Prologue: The Tutor

Fire. Red, blazing fire. Mount Alicrom was burning. The sky was red as pony blood, with clouds obscuring the night sky. And the shifters could do nothing as we watched Alicropolis, the last bastion between Umbra the Damned and the Forest Harmonius, fall to the burning flames.

"Black! We've gotta move!" said Hardshell, one of my many brothers. He was a shifter. What is a shifter? It is a creature very much like changelings such as yourselves, little ones. Equiforms with a bug-like carapace, insectoid wings, and what some now call a deformed horn. The main difference between us is fairly simple: you changelings are hatched almost completely identical to the queen in color, while we shifters can vary in color as much as the other equiforms. How would we tell our hives apart? Well, we would look at each others' eyes. For you see, a shifter will always, without fail, have the same color eyes as his queen's. But you came to me for a story, didn't you? I thought as much, so how about we save the questions for afterward, hmm? Good. Now, as I was saying…

I continued to stare at the devastation, the burning of the city that had been defended by the Empire's last hope. "Blackshell, c'mon! Get in!" I stumbled towards my brother, whose gray carapace was shining red. Even in the Bleakmane Wastes where we were, far east of Alicropolis, the fire still shone on any reflective surface. Including the massive earthsteel door that was being rolled into place. I stumbled in just as the door had been sealed with magic.

One of the soldiers, a bat-pony who had cloudsteel mail and a shadowcraft lance spoke, "Alright civilians, we are enacting def-con Omega." There were many gasps from various hom'lados, (or citizens); from earth pony to alicorn, and shifter to zebra. "I know that this is alarming, but please remain calm. Every one of these shelters is equipped to house survivors until…" the bat-pony pauses and finally just shakes her head in defeat, "Aw Hell in Tartarus, what's the use? There are crystopods in the back designed to keep you all from getting detected, but there's only just enough for everypony." She kicks one of the walls in frustration, "Damnit, General Flash never fails! Why did this happen?!"

One of the other soldiers, a dragonkin or 'thestral', was immediately by her side, "Be still, Polar Flight, fate may not have yet abandoned us to our doom," the dragonkin lieutenant looked to their company's telepath, a disgruntled looking earth pony in shadoweave robes, "Shaded Purse, what news hath been brought to thee from fair Wind Song?"

Purse shakes his head in annoyance, "First, I didn't understand barely a word ya just said ya friggin dracopony. Second, I aint got nil from that-" He stops a moment and focuses intently before letting out a gasp and saying, "You folks're gonna wanta hear this."

He close his eyes for a moment to channel his connection to Song from the very ground onto the wall to our left. On it we see an underground command post with everypony standing stock still, with horrified or uncomprehending looks on their faces. General Flash's top ace, Cloud Streak asks quietly, "Did anypony make it out?"

It takes a couple seconds for somepony to answer, "H-Hold on… Yes. There are about 5,000 pegasi, 9,000 earth ponies, 1,000 unicorns and …no…" the last part was so quiet, that even though we were watching it through Wind Song's eyes, (which were tearing up,) we barely heard.

"What is it?" comes General Lightning Flash's voice from beside her.

"F-Five alicorns. Th-That's all that survived. Galaxus," her vision begins to cloud, "Hayola, their daughters, and a s-sole surviving Palikaen guard." Tears are now beginning to fall from her eyes, "A-A-All th- the other *sniff* al-alicorns are… are…" From the edge of Song's vision we see the tip of the General's larger-than-normal wing as golden feathers. Weeping can be heard from both the transmission and from inside the cave. I had my head bowed, tears dripping from my muzzle in memory of the alicorns of Galaxia.

"Then… there is only one thing left to do." Lightning Flash said slowly. All heads inside the shelter turned back to the link screen, just as Wind Song turned to look at the general. General Lightning Flash was an alicorn with a bright gold coat and electric blue mane styled to look like a bolt of his namesake. He was currently in his armor: a set of thundrite plate armor styled just barely with impressions of lightning bolts on the sides. His unique hardlight blade, crafted by his mate-to-be Rainbow Spectra, was strapped on his back. His wings, four times more large than even what is considered normal for alicorns, have been folded against his sides once more. "Streak, gather everypony in the crystostasis chamber and wait there. Song, I know this hurts like Hell, but I need you to contact the other telepaths in the survivor groups and tell them to enact Plan Zero."

