//------------------------------//
// 4 - Dimensional Theory 
// Story: Adopt-a-Hive 
// by DreamCloud 
//------------------------------//

Maul, Grift, and I arrive at the throne room to wait for Skitter and Fractal. Unfortunately, Echo was already asleep for the night, and I didn't want to bother her considering that she was "on the job", as it were.

Taking their seats at one of the conference tables, Maul began talking to Grift about the schedule he's come up with for them for patrolling the hive's remaining exit tunnels.

Ignoring them for the moment, I walk up to the base of the throne feeling slightly conflicted. I know I'm queen now, so it's where I'm supposed to sit, but even so, it feels wrong. I've already decided to commit myself to being everything that Chrysalis wasn't for the hive, and a simple chair won't change that; in the end, though, it's still a painful reminder of the past, and, as shown by Grift's first reaction to me, some wounds haven't healed.

Glaring at the throne as if it contained the ghost of Chrysalis itself, I back away and turn around, grabbing a free chair and sitting down across from the other two changelings.

Grift looks over in surprise, saying, "My Queen, you're sitting here?," then quickly stuttering out, "N-not that I'm saying—"

I cut him off by raising a hoof and saying, "There are some things that I've decided to do differently as queen compared to previous regents; in this case, it's not treating everyon–everyling below me like dirt. I don't want to be feared like that, and the throne radiates those intentions."

I give it a side glance of indignation, "In fact, I wish I could get rid of it."

They both went silent at this, Maul giving me an unreadable look and Grift staring at me in awe.

Finally, Maul says, "I'm fairly certain you can, I know Chrysalis had added and removed rooms before."

"Really? I guess it would make sense if I could, this is in my head, after all," I say, looking back at it. I briefly try some mental experiments, willing it to vanish, but nothing happens.

Begone, chair!, I think at it with a command.

...No dice.

Maybe I'm thinking about it in the wrong way, similar to when I was having trouble with learning to transform.

Closing my eyes, I instead mentally "felt" the area around me. Slowly, enough at first that I thought I might have been just imagining it, a layout began to form in my mind. Focusing on the throne room, I feel for the throne itself, and, once it seems like I have it, remove it from the mind-map.

Hearing Grift softly gasp from behind me, I open my eyes back up and see that it had actually worked; the throne has disappeared and the space it covered is now just a flat floor.

"Oh yeah," I say to myself, grinning, "I'm going to enjoy messing with this." Base-builder game mechanics always were my favorite parts of the games that allowed such customization. 

Already thinking furiously of the possibilities, I manage to hold myself back from doing anything drastic and instead just create a round wooden table surrounded by soft cushions where the throne used to be. When there's more time and less important things to worry about, I am so making some thorough changes to this place.

"Come on, let's meet over here instead," I say, motioning for them to follow, "It sure beats sitting on those hard rocks, anyway." 

Maul made to move right away, but Grift just sits there in stunned silence until Maul nudges him out of his stupor. 

Having just taken a seat at the new table myself, I couldn't help but giggle at Grift's antics as he cautiously eyes the new cushions like they were going to fly away if startled. When he finally sits down, though, a sigh of relief escapes his lips and a look of absolute contentment washes across his features.

Good timing too, for as soon as we all settle down at the new table, Skitter and Fractal materialize nearby, the former appearing deep in thought.

"Where's the throne?" Fractal asks, looking around the room in confusion, "Is it gone?"

The question brings Skitter out of her musing, "Hmm? Oh, you're right, it's not here," then upon noticing us at the new table, "Good evening, My Queen, doing a little redecorating?"

"You could say that," I say, "and there's more to come in the future."

While Skitter walks over to an empty cushion, Fractal quickly bounds over to me and bows, "Hello, My Queen! My name is Fractal." Looking back up, she smiles.

Matching her smile with my own, I say, "Hey, Fractal, it's nice to finally meet you. Maul tells me that you're studying the wards in the outer tunnels; is that going well?"

Her face scrunches up in a pout, "I'm making some progress, but it's slow work," then with a look of determination, "I know that I'll be able to crack it eventually though. It's supposed to be one of the easier enchantments I was meant to learn, anyway."

"That's good, I'd like to talk to you about that at some point in the next couple of days, but for now, we have other things to discuss as a hive. Feel free to take whatever seat."

"Um..." she hesitates, "I was wondering..."

"What's that?" I ask, giving her a curious look.

"Can I hug you?", she finishes, gazing up at me adorably. 

Letting out a small laugh, I reply, "Well, I can't say no to a face like that; sure, why not?" I hold out a forehoof and motion for her, and, with a happy squeak, she jumps into my hug.

