The group wondered through the darkness for several minutes, with nothing but the light from the horns of the unicorns of the party to guide them. It was relatively slow going. They had spread out some, creating a formation around Twilight and Switchback. Rampart stayed close to them at all times, making extra sure that they were both safe.

"Quiet," Talisman said, causing everypony to stop. "I heard something."

"Sorry, sorry, that was me," Brisk said. "I think I stepped on a twig."

"I heard it too," August said. "It sounded more like you stepped on a potato chip."

Jackpot, who was brining up the rear of the group raised an eyebrow. "Really, August? A potato chip? What would potato chips be doing in a place like this?"

"I don't know," August answered. "That's just what it sounded like to me. It's not like there was anything else for me to compare it to and..."

As August explained himself to his comrades, Brisk looked down at his hooves. He couldn't really tell what he was stepping in until he held his head down lower to cast more light on the ground. The shadowy face of a dead changeling husk was revealed to him. It was laying on its back and his own hoof was driving through its chest. "Oh crap," he nearly yelled as he jumped back, catching everypony's attention.

"What is it Private?" Rampart asked after noticing Brisk's alarm.

"There's a body."

"Already?" August questioned. "That cant be right. The husklands are supposed to be deeper into the hive. We haven't been walking for that long, have we?"

"At least we know that we're in the right place," Jackpot pointed out. "If there's a changeling body hear it means that this is the hive, right?"

"Guys," Talisman called out.

"I think we should keep moving," Rampart recommended. "One body doesn't mean that this is the hive, but Chaser seemed pretty sure that this was it. We should keep moving."

"I agree," Jackpot concurred.

"Guys!" Talisman called out again, this time successfully gaining the attention of his comrades.

"What is it Sergea..." He didn't finish. "Dear Celestia."

Talisman had lit a flare while everypony was debating and had tossed it ahead to get a better look at what they would be walking into. In doing so, he revealed the scene of a massacre. Several, dark grey changelings lay on the ground, their dry mouths open and their eye sockets empty, each staring on into oblivion. The red glow of the flare flickered off the corpses, casting long, dark shadows through the cave.

The husks were everywhere, but most disturbing of all was the way that they had been arranged. Many were strewn around randomly, as was to be expected from the aftermath of a battle, but many, many more had been lined up along one of the walls of the cave. Side by side, each lay in a similar position on their stomachs as if having fallen forward upon their deaths. The row of dead went on for what seemed like forever, disappearing into the darkness at the edge of the flare's light.

"What happened here?" Brisk asked nopony in particular.

The group walked on for a moment, stepping over body after body as they did, completely silent.

"This is so screwed up!" Jackpot said, being the one to break the silence.

"No discarded swords, no armor, no nothing," August pointed out. "What kind of battle was this?"

"No, no," Talisman said as he looked over the row of corpses. "Look at the way they're all lined up. Look at their wounds. Each one was killed by a slit throat. This wasn't a battle. This was an execution." He looked around for a moment, desperately trying to find answers, but none could be found. Finally he looked to Switchback. "Switchback, do you know anything about this?"

Switchback didn't answer. He was paralyzed in place at the sight of this horrific scene. He stood frozen with eyes wide and a look of absolute terror. Tears welled up, threatening to escape and run down the sides of his face.

"Switchback, are you alright?" Twilight asked the changeling. She too was visibly shaken.

Switchback did not answer. Instead, he stood there without moving, without blinking. He shook in fear as he just stood there, silent, looking on at the corpses. The sight had ensnared his mind taking him back to when it all happened.

Three Years Ago

A large group of changeling marched along through the dimly lit cave that they now found themselves in. It had taken them months to get as far as they now were, but after all their work to get everyone together and escape they were finally almost free. There was a little over fifty of them, each one from different parts of the hive, all united in an effort to leave their crumbling world.

The famine had begun long ago. Each changeling did their best to save as much food as possible, but after their stockpiles of love began to run dry, starvation quickly set in. They needed more love, or else they would go extinct. Unfortunately, sending out their scouts to the pony civilizations to bring back small amounts of love at a time was not going to cut it anymore. They needed more than just the standard barrels that they were used to getting. They needed to suck as much out of the ponies whom they had always relied on as possible.

At first, it was only ever one or two ponies who were ever brought into the hive, but eventually it began to become more. And they weren't just feeding on them, erasing their memories, and letting them go. It got to the point where they actually started sucking them dry, before putting the weak and withered ponies into slave labor where they eventually died.

This was the reason for the exodus of these fifty some changelings. They refused to resort to these methods. They refused to let themselves turn into monsters. Instead, they sought hope, hope that they could live among ponies and save their hive. There were many who disagreed with them though, and they knew that if they were caught "conspiring" with what was now their "enemy" the price would be heavy.

