Violent winds howled between the crevices of the sharp blades of stone rising from the uneven and dangerous terrain of the barren mountain range interior. Dust and sands were taking into the air far into the distant deserts and beaches of the world and scraping off any plant life attempting to live upon the gray stones. The mare clambering around the rough edges wheezed at the efforts need to reach this place. She sat upon a flat plate of stone and pulled a water bottle out of her saddlebags and took a drink, making sure to let the water set within her mouth and hydrate her. There wasn't much sunlight in this place due in no small part to the unnatural gray clouds floating high above and spiraling across the landscape. Faint sounds of thunder rumbled across their forms, but there was neither lightning nor any signs of rain. It added to the dead, barren landscape set before the mare.
Said explorer had a wine-red coat and a mane pale-yellow mane and tail. Her mane was accentuated on its right by a deep blue outline remaining upon the edges. She put her bottle back into her saddlebags and started fumbling through them.
"If I could use my horn to instantly discover the paper, that'd be swell," she mumbled sarcastically to herself. "Where is it?" She pulled a crumbled group of paper and raised high above her head. "Ah ha!" she cheered triumphantly. "Let's see...What rumored brood was I looking for again?" The explorer trailed her hoof down the list then passed to the next page. "A red brood. Right. That's the one the old stallion yelled about." She looked up and shielded her face from another gust of dusty wind. "I heard that there were sightings of changeling-like creatures here." She frowned and put her papers back into her saddle-bags whilst analyzing the surroundings. "Why would they be on the border between Equestria and Prance, though?" The thought marinated a moment. "That might mean they're everywhere, rather than just Equestria." She gulped audibly and shivered unwillingly. "That's a terrifying thought."
The climbing was not as fruitful as she hoped, but with the mare being an adventurer, she as still going to have enjoyed a trip along the surface of these mountains. Another bit of thunder reached her ears, this time much louder, but the mare ignored it.
"..."
"Huh?" she said loudly.
The mare looked around, saw nothing, then shrugged and carried on. Thunder sometimes caused an echo in empty places like this, she thought, so it could throw her off. She climbed atop a stone mound after kicking the sides of the wall to push herself up and land comfortably on a relatively flat surface, giving her time to breathe. She didn't have time to think that the rock dissolved and something grabbed her legs and pulled her down into a dark tunnel where she was eventually let go and allowed to tumble about like a piece of paper through an active air duct. When she finally broke through another section, she landed hard on the ground and flopped about due to its elasticity. Her saddlebag's contents were also knocked around and fell down inconsistently.
Taking a moment to reorient herself, the mare realized she was covered in a sangria-colored mucusy membrane "Ew. Gross!" she complained. She tried pulling it off her, but she made it worse when she realized she was standing in more of it.
She looked around to see herself standing in a colossal cavern easily twice the size of Canterlot, per her perceptions. Massive stalactites, the size of houses, dangled from the ceiling above and dripped with mucus. Most of them were covered in glowing, tiny green pods numbering the hundreds. Below was a large pit comprised of several layers imitating an open-mining zone, and to the top-right of the cave, glowing along most of the wall, was a bright white-yellow moss imitating the light of the sun as best as it could, but it succeeded.
"This is amazing," the mare said. She tried to recover most of her belongings to put back in her bag, but had an unfortunate gag reflex every time she saw a gooey strand of the mucusy substance stretch from the ground and itself. "That's gross..." She stifled a regurgitation and looked around again. "Where are the changelings?" She remained silent to try and hear buzzing. "Unless they aren't here."
"Oh, they're here alright," an imposing female voice boomed.
Two holed black hooves latched onto the edge of the ledge a few steps away from the mare. It pulled itself up and stared down at the pony from a height only Celestia ever managed to reach.
"You're a long way from home," the figure mused. She lowered her face to the explorer's. "You weren't trying to find us, but we found you." The figure chuckled.
"Not at all. I was looking for you, in fact," the mare explained.
The figure was taken off-guard. "You what?"
"I'm Honey Blossom, and I was looking for you after hearing rumors about other broods existing." She squeed internally. "Oh, w-wow!" she spoke nervously. "I found a hidden changeling hive! On my first try, too! The rumors were true. There's more hives out there."
The figure grunted in displeasure. She stepped closer to the mare, letting her better see the queen before her. The changeling's body was just as black as Chrysalis', but where that changeling had green, this one had a blue-purple tinge. Depending on the angle, the colors would change from deep-blue to deep-purple and vice-versa. Her mane was shorter than Celestia's, with the right side not going further than her lower-jaw. The right side went past and stopped at chest level, but the ends resembled multiple little insect legs perpetually wriggling thanks to the lighting reflecting off of the black ends. Here eyes were a deep, full shade of violet, and upon her head sat a crooked horn twisted into a hook with its end pointing to her left.
"How did you even know there were other broods?" She walked around slowly while she talked. "We were very meticulous in hiding our existence." Her colorful parts glowed in the dim light, accentuating her eyes, flapping wings, and the purple tip at the end of her horn.
