//------------------------------//
// Larva 
// Story: You’ll Be Just Like Me 
// by RB_ 
//------------------------------//

"So, you excited to be going back to the hive?"

Ocellus finished folding her sheets and laid them neatly on the end of her bed. 

"Yeah, I guess," she said. "What about you, Smoulder?"

"Oh yeah," Smoulder said, her own screwed up bedsheets right where she'd left them waking up. "I can't wait to get back to The Dragon Lands. Rocks and fire as far as the eye can see. Perfect."

"Yona can never tell if Smoulder is being sarcastic about Dragon Lands," Yona said from her end of the room.

"And that's just the way I like it."

It was summer vacation time at The School of Friendship, and the students were preparing to head home for the break. The dorms were a bustling hub of activity, and residents kept passing by the open door to the trio's room with bags on their backs. Excited voices, muffled by distance and walls, filled the air.

Ocellus couldn't blame them. Personally, though, she'd rather be here, where things were... simpler.

"Yona can't wait to get back to Yakyakistan!" Yona said, stomping her belongings down so they'd fit in her trunk (and making the floor shake by doing so). “Yakyakistan best!”

Smoulder raised an eye-crest. "Yeah. I can tell." She turned to Ocellus' trunk, already closed and locked. "Are you all packed already?"

"Yep!" Ocellus chirped. "I got most of it done this morning. I keep my stuff pretty well organized, so it was easy!"

Smoulder grumbled. "Lucky you."

Silver Stream looked up from her own bags, which she'd been fixated on. "Are you sure you got everything? It doesn't hurt to double check! Here, let me take a look!"

She abruptly took to the air and swooped over to Ocellus' drawers and began opening each one.

"Nothing in here, nothing in here, nothing in here..." She pulled out the final drawer. "Nothing in... huh? What's all this?"

The other girls, their interests piqued, craned their necks to look. Inside the drawer was a collection of... well, of junk. Assorted papers, objects, and other things that would have passed as trash had been crammed inside, filling the entire space.

"Why do you have a bunch of garbage in your drawers?" Smoulder asked. "The trash can's right there."

"It's not garbage!" Ocellus said. She was smiling. "It's treasure!" 

She pushed her way past the others and rummaged inside. 

"This is a test that we all took together," she said, holding up a piece of paper (with an A on it, it was Ocellus), "and this is a baseball Gallus hit out into the stands in gym class! I had to do some crawling for that one. Oh, and Smoulder, this is that textbook you accidentally torched last month!"

"She's never going to let that one go," the resident dragon muttered.

"I didn't know you were such a hoarder, Ocellus!" Silverstream said. "Y'know, our princess is a hoarder too! She mostly just hoards seashells, though."

Ocellus blushed. "I just... like to keep reminders of all the fun times I've had with all of you, that's all."

"Aw! Ocellus sweet!" Yona swept Ocellus into a hug. Smoulder and Silverstream looked on, grinning.

"What are we hugging about?" came a voice from the door. They all turned to look. It was Sandbar, followed by Gallus, who had a duffle bag over his shoulder.

Ocellus disengaged from the hug and pushed the drawer closed with her hindleg. "Nothing in particular. Are you guys all packed?"

"Well, my parents live in Ponyville, so I didn't have to do much packing," Sandbar said. "But Gallus is all packed and ready for his internship with the royal guard!"

"Don't call it an internship," Gallus said, elbowing the colt.

"What do you want me to call it then?"

"Something cooler. Anything cooler."

"I can't wait to hear what Canterlot is like!" Silverstream said. "You're so lucky!"

"It's only because Headmare Twilight set it up," Gallus said, rubbing his elbow. "Not like I had anything better to do over the break."

"I'm happy for you, Gallus," Ocellus said, beaming. The conversation was good for her.

It was a distraction from the churning in her stomach at the thought of going home.







"Ocellus!"

Ocellus touched down at the entrance to the hive, her trunk in tow. She looked to the source of the voice and immediately bowed.

Thorax gave an awkward chuckle. "C'mon, you know you don't have to do that. Please don't… do that."

Ocellus rose out of her bow. "Sorry. Force of habit."

The hive was looking good, she thought, glancing around. Some greenery had been planted around the entrance, and banners had been hung. It looked inviting. Very different to how it had been just a few years before.

"Here, let me take your suitcase," Thorax said, enveloping the trunk in his magic. "I'll walk you to your parents'."

They headed into the hive. The interior was a bustling hub of activity, changelings of all colours going this way and that, walking or flying to their destinations. The hive was dense, structurally, full of twists and turns and rooms and chambers. It had been built that way on purpose, both to facilitate the changeling lifestyle and to confuse intruders. Deceit was in the changelings' very nature. Much like the entrance, though, it had been decorated and made welcoming.

Ocellus and Thorax made their way through the halls. Ocellus could feel their eyes on them, though she dared not look back. Instead, she focused on her king.

"The hive looks good," she said.

"Thank you," Thorax replied. "We've been putting a lot of effort into turning it into more of a home. Making it feel a little more friendly, you know?"

"Well it's working," Ocellus said with a smile.

A group of changelings bowed as they passed. Thorax did that awkward laugh again. "You don't have to do that, really."

"You are their king," Ocellus said.

"Yeah, but it doesn't feel right," Thorax said. "I'm only king because I was the first to share love. Before that I was just a normal drone."

"Drone or not, you're king now," Ocellus replied. "And I don't think any of us could ask for a better leader."

Thorax smiled. "Thank you, Ocellus. That means a lot."

They turned a corner.

"How is the school treating you?" Thorax asked.

"Great!" Ocellus chirped. "I love it there."

"And your friends?"

"Of course! I love all of them."

"That's wonderful! Ah, here we are."

They stopped outside of Ocellus' home, which was really just another chamber of the hive that they'd claimed. It had a door now; it hadn't before. Just a sloppy wooden one with a little window carved out.

"Well, I'd better go say hello to Elytra and Scute," Ocellus said, taking her trunk back from Thorax's magical grasp. "Thank you for walking me here."

"No problem," Thorax replied. "Oh, um, there was one other thing I wanted to ask you."

"Oh?"

"We, um..." he began. "We found another of Chrysalis' stashes hidden in the back tunnels of the hive."

Ocellus did her best to feign neutrality. "And?"

"I was hoping you would help us sort through it," Thorax said. "If you're okay with that, that is. After all, it is technically, y'know..."

He left the last word to Ocellus’ imagination.

"Sure," Ocellus said. "That'd be fine."

Thorax smiled. "Thank you. I'll come pick you up tomorrow. Now, go say hi to your parents for me."

"You know they aren't really my parents."

"I know," he said, with a pained expression. "But I hope you'll still think of them as family."

"I do."

"Good," he said, nodding. "Well, I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye Thorax!"

The larger changeling split his wing casing and took off into the air. Ocellus watched as he trailed off into the distance.

Sighing, she turned around and headed inside.