In a flash of light, you appeared before an ominous yet rather cheerful mound that towered quite high. It was full of holes and had a large gaping entrance, all covered by beautiful flowers and greenery. Even around you, gardens were being well kept despite the outer area being a dry husk of a wasteland. Indeed, this was the changeling hive under Thorax’s rule. You stood there, and started sipping from the straw of the juice box as you thought internally to yourself out loud. “Ok, so that Neighsay guy said they are probably up to something, but what? This place is actually coming to look like a rather nice place for a giant termite hill.” You then put the juice box, half empty, into your bag. It’d be good to use to return home once you were finished.
But you did have to be careful, as you have only been inside once before during the time they moved back in. Who knows what they might be doing now, especially when they aren’t expecting company. You took a breath, and headed on inside.
Inside, you could see a network of tunnels and holes, along with sprawling large rooms between them. It looked like being inside yet outside, as everything was rather organic in its make. In the patches of sunlight coming from the outer walls, more greenery and flowers could be seen, and yet this isn’t what catches your eye. “Christ…” You could see many a colorful changeling, merrily giggling, having fun, and being generally merry, if a little pathetic. You also overheard such strange things such as “I tried throwing more sponges into the bath, but I didn’t feel any more relaxed” or “Being cool is really hard, y’know? I can only handle having so many ice packs on me before I get chilly. Maybe I should take a few off next time, right?”
For the most part, they seemed rather busy, so busy that they just didn’t notice you. Were you invisible? Or were they plotting something so hard that they failed to notice a foal in their midst? And if they were plotting, why did they seem as fucking stupid as Scrappy?
“Anon?” You hear from above. That voice, that pathetic voice. You look up to see the king of the color bugs, Thorax, hovering down in front of you “H-hey! Welcome to the hive!” He carefully lands in front of you, looking a little irked at your presence, but still generally friendly. “Didn’t expect to see you here… ever actually, but its very nice to see you”
Wut? “Why didn’t you never expect to see me here?” You say, noticing other changelings have finally started to take notice of you.
“Well, because, last time you were here, I could feel a lot of hate coming off of you. And erm, well, it was like you blamed me for what happened to the former queen leaving. Which, erm, I think was kind of a good thing because… Well… she was pretty evil and oh… erm…” As if he could sense a sudden anger in you from the mention of Chrysalis, he stopped in his words, and tried to be more inviting “Well, welcome to the hive… again. How may I help you?”
Indeed, you did have those feelings before, and perhaps you were still a might sensitive. But dammit, you had a lead now, and since Chrysalis was focused on you, there was no reason to worry about her for now until you could figure out a plan. “Well, I actually came here for business. Friendship school business”
“Oh? Oh!” A happy little smile formed on Thorax’s face when you said those words “You’ve been invited to Twilight’s new school? That's wonderful! I’m sure she’ll be able to help you with your… Your…“ Thorax stopped himself when he realized he was going to say “everything”, he really did feel that, most of all, your meaner demeanor and unhealthy obsessions were a detriment to your health. “Yeah! That’s great! And I’m glad you came to tell me too, as we ourselves are learning more about friendship everyday, and would not mind sharing it with you.”
Wut? Did he think you came to have some wimpy pow-wow or something? “Yeah, right. But I’m actually here for a reason. See, I heard you had a changeling prepped up to go to the school or something, and I’d like to meet him, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh! You want to meet your future classmate! That’s nice of you. Sure I can get Ocellus if you want. Erm, she’s a girl by the way.” Thorax mentions as he begins to flitter his wings.
Wut? “A girl? You mean, like, a queen?”
“What? Oh no no, she’s just a female changeling, Anon. That doesn’t make her a queen though, why would you think that?” He asks as he stops his wing movement, confused by your statement.
“Erm, well. Aren’t all the changelings boys? With the queen being a girl?” What is this nonsense? You don't remember any other girls.
“Uhhhhh, um. Anon, we always had girls in the hive, didn’t you know that? I mean, you had the hive in your basement for a long time, so I’m sure you noticed.” Thorax just looked really confused now, he couldn’t figure out how you could be so ignorant.
You start to laugh falsely, trying to downplay your mistake “HAHA! Right! Just messing with you, Thorax. Just a joke among friends, of course I knew, was just… A joke.” Holy fuck, how did you not notice?!
Thorax was even further confused “Aren’t jokes supposed to be funny?”
Ugh, you could feel the embarrassment run right through you, you just put your hoof to your face in shame. “C-can you just go get Ocellus, please?”
And Thorax could feel it, your embarrassment that is, and didn’t wish to push it further. “Right… I’ll go get her.” And with that, he flew off into one of the many holes of the hive.
