Devotion: Love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause

Devotion. Sixty-four had felt him self able to breath better after having his carapace reformed and set correctly by the Love-carrier, now know to him as Arachne. She had not only reset his carapace but pulled as much love as she could from the other bodies with a more sophisticated and refined manner, using it she had filled his personal love reserves about half way, or so she said. He had spent the better part of the day in the bed, for once his nightmares hadn't haunted him and he had slept peacefully.

It was about noon when he had woken up, and he admitted to himself that having a peaceful slumber did feel nice. He felt more alert and more energized, deciding it was time to assist the queen after his recover he slid from the bed and stood up, his endoskeleton popped along his vertebrae allowing him a groan of pleasure as the stiffness was worked out of his muscles.

Walking to the door he opened it, only to be stopped by running into his queens bosom and falling back onto his ass. Looking up he realized who was standing before him, he quickly got into his kneeling position and crossed his chest with his arm again. "My queeeen, fforrgivve me...I sshoulld havve sennsed you comming." Luna smirked softly and stepped past him. "You may rise my prae- Sixty-four. We wish to speak with you concerning our would be assassins." Sixty-four stood and turned to face her, accessing the hive mind link.

What of them my Queen?" Luna took a seat on his bed and looked at him. "Well. For one I want your opinion, besides the one were you say you think I should kill them. And please, while you think, keep in mind that we need all the information we can get from them." Sixty-four was silent for a long moment and finally spoke again. Allow me to have three days with them. Allow me to show my queen that I can be useful in more ways than one. Luna raised an eyebrow and cocked her head as she crossed her legs.

"And pray tell my little changeling'' She stood and placed her hands on either side of his face, looking into his eyes. She realized she was letting herself slip and quickly retreated back to the bed. "Please, Sixty-four, what would you be doing for these three days?" Sixty-four narrowed his eyes and let his tongue snake over his fangs.

Breaking them my queen. I will grind their psyche into nothing and make them reveal all of the information you could ever want. My Queen. Luna couldn't help but smile at the devotion her praetorian was showing. She nodded and stood, walking out of the room as she spoke. "I'm glad to hear you are ready to prove your worth. I will make the arrangements, be there within five minuets. I want results, not broken useless changelings Sixty-four."

Sixty-four stared after her and smiled to himself, he was finally going to prove his usefulness to his queen. Her words replayed in his ears like a sweat melody. After a few moments had passed, he decided it was time to follow his given orders. Break them but not entirely, his queen must have been looking to add to the hive again, or maybe she wanted the satisfaction of the kills for herself. He shook his head of such thoughts and growled softly as he moved toward the throne room. He would need a location before he could work.

As he walked he saw both lunar and solar guards staring at him, murmuring among themselves. He was looking for a different looking guard, any variation of color or armor could indicate a higher rank. As he walked into the throne room he spotted Arachne speaking with Princess Cadence, deciding he should at least interact with both of them while he could, he could also ask about the dungeons.

He felt a hand grip his shoulder and pull him back, spinning he faced the hands owner. Looking at him with narrowed eyes he was faced with a white stallion with a blue mane, and purple armor with gold trimmings. He spoke quietly and sharply. "I know what Luna is wanting you to do. Follow me, and don't let them see you." Sixty-four wanted to know how this stallion knew what his queen had asked of him, but followed none the less.

Looking over his shoulder and slipping back out of the throne room, he slowed his pace to seem like he was following. It was infiltration 101 for the changeling, when following something, don't make it obvious. He took the few moments to gather the true beauty of the palace. Polished white marble stone ran along the castle floors, the huge ceiling giving Sixty-four a good estimate on just how many changelings could fit in the room.

The stained glasses that filled the hallways depicted many things, what he could only assume were recent events based on the six mares that were in the glass. Further down he spied older events. What looked like a taller and darker version of his queen, being what he could only assume was banished, to the moon.

Looking from the stained glass he turned a corner to follow Shining Armor, this hallway, absent of guards. He followed Shining Armor into a locked room and looked around, many chemicals and strange looking concoctions amassed on a great deal of shelves. Sixty-four wanted to know why Shining Armor had led him here.

"Whhhatt iss thiisss?" He hissed out gently and moved to stand next to Shining Armor, who was currently rummaging through a case that was filled with both bright and dim liquids. Shining Armor looked up at the changeling and grinned deviously. "I'm sure you heard about the changeling invasion that happened, well. Being turned into a love producing slave is not fun, lemme tell you." Setting out a few vials, needles and syringes each with its own marking, or some form of identifier.

"Turns out after the invasion I still have some pretty pent up anger and rage for changelings in general. You have no idea just how hard it was to NOT kill you when I first saw you, but seeing princess Luna crying like that? I wouldn't have been able to live with myself, not to mention what Cadence would have done." He shivered and pointed back at the box "So, since the invasion I've had...associates bringing me special mixes of things that have been banned from being used during 'interrogation' by the Equestrian government. You aren't part of Equestria, so, these are perfectly legal for you. Shame I won't get to use them on those changelings though, but that's where you come in."

