The Changeling That Bugged My Heart

Chapters

Broken
Where we stand, where we lay
A Mother's Words
You and Me in the dark
Something about Us
Horny stuff
Eat Me
Bug Alone
Ups and Downs
By Her Grace, We Walk the Dark
Into the Night
Formica of the Three
Nymph Talk

Broken

The Changeling That Bugged My Heart
by sIDsleeper

Chapter 1. - Broken

Moon Lantern woke up in a cave, with his mind in shock and searing pain wracking his body. He screamed and thrashed about until his lungs had emptied all their air. The vented hot air didn’t ease his pains. He couldn’t form a single thought, his brain was saturated with pain to the point where the adrenaline rush could hardly dull the burn of his injuries, as his nerve endings fired in a continuous flare of neuroelectric impulses to make his brain register the only thing that could be processed by it right now: "We’re in very deep shit, pal!"

Soon the loss of oxygen caught up to him and he blacked out again as his system shut down to preserve its energy and the sanity of the pony.

The next time his consciousness surfaced again from the blackness, he opened his eyes and couldn’t see anything at all. Hours could’ve passed since he was last awake, maybe even days, he thought. Darkness surrounded him. He didn’t know where he was, and the first thing his tired mind realised was that he couldn’t move. His head was thumping, and he could feel dull aches throughout his body.

When he eventually regained his strength and gathered the determination to try and stand, his reward was a sharp pain in his legs and the feeling of something obstructing him from getting up. He was forced to give up his efforts of moving. He was lying on the cold stone floor and all he could do was think, now that he was again capable of it.

Moon Lantern tried to remember where he was, and how he got there. He faintly remembered that he was stationed in Canterlot for something important, but what that was, he couldn’t recall thanks to the lingering fog clouding his mind. There was something pink there, then it rained...then there was a great commotion.

It was all he could recollect before his hunger made it’s presence known with a low rumbling noise from his stomach. The sound echoed in the cave, bouncing off of the high ceilings and walls. When the echoing died down, he heard a new noise that wasn’t there before. He could hear shuffling from somewhere behind himself. He swivelled his ears to try to locate the source of the sound better, but the echoes of the cave made it hard for him to pinpoint the exact place the sound came from.

His eyes were darting around the blackness, searching for anything to see in his panic as the shuffling sound closed in on him. The thing making the sound circled around to face him and stood only a few steps away in front of him. Moon Lantern felt his heart pounding in his throat as fear gripped him in its claws. A pair of glowing green eyes fixed him in a blood freezing stare. The memories came rushing back to him as anger took the place of fear. He knew full well, what was standing before him. He snarled at the green-eyed monstrosity that now stood before him.

"Changeling scum!"

The changeling kept staring at him, but didn't move. After a few seconds, it dropped something in front of the injured pegasus that rolled next to his muzzle. The earthy aroma of freshly picked mushrooms hit his nostrils and he gobbled up three in one bite before a grim realazation crawled into his mind.

"You poisoned me?" he shrieked in a strained voice as the changeling shuffled closer to him. Moon Lantern tried to cough up the mushrooms, when he felt something start to drip onto his muzzle. Between coughs, he tasted fresh water and took a couple gulps of it.

His mind came to a screeching halt as he realised just what happened. The only thing he could do after the flow of the water ceased was to ask in a dumbfounded voice "Why? Why are you helping me?"

The Changeling closed it’s eyes and turned to leave. He could hear it shuffling farther away from him as it left the area. Moon Lantern had been laying there unmoving for some time. He had eaten the rest of the mushrooms and lapped up the water splashed around his head, when he felt the need of sleep weighing down his eyelids. With nothing better to do and being unable to move, he closed his eyes and let himself drift off to sleep.

Moon Lantern woke up from his dreamless slumber when he felt the Changeling’s hole riddled hooves slip over him, as its smaller body brushed up against his back. The chitinous underside of the Changeling felt alien, but strangely comforting on his back. He tried to get out of the Changeling’s hold, but his body was still aching and bound. He yelled out at the Changeling behind him.

"Get away from me!"

For the first time the Changeling spoke to him.

"No!" it replied in a raspy voice.

Lantern asked the question that was eating away at him from before, the same question the Changeling left unanswered the last time.

"Why?"

"Warmth." came the simple answer.

"I didn’t know you bugs needed to stay warm in the night." he said in an accusing tone.

"We don’t."

As the pegasus realised the Changeling’s implication, he felt utterly confused.

"Why are you helping me?" asked Lantern.

"Ancient Law." the Changeling told him, still avoiding the answer Lantern was seeking.

"What’s that?"

"Sleep." was all the Changeling said with a sigh.

Lantern felt the Changeling snuggle closer to his back, faint heat radiating from the Changeling that felt quite soothing in the chill of the dark cave. He wanted to ask more, but he could tell the Changeling considered the conversation closed. The Changeling’s closeness didn’t help him get back to sleep but at least the warmth it gave him was quite welcome in the cold.

After a couple minutes, he heard light snoring coming from the Changeling, letting him know the bug like creature didn’t have problem sleeping next to its enemy. It slept calmly, practically spooning the injured pegasus, who was baffled by the Changeling’s unusual behaviour. It brought him food and water and used its own body to help him stay warm.

Thoughts were swirling in his mind, but the snoring of the Changeling eventually lulled him into an uneasy sleep.

Author's Note

For all your burning questions and stupid trivia: Tumblr
Ask the characters Themselves!

It's very much in progress, but this is a project I've been working on for some time now.
Hope it's gonna turn out OK.

Where we stand, where we lay

Chapter 2. - Where we stand, where we lay

Moon Lantern woke up to a disturbing silence and realised the Changeling wasn’t near him. After his sleep, he felt much better. His pains had subsided considerably and his headache was gone, and with it, the repressing fog over his mind.

His Guards' training kicked in as he felt his brain start to gather information about his surroundings. He knew information was key, and the time he had alone, he needed to spend to get as much of it as possible. He had to assess the situation he was in.

Step one, physical condition. He tried to move his limbs one by one. Every muscle aching, stabbing pain in the left fore and hind leg. Both legs were most likely broken. He knew that the fact he could feel pain in his legs was an indication that he wasn’t paralyzed. Yes, pain was good. It would help him keep track of the state of his injuries. He found that his right wing was unobstructed by whatever it was that kept his body bound to the cave floor, so he extended it slowly. The wing spread effortlessly which he noted with slight surprise. His left wing though, was hurt badly and was forcefully extended in front of him, pinned to the ground. Probably the work of the Changeling. The flight muscles twitched slightly as he gave it a gentle tug. Could be a sprain.

Step two, surroundings. Between the adrenalin induced coma and the sleep he had, he lost his sense of time. The air in the cave seemed to have warmed up a bit, which meant it was probably daytime in the outer world. He couldn’t feel the movement of the air around him, so he was either far from the entrance of the cave or the entrance had caved in. He tried to sniff around, but apart from the musty smell of the cave, he couldn’t make out anything interesting. His eyes could hardly make out the shapes of rock formations in the looming darkness.

As he was straining his eyes to see better, the silence was broken by the distinct shuffling. That could only mean the Changeling was on its way back.

Step three, enemy. The Changeling was not coming from the same direction as last time. He could see the glow of its eyes stabbing into the darkness, heading for him with a slight bobbing motion. The Changeling was injured too.

As it got close to Lantern, it stopped in the same spot as before, then shook itself and Lantern heard the sound of clanking pieces of wood hitting the ground. It came closer to him and dropped something next to his snout. Lantern touched it with his nose. It felt spongy and damp. Before he could ask what it was, the Changeling said “Moss...eat it!”

Lantern looked into the glowing eyes and asked “Am I a prisoner?”

“Yes…” answered him the bug-pony, but after a second or two of pause it added “and no.”

“Make up your mind!” the pegasus snarled at it.

“Both answers are true to your question, and one of those is obvious. If your question is stupid, how do you expect me to not give a stupid answer?” sighed the Changeling.

Lantern’s eyes widened at that. He didn’t know the Changeling could speak Equestrian that well. It certainly gave no indication of it so far. He assumed from the one to two word answers it gave before, that it couldn’t talk too well, but did understand what he said.

“Ah? Surprised you?” chuckled the Changeling a bit before giving a pained gasp, after which it settled down to catch its breath and to let the pain ease a little.

Moon Lantern pointedly ignored the Changeling’s pain and shook off his apparent surprise and tried to make sense of the Changeling’s words. He was a prisoner, yet he wasn’t. He couldn’t understand it, so he asked again.

“How am I not a prisoner?”

“I’m not keeping you here,” stated the Changeling with a playful tone.

“But I can’t move, you’ve tied me up!” said the Guardspony with a hint of anger in his voice.

“You were thrashing about screaming on the cave floor when I came to. After you passed out, I used my resin to stop you from worsening your injuries. You broke both of your left legs. I had to form a splint around those, and I had to pop your dislocated wing joint back in. I can let you go anytime, if you think you won’t make my work go to waste.”

Lantern felt a little pride swell up inside of him. His assessment was almost spot on.

“W-wait, did you say you’d let me go?” asked Lantern with a confused stare.

“Sure. You pose me no threat, and I have no intention of hurting you,” replied the Changeling.

“Ok, now I’m officially lost. First you try to kill me in Canterlot by breaking my neck, then you drag me along with that headlock when you get blasted out of there, and now you treat my injuries, give me food and water, WHAT THE BUCK IS THE BIG IDEA!?” Lantern screamed at it.

“That wasn’t me!” said the Changeling turning its gaze down and away from him and spitting under its breath “It was that fool of a Princess, Chrysalis.”

“What do you mean it wasn’t you!? Your little Queen wasn’t even-”

“She’s no Queen of Changelings!” the Changeling cut into Lantern’s raging angrily. “She has the Gift of the Queens. She could’ve become the sixth Queen, but that fool let the power go to her head and in one fell swoop she probably destroyed everything we’ve worked for. We never wanted to attack Canterlot, and because of her, now w-we’re d-doomed.” cried the Changeling, breaking into sobbing and burying its face under its holey hooves.

Lantern was taken aback by the Changeling’s outburst, and didn’t know what to do with the crying bug, so he tried to call out to it.

“Hey...stop crying! Hey...hey!”

After a couple minutes the Changeling calmed down enough to look up at him. Lantern took the opportunity to speak again and try to steer the conversation in a different direction. “My name is Moon Lantern. You can call me Lantern if you want. Do you have a name?”

“It’s Arc Hive,” said the Changeling, still sniffling a bit. “But you can call me Archive.”

“Is that supposed to be a joke?” groaned Lantern.

“No, that really is my name,” told him Archive seriously.

“Then...Archive, would you get this thing off me? I can help you light a fire with the wood you’ve brought.”

“Sure, but how did you know I’ve brought wood with me...can you see in the dark too?”

“The sound of it when you dropped it was enough. Where did you get it? From what I gathered about our little prison, there shouldn’t be an exit on this level.”

“Oooh, you’re good! Yeah, while you were nailed there, I’ve explored a bit,” said Archive while getting up off the ground to break the resin from around Lantern’s body. “We appear to have fallen into some kind of sinkhole.”

The resin broke from Archive’s touch easily, setting the pegasus free. Archive helped him fold his injured wing after he rolled onto his stomach. The resin splints on his legs held surprisingly well, considering how easily Archive broke his bindings.

They set about to start a fire the old fashioned way. When the twigs caught fire, Lantern could see how badly Archive was injured. A hind hoof crushed, broken wings, cracked carapace and an unnatural bend in the horn. The bug looked miserable. He felt a pang of concern for the thing.

“How the buck could you worry about me, when you’re that battered? It takes some major balls to ignore those injuries,” he felt his respect for the changeling grow greatly, and a sudden determination took hold of him. “Tell me what to do, and I’ll help as much as I can.”

Archive’s cheeks developed a slight green tint on the dark chitin. “I-it’s not as bad as it looks. As long as you’re ok, I’ll heal with time. Also, I’m bound by the Ancient Law to not let a pony die.”

Lantern scooted closer to the fire and looked into Archive’s eyes. “Tell me about that Ancient Law of yours.”

“Oh, ok. But before that...I don’t have ‘balls’...I’m a nymph...that is, a f-female.” said Archive bashfully.

Lantern picked up his piece of moss and started to stuff it into his quickly reddening face, while diverting his eyes off the blushing changeling.

Author's Note

For all your burning questions and stupid trivia: Tumblr
Ask the characters Themselves!

Here's the second chapter.
Next chapter will be about the Ancient Law.

Thanks for the help:
-StarChaser01
-CREEPY Stalker

A Mother's Words

Chapter 3. - A Mother’s Words

An awkward silence fell upon the unlikely companions. Archive was familiar with pony biology enough to know what “balls” were, but she didn’t know the meaning of the figure of speech Lantern had used to describe what she did for him, despite her condition. On the other hoof, Lantern was quite oblivious to changeling biology, and the signs that defined their gender.

Truth be told, all of ponykind was. A short while ago, they didn’t even know changelings existed. Lantern thought that except for the Queen, there was only one kind of changeling, and he thought those were the males.

Lantern was burning with embarrassment, and since he made short work of the moist piece of moss, he no longer had anything to distract himself with. He decided to simply go with the truth, and tell her he didn’t know there were female changelings aside from the Queen.
He cleared his throat to calm himself and said, “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to call you a stallion, I just assumed there was no female changelings besides your Queen. I thought all of you drones were male.”

Archive snapped her head around to look the pegasus in the eyes with a deep frown.

“I am not a drone!” she said indignantly. “I just said I’m a nymph!”

Lantern seemingly hit a nerve with Archive, but he was ignorant to changeling society, so he tried to ask what the differences were, but Archive was a step ahead of him already, as she started to explain it to him.

“Drones are the lowest caste that are mainly responsible for maintaining the hive. They are sturdy and skillful, working in a variety of jobs, but they’re very one-track minded. Drones can be male and female.”

“Nymphs are of the middle caste, who are in intellectual positions, such as myself. I, for example, am one of the three archives. We’re something like the pony librarians, but we work with the memories of the hive-mind, instead of books. There are other tasks a Nymph could be assigned to, but we’re not built for physical labor. The name Nymph refers to middle caste female ‘lings.”

“Similarly, the males of the middle cast are called Guards. They are fighters. They are the strongest among everyling, except for the Queen of course. They keep the Queen safe, and they deal with the Hunters when they get too rowdy.”

“The Hunters are the top caste of male ‘lings, masters of the Change. They scout the pony territories for suitable targets for the Sirens, walking among the ponies as one of them.”

“The Sirens are the emotion gatherer females of my kind, who take the form of a pony to collect positive feelings by helping their target in some form or manner. Usually every hospital has one or two Sirens.”

By the end of the lecture, she had calmed down considerably. Lantern just sat next to the fire. Most of what Archive just told him simply flew over his head, but he made a mental note of the names and occupation of the different changelings, mostly not to piss her off again by calling her a drone.

“What about the Queen?” asked Lantern curiously.

“The Queen is the Queen. Ruler of all changelings...except she might not be anymore.” said Archive somberly.

“So, if the one I saw in Canterlot is not your Queen, this Chrysalis, then who is she!?” Lantern tried to distract Archive from her thoughts about her ruler.

“That stuck-up Siren was the next Queen-to-be...a princess, bah!” spat Archive in distaste.

“She has the Gift of the Queens. You know, we changelings evolve by finding a special one among us that has an exceptional skill that we call the Gift of the Queens. Then that changeling becomes a princess and starts to lay new eggs, giving their gift to the next generation. Once the old generation brings up the new one and perishes, the new Queen inherits the hive, and the old Queen is encased in resin, and starts her eternal slumber. Obviously, the Queen is always the strongest presence in the hive-mind, but Chrysalis’ gift let her overpower Queen Lilith and seize most of the hive for her own. She never respected the Ancient Law. What she did at Canterlot is as much a crime against us as it is against you ponies, and everything the Ancient Law stands for.”

Lantern realised Archive didn’t tell him what exactly the Ancient Law entailed. He was curious how the changelings’ existence could elude ponykind for so long, and he had a sneaking suspicion it had something to do with that law.

“You keep mentioning that Ancient Law, but you still haven’t told me what it is,” the pegasus reminded her.

