Every mind is different...
Chrysalis flowed through her connection, pouring on the surface of the drone's mind. Her thoughtform bubbled into one nearly identical to her realform, stepping through a sparkling mist as she looked about. "Dear heart, I know you haven't had much experience, but would you kindly give me a setting?"
A vague impression of a question wifted from the writhing mass of half-formed thoughts.
"A memory will do. Your home, perhaps?"
The wafting whispers began to bind, rising through the glittering mists to form a vague impression. Far below Chrysalis was a town, but she herself stood on a white cloud.
"Yes, that's it, dear heart." Chrysalis smiled indulgently. "Now, where are you?"
...here?
"But of course you are. I simply mean, where are you in this memory? Let me see what you see yourself as." She settled on the cloud, waiting patiently. "I think we should start there, if I am to help you."
There was a moment of nervousness. Then, slowly, something stepped forward. Cyan, of course, and the outline of a pegasus... but the tips of the feathers wisped randomly, and the rainbow blazed from the head, down the back, and into an explosive corona of a tail.
Chrysalis noted the empty eye sockets, and nodded at the holes in the hooves. "I see you are confused, dear heart. I suppose you would be, after these revelations."
yeah, I gu"ess I am a bit." The figure shook her head, flickering black for a moment.
"I can grant you less... confusion." Chrysalis leaned toward the apparition. "I am in your parlor now, so to speak. Your front room. If you want me to help, I will have to go deeper."
The half formed image of Rainbow glanced at the mist below her, watching a few twinkles drift by.
After a moment, she sighed. "Al... alright. In for a bit, in for the bridle I guess..."
Chrysalis smiled. "Splendid. I forewarn you, this will feel a tad unusual."
Threads of consciousness whispered down, shifting through the glinting azure fog and down into the channels of the drone's mind. Chrysalis could tell that it had been forged in loneliness, all the pathways weaving on their own and glimmering as the half formed thoughts were processed and pondered by a thousand minor committees. She had to smile as she saw an overt connection between flight and the etchings of permanence; truly, the soul of this one was held by the skies alone.
She dipped a thread into the glimmering fog... and paused. The fog flowed separate from the rest of the drone's thought. It was almost as if...
"Ah." There it was, a tunnel. Unguarded on this side, obviously, the poor drone had no idea how to work her own mind... but no doubt, no doubt the traitor was on the other, preparing some sort of foolish ambush.
With a small, quiet smirk, Chrysalis spiraled in.
***
Every mind is different...
Chrysalis sprung wide, her thoughtform clinging like a net around a projection. This one, unlike Rainbow, was firm and solid: a changeling drone with full mane and tail, wearing a startled earth pony mask.
The memory of the house she was in suddenly ruptured as half rotted dragons burst through the wall. With a scoff, the queen coalesced into a single black tentacle, batting them back into the glittering blue mist before springing on the central projection. Only then did she let her thoughtform here shift into its recognized self.
"Well, well well. What have we here?" She let a burst of smoke out and the mask dissolved, revealing the cringing changeling beneath. "A power mongering traitor, I take it. Let's find out more about you..."
This time, Chrysalis didn't seep down gently. She lanced deep into the mind, tearing the memories up and ignoring the cries of pain from the projection under her hooves. "802802. Scout, oh of course. Replaced Rainbow Dash... hmm, yes. Faked. Your. Own. Death." The queen gave the drone a condescending look as one of the house's walls fell. "What an insult to your whole family."
"Like... any of you would mourn me," spat the drone.
"Oh we did. Oh we truly did." Chrysalis sighed. "I suppose you don't really care, though, what with us being 'monsters' and all--what's this?" She frowned, fleshing out a particular memory.
"Don't you dare go after her!"
The queen ignored her, staring at the smiling green unicorn that had appeared in the middle of the room. "This... I know this pony... she was..."
Her eyes narrowed.
A sudden force slamed out in all directions, demolishing what little was left of the house. Chrysalis snapped her gaze to the drone, pushing her into the glittering blue mist as the moonlight shone in the black sky. "YOU! YOU'RE THE ONE THAT WARNED CELESTIA!"
