Perspective. Perspective is the knife-edge by which sapients carve up reality into digestible chunks, the better to devour the whole. From one perspective, a storm is as old as an atmosphere, the genesis of uncounted interactions and events, each with their own horde of parental actions and reactions. From another, a storm is the child of warm and wet air dancing with and repelling from cold air, spinning new fury across the sky. Yet from another, particles and heat and fate began all long ago. A butterfly's wings do not of themselves call down gales, but instead, form one of many tipping points.

Even if the three entities that considered one another in a twisty room in a twisty series of caverns (caverns much alike to one another in the darkness) had once been butterflies, they would have been the mad creations of restless chaos or perhaps some guiding malice, long since become storms themselves long before their hate reached out to seize Epona. From one perspective, then, this-- call it an alliance, call it a devils' pact-- this group had begun its storm centuries before the Coming of the Windigos, when three foul polymorphic entities, one that devoured flesh, one that consumed minds, and one that gnawed on the spirit, came together in congress, seeking to overthrow the reign of the alicorns.

From another, it began when, in the absence of those alicorns, one of the trio turned against the others, only to be struck down by Shi Who Cleaves The Labyrinth, brother-sister to that one's chosen pawn. Maze the Soultrapper had claimed the body of an overambitious sage of the minotaur kindred and fused it with the sage's poor goat assistants. Shi Who Cleaves, as they say, had not been amused.

Terrible choices had followed; acting at hir sibling's fading command, Shi Who Cleaves tore the body bit by bit, carving half of the body claimed by once-proud Maze from hirself, and hence turning the mercurial shifter of spirits into a wrecked and ruined form. Shi Who Cleaves had even torn one of hir brother-sister's horns from atop the body that still imprisoned Maze and spirited it away to become a treasure of the Minoan Royal family.

Shi Who Cleaves' lost sibling may have been overambitious, but shi knew her craft and atoned for hir error. Hir willing sacrifice trapped Maze within hir body, forcing it to define as shi, power restricted, bound by the incompletion wrought by Shi Who Cleaves. No longer able to shift from form to form or body to body, shi was now only able to corrupt and influence, able to consume only those who willingly surrendered to hir. What once could be stolen now had to be bargained for.

The nine foot eight, half-corpulent, half-cadaverous minogoat body-- minotaur's horn on a goat's head, shaggy goat's legs-- well, one leg and a magical prostheses, now-- and tail beneath a bulbous and shredded parody of a minotaur's strong torso, one huge minotaur's arm, and the tattered remnant of a goat's-- was all that Maze could master, now, but there are always those willing to part with some aspect of their being in exchange for power. Many are those who had thought they could evade the one, hateful eye and single, shredded ear of Maze, but none save Shi Who Cleaves' forgotten sibling have ever escaped the Maze's solitary grasp in the twelve centuries since Maze's failed betrayal. So long as shi remained unwhole, Maze could not break the possession by any means save death, which would force Maze to remain too long from the reins of power.

I don't even remember hir name. Maze didn't regret that; it was merely persistently irksome. Yet more irksome was the question of why, sitting here and staring at hir not quite enemies, definitely not neutral and certainly not allies… associates, that long-off simpletaur came to mind. Maze hadn't thought of hir former host in centuries, and wondered what called hir to mind now. My hated enemy, perhaps, but the fool? Why? Shi Who Cleaves' forgotten sib remained in Maze's body, but cursedly safe from Maze's touch in some strange, meditative cyst of the spirit. None else had escaped Maze's undying despise.

None save Maze's erstwhile allies, who each took a further element of Maze's form, and hid them within strange fastnesses. Maze hated them almost more than Maze hated the slowly recovering alicorns or the memory of Shi Who Cleaves, for they treated Maze as a prize and object to be won; over the centuries, each had made a point of collecting Maze's lost organs, the better to steal Maze's influence and strengthen themselves, of course. Neither could be so foalish as to believe that Maze would not turn on them again if restored, after all.

Cold was Chrysalis, the mind-eater, the heart-stealer. Though her genesis may-- or may not, for who could tell with the shapeshifter Queen?-- have been in the tropical woodlands, and she was perhaps (or perhaps not) once imprisoned within a volcano's heart, Chrysalis' demeanor was as frozen as the tundra she had claimed from the renegade Sombra, her renewed Hive to build. Maze found some satisfaction in every crack in Chrystalis' frosty expression, her faint moues of disgust at Maze, her glares of resentment at the third of their triplicate force for dark doings.

