//------------------------------// // The Hive Days (part 1) // Story: Lexi // by PAINtheBrony //------------------------------// Study. Study was clearly an important thing. And with connections like mine it clearly was important enough to threaten National Security. But I had made a pretty strong defense for my case. It had been about one month now and I had been permitted to keep Alexandria in my home for purposes of studying alicorns. Everything that I found out about her, dietary habits, magical outbursts, typical behavior, even what were some of the words that she said, were to be reported at the end of every week to Queen Azandria. Now that's what I call politics! Who would have thought that I would manage to convince the Queen of the Hive to allow me to shelter something that could easily be considered a mortal enemy of the state in the Palace itself? I moaned with satisfaction as I rose up out of my bed. "Well, another day another dollar, aye Alexandria?" I said to the little pink lump on the bed next to me. She hadn't taken much to sleeping under the covers and I hadn't gotten her a crib yet. Part of me didn't want to because I knew that I enjoyed her sleeping next to me every night. Not to mention that changelings aren't very heavy and I didn't have a habit of tossing and turning at night. It had already been just over a month since that fateful talk with Queen Azandria and ever since then things had been going absolutely fantastic. Sure once the other Senators had been informed I started getting some weird looks around the Senate Building, but that was something that I could live with, being seen as 'strange' by some of your peers was quite frankly a small price to pay for the happiness that I had gotten out of my new company. My home didn't seem so lonely anymore and I always had someone to talk to, even if most of the time their response was 'vroom vroom'. She hadn't said much since I found her. I had recorded maybe 20 or 30 words but it certainly seemed like she was talking more often. Maybe it was because I talked to her. Most changelings didn't think of her as something with a mind of its own but rather as some kind of malicious entity that had taken up residence in my home. No matter how much I tried to persuade them otherwise most Senators just tried to avoid the subject when speaking with me. The pink lump stirred and slowed lifted her heavy pink lids to look at me. I stood smiling in the doorway staring right back at her, my fangs fully revealed with my lips pulled back and the holes in my legs being slowly cooled by the gentle breeze drifting through the house through the open window above the bed. "Qwuaka?" she said. "That's right Alexandria it's Thursday and you know what that means!" "Cooptu wegs?" "Oh! Of course you can have some eggs. I'll get right on that, you just go back to sleep and I'll come get you when their done." On some level she must have understood what all that meant because she slowly lowered her head down on the pillow and closed her eyes again. As I made my way into the kitchen I started to think about those magical outbursts that I had heard so much about young unicorns having. I hadn't noticed a single thing like that with Alexandria, not once had she even thrown a tantrum. I knew it was probably only a matter of time until that happened but I was well prepared for it. I threw some eggs in a pan and started frying them up. Aside from developing a strange taste for eggs I had also introduced her to beef, pork, and chicken. She had flat out rejected the beef, but she did seem to get along with the pork and chicken. If I had to say which one she preferred I would have to go with the chicken, that seemed to be her preferred source of meat. I finished frying up the eggs and plopped them onto a plate and slid it onto the dinner table. "Alright sleepyhead, time for breakfast." I said as I lifted her up out of bed with my magic and started carrying her out the door into the kitchen. She groaned and tensed up. She refused to open her eyes and fidgeted around in midair in defiance, clearly not yet wanting to face the world. I sighed and brought her over to me taking her in my right foreleg and holding her against my chest, using my left to continue to walk into the kitchen. She seemed satisfied with this and calmed down a bit. Then I gently placed her still curled up body on the table, where she liked to usually sit, right in the center of the table facing me. She smelled the eggs then and seemed to perk up a bit. I happily cut off a sizable portion of egg white and placed it on a spoon, then I reached it out to her and she took it in her mouth. Although she was only just now starting to get her teeth all the way in she seemed to be able to handle chewing soft things like egg whites. I had gone out and purchased large amounts of nymph food so that way I had something to feed her besides applesauce. From what I could tell her diet was very malleable, she seemed to be able to digest whatever food was on hoof, be it pony or changeling, for that I was thankful. What I was not thankful for was the night that I came home from asking Azandria's permission to keep Alexandria to find that I had forgotten the need for babies to wear diapers. As it turns out even alicorns don't self potty-train and apparently they don't do it in two days either. No need to fret however, I had learned from my mistakes and procured two large packages of diapers that very same night. Clearly taking care of a baby alicorn was going to be harder than I had expected. She