Wearing The Inside Out

The Hive

Gallus carefully walked through the layers of the hive, looking at the rows of emotional tanks that held so many ponies, each an individual creature that was being emotionally mined for Changeling food. It was something that he had slowly grown, if not comfortable with, at least used to. The rows of cells, if he could term them that, had come up in the few weeks after the conquering of Manehattan.

He normally wouldn't go near the things since they were so creepy to him. And yet, his one "friend" here was flitting among the cells, checking each for food contents and making sure, as she put it, that there was maybe a symbiotic relationship between Changelings and their sources of food.

Ocellus, while being a creepy black bug that looked like so many other creepy black bugs to him, at least had a heart that was a little more open. At least he wasn't worried that she'd drop him off the hive and watch him tumble into the abyss. Those were her "brothers" and future subjects that watched him like a hawk, ready to punish anything deemed too forward or too friendly. She was Chrysalis' "daughter" and successor, her lithe and dainty form telling him that she was a future Queen since Changelings tended to go for function- workers, soldiers, administration, a Queen. A rigid class system from birth with very little in terms of change.

Probably why his mother and Chrysalis got along so well. They had similar moral codes.

"Interesting. I knew that Mother's idea for this town was like this-" Ocellus flit around the room, her hooves rubbing against the walls of the cells that held the ponies of Manehattan that hadn't gotten away from the horde of Changelings and walls of fire in near inanimate slumber, a hoof here and there kicking as wonderful dreams were pumped into their brains. Concentrated joy shot into a pony's brain, converted into love, need, want, desire even and then pumped right into the Hive foodstores. A closed system perfectly done. "The plans were a marvel, genius even, but seeing this all in motion is just another level. Wonderful, just wish there was a more symbiotic approach." Ocellus frowned. At least Gallus thought she did. It was hard to tell since Changelings usually had so few outward emotions- besides anger and fear. So finding a Changeling that could speak common tongue was a bit of a shock.

Moreso that she didn't rip off his head and feast on his entrails.

"You want a symbiotic relationship with ponies? That's not a very Chrysalis approved idea." Gallus ran a claw through his feathers. He hoped his little joke was okay. It kind of slipped out since he was nervous. Here he was a representative of his mother, attempting not to mess up a brittle cooperative effort and he was joking with Chrysalis' future replacement. She may not be her mother, but he thought Thorax was going to be nice and chill, and then he was terrifying.

Ocellus cocked her head and thought briefly before speaking. "I'm not my mother. At least not exactly. She had tried pure cloning methods before. Didn't work out. But I wish we could talk to ponies without them fearing us. Mother says that will be impossible. We are too different- with us feeding on emotions and looking like we do, the ponies all run away in fear. Too bad, because the few books I had read from them were just so fascinating."

"Books?"

Ocellus sighed. "Yes. Books. Does your culture not have books? Mother wasn't very helpful on things like that." She carefully buzzed through the air and pulled a book out of a nearby hole in the wall. Gallus had passed so many holes like that- he hadn't really paid attention to just one more. Ocellus turned the pages with a sense of reverence, each flip of a page slow and methodical, as she tried to find the correct spot. "Let's see, let's see. Ah, here we go. I rather like this part of the book. All about Changelings you see. 'Changelings are a buglike species that feeds off love.' Ocellus sighed. "Well partially true. The whole wedding thing makes these ponies think we just feed off love. Sure it tastes the best, but any emotion can do." Ocellus continued reading, 'yet also repelled by true love, the spell done by my brother and Cadance repelled them into the wilds on the outskirts of Equestria. I have a few spells planned to test for Changelings just in case they come back.' Ocellus smiled a tooth filled grin. "There's more, but then it starts getting a little morbid with dissection and the like. Seems like two authors at points with one being far more welcoming in tone and the other more clinical. Either way it's completely fascinating to see them talk about us."

Gallus nodded, the last few minutes a little too much information for him to truly handle. And the whole scientific thing? He could barely pay attention in flight school; he had no hope to truly get the ins and outs of that rubbish. "Neat, I guess."

Ocellus nodded, completely oblivious that her first friend didn't really think it was neat. She was still unused in reading non Changelings so the emotional nuance of others that didn't use pheromones to communicate fully partially eluded her. "I know, I have to say that if I ever met this Twilight Sparkle, I don't know what I'd do. Still don't know why Mother told me to study this just for enemy intelligence. It's far too interesting to just write it off as that alone."

