2504, Koprulu Sector, Planet Agria █

Sweetie Belle followed her zerg as they dug a tunnel under the surface of Agria. Right now her plan was proceeding as planned. Following the Queen's advice, she wasn't worried about the loss of zerg. That was simply not their role… to survive, that is.

She hadn't intended to reveal herself yet, but seeing Gallus on top of the rocky mountain he was standing on, like a knight in shining armor… too good to pass.

She had ordered her zerg to dig under him, to bring him down here to where they now both stood. He, the wary hero; she, the queenly zerg.

"Gallus," she whispered as she slowly paced around him. To think, back home, she had been initially intimidated by griffons. Their sharp beaks and claws, their confident, cocky demeanor, the rippling, tight muscles under their coat, their large, long wings. When she had seen Gabby for the first time, she was afraid she was going to be eaten, even if she had logically known that wasn't going to happen.

But now, Gallus seemed intimidated by her. It was just so funny! He followed her warily, a terran weapon held in his armored claw, but he wasn't firing. She slowly tightened her circle around him, until she was standing in front of him, looking at him eye to eye.

She smiled, a bit self-consciously. He had gorgeous eyes. It had always been one of her favorite things about him, ever since she had met him. Sure, his confidence was admirable, but those eyes expressed a lot more than contempt or defensiveness… they always had. And she had noticed his looks, just as surely as he had noticed hers as they had crossed paths more and more often in Twilight's School of Friendship.

The thought of home deviated her thoughts. He was here. He was alive!

Grinning at this, Sweetie lunged forward.

Gallus had always liked Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, and Apple Bloom. They were energetic, fun, adventurous and—Sweetie and Apple Bloom particularly—really pretty. Not that he would ever admit that to professor Applejack or professor Rarity. But regardless of what they were, they had never been seductresses, and Sweetie suddenly acting like this… was, well. Nerve-wracking. Especially in this situation. Anywhere else, he might have played along.

In a cavern, surrounded by deadly creatures that were for some reason just hovering outside his senses? Eenope. Nopenopenope.

So, he watched her warily, anticipating her attack. Raynor had warned him this wasn't her anymore. The creature in front of her might look and sound like Sweetie, but her sudden sensuality and aggressiveness, and well, the fact that she wasn't a pony anymore were stark reminders that she was not herself anymore.

So why was he having so much trouble pulling the trigger?

"Gallus," she whispered, laughing a little.

He swallowed and turned with her slowly until she stopped in front of him. Oddly enough, she wasn't monstrous as he had expected. She looked very similar to her old self, just… as if someone had mixed her up with Ocellus or something. Chitin and insectile features aside, this was definitely Sweetie Belle.

Suddenly her eyes went wide and she grinned showing off her brand new fangs and pincers and launched herself at him. Instinctively, Gallus took a desperate shot, knowing full well that her was dead, there was not way he would survive… the hug?

"You're alive! Oh my gosh, Gallus. I was so worried!"

"What?"

She held him close with almost crushing force. Despite his armor, he didn't think he would be able to struggle out of the surprise embrace, but she wasn't trying to kill him or bite him, she was laughing, just like she had on the train.

"S-Sweetie?" he stammered.

She sniffed, and leaned back, grinning. "Who else?!"

"But… you… zerg… what?"

"Oh." Sweetie blinked and stepped back. She glanced up at the tip of her blade and looked at Gallus quizzically.

"Sorry, I thought you were going to eat me," Gallus said, rubbing the back of his head.

"Eat you?" Sweetie asked, leaning slightly on him. "I knew terrans were dirty-minded, but I didn't know it was contagious."

"I-what?! You're the—you know what? Forget it." Gallus stepped back and glared at her. She was a conundrum right now. He knew Raynor hadn't been lying to him, so... why? "What the hell are you doing here, Sweetie?"

"Well, duh." Sweetie waved her hoof around. "I'm stopping the zerg from tearing you apart."

"You know what I mean.'

Sweetie sighed. "Yeah. I know what you mean."

"And?"

