Aranna swung again and again, her sword edge surely dulling from the sheer amount of air she was slicing through, not to mention the changeling chitin throughout the battle. She had ended up fighting an all-too familiar changeling with a twin pair of scorpion tails.

Witch released an angry screech, dashing forward, the stingers of her tail lashing out. They bounced harmlessly off Aranna’s shield, brought up just in time despite Witch’s unnatural speed and ability to respond before Aranna had even made a move.

The only way to land a hit without Witch dodging or blocking needed some sort of area of effect, but Aranna’s phoenix-griffin abilities weren’t up to snuff when it came to throwing fireballs. So, she did as best she could, her frustration and anger radiating off of her through her limited powers, the heat helping just enough to keep Witch from impaling the griffin on a pointed tail.

The changeling came in close, her hoof arcing up and slamming into Aranna’s chin with a loud crack.

Her helmet shifted a bit, but otherwise stayed on her head. Still, the hit was enough to confirm one fatal truth: Aranna was losing.

Slowly, but losing nonetheless. Finnis was preoccupied with his own woes, the buffalo had vanished as soon as Eclipse entered that cave and even combined with Blackreach hive, Vangar’s guard force was slowly being overwhelmed.

Rubbing her chin as Witch recovered and prepared to strike again, Aranna looked beyond the changeling to see one of Blackreach’s thick-shelled beetle changelings get picked up and tossed into one of his fellows by one of Nexus’ six-legged ant changelings. Over her head, griffins, pegasi and flying changelings fought together, but the horrid unity of the hivemind gave Nexus an undeniable tactical edge.

Guard Commander Cyclone streaked through the air, his spear flashing as it struck. His portion of the guard had lost some units, had some injuries and even picked up a few stray changelings to help fill in the gaps, but with their enemies’ pressing forward without fear, they wouldn’t stand forever.

Without fear. Heh.

What fear did Nexus have, since he wasn’t in the thick of it? That large changeling, the size of a queen, which had taken Eclipse’s mind had turned out to be some sort of ally. Aranna wasn’t sure how the changeling knew her father, but if Finnis’s sudden change of attitude to a near reckless fighter after over twenty-seven years of playing the part of a calm and patient leader was any indication, there was much to Finnis that Aranna didn’t, and may even never, know. Maybe she had never really known the griffin that had raised her in the first place.

Aranna brought her shield up, blocking Witch’s tail strike. She swung her sword, but was too slow, as always.

Charging forward, sword pointed ahead of her, Aranna was almost unsurprised when the changeling jumped over and pushed off her back.

Almost.

Somehow, Witch knew exactly what she would do and how to counter it. From her memories of Icewind, it had something to do with that freakish orange glow in her eyes, but she had never found out what.

Another explosion sounded overhead, signaling that the fight between Nexus and the changeling that wasn’t his daughter was still going. The look on everyone’s face when they saw that purple maned changeling toss Nexus into a cliff was worth framing. It even provided a short stun on the hivemind, but Nexus had plenty of experience with his hive, so it wasn’t enough time to take a sizeable advantage from.

Without lowering her guard for Witch, Aranna steadied herself, her rear lion paws edging out their claws and digging into the dirt with them. Her sword was held in an even tighter grip and her shield was braced against her forearm. She adjusted her helmet back to a perfect spot on her head and she wiggled her body to make sure her sword arm bracer, rear leg shin guards and breastplate were still snugly attached.

She was losing this fight, just as the battle around her was being lost. Even Nexus’ personal battle was slowly tilting to his favor. But she would be damned before she would go down easy.

Meanwhile, inside the cave, Eclipse muttered to himself. “Friggin buffalo. Thrice-damned rag with legs, that’s what he is. Who does he think he is, chucking me into random magical caves?” He huffed, looking at the wall of the cave. “Oh, joy, here’s the first carving, just like the first cave! Who didn’t see that one coming? Is it another buffalo, like cave number one?”

