Chapter Zero: Prologue

The start of a story is usually the beginning.

~ Liarra Sniffles

Chrysalis was grumpy.

Perhaps grumpy was not the right word for her simmering anger, but she had good reason to be so. Half her army was deceased, the other half still mostly missing or wounded having barely survived the fall from Canterlot. For every Changeling in her hive, another three were absent for crying out loud! This defeat had put her in such a poor position; it would be years before she could attain her previous power and probably decades before any sort of large scale invasion could be attempted again.

Of course, she would never again try such a bold tactic without far more confidence in her victory. 'Stupid ponies and their stupid magic.' she grumbled, causing several nearby drones to flinch from the emotions she was emitting. 'If only I hadn't underestimated that purple menace, I should have put her in a cocoon instead.' She sighed. No use crying over it now, however, she needed to re-establish her hive.

"My queen!" A drone hurried through one of the holes in the walls, throwing himself at the foot of her throne.

"What is it Whisper." She barked, mentally adding 'can you not tell I am trying to sulk?' Whisper was almost always the changeling charged with bringing her bad news, of course he would survive the attack in perfect condition.

"The ponies have doubled or tripled their patrolling on the border, and many unicorns with detection spells have been posted among them." He cried, his wings buzzing a little.

"Getting past the guard is going to be much harder than previously; a dozen 'lings have already been captured trying to sneak back to the hive." Suffice to say this did not exactly improve her mood, but Chrysalis knew that this would happen once she had revealed her hive to the ponies.

"Are they taking them away somewhere?" Perhaps she could trade some of her few remaining captives for workers, else the hive was probably doomed to collapse.

"I could not see anyling being taken away, it looks like they are going to hold them hostage." Whisper snivelled like the irritating waste of space that he is. His wings twitched in agitation under the queens gaze.

Chrysalis let out a breath she hadn't realised she had been holding.

"Fine, assemble a small group of changelings and see if you can get the ponies to talk of trading." Three of her guards nodded as they buzzed through the roof.

Today was going to be a long day.

Grubby whistled a tune as he shifted piles of rocks with his legs. The strange strangled chittering that came from his mouth not exactly carrying the tune well, but he was proud of his talent nonetheless.

"Hey grubs, come take a look at this!" His fellow worker drone called from his own hole, the two of them being the only two worker drones currently left in the hive meant that they got all the important jobs, such as fixing cracks in support columns deep under the hive.

"Gimme a sec." Finishing his patch job with a nod and a satisfactory hum, he flitted across the bottomless pit from the spire he was working on in the direction of his fellow drones' cry.

"What do you make of this?" His compatriot said, standing in front of some weird depressions in the wall of a support spire. Taking a closer look, he traced some strange symbols in what could be described loosely as lines.

"Is that some kind of writing? This better not be one of your pranks PB" Plumbum, or PB to his friends, was quite well known for pulling all sorts of weird practical jokes that he insisted were funny.

"No look, I found this already like this when I removed that boulder." Plum indicated a large flat rock sitting on the ledge.

"Well neither of us can read, so I don't see what's so interesting about this. It's probably just someling's writing practice." Grubby didn't have time to be messing about with this now that he was head excavator, he was a very important 'ling.

"No look at this!" PB grabbed him by the hoof. "The writing keeps going into this rock layer, don't you know what this means?" Grubby frowned and shook his head.

"It means that this was put here before the next layer was added, it could be thousands of years old!" Plum chittered excitedly. Grubby thought about it, the hive was built on top of the previous hive, which in turn was built upon the previous hive all the way back to the first hive. Like the layers found in the earth, this huge tunnel going down many hundred meters was built from the layers of previous hives. After enough time had passed, the weight of the surface structure had compacted the ground below, forming many interesting patterns on the walls of the lower tunnels.

"Even if that is true, I still can't read and you're still going to get us both exiled." Grubby hissed, having never been particularly interested in the history of the hive. Getting sent out alone into the world for the sake of some old poetry was not on his bucket list.

"Listen, I'm going to patch the cracks down there if you're too busy staring at this to work. But once I'm done we need to leave, you can always come back if you get some spare time or something." Flitting down the column before PB could object, grubby landed a few meters below him and started to plug the cracks with a mixture of goo and small rocks. Leaving Plum to his muttering.
Grubby didn't mind doing PB's job for him too much, he still owed him after the wedding fiasco, but that bug could really use some lessons in self discipline before his rash actions caused serious problems.

Just as in the last plug went into the last crack, some fresh goo and a decent sized stone, a loud crack rang out, temporarily drowning out PB's chittering. Buzzing back up, he found PB digging through the spire and into the nearby wall, following the strange symbols.

"What the buck are you doing!" He cried. Both PB and Grubby were born experts in the hive's various construction methods, so PB knew that taking out such a large chunk of the a major support pillar was unsafe at best, and moronic at worst.

"Have you lost your mind!" Grubby furiously pumped his wings, slamming into the moronic changeling before he could do any more damage. The force of their collision sent them tumbling through the wall of the cavern where Plum had been digging, the thin wall shattering like cheap plaster.

"Was that really necessary." PB groaned, rubbing his head as he picked himself up from the rubble.

"Yes you bucking thick headed-" PB put his hoof over grubby's mouth, cutting his angry rant into muffled expletives.

"Shush for a second, you can yell at me later. Look at this room! We must be the first 'ling here in centuries!" Grubby shook his head free of Plum's grasp, glancing at the empty tunnel leading down before turning back to the entrance with a growl.

"Where are you going Grubby, this could be a huge discovery!" PB shook with excitement, all thoughts of the pillar he had nearly destroyed forgotten.

"Someling has to make sure the hive doesn't collapse, you buffoon" Grubby snarled, hurrying back to the half destroyed column and grabbing as many lose stones as he could. PB turned and headed deeper into the tunnel, disappearing from the hole leaving Grubby grumbling darkly into the shadows.

"By order of princes Celestia, you will trade any captive ponies you possess in return for these drones. This is not a negotiation." The blue haired tan idiot declared to the small group of changelings. Chrysalis let out a groan and nodded to her guards, sending a few to go drag out the few ponies still within the hive. The day had been long, and with every group of changelings she rescued from the royal guard, she traded more and more pony captives.

"This is the last group of ponies we have, if you take them then how can I be sure you will release any more prisoners to me." She growled at the pony, causing him to back up a step.

"We ponies do not keep prisoners like you monsters, as long as the remaining changelings do not commit any crimes separate to your foolish attack we will release them to you." The guard pulled out another scroll with a frown.

"The princess would like to arrange a meeting with you to discus compensation for damages sustained during the attack." Chrysalis sighed, she had seen this coming.

"I take it I do not get a choice in the matter." More of a statement than a question, but the guard nodded and answered anyway.

"The princess may be willing to let you keep your land and your freedom in exchange for- well I'll leave this for you to discus at your meeting in several days time." He let out a snort.

"The princess will send you a message with the details tomorrow." The guards backed away from the group of bound changelings sitting between the two groups but did not continue to speak.

The exchange seemingly over, Chrysalis turned and strutted off with a huff. These ponies sure make it hard to resist abducting their envoys. That 'Flash something-or-other' pony in particular was clearly in need of a good punishing, talking to royalty like that.
Thankfully the ponies made good on their deal, and Chrysalis was joined by many worker drones on her way back to the hive. Unfortunately now that her last remaining prisoners were gone, the hive desperately needed a new source of love. Some of those ponies had been sitting in pods for years, it was an incredible waste to give away ponies with such high quantity love generation. What good would it do the ponies to have such a boon.

Pausing on that thought, Chrysalis thought of that stupid couple. Perhaps the ponies released after a few years in the pods would also be able to use more powerful love spells, but considering nopony had ever used a pure love spell before those two, she doubted it would ever come up.
Raising her eyes to the horizon, Chrysalis let out another sigh, she found herself sighing a lot recently.
It would take a miracle to save the hive from starvation now, perhaps if she manage to swallow her pride she might ask the princess for help gathering love.
That thought leaving her in a particularly sour mood, she buzzed back to her personal chambers and kicked the guards from the room.
The smooth black walls seemed particularly bare without her personal pony toy beside her large bed. Perhaps she should start taking drones for playthings now that all her prisoners were gone.

One good thing that came out of her stay as the alicorn of love was her bathroom, a black and green copy of the one she had attached to her large bedroom in Canterlot castle, the only thing it lacked was true plumbing; her pipes instead being controlled by changelings in a room further up the hive.
Pushing thoughts of the pony castle from her mind, she pulled the cord that signalled her want of hot water, waiting until the large bath was nearly full to pull the opposite one.

Gently stepping into the shallow end of the large depression in the ground that was her tub, she looked to her mirror while waiting for her body to become acclimated enough to the temperature to go deeper. Her hair was a ragged mess of transparent blue fibre, it must have been days since she had it properly groomed.
Her wings fared little better, both primaries needing their ends straightened of creases.
A few of her teeth had been knocked out by the force of the blow sending her flying, they had already started to grow back. The sensation was somewhat uncomfortable.

The hot water running through the holes in her legs made her shiver, setting herself down for a good long soak up to her neck in the water, Chrysalis closed her eyes an-

"My queen! Some workers in the lower cavern have discov-urk!" The changeling drone that had burst into her bathroom was cut short by a green glow around her throat, she struggled to draw breath for a moment before quieting.

"I am in no mood to be trifled with unimportant business, think carefully of your next words or you will find yourself cleaning my floors with your tongue!" Chrysalis glared daggers at the small female drone, releasing her magic and dropping her to the floor in a heap.
Regaining her composure, the drone stood and started again with a deep bow.

"My queen, a pair of workers have discovered one of the early hive's chambers."

"What of it." Snapped Chrysalis, causing the drone to jump.

"W-well, judging from the inscriptions on the walls, it appears to be one of the early testing chambers for our pods. Specifically the love harvesting kind."

Chrysalis gave the drone a slap with her magic.

"Get to the point already before I lose my patience." A larger green glow surrounded her, pulling the blushing drone back to her hooves.

"Y-yes my queen, sorry my queen." The drone continued.

"There are many old pods down there, all but one are empty and solidified. This pod is much larger than the others and is emitting a substantial amount of love." The drone paused again, looking to the queen for a reaction. Seeing none she continued.

"The fortified love of the creature inside could be the answer to your probl-" The drone was cut off by more of the queens green aura.

"Mind your tongue, worm. If I didn't know better I'd suspect you enjoy my ire." Chrysalis creased her brow at the still blushing 'ling before throwing her to the side. "No matter, you shall wait here for my return." With that the queen adjusted her pose and strutted from the room, leaving the changeling again in a heap on the floor.

Despite what her forceful attitude implied to the casual observer, Chrysalis was excited for this discovery. Each of the changeling pods for the last several thousand years had been improving on an old technique some called 'love fermentation'. The simple act of keeping a pony in one of these pods could double the speed at which their 'love pool' was filled over the course of several years, similarly to how excising magic increased the magical pool of a pony. If this pony had been in one of the early pods, then they could have a ludicrous amount of love for a single creature, despite the old pods working so much slower than modern ones.