Glancing slightly at the others, I see Maul sitting there as his usual stoic self with no reaction; though, I'm pretty sure I can see the beginning of a small smile tugging at his lips. Grift, well... I think he's checked out for the night if that dumbfounded stare is anything to go by.

Skitter, however, is trying to be incredibly interested in the wall over there, but the embarrassed blush covering most of her face betrays her true thoughts. Yeah, I think I know where this all started.

"Skitter was totally right," Fractal said quietly, "this feels amazing."

Called it.

She stayed there for a few more moments until finally disengaging with a grin and a "Thank you!", followed by flying over the table and sitting next to Skitter.

Clearing my throat, I start, "Now, Echo has currently turned in for the night, and I didn't want to bother her while she's out of the hive. I would have waited until tomorrow, but I'm going to be busy all day then; and really, this should be cleared up as soon as possible. One of you can get her up to speed later.

"So, Skitter, you were researching in the archives about the hive-mind and why it currently has a much larger range than normal?"

Nodding in confirmation, she says, "Yes, I've never had any reason to research it before now, so I was hoping there might be an easy answer for it, but..." she frowns, continuing, "it's been exceedingly difficult to find any relevant information about it in the archives."

"Well, sorry about this, but I'm about to make it even harder for you," I say, then clarifying before she can respond, "I'm not on your world."

"What?" she asks with wide-eyed confusion, "You're not on Equis?"

"That must be the name of your planet? Then, yes, I'm on a planet called Earth, and the only sapient species here is humanity." I say, then smirk, "Although, I guess that's not entirely true now because of me.

"And before you ask, yes, I'm completely sure. We have mapped out every landmass and have even been to space to confirm that; there's no continent of ponies here."

"But how is that possible?," she asks with a slightly distressed look, "I couldn't have gone that far in the dream realm before I found you."

"We have an alien queen," Fractal says to herself quietly with a grin, "that's awesome."

Maul looks over to Skitter and says, "Maybe the dream realm doesn't treat distance the same way we thought it does."

"Maybe, and for all we know, the distance might not even be a valid factor," she starts massaging her head with her hooves, "we know next to nothing about the dream realm, really; the scroll only told us how to get there to use the transference spell-stones."

Grift raises a hoof and asks, "So what does this all mean?"

"I already had a theory," I reply, "that rather than just being on different planets, we are in two different universes that happen to be parallel and share the same dream space. Building on that, though, if in the case that distance is a factor in the dream realm, maybe the distance between our universes is just very short."

Skitter looks up at me with a thoughtful expression, "I suppose, the theory seems sound," then sighs with a frown, "but every theory that we could come up with is just conjecture right now, at least until we can learn more, and I have the feeling that our small archive isn't going to hold the answer.

"In the end, what this means," she says, looking over to Grift, "is that our hive isn't going to have the physical presence of a queen for the foreseeable future."

The group mulls over that information for a bit before Fractal adds, "Well, at least we have a queen and a hive-mind now, right? It's more than what we could've said a week ago."

"That's true, and we should be thankful and not take that for granted," Skitter concedes, "But, regardless..."

Turning to me, she asks, "My Queen, with your permission, I'd like to go on a research trip to the pony city of Manehattan."

"What's in Manehatten?" I ask. Odd, that sounds suspiciously similar to Manhattan...

"It holds Equestria's second-largest library; if I want to find any answers, right now it's the best possible place to do so," she explains, "Of course, the absolute largest is in Canterlot, but I won't be going there for obvious reasons."

"Right," I say in agreement, "I have no problem with that, and it definitely sounds like a good idea. When you actually get there and start the research, I'd also like you to report your findings every night."

"Thank you, My Queen. I'll head out tomorrow after I go through the archives one last time in case I missed anything."

"Don't forget," Maul interjects, "You might have to travel above-ground on your way back, depending on how the wards are coming along."

She thinks for a moment, then says, "I won't be bringing back anything more than my notes, so that shouldn't be a big issue."

A contemplative silence follows, as no one else had anything more to say on the matter, giving me some time to start sorting my thoughts out—

"So, are we going to have a second hive on your world, then?" Fractal suddenly asks me, tilting her head.

"Uh...what?" I manage to stumble out, caught off-guard by her question.

"If you aren't going to be here any time soon, that means all the new changelings will be born over there, and they've got to have a hive to grow up in." Fractal finishes, oblivious to my growing discomfort.

"New changelings... probably wouldn't be a good idea at the moment," I nervously chuckle, guessing at what she's getting at, "I mean, I'm in the middle of a big city, there's not really any safe places to plop down a hive, heh.

"And," I hastily continue, a thought occurring to me, "I'm the only changeling here, so it's not like it's really possible to have any new changelings." That seems like a good enough excuse—

"Oh, changelings don't reproduce through insemination," Skitter brings up, "instead, similar to many insect species, the queen lays all the eggs to populate the hive."

