For all the effort we had gone through fighting for it, it was ironic that our unicorns didn’t actually need to touch the crashed ship. Instead, the point they were interested in was at the beginning of the dirt field where the ship had touched down. The shipwreck only represented the final resting place of the metal titan that had barreled through the hole, not the hole itself. It was sensible, if a little irking.

I don’t know if there was anything I could say about the ponies scanning for magical signatures. To me, I just saw three unicorns form up in a triangle and magick together some concentric circles between their glowing horns. I had nothing to contribute to or learn from the magical ritual taking place before me and I found myself restless next to the gargantuan spaceship nearby. Ultimately, one calling won above the other.

Jokingly, I told the blue and white maned pegasus guard watching over the unicorns to scream if they needed me. I don’t think he took it as well as I’d hoped, but I was already headed for the ship.

Into the aching tear the bug ponies had come in from, I jumped and scampered up sheer edges, before pulling myself over the brim. The insides were dim. They’d have been darker still if not for sunlight streaming through the odd fissure in the hull. The skeleton of an emergency lighting system clung to the ceiling. With the condition of the ship, it looked like not even that had managed to fire. However, pawing into the darkened corridors, my mind was fixated on something else entirely.

I could smell them the moment I entered the ship’s musty halls, bodies. Led by my nose like a cartoon character floating through the air in the direction of a pie, my antlers scratched and whined against metal walls as I pushed through corridors. Had the ship not been built for hulking orc-people, I doubted I would have even been able to fit inside without tearing through the hull. Here and there, a splatter of blood could be seen on walls and panels of the ship. Always, the stains pointed to the front of the ship. No stain had a body next to it.

Onwards I went, bony limbs clicking and snapping as the monstrosity that I’d become bent and folded its way forward through the crashed ship. The ship had planted itself face-down in the dirt, so I could feel the descent I was making, lower and lower towards the front of the vessel. Finally, I reached what could only be described as the helm of a spaceship. Dim and grey, rows of lights sat unpowered and broken operation terminals laid unmanned. The room’s only light stemmed from the dense glass at the front of the ship, where a thin layer of gold darkened what little light was coming in from the forest outside.

I’d have liked to have stood and marvelled at the miracle of technology before me. I might have mused about how different it was to a Star-Trek bridge. I could have waxed on about how much more plain and clinical it was, how much less flashy it was. But no, my undivided attention was on a long purple tarp laid over the tip of the ship. Unlike the technology that had lain still since its crash, this had clearly been placed afterwards. Back cocked like an alert beast, I gingerly pried a claw under an edge of the tarp.

With the tarp pulled back, I could see them. Bodies, a full crew’s worth laid in the pile. There were no bullet holes, no decapitations, no burn marks. Each one had suffered blunt-force trauma, vitals slammed into hard surfaces. Fractures decorated their bodies, some with a trickle of blood running down their suits. The bloodstains on walls facing the front of the ship, these fractures, it clicked for me. These aliens must have all flown and slammed around the insides of their own ship when it crashed, killing them instantly. I knew the kind of whiplash you could get in a car crash if you weren’t wearing a seatbelt. I didn’t want to imagine how bad it could be in a spaceship.

Absentmindedly, I found my mouth watering, looking at all the corpses. They were not decomposed yet, fresh. Before I even had time to realise it, I found myself leaning towards the cadavers. Jolting back in surprise at my own actions, I hurriedly shoved a hand in front of the bony protrusion that made up my nose, blocking myself from sniffing at them.

Panging in my chest, I felt a flash of weakness course through my body as I rejected the debauched hunger. Caught off guard, I stumbled back. Warily, I looked at the pile of corpses, holding tight the hand over my bony nostrils.

After a moment of contemplation, I gingerly laid the tarp back over the pile. It was the most dignity I could leave them in, especially with the risk of my condition. Making haste, I moved to escape the bridge. I cast one sorrowful look out behind me as I stepped out. This was a bad place for me to be.

Besides, there was work to be done in Canterlot.