That is of course assuming that the long stay in the pod hadn't done anything particularly nasty to them. Chrysalis still remembered some of the failed experiment results from her own era of development and could not recall ever keeping a pony in a pod for longer than a year at a time without breaks, just to ensure they stayed somewhat sane.

Chapter One: Awakening

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I once woke up on a Sunday. It was horrible.

~ Liarra Sniffles

I did not wake with a start.
Technically, I did not wake at all. I simply started existing, my eyes already open.

'Have I always existed?' The thoughts seemed to spring into my mind unbidden, I almost panicked when I realised I could think. Taking stock of my surroundings, I seemed to be within some sort of green substance that stretched on as far as I could see. Perhaps it was how new I was to the world, but so far this green substance was my entire universe.

'It's strangely calming, floating in this goo.' I moved my arm through the thick goo, my stark black arm contrasting the gentle green.
The process of discovering myself was quite slow and embarrassing in hindsight. At first I thought of myself as nothing more than a conscious floating around, but I had known that I possessed eyes and an arm, therefore a body must be around here somewhere.

My arms and legs were the first things to make themselves known, my black extremities containing several structurally questionable looking holes in them which happily stopped before my hands or feet. Strange that I knew the terms for each part, I could not remember anything beyond the green that could explain this knowledge.

My fang filled mouth soon followed, my lungs burned when goo got into them but, breathing had not been a problem so far so I ignored the need to breathe for now. As I moved my hands about myself, I found several interesting exceptions to my knowledge. For one, I could twist and contort my body in many strange directions which made me feel nauseous despite not doing any harm. Twisting my head a full one hundred and eighty around let me see my back, which some part of me told me I should not be able to see.

'I have wings. Have I always had wings?' The question rang hollow as I was alone with my thoughts in the green slime, the transparent insect wings buzzed slightly in the goo with my agitation. The sensation wa s interesting.
While moving my head around I felt a strange pressure against my forehead, upon further inspection it appeared that I also had a crooked looking horn sticking several inches out of my forehead. It looked like it could do a fair amount of damage but I could not help but feel that it was not meant to be used as such.

After continuing to explore my body, I could not find any more entirely new body parts. Interestingly my chest and ribs were covered in some kind of green banding pattern which went all the way from my collarbone to the top of my pelvis, completely obscuring the modest chest I knew I had under there somewhere at some point.
My face flushed as I realised that I was completely bare of any clothing on my still normal lower half, but I couldn't pin the relevance of clothes onto anything specific. I just wished I had something covering myself.

Bubbles erupted from my mouth and slowly floated in front of my face as I gasped, movement from outside my prison of goo alerting me to the presence of others. This was a new and exciting development, as I had already seemingly run out of things to discover about myself. I hadn't the foggiest how much time had passed since I awoke, but boredom was not proving to be fun once the novelty of feeling bored had worn off.

My stomach lurched as my gooey prison was moved, the muted lights changing. I could not make out anything concrete about the outside world, the figures moving me seemed to be quite small but the goo made them appear as little more than foggy shadows.
I was briefly concerned that the outside world had some physical requirement to be a foggy shape, which my stark outline would defy, but when one of the creatures put what looked to be a hoof against the goo my worry faded.

Strangely, it seemed that none of the figures would ever stay to help carry me for long, constantly swapping for different ones. I had no idea why the creatures had such little stamina but, then again, I couldn't gauge my own stamina from within the goo.

Chrysalis stood watching, her practised face only showing mild interest as her changelings brought the pod towards her throne room, several changelings becoming overwhelmed by the apparent love in the pod and having to switch with fresh ones.
Amusingly, it seemed that none of them had thought to use the large amount of love they were absorbing to magically lift the pod, instead running off to dump their excess love into the nearest collection point.

'Now let us see who has been hiding within the very hive for so long' Chrysalis smirked, the love from the pod was not as intense as she had hoped, not matching the alicorn of love. Shooing the changelings back a ways, she turned to the pod and ripped open the side with her jagged horn.

"What is..."

Suddenly my world shifted, the big shadow had stuck what looked to be a horn similar to my own into the side of the goo pod. Unable to resist the flow, I was pulled out of the pod on a wave of goo, sliding to a stop before a large black quadruped that shared a lot of similarities to my own form.

Several things happened at once as I slid to a stop.
Firstly, new sensations wracked my body. The feeling of the warm air, the smell of the room around me, the sounds the creatures around the edges of the room made as they all collapsed to the floor as one. It was all too much for my poor brain to handle, the air crashing over me in waves causing an embarrassing amount of pleasure.
The creature in front of me was making a lot of noise by the time I couldn't take it anymore, and as everything faded to black I was only dimly aware of her horn lighting up a bright green.

I awoke after an indeterminate amount of time.

This time I had actually woken from a slumber, my eyes opening for technically the first time as I had not shut them in the goo.
After a few seconds the burning in my chest became too much and I gasped for breath. Right, breathing was a thing I needed to do now.
'Almost makes me miss the goo.'

Snapping myself out of my thoughts with a groan, I focused my eyes on the world around me. The first thing I noticed was that I was lying on something very soft, even softer than the goo had been. The roof above me looked almost like some kind of sea shell in the way its ridges spiralled out from the middle all the way to the floor.
Propping myself up on my elbows I followed the ridges to the room proper and look around. I was indeed on a huge bed of some kind; it was long enough that I could be stretched all the way out on it but I noted it seemed very low on the ground for someone who would need that length.

Looking to the foot of the bed, I noticed a large door set into the dark walls, green highlights glowing unnaturally here and there to illuminate the room.
To the left of the door sat a large dresser with a mirror on top, while I was not in the perfect place to see the mirror clearly, I could just make out myself in the distance.
I noted that my hair was slightly transparent even at a distance and that my large blue eyes had no pupils before moving on.
Several outfits of what looked like green and black silks sat on rails beside the dresser, none of them looked big enough to fit me however.

To the left of this, the wall curved around until it met the head of the bed, the only other feature being an open doorway leading to what looked like some kind of bathroom from my vantage; just barely able to spot what look like stone pipes.

The right of the big door held much of the same as the left, several chests and a writing desk with a cushion in front of it. All of them looked very low to the ground, but I supposed the quadrupeds I had seen before would have difficulty sitting on a raised chair. The ground that I could see from my vantage point was covered in expensive looking thick rugs.

Sitting up properly I nearly cried out, as I noticed one of the creatures from before standing beside the door. Its height was such that I had been unable to see it over the bed; no taller than a large dog at best.
Rolling over to my side, I fluidly swung my feet off the bed and onto the floor, the movements coming with practised ease despite my lack of movement until now.
Gingerly I pulled myself up from the bed, using one of the curtains to keep my balance as a wave of dizziness rolled over me. With a stretch that resulted in some satisfying pops from my spine, I turned to the little creature and slowly got closer.

Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be a small pony made from insect-like parts, similar to mine. Its wings were hidden under a blue shell, checking my own to find them similarly obscured, I eyed its horn. Just like mine, its horn was jagged in all the same ways. Mine seemed somewhat longer, but I put that down to me being bigger than it more than anything.

Strangely it did not appear to have any hair on its head like mine, I could have sworn one of them had hair before I passed out. Nor did I have the odd ears or spines that rose up the back of its head.
By now I had closed the gap to less than a foot, crouching down to bring myself closer to its height I looked into her eyes. How I knew it was a her I couldn't tell you, the information just seemed to pop into my head once I got close.
'You're a cute one, aren't you.' I thought to myself, watching it paw at the ground nervously. I looked closer and was somewhat shocked to see a blush forming on her face, could these little bug-ponies read minds?

Whatever it was, it really was super adorable and the blush was making it even cuter. I reached out with my finger and poked its nose.

"Boop!"

Chrysalis marched to her room, both her and every changeling within the nearest five miles was aware the the creature had woken after passing out. The emotions the creature gave off were indescribably strong, it almost felt like being hit with that shield all over again.
As soon as she had released it from the pod, Chrysalis had been almost reduced to tears. She only hoped that noling had heard the things she had been saying when overcome with pure love, but considering every other changeling in the hive had promptly been pass-out drunk on love for the next few minutes she didn't have cause for concern.

Some changelings could still be heard having a massive love filled orgy downstairs, Chrysalis chuckled.

According to the various notes found etched into the walls of the chamber that the pod was found in, this creature was completely foreign to Equestria, none had been found before or after this one. The creature had been used to test the 'fermentation' pods when they were first created, due to its love output being so low normally as to make it worthless.

Judging from how slow her current, more advanced pods were to increase a creatures capability to love, Chrysalis didn't even want to think how long this creature had been in that pod. It could very well be older than the alicorn sisters!
Seeing as all the notes left had referred to it as just 'creature' its changeling-like look may actually be a side effect to the pod, Chrysalis doubted that it started its life as a changeling as even she, with the memories of past queens at her disposal, could not recall any such 'ling.

It made sense that she had not been able to properly gauge the creatures love from within the pod, after all, it was a fairly recent change to the pods that allowed changelings to harvest love from them easily. The queen could not find it within herself to be mad at the creature for making her look and act the fool, a side effect to being so full of its love she supposed.

Chrysalis paused at the door to her chamber, she had teleported the creature there after her throne room had descended into chaos to stop the drunk changelings doing anything she might regret to it when a thought occurred to her.

'Oh buck, I left that drone in there with it all this time.' She slammed open the door a little harder than she initially intended, brought up short by the sight in front of her.

Chapter Two: Wispy Gets It

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I often find myself lost in thought. Perhaps I should purchase a map.

~ Liarra Sniffles

Pale Wisp, or Wispy to her friends was in a bit of a bind.

The queen had stormed out after she delivered her news, ordering her to stay here until she returned.
Wispy, like all of her brothers and sisters, was incredibly loyal to her queen. However Wispy had.. Well lets just say she loved it when the queen told her off for small infractions. Walking that fine line between getting a slap and a chewing out, and being exiled from the hive got her blood pumping like nothing else. One day she was sure she would slip up and it would be the end of her, that risk combined with the forceful nature of the queen got her into all sorts of trouble, especially when she was bored.

Picking herself up off the ground, Wispy wandered back out to the main bedroom of her queens chambers. Through some blind luck she was one of the highest ranking drones still alive after the invasion failed, not that she was particularly highly ranked beforehoof. Even the lowest of workers could do the job of the higher-ups should the need arise, in practical terms this meant that Wispy could enter her queens bedchamber without her permission, at her own risk of course.
This in turn meant that she got way more chances to interact with the queen than before, a prospect that got her giddy when she found out.

'One of these days I'm going to walk in on the queen playing with some poor pony, I wonder what the punishment would be.' Her mind filled with dirty thoughts involving a large pony stallion and some questionable use of a two-by-four, Wispy failed to notice the huge surge of love from the throne room until it was washing over her like a tidal wave, sending her crashing to the floor out cold for several minutes.

Pulling herself from the floor with a groan, Wispy shook under the force of the love still washing over her, coming from the large odd looking changeling that must have appeared on the bed while she was out. Legs still shaking she backed up from the bed, all the way to the door where she stopped. 'Exiting now would be going against a direct order from the queen but, ugh, it's even hard to think with this much love flowing over me.' Wispy groaned and shuddered again as the love increased a bit, the creature was stirring.

