Winds of Change

Chapters

Knowing Happiness
Dream Shattered
Desperate Measures
A Vow to Uphold
Friends in Need
Home, Bitter Home
Underground
To Invade the Invaders
House of Horrors
First Blood
Wait in Suspense
Fallen Apart
Cornered
Do or Die
Lead by Example
A Destiny Fulfilled
From Bad to Worse

Knowing Happiness

As I sat at the small table, watching little Flurry Heart pour imaginary tea into tiny toy teacups and serve them to her company of plushies, I was entranced once again by the carefree joy she radiated. Nothing surprising in it, I knew; in all her short life she had known only the best of the best that this world could offer! She had a home to live in, she had food on her table, and toys to play with, and a seemingly endless supply of diapers, and always somepony ready to change them whenever it became necessary… but most importantly, she had family and friends who adored her and wanted only the best for her, people who would never stop showering her with love.

So much love! Only months ago, even a thought of just a tiniest fraction of such love would make me lose my mind in starved desire; my mouth would water in anticipation of the sweet sustenance, and all my restraints would barely hold my tongue behind my fangs and keep it from hissing uncontrollably, preparing to take what it wanted regardless of how unwilling anyone was to give it. In those days, I might have been jealous of anyone who’d had what I couldn’t. My kin wouldn’t have let that stop them; they’d always been notorious for doing just that! But I knew better; I’d always known better than to assume I could take whatever I wanted and never ask myself what damage that would do to the others, even when I’d forced myself to ignore my conscience and act contrary to what it demanded for the sake of being left alone by those who hadn’t cared and, after all, simply surviving. I’d always suffered because of that, so much that I’d taken a great risk and embarked on a journey to find a better way, one of sharing rather than taking. My quest had been long and difficult, and it had nearly claimed my life; but it had led me here, where I’d finally found peace, friendship, and love.

Cooing and giggling, Flurry levitated another cup and offered it to me. I took it in my hooves and pretended to take a sip. Only half-pretended, actually; though there was no tea in the cup, it was filled with an aura of love that she’d shared with me, intentionally or not. Though I wasn’t hungry at the moment, I accepted that love gratefully. I always would!

I may have once been jealous of ponies like Flurry, ponies who had so much love around them when I’d had none, but that was no longer the case. I had no reason to be jealous anymore; I had plenty of love readily available now, more than I would ever need! And I wasn’t just taking it anymore, even though few ponies around me still had second thoughts about sharing it with me; I was giving love too whenever a chance presented itself, and it felt just as good as receiving love, if not even better!

Indeed, sharing love was a blessing like I’d never known in my old life! It left no room for jealousy and greed; all that remained in my heart was the desire to return the kindness that had been shown to me, to show kindness to anypony who needed it whether or not I might get any in return, and to know I’d helped someone when they needed help and made their day better!

It warmed my heart that Flurry would never suffer the woes that had troubled me in my younger days. She would never be forced to obey bloodthirsty tyrants or to follow rules against her conscience; she would have a chance to select and follow her own path. She would never be bullied or beaten or ostracized for showing love and compassion; she would be praised and admired for doing so! She was so lucky to live in a world where there was a place for everypony and a friend around every corner! If anything were to happen to challenge that, I would defend her to my last breath, and not just because I thought I owed it to her parents for having given me the chance to experience the same blessings! I did owe them a great deal - my life, in fact - but I knew and understood all too well what the alternative was like, and for as long as I lived, I wouldn’t wish it on anypony!

A melodious voice snapped me out of my reverie.

“Oh, Thorax, there you are!” Princess Cadance entered the room, carrying a colorful book in her magical grip. “Sorry to break up your tea party, but it’s Flurry’s bedtime now. You can hang out tomorrow again!”

“Of course, Princess!” I bowed lightly, getting up from the table. “Sweet dreams, Flurry! I’ll see you in the morning!” I waved to her, getting a pout in return.

“Now Flurry, that’s no way to treat a friend!” Cadance frowned at her daughter. “Say goodnight to Thorax!”

She smiled and waved back at me. I grinned back again, then left her with her mother.

“Good girl! Now, bedtime story! How would you like to hear about-”

Having walked down the hallway and turned the corner to the staircase that would take me a floor below, I couldn’t hear what tonight’s story would be about, but it didn’t matter. I probably wouldn’t have known that story anyway, and it would have been rude to eavesdrop. It might be a good thing to try and find some stories to read to Flurry myself the next time my turn came to watch her, I decided. I’d have to ask Sunburst for recommendations. Being such a bookworm, he was bound to know a few! While I was at it, I could inquire about more books I could read for my own education and entertainment; the ones he’d recommended me so far had been simply amazing, and I was getting close to finishing the last batch!

I returned to my room. The evening sun shone through the window onto the few possessions I had: a bed, a cupboard, a couple of cushions to sit on, a table with a half-finished painting on it, a few finished paintings on the wall, the aforementioned stack of books, and a flowerpot with a buttercup sprout whose brothers grew on a hill on the outskirts of the Crystal Empire, in another flowerpot next to the statue of my first friend, Spike the Brave and Glorious, and in an orchard in Vanhoover I’d brought them from on my journey. I took a pitcher and watered the flower, then sat at the table to continue working on the painting I’d started the day before. I could see it wasn’t going to be groundbreakingly impressive in terms of quality of execution, but some improvement was noticeable compared to the first few I’d attempted, so maybe there was some hope for me yet.

Thorax, the first painter among changelings. I chuckled at the idea.

Soon it was too dark to keep painting, so I just sat next to the window, enjoying the view of the night sky. It was something I could never do before my acceptance as a citizen of the Crystal Empire! Back in the hive, I’d rarely had a reason or excuse to be near one of the exits from which I could see the outside world regardless of time of day, and later, after I’d escaped, it had been too dangerous to get lost in the moment when I’d had to pay attention for any signs of search parties trying to hunt me down or hungry beasts eager to turn me into dinner. But those days were over now, and I could at last enjoy the soothing scenery in the comfort and safety of my new home.

Realizing I was getting tired, I went to bed. Tomorrow would be a new day, another day with so many new things I could do, and I intended to be fresh and rested for it!

Dream Shattered

I woke up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason. A pony, as I’d noticed during my time here, would have just shrugged it off and gone back to sleep, thinking nothing of it, but my life had taught me caution: there may have been a reason for such a seemingly random occurrence, and so far it had usually paid off to look into it and make sure nothing… undesirable… was going to happen. So I lay awake, wondering what might have interrupted my sleep. It couldn’t have been a nightmare; I’d actually had a pleasant dream, one in which Spike was teaching me how to make cupcakes, though they did turn out somewhat peculiar with all the cauliflowers and gems sticking out of them, but he kept assuring me they were quite delicious… What, then? I wasn’t hungry or hurting or anything of the sort! I thus turned my attention to my surroundings. Sometimes, back in the hive, a few drones with too much time on their hooves and not enough duties to put their energy to good use would sneak up on me for a surprise attack during the nights when they’d know Pharynx to be out on duty; but this wasn’t the hive, I had no reason to expect surprise attacks here in the safe and friendly Crystal Empire, and anyway, I could neither see any peculiar movement in my room nor hear any strange sounds. The night was as quiet as I’d ever known a night to be!

There wasn’t a complete absence of sound, though. I could still hear the soft rustle and murmurs I’d grown accustomed to during my time here: the hoofsteps of night guards and activity of occasional insomniacs were no reasons for concern. I’d, in fact, grown so accustomed to them that I’d probably miss them if I stopped hearing them suddenly, but that wasn’t the case tonight. No unexpected noises disturbed the night, either, such as that one time when Sunburst had stayed up late enough to lose focus on a spell he’d experimented with and caused it to backfire very loudly, or like when Flurry had kept the entire castle awake with her coughing and sneezing for a full week upon catching a cold after she’d accidentally undone her mother’s health-keeping spell… but, amazingly, even the lack of sleep hadn’t made the ponies love her any less!

This digression of thought led me to finally become aware of the one peculiarity I could notice in this otherwise perfectly unremarkable night: something was happening to the aura of love in the Empire! In my still-half-asleep state, I couldn’t put my hoof on what was wrong right away; the aura was about as strong as usual, but something was different about it, something that sent chills down my carapace.

A bad feeling growing inside me, I got out of bed, and still in the dark, walked quietly to my flowerpot, where I found the pitcher with some water still in it. Working under the assumption that cold water would help wake me up completely, I poured a little over my face. It helped, and I was now beginning to think more clearly.

Focusing fully on the aura again, I noticed first that although still strong, it was gradually, slowly but steadily, getting weaker. This alone didn’t mean much - after all, the aura did fluctuate in strength regularly, depending on the ponies’ collective and individual moods - but there was something else… something ominous... something I was sure I’d sensed before…

A moment later, I knew what it was: the aura had become murkier and chillier than usual; I’d forgotten the feel of such an aura by having been exposed to a consistently clear, warm one for months, one that reflected happiness and content… but this one was tainted by worry and fear of some of the ponies creating it… much like it had been during the time leading up to my integration into pony society here in the Empire, while I’d still been hiding from the Royal Guard teams trying to hunt me down upon having been spotted and taken for an enemy!

Something was, indeed, very wrong, and my subconscious mind had taken notice of it while I’d slept, and the only warning sign was of a kind that ponies couldn’t perceive! I had to investigate! I didn’t have the slightest idea what might be going on or what I was going to do to deal with the situation, but the realization of possible danger had left me wide awake, so I couldn’t go back to sleep anymore even if I hadn’t cared to figure out what was happening!

Something told me it would be a good idea to go as Crystal Hoof as a precaution until I knew more.

Continuing to pay attention to the love aura as I left my room and went sneaking through the dark hallways of the castle, I noticed soon that the cold murkiness of fear was diminishing rapidly, but rather than restore itself to its familiar strength, the aura was left suddenly much, much weaker than I’d ever known it to be around here - a feeling so jarringly foreign and out of place that it disturbed me more than anything else out of the ordinary so far. I couldn’t figure out why, but I was sure it meant the Empire was in great danger!

My mind went immediately to the Prince and Princess. I should tell them about my concerns, and as soon as possible! They would know what to do!

But how would I approach them? I’d never had to wake them up in the middle of the night… well, at least I hadn’t done it intentionally. They’d been very considerate during my first days - nights - here, when the nightmares with flashbacks of my old life and the fears I’d endured during my escape from the hive had regularly resulted in me waking up screaming in the middle of the night, which would then inevitably wake them up due to my bedroom being almost directly below theirs… good thing Princess Luna had figured out how to visit my dreams to calm me, or I’d likely still be in such a state almost every night! We’d all been so relieved when I’d finally succeeded in sleeping peacefully throughout the night, and I hated the thought of having to wake them again now! Sure, this was in all likelihood an emergency, but would I be able to convince them of that?

Careful to avoid making a sound, I crept up the stairs and through the hallways, rehearsing how to best describe my concerns to them without having them dismissed as a matter of no real concern. I was halfway satisfied with what I’d come up with when it occurred to me that I wasn’t sure what the proper protocol for such a situation was: should I knock on the door and wait to be invited in, or should I enter and shake them awake? I was concerned they might not hear a knock, but though I knew where the royal bedroom was and had seen it once or twice from the outside through the window, I’d never actually been inside, and it felt so awkward to just barge in unannounced, especially at this hour!

But upon reaching the door of their bedroom, I realized my dilemma might have been uncalled for: the door was ajar, and a stream of flickering light poured out from inside! Cadance and Shining Armor were awake after all! But had they sensed the same thing that had caused me concern - after all, Cadance did have the ability to sense love, though I’d never inquired about the extent of that ability compared to that of the changelings - or had somepony else come to them for something unrelated to this?

Had something happened to Flurry Heart?

Reluctant to intrude on whatever was going on in there, but eager to avoid missing an opportunity to approach the Prince and Princess in an appropriate way, I peeked into the room.

Immediately, I recoiled at the sight. Though the lone torch cast only a dim light, it was all I needed to see that my fears had been justified!

The room was in disarray, objects thrown about everywhere as if there had been a nasty fight, but miraculously, none of them broken, and for the briefest of moments, I wondered how neither I nor any of the ponies had heard any noise. Two figures stood in the mess, near the connecting door that led to Flurry’s room, looking around slowly, taking in the surroundings, unaware of an uninvited guest watching them from the darkness. As they grinned, the reflection of the torch danced across their sharp fangs. As they moved, so did their eerie shadows on the nearby wall, distorted by the grotesque features of their bodies I knew too well, the gossamer wings and hole-riddled legs so alike my own!

I put a hoof over my mouth to contain the gasp that would have given me away for sure. How had they found me? And what were they doing in the royal bedroom?

Was Chrysalis here?

“Ugh, this is all too cute for my taste! How long are we supposed to be here, again?” groaned one changeling, kicking a pillow into an overturned nightstand, and unknowingly drawing my attention away from all kinds of worst-case scenarios that were threatening to overwhelm my mind.

“Yeah, it is unbearable,” sneered the other, “but at least I have an excuse to wreak havoc whenever I want, which I can already see will be all day! It’s gonna be so fun watching those pathetic ponies try to handle me!”

“Quiet, you two!” A third figure, out of my sight until now, hissed in a familiar voice while approaching them. “Or at least don’t speak in your own voices! Are you trying to attract the guards’ attention? There’s a reason we’re here, and I suggest you act accordingly!”

The other two obeyed the false Shining Armor, and a momentary flash of two green flames later, the likenesses of Cadance and Flurry Heart appeared before him.

“Good,” not-Shining concluded. “No funny business from now on - or else!”

He then turned and walked towards the door I was standing at.

I stepped aside immediately and flattened myself against the wall right next to the door. Luckily for me, there was a niche I could duck into, because the impostor stuck his head out and looked around before shutting the door closed, apparently satisfied there was nopony around who might have witnessed something they shouldn’t have.

Sooner than the echo of the door closing had died down, I was fleeing away from there as quietly as I could. What to do now? Not only had the worst happened, I no longer knew who I could trust! I’d seen three changelings, but what promise did I have that they were the only ones? For all I knew, everypony in the Empire might have been replaced! Or nearly everypony, I corrected myself, considering these three were still trying to avoid getting recognized for what they were! Either way, the Royal Family was in danger! If anypony could have stopped the changelings, it would have been them!

With no better idea where to go, I instinctively ran back to my room, panting wildly as I shut the door behind me and leaned against it. I remained like that for a moment, catching my breath and attempting to gather my thoughts and calm myself so I could figure out what to do... until another flash of light startled me into full-blown panic.

“Whoa- calm down, Thorax… calm down, it’s me!” a familiar voice spoke behind the glowing horn as its light dimmed and yellowish-white hooves caught me by the shoulders.

“Sunburst?” I squinted at the stallion. “What… what are you doing here in the middle of the night?”

“I need your help, Thorax!” he gasped. “I was upstairs in the astronomical observatory, doing some research… you know how I get whenever I find a new book… anyway, I’d been reading for a while and I guess I got so immersed in the stuff I stopped noticing what was going on around me, but a few minutes ago I got up to look through the telescope… but before I got to look at the stars, while I was still calibrating the telescope, I saw five figures fly out of one of the floors below me… I think- no, I’m pretty sure it must have been the living area… anyway, they were changelings and they were carrying cocoons - two large ones and one smaller! I think they captured some ponies! We gotta do something!”

“Why didn’t you go to Cadance and Shining Armor, then? Why come to me?”

“I-I-I… I guess I panicked… and I guess I got worried they were here for you, and I’m so relieved to see you’re alright! You’re probably right, I should have gone to them! Let’s go there now!”

“First,” I stopped him, “how do I know you’re not a changeling yourself?”

“Can’t you tell?” His jaw dropped.

“Assume that I can’t,” I persisted. I really couldn’t tell; I didn’t know of any changeling who could see through another’s disguise - a flaw in our abilities than had been vital in my escape from the hive.

“Um... let’s see… we first met when you pretended to be a crystal pony to earn our trust, but then revealed yourself when the love around Flurry overwhelmed you?”

“How about something that isn’t public knowledge around here,” I hissed at him.

“Oh, right… um… you remember the first day after Shining Armor relented to Cadance’s insisting to let you out of the dungeons where he put you after you’d admitted to have given in to hunger and fed on a pony during your journey here? Flurry launched a bowl of hot oatmeal in your face, you hissed in pain and scared her into crying, and then you ran off and turned into a vase because you thought Shining was going to kill you… and it was easy to find you because you were trembling in fear. Will that do?”

“What color was the vase?” I insisted, knowing the real Sunburst had been there.

“It was blue, very light blue, with purple meanders around the base and the rim!”

“And when I entered this room a minute ago, how did you know it was really me?” I’d calmed down, knowing now that the pony in front of me was really my friend, but I genuinely wanted to know how he’d recognized me.

“I’m pretty sure no impostor would have thought to act like they were scared out of their skin, and you have been known to freak out from nightmares,” he explained. “Besides, you haven’t worn that disguise in quite a while - must be two or three months now - and I find it unlikely that a changeling could have guessed what your preferred disguise, so to call it, must look like unless they’ve seen it, and if they’d been here to witness you use it while you still did, they’d have probably done something about you by now, don’t you think?”

“I guess so,” I admitted. “So, what should we do?”

“Wake Cadance and Shining Armor, of course!”

“Actually…” I hesitated. “Is there anyplace safe we could talk? I suddenly don’t trust anything in here to not be a changeling in disguise.”

“Now that you mention it, I’m not sure there’s a single room in the castle we could be sure about! I can’t even vouch for my own house!”

“What about outside the castle?”

“Hmmm… with so much stuff in the streets that could be strategically-placed changelings in disguise, we’d probably have to get out of the city entirely, maybe even all the way into the snowy outskirts!”

I considered this for a moment.

“Then I hope your hooves can handle the cold,” I said grimly.

Author's Note

In case anyone's wondering, the vase Sunburst mentions is a nod to one of my favorite Thorax fanfics, Dear Small Pony Book by Carapace.

Desperate Measures

Nights were harsh this far out of the city, almost at the outer limit of the Crystal Heart’s effective radius, but we found we couldn’t trust any place closer to the city. We’d left the castle in secrecy, eyes wide open for anything out of place and anypony awake at this hour, ears perked up against any slightest unexplained sound. We’d known this would only work as long as we were in the castle, and that as soon as we stepped out into the street, we’d be visible from afar, and quite suspicious at that, considering how few ponies had reasons to be out and about in the middle of the night. It was a risk we’d had to take, and as long as we were in the city proper, we could probably come up with an explanation for what we were doing if anyone were to ask - not that anyone should, considering Sunburst was a well-known and respected citizen, but those we were worried about might not necessarily know that.

Sunburst must have guessed all this himself, as he led the way through the city roughly in the direction of his house. We weren’t really going there, but it would serve as a good excuse if anyone were to question our intentions.

