Demon's & Angel's

"You really want to know the hell I went through while I was gone?! Huh? You have no idea the fucking time I went through under those cockroaches hold."

"Where did you end up?"

"Chert Vozmi. Fucking moshpit of bugs and whatever they considered hostile. I was an outcast among war veterans, enemies to their country, all sort of messed up individuals. I lost track of the time I spent, fuck I was ready to call that place my grave...but I wasn't going to lie down and die like a wimp."

"Is this where you met Akula?"

"Heh, yeah. Called himself the Demon Lord, an old loyalist of Chrysalis' old hive. Big pain in the butt for Drago he was, but Akula didn't enjoy being betrayed by his hive. He had had enough of that from Thorax."

"Thorax was a great asset to Equestria during his reign, we know of instances where Akula attempted and failed to bring his queen back into power. Drago was power hungry, he didn't want any others taking his claim to the throne."

"He held a grudge, and while I was ready to give up he found a way out of that hole."

If Viral had ever felt like she was in Tartarus, this was the moment where she felt like she had actually descended there.

The mare had lost count of how many days had passed since her squad was ambushed by changeling forces. Being the only survivor, she was taken prisoner by the bugs and tortured for information. But being relatively new, there was nothing that Viral knew that the changelings wanted to know. No amount of torture would break her, as the pegasus had nothing to give in the first place.

But when the mare was sent to where she was to be held, Viral wished that she was still being tortured.

She was sent to the hellish Chert Vozmi Gulag, the most evil and tough work camp in the changeling gulag prison system. Prisoners in the camp were both changeling and pony, with some other species held there. Prisoners of war, political opponents to King Drago, dissidents, enemies of the state and even common criminals. Conditions were more than what flesh and blood could survive, guards were everywhere, punishments for not completing work adequately or speaking up were brutal and constant malnourishment led to many deaths of prisoners. No creature had ever escaped from the camp.

And to make matters even worse, violent fights broke out often and ponies were often violated by the more insane prisoners. Not a place one would want to be sent to.

Day to day life for Viral was just a struggle to survival. Ever since she arrived, her life had changed from what it once was in Cloudsdale. Now, days were long. During the day, she was chipping at rocks, pushing heavy loaded carts and chopping trees for wood in order to meet unrealistic quotas. She had been beaten by the guards multiple times, even if she didn’t do anything wrong. Viral figured that the reason behind her consistent beating was because she was a pony; an enemy of the changelings and of their King.

Even her fellow prisoners were against her. Particularly, a changeling group called “Bratstvo” (meaning The Brotherhood in the native changeling tongue) and their leader Max. This group always seemed to find her in the camp and on multiple occasions, had attempted to sexually assault the mare.

She had been able to fight the insane bugs off, but the constant beatings and malnourishment was beginning to take its toll on her. She wished that she was dead. But she didn’t realise that salvation was coming for her, from an unlikely source…

That fateful day started off like any normal one. This time, Viral was mining in the tunnels for coal alongside a few other prisoners. The long hours, the beatings and the lack of nourishment was weakening the mare day by long day. It felt like she was about to work herself to death.

Then, the short and sharp piercing whistle of a whistle signaled the end of the day’s work. Immediately, pickaxes were dropped and carts were abandoned as the prisoners immediately left the tunnel to get back to their quarters.

Viral dropped her pickaxe and caught her breath, looking down the tunnel where all the others had fled to. She was all out of energy and about to pass out. But now, it was time to regain only a small part of her needed minerals with some rye bread and wheat porridge.

But as she began to stumble towards her quarters, she got jumped from behind by a changeling prisoner she recognised all too well. The scar on his left eye and the cracked fangs were the things that gave away that Max had pinned her.

Viral tried to shake the shapeshifter off, but she was too weak. And it didn’t help when two of Max’s fellow gang members appeared and held her down. There was no hope for her now.

“Did you think that I would let you go so easily, pony?” Max rhetorically asked the mare, forcing a knife (which was nothing more than a serrated piece of metal) against her neck.

“Fuck you, cockroach. Just leave me alone!” Viral snapped, still trying to free herself from the grasp of the changelings, only to get the cold and rough blade pressed more into her throat.

Max just hissed at Viral and moved her tail out of the way of her flank, getting a look at the mare’s flank. It was clear to all that was there what was going to happen. “I’ve always wanted to know what a pony feels like to take. You’d better enjoy it, pony. Because you’re going to be there for quite some time,”

Viral didn’t say anything in response, just closed her eyes and waited. Waited for her cherry to pop against her will.

