Pony POV Series
Origins
"Queen Chrysalis"
Crowning Of A Monster
By Alex Warlorn
Edited By Louis
"Euthanize this disease!" Her Fatjesty snapped.
Immediately four royal guards flew down into the circus maximus and surrounded me on all sides, Wolf-Spider's caretakers looking reading to enjoy my destiny.
Maybe I wasn't going to be queen after all, maybe all these revolutionary changes I was trying to set off were beyond my reach, maybe this is where my story ends and Queen Cocoon's begins for real.
But the rules of nature say: fight to the end! I tossed the cloth sack at one of the guards which caught on his horn. I jumped at him, spread my wings, grasped his neck with my back legs as I flew over him, and broke it.
The guards were completely stunned by this sight. One of Wolf-Spider's caretakers, who wasn't as stunned, snarled, "You deviant! You're dead! DEAD!"
The thing about changelings? They aren't as strong, fast, or magically diverse or powerful as ponies. But they're a lot more durable! They can use themselves as ballistic missiles and get up to fight seconds later! But nothing is indestructible when struck against itself.
Oh, the caretaker screaming for my death? I grabbed him and used him as an equine shield against the guard charging me on ground level and he got stabbed by the guard's horn. I rolled forward, forcing the two further into each other, and making the two other guards trying to dive-bomb me from the air, miss and instead slam into Wolf-Spider's shell, cracking it.
I used the speared changeling as leverage, holding the guard down with my own weight and forced open chinks in his body's armor in ways nature didn't intend. Bastards had broken off my fangs, and buck them if they dared to think I was helpless!
I had to to get the collar off, and fast, or I wasn't going to win this. I was going to run out of tricks fast in this exposed arena and the shock of me exterminating three changelings in a row wasn't going to last long.
A funny idiosyncrasy about Queen Cocoon: she didn't trust keys. Only a royal guard, like the kind trying to kill me right now, could get this moon-sent thing off! It would recognize noling else. I twisted at the thing around my neck, moving the horn hole from the back of my neck to more near the front, looking for a royal guard horn that didn't have a sack on a changeling covering it.
One of the guards I'd dodged before got the drop on me and smashed me down on the dirty floor, grabbing my head and pulling it back, exposing my less-armored neck. With me pinned, his teammate charged at me, horn lowered.
I slammed my head back into the guard holding my mane in his teeth, -AHG!-, nearly tore my scalp off! But it gave me the wiggle room I needed to twist my neck -just so-, and the guard's horn rammed neatly into the keyhole.
There was a slight, telling 'click'. I thanked the guard by telekinetically introducing his face to the ground, leaving a trench. Then I grabbed the guard on top of me with my magic and tossed him into his friend. Even more gasps from the audience! By now, many in the crowd were overwhelmed to the point of numbness. Ugh! That alone ate at the meager reserves I had! A slave's diet didn't leave me much in terms of energy. Time to fix that!! I stabbed my horn into the guard who had passed out from the pain of his carapace being pulled open.
"All your love is mine!" His body burst into green flames from the inside, and it was drawn into me, leaving his carapace hollow. I tore my collar off.
This DID get some new gasps, a few in terror at what I had just been able to do. I was mildly surprised it had worked myself, but don't look a gift horse in the mouth!
I know that last one had deeply disturbed Queenie. That was when I leapt at the two surviving guards. I pictured a lioness killing a gazelle with myself in the feline role, and green flames engulfed me, and my body changed shape and form once again. I didn't give it much thought as I tore the surprised guards to shreds, "THIS HAS GOT TO BE A NIGHTMARE!" One managed to scream.
I heard, 'Impossible!' being echoed among the hive now.
Queen Cocoon looked at the six dead changelings and bellowed, "You're a monster!"
I roared. "I. AM. A. SCORPION!" I shifted back and fed on the two guards before they could finish bleeding to death.
"STOP THAT MONSTER!" Queen Cocoon ordered. A couple of the rank and file guard flew at me, and stopped as I looked at them the way a lioness does a slab of meat, like THEY were the cattle! The dynamic had changed. "Do not fear her!"
"What kind of leader kills someling cause they'd find an argument against their point of view?" I asked.
"YOU ARE A BEAST THAT MUST BE PUT DOWN FOR THE GOOD OF EVERYLING!"
"Attacking the messenger is the only argument you have left? What good is the 'protection' you've given us if it's merely sentenced us to a slow death?"
"You're a degenerate! Stop speaking as if you're one of us! Now kill it!"
Several bugs moved to do they duty.
Seriously? It's not my fault if Queen Cocoon ordered them to feed me and prove her guards' ineffectualness all at the same time. They backed off when they realized numbers weren't working on me.
I had a full tank. I knew what they were and what they could do. I had wings and a horn to fight with, and I was sucking them dry a HELL of a lot faster than Cocoon could. Unless of course she consumed them slowly just for show...
The meaningful major effect, however, was on the assembled rank and file workers, farmers, deviants, slaves, and grunts.
"How is she even doing that?"
"This is madness and nonsense!"
"Her Majesty said only royalty could claim the love of another changeling!!!"
"Is she made of sponges?!"
"Only a queen should be able to hold that much love!"
"What if...what if she's right?"
"What if she's not a deviant?"
"Are you insane? Look at her eyes!"
"But...her power...what she's saying...what she did..."
I knew the guards' friends and family weren't going to fall in love with me any time soon. But the tiny wheels that actually turned the great machine were beginning to spin a different direction.
See, Cocoon? This is the power of words.
I couldn't control what happened next, but did I need to?
The unprivileged cockroaches wouldn't stop talking. Every society needs an illusion it can function under, and I had cracked theirs in a day.
"How can the guards protect us if they can't fight this monster?"
"Are the guards weak or is she that powerful?"
"Does that mean she's as powerful as The Queen?"
"She's just a mutant fake imitation!"
"But everything she said-"
"-Is dung!"
"Then why can't you explain why it's wrong?"
"Because it's so much dung than giving it a reasonable counterargument is an insult to reason!"
"But isn't what you're saying just going in a circle?"
"She's just a rabble-rouser trying to cause trouble! Pointing out what Cocoon is doing wrong without offering a solution!"
"How dare you say there are ways the Queen is wrong!"
"Why can't the bucking guards stop her?! They're useless, posturing, fat-flanked, bullying, piggish morons who can't even kill one deviant! They're a waste of space!"
"I say we make the deviant master of the guard instead of Hercules Beetle."
"Why are we treated with less respect than the livestock?!"
"To live is to serve, to serve is to live!"
"We need a new queen!"
"I'm sick of Queen Cocoon not letting me lay my own brood and still watching my friends' nymphs starve anyway!"
The nearby guard's action was reasonable, after all, a strike hard enough to crack off a fang had always worked before to keep the changeling rabble in line. Except 'the rabble' were no longer so sure of who was right and who wasn't. And it had had a day to simmer and the impossible had damaged their convictions further, so another rule took over: violence breeds violence.
