“What exactly did you do to them?” The raspy voice of a stallion woke me from my unconsciousness.

“I knocked two of them out with the darts.” I kept my eyes shut so they wouldn’t know I was awake.

“And her?” Well shit. Where are Harmony and the others.

“I smashed a few bricks into her skull.” Yeah thanks for that.

The longer I sat there the more sensations came to me. I was tied up against either a table or a wall. I was still unsure of my senses having probably just been given a concussion.

“So what are your plans for them?” A softer much less raspy sounding mare entered into the room.

“These five have been giving us trouble at the outposts we use to feed off of love.” The raspy voiced stallion took a few steps my way.

“So you are going to kill them?” The mare’s voice was enchanting.

“No we are going to feed off of their love. We can use them for a long time before they lose their appeal.” The stallion stopped.

“So you’re going to rape us.” Silver had been listening in for a while. I was glad to hear his voice.

“Well maybe not you. You did kill off many ponies by yourself. We figure with the proper reconditioning you could be useful to us.” The mare took a few steps in the direction of Silver.

“Good luck with that. If I know anything about him he won’t allow himself to fall to the likes of you.” Onyx was still alive.

“Onyx shut the buck up.” Demo would have hit him if they were closer.

“Good to know you two are still awake. Now where is Midnight. I swear to Celestia if you laid a hoof on her I am going to rip out your throats with my teeth and piss on your lifeless bodies.” It was a relief to hear Harmony’s voice. That was a little bit farther than I thought Harmony had in her.

“Shut your useless mouth.” I heard a hoof connect with Harmony. “Save that mouth of yours for more important things.”

“Try putting anything in my mouth and I will bite it off.” Harmony spat at the stallion.

“Try it and you will be subjected to the worst of our torture techniques.” The stallion stopped.

I heard a gross squelching noise and a solid thud. I opened my eyes to see a skull roll across the ground.

“Why did nopony do something about that. I told you idiots that he had powerful magic.” The mare’s voice had a wicked edge to it.

“Step back or it’s your skull on the floor next.” Silver was fighting with all his might to break free of his bindings.

“Calm down there. All we want to do is feed off of your sweet love.” The mare stepped towards Silver.

I decided now would be a good time to do something. I grabbed ahold of one of the surgical tools next to my bed. A large knife was the first thing I could find.

“I don’t think so sweetie.” She grabbed the knife and tossed it out of the room. “Now would you idiots please deal with their magic.”

A few more changelings burst into the room carrying small rings. They slipped two of them over Silver’s horn and one over Harmony’s horn before coming over to me. I tried as hard as I could to stop them from placing the ring on my horn but in the end I failed.

“Is that all the rings we have?” The mare took a few more steps towards Silver.

“No. We have more if we need them but I don’t believe we will need them.” One of the smaller changelings shied away from the mare.

“We better not or it will be your plots on the line.” She gave a wicked glance towards the little changeling.

I tried to use my magic but whatever they had done to me was preventing me from conjuring up any sort of magic.

“I wouldn’t even bother with your magic.” The mare saw me struggling.

“What have you done to us?” Harmony fought against her binds.

“Well Harmony was it? We have placed loadstone rings on your horns. They restrict any magic that you might be able to use. So now we won’t have to worry about you trying to kill us with your magic.” The mare trotted back to the center of the room.

“What do you want with us?” I was still trying to use my magic.

“You must be Midnight. What we want from you is to feed off of your love to make us all stronger. The King has gone so long without any love to feed off of. The last mares we brought in were used up in a day or so. He is rather rough on his mares. That is why we find mares like you. He likes mares that will last longer.” Her face was contorted into the worst smile I had ever seen.

“Who is the King?” I stopped trying and stayed still.

“The King is our leader. He has protected us on our journey through the wasteland. We owe him our lives and we will do anything to please him.” The mare cast glances down to the other changelings.

“Then why not offer up your own plot for his enjoyment?” Harmony stopped fighting against her bindings.

“Harmony.” I couldn’t quite see her but cast my glance towards her voice.

“We do not offer ourselves to him because he does not ask these things of us. If he asks for me to give myself to him I shall do so for the good of the hive.” The mare put a hoof to her chest.

“So he does not take any of you as his wives, but you are ready at any moment if he asks to give your own fat plot to him.” Harmony was trying to seduce this mare. I was a slight bit offended.

“He is our king and we must do whatever we can to protect him from the dangers of the wastelands. If that means we must take mares from the wasteland for him to use then we shall.” The mare closed her eyes.

“Is there anyother way for us to live here without being your sex slaves?” Silver was deep in thought.

“Well for you the alicorn stallion I believe we may have use of you. If you prove yourself worthy we may only use you to please ourselves once or twice a week. As for them.” She motioned to all of the rest of us. “We have no use for them other than as slaves for the King.”

“So why do you need the other stallions? Is the King not entirely straight?” Silver opened his eyes.

“The other stallions shall be the playthings of the King’s personal mares.” The mare took one step towards Silver.

“I thought you said he had no personal mares?” I didn’t like how close she was to any of us right now.

“He does not take mares as lovers but as wives. He has chosen them to lead the hive as queens incase of his death.” The mare seemed a bit jealous.

“He has many mares to take his place as ruler of the hive?” I turned my head so I could get the best look of the room possible.

“The oldest of his mares will take the role of leader until her death. Then the next will take the place and the trend will continue until the last mare has become queen. After that she will choose her successor and die peacefully.” The mare motioned for the other changelings to start undoing our bindings.

A speaker in the room came to life. “Attention to the changelings down inside of the prisoner handling room. I have need of the newest slaves you have captured. Bring them to me post haste.”

