A sharp smack to the nose rocked Twilight's head back so it impacted on the rocks behind her, rapidly returning her to consciousness in a rather hurried and unpleasant way. Twilight groaned as pain blossomed in both places that had been struck, and she tried to reach up and rub her nose, only to find herself totally unable to move as she felt her entire body was enclosed in something that seemed almost rubbery. It was certainly strong enough to stop her from moving, although she struggled anyway, earning herself an amused titter from something standing right in front of her.

"Ah, there she is," a sibilant voice hissed with a strange double tone that Twilight recognised all too readily. "About time too; I was beginning to think I'd been misled about the vaunted durability of alicorns."

"I really don't fucking need this right now Chrysalis," Twilight grunted, still keeping her eyes shut against the pain that throbbed through her skull. Much to her small delight, it took several seconds for Chrysalis to muster a response.

"Quite the potty mouth you've developed there Sparkle. Most unexpected for a princess of Eque-"

"I'm going to stop you right there," Twilight interrupted, finally cracking her eyes open to see the black, chitinous mockery of pony-kind before her. "My name is Twilight. Twi-light. It's really not any harder to say than Sparkle. Also, my potty mouth is hardly the issue here when you seem to have abducted us."

Thwap! Twilight's head hit the rock behind her again as Chrysalis back-hoofed her. "Disrespect me again, and we shall see just how durable alicorns truly are." Twilight wisely kept her mouth shut, but still glared daggers at Chrysalis. "Better. And for your own edification, it's Queen Chrysalis."

"Very well, your highness. My point still stands. You have kidnapped us, and I would like to know why." Twilight looked down at herself, finding herself to be completely cocooned, except for her head, in a tough, yellow-green substance. Knowing what she did about changelings, she decided it best to not to think too hard about what it was made of.

"Did you truly think I would not notice your passage through my lands? Do you really think me to be blind? Even if I hadn't known of your presence the moment you arrived, the fact remains that I would have found out the moment you murdered one of my pets!"

"Pets? You mean the tatzlwurm? You own those things?"

"I do," Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at Twilight, "and I do not look kindly upon those that would harm my little darlings, let alone kill them."

"Forgive me your highness, but it attempted to kill us. I only did what was necessary for our own survival."

"Just as I do what is necessary for ours," Chrysalis said back. Her horn lit up in a sickly green colour, and she held up a small object that Twilight knew had to have been pilfered out of her bags. It was the speaker stone, their sole method of contacting the other princesses, and of calling for aid. Chrysalis grinned, and with a flex of her magic, crushed it to near dust.

Twilight swallowed, hoping to play off how important that one small item had been. "And now you've killed my pet rock, so I guess that makes us even."

"Do you think me stupid 'Twilight?' I have created and used enough such devices in my time to know a speaker stone when I see one. How else do you think I contact my children when they are out in the world?"

"Uh, hive mind telepathy?"

"Hive mi-" Chrysalis shook her head slowly, "The things you ponies think about us. No, we use the same methods as everybody else. Well, everybody with magic. Anyway, now I've destroyed your speaker stone, you can no longer contact your precious Celestia and call in the army you're building."

"Call in our army?" Twilight laughed as she worked out what it was that Chrysalis was thinking. "Oh boy, you have got this so very wrong. The army we're building isn't intended to attack you, it's to defend ourselves from a hostile invasion."

"An invasion? An invasion from where?"

"Mareitania."

"Mareitania? I thought Mareitania was an ally of Equestria?"

"It was. It no longer is."

"Explain."

"No. I don't have to tell you anything Chrysalis, not after you attacked and abducted us. Tell me where my friends are, and I might at least consider it."

Chrysalis chuckled and stepped aside. Now that her immediate view wasn't filled with black chitin and weird, membranous hair, Twilight could see that she was in a round room, hollowed out from bare rock with only a small, circular entrance. She could also see her friends. Sunset and Moondancer were stuck to the wall in cocoons much like Twilight's own, while Trixie, also cocooned, hung from the ceiling. All of them had the same stuff their cocoons were made of covering their mouths.

"See? Perfectly unharmed," said Chrysalis. "I suspect you thought that I'd be sucking the love out of them. Not so." Chrysalis pointed at Sunset, "While that one has much love to share, the other two are somewhat harder. The white one buries her love quite deeply behind very thick walls, and would take much digging to share it, while the blue one, for all the messed up love she has for you, is very angry to the point that it's hardly worth the effort. However, if you were to tell me why you are trespassing in my land, I may consider being merciful." Chrysalis brought her face close to Twilight's, "Tell me why you're here!"

Twilight regarded Chrysalis coolly for several seconds, deciding whether to tell her or not. She figured that it didn't really matter if Chrysalis knew their purpose here, while telling her might potentially aid their way if Chrysalis let slip any knowledge she had.

"We're looking for Starswirl the Bearded," Twilight said eventually.

"Starswirl the Bearded?" Chrysalis scoffed "He's dead."

"Maybe, maybe not, but either way he has knowledge that could be used to defeat our enemy."

"Mareitania?"

"No. Faust."

"Faust? Faust..." Chrysalis repeated the name several times, looking around the room as she did. "Faust. Why does that sound so familiar?"

"She's an ancie-"

"Silence!" Chrysalis started pacing around the room, muttering to herself. "I know I've heard that name before, but why? And where?" She stopped pacing suddenly, and turned to face Twilight. "I will return shortly Sparkle. There is something I must do."

"Could you remove my friends gags before you go?" Twilight winched at the angry glare Chrysalis gave her, "Please, your highness?" Chrysalis started to leave again, but a second later her green magic surrounded the gags of Twilight's friends, tearing them off.

"Yeowch!" Trixie squeaked, wrinkling her muzzle after the gag tore an unpleasant amount of hair off. "Dammit Twilight! You were supposed to be keeping watch!"

"Really?" Twilight said back, totally deadpan. "I hadn't been on watch five minutes when they attacked, having used your... inattentiveness, to sneak up close."

"I'll have you know I was highly attentive the entire time."

"You fell asleep!"

"I was lulling our foes into a false sense of security."

Twilight looked around the room they were in with exaggeration, "Good job then." Twilight rolled her eyes as Trixie stuck her tongue out, then looked to Sunset and Moondancer, "Are you guys okay?"