You must understand I had no clue what 'Plan Zero' was. None but the alicorn hom'lados and high-ranking military knew what it meant due to its nature being focused on the survival of alicorn kind at all costs. All except the further loss of pony life, that is. So when the 20 or so alicorns present in the cave gasped and whispered amongst themselves, neither I nor any other non-military pony knew what was going on.

At that moment, the transmission cut out and the images were replaced with Sargent Song's voice. "Shaded, tell me you're actually paying attention you bucking pickpocket."

"Ya mind not gettin too nasty Song? Yer live."

"I what? …I hate you, ex-convict."

"Always a bit o' sunshine yerself, lass."

"Sigh… At least it means I get to make sure that the message actually gets relayed."

"Oi! That was jus that one slip-up, lass! Ya mind tellin' how many messages that you screwed up?"

"Uhg! We don't have time for this! Civvies, listen up! We are now under Plan Zero." I still didn't know what that meant. Neither did most others in the cave. "Now, I know that most of you have no clue what that means, so listen up."

"Plan Zero is a contingency plan that was developed about 5 millennia ago with the extinction of the humans. It was created at the same time that the first crystopod prototypes came about, so the plan was originally drafted in case the humans' bane came back against all odds. This isn't happening, as is brutally obvious, but the principal is the same. There are no longer enough alicorn survivors outside shelters to ensure a successful resistance against a great threat. Those crystopods aren't optional for any alicorns anymore. Not that your shelter should have a problem, seeing as the Bleakmane shelter was designed to hold all the shifters in the Wastes."

This was quite the revelation for those who hadn't known, but it was only to be expected that the alicorns had a contingency. Even still, many ponies mumbled amongst themselves about this information. Then Wind Song thought again, "I've gotta go. I hope to see most of you after this."

The dragonkin then turned back to us with a nod, "Well, as we now hath some clue as to what we shall do next, let us tarry no longer!"

"Holy Faustus, I caint've believed if I aint heard it myself! A dracopony actually saying something understandable! And I agree with 'im! Lets step on it ponies, ta the pods!" All of us took the words of Shaded Purse to heart and rushed to the nearest pod.

(/\)

"And that, little hatchlings, leads to how I became part of Hive Chrysalis." I finished. The small group of hatchlings in front of me all had black chitin with blue-green, eyes without pupils and pale green webbing-manes, the only difference being in gender, voice, and personality. And were all staring wide eyed at me.

They had been sent to me to learn why not to judge anypony by appearance. It makes for difficult love gathering, and seeing as we were hard pressed for that vital energy before the Canterlot Disaster…

No, best not worry for now. Just continue the narration. "You see, the hive tunnelers found me after Canterlot. That combat love blast, or whatever it was, caused my crystal to break. Along with a good bit of wall too!" That gave the hatchlings a good laugh. Ahh, it's good to laugh sometimes.

This little room of mine used to be a storage room, and still has holders for love crystals on the stone shelves. My bed is little more than a stone shelf in the back of the room with a tattered old sheet and a pillow that is more the case than any sort of stuffing; all in all, not too shabby for a shifter in a badlands changeling hive. Most changelings sleep in small octagonal inlets inside massive shared chambers. The only changelings who get private rooms are the top love gatherers, swarm leaders, the Queen, ambassadors from other hives, and the very rare pony resident.

"Blackshell," says a changeling hiveguard entering the room.

Better see what this is about. "Move along, little ones. It should be time for your lessons about dragons with Dragon Fly." The hatchlings first look upset, then excited by the prospect of learning about our fire-breathing neighbors. They almost stampeded over the guard on the way out to Fly! "Sorry about the hatchlings, hiveguard. Anyway, what is it?"

"Queen Chrysalis requests your presence in the main chamber, tutor."

Hello, my name is Hunter Redflame. I am the author of this story, as you, being an intelligent and observant reader and reviewer, no doubt saw. This is my first time putting a story out on FanFiction, and as such I'm not expecting to be at the level of Fanfic authors such as Saphroneth immediately. Which is why I humbly request that you intelligent reviewers kindly leave reviews on what you think of the story. As of now, I will be checking on this story about every week or so, uploading chapters when available. So without further ado, I bid you all farewell.