I was currently living in a strange duality of life. At ‘night’ I would spend my time in the changeling hive and during the ‘day’ I would talk with the lawyer or real estate agent.
I found myself quickly becoming attached to the buggers same as I had with the ponies. They were adorably stupid since apparently even though they all had access to the hive mind most lings didn’t have the brainpower to make use of it as it would waste love energy.
Currently I was teaching a group of drones to play cards. I had felt bad that they had practically no entertainment in the hive.
“Go fish Digger.” The ling drew a card with a happy smile. Most of the lower drones had no names, only numbers but they had started naming themselves lately. Though they could probably use some advice. “your turn shovel.” They had been picking random names related to their jobs in the hive.
“Got any fives?” She smiled and pointed at another ling playing cards with us.
“I do have a five, here.” His goofy grin never leaving his face as they traded cards.
The little buggers really were cute and that’s why it made me angry when I thought of how chrysalis treated them.She may be a queen but she’s definitely a mad one. I made sure to share some love with them when I was around since I had an almost unlimited supply, being that I was human underneath.
“Good job you two you all have really gotten a hang of the game maybe we can try rummy next.” I wasn’t going to teach them betting games just yet considering they had nothing to bet with.
“And what exactly is going on here!?” Queen Chrysalis stepped into the tunnel my small group was hanging out it.
“Run it’s the queen.” Every ling quickly scattered, except for myself.
“Four zero four. I see you are back.” The queen hissed. She had given up attacking me on sight after the third try since I couldn’t die though that didn’t stop her from eventually killing me.
“Oh, hi Chrissy.” I smiled and waved at her while using my magic to gather up the cards, I had been practicing after that first night and it was a really fun distraction. “Want to play cards?”
“No. I do not want to play cards.” She stomped forward. “I want. You to stop interfering with my hive.”
“No can do. You buggers are just too cute. Especially you your majesty.” I gave her a wink. For an equine she did have a dark allure to her, plus she could transform into anything which had some implications.
“Grr. I know I can’t permanently kill you but that doesn’t mean I can’t torture you first.” She lit her horn.
I quickly stepped forward and licked her check and shared a bit of love with her as I did so. “Where’s the fun in that?”
She quickly blasted me and killed me off.
Queen Chrysalis glared at the fresh scorch mark where Four zero four once stood. She was getting better at remembering things about them whenever they disappeared but it used up much of the hive mind’s resources. The only reason she bothered was because four zero four always donated vast amounts of love energy whenever they visited and it was a boon for the hive. “Why must that changeling be so annoying.”
She rubbed her cheek with a blush then shook her head and stomped off to continue her inspection of the hive. She needed to make sure her drones weren’t goofing off playing one of the games that Four zero four brought.
I woke up feeling well rested and took a stretch. Chrissy had blasted me well into the Equis evening so I wasn’t up much earlier than normal.
Currently I was back to sleeping at the farm after moving most of my stuff the past few days. My inventory was a godsend.
After my morning routine my mood began to turn sour again. There were still funeral arrangements to make and lately our youngest brother had been making things difficult with the inheritance. While we had managed to contact him he had yet to come into town so getting him to sign paperwork was like pulling teeth, without any anesthetic.
“Why does that ass have to be so difficult.”I sighed and began making breakfast.
Word of our parents death had begun traveling through the patrons of the farm and most of them had been accommodating when we told them we would be shutting down around the days of the actual funeral but they were welcome to ride any other day as normal.
My sister and I had been debating canceling the other events in their honor this year, such as pumpkin and apple picking, but the farm and our employees couldn’t afford to take that time off. “I always forgot how much work really went into this place even with the hired help.”
As I sat down to eat my breakfast I began going over another stack of paperwork for the day. It was going to be a long one.
Twilight slumped over in her desk. For the past few days she had been collecting reports of the mysteriously missing pony that nopony could quite remember. Pinkie had the most and most useless information out of every pony. “How does she know this ponies favorite cake flavor is angel food cake but not their name or cutie mark!”
Twilight face planted onto the desk’s top. “And Applejack knows they own a farm but not where or what they grow.” She turned her face and rubbed her cheek on the cool wood, blowing out a puff of air so her notebook page turned.