“Oh, sorry. I tend to ramble about things and I often get sidetracked. Well, the Ancient Law is the way we live. Mother-Queen Arathea, our first Queen and progenitor of our kind, after giving birth to the very first generation of changelings, made rules for her children. They didn’t have the ability to change their forms at will back then, and so the name ‘changeling’ didn’t really apply to them yet. Arathea called them her family. They would need to feed on positive emotions, so Arathea sent them to the earth pony tribes. The first rule she made was to never allow the ponies to see them. They helped the ponies from the shadows, making their lives easier. Keeping them happy would mean they would provide sustenance for the low number of changelings she needed to feed. As time went on, hard times hit the earth ponies. Their numbers would dwindle thanks to the harsh winter and the famine, even though Arathea’s changelings tried to keep their fields fertile. In their frantic endeavour to do just that, an accident happened.”

“A young changeling got so caught up in working to help provide the ponies, that morning dawned on him without him realising it. He was spotted by a filly, who got frightened of him and started to run back to the village. The changeling got so scared that he would break the rule, that he tried to stop the filly from telling the grown-ups what she saw. He wanted to give her some carrots and make her swear to keep his secret, but when he caught up with her and tackled her to the ground, the little filly hit her head on a stone and died. The changeling panicked and fled back to the hive.”

“When the ponies found her body, the whole village knew she was killed, but by whom they didn’t know. They grew mistrusting towards each other and mourned the loss of the young life. This caused the changelings a great deal of problems. When the changeling who killed the filly told the story to his Mother, Arathea fell into despair. She knew they had to abandon the village. As a punishment, she sent her son to find them a new place to live.”

“He accepted the punishment and left. Weeks passed since he left and his siblings were fading quickly. When he eventually returned with a new dwelling place in his mind, he was virtually dead. All he could do was tell his Mother where to go and say ‘sorry’. By the time Arathea told him she forgave her, he was already gone.”

“Arathea declared to her children the second rule: ‘Never hurt a pony, directly or otherwise, and never let one die!’. This rule would excuse you from letting a pony see you, and a saved pony’s gratitude could even provide you with food. Losing a pony’s life, just to hide from them, could mean the death of another changeling.”

“After the migration to the new dwelling, the birth of the first Princess made life easier.”

“Mother-Queen Arathea never lay any more eggs after she gave birth to ‘her little changeling’, Change-Queen Csillag. She gave us the ability to disguise ourselves to blend in with the ponies. Csillag’s brood was the first to actually be called changelings.”

“Arathea’s last rule was ‘Help the ponies thrive, so we may live!’, before she was encased in resin. Since then, every grub is taught the Law to keep the hive safe and prosperous.”

By the time Archive’s story about the Ancient Law reached its end, the fire was burning low. Lantern felt sorry for the filly in the story, but his heart went out to the changeling who accidentally ended her life as well. Emotions swirled inside him, and he felt saddened a bit. As he was thinking about what he heard, he missed the little wince of Archive. A thought occurred to Moon Lantern.

“So basically, you are never to be seen by ponies, except if their life is on the line, when you have to do everything to save them, and generally help ponies in their life?”

“Pretty much, but getting seen in our natural form is quite rare nowadays, thanks to our abilities. We’re just not allowed to let ponies see us undisguised.”

“How do you know I won’t use all the information you just gave me against you and your kind when we get out of here?” asked Lantern, already knowing he wouldn’t do it.

“I’m pretty sure the current situation the changelings are in would make everything I told you useless...and it’s not ‘when’, but ‘if’,” said Archive. “This cave is pretty big. We can find water without a problem, and I hardly need any solid food if I don’t have to make more resin, but you have to eat. We have to explore this place more if we are to survive. By the way, are you strictly herbivorous?” Archive questioned him nonchalantly.

“I could never eat another living thing.” answered the pegasus with disgust and a light green tint on his cheeks.

“Oh, that’s a bummer. I thought you could live off of me if we couldn’t find anything for you to eat, but it seems like that’s not an option.” Archive told him in the same tone one would offer a sandwich.

“You w-what?” stammered Lantern in equal parts of surprise and disgust. “First of all that is disgusting, and second, I couldn’t just kill you.”

“You silly stallion, I never said you’d have to.” she giggled.

That calmed Lantern and he gave a long sigh.

“I would kill myself.” Archive smiled at him.

A cold chill ran over Lantern and he shivered visibly. “You can’t be serious.”

Archive burst out laughing. “No, no, I’m not, but you should’ve seen the look on your face!” she clutched her aching side. “Ow, owowowow, note to self, laughing hurts.”

Lantern’s mouth turned up a bit at the way she laughed. “That’s not funny!”

Archive looked Lantern in the eyes and said, “Well, since I know you wouldn’t eat me, there would be no point in doing it, but you should know, I would do it in a heartbeat, if it meant you would survive. Told you, Ancient Law.”

“I’m quite honored but please, let’s not talk about stuff like that again.” pleaded the nauseous pegasus. “Thanks to that, I probably won’t be hungry for a while, but we should probably try to look around for something I could eat for breakfast tomorrow. Also, some more firewood would be good too.”

“I agree. Wanna bring a torch, or should I just guide you in the dark?” asked the nymph.

Lantern stood up and said “I’d feel much better with some light.”

He leaned down and grabbed a piece of wood from their dwindling supply in his mouth, holding the other end in the dying flames to light it, then propped the torch up on the side of a boulder. He was a little unsteady on his hooves as he stood up again. The splints supported him well, but as he put his full weight on the broken limbs, the pain that shot through him made him whimper a little.

Archive positioned herself on his left side and leaned against him. “Here, let’s help each other out.”

Lantern’s face warmed by her touch, and he turned his head away from Archive to mumble something under his breath, which she couldn’t really catch, so she asked, “What was that?”

“I-I said, t-thank you...for everything you’ve done for me.” squeaked Lantern abashedly.

Archive brightened up more from his words and said, “You are quite welcome.” with a very toothy smile.

Lantern took the torch in his mouth again, and they started to slowly make their way into the yawning darkness of the cave.

Author's Note

For all your burning questions and stupid trivia: Tumblr
Ask the characters Themselves!

I hope I didn't go against the general changeling headcanons that hard, or if I did, I just hope you'll like my version.

Thanks for the help:
-Dragonalias

You and Me in the dark

Chapter 4. - You and Me in the dark

Archive and Lantern walked in silence, the only sound that could be heard was the uneven clip-clop the injured pair’s hooves were making on the stone floor as they broke through the darkness with the torch lighting their way. They were pressed against each other for support, and Archive could feel the quickening heartbeat of Lantern, as the vibrations passed onto her sensitive plates from the pony.

“Don’t be afraid. There should be nothing down here that could hurt us, otherwise it would have already shown itself and done so by now.” said Archive trying to calm Lantern.

Lantern wasn’t scared of what lay in the darkness, he was reacting to the smaller nymph’s presence by his side, and as he realised she could feel his elevated pulse, he took a long audible breath around the torch in his mouth, kept it in for three seconds, then let it out with a sigh. He learned the calming technique in his archery training classes. Archery wasn’t a mandatory skill for pegasus guards, but they weren’t barred from taking it up, they just usually didn’t. Learning to use a bow is not the easiest thing for non-unicorns, but it is quite highly valued, especially if they can get to a level even a unicorn would have a hard time reaching.

Lantern was a terrible shot. He passed the test, but just barely. His weapon of choice was the spear for close quarters, or javelin for mid-range combat. All that was probably useless to him, now that his hooves were broken.

The deep breath helped to force his pulse to lower noticeably, and Archive gave him a happy little buzzing sound and a nod of her head, that made his efforts useless as his heart rate started to climb again. Archive looked up to him and saw the pony’s cheeks were red and he was sweating.

She felt concerned for the stallion and asked him “Are you alright?” scrunching her face. Lantern just nodded, not looking her in the eye. “I think you might have a fever.” she added. Lantern shook his head in return. “Okay, stop now!” she commanded in a stern voice.

They stopped, and Lantern plopped down onto his haunches pulling away from the side of the changeling. He wedged the torch into a pile of rocks, then started panting lightly.

“Are you tired? We could have a little break here, so you can gather yourself a bit if you want.” offered him Archive.

“N-no, it’s okay. I’m just feeling a little hot under my coat. I’m kinda thirsty. We should go on, maybe we can find some water on the way as we’re looking for food.”

Archive looked around, peering into the darkness, out of the illuminated area the torch provided around them. “There’s a small pool there, about fifty or so steps away.” she indicated the direction with her holey hoof.

“How do you know?” asked Lantern with wide eyes, trying to make out the water source in the distance, but having no success with it.

Archive looked him in the eyes with a half lidded stare, pointing to her own glowing green orbs with her hoof, and only saying “Duh.”

“Oh...right. Changelings can see in the dark.” after a few seconds of hesitation he added “Well, sounds good to me. Take us there. Who knows? We might be able to get some more moss or maybe even mushrooms around the pool.”

With that, he got up from his sitting position, took the torch in his mouth, and Archive took her place on his left again to help him move easier.

Once they reached the edge of the pool, Lantern held the torch above the water and sniffed a couple of times. He couldn’t feel the obvious smell of stale water, so he judged it would be safe to drink. As he was leaning above the surface of the water, his center of gravity shifted forwards, and the resin splints couldn’t provide traction on the slick stones under his hooves. He fell head first into the knee deep water as Archive shrieked in a terrified voice “LANTERN!”

Lantern surfaced from the water with a loud gasp of air, then suddenly he started to laugh in a thunderous volume. Archive just kept looking at him, like he had gone mad. When his laughing fit passed he said in a cheerful tone “Well, that certainly helped me cool down.” smiling from ear to ear.

Archive let out a breath she didn’t realise she was holding, until Lantern finished his sentence.

Lantern’s eyes widened as he looked up and he said “Wow!” with an awestruck face.

With the light of the torch gone the wall on the far side of the pool lit up with thousands of little specks of bluish colored light, almost like the night sky. Archive followed Lantern’s stare, but couldn’t see anything. She asked in a confused tone “What?”

“It’s beautiful.” he said, leaving his mouth hanging open.

The glow in Archive’s eyes dimmed and she forced her innate nightvision off. “Wow...that really is beautiful.”

Lantern turned his gaze in the direction of the changeling. As she looked up at the shining wall, the little blue lights reflected off her smooth black plates. Lantern mumbled quietly “Yeah, it is.”

As Archive looked back at him, he quickly lowered his head, looking away from her to the water and started to lazily lap at it to drink some of the crystal clear water. The fresh water brought a thought to his flustered mind.

“By the way, how did you bring me water yesterday? I didn’t see any kind of container around the fire.”

A mischievous glint ran across the changeling’s eyes, as her mouth turned into a wide grin, showing off her long fangs. “Well, wouldn’t you like to know!?” she said, then moved her head above the pool slowly, took a sip of water into her muzzle, straightened up, leant her head up and squirted it out in an elegant arc, almost like a black statue of a fountain. She even struck a pose for her little attraction.

Lantern was still drinking, when he saw what she was doing. He flushed instantly and spit the water out much less elegantly than she did. Archive collapsed from the laughter on the shore at his reaction, and started rolling from side to side, clutching at herself, when she suddenly slipped into the water by accident.

As she surfaced, she could hear Lantern laughing and splashing in the water. She scowled at him a little, then she started laughing as well.

The two of them were laughing in the shallow water under the glimmering wall, like a pair of lunatics.

When they could breath again, they started to climb out of the water. Archive’s chitin plates dried almost as soon as she was out on the shore, but Lantern’s coat absorbed a lot of water, and he was dripping heavily. He shook himself to get rid of the water, but after that he started shivering.

“Maybe we should get back to the fire.” offered Archive with a giggle, at how Lantern reminded her of a dog. “I think you might have cooled down a little too much, and we don’t want you to catch a cold. Even I start to feel a little chilled here, and your torch got drenched. We still have some wood at the fire to keep us warm, and we can try to look for food in the morning.”

Lantern looked at the glimmering changeling from behind his long wet mane with a smile and said “Yeah, let’s do that. I’m kinda getting tired too, so some rest by the fire sounds great.”

They stood next to each other and Archive guided him back to where their little fire was. The makeshift fire pit they put together from smaller rocks only had a couple orange colored embers left in it. Archive dumped the rest of the driftwood she gathered previously into the ring of rocks, and started to blow onto the glowing pieces to get the fire burning again.

She settled next to Lantern, who was lying by the pit and looked him over. The pegasus stallion was a lean but strong thing, as his kind usually were. His short, blue-gray coat was glistening with water by the light of the fire. He had a long, pale blonde mane, that was brushed behind his ears. On the right side of his face, he had a scar, that ran from his cheek to the base of his ear, where his fur didn’t grow back properly. Archive took a fleeting glance at his rump, where his cutie mark was. It pictured a lightning bolt, splitting a boulder in two in a clear line. She looked up into his bright green eyes, that were reflecting the flames as he stared into the fire. He was a handsome devil...for a pony, that is.

She kept gazing at him, when he noticed from the corner of his eyes that she was staring at him, he turned to face her. “Yes?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing...I was just wondering, erm...what your cutie mark means? I mean, I can make every kind of mark appear, so they doesn’t really mean anything to me, but I know you ponies get them when you discover your special talents.”

“This old thing here?” he looked at his mark. “Well, sometimes cutie marks can be quite cryptic, but in my case, it’s as literal as they get. When I was learning weather magic back in school, I accidentally made a lightning bolt so strong, that I started to lose control of it, so the teacher had to take it over, but even she could hardly keep it contained, and she had to drop it from the cloud our school stood on. Everypony run to the edge, to see where it would land. The bolt landed on a large boulder, half the size of a barn, and cleanly cut it in two equal halves. When we looked up from the ground, I had this little beauty on my backside.”

“Wow. That must have been a crazy powerful lightning then.” she mused.

“Well, since then, I’ve learned to control it, but I never found any actual use for my special talent, so I though maybe in the Guard I could make use of it. When I joined up, and shown them what can I do, they were impressed, but told me there would probably never be an opportunity to use it.”

“Hey, maybe we can use it to get out of here.” said Archive brightening up.

“Yeah, I thought about that, but there’s more than one potential danger in using it down here, as well as the conditions and my state isn’t really let’s me build up a bolt that strong.”

“Oh, that’s too bad.” deflated Archive. “Umm...and what about...that scar?” pointed the changeling to his old injury, fearing that she may dig up something he might not want to talk about, but her curiosity wouldn’t let her be, if she didn’t ask.

Lantern started chuckling, which made Archive feel at ease. “Back in my academy days, we would spar in pairs in spear training. One day I got paired up with this colt. He was young and fiery. He came at me, like I was the worst enemy of Equestria. We would spar for almost an hour. By that time, all the other cadets we’re over their drill, and they gathered around us to watch and cheer. I was at my limit, but I couldn’t get an advantage on him, all I could do was keep him at bay. He was tiring as well. He suddenly took a step forward and stabbed at me, cutting the right side of my face with the tip of his spear. Just then, I found a small opening in his stance, pulled his leg from under him with the blunt end of my spear, and took him to the ground.”

“He got suspended for injuring a senior cadet, but on his trial I told the jury that my injury was partly because I couldn’t take him down faster, and pleaded that he would make a great guard, if, and only if he was supervised properly. The Judge had a sense of humor. He would let him stay, if I would agree to have him as my junior adjutant. Never before in the history of the Guard, had a non-officer have a subaltern. It was punishment enough for him, and a reward for me.”

“Two years after I graduated, he did too, and he requested that he be placed under my command. In the years we spent together, we became best friends. He’s an earth pony back in Canterlot by the name Rusty Sickle. He’s probably in a hospital now, thanks to that no-Queen, Chrysalis.” he gave a long sigh. “He is tough as nails. I’m sure he made it with a few scratches.”

Archive felt a little saddened by the last part, but gave an apologetic smile and said “I hope your friend is alright.”

“He’ll be fine.” said Lantern with a smile of his own.

The fire died out when the last piece of wood was spent. Lantern’s fur dried, but without the fire, the cold of the cave started to creep up on him again.

He whispered in the darkness to Archive “W-would...would you mind...erm, you know!?”