"I'm fine, physically," Moondancer replied sullenly, squinting in Twilight's direction due to her glasses being missing.

"Sunset?"

Sunset grinned weakly, "I want to say I've been in worse situations, but this is really taking the biscuit."

"I know. We'll get out of this, somehow." Twilight looked back up at Trixie, "Are you okay Trixie?"

Trixie struggled in her cocoon for a moment, making it swing back and forth, until she gave up and slumped, "I have never wanted to stretch so badly. Any ideas on how to get out of this?"

"Not really," Twilight admitted. With their magic nullified, her ideas were limited. "Barring the unlikely possibility of a friendly changeling saving us, or the even less likely scenario of Chrysalis releasing us, I've got nothing."

"Are friendly changelings even a thing?" Moondancer asked.

"We have one documented case that currently lives in the Crystal Empire," Twilight told her. "He sometimes foal-sits my niece. There's also some other one that turned up at a wedding in Ponyville, but I only heard about that second hoof. At any rate, I really don't think two's going to be setting a precedent for friendly changelings though."

"Can't you break out of that cocoon using your freaky alicorn strength?" Trixie asked a moment later.

"I don't think so." Twilight tried to break out, but with her front legs trapped beside her, and her rear legs pulled out straight below her, she couldn't push in the direction a pony's strength naturally lay. "Nngh! Nope!" Twilight relaxed and panted, "Not a chance."

"You need a changeling to get out of that," a voice said from the door. It was noticeably feminine, and possessed a not unpleasant hum to it.

"Please be friendly, please be friendly, please be friendly!" Trixie prayed quickly.

"Who's there?" Twilight asked towards the entrance of their cell. A moment later a small changeling entered, and sat down in the middle of the room, giving Twilight an appraising look.

"This one thought you'd be bigger, like your Princess Celestia."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the unusual comment, "And this seems rather brave of you, coming in here like this without your queen knowing," she said to their visitor.

"Why be afraid when you have nothing to lose?" the changeling said back. It sat there for longer, carefully studying Twilight, just as she studied it back. Visually, it seemed no different to any other changeling, save for its smaller stature, but maybe that simply meant it was a young changeling for all she knew.

"You mentioned a changeling that lives with ponies. Do you speak of Thorax?"

"Yes!" Twilight answered with a shout, hoping that they had indeed found an ally. "Are you a friend of his?"

"Thorax is an abnormality. This one would like to study Thorax, to see what makes Thorax different. See why friends are more important to that one than hive."

"Study Thorax how?" Sunset asked.

"Through scientific method. Also kill Thorax and remove brain to study, just to be sure." A smile formed around the changelings fangs as they all gawped at it. "That was a joke. Killing Thorax would render the tests meaningless. Much simpler and less messy to just ask."

"Great," Trixie groaned, "we managed to find the one changeling that's as much of a nerd as you three. You're not going to study us are you?"

"This one already is. Is not too impressed by what it's learnt so far."

"Gee, thanks..."

"However, the amount of venom required to render an alicorn unconscious was of much interest. It required six times as much as regular pony, even though alicorn pony not much bigger. Celestia sized alicorn may require even more."

"Did you factor in her adrenal response?" Moondancer asked. "Since she was awake and prepared to fight, her adrenaline may have countered your venom to a point."

Trixie groaned again, "You guys are unbelievable."

"Her adrenaline response was considered, yes, but the conclusion was still the same. A single dose of venom, or maybe even a double dose, would not be sufficient. A triple dose might work, but would take more time to affect an alicorn, and would wear off faster. Fascinating really. This one wishes she could study it more in depth."

"Why do you refer to yourself as 'this one,' and it?" Sunset asked, although she wasn't going to point out the changeling's rather stilted speech. She didn't want to offend their only chance of a rescue too soon.

"After the departure and betrayal of Thorax, Queen banned use of pronouns, to help maintain hive coherency. Queen says the individual is the enemy of the hive. Queen, for once, may not be right because policy going down about as well as pony eating meat."

"Does she at least let you have your own names?"

"For sake of identifying each other, yes. You may refer to this one as Mayfly."

Moondancer frowned at Mayfly, "Don't mayflies have really short life spans?"

Mayfly shrugged, "The Queen is not without her sense of humour, even if it is at this one's expense. Siblings find it funny because this one is smaller than them, and was not expected to survive for long, but this one proved them wrong by being smart."

"Well I think it's a lovely name," Sunset said, directing meaningful looks at the others. "I'm Sunset, and these are Twilight, Moondancer, and Trixie." She gestured with her head towards each of the ponies as she said their name. "I also get the feeling you're not a huge fan of Chrysalis. If you're willing to get us out of here, we'd be happy for you to come with us. How about it?"

"Not possible," Mayfly stated bluntly. "Ponies can't disguise themselves, so escape highly improbable. This one isn't willing to risk itself for little chance of success."

"I could introduce you to Thorax," Twilight offered, a little desperately. "I'm sure he'd be delighted to tell you why he left."

"Bribery doesn't make your escape any less improbable."

Trixie delicately cleared her throat, "Please?"

Mayfly cocked her head slightly as she looked up at Trixie, "How odd, this one wasn't expecting to hear manners in this situation."

"So you'll help us?"

"Of course not."

"I'll let you feed on my love if you help us."

Mayfly stuck her tongue out at the offer. "Much love, but much more anger, like bad taste in food of ponies. This one doesn't wish to become sick. Love of yellow unicorn much more palatable."

"Then I'll let you feed on her instead!" Trixie tried to bring her hooves up to beg, then gibbered to herself as she remembered she couldn't actually move. "Just, please let us out!"

Twilight couldn't mistake the desperation in Trixie's voice, and worried about it as it wasn't exactly something she was used to hearing from Trixie at all. "Are you alright Trixie? You're starting to sound a little freaked out."

Trixie shuddered and tried to slow her breathing, "I might be getting just teeniest, tiniest bit claustrophobic, being trapped in this cocoon and all. Kind of reminds me of those damn fetters I had to wear. I hate not being able to move."

"This one could administer venom to knock you out if you wish?" Mayfly offered.

"Y'know what, I'm actually tempted."

"But due to cocoon, venom would have to administered via your face."

"And now I think I'll pass."

"Ponies are odd."