'Come on Wispy, remember your training..' Wispy released a laboured breath and focused on slowing her natural feeding habits to a bearable level, letting the huge quantity of love wash over and around her, only consuming a small amount. Years of being constantly starved for love had made her a bit rusty at this, but somehow she managed.

Wispy stifled a gasp as the creature sat up properly, noticing her for the first time. Its eyes were a beautifully clear bright blue, like staring into a never-ending sky on a warm sunny day. Wispy pawed at the ground nervously, the creature walking up to her, unable to tear here eyes from its gaze. She could practically hear the wind blowing through the trees and the creatures of the day making their noises while staring into those portals blue.
'What is it-' Wispy's thoughts were interrupted once the creature got close. Despite what some ponies might say, changelings do not actually have a telepathic hive-mind. Instead they act more like bees, most of their natural language consisting of buzzing wings and pheromones.
This bipedal changeling really, really liked her if the intense strength of the scents coming from her where any indication. Wispy found herself unable to withhold a blush, her checks hot.

"Boop!"

.......

'...I have been booped.' Wispy scrunched her nose at the contact, the sensation of hot fire burning through her body at the touch 'but in a good way'.
'I probably won't last five minutes with her touching me, I'll be nothing but melted changeling!'

"You are so cute!" I had the adorable little bug pony within my arms before it could blink, the little scrunchy face she made when I poked her nose was too cute. Her tiny little fangs sticking out at near end of her snout completed the picture of pure 'D'awww'. I doubted I would ever see something so cute again in my lifetime, even if I were to live forever.

I carried the now wriggling buggy to the bedside and plopped her down somewhat ungracefully on her back. Her eyes were wide, her fore-hooves held below her chin.
'I think I'm going to have a heart attack at this rate.' I grabbed one of her little hoofsies and gave it a poke, gauging the chittering noise she made to be a giggle. 'Weakness found: commence full attack.'
Very soon the little bug pony could barely breathe through the chittering, having her so completely at my mercy felt good, I had the sudden desire to start cackling evilly.

Chrysalis wasn't entirely sure what she expected to find upon returning to her room.
The drone being pinned to the bed and mercilessly tickled into tears was not one of them.
'what the buck.' She stood in the doorway for nearly a full minute, stunned into silence by what she was seeing. The raw love washing over her and the drone was incredibly tempting, but Chrysalis felt she might explode if she took any more before resting. Looking closer at the drone, she could tell by the slight drool coming from its mouth that it was too far gone to care about anything right now.

Taking her time she took a better look at the creature than before, her critical eye picking up every minute detail. Other than its bipedal posture, odd claws and hair, it did not seem different from any other drone. She couldn't sense any royal blood in its veins, nor did it have royal eyes from what she could see.
The smooth black surface she had at first assumed to be regular chitin appeared to be just incredibly dark grey skin, with neither fur nor shell the queen was curious how she must feel.

With a slight shiver thinking about what those soft looking claws could do to her, she cleared her throat to get the creatures attention.
Despite the drones pretesting at the sudden loss of contact, if not the tickling, the creature stopped and moved its gaze to meet Chrysalis. For her part, Chrysalis's practised control over her face hid the exhale when she got an unobstructed view of..

'Those eyes...'

The glittering bright blue orbs. Chrysalis needn't have worried about not being able to perfectly judge the body language of a whole new creature, those eyes managed to convey so much emotion. They were simply enchanting to look at.
She felt many strange things while staring into those impossible eyes. The feeling that stood out was that of refreshing freedom, it felt as though she had just finished a tall glass of chilled water in an open field, the wind gently blowing through the long grass.

Shaking herself from her daze, Chrysalis gave the creature her best winning smile.

"What is your name?" The queen buzzed her wings in the proper changeling language.
The creatures ears twitched ever so slightly, clearly she had heard her but her eyes showed only confusion.
'I guess her being able to understand that would be too convenient' Her eyes narrowed slightly as she tried again, this time in common.

"Do you have a name?" This time the creature reacted instantly, shaking her head in the negative and blinking once, before returning those big beautiful eyes to the queen's.

"Then I shall name you myself." The creature looked at her expectantly, a tinge of excitement in her emotions and eyes.
Frowning the queen considered her options, it would have to be in common, like the shallow names of the ponies instead of the deeper meaning behind the changeling communications. Perhaps naming her as a pony would may help her if she is forced into contact with them.
'Not that I plan to ever let this miracle far from sight' Chrysalis shook her head, finding it slightly difficult to focus with so much love in her system.
How about... Some rare mineral of blue after her eyes. Blue Hemimorphite? Too complex. Blue Sapphire? Too basic. Blue Tourmaline? Blue Tourmaline has the correct colours and a nice ring to it, but it just doesn't quite roll off the tongue right.' The queen snorted in frustration, any other drone would be named in an instant, why was this proving so difficult.

'Perhaps something with teal in it. Maybe even Teal Tourmaline.' Some nagging part of her still didn't feel that this was the right choice, is this the magic that pony parents get hit with when naming a foal to match their future cutie mark?
Forgetting the dead end, Chrysalis switched to a different tack.
'She seems to contain endless stream of love, so perhaps something more poetic will work.' The queen thought of her eyes, deep pools of love. Maybe she could work with this.
'Deep Pools? Too vague. Boundless Love? Too cheesy. Sweet Saccharine? A bit redundant.' Chrysalis was getting angry now.

'I didn't know I could speak...' I am surprised that I can hear and understand her language, up until now I hadn't thought about how I would converse with another, nor had I really thought about the ramifications of other conscious beings existing in my world.
It is again, strangely comforting to know that I am not alone, despite my prior lack of understanding on what it actually means to be alone. I suppose I am just going to have to accept that my knowledge requires some kind of trigger if I cannot think myself into various concepts. I don't know if this is normal, and am unsure if it wisest to assume it so or not.

Thinking back on it, I had actually spoken to the little one without even thinking about it. Perhaps it was too shy or scared to respond.
This thought made me feel a little bad, but hopefully it hadn't been upset by my ticklish onslaught.

The large bug pony seemed to be getting more and more frustrated the longer she stood there, surely thinking up a name couldn't be that difficult.
The smaller bug pony in my arms had calmed down a bit, but her eyes were still somewhat glazed over, which is odd considering she has no visible pupils to give the unfocused effect.
The large bug is very different, her big green catlike eyes are getting narrower and narrower as time goes by.

Taking a good look at her, I lazily let my eyes trace her figure. She has much more pronounced holes in her legs than either myself or the small pony. Her horn is longer and shaped differently too. Most strikingly apart from her eyes, she has hair like I do, in the same colour as well. I ponder the meaning of this while watching her face contort into various expressions.
If I was standing then I would still be taller than her, I'd estimate her to be roughly two thirds my height not counting her horn.
'She isn't quite as cute as the little one, but perhaps she would be better without her scowl.'

Something I hadn't spotted before, her crown, the bug pony had a cute little crown on her head. I couldn't tell if it was a part of her or not, but the idea of someone growing a crown on their head seems silly.
'I wonder if she's a princess bug pony.' The thought of the cute little bug I had been tickling in a tiara and dress made me smile.
'Speaking of the little cutie, is she purring right now? She is! That's so cute.' The little pony really is purring in my embrace, exactly like a loud cat would. 'These bug ponies are the best.' I let her nuzzle my arms, barely suppressing a squeak.
My eyes snap back to the princess pony as she makes an 'I've just worked it out noise', meeting her gaze again.

"Your name shall be 'Sweet Tourmaline' and it is my pleasure to welcome you to my hive. My name is Chrysalis, I am queen of this domain."

"Hello, my name is Sweet Tourmaline. Thank you for welcoming me into your uh.. Queendom?" I give her a somewhat sheepish smile.
The queen responds with a smile or her own, a chuckle breaking the silence.

"I'm sure you are. Now come, you must have many questions and I'll not have you stumbling over your words while answering mine!" Her tone makes me jump slightly, she must be used to commanding her subjects with a very firm hoof.

Time for that tense change

After several hours talking together, the two established a question and answer routine that suited them both. The queen would ask Tourmaline a question.

"Do you remember anything from before you were put in the pod" The queen looking only slightly impatient at her somewhat slow response time.

"Assuming the green thing is the pod, no. Until your earlier question of my true origin, I believed my entire existence to have started only today." This information created more questions than it answered for Tourmaline, but the queen only gave a small smile and nodded for her to ask a question of her own.

"Do you know what was I like before the pod" Her smile disappeared as quickly as it came.

"I have no idea, you have been in the pod for a very, very long time." Was that a tinge of pity in her voice?
"Understanding that your entire existence started today, how do you know how to speak, walk or understand concepts that are not naturally occurring." That was a tough one as she didn't know herself but the queen seemed to have finally accepted her explanation for her lack of memories.

"I just do. It's as though the information is there but I do not realise it until it is jostled free. I did not know I had arms, for example, until I accidentally moved one of them." If the surprised look that flashed across her face was anything to go by, The queen and her race of changelings did not normally store knowledge like this.
Tourmaline shifted her position on her bed.
"I do have a slight feeling about certain things, such as my poor reaction to my flexibility or my surprise at having wings and a horn. That's the best 'memory' I have from before today."

Chrysalis frowned at this, her emotions swinging from happy to sad for the amnesiac.
'On the one hoof, if she remembered everything it would make keeping her here harder. But despite being willing to do many things, wiping someones memories so completely is a terrible thing to do to somepony.' Chrysalis sighed, before returning to meet those gorgeous blue, pupil-less sparkling eyes once again.

"You have a good enough understanding of your situation that I am happy to let you live here. It is clear that you do not know anything else that was not told to you today so I shall leave you for now. If you have any questions about yourself, Wisp should be able to answer them as well as I can." She beckoned at the small changeling stuck inside a green bubble, the bubble disappearing as she did so.
"I am assigning Wisp to be your guide throughout the hive. All of the rules that apply to her shall apply to you, so make sure she tells you all she can." The queen paused in thought for a moment before continuing.
"I only ask that you do not leave the hive. For reasons that will become obvious once you talk to wisp, I cannot allow you to freely explore the world." She turned to Wisp and lit her horn.
With a gasp, the dreamy/dazed look disappeared from Wispy's eyes.

"My queen! There is a strange changeling on your..." Her eyes met with Tourmaline's. "...Bed" She finished lamely, glancing back and fourth between the queen and her new charge.

"As I was saying." The queen tittered, an amused smirk adorning her face. "You are now in charge of Sweet Tourmaline's safety until I say otherwise. No other changelings will be allowed to interact with her outside of casual conversation unless you or I permit them, is that clear?" The queen was looking pointedly at the drone, almost daring her to refuse for any reason.

For her part, Wisp at least pretended to consider it before agreeing with a loud "YES!" and a solid bounce, which made Tourmaline to giggle.

"Good, now away with you!" The queen flicked her hoof in a dismissive gesture. "I'm sure Tourmaline is tired after all this excitement, you may stay wherever you wish. I expect you to report any more memories of interest that are triggered Wisp." Wisp simply smiled, pulling Tourmaline off the bed and trotting towards the entrance without another word, stopping only to bow before gently pulling the large stone door closed.