***

"Yona doesn't like this one bit." Yona carefully walked through the streets of Ivanburg, her steps faster than the normal, unthinking and plodding steps that she took when she was lost in thought. She was rather worried since she kept her eyes straight ahead to not see the patrols of yaks that usually greeted her as a member of the Prince's family. They talked to themselves about the scary new pony that spewed out black goo and spoke in Old Yak tongues. An odd happening of great import to most, but it really worried Yona.

Mostly because she was pulling an old, rickety cart that she had found in the tower. And it was full of that demonic presence's family and friends. Which painted her with a target on her back if she wasn't trying to be the sneakiest yak to ever exist. She carefully walked through the square, careful to pass the statue of her ancestor, Ivan, staring down at her from on high, his stone eyes casting judgement upon this very not-yak action. She shivered and walked through listening to the cheers and jeers of the yaks in the square staring at this Pinkie's sister, bound and gagged, eyes blazing with rage.

"Here we are, ponies." She stared up at the tent the housed her uncle. She looked from side to side, careful not to alert any yaks and walked into the tent. Rutheford was reading a treaty of some kind, his face etched with worry.

"Hello, how are you doing today?" Yona felt her speech come off stilted cause of her nerves.

Rutheford sighed and put the treaty aside. "Fine. Just the intruding pony has the whole town riled up and the Storm King 'treaty' is more a list of demands for tribute and not much else."

"Interesting. Now just a yak question, is the pony in the square going to get bad treatment? Heard she did something bad while Yona was walking through town."

The Prince sighed. "She's a necromancer, I think. Don't know how since that's a unicorn line of magic most of the time. Didn't even know earth ponies could talk to the dead. Though its not like my books talk about earth mages. My guards sure want her dead and gone. Or at least gone. Why do you ask since you're usually not a yak that pays attention to that stuff."

Yona laughed and waved a hoof at her uncle. She lightly tapped a hoof to get the few ponies in the cart's attention. This was going to be a rather long and arduous talk since she couldn't come up with the words in yak speak to explain this mess. "No reason, just when I was in the tower some ponies came up to me and were talking. . ."

Rutheford raised an eyebrow and he was ready to have a stern, yet firm talk with his niece about coming up with stories.

"Hello, Prince, I am a self-appointed ambassador to the yaks from Equestria, Princess Twilight says hello." Pinkie walked into the tent, ready to smooze with the high and mighty yak Prince. Twilight had told her how to ingratiate herself with most cultures. And step one was acting like you knew what was going on and being super confident. Or that was her explaining the failures of diplomacy. There was something about diplomacy in there.

"Pinkie, you can't just do that." Cheese Sandwich slid into the tent, careful to keep his back to the wall in case things got rather bad.

Rutheford blinked as a few more ponies walked in, and he breathed out slowly. They were lucky he was not his father. "Greetings, and before I call every guard in town, please explain what is going on?"

***

Canterlot

Blueblood carefully ran through his itinerary for the day- as the pony behind most of the financial decisions for the war he had to juggle so many responsibilities that it was rather hard to manage without an impeccable mindset that usually served him well. Usually. He still had that slight during the Gala, an ever so black mark on Canterlot's gossip circle that while he was technically Equestria's hottest bachelor that he knew of- though the dating pool of available stallions he knew personally were just some that did not swing that way- that of marriage. And sure, there were probably some country bumpkins that were a nine in looks, but he had the whole package.

And yet he paused. He had been running through the financial tax burden on Equestria as a whole, the percentage that most households could reasonably provide in war time, factoring in the loss of productivity with the shift of drafting much of the populace in some fashion and adding in the loss of both the Southern Reaches beyond Starsea and the loss of Manehattan. He had crunched the numbers numerous times, a coping mechanism learned from his father, how to compartmentalize even the cost of a life- an average mean cost. And yet, he was distracted. The number tables were not adding up exactly into the clean rows of variables and factors that he liked.

He breathed out, careful to keep his mental ledger ever so neat and tidy.

