"

The changeling laughed. "No... We were just releasing you from your mortal form! You're one of us now, Carnal!"

I looked back toward the painting. The fake Redemption was leaning into the soon-to-be eyeless head, ooze dripping from its snout.

"And why are you here with me?"

"Advantage, the perfect one, chose me to be your guide! You are to return to your own Hive and tell Chrysalis of this story. She will declare war, or leave us alone. But Advantage must know how to prepare us."

I took a deep breath. "Okay." I looked around the bloodstained room. "How do we get out of here?"

Darkness engulfed everything.

“Don’t you worry. We’ve already left.”

Epilogue

Its story finished, the one-eyed changeling crooked its head toward you again. “Did you want to hear another story?” It smiled. “I don’t actually know any stories. But the voices do.” It uncrooked its head and stamped at the ground with its deformed hoof. “I can wear them like masks, and they’ll repeat their story through me. It’s really just a single memory. Sometimes it’s a description of a person or place.” It shrugged. “Sometimes it’s a whole adventure. Whatever is useful to me.” It looked away from you, back toward the Hive. “Carnal was always the one trusted to report the troop’s work. Seemed fitting that it’d be his one story.” It looked at you again. “You’re lucky, really. Not many people get to listen to firsthand accounts of the digestion process.” It chuckled as its foreleg twitched. “Soon he will forget all but the most crucial details of that adventure. With the exception, of course, of his demise; finding out you’re dead kinda ruins the idea of immortality.”

The changeling took time to stretch before continuing. Its wing was ripped. Judging by the holes in them, you could assume that Chrysalis’s guards had something to do with it. Its broken eye had a scar in its center; the color had faded to a light gray. It had two fangs, neither had any flaws that you could see. Its broken foreleg, no doubt the work of Chrysalis’s guards, trembled under the creature's weight. The lack of wincing would imply that it was not shaking from pain. A strange green ooze began to leak from the changeling’s nostrils. It caught its eye, and it chuckled a little.

“Just a little nosebleed. It happens sometimes when a story is a bit... dramatic.” It took a step toward you. “You know, I never got your name. Your background. If that’s just a disguise or that’s really your species.” It looked over your limbs and chuckled. It took special consideration of your neck. “Now I wonder...”

The blood from its nose made its way down to its fangs. Then you realized it was leaking from the corners of its snout like drool.

“What story do you tell?”