Archive giggled and said “Yeah, no problem...if you don’t call me ‘scum’ again.” she joked, then went over to him. She lay down behind him and draped her legs around his side to pull him closer.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that. I regret it.” said Lantern sadly.

“It’s okay. You couldn’t have known better.” she said in a shushing voice, and soon both of them fell asleep.

Author's Note

For all your burning questions and stupid trivia: Tumblr
Ask the characters Themselves!

I hope you guys will like this chapter at least as much as the previous ones.
See you all when our little pair wakes up.

Thanks for the help:
-Christs Disciple
-Dragonalias
-StarChaser01
-Scruffy
-Pseudonymous

Something about Us

Chapter 5. - Something About Us

Lantern woke up to the smell of food. When he opened his eyes, he thought he was still dreaming. A cheery little fire was crackling away in the pit, and next to it lay a moderate sized pile of mushrooms. Above the fire, on a makeshift skewer, was a fish being roasted. Archive was busy doing something with her back turned to him while gently humming a cute little tune to herself. With her in the way, he couldn’t see what she was working on.

As he began to rise, Archive turned around to see that he was awake now.

“Good morning, sleepyhead!” chirped Archive in an upbeat tone.

“Good morning to you as well, Archive. Whatcha’ got there, and more importantly, why is there a dead fish above the fire?”

Archive grinned at him and said, “Remember yesterday, when I showed you how I brought you water? Well, I thought that wouldn’t be the best way to go about it every time you needed to drink. Taking you to the pool would take too long, so I’ve made you a little bowl from my resin, which is why I needed the fish. I told you how I only needed to eat solid food if I wanted to make more resin. Also, after I’ve eaten the fish, I could make a proper casts for your legs. That should make it a bit easier for you to move around.”

Lantern thought back to the previous day and seemed to recall her saying something like that. “Oh yeah, I do remember that.”

As the pegasus stood up, he suddenly felt a pressure in his lower body. A very distinct feeling that told him his bladder was in need of evacuating its contents, and quite urgently at that.

With a flustered face, he looked around for a good place to do his business, and thanks to the light of the fire, he spotted a large pile of stones that could provide him sufficient cover for taking a leak.

“Erm, I’ll be right back.” he said as he started to make his way towards the stone pile with careful steps.

“Need help?” asked Archive, still smiling.

“W-what?” stammered Lantern.

“I asked if you needed any help pissing.” Archive giggled at him with an amused look plastered on her face.

Lantern’s naturally blue-grey colored face turned bright red, not unlike the ripe apples that came up to Canterlot by train with the end of every applebucking season.

“I-Icanmanagethanks.” he said quickly, turning away from her to hide his embarrassment and speeding up his steps a little.

Archive looked after him as he went and kept trying to stifle her laughter when she called after the hobbling pegasus. “Try not to trip or get yourself wet! I’d hate to have to keep you warm at night while you smell like urine.”

When Lantern returned from relieving himself, Archive was happily munching on the roasted fish by the fire.He looked her over, she seemed to be in better shape, and in high spirits. Lantern lied down in his spot.

“Feeling better?” inquired Lantern.

“Thanks to you. I’m already feeling my shell starting to get a little tight around my barrel,” said Archive as she finished up her fish. She ate the whole thing, not even leaving a bone to pick her tooth with.

“Tight? What do you mean? Are you getting fat?” asked Lantern jokingly.

“No, silly. I’m healing. A new shell is developing under my current one. I suspect by nightfall I’m gonna at least start to shed the old shell. It’s a shame, I really liked this one. Hopefully the new one will be even better.”

“How does that work? I mean, is it the same as us pegasi shedding our feathers, or when we grow our winter coats?”

“Well, something like that, but instead of slowly replacing parts of our shell, we changelings moult our whole shell at the same time. I might even need some help from you to get out of my battered shell, it’s kind of awkward doing it on my own.”

“I can hardly even imagine what it would feel like having to get rid of all my fur or feathers at the same time.”

“Naked, exposed, vulnerable.” Archive told Lantern in a flat tone that left him feeling very uncomfortable. He suddenly felt like the changeling was getting farther away from him. Her eyes looked so distant as she stared into the flames. “This silence is terrible, I feel like I’m the last living thing in this world. Not hearing all my brothers and sisters quietly humming in my head, I’m alone.” A tear slowly rolled down her cheek.

“You’re not alone!” Lantern half shouted at her. She looked up to him, her eyes focusing on his gleaming green orbs, in which she could see an entirely different flame roaring. “I-I’m here for you, and I’m sure you’re not the only changeling who survived the blast. I can help you, and together we’re going to leave this cozy little cave. So enough of this negativity, I’m sure your siblings are just as worried for you, as you are for them. They’re probably looking for you right now. All we have to do is survive until they find us, or we can leave on our own.”

Archive sighed and closed her eyes to calm down. She stayed like that for a minute, and Lantern was about to say something when she suddenly popped her eyes open again and gave him a toothy grin.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. As long as you’re with me, there’s hope we can get out of here. Would...would you do me a favor?” asked Archive uncertainly.

“Anything, as long as it makes you feel better,” answered Lantern without a moment of hesitation.

“It’s kinda weird being alone in my head, being severed from the hivemind. Could you keep talking to me? Without my magic, I can’t even feel your presence, and that would help me to be a bit more at ease.”

“Sure, but, what should I say?”

“Anything at all. If you want, you can ask me anything, or how about you tell me a little about yourself, like, do you have a family back in Canterlot?”

“You know what? Let’s make it interesting. After I answer, I’ll ask and then it’ll be your turn to ask again.”

“Okay then. While you talk, I’ll make those casts for you. After you have your breakfast, we could do a little exploring and test the casts out.”

“Sounds good to me.” smiled Lantern.

Archive scooted a little closer to him and listened intently.

“So, I’m from a big family. I have an older sister in Canterlot, who is also in the Guard like me. Back in Cloudsdale I have a twin brother and two younger sisters, my mother and father.”

“Wow, it’s like a hive of your own.” Archive said, mocking the pegasus jokingly. Their definition of ‘big family’ is obviously different.

“Yeah, and sometimes my mom acts like a Queen, too!” laughed Lantern while Archive took his foreleg and broke the splint with a careful push, then spit a globule of green goo onto it and started to spread it across the injured limb with her tongue.

“Dear Celestia, that is disturbing and feels so weird.” Lantern flinched away from the nymph who was idly licking his leg to form a cast over it.

Archive giggled at his reaction as she finished up the first cast. As she put his leg down gently, the resin was already starting to harden on it. “So, what would you like to ask me?”

“Hmmm, you said the changelings had five Queens so far, but you only mentioned the first two by name.”

“You’re actually wrong, I mentioned Mother-Queen Arathea,Change-Queen Csillag and the current one, Nectar-Queen Lilith. The third was Hive-Queen Teshya. She was a bit of an oddball. She was the only Queen to be born without the Gift, but since Csillag was very old and had no successor, she decided to give her crown to the most talented and smart nymph. She was trained to be a Queen and Csillag had high hopes for her, but when the time came, she was afraid she would fail her mother. Csillag had an idea to help her, she asked her Guards to wake Arathea from her slumber. The three of them spent days in a sealed part of the hive talking. When they finally emerged from the cave, Teshya had her Gift. One that she had crafted with her own hooves. A spell that would link every changeling to her mind telepathically, essentially giving birth to what later would become the hivemind.”

“The fourth Queen, Seera, was the one to give us the ability to fly, hence her title as Fly-Queen. Her time as Queen was short compared her predecessors, but the hive thrived under her rule. Her Gift opened up the possibility for us to reach pegasi territories and successfully imitate them to harvest their emotions.”

“Lastly, Queen Lilith, the Nectar-Queen, gave us the ability to produce nectar, a substance that would allow us to store the harvested emotions for later usage. If she’s still alive, she is the rightful ruler of all changelings.”

Lantern saw Archive’s expression turning sour for a second and decided to speak up before she could think too much about her Queen. “It’s your turn. What do you want to know?” asked Lantern, comically wiggling his eyebrows.

“Feeling confident now, are you? Then how about…” Archive flashed a predatory smile and her eyes glinted dangerously in the dark as she fired her next question. “Do you have a special somepony?”

Lantern visibly flinched at the question and flushed in a second, suddenly feeling uncomfortably hot, sitting by the fire. ‘Bullseye,’ thought Archive.

“N-no.” Confessed the pegasus, drooping his head a little. “I had my fair share of mares, but none of them worked out that way.”

“Really? I thought a fine specimen like yourself would already be caught and tied to a bedpost by the hooves of a noblemare.”

Lantern’s eyes widened as he looked up at her. “Wait, that was you?” he asked in a surprised tone.

Archive froze for a second. “You have got to be shitting me!” She started to laugh so hard she rolled onto her back and flailed her hooves in the air. When she finally got herself under control she asked Lantern while still giggling. “Did that actually happen?”

“Oh sweet Celestia, I don’t know how to keep my mouth shut.” groaned Lantern. “So it wasn’t you then?”

“No...haha, no way, I’m not a Siren. I only ever had go out to gather emotions one time, and it wasn’t even in Canterlot.” Archive kept laughing. “But now that I know, you have to tell me the whole story. I’ll start on the other cast while you talk, just give me your leg.”

Lantern obeyed and stretched his hind leg so Archive could begin working on it.

“Goddesses, this is so embarrassing. Anyway, there’s this bunch of Night Guards of Luna’s. They call themselves Daywalkers or something like that. Me and Rusty usually go out to drink with them after our shift is over. One night their CO, a grumpy fellow by the name of Midnight Peril, invited us to a new bar in the upper city. It was a fancy place where we spent a quiet night, just drinking and talking. I got absolutely wasted and Peril took the chance to hook me up with a mare. She was beautiful, but the only thing I remember is waking up in a cheap motel room with a killer headache, chained to the bed, alone. It was the only time I ever heard Peril laughing, as he stood outside the brig I got locked up in. He has a twisted kind of humor I tell ya!”

“That’s low, even from a friend.” chuckled Archive. Her chuckling turned into a hacking cough as she gasped for air. She started scraping at her chest with the sharp edge of the largest hole on her hoof. The glow in her eyes started to sporadically vibrate and dim as she was losing oxygen. She pushed herself to talk, but all she could force out of her mouth was “Lantern...air..”, then she thumped on her chest with her hoof and added “...break.”

Panic gripped Lantern as he looked around for something to help Archive with. He was on his hooves before he could even realise it. His eyes were scanning the immediate area around them frantically, and finally, he spotted a piece of rock that had a decent size and a sharp edge. He grabbed at it, but by the time he turned back with the stone, Archive had collapsed to the floor on her back.

Lantern jumped back beside her and lifted the stone above his head, angling the sharp part of the stone downwards in his hooves. He brought down the stone on her chest hard, but the angle was off, and the hit was deflected off her ring plates. He decided to try with the blunt side of the stone, and the second hit made a spiderweb shaped crack in the hard chitin. He dropped the stone and started to pry the plates away with his hooves. He went for the parts where Archive indicated, presuming that’s where her lungs were constricted by the outgrown shell.

When Lantern dropped the broken pieces of chitin, he saw that she still wasn’t breathing. His mind was racing, adrenaline coursing through him from hooves to wingtips.

Seconds ticked by feeling, like ages to him, when his training flashed before him and a thought formed in his overdriven mind. “CPR! Oh boy!”

He tried to feel for Archive’s pulse, but he couldn’t tell from the hard chitin surrounding her inner body. A quickly pulsating green glow caught his eyes from the hole he made on her chest. “Her heart is still beating.” he said to himself. “Okay, I can do this.” He lowered his mouth to hers and tilted her head back to open it, then took a breath and locked his lips onto hers to begin CPR. He felt her sharp canines with his mouth. It was a bizarre feeling.

Suddenly Archive grabbed his head, her forked tongue slipping into his mouth as the eerie green glow flooded her eyes completely. She was forcefully feeding on him. When she realised what was happening, she quickly pushed him away as both of them gasped for air. Her eyes returned to their usual glow and she sat up with a worried expression on her face.

“Lantern! Are you alright? Did I hurt you?” she asked, shying away from him a bit.

Lantern staggered back a little. He shook his dazed head. “N-no, I’m okay. Wow.”

“Are you sure? You seem a little winded.”

“Just,” his cheeks reddened as he recalled the feeling of her tongue caressing his’ “Just surprised is all. You scared me there.” he said.

“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to feed on you.” she looked down at her hooves in shame.

“No, its not that, but I have to tell you, never have I been kissed like that before. My knees are still shaking.” joked Lantern with a relieved sigh. “Are you alright?”

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t do it on purpose, it was a reflex.” Archive tried to explain.

“Archive! Never mind that. Are you feeling alright?” Lantern asked her pointedly slowly.

When Archive could see that he wasn’t upset about her drawing on his emotions, and that he was okay, she calmed down and said “Yeah, I can breath again. Thank you.”

“Thank the Goddesses!” sighed Lantern.

“Now we have to postpone the exploring.” Archive said.

“What?”

“Once my old shell is off, it’ll take a day before the new one hardens, and I’m able to move again. The soft shell wouldn’t be able to support my body weight.”

“Are emotions that fattening?” asked Lantern with a snort.

“Ha-ha! I’m cracking up over here.” said Archive sarcastically.

“Don’t even mention ‘cracking’! The sound your carapace made when I broke it sent shivers down my back. Anyway, as long as you’re not dying, I’m completely fine with having to pass up on wandering a dark cave.” Lantern looked at the hole he made on her chest and lifted a hoof to point at it. “Doesn’t that hurt?”

Archive looked down to where he was looking. “Oh, no. It’s already detached from the new rings under it. Nice job on breaking it though. Do you think you can help me remove the rest of it?”

“Sure, just give me a minute to catch my breath.”

It took most of the day for the two of them to get every piece of chitin armor off Archive’s body. Lantern helped where he could, braking up her carapace, but removing the plates and the delicate parts like the horn, or her broken wings, Archive wanted to do on her own. She slowly and carefully took off the last piece from her head, like taking a helmet off.

When she was free of her old shell, Lantern looked her over. She really did look naked, just like she had mentioned before. The soft new shell was semi transparent, and had a foggy white color as the fire’s light shone on it, but the part that made her look truly bare, was the fact that he could literally see inside the changeling. Her organs were glowing with the same color as her eyes. Her whole body was glowing from the inside, and Lantern could see her heart beating, her blood flowing and her lungs extending with every breath she took.

“The way I see it, we’re not so different as I first thought afterall.” mused Lantern as he thought back to his anatomy classes back when he was a colt. “Your organs are pretty much the same as anypony’s.” then he added “Well, except the for color of your blood, and the glow.”

“And also the very obvious dietary difference, and of course our hearts.” Archive said matter of factly. “We are originated from the same ancient equestrians as you ponies are, but our family is a much younger branch of that lineage.”

“So what’s the difference in our hearts?” Lantern asked with genuine curiosity.

“First of all, stop staring! You’re not going to see it like this, and it’s embarrassing to be watched so intensely.”

“Oh, sorry! I didn’t mean to do that.” apologised Lantern.

“It’s okay. Anyway, the difference is that the heart of a changeling doubles as a second stomach, that’s capable of converting the gathered emotions into energy that our body uses as fuel. It is also responsible for producing our nectar. Should a changeling gather excess amounts of emotional energy, then we can store the nectar the same way as the bees store their honey.”

“That’s kind of impressive. I guess that’s a much better way to handle overeating than what I usually do after Heart’s Warming dinner.”

“Which is?” tilted her head Archive.

“Barf!” stated Lantern proundly.

“Eww, Lantern! Gross!”

They started laughing, and when their laughs died down Archive yawned, which in turn made Lantern yawn.

“How about we turn in for the day? I’m pretty tired, and I guess you’re even more exhausted than I am.” offered Lantern.

“That sounds great.” said Archive drowsily.

“Good night, Archive!”

“G’night Lantern!” answered the nymph, already half asleep.

Author's Note

For all your burning questions and stupid trivia: Tumblr
Ask the characters Themselves!

Well, it took quite some time, but here it is.

