"Did you understand what is you have to do?" Clypeus asked the elder.
"Yes, yes," the queen answered dismissively. She was looking at herself in a shard of mirror leaning against a stone. "What would work best for entering the school unnoticed?" she pondered aloud.
The two were hiding out on an elevated ledge just behind the School of Friendship, and while it didn't offer the most ideal view, the many rocks and boulders adorning its dry surface permitted protection against even the flyers coming in.
"Maybe try finding one of the students and asking how to sign up?" Clypeus suggested. "I don't know how these 'schools' work."
"Hmmm...neither do I," the elder queen answered dismissively. "The key is getting in unnoticed as there are likely changelings in there as well."
The yellow queen rubbed her temples. "Remind me why I'm not escorting you as their king and why you aren't going in as another creature?"
The elder continued looking at the school and analyzing every potential point of entry. "Because the changelings already present will likely be wary of your disguise, because it's possible the real Thorax will appear, and..." She slouched slightly. "Because we haven't seen what he look like, only descriptions. That's insufficient for a disguise."
"And the other?"
The elder shook her head. "Because we're trying to learn everything from the point of our own kind, not that of the ponies or griffons or--" She stopped momentarily after seeing a giant brown ball of fur bouncing joyfully alongside a group of various other creatures. "Whatever that thing is."
Clypeus' face contorted with confusion and mild disgust. "What is that thing?"
The elder shook her head. "No idea. I've never seen one before." She rubbed her chin. "Do you think its love is edible?" The two changelings braced when they heard the fluffy monster's booming voice deafen them despite the distance separating them. "I see its voice wants for not."
"We should ignore it. And all of its kind," Clypeus suggested with a barely contained tone of hatred. "Sounds like a very brute and simple-minded people."
The elder queen surrounded herself in changeling flames, turning herself into a tiny beetle-like changeling with a pale-blue body and wine-red wings, tail, wing covers, and eyes.
"What do you think?" the elder asked.
The yellow queen walked around the elder and hummed. "You look revolting," she said in disgust. "It's perfect." She gave the elder a smile. "But what about a name?"
The transformed changeling groaned. "Naming things is tedious, so I'll be lazy and tale the pony's route of naming things after foods," she stated condescendingly. "I'll call myself 'Cranberry' and say that I just wanted to try a pony's naming conventions first."
"What if someone asks you your name?"
"Then I won't tell them." 'Cranberry' shrugged. "Simple."
Clypeus rolled her eyes then jumped back into the hole she had dug for the two to arrive on the cliff. She plopped back out and rested her forelegs on the edge of the hole. "You said you wanted someone here once every day for a week while you're at the school, right?"
"Yes," the elder replied.
"If you say so. See you in a week, elder."
The queen vanished within the hole, leaving the elder alone to perform her much needed tasks. "Finally. Now I can do things my way." She looked at her legs then frowned. "I haven't decided on a personality yet, however." She thought for a moment then shrugged. "I'll just make it on the spot. Nothing more fun than improvisation."
The elder lost no time buzzing down to the school entrance where she got to see the architecture more clearly. "Impressive...I think." She rubbed her chin. "Pony architecture sure has changed since I was an active queen." She leaned over the sides of the trail to get a better look at the water. "This would be a great place for beasts of war." The elder chuckled in her head at the thought of a pony getting chomped and dragged into the depths of the water.
'Cranberry' pushed through the large doors to come upon a great entryway adorned with pillars built into the walls and a large carpet pathway. The pillars' end points were golden in color and elaborate with strange shapes baring no converging form. The carpet was a pale red accentuated by silver threads on its flank. It ran along the whole length of the school's stone floor, its design creating splits that led to class rooms left and right and to the upper floors. There weren't many decorations yet, but some plant life had been cultured at the entrance to climb a long the walls and ceiling and bloom constantly. The elder queen hissed at the appearance of white and yellow flowers.
"Disgusting. Reminds me of the forest deer," she hissed quietly.
