Bonus: To the Fashionmobile!
The hatchery was typically a semi-noisy place. The distant chugging of steam and gears mixed with the ever-present flow of liquid through the tubes snaking all over the place for each cocoon and the laughter of nymphs going to and fro created a welcoming ambience for most changelings.
Aegis paced in front of Blitz’s cocoon with a precise clock hovering in front of her face, though her gaze kept dancing between the chrysalis and the watch. <Come on and hatch already. Do it, do it, do it!>
She pressed her face against the waxy cocoon, trying to see the heavily obscured figure within. Despite Aegis’ insistence, Blitz’s hive voice remained unchanging and she didn’t stir.
<I know you’re awake! I can see you moving in there!> She hoped the accusation might get through, but to no avail. <Come on, Blitz, it’s been exactly one month, fourteen days, seven hours, and fifty one seconds. You’re done baking so get out of the oven already!>
Seeing that hive-speak was failing her, Aegis tried a different tactic and took a long deep breath. “Hatch, hatch, hatch, hatch, hatch, hatch, hatch!” On and on she chanted until she was out of breath and wheezing out the words.
Aegis took a second breath to try again when Twilight spoke. <Aegis, you better not be at Blitz’s pod yelling for her to hatch again!>
<I’m not yelling, I’m simply encouraging her very loudly.>
Dang it, girl, you are going to disturb the other cocoons. I think I need some way to keep you out of the hatchery for a while. <Alright, you, that’s enough. RD will let you know the moment Blitz’s voice changes in any way. Now, get back to the surface, we’re about to reveal Rarity’s present!>
<Oh sweet, on my way!> Aegis glanced around and found Gear Ratio doing routine checks on the chrysalises nearby. Aegis buzzed over nonchalantly and wrapped an arm around the chief caretaker. “Hey, ol buddy, ol friend, ol pal, can you do a thrice over on my counterpart here? I think she’s a little sluggish in waking up.”
Gear paused a moment as Twilight spoke to her. “Momma says you better not interfere with our work over this anymore or she’ll find a way to postpone Blitz’s awakening by a month. Just to make sure she becomes a proto-queen before you.”
“She wouldn’t!” Aegis cringed at the thought of Blitz and her being out of sync. A light brush of motherly glowering from the Link was all Aegis needed to flee the hatchery. <Alright, alright, I’m going!>
Twilight chuckled to herself at her daughter’s antics. Ahh, young love.
Both changeling queens were walking through the palace with Rarity between them. The fashionista was immaculate as usual. “I must say, with no small amount of modesty, that this castle is positively brimming with color now! I can’t thank you two enough for giving me the honor of decorating it.”
Working with the technological motif of the former colony ship’s design, Rarity had blanketed the castle with a brass finish with multiple rooms having differing decor to mix things up. For the most part however, a motif of pistons and gears covered various parts of the exterior and the omnipresent aroma of lubricant and oil drifted throughout the entire hive.
Thankfully, Rarity had grown accustomed to the ‘scent’ long ago. It’s not about what I like, it’s about what the customer likes, and these adorable drones can't seem to get enough of that… fragrance.
Rainbow couldn’t help but to marvel at the gear work below her hooves, visible thanks to the steel grating. Said grating was also covered in resin to protect their hooves. “Gotta say Rarity, I still can't believe you managed to make almost all of these gears actually serve a purpose outside of looks.”
“Well you can thank Steamy and his crew for that. Honestly, his ability to make anything I think up reality is simply amazing. We were able to tie every door and light into the overall machinery to bring form and function to new heights!” Rarity sighed contently at the years of memories and effort coming together so fabulously.
“We can’t thank you enough, Rarity.” As Rarity expected, Twilight was enraptured by the feel of a living castle. “You’ve made our castle a fitting home.”
“It’s was my pleasure, really. And while it was great fun, I do so miss the fashion world. I have a lot of catching up to do.”
Rainbow Dash grinned knowingly. “We figured as much.” Rarity nodded in absent agreement. “So that’s why we think your boutique back in Ponyville just won’t cut it anymore.”
Rarity would have stopped walking out of a flash of sadness had the two queens not kept on trotting ahead. “Well I admit it is probably woefully out of style by now, but that’s nothing a little TLC can’t cure.” She let the comment roll off her with dignity. “Besides, I should really get back home anyway, or else Epaulets will end up raising my little Cloudy Skies and Summer Seas without me.”