Special thanks to mikesnipe for the extra help with the end of the chapter! Great ideas, man! :pinkiehappy:

Horny stuff

Chapter 6. - Horny stuff

For the first time since being in the cave, Moon Lantern actually woke up before Archive did. He considered this to be some kind of achievement, but then again, Archive had a pretty rough day yesterday. Even then she woke up almost as soon Lantern got his hooves under himself.

“Good morning Lantern!” she said blearily while she stretched her limbs.

“To you as well, sleepyhead.” smiled Lantern in his triumph over the nymph.

“What’s with the stupid grin?” asked him Archive after stifling a yawn.

“Oh, nothing. I’m just in a good mood. How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling good too. A couple more hours and my chitin hardens to the point where I can stand again, but until then you should try to light the fire.”

“Oh, that reminds me, wanna see something neat?” asked Lantern with a childish glee in his voice.

“What is it?”

Lantern’s grin widened even more and Archive wondered what it could be that had him so excited.

“Check this out!”

Lantern turned to the fireplace in the dark and sat on his haunches. He lifted his good hoof up to his chest and started rubbing it in a quick motion until a quiet crackling sound could be heard and a couple small arcs of electricity enveloped his hoof. He then thrust his hoof into the fireplace quickly, and with a spark, an unburnt piece of wood caught fire. The small flame almost flickered out when he held another piece of wood above it with his mouth, but it eventually lit and started to spread, flooding their surroundings with a warm orange light from the flames.

When he finished his little trick, he turned back to Archive and smiled.

“Ta-daaaa...” and his mouth stayed open in surprise.

“Um, Lantern? Do I have something on my face?”

Lantern snapped out of it but his eyes kept switching between looking into hers and her horn for a few seconds more than she was comfortable with.

Archive blushed a bit under his stare.

“WHAT?” asked Archive a bit heatedly.

“Is your horn supposed to look like that?”

A slight panic took hold of Archive as she started to freak out.

“W-ww-what’s wrong with it? Did it not heal properly? Is it deformed? Oh no. It’s deformed right? I knew I should’ve slept with my head propped up. How can I look anyling in the eye with a distorted h-ho-hoooorn!?” she crumbled like a wall hit by a speeding train.

“No, no, no! It’s just...not how it used to look like when I saw you in Canterlot, before it broke.”

That seemed to calm the nymph down a bit, when suddenly a thought hit her and she stopped dead and stared blankly ahead. She slowly turned her gaze at Lantern and then up towards her horn. She raised her hoof up to it unsteadily to touch and feel the magical appendage. The front curve was the same as before, same size too, but when she moved her hoof to the backside and run it along its length she felt a small, crescent shaped hole in it.

Her face lit up like the sun, and Lantern could swear he heard a faint ‘sqeee’ sound escape the maw of the nymph. Her elated grin showed Lantern her sharp canines in all their glory and he ventured a guess “Is that a good thing?”

“It’s so AWESOME!” Archive answered excitedly.

Lantern was feeling like he was left out of a joke and only got there to see a bunch of howling lunatics rolling around the floor.

“I don’t get it,” he stated with a baffled expression, then continued “how’s having a piece missing from your horn ‘awesome’?”

“Oh, right. That’s another thing you don’t know about us. Well, to us the concept of vanity doesn’t really mean anything, except for our horns. A larger than average horn is considered to be something to be proud of…”

Lantern thought to himself “Yeah, I know how that feels.” and used his hoof to hide a giggle.

Archive continued on without noticing Lantern’s little laugh “...but having an exotic shaped horn is the sign of a talented and successful changeling, and it’s an exclusive characteristic of Sirens. They are the only ones to have horns like this, and it’s kind of a status symbol to have more holes and bands than others. They use it as a ranking system among themselves.

“So is it like the Guard’s military ranks?” inquired Lantern.

“Not really, no. A better Siren who has more holes and bands on their horn can’t give orders to ‘lower’ ranking Sirens. They are all equals, but more experienced Sirens are respected accordingly. They usually give tips and share their techniques with less experienced Sirens so they can get better hauls on their gathering missions, and thus helping the hive collect even more food than they could on their own.”

“That sounds very admirable. So the best Siren makes the most nectar and she’s also the de facto teacher of the others too.”

“Actually, the top Siren is not of my generation. She’s the daughter of the previous Queen and the older sister/nursemaid of Queen Lilith. She cannot produce nectar, so when she returns from a trip, she either feeds the grubs directly from her reserves or transfers the energy she collected to the Queen, who then converts it into nectar to be stored. She’s the oldest changeling, save for the resin-encased Queens, and I’m sure she’s one of the few Chrysalis couldn’t sway with her control of the hivemind. If anyling, she’s the one to be still next to the Queen. They’re very close to each other.”

Lantern saw that Archive started to slip into depression again, and desperately tried to get her to steer her train of thought in another direction.

“You know this makes me wonder, does your new horn makes you a Siren then?”

“W-what?” asked Archive with a surprised, high pitched voice.

“The hole in your horn. Does it mean you’ll be promoted to be a Siren?”

“I-I’m not sure. As far as I know, this has never happened before. A Nymph getting a hole on her horn is unprecedented.”

“Hmmm, interesting. Anyway, I’m just glad it’s not some kind of problem. It looks kinda cool too, it suits you well.” said Lantern with a sincere smile on his face.

Archive blushed at the pegasus’ compliment and said “Thank you.”

Lantern picked up a piece of wood and put the end of it into the fire, then scooped up the little bowl Archive made from her resin and deposited it on his head like a helmet. It wasn’t as good as his old Guard’s helmet, but if he kept his ears down it would stay on just fine. He turned to Archive and snapped to attention, even saluting curtly for added effect. The nymph giggled at him.

“I’ll go get some water from the pool and have a look around a little further down that tunnel. Will you be alright until I get back?”

She nodded.

“If anything happens, just shout and I’ll come running back.”

With that Lantern took the makeshift torch into his mouth and turned to leave when Archive suddenly said:

“Lantern! Be careful.”

With a nod of his own, Lantern made his way into the darkness.

Author's Note

For all your burning questions and stupid trivia: Tumblr
Ask the characters Themselves!

I'll try to make the next one more interesting.
...and yes, the cover was updated waaaay back, to show Archive's new horn, so who noticed it?

Eat Me

Chapter 7. - Eat Me

As Lantern approached the pool of water under the wall with the glowing stones, he put his torch down just short of the waters edge, then looked into the mirror surface of the pool. The looming darkness made it hard for him to get a good look at himself, but he could see the outlines of his face thinned a little since the morning of the Royal Wedding when he’d last seen himself in a mirror.

He lowered his head so the bowl would fall into the water. The bowl filled and quickly sank to rest under the surface of the shallow pool. After gathering up the little bowl filled with water, he sat on his haunches and drank from it, then drew another bowl worth of water and set it down on the ground between himeself and the pool. He would pick it up later on his way back, he thought.

Taking the torch, he pushed ahead into the untrodden parts of the cave. After a few minutes of walking he arrived to a section where the cave narrowed into a series of small tunnels.

An eerie feeling came over him, and a little alarm went off in his head. There was at least a dozen tunnels in the wall, and even more on a higher shelf to his right. He didn’t have enough time to check all of them. The maximum amount of time he could explore, was set by his torch.

Being a pegasus, he had a great sense of direction, so he would have no problem getting back to the pool and then to Archive in the dark, and in the worst case he could make some sparks of lightning to momentarily light up his surroundings, should the need arise.

He decided to use the torch to its fullest, and try to see where the tunnels went. He set up a system before braving the claustrophobic holes. Starting from the left, he would take fifty steps into each cavity, and if he didn’t reach the end, he would turn back and try the next one.

The first three hole were no longer than ten paces and had nothing at their ends. The fourth and fifth ones went a little further, but they merged at the end making a long hairpin shape.

The sixth hole had a barely noticeable downwards slope to it, and there was a tiny vein of water trickling down in the middle of the circular tunnel.

Moon Lantern walked down the tunnel exactly fifty steps, where it opened up to another spacious cavern. The hall was too big to be entirely lit by his torch and had giant pillars of stone that reached into the darkness to the ceiling above, almost like a subterranean forest. The damp air was permeated by the smell of fungi, and on closer inspection he discovered that the pillars had rotten wood debris around their base, and on those grew all kinds of mushrooms.

“Jackpot! An all you can eat buffet.” he exclaimed in giddy anticipation of food.

Lantern went closer to the mushrooms and snapped a few of them off the decomposing logs and deposited them under his good wing for later consumption. He put the nearly spent torch on the top of a boulder, and by the last precious light he quickly stuffed as much of the mushrooms into his face as he could before the flame gently sputtered out as it reached the saliva coated part of the stick.

Still munching on the rich taste of the mushrooms he decided there would be no point in trying to feel around for more in the dark. He could always come back with Archive for more once she could walk again.

He started to climb up the tunnel he came from in the dark and making his way back to Archive.

By the time he reached the exit of the tunnel he was sweating like a horse.

“I’m not in shape.” he commented to himself while trying to catch his breath.

In a few minutes he reached the pool, but his head started to hurt and the small glowing stones in the wall seemed to be dancing before his eyes. His feet started to shake and he felt weaker and weaker with every step. Before he could reach the water to have a sip he collapsed and fainted.

He woke up in a swirl of fog. He was still next to the glowing wall and the light it gave off gave the place a creepy feeling, when suddenly he saw a shape moving in the fog.

“Archive! Sorry I took so long, I must have exerted myself more than I thought and I seem to have fallen asleep.”

The shape stepped closer, and suddenly threw something at Lantern. The object sailed through the air then hit the ground with a metallic clang and bounced the rest of the way before it came to a halt at Lantern’s foot, making a loud thumping sound that got deeper with every bounce. It was a Guard helmet, scratched and dented to a point where it would be impossible to wear. Lantern recognised it. It was his helmet.

“Moon Lantern,” said the shape in a familiar voice, before it stepped out of the fog.

Rusty Sickle stood there in his full Guard's armor, scorn on his face and deep hatred in his eyes.

“Decorated soldier of Their Majesties, Hero of the Changeling Invasion, who fought until the bitter end. Your funeral was quite the spectacle...traitor.”

Lantern froze in place dumbfounded. He looked at his friend and opened his mouth to speak, but he never got the chance.

“SILENCE!” shouted the earth pony. “Your words are useless. You have betrayed the Crown, your family, and me.”

In silence, Rusty turned and walked back into the fog where he came from, but just as Lantern lost sight of him, another figure stepped out of the fog. The regal form of Princess Celestia, standing at her full height and her wings flared. She looked down upon Lantern with a stern expression on her face.

"I am disappointed in you. Your crime is beyond any forgiveness, and you shall be punished accordingly." she said coldly.

Shackles and chains appeared on his legs and wings, and a heavy collar on his neck, that brought him down to his knees.

"The same goes for your little friend over there." she pointed to the side, and Lantern saw Archive in matching bindings and a ring around her horn, with two Unicorn Guards standing on either side of her.

Fear gripped Lantern at the sight of the bound Nymph. Anger and pain flooded him, but the sheer amount of fear dominated both of those feelings.

Another voice spoke up and Lantern turned back to where Celestia stood just seconds before, only to see his mother.

"And even now, your heart beats for that MONSTER!" she shrieked, then closed her eyes and turned her head away in disgust and continued "You're no son of mine."

Lantern felt like his heart was stabbed, and tears started flowing freely from his eyes, still unable to utter a single word.

Her mother faded from view, and the swirling fog all around him seemed to be spinning ever faster. A loud cackling sound echoed around him, and the fog fused into a single point, and became...him.

His other self stood in front of him, a shit eating grin plastered on his face.

"How's it going, pal? Sucks, right!? Well, it's kinda your fault. She's gonna rot in a dungeon because of you... because of your Love!"

Lantern growled at ‘himself’ "I don't love her!", but as the words left his mouth, he felt his stomach drop and he started to feel sick.

His other self laughed loudly.

"Are you seriously trying to lie to me? Is it that hard to understand? Should I spell it out for you? I. AM. YOU." he sneered.

"She WILL die because of you!"

"I won't let that happen." Lantern flared up.

"Then FIGHT!"

The chains and bounds disappeared and a spear fell from above, embedding itself in the hard rock of the cave floor.

Lantern grabbed the spear, and in one fluid motion swung it at his other self. The apparition deftly blocked the blow and without hesitance returned the strike.

They went at each other fiercely, like ancient dragons fighting over a hoard, stabbing, striking, slashing countless times, and matching the other's hits with a block or dodge each and every time, when suddenly Lantern stabbed his opponent squarely in the chest with a rising strike. He wasn’t prepared for the strike to actually connect.

As the spear sank into the fake Lantern, time froze around them. Lantern looked at the tip of his spear, which penetrated his other self. There was no blood. Then he looked at his face, just a few inches from his own. The accursed thing smiled at him and whispered:

"Fight!"

Lantern felt pain in his chest, and the world around him lurched, his vision blurred then faded to complete darkness.

In the dark, he could hear a quiet voice:

"Lantern, fight!"

It was Archive's voice. Her normally cheery, chirping voice sounded so distressed. Lantern wondered why.

He felt a sharp pain in his stomach, and his eyes flew open just in time, to catch the hardly digested mushrooms flying out of his mouth onto the floor in the company of some stomach acid.

He kept retching and coughing for a few seconds before he realised Archive was lying behind him, her hooves clutched around his midsection, and she was crying and sobbing into the fur on his back.

Lantern wiped his maw with one of his hooves, and used the other to shakily take hold of Archive's hoof and gently lift it to his face, where he placed it just under his old scar.

Archive brushed her hoof along the scar, tightened her grip around Lantern, buried her face in his back and kept on crying.

Author's Note

For all your burning questions and stupid trivia: Tumblr
Ask the characters Themselves!

Lantern, you idiot! Get your shit together, mate!

Bug Alone

Chapter 8. - Bug Alone

“Lantern! Be careful.” said Archive with a hint of worry in her tone.

The pegasus nodded then trotted away from the fire with his torch in his mouth. Archive kept her eyes on him as he got farther and farther away, right until she finally lost sight of him as he took a turn around a large boulder. Even after he disappeared in the midst of rock formations, she still followed the glow of his torch until the light dissipated into the darkness as the pegasus gained distance from her.

Archive sighed deeply and decided she would take a short nap until her fresh chitin armor solidified completely. The gentle crackling of the fire and the carefree dance of the flames proved to be the perfect lullaby for the Nymph as she fell into a comforting sleep.

Actual dreams came few and far between for Archive since the day she reached adulthood and started her work in the hive. Usually she would use her time in the dreamworld categorizing and storing useful memories that she gathered from her siblings throughout the day. This time though, she saw herself with Lantern in the cave around the fire, chatting and laughing and just generally having fun. The dream was simple and soothing, nothing deep nor profound.

She woke up refreshed and well rested. After a jaw splitting yawn she stretched her limbs one after the other. As she gathered her feet under herself she noted with a smile that her chitin set perfectly, and it adapted a beautiful shiny black color.

“Okay. I think I’ll make a quick checkup until Lantern gets back.”

With that, she rose her previously crushed back hoof and slammed it down hard on the solid rock floor of the cave. The crisp ‘clop’ sound of her hoof hitting the stone and the echo from the high ceiling satisfied Archive greatly.

“Good as new.” she stated to herself.

She lay on her stomach and reached around to her back to feel where her wings used to be. Just as she was expecting, the two small nubs where her new wings would sprout in a few days were there, and felt like there was no problem with them.

She spent the following minutes flexing and exercising her flight muscles, lest they become weak from disuse in the time until her new wings grow out.

By the time she finished the simple muscle training, she built up quite a giddy anticipation for the last thing to check. She couldn’t wait any longer to try her gorgeous new horn.

Archive was indeed impatient, but she was not a fool. Her old horn was damaged very badly. In fact, it was beyond bad. The old horn was essentially crippled to the point where she couldn’t even actively channel magic through it. Fortunately it was still able to passively gather emotional energy and support Archive’s recovery. Had her horn not been able to perform its primary function in its broken state, her only option would have been to forcefully drain Lantern’s emotions to sustain herself.

The memory of kissing Lantern and draining him flashed before her and made her blush, but at the same time it brought a feeling of deep shame and regret. She didn’t do it on purpose. It was on instinct but she still knew she shouldn’t have done it.