-Labyrinth Soundtrack-Goblin Battle-
The crowd didn't cow like it was 'supposed' to. Instead the erstwhile mother attacked the guard who had struck her in a savage snarl, followed by others, more guards struck at them which incited more of the rabble. It spread like wildfire, and the more numerous worker ants attacked the soldier ants. I was momentarily forgotten by most.
Praying Mantis and Goliath Beetle dove into the mess to help clean it up.
"Tis' madness!" Hercules Beetle exclaimed.
Shield Bug was shocked. Jewel Wasp looked disappointed, but not surprised.
"CEASE! I COMMAND YOU! DON'T FIGHT EACH OTHER, YOU FOOLS!" Queen Cocoon ordered.
Few listened, blood was boiling.
I had read history. I knew what my most logical fate was. I couldn't flee, they'd NEVER stop hunting for me now. I was dead. She'd never let this humiliation go. Even if I killed her first, her supporters would just hunt me down. I had no paths left that didn't end in my death. But I was going to prove to that that morbidly obese slug that the brain was the strongest muscle, even if we both died along the way! She was just going to kick the bucket first.
Not that you didn't need trusty muscles to act on your thoughts: after all, I was going to be using my good strong hooves to strangle that nag!
Queen Cocoon and I locked eyes. And I felt her mind; so old, so vast, seated in that bloated body, crushing down on me. I had never felt anything like it. Decades -centuries?- of experiences, reaching inside me, like a great dark claw, to crush my own mind into dust. How could such a rigid and archaic being have such a sharp psyche? She knew so much. I wanted it for my own!
"Look around the bend,
Your reign will end.
Only your husk will greet the dusk.
You might be the ocean,
but see my maelstrom's motion.
In my black abyss you'll find no bliss!
Enjoy your throne,
You'll be but bone!"
Queen Cocoon broke contact between us.
"Hercules Beetle! Jewel Wasp! Shield Bug! Keep that creature from my chambers! All my royal guards, come!" The remaining royal guards flew to their queen as she directed her slaves to quickly escape through the back of the royal balcony, the membrane opening and closing as her fatness escaped.
"I SAID I'M NOT DONE WITH YOU!" I snapped and flew to the balcony.
One lone heroic changeling guard, of common stock but boundless courage, flew with fangs and hooves bared. Braver than brave, determined beyond determination to stop me from pursuing his beloved queen. Munch-munch.
NEXT!
(Interviewer's Notes(Unicorn): His name was Flash Bug.)
Who cares?
The much larger and more intimidating commander of all the changelings I had fed off boomed,
"Behind me, ladies! Stay were you be and accept extermination abomination! I, Hercules Beetle, have vowed to protect and serve the Changeling Queen, you shall pay for-"
"Hercules, look out!" Jewel Wasp shouted.
"What?" He looked around distracted.
Jewel Wasp stabbed him in the back, then zapped him with enough raw magic to knock out five changelings.
I moved to feed on him, but Jewel Wasp came between us.
She looked at me.
"Well, what are you waiting for? This riot won't last forever!"
If this was a trap...there were a million simpler ways to go about it.
"Good luck," Shield Bug said.
I flattened myself like a cockroach and slipped through one of the cracks in the wall. The Royal Guards were all watching the membrane that separated the royal hallway from the queen's balcony. They weren't watching every thin random hole in the walls.
From the membrane that separated the queen's chamber, the hallway branched off into the council chamber, the cells of her personal slaves, and other places that served the needs of the queen.
Cocoon was going to regret connecting the circus maximus directly to her own chamber.
"We need to protect Her Majesty while the rest of the guard slap common sense back into those brain-dead stooges that freak rilled up!" The one obviously in charged commanded in Low Equestrian.
These were trained soldiers, and I had advanced, in their eyes from 'deviant' that committed the crime of raising her head, to 'freak' that needed to be put down. They had seen what I did to their friends. And they were the only thing between me and Queen Cocoon. I was so going to make them fear me.
Now then, Spider-Mare, Spider-Mare, climbs on ceilings and walls Spider-Mare, makes green slime any size, catches guards just like flies, look out, here comes the Spider-Mare.
Zero down, five of them.
"Keep your eyes on the door! The freak or her sock-puppets might be able to get through!"
"Don't you have any faith in Hercules Beetle?"
"Cut the chatter!" snapped the commander.
"Don't worry. The freak's gotta be makin' love-horse-apples with all the love it sucked up!"
"Hey you're right. The piggy'll give herself away from all the surplus love she's radiating."
They blabbed right below me. Cocoon does so love her tall arched hallways.
The echoing corridors worked perfectly to my advantage when I shouted in a perfect imitation of Queen Cocoon's voice, "YOU FOOLS! SHE'S TO YOUR RIGHT!"
The mindless drones responded as they were programmed to. Like a bungie-jumper I slipped down, grabbed the one none of the others were looking at. "YOUR OTHER LEFT, MORONS!" Okay, last time I'll be able to use that one.
I feed on him, and glued his empty carapace to the ceiling. What? Waste not, want no. One down, four to go.
"DAMMIT!"
"Freak is playing with us!"
"But we didn't sense anything! That's impossible! She'd pop if she was holding that all in!"
"But the door wasn't even opened! Did she portal through?!"
"Stop talking crazy! Aphid did you see her?"
I shook my head at the question.
"We should split up. Flush her out," said of the guards.
"Don't be an idiot!" Said the commander, "Stick together! And keep the royal door blocked off! If it opened, rush for it!"
I considered opening the membrane myself and hiding and having them rush through, but that would leave me having to deal with them and Queen Cocoon at the same time.
We formed a circle, keeping an eye out for the 'freak' heh. I silently touched my horn to the changeling royal guard next to me. I work as quickly as I dared. 'An organized mind is a powerful mind, but it's the rocks and idiots who are the most resistant to assaults on the mind.' And these guards weren't exactly moronic, just conditioned to obey like good doggies.
I slipped the suggestion into his brain, making sure to leave an exception for me in there, then I said, "Does anyone see it?"
The guard next to me look to one of his teammates, scream, and attacks her out of nowhere. "YOU! What did you do with Grasshopper!" He gored her, looked at one of the others, screamed again and attacked.
"Yellow Jacket snap out of it!" snarled the commander.
"DIE YOU FREAK! DIE!" Yellow Jacket screamed, terror now running his brain as he looked and only saw me telling him how I had already eaten Grasshopper and was going to eat him next.
"Yellow, it's me! Blue Beetle!" Shouted the other changeling in alarm and panic.
Conditioned to kill or be killed, the three of us mobbed him and put an end to him. Damn.
The Commander smacked Blue Beetle on the head. "Idiot! Why in Cocoon's name did you do that!?"
"He was trying to kill us!"
"We had him tackled! You could have just knocked him out!"
"I have to agree," I said, I was hoping the commander was going to just knock him out too, now all that love went to waste.
The Commander looked regretfully at Grasshopper's wasted remains too.
And I let paranoia set-in. "So what made him go crazy like that?"