Twilight felt truly happy that each of her friends, even bashful Fluttershy, had gone on to have families of their own over the years. In the mind of the changeling queen, individual death was far less terrifying than not leaving behind a legacy. As long as a part of each of my pony friends continues on over my long life, I’ll be happy. Scaring away her inner musings, Twilight was glad to see the door to their destination was up ahead.
“We fully understand, Rarity, but sticking in just Ponyville will make such a career return difficult, so we thought of something to help with that.”
“Oh?” Rarity cooed as Twilight opened the hatch and waved Rarity to enter.
What lay beyond took Rarity’s breath away. All three of them were in one of the much smaller dry-docks used for the gunships. Instead of the usual patrol ship, a vessel that looked like someone took a gleaming brass store and merged it with an airship, turning it into a mobile fashion extravaganza. At least it would be once Rarity had her way with it.
The ship itself was just a bit bigger than Rarity’s old shop/house, and had a collection of six traditional propeller engines, four for lift and two for propulsion. With the Longshot still unproven in battle, neither queen was willing to invest too much into it.
The exterior had a primer coat of paint for protection, and several panels for future advertisements or other purposes that were all left blank. Twilight waved at Steamy and his two assistants who were hovering by the shop front which had plenty of large glass windows for displays. “We knew none of us had the critical eye you do, Rarity, so we thought the next place you decorated would be your own little mobile fashion store. We like to call it the Carousel Floatique!”
“I – I don’t know what to say,” Rarity replied dumbfounded. A tear of joy threatened to spill out. “Can I look inside?”
“Of course, Rares, it’s your home now. If you want to make it that.”
Spotting the gangplank easily enough, Rarity bolted as fast as a dignified lady could. The front room seemed deceptively spacious. Comfortable wooden floors with an oak finish were complemented by wooden walls and ceiling. Steamy followed in after Rarity and the royals. “We remembered you mentioning you wanted to remodel the Carousel Boutique so we left the interior as bare as possible.”
Twilight followed up the blue drone’s comment with one of her own. “Since we were going to leave the fine decorating to you, we figured we’d make the place modular instead.”
Rarity zipped around to inspect each and every facet of the store’s floor. “Ladies… I – I don’t know if I can put it to words.” She turned around to find both queens hovering nearby with excited looks that paled in comparison to her own. “I love it!”
Countless designs raced through Rarity’s mind, colors of all kinds, styles of every shape, and motifs that could make alicorns weep warred with each other for which would be brought forth into life. Rarity nearly dropped her aristocratic poise as she ran over to give both queens a crushing hug. “I never dreamed of having a flying shop before! Oh how all the other designers will be jel - I mean inspired by it.”
Rainbow smirked at the the whole thing. “I knew you’d like it. I mean, who wouldn’t want a flying house, am I right?”
“It’s our way of saying thanks for everything, Rarity,” Twilight commented with a sly look at her tactless sister. “The Floatique is ready to fly. In addition,” she trailed off as Steamy approached with a booklet Rarity knew all too well. “Steamy and Crescent Wrench have volunteered to stay on as pilot and engineer respectively.”
Steamy gave a manly blush. “It’s the least we can do until you or your family learn how to operate and pilot the vessel yourselves. Wrench would be here if she wasn’t busy getting her things packed up.”
Rarity gave a lady-like titter and patted his head. “You’ve been such a big help already, I couldn’t possibly drag you away from your home.”
“It was his idea,” Twilight offered.
Everyone looked in Steamy’s direction for details. “W-well, you know. We have our diplomats, traders, and a few other drones out there, but we’re still pretty isolated here in the hive. I figured we might want to ‘spread our wings’ as you ponies say.”
“Yeah, and you know, he could set up his own engie shop out there one day, or return home. Either way, it’s all good.” Rainbow’s raspy snark was present even when not needed.
“For the time being though,” Twilight cut in, “we already have your tools, the dock, and all the lingpower you need. Whatever you need to bring your latest vision into fruition, it’s on us.”
“Ooohhhh, you spoil me to no end, you know that,” Rarity teased with a dramatic hoof wave. She slid over to Steamy and waved off the booklet. “I already have some ideas on what to make. I think a meshing of my Ponyville home and your technological motif would be perfect for a flying boutique.”
“We’re already happy to help, Miss Rarity.” Steamy flexed his muscles, causing the alabaster mare to blush. Like his predecessor Spike before him, Rarity never went past teasing between Steamy and her. It was a personality quirk her husband actually expected from mares, given that it was typical behavior during the Moonlit Empire’s golden age.