She shrugged apologetically. "Sorry. I need to defeat Raynor. Queen's orders."

"Those are civilians out there, Sweetie," Gallus hissed.

Sweetie looked away. "I know."

"They can't fight you."

"I know."

"You can let them—"

"No!" Sweetie interrupted, glaring at him with an intensity that almost made him step back. It was mostly his survival instinct that stopped him. He somehow knew he couldn't step back in front of the zerg. But why?

"It's because I'm talking to you as an equal," Sweetie said, as if reading his mind. "Gallus, just… come with me. Let me finish the mission and come with me. We can go back to the Que—"

"Are you crazy, Sweetie?" Gallus asked. "How can you allow this to happen? Forget that. You give up on the zerg and come with me. Let's go back home."

Sweetie sighed. "I'm sorry, Gallus. If I could, I'd let the people leave… I wish I could just convince everycreature to live in harmony… but right now… I have my orders."

The ground around them shook suddenly and Gallus looked around with worry. "What happened?!"

"I won." Sweetie stared him straight in the eye, but did not smile. One of her scythes gently picked up his helmet and gave it to him. Now that he was paying attention to it, he could hear the faint, desperate chatter. "I'm sorry Gallus, I wish there could have been another way."

"What did you do, Sweetie?" Gallus asked, his throat tight.

"I wish we were on the same side of things…" Sweetie said, stepping back. "But you have to go, if you want to go back to the Terrans."

"I—" despite the stupidity of the action itself, Gallus embraced Sweetie. "Come with me," he whispered into her ear as the zerg around him hissed and growled. "Please. Please come with me. You're still you. Somehow. You can't be—you can't be a monster."

"Gallus…" Sweetie said softly, embracing him against her. "I-you will not think the same once you're out there. Please remember that I'm still your friend. I'm sorry."

"But Sweet—" Gallus' shout was interrupted by two large pincers grasping him roughly (but not with deadly force) as a mutalisk flew up with him to the top of the mountain, and doing a back roll, threw him up in the air, where he had no option but to turn on his engines or splatter on the floor later.

"Sweetie!" he shouted , flying down close to the top of the hole, but deep under, all the zerg were gone. It was then that he looked around and gasped. The main road, where the vehicles had been going through, had collapsed completely, and swarms of zerglings were flooding into the giant ravine that had been created. In a daze, he put on his helmet and flew around.

"Gallus! Kid! Fly back to us, we need to get out of here!"

"Raynor," Gallus gasped, "what happened? I was trapped in the mountain…"

It took a moment for Raynor to reply. "Nydus worms. They collapsed the road when the transportation vehicles were on it, and then they did the same to the spaceport. They hid their attack while other worms acted normally."

Gallus could tell Raynor was barely keeping his emotions in check. He glanced down at the devastation. There were thousands of terran lives down there, being killed by zerg. By Sweetie. He closed his eyes for a second and then banked to the side, changing his direction back to camp, and evacuation.

"I'm sorry, Raynor," he said, Sweetie's exact words to him echoing in his head.

"It's not your fault, kid. The zerg are changing. And we need to do the same."

"Sweetie Belle."

"My Queen." Sweetie Belle stood on the jagged rocks that had once been one of the mountains that had protected the road from immediate swarming. Its side had collapsed underground along with the road and trees, leaving something that looked like a fang, curving slightly at the top towards the road, like the mauws that were about to close around the survivors. "Raynor has fled, I have succeeded."

"I know, my pet, well done. I see there are still terrans left alive."

"They're ours now. To be infested or killed."

"You do not sound happy, Sweetie. Shouldn't you relish your first victory against Raynor? The fact that you have fulfilled my demand?"

"I-I do," Sweetie said as she watched the people that had survived the fall being shepherded under her orders into a large group of thousands of individuals. All those lives. In her hooves. "But I don't—I still believe we could do better, my Queen."

Kerrigan was silent.

"I will follow your orders, my Queen, and I will follow them gladly," Sweetie continued, feeling that perhaps she was making a dent. Tiny as it was. "Can I… try to make them work for us?"