Switchback walked in the middle of the large group with his head held low. He placed a hoof on his abdomen as he heard a rumbling noise come from that area. "It isn't much longer," he kept telling himself. "We're almost there." He looked over to the changeling to his left. She seemed just about as depressed as anyone else in the group.

After a few more minutes of walking, the group suddenly stopped, causing more than a few changeling to bump into the rears of those in front of them. There was a scream and then chaos ensued. Everyone ran in different directions, scattering and trying to get away from whatever had spooked them.

"They've found us!" someone yelled from within the scramble of changelings. The sound of swords clashing and fighting could be heard as the fighters who had been protecting the group engaged their attackers.

Switchback looked around frantically, catching several glimpses of the changelings that had ambushed them. Each wore the signature blue armor of Chrysalis' private army. They had been caught. It was all over now and they had been so close. The most startling detail of this, to Switchback, was the absence of a certain female changeling.

Switchback's eyes widened in fear even more than they already were. Where was she? She had been right next to him only a second ago. How could he have lost her so easily? He quickly began running through the mass panic, just as everyone else was. "June!" he yelled over the hysterical sounds of war. "June!"

He kept running, kept searching for her, kept weaving around and bumping into whoever happened to be in his way. He had to find June. Switchback's efforts were cut short though when he felt a heavy blow strike him in the back of the head. He fell to the ground with a thud as everything around him blurred in and out of darkness.

Despite being mostly blind, Switchback managed to start crawling. He used all his strength and his will to go on, coupled with the adrenaline that now pulsed through his body, to get away from the chaos. He needed a second to recover before he could go back and find June.

The world continued to fade in and out of black. He crawled along the cold floor with every bit of his determination. All noise became muffled and his ears rung loudly. His limbs felt weak and he soon found himself slipping into the void of unconsciousness.

"No, no," he thought. "Got to... stay... awake. Got to find... June." His determination alone was not enough and just as quickly as the chaos had begun, Switchback was embraced by darkness and sleep.

As he struggled to stay aware of his surrounding, Switchback found himself in a limbo state, between the sleep that his aching, hungry body craved, and the consciousness that he was attempting to maintain. It was a strange feeling. At times, he didn't know if he was awake and if what was happening was real or if he was dreaming.

"But sir," he could hear a voice protesting as he caught short glimpses of reality through his failing vision. "We can't do this. It isn't right."

"They have all defied the Queen, and all who defy the Queen are traitors," a much firmer changeling voice responded. "Therefore, each and everyone of them must be punished as traitors."

Switchback was not entirely sure if what he was hearing was real or not. His brain could not register anything correctly as pain shot through his head, no doubt from the hit he had taken. He did notice though that the screaming and yelling had stopped though, if this was real, it meant that the battle had ended while he was out.

"Y-yes, General," one of the voices replied, stuttering in nervousness. "By your order."

This was all Switchback managed to pick up before slipping back into rest. When he did finally wake up fully, his head pounded in pain and his limps still shook with what was left of his adrenaline.

He looked around in the darkness, seeing that he was alone. What had happened? Where was everyone? Had they left him behind. He gasped in horror as he noticed the darkened clumps on the floor. He had not seen them at first because of the dull lighting, but upon approaching, he was utterly shocked to see that these clumps were actually bodies.

Tears welled up in Switchback's eyes as he looked on at the gruesome sight. Everyone of the changelings that he had been walking with what had only seemed like moments ago laid before him, their twisted and lifeless bodies strewn out on the floor.

Switchback began walking through the field of corpses, looking at each as he passed, fearing what he may find. He eventually found himself in a full sprint, heading the direction that he had crawled from during the battle. "There have to be survivors, there just have to be," he repeatedly told himself, panicking more and more with every fresh body he saw.

"Hello?" Switchback said loudly. His voice echoed through the cave, but there was no response. The lack of a response only panicked the changeling more as he continued through the blood bath.

He stopped and stared on, his heart plummeting into the depths of his stomach as he came to ground zero of the battle, where it had all begun. He had already seen so many bodies already and if it wasn't for the fact that he had no eaten in days, he would have already thrown up, but this, what now laid before him, nearly made him gag on his own breath.

There were more bodies, but these ones were different. They made up a majority of the group. Each body lay next to another in a long line, side by side along one of the walls of the cave, execution style. The flies had not yet made it to them, but the smell of freshly dead flesh was a pungent miasma that assaulted Switchback's senses like a hurricane.

This scene could only mean one thing, and Switchback knew it. There were no survivors but him. He was all that was left. Still, he denied this, carrying on in search of June. He refused to give up until he found her, even though he feared what exactly he would find. He kept searching though, his heart racing as he ran through passed body after body.

Finally, he found her. "No, no, no, no, no," kept saying as he saw her motionless body lying on the floor. He ran to her and held her in his hooves. "No, please, no," he said again. His greatest nightmares were all becoming a reality before him.

