It was dire, most dire indeed.

Daniel covered himself with his hands as best as he could, the water in the tub now barely enough to wet his heels. At least the air was warm, but it was a small compromise considering he was without a single scrap of clothing. Staring straight ahead, he continued to ignore the occasional bump that caused the limited water left to splash up and out of the tub.

He swore that it was a deliberate act on the part of the four bug-horses, but he had no means to prove it.

‘I swear I’m going to kill someone over this,’ he silently grumbled to himself. ‘Who’s fucking stupid idea was this anyway? They couldn’t even let me get out and dressed, what a bloody joke.’

At that point, Boris picked the worst time to try and start a conversation. At the sound of chattering to his right, Daniel glanced over to see a flying bug-horse with a blue Ethernet-cable around its neck. The bug-horse’s wings were beating rapidly, and Daniel returned his friend’s smile with a deadpan stare.

“You. You did this.”

Boris obviously missed, or more likely misinterpreted, the tone in his voice. A lengthy burst of chatter was followed by a buzzing laugh, but at least it didn’t seem like the humour was directed towards him. In fact, upon finishing what he was saying, Boris rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and said something in a more subdued tone of voice.

“This is possibly the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to me in my life,” Daniel replied while returning his gaze to the front. “That includes the time that I caused the school to go into lockdown over that brick. I don’t know if you just apologised, I hope that you did, because I swear on my life that I’m probably going to fucking throw this bathtub down the nearest cliff as soon as we land. Every second that I spend in here merely increases the chances that the bastard that thought this up is going to be inside of it when it happens. You got that, mate?”

Boris was silent, and while Daniel knew the bug-horse couldn’t understand the words, the audible gulp that he heard certainly signalled that the creature got the message loud and clear from the tone alone.

“Fucking splendid.”

“Chrzt… chrt.”

With the final, hesitant speech, Boris slowed his wings and dropped away to the rear of the group. Tucking in his legs and crossing his arms, Daniel paid no mind to the possibility that he had perhaps laid it on a bit thick. One does not lightly forgive when travelling naked via bathtub, after all.

‘At least the horny one isn’t here,’ he thought while glancing around. Daniel spotted the four familiar bug-horses suspending the bath tub beneath them via ropes, the grey flying horse flying next to them with a rope tether around her right foreleg, and a sullen Boris bringing up the rear by himself. He peered out over the edge of the tub, trying to ignore the far-away ground beneath him as he scanned the flying swarm up ahead.

‘Yeah, like I could even tell them apart anyway,’ he scoffed to himself. ‘Still, she’s the one I’m worried about. The further away she is, the better.’

Continuing to stew in his own misfortune as they continued to fly, Daniel’s mind turned to the topic of just what was happening.

Everything had seemed so simple when they had been in the snowy cave, but now it had just gotten ridiculous. With talking dream-horses claiming to be magical pony princesses, tall bug-horse females that seemed far too liberal with their glowing eyes, the sacking of a magical horse town, and even a flying horse that was a prisoner for some reason. It was far too complicated to try and sort out in his current state, especially considering the conflicting information that he was getting.

According to Luna and his own observations the ‘changelings’ were certainly not the nicest guys on the block, but he wasn’t exactly going to just bugger off and leave without knowing how the rest of the place he was in worked.

His thoughts on his situation were interrupted by a shrill series of chatters that rang out from the front of the swarm. Daniel winced at the sound, the alien words seeming louder than they should have.

‘Fly. Strike. Feed.’

He rolled his eyes at the possible translation that his mind thought up, but it was soon followed by a snort. ‘That was odd, but then again it seems quite fitting.’ He risked removing a hand to rub his temples, another wince pushing the tiny thought that the translation might not have been his own to the back of his mind.

Down below and out in front of him, the already noisy buzz of the bug-horses grew in pitch and intensity. Peeking over the edge again, Daniel’s eyes widened at what he saw.

The swarm of bug-horses was descending upon a small village of thatched-roof houses like a cloud of noxious black smoke. The village couldn’t have contained more than forty houses, and the surrounding ploughed fields and single road through the middle led him to guess that it was some kind of rural farming settlement. From his spot above he could hear the faintest of panicked neighs, and once again it seemed like the leader bug-horse had decided to attack another village for unknown reasons.

The four bug-horses carrying the tub he was in slowed down and began to lower, giving him a closer view of the mayhem. It didn’t exactly help much, save for the occasional flash of colour it was merely an undecipherable brawl that was punctuated by the ever-present buzz of bug-horse wings.

Stuck up in his position above the town, there wasn’t exactly much he could do about it. Not that he was really game enough to try.

‘It’s their war after all,’ he decided with a small frown. ‘I just wish that I wasn’t a bloody part of it.’

Meddle watched on with interest while her fellows plundered the Equestrian town down below. Even the Queen was partaking in the spoils, Meddle able to hear her Majesty’s laughter over the hive mind as the ruler no doubt drained some unlucky Equestrian of their positive emotions.

Her attention turned to one of the houses on the outskirts, a small fire rising up from the thatch roof. She winced at the flames, evidently one soldier had messed up with a stun spell or something similar. It made her thankful that she wasn’t actually down in the action, and she couldn’t help but acknowledge how there was no need for her to feed since she was lucky enough to be one of Growly’s entourage.

She glanced down below her at the thought, Growly sitting down and mumbling to himself in the tub. Meddle didn’t like the way he just stared forward and uttered his low growls, all of the water in the tub long since gone.

‘Surely he understands that we had to leave in a hurry,’ she tried to convince herself. ‘He won’t be mad, no. Not… not at all.’ She swallowed a lump in her throat, before glancing around the area in an attempt to distract herself.

Her fellow drones were all busy keeping the tub in the air, the four of them connected to the two ropes that were looped through a metal ring on either side of the bathtub. It wasn’t easy work, but once again Meddle acknowledged that it was far preferable to the fighting going on.
Both Burrow and Aphid had been ordered by the Queen to participate in the attack, and even though they were both soldier-class and therefor lorded over the drones…

‘I hope they both stay safe,’ she frowned while watching a changeling tackle a fleeing pegasus out of the air, both struggling creatures falling down towards the ground. ‘They’re far from the best, but they’re not that bad.’

It was relatively true, the two soldiers far more lenient than they really ought to be. There had been barely any harassment or constant reminders of the different social standings, Burrow and Aphid generally treating the drones as equals when it came to looking after Growly. It was a welcome relief considering the amount of problems that occurred already, having to deal with replacements that were far more hostile and controlling would have just been unbearable.

Meddle glanced over towards the pegasus named Scarlet, the nurse pony hovering by the side of the tub with concern in her eyes. She seemed to pay no mind to the tether that connected her to the same iron ring that held the rope that Cypher and Muddle were holding up, her gaze firmly fixed on the town below.

Looking away from the teary-eyed Equestrian, Meddle felt a small amount of guilt well up inside of her.

‘She’s only an Equestrian, good for nothing but food.’

Rather than reinforce her confidence, her thought only helped the guilt to grow. Sighing, Meddle tried to focus her mind on other matters, but was unable to look away from the chaos that was unfolding below.

A low creaking sound caused her to snap out of her self-doubt, Meddle glancing around before focusing on the tub that she was helping to hold in the air. Mr Growls was likewise looking around with confusion evident on his face, and all the while the creaking was growing louder.