Honey smiled sheepishly. "W-well, I overheard of the rumors after some...no on really knows what he was, but he rambled about knowing Chrysalis and her brood before anypony else discovered them, then--"
The queen shot a look at the mare by bending her head backwards over her shoulder. "Chrysalis?" she repeated. "I know not of this 'Chrysalis', but if she's stupid enough to have revealed herself and her brood to the outside world, then she does not deserve my pity."
The mare scratched the back of her head then pulled it back and stuck her tongue out in disgust. "Well, she IS the one who attacked Canterlot."
"THAT WAS HER?!" the queen bellowed in absolute rage. "No changeling attacks a massive city of food! It doesn't matter how many of us there are. That never works! This is something all queens were taught at a young age."
Squishing noises filled the caverns, and they originated from the mucus. Changelings hiding underneath it started to push out of their camoflauge and look at the mare. Much like their queen, their eyes, wings, tails, and torso had a purple-blue tint to them. Several unhooked themselves from the stone walls and landed next to the pony. She screamed when she saw them.
"They have claws!"
Some of the changelings looked at each other with confusion, while the queen shook her head.
"They're retractable hooks. We live in mountains. We need a way to climb around."
"B-but..." Honey looked at the queen's hooves. "You don't have any."
" 'Retractable'," the queen emphasized. Two hooks folded down from her forelegs then returned. She passed a hoof through her mane then tilted her head to the side. "I suppose you want to know my name since you gave me yours." She frowned.
"T-that would be--" She flinched from a changeling hissing aggressively at her. "That would be nice."
"It's Pronotum."
"That's...not what I expected."
The queen put a hoof to her head then threw it at the mare figuratively. "Why would you even come here if you thought changelings lived here? Did you expect us to be happy friends?" she spoke in a mocking tone and accentuated it by ending on an exaggerated smile. "Changelings don't make goodie-goodie."
"B-but, Chrysalis' old brood became a peaceful hive. They even share the love they receive from others and one of them is even attending a school of friendship!"
The queen was becoming livid. "What exactly is this 'Chrysalis' doing?" she growled through clenched teeth.
"O-oh. They aren't ruled by Chrysalis anymore," Honey said eagerly.
"Oh?" Pronotum put a hoof to her chin and smirked. "They overthrew her?" The queen walked over to a tiny changeling carrying several green sacs and excreted the mucusy membrane from her mouth onto them. She controlled its flow using the mandibles on the sides of said mouth, disgusting the pony. The changeling took off towards the stalactites further away.
"In a way. They followed King Thorax instead, then Chrysalis refused to follow their lead."
"King?" Pronotum's curiosity made way for even more anger and confusion, and she started the pony down. "We don't have kings! Changelings don't have kings! They have queens! The broodmothers! Mine has ME!"
The queen hissed angrily then called her changelings to her. Honey Blossom didn't understand the chittering being made for the exchange, but a few dozen of the purple changelings flew through the ceiling and into the hidden tunnels.
"And these rumors originated from whom again? An old...creature?" Pronotum asked.
"Ah, yes," Honey confirmed. "He disappeared after chasing an alleged red changeling int a sandstorm."
"Red changeling?" the Queen's eyes grew wide. "If he found the red hive then he's likely dead."
"Why?"
"The red brood is extremely aggressive on account of their provenance...A jungle of sorts." She coughed and looked away. "Unless it was the red-orange hive, then he most likely ISN'T dead but is just being left alone."
"Really? That other hive sounds very passive." Honey smiled.
"It is." The queen frowned and tugged on her mane. "Well, this certainly complicates things for changelings..." She looked at the mare from the corner of her eyes. "But that leaves us the question of what to do with you." She booped the mare on the muzzle. "We can't very well let you leave."
"Wh-why not? I've got nothing for you. I-I-I just came her to discover the existence of other changelings," Honey explained nervously.
"Mmmm, but now you know we're here." Pronotum tapped her chin whilst pretending to be in deep thought.
Honey noticed her behavior and that of the other changelings and slowly came to a realization. Color flushed from her face and she started to panic. "Y-you can't--"
"Why not? Nobody would miss you," the changeling queen added. She took a step closer to the boxed-in pony.
"Ponies would come searching for me!"
The queen shook her head. "Except no they wouldn't. We moved in after learning that this mountain is notorious for its disappearances. The chances of a search party are slim." She turned around and pointed to the larger pods on the stalactites. "You'll be put in there."
"Wi--"
"You won't be killed," the queen interjected. "But you won't technically be alive either. You'll have something a kin to a dreamless sleep, and we'll be harvesting your love while maintaining your life." She approached very closely to the mare's face. "Now that's a life worthy of ponies like you."
Honey Blossom was knocked out by a drone and stuffed in a cocoon to be taken away by others, leaving Pronotum to mull over the information she acquired.
"They better find that 'Chrysalis' and bring her back here. Her 'dreams' have cost the changelings their centuries of stealth." She looked to her drones. "Go across the mountain range and look for any other ponies. Only make some of them disappear. Hide from the rest. We don't need too many disappearances, after all."
