Fireflying

by Meziph

Underground City

The Manehattan’s hive changelings were all in the Everfree Forest, their designated leader, Blackshield, stood in front of over five hundred changelings, leading the way to where the stranger, Firefly, had told them to go.

The directions were simple, find the Castle, follow the ravine, find a big tree.And a big tree it was indeed, towering over the trees of the Everfree, the behemoth was unnaturally large, and for some reason it kept making him and his fellow changelings think that it wasn’t there.

There was a password as well, clearing his throat, Blackshield spoke in a even and loud voice.

“I acknowledge the problem in front of me, and take it as my own.”

The tree cleared, details that weren’t exact suddenly became nitid, the feeling of non-existence also faded, leaving behind something that most changelings could identify, a Notice-Me-Not spell.

“I hereby claim myself and mine affiliates to be subjects of the Potato Kingdom.”

The spell went away, leaving behind an illusion, that slowly faded to reveal an hole on the tree’s trunk, warm air seeped forth from said hole, and sound could be heard from below.Everyone looked at the scene with wide eyes, they were sure that if they didn’t have the instructions they would’ve never found the entrance.

The entire ex-hive walked forward, into the city.

=======

Firefly was quite happy, another outpost had been saved, there were a total of ten around Equestria, and twenty two in Equestria-Dominion territory, the main hive location was known to her, but if the changelings were correct then it would be useless to go there.

That was the eighth one, totalling five thousand eight hundred and a few changelings on her city now, all of them the survivors of their Queen madness.She had a lot to do still, and most important was the food issue, if she was going to make it so that ponies and changelings could live together then she would need to do something about their eating habits.

Right now she was standing on the main road, watching as a confused troupe of changelings descended the stairs to her underground lair.Their “leader”, Blackshield, held his façade of indifference, but below it she could see the awe and fear that he was feeling.

It’s not everyday you see an underground city the size of Canterlot.

She moved to greet him, a small smile on her face.He recognized her, and walked slightly faster to come near quickly.

“So you did came, fantastic.Tell your hive to go to the mess hall, there they can find information concerning where they are going to be staying and the rules and laws of this place.After that come find me at the Congress Hall, I suppose you’re their leader by now correct?”

“Understood and yes, they named me their leader.”

She nodded, turned and left.There were things that needed to be done, changelings to contact and an assembly to be held, after all, she wanted her city to be auto sufficient, and she also didn’t want to be in a position of power.

The Congress Hall was quite the building, made of marble and granite, the place had an air of austerity and power.It was the home of politics, where the changelings would decide what happened, she wasn’t going to impede them from forming another Queendom or a Kingdom, but she was going to watch them and regulate if anyone got power hungry, there was no need for another Chrysalis.

The representatives gathered quickly, every outpost had named a leader, and all of them had then been chosen by her to represent each outpost.Over the two weeks she had started this project there weren’t many scuffles happening, since all of them were more focused on surviving than anything else, but she was quite sure that when the dust settled things would begin to get interesting.

“Good morning ladies and gents,” she said, now inside the building, together with the representatives and the newcomer, “today another one of the outposts has joine us, the Manehattan one.Blackshield, since you’re new here I’m going to explain to you what exactly I’m trying to accomplish.” She cleared her throat, “since your Queen has died, Equestria as a whole is chasing your kind.I can’t do much about the small hives and outpost outside of Equestria proper, but I can try to salvage the situation.In a month’s time I’ll be encountering the Princesses and revealing to them my plan, and in two, if everything goes right, I’ll be disclosing this location the them.”

There was a murmur of consent, those who had come first had objected to the entire thing, saying it was against their nature and customs to expose themselves, but they were quickly silenced with a few words.

Either you expose yourselves or you die, your choice.

“There’s a law book I’ve compiled here,” she pointed at a small book that sat upon a table, “you gather your changelings and explain it to them.If you have any questions you ask them to these fellows here or to me when I’m not busy, anything you want to ask right now?”

He shook his head, and she smiled.

“Then this assembly is finished, go, and don’t make me regret saving your arses.”