'She really is quite a sight when standing tall.' Chrysalis mused to herself as she returned to empty her now cold bath. 'It looks like my situation might not be as dire as I feared.'

Chapter Three: A 'Proper' Introduction

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Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, now pass me a sword and lets get it out.

~ Liarra Sniffles

Tourmaline walked slowly beside little Wisp, deep in thought, her larger strides forcing her to slow her gait else she leave the changeling in the dust. So far the bug in question had been silent other than giving the occasional directions. The two walked through several narrow tunnels and winding paths, some of which had dangerous drops into much deeper caverns. Tourmaline could clearly see that this place was built with wings and wall-crawling abilities in mind, the paths they took seemingly an after thought in many areas.

Looking to another group of changelings up ahead, the bipedal changeling was having mixed thoughts. So far most of the changelings the duo had passed had either feinted once she got close or stayed at a safer distance. Of course, she knew it wasn't her fault that the pure love radiating from her was higher than what the literal god of love could generate, but it would be nice if she could tone it down enough to safely interact with these creatures.

That was something for the future though, as Wisp coughed to get her attention.

"Well, here we are. This is where you will be staying for now." She gestured with her hoof at a previously unnoticed small door in the side of the wall. Tourmaline had seen several doors like this, built from many bits of wood giving them a somewhat ramshackle look. Giving it a gentle push, the changeling led her inside and moved to the side, letting her investigate the room.

The first thing that struck her was the lack of a bed, the changeling queen had a bed, so she had just assumed that all the changelings slept in beds despite what the queen had told her about pods and their many uses. Instead of a bed, the room was dominated by one such large green pod hanging from the ceiling to about her waist, reminding her of the one she woke up in. A small mat sat on the stone ground in front of what looked like a writing desk carved from the wall itself, she could see a few drawers of stone and what looked to be a cupboard, also made of stone.

Several of the green orbs she had seen before were scattered throughout the room, giving the whole thing a soothing green glow. While she could not yet see the appeal of sleeping in a pod (at least that what she assumed it was there for) the soft lighting was making her feel more relaxed already.

The two eventually found themselves seated on the mat. Wisp placed a hoof to her chest.

"My name is Wisp as you know, but you can call me Wispy." The changeling winked and continued. "In return, I think I shall call you 'Maline' as Tourmaline is a bit of a mouth-full, and sweet is a bit too generic for a nice nickname. The newly nicknamed Maline raised an eyebrow at this but didn't interrupt.

"You may ask me whatever you want whenever you wish, is there anything you want to know right now?" Wispy cocked her head to the side, these bugs are always so adorable without even knowing it.

Maline thought about it for a moment, the session with the queen had given her the basics on changelings and their history, she knew that they could change shape, fly and do magic. The thought of one day doing magic excited her, but the queen had warned that her large amounts of love could affect how her magic worked.

"Hmm, what of my magic. Will I be able to shapeshift and cast spells like you can." Maline was terribly excited to learn about magic, as she hoped her large love output would translate to her having incredibly strong magic.

Wispy gave her an apologetic smile. "I am not an expert on magical training, nor can I tell how much magic you have. I can take you to someone tomorrow that can help you, but their working hours area already over for today." Maline deflated a little at this.

"Well what about you, tell me about yourself Wispy." Maline inched ever closer to the dangerously snugly changeling.

"Me?" Wispy blinked a few times before properly processing the question. "Well I was a gatherer before the great even that the queen mentioned. I would go out into the world and look for ponies who were down on their luck romantically and show them a good time. After harvesting the love they gave me I would return to give it to the hive." Maline frowned a little at that, it seemed a bit manipulative to use ponies in this way.

"Has any changeling every gotten into a proper relationship with a pony? Surely it would be better in the long term to have undisguised, open relations with the ponies." Wispy just looked at her like she had grown a second head.

"The ponies would never accept us, we are seen as love eating monsters and, unlike you, ponies do not generate enough love to feed an entire hive without dying in the attempt." She shook her head. "While I am sure it has probably happened in the past, draining the emotions of a target makes them unable to function as ponies until they recover."

"Even if we did have undisguised relations, the love fed to us from the ponies themselves is barely enough to sustain a single drone in disguise, even if there are multiple sources of love. No, we need to actively drain a pony to get what we need to survive in the long term, although perhaps your arrival can change that." Wispy shook her head and gave Maline a smile. "Now lets talk about something else."

"Do you mind if I ask you some more personal questions?" Wispy gave a tentative nod, prompting Maline to prod her nose with a finger. "How old are you?"

"In pony years I am 8, but in changeling terms I am a fully matured adult." Maline laughed at this.

"That means I am probably several thousand times your senior you know." Wispy didn't respond to that. "Right, well, do you have any parents." Maline regretted asking immediately at the pained look that came across Wispy's face.

"While I did have both a mother, a father and at least twenty siblings, they were all killed at canter- I mean during the great event."

Maline frowned at this. "I'm sorry for your loss. Why do you keep referring to it as 'the great event' instead of a more descriptive name?" Wispy nodded her thanks before responding.

"I do not know if the queen wanted me to tell you about it, you will have to ask her yourself tomorrow." While that seemed fair, it still irked Maline.

Deciding to change the topic before it got too depressing she pushed her finger against the changelings nose again. "Why do you smell slightly minty." The shocked stare of the changeling was soon overtaken by a poorly hidden blush as she averted her eyes, focusing her vision on anything but the hybrid.

"W-well you see, ahem, yes well.." Wispy took a deep breath. "It's not actually mint obviously, but when you meet a changeling you will notice they have a particular scent. Each scent is actually an important part of a changeling's name and is unique to them, when talking about another without using common verbal names, it is normally the scent that gets across the meaning without the confusion that pony names bring. It's kinda like using your exact genetic makeup as your name." Taking another deep breath she continued. "While the scent is usually similar, each changeling having their own unique but somewhat uninteresting one, it can differ depending on who is doing the smelling. If the changeling smelling the scent of a desirable mate is currently in a breeding cycle, the scent will be quite different, for example I usually smell earthy forest smells during my cycle." The changeling looked away. "However if a changeling is interested in an individual, they may change their scent when they are in person to try and make themselves more appealing. F-for instance, my preference is wild mint."

Maline was silent at that for a moment, before realising the implications. "While I can't deny it smells nice.. Does this mean you like me? We only met a few hours ago. And how come I can't smell my own scent." Maline watched the changelings wings start buzzing at her questions.

Wispy blushed furiously at the compliment. "For that last one, I do not know why you cannot smell your own scent if you can smell mine. As to the former, W-well maybe?" Wisp is such a cutie when flustered. "You've been bombarding me with your, ahem, sexy pheromones for the past three or four hours now, as well as with your love. Any changeling who can generate their own love is already a rarity that usually gets put on a pedestal as a perfect breeding partner, even ignoring the fact that you are outputting more love than a good sized city of ponies could." Maline felt the urge to snuggle Wispy rising to dangerous levels.

"Breeding partner? How do changelings breed if it is not the queen who is responsible for that." Wispy seemed to get more nervous with the topic as she went on.

"Well, uh, changelings are quite similar to insects in some regards, but another way the bee colony analogy falls apart is when it comes to breeding as we mate just like any other ponies." Maline started to worry that Wispy was going to pass out due to the sheer amount of blood currently blushing her cheeks. "As we are shapeshifters, changelings can swap gender at will, we are born as technically both or neither depending on your point of view. Usually it is the changeling with the higher social status that takes the female role, however there are no rules about who lays the eggs."

Maline cocked her head to the side. "What's the difference between a male and a female changeling, other than that pheromone knowledge saying they are who they are?"

"Um, well, yes ah..." Wispy looked incredibly odd now that basically her entire head is red, but she soldiered on. "P-perhaps... I could... Show you?" Wispy immediately hid under her hooves after saying this, although the holes in said hooves somewhat hindered the tactic.

While it took a few moments for Maline to understand what was being offered, a predatory grin slowly spread across her face. Instead of answering her question, she grabbed the changeling who yelped at the touch and brought her up to eye level.

"Why Wispy, I'm flattered but, aren't you a little small for me?" The changeling could only give her a pleading look, her legs crossing and re-crossing in Maline's grasp.

"We are shape changers, remember? N-now put me in the pod and let m-me show you how to b-buck like a changeling." Her stammering ruined her attempt at being sexy, but it was adorable.

Still in her quarters Chrysalis let out a laugh as she tasted the emotions still permeating throughout the hive from her newest subject. "Not even half an hour, I think that's a new record."

Chapter Four: Of Changeling Sheep

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It's not clop, I don't even have any coconuts.

~ Liarra Sniffles

'This waking up business is the bees knees.' Maline's eyelids slowly rose, refusing to open fully without some coercion from a dark finger. 'Huh, that's odd. I could have sworn I fell asleep in the pod.' Maline noted the large blue bed she was currently seated in, thinking about it, she didn't feel any of the dull aches that she had fallen asleep with after her impromptu game of pod wrestling.

Looking around the room she found herself in, she took in the strange decor. The tall room had a strong night-time theme, little moons and stars decorating every one of the many bits of fabric hanging from various spots on the walls and ceiling. Even the dark blue bed cover had rows and rows of golden moons around the edges, the body of the thing being filled with specks probably representing stars.

'Where am I, how did I get here and where is Wispy.' Maline's heart-rate rose when she spotted the view from an open door leading onto a balcony; an endless black expanse of nothing. It was as if this room was the entire universe, but she had just gotten used to the idea of the entire universe not being endless green goo, why did everything have to turn on its head again now of all times.

'Speaking of head, what got into me last night. Suddenly getting frisky doesn't seem entirely right, despite how cute the little bug is.' It was true, while she had technically spent the majority of her life thinking about and ogling at her cute friend, the thought of actually getting down with the bug hadn't occurred to her until she had suggested it. 'Perhaps this is another one of those things that jostled free, although being a horny-ling doesn't entirely sit right with me. I'll have to ask about changeling libido when I find my way back to the hive.'

Remaining surprisingly calm about finding herself in a strange place, it had happened already after all, Maline peeled the blankets from the bed and made her way to the edge. Several loud cracks rang out in the silence as she stretched her back, arms and neck. Giving a satisfied sigh she wandered towards the large gold and blue doors and pushed, giving a light grunt at the force required to open them. While the room had many knickknacks and objects to look at, she couldn't focus on any of them enough to identify what they were, it was almost as though the world wanted her to know they where there, but not what they are.

The hallway outside was wide and clean, the white marble floors shining as the moonlight beamed down from on high, glistening through large skylights in almost visible beams. More banners and fabrics adorned the walls, the moon theme continuing throughout. Turning to the right Maline padded down the hall, her bare feet only making slight slapping sounds despite the lack of a carpet.
Several turns and a lot of empty hallway later, she came to a much larger, more impressive door. This time the decoration was different, only half of the door having a moon theme, while the other half had a sun theme, the two meeting in the middle perfectly. If Maline had more than a rudimentary understanding of design, she would have marvelled at the magnificent door, instead she only hesitated briefly before pushing one side open.

