Queen Whatevra Wa'Nabe was perusing the records in the Royal Archives, having finally become familiar enough with the changeling alphabet that she no longer had to concentrate to remember which eye-jarring angular scribble represented which letter. For now, she was skimming various tomes, scrolls, and tablets in an attempt to get an overall feel for her new people's history and culture and try to see how close or far from the setting of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic the world she found herself in happened to be.
Unfortunately, the sheer scale of the records were daunting, apparently covering thousands of years of Gandahar's history, the bulk of which occurring prior to the founding of Equestria to the north. Which had happened during the reign of Queen Wisp, who had been Chrysalis' mother.
The gist of which being that, at the time Gandahar was founded, the region now known to outsiders as the Badlands had been a verdant basin filled with lush jungle and fertile fields, with numerous villages, towns, and cities. The jewel of which being the capitol city of Jasper, a sprawling changeling metropolis, and apparently a wonder of the world. A state that had been maintained until after the assassination of Queen Nymphodora a mere eighty years into her reign. Royal changelings, it seemed, could be expected to live many times longer than the regular varieties, with lifespans frequently lasting well past a thousand years. Queen Nymphodora's successor, Epagogikí Allagí, hadn't even been a "princess," although she had been selected from one of the fallen queen's brood clutches and fed specially prepared royal jelly until she took on the traits of a changeling queen. Once on the Throne of Gandahar, Queen Epagogikí Allagí's first official act was to use its power to seal the borders of Gandahar.
This, from what little Queen Whatevra was picking up by skimming the records, marked the start of what seemed to be a very long series of mistakes, set-backs, and misfortune as Gandahar slowly declined into a mere shadow of it's former glory over the course of several thousand years. And somewhere along the way, the changelings had undergone not one, but two Great Changes: The first altering the changelings' base form into what it was to this very day, and the second altering the changelings from a race that merely supplemented their diet and power with love to one that depended on consuming it for survival.
The once lush and fertile Gandahar was now the desolate Badlands, and all that remained of the proud metropolis of Jasper was the central hive spire. A spire that was itself a dilapidated husk of what it used to be.
It was no wonder that Queen Chrysalis had the Royal Archives sealed. After being in a state of perpetual decline for several millennia, Gandahar seemed to be in its final death throes, with the only remaining "city", if it could be called that anymore, being Jasper itself. Oh, there were other changeling hives, such as the Jungle Hive located somewhere in the Untamed Jungle on the far side of the Bone Dry Desert, or the Island Hive located somewhere in the Celestial Sea, but that's all they had ever been, just hives rather than nations. And now that's all Gandahar was, the Badlands Hive, just one of who knew how many or few changeling hives remaining hidden throughout the world.
And if nothing changed to stop this decline, within a few generations of the common changelings, the Badlands hive would be gone.
Queen Chrysalis had been growing desperate. Not quite enough to outright attack Equestria yet, but Queen Whatevra Wa'Nabe could see why she had done so.
"My Queen?"
"Yes, Humblebee?" Queen Whatevra looked up from the book she was currently studying.
"Meta Knight has requested your presence as an observer. Mayhem's unit is ready for their first combat trial."
"So this is going to be them verses a unit of Royal Guards?"
"Not exactly, My Queen."
"Then what are they going to be fighting? A maulwurf? A tatzlewyrm?"
"My Queen, they are going to be fighting Meta Knight."
Queen Whatevra Wa'Nabe blinked, then tilted her head before getting up to follow her advisor. "Katydid, Cicada, continue tidying up the Royal Archives but leave the records I selected on the table for now. If I am not back by the time you're done, return to my suite."
"Yes, My Queen!" the two attendants responded even as they continued their assigned tasks.
"Katydid and Cicada are permitted breaks during which they may leave and return to their current task, but allow noling else within the Royal Archives until I return. If my attendants finish tidying up the chamber before I return, reseal the doors once they leave," Queen Whatevra Wa'Nabe instructed the guards as she left.
*O o O o O*
What currently passed as Jasper's primary military training center consisted of several semi-permanent chambers and halls near the ground level and mostly within the southwest section of the spire. They were similar to the facilities used by the Royal Guard, located higher up the spire closer to the Queen's Chambers, but not as well defined nor as well "anchored" in place. Which suited the Queen's agenda just fine as she expected to have them relocated eventually once her army was large enough.
The particular chamber Queen Whatevra Wa'Nabe was guided to was actually an elevated alcove overlooking another, larger chamber where the trainees were gathered before Meta Knight. She noted the presence two Royal Guards maintaining a force shield between them separating the alcove from what she mentally dubbed the arena, presumably there for the safety of the observers should things get too energetic during training.