---

Flying back to Canterlot on the faithful trio of golden chariots that had brought us to the forest’s edge, this time we were laden with a few extra guests. Bound in the guard’s law-enforcement cuffs, six unconscious bug ponies were riding along with us, split between the three chariots.

Our guests certainly made us popular at the castle. For once, I found myself not at the centre of attention. Amazed onlookers, I heard in whispers, speculated about whether a new species of pony had been discovered. That that was even in question, I thought, said a lot about how absurdly varied ponykind seemed to be.

The paths of my guards and I diverged as they left to deposit the castle’s new guests in the dungeon for questioning. Chipperly, and with some hoof bumps, I said my goodbyes to my guard cadre. And so, one at a time, they started lifting up bug ponies and carrying them like sacks of potatoes for the dungeons.

Not ten steps away, I found myself face to face with Luna of all ponies, talking to some people I hadn’t seen before. She must have finished up her trip faster than me. At least she didn’t have any bug ponies carted behind her, lucky. Walking up to her with a smile, I gave my greetings to the night princess.

Luna looked at me curiously for a second, as if concentrating on something else around me, more than me myself.

“Welcome back, my beloved!” Luna suddenly burst, a wide smile consuming her face. I froze, caught off guard. With an oppressive cheeriness, Luna continued, “how was thou trip outside the castle. I hope you enjoyed yourself?”

I froze at her greeting, before chuckling lightly. I supposed we were close enough now to rib each other like that, but damn if that wasn’t a spicy joke to start off with. I hadn’t known that the awkward pony had it in her, but it was nice to see her opening up a bit more.

“Nice to see you too, Moonbutt,” I rasped, glancing up to the castle’s peaks and back to Luna. She was just staring at me blankly.

After a moment, her gaze shifted behind me. The last of the bugs we brought back to the castle were being carted to the dungeons, still out cold. For the very first time, I saw Luna’s face so plainly wearing that tranquil mask that Celestia often adorned.

“Ah, thy returnest from battle! And what strange creatures thy have done battle with. But tell me, there are so few, did you kill the others?”

I mean, there weren’t that few. We’d brought back six of the twenty five or so attackers who hadn’t managed to escape into the woods. Any more and we would have been straining the chariots anyways. The princesses had been around longer than the guards, they’d probably know what we were looking at. I wasn’t sure why Luna expected a bigger group though, she-

First with a glimmer of doubt and then with dawning horror, it struck me how off Luna was acting. The bug ponies, the same ones I had just brought back to the capital, had approached us in the shape of the purple aliens, pretending to be them. A pit of dread formed in my stomach and I saw Luna’s impostor twitch oddly.

“Hey, Luna,”–I asked slowly–“how about we go visit your sister, report back to her together?”

Celestia would be better at dealing with this than I could be. Besides I could do with some backup. And it wouldn’t do to be seen attacking a princess in the castle again.

“Hmm,”–the thing impersonating Luna put a hoof to its chin pensively, as if seriously considering my offer–“we think that some food sounds good after such a long trip out of the city.” For a split second, I saw her eyes flick to the guards accompanying her. Casually, subtly, they were making their way around my back, boxing me in. Eyes lighting up in mock glee, ‘Luna’ focused on me, proposing, “hey, dear, I just had an idea. There’s this great cellar nearby that has a restaurant in it! It’s really cosy and rustic. How about we go there and get a meal together?”

My mouth twitched. It looked like my hand was going to be forced here. The Luna fake was watching me with barely concealed wariness now, could she tell I knew? I was at my breaking point. I had to move quickly.

Lunging, I grabbed for the fake’s neck. With a single swipe, my right hand found itself curled around the imposter’s throat. Claws out, the left hand hung menacingly in the air, an implicit threat against the grappled pony.

“What have you done with Princess Luna?!” I snarled roughly, my eyes burning pits of anger.

“~Stick around and find out yourself~” not-Luna trilled without a modicum of the concern that my claws around her throat should have conferred on her.