Thundering hooves from the gangplank heralded Aegis’ entry “I didn’t miss it did I?!” she half-yelled while scanning the room.
Before either queen could respond, Rarity waved at the manic princess. “Not at all, not at all. I dare say you’ve arrived just in time.”
“Oh good,” Aegis wiped the sweat off her brow only to find Rarity cantering over to her. “I was worried I’d miss your new shop taking off.”
“So kind of you, Aegy. But your mother’s right, it would be best to add that nice polish right here in the dock. And,” Rarity added with poise, “I think assisting me with this would be an excellent exercise for simultaneous hand and telekinetic work.”
“Ahhh,” Aegis dropped down on all fours. “I would totally love to help you with that, but um,” she looked to Rainbow Dash. “But Aunty and I have to work up some new siege tactics together. Part of my queen training, you understand.”
“Nonsense,” Rainbow Dash announced with a fang filled smirk. The rebuke deflated Aegis, causing her ears to droop. “That can wait for later. I think Rarity’s suggestion is perfect for you.”
Twilight made her way to the door where more drones were lined up and waiting with draft paper and pencils. “I know you’ll do excellent, Aegis. Just think of it as part of your expanding knowledge base, something every queen should have.”
Rainbow Dash was following close behind her sister. “And I need to go over the proposal of turning a freighter into a navy tender. So you guys have fun.”
Rarity butted in just before Aegis could speak. “Don’t worry, ladies, we will.” She looked at Aegis who was doing her damnedest to keep a diplomatically friendly face. “Won’t we, deary?”
Oh happy day. Maybe Blitz’ll wake up to save me from this suffering. She found Rarity looking at her expectantly with a friendly smile. “Ahh, well, why not. I have allll the time in the world it seems.”
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Awesome! I was just wondering how long the hold up would be between the arcs
I call it: The Fabulous Flying Fashion Boutique.
silly chapter name, and because it was a "bonus" thought the chapter would be kinda silly. However, this, like the rest of everything you write, is fantastic and flows very well with everything else written.
Also, yay, sequel \o/
I want to see the par where Blitz wakes up! Please tell me we get to see that, mabey as a bonus chapter or a side story. But please, PLEASE TELL ME WE GET TO SEE THAT! Please dont skip it!
Who needs to ride the train to Manehatten when you can freakin fly your shop to the fashion show
now all she needs is a fabric cannon to tie up the competition.
Honestly i thought they already made this. i thought they used parts from the phoenix to make it. It was mentioned earlier. But who is Rarity's husband?
My good sir, I don't think you understand the point of snark... It is never needed, but always given.
Interesting, maybe you could do more bonus chapter to expand some character interaction? (Like Twilight and her family, or what happened to Spike, or her friends. Or Rainbow Dash's family)
Nice Rarity side-chapter. I'd like more of that
That was fun. Now not even pegasi can escape Rarity's fashion.
One question, though, just who is she married to? Given the aside that mentioned the Moonlit Empire I'm assuming it's a thestral, but I don't recall one of them marrying Rarity ever coming up.
5875784 I personally Fabulously Flying Fashion Floutique. With it being the Quad-F! for short!
5875784 Forgot a B there: The Fabulous Flying Fashion Boutique Bonaparte.
Oh wait, that's probably not a great B word, is it? Hmm... Our creativity seems a little drained at the moment!
That was awesome
That was cutest Slice of Life I have seen in a long time 
I'm glad that Equestria has welcomed Twilight's and Rainbow Dash's broad. 
Looking forward to reading the sequel. 
Awesome!
Well, I'm kinda torn with this series. The writing is good, it has a lot of elements (magic and technology, awesome RD, war, worldbuilding, etc.) that I like and so on. But...
My problem isn't really with the story itself, it's the fridge-horror implications of being turned into changeling. The way I see it, is that Dash was absolutely justified being afraid of her personality changing. And not for the better. You haven't really told many numbers, but I figure the Twilight and Dash have been queens for five years, and they have maybe 5000 drones and 2 new queens hatching. The problem is that if that rate of expansion keeps up, you will have 1 billion changelings in a century and 100 billion in 150 years.
This combined with the apparently biological need to improve and outcompete everyone else has really unfortunate implications. Like "master race" and "sub-hu... person" type implications.