Maze deeply resented the dark power and strength of Chrysalis' seeming-true form-- though it might be said that Maze was resentment, loathing, and envy incarnate-- for had not Chrysalis failed as Maze had? Had she not attempted to seize a grand battery of power, a heart grand enough to be matched to that of the Goddess of Love, and been cast down, burnt by the very fuel she wished to consume? But of all ironies, while Chrysalis' greatest generals had turned against her and split the main body of Changelings from Chrysalis' grasp, Chrysalis herself, and those changelings loyal to her in their northern refuge, were more whole than before the wedding.

Somewhere along the line, Chrysalis' insectoid form has gained sufficient nourishment to fill in the shapeshifter's self-cannibalistic hollows and worse, thought Maze, not only for herself, but in those foalish enough to follow her! How grasped Chrysalis some measure of victory where I, Maze, mastress of spirits, am imprisoned within one of my own Mutates! Maze glowered at Chrysalis, who simply smirked, showing the slicing fangs of her dark muzzle.

Chrysalis was tall and angular, four inches taller than Celestia herself, and if she had none of the battle-goddess mass of Celestia, her rapier-like form held incredible tensile strength. The holes that had once pockmarked her form were gone now, but the thorny, gnarled horn was unchanged, far above her crown-antennae. Predator slits and hunter's green told the true story of Chrysalis' soul through her eyes; beneath, it was confirmed by her sharp muzzle and those gleaming, savage-edged teeth bright against the pitch black of Chrysalis' hide.

Chrysalis' breasts were at odds with her athletic form. The immense X-cups, if not Celestia's rival, nonetheless demonstrated exactly how Chrysalis fed the most honored of her subjects, and her gorgeously broad hips made it quite clear that Chrysalis had no difficulties laying however many eggs as she desired and had the subjects to tend to her lusts. She was beautiful, the dark queen, in her deadly majesty, and many of those that had seen that majesty outside of her own were quite dead indeed.

Chrysalis sits, Maze felt, in quite unwarranted judgment over me! How dare the failed invader, a coward who had fled from more than one confrontation with the seat of holy power on Epona, sit there, glittering, iridescent wings folded against her back, her fingers steepled together oh so loftily, one curvaceous leg crossed over the other as though she had not a care among this world and those next! Maze would snarl, but… Chrysalis had influence over several quite sensitive parts of Maze's missing form, and the pain Chrysalis could inflict if displeased had nothing phantom about it.

Clad in battle armor-- only Maze went naked, in loathing for the body shi was trapped in-- Chrysalis glittered, the light not trapped in the dark green material reflecting off the strange hues of her carapace. Eventually, Maze noticed, Chrysalis' attention shifted from Maze completely, to the third of their little p- gathering. Maze half-heartedly glared at the third, he who had gathered them, He who had always been the weakest of our trio, and yet, now, the master of the Diseased, unscathed, was mightiest of them in form, influence, and mystical might. Yet more for me to despise. More for me to resent. More for me to hunger to consume… in time.

Incubation had called the three not quite allies together, here, where they had once commingled their powers to attempt to combine and survive against the sweeping judgment of the vengeful alicorns. Incubation of the Diseased, the Taker of Flesh. Maze schooled hir ruined expression when looking at the draconoid form that waited silently; no matter what the potential rewards, this was interminable! You called the meeting, Taker! Begin it!

The King of All Infection, however, had patience, and Maze understood it; a power play. An exertion of the fact that Incubation's forces had grown exponentially without the crippling split of Chrysalis' hives. Closer to Maze’s roiling heart, of the fact that Incubation's form was not merely complete and whole, but should the fifteen foot tall red-scaled humanoid dragon split open and vomit forth compressed dimensions to reveal his quadrupedal "true" shape, it would outmass even Dragon Lord Emeritus Torch.