All twenty-one trainees were present, arranged neatly into two separate squads led by Inky and Flambé, with Mayhem and Calamity standing somewhat ahead of both squads as their overall leaders. The formations was not what the Queen would call parade perfect, as she noted the occasional changeling shifting their stance or briefly flaring their wings, only to settle back into position with a command from their sergeants (who were both taking their positions seriously, Wa'Nabe was pleased to note).
And facing them all was Meta Knight, who was positioned to be able to observe both the trainees and the alcove above them. At the Queen's nod, he began the training exercise.
*O o O o O*
"I've been given to understand that many of you feel that you've received enough training to be proper soldiers," Meta Knight addressed the gathered trainees. "That you feel that the training you have received so far, in combination with the experience you have all had with surviving the swarm rushes preferred by Queen Chrysalis, are more than enough to serve the hive on the field of battle."
"Well, obviously," snarked the recently renamed Waterbug, who had been accepted into the troop despite having been tossed out of the spire. His behavior was still problematic, bordering on insubordinate and lacking in discipline, but at least he wasn't actively insulting his fellow trainees anymore. Being the bottom ranking member who had to fetch and carry for everyling else in the unit had done much to break at least that particular habit, if not his habit of mouthing off when he was supposed to remain silent like the rest of the trainees.
"Be quiet, Waterbug!" Sergeant Inky cowed the errant trainee back into place for the time being. One interesting development Meta Knight had noted during training was that, despite being unable to change forms, Inky was physically more fit than the base forms of any of the other changelings in the unit, Mayhem and Calamity included. He had certainly proven to be a better one on one fighter than any other ling in the unit, much to Waterbug's consternation.
"Now now now, Sergeant," Meta Knight chided, "I'll be handling the discipline for today's exercise myself. In fact, today's session should do just that quite nicely, without any extra punishment required."
"Why are we being punished for Waterbug mouthing off!?" another changeling, Flake, demanded, eliciting a raised brow from several of the changelings present, Meta Knight, Mayhem, and Calamity included, while several others put a hoof to their faces.
"We're in for the long haul now," Frost observed in her usual dry monotone.
"Indeed you are!" Meta Knight agreed cheerfully. "Acting Captain Mayhem, your unit has earned you zero prep time today. You may commence the attack immediately."
"What are we attacking?" Mayhem asked, looking around sharply even as she and the rest of her troop tensed for action.
"Why, me, of course!" Meta Knight proclaimed just before leaping forward to strike Mayhem hard enough to send her flying back through one of the squads, bowling several changelings over in the process.
With that, the battle that would come to be known as the Trainee Smackdown had begun...
*O o O o O*
Queen Whatevra Wa'Nabe blinked with a slight flinch back as one of the trainees struck the shield and stuck there for a moment before sliding down a bit with an intermittent squeaking noise before falling all the way off with a pop.
"This seems to be a bit on the excessive side for training," the young queen commented as she set Humblebee back down (having most certainly not just reflexively grabbed her chief advisor to use as a changeling shield - nope, never happened).
"I wouldn't know, My Queen," Humblebee replied as he straightened up, pleased that his new queen's first reaction was to defend herself, even if it had been a bit disconcerting to have been the closest changeling when she had done so.
"Who was the changeling who hit the shield? I want to say... Waspinator?"
"I believe his name is Dungbeetle, My Queen."
"No. It's Waspinator now. See to it that he's informed of his name change."
"At once, My Queen," the advisor complied, standing up to carry out his new orders.
"After the battle, Humblebee."
"Of course, My Queen."
"Sit back down, Humblebee."
"Yes, My Queen."
The fact that Humblebee had... incidentally, he would assure you... sat down just out of foreleg reach of Queen Whatevra Wa'Nabe did not help the next time another trainee hit the shield after being tossed across the arena by Meta Knight, as the wing on that side shifted into an alarmingly flexible appendage that wrapped around him and thrust him in front of his queen once again.
*O o O o O*
Dungbeetle (who has yet to be informed of his impending name change), shook his head to clear it as he got back up. This was, he immediately thought to himself, his second mistake so far (the first being to charge mindlessly forward at Meta Knight at the start of the battle). His third mistake was that he was running right back into battle as if this was one of Queen Chrysalis' swarm rushes, but he knew that he wasn't the best tactical thinker in the unit, and maybe he could buy some time for those who were better at it than him to regroup and come up with an actual plan...