"What? No, that was--"
The drone's words were cut off as the queen pushed a hoof into her throat. "I thought you were merely a traitor, seeking to take my hive and remake it in your own image. I would have been lenient, but now I see the truth! You are a depraved BEAST!" She pointed at the smiling image behind her. "You consort with PREY! You lust after ANIMALS!"
"Lyra is not an animrk!"
Chrysalis ground her hoof down. "I would have reconnected you to the Hive, you know, if I thought you were foe. I would have torn you apart, yes, but your memory would live on. But now I see that you are sick, truly and irredeemably sick." She snarled. "Do you know what that means? YOU WILL DIE ALONE. And I, your queen, your mother..."
Her head lowered. "I will be the one that has to kill you." She sighed. "I will have to live with that guilt."
The drone scoffed.
Chrysalis gave her a look. "At least answer me this; how would you like her to die? I'll have to kill her, if she could so affect a drone she is dangerous, but I'll let you decide her fate. Her head chopped off, swiftly? A body for incubation? Drowned? Merely put to sleep? I will remember your request when the ponies are mine."
She pulled her hoof back, slightly. Just slightly.
After a moment, the queen tilted her head. "Well? Have you nothing to say?"
"...actually," the drone mused, "There is one thing I need to tell you."
She gave Chrysalis a very smug smile as the glittering blue mist flowed around her. "Look up."
Chrysalis blinked, uncomprehending for a moment. Her gaze tilted slowly, registering the dark and skyless sky...
...and the all too large, all too pale moon.
"No...."
She looked down at the glittering blue mist. The star filled blue mist.
"No!"
The blue mist flowing down the link into the brain of a drone just connected to the hive mind.
"NO!"
***
Every mind is different....
Chrysalis ran from the laughter of the traitor, diving down the tunnel. Chrysalis swam up through the channels of a loose mind, ignoring the cocky grin of a half formed image. Chrysalis leapt back up the connection and into her home, a home already half lost thanks to her ignorance.
"INTERLOPER! HOW DARE YOU ATTACK THE SANCTITY OF CHANGELINGS!"
The starry mist pulsed, and Luna stared down coldly at Chrysalis. "Thou had plans to enslave Us and Ours. We choose to free thine kin from thy's grip."
"They are not slaves!" Chrysalis protested, tearing a portion of the mists away from the strands of the Hive. "They are children, and I am their mother! This is our home!"
"Then explain these chains!" Luna brought forth a Pure mind. "Explain why these drones have no thoughts of their own!"
Chrysalis snarled, snatching the mind away. "It was their choice! The greatest honor and duty the swarm can have! They live forever in the Hive!"
Luna raised a brow as the starry miasma crawled further. "Some would say that the hive steals their souls."
"Stolen?" Chrysalis snorted. "And would you consider a foal stolen if their parents willingly gave them to the community?"
"Foals need parents!" Luna argued. "They need to be raised!"
"Then a stallion, stolen by the guard, if he walked in willingly." Chrysalis hugged the blank mind tightly. "This is not thievery. This is the acceptance of the greatest gift!"
Luna narrowed her eyes. "Being gutted willingly is still being gutted."
"Bah! You animals will never understand!" Chrysalis sneered at Luna, lashing out at the stars around her. "Why am I even speaking to you? I will force you from the hive, or crush you underneath it!"
"Thou assumes we want to take the hive," Luna replied simply. "We have already stated our intent to free it."
Chrysalis gave the night princess a look filled with rage. "And how would you do that, beast?"
"Quite simply, in fact." The stars snapped together as Luna's eyes shone with bright light. "We shall remove you from it."
***
Every mind is different...
Chrysalis's eyes snapped open, gaze sweeping wildly as she tried to stand--
A black hoof pushed her down, holding her against the forest floor. With a rush of green fire, Rainbow returned to her preferred form. "Nuh-uh, queeny, you stay where you are."