"Yes they are." All of them cringed at the sound of Chrysalis' voice. All of them cringed more as she folded her lanky frame through the narrow opening of their room, followed by two guards in blue armour. "I don't remember giving you permission to talk to our prisoners, Mayfly. Explain yourself."

Mayfly bowed before Chrysalis, but it was easy to tell from the way she almost ground her face against the floor, that there was far more fear in her action than there was respect by a long way. "Apologies queen, but this one was curious about the ponies. This one has never seen one before."

"Well maybe if you learned to speak sensibly, you could be sent to gather."

"But inability to use pronouns confuses this one's speech patterns." Mayfly jumped and squeaked as Chrysalis stomped a hole-ridden hoof by her head. "Please forgive it, it meant no disrespect."

"Say it with me. The individual is-"

"Is the enemy of the hive. This one remembers."

Chrysalis bent down until her face was almost level with Mayfly's. "That one better not forget," she said before straightening up and roughly kicking Mayfly towards Twilight. "Now cut them loose. I have something I need to show them."

"Are you certain Queen? They could be dangerous."

"They're harmless without their magic, now do as I command."

Twilight watched with both fear and fascination as Mayfly crawled up her front and dribbled... something down the front of her cocoon that dissolved the tough, rubbery material like hot water through ice. She squirmed as the substance reached her coat, then relaxed again as it did nothing. It was still pretty gross though.

"Enzymes in saliva only react to cocoon," Mayfly explained. "Nothing to fear."

"Okay." Twilight waited as Mayfly crawled away and up the wall towards Trixie, then pushed forwards. With the strip missing out of the front of her cocoon, is was easy enough to push her way out, although it was hardly elegant as she flopped to the floor, her legs protesting from being held at such unnatural angles for as long as they were. Chrysalis was watching her intently, so she decided to play it safe, and sit on the floor as non-aggressively as was possible as Mayfly lowered Trixie to the ground.

"Ooohhh... that is almost sexual," Trixie moaned as she stretched out her legs and back like a cat. "So, Chrysalis, how come you can use pronouns, but your minions can't? Isn't 'the individual' the enemy of the hive?" Trixie flinched back and closed her eyes as Chrysalis' fangs snapped shut mere inches from her face, then peeked an eye open to see Chrysalis still only inches away.

"I am the hive," Chrysalis answered. "And I suggest you keep your pretty little mouth shut as I only need one of you alive."

"Okay," Trixie squeaked nervously, then grinned nervously at the way Twilight was looking at her.

"Idiot," Twilight muttered, still waiting as Mayfly freed both Sunset and Moondancer. As nice as it was that they were being released from their immediate captivity, there was still the huge and all encompassing question as to why? Chrysalis was watching her intently, ready to react to any aggressive moves Twilight might make, forcing Twilight to decide that perhaps she should just wait for answers instead.

"Follow me," Chrysalis commanded, folding her lanky frame back through the exit. The rest of them had no problems, apart from pony hooves not having all that much grip on the smooth, rock like material that the hive was made of, and whatever that was still wasn't worth thinking of too about. Twilight was already of the opinion that changelings made too many weird substances by far.

"What of this one your highness?" Mayfly asked once they were out of the room.

"Go find their belongings and bring them to the entrance, then wait there." Mayfly bobbed her head in compliance, and rapidly buzzed away as Chrysalis started leading the four ponies through the hive.

Twilight gasped in amazement at the cavernous interior of the hive. It was fairly obvious from the lack of stairs that it was meant only for changelings to traverse, and would actually be a nightmare to attack if that had really been their intent. No stairs, lots of open space for the changelings to attack in, and- Twilight jumped to the side as the round doorway she was passing suddenly closed itself, and another opened further up the in the hollow. Apparently the hive could move of its own volition, like it were alive. As if changelings weren't already weird enough.

"Are you seeing all this?" Trixie said out loud, not quite sharing Twilight's sense of disgust. Even the hum of hundreds of changelings around the hive wasn't enough to quieten her. "How does it move like that? Super weird."

"I can't see anything," Moondancer grumbled, squinting at everything around her as she followed the most colourful blurs in front of her. "You don't make it sound like I'm missing much though."

"At least it's nice and cool down here," said Sunset. "At least compared to outside anyway," she added as the hive wasn't exactly cold either.

"For the comfort and convenience of its inhabitants and visitors," Trixie said in a nasally voice, "the hive is maintained at a pleasant twenty degrees centigrade at all times."

"Don't you ponies ever know when to shut up?" Chrysalis growled. "I will never understand how a species so insufferable became so successful."

"Perhaps if you told us where we're going instead?" Twilight asked. Since Chrysalis was leading them deeper into the hive, the question was becoming more and more prudent.

"The Font of Queens," Chrysalis told her.

"And what's that?"

"A source of great knowledge," Chrysalis answered, giving the word great a negative emphasis, "as well as a massive pain in my flank."

"Uh-huh..." Chrysalis didn't seem to be any more forthcoming on what that was, so Twilight decided not to ask. Not that she could anyway while a cacophonous screeching filled the air as they passed by a chamber filled with small black and white grubs being attended to by several harried looking changelings. Twilight fought down her need to gag, and kept following after Chrysalis.

Eventually they reached their destination, although that could only be assumed as Chrysalis led them into a large, darkened chamber that was lit up by an eerie green glow that originated from the gelatinous green pool in its middle, that had a thick layer of mist wafting over it.

"Is this the Font of Queens?" Twilight asked, keeping back from the pool. She didn't know if it was a trick of the light, or real, but the pool looked impossibly deep, and there were things moving about in it, ghostly images that Twilight swore were looking right at her. She didn't think it possible, but the bar for changeling weirdness just got set a little higher.

"I've brought the ponies as you requested," Chrysalis said to the pool. "Now tell them whatever it is you want to tell them, so I can get on with my life."

The ponies jumped back as the mist over the pool suddenly billowed upwards, assuming the form of a changeling queen like Chrysalis, but with some notable differences, like the shape of the horn, and the pattern of holes in her legs. It was hard to tell if she was a different colour due to being made of mist, but it was enough to assume not. At any rate, the weirdness bar went up yet another notch.

"Ah, so the usurper has returned with our guest," the ghostly image cackled. "I half expected you to murder them out of your spite for us."

