Red and Black 2

The rest of the group stood before a vast, smouldering, recently-opened section of the hive that was the size of a house. Though the wreckage wafted with the smell of molten magma and burnt moss, that did little to snag the attention of the eleven who were already gathered at its very edge. In the badlands beyond, several retreating forms shrank until they were but specks in the distance. Faint flashes of what looked to be light flickered here and there among the specks, but they were far enough away that nobody could effectively discern their colors or exact placement.

Foxfire was scowling at the retreating forms. She squinted her eyes slightly as a heavy gust blew in through the opening, lifting her mane to drag it past her withers and causing her tail to flow ominously behind her in a way that gave the impression of being caught in fierce rapids. Everyone else experienced this as well, but they ignored it since it was effectively a strong breeze that didn't do them any harm.

A minute or so ticked by, and that was just long enough for the forms and lights in the distance to disappear entirely. "This… this is something the fucking Brigade would pull…" Foxfire muttered, narrowed eyes catching the light of the moon in such a way they seemed to be glowing. "Looks like I'll have to have a long talk with Lance later…"

"Why though? It’s not like Equestria wants a full blown war against the changelings,” Distrance asked.

Foxfire turned to Distrance and sighed, her scowl only deepening. "That's the thing. The Brigade has a tendency to hit hard and then run for the hills, and as they run the unicorns and changelings—yes, changelings—in their ranks would signal that they were there with illumination spells. But only once they got miles away, just enough so we could still see them as we've done tonight," she replied. "So if the bloody Brigade did this…"

Her horn glowed, and immediately her magic washed over the massive hole that was punched into the hive. Seconds passed, and three large, white and long threads of energy revealed themselves and danced all around the group. Foxfire's scowl deepened to the point she seemed to contemplate whether or not to bare her fangs as she studied these threads. The threads then changed color after another few seconds.

Golden, forest green, and sky blue wisps of energy that glowed with raw power gently wafted past Rekka and weaved around Trigger and Distrance. They turned to Foxfire in unison, a feeling of dread sinking in as she scanned the threads and, possibly, what their presence meant. Soon the others did so as well. "This has their signature written all over it," Foxfire murmured, shaking her head. "No doubt about it. The Brigade was just right here."

Foxfire dispelled her magic, and the threads and her aura vanished within the span of a second. She turned her attention to the badlands again, more specifically where the distant forms had vanished. "Oh, Lance, Celestia will have her horn lodged up your ass sideways when she finds out about this…" she promised darkly. She turned to the tunnel when hooves echoed from within, and she closed her eyes as a form bumbled to her, illuminated by the light of the moon.

“What the fuck happened?!" Patient shouted as he finally came across the scene.

Foxfire's eyes snapped open, sending chills down Patient's spine as he saw they began glowing. "The Valkyrie Brigade decided to pay us a visit. This," she started, and paused to use her tail to gesture to the wreckage. Her tone was already ominous, but she bared her teeth before finishing in a low hiss, "is their calling card."

"This is… insane. Lemme check something," Ember piped up, her third eye and horn aglow. A red-tinted magic washed over the area, revealing the dancing threads of green, yellow, and blue once again. She assumed a dour frown and dispelled her magic in seconds, all three eyes widening. "It… couldn't be…" she murmured, color all but draining from her face.

"It is," Foxfire stated tersely, her ears folding back. "We're in very deep shit if we've pissed off the Brigade." She noticed Patient giving her the thousand-yard stare and decided to elaborate, "Think of Asgard's nuking, multiply it by three, and add in a tank and airships. And reformed and non-reformed changelings to drain you to a skeletally thin state, and gryphons to pick your bones clean. That's the Brigade in a nutshell."

Patient paled considerably as he let Foxfire's utterance sink in. "Y-you're…"

Foxfire cut him off, "I met them in the flesh. I've seen the damage they can do when I accompanied them on a previous mission. They didn't just simply mop the deck with red and black alicorns who infested a good chunk of Thaiwing a month ago; they wiped several towns from the map in the span of a few hours. The Brigade is an army in itself, separate from that of Celestia's, Griffonstone's, Thorax's, and anything and everything in between. They are their own state given legs. And if an entire continent needs nuking, then so be it, they will get that shit done."

“But… why? Why just out of the blue attack a neutral party?” Patient shook his head in confusion.

"I have no idea, honestly. Perhaps they did not get word that we were here, and all alicorns in the area were already dispensed with. There are setbacks to being separate from all other armies, after all," Foxfire replied, her tone grim and her eyes all but alight with an unnatural golden blaze. Her head shook, and the glow trailed behind her eyes as they moved, only further casting her face in a demonic light. "But regardless, we're in some hot water. We may need to lay low for a few days, if only to see if they decide to come back and finish the job."