"I can't believe Yellow Jacket would just do that to Grasshopper," Blue Beetle said. "Where are you, you monster?! You just waiting for us to fight each other?! YOU COWARD!!!" Blue Beetle shouted at the hallway. I think he might have finally looked up and saw what was left of Aphid.
That's when I sunk my fangs into the Commander's throat.
Oh, my fangs? They'd healed after I'd eaten a few Changelings. I hadn't had much time to keep track of when. Mass revolt, fighting for my life, and all that.
Did you think I was going to leave the brainiest and possibly best fighter for last? I had one last stealth kill and I wasn't going to waste it. My horn was touching his, I drained the commander and dropped his hollow shell, now brittle and weak instead of strong and hard.
I shifted to my 'true' form, no use in hiding it now. I readied myself.
Blue Beetle instead looked at me, and fell to his knees. "I SURRENDER! I GIVE UP! JUST GO! I RENOUNCE COCOON! YOU ARE QUEEN! JUST SPARE ME AND I SHALL SERVE YOU!"
"You had me up until that last part," I said and stabbed him and sucked him dry like the rest. "As if I'd trust the allegiance of someling that changes their loyalty to save their own carapace at a time like this."
For whatever it would buy me, I shifted into the form of the Commander, and trotted to the royal membrane that separated Cocoon's Royal Chamber from the rest of the hive. There was no telling how little time I had left now, the rest of the swarm's army could be on me any minute.
The membrane opened and I passed through. No lock. Then again, the mere idea of challenging the queen was 'unthinkable,' wasn't it?
It had impressive size, and that was all. I lie, partially.
Giant tapestries from every corner and age of the world hung from the walls.
One that caught my eyes was of two crowned ponies facing each other. I couldn't tell what kind of wings the mare had. Between them was a heart with a skull at its center. Above them was a pair of chalices.
Below them was a rendition of a dragon over a broken castle.
Next was the mare from before, all alone and shedding tears, at her center was a heart-shaped hole.
Next showed her surrounded by other winged ponies, hearts going towards them, the winged ponies also with heart-shaped holes in them.
The final picture in the tapestry was a horned serpent with a horse's head and a goat's beard: laughing.
The air reeked of Queen Cocoon's scent. The entire hive was always warm; it was harder to keep it from overheating, but the heat here reminded me of the savanna's noonday sun. I enjoyed the reminder of what I'd never see again.
The ceiling was covered in glowing fungus and several chandeliers' worth of the violet flame torches.
Knickknacks and and trinkets of every possible country and era cluttered the place. The cocoons hanging from the ceiling were the kind used to store prey or mutate them, (or unlucky changelings.) They were all empty.
And at the center of it all was Queen Cocoon herself. She sat in a black and violet throne build just for her size and shape. Scattered around her were the emptied husks of prey, and of her own slaves I had seen alive some minutes ago.
(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): The slaves and prisoners, what were their numbers and names?)
It's not important, noling cares.
(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): That's why I do care.)
"My Queen," I said in Low Equestrian, "Forgive me, the hive is degenerating into madness, I fear for your..."
Her scepter came flying at me like a spiked mace. I grabbed it with my magic, stopping it from impacting with me.
"My Queen! WHY?!"
"You can drop the act, worm. You didn't prostrate yourself and call me 'True Mother Of All The Swarm.' No -civilized- changeling alive would forget that, even if bleeding to death."
Rather than trying to salvage my performance, I just transformed into my true form. "Alright, then." I tossed the scepter aside, far away. "Let's skip to where I kill you." I began to walk towards her.
"That's it?" She asked, underwhelmed, "No negotiation? No demands? You're not very bright, are you? At this moment, the tantrum you tricked my subjects into is being put down by my entire army. You have no way out of here that isn't going to filled with soldiers."
"Oh please, Cocoon. You expect me to believe you'd ever let me live, after contradicting you in front of your subjects? You'd never honor any concession made under a death threat, once the threat was gone." I didn't stop trotting towards her.
"You're a dead changeling walking, worm."
"I know. But you're marching in front of me, sloth. You said you saw through me because I didn't greet you right, so you didn't know I had gotten through? So that means you killed your slaves and stock based totally on the fear I would."
"Enjoy whatever random delusion you invent for my actions, worm, you're about to die."
"Oh, I know! How's this delusion? The almighty and godly Queen Of the Changelings, killed by some no-face, no-name out-of-town deviant in her throne room. Just imagine the paranoia and horn pointing as they try to figure out who must have put me up to it, after all, no way a stupid deviant could have thought up all I said by myself, right? A loser, a nobody? Too bad I won't be there to watch the show, but neither will you."
I was muzzle-to-muzzle with the bug-headed sloth.
It was just a flash of a moment, but I had sharp perception thanks to someone dear. I fell back as a jointed black spear slammed into the ground, impaling my tail, instead of spine. I bit off my own tail to avoid being bisected by a second jointed black spear.
"You were supposed to die just now. It would have been quick," said Cocoon, like she was speaking to a child who had hurt themselves. My heart hammered in my chest.
At last I took note that the 'spears' were made of carapace, they reminded me of insect legs the way they moved, it made me ill just looking at them. They were connected to Queen Cocoon's underside. One of the legs waved in a 'naughty-naughty' gesture. Four more of the legs slipped out from underneath her body mass. Those had been there this whole time?!
"What the Tartarus are you?" I asked, bug-eyed.
She rose up on those legs like an elongated spider, looking down on me. "Wolf-Spider was full of mistakes, and we learn so much from our mistakes!" She let out a war cry, and was engulf in a pillar of violet flames, her form within twisting and changing into something alien.
The pillar of fire dispersed, and she was nothing equine. I was beneath a dragon sized insectoid horror. Its head a set of compound eyes and mandibles, its body was covered end-to-end in blackish armor, and the sharp ends of its legs actually pierced the stone floor. Its different limbs were each shaped differently like a set of artist's tools. A pair of ship sail-sized wings folded on its back, and a wavy horn as long I was sat on its head surrounded by a growth of spikes resembling a crown. It vaguely resembled an ant queen.
I knew fear.
The one thing I respect that fat slug for is this: she'd played her part so perfectly, I'd forgotten that a weak lion didn't remain king for long.
"What tis this pest that's infested my house?
The fires of chaos it has set I'll now dowse.
It is time by far,
that I crush you like the worm that you are!"
-Metal Gear Rising: Collective Consciousness-
It was like trying to survive inside a meat grinder. The monster's limbs sliced, speared, and clawed at me, it took all my experience flying to avoid being torn to shreds. I flew through the changing maze of living blades, trying to get out of Cocoon's line of sight. I found myself stuck in the air by a violet glow.
"Stay still, butterfly, while I pin you." A limb speared towards me.
"NO!" My own telekinesis caught her off-guard and I flew out of the way just in time, feeling the breeze from the speed of the strike, where my heart had just been.
"Naughty butterfly, looks like I'll have to just spray." Cocoon withdrew its limbs and breathed in deep, so it still had lungs, then again insects can't really breath through their sides at that size and... ACID!