“What’s going-“

Mirror, flying right behind Meddle, didn’t have a chance to finish her question. With a final creak, there was a sharp snap of and a twang. Meddle’s eyes widened when she was jolted in the air, and when she looked down she saw that the iron ring that they had attached her rope to was hanging in the air.

Completely separated from the tub.

“Ah!”

With only two changelings left to hold up the tub and weighty biped, Cypher and Muddle were pulled down as the bath fell. The wooden tub tipped downwards dangerously, Mr Growls desperately holding onto the side now facing upwards in an attempt to stay inside.

“Grunga! Rang gungra rung!”

‘If he wasn’t happy before…’

The surprisingly inappropriate thought considering the concern shooting through her was the only thing that Meddle had time to process, before the second iron ring finally snapped off from the side of the tub.

“Grungraaaa!”

She could only watch as the bathtub, and Mr Growls, hurtled down towards the town below with less grace than a sack of potatoes.
Eyes wide with shock, Meddle could only watch on as the biped-filled bathtub soared downwards with much velocity, before the fall was suddenly interrupted violently by the thatched roof of a pony house.

‘Chrysalis’ leg-holes…’

“Nothing, nothing, nothing.”

Aphid’s frown hardened when she tore the third and last drawer out of the dresser. It clattered to the ground and spilled out its contents of worthless clothes, the same as the other two drawers. While she didn’t doubt that Growly was a fan of clothing, the frilly dresses in front of her weren’t suitable as a gift to win his affections.

Besides, she wanted him in less clothing, not more.

Aphid looked around the empty main bedroom, its occupants having fled in terror as soon as she had buzzed in through the open window. A shame, although she didn’t want to put up with panicking Equestrians they certainly would have made her whole ‘rob them of valuables’ plan far simpler. Instead she had to rely on her own looting of their house, and it was proving to be rather fruitless.

“Damn it,” she muttered, one forehoof rubbing the side of her helmet while she looked around. “If I was a pony, where would I hide my loot…”
She was just about to head into the bathroom, before a peculiar sound caused her to cock one of her ears.

"Graaaaaaaaa…"

“Huh?”

Looking up towards the ceiling, she focused her hearing.

“-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa…”

Taking a step back as it grew in volume, Aphid tried to process what she was hearing.

“Growly?” she muttered to herself, taking another step back as the yell grew louder and louder.

“-aaaaaaaah!”

Aphid only had time to widen her eyes in pure shock as the roof above her exploded with a tremendous crash, before a solid wall of wood smacked into her face with the force of a steam train.

“Ah! Fuck!”

Lifting his hand up, Daniel rubbed the rapidly growing bruise on his right shoulder while he used his other hand to snatch his miraculously intact glasses from the wooden floor beside him. Groaning when he rolled his naked body out of the bent and battered remains of the tub, he winced when another bruise on his arsecheek made contact with a wooden floor.

‘How am I even alive after that?’

Grunting while rolling over onto his knees, he raised himself up and looked around the room that he now found himself in.

The very first thing Daniel noticed was the hole in the ceiling. Sunlight steamed in and bits of straw occasionally fell to join to rapidly growing pile below, and it was an obvious entry point. Outside he could still hear the sounds of smashing glass, buzzing, and panicked neighs.

The room itself was fairly small and compact, a double bed sitting against the far wall with a set of dressers next to it. Spying the yellow and green patchwork top sheet, Daniel crawled forwards towards it and pulled it off the bed. Then came the hard part.

“Shit…” he cursed softly as he stood up, another bruise on the inside of his upper left thigh making itself known. “That one almost ended in complete disaster.” Now on two feet, he quickly got to work and draped the sheet over him like a toga. It was still unsecured meaning he had to hold it with a hand, but at the current time it was better than nothing.

With decency secured, Daniel turned to observe the wreck of his makeshift tub-transport. It was a sorry sight, and the bent and broken wood and the mangled metal rings that had once held it all together only brought out another wince as he was once again reminded that, until a few minutes ago, he’d been seated in it high above the town.

He took a step towards it before stopping, his foot hitting a metal object on the floor. Bending down to pick the purple helmet up in his hand, Daniel looked it over for a second before his eyes widened and he focused back on the shattered pile of wood.

‘Oh hell…’
With helmet still in hand, Daniel rushed over to the remains of the tub and franticly searched for any sign of the helmet’s owner.

‘I really, really hope I didn’t squash one of them.’

Thankfully, as he pulled the last bit of wood away, there was no bug-horse lying flat underneath the debris. However he did spot a grey tail poking out from behind an overturned cabinet, and hesitantly he crept forward.

“Bug-horse?”

Daniel looked over the cabinet, grimacing at what he found.

One of the bug-horses, a female, was laying on her side out cold. A small pool of green blood was growing underneath her head, with a solid trickle of alien vital fluid falling from a squashed muzzle.

“Shit.”

Bending down, he gently lifted up the limp body and examined the other side of the injured bug-horse’s head. Luckily there only seemed to be a few bruises, the muzzle the only source of the bleeding. Most importantly, the wheezing breaths every few seconds and the rising and falling chest were a clear sign that he hadn’t just committed man(bug?)slaughter via means of bathtub.

“Must be tougher than you look,” he muttered, looking around before grabbing a yellow pillowcase lying on the floor. He used it to dab at the bleeding muzzle, the knocked out bug-horse not stirring while he held its front half up off of the ground.

“Chrzrt? Crzt?”

Daniel glanced backwards at the bug-horse speech, his eyes looking up towards the large hole in the roof. Four bug-horses, somewhat hilariously still attached to each other in pairs via rope, where standing up on the roof and looking in. They were all focused on the smashed bathtub, so he raised a hand and waved it at them. “Hey, over here.”

All eyes looked at him, the four seeming to brighten while one leaned in closer.

“Chrzrrt- crzt!?”

The closest bug-horse noticed the limp fellow that he held in his hands, her eyes widening as she immediately jumped in through the hole.

The other bug-horse attached to the other end of the rope was forced to follow afterwards, but there was really no encouragement needed for the four to quickly all enter and rush over. Even the grey flying-horse was dragged in, still tethered to one of the bug-horse pairs.

Daniel found himself swarmed by the concerned quadrupeds, the bug-horses chattering rapidly while they rushed to examine the unconscious female he held. He quickly, but gently, lowered her to the floor and shuffled back.

‘They’d know far more about this stuff than me, anyway,’ he figured.

It was likely the right call, as the four got to work as soon as he had gotten out of the way. One immediately bit through her rope, buzzed her wings and flew up and out of the hole in the roof while the rest turned their attention to providing medical assistance, the pillowcase soon being used to dab at the muzzle like he had been doing.

Sitting back against the wall and watching them, Daniel winced when something prodded the large bruise on his shoulder. Turning his head, he saw that the flying-horse was looking at the coloured spot with concerned eyes. Her hoof touched the bruise once again, more gently this time, and she muttered out a soft neigh.

“It’s nothing,” Daniel tried to reassure her. “It’s just a bruise, I’ve had worse.” He withheld a grimace at his next thought. “It’s probably going to hurt like a bitch tomorrow morning though.” Glancing back over to the bug-horses, he nodded his head towards them. “You’re some kind of doctor, aren’t you? Go and help the one I knocked out instead, there’s not really much I think you could do for me.”

Flying-horse glanced over, before she looked back at him and shook her head with another neigh. Daniel eyed the taut rope around her front leg, and guessed that she really wasn’t in the mood to help her captors out. He flinched when she touched his bruise again, the pony looking at the hand-sized spot with a morbid curiosity in her eyes.