Getting closer, Eclipse could see that it was, in fact, a griffin instead of a buffalo. He was leaning on a large sword, waving and grinning at something that wasn’t depicted. Like the first cave, this drawing was full of small details that could be easily missed, down to the individual feathers on its wings and the scrollwork on the sword. It actually looked like Finnis’ two-handed sword, but that weapon didn’t have any of the decoration that the sword in the carving did.

Drawing number two actually was a copy of the first cave. There, looking blasted into the stone rather than carefully carved, sat a rough depiction of Discord, doing… chaos-y something-or-another. He’s been reformed since then, so who knows?

The first cave had a drawing of one of the royal sisters, but drawings of the two were so alike that they were hard enough to tell apart as it was. Since their wasn’t really any color in the cave carvings, it was next to impossible to tell them apart, so when Eclipse reached this cave’s third carving, he gave it its due glance and moved on.

Honesty cave had a carving of Applejack as number four, and Fateweaver had been more than obvious as to what this cave would ‘gift’ it’s current visitor. With this in mind, it didn’t take Eclipse by surprise when he saw a pegasus adorning the wall.

Rainbow Dash was in mid-flight, her mane and tail whipping about behind her while she held both front hooves forward, doing her absolute best to cut though the air like a super-heated, razor sharp sword slicing through butter. Eclipse had to admit, the carving was just about perfect. Every strand of her hair was depicted like it was caught on the world’s best camera, past, present, future and alternate universes included.

Eclipse sighed as he reached the end of the cave. “Let’s get this over with.” Reaching out with his chaos magic, he closed his eyes. “I wonder why I couldn’t end up as the partner to some other idiot who had to put up with this.”

Thorn ducked under the green beam of magic.

Standing up, he barked an order at the changelings around him, his training as a guard kicking in, making his voice a bit harsher.

“Return fire! Return fire or so help me I will have you filled with more holes than you already have!”

Just a bit.

The scorpionflies and basic changelings around him fired green energy beams in unison, knocking the enemy changelings out of the sky and off their hooves, depending on whether they were flying or not.

“Beetles!”

The selected changelings rushed forward, forming a wall between their fellows and the approaching land enemies.

“They came to the town through the fight, but we will not let them have the non-combatants! Die if you must, but keep those hiveminds back!”

The two dozen or so changelings Thorn had gathered squared off against the equal amount of Nexus changelings. A few members of the Vangar guard that had followed those changelings were attacking the flank, but Thorn and his small squadron would provide the rock to the guard’s hard place. Or spear, if you want to be accurate.

Thorn was not a fighter. He had made a promise to stay that way long ago, when Icewind was still alive and beautiful and the thought of a hivemind was a faraway nightmare long thought to have no concern with a small hive in the mountains.

But he was a strategist. A tactician. And he would use those skills to crush the many who tried to oppress the few, as was his duty as a perimeter guard captain of Blackreach.

As was his duty as a friend.

As was the duty he had failed at as a brother.

“FIRE!” He screamed, as green lances of energy shot forward.

There was screaming.

That was different from the cave of honesty.

When he had been given that power, that orange sphere of magic inside of him had shocked him, as if a bolt of lightning had shot through his body.

But this…

Loyalty burned. It burned a lot.

It felt like his skin was on fire. It felt like his insides were slowly burning away.

Honesty’s pain had been quick. It had been almost unnoticeable and it had been quick. It left him sore but that was only barely and it had faded not even moments after.

Eclipse’s eyes shot open, a magenta light filling them. He could see his bright red chaos magic, a smaller sphere of orange honesty floating around it.

Near them, a magenta colored sphere was filling in, its light pulsing as it grew inside of his body.

It was then he realized something…

Loyalty showed itself as magenta. It showed itself as calm and forgiving, and were it corporeal, it would be soft to the touch. But if you knew it better, you would know the truth.