“Until then, let’s send for a messenger to Canterlot to ask what the fuck happened,” Patient replied with a shudder.

Foxfire shook her head again, and she lifted and subsequently waved her hoof dismissively on top of that. "There's the possibility that the Brigade wasn't responsible, but I've seen the signs of their very recent passing. If we send word now, they'll definitely finish us off and claim collateral damage," she stated. "It is better to wait." She leaned in closer, until she was eye to eye with Patient. "Besides, there might be more wounded as a result of this attack, and us dallying won't get them fixed faster."

Her words sparked something within Patient, and his face hardened. He wanted to open his mouth to argue, yet he couldn't deny that Foxfire had a point. And if the Brigade truly was as she said they were, then there'd be no point in confronting them; energy was best spent doing something else in that case.

Finally, he opened his mouth and spoke, "Let's split up and gather any wounded."

Everyone nodded in agreement and split up into their usual teams, with the Surgeons plodding about the ruined room one way and the Task Force through another. Foxfire surveyed the room herself, taking note of any other details that littered the scene. Aside from debris and magic traces and the smell of molten rock, she caught nothing of note. Her ears perked as a faint sound echoed from the tunnel, sounding like a heavy set of hooves that shook the room.

"Well, someone's not being particularly subtle…" Foxfire snarked, and she began trotting back into the hive to investigate the noise.

*********

Charlotte sat on her haunches, watching as various entrances and exits opened and closed around her at an irregular pace. Every now and again she'd glance back to Jonathan, but soon returned to wall-gazing whenever he gave so much as a twitch of an ear. Time was lost to her; as far as she was concerned it may as well ceased existing altogether. There was no way to keep definitive track, especially as the only holes leading outside showed the ground rather than the sky, even if she poked her muzzle into them to glance outward.

Her tail swished, the hairs dragging against the floor and tangling into each other as it moved. The place was quiet, although every few minutes she could've sworn she heard a faint buzzing or a clip-clop of hooves. Absently, she wondered if she had begun hallucinating. "At least it's… pleasant," she murmured aloud. Her stomach gurgled to remind her that she needed food, and she sighed in response.

"... trout face…" Jonathan murmured, his utterance causing Charlotte to turn to him.

"Trout face? What's he going on about?" Charlotte thought, before it registered that her companion had spoken. She jolted into a standing position in an instant, and trotted to him on shaky legs that didn't want to cooperate. "Wait, does that mean…" As soon as she reached him she knelt down on her front knees so she was more or less at his level. Nudging him with her nose caused him to shift a leg and he grumbled something unintelligible.

"Good to know he's still in the realm of the living. At least I'm not alone…" Charlotte murmured, more in relief than resignation. She rose up again and sighed, and resumed her bout of wall-gazing. "God… this is so monotonous. I swear, if Jonathan doesn't wake up soon, I might go stir-crazy…"

Charlotte stood there, transfixed by the ever-shifting form of the very structure around her. "How does this place operate? The floor definitely feels like stone, but… stone shouldn't have these sort of shifting properties, erosion by water aside…" Then a hole opened up in the floor, making her grimace as it gave a distinct growl. "Okay, that is beyond bizarre. Stone shouldn't make such a noise either..."

The yawning hole didn't close for thirty minutes on end. Charlotte stared at it during that time, donning a frown as it merely kept growling. The sound echoed in a way it seemed to come from everywhere at once, and part of her wanted to peer down to see what could have caused it to behave as it did.

With a huff, she ambled over and did just that, her horn flaring to life with a soft light as she did so. She released a small ball of light from her horn and it settled daintily onto the floor beneath; what she saw made her gasp and jump back.

More of those same builder worms squirmed about, writhing tirelessly as they set about moving from place to place, all fat with their paper mache and slimy, viscous paste. At least one noticed the hole and tried to crawl up it, but could not gain an iota of traction and simply kept falling. "Tell me one of those things didn't open up a passageway…" she grumbled in her head, grimacing as she heard the worm keep on trying and failing to get through the hole.

From behind her, she could hear the faintest of hoofsteps; perhaps Jonathan had finally woken up and tried to stand for once.

She turned around and froze in place, as time seemed to slow to a crawl around her. Instead of her friend getting up, there was a blood-red alicorn stallion with an oil black mane staring at her, wings fanned wide to show off unusual veined and eyeball patterns that were more likely to occur on the wings of a butterfly. One wing could have easily engulfed her whole; the things were so massive she was wondering how the hell the pony could even stand with them as rigid to attention as they were.