“Not even Discord can find anything about this mysterious pony. Heck I can’t even be sure it’s a pony.”
“Twilight are you still awake?” Spike yelled from the top of the stairs.
“Yeah Spike. I’ll be up in a minute.” Twilight stood upand stretched while taking one last look at her notes. She hated having two mysteries.
The day had dragged on just as I feared but I had made progress. Thanks to the current housing market my house was already getting offers and it wasn’t even officially for sale yet. Not only that but my brother had finally signed the paperwork so the transfer of the farm to my name was officially in the works. “I’ll still have to buy out my siblings but the house sale should just barely cover it.”
While I loved both my siblings dearly my brother was much to flaky to keep the place running and my sister couldn’t just uproot her own family to take it over. I still wondered if I was making the right decision but when I looked outside at the farmland, it became clear I was.
There is another good reason to move out of the city, my newfound powers. I held up my hand before concentrating and turning it into a hoof after a flash of blue fire. It turned out that my human form could do whatever my Equestrian body could do which now included both my Changeling and Earth pony magic.
Changing my hand back, I pointed my finger at the sink and a few of the dishes were enveloped in my blue magic and floated into the dishwasher. “That will never get old.”
The first time I had used my powers I did receive a warning.
‘Caution: Due to Earths stagnant magical field powers may be weaker on earth.
Note: As you use your powers and loosen up Earth’s magical field it will effect the local environment.’
I’m a bit wary of bringing magic to the city.
When I dropped back into the hive I reconnected to the hive mind and shouted “Hello every ling!”
I got hundreds of replies and immediately started roaming the halls to avoid Chrissy. I had thought about switching back to my pony form and visiting Ponyville but my heart just wasn’t ready for their brand of friendship.
“Hey Four oh four.” Chitin waved me over, she was one of the love collectors.
“Hey love bug. Good haul?” I bumped her side and gave her some family love. The hive was very accepting of their own especially if you could deal with being aggressive, friendly, and aggressively friendly. It was an odd combination and I suspected why they couldn’t get along with ponies since they couldn’t deal with the aggressive part.
“Decent.” She hissed. “Thanks for the top off. So question for you, are you a royal?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Did Chrissy put you up to asking?”
“The queen? No, you’re the only one around here that has a mane and eyes like the queen and she hasn’t disposed of you yet.” She shrugged. “I was just going to ask you to be my mate next cycle if you were.”
Changelings didn’t do marriage, a male and female changeling or a female changeling with a male of another species, would have sex to produce eggs that would then be managed by the hive. It was their way to keep up the genetic diversity, Chrysalis actually refused to participate.
“Wow I’m flattered.” I wasn’t quite sure how else to respond.
“That a yes?” She punched my shoulder.
“Um sure. If I’m around why not.” I nodded and decided it would be a good chance to get away.
As I was once again meandering around the hive spreading some love Chrissy found me.
“You.” She stomped over to me.
“Me.” I nodded and decided this time I would blast her, it wasn’t an instant kill but pushed her back.
“What?” She blinked a few times, stunned.
“I’ve been practicing.” I took a fighting stance.
She ran towards me and fired off her own beam. A few changelings watched as we traded blasts and began betting on the outcome.
“Five rocks on the queen.” One bug shouted.
“Suckers bet… twenty pebbles on Four oh four.” The two hoof bumped.
The two of us probably only lasted ten minutes before we were both breathing heavily. I may not have had as much practice but I knew the hive had a love shortage so she couldn’t bring out her full power while starving.
“You know Chrissy, you don’t have~ to blast me on sight.” I huffed.
“Of course I do, you’re corrupting my hive. My changelings are supposed to be warriors but lately I catch them exchanging hugs. Hugs! Of all things.” She growled.
“Hugs are nice, and filling.” A random ling shouted out then hid when the queen shot a look that direction.
I slowly stepped over to her and gave her a nuzzle. “Why so angry all the time when we could produce our own love?” I quietly asked.
“You wouldn’t understand.” She replied then blasted me.
When I woke up in my bed I blinked a few times then got comfortable. Dying was no longer a stranger and wasn’t as bad as the first few times. I wonder what she meant. I got myself comfortable and fell back into a dreamless sleep.