"The hive..." Her ears flicked, and she pushed up. "The hive!"
"Whoa!" Both the now blue hooves pushed into her shoulder. "I told you to stay put!"
"She's after the hive!" Chrysalis flicked her ear again, standing. "She's pushed me out!"
"Hey! Get back here, you stupid--!"
"I HAVE TO SAVE THEM!" The queen bolted through the trees, heading for the resting pods. Hopefully they would be safe from--
A black form slammed to the ground. "Stand down and surrender." Chrysalis's eyes widened in horror at the twinkling aura extending from the changeling's fin.
"You monster!" The changeling queen turned around and ran right into Rainbow Dash. "No, dear heart, retreat!"
The pegasus snorted. "I was never your dear heart. Now just give up and--hey!"
The queen sprinted through the treeline, desperately trying to formulate a new plan. She'd have to make a small nest somewhere in, in a place where ponies never came, use her own silk and watch the eggs every hour of every day, and build up an army to free her hive from--
A golden-armored guard landed in front of her. "Queen Chrysalis, you are under arrest for the assault of--"
She lobbed a ball of spit at his eyes, blinding him. "YOU HAVE NO LAW, CREATURE!"
She buzzed off the ground, flying into the dense branches. Her ears tilted left and right as hoofsteps sounded everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, she had to run somewhere, she had to hid somewhere, she had to SQUIRRELS SQUIRRELS TREES BRANCHES NO NO NO NO NO!
"Um..." Somepony cleared her throat. "It's okay now, little friends. I don't think she'll be escaping now."
Chrysalis looked up, seeing a yellow pegasus... and behind her, wearing thick and ancient armor, the princess of the sun.
"...beasts. Animals. All monsters..."
Celestia sighed. "Go to your friends, Fluttershy. I can take it from here." A spell built up on her horn... and then Chrysalis's world went black.
Alone.
Alone.
Alone.
Alone.
Alone.
Alone...
Now I need to reread this fic. Good chapter.
So... Luna is in charge of the hive now?
so is chrysalis really the mother of all changelings or just dash, cause she didnt seem to happy with bon bon.
Hey, I thought it was BonBon and Rainbow was ready to do a Rainboom kick to Chrysalis's face, so I was right that BonBon was involved. Admittedly I wasn't expecting Luna, but nice twist.
Foreshadowed? Damn you, i didn't notice at all. Going to reread as well
4736717 Not in charge, she just 'freed' them of their link to Chrysalis.
The true reason Celestia never wanted to fight Nightmare Moon...
Luna fights dirty!
Of course, the real question is; Is Chrysalis seeing the hive in a twisted light, or was she telling the truth, & now the hive will crumble under forcefully gained individuality?
Foreshadowing? What foreshadowing? It must've went over my head, heh. Oh well. This was sad, relieving, and many other conflicting emotions all in one! And it also makes me question my sanity.
4736946 Ah, what an amazing answer we'll get from that question! It even begs more questions it's way, like "How was it even made in the first place?" or "Why was it made?" You deserve a derp token!
Huh... y'know, I've read a lot of Chrysalis stories ( fav character and all), but this is the first story I've read where she was that... well, racist, i guess. Wierd.
So, will she see the light? Stay in stubborn denial? Go completely cukoo...er?
I don't know! I'm hoping for the first, but I guess I'll have to wait and see.
Oh, and BAMF!Luna is the best Luna. Thank you for that.
Bon Bon: "There is something I need to tell you..."
Heeee yessss I thought something like this was going to happen! Loved it.
More please!
.... Also I feel inda sorry for Chryssie.
What's that? Luna and Celestia actually DO something useful in a MLP fanfiction? What kind of sorcery is that?
But in all seriousness, it was a nice twist. It is nice and refreshing to see the royal sister as something more than useless characters who never help or are quickly defeated for the sake of the conflict, and after how badly Celestia and Luna performed in Royal Wedding episode, they deserved some revenge on Chrysalis.
4737125
If you wanted to marry a cow, what would your mother say?
