Soft, Rough and Timid all moved to enter the house before pausing to look at me. "Hey Blue... are you hungry?" Rough asked nervously.
I took stock of myself, searching for that never ending hunger that I had known for all my life and found it... sleeping. There was still the endless hunger, but it was sated for now. "Not at the moment." I replied candidly.
Rough sighed in relief. "Oh, thank Jesus. I thought I'd have to freeze my butt off again."
"Who is Jesus?" I asked, following the three of them inside and keeping careful vigilance to not strike the doorframe with my horn. The mess of my cocoon was still heaped in the corner, the goo held back by the towels on the floor.
"Uh, really popular guy from a few thousand years ago; helped out a bunch of people and then got betrayed by his friends and died, pretty much." Timid explained, nudging a towel out of the way with their foot.
"Hey, did you just say a name without copying a voice?" Soft asked, interested.
"Ah... apparently?" I replied, caught off guard at what had just occured.
"Do you think she could call us by our names now?" Rough whispered within easy hearing distance.
Soft looked from Rough and upwards to me, meeting my eyes. "So, Blue..."
"I could call you by your proper names, but somehow it feels wrong. Like if you called me Proto-Queen, for example." I countered, motioning with my armored hoof to the dining room where Stern was busying themself eating 'Mac and Cheese', whatever that was.
"You all gonna eat, or just let it get cold?" Stern chided between bites, shoveling the yellow strangeness into their mouth. "I don't know if I made enough for you though, Miss Alien."
"Her name is Blue, Mom. Proto-Queen Blue Sun." Soft explained, pulling out a wooden chair by lifting it to avoid scraping the floor and sitting down. Timid and Rough took a seat in the same way, and I simply stood there awkwardly with my neck craned downward over the table. This house is obnoxiously small now...
"Well ain't that a mouthful." Stern replied, unimpressed. "How about I just call you 'Blue', does that work?"
I nodded my head, accidently poking a hole in the ceiling and causing sheet rock to crumble down on my mane. "Eh, yes. Sorry." I glanced upward at the hole I had just made. "About the damage... and the Cocoon."
"Is your voice always that strange sounding? Its like you're speaking through a really slow fan thats underwater or something." Stern commented, taking another bite of their food.
"I communicate through vibrating my wings." I explained. Something caught my attention however, as I felt a sudden compulsion to dig. I looked down at the tile flooring, fighting the urge to simply burrow through it. It was an overpowering urge to hide, to expand, to create a home large enough for myself. I had the love I needed for now, I just needed a place to live. Some inner part of myself was begging me to leave this cramped house.
"I think I should go outside." I blurted, slowly backing out the way I had come, trying not to knock over or damage anything else in the house.
"Where you goin', Blue?" Rough asked, dropping their spoon into the bowl they had been eating from.
"I need to create a hive to live in. Soft's bedroom is far too small for me now."
"Wait!" Timid called in excitement, "I need to get my camera for this! Maria, Ricky, follow Blue!"
I had succeeded in backing my way out of the house after a few awkward moments of backpedaling. I turned and looked into the moonlit night to see empty fields around me. No plants, no buildings, just flat grassland. Perfect! I walked away from the front of the house into an open clearing, my eyes providing vision in the night and my chitinous armoring glowing the same blueish teal as my magic. I had no idea what I was doing, but something instinctual guided my path. I crouched low before leaping into the air, my wings springing out to my side and quickly beating with a steady thudding of moving air. I turned around to view Soft, Timid and Rough exiting the house to look for me.
"Up here!" I called down to them, my voice unintentionally louder than I thought it would be. It was loud enough to cause distant animals to complain with barking... probably dogs.
"Keep it down, would you!?" I heard Timid shout at me, their voice faint from the distance. I was well over the house in a steady hover, giving me high ground to look around for at least a few kilo-trots in every direction. Spinning slowly, I surveyed the area until my sight spotted something odd: A metal looking archway that was comparable to the house's secondary door in size, painted erratically in many colors and designs. With the direction memorized, I flew back down to the three waiting for me with a camera, landing quietly on the gravel.
"I've found a location for my hive!" I chirped in excitement, doing a small dance of joy. "Oh, I can't wait!"
"You're takin' all this pretty well, aren't you? I mean just yesterday you were just a tunneler drone. Now you're giddy about buildin' an entire hive by yourself?" Rough questioned, concern and worry flowing from him. "I'm not saying that you're going too fast, but shouldn't you take longer to get adjusted to your body? You kinda disintegrated about three hours ago now."
