“One loves the light all the more once one has beheld the depths of the darkness.” - Baked Bean (Irrespective), This nose knows, 10th May 2018.

“Recovery team Alpha, this is Command, report. Over.”

“Command, this is Romeo-Alpha-Actual, reporting in. Techpriest ‘Magos’ has been killed, reports state it was during a conversion session with a Uniform-India. Suspected killer being the subject, as the restraints have been broken. Suspected prior muscle augmentation. Over.”

“Romeo-Alpha-Actual, Command, was the suspect found? And what of the CCTV? Over.”

“Command, Tango-Delta-Actual reporting, cameras where not installed in the operation room. Violation of standard protocol has been logged, and area has been designated for Sierra-Charlie one-five duties. Over.”

“Confirmed. Despatching Sweep-and-Clean squads now. Suspect has gained ‘Alpha’ priority, capture at all costs. Out.”

Pit…

Pat…

Water dripped down from a leaky pipe somewhere behind her. It didn’t matter though. She was still alive after all.

Pit…

Pat…

The feeling of being alive.… it was the greatest thing she ever felt. Like a blind pony seeing colour for the first time. The first true time. It was a wondrous feeling.

Pit…

Pat…

The thrill of slipping by stationed guards, the fear of being discovered as she swept through the back allies of this city. The weight of Arcane heavy on her back.

Pit…

Pat…

Oh, she had missed it.

Pit…

Pat…

Arcane… what he did was something incredible. She wasn’t sure what happened, but from the screams that had echoed across from the operation room and into her containment cell told her enough.

Pit…

Pat…

Not to mention the aftermath. Seeing him stand over the metal-pony, covered in blood with his organs bare to the world to see.

Pit…

Pat…

The fire in his eyes as he murdered the monster, the raw hate that emanated from him as he enacted his revenge, careless of the wounds he had.

Pit…

Pat…

She could see why he traveled with the Wolf-God now.

Pit…

Pat…

It was hard, even with her medical knowledge she still struggled to keep the stallion alive. But whatever the monster had done to him, it had kept him alive. His blood seemed limitless, and she had seen his wounds scar over before her eyes. It had been like something had fast forwarded him and him alone.

Pit…

Pat…

And yet… It worried her.

Pit…

Pat…

He was barely a pony anymore. And if it wasn’t for him killing the metal-pony, she would’ve been on the table next.

Pit…

Pat…

For once… she had needed help.

Pit…

Pat…

It was a strange feeling.

Pat…

The bitter drink burned as he drank, its poor excuse for alcohol tainted his taste buds and burned away what it could.

It wasn’t terrible all things considered, sitting in a run down bar in the poorest district of the city and expecting good shit would be stupid. You get what you pay for, and he didn’t pay much.

There where few beings in the bar, a pony in the corner, a minotaur at the bar, and himself. The bartender had passed out for the night, having ‘indulged’ herself a few too many times. Leaving only the regulars.

They wouldn’t steal anything. There wasn’t any point. The barkeep kept her credstick strapped to her thigh, and the drinks were piss-poor anyway.

No, they didn’t come for the drinks. Few did. They came for solitude, for peace, for a safe place to hide until the heat died down.

He was the odd one out. The others were petty thieves and poor sellswords, he was a cop. A damn good one too.

Living off a triple digit paycheck every week, it was a good life. Enough to live on at least.

And yet, here he was. Resting with the filth of the city, the SINless. The ones with no ID numbers, and barely any credits. Hell, some of the people who passed through here were ones he’d arrested personally.

A SINer among the SINless.

Couldn’t get more cheesy if he tried.

He was a stallion of habit. Get up, go to work, come to the bar, get pissed, go home. Same thing, every day. He didn’t like change, and if change happened, soon enough it became habit as well.

But this… this was change.

In his left hoof he nursed his drink, in his right he held something new.

Something, in all his years of working for the Corps, he had never seen. Hell, he hadn’t even seen something like it. It was a liquid made of a golden fire, it flickered and burned, though it never became any less. He could feel it, an angry heat behind it. It felt alive, it produced a feeling, a feeling of being away from where it must be. Away from it’s master.

Bravo could only expect it’s master to be the blue unicorn he had found snooping through the ruins of The Terra Dawn, after all, he nicked it off him. But the question remained, what was this thing?

He knew in his heart he should’ve handed it into the Techpriests. They would’ve had a ball with it. But, for the first time in years… he didn’t. He kept it, heedless of the threat of losing his job, his SIN, even his life, in favour of keeping this strange liquid.

Sure, he sometimes took risks. Sure, sometimes he fought with those above him. But this… this was different. There wasn’t an injustice he was fighting against, there wasn’t a prick he was annoying, this had no real motivation.

With a light sigh, he downed the rest of his drink and laid back. His faded cloak ruffling and barely hiding his dirty brown fur, parted only by the scars crisscrossing all over his body. He really wasn’t much, a few botched jobs here, a few cybernetic additions there, and he was barely more than the scum he found himself with. Hell, he didn’t even have the ‘standard’ augmentations of his post, all he had was a radio clip embedded in his ear, a neural interface, and an eye that recorded what he saw. No muscle grafts, no replaced limbs, not even sub-dermal armour.

Some said that made him replaceable, cheap, personally he thought it made him more pony than the others. Less of an unstoppable killing machine, and more of an agreeable character.

His glazed over emerald eyes gazed around the room in his, slightly, tipsy state. Maybe it was time for him to leave, he did have debriefing in the morning after all…

Yeah. That sounded like a good idea.

He rose up from the table, connected the thin casing of his credstick into the barkeep’s terminal to transfer a small tip, and left the other inhabitants to their drinks.

Outside, the buildings stretched into the sky for a few hundred meters before connected to the roof of this level. This was his home, the back allies of Areomorne, the greatest tower in history. Holding billions of lives scattered across each of it’s one hundred levels, bringing the tower to be a few kilometers in height, both up, and down. With each level about the size of ten hoofball fields, it was truly a sight.

Until they looked deeper.