Maze didn't know what foal-- or rather, foalish dragon-- had bargained away their body to be Incubation's host, and didn't care. As Incubation was fond, the Taker of Flesh had grown his new body to be a huge, burly specimen of apparent perfect health, a barrel-ish torso under carefully fitted adamantine armor, long, sturdy arms; no signs of decadent shaping or attention to mere beauty-- simply power. Incubation's body included a subtle defilement to natural biology, though, as was the Taker's calling card-- not only had the host's body been enlarged to a greater size than that of any male dragon, he had been grown to exceed that of any female dragon in memory. The Taker had so much Flesh to work with, after all. Long red wings were plastered against the Taker's back, huge, stocky legs spread casually in his enlarged seat, his tail wrapped around the base of the not-quite throne.

Though Maze, of course, hated the Taker, shi had to admit that Incubation played his cards perfectly, waiting until just slightly before Chrysalis' cool patience would snap hot and the Changeling Queen depart. Incubation wouldn't have called them all, nor especially called them here, if he wasn't trying to get something from their old agreements. Just as Chrysalis' cold face became too brittle with anger, Incubation spoke, his voice low but cultured, "Greetings, my old allies. I appreciate you taking the time to join me here. I have a measure of opportunity that I wish to discuss which may impact all of our interests."

Maze rolled hir one eye as discreetly as shi could. Sometimes, I wonder which came first, Incubation's irksome tendency to pad basic communication with meaningless phrases, or the forerunners of modern buzzwords. Maze took credit when the gullible came to hir looking for some edge in the corporate or bureaucratic world, but, frankly, given the name, shi actually suspected Chrysalis was at fault. Maze simply made the affirmative, dour but respectful noises when Incubation summed up hir depleted state. No, you mongrel spawn of the common cold and a skin rash, Maze thought, I haven't recovered as fast as you've gained with your damnable slow path. We both know I'm at your mercy -- for now. But I'll remember moments like these.

"And of course, Chrysalis, while I applaud the --" Incubation was cut off as Chrysalis snorted

"Incubation," Chrysalis sneered, sounding bored. "If I wanted to have someone try to flail about and find out how big mine was, I'd go to Hoofendale's and soak up some 'love'. I'm here because you you said you had something relevant for me."

"My apologies, Chrysalis," Incubation said, frowning slightly. Corrupter of the Body or not, in a social setting, the Corrupter of the Mind always seemed to unsettle him, Maze thought with vicious satisfaction. The draconic archdemon switched tracks back to smoothness and said, "In fact, that is first thing I'd like to do-- apologize, in fact." Maze frowned, as did Chrysalis; Incubation never gave real apologies, and that sounded sincere.

"You see," Incubation continued, "While I'd long counselled against attacking Equestria directly until we could be sure of an overwhelming sweep, the recent decade has given me grave cause for concern. The alicorns are being reborn. Children are being born to them-- alicorn children! And so it is that I wish to re-form the central thrust of our alliance, and stab for their lands and their hearts before it is too late."

Maze frowned again. "I see no reason to expend any of my strength beyond that you… requested.. from me as our terms," shi said resentfully.

Incubation gave Maze a frankly patronizing, dismissive look. "In a moment, dear Maze. In a moment. To be honest, at first, this concerns dear Chrysalis at the moment."

Chrysalis' fangs twitched slightly, but she merely said, "I've found easier ways to deal with any fallout from my setbacks. As you said whenI asked, why should I stick my fist into the badgers' den?"

Maze squirmed impatiently. Hatefully. Either could inflict pain casually upon hir. Though they both know I'll risk destruction and the reformation of millennia if they push me too far, Maze thought, but I can't afford to risk that right now. So each time we meet, I must wait for them to come to it-- to what I know they must want from me. To risk, as it were, giving me.

"Because together, Chrysalis, we can assist dear Maze in some regeneration so shi might be of some use to us both," Incubation said, as Maze thought-- knew it-- and then Incubation continued, "and I have... something... that might interest you concerning those rebellious southern Hives."

Chrysalis' frosty mask almost did slip. Maze had never liked this part of the plan, and felt vindicated-- if annoyed. With her emotions not running high, her soul not drunk on the absurd power provided by Shining Armor and the other, less active sources surrounding Cadance, Incubation had clearly misjudged Chrysalis' tolerance-- which meant that Maze had to sit through the extremely boring version of a screaming match held between a shapeshifting emotion eater and what amounted to a sapient super-disease. It was, in short, a very, very boring pissing match.

