Magicka Lager

Twilight Sparkle was in awe. The little creatures fluttering around in cages with wings much too large for their bodies were remarkable. Their insect wings, akin to a dragonfly’s, glistened in the (un)natural light of the fungus on the cavern walls. The sound of flapping wings filled the niche they were in at the cavern floor.

Emily turned to Twilight. “These are called flits. They’re used to allow changelings with damaged or missing wings to move around the hive. They attach to the back, about where one’s real wings would go. Something akin to a parasite, but they’re harmless.”

“Parasite?” asked Twilight, a worried look in her eyes.

“Perfectly harmless, I assure you.” said Emily to reassure her. “Anyway, you’ll be getting one. They’re sentient, and can speak in any language the host knows. But only if they like you. Now, walk into the swarm there, and wait. If one takes a liking, it will latch, and will only come off if it wants to, or you ask nicely.”

Twilight stared into the storm of fluttering wings and swallowed nervously. “Well, here we go.” She waded into the flits, and waited. Light, gossamer wings beat on her from all sides, and something landed on her back. A small pinching sensation soon followed. Unsure of what to do, she stayed put, only to be pulled back out of the cage with a tug of magic.

“Don’t stay in there any longer than you need to. The others will eat you alive. Just the one is enough.”

Twilight stared at the small, round beetle nestled in her fur. “Hey,” she said.

“Hey,” said the bug. Not out loud, but in her head, like the flit was telepathically communicating. Twilight tried to do the same.

“Do you have a name?”

“Yeah. I’m called Wiz. And you’re Victoria, the big boss, eh?”

Twilight was confused, partly from the fact that the flit was calling her ‘the big boss’, and the fact that she was talking in such a casual dialect.

“I’m a guy, thank you.”

The confusion must have shown on her face pretty well, because Emily was busy suppressing a grin. She looked up at Twilight and said “Try to fly. Should be easy given that you don’t really have to fly much, just tell your flit what to do. But they’re never cooperative, so it may be a couple weeks before you’re really mobile.”

Twilight mentally shrugged. “Hey, Wiz. We’re going to try flying now, okay?”

“Got it, boss.”

Twilight felt herself being picked up by the flit, hovering in the air about five feet above the floor, the soft hum reverberating in the air. “Cool. Wiz, set me down, please.” She floated to the ground and landed in front of Emily, who happened to have a surprised expression on her face.

“Wow. None of the flits usually like obeying their hosts unless forced to. Maybe he likes you.”

“Yep,” said Wiz in Twilight’s head. “You’re delicious.” Twilight almost did a spit take, but, fortunately or unfortunately, there was nothing to spit. She could almost see the evil grin on his nonexistent face when he said “Kidding, kidding. Man, sometimes these ponies don’t know what a joke is.”

Twilight and Emily continued down the cavern/hallway into another large chamber. But instead of another room full of niches and hallways, what appeared to be a hospital room stretched out before them, clad in black, grays and blues. Two long rows of beds stretched down the floor in a set of parallel lines, and more beds were suspended from girders. Emily turned to Twilight with a grim line of determination on her face. “Starve bay. Sort of like sickbay, but all the patients here are dying of starvation.”

Twilight stared around the room, and noticed almost all of the three hundred plus beds were full of sickly looking insect ponies. “So, how much of the population of this entail?”

Emily grimaced and said “Almost six percent in this starvebay. Total in all the starvebays? Maybe thirty percent or more, barely surviving on apathy.”

“So I have to feed thirty percent of your population?”

“No, you have to feed all of us, including yourself.”

“Myself?”

“Uh, yeah...”

Twilight turned sharply to Emily, anger floating in her eyes. “Why?”

“Well, see... you drank the vial, right?”

“Yes, yes I did.”

“And you haven’t had any real hesitation so far in going with this setup, operation, terms, etcetera?”

“Um... no.” Twilight realized with a pop.

“Then you've accepted.” Emily said simply.

“Wait.” said Twilight, “Accepted what?”

“Your place here. You, changeling or not, are part of this hive now. And you've accepted the fact. Now come,” said Emily with a finality in her voice. “I have someone you need to meet.”

They entered a small door lined with a glowing pink goo into a small entryway that opened up into a huge rectangular room. Two long lines of metal vats, open at the top, sat silently like sentinels waiting to destroy intruders at a moment’s notice. In the corner sat an old-looking (if it can be called that) changeling. But most curiously of all, there was the lab. More specifically, the very young colt attempting to use the lab. Light blue coat and a solid gunmetal grey mane, a small flit on his back, and almost no tail. A unicorn colt, here? Twilight silently looked to Emily for an explanation.

“Samuel!” called Emily. The little colt looked up from his work suddenly, dropped a flask, and it promptly exploded all over his chest, staining it purple. He looked down in annoyance and closed his eyes, his horn glowing, and the liquid disappitated from his coat.

“Yes, miss Emily?”

“This here is Victoria, a unicorn here to help you with your work.”

The colt perked up and his eyes twinkled when he heard and looked up at Twilight with amazement. “Really?”

Twilight smiled at the cute expression in his eyes. She bent low to meet his eye level. “Really. I’ll help you if you need it.”

All of a sudden, the colt’s exited expression quickly became downcast, and he kicked one hoof at the hard ground, kicking up a small cloud of dust. “I really do need it, miss Victoria. I keep messing up.”

“Don’t worry, Samuel. Everything will be alright.” She turned to Emily. “Who are his parents?”

“Don’t know. Never found out, either, seeing as they’re dead.”

“...”

“Yeah. For now, old Elijah Nox has been taking good care of him. Almost like a grandfather. Elijah’s son, Jared, is much younger. Hmm..maybe your age? About there. Interesting fact about Eli: He had a pony wife. Jared is the result of that.”

Twilight mentally stored that tidbit in the back of her brain that stored tidbits. “Why is Samuel here, in this lab?”

“To see if he could solve our food problem. You know how I said the water purification spell would do the trick? Not exactly. The real deal, a complicated alternate to said spell, must be carefully tailored to the emotion chosen.”

Samuel got exited, and looked expectantly at the old changeling in the corner. He nodded slowly, and Samuel turned back to Twilight. “My name is Samuel. I've been trying to save the hive. And Iv’e found one reliable spell to get a pure form of apathy, which is like water. All I had to do was force impurity out with an array of alchemical lines arranged like a cube. But that’s it. A simple thing, but I saved lives, miss Victoria! Isn’t that great?”

“Yeah, it is, Samuel.” She asked Emily, “So am I to work with him?”

“Yup.”

“And where will I be living, then?”

“With the Nox family. Elijah, Rene, Jared, and the squirt, Samuel. Hospitable bunch, those.”

Twilight looked as Emily left the room with a ‘See you later’. She scanned the walls, the books, the tables, and realized that it was a respectable laboratory. Samuel looked up at Twilight.

“It’s time to go inside, miss Victoria.” He trotted away at a slow pace, and Twilight followed. They came across a small niche that slowly expanded, and Samuel opened a door. Twilight stepped inside, then startled from a soft voice behind:

“Welcome to the family, Victoria.” She turned to find Elijah standing silently in the entryway.

“T-thanks, I think?”

Elijah chuckled gently. “Oh, ho ho, you’re most welcome, girly. I hope you won’t think badly of us, our kind. The army nowadays is filled with meatheads. No real respect for life anymore...” Elijah drifted off for a minute, then snapped back into reality. “Oh, but where are may manners? My name is Elijah Nox, former Flying Fighters Second Division, Auxillary. Currently head manager of the food supply... and the crisis. And you must be Victoria, here to help the hive get back up, eh?”

“Uh, yes... nice to meet you.”

A loud crash came from down the hallway, followed by a rapid string of somewhat unappealing words.

“Hah, there he is,” said Elijah, straightening up. That’s me boy, there. Jared! Get your hairy flank down here!”

“Sure,  pa.”

What entered the room was weird. Twilight quickly shut her jaw and made an initial appraisal. It was a changeling. With fur. Jet black like the hard exoskeleton of the other changelings, large insectoid wings sprouted from his back, but no flit was to be seen there. His eyes, not the luminescent orbs of most changelings, were still the same shade of sea green, but with pupils and irises like a pony would have. A horn, not changeling, not pony, sprouted from his head. It looked like a normal horn that was sharpened to a spear-sharp point. And it was long. Like, very long. Like, CELESTIA ON STEROIDS LONG. Twilight quickly turned her gaze.

...

...

...

“You like ‘im, don’tcha?”

“Shut up, Wiz.”