"How am I supposed to help you with a hive?" Bunker asked in disbelief, giving a look towards the cameraman as if they could somehow answer their question.
"You're a Queen, correct?" I replied, as if it was obvious.
"Just because I'm the officer in charge doesn't mean I know the first thing about an alien hive!" They replied in exasperation. "Don't you have a build-it-yourself guide or something?"
"Eh... there was usually another Queen for that." I replied cryptically. I didn't really want to tell Bunker that I had very little idea what I was doing. The digging part I understood just fine, but the layout? Not so much. "I'm sure it will be fine; I just need Rough, Soft and Timid with me for this."
"You need what?" Bunker asked, even more confused.
"Er, I mean I need Ricky, Maria and Karol." I explained, though Bunker's face didn't stop portraying confusion. "I feed off of positive emotions, and they... freely give theirs to me? They're the reason I'm still alive."
Bunker closed their eyes for a moment, their hand pinching their nose with their face scrunched up, a hand on their hip. "You know what?" Bunker asked rhetorically, "I don't know what the hell is going on, but I guess that's to be expected, isn't it?" They then looked at me, and then to the cameraman. "Give me that damn thing and go find those kids that came in with the Queen." The cameraman gave a concerned look for Bunker and then a nervous one towards me before Colonel Bunker barked "Move it!", sending the Cameraman off on their task after a strange hand gesture.
While Bunker messed around with the large Camera, I set about my usual tunneling tasks. Tapping the floor to find odd vibrations and marking them with my hoof. The granite flooring of this place made that more difficult than if it had been loose sand and rock, but scorching the floor worked just as well.
"Hey, why are you marking the floors?" Bunker asked, handling the unwieldy thing on their shoulder.
"When I used to be a tunneler, it was our job to find weaknesses in the tunnel walls as well as the rooms, reinforce them, and then continue digging. I have no idea how sturdy this..." I marked another spot on the floor, "...Structure is, so I'm finding all of the weak points in it."
"By tapping your leg on the floor?" Bunker inquired, interest spiking.
"Changeling legs are very sensitive to vibration; they help us know when gougers are tunneling nearby if their screams don't give them away first. The smaller types will burrow close to our tunnels and weaken the walls so that the larger ones can break through. By tapping on the ground, it helps us locate areas that will need reinforcing to prevent a cave in and a gouger attack." I explained, having marked several more spots. "I take it that there are no gougers on Earth? This structure is full of weaknesses..." Another mark, and soon a second one right next to it. This place must have been made of compacted sand or something; Granite, pfft.
"This bunker can withstand a thirty megaton nuclear warhead a kilometer away. It's built as strong as they come, Queen Blue Sun." They replied, a slight tone of annoyance in their voice. I think I had upset them...
"In any case, when I am done with my hive it will be even stronger than it is now. I just need the three I mentioned earlier here with me, and I can begin." I said diplomatically, wanting to divert attention away from my unintentional insult.
"You're gonna make this place stronger than granite?" Bunker asked skeptically.
At this point I had covered about half of the floor in a pattern of hoof scorches. There were a great deal of weaknesses in the flooring, and it would take some effort to work on the walls and ceiling as well. I suppose I could just start with the hatchery and move on from there... unless my eggs decided that it would be the perfect time to need laying. That would be problematic.
"Queen Blue Sun?" Bunker questioned, "What exactly do you do to make something stronger than granite?"
I stopped checking the floor for any more weaknesses and turned towards Bunker. "Do you remember the Dirsime I mentioned before?" They nodded. "Its a building material unique to changelings, woven with a bit of magic, emotion, and the holes in our legs. Alone, a single strand of Dirsime will just melt onto the floor in a pathetic glob of goo, being just a combination of dirt and slime." I moved closer to a cluster of markings on the ground, charging my hoof. "I can give a demonstration of how this works, if you're ready."
Colonel Bunker adjusted their stance and the camera's eye before saying, "Ready when you are."
My horn burst to life, causing Bunker to take a few steps back as the room was bathed in blue-teal fire. I put more magic into my hooves and began hammering down into the granite floor, causing cracks to appear and spiderweb around the impact point. If I wanted to go faster, I could've hovered with my wings and begun hammering with all four of my hooves in a sort of dance, but I didn't want to risk weakening myself without Rough, Soft and Timid nearby. It took a few minutes to get enough material beaten out of the floor, but soon there was a respectable pile of granite dust around the new hole in the floor. Looking to find Colonel Bunker, I saw that they had gone to the far edge of the room with their camera.
"Colonel Bunker, are you alright?" I yelled across the room, my chittering voice echoing slightly.
"You really need to tone down that fire of yours!" Bunker yelled back. "It's roasting in here!"
I looked around the room and to my own chitin and carapace. The room didn't seem to be any hotter or colder than when we had come in. "Are you sure?" I yelled back, cutting out my horn's magic. "Nothing seems to have changed!"