The room she found herself in was much larger and higher than the high walls of the hallways, huge marble pillars ran the length of the room, the door she had opened seemingly only a side entrance between two of said columns. A large red carpet ran from a massive gold door to her left, all the way to an equally impressive golden throne to her right, the room seemed to emit a feeling of power and security. On the sides of the room she spotted several tall stained glass windows, each depicting some scene of what looked like ponies, Maline didn't recognise any of them from the brief description of the pony race she had been given so far.

"Impressive is it not? My sister always did enjoy her grand architecture." A loud voice boomed from the hitherto unnoticed figure on the throne, though how she had missed the large blue alicorn Maline couldn't say. Maline carefully approached the pony, taking in the details of the deep blue pony. Her hair being her most striking feature, it seemed to float gently in an invisible breeze and appeared to be filled with stars. They shared their stares for a time, before the pony continued speaking.

"Our name is Princes Luna, we are the guardian of dreams and keeper of the moon. What art thou and what am I to call thee?" 'Princess Luna' pointed her hoof at Maline, who had finally made it to the foot of the throne.

"My name is Sweet Tourmaline, and I do not know what I was but I am now a changeling." It was the best she could do given her rather unique circumstances, unless she wanted to christen her previous race herself. Her response gave the princess pause, her brow furrowing at the mention of changelings.

"We would call thee a deceiver were it not for your form, nopony can hide their true form in this place of dreams without far more power than thou possesses." Maline felt a tad insulted by the princesses blunt delivery, but she did not object.
"Thou art the first changeling to ever visit my realm, prove to us the validity of thine claims with changeling magic." Luna's hoof made a slight 'clop' as she placed it back on the ground, her expression morphing into an expectant one.

Maline blushed. So far the only magic she had learned of any kind was a simple transformation spell, although Wispy insisted that changeling transformations were far deeper than a spell. 'That transformation definitely went deeper than I was expecting.' Unfortunately, Wispy had only spared the time to teach Maline the very basics of the basics, only needing one specific part to be changed for what she had wanted when they had decided to swap after the first two hours. 'But, Luna is royalty if her wings and horn are anything to go by, so I should probably obey her commands.' Confound these traitor cheeks and the blood rushing to them.

"Yes, your highness." Closing her eyes with a slight nod, Maline focused like she had been taught. Feeling around for the pulse of her heart, she latched on to the warmth within. Wispy hadn't really explained how this worked, other than the fact that a changeling needn't 'channel magic' once the transformation was complete like a pony spell, else how would they sleep in disguise?! Instead the magic was burned figuratively and literally as fire spread from her heart, flowing down to her toes before bursting out and briefly covered her form from bottom to top.

The hard part was focusing on the changes she wanted, a lack of focus would lead to a lack of changes. Wispy being an ex-gatherer could probably focus her mind on an entire pony at once, everything from the colours of each area of hair to the specific tubing of their insides at once. That level of focus intimidated Maline slightly, like being able to focus on every brush stroke in a painting at once. Luckily for her, smaller changes to her base form were actually quite easy as long as she knew how the parts in question worked well enough to replicate them, like making a biological model of a working body part in her mind.

Despite the feeling of hours passing due to the concentration required, the whole ordeal was over in a moment. Green fire erupted from below her and raced to the tip of her horn with a gentle 'whoosh'. The sudden increase in weight on her front told Maline that she had been successful, but she stole a glance down at her new extremity to make sure it looked correct before returning her eyes to Luna.

For her part, Luna's eyes had grown wide and a blush appeared on her cheeks.

"Ahem, that is quite proof enough, thank you." Despite sounding embarrassed, Maline noted that the night alicorn did not avert her gaze from Maline's new equipment until the fire rushed over her again, removing it completely.

"Wait a minute, this is a dream right?" Luna could almost hear the sound of a light coming on inside the strange changeling's head.

====

Wispy awoke with a start, Maline's big blue eyes intently staring into her own as they floated in the pod. Shaking off her fright at the unexpected sight, she stared intently back into the luminous portals. Finding herself unable to tear her gaze away, Wispy felt she could stare into those eyes for hours.
So she did.

After a good hour of staring, Wispy determined that Maline was actually still asleep. It wasn't that uncommon for someone to sleep with their eyes open, if Maline's eyes were not so enrapturing to stare at, her thousand mile stare would have been unnerving. Finding her thoughts waxing poetic, she attempted to put into thought how Maline's eyes made her feel. Not being a particularly creative creature, this venture was probably doomed to fail.

'It's like staring into the eyes of the world, and having the world stare back. A calming embrace on the soul, as though one can see the many ways she wishes to express her love forming just under the surface. I really like her eyes?' A snort sent some bubbles up from her snout, perhaps she should leave the poetry to someone with a bit more experience than her. After all, the most poetry Wispy had been exposed to was one noble in particular who had insisted on quoting some famous pony playwright while they bucked in the back of his coach.

'Speaking of bucking, I would never have pegged Maline as such a willing partner from her somewhat reserved demeanour.' While it was true that the tall beauty had been radiating love charged pheromones like an aphrodisiac scented candle, she hadn't felt anything but love from Maline until she had offered to show her the ways of her people. The sudden change from seemingly unflappable interrogation to inexperienced but incredibly enthusiastic lover caught the little changeling off guard.

Perhaps there was more to the pheromones than she had first thought?

The idea of becoming more than just a friend with Maline brought a soft smile to her face, there hadn't been a real lasting relationship between the changelings in the hive in decades at least. Chrysalis seemed to prefer her subjects to be little more than independent servants, mere extensions of her will and nothing more. As such, her hive had gradually shifted from a large family to a collection of allies in arms, loyal to a fault to each other and the queen but lacking much in the way of a social ecosystem within the hive.

Happily the queen had not seen fit to stop allowing new drones independent thought like some queens in the past had done, she may have been the most strict and feared leader in a thousand years, but even she would not stoop so low. Wispy didn't know if the queen thought of them all as her children or her subjects more, while her previous actions such as letting most drones name themselves (often leading to drones named after the first thing they could say in common) made the latter seem more likely, Wispy had sensed something from the queen when dealing with Maline.
While she wouldn't jump to any conclusions, it did seem like the queen had felt something more than just another drone around Maline. Then again, how often does a strange changeling produce more love than even the alicorn of love, Maline truly is a special case.

Of course, she didn't know if Maline really did think of her as much more than a friend, it might just be how stuffed full of love she was right now talking when she thought of her recent exploits. Even now, while she was still asleep, Maline was sending enough love to feed the hive for weeks out constantly. Closing her eyes in concentration Wispy could feel her fellow changelings helping themselves to bits of love every few seconds or so, visualising it as a massive wave of rapidly dispersing love being pulled in different directions slightly as someling went for a nibble. Wispy shivered at the thought, what must it feel like to have hundreds of changelings nibbling at your love from further than your eyes can see in every direction, the nature of love meaning that sharing among changelings was usually a far more intimate affair than that.

Wispy was snapped from her thoughts by Maline, her tall friend seemed to have woken up if her investigation of their surroundings was anything to go by. Wispy felt arms around her sides and back as she was pulled into a proper hug. If she had to be honest, Wispy was quite jealous of Maline's body, her arms and legs seemed perfectly designed to hug and scratch at all the right spots on a pony.
'Maybe I ought to test the waters a little.' Wispy nervously nuzzled at Maline to get her attention, the goo they floated in stopping them from speaking in the common lang' as Maline did not yet understand the vibrating wings that most changelings conversed with.
Reaching forward to plant a kiss onto Maline's lips, she noted with satisfaction that she was not repelled.

For her part, Maline was slightly confused. They had shared many kisses and much more the previous night, but something was different about this one. That is, it seemed like her bug friend was a bit overloaded on love if the dopey smile was anything to go by. She decided that cuddly Wispy was better than horny Wispy. Maline idly wondered if it was normal for changelings to move so quickly, it was only her second day alive and she had already been propositioned by one of the only three individuals whom she could even name, assuming the mare in her dreams was as real as she claimed to be. Not only that, but she had gotten extremely intimate with Wispy after mere hours of existing. Some part of her was telling her that there was a proper process to these things, and that rushing right to the good stuff would only lead to heartbreak, but as she didn't yet know how or if a heart could break Maline decided that she was just being overly dramatic.

Pushing Wispy from her embrace, so that she could actually talk to the changeling if nothing else, Maline half pulled half swam her way to the edge of the pod and slid her leg out. Unlike her first pod, this one had very soft edges, Maline was unsure how it kept the contents inside but allowed users to simply slide in and our without spilling everywhere. Turning back to grab the changeling she pulled Wispy out with her, it seemed strange that the changelings had more trouble navigating inside a pod designed for them than she did, but it didn't seem important enough to bring up at the moment.

"Did you have sweet dreams?" Maline asked while she performed her usual stretches, Wispy cringing slightly at the loud popping sounds coming from the girl's spine.

"Changelings don't dream Maline." Was all the response she could muster, something kept her from meeting Maline's eyes, causing the girl to frown slightly.

"I guess that confirms that I was not a changeling then, as I not only dreamed but I met with someone calling themselves 'princess Luna'." The shocked silence was broken by Maline continuing when it appeared that Wispy was not going to respond.

"We talked of many things and she told me quite a lot about the ponies. She expressed a desire to meet me 'in the pony', I promised to ask the queen if it could be arranged." Again she was met with nothing but silence at this, Wispy's only move being the gentle opening and closing of her mouth, like a fish out of water.

"She seemed nice enough, although her mannerisms were a little odd." Finishing her story to find the changeling still stationary, Maline waved her hand in front of the silent changeling, getting no reaction out of the stunned bug.

"Wispy? Hello are you-" Wispy interrupted her with a thunk as she passed to the floor in a dead faint, her limbs splayed around her haphazardly like a puppet with its strings cut. Placing her fingers around the back of her neck and head, Maline gently lifted Wispy's face at look into her eyes, the somewhat amusing expression still frozen on her face.

"Uh-oh, I better see Chrysalis."

Chapter Five: Maybe It's Magic

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Luna is best princess.

~ Liarra Sniffles

"..And then she created five more copies of this 'Wispy' and had them take places around her..."

Celestia withheld a sigh as Luna continued to talk about another dream she had joined last night. She was still delighted that her sister was trying to make friends with their subjects, but hearing about the dreams of somepony or other was not particularly entertaining after a while. Apparently this was another pony with changelings on her mind, not particularly surprising considering how little time had passed since the invasion was halted.

"...Leaping from the board into a huge pool of the stuff, like some kind of sticky lagoon of..."

Celestia stared down at her huge cup of coffee. Truth be told, she was not overly fond of the stuff, but she was also not overly fond of mornings either, a fact which would no doubt shock her little ponies if they found out. Keeper of the sun not a morning pony? Hah! Celestia again found her mind wandering to her sister, perhaps she could convince her to let her hide on the moon for a few months so she could hibernate in peace.

"...Her stomach was easily twice her weight at that point, I've never seen anypony take..."