"My body tells me than I am ready, So I must be ready, right?" I reasoned, and for some reason the three snickered at me.
"Did you really just say 'My body is ready.'?" Timid giggled.
"Classic!" Soft agreed while holding back laughter.
I squinted my eyes in confusion at them. "Humans are strange."
"Says the shape-shifting alien queen from another planet." Rough retorted.
"Well, despite the state of readiness for my body," I began, ignoring their outright laughter at this point, "I am going to the metal archway in the distance to begin work on my hive." I pointed in the vague direction of where I was going so they would know. I kneeled down and was about to take off before I was interrupted.
"Wait, Blue! Take me with you!" Timid blurted, their camera in one hand and pointed at me and the other holding onto my chest carapace. "This is going to be recording gold!"
"Are you certain? We would have to walk if you came along." I cautioned.
"What, I can't just ride on your back?" Timid asked hopefully.
"No. I have no idea how heavy you are." I countered succinctly.
"Oof, burned by an alien." Soft snickered, earning a shoulder punch from Timid.
"Shut up, Maria." Timid grumbled.
"Wait, what do you mean by a metal archway in the distance?" Rough asked. "Wait, no... you don't mean Titan One, do you?"
I blinked at Rough. "I have literally no concept of what a 'Titan One' would be."
"It's an old abandoned missile silo they ditched in the sixties. Nobody goes there because it's lined with asbestos and its a rusty death-trap, too." Rough explained, folding their arms across their chest. "I... may have dealt some drugs there at one point in time. It was years ago though!"
Timid held a hand up, pointing a finger skyward. "I would like to point out the odd hilarity that an alien from another world is finding the creepiest place ever to be suitable for a hive... that is all."
"She's right, Blue. Your hive location is Cliche'." Soft agreed sarcastically, tutting.
"I don't care. It looks cozy from here." I grumbled.
"Can you see in the dark? It's going to be pitch black in there and hazardous as heck." Rough warned in concern. "That place is a defunct death trap for anyone trying to move around in it."
"I'm heavily armored, I can fly, I can see in the dark, I can use magic and I'm a Proto-Queen of a soon to be new changeling hive. I'm sure I can manage an old building underground." I retorted smugly, chittering my wings for show.
"Hey, isn't there a saying about power going to your head?" Soft asked rhetorically, rolling their eyes at me.
"Eh, right. Sorry." I replied abashedy, looking at the ground. Hey, the ground here isn't actually that bad...
"Blue... what are you doing?" Rough asked worriedly, backing away from me. "I've seen that look in your eyes before and I almost froze to death the last time."
I looked up with a wide grin at Rough, causing them to back away from me further. "Do you think I could dig here?" I asked, poking the ground with my hoof and causing a few small bits of gravel to evaporate from making contact with my body hardening spell. A dusty vapor caused me to cough once in irritation. "It wouldn't take me that long."
Soft didn't seem opposed to the idea, waving their hand a little in a wishy-washy sort of manner. "Ehh... maybe the backyard? It's great that you want to stick close with us Blue, but we don't want to get in trouble before you're famous either."
"Speaking of which, I'm looking at the views we have for my latest upload..." Timid announced, fiddling around with a 'smartphone' in their hands and their camera held in the nook of their arm, pointed at me still. "There's a lot of comments about you, Blue. Some are thinking its a trailer for a new movie, some are thinking its CGI and Animation like usual, and there's a few that want to ask you questions..."
"What kind of questions?" I asked, interested.
"Do you know what the Caramell Dansen dance is?" Timid asked, showing me the glowing screen.
"The what?"
"It's some Swedish dance song that was really popular a while ago. You don't actually have to do it; I think it was a joke." Timid explained.
"Could I see it anyway? If it would help us for me to attempt it, then wouldn't it be worth the attempt?"
Rough was holding back laughter unsuccessfully, turning away from the group to burst into hysterics.
"You're serious!?" Soft exclaimed, also joining their brother in a mad giggle fit.
After a short wait, Timid showed the screen of their 'smartphone' to me. "Okay, just watch this video, okay?"
After about three minutes of unexplainable magic that I had never before witnessed in my life, complete with moving creatures on a very tiny slab that sang, all the while giving no emotion, I had learned what a Caramell Dansen was.