She shook herself to get rid of the gloomy thoughts and concentrated on her horn. She made sure to be very careful and slowly charge her horn with the smallest amount of magic she could, so as not to overcharge and burn the magical appendage out on the very first trial run.

She was concentrating so hard on the task, that she stuck her tongue out while looking up at her horn. The horn started to glow with the faintest of green aura and Archive felt the arcane channels opening up in her horn to let the built up magical energies out into the air. As she let go of the magic, the glow dissipated nicely without any residual energy around her horn and the channels closed properly. Now that she’s charged it once, she could feel the network of arcane channels and she couldn’t detect any kind of damage left over from her injuries. That meant that her horn healed perfectly.

“Oh, I’ve missed you so much.” she said as a warm and fuzzy feeling flooded her.

She grew confident and decided to actually try it. She scooped a few pebbles closer to her chest with her hooves and started to levitate the small stones in a circle before setting them down one by one in a neat line in front of herself, then looked around and located a bigger stone, about as large as half a pony. Although she wasn’t a Drone, she could lift the stone without problem. A test of magical dexterity followed the two previous tries. She took three smaller stones into her magic and positioned them on a flat section of the floor, then lifted the big one and put it onto the three little ones. She stood up triumphantly, then proceeded to bounce around the stones like a foal that found a bit on the ground.

“Hoof? Check. Wings? Looking good so far. Horn? Beautiful. Magic? Works, with precision and strength. Change?...”

Archive was about to try changing her form, but she collapsed to the ground from a sudden pain she felt in her chest. Her heart rate skyrocketed instantly and every single beat shook her whole body. Her eyes grew wide as she lay on the ground and tears started to roll down her face onto the cold floor. She took a shaky breath and stood up again.

It took her a couple of seconds to realise that the pain she felt wasn’t actually her own.

“LANTERN!?”

She turned in the direction of the pool and started running as fast as her hooves could take her. She hardly even touched the floor. Her muscles protested against the sudden exertion and her lungs burned with the flames of Tartarus but Archive payed no mind to the pain. Adrenaline coursed through her veins, dulling the ache of her muscles as she raced to Lantern at a breakneck pace.

As the rooms and tunnels of the cave flew by her, time came to a screeching halt as she stepped into the hall of the pool and spotted the pegasus guard lying on the floor, in the dim blue light of the glowing rocks embedded in the wall.

She run up to his prone form, kicking the small bowl out of her way. She started checking his vitals the moment she reached him. He was still breathing, although very raggedly. His face was red and his expression showed he was in severe pain. Lantern was swimming in sweat and he had a burning fever. Foam was gently oozing out at the edge of his mouth and pooling around his muzzle. Archive checked his eyes for pupil reflex, but his pupils kept randomly dilating.

“Oh, no. This is bad!”

From the corner of her eye Archive spotted a pair of small mushrooms partially obstructed by Lantern’s wing, that glowed green in her natural night vision. She recognised the mushrooms in a blink of an eye. They were the same kind as the ones that appeared in the hive a few years ago and caused a mass infection, knocking out the majority of the Drones for days with just their spores. She dared not to think what those could do to a pony if one were foolish enough to actually eat them.

She started panicking and froze completely. Her mind was buzzing with memories, but everything seemed to be just a jumbled mess. The only thing that made sense was her own voice ringing in her ears ‘Ancient Law’, but her body was paralyzed.

Just then, she felt as if the sun was shining on her face, but the warmth that washed over her was coming from Lantern. He was shaking and Archive felt his immense fear, but underneath that a much stronger feeling radiated towards her. Pure Love, directed straight at her. She only felt it for a second before fear overpowered it again, but that second was enough to snap her out of her stupor.

Her emotions fought inside her for dominance.

“If you really feel that way, at least have the guts to say it out loud!” she shouted in anger.

“Don’t you dare die on me now Lantern!” Archive started crying.

She reached around his barrel and cried out at the top of her lungs “Lantern, FIGHT!”, before she suddenly tightened her grip and yanked her forelegs upwards so hard that she fell over backwards with Lantern strongly clutched against her chest.

As they hit the ground, Archive could see Lantern throw up the contents of his stomach. He kept retching, even when he had nothing left to expel.

After Lantern settled down from his coughing, she felt him taking her hoof and placing it on his face. Archive gently stroked his face along the line of his scar, pulled him tightly against herself, buried her face in the soft fur on his back and kept on crying.

Author's Note

For all your burning questions and stupid trivia: Tumblr
Ask the characters Themselves!

I promise, this is the last time I tried to kill them...though I might be lying

Ups and Downs

Chapter 9. - Ups and Downs

Lantern was lying in Archive’s embrace on the ground. He was conscious, but just barely. He was taking deep breaths.

Behind him, Archive was still sniffing. She started stirring and let go of him to get up. When she walked around Lantern, her eyes fell on the coughed up mushrooms and the puddle of stomach acid. Only one of the mushrooms Lantern ate was actually poisonous, and even that was only bit into two pieces before he swallowed it. That single mushroom was enough to color most of Lantern’s digestive fluids to a sickening green color that glowed in Archive’s night vision.

She took the mushrooms in her magical grip and threw them as far away into a ditch as she could. She looked around and found the little bowl that she made earlier. She tiredly walked over to it and picked it up, and then submerged it in the pool to scoop up some water. She then stepped up to the puddle of puke and splashed the water onto it and went back for more water. Archive brought the fresh water to Lantern.

She gently levitated the bowl to Lantern’s mouth, who took a mouthful of it, sloshed it around in his maw then turned away from her to spit it out. The rest of the water, he drank with gusto.

When Archive turned to get some more from the pool, Lantern stopped her by grabbing her hoof before she could move away.

Lantern sat up with a lopsided smile on his face.

“It was enough. Thank you.”

“You need to drink more to dilute the trace amounts of poison still in your stomach.”

Archive’s flat tone surprised Lantern and he let go of her. He watched as she walked to the pool with shaking legs. When she returned with the bowl her whole body was trembling and tears were welling up in her multifaceted eyes.

All of a sudden she splashed the water in Lantern’s face.

“You almost killed yourself!” she shouted through her tears. “If you had died, you would’ve killed me as well!” she stomped with her hoof in anger.

Lantern looked her in the eyes and took a step towards her. Archive clenched her eyes shut and turned her head away for him.

When she heard him taking another step, she pushed him out of the way and ran off into the darkness.

Lantern tried to call out after her, but the words just didn’t come. He hung his head in shame.

“Lantern, you dumbass!” he cursed himself, punching the ground with his good hoof.

After a minute of self-pity, he collected himself and decided he should go after her, but he had a small problem.

“How in Tartarus do I find a jet black changeling in the dark?”

“Maybe if I go back to the fire? No, that would take too long.”

“Luna damn this cursed darkness!” he exclaimed in his frustration.

When he almost conceded to the idea of having to light his way with his little sparks, his eyes wondered up to the glowing specks of little stones on the wall.

“The Princess of the Night provides...sorta. Sorry for the one before, Princess!” Lantern apologized for taking Her name in vain, while the idea he just got started to seem more and more viable in his head.

He grabbed the upturned bowl and waded into the water to the opposite side of the pool to reach the wall. He set the bowl into the water like a toy boat and it floated on the surface calmly. Lantern started picking up the glowing stones from the bottom of the shallow parts of the pool that fell into the water from the erosion. He filled the bowl to the rim and even stashed some of the stones under his wing, just to be safe.

Once he was out of the water, he put down the bowl and shook himself like a dog to get rid of most of the water that soaked into his coat. Picking up the bowl again, and balancing it on his head, he started down the path after Archive.

The little stones parted the darkness around Lantern with a soothing blue light, which wasn’t as strong as a torch would have been, but it was more than adequate to help the pegasus find his way around the cave.

It took Lantern a few minutes to get back to the hall where the small tunnels were, but when he arrived, he spotted Archive right away.

She was sitting in the center of the hall and was staring up in silence.

Lantern walked up to her and sat by her side. Making sure not to ruin his light source, he gently set it on the floor and sighed.

“Look, I’m really sorry for what happened. I know I should have been more careful. I messed up big time. If it wasn’t for you, I would be dead twice over so…”

“Lantern,” Archive cut into his apology, while still only staring up into the darkness. “I’ve been here before.”

Lantern’s mind screeched to a complete halt. For three whole seconds he even forgot to take a breath.

“W--w-what?”

“I’ve seen this place once a long time ago.”

“How is that possible?” Lantern asked.

“The hivemind. When Queen Teshya created the hivemind, she connected with Queen Arathea too and she must have shared her memories with her. Just like when I became an Archive Nymph and my predecessor shared hers with me. This used to be the old Hive. I didn’t recognize this place, because we were in a part of the cave that Queen Arathea has never seen.” she explained.

“Wait! Does that mean, what I think it means?”

“I know the way out!” said Archive calmly, with a hint of a smile on her face.

Lantern grabbed Archive in a bear hug and started spinning around.

“Oh, dear Celestia! I could kiss you right now. This is amazing! I can’t believe we can go home at last. I can’t wait to see Rusty’s face when I tell him all about this.”

Lantern was so happy, he didn’t realize what he just said. Archive blushed and tried to get out of his hooves, but he was way too strong for her to wrestle herself free.

“Lantern! Let go of me! You’re squeezing the air out of me!”

“Oh! Sorry! Hehe, I didn’t mean to.” Lantern said as he set Archive back on the ground.

When she was on the ground again, she collected herself and got ready to tell him the bad news too.

“There IS a little problem though.”

“Problem!?”

Lantern was so pumped, that when his brain parsed the meaning of ‘problem’, he looked like a confused dog.

Archive turned away and looked back at him “How fast of a flyer are you?”

“Why?”

Archive looked at the tunnels on the lower level of the hall and pointed at one of them.

“I assume that’s the tunnel where you’ve found the mushrooms.”

“Correct! How did you know!?”

“The entrance to that tunnel shines just like the green fire that our changeling magic produces.”

“I can’t see a thing!”

“That’s expected, but believe me, I can see it. You have unsettled the poisonous spores in there, and now the air is filled with them. The problem is, as far as I know that’s the only way out of here. We have to get through that tunnel and reach the end of the hall on the other side to get to the old hive as fast as possible, without breathing in the spores.”

“I’m no Wonderbolt, but they’re the ones training the pegasi of the Guard. I reckon I can do it.”

“The cave is about a hundred and twenty meters long, full of randomly positioned pillars, it’s pitch black, you have to hold your breath and also have to carry me. Are you sure?”

“Hmm...if you take off this thing and give me some time to warm up, I can carry you without any problem. I’m worried about accidentally breathing in the spores.”

Lantern was thinking hard on how to prevent inhaling the toxic air for a few minutes, but he eventually came up with a stupidly fantastic idea.

“Wait! Could you seal up my mouth and nose with your resin?”

“Yeah, I guess I could do it, but would you be able to last that long without air?”

“I may not look like it, but I have completed the archery training in the academy. Some of the classes only consisted of breathing excercises. I might be pushing my limits a little, but it’s doable.”

“Okay, but how will you know where to go?”

Lantern’s mouth turned into a confident, shit-eating grin,“You’ll be my compass!”

“What? If I call out the directions for you, I’ll inhale the poison you idiot!” Archive shouted at him.

“I never said you have to talk. Give me your hoof!”

Archive lifted her hoof in front of Lantern uncertainly. The pegasus grabbed onto the offered hoof and picked up a bunch of glowing stones from the bowl. He tried to insert them into the holes on Archive’s front left hoof, but when the first stone slipped into a hole, Archive moaned out loud. Lantern froze from the surprise, but before he could look up she slapped him across the face so hard that he stumbled to the ground.

Archive’s face was completely green from equal parts embarrassment and anger.

“Never EVER do that again! Those holes are very sensitive, and it’s rude to just put stuff into a changeling’s holes!”

“Ouch! You should’ve warned me!” Lantern looked up from the ground, but when the hilarity of the situation hit him, he started laughing.

“Stop it! If you say a word of this, I swear I’ll suck your soul dry and leave you in a ditch. Ancient Law be damned!”

Archive kept huffing and puffing, but she actually put the stones into the holes herself, and sealed them in with a thin layer of resin, lest they fall out while flying.

Lantern was still snickering on the ground. He thought that Archive looked very cute at that moment!

Once she was done with her hoof, she got up and walked over to the pegasus on the ground and raised her hoof to strike. Lantern reflexively shielded his face, but the hit never came. When he looked up again, his wing was free of it’s resin cast.

Archive leaned over him threateningly and growled “Get your wings moving!”, then she retreated to let the guardspony get up and start his warmup.

While Lantern exercised his flight muscles, Archive made two masks that would keep them from accidentally breathing.

Once Lantern was ready, and Archive has finished her task too, she calmly said to the pegasus “I hope you know what you’re doing.”

Lantern smiled at her and said “That makes two of us.”

Author's Note

Their escape is on the horizon...it's a very far horizon though!
For all your burning questions and stupid trivia: Tumblr
Ask the characters Themselves!

By Her Grace, We Walk the Dark

Chapter 10. - By Her Grace, We Walk the Dark

Lantern was lying on the floor, eyes closed, wings stretched and was doing his breathing technique.

Archive watched him, all the while worst case scenarios zig-zagging in her head, but for some reason his calmness soothed her uneasiness.

When he slowly opened his eyes, Archive could see the light of the stones reflecting in them, but there was something else too. Some kind of tired wisdom. He was at peace.

She couldn’t tell if he was just so confident or he gave up and put his life in the hooves of fate.

His mouth curved into an endearing smile, and he radiated a warm feeling.

“What are you thinking about?” she asked.

“My grandma. Whenever I’m facing a difficult situation, I think of what would she say and her words usually help me, but for some reason all I can think of is her favorite saying.”

“What’s that?”

“The Night belongs to Her and by Her grace, We walk the dark. The Night Mother provides.”

“Night Mother?”

“Princess Luna.”

“Why would she call her Night Mother? Aren’t you ponies more biased towards Celestia?”

“Granny was a thestral.”

“You mean you have bat pony blood in you!?” Archive looked surprised. “Huh, never woulda guessed.”

“Please don’t say ‘bat pony’, it’s kinda…” Lantern trailed off.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.” she apologized sincerely.

“Nevermind. I called you a bug before, now we’re even.” he said with a lighthearted smile plastered on his face.

Lantern got on his hooves and stretched one last time before he nodded to Archive.

“So? How are we doing this?” asked the nymph.

“Stand over there,” he pointed. “I’ll start from here. When I give you the sign, we put on the masks and I’ll pick you up. I know the tunnel leading into the chamber, but once we’re down, you’ll have to guide me. I’ll be fast, so be quick and plan our course in advance as you get visual on the chamber below. Make sure I have clearance. Remember, my wingspan is a lot wider than yours. A moment of hesitation could lead to us crashing.”

Archive nodded and took her position. She calmed herself as best she could and looked back at Lantern, waiting for the sign.

“Are you ready for this?” Lantern called over.

“As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Then go!”

With that, both of them put on the masks with a deep breath. Lantern took off and rose a few meters off the ground, then swooped down and grabbed Archive around her midsection. She was slightly startled form the sudden jolt of movement, but as they entered the tunnel leading downwards, she got ready to point the way for Lantern.

Lantern was fast. Faster than Archive ever flown on her own. As they burst into the chamber, Archive’s eyes flicked around quickly, picking up little details about the place. It was in a much worse state than the mental image she had in her head.

She was scanning around for suitable ways, gaps in the pillar forest wide enough to allow easy flight for the pegasus. She guided Lantern with her outstretched hoof, hovering it in his sight so he would be able to see the little stones no matter which way they turned.

They crossed half of the chamber at a breakneck speed when she first started to feel the burn in her lungs. She was panicking, but forced herself to focus.

Lantern’s heart was pounding in his ears. He was pushing himself hard. This little flight would probably kill an ordinary pegasus, but he was trained to be Their Majesties’ shield and sword. He knew he could do this.

By the time they reached the exit of the chamber, Archive’s vision was blurry and she pointed a little lower than what would’ve been enough for them to make a clear exit.

As Lantern dropped lower, Archive’s dangling hoof got caught in the lip of the stone step, which sent both of them careening through the air and they hit the ground rolling.

