Nearly seven years have passed since Arachnis was “born”. In that time, he had his fair share of ups and downs in his life. He cherishes small memories such as his first words and learning to walk, and even bigger memories for him such as his first spell and learning to hone his intangibility and invisibility. Despite combat being his true purpose, Chrysalis was almost reluctant in letting her son practice magic and train for extended periods of time, even though Arachnis was quickly becoming the second strongest in the hive, even without his magic. Despite this, he still had the three zeta changelings as his bodyguards, and they still take their job very seriously. With all this power as royalty, one might’ve thought that Arachnis had a big ego and an even bigger mouth. In fact he was quite the opposite. He was quite silent, and oftentimes used his strength and magic for many things in his life, from making food to sparring with changelings, which he did a lot.
As of now, he was having breakfast with his mother. Chrysalis usually didn’t eat the foods that ponies ate, mostly because she didn’t have easy access to it, but she stocked up in advance for her child, who was eating a pancake with a plate of eggs at its side. “So, how’s your magic coming along?” Chrysalis asked. “It’s been fine I guess. Only real interesting thing I’ve learned recently is copy magic, and I haven’t even mastered it yet so it still has its limits with me.” Arachnis responded. “I’m sure with time, you’ll get it down.” Chrysalis said, in an attempt to get some emotion out of Arachnis’ words. He often spoke in a dry and cold voice, but he didn’t do this as much around his mother. “Yeah, I guess.” He said blankly.
Arachnis’ horn flared with red energy and a portal materialized behind him. He gave a lifeless farewell to Chrysalis before walking into it. On the other side, he appeared in the main room of the hive. All the other changelings in the area bowed to him and cleared a path for him. He hadn’t even waked a whole yard before his three bodyguards surrounded him. Arachnis’ temper had already flared. “I thought I told you three I could take care of myself!” He yelled. The eldest of the three, Zoey, came to his side. “But this is our jobs, your highness. We would bring dishonor upon ourselves if we did not do as we were told.” She said. The second eldest, Zane, joined the conversation. “Older sis is right Prince Arachnis. If we didn’t do this, we’d be goners!” He said with a dramatic tone. Arachnis almost wanted to show them what being a goner really felt like, but he had only just eaten, and did not feel like exerting more energy than he needed. One thing he did find odd was that the youngest of his protective trio, Zack, was silent. He suddenly stopped and looked toward the crowd that was making way for their prince. Arachnis, Zoey and Zane all looked back to see him focused on on a singular changeling.
“I remember you. You’re the one that snarled at the prince after the queen made some changes three weeks ago. I can tell by the pattern on your wings. Now you face the ultimate punishment!”. He flew over and began to constrict the changeling, stabbing his trident into his hind hooves to keep him still. Zoey and Zane both flew over and helped in jumping the poor changeling, spouting words like “For the prince!” and “You are subordinate to him.”. Arachnis saw this as an opportunity, and went invisible. Unseen by his three overprotective obsessors, he quickly left to practice his magic.
Arachnid now stood at the outskirts of the hive, where there was a great forest but with mostly dead trees. He scanned his surroundings, as this was where he went when he needed privacy. He had come here on many occasions to make the half dead trunks his lab rats. He explored the dead biome until he came across the biggest structure of wood he could find, and readied his magic. He closed his eyes and focused deeply on the dead tree, and a jolt of electricity shot from his horn, and burned right through the dead tree. Seconds later, and it was up in flames. Arachnis focused on the tree again and it was surrounded in a red aura. Suddenly the tree started to freeze, with ice growing on it until it was completely suspended in ice. Arachnis then stomped his hoof, and the ice shattered. The tree now had burn marks and traces of frozen liquid all over it, and Arachnis was going to try a shrinking spell when he scanned his surroundings again, and saw Chrysalis atop the balcony of her room.
Curiosity punctured Arachnis’ train of thought like a needle, and he made use of another one of his attributes. As part changeling, he had the natural ability to climb walls and ceilings. While he never used this ability much, it came in handy in some cases, like now. Arachnis sprinted up the outside walls of the hive, and leaped to the balcony, which startled his mother. “Oh my! You scared me Arachnis. Did you want something?” She asked.
“Well, I saw you up here, and I got curious, nothing more.” He responded. “Y’know I saw you practicing your magic. You’re definitely getting better.” She said while looking to Arachnis, who had his eyes glued to the now setting sun. “I came out there to be alone. It’s just those three clingy ass zetas! They don’t know how to take a hint.” Arachnis explained. Chrysalis began to stroke her son’s mane. “I know they can be a bit clingy, but they hold you to such a high regard. You’re their prince. And they’re just as immature as most changelings are, including you.” She said with a laugh. Arachnis gave a mean look to Chrysalis and said “Haha, very funny, mom”.
Chrysalis bent down to her kin and pecked his forehead with a kiss. “I’m going back inside now. I have to head to the breeding center. Mother loves you, Arachnis.” She said as she walked inside. Arachnis waited until she was out of earshot, and said to himself, “I…love you too, mother.”. The moon arose, and he smiled to himself.