He knew in his heart that it was illogical. He had read her name in the file provided by his Aunt- the one he knew well enough, not Aunt Luna. Definitely not her. He still walked on eggshells around Aunt Luna- there was not enough ways for Blueblood to like her. Not on her part. He just felt uncomfortable around a pony that might wish Eternal Night and want to chew his face off if she got angry enough.

He had read her name in the file. Rarity. A pony that he had rather mixed feelings for. For one, she was a perfectly beddable mare in the most noble of senses. Besides the lowborn birth, she had rather impeccable tastes, manners, and speech if he took all the rumors of her business acumen into account.

And yet, she was one of the most confusing mares he had the pleasure of meeting. Shallow at first glance, she acted like all the two bit mares that he had no want of knowing- fawning over him like everypony else, waiting for him to act like the Prince his rank and title of nobility had raised him to be. A tiring facade of his- he liked the trappings of nobility, sure, the riches and the like, but he'd rather be focused on doing work behind the scenes. He had even gone to the Gala that year just to get Aunt Celestia off his back about dating.

And then when he was playing the part of the Prince he had been taught to be for most of his life- an aloof, slightly interested, rich stallion who at least tried to play the aristocratic games of others in Canterlot- she had thrown an entire cake in his perfectly coiffed mane and ruined his night.

Well not really- he had a few months where he was the talk of the town, an almost laughingstock that had bruised the ego, the pride that had been meticulously won from duels of the mind and body- noble versus noble- and she had shattered it one cake filled, rage fueled rant that had won his heart.

He carefully stopped in front of the door to the Canterlot Archives, ready to cross reference some prices for food supplies and inflation rates compared to the past. He had this whirlwind of emotions that lay under the surface of his silent and cool demeanor and he would have kept his cool normally.

He strode into the Archives, ready to start his day on the right hoof and bumped right into a pony that did not look where they were going.

He grimaced as he sprawled on the marble floor of the Archives, books and manuscripts scattered around him. He shook his head blanking out on what he would say to the pony. He looked up and the words died on his tongue as he saw the pony that he had been too afraid to talk to for a few years stare back at him. Her mane was perfect, her makeup tasteful, and her voice like honey compared to the abrasive, yet erotic, tones that had run in his head for the last two years.

"Blueblood? What are you doing here."

He wanted to scream an expletive laded string of words that his nobility forbade him to say. He wanted to explain that it was perfectly sane that he was in Canterlot. But he didn't. He just shook his head and carefully got to his hooves. "Rarity, I could say the same thing. Especially why you are carrying so many of these. . ." he stopped for a moment, unsure of the word, "scrolls without help. Would you want some?"

Rarity blinked. "I wouldn't mind it, no."

***

The Thicket

Twilight carefully levitated a few plants and herbs that she had little knowledge of as she passed the shelves of the bonesinger's lab. Aspen had so carefully cut out of the walk down to the inner sanctum of the creature, somedeer?, she mused on the term for another creature of similar rank to ponies. A knowledgeable pursuit in theory, giving credence to sentience throughout so many different races of being. She had a niggling thought that, while improbable, even a Changeling could be seen as equal to her- then she stopped the flight of fancy and remembered that Chrysalis was still the head Changeling in charge.

She sighed and turned to Luna, who was carefully lounging on a stool, her legs rocking back and forth as she looked intently towards a complete deer skeleton. Twilight had totally noticed that macabre sight as they entered, she just chose not to fixate on it like her alicorn friend. Or something more, if the month of sharing each other's bed had anything to say about that. She blushed as she remembered Luna showing her a particular trick of the tongue that made discussions rather hard to do in certain situations.

Twilight thankfully was cut from reminiscing about the curves and valleys of certain alicorn phenomena as she heard the door at the back of the room open. She turned to see a plume of smoke billow out and a lithe and small deer walk ever so carefully out of the back room, her purple eyes staring directly at her guests as she strode forward.

"I'm rather sorry about the. . .lateness of our meeting. There was a bit more soothing of Helvyr I had to do this morning with the spirits. There's only so much I can prepare for when they disagree so heartly in letting one of their greatest enemies right into the heart of our home." The doe smirked as she talked. "Sounded like Blackthorn's rambling thoughts on this meeting all over again. Bucks are, if not consistent, completely understandable in their feelings." She carefully levitated her bone headdress, two sets of horns making a wreath around her head, and set it carefully on a nearby table.

