//------------------------------// // Dream Delving. // Story: The Princess of Adventure: Return of the Dreaded Love Bird. // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// At the end of the day the little filly named Babs Seed arrived, things went a bit downhill. Cadence was able to comfort Twilight slightly, but it broke her heart that Celestia didn’t send her a comforting message back and instead she just sent Cadence without saying anything. She and her friends had been physically assaulted by a crazy pony with a baseball that set her own body on fire. She was surprised Celestia didn’t send any guard or even respond to the message, in fact it seemed like she wasn’t going to respond at all. What was keeping Celestia so busy that she couldn’t even address some recent mental scarring like she just acquired? Why would a pony be so cruel as to attack her violently out of nowhere? Celestia did do something, but she didn’t come to comfort her herself, send protection or even asked anything about the pony that assaulted her. Twilight looked out the window at the moon filling the sky and sighed as she slowly drifted off in her once upon a time babysitter’s warm loving embrace. Well at least Celestia sent someone to comfort her at least. Pinkie was having her own issues with loving someone and having to bottle the emotions up inside of herself, she really needed to vent her passion and happiness as parties seemed to have dulled after she tried to throw just one that evening. She threw it like a horse throws a shoe, it was noticed by many a pony that she didn’t look too good. Every single pony at the party wished her well; Pinkie wasn’t surprised in the slightest and was genuinely happy to have so many friends in Ponyville. Banjo had to carry Pinkie home to Sugar Cube Corner, she really seemed to be losing her edge and her bounce stopped being as rubbery as it should be. She didn’t want to force Applejack to love her, but she didn’t have much of an outlet otherwise as partying wasn’t helping her as much. Being a loyal friend and good hearted bear Banjo decided to contact Kazooie about the problem to see her take on it, but for some reasons she had been busy for a time from that moment with something and couldn’t reach the bird that was probably running afoul of some problem or another. The bear stayed by the pink pony’s side trying to keep her comfortable, he even asked if there was anything she was looking forward to if she wasn’t going to be partying for a while. He was happy to learn that Pinkie was actually looking forward to a float parade at the end of next week and that she could use some help building her own float while Zecora helps Applejack and Rarity talk things out. If Applejack and Rarity could work something out Pinkie could even be okay if they both fell in love, she cared about all her friends and not just one particular pony that made unbelievably tasty pies. She wanted to be happy for both of them if it did happen. Pinkie was not one to rule out possibilities since they were all endless, she still was happy to still just be friends right this moment and maybe one day she can cuddle her without impunity. Mr. and Mrs. Cake staid with her and red her and the twins a bed time story, Pinkie may have been a bit childish but she still enjoyed the classics and wonder why older ponies don’t get nostalgic about the things they grew up with… assuming they had a good childhood that is. Banjo wondered if they had a spare couch he could borrow, sure the only talking bear they’ve ever seen was a bit weird but the Cakes welcomed him into their home all the same since he was spending time with Pinkie trying to keep her happiness boat afloat. Zecora was having problems with getting into a conversation with Applejack as she almost doubled her workload to give Apple Bloom time to spend with her cousin Babs, which was actually hurting her little sister without her knowledge and she forgot to relay an important bit of info to her and decided it could wait till tomorrow. The zebra really didn’t want the words to be from her mouth that Applejack was infatuated with Rarity, she wanted Applejack to be honest on her own and unlike Apple Bloom she wasn’t willing to push Applejack into a corner as Zecora hadn’t personally been wronged by her. The striped pony decided to sleep over at Sweet Apple Acres; she worried for her friends as Applejack seemed to be staying out of her way because Big Macintosh was around her. She didn’t need time to spend with Mac as she could do that at any time, maybe she should have Big Mac corner Applejack and talk to her about Rarity? Zecora figured it didn’t seem like a good thing to do, as she did not want to come between the two that treasured being a family even though she was very much determined to help a friend out. Babs Seed was feeling mixed emotions and her heart was all over the place, she hated being bullied yet she was having a hard time getting her head on straight. She felt like bullying her cousin Apple Bloom and her friends to be the only course of action. She didn’t like being called a blank flank and her inner conscious was trying to save her from destroying what was a perfectly nice pony from the inside out as she was slowly becoming that which she hated. The worst of the problems wasn’t of the heroes, but of what many would call a villain. Chrysalis was listless; she’d had seen the power Kazooie had wielding in conjunction with Pinkie and learned a very important lesson from not heeding it. She couldn’t win; it was hopeless to hold onto her anger any longer and if Kazooie took her seriously about being a revenge obsessed nutcase she would have been long dead by now. One of her five changelings flew up to her and tried to force feed her love and she had rejected it harshly even in the sorry state she was, she just laid on her side just outside the Ever Free Forest staring at it blankly her mind searching for a way to defeat an insurmountable foe. She was bleeding lightly on the grass staining it with her regret; she even forced the changelings that cared about her not to help her. At this point, Chrysalis believed she deserved death as she had crossed a line… the fact that her changelings were still there was a miracle even after witnessing what she did. The changeling princess saw no manner or method to defeat Kazooie, the five changeling that were with her including the cross dressing male one stayed loyally by her side even as she laid there. She had ambushed Kazooie; she had done it perfectly this time too… the outcome was horrible for her and her changelings. She might as well not even be a princess anymore; she had managed to kill Screwball. Well at least she thought she had until Kazooie calmly put her wings together and just said the word ‘life’ after some indecipherable chanting. Then the shape shifting bird stared flatly at her as her daughter was gently resurrected and soon laid sleeping against the tree by her elder sister figure, the next few minutes after that stare were a brutal blur as Chrysalis was tag teamed harshly but wasn’t allowed