“Well it looks like one of you will be killed by the King today. I have a few words of advice.” The mare stepped towards me.

“What would those be? Try not to get bucked to death perhaps?” My hooves were loose and I rolled to the floor.

She whispered in my ear. “Prepare thy anus.”

“I did mean now.” The voice on the speaker sounded impatient.

“Yeah whatever. Untie them and bring them to the King as quickly as possible.”

They untied us and used chains to bind our limbs so we could only use them to walk forward at an extremely slow pace. We had been blindfolded so we would have as little knowledge as possible as to how the hive was laid out.

“It took you idiots long enough.” The stallion's voice was different.

“Sorry your highness. These ponies caused us trouble.” I felt the changeling brush past me as he stepped away from the King.

“I don’t care for your excuses. If you step out of line again I will let my mares have their way with you. And you know they won’t go easy on you. Are we understood.” The King’s voice was powerful.

“Yes your highness.” I could hear the changeling shaking.

“Good now leave my sight after you remove the blindfolds from these ponies.” My sight finally came back.

The King stood a few paces in front of us. Unlike the other changelings he was colorful. Mostly green and yellow were the colors of his coat.

“What are your names?” He stood waiting.

“Why should we tell you?” I took a small step forward.

“Because if you cooperate I might have the chance to go easy on you.” He sat down.

“I’m Silver. That is Onyx, Demo, Harmony, and on the end is Midnight.” Silver cast a glance down my way.

“Well I did mean for you each to introduce yourselves individually but I do know your names so that is a start. Now do you have questions for me.” The King looked us over.

“I do have one.” I was trying my hardest to figure a way out of this.

“Well go ahead and ask.” His eyes rested solely on me.

“What is your real name?” I tried to use my magic to no avail.

“Nopony has spoken my real name in years. Nor will they speak my name for years to come. I will answer any question but that until you earn my trust.” The King shifted his eyes down the line.

“Is there any way for my friends to avoid your changelings from feeding on them?” Silver stood tall.

“I do not know what you have been told my alicorn friend but we do not take advantage of those who we capture. If they choose that as their life then that is their choice. To tell you the truth we have not fed on more than enough love to survive for many years.” The king stood up and took a few steps towards silver.

“Why are you different from the others?” I still had no plan on how to escape but I was put a little bit more at ease.

“What do you mean child?” The King turned back towards me.

“Well you are brightly colored while those who follow you are darker in color.” I sat down accepting this.

“That. Well many years ago before the war that destroyed Equestria, I was a changeling who did not like the way that our queen ran things so I fled. I sought refuge amongst ponies in the crystal empire. A small dragon befriended me and sent me down a path to being able to share love with others.” The King hung his head.

“What do you mean a journey so you could share love?” Harmony took a few steps forward before the chains stopped her.

“Normally changelings are unable to share love and must feed off of the love from the ponies. After a while a few ponies were kidnapped including the princesses. We went on a journey to save them. We realized that with a little help from those ponies we had just rescued we could learn to share our love with each other.” He looked back to us.

“You were alive before the war?” I scooched forward.

“Yes I was.” His face shifted into a frown.

“How did you survive?” Harmony was using her front hooves as a headrest.

“I was trapped in stone. I was sent forward in time hundreds of years without being killed. When I awoke I was in a small research lab filled with technology I had never seen before. I found my way here and the changelings took me in as their king.” The King retreated to his throne.

“How have you earned your reputation as being one to kill mares after you are done with them?” I was a bit sickened by my question.

“I killed a few mares who made advances on me that were not welcomed. The bodies were discovered shortly after they died and my reputation was born.” He stood for a few seconds before returning to his throne.

“So are we free to go then?” I had high hopes.

“No you are not. If it were my sole decision I would release you and let you live your lives. But the rest of my hive has heard word that you slaughtered many of our brothers and sisters. If I were to let you leave I would be killed and nopony would be better off for it. If I have you do some work for us I might be able to let you live.” The king took a step away from his throne.

“You idiot how much have you told them.” A mare smashed the door open and trotted up to the King.

“I have told them only what I must my queen.” He bowed to her.

“I should have come back for my throne and killed you when I had the chance.” The mare raised her hoof.

“Chrysi I do not believe now is the best time for this.” He cowered before this mare.

She slammed a hoof across his face making him bleed. “What have I told you about using my name?”

“That I shall only use it when we mate.” The King put a hoof to where he had been hit.

“What else?” The Queen still had a hoof raised.

“That if I use it in front of anypony I must be punished.” The King hund his head.

“Good it seems that you are learning. Now why do you think that these foolish ponies may be of help to us?” She pointed a hoof towards us.

“They have accomplished feats that not even our most skilled assassins could accomplish. We could have them eliminate the groups who give us the most trouble.” The King stood up leaving his cheek to bleed.

“You expect these morons to wage a full war on the Skull and Tri-Tear?” The queen eyed us over.

“One at a time but I think that they will eventually prove worthy of us.” The king stepped towards his queen.

“They will prove their worth quickly or they will be used as slaves.” The Queen pushed him away.

“Did you have a thought on how they could prove themselves?” The King took a step towards us.

“Why yes I do.” The Queen’s smile showed her many sharp teeth.

“You don’t mean?” The King muttered under his breath.

“I most certainly do. Two things can happen that way. Either they die in there, or they return alive and ready to serve us.” The Queen’s smile subsided.

“What are you going to have us do?” The queen turned to me and slammed a hoof into the right side of my face.