You had female changelings the whole fucking time?! THE WHOLE TIME?! Females that you could have… No, wait, don’t get ahead of yourself. The changelings were a rather ugly sort aside from Chrysalis herself, and pretty dumb to boot, there was probably no way you’d fu-fu-fu-fu-fu…
As Thorax came back through the hole above, a gentle looking light blue bug, with soft eyes, followed behind. She was adorable, with a pink tail, and a pink head frilly… thing. Even her wings were cute. THAT’S OCELLUS?!
Thorax landed in front of you, and presented Ocellus to you with whimsy in his voice. “And here she is, your future classmate, Ocellus. I hope you both become fast friends!”
Ocellus looks to you with a childishly cute smile as she waves her hoof “Hey, Anon. It’s nice to see you again, I’m… actually surprised you remember me.”
Remember? How the fuck were you supposed to when you have never seen such adorable bugginess before?! HOW IS SHE SO CUTE?! “Oh, erm… Ahrm.” Be polite, Anon, she looks fragile. “I’m afraid I don’t, but I wouldn’t mind getting to know you now. Erm, Thorax, would you mind if I spoke to her alone? Y’know, ease things a bit for when we see each other again at the school?”
“Oh, um, ok! Ocellus, you don’t mind, right?” Thorax asks her
Ocellus shakes her head, still having that sweet smile “Not at all, if anything, this will help me further the friendship studies I’ve already been reading about. I’d love a chance to make friends with Anon, especially since he doesn’t remember me.” Huh, seems she didn’t seem hurt at all that you didn’t remember her… Weird, you’d think she would.
Thorax took his leave, leaving the two of you alone, though there were still other changelings about. It prompted her to invite you outside so you both could have a private chat. “So you’re going to Twilight’s school? That’s wonderful, Anon. I feel, personally, that there are so many more things to learn about friendship, more than what I can learn than just staying at the hive and reading about it.”
Man, she wasted no time in being adorably friendly. “Yeah, erm… you’re not hurt at all that I don’t remember you?”
She shook her head “Not at all, especially when you were dealing with so many other things at the time. But look, now we have a chance to not only be friends, but to be friends with so many others too! Isn’t that nice?” She said in a soft yet sickly sweet tone.
How could she be so nice and into friendship if she was down in your basement all that time? And even furthermore, being stuck with Chrysalis even before that. “Yeah, that sounds awesome. Though, I gotta ask, what got you so deep into wanting to go to the school in the first place?”
“Oh, um, a lot of things.” She looks up in the air and tilts her head as she starts to name things off “Being nice makes me feel better, having all kinds of friends seems nice, learning about the world around me is something I’ve always been interested in, and most of all…” She looks to you with a cheery smile “Knowing you, even from a distance, gave me a lot of courage to want to try.”
You? Wut? “Me? What did I do?”
“You managed to become friends with the queen, Anon. Ok, she’s sort of mean and really nasty, but you still managed to become her very first friend, which is incredible! I felt if you could make friends with her, maybe I could make friends with everycreature too!” She was really cheery about this. Hah, your own amazing abilities precede you.
“I mean, I am pretty great. Heh, glad I could help. Yeah, friendship is a pretty good thing, Ocellus, and I’m glad to have been an inspiration.” Yep, you were awesome and… wait, why is she blushing? “Ocellus? You ok?”
“Erm… um. Actually, I was thinking back…” She sat back, and started to shyly tap her hooves together “To when me and my sisters had a crush on you.”
WUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT?! THIS CUTE BUG, AND HER SISTERS, HAD A CRUSH ON YOU?! AS IN, MULTIPLE GIRLS?! “U-um, what do you mean?” You started to feel that familiar heat wash over you, did she still have a crush on you?
“Well, you were the only one to be friends with the Queen. And my sisters and I, I guess because we were the youngest, and kind of naive, kind of latched onto you and how cool you were. We were kind of always talking about how we could get close to you, and maybe, cuddle?”
You let out a huge breath of air, and started to slowly wheeze. “C-cuddle?”
“Mhmm, I remember you really liked to cuddle. Sometimes we thought about cuddling with you all at the same time, taking forms of things you found really nice.” She said.
GYAH! YOU COULD FEEL IT! THE MISSED OPPORTUNITY SHOOTING YOU TO DEATH WITH A MACHINE GUN! You felt dazed, your breath becoming heavier as you felt like crumbling right there. “A-all of you? A-at once?”
“Mhmm, we just wanted to make you feel really nice, and do whatever you asked us to. I-I mean, we also wanted to feed off you, but we still… Really wanted to be around you.” Ocellus said, her voice never becoming lustful, still retaining that soft innocence.
You were crumbling, you couldn’t handle this. You had multiple girls, MULTIPLE GIRLS, WHO COULD BECOME WHOEVER! WANTING TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD! HOW DID YOU NOT NOTICE?! NOOOOOOOOOOOO! FUCKING NO! DEAR GOD, PLEASE, NO! WHY DID YOU MISS OUT ON THIS?! “E-erm, w-would it be weird if I asked why you didn’t come to me sooner?”
“Oh, well, that’s easy. We were afraid the queen would do something really bad to us. She kind of seemed like she wanted you to be her and the captain’s friend only, so we never tried. Really, back then, I was kind of scared to do anything. Or talk to anycreature else, even when I was… erm… bad.”
G-G-GUH. You were losing it! You couldn’t hold it together! “W-what about now? D-do you still feel the same way?”
She shook her head “Not anymore, everything is different now. I only have a crush on friendship! And wanting to learn as many new things as I can. That’s why I can’t wait to go to school, and it's all thanks to you, Anon! It’s the same with you, right?” She looks to you, then gasps in fright “Anon?!”
You were down on the ground, your color dulled, your libido crushed by the giant rocks of missed opportunity. It was right there in front of you, and you somehow just did not notice it. “Death, come unto me, for those who hesitate are lost. What am I, but a man with a lust for the tender flesh of the female form, to indulge in the fruit of pleasure at least once, as I’d not be able until I come of age. My life is nothing, I am nothing, the world is nothing, all due to the faltering of one’s own mind. Here lies the fool, defeated by his own ignorance. Leave me, for I am done.” You say in a grim tone before slamming your face to the ground.
“Erm, Anon…” Ocellus looked left and right, confused at your sudden poetry, thinking you were trying something for class. “T-that was sudden. I-I don’t really get it, b-but it sounded very… Poetic? A-are you alright?”
You said nothing, you just laid there, looking dead.
“I-I’m going to get King Thorax now. Erm…” She couldn’t say anything else as she could feel a dread in your heart ever growing. She went back inside the hive to get Thorax for help.
“Diamond, forgive me, for I have sinned… Or just really wanted to, that one time, god… fucking… dammit!” You slam your head the moment Ocellus was out of earshot.
Sometime after, Ocellus and Thorax came back outside to check on you. By that time, you were already up, brushing yourself off and highly frustrated with the fact you missed out on harem sex. Still though, if it’s one thing you could say, the changelings weren’t up to anything bad. Ocellus herself just seemed like an eager if naive little bug girl who just wanted to be studious and learn about friendship even further than what she could learn here at the hive.
With that, your mission was complete. You apologized to Ocellus for your shambling demeanor, explaining to her that you were just tired. Something she agreed with given how she remembered how you had trouble waking up in the morning. Thorax however, now knowing you were ok, seemed pretty pleased that you and Ocellus hit it off, as he could sense nothing but an odd sense of joy from you when you looked at her. He offered you a drink, and extended an invitation to some feelings therapy like...thing. But you declined.
You found it weird, however, this Ocellus. Maybe it was her eyes, or maybe it was her tone, but you felt that had you not influenced her in any way at all, that she would be this shy and timid creature afraid to show her own face. If that was the case, you must have really been something to break her out of that shell.
It made you think, maybe more good things came out of your friendship with Chrysalis than you thought. Hell, it’s not like she would have been an actual character or anything whose shyness would have been broken by five other misfits and their misadventures or some shit like that. You really were a hero. But if that was the case…
Dammit Chrysalis, were you not inspired enough? Could you really not see it?
As for you, was that obsession coming over you again? Maybe, Scoots and the others really were right. You had already done so much good already. This refocus on Chrysalis could bring everything down, especially if she somehow manipulated you through this. You can’t, you can’t let yourself ruin what you’ve already managed to do. So you look to Ocellus, and give her a nod. “It was nice meeting you, Ocellus, and I really am glad I could help inspire you to want to make more friends. You stay awesome, alright?”
“Ok! Thank you, Anon! It was really nice getting a chance to know you, erm, again! Also, drink more liquids, ok? I got scared there, and if I’m correct, drinking lots of water helps ponies stay hydrated and healthy.” She said to you, still worried about your health.
“Y-yeah, I-I’ll remember that. T-take care, you two, seeya when I sees ya” You used the remaining juice you had to return home. Welp, he was wrong about the changelings. So no worries there. And that Ocellus, she was alright. But just remember Anon, you have a girl already, just stick with it.