A couple hours after I had fully woken up, which included a very intense meditation session to mellow my emotions, I now found myself carrying my eggs in my magic while following Princess Luna through the main tunnel down into the heart of the Crystal Caverns. Every side "room" was going to serve a purpose to the hive based on what I was thinking about in my private mindscape. "Seems like you are a natural queen after all Cloud, you are already thinking about the layout of your hive. I must admit, despite the downsides of temperature and vegetation being less than ideal, your idea of this being a better hive location than the forest is correct. Being so isolated, not may changelings would want to come this way in the first place and being shadowed by the Crystal Empire adds a huge intimidation factor." The First Mother said in our private link.
"/Thank you Mother Changeling, I have to do what is best for my drones and the hive./"
"Indeed so Queen Dasher, and those 26 eggs you have in your magical grasp are just the start of many more for eons to come, I am slightly envious of you actually since you are handling laying far better than I did when I started....I thought I was dying before I figured out it was natural. You are surprising me with how fast you are mastering my magic as well, far exceeding my initial learning curve I thought you would be on."
"/Well it helps that I have a patient and helpful teacher, but something has been on my mind..../" I took a deep breath before continuing. "/If you are the First Mother, who or what made you? Was it a mage or some unseen Force?/"
She then did the one thing I didn't expect her to do, she hesitated. "Perhaps...perhaps you should know the truth..." A bright surge of energy then nearly blinded us as we entered the largest space in the cave and when it dimmed there was an alicorn with the same mane and coat colors as the First Mother standing before us. There was something off about her, she was transparent like a ghost but at the same time she somehow seemed solid. "Hello my daughters, my have you both grown..." She said with a smile as she trotted over to Celestia and Luna and draped her wings over them in a hug. All our jaws dropped when her words sunk into our brains and we all, including Twilight, Cadance, Shining Armour, Chrysalis, and the others, bowed before she motioned for us to rise.
"I don't get it mom, how is this possible since me and Lulu both saw you die, that's why me and her ascended so quickly to the throne...." Celestia said as her and Luna returned the hug with their own wings.
"You have to thank Queen Dasher for that." The First Mother replied pointing to my crown. "She asked me how did I come into being and this is the first chance I have had to tell my story, so sit down my little ponies and lings and lean me your ears. You see, I did indeed die on that day from terminal cancer, but a mysterious dragon that had a body more like that to the humans of old and had a connection to the afterlife decided to give me another chance. The only real handicap was the fact my biology was that of an equine, so he adjusted my DNA slightly to give me his race's abilities since he wanted to restore that population that was taken away from him. When I awoke, I took notice of the changes with my body, but unlike the changelings of this day and age I had not the first hole in my body. The holes are a result of the corruption of the race through its own selfishness, greed, and misguidement from the proper path and on that day Princess Aurora Plasma ceased to exist and I became-"
"Queen Gaia...." Chrysalis said in a hushed tone but none of us were happy she had cut Gaia off midsentence.
"Interrupting me Queen Chrysalis? Do you want THAT added to your list?" Queen Gaia asked, which silenced Chrysalis mid motion before she slowly closed her muzzle out of fear of punishment. "Better....anyways, on my behalf for helping protect my changelings I am going to make each of you royal ponies honorary queens. Celestia: Queen Photon, Luna: Queen Stardust, Twilight Sparkle: Queen Vermilion, Cadence: Queen Emora, Shining Armor: King Obsideon, Rainbow Dash: Queen Dashlaflora, Scootaloo: Queen Dionaea, and...." She paused before giving Pinkie a cold glare. "Pinkamena Diane Dash: Queen Toxicodendron...and no parties about this either or else....."
"Fine....." Pinkie grumbled under her breath.
"Good mare, now my time like this has come to an end for now, but I do have one last gift in store for Queen Dasher and Queen Phoenix....." Her horn lit up brighter and with more intensity than even Celestia achieve before our vision returned and what we saw shocked us, the room we were in had been turned into a throne room complete with two thrones. "Every rooom now has been modified to your vision in your mindscapes you two..." She finished as she started to fade away.
"Thank you Mother Changeling." Me and Phoenix said with a bow.
"Nonsense....it is I who should be thanking you....now farewell." She then disappeared and after dropping the eggs in the pods, me and Phoenix trotted up and sat in our thrones, which were embezzled with our cutie marks.
"What is your plan Queen Dasher?" Rainbow asked me approaching my throne.
"You can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinager sister...time to set a trap and use me as bait."