As much as the tower is impressive, there were still places like this one, where the slums were built upon other slums. Housing at least half the population in a quarter of the space. Metallic streets had litter layered upon them, masking whatever original colour they once had, and with enough nooks and crannies between buildings to hide as many illegal things as anypony would ever need. This was the criminal underworld, in all it’s dirty glory.

When walking these streets, one was liable to have a knife between their ribs or a bullet between the eyes. But at the same time, this place was free, if only slightly. Unregulated to any considerable degree, and more or less free of the corp’s talons. And because of this, one could find the strangest things on these roads.

Maybe that was what he enjoyed the most about the slums, maybe it was just the feeling, maybe, maybe.

Maybe this was the day he found something.

‘Heh. If only.’

This… city tasted horrible.

With the adrenaline fading, and her energy with it, Chitin had found nice little hole to crawl into until the morning.

Well… if it wasn’t already.

From what she could tell, they had found themselves in a tower of sorts. And, as judged by the dirty chrome roof high up above her, the sun might never even have touched this place. But in the end, it didn’t bother her too much. Darkness made everything easier, sneaking, feeding… hiding…

Did she even have to hide anymore? Could Chrysalis even find her? Was she free to live her life?

Somehow, she doubted it.

Chrysalis always found her. Whenever she lowered her guard, whenever she stopped, whenever she thought she was safe…

Maybe this time Chrysalis would show up in person, instead of sending ‘elite’ guards after her.

She doubted that even more.

Regardless, Arcane had seemed to have stabilized and had drifted off into a, more or less, fulfilling dream. At least that’s what she had gathered from the trickle of love she gently nawed on, although, the tinge of regret and fear really didn’t help the flavor.

Speaking of, Chitin began a quick inspection of the stallion. After all, an infection wouldn’t be particularly helpful at the moment.

The leg wounds had almost completely healed, with hair already forming on the new, pinkish skin and parted only by the metal exosuit that seemed to be slowly growing out of him. The chest was much leaner, the fat having been replaced by toughened muscle, though it seemed something had grown in place of his ribs, forming a solid, almost armour like, chestplate to protect what organs he had left.

Though, the most interesting of all would have to be his head.

At one point, something had consumed his eyes, leaving behind what looked like a steel-like wireframe replica that slowly become more and more solid during her inspection. His teeth had a similar experience, but the wireframes were much more jagged, looking like something that should be on a predator, not a pony.

Through some quick calculations, the metal seemed to spread at about a couple square millimeters every second for the eyes, and double that for his teeth. Factoring in the progress already made, Chitin expected it to be complete within a couple minutes.

Other than that, Arcane seemed fine. With no open wounds, and the back of his head completely healed, with only some metal being left behind.

She shuddered lightly, this was too unnatural. Too alien… It shouldn’t exist. Not within her lifetime at least.

“The fuck?” A gruff voice echoed down the dark alley, causing her to whip around to bare her fangs at the intruder.

It was a brown earthpony, at least, the muscle structure said so, with a pitch black cloak that concealed anything above his hooves and below the neck with acceptable efficiency. Judging by the slight metal tab on his forehead, Chitin deduced that he had been under the knife at least once.

She didn’t like this tech of theirs. It created unknowns, and unknowns kill.

Her observations had only taken a split second, but she could already see the stallion shift his stance, it placed more weight on his hind legs and lifted his fore hooves slightly. Although this could just be him turning to run, it could also end up with a leap forward, or he might’ve had a weapon he’d been reaching for in his cloak. And she couldn’t take that chance, not with everything at stake.

She dropped to a low stance, she sprang to the side and grabbed onto the rusting metal walls of the ally. With a dash above head-height, she moved forward, watching as the stallion followed her with his eyes. His forehooves had rose to chest-height as he seemed to sit down, the unknowns pained Chitin greatly, but she continued scuttling the last few meters over to him.

With one last leap, she had tacked the stallion to the ground, and with a quick burst of magic, he couldn’t move his legs to attack her.

’The whole encounter was over in a few seconds,’ she mentally chastised herself, ‘I’m getting sloppy, that was barely twenty meters! I should’ve been able to cross that in half that time!’

“Well, you’re a quick one, aren’t you?” The gruff stallion asked rhetorically, not even bothering to struggle against her magic. “Don’t worry, I’m not here to hurt you.”

“Who are you? What do you want?” Chitin hissed, she had listened to her training and instincts well, keeping her fangs within striking distance of the stallion’s jugular. Unless he pulled some tech bullshit, he wasn’t going anywhere.

“I’m Bravo, Bravo Ember. I just saw you down the alley and got curious.” Bravo replied smoothly, even his emotions seemed to be calm. It was different. Unknown. “It’s not often we see Changelings on the positive floors. You lot seem to stick to the negs.”

“‘Negs’?” She asked cautiously, she was out of her depth here, but panicking wouldn’t help.

“The negative floors. The ones below the ground floor, or, as it is commonly called, floor zero.” The stallion explained calmly. Too calmly. His behavior was really starting to piss her off, did he not know all the flavors of death she could give? “If I recall correctly, floor six, neg five, neg seven, neg nine, neg twelve, and a few others were claimed for some of the hives.”

‘’Some of the hives’? There’s more than one?! Queen fucking damn it, Chrysalis!’ Chitin mentally raged, her face still cold and calculating as her instincts took over. “Why should I not kill you where you lay, pony?”

“You’d just be doing me a favour at this point. The paperwork for getting attacked, well, not even that, getting attacked by a changeling, is fuckin’ terrible.” He chuckled lightly, still calm. Mockingly calm. “Though, I’d hazard a guess that you’re lost. We’ve got a lot of different changelings, but none of them are pink. So unless you’ve making a new hive, which, mind you, is a whole ‘nother pile of paperwork, you aren’t from here. So you’ll need some help, and not everyone is as kind as me.”

“We’ll see.” She hissed back, with a quick thought, she charged her horn and removed the stallion’s cloak from him and chucked it off deeper into the alley. She even let out a slight smirk at the cloak’s metallic thump as it collided with the wall before she continued stipping the stallion of his gear.

