It was an hour before Chrysalis sat down next to Twilight atop the tower they ate on before. Twilight had been thinking and focusing and trying to figure out what was going on, but nothing seemed to fit together. Except one thing, really.
“You told me that I was a unique Changeling. Does that have something to do with the fact that I’m supposed to know her?” She asked her Queen.
“Simply put, it has everything to do with it. Or rather the other way around. I can’t tell you anything or even really imply much… It’s not to uphold some big secret, I assure you, but your mind is very unstable at the moment. In fact, the only thing that kept you sane before was your weak connection to me via the hive mind that is not yet developed. If I were to just out and tell you, your mind would be overloaded with information and everything all rushing in and back at once. The shock, combined with the clashing of your energies, would destroy your mind and possibly rip you apart.” Chrysalis explained. Twilight was worried by that, but something she had been thinking has to be answered.
“So, I’m not actually a Changeling… am I?” She asked. Chrysalis sighed and smiled at her.
“I was not lying when I said you are a full fledged Changeling. You are now, and there’s nothing either of us can do about that. Anything else is a truth you must find for yourself. For now, though, go ahead and do whatever you like. Explore, talk to your brothers and sisters, go find something fun to do or something like that. You made good progress in your tutorship today and you’ve been exposed to an incredible amount of confusion and stress, so you’ve earned a nice break. I will know where you are and I will let you know if I need our for anything. I expect you to be back in the chamber tonight and tomorrow morning I’ll let you choose which role you’d like to sample first.” Chrysalis answered and went on.
“But… I don’t know anything about this place, and my head is still swimming with questions and confusion.” Twilight retorted.
“Then all the more reason to go out on your own for a bit. Calm your head and have some fun, and you do know much about this place. You just need to focus your connection to the hive mind, or even just ask your brothers and sisters. You will know if they are available to talk on your own. Now go on.” Chrysalis retorted with a smile. Twilight didn’t move for a minute or two, but finally she got to her feet and disappeared back into the hive. Chrysalis sighed the kind of sigh you sigh when something incredibly big happens and you have no idea what to do about it.
Celestia was furious at first, in their contact between messengers, but in person she seemed much more calm and accepting of what happened. Exactly what happened was a mystery to Chrysalis herself, but what she did know Twilight would know when her connection to the hive mind develops in full. That was for another day, though. For now she had other things to think about. Things like being a full blown mentor to Twilight, like Celestia… she had no idea how to do that.
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Twilight had no idea if it was the heavily alcoholic beverage she had acquired almost instantaneously or the rush of thoughts right before, but after she left Chrysalis everything was sort of a blur. She remembered everything, but it was all mashed together and she couldn’t make heads or tails of some parts. She woke up the next morning in bed and her head wasn’t splitting, so it couldn’t have been the alcohol. She looked around and found Chrysalis at what could be called a desk with a bored expression.
“Good morning, Twilight Sparkle.” She said, her expression turning into a smile as she stood.
“Good morning, my Queen.” Twilight replied, standing as well. She was about to ask what Chrysalis was doing, but the queen spoke before she could.
“I’ve narrowed what roles you could fill down to five based on what I’ve gleaned of you so far and what I know from your developing connection. Those five are learning magic, working with gatherers, hunting and working with the soldiers and defenders. Ideally you will hone your changeling magic one day and then move on to a different task or role every day, which leaves a day of rest. Sometimes a role requires more than a day, though, and more than a few require a large commitment.” She explained. She handed a list to Twilight in which there were three columns. The first was the role, the second a location and the third a name or series of names.
“Those individuals will teach you what they can about that role and will oversee your work thusly. You may visit them and learn from them as you please, but remember my suggestion of the daily routines. This will be entirely up to you, though, except for your training with me. Now, my student, which would you choose for your first day?” She continued. Twilight looked at the list and thought on it for a little while, about a minute or so.
“I want to work with magic, but I feel that doing so the day after my training with you might lead to me being burned out. I will try hunting today.” Twilight said.
“Very well, You should know the way to where the hunters gather being their excursions.” Chrysalis replied with a smile. Twilight gave her a quick bow and made her way out of the chamber. Chrysalis smiled and and sat down on the one chair in the room. She closed her eyes and became one with her hive mind.
These lessons with the different roles would serve as an even deeper lesson than Twilight could ever imagine. It wouldn’t be until she figured out what that lesson was for her to truly be a Changeling. Chrysalis saw everything her Changelings saw, heard everything, felt everything. Most importantly, though, she was a little part of everything. She found her hunting party and there she waited.
