So now you know the tale of Ichorous. I wish you could see and hear it—feel it as it all unfolds—but that’s beyond what I can give you. All I can do is carry forward, and give you the reactions of me and my friends.
I woke to Rarity’s cries of distress. “Eeew! This better not stain my coat green! As marvelous as that was, I’d much prefer the novel if this travesty is the cost.” My eyes fluttered open to a green-tinted world, and ve attempted to blink our haws before remembering I wasn’t Ichorous.
I was Twilight Sparkle, and I was very confused at how certain I was about that as ve sorted through years of a life that wasn’t mine.
“Rarity, forget your mane and coat!” Rainbow snapped from out of sight. I had an excellent view of Rarity, though. She was somehow greener than everything else.
I wriggled slightly to get her attention, and something pulled itself out of my ear. Confusion made way for panic, and I tried to scream at the sight of the tendril that had been inside me, but the goo in my lungs was thick and uncooperative. Thrusting myself at the wall of the chrysalis, I found it breaking easily at the touch of my horn, and I tumbled to the ground with a sickening splorch, coughing up the gunk in my lungs.
“What the buck was that?!” I managed to sound surprisingly imposing with half empty lungs.
“That was a memory transference.” A hole-filled hoof filled my vision, and I grabbed it, scrambling to collect myself as Morpheus pulled me to my feet.
“I thought you were exaggerating when you said changelings did that.” Not exactly a royal voice, but It carried my point across. “Do you have any idea how dangerous melding memories is?”
“Our methods differ from ponies, Princess.” Father Arachne had returned to the diminutive form of Third Eye. “Rest assured that you are safe.”
“How can I be sure?” I countered. “What are the differences? Am I— Are ve—” I blinked at the slip. It might be worse than I thought. All ve had done was try to explain what ve just went through and—
There! I did it again! Hyperventilating, I desperately ran through Cadence’s breathing exercises.
“I don’t know what Twilight’s talking about, but I’m with her here.” Rainbow set a hoof on my withers. “Ve know things I’m not supposed to—aerial tricks I can’t perform without a different set of wings. Ve keep trying to chirp when I can’t, and ve can’t help but feel weirded out by my—” she coughed “—barn door.”
“Ve do this to everypony who we share knowledge of the hive with.” Third Eye shuffled from hoof to hoof. “Trust us. The confusion is natural, but temporary.”
“But—” I took another deep breath. I couldn’t say it…. The fact I could think of the danger spoke volumes towards the idea that I was still myself where it mattered. I would just have to be careful handling our memories.
I looked to the one changeling I knew I could trust right now. “What do you think, Morpheus?”
He squirmed under my focus. “Theoretically, there’s no danger to non-changelings, but, ve admit, ve are mostly speculating. It’s not a practice ve are familiar with.”
“Darlings, you’re all missing the point.” Rarity scoffed. “What did you all see? Because ve— I saw a changeling who loved with all his heart.” She sighed. “So romantic…” Turning, she gestured to Lyra, who was sticking eagerly to Bon Bon’s side despite the goo coating her. “Clearly our hosts are as capable as giving love as they are of taking it.”
Lyra nodded, nuzzling her partner. A trail of chrysalis goop trailed from her snout to Bon Bon’s, and the confectioner giggled, letting out a small whinny as she rested her head in the crook of the changeling’s neck
I smiled at the sight, conjuring us all steaming towels. “Alright, time to clean up.”
“Oh, thank heavens!” Rarity grabbed them all, forcing me to conjure more. “Don’t think this is going to distract me, though. I asked you all what you saw.”
I glanced between Rainbow and Morpheus. When no pony stepped forward, I hesitantly did so before immediately hopping back. I couldn’t do it yet. Morpheus thrummed with glassy eyes. He kept murmuring something to himself, and, if I strained my hearing, I could just make him out.
“To move the heavens themselves…”
Ve shuddered, replaying Ichorous’ final moments in our head.
Snorting, Rainbow took the lead. “V— I saw somepony that loved flying as much as I do. Dude seriously knew his stuff before he was grounded.” She shook her head. “The stunts he made in his dreams were definitely Wonderbolts material.”
“Monarchs are to pegasai as dynastinae are to unicorns.” Morpheus muttered, eyes still glassy. His voice was soft and almost lost in a thousand tiny echoes. “Lyra—as a Dynastinae—is as close to a unicorn as a changeling can get, but you’ve seen how she handled being a pegasus.”