When they came to a halt, Lantern ripped off his mask, and did the same to hers as well.

His head was swimming, but he managed to ask her “Are you okay?”

Archive was breathing so hard she couldn’t say a thing, so she simply pulled Lantern closer until their foreheads were touching and nodded her head.

Lantern dropped to the ground backwards and hollered on the top of his lungs “Wooooo!”

His voice echoed throughout the large hall they were in, but for long minutes after that, the only sound that could be heard, was their panting.

At one point Lantern actually fainted from the exertion and his hyperventilation. He didn’t even realise this, but Archive could see through the darkness as his eyes rolled back and he passed out. Archive wasn’t worried, since it only lasted a minute or two. When he came to he was still panting hard.

They lay there for minutes, just a few meters from the mouth of the tunnel they flew out of and when they caught their breaths Archive looked back at it. She could see the eerie green glow of the spores starting to get stronger in the hole.

“Lantern! We should move. The draft we made is pulling the toxic spores out of the tunnel. If we stay here, we’ll be in trouble. Can you stand?”

Lantern got on his hooves unsteadily. His wings hurt like they were burning in the flames of Tartarus, but the rush he got from flying again after being grounded for days helped him.

“Yeah, I’m okay. Where to now?”

“First, we’ll make some distance between us and the poison. After that I’ll need a few minutes to gather my memories of this place, and you can rest some more.”

A deep rumbling sound echoed around them.

“Aaand I’ll get you something to eat too.” giggled Archive.

In spite of the dark, she could see the blush on Lantern’s face.

“Let’s get going before you collapse again. Here, let me guide you.” she said and brushed up against his side.

The halls of the old hive were more practical than they were decorated, but Archive could see a few battered and crumbled pillars that stood by every archway leading to certain areas of the hive. These had little engravings on them that said what was behind each portal.

One of them caught her attention. This pillar, unlike all the others, were made of some kind of black stone and it was the only one that was in perfect condition. Etched in the smooth surface of the stone was a single word, that Archive found so inviting that she had to see the chamber behind it for herself.

She stopped Lantern as they reached the pillar. She traced the writing on it with her hoof.

“Mother.”

“What?”

“This used to be Queen Arathea’s throne room. We should be fine inside.”

Archive led Lantern into the throne room. The room was less spacious than Archive imagined and about as spartan as it comes. Aside from a stone bed in the center that had some kind of black fabric on it that has seen better days, the room was practically empty.

Archive felt a little underwhelmed, but it still felt strangely homely.

They settled on the tattered blanket. Archive carefully removed the glowing stones from the holes on her leg and pushed them over to Lantern so that he had at least some small light in the utter darkness that enveloped them.

“Try to get some rest. It’ll take me a few minutes to recall the layout of the hive, then I’ll look around for some kind of food for you.”

Lantern was so exhausted that he fell asleep in the time it took Archive to gather the memories she had of the place.

Archive left the sleeping pegasus behind and walked around the now familiar halls and tunnels of the hive, looking for something that would be edible for a pony.

She passed by a pillar that had fallen centuries ago and entered the resting place of her distant relatives. The walls here had rows upon rows of small cavities on them. Each little hole housed a piece of carapace armor of Arathea’s lost children, sealed into them with changeling resin. Broken ring plates, fangs and every now and then even nearly intact horns as well.

She buzzed a quiet prayer for them to rest in undisturbed peace for as long as the sun may rise.

As she looked around, she spotted some hanging moss dangling from a lip above one of the holes that was carved into the far wall. This hole was much larger than the rest, and strangely, this one stood on its own.

As Archive pulled down the curtain of moss that obstructed the hole, her heart almost stopped from the fright.

This particular hole housed a large, crystallized block of resin. In it, a curled up, seemingly peacefully sleeping body of a changeling. In her shock, she almost missed the elegantly curved hornwriting of Queen Arathea, etched onto the face of the crystal resin, ‘I forgive, and thank you my son’.

The memory of Arathea’s gratitude towards her son for his sacrifice warmed Archive’s heart and her mouth curved into a smile.

She closed her eyes and bowed her head.

“Thank you.” she said sincerely, then picked up the fallen moss and turned around to head back to where Lantern was sleeping.

She was in a good mood, now that things were starting to look a little up again.

When she stepped back into the throne room, Lantern was lying on the stone bed on his side, his wings extended limply behind him. In his sleep, he knocked the glowing stones off the bed and they rolled away, leaving the bed in complete darkness. He was snoring quietly. Archive walked up to the bed and dropped the moss onto the floor. She looked over the resting pegasus and her smile spread wider, then she sat down next to the bed and propped up her head on her hooves.

As she stared at the sleeping face of Lantern, her heartbeat picked up to the point where she could even hear it. Their ‘kiss’ flashed before her, and her gaze wandered to his lips. The memory of his soft lips made her blush furiously. They looked so inviting.

Overtaken by a sudden curiosity, she closed her eyes and inched her mouth closer to his. She could feel his warm breath wash over her muzzle. When she was about to touch her lips to his, she froze to the sudden noise of Lantern’s growling stomach.

Lantern opened his eyes, and drowsily called for her.

“Archive?”

She popped her eyes open. His unexpected awakening freaked her out and she shouted into his face.

“Waah!?”

The glow of Archive’s eyes filled Lantern’s vision. Her light stung his eyes from this close, and the sudden shout startled him in turn.

“Waaah!?”

Both of them backed away from the other.

“Holy Celestia!” Lantern was clutching at his heart and panting heavily. “What was THAT for!?” he asked.

“I-I-I w-was just dropping this moss down when you called my name, so I looked up.”

Archive was thankful for the darkness that hid her burning face from Lantern. She was hoping that he wouldn’t call her bluff.

“Yeah, but why did you shout into my face?”

“Damn.” she thought to herself.

“Y-you just surprised me. Here, I’ve brought you some food.” she said, and with that, she shoved the moss into Lantern’s chest.

“Oomph! Oh, thanks!”

Lantern started munching away on the lush piece of moss happily, but followed Archive’s eyes from the corner of his. She was behaving oddly.

Lantern could be as dense as a bar of lead at times, but he wasn’t an idiot.

Archive tried to calm her racing heart. She gathered up the glowing stones from the ground and put them in a neat little pile in front of Lantern. He seemed to be very fond of these stones, but maybe it was only because ponies tend to gravitate towards the light and in the darkness down in the hive, this was his only source of light.

Archive looked at him as he was eating, and told him “We should spend the night here and rest up. Tomorrow will be a long day of walking.”

Lantern finished up his piece of moss and put the rest of it away for the next day. He gave a sigh of satisfaction.

“Agreed. I’m still beat, and you could use some sleep too, I’m sure.”

He lay back onto the torn black sheet while Archive climbed up to the bed. She settled down behind him, facing away.

“Good night, Lantern!”

“Sleep well, Archive!”

After wishing each other good night, it only took Archive a minute to fall asleep. She was more tired than she let on.

Lantern couldn’t fall back to sleep right away. Thoughts kept swirling in his mind. Thoughts of what would he do first once he got back to Canterlot. Thoughts of his family and friends, and thoughts of Archive.

He thought back to earlier, when he woke up and Archive scared him.

“Is it possible, that she was trying to…? Damn, I’m not even sure if a changeling can actually love a pony, or if they’re even allowed to!?” he wondered.

Archive suddenly started shivering in her sleep.

“Weird. I thought she said they didn’t get cold in the night.” recalled Lantern.

He turned around and put his hoof around her ring plates and covered her with his wing.

Somehow, embracing her felt right. It made him feel at ease.

As he relaxed, his lingering fatigue catching up with him.

When he felt that she stopped shivering, he let his eyelids fall and his breathing synchronise with hers, then he fell asleep too with the nymph in his hooves.

Author's Note

Nope, they're still not out...they're nearly there, though.

For all your burning questions and stupid trivia: Tumblr
Ask the characters Themselves!

Into the Night

Chapter 11. - Into the Night

The stone bed of the Queen, and the quietly buzzing nymph in Lantern’s hooves provided him such comfort that even his cloud bed couldn’t match, back in Cloudsdale. Which was strange, he thought, because the bed was made of, well...stone.

When he got up, he noted with amusement how Archive stopped buzzing just as he retracted his wing from her sleeping form. He thought he would let her sleep in a little more, because the journey ahead of them would be just a tad shy of the pilgrim’s road around Equestria, and seeing as Archive’s wings haven’t sprouted yet, flying was not an option.

Lantern thought of wandering about the caves, but the lack of a proper light source deterred him from this idea as he poked his head out of the throne chamber.

Sure, he had the little glowing stones, but their light was way too miniscule to use in such a wide open cave, being only enough to penetrate the darkness ahead of him for about two steps, and even that was only if he piled them up, which made them less than adequate as a mobile light source.

That left him with few options for any kind of activity before Archive would wake up, so he decided to grab the rest of the moss from the previous day and eat.

Once he finished the meager breakfast, he started a trimmed down workout routine for his recently abused wings. He noted that the injured joint healed completely, and did not suffer any additional damage from their little stunt from before, but his neglected flight muscles were still kind of sore. Nevertheless, proper maintenance of wings was part of his life as a pegasus, and he couldn’t recall when was the last time he actually preened his wings.

He was just about done doing so, when Archive stirred and got to her hooves groggily.

“Good morning, Archive!” he called over to her, after spitting out a feather that came loose.

Just as she was about to answer, Archive gave out a weird noise and jumped off the bed, running over to the corner of the room. It would’ve been very disrespectful to be sick all over the Queen’s bed, even if she hasn’t used it in centuries.

Lantern grabbed his light stones and ran up to the hunched over nymph and started rubbing her carapace armor while she threw up in the corner.

“Whoa, are you okay?” he asked with worry clear in his voice.

By that time she was only panting and spitting the residue of clear liquid, that to Lantern’s relief, wasn’t glowing in the dark, which meant there wasn’t any of her blood mixed into the bile.

“Yeah.” she said wearily, “It’s probably only the leftover resin that got decomposed in my primary stomach. I should’ve spit it out before going to sleep, but this has never happened before. Well, it’s not like I make resin on the regular, being a nymph and all that, but still.”

“If you say it’s okay, that’s all that matters.” told her Lantern calmly, still patting her back gently.

“Thanks. It’s out now, and I’m already feeling better. I hope you’re done with your breakfast.”

“Yeah, but that little episode didn’t help.” laughed Lantern, surprisingly not actually feeling grossed out by Archive’s puke on the floor.

“Oh, that reminds me, do you know how we, pegasi callout before puking?” asked Lantern with a hint of mischief.

“Do you actually have a separate word for it?”

“Yep, exclusively used by us. Well, us and lunar pegasi, but they usually only fly after sundown, so for them it’s more like an inside joke.” proclaimed the pegasus proudly.

“What’s that?” asked Archive curiously.

“When we get sick in the air, we say ‘chunder’.”

“Ew, that sounds gross! Why chunder, though?”

“It’s short for ‘watch under’.” giggled Lantern.

“LANTERN! That’s disgusting!”

“I know, but hey, I didn’t make it up! Learned it from Granny.”

“Your grandmother sounds like an interesting character.”

“Yeah, she was.” said Lantern with a half smile on his face.

Archive picked up on his feelings even without her changeling senses.

“You’re missing her that badly?”

“It was hard to accept it. We were very close. She always said I reminded her of grandpa.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. She was very strong even at the very end, and wasn’t afraid of dying. She accepted it and when she went, she did so with a smile and told us that she would live on in all of us.”

Archive hugged Lantern for a long moment.

“I think we should get going.” said Archive after separating from the pegasus.

“Yeah, that would be for the best. Which reminds me, are you gonna walk around outside like that?” pointed Lantern to the black form of Archive’s outline in the dark.

Archive looked down at herself, the light of her eyes illuminating her holey limbs.

“Oh, now that you mention it, I should probably put on a disguise.”

“Try not to use a copy of somepony’s looks.”

“Don’t worry, I can come up with an original look without copying somepony.”

“That’s a relief. Let’s see it.”

“Okay. Get ready to be amazed!” said Archive with smug confidence.

Archive fired up her horn and the green flames lit up the room for a second before they faded away.

“So, how do I look?” asked Archive proudly.

“Like a changeling.” said Lantern flatly.

“That’s odd. Let me try again.”

And with that she did so, but again, she failed. Archive tried again and again.

“I think you should stop. You’ll tire yourself out, and you’ll need your energy.”

“That shouldn’t have happened. I’m not the best at changing, but I never failed to change before.”

“Whatever is wrong, you can’t just go out like this. Wait, I have an idea.”

Lantern trotted back to the bed and took the piece of black fabric from it. He laid it over the changeling, then he tore off a strip from the edge of it, and used it to fasten the thing around her neck.

“That should do it.”

“Cozy.” smiled Archive from under the makeshift hood of her new cloak.

Lantern returned to the bed to collect the rest of his glowstones, and stashed them under his wing with practiced ease.

Archive took a deep breath.

“It smells like Lantern.” muttered the nymph to herself with a light blush.

“What?”

“Nothing.” replied Archive a bit too quickly to be convincing.

“Okay then. Lead the way, please!”

Archive took her place beside the pegasus, and they headed for the exit of the hive.

After a few minutes of walking, the silence and the constant bodily contact made Archive a little flustered.

“Hey Lantern?”

“Hmm?”

“Would you tell me a little more about your family? You know, just to break the silence.”

“Well, sure. I wouldn’t mind, but it’s only fair if you tell me about yours in return.”

“Deal.”

They walked on in the darkness, Archive leading them around the pitch black tunnels, halls and various chambers of the hive, all the while talking about family stuff, like how all of Lantern’s siblings inherited better aspects of their lunar pegasus blood than his majestic blue-grey coat, or how Archive tried to change into one of her drone brother’s form to play a trick on her favoured siren sister and got immediately busted, and for her mischief she had to do the work of the drone she copied for the rest of the day.

After about an hour or so they reached a tunnel that had a gentle upwards curve to it, and at the end Lantern could see a faint glow.

“Is that what I think it is?”

Archive looked ahead and nodded.

At the entrance to the tunnel where they stood, they could feel a refreshing draft coming from the surface.

Lantern picked up his pace, urged on by the promise of freedom and the open sky.

When they got up to the mouth of the cave and parted the curtain of vines hiding the entrance, they were surprised that it wasn’t the light of the Sun that shone upon them, but Luna’s full Moon.

They stepped out into a clearing surrounded by mountain peaks. A sprawling valley was just barely visible to them in the moonlit night over the edge of the cliff beyond a sheer drop in the side of the mountain.

Lantern suddenly flared his wings, which made Archive blush under her hood; and the glow stones to drop to the ground beside him. He took off into the sky, flying above the deep valley to make a circle and then return to the surprised, but still blushing nymph.

He landed gracefully in front of Archive and flapped his wings a couple times before folding them up to his sides. He gathered up the stones again, tucked them back to their place under his wing and turned to Archive.

“Ah, that felt refreshing. Sorry about that. Being out of that cave made me so excited, I just had to stretch my wings for a bit.”

Archive just kept looking at him, before turning her eyes down to the ground. She felt sad because they would be parting ways from here on out, and a dull ache took hold of her.

When she felt ready to come to terms with being alone for the rest of the way, she steeled herself to say goodbye, but just as she opened her mouth to speak, Lantern beat her to it and stunned her into silence.

“So? Which way is it to your hive?” he asked.

For a full minute, she just stood there and was staring at him with wide eyes.

“What?” she asked, her mind still lagging behind and not comprehending Lantern’s implication.

“I mean, which way should we be heading, to get us to the hive?”

“We? US? No, no, no! You can’t come with me, you have to get back to Canterlot to your Princess, or more like Cloudsdale to your family. They must be worried sick about you. That, and I can’t just reveal where the hive is. We aren’t really fond of taking ponies, but you would never be able to leave with the location of the hive.”

“Look, Canterlot is that way,” he pointed with his resin encased hoof towards where the city lay, “about one and a half day of flight’s distance. I assume your hive is even farther, considering that Chrysalis’ original attack came from the south, and this old hive where we ended up is in the hills of Neighara Falls. You can’t fly, might I remind you!? Even reaching Canterlot would take about four days on hoof.”