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Twilight reached the small barracks chamber that she knew was where the hunting party gathered and entered without hesitation. There were four other Changelings there. They gave her a glance and then returned to managing equipment.
“I assume you know how to use this.” One of them, a female, said as she fluttered down from a high rack on her gossamer wings holding a large bow. It was nearly as tall as she was. She held it out to Twilight and she accepted it.
“I do.” She replied. The changeling woman nodded and pointed to a small pile of what at first seemed like extra equipment.
“You will find a quiver, tools needed to hunt, equipment for bringing back your kill and a pack to hold it all there. Organise it as you will, whatever is easiest for you. We leave when all members are ready so do not delay the hunt.” The woman continued. Twilight was about to ask for names, but something in the back of her mind told her that wouldn’t be best, at least not now.
She remembered hunting somewhere, but just barely, and all she remembered was a bow and the tools. She examined her equipment and was just slightly surprised to find that the massive longbow was in fact black wood and not organic material. The arrows were made of the material, though, and the arrowheads were part of the shaft and barbed.
She strapped the quiver on, which held seven arrows, so that it was nearly horizontal across her lower back. She realized that the bottom of the quiver was slightly adhesive, since the arrows didn’t move at all, which was quite useful while flying.
“The adhesive sticks to the head of the arrow and acts as a heavy anesthetic to anything but our own, like a tranquilizer.” The woman from before said without looking up from her work stringing her own bow. Twilight nodded and leaned the bow against the wall.
She looked at her tools and found a few identical knives, probably for preparing a kill, a much larger dagger, probably for defense, a few very large squares of folded paper-like leather and a set of hooks and pins to hold them together. They had to be for holding usable meat. There were also a few bottles holding sterilizing solution and two large canteens of water. The sterilizing solution was for cleaning the tools afterwards and the water was to drink and to clean your hands.
There was a black leather harness that had many rungs and slots to hold various sheaths and belts. She sheathed the hunting knives in similar black leather sheaths and put the four blades along her waist. The bowie knife she sheathed and placed onto a spot on the left side of her chest with the handle facing diagonally down. The pack leather she put into the larger pack and then gathered up the hooks and pins to put them together and put them into a pouch on the side. All of the sheaths for the daggers were lined with the same viscous adhesive as the quiver.
Twilight was pleased to find that she wasn’t the last to finish preparing, but the others had their own equipment on top of the essentials that was all she had. When they all finished within the next few minutes they all stood, grabbed their bows and with a soundless order they were in the air and out of a hole that opened up in the roof, leading directly outside.
Twilight was wondering how they would communicate as they flew, but she heard a series of clicks. She somehow knew to stop there, which was good since she would have smashed into a comrade should she have kept going.
“Do you see them, Twilight Sparkle?” The woman asked. Twilight looked and saw, amidst the blackened trees and leaves, what seemed like large felines with a spiked tail flailing about. There were three of them. She nodded and they all notched arrows on their bows, though the command was via another click. They refrained from drawing back, though. The woman, who was now obviously the leader of the party, looked Twilight in the eye and she was suddenly filled with an idea.
They would drop down in a dive to gain speed and then navigate through the forest around them as best they could. They would dash from one side of the clearing to the other taking shots when they could. With their speed they had a higher chance of missing, but Twilight had a feeling if they went slow then those spiked tails and massive teeth would go straight through her carapace.
The rush of information must have been the hive mind, at least that’s what Twilight thought. She nodded and without even a clicking command they all snapped their gossamer wings shut.
In unison they opened their wings and leveled out, scattering as they reached the trees. The Creatures were none the wiser, all they could hear was the wind and the slight buzzing noise that always came from the direction of the hive. Their heads perked up as the sound came closer, though.
The sound of something breaking through the dark leaves, a blur, a twang and a stinging pain was all that warned the things of their assailants. Five hunters means five shots a volley. The leader had pierced the eye of one creature, killing it instantly, and the other four had each hit the other two with their shots. One had three arrows in it and the third, which is the one Twilight singled out, had its tail pinned to the ground.
Before the dead creature had even hit the ground they were gone. Changeling defenders and soldiers may be the fighting force of the Changeling Hive, but even they had utmost respect for their brothers and sisters who were in the hunting parties. Their speed, precision and efficiency were unmatched. Twilight realized why whenever her plating was extended she seemed to receive respect, it matched those of her comrades. It was incredibly smooth and aerodynamic.