He looked to the cavernous depths above us. “Monarchs, on the other hand, gain an affinity for flight at the cost of strength—magical and physical. Ve can barely comprehend how he handled losing his wings. Most Monarchs ve have records of would rather have committed ritual suicide.”
“How barbaric.” Rarity gasped.
Morpheus shrugged. “Different times, different customs. Ve are more concerned with his corrupted transformation. That was most certainly love poison he drank….” He hesitated, and I gave him an encouraging smile.
There was the audible clack of plates shifting as he gave a mighty gulp and continued. “The house of Antipathy has produced love poison as a pick-me-up for generations. It’s been one of several crutches that have allowed us to survive as long as we have, making a passable yet unhealthy substitute for love. As ve see it, if love poison corrupted the Hivemind, either the corruption was complete enough to render us immune, or it’s a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.”
Third Eye coughed. “Ve believe it needs a catalyst. It might be simply the act of sharing it with another, or it might require the seed of true love.” He put a hoof on Morpheus’ withers, causing the prince to flinch. “Either way, ve would advise you cease production and distribution. I’d be willing to trade some love reserves to even out the losses, but you need to guarantee our safety. Ve haven’t hidden the hive for so long without reason after all.”
“Your generosity is appreciated, but ve are unsure I can guarantee what you ask.” The prince slumped. “What you’ve given me will cause unrest. The other Lords are already restless from your very existence. I have no doubt some will spin this information as potential sabotage to the masses. It might easily provide the excuse they need to move on me….”
The prince shook his head, rising out of his funk to stand tall once more. “Yet none of this tells you what I saw…. What I saw…” There was a hushed reverence to the thrum of his voice. “...I saw a changeling in love. More than that I felt a changeling in love. His Chrysalling was real… and it was his love itself that made it possible….”
He scoffed. “No wonder we’re dying out, we’ve been stunting our own growth with erroneous beliefs. What fools our hive has been, to think us capable of evolving beyond the emotion of love itself.”
Third Eye hummed thoughtfully. “Love of life sparks the zeroth, creating us and giving the thirst for more. It is the selfish love of a mindless animal, for life loves to continue living, and will do so whether or not it should.
“Love of another sparks the first, giving us the mind and soul. Bravely the breeder gives of themselves so that the life becomes an individual. The mind and the soul let us slake the thirst, but never can we quench it.”
His voice fractured such that it came from everywhere and nowhere. It entered my very bones to knead a weariness I hadn’t known I’d been carrying. It was soft and assuring—confident yet quiet.
“Love of the hive sparks the second, giving purpose and direction. We come to learn our duty and seek to repay a debt we foalishly believe we carry. For the Hive we give our lives, yet we fail to understand it’s true desires.”
Morpheus bowed his head in contemplation as Third Eye turned his gaze up above.
“Finally, though, we begin to understand. We learn to give love as well as take it. Love for life—for friendship—sparks the third, giving clarity and empathy. Whereas love of life would take to continue living, love for life sees the beauty of the individual. They seek to be themselves and understand the right of others to do the same.”
Bon Bon looked up the crook of her fiance’s neck to try and meet her eyes.
“And yet still we thirst. Like every creature under the sun, we seek more. We seek true love from those who could know and understand us, looking for those who can look past the mask. Love for another—the other half—sparks the fourth, giving peace and power. No more do we thirst, yet we have the capability to take all we need. With the wisdom gained through clarity, our might helps us to shepherd the way.”
Third Eye’s confidence wavered.
“Yet still we grow and learn and change. In times of direst need—when even the Hive seems lost and gone and dead—a few will rise above the rest. Love for the hive—self-sacrifice—sparks the fifth and final change, and not even I know what it brings.”
In silence the girls and I looked to one another, unsure what to say. Morpheus sniffled. Once. Twice. The third turned into sob, his chestplates screeching with the sudden upheaval of air, and he fell to Third Eye’s hooves whistling and whirring between long lamenting chirps.
“Awk-ward.” Rainbow kicked the ground.
Lyra sighed, detaching herself from Bon Bon. “Yeah… we should give them some privacy.”
“But what’s he doing?” I ruffled my wings and tried not to stare.
“Really really old custom. Like archaically old.” Lyra rolled her body through a molasses-like shrug as she led us away. “You ever read about royal courts back in the day? The ones before Celestia had petitioners or ministry ponies or parliament representatives? Where Sunny P once had ponies falling to the floor to confess their sins in her immortal presence? It’s like that.”
