//------------------------------// // 11: Phoenix's Roost part 2 // Story: For the Hive // by law abiding pony //------------------------------// Five weeks blasted by in a whirlwind of activity, with Twilight right in the center of it. The Everfree Forest now sported a large swath of semi cleared land. Now, buildings rose in-between a number of trees that had been allowed to remain to give the growing hive some greenery. Twilight hovered high above the forest as she studied the massive scaffolding that was being built around the Phoenix as it hovered inside the ravine near Everfree Castle. Her drones swarmed around the structure making sure everything was in order. Twilight received a dozen other reports from all over the ship. One by one, Ratchet shut down the main boilers. The great propellers along the hiveship's underbelly gradually lost their lavender aura and continued to slow with each successive shut down. The scaffolding began to groan under the weight as support of the Phoenix's mass was transferred from the engines to the great skeletal framework, but held strong. The process continued until all power had been cut from the engines. The lavender aura was gone and the propellers rested silent and unmoving. Cheers and songs of joy resounded through the hive mind, but a ping upon Twilight’s mind brought her attention to it in an instant. It was Gear Ratio. Twilight teleported down to the cave where the Tree of Harmony resided without a moment’s hesitation. The cave walls had a crystal shell that was reinforced by the tree’s magic, making it an impenetrable barrier to anyone except for members of Twilight’s hive and the princesses. No spells could penetrate the wall, but Twilight was able to pass through as if it were air. The sound of buzzing wings behind her heralded Aegis’ arrival. “I thought you were on patrol across Froggy Bottom Bog?” “Riposte can handle it. After the last hydra we took down, it’s quiet out there. Not even the timber wolves will try anything when the Clockwerks are with us.” Of all of my children, she is the one closest to RD. “Alright, she’ll probably want to see you anyway.” “Thank you, my queen.” Both changelings hurried down the long ramp that led them deep into the earth. The tunnel was based out of an old diamond dog tunnel system, but Aegis had long since driven them off and sealed the countless tunnels and warded them to secure the hatchery complex within the space of three weeks. Thus far, only the ground had been flattened and paved while work on reinforcing the rest of the tunnel was still underway. A fork in the tunnel split the facility between the primary hatchery and the nursery, with the pair going on the right to the nursery. Pipes cannibalized from the Phoenix snaked along the ceiling of the tunnel until they reached the vast chamber of the nursery which held every single chrysalis for the past year. While the nursery was capable of housing five thousand chrysalises, there were barely over a thousand of them clinging to the walls and drab brown stone pillars. One in particular was being lowered by crane to the hatching area. Twilight could hear Rainbow’s hibernating mind stirring, but it was still lethargic. A few other caretakers were helping several other drones hatch, but Twilight wanted to handle Rainbow’s personally. She gently pinged Rainbow’s mind to break some of the drowsiness. The former pegasus fidgeted in her chrysalis. Twilight repeated this process until she felt Rainbow was conscious enough to understand her. She sensed confusion emanating from the chrysalis. The figure in the lavender pod moved. Aegis stood close by and watched with intense fascination. She had never seen the waking process from the outside before. It was not every day that their queen came down to nursery, so the hatchlings watched on in silence with the caretakers doing the same, only they knew this was far more than an unusual occurrence. Twilight felt Rainbow awaken fully. She quickly sent calming thoughts to keep a sudden case of claustrophobia at bay. Being naturally more inclined to act first and think later, Rainbow complied and slammed her hoof against the hard wax, but to no avail. Twilight planted her hoof on her face. Rainbow was too groggy to reply verbally, so she obeyed without question. Her first horn stab cracked the wax along the top of the chrysalis, with the second having her horn break through. A third finally saw Rainbow’s head smash completely through into the open air. Just as every changeling before her had done, she retched the lavender liquid out of her lungs until she coughed them clear for air. Without needing to be prompted, Rainbow broke down the length of her chrysalis until the rush of liquid pushed her out of the egg and right in front of Twilight Sparkle who was staring at her wide eyed. “I honestly *cough* thought trying to *hack* use the horn would hurt.” Rainbow’s half sarcastic tone made Aegis hover above her queen out of pure joy. “Yes! Aunty’s okay!” She couldn’t help but to orbit her queen a few times singing the praises of science and the First Mother before noticing Twilight was far more stunned than exuberant. Rainbow Dash was easily too tall to be a drone, and the moment she finally cracked open her reptilian slit eyes to look up at Twilight confirmed it. Aegis was just as slack jawed at the sight of Rainbow’s eyes as everyone else in the chamber. Aunty’s a princess!? But - what - how?! She dropped to the ground and kicked a random rock. Now I’ll never make queen. The little filly version of Twilight was running around in circles screaming at the top of her lungs. No No No No No No No! She’s can’t be, there’s no freaking way!! She closed her eyes, counted to three, and then opened them again. Nope still has royal eyes. Oh jeez, oh gosh, oh no no no no! RD’s going to kill me! Rainbow’s vision swam for a minute or so before she could focus on Twilight. The lavender queen was still having an internal conniption when the new princess spoke. Twilight had gotten very good at hiding those in a little personal space on the Link. “Hey-” she coughed again from trying to speak. That snapped Twilight out of her stupor. “Here let me help you up.” She wrapped the sky blue changeling in her telekinesis and lifted Rainbow to her hole-riddled hooves. “How are you feeling?” She found herself a little shaky on her own legs, and rocked a bit before stabilizing. “Sticky and all kinds of ‘bleh’.” “You remember who you are right?” Twilight asked, fearful that Rainbow might have suffered the same amnesia that had stricken her. The thought of it caused the screaming filly to pause as well, both Twilights were hanging on Rainbow Dash’s answer. “As if I could forget being the best pony… er, well, changeling now.” Rainbow turned her head back to look at herself. “Sky blue fur, check, ballin cutie mark,” She shook her flank for good measure. “Check, umm, bug wings.” She looked back at them, only to have her jaw drop. Instead of the red wings of Twilight’s brood, their gossamer surface had a prisming effect on the white light above. Her wings took on the faint colors of the rainbow, making the newest changeling smirk in approval. “Okay, these wings are forty percent cooler than your guys’. I can live with these.” She primped with them for a few seconds before moving on. “Holes, well I expected that,” she said while lifting a hoof to her face. She started licking her fangs. “These feel longer.” She finally registered the weight on her forehead and tapped the prominent horn attached to her. “Aaand there’s the head spike, wonderful, but I guess I can do magic now, so that’s a plus.” “I’d be more than happy to teach you all about magic, if you want!” Twilight’s inner scholar started singing the praises of learning at the slightest hint of interest. All the while the filly tried to scream at the scholar that everyone was doomed. The other queens are going to flip, Celestia’s going to freak, Luna’ll probably just sigh, Mother will flip a table, I’m going to flip a table! A big metal one with dinner and plates and everything imaginable! Rainbow was wholly ignorant of her friend’s internal panic attack, even with several hairs poking out of Twilight’s tail and mane. She tried to wipe the sticky purple fluid off her left cutie mark. “Great, yeah, so any chance I can wash up to get this gunk off me?” “Oh, right, of course, showers are right this way.” Twilight waved Rainbow forward, but stayed close to make sure she wouldn’t fall over. The rest of the drones and caretakers split off and went about their business. Now that Twilight was moving, Rainbow finally caught sight of Aegis. “Hey kiddo, how’re you holding up?” Don’t mention the eyes, don’t mention the eyes, oh First Mother, why?! “Um, n-not too bad. The hive’s construction is well underway, although we’ve hit some serious problems with the forest’s inhabitants. You can see we’re not in the ship anymore.” “Oh yeah, weird.” She sniffed the damp air which had the smell of egg fluid hanging heavily over her. “How long was I in that pod thing?” “Thirty eight days, seven hours, and fifty one minutes,” Twilight rattled off. “You were in there a little longer than I expected.” Geez, did you have a timer set while I was in there? Rainbow would have quipped at her friend’s preciseness, but something about Aegis felt off. There’s something different about her. She looked to Twilight. Wait, wasn’t she a lot taller than that? And… Aegis and I used to be eye level with each other. “So did all of you shrink while I was gone, or did I grow?” Twilight swallowed a lump in her throat. “You grew.” “But I thought all drones were roughly the same height, except for consorts. Wait, you didn’t?!” she lifted