//------------------------------// // S1E1 The Mission Begins // Story: Creator Hatch // by Josh Crapo //------------------------------// “QUEEN CHRYSALIS!!!” “Who in Tartarus is that?” Queen Chrysalis looks out the hole close to her throne to see a meteor like path forming with a tint of yellow on the front. “What the-” “Queen CHRYSALIS!!!” “Get over here! I fear nopony!” Suddenly, the path and the queen make contact. The landing reveals said path to be another queen. “What- where... who are you?!?” “Queen Light, at your service.” Chrysalis chuckles. “It seems that the feeling is mutual.” “Chrysalis, it needs to be.” “But, why?” “We have to join forces!” “Join forces?!? A hive stands alone. You need another hive not.” “Crysalis, you misunderstand. It’s an emergency! The growing population of my hive needs love!” “Unusual you should say that now of all times. The population in my hive grows as well. You too have ready to split eggs?” “Yes. The remaining love from the last invasion, years ago, is not enough to supply with eggs on the verge of splitting.” “Then let’s join forces. Your hive can’t invade when grubs are on the way. Soon, we will conquer Equestria and feed on all of its love unlike ever before by joining forces!” “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” -=- I tunnel through the hive and wander around. Looking back at the eggs, every one is split. Continuing to tunnel, I find that my tunnelling hasn’t found another room in the hive for five minutes straight. Somehow, when I find another room, finally, I see another nursery hive. However, this one has been devoid of all of its grubs except for one egg. Studying it, the egg is very still. Suddenly, a roaring voice startles me. “Grub! What is your name?” “I take it you want a Hatch?” “Hatch... hey, aren’t you one of the grubs from Queen Light’s hive? No one has ever tunneled into the nursery hive from where you are. No matter. I will let you explore the nursery hive as Queen Light and I have joined forces to conquer Equestria together. You were even the one who saw this egg first now. All the other grubs have joined my drones in preparation. Perhaps I will show you the way with the new grub?” “So, does that mean I will get the love I never had?” I start looking at all the eggs in the nursery hive. “Sorry, but no. You need to get back to Queen Light’s hive soon. Come with me for now, though. The grub will join us as we head for the drones. Queen Light isn’t going to lead our invasion upon Equestria herself.” “Okay. I’ll come then.” And with that, Queen Chrysalis begins leading me to the crowd while we leave the egg sitting, us unaware of what will happen to it. -=- “Welcome, drones and grubs alike! A very important mission rests upon both of our hives! Today, we start our invasion upon Equestria!” All the changelings start cheering at Queen Light before she continues her speech. “To begin with, we must be outside of the hives to map out where we should start and expand from there. We must replace 15 beloved figures of Equestria before we invade, which is day two. Finally, we will replace every single important pony by the end of the first week.” Once again, the changelings cheer. Afterwards, Queen Chrysalis steps upfront. “We ALL thought too small last time! We’ll head for more than Canterlot! Let’s show Equestria just how powerful changelings can be! With this plan, we will be able feed on Equestria’s love for GENERATIONS!!!” One last time, the changelings cheer at their plans. “Whoever has anything against these plans, speak now, or forever hold your peace.” I sink in the back and huddle to the ground. “Now then, let’s go.” All of the changelings finally disperse out of the room, leaving me and Queens Light and Chrysalis as the only ones left. Finally, I decide to head back home. “Hatch. Light and I would like to have a word with you.” “Yes?” “Any idea why you were ducking?” “Ducking? I actually don’t know. I just had some feeling nagging in my mind, but I didn’t know what it was.” Queen Light comes to me. “Well, in any case, who do you feel like replacing?” “Replacing? I don’t know.” “Well, you have today to prepare. Perhaps you could go to an area that even Queen Chrysalis and I don’t know about.” “Hmm. Okay.” Small buzzing comes into hearing range, seconds after revealing to be the last grub to split his egg. “Gac, reporting for the queens’ speech!” “Gac? Is that name an abbreviation?” “I... DON’T... know.” Suddenly, Gac starts cheering hysterically. “I take it his name means to be amused?” “It’s not to be amused; it’s to be amazing!” I shoot a look at Chrysalis as Gac begins bouncing on his head, still hysterically cheering. -=- As Gac and I leave the hive to embark on a journey onto territory unvisited by any changeling, I look around me. “Okay, Gac. The journey begins now. Let us make a brand new hive as we travel where no changeling has ever gone before.” “I’ll sing us the Brand New Hive song now.” Brand New Hive, Brand New Hive New Hive, New Hive Brand New Hive, Brand New Hive New Hive, New Hive... 6 Moons Later... ...Brand New Hive, Brand New Hive New Hive, New Hive... “Gac... would you please... stop... singing? It’s no wonder our destination is unknown.” Looking ahead, I see a village, in a valley, with two rows of houses