She waved goodbye to Third Eye, who was patting the prince on the back with an awkward smile. He silently mouthed for help in response, and Lyra chittered as she followed us out the door. “Pretty sure gramps wasn’t expecting it. I mean, we’re not that big on the hierarchy system around here, and the Shaepherd act is just that, an act.”
There was an archway to the left that hadn’t been there before. Lyra cocked her head, ears flicking at the clicking and clacking in the wall before leading us through it.
“Okay… but why is he groveling? I thought lords were at the top of the hierarchy. ” I pulled out my notebook again to take notes as we walked.
Lyra snorted. “Oh, that’s exactly why he’s groveling. The term lord is just one big ego trip for his hive.” She whistled and whirred a word I didn’t know. “—actually means clerk. They’re meant to manage the Hive, not rule it. Shaepherds are the ones who do that.”
We entered what appeared to be the core of the Hive. It was a wriggly, cavernous room that towered overhead, and as we looked up we could see the slow, shifting movements the Hive made as it waved in the non-existent wind. Several changelings crawled and flitted about, yet I couldn’t help but notice how empty it seemed.
My face scrunched. “So his hive is incomplete? I mean, the way you two talked it sounded like something was off, but I didn’t know what.”
Lyra shook her head. “It’s not incomplete so much as it’s wounded…. It’s hard to explain. That’s why we shared the Fall of Ichorous with you. Can you think of a way to explain what you saw that doesn’t fill a book on its own? Even then, can you explain the pain? The corruption? The backlash?”
“I guess not….” Memories flashed through our mind and I shuddered. Strongest was the flash of heat and light that was our end. In the infinitesimally small amount of time between the maggots and sweet nothingness, I could hear the swarm crying for help. Millions of messages poured through the Hivemind asking us to stop, but it was too late.
Rarity tsked, bumping her shoulder into mine. “Really darling, you’re always so intent on stressing yourself out. Forget the drama of the thing. I mean, you still haven’t answered my question. The end of the tale aside, what did you see? Surely you saw something you liked within the memories?”
“I’m with Rarity, Twi. I spilled. You should to!” Rainbow darted down, landing in front of me.
I hadn’t even noticed she’d taken off in my musings, and stumbled back in surprise. Steadying myself, I sighed. “I didn’t see anything I didn’t already know—that each of us should have already known. I knew going in that changelings weren’t monsters. We wouldn’t have been here if we didn’t understand that. What I saw? It shows we were right, but we aren’t the ones who need to see it….”
Ve looked through the memories, tasting Radiant’s love and feeling the butterflies that rose in our stomach in response. It was a nice feeling, even if I’d die before telling Rarity.
“I am a little curious as to why there are no records of Radiant. But the important stuff? The stuff that matters? All of that is in the ending.”
I stomped a hoof so hard it cracked the chitinous floor. “Do you have any idea how many creatures—pony, changeling, whatever—died at the end there? Those stars probably wiped out everything that wasn’t hidden leagues underground. Hay! That might be the only reason the changelings survived in the first place! I can’t just ignore it!”
Lyra shrugged. My eye twitched at how carefree she was. “Can’t let it chain you down, though, Glitter Flanks. You should appreciate the good as well as the bad.”
I growled. “Don’t call me Glitter Flanks!”
Lyra grinned a lazy, lopsided grin that showed only a single fang, reminding me far too much of Discord. “I’ll stop when you stop being all princess-y. Seriously, chillax. We’re all friends here, after all.”
I opened my mouth to retort, yet all that came out was a sigh. “I know…. I know…. It’s just every time I start to feel like I finally get what’s going on, I’m thrown for another loop.”
“Welcome to changelings!” The amber-eyed changeling threw a hoof out chittering. “We’re all mysteries and enigmas wrapped in layers of vagueness, garnished with bits of truth, and drizzled with secret sauce.” She winked. “At least, we like to think so, even if the truth is yet to be seen.”
I couldn’t help but giggle in return. “Okay. I get it. Expect the unexpected. Now that that’s settled, though, what should we do while waiting for the others?”
Lyra shrugged. “Chill?”
And so we chilled.
The prince’s talk to Third Eye took a long time, so long that we just sat and talked for hours with changelings flitting about above us. I admit, I was disappointed not to get more of a tour, but I think they were nervous to show me more after my little freakout. I learned a lot from Lyra, and—rocky as it was—I still feel the trip was a success. I was sad to find it was already time to go when Morpheus turned back up.