"I see, how... convenient," I say with a barely contained grimace.

"Though technically," she adds, "drones can lay eggs too, but we're not really built for that; doing so more than once is very damaging to the body."

"Ouch," I wince, "I can see why you'd need a queen, then."

"Among other reasons..." she nods, then continues, "We will need to sort out the secondary-hive issue sooner rather than later because, for you, laying eggs isn't completely voluntary. As a queen, the natural processes of your body will notice the absence of drones and will work to fix that."

"Seriously?" I whine, putting my head in my hooves, "Can I at least delay it somehow?"

"I'm pretty sure that abstaining from consuming emotions will make the body prioritize energy preservation, but," she holds up her hole-riddled leg, "having your fire literally eat your limbs to sustain it is not a pleasurable experience; I wouldn't recommend it."

"Damn..." I mutter as I look down at my own smooth legs and imagine them also covered in holes, "So what's the limit; how many eggs do I have to lay before it's no longer automatic?"

"I don't know," she slowly says, thinking, "Chrysalis was always on a schedule of four to five eggs every other week, but I think that was intentional for increasing the size of the invasion force."

Maul growls under his breath, "And that's where most of the energy reserves always went."

"So what am I supposed to do? I live in a small, one-bedroom apartment that's in a highly-populated area while currently holding a nine-to-five job—I assume they'll need constant attention just like any other children, and it's literally just me here alone, can't hire a nanny—I'd have to beg my boss to let me work from home permanently, something that he's never really liked to allow outside of emergencies, or I'd have to quit. Sure, I have a decent amount in savings, but that's not going to last long with how much the average rent is in this area, so inevitably I'd have to move anyway—Holy Shit, the process of moving out is already a nightmare within itself, now I have to throw in the impossible task of smuggling out a bunch of young changelings without anyone noticing. Then my family is going to wonder why I uprooted my life, ended my career, and disappeared while giving no warning—" 

My frantic rant was suddenly cut off as I felt Fractal gently hug me from the side; I must have not noticed her move when I was distracted by the impending doom of being a parent. I sigh, slowly coming back from the madness I had been waging upon myself and leaning into her hug, returning it.

"You're not alone," she quietly says, "not anymore."

Holding back tears, I reply, "Thank you."

We sit there like that for a while, until I remember that everyling is still here. Turning to them with an embarrassed look, I'm met with a mixture of concern and sadness.

Clearing my throat, I say, "Sorry—I think I'll just hold off on that for as long as I can, at least until I start getting... holes; It's probably for the best, anyway."

Skitter replies with a small smile, "Very well; and don't worry, we will figure this out together, no matter what. Perhaps I'll even get lucky and find everything we need in a couple of days of research."

I let out a sharp laugh, "Yeah, maybe, that would be nice," then, looking around to each of them, continue, "Anyway, let's call it a night here. I know I just slept the day away in a pod, but I need to make sure I don't mess up my sleep schedule for work."

"Very well, My Queen, and goodnight," Maul says with a small bow, "As always, we'll be here if you have need of us."

"Uh, same..." Grift says, mirroring him. They both get up and then disappear from the hive-mind.

"Me too," Skitter says with a chuckle, "I've got a long day of travel tomorrow, so I'll only be able to talk outside of the hive-mind then."

"Alright," I nod to her, "Sleep well, Skitter."

Thank you, My Queen; you as well," she says, then disappears.

It was then I realize that I was still holding on to Fractal like a teddy bear, and I mutter out, "S-so, um, I suppose I ought to get to bed, and I'm sure you need to also."

Fractal lets out a hum of agreement, but even so, neither of us moves. She then looks up and asks, "Would you like to have me for company tonight?"

My first reaction is to just say no thanks, but after I consider it more, I feel like sharing the night with someone would do me some good. It's something I never get to do, really.

"Actually, I think I'd like that; and, here..." I finally let her go and face toward a wall. Activating my editing-sense, I add a small den in the throne room that dips down a little with a half of it forming a bubble into the wall itself.

As we walk over to it, I say, "This is now the hive's cuddle lounge; its purpose, I think, is self-explanatory."

Giggling, she says, "I'm sure it'll be a popular place to hang out if those beds are as soft as they look." Jumping onto one of the giant cushions, she sighs in contentment.

I make my way down and lay next to her, slightly proud of how nice I managed to make the area feel. She rolls over into my embrace and, for the den's namesake, cuddles in the pleasant silence. A pang of longing hits me as I recognize how much I've always wanted this; to just merely bask in the presence of someone you care for and who cares for you in turn. It's a little jarring to acknowledge that I've only known them all for such a short period of time, but, despite that fact, the comfort I feel when I'm with them makes it all worth it, I think. 

What an odd thing it is that my reality has become.