With a grin that was altogether too wide and too vindictive on Luna’s usually soft face, a sickly green power crackled across her horn like a bolt of lightning. With all the speed of electricity arcing across metal, I barely had time to question the raw audacity of the shapeshifter’s play before an electrifying jolt of pain struck me right between the eyes with a thunderous ‘crack.’ All I could see was white for a moment. Shouting out, my hand released her neck and I stepped back, shielding my face.

When I lowered my arm, I found myself standing in a sea of green flames. All around the courtyard, servants, guards, seemingly unrelated passerbys, everyone was enveloped by transformative flames. Shit, I was really wishing that I had stayed with my guard entourage.

A pit of black in the burning ocean, Luna’s dark form stood stoically, still untransformed.

“You’re still conscious. That’s impressive!” she laughed, nearing a cackle. Like a flickering heart in the sea of flames, a green flash of fire consumed her too. From the inferno, I heard a bizarre dissonant two-toned buzzing voice titter mockingly, “it is rare enough I get caught. Nopony has ever discovered me so quickly. I’m almost sad to see you go.”

[Theme of the changeling queen]

As the bright green flames died down, a new pony stood where Luna had once been. Unlike the more diminutive bug ponies, this one was closer to the size of Luna. If the other bugs were drones, this one was a Queen. Sleek, black, and with a sharpness to her form, she practically radiated regality. Atop her head, similarly to the moon and sun peytrals that could often be seen across Luna’s and Celestia’s respective breasts, a tiny black crown clung to an unusual head of hair. With a twisting horn more warped than most of my own body and long gossamer wings by her barrel, she looked to be the analogue of the ponies’ Celestia and Luna. And, right then, she was staring at me with the smugness of an opponent who’d already thought they’d won.

Credit: Rusty3x3

I’d prove her wrong. The bones of the antler skull over my head clicked and snapped as I snarled. Closing the distance between us in a second as my spindly legs tore up the ground, the queen got an eyeful of the fangs lining the interior of my antler skull while I pounced through the air towards her.

Her pupils shrank to pinpricks moments before my jaw snapped against the place in space her neck had occupied a second ago. In a flash of green light, she had vanished. The ‘pop’ behind me was a clear enough indication of where she’d moved. Before I even had time to turn my head, a dozen bug ponies were upon me. With their little fangs, they were biting and grappling me. If they managed to hold on, they were punching too.

Despite their efforts, a cocktail of adrenaline was numbing any pain response I felt. Brutishly swatting three shapeshifters out of my way with a hand, I sunk a claw into the ground, pivoted, and charged towards the queen again. Maybe the rest of them would go down if I beat her. Rampaging savagely with four limbs to the ground, I felt a handful of bug ponies peel off my back with the sudden burst of movement. The queen teleported again, this time still within my peripheral vision. Like a falcon, my skull snapped to its prey.

“I don’t have the energy to waste breaking you in, beast. More important targets await. Submit, or I will be forced to put you down,” the shapeshifter queen warned in that quavering hum of hers. She was trying to project confidence, but I could hear her voice wavering, betraying the facade of control.

Not that her words could have done much to bring me to a halt. Already, a wave of shapeshifters had cascaded over me, clinging desperately onto the furred patches of this warped body. But their punches, bites, and desperate magical bolts couldn’t halt the frenzy I was working myself up to. Writhing, I turned my head over my shoulder, finding a group of fearful blue orbs staring back at me. Snarling, I clawed at my back, at the mass of black bugs weighing me down. A few were smart enough to jump off as my claws neared them, though I was still rewarded with the slicing of claws through meat and a satisfying trickle of green blood between the grooves of my fingers. The flow of blood, the scent of the meat I had deprived myself of, the adrenaline of battle, they were all combining together to place me in a frenzied trance of battle. Slash, snap, shake off the bugs, hunt their queen.

Abruptly, while I was scraping another wave of the seemingly endless bug ponies off myself, I felt a searing pain punch through my back and out my rib cage, leaving a crater where my heart had been. Staggering, I fought to keep standing, especially as the swarm of bug ponies continued their assault on me. Turning unsteadily as the emboldened bugs nipped at my hands and brought me falling to my knees, I saw the bug pony queen, wisps of magic still thrumming along the length of her horn.

