Devourer

by Croabadrake

Rating: teen
Tags: Princess Celestia, Dark, Sad, Princess Luna, Gore, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Queen Chrysalis, Shining Armor
Length: 22850

Live to eat, eat for the Queen. It turns out that even expelling the Changeling Queen, Chrysalis, from Equestria wasn't quite enough to completely eliminate the threat that the changelings pose.

It's been several months since King Sombra was defeated. Since then, Shining Armor and Princess Cadence have been presiding over the Crystal Kingdom, and quite happily so. However, a message arrives one day from Princess Celestia requesting Shining Armor to come back to Canterlot as soon as possible.

On arrival, he was informed of the problem immediately: there've been reports in the castle of a strange being roaming the hallways and bedrooms. Objects and guards have begun to disappear, and there have been sounds coming from the walls. Princess Celestia called upon Shining Armor because of one detail common across all eye-witness reports; even though the only thing anypony ever caught of it was a glimpse, they all reported it to be covered in a familiar form of black chitin...

My first fanfiction, all criticism welcome.

Published 2012-12-12 19:20:02 UTC
Last updated 2012-12-23 11:50:14 UTC

Prologue: Unwilling Flight and the Aftermath

Three months ago...

The sound of air flying rapidly by her ears wasn't an unfamiliar sound, nor was the feeling of weightlessness provided by flying so far above the ground so fast. The initial shock of being thrown had long worn off by now: Queen Chrysalis opened her eyes to check on the ground..... nope, it still wasn't getting any closer. Several of her swarmlings filled the air around her, a few trying to stabilize and fly but failing because of the velocity they were moving at.

A part of the situation wasn't new, surprisingly. She and her swarm had been ejected, thrown out of, and otherwise expelled from kingdoms before, though fairly infrequently compared to their usual rate of success. Usually it was done via an extremely powerful banishing spell though one or two occasions actually involved the kingdoms' inhabitants physically seeking out and either killing or sending away her swarm.

But this time was different. The Queen, thinking back to the exact events that lead to this banishment, was disturbed by the nature of said events. Love can power magic? The thing they feed on can be a powerful source of energy for beings OTHER than changelings? It was hard to believe, and it infuriated her. They were forced out of an extremely love-rich kingdom by the very thing they came for in the first place, and it's not hard to understand how this would anger somepony such as she and her changelings.

Queen Chrysalis closed her eyes again for a moment, shaking away the thoughts of her defeat. The only thing to do now was wait, since the banishing spell seemed to have a lock on her and her swarm: they could still feel it pushing them away from Canterlot, indicating that they will keep flying until they are out of its effective range. Until then, all she could do now was watch as her swarmlings struggled to regain control over their trajectory and repeatedly fail.

It was painful to watch, especially since some of the younger ones didn't have any idea what had happened in the first place. Most of the newer members of the swarm didn't know what a banishing spell or a ward was; all they knew was that they were feeding one moment and then all of a sudden being thrown violently through the air before the next. It was a startling process for even her swarm's strongest warriors, much less young swarmlings with barely any grasp on the concept of magic. The thought of how they must feel right now refilled her rage, burning at her insides for several moments before she managed to calm herself again.

She could sense in the swarm that they had all survived at least; the banishing spell was a benevolent-natured one after all, and was thankfully entirely non-lethal. However... her swarm was sent flying in all directions. They were largely separated, and it could take a long time before they could regather, during which period of time virtually anything could happen to any swarmling that got separated from whatever siblings they may have landed near. Just then, a thought crossed Queen Chrysalis' mind: could she use a telepathy spell to locate her lost swarmlings? Perhaps a simply scrying spell would suffice, depending on how far away their landing zone was to be from their origination in Canterlot. Maybe... maybe even now...

Chrysalis focused some of her barely-returning strength into her horn. It began to glow with a faint green light... her magic was returning. It wouldn't be long now before she had enough strength back to try and counteract the banishing spell, if only partially. By now, she would be thankful just for an early landing: she'd had her fill of Equestria and had every plan to avoid it from now on, even if it involved leaving of her own volition in the case that she landed somewhere still within its boundaries.

*SHWOOM*

A powerful wave of magic flew across her and her swarm, originating from the direction of Canterlot. Her horn immediately lost its glow and the magic she'd gathered in it faded. A nearby changeling began screaming, all of the pent up fright from the initial trauma of being thrown finally finding its way out of her by way of her throat.

"Oh no, no, no, it's alright Mima!" Chrysalis called out to her swarmling. All of her hatred of Equestria suddenly took a backseat to her panic at seeing one of her swarmlings so utterly terrified. "Mima! Mima, look at me..."

Mima stopped screaming and looked to Queen Chrysalis, tears trailing down her face. "It's okay, Mima, I'm here. We're going to be alright," Chrysalis continued in as soothing of a voice as she could maintain over the roaring wind. Mima sniffed and then nodded. It was obvious she was still scared, but having the reassurance of her queen seemed to help her calm down.

"Okay, momma. I believe you," Mima answered before tucking her head between her hooves. Hm..... "momma". It had been a while since Queen Chrysalis had had any of her swarmlings call her that. She had forgotten what it was like for a moment; forgotten that they were each her children, and that they relied on her for their strength in more ways than just for leadership. But... what was that wave?

...oh. That must have been them managing to complete the actual wedding. Considering the intense love between Cadence and Shining Armor, the very reason she chose Cadence to replace, it very well could've reinforced the spell. That would explain why it re-nullified her magic. Suddenly, her anger returned to her stronger than ever.

How DARE they do this to her and her swarm!? They couldn't tell that there young changelings in the swarm, just barely old enough to accompany her on the raid on Canterlot? This was supposed to be an easy raid: she had a better hold than usual on their ruling government, she had taken Cadence's place at the perfect time, nopony suspected a THING. And then they go and pull something like.... like THAT!?

Chrysalis attempted to calm herself down again, knowing that at the moment being filled with fury wouldn't do her or her separated swarm any good; the fury was for later, when revenge could be taken. Right now, she just had to once again thank lady luck that none of her swarm were immediately harmed by the banishing spell that was STILL pushing them. In an attempt to distract herself, she looked down towards the ground again. They seemed to be over the Everfree Forest now. Wow... had they flown so far already? They must be traveling really fast. Not that, you know, the howling wind, distance to the ground, and blurring scenery would give that away...

The Queen sighed and turned her eyes to the sky. She felt like she was forgetting something... She glanced over to Mima and saw that she was being comforted by a fellow swarmling that had somehow maneuvered over to her. No, Mima was going to be alright. What was she thinking of? Did they leave the food pods back at the hive open? If so, that was going to be hard to clean up... it suddenly dawned on her that she was going to have to gather all of her swarmlings over the course of what was likely to be several months before heading back to the nest. Great...... but that wasn't what she was forgetting. What was..........

Chrysalis' eyes widened when she realized that she still had a faint connection to something unusual. A connection that she sometimes forgot about, but was still present nonetheless. A connection that she felt was still in Canterlot.

She turned her head and looked towards the direction of Canterlot in surprise. Did she really bring it on the raid? She couldn't remember, since it mostly operated in the background on raids, receiving its orders on its delayed entry and not reporting back unless a massive setback was encountered or its missions was completed. She couldn't feel it anywhere else so it wasn't just a mixed signal due to the banishing spell... hm. Either way, she couldn't communicate with it right now. She would need to land in order to set up a communication spell with it, and even then she still has to gather her swarm first.

The sound of changeling fire igniting drew Chrysalis' attention from the thoughts of Canterlot. She turned and saw that the members of her swarm that were in view were going into a dive like they did when they bombarded Canterlot. Sure enough, she could feel her speed lessening and her body descending towards the ground; they had reached the edge of the banishing spell's range.

Chrysalis herself did the same, cloaking herself in the signature green flames that indicated a changeling's dive. Her trajectory changed from a gentle slope downwards to a rapid, intense fall head-first into the ground, just barely clearing the trees of the far-end of the Everfree Forest. The impact was jarring, but no more so than any other dive she had ever done and a quick glance around after recovering proved that it was the same for the swarmlings that surrounded her.

Once they recovered, each of her swarmlings ran over to her and formed a crowd. More were arriving from the distance, due to knowing at least the general direction they had flown from their Queen. She looked around at them: now that they had landed, it was back to the usual procedure that they took when they were unsuccessful in a raid. She nodded to them and they began setting about their work, making a structure of some kind out of nearby wood and plants.

When she was sure the construction of the beacon was going along well, she called one of her commanders over as he arrived with another small group. "Commander Dapul," she said, commanding his attention. He immediately stood at attention and saluted.

"Dapul, I need you to check on the hive. You know what direction it is in, and you know I wouldn't send just any of the swarm to make the journey. You've got the highest chance of success out of all the swarmlings here at the moment, so the responsibility falls to you."

Dapul saluted again and nodded, a small deformation in his armor presumably caused by the rough landing causing his helmet to fall off a bit comically. He quickly re-donned it and then set off flight to the north. Queen Chrysalis watched him until he disappeared on the horizon before turning her eyes upwards: it was getting dark. She looked back over her swarmlings as they finished building the beacon and formed a path for her to approach it.

She walked up to the beacon, a structure made of varied plant matter overall resembling a large bowl or urn. She concentrated on what magic she could muster, noticing that she was regaining it faster since she was out of the banishing spell's range. She shot a beam of magic into the center, which then spread to the rim of the structure before shooting upwards and into the sky on a much larger scale. The spell done, there was now a large green beam of energy flying straight up into the sky. It remained for several moments before fading away. The beacon now set, Chrysalis looked around at the swarmlings that once again surrounded her and looked to her for guidance. The beacon's signal would reach the rest of the swarm wherever they were, but it could possibly be months before they actually managed to regather in entirety and maybe even longer for Dapul to report back...

"My swarm," the Queen addressed those surrounding her, "...we have lost battles before. You all know this, and this time is no different. We shall remain here until the rest of our swarm manages to regroup with us, and united again we shall set out for the hive to make plans for our next raid. Know that we did at least manage to store enough love from Equestria to give us considerable stored power for our next raid! Though we might never return to Equestria, we assuredly took our fair share of it with us! For now, I can see that you are all tired..."

Chrysalis looked among the small swarm's ranks. Most of them did indeed look tired, as it seemed the banishing spell had a draining effect on them for the flight. All they needed for now was rest. "We shall make our camps here until the return of Dapul. Make yourselves comfortable, and always be on the lookout for your siblings on their way here. I shall sleep next to the beacon: if there is anything that must be said, say it now."

There was silence.

"...Very well. Then for now, your queen wishes you good night so that we may put this event behind us."

As the crowd dispersed and Chrysalis found some bedding set out for her near to the beacon, she thought back to Canterlot and the signal she was feeling from there. Did she really leave it there rather than at the nest? Was the swarm's Devourer still in Canterlot, carrying out its orders? Did it get the signal from the beacon? And if not..... what would it do in absence of new orders or capability of reporting to its Queen?

Chapter One: Beast's Presence

Present Day

The train pulled into the station in Canterlot during the evening, and there was a bustling of guards. Shining Armor hadn't seen them on this high of alert since he was with them during the Changeling threat, and that worried him. What could be causing them to be this on-edge? Most of the guards wore an expression of worry of tension. This was even more unusual, since he knew many of these ponies and they were not easily shaken.

When Shining Armor stepped off of the train, many of the guards seemed to relax a bit. It appeared that their respect and admiration of him had not deteriorated at all during his absence. Several guards stepped aside to allow Princess Celestia to enter into the station. She was out of the throne room... this wasn't good.

"Shining Armor," she began. It seemed that whatever was bothering the guards didn't have any effect on her, which was good. "I need to speak to you immediately."
"Of course, princess," he answered, and she quickly turned and left the station with him following. Shining Armor had escorted her to places before, and could recognize that she was walking much faster than normal; maybe she was being bothered by something after all...

It wasn't long before they arrived in the throne room, which was surrounded by more security than normal as expected. The guards at the door opened the way to let the Princess and Shining Armor through, closing it quickly once they reached the inside of the room. The princess didn't even bother finishing turning around before she began speaking, seemingly wanting to let him know what was going on as soon as possible.

"Shining Armor, there is something in the castle," she stated bluntly. Shining Armor was slightly startled, as she wasn't usually this straight to the point. "There have been reports from the servants and guards in all parts of the castle: sightings of a creature moving throughout the halls and rooms."
"What kind of creature?" Shining Armor asked. "I noticed some of my men seemed uneasy and-"
"I know, and with good reason. This creature is not like anything we've encountered before, and their nervousness in the face of this considerable danger is understandable."

The princess fell silent for a moment. She seemed to be waiting for Shining Armor to ask the question she knew he had for her.

"Why do you need me specifically, princess?" There it was. "Why wouldn't normal monster hunters be an acceptable alternative?" he asked cautiously, unsure of what he wanted to hear in return.
"Shining Armor, for the last two weeks this creature has been stealing random objects from random places in the castle, and guards have been going missing without a trace. We've had eye-witness reports of this... thing, and like I said it's not like anything we've ever encountered before. But... that's a half-truth. It is similar to something we've encountered and dealt with before."