The monster spewed a fan shaped spray of acid in a downward motion, that it hit her collection of antiques didn't seem to matter to her. How did I survive not being melted? With nowhere else to hide, I did the tactically insane thing and dove straight at and under her. I didn't find any soft underbelly here; I clung to her underside.
One of Cocoon's limbs struck at me; I managed to avoid it and I took satisfaction hearing her cry out as she hit herself. Just as I was feeling good about myself, she decided to crush me flat by introducing her stomach to the floor. I flew out behind her a shockwave right behind me; everything underneath her was reduced to fine powder. She didn't have much experience fighting in this form, I hoped.
Cocoon began to scuttle about, the ground rumbling under her set of legs, I flew around, keeping to her backside, she changed direction once but so did I. She began to work her wings. She wasn't trying to fly, the wind she fanning was forcing me to the ground.
The beast managed to turn to face me as I fought against the gale of her wingbeats. I scurried up the side of the walls of the chamber. Cocoon laughed and breathed in again. I destroyed the hooks holding one of the tapestries in place and flew it over the monster's head just as she began spraying again, covering her oversized eyes with the tapestry.
"What do you think this is going to buy you!?" I hated to admit it but I was making this up as I went along.
Cocoon just reached up to swipe the giant cloth away, but at least I'd bought myself time. I struck and bit at her head, without result. I struck at her eyes through the cloth, compound eyes however, meant I didn't exactly blind her.
"GHA! GET OFF!" Not having a better idea, I grabbed onto her limb as she swept the wall-rug off.
"You think I don't see you?!" Another limb came crashing down on me. I let go and avoided the strike, but her two limbs struck against each other at high speed, shuttering from the impact. Did they...did they crack?
Cocoon breathed in again, "You're a mistake, worm, and as the Nyeusi Mbwa Mwitu says, mistakes should be erased!" Cocoon had forgotten a basic rule dragons knew: never ever use your breath weapon in close range except as an ambush, for reasons I demonstrated as I rammed into her jaws with the best sprint charge I could muster. UGH! That gave me a headache, but it gave her worse acid backwash.
"AAAAAAGH! WORM!! TIME TO BE EATEN BY A SPIDER!"
"Spiders are arachnids," I said without thinking.
"AND WORMS ARE LEGLESS!" Cocoon snarled as the black forest of death planted itself on me from above. I spun and dove as erratically as I could so she couldn't second-guess my movements, but the razor edges of her limbs cut through my carapace from near-impacts all the same, blood leaking out in thin green lines.
Think, think, think or you die, die, die! All she needed was one good solid blow to kill me, and all I needed was one mistake and I was dead. If I tried to drag this out, I'd soon have an army of changelings to fight on top of her!
Cocoon's horn glowed again and readied her for to try and telekinetically freezing me in place again. Instead the violet flames on the torches floated OFF the torches, moving like will-o'-the-wisps towards me, and multiplying.
Oh no, if she restricts my movements with those things...so I came all this way from killing bugs that wouldn't just leave me alone, being turned into one, and was now going to be killed by one. I had read one or two horror stories about little foals who tortured small animals and then were eaten by impossibly giant versions of those creatures.
I was not dying in a story as stupid and trite as that!
I magically grabbed her collection of baubles now half-melted from her acid breath and FLUNG THEM right at the huge targets she called eyes! She hissed and cursed. The multiplying flames formed a wall between her and me as she tried to shake her eyes clear of the acidic mess.
I snarled in anger and dove right at the wall of flames, I felt something in me scream to turn away from the fires but I pushed it down, and bursted out, scorching myself. Just in time I guessed the ambush coming and dodged the deadly sharp leg. I flew to Cocoon's side, flying up the leg, and grabbed hold of the base. "YOU THINK I CAN'T STRIKE YOU FROM THERE, STUPID?!" She twisted another limb around to bisect me; I did a loop-de-loop so the blade edge struck the base of the other leg instead. I took hold of it with my forelegs, and my magic, screamed in exertion, and tore the bloody thing out!
I had been pulling legs off bugs since before I quit the pacifier! I wish I still had my collection to add hers to it!
Oh, right, lots of little purple flames coming towards me. Good thing pain makes such a great distraction!
Adrenaline pumping and dumping as much love into my telekinesis as I could, I let out a war cry and swung my makeshift weapon across the monster's side, cutting through the armor like an iceberg through an ocean liner! Then I made another, and another, and another. The other limbs on Cocoon's right side twisted about on me, so I cut through all of them! Over-clocking my body and magic, I flew up. Even if I had time, I couldn't do a rain dance underground.
"GO AWAY!" Cocoon hissed, enraged.
I cut telekinesis away from the limb for a moment, hoping Cocoon didn't get the idea to grab it herself in those split seconds. I switched my 'kinesis to more of her baubles and THREW THEM at the floating fireballs, reducing their numbers and scattering them.
I swung at Cocoon's head; she parried with her horn, I struck again from the other side only to be parried again. "Moon-sent bugs! LEAVE ME ALONE!" I snarled at the insect queen, and did an overhead spin. Using the extra inertia and my magic, the limb speared straight through her head and down her insides.
Cocoon stopped moving, and so did the remaining violet flames. The half-legless beast collapsed on the ground shaking the entire hive.
I floated, more like controlled-crashed, to the floor, panting. I felt dizzy and spent.
How much love did I burn through with that last one?
"Nothing to do now but wait for the rest of them to show." I considered giving a fancy speech when they came and saw their queen dead, but meh, they could go buck themselves. I was done fighting, I got what I'd set out to do, it was over. There was no cure for what I was, for what I needed, for how I lived, there was nothing down the road anyway.
Cocoon's body burst into violet flames and died down to show her base form. Her front part just hung limply forward from her main body. She reminded me of a puppet without strings.
"Good riddance to bad rubbish," I verbally indulged myself.
The violet flames as one flew into the white main body, like ghosts passing through it. A light began to glow from within the white mass. Tiny bits of light flickered into being in midair and the ground, only to pull inward. It was like the ghost of a galaxy had come into being in the same space as the main body, swirling inward with a block hole as its center.
'Shooting stars' came next, zipping inward towards the light inside. The light inside grew larger and brighter; I saw the silhouette of a changeling nymph in the fetal position within. It grew up before my eyes like a time-lapsed film. I felt changeling magic being drawn from every direction around me.
The white mass was now a blinding lantern I covered my eyes from.
Then that white slug Cocoon called the majority of her body mass split open, creating one last flash of light as it was torn apart from the inside. Clear fluid spilled everywhere as the hide collapsed like a lanced blistered.
My eyes readjusted and I couldn't believe what I saw before me.
"You're...you're ME?!" I stared at the near perfect mirror image of my own body. Except looking neater, slick with birth fluids with a un-chopped tail. Her eyes, weren't like mine; they were the blue compound eyes of everything in this place.