I could see that Sunburst didn’t like our current situation. He was both sweating and shivering, his breaths came out shallow, his eyes darted wildly left and right, and he recoiled at every rustle of the leaves of the nearby trees and bushes. Every so often he would glance back in the direction of the castle, and I would put a reassuring hoof on his shoulder to encourage him to keep going. I knew exactly what he was going through; it wasn’t that long ago that I’d been there myself!

We walked in complete silence all the way, not uttering a single word since leaving my room and all through the city and its outskirts. By an unspoken agreement, we were looking for a place where we could be fairly sure the changelings would have no convincing disguise to resort to in the given environment, no matter how long we’d have to walk to get there. We finally found it in a snow-covered dell, where not even a rock disrupted the flawlessly smooth whiteness. The Crystal Heart’s magic was failing this far out and the gusts of wind shot through every so often, but the storm clouds were still kept at bay, a blizzard raging just a couple dozen hoofsteps further out.

We nodded to each other. The snow hadn’t been disturbed for a long time so it wasn’t likely anything might be hiding beneath, we were too far out of the city to be seen by naked eye, and even with binoculars one would have to know where to look; the blizzard hid us from anything lurking further ahead, and the howling wind would drown out our voices. This would indeed be a good place to talk without worrying that somepony… or some-not-pony… might overhear.

“What’s going on, Thorax?” Sunburst broke the silence with an urgent, trembling voice. “Why did we have to go all the way here when we should be telling Cadance and Shi-”

“They’re gone, Sunburst!” I interrupted him. “The changelings took them!”

His eyes grew even wider.

“What?! How do you know?”

“A disturbance in the love aura woke me up,” I explained. “Okay, it took me a minute to realize that was the reason why I woke up, but anyway, it got me worried, so I went to investigate and tell somepony, but when I came to Cadance and Shining’s bedroom, the door was ajar and I saw the room in chaos and three changelings inside! One already looked like Shining, and the other too turned into Cadance and Flurry before my eyes! I nearly got caught spying on them!”

“Wait, Flurry too?” Sunburst was beside himself by now.

“Yes, I’m afraid.” I hung my head. “So I ran off to my room… I didn’t know where else to go… I didn’t expect to find you there!”

“So that’s why you were so frightened when I lit up my horn!”

“Yes… I thought at first they’d found out where I was and were there to capture me, but then you said you saw more of them leaving with cocoons, and it must have been at around the same time as my part of the story if not before…”

“So Cadance, Shining, and Flurry must have been in those cocoons,” Sunburst finished my sentence, then slapped his forehead. “Of course you couldn’t tell me that while we were still there! If any changelings had disguised themselves as your furniture, they’d know we figured out their secret, and they’d have to dispose of us right then and there! Depending on their orders, just knowing that I’d seen them fly away might not have been urgent enough to warrant immediate action on the part of any of them that might have been in the room with us!”

“Plus, you called me by my real name even though I was disguised,” I reminded him. “Not that it would have mattered much in terms of leaving us alone after all that talk about having seen changelings, but no need to add to their temptation to catch us or to stick around waiting for it to happen!”

“Right,” he grinned sheepishly. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking straight.”

“Heh, I understand how that could have happened,” I reassured him. “But we are still here, aren’t we?”

“Yeah,” he sighed. “But you do realize what this means, don’t you? We don’t know who we can trust anymore! We have to do something, and we’re on our own against a dangerous enemy! Even worse, as soon as we get separated, we won’t know whether or not to trust each other the next time we meet!”

“I wish Spike were here,” I said after a moment. “He told me he’d gone to all kinds of world-saving missions with Princess Twilight and her friends! He said they’d had plenty of close calls and impossible situations but always found a solution! Maybe he would have an idea what to do!”

“That’s it!” Sunburst’s face brightened. “We can ask Princess Twilight and her friends to help us!”

“But, they’re all the way in Ponyville…”

“No reason we couldn’t go there!”

“Won’t anypony notice us missing?”

“Yeah, you’re right… Suppose I stayed here and you went to Ponyville? Being as prominent here as I am, I don’t think I could leave without my absence being noticed almost immediately, and it would get you out of the way in case the changelings figure out that you’re supposed to be here! Meanwhile, I could try to cover for you and do what I can to minimize any damage they might do to the Empire! And working alone, I won’t have to discuss my plans and actions with anypony and risk revealing myself in the process!”

“I don’t know, Sunburst… it sounds dangerous! You could still get caught!”

“I understand the risks and am willing to take them!”

“So am I in a situation like this! Look, I’m the one who used to live with them, I’m sure I’ll figure something out to avoid detection! You go to Ponyville and get help!”

“But you can’t stay! For all we know, they already know you’re around here somewhere and are looking for you!”

“I’ll disguise myself and remain disguised until they’re dealt with!”

“And what happens if they find a way to collapse that disguise? Or if you become unable to maintain it or drop it on your own for whatever reason?”

He had a point. I didn’t know what I’d do to save myself if that happened!

“And if they catch you conspiring against them?”

“I’m pretty sure ponies conspiring against them is their starting assumption wherever they are and whatever they do, so catching me in the act wouldn’t surprise them in the least. They’d probably just cocoon me and put me away where no one would stumble upon me. But you’re still a wanted traitor in their eyes, even if you have been presumed dead, and I imagine Chrysalis would celebrate the day when she gets to kill you! Face it, I’m the one with better chances of survival if caught!”

I let out a sigh of defeat.

“All right, you win. I’m not sure how I’ll make the journey there, but if I did it once already while weak and starving, any by a much longer route, I guess I can manage.”

“I know you will, Thorax! You have more strength and resourcefulness in yourself than you realize!”

“Something tells me I’m going to need twice as much luck. We both will!”

“And I hope we’ll have it! Now, it would be quickest to take the train, but the next one isn’t running for another few hours, so you’d have to wait, but I’m not sure that it would be safe for you to stay here that long. You think you could fly out of here to get to a probably safer town further south and board a train there?”

“I could if I manage to get through the blizzard. But those changelings obviously did, so I guess it won’t be a problem. Only, I can’t do it in this disguise... You think it’s safe enough to shapeshift here?”

“Probably safer than anywhere else in the Empire at the moment. If there were any changelings around to see us, they’d have gotten suspicious about us standing and talking in this weather by now!”

I nodded in agreement.

Okay, here goes…

A crystal pony turned into a pegasus. We waited a couple of minutes, but there were no signs of anyone having seen the burst of my magic.

“Okay, I guess I’m all set… wait, how will we recognize each other when I get back? Assuming I don’t run into any surprises on my way, of course.”

“Can’t we do something like those questions you asked me in your room?”

“We could with enough time and privacy to go into detailed descriptions, but we can’t count on having that. We’d need something short and hard to randomly guess!”

“Good point. How about…” he came closer and whispered in my ear, “...I say ‘blue vase’, and you say ‘purple meander’?”

“Maybe a little obvious if they overheard that conversation we had in my room, but good enough in an emergency, I guess, and I don’t exactly have a better idea,” I whispered back. “But better to back it up with those detailed questions as soon as an opportunity presents itself if necessary!”

“That’s it then. Good luck, Thorax, and be careful!”

“You too, Sunburst,” I replied.

Having shared a long final hug, we parted ways.

A Vow to Uphold

Despite the bad weather at the outer limit of the Crystal Heart’s protective reach and my expectations of how harsh the surrounding blizzard would be, crossing the threshold into unprotected airspace was quite a shock, both physically and mentally. The winds were raging much stronger than the ones I remembered from my arriving flight into the Empire months ago, and the blizzard created a curtain almost impossible to see through. I kept relatively close to the ground, or at least what I thought was the ground, in hope to retain some sense of direction and minimize falling damage in case a gust of wind should knock me down, but after a while, I wasn’t sure which direction I was flying in anymore. I hoped I was at least going roughly south, but there was no sure way to tell! For all I knew, I could end up back in the Crystal Empire any minute!

The one thing I took comfort in under the circumstances was that the other changelings would have had to pass through this same snowstorm, no matter what their final destination was, and I was fairly sure I could guess where they were going. With any luck, they would end up getting lost and flying in circles, thus either wasting time and allowing me and the help I’d find to catch up to them before they reached their likely destination, which would make it much easier to deal with them, or they would end up accidentally returning to the Crystal Empire and hopefully run into any remaining ponies capable of standing up to them!

But several hours of strenuous wing-flapping later, my hopes began to sink as I realized the snowstorm wasn’t as strong anymore as it had been just after I’d left the Crystal Empire. Either it was calming down, or I’d successfully flown through it! And if I’d made it through, so would have the other changelings! If they’d kept their course, they could be miles away by now, considering the headstart they had, and I didn’t even know yet for sure whether or not I’d flown in the right direction, not to mention the strain on my wings!

I was starting to wish I’d waited for the train. A few extra hours of lying low might have been a smart compromise in exchange for a safe passage through the snowstorm with the luxury of being protected from the vile weather and knowing the train wouldn’t unexpectedly head in a wrong direction!

Then again, I’d forgotten to take any money for the ticket, and I really, really, really didn’t want to go back to the Crystal Castle under the circumstances. Besides, what if some changelings had anticipated that somepony might see them and run away to save themselves or get help, and transformed into coins that the said pony would take, so they would stop him or her in time?

Get a hold of yourself, Thorax! What are the chances that such a pony would take the right coins - or the wrong ones, depending on the point of view - and how would they know which pony would take the coins? How many changelings would it have to take to replace enough money in the Empire for such a strategy to make sense, anyway? They might as well have launched a full-scale invasion again with those numbers!

The storm was clearing completely, or maybe I was reaching the end of it, and once I got past the mountains, a magnificent sight opened in front of me: the morning sun shining over a landscape with meadows and forests and fields spreading wide, a number of cities here and there, more mountains on the horizon, and a rainbow-hued river almost directly below me. If only I weren’t on an errand of emergency; I could have stayed here all day and relished the beauty of this land that I recognized from my previous travels as Equestria proper!

I breathed a sigh of relief. I was on the right path after all! But where were the changelings I was after? I couldn’t see any specks in the distance anywhere in the air around me, not a trace of anything that might resemble a group of creatures with cocoons in tow. It seemed reasonable to expect they wouldn’t have had any major difficulties in passing through the snowstorm after all, so if I hadn’t gotten lost or misdirected, they shouldn’t have either! Had they hidden somewhere? I didn’t think they would; it could increase their risk of getting discovered if they picked a wrong hiding place, and anyway, Chrysalis would want her captives delivered as soon as possible! Of course, it could be that their mission was to take the cocoons elsewhere, or maybe some of the changelings were too injured by the snowstorm to keep flying… Possibilities were many, and I was alone! How was I supposed to search every abandoned house and every forest and every cave and-

I froze in place.

Cave…

The thought triggered a memory of a find from my journey of searching for friends, the memory of a day when I’d stumbled upon a village in a wasteland and a nearby cave where a team of Chrysalis’ soldiers dispatched to hunt me down had taken shelter. Unaware of my presence, they’d discussed the latest update to their mission, or better said, a reassignment to a new one: having failed to find me in months, the hunter teams had been recalled, except for a few that, from what I’d overheard, had been tasked to prepare for a mission even they hadn’t known the particulars of at the time.

Even then, though I’d failed to learn anything about the supposed mission, it had felt like something incredibly important. After all, why would Chrysalis just give up looking for a traitor she’d undoubtedly wanted badly to punish and send the same soldiers who had hunted that traitor to do something else? Whatever her reasons had been, they must have been of an even bigger importance than exacting punishment for the most serious offense a drone could commit! Unfortunately, I’d never learned anything more about the said mission, having chosen my survival over investigating some nefarious scheme I’d known nothing about and might have been unable to do anything about even if I had!

I’d also vowed that, if I ever found out what that mission entailed and was in a position to cripple their efforts, I would.

And now, I believed I finally knew what they’d been preparing for. Of course it would have been a higher priority to Chrysalis than hunting me down! If I’d died, the hunters might not have found my body anyway no matter how hard they tried, but if I’d survived long enough, having control of an empire would make looking for me much easier! Chrysalis hadn’t cancelled the hunt for me; she’d just postponed it until she could gain more power, something she was always working towards regardless of my actions! In fact, for all I knew, my escape may have actually postponed her plans to replace the Crystal Empire’s royalty until her soldiers could find me or at least until she could be reasonably sure there was nothing to find!

But why would she replace the leaders of a relatively small empire in the middle of a frozen wasteland? Surely the princesses of Equestria would come to aid-

Oh, no…

The significance of her having assembled several teams for the mission, plus backup announced for a later phase of the preparations, suddenly clicked. My heart sank at the thought of what I might find when I finally reach Ponyville.

Get going already!

Pushing my feathered wings to flap faster than my undisguised ones would, I shot through the air, hoping against hope I’d find nothing catastrophic had happened there before I could have stopped it.

Friends in Need

Even with wings pushed to the limit, I was nowhere near Ponyville by nightfall. I wanted to keep flying through the night, but my strength failed me, and I was forced to land and take a break. I allowed myself a short nap in the forest, having come to the realization that I would collapse if I kept pushing myself. The team of changelings would have had to take a break at some point, too… unless a fresh-and-rested team was waiting at a prearranged location to take over. That thought snapped me instantly out of my half-sleep and made me keep going, no matter how tired.

I spent the next day travelling as well, running and flying in turns. I finally reached Ponyville a few hours into the night. The castle was easy enough to find; it was the largest, tallest building in town, and I even if I hadn’t seen it once before during my journey, its appearance was unmistakable. The streets I flew over were peaceful enough, so if anything had happened, it must have gone unnoticed. The aura of love suggested no worries, but it was considerably weaker than that of the Crystal Empire, so I wasn’t entirely sure I hadn’t missed anything; but then again, it had been pretty much the same the last time if I remembered correctly.

So far, so good, I reassured myself.

Having reached the castle, I hid in the nearby bushes to survey the area and plan my approach. There was no movement outside, and no unexpected objects in sight, save for a traveller’s wagon parked at the base of the castle. It didn’t look like something the changelings might use, but nevertheless I decided to keep my eye on it.

The outside may have been perfectly tranquil, but something was going on in the castle! Though I could sense some love within it, its aura was tainted with the same murky chill as the one I’d felt in the Crystal Empire! I had no doubt about what would have caused it!

I hid deeper in the bushes. What should I do? Who to ask for help now?

But before I could figure out what to do next, there was a flash of magic near the wagon, and Starlight appeared with a blue unicorn, both of them wide-eyed and panting frantically.

“We can’t deal with this,” moaned the blue mare. “We’d need to get the princesses! But they’ve all been taken! What are we going to do?!”

“Relax,” Starlight attempted to soothe her. “That changeling only mentioned Celestia and Luna! And yes, okay, they’ve got Twilight and the girls too, but they said nothing about Cadance! I think I can teleport us there in a few jumps, but we-”

“It’s too late for that,” I interrupted her before she disappeared into what could easily become her undoing.

Both mares let out a shriek upon hearing my unexpected statement. Starlight lit up her horn.

“Don’t blast me!” I said as I got out of the bushes.

“Why shouldn’t- wait… Thorax? Is that you?”

“Yes. Look, there’s-”

“You know this guy?” Eyeing me suspiciously, the blue unicorn turned to her friend.

“Yes, he’s… wait a minute…” Starlight’s horn lit up menacingly brighter. “What happened to the crystal pony?” she demanded.

“I needed the wings to get here, but then the crystal eyes weren’t convincing, so I had to modify them,” I explained, understanding what she’d meant, but her friend obviously had no idea what we were talking about.

“Did I accidentally have one of Zecora’s experimental potions for dinner?” She threw her hooves up in the air. “What’s all that supposed to mean?”

“Oh, right,” I mumbled sheepishly, remembering I was still in disguise. “Is it safe to show her?” I asked Starlight.

“The only changelings we saw were inside, so I guess it should be,” she said. “But I’ll cover you in case I’m wrong!”

Only after that reassurance did I dare to revert to my own form.

My magical burst hadn’t even fully dissipated when the blue unicorn went into a screaming fit. Starlight caught her in a magical bubble that muffled the sound, then we both looked around for any signs of trouble. Finding none, she turned back to her friend, whose mouth was closed now, but her eyes were still wide open and she was pressed up against the opposite wall of the bubble, cramped defensively, shivering all over.

“Calm down, Trixie!” Starlight spoke to her. “Thorax is a friend! I met him in the Crystal Empire last time I went there with Twilight!”

Trixie didn’t say anything, but apparently she could hear what had been said, as she shifted slightly, but did nothing to suggest that she was convinced.

“You do trust me that I’m not a changeling, right?”

A nod came in return.

“I’m going to drop the spell now, but you can’t scream, or those other changelings will hear you! Do you promise not to scream?”

Another nod.

“Okay.” She released Trixie from the bubble. “Look, I know this is hard to believe - I didn’t at first - but Thorax is on our side! He escaped from the hive because he wanted to make friends and couldn’t as long as he was around other changelings! He’s been a citizen of the Crystal Empire for months now!”

“Wait- you live there? Cadance let you live in her own land after what your kind did to her and Shining Armor?”

“Yes, although it took some work to convince them that I wasn’t there to cause harm. I actually have Spike to thank for breaking the ice.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute…” Trixie rubbed her temple. “You live in the Crystal Empire, and now you came here to, what, tell us the changelings took Cadance?”

“Yes, and-”

“So why should I believe you’re not in on it? How do I know your reason for going there wasn’t to prepare the grounds for your friends to take her?”

“If that were the case, why would I come here to tell you about it? And they’re not my friends! They even hunted me while I was on the run!”

“Okay, Thorax, so they got Cadance,” Starlight interjected. “But Trixie has a point. Why come here? Why not go to Shining Armor?”

“He’s been taken too, and so was Flurry Heart! I’ve been trying to tell you, but you both keep interrupting me! Sunburst and I decided that Princess Twilight and her friends might be able to help and that I should come here and get them, but obviously it’s too late for that, and I’m practically out of ideas!”

“This is bad,” Trixie moaned. “Starlight, you’re a smart one. What should we do?”

“I have no idea! If Twilight were here, I’d probably go to her, but I can’t think of anypony with magic powerful enough to handle this!”

I’d barely opened my mouth to reply to that when I got interrupted again.

“Why is it that, when ponies talk about powerful magic, they always leave me out?” said a surreal creature that had materialized out of nowhere, now lounging on top of the wagon, rearranging the stars painted on its roof and picking up a few of them to connect them into a chain. “If I weren’t so reformed, I might take it personally!”

I recognized the newcomer immediately. Though my training in the hive had been too basic to familiarize me with a number of creatures, Chrysalis had made sure all drones would be able to recognize this one if they ever crossed paths with him. Though she admired and envied his power, or maybe because of that, she knew that he was extremely dangerous and unpredictable… and so powerful that, though I’d only learned it from Pharynx’s rambling one time, she may have been concerned that even the best defensive measures the hive had at its disposal might be ineffective against him!