“You do not speak unless spoken to. Understand or do I need to hit you again?” She waved her hoof at me.

“Understood.” I couldn’t put my hoof to my cheek.

“You have two options. One, you go and fight to the death for our amusement. Two, you go infiltrate a stable.” The Queen turned back towards The King.

“May we have a moment to talk about it?” Silver held one of his hooves up in defense.

“No.” I was really beginning to hate this stupid queen of bugs.

“Stable.” Silver was done with listening.

“He speaks for all of you?” The King took a step towards us.

“Yes he does your highness.” Onyx brought himself to his hooves.

“Well if you prefer the option that will get you killed no matter what so be it. Give them the coordinates to the stable and let them on their way.” The Queen waved towards a few guards.

“Will we get any of our gear?” I continued to sit.

I received another smack across the face. “No you will not. All of your gear will stay locked away until you have earned the right to carry any of it.”

One of the changeling guards had been programming coordinates into my pipbuck. I looked at the screen to read the coordinates.

“Blindfold them and lead them out of here. If they return alive they may have proved themselves worthy of armor.” The Queen looked into my eyes before trotting back to The King.

In this place I felt extremely naked without even a scrap of armor to protect me. The blindfold was slipped back over my eyes and we were pulled to our hooves. We trotted along for I would guess about half an hour before they unblindfolded us.

“You are to go directly to those coordinates. If you are caught diverging to far from the path then you will be killed.” He smacked my plot. “Now get out of here.”

We walked towards the coordinates for a few minutes before I stopped the group.

“Why are we stopping?” Silver stopped after he got to the front of the group.

“I wanted to make sure if we were going to just go along with this.” I rubbed my cheeks.

“I understand your concern Midnight but we need to just go along with it. I’ve been in situations like this before and I’ve learned the only way to survive is to do what they say and hope they give you a chance to leave.” Silver took a look to the sky.

“Hope they give us a chance to leave? I really don’t like those odds.” I put my hooves back underneath me.

“Well you’re not supposed to like the odds. We need to wait this out and not do anything stupid. What day is it by chance.” Silver brought his eyes back down to look at me.

I looked down at my pipbuck. “It’s saturday.”

“Well Spitfire said she wanted those outposts captured by friday so she should send somepony to look for us in a day or so. If we leave messages for them then we shouldn’t have to live through this for long.” Silver smiled.

“Well if you two are done we should probably get a move on. I have a feeling they are watching us very closely.” Harmony nodded off to our right.

I saw a changeling hiding behind a rock watching us. It was a rather small one. “All right let’s get a move on we do have work to do.”

The General’s POV

The room became quiet as a voice played over the speakers. It was the infinity stables A.I.

“Derpy we have a situation on one of the worlds you are responsible for.” The A.I had been programmed to sound female.

“Son of a bitch.” I set my cup down.

“You will need to leave and go take care of it quickly.” The A.I. slid open a door leading away from the party.

“Are you serious if I leave now I’ll miss the best part of the fucking party.” I was looking at the ceiling for the speakers.

“The council doesn’t give two shits miss Derpy. Go and take care of this problem before something bad happens.” The speakers vibrated but were invisible to my eye.

“Fine but may I say a few words before I go?” I guessed as to where the speaker was.

The A.I. sighed. “I suppose.”

The crowd stared at me.

“This is a bunch of fucking horse shit. I have to leave the best fucking party of the century.” I took a few steps towards the open door.

“Well the fucking party comes later.” A griffon stepped forward.

“Shut the fuck up before I deck you.” I looked into his eyes.

“You need to leave now dammit.” The A.I. was extremely impatient.

“Spike you know what to do.” I waved a hoof towards Spike.

“Yes I do Derpy.” Spike saluted me.

“Goodbye everyone.” I took a few more step towards the door.

“Try and return before the end of the party. We still have some great fun planned.” Dice was standing next to the drink table.

“Thanks Dice. I’ll see what I can do. You know what Spike give me one of your spare shotguns.” I trotted over to Spike.

“Here you go. Bring that one back. I still have a score to settle using that gun.” Spike handed me the gun I was actually looking for.

I headed for the back of the stable with Spike’s shotgun in tow.

“So this stable we are headed to is how far away?” Silver was dragging his hoof across the ground.

“Well according to my pipbuck we should be standing right on top of the entrance. But this is a desert. The only way something could be here is if the entrance was directly below us somewhere.” I looked around.

“Well then we better start digging.” Silver started digging and I started to look over the group.

Most of the group was in good condition, a few bumps and bruises on their flanks but they were mostly untouched. Silver was missing his metal wing.

“What did they do to your wing?” I trotted closer to him.

“They took it away from me since it’s a real good weapon.” Silver flicked his wing a few times.

“Well that tears it. We are going to get into this place and see what we can get to wage wars against these bastards.” I was digging as fast as I could.

A brick landed in the sand next to me. I tried to levitate it to myself but failed because of the loadstone ring on my horn. I picked up the brick and took off a note that had been tied to it.

I read it out loud:

“The base is directly below you but unless you find the trapdoor you will dig forever. Dig in the sand five feet to your right. Also fuck you.”

“What the buck is that supposed to mean?” Another brick landed where we were supposed to dig.

“Just dig already before I hit you with one of these.”

“Thanks for nothing. I hate the pony that is throwing bricks.” I took a few steps towards where the brick told us to dig.

“I don’t trust the note, but if there had been a trap that would have set it off.” Silver was extremely wary of moving close to the area.

“Well if it kills us we can take solace in the fact that the changelings didn’t get to kill us.” Onyx took a step towards me.