"Minus your deformity, of course," it said in Cocoon's voice, "I can't believe, that a worm like you got so lucky as to KILL MY BODY!" She snarled. "You've done more damage than you have a right to! I never imagined YOU'D force me to possess my own unborn cloned spawn early...or accelerate her growth."
"So your fat ass is just your way of cheating death. I wondered why noling had a butt like yours."
"Your insults are meaningless. My frustration for you had goes past rage and reached nirvana. You've cut this body's lifespan down to barely a day, hours..."
(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): That poor clone, her body was stolen by her own mother before she even had a chance to live.)
Poor me, having to listen to it whine!
"But that doesn't matter, because I'm going to just be taking yours instead."
I braced myself. "Fat chance, fat-flank." But I couldn't stop myself from asking, "But why do you look like ME?!"
She spread her wings dramatically, "Don't you mean, why do YOU look like ME, worm? Isn't it obvious? You're my clone. Kept safe and out of harm's way in case disaster struck the hive and I needed to abandon the one I keep with me and needed a spare."
"..." I rolled my eyes. "Did you expect me to buy those horseapples?"
"No, but it was worth a shot. In all honesty, I have no idea where you came from, worm, maybe your deserter parents left with some cattle to hide you, but I know where you're going: the grave!"
"Not bloody likely!" I hissed, spreading my wings and lowering my horn.
"You look so tired, it's alright, you can sleep forever," she said in the most fake motherly voice in history.
"I told you already. You first."
She flew forward in a blur, kicking me in the stomach, cracking my carapace and causing me to spin backwards landing in the messy pile of her acid-burned junk.
"I don't want to damage that body too bad, but I'm sure I'll be able to grow back the legs and wings after I tear them off! You will beg for my non-existent mercy, you little worm!"
"Worm, worm, worm! Wow! You're too dumb and lazy to even think up a different pejorative for me, eh, sloth?!"
She kicked me again in the face and I tried to get up, knocking me on my side.
"You asked what the Tartarus I am? Far older than you can ever hope to be!" She telekinetically grabbed my mane and slammed my face into the floor.
I used my own magic to grab a random chalice and thew it at her face, she caught and threw it back into mine, I tasted copper in my mouth. I tried to get up as she dumped an iron and marble table on my back, trapping my wings.
"It's actually adorable... you thinking your power could ever equal mine! I have the experience of countless loops of life! What fantasy possessed you to think you could EVER be my equal, deviant!" She kicked me in the cracked carapace, drawing blood.
I gasped for breath through the pain.
She leaned in close. "Go ahead, give me your best childish insult. Make wiping your very being from existence all the more satisfying for Your Queen!"
"You're right."
"About what?"
"You are something else, Cocoon...You're the first creature I've ever had to kill twice."
"Accept your role in nature or don't. It won't change a thing."
"THIS is not MY ROLE!" I telekinetically threw the table in her beautiful face, and use the distraction to burn through a good bit of the love I had left to heal myself, being all I could be! I was going to need it.
I hissed at her. "What does an pampered nag like you know about the rules of nature? There are no entitlements, only what you take with your own four hooves."
"I know more than you think I do, worm. You're a minnow in a pond that thinks it knows the ocean!"
A needle-like beam of magic was fired right between my eyes from her horn. I magically knocked it off course, shattering a vase instead.
Cocoon's eyes widened, I charged in that moment, fangs bared.
She kept me from getting at her throat as I used my wings to keep up the force of the impact, skidding across the floor, and straight into the stone wall, and made a new exit!
-Shadow of the Colossus: The Opened Way-
The stone walls shattered to reveal the hive wasn't a series of chambers in solid ground connected by tunnels after all. Glowing fungus and violet torches illuminated towers shaped like stacks of pancakes or squat ovals, looking like they had been cut right out of the rock and patched with green slime when needed.
There were countless covered tunnels, connecting one mess of chambers to the next. I saw what could be best described as skylights at the top of them. The hive itself was one big chamber.
They didn't build quite like insects should... all this space just for what? What was the point? It made no economic or military function. It could even encourage cave-ins and make the hive easier to be discovered. It was nothing short of total insanity. What could it be good for except flying underground? . . . Then again, if you had wings and never had a chance to see the sky. . . Did even bugs get sad if they couldn't fly?
Wish I had time to take in the sight, but I had regicide to carry out.
I hadn't stopped holding onto Cocoon, our horns locked and began giving off green and violet sparks as our magics tried to override each other. The conflicting aura making spell casting a headache for both of us. I poured MORE momentum into my push, right into the next windowless chamber behind her.
I smashed through the top floor, and several more stories, knocking Cocoon through all of them! We smashed through what was at last the bottom floor, turned out we crashed right into one of the hive's nurseries.
A changeling caregiver gasped at the sight of us, and grabbed the nymph she had been feeding and ran for cover, yelling at the other nymphs to do the same. The nymphs present scattered from us in fear. I didn't know if any were crushed by the falling ceiling.
A changeling egg a little before it would hatched tittered from where it was placed, and fell hitting the floor. It cracked in half, exiling the nymph inside. She cried at being forced from her warm simple universe into this cold and confusing world, she had my pity.
Sympathy is a weakness. Cocoon reminded me of that as she took advantage of my distraction and stabbing me with her horn. Blood spilling from my wound, I flew away up through the hole I made, severing the direct physical link between us.
Cocoon didn't waste time pursuing me, feeding off nymphs must have not been cost-effective right now. "NOW who's the coward, worm?" She taunted as she flew out of the underground building.
Momentarily dizzy from blood loss, I began to fall, but then Cocoon's magic gripped my wings just before I reached terminal velocity! Something wasn't right!
"You were bluffing!" I realized. "You need my body alive!"
"Anything short of brain death I can fix up after I'm done cleaning out the garbage in my new house."
I covered my body with a faint aura of my own telekinesis to disrupt hers.
We jousted each other in the air like ponies of the nearly-mythical Crystal Empire, each of us trying to stab the other with a horn. Like mad hummingbirds, we zipped past each other. But she knew this city like the front of her hooves. I didn't. I kept getting disoriented as she ambushed from seemingly random directions.
Changelings were finally spreading out like ants from their hills, seeing us fight. This was not good. I looked upwards at that ceiling.
"Catch me if you can!" I shouted, flying up, Cocoon hot on my tail. "Come on! Can't let your new body escape! I MIGHT HIT MY HEAD!" I laughed with total abandon.
"NO!" Cocoon screamed in alarm and a hint of fear.
I flew faster, faster, right at that brown and dirty ceiling, wondering what lay beyond it.
Cocoon caught up with me in the last few seconds and grabbed me, but I dragged her along for the ride! She gripped her arms around me as we were about to hit and violet flame flashed around us, and broke through one check point, a decoy base, and a cavern made to look as boring and un-extraordinary as possible, installed with some items implying losers and bums used it as a gathering place. Air vents made of mundane earth.
Then we broke the surface.