Loyalty was blood red, so red it made Eclipse’s scarlet chaos magic seem brown by comparison.

It looked like the soft purplish pink that most called magenta, but at its core, it was a nigh divine bond of blood and kin, all but impossible to break and should it be broken, it will lash out and scorch those who dared to break it.

Still screaming at the intense pain, Eclipse felt one more truth enter his mind.

Nexus had used magic to force a corrupt, twisted mockery of loyalty on countless changelings. He had enslaved them, driven them against their own kind and even their friends and families.

He had not shattered their loyalty, oh no. He had done something far worse.

He had openly used it to torture them.

Inside the hivemind, buried deep down, those changelings saw the ones they were loyal to being killed and enslaved by the same one who had taken them.

They had watched, even as their souls wept at what they were being forced to do.

Stopping his screams despite the slowly subsiding pain that still burned on his skin and inside his body, Eclipse felt his mouth twist down, turning into an angry snarl.

Nexus shall pay.

He shall pay in blood, the color of that which he had scorned.

The color of that which shall be his undoing.

Aurora panted, sweating with exhaustion.

The plan was failing.

She dove, Nexus’ blast going high as she closed in on the ground.

Aiming her wings, she shot back up, slamming into the larger changeling sovereign.

Aurora was no weakling. While she did not lead a hive, she had the blood of a queen, the strength and magic of which was being tested now.

Her old friend and trusted companion, Finnis, fought down below, but he couldn’t assist her; to embroiled in his own fight as he was.

His adopted daughter, however…

Aurora sighed. The plan had called Fateweaver away, and Finnis was of no help. The rest of their party was still spread thin across the world, preparing and planning as they had for so long. This would have to do.

Grabbing Nexus’ legs in a telekinetic hold, Aurora suffered an energy bolt to the chest to fling him at the ground, just for him to recover some twenty feet above it.

The griffin near him had seen her chance, though, so it mattered little.

Flapping her wings, the phoenix-griffin launched away from her twin-tailed assailant, sword flashing as she attacked the hive leader.

Nexus grimaced as the sword bit into his exoskeleton, but pierce it the blade did not.

Twisting his body, the changeling sovereign knocked the griffin away, forcing her to quickly come to her senses and raise her shield as she fell under a merciless pummeling from the two-tailed scorpionfly.

Aurora bit her tongue, trying to find a way past Nexus defenses. The more she kept him occupied, the less his mind could direct his horde. But it was very likely he was simply taking control from one of his several other hives, bringing them and their resource production to a halt in exchange for more utility here.

“Fucking hivemind.” Aurora hissed, preparing her magic.

Her magic dissipated, however, in the wake of what happened seconds before she fired her energy.

The ground erupted, a small circle of earth spiking upward as cracks formed in it and waves of magic escaped from the confines of the earth. Bright red beams of magic shot out, soon accompanied by an angry shout.

“NEXUS!”

A gray and brown earth pony stood up amongst the rubble.

The plan had not failed after all.

Despite his call for the sovereign, Eclipse dashed towards the Pheonix-griffin and her enemy, grabbing the changeling by both of her tails and flinging her at Nexus.

Nexus’ eyes widened, the changeling impacting him with a crunch of crushing chitin as they were both carried by her momentum into the ground.

Aurora turned and left, following Fateweaver’s example. Once Finnis played his part, the battle would be over and he would do the same.

Aranna and let out a cheer as Nexus and Witch slammed into the ground. She raised her sword, inspiring the guards who heard her cry to fight even harder.

Meanwhile, Eclipse shot forward, hoof cocked back.

Nexus rose, dazed. He realized that Witch had been knocked unconscious and that trying to order her to rise would be a wasted effort. Turning back to confront the pesky chaos pony who had caused his plan to go so haywire, he hadn’t even processed the fact that he had been hit when he found himself trying to rise once again.

Firing several beams of energy, he looked on with glee as Eclipse was knocked back. Surprisingly, the pony was still standing.