Behind the alicorn's hooves another hole started closing. Her mind began whirring, making demands to somehow subdue the alicorn, take Jonathan, and run for the nearest hillside she could find. Her body, however, failed to respond. She was paralyzed in a staring contest with the ugliest peacock of a pony she'd ever seen, but she noticed he seemed locked into place as well.

As time finally seemed to resume its normal course, Charlotte scowled deeply, and her horn flared to life in a white light. The alicorn, however, flapped his wings and took to the air so fast and sharply her eyes couldn't keep up. A glow, as black as the stone surrounding her, grasped her tail and lifted her up before flinging her bodily into a wall.

She found herself half-buried in a hole that opened up at that exact moment, her rear legs defenseless and her front quarters only hanging onto the edge thanks to cracked hooves. "Sure beats landing face-first in stone," she inwardly hissed. She felt another tugging sensation on her tail, and her eyes widened in alarm before she was forcibly yanked out and thrown to the floor.

She scrambled upright the instant she landed and turned to look up, finding the alicorn leering down at her with a predatory smirk and an unnatural aura wafting around his horn. "What do you want?!" she hissed.

The alicorn's smile widened. "Oh, just a little payback for killing my fuckbuddies," he murmured, his voice chillingly low. "You know… you're awfully weak. As a mare ought to be," he added as an aside.

Charlotte's eyes narrowed again, and her horn flared brightly before her magic took on a crimson hue. Fire erupted around her and hurled itself at the alicorn, forming into the shape of a wicked drake before it reached him. He attacked it with dark-colored magic, trying to make it dissipate, yet all it did was slow the roiling flames down slightly. Left with no choice, he flew into another opened hole and lead the drake into it.

Charlotte dispelled the drake before it could finish crawling in, however. Her eyes darted about, and her ears swiveled, trying to gauge where the alicorn would pop in next from. But the holes shifted, yawning and closing as they pleased. They definitely didn't give her so much as a fleeting glimpse of the pony who was now eluding her.

She whirled around, yet no trace of the alicorn turned up. "Gah! Cheeky bastard! There's no way I can track him in the walls!"

Suddenly, Charlotte heard the familiar sound of the floor opening up behind her and she was immediately dragged in by a pair of crimson hooves before she could react. She fell onto a pile of writhing worms, which slithered off and groaned with distress from the impact. She got up onto unsteady hooves within moments, and her stomach lurched. The floor was sticky and even more damp than the room above her; there was only a quarter of the floor to ceiling height than there was in the room upstairs, much like a crawl space.

And that damned alicorn was nowhere in sight. She conjured another ball of light, yet all she could see were the worms, their produce, and half-eaten moss that didn't glow. "Well, now I know how the worms make their vomit," she mentally groaned before twisting around, bringing the ball of light with her.

Still no sign of the alicorn. There were more worms to greet her. "Lovely, a game of cat and mouse," she inwardly snarked.

From her left came a swift buck which sent her into the wall. She screamed as the breath from her lungs was knocked clean out, only further amplified by the sound of bone breaking. She shifted herself from the wall the instant she stilled, gasping and coughing for air as pain flared through her right shoulder. Her right foreleg then gave out, and she slumped to the floor, twisting her head to where the attack had come from.

Using magic to guide her ball of light to the location, however, yielded nothing more than another yawning hole that was fast closing. "Fantastic," she hissed. She rose to stand again, being sure to lift her right foreleg to avoid putting pressure on it. The pain flaring through it and the distinct feeling of a bone shifting in a way it should not have been able to told her all she needed to know.

One of the worms came up to her with a gurgle that sounded like a purr, and it rubbed itself against her left back leg soothingly, though that only jostled her balance a bit and she tilted to the wall in response. She found herself gritting her teeth as she re-steadied herself. "Can't really stand right now, I'll pet you later," she hissed.

A dark halo of magic yanked the worm away into the darkness as another set of hooves bucked at her, barely missing and connecting with the wall next to her head. Her retaliation was instantaneous; she thrust the ball of light onto her adversary and contorted it with her magic to produce a gigantic ball of crackling lightning that engulfed the alicorn. He bucked and screamed, yet she shoved him away as jolts of lightning coursed through his body.

The battle was over in that instant, yet his torment didn't end. It extended for several minutes, during which the caverns were filled with his piercingly loud, anguished cries. Worms gathered around, yet did not get close enough to contact the lightning ball, seemingly watching intently as the smell of burning flesh and feathers filled the already-musty air.