Celestia choked down another sigh, drowning it in coffee as she pulled her mammoth cup to her lips. Chugging the black tar down like a pony who hasn't had a drink in days, she casually flicked an ear towards Luna again, tuning back into the conversation before it was time they went their separate ways. Breakfast and dinner where much more lively now that her sister had returned.

"...Anyway, once the mess those changelings had left was cleaned up I managed to ask her a few more questions of her life in the hive-"

Celestia's eyes snapped fully open, a powerful torrent of coffee spraying from her mouth in a concentrated beam, covering the stallion servant standing on the opposite side of the table in dripping black liquid. To his credit, his only reaction to the stream of coffee hitting his face was to close his eyes until it stopped.

"There's still somepony trapped in the hive!?" Celestia screeched in a manner most unseemly for somepony of her position, a million thoughts of unleashing her wrath on that lying peace of- the one who calls herself queen. "Chrysalis assured us that she had no more ponies left, she would dare try to hide any of our subjects like a foal hiding candy!" Celestia reached for her second cup of coffee which stood waiting, her hoof shaking in barely restrained rage. The sheer impudence of that sorry excuse for a queen would need to be punished dearly. The subject of the changeling queen was still a bit of a sore spot for Celestia. Luna, having managed to contain her laughter at her sister's outburst, waited for Celestia to take another sip before continuing.

"Actually, it's not a pony. It claims to be a hybrid of a changeling and some other creature that is thousands of years old." She commented as if it was a well known fact.

If Discrete Delight had any reservations about being one of Celestia's trusted servants, he did not voice them as a second wave of coffee covered his face. Perhaps his husband had been right about his work at the castle, maybe he should ask for more danger pay. Regardless he waited until he was sure Celestia had put the coffee down before making his exit, uttering a calm "your highness" and bowing out the door leaving a wet trail in his wake. A replacement maid soon took his place, pointedly standing a little to the left of the royals in a breach of protocol that went ignored. Luna waited for Celestia to somewhat regain her composure before continuing.

"Yes, she called herself Sweet Tourmaline or Maline for short. An interesting creature she is indeed, looking somewhat like a cross between a changeling and a Minotaur. She showed me her transformation power within the dream to prove her strange heritage although, according to her it was some kind of accident or side effect that left her the way she is." Luna started her tale again, causing the staff in the room to sag at the thought of hearing the whole story again.

As the story progressed, Celestia became more and more confused. Nopony had really had the chance to study changelings in depth until recently, but there was only so much you could learn from a body. A lot of new information about their daily lives made them seem less alien and more pony than she had initially imagined them to be.

After Luna finished repeating the talk she had with the strange creature, Celestia had calmed down significantly. While it was worrying to hear about a creature living with the changelings who contained a ridiculous amount of love, Celestia could not be sure that anything it said was the truth. It spoke of the queen as being a nice but strict aunt more than an evil, scheming, black-hearted, nefarious, all around rotten, no good- Celestia shook her head, finding herself getting off track. Luna seemed convinced that it was just naive as, according to its own words, it had only been alive for a single day. Frowning at the implications of an innocent being caught up in the no doubt dastardly machinations of the changeling queen, Celestia returned to her quarters, her dark muttering causing the guards to shoot worrying looks at each other.

Floating several rolls of parchment in her magic, Celestia took a calming breath before starting a letter. She had hoped to avoid more conflict with the changelings, but this development could pose a threat to the somewhat unstable peace, more of a cease fire really, between them. A delicate situation calls for a delicate response.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle. I must ask that you and your friends come to Canterlot tomorrow for I have another mission for you and the elements..."

Elsewhere in Equestria a smiling pink mare was busy preemptively packing party ordinance into a cannon shaped suitcase.

Maline closed her eyes and focused on the small rock in front of her, a bead of sweat rolling down her face leaving an irritating itch in its wake. Her day so far had consisted of asking several different changelings to help teach her the basics of magic with little success. Changelings apparently have a near perfect instinctual understanding of how to use magic in the same way that all creatures are supposed to, therefore the vast majority of them don't even think about how they use their magic in the same way they don't think about how they move their limbs or breathe; requiring only a few short hours after birth to nail everything down.

Because Maline lacked this knowledge, her learning was sporadic and random. Dusty, the weirdly grey changeling currently trying to impart knowledge into her head, had her do many different exercises to see what stuck.

Despite all this, Maline was actually quite proud of her achievements so far. Changing her shape had come easily enough, although it would probably take months of practice and mental training before she could change her entire shape at once, longer still to shift into another shape, she could quite easily modify her base form in minor ways after only being hurriedly taught the basics in the pod. She quite enjoyed experimenting with her body, giving herself strange tails or ears had been her first thought, but covering herself in fur soon followed. Unfortunately she lacked the focus to actually give herself the untold millions of individual hairs like a changeling in disguise would, but her faux fur felt-like covering did look like short fur from a distance and the feel was soft enough. Wispy had promised to explain how a changeling could change so many things at once, there must be some trick to it that she did not understand as there was no way that changelings had the mental power required to think about millions of hairs at once.

Changing her hair styling using her transformation had also been high on her list, but the focus required to change every hair had proven too much. Wispy had pointed out that, as long as she was only changing her base form, she could slowly change herself bit by bit if she wished instead of all at once. This meant that she could cover herself in fur or change her hair at a rate of about five hairs at a time but, by the time she could have finished even a basic change of her hair she would probably be bored of it. That and the fact that she wasn't good enough at maintaining a disguise to do so in her sleep, literally, meant it would all be for nothing come nightfall anyway.

"You will never succeed if you don't clear your mind, do not distract yourself Tourmaline." The old changeling currently attempting to teach her how to use magic croaked, his almost grey eyes watching her face from across the small table they sat at. Wispy hadn't said where she had disappeared off to when she left Maline with Dusty, the old bug had apparently been hiding as a teacher before 'the Canterlot invasion' had happened. He hadn't said much about it, but Maline got the distinct impression that he did not agree with said invasion, although he had refused to tell Maline anything, only mentioning the name in passing.

Interestingly enough, the ancient looking 'ling was apparently not much older than his peers; it's kinda difficult to tell the age of a species that can magically replace their entire body if they wish. Maline wasn't sure if this made changelings technically immortal as long as they had love or not, something else to ask the queen she supposed. Of course, for all she knew she was already an immortal being, not knowing anything from before a day ago was really proving to be quite a hassle. Of course, that left the question of why Dusty chose to look as old as he-

"I said clear your mind, focus on the stone!" Dusty grouched, how he could tell when she was thinking of other things Maline didn't know. They had been at this for hours now, Maline trying her hardest to focus on a small pebble while Dusty complained about her technique.

"I think I'm getting it!" Maline nearly lost focus as her horn and the rock in front of her started to glow. There was a strange pressure building in her head, just behind where the horn met her forehead. This had happened several times now, but it took so little to break her concentration from the stone.

"Now, just do as I said and will the stone to move." Dusty lit his own horn as he watched intently. Maline didn't exactly know how to will something to happen, it was supposed to be like moving an arm not imagining it happening but she tried anyway. Ever so slowly the faint green aura around the stone brightened, lifting the tiny rock a few inches off the table.

"You did it!" Wispy cried, causing Maline to jump and lose focus, the stone falling back to the table with a rather pathetic tinkle. If she had been more powerful the rock could have been flung around with quite some force, but it seemed that Maline's 'magic pool' was so ludicrously tiny that background magic levels masked it completely.

"Don't sneak up on me like that Wispy!" Maline whined at the cheeky bug, prompting a grin from her friend and a disgruntled mutter from Dusty. Wispy grabbed Maline's arm with her magic, pulling her to her feet and filling her arm with a tingling sensation.

"Come on Maline, you've been here for ages. We've got more to do today than hang out with this old bug all day." Maline found herself pushed through the doorway to Dusty's tiny cave before he could finish his grumbling retort.

"Your sex can wait for a moment Wisp." Dusty interrupted the hasty changeling's magic, causing Maline's arm to drop. Wispy grinned sheepishly like a foal caught in the love jar but did not reject the accusation. "Now Maline, as I said your magic pool is tiny but your love output is huge. While I can't say if you will ever be able to increase your magic to match your love, I can safely say that you will never run dry on magic; changeling biology letting you fuel yourself indefinitely." Dusty's practised lecture voice seemingly allowing him to continue speaking without pausing for breath.

"Having a smaller magic pool than what your love could sustain means that you will not be able to expend enough magic to drain it no matter how hard you try, however the power you can put into a spell will also be limited by this. I would not expect you to be able to lift much more than the rock we practised with today, for example." Maline frowned at that, she had secretly been hoping that the love she apparently so full of could make her into a super powerful magic wielder. According to Wispy, a changelings magic is tied directly to their love intake. Clearly not a trait Maline had inherited if lifting a small stone no bigger than the palm of her hand was the height of her power. Sensing this, Wispy cut in with her own encouragement.

"Aw don't worry Maline, not every spell requires a large starting cast. I'm sure we can find strengths to your magic." Strangely enough, Wispy's words did make Maline feel better, she was already a pretty cool half bug shape-shifter after all. After a moment of silence Maline gave a small smile to her friend, nodding her thanks to Dusty as she was dragged from his chamber.

Exiting the small alcove the pair found themselves on what could be considered the main 'street' of the changeling hive. Maline marvelled at the speed of changeling construction, new pathways had been set up literally overnight, even since earlier in the morning, specifically for her benefit. Whereas yesterday Maline had to walk a long and winding route to get to Wispy's room, now there was a direct path from said room to the centre of the hive. It seemed that Maline's arrival had kick-started the changeling culture, thousands of changelings now found themselves with nothing but free time on their hooves now that they had easy access to as much food as they could ever need.

As they walked through the crowded streets, Maline paid special attention to all the new additions to buildings, although calling each little cave home in the walls separate buildings didn't feel quite right. Many of the changelings had been living as craftsponies in the pony world, now they brought their trades to the hive. Overnight the area had gone from barren hallways with nothing to look at, to sprawling but simple markets where items and labour were traded. Maline spotted many changelings carving decorations into their previously barren wall sections, windows where there were once walls, more lights being put up in somewhat crude renditions of pony lamps and countless other details.

Unfortunately most changelings still struggled to control their eating habits with Maline beaming love into them constantly, few managed to get within a few metres of the hybrid before they passed out, so the pair had no problem wading through the crowds of excited bug ponies. Maline felt a little bad for the path of unconscious, twitching, happy changelings she left in her wake wherever she went, but none of them had complained about it to her yet.

Another negative all of this brought was the queen. She was far too busy managing the brand new culture, economy and whatever else went into running a city to talk to Maline every night. She hadn't told Wispy when their next session would be, but Wispy assured Maline that it wouldn't be long before she got to speak with her again. Speaking of her little friend, Maline broke the silence between them as they walked a route she did not recognise.

"Wispy, where are we going?" Wispy just giggled at the question.

"You'll see." Was all she said. Deciding not to push her for answers, Maline went back to looking at the feverish activity going on all around them. Sticking to her friends walking speed meant that Maline had plenty of time to look at the various stands they slowly passed by, the strange mish-mash of cultures that the changelings brought back from their various hiding places throughout the world meant that all sorts of strange and wonderful things were being traded at hastily set up benches or on rather fancy looking rugs. Maline even thought she saw a lemonade stand at one point, although where one would get lemons around here was anyone's guess. They continued at this slow pace for a good twenty minutes in a straight line, Maline could have covered this distance in five with ease.