Shining armor didn't like where this conversation was going, but continued to listen.
The princess continued, "The reports on what the creature looks like are usually vague at best. It's fast, and has proven to be strong in cases where it was suddenly encountered at close range." Shining Armor had already guessed the second detail, seeing as of how much strength it would require to bring down his men silently. "However... there has always been one consistent detail as to its appearance, which has given us a clue to figuring out exactly what it is and how we might deal with it."

The princess turned and looked towards a particular stained glass window; the one depicting a white unicorn and a pink alicorn casting a love-based spell against a pony-like creature that fed off of love. The window that was made in honor of Shining Armor and Cadence's triumph over the Changeling Queen, Chrysalis, though the sheer power of their pure love.

"This creature is reported to be covered in a hard black exoskeleton, exactly like...." she turned back to him, "exactly like Queen Chrysalis and her changelings."
Shining Armor drew back a little. "You mean, you think a changeling could still be....?" He didn't want to finish the sentence. Through the conversation he had felt that this was what she was trying to imply, but to hear it out loud...
"Shining Armor," Princess Celestia continued, "you and Cadence were the ones who defeated Queen Chrysalis and her swarm. We can't call Cadence because she is currently keeping rule over the Chrystal Kingdom. Right now, we need you since you are the one who is most likely to know how this could be."

Shining Armor thought for a moment. The spell banished all changelings within range, and prevented their re-entry into Equestria by any means.... how could this one have stayed? A thought crossed his mind about what the princess had said earlier.

"Princess, you said that it was a half-truth that it was like a changeling," Shining Armor stated. "What do you mean by that?"
"Yes, I did say that. I did so because this thing is definitely not a changeling despite its similar appearance. It may be related to Chrysalis' swarm which is why we need you, but it is NOT like any changeling we've ever seen in anything but the similarities in its appearance to that of changelings."
"What exactly are we up against here, princess?"
"We... don't know. All we know is that it is fast, powerful, apparently very stealthy owing to its ability to escape and throw off pursuers, and... it's bipedal. The creature moves on two legs, with more speed than normal ponies can reach on four. The creature itself stands several feet taller than a normal pony."

Shining Armor sat backwards. What WAS this thing!? "You couldn't find anything about it in the royal libraries?"
"No," Celestia replied, "Luna has been searching through the libraries constantly ever since the guard disappearances started, in hopes of finding a reference to what it does or even just what it might be. I haven't been able to convince her to stop... she insists that her guards are enough to protect her if this creature should attempt to harm her, but still I worry. Books have recently started going missing in the past few days and nights, sometimes right off of the tables she leaves them on when she goes to retrieve more."
"This is a major threat to the castle, Shining Armor," Celestia said. "We need your help, since you're the only one of us here to have defeated a powerful changeling and that's the closest thing we can compare this to."
"I understand why you wanted me here, Princess... I will do my best to shed some light on the matter, if not drive the creature out myself."

Celestia nodded as Shining Armor continued, "I'll start in the library since you said that Princess Luna is there, as well as the fact that it's been an area of activity recently."
"Before you go, though," Celestia said before Shining Armor could turn around, "you should get some sleep. It was a long journey from the Crystal Kingdom to here, and I imagine that you need some rest before you begin investigating."
"No, princess, I need to begin immediately. I'll go to the library and-"

Celestia raised her hoof to tell him to stop talking. "You'll do no such thing. We need your mind wholly on this matter, so if you want to stay up late then sleep in tomorrow. You need your rest."

Taking the hint, Shining Armor nodded, bowed, and then turned to leave. When he reached the door, he heard Celestia call to him: "And be careful. We don't know if it knows you're here or not."

What...... *sniff* *sniff*......... what is that? It's... oh, I see........
The one that set off that spell so long ago.... he's here.
That magic scent is unmistakeable. He's the one..... that......
My queen has not sent new orders since the spell. It's his fault...

.........let's see now..........

The walk to his guest room was a long one. He noticed that every servant or guard he passed was on edge, even more so than the ones that greeted him at the station. A few servants even jumped a bit when they saw him round a corner near them before calming down when they realized that he wasn't the creature. Other than everypony else's tension, the trip to his room was uneventful until he arrived.

Before he could open the door, he heard the sound of pounding hooves on the floor: somepony was running. He turned down the hallway in time to see one of Princess Luna's guards charge into view. On seeing Shining Armor, he immediately called for him to follow and then ran off down another hallway. Shining Armor answered the call, catching up to the guard as continued to wind his way through the hallways.

As he caught up, he saw the guard calling for other guards to sound an alarm, not stopping to explain. When he finally evened himself with the guard, the guard shouted over to him "Did you see it!?"
"No, what was it?" Shining Armor answered, though he knew what the guard was going to say.
"I saw it! The creature! That's why Celestia called you here, isn't it!?"

The guard looked forward as they rounded another corner. Following his eyes, Shining Armor saw what the guard was chasing: a shadow at the end of each hallway, just barely visible for an instant every time they turned the corner. "Are you sure it's the creature," Shining Armor asked the guard.
"You didn't see its skin, sir," he answered before speeding up.

Upon turning to a long corridor, the guard suddenly jumped a short distance into the air and spread his wings, taking flight. He sped up to the point where Shining Armor could no longer keep up, rounding the next corner several seconds before he could reach it. He caught a glimpse of the guard rounding another corner at the end of another long hallway and headed in his direction.

Then there was a scream.

Adrenaline pumping through him, Shining Armor pounded his way around the corner... and stopped at a dead end. None of the doors were open, and he hadn't heard any open or close. There was no sign of the creature, nor of the guard. Several more normal guards showed up behind Shining Armor as he frantically searched the hallway.

"Sir, what's going on!?" one of them asked.
"The creature, it just took one of Princess Luna's night guards!" Shining Armor answered, running his hoof across the walls to try and find a secret passageway.

Several guards gasped while others shuddered a bit. The one who asked the question withdrew in shock. "Did you... did you see it?"
"Yes. I mean no. I mean, I saw its shadow and Luna's guard said he'd actually seen it. We chased it through the hallways and when he took flight he outran me. When he came around the corner into this dead-end, he screamed and vanished and.... I--......."

Shining Armor sat down, frustrated with having turned up no clues. After a few moments of contemplation, he made a decision. He turned to the guards that were still gathered at the entrance to the dead end. He began pointing to them and issuing orders, which they carried out without question.

"You, I want you to search these rooms. If you turn up ANYTHING, report to me in the guest room. You four, guard this hallway. I don't want anypony or anything to leave or enter save for the Princesses or I. You two, go find Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Let them know what's happened. And you, you come with me to the guest room. I want somepony to be there with me in case the creature tries to attack me by chance."

As they each took up their positions and ran off through the hallways as ordered, Shining Armor made his way back to the guest room. When he reached it, he didn't go to sleep; instead, he ordered his guard to sleep in the bed. It seemed like an awkward request, but he complied. After the guard fell into an uneasy sleep, Shining Armor took up position near the door. It making an attack on his arrival was highly likely to have no been a coincidence. If it was coming for him, he was going to catch it by surprise at the door while it thought it was only going to have to deal with a normal guard while he slept.

He spent the entire night like this..... but an attack never came. Eventually he himself drifted off to sleep by the door. When he awoke in the morning by the call of a guard sent by Princess Luna, he at first panicked at having fallen asleep. When he saw that the guard in the bed was safe, however, he left the room. First, he checked on the hallway where he posted the guards: none had left the post, and they reported that nothing unusual had happened. Satisfied, he then made his way to the library.

Investigating the hallway would have to wait. For now, it was time to find out if Princess Luna had anything that could help him.

Chapter Two: Passive Vengeance

Queen Chrysalis looked over the village before her. Her swarm had found it not long after the beacon was activated, and they'd been using it for shelter ever since while they waited for their lost siblings to return. It saved them a lot of trouble since they didn't have to start temporary burrows from scratch, and the structures provided more comfort than simple tunnels. Exactly why the village was abandoned when they found it, they had no idea and the reason didn't pop up in the course of the three months they'd been there so nobody cared.

She turned and looked to the horizon, spotting the last group of her swarm that still hadn't made it. The swarm was almost complete again, and it relieved her... at least partially. Her ability to feel the connection to each of her swarmlings was both a gift and a curse, as she could feel whenever the journey for the lost ones became treacherous; a few nights, she was kept awake as she felt connection after connection closing off and disappearing as unlucky changelings on their journey to her lost their lives to whatever they may have encountered.

...but that was now over with. This was the last group, and she was delighted to see that they were mostly intact and unharmed. This group hadn't had much trouble and lost very few of her swarmlings on the way. She greeted them as they approached and as usual the rest of the swarm erupted into cheering at seeing another group of their fellows having made it back. When they had had a moment to enjoy being back with the swarm, Chrysalis turned and looked over them. She spotted a few crying at having seen some of their close friends safe, and almost shed one or two herself simply due to knowing that this little nightmare now almost over.

She shook the emotion out of her head and then called for her swarm's attention. "My swarm!" She called out, catching the attention of the entirety of the swarm, all of whom had come out of the small structures to welcome their siblings. "My swarm..." she said again, a little quieter, "we.... are once again whole."

At the realization of what the statement meant, the crowd again erupted into cheers of happiness knowing that none of them would have to be separated from the swarm for so long again. There was hugging in some areas while a bit more happy crying went on in others. Once the swarm calmed down, they once again looked to their Queen for direction.

"We are together once again, my swarm, but we are not done just yet," she said as she turned and began pacing in front of them. "There are two more tasks that we must attend to. First, we must make the journey back to the nest. We cannot begin this journey until Commander Dapul returns with news of its state of being, and it may be some time before he does. Until then, we are to concentrate on the second task..."

Queen Chrysalis stopped pacing and fell silent for a moment. The Devourer's presence could still be felt all the way back in Canterlot, and she hadn't told the swarm about bringing it since it made them nervous. She remembered what it was like having it back at the hive, a truly unique experience.

The Devourer had been with her swarm for as long as she could remember. She recalled it being around from her earliest childhood, and it could be seen in carvings in the art hall depicting many old events including her own birth. When she questioned her mother and father about it, they refused to tell her any more than the fact that it was "helpful" to the hive.

And indeed it was helpful, if mysterious. The Devourer lived near the bottom of the hive, in its own little self-made den. It followed the order of her parents, and later of her; for whatever reason it was loyal to the hive, it was loyal enough to remain so throughout her entire current lifespan of 400 years as well as some period of time in or beyond her parents' lifetimes. While it did follow orders, it seemed clumsy at best when it came to normal activities that would be no problem for normal changelings, possibly due to it being so big and not having wings.

However, it did have its place in the hive. It was excellent at taking care of changelings that were still the young stages of their lives, and had been noted to have protected them fiercely and effectively during some intrusions by outside armies. It was a sort of gentle giant, being fond of any in the swarm smaller than it... which is of course to say anyone. Outside of taking care of newborns when needed and playing with young changelings, it was also very good at demolition of unneeded parts of the hive. When a section or room complex was close to collapsing, the Devourer was sent in to take it down due to its incredible durability.

Possibly the most intriguing part of it, though, was its ability to eat virtually anything; hence its name. If it couldn't fit something in its mouth, it would break it down until the pieces were, and then it would consume all of them. When it set its mind to eating something, it was almost passionate about consuming every single piece of its target, and it used this to great effect when taking down walls or rooms. It could not feed off of love, nor did it require any specific type of food: pretty much literally anything would do.

The Devourer, when not following orders, would reside in its den that it had down near the bottom layers of the hive. It usually stayed in there and came out only on orders or to feed, but didn't have any problem with a changeling or two coming in for whatever reason... if they ever would. Even though it loved the children of the hive and was very friendly to anyone there, it also had a sort of fearful aura. Anyone that came near it felt uneasy, even those that it had taken care of when they were children. Exactly why this was, no-one knew, but her swarm's fear of it was enough reason for Chrysalis to keep its presence in Canterlot a secret.

Chrysalis' thoughts snapped back to the present as she looked over her swarm again. She took one last moment to contemplate whether or not to tell them, and then solidified her decision.

"You are not all that I brought for the assault on Canterlot," she began. Ripples of murmuring went through the crowd. "Indeed, I decided that since this raid seemed to be such a success, I wanted to make absolutely sure I had the victory in grasp. So..... I enlisted the help of one that many of you do not like."
Many of her swarmlings seemed confused, but she could spot a few that had already realized what she was talking about.
"As you can see, this one did not impede our unexpected loss. For that, I apologize: if it weren't for my own arrogance, you would be feasting on love even now as we speak. This extra measure that I brought along... was the Devourer."

The silence was almost deafening as the swarm stared at her in shock. They weren't anywhere near criticizing her for bringing it, but... none of them suspected that the Devourer had been with them in Canterlot.

"However," she continued,"you should know something about the Devourer that I felt necessary to keep a secret until we were all together again."

The crowd stopped murmuring. Not a single pair of eyes was wandering; they were all watching their queen, wondering what she meant.

"Somehow.... the Devourer... is still in Canterlot," she finished.

