Twilight was humming to herself as they flew back to their hive. The details of the agreements with Equestria had been hashed out and the part of it on the forefront of her mind was the researchers being sent out in two days. She hadn’t been able to think about continuing her research on Glyphs and combining technology with magic, but now that she had a reason to there were already ideas buzzing in her head.
Actually, the buzzing in her head wasn’t all ideas. Keine was worried about something. She decided to delve a little deeper into the hive mind to focus on the defender. What she saw made her use a spell to enhance her group’s flight speed to nearly supersonic.
Everyone watched as Keine twitched a little and closed her eyes, opening them to reveal Twilight’s lavender slits. She had interrupted a staredown with what looked like another queen. The creature smirked at winning the staredown, but frowned when she saw the change in eyes.
“What’s the matter, Queen? You invite me here and then don’t even have the courage to face me yourself? Pitiful.” The creature sneered. Twilight deadpanned with Keine’s face. She was on eye level with the Queen since defenders had much larger frames than most changelings.
“It is merely an accident of timing, I was not aware of your coming so I am away. If you would follow my children to the meeting area I will be joining you in just a few minutes. Food and drink may be supplied on request for you and your guard, and hostilities will be met in kind.” Twilight explained, her voice made a little more intimidating than usual through Keine’s body. The other queen grunted and motioned for them to lead. With that, Twilight relinquished her control of the defender and focused on not falling behind.
Approximately six minutes saw her sitting across from the other queen. Their guards had all been ushered outside of the small conference room and they were both sipping on wine infused with love. The silence was thick with curiosity and apprehension, but the other queen broke silence first.
“I know your name is Twilight Sparkle, you used to be an Equestrian Mage. I suppose it is fair that I give you my name to start this off. I am Queen Crystarium, and as a show of good faith my hive is located in the mountains bordering the Dragonlands and cuts through the border between the Griffon lands and Equestria. I must say, I was surprised to hear what my Spy had to say of your hive. I was even more surprised he lived to say it.” The queen explained. Where Twilight had lavender eyes and hair, and Chrysalis had teal eyes and hair, this queen had a deep and beautiful blue.
“He was doing no harm, but I have to say I did not think such a spying attempt would work. The second I laid eyes upon him I knew he was not mine. I couldn’t feel his presence.” Twilight replied. Crystarium gave a hum in response, leaning forward in her seat a bit.
“As advanced as your degeneration is, I expected a hive of ferals. Or at least a hive of mindless drones barely kept in check by their queen. I am still impressed you are able to even function with your children in such a state, especially with how much control they have over themselves.” She said. Twilight was confused.
“I mean, most days I find myself immersed to grant guidance and comfort, but they are not ravenous. We are actually more than satiated currently. It’s why there’s love in our wine. It’s the only way my children can share it.” The lavender queen explained. This earned a bit of surprise from the cerulean queen as she looked at her drink again.
“Hm, I thought it was too sweet for wine. Interesting. If you are so saturated with love, then why do you look little more than feral?” Crystarium asked. Though now there was more curiosity than anything in her tone. Twilight shrugged.
“I honestly don’t know. I’m conducting research on it, and a few teams of Equestrian researchers are on their way to assist.” She started, but changed the subject. She had started catching on that it wasn’t the best idea to share every little action or secret with another queen.
“Anyways, I have to admit. I was surprised to find your spy. I was aware there were other changelings out there, but I didn’t think they cared about us. Or at least were too loved starved to care.” She continued, trying to get info out of Crystarium now. The queen chuckled lowly.
“To be honest, I sent my spy here to scout out the hive. If you were sane but weak I would have swept in, killed you, killed or converted your drones and taken this hive for myself. If it was a feral hive I would have destroyed it and rebuilt it as my own. I hadn’t even thought I’d find a prospering sister here. And now that we’ve spoken I’m even more curious.” Crystarium answered. Twilight grew silent at the idea of her children being slaughtered.
“It’s against tradition to try and count another’s forces, but it seems you’re doing well enough. I’ll have to tell everyone else about this. Maybe even call a Queen’s Dinner.” Crystarium hummed.
