//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 Time Goes On, Part 1 // Story: Fluttershy The Kindest Changeling Queen // by Changeing Winter //------------------------------// The day after the 1000th Summer Sun Celebration An extravagant party was thrown in Ponyville that day, both to celebrate the return of princess Celestia and to honour the return of princess Luna. The party planner (Pinkie Pie, seriously who else would it be?) went all out on creating the most super-duper amazing splendiferous princess return party ever (Pinkie's words.) Years of hiding her true form from other ponies due to fear of rejection had made Fluttershy very scared of large crowds, she was afraid that one of these ponies wold see through her disguise and discover her and her children. Even worse the princesses were here and if anypony was going to know about changelings it would be them, obviously this thought only served to terrify her further. In truth, the reason why Fluttershy's disguise was so shy around other ponies was because the real Fluttershy was also frightened of being around ponies. In large events like this Fluttershy would often find an excuse to not attend and just send some of her children out to blend in and absorb the emotional energy. Worse case scenario, if she was forced to attend then she would simply have one of her children disguise as her and go in her place. This party however proved to be simply impossible to escape from. It started as soon as they had returned from the forest so she had no opportunity to make an excuse or switch out with one of her children. Due to her and her friends heroic actions earlier she was always the focus of many ponies attention, leaving no opportunity for her slip away or switch out, not to mention there was a chance that the princesses would find her sudden departure suspicious and come to look for her for one reason or another. Fluttershy could not afford the smallest chance of suspicion from the princesses, so she had to stay. It was times like this that Fluttershy was grateful that her disguise was as scared of ponies as she was, as any flinching or scared looks were simply written off as Fluttershy being Fluttershy. After a few hours of celebration the ponies finally began to disperse and the princesses left in the royal carriage, with them gone Fluttershy finally felt safe to leave, making the excuse that she was going to make sure her animals were okay. As she went home Fluttershy began to think of the conversations she had during the party. Not with other ponies no, but over the hive mind with children. Fluttershy had actually spent most of the party communicating in the hive mind finding out about the events that had taken place during her adventure. She was extremely upset that her children had been forced to fight, especially against such nightmarish creatures. Cleary however the most important topic to bring up now the danger had passed was... What had the element of kindness done? Clearly it had healed her injured children and Fluttershy was very grateful for that, it had also fed both her and her children full to the brim with emotional energy. But... It didn't stop. Fluttershy could feel the element of Kindness sort of... attached to her mind, even though she no longer had it with her. Any time either her or one of her children used their emotional energy, the element of Kindness sent even more emotional energy through the hive mind straight to the changeling that needed it. So they now had an infinite source of food... It was dream come true. No more love gathering, no more forced deception, no more starvation. No more limitation on expansion... Fluttershy knew that whatever happened, these next few weeks would be very, very important. As Fluttershy arrived at her home, her and the entire hive could feel it... This was the beginning of something brilliant. Time goes by. days, weeks, months. Sometimes Fluttershy's hive was involved. Sometimes it was not. These are some of the more interesting parts of these weeks "Fine! I don't need a friend like you!" Gilda yelled as she stormed out of Sugarcube Corner. 'I don't need any of those wimpy ponies anyway. I can do just fine on my own' Gilda thought. 'There all stupid, like that doormat Fluttershy, hah! I sure showed her a thing or two.' Gilda was so caught up in her own pride and arrogance... That she did not notice the pit hole trap dug just for her. "Waaaaahhhhhh!" She screamed as she fell into the trap. "Who put this stupid hole here? Gah, its too small for me to stretch my wings, now I have to climb out!" While Gilda struggled (and failed) to get out of the hole, two creatures watched her from a hidden position behind a nearby bush. Those two creatures were the changelings, Primrose and Swift Wings. They had been following Gilda secretly after what she had done to their queen, they had also been the ones to dig the pit hole trap. Now they were watching from a bush, laughing to themselves. "Ah, sweet vengeance." Silent Wing laughed. "She never knew what hit her!" Primrose was about to agree when they both received a message from the hive mind. "Primrose, Silent, are