The crowd collectively gasped, and they began talking amongst themselves again. "How could it still be there?" "Where was it?" "I didn't see it there, did you?" "You know, I didn't see before OR after the banishing..."
Queen Chrysalis waited for the talking to die down before she moved on. "The Devourer is currently cut off from us: as we've learned through testing, the banishing spell prevents us from setting foot back into Equestria. Somehow, it is unaffected. It is without order, and without orders it may behave strangely. I doubt it will leave its post anytime soon, but we must do something to contact it and find out what it is doing. It may even be carrying out our vengeance as we speak!"

Chrysalis smiled as her swarm expressed happiness. Perhaps the Devourer being left in Canterlot was indeed a good thing. Again, she waited for them to die down before continuing.

"We will need another beacon, this one specialized. It will require special parts from special trees and plants as well as more than just my own concentration. We will need a collective concentration for the communication spell itself since it needs to pierce the spell keeping us out. Even though we cannot enter it, our magic should be able to if it is made powerful enough. When the beacon is completed, we will cast the spell and send a message to the Devourer, but not otherwise attempt to reach it. When it receives the message, we shall continue to wait for Dapul and send the message again periodically until we receive a response. Is this understood?"

The crowd began murmuring yet again, many of them nodding.

"Then let us begin our work!"

Chrysalis began directing the tasks of her swarm, relishing in the thoughts of what the Devourer may have done or is still doing to Canterlot Castle while they were out here.

Chapter Three: In the Halls, In the Walls

Heheheh….. it seems I left an… impression. Where is he going now?
Oh… to the library. I see…… he is going to the darker sister to ask about me.
How flattering. At least he knows I know he’s here.
Wouldn’t want him to think he’s hunting unaware quarry.

He’s arrived. She was awaiting him I see and they are now talking. Hm… that book…..
…..mythology? The intent in it….. that book looks tasty. How can I…?
Nggah, have to widen this hole, I can’t see.
*crumbling sound*
Mmm….. brick appetizer, heheh. Now let’s see…
…………oh yes, that shelf will do. It’s time I got a bit more obvious in my efforts.
Maybe they’ll know I’m luring them away from the table. If so, then it means things are going to get fun.
If not, then I get that book. I win either way. Now then….

*CRASH*

Shining Armor, Luna, and her guards all quickly turned to the sound: a bookshelf had in another part of the library had suddenly been emptied of all of its books, and there was nopony else who had been allowed into the library at this time. There was a quick glance between them before they rapidly made their way to it through the piles of books Princess Luna had strewn about. They got halfway there before Shining Armor had a thought.

“You and you, come back with me,” he said to two of the six guards following Luna. They hesitated for a moment to leave their Princess.
“Go with him,” Luna called to them as she kept running; it was all the convincing they needed.

Shining Armor turned and quickly ran back towards the table. There was a short scuffling sound before the table was back in the view. When it came into sight, his suspicions had been correct: the table had been completely cleared of books, and there was no sign of them on the floor surrounding it. The creature had successfully lured them away from the table to have a meal in private.

Shining Armor facehoofed as the guards stared in shock. He told the guards to go back to Luna and tell her what happened while he searched the area for clues, not sure if he would find any considering how clean it was with the capture of the guard from last night. As he began closely eyeing the floor around the table, he failed to hear the gasps-cut-short of the two guards as they turned out of view and were silenced.

Ohoho, I did not expect that. They searched both possibilities.
Oh, would you two quit struggling! I can only hold you safely if you stay either still or limp!
They’re probably panicking because they can’t see through this darkness like I can. Oh well.
So now I’ve got two more….. very nice, my first double-takedown hee hee!
The darker sister now has fewer guards with her…. Maybe I could—
STOP. THAT.
*sounds of struggling*
*thud*
There. His friend is now complacent. At least an unconscious pony is easier to bring back.
…maybe I should do that to all of the ones I take. Hm.
…….what’s that sound?

Shining Armor stomped again. The floor under his hoof released a sound indicating that the space below it was hollow.

“Princess, I found something!” he called in Luna’s direction. She came around the corner, having returned of her own volition.
“Where did you send my guards?” she asked, noticing that the two guards accompanying Shining Armor were gone.
“I… sent them to get you. Didn’t you see them?” he replied, just before the realization hit. The realization seemed to occur to Luna at the same time, and they both took up a defensive stance with the guards surrounding them, horns outward.

A moment passed in tense silence as they waited to see if the creature would attack them. When no attack came, Shining Armor and Luna relaxed though the guards did not. They looked to each other, not sure what to do now.

“……..this is not good. My sister must be informed immediately, I’ve never had a guard from my personal entourage disappear to the creature,” she said, beginning to make her way to the door.
“Wait! We can’t leave the area, I found something,” Shining Armor said, stopping her. He went to the same spot as before, next to the table, and gave the spot another heavy thump with his hoof. Again, the floor made a hollow sound.
“What is this?” Luna said while walking over to investigate. “There are no secret passages here that I know of…”

No! I must have left the hole loose when I heard him coming back early!
Rrrrgh…. If they get through the floor and find the tunnels…
I can’t believe I was so reckless with that. This one is craftier than the distracted royals and the oblivious guards…

“Go, find my sister and tell her what we’ve found,” Luna instructed one of her guards.

….huh? She’s not THAT dumb…

“Fly with all of the haste your wings can muster and do not touch the floor!”

….oh. Heheh, let’s see if he does what I think he’s going to do.

The guard nodded and took flight immediately, rushing out the door and towards the throne room. He flew high off of the ground, hugging the ceiling instead.

Haaaaaaa……..
*skittering sounds*

‘Almost there,’ the guard thought to himself. ‘Just two more corners and then I’ll-WHAT!?’

COME HERE.

The long black arm reaching out of the ceiling caught the guard by the wing, dislocating it. It then immediately withdrew itself and the screaming guard into the hole above, which was then re-bricked in a matter of seconds. Nopony was around to witness it, the guards that came to answer the cry for help saw nothing, and the message failed to reach Celestia.

You know, this place is really, really big. I never thought about it until now.
I’ve been doing my job here for… what, two months? Is that how long after the banishing it took me to decide to go ahead and begin?
And yet I’ve still not eaten out all of the walls. There are still some places untouched, and I’ve occasionally had to leave the tunnels to go into those areas and eat objects to keep from raising suspicion to the areas I have tunnels in. It’s irritating.
And more irritating, they figured out that I took the messenger. They seem to have gone to the brighter princess themselves, in a group, to deliver their message.
I refortified the hole they found, so it won’t raise any further suspicion… but they still might try to dig into it. I had to refill that entire section of tunnels…
NNGAH, that took forever! Time I could’ve spent expanding my tunnels elsewhere!
Time I could’ve spent eating! Or-

The Devourer’s thoughts paused and it stopped eating out the tunnel it was working on. It felt something nearby.

Is that….. that’s some sort of magic. Powerful, very powerful magic…
What could that be? That source of magic… I think I should tunnel towards it.
*crumbling sounds*
Woah. There’s also a ward there, surrounding the magic source. And it’s equally powerful.
What IS this? It’s just a little further this way… a floor. There’s a room here…
……back of the room, through a door with another ward, this one special.
It can only be undone by the royals… heh. It’s only on the door.
But still, that other ward is there over the first source of magic, past the door. Secure, secure.
Hm….. I’ll come back to this room later. Right now is about when I need to get back to the den.

…hm, now that I think about it, they might start checking other areas for my tunnels.
Grgh… I can’t fill in that many areas. They’ll just have to find them.
It’s not like they can do much if they do find them. They won’t be able to attack me with magic.
Now let’s see, another left…. A down, and… ah!
Hello.

Most of the prisoners, servant ponies and guards, began struggling when they heard the skittering sound that indicated the creature’s arrival in the den. The sound stopped, and after a few moments most of them stopped moving. One unicorn guard attempted to light the blackness with his horn, only managing a very dim glow. The outline of the creature in the darkness was all they could see by the light, and by all means it was enough to inspire them all to begin struggling again.

Nah-ah-ah. You won’t be able to escape those ropes I took from the store room.
I sampled them, and they’re quite sturdy I assure you.

The dark shape moved towards his most recent captive: the guard with the injured wing. He froze as it drew near to him, but it didn’t descend upon him with teeth and claws as he expected. Instead, it moved an arm closer to it, the glow being closer revealing that it had extended its claw close to his helmet.

Come on now, take the hint.

Unsure of what the creature wanted, the guard moved his head away.

……come onnn….. take the hiiiint!

The glow reflected off of teeth in the darkness formed into a wide grin; each tooth looked sharp enough to cut through bone. The guard let out a cry and attempted to flatten himself against the wall.

……I’m losing patience…….

The guard suddenly noticed his fellows, many of which were desperately tilting their heads forward in a suggestive motion. Suddenly realizing what it wanted, the guard stopped struggling.

…ha, now you see.

He tilted his head forward as they had done, hooking the front of his helmet onto the thing’s claw. Satisfied, it lifted the helmet off and withdrew far enough into the darkness that the glow didn’t even vaguely outline it anymore.

There was a moment of silence, and then a loud crunch as it bit into the metal, causing some of the guards to jump. It took around four seconds for it to completely eat the helmet, biting and swallowing rapidly. There was a satisfied sigh (at least it sounded sort of like a sigh) from the darkness, and then they heard it move to the exit before it suddenly stopped.

…what….? Is that…….?

A bright green flash erupted from the darkness, centered on the creature. None of the captured ponies could see through it to get a good view of the creature before the light faded. What followed was a stunned silence. A voice, only audible to the creature, echoed out.

“Devourer. Devourer, this is your Queen speaking.”

The creature silently bent to one knee.

“I and the swarm are safely on the other side of the Everfree Forest. We cannot enter Equestria, but I can sense that you are still in Canterlot. You are now tasked with replying to me as you know how, and then I shall issue orders to you. Proceed immediately.”

The creature waited a few moments to see if the message had anything else to say. When it was sure that it didn’t, it turned back to its prisoners. It looked over them as they felt it watching them, and then it crawled off through the exit, leaving the prisoners alone in the darkness once more.

The Queen has contacted me! I am so happy to hear her voice once again!
….even if it is through a magically-sent voicemail of sorts. I must reply at once.
Good thing I have that series of tunnels that leads all the way up to the roof.
………..here. Here it is. Now then… hooooo…….

The creature breathed out as it rested on a small ledge in the vertical tunnel. The tunnel continued above, but it was far too narrow for even it. But then, it began to change…

Its exoskeleton softened, and then turned into a dark, swirling mist. Following was the grey flesh underneath, and then everything underneath that. When the transformation was complete, all that was left was a cloud of black smoke with dim yellow lights for eyes and a mouth full of teeth just as sharp as they were in its normal form.

Ugh, for the love of the Dear Queen, how I hate having to use this form. It’s handy, but…..

The creature paused its thoughts and squeezed through the narrow opening, which opened up into a small cavity that was evidently the hollowed-out inside of the roof of a tower.

…but I don’t like how it can be affected by magic. I hate how hard it is to keep myself together with this form too. Then again, it’s the only way I can use magic myself, so…

It used its teeth, the only truly solid part of it in this form, to push aside a group of shingles that were revealed by a hole. It flowed outside onto the roof of the tallest tower of Canterlot Castle. There, it moved towards the peak of the cone and stopped. It turned until it felt the direction the signal came from and then opened its mouth wide, speaking aloud.

“I’m eating at the moment. Call again later.”

Satisfied with the message, the green glow from earlier returned to it, which it cloaked by enveloping it with its own body. When the glow died down, it released its form and the magic escaped, invisibly heading off in the chosen direction. It waited a few moments, relaxing at having finished the task… before suddenly returning to its normal form on the steep slant of the roof.

Startled, it quickly wrapped its arms around the top of the spire, careful not to make any noise. After making sure it had a good grip on things, it very carefully removed sections of shingles from an area by holding them in its mouth and swallowing any excess ones. When it had made enough of a hole, it carefully transferred the shingles to one of its hands and began carving out a hole in the roof underneath with care equal to the original shingle-removing process. When it finished, it slipped through the hole into the small attic. It glued the shingles back onto the board with a substance it secreted from the tips of its claws and then glued the board back into place. There were fewer shingles on that little section now, but it was sure that it had spread them out evenly enough to not be noticeable to anypony that wasn’t flying right next to it.

I forgot how much that drains my strength. That’s what I get for not using that form for a while…
…now then. What tower was this again?

It carefully proceeded down a ladder into another attic, this one above a normal room. It carved a very tiny hole in the floor and looked through.

Oh, this must be one of the more important roo-
Aha! I see, this is the brighter princess’ bedroom! Hee hee, I can see she has six guards with her as she sleeps, just like the darker sister.
I can see she’s pretending to be asleep. She’s anticipating an attack, but no… one will not come.
Not tonight. She is sleep-worn I can tell, though. She’s quite tired…
It must take much concentration to not actually fall asleep, laying in bed like that while being so tired.
Oh well. It’s not my place to criticize how she spends her nights.

The creature yawned.