Dungbeetle's impromptu cry of "WHAT THE *klick* IS WRONG WITH MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!?" as he fell back into the familiar tactics of the old way was yet another mistake, as it not only had a negative impact on the morale of those who heard it, but also drew Meta Knight's attention directly to him.
In the end, Dungbeetle's sacrifice play bought the unit maybe half a second of reprieve as Meta Knight dealt with his reckless charge. Fortunately, he didn't get a chance to make another mistake as he was promptly sidelined yet again, this time staying down due to actually being unconscious...
*O o O o O*
The soon to be renamed Waspinator would probably have been, if not pleased, at least appreciative that the half second he had paid dearly for with his sacrifice play was indeed used by several of his fellow trainees...
*O o O o O*
Frost quickly cast several Icewall spells in rapid succession to spread scattered barriers throughout the arena for her fellow changelings to take cover behind while Flambé guarded her with a ring of fire...
*O o O o O*
Waterbug spent that brief moment dragging Acting Captain Mayhem behind the ice barrier he noticed Moth ducking behind, where the two worked desperately to revive their semi-conscious leader...
*O o O o O*
Rose, Onyx, Sapphire, and Emerald shifted into a single giant gestalt form of a cave troll, with Amber taking the form of a suitable weapon to threaten Meta Knight with...
*O o O o O*
Calamity assumed the form of a giant Rockbiter Scarab and angled to come at Meta Knight's flank...
*O o O o O*
Inky charged in, ducking under Meta Knight's first counterblow in order to grapple the Royal Guard and hold him in place for R.O.S.E. and Calamity while Waterbug and Moth revived Acting Captain Mayhem...
*O o O o O*
Meta Knight laughed with disturbing joy as he witnessed the fruits of his training. Counter-grappling Inky, he used the brave but unfortunate changeling to disarm R.O.S.E., sending Amber unconscious into the same force barrier that he had sent Dungbeetle into before, knowing that the barrier would be more forgiving than the wall. He then tried to use Inky to strike Calamity with the follow-through swing, but Inky was having none of it, having twisted around to reverse the grapple yet again.
Unfortunately for Inky, Meta Knight shifted out of the otherwise strong hold just in time for the combined flanking strikes from Calamity and R.O.S.E. to hit him instead, taking him out of the fight for the moment. Sturdy bug, that Inky, being dazed but not out...
Taking the form of a gorgon, Meta Knight grabbed Calamity's Rockbiter Scarab form (good choice!) by the mandibles, using her momentum to swing her into R.O.S.E., breaking the gestalt form back into Ruby, Onyx, Sapphire, and Emerald, who immediately scattered to take cover behind various walls of ice. Calamity also shifted forms to effect a retreat behind yet another such barrier...
Inky managed to recover enough to grab Meta Knight's gorgon form by the oversized snake tail, swinging the Royal Guard into one of the new walls of ice, which quickly grew more ice to encase him. Frost's work, no doubt. Best to do something about her sooner rather than later.
Shifting from gorgon to yak, Meta Knight smashed his way out of his icy prison and charged directly at Frost, shifting into a cragodile form as he reached the ring of fire...
*O o O o O*
Flambé watched in horror as Meta Knight ignored her Ring of Fire, charging right at Frost in the form of some giant lizard thing made of stone. Shoving Frost out of the way, Flambé took the charge instead, doing the only thing she could think of as Meta Knight's massive form struck her - she set herself on fire! "BURN! BURN, DAMN YOU! BURN!"
*O o O o O*
Acting Captain Mayhem set aside her horror at Flambé's self-sacrifice play, rallying the remaining trainees to brace themselves against several of the ice walls Frost had formed. The moment Meta Knight knocked Flambé out (incidentally stopping the pyre effect) and tossed the now charred changeling out of the way, Mayhem shouted: "NOW! PUSH!"
*O o O o O*
Meta Knight turned to watch a sea of ice walls sliding towards him. Taking flight, he noted that the ice walls in his path grew taller to meet him anyway. Within moments, he was rammed against the wall of the arena as wall after wall of ice were added to the growing shell, trapping him in a frigid prison of ice...
*O o O o O*
"More Ice, Frost! Don't let up for a moment!" Mayhem ordered. "Moth! Waterbug! See to Flambé! Inky! You good?"
"I'm good."
"Great, you're with me and Calamity. Ruby, pick another form for your gestalt and stand ready!, My Queen, you... My QUEEN!"
"This fight is over," Queen Whatevra Wa'Nabe stated coldly, less than pleased with how out of control things had gotten. "See to the injured and have Meta Knight dug out of that mess. And once everyling has been seen to and medically cleared, I want to see you and Meta Knight for debriefing."