“Come oooon, you have no idea how much all that had cost me.” Bravo complained as the vest he had under the cloak was taken. Along with four ‘L’ shaped objects, two on his chest, one on each shoulder, a longer ‘L’ that had been strapped to his left side, and what looked like an extendable shield that had been strapped to his right side. “Anything else you want to take from me?”

With a roll of her eyes, she pulled out seven metallic ball-things out of his tail, that, due to his looks of fear as she had tossed them, she made sure they didn’t hit anything too hard. Before Chitin was over, she also found three false teeth filled with an assortment of sharp things, another small ‘L’ object hidden in his mane, and four more ball-things hidden in false hooves.

“Now. Tell me what you can do for me.” Chitin demanded with a hiss, intimidation always helped these situations, after all, he might be faking his cool demeanor. “Or, I’ll take your shit, cut off your legs, and then leave you to die.”

“Well, your friend hasn’t woken up, has he?” Bravo commented with a smirk, “And you don’t know much about our tech, do you?”

It was the forest again…

He felt a tinge of familiarity for this place, this place that he has only seen in his dreams…

The dreams that felt true…

That felt real…

Maybe this wasn’t even a dream, maybe the rest was just a nightmare and this was reality…

After all…

Princess Luna only interrupts nightmares, and she’s never helped him here…

Maybe…

Maybe…

He had crossed this place before, he has felt the bark running through his fur…

And yet, this time, he was still a pony…

Pain followed every step as blood drained from multiple arrow wounds in his back, darkness danced before his vision as he slowly lost his battle…

His battle to keep moving…

Something was behind him, he could feel it in his heart. Something was after him, something dangerous…

It would catch him, that much he was sure of…

His allies had fallen before it…

First a lover, found solace...

Then a temptress, hidden by realms untouched…

Then a spirit, unwanted…

Followed by the others…

All the others…

The strongest had fallen before it, the weakest had fled from it’s hate…

All had died…

He was just another step in the process, the process of life and death…

He could hear the cries of the mob from behind him, taunted his fruitless endeavors to escape…

The rough gravel path through the forest cut and chipped his hooves as he desperately stumbled forward, the darkness slowly fading from behind him as the fires of the mob’s rage caught up with him…

A black cat ran across the road in front of him, as if his luck wasn’t bad enough…

He could hear them now, the very earth rumbling before the force of a hundred hooves pushing their masters forward, ever forward…

Another, identical cat ran across the road… it was taunting him now, it had to be…

He risked a glance back, pitchforks and torches greeted him as his fellow ponies hunted him…

He could even swear to see a tall mare off to the side, with hair full of stars and eyes full of confusion…

But he couldn’t have seen her…

She wouldn’t leave him to this fate…

Would she?

He thought with certainty, but his heart spoke otherwise…

As the stampede's blades of steel began to cut and pierced his hide, he cried out in sadness and pain…

Memories of his mother… his brother…

How would they see him now? Was he even the same stallion they knew?

A tinge of love in the heart of darkness, tears stung his eyes as his view was filled with an oily, translucent pelt of fur…

He was filled with the feeling of safety, he knew not the cause, but he was safe… for now…

All things considered, he wasn’t doing too bad.

Sure, he was assisting an illegal heir and an escaped Flesh-Droid, but at the same time, he was still alive. And in the grand scheme of things, that was a pretty good thing.

Hell, maybe he’d be able to do something good for once.

“So, lass, what’s your name?” Bravo questioned as they moved over to the unconscious stallion.

“Chitin.” She shot back, her words quick and clipped. “What did they do to Arcane?”

“This kid? From what I can tell, he’s halfway through becoming a Flesh-Droid.” Bravo shrugged, looking over this ‘Arcane.’ “Depending on how far ‘they’ got, he might not even be able to think any more.”

“Can you fix him?”

‘Huh, she seems oddly attached… for a ‘ling.’ Bravo mused as he crouched next to the stallion’s head. “Nope. Even if we had all the shit they took out of him, I’m fuckin’ hopeless with cybernetics.”

“Can you wake him up?” She continued with the quick questions, still laced with her slightly hostile tone.

“I can.” He answered with a nod, “I’ll need my coat back though.”

“No.” Chitin stated stubbornly, before adding as an afterthought, “what do you need from it?”

“Small brown case, has a little metal rectangle on the side and it’s made of wood.” Bravo explained, gesturing with his front hooves. “It should be in a pocket on the inside of the right breast.”

‘Heh, at least she’s listening.’ He mused as the princess carefully extracted it from his coat. “Alright, gimme a sec.”

With a quick tap on the top corner of the box, Bravo pulled out the metal rectangle and the hoof sized brown roll behind it. And, with practiced ease, he sparked a flame on one end of the roll and stuck the other side in his mouth.

As he pulled a long draw of the cigar, he gave Arcane a quick, yet forceful, bop on the nose with the wooden box. And, with a smirk on his lips and the burning in his lungs, he watched as the stallion was roused to the waking world.

At the sight of the changeling’s light glare his way, Bravo replied only with a shrug and another drag. “He’s awake, is he not? No my fault you didn’t try that in the first place.”

Regardless, as this, ‘Arcane’ began to stir, the earth pony moved back a few paces. Which, conveniently for him, put him within ten or so meters of the rest of his gear. ‘After all, diplomacy is nice, but one can hardly defend themselves with a cigar box.’

Chitin seemed to begin to say something, but with a few concerned murmurs from the unicorn lain on the ground, she abandoned her words in favour of checking over Arcane. Whispering a few words here and there that Bravo couldn’t make out.

It was almost sweet… almost.

‘Changelings don’t get attached, even more so for the royals. She must just be worrying about her backup love-pack.’ Bravo calculated as he slowly inched closer to his gear. ‘Come on. Remember your training dumbass. Keep your eyes on her, move back to your gear, and then engage in talk. Diplomacy through superior firepower and all that, they may not be monsters, but they aren’t ponies, not worth losing your job for.’

Still, he wondered if he was just trying to lie to himself.