Once the alicorn had breathed his last breath and the ball of lightning faded into a small, compacted form, the cavern’s worms descended upon him. Charlotte watched as they started ripping into his flesh with powerful jaws. The sickening crunch of bones and the gory tears of blackened viscera filled her ears, yet she could not look away no matter how much she'd wanted to.

One of the worms, a particularly fat one whose stomach sloshed about with fresh gore, slithered up to her, lifting its upper half into the air and looking into her eyes with its own beady ones. “He shall be recycled for the good of the hive,” it somehow spoke, its voice horrifyingly deep and filled with mucous.

After speaking, the worm slithered quickly back into the feeding frenzy, gnawing at the alicorn’s now severed head. Only when nothing more than a splatter of blood remained did Charlotte pale considerably. "Does that mean… the casts are made of…" Her musings halted and her stomach lurched as another set of hooves echoed into the space, followed by a bright blue will-o'-wisp that sailed right past her.

“Yes,” was her only response; the voice was feminine, but it had not been her own. Charlotte turned to the will-o'-wisp to find Foxfire staring at her with the ball of flame at her side. "By the way, you did a very good job of frying that alicorn." Foxfire punctuated that by sitting on her haunches, lifting her front hooves, and slowly clapping them with an impressed gleam in her eyes. "Shall I get you back up to your friend now?"

Charlotte could only hastily nod. Without any warning, Foxfire lifted her in her magic and started trotting through the cavern with her in tow. She moved quickly, only stopping as another yawning hole opened up, and that was to send Charlotte through it into the floor above before Foxfire followed her.

The two found themselves in the room Jonathan was left in. "Stay put. I'll get the nurse," Foxfire stated, and without another word she retreated into another freshly-opened hole. Charlotte sat there and stared at the hole Foxfire went into, flabbergasted as her brain caught up to the fact that a red and black fox… changeling… thing had just helped her out.

"A-a friendly red-and-black… thing?" Charlotte simply could not believe what had just happened. Her brain simply refused to process the notion. "That's it, I need some hard cider. I need hard cider at this point. When I get to Canterlot I am getting smashed off my ass. Maybe that nurse can give me some hard cider..."

Another sound of shuffling hooves snapped her out of her reverie, and Charlotte instantly turned to the only other possible source of the noise. She shuffled up on her three good legs and hobbled over awkwardly, a big grin stretching across her face as Jonathan finally came to. "My head… I swear I won't touch the martini glasses ever again…" he grumbled as he lurched onto his hooves.

"You, uh… didn't touch the martini glasses…" Charlotte began, her grin faltering as Jonathan looked at her. A puzzled frown spread on his face when he took in how she held up her right leg.

"You look like you crawled right out of hell…" Jonathan began, before he stopped as everything rushed back to him with perfect clarity. He fell to his haunches, and paled when he looked at the right leg again. "What happened?"

"I… I was ambushed while you were out. Th-the alicorn who did this," Charlotte paused, shifting her right leg for emphasis and wincing as pain shot through protesting nerves, "well… he got fried."

Jonathan nodded and folded his forelegs to lay down. Charlotte cantered closer to stand at his side before following suit. Then he registered that his wings were still bound, and he craned his neck to find their new makeshift casts, and found himself getting a stronger stench of vomit and something else he couldn't pinpoint. "Wha…"

"We got reinforcements, and one of them's a nurse. He did that to your wings," Charlotte stated, her stomach lurching again. "I've a feeling he's gonna do the same to my leg… when he gets here." She lowered her head to nestle it in her good foreleg. "You're going to be responsible for me when we get back to Canterlot," she added, closing her eyes.

Jonathan turned to her with both brows raised. "What are you rattling off about now?" he asked, concern in his tone.

"I'm getting hard cider. Exceptionally hard cider. The hardest I can get my hooves on," Charlotte replied, her tone equal parts angered and exasperated. That caused Jonathan to pale considerably, and all he could do was gape at her like she'd gone mad.

Both turned to the furthest wall as the sound of several hooves galloping echoed into the room. The first to enter was Foxfire again, this time accompanied by Patient and Trigger. Shortly after they set hoof into the room, Thorax came in, flanked by Minos and Constantina. The six instantly noticed that Jonathan was awake, and assumed huge grins. They trotted over to the pair eagerly, and Patient nudged them both onto their hooves with a snout-poke to their stomachs.

The smiles faded when Charlotte got up, holding her right foreleg away from the ground. "Need a cast?" Patient asked.

Charlotte nodded hastily before shifting to lay back down. "And a barrel's worth of alcohol," she added, looking at the group expectantly. "Any one of you have a flask? I'll take whatever you have on hoof."