Granted, this situation isn't the same, since cows don't independently build structures and don't have a complicated system of communication, but the point is there. Ponies are food. Don't play with your food.
Well, that was impressively unexpected.
Plainly, Changelings can survive separate from the hive, and gain the love they need to survive from other creatures they live with. So the only question left is why Chrysalis - and her role - came into existence in the first place. Because short of a genuine threat to unlinked Changelings, there's no logical reason to become an enslaved hive mind when you can be a hive of individuals. Unless it was politics.
Not only did I not catch your forshadowing, I didn't even realize it was Luna who went to Chrysalis and linked with the hive mind until your author's note. I thought Bon Bon made a link with both Rainbow and Luna and Luna just followed the links to the hive after Rainbow was connected.
4737392
No, actually, you're right on that count. Luna through Bonbon and Rainbow.
Awww. Please don't tell me Chrysalis bit the big one.
I think Dash is going to be queen and then have a heart attack. Yes
Quick note:
Both of these should just be "thy." Thine is either used by itself, or as "thy" before a vowel. There's no such word as "thy's."
4737322
Others are probably going to yell at me for this but. It feels more like a If you wanted to marry a black guy/girl, not a cow. Maybe it's just me but I don't see Changelings as that different from ponies. I mean you never hear about the Chrystal ponies, it's only ever Earth, Unicorn, and Pegasus. Tho one could say they are Earth ponies, just special.
4737322
fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/126/1/8/when_villain_win_part_28_by_vavacung-d7hdsln.png
4737409
Guess Luna? Guess Luna doing what? Yeah, we all saw the freeing of the "Impure" as a given, most likely by Bonbon, but freeing the "Pure" as well was right out of left field. Which chapter are you talking about that even hinted that Ol` Cheese Legs wasn't going to take her precious "Pure", turn tail, and flee?
You kidding? I'm still trying to work out how the other undercover "Impure" are going to handle going from ordinary Canterlot citizens, to mindraped puppets, to suddenly waking to realize that they had attacked their own friends/family/coworkers, and now have nowhere to call home. I figure the new Queen will come from their ranks. Luna may be able to keep the Pure under control for the rest of their lives, but it doesn't account for the continuation of the species.
Tssk what a foalish plan celestia, a horn is like the wands in Harry potter, to activate the magic you need will way and a way to let it out, but if will is overpowering with a outburst of magic, can cause mayhem, good luck finding her now
Well, that happened. I look forward to more.
4737914
...err, what? Celestia cast a sleep spell. Ol` Cheese Legs is now alone inside her own head for the first time, ever.
So, anypony want to set up the betting odds for just how crazy (well, crazier) she's gunna be when she wakes up? I'm leaning towards full-on catatonic, myself.
4737967 who knows, maybe she surged, teleported away and when she landed fainted. which I think would be so much better then her getting captured
4737782 THANK YOU FOR SHOWING ME THIS COMIC
4737967
Alone with her thoughts? She'd be better off in Tartarus with a million Pinkies!
4737750
Eh. You might be able to argue that if you're looking at this from the ponies' point of view or Bon Bon's point of view, but not Chrysalis's. Chrysalis just sees ponies as food, not as more-or-less equal beings similar to herself. There's really no comparison that works all that well for humans, since our food sources aren't sapient. Maybe a slave owner marrying a slave, but even that's not quite it.
And at least in this story, where changelings are laying eggs, I think that changelings and ponies are pretty different outside of superficial similarities in appearances. But it's hard to say for sure, especially with all that magic floating around.
You missed the "L" in "feel".
"Thy's" is not a word. It's just "thy".
Ah, the payoff. Nice one. Too bad it's going to be another several months before we see more. At least the update rate is fairly regular, though. Say, why does it take you so long to write a mere 2k words, anyway? I have no right to complain, what with me being much, much worse, but I am curious. I don't know if anyone's asked this before, but I am not about to sift through a thousand comments just to find out.