Switchback put a hoof to her chest, feeling a very faint 'dunt... dunt' with many seconds in between each beat. June was still alive, but only barely. She was bleeding immensely from the right side of her abdomen which had been torn open by a strike from a sword.

Switchback covered the wound with his hoof and pushed down, trying his best to stop the bleeding. He looked around the cave frantically, hoping, praying that someone else who could help him was alive. "Someone help!" he yelled. Yet again, his voice echoed through the cave with no reply.

He looked back down after feeling slight movement in his hooves. "June?" he said, hoping that he would see her okay.

June opened her eyes and gave a sad smile before coughing. "Switchback?" she said in a weak voice that was just above a whisper. "I'm so scared." Tears were welling up in her own eyes from the pain that seared her body. She shook just slightly in Switchback's hooves.

"Hang on June," Switchback said. "I'm going to get you help. You're going to be okay."

"No, Switchback," June replied with a cough. "I'm finished. It's over for me." Her tears now began to flow freely as she gave into the pain.

"Please don't say that," Switchback said, his heart dropping even deeper into his sick stomach. "You can't die now. I can get you out of here. I can fix this," he kept irrationally insisting. June's injuries were far to serious for him to fix, but in his desperation, all he could think about was how much he wanted her to be with him and how much he wanted to be with her.

"We both know that's not going to happen, Switchback," June said. "Please just be here with me. I don't want to die alone." She coughed again, choking back her tears. "I'm just... not..."

"Please don't go," Switchback demanded. "I can't do this without you. I don't want to do this without you." Switchback paused. It was time that he told her how he felt, before he forever lost the chance to do so. "June," he started again. "I-I love..."

He was interrupted when June's lips met his own. At first, Switchback was filled with shock, before relaxing just slightly, closing his eyes and returning the kiss. The two stayed this way for more than an extended moment, each crying openly and letting it all out, knowing full and well that this was probably the last time that they would ever see each other. A small puddle grew beneath them as their tears fell from their faces and mixed together on the ground.

Finally, and inevitably, their kiss was broken as June's head fell back and her whole body went limp.

"June?" Switchback shook her lightly, desperately trying to get her to wake up. "June? JUNE!!!" He panicked as he found that there was no heart beat to be found. He shook her again, this time more violently. "JUNE PLEASE!!!"

He put her down on the ground and began pushing down on her chest. "No, no, no, no, no!" he thought frantically to himself as he continued his attempts at restarting her heart. It was all in vain though. No matter what he did, June would not wake up, and Switchback soon found himself just pounding on June's chest like a drum as his entire world fell apart yet again.

Switchback held her body close, weeping loudly. He opened his mouth, but no words ever came. Instead the sounds of agony poured from him before he let out loud cry of grief into the air. June was dead, gone forever. And there was nothing he could do about it.

Present

"Switchback, do you know anything about this?" Talisman asked as he investigated the bodies.

When the only living changeling among them did not answer, Twilight gave it a try, putting a hoof on his shoulder to try and get his attention. "Switchback, are you alright?"

For several long seconds, Switchback remained silent, not answering, before blinking away the water in his eyes that never got a chance to escape. "Y-yeah, I'm fine. I just don't like it here," he finally answered. "And no, I don't know anything about this, let's... let's just go." He took several steps forward passing his escorts as he continued through the caves.

Talisman shot a worried look to Twilight. It was obvious to him that seeing so many of his own kind in this state was having a negative affect on Switchback. It must have been obvious to Twilight as well, because she simply replied with a nod that said "I'll take care of it."

As disturbing as this all was, the group had to move on. There was still a job to be done.

The guards caught up with Switchback who didn't really need as much protection as Twilight, being a changeling and blending in an all, but they decided it would be best if they remained close.

Twilight rejoined Switchback and walked beside him. "Switchback, are you sure that you're okay?" she asked worriedly.

Switchback sighed. "No, I'm not sure," he replied with a heavy heart, "but we have to keep going. We didn't come here just to get scared away, right?" He tried to seem more relaxed and less worried, but the slight shudders of his body that Twilight was also displaying; she was also doing a better job of hiding it, told everypony otherwise.

"Well if you ever need to stop just say something," Twilight instructed. "I'd be more than glad to talk."

"Thank you, Twilight. I really appreciate it."

The group moved on through the darkness, still following Brisk's faint glowing horn. They moved slowly, cautiously, watching every shadow for where an attacker could be waiting in ambush. They didn't get far though. Even with everything around them, with everything that they had seen that supported the theory that this was the hive, they somehow managed to hit an obstacle that completely impeded their progress.

They had hit a dead end.

Author's Note

Probably going to take a short break, unless I really feel like writing. The Division comes out on the 8th of this month (Tuesday) and I've been waiting for forever to get to play the full game (I've also gotten addicted to World of Tanks). That means I will probably not be writing as much for the next few weeks.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed this. Stay awesome.