But within seconds, the only thing she heard was a loud screech. She opened her eyes and moved her head to look around at Max and what she saw surprised her.

The changeling that was attempting to take her was now just standing above her, his face in a permanent state of utter shock. And sticking into his back, was a pickaxe blade. With a sickening squelch, the pick was forcefully removed from the changeling’s back and he fell over, lifelessly. The death of their leader had scared the other two changelings off. Viral's body visibly recoiled as she witnessed the violent act, even if whoever had done it had seemingly saved her from a very long and painful day on her stomach.

She looked up at her savior, and froze in fear. This was a changeling as well, but not one of the new hatches. It was one of Chrysalis' hives, his black skin the most prevalent feature. His wings were cut off his back and he oozed with dried blood from his time in the gulag as well as fresh blood from the bug he had just killed.

At first Viral had been grateful, but now feared a much more painful and quicker execution at the hollow hooves of a more violent, experienced, and seemingly brutal or even demonic changeling. Yet, what he did next took her by surprise.

The bloodied changeling didn’t swing the pick into her tummy and kill her, no. He held a hoof out to the mare. “Are you alright?” He asked, surprising Viral even more.

Viral was hesitant, but seeing as he more or less saved her life, or at the very least wasn't going to kill her there, she took it as he pulled her onto her hooves.

"I'll be fine, but I've been better." She admitted. "Bastard has been trying to ride me for the better part of my time here. I'm starting to think KIA would have been better than this hole."

“That’s just Max. Horny and evil as fuck. And yes, KIA is a much better status than being sent here,” The changeling stated, as he dropped the pickaxe coated in changeling blood onto the floor. Viral just nodded to agree with him, but the changeling knew that something was up. “You don’t trust me, do you?”

“Of course I don’t!” Viral snapped, “Ever since I got here, all of you goddamn cockroaches have either tried to kill me or ride me. And my mother told me to never trust a changeling. Why should you be any different?“

“You’ll have to stick around with me and find out,”

The mare just scoffed at him and said, “Yeah, sure,” Viral then turned around to leave, but the changeling then spoke again.

“Then how about a quid pro quo?”

Viral stopped and turned to face him. “A what?”

“Quid pro quo,” The changeling said again, “You tell me things, I’ll tell you things. I’ll go first,” He then slowly trotted up to Viral, then whispered into her ear, “I have been planning a breakout from this hellhole for months now and I now have the final piece of the puzzle. And I know for a fact that you do not want to stay and slowly work to death,”

The fact that this bug had an escape plan that he had been working on made Viral light up. She knew that if she was to stay in the gulag for any longer, she would definitely die. And if there is any chance that she would be able to get out of the camp, she was definitely taking it.
“You have an escape plan?” She asked, slowly turning her body around to face her savior. He just simply nodded, causing Viral to smile. “I think I feel a change in the wind under my wings,”

The changeling smiled and held out his hoof, “I’m Akula,”

“Velocity. Viral Velocity, though in this line of work fame isn't exactly suitable. Most ponies called me double V or just straight up V, less of a mouth full when I'm being told what to do.” Viral clenched her teeth a bit. "Though back then it was more of a friendly suggestion for helping out, not a do or die sort of situation. You have no bucking clue how much I want out of here, dead or alive."

Akula just put his hoof back down and said, “That makes two of us. I’m tired of seeing my brothers and sisters starve and work themselves to death. This place will burn before I’m through,”

With that, the pegasus and changeling began to leave the mining tunnel. But on the way to the ‘dorms’, they struck up a conversation. “How did you end up here?” Akula asked.

“I was captured by changelings on the battlefield. How else?” Viral answered, with a hint of sarcasm.

“I need specifics, Viral,” Akula stated.

“Please, just call me V,”

Akula paused for a second. “Huh, alright then, V. What events led to you being sent here?”

Viral let out a breath, before telling her story…

“I was only fresh out of bootcamp when I was sent to the frontlines. I was never planning on joining the military, but the war changed that. I was in a squad of 20, most of the others were veterans or amateurs, leaving me as the only rookie in the team.

We were sent to the front to check out a scout team that had failed to report back to HQ. Me and the team were sent in to check it out. It was supposed to be a routine job. Just investigate what was going on with the scouts and their equipment. It was anything but simple.

Turns out, that the issue was nothing more than an ambush. The bugs had already killed the scout team and were using them to draw in ponies. I was the only one who survived, as I was nowhere close enough to the tent to be either blown up or shot while lying down. Even then, I was surrounded and captured.