“Fuck’s sake, cut that out will you,” he grunted as he brushed her hoof away with his hand. “It’s almost as bad as slapping someone’s sunburn, don’t just go around poking stuff like that.”

The flying-horse folded her ears back at his words, causing him to sigh.

“Come here, let’s get that rope off of you before one of those bug-horses accidently pulls you over.”

At first the flying-horse was confused, but as soon as she realised that his hand was pointing to the rope her eyes seemed to brighten. Eagerly trotting closer, she held out her foreleg with a hopeful smile.

Undoing the knot, Daniel let the rope fall to the floor before sitting back up. “There. You know, I’m wondering when they’re going to just eventually let you go considering-“

He was cut off by a happy neigh and, more disturbingly, the next action of the flying-horse. With a big grin, she took him by surprise by leaning in close and rubbing the side of her face against his own. Daniel froze, not entirely sure of what was happening, and after a few moments the flying-horse pulled her head back with another soft and happy-sounding neigh. She fluttered her wings before circling around to sit beside him against the bed, seemingly not noticing his discomfort.

‘It was just a nuzzle,’ he finally reassured himself, remembering that the action was a common one amongst horses. He returned his attention to the hole in the roof as three bug-horses flew down into the house, two of them making a beeline for the still-unconscious soldier while the third one landed in front of him to chatter rapidly.

“Chrzzt-rzzt? Crztczrt!”

Daniel winced when a black hoof reached out to prod his shoulder bruise, with none of the gentleness that the flying horse had at least tried to show. Quick as a flash, his hand reached out to grab the outstretched foreleg, the bug-horse’s blue eyes widening as he wrenched it away from his shoulder.

“No,” he told her firmly with his voice raising. “All of you, stop trying to bloody poke it!”

Realising her mistake, the bug-horse lowered her head and let out a low chattering. Daniel at first held firm, adamant to get his point across, but his stern stare wavered when he noticed the bug-horse sniffle.

“Oh come on,” he said while letting her foreleg go, his voice losing its irritated edge. “There’s no need to be such a sook about it…” He trailed off when the bug-horse raised her head to look at him, her mouth trembling while her eyes teared up.

‘Huh, they have tear ducts.’

The rather out of place thought was followed by the bug-horse letting out a weak burst of speech, the creature struggling to maintain her composure as she no doubt hurried out tearful apologies. Dain sighed when she lowered her head again, the bug-horse’s ears folded down mournfully. Something bumped him in the side, and the flying-horse whispered a soft neigh and gestured towards the sniffling bug-horse with a wing when he turned his head to look.

Looking back at the bug-horse in front of him, the other occupants of the room all far too busy to notice what was happening, he stared at her for a few moments more. She was vaguely recognisable, her actions and seeming familiarity with him likely meaning that she was one of his ‘regular’ bug-horse companions. She also wasn’t all rapey, so he assumed that she was one of the normal four.

Another sniffle reminded him that she was still waiting for him to do something, and Daniel hesitantly reached out a hand.

“It’s fine, just don’t touch it again,” he said. The bug-horse looked up when he placed his hand on her shoulder, and with her attention on him he made a point of touching a finger to the bruise and shaking his head. “No touch, got it?”

She appeared to get the gist of it, her mouth letting out a soft series of chatters while she gave him a small nod.

“Good girl, there’s no need to get so upset.” He turned and patted the wooden floor beside him to the left. “Do you want to sit down for a second and get yourself under control?”

His hand had barely left the floor before the bug-horse rushed to sit down, the creature plonking her rump right next to his before shuffling closer. She pressed herself up against his side with another series of chatters, a stark contrast to the flying-horse who had so far been quite restrained and quiet. At least the bug-horse seemed content for the time being, with no further advances save for resting her head against his arm.

They all looked back at the group surrounding the injured bug-horse as a series of loud chattering rose up, the mass of bug-horses parting somewhat. The five were lifting the injured member up onto bed, and Daniel could just make out some kind of green substance covering the broken muzzle. It looked similar to the stuff that he had seen coving cuts and cracks on the bug-horses when he had first stumbled upon them, so he could only assume that it was some kind of medical treatment.

‘This day just keeps on getting worse and worse,’ he thought to himself as he and his equine companions continued to watch on quietly.

“I am sorry that it is not up to your usual standard, My Princess, but-“

“It is most adequate,” Luna assured the armoured and aproned bat-pony with a wave of her wing. Magically manipulating her silver spoon, she lifted another spoonful of the vegetable stew to her mouth and took a dainty sip. “One cannot expect lavish luxury when combating the enemies of one’s nation, after all.” She shifted her seating on the blue cushion that she had placed on a flat rock, the other members of her guard forces arrayed around the small camp eating the same meal. It was a peaceful field of grass, quite a change from the castle in Canterlot.

The cook nodded his head, his wings giving a flap. “I’m thankful that you feel that way. Would you like me to fetch you some bread?”

“No, this shall suffice.” She paused her eating to give him a look. “You, however, will require some sustenance. It will be a hard day of searching, and much energy will be required.”

The cook nodded his head and bowed. “Yes, Your Highness. Right away.”

Luna smiled and resumed eating while he turned away to return to the large pot that was bubbling away on the campfire. Her sister would have likely rolled her eyes at the guard’s response, but Luna still placed great value in having oneself treated as the royalty that she was. There was a fine line when it came interacting casually with their subjects, and personally she thought that Celestia sometimes crossed that line a little too often.

She bit down onto a delightful piece of carrot, the fresh burst of flavour invigorating her somewhat. They had spent the night searching for the changeling raiders, and had woken up midday to prepare for the next. Despite the halved amount of sleep, Luna had never felt better.

Although the circumstances were regrettable, chasing down evil-doers alongside her loyal guards was far more thrilling than the consistently dull night courts.

She paused mid spon-raise at the thought, her mind briefly bringing up the memory of her strange dream-friend.

‘It matters not,’ she decided with a small sigh. ‘Stopping the changelings is the most important thing. The time for repairing friendships can wait until later.’ She let out a small huff. ‘Besides, there is no time to catch up, not when my quarry is so near.’

Luna resumed eating, her brow furrowing as she considered her chances of actually finding the changelings. They could have gone anywhere after the last village, and their race was well equipped to escape detection. She could of course summon help from her sister, Celestia no doubt possessing knowledge of magic much more refined than her own.

‘…No,’ Luna decided. ‘I shall deal with this matter myself, and when I return triumphant she will be most pleased.’ She smiled at the thought of how happy her sister would be at the return of their subjects, safe and sound.

“Princess?”

Her thoughts were left where they were at the call from one of her guards, Luna looking over towards a group of gathered bat-ponies.

“Yes? What is the…”

She stopped speaking and slowly placed her near-empty bowl of stew next to her. Her guards all looked to her, awaiting her decree.

Luna stared at the rising finger of smoke in the distance, the black cloud far too large and noxious to be from a simple chimney or camp fire. In addition, it was in the same direction as a nearby farming town, Luna narrowing her eyes at the apparent coincidence.

“Leave the tents and the pots, take only your weapons and armour,” she ordered, standing up. Giving her wings a quick test flap, she waited for her guards to gather their tools of battle before continuing.

“It appears as if our foes have made a costly mistake.”

“You’re not serious?” Burrow put the bucket of water on the ground and spat the handle out, before looking back up at the male drone and continuing. “What do you mean, ‘there was a problem with the food beast’?”