"S'cuse me," a voice spoke behind the changeling.
Startled, the elder flew back a ways before facing the culprit with a heaving chest.
"Woah, woah! Calm down there!" the pony said. "Ya don't need ta get stressed out like that."
The elder cough nervously and stood straight. "S-sorry. Force of habit," she said.
The mare eyed the changeling. "Aren't you s'pposed to be in class?"
"I'm not a student here," Cranberry answered. "Yet."
"Oh, so yer thinkin' 'bout joinin' ?" The changeling nodded in response. The mare speaking to her gave a big smile. "Well then, yer just in time. Ah've got a class 'bout honesty right now. How's about you start off yer first day with me, and then we'll see what we can do afterwards." The mare was about to step forward but mentally slapped herself for it. "Ah, mah name is Applejack. What's yers? Oh!, and ya can tell me while we're on our way ta the class." She tapped the changeling on the shoulder. "Wouldn't want to be later now.
The elder queen looked at her shoulder with disdain and spoke with a hushed, angry tone. "It's Cranberry."
"What's that?" Applejack said loudly.
"Uh, Cranberry!" The changeling smiled sheepishly. "My name's Cranberry."
Applejack scrunched her lips in thought. "Strange name ya got there. Very different from what ah'm used ta changelins bein' named."
"That's because I'm trying a new naming convention based off ponies."
"Really?" Applejack looked at the changeling. "And what' yer real name?"
Cranberry closed her left eye and looked at Applejack with a smirk. "That would spoil the fun and the purpose, now wouldn't it?" she answered playfully.
Applejack shrugged and continued. "If'n ya say so."
The two entered a room on the first floor, and Cranberry witnessed many different creatures present, although most of them were ponies. Some were griffins and hippogriffs.
"Hippogriffs?" Cranberry blurted out. "I thought you went extinct."
One of the hippogriffs chuckled nervously. "N-no. We just hid away as seaponies. It's a long story."
The class was a circular room with an indentation at its center. There were two layers below the floor: One for sitting and another to put one's feet down. The windows along the wall opposite the hallway were opened to the inner-garden of the school, bringing a partially fresh breeze of cold water from the artificial waterfall as well as a rather unpleasant smell of moss. The white walls had built-in ornaments of fake gold in seemingly random areas, creating a bizarre impression of the night sky during the day. There wasn't much else of note aside from a blackboard against the wall, so Cranberry looked back to Applejack.
"So, this is Cranberry. She's a possible new student for our school, but she's comin' here to see if she really wants ta join or not." The mare gestured Cranberry to come into the circle with her. "She'll be learning one of our lessons about honesty 'n when ta use it."
The changeling scooched in-between a tall, grumpy dragon and a small griffon. She felt hostility between the two. She smiled in response.
"Now where were we?" Applejack pondered. "Ah reckon we could try somethin' else. How's about Cranberry do a 'blind run' as ah like ta call 'em 'n get paired wiiiiith..." She scanned the room for the perfect candidate. "Ah. Foamstreak."
"Hmm. Another 'hippogriff'," the elder thought.
Foamstreak was comprised of nothing but blue. His chest tuft was almost white. His beak and eyes were a deep blue while the crane of large feathers along his neck and serving as his tail were a faint blue tipped in white. His wings and ankle feathers followed the same pattern. As for his talons and hooves, they were teapot blue. Foamstreak was a scrawny little thing for a hippogriff, but no one made fun of him for it. After all, this wasn't the place for that. He nervously stepped into the center and smiled sheepishly at the changeling flying towards him, her face apathetic and wide-eyed.
"Okay," Applejack started. "Let's say that Foamstreak is a little troubled and doesn't want to talk to his friend Cranberry. What do you do?" There was silence. "Foamstreak, Cranberry; why don't ya add somethin' to it? Develop the scenario so we know how to react and how truthful we should be."
"O-okay," Foamstreak answered. He scratched the back of his neck and looking around, his voice blushing. "Uh...I...I..."
