Diary of Sweetie Belle, 19

“So… I see,” the incumbent Princess of Magic mumbled, letting the neat leather-bound book drop down on her work desk. “This is… oh dear.”

“I fucking know,” the azure pegasus on the sofa in front of her rasped in response, hugging herself and shaking. “Don’t ask me how I got it. Just… please, don’t ask me anything. Fucking mind-bleach me or something, please,” she descended into a tittery whine, sniffling and gulping down the last two words, covering her face up with a blanket.
“I’m really sorry, Rainbow Dash. I’m really, really sorry about all of this…” Twilight Sparkle said quietly, burying her face in her hands, almost shrinking down in her royal garments. The guards in each corner of the room paid her a momentary glance, but she rose back up with a deep breath. “There’s nothing I can say that can make right what’s happened to you.”

“Yeah, no, I just… I need some time… just me and a gallon of fucking bleach… Or erase my memory, I don’t know,” the pegasus spoke weakly, resting her head on the purple and gold cushion, hugging her sharply cubicled abdomen. “Was this useful at all? Like, maybe you can just… take what’s in here and just blast my brain with some shit to make me forget?”

Princess Cadence, who had been on huggle-consoling duty of the single solitary changeling captivity escapee that Canterlot got to see so far, held the trembling pegasus closer in her sinkable, pink embrace. It would have been much more fitting if Twilight were to comfort poor Rainbow Dash, who somehow managed to make her way from, reportedly, halfway across the country, and even bring them a valuable piece of evidence. The Princess of Magic, however, was the main analyst on the case of the changeling uprising. Ever since Princess Luna herself had gone missing, there was little free time at her disposal, most of her efforts were aimed at directing the efforts of breaking apart the conspiracy.

Now there was solid confirmation as to where Celestia’s sister had disappeared to, as well. The book was, indeed, a hefty piece of evidence, it confirmed some of the fringe conjecture that had been floating around within the Equestrian intelligence. It told a harrowing story, one that it would take some skill to deliver to Sweetie Belle’s elder sister Rarity without risking the latter potentially having a heart attack. Alas…

“Rainbow… I guess I don’t have any words for this, no… I’m really sorry, but we’ll need to know how this happened. At least how you managed to escape. We need to know what chinks they’ve left in their armor! This is incredibly important. I’m very sorry to push this on you, Dashie, but, please…” Twilight clasped her hands, sparkling her widening eyes at the shaking pegasus, who tugged nervously at the edges of the palace pajamas they gave her to replace what remained of her clothes. The combined force of the hug and the eyes got the pale pony to calm down before she’d begun to rile up. “You know it’ll only weigh on your mind if we put this off. Just get this over with now, and then we’ll help you fix your life. Cadence can help! She’ll soothe your mind so it doesn’t hurt as much while you remember.”

“Mhm,” the pink alicorn hummed comfortingly, nodding at her purple co-Princess.

“She can start now… That’d be nice… I’m just… I’ve ran out of tears, you know? I can’t cry anymore. Holy shit, I’ve turned into such a rag, I can’t beli—”

“Shhh. Shh-shh-shh. Calm down… it’s okay,” Cadence interrupted Dash, nuzzling her behind the ear, getting her lax and limp on her side again. “How… gnarly.”

“To say the least… Okay. Here you go, Cadence.” Twilight Sparkle took a folder, getting up from her desk. The other alicorn took it, nodding in response. The purple one, in turn, moved over to the two of them on the couch, nuzzling her traumatized friend. “I’ve made sure to compile the questions so there aren’t too many of them and so that it doesn’t hurt you too much. You’ll be helping us a lot. You’re a hero, Dashie. We’ll put a statue of you in the Central Plaza, that’s for sure!”

“Heh… heh… really? Yeah, I guess that’s fair.” The weakened pony smiled weakly, one of the first times she did so since leaving her horrendous captivity. “I’m the ultimate prisoner of war and shit… not how I wanted to be remembered, but, fuck. I’m glad there’s even a me anymore. The things they did to me…”

“Shhh,” both alicorns urged her, caressing various parts of the poor pony’s body to get her to leave such thoughts behind.

“Ok, okay. Just, y’know… Don’t design it without me. Or it’ll look all frilly and shit. I mean… I dunno… Do I even remember what I’m like anymore?..” Rainbow spoke to herself while Twilight distanced away for a few seconds, talking to the guard, giving directions, checking a few devices, other such princessly things. “I don’t know what’s what. I think I’ve been there for fucking years… at least, it feels that way. And it just… it changes you. I, I don’t know if I wasn’t myself there, or if I’m not myself now… or… fuck, this is making my head hurt…”

“Hush. Take it one step at a time. You’re not meant to go through so many trauma-related thoughts at once,” Cadence lectured her gently, preparing the two of them to get up, hoisting the groaning Dash up to carry her in her arms. Two guards came to their side immediately, ceremoniously helping her with the pony’s weight, which was still somewhat palpable despite her long, torturous captivity. Its specifics lingered with all their minds, as most prisoners of war tended not to gain muscular abdomens and generally pampered bodies… “We’ll pretty you up before the interview begins. And it’ll all be very, very nice.”