“What the buck Onyx. That’s morbid.” Demo smacked him.

“I like to look on the bright side of things.” Onyx was rubbing the back of his head.

“Well keep your bright side to yourself.” Demo was contemplating hitting him again.

“Yeah will do. How’s the hole coming along?” Onyx trotted closer to Silver and I.

“We haven’t dug to much it would be easier if you got over here and helped.” Silver and I were the only ones focused on doing what we were commanded to do.

Another brick landed bouncing off of my back. “Dammit I’m extremely tired of this shit.”

“You shouldn’t have to dig very far. If you don’t find it after digging for ten seconds then you are digging in the wrong area.”

“Did I say how much I truly hate this?” I was sure that if I had to deal with much more of this shit I would lose my mind.

“Yes you did. Now shut up and dig.” Silver looked off without his wing.

We all started digging in the ground moving as much sand as we could as quickly as we could. After a few seconds Silver and I hit a solid metal sheet. We removed the rest of the sand on the hatch to the secret lab.

“Well let’s see if this will be nice and open for us.” I reached out with my magic again to no avail. “I really hate these stupid rings.”

“Well we can just open it without magic. You really should learn to do things without your magic.” Silver stepped over the trapdoor.

“Yeah I know. In this world you do need to know how to do things without magic.” I was staring up trying to get a better look at the ring they had on my horn.

Silver grabbed the handle to the hatch with his teeth and flapped his wings a few times. To my surprise the hatch actually opened up easily.

I stuck my head down inside and looked around. The inside was dark except for a few small lights that were flickering. I jumped down into the hole and waited. Harmony was the next to jump down followed by Onyx and Demo. Silver landed on the ground shutting the hatch behind us.

I heard a loud clang as something hit the hatch above us. “Silver would you mind blocking that hatch with something?”

“Yeah I think there is a latch to lock it from the inside.” He flew up and flipped a little lever on the door latching it shut. “It’s sealed up but we should look for other exits just in case we can’t use this one.”

“Yeah. Now what exactly do they want us to get from here.” I looked over my pipbuck for anything that they might have left us. Harmony tapped on my shoulder. She was holding a note in her mouth.

I turned the light on my pipbuck on. The room light up a weird and sickening green. I started reading the note. I turned pale.

“What’s wrong?” Silver knew something was up.

“They want us to bring back a bomb of some sort. They say it has great power. They plan to destroy New Appleloosa with it.” I continued reading.

“How much damage can a bomb built in this world possibly do?” Silver was looking around suspiciously.

“They say it wasn’t built here. It was built in another universe entirely.” I wasn’t sure about how they got this information but I was quite afraid of what they could do with that kind of power.

“Wait what? You’re telling me the displaced brought a bomb with enough power to destroy cities here. Dammit. We can’t let them have that kind of power over us.” Silver smashed his hoof into the wall leaving a small hole in it.

“Agreed, but what other options do we have?” I helped Harmony to deposit the note into her saddlebags.

“Well we are in a research lab with technology from another universe. Maybe we could find a few weapons to fight them with.” Silver found a little map and was inspecting it.

“I like the sounds of that. Let’s find out where they kept the guns and get ourselves some serious firepower.” I felt the tide turning in our favor.

“Well they do have an armory I think.” Silver was tilting his head sideways.

“What do you mean you think?” I trotted over to the map to look at the words. “What language is this written in?”

“Not one that you would know. It is written in a language from another race entirely.” Silver shook his head a few times.

“Who wrote it then?” I was still tilting my head back and forth.

“I don’t know what race of creatures wrote it. I do know that they write lots of meaning into each character. So the best chance we’ve got is just to explore the areas that we think might be the armory.” Silver put a hoof on my head.

“Alright. If that’s the only option we’ve got then let’s get to work. I would like to get out of here as quickly as possible.” I shuddered as I looked around.

“Agreed.” Most of the other’s were in unison with their responses.

Silver pointed out two rooms that he thought might be the armory. Looking at the map they were small rooms which did not bode well for us.

“Alright so we just have to visit those two rooms and hopefully we will have our weapons.” I trotted off towards one of the rooms. Harmony followed me and Onyx and Demo followed Silver.

The room we were going to was a few short minutes away from the hatch we had used to get in. The door was slightly open. I put my full weight into a push against the door. It slowly moved making a screeching sound as it slid. I finally threw the door completely open and trotted in.

Inside the room was a few weapons leaning up against the walls by corpses. The corpses were bipedal creatures and looked like the skeleton of whatever creature those bobbleheads I had collected were.

I grabbed one of the guns and slid it toward the door. I grabbed the next one but found that the ammo for the gun was missing.

“You noticed it too. These guns have no ammo or magazines to be seen.” Harmony tipped one of the guns onto the floor.

I grabbed one of the rifles and opened it’s bolt to find an empty casing inside. “Dammit none of these guns are going to help us.” A small explosion resonated through the ship. “Well we should probably go check on them.”

“Agreed.” We started trotting towards where Silver had lead Onyx and Demo. A small area around the entrance to an open door was scorched.

“Is everypony ok?” The smoke cloud was still clearing and I couldn’t really see anything.

Silver stood there in front of me holding up a small shield over himself, Onyx, and Demo. He let go of the magic and dropped to the floor.

“How were you using your magic?” I trotted over to them and started looking them over for wounds.

“I overloaded one of the rings shattering it and allowing me to use a small amount of my magic.” Silver was panting.

“Ok. So what caused the explosion?” Onyx and Demo were free of injury.

“We accidentally set off an explosive device. We had enough time for me to overload the loadstone ring and put up a shield.” Silver was free of any injury.