Sixty-four was beginning to like this particular pony, and he saw quickly what the captain had wanted him to do. "Yyyou waannt me tttoo bee a tool of youurr haaattee." He hissed softly, earning a nod from the captain, who turned and looked at him, after he shoved the box toward Sixty-four. "Indeed I do, if your found out though, neither of us were here, understand?" Sixty-four nodded and Shining Armor continued. "Good, now, a quick rundown of whats in the box."

He pointed to the bright pink one first. "This is known as Scarlet, contains a mix of foreign poisons from the Dragon Lands, Zebrica, and manticore poison for added effect. They have all been diluted to decrease the lethality but increase the severity of pain felt. It can overload pain receptors and in small doses give the target decreased pain threshold and increase the sensitivity of the receptors."

Nodding to the vial that had several swirling strands of red and black, held within a brown liquid were inside. "This little cunt is known as Breaker, for good reason. It's a fear serum that causes extreme paranoia, and extreme hallucinations both visual and auditory, and paralysis will set in within the first five minuets of use." Sixty-four nodded and grinned. The queen would be quite pleased with his results.

Nodding to the last one that was a plethora of what looked to be black, blue, and purple colors, Shining Armor shook his head sadly. "Pray you don't have to use it. It's known as Shocker, looked down upon because of its effects. It's a serum that puts the target at ease for around twenty minuets, during this time you can get them to do anything, drugs, suicide. Hell I've even heard that some dragons used it to destroy a zebra's life so much that ten years after he killed himself after the initial use. He had been living a total lie, friends, wife, kids, job, parents. All of it had been set in his mind by the dragons after the Shocker took its hold on him." Shining put them all back into the box, and looked at Sixty-four.

"Make them hurt. Your probably also wondering how I knew you were going to torture them?" Sixty-four nodded gently as he picked up the box. "It wasn't hard to tell after hearing Luna tell the guards to vacate, only took connecting the dots to see the picture." Shining Armor yawned and headed for the door, looking into the hallway and giving the all clear they both exited the room, going their separate ways. Sixty-four teleported back to his room and went to the bathroom, they would stay here until he needed them.

Arachne had been speaking with Princess Cadence for a little over thirty minuets now, having discussed what a love-carrier was, how they were made and how important they were during times of war. Her queen had called for her telepathically and she excused her self from the conversation. Passing Cadence's husband, Shining Armor on the way out of the throne room.

As she drew closer to the royal chambers that held her queen resided in she noticed that the guards were absent for some reason. Walking in she saw her queen staring at herself in her own mirror, observing her dress as it hung just above the ground. Arachne smiled and approached, bowing to her. "My Queen." Luna smiled and spoke. "Rise my changeling, I have a few questions concerning this...new queen hood I find myself in." Arachne raised herself and looked at her queen, puzzled. "Whatever do you mean My Queen?" Luna motioned to a small tea table with two cups set out, a kettle settled between the two.

Arachne took the hint and sat across from her queen, staring at her intently. Luna smiled and took a sip of tea before clearing her throat to speak. "How will this effect me? and don't play coy my changeling. I have already noticed a few changes in myself." Arachne nodded and suddenly her throat felt parched but she spoke anyways.

"During a changelings transition into queen hood, she can expect a few things to happen. For one they will experience a higher emotional connection with the more important changelings, i.e. me or your praetorian my queen. Secondly they will get a sense of motherly protection for the hive, doing almost anything to keep it safe. Third, and this is rare, some queens are will be capable of taking direct control of a member of the hive, at the cost of leaving themselves vulnerable. Fourth the new queen may go through some type of physical change, this can be anything from minor things like fangs being larger or longer, to a whole new body being made, or maybe in your case, a new mind set. Fifth, the new queen will seek to enlarge her hive, or add to it in some way, either by numbers or just general enlargement of the physical hive. And the sixth change..." Arachne trailed off and looked away from her queen, looking instead out into the now orange and pinkish sky.

Luna raised an eyebrow and leaned closer. "What is the last change Arachne?" Sighing softly she looked back at her queen. "The final change a queen will go through is the mind set that all other hives must be destroyed. This is the reason the changelings have been at war for some time. Though, a legend has stated that somewhere, here in Equestria, is a queen that rid her self of this change, and her changelings have been prospering ever since, problem being, no other changeling queen or hive that has set out to find them has ever found them, so they have been deemed a myth, but...I believe that since you are in the very early stages of queen hood, maybe we can stop the final or maybe even all of the changes from happening." Luna stood and walked to her balcony.

Sighing she set her hands on the edges of the balcony, Arachne joined her and Luna gave her a glance, still looking out over the city. "Arachne."

"Yes my queen?" She asked as she moved to stand beside Luna.

"How do you know all of this information? Ms. Sparkle also mentioned earlier when she sought my sister and I that you were a Chrysalis named changeling? what does that mean?" Luna was now facing her love-carrier while leaning on the balcony.

Arachne looked at her queen and shuffled nervously. "W-well, my queen, I know this because Queen Chrysalis struggled with the same problems, and being a queen named changeling means only one thing." Arachne gulped before steadying herself. "She was my mother."

Author's Note

I hope you all enjoy the chapter and hopefully it built the world a little more, and hopefully it will bring some questions forward for you all to think about. Until the next chapter, I bide you all a farewell, and I hope you have good days/nights.