A few hours after recieving the scroll, I had turned the war room into one suiting my needs. On the table was the map from the last Council of Queens meeting that had all the hives listed on it and not only was every queen accounted for, I also had each Princess join us in the meeting. It had taken a considerable effort on both Celestia and Twilight's part in order to convince Cadance, but in the end she eventually agreed to join the ceremony on the condition I would keep the other queens at bay from Shining Armour. "I now call this emergency council into session." I said tapping my hoof on the table twice calling for silence. "As each of us are painfully aware, we have a day of mourning soon..." I said glancing at an empty chair that had a bouquet of black roses sitting in it. "Queen Valandrus was murdered and a threat was issued on my head. That being said, I am placing each of you on probation due to me suspecting treason, fail to comply and the punishment will be deadly."
"And just what will this punishment be?" One of the changeling princesses asked over the commotion.
"I will minimize that queen's connection to their drones until they do comply...." Everyling paled and the ponies in the room stared at me in shock at the fact I could be so ruthless and cruel, the complete opposite of my normal behavior.
"So it does seem that you are initiating a hostile takeover as it were..." Queen Saphron sneered but I just shook my head.
"No, I just want the changeling race to be great again, and it is not a hostile takeover if I only do that as a last resort. All I am asking is for everyling's cooperation....that's it. Reason for me to believe it was one of you in this room is because you were all at the last council meeting and knew that Queen Valandrus forged an alliance with me so some-" I cut my sentence short as I felt a dull pain hit me in the stomach and knock me to the floor and everytime that I would try to get up it would hit me worse than the last. It took a few minutes for my mind to register what was happening and, despite hoping I was wrong, I knew what was about to happen. "Princess Luna of Canterlot, Princess of the Night and ruler of the New Lunar Republic, do I have your permission to claim the Crystal Caverns of the Frozen North as the claimsake for my hive....I am about to lay my first clutch..." I said between pained breaths, instantly gaining a whole new level of respect for mares.
"Queen Cloud Dasher, True Queen of the Changelings, I hereby establish that the Crystal Caverns now be the location of your new hive post haste until further decisions be dictated."
"Thank you..." I whimpered as another wave of pain, the strongest one yet, rippled through my body as I started to lay the first egg. That egg was followed by another, and then another as time seemed to weave together like the threads on one of Rarity's fancy outfits until the pain finally subsided. When it did, I turned to look and saw a clutch of 13 eggs in a neat pile sitting on the floor. My new instincts took over and, much to the princess' disgust, I coated each egg in a ball of salve to use as a modified incubation system. The room was so silent you could hear a frog jump in Yakyakistan until Phoenix spoke up.
"Cloudy, are you ok hun?" Phoenix asked me as she nuzzled against my cheek. Everyling and pony in the room noticed her tone, weather intentional to make me feel more relaxed or not, had a reverbation to it. Instead of calming down, it just drove me closer to my breaking point.
"Let me see..in less than a week I have been turned into a changeling queen, the TRUE queen at that, have death threats against me, just laid my first clutch of eggs, and you are turning into a changeling yourself. If you consider that "fine" then yeah everything is 100% okie dokie loki fine." I then slumped to the floor while staring at the eggs. "I'm just so tired......"
Phoenix just smiled and joined me on the floor. "You just went through the changeling equivalent of childbirth so of course you are going to be tired you goofy goober. As for the other points you made, think of it this way, you are now stronger than you were before and with both of us being queens we have a higher chance of spending eternity together like we said we were when we started dating. Also, our drones will be like our babies and we will love and care for them as such. Now come on, get some sleep while I guard your eggs, in the morning we will go to OUR hive since that is going to be our new home." The way she said "our" made every queen flinch and I could feel the sensation of fear seep from them like a fine mist on an early morning mountainside breeze. With the help of Phoenix, Chrysalis, and Twilight I made it to the nearest bed since I was too drained to teleport. However when I fell asleep, my dreams were filled with, despite Luna's and the First Mother's help to ease my thoughts, such horrors that it would make Tirek wish for death and Discord pale. When I roused up from my sleep, I noticed Luna in the corner laying in a fetal position and softly rocked in place. Seeing Luna in this state erased any and all doubt as to what my next move would be, right then and there I made it my mission to destroy any changeling that harmed my friends and family....
even if innocent ichor had to be spilled in the process...