……wow, today has been busy. She may not be allowing herself to sleep…
…but I certainly feel like I deserve some...

The creature moved through a hidden hole that it then patched back up with care before proceeding back to its den.

Chapter Four: Plans and Worries

A pattern… there was a pattern here. Princess Luna looked back over the notes she had been taking on the attacks over the previous weeks. She triple-checked to make sure and confirmed that she was indeed seeing what she thought she was seeing. She waved a hoof for Shining Armor to come look at her progress.

Shining Armor failed to respond, too focused on trying to figure out why the hole they’d made in the library floor just led to more floor. The spot didn’t make the hollow sound again when he tapped it to tell the servants where to start digging, and after they started they had found nothing but dirt and stone once they got all the way through the floor. The effort was leading nowhere.

When Shining Armor didn’t respond, Luna raised her head and looked over to him. “Shining Armor, come look at this,” she said, calling for his attention. He glanced at the hole again, which the servants had given up on making deeper than four feet, and walked over to the table.

“What is it?”
“I’ve found something. Look at this…”

Luna spread her charts out across the table in order. They seemed to be bar charts of some sort, detailing months, divided into weeks, divided into days, divided into hours. Early charts just depicted a number per day and most weeks were only marked with a one. However, as the charts’ dates got closer to the current day, she had made them far more detailed. Shining Armor saw that she had split the bars in two: one for objects, one for ponies. She’d been tracking when and what had gone missing in the previous weeks. He also made note that the recent few days he’d been there had a marked increase in disappearances of both objects and ponies.

“What is this?” Shining Armor asked, not sure of the point.
“Look more carefully at the recent days,” Luna said while sliding a hoof across the last few charts. “Do you see anything odd about them?”

Shining Armor looked closer. After a moment, he figured out what she was talking about: there were fluctuations in when things went missing. Every twenty hours, there was a period of three or four hours in which the bars were absent, indicating that there were disappearances of neither objects nor ponies in those periods.

“…..what do you think it means?”
“Well, it’s a start at least,” she replied, “but I’m not sure what the significance is just yet. It’s forward progress, but it’s as puzzling as it is revealing…”
The Princess of the Night yawned. After all, she was Princess of the Night, not Princess of the Late Morning. Shining Armor looked at her and his eyes widened in realization. Luna seemed confused.

“What?” she asked.
“You’re… tired,” he replied slowly. “You need to sleep…”
“Yes? I may be a princess but I do need to rest from time to ti-“

The realization suddenly hit her as well. She looked back over the charts again… if they were working constantly, and collapsed into sleep whenever they felt they couldn’t go any further. If the charts weren’t lying and if the reports from the guards and servants around the castle were accurate, then this thing was working constantly, taking objects at a consistent rate with the occasional guard or servant. With that much work being done, it must grow tired every now and then…

“…so we can predict when it’s safe for ponies to be alone in the castle, and…” Luna said.
“That’s another step forward,” Shining Armor replied, not noticing that Luna trailed her sentence off.
“It’s next dormant state is likely to be in a few hours, if it sticks to what has so far been a fairly consistent schedule,” Luna noted. “It stays awake and active for at minimum nineteen hours and at most, twenty-two. Then it goes somewhere and sleeps for three to five hours, during which period it’s safe to wander the hallways alone.”

The two had a moment of silence to think of how they could use this to their advantage… though Luna already had an idea. She had an ability that few ponies knew of save for her and her sister, and if they were correct in thinking that the creature sleeps during these periods…

“Shining Armor,” Luna said while making her way to the door with her guards. “Stay here and take down the hourly reports. I have something I need to discuss with my sister.”

“I will,” Shining Armor said as he sat down in front of her research again. When she exited the room, he looked over the notes she’d taken down regarding myths from all over the world; she’d marked down anything that might have any connection to the changelings, but none of it seemed to be leading to anything significant.

He sighed in frustration. Phantom hollow in the ground, being outwitted by it twice already, and there was nothing in the entire library that seemed to have any relation to this thing. How can there be absolutely no information on it!? There were plenty of books detailing Changeling encounters, myths, facts, and historical events, but there was no mention of anything like this with them. The royal library was one of the most expansive libraries in all of Equestria, and it didn’t have a single word on the creature. They’d already cleaned out the sections detailing flora and fauna, they were almost completely done with the mythological section, and the servants assigned to look through the history section were done. Before too long, the only thing left to do would be to look back through the things they’d already read…

Shining Armor lightly hit his head on the table a few times to try and jog his brain. How could it have escaped from right in front of him twice? Was there a hollow spot back at the first disappearance site? He got up and instructed his bodyguards to follow him. If there was anywhere to go from here, then that idea was probably it.

“Oh…. Hello, Luna,” said Celestia as Luna entered the throne room. Celestia had been speaking to several advisors, who she then dismissed as Luna approached.
“Sister, I need to speak to you in private,” Luna said. Celestia could tell that what she was wanting to talk about was serious.
“Of course. Guards, if you would…?”

The guards vacated the room, including her entourage (with some hesitation). When they all left, they met each other’s eyes again.

“What is it?” Celestia asked.
“We have discovered that this creature sleeps,” Luna stated. There was a brief silence.
“……….well, that proves that it gets tired. There must be more to your discovery than that,” Celestia finally replied, a little confused.

Luna gave Celestia a look that told her what she was planning. At first, Celestia drew back a bit. She hadn’t thought of the possibility of doing such a thing… and it discomforted her, knowing that they knew so little about the creature. While the process was normally harmless, this thing could present any number of dangers to processes that might affect it differently. Luna’s gaze did not waver, and Celestia could feel her conviction to her task. She knew that Luna had come here not for discussion or permission, but merely to let her know that it was going to happen.

“……be careful,” Celestia said. “We don’t know if it will affect the creature differently.”
“I know, sister, did you not think I would take that into account?”
“No, I knew you would have weighted the possibilities. I’m just worried about you is all…”
Luna’s eyes moved to the dark circle under her sister’s. “Sister… have you been sleeping well?”
“Yes, I have,” Celestia lied. “I’m just tired of having to deal with this issue that’s come up…”
“What issue?” Luna inquired, not believing the lie for a moment.
Celestia had only lied about the sleep, though. “It seems that somepony in the castle has been leaking information out to the public about the creature in the castle…”

Celestia levitated a newspaper to Luna that she had been keeping next to the throne. Luna took it and read the headline.

THE CANTERLOT CASTLE MONSTER
Is there something in Canterlot Castle that even the Princesses can’t best?

Luna threw the newspaper to the floor. “Who would do this!?” she said, nearly yelling.
“I do not know,” Celestia replied, “but I have been trying to find out who the informant is. I’ve narrowed it down to the servants in the east wing with the help of the advisors, who I made sure were the first to be screened.”
Celestia sighed. “Still, it might be a few days before we find the culprit, especially if the creature decides to concentrate on that area… and mother help us if the creature takes the pony that’s doing it.”

Luna shook her head in response. “Well, if that does happen then at least we won’t have to worry about them for a while. And, we’ll also probably be able to figure out who it is right away thanks to seeing the leak stop. If there’s more than one, though…”
“I don’t even want to think about it,” Celestia said, putting a hoof to her head and sighing again.
“….You’re sure you’re sleeping well, sister?”
“Yes, I am.”

Luna looked back to the door. If she wanted to do this, then she would have to go now to prepare.

“Sister, I must go.”
“Oh yes, yes, of course. I forgot why you came here in the first place.”
“Goodbye, sister, and please do get some sleep.”

Celestia didn’t reply as Luna left the room and headed towards her room. She had to take some time to mentally prepare herself for what she might be about to encounter. The trip there was uneventful, and what followed at least started off normal…

Luna’s next few hours were spent in preparation. She meditated for a part of the time, she did some mental exercises, and she made sure she was well-rested. Nothing interrupted, and the guards outside remained at their post without a problem while the guards inside the room did not interfere. When she was done, she looked at the clock… one o’clock P.M. It was around this time that the creature was predicted to be falling asleep, wherever it was.

Luna took one last deep breath and laid down on her bed. The light flowing through the window was suddenly blocked out by a small cloud of darkness, as well as the light underneath the door. There was a soft blue glow coming from her mane and tail as she quickly fell asleep... but didn’t at the same time.

Luna opened her eyes, but still lay asleep in her bed with her eyes closed… her mind’s eyes were now open instead. She looked around at the surrounding empty void as the sound of a breeze emanated from somewhere, even though there was no wind. The range of her sight had been expanded by the preparation beforehand, so she was able to see bright, shining lights in the distance as well as ones up close; however, she was only interested in those that were close enough to be in the castle. She looked around, seeing some lights shake and fidget about, though not moving significantly from their position.

Luna had expected to see nightmares here on the dreamscape. The recent events had been hard on the guards and servants, and now it seems the town as well thanks to the information leak. She looked across the shaking lights that indicated that their corresponding pony was having a nightmare, but as much as she wanted to she didn’t have the time to go and comfort each of them. Right now, she had a mission: search the dreamscape for the creature’s dream, if it indeed did dream at all.

As she looked about without moving from her position floating in the black void, she spotted something strange. There was a dream… of a different color? Most dreams appeared as shining green lights; exceptionally evil ponies and beings had a red light instead, while those with special links to harmony such as Twilight and her friends, as well as Luna and Celestia, appeared yellow. This dream… was a fluctuating hue of blue and gray. That had to be the creature, since no guard, servant, or other pony had ever had a base dream color like this. She willed herself towards it, her wings useless in the airless void.

The closer Luna got to the dream, the more she felt uneasy about it. This creature was obviously strange, and she was beginning to think once more about whether or not this dream invasion process would proceed differently for it or not. When she reached it, she shook the thoughts out of her head: now was not the time for hesitation. Luna closed her eyes and moved towards the dream, allowing its light to expand and encompass her.

Chapter Five: Devourer's Dream

Luna waited for the glow through her eyelids to recede before she opened them. She was surrounded by a dark void again, but this time there were objects floating around. Some objects were small while others were large, while the range of the numerous objects’ natures varied: some objects were fairly normal, like a chair here or a flower there; others were strange, such as a large gray cylinder of some sort filled with holes or a small whirlpool made of what looked to be stone. Luna recognized that she was not fully in the dream yet, as it sometimes happened: instead, her being was still aligning with it, and until then she could glimpse little bits and pieces of the dreamer’s psyche. Of course, what she saw was very rarely of any use but it was still usually interesting.

After a moment and several more odd objects floating by, Luna felt her hooves touch solid ground. Sort of. She couldn’t see it, but she was on a flat surface, almost as though she were standing on glass. This was common, too, for dreams that didn’t have a distinct setting. The void changed from near-black to a light, smoke-like color and consistency. She could still catch glimpses of the normal void through the smoke appearance; yet again, normal for some dreams.

Luna suddenly heard laughter nearby. A large group of ponies were laughing. She turned to find the noise, and as she finally fully aligned herself with the dream the image faded into view.

There was a large, round table surrounded by ponies. Several of them she recognized as ponies that had gone missing around the castle, but some of them appeared to be normal ponies that could have come from anywhere. They were all eating from plates on the table, and anything they didn’t like was pushed through a hole behind the plates and disappeared. At one end of the table sat….. the thing.

The table was obviously made for pony use, which made the creature look even bigger than the reports described. It sat cross-legged and towered over its end of the table, though its arms were more than long enough to reach the food on its plate. It was covered in black plating highly similar to that of the changelings, but there were small gaps that opened up in some places as it moved, revealing grey flesh. Its head resembled a dragon’s more than a changeling’s though it had no horns, hair, or ridges to decorate it. It had no tail and no wings, further differentiating it from actual changelings, and its feet were similar to clawed hooves. Its arms were extremely long, long enough to easily reach its knees if it were to stand up straight, and ended in actual hand-like claws.

Luna drew back for a moment before she noticed that it was laughing and socializing with the ponies at the table. Its voice was rough, but not too different from what one would expect from any normal pony save for the fact that its voice seemed gender-neutral. Most of the conversation seemed to be concentrated on it, with the other ponies asking it questions about itself; they addressed it as “Devourer”. Luna stood by quietly, listening and being thankful that she was capable of willing herself to not be seen by the dreamer.

“Devourer!” a maid pony said after swallowing a large bite of bread, “why are you so tall?”

“Good question!” it replied with a laugh. “I guess I’m just so tall so I can see who’s around me!”

For some reason this seemed hilarious to the group, and they broke out into a fresh bout of laughter. When they began to calm down, a sophisticated looking mare spoke.

“Devourer! How much work do you put into your tunnels?”

“Ah, I put a little bit of myself into every tunnel! Not by choice, though, thanks to the unmagical aura I leave around! You could say, it’s a….. hygiene problem!”

Again, they all began laughing. That question was interesting. Luna thought it over while they continued to laugh. So Shining Armor’s theory was right in that it had tunnels going through the floors and walls of the castle. How could it fit though? Some of the walls were barely thick enough for a normal pony, much less something like the Devourer. She looked at it again and noticed that its plating had joints that could possibly allow it to flatten itself out: that must be how. If it was using the tunnels to capture ponies… Luna shuddered, hoping that they were alright. Another pony, one that seemed to be one of her missing guards, began to speak.