As much as he wanted to know how they did what they did, how they were able to be subdued by him, and yet escape the Techpriests, he couldn’t lose his job for this.

Hell, the Rangers might already be coming for him, just depends on how lazy his boss is feeling with Bravo’s eye-cam.

With this in mind, he resigned himself to finishing his job… and keeping it.

Interrupt 1:1 Detected.

Launching bootstrapper…

Words danced before Arcane’s eyes as he was brought into the world of the living.

A.O.S Loaded, preparing startup diagnostics.

He felt… heavy. Quiet.

The thumping of his heart was absent, and he could feel his muscles struggling to pull in a breath he couldn’t give.

Heightened Cortisol levels detected, administering stabilization…

The words came and went as they pleased, and, in his slowly stirring state, he felt fine. Not worried at all with these changes.

CPU Nodes: 14 (25% Engaged)
Memory Nodes: 20
Power Level: 98% (^)
-----
Directives:
Primary = Maintain Operation
Secondary = Restore Weapon Systems
Tertiary = Restore Subsystems
-----
Damaged System Report:
Stabilization Core = 76% Efficiency
Arcane Power Conversion Ring = 46% Efficiency
Primary Weapon Systems = ERROR
Secondary Weapon Systems = ERROR
Mag-Lock Pads 1-3 = 63% Efficiency
Mag-Lock Pad 4 = ERROR

He could feel things spinning to life inside him, and yet panic was far from him mind. It was strange, to say the least. Not scary, but… interesting.

With the last remaining sleep slowly falling away, he was greeted with the sight of Chitin standing over him. She seemed worried, which, for a reason that still eludes him, gave Arcane a light feeling in his chest.

Interrupt 2:3 detected.

‘The fuck?’ He thought to himself, reading the text that appeared in the top left hoof side of his vision. In his heart, he knew he should panic, but he still felt as far from it as he could be.

Interrupt 2:3 detected.

It appeared again, accompanied with a muffled sound lingering in his ears. ‘What was that noise? What’s this text? The fuck is going on?’

Firing CPU processors…
Dedicating RAM…
CPU usage at 30%

Interrupt 2:3 detected.

“Arcane?”

This time, he could hear the voice clearly. The sound of Chitin’s double toned voice blessing his mind once more. He struggled to mutter a reply, as his mouth felt like a lead brick strapped to his face.

Rerouting power systems to Communication Cores…
Power deficit detected.
Estimated time until forced standby mode: 1 day, 6 hours, 15 minutes.

“Yeah?”

His voice echoed slightly across the metallic walls of… here. “Where am I?”

Engaging Auto-Mapping Core…

“We’re in an alley, how are you feeling? Any pain or discomfort?” Chitin asked, a slight tone of worry bled into her speech.

Following her words, the top right corner of Arcane’s vision filled with the addition of what looked like a bird’s-eye view of a urban area. With a small blue dot in the center, a green next to it, and a yellow one a bit further away.

“No… I’m feeling fine. I’m getting… things in my vision. Like… a map, and writing…” He replied, his voice still a neutral tone.

“Heh, looks like the kid got most of the good stuff then.” Another, gruffer, voice added.

User id Number: 314:225:674:255.65, Handle: Bravo Ember.
Occupation: Border Guard,
Previously charged with Assaulting a Commanding Officer, Unsanctioned Occupation of Class 6 Weaponry, and Attempted Breach of Perimeter.

“What do you mean?” Chitin hissed at the voice, Bravo.

“He’s got cybernetics, and judging by the addition of the map, some real good ones.” Bravo replied, “What’s on the map, kid? Green dots?”

“Yeah, a blue one, a green one, and a yellow one… I assume the yellow one is you?” Arcane asked, watching the yellow dot slowly inch away from the other two.

“Yeah. The blue one is you, and the green one is a ‘friendly.’ Yellow means ‘Neutral’ and red is ‘hostile.’” The other stallion explained, “That’ll map around you so you won’t get lost, and the dots will stop anyone sneaking up on you.”

“Now, what else is coming up? Any strange feelings?” Bravo continued, his neutral tone never leaving his voice.

“I just feel… strangely calm.”

“Shitty. Looks like they’ve gotten the emotion suppressants installed.” Bravo spat, pity and hate leaking into his tone momentarily, “I hope you didn’t want to feel fear or any of that shit.”

“Can you stand?” Chitin murmured to Arcane, keeping her eyes on him for the time being.

“I… think so.” Arcane replied softly, shifting his muscles and legs in preparation to stand.

Preparing Walk Cycle 1:1:0…
Booting Movement Core…
WARNING:
Stabilization Core = 76% Efficiency
Mag-Lock Pads 1-3 = 63% Efficiency
Mag-Lock Pad 4 = ERROR

Manual Movement Required.
Switching control nodes...

With little effort, Arcane managed to get his hooves below him. When greeted with a lack of pain, he gave a few experimental steps in each direction, painfully aware of the changeling’s eyes observing his movements for weaknesses. ‘Strange, usually my legs would have fallen asleep after a nap like that.’

Nerve misfiring detected, boosting pump capacity to 48% to compensate…
Queuing Nerve nodes for repair…
Err.
Const. Uplink not found.
Detecting issue…
Uplink Node not found.
Queuing Uplink Node for repair…
Err. Loop detected.
Adding ‘Repair systems’ to Secondary Directive…

“Now. This is heartwarming and all, but I’ve got a job to do.” Bravo stated, his dot moving backwards at a much faster rate before stopping. Raising his eyes, Arcane turned to see Bravo pointing a elongated ‘L’ of metal at him and Chitin.

User id: 314:225:674:255.65 had become hostile.
Signaling change of status to Mainframe Node…
Err.
Const. Uplink not found.
Engaging Self-Defence Core…
Err.
Weapons systems not found.
Increasing power draw to rotors for Hoof-to-Hoof combat…
WARNING:
High Power drain detected.
Remaining battery life estimated: 4 hours, 58 minutes.

Interrupt 3:12 Alpha detected.
Beginning Power Core override…
Enabling additional processing cores until threat is eliminated…
Remaining battery life estimated: 47 minutes.