The bugs tortured me for information, despite the fact that I had nothing to give. Still, I never gave anything up and I got shipped out here. Although, I wish that I was still being tortured than being stuck here,”

“...And that's my story,” Viral finished up, as the pair sat down next to an open fire, the glow of the flames lighting up half of both of their faces.

Akula, deep down, felt for this pony. Sure, her kind did take his lover away from him and ruined the hive, but this new hive was not any better than the reformed ‘weak’ changelings. He knew why Drago threw him down here, along with many of his fellow loyalists.

And being left behind by her own kind was low, even for the ponies. Akula had heard enough from V about making her case. He was ready to help her bust out.

But before he could tell the mare his plan, V spoke first. “So, what about you? How did you end up here? From what I heard, Drago has been welcoming unreformed changelings with open arms since he took power,”

“Don’t believe everything you are told,” Akula quickly stated, before telling his story…

“Loyalty to the queen was a must for surviving in the old hive. You had to be willing to follow her into the depths of Tartarus for her and worship her whenever she demands that you do it. Me, I was closer to her than most. Ever since I split my egg in the nursery hive, I fell in love with Chrysalis. I obeyed her without a second thought, killed who she needed dead, seduced who she needed smitten.

But on the same day that I lost my wings, she made the decision to make that love for her a bit more personal. I became the queen’s consort. All of my brothers and sisters now bowed to me and my queen. All of the younglings looked up to me and I became the… I believe the term “poster boy” is going around in Equestria these days. And I fought during the invasion of Canterlot, alongside my lover. One pony guard happened to get too close to me and I… gave him what he deserved. As a result, that pony’s blood spilt onto me, which is the dried up blood you see on me now.

After that, all ponies feared me. They said that I was like some sort of ‘demon lord of the changelings’. With me at my queen’s side, Equestria should’ve been mine and her’s. However, some group of the Elements of Harmony had found us out. Collaborating with the ponies is a betrayal to us changelings, treason against the queen. But that didn’t stop Thorax from usurping her from the throne.

Like many that were truly loyal to the queen, I ran as far away from the hive as I could and never looked back. I knew that I would be back to exact my revenge. I found fellow brother and sister changelings who were truly loyal and we fought on, despite the odds. And us being shapeshifters, hiding and fighting in plain sight was in our blood. The tasks we accomplished and the wounds we inflicted on the Equestrians should have earnt us a hero’s welcome when Drago seized power from that traitor, Thorax. But Drago had no need for heroes.

I should have seen his betrayal coming. He knew that I was a dangerous changeling to have around, same with my loyalist forces. That I could dethrone him and bring Chrysalis back at any time. He wasn’t having any of it.

My more loved and experienced squadmates Drago had executed, while the rest of us were sent here. I’ve been here for months, watching my friends and kin die at the hooves of my former comrades. But I know this place, and that ‘king’ will come to regret placing me here,”

Viral was quite a bit shocked at Akula’s story. He had fought to serve his queen, only to lose her and the whole hive he created. And when he returned to his kind, he was only disrespected and betrayed. That had to hurt.

“I want to get out of here as much as you do, Viral. And it looks like we both have a common enemy,” Akula explained, knowing how the mare was feeling about his story.

“Yeah, Drago and the rest of the changelings loyal to him,” She agreed.

“We both need to get out. And now that you’re here, I can set the plan into motion,” The demon changeling stated, moving in closer to Viral’s ear.

For the next few minutes, Akula explained the breakout plan to her and the part she needed to play. And Viral’s wings immediately perked up upon hearing all the details. It seemed that Akula really had planned for this day very well. And knowing that he had this all planned out, made the mare even more happy.

“Did you understand all that?” Akula asked, just to be sure. Viral simply nodded. “Good, all you need to do is wait for the day to break tomorrow and wait for the signal. Just sleep well tonight and I’ll be waiting for you tomorrow,”

"I'm sure you know what you're doing better than I am, but if it gets us out of here I'll be ready." Viral stated.

Akula smiled and stood up to leave. He then patted Viral on the back and said, “Hang in there for just tonight. And then, we’ll burn this place to the ground,” And with that, Akula disappeared into the darkness of the tunnels.
Viral got up off her flank, put out the fire and climbed into her bunk and laid down. She rested her head on the wood and did her best to get some sleep. She was just too excited about getting to break out of that hellhole.