a hind leg to look at her nethers, and was glad to see everything was in order. “Whew.” Then her mind registered something was off and she checked again and noticed her teats were missing. “Oh, right. Insect.” “Rainbow…” Twilight found a hand mirror in the shower area and brought it over to her friend’s face. “You’re changeling, but you’re not a drone.” The former pegasus was very happy at her reflection and took the mirror with a hoof after rocking on three legs for a second. “Oh yeah! I’m all blue again! No offense, Twi, but even I couldn’t rock the two color coat. What are you two so worried about? You had me thinking I came out all hideous or something.” She flipped her bangs up to look at the roots. “Look’s like my mane is back to normal too. All in all, I’d say I actually might have come out on top of it all.” The lavender changelings shared an incredulous look. Neither purple changeling knew how to put it bluntly enough, but Aegis tried her best to remain tactful. “Aunty. You have the eyes of a royal changeling.” “Huh?” Rainbow put the mirror down to look at Twilight’s slitted eyes, and then to Aegis’ gently glowing blue eyes. She looked back that mirror to finally realize that she didn’t have normal round eyes, but the eyes of a royal. The mirror fell out of her hoof, barely being caught by Aegis, as she absently looked behind her to see the hundreds and hundreds of chrysalises. In that moment, a vision flashed in her mind where all of those lavender chrysalises were sky blue instead. Realization hit her so hard her train of thought derailed so catastrophically that the engine went flying into the next county. “W-whyyyyy?” Twilight nervously dragged her hoof in a circle. “If I had to guess, RD, all that jelly you were eating may or may not have reacted to the alchemy. I need to ask mother to be sure.” She knew Rainbow was not known for her patience, and Twilight was running short on supply herself, so she opened the conversation to all four of them. Cadista chided. She’s gotten better, but it’s painfully obvious that it’s something serious this time. Rainbow Dash scowled at Twilight trying to form a proper response, so she jumped in to do it for her. The force of Cadista’s outburst gave everyone a headache, while Aegis was temporarily dazed. She hefted the mirror back up to her face. Everyone could just hear Cadista slump against the wall out of supreme exasperation. All eyes turned to Twilight who waved her hooves defensively. “What? No. But even if I had, royal jelly alone doesn’t change a drone into a royal.” Actually, mother never did tell me what does convert a drone into a royal. Cadista temporarily borrowed Aegis’ eyes to survey the new princess changeling. Her control over Aegis was greatly limited due to having Twilight as a proxy, but vision was enough for her investigation. That drew almost as much of a surprise from the rest of them as Rainbow’s royal status did. Cadista sighed more to her own caution than anything else. “The cider!” Rainbow’s eyes misted over at the profound betrayal of her favorite drink. She flopped onto her side and folded into a fetal position while rubbing her tail. Aegis was quick to offer moral support while Cadista glowered over her daughter; which was quite impressive for not physically being in the room. As Cadista and Twilight bickered with each other, Aegis tried to lift Rainbow’s spirits and her head at the same time. “Aunty, come on, it can’t be that bad. Right? Momma loves being a queen, I’m sure you could too if you gave it a chance.” “Thanks, Aegy, but let’s not jump the gun here.” She stood up and dusted herself off. “Alright, so this happened.” She pressed a hoof to her temple to try and ignore the oncoming migraine. “Maybe this isn’t all bad. Can you sterilize me? Or at least stop me from becoming at queen?” Twilight shook her head while the stunned alarm coming from Cadista put everyone on edge. Cadista replied with forced politeness. Fearing what her mother might say, Twilight and Aegis quickly helped Rainbow Dash clean and dry off before showing her how to enter the Linkscape Cadista was preparing. The two lavender and one sky blue changelings found themselves on top of a recreation of Stripped Gear’s central shield tower. Cadista was standing near the churning machinery with the massive orange crystal gently rotating above it. Twilight Sparkle couldn’t help but to bound over and embrace Cadista. The grey queen let the issue of the hour go to hug her daughter. The two shared a long, heartfelt moment as Twilight relished her mother’s love. She may not have been able to feed on that love, but it was more important to her than anything else in that moment. As long as I have Cadista, I’ll never be without a mother’s love. Huh, well now I know where we get it from, Aegis mused with a snicker. As with all things, the moment ended far