Twilight had focused on the things she could see at first glance, her eyes, her dress, her size. She hadn't noticed her blood red coloring that was completely apparent when she turned and looked up at Twilight.

The deer sighed and shook her head. "Figures. You met my stag first, so you expect a similar in size hind for him. The wonderful thing about our males, is that two feet of their height is all horn. Though I feel like that could be said for your "stallions" was it?"

Twilight blinked. "I thought you hadn't left your home?"

The deer smiled. "This one's perceptive, name's Oleander. May I ask the great and powerful alicorn in front of me how I, a lowly deer could learn so much about your culture if I never left right here?" She closed her eyes and waited for an answer.

Luna piped up since she was used to the roundabout way deer did things. A question for a question, an answer for an answer. "Dream magic, I felt it as we walked through the woods. I would have thought your kind would have stayed away from it ever since I sent my Tantabus to frighten you."

Oleander laughed, her sickly sweet chuckle dark and throaty as she stared at Luna. "And our texts say your sister is the scary one. Guessing she had all the brawn and you had the brains. Or something to that effect. It's hard to compete with a mare who can turn a section of desert into dunes of glass, slag, and molten metal with just a thought. But you work like a rather snakelike creature. If I wasn't so interested in our purple pal right here, I might just pick your brain on how the dreamlands work."

Twilight felt like she was in the middle of a silent argument as she saw Luna tense up and slowly relax as she stared intently at Oleander, her blood red coat keeping Twilight on edge. She hadn't seen many deer with that coat color, though to be fair she hadn't seen many albino coats like Aspen's. Like attracts like in a way, she mused.

"What do you mean? I had asked your. . .husband, if I might learn more of the deer. I hadn't expected anything more."

The red deer nodded. "Humble too. One Twilight Sparkle, rather neurotic if any of your dreams, memories, and thoughts are to be believed. Entangled with one Princess of the Moon if your tattoo upon its rocky surface is anything to be believed. I'd usually not let just anyone into the most sacred halls of Helvyr and learning how to channel magic the deer way- but you are a special case. And at least you two have a leg up to most ponies that stumble or fall into the Thicket and want to figure out how we work. You just have to pass the test that is so simple."

Twilight raised an eyebrow. There had to be a catch. "Which is?"

The deer beamed. "The bonesingers use magic like your. . .mages, equivalent exchange of goods and services. We call upon the dead like your necromancers. But unlike your bastardized version of our magic, we understand that death and life are two sides of the same coin. And to even be allowed to learn you have to do the first test."

Twilight really did not like where this was going. She wasn't stupid and the ideas of what was the inverse of death gave her enough of a clue. "Oh no."

"Yep, like I did before with Aspen to join our ranks, you have to channel mana while having hot, passionate sex."

Luna shrugged. While it wasn't disagreeable at all, since Twilight was everything she wanted in a mate, the scintillating conversation, a mind built for learning, and enough weird kinky ideas for her to never get bored. And she was hot. At least it wasn't like the past. She had been more worried she was going to participate in sacrifices. She missed those days where a good sacrifice and some heads on a platter solved so many diplomatic problems.

Oleander looked at the two alicorns and laughed. "Oh and every spirit of the deer is going to try and either kill you or drive you mad. I mean I had some deer that trained with me explode into a fine red mist because they weren't built for the pleasure mixing with pain."

Twilight and Luna shared a worried look. This was going to be slightly less easy.

***

Ocellus buzzed through the prison quarters of the hive, a small and focused area controlled by Pharynx. It could be small because most of the space contained in the Hive itself was a maze of hallways and drops that made any non Changeling confused in entering- made it simple to defend in that way- and Changelings followed pheromone cues so readily that the Hive was easy to read. The rest of the space that wasn't Changeling housing, or food storage, was left aside for the few proud and safe non food guests. They weren't ponies so Chrysalis afforded them some safe passage in the maze, and with her new treaties with friendly nations it was a mess of 'who exactly was food'.