Credit: Zigword

As her magic ebbed, the last thing I saw was a wide eyed queen standing in front of me, her horn steaming ever so slightly. It seemed like she was still unused to killing things. Then, my vision was finally consumed by the pitch-black blanket of bug ponies swarming to protect their queen.

As I felt my body die, a profound feeling of starved dryness crept through my limbs. Bones turned to powder and flesh desiccated. In a matter of seconds, I felt myself detach from my body as it blew away like unnatural dust in a breeze. Awkwardly, as if still expecting to be pummelling a body, the shapeshifters backed away from the empty dirt. Once again, I found myself an amorphous cloud, a haze of something that was not. Before me, I saw a disgruntled queen trying to compose herself for what must have been an unsuspected snag in her plans.

“I’ll have to apologise to the pony princess for breaking her toy,” the bug queen spat, almost resignedly. “A shame he was too strong to pod, that one had some powerful emotions coursing through it.”

Running a hoof through her hair, the queen started hissing at her subordinates.

“Get the rest of the emotion bags bound to the wall quickly. I won’t feel safe until the sun princess is in a pod,” she ordered, pointing a hole-filled hoof.

The bug pony queen, with her back turned, didn’t see me. But I saw her. Like a nostalgic memory of childhood, I remembered what seeing felt like. I remembered what a body felt like. And, with all the determination that a soul without a brain could conjure, I clung to my sense of being against the voices telling me to let go. No, I had something else to focus on. Because, just in front of me, the tumult and disharmony was like a clattering and banging of metal pans in front of an old man drifting off to sleep. With the bug pony queen in my eyes, stepping back into a world of form was all too easy.

Credit: tarajenkins

I was certain I was real again once the shapeshifters started hissing and pointing at their queen. Her face, a mask of triumphant pride, shattered into dumbfounded fear as I circled around her. I was near-certain that if the chitinous queen had had goosebumps to raise, she would have. If not for fear, than for the lifeless cold that followed in my hoofsteps.

“Underhive below, what is that?” the dulcet twin tones of the queen hissed, backing away from me.

I had no response to give her but an icy breath and barely the presence of mind to even muster that much. Looking upwards, I found myself trotting on the air, soaring up two stories above the courtyard and all the bug ponies in it. All around, condensation formed on windows and the chill of air bit into flesh.

Launching themselves at me with their tiny wings, the slim bodies of bug pony drones trying to protect their queen sailed right through the ephemeral form of a windigo. The bugs' frail green blasts, equally, found no target in my body. I didn’t focus on their attacks. No, the frantic buzzing of a hundred drones, somehow, reminded me of the howl of hail in a snowstorm. As my prancing continued, the bright skies over the castle turned dark with a twisting, nebulous overcast. The wind howled like spirits long gone and ice was cast from the sky, invading every opened window sill.

Down below, I could see the bug queen staring up at the sky in alarm. Hissing something incomprehensible at a number of her cohort, she tried running out of the courtyard, towards the throne room. No. I felt an indescribable urge to speak something but, instead of words, a haunting whinny echoed on the breeze. Far below, the queen and all of her drones were frozen in her tracks as a layer of ice began creeping from their hooves and up their legs. The prance continued.

Diving low as ice crept up to the bug ponies’ necks, the distant echo of ‘clip clopping’ hooves could be heard as I trotted millimetres above the icy ground. Like the purple aliens before, I felt the consuming urge to shatter the bound ponies struggling in icy prisons. I exhaled an icy breath. But, staring at the bug queen, I remembered Luna. I needed the bugs if I was going to find Luna. A pang shot through my chest. It was a familiar feeling, like the warmth of a beating heart. Consumed by the sensation of heat, I found myself curling up into a ball, drifting downwards into the ice.

As I sank into the ice and snow, I glimpsed a brilliant flash of gold cut into the stormy clouds overhead.

Next Chapter: Chapter 15: Heartbeat of the Moon Estimated time remaining: 25 Minutes