Time seemed to slow around Arcane, colours became more intense and he could feel his legs fill with strength. Chitin lunged forward at a snail’s pace, taking whole seconds to move any considerable distance. Bravo’s ‘L’ fired off a bright ball of blue fire, and it slowly streaked across the distance between them.

He could… feel, where the ball was going to land. A gut feeling that told him it would impact him in the head. Another that told him Chitin wouldn’t make it to Bravo before he fired off another shot. And most importantly, a feeling told him to move. Fast.

Unlike the others, he could move normally, as if time had slowed for all but him. He pondered this had he followed the gut feelings and rocked onto his hind legs and moved to the side of the shot.

He watched as Bravo’s face turn from neutral to shocked, he watched as Bravo’s eyes followed him at a speed the rest of his body couldn’t match.

His gut told him to attack the stallion before him. His gut told him to kill Bravo in cold blood.

But he didn’t. He just dodged the three other shots Bravo fired towards him as Chitin slowly made contact with his shoulder. As she clamped her jaws around Bravo’s neck and as the light fled from his eyes, his entire body seemed to relax with a haunted shudder.

“How may I serve you, my queen?” Bravo droned absently.

Threat disabled. Deactivating secondary processing cores…

As quickly as it came, the flow of time returned to its normal state with greater haste. And with it, the gut feelings ebbed into obscurity.

“What is that in your hooves?” Chitin barked, her fangs dripping with green venom.

“An A.A.E rifle.” Bravo answered hollowly, his tone having lost anything that once made it unique. “It can fire a concussive ball of electricity every three seconds, or a lethal ball of plasma every five. It generates ammunition faster than it consumes it, unless it is in fully automatic mode.”

‘What? Did she mind control him? With venom?’ Arcane mused, shuffling his hooves awkwardly. Fear still alluding his mind. ‘I’ll have to ask her how that works later…’

“What of the smaller ones? And the orbs?” She continued, her tone hostile and her posture even more so.

“They are S.S.E.C pistols. They can fire once a second, or they can melt their batteries for a single power shot.” Bravo continued, his neck slowly creating a puddle of blood under him. “The orbs are grenades. They create an explosion that can penetrate most civilian armours, and some military drones.”

Chitin let out a low hum, looking over to Bravo’s gear. “You are to protect your queen, and are to keep yourself alive unless my safety, or the safety of Arcane, demands your death.”

“Of course, my queen.”

“Arcane? Put his gear on. It’ll only slow me down, and Bravo isn’t worth it.” Chitin commanded, her tone having lost it’s hostility but not it’s authority.

“Uhh… how?” Arcane asked, looking over the mess of straps and hooks that clung to the inside of Bravo’s coat.

With a roll of her eyes, Chitin gestured Bravo over to him. “Get him kitted up.”

“Of course, my queen.”

Blood trickled from the holes in his neck, the wounds slowly clotting as his body was stolen from him.

The world had been tinged a hateful pink as his body moved without his commands. A prisoner in his own mind.

Free will was something everyone loves beyond all else. Even if they don’t realise it. Even if day to day, they take it for granted.

But to have it stolen?

It wasn’t something he’d wish on anyone.

He knew he should be angry, that he should be feeling something. But in reality, not even his emotions were his anymore.

It was only a matter of time before the venom took his mind. After all, it controls what is physical, and the brain is rooted within the physical reality.

His captor Queen commanded, and his body obeyed.

His mind was left, for now, it’s torment not yet that of servitude.

This was the end for him. As the poison captured all he had once owned in a matter of moments.

So with his last free thought, he cursed his Queen as he was drowned in the pink haze…

A slight flicker of pleasure danced across her spine had she watched her new drone fulfill her orders. The hormones and triggers that guided previous queens to build their hives plagued her mind, regardless of how she attempted to block it out.

Ancient habits and urges resurfaced as she commanded her drone. Urges to create a hive of her own, to become a queen.

With a great mental effort, she pushed them down and focused on Arcane as he was fitted into the armoured duster. He had changed considerably from when they first met, his hide marred from scars and metal. His legs were encased in a wire-frame of metal and wires that hugged his pelt and occasionally penetrated the flesh near the joints. The main changes would have to be his body mass, that had changed from a standard stallion to that of a personal trainer, and his eyes. His eyes were obviously robotic, with the pupil shrunk and two extra ones added to it. One below it, and one to the top-right of the main one. The iris was completely removed in favour of colouring the pupils a blood red, and a pair of elongated, also red, crescent moons in the corners of the eyes.

All together, Arcane had turned into a well muscled stallion of flesh and iron.

“It is done my queen.” Her drone cut her out of her musings, his tone still empty of emotion and filled only with undying loyalty.

“Good. Now, where are the other Changeling hives? We should parley with them first, and then we can deduce if there is anything here worth saving. Otherwise, we’ll just have to cut our losses.” Chitin explained, mostly directing her thoughts to Arcane. The thought of keeping her drone around for longer than needed left a sour taste in her mouth, but it was necessary for now.

“What of Star? We should probably find him, he might need our help.” Arcane questioned, cutting off Bravo before he could begin his explanation.

“If ‘Star’ is in trouble, we shouldn’t go find him. If there is something to give an Elder God trouble, we don’t want to be anywhere near them.” Chitin replied with a roll of her eyes. “Use those survival instincts, if you still have them.”

Arcane’s mouth turned to a thin line and his eyes glowed brighter, but he didn’t say anything in his defence. Leaving Chitin to turn to her drone to hear his explanation.

“Floor negative five is the closest, my queen. But there is also one on floor six, negative seven, negative nine, and negative twelve.” Bravo explained dully, still managing enough personality to shoot a dirty look at Arcane for arguing with his ‘queen.’ “I can upload the directions to Master Arcane’s database, if that is what you wish, my queen.”

“Do it. We’ll go to the one on floor six. If this place is any reference, going down would be incredibly annoying.” Chitin commanded, watching as her drone extended a cable from his hoof and connected it to a port on the back of Arcane’s neck. “Anything else we should be aware of?”