“Does anything feel broken?” I kept looking him over.

“No. I do have a crack in my horn though.” Silver tapped his horn.

“Well that isn’t something that I can fix. You’ll just need to not use any magic for a while. Now show me those bombs.” Harmony had been looking over Silver’s horn.

Silver stood up and trotted over to the corner of the room. A few cylindrical devices were contained separated from each other.

“So we’re supposed to bring one of these back to the changelings? How are we supposed to lift one of these? They have to weigh more than half a ton.” I was really starting to consider fighting for my freedom.

“I could lift one of those.” Silver examined the bombs carefully.

“Are you sure about that? Not that I doubt your abilities, but that is one big package.” I trotted up next to Silver.

“I’ve carried rocks triple that size when I was ten or so. This should be no problem for me.” Silver got into position.

“Alright. Let’s get this bomb onto Silver’s back and get out of here. This place is creepy.” I grabbed ahold of the bomb.

All of us grabbed ahold of the bomb and pushed onto Silver’s back. He sunk to the ground for a few seconds before standing up straight again.

“Well it is heavier than expected.” He took a few breaths. “Nothing I can’t handle. Let’s go we shouldn’t keep our captors waiting.” Silver started his slow trot towards the exit.

We followed making sure the bomb stayed on him.

Onyx flew up to the trapdoor and tried opening it. The door wouldn’t budge an inch. He flipped the switch unlocking the door but it still didn’t move. He put his full weight against it and got it to budge slightly.

“It’s no use we need something more than just ourselves to open this stupid door again. Any ideas?” Onyx landed next to me.

“I’ve got one.” I was not very excited about my idea.

“Well lay it on us. I really am getting tired of carrying this thing.” Silver was shaking a small bit under the weight of the bomb.

“Well we could blow a hole in the lab and exit through the hole that the bomb creates. I know it sounds a bit crazy but I think it might be the best plan we’ve got.” I took a few steps towards Silver.

Silver stepped towards the door and dropped the bomb onto the floor. “Get in cover. These are really unstable and go off easily. A few more seconds and this bomb should detonate.”

We all dived behind whatever we could. Silver threw himself into a room a split second before the bomb detonated. The explosion left my ears ringing. A small cloud of smoke was making it hard to breath. I dropped to the ground and took a few deep gasps of air.

As the smoke cleared I saw Silver returning to us with another one the bombs. He motioned Onyx and Demo to pick Harmony and I up and take us out of the ship. They nodded and wrapped their legs around us. After a few more seconds we were outside gasping to get as much clean air in our lungs as we could.

“We did not think that through.” I coughed a few times.

I hadn’t heard any of the words that I had just spoken. The explosion had deafened all of us. After a few minutes of sitting staring at each other our hearing started to return.

“We really should think things through more. Silver why didn’t you try to stop us?” I had a terrible headache.

He took a few seconds to respond. “I had a theory that since the hatch didn’t open easily sand had covered up the entrance. As much as we would have tried we would not have gotten out of there without resorting to some serious measures. I took the shortcut and used explosives to escape a sticky situation.” Silver stood there with the bomb on his back.

“Has that worked for you before?” I had my hooves on my head trying to ease the pain in my head.

“Well usually I would have cast a shield over all of us but since my horn is cracked I can’t use much magic. Not to mention this stupid ring.” He tapped the ring on his horn a few times wincing after each tap.

“Do you think we could stop here for a few hours before we return?” My head hurt a small bit less but I really needed some time to just rest.

“No you will go back now or we will kill you.” Two changelings landed on the ground next to us.

“Fine. Are you all alright to go back?” I rose to my hooves wavering a small bit.

Silver grabbed the bomb and put it on his back. “There ain’t no rest for the wicked. Let’s go.” He started his slow trot back towards the hive.

The day had progressed on and the heat was terrible. We had made it about halfway back before we stopped. I hoofed everypony some water and we drank it down greedily.

I checked my pipbuck. It was about three in the afternoon. I put my hoof down and started trotting again. The others took a few seconds but got back to their hooves.

I saw somepony out in the distance. “Does anypony else see that?” I pointed in the general direction of the pony I had seen.

Harmony looked over as the pony disappeared. “I don’t see anything. You might be hallucinating things. Now come on we shouldn’t stay out in this heat any longer than we have to.”

We were all extremely tired and did not know what awaited us when we returned to the hive. I hoped that having survived this we would be given back a few of our possessions. We walked for another four hours before we arrived back at the hive.

Two guards blocked our path. The first one spoke.

“You are going to be blindfolded and returned to the King. So gives us the bomb and anything else you collected while you were out there.” He took a few steps towards Silver.

“Be careful with this thing.” Silver set the bomb on the ground. “It is highly unstable.” He stepped away from the bomb.

“Shut up before I have you killed. Don’t tell me how to do my job.” The stallion swung at Silver.

Silver ducked under it and sidestepped the spear that was thrown at him. “You should probably not do that.”

“And why not you little shit?” The stallion took a few steps towards Silver.

“Well I don’t want to be in any deeper water with the King.” Silver took a battle stance.

“What are you going to do without you’re magic.” The guard charged Silver.

Silver kicked the spear up into his teeth. The guard slowed down too slowly and was impaled.

The King stepped out of the hive. “Enough!” His voice boomed.

Silver dropped the spear along with the guard.

“I would congratulate you but seeing as how you have just killed one of my guards I must punish you.” The King shook his head.

“What do you plan to do with him? I stood between them.

“He will fight to the death for our entertainment. The rest of you will be sent on missions to other places to retrieve us weapons and the like.” The King motioned for one of the remaining guards to put Silver in chains.