Sometime later, when the barbs had been launched and the stings ceased, Incubation finally grumpily said, "To be blunt, Chrysalis, I have a plan already in order. I would have hoped, for vengeance upon Canterlot and the Badlands Hives alike, you'd be interested in helping, but your help -- and your acquiescence to using Maze-- aside, I will be going forward." Maze suppressed another mental snarl. The politeness drifts off. Use me? Use me? I'll remember every moment of this, I will.

"Those impertinent children… what use could you and Maze possibly be to me in dealing with them?" Chrysalis asked, suspiciously, and her slitted eyes narrowed. "More importantly, what do you want, and what do you want it for? I'm not going into this blind," Chrysalis said bluntly. You did once, Maze thought with vicious satisfaction at an old victory. And I was able to feast so beautifully on the last of your poor windigos, and all but a few sad remnants of your sirens, Maze gloated silently, promising to hirself, I'll have the rest as well one day.

"And I am not revealing more than a minimum before you commit and oathbind, Chrysalis! I don't know where you're getting your love these days," snarled Incubation, before inhaling, nostrils flaring smoke. Taking a moment to regain some self control, Incubation breathed in and out for a few moments before saying, "I have some interesting opportunities to damage the Mode Apple Line," he admitted cautiously. "Possibly to even turn it to our own use. Now, I understand that you have some way to get past the defenses…"

"Obviously," said Chrysalis, smug that she'd broken Incubation's smoothness once again, "Since two of my infiltrators had to pull one of your little probing expeditions out of the fire last month… or risk drawing undue attention, admittedly."

Incubation glared at Chrysalis, "Which would be quite useful, especially if you were to contribute a larger amount of the Nightblood to Maze's experiments. Since if this is to work, we need to empower forces that are already within Equestrian territory."

Maze stiffened. My experiments! I definitely don't want Chrysalis watching those too closely-- or the retrieval of the Nightblood from the ruins that I've been permitted limited access to in the first place...

Chrysalis hissed softly. "Help Maze regenerate? Permit more drilling for Nightblood? You had better have some really fascinating offer to make here, Incubation. I don't see a lot of reason to even consider flinging more power into the little eunuch's path."

Maze banged hir fist on the table, and suddenly let out a bleating scream as Chrysalis casually invoked her power around the hidden portion of Maze's anatomy, leaving Maze crippled with pain. Other than that, Chrysalis merely stared, waiting, at Incubation.

"While I will agree it's hardly ideal," Incubation said quietly, to Maze's disgust, "Maze's hidden Mutates are in some excellent places to assist. And if hir experiments continue to show fruit, we could be looking at the key to counter alicorn influence, without having to invest our own energies as heavily. They could even be our own apotheotic epiphanies!"

"If my reports from your labs are still as honest as I'm owed," Chrysalis said with contempt, turning to Maze, "Don't your best brews kill something like three in four who imbibe?"

Maze shrugged, but answered respectfully, "I'm not the one proposing to use them on myself."

Chrysalis snorted. "Then unless you're prepared to give more information…"

Maze snarled, "Never! I'll destroy the parts of my mind first, and my servants are prepared to die before surrendering the recipes-- whether they want to or or not!"

Chrysalis shrugged, the ploy clearly nothing more than a stab in the dark, and turned back to Incubation. "So, if you're not willing to give me the knowledge I want, and the eunuch won't surrender more of hir results," Chrysalis emphasized the word eunuch, daring Maze to do anything. Maze didn't dare. After a moment's pause, Chrysalis shrugged. "So, unless you have something more juicy, I'm afraid I'll be needing to return to my hive, and return this spot to the void, as per our agreement."

Incubation inclined his long head and held up his hands soothingly. "I know that at least some of your resources are tied up… dealing, with the Southern Hives," he said. "And at the very least, know that our operations will almost certainly cause a hammerstrike against them. I can't speak for its effectiveness, but it should reduce some of the rebel forces there.

Maze kept hir face as still as possible. That should have been the trick, pulling Chrysalis in so that Incubation and Maze could use her and distract her from other, more important operations. However, all Chrysalis was doing was simply staring at Incubation wordlessly. What are we missing?