They both glanced to the left as several drones and soldiers buzzed past to empty their assorted containers of water onto the house fire. The flames fizzled and shrank, but still continued to burn the dampened straw.

“Well, the food beast-“

“Mr Growls,” Burrow corrected with a frown.

“-fell with its… bath tub, into one of the houses.”

Burrow’s eyes widened, and he took a step closer towards the drone. “He fell!?”

“The foo- Mr Growls is fine,” the drone hastily reassured while taking a step back. “But, when he landed it appears as if he crashed into a soldier. It was the other creature controller and she’s knocked out, so we need you to keep Mr Growls under control.”

Burrow processed the information, his heart sinking as he did so. Mr Growls had, somehow, fallen out of the sky and crashed into a pony house. In addition, by some amazing stroke of ill-fortune, he’d managed to completely floor Aphid on the way down. He initially winced at the thought of how his bipedal friend would likely react and could understand the drone’s concern, but it was then his worry for Aphid that quickly took centre stage.

She wasn’t exactly the best or easiest comrade to work with, but he couldn’t help but feel a pang of concern for her.

“Which house?”

“The one with the hole in the roof.” The drone didn’t flinch under the stare that Burrow gave him, but he did clarify his answer. “What? They all look the same to me.”

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, Burrow pointed his hoof at the bucket of water. “Fine, It’ll have to do. Take over from me and help the others get that fire out, understand?”

“Yes sir.”

As soon as the drone had finished, Burrow buzzed his wings and took to the sky. Straightening his helmet with a foreleg, he scanned the town from above in the hopes of quickly locating the needed house.

The attack had been a complete success from the looks of things, bunches of equestrians lying or sitting in the streets. Secured firmly with sticky phlegm and guarded by many drones and soldiers, there was no hope of escape for the sizable population. Burrow figured that there was at least a hundred, more than enough prisoners to feed the hive for an entire year.

‘Maybe the Queen was right to go with this plan,’ he silently admitted, before his eyes picked out a house on the main street. It was a rather small two-story home constructed with timber, and the large hole in the yellow thatch roof along with the five changelings looking down into it was a good indication that it was his target.

Burrow swooped down with his wings buzzing away, the five drones noticing his approach and backing up upon seeing his helmet and armour. He paid them no mind and slowed to a hover when he reached the opening, before he went through and dropped to the wooden floor below.

Landing amongst the scattered remains of straw, the first thing he noticed was the buckled wooden tub that used to contain Mr Growls. The second thing was the pony bed on the other side of the room. Three of the harem drones were standing around it and whispering amongst themselves, while another changeling was lying motionless atop the coloured sheets. Despite the covering of green goo around her muzzle, Burrow instantly recognised her as Aphid.

Looking to the other side of the room, he spotted Mr Growls. The biped was sitting up against the wall with the grey pegasus on his right, while the forth harem drone was pressed up against his left side. Surprisingly, Mr Growls didn’t seem at all perturbed by the close contact with the drone, and was even scratching her ears. The most important thing was that he didn’t seem badly injured, and with that in mind Burrow moved over towards the bed.

“Is she okay?”

The three drones turned to look at him, all of them failing to meet his eyes with their own.

“The nurses said that she is going to be fine,” Meddle replied. “Her muzzle was broken though, and it’s going to need a few days for it to fix itself. She won’t be able to talk at all, and it’s going to be hurting a lot as well.” Meddle stopped and looked back towards Aphid, her eyes furrowed as she did so.

“I see,” Burrow nodded, after waiting for a few moments to see if the others were going to add to the explanation. Gently, he reached out a forehoof and touched it to Aphid’s forehead, frowning when his colleague didn’t react to the contact. “So what exactly happened? The drone who got me only said that the bathtub fell through the roof?”

“The little metal rings that were holding the rope snapped,” explained Mirror, her head lowering. “Mine and Cypher’s was the first to go, and then Meddle’s and Muddle’s a second after. It all happened so fast.”

“We were waiting and watching the town, then snap.” Muddle glanced over towards Mr Growls. “At first I thought that we were falling with Growly, but then our side gave out as well. He just hurtled down in that tub and hit the roof before we even knew what was going on. I don’t know what Aphid was doing in the house, but he must have hit her on the way down.”

Mirror shifted on her hooves. “We flew down as quickly as we could, and he was sitting next to her and holding her head. Then we got the nurses and they made sure that the cracks in her chitin weren’t going to get bigger.” She looked back up at him. “We’re so sorry, if we’d been paying more attention-“

“It’s not your fault,” Burrow quickly reassured, glancing around at the three of them. “You couldn’t have known that it was about to happen, and at the very least Aphid is only hurt, not worse.” He noticed their solemn frowns enlarge, so he tried to raise their spirits. “And besides, I don’t really think that the tub was supposed to hold something that large anyway.”

His semi-joke didn’t have much of an impact, the three not even showing the faintest smile. Sighing, Burrow made to turn away but paused to give Aphid a final glance.

‘Talk about bad luck.’

Trotting away from the bed, he made his way towards where his bipedal friend was sitting. Mr Growls was watching him cautiously, hand still scratching the ears of the drone beside him. Swallowing a lump in his throat at the memory of the less-than-stellar reaction to the bathtub plan even before the accident, Burrow continued on and sat down just in front of him.

“Hey, how’s it going?” he asked hesitantly. His eyes noticed a big off-colour patch on Mr Growl’s exposed shoulder, and he pointed a hoof at it. “You’re not hurt, are you?”

Mr Growls tensed at the hoof going out, but relaxed as soon as he realised that it wasn’t going to actually touch the spot. Burrow watched as his friend waved a hand and muttered out something, a gesture he’d learnt meant ‘it’s fine’ or ‘don’t worry about it’.

“He doesn’t seem too bothered about it,” the drone spoke up while still receiving the ear scratch. “Don’t touch it though, both me and Scarlet found that out pretty quickly.”

‘Scarlet?’

Burrow’s gaze settled on the Equestrian nurse, his smile fading. The pony was trying to avoid eye-contact with him, and it was understandable given the current circumstances. Despite the best efforts of Mr Growls, neither the pony nor himself had made any effort at all to overcome their differences.

‘Not that it matters. I still don’t see why he likes a simple Equestrian so much anyway.’

Noticing the measured stare that his friend was giving him, Burrow made sure to put his smile back on before focusing back on him.

“Well, it’s nice to see that you’re okay a least,” Burrow continued with his smile still steady. “Considering that you don’t have wings, it must have been a pretty scary trip down. I know that the tub wasn’t a good idea, but it was either that or roping you up directly. The Queen wasn’t exactly going to be lenient on us, and you know how her… temper gets.” He shifted on his spot. “Aphid’s going to be okay as well, so don’t worry too much about her. Not that it was your fault, anyway.”

“Grung.”

Mr Growls had been steadily relaxing as the conversation had gone on. Burrow also felt more at ease now that it seemed that the tension initially between them was gone, and with no superior in sight he reached up with his forelegs and removed his helmet. He barely had time to place it down next to him on the ground before the drone next to Mr Growls spoke up again.

“Aww, no fair.”

It quickly became apparent why. Burrow flicked his ears with pleasant surprise when warm and soft digits began to give him a very soothing head rub, and he couldn’t help but lean forwards in an effort to cox the fingers to cover more chitin. He heard a snort at his actions, but paid it no mind as he first tilted his head to the right and then the left in order to solicit an ear scratch as well.

‘I must look pretty silly,’ he thought, but it still didn’t stop him for enjoying the rub for a few more seconds before he pulled his head away to look up.