you there? We're assembling for another meeting regarding the recent turn of event with the elements of Harmony, but no changeling knows where you are. Please tell me where you are and what you're doing." "We're fine mother" Primrose responded quickly. "In fact I have Silent Wing with me right here, we're already already heading back to the hive so no need to worry." Primrose took a quick moment to look at Gilda, who was still stuck in the hole. Deciding vengeance had been enacted, she quietly walked of while muttering under her breath. "No one, messes with mom and gets away with it." Silent Wing decided to stay a few moments longer, before he also disappeared into the shadows while whispering. "Hail to the queen, Gilda." "Hail to the queen." Gilda never did find out who dug that hole. Deep in the Changeling Hive… Queen Fluttershy had gathered her four advisors, her most intelligent, individualistic and ambitious children who helped her keep the hive in perfect running order. Primrose was the general administration advisor. She made decisions on and kept Fluttershy informed of the more mundane issues of the hive, like how much food they had or if the hive was in needed expansion. She also handled the general administration of jobs in the hive if Fluttershy herself could not. Silent Wing was the information and infiltration advisor. He kept track of any changelings outside the hive, as well as made decisions and collected information on emotion gathering. He also kept Fluttershy informed of anything he found that could threaten the safety of the hive. Flora was the population and spawning advisor. She was responsible for the general happiness of the hive, particularly that of the nymphs. She also had the great responsibly of keeping the spawning pool in good health and working order, so she kept Fluttershy informed of any problems in those areas. Finally there was Thunder Hooves, the aggressive affairs advisor. He had only recently joined the advisor council due to his more aggressive personality which attracted Fluttershy’s attention. Thunder Hooves would give advice on and attempt to deal with the more direct and physical threats to the Hives safety. This was a very important meeting. Due to the element of kindness the Hive now had access to an infinite amount of food, the advisors had been given time to prepare new proposals for their queen/mother about what to do with this new resource and now they would get a chance to put their ideas forward. Primrose and Flora had banded together under the idea of expanding the hive. Primrose proposed extra excavation projects to increase space for living quarters, recreational areas and goods storage. This was tied to Floras plan to use the new limitless energy supply to expand the spawning pool and the nursery, to increasing the hives population much faster. Silent Wing had come up with a plan to introduce more infiltrators in to pony society, not for love gathering but for information gathering. Silent explained that if the hive were to increase in size it would massively increase the chance of changelings being discovered, so if changelings could gain access to important positions in equestrian not only could they feed the hive information but they could also help manipulate equestrian society itself if the need was dire. Finally Thunder Hooves wanted to take advantage of the hives possible soon to be larger population (changelings have very short growth cycles.) by creating an official army that changelings could join, complete with construction of a training area which could be used to teach changelings how to fight properly, instead of relying on natural instincts and numbers. Thunder Hooves claimed this was a good idea, due to the amount of hostile creatures in places like the Everfree, particularly those that could tunnel as they could attack the hive at any time. Fluttershy was happy to see how much thought each of her advisors had put in to their projects before putting them forward. She was more than happy to agree to all the aforementioned plans as she could see how they could help expand and protect the hive. When suddenly- *Rumble Rumble…* “Goodness, what was that?” Flora questioned. “Probably nothing.” Thunder Hooves grunted. “Now let’s continue. I know we aren’t normally aggressive species but I believe with the proper training and conditioning…” The entire hive was intently focused on listening to the meeting. So focused in fact, that not a single one of them noticed that there had been an ursa minor rampaging right above their heads… Until they read about it in the newspaper the next day. “Now pack up your things and leave.” Fluttershy watched as the ginormous dragon skulked back into its cave, despite how nice kind she was, this time she was forced to show her friends her more unyielding and aggressive side. She could only hope they didn’t fear her because of it. Still from what research Fluttershy had done on dragons (They might be a threat to her hive one day.) she knew it was unlikely that this one would leave it sleeping spot so easily. So now extra steps had to be taken to assure the dragons departure. Luckily the extra steps had already been taken… Inside the dragons cave. ‘Why should I leave here just because some weak ponies want me to?’ The dragon grumbled to itself. ‘In fact you know what? I’ll just go back to sleep! I mean what are they going to do, shoot me with friendship? Hah!’ The dragon smiled at the thought, he turned around to gaze at his hoard before he went back to sleep. Only to see his hoard covered in at least thirty yellow Pegasus ponies… All of which were glaring at him menacingly, just like the one that wanted him to leave… ‘By the dragon lords scales, they’re multiplying!’ The dragon spent a few precious seconds mentally debating whether or not staying here was really worth it… ‘NOPE!’ He decided. ‘NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE!’ He grabbed the nearest stash of gold and took off as fast as his wing could carry him. ‘NOPE NOPE NOPE, SO MUCH NOPE!’ The dragon quickly glided of in to the sunset, desperate to get away from the mountain as fast he could. Silence. The thirty changelings disguised as Fluttershy burst into laughter. Hundreds of insect-like abominations known only as ‘parasprites’ had set upon Ponyville, devouring everything in their path with seemingly no end to their ravenous hunger. Meanwhile, just beneath the town... Over one hundred changelings were now extremely happy that they had chosen to live underground. The slow breeze, the fallen leaves, the cooling air… Twilight Sparkle thought it was the perfect autumn. There was just one thing that bothered her… “Princess Celestia?” “Yes my faithful student?” “Why were some of the trees bare in other parts of town before the running of the leaves started?” Celestia looked thoughtful for a few moments before responding. “Well Twilight that certainly is a mystery. The only thing I know that could be related to this is what I heard some of the town folks were talking about earlier, they claimed they spotted some unknown ponies running around cleaning up the leaves. Though whenever they went to talk to them the ponies just ran away.” “Huh, that is strange. I wonder why they were doing that…” A few hours earlier, before dawn… Small groups of disguised changelings ran around town, either bucking the trees or using their magic to shake the leaves off. When Fluttershy had first started her hive so long ago, she decided that if she was going to live off this land then she was going to help care for it to. Her children had also adopted this philosophy, helping the town with things like the changing of the seasons. Besides if they didn’t help there was no way the running of the leaves would have been finished on time. Winter was here. Twilight Sparkle stood proudly as she examined the towns work. Winter was on time. “Hey Twilight!” Rainbow Dash yelled “You were awesome!” Twilight blushed slightly at the complement. “Just one thing Twilight.” Rainbow Dash continued. “How in the hay did you manage to get those west fields outside of town cleared and ploughed before my teams got there?” “WHAT? It says here in my notes that that area had already been cleaned and ploughed earlier, someone must have changed my notes while I wasn’t looking.” “Well I guess it’s just a mystery.” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Or maybe Pinkie Pie… so yea basically a mystery.” Twilight groaned. A few hours earlier… Silent Wing stood proud atop a hilltop as he watched his fellow changelings shovelling and melting snow, planting crops and helping animals. He puffed out his chest (he thought it was dramatic) and began to sing at the top of his voice. “Born of cold and winter air and mountain rain combining…” “This icy force both fowl and fair as a frozen h-“ *SMACK!* “OW! Primrose why? That hurt!” “No singing on the job that’s why!” Primrose yelled. “For someling named SILENT Wing you can certainly sing incredibly loud.” “Come on Primrose, you know that’s not fair.” Silent Wing grunted. “Besides if singing on the job is so bad then why haven’t you stopped Thunder Hooves from doing it?” A couple of hills over… Thunder Hooves was busy shovelling snow along with a few other changelings, the snow was being placed into piles so it would be easier to melt later. Thunder himself had a rare full blown smile on his muzzle as he really dug in to his work. Then, seemingly at random, Thunder began to sing. "We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig In the snow the whole day through! To dig dig dig dig dig dig dig Is what we like to do! It ain't no trick to get work done quick If you dig dig dig with a shovel or a pick In the snow! In the snow! In the snow! In the snow! Where a million snowflakes shine! We dig dig dig dig dig dig dig From early morning until night..." Back with Primrose and Silent Wing "He has much better taste in music than you." Primrose finally decide to say. "Primrose!" Silent wing yelled. "You know that's just an excuse, the only reason you aren't over there trying to stop him is because your afraid of challenging Thunder, with all his aggression you wouldn't be able to deal with him. I'm right aren't I?-" *SMACK!* "WHY DO YOU KEEPING HITTING MY FACE?!"