And now, here he was, offended that Starlight had forgotten about his power! This couldn’t end well! I braced myself, ready to flee or to come to whatever pathetic attempt of aid I could come up with in case he decided to unleash his wrath on her, but then the rest of his words registered in my mind: he was reformed! I couldn’t believe it! I said a silent praise to whoever had accomplished that admirable feat! Maybe there was some hope left after all!

“Discord! Boy am I glad to see-”

“Oh great, you just know how to pick the perfect moment, don’t you?” Trixie interrupted her friend. “Where were you, like, a day or two ago when your presence might have averted a disaster?!”

“I’ll have you know this isn’t the only space-time continuum in my domain! In fact, I just returned from a rather splendid adventure in another plane of existence!” He took off one of his horns and looked through it into the night sky as if using a telescope. “Too bad it’s beyond anything you could ever imagine!”

“Think again! My cousin’s neighbor told me all about that other world you almost threw her in over a misunderstanding!”

“And who made you the advocate of right and wrong? You weren’t even there when it happened!”

“Watch your mouth, you-”

“Guys, we don’t have time for this!” I tried to reason with them.

“Enough!” Starlight screamed at the same time. She was more successful in snapping them out of it, possibly thanks to a force field she’d put up between them.

“Oh, fine!” Discord relented, taking the force field and folding it into an origami boat, then throwing it away; it continued to bounce around us, which was even more admirable because Starlight had extinguished her horn in the meantime! “I was going to visit Fluttershy anyway!”

“Well, you can’t!” Starlight stopped him as he was about to boomerang himself in an unknown direction.

“And why would that be?” he frowned at her.

“She isn’t here, and neither is Twilight or any of her friends, or Celestia and Luna, or Cadance and her family! The changelings took them!”

Having heard that, Discord snapped out of his antics and into a state I wouldn’t want to come across in a dark alley...or any kind of alley.

“Where?” His eyes breathed fire and his voice shook the ground.

“We don’t know!” she replied.

“I have no way of being sure,” I interjected, “but my best guess would be the changeling hive!”

Not waiting to hear another word, Discord snapped his claw and we disappeared from the castle grounds.

Author's Note

I'm guessing at least some of you will get the reference in this chapter, and all I have to say about it is that this chapter (said reference included) was written before The Big Mac Question aired.

Home, Bitter Home

We appeared at the edge of a forest. I was momentarily disoriented by the teleportation spell, but the others didn’t seem affected. It only made sense they wouldn’t be if, as I believed was the case, they teleported around on a regular basis!

Discord was soon looking around intently. He stood in place for a moment, rubbing his chin, then went around, raising bushes and putting them back down, unzipping tree trunks open and zipping them back up, leafing through boulders as if they were books… The rest of us watched him do it for a minute, wondering what he was up to.

“What are you doing?” Starlight finally asked.

“Looking for Fluttershy… but it’s odd! I was trying to take us right to her, and she’s not here!”

So my optimism about him joining our search-and-rescue team had been premature, I realized. Well, at least he’d brought us here in seconds when the trip would have normally lasted days!

He had brought us where I thought he had, right? I turned around to check, and as I laid my eyes upon the imposing structure I’d both expected and dreaded to see, the gravity of the task ahead of us hit me harder than I’d thought it would!

“So you thought she was hiding inside a tree or a rock?” Trixie mocked Discord, unaware of my discovery and the burden it had laid on my heart.

“Thorax?” Starlight noticed me stare into the distance, at the towering spike in the middle of the barren wasteland we stood at the edge of, clearly visible in the moonlight and even more menacing than during the day like the last time I’d seen it.

“What is that?!” Trixie’s voice trembled as she took in the sight in front of us.

“It’s the changeling hive,” I told her. “I’d hoped I’d never have to come here again! But it looks like I will have to! Even if all our friends aren’t there already, some of them must be, and I’m sure the rest will join them soon enough!”

“What are we waiting for, then?” Discord exclaimed, and one flash of chaos magic later, he was in full body armor, riding a flying pig. “For Fluttershy!” With that battle cry, he raised a spear and the pig flew forward… only to vanish a second later, dropping the suddenly naked and unarmed draconequus onto the ground.

“What the…” He shook his head, then sat up, conjured up another flying pig and sent it into the wasteland, with the same result.

“I was afraid this might happen,” I sighed.

Discord sprang up and grabbed me by the throat.

“And you didn’t say anything?” he roared at me.

“I couldn’t be sure! I don’t think even Chrysalis would have known what to expect!”

Starlight teleported me out of his grip.

“Why don’t we let Thorax explain?” She looked daggers at Discord.

“I will, just give me a second,” I pleaded, rubbing my neck, then looked at Discord. “May I ask that you don’t squeeze so hard next time?”

“Yeah, whatever,” he said.

“Okay… so… Chrysalis’ throne is enchanted to suppress non-changeling magic within the radius of… well, this far from the hive,” I said, pointing to where Discord had fallen. “I don’t know if it was her doing or someone else’s, I don’t even know if it’s something done deliberately or simply an innate property of the stone the throne was carved from, though that seems less likely because objects made from such stones would have been more common, but none of that matters right now. The purpose is to keep the hive safe, and it works fine on ponies and other magic-wielding creatures, but it was never tested on chaos magic - not until now, that is - so Chrysalis couldn’t know that it would work on you! I was hoping your magic would be immune to this effect, or at least strong enough to overcome it, but it looks like we’re going to have to figure out something else!”

“Wonderful.” Trixie rolled her eyes. “I should have known this wasn’t going to be as easy as it looked with two of you!”

“And what did you expect to do to the changelings with the two of us by your side? Stun them into submission by pulling a rabbit out of a hat? Knock them out with firecrackers?”

“At least my firecrackers still function, which can’t be said for your flying pigs!”

“Oh, please! As if a hoofful of pyrotechnics can stand up against a whole army!”

“You’re right, Discord,” Starlight said. “It can’t. And we were never going to pull this off by barging in willy-nilly and hoping for the best, magic or no magic! We need some kind of plan!”

“You know I’m not much for following rules,” Discord said flatly. “How is sticking to a plan going to be any easier?”

“Grin and bear it,” Trixie chimed in. “This isn’t exactly fun for any of us!”

“Easier said than done!”

“Hmph!”

The two turned their backs to each other and pouted. Realizing she’d get nowhere with either of them for the moment, not even to get them to cooperate, Starlight turned to me.

“You’ve been awfully quiet.”

“Just trying to figure out how to get there.”

“Any ideas so far?”

“Two… but they’re full of flaws, and I’m pretty sure you won’t like at least one of them.”

“Let’s hear them anyway! I have zero, and these two don’t seem very helpful, either!”

“Okay. One, I go in the same way I got out: by flying there disguised as something that wouldn’t put the hive on alert, such as another changeling. I can’t do it looking like myself or the sentries will recognize me and I’ll get captured. But I couldn’t take any of you with me. You’d have to wait here until I get out with our friends, which I expect would be nearly impossible without anyone noticing before we’re in the clear.”

“Can’t we walk there?”

“There are airborne sentries circling the hive, watching out for intruders. We’re too far to see them even if it were day now, but trust me, they’re there all day and all night, and it would only be a matter of time before they notice something approaching, whether or not they could see clearly what, and call for reinforcements. Even if the nights were dark enough to conceal us, we can’t get there in a single night, and there’s no cover anywhere! And you can’t stay here unless you hide really well, because the border patrols would find you!”

Starlight recoiled upon hearing that and looked around frantically for any uninvited guests. Trixie and Discord cast me a startled look too, having decided this new bit of information was more important than pouting.

“You couldn’t have said this sooner?” Trixie scolded me. “We need to hide!”

“Yeah, we probably should,” I agreed. “Any of you know any concealment spells?”

“Gather ‘round close,” Starlight called to them.

They did. She formed another of her magical bubbles around us.

“That should keep us safe for the moment. Thorax, I suppose you can’t carry us there in cocoons, either?”

“It may or may not work with you and Trixie, depending on how well-known you are in the hive, by which I mean how much of a threat your magic would be considered without the suppression field and how influential you are in pony society. But I couldn’t take Discord without a very good explanation of how I managed to trick and defeat someone as powerful as he is!”

“Trixie doesn’t like the idea of being cocooned anyway,” Trixie muttered.

“Besides, once your cocoons are in their possession, I would have no say in where they would put you, and they might get suspicious if I were to follow them, so I’d most likely have to go looking for you three as well as the others, which could take a while, and I can’t promise that nothing would happen to me before I find you.”

“I get it, we can’t get in there like that without at least raising a lot of eyebrows if not giving you more work and putting you in unnecessary risk,” Starlight sighed. “You said you had one more idea?”

“Yes. We dig our way in.”

“Dig?” Starlight and Discord frowned in unison.

“Does Trixie look like somepony who carries a shovel around to you?!”

“The rest of you don’t have to dig if you don’t want to; I can do it myself!” I reassured them. “That way we can all get in, and something tells me we’ll need to work together once we’re there! But it will take time, and we’ll have to figure out how to disguise the entrance to the tunnel so the border patrols don’t find it, and how to avoid detection once we’re inside.”

They gave it some thought.

“I don’t suppose we can keep our magic while underground?” Discord asked.

“I don’t see how!”

“I might have known you were going to say that,” he groaned. “Though, if I create an air pocket directly underneath us where my magic still works, I could take us inside and we can start digging without leaving a trace on the surface! I’ll even add a pointer or a compass so we’ll know where the hive is!”

“Will that be good enough? I don’t want us to realize we’d missed our destination by a hair when we get to the opposite end of the suppression field and notice our magic is back!” Starlight voiced her concern.

“It should be,” I reassured her. “The hive has an underground part that is much wider than the one above ground.”

“If you say so!”

“How deep do you want me to go?” asked Discord.

“About half or two-thirds of the height of Princess Twilight’s castle,” I suggested.

“That deep?” Starlight asked.

“I don’t want the tunnel to open onto the surface in case of a cave-in,” I explained.

“Okay, that covers getting in, I guess. What do we do after that?”

“Well, our friends would most likely be kept in the throne room, being as important as they are. That’s at the top of the hive, so-”

“Wait, all the way up?! Trixie didn’t sign up for this!”

“I’ll be glad to send you back to your little wagon in Ponyville if that’s what you want,” Discord offered.

“As appealing as that offer may be, the Great and Powerful Trixie must keep her friend Starlight safe from harm! With the added bonus of Trixie’s presence annoying you!”

Starlight sighed and shook her head.

“Well, since we’re going there anyway, we might as well try to destroy that throne while we’re at it,” she suggested. “Please tell me that will get our magic back!”

“It might, but I can’t promise it. It’s never been done, you know.”

“If it’s like most other enchanted objects, then it should. At least I hope so!”

We sat there in silence for a minute.

“Well, that’s that, I guess, “I said eventually. “We’d better get moving!”

Discord snapped his claw again.

“The air pocket is ready. And the pointer,” he announced.

“Ready?” Starlight asked Trixie.

She shrugged as if to say, 'what choice do I have?'.

“Thorax? You?”

I took a deep breath.

“No, but let’s get it over with!”

One snap of a draconequus’ claw later, we were underground. Starlight and Trixie lit up their horns, and Discord created a number of upside-down flying candles. I sat down, dizzy again. Did Discord’s magic normally have such an effect on changelings? It had never happened with pony magic! He wasn't doing it deliberately, was he?

“Couldn’t have this been any bigger?” Trixie protested upon taking a look around. “I don’t think we’ll have enough air to last us all the way to that… that…”

“Relax, I’ll add more as we extend the tunnel! I’ll even remove the excess dirt if you can bring it to this end where my magic works!”

“Good. And you’re sure the changelings won’t figure out what we’re doing?”

“Would I lie to you when Fluttershy’s fate hangs in the balance?”

Both mares rolled their eyes. I might have, too, if my eyes weren’t still rolling themselves after that last teleportation.

“So what are we waiting for?” Trixie was getting impatient. “THORAX!” she yelled in my ear, causing me to fall over in apprehension.

“Okay… okay…” I said, getting up. “Here goes…”

I transformed into an oversized mole, bigger than my friends but not as big as a maulwurf, wanting to retain as benign an appearance as possible. My friends were on edge already; no need to frighten then even more by making them share a hole in the ground with a monster!

I got to work.

Underground

“How much longer is this going to take? Trixie is going crazy in here!”

“I’m working as fast as I can!” I told her for the thousandth time. “Do you want to take over?”

“Erm, nope.” She kicked at a pile of dirt. “Seriously, Thorax, are you sure you’re going in the right direction? We’ve been digging for days, and still no sign of that underground part of the hive you talked about!”

“Actually, it’s been more like one day, maybe two, but not more than that. And yes, I am sure. We should be there soon!”

I got a snort in return.

Though I’d been doing my best to keep morale up, it was a difficult task under the circumstances. With me digging, Discord sticking around on the other end of the tunnel where he had access to magic - we’d found by trial and error that while anything conjured up from raw chaos magic would be undone by the suppression field, things transfigured from already existing material tended to remain - and Starlight and Trixie hauling the earth I’d dug out to him to turn into food, water, breathable air, headlamps, and whatever else necessary, we’d been making steady progress; but the urgency of our task had pushed us to the limits, both physically and mentally. I feared it wouldn’t be long before one of us collapsed with exhaustion or started a fight!

As much as I hated to admit it, I was beginning to think collapsing would be a good thing, at least before we breached the hive. It would delay our progress, sure, but what could happen in a few hours? Nothing world-shattering, I could bet! On the other hoof, finishing the tunnel quickly would be of no good if we got captured shortly afterwards because we were too tired to notice patrols or to run from them!

If only I could convince myself to take my own advice!

“Is that all?” Starlight pointed at the small pile of dirt waiting for her to haul to Discord. I’d been so lost in thought I hadn’t noticed her arrive!

“Oh, right… I guess I got a little carried away… Hang on, I’ll dig out some more…”

She put her hoof on my foreleg.

“How about you take a break? You’ve been at this forever!”

“But the princesses-”

“A few hours won’t kill them! But if we work ourselves to the point where we can’t keep our eyes open… that might.” She hung her head. “And you’ve been working harder than any of us, and we can’t lose you… you’re the only one of us who knows his way around here!”

“I’m sure you could manage without me,” I tried to comfort her. Knowing the hive’s nature and my friends’ disadvantage of blocked magic, I didn’t really think they could, not for an extended period of time anyway, but would I make as big a difference as Starlight believed? I wasn’t so sure.

“Nothing doing! C’mon, you’re taking a nap, and I’ll handle Discord and Trixie if they have any objections!”

I relented and returned to my own form. I wouldn’t need the disguise to sleep, and being myself was more comfortable either way.

We walked in silence for a long time. Every now and then, I would turn back in the direction of the far end of the tunnel, one I’d been digging tediously. Though I’d been fairly sure I hadn’t strayed from the right direction, Trixie’s consistent nagging had planted a seed of doubt in me. What if I was wrong? How much longer would we end up stuck here before I had to admit it? I thought I was beginning to sense some love up ahead, possibly from cocooned ponies in the hive, but it was so faint; how could I be sure that I wasn’t imagining it out of the desire to finally be out of this darned tunnel?

And once we did get out of the tunnel and into the hive… what then? The idea to get into the throne room was insanely ambitious; could we really pull it off? There would be hundreds of patrolling guards on the way there, if not thousands or tens of thousands! How were we supposed to dodge them all? And how long would it take us, assuming luck was on our side?

But what if something went wrong? No, not ‘if’; ‘when’! A team of four intruders was bound to get noticed, especially since two of them could hardly spend five minutes together without bickering about the smallest things! Just give them an excuse, and they’d be at each other’s throats constantly! How long would it be until they got out of control at the wrong moment and the guards noticed? We couldn’t outrun the whole hive of drones bent on capturing us, but could we confuse or outsmart them?

And what about me? Starlight had demonstrated so much confidence in my ability to lead them through this; could I live up to her expectations? I’d been away for so long; how could I be sure that I still knew the hive well enough to find the safest way to the throne room, to instantly invent the most effective possible strategy for dodging the guards as and when we came across them and for getting our friends out? Had I ever known the hive well enough to do that? I didn’t think so! Was I still familiar enough with it to recognize dangers and opportunities as they present themselves? Probably, but would I come up with the best response, or at least one good enough, quickly enough? Maybe, maybe not.

And a no less troubling point to consider: could I avoid getting captured?

“What’s on your mind?” Starlight broke the silence.

“Nothing, really,” I lied. No need to put additional burden on her!

“Something’s troubling you, I can see that. Why don’t you tell me?”

“Just thinking about what happens when we get in,” I admitted.

“I see.” Her face darkened. “I take it it’s not good?”

“Well, it is going to be hard, no point in denying it. But if we’re careful, we might be able to make some progress. Mind you, that’s a long way from succeeding!”

“But it’s a start!”

“Yes. it’s a start.”

We walked some more.

“So what’s with the wings?” she asked eventually.

“Huh?”

“Back in Ponyville, when you dropped your disguise, I noticed your wings were… well, shinier than we first met, almost like you’d carved them out of crystals.”

“Really? I haven’t noticed.” I glanced at them. It was difficult to tell under such bad lighting, but I thought I could see what she meant.

“Oh… I must have assumed it was, how to call it, a fashion choice?”

I was going to tell her that my appearance didn’t matter that much to me as long as it wasn’t scaring ponies away, but then she opened the door to what I assumed was our original air pocket - the door hadn’t been there before - and the sight beyond stopped me in my tracks.

The air pocket was now several times bigger than I remembered it. Every surface was tiled with rainbow-colored, Discord-shaped marble, some of them glowing; cushions and couches floated in mid-air, and a hovering disco ball puffed clouds of vapor in which a number of goldfish swam. A flower sculpture of Fluttershy sang and tapped its hoof to its own rhythm, and a few dust bunnies were hopping all over it. The upside-down candles were still floating randomly about, some of them now turning randomly in whatever direction they pleased. The whole room was spinning on a roughly horizontal axis, and the wall contours were arranged in such a way that there was always something to step on when coming in from the tunnel. Discord lounged on the rear side of the largest couch, sipping a smoothie through the bottom of the glass and eating… changeling-shaped cookies?

“What…” I muttered, staring transfixed.

“Oh, right, sorry!” Starlight almost slapped herself. “I forgot I should prepare you for this!”

“Well, now I’ve seen everything,” I sighed, struggling to overcome my dumbfoundedness by the sight.

Discord noticed me and pushed the bowl of cookies behind the couch - well, out of sight, anyway, since I wasn’t sure what counted as ‘behind’ in the context - where they exploded in small fireworks.

“Hey!” Trixie jumped out, cradling her singed tail.

“Oopsie,” Discord snickered.

“How long has all this been here?” I asked.

“Most of the day or however long we’ve been here,” she shrugged. “Does this mean you’re done digging?”

