A Pierced Heart

Chapter 11: The Kingdom Within

Pierce found himself in the middle of the dark chamber within his mind. Damn, he thought.

"Very good Pierce, I underestimated your... capacity."

What's she getting at? Ah well, she'll reveal her angle eventually, Pierce thought.

"I mean, getting the mare to give her whole heart out to you? Strengthening you? Taking it all in and becoming so powerful? I should have realized you were in this for the long haul."

"I intend to stay with her, yes." Pierce interrupted.

"I wasn't finished!" the queen hissed. "Now that you've shown yourself to be such an adept hunter, I can offer you something I am not wont to give out lightly... a second chance." The voice waited for some prodding by Pokey, but none came as the blue stallion remained silent. When the final traces of her proclamation faded out she continued. "But still, you have to do something for me... kill her."

"HA!" Pierce barked. "And why would I do that?"

"Do this and all is forgiven. You can return to the hive, and I'll make you my highest general, my king!" the voice responded, trying to don a saccharine tone. "With your strength, and the Elements of Harmony broken from the death of that hussy, we can go out, and topple that bitch Celestia once and for all! You and I will be king and queen of Equestria, you won't have to hide what you are."

Pierce shook his head in contempt. "So many years, and you still think I would care for the kingdoms out there in the world?" Pierce gestured with a hoof to his chest. "When I have love in my heart?"

"HYEAGH!" The voice screamed, but no assault of horrid images came. Instead, a series of hoof steps sounded in the distance. Pierce looked in the direction it emanated and saw... his forebear, his progenitor, not of flesh, but of soul. The young, sharp horned blue colt that he had been forced to feed upon all those years ago, whose mind showed him to love and be loved.

"Is this some trick of hers to make me feel guilty for lying to Rarity about what I am?" Pierce asked.

The blue colt shook his head. "No, she's gone, at least for now, I wanted to talk. To tell you that I'm glad you've been able to forgive yourself for what thought you did to me."

Pierce sat down, tears welling in his eyes. "But I killed you! I didn't forgive myself, how could you forgive me for what I did?"

"It was Snaggle who killed me, but you preserved me, my thoughts, my memories, few as they were, you took them in and kept them close. You and I became close, you my body, and I your conscious. Together we've been able to live a life neither of us could have lived," the blue colt responded. Pokey, that young foal whose life had been cut short, to Pierce, the now grown changeling he had become.

"But I still took you in, fed on you," Pierce began.

"And didn't throw out the remnants when you finished like other changelings. You kept me in there, let me be your guiding light, your reminder to never again allow the contrivances of nature to harm those you cared for. Keeping me was your decision alone, that is the truth, that is why I know you are not like... her." The colt's spine chilled at the thought of even mentioning the queen.

Pierce got up and walked to the colt and nuzzled him, offering what comfort he could. "Thank you, I'll live, for you."

"For us, and Her." Pierce nodded in agreement. The blackness beyond shifted and swirled as Pokey Pierce entered a deep slumber, far from the queen in space and in mind.

*****

The queen turned to a green cocoon nestled in the corner of her chamber. Inside which lay a catatonic pony. "I grow... hungry." The queen dipped her horn into the cocoon, piercing the slimed coating, and then the ponies neck as a line of crimson blood gushed out of the wound she produced with her horn. She began feeding on the pony's memories of past loved ones, forcing it into her. The pony's hooves cracked as its vital essence was drawn out and trails of blood rolled forth. The pony's eyes shot open and a gurgling was produced as it tried to scream in agony through the hole in its throat. Soon the form grew still and silent.

"SNAGGLE!" the queen screamed, lifting herself from her meal and pacing furiously from one side of her rounded chambers to another. “I haven’t been this infuriated since that fop Blueblood stopped my plans in Stalliongrad!”

The clatter of insect legs against stone sounded at her door. "Yes, O' Queen?" Snaggle responded. The changeling was covered not only in natural chitin armour, but in blackened, charred sheets of metal that were harnessed to his frame. An enforcer of the hive, Snaggle was at the beck and call of the queen to do her bidding.

"Pierce has squandered his gifts, he wants to spend his life with that... THING!" the queen replied. "He who was my brightest son, our greatest hope! I remember when I heard how quickly he learned to fly and cast magic." The queen turned. "To think that now he is so ugly where once he was so fair." The queen breathed. "But this can still be done, he spends so much time alone with her, that much he has done for us. Which is why." The queen turned and stepped towards Snaggle. "I need you to take the final action, go to Ponyville..." At this the queen spat out a green wad of bile. "and do what Pierce cannot, and then you will kill him, for none shall disobey my law!"

Snaggle inclined his head. "It shall be done, O' Queen." He turned and made his way out of the hive, the journey was long, but if any could make it through the constant patrols of the frontier of Equestria to strike at the heart of Celestia's vaunted elements, it was Snaggle.

The queen looked to a wall on her left, where several more cocoons were perched. The royal changeling spoke out gutturally, "I still... hunger."