> Where I Am...
>  by Ozark
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> Hello?
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I've been awake for a few hours now. I'm not familiar with the part of the hive I'm in; I didn't explore much though, so I could be anywhere. The ceiling above me is about forty feet high, or higher, I couldn't really tell from my position on the ground. The walls were made of a dark stone or crystal, maybe obsidian. It looked like it was dug out by hoof; I could see small grooves and scratches all over the walls. Parts of the wall had deeper crevices in them, where luminous mushrooms and plants grew, bathing the dark room in an ominous green light. There was a sticky substance on certain parts of the wall and floor; it was a green as well but a darker color. The whole room gave of an aura of depression and fear. I've been here less than a day and I can already feel myself going insane.
I've flown around the whole room so many times, but I can't find a break or exit in the smooth dark stone. I've called for help, but all my words do is echo uselessly on the walls. It's occurred to me that maybe the way out is magically sealed, but I can't even find any magical imperfections in the signature around the room. It's like I’m stuck in an egg, but it’s an egg I break out of. There are no sharp edges in this room, the edge where the wall meets the floor, wherever that is, is smooth like a sphere. I’m in a cylinder of sorts, the base as far as I can tell is ten feet across both ways and the ceiling is about four times that. I'm sitting, at the moment, in the center of the bowl that is the floor.
I feel it before I see it; a crack is forming in my egg right under me. I look down and see a white line forming in the outline of the crack. I feel the magical seal crack as well; I'm instantly rejuvenated by this light, and the pour of love coming from below. I hover above the crack, trying to see what's below this prison. My eyes haven't adjusted from the hours of darkness, and the outside of this room is just a blur. Cracks are forming I place other than the center of the bowl, all around the bottom of the egg are a maze of cracks ranging from the size of a hair, to the size of the largest hole in my leg, which is about three inches. 
The glow is now the main source of light for the room, the light from the crack is already brighter than the glow of the mushrooms. Chunks of the floor have already started to fall into the room below, and I could hear movement coming from the chamber below. The room, I could conclude, was made from quarts, or some other bright rock. The light was the sun reflecting from the large windows onto the floor, the floor was a mosaic of precious stones and metals in the picture of a glorious changeling queen with light hair, and she looks very similar to my queen. The cracks in the floor are much bigger now, but I still can’t fit through any of the holes. The rocks falling from my egg are somehow fading from the light before they reach the mass of changelings below me. I don’t think they have noticed me yet, if so they haven’t shown it. They look so different from me or the clones I call my siblings. There shell is a light blue, like a mix of the ocean and the sky on a rainy day. There chitin is not black, it is a dark grey like ash, and their eyes are as bright yellow as fireflies. There yellow haired queen is a exact replica, if not a bit taller, of the changelings gathered in front of her. The only thing you would see different from the others is her hair, which is cut really short, and the way she smiles. Her smile is so kind that I feel saddened by the fact that she is not my queen, but I love the queen I have. I have conclude that I am not in my hive, that thought alone terrifies me. l was a builder, secure in the fact that I would never have to leave the safety and protection of my hive. There is now enough room for me to leave the darkness, the darkness that I love much more than the light, but I am to afraid to leave. The cracks have stopped spreading and the rocks have almost stopped falling. 
I know if they saw me they would think of me as some type of monster out of the darkness, I blend into the shadows I’ve always have been told. These changelings must live in some tropical region, I can see the ocean from my egg through the window now. The changelings in the tropics are lighter so they can easily transform into the brighter colors that the ponies in the tropics are known to have. I will have to leave this room and go below at some point, I can't fly forever. I flew higher in my egg out of fear of being seen. On my way up i knocked a larger stoneand it fell. The stone disappeared on its way just like the smaller stones, but it shimmered on its way down like a cloud of glitter. Of course someling would see that, and one did. A changeling about my age looked up at my hole in the ceiling, I didn't know if he saw me, but he gasped. The gasp alerted others of the hole and soon I had a queen followed by a whole hive flying towards me. I flew up and squeezed in the highest corner hoping there eyes had not adjusted enough to see my camouflage against the obsidian. 
I waited there for minutes, I had just noticed that it was totally silent. I didn't dare my eyes, wich I knew would glow brightly in the dark, but then I heard a small cough, like one you would make to get someone's attention, I think it was the queens. I opened my blue eyes to see a mass of yellow ones staring back. I made a quiet squeak, "Hello?"
> My name is Echo.
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Now of course their whole hive couldn't fit in my room, and some of their eyes still haven't adjusted to the darkness, but the queen’s yellow eyes could see me and that is all that really mattered at the moment. The corner that I was in had some of the stickiness that the floor had, I could feel it slowly sticking my wings together and with my floor gone and a quite a bit of space under my already forty foot tall room, I couldn't afford to fall. I don’t know if the queen saw my flying fatigue, I can’t tell much about this hive.
The queen’s kind smile had turned cold with distrust, she must think I am some sort of infiltrator to her hive, and I doubt she would believe me if I said I wasn’t. I decided to make a direct approach, “Hello” I repeated with more confidence, “My name is Echo, and I don't mean any harm,”
The queen looked at me with no surprise in her golden eyes, just a steadily growing unrest towards my presence, “Why are you here? Why were you spying on my throne room?” She asked not convinced what-so-ever in my ‘I don't mean any harm’. I don't know how to respond to such a direct question, I haven't spoken to a queen before this, I have only barely seen my own. 
“I wasn't spying on your throne room-“ I started.
“Then what were you doing here?”
“Im not sure ” I ask wondering how far I appeared from my hive, the hive I so desperately wanted to be in right now.
She raised an eyebrow at that, "Do you not know how you ended up here?"
"No, but I would really like to get back to my hive," I said not hiding the quiver that was starting to form in my voice. Her face softened a bit but stood uniformly firm.
"You will be kept here until my guards and I have had time to fully conclude you are not a spy," She said. The queen examined me quietly as an unearthly silence was sent through the cave, only the steady beats of wings could be heard, she turned to the two armored changelings on each side of her, "Take her too the holding rooms until I have time to talk to her."
"Yes my queen," the guard on her left answered deeply, in the layered changeling tongue. I flew away through the crowd with the guards, and felt a million pairs of eyes on my back as I became fully visible in the light.
We turned down a polished stone into a large room containing a few cells. The room was lit by an unknown source, with no light fixtures or mushrooms, the roomed seemed to be brightened by the air around it. The cells that lined the room, if you could call them that, were like old cages you would put a pet bird in. The each of the cages were suspended off the floor by thick chains, and were completed with a large shing gemstone set in the door, almost certainly a magic damping jewel.
"In here," one guard said pointing at the largest cage. My 'holding room' had a smooth pressed metal floor that matched the swirling bars of iron that were my walls. As I settled on the cold floor I automaticly felt the the surface tilt towards me. The bed in the middle of the room cell slid slightly as well. I flew over to the bed and sat on its grey sheets as the guards looked the doors and left the room.
I couldn't bring myself to terribly upset though, my wings had a time for me to rest and I had time to clean, what i now see was a sticky type of moss off them.I was finally out of that horrible prison, to unfortunatly be put in another.