“No… It shouldn’t take much longer-”

“Trixie clearly remembers you said that ages ago! Admit it, you’re lost!”

“I dragged him here to take a break,” Starlight stepped in my defense.

“This isn’t the time for taking breaks! The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can go home!”

“Except none of us will be going home if we’re in no condition to deal with the hive full of changelings once we get there! And we’ll need Thorax if we want to have any hope of getting through them! He needs rest, whether you like it or not!”

“But-”

“You think I like being in this situation? I don’t - none of us do! But we came here to help our friends, and let me remind you, you volunteered to stay with us even when Discord offered to send you back to Ponyville! So get a hold of yourself and think of some way to be useful, or at least don’t make things harder for the rest of us!”

Discord opened his mouth to say something, but Starlight stifled him.

“That goes to you too! I don’t want you two bickering in there where the whole hive will be on top of us if either of you lose control and start yelling like you’ve been doing half the time since we got here! Whatever it is that ticks you off against each other, I want you to settle it right here!”

“Fine,” they said in unison.

“Well, then,” she sighed. “Thorax, take some rest while you can. You’ve earned it!”

“Thanks, but mind if I don’t consider it earned until our friends are safe at home?”

“Don’t you start now!” She rubbed her forehead.

“Sorry,” I smiled sheepishly. “Are any of these cushions taken?”

“Nah, take whichever you want,” Trixie said absent-mindedly, still pouting from Starlight’s rant.

“Thanks!”

I curled up on the closest one and was asleep before I knew whether or not the others had continued arguing.

To Invade the Invaders

I woke up to the sight of Trixie and Discord sitting at opposite ends of the impossibly-colored room, each facing their own wall. Discord had moved the disco ball to his side, together with the vapor clouds and the goldfish, and Trixie had covered the tiles in front of her with her cape and hat. On the cushion levitating equidistantly between them slept Starlight, horn alight in her sleep. I was puzzled about what she could be doing with it until I turned around and saw the Fluttershy flower-statue, still singing, enclosed in a soundproof bubble.

I hope you aren’t also levitating something above ground, I thought.

I gave her a nudge. She stirred and opened her eyes, then sprang up and let out a piercing shriek.

“Hey, relax, it’s me!”

“Huh…” She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down. “Next time you decide to wake me, please do it with a pony face!”

“Okay,” I grinned sheepishly, then pointed to our friends. “What’s up with them?”

“They started arguing again while you were asleep. I kept you in a bubble of silence so they wouldn’t disturb you, but let’s skip the details and say they’re no closer to acting normally than they were earlier.”

“Anything I can do about it?”

“Not unless you can reprogram their minds, I’m afraid.”

“Trixie will not have her mind reprogrammed!”

“And even if either of you could reprogram my mind, I could easily snap it back to the way it was before!” Discord floated out of his corner and wrapped Starlight and me in a hug. “But friends don’t do that kind of thing, do they?” He winked at Starlight.

“I think I’ll go back to digging,” I said, pulling myself out of his grasp.

I transformed into the same oversized mole as the day before and grabbed a headlamp, then went into the tunnel. Somehow the room had spun just right to let me walk onto the floor of the tunnel rather than the ceiling or one of the walls. Starlight joined me, having grabbed another headlamp and a dirt cart. The others stayed in the room.

“How come did they both stay there?” I asked Starlight.

“I maaaaay have threatened them that I’d surrender them both to the first changeling we come across in the hive if they did one more thing to upset me,” she said. “Not that that would have stopped them. But honestly, I think they’re actually enjoying all that arguing!”

“So you decided to just let them while they can.”

“Something like that.”

We spent the rest of the walk talking about our other friends and about things that had happened since our previous encounter in the Crystal Empire, most of which we’d already covered in letters, but it helped us divert attention from the recent troubles and brighten the mood. The conversation continued through digging and loading the dirt into Starlight’s cart, and I enjoyed that fragment of normality in an otherwise awful situation so much that I’d almost missed something I would have noticed long ago if I’d been alone! As soon as I had registered it, however, I stopped what I was doing and moved closer to the far end of the tunnel I’d been digging up until a moment before, so close I could almost rub my face against it.

“Thorax? What’s happening?” Starlight asked in a hushed voice, as if expecting trouble.

“I can sense love from up ahead,” I explained, turning around. “We’re almost there.”

“How ‘almost’?”

“Best guess, I could probably break through with one good punch.”

“Then we better get the others!”

I nodded.

Soon we were back in Discord’s impossible room, relaying the news.

“So this is it, huh? We can finally leave this joke house and get to business?” Trixie asked.

“If you don’t like it here, why didn’t you join these two in digging?” Discord leaned in to her, offering a bucket of shovels and pick-axes. She pushed him away with a frown.

“Yes,” I confirmed. “This is it. And for the record, though I’m not really thrilled about what this room looks like either, I think you’ll start to miss it pretty soon. The hive can be… unnerving.”

“Well, finally somepony appreciates my efforts!” Discord sent balloons and confetti flying all over us.

“And I hope you’ve had your fun,” Starlight reminded him, “because you won’t have another chance until we get out of there!”

“Or until we destroy the throne!” he winked.

“I’d love to think that we could do it, but I can’t figure out how! I know a number of spells powerful enough to destroy half the hive in a single hit, but that’s no use if my horn won’t fire them! Thorax, do you have any ideas?”

I shook my head.

“Come on, you lived here! You’ve got to know something that can help!”

“I’m sorry, I just can’t think of anything! Maybe some of the higher-ranking drones would know of any weaknesses we could exploit, but I never did anything to earn Chrysalis’ trust so to be allowed to know anything useful! And even if I had, they would have modified their security protocols after my escape!”

“You make it sound like you’ll be useless to us,” Trixie said dryly.

“I hate to admit it,” I hung my head, “but I’ve been wondering all along if that would turn out to be the case.”

Starlight put her hoof on my shoulder.

“Even if a lot did change in your absence, you know the hive better than any of us. If any one of us can find a way through this, it’s you, even if you won’t let yourself believe it!”

“Thank you,” I smiled weakly.

“Can we get going already?” Discord exclaimed. “All this fuzziness is making me itchy!”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to do!” Starlight rolled her eyes.

“Wait!” Trixie waved her hooves at us. “This is all great and heroic of us, go team and all that… but what if we get separated in there? How is Trixie supposed to be sure the three of you aren’t impostors when we reunite?”

“Good point,” Starlight said.

“When I was leaving Crystal Empire, Sunburst and I set up a password to help us overcome that problem once I return with Princess Twilight,” I offered. “Obviously this was before I knew she’d been captured, but maybe the four of us can use that password ourselves? Or make up a different one if you think you won’t remember this one?”

“Sounds easy enough,” Starlight agreed. “What was the password?”

I told them, along with the explanation of what it meant. Trixie chuckled, and Discord tied himself into a knot and turned himself upside-down laughing.

“Oh, that’s priceless!” he said between bursts of laughter. “Do it again!”

“How about later?” Starlight poked him. “We have more important things to do!”

“Of course, of course,” Discord calmed down. “Let’s get Fluttershy!”

Starlight and Trixie collected their saddlebags and we finally got underway, no one bothering to point out that Fluttershy wasn’t the only pony that needed saving.

Back at the far end of the tunnel, my three comrades gathered around me, waiting for the last stretch of dirt to be cleared out of the way. My forelegs were in full swing, grabbing lump after lump of dirt, throwing them carelessly behind us, until I finally felt hardly any resistance. I stopped immediately and peered through a tiny hole that had formed where I’d last struck. I waited a bit, but there was no movement on the other side.

“Okay, I think it’s safe. Ready?”

I got hesitant nods in return.

I expanded the hole enough for us to pass through, then reverted to my natural form. One more glance around, and we stepped through the newly-formed gate.

The cavern was large, but not the largest I’d ever seen in the hive. It was of a roughly circular shape, somewhat elongated. The ceiling was uneven in height, forming dome-like recesses of varying depths. A number of irregularly-shaped pillars rose up from the floor, and innumerable holes in all surfaces led to other parts of the hive. Clusters of rocks were scattered about randomly.

And, most notably, dozens of cocoons hung from the ceiling, randomly distributed at first glance, but those in charge of maintaining them would know that the empty spots had at some point been occupied by other cocoons, now drained beyond further use and discarded to make room for new ones that would be brought in eventually.

Starlight let out a gasp upon seeing them. Discord stared in silence, eyes moving steadily from one cocoon to another, undoubtedly searching for the one mare he’d talked about ever since joining our unlikely team. Trixie clasped both forehooves over her mouth to stifle a scream.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I should have warned you that they might be here! I guess I assumed you were expecting to see this!”

“It’s- well, it’s not okay,” Starlight answered, “But we don’t blame you. You’re right, we should have expected to see this! Now that I think of it, how come aren’t there more?”

“Because this isn’t the only storage area”, I explained. “There’s a lot more of them throughout the hive. I expect we’ll pass through several others on our way up, and maybe through some other specialized areas too… that is, unless we get captured first.”

“Don’t say that!” Trixie shushed me.

“Can we free them?” Starlight pondered.

“We could in theory, but it wouldn’t be any good. Most of them would be too weak to even get out of here on their own, let alone to help us free more ponies or to fight the guards, and anyway, their absence would get noticed sooner or later and put the hive on alert. Not to mention that, in the long run, it would only result in more abductions to replenish the food supplies… uh, excuse the expression.”

“I’d like to think we can come back for them if we destroy the throne!” Starlight wasn’t giving up yet.

“Shouldn’t we at least hide that hole we made?” Trixie asked.

As if on cue, the said hole shrunk and disappeared. Trixie recoiled with a yelp.

“The hive just did it for us,” I said.

“But… but how?”

“The hive’s natural state is to shift and change on its own randomly, closing one passage and opening another, building and undoing walls, and so on. Didn’t I tell you that?”

“You told me while we were digging,” Starlight reminded me. “Trixie had by then pulled off a wagon you’d loaded.”

“Oh, right!”

“If the hive is so unpredictable, how do you find your way around?”

“I’ve never really thought much about it,” I admitted. “I guess we just do. Not all parts of the hive are equally prone to shifting, though, and we know the locations of certain dedicated areas in relation to one another, so I suppose we go where we need to go by following an approximate direction rather than a specific passage like we would in steady environments. But it has been known to turn into a process of trial and error if you run into a bad streak of gates closing in front of you.”

“I bet Discord is loving this,” Trixie muttered.

“Eh, it has potential, but it’s not quite the way I would have arranged it,” he shrugged.

“That’s all great, but can we get moving?” Starlight urged us.

I picked a gate at random and led the way deeper into the hive.

House of Horrors

We’d barely turned around the corner of this first passage when Trixie, walking just behind me, suddenly let out a gasp.

“What is that?” she said, voice quivering, pointing at the object ahead of us.

“Looks like another cocoon, only smaller than the ones in that cavern,” Starlight answered before I could, pushing past me and squinting at it. “There’s a vampire fruit bat inside. Changelings feed on vampire bats too?”

“This is a lamp,” I explained.

The three stared at me blankly.

“Can’t you see it’s glowing? Those other cocoons were glowing too. Didn’t any of you notice?”

“Now that you mention it, yes, though I didn’t think any of it,” Starlight said. “So?”

“The changeling slime used in cocoons is a good conduit for love energy, among other things it does, and the glow is a side-effect of love energy flowing through it. A little bit of energy gets used up to produce that glow, but only a negligible amount in the length of time a pony or other creature usually spends in the cocoon before getting completely drained at… uh… mealtimes.” The three winced at the expression. “Animals have far less love energy than ponies, though still enough to get the slime to glow. Most animals used in lamps get caught in beginner-level drills that all nymphs go through.”

“So you don’t eat them?” Trixie had a glint of hope in her eyes.

“We could in a pinch, but they don’t give much nourishment, and anyway feeding on animals is considered a disgrace to changelings because,” I continued in a mocking gruff voice, “a true changeling warrior only feeds on prey that had put up an admirable fight before getting caught, or one that would have resisted admirably if it hadn’t been caught by surprise. Also, because it’s seen as humiliating, forcing a drone to feed on animals rather than on ponies or other creatues normally used as a food source is sometimes done as part of the punishment for minor offences.”

“Whatever happens, we don’t - and I mean don’t - show this to Fluttershy!” Discord said gravely. “She’d be devastated!”

“Haven’t you guys heard of normal lamps?” Trixie asked. “You know, like the ones ponies use?”

“We have, but changelings are taught since early age to despise anything non-changeling in origin and only use such things while on infiltration missions in order to maintain cover. And sometimes in training, but only in order to familiarize themselves with such objects for the sake of cover credibility.”

“I don’t suppose the animals would be in any better condition than those cocooned ponies from earlier if we let them out?” Starlight asked.

“They wouldn’t, plus it would most definitely give us away. I used to free them when I was younger, but not only were the animals too weak to run away afterwards, the other changelings quickly caught on and were punishing me every time I broke a lamp, even a couple of times when a lamp was found broken and I’d had nothing to do with it, because they would just assume it had been me. I was the only one who ever did that, and I’m sure at least some of them haven’t forgotten! We might get away with releasing one or two, but if they find a trail of broken lamps again, they’d know immediately that I’ve returned! Whether or not they realize that I’ve brought friends with me, there’s no need to put them on alert to look for a wanted traitor!”

“Okay, we’ll leave them as they are,” Starlight agreed.

“Any other gruesome things you forgot to mention?” Trixie asked.

“No, this pretty much covers it, unless they invented something new while I was away,” I said. “Unless I need to mention that ponies and vampire bats won’t be the only cocooned creatures we’ll come across?”

“I could have guessed that,” she frowned.

We moved on. Discord lingered a moment longer, looking despondently at the trapped bat. I heard him whisper, “I wonder if you used to live in Ponyville…”

Before long, we passed by a number of other lamps, each causing shudders and soft gasps of my companions. I wished I could respond with the same outrage as they had at the sight of the poor creatures! There had been a time when I could, a time when I’d cried hidden in my sleeping burrow over their sad fate, a time when I would hear their pleading, desperate voices in my dreams, begging to be saved; but years of brainwashing and punishment had numbed my feelings, and though my heart had never fully stopped aching for the little animals, I’d learned to suppress my tears and tune out their voices. But living with ponies had quenched that discipline, and the long-stifled desire was beginning to stir. It wasn’t fully awake yet, fortunately for the task we were facing, or I would have given in to it; but as I forced myself to walk past the umpteenth lamp and cocoon, it gave me solace to know that the desire to free them still existed in me… that I hadn’t become a heartless monster.

Over the hours, through capable guidance or sheer luck, more likely the latter, we made considerable progress, having passed through a number of passages and corridors and climbed up enough levels to have almost certainly reached the above-ground portion of the hive without running into patrols, except on a few occasions where we’d dodged them easily enough. We talked little; even my friends had apparently become accustomed to the lamps and prey cocoons they’d found so unsettling at first. Hardly surprising, really; we must have come across nearly every creature in existence at some point, helpless in a glowing blob of changeling slime. I didn’t think they’d actually stopped caring; they must have simply learned to suppress their disgust and anguish.

My heart, however, was racing in another direction: the silenced urge to free the helpless animals was stirring more vividly by the minute, struggling to break through the inhibitions that had kept it on a leash for so long. Soon it would dig itself out of the dark abyss it had been thrust into and break to the surface!

One last restraint would have to be enough to keep it from bursting out in all its devastating glory: for the sake of all of my friends, I couldn’t leave a trail that would announce my return to the hive!

I forced my mind to ignore the lamps and cocoons and the living creatures inside them, and instead to focus on what would happen if the patrolling guards came to realize I was here. Surely I hadn’t been forgiven; they would do their best to hunt me down! And this time, they would succeed! I may have dodged them in Equestria’s forests, but they hadn’t been nearly as numerous there as they would be here! I may have grown up in the hive, I may have learned its ways, but I’d been absent too long to count on that to help me! I was just one little changeling; how could I ever hope to stand up to the entire hive in all its overwhelming, unwavering fierceness?

And what if they captured my friends?

I’d gotten myself so worked up that I stopped paying attention to where I was going. I tripped over a bulge in the uneven floor and fell face-first onto the ground. Buzzing my wings might have prevented that, but Starlight and Trixie had been walking so close behind me that they hadn’t stopped in time, and ended up both falling over me in a heap.

“Sorry!” I gasped.

“Yeah, we’re sorry too,” Starlight answered for both of them, already getting up. As she did so, her saddlebag got caught on Trixie’s, and she was left in an awkward half-standing, half-crouching position.

“Darn things!” she groaned, struggling to untangle herself. “This would be a lot easier with a horn!”

“Here, let me help,” Discord offered. Having walked a little further behind them, he’d just barely been spared of the ridiculous group fall.

He took their saddlebags off their backs quite easily, and Starlight stood up to normal position, only a little too quickly. By doing so, she kicked the saddlebags out of Discord’s grip and they fell onto the ground. Trixie’s bag opened in the process and a couple of firecracker spheres rolled out.

We all saw what was about to happen, but not even Discord, standing closest to them, was quick enough to stop the spheres from rolling over the edge of the nearby vertical shaft.

A few breathless moments later, they sounded an elaborate explosion worthy of any royal fireworks show in Canterlot.

An explosion followed by echoes of shouted commands and buzzing of countless changelings’ wings.

First Blood

For a brief moment of apprehension following the explosion, we all shared a wide-eyed, panicked glance.

“Please tell me that sound isn’t what I think it is!” Having finally gotten up and off my back, Trixie grabbed me by the shoulders, pleading.

“I’m afraid it is,” I gasped, fighting the urge to freeze in place and start hyperventilating. “Run!”

They didn’t need to be told twice. Discord grabbed the dropped saddlebags and we galloped full-speed into the nearest corridor. Fortunately, we didn’t come face to face with any guards that must have patrolled it, but it was bound to happen sooner or later! Turning back wasn’t an option, either, because the guards from lower levels would have flown up the shaft by now. The ones on higher levels would have more likely remained where they were, should they need to defend the Queen, so I wasn’t sure how likely we would be to find safety up ahead. All that was moot, though; we had to go somewhere! But where?

It was bad enough that my worst fears had been realized, but my friends’ high expectations of me weren’t making things any easier! Even on my journey away from the hive, I had at times found myself unable to think of an effective way of losing the hordes of ponies chasing me, and I’d been alone then! Now, I had three accomplices to keep safe - three practically defenseless friends who had put their trust in me, and I’d failed them! If only I hadn’t been so worked up thinking what might go wrong, I wouldn’t have tripped, and we might have remained undetected still!

Okay, enough of that, Thorax! Focus on getting your friends to safety! You can beat yourself up later!

I dashed into the nearest side-passage. There was no telling if we would find a hiding place there, but I was hoping it might at least confuse the pursuing swarms! My friends followed, and not a moment too soon, as the gate we’d just passed through closed behind us.

“Whew, that was close!” Starlight panted. “Did we lose them?”