“I’m not pretty,” Dash blurted, to a giggle from the purple Princess, who walked close by, leading them out of her chamber.

“No, Dashie, you’re… You’re still yourself, you know that? By which I mean, you’re adorable.” Twilight poked her snout with a finger. “Now hush! Listen to Cadence and it’ll all be fine.”

“But—”

“And I’ll see to it you’ll spend the night in my chamber.”

“Ooh. Okay…”

“Yep.”

Twilight Sparkle waved the departing, chuckling escort goodbye, smiling warmly.

She sighed deeply, smile still stuck to her snout, as she returned back to her room and arched her back, flexing in place, grunting in satisfaction. Her eyes fell upon the diary of Rarity Belle’s sister, the latest promising convert from Compound 13. Quite the interesting read. Having the captives keep diaries was certainly a convenient idea, albeit their security was evidently rather questionable. A simple skim through the many, many, many pages told a full enough story - she had enough experience of her own in these matters to know how this worked, in general. Now she was simply up to speed on how well, exactly, standards were enforced and boundaries were being pushed in that key compound. Visible initiative, perhaps sub par execution.

That was enough, though. With a gentle yawn, Hive Queen Liquomentia, failed Hive Queen Chrysalis’ successor, shed her masterful disguise, now that the only staff left within this wing of the palace were her own praetorians. The tall, slender, chitinous black figure strode past a mirror, making sure to fix up her thick, fiery amber braids. A poke of her jewelry-encrusted finger renewed the illusion on a nearby window, out of which she observed the escaped prisoner’s escort. The Queen sighed longingly, crossing her holey legs, pushing her chin up with a chitinous hand.

“Yes, do make her tell, Adhoranima. I’m sure you will… but you know what happens if you don’t.”

“Of course, my Queen. You needn’t doubt me.”

Her foremost lieutenant was the master of occlumentic telepathy, second best next to her, of course. Unlike the communications she kept with her praetorians and other high society insiders, this didn’t even need magical cloaking.

“I didn’t doubt the overseers of Compound 13, and yet they’ve somehow let slip an escapee. From their most reinforced sector, no less! A Breaking Division escapee… You will make her give you every last little bit of information about how she managed it. We can’t afford weakness in our network.”

“I could do it with my mouth gagged.”

Liquomentia weighed the dairy up in her hand. Sweetie Belle… that name coursed her mind a few times, in a couple of reports. More than just a secondary upstart, it seemed. She would make sure to track her further progress. As far as she knew, at the moment, that particular convert agent was busy infiltrating the nightlife elite of Las Pegasus, a city so far relatively untouched by their spreading network of influence. Perhaps dear Sweetie wouldn’t even need much help, looking at her track record…

“I know. It’s simply that we cannot afford to be careless right now… We cannot afford weakness of any variety. Best if our headquarters stay impenetrable, and that the ponies in command remain blind and deaf to what is going on. I’m doing all I can to halt any progress… And yet this still happens. So please, don’t be another disappointment.”

“No need for worry. I can assure you I won’t be sharing miserable Twilight Sparkle’s chambers in Basilica Tormentia Libidia.”

The changeling Queen laughed out loud, and took a sip of coffee with her pinky finger stretched out, exhaling into a smug grin.

“Why yes, that’d be good. There isn’t much space left there, and we have to place poor, poor Rainbow Dash somewhere… I did promise her she’d be sharing Twilight’s chambers, you know. And she will. Forever. Heh-heh-heh.”

“Mwah, ahahahahah!”

“Now don’t break your bravadacious boasting and slip out of character. You’ve got a job to do. And I’ve… got evidence to obfuscate. Before Shining Armor and Celestia find out too much.”

“As you say, my Queen. Over and out?”

“Over and out.”

Hive Queen Liquomentia took in the pleasant evening breeze, the power jewels, chains and amulets covering her half-naked equine body radiating with maleficent power. She did not rise up and overthrow an incompetent, bullheaded, obsessed tyrant, only to be taken out by freak happenstance.

This should never have happened, and the ones who assisted Rainbow Dash would be punished most severely - Basilica Tormentia Libidia, one of the extreme torment facilities created mostly for punishment and amusement, and only secondly for scientific research, was close to being filled, but its sister institutions weren’t. Rainbow would spend a very fair amount of time pressed close to her dear Twilight, both of them screaming for hours, begging, tormented to the brink of death and insanity, yet kept intact by trusty magicks and techniques. Chances are, Princess Luna would join them too, unless her mind would sway, of course.