Ocellus nodded at the jailer of the one current prisoner of the Hive and walked through the dingy halls to the cell. A small orange dragon stared out at both Gallus, who had followed Ocellus through the dizzying maze of the Hive, and Ocellus who tried out smiling at the now mute dragon. Mute because of the wicked gash that ran across her throat, the act causing most of the dragons in Manehattan to die that night it was magically forced upon them,

Oellus tried not to focus on the wicked scar that caught her compound eyes and quietly shifted to a form that better suited her jailed "friend" or "acquaintance". The writings of the ponies had so many words for that concept that was utterly foreign to Changelings- they were used to being spies for the Queen, to surviving on the scraps of others, an invasive, parasitic culture that built hoofholds in so many places, a spy network of cells that worked within other nations. Working with others as equals, or as equal as Chrysalis could want was a new development. Ocellus felt the painful shift as she changed into her dragon form, her bones snapping and reforming into a bipedal state her horned amber colored form taller than what she was used to gave her a headache whenever she shifted.

"How is this?" Ocellus' voice growled out as she felt her vocal cords shift ever so slightly, the buzzing of Changeling speech based upon bug vocalizations shifting to the low, guttural growls of more reptilian language bases. It was ever so fascinating to her in a clinical sense. "I could either talk to you as what you know me as, or this. Whatever you prefer."

The dragon shook her head and sighed.

Ocellus knew that interrogation of this female dragon had stalled. It wasn't like Pharynx to truly know how to work with a deft and careful hoof in regards with interrogation. His methods were of pain and torture, long and hard efforts that worked wonders when the tortured party had a voice to use. He wasn't used to the more careful touch of mental efforts, the mind melding of magical interrogation worked wonders for. Two minds entwining as the interrogator got to see the whole mental picture of questioning, each sense activating as they ran through the gamut of questions they had.

Ocellus carefully unlocked the cell door and opened it slowly and entered the cramped place, the small cell only fit for one, so she was inches from the dragon, her eyes sparkling in the low light, breath hot and ragged from the high temperature of the Hive. "I was sent to talk to you one on one in a different way, more personal, no torture so that isn't on the table. Magical means so when I light up my horns in this form, that's what for, nothing more. Is that okay?"

The dragon nodded.

Ocellus breathed out and leaned towards the small dragon, her head laying directly on hers, and started the mind connection.

***

Klugetown

Sandbar walked briskly through the burrows and holes of Klugetown, his steps focused and calm even though he knew that the surrounding snakes and reptiles would eat him without a second thought if Capper hadn't vouched for him. He felt the cool December air- not as blisteringly hot as the summer, but having a slight chill that made him almost want to cover up. He sighed, wishing that his family was still alive. He guessed they weren't. Well, he definitely knew his parents weren't. He had seen a lizard cut them down and slowly carve them into bite sized morsels for himself. He had barely got out of there before the army had started shelling the town. It had been chaos.

Though was this occupation of Klugetown any better? Probably not for him at least. He was the last remaining pony in town and the glares and quick glances kept him knowing that fact. He breathed out slowly recalling the quick teachings of Capper who had taken pity on him. Maybe he saw something that reminded the cat of himself, but he slowly recalled the few paw strikes and leaping pounces that Capper had adapted for him, the pony unable to pull off some of the more insane acrobatic stunts that cats could.

He slid through the town, careful to not focus on the meat market that took up most of it. He didn't want to think that maybe his parents, or at least their cut-up corpses were there waiting to be devoured. Morbid thought aside, he walked up the stairs to the Royal Quarter and rifled through his saddlebag. He had a pass attached to Capper's name that got him in the King's presence.

He was Capper's message pony and while it wasn't glamorous, it gave him a reason to be near the komodo dragon.

He trotted up to the outside of the 'castle' which was a warehouse that had survived the magical shelling and subsequent fire. Sandbar didn't want to laugh at the supposedly scary reptiles since they could gut him like a fish, but there was something humorous in that they were squatting in one of the least impressive buildings he had seen in Klugetown and calling it their palace. If they thought that place was grand, they should have seen the courthouse or military barracks.

"What are you doing here, little one?"

Sandbar looked up and groaned. He knew he would have to deal with his least favorite reptile if he wanted to give a message to the king, but he had hoped that Bowie had taken a lunch break.

The frilled lizard smiled, his frills pulsating with his breaths as he sized up the young colt. "Message for Ziggy, you have? As the guard and court retainer for his Majesty the King, I have to read the missive."

Sandbar rolled his eyes. The frilled lizard, while technically the court vizier, or whatever odd name he gave himself at that moment, was important- he was only important because no other lizard had wanted to take the highly volatile position. Ziggy himself was a rather capricious king, swinging from near silence into a violent rage at the drop of a hat.