and I sat and ate our breakfast for a few minutes in mostly a laid back silence, botched by a bit of small talk here and there and the occasional gleeful exclamation of "wegs yummy!" Then when we had both had our fill I cleaned off the plates and threw them into the sink. Alexandria roamed around on the floor traveling wherever her legs could take her while I fixed myself a cup of nice hot coffee. Then came a knock on the front door. "Huh. Well who could that possibly be?" I wondered aloud. I walked to the front and opened up the door. "Good morning Arex!" said a brightly cheerful and pleasantly familiar face. "Why Hello Senator Kytlus and to what occasion do I owe this pleasant surprise?" Alexandria seemed to have heard the ruckus and walked into the living room from the kitchen. "Kickus?" she sputtered. "Please sir, by all means come in!" I said with a grin on my face. "So again what seems to be the reason for the visit my friend?" "Well Arex, The other Senators and I have been talking and they just wanted me to stop by and check up on you is all. We have been.... concerned with your behavior as of late and we just wanted to make sure that everything is all right." Some of my contentment faded after he said that. "Well of course I'm alright. What could possibly lead the other Senators to believe that I'm not? I haven't been acting strangely lately have I?" "Well no! And that's precisely what I said but actually what some of them have been worried about is your new.... guest." As though she knew that she had been mentioned Alexandria, who had remained stock still in the doorway until now happily trotted over to meet her new friend. Senator Kytlus, however, had other ideas. As soon as she approached him he swiftly backed away as though fearing physical contact with her. "Oh dear! Please Arex get that thing away from me I don't want it to do something unpredictable." "Relax Kytlus, this is Alexandria and I promise you she's as harmless as a fly. Go ahead stroke her mane, she won't hurt you and she likes it." He looked at me as though I had just recommended heroin to cure a headache. "Stroke its mane? You have to groom this thing every day don't you Arex?" He paused for a second. "Great Scott that's it! Now I understand why you've taken it upon yourself to house this monstrosity, you need to put yourself under pressure don't you? That makes sense Arex! First you take on an enormous workload handling almost a quarter of the Military budget and then after the invasion is over you feel the need to continue to make yourself useful by taking the job that no one else would want didn't you? That's why you have been taking care of this thing, it's because you've been putting too much strain on yourself. Well fear not my friend, you don't have to work yourself to death any longer, I will speak directly with the Queen and we will get someone else to take up this horrifying job for you. You most certainly deserve better than this!" "No, no, no. You have misunderstood Senator that's not it at all. I genuinely enjoy this job. I like having her around and I like grooming her and taking care of her. It's not that I am putting extra work on myself, in fact it's quite the opposite! Having her around me actually does wonders to RELIEVE stress. At the end of every day I really do feel better just knowing that I get to come home to her." He just stared at me for a moment. Seemingly unable to comprehend my logic. "Are you sure that you've been feeling alright? It hasn't put you under a mind control spell has it?" "Senator Kytlus we are changelings, it is very difficult for a fully grown alicorn to put US under a mind control spell let alone a baby. I am fairly certain that if it tried to attack me I could subdue it quite easily, however for as long as I have had it here it has remained quite docile." I suddenly realized that I had started referring to Alexandria as an 'it'. Suddenly furious at myself I made a new proposal. "Senator I think that I know what the problem is, none of the other Senators have met Alexandria and I'm sure that if they did they would love her. I promise you that she is not aggressive and most certainly not a threat to anyone in the building." "Did you have to give that thing a name Arex? I mean really, that just doesn't seem right. It seems strange that you would equate it with a nymph or even a pet. Also I don't think that you are allowed to take that 'thing' into the Senate building." "Oh really?" I said with a wry smirk. "Well I don't remember there being any rules about not bringing baby alicorns into the Senate building." * * * It was fair to say that we probably attracted a few strange looks on the short walk from the Palace to the Senate Building. When we got in I, Kytlus, and Alexandria all went into my office. "Well here we are. This is where I spend my time everyday working, do you like it?" "Arex I see you almost every day in here I already know all about your office." "I wasn't talking to you Kytlus I was talking to Alexandria." He gave me an annoyed look. Meanwhile little Alexandria was busy moving about the office, first she smelled the leaves of the potted plant and tried to stick them in her mouth. After tearing off a small piece and delightedly swallowing it she crawled underneath my desk to continue to explore. I had already put a diaper on her before we left so I wasn't too worried. Mental Note: Get some leaves and flowers for her so she can have a normal pony diet. "Arex that thing is destroying government property." "Oh relax Senator, she's still