I looked down at Timid whom was holding their sides in silent laughter. "I-I got your reaction on camera! All of it!"
"Your face!" Rough blurted in agreement, "Oh my god your face was priceless!"
"I'm not sure if I should be more concerned from the creatures trapped in that slab called a Smartphone, or if I should be worried about falling over trying to dance like that..." I replied in confusion.
"Whelp, there's only one way to find out, Blue! Dancing time!" Timid cheered, pointing the camera at me. "Oh, this is even better from all the glowing spots on you!"
I tried to stand on my hind-legs, quickly failing and falling back down to the ground on all fours. "Okay, let me try that again." I widened my stance and held my wings out to the sides for balance, carefully trying to keep upright on two hooves.
"Jesus, Blue. I thought you were tall before!" Rough chuckled from below me. They were right, as standing on my hindlegs had allowed me to gain at least four more 'feet' if i was guessing correctly.
"Gigantic alien queen does Caramell Dansen. Click-bait title of the century." Soft giggled the moment I had gained my balance.
"Okay. Soo... forehooves now." I continued cautiously, lifting my forehooves shakily towards my head. The humans in the video, however strange they appeared, had been shaking their hips side to side, holding their hands above their head and waving in time with the beat of the music. I had barely managed to accomplish this feat when my wings buzzed to regain balance, throwing me off a little. "Whoa!" I blurted, regaining my stance once again.
"Careful Blue, don't hurt yourself now." Rough warned, amused but concerned for my safety despite myself being literally double armored and more durable than any of the three here by several orders of magnitude.
I took a deep breath and attempted to place my hooves above my head once more. Succeeding in only bringing them to the sides of my head, I grumbled, "Good enough."
"Okay Blue! I'm going to hook my phone up to this speaker so you can hear the music. All you gotta do is dance to the beat and wave your hooves together!" Timid giggled, digging through their clothing and connecting their smart phone with some kind of thin white string.
The music began, and I started shaking my hips from side to side. I stumbled more than once from the difficulty of my size and unfamiliarity with my body, but it was going along fairly well. My blank expression was probably adding to the hilarity, judging from Timid's difficulty in keeping the camera on me from laughing so hard. Soft had completely resigned from decency as they were on the gravel in hysterics, and Rough was holding their sides and having difficulty breathing from laughing at my display.
And then I noticed it again. That spark. The spark was growing into a flame, but it wasn't pink... It was multi-colored; Red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple, all fused together and intermixing, fueling itself further as I continued dancing. What had happened to my need for love? I couldn't see it anymore, but this new spark didn't have the same overwhelming pull as love either...
I continued dancing until the end of the song, finally dropping to my hooves in relief. The three of them recovered after a long moment of giggling, laughing and enjoying themselves. My hind legs ached from supporting my entire body and my wings were cramping from being extended for so long.
"Hey, you kids stop cackling like hyenas and bring Queen Blue in with you! It's way past bed-time!" Stern shouted from the house, wearing some kind of dress with yellow ducks on it.
Rough and Soft immediately made an effort to contain themselves, calling back with "Be right there, Mom!"
Eventually things went back to resembling sanity, the three of them picking themselves up from the ground. "Okay, please tell me you got that on camera, Karol!" Soft giggled, moving to Timid's side. Rough also joined on the other side to view the rear of the camera.
Then I heard the musical tune of Caramell Dansen again, accompanied by the ghostly giggling and laughter I had heard not moments before, devoid of all emotion or the spark I had felt and seen. It caused my entire body to shiver from the wrongness of it.
"Yep! Got everything!" Timid cheered, joined by Rough and Soft. "Now I just gotta upload this and see how it does on Youtube and Tumblr!" The three of them set off towards the house as I lingered for a moment in thought.
"Hey Blue, you coming? I'm sure we can find someplace for you to sleep in the house still." Soft offered.
I looked back to see the multi-colored spark that had become a steady candle-light of flame in them, hiding just behind their eyes. I didn't know what kind of emotion I was seeing, but it grew the more I interacted with them. I could spend another night in the house and work on my hive in the morning.
"Be right there." I replied with a smile, quickly catching up to the three with just simple steps. I listened in silence as the three discussed my dance and how it would be received on the 'Internet', watching the small flame flicker within them. I had no idea how I had caused this to grow, but it wasn't going away like love would. Being near them caused it to burn steadily, so perhaps this would be better than love in the end?