Both our eyes were on fire. The sun was out, there was absolute no sign of civilization or roads all the way to the horizon, or that's if I could see. My eyes watered, I did a headbutt to Cocoon, forcing her to let me go. Both of were as good as blind as Celestia's sun glared down on us without a trace of sympathy.
We both managed to land. If I was low on time before, now I was out of time. I didn't know if they'd recognize Cocoon, but she had to have some way of keeping the swarm loyal to her after she changed bodies, she was too scared of dying to leave something like THAT to chance! And they WOULD recognize me! The trouble maker and the freak of the day! Some might put two and two together considering the hole in the throne room.
Even as my eyes adjusted, I couldn't help but feel giddy to feel sunlight on my body and see the blue sky. When was the last time I'd seen the sun? When was the last time Cocoon had let herself see the sun?
I ducked down before Cocoon could sniper me. She made it clear with her first move that short of killing me, she was willing to do anything to me.
Can't wait for my eyes to adjust, time to let my other senses do the work, smell, sound, tell me what's around me. Wings buzzing!
-'Endless Possibilities Instrumental' Sonic Unleashed -
I rolled out of the way of Cocoon's four hooves as they slammed into where I had been a little before. I quickly became air-born, Cocoon was NOT letting me get away and followed. I folded my wings and dropped like a stone, landing an elbow on Cocoon's back, and my surprise weight knocking us both down again, thankfully Cocoon broke my fall, and my front knee broke some things of hers.
Cocoon was engulfed in violet flames, and a dragon her size knocked me off with her much stronger wings, before I could right myself, her tail sent me flying without her even turning around, and I landed, rolling in the dirt.
I flew at her horn lowered right at her back between her wings, she burst into flames again, and used her transformation to turn around. She transformed her body to face-AGH!
Looks like dragon claws trump changeling armor. If dragons weren't so egocentric they'd be ruling the world by now. At least my sight is improving.
I transformed into a leopard and instead of committing suicide by fighting a dragon head-on I ran into the tall grass, out of sight.
Cocoon responded by burning down the grass around her in a flash, turning the field to a circle of ashes in seconds.
I panicked at the fire and flew like mad Cocoon saw me easily as I gave up stealth for retreat and breathed fire leaving path of ashes and charcoal, burning away my fur and more and leaving me helpless and in unspeakable agony.
Cocoon took a couple steps forwards in triumph, shifting back to her changeling form. A zebra seemingly burst out of the ashes in front of her like a ghost. In reality, her stripes did a wonderful job of blending into the white and black ashen field, the zebra planted on their front hooves and kicked Cocoon in her beautiful face with the zebra's back hooves.
I lied. All Cocoon attacked was a mundane leopard. The zebra is me. Knowing what dangerous species are lurking around the continent has its advantages.
I grabbed her head with my back legs, still balancing on my front legs and forward flipped her into the ashen ground, creating a dust cloud.
"If you believe it was me you had caught,
Then you are not as sharp as you thought."
She used her horn from our position of both being on our backs to stab me in the stomach, I was able to twist my front hooves down and quickly sprint away, opening the wound but keeping her from consuming me.
"It take a second to suck my soul though that lance,
I shall not give you the chance!"
"You're a wretched monster who doesn't deserve to live!"
I shifted back to my changeling form.
I charged, she did the same.
At the last moment she changed into her dragon shape again to eat me. But I saw it coming, I'd have done the same, and in a flash became a unicorn and brought up a barrier spell that her face smashed into. Without giving her time I think I shifted into a zebra and kicked her in her knees, and stomach using them as spring boards as I struck my way up her like a gymnast. I shifted to a pegasus and backflipped as her claws clutched together to try and crush me, I flew one second upwards and folded my wings and dove down, shifted to an Earth pony and landed a rear hoof square in her draconic jaw, lifting her off the ground from the impact. Like an obelisk she fell.
I transformed back to a changeling landing squarely on my hooves. In a flame flash Cocoon went from a back facing prone dragon to a forward facing upright changeling.
"I can live with that!" I said.
"No you won't!"
We swung horns, but this time I increased the speed of mine with my telekinesis, and laying an extra layer around it, I didn't even try to aim for her, I aim for the base of that twisted twig sticking out of her head!
Cocoon's scream was deafening.
Violet magic leaked out of the stump, more like a dagger than a sword now. Which mean it was easier to get past my 'sword' rushed close like a mad mare stabbing what remained of her horn, her magic leaking all over the place with no regard for herself.
Did she not think to regenerate or couldn't she?
What was left of her horn hit home stabbing me again where her horn had struck before!
"I'll eat your essence and slip into your hooves!" She grappled my hooves with hers, her head below where my horn and fangs could reach.
I felt her reaching inside me, pull at me, began to eat at me. Making me less and making her more.
Something came between us inside. Neither of us saw this coming. But I felt it. I didn't believe it but I couldn't deny it. It was like a firewall rising up, greatly hindering Cocoon as she tried to consume me.
"What are you doing?!"
Then I realized. "I don't think I'm doing anything."
Maua. Always there for me.
"What do you mean?!"
"Like I'm going to tell you!"
It's funny, for one moment, my instinct to live overrode all.
I refuse to die here, I refuse to die here, I REFUSE TO DIE HERE!
And I felt something inside me roar.
Cocoon's eyes widened in horror. "WHAT ARE YOU YOU, MONSTER?!"
As we touched, as she continued to try to consume my self, I saw in her mind's eye a whirlpool with jaws at its center.
"I'm hungry!" I snapped, "Give me all your love!"
She screamed as I began sucking her dry instead!
She tried to get away, but wrapped my hooves around her instead!
Her life flashed before her eyes.
I didn't catch most of the beginning, I had no idea if she was the first changeling queen or not. But I did sense the fear. Acting on the collective fear of not having a home. The fear of all her experience and knowledge being lost with her when death claimed her from her swarm. Willing to make any sacrifice as long as she remained to protect and guide the swarm than trust it to an inexperienced newcomer.
I saw her take many lovers to starve off the loneliness of her isolated position, to make bearable the centuries of her protecting the swarm from itself and from outsiders.
I saw her out live them all, I saw her outlive her own children, never letting any of them near the throne. Making sure the useful were bred and the useless were not, and that those who could steal the queen from the swarm and replace her with one without her knowledge and wisdom never bred.
I saw her moving the majority of the swarm underground, where it could be properly protected and controlled, where discovery was less likely. No sacrifice was too great to insured that the changeling remained unknown. No insane changeling who tried to bring about an impossible co-existence between predator and prey was allowed to live long. Ideas or actions that might disrupt the system were crushed, nothing could threaten the safety of the swarm, not even itself.
Genetic deviants, those showing more and more traits of ponies, they had to go. Prey mimicked predators to survive, not the other way around after all.
Those who questioned her had to go. She was the swarm, what was good for her was good for all the swarm. Keep safe, alway safe, keep hidden, and always there, that pure absolute fear of death. And willing to sacrifice anyling and everyling to starve it off, it was for the good of the swarm after all.