The creatures were ready for them now, and the one with a pinned tail had ripped it out of the ground with its jaws. The one with three arrows in it was drooping, though, the tranquilizing properties of the arrows taking effect. The hunters gathered in the tree for only a moment, long enough to convey a series of clicks from all five of them before they took to the air again.
The creatures noticed them this time, though, and turned towards them. They repeated the dive, although this time instead of them all dashing through the clearing taking shots two of them tackled the creatures as the other three took shots.
Pulling the bowie knife out of the chest holster, Twilight tackled the one she hit and, before it could react, shoved the blade into the temple of the beast. She flinched as the thing scrabbled at her with its claws, scratching and nearly puncturing the carapace on her back. Luckily its tail was limp on the ground from the arrow. With a grunt, she pushed the blade in further and twisted. The beast fell completely limp under her.
Before she could even think to pull the blade back out she heard a hiss from nearby. The other hunter that went in with her was pinned under the other beast. It was weakly trying to bite his face off, but he was holding it back with his forearms. She quickly drew her bow, which she had hung around herself, and let loose an arrow that stuck in the thing’s skull. It fell limp and the Changeling threw it aside. It nodded to her and she nodded back.
“Even when half asleep, Lashers are still dangerous…” The leader said, landing next to her kill. The other two hunters landed next to the injured one. One of them began tending to her injured comrade while the other began preparing the animal. Twilight removed her bowie knife and did the same.
In twenty minutes they were cleaning their hands and their blades with packs full of meat and pelts. The injured hunter, who had several punctured and cracks in the carapace of his forearms which bled black blood, had organic material covering them like a sort of bandage. The process was a bit sickening, or at least Twilight felt it should have been. The woman tending to him had seemingly vomited the material up, it was almost a liquid until it came into contact with the air. Its texture changed from viscous liquid to a malleable, almost taffy-like, texture in which she wrapped his forearms with. She knew that when his carapace reformed, he would simply chew the stuff off.
As they returned to the hunting chamber, they piled the carefully wrapped slabs and chunks into a neat stack and wrapped them up with a much larger patch of packing leather. Two of them proceeded to carry it off towards, what Twilight assumed was, one or many of the mess chambers to be prepared for their meals. Twilight returned all of her gear, but when she made to give the bow back to the leader the woman wouldn’t accept it.
“When a hunter scores a kill with a bow, that bow is theirs. You may continue to use the equipment you were given at will, but you have proven yourself a valiant hunter today. All of the skins from your kill and what you earned from your shared kill is yours. We have been gone for half of the day, but I understand that you would like to continue this role until the day closes. I will teach you how to make your arrows, the adhesive toxin and where to go to turn your skins into usable leather. Is this acceptable?” She explained.
“Yes, very much so. Thank you.” Twilight replied. Twilight remembered the name on the list, though it had eluded her until now. This Huntress’ name was Nictus. Nictus first explained and showed her the process of excreting the material, and then of how to properly shape it and the quick and easy way of forming the arrows from it.
The adhesive toxin was created by mixing a toxin, which was also produced inside of the body, with the organic material internally to create a tar-like substance. It was very difficult for Twilight to properly manipulate her internal glands necessary to do this, but after half an hour she was able to do it well enough. The adhesive toxin was then either pooled at the bottom of the quiver or added as an internal coating for the sheaths.
Twilight was strangely fascinated by all of the biology within her body she was just now learning about. It was around dinner time, though, so Nictus invited Twilight to join her. They ate their meals on the move as Nictus showed her the many places where she could take her skins, which were currently being stored in the hunting chamber, to be turned into leather. She could either take that leather to various places to be distributed or learn to make her own equipment from it.
The more time Twilight spent with Nictus the more she realized something. Not once had the woman congratulated her on a job well done, she hadn’t been thanked for saving her comrade’s life and any praise was through explanation. She didn’t know why she realized it, because it didn’t bother her, but she continued to think about it. As she did, though, she remembered something Chrysalis had told her. She was being treated like any other Changeling, she was special but at the same time not special. The only reason she was being taught these things while others weren’t was because she wanted to learn and they already have or didn’t care to.
The idea of that intrigued her for some reason, but as she returned to Chrysalis’ chamber the intrigue faded into understanding. She found Chrysalis still sitting there, her consciousness fully assimilated into her hive mind. They were all one, yet not so at the same time. Twilight placed a pod of seasoned Lasher Steak she had made herself onto the table in the room, got into the bed and quickly fell asleep. Chrysalis’ body smiled at that.