As they turned a gentle corner, a silver glint caught her eye. Stopping and looking around, Maline spotted what looked to be a jeweller selling little trinkets and baubles. Unfortunately for Maline, the size difference between her and the regular changelings struck again. Most of the items looked like they would fit on a large doll, what looked to be ear piercings in particular being small enough that Maline doubted her ability to pick them up easily.

A glint of silver caught her eye again, looking up to a strange rack hanging above the door to the residence she spied it. A huge piece of moulded silver with what looked to be a gemstone embedded in it. Well, huge for a pony anyway. The changeling running the stall was breathing heavily at her presence, but managed to choke out a greeting.

"M'aiq gives you many greetings, please browse his humble wares." Maline was a bit nonplussed at the changeling's strange accent and odd way of speaking, but he seemed friendly enough. She pointed at the object that had caught her attention.

"Uh, what would you like for that blue and silver piece?" Maline answered, a little unsure what she was going to trade considering her worldly possessions consisted of the small pebble she had forgotten to give back to Dusty.

"No-no-no. M'iaq cannot accept anything from you. Why, without you M'iaq would still be locked away in pony hooves. Here, take it." M'iaq pulled the object down and threaded a piece of string through the top, passing it to Maline with a smile. "A gift from M'iaq to you, my friend." Maline took a closer look, it was a fairly simple item. A few snake-like shapes surrounding a decently sized stone which, upon closer inspection appeared to be a piece of blue tourmaline trapped inside a clear substance of some sort. Maline looked back to M'iaq, her comment dying in her mouth when she found the stand barren of any strange changelings.

"Ohh, that's pretty." Wispy's voice made Maline jump, looking around to see her friend walking up to her side, evidently she had not stopped when Maline did. "Who gave you that?" Maline pointed to the now empty store.

"There was a changeling with an interesting accent, he called himself M'iaq. He wouldn't let me trade anything for this, insisting I take it as a gift." Wispy seemed to be considering her words for a moment, Maline slipped the rough string over her head letting the amulet bounce on her chest plating.

"I wonder how many more 'gifts to the saviour' we could get..." Wispy eventually responded with an evil looking smirk, somewhat undermined by her cute fangs and general adorableness.

Maline heaved an exasperated sigh. "No Wispy, we aren't using my status as the ultimate food source to coerce gifts from everyone." Maline started walking along the route they had been travelling before the distraction, Wispy galloping for a few metres to catch up with a pout on her face.

"Not even a little?" She gave Maline the biggest, puppy-dog eyes she could manage, her bottom lip quivering slightly and her ears flat.

'Yes. Yes. YES. YES PLEASE YES.' "N-no" Maline eventually forced herself to speak, it ended up coming out as a strained groan.

"Darn." Wispy dropped her expression, all hints of sadness instantly gone. Maline should have tried to boop that cute snout, that always seemed to stop Wispy in her tracks for a moment, Maline grumbled. If she was going to pull out the big guns with no provocation then she could only expect retaliation in kind. Maline was pulled from her thoughts as she noticed a rather large entryway at the end of the street, the road seemed to end at this doorway leading her to believe it must be quite important. It took them an irritating amount of time to reach the door at the miniature bug horse walk pace, but they made it eventually. Maline glanced curiously at Wispy but her little friend seemed content to walk in silence.

Reaching for the metal loop that functioned as a door handle, Wispy lifted the latch and look to the hybrid. Maline noted that the nearby changelings had stopped what they were doing to watch with interest as Wispy repeated the process with the second door.

"Welcome to Maline Manor!" Wispy cried, throwing the doors open to reveal a large group of changelings waiting on the other side with what looked like party hats on. Maline raised an eyebrow at Wispy, the last words she said before the changelings cheering prevented further conversation in a very flat voice.

"Maline Manor? ...Really?"

Chapter Six: Wispy Doesn't Get It

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I couldn't write while surrounded by the beeps and coughs of a hospital ward, but I did come up with some jokes. For example: ask me if I am a duck.

~ Liarra Sniffles

Queen Chrysalis was grumpy.

Perhaps grumpy was is not the right word for the melting pot of simmering fury and frustration bubbling beneath her chitin. for the past day, the changeling queen found herself in battle against the most fearsome of foes. The enemy of all queens everywhere, the only force on this planet to have successfully defeated both alicorn sisters with no hooves. The one force that could withstand the god of chaos and the power of harmony, the unrelenting evil that could chip away at any figure until little but dust remains.

Gritting her remaining sharpened teeth, the queen forced her battered and bruised body back to its feet. Drawing more love from her newest subject, she quickly set about closing the many cuts and scrapes covering her haggard frame. Grimacing at the sound of her hoof snapping back into its socket, she quickly grabbed her mighty sword from its place embedded in the wall, leaving yet another deep gouge slowly bleeding a sinister black liquid in her once perfect throne room.

A roaring challenge erupted from her sore throat as she magically enhanced her tired limbs once again, leaping from the wall using her momentum to her advantage. A barrage of ethereal energy jumped from her jagged and chipped horn, strange green fire rushing to meet the enemy. Her headache came back with vengeance, numbing spells doing little to stop her strained mind and body from screaming in pain. Even her, the ruler of the changelings, defeater of the sun god could not sustain such fierce magic use for so long. Her every move felt like moving through water; sluggish strikes barely connecting with a seemingly tireless foe. For each scar on her throne a hundred of them fell, for each welt on her body a thousand were brought to their knees. The true fearsome power of the changeling queen, filled with an immense amount of love, cast fear into the hearts of those who would oppose her. A wicked sneer formed on her lips as she fought her own body and magic, forcing herself to keep fighting despite its protests as she sensed her foe's weakness.

Thankfully her immense effort paid off, the last foes falling before her last wind fled her. Groaning in pain but with a tired smile she fell to the floor, the last piece of signed paperwork landing in the outbox gently as her metal tipped quill clattered to the ground. Drawing more love from Tourmaline, more for comfort than power, she slowly pulled herself to her hooves. A slightly watery sounding sigh forced its way out of her abused bruised lungs and abused throat, she turned and collapsed onto her bed in an undignified heap.

Everything had been looking up, the hive was well fed and a bustling city was born. Then the paperwork attacked. She didn't know which changeling had started it, perhaps some 'ling who had been impersonating a noble or a politician. Either way, she had woken to find a changeling waiting at her door with a small stack of papers for her to look over. Not questioning where they had gotten the paper, she had foolishly decided to humour the silly bug.

How she came to regret this decision immensely.

She could see the benefit of it, of course, hence why she even put herself through this mental torture. Had each of these changelings had to verbally state their intentions to the queen she would still be half way through the first batch. It was strange, the changelings had already figured out a detailed and rigorous pecking order, almost as though they had been waiting to spring this upon her at the right moment. It seemed clear to the queen now, they sought to gain some measure of control over her by burying her in paperwork. As a master of plotting herself, Chrysalis had to somewhat admire their cunning, clearly some changelings had been living amongst the upper echelons of pony society for too long, their loyalty to the throne slipping as their loyalty to gold rose.

Chrysalis smirked, no sneered. The foals wanted to play in the big bug house eh? Well she would just have to show them how a real master of plots does her business.

Her smirk mellowed into a tired smile at her own joke, the queen moving to sit up as her door opened again. She had seen enough paperwork for ten lifetimes already, hopefully whomever disturbed her next had brought something other than paper, for their own sake. Her back ached as she hauled herself upright, slowly turning to face her new least favourite subject who stood shaking in the doorway.

The tired smile didn't leave her face as she drew her gaze down to the large stack of fresh papers piled beside the changeling, easily reaching the top of his quivering head.

Still with the eerily serene smile on her face, she met his terrified stare; His expression that of a deer standing petrified in the path of an oncoming train. Chrysalis's smile remained unchanged, but something flickered in her eyes. A small puddle of liquid pooled below the changeling as the doors slammed closed behind him, plunging the room into darkness once more.

Maline sat in the newly renamed 'Tourmaline Hall' nursing a cup of punch that had been pushed into her hand by a hyperactive pink pony. She figured the pony was a changeling in disguise due to the insect wings sticking out of her back and the weird antennae on her head, but she had only a moment to get a look at the strange creature before she disappeared somehow into the crowd of changelings covering her new floor. She'd have to ask Wispy to change into a pony for her later, they looked like they might be as adorable as the changelings.

Tourmaline glanced around her newly christened hall. She had fought tooth and nail to remove that horrid name from the glorified bedroom that was now Tourmaline Hall. Like all changeling buildings she had seen so far, bar the queen's, it was comprised of a single, roundish room. The walls had been draped with various dark green blankets, giving the room an admittedly inviting feel. The floor was covered in large cushions and yet more blankets, although seemed to be lacking a primary bed of any kind. Any spot on the floor could feasibly be used as a sleeping spot with minimal discomfort, although Maline would have to get wispy to bring her pod in too as there was something extremely comforting about sleeping suspended in warm goo that she doubted the floor could provide with any number of soft things and snuggle buddies.

The room contained no furniture of any kind, other than the cushions, and was very poorly lit by a single green blob above the door. Neither Maline nor the other changelings seemed to mind this though, their eyes still able to see perfectly fine in the low lighting. Currently the room was jam-packed with changelings, a miniature ocean of black chitin and glistening blue eyes. Most of the conscious ones held plastic cups of their own, and every 'ling had a little red or yellow party hat on. When Maline had gotten over the initial shock of entering the room, it had been hard to stop cooing at the sight of the party clad bugs in their little hats.

Sweeping her gaze across the slowly swarming sea of snugly sillies, Maline stifled a yelp as she came face to face with a grinning changeling. The new arrival was standing on the wall beside her at head height with a somewhat toothy smile on his face. Briefly stunned at the unexpected meeting, Maline shook her head to clear her thoughts and introduce herself as etiquette demanded.

"H-hello, ahem, My name is-" The changeling cut her off, still grinning.

"Maline. No changeling in the whole hive would fail to identify you." The changeling gave her a wink, leaving Maline completely mystified at the intent behind it before returning the greetings in kind. "My name is Typo, pleasure to make your acquaintance."

Maline didn't really like the way Tycho drew out the word 'pleasure' but, as long as he stuck with flirting she supposed it wasn't the worst reaction a changeling displayed to her today. That dubious honour went to a particularly sensitive changeling who had, while tasting her slightly anger tainted love during the argument over the naming of the room, thrown himself to the floor before her and begged for her to "punish me for my sins, my lady!". Very little can derail an argument as effectively as that. Not wanting to let the conversation die in an awkward manner, but not really knowing how to continue from here, Maline bravely attempted to continue the introduction. The grin on Tuber's face was off-putting to say the least.