Cranberry rolled her eyes. "If this keeps up I'll never learn anything." She took the initiative and stepped forward. "You okay, Foamstreak?" she asked. "You've been troubled for a few days. What gives? You've never been like this before."
"O-Oh! I....yeah. Some changes have been happening..." He shied away.
"That's good!" Applejack shouted. "He's havin' problems. How would you respond?" she asked the students.
"Punch him until he tells us?" a dragon asked. He brought his fist to his open palm loudly and smiled.
Applejack facehoofed. "No. Violence isn't how you solve the problem."
The dragon shrugged. "It's how it works in dragon land."
"Yeah, but that only works with DRAGONS...and maybe minotaurs, to a lesser extent..." her anger trailed off.
"I know what to do," Cranberry said.
Applejack ears perked up. "You do?" She stood up. "Then tell us how you would approach it."
Cranberry cleared her throat then stared at Foamstreak. "Because he's being so dismissive, it means that he's having family or romantic issues," she started. "I would begin by prodding him for information regarding the actual direction of the issue then assuring him that I would do nothing to betray his trust." She took a step forward, making the hippogriff nervous. "If it's family issues, then I need to be honest about my own and say how one of my family members were troublesome and I know exactly how they feel."
"O-okay...?"
"Several reactions can happen. If it's a lesser problem, then they're likely to make the comparison saying they don't have it that bad and try to rehearse the solution with me. If it's equal, then they'll be silent for a moment and likely confide in me." She looked to Applejack. "These are the two best scenarios."
The class was finding this sudden arrival's behavior and approach disturbing.
"A-and what's the worst?"
"The worst is the third," Cranberry answered immediately. "They become enraged, telling me that I'll 'never' understand and likely rush off. This tells me that the problem is much more serious then initially expected."
"So then we look for a councillor or therapist?" Foamstreak asked.
"No," Cranberry said. "The worst way to approach the sudden change is with a large influx of outside influence. This makes the troubled person nervous and feel unsafe. They'll become extra defensive and likely never open up afterwards, potentially even worsening things forever." The changeling shook her head. "The easiest way is to wait a while for them to cool down and gradually edge into the problem, or bring another friend they have great confidence in. Both cannot treat the affected party like someone to take pity on. This results in the same reaction as the therapist, intervention, or whatever. If all else fails, the best thing is too psychologically destroy the person by showing them what happened to what they love the most, or having that thing watch them silently from the room."
Applejack stared at the changeling slack jawed. "Uh...That's..." The mare exhaled loudly and wiped the nervous sweat from her forehead. "Y'all can sit back down. Let's take somepony else instead because ah think that was quite advanced fer this class." She narrowed her eyes. "Maybe too advanced."
The elder shrugged and sat back down. Her moment was ruined by forty-three minutes of bland and boring conversations and just sitting around. After that performance, Applejack refused to let her participate again no matter how much she wanted to, so she decided remaining in the background and just observing was the best solution. When Applejack let everyone out of the class, Cranberry casually strolled to the exit while everyone else kept their distance. Well, all but one.
"Who are you?" a female voice asked.
Cranberry turned around to see a blue and hot pink colored changeling from Thorax' hive glaring at her. "What do you mean?" the elder asked.
"Since you got into that room, I've been feeling something off with you, even if the other changelings don't." The elder tilted her head in response. "You're an elder," the changeling whispered.
"An elder?" Cranberry let out a few mocking laughs. "I scoff at the notion. Now, please leave me be. I have a few other things to tend to, like finding--"
Cranberry was grabbed by the shoulder and pulled to an empty classroom whose windows had been fully covered, preventing any light from coming through.
"This room is used by Twilight Sparkle during her classes on astrology and astronomy, so we should be safe here," she insisted.
Whilst the changeling looked around the classroom to be absolutely sure of her claims, Cranberry was left to watch her. "I don't know what your obsession is, changeling. I'm not an 'elder'.