“Dammit Silver.” I made sure to keep my voice down. “We could have survived this.”

“Will I get a weapon to fight with?” Silver let the guards chain him.

“You will have only yourself. No weapons, nothing to give you an advantage above the others.” The King tapped on the door he had exited from.

“What others are you talking about?” I kept myself in between Silver and The King.

“He speaks of the other slaves that we have captured and those amongst us that are traitorous swine.” The Queen had stepped outside.

I wanted to speak but I really did not want to get smacked in the face again. I knelt down to show I respected the rule of the queen. She did take notice to me.

“You. Why do you kneel to me?” The Queen took a few steps forward.

“I kneel to show my respect of your rule.” I stayed down and bowed my head.

“If you are grovelling to save yourself it shall not work. You will not gain my favor by kneeling.” The Queen hissed in my ear.

“I had not planned to try and gain your favor. I simply meant to show respect.” I bowed my head down even more.

“Rise you foal. I will not have you kneeling before me unless it is to meet your doom.” The queen put a hoof under my chin.

I pushed myself back onto my hooves. “Understood.” I looked into her eyes and saw pain.

“Now then prepare the alicorn for a run in the pit. If he survives the tortures of combat then he may prove useful yet.” The Queen stared into my eyes for a few seconds before releasing me.

“And what of the others my queen?” The guard had just finished binding Silver.

“Give them some armor and send them off to gather for us. They have proved themselves worthy enough that we would not want them to die, yet.” The Queen turned and vanished back into the hive.

The King waited until The Queen had disappeared inside. “Take him to the pit at once.”

“Yes your highness.” The guard grabbed ahold of Silver’s chains and pulled him into the hive.

“You are damn lucky she didn’t kill you.” The King took a few looks around and dropped his voice to a whisper. “My name is Thorax.” He returned his voice to a normal level. “The Queen has deemed it necessary you be given gear. Follow me and I shall show you where your gear is.”

I kept quiet and followed him. I saw what it was Thorax was trying to do. The other’s followed along quietly keeping close to Thorax. We trotted around barely avoiding the guards for a few minutes before Thorax pushed us into a room.

I finally opened my mouth. “Why are you doing this?”

“To tell you the truth I hate Chrysalis. She is an absolute bitch who has been manipulating me for her own twisted purposes for years.” Thorax barred the door.

“Then why haven’t you done something about it? Maybe had her exiled or better yet executed.” I took a step towards him.

“I can’t do something like that without major backlash. The hive looks to her as the true leader of this hive that is hindered by me. If she were to die or leave I would be overthrown as leader and the wasteland would turned into a living tartarus. I don’t know about you but I think the wasteland is bad enough as is.” Thorax grabbed some armor off the wall.

“I can’t argue with you there but we do need to do something. Silver can fend for himself but I really don’t like the sounds of him fighting to the death without a weapon to protect himself with.” I reached for one of the rifles on the wall.

Thorax pushed my hoof to the ground with his magic. “You can’t be walking around here in anything more than the armor I will be providing you. If you were caught with a weapon or better armor the hive would use you as their personal playthings. Trust me you do not want that. I have talked to mares who have been damned to that fate and the only thing they ask for is death.” Thorax hung his head.

“This place is really bucked up.” Harmony grabbed one of the suits Thorax was levitating.

I grabbed one of the suits. “So since we can’t take out this entire hive we have to play along until our opportunity to escape arises. Since Silver is going to be fighting to the death we can’t escape now.” I started putting on the armor.

“I’ve got a plan. I think I can slip Silver one weapon while he is in the arena. So what weapon do I give to him?” Thorax looked down the walls covered in weapons.

“If you still have it around I would suggest giving him the wing he came in with. It would be his best chance to survive the arena unscathed.” I trotted down the room in search of the wing.

“You mean this?” Thorax pulled a wing that looked similar to Silver’s off the wall.

“That isn’t the one he came in with but if we can’t find anything better it will have to do.” I looked over the walls before finally laying my eyes upon Silver’s wing. “This one.”

Thorax trotted over. “You mean that wing belongs to your friend? I didn’t get a good look at the gear as it was moved here. That is an impressive piece of equipment.” Thorax pulled the wing off the wall. “Now this help isn’t free. I need you all to retrieve some weapons and armor so I can make sure this goes missing without a trace.”

“Alright. I don’t like the sounds of that but we will do anything to protect our friend.” I stepped forward placing the other wing onto the wall.

“That will do for now but you must all hurry out and search for weapons to fill this room up with. I don’t care how you get them but you need to get them quick.” Thorax rushed over to the door and unbarred it.

“Have your changelings retrieved weapons from the outposts we attacked?” I watched as Thorax slipped blindfolds over our eyes.

“The drones have not gone and collected the weapons you liberated from the raiders. The closest outpost is due north of here. You might want to send a team down south as well. The outpost down that way is a bit farther off but it has some better equipment.” Thorax opened the door.

We trotted outside before I spoke again. “Alright Harmony and I will go to the closer outpost while Onyx and Demo head for the outpost down south. We return here quickly with as much gear as we can carry. How long until Silver fights?” I blinked as the blindfold was removed from my eyes.

“One day at the very most. If you have not returned by the time the sun has hit its highest point in the sky tomorrow I can not guarantee Silver’s safety. Now get out there and return with weapons and armor enough to supply a small army.” With that Thorax retreated into the hive and we were left on our own.

Harmony and I had galloped off at full speed towards the outpost. Even at full speed four hours passed before we even laid eyes upon the outpost.