“I can assume that I’m forgiven, then?”

He was met with a small smile, before Mr Growls’ hand moved downwards to the blue necklace that he had given out. Burrow watched while his friend examined the gift, before Mr Growls glanced over at Cypher by his side.

“Grenga…” Mr Growls muttered to himself, before he started to look around. “Grung rawb arga…”

“What is it Growly?” Cypher asked, the biped looking at her while making a vague rectangle shape with his hands. She watched him closely, before she sat up straight with a look of realisation. “Oh, I know!” Burrow watched as she got to her hooves, the drone buzzing her wings. “Hang on Growly, I’ll be back real quick.”

With that, Cypher took off and flew up through the roof, the other three drones glancing at her but soon returning their attention to Aphid. Burrow took the opportunity to scoot a little closer, the Equestrian nurse watching him and wisely deciding to keep silent. However, he did notice the pony shift closer to Mr Growls as well, and Burrow wondered just what was going on between the two.

‘She better not be up to anything.’

Getting comfortable, Burrow tilted his ear up to the roof while he waited for the drone’s return. The din in the town had died down, a likely indicator that they had now gotten all of the Equestrians under control.

‘Good, the sooner we can leave, the better. The food is nice and all, but I just want to get back to the Hive.’ He glanced at the nurse at his thought, his brow furrowing. ‘Are we going to have to bring her with us? She’s really the only one that can help if Mr Growls gets sick again, but she won’t like that much.’ He turned his eyes away from her and directed them towards the floor before his next thought. ‘Or, we could always just keep her cocooned without him knowing once we get back. After all, it’s not like she can tell him or anything…’

He snapped out of the dark ideas at the sound of buzzing wings, and he looked back up at the rooftop hole just in time to see Cypher return. She was going slow, and was visibly struggling as she descended with the dark metal box that contained all of Mr Growl’s things. She landed on the floor next to the biped and placed the box down, Mr Growls patting her on the head as she spat the handle out of her mouth.

“The-there you are,” Cypher wheezed, her chest heaving. “It’s pr-pretty hea-vy.” She collapsed down onto her rump while continuing to pant, Mr Growls doing a surprising thing and pulling her closer. Cypher looked up at him with confusion, but her eyes widened when Mr Growls’ free hand undid the clasp on the box and pulled out…

An unmade necklace just like the one handing around Burrow’s own neck, except that this one was coloured a bright red.

Mr Growls removed his hand from Cypher’s head and quickly got to work, his fingers weaving the unknown material into a wide loop. It was over in a few moments, and with a smile he presented it to the drone next to him.

“Grab, grung-ra –brarg.”

“For… for me?” Cypher touched her chest with a forehoof, Mr Growls obviously understanding the gesture as he nodded his head and held the newly-constructed necklace out towards her.

Burrow watched Cypher shiver with excitement while she lowered her head, and then Mr Growls as he carefully placed the gifted loop over her horn and then around her neck. Cypher sat back and stared at the gift when he was done, the bottoms of her hooves running over the alien material while she took it all in.

“Growly…”

“Grung?”

“Thank you so much!” Cypher exclaimed while she leapt to her hooves and charged him into a hug. Forelegs around the surprised biped’s neck, the happy drone danced on her hind legs while she embraced him. “It’s so pretty, and no-one’s ever given me a gift before! Thank you Growly!”

Burrow, despite the rather dour circumstances with Aphid, had to hold back laughter at the pained expression on Mr Growl’s face. Even the Equestrian was watching the events with a small smile, Cypher oblivious to them both as she continued to celebrate.

Others were not quite as oblivious, however.

“Wow Cypher, what did you do to earn that?”

Burrow glanced behind him, the other three drones trotting up to see what the commotion was about.

“I don’t know,” Cypher answered with a wide grin before she let go of Mr Growls and dropped back to four hooves. “But just look at it, it must mean something special!” All four of the drones busied themselves with examining the necklace, Burrow watching them with a knowing smile.

‘I wonder if they have considered that it might just be to tell us apart from the rest of the Hive,’ he thought, but didn’t voice. After all, what was the point of spoiling the small amount of fun that the gift had brought?

“Grangau.”

Everyone stopped as Mr Growls spoke up again, the biped rummaging around in his storage chest once more. Burrow leaned forwards when he looked up at him, the next growls softer in tone but easy to interpret.

“Rung Granra Granret Rng.”

“Yeah, you probably are going to regret this,” Burrow quietly answered with a nod, as Mr Growls pulled out a handful of unmade necklaces.
Which immediately commanded the attention of the harem drones.

“Chrzrtzrt! Chrzrt czrrt zzrchz rzzt chzt!”

“Okay, okay I get it. Calm down, it’s just an Ethernet cable. It’s not even Cat6.”

Daniel sighed in relief as the last bug-horse stopped hugging his head and dropped back down to the floor, her set of wings still buzzing with what he could only assume was joyful excitement.

His identification efforts had gone ever well with his… well, whatever they were supposed to be.

‘Guards? Groupies? A combination of both?’

Now each bug-horse was wearing a good and reliable Cat5 Ethernet cable around their necks. Red, green, yellow, and grey in colouration, the cables-turned-necklaces would mean that he was no longer required to go off behaviour alone to id his usual hangers-on. The fact that the four seemed overjoyed with their identification method was a pretty neat bonus as well, if he was going to be honest.

The four sat down in a loose circle just off to the side of him, forehooves playing with their necklaces as they chirped and chattered with each other at a rapid pace. The fifth Ethernet bearer in the room, Boris, was watching them with a smile from his own spot. Daniel was glad that he at least had one ally that seemed equally as amused about the situation, but when he noticed Boris’ helmet he was hit with a realisation.

‘That’s right, there’s still one left.’ He repressed a grimace. ‘The most important one to keep track of, as well.’
Reaching his hand back into the toolbox, he withdrew one last loop of cord.

‘RJ45 phone cable, cream-coloured.’ He’d run out of coloured Ethernet cables and so would have to resort to the rather bland-looking cable to mark the rapey-one, but it wasn’t all bad. His well-trained eye could pick out the cable at a hundred metres and easily tell it apart from an Ethernet one, giving him a much better chance of detecting his bug-horse bane before she could cause too much damage.

There was really no worries about her accepting it, considering the response that he had just received for the other cables, but it did mean that he had to do something quite unusual.

He would have to seek her out.

‘Bloody wonderful,’ he thought to himself, before swallowing his apprehension. ‘Still, it has to be done. I haven’t seen her for a while, so she’s probably out menacing some other poor SOB in the town.’

Daniel cleared his throat and looked over towards Boris, the bug-horse looking over towards him and tilting his head.

“So, this is kind of a retarded question…” Daniel began. “But would you happen to know where Miss ‘fuck-your-consent’ is?” The puzzled stare that he got in return was a good reminder that he needed more than just words to get through to them. Thinking for a moment, he pointed to the helmet and then to one of the normal bug-horses. “You know, she’s a guard or something like you are?”

He seemed to be making progress, Boris giving him a short chatter in reply, but Daniel still needed something else to really get the message across. Furrowing his brows in concentration, he glanced into the toolbox as he had another idea. “Did they…?” he muttered quietly as he rummaged through it, before his hands grasped the familiar notepad and pen that he had been using to ‘talk’ with the bug-horses. “Yes, they did!”

Holding out the notepad triumphantly, he flicked over to the page with the lewd bug-horse picture and pointed at it with a finger.