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes at the ghostly queen, "If the need for them to live wasn't so dire, I may well have. Now tell them what you know, so we can end this farce."

"Very well. Gather round ponies, and let me have a good look at you."

Twilight took a few tentative steps towards the pool, and tried to straighten up, even though her gut was telling her to run a mile. "Who are you?"

"I am Primum, first queen of the changelings, and you are Twilight Sparkle, princess of Equestria, are you not?"

"That's right. We've come to the Badlands hoping to find Starswirl the Bearded, and-"

Primum waved a ghostly hoof, "I know why you're here. The usurper had the decency to at least tell me that much."

"Why do you call her the usurper?" Trixie asked, earning a snarl from Chrysalis in return.

"Don't you dare answer that!"

"She defied the cycle!" Primum boomed, as did a mass of other voices from the pool. "Rather than give her body and knowledge up to the pool at the end of her hundred year reign, she chose to instead murder her successors as soon as they are born, and keep living. Now the changeling race stagnates under her rule!"

Chrysalis stomped her hooves and fired a beam of green magic at the image of Primum that barely caused a ripple in the mist. "I will not condemn myself to an eternity in that accursed pool!"

"Then at least rule my changelings better than you are! The way you're going, a simple cold could wipe out our race before long." The two queens faced each other down, before Primum turned back to Twilight. "I believe you seek a way to defeat Faust, correct?"

"Yes! Do you know how?"

Primum shook her head, "I never met Faust. Starswirl spoke at length about her in the early days, but after she went missing he left, and didn't return until centuries later, where he kept his distance. Hopefully out of shame for his failure."

"So Starswirl did create the changelings?"

"He broke us! Before his meddling we were a race of simple shape-shifting bugs, that used camouflage to feed on the energy of larger beings! Then he came with his magic that wasn't his own, and changed us into what we are now; a race that feeds on love, but does nothing to engender it!"

"But I thought he sought to remove the excess of negative energy from the world by creating things that fed on it? Why would he create you to do the exact opposite of that?"

"He left, before he completed us, and I was forced to adapt before his incompetence destroyed us completely. I know what we were supposed to be, but without him, or his borrowed magic, I had no choice but to become what we are now, or die."

"What magic are you talking about?" Sunset asked as Twilight thought about what she had heard so far.

"Starswirl called it the Gift of Life. Faust gave it to him to continue their great work after she was forced to contain the Windigoes, their first great failure. If Starswirl was to be believed though, not even Faust knew from whence the Gift came."

"And what did it do?"

"It creates life," Primum answered. "Magic could create a body with sufficient power, but it cannot bring it to life without a soul. The Gift of Life can do that. However, it can also alter what already exists, as it did to us. It can also prolong the life of its user considering how old Starswirl was at the end."

Moondancer squinted up at the ghostly queen, although all she could see was a pale blob, "Why didn't he come back and-uh... finish you?"

"I'm afraid you'll have to ask him that yourself, if he still lives."

"As fascinating as this all is," said Trixie, "and it really is, none of this helps us to either find Starswirl, his retreat, or to defeat Faust."

"I know," Twilight sighed. "Are you sure you don't know anything about where Starswirl is? Or how to defeat Faust?"

"I'm afraid I know not of where Starswirl is, but I can tell you that the mirrors are the key. I don't know why he was so fascinated by them as portals, but he used them to travel around. If you can find one of his mirrors, you will find him."

"I think we already did," said Twilight, looking sideways at Sunset. "Unfortunately it was broken. I'm sure it's safe to say that any mirror left out in the wild would be."

"Perhaps, but I'm sure it's not too difficult for a great alicorn for yourself to mend a mere mirror so long as you have enough pieces."

"Enough pieces..." The primary question in Twilight's mind was 'would that work?' Repairing a mirror was easy enough, but using different pieces of different mirrors less so. She could think of ways to do it, but the magical proponent confused it. Theoretically the mirrors all led to one place which would act as a nexus, otherwise Starswirl would've needed a dozen mirrors in each place, so the spell in each mirror shouldn't be an issue because they'd all be the same. But would it still work to combine pieces from several mirrors? Twilight didn't know, and was worried that without an original frame to hold the mirror, it'd be a waste of time to even try. Still, if things got so hopeless that she'd be willing to try it, she might as well have the components she would need.

"Okay," Twilight said after a few moments of frantically thinking about it. "Thank you Primum. Is there anything you can tell us about Faust? Anything at all?"

"From what I've heard about Faust from the usurper is true, and that she seeks to attack Equestria, then she is already far from the kind and gentle pony Starswirl always described her as. I know she's powerful, and I know that she likely won't look kindly on us changelings. If you cannot defeat Faust, more than just Equestria is doomed, which is the only reason we are aiding you."

Trixie raised an eyebrow, "Aiding us? By not keeping us as prisoners?"

"Or by killing you," Primum said amusedly. "I grow weary. It takes much effort to speak to you like this, and I must rest. Chrysalis, give me your word that these ponies are to be released unharmed to complete their mission."

"You expect me to give up my prize? Are you even serious?"

"In the best interest of the changelings, yes, now give me your word."

"You have my word," Chrysalis said begrudgingly through her teeth.

"Excellent. Best of luck to you Twilight Sparkle, you'll need it." Primum's image lost coherency and slowly collapsed back into the pool, leaving four stunned ponies, and one mildly irate queen of the changelings.

"You are going to get out of my hive, get out of my land, and you are going to do it by tonight, or I won't have any issues about sending my pets after you. Is that clear?"

"Very," Twilight said, looking up at Chrysalis. "Show us the way out, and we will gladly get out of your mane."

Chrysalis grunted and started walking back the way they came, the four ponies following after her. None of them said a word as they went, sensing that aggravating their host when she was already unwillingly releasing them, probably wasn't the beat course of action. Even Trixie sensed the mood enough to keep quiet.

A blast of heat told them they were nearing the exit, and as Chrysalis had ordered, Mayfly was there with their belongings, which Twilight was relieved to see hadn't been tampered with. Perhaps the changelings had left the bags behind on the plateau at the time because they were more interested in their captives. Either way, they still had food and water, so that at least wasn't going to be a problem.

Chrysalis snatched the bags off Mayfly, and threw them at Twilight. "There, you have your things, now get out of here before I change my mind."