I slowed down panting. “We can slow down now. We still have around twelve hours before we need to be back. I need a few seconds to catch my breath.” I took a seat in the hot sand. I winced as I sat.

“So I take it the sand is not pleasant as a seat.” Harmony slipped off a piece of her armor and set it on the ground before sitting down.

“Yeah no the sand really is not a fun thing to sit in.” I pulled off the same piece of armor and sat down on it.

“You’re a goofy mare. All it does is add to your charm.” Harmony kissed me dragging me off my seat.

“Yeah.” I stood up and slid my seat closer to her. “I am aren’t I.” I kissed her back.

A brick landed at our hooves. I picked it up and unwrapped the attached note.

“We get it you two are a couple now get back to saving Silver. Also again fuck you.”

“We probably should get a move on. We do have to return gear to the changelings quickly so Silver can be protected.” Harmony got to her hooves and slid her armor back on.

“Alright. I still don’t like whatever is following us around throwing bricks.” I started to trot as a brick hit me.

I unwrapped the note. “Told you I would now move!”

I began to gallop again so that these bricks would stop being thrown at me. We galloped for five more minutes before we came into the base. The corpses of raiders we had killed still littered the ground.

Harmony split off to go search the other half of camp. I trotted over to one of the dead raiders and was horrified.

It had only been a few days since we were here and killed these ponies but their flesh was already degrading and letting off the worst most rancid odor I think I had ever smelled.

To make matters worse maggots had taken up home in the dead raiders and were slowly eating away the dead tissue. The eyes were completely gone and maggots crawled in and out of the eye sockets. A large hole in the raiders side exposed the rotting organs being munched on by the maggots.

I turned away and puked. I took a few minutes to empty out the contents of my stomach. I reluctantly turned back around. I kept my distance from the corpse with a feeling of sickness almost overtaking me. I pushed myself to take a step forward. Silver was in danger and the best way I could help him was to gather this gear.

I started pulling the armor off of the raider averting my eyes unless something got caught. I almost had the armor off of the stallion when I encountered resistance. I pulled as hard as I could and was rewarded with a squelching noise. I slowly let my eyes drift to the corpse only to see it ripped in half.

The rear end of the stallion still had the armor on it. The front half of the stallion was swimming in maggots and between them was a sea of organs overflowing with maggots.

I couldn’t help myself and threw up directly onto the corpse. I watched horrified as the maggots started swimming around in my vomit. Another round of vomiting hit me and I was forced down to my knees. I realized how close I was to the corpse and started backpedalling. I retreated until I found a solid object in my way. My momentum carried me backwards over the object.

It took me a few seconds to realize I had just tripped over another corpse. The one thing that told me it was a corpse was the feeling of little insects crawling along my coat as I lay there on top of the dead raider. I rolled over and got to my hooves tripping over the corpse as I went to trot away. My face landed inside of a hole. I took one sniff and realized I was muzzle deep into a raiders corpse.

Maggots crawled along my muzzle bringing with them the stench of death and decay. One of the maggots was making it’s way towards my nose. I jumped up and shook my body to toss away the maggots that crawled upon me.

My stomach was entirely empty of food and all I could do was throw up pure bile. I trotted over to a wall and sat down. I made sure I was out of reach of the dead raiders and cried.

I had started to get used to the fact that I was killing living creatures. But this. This was something I would not get used to. I saw the aftermath of what I had done laying all around me. The corpses seemed to stare back at me. Staring into my soul making me feel the pain they suffered.

I sat there sobbing as I thought about all the implications of what I had done to these poor ponies. I had killed them and left them to rot. I felt terrible. I slowly shut my eyes and drifted to sleep.

My sleep was filled with nightmares. Only one stuck out in my mind. It was the dream of me watching myself kill another pony. The only thing different this times was my other self did not shoot me on sight this time. She walked towards me keeping the gun down to her side.

“I see you have learned the truth.” She smiled wickedly. “I knew you would learn eventually. In this world we live in we have to kill anypony who stands in our way. We must take from them everything that they own and use it for ourselves.”

My perspective changed. I was the one in control of the gun. I had it pointed into the skull of the other me. My actions were not my own and I could feel myself slowly pulling the trigger.

“Do it. Kill me and become one with the wasteland. Let your wild side run free. Shed the old you and be reborn as the killer you need to be.” The other me put her horn in the barrel of my gun.

I felt my actions become my own again. I ripped the gun away from the other me and hurled it as far from myself as I could. I pulled the other me close.

“I will not lose who I was. Not to a group of boar bucking raiders and especially not to myself.” I stood tall as the other me shrank. “I am the one in control of this body. I will not let you run wild and kill anypony you wish. I control my future and you can do nothing to make me a sociopath.”

The other me vanished in a cloud of smoke. I was alone in my mind again. The ground beneath my hooves began to shake and my dream started to crumble.

“I will survive this.” I caught one final glimpse of the evil within myself before awaking.

“Midnight. I need you to wake up. Please wake up.” Harmony leaned down and kissed me.

“I’m awake. I was just having a nightmare.” I kissed her back.

“Well we need to get a move on. We’ve been here for three hours and I’ve only been able to collect a few suits of armor and weapons that were still intact. We need to get back to the hive and do what we can to get Silver out of there.” Harmony pulled me to my hooves.

“Alright. Please don’t make me ever live through anything like this again.” I threw my hooves around her.

“If it were up to me you and I would be living in a paradise away from all of these horrors. Until we find a place that we can turn into that though we have to continue fighting to stay alive. We have to continue on as long as it takes so that we can grow old together.” Harmony kept her hooves wrapped around me.