“The Techpriests, that ones that captured you in the first place, become more tightly clustered the further down. Upwards has less of them, and more automated defence systems.” Bravo explained, his sentences becoming more and more intelligible as the venom rooted deeper into his mind.

“Alright. Let’s go then.” Arcane shrugged, rubbing his left eye roughly.

It was easy to slip through the slums undetected, and with the aid of its many alleys, they were able to reach an abandoned maintenance hatch with relative ease.

The hatch itself was little more than a crawl space between the inner and outer wall, but through it’s rusted labyrinth, Arcane was able to direct the group to the next floor. The trip itself took a little over three hours, as the group was forced to take multiple alternate routes due to the poor maintenance of some of the areas. But, with the time passed and the more-or-less fresh air replaced with recycled and pressurised that was required with such heights, they had made it.

The labyrinth had dropped them off in a shining hallway of polished metal and chrome. The walls had inscriptions that ran across them that Arcane had identified as magical runes, and the floors had polished grey and white mosaic of the highest quality.

“Are you sure this is the place, drone?” Chitin hissed, the ease of this ‘mission’ of theirs putting her on edge. “It’s too clean for any hive I know.”

“I am s-sure, my queen. High Queen Zethala is just… cleaner than the others.” Bravo replied, flinching away from Chitin’s hostile tone.

“Hmm.”

As they continued down the hallway, they began to be greeted with paths branching off of the main one, along with ‘doors’ that lacked any handle or hinge. But the further they went, the colder the air became. At first, it was only a few degrees, but as time wore on, it became quite noticeable.

“My… body says it’s now nine degrees celcius, or forty eight fahrenheit.” Arcane noted with an uneven tone. His voice still revealing how uncertain he was about his body, regardless of what it tried to give off. The thought gave her a light smile.

“How far are we, drone?” Chitin hissed, her voice lacking the malice of earlier but still slightly hostile.

“J-just a-a f-few more m-minutes, my q-queen.” Bravo chittered, taking the cold much worse than the others.

“That is far enough.” A gruff voice droned from ahead. As Chitin turned away from Bravo, she was greeted with the sight of another changeling.

The new changeling is much bigger than she was, being able to stare Celestia herself dead in the eye, it’s body was bulky and hard. It’s exoskeleton had been thickened and reinforced, making it look like it was wearing a suit of plate mail. It’s eyes had shrunk into it’s skull, making them barely larger than an apple, in contrast to Chitin’s which where more than double the size.

Along with this, it had a blood red mohawk and a cut-short tail. It’s wings were much larger than a normal changeling, even more so in comparison to the rest of its body. Looking more akin to a gryphon’s wings than a changeling’s, they were a little under double the length of its body.

It’s horn was about half a meter in length, and it was thicker than most’s, along with a deadly looking curve, it looked to have been sharpened.

‘Either going for intimidation, or it’s less sensitive, allowing for its use as a weapon.’ Chitin thought quickly, judging her options. ‘If the gun at his side means anything, he’s probably a guard. So he should know where this ‘High Queen’ is.’

“We wish to speak to your queen.” Chitin barked out, straightening her pose and channeling her inner queen. But, chances are, her size would just make her look like a child playing pretend.

With a grunt, the guard looked over to her pony companions. “Your ponies should stay here. They will not last in the cold.”

“I’ll be fine. My augments tell me I can handle another hundred degrees.” Arcane explained, looking to Chitin with steeled eyes.

“They will come with me as an escort.” She replied plainly, but, after a quick glance at Arcane's disapproving look, she added. "Bravo will return to the entrance though."

“If that is what you wish, princess.” The drone said, burying Bravo’s response with his deep tones. “Follow me.”

Temperature drop detected.
Current Temperature: -3℃, 25℉
Rerouting power to heating systems...

Interrupts and notifications flashed around Arcane’s vision, giving him information on the world around him. But, for all the information, his eye were drawn the mass of yellow and red that was his map. There were only a few red dots in the mass, but there was enough yellow to block out any useful information.

The drone had led the pair into a large throne room. The majority of the back wall being taken up by a lavish throne of blackened steel and shining chrome. To its sides, there were two lavish thrones to the left, and one to the right. At the moment, there were no other changelings in the room, as even the guard left them. But he presumed it wouldn’t last long.

High Threat detected.
Caution is advised.

‘Speak of the devil…’

With a powerful crack of space-time warping to the caster’s needs, a large figure appeared before the throne. At a quick glance, the figure was a female changeling queen, about a head taller than Princess Celestia’s horn. Her mane and tail are a blood red, with the former done up in a tight bun behind her head. Her maw was home to a pair of long fangs and another pair of, slightly smaller, fangs resting behind them. Unlike the other changelings, her horn was more or less straight, only curving near the base to give it some distance from her temple. But, in spite of the main horn’s impressive length, a pair of slightly shorter horns were found in addition. They began just before the hairline to the left and right of her slitted eyes, giving her a crown-like look. Finally, her ears looked to be a few hoof lengths longer than they should’ve been, giving her the look of what his pop-ups classified as an ‘elf.’

Passive mana generators detect over 35,000 Thu'ums.
Deactivating generators…

A small flash of pain sparked across his horn, leaving the air around it heated and steaming. With Arcane’s only response being a slight grunt, he focused his attention to the new queen. As much as he… didn’t know her, Chitin needed his help. Regardless of what she said.

He just hoped he could give it…

This queen was trouble. Chitin could smell it.

The pheromones being given off by this… ‘Zethala,’ were immensely powerful. Like an aura of power, fear, and… fertility?

‘Zethala must be due to lay, but has yet to be fertilized, so her body must be attempting to rectify this.’ Chitin mentally noted, drawing some of her energy into her muscles in case she needed to dodge any attacks. ‘Alright. Let’s get her talking.’

“You’re High Queen Zethala, I presume?” Chitin asked baitingly, slowly moving out of the middle of the room. As to keep herself as a ‘footnote’ and not a main focus.