“Devourer, Devourer!” he cried. “Why do you eat so much?”

Immediately, the joyful atmosphere dissipated. Everyone, including the guard that asked the question, suddenly fell silent all at once. Luna grew tense.

“Why…… do I eat so much?” The Devourer repeated. It wasn’t looking at anypony in particular, but its gaze instead seemed to be wandering across them all. They looked back at it with silent, worried expressions.

It placed its hands on the table and pushed downward to help itself stand up slowly. When it reached its full height, Luna was again grateful that the huge creature couldn’t see her.

“I…. eat……. Because I can,” it said slowly and somberly. It turned away from the table. “I eat…… because I….. I hunger…” it continued, its voice faltering a little bit. Luna heard it draw a sharp breath as it turned back towards the table clutching its head and closing its eyes. The table and those surrounding it faded away while the creature remained. It stayed in this position with heavy, unsteady breathing for several tense moments.

“WHY!?” it suddenly shouted, making Luna jump. It turned around a third time to face the massive vortex of silver liquid that was suddenly forming in the sky. “WHY!?” it yelled again as the vortex slowed its circular movement to a crawl. The creature took several stomping steps in its direction while holding its claws out at it.

“WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!?” it screamed. “You thought yourself kind enough to bless me with life-unending, but then you gave me hunger-insatiable!? Father, you know I loved you! Father, you know I loved what you did and what you created! I served you faithfully, and I served your creations faithfully. For a time, I even served under your greatest creation, your own acolyte as he brought chaos and destruction into this world! I lived with the hunger through all of that time, through all of those tasks, using it for the purpose that you gave it to me for! I devoured as much as I could, and it wasn’t good enough for you!”

The creature continued shouting at the vortex as it began to claw the air in front of it, as though it thought it could tear at it from where it stood. “Do I truly have your favor, father!? Did any of your creations, even your acolyte, ever truly have your favor and love!? You abandoned us, father, and that’s why your acolyte failed both times! Why none of your other creations have risen to power, and why I hunger eternally! Father, I….. loved you….. Father…. I said it before, and I will say it again…”

The vortex began to spin faster at the last sentence. Was it actually listening? Was it an actual manifestation of its father, or just how it saw him?

And then the creature’s voice rose even farther, into a mix of unearthly screaming and screeching.
“I. AM. NO LONGER. YOURS. I AM NOT YOURS. I AM NOT YOURS! I AM NOT YOURS! I AM NOT YOURS! I AM NOT YOURS! I AM NOT YOURS! I AM NOT-“

Luna had to cover her ears to block out the sound of its screaming, which had grown near-unbearable in volume. It continued to scream, and it screamed, and it screamed still. For what felt like hours, it screamed nothing but that single sentence over and over and over; over time, its voice began to change. Its voice went from the normal-sounding one to sounding gravelly, and from gravelly to being barely indistinguishable from an intensely loud gurgling. It finally ended with an agonized scream that still deafened Luna even through her covering her ears.
“FATHER CHAOS…….. I AM NOT YOURS!!!”

The creature seemed to stumble forward a few steps. Luna couldn’t tell whether it had lost its balance or if it was trying to reach the vortex. The whirlpool of metal vanished from the sky and the Devourer fell to its knees. It breathed heavily, seemingly on the verge of passing out.

There was a long, long moment of silence as Luna contemplated her options. She felt sorry for it… if what it was talking about was true then it was a creation of a being of pure primordial chaos: the same force that had created Discord, apparently. Even though it was suffering, however, she didn’t want to risk making herself visible to try and comfort it. She didn’t know how it would react to her, even with her good intentions. After a moment, she decided against it: she had much more information than when she entered the dream, and that was good enough. If there came a time to use this personal information to try and defuse a situation then she would do so, but right now she was to remain hidden.

The Devourer eventually stood back up. It stood up straight and Luna noticed that a purple liquid had been trailing out of its eyes as well as several gaps in its armor. Its eyes turned and wandered around the space they were in. It suddenly seemed confused. It began to turn in a circle, starting in the direction opposite Luna, reacting with bewilderment. Could it be that it…?

“Where am I?” It said, its voice no longer pleasantly normal but instead having the same gurgling mixed in with the gravelly voice, the same as when it stopped screaming. “Where… is this place?”

It continued to turn until an image of a large changeling appeared… a changeling royal, it would seem, but it wasn’t Queen Chrysalis. The Devourer saw it and drew back, before immediately falling to one knee and bowing. The unknown changeling queen stepped forward and stopped a few feet in front of it. She spoke.

“Why do you serve us?”

The Devourer remained still for a moment… then it raised its head without changing its stance.

“I serve you… I serve you and all of your kind, the changelings. You showed me kindness in a world thankless of my curses and my appearance. A world that rejected my black armored body and was repulsed by my unending hunger. You… allowed me to stay with you in your hive and you gave me food. You gave me a purpose, allowing me to consume the harmony you made: gave a use to my eating your walls and rooms. You accepted me into your home and even trusted me with the care of the swarm’s young from time to time…”

The purple liquid began to leak from its eyes and some of the holes in its armor again. “You let me sit at your table with your children and you spoke to me, knowing what I was. You promised me that none would know where I came from, promised that the nature of my being was to be lost to your swarm. You gave me something to live for in my eternality, filling an endless hollow. You even went so far as to care for me, you cared about how I felt and how I was doing…..”

The two kept eye contact for a brief moment. Then the creature fell to its other knee as well and moved forward, embracing the changeling queen in an awkward hug. She raised a hoof and returned it with a small smile. Its odd manner of crying stopped as it remained there for a moment. Then, it backed up and met eyes with the changeling queen.

“Q-Queen Spindle, I-I still serve your swarm,” it said shakily. “I still serve them with the same loyalty as when you took me in! Y-your granddaughter, she leads with grace r-resembling your own, a-and we still have success i-in some of our raids! And w-we—“

Queen Spindle held her hoof up and the Devourer stopped. “I know… I know.”

The Devourer gave a smile as uneven as its voice was and seemed happy for a moment. Luna felt good that it was able to find some peace, and was also pleased at finding its connection to the changelings. Perhaps it could be reasoned with if they could meet while awake, but for now—

An expression of shock suddenly came over the Devourer’s face. It stood straight up on its knees, still taller than Luna. Luna was suddenly snapped out of the moment, aware that something was wrong. The Devourer looked away from her, searching for something, and then it looked in her direction. Then, its vision fell downward and it made eye contact with her.

Its eyes began to widen as Luna ejected herself from the dream in a panic.

Chapter Six: Confrontation

The sun was setting as she awoke. Luna looked around the room to see her guards still stationed and alert; they gave her a concerned look at her panic. She calmed herself and began collecting her thoughts. She looked back through what she had learned in the dream… a chill ran down her spine when she remembered the Devourer somehow overcoming her ability to become invisible to the dreamer. A thought suddenly hit her: did it remember the dream? Had she remembered to make sure she used her ability to make it forget? And even so, would it have worked?

Luna decided to not wait and find out. She commanded her guards to follow her and they left the bedroom, headed for the throne room. She needed to tell her sister what she had seen, and hoped that the Devourer didn’t remember her presence. She also needed to tell Shining Armor, who she hoped was still delivering his daily report on his findings to her sister.

Luna ran into the throne room, to see that her sister had not gone to bed yet. Luckily enough, Shining Armor was there too just as she’d hoped. As she approached, she noticed one of the servants speaking to Celestia. Judging by Celestia’s annoyed expression, the servant’s presence was unexpected. Luna got within earshot.

“And then, your majesty, I swear it’s true! I heard it, I heard his voice!” the servant said. She seemed to be in a panicking.
“For the last time,” Celestia said wearily, “who did you hear?”
The servant hesitated for a moment before blurting out the name: “Discord!”
Celestia’s ears suddenly perked up, and so did Luna’s. “You mean to tell me that you heard him out in the garden?” Celestia asked.
“Yes, yes, I heard his voice! I can’t have mistaken it, your majesty, after hearing him when he took over that time long ago! It had to have been him!”
Luna spoke up. “Where were you to the statue when you heard him?” she asked, fearful for the answer. Celestia and Shining Armor seemed surprised, apparently having just noticed her.
The servant looked confused for a moment before answering. “I… I was at the south end of the garden, in the section where he’s kept…”

Luna’s eyes grew a bit wider as she thought of which side of his garden was closest to Canterlot: something from the dream clicked. The Devourer had mentioned that the one he called Father Chaos had an acolyte: his greatest creation, as described by the Devourer. Such a being would have had immense power when dealing with chaos, and was mentioned to have failed in conquering something, either the world or Equestria, two separate times. She’d already thought about the possibility of this acolyte being Discord, but now there was significantly less doubt. She didn’t recall Discord ever mentioning such a thing as whatever it was that created him, but then, he did have a lot of things he didn’t tell.

Celestia looked at Luna. “What would that have to do with the matter?” she asked.
“Oh, there is something I need to speak to you about, sister! And you too, Shining Armor,” Luna replied.
“Should I, um, leave?” the servant asked nervously. Celestia nodded.
“What you’ve told us has been most helpful. Thank you,” she said to the servant, who bowed and hurriedly left.

When she was gone, Shining Armor spoke up. “Well, Princess Luna, I didn’t find anything. How did your sleep go?”
“More revealing than you might think, Shining Armor,” she replied. Celestia nodded to her knowingly.
“Shining Armor, I was able to infiltrate its dream as it slept” she continued.
“You can… enter ponies’ dreams?” Shining Armor said, a look of surprise on his face.
“Indeed, and animals too. I was able to sneak into its dream, and I learned a lot about it while I was there.”

The guards at the door allowed the servant to pass out of the room. She thanked them and began moving back to where she was supposed to be.

“So what do you think they’re talking about in there?” one guard asked the other.
“I don’t know, but it seems like it was important. Princess Luna looked like she was in a hurry.”
“Yeah… I hope it puts them closer to getting rid of the monster.”
“Me too…… hey, what do you think it looks like?”
“Huh?”
“Come on, what do you think the monster looks like? You have to have thought about it.”
“Well… I don’t know. The rumors say it looks like a changeling, so I guess it would look like a really big changeling.”
“Oh come on, you can imagine better than that.”
“I don’t try to think about it, okay?”
“Oh fine.”

There was a moment of silence.

“Do you hear something?”
“What?”
“It’s… kind of like a scratching sound.”
“Scratching sou—… wait, yeah, I hear it too.”
“Where’s it coming from?”
“Hm… it sounds like it’s coming from the floo—“

There was a tremendous cracking noise as a pillar of black smoke headed by two glowing yellow eyes and a ring of teeth erupted from a hole in the floor beneath them that had suddenly appeared. The eyes flashed and a small anti-magic field enveloped the guards, nullifying the stunning spells they were readying in self-defense. The smoke then turned into an armored black carapace and two long arms reached out to grasp each guard.

“—and then I heard what the ponies at the table were saying,” Luna continued after describing the dream’s unusual initial appearance and the scene she first saw.
“You say that these ponies are ones that went missing?” Celestia asked.
“Yes, most of them were. Others seemed to be normal ponies, possibly from Canterlot.”
Shining Armor looked down in thought as he spoke. “But if the dream included ponies from Canterlot… does that mean it’s been capturing ponies from there too?”
“I do not know,” Luna said. “If it was, though, you would think the news would have covered it. I think they were random manifestations, as dreams do sometimes.”

The conversation was suddenly interrupted by loud screams near the entrance to the throne room. The three looked to the door as a heavy thud echoed through the room, accompanied by the sound of wood splintering. They, as well as the guards in the room, looked on in shock as a reverse indentation appeared in the door with the noise and one of the pair of screaming voices stopped. There was a massive clang, the sound of armor being struck—hard—and the other voice quieted. There was then silence.

Shining Armor was the first to break out of the stupor the sounds had inflicted on everypony in the room. He ran towards the door: those were his men, and he wasn’t about to just stand by and let this thing get away again!

Turns out he shouldn’t have bothered.

“Stay there…” it whispered to the two unconscious guards behind it in the tunnel it had dug underneath them. It advanced forward, rapidly digging away a tunnel slightly further in the direction of the one pony it was after right at this moment.

Shining Armor had almost reached the door when he heard a sound coming from underneath the floor. He stopped, but was still too close when a huge black figure burst roaring from the floor directly in front of him, the upward force of its arms hitting him like an invisible wall and sending him skidding backwards. The creature before him continued to roar and raised its arms, slamming them down to either side of itself and then pushing itself the rest of the way out of the floor. It stood its full nine-foot height and looked around the room, shaking off debris from under the ground and what it had broken through to surface.

The guards in the room reacted quickly, firing bursts of stunning energy at it. A total of eight elite guards in the room, all of them firing at the Devourer… and not a single one seemed to be having an effect. The beams hit the Devourer, but each beam seemed to simply vanish into its carapace without causing it any pain.

