//------------------------------// // I talked to God, and She's a Bitch // Story: Home Sweet Hive // by Mad Hatter //------------------------------// "What do you imply?" I queried. "THERE IS NO NEED FOR YOU FROM THIS MOMENT ONWARD." "Changelings have had a queen since time immemorial." "THAT NOW CHANGES." "Why? Why do you seek to replace me?" "I WILL BE QUEEN. ALL WILL BOW TO ME. CHANGELING AND PONY ALIKE." Something was wrong. The mere idea of there not being a queen of changelings was errant, but the concept of anything ruling over all. The Hive had no power over ponies. "How could you accomplish such a task?" "POWER. NOW BOTH OF YOU, BOW TO ME AS YOUR NEW QUEEN." A wave of impulse washed over me. Concentrated pheremones, if I can relate it in a manner compatible with non-changeling minds. Every fiber of my being demanded that I bend to the will of the Hive. For once, every conscious though directed me not to. This did not make sense. It was not right. "Wait..." I found myself uttering the phrase that would not have been considered in the past. Ten years ago, it nearly destroyed me. Now, it just may save me. "No." "WHAT!?" I concentrated to return to my human form. The battle of wills shifted limbs and form into a perpetual state of neither for several minutes. With a significant application of will I nearly achieved my intention. The metaphorical dust settled as I retained a consistent form somewhere between the two. I appeared in a humanoid form, though retaining the chitinous armor, as well as being considerably taller than the standard human body. This was the first time I had known any changeling to merge forms. I suppose I should thank the Hive. I was most certainly not going to. "HOW ARE YOU CAPABLE OF DISOBEYING ME? YOU AS WELL AS THIS MITE OF A DRONE. YOU WILL OBEY!" Mite of a drone? I was the only changeling at this location. The only being aside from myself was Nohbodi. In my momentary confusion I unwittingly answered in pheremones, expressing this confusion as to a second changeling. "YOU AND THE DRONE FROM BEFORE. BOW TO ME! I AM THE HIVE! I AM QUEEN! I AM ALL!" From before? The only other changeling to have contact with the Hive was Intricate Compass. Wait... Nohbodi did take the horn with him after her demise. The Hive saw the slight magical signature from the horn. Not only that, the messages were delivered entirely via pheremones. The Hive was completely blind, relying on olfactory senses. It had a power that extended beyond this cocoon, but It did not, Itself, have access to the outside world. No, what was inside the cocoon was not the Hive. It was drawing power from the Hive, but it was not of It itself. I glanced behind us at the swath of death and dying forest. The Hive... No, the being masquerading as the Hive, was not a victim of this sickness. It was the cause. It all made sense now. Intricate Compass could not control her actions, but was in control of her mind. "False queen", she had said. She did not speak of myself, but this abomination. Her death was not a reckless attempt to recover... It was suicide. She ended her own life rather than continue an unwilling assault on me, the true queen of the changelings. In this form I held a humanoid body, yet retained my changeling senses. It seems that it fooled the false hive into believing that I was in full changeling form. No matter. This anomaly answers my questions by it merely existing. I must aid the true Hive, and all changelings, by either curing or destroying the false one. "BOW TO ME, AND I SHALL RULE THIS WORLD!" "You are not the Hive! Vacate this land, for you do not belong." "IMPOSSIBLE! YOU MUST BOW TO ME!" The voice screamed at my senses as a rift opened in the cocoon. "I WILL MAKE YOU BOW TO ME!" Out stepped a changeling form, larger than any queen in memory by a head. It stepped out completely to stare me down. The power radiating from it was immense, exceeding even my own at my peak. It was a monstrosity of changeling biology. It was older than I was. It knew war. It was Chrysalis.