"Um, you as well Tyrone. I don't..." Maline frowned as Tyler's grin grew slightly. Something was... Off, but Maline couldn't put her finger on it. She could, however, put her finger on the nose of the confusing changeling in front of her, a sneaky way of extracting herself from any iffy social situation that she had been practising on Wispy all afternoon. Moving her arm into attack position, Maline unleashed a decisive strike upon her foe's muzzle, his nose twitching as he curiously sniffed the extended finger while it rocketed towards his exposed snout. The fool didn't know the danger he was in until it was too late, perhaps Wispy's startled gasp tipped him off to the imminent destruction about to be wreaked upon his very soul, but it was too little too late.

"Boop!" Maline and Wispy giggled helplessly, Maline's finger stayed on his nose, pushing it towards his face as it crumpled. Typing scrunched his muzzle to its maximum scrunch, before his grip on the wall gave out and he flopped to the floor on his side. After a brief moment of silence, Wispy broke out into full blown laughter, her cheeky guffaws providing a suitable backdrop to Tumble's death throes.

"If you're gonna play with fire..." Wispy chided.

Once she was sure that he was good and defeated, Maline turned to the other changeling within arms reach. Sensing a malevolent stare upon her, Wispy immediately stopped her tittering and stood, the spines on her head raised in alarm as she fought her fight or flight instincts. Seeing her friend about to flee, Maline quickly retracted her mighty weapon and held up her hands in a calming gesture.

Without a word the two went back to sitting up against the wall and looking out over the party. Barring Timon, none of the changelings present had been able to come up and talk to Maline, making her feel a bit of an outcast at her own party. She knew they didn't mean anything by it, but it didn't help that they mostly conversed to each other in the changeling 'tongue', meaning Maline couldn't make out any real conversations amongst the buzzing bugs. Feeling the walls pressing on her a bit harder than usual, Maline turned to Wispy again.

"Hey, so uh." Maline coughed into the back of her hand. "You're in charge of getting these changelings out of here. I've decided that I'm not one for a party, and I'm getting a bit tired. I'll see you in the pod when you're done?" Maline stood before Wispy could formulate a cohesive objection and strode towards the door, trying her best to be polite about stepping over the various moaning changelings in her way.

Wispy slumped from her half-standing position, looking across the room at the many, many changelings lying on the floor in a stupor. She was honestly surprised that any of them had managed to walk around in the hive without passing out all the time from the love that her tall friend coated the very walls with. Still, this left her with a lot of downed bugs to move.

"...Buck." She sighed. Tylenol responded with nought but a weak gurgle from his position on the floor to her left.

Rainbow 'Danger' Dash tapped her hoof impatiently on the floor at the entrance to her pink friend's room.

"Come on Pinks, I've still gotta go drag Rarity and Flutters out of the spa." The blue Pegasus groaned, putting as much emphasis her need for haste as she could. The Pink mare bounced from one side of the room to the other and back again, picking up various objects and slamming them into a pink suitcase as she flew over it.

"...And a spatula! Done!" Pinkie Pie shoved the straining lid of the case down and closed the latches. Springing to her hooves, she wrapped an leg around Rainbow and pulled her down the stairs of Sugercube Corner, leaving the suitcase on the bed as she went. "Let's go Dashie! No time to waste when my fourth favourite princess calls!" Rainbow gave her a look.

"Fourth favourite? There are only... Hey wait!" Rainbow drew up short when she noticed a distinct lack of pink suitcases upon Pinkie's person. "What where you even packing that bag for?" Pinkie's only response was a smile and a giggle.

"Silly Rainbow, we're going on a trip remember? At first I was only going to pack the essentials, but then I just couldn't leave without at least one extra toothbrush, you never know when an extra toothbrush will come in handy. Of course, Brushington the Second needed to have his own toothpaste as well, or else I'd never hear the end of it! Only then did I realise that I almost didn't pack a towel, you must never leave home without a towel, no towelettes to be found on this extra prepared mare! Of course, then I realised that only a fool would forget-" By the second sentence, Rainbow had completely lost track of where the conversation was going, giving an irritated grunt she stuffed a hoof into Pinkie's mouth, which did nothing to stop her now muffled babbling.

"Nnnh, just forget I- Why are you wearing that?" She pointed an exasperated hoof at the pair of what looked like a pair of bumble-bee antennae sticking out of her mane.

"Ooh, I forgot I was wearing those. This is part of my changeling disguise!" Pinkie cheered, seemingly oblivious to Rainbow Dash's incredulous look.

"I really don't think that would fool anypony Pinkie... Why do you even need a- Forget it!" Rainbow stopped herself before Pinkie could answer, rubbing her temples while she hovered in front of the sugary storefront, Rainbow decided to avoid tempting fate further for the day. "Just go meet the others at the library, I'll go get the other girls."

With a whoosh of her wings, Rainbow was gone, leaving Pinkie to merrily sproink her way to the tree of books that moonlights as a library.

Chapter Seven: Oops?

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Did you know some authors put quotes at the beginning of each chapter they write? Seems awful pretentious if you ask me.

~ Liarra Sniffles

"Boss... Hey Boss!" Chirped the gruff looking changeling, standing in the most dark alley-like path they could find.

"What is it Tony?" Grumbled the bigger of the two.

"What are we doing here again?" The dim glow of a single light nearby barely strong enough to cast shadows.

"I am here to nab that new arrival and bring her to the big boss, who was asked to bring her to bigger boss, probably by biggest boss. You are here to help." The cigar was lit with a spark of magic, a soft fwoosh and a sudden, momentary increase in light revealing the battered fedora on Boss's head. "Didn't I tell you this already Tony?"

Tony adjusted his weight around a little.

"Well yeah, and I know we're going to use that magical strap thing to hide her presence while we hightail it out of here, but I mean..." Tony chewed his cheek a little. "How are we supposed to get the strap on in the first place? I don't think I could focus on a spell if she gets much closer."

"Tony... Let me tell you something I don't tell many 'lings." Boss double checked to make sure they were alone before continuing, although to a casual observer he would just look like he was fidgeting with his wings. "I was one of the three hundred." Tony was silent at this.

"Whoa Boss. Really?" Tony looked at his companion closer. "Where's your mark then?" Boss simply closed his eyes.

"I was busy fighting Loyalty when I was hit, let's just say my wife is the only one to see it frequently." Tony felt a blush coming on but managed not to let it show, Boss had made quite a catch with Precilla.

"So that means you can only feel one emotion?" Tony asked carefully.

"I can already tell what you really wanted to ask." Boss opened his eyes and scuffed a hoof on the ground. "I can sense only the feeling someling will get just before they need to yawn." It wasn't actually quite as useless as it sounded, but Tony could certainly see why Boss wouldn't be so free with this information.

"I can hardly believe the three hundred are even real, I guess skitter wasn't pulling my antennae after all." The silence returned once Tony said this, Boss not having anything to add other than a grunt.

A short time later, the two stepped into the shadows on either side of the alley in unison, and a tall humanoid figure rounded the corner. For her part, Tourmaline walked at a slow pace, clearly thinking about other things. Completely oblivious to the trap she was about to step into.

Just as she passed where the two changelings had been standing, Boss leaped out from a nook in the wall and silently threw a short strip of black material at her, neatly clipping on the thing around her neck with his magic in an instant. Tourmaline let out a small "eep" before all hell broke loose.

Not even a second after the strap had been secured around her neck, did the large stone on the front light up, getting brighter and brighter to the point where noling would be able to look right at it. Boss just shielded his eyes and crossed his wings, this wasn't how it was supposed to go but he wouldn't back down just yet.

"Uh, what is this really bright thing on my neck?" Tourmaline asked in an octave she was unsure she could replicate in future, the light was so bright she had to tightly closer her eyes and she was still seeing spots.
Boss didn't respond, but did back up a few steps as the light got brighter and brighter, everything was so bright that all the colours he would normally perceive started to bleed out making his whole world nothing but black and white contrasts through his tightly squinting eyes.

Then it exploded.

It wasn't really that loud of an explosion, more like someone dropping a small glass onto stone. The light died out in an instant leaving everyling present unable to see anything and Boss found himself being peppered with sharp fragments of the once dull stone, now bright pink. They cut into the soft skin around his joints and stung like hell, almost like being in a really strong sandstorm, he fell to the ground in quite a lot of pain immediately.

The surrounding stone walls, once dark black in colour, found themselves bleached white as if left in the sun for too long, interestingly one could even see the shadow where Boss had been standing forever etched onto the wall.

Tourmaline clutched at her neck before quickly giving herself a once over with her hands, still unable to see. She seemed to have suffered no harm, but wouldn't really know until her vision returned. In the distance she could hear the rumble of hooves and wings so she supposed help would arrive in a moment. The strange choker was still tightly clasped on her neck, and she could not find a latch to undo it with her fingers, but it didn't feel particularly alien to the touch. She left it be and tried to feel around for a wall before she heard a strangled groan from nearby.

"Oh no, are you hurt? What happened, was it my fault? Where are you?" Boss could only groan in response, where the hell was Tony? Tourmaline shuffled forwards on her hands and knees until she came upon the similarly blind changeling. Still unable to see she blindly groped out for the changeling and made contact. She instantly wished she hadn't as he howled upon the contact as if in pain.

For his part, Boss was feeling an intense burning at the contact with Maline, he felt it spreading all over his body and eventually focusing on an area between his thighs as well as around his fresh cuts and scrapes. After what seemed like eternity the burning faded and so did his screams, his senses were going wild with the feelings all around him, namely the intense amount of love radiating through the air. His previous disability seemingly gone, he was no longer protected from the very close presence to Tourmaline, and quickly his thoughts turned to mush and he passed out, still being poked, prodded and shaken by a frantic hybrid.

With a pop, Chrysalis appeared at the scene, shortly before a veritable horde of changelings poured out of every entrance to the small passage. Thinking quickly, the queen put up a large bubble shield to prevent the masses from getting in her way and appraised the area. It was quite a sight indeed, the walls, floor and ceiling looked to have been bleached a near perfect white, reminding her of Celestia's castle.
To her left, an unconscious changeling lay in a heap behind some garbage, seemingly shielded from whatever happened by his sleeping place.
In front of her the floor and right wall were covered in thousands of tiny sparkling pink motes, shards of crystal or stone from the look of it, best be careful not to breathe any in.
To her right, a frantic looking Tourmaline was trying to rouse another equally unconscious changeling who seemed to have collapsed against the wall. A strange incident to be sure, but what really caught her attention was Tourmaline and the second changeling.

Both Tourmaline and the changeling looked to have been dumped in a vat of bleach, everything from Tourmaline's hair and hooves to the changeling's fedora where as white as snow, she even spotted a still lit cigar on the floor equally bleached. The only thing seemingly untouched appeared to be Tourmaline's eyes, though it didn't look like she could currently see.

Chrysalis jumped slightly as another pop heralded the arrival of Wispy, still decked out with multiple party hats, who took one look at the scene and said exactly what the queen was thinking.

"What the buck."

My Little Bug Pony

by Liarra Sniffles

Chapter Zero: Prologue

Chapter One: Awakening

Chapter Two: Wispy Gets It

Chapter Three: A 'Proper' Introduction

Chapter Four: Of Changeling Sheep

Chapter Five: Maybe It's Magic

Chapter Six: Wispy Doesn't Get It

Chapter Seven: Oops?