Wretched Hive 2: The Drooling Oasis

The Drooling Oasis formed behind the unicorn and the two changelings. Its waters reached out as its frigid claws converged on them.

"Run!" Babylon yelled.

The unicorn Sin galloped away from the rising tide. Foresight stumbled, its hoof caught in the waters. Babylon took a step toward it, only to be stopped by Sin. The unicorn shook his head and beckoned to the south. The pair galloped out of the Oasis's reach.

Foresight couldn't smell them anymore. All was darkness, fear, and despair around it. The changeling felt the cold claws of the Nine crawling up its legs. A song in another tongue eased its pains.

Babylon and Sin stopped and turned toward the music. The waters pulled away from their pursuit and collected in the pool surrounding Foresight. The song intensified as a figure rose behind the changeling. Long, jagged claws wrapped themselves around the blind changeling's throat. The claws themselves seemed to be made of water, as did the figure that wielded them.

The figure looked like a wingless dragon, but much too thin and without teeth. Green water sloshed and spurted inside the eye sockets. Its long, jagged, toothless jaw was left agape. The song, as well as several strands of thick drool, continued to flow from it. The saliva splashed down Foresight's back as the watery maw loomed over its head.

A set of claws pushed the blind changeling's head down. Slowly, the gaunt figure pushed the bug under its hungry waters.

"What the fuck is that thing?!" Babylon screamed as Sin pulled him away.

The Drooling Oasis glared at them. Its eyes spurted in a boil. The drool pulled its jaw more open. With a retch, a high pitched shriek shattered the two survivors' hearing.

Sin flinched, holding his head in pain. With a flash of green, a changeling looking like a taller Foresight appeared by his side. It put its torn hooves to the pony's ears. Sin opened his eyes to the Oasis retching and ringing in his ears. Babylon pulled him along.

The Drooling Oasis watched them gallop away. It melted back into its pool.

The ringing left Sin's ears, replaced by the feeling of something lodged inside them. His hoof reached for his ear, but was caught by the changeling's magic. It shook its head and gestured to its own ear, which sported an earplug. It nodded. Sin smirked and looked back at the silent waters.

Nothing was behind them but dry sand.

Sin gestured to the desert behind them. The changeling removed the pair's earplugs with its magic and returned to the gray pony form.

"Alright," Sin said to him. "What the hell are we dealing with here?"

Babylon looked around in a shocked stupor. His blue eyes checked each horizon. He took a breath and turned back to the pony. "I have no idea anymore. It was the blood of the innocents... I thought." He shook his head. "That lanky snake... claw... thing..." The shaking spread to his entire body. "It's not natural. It's not right."

"The blood of the..." Sin's voice trailed off in the middle of the question. He shook his head. "How is that any more natural?"

"Wretchers turn to blood as they die." Babylon shrugged and looked over his shoulder. "I thought it made sense..."

Sin exhaled. "Look, whether or not we know what this thing is... There's still that place Foresight was wanting to go."

"Where's that?" he asked with a crooked head and smile.

"All I know for sure is that it's south of here," Sin explained.

Babylon nodded. "I think I know where he wanted to go..." He squinted to the south. "It's a very long walk." He smiled and turned to Sin. "Want to fly there?"

"We can do that?" Sin asked in half-disbelief.

A flash of green flame turned Babylon into a bug with spread wings. It flew onto Sin's back and picked him up. The wings buzzed as the pair, now airborne, sped southward.

"You think we'll find something to kill the Oasis with there?" Sin yelled over the wind.

"I have no idea," the changeling chirped. "If you had asked me five minutes ago, I'd've said yes. But now that we know the Drooling Oasis is not a wretcher..." Its voice trailed off and it shook its head in the breeze.

"But aren't wretchers just another form of changelings?" Sin asked. "Shapeshifters. They could have just taken that form!"

Babylon shook its head. "We can't just make a form up! We wear masks based on the faces we see!"

"What if you go blind?"

It smirked. "Then unless you know a good healer... You die."

"Is that what's to the south then? A healer?"

It looked down. "Honestly, Sin, I really doubt that."

Meanwhile...

Ranch and Starch got up from the cold hard floor and looked around. Somehow, they were in a cave made of pure ice. The crystals shined light blue, illuminating the whole room. Somehow there were no entrances or exits.

"Ranch..." Starch said in a shaky voice.

"Yes, dear?" he replied, also feeling chill down his body.

They both stood silent and shaking, assuring one another that it was very cold, yet their breaths were still invisible.

"What happened?" she asked him.

"I don't know, Star..." He shook his head. "We were getting chased, then suddenly there was water..." He groaned as the memories gave him a headache. He lowered his head, only to hear drips of water in the silence.

He opened his eyes to a puddle of blood. The taste soured his mouth. Ranch turned to find Star's horrified face also bleeding from its snout. The two ponies embraced in the cold.