“How do you know where we are?”

“I took a look at the stars when I flew up to check.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not a problem of how long it would take me, I just can’t take you there.”

The more she protested the more adamant he became about going with her.

“Archive. Time is exactly the problem here. You can’t fly, as I’ve mentioned before, which at least triples the time you would need to reach Canterlot. That’s four days, and that’s not even your destination. I don’t know where the hive is, but a changeling that can’t fly, and not to mention can’t change forms, which means it can only travel by night, lengthening the journey even more, WILL be caught and that’s probably the better outcome. You can’t disguise yourself, meaning you’d have to avoid populated areas, hence wouldn’t be able to feed. You would starve halfway home if our energy needs are even remotely comparable. Not to mention I’m indebted to you for saving my life on multiple occasions. You kept me fed, healed my wing and hooves and last but not least, gave me a chance to be able to see my loved ones again. Let me repay you.”

“But…”

Lantern continued heatedly, not giving her a chance to object.

“You’re not even sure if there’s anyling in the hive anymore. Just this once, please think about yourself. If you even get there, but find the hive empty, then what? I couldn’t live with the thought of you dying out there. I could never forgive myself for letting you go alone.”

Lantern panted heavily by the end of his monologue and his face was flushed.

Archive looked at the pegasus, now with a full green blush on her cheeks.

“So...what happens if there’s noling in the hive when we get there?”

Lantern thought for a moment. He almost said he would take her to Cloudsdale to his family to hide, but that would just cause them trouble he wouldn’t want to bring on his kin.

“I’ll...I’ll stay with you in the hive. Sooner or later the rest of the scattered changelings are bound to turn up there for sure.”

“The Badlands.” she said quietly.

“The...the BADLANDS?” Lantern’s face paled in an instant, the effect multiplied by the light of the moon, “You must be suicidal if you thought you could get there on hoof by yourself.”

“Not funny.” she started crying, which made Lantern falter a bit, but just as he was about to try to console her, she threw herself at him, hugging him tightly.

For minutes they stayed like that, the nymph slowly calming down. When her quiet sniffles died down, she pulled away from the pegasus and took a deep breath.

“You know if something happens to you, that would make me an outcast.”

“It takes more than a little walk across half of Equestria’s most dangerous parts to kill Their Majesties’ Guards.” said Lantern confidently.

Archive shoved his shoulder a little, giggling a bit and wiping her eyes, “Boaster.”

Lantern chuckled at her reaction, feeling glad that he could convince her.

Lantern looked into her eyes, his form radiating slightly in the reflection he could see there by being backlit from the light of the moon.

“Shall we then?” he offered.

Archive nodded once eagerly, and the two dark shapes started out into the night.

Author's Note

And it only took 3 months...just like the next one probably will! xD

For all your burning questions and stupid trivia: Tumblr
Ask the characters Themselves!

Formica of the Three

Chapter 12. - Formica of the Three

If being in the caves for days came with an advantage to the pair, it was the fact that their sleep cycle adjusted to them being awake in the night, but at the same time, this appeared to be a double-edged sword. While they could make good progress under the dark veil of the night, they would be vulnerable in the daytime when resting. Lantern was nervous about the seemingly burning horizon, as the first rays of sunlight hit the bottom of the clouds.
They entered the forest in the valley at the base of the mountain they descended from, and the place seemed to be dense enough to provide cover from wandering eyes for the time being, but they would need to come up with a plan in the following days of how and where to hide when the sun was up.

Lantern, being a pegasus, came up with the idea of making a ‘nest’ and sleeping up a tree. Their first day passed without incident. When the night descended on them, Lantern got the flightless nymph in his hooves and brought her down from the tree.

Now that they were on the surface, food wasn’t a problem for Lantern anymore. He enjoyed the variety of berries that the undergrowth provided for ‘breakfast’. He could’ve done without the thorns though. In the end it was all worth the trouble. He swore he’d never touch another mushroom of any kind, ever again.

Lantern stuck his head in a bush looking for more tasty little berries, but suddenly withdrew with a hiss and a quiet “Ouch.”

Archive was next to him in a moment as she heard him quietly yelp.

“What happened?”

“Argh. It’s just a scratch. A thorn caught me on the cheek in there.”

As he spoke, a line of red appeared on his cheek, and a single drop of blood dripped from his fur, onto the ground.

“Ooh, that looks nasty. Here, let me…” Archive said and cupped his face with her hooves, gently turning his head to the side to take a better look at the wound. She used one hoof to brush his fur out of the way, revealing the bleeding scratch to be quite deep for a thorn cut.

Lantern’s heart was picking up pace steadily under the nymph’s stare.

“Hmm, it’s not deep enough to leave a scar later, but it would be for the best to clean it before it gets infected.” said Archive, and without missing a beat she leant closer and slowly licked the pegasus’ wound.

“There. It should be fine now.”

“T-Thanks.” stammered Lantern as he looked away.

After that, they made their way to the mouth of the valley, where the first real obstacle of their journey lay.

They came upon a small village, not more than twenty little houses and some farmlands, but the problem was, they were in the dead center of the mouth of the valley.

To either side of the village were steep cliffs, forming a gorge that would be impossible for the duo to climb in their current condition.

Crossing the village was way too risky, and the night was still young enough that some of the houses still had some lights in their windows, and they could even make out a few stray ponies walking about in the distance.

“Well, this is a pickle.” said Lantern.

“You think we should wait here for a while?” Archive asked.

“Wasting the night in the hope that there’s no Guards in a village as small as this?”

“Well, I don’t see any armored ponies up ahead.”

“The thing is, there should be at least a pair of them. One for the day, and one for the night. They might not have guard armor, but one of them should be patrolling right now.” Lantern said, matter-of-factly.

“Then what? We sneak across?”

“No, that would be too risky. Looks like we’re going to have to fly over, and hope that none of them are pegasi.”

Archive eyed the sky above the village looking confused.

“Why? What difference would that make?”

“You know, earth ponies and unicorns rarely look up, but if there are pegasi in the village, we might get spotted. It’s kind of an instinct for us to look up frequently.”

“I say it’s worth a shot, and even if we do get spotted, you’re a pretty fast flyer.”

“I’m pretty sure any decent flyer could catch up to me while I’m carrying you .”

“Well, down in the hive you tore plot pretty fast, and it’s not like flying over the village is a crime. They shouldn’t even come after us.”

“Yeah, but they might get suspicious of two ponies just snooping around in the night, if the news of the invasion reached here.”

While they were going back and forth in the cover of the treeline, a shadow snuck up behind them. It kept its distance and listened in on their chat, and smirked at them from its hiding spot.

A glint of moonlight reflecting off of something catched Lantern’s eye, and he fell silent immediately, motioning for Archive to do the same and get low.

He swivelled his ears around listening for the sound of movement, but aside from the noises of nature around them, he couldn’t pick out anything. His eyes were searching their surroundings, but he couldn’t see any more of the thing stalking them but quick glimpses of a pair of eyes.

He was in full combat mode by this point, and he gestured to Archive to stay where she was, then bolted into the forest after the shadow as it moved away from the village.

Archive heard a feminine giggle from around her, then a whisper, coming from every direction.

“Follow him!” the voice said.

Archive ran after Lantern without a second thought.

While running, Lantern could see a ghastly shape ahead, and suddenly he saw the thing in its entirety for a split second through a gap in the bushes.

It was something he thought only existed in horror tales, something made-up to scare little fillies and colts around a campfire.

He was chasing a Wraith. Dark, torn rags surrounded its body, but the creepiest thing were the eyes, and the fanged grin it was wearing while looking at its pursuer.

Lantern’s train of thought came to a screeching halt.

“Wait...what!?”

The blasted apparition was facing him, while running.

Lantern growled and shouted, “Are you mocking me!?”.

All he received in response, was an amused chuckle.

When Lantern reached a clearing in the forest, he stopped and looked around for the Wraith.

“Show yourself!” he shouted, anger rising in his chest.

“Mmm, no!”

“Come out here, so I can send you to the next world where you belong!”

“Haaah, such a fiery one.” sighed the Wraith, “Well, fine.”

Lantern braced himself for a surprise attack from any direction, but what he didn’t count on was for the Wraith to daintily walk out from the bushes in front of him, wearing the same creepy smile it did before.

Its eyes paralyzed him. He was wound up like a spring, ready to attack, but his body just wouldn’t move. The she-ghost came closer and closer, her movements silent and flowing like water. When she reached him, she circled around her prey, brushing up against him and then she came eye-to-eye with him again, sitting down in front of him.

She cupped his cheek in one of her forehooves and traced his scar with the other.

“Hmm, a real warrior. Such a rarity.” she said, then looked to the side.

“Ah, and here comes our little friend.” she stated, letting go of him and backing away from the pegasus.

Archive burst through the bushes panting.

“L-Lantern! That’s…” she held up a hoof, silently asking for time to catch her breath.

“It’s alright dear, take your time, we’re not going anywhere.” said the Wraith in a calm voice.

When she could finally breathe again, she looked at Lantern, and saw that he was nervous and confused.

“Lantern. That’s a Changeling.” she said in a perfectly calm manner.

“Indeed.” she said, her creepy smile widening even more, before an emerald firestorm erupted around her form, revealing a large female changeling in the place of the Wraith.

Archive’s eyes lit up, and she smiled warmly.

“Aunt Humbug!” she cried out as she tackled the larger female, who froze for a few seconds after hearing the name.

“A-aunt? HUMBUG!?”

She broke down, howling with laugher, hysterically flailing her hooves while rolling around on her back.

Archive let go of the thrashing changeling, looking at her with confusion clear on her face even to Lantern, who fell over from being suddenly released from his magical restraint.

He got up and stood between the two changelings, ready to protect Archive, while looking at the madly laughing ‘ling on the ground.

Archive called over his shoulder “Aunty, are..are you okay!?”

After hearing that, her laughing fit got a second wind, and she covered her ears.

“Aahahaaa, please, please no...no more. I can’t take it.”

The stumped pair just kept staring at her for a few minutes while she calmed down.

She was laying on the ground, panting hard, and still giggling from time to time, before speaking up.

“Haa, haa, I’m not HumBUG!” she said and erupted in another laughing fit.

It took another minute before she could speak again.

“Oh dear Queens, I needed that.” she finally said.

“If you’re not Hum…” was all Archive could get out before the other changeling snorted and covered her muzzle with her hooves.

“I-I mean, if you’re not her, then who are you!? You look exactly like her.”

“There is rhyme and reason for that, but it’s not something to be discussed in the open like this. My place is just a few minutes from here. Take your trophy-colt and let’s head on over there.”

The changeling looked over the pegasus and licked her lips, then motioned for them to follow and disappeared into the bushes.

“Archive, I have a bad feeling about her.”

“Don’t be silly. She could help us.”

“She called me a ‘trophy-colt’.” deadpanned Lantern.

“Well, I admit she’s kinda weird, but she might be the only one that could help us get to our destination.”

“Okay, but keep your eyes open. We don’t know anything about her.”

When they arrived at the house in the middle of the forest, it wasn’t exactly what either of them expected.

It was a two story building, made entirely out of timber save for the stone chimney. It had a white fence around it, and a rose arbor as the gate into the front yard. In the yard, there was a small fireplace, and a swing bed that moved in the gentle breeze.

The pair stopped under the arch that held up the obviously enchanted roses, and stared at the brightly glowing purple flowers.

“Wow.” they said at the same time.

Archive reached out for a rose, to see if they were real, when their host shouted at her.

“Don’t touch them!”

Archive flinched back from the sudden cry and retracted her hoof.

Lantern immediately jumped in front of Archive to protect her from the anger of the other changeling. His wings shielding the nymph, he took an aggressive pose, ready to react to any attack. He was serious, and he would kill the other changeling to protect Archive, or die trying.

Archive could weakly feel the warmth of love emanating from the pegasus, and she blushed.

The other changeling started to shake, and her breaths left little puffs in the cold night air.

“I-I’m sorry.” Archive said meekly, looking out from behind Lantern’s wing.

The shaking changeling’s knees buckled under her and she fell to the ground.

Archive run up to her in panic.

“Are you alright!?”

When she looked at her, her eyes were distant, looking into nothing. She had an elated smile on her face, her tongue lolling out of her maw, and she was drooling and panting hard.

When her eyes came into focus again, she looked up at Lantern and stared at him with a dreamy look.

“Haaah, haah...I just came.” she said as bluntly as a hammer to the face.

Lantern’s face bloomed in deep scarlet and he looked away, hiding his face with a wing.

It would have been very rude staring at her, he concluded.

“What the buck was that?” he asked from behind his wing, still looking elsewhere.

Archive was blushing like mad, but helped her stand up.

“Lantern, would you please wait here?”

She started towards the house, propping up the still shaking changeling with her smaller form.

“I’m not going to leave you alone with her.”

Archive looked back at the pegasus with a hard stare.

“If you think I’m going to let you watch as I help her get herself presentable, you are gravely mistaken.”

“T-that’s not what I meant...”

Lantern lay on his stomach, and grumbled something to himself about ‘That’s a very dangerous mental image’.

“Good boy. Stay there!” said Archive.

A couple of minutes passed since the ‘lings disappeared into the house, and in the meantime Lantern had a chance to cool off himself.

The door opened and Lantern could see Archive standing there, backlit by the light coming from the house. She motioned from him to come in to the house.

When they entered the living room, Lantern saw their host lying on a sofa by the fire, covered in a towel, her mane dripping wet.

“Cold shower?” he asked flatly.

She nodded, and kept her eyes intently on him.

While he was waiting outside, he prepared himself to all kinds of awkward situations, and when he finally remembered that he was a Guard, he decided that he would use his most stoic Guard manners to shield himself.

It worked. He stared back at the changeling with an utterly neutral expression.

“Please, have a seat.” she purred.

Well, maybe it didn’t work, but it helped him to calm down.

The room had two armchairs opposite from the sofa, and a low table between them.

The pair settled in those, while keeping their eyes on her.

An uneasy silence fell between them, while the changeling looked them up and down smiling.

She broke the silence by clearing her throat.

“I imagine we have quite a few things to talk about, but before that, I would like to apologize for my earlier outburst. I didn’t mean to snap at you, but those flowers mean a lot to me, and I’d rather no one touch them. They were left behind by my special somepony, who worked really hard on them, and the magic they have is a very fragile charm that could be broken by a slight touch.” she explained.

“I’m very sorry, I didn’t know. They are just so beautiful, I couldn’t help but to reach out to them.” said Archive.

“That’s alright. So, would you mind introducing yourselves? I’m sure you’ve realised by now, but I’m not connected to the hivemind, so I can’t really forego such things by looking inside your head.”

“Actually, me neither.” mumbled Archive, earning a slight twitch of an ear from the changeling.

“My name is Moon Lantern, Royal Guard to Princess Celestia.” cut in Lantern with a flat tone.

“Day Guard? Weird. I would’ve pegged you as Night Guard, what with all the lunar pegasus vibe around you.”

“I’ve inherited none of the benefits of my ancestry.”

“Hmm, interesting.” she switched to Archive “And you, dear?”

“Arc Hive. Daughter to Queen Lilith, archive nymph. Call me Archive.” stated the nymph.

“Lithy named you herself, right?”

Archive just nodded.

“Yeah, I thought so. Anyway, my name is Formica, first born of Queen Seera, former Queen candidate, at your service.” said Formica. The last part of the sentence came in a sultry tone, and she winked at Lantern for good measure.

“So that means that aunt Humbug isn’t the oldest Siren alive?” asked Archive marvelling at the intricate horn of Formica.

Formica snorted at the name again, but kept her laughing fit in check.

“No, she’s not, but she never was, and neither am I. Me, your mother, and indeed, mighty Lamia ‘The Serpent’, or as you know her, Humbug, we’re nymphs, just like you are, darling. But our case is a little special, when it comes to castes. You see, we were born of the very first eggs that Mother laid, and Lamia and I came from the same egg, hence the uncanny resemblance. All three of us had the Gift, and so Seera had to choose between us. Being nymphs meant that we would all took to our studies well at an extremely young age. We were sent on gathering expeditions, just like the sirens, and that was where our Gifts would shine. Lamia had an incredible capacity to store emotional energy, your mother had her special heart, that she could use as a converter, to produce nectar, and I…” she trailed off smiling, before disappearing.