“No,” I replied, getting frustrated groans in return. “We might have bought ourselves some time, provided there aren’t any more of them in this section, but they’ve noticed us and will put the remainder of the hive on high alert!”

“So, basically, it’s total chaos from now on,” Trixie stated.

“I’m afraid so.”

“I never thought I’d say this, but chaos is the last thing I need at the moment,” Discord sighed.

I expected Trixie to come up with a quip to annoy him, but she remained just as sullen as the rest of us.

I urged the group to move on. The section was clear for now, but that could change at any moment, and I didn’t want us to be around when it did! The more distance we could put between ourselves and our last known location, the better, or so I hoped! Over time, it would get harder for them to guess where we might be at any given moment, which could increase our chances of reaching the throne room on our own hooves. Maybe.

Except, now that they knew we were here, it wouldn’t take them long to figure out what we were trying to do, and they would tighten their defenses accordingly! If they had failed to catch us immediately, why bother combing through the entire hive when they could just set a trap and wait for us to walk into it?

For once, I dearly hoped I was wrong! But Pharynx was too cunning to fail to think of an easy and effective strategy against us! As soon as he got word that intruders were in the hive, our chances of getting past their defensive strategies would drop to zero!

Would he hesitate if he knew he was up against his own brother this time?

Let’s not find out, I told myself.

But how to explain the situation to the others? They had already panicked, even though some were better at hiding it than others, and I didn’t want to put any additional pressure on them or to say or do anything that would quench their hopes! That would lead to a disaster if we weren’t in one already! But I didn’t want to hide the truth from them, either; that wasn’t what friends would do! At the very least, they had the right to know what they’d gotten themselves into!

Whatever I was going to say, I never got around to it.

The sound of galloping hooves came up ahead of us.

“Turn back!” I hissed, but the others had reached that conclusion at the same time as me.

We didn’t get far when more galloping hooves sounded from the other end of the passage. Momentarily at a loss, I looked around. A gate had opened where it hadn’t been earlier! And it was close enough that we could get through before the guards saw us!

At least the hive’s architecture was cooperating if its inhabitants weren’t!

My friends didn’t need to be told what to do.

Once in this new hallway, we abandoned all stealth and once again launched into a full-blown gallop. I picked a direction at random, praying to whatever force dictated our fate to show us some mercy; I did that a number of times, whenever we switched to another hallway hoping it would confuse our pursuers, and it seemed to work for a while… until we’d changed directions so many times that I wasn’t sure where we were anymore.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Thorax, but haven’t we been here already?” Discord spoke to me eventually. “I seem to recognize that cluster of lamps!”

“Which cluster?”

“The one over there! There’s a fading jackalope, a fresh pigeon on the other side of the stalactite, and a drained parasprite right next to the pigeon!”

I got closer and stared at them for a minute. Discord may have been right; they did seem familiar!

“I don’t even know anymore!” I admitted.

“Wonderful,” Trixie muttered, rolling her eyes. “Just what we need!”

“I’m sorry, everyone! I did my best!” I’d almost stopped moving by now, getting on the verge of tears.

“Don’t feel bad about it,” Starlight tried to comfort me. “It can happen to anypony! Or any changeling, that is!”

“But you all put so much trust in me, and I’ve failed you! Not only that, I’ve been so careless that I’ve jeopardized our mission! It’s my fault they’re chasing us!”

“Nonsense! You didn’t roll those bombs off the cliff! We’re all equally guilty of being klutzy! If anything, I should be the one apologizing! I shouldn’t have put so much pressure on you!”

The discussion was interrupted by the sound of more hoofsteps approaching.

Acting on impulse, I took down the dark lamp that noling had cared to remove, while the others prepared to flee once again.

I’m sorry, little fellow, I said to the extinguished parasprite inside it, but I have no other choice!

I flung the lamp towards a bend in the hallway where a gate happened to be momentarily open. My aim had been perfect and my throw perfectly timed; the first guard to have come through the gate was left coughing and sputtering curses at the lamp that had exploded in his face, blocking the gate while the others struggled to get past him, and we disappeared into another hallway through a gate that had just opened.

“That was close!” Trixie grinned as we ran. “Good thinking!”

“Hey, we could use your smoke bombs like that!” Starlight suggested. “Why haven’t we thought of it before? You do have some, don’t you?”

“I’m not sure,” she said after a moment, “and it’s kind of hard to check while running like this! Discord, can you look in my saddlebag?”

He did.

“There’s just this one,” he said, taking it out. “Everything else is just props and playing cards! Why are you even hauling that?”

“Would throwing the props at them do any good?” I suggested.

“You tell me!” He pulled out a paper rose and a rolled-up chain of colorful kerchiefs.

Of course not, I thought in frustration. The best we could hope with that was to trip them, and even that would take time to set up - the time we didn’t have!

Just then, as we passed an intersection at which another team of patrolling guards was alerted to our presence, I saw a hole forming in the ceiling ahead of us. An opportunity? Possibly; we were running out of options! But what if even more guards were waiting at the upper level?

Yes or no?

At the last moment, I ran ahead of my friends, and just as I was approaching the hole, I unleashed a burst of my magic that transformed me into a crab-like monster similar to the one Pharynx preferred in battle or when enforcing discipline on any unfortunate drones who lacked it. Immediately, I spun around, grabbed Starlight and Trixie, and shoved them through the hole in the ceiling. Discord, coming up just behind them, caught the hint and was already climbing up my carapace from which he, being the tallest, easily reached the hole and hoisted himself up with a little help of his wings. I’d timed it perfectly; the hole had begun to shrink again, and the team of guards was about to be on top of us! I wasn’t going to shapeshift into a smaller form in time to get through myself!

“Go on! I’ll find you!” I yelled just in time for my friends to hear before the hole closed completely.

The guards were within my claws’ reach by now. I swung at them and launched them head-first in the direction they’d come from, then went running again. Before turning around the corner, I glanced back at them.

They hadn’t moved.

Whoa, that felt good, I realized. And Pharynx would have been proud of that punch!

Though I was momentarily in the clear, I knew it wouldn’t last long. I hadn’t hit those guards hard enough to kill them; they were merely knocked out, and would wake up in due time. And then, the whole hive would know exactly who the intruders were: though the other guards might not have seen us, these few had had enough time to take a good look at us and be able to report it later. Whether or not the magic-deprived unicorns and draconequus would concern them, they knew now that there was a rogue changeling in the group, and I had no reason to think that their list of possible candidates for that changeling would extend beyond Item One.

Soon, the entirety of the hive’s defense forces wouldn’t be looking for four random intruders.

They would be looking for Thorax the Traitor.

Wait in Suspense

An eternity passed while Starlight and I waited for Discord, hiding in a burrow near the castle’s entrance and watching team after team of guards pass by us. Whether they were simply patrolling, searching for any intruders that might have snuck in, or preparing an ambush, I didn’t know, but they worried me greatly, and the possibility of getting noticed in our hiding place was the least of it!

Immediately upon entering the castle, we’d discussed our options and decided to find a place to hide either until Discord rejoined us, or until we found out that he’d been captured. This area was better lit than the rest of the hive; Chrysalis had always had to have the best of everything, and the amount and quality of lamps were no exception. Some of the lamps here contained larger creatures than the ones elsewhere, such as dogs and phoenixes, and Starlight had flinched at the sight of them despite having grown accustomed to similar sights elsewhere in the hive.

I wasn’t having it any easier.

We’d picked our hiding spot at random among the other available burrows, and though it had been empty and small and deep enough to keep us in the shadow, away from the well-illuminated main hallway, and thus hardly noticeable to the passing guards, having only one way out of it wasn’t a pleasant feeling. The abundance of cocooned creatures all around us, prey or otherwise, helped mask our love aura from them, but we were too aware that all a guard had to do was take a closer look in the burrow and we would be done with! Splitting up and hiding in separate burrows might have been a better idea from a strategic point, since that way one of us would still have a chance of remaining undetected if the other got captured, but Starlight had openly admitted that she was too afraid to be alone here, so I agreed to stay with her, even dropping my disguise in a hope it would help her relax.

Truth be told, I was afraid too, despite the disguises I could put on to evade the guards and despite my familiarity with the hive… or maybe because of that familiarity.

Of course, we had agreed that if we had to go down, we would go down kicking and screaming and biting, even if it would only delay the inevitable… but we weren’t going to sit down and wait to be defeated and possibly miss a chance, however slight, to turn things around in our favor!

But it had sounded so much better in theory; after all, we were just two awkward and unprepared individuals acting against an entire hive infamous for its ruthlessness! It was a miracle that we’d managed to come this far with only two of our friends captured… well, one captured and the other still being chased the last time we’d seen him, but I doubted that Discord could get out of it despite our hopes! How much longer could Starlight and I keep avoiding the same fate?

She was putting on a brave face, but I suspected that she was inwardly screaming in panic and worry as much as I was; the cold murkiness of her aura was certainly suggestive, even if I was having a hard time discerning her own aura from those of the many cocooned creatures. The throne’s magic suppression field had pushed her out of her element, leaving her defenseless and insecure; I’d done my best to give her the hope and reassurance she needed, and she had done the same for me, but with each passing moment, our despair grew and I feared that the support we were giving each other wouldn’t be enough for much longer! One mistake was probably all we would need to lose the remnants of our frayed composure, and when that happened, we would be left more vulnerable than ever, and possibly more likely to become careless or to make another mistake which would result in our capture!

I didn’t dare to think what might happen then; Chrysalis wasn’t going to give us a chance to free ourselves! She would most likely put Starlight in a cocoon, at least until she decided what to do with her, but I wasn’t going to be let off so easily! Betraying the hive was considered an ultimate and unforgivable act of insubordination, and she would make sure I suffered long and hard for it before she ended me!

Not that long ago, such a fate had been my worst fear, one that had kept me on edge throughout my journey through Equestria, and one that had fueled my nightmares even after my acceptance into pony society. But now, even that fear seemed laughable when faced with what was threatening to become the future of Equestria: with its leaders and most powerful protectors gone, the path was clear for Chrysalis to seize control and unleash her swarms of bloodthirsty minions onto the unsuspecting populace, wreaking havoc and leaving behind nothing but pain and destruction! And there would be no one left to stop it!

Sunburst could do something, I thought for a moment. But he was just one pony; how would he know who to trust, and how would he ensure his own safety? Would he even realize I wasn’t bringing help before it became too late?

And once she was done with Equestria, what would stand in Chrysalis’ way when she decided that she wanted even more power, and invaded and conquered other lands? With the strength her armies would gain from Equestria’s love supplies, she’d be unstoppable!

“Hey, relax, everything’s fine!” I felt Starlight grasp me by the shoulders and shake me a little. “Thorax, calm down!”

I shook myself into focus.

“Huh, what? What happened?”

“You were starting to hyperventilate, and I was worried the guards might hear you!”

“Oh… thanks, I guess.”

“What’s gotten into you?”

“Nothing… just overthinking worst-case scenarios.”

“Somehow I’m not very convinced about that ‘over’ part,” she said flatly.

“I’m sorry. I can’t help thinking that we’re going to fail!”

“Well it’s not over until it’s over, and we’re still standing!”

We sat in silence for a minute.

“You know, I just realized I haven’t eaten since some time before we got into the hive,” she said finally. “Not that I’ve had much time to think about food with everything going on, but this is as good a time to restore some energy as we’re likely to get.”

She reached into her saddlebag and pulled out a box of cookies.

“My friend from my old town made these,” she said, munching. “I forgot I’d put them here until just now, and they’ve gotten a little stale, but right now they’re the best meal I could imagine!”

I nodded with a weak smile.

“I just hope it won’t be my last one,” she added grimly.

“Me too.”

“Do you want some food? I mean, it’s awkward but… you must be hungry too, and you’re my friend... so... I’m okay with you feeding on me…”

“It’s fine,” I told her. “I’m not hungry.”

“But I didn’t see you feed on any of the… um, cocoons… or did you do it while we were separated?”

“I didn’t.”

“Oh.” She pondered this. “How often do changelings eat, anyway? I don’t think you ever told me.”

“Changelings are always hungry, and eat whenever they get the chance. That is, every time they can catch somepony or inconspicuously steal their love while on missions, or if they are in the hive, whenever an individual drone’s scheduled feeding time comes up, which is usually once a day.”

“Didn’t you just say you weren’t hungry?”

“And I’m not! Ever since I got accepted into the Crystal Empire and made some friends, I’ve been hungry less and less often, and not nearly as intensely as I used to be! In fact, I can’t even remember the last time I felt the need to eat!”

“So, friendship feeds you automatically?”

“I guess it does!”

Before she could say anything more, we heard a familiar voice outside the burrow and saw two mismatched legs pacing about.

“Discord! How did you escape the guards?” Starlight wasted no time to find out as we were crawling out of the burrow.

“Oh, I just pulled some of my trusty tricks on them,” he replied jovially.

Trusty tricks? Wouldn’t anything Discord might call that be magic-based?

“What was in the vase?” I asked, fearing the answer he would give.

For an ever-so-short moment, he stared at me blankly.

“Oh, nothing important,” he said dismissively. “Come on, let’s hurry up! This passage here looks promising! Just to make sure nothing is waiting for us!”

He went into the passage, exaggerating caution as he did so.

Starlight and I shared a worried glance and a silent realization: this wasn’t Discord! Wherever he told us to go, we should avoid!

He got a few steps further into the passage. While he was looking the other way, Starlight raised an eyebrow in an unspoken question, and I pointed at another passage, one in a nearly opposite direction from the one the so-called Discord had tried to lure us in, and we galloped into it.

Soon we heard angry shouts and hissing behind us.

Fallen Apart

Not slowing down, we shot a glance behind us. The passage the fake Discord had gone into was still within our sight, and a large swarm was already erupting out and coming after us.

“I was really hoping they’d give us a moment longer!” Starlight groaned as we switched to another passage.

“I’m afraid they’re not known for being considerate! It’s a wonder they haven’t set up ambushes in every passage in the area!”

“How far is the throne room?”

“Too far to hoof it,” I said. “There should be another vertical shaft that leads to a couple of levels below it, if we can get to it.”

“Which way?”

“I’m not sure! I only used it once or twice, and that was quite some time ago, long enough for the whole layout of the castle to have changed! I can’t even promise that the shaft still exists, or that it’s in the same place as it used to be!”

“Could the throne room have moved, too?” Starlight’s voice was filled with concern.

“No, its walls and the outer walls of the castle are one of few, if not only, parts of the hive that are fixed in the same state permanently. They have to be for security reasons!”

“How does that work?”

“I think there’s a spell. Whether Chrysalis cast it ages ago and it’s still holding, or it needs refreshing every so often, I’m not- aha!”

At the end of the next passage was the vertical shaft I’d mentioned earlier. I honestly hadn’t expected we’d find it so soon! In fact, with so many guards still on our tail, I’d been sure we’d never get to it at all!

Not bothering with the disguise this time, I grabbed Starlight in an awkward hug and flew her up. As I was leaving our passage out of sight, I caught a glimpse of the guards catching up to us. They had to have seen where we’d gone!

A couple of levels higher, I got into a passage on another side of the shaft and pushed Starlight into a burrow immediately to the opening we’d come through, then got in myself.

“What are you doing?” she protested. “Isn’t the throne room further up?”

“It is, but let’s confuse them a little... make them think we’re still ahead of them,” I whispered as a long buzzing sound filled the shaft.

I risked a peek out. I wasn’t sure if my plan was going to work; they could have realized the shaft was too long for us to have reached the upper end unseen by them, and by the sound of it, there were enough of them to search every passage that connected to the shaft! But, though that could still happen, I was relieved to instead see them fly on ahead without stopping! They hadn’t even asked themselves if they were going in the right direction!

But my relief was short-lived: where would all these guards end up? Either they would set up an ambush in the throne room itself, which would then probably be overcrowded with changelings to the point where they’d all have to turn into mice so they could let any more in, even if there weren’t any guards lying in wait there already, or they would figure out eventually that we’d gone elsewhere and spread out to search for us. I didn’t know which possibility was worse!

If only we hadn’t revealed ourselves to the fake Discord so readily! How could we have been so foolish to take him at face value after everything that had happened?

“Are they gone?” Starlight whispered after the buzzing had stopped.

“I think so, but let’s stay here a little longer in case they decide to come back immediately.”

We waited some more, but either they weren’t going to return, or were taking some other path, possibly in smaller groups so they could cover more passages. Eventually we agreed there was little point in remaining hidden. Our friends needed our help, and we were bound to get caught if we stayed put! Moving on at least felt like we were making progress, even if we were going to get captured anyway!

I flew Starlight the rest of the way up the shaft. We got into the uppermost passage just fine, but that changed after turning just a few corners: we ran into another team of guards, not as big as that swarm from a little earlier, but still of considerable size. They reacted instantly, and we backtracked to the nearest gate, where we switched to another corridor, only to be met with another team of guards! These reacted marginally more slowly, giving us a few seconds’ head-start in an opposite direction, but the ones from the previous tunnel hadn’t given up and were still dangerously close!

Tunnel after tunnel, we picked up more and more guards on our tail. Some of them must have been the same ones from the ambush earlier, I realized. It made little difference, though; we couldn’t outrun them all, and there didn’t seem to be a way around them anymore! We were going to get captured any second!

We were running blindly and randomly by now; with so many guards on to us, no plan would have worked. We were just delaying the inevitable! But when a hole suddenly opened in the ceiling of another of the many tunnels we’d switched to, I grabbed Starlight and flew her through it, fully expecting to end up in the middle of another, maybe even bigger, swarm; but, miraculously, that passage was empty, and so were the few branching off from that point!

Finally!

We weren’t in the clear, though; the hole we’d flown through had remained open and the buzzing of wings suggested that the swarm had followed us to the upper level, but by then, we were out of sight and they had to either take a guess where we’d gone to or split up. Not an ideal situation, but still marginally better than a minute earlier, or so I hoped!

By now, Starlight had gotten pretty used to the hive and seemed to be beginning to understand it, so much that she would sometimes decide to randomly switch to a different passage without needing my input. So when she did it again in one of these passages, I wasn’t at all surprised to see her do it, and went after her… only to collide with a wall. The gate she’d gone through had disappeared right in front of me!

I was momentarily lost. Had she realized I wasn’t with her anymore? Would she have gone far? How would I find her? Would I find her with so many guards hunting for us?

Should I even try to reunite with her? Or would that risk getting us both caught?

Would we actually stand a better chance if we were together?

If only Pharynx were here! If I could ask him, maybe he would tell me what kinds of ambushes and traps he’d set up for us ahead! Maybe he would even give me a hint on how to avoid them!

Or would he? The hive had always been a priority for him; not even protecting me had come above that! Why had I been so sure he would side with me now?

The sound of approaching guards snapped me out of it. I had to get away, but couldn’t leave Starlight behind! She couldn’t have gone far; we may still be able to reunite! She could be looking for me, even!