“There,” he proclaimed, while also pointing at the helmet. “She’s the one that drew this.”

Boris’ eyes lit up with recognition, but his smile faded. With a foreleg he pointed back towards the injured bug-horse on the bed, his chatter even drawing the attention of the four normal bug-horses despite their noise.

“No,” Daniel repeated slowly. “The bug-horse that drew this. You know…” he paused, before making a rump-rubbing gesture. “That one.”
Boris stared at him, before reaffirming his previous gesture and chattering again.

“Fuck off,” snorted Daniel as he pointed a finger at the bed. “You’re trying to tell me that the bug-horse I crashed into, out of the hundreds of bug-horses in this town, just-so-fucking-happens to be Touchy-McGee herself? The very same bug-horse that has been a pain in my arse this entire time? Pull the other one.”

Boris just stared at him.

“Nah, mate,” Daniel said while getting to his feet. The flying horse stood up with him, obviously keen to stay as close to him as possible with the bug-horses around. He walked over to the bed and looked down at the unconscious occupant. “She doesn’t even look the same…”

He took a moment to reconsider what he had just said.

“Well, okay, she looks the same. But you all do.” Sighing, he endured another few moments of stares before he rolled his eyes. “Fine. So, you’re absolutely sure that this bug-horse is her?”

Boris carefully touched a hoof to his own chest, and then pointed it towards the four normal drones and then the bug-horse on the bed. There was another bust of speech, and then a slow nod.

Daniel glanced from Boris to the now apparently confirmed last member of their group, and then back again.

“I blame you for all looking alike,” he grumbled, before he placed the phone cable down on the small bedside table and stumbled back to sit against the wall.

He leaned back with a sigh, barely noticing Boris utter another series of chatters while he did so. Two of the normal bug-horses took flight and departed through the hole in the roof, but Daniel neglected to farewell them as he glanced back to the bug-horse on the bed.

The slight feeling of guilt was annoying, and didn’t much help things, either.

“You there, cocoon this one up and load it with the others. I have had my fill, and it is taxed for the day.”

The glow around Chrysalis’ horn died out as the grey unicorn stallion slumped to the ground. Her scouts had missed the presence of the town’s sole unicorn, a doctor of some sort, but the weakling had been no trouble for her to subdue so no harm had come of it.

And he had proven to be quite the bounty of magical energy, after all.

Two soldiers quickly moved to remove the Equestrian from her sight, dragging it along the ground towards the four wagons fully stocked with cocooned captives. Chrysalis smiled wickedly at her bounty, her Hive would be fully fed for many weeks to come. There was possibly even some left over to replenish their numbers, a thought that caused her to let out a low chuckle.

“Mhmmh, yes! Those accursed princesses haven’t seen the last of me. I’ll take their gaudy cities and make them my own, and their subjects will bow to even the lowest of my children!”

She started to trot down the main street, her long tongue dancing over her fangs while she examined the devastation that her attack had wrought.

Another low chuckle escaped her mouth as she laid eyes upon a pony house with a hole in its roof, the former occupants long since cocooned.
She had heard about the biped’s fall from the sky, and it had amused her greatly.

A group of soldiers in armour scattered around her as she passed them, wisely diverting their eyes to the ground. The figure behind them, however, did not. Instead, her Commander stopped in front of her and nodded his head.

“My Queen.”

“Scuttle,” Chrysalis returned with a noticeable lack of venom in her tone.

‘It’s been a good day,’ she excused herself silently.

“The town is completely secured,” Scuttle reported without a moment of hesitation. “No captives escaped, the fire in the town bakery has been extinguished, and the loot found has been very rewarding.” Chrysalis watched while Scuttle reached into a small brown saddlebag he seemed to have acquired, his hoof returning with a squat brown bottle. “This is ‘Griffonian Aged Ale’ here,” he explained enthusiastically. “Now, while not a rarity considering the prevalence of such beverages in griffon culture, the way it’s brewed is most interesting since-“

“Scuttle.”

He looked up at her, bottle still in hoof. Meanwhile, Chrysalis maintained her even stare.

“Put that away, now, and cease your prattling. I have no interest towards your ‘brewing’, but I am strangely lacking in information regarding my recent conquests.”

He did as commanded, the bottle soon stowed back in its looted bag. Scuttle looked back up at her and saluted.

“Of course, your Majesty. On that, I have much to report.” He swung a hoof out dramatically, gesturing towards all of the houses. “As you can see, this utterly defenceless town has easily fallen to our elite forces. The residents put up no resistance, and yet we still somehow managed to overrun them completely without any losses save for one unconscious beast-handler.” He nodded his head. “Yes, it is quite the stepping stone in our flawless plan for conquest, my Queen.”

Chrysalis stared at her commander while he continued to salute.

There was no trace of detectable mockery, either visible or emotional, and Scuttle himself was completely straight faced as he stood in front of her. Neither of them moved an inch, Chrysalis still trying to figure out if he was just enthusiastic or whether she had just been insulted.

“I… very good,” she managed to get out, her mind quickly brushing the reply off. “So, there is nothing else to report?”

“No, My Queen.” Scuttle allowed himself a small smile. “Nothing else at all.”

Still staring at him warily, Chrysalis decided to just answer him with a dismissive snort. Turning away from him, she paused when a rather portly soldier buzzed overhead to land heavily on the ground before her.

“My Queen,” the soldier huffed out with rushed breath. “We are under attack from the west!”

“What!?”

She spun around, her eyes going up as she tried to spot what the soldier was talking about. It wasn’t hard to miss, a swarm of dots numbering in the forties descending from high in the sky. Her eyes narrowed at the shapes of bat-winged pegasi, and she grit her teeth as she recognised the armoured form of the Equestrian Princess of the Night at the lead.

‘Princess Luna and her filthy guards, this was not part of the plan… at all.’

“Well…”

Chrysalis spared a glance down to her right, Commander Scuttle peering up at the approaching foes.

“I stand corrected, My Queen.”

Luna powered up a myriad of spells as she approached the town below, her eyes narrowing as she went over the details.

The changelings were here, that much was obvious. The black shapeshifters had all gone to ground as soon as they had noticed her approach, but she could still pick out the forms of the raiders as they darted from house-to-house in a likely attempt to form some sort of hasty defence.

Four wagons, once loaded with farm produce but now stacked high with innocent ponies in green changeling cocoons, sat by the town hall which was home to the largest concentration of the emotion-draining pests.

The main thing that she noticed, however, was the form of the changeling queen. She hadn’t had the wonderful opportunity of meeting the odious creature in the Canterlot attack due to her absence in the Zebrican lands, but her sister’s description of the dark monarch fitted the figure perfectly. Currently it was sneering up at her with a few of its guards by its side, Luna levelling a glare back at it while she descended.

‘I must be cautious,’ she reminded herself. ‘This creature bested Celestia, so it would be unwise to underestimate it.’

Her silver-clad hooves touched the cobblestone road, five of her loyal guards landing on each side of her with their spears at the ready. Luna did not have to glance around to know that the remaining thirty were maintaining their positions in the air, all poised to strike at a moment’s notice. Instead, she focused on the tall changeling that was barely ten body-lengths away, the creature’s long and jagged horn glowing with sickly green energy.

“You are ‘Queen Chrysalis’, I presume?”

The Queen narrowed her eyes. “Princess Luna.”