Twilight looked at Mayfly as she averted her eyes from Chrysalis, and wondered briefly what she could do about that small issue, besides the obvious. Then she shrugged mentally as the obvious often worked.

"Actually, I don't really know where we are now," Twilight said, purposely sounding unsure. It wasn't exactly a lie either though. The sun was in front on them, so they were at least facing east or west, but that left a fifty percent chance of picking the wrong direction.

"And what do you expect me to do about it?" Chrysalis asked sneeringly.

Twilight glanced briefly at Mayfly, "Perhaps you could lend us a guide until we're out of your lands? Just so we don't get lost, and so we don't run into any more of your pets."

Chrysalis followed Twilight's eyes back to Mayfly, and growled. "Don't think I can't see what you're trying to do Sparkle. You think you can take Mayfly with you, save her from my 'wicked' grasp."

"Not at all! She can come back once we're away!"

"Hhmph, plenty of time to convert her to your ways." Chrysalis grabbed Mayfly and threw the diminutive changeling to the ground before her.

"My Queen, I don't- Aah!" Mayfly squealed as Chrysalis smacked her and pressed her head to the ground with a hoof, pinning her and grinding her face into the dirt.

"What have I told you about that word?! And don't you dare think that I haven't heard of your disquiet, your... malcontent. I have eyes and ears everywhere within my hive, Mayfly. I know these ponies bargained for your help in escaping, and I know it was only your fear that stopped you, not your loyalty."

"I seek only to obey my Queen!" Mayfly cried fearfully.

"Chrysalis, stop!" Twilight shouted, a bit bewildered by how the situation had suddenly hurtled in this direction. "How does killing Mayfly help anything?"

"I'd rather see her dead than turned into another traitor like Thorax!" Chrysalis applied more pressure, making Mayfly cry in pain.

"But she's one of your people! Your children! Doesn't that mean anything?"

"The lives of all my children are in my hooves Twilight Sparkle, to do with as I wish! If I should execute a traitor, it is my right to do so!"

"Then- Then-" Twilight looked around desperately, trying to think of a solution that would end with Mayfly not being killed. The hundreds of changeling eyes she could feel on her didn't help, and only made her wonder where their mercy for their sibling was. Then it struck Twilight that perhaps there was something else that Chrysalis would be willing to kill in Mayfly's place.

"Kill me instead," Twilight said as strongly as she could. "Let Mayfly go, and kill me."

"You?" Chrysalis said back, sounding disgusted. "You would give your life for a worthless drone like this?"

"I would," Twilight nodded. "But if she is truly worthless to you, you have nothing to gain by killing her, and nothing to lose by letting her go. Don't you at least have enough of a heart to do that?"

"I certainly have a heart Twilight Sparkle, but it looks nothing like your weak pony one! I'm more inclined to kill her now just to spite you than for any benefit it may bring me!" Chrysalis started putting weight on her hoof to crush Mayfly's head when Trixie's voice interrupted her.

"Then perhaps we should let fate decide."

"What?" Chrysalis spat at the blue unicorn.

Trixie reached back into her bag and pulled out a single golden bit. "How about it hmm? Toss a coin for the fate of Mayfly?"

"No deal."

"Then I'll sweeten it. I toss the coin, and if it comes up heads, you kill both Mayfly and Twilight. If it comes up tails, you let Mayfly go, which quite frankly should be a relief. How about it Chrysalis? All you lose is a hungry, worthless mouth to feed if you lose. Hardly sounds like losing at all, does it? Honestly, I'm not sure why we want that burden either, but there we go." Trixie grinned at Chrysalis, "Princesses, am I right?"

Chrysalis eyed Trixie for several seconds, then nodded, easing the pressure off Mayfly's head a little. "Very well pony, I'll play your little game. Killing both Mayfly and Twilight sounds like too good an offer to pass up, even though I could easily kill them, and you, and the others if I so wished."

"Excellent choice", said Trixie, a little nervously after what Chrysalis had just mentioned. She flicked the coin into the air, watching it flip over and over before deftly catching it in a hoof and covering it with the other. "The moment of truth," she said, slowly uncovering the coin again to reveal it lying tails up. "Tails. Mayfly and Twilight get to live."

Chrysalis screeched with rage, and for a moment it seemed like she was going to kill them all anyway. Instead she lifted her hoof off Mayfly's head and stamped it on her thin, gossamer wings, twisting it, and tearing her wings to shreds. "You are banished!" Chrysalis shouted at Mayfly as she screamed in agony. "If you ever return here I will kill you, slowly, and painfully. The same goes for all of you blasted ponies as well." She released the tattered remains of Mayfly's wings and took a step back, "I suggest you get out of my sight!"

Chrysalis turned and disappeared back into the darkness of the hive, leaving four stunned ponies, and one crying changeling, as well as a few hundred observers. Twilight hurried forwards to help Mayfly, but recoiled as the changeling bared her fangs and hissed viciously. "I'm sorry Mayfly! I never meant for anything like that to happen!"

"But it did! Stupid pony!" Mayfly hauled herself to her hooves, and stood on legs that shook as she buzzed her tattered wings, sending a few bits of lose gossamer flying away. "I wanted to leave, see the world, and maybe bring back something of value to the hive to prove my worth! Earn Queen's approval! I didn't want to leave forever, and I certainly didn't want to be banished!"

"I'm sorry, but from the way you were talking before, I thought you wanted out of this place?"

"You thought wrong!"

"Please, let me help you." Twilight moved towards Mayfly, then jumped back as the changeling bared her fangs and snapped at Twilight. "Please, I'm only trying to help you!"

"Don't need the help of stupid pony!" Mayfly shouted before walking past Twilight, hissing at her as she passed. After a few moments she stopped, "Are you not coming stupid pony? South is this way."

"You're helping us?"

"It's death to stay here, and am not welcome in Equestria, so best to go south into jungle, which is where you are going. Besides, tricky pony saved this one, so this one at least owes her enough to get her to jungle."

Trixie looked between Twilight and Mayfly, not sure what to do or say. "Actually, my name's Trixie," she mumbled.

"But what about your wings?" Sunset asked as Mayfly started walking again.

"They return on next molt. Is no big issue."