She was resisting, or I should have taken it all in a flash, but I ate the love that was animating her body inch by inch, as I slowly killed her. I never imagined how wonderful it would looked watching her squirm, trying to wiggle away like a fish on a hook. The dread and fear on her ugly face as it dawned on her that this was her end.
Tiny cracks appearing in her legs and spreading as I consumed the love within her. I felt a near euphoric thrill at the sickened and panicked look on her grotesque face as she felt her body literally fall apart around her!
I twisted the knife. "You talk about how genetically inferior I am, but when your life is in danger you want this deformed body for yourself. You're a disgrace!"
"You'd bring us all to ruin!"
"Life is chances, something you've forgotten!"
Then Cocoon tried her hoof at bad comedy. "PLEASE! MERCY! THE SWARM NEEDS ME! THEY CAN'T SURVIVE WITHOUT ME! PLEASE! I SURRENDER! I GIVE UP! YOU WIN! YOU'RE THE BETTER CHANGELING! YOU ARE SUPERIOR! SPARE ME! THE SWARM HAS NO HOPE WITHOUT ME! THE SWARM HAS NO FUTURE WITHOUT ME! PLEASE DON'T DO THIS!!!"
"The swarm has no future WITH you anyway, and no PAST for that matter. All you believe in, all you care about, all you've lived for, all you've ever protected is the present."
"The past is dead and the future isn't here yet!"
"Correct on both counts. But the future will be here sooner than later. And being dead can make somelings more dangerous than ever, I'm about to make you quite dangerous. You will NOT be burned from the records, Cocoon, none shall ever forget your failure. And you'll serve as an object lesson against stagnation for all time."
Her back legs and lower body had become lifeless and hollow. The rest of her struggling all the more so for it. You have no idea how sweet it felt. Bugs should thank me for getting rid of her. I loved washing away her idiocy and arrogance from Zebrafrica.
I'll admit I managed to pick up a good deal of practical information as I watched her memories flash by her in final moments. It wasn't her whole lifetime of experience, because that had rotted away long ago. I strangely thought of Celestia, and realized this black bug was like a poor imitation of the immortal goddess. I laughed at the comparison. Then I laughed more as Cocoon cursed, screamed, snarled, cried, sobbed, pleaded, and begged more for mery as her body died.
In my distraction, her forelegs finally got free, and in a flash she was pressing them against my throat!
"I AM HER ROYAL HIGHNESS COCOON MAB LOTH AVALON, QUEEN OF THE CHANGELINGS! I WILL NOT DIE!"
She pushed all the strength she had left into her hooves, pressing closed my windpipe, I struggled to break the grapple now, but now she held on, I need air to live, I distantly thought that at least she wanted to go out fighting as natural selection wants us to. And hollow forelegs broke off and fell away like the empty shells they were now.
No, changelings are not suits of armor with love animating them, it's just Cocoon's method of consuming love from changelings consumes EVERYTHING ELSE related to love, like life.
And in that one moment, Cocoon realized she was already dead. I absorbed the last of her love, and the last of her ceased to be, and I gave her one way ticket to her reincarnation. Maybe she'll be born as a worker drone or a zebra this time. Or maybe even a head of lettuce.
Out of nowhere, a green shockwave of my magic burst from the two of us, devouring what remained of her violet magic, and spread and kept spreading through the ground and across the land and out of sight.
Hollow and empty, the body of the queen of the changeling fell at my hooves.
"Thank you Maua," I whispered.
I pushed Cocoon's lifeless carapace down the hole.
Sitting back, I relaxed, enjoyed at the sky and sunlight, felt the wind and savanna, looked at the beasts and grass, taking it all in, feel at home and alive just a tiny bit more. I was waiting to die.
They came flying and crawling out of the hole Cocoon and I had made. I didn't run. I had done what I had set out to do. I had nothing left. No where to go, nowhere to return to, no place to escape.
The mass of changelings of every cast and age formed a semicircle around me as more came up from below. They looked at the surface and the sky like a zebra would react to being on the surface of the moon. The air so fresh, the light so bright, the space that went on forever some cowered before it, others simply stared in awe, some actually began praying.
Those closest to me looked at me in uncertainty and awkwardness. What were they waiting for?
"Uh, excuse me," said a run of the mill, complete unremarkable changeling drone. "I mean no disrespect but what is your name?"
They wanted to know my name before they killed me? Fine. Last joke on them. I rose up proud, and told them my name: its translation into Equestrian that is.
"Hail . . . Queen Chrysalis! Long live the Queen!"
The rest of the swarm followed suit. "HAIL! THE CHANGELING QUEEN! HAIL QUEEN CHRYSALIS AVALON! MOTHER TO US ALL! COMMAND AND WE SHALL OBEY!"
What the buck just happened?
+++
Ahem. So yes. I was now the undisputed monarch of the entire changeling species. Roughly 99% of the swarm either embraced me as their new Queen on the spot, didn't care, or their oaths were worded as loyalty to the 'Changeling Queen' not Cocoon or myself explicitly.
Word of the swarm being under new management was sent out among gatherers and spies in the field (like Digger Wasp).
I could have and should have probably just changed what the rules of succession said, crowned a random noble, and left. Would have been much less trouble for me.
As it was, being Queen granted me protection from having killed the previous Queen in single combat with at least half the swarm in condolence of the deed thanks to my little speech and obviously possessing royal linage with Young Cocoon having the same bug face as mine. Now that I had a way to stay alive I didn't want to find out what would happen if I didn't have 'royal protection.'
Sure I was ready to die when I had no way out, but when a door opens, you walk through it and continue on, don't you?
It also meant I'd have a endless steady supply of love as long as I kept the big machine running efficiently. Blech. And it was in need of a major overhaul.
I knew my first batch of decrees weren't going to be that popular with the privileged few, but I'd rather have the majority on my side. And to be frank I liked tearing Cocoon's system apart. Hated everything about it. And her for that matter. I hope she's enjoying her time in Tartarus.
First, all changelings now have names. Many changelings acted like I had declared everyling nobility. That one little decree shook changeling society so far to the foundation it's a wonder they didn't feel it in Neighpon!
Next, in the middle of the infrastructure decay and love shortage, I declared full breeding rights to every female changeling in the swarm. I could spend five hours explaining how they stabilized the population, but that's not the point here. How many nymphs did the new mothers name in my honor? Erm, can we move on?
I also recruited a few willing converts of zebra mares whose line of work had been similar to changelings anyway.
The deviants were next granted education, names, breeding rights, and were expected to pull their weight as part of the swarm. I think my 'fellow mutants' saw me as their savior for that one. I promoted the ones with competency to positions where I needed trust.
Guard Number #1983? Guard Number #1983, or 'Scorpion' as he's called now. . . I visit him sometimes, tell him what a wonderful job he's doing, looking forward to "when I have you for, I mean at dinner," and trot off smiling. Seeing him squirm and anguish in paranoia until he dies of old age is sweeter than anything else I could do to him.
On a minor note all the flames in the hive are now green, as are the flames of changeling when they transform.