Princess Celestia rose into the air, having seen the lesser attacks not having any effect. She gathered her power into her horn and then directed it at the Devourer with the same ferocity she had attacked Queen Chrysalis with on the day of the royal wedding. A tremendously powerful beam of focused light flew directly into the Devourer’s chest, a direct hit… with the same effect that the guards’ attacks had.

The Devourer gathered a large breath and then roared again, but this one seemed different. The roar seemed to have an unnatural echo, and startled all of the guards into ceasing their assault. Celestia wasn’t fazed, but stopped firing by choice seeing that even her lethality-intended beam wasn’t having any effect. The creature allowed its spread fear aura to take hold of the guards before finally scanning the room, letting its eyes come to a stop on its target. It raised a claw and pointed to Princess Luna, who had drawn back behind a shield that Shining Armor had created upon recovery.

“YOU,” it screamed in a voice nearly as loud as its roar had been. Its voice was, as Luna suspected, the grating, gurgling voice it had ended the dream with.
“YOU. I AM HERE…… FOR YOU,” it continued, the menace in its voice driving Celestia to stand in front of Luna and Shining Armor to reinforce the shield in front of all three of them. The guards were still too stunned to do anything.
“I DO NOT CARE… IF THEY KNOW ABOUT THE TUNNELS,” it continued further. “I DO NOT CARE IF THEY KNOW THAT I ALLY MYSELF WITH THE CHANGELINGS, AND I DO NOT CARE THAT YOU KNOW I DREAM AS THE REST OF YOU.”
It raised its other hand in a grasping position towards Luna. “BUT IF YOU SO MUCH AS BREATHE A WORD TO THEM ABOUT WHAT I AM OR MY CONNECTION TO MY SWARM…..”
It lowered its voice at last into a menacing, but still clearly audible growl: “I will crush your legs in my jaws, rip your wings from your back and gnaw your horn from your skull, and then I will devour everything you know and love before you…… but before that…”
It paused for an agonizing moment. “I’ll start killing the prisoners. It’s bad enough I have to steal actual food to feed them, so it’ll be VERY satisfying to tear out their throats, one by one.”
Shining Armor let out a sigh of relief at hearing that the taken ponies were not dead. He tensed as the Devourer pointed to him. “And just for you,” it said slowly, “I’ll start with the servants. The laborers. Your warriors will get to watch as those they are supposed to protect, that YOU are supposed to protect, are eviscerated in front of them. Slowly.”

Shining Armor and the princesses flinched at the thought as the guards finally recovered. They pointed their horns at the Devourer, unsure of what to do. It ignored them and began speaking again.

“Now then…. If you want to stop me……”
A long, evil grin broke out along its face.
“You’ll have to catch me.”

The Devourer broke out into a sprint, breaking its way through the doors to the room with ease and knocking aside several guards on the other side that had come to investigate the earlier noise. It turned and took off down a hallway as Shining Armor and the Princesses gave pursuit.

A speck appeared on the horizon. The scouts focused their attention to it, hoping it was who they thought it was. Their suspicions and hopes were filled when it got close enough that they could make out its blue helmet.

“Commander Dapul has returned!” they collectively called out over the village. There was much cheering in the crowd outside, as well as from those emerging from the structures.

Queen Chrysalis rose from her resting place and walked among her swarm to greet Dapul. He had almost reached the village by now, with the scouts calling out his estimated distance every few seconds to keep the crowd going. When Dapul finally reached the village boundaries, the crowd erupted in one final bout of cheering and swarmed over him, patting him on the back and hugging him. Ironically, he was nearly crushed in their joy before a green glow set about him and he rose into the air.

“Calm down, my swarm,” Queen Chrysalis said as she levitated Dapul over to the podium the swarm had made for her to give commands from some time back. They’d even done it without her asking.
Queen Chrysalis set Dapul down next to her and allowed him to bow before she spoke. “Dapul, what news do you bring of the hive? Is it safe?”
“Yes, your majesty,” he answered. Queen Chrysalis noticed that he had a few cuts on his back and more dents in his armor than when he left.
“What happened to you, Dapul?” She asked.
“Your majesty, a pride of manticores had taken up residence in the hive in our absence. Many were killed by the traps, but some had survived and were making a den out of it. I lured them into the remaining traps, though I had a little trouble.”
“And did you reset the traps when they were done with?”
“Yes, and I moved their corpses to the food pods. I made sure everything was in order: the food pods were still closed, the traps cleaned and in peak condition, and even made sure none of the beasts had hidden themselves in the Devourer’s den.”
Queen Chrysalis smiled. “Well done, Commander Dapul! When we reach the hive together, you may be looking forward to a promotion!”

Dapul smiled with glee and did a little dance, too happy at having survived the journey and having gotten a compliment from the queen herself to contain his joy. It didn’t last long, though, once he realized he was doing it in front of her. He stopped, saluted, and then joined the ranks of his siblings.

Queen Chrysalis stepped up to the podium. She began to speak, but closed her mouth and listened intently before she said a word. A confused look washed over the crowd, but then they sensed it to. There was a magical signal coming. A few seconds later, a voice boomed over the crowd, shocking many of them.

“I’M EATING AT THE MOMENT. CALL AGAIN LATER.”

Queen Chrysalis smiled as the crowd had a variety of quiet reactions to hearing the Devourer's voice. “My swarm, we have one more thing to do before we depart for the nest…”

The swarm knew what she meant. They parted their way to the locus that they used to send out signals as she hovered over to it. They gathered and concentrated their power into it as she readied the message to send back to the Devourer. After a few brief moments, she sent the signal through the locus, which then formed the collected energy into a communication spell and sent it towards Canterlot. Just as before, there was a small *boom* sound as it breached the banishing spell’s boundary. The swarm watched it travel out of view as Chrysalis turned to Dapul.

“Dapul, did you leave the teleport beacon on a timer?”
“Yes, your majesty.”
“Appropriately timed?”
“It should be active here in a few hours, your majesty.”
“Good.”

Chapter Seven: Unseen

Darkness. There was nothing but inky black darkness. He opened his eyes… there was still darkness. Huh. He shook his head and then began to rise to his feet before bumping his head on a very low ceiling of some sort. He instinctually looked up in confusion before groaning, realizing that it was too dark to make out his surroundings anyways. There he stood, crouched down, confused, and blind. He heard a groaning noise, similar to his nearby.

“…Gold? Gold Hoof, is that you? Are you there?” He said softly towards the noise.
After a moment a response came from the darkness accompanied by shuffling and a thump. “Yeah, I’m here Brass Shield. My head hurts… I can’t see anything, where a--*thump* OW. Owowow, I didn’t need that…..”
Brass Shield let out a sigh of relief, partially in that his friend was still there with him and partially to cover up his laugh. “I don’t know where we are,” he replied after swallowing the laugh completely. “It’s just… dark.”
“See if you can light this up, you were always better with light spells than me.”

Brass Shield nodded, and then contemplated why he did so while they were both still blind. Then, he concentrated magic into his horn and cast a basic light spell. Strangely enough, the spell barely had any effect and cast a glow barely bright enough to see Gold Hoof’s white coat, which reflected the light better than the surrounding tunnel.

“Is that really all you can do?” Gold laughed. “You must have been hit on the head harder than I was!”
“Oh shut up,” Brass replied. “I don’t know why my magic’s not working here. It looks like we’re in a low tunnel.”
“Duh. But how did we get—“

Both of them suddenly remembered what had happened just before they woke up. Then, they both panicked with such synchronization it was as though they had practiced.

“DID THAT REALLY JUST—“
“DID YOU SEE THE—“
“WHAT WAS—“
“ARE WE IN—“
“—AND THEN POW—“
“—BUT I TRIED TO—“
“—IT WAS SO—“
“*THUD* MY HEAD OWOWOWOW—“
*scratch*
“…………”
“…………”
“Gold?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you hear that?”
“Yeah. Brass?”
“Yeah?”
“Did you make that noise?”
“No.”

The two stopped and listened intently. They had heard a loud scratching noise, echoing through the tunnels they were in. They looked at each other and lowered their voices.

“Brass, did you see that thing?”
“Well duh, it kind of nearly threw me through the throne room door… what did it do to you?”
“It punched me in the side of the head. My helmet didn’t help… I blacked out right there.”
“Right… so…… are we……?
“Dead? I, um…”
“My magic isn’t working right, and it’s so dark…”
“……hey Brass, come here.”
Brass moved over to Gold, where he promptly received a knock to the head from one of Gold Hoof’s hooves. “Ow! What was that for?”
“We can still feel things, so I don’t think we’re dead.”
“We hit our heads! We already knew we could feel things!”
“I know, hee hee.”

Brass rolled his eyes. He gathered some more power and focused it into his horn, supplementing the light spell. The light shining from the tip of his horn brightened a bit, enough for them to see the walls of the tunnel they were in as well as a short distance in either direction.

“…Gold, I think we’re looking at how it’s been getting around the castle without being detected.”
“You think?”
“I wonder if… I wonder if it forgot to come back at us. It looked like it wanted into the throne room, so maybe it left us here once it was done.”
“…You really think so?” Gold asked, without sarcasm.
“Yeah, it’s the only thing I can think might have happened.”

There was a sudden cracking sound, echoing through the tunnels from a distant passage. Brass Shield and Gold Hoof both turned towards it and crouched next to each other. When it died down, they began speaking again.

“…what do you think that was, Gold?”
“What do YOU think it was!? That had to have been the monster!”
“…….oh dear Celestia, you don’t think it’ll find us here!?”
“Don’t you dare freaking jinx it, Brass!”

The sound of crackling electricity echoed through the tunnels as the previous sounds did, this time accompanied by another strange sound. This sound seemed to be someone… eating?

“Nahhh, ahm, nyahmam…. Amnomahm……. Ahhhhh…….”
“That’s… scary, Brass. I want out of here.”
“Me too. It sounded satisfied with whatever it ate… maybe if it finds us, it won’t—“
“NYYAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHH”
A horrible scream travelled through the passages, and both Gold and Brass could feel the tunnels shaking. A gurgling, grating voice followed: “SIX!? SIX TYPES OF MAGIC HERE!?!”
Brass and Gold remained motionless. Was it talking about…?
“AGH, THIS MAGIC IS INTENSE. VERY, VERY INTENSE…… ugh, I did not suspect that there were SIX types of magic, all combined into one aura past the wards…… are these? These…. These are……… ah. Ah yes, she told me about these… heheheh……”

There was suddenly a steady skittering noise moving throughout the tunnels. It took Gold and Brass but a moment to figure out that the creature was now on the move… but to where? The skittering noise was getting noticeably closer.

“Oh crap, Gold, what now? It’s coming this way!”
“It’s cool, I’ve got this. Turn out the light and get close to the wall.”

Brass hesitated for a brief moment before he heard a dark chuckle from down the passage as it drew closer. He cut off the spell and they were cloaked in darkness once again. He felt a weak wave of magic wash over him, a wave he recognized as Gold’s signature invisibility shell spell. He heard Gold signal for him to be quiet as they saw a dazzling light approaching from another tunnel.

When the light turned into the passage they were in, they saw the Devourer once more, crawling in their direction. The lights were coming from the necklace around its neck, consisting of a bunch of linked-together gold chains with different-colored, glowing gems on each chain. It was wearing all six Elements of Harmony as one big necklace for transportation. The two guard ponies suppressed their gasps of surprise out of fear as it crawled ever-closer to them.

Time seemed to slow down as it passed them; they hugged the wall while it travelled down the middle. The motion range of its arms and legs just barely allowed them to get close enough to possibly touch them, and it came extremely close to doing so. It felt like an eternity before it was halfway between them, its arms having passed them harmlessly and the magical aura of the Elements around its neck masking the much smaller aura of the minor invisibility spell. To their horror, it stopped for a second between them.

“Yes, yes…” it said in a low voice while holding up the Element of Generosity, which just happened to be the front-most on the necklace. “The Queen told me about you six artifacts… you will make an excellent addition to the ransom deal, heheh…”

It let go of the Element, allowing it to dangle free again. It then began to—one of its legs touched Brass.

“…Eh?” it said in suspicion. Brass’s heart stopped. “What was—“*clonk*

As if lady luck herself had stomped on the floor above, a small rock fell from the ceiling and bounced off of its head. It looked up in annoyance, and then back down the tunnel it had come through (its neck allowing it to move its head in a creepy, owl-like turn). A rumbling reached the guards’ less sensitive ears, and then there was a massive crashing as dirt and large rocks fell from the ceiling in the direction it had come from. When the cave-in had finished, the trio looked on in shock/irritation (depending on whose eyes you’re seeing through).

“BLAST IT,” the creature cried out, almost making the guards jump. “I’ll have to remember to NOT scream so loud the next time my un-magical aura is overcome. That will be troublesome to clean up later… bah.”

It turned its head back forward and began to move away, having chalked up its brush with Brass Shield as debris from the coming cave-in. As it began to move on, Gold moved silently behind it, following. Brass knew he couldn’t ask why in all of Equestria Gold would be following the monster.

They followed it for several minutes, catching up with its quick pace whenever it stopped at cross-roads to decide which way to go. The two guards were able to eventually stand and even keep careful pace with the creature as the tunnels grew taller and went lower into the ground. When it finally reached its destination, the two managed to just barely stifle their surprise.