with a tree at the end, and I gasp. “Gac! We’re here at last!” ...New Hive, New Hive- “Ooh! What’s that?!?” “I guess we’ll find out.” So, Gac and I race down the hill before the town, staying as quiet as possible. After walking a little ways, we spot ponies just like any other town. “Well, that was disappointing. Gac, quick. What’s your observation on this village?” “I see ponies...” I turn to Gac in confusion. “They sing in our town!” Gac proceeds to march in a circle. “Focus, Gac! We have to come up with some disguises!” “I wanna be a dog.” “Sh!” I close my eyes to concentrate on changing my form. After a few flames, I found that a filly would be the only good option. A cat as large as me would look kind of fishy, and so would a tortoise. Gac is kind of lucky. He gets to be any pet his size, as long as he doesn’t say a word. So, what does Gac decide to roll with? A dog disguise. “Hmm. Something is still off though.” “Ooh! Hatch and Gac! Hatch and Gac!” “Gac! Can’t y-” I gasp, realizing what was missing. “Names! Gac, you’re a genius! Hmm. Ponies normally have two words in their names. But they can still be accepted with one word as long as it has nothing to do with a changeling or a bug. Hmm. I think my pony name will be Catcher. What about you? You’ve changed into a pet. So...” “Brown is EVERYwhere. Even-on-me...” Gac starts looking at his disguise with amusement. “Okay then. Brown it is. Ever learned to bark yet?” “Ooh! I get you yell! Yaa-” “Not THAT kind of bark! No yelling, no trees. It’s how a dog speaks! Just think of “arc” cut short.” “Ar- Ar-” “Yeah! Just like that! Now, let’s get a move on to where we can make our new hive.” -=- Finally entering the town, much of the population greets us with a simple exclamation of “welcome”. Then, a white and a blue stallion both spot, and trot up to, us, the white one the first to speak. “Welcome, little filly. What’s your name?” “I’m Catcher, and this is my pet dog, Brown.” “Great names, you two. I’m Party Favor, and this is Double Diamond.” “I admit that I feel the same with yours.” “So Catcher, what brings you to town?” Double Diamond, the white stallion, asks. “I came from Canterlot. And I heard how this town was founded. No matter though. I just want a tour of the town and around.” “Well, Party Favor and I could do that!” “Perfect.” “So, where do you want to start?” Party Favor inquires, his smile starting to creep me out now. I do feel positive enthusiasm though, so I let it slide. “Inside the town I guess. I never really stopped to think about what its name was.” “No worries. It’s called Our Town." Party Favor's response stuns me briefly. “Our town? That’s the name?” I think for a second, then gasp. “OH! Hour Town? Like as in how a lot of progress is to be had in an hour?” “No, not like that." Party Favor rubs the back of his head with his right forehoof. “It’s more of a passion thing from when Starlight was around.” Okay, Double Diamond is creeping me out now. And who’s Starlight? Thankfully, he misses my confusion as I try and continue with the facade. “Oh. Okay. I know what you’re saying. Hmm. Our Town... I’m gonna get used to saying that.” -=- Finally! I thought Gac and I would never get to see the surrounding area. Luckily, I was patient. Another ten minutes, and I would’ve thrown in the towel. So, apparently, there’s a path that Double Diamond and Party Favor along with 8 others travelled down to stop this Starlight character. Best of all, the whole chase ended near a cave, a perfect place to make a hive. There’s just one problem. Gac and I would have to start our journey to the cave tonight, when we will be likely to be unnoticed. Throughout the tour, Party Favor acts suspicious around me, like I did something wrong. Well, I didn’t DO anything wrong. But I did get creeped out twice and confused once. Maybe that’s why he’s very uneasy with me. However, the more I pieced together about the ponies chasing out Starlight, the more I find what actually happened. The only thing is why was Starlight chased out of Our Town? Well no matter. At least Gac and I found the perfect place to make our hive. It nears sunset when the tour is finished. We will have to stay up past the sun to get to the caves. Finally, when it turns dark, still in our disguises, Gac and I exit the town. “Okay, Gac. Once we are in, we’ll have to find a particularly spacious area in the cave to make the hive.” “Ooh! Brand new cave! Brand new cave!” “Shh! We can’t blow our cover. Now, COME on.” I set Gac over my back, hovering faster afterwards. After about a minute, we see the cave we needed to go to, the outside looking even more like a hive setup goldmine, a goldmine I start to faint in joy about. When I wake up, Gac is hovering over me. “Hatch! Are you okay?!?” “Yes. I feel well, thank you very much. That must have been some huge doze off I was in. I had a dream, a dream where we found a cave at night. But how could you be in Queen L-” I stop, looking around me. I gasp at what I’m closely looking at. It’s the cave. “THE CAVE!!! How did you drag me inside in such little time?!? “I didn’t.” “You didn’t?!? How long did it take?!?” “I dragged you in until noon.” “Noon?” I walk for a while until I find daylight, spotting the landscape to be grassy instead of rocky and snowy. “Uh oh.”