“A Queen’s Dinner? And how many other queens and hives are there?” Twilight asked, intrigued.
“Well, a Queen’s Dinner is like what the equestrians call a council meeting. All participating queens supply labor and resources to prepare a meal for themselves and their hives if possible. In return, the dinner is considered a neutral zone. Lies are outlawed, as are hostilities if any exist. It is our chance to speak as equals without risking our lives, and of course a good meal for an entire hive can save hundreds of lives for some of the struggling hives -Love or otherwise.” Crystarium started.
“As far as the other queens and hives… There are probably a dozen other queens, at least half of them feral by now. The rest of us come and go. We’ll have to call the dinner to see who cares enough to attend, who is relevant. And nobody truly knows how many hives a queen has. We are required to give population numbers, or close estimates, at the end of the dinner in case there is enough food to feed all of our brood.” The cerulean queen continued. Twilight was beyond interested.
“I’d be happy to attend as long as I have advance notice. I can’t guarantee my attendance if I do not know when it will be called.” Twilight said happily. Crystarium smiled and nodded.
“I’ll see what I can do then. In the meantime, you must show me how to infuse love into your food… If it is a secret then I will happily part with one of mine in return.” The queen offered. Twilight was about to brush off the trade, but then she remembered a valuable lesson Celestia had offered her. When the advancement of your people is most important, never look a gift horse in the mouth. And never let your rivals think that what you offer is not valuable.
“What would you be willing to offer?” Twilight asked, not showing her momentary lapse in judgement. Crystarium thought for a moment.
“I have been studying your defenders, even the one you spoke through earlier seemed a little… fragile for my tastes. I could offer my secret of reinforcing carapace in return for your secret of infusing food with love.” The older queen offered. There was a little hesitation in her voice, that was one of her more closely guarded secrets. It wouldn’t take too long for another queen to reverse engineer it though, so she was willing to make this gamble to learn more about love.
Twilight was thrilled by the offer, but made no show of it. She hummed, leaning back into her chair to swirl her wine around.
“Less injuries and casualties for my children would certainly benefit my hive. We have an accord, then. I’ll transcribe the process into understandable terms before you leave.” Twilight finally said after a minute of pretend deliberation. Crystarium nodded with a smile.
“I will attempt to do the same. What is your knowledge of magic and specifically glyphs? It is integral to the process and would be easier to transcribe if you knew of them.” The blue queen asked, standing. Twilight almost laughed. It registered a little bit on her face.
“I’ve written three dictionaries on glyphs and assisted in three more, I’ve invented more minor glyphs than I can count and I am responsible for the research and development of the Magic Batteries in use by Equestria and its allies.” Twilight replied. Crystarium blinked.
“...What?” was all she could say, almost dumbfounded. She shook her head then. “I’ll take your word for it. It’s good that I won’t have to dumb anything down. Last time I tried to teach arcane magic to Zerella I thought her head was going to crack.” She snorted, reminiscing at a memory.
“Just make sure not to encrypt it too much. I know all Equestrian, Dragon,and Griffon encryption styles but I don’t know any specific to our kind.” Twilight suggested. Crystarium nodded. She’ll have to send some information gatherers to ask around about this Twilight Sparkle. She knew almost nothing of the Equestrian people but they seemed to be strong allies.
“I will remain for the night, if you would have me. My guard is tired and low on both foods and I’d rather not have to lower my pace to return home.” Crystarium asked as Twilight stood as well.
“Of course. If you or your guard need anything just ask, I will know of it. I don’t know how your hives work, but we have an intricate system so if you are ever unsure about anything please ask.” The lavender queen continued. Crystarium remembered how her spy couldn’t properly communicate or figure out how to ask for food without outright saying it. She nodded and allowed Twilight to bring her to a small residence chamber.
Crystarium couldn’t help but wonder about this new hive, and this queen. Before long, though, she started to realize something. The buzzing of this hive was different than all the other hives she’s been to. It was minor at first, but the more she concentrated on it the more she realized what it was.