And considering the rather wondrous findings of the last few entries of the journal, as well as her knowledge as to the potential of Sweetie Belle post-conversion, which far exceeded what she originally expected (a mere demoralization tool for when her sister was inevitably caught)... Liquomentia even knew who to promote to direct the torture of that block of the Basilica. It was a cushy position for the synaptic elite of the Hive, a place where sheer excess and depravity were abound, with very little in the ways of rules, regulations, or procedures - no matter how they satisfied themselves with all the victims in their ‘care’, those places justified their worth. Any striving, lustful changeling would want to spend at least some time being in charge of even a single victim. So yes, now that she’d been informed of exactly how… well Sweetie Belle’s conversion was undertaken, it was decided: handler Obtero, known better to the ponies in her care as Tough Break, deserved to run the elite block for at least a month, even though she only produced two converts until now. The Queen was curious to see what that changeling was really like, they needed this sort of straightforward brashness in places other than breaking very specific ponies.

After all, it wasn’t all with coy games and subterfuge that her Hive was built. A good Queen employed all the tactics in the book, and then added a tome of her own. That was where every single Hive Monarch failed up until then, and that was why her destiny was glory, while Equestria’s was in submission or in never-ending lustful torment. Such as that which poor poor Rainbow Dash would be undergoing any minute now, she could all but feel the titillation...

With the necessary info extracted from the faux-lucky pegasus, Liquomentia will be able to prevent such things in future. Her victory was, then, assured. Soon enough she would wear the identity of not some book-gazing, brainy, boring dork - she would be Celestia herself, ruling the world’s dawns, and Adhoranima, or a more able changeling of the hive, would be Luna by her side. And with all the power, all the technology, all the magic, all the… things that their research has brought into being, it would be a matter of months before the rest of the planet was a feeding ground for changelings and willing collaborators.

The ponies’ dismissive attitude has made sure that plenty of them would avoid being willing collaborators, therefore creating more than enough living batteries to make their Hive last for near-millions of years. Not all would be batteries, of course, some would enter this new society peacefully, if they were deemed worthy, like Sweetie Belle and her partner were. Some would make for loving, affectionate, warm, fuzzy pets - only sentient and intelligent, with none of the mess associated with all those hollow animals the ponies surrounded themselves with. A superior, warmer, more heartful world order.

Easily supportable with the aid of the Princesses. Princess Cadence, located in Compound 4, was approximately one third of the way to seeing the world their way. Princess Luna was at the fifty-fifty breaking point, threatening to be a borderline lost cause - but fortunately, they’d gathered enough neural data to be able to recreate her almost perfectly with some synaptic claywork and a willing changeling participant. Princess Twilight was such a recent addition that Liquomentia saw little reason to have her real self around at all, unless, of course, the mare saw the light at any point in her perpetual darkness of torment. Princess Celestia and the technical monarch of the Crystal Empire, Shining Armor, were a few months’ work away from being subdued and replaced. Then subsequently reintroduced, once they spent enough time realizing the errors of their ways.

Queen Liquomentia knew the intricacies of ruling a society well; as good a job as she would do as the hated Princess of the Sun, they would need those established ponies to ‘rule’ Equestria as it spread the Hive’s web all over the world with the advancements that were being cooked up in the Compounds. Three out of five would be enough… the ponies were gullible. She wouldn’t even have to waste time flexing their minds personally - they would eat it all up, the ones that hadn’t converted or been replaced yet. And then, who would ever question their actions? They came in peace and brought ‘friendship’ with them, after all. All over the planet, vibrant, colorful, unstoppable. The ones who disagreed or proved an issue would feed the growing depravities of the handlers, who would have no shortage of fighting spirits to subdue.

All she needed to ensure all of this, to guarantee her place in this world’s history, at least for the time being, was a simple thing. See that the devious escapee divulged her secret, that said secret was kept secret and fixed. And then, merely spread the necessary misinformation and redact vital parts of the rising, converted star’s diary. A hour’s work for Adhoramena at any pony’s most stalwart, and a few simple spells and middling lies from the Queen. Sometimes she wondered why she spent so long gathering all the artifacts of power she could find, considering how easily each and every obstacle in her path seemed to fall. Chrysalis… other usurpers… Twilight Sparkle… Cadence… the Crystal Empire’s military intelligence… Luna… A diary. The amber, red, and otherwise glowing artifacts made her entirely overqualified for a task as simple as conquering this world. Mayhaps she would require a way into other worlds soon enough! Then again, with how productive research had been going, perhaps that was not at all a pipe dream.

And that finally made her burst out in proper, full-fledged villainous laughter, of which she savored every last second. Laughter was best saved for the right occasions… Unless you were under the heel of her glorious Hive.