"I'll see to it immediately, My Queen," Acting Captain Mayhem acknowledged, noting that Queen Whatevera Wa'Nabe seemed to be very much her mother's daughter as she turned and left the training arena braced by the two Royal Guards from the alcove, with Humblebee hurrying along behind her (after stopping briefly to say something to Dungbeetle).
Changelings have long since bred out common sense haven't they?
It's important to be able to tell the difference between a training exercise and live combat. If you nearly kill yourself trying to take down your DI, something's gone very wrong.
9941561
It's more that the ones that have any common sense also tend to be the only ones sent out on long term gathering and infiltration missions, leaving the bulk of the remainder back at the hive being notably deficient in this category.
I feel that if you gave these guys spears they would be like "whats this stick?"
The queen has a long road ahead of her for training a suitable fighting force
I think one pain of being Changeling Queen is having to deal with silly names of your subjects.
No, Meta was right. To teach, you need 2 things
1) A teacher who knows something the student does not
2) A student who is willing to admit that the teacher knows something that it's worth their time to learn.
Whipping their ass is probably the fastest way to establish #2
Magical Equine Lyrical Wa'Nabe is about to go Green Devil on you.
So glad to see this continued! Thanks for the update
Something tells me this is either a reference I didn't get or another Watevra Wa'nabe
9941690
It's all Greek to me!
Pinkie...
Great story so far. Definetly going to follow it.
Methinks that the new queen will change the changeling guard training methods.
This was great ! Chapter was good the combat was great, also if your trainer's try to kill your trainer and he does same to you, you know something is very worng, anyways I loved this story please keep going !
9941568
That sounds like a great strategy for making sense maladaptive.
Like the difference between Japanese and American aviation placement in WW2. Successful American aviators were sent stateside to train recruits. Successful Japanese aviators were sent on more and more dangerous missions. As a consequence, after a few years, the Americans had a lot of good pilots, and the Japanese had very few.
How would the queen and the hive react to the Shadow Hive Kingdom?
I hope you update more often I fraggen love this story. Soooooooooooooooooo GOOOOD
9941567
Exactly, if during or after training you want to punch your DI in the face, then they've done their job well. But if you're willing to go all kamikaze on them for a minor victory, then the training methods may need to come under review.
9941690
9941713
I just wanted to see if I could find out what it meant, so I put it into Google. I found some interesting stuff.
Could have been worse, Flambé could have set their team mates on fire instead.
I thought Meta Knight was going to clown the entire squad, but they apparently have learned...a few things.
A disciplined fighting force of changelings, who can do everything from magic to combining into gestalt monsters, would be an absolute terror on any battlefield. Especially if they know what the hell they're doing and aren't just making it up as they go along.
I mean... all in all things went pretty well i'd say!
Poor Waspinator, he never could catch a break in either Beast Wars series. Same holds true for the poor fool who now bears his name.
9941881
Assuming the Shadow Hive Kingdom exists in this fic (and it might, if you're willing to let me use it), then it is not currently in contact with the remnants of Gandahar (the Badlands Hive).
The two other hives Queen Whatevra Wa'Nabe knows about are the Jungle Hive (located somewhere south of the Bone Dry Desert), and the Island Hive (located on an island somewhere in the Celestial Sea), and the Badlands Hive is not currently in contact with either of them.
As the Shadowlings apparently lack the shapeshifting abilities that the other changelings have, I'm going to rule that they were subjected to either a different or additional Great Change than the others experienced. Possibly due to being located on a different continent. For the purpose of my fic, I want to say that their capitol city is known as Oz, the Emerald City (named by one of King Zulu's distant ancestors), and they operate mostly in Zebrica, south of the Dragonlands. They do tend to occupy emerald mines and deal with griffon and dragon traders and minors who desire that commodity, but most ponies in Equestria have never heard of them (meaning that the Badlands Hive rarely got news of them either).
However, they wouldn't be the only 'lings known to coexist peacefully with their neighbors, as the Island Hive pretty much has a symbiotic relationship with a minor pony kingdom on a neighboring island.
The changelings of the Jungle Hive are pretty much jerks though.
Loving this story, definitely one of my new favourites
Well, they... Tried?
The civilization has indeed fallen, but that just means improvement all around! Potential everywhere!
Keep going! ;)
Awesome fight scene! Definitely had me on the edge of my seat. Xd
Ah oh, the queen does not sound happy.
Hooray, happy to see another chapter! Some neat world building there and a fun training exercise!