4737997
Agreed. This is wrapping up a tad more neatly than I expected. I was hoping for the Hive Mind to be split between the old guard, aka Queen Chrysalis and her Pure; and the newly minted free thinking Impure, led by Bonbon, or, you know, anyling OTHER than Rainbow Dash. As it stands now, we have the Impure running the joint, while Luna keeps the braindead Pure from falling over and never moving again. ...unless they act as mere limbs of the Hive Mind itself, in which case her job is to keep the `Mind itself in check. I do not envy Luna either of those two tasks.
4738063
Yea... Magic... Like if they change, is it a macro or micro change? Do they simply ware a skin or is it a full change? Organs and all? Chrysalis is a racist in this story all right. Or it is spiciest?
4737125
Think of changelings as emotion‐vampires. While vampires are often depicted as empathising with humankind there is also the odd portrayal here and there of the callous “they are nothing more than cattle” outlook too.
4737326
A unified society is incapable of falling to infighting. While there is probably little need nowadays it is entirely conceivable that the changelings’ position in the world was far more tenuous and that absolute uniformity of purpose was the only thing allowing them to survive. Hell, it could have even been the three tribes’ ‘issues’ with one another that convinced them that sacrificing individuality was a small price to pay to prevent a re‐emergence of the whole “frozen to death by windigos” thing. Though from what little we know it’s more likely because of far less benign reasons than an existential threat.
4738039
...except that Twilight only murdered less than a hundred Pinkie Clones in that episode. Granted, the distinction is moot, as any number over fifty would do the job. That said, numbers don't lie, so I try not to lie about the numbers.
4738133 especially since changeling magic is focused on will most likely so just an intense wanting can activate the magic, even when sleeping if it is a conscience want and thus they most likely have to learn to control there magic but in her frenzied state he safe guards are done
4738132
It's harder for some to write quickly than others. When it comes to writing, my attention span is somewhere in the ballpark of Pinkie after she downed a gallon of pure caffeine. I have been stuck at 300 words for my newest (second ever) chapter for weeks now because the more I focus on something the more my mind wanders. I have to write during the occasional "clear" moments or I will end up writing an entirely different storyline.
4738219
She's locked in Tartarus! How much more expensive would it be to buy a simple magic suppression ring?
I forgot to say this, but you got me addicted on these changeling stories today. I'm currently on Twilight!
4736805 Oooohhhh ok.
4737326 It would be seen as beneficial to a changeling to join the hive mind because it is assured that they will be fed as the love gathered from drones most likely belongs to the hive mind as a whole and would be distributed evenly across all drones. Communistic, actually.
wait...what just happened? I feel like I missed something.
Am i the only one who is inspecting Chrysalis's hive to go utterly berserk without their queen around?
I wonder how long it'll take for this plan to backfire?
make Wild guesses at what will happen NEXT!!! WELL THEN! clearly rainbow develops a Oedipus complex (or some such) and falls in love with chrysalis then Quickly saves her from Celestia meanwhile Luna's mind is shattered along with the hive driving her completely mad then she and discord team up to destroy Celestia and Twi. When they try and play to discords reformed side he sees this as a chance for power and Rainbow is to busy Mind kissing chrysalis and making her all better by reforming the hive mind together......
OK, that's my guess as to what happens next lets see how close i get to being correct?
4738347
...what does Chrysalis's ability, or lack thereof, have to do with the fact that they don't have a million Pinkie Ghosts to lock her up with?
"Chapters ago" was also months ago. At least five, depending on when you foreshadowed it. I can't remember every detail of every story I read, so I worked with what I could recall.
In any case, yeah, you don't bring a hivemind to a Luna fight. And now Chrysalis is either going to have to admit that her prey are sapients in their own rights, sulk, or go mad. Or some combination thereof. Or a fourth option that I can't foresee.
Looking forward to more. Especially how Dash came to the decision to fight Chrysalis.
YAY! Update! You have no idea how happy I was when this showed up in my notification feed!
this chaper didnt make sense to me....
4739642
Her magic could blast them. As for the Pinkies, just use the mirror pool!