The tunnel narrowed down to a low, tight entrance that the creature then crawled through. The two guards looked through the hole before proceeding and saw a large room that had been dug out… filled with servants and guards, all tied with rope that had presumably gone missing before. The creature looked across its prisoners and smiled at their expressions of shock at its necklace.

“Do you like it?” it crooned softly to the group.

The color drained from the faces of many of the ponies in the room, while some of the servants (and one guard) fainted. The creature grinned and moved into the middle of the room, where it took off the necklace and set it down on the ground beneath it. Was it going to try and destroy them?

The creature turned to smoke, which Brass and Gold recognized as the form it had initially attacked them in. Then, a green light erupted within it, seemingly catching even it off guard. It stared forward, hearing words that were only audible to it.

“Devourer, this is your queen,” it heard Queen Chrysalis say through the message. “We received your message, and we are sorry to have interrupted your meal. Do as much damage you can, and call for a teleport out when you need it or when you see fit; send the call to the hive. Destroy their walls and possessions, and feel free to devour the flesh of the ponies themselves if you feel that it would be good to do so. If you can, get a hold of the Elements of Harmony, the objects I told you about before we were banished. Devourer, we are counting on you for revenge. I trust your judgment. We will be awaiting the call for teleportation.”

The creature had been silent with its eyes closed the entire time, leading Brass and Gold to wonder if it had fallen asleep. They had almost begun to contemplate entering the den when it suddenly let out a long, gruesome laugh and opened its eyes.

“HAAAAhahahaaaaa, well, my little ponies,” it said, turning to the now-squirming prisoners. “It seems that you may just be my next meal!”

The tied-up ponies began to panic, squirming harder and a few seemed to be screaming through their gags.

“But…… I am not ready to eat you just yet,” It spoke slowly. It seemed to be relishing in their fear of it. “First, I must contact someone… and then I must contact another. Those tasks are, regrettably, more important than simply feasting on your flesh, blood, and bones. Yes, my little ponies, you were not my main focus during my stay here. I hope you’ve lived pure-enough lives to not have much regret, though, because you have a very short time to get over it…”

The creature turned away from its prisoners and raised its smoky head. It closed its eyes and opened its mouth, emitting a low droning noise for several seconds before smoke similar to its body began to rise from the rough ground in front of it. This green smoke twisted into the air and slowly molded its shape into that of the Devourer, and then shifted into a near-perfect copy of its corporeal form. It revealed the only difference when the copy opened its eyes, revealing glossy blue-green orbs similar to that of a normal changeling rather than the white sclera and green iris of its normal eyes.

The copy turned, appearing to look around the room as the Devourer itself ceased the droning but didn’t open its eyes. The copy moved to the entrance of the den and past Gold and Brass by passing straight through the wall restricting the passage’s opening; it was an illusion. It moved through the passages and out of sight on some unknown task. After a moment of silence, Brass turned and began whispering to Gold.

“Why did you follow it here!?” he asked.
“Why do you think? We found the prisoners, and we can rescue both them and the Elements of Harmony! Think about it, we’ll be heroes!”
“And if we buck it up? What then!? We’ll be as well-off as the ponies that are trapped in there with that thing!”
“Look, Brass Shield, you’ve known me for how long? Since childhood. Trust me, this is going to work.”
“This isn’t a children’s game, Gold Hoof.”
“I know, but this is better than just running, isn’t it?”
“No, we could go get one of the princesses, or Shining Armor! That’s why they brought him here, to deal with this!”
“And what if—“
Their whispering was suddenly interrupted as the Devourer began to speak. They both instantly grew silent, almost having forgotten that it was even there.

“Ah, there you are—“
The guards froze.
“—darker of the sisters…”
The guards unfroze.
“You may notice a change… no, no, do not bother. This is an illusion that you cannot harm. Darker sister, where is your—“
It paused for a moment before continuing. “Oh, there she is. Brighter sister, darker sister, and…” The Devourer flinched to the side. “…your noble knight, sneaking up behind me. Good. I just wanted to tell you all….. thank you!”
The Devourer smiled, apparently seeing their reactions through the copy’s eyes. “Why? Why, you ask? Why, for providing me with so little challenge in obtaining six little artifacts that you treasure so dearly!”
Its smile grew much, much wider as Brass and Gold shivered, knowing that Celestia, Luna, and Shining Armor were… reacting to the statement.
“Ah-ah-ah! I told you, the illusion cannot be harmed! Oh look, you put a hole in your own wall. Tisk-tisk. Heheh… you know what my possession of the artifacts entails, don’t you?”
It paused for a moment, a look of expectation briefly on its face before the grin resumed, making it look more satisfied than ever.
“Haha, that’s right, Knight! You can say goodbye to your missing friends shortly! AHAAHAHAAHAHAHHAAHA—“

The Devourer opened its eyes, apparently having dispelled the illusionary copy, but it didn’t stop laughing. It turned to its captives, still bellowing and howling with taunting laughter. Several ponies began crying, while many of the guards in the room vainly attempted offensive magic. The Devourer laughed and laughed, until even some of the guards were crying either in frustration, sheer terror, or hopelessness. The Devourer suddenly took off, passing through the passageway past Gold and Brass and speeding down the tunnel.

The Devourer called back to the room as it disappeared into the darkness, “ENJOY YOUR LAST FEW MINUTES, IT’S ALMOST TIME!”

Then, there was silence. Gold and Brass looked at each other. Brass was the first to speak.

“We don’t have much of a choice then. You start at one end, I’ll start untying at the other and we’ll grab the elements once they’re all free. We’ll find our way out on our own.”

A black cloud hovered over the tip of the tallest tower on Canterlot Castle. It opened its mouth and let forth a message, headed for a destination far beyond the boundaries of Equestria where it was to be received by a queen and her swarm.

“I HAVE THE ELEMENTS: BRING ME HOME.”

Bloopers

Prologue:
Chrysalis herself did the same, cloaking herself in the signature green flames that indicated a changeling's dive. Her trajectory changed from a gentle slope downwards to a rapid, intense fall head-first into the ground… but she wasn’t going to clear the trees of the far-end of the Everfree Forest. Just as she was about to collide with the uppermost branches in a spectacular clash of fire and nature, she heard a voice of one of her swarmlings to her right.

“DO A BARREL ROLL!”

Chrysalis turned mid-air in surprise to see what changeling could speak in the middle of the dive, but she caught sight of nobody. Ironically, the turning motion continued and turned the dive into a drill, helping her shake her way through the branches with more ease than she would have just diving straight through. The impact was jarring, but no more so than any other dive she had ever done and a quick glance around after recovering proved that it was the same for the swarmlings that surrounded her. She looked around carefully; the voice was unfamiliar, and she couldn’t find the source. She passed it off as being a side-effect of flying for so long as she turned to her gathering swarm as they recovered.

Chapter One:
The princess turned and looked towards a particular stained glass window; the one depicting a white unicorn and a pink alicorn casting a love-based spell against a pony-like creature that fed off of love. The window that was made in honor of Shining Armor and Cadence's triumph over the Changeling Queen, Chrysalis, though the sheer power of their pure love.

Just then, there was a screaming outside the window. Children screaming. Celestia and Shining armor rushed to the window to try and look through the stained glass, but found themselves under a protection spell cast by Shining Armor on reflex when the glass suddenly burst inward, showing the shield with colorful glass shards.

Celestia and Shining Armor gaped at the massive hole in the glass, and followed the trail of brittle, see-through carnage with their eyes until they came to rest upon a single round object near the far edge of the field of glass: a baseball.

The two looked out the hole in the window to see three familiar fillies, one holding a baseball mit awkwardly in her mouth and another holding the handle of a baseball bat. Scootaloo dropped the bat at seeing the princess herself looking back at her through the important historical window.

The three ran off into the gardens panicking. Shining Armor turned to Celestia.

“What are they doing here in…?”

“That’s… a mystery for another time, I think. There are more important things to worry about at this moment,” she said, keeping her gaze out the window.

"This creature is reported to be covered in a hard black exoskeleton, exactly like...." she turned back to him, "exactly like Queen Chrysalis and her changelings."

Chapter Two:
The crowd began murmuring yet again, many of them nodding.

…except for two. A changeling commander and a normal one seemed to be having a disagreement; whether it was on the matter at hand or not was debatable. The two began yelling at each other oblivious to the stunned silence that surrounded them, including from their queen.

After a few more moments, the two broke out in a hoof-fight. The changelings that surrounded them in the crowd made a circle around them, chanting “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Amidst the wooden mallets and other out-of-place and completely inappropriate objects for a changeling to have that they seemed to be procuring from nowhere to aid in their endeavors to flatten their opponent, Queen Chrysalis face-hoofed.
Perhaps directing the swarm after a flight like that was going to be harder than she anticipated.

Chapter Three:
Ohoho, I did not expect that. They searched both possibilities.
Oh, would you two quit struggling! I can only hold you safely if you stay either still or limp!
They’re probably panicking because they can’t see through this darkness like I can. Oh well.
So now I’ve got two more….. very nice, my first double-takedown hee hee!
The darker sister now has fewer guards with her…. Maybe I could—
STOP. THAT.
*sounds of struggling*
GAAAAAAAGH. AAAAGHH, HAAAAAGHAGHHHHH.
You little… HAGH…… THE BOOK IS STUCK IN MY THROAT, GAGH!!
*thud*

Chapter Four:
Celestia levitated a newspaper to Luna that she had been keeping next to the throne. Luna took it and read the headline.

THE SHIPPING OF SHIPS
Can there actually be love between Albert Neighton’s new inventions, the Land Boats?

Luna stared in utter bewilderment at what she was seeing. There was an illustration of a boat with wheels, and for some reason there was another one on top of—
Seeing the expression on Luna’s face, Celestia quickly reached over and pointed out the headline below it.

THE CANTERLOT CASTLE MONSTER
Is there something in Canterlot Castle that even the Princesses can’t best?

Luna threw the newspaper to the floor. “Who would do this!?” she said, nearly yelling.

Chapter Five:
Luna waited for the glow through her eyelids to recede before she opened them. She was surrounded by a dark void again, but this time there were objects floating around. Some objects were small while others were large, while the range of the numerous objects’ natures varied: some objects were fairly normal, like a chair here or a flower there; others were strange, such as a large gray cylinder of some sort filled with holes or a small whirlpool made of what looked to be stone. Luna recognized that she was not fully in the dream yet, as it sometimes happened: instead, her being was still aligning with it, basically "loading" the dream, and until then she could glimpse little bits and pieces of the dreamer’s psyche. Of course, what she saw was very rarely of any use but it was still usually interesting.

Chapter Six:
A total of eight elite guards in the room, all of them firing at the Devourer… and not a single f*** was given.

Chapter Seven:
Just reread it until you get to the Devourer with the Elements.

Chapter Eight:
One. One pony was being sought, with all the desperation, panic, and hatred that one eldritch abomination could muster. A fate of untold horror awaited them if they were found involving an unending tide of feathers, twelve liters of tar, and an excited horde blindfolded colts and fillies wielding long, sturdy sticks.

Fun Facts:

– I originally planned to write in my pony self as the informant to the press in Canterlot, using my fanaticism for the Changelings as a motive!

–I really, REALLY wanted to tie in the very end of Chapter Eight into another story here on this site, but suddenly realized that there was one detail that would ruin the whole thing!

–I was tempted to use the Chapter Six blooper line in the actual story!

And now… FIGURE OUT MY NEXT STORY!
(by this cryptic riddle!)
(a name is emitted to prevent… things! Just trust me.)

Sorceress _______ eats her favorite food
In her cave with all of her brood
And their names are:
Hot, Tot, Jin, Jod,
Fie, Fly, Zan, Zod,
Pik, Snik, Lun, Lod
And the dreaded Ichabod.
Each child holds a slimy toad.
On each toad squirm two fat grubs.
On each grub ride two fleas brave.
How many living in _______’s cave?

Good Luck!

Author's Note

Riddle was solved immediately, but if you know the answer to the riddle itself, then by all means congratulations :D

Final Chapter, Chapter Eight: Sudden

Running. Guards were sent flying aside, and any that came to investigate the screaming of either the guards or the source of the guards’ screaming was sent flying as well if they were in the way, but their presence or attacks were otherwise ignored.

One. One pony was being sought, with all the desperation, panic, and hatred that one eldritch abomination could muster. A fate of untold horror awaited them if they were found.

Fear. The target felt the hatred as though it were a mist in the air, feeling it grow ever-thicker as the hunter drew closer and closer in its search, led by the unseen hand of Fate herself.

Haste. Doors were smashed open and less-elegant ones had their doorframes wrecked as well as one desperate pair of eyes scanned each room, ignoring anything that wasn’t its target.

Magic. Six separate sources of different-yet-similar types of magic, all in a single iron box and held cleverly above the doorway with a persistent levitation spell; they must not fall into the creature’s hands at any cost.