"That earns you a lack of my … nosiness, at best," Chrysalis eventually said, a chilly sneer on her dark face. "You still haven't actually shown me the love."

Incubation managed not to show his shock, this time. Maze was still stunned. Why is Chrysalis so unconcerned with the southern Hives? Is the entire maneuver at risk? Eventually, Incubation said, grudgingly, "There are some … relics… of the kind we're all interested in. I would have hoped you'd see the mutual interest in breaking the new alicorn herd, and Equestria, but I suppose I might let you have an extra share," he ventured.

"How about this, instead." Chrysalis sounded amused. Maze's blood chilled. "You and I combine our control over Maze there, and make hir tear hirself to pieces, and just extract the secrets from hir brain tissue?"

Maze's eye and eyesocket widened, and shi prepared to trigger hir emergency release spells, and hoped to simply dump the whole place into their sterilizing void-- all could die together.

"Chrysalis, please," said Incubation, "I rather think we shouldn't waste our energies fighting against each other like that. I'd rather have thought you'd be more grateful that we will be dealing with your rebels."

Chrysalis snorted lightly, and rose to her full height. "I already have my plans, thank you; you have no understanding. Still…" She stopped on the edge of leaving, and said, "The offers remain open. If you wish to provide more knowledge, I might even provide more Nightblood. And…" Chrysalis' eyes became distant, as though reviewing a plan in her head.

Incubation waited, not looking at Maze; Maze, for hir part, did not release hir hold on the emergency spells. Offer open, indeed. And we don't need your 'help', wench! We have plans of our own.

Finally, Chrysalis said, "And your plans do not, yet, seem immediately opposed to mine. I will extend the usual rules of cooperation further, to the south. Call upon me for specifics, rather than general agreements otherwise."

Chrysalis swept out, forcing Maze and Incubation to exit by their own, separate routes. They came out, however, within the same fortress. "I could have told you it wouldn't work," snarled Maze. "She's as stingy with the Nightblood as ever."

"Unless you wish to feel the same pain she whipped you with again, Maze, I'll thank you to keep an even tongue in - oh, right, you can't. A little torn, isn't it?" Incubation replied.

The two glared at each other; but they could not afford fighting. Not at this juncture. Eventually, Incubation sighed and shook his head. "My apologies. I had hoped…"

Maze nodded gruffly and said, "The extraction will proceed in stealth anyway." Shi shrugged. "She might have noticed anyway, if we'd widened our grasp enough. And at least she won't stand in the way."

Incubation nodded. "Our agreement stands. The Flesh for my own, the Spirit for you. Rend the minds, and let Chrysalis starve," he sneered.

Maze bowed and nodded, hate welling within. I will remember, Maze thought. The little insults and the large alike. As for the kindnesses… well. I am no pony, to dwell upon such weakness.

Hive Suseh'lus; the Hive Royal, once the greatest and most hidden of Chrysalis' fallbacks, now, the center of the Loyalist faction, was ever alert. The Queen proved the truth of her New Way time and time again, but there were always those who lacked the discipline, the will, and the ambition to become greater, and in these dark days of rebellion, foals might hope to squirrel a thought from the Hive Mind's enforcement synapsi. Winglord Coyote-Five-Five-Six-Hundred bowed before his returned Queen. The guardian of her bedchamber, he had a special reason to enjoy the new regime; after all, he wasn't slated to become her dinner after her latest round of egg-laying. "How may the Hive serve, my Queen?" he asked.

"Those foals are up to something, Five-Five," Chrysalis said, frowning. "Send word to my spouses. There will be trouble in the South. We may have to confront certain factions ahead of schedule"

Five-Five bowed and nodded. "I see, your majesty," he said, and added his own psychic focus to the queen's, enabling her to send the messenger drones all the swifter. "At last, we will reveal our new truth to the Equestrians. At last, we will have our revenge."

Chrysalis gave a feral smile. "You have been well prepared for this, my general. They will be no match for my legions this time."

Author's Note

Yes, that's Garble's body. No, he's vacated the premises, he won't be getting it back. It wasn't my original intention at the time, but Incubation, who's basically a sapient disease with nodal subentities (his demons are infectious instances of him), is more or less a villainous Alex Mercer (I don't acknowledge prototype 2)