A small section of ice glowed behind them. They turned to find the icy wall slowly melting toward them. The lights flowed with the waves, pooling to either side of the triangular spill. The Drooling Oasis rose from the ice and looked over the shivering ponies.

“What the fuck are you?!” Ranch screamed.

“I quenched your thirst,” a voice whispered from all around them, like a draft from an invisible door. “I saved you from those disgusting changelings. Now I only ask you return the favor...”

“You’re not water!” Starch shouted at the dripping beast. “Water can’t talk!” She choked on the blood in her throat for a moment. “You’re in the water! What are you?!”

The Oasis stretched a liquid claw out to the couple. “I am the Oasis...” the whispers echoed.

“Bullshit!” Ranch said, coughing up some more blood. He wiped a red streak across his snout with a bloodied hoof.

A chuckle echoed through the chamber as the drooling jaw unhinged. It pulled the neck and body with it, creating a pony-sized hole leading inside the Oasis itself. More water flowed out in waves, and the sound of hooves sloshing through muck resonated from within the gullet of the beast. A large mass of bluish ooze rose up from the depths of the maw. As it stepped over the jaw, one of the liquid hooves was lifted up. Dragon claws sprouted from the hoof, unnaturally giving the limb a sharper edge. The claws dug into the mass, and rended the ooze from the creature underneath.

A glistening maw growled underneath, adorned with sharp fangs and a dragon-like eye. Strange wing-like structures replaced the creature’s ears and half of its head was a missing a chunk, as though something had taken a bite out of them. A green fluid, matching the intensity of the eye, bubbled and dripped from a strange gem of the same color, pooling into the scarred skin that was once half of a face. Its limbs also sported holes like bite marks, and even a few scars from either a large fang or a sharp horn. Its neck had several scars, as though something with sharp teeth had tried to rip the throat out. Everything below the front legs was still covered or consisted of the blue ooze. Nine large veins of green pulsated from her chest and swirled down into the floor.

Starch fainted. Ranch felt an icy chill sweep down his blood-clogged his throat.

“What’s the matter?” the creature asked in a feminine voice that defied her appearance. She lifted a hoof, the claws cracking along the bone as she beckoned them to dance around the outside of her hoof. “Scared?”

Ranch felt the blood in his throat grow thicker as his legs lost their strength. He fell to his knees, his mouth so full that he couldn’t move or feel his tongue anymore. His eyes twitched and teared up. The monster shook her head.

Ranch could only watch as his numb body was dragged by the currents toward the dragon's snout. Her icy claws grabbed his cheeks in a futile attempt to stop his panicked gaze. He could feel the blood slide down his throat, freeing his mouth.

"Let go of me, you..." he growled before running out of breath.

"Oh, if only it were so easy to let go..." a misplaced voice whispered from the waters.

"...what do you want from us?!" the pony pleaded.

The dragon leaned forward and turned her scars from him. She snarled at the pony's eyes. "I want you to look at yourself. You monsters always seem to forget what you have become."

"Why is my face numb?" the voice whispered. "It's too dark in here..."

Ranch's senses focused on the glowing ice that kept the room bright for a moment.

"Where are you, Ranch?" the voice echoed.

"Maple?!" he realized. His eyes grew wide and he struggled against the grip of the beast to turn around.

The Oasis giggled before finally relenting. Ranch jolted around only to see blood leaking from the eye sockets of his wife. Her eyes were gone. Blood continued to drop from her nose and mouth as she wandered the ice room in darkness.

"What the fuck did you do to her?!" he screamed at the monster. "What the FUCK did you do?!"

The dragon grin filled up with rows of fangs. "Look at yourself and tell me she's not better off..."

Ranch bit his lip. He glanced down toward his hooves.

They were missing.

“What have you done to me?!”

The beast rolled her eye. “Hardly my fault you ponies are so fragile... Not nearly as chewy as the changelings.”

Ranch turned from the beast, only to find his headless body slumped over. A red trail snaked across the ice to just below him. He felt a lump in his throat, then an icy chill filled his mouth.

The Oasis pulled the head back around with a watery claw. The pony watched the creature gesture with a stray, clenched claw, and the cold blood in his mouth complied with every twitch.

“So slow...” she said. Blood began to drip from his eyes. She shook her hand and both their heads. “So... stupid.”

Ranch heard his wife scream. His bloodied face could barely see the tidal wave coming. The room closed in on all three in a crashing wave. Two glowing lights floated to the top, shaping the way to the surface.

Outside the wretched hive...

Babylon dropped Sin to the ground just inches below his hooves. It landed and took its ponydom back. Ahead of them stood what looked to be a large hole in the ground. Upon closer inspection, it was a deep cavern not unlike a tunnel. It was too dark to see what could await deep inside. They nodded to one another and began their descent into the cavern.