(Hmmm, okay. On the one hand, yes, that did get a little... out of hand. On the other though, nothing like a little lesson in humility combined with a dose of sheer terror, and a side-dish of physical trauma, to drive home the point that you're not a bad-A and still have a lot to learn. So... will be interesting to see how the Queen addresses this.)
Pretty sure they forget the part were this was a training season not life or death fight. Than again... Chrysalis in this story we're pretty extream
I really really hope there's a heart song in the future that totally echoes Not Evil.
Am I the only one who just heard the sound of bowling pins?
Assuming those individuals exist...
Okay, the idea with R.O.S.E. is actually awesome!
Good chapter!
I'm curious to see what happens next.
In the other comments you had hinted about the backstory about the Island Hive and the Jungle Hive. Is there more about this?
9947120
The Island Hive is, naturally enough, a changeling hive on a small island located somewhere in the Celestial Sea east of Equestria. They are fairly unusual (well, prior to Queen Whatevra Wa'Nabe taking Queen Chrysalis' place as the Queen of the Badlands Hive) in that they have coexisted peacefully in a symbiotic relationship with a small kingdom of ponies who inhabit a nearby island. Neither kingdom has much contact with the outside world, and the only records in the Gandahar Royal Archives (which are severely out of date on this matter) indicate that the Island Hive is a small and otherwise unremarkable hive like any other.
The Jungle Hive is located somewhere in the Unknown Jungle south of the Bone Dry Desert. It is currently ruled over by Queen Orthopox, who's chief field agent is Cryptosporidium. The Jungle Hive mainly gathers love from the kingdoms of Abyssinia and Ornithia, along with occasional forays against the Coalition of the Wastes. They have limited, mostly incidental, contact with the Badlands Hive, which typically occurs whenever the two hives happen to sent infiltrators to the same area. The Jungle Hive isn't really doing any better than the Badlands Hive, or Queen Orthopox would have attacked the Badlands Hive for resources decades ago. Orthopox is not currently aware that Queen Chrysalis has died recently, and has no knowledge of Queen Whatevra Wa'Nabe (who is technically a cousin).
9941690
More like a Saddam Hussein or Idi Amin Dada Oumee. Or since this happened many thousands of years ago, could've been just another Nimrod.
On the plus side, the session showed that the team has improved--they managed to take down Meta Knight. It means Meta's training is starting to pay off.
9947305
Wow.
Did you just make that up, had you planned this for longer already or is that something from another story/universe?
Because it sounds cool!
9947774
It does sound detailed at the very least. Also sounds like the Queens, and the Hives for that matter, aren't in contact with each other. I wonder if Queen Watevra Wa'nabe might try to change that in the future.
.....You officially have my attention.
9942105
give that predicon a break. He is an ace! Watch him next time; When he actually gets to shoot he typically hits exactly what he was shooting at. Megatron even made use of it shortly after the Arc was found. By placing him far away from the action with his sole job being "shoot at the rocks above" and he caused a small cave in that incapacitated the maximals.
9959779
Company sniper identified!
We'll just try to keep him away from melee combat. Maybe.
Seriously though, I do want to have at least one thing each of the recurring characters is actually good at. So Waspinator's thing is going to be ranged combat thanks to your observation.
I'm not sure what I would have settled on for him before, as the main reason QWW changed his name was because she thought Dungbeetle was a horrible name and Waspinator was the first name that popped into her head for some reason...
Possibly having to do with him impacting the shield as he had.
9960221
fun fact; He is the only predicon to make it to the end of Beast Machines that isn't Megatron. All the others die and he both begins and ends his showtime fighting Cheetor one on one.
How long until an update?
MMMMOOOOOOORRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!??😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈😈
9974110
Almost 2020 only very few writers update in December
9977802
:(
9977808
Titels to read in the mean time?
To be a Changeling
Princess Celestia: The Changeling Queen
Transcend
An Affliction of the Heart
Without a Hive
The Boopening
My Secret Life as an Evil Insect Overlord
9978040
No thx I'm good
9978040
Hmm, read about half of those already.
Anyone got any suggestions on stories that are, well, comedy (actual Laugh out loud, don't read these at work) stories?
The Waspinator reference was awesome!
9982209
I see that a lot good story have great humor but only very few are focused on humor. But not eith a changeling focus
9982296
I like Changeling stories, but a *lol* story is still a *lol* story :)
Is this a rewrite or adopted story?
I swear I've read the first chapter at least a year ago.
Distinctly remember having read about Chrysalis exploding, leaving a smaller Chrysalis and changelings nodding sagely because screaming is a good sign.
9988596
You may have read it on SpaceBattles, where the first few chapters were posted for a while before I ever got around to posting them here as well.