to die. Chrysalis’s changelings had tried to protect her; they were quickly immobilized and proved wholly incapable of helping her. The flaming baseball bat cracking her carapace while burning her in unceasing agony, the constant explosions that ripped parts of her body off only to be grown anew in seconds after hearing the word ‘regen’, that sharp unbreakable bladed beak of Kazooie’s true form flaying her alive and she was beaten to a bloody pulp she didn’t know how many times. In all the pain and suffering, Chrysalis had to wonder… why hadn’t Kazooie killed her and why hadn’t her changelings done the same for breaking a changeling taboo? Killing without benefit to the hive and out spite was very much frowned upon yet those five changelings were still desperately trying to feed her and wanted her to heal. What was worse was that she killed a child that was about to become an adult; sure she had quickly come back to life, even then it was still inexcusable. She was one of the last changelings of an upper hierarchy with a dubious history, but her actions weren’t easy to overlook in the slightest. Even then her race didn’t need a hive queen or even a princess to survive; in fact a new princess could arise from any changeling and ascend to queen. There was ever only one queen or princess at a time and their queen had died a good twelve years ago leaving her in charge. The changeling race no longer had need of queens or the antiquated methods of feeding anymore; Bugsy’s exodus was thriving as reported by the changelings she sent away through a hive mind link that a changeling could optionally pull out of whenever they wanted. She had pulled the link to all those changelings including the five that were with her from that point on and that had been a long while ago. Chrysalis started to tear up; despite the fact that she was of no use to them the changelings that followed her without a single reason just huddled up to her trying to feed her their love through force of will. Failing that, they just draped themselves over her body trying to keep her warm as the cold night air bit harshly at her wounds. One of them even licked at her wounds while whining sadly. Why didn’t they see what she did? She had no purpose now… she was just going to die on her terms now. What reason did she have to continue living? Where was her purpose now? She wasn’t much of a leader anyway, they didn’t need her. Her eyes slowly closed and she hoped she didn’t wake up even if it would make those five changelings cry over her body. That is if they survived the night, it was growing colder and snow started falling only in that area… Mr. Cold Spot was angry. Elsewhere, in a different place entirely. “Luna I beseech thee, come night mother for there is an adventure that is needed to be done.” It wasn’t hard for Kazooie to learn the ins and outs of all things alicorn; they practically throw you a free reference guide if you know to ask of it from the heavens nicely. She was surprised those of the heavens found her ways amusing, so they proclaimed her the wild card that may or may not ruin Celestia’s prophecy mongering. They asked nothing of her and they wanted nothing of her but to do whatever she felt was right, she was running the adventure that was her life as her title dictates thought they could ask favor of her if they were willing to pay her for it. “Who calls upon the princess of the…” The princess paused her blue star filled mane stopped flowing immediately and her eyes stared with wide incredulousness at being summoned by Celestia’s thought to be sealed away living headache. “I have yet to quite see the profit of your boon. How did you even get back to Equestria?” “Trust me, it’ll land and pay off eventually. Just remember reincarnation is possible if you just ask the heavens of it, they just require twenty or so years to do the paperwork and for what would be your destined lover to be an adult again. They can even do a gender changes per life if you’re bisexual, but you’d have to talk with your lover first about resurrecting in a different gender, but that’s not the point. Also Celestia can’t stop any back doors she doesn’t know about from being opened.” Kazooie smiled cheerily as the alicorn across from her sat down and they were finally ready for discussion. “You know you guys really should ask for a manual from them some time, you don’t even know the half about being an alicorn and all of you are kind of half assed about it. I swear Celestia is doing most of it right by sheer accident. This is not the reason I called you for, but it is an interesting topic to speak of eh Loony? Look, just check into it later as I called you up here for an important reason.” “Excuse me, but what did you just call me?” Luna knew what the word meant and she didn’t like the inflection Kazooie gave it. This did actually interest Luna somewhat as she didn’t know of any manual to being alicorn before this moment. “Oh, I give affectionate nicknames to everyone I like Loony, you just have to get used to it. Can we move on now?” Waving her right hoof in front of her in a gesture that said drop it so we can get on with our immortal lives was well received and acknowledge. “Yes, why have you summoned me and to what ends, Miss Adventure.” Luna deferred to Kazooie by her title as an affectionate nickname for her, for she was quite certain misadventures would happen around the strange shape shifter. “Well what I currently want to do is involved in both our titles; I unfortunately can’t do it unless I ask for your aid in it. It involves adventure and the night.” The red alicorn started slowly. “Which is what exactly?” There was a sad look on the red alicorns face as she grimaced; Luna wondered what the problem was. “Pinkie Promise not to tell your sister I even got back into Equestria or what I’m about to ask of you? You can tell Twilight sparkle to tell you sister about it if you wish should you find my request to be against your sensibilities.” The cringe Kazooie did when she mentioned the words ‘Pinkie Promise’ caused a disturbed look to cross Luna’s face. Luna could feel a heavy weight behind those two words as if Kazooie dreaded saying them minute they left her mouth. Looking to the invisible floor in thought… she looked up and into Kazooie’s green eyes, two minutes of staring into those eyes that were both dangerous and friendly Luna decided to make a decision even though she thought it would get her sister verily riled up about it later. “I Pinkie Pie promise as the Princess of the Night and Moon do hereby make a solemn vow on my name which is…” Luna started and the scene backed away leaving two specks sitting in the distant void. Kazooie was flabbergasted, eyes wide as she backed away by what Luna declares and had nothing to say about except two words. “Thank you.” Kazooie said closing her eyes, she decided it was time to ask her favor of the night princess. “I need to get a friend of mine into the mind of another ‘pony’ to help them recover from an altercation where I may have caused a slight grievous mental injury, if we don’t