too quickly, and Twilight separated from Cadista so she could talk with the latest princess. The grey queen gestured with a wing and Rainbow was flung forward at incredible speed, only to stop right in front of the elder queen. Whoa, trippy mind world. Cadista lorded over her with a dour frown that could make paint peel. “Rainbow Dash. As much as I would like nothing more than to change you back into a pegasus, sterilize you, or at least convert you into a drone, I’m afraid none of those options exist or would come at too high a cost. All of the fundamental principles of Alchemy revolve completely around the core attributes of changeling physiology. After hearing about the circlet that started this whole mess, I’ve been spending what time I can spare into finding a reversal, but it simply isn’t possible. Once you’re a changeling, you are one for life. Arcane based transformation spells are temporary, a day or so at best. But I’m sure my daughter would know that all too well,” she looked to Twilight, prompting her to speak. “Sterilization wouldn’t be possible either,” Twilight had difficulty looking her friend in the eyes. “A royal’s reproductive system is intricately tied to our nervous system, and regenerates itself. To do enough damage to sterilize you would end up slowly killing you as well.” Rainbow’s heart started to sink, but there was still some hope left, until Cadista shot it down. “A few centuries ago, a queen by the name of Valinaceria developed a plague that would leave a queen sterile and alive; however, as you can imagine she was quickly declared rogue after using it and was promptly executed and all of her research destroyed along with her.” “As for rebirthing you as a drone. While it is possible,” Twilight explained flatly, “the process would erase all of your memories. With the loss of your self-identity, you would become exactly like one of my children, with only your basic personality constructs intact.” “But you store the memories of the dead on the hive mind, sometimes at least. Couldn’t you do that for me too?” “It’s just data, RD,” Twilight shook her head sadly, “what they see and what they hear. It doesn’t capture the emotion of the viewer. If you underwent rebirth, you would become an entirely new Rainbow Dash.” “So I’m stuck…” Damn the PCE to Tartarus! Her first instinct was to run. Somewhere, anywhere, but where could she go? There was no escape from her own body. “How long do I have before I start laying eggs?” Twilight crunched the numbers, and frowned at the results. “Based on how quickly I became a proto-queen, and the amount of love my children give you… less than a month. Just like how I was, you’re already an adult, Rainbow, the only thing that’s left is waiting for your nervous system to mature to the point where you can support the weight of a hive mind.” Both lavender changelings hugged their emotionally unstable friend. Squeezing her hard enough to be impossible to ignore. “Whatever happens, RD, I’ll help you through this, no matter what.” “Me too Aunty.” Aegis’ wings buzzed nervously at the prospect, but if Rainbow had instilled anything into her favorite niece, it was loyalty. Fighting back tears, Rainbow wrapped her forelegs around them and pulled them into a tight hug, letting her fear of the future and of the present bleed away. “Thanks girls.” Cadista was more than willing to let the group cool off over a few minutes. When she felt the time was right, she cleared her throat. “We all need to keep a level head about this, if we’re going to survive the next year.” Cadista stepped up to place an awkward yet comforting hoof on Rainbow. “The other queens will not sit still for this, once they find out about your true nature. But for the moment, I would like to welcome you into the royal sisterhood. May the two of you lead our race into a better future together for as long as you both shall live.” “Uh, did we just get married or something?” Rainbow deadpanned as she tilted her head. Everyone except Rainbow laughed uproariously, leaving her more than a little confused. A few seconds later she shrugged and joined in the good humor. Eventually, Twilight laughter petered out and spoke while wiping a tear away. “No, no. It’s just a little tradition mother and Yumia started a long time ago. Since they always ruled a single hive together, they vowed to make it the best hive in the jungle, and to always look out for one another.” “Oh, you mean like how Celestia and Luna run Equestria?” “Exactly! Say,” Twilight clapped her hooves together as a brilliant idea struck home. “Why don’t we be sisters instead?! We could be the changeling version of Equestria! Ohhhh, this is going to be perfect!” Rainbow blanched at Twilight’s stupidly massive grin. “Huh… I don’t know.” She turned to Aegis with a neutral expression. “What do you think, Aegy? You want me as a sister or stