//------------------------------//
// 21 - Deferral is Energetic 
// Story: Hive Alive 
// by BlackWater 
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It was late but Spike was glad he had kept going along with Rarity until the end. It was a lot of work, but it gave him this hard to explain kind of peace when he spent the day with her. Maybe it was his crush on her or maybe it was just because he liked working with her. It was much less obsessive work than Twilight often gave him.
Nevertheless, he was looking forward to sleeping in that ring thing again. He was tired and it was practically calling out to him already. He could only hope that Twilight and Chrysalis were back by now and hadn't made a mess of the place that he would have to clean up. It kind of annoyed him that Chrysalis just up and left like that, but he wasn't her master. Twilight was the one in that position.
The dragon was walking along steadily across a darkening Ponyville on his way back to the Golden Oaks Library. He felt pretty good besides the tiredness and he fondly remembered the spa trip. It had been a pretty nice experience overall even if one removed Rarity from the picture. He would, of course, never actually remove her from the picture. That was just absurd.
He had no inkling of an idea that he would, upon opening the front door to his home, find exactly what he did. He had to close the door behind him rather loudly to get their attention since none had even seemed to realize anyone had entered in the first place. A hearty “ahem” was a useful additive.
“I don't remember there being any parties,” he huffed in an annoyed fashion. Again, he didn't like the idea of there being some unplanned mess for him to clean up with him being as tired as he was. “I suppose Pinkie sprung a new one on us?”
Twilight Sparkle was sitting before her desk with what appeared to be a freshly drying mane and tail. Rainbow Dash was in similar condition next to her and Fluttershy was off to the side with Pinkie Pie, talking to her about something and also looking to get away from her and towards Twilight. Chrysalis was looking gloomy in a corner but was the first to answer.
“In more ways than one,” the changeling buzzed precisely as gloomy as she looked. “Don't worry about cleaning anything up, Spike. Just go to bed. I'll do it.”
The small dragon was surprised by this. Sure, he knew Chrysalis wasn't all bad, but it was quite generous for her to offer that. Generous...
“Spike!” Twilight finally turned from her focus on her desk. “Welcome back. You went to Rarity's?”
“Uh, yeah,” he slowly came out of it as Chrysalis went back to her moping about whatever. “She needed help with work. You weren't here so I thought I'd make myself useful.”
“Oh, well that was very nice of you,” the alicorn praised and then returned her gaze to her desk where she was writing something.
“How'd everything go with...?” Spike made his own inquiry as he moved towards the stairs.
“Terrible,” Twilight answered to the obvious. “We accomplished very little and wasted a whole lot of time and energy. The very opposite of efficient.”
“Oh...I'm sorry,” Spike felt a little lost as to what to say.
“Don't be,” she dismissed it. “I have one letter I need you to send off and then you can just get some sleep, Spike. You must be exhausted. Rarity can get pretty crazy with her sewing.”
Spike had no grounds or desire to argue that. Rarity really could be a monster when it came to making outfits. But he still found it strange how Chrysalis had been as considerate as Twilight. The mare had usually been that way because she raised him but the changeling was less so. As he made his way up to the bedroom, he felt a kind of elation. Maybe, like with what happened with Rarity at the spa, some ponies (or changelings) were actually thinking him as an equal rather than a servile add-on.
Before he went out of sight at the top of the stairs, he called down. “Send the letter up when you're ready and I'll get it off before bed.”
Downstairs, Fluttershy finally extricated herself from the party pony. “Twi,” the shy mare zipped to her queen's side. “Save me.”
The words conveyed in her whisper made it almost comical. Twilight hesitated to respond as she finished her letter even though Fluttershy was starting to nuzzle her to get her attention. Rainbow gave a weird look and then started doing the same thing to her queen for some equally weird reason. Finally, Twilight dotted her signature.
“Save you from what, Shy?” she happily returned her gaze to the yellow pegasus.
“Me!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, who leaped onto Twilight's back and hugged her around the neck like an adjustable wrench on the lowest setting. The queen gave an “urk” at the grip and used her magic to make Pinkie loosen up and slide off. 
“Stop getting in the way, Pinkie,” Rainbow scowled and nudged the mare out of the way.
“Oh, I get it,” the Element of Laughter rolled her eyes in dramatic realization. She then shoved Rainbow roughly into Twilight. “Time to get happy!”
Twilight pretended to understand that as much as Rainbow or Fluttershy had, which was to say not at all. She let herself get rolled over and have Rainbow roll on top of her in turn. “Sometimes it's best to just go along with her, Dashie,” the queen giggled.
Unfortunately, the rainbow mare was too red faced once again to make a legible response. Whatever was going on in her mind was taking too much of her mental resources for her to do anything, whether speak or get off of her queen. Pinkie laid back onto her side and propped her head up with a hoof. 
“Aw,” the Earth pony cooed. “Now isn't that just adorable!”
Fluttershy could have made some remark but felt instead that she had already spent too much effort on Pinkie as it was. So she knelt down to look over Twilight and straight into Rainbow's eyes. “Dashie...?”
That succeeded in getting Rainbow out of her trance because her attention was averted to Fluttershy instead of her queen's soul-warming eyes. She seriously thought she could be lost in them, as if they were bottomless pools of lavender in a heart-stopping beautiful oasis. But then she also questioned whether that was really her thought or not. It felt like somepony else had thought that instead of her. Dumb hivemind. Rainbow carefully got off her queen, helped her to her hooves, and then asked again for some measure of clarity.
“So how does this whole hivemind thing work anyhow?”
Twilight squinted, unsquinted, pursed her lips, and then wondered aloud. “Who said anything about a hivemind?”
Chrysalis perked up at that and couldn't help cracking a faint smile in her gloom. Who said anything about a hivemind? That was hysterically shrewd of her. Pointless perhaps but certainly amusing.
“Ugh, please,” Rainbow insisted with a flap of her wings. A spot of black ink flashed, Twilight having missed a spot on the mare's wing. It sidetracked the queen's attention and Rainbow had to grab her face in her hooves to get eye contact and mental focus back out of her. “Equestria to Queen Twi. Hivemind?”
“Oh, uh,” Twilight stuttered. “Shared memories, mental talking, that's it for now? Maybe?”
Rainbow furrowed her brows and let the mare's face go. “Yeah, mental talking alright,” she rolled her eyes. “This whole thing is mental.”
Pinkie Pie either didn't get the separate meaning or chose to overlook it. “Can I do the thing now?”
Whatever “thing” meant, Twilight was sure she didn't want Pinkie to do it. A resolute “no” whipped out of her mouth practically on instinct. Was the library usually this busy and partially chaotic when her friends dropped by? It seemed like things were a tad more out of control than usual and she couldn't blame it on Discord this time since he was out of the picture. He mentioned months ago that he had some kind of work that would be tying him up, as if that idea was the least bit reassuring coming from him.
“Twi,” Fluttershy whispered into her queen's ear. The royal nearly jumped two hooves in surprise since she hadn't realized she had spaced out. Fluttershy backed off now that she had her attention again. “What about the letter and the research?”
“Right,” Twilight pipped and got back to the letter. She had finished it and only had to teleport it up to Spike before she got distracted one more time by the others. She hated having him do it since he was a baby dragon in need of sleep, but she also understood how a day with Rarity could give him enough lifeforce for one last thing. That mare was a slave driver but she always put a spring in his step anyways. The letter was teleported and not even a second later she heard the wisp of magic flame from upstairs.
“Great,” Rainbow said half-honestly as she sidled up to Twilight. “Letter's off. Now research.”
Twilight was pretty sure that last word had been uttered with some amount of disdain and sarcasm but she also wanted to know how well their connection had gone through thus far. She then had to ask. “You know about the black crystal?”
Rainbow watched her queen levitate the gem, rock, or otherwise titled item to the center of the desk while Fluttershy cleared the area for it. “As much as you do...I think,” she tacked on at the end. “I'm still not getting the hang of this memory thing. These crystals are what Sombra used? I remember that much myself.”
“Indeed,” Twilight answered with distracted tone as she peered in closely at the crystal.
“And it's actually some powerful kind of dark magic he invented.”
“You might say that.”
“And you want to unlock its secrets? So you know how to face him?”
“You seem to have a better 'hang' of this hivemind than you think you do, Dashie,” Twilight smiled brightly but didn't move her eyes from the piece. Some of her purple magical aura suddenly manifested within the rock and swirled around with the black shroud inside.
Fluttershy was watching just as closely and whispered an “oh my.”
“Yeah,” Rainbow flipped her mane with great pride, totally oblivious to what was going on. “I'm a totally together kind of mare.”
Twilight finally broke her concentration and looked straight at her. “Keep it up, Ms. Dash.”
Rainbow's elated mood kept up and Fluttershy shrilled an “eep” for an entirely different reason. The crystal that Twilight was working on violently exploded and rocketed the three mares away from its former existence on the desk. Fluttershy fell by the door, Rainbow Dash by the kitchen, and Twilight Sparkle into a certain changeling's hooves that just happened to fly into a position to catch her.
“Too much kinetic magic?” Twilight mumbled to herself as her eyes twirled around to follow the imaginary birds dancing around her field of vision.
There was a thick black smoke in the room that made it very hard to see and somewhere within was a chortling Pinkie Pie who was remarking how very fun it all was. Chrysalis noted, as she dodged to catch her queen, that none of them had been seriously injured, but she knew she had to say something in warning now. Twilight's eyes finally stopped spinning but the changeling didn't put her down quite yet.
“You should try not to mess with magic you don't fully understand, especially this dark magic,” Chrysalis touted.
“That's funny coming from a shape-shifter full of holes,” Twilight countered with a wobbly voice indicating she was in her right mind but still shaken from the blast. She saw Chrysalis' expression turn pathetic as if she had been insulted, which had to be amended right away.
“Chysy,” she started over. The name seemed to spark a reaction with the changeling. “I didn't mean it in a bad way. You're just as beautiful as anypony else. No, more so. And thanks for catching me, by the way.”
Chrysalis went even more wide-eyed than she was naturally but her queen turned and went to check up on the others without any additional remark. She was left standing in her spot wondering if Twilight had just said something completely platonic or not. She had no way of getting that out of the hivemind as it was now since only forced conversational links were working and no random floating memory could help her. Not a few changeling curses did she whisper to herself for the mess that this pony hive was turning out to be.
Twilight went to one pony and then another, ensuring each was alright while she used her magic to open a window and start billowing the smoke out. Afterwards, she found the crystal to be gone and the desk had a new scorch mark on it. It wasn't the first scorch mark and she was glad nopony asked about that because there were a half hundred stories to explain them all. 
Spike hadn't come down to check on them in spite of the sound because he was likely already asleep and random explosions long ceased to give him worry – at least around Twilight. Nevertheless, a sound came from upstairs in the bedroom and the queen thought to check on him anyhow. When she got up the steps, she found the dragon turning on his side in the sleep ring. He was awake but trying to get back to sleep.
“Argh,” he grouched as he normally did whenever he was sleepy and bothered. “This better be the last one.”
Twilight took notice of a scroll next to him that hadn't been in the sleep ring earlier. Immediately, her heart picked up pace at the prospect of it being her anticipated reply. But it had been too soon, right? She grabbed the scroll in her aura and brought it over so quickly that it almost smacked her in the face.
Chrysalis buzzed up to her as stealthily as possible and hugged her from behind while looking over her shoulder at the scroll. Her horn was glowing a faint green and her eyes narrowed at the words on the piece of parchment. “Canterlot?” she asked, not too happy with the word or place.
“It will have to wait until tomorrow, obviously,” Twilight sighed and rolled the scroll back up. “If she wants to talk to me in person about it then I can't complain.”
“You're a queen,” Chrysalis argued. “Technically, you can.”
Twilight brought a hoof around and bopped the changeling playfully on the head. “I'm not that kind of queen, my little changeling.”
“I'm not little,” Chrysalis pouted. “I'm bigger than you.”
“Twi?” Fluttershy whispered as she came up behind them. “Is everything alright?”
“Just another trip, Shy,” she replied while trying with difficulty to turn around with the changeling draped over her. Everypony, she spoke out mentally. I need to take another trip tomorrow. This time to Canterlot. Anypony that wants to go can join me but it's not likely to be the most interesting venture.
Oh oh oh! Pinkie called back. I'm going! I'm going!
Heck if I'm leaving Twi alone on this, Rainbow added in.
Fluttershy, being right in front of Twilight, had a very sad look about her now. The queen didn't need to see into her mind to know what it was for, though.
“It's okay,” Twilight assured her and stepped up to place a hoof on her friend's shoulder. “I understand. You can't be away from the animals all the time. I'll be coming back, you know?”
The shy mare still looked depressed that she couldn't come along but nodded and tried giving her queen a smile. Twilight then attempted to nudge Chrysalis off to no effect. She was stuck like glue.
“I should probably go check on them,” Fluttershy said in reference to her animals. “I'll be back to sleep here if that's...um...alright with you?”
“I already said it was,” Twilight confirmed happily and gave Chrysalis a few more nudges, each as useless as the last.
With that, the pegasus left back downstairs and out the front door to visit her own cottage. Twilight figured it would be best to go back down as well so that she could do something of value other than letting a snacky changeling leech off of her. She wobbled down the stairs carefully so that she would not fall along with her holey baggage while she simultaneously decided what she would do with her time given the lack of the black crystal and the answer she received from Princess Celestia.
She finally supposed that there was always something she could dig out of Chrysalis herself. That notion was not entertained for a moment longer, however, because her two other friends downstairs immediately set questions upon her when she came back down.
“So why Canterlot?” Rainbow threw out while eating a very fresh looking muffin. It had blueberries in it.
Twilight went back to her desk, arranged some things to no ultimate purpose, and then answered. “Princess Celestia wants to talk to me face-to-face. I asked her about immortality and she seems to consider it a serious subject.”
“No, really?” Rainbow deadpanned.
“Yes, really,” the queen continued and then faced the rainbow mare again.
Chrysalis finally got off of her so that she could stop Pinkie Pie from bouncing right into them. She used her teeth to grab the Element of Laughter by her poofy tail and swung her around and out of the way. Unfortunately, Pinkie's tail had the stretchiness of fresh salt water taffy and she thus flung to and fro. As Chrysalis and Pinkie went about this swinging and stretching, the Earth pony loving every bit of it, Twilight continued talking with Rainbow Dash.
“So I'll be going tomorrow,” Twilight kept on, suddenly feeling lighter. “I'll have to remember to invite Applejack and Rarity just in case they want to go. I don't see any reason they'd want to but I'd feel bad inviting everypony else and not them. Which reminds me...”
“What?” Rainbow asked more softly.
“I need to talk to Rarity in the morning anyways. I haven't seen her in a while and she came here to get my help.”
“Hey,” the blue pegasus said, stuffed the rest of the muffin in her mouth, and crossed her forehooves as she hovered in the air with her strong wings. “It's not like she didn't get any. I've seen Spike help her before and he's not that bad. Give him a little credit.”
Twilight felt a little surprised to hear Rainbow of all ponies saying that, even if the words were a bit deranged by the muffin inhibitor. Still, it encouraged her. The little dragon really was a hard worker and he had his own special talents that shined whenever he used them. She felt like a poor guardian with the way she'd be leaving him again for Canterlot...unless she brought him along. Actually, that started to sound like a good idea to her.
She had many things to plan for. Thank goodness she didn't have anything set with Mayor Mare in terms of speeches or appearances in Ponyville. That was the charm of such a small and mostly out of the way town. Still, she had to figure out sleeping arrangements. She couldn't go through what she had earlier in the day. Not again. Perhaps Chrysalis could rig up a sleep ring at the castle? It didn't have to be a quarter as elaborate as the one in her library bedroom. It only needed to be enough.
“Whee,” yelled Pinkie Pie as she finally whirled over Twilight's head via Chrysalis' toss, trailing rainbow colors in her wake. Where she landed was irrelevant, assuming she landed at all. Twilight was too busy thinking and starting to draw up a checklist on her desk while pulling out various research books from the library shelves using her most base magic.
Chrysalis drew up by her side, getting a little tense look with Rainbow on Twilight's other side. She gave her queen an okay sign to indicate she had taken care of Pinkie Pie but went unnoticed and Pinkie slowly poked her head from behind Rainbow Dash anyway. Not that it mattered how she got there. The changeling sighed, relenting that only the alicorn could truly handle The Pink One.
“Want a cupcake?” Pinkie asked with an unnecessary slowness, as if it would somehow entice a yes. “Oh! Maybe a fresh muffin?”
Chrysalis shrugged. “One of each, I suppose.”
“Whoa, girl!” Pinkie shot out from behind Rainbow and took on faux shock. “So daring!”
Rainbow facehoofed, Twilight didn't notice, and Chrysalis nodded with a sly look. It was true. She lived oh so very on the edge.









“Why, sister?” Princess Luna asked honestly and with no hint of judgment. She really just wanted to know something she currently didn't. “Why didn't you tell her the truth when it happened?”
“I did tell her the truth,” Princess Celestia responded from her bed where she laid atop the sheets. They were both once more in her bedroom, though it might be clarified that Luna had been the one to enter without having been called there. She did that often these days. “And I think I've been rather lenient in the whole matter. I gave her a minimal guard, withheld the servants, and allowed her to remain in Ponyville. I've even gone to the trouble of ordering all press and the less upstanding ponies from bothering her.”
“You mean you gave me that job,” Luna pursed her lips in indignation. She continued pacing about the room for some inexplicable reason. “Hardly any time for anypony else, but plenty of time for Twilight Sparkle. You're even pushing it onto me now.”
It was rare for Luna to use that tone of voice with her, which made Celestia worry. “Lulu...?” she spoke in her kind voice. “I thought you liked Twilight. Don't you like her?”
“Like her? Hah,” Luna laughed. “She's a fine pony in her own right. But she's not everything you've set her up to be!”
Ah, the elder sister realized. So this was what it was all about. She had known her sibling long enough to know when jealousy was rearing its ugly head. For a thousand years did she have time to think about how she would treat her sister when she came back but none of those plans involved inciting jealousy. Celestia sighed. For all her age, she still made mistakes she had to reconcile.
“Lulu,” the white alicorn spoke with the same kind tone, not wanting to aggravate her sister. She had to repeat the name to get her attention, since Luna was now rapidly pacing about the bedroom with puffed cheeks of hurtfulness. “Lulu, I'm sorry. It's because I moved back our secret garden picnic, isn't it?”
The Mare of the Night finally stopped in her tracks, but her back was to Celestia and she did not turn to face her. She just stood silent.
“I'm sorry, Lulu,” Celestia apologized honestly. “I know you don't like it when-”
Luna whipped around now with an upset expression and cut her sister off. “Every time you reschedule, it just means you will reschedule it again because it's clearly not important to you. You did that to my one thousand three hundred twenty-ninth birthday for twelve months until you simply celebrated it with my thirtieth! All because you were too busy with the griffons to bother!” 
This was escalating quickly to go down the path of the Royal Canterlot Voice. There were even tiny tears in Luna's eyes. Celestia could tell. It was her sister, after all. And, to be fair, what she said was entirely true even if Celestia hadn't meant to be so insensitive about that particular birthday.
“Lulu,” Celestia repeated in some subconscious hope that she could calm Luna down by doing so. “I did apologize for that-”
“Thy apology meanest ash if thou intendest only to REPEAT THY TRANSGRESSIONS!”
Royal Canterlot Voice: avoidance failed. Celestia sighed again. Maybe Luna could be a selfish little sister at times but then who didn't have such moments? Not a hundred years before her banishment, Luna had called Celestia out for throwing a most unbecoming temper tantrum over a trivial piece of cake. Being the older sister, it had been quite the embarrassing debacle.
Luna was suddenly wrapped in a light yellow haze and levitated over to the bedside, where Celestia released her, reached out, and placed her hooves on her sister's puffed cheeks. “Lulu,” she said more persistently. “I'm sorry. We'll have the picnic the second I'm done with Twilight.”
“Thy word?” Luna asked, calmer but still serious and stuck in her old way of speech.
“Thy oath,” Celestia replied, using it herself in spite of the fact that it had been nearly a millennium since she had last done so.
The little night mare brightened up and quickly hugged her sister. Still such a filly at heart and one Celestia gladly hugged in return. “Sit with me?” she offered.
Luna drew up fully onto the bed and rested beside her sister. “I look forward to it, Tia,” she started, now back to her more collected and modern self. “It's been forever since we've been to the garden together.”
Clearly, this really did mean a lot to Luna. Celestia herself had fond memories of it but all reminiscing was not given time for the interruption of Luna's words spoken with wide eager eyes.
“Is it still the same or different now for the passage of time?” the smaller alicorn asked.
“Oh,” Celestia moved her eyes around in search of something to suddenly take interest in. She hadn't actually been to the garden in so long. The last she had seen of it, there were many vines and weeds taking over with the stone columns previously decorating the hidden place long fallen and broken. She didn't like going there with Luna imprisoned on the moon because it held too many memories of their time together - hurtful in her absence. “It may need some work.”
“Work?” Luna drooped just a bit. “It has fallen to decay then.”
“I'll have some of our best servants and gardeners fix it up!” Celestia saved. “It'll be the best one since our white water log rafting picnic we had in the paleopony period.”
“That would be quite a day. Perhaps you could assign the Soleil sisters the task of sprucing the garden up,” Luna suggested with a fake illness at the name. “They could use something to remove their excess of free time.”
“Oh, don't be silly, Lulu,” Celestia flipped her forehoof out in a playful manner. “I already assigned them the task of escorting Twilight when she returns to Ponyville, where they will stay to dote upon her.”
Luna stiffened on her spot in the bed, full of horror. “The Soleil sisters?!”
“Oh, yes, the Soleil sisters,” the elder beamed back like a little filly.
In fact, it was not so different from the look she had given when she ate her very first piece of birthday cake. It had been sometime before Luna turned a hundred and not a day after cake itself had been invented. The incident had involved a sack of flour, a mischievous badger, and a stolen mane tie. It was a very unusual story that Luna preferred at great length not to recall.
“Oh, dear sister, no,” Luna leapt on her sibling. “Twilight couldn't possibly be expected to-”
“Now now,” Celestia patted her sister on the head. “They were very distraught that I kept them from attending her back to the library after the coronation and they've been petitioning me every single day to be released to her. I'm sure they're nothing our good little Twilight can't manage.”
“But, Tia-”
“Hush,” Celestia moved her hoof to her sister's lips.
“They're insufferable,” Luna half mumbled and half whispered behind it.
“And they're no longer my problem,” the elder joked and grinned.
Luna paused and then finally giggled in return. She was happy her big sis still had some playfulness left in her besides the drawer-shoving variety. Still, it might be considered cruel in a way to do it. The Soleil sisters were good ponies and all but they had become borderline obsessive about Twilight Sparkle after they had been assigned their part in the coronation. They were, more than any others, four white-coated blonde banner mares not to be underestimated.