If I could disguise myself convincingly, it might solve the problem, I decided. I almost became a rock, but stopped myself when I realized that I might get trampled by the swarm and thus revealed when I couldn’t maintain the disguise any longer, or that a guard could take me along in case I might become useful for throwing at… well, at me. A discarded weapon or helmet wouldn’t fare any better: it would likely cause immediate suspicion, and so would a lone soldier!

Only one other thing came to mind, but it would be awfully tricky.

I’d never tried such a disguise, but it had to be possible!

I got up on the ceiling and completed the transformation just barely in time before the swarm of guards came rushing around the corner; all they saw was an extinguished lamp with a snake inside it among many other lamps, most of them still glowing, and none of them paid it a second glance.

Of course, I’d had no time to create an actual cocoon. That was part of me, and the snake had been the first form I’d thought of at the moment. I would have preferred to recreate the glow somehow, too, but I didn’t know of a way to mimic it, other than filling the hole in myself with actual slime, which, even if I’d had enough time to produce enough of it, might have pushed me into unconsciousness and thus removed my disguise, and anyway, my assumption that one lamp among many others was hardly noticeable had proven correct.

I was glad I’d opted against being a rock. With so many guards, I would have been trampled into unconsciousness for sure!

I was about to become myself again when another swarm marched underneath me… and another, and one more. Whether they were there by routine or because of rumors of Starlight and me having been seen in the area, I didn’t know, but it didn’t matter by now. They were there long enough for me to realize that I shouldn’t expect Starlight to come back. Either she’d moved on without me, determined for at least one of us to reach the throne room… or had been captured. It made no difference; she would need my help either way!

As soon as I was fairly sure that no more guards were around, I dropped my disguise, then reconsidered and adopted the likeness of a guard once again. I would stand out, being alone when all the others were teamed up, but hopefully I’d stand out less than in my own form! And though I’d scare Starlight again if I reunited with her after all, I was sure she’d understand and forgive me!

Ironically, now that I looked like one of them, no guards were anywhere to be found in any of the passages I took. At first I was merely relieved to finally be left alone, but over time, I developed an uneasy feeling about it. Had I been discovered despite the disguise? Was I walking into a trap? But what could they have disguised themselves as? No objects were scattered about, and all the lamps were glowing! They couldn’t have blended into a wall!

Where was everyling?

Soon enough, upon hearing muffled voices and tracking them to their source, I knew the answers.

Author's Note

Happy Hearth's Warming, everyone! Have a couple of pictures by yours truly to help you celebrate:

Cornered

The muffled voices gradually became clearer as I crept along the hallways, approaching cautiously but steadily to the large cavern they were coming from. Soon enough, they were recognizable.

One was Starlight’s.

The other I’d hoped to never hear again, but ever since embarking on this rescue mission, had feared I’d end up having to face.

Though the echo garbled some of the words, I was able to make out the gist of it: my friend had been captured, and though questioned at length about how she’d managed to get past all the soldiers and under what insane illusion she’d been expecting to get out of there alive, Starlight held herself bravely and refused to satisfy Her with a meaningful answer.

When I was almost there, I saw that I’d been right in my expectations: the two weren’t alone; every hallway opening directly into the throne room was packed with guards. I wanted an empty one, or at least one with only a few guards; only that way would I dare to come close enough to assess the situation and try to think of what to do about it! I found one empty passage eventually, very high up, opening almost onto the domed ceiling of the throne room.

As I peered cautiously over the edge, my heart sank into a cold, unforgiving grip of hopelessness.

Every gate into the throne room, from floor to almost-ceiling, was packed with the guards I’d seen from the tunnels. Only a few were empty; they may have been occupied earlier, but those guards were now swarming the floor of the throne room, and some were standing on lower parts of the walls or hovering at a relatively low altitude. Among them, her hooves stuck to the floor with resinous slime, stood Starlight, downtrodden and trapped but not conquered, head held high, staring proudly and defiantly at the imposing throne in the center of the room and the embodiment of unforgiving ruthlessness that was its owner.

Queen Chrysalis.

Above the throne, at the highest point of the domed ceiling, was the main goal of our journey, stunningly horrid, yet fascinatingly beautiful in an utterly morbid way: an elaborate chandelier made of prey cocoons, each cocoon containing one of the captured ponies we’d come to rescue.

At the top, Princesses Celestia and Luna.

Below them, Princess Cadance, Shining Armor, and little Flurry Heart.

In the central cluster, Princess Twilight and her friends.

And Spike. My dear friend Spike!

And the lowermost section, completing the chandelier, held Discord and Trixie... and, hidden from view from my vantage point until Discord had stirred in his cocoon, Sunburst.

No…

Never before in my life had I felt so hopeless, so defeated! Sunburst of all ponies should have known to be careful! All the others could be excused by having been rendered defenseless or caught by surprise, but Sunburst had known from the start what he was up against! He was smart, and knew his enemies, and had magic - and they’d still got him!

What did you do, Sunburst? What mistake did you make?

And with you out of the way, who will defend Equestria if I fail?

I stifled a wave of tears. Think, Thorax, think! You can cry later!

My three friends had held themselves bravely, and though Starlight hadn’t yet fallen, all she could do now was to keep everyling’s attention on herself, and from the looks of it, she was doing an admirable job… for now, anyway.

Did she know I was here? Or was she merely hoping, doing what little she could from her unfavorable position to give me a chance to at least attempt to do what we’d come here to do in whatever way I could think of?

It didn’t matter. It was all up to me now, and I had to do it quickly while I still had the chance!

My options were very limited. I could only see two: one would take a lot of time, but if I could pull it off, there would still be a slight chance of getting the captives out of here before anyling realized what had happened; the other would be much quicker, but it wouldn’t go unnoticed, and I wasn’t sure if I had the magic I would need to attempt it.

I got out of my hiding spot and stepped gingerly onto the throne room’s ceiling. Starlight and Chrysalis were still in full swing, having moved on to insults, but I tuned them out. I was going to need all the focus I could get!

Slowly and steadily, I was approaching the center of the domed ceiling where the chandelier was anchored. I was leaving my options open until the very last moment, having chosen to act on whichever of my two half-plans would seem more feasible once I got in position. Then it dawned on me that I could try a middle-ground solution: instead of starting from the top and carefully opening the cocoons to let Celestia and Luna out first, I could start with Discord at the bottom, thus minimizing the risk of the chandelier tearing itself off at one of the weakened spots under the weight of the full cocoons below, and immediately after that, I could attempt to fire a magical blast at the throne, a blast which was one of few spells taught in combat training, or any other training as far as I knew. With the throne destroyed, Discord would regain his magic, and could instantly turn the whole hive into soft cheese and make the changelings dance unstoppably until everypony was safely at home, or whatever else he fancied!

Only, two problems: Discord’s cocoon was hanging low enough for my antics to get noticed sooner than I was ready, and I’d never successfully performed the blasting spell in training and had completely forgotten about it after having been kicked out of the training program.

Still, it was all I had, and Spike had once said that Twilight worked best under pressure… Maybe I would too? Only one way to find out, and it wasn’t like I had much choice by now!

Almost there… just a few more steps…

“Up there!” A guard’s cry broke my focus and interrupted Chrysalis’ quibbling with Starlight, and suddenly all eyes were fixed at the spot on the ceiling where his outstretched hoof was pointing.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Chrysalis roared at me from below, grabbing me in her magic as she took to the air.

Now or never!

I gathered up all the might and focus I could find in myself and quickly unleashed it all in a blasting spell. My horn hurt from the effort, but as much as I tried to maintain the spell, it quickly fizzled out, and I couldn’t reestablish it.

The throne was undamaged.

Chrysalis shot her own spell at me. This one was notably more successful: I was left stunned, and my disguise collapsed.

“Well, well, look who we have here!” she smirked as vindictive triumph glinted in her eyes. “Come to beg for mercy?”

The room erupted in celebratory laughter and hissing.

I flinched at Chrysalis’ superior grin and penetrating gaze. I wanted so badly to gather up the courage to face her openly, to stand up against her and defend my friends; though I’d worked hard to overcome the lingering consequences of my previous experiences with her, though I’d hoped I’d gotten past the fear and helplessness, my old wounds now reopened before her, and I was once again the puny, timid little drone that the whole hive had despised and that she had grown to be ashamed of, for I was the one warrior she had failed to create!

And now, having betrayed the hive through my search for friendship and shared love, I was about to face the full extent of her wrath.

“He doesn’t need mercy from you, Chrysalis!” Starlight rose in my defense. “You can do your worst, but he’s proven there’s a better way, and there’s no going back from there, and you know it!”

“Better?” Chrysalis snorted. “Stooping down to the level of your prey can hardly be called ‘better!’”

“Even if it helps you get more food?” Starlight smirked.

“Ridiculous! Taking what we need drains a pony completely, and it’s never enough to satisfy a changeling’s hunger!”

“But that’s stolen love! Thorax proved that even a little bit of love gives significantly more nourishment as long as it’s shared!”

“And I suppose he told you that? Are you really that stupid to think a changeling wouldn’t do or say whatever it takes to deceive others for their own benefit?”

“That includes yourself, doesn’t it?”

“Watch your tongue, pony!”

“Can’t admit the truth, Chrysalis? You said it yourself that changelings would say or do anything to deceive others! Well, you are one! And you haven’t just been deceiving ponies! You’ve been lying to your own subjects, keeping them in the dark about such important information because it gives you more power over them!”

“Silence!”

“Admit it, you know that shared love is more filling than stolen love! Whether you’ve known it all along or just learned it recently doesn’t matter! A leader who truly cares about her subjects and wants the best for them wouldn’t dismiss suggestions for possible improvement; she would listen to them and accept whatever is promising! She wouldn’t hide beneficial knowledge from her subjects; she would announce and share it with them! But you didn’t do that! Why? I bet you’re afraid they might use that knowledge to gain enough power to stop putting up with your tyranny! That’s why you hate Thorax so much: not because he escaped, not because he made friends, but because in doing so, he showed your other subjects that they can have a normal life, the kind of life you don’t want them to have because you enjoy watching others suffer!”

“And who made you the Queen of Changelings and let you decide what’s best for them?”

“You still won’t budge, will you?” Then, Starlight turned to the many drones around her. “Do you enjoy starving in the name of your queen? Didn’t any of you ever want to be sated? You can! Thorax proved it!”

Chrysalis had had enough. She unleashed a blast of magic at Starlight, who fell unconscious.

I gasped and tried to get to her. It was futile; Chrysalis was still holding me firmly in her magical grip. With Starlight silenced, she moved on to me.

“I can deal with her impertinence later,” she said, “but you’ve been a thorn in my side for too long! In hindsight, it’s hardly surprising that a useless wimp like you would want to get away from us - I should have seen it coming and dealt with you long ago - but how you got your brother to help you is beyond me!”

Pharynx? What was she talking about? He hadn’t done anything to help me! Had she misinterpreted the disguise I’d used on my way out?

I looked around the throne room, trying to spot Pharynx, wondering if he would give me a hint of what this was about. But I couldn’t find him! Shouldn’t he be here, overseeing the security of the most fiercely defended part of the hive?

Why wasn’t he here?

She didn’t…

Or did she?

Seeing the confusion in my eyes turn to fear, Chrysalis burst into a long, maniacal laugh.

Do or Die

“What are you looking for, traitor?” Chrysalis openly relished the emotional storm that she’d triggered in me, now intensified beyond measure by the revelation of Pharynx’s absence. “Expecting your brother to save you? I wonder if he would! Too bad he isn’t here anymore!”

“Did… did you…” I finally managed to utter a sound.

“Did I kill him, you mean?”

I forced out a quivering nod. She smirked again.

“And what if I have?”

My whole world collapsed at the sound of her words. How could I have been so foolish? Chrysalis had always held him responsible for my behavior; though he’d worked harder than anyling I’d ever known to prove his loyalty and earn her trust, his failure to turn me into a passable warrior had remained the one stain on his otherwise spotless record, and she hadn’t forgotten that! Of course she would have punished him for my betrayal when I hadn’t been around to take that punishment myself! I should have known her wrath would have needed an immediate outlet! Why hadn’t I anticipated that my brother would have become the target of that wrath in my absence? Why had I put him in that position? Why had I left the hive on an impulse? Why hadn’t I stayed a little longer, planned my escape strategy differently, maybe faked my own death somehow to avoid all the consequences that had followed? I may have proven it possible for changelings to share love and friendship, but I’d never meant for it to happen at the cost of someone’s life!

My face distorted into a pained grimace and rivers of tears burst from my eyes.

Oh, Pharynx, if she’s telling the truth, I’m so sorry… please forgive me…

If it’s true, she didn’t kill you… I did…

I flinched when Chrysalis burst into a full-blown, maniacal laughter that even Discord would struggle to surpass.

“You are so hopelessly gullible! No, I didn’t kill him; he wasn’t going to be let off that easily, and it would have been a shame to lose a military commander of his capability! Such talented warriors don’t hatch in every generation!”

“Then… what-”

“If he wanted to redeem himself and regain my trust, he had to earn it! I sent him to hunt you down!”

“I think you can call him back now,” I whispered, both relieved and horrified at the revelation.

“Oh, he’ll be here alright! I don’t know how he did it, but he avoided getting close to you deliberately, and covered his tracks pretty well; but all things considered, I’m going to give him one last chance to show whose side he’s really on!”

I shuddered at the ominous tone of her voice. She hadn’t noticed; she’d already turned to one of the guards.

“Bring me my sword,” she commanded.

He bowed and flew away, and Chrysalis turned back to me.

“You know whose blood will be on that blade soon enough,” she declared, “but if Pharynx refuses to put it there, his blood will be there too!”

The room was once again filled with deafening hisses of the guards and the thumping of my heart.

“And you have something that belongs to your Queen,” she added.

Her eyes glowed brighter as the commenced the gruesome, familiar act. A glowing tendril of aura of love was pulled right out of me, its rippling stream heading straight into Chrysalis’ mouth.

She may have wanted Pharynx to kill me to declare his allegiance and possibly suffer the consequences if he chose wrong, but she wasn’t going to let the love inside me go to waste, not when she could devour it!

My first instinct was to resist, to give nothing away; but though I was doing my best to hold on to the love inside me, her pull was too strong! No matter how hard I tried, she would drain me completely sooner or later!

My gaze fell onto the unconscious Starlight beneath Chrysalis’ hooves. She’d made an admirable effort, but even her best hadn’t been enough to thwart Chrysalis’ plans! Soon, I knew, she would be put in a cocoon and added to the trophy collection that made up the chandelier above.

I’m so sorry, Starlight! If I’d acted sooner, maybe things would have gone differently!

I looked at the chandelier again. Nearly all important figures in my life were trapped in it: the ponies who had opened their hearts to me, welcomed me into their land and their homes, and taught me all I knew about friendship, a draconequus who had never needed to ask for proof that there was good in me, and the little dragon who had helped start it all. And I had just let them all down!

Even if for all the wrong reasons, Chrysalis was right about one thing: I didn’t deserve to live, not after I’d failed so thoroughly to defend everything I held dear in life!

The guard returned with Chrysalis’ sword and placed it obediently next to Starlight’s unconscious body.

I stared transfixed into the sharp blade, even though I could hardly see it through the stream of love seeping out of me. If anything, it made it easier to imagine what it would soon look like, stained with my blood.

I just hoped it would be my blood only - not Pharynx’s too!

Pharynx…

With an overwhelming clarity, I realized there was one more important figure in my life beside those who were, or would soon be, trapped in the chandelier above: one who had been there before all the others, one who had stood by my side even when no one else would, who had protected me relentlessly even if it meant defying everything we’d ever known and relied on… and if Chrysalis was telling the truth, one who had chosen to throw away everything he’d ever done for the hive and betray his whole world rather than let me come to harm! He’d loved me so much without realizing it, and I was about to cost him everything: his rank, his reputation, the trust he’d worked so hard to earn, maybe even his life!

He would be hurt by it, I knew, but like the soldier he was, he would take that blow bravely and work twice as hard to restore his old glory. He might even succeed, eventually. But he would be forced to make the most difficult decision in his life, one I suspected now would hurt him more than anything: if he spared me, he would never get the chance to serve his home again, and if he didn’t, no matter what he did later in life, he would always carry the disgrace of having to kill his own brother and the bitterness of having to do it for the sake of the hive he’d cared so much about.

He’d given everything to the hive and the Queen, and what was he getting in return as a result of something that hadn’t even been his fault? If only there was something I could do to spare him of it!

I became aware of the sword on the ground beneath me once again, even though I’d never stopped staring at it. If only I could get to it; I would drive it into my own chest and at least spare Pharynx the humiliation! But Chrysalis was still holding me in her magical grip! Even if I asked to be killed immediately, I doubted she would allow it, not until she was done draining the love out of me!

An idea clicked at this thought. I couldn’t make her kill me sooner than she planned to, but she was already feeding on my love and would take it all sooner or later. Maybe she would let me keep just enough of it to survive until Pharynx was back, or maybe her hunger was so strong that she’d be unable to stop herself. But I wasn’t going to wait and see; I could give it all away freely until nothing remained to be taken! It was mine to give, and I would give it to everyling in sight; let them take it!

I couldn’t save myself anymore, let alone my friends or the whole Equestria; but I could still spare my brother of having to choose between me and himself, and if I showed the magnitude of my shared love to the other changelings in the process, all the better! With any luck, it might inspire them to reconsider everything they’d ever been taught and to walk on the path of friendship!

Whether or not it happened, I’d have done as much as I could. I’d already proven that friendship was not only possible, but salutary for changelings; it would be up to them to accept or dismiss that discovery. But I’d fulfilled my life’s purpose: I’d left a mark on this world and showed a better way not only for my kind, but for all the others who came in contact with them as well, and Chrysalis knew that, even if she refused to admit it. Killing me would do nothing to change that! Too many ponies knew my story by now, and not just ponies: I knew of at least one zebra and buffalo, and my pony friends would have told their griffon, dragon, and yak friends about a kind changeling they’d befriended. My story could have spread throughout the world by now! Chrysalis could do her worst and track down and exterminate everyone who knew of me so my legacy would be lost to history, but she could never be sure that she hadn’t missed anyone, not until the world crumbled and nothing was left but dust and ashes! That must have been the reason why she hated me so much: no matter how many times she killed me, no matter how painful and gruesome she made it, I, a lowly and despised drone, would remain undefeated to her for the rest of eternity!

My conscience was clear, my mind serene. In my final moments, I was at peace with myself and the world like no changeling had ever been before.

There was just one thing left to do.

I focused all my remaining love and unleashed it in a powerful burst, the strength of which surprised me as well as everyling else. They were thrown into the throne room’s walls by the shockwave, and Chrysalis crashed into her throne with a loud crack. The sticky slime holding Starlight in place came apart and melted into a harmless liquid, and the sword was launched somewhere out of my sight.

