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// A Chrysalis of White 
// Story: I Am a Pet Changeling 
// by Queen Sanguine Dreams 
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The base of Cheyenne mountain had become a completely alien landscape to the humans who were stationed there. Tall pillars of sticky dursine rose into the sky as hundreds of changeling drones buzzed and zipped across the area. Warrior drones had become accustomed to the soldiers that frequently visited and mingled with the Tunnelers and the Caretakers, and the Infiltrators had been perfecting their bipedal craft to the degree of a toddler taking their first steps. Impressive progress for only a month's time. However, not everything was quiet and scenic in Cheyenne mountain. The defective had been looking after Queen Catalyst the entire time, and its body had begun to change from a drone into something else entirely. 

Queen Blue Sun paced back and forth, her wings chittering with nervous energy as she monitored the bulbous cocoon in the main spire. The Defective had formed around Queen Catalyst, something she had never seen before or heard of. Blue had been worried that the Defective might be harming Catalyst somehow, but Doctor Vahlen assured her that the orange queen's life signs remained as stable as they had been for the last month. The Caretakers knew nothing, of course. The rest of the hive knew little else, and the six from Equestria had little experience with this kind of thing. It was only now, today, that any change had occurred. 

It began with a sharp crack followed by an oozing of cream colored slime from the top of the Defective's cocoon. Scientists and drones alike moved to study the phenomenon and they were met with the pale holed hoof of some new kind of drone breaking through the cocoon's walls. Every crack, crunch and snap broke off another piece of the hardened barrier between the Defective and the outside world. At least, Blue hoped that it was the Defective. A final tearing of fibers and a hiss of effort came from the cocoon, and a new kind of drone emerged. Its carapace was entirely white, so Blue suspected it might be the Defective from before, yet it was also... different.

It stood just under Blue's own height, roughly six feet or so, and shook its body to flick off slime and gunk from its cocoon. A lining of silver went along its chest and a stripe of blue color went down the center. The legs and hooves were unarmored, but the chest and neck had armoring just like a queen's own carapace. 

Blue's eyes narrowed in both curiosity and suspicion. Queen Catalyst was supposed to be inside of that cocoon as well, wasn't she?

The white defective held a hoof to its head. "Oh, for the sake of love, why does my head have to hurt this much?" The voice sounded female, that much was certain. She also spoke with the vibrations of a queen; two voices in one.

She turned to squint at Queen Blue Sun and wiped the cream colored slime from her eyes. "My Queen," the Defective smirked, "Is that you?"

Blue glanced at Doctor Vahlen, Doctor Shen, and the various other scientists and drones that had assembled. They equally gave pointed looks to the changeling queen and gestured to the defective.

"Go on, answer her!"

"Eh," Blue cleared her throat in a vain effort to get the metaphorical cobwebs to come loose, "Hello?" Great job, Blue. Very regal and queen-like.

The defective shook her leg and flicked more of the slime off of herself before walking towards Blue Sun. "I guess I have some explaining to do, don't I?"

"Wait, you knew what was happening?" Blue blinked in surprise, her earlier bafflement about what was going on having been replaced with the casual manner of speaking from the defective.

The newly morphed defective nodded, "I knew I had to do something to help Queen Catalyst, but I couldn't think of anything other than trying to feed her as much love as possible. It took me a while, but... I was able to talk with her for a few seconds each day. They were mostly mumbles and groans, but she knew she was dying."

Queen Blue's gaze moved over to the cocoon in the center of the spire, worried now that there wouldn't be a certain orange queen climbing her way out of it.

"When I got closer to Queen Catalyst, my hooves started oozing." She even held up a hoof for demonstration. "It was like I was compelled to get as close to her as possible, and before I knew it, my body was breaking down along side hers into chunks."

"Is she still alright?" Blue gestured with her head to point at the cocoon behind the defective. "I didn't see her leave."

The Defective shook her head, "I think we're the same changeling now, actually..." She tapped her head as emphasis, "It's really strange. On one half I want to speak with you like we're equals, and on the other it's all I can do to stop myself from kneeling in front of you every time I say something."

Doctor Vahlen was transcribing all of this down as quickly as she could. Even the changelings themselves had never encountered something like this in their species history. If she were able to accurately record it alongside the visual records of the cameras stationed throughout the base, this could be a gigantic breakthrough for not only Xenobiology, but science as a whole!

"My queen," the defective abruptly asked, "what do you call a queen and a defective that merge together? Is that like... a defective queen, or a queenly defective?"

Blue put one of her hooves into the air while looking as queenly as possible and proudly decreed, "I have absolutely no idea, but we'll think of something!"





Doctor Vahlen motioned with her pen towards a very large scanning device. "In through there, just stand as still as you can. This should only take a few moments."

The Defective, now standing much taller than a drone, assumed the same position as Queen Blue Sun had when it was her time to be scanned. "Like this?"

Vahlen nodded and began tapping buttons on her electronic notepad. "Yes. Doctor Shen, you may begin."