hurry I don’t think even my healing magic could save the ‘pony’ I speak of. I can heal the body and maybe the soul, but I can’t heal a broken mind or heart with my magic. The heart is Cadences territory anyway and I doubt the three of us together would make this any easier.” “Then we must hurry then if time is of the essence… who is it that needs our help so direly?” Luna simply said as she opened her wings and motioned for Kazooie with a hoof to lead her on to the being they needed to help tonight. The being they went to that had recently murdered Kazooie’s daughter Screwball in cold blood in front of her, even if it was an ineffectual murder that didn’t stick for too long. It still angered Kazooie greatly and for once her hatred of moles had disappeared entirely having been force fed down a certain changelings throat like a mental faculty destroying toxin. Anger and hatred were anathema to a changeling. Luna didn’t question how Kazooie knew of Cadence, but she had an idea since she remembered the huge column of energy days ago and knew that Kazooie was somehow involved with that or at the very least the cause. They had arrived at the scene with Honey B. in tow, the strange bee like pony stared down at the five beings huddled around the still living yet beaten looking large female bug pony. The five bug ponies looked up at her sharply and buzzed ineffectually at her upon approaching them and they stopped to stare in horror at seeing who was with the bee like pony. They didn’t want to watch Chrysalis die before them so they shielded her body with theirs the best they could give due to their weakened statures. “Kazooie, what have you done…” Honey exclaimed in a slightly low yet even tone. Luna didn’t know what to think of the strange pony as she hadn’t ever seen a pony quite like her before; Honey didn’t seem as upset about what was laying before her as Luna was upon seeing it. In fact it seemed like she’s seen sights like this before. “She had to learn some way and hard lessons are better suited the fact that her mind broke lends the credence that she didn’t want to learn from her mistakes. So do you want to be a hero Honey? Here’s your chance to do a solo quest instead of waiting for me and Banjo to save the day like usual, so you better step up now. The reason you’re here is simple, Mothra there needed someone like you who can relate to her on her level and that’s why you’re here as you need to befriend this idiot. It’s not my fault she thought it was a good idea to start murdering others wantonly because she was having a huge hissy fit.” Turning to Luna, Kazooie nodded to the changelings clutching to their princess. “Sedate them Loony, I will heal them and then we can get Honey inside to see if we can fix her mind.” With a twitch of her horn a small mist flowed forth from Luna’s horn, soon the changelings drifted off to sleep but didn’t relax their grips on Chrysalis still rather defiant to the bitter end. Kazooie cast a ‘cura’ spell and Luna stared strangely at the spells effects on the changelings. It looked like they reacted to the magic as if they were just fed a mass of love considering they gained some strength in their unconscious limbs to clamp down harder onto Chrysalis. “Not if, it’s when I fix her mind… the question is will she be better or worse for it after what you’ve done to her. Showing her the pain of our world was a bit much don’t you think Kazooie?” Despite the glare Honey didn’t hate Kazooie, she was just angry with her methods while at times cunning she can also be downright barbaric. “Send me in.” “Are you absolutely sure?” It had to be of her own will that Honey does this, so Luna was just being cautious. “This could be dangerous.” “If Kazooie thinks I can do it, then I know I can. I want to help this poor whatever she is; besides I have a lot of reasons to come back from this and one of them is to live through this just to spite Kazooie.” Honey buzzed her bee wings agitatedly and extended her stinger slightly from her tail hair. “Love you to Wasp; now let’s do this thing Loony.” Kazooie’s horn glowed and Luna soon started up too, two streams of magic joined and formed upon Chrysalis’s bruised skull. Honey felt her body getting sucked into Chrysalis’s head beneath the out cold changelings, one of those changelings was wearing a dress that she though made him look cute. Her mind blanked for a moment as she felt the suction pulled her entirely in. “Hello… is my horn on? Get up yellow jacket you’re in, now open your eyes and give me an idea of what you’re seeing in there. I and Luna are right behind you… well at least mentally… not so much physically though.” The annoying voice of Kazooie said from somewhere. Slowly Honey opened her eyes and slowly stood up; she gained the impression that she was standing in an arid desert looking at a large oval shaped structure before her. “I too wish to know what you are seeing.” Luna spoke up a little less calm than Kazooie was. “So is it like Psychonaut’s, Nights or any number of veritable dreaming sequences from any game in particular?” Luna of course had no idea what Kazooie was asking or talking about. “Feels like… Alundra to me.” Slowly stated Honey, she looked around the hazy world of the badlands that surrounded her for miles around. “Yeah, not going to lie, you’re in the deep end of the pool here if it’s feeling like an Alundra scenario.” There was bit of an uncertain edge to her Kazooie’s voice that Honey had never heard before. “I can handle it; any idea’s what I have to do first? Do I need to do memory repair, sanity fixing or anything related like that? How do I even get started on doing that? You’re the one that took a Psychonauts training seminar.” Honey warily looked around her; she perked up her stinger from underneath her tail hair. There was something about the tone of voice that the bird of Spiral Mountain that had set off her instincts. She stayed on Standby on the red sand and clay like substance and looking to the large hive like structure in front of her. The world smelled a bit odd here… it smelled like despair and a bit of brimstone. “First of all we need to find out where she went wrong. I’m pretty sure I’m not at fault here, because she was getting pretty bad in her desperation to cause something grievous harm long before I antagonized her. She was previously after Cadence then changed to me for interfering with her petty revenge on the ‘love freak’.” The voice paused for a moment before adding. “So we start with digging into princess caterpillar’s memory.” “Alright I’m going to go to the only thing I see here… looks like my hives back home except these guys aren’t like my bees and this thing isn’t exactly my hive.” Honey went towards the opening of the light grey and beige walls of the hive like structure and it seemed to grow in size the closer she got to it. “Also I feel the need to express how desolate it seems to be here and you calling someone a ‘love freak’ Kazooie, really?” “Great tragedies often manifest in very visual ways.” Admitted the other voice in the back of Honey’s head, Luna was a dream