I’d barely registered any of that. All my being was condensed into one single thought.

Pharynx.

You were always there for me, my brother, and you’ve given me so much more than I could have asked for.

You have given me Honesty: in order to build my strength of character, you never hid or toned down the awful truths and brutality of our lives.

You have given me Laughter, even if it wasn’t your intention: by exposing me to the darkest side of life, you have taught me to see the light and hope in even the most dire situations.

You have given me Loyalty: you bravely stood by my side even when the whole world rose against us.

I was still blasting love everywhere, having tapped into its reserves and sources within me that I hadn’t even known existed.

And with my final breath, I will repay you with all I have left to give.

I will give you Kindness, so that it may heal the wounds I caused you and shield you from suffering any more.

I will give you Generosity: I will lay down my life so you can enjoy whatever beauty you find in the rest of yours.

Because I’ve always offered you nothing but Friendship; maybe, one day, you too will understand the power of its magic.

With that, the last bit of my love was spent completely, and I let myself fade into the overwhelming light.

Lead by Example

I felt myself lighter than air as I floated in the calming warmth of the neverending expanse of light. Time and space meant little, and the shell I’d once known as my body was almost fading away, but not quite; I felt it flow at the brink of existence, both material and ethereal at once, shifting ever so slightly at the fluttering ripple of this unworldly plane.

Memories surfaced and faded out; feelings flashed in painful intensity, stronger and clearer than ever. All my life, everything I’d ever been, was bound together and focused into this one point of infinity. My whole world, right there within my hoof’s reach, deep within my soul.

All of it, good and bad.

Crystal Empire and the Changeling Hive.

Pharynx and Chrysalis.

Exile and acceptance.

Hunger and Love.

Tears of pain. Tears of joy.

All of my friends.

But I was alone... so terribly alone!

Finally, I knew: this was Eternity.

Until it wasn’t.

The light faded; the shell of my endless void broke, and sounds and sensations seeped in as I was pulled back into the familiar world.

Standing up shakily on my hooves again, I opened my eyes. The throne was still there, holding Chrysalis’ unconscious body. Starlight had awakened at some point and was starting to get herself out of the pool of melted changeling slime that had kept her stuck in place.

All around the throne room, newly-formed boulders rose from the floor, but after a confused moment of wondering how they had formed in a room magicked against shifting, I realized they weren’t new: though the domed ceiling was still there, it had cracked and parts of it had fallen down, and stars on the night sky shone through the holes.

All of the changelings were still there, frozen in place, staring wide-eyed at me as if they’d seen the impossible.

Unsure about why they were so baffled, I looked myself over. I couldn’t believe my own eyes! My carapace was green, the holes in my legs had healed, and my wings were shiny and beautiful! I’d never seen anything that had looked the way I did now, and though I’d momentarily suspected this to be a disguise I’d randomly put on without realizing, a failed attempt to dispel it brought the realization this was my real form now. But how had it happened?

It must have been the love I’d given away! Starlight had already noticed the change in my old wings that must have resulted from sharing love! This had merely completed my transformation!

“You collected all that?” one of the guards spoke to me, snapping me fully into focus. “By sharing love?”

His words struck me with the full meaning of the implications of my act. I’d never realized love and friendship could be that powerful!

“I guess I did,” I sighed happily.

“And if we shared love… we wouldn’t be hungry anymore?”

“That’s right,” I nodded.

The said guard closed his eyes and focused. Nothing happened at first, but a moment later, he apparently realized what he had to do, and the aura of love began emanating from him, weakly at first, but soon it grew strong enough to form visible tendrils swirling around him, until it finally exploded in an orb of bright light that then wrapped around him like a magical cocoon.

Another guard did the same, and another; soon, more and more changelings were joining in, until the whole room was shaking itself apart, pieces of the domed ceiling falling down, dropping the cocoons that had formed the chandelier in the center, and crashing into the throne that was already bursting apart under the force of the collective shared love.

Starlight’s horn lit up and created a force field around the two of us as the throne split into a thousand fragments, saving us from the rain of the pieces of the shattered dome.

Once the dust had settled, I saw the cocoons were bursting open, both the magical ones, letting out the new, colorful - and, I hoped, benevolent - changelings, and the ones that had formed the chandelier, releasing the imprisoned ponies.

I went to help Starlight free herself, but she was already blasting the slime that had begun to harden again, and was free before I knew it. We both rushed to the fallen chandelier and tore at the cocoons still holding tight until everypony was free. They were weak and feeble, but apparently not too damaged! They were going to be fine!

They hadn’t forgotten the attack on them, though. As soon as they saw us, they flinched, took a defensive stance or lit up a horn, and cast glances around themselves, from one of us to another, then to their just-released friends, then to the mess around them.

“What is this?” Shining Armor demanded, holding Flurry in his grasp. “Who are you? Where did you take us?”

Though relieved to see them all right, I swallowed a lump in my throat at this. I should have expected them to be suspicious of us! They had every reason to; the very changelings whose love had just freed them had been the very reason why they were here in the first place!

How am I going to explain all this?

“Don’t worry, you’re safe!” I told them. “You’re in the changeling hive, but we’re not evil-”

A salvo of magical blasts from Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Shining Armor, and Sunburst interrupted my speech… and might have ended it permanently if it hadn’t been for Starlight’s quick reflexes and the magical barrier she’d erected between them and me.

“Thanks,” I said to her.

“What are you doing, Starlight?” Twilight yelled at her. “Are you crazy?”

“I’m not crazy! I know he looks different,” she said, pointing at me, “but don’t you recognize his voice? He’s Thorax!”

That only helped a little; they relaxed somewhat at the mention of a familiar name, but still kept their guard.

I stepped closer to Sunburst, who had all but extinguished his horn.

“Blue vase,” I said.

“Purple meander,” he whispered absent-mindedly, then shook his head. “But… how…”

“What was in the vase?” Discord chimed in, hugging Fluttershy but ready to unleash his worst if I gave the wrong answer.

“Buttercups and fear,” I replied, and he relaxed.

I still had a few others to convince. I addressed them one by one.

“Princess Celestia, I know we’ve never met in person, but you announced your intention to visit the Crystal Empire a few days prior to getting captured, and you sent me an addendum expressing the desire to meet me, to which I responded that I would be delighted to answer all your questions about my journey, including the full explanation of what had happened in Canterlot about a year ago, even though Shining Armor had already told you the gist of it. Princess Luna, the last time you visited my dreams, you eased my worries by telling me about your own experiences after the return from your banishment. Princess Twilight, you told me once that standing up against your own brother in order to defend me was one of the hardest things you ever had to do. Princess Cadance, you convinced Soothing Dusk to let me give her my apologies for having drained her love that night when I lost control over myself. Spike, you-”

“Oh, for crying out loud, Thorax, I believe you!” Having interrupted me, he disengaged himself from Rarity and ran up to me, only to be stopped by Starlight’s force field. “C’mon, Starlight, drop this thing so I can hug him!”

The princesses nodded to her. They believed me! They weren’t going to blast me again!

“It looks like we missed a great deal,” Celestia said approaching me. “Can you tell us what happened?”

“We came here to rescue you when we realized you were taken,” I began, “but our original plan failed, and… well, long story short, I ended up teaching the other changelings about the benefits of sharing love… these new forms are the result of it.” I looked at the new changelings standing around the room, sensing the aura of love in them that had never existed before. “I don’t think they’ll be bothering ponies from now on,” I added with a content smile.

“And I’m sure they will obey your wishes! After all, they do have a history of following their leader unconditionally,” she winked.

I stared at her blankly. What was she talking about?

“What do you mean? Chrysalis didn’t-”

Starlight cleared her throat.

“Sorry to interrupt, Thorax, but I think you may have missed one little detail!” she said with an amused grin.

“Allow me,” Discord said and conjured up a large mirror in front of me.

I didn’t know what I’d been expecting, but it certainly wasn’t this! My new face looked back at me with deep purple eyes, my fangs were nowhere to be seen - something I’d completely neglected to notice until now - and, most notably, a pair of tall antlers rose from my head. No other changeling in sight had them!

Could this mean…?

No, surely it couldn’t! How could it?

But why was I different from the others, then?

Celestia stood next to me and touched my shoulder. Seeing her in the mirror like that, I realized one more thing I’d ignored: I was about as tall as her now. That would also be about as tall as Chrysalis…

No, get a hold of yourself, Thorax! Pull yourself together!

“I think it’s obvious you’re their new leader now,” Celestia finally spoke it out loud, “King Thorax.”

King… King Thorax?

How will I ever get used to that?

All around me, the changelings bowed gracefully. Some of the ponies did, too, as well as Discord, even if a bit theatrically.

I still struggled to wrap my head around it. How could this have happened? All I’d ever wanted was friendship and peace! I’d never dreamed of taking command of anything, let alone a country! I didn’t even have the skills for that! Was I really capable of leadership? Could I figure it out quickly enough to justify everyone’s apparent trust in my abilities? What if I failed? Would that be the end of friendly changelings?

“But… but I-” I fumbled.

“No buts!” Starlight said. “You’ve earned this, you deserve to be the king, and you know it!”

Before I could protest further, a pile of debris stirred and Chrysalis lunged out furiously, horn spattering with magic.

“Traitors!” she hissed, waving her sword around.

Where had she pulled it from? Had it been thrown to her in all the commotion?

She froze in place at the sight of everyone, ponies, changelings, dragon and draconequus alike, turning against her, lighting their horns whoever had one, readying for battle. Even I sensed new magic stir in me and kept it at the ready!

Chrysalis dropped the sword, called off her magic.

We all stood like that for a tense moment.

“Aren’t you going to kill her?” one of the changelings, a green and yellow drone with pink wings, finally dared to ask.

Slowly, I took Chrysalis’ sword in my magic. As I did so, I felt everyone’s expectant stares on me.

A new king with improved magic? Let’s see what this magic can do!

Holding the sword in the air, I bent and twisted it until the blade snapped in half, then tossed the fragments away.

“No,” I declared. “There’s been enough hatred! It all ends right now!”

“You’ll pay for this yet, traitor!” Chrysalis roared, then ran off to the edge of the plateau that had until a few minutes ago been the throne room, transformed into a bat, and was lost to sight in the darkness of the night by the time we ran to the edge ourselves.

Where would she go? What would she do now that she was alone? Would she be a threat to us from now on, or would she find the part of herself that was missing and join us in friendship?

Only time would tell.

Would we welcome her back?

I didn’t know. Fortunately, I didn’t have to decide right away.

And I had more pressing matters to take care of.

“Which one of you has the highest security clearance?” I spoke to the changelings.

A blue drone stepped forward.

“Acting First Commander Psycho reporting, Your Highness,” he saluted.

Psycho.

Your Highness.

I didn’t know which of those made me cringe more.

Psycho had beaten me up more times than I could remember.

And now he was under my direct command, calling me the high titles that I still didn’t think I deserved!

If we’d ever known our roles would reverse so epically, Psycho…

I pushed it out of my mind. It could wait!

“I want you to coordinate the release of all captives held in prey cocoons,” I commanded. “Start as soon as possible and make sure they all reach their homes safely. If any have perished, find their families and return their bodies to them with sincere condolences.”

“Yes, sir!” He turned to go.

“I’m not finished!” I said, and he turned back. “Second, release all lamps. We’ll find another way to light up the hive from now on. Use healing cocoons if you have to, or ask ponies for help, whatever you need, but I want those animals free and healthy and back where they used to live!”

“Animals?” Fluttershy gasped in horror.

Oops. I’d promised Discord we wouldn’t tell her!

Discord shot me a murderous look - yes, I know, I’m sorry - and explained it to her. She broke out in heart-wrenching tears.

“Will you give them to me?” she pleaded between sobs. “I’ll nurse them back to health if it’s the last thing I’ll do! The poor things!”

“Of course, Fluttershy! Psycho will find you later and you can discuss the details with him. Third,” I turned back to the commander, “all infiltrators are being recalled to the hive and all pending missions are being cancelled. I’ll also want a list of all deployed drones, together with locations and orders they’d gotten. Fourth, I want a list of changelings in foreign prisons. Everyling not confirmed dead should be included. Fifth, ponies are welcome guests from now on, and are to be treated as such. Do you understand?”

“Perfectly,” he nodded.

“Good. Go now! I might have some more tasks for you later.”

He saluted again and left.

“Um, Thorax,” Fluttershy spoke out shyly. “Can I tag along with him? The sooner I can figure out the details of how to help those animals, the better!”

“Sure, if he doesn’t mind,” I agreed.

“I’ll come with you,” Discord offered her.

They left too.

“My friends,” I turned back to the remaining ponies, “I know I don’t have much to offer you at the moment, and I understand you may want to return to your homes as soon as possible to undo any damage your impostors might have done in your absence, but if any of you wish to stay a little longer, I’d be honored to have you! Whether or not you stay now, I hope you’ll care to come back at any time!”

“Count me in!” Pinkie said eagerly. “I’m always up for hanging out with everypony! Ooooh, we should totally throw Thorax a Becoming King party while we’re all here! Hey, we could also have a super-duper uncocooning party for all of us, with streamers, and balloons, and confetti, and cake! Lots of cake! Wait, wait, wait… we could also invite the ponies that are still in cocoons! But what if they want to celebrate with their families? I could throw each one of them their very own uncocooning party when they get home! But how would I know who they are and how many and what they like? Gotta go meet all of them and ask!” Then, as she dashed away faster than I thought possible, she yelled at the top of her lungs, “Psychoooooooo! Wait for meeeeeeeeeeeee!”

It took us all a moment to recover from this outburst of energy.

“You bet we’ll be back!” Trixie nodded, continuing where I’d left off before Pinkie had gotten in her element.

“As if I would refuse!” Spike grinned.

“Do you mind if we observe the changeling culture up close?” Twilight and Sunburst asked in unison.

I grinned widely. Of course we didn’t mind!

“Now that you mention it, I might use a few tips about running a kingdom if you’ll have the time,” I added.

“We’ll be there for you,” Cadance said. “Write or come visit us whenever you want!”

“Thanks!”

“Goodness!” Celestia gasped. “What time is it? Does anypony know?”

“It should be morning, Princess,” one of the drones told her. “I think it’s about an hour past sunrise. Chrysalis would have raised the sun like she’s been doing since your capture, but she had more pressing matters today... and now I don’t think she cares anymore...”

“I’d love to go back to Canterlot immediately,” she said, “but I should really raise the sun first!”

She lit up her horn, but found she was too weak to bring forth the day.

“Her attempts to gain enough power to raise the sun must have drained you too much, sister,” Luna came up to her. “Tap into my magic! I feel it should be strong enough to assist you!”

They touched their horns together.

We stood around reverently, watching as the two sisters’ united magic brought the break of the new dawn.

A Destiny Fulfilled

“Your Highness?”

“Yes, Psycho?”

“I’ve brought the lists you asked for.”

“Thank you. How are the other things going?”

“The ponies and other prey are still being released. So far, twenty-seven had perished, and the ponies have offered to track down their families. Am I correct in assuming you’ll still want to issue formal apologies yourself?”

“Yes. It’s our fault that twenty-seven ponies are dead; being sorry won’t change that, but ignoring our guilt won’t make it go away, either. It’s time the changelings learn to face the consequences of their actions! Can you find out who exactly captured those ponies?”

“I’ll do my best, but it could take a while. We didn’t exactly keep track.”

“I understand. When you do, gather them up and bring them to me, will you?”

“Yes, sir! As for the lamps, I’ve assigned a number of drones to take care of it, but it will be a while before they’re all released. Fluttershy has already taken some of them to her home to care for until they’ve recovered enough to be released into the wild, and we’ve arranged to remain in contact should she need help.”

“Excellent! Now, tell me how the other changelings are doing? I would have gone to check on them myself, but the ponies only just left a minute ago, and I didn’t have the time.”

“The news has spread throughout the hive, and a lot of them decided to follow your example without needing to be told to. Some did it after a bit of persuading, but there’s still a small percentage of drones who won’t budge.” He produced another scroll. “I’ve noted them down, too, in case they end up causing trouble.”

“Oh… good thinking!” I accepted the extra list. “Those who have transformed, they’re handling it well, I hope?”

“Well, yeah, I suppose… I mean, they’re a lot calmer than they used to be, and not complaining of hunger anymore, which is good I guess… but they’re getting restless. Hunting ponies and keeping fit for combat is everything they’ve ever known, myself included, but now that we’re about to become their allies, they’re kind of unsure what to do with themselves anymore, especially since you haven’t issued any orders or announced any plans yet.”

“I will soon, don’t you worry!” As soon as I figured out how to hold a speech. “Is there anything else you need to report on so far that we haven’t covered?”

“No, that would be all, Your Highness.” He bowed.

“Please, Psycho,” I groaned, “just call me Thorax, okay? I’m not comfortable with all this ‘Your Highness’ thing!”

“If you say so… Thorax,” he replied, hesitantly for the first time in all the years we’d known each other. He fumbled for a moment, as if he wanted to say something but wasn’t sure if it was a good idea.

“Something on your mind?” I encouraged him to speak up.

“It probably isn’t worth your time,” he shrugged.

“Why don’t you tell me anyway? It’s not like we’re in a hurry anywhere, and I’d like to help if I can!”

“You would?”

“Don’t you know me? Thorax, the friendly changeling, always getting in trouble for it?”

He winced.

“That’s just it! All my life I’ve treated you badly, beating you up whenever I had the excuse to and often when I didn’t, hating you for being such a wimp and a disgrace to the changeling kind… a lot of times I would have killed you if Pharynx hadn’t stepped in and pulled me off of you! I wanted to be the one leading the hunt for you after you escaped and couldn’t forgive Chrysalis for months for choosing me as Acting First Commander in Pharynx’s absence! If anyling had told me only yesterday that I’d side with you just because you’d say that you’d found the way to end starvation, I would have laughed in their face and sent them to the dungeons because how dare they think I would ever abandon the changeling ways and turn my back to Chrysalis for a traitor’s claim! Now look at me.” He sighed. “Not only that, but after that mass transformation, I came to realize how little I care about the old ways! I don’t want to hurt ponies anymore, I don’t take pleasure in petty violence… and if anything, I’m ashamed of the things I did in the past, of the way I used to treat you, of not having listened… And when I reported to you a few hours ago when you requested a high-ranking soldier, I could see that you haven’t forgotten what I’d done to you, either, and… well… I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m sorry, and I accept whatever punishment you give me.”

Punishment?!

“Oh, I’m not going to punish you, Psycho!”

He stared at me incredulously.

“Why?”

“For one thing, I don’t hold a grudge like Chrysalis! And you’ve already begun to understand the errors and flaws of the old ways, even if you may still have a long way to go! Why would I undermine that progress? You were inspired by my act of sharing love and friendship; but part of friendship is learning to forgive rather than seek revenge! How can I expect my kind to embrace that principle if I were to ignore it? And on a practical side, you weren’t nearly the only changeling to have ever bullied me, so if I were to punish everyling who had ever hurt me, there wouldn’t be many of us left, now, would there?”

“I guess you’re right,” he chuckled.

“Anyway, when are these coming back?” I pointed at the lists of currently-deployed infiltrators and prisoners in foreign lands.

“Some of them are already on the way, but most still have to report in. You probably don’t know this, but for the sake of maintaining their cover, the hive can’t contact them on a whim; almost all infiltrators keep their communicators hidden somewhere except when delivering reports or expecting a call from this end, and since most of them report on a daily basis anyway, I’ve put Elytra on standby for scheduled incoming reports since I’ve mostly been busy elsewhere. She’s the one who handled most of the infiltrators who have reported so far, and by the way, a lot of them haven’t been happy to learn that their missions are suddenly over, so I can’t promise there won’t be trouble when they get here. As for the prisoners, I’ve talked with the alicorn princesses on their way out, and they promised to deliver them by the time you formally negotiate the alliance, but we have yet to contact other lands and see if they will cooperate so readily.”

I nodded. Princess Celestia and Shining Armor had already told me the same thing.

“Speaking of which,” he added, “I should check how Elytra is doing!”

“Go then! You know where to find me if you need me!”

He saluted and left.

I sat down and took a scroll at random. It was a list of prisoners in Equestria and I skimmed over it. A lot of names were unfamiliar, but I did recognize a few, such as Coxa, who had had her infiltration cover blown shortly before my escape, and Rascal, who had nearly captured me near Canterlot but fell victim to my venom and ended up being captured himself by the Royal Guards chasing me. Both of them were listed as confirmed alive! I wondered how Rascal would react to his prey suddenly being at the throne… well, the proverbial throne at least, since the literal one lay in fragments on the other side of the plateau that had once been the throne room, the plateau I was still using as the command center, at least until I figure out something else.

I took the next scroll. This one was the list of infiltrators deployed worldwide, and it was a long one… a really long one. I skimmed through some of it as well, finding both familiar and unfamiliar names, none of which stood out especially.

I moved on to another scroll. It outlined what looked like possible future missions, as well as ideas for candidates to be included in each. I set that one aside; I didn’t have the nerve to go through it right now.

The last scroll was titled ‘Operation Doom of Equestria’. It was a list of names again, though a little different from the previous ones: at the beginning, a dozen names were paired up with a pony name, and the rest of the list was labelled ‘backups and support drones’. I realized I was looking at the names of infiltrators sent to replace my friends!

One of the twelve paired-up names stood out.

Pharynx - Shining Armor

Pharynx was in the Crystal Empire, or had been at least, depending on whether or not he’d reported in to the hive yet and received orders to return home! And I’d been so close to him without realizing it: I’d watched him through the doors left ajar, and he’d gone out into the hallway to check if it was clear, almost revealing my presence to his teammates! Had that been simple precaution against pony intruders? Or had he sensed my presence? If so, had he tried to silently warn me to leave while I could? I would ask him when he came back! I would ask him everything! And I would hug him to pieces and thank him to high heavens for sticking up for me! Oh, I couldn’t wait for him to come home!

In the meantime, I still had to figure out the details of what I wanted the changelings to do from now on. I’d already encouraged them to socialize and make friends with one another, but there was so much more they could do now that they were free from the reins of my tyrant predecessor! What would they like to do? What would their limits be? Would they even have limits now that they’d stepped out of the darkness and seen the whole world open up before them?

Let’s start small, I decided. I could start with a few simple activity groups to get them used to the idea of there being more to life than hunting for food. Painting and reading had helped me in my short time in pony society; maybe it would be a good start here too! It could help them express themselves in a wider variety of ways and teach them more about the world; it might even give them ideas of their own about what they wanted to try! I would also encourage them to share those ideas with others! There could even be official groups for sharing ideas and asking for help with problems!

If all went well, I realized, we could soon have a culture we would be proud of!

As for me, I would have the task to spread the word of the changelings’ newfound ways to other races; hopefully, one day, we would shake off our old reputation and gain a new, better one.

I’d used to think my destiny was to pave the road for friendship between changelings and non-changelings so that any outcasts like me would have a place to go to when the hive became unbearable. I had hoped that ponies and changelings would gradually learn to see eye to eye and live together in peace and harmony, but had doubted it would happen for centuries. I’d thought I’d fulfilled my destiny by having made friends with ponies and warmed them to the idea of friendship with a changeling.

But I’d been wrong. I knew that now!

Everything I’d done before had been just a prelude, the steps necessary to prepare me for my true destiny: to lead my kind into a new era, one where love would be their driving force in a new way, where no changeling would even think of stealing love because they could share it to the benefit of everyone involved.

My kind had already proven they were willing to embrace such a life. Even those who hadn’t yet would come around eventually, I was sure of it! All I needed was to find the right approach!

The same would be the case with our former enemies. It would take time, it may not be easy, but it would be worth it in the end, and I owed it to my kind. They had trusted me when it could have been the end of them if Chrysalis had had her way, and I wasn’t one to betray that trust.

I’d thought I’d betrayed them by leaving the hive, but I hadn’t.

I’d merely gone to find our bright future.

And now, I’d found it, and I was back at home.

I’d found my destiny along the way.

And with all that I had, I intended to see it through.

From Bad to Worse

As soon as I found myself in an empty passage, I adapted my disguise to look like a random guard. I doubted it would pass close scrutiny, especially if questioned about name, rank, and orders, but at least it would draw less attention than an oversized crab-spider-something running loose. I still intended to avoid crowded areas, though; all the guards we’d come across so far had worked in teams, which could have been simply the consequence of getting organized upon hearing a disturbance, but just in case it wasn’t, a lone guard anywhere near the area where the intruders had been sighted would be extremely suspicious, if not a dead giveaway, to any guards who knew that one of the intruders was a changeling.

I tried to find some confidence in the fact that I’d successfully pulled off a similar trick before: during my escape from the hive, I’d spent hours trying to find my way through one of the hive’s armories I’d stumbled into with the actual guards being none the wiser. I’d even impersonated Pharynx to the airborne sentries, and even they hadn’t suspected a thing, not until I was a fair distance away anyway! If I’d pulled it off then, I could improvise my way past the swarms of guards again! Maybe I could even pretend to join one of the teams for a while if need be, then sneak away at a convenient moment!

But the guards hadn’t expected trouble that other time, when I’d fooled them on my way out! If I’d made a mistake and given myself away then, they would have surely responded as quickly and effectively as my brother and his sub-commanders had trained them! The guards I was up against now not only expected trouble, but knew there was trouble going on right now, and were actively looking for the source of it! Would I be convincing enough to fool them in such aggravated circumstances? This was the kind of situation where advanced infiltrators’ training would be very useful, and I had none!

What if they saw through my disguise and swarmed me? Could I fight them off? Maybe the gravity of my situation and the urgency of our task would give me the strength and cunning I’d need, but I’d never been much of a fighter! How could I hope to surpass the skill of those flawlessly-trained warriors? How could I hope to measure up to the entire swarm? We’d made a couple of lucky hits earlier today, but that was no promise of the beginning of a trend! Even more because, deep inside, I was still a gentle soul who wouldn’t have even dreamed of doing such things in any other circumstances!

Wrong again, Thorax, the back of my mind suddenly whispered. An image of a moonlit street flashed in my memory: a young mare with empty eyes, lying helpless on the ground, and my starving form looming over, draining the love out of her.

No, I answered to the voice, I’d grown past that! It had been a moment of weakness brought forth by an instinct of self-preservation; not only had I stopped as soon as I could think straight again, I’d spent days afterwards trying to find the proper way to punish myself for it, and the next time I’d gotten in the same state, I’d done every precaution to never allow such a thing to happen again! This was different; if I were to harm anyone now, it would be with the sole purpose of saving my friends!

But would it be enough?

Enough with the worst-case scenarios already, I told myself. I wanted to save my friends, and the friends I’d come to save them with had been separated from me, and were roaming the hive frightened and lost! It would be no surprise if they’d gotten captured by now! I had to find them as soon as possible!

I found them a couple of hours later, much farther than I’d estimated they might have gotten on their own. Curiously, there were just two of them; I’d practically collided with Starlight and Discord just as they were coming around a corner.

They gasped, came to a halt, and spun around to flee in the direction they’d come from.

“Wait!” I yelled after them. “It’s me!”

They slowed down and glanced at each other, then at me. I trotted closer.

“Blue vase,” Starlight whispered, looking at me wide-eyed.

“Purple meander,” I answered, and the tension in their muscles disappeared. “Where’s Trixie?”

“Gone,” sighed Starlight.

“Gone? You don’t mean…”

She nodded gravely.

“They took her shortly after you were separated from us. A pillar formed in front of her and she collided with it… they got to her before she could get back on her hooves. It was a small team and she was kicking and screaming so hard that all of them had to work together to subdue her, and we were about to try to fight them when we heard more coming! There would have been too many of them to handle so we ran… I hate to admit that we were such cowards to not even try to help her! But that’s how it was! We must have broken the world record in running after that, and yes we’re safe for now I suppose, but we abandoned Trixie!” She grabbed me by the shoulders. “What kind of a friend does that?!”

“A friend who knows there’s no point in getting captured herself when she can come back stronger and save that friend,” I told her.

“You sure have a way of looking at the bright side of things.”

“I try to. It used to be the only thing that kept me alive!”

I wasn’t going to sour her mood even further by revealing to her how easily I could see the dark side of things, too.

“What about you?” Discord changed the subject. “What’s with the helmet and all?”

I dropped the disguise.

“I thought I would attract less attention if I looked like one of them,” I explained. “Look, I’m pretty sure they’ve figured out who I am by now, and on top of that, they’ve already captured one of us! I don’t see the point in sneaking anymore! We should hurry things up a little!”

“Sounds like you have a plan!”

“Only half a plan. I’m pretty sure I can get us to Chrysalis’ castle pretty quick if we get to another vertical shaft, but I still haven’t figured out how to get in the darn place. It used to be heavily guarded and I have no reason to think they would have lowered that security, especially now that we’re here!”

“I’d rather have a plan fully ready, too,” Starlight agreed, “but I don’t see how we can make one with so little information to work with. Let’s just go there! Maybe seeing how things look like further ahead would give us an idea!”

“And you’re sure you can get us there safely?” Discord asked.

“More or less. It depends on how much opposition there will be, but it’s the fastest way I can think of. It won’t go without being noticed, but unless we get literally swarmed, I think I can handle the guards we do come across!”

They considered this for a minute.

“I’ll admit, I’m not entirely comfortable with that,” Starlight said, “but we seem to have run of options. The more we drag this out, the more time we’re giving them to set up an ambush in every passage!”

“It would make more sense to ambush us in the throne room,” Discord corrected her. “Now that they know we’re here, they would have figured out what we’re trying to do!”

“I realize that, but they may not want us to even get there! That throne must be really, really important to them!”

“It is to Chrysalis,” I agreed, “and, by extension, it has to be to everyling else.”

“I’m starting to think we’ll find every single changeling packed at the entrance,” she muttered.

“We probably will, in one way or another.”

“I just hope we’ll be able to find a weakness they haven’t covered!”

“I can’t imagine there will be one, but you never know!”

“Oh, to heck with it! We didn’t come all the way here to just give up! And I’ll sooner rip my own head off than let Chrysalis win!”

Nothing more was left to be said for the moment.

We found a vertical shaft not long after. Starlight approached the edge of our level cautiously, then stole a peek up and down.

“It goes pretty high up,” she reported. “And pretty far down, too. But I don’t see any guards standing at the exits of the other hallways.”

“Good,” I said.

“How are we supposed to climb that?”

“We’re not.”

“But didn’t you say-”

“I’m going to carry you,” I said as I buzzed my wings and entered the shaft.

“You sure you’re strong enough-”

She stopped herself mid-question as a flash of changeling magic turned me into a large, flying, half-insect-half-squidlike creature with as many legs and tentacles as I thought I could control properly, two of which I extended toward my friends and grabbed them in a secure hold.

They stared at me, Starlight blankly, Discord with a hint of flattered amusement. Yes, I know I look downright ridiculous, and laugh at me later all you want, but something like this is probably our best bet for getting any further!

“Didn’t see that coming,” Starlight finally said. “But hey, whatever works, right?”

I chuckled and flew up.

Almost immediately, a team of guards noticed us and rushed from their tunnel to intercept us. Some held out spears, some bared their fangs, and some triggered their magic to put up disguises of their own, presumably of similarly-oversized monsters.

They didn’t get there.

I put my tentacles to work, swatting each guard as they approached, and approaching they were, all the way to the top of the shaft. Some were coming up from below still, but those who hadn’t been taken out by their falling peers were no more a match for my tentacles than the others. At worst, it had taken several swings to hit a single target, or several hits to knock them out, upon which they would invariably lose any battle disguise they had and join the streak of falling drones. Whether or not any others were catching them further down the shaft, I couldn’t tell, but I did my best to push their various possible fates out of my mind. Remorse could wait; I had more pressing matters to attend to!

Starlight and Discord, trembling and whimpering at first, had gradually loosened up during the ride, and by the time I’d deposited them on the uppermost level and reverted to my own form so I could join them, they were laughing and cheering eagerly.

“Oh, that was good!”

“Was anyone keeping score?”

“I almost wish we could do it again!”

“We might have to,” I told them. “We’re still not at castle level, but this shaft doesn’t go any further! We have to find another one!”

As they trotted off looking for it, I noticed renewed enthusiasm in their posture. No matter how dire the circumstances, a little regained hope would go a long way!

Many passages and two vertical shafts later, not to mention encounters and near-encounters with more guards, we were peering around the corner of a passage into a large cavern, one with a heavily-guarded gate at the other side. This gate, unlike most others in the hive, had doors.

“I’m going to hazard a guess that this is the castle entrance,” Discord whispered, looking questions at me.

“One of the entrances, yes,” I whispered back. “There are several more, and they all look like this.”

“I don’t see a way around the guards,” Starlight said.

“There wouldn’t be,” I reminded her. “Their orders are to not let anyone past that point, not even changelings, unless they know the clearance code.”

“Do you know it?” Starlight looked at me hopefully.

“No. The codes change regularly, and I wasn’t authorized to know them even before I left.”

She deflated.

We stood there, thinking.

“Suppose if they got distracted?” Discord suggested. “Would that be enough to sneak past them?”

“They’re trained to expect distractions. I wouldn’t call it impossible, but the distraction would have to be something big.”

“You mean like a draconequus causing havoc?”

“I guess, but- wait, you’re not suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”

“What if I am?”

“For one thing, you have no magic! How are you planning to trick them into thinking you’re dangerous enough to warrant their attention and potential abandonment of their posts to chase you? And how do you propose to get them off your tail afterwards?”

“I’m prepared to accept the possibility that I won’t get them off my tail,” he said after a moment, looking back at the castle gate.

“That’s not an answer!” Starlight protested. “We can’t lose you!”

“I agree,” I said. “Magic or no magic, you’re our friend, and you’re too valuable to us!”

“Do you two have a better idea?” he replied, giving us a heavy stare.

Reluctantly, we had to agree that we didn’t. I’d momentarily entertained the idea of turning into Chrysalis herself, doubting that the guards would have the audacity to demand that the Queen recite a clearance code, but that presented two problems: one, I couldn’t be sure that she wouldn’t be expected to do it now that the guards knew they were up against a changeling traitor, and two, it didn’t solve the issue of getting Starlight and Discord in.

“I didn’t think so,” he said. “Now, see those rocky spikes over there? I think they’re big enough for you to use as cover while I put on a show. You think you can get to them?”

“Probably,” Starlight said. “But what if there are more guards behind them?”

“Then I guess we’re doomed,” he sighed.

“I don’t think there are,” I said. “I’ve noticed the guards on the main clearing rotate positions twice since we arrived, but there was no movement behind those spikes, and there’s enough empty space between them that I’d notice. If there were guards there, they’d be rotating positions too. It’s one of the basic principles of guard duty: rotating positions allows the guards to notice if any of their peers have been attacked and neutralized before they could alert the others.”

“Makes sense,” Starlight agreed, then turned to Discord. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“I think we’ve come to the point where we have to sacrifice one of us so the other two could go on, and I’m probably a better bait than either of you. Our magic may be useless, but I have every confidence in your ability to figure out something even without magic!”

“Just in case you do manage to get out of this unscathed, do we think our password is still strong enough?” I asked. “Or should we think of a new one?”

“It might be a good idea,” Starlight agreed, “but let’s stick to the same topic. For example, what was in the vase?”

“That’s easy. Fear was inside, if we’re still talking about the same vase as before,” Discord said flatly.

“Then let’s add something. What was that flower you’d brought from Vanhoover?”

“Buttercup.”

“We could have ‘buttercups and fear’ as the correct answer. It doesn’t sound like something that could be guessed easily!”

“Works for me,” I shrugged.

“Then it’s settled,” Discord agreed. “Go now!”

Starlight and I went further down the tunnel, closer to where we could get to the rocky spikes unobserved. Thankfully, there were no guards in the way. Discord hunkered down, waiting for a good moment.

Once we were in position, I put on a disguise of a guard again and got out of the passage. Starlight snuck behind me, and as soon as she was visible enough, a smoke bomb exploded in the middle of the clearing, attracting the guards’ attention and letting us slip to cover.

The smoke cleared, revealing Discord in position to do whatever he intended to do.

“Hello, changelings and changelets! It’s such an honor to meet you,” Discord announced somewhat theatrically as was apparently his habit, from what I’d seen of him so far. “You must be wondering why I’ve been postponing my visit to your hive for so long. Truth is, I’ve been so entertained by the ponies’ pathetic little lives that I almost forgot you guys existed!”

He had the guards’ full attention now. Starlight and I slipped to the next cover, me hiding her from sight as best as I could in case any guards got wise to our trick and looked around.

“But now I’m here,” he continued, “and I must say I’m positively impressed! I’ve never seen such fine level of naturally-occuring chaos! Tell me, what is your secret?”

Some of the guards hissed at him. Starlight and I moved to the next cover, and then immediately to the next one, which was close enough to make the dash for it in the same go. Discord was still in full swing, undeterred by the display of threat.

“Oh, did I offend you? My sincerest apologies, I didn’t mean to! Here, have a flower as a sign of good faith?”

He produced the flower he’d taken from Trixie that he’d kept tucked out of sight under one of his wings. The guards prepared to attack while Starlight and I ran to the last cover.

“Not very hospitable, are you? I should have known there was a reason you don’t make many friends!”

He reached under his other wing and hurled a bunch of Trixie’s kerchiefs, no longer tied into a string, towards the guards as they finally rushed him, apparently having come to realize at last that he wasn’t as much of a threat as they’d been taught to believe, and though a few guards remained to watch the castle entrance, their attention was drawn to the chase long enough to let Starlight and me slip through the crack in the doors and into the castle.