The blue and hot pink changeling looked at Cranberry from over her shoulder and rolled her eyes, head, and groaned loudly. She became engulfed in blue flames that switch to hot pink when they dissipated, revealing a queen from yet another hive. Her blue hair wrapped around her head and neck like a helmet. Her forelegs were reinforced by a thicker layer of chitin while her hind legs were more muscular than the rest of her body. The wrap around her body was blue from the top but gradually transitioned to hot-pink at the belly. Her wings and wing covers followed suit with the transitioning, but it depended fully on the angle at which one looked at them. They were usually a full blue but reflected hot-pink for certain portions at certain angles. The wing covers in question stretched from her back to her rear, completely replacing her tail. Her face was much more narrow than the usual changeling queen, and her maw was accentuated by fangs not only coming from the top, but the bottom as well. All her colors glowed in the dark, although the elder assumed it was just for 'show' in the current situation.
To 'Cranberry', it appeared that this queen was actively shrinking them in front of her so as to better talk. The new queen looked particularly angry.
"I am Mesosoma," she said, "And I want to know exactly WHAT you're doing here!" Cranberry snorted in response. "I know you're the elder. Only queens can sense the pheromones of others queens."
The elder conceded and revealed her bizarre shape in a cloud of smoke. "I didn't think I would meet any other queens, especially not here," the elder remarked with a smile.
Mesosoma's anger turned to confusion as she eyed the queen head to hoof. "Wh-what? You're not the elder of my hive." She stared, mouth agape, at the elder. Said elder queen moved her hoof, asking the queen to proceed. "Who are you?" Mesosoma asked in a whisper-yell.
"I am an elder of another hive."
"I didn't know there were other hives! That''s impossible." The blue-pink queen grabbed her head and started mumbling to herself.
The elder heaved a heavy sigh. "Yes, there are others," she stated in a bored tone. "I simply didn't imagine another would be here to learn about Thorax and his hive and a way to get rid of them for their treachery against changeling kind..." She raised a brow. "Although I do find it strange that you would say you didn't know of other hives and yet knew of the Abstergo Changelings."
Mesosoma looked at the elder with squinted eyes and pure confusion. "Abstergo? What?" She shook her head. "Let me focus...You said you're here to take them DOWN?" The elder nodded in response. "Why?" the queen asked.
"I told you: Their crimes against changeling kind."
"But I'm not here to take them out. I'm here to learn about how they feed without infiltrating anywhere and learn from that."
The elder's muscles tensed up, and the blue-pink queen felt her body locking up in response.
The elder glared at the blue-pink queen. "What," she spoke in a deep and appalled voice.
"Wh-why shouldn't we? They're no longer famished. They don't have to scrounge by just to eat! It's survival! If we stick to our traditions, then my brood will die out!"
"It's not a question of 'tradition'. Tradition is made to adapt to new times," the elder explained quietly. "It's a question of principles. Of concept. Of changeling identity." She poked Mesosoma hard in the chest. "You're betraying that principle by becoming like the Abstergo changelings, and if you reveal yourselves, you'll prove that other hives exist, and we'll all be found."
"So what? Maybe you should all learn to live like this. We'd never go hungry ever again nor would we need to move from place-to-place constantly. What my ancestors WANT is not relevant to what we NEED."
The elder cackled. "And what about the hives that don't accept that idea? That fight against it? What then?"
Mesosoma averted her gaze. "Then it will be a fight between progress and stagnation." She looked at the elder, catching her off guard. "That's what you want, no? The fight between old and new. Which one is right and wrong?" She sighed and looked down. "I just want to be able to sleep knowing that we won't go hungry the next day. That we don't need to be on full alert every day and night for predators and other threats."
The elder remained silent for a moment. "Then you need to destroy the abstergo changelings. They are a threat to our way of life and may very well cause our extinction in the future." The elder frowned. She looked at a drawn image of a constellation attached to a class wall and relaxed herself a bit.