“Yesss, I am.” The High Queen replied, her voice dripping with serpentine accents, stretching her ‘s’s and giving her a regal tone. “And who are you, young queen?”

‘Shit. No comment on Arcane? Really? I guess she prefers to ignore the ‘cattle’’ Chitin mentally raged, “I am Princess Chitin, heir to the throne of the Badlands.”

“Aaahh, you’re one of Glossssimar’s brood? Ssshe alwaysss had a habit of naming her own after bugsss.” Zethala chuckled, her tone condescending as she settled down upon her throne. Flaunting her height advantage even more than that given to her naturally. “How isss the old bug? Ssshe wasss alwaysss one I enjoyed.”

‘She knows Great-Grandmother? Interesting…’ Chitin noted, sparing a glance to Arcane who seemed to only look towards the High Queen with a light scowl of disdain. “She died long before I was born. Slain in the founding of our hive, like her daughter after, and like her grand-daughter will before me.”

“Ambitiousss, wanting to take on a hive for your own. When all you have isss your petsss.” The queen teased, baiting Chitin into revealing more.

‘I’ve already said too much, let’s move this back to her…’ Chitin swallowed her retort and attempted to steer the conversation away from herself. “What of you? I doubt you made this hive from the ground up.”

Zethala took a sharp intake of breath, followed by a smirk the danced across Chitin’s muzzle. ‘That got a reaction.’

“Thatsss where you are wrong, young one. I made thisss hive from the assshesss of your own. I fought your great-great-grandmother and thossse before her. I ssstripped them of their rightsss here, and cassst them assside.” High Queen Zethala hissed, flaunting her age as she rose from her throne for added effect. “I killed, no, purged your hive from thisss land. Thousssandsss felled by my own bladesss. Forget not your rootsss, young princessss, lessst they turn to rot.”

She spared another glance at Arcane to avoid the piercing glare of the older queen, he was steaming from where his implants broke skin. His eyes emitted a furious red and his nostrils were flared. If it weren’t for his rigid stance that belated only strict professionalism, Chitin expected a fight to have broken out by now.

Before she could say anything in retort, she was cut off by a venomous response from Arcane, his eyes still glaring at the High Queen. “At what cost of your own? Everyone comes from someone else, and I don’t see your mothers. Well, you know what they say about glass houses.”

For all the High Queen’s age, she wasn’t able to fight the slight flinch that followed Arcane’s remark. Leaving only a smile of Chitin muzzle as she turned back to the queen. ‘Looks like he’s useful for more than love.’
...
‘Wait, that came out wrong. FUCK OFF, MENTAL IMAGE!’ Fighting a slight blush, Chitin drew some of her power to cast a minor transformation to keep it from her face.

“You ssshould know your place, drone.” Zethala shot back, her attention removed from Chitin for the time being.

“You never answered the question, your highness.” Arcane deflected with an exaggerated bow and a roll of his eyes.

“My mother wasss a traitor and got what wasss coming for her! Ssso ssshall you if you don’t learn your place, drone!” Zethala raged, slamming her forehoof into her throne with enough force to demolish the armrest.

“So from what I’ve been told, you will give me suicide?” Arcane snarked back, a knowing grin on his face. “Now that doesn’t sound right, does it?”

“You ssshouldn’t know that…” Zethala hissed under her breath as she caught her temper. “Unlessss… Who told you thessse thingsss, drone?”

“Star, Andril, and Hunter. Wolf God of this world and all those before it.” Arcane shot back, exaggerating for dramatic effect.

“Ssstar? Isss that what he callsss himssself now?” Zethala questioned with a chuckle as she settled back into a throne and repaired the armrest with a simple spell. “When I knew him, he wasss known asss ‘Immortalesss Ssstella,’ or ‘the Immortal Ssstar’ if you ssspeak thisss tongue. Oh, it hasss been quite a while sssince I heard hisss name.”

“You know him?” Arcane asked, his anger momentarily lost.

“Of courssse, he ruled thisss land for a time, and he created it asss well. Although mossst have forgotten, thossse asss old asss me remember hisss might.” Zethala explained with a smirk. “If you wisssh, I can regale you with a ssstory of old.”

With a glance to Arcane, who shrugged in indifference, Chitin answered plainly. “Sure, tell us your knowledge, old one.”

“It wasss many thousssandsss of yearsss ago…”

It was the day of reckoning. The main portal had rose from the sea surrounding their island and had been forced open, allowing the creatures that stole their home to pour through on battleships and destroyers of the highest quality.

The Great Cannon encampments of the shores sung their song of death as they blanketed the setting sun’s sky with fire and steel. Upon the beaches sword and gun met in battle as two armies broke before each other.

Ponies, Gryphons, Hippogryphs, Changelings, and Minotaurs, all fighting for their home and their survival.

Hives of many colours all blended into the faceless masses of dead and dying as Zethala looked over the battlefield.

Clad in runed and battered power-mail, she brushed the blood of the recently slain off of the one sided transparent chrome visor. This was a desperation tactic, attacking her capital whilst the main force was attacking theirs. Regardless of the outcome here, the Empire of Sigmar would be lost to time.

Their Emperor had been slain before her own blade, and his best generals had fallen before the Wolf God’s might. This was only a petty attempt of bringing Areomorne with them to their death.

With a cry of defiance, one of the many thousands of remaining humans charged her, chainsword in hand. With a roll of her eyes, Princess Zethala spun her power sword from her back and into the heart of the foolish warrior. It was amusing to cull the mortals, but she still questioned why her mother wanted her to fight on the front. They had the Wolf God on their side, they couldn’t loose to these upstarts.

Speaking of, the detonation of the Human’s capital warship heralded the Wolf God’s entrance to the frey, his massive form towering over the other soldiers on the beach by a few meters. Every couple of seconds, the God would launch a great ball of explosive Soulfire into the remaining ships, killing more than the Great Cannons had in the last hour.

She pushed forward, cutting through the waves of disposable humans with ease. Her power sword parting their bodies as easily as a bullet through paper, aided by her auto-gun spraying it’s fifty calibre, titanium explosive rounds into anyone foolish enough to assault her. Showering her armour in blood, gore, and brains.