"But..." Sunset looked to the others as Mayfly kept going, but they had nothing to add to the situation, being just as confused by it as everypony else. "I have no idea what just happened. Really. Chrysalis just let us go."

"Seems our enemy is enough to scare the changelings into not stopping our mission," said Twilight. "Believe me, this was not something I could have ever predicted happening." Twilight thought for a moment about how bad Faust had to be if an ancient and long dead queen of the changelings could coerce Chrysalis into releasing them. It proved a worrying though, at least until Moondancer provided a distraction as she searched through her bags and started to panic.

"My glasses aren't here! I need my glasses!"

"You really can't see anything?" Trixie asked as Moondancer frantically searched through her bags.

"Well, instead of a big dark blur, I can now see a big light blur, but that's just because we're outside." Moondancer's horn sparked as she tried to summon her glasses, "I can't summon them either!"

"Queen's throne creates big no-magic zone that blocks all magic except changeling magic," said Mayfly, having returned because nopony was following her. "Could we maybe get a move on before Queen returns and murders us all?"

"But I need my glasses. I can't see without them!"

"They must still be at the plateau," said Twilight. "I need to go back there anyway to get the mirror fragments we found, so I can have a look for them while I'm there. Mayfly, which way is west?"

Mayfly pointed in a direction. "West is that way stupid pony," she said.

Twilight bit her tongue to stop her shouting at Mayfly about calling her stupid pony. "Okay," she said brightly instead. "I'm going to fly there, then head south. I should hopefully meet you there." She spread her wings, then stopped as her feathers all pulled at each other. "What the..?" She inspected her wings, then almost gagged as she saw that on top of the dried on tatzlwurm blood, they were now covered in changeling cocoon goo. "That's just nasty."

"Winged ponies can't really fly here anyway," said Mayfly. "Needs magic, and Queen's throne cancels that magic too."

Twilight sighed and nodded, "I guess I'll have to run there then." She took her canteen off her bags with her hooves, and looped its strap over her neck before checking its contents. It was only half full, meaning the no-magic effect was preventing it from refilling. "There goes washing my wings." She wondered briefly if it would be simpler to tear out her feathers and regrow nice, new clean ones. "Guess I'll have to run the entire way. Trixie, could you-"

"Take your bags, I know. Get going."

"I'm curious," Sunset said as they put distance between themselves and the changeling hive. "Why did Primum call Chrysalis an usurper for breaking 'the cycle?' What did she mean?"

"Old Queen not know what she talking about," Mayfly said dismissively. "Queen Chrysalis is one true queen."

"But there is a cycle?"

Mayfly nodded, "Changeling queen get replaced every hundred years in old days, and old queen adds herself to font to preserve knowledge for future queens. Queen Chrysalis doesn't want to do that."

"So we gathered," said Sunset. "How long has it been since she broke the cycle?"

Mayfly shrugged, "No one really knows, but it might be many centuries since she did. She killed many of her daughters and absorbed their essence to maintain rule and health."

"That's pretty brutal," said Trixie. "Couldn't one of you replace her?"

"A drone?" Mayfly burst out laughing, "Funny!"

"I'm being serious."

"You are?" Mayfly saw the look on Trixie's face, "Oh. In that case I make this simple. Only queens can lay eggs, not drones. Drones don't even have gender. Can imitate orifices and protrusions of both males and females for intimacy with targets, but neither are for use in reproduction. In short, a drone cannot replace a queen."

"But you sound female," Sunset pointed out.

"Matter of choice, I assure you." Mayfly cleared her throat and banged a hoof on her chest. When she spoke again it was in a deep and definitely male baritone. "Can imitate many voices to complete deceptions." She reverted back to her usual voice, "Be silly if big male sounded like this."

"Oh." They walked on in silence for a little longer, until a burning question prodded at Moondancer's mind.

"If there's a changeling queen, does that mean there's a changeling king?"

"No king, only queen."

"Then how can Chrysalis reproduce like she does."

"Queen chooses to reproduce asexually, to keep changeling race pure."

"What do you mean she chooses to do that?"

"Old queens gathered genetic material from unwitting males to reproduce with. Queen Chrysalis doesn't do that, to keep changelings pure."

"So you're all pretty much carbon copies then? That's ridiculous. Not to mention dangerous."

Mayfly cocked her head at Moondancer, "Dangerous? How so?"

"Without genetic variance, your kind could become very susceptible to illnesses. Basically, a single disease could wipe out your kind because it would be able to affect you all the same way, and spread very easily."

"Oh..." Mayfly looked at floor for a moment as they walked. "Suddenly, reasons why old queens angry at Chrysalis make much more sense. Perhaps separation from hive will protect this one in such a case."

"Y'know," Trixie said, having been listening with half an ear as they walked, "you seem a lot less upset about this than you did an hour ago. What changed?"

"Am changeling, am adaptable. Already imagining new possibilities presented by banishment from the hive. One of those may include curing the plight of the changelings if Queen continues to rule as she does. Questions for Thorax may have to wait until after that. Stupid pony still stupid for making this happen though."

"Can't argue with that," Trixie said happily.

"This was... a stupid... idea!" Twilight panted as she galloped through the sun blasted land around her, her hooves kicking up great clouds of dust. If there were any more tatzlwurms around, they'd definitely find it easy enough to locate her.
For all the things Twilight had done of late, it seemed bizarre that the greatest challenge she was taking was running flat out through the Badlands. Endurance running hadn't been high on her list of things to prepare for, yet here she was doing just that, in the worst possible place. She was sweating buckets, and her water was running dangerously low. One of the many dangerous things currently figuring in her life.

Twilight skidded to a halt as something large, hairy, and eight legged scuttled out of a hole in the ground in front of her. "Nope!" she said loudly, taking a wide berth around the arachnid. If she'd had her magic it would've been a very different story. Snakes were bad, but at least they didn't scuttle.

"Fuck! Everything!" Twilight screamed as she accelerated away from the spider, feeling slightly better as she did. Still, she could see her destination now, as best as she could through the shimmering heat. She slowed, and once again swallowed the contents of her stomach, unwilling to waste any liquids.

It was still satisfying to feel her canteen grow heavier as she reached the base of the plateau, and even more satisfying to teleport up to it, whereupon she immediately regretted not bringing her bags because she now had nothing to transport the mirror shards in. She sat and groaned loudly, and waited for the next piece of bad news.