With each step, the sunlight grew dimmer behind them. Then, just as the they arrived in the darkest heart of the caves, a blue light appeared at the far end of the tunnel.

"Who goes there?!" a crackly voice called out from the darkness.

"We mean no harm!" Babylon called out to it.

"What are you doing down here, changeling?" the voice asked.

"We are searching for answers!"

The light moved closer, then blinked. "Now that is something I can help with."

"You know how to kill the Drooling Oasis?!" Sin asked excitedly.

The voice either laughed or tried to cough its lungs out. The light looked Sin in the eye. "You can't kill what's already dead."

"It's a ghost?!" Babylon gasped.

"It's a zombie," Sin affirmed.

"No," the voice said. "It is a lake of blood and souls. There is nothing in those waters from beyond the grave."

"Where does such a thing come from?" Babylon asked it, shaking his head in half-disbelief of his own questions. "How many had to die for such... Such a monster to be born?"

The light dimmed as the blue eye squinted at him. "Now how do you know about the monster in the Oasis?"

"It ate our friend," Sin answered. "Drowned it in its waters."

"Your friend was an 'it?'"

Sin nodded.

"His name was Foresight," Babylon added. "He was a wretcher."

"She killed Foresight?!" the voice gasped.

"'She?'"

A deep chuckle echoed around them. The light, the changeling, and the pony all looked for a source among each other.

It stood behind them. It growled at them. They turned to find two dripping, green eyes sloshing back at them.

"Earplugs!" the changeling yelled, shedding his ponydom for a taste of magic. The green flicker cast four shadows on the wall for a split second.

The silhouettes appeared on the wall again. They stayed in place, painted by the glowing aura around Babylon's horn. Sin stood beside him. Where the light once was, a one-eyed, maimed changeling leaned on a single front leg. Across from him, an eyeless and sopping wet changeling sat in a pool of blood and souls. It was Foresight. Behind him, the apparition's eyes boiled, and constant drool assured he could never be dry. It wrapped a dripping claw around the wet changeling's neck.

"Now isn't that bad luck?" Foresight asked, lighting the tunnel with his own horn. He pulled the earplugs away from Babylon and dropped them into the Oasis. "Trying to stop the rain when you're inside?" The Oasis's claw crooked his head with a light snap and a couple twitches.

"What did you expect us to do?!" Babylon asked him.

The claw realigned his head. "Cover your face, wish it away," Foresight replied without emotion. Its hoof struggled to rise from the blood that flowed through the holes.

"Fuck your stupid nursery rhyme!" Sin screamed at him.

Foresight took a step back. Drool splashed onto his head from above, dampening his mane and sliding down his face. It pooled in the empty eye sockets. The others took a step back, repulsed. Sin smirked.

"Why do you return here, Drooling Oasis?" the maimed changeling asked the figure, trying to overlook the soaked victim underneath. "Haven't you killed enough of us?"

"Redemption..." Foresight said, "water" flowing out of his mouth with each syllable. "We still thirst."

Redemption shook his head trying to hide his fear. "The Perfect One stopped you when you brought his eyes, they'll stop you when you bring the whole thing."

"A wishful perception..." A crooked grin forced the water out the other side of his mouth. "They stopped her. They stopped the Nine." Foresight shook his head, splashing the drool about. Each droplet seemed to vanish into thin air before it could hit the dry ground. "They can't stop me."

The claw around his neck retreated to the waters. The Drooling Oasis bellowed in an almost scared tone. A green light flew past the two changelings and almost hit Sin. It impacted on Foresight's horn, ripping the top half of his eyeless head off. His upper jaw and everything above it flew into the air and turned to dust. The rest of his body collapsed, twitching, into the pit of drool and sank.

Behind them, Babylon and Sin found a shambling monstrosity. Its two heads on twin necks disgusted the changeling prince. Sin smiled as it came closer.

"Wishful perception indeed," the smiling, female head of Advantage said.

"Return them, Drooler!" the male head of Advantage yelled. "Bring us back our friends!"

The Drooling Oasis shrieked at the two-headed changeling queen. The pitch stunned their lessers. The waters rose to form a wave, and the snout guided it forwards. The two horns of Advantage lifted Redemption into the air. The claws flew from the wave.

And crashed down on Babylon and Sin.

The pair disappeared into the drool. Redemption dropped to the ground. Advantage fired upon the receding waters.

The snout and waves vanished. The cave dried. Advantage shambled back into the darkness.

Redemption looked around in fear of the water. Finally he turned around and called out to the darkness. "We just lost three!"

"Better than a few hundred..." the queen called back.

Redemption crooked his head in confusion. He looked back toward the dark, dry floor. "But we only have nine of us left..." he muttered to himself.