The Wolf God’s steaming black pelt lashed out at any humans near him, as his three heads channeled his immense magical presence into great beams of death. At the highest point, he stood at over five meters tall, with a length numbering at nearly double that. The left-most head’s eyes of bloody red fire launched hailstorms of thousands of small magical needles, whilst the right-most chimed in with his strategic blasts of green soulfire. The middle head on the other hoof, with his eyes of burning blue, ignored the mortals around him as it burnt the fliers from the skies. Their concentration only phased when they launched an additional ball of soulfire at the remaining warships.

“Mine lordsss!” Zethala called to him as she parted the last humans between them. “Their troops doth not break! Thine forcesss slaughter them, yet theye ssstill fight!”

“We shalt keep fighting. Theye will be brought to heel! For their end is ‘nigh!” The Wolf God replied, his three toned voice skipping her ears and going directly into her brain.

“Thy will isss eternal!” Zethala replied, turning back to the fray with renewed splendor. Her role shall be that of protection for her God, and she loved it. “Theye rally!”

From the mess of living and dead, a large minotaur-like automatron charged her, its forearms replaced with blades almost as long as it was tall. Turning her attention to it, she sprayed her auto-gun at it, the miniature explosions tearing armour plates off of the robot but failing to slow it.

Flicking the gun back to her holster, she gripped her power sword in her three-horned magic as she counter charged. Ducking under it’s left blade as it swang through the air at neck-height, she thrusted her blade into the shoulder joint of the right arm. Its powerfield cutting and disrupting the molecular bonds of the joint.

With a elegant flick to the left, the powered blade parted the inner core of the automaton and cleanly divided the robot into three pieces. Not even sparing a moment to look back, Princess Zethala grasped the severed limb-blade in her sickly green magic before launching it forward into the swarming mass of humans that assaulted the beach.

“RAAAARGHH!”

A beastial roar cut through the drone of gunfire and death, shaking the battlefield with its volume. As she turned, Zethala noticed the dull chanting of ‘murder, murder, murder’ that followed the roar.

From the hordes of flesh, a titanic being charged the Wolf God. Its form boxy and it’s legs small, its speed rivaled that of the cavalry divisions as it wolf pelt clad armour broke the ranks of those before it with it’s eight meter tall stature. It’s blue armour covered all but its head, showing only armour plates, wolf skin, and the skulls of the fallen. One of its eyes had been replaced with a beedy green cybernetic, as its mane of pure white whipped against it’s headboard.

It caught the Wolf God in the side, its powered claws embedding deep within his hide, its maddened charge was greeted by the Wolf God’s howls of rage as he turned his attacks from the ships and infantry to this new treat.

His living hide attacked the intruding claws with all its might, leaving deep scratches and farrows in the armour plating but failing to dislodge them.

Zethala gave a wordless scream of anger to the flesh and metal hybrid as she charged to defend her lord. Her auto-gun pelted the armoured wolf hides of the monster, tearing through the beast and damaging anything it could reach.

Moving forward with a flourish of her power sword, Zethala cut deep into the sides of the cyborg. Oil and blood gushed out of the beast, as it pulled its claws out of the Wolf God. Another cry of bestail rage filled the air as it charged the young Princess, it wounds not slowing its pace at all.

With a quick roll to the side, she dodged the clumsy swings of its power claws, popping up only to pepper its hide once more. The remaining humans rallied at the sight and poured through the Areomornian ranks to assist the beast in killing the Wolf God.

Said God had rose on unsteady paws and had been forced to blast the waves of humans as his guards finally caught up to him and set up a perimeter. Zethala felt the need to chastise the God on his faith in his immortality, but with the fight with the beast still in full swing, she banished the heretical thoughts from her mind.

A few friendly soldiers joined her in assaulting the cyborg, but their attempts were quickly silenced by a few well timed backhands from the power claws. As untrained as the beast was, it was exceptionally fast for its size, forcing Zethala onto the defensive more than she would have liked.

It took nearly an hour of rolling and firing for the monster to begin to tire, the battle around them still raging on in spite of the Princess’ efforts. Shells still flew from allies and foes alike as the humans drew their last stand. They knew their home was defeated by now, the mortal half of the Wolf God would have it no other way as he annihilated their cities on the frontline.

Even as the Wolf God was pulled from the battle to tend to his wounds, Zethala fought like he was still watching. For if she was to die to this beast, the Wolf God would judge her, and she wouldn’t be found wanting.

With a cry of anguish, she pulled out of her roll too slowly, feeling the power claws cut into her horn and dismantle her magical wards with ease. Its power field went through her steel plate like a hot knife through butter, the magical feedback causing a miniature explosion that blew the pair apart. Her broken body skidded across the battlefield for a few meters, the pounding in her head protesting every impact.

She felt the darkness around her, and the piercing gaze of the Wolf God turning to her side. Judging her failure. Her weakness.

Cracking open her eyes, she saw the beast of metal and flesh looming over her, its arms raised for a finishing blow.

No.

She refused this. She refused to die a failure.

Her roar of defiance echoed across the battlefield as she pulled a knife from her armoured boot, gripping its dirtied handle in her fangs, she lunged forward, plunging the blade into the creature’s skull. Killing it once and for all.

Only then, did she let the darkness consume her.

Only then, with her duty fulfilled, was she granted rest.

“Return to us, noble Queen. Thou art not destined to die this day.”

Author's Notes:

AN: Well, that was a crazy chapter. I told you it would get better. :P
Anyway, thanks to Irrespective for the quote. And thanks to all of you for reading!
I’ll be back with the next chapter soon(ish), but until then, here’s the ENs!

Weapons’s’s’s’s EN:
Somehow this story managed to turn ninety degrees, then flip seven hundred and twelve more. I wasn’t ready. Anyhow, looking good and I’m holding out for more soon.

Dapper's EN: Interesting how the Changeling becomes concerned for her companion after the right things like "emotion suppressors" are installed. Wonder how this will affect their dynamic...