Lantern felt a shiver running down his spine as he felt a light warmth settle on his back, between his wings. Invisible hooves hugged him from behind, and when she appeared again, Formica’s head rested on his shoulder smiling at Archive.

“I’m the Chameleon.” she said cheerfully.

Lantern was as rigid as a statue, his face a perfect mask of an emotionless, stoic Guard, but internally, he was freaking the fuck out. The fact that he could spot Formica in the forest earlier, was only because she let them see her. At this moment he felt very much like prey to a predator, he could not escape.

Archive glared at Formica.

“Ouch, jealousy doesn’t suit you dear.” said Formica retreating from the embrace she kept Lantern locked in, and returned to her sofa.

“Why not share him, hmm? I’m pretty sure a stud like him, charged and ready to blow, could easily satisfy both of us at the same time...a real Love God, if I do say so myself.”

Lantern’s mask broke. He was blushing like a filly, and as he looked at Archive for help, she just turned her face away shyly, mirroring his blush in green.

“W-w-what do you mean?” asked Archive.

“Oh darling, have you not seen what he did to me outside? Quite frankly, I’m surprised you didn’t keel over spasming yet from all that love he exudes. Say, did you molt lately perchance?”

“Yeah, my carapace broke up very badly, so I had to. He actually saved my life when it happened.”

“Mmm, yes, that answers why you didn’t have any wings. Then this will be easy to demonstrate.”

Formica looked at Lantern, and froze him in place, then did the same to Archive.

“I’m going to hurt her.” she told Lantern matter-of-factly with the utmost seriousness.

As she approached the little nymph, she felt her fear, and saw a drop of tear at the corner of her eye. She could also feel the seething rage coming from Lantern, but most of all, the overwhelming warmth of love he radiated. Her knees were already shaking as she rounded the chair Archive was sitting in. She cupped her face in a hoof and turned her head towards Lantern, so that he could see her frightened eyes. She used the crook of her other hoof to take hold of her horn, and with a sickening, crunching sound, she yanked it upwards, simultaneously releasing Archive from her lock.

She let out a loud, but very short cry, before she fell forwards. Formica caught her twitching body, and when she came off her high, she let out a very unladylike sound before clasping her hooves around her face.

The larger nymph levitated Archive out of the room and called after her.

“There are some empty barrels in the corner, use those if you’d be so kind. It would be a crime to waste all that precious nectar, simply throwing it up all over my carpet.”

Lantern was struggling in the magical binds.

“WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER!?” he demanded.

Formica smiled at him. It was not a cocky grin, but a genuine, motherly smile. Something that he was all too familiar with, being a Guard in Celestia’s employ.

“Why, I’ve just fixed her horn. I can’t imagine how could she have not realised that something was off with it. She must have only barely felt you and your emotions through that thing.”

Lantern was not convinced. He kept trying to break out from the magical body-lock, and he might have succeeded with his rage, but then Archive staggered back to the door, leaning on the frame.

“I’m good…” she panted, but just as she got closer to Lantern, she hurked again, and ran back to keep vomiting into the barrel.

Formica looked at Lantern again, her features serious.

“I didn’t actually hurt her, but I needed you to believe I did, so I could show her the cause of what happened out in the yard. I would never hurt my family. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have the obligation to return the courtesy she showed me, when she helped me wash away my shame. I’ll take her upstairs, to the shower, second room on the left. When we’re there, I’ll release you too. I want you to calm down your pretty plot while I do that. You being worked up is kinda punishing for us. Oh, and you are free to wait outside the bathroom, but should you dare barge in to seek revenge or some valiant save-the-mare bullshit like that, I will actually kill you. Better yet, make you my slave and suck you dry. Are we clear?”

The menacing nymph left the room without waiting for a reply. Lantern’s eyes following her as she swayed her hips on her way out.

Formica did as she said she would, and took her niece to the bathroom, and when Lantern heard the door lock upstairs, he could move again.

The primal parts of his brain told him that he should ignore the danger, and snatch up Archive and get the buck out of there, while the rational part was confused, uncertain, and hoping. That smile was honest, and what she said made sense in a way...also, she’s hella scary. Like a starbeast. Seriously! Dude, she’d kill you, or mind control you, or molest you!

There was chaos in his head right now, and somewhere a certain statue dropped a tear of pride.

Lantern stood up, walked outside, located a drum of rainwater under the leaves, and promptly dunked his head into the cool water.

Author's Note

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present you Formica, the "Chameleon".

For all your burning questions and stupid trivia: Tumblr
Ask the characters Themselves!

Nymph Talk

Chapter 13. -Nymph Talk

Formica closed the door of the bathroom and locked it, just to be safe, before releasing her magic on the pegasus downstairs. She listened for a minute, but she couldn’t hear the sound of stampeding hooves coming up the stairs. That was a good sign. Either Lantern was a reasonable fellow, who understood that she didn’t mean harm to Archive, or she succeeded in intimidating him. Both options were fine by her.

She levitated the panting nymph into the large tub, and decided that a warm bath would be much better for her than a cold shower. She helped Archive clean her chitin of the various remaining fluids, before starting to fill the tub with water. She walked over to the sink and started rummaging in the little cabinet above it. She levitated out a vial, and sprinkled some of its contents into the water before putting it away again. As the small crystals dissolved into the warm water, they tinted it a light shade of pink. A sweet aroma of candy with a hint of lemon, filled their nostrils.

Formica joined Archive in the soothing bath, her mane was still damp from her previous shower. She smiled at the exhausted nymph, and saw nothing but eager curiosity in her eyes.

“I can see it on your face. Go ahead and ask away, before you burst like a bubble.” she said, emphasizing her words by blowing a pink bubble through one of the holes in her forehoof.

Archive felt reinvigorated by the bath water, and she couldn’t decide what to ask first.

“Aunt Formica…”

“Stop! If you call me ‘Aunt’ again, I’ll tell your colt-toy a few interesting facts about the holes on your feet.”

Archive blushed and looked aside.

“He already knows.” she muttered.

“Wow. Kinky.” replied Formica, with a sultry look that took the place of her initially surprised expression.

“For Hive’s sake, would you stop with the lewd jokes!? It wasn’t like that, it was a misunderstanding. He tried to jam some glowing stones into them, so I could guide him in the dark.”

Formica’s ears twitched imperceptibly at the mention of the glowing stones, but she decided not to push Archive for details.

“Okay, okay, but seriously, ‘Formica,’ will do just fine. So, what did you want to ask me?”

“C-could you tell me about what Mother was like when she was a nymph? I’ve been cut off from the hive-mind for days, and I miss her presence in my head.”

“I can imagine how unsettling it is for you not to have her reassuring hum in the back of your mind. Like missing a piece of yourself, that was always there since the day you hatched. It took me weeks to get used to the silence after I left the hive behind. Let me see, how about I tell you how she became a Queen?”

“Ooh, that sounds interesting. She never let us into her memories, it feels kinda naughty to hear something so intimate about her.”

“Haha, yeah. Queens do that, but there’s a reason for that. There’s a ritual that’s required for one to become a Queen, and it’s not without danger. Say Archive, did you know that any nymph could be a potential Queen?”

“Well, yes, as long as they have the Gift. Then they’d be trained to be one, just as you said.”

“Technically, the Gift is not a requirement. It’s only there to help the hive advance. If you recall, Teshya didn’t have the Gift. She made it herself, after Csillag appointed her to be her successor. The only actual requirements are that the ‘ling has to be a Nymph, and the completion of a certain ritual. Anyway, the reason the Queen keeps her memories from her children, is to prevent them from learning about the ritual I’ve mentioned. I hope you’re responsible enough not to spread what I’m about to tell you, or to actually try it, but then again, I’m not part of the Hive anymore, so it’s not really a concern for me.”

Archive nodded, that she would keep it a secret.

“Clever girl. You see, we were finished with our training when our mother shared it with us. A test, and a necessary step to become a Queen. She told us we had to go out and live with the ponies for a month, but not to gather emotional energy, instead to find a mate. She said a nymph in itself is not capable of laying eggs. Every nymph has the eggs, but they’re unfertilised, so we would have to find a mate, a stallion, who would do just that. Each of us would have to find a stallion to mate with, so we could become Queens and lay fertile eggs to raise a new generation of changelings. But there was a condition. Having sex with a stallion in itself would be worthless, if we did it while being disguised. For the seed to take, we were to do it in our true-forms. It was up to us how we would accomplish this, but we had to do it without revealing ourselves to the ponies.”

“How would you do that?” asked Archive incredulously.

“There are a lot of tools for that, starting with partial transformation, a simple illusion, or you can even knock the stallion unconscious before getting down to business.” said Formica, flashing a mischievous smile at Archive.

“But where was I? Oh, yeah! So, we set out on our mission. Each of us chose a village for ourselves. I came here to find myself a mate, but the ponies of the village were very distrusting, and I had a hard time fitting in. If it weren’t for that one pony, I would’ve starved after the first week.”

“That’s weird. From what I heard about ponies from my sisters, they’re generally very welcoming to new faces.”

“While that may be true to small towns, this little village was a very tight-knit community at the time, and they were slow to accept any new addition to their circle. That’s not to say they were hostile, but aside from nods and greetings they tended to keep to themselves. It helped that both of us were new in the village, so it was easy to find common ground, and lean on each other for help. We became good friends, and even more. I knew then, that I would not become a Queen.”

“How come?” Archive asked incredulously.

“Not only have I fallen in love with a pony, which was kind of a taboo in and of itself, I fell for a mare. I decided that I would stay here and start a new life, but then something happened. A message came to me in the middle of the night to inform me, that Lamia has returned to the hive after completing Mother’s trial. I was called back. I couldn’t disobey Mother. I snuck away from the village that same night and kept crying the whole way back home.”

Archive’s expression fell at hearing Formica’s saddened voice.

“Wait, Aunt Lamia? But...but Mother’s the Queen now.”

“Yes, well...when I got back to the Hive, Mother welcomed me with grave news.” she said in a sober tone of voice, ”I rushed to my sister’s chambers. Lamia was lying on her bed, crying, broken, clutching a single egg to her body. She fed everything she had into that single egg, but it just wouldn’t hatch, and she couldn’t lay another. Her body rejected the seed, and she became infertile after laying her first egg, almost dying in the process. Her failure drove her to the edge of insanity. She would go out to gather emotional energy, then return to feed it to her egg for weeks, barely leaving any to herself to keep going.”

“I can’t even imagine what that must have felt like. Poor Aunty. Now it makes sense why she’s guarding her memories so closely.”

“As you know, she recovered eventually, but at the time she was a wreck. Mother felt for her and never treated her like she had failed her expectations, but the fact remained that the hive needed another Queen. She decided with a heavy heart, that we would need to return to our mission, and find a mate. Another Queen was necessary for the hive to survive, and for that an heir was needed who could lay eggs, and nurture new generations for a long time to come. By this time my heart was almost shattered by the pain of leaving the pony I loved behind, and the unfortunate fate of my sister. I was torn between my family and love. I decided to leave the Hive forever, to go back and live with the one my heart was beating for. I visited Lamia one night, before heading out. I told her everything. She just smiled at me, as she hung onto her egg. It was definitely alive, but it looked so fragile, that I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her, and as a parting gift, I channelled all the pure love I got from my significant somepony into her, and said goodbye to her. Then I went to Lilith, and told her the same. She protested that she wouldn’t be able to handle a hive of her own, but I told her, that I always thought that she would be the best Queen out of the three of us.”

“Please don’t get angry at me for saying this, but that was very irresponsible of you, Formica. What would’ve happened to the hive if the same thing happened to Mother as Aunt Lamia?”

“I know it was foolish, but as I’ve told you, Lamia and I are twins, hatched from the same egg. It’s more likely that I would have run into the same complications as she did, rather than Lilith. Confident that Lilith would succeed, I snuck out of the hive, silenced my mind and severed the link that bound me to my family for all those years. I almost gone insane, had it not for the welcoming hooves and love of my Rose Vine, who wept and cried and was about to give up hope when I showed up in the village again, half dead by the starvation that I had to endure on my way back. Next time I heard of the hive was on a chilly winter evening, about half a year later, when Lamia knocked on the door downstairs.”

“If you cut the Link, how did she find you out here?”

“I told her where I’d go, in case the worst scenario would come to pass. She found me easily, and when Rosie opened the door for her, she saw right through her disguise. I still remember that hilarious face she made when Rosie called out that my ‘Humbug’ was here to visit.” Formica was laughing mirthfully, “Lamia was back to her old self, and it was good to see that she did not succumb to her grief over her failure, and how she was genuinely happy to tell me about Lithy’s first brood of about five hundred little grubs. She also told me that Mother was furious with me after hearing what I’d done, but in a few months she calmed down and decided to let the new Queen pass judgement on me. Lithy convinced her that I’d never let any harm come to the hive because of my actions, and that I should be left alone to live how I saw fit. She conceded, and took her place beside her Mother in the chamber of Queens. Before Lamia left to return home, Rosie came up with the idea to send some love to Lithy as congratulations on her becoming a Queen. When I last saw Lamia, she was filled to bursting with love and was literally hobbling her way out after saying goodbye to us. They were faring far better than I could ever hoped, and the hive was in good hooves. I only regret that I forgot to ask what happened to little Chrysalis, before she left.”

Archive’s expression turned to fearful at the mention of the name.

“C-Chrysalis?” she asked shakily.

“Yeah, Lamia’s egg. She kept calling it her little princess, Chrysalis. It was a sad deal, seeing her like that.”

“F-Formica...there’s something you should know.” she said in a serious tone.

Formica looked at her questioningly.

As Archive retold the events of Chrysalis’ actions, what she had done in Canterlot, and most of all what she had done to the Hive. Formica’s features filled with rage and she jumped out of the tub.

“Archive, get out of there and dry yourself! When you’re done, meet me downstairs...also, prepare a disguise! We’re going to the village.”

“B-but I can’t change!” she protested.

“I’m sure you can, now that your horn is fixed. We have a lot of things to do, and very little time to do it.” she said, before storming out of the bathroom, dripping with water.

Archive climbed out of the tub, fired up her horn to change, and as the fires consumed her form, she dried off instantly.

Lantern was sitting by the fire, trying to dry his mane after dunking his head into the water barrel, when Formica flew down the stairs, leaving a wet trail behind herself.

He jerked his head around to the sound of her landing behind him.

“Pull yourself together, ponyboy. We’re going on an adventure.”

“W-what?”

“Archive told me what happened at Canterlot. Our family needs us now, so we’ll go to the village. There’s a pair of ponies there I want you to meet. They’ll help us, so we can help my kind.”

“Weren’t you guys supposed to keep your identities a secret?”

“If it were that serious, you’d be dead, boy.”

“HA! You can’t hurt me! I know about the Ancient Laws.” Lantern shot back.

“It took you way too long to figure it out...but, it’s not like I’m bound by those laws. I’m an outcast by my own choosing. Who’s there to punish me for breaking it?”

“Wow, you’re rotten.”

“Do you think it’s wise to say something like that to a changeling who could either help you, or freeze you in place and bite off your tongue? Hmm? I do wonder how you taste, dear. Wanna give me a kiss?”

Lantern paled a little, and shut his mouth.

“I thought so. Now, if you need to use the toilet before we head out, this would be the perfect time to do so.” laughed Formica.

Lantern’s cheeks colored and he looked everywhere, but at her.

“Actually…” his voice trailed off.

“Are you for real?” Formica said in a deadpan tone.

“Hey! Nature’s calling and there’s only so much I can do not to violate your garden.” he shot back.

Formica’s laugher was uproarish as she pointed down the hallway “Last door on the left.”

Lantern stomped his way across the room, looking indignant as all Tartarus.

Formica watched him go as she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye that spilled by the laughing, “He’s a good pony. Archive’s lucky that she didn’t happen to grab some heartless idiot when she got blasted.” she murmured under her breath while smiling.

She collected her thoughts as she stood in the middle of the room, closed her eyes, and changed.

Author's Note

Wanna bet how long will it take for the next chapter to come out?