A flash of white light announced that the machine had turned on. A sweeping beam went over every inch of the Defective and recorded its findings onto the local computers in the room. After roughly an hour of intense boredom from being forced to stand in the same spot as still as it possibly could, the Defective was released.

"I will have a report in a week or so, should you be interested in receiving a copy," Vahlen mentioned to the Defective. "Come back tomorrow for more tests and studies."

The large white changeling nodded and quickly thanked the doctor for her help.






Date: Redacted
Location: Redacted Redacted
Codename: Ripley
Subject: Changeling listed as 'Defective'
Project Lead: Dr. Moira Vahlen
Project Assistance: Dr. Shen, Consultant Twilight Sparkle

Preface: Having emerged from a cocoon barely twenty-four hours ago, 'the defective', now identified as female, presents an entirely new evolution of changeling biology. Judging from Queen Blue Sun's hive having no collective memory or knowledge of this development occurring before, it is safe to say that this unexpected outcome could be seen as a blessing in disguise for us. I can only imagine how this would have affected the war with Queen Chrysalis, were this discovery to be made with her hive instead of 'ours'.

Subject: 'Defective'
Classification: 'Empress', for lack of a better term
Coloration: White carapace with blue eyes. White wings, blue vertical stripe along chest chitin. Chitin is silver in color. A flowing mane of silver with streaks of blue that fall down to shoulder height.
Height: 1.85 Meters
Weight: 80 Kilograms
Gender: Female

Queen Blue Sun had spoken previously of a 'third stage' to the development of a Queen's body. A proto-queen, the queen, and a mystery. As far as can be seen, the 'Empress' is the third stage of a queen's evolution. The Defective, referred to as 'Deffy' from this point forward, is capable of laying eggs. She is also capable of refining 'love' to a more potent and solid form. This new material is as durable as steel, a vibrant pink in color, and is easily shaped by Deffy's magic. 

As for Queen Catalyst's disappearance, it seems that Deffy and the orange changeling queen have fused together. Presumably this occurrence is a natural progression of the changeling hive's life cycle. The 'Defective' variant of changeling comes from the Caretaker sub-species. It then drains the hive's storage of 'love', as well as the other drones in the hive, causing the queen to become weakened and vulnerable. At that point, the Defective and the Queen of the hive fuse together in order to become a new hive. All of the love previously drained is refined into solid form. An entire nest of eggs can be hatched, in addition to the grubs being nourished, by a thimble of this newly refined material. It is unknown if the appearance of a 'Defective' is related to the amount of love currently stored, or the amount of changelings present in the hive. 

The material behaves closer to uranium, in that it emits a low-level radiation that changelings are sensitive to. Those few humans that were in close proximity to this material report feelings of bliss and contentment. It is not recommended to remain near this 'refined love' for longer than a single minute, as humans exposed to this radiation for extended periods eventually fall asleep. It is unknown at this time if the radiation emitted by 'refined love' is addictive or harmful to the human body.

Changelings exposed to this concentrated material seem to be quickly sated and become lazy, almost sluggish. Queen Blue Sun has consulted with her advisers and implemented new additions to her hive to lessen the drop of productivity introduced by the material. Possible uses of weaponizing the material are being discussed and theorized as of the publication of this report.

The Empress' body is armored in a similar manner to the Queen. The chest appears to serve a more decorative function than protective. Deffy has a crown of her own, similar to a Queen, with a wider crest and a flowing mane of silver with streaks of blue. though Deffy shows a strong ability in the use of 'magic' as discovered by our alien consultant, Twilight Sparkle.

Strong shielding; strong ability to manipulate objects and to project bolts of white-blue plasma; extremely high control of magic relating to the manipulation of mind, and of communication. 

Deffy appears to have absorbed, or perhaps retained, Queen Catalyst's ability to communicate via a hive mind. As of the publication of this report, Deffy has laid and hatched four eggs, each with an unexpected amount of ten changelings. No report has been made thus far, as these drones appear to be similar in function and ability as Queen Blue Sun's drones, excepting for the ability to operate via a collective hive mind.

For now, Deffy and Queen Blue Sun appear to maintain a special alliance. It appears that Deffy's ability to produce eggs is at a much slower rate than Blue Sun, leading to possible implications that are noted by Twilight Sparkle:

"If Deffy and Queen Blue Sun are working together, this presents a very interesting difference between the changelings we've seen in Equestria. That's the place I'm from, by the way. In any case, I'm not sure which is a better path for changelings as a whole. In Equestria the changelings under King Thorax no longer need love, but they're socially lost. Here, with Queen Blue Sun, they look happier and more... at-ease? I think that's the best way of putting it." -Twilight Sparkle

In Conclusion, this new development could prove to be a global game-changer and the force multiplier we've been hoping for. I am confident that should this alliance between Deffy and Queen Blue Sun continue, that our conflict in the Asian theater should end in our favor, though I cannot speculate as to a definite end point.

-Doctor Moira Vahlen