just a little it hungry. Remember I did tell you that she is not a threat to anyone. She's an herbivore after all so we know she doesn't bite." At least I think she's an herbivore. "Well lets just get her out of here before she destroys anything else. Didn't you want the others to meet her?" "Why absolutely Kytlus what an excellent idea. I just needed to grab some papers I need signed by Senators Japhus, Maekit, and Skerex. Now that I have them," I grabbed the documents off of my desk, "we can be off to introduce our new friend to the rest of the family!" "Shes not my friend I'm just going along to make sure that nothing bad happens." We went down the hall a ways and turned right passing a paige who turned his head to stare at the small pink alicorn that was trailing along behind us. "Arex, shouldn't you be carrying it?" "No, it's fine, she's smart enough to know to follow me, I usually just carry her when she's too lazy to get out of bed. Or when she wants me to lift her up somewhere high. But overall I'm glad that she's finally getting out of the house, she's been cooped up in their for a month now and she really does need to do some exploring." We entered Senator Maekit's office. Kytlus said, "Why good morning Senator Maekit, and how are we doing today!" Senator Maekit was a good friend of both of ours since he was also a high ranking member of the Wing party. Alexandria entered the room unnoticed and crawled forward to sit right in front of his desk, she was so short though that he didn't see her. "Well good morning to the both of you. And how are you both doing on this fine day Senators?" Normally a changeling would be able to sense the presence of a pony right in front of them, however the ambient energy of hundreds of ponies just a few blocks away, and the fact that she was a baby (meaning that she gave off minimal energy) seemed to be enough that Senator Maekit was still oblivious. Alexandria didn't seem to care though as she then decided to crawl under his desk and started sniffing his legs. Kytlus saw this and decided to take appropriate action. "UUmmmm...... Senator I wanted to tell you that we came here to have you sign these papers but theirwas also something else that Senator Arex here wanted to show you. I think that you should tell him about that now Arex!" Before I could open my mouth to say anything Maekit seemed to sense something under his desk and finally looked down. "WHAT IS THAT!!!" He jumped out of his seat and backed up against the back wall. "Please! Please Calm down Senator!" I said in a panic anticipating just how mad he might be when he finally calmed down. "This is what we wanted to show you Senator, this is Alexandria! I'm sure that you have heard that I have been taking care of a young alicorn for about the past month and I just wanted to go around the Senate building today and introduce her to the others so that everyone could be understanding of the situation and it would be free of speculation." His eyes were still wide as he stared under his desk and his only reaction to my statement was "Yes I can see that it is and alicorn now." So I continued. "Well Senator Maekit I just wanted to bring her here so that you could meet her, I thought that you might like to know what an alicorn looks like seeing as very few of us Senators here in the Hive have seen them and because this one is totally harmless this would be the perfect opportunity. I'm sure that if you would giver her a chance she would love to be your friend, just look at her." After saying that he seemed to regain himself. "Yes, I do suppose that would be acceptable." He was no longer tensed up but he had not moved from his corner against the wall. "Well go ahead then.... why don't you say hi to her?" I walked around the desk so I could see her sitting under there staring at the Senator in confusion. "Why hello little Alexandria... how are you doing today?" She smiled back at him. Then she started walking towards him, but he didn't move away. "Hewo...." I gasped. "Did you hear that! That is the first time she has ever said hello! I think that she likes you Maekit! See I told you that the two of you would be friends." She had walked over to where he was standing now and he reached down and started stroking her mane. "Why you are just a harmless little thing aren't you? And to think that I was scared of you. Well I can certainly see now why you take care of her Arex, she's charming!" "Why thank you! I thought you might like her. She is pretty smart too, she's a very fast learner. I don't actually know how many times she's heard the word 'hello' but I'd say she must have picked up on it pretty fast." I was positively beaming now, things had gone much better than I had expected. "Not to mention that having her around must be a money saver. I mean I may have a decent salary but a little thrift can still go a long way. Not to mention that using fresh ingredients really gives it a more natural taste wouldn't you agree Arex?" He was still smiling down at her and stroking her mane but I had become completely befuddled by his statement. "I'm afraid I don't quite understand what you are talking about Senator." "Oh? Does the Queen not let you with this alicorn?" "Not let me what?" "Feed off of her of course." I just stood stock still. I still couldn't even comprehend what was running through his mind. I had just heard him use the words and in quite blunt terms, but my brain simply refused to recognize what he was saying. Finally the meaning of the statement that he had just uttered grudgingly dawned on me. The first things that I felt were confusion mixed with rage. How could he think that I would feed on Alexandria? Has he completely lost his mind? Did I just misunderstand what he said or perhaps he misspoke? No, no he most certainly asked her if I have been feeding on Alexandria. The rage at he changeling that stood before me coiled up like a snake in the pit of my stomach. I looked and still saw him standing there stroking her mane, suddenly I didn't want him within a thousand miles of my little Alexandria. I didn't even want him on the same Hemisphere as her. Somehow I managed to calmly but quickly walk over to them and pull her away from him. He looked up at me in confusion. "No Senator, I am afraid to say that one of the obligations of studying this young alicorn is to not feed on her emotions." I said in a surprisingly calm and collected way. Though on the inside I did not feel like it on the outside I was certain that I still appeared very logical and emotionless. The look on Senator Maekit's face however told me otherwise. Suddenly Senator Kytlus spoke up from the doorway that he had been covertly hiding in the entire time. "Well now lets all calm down Senators. I believe that we have some documents here to have signed by the dear Senator Maekit. Senator, would you care to do the honors?" Maekit looked toward Kytlus, then walked calmly away from me and toward his desk to sign the papers that lay there. * * * "Do you want to go ahead and tell me what the buck all that was about?" Kytlus said as we walked down the hall away from Senator Maekit's office. "All what?" I said knowing fully well what he was talking about. "That little freakout session you had when he mentioned feeding off of that 'thing'!" "oh....that..... Was it really that obvious?" "Yes Arex. Yes, it was pretty dang obvious." "oh...oops." He sighed. "Arex, You seem to be getting a little more attached to that thing than necessary. This is why they sent me to your home this morning. This is exactly the kind of thing that we were afraid of. We were afraid that you have developed some kind of unhealthy fixation on some little nymph, that not only isn't just not yours! It's not even the same species! You have to stop this kind of thing Arex, that animal walking behind us right now is not a changeling. It's not as smart as a changeling nymph would be, it's not cute, it's not not going to be nice when it gets older, and THIS is not natural. What I'm trying to say Arex, is that it's not yours. It's just not your 'little Alexandria'." "Kytlus, I am not under the impression that she is my nymph. I know what she is and that is an alicorn. She is not a changeling. But I can't just let her be used as food for us, she's an innocent creature and she deserves the right to life just as much as we do. All I'm saying is that we don't have the RIGHT to kill her. She never did anything bad to us." "Woah Woah Woah! Wait a minute. What do you mean 'I can't just let her be used as food for us'? Did you even have to take care of her? I this something that you are doing for the good of the Hive right now, or is something that is happening because YOU want it to?" "Oh give me a break! Like everything YOU have ever done was for the good of the Hive! Like YOU have never taken advantage of the system for your own personal benefit! In fact you've done it more than I have!" "Arex how does this benefit you! Listen to yourself! It is true that you never used your influence like the rest of us did and we all respected you for that, but this will put your entire reputation into jeopardy. Just try to think logically for a second and come to terms with reality. That 'thing' is not helping you and it would be good of you to just dump it. It can only hurt you and you have already sacrificed much, much more than you needed to for that little alicorn. And if you think that it will ever be grateful than you are dead wrong because to that thing, you are what you are, and that is a changeling. Alicorns don't like changelings. They never have and they never will and when it gets older it will kill you as easily as you should be killing it right now." I just looked at him. "Oh? And what makes you so sure of that? How do you know how she thinks? You can't speak for her. So I think that I will wait until she can speak for herself before I decide what to do with her. I'm not saying that I'm going to keep her for sure Ok Kytlus? All I'm saying is that I'm going to give it a little bit of time and we will see where this takes us. Is that all right with you?" He seemed to mull it over for a little while. Finally, "Yeah sure. I guess that would be Ok. Just try not to get too attached to the thing. I guarantee that it can't feel the same way about you that you do about it. So don't get yourself into a mess alright buddy?" "Don't worry. I won't." "Now Senator, I do believe that we have two more signatures to collect and a few more introductions to give." "I must agree my fine Senator!" I said cheerfully. The rest of the morning went by mostly uneventfully with a few gasping changelings here and a few uncomfortable senators there but all in all it was probably the most fun that Alexandria had had in months judging by how much talking and smiling she did. After we made introductions to almost half of all the Senators in the building we went back to my office for me to do some paperwork. That she enjoyed significantly less but she still seemed to have pretty good time. All in all I would say it was a pretty good day. Yeah, It was a pretty good day.