“Oh, we have met?” Luna feigned a look of hard-thinking, before making an over-exaggerated nod. “Oh, yes. I must suppose that I gave you wedding congratulations before I left Canterlot. I was under the impression that you were Princess Candace of course, but now I can see what a truly wicked creature you are.” She made a point of looking around the town. “You will pay for your evil deeds, Queen Chrysalis. Surrender and release my subjects now, and I will promise you and your spawn a fair trial.”

A long and sharp laugh was the initial response after a moment of hesitation, Luna’s frown intensifying as the evil cackle seemed to reverberate around the entire town.

“Surrender? Surrender!? Ha!” the Queen smirked, before she turned to one of the armoured changelings at her side. “Did you hear that, Scuttle? This glorified unicorn is demanding our surrender!” The Queen refaced her, fangs flashing menacingly. “I’ll tell you what, fool. Surrender to me, and I won’t completely drain you and your hopeless guards.”

Luna glared at the retort, her wings flicking while she prepared her muscles for a charge.

“A single one of my guards is worth ten of yours,” she returned with confidence. However, that confidence quickly wavered at the Queen’s next action.

“Well, then…” Chrysalis hissed with a grin. “It’s a good thing that I brought a few hundred extra of mine.”

At once, the town filled with the sound of hundreds of insectoid wings beating rapidly. From behind and within houses, from back alleys, and from the outskirts of the town, a swarm of vicious changelings rose up as one into the air. Their numbers were such that the entire area seemed much darker than it ought to be, and the bat-pony guards still in the air found themselves locked in from all sides by the foe.

Luna kept a calm face while she took stock of their odds, and subtly she let one of her spells off as she did so. Her magic coiled around her guards, strengthening their hearts and focusing their minds while she returned her attention back to the changeling queen.

“I will not warn you again. Cease this folly before you force me to resort to violence.” Her eyes narrowed once more. “You managed to defeat my sister whilst she was off-guard, and you will not find the same with me.”

Unfortunately, it failed to convince the evil tyrant.

“I have feasted on the bounty of love that your precious ponies have provided me,” Chrysalis chortled while lowering her horn. “Off-guard or not, your own emotions will still add to my power regardless when I defeat you!”

Chrysalis punctuated her threat with a blast of noxious green magic, the crackling bolt leaping through the air towards her. Luna cast her second prepared spell, and a sudden barrier of blue magic deflected the projectile away from her face and down harmlessly into the ground. Still, the Queen wasn’t lying about her current power, Luna casting another shield and trying to not show her surprise as the first one cracked under the magical attack.

‘This fight may not be as easy as I first expected,’ she thought with gritted teeth. Preparing a stun spell of her own in retaliation, she gave a single order to her guards.

“Attack.”

Daniel looked up from his lettuce sandwich (understandably there was nary a scrap of meat to be found) mid-chew at the sound of a mass buzzing of wings. The flying horse beside him, her enjoyment of a chocolate-cake slice interrupted, glanced around with a noticeable shiver.

He frowned despite the numerous sandwiches and cakes that sat on the large plate before them, brought to them by the two bug-horses that Boris had sent out.

‘Something’s going down.’

He had become very suspicious when his bug-horse friends (save for the one still unconscious on the bed) had all left in a hurry, their concerned expressions far from comforting. At first Daniel had assumed that it was another meeting to celebrate their victory, just like in the last town, but he couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of danger.

“Rise, my children! Take flight and surround them!”

The sandwich nearly dropped from his hand at the vaguely female voice, his eyes glancing around before he focused them on the flying horse.

“Please tell me that you heard that.”

Flying Horse stared back, her eyes wide and her body shivering, but there was no verbal response. Deciding to check things out, Daniel stuffed the last remainder of the sandwich into his gob and got to his feet.

“Yeah, I guess I should go and see what’s up. Stay here, okay?”

After a moment’s hesitation, he reached out a hand and gently patted the flying horse on the top of her mane. It worked somewhat, the equine ceasing her shivers at the contact, but her fearful expression remained intact. Leaving her with the food, Daniel made for the stairs but stopped as he considered one last thing.

‘Fuck it.’

Hurrying over to the toolbox, he opened the top and pulled out the largest phillips head screwdriver within it. With black rubber handle in hand, he nodded at the twenty-centimetre length before stuffing the screwdriver under his armpit.

It would not be a good day for someone to piss him off.

Heading back to the staircase, he turned to look back at the nervous flying horse one last time.

“Don’t worry, I’ll figure out what’s going on.”

She managed a weak neigh in reply, and Daniel nodded back to her before he began to descend the steps to the floor below.

“Attack!”

‘The fuck?’

He was about halfway down when it happened.

A mere second after the strangely disembodied command seemed to ring out over the area, a bright green beam of energy smashed through a wooden wall with a sizzle. Whizzing past his bare legs, close enough to singe the hairs upon them, the energy continued on until its flight was interrupted by the brick fireplace against the far wall.

There was a bang and a crack as the energy chunked some bricks before fizzling out, the smell of burnt mortar filling the air before the fireplace collapsed in on itself.

Daniel stared at the broken fireplace, then glanced at the hole in the wall, and then down at his legs.

“Nope.”

Turning on his heels, he went back up the stairs and was greeted with the wide eyes of the flying horse.

“Yep. Definitely something going down in horsy town,” he explained while rubbing the front of his legs. “I can only guess that your horse friends aren’t too happy about the whole ‘raiding party’ thing.”

Daniel’s suspicions were confirmed with a glance up towards the sky through the hole in the roof, a black and purple blur flying over with three bug-horses in hot pursuit. He looked back down at flying horse just in time to catch her wince at another loud bang, and he glanced at the closed window on the wall opposite the bed.

Looking back down at her, he remembered how his bug-horse friends had been treating her. It was obvious that it had something to do with racial tensions, or at least that was what he had picked up on, and it was plain to see that it hadn’t changed despite his repeated attempts to prompt everyone to get along. The bit of rope that they had used to tether her was still lying on the floorboards behind her, which only made his next decision a little easier.

‘Should I really…?’ he wondered while glancing around, the bug-horse on the bed still out like a light. ‘It’s not like they’d really miss her, and she won’t exactly give away our location now…’

Moving over towards the window with the flying horse still watching him, he peered out through the glass.

Lush green fields with the occasional tree was all that he saw, the sounds of fighting filtering in through the roof evidently limited to the town itself. Daniel continued to look out for a few more moments, before another explosion from the bottom floor of the house helped him to make his mind up.

“This is only going to come back and bite me,” he muttered to himself while he turned to face the flying horse. Gesturing with his hand, he once again checked the hole in the roof for any trouble. “Come over here, this is probably your best chance.”

She tilted her head, appearing confused, but shakily she got to her hooves and trotted over towards him. As soon as she was close, Daniel unlatched the window and pushed it open, Flying Horse’s eyes widening at the realisation of what he wanted.

“It seems clear out this way, but it might be a good idea to hurry.” He grabbed a foreleg and coaxed her up, her wings fluttering as she took flight. Still somewhat confused, she hesitated at the window. Looking back at him, she tilted her head and neighed with a tone that implied a question.

With no time to decipher the many possible queries she could be asking, Daniel went for the obvious route and pretty much forced her out of the window. Letting the surprised horse go as she hovered in the open air, he pointed with his finger towards the grassy horizon.

“Go, now,” he ordered. “Before any bug-horses catch you again. Considering that one wanker with the whip, you were lucky enough the first time to get captured by some decent ones so don’t tempt fate, okay?”

There was a moment of hesitation between them both, before she suddenly lunged forwards towards him. Still flying, she wrapped her forelegs around his neck in a hug and nuzzled his cheek with her own. Stumped for a few seconds, but not that surprised considering all of the equines he’d met so far, he let her remain for a few more moments before gently pushing her off.

“Enough of that mushy stuff,” he said, while pointing towards the horizon again. “It’s time for you to leave. Go on.”

Flying Horse nodded in understanding, a forehoof reaching out to gently touch his hand, before she said one final neigh.

A moment later, and she was gone.

Daniel watched her soar into the air and make a beeline out of the town, her departure going unnoticed by anyone else in the area. Silently wishing her good luck in her flight back to friendly lands, he closed the window and re-latched. He moved away from the window and back to his spot just in time for all five of his missing bug-horses to appear back through the hole in the roof, Daniel pausing at the sight of them.

All were visibly exhausted, the four normal ones panting and huffing rapidly. It was Boris that drew his attention however, Daniel frowning at the sight of his friend.

“Shit, mate. What the fuck is going on?”

There was a massive gouge in Boris’ metal helmet, the blue metal warped and blackened as if it had been partially melted by something. A pen-sized crack in Boris’ left shoulder was leaking green fluid, and a long but thin gash on his right side was also bleeding steadily. He was also limping with his right foreleg held off the ground, but none of the injuries seemed to stop him from hastily chattering out a series of loud orders.

The four normal bug-horses immediately got to work despite their fatigue. One went and picked up Daniel’s toolbox with her jaws, one gingerly headed down the stairs to scout it out, while the remaining two moved towards the bed and the unconscious occupant.

“Chrztrt Chrt.”

Looking down to the bug-horse by his left, Daniel picked up Boris’ helmet from his head and examined the damaged metal.

“That bad, huh?”

“Crzt.”

He put the helmet back on Boris after his friend had finished nodding his head with gritted teeth.

“You okay?”

Boris followed his finger point to the wound on his side, and nodded once more.

“Playing ‘tough bastard’, I see.”

The slight compliment didn’t garner any reaction, both of them glancing across as the bug-horse who had gone down the stairs returned and chattered out some information. The one carrying his toolbox trotted over to join Boris at his side, all of them then looking back over towards the bed.

The other two were struggling with moving the blacked-out bug-horse off the bed, their wings straining as they each tried to lift her up via her forelegs.

Daniel didn’t hesitate, and hurried over to give them a hand. Instead of just helping lift, however, he decided to just go all the way and picked up the unresponsive bug-horse. Nestling her in his arms so that her head was well supported against his chest, he used one of his hands to tuck in her legs and tail before glancing at the two bug-horses he had helped. They both gave him weary but thankful smiles in return, and one swooped down to collect the helmet and the phone cord necklace that were both sitting on the bedside table.

Turning around to face Boris, Daniel watched as his armoured friend pointed a hoof down towards the stairs.

“We bugging out then?” he asked, without realising the unintentional pun at first.

Boris just nodded and descended the steps, so Daniel followed his example along with the rest of the bug-horses who fell into line behind him. There were no more bangs from outside, and the sound of fighting had ceased for the time being.

Daniel wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

‘Yep, today sure is a shitty one.’

It was over.

Luna kept her eyes fixed on the downed Changeling Queen under her, her horn glowing with a finishing spell at the ready in case Chrysalis tried anything. It wasn’t likely however, and as the Queen coughed and spluttered on the ground Luna gritted her teeth.

“I gave you a chance, one that you decided to ignore.”

“Shut your mouth, you stupi- ah!”

Chrysalis hissed through clenched fangs while she touched a hoof to the large gash in her chest, the bottom of the hoof coming away with a smattering of green gore. The ruler had other assorted scraps and cracks all over, but the chest wound was certainly the worst out of all of them. Still, Luna had deliberately refrained from outright trying to kill the changeling, so the wound wasn’t very deep and in no way life-threatening.

“Your force’s number counted for naught,” Luna continued. “My guards have bested your warriors, so I will reiterate my demand for your surrender one final time.” In a feat of magical skill, she simultaneously depowered the offensive spell she had active while replacing it with a strong stun bolt instead. The glow on her horn never wavered, a ploy to convince Chrysalis that she wasn’t above ending the life of a fallen foe.

‘I do hope she falls for it,’ Luna wished while maintaining a straight face. ‘This battle is not quite over.’

It was unfortunate to admit. Her guards, every single one, all bore the gashes and marks of a battle fiercely fought. They had been forced to group up around their Princess in the centre of the town, hedged in by changeling opponents on every side. Five of them had been heavily injured, and being unable to fly meant that another ten guards were occupied with carrying them and ensuring their safety. As an added burden, four more of her troops had managed to snatch away a wagon loaded with cocooned civilians, and were busy keeping it aloft in preparation for a speedy escape.

The changelings were likewise heavily battered. Many were grounded behind their Queen with the bulk of their forces protecting the remaining three prisoner wagons, the spears of bat-ponies having proven more effective than teeth and fangs. While there were a few of the creatures that were barely moving, their rough chitin had appeared to have saved most of them from a grisly demise.

Looking back at Chrysalis, the Queen having given up on moving, Luna leaned her head in close.

“Your own subjects are heavily injured, Queen Chrysalis. If there is but a shred of goodness in your wicked heart, then you will not surrender for your own sake, but for theirs.”

With another cough, Chrysalis focused her eyes into a glare and began to hiss out a reply.

“F… Fu-“

Luna didn’t get the wonderful opportunity to hear the vulgar reply.

“Princess!”

The loud cry of alarm from one of her guards prompted Luna to snap her head up. She was vaguely aware of movement to her left, and so she turned to look at the possible threat.

Just in time to catch the brown bottle labelled with a smiling griffon…

…With her face.

The glass shattered against her cheek and griffon ale sprayed everywhere, the bulk of the mass hitting her right in the side of her head.
Her mind briefly registered a single, straight-faced changeling in ornate blue armour standing off to the side with his right foreleg extended post-throw.

And then, she found herself slumping to the ground to take a rather unexpected slumber.

“Retreat!”

‘Wh..what?’

Chrysalis struggled to stay awake as the weight atop of her was lifted off, her blurry vision just good enough to make out a swarm of bat-ponies taking away... something.

She blacked out for a brief moment before she was shaken awake, her eyes blinking open to see her loyal Commander above her.

“Your Highness!”

“Scuttle?” Chrysalis coughed out, her chest burning with agony. “What happened?”

“You have been hurt badly and your energy is incredibly low, My Queen. The duel with the Equestrian princess was taxing to both your health and your magic.”

‘Oh yes, that happened.’

“I…” she nearly blacked out again, but she fought to stay awake. “Scuttle… did we… did we win?”

He seemed to look around, Chrysalis unable to focus on anything else.

“Well, they managed to escape with their Princess and a wagon of captives, but yes, I believe that we can notch this one down as a victory.”
Despite her fuzzy mind, Chrysalis was keenly able to remember lying helpless at the hooves of the Alicorn, her subjects scattered around her.

“H-How?”

It must have been brain-damage, but she could have sworn that Scuttle actually allowed himself a small smile.

“Well, my Queen… I managed to get a rather good shot on her with that bottle of griffon ale while she was distracted with you. I must admit, it was quite the stroke of good fortune- Your Highness?”

Chrysalis didn’t fight her blackout this time, and instead embraced the relative sanity that blissful unconsciousness provided.

It had been a long, but admittedly interesting, day.