Eclipse lowered his head, his eyes slowly gaining a red glow over them.

Nexus prepared another magical assault, but the pony raised his fore hooves, the two appendages taking on a remarkably metallic look.

Realizing that he was staring into a twin pair of barrels that had sprouted where legs should go, Nexus raised a magic shield, a flurry of red energy beams raking the shield and threatening to break it.

Eclipse clapped his hooves, disappearing in a flash.

He reappeared just inside Nexus’ shield.

“What the--?!” The changeling said, the pony waving at him.

“Hi! Have you ever shopped at Macy’s?” He grabbed a large stick, one end of which was capped with a metal head.

Nexus ducked the mace’s first swing, but Eclipse soon changed its course and had it slam into his skull with a loud crunch. Backing up several paces, Nexus shook his head and quickly teleported further away, just barely avoiding a flurry of attacks.

He cleared his vision, watching Eclipse turn around to face him.

Nexus was a good fifty feet from the nuisance, having teleported behind the pony at a safe distance.

“Ahem.”

As he was turning, Nexus felt rather than saw a metal shield slam into his side.

The red and yellow griffin was back, and she was radiating an intense heat that was making her armor impossible to touch without getting burned.

Likewise, her sword could likely cauterize the wounds it inflicted.

Realizing that Eclipse’s mace had opened a crack in his chitin, Nexus wiped some green changeling blood off of him, firing several magic blasts at the griffin.

Even with her shield raised, she couldn’t stop the kinetic force of the blasts and was thrown to the ground.

“Strong winds, incoming.”

Nexus turned, seeing Eclipse not ten feet away.

Growling at the pony’s insolence, Nexus prepared to fire another blast of magic, but felt the hard impact of a hoof in his side, knocking the wind out of him.

“That will teach you to mess with my town!”

The red pegasus landed, his green mane unkempt and his helmet lost somewhere thanks to the battle.

The armored guard lifted his spear. “Feel the fury of Guard Captain Cyclone, you worthless insect.” The pegasus charged, swinging his spear with the skill brought on by years of training.

Even so, he was still easily kept at bay by Nexus.

“But all that changed when the Fire Nation attacked.”

With that odd sentence, Eclipse hefted another contraption pulled from seemingly nowhere. Cyclone backed off, just in time for a wave of fire and fury to wash over the changeling sovereign.

His flamethrower doing its work, Eclipse watched Nexus try to fly off to escape the scorching fires. Aranna appeared above him, happily knocking him back onto the ground.

Using his hivemind to call for aid, Nexus was shocked to realize that despite being outnumbered, Cyclone’s contingent was keeping his swarm at bay, the knowledge that their Captain, an equestrian and their powerful phoenix-griffin were all hammering the controller of the horde with every passing second giving them strength they had never known before.

Still, their defense was not perfect and a hole opened, allowing several changelings to come through and aid their master.

Nexus’ grin turned into a startled gasp when he felt those changelings vanish from the hivemind, dead, dying or unconscious.

A group of changelings from the inside of Vangar came out, led by a scorpionfly. Despite never fighting himself except for dodging several attacks, the one known as Thorn was leading his small cadre of units with brutal efficiency.

Reinforced by the aid of several griffins and pegasi guards recruited while fending off small amounts of hivemind changelings inside the town, the small group was fighting with the power of a much larger army, each unit compensating for another’s weakness and reinforcing their strengths.

Nexus tried to teleport, but his magic fizzled. His energy was running dangerously low after his fight with the purple maned changeling and he was best by multiple opponents at once. A number which steadily grew, it seemed, as one more griffin wielding a two-handed sword approached.

This new griffin and Eclipse shared a nod, the importance of which Nexus couldn’t comprehend, and charged, their eyes blazing not with a bright magenta, but with a deep, dark red.

The color of most species’ blood.

Author's Notes:

Sorry about the long wait, but hey, this may be my least terrible chapter yet!