Sandbar had heard of at least five different right-claw reptiles near Ziggy to end up decapitated and their heads stuck on pikes whenever the mood struck him. Tom, Duke, Mercury, even Hollow who Sandbar thought had been the kindest reptile here had ended up on the pike. So while the colt despised the frilled lizard, there was a high chance that he'd end up like all the others. "My master says that this message is for the King's eyes only. And unless you have wax and the exact stamp that Capper does, I think Ziggy will know that you opened this letter. And no, he didn't tell me what it was for so you can't get the information you want out of me."

The brown frilled lizard grimaced and waved a claw, letting the doors open with his motion. "Go on in, runt."

Sandbar smiled and walked into the small palace.

***

Limestone rolled her eyes at the jeering crowd of yaks that assembled at the pillory she had been unceremoniously thrown into, her neck and hooves stuck fast as they tossed rotten fruit at her. Or what she had mockingly termed in her head "comedy" because she had been trying to shift the pillory ever so slightly for the last hour and it wasn't too difficult to get some slack in the structure when it was stuck fast in the earth.

She had paid attention to her father's teachings of magic at least a little bit. Marble was the creative one though. Limestone just wanted to beat some yaks to death just because the act of standing in one spot for the last five hours gave her a cramp.

She looked straight ahead and waited. Her sister wasn't a complete idiot. Now her and that stallion together made a whole idiot. But her sister was only a half idiot and had some bright moments. But the "you have ten minutes until I get tired and caught" was five hours ago. She was rather miffed and had some choice words saved for her sisters if they wouldn't hurry up.

She saw a rather important young yak out of the corner of her eye, his large and imposing presence making the rest of the jeering and annoying crowd go silent as he walked ever so carefully up the few steps of the pillory.

He turned and bowed to the assorted yaks and spoke slowly, his voice echoing through the square. "Fellow yaks, I have some disappointing news. This pony here isn't an evil portent of the end of the world, though the Old Yak she spoke did translate to that, but of change."

Limestone groaned. Whenever she was a nice and normal medium for spirits for a laugh, she had to get the real bastards and weirdos that ruined her day. Like the dragon spirit she found on the farm that one time that tried to make her the Avatar of the Apocalypse. Or the time she went to Appleloosa and found an alpaca ghost. She had needed to spent weeks explaining that popping into the nearby saloon and proclaiming the "Alpaca-lypse" was a prank. Whatever fate bullshit these fucking ghosts were doing to her was the worst shit ever. It was at least highly inconvenient to start saying creepy bullshit every time a ghost wanted to hijack your body. Mainly because she didn't get a crash course in languages whenever a ghost did that. For all she knew, she could be reciting limericks and the weekly news of 500 years ago, but no, always the end of the world. One of these days, she just wanted a ghost to start ranting about the proper way to make pies or something equally banal.

A light and discontented grumbled erupted from the crowd.

"Call it a cultural error, but this pony here had misunderstood what the mission from Equestria had meant when their Princesses said to 'make an impression.'

Limestone sat there fuming since this explaination sounded like Appleloosa all over again. And that excuse had been dreamed up by Marble. The cunning, quiet bitch did it again.

"What say you, pony?" The yak stared back and quietly mouthed that he knew what was going on.

Glorious, this yak wasn't a box of rocks. She hammed up her speech as best she could. If she was on the line for punishment, she could at least have fun with it. "Oh, yes, I had gone out to talk to some nearby yaks to spread the message of friendship and love and peace and I seem to be afflicted with some magical curse when I was a small child and I usually keep it at bay, but all the new cultures and climate made me accidentally summon a powerful spirit. I am so very sorry, I am a great and powerful channeler that just caused an incident, that won't happen again."

A quiet yak raised his hoof and quickly blurted out a question that probably a whole ton of yaks had on their minds. "So, no throwing pony off cliff? I like the capital punishment part."

The important yak shook his head. "Sadly no, but it doesn't mean the great feast is cancelled. Just it's a slightly different feast that celebrates our new pony guests, no change in food choices for those wondering."

There was a smattering of slightly more excited yaks.

Limestone groaned. "Can some yak please get me out of this thing? I love that everyone is buddy buddy now, but I want to have feeling in my legs again."