Fire. Wisps of green fire had already begun to cling to the seeker; though the banishing spell targeted a particular type creature it was not quite as effective on that creature’s magic, a feature that the seeker ever-so-wished had been a fluke and that this single spell would be delayed or would fail altogether.

Shock. The right room had been found, its occupant having refused to leave the castle and abandon their subjects.

Air. Claws, teeth, and muscle ripped through the air towards their target as a mighty beast leapt, filled with rage.

Glow.

Flash.

Silence.

There was a heavy thud and a wide but short cloud of dust as it hit the ground in a familiar place. There was a sound… it couldn’t make it out through the ringing in its ears. There were shapes as well… as much a mystery to it as the sound thanks to the flash.

Yet… the shapes were not a mystery. Its mind had blanked out for but a few seconds before what had happened came back to it, as it lay there on the waxen floor. Memories of a hunt… memories of prey… memories of what could have been vengeance on at least the single foe that was the greatest threat to its ensuing happiness thanks to what they knew.

Its vision began to clear, but it closed its eyes. Its hearing cleared, and it was able to make out mass cheering of familiar voices. It put its hands on the floor on each side of itself and very slowly rose off of the ground. As it got one foot upright beneath itself, it raised a claw to its nose and sniffed… it did not smell of blood.

It stayed in its kneeling position as the cheering slowly came to a halt. There was suddenly dead silence… the surrounding crowd had not stopped cheering for lack of breath. There wasn’t so much as a whisper for several moments, and then it heard a few hoofsteps indicate the approach of someone. A familiar, beloved voice followed.

“Devourer…” the voice said softly. “Are… are you o—“
“GRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—“

The monumental bellow interrupted the voice mid-sentence as the Devourer raised its head and let out a roar that was more of a bestial shriek than a scream. The noise seemed to rip through the air as though the creature itself were standing and flailing its claws, and the floor shook violently. There were inaudible cries of fear from more than one observer as the shaking in the floor extended past the bounds of the crowd and into the walls, and then into the surrounding rooms, and then into the rest of the entire hive.

Traps that were stored safely out of public traffic-ways went off from being jarred violently, flames spewing from changeling fire traps and spears launching from their spring-loaded chambers. The gate made of twisted metal that hung over the main ground entrance to the hive dropped out of the hooks that held it in place and landed with a loud clang that was completely unheard in the squall of noise. Walls that had unseen cracks in them crumbled instantly as though having been hit with a wrecking ball coming from the direction of the source of the sound.

The noise continued; the Devourer did not stop. Queen Chrysalis screamed for it to stop, but even her voice did not reach its ears through its own rage. It slowly rose and stood on its other foot as changelings that were too close passed out and those farther out had either fled or were stunned. It rose to its full height over the course of ten seconds of continual screaming, neither pitch nor tone changing as its rage released itself from the creature’s throat in one hatred-filled cry of pain, sorrow, and frustration.

Chrysalis saw it open its eyes, though she could tell that it saw nothing. Standing at its full nine-foot height, it towered over even her and she felt threatened for her life. It slowly began to raise its arms as Chrysalis tried to concentrate through the immense noise. She cringed as magic began to gather in the tip of her horn, the process slowed to a crawl through both lack of concentration and hesitation. The changeling stunning spell completed itself, changeling magic being one of the very few types of magic that it did not naturally resist. She readied the spell for firing and then called out one final plea:

“Devourer! You must stop or I will have to—“
*BOOM*

The Devourer brought both of its arms down on the ground in front of it in a godly display of anger and power. The force of the blow knocked away everything nearby, including the unconscious changelings and Chrysalis herself; her spell fired off into the air, dissipating on the ceiling harmlessly. When the dust cleared, Chrysalis stood and looked to the Devourer.

It still stood in the same place it had been teleported in at. It seemed to have stopped screaming, and was now on its elbows and knees; its arms had embedded themselves deep into the ground and would require some prying to get loose if it had used up all of its strength. If they had been on any floor of the hive other than the ground floor, the blow very well may have collapsed the entire place.

As the ringing in her ears began to die down, Chrysalis heard a few sounds; thankfully, changeling bodies were resilient and her ears were recovering quickly from the scream without lasting damage. Whimpering of her swarmlings as they crawled away from the scene was one sound. Cracking, possibly from a room in a far corner of the hive as it collapsed. A swarmling somewhere else in the hive was both crying and screaming. And… there a dripping noise.

She carefully took a few steps closer. She could see its chest heaving so heavily that its flesh was clearly visible between the plates at each breath’s peak. The dripping sound was a purple liquid coming from its eyes and several points on its body, all of which were visible when it took a breath. Chrysalis had seen this liquid once before, when she was very young.

It was in the first days that she was being allowed to wander the hive on her own (with guards of course, as she had not mastered her defensive magic yet). She had wandered into the Devourer’s den out of curiosity, since she did not share the instinctual fear of it that her swarmlings did. The den, much to her surprise, did not smell any different than the rest of the hive, and even looked like it had been taking pieces of discarded walls and embedding them into the walls of the den instead of eating them, making it look similar to the hive as well. She had wandered all the way to the middle of the den in wonder at rocky surface beyond the hive pieces, having never been out of the hive before. So entranced by the dull-grey surface as opposed to the white or green hues she was used to, that she nearly bumped into the Devourer.

She was startled, but calmed herself as she realized that it was asleep and had not woken up at her touch. It seemed to be rhythmically shuddering as it slumbered, and released a small noise from time to time that was similar to the ones her mother made whenever a swarmling died. It was leaking this same purple liquid through some points on its armor, but it was turned to the wall and she hadn’t seen its eyes. A few seconds later, her guards convinced her to leave it alone and leave the den.

Now she understood.

“………Devourer………” Chrysalis said carefully as she got near.
The Devourer remained in silence. It did not seem like it was going to scream again.
“Devourer……………” She said again, having lost what it was that she was going to say. A soft voice reached her ears.
“I… I failed.”
“Devourer, I…”
“I failed. I failed you, and the swarm. I failed your cause, and I failed the memory of every member of the swarm that ever existed. I… I failed…”
“You didn’t fail us, Devourer.”
“But I did. I had the chance, your majesty! I had the chance! I had the chance to destroy them! I… I could have done it! I could have killed the prisoners, or-or I could have eaten the artifacts! I could have collapsed the castle, or I could have—“
“No.”
The Devourer stumbled over its words and grew quiet. It raised its head to its queen and made bleary eye contact, the purple liquid having clouded over its eyes.
“Devourer… you did not fail us.”
“But I—“
“You did NOT fail us. Devourer… my mother taught me something.”
The Devourer remained in silence.
“My mother taught me that… things will happen. Some we can influence, and some we cannot. The banishing spell will keep us out of Equestria, possibly for long after I have passed away and you will be serving my daughter. We cannot penetrate it with our bodies, and only harmless magic seems to be capable of penetrating it: we cannot launch fire mortars into its boundaries. If we are to ever exact revenge on Equestria… Fate will allow us to do so. We will perhaps cross paths with Celestia outside of Equestria. Maybe the banishing spell will dissipate for no reason much earlier than expected. Hell, a meteor may hit Canterlot too fast for the princesses to react.”
Chrysalis smiled, and she could have sworn she caught a brief flicker of a grin in the Devourer’s expression.
“Devourer, if you did not exact the entirety of our revenge on them, then it was unavoidable. We will get our revenge with time… maybe not soon, but I guarantee we will. This world will exist for a long enough time, a time long enough that we cannot NOT get revenge at some point or another. Now…”
She nodded and the Devourer wrenched its arms free of the ground before slowly standing, shaky on its legs.
“Tell me of what you DID do…!” Chrysalis said as she turned and walked away. “I imagine that even without bringing back the Elements of Harmony or killing one of the princesses, you certainly left your mark!”
The Devourer wiped its snout and sniffed before catching up and walking closely behind her to help gather the scattered changelings.
“Well……… there is a rather nasty set of tunnels all through the walls that might be filled with vermin soon…”
Chrysalis laughed and shook her head.
“And there were many delicious things they had. Art, tables, I ate a portion of the library… and of course I went through the trouble of eating every single one of their—“

And so the beast told of the exploits it performed in Castle Canterlot.

A beast once crushed beneath the force a floating castle, cracking its shell and forevermore allowing it to squeeze into passages thinner than it should.

A beast that was a victim of a transfiguration spell of intent to turn it into a harmless cloud, which backfired and instead gave it the ability to turn into mist and back at will.

A beast once captured and pierced from many angles at once in what were perceived to be weak spots, forevermore causing it to leak blood through the holes in its eyes and body when it could hold its tears no more.

A beast given immunity to most magic and unending hunger by the forces that made it.

A beast that screamed its own vocal chords to shreds at its creator in an expression of the sheer amount of fury it had had at being created in such a way and then at having been subsequently shunned by its father.

A beast whose hide and shell were permanently stained ashen from its original white after having been hit with a fireball larger than the wizard who conjured it could handle.

A beast whose very existence struck fear and uneasiness into those that witnessed its grim shape, whether they knew why or not.

A beast shunned and abhorred by virtually every race created by any force other than chaos itself.

A best shunned and abhorred by every race but one.

A beast with a swarm and a queen.

A beast with a family.

“…Luna?”

Celestia walked into the bedroom. Luna had been pacing in there ever since the Devourer’s disappearance, and rather than come out to eat dinner she had sent one of the guards she ordered to stay outside her door to bring her food from the table. This had gone on for the past few hours, after everypony had recovered from the Devourer’s final assault.

Luna looked up at her sister from her pacing, almost seeming to be startled for a second. She nodded to acknowledge her sister, remaining unusually silent and continuing to walk around.

“Luna…” Celestia continued. “…ever since it proclaimed its threat towards you in the throne room, you refused to tell us what it was. I can understand why you wouldn’t tell us then, but…”

Celestia looked around the room awkwardly. Asking this question felt incredibly strange for some reason.

“…what was it that it didn’t want you to tell us?” She finished after a moment.

Luna stopped pacing and stood in silence for another moment before looking back to her sister. Her gaze was one of a pony unsure of how to handle a conflict.

“…Luna?” Celestia said again, more worried than before.
Luna sighed before answering. “Sister… you know I would never do something to intentionally harm somepony that didn’t deserve it. I am not cruel like I was when I… I am not cruel like in the time of Nightmare Moon,” she said.
“Yes. I am your sister after all, Luna.” Celestia said with a small smile, happy to have at least gotten her speaking again.
Luna turned to face her sister entirely. “Sister… I feel like…” She trailed off. Another moment of silence before she continued. “I… I do not believe that you, nor I, nor anypony here in Equestria would gain from knowing what I know about the creature.”

It was Celestia’s turn to go silent for a moment. This was turning out to be a conversation with plenty of time between sentences.

“…very well, Luna,” Celestia replied. Luna smiled before answering.
“So… how have things in the castle been after… it left?”
“Well, we never found the informant. Nopony is missing, not after Gold Hoof and Brass Shield brought the prisoners and the Elements back safely, so they can’t have fled the castle or have been killed by the creature. I can’t believe Gold and Brass turned down the promotion Shining Armor offered them…”
“They turned down the promotion?”
“Yes… said something about how the personal guards of us princesses tend to go missing more often in situations like this. They were content to remain the door guards for the throne room. Shining Armor did not argue with them, as he was eager to return to Cadence; he has already left for the crystal kingdom, and I assume this ordeal made him long for her presence more than usual, ”
“…I see.”

The conversation briefly returned to its initial nature as Celestia paused again.

“You know, Luna… there are a lot of things I don’t understand about the… recent events. It disturbs me some… what the creature was capable of, how it was immune to magic, what Discord’s involvement in all of this was, and just how suddenly it all ended.”
“I know, sister. There are things that even I did not find out.”
“Yes, well……… are you sure you can’t tell me anything?”
“I am sure.”
Celestia turned to the doorway. “Alright. Let’s go get you something decent to eat, I imagine the food you had the guards bring you got cold before it reached your room.”
Luna chuckled as she moved to follow her sister. “Quite.”

I cannot BELIEVE that cretin!
Shows up one day, out of the bright Equestrian blue, and asks a favor of me! Of ME!
I didn’t owe him anything, but he promised a chance that I would escape for helping him!
And then what happens? He TELEPORTS OUT! He completely abandoned the deal!
That crybaby just up and RAN away! Just like that!
He even managed to free me a bit right at the beginning, I assume to get me to do his task and to get my hopes up.
I can’t believe I actually had FAITH in him!
“Oh Discord, I’m sorry but I can’t go into Canterlot. Could you use your telepathy and send a message somewhere?”
“Oh Discord, please oh please do this for me! Get the press riled up about what I’m doing here so ponies down in Canterlot know! It’ll give Celestia a HUGE headache, I promise!”
………….
Okay, so that last one I did sort of willingly. But still, my point stands.
He’s out gallivanting around his hive, presumably using his near-omnipotence to impress all the females of that accursed species, and I’m still HERE.
Trapped in stone.
In this INFERNAL GARDEN.
………
…………….
……………………………….
*sigh*, what I wouldn’t give just to turn the dirt in this hedge circle into chewed bubble gum.