walker and was surprised this isn’t the first time the two she was working alongside had heard of or done something like this. It intrigued her somewhat; Kazooie gave some good reasoning as to why they were sending in this Honey Buzzoms… Luna couldn’t help but add a buzzing inflection to her last name. “Yes well I’ve also found something quite strange.” Looking at the ground near the entrance to the hive she found a body, one that was wearing a familiar dress. She lightly shook it and it grumbled and rolled over, she shook it again and it lashed out with a hoof lamely before sitting up blearily blinking his eyes and looking around. The changeling saw Honey and became alarmed hopping up onto his hooves growling only to stop and take in his surroundings once more. Slowly the changeling turned around and saw the hive and tilted its head in confusion. “Quick question, is it possible that the both of you might have sent multiple beings into Chrysalis’s mind without meaning to?” There was a moment of silence from the other end on her mental connection to the two who sent her in here. There were things to be said about silence that could spell problems for what they were attempting here. “Um… oops… thou may have made a slight error.” Luna offered shyly. It wasn’t like she has ever tried to get into a changelings mind before. She may not have understood why they were saving Queen Chrysalis, but she wasn’t about to let someone that reminded her of herself die because of prejudices. “Loony here dropped the ball and sent the changelings in with you, just deal with it or better yet make a deal with them. Just let them know you’re trying to help raise their princess out of her poor mental state. Her body is fine, but we can’t move it while all of you are in there and if Mr. Cold Spot were to have his way he’d have launched his full scale blizzard on this area already.” A sipping sound was heard, apparently Kazooie was drinking something. “Be thankful he’s wary of hurting me, because otherwise we really don’t have much time either way as I can’t hold this forever either. Thank goodness I restocked a huge amount of magic potions before coming to this world… those Mets really know how to find some good stock.” “Sure no pressure…” Honey sardonically replied. “Why does this stuff always happen to people who try to do nice things? I’m not exactly a hero so that means that this unexpected occurrences stuff shouldn’t be happening to me.” “You’re a hero because you’re doing this out of the goodness of your heart for someone you don’t really know alongside the fact that I asked for your aid despite our disagreements, therefore you have to live with all the same nuances me and Banjo go through. Especially all the stupidly contrived coincidences and mishaps that happen along that road, just pray that you don’t have to do the same kind of collecting bit we do and have as much stuff to collect. Example would be going through DK sixty four multiple times with needing one hundred percent on collectibles every single time to the point you can remember where ever single last banana is.” Honey shivered at the thought of having to collect mounds of stuff and special items through ridiculous means like that, Banjo’s story of having to deal with acid, electricity, lava and freezing cold temperatures really came to mind. “You mentioned earlier that she started murdering others.” Thinking it was a good time to bring it up now what with the talk of heroes from her short term cooperative alliance, Luna decided to get a word in edgewise. “Why are you trying to help Queen Chrysalis if this is the case?” “Eh, don’t worry about that. She’s only ever killed one pony as far as I know and that happened to be my daughter. I don’t really have anything personally against her except for the trauma she caused my poor daughter to go through.” To say Luna was flabbergasted at Kazooie’s words wouldn’t even begin to describe it, who would help someone who willingly murdered their child? “My daughter is going to have nightmares again because of being killed I’m sure, glad Nuts is going to be there for her. Dying hurts a lot and I don’t like subjecting others to that kind of pain… but nothing says I can’t beat the ever loving tar out of someone or maim them within an inch of their life. In any case my daughter didn’t stay dead long if you’re wondering; my healing magic can resurrect someone within two hours of their death provided either their head or heart is mostly intact. If there was a problem using that magic, I have several other methods of resurrection on hoof.” “You still used white magic to keep her alive to teach her a cruel lesson. Not many people really consider the darker applications of white magic until you need someone to be horribly tortured. Grey area and all that I suppose.” Sighing Honey shook her head and turned to the changeling who was curiously staring at her. “Sorry for getting a little distracted, but I’m here to find your princesses memories. We are currently inside her mind do you know what that means and can you understand me?” The changeling perked up at this information and did a little dance of happiness; he was within his queen. No… wait… how was that even possible didn’t she cut all the changelings from her hive mind? His legs continued moving as he did his little interpretive jig. His thoughts traveled to wondering how this was the inside of the queen… it looked rather expansive. “Wait…you can speak in dance?” Deciding to try something Honey shifted her antenna and after a moment she mentally asked if the changeling understood that they were inside of the head of the changeling queen. The changeling blinked confusedly… before poking itself in the head wonder how they could have fit into Chrysalis’s head since it definitely was a lot smaller then his body. Many a pony however did say she had a big head… maybe this was what they meant? “Do you even know what a mind is?” Honey tried slowly, this changeling wasn’t particularly bright even if he had a good taste in dresses. It knew what a hive mind was, it was a connection changelings could share and open themselves to other changelings. They could connect or disconnect to others, the queen however could do it much better then two normal changelings could. Was he inside the hive mind, inside of Chrysalis? “You could look at it like that yes. Seems rather empty doesn’t it?” The changeling let out a pitiful whine, Honey slowly mover over and gave him pity hug. The changeling didn’t fight it and accepted the sad affection like a light snack. The five changelings Chrysalis had with her weren’t exactly the brightest nor were they the most experienced in combat; they were however blindly loyal to Chrysalis even though she performed a taboo. They forgave her the taboo when it was quickly proven that even after she had killed the almost adult mare, she was quickly resuscitated by the same mysterious magic that made them feel really warm when they were launched from the Crystal Empire. It was the same pony princess that did it; he suddenly decided to call her the ‘blood