And Twilight, the supposedly really intelligent and learned pony doesn't even consider this once, the only thing she thinks is that she must spawn more changelings, that laying eggs and seeing her hive grow is the best thing ever. So, she certainly isn't acting very rationally when it's about her new instincts. Really, the way you have written it, being changed into changeling queen gets you addicted to egg-laying. It's really glaring in the case of Dash.
The other thing is that you make a big deal out of everyone in the hive loving the queens and each other and the queens of course love them back. I just feel that this kinda cheapens the concept of love. Mainly in the case of Twilight and Dash. How can they be said to love a drone they barely know? There is no way for them to have anything except really shallow interactions with all the drones. It kinda gives me the vibe of them loving the idea of the drones instead of the actual person.
Now, these don't make the series bad, I generally enjoyed it so far. It's just that once I thought of these, it get's more and more jarring having Twilight, the supposedly intelligent egghead, gushing about unlimited growth. Especially when they already have the means (alchemy) to do something about it. I mean, the rational thing to do would be to modify themselves so that their race won't self-destruct within their own lifetime...
5882844
I get most of what you're saying, but those numbers are only possible if you don't consider lifespans. unlike royals, drones live to be roughly 80 years and maybe push to 100 if they're lucky. That would only allow a hive to sustain a population between 817.6k to 1.02 million, assuming you ignore accidental, war time, or deaths from disease. That puts any 2-queen hive to less than 1/8 the size of New York's 8.4 million. (and New York only ranks up to the 21st largest city)
And no, rebirthing is not going to be a large scale solution because it is exorbitantly expensive in reagents.
Even if we double the age to 160 and 200 years respectively that still only puts it at 1.6 mill and 2 million respectively.
in addition, changeling growth rates are hard capped by the number of queens with each currently maxing out at 14 eggs a day. Even when Aegis and Blitz mature, that's still only 56 eggs a day compared to humans today where we can create roughly 260k babies a day. Twilight's changelings may not be global race like we humans, but the point remains.
Granted Twilight and RD have no intentions of stopping with just aegis and blitz, but to reach humanity's birth rate they'd need over 18.5 thousand queens to join her.
So no, insect bug pony populations are a non-issue compared to mammals. Twi and RD will learn to curb that instinct over time.
Who? I don't remember you ever mentioning that pony / ling / entity.
________________
engine
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Yay! Sequel! *Dances excitedly*. Thanks for the best Sequel hook ever created. Anywho, I'm loving this series ... but when did Rares marry? And who are the other important ponies with? If that's not asking for too many spoilers?
5883149
That wasn't a typo, it was a verbal shortening of the word.
5883218
Ah! Thank you for clearing that up.
And who in the hay is Epaulets? Does he show up in the previous books at all?
i'm surprised no one seems to mention Full Metal Alchemist after the gauntlet was attached. and when she was telling Rasua about it i couldn't help but think integration of organic and mechanic with a hive-mind it just screamed Borg.
love this series.
5882938 No, I didn't consider the lifespans, because I was seriously lowballing the numbers. Those numbers? They were my calculated amount of births in a 5-year period. Why? Exponential growth. You haven't introduced any reason for the queens to not make new queens, and for these new queens to make even more queens. So every 5 years, the amount of queens can double. And as I said before, all your portrayals of the instincts and such make it seem extremely unlikely for them to actually slow down the birthrate. Heck, the only reason Dash and Twilight do it is that they are preparing for a war, and need the resources for an armsrace!
Really, this vision of the possible future reminds me of uncomfortably of the Pak in Larry Niven's Known Space novels, where the adult "protector's" wage eternal (thermonuclear) war against every other adult on the planet to make sure that their bloodline will survive. All because their instinct completely override their immense intellectual capability.
You obviously have calculated this stuff, or at least did for answering my post, but it's not apparent in the story at all. It wouldn't be such a problem if it was only Dash, as I can easily see her ignoring stuff like that, but Twilight... Not so much.
5897561 But that's the thing. In the episode, Rainbow point-blank says the tortoise is, and I'm quoting here, "Like a tank." before naming him.
5905708
Yes, i'm afraid i must admit to being unfamiliar with the pancake unit of width.
How does it translate to gumdrops? can i use a SWU* converter to find out?
*Standard Waffle Unit
Oh, i want to wring Kreesus' red neck! Shows just how much of a friend she really was, huh? didn't even think to ask, only assumed the worst. Ha! As for Silandrus. Serves that bitch right!