Nothing became apparent, so she sifted through the built up dirt in the crevice she first found the mirror shard in, and found several fragments, and even a few gem stones. What she found was still well short of an entire mirror though, and suspected that the rest must have been too small to survive, and either wore down to near nothingness, or got blown away. Even so, it was a start on what was an already more desperate plan than the first two iterations.

On top of that, there was the issue of transporting what she'd found, at least until she got back to her bags. "It's fine, I can transmute a rock into a bag. No biggy. It's only altering materials at the atomic level." Twilight looked down over the edge of the plateau to the ground below, where a glint caught her eye. "Moondancer's glasses!" She levitated them up towards her, then slowed as something clung to them. It was another spider.

"Gross, gross, gross!" Twilight flicked the glasses as hard as she could, sending the spider tumbling away to land on the rocks below with an audible splat! "Where were all these spiders yesterday?" Thinking nothing of it, and rightfully so, Twilight picked up a rock, turned it into a bag, and dumped the mirror shards, gems, and Moondancer's glasses into it, then prayed that the no-magic zone didn't turn it back into a rock while she was flying.

Or running, Twilight thought as she inspected her wings again. At this point she wasn't sure she could even get them clean without actual soap, and hours to wash them in. Perhaps Mayfly could get the cocoon remnants out, if she were willing, but that still left everything else, including a lot of dirt and dust that had stuck to them. At this point it really did seem easier to strip them bare and grow new feathers. One of the upsides of being an alicorn.

"One at a time, or all at once?" Twilight mused, sorting through and separating her stiff and soiled feathers. She plucked one out, and flinched at the stinging sensation. "Ow. Perhaps it might be better to do them all at once." Twilight braced herself, grabbed all her feathers in her magic, and pulled.

-0-0-0-

Moondancer's ears twitched back and forth, trying to determine what direction what she'd just heard had come from. "Did any of you hear screaming? I swear I heard screaming."

"This one too sensed something, but is not sure what."

Trixie rolled her eyes and dismissed their concerns. "We're like the only ones around for miles and miles. Maybe you're just delirious from thirst or something."

"I don't know," said Sunset. "Last time I heard something like that, I tore a bunch of feathers out of a pegasi's wing." She blushed as they all looked at her, "What? I was a total jerk back then, I don't deny it."

"Ahh-ha-ha-hoowww! Ah-ha-ha-howww... owww... Mother fucker! Why the hell in Celestia's name did I think that was a good idea?" Twilight lay on her stomach, not really sure of when she ended up on it, and blinked the tears out of her eyes. Even as she watched, the blood dripping from her wings slowed and stopped, allowing her to gingerly wash the blood off, renewing some of the pain.

Twilight hissed through her teeth as she washed her bare wings, this time the water running red with her own blood. She was barely two days into this venture and she was already beating herself up, on top of everything else that had happened. "What's retirement age for an alicorn?" she asked out loud, getting no answer in reply. "It better be the same age as everypony else."

It was some hours before Twilight wearily trudged into the small camp that had been set-up by her friends in the canyon leading south out of the Badlands. Somepony had been kind enough to set up her sleeping bag for her to flop onto bonelessly. Almost as an afterthought she threw Moondancer's glasses towards Moondancer, managing to hook their arm into the neck of her jumper.

"Ah ound y' gla'es," Twilight mumbled into the soft, inviting padding of her sleeping bag. It was so very soft, and so very inviting, like a big, fluffy, bundle of comfort, waiting to take her into its embrace.

"Uh, thank you Twilight."

"So, is you pulling your feathers out some kind of anxiety thing?" Trixie asked as Moondancer fumbled her glasses onto her face, forcing Twilight to abandon her descent into sleepy land.

"I knew I recognised that scream!" Sunset shouted triumphantly. Then her ears wilted as she scuffed a hoof in the dirt in embarrassment. "Yeah, I just heard myself, so you don't need to tell me just how insane I sounded."

Twilight rolled her head to the side so she wasn't speaking into her bed. "Wings were too goobered up with stuff to even try flying, and I can't properly bath them. I figured it was easier to pull them out and grow nice clean ones." Twilight's spread her skinny, featherless wings, grossing the others out, but also showing them the pointy nubs of newly growing feathers. It actually made her wings look rather deadly. "A couple of days and they'll be good as new."

"So not an anxiety thing?"

"No, Trixie," Twilight sighed. "Not yet anyway." Twilight twisted her head and smiled up at Moondancer, "So, what do you think about your first couple of days adventuring with us?"

Moondancer removed her glasses and cleaned them, more out of habit than actual need as she found the motion soothing. "I think that it's a fair introduction to your lives. Honestly though, I'm really trying to not think about it."

"Why not?"

"Because I'm so freaked out about it that I'm not freaking out at all, because it's not possible to freak out that much at once."

"Oh. Well, good. Sunset?"

"Nah, I'm good. Changelings are a new one, but this is all par for the course really."

"Fair enough." Twilight searched about for their newest companion, but couldn't see her. "Where's Mayfly?"

"She said she wanted to go think about some things?" Sunset told Twilight.

"But was she okay when she said that?"

"It's hard to tell, and not only because she seems impossible to read. After a little bit she seemed excited about the new opportunities she had, so I'm erring on the side of optimism."

"Tha's good." Twilight yawned deeply, sucking in air for several seconds before forcing it back out. "Maybe she can tell me about it tomorrow, because today's already been too weird for me to want to continue it. Goodnight."

"Goodnight Twilight," said Sunset, along with the others.

"Oh, and Trixie?"

"Yeah?"

"If we get captured, or attacked, or anything before tomorrow morning, I'm holding you personally responsible, and will do my best to make sure you die first. Is that clear?"

"Oh Twilight, you say the nicest things sometimes."

Sunset hung back, chewing nervously on her bottom lip as she trotted alongside Twilight and Twilight alone. She'd silently encouraged the others to give her and Twilight a short moment of alone time, because needed to ask Twilight something. The problem is that Twilight was walking with her head level with her body, which was a sure sign that something was bothering her. Still, progress was never made by timid ponies, so, gathering her courage, Sunset pushed ahead.

"Twilight, can we talk?"

"Sure," Twilight grunted with all the enthusiasm of a dentist's patient. "What about?"