princess’ because of her color and he wasn’t far off from Kazooie’s most famous moniker of ‘that bloody breegull’. So it made sense to the five hive mind connected changelings that the blood princess pony had incredible healing powers that made killing impossible around her. It was rather painful to be around her otherwise because she could really cause lots and lots of pain without killing someone, the blood princess had to be either pure evil in that respect or just incredibly cruel. Well technically some of what she did to their queen was somewhat warranted, but the male changeling didn’t want to admit that so he didn’t. The changeling whimpered to the strange bug pony that his queen wouldn’t let him feed her love and that she had cut her hive mind off from every changeling which worried them a lot before, now they were even more worried because something was wrong with her even if her injuries were considered less then fatal. The changelings Chrysalis had following her weren’t exactly the best judges of medical expertise, but they actually had a pretty good assessment given one of them worked in a hatchery in the aid of tired changeling parents. Was her hive mind broken? Well that might explain the constant negative emotions leaking out all of her pours ever since she disguised herself as the pink love princess pony, that pony was like a walking smorgasbord they just couldn’t touch or take any love from at all. “Uh… Luna, Kazooie, can I get a little info here about changelings?” Honey was quickly supplied the information that changelings tended to feed on positive emotions, could disguise themselves, alter their genders though that tended to use up a bit more of their energy instead of being in their birth genders, their shape shifting abilities were limited to pony shaped beings and they were relatively intelligent like any normal societal race. Well the changelings that were currently within Chrysalis were relatively dim and might have consisted of a lower end worker caste in comparison to how Honey had soldier and worker bee drones. Kazooie was the one that supplied all this. “Well that was rather informative; I’m setting out to look for her memories now. I think I can get the changeling that’s with me to follow me; I can apparently connect to their hive mind system even if it’s slightly different from my own… I don’t feel any negative side effects except a bunch of alien emotions and a lot of neediness for their ruler coming from him.” “Please continue onwards maiden Honey, I find this information is most fascinating. We’ll lend aid where we can if you need any help; meanwhile I have… questions… for Miss Adventure. If you can find the other four changelings, they may be able to aid you in helping their queen recover.” There was a certain unexplained hitch in Luna’s tone. “You will need them anyway as you all need to be brought out at the same time.” “Get a move on bumble butt; we don’t exactly have all night to rescue the princess and like hell if you think I am going to another castle.” Urged onwards by Kazooie’s annoying chatter in the form of an oblique metaphor Honey gave a grunt of acknowledgement to the two in the back of her skull. “Come along then, we need to find the past in your queens …hive mind… do you understand?” Honey exclaimed boldly as she started into the entrance of the hive, she couldn’t believe she was stuck with the most annoying spotter to ever exist in the back of her currently pony shaped skull. The changeling looked confused… how would one find the past in a hive mind? Weren’t hive minds always in the present? The changeling wanted to help his queen and so did this outsider, it was not changeling… but he was okay with her hive minding with him. Her mind was the stronger thus he will follow… his changeling heart would not belong to her though, as only a mate or the queen would ever get that. He made his position clear to her and she just smiled at him and returned that she understood all too well. The changeling stood still for ten seconds as the strange bug pony with the neat fuzzy elongated not pony ears continued trotting onwards down the corridor from the entrance. Shaking his head the changeling ran to catch up with the strange buzzing pony bug outsider friend. The corridors of this hive place seemed entirely organic compared to the mineral appearance of the outer layer of; Honey was quite interested in how Chryaslis’s mind was structured. It was kind of silly that she had a literal hive mind; only it seemed so empty as there wasn’t too many noises other then the sound of eight hooves walking and sometimes a flutter of two differing pairs of wings. Twitching an antenna Honey decided to ask if the male changeling with her thoughts if the layout looked familiar. The response was a resounding yes and he could feel a female changeling in the hatchery. Immediately he shot into the air and started to fly down the hallway followed by the unmistakable buzzing sound of Honey’s wings flapping on his tail. Taking so many twists and turns down the winding barren tunnels that started becoming covered in a green slime like substance, he came to a stop at where the hatchery would be in the not hive mind place that was not in Chrysalis’s head but outside of it. There they found a forlorn looking female changeling looking at the empty expanse, no eggs to tend to and no parent’s children to play with and take care of. This was the very definition of what Chrysalis saw that was left of the way they normally did things and the female changeling thought she was alone and in hell until she felt her mind being connected to two others. The female changeling perked up and spun around happy to see another changeling and… a stinging buzz creature of nectar crossed with a pony? Well the changeling wasn’t about to complain and mentally tagged them back about not being able to find a single egg in the hive. The male changeling tried to explain what Honey tried to explain to him… that they were currently in the hive mind of Chrysalis. The female changeling garnered a bit of curiosity at the bee pony, before turning to the male changeling. “Que pasa? No es bueno colmena!” “Well now I think I’ve heard everything.” Honey stated blithely… just where would a changeling learn to speak Spanish? “Look we’re in chrysalis’s head, in this hive mind thing. Even if you don’t understand that at the moment, we need to find the other changelings do you think you could at least help us with that? Then we’ll try to fix the hive mind.” “Si bueno ayudo!” The female changeling state happily. “Ayuda a la reina debemos!” The male changeling relayed that they had to find their friends first. “Si, si, encontrar amigos primero.” The Spanish changeling said a little put off, it immediately understood the male changeling but it found Honey’s dialect hard to follow even if she was using the hive mind. “Ugh… can you just translate for me?” This was beginning to get a tad bit bizarre for honey. “Where would we find one of the other three changelings in the hive if we were looking for them?” The male changeling translated to the female changeling who nodded, she motioned with her hoof and took to the air and was followed by the changeling and beeling. Soon they came across the changeling feeding grounds which were empty of food with a single changeling sitting in the middle of the room staring at the floor forlornly. “Qu'est-il arrivé à notre belle ruche?” The somewhat decidedly indeterminate gendered changeling muttered sadly. “Oh come on, are all of you changelings going to be like this?” The male changeling in the nice blue dress shrugged at Honey’s angry rant giving her an apologetic smile while splaying his ears backwards. The male changeling asked if the other changeling that spoke French if it has seen the other two changelings. It had seen one near the living quarters they soon found this changeling, though it was a bit weird. “何が私たちの故郷で起こっている?” Said the male changeling and Honey just stared at it for a few moments. “あなたは、皇后の精神を固定で私たちを助けるだろうか” Honey asked politely. The changeling nodded, bowed and stood up; he wanted to help his queen. Well suffice it to say at least video game characters should know two languages, right? They were soon on their way to finding their last needed changeling, before they could go after the changeling queen that needed some mental help. The fifth changeling was sitting outside the royal sleeping room looking dejected. “Excuse me, but you don’t speak some strange language do you?” The changeling jerked in surprise at seeing her kin alongside a strange cross between a bee and a pony. “You have no idea how often I get that question.” The changeling spoke plainly scrunching up her nose cutely and her vibrant pink eyes looked to the ceiling with a hint of annoyance in them. “Sorry, it’s just that… er…” Tilting her head to the four changelings behind her, honey really didn’t want to say anything about it. “No, no, it’s alright I get it. We’re an incredibly strange species with a very ridiculous set of diverse cross linguistic skills which may be a bit off putting.” The changeling waved her left hoof in a placating manner, her voice a bit on the nasally side. “Um… yeah well I do have two questions about the five of you. What exactly is the mute male changeling that likes to wear dresses language and what gender is the French one?” Honey was not going to think the word ‘bugging’ and how much it did for her to be among these five changelings. “The Prance one is a hermaphrodite and will respond to any gender equally. The mute one speaks primarily through the hive mind because his main language is his body language itself. He’s an entertainer and his dancing is really good.” The changeling answered amiably. “When a changeling is young they’re rather susceptible to specific language inputs… and when we sometimes have play time outside the hive we tend to pick up languages that aren’t ours and learn them with ridiculous speeds, the downside is they are the only language we are willing to learn aside from changeling and using the hive mind as a communication option.” “And you’re telling me all this without a fight why?” It was an honest question, why would a changeling so loyal to the queen be willing to give up information so easily. “Well from the way they tell it in the hive mind link, which I can feel your presence is currently in by the way, you’re here to help us fix Chrysalis from inside her hive mind in her head where we are located. The one she has separated all of us from a while ago... so lonely…” Closing her eyes the changeling sighed and slowly stood up stretching and popping her spine. “Come on, I think I know where she might be. Though she refuses to let us help her… and seems pretty dead set on staying down for good this time. Just do whatever you can to help her… please.” “Trust me, I intend to.” Motioning to the other four changelings they all set off for the where their queen might be. They arrived at a hole that was supposed to lead to the queen’s main chamber, but something was off putting about as the changelings looked between themselves and stayed at least a foot or two away from the hole while Honey stood right next to it. “Guys I could use a little help now. The changelings have been somewhat helpful… I just wish they weren’t so confusing to communicate with.” Dead silence met Honey and she could faintly hear arguing in the back of her head. “Guys, hello… bee mare to the annoying flapping beak and the casino night zone owner come in do you read my head?” “It’s probably the anger I force fed her, it does have bad implications given how changelings work. We didn’t injure her all too much, just beat the leaving daylights out of her and we didn’t even bring her anywhere near close to death. I even cast a gradual healing spell on her to take care of some of the heavier bruises.” Kazooie’s voice faintly chimed in. “We’ll speak of this later, it seems as though our charge the maiden Honey seeks our assistance.” Intoned Luna as she heard the voice seemingly turned itself to her. “Report, what is it that you currently need help with.” “Something is spooking the changelings in here and we’re standing next to a black hole that is supposed to be where the queen is supposed to run the hive from. I think we’re currently next to the center of Chrysalis’s mind.” Honey continued looking at the pitched black hole. “So no doors yet then? Jump into the hole and make sure to drag the changelings with you. Afterwards be prepared to defend yourself because if I’m right Chrysalis mind is about to get complicated, as soon as you come across a doorway, you need to open it. It’ll be a changeling equivalent of a door, stick together because you might even incidentally have to fight a representation of me in there.” “You know the more you tell me stuff, the more I feel like I should slap you as hard as I can when I get out of here.” Honey buzzed in return. “It is an accurate summation of what you need to do to get to her memories. Just be careful if what Kazooie says is true… most of Chrysalis mind may be currently locking itself entirely inside of a nightmare world.” As soon as Luna said it Honey’s eyes narrowed. “I hope this isn’t going to be like Silent Hill… should I call it silent hive if it does?” Honey muttered before she turned back to the changelings. “You guys better follow me if you truly want to help your queen.” Honey closed her eyes and leapt into the wide open hole passing by the brown crust like edges and falling into a deep void… the changelings sat there communicating to each other and then they all grasped each other’s hooves and jumped. Soon the disorientation fled and the changelings landed in a very scary looking tunnel lined with a scarlet red color, ahead of them they saw Honey trying to pry her way into what looked like a bright green sphincter. They immediately gathered around and start to help her by prying at the center of the door. After a hard pull in six directions they managed to get the door open and flew in following the bee pony. Inside was a room that had a fifty foot height clearance and a cylindrical wall forty feet in diameter lined with red or green colored bubbles the size of full body mirrors. There were less green bubbles then there were of red. Walking up to the red one just left of the entrance Honey touched it and then she was witness to a sad scene. They were staring at the scene that played out on the red bubble; apparently it was an older changeling that was seen throwing itself into the maw of a giant spider like monster which promptly exploded noisily in the memory. The noise sent the changelings scattering across the room with fright. The only one that spoke Equestrian or what was better known as English stopped cowering and braved going over to Honey. “Wait… I knew that changeling…” Honey just tapped the bubble and it played the same memory over again, showing the same scene. “Yes, yes, that’s our queens mother! So she’s a past thing in this hive mind? She died destroying a Changeling Eater a number of years ago, our queen arose to power afterwards.” “Yes, that is quite interesting really and kind of sad… apparently these red bubbles are every bad thing that has ever happened to your queen. The green ones must be her good memories.” Walking over to the bubble that was to the right of the now shut entrance, Honey gave it a tap wondering what the green bubble would show. The changelings gathered around at the hive mind that was of the past and not present, so they really couldn’t do anything to change whatever the scene played nor could it hurt them. This time the scene played out something different and a tad surprising; it showed Chrysalis getting the tar beat out of her by Kazooie and Bad Girl from her point of view yet this is what a green bubble was? From what Honey could see neither Kazooie nor Nuts had done anything to horrible except bring on the pain, well Nuts used her baseball bat but it remained unlit. Deciding to test another little more counter clockwise to the door, Honey saw Chrysalis was lying in the snow surrounded by a bunch of dazed a stumbling changelings. Moving clockwise to the first green bubble she could fine to the right of the door which was higher up and the view was lower to the ground, it showed the same changeling that blew up currently leaning forward and kissing the forehead of the viewer and then smiling. The changelings were buzzing right behind her and following her and looking over her shoulder, Honey decided to pay them little attention as she moved more to the right and tapped another green bubble as she was still unsure if the green bubbles were good memories. Given one was lying in the snow and another was her having the tar beaten out of her by her friend and acquaintence, she wasn’t sure after seeing one with her purported mother kissing her forehead. The bubble lit up and the changeling’s eyes grew wide at the scene, Chrysalis was in the hatchery and was watching a tiny changeling squeaking as it tried to pry itself from its egg based prison. Soon the changeling was standing on the egg blinking blearily and its tiny wings slowly flicked out and it flapped them. It was too young to fly and was just adorable to watch as it yawned and fell over onto its side going straight to sleep. “It kind of reminds me of home.” Honey said idly, yep the green bubbles were definitely happy memories… odd as that might sound. “Any idea why being beaten up would be a good thing?” “The queen did something taboo in our culture, she might have been happy to be punished. Not too sure about that considering the taboo was annulled about as fast as it was enacted.” The changeling didn’t like the idea of her queen being happy about the pain and suffering that was recently received, the queen probably was still going through it at this moment. After a moment’s consideration and watching the changelings poke through the memories of Chrysalis, she sighed and relayed all the information she had so far about what was going on. “Okay I think I know what her problem is now and why she refused to get up or let her changelings help her. I had Canary keep an eye on her, especially after our little altercation with her killing Screwball.” Kazooie’s voice honestly sounded apologetic to Honey. “Then tell us why is she refusing to move or seek aid that is willingly being held out to her? Why is she willing to lay there to die and why would she like being beaten black and blue?” Luna was still trying to wrap her head around the concept of changelings being emotionally equal to a pony, well with the problem that they absorbed love directed or not from the air. “The answer is, she wanted a purpose to pursue. I admit some of this is my fault given how I nullified a lot of her importance with her people and kind of kicked her ass in Crystal Kingdom. All of this happened probably following an exceedingly long chain of failures as a leader before ever meeting me in the first place.” Trailing off Kazooie looked to the sky not feeling particularly sorry about all of this happening, she shrugged. “Guess we need to give her a purpose by figuring out what she could be doing then or else she’ll do something stupid and I’ll just have to revive her like I did Screwy. Screwy doesn’t hold a grudge about it though, Chrysalis made her death relatively quick and about as painless as dying can get.” “Only you can mess up someone’s already horribly messed up life even worse Kazooie.” Honey muttered as the changelings continued to watch the memories in the background, both the good and the bad ones in interest. She was guessing that they were not really good at individual or independent thought a lot of the time. “Why thank you, I pride myself on destroying the lives of others for the betterment of all.” The way Kazooie said it made her sound rather full of herself about it. “I don’t doubt that for a minute.”Blithely stated Honey as her stinger extended from her tail hair and her wings buzzing grew a bit louder a changeling that had been hovering near her slowly floated away from her. “Can I get out of here now? I feel the urge to sting you rising.” “I don’t know. Can you get Chrysalis to wake up? If not you or the changelings are going to drag her carcass back to our base of operations.” You could almost feel Kazooie’s eyes rolling. “I assume Banjo got everyone working together before he joined us for breakfast?” “Yes, Humba and Mumbo aren’t killing each other if that’s what you’re worried about.” After a moment Honey decided to ask a question that had been on her mind. “Speaking of which where is Banjo and why did you leave the backpack with him?” “He’s spending time with the pink cat we had years ago, you remember the one we had Humba create a send home spell pool? It’ll only send what entered to their specified home and we used it to get back to our little house at Spiral Mountain after the kitten was gone?” The only response Kazooie got was a snort of amusement at the memory of Kazooie and Banjo diving into the pool and teleporting back to their home to make sure the spell worked. “So… Loony, after we’re done here I don’t want you to begin thinking we’re friends.” “Why, are we not friends already?” This kind of confused Luna a bit, Kazooie wasn’t that bad a creature even if she seemed a tad demented. She had yet to truly do anything in front of Luna that would make her think that the other alicorn as pure evil like Celestia would state, Celestia even made a disaster level code named after her. “You only promised to assist me for this night; the next time we meet may not be as pleasant an experience… I hope we can be relatively good acquaintances but otherwise don’t count on me always being so amiable all the time.” After that was said they both went quiet, wondering what Honey was doing. Honey after having heard Kazooie’s request to get Chrysalis up and moving, immediately moved to the door to set out looking for Chrysalis herself. Getting the changelings to stop poking memory bubbles took a minute or two and then they had to pry the door open again. The red hallway was rather creepy, they went past a few more doorways yet the changelings didn’t confirm Chrysalis as being behind them. The changelings wanted to find Chrysalis now, most likely to give her a big hug considering they had seen a lot of Chrysalis’s negative memories. After a while all the changelings went stock still, after having walked down a seemingly endless corridor for the last several minutes with an endless stream of green sphincter doors on the ceilings, walls and floor. Who knows where they all led to, the changelings certainly didn’t as this was apparently alien to them and they were a bit frightened by the blood colored walls. Seeing the changelings perk up like this made Honey look to them as all five of them suddenly started to fly down the corridor. Twitching her left antenna Honey buzzed into the air and played catch up to find the five changelings prying at a door to the right. “Queen is here, queen is here.” That one English changeling stated. After a moment it took Honey to help the changelings pry the door open, which would have been hard to do without six or more changelings, they entered the room. They saw Chrysalis just sitting there staring out at the desert landscape on the balcony high up on the hive. The five changelings just stared at the blue mane and the blue green carapace down her back and the black coat of the most important mare to them. They were about to rush forward when Honey held a hoof out stopping them. Shaking her head no at the changelings, she carefully walked forward until she was at Chrysalis’s side. Carefully she looked into Chrysalis’s eyes; they seemed a bit blank and lifeless. “Hello, can you hear me?” As she said this, Honey motioned for the changelings to come closer to them with a hoof. They surrounded Chrysalis, but were sad to see her not responding to their prodding with their hooves and continued to rub up against her mewling. “You’re name is Chrysalis right?” Chrysalis just sat there staring at the desolate lands surrounding the hive. “My name is Honey B… and… are you even listening to me?” After a moment Honey started to get angry and she turned and whispered to the changelings. “Right, I’m going to get a reaction out of her, do you mind if I hurt her a little?” “If you think it will help our queen, sure go for it.” The changeling spokeswoman said sadly as her ears wavered slightly in the dusty wind. It was usually hard to tell where her eyes were looking but currently they were pointed towards the ground. Honey noted the difference between the changelings and the queen’s eyes and would ask about it later. Moving one changeling out of the way of Chrysalis’s backside, Honey took her position behind the seated changeling queen and her stinger poked out of her tail hair. The changelings backed away and watched as Honey reared the stinger up in the air. Luna and Kazooie were just standing there thinking about inconsequential things when Chrysalis gave off a shriek and grabbed her butt with her hooves. Chrysalis was still strong enough to send all five changelings flying off her body. The changelings would dizzily stagger to their hooves trying to get over the disorientation of suddenly being back in reality. Honey gasped from her position on the ground, taking in a breathe she slowly stood up and looked to Chrysalis who was rubbing her rear end trying to get over the phantom pain of what had occurred in her mind. Honey smiled, it was a good enough reaction and it was a start. Now if they could just stop Chrysalis from sliding back into her mind like that. “Thanks Honey, I’ll take it from here. Chrysalis… I have something I want to ask you.” Chrysalis suddenly looked at Kazooie and stared wide eyed for a moment. “I would like you to…” “I surrender!” Chrysalis yelled, causing everyone to just stare at her, even Luna was perplexed by this outburst as they weren’t currently at war. “Um… what…” For once Kazooie was at a loss. “To surrender is to submit to another’s authority right? Well I submit to your authority, do what you will with me.” Chrysalis just stood there waiting for Kazooie to say something. Kazooie was flat out stunned, she wasn’t the only one there that was stunned even the changelings were too stunned to ask their queen not to submit to Kazooie of all beings. “Okay… I was just going to ask you to follow me and Honey back to our current place of residence so we could talk or just lead you there if you weren’t in your right mind.” Closing her eyes Kazooie huffed out a sigh. “I still say you’re a few buckets shy of a full bathtub of water, but whatever let’s go with it. Okay our alliance is done Luna.” Luna nodded and turned into mist and disappeared into the sky glittering like the stars themselves. Honey stood there with a twitching eye, how did it go from her stinging the changeling queen in her mind to her being Kazooie’s servant within the last five minutes? She would never understand changelings and was quite frankly tired of dealing with them and their childlike curiosity combined with an incessant penchant for whimsy. Elsewhere in Ponyville at that very moment, Pinkie and Banjo were building a float. “So what kind of float are we making Pinkie?” As Banjo asked this he watched Pinkie gather the materials, she stopped and looked at Banjo. “Well I do need more leafy greens in my diet so I’m creating an edible float based on that idea!” Pinkie said joyously, spending time with an old friend really helped her mood by a good bit. “We should probably add the edible part the day of the parade; otherwise bugs might eat it before we can get it there.” Banjo didn’t even question the fact that the float would be edible or if it was feasibly a good idea to use edible material; he just went along with it because he’s seen weirder. “You’re right, but this is going to be so fun!” The bounce was in Pinkie’s step until she realized something. “Hey Banjo if you’re here, is there anyone else from Spiral Mountain that’s here with you?” “Yeah, why do you ask?” That slowly growing grin on the face of that pony had kind of worried Banjo. “Is Mumbo here?” Pinkie asked innocently, Banjo looked away and Pinkie’s grin went a tiny bit wider.”Can you get him to help me with something involving the float?”