"What possible use could terrans have for us, Sweetie?" Kerrigan's voice was gentle. "The terrans will not bend to our will."

Sweetie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She thought about everything she had learned from Twilight. Everything she had learned here. Equestria might not be perfect, but it had worked for multiple species to work together. And the binding glue was...

"We can show them that they can be part of us," Sweetie said. "We've got their lives in our claws. They have no escape. No means of survival but our generosity. If we're honest with them and give them the option to serve and help us, if we show some kindness… terrans are creative, they build amazing things. They can build them for us. Especially if we gain their loyalty."

"Abathur is reminding me that we don't need those structures or weapons. That their loyalty is irrelevant, and kindness for them is a weakness. I'm inclined to agree."

"No, we don't need the structures" Sweetie agreed. "He is right. But that's not all, and you know it. We need to change. This battle was won thinking outside the box. Right now, my Queen… there's not that many zerg that can do that."

When Kerrigan didn't reply, Sweetie looked down at the masses of people. She couldn't hear them, but they were looking for their loved ones, fearing for their lives. Those that fought back were killed immediately and messily. She knew she wasn't getting her point across, especially to Abathur who was… her eyes widened.

"My Queen, up until now, infestation has always a violent, immediate effect, and we usually just get mindless drones correct? But sufficiently long exposure will still infest individuals, right? What if… what if we could… experiment?"

Silence. Then, "Abathur is intrigued. And I share his curiosity. Go on."

Sweetie gulped, looking down at the people. "W-what if… we infest them slowly? What if they cooperate in becoming something new? What if… the results of that is an actual evolution?"

"Why are they herding us like this?" Ariel Hanson muttered, as she knelt next to an injured soldier. She had managed to stop the blood from flowing, but had to wonder what was even the point at this stage. They were all dead or infested.

Thousands of her people had looked to her for guidance, and she had failed them. Even Raynor hadn't been able to win this fight, was that just an indication that the zerg were going to win? Did it matter?

She looked down at the pin on her breast pocket. It was the coat of arms for her colony; the planet Agria and the caduceus behind it. It represented a world dedicated to science. Some of the universe's most brilliant Terran minds were here with their families. And the dominion had abandoned them. They were alone—truly alone—and at the mercy of the zerg.

And zerg were not known for being merciful.

A loud roar cut through the din of voices, immediately silencing the thousands of people there. She heard loud stomps, and the ground shook under them as—not one—three ultralisks approached the corralled people of planet Agria.

Above them several types of zerg flew and the people started panicking. The ultralisks roared again, but this time there was something different. A voice. Young. Almost childish in how cheerful it sounded. "Citizens of Agria, I will speak to whoever is your leader now."

Ariel swallowed, but then took a deep breath and started moving through the crowds of people. At first, they didn't budge, but as they slowly turned when they felt her push, and recognized her, they slowly started spreading to the sides, stone-faced and scared, providing a straight path that kept opening up towards the ultralisks.

She started walking, noticing others had emerged from the masses to join her. She recognized the security administrator for Hudderstown, and the mayor of Green Acres among them. They all gave each other wary looks as they made their way to the front, where the strangest zerg of all waited for them.

"My name is Sweetie Belle," the zerg introduced herself, "and I have an offer for you and your people."

The security administrator for Hudderstown spat on her. "We will never—"

He never finished his speech. With lightning-fast movements, the zerg's scythes dismembered him in a shower of blood. It was so fast he probably didn't even have time to register pain.

Ariel trembled. She felt a shiver, stuck right between her shoulder blades. But this was… "He didn't speak for all of us," she blurted out, earning a resigned look from the mayor of Green Acres, who nodded and stepped back with the others, allowing her to take the spotlight.

The Sweetie Belle zerg looked at her up and down, and smiled. "Great! Then let me explain what I have in mind."

Author's Notes:

So, this is outside of the regular publishing date, but I feel like I haven't been releasing enough chapters lately. I could even consider this last Thursday's chapter.