In her hooves I felt safe. My mind raced. I knew one thing I loved the mare I was holding more than anything else. “Will you marry me?” I kept standing in her embrace.

Harmony pushed me away so she could look into my eyes. “Midnight.” Tears were welling in her eyes. “Of course I will.” She hugged me even tighter. “Of course I will.”

I reached into my saddlebags after I felt something shift. I pulled out two rings with diamond dice as the stones. I slid one onto Harmony’s horn slipping the other one onto mine.

“Where did you find these?” Harmony was looking my ring over.

“Well when I went into the pocket world a stallion named Diamond Dice threw these at me. Except they weren’t rings when I first got them. I’m not exactly sure how that happened but all that matters to me is that you said yes.” I kissed her.

“Did you expect any other answer? What reason would I have to say no to you asking to marry me?” Harmony kept me locked in a hug.

“I didn’t expect a different answer. And I got the answer I so desperately wanted.” I didn’t let her go as a tear rolled down my cheek.

Surrounded in a field of death I found my new life. It wasn’t perfect but knowing that I had somepony who would always be there for me really made me feel wonderful. I could have been surrounded by all of the dead ponies I had ever killed and I wouldn’t be phased by it. I found the strength to carry on my journey.

“Let’s go. We need to get back to Silver and free him.” I looked deep into Harmony’s eyes and planted one more kiss on her lips.

Harmony smiled. “Alright let’s get a move on. My beautiful wife.” She spanked my flank and trotted out the gate.

I smiled staring at her flanks for a few seconds before following her.

We arrived back at the hive about half an hour before the sunset. Onyx and Demo were waiting for us.

Onyx looked at my horn. “So do you want to explain why you both have diamond rings on your horns?”

“Well Onyx. Harmony and I have decided that once we get out of this and find a good place to settle down we are going to get married.” I looked into Harmony’s eyes.

“Well that’s a good thing. I wondered when you would ask somepony for their hoof in marriage. Well congrats you two.” Onyx trotted over and hugged me.

“I see our looting crews have returned. What goodies did you bring back for us.” Chrysalis was standing over us.

“We brought back some weapons and armor. We brought back as much as we could carry and marked a turret for a few of your drones to bring back here.” Demo grabbed out a gun and hoofed it to one of the guards accompanying Chrysalis.

“You marked a turret to be brought back. How come you did not bring it back yourselves.” Chrysalis looked over a few of the weapons as Demo hoofed them over.

“We were unable to move the turret by ourselves. We did manage to make it so the drones would only have to grab ahold of the turret and transport it back here. I would say it is at least a three or four pony job depending on who you send.” Demo hoofed over the last of the guns.

“Well I will have a few of my stronger drones go and retrieve that turret. Now since you have done well would you like to watch the fight.” Chrysalis opened up a door.

“You mean the fight in the pit? Is Silver fighting yet?” I stepped forward hoofing the contents of my saddlebags to the nearest guard.

“Your friend is not fighting in the ring just yet. He will be fighting within a few hours. We have to reload the barrels to make the fight more interesting.” Chrysalis lead us to a small room.

“Will weapons be dropped into the ring?” I took a seat next to a window.

“Only if things seem to boring. We usually drop acid from the barrels. Sometimes bombs will fall from the ceiling. And on the rarest of occasions we will dump highly toxic or radioactive material into the ring. It makes the fighting interesting and much more entertaining.” Chrysalis took a seat.

“So how long until we get to watch the fighting?” Harmony pointed to seats for the others to sit down in.

“Well a few hours until the main event which is the event in which your friend will fight. Until then we will have fights between gladiators of the hive. These are the strongest of our warriors fighting to determine who is the strongest.” Chrysalis licked her lips.

“They fight to prove who is the strongest. Is there a prize for the changeling who takes the title of strongest?” I peeked out of the window.

“The strongest earns a chance to mate with the acting queen. Which means for me that I get to watch the stallions who all wish to mate with me fight. It is how we choose a king often enough. With Thorax acting as king I am only able to mate with the winner and not declare him the king unless Thorax steps down from his position as leader.” Chrysalis was looking longingly out the window.

“How often do you hold these fights?” I watched as a few gates opened and changeling stallions marched out.

“We used to hold them every three months. Now we are only able to hold them when we have enough ponies captured who will actually make for entertaining fights. So I have been eagerly awaiting for a new mate. Thorax has proven himself well enough that I will not kill him but I do often wish for a new lover to take his place. None of my children thus far have proven worthy as my mate.” Chrysalis was clopping.

I turned my eyes back to the fight. One of the changelings was face first in the dirt bleeding out of his muzzle. The other changeling tossed him to the side waving his front hooves for another opponent.

The fights continued along with the heavy breathing and moaning of the changeling queen for another two hours before one changeling was declared the winner. I was glad to hear Chrysalis finally stop moaning as she saw the changeling who had won.

“He will do. I was hoping for something more from my new lover but I suppose I can not be picky. I will leave you all here to watch your friend fight. I will return in a few hours once I have thoroughly experienced my new lover.” With that Chrysalis trotted out the door leaving us and her puddle.

“Well it sounds like it’s time for Silver to fight. All we can do now is hope that he can survive this. Maybe if he is lucky he’ll be one of the last fighters.” I stared out the window.

A speaker sparked to life. “Welcome to tonight’s death brawl. Our first fighters will be out shortly. The fighter you have all been waiting to see will be first up in our list. He’s the alicorn stallion that has killed off many of our brothers and sisters. Silver Thunder will be our first fighter.”

“Shit.”