The buzzing was constant. And it was everywhere. In her hive at least there were times of inactivity, but here it never let up. These drones must be working around the clock, but she had definitely seen a few other mass sleeping chambers around. They must be very efficient workers on a meticulous schedule.
A bi product of who their queen is, perhaps. She could tell the young woman was making mental checklists and had a thing for scheduling. Why else would she make sure she got advance notice if she didn’t have to work a schedule around it?
For now she focused on transcribing the carapace enhancements. She would not reveal precisely how it is done, rather she would explain what is being done and give strong hints so the queen could engineer her own version of it so she still held at least a shred of her secrecy -or at least she could figure it out on her own so she didn’t feel like she outright revealed the whole secret. The purple queen would surely understand. If not, well, apologies can be made. The ability to infuse things with love is an incredible ability after all.
The next morning saw Crystarium off after a breakfast and a farewell. Twilight was happy to make another potential friend, especially of her own kind, but it was quickly filled with apprehension. The idea of a Queen’s Dinner was certainly interesting to her, but the other things she had picked up and learned scared her little bit. For starters, half of her race was apparently little more than ravenous husks gone feral. The other half loved fighting amongst themselves and spying on each other. Twilight wasn’t quite sure how she felt about Crystarium. She had openly admitted to being ready to invade her hive to take it for her own had she shown weakness, but she seemed content to make peace just as well.
It would take more interactions to get a feel for which side is true, or if there’s more sides to the cerulean queen, but for now she had research to conduct. Almost directly after that thought came to mind, the wordless command for her most intelligent children to meet her was sent out. Within seconds a few dozen drones stood in front of her. She divided them up into a few groups and started giving them research orders.
“You will be the start of R&D, Ceren you will be the head of this department. I want the secrets of your black metal figured out first and foremost. While intriguing, the fact that not even you knows quite how it works needs to change.” She started towards the biggest group. Said changeling inventor gave a cute salute in response.
“Samuel, you will head the Lore department. I want you and your siblings to learn what you can about our kind, combing archives of our allies as well as our own. When there’s nothing to comb through I’ll leave it to you to determine where you’re dispersed to aid another department.” She continued. The changeling man gave a much more serious salute.
“Siren, I want you and your girls heading up the Hive Research department. You’re only a few but you have the strongest connections than anyone but myself, if it’s possible I want it classified and archived. It seemed that Crystarium’s hive mind was far inferior to our own and I want to know how that’s possible. You’ll also research other hives as well when possible.” She went on to the third group, the surprisingly young girl gave a thumbs up.
“And lastly, Mari, you’re in charge of arcane and technological research. I’ve already implanted all of my progress on arcane batteries. I want them easier to make, distribute, modify and everything in between. When the Equestrian researchers get here they’ll split amongst all but the Hive Research department. They’ll definitely be a boon, as an outside eye may reveal things we overlook instinctually. You will set your own work quotas and work at your own pace, I will personally be assisting with all whenever I can .” She finally finished as the last group gave their salutes. “Any questions?” Mari raised her hand.
“Are we supposed to share our findings with the Equestrians?” She asked. Twilight had hoped for the question and she smiled at the girl who asked it.
“Everything we can spare. I may be biased to trust Equestrians, but my bias is not unfounded. I hope at least. You’ll know if anything should be kept from them, but I want as much open discussion and discovery as possible between us. They are our closest and most powerful allies, and we are technically in their lands.” The queen replied. Mari nodded happily. “Anything else?” She asked.
“How are we to conduct our research? We have limited material here.” One of Mari’s researchers asked.
“I’ve already got a few collection teams on their way to collect research materials and you’ll have access to them as well. The Equestrians will be bringing all of their materials they can spare as well.” Twilight answered. That seemed to satisfy the questions then, so she dismissed them all to get to work with an unspoken command and turned towards her chambers. She always preferred immersing herself while touching Chrysalis’ sleeping form, she could feel the old queen’s presence when she did that. At least she thought she could.
Hopefully she would start making progress again… But first they had to take back lost ground.