"Charlotte, you're not getting drunk on three legs," Jonathan scolded, turning to his friend only to find her snorting dismissively.

Trigger opened up one of the ammo bags draped over his back and pulled out a glass bottle filled with a bubbly, brownish liquid. “My personal mix; barley whiskey and hard cider!” He handed it to Charlotte by magic.

“It’s something to take the pain away,” Patient reasoned.

Jonathan responded by lifting a hoof and slamming it upon the bridge of his muzzle. "Lord help me…" he grumbled as Charlotte popped open the flask with her magic, took a whiff, and then brought the bottle to her lips. Within seconds she downed the entire bottle, making Trigger's eyes go wide.

"Okay, I haven't seen a mare drink that fast before…" Trigger remarked as Charlotte handed the bottle over with an expectant look that screamed 'more please' written all over her face.

Foxfire turned to Jonathan and sighed. "Is she the screamer type of pony whenever she gets inebriated?" she asked, eyes alight with a spark of curiosity.

"No, worse. She and I got smashed one night, and next morning we were in the same bed… with Shining Armor standing over us, and we got roped into the mess with red and black…" Jonathan stopped upon lifting his hoof and immediately realizing exactly who he was addressing.

Patient and Trigger exchanged glances, the former frowning and the latter gaping.

An opening silently yawned in a nearby wall, allowing one of the fatter worms to slither out and pop onto the floor with a wet splatter of slime and mucus. Jonathan backed up, only to feel his tail brush up against the wall with widening eyes. "Th-the hell is that thing?" he stammered.

"He was recycled for the greater good of the hive,” the thing grumbled.

It was the same worm as before.

The worm vomited another thick paste-like mixture onto the floor, with said floor giving its pleasured remark, although it had streaks of black hair visible in the muck.

Charlotte turned to Jonathan, her face flushing as the alcohol started to kick in. Being a wee bit buzzed, she decided to elaborate in a slightly slurred voice, "Your wing casts are made of dead bodies. Dead alicorn bodies. Bones and all." That caused Jonathan to look at his wing-casts again, this time paling as the implications sank in.

“The dead of all are reused,” the worm slowly stated behind a glob of mucus in its throat. “What can be salvaged, will be salvaged. The dead isn’t all we use, however. Most of what’s in your cast is wood fiber.”

"How is it talking?" Jonathan asked, turning back to the worm with dilated pupils.

Foxfire rolled her eyes. "They're relatives to baby changelings. They have the ability to speak from the moment they hatch, and co-exist with the grubs. I should know; I was a grub once," she piped up, making sure to have as snarky a tone as possible.

“The Norn queen remembers you, little one.” The worm’s beady, black eyes pierced Foxfire before it turned its head to Charlotte and Jonathan. “She gives birth to all. We are all children of the Norn queen.”

A grumbling came from the hive, a gentle, almost maternal groan. Everyone, save Foxfire, glanced around for a moment.

“She calls for me,” the worm stated, and it slithered off back to the yawning hole in the wall, which immediately shut afterwards. Only when it was out of sight did Jonathan's legs buckle, and he found himself laying down again. His head then buried itself in his front hooves.

“You changelings are fuckin’ weird,” Patient piped up.

"I agree," Jonathan hissed, shaking his head.

Foxfire rolled her eyes again. "I'm not as weird as Luna gets some days," she snarked again, as if she were trying to be unhelpful.

“What do you mean by that?” Trigger asked.

Foxfire snickered. "Sometimes she takes me Dreamwalking with her. You should see some of the shit she's into," she replied cryptically.

“I unironically hope she doesn’t poke her way into my dreams,” Patient shook his head and shivered.

“What’s wrong with that? Everyone knows you fuck your girlfriend on a leash,” Trigger teased to the chagrin of everyone involved.

“I swear to fuckin’—that was not what we did that one night! I will fuck your shit up with a hand grenade!” Patient shot back, getting somewhat red in the face.

At that moment Jonathan threw his forehooves to the air. "Just perfect! What we all needed to hear!" he yelled in exasperation, his face somehow turning a darker shade of red. His outburst caused Charlotte to snort as the alcohol began working overtime.

"Then again… you did invite Shining to a three-way last time we got smashed," Charlotte stated, her utterance garnering a series of dropped jaws from Patient, Foxfire, and Thorax.

“This is bullshit, I’m going downstairs… “ Patient grumbled quietly after he reeled in his jaw, dragging his weapon behind him as he walked off into the hallway.

"So who's idea was it to try and get motherfucking Shining Armor into a three-way?" Foxfire asked, her voice but a strangled squeak.