Accidentally grasping control of the swarm had been a near-lethal task, forging it into a true effective swarm to be feared was much harder! Queen Cocoon's incompetence lingered long after her corpse had blow away in the wind.
I am called Queen though I have no true castle. I am called a leader though I rule no nation. I am called mother though I had birthed no brood.
I remember declaring to the swarm early on, to the workers, soldiers, nobles, and the masters of the swarm's different branches, "We embrace the rules of nature."
I am Queen of the Changelings. My word is law.
(Interviewer's Notes(Unicorn): My Queen, what would you do if you found out you were born what you are and the way you are as a project of another?)
Murder them. Murder whoever put the project in motion.
(Interviewer's Notes(Unicorn): I have a gift for you, My Queen.)
Frakenpony? Thank you, but I've read it.
Even my supporters called me crazy for my next move. I granted the livestock a tiny bit more awareness and allowed interactivity with each other instead of just being kept in pods between feeding and work. This actually INCREASED the amount of love they produced (which shut up the dissenters), and would ultimately enable our number of livestock to slowly replenish itself on its own. And they were now were aware enough not to be bitten by random snakes. And able to handle far more complex instructions and some actually resisting being brought out of their happily little stupor.
And yes, I did decrease the size of the army and put them to different functions throughout the hive instead of just eating resources, their time would come. Cocoon had been a fool. While our army had exceeded most nations, our actual civilian population was barely a tenth of the size of even small nations. She apparently either didn't care that would leave the hive woefully, almost suicidal underhoofed if it did go to war or she wanted a war of mutually ensured destruction.
But still, this underground hive was a death trap. This hidden city would be discovered eventually. And now that so many of the swarm had tasted the sunlight and sky, they wanted it more than ever. They couldn't stand living underground now, and this spread like wildfire.
As Queen of the Changelings, it's my duty to find food for my subjects. And there was one land with more love than any other. I actually visited there myself a few times. After all, I was no Cocoon! What's more, I was our best shapeshifter and infiltrator. I visited Equestria as a little earth pony colt with 'parents' I had brainwashed, a wealthy unicorn heiress, a faceless pegasus maid in service of a certain princess, even a zebra fortuneteller.
As for the annoying possibility of Changelings falling for cattle, I simply perpetuated and magnified the idea that cattle would kill Changelings on sight. That they'd never see us as anything but monsters. That was so much easier than sending out a death squad, which in and of itself was likely to draw more attention in the process of silencing them. It was easier to instill a fear in their brains so even if it did happen, they'd be too terrified of death to dare speak up.
Meanwhile our other gatherers and infiltrators began their work, starting all the way at the bottom and working their way up the ranks and ladders of Equestria's military, media, and other vital branches, along with a few non-vital ones just to be thorough. It would take years to put every piece in place, maybe decades, but I was not an impatient queen. A prize like Equestria was worth the extra time and effort.
Ironically, our web of spies and infiltrators was actually downsized compared to Cocoon. As with her body mass, the fat slug had believed more was more. So while the spy network was deep rooted and quite useful, it was also painfully fragile due to being so spread thin and more heads meaning more possibility for equine error. It was only a matter of time before Cocoon's incompetence destroyed the very masquerade she sought to maintain, if not the hive itself. So it needed an overhaul. Instead of countless faceless spies everywhere I could fit them, I settled for fewer, competent spies aiming to reach key positions. Quality over quantity. We focused our numbers onto the prize rather than spreading them out.
We did a few 'practice runs' as we grew to call them. Not worth mentioning. Neither were the pin-head sized kingdoms that vanished and historians then debated over what happened to them after we added them to our livestock.
I remember the speech I made to my swarm.
"Since dawn of memory we have cowered in the shadows of history.
Feeding on you cattle and retreating like criminals into the dark.
Our nests hidden like some unholy shame.
Our own history forgotten.
Our true faces forever hidden.
We tire of this nomad existence.
WE DESERVE A NATION OF OUR OWN!"
But before all of that, came what I'll never forget: my coronation.
-"Goddess of Lies"- Lunar 2: Eternal Blue-
There hadn't been a coronation in the swarm for ages. And considering Her Late Majesty, Queen Cocoon's habit of generationally destroying records, we had to play it by ear. But if there is one I know, it's theater. And I gave my swarm a presentation it would never forget!
Virtually the entire colony was present, including new converts, some even brought some of their pet-zebra in with them.
There were so many torches and glowing fungus that the chamber was as bright as sunlight, which was the point.
Incense made from the ill-fated love tree's remains burned (bio-alchemists never throw away anything.)
I had the throne custom-built for my proportions, the previous throne being unfit for a queen whose rear end wasn't the size of an elephant. Black and greens, of course.
I also custom-made the carpet I trotted up to that throne on, a plush green carpet with gold trim with a pattern of bats, spiders, and snakes (they eat insects).
The entire swarm and their pets prostrated to me as I passed.
My coronation dress was made by livestock from Neighpon, which strongly resembled a black and green kimono, the bead tassels and bead necklace were my own customizations to it.
The song playing was my own composition, but right now was only the instrumental version.
It wasn't quite perfect, but I can't say I hadn't dreamed of this since I was small. All gathered around thinking I looked lovely in a gown. I didn't think this would be my fate at all.
I came to the end of the carpet, turned and beheld my subjects of bugs and insects gathered around me, as they always had since I was small.
I knelt down, my horn touching the floor. Two nymphs buzzed over to me holding my new crown.
I had little interest in the crown, so we just used parts of Cocoon's old scepter and replaced the jewels, and no, it was just a scepter, I made quadruple sure of that.
The crown went on my head. I rose up, and was now officially the absolute ruler of a swarm of shapeshifting love-eating bug equines.
Digger Wasp, Hercules Beetle and Goliath Beetle, Kabutomushi, Shield Bug, Jewel Wasp, Praying Mantis, and the rest of the swarm's movers and shakers knelt before me and swore their loyalty and obedience, their lives and love were mine to command.
I spoke to them for the first time as their queen.
"We were dead and buried, but now changelings are alive."
"Changelings are alive
The legends have to survive
We can never come undone
And we will be forever young
Changelings...have arrived!
I am a Changeling, I was a slave
We sleep through the daylight in our grave
In the darkness, in the shadows, here we are!
Here I am.
I want you to be forever mine
Together until the end of time
Like a performance, never ending, let us change your world."
A white changeling with black stripes, a new addition, kissed a nearby fancy dressed zebra with a gold tooth, and sucked him dry!
"Changelings are alive!
And we will be forever young!
Today is the day, live thousand years
Don't be scared, don't drown in tears
Captured spirit, in our passion, sell your soul!
Let it go!
From Elysium to Tartarus, enjoy the ride
You're here to surrender with your mind
Precious victims, our desires, live eternally
The entire swarm by now sang with me.
Changelings are alive
The legends have to survive
We can never come undone
And we will be forever young
We're alive! Changelings are alive!"
I made a small laugh. There was much to do.
~It Begins