Rarity married a Thestral, did she? Gotta say, i did not see that coming.
notices that sequils are getting shorter not a good sign
6032269
Hard to do that if they're already covered in fur to begin with.
I swear, Aegis is like the changeling version of Lyra with how obsessed with hands she is
6032510 OMG thats brilliant.
6124213
Clearly we are breaking new ground with a whole new -ology.
6184916
bright pink that glows orange while exposed to atmosphere, and fires off red sparks at all times.
6124941
Part of that would be the fact that in the real world, the term anthropology is so central to the study of culture and society that the normal construction of the alien form ended up as xenoanthropology, despite the overwhelming likelihood that the 'anthro' part will be false in real life.
This story needs some slice of life sequels in between the main story arch. Help expand the world, and to show that Twilight and Rainbow haven't completely forgotten about their pony friends.
Also, I think you should have a bit of Lyra finding out about the hand gauntlets.
Film and Flam? Eat each other's hearts out!
6549557
The spell only had to be cast once on changeling since it gave the knowledge of language rather than the spell continuing to translate any language for them. After that, the hive mind facilitated the language throughout the rest of the drones.
6606980 Not saying that it's a bad thing, but you are a bit of an outlier in that regard. The Helicarrier is an icon.
6883768
Oh ye of little faith, Lyra will have her day.
6883788
Good thing I checked the front page one last time. This site doesn't inform users of cross chapter replies. One would think that Knighty would have fixed that by now...
Back on topic: Should I be looking at "Reformation", or "Life in Phoenix Roost" for that appearance?
6927808 yes, but our aircraft carriers didn't float in the air under their own power.
6959039 American pancakes are generally thick, fluffy affairs, while European pancakes tend more towards crepes.
6959041
Ah. Too bad that Europeans didn't do to pancakes what Belgiums did to waffles XD. Still crepes are pretty tasty if made right.
6959670 I like how I accidentally put wrong instead of long and it still fits the context of the sentence. Also nice to know someone agrees XD
7206524
That is more of an issue with Twilight and Rainbow's preferred Modus operandi. They can't seem to grow out of the idea of doing things like this in person, or think of it as the mentality of the kind of leader that would not ask others to do something that they would not do themselves.
Rereading the saga to here a few ideas from the destruction of SG. 1st, all weapons should be self contained. 2nd, a blank out of the hive minds would be a good defense for PR. Sure, it would hurt the defenders. But, they can operate on their own. The attackers would go feral & be ruined.
There was a mention of how
, 
, 
, and 
led their own lives in the years encompassed by this 
's Jiyya tending, but I think it would be interesting to play out some species integration scenes, character reactions, and pony-side social developments.
trilogyseries. Do you have any plans or intentions to produce a side-story about them, and possibly Ponyville and Equestria in general? They would be out of the loop regarding the scientific stuff, aside from6960051
XD. Sorry this never showed up on my notifications (and even looking at it shows up as a string of numbers rather than my name.).
7391099
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/263031/life-in-phoenix-roost. Best of all even though it's from a different author, it's cannon.
7519520
Firstly, would you mind giving a link to the Richardson story you mentioned? I think I may enjoy it.
In this case, these words should have a hyphen, because otherwise the meaning is different than intended. Or is it supposed to mean "I will have my love continuing to produce a daughter" or "... love producing a daughter"?
If so, the sentence as written is missing at least an article, and it doesn't make sense in context. 
No, the two words 'love' and 'producing' are clearly meant to be a single compound idea, referring to something that produces love. Since this idea modifies a separate subject, this is a compound adjective. It modifies 'daughter', with the end result meaning 'a daughter that produces love'.
This meaning is clear and makes sense in context. We can preserve the meaning and lose the hyphen by moving the adjective to after the subject ('daughter'), but the sentence becomes clunkier, as you can see: "I'll have my daughter that produces love".
Compound adjectives need to be hyphenated if they come before their subject. They are not rarely-used expressions. It can be an artistic choice to include a compound word, but the hyphen is required if the meaning can be misinterpreted without one.
References:
GrammarBook.com
APA Style FAQs
Purdue Online Writing Lab
"No(,) it", "Indochina" (region, not juxtaposed countries), "(e)tc.", "word(, i)t's", "is[)] and", "over(-)used" or "overused"
7520149
Thanks, I'll check it out. "all(,) even", "canon"
7519437 That's what I thought
Can't wait to start readincthid third book
jeal-
Okay.Other shoe finally fell, even if Cadista's spared…and now…
You certainly enjoy your war.