"About you, actually."

Twilight straightened up to look at Sunset, "Why do you want to talk about me?"

"Because I... firstly want to apologise for coming down so hard on you the other day about Moondancer. What you said was still wrong, but I should have thought that you aren't really the pony you used to be. But that only leads me into wondering why you aren't the pony you used to be? What happened Twilight? What happened to that happy, loving pony you used to be, that always put her friends first?"

Twilight looked sideways at Sunset, not trying to hide her scorn. "Well gee Sunset, you might as well ask why I'm such a miserable sack of shit these days?"

Sunset sighed harshly, already hating how this was going. "Well, fine, if that's the way you want to play it. Why are you such a miserable sack of shit Twilight? And don't just say 'because Mareitania.'"

"Then what do you want me to say? Is this even purely about Moondancer? Because it doesn't feel like it is."

Sunset went quiet for a moment, surprised that Twilight had caught on to her so easily. "No, it isn't. I think it's about all your friends Twilight. Don't get me wrong, I will always be thankful for what you did for me, and I will always try to be there for you in return, but I look at you now, and I don't see the person that gave me a rainbow flavoured bitch-slap, then pulled me out of the pit of my own making with promises that things could, and would get better, then giving me the best friends I could ever ask for. Instead I see a person that would kill me in a back alley somewhere to save herself the inconvenience of having to put up with my crap."

Twilight stopped in her tracks, her jaw hanging open at what Sunset had just said. "Are you kidding me? Are you actually fucking kidding me? I- Well, besides the fact that you think you can say stuff like that to me and think it's somehow okay, you couldn't be more wrong. From my current perspective, I would probably steal the crown back, leaving you to you own devices on the other side of the mirror, or set a trap to capture you if you tried to steal the crown again. Especially since Celestia would also beg me to not hurt you, not that I would have set out to do so anyway. I certainly wouldn't kill you unless you put me in a situation where I had no other choice! Also, bearing in mind that you had tried to kill me, this seems a little judgemental."

Sunset quickly back tracked on her thoughts, because Twilight was actually right, and Sunset felt like a bitch about it. "Sorry Twilight. I guess that... I don't know. You killed that tatzlwurm and barely even said a word about it, so I guess that's how I thought you treated everything you have to kill."

"To a point, it is, because dwelling on all the death would crush anypony. The thing is, if I could have scared it away, I would have, but I couldn't hurt it very much, then it went after the weakest of us, and then it ate me, so I didn't see what alternatives I really had that ended with all of us alive. If I had scared it away, I bet it would have only followed us and attacked us later, so I did what I thought I had to. I didn't actually want to kill it all."

"I see."

"Is that how you see me now? As a killer? A horrible, uncaring killer, who offered to let herself be killed so that Chrysalis would spare Mayfly?"

"No Twilight! No! I..." Sunset sighed, not seeing how to go about what she was trying to say anymore. "I'm going to be honest here Twilight. You pretty much sacrificed the world in your fight against Tirek to save your friends, and Discord, who had betrayed you. Now though, four of those same friends are trapped in prison, and you're leaving them there, and I don't understand it."

"What's there to understand? You think I don't want them back? That I don't spend hours everyday just thinking about them? That they're likely going to hate me because instead of rescuing them, I went off on a big adventure to stop the stupidly powerful alicorn preventing me from saving them? That same alicorn that's threatening everything else I love and care about? You think I'm not worried about Rainbow fighting, or Pinkie if she gets caught up in this? How about my friends from Mareitania, huh? Because I'm worried about them too, believe it or not."

"Then why do you never mention any of this?"

"Because I can barely function as a pony as it is! Do you really think I need to smother myself in all my fears and worries all the time as well? I'm already hating myself for what I did to Moondancer in the past, and more now for what I said to her yesterday, as right as I still think I am about it. Do I have to worry about losing you as well because you look at me and no longer like what you see?"

"What? No! Of course not!"

"Then what do you want me to do Sunset?" Twilight stopped and sat, wiping away the tears that had started to leak from her eyes. "If you have some way in which I can save my friends, stop Faust, protect the world, fix all of my mistakes, and maybe me with it, I would really, really love to hear it. Otherwise we're stuck in this situation where there is no right answer to any of that."

Sunset silently wrapped her legs around Twilight's neck in a hug, holding the alicorn as she silently cried. "I'm sorry Twilight, but I had no idea you thought any of this."

Twilight sniffed and wiped her nose, "It's fine."

"No, it's not fine. Far from it. The thing is I don't know what to do about it either."

"Keeping on being my friend would be nice. I really don't want to lose you as well Sunset."

"And you won't, barring some really awful, and hopefully unlikely behaviour on your part. Really though Twilight, you can't keep going like this. I'm actually starting to see what you said to Moondancer as a subconscious attempt to push her further away, to save her from your crap."

Twilight laughed weakly, "Maybe it was for all I know."

Sunset hugged Twilight a little tighter, "I'm here for you Twilight, so if you ever want to talk, or shoulder to cry on, or even a just a hug, don't hesitate to ask."

"Can you help me patch things up with Moondancer?"

Sunset made a face as she looked down the road to where Moondancer, Trixie, and Mayfly was waiting for them to start moving again. Unsurprisingly, Moondancer had her back to them. "I hate to say it, but even if it's possible, it's going to take time, and pushing it won't help."

"I know, but even if she keeps on hating me, she shouldn't let that stop her from having friends." Twilight looked at Moondancer, then Mayfly, followed by Trixie and Sunset, before closing her eyes and sighing. "Everypony needs friends Sunset."

"And don't I know it," Sunset grinned. She released Twilight and pulled her to her hooves. "I guess if we're going to do this and get your friends back, we better keep moving."

Twilight nodded, and managed a smile. "Thanks Sunset, although if you call me a killer like that again, I might have to say nasty things about you behind your back."

Sunset laughed, "Brutal Twilight, brutal."

Author's Notes:

Probably not what you were expecting me to do with Chrysalis, but this is what I did and there's no taking it back now.

Also, just so you know, I did toss a coin for deciding Mayfly's life. I had always intended that Chrysalis kill her just to get at Twilight, but then I had some other fun ideas which required her to live, and then I couldn't decide, so I let fate decide. She is one lucky little fictional character.