The moment my horn had gone out, Colonel Bunker immediately relaxed. "Oh, thank Jesus!" They exclaimed, setting the camera down on the floor pointed towards me and slouching onto the ground. As I walked closer, I noticed they were drenched in sweat and trying to keep strands of hair from their face. "I thought I was going to get baked alive in here!"
"Why didn't you say anything?" I asked, looming over them.
"I did! I yelled at the top of my lungs, but you couldn't hear me. You just started glowing brighter and brighter while you hammered into the damn floor." They said between deep breaths, unbuttoning their camouflage shirt. "We need a fire-fighting team in here if there's gonna be any humans working with you, Queen Blue Sun; Too damn hot!"
"That's... strange. My magic has always been the same, and I was unaffected by any heat you're talking... well, actually..." I had recently become a queen, and my magic used to be the greenish glow of Queen Chrysalis', so perhaps that was an explanation? Did magic behave differently on Earth than Equestria? I already noticed that changing disguises had scorched the floor, but I thought that was a fluke...
"Colonel Bunker!" A voice yelled in alarm; several humans in their armor and helmets along with metal cylinders in their arms rushing towards us. "Get back!" Another yelled, pointing their metal things at me as the group of four stood between myself and Colonel Bunker.
I took a few steps back out of both curiosity and politeness, not wanting to accidentally trample a human from a careless step.
"Stand down!" Bunker yelled, pushing themself against the wall and onto their feet. "I said put your damn weapons down!"
Weapons?
"Yes, Colonel!" The group replied, their... weapons pointing towards the floor. "Are you injured?" A human with a cap asked.
"I'm fine!" Bunker snapped. "It just got hot in here; calm down."
These four were very wary of me. They wore olive jumpsuits with a black vest, many pouches sticking from it. There were various symbols on their shoulders along with what I assumed were smaller weapons on their thighs. "You would be...?" I asked carefully.
"Call me Jack." One sassed. They were the one that had asked if the Colonel was injured. "Who're you?"
"I am Queen Blue Sun." I replied with a nod that I had seen noble ponies give to another in greeting. "Those things you hold in your hands... they are weapons?"
The four newcomers gave each other odd looks before they were interrupted by Bunker. "Get your team out of here, Jack. I've got this handled."
"You've got a giant alien queen in the mountain 'handled'?" Jack questioned, turning from me to focus on Bunker. "It looks like she almost melted you before we got here!"
"Why did you point weapons at me?" I asked, confused.
"I said get the hell out of here, O'Neill!" Bunker hollered, pointing towards the exit.
Jack gave me a look that promised retribution before reluctantly ordering their team to leave the room. Jack walked backwards most of the way, keeping their eyes on me as they left.
Bunker took a deep breath before sighing. "I formally apologize on behalf of humanity for Jack O'Neill and his team, Queen Blue Sun. They've been away on mission for the past few weeks and I'll have to debrief them to avoid any more conflicts in the future."
"They pointed weapons at me?" I asked, still hung op on that fact.
"They're not used to... friendly visitors, I should say. It won't happen again, Queen Blue Sun." Bunker replied, doing their best to both calm down and cool off.
"Colonel Bunker!" Another voice yelled from around the corner.
"What!?" Bunker yelled back, extremely frustrated and trying their best to remain calm.
"A-ah, I found the three you were looking for?" The cameraman said, Timid, Soft and Rough behind them.
"Whoa! What the heck happened here!?" Rough blurted, moving past the cameraman and myself towards the crater of granite.
"Why is it so hot in here?" Soft asked, fanning themself.
"Eh... magical difficulties?" I replied hesitantly. "Apparently, whenever I use magic, it raises the temperature around me. I'm not affected by this, but humans are..."
"So... how do we help you?" Timid asked, "If we're going to melt from you needing energy, then we can't be in the same room..."
"How about you just take breaks?" Soft asked, "We could give you some 'emotional energy' or whatnot, then seal this room and let you get to work."
Timid nodded. "That sounds like it could work!"
"But what the heck are you doing, Blue? Beating up the floor?" Rough wondered.
"Well, I was going to show Colonel Bunker how hives are made before... well, things got heated." I replied.
Bunker smacked themself on the forehead. "Please tell me that none of you taught an alien how to make puns?"
I blinked. "What is a pun?"
"Nevermind!" Bunker snapped. "We need to get you charged up before you can start digging, and we also need to be in a place where we can observe you without being flash fried."
Timid pointed to a small black slit in the wall behind us. "You mean that observation room over there?"
I walked towards the small space in curiosity. "You have entire rooms dedicated to watching?" I asked, reaching the small strip and poking it experimentally with my hoof. "What do you watch in them?"
"Eh..." All five humans behind me replied in nervous unison. "You?" The cameraman provided.
I blinked a few times before turning back to the observation slit.
"Hello!" I said with a smile and wave of my hoof.