//------------------------------//
// Teen 
// Story: The Making of a Changeling Queen 
// by Diamond Sparkle 
//------------------------------//

Princess Chrysalis finished her breakfast of mushrooms, buffalo love-soup and pony love-soup and went to class. I really like Mr Opaque, he's my favourite teacher and so kind and patient to me. Of course, part of that is because of my royal status, but he's a nice changeling anyway.  When she came in, Mr Opaque said "Let's see how well you can change...pony, griffin, minotaur, zebra, buffalo, as fast as you can do so without mistakes." When she had done that, he told her "Very good, very good indeed. Many changelings at your age leave out small details, such as the cutie mark or the primary feathers, that would get them caught if they did such a thing in the field, but not you."

"Sir, why cannot I go out into the outside world and explore? I want to meet real ponies and griffins and befriend them. I want to have real friends and not just suckers-up and toadies who are only with me because of my royal status. I want a coltfriend who will give me sweet love because of my personality and not because I'm a princess of the  Hive Nephila. Genuinely earned love is the most tasty love after all. When I was a little filly the Hive was comforting to me; I knew that I was safe at all times. Now it feels suffocating...from the public halls and corridors to the birthing chambers, from the central love well to the royal quarters, this Hive can't be more then a couple of miles wide. I've spent more then fifteen years in this place. I've never felt rain or snow on my face, never seen sunlight and basked in it's rays, never encountered a non-changeling who is not encased in a cocoon for feeding. I've heard so many stories of the outside...of the great cities of Canterlot, Manehatten, Gryffindor  and many more, and the smaller more friendly places like Ponyville and yet I'm never allowed even to fly through the Badlands. Maybe I should just...change shape into that of a commoner and sneak out of here?" She smiled at the thought of doing just that.

Mr Opaque shook his head. "No, no, NO! If something happened to you, if you were kidnapped by rival changelings or got hopelessly lost or fell victim to some dangerous animal out there, the Queen would be furious and would never forgive me. You are the only heir to Queen Nephila and this Hive's greatest treasure. You have to be kept safe and secure. I'm sure that if you asked your mother nicely on your sixteenth birthday,  your mother would let you out with a squadron of bodyguards."

"But I don't want to go out with a bodyguard squadron, I want to do what a changeling is meant to do and go incognito whilst I'm still small enough to change into all sorts of shapes. I want to go out and explore and get real friends and experience real first-hand love-fresh love, not condensed love soup. Love that I have to earn. I want a coltfriend and I want my freedom. Sometimes I feel that I'm stuck in a very comfortable prison."

Queen Nephila entered the room. "Chrysalis, it's for your own good. You are my only heir...if I was to have more then one royal princess daughter one of two things would happen. Either the Swarm would be split as the daughter or daughters who were not chosen to succeed me flew off to found their own Hives, weakening it badly in the process. Or, much worse, you and any other daughters would murder each other until only one remained. I love you far too much to risk having that happen to you. I can't risk having you either getting killed or kidnapped. Ours is not the only Hive in the world after all, and you would make a great bargaining chip in the hooves of a rival Queen. Tomorrow on your sixteenth birthday you can go outside for a short flight with ten soldiers to guard you, and see what the outside is like. But you cannot just sneak off alone and go on an adventure, I need you here."

"Mother, another thing...if there really is so much love to be found in Equestria, why are the lower orders of the Hive so hungry?  They may be poor but they are still our subjects. Why not go on a giant love raid, cocoon as many ponies as we can, drag them back here and there would be food for as all, enough for the Hive to feast on a regular basis? Why must we creep around in the shadows?"

"Because that is the Changeling Way," Queen Nephila replied. "If I was to do what you suggested and, for example, use almost the entire Hive to  launch a giant love raid on Canterlot, in the short term it might be very successful and we could gorge for months on the cocooned ponies. But when we needed to do it again, new spells would have been made to see through our disguises and all the other races would be on the lookout for us. Not only would all our agents in other countries risk being discovered, but so would our sources of love. Ponies rarely need kidnapping as one can gather up enough love by hanging around them with one's emotion sacs open. If we do what you suggest, that love will be replaced by fear and hatred, which are poisonous to changelings. And whenever we need new love we will have to kidnap and cocoon for it, instead of only cocooning rarely when there is a need for it. For a short term binge you would bring starvation on our Hive and the other Hives, whose Queens would join together to remove our Hive from the map. Whilst I still rule this Hive, there will be no love raids and we will stick to the Changeling Way." 

Chrysalis sighed. "Yes, Mother, you are right on this issue. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow...I'm going to get to go Outside!"

*****
The next morning Chrysalis opened her presents...there were pretty dresses and gorgeous jewellery, books and a Changeling  scimitar and plenty of other nice things, and thanked her parents for them, but what pleased her the most was being able to leave the Hive. She happily flew along, doing loop the loops in sheer pleasure at being in the open air. The changeling soldiers, skilled as they were, could barely keep up with her. "This is amazing...it's as good as I thought it would be! The cliffs and crags of the Badlands look so beautiful...can we take pegasui shape and sneak into Equestria, just for a short time? I so want to see forests and pony towns and gather fresh love to consume."

"You know what her Majesty said...that is forbidden to you. If anything bad happened to you, we would get the blame for it." 

With a nod and a deep sigh Chrysalis agreed and flew back to the Hive where her mother awaited her, happy that at last she had been able to go outside, and embraced and kissed her. "Thank you, Mother, it was so enjoyable to go out there in the open air."

"As long as you take your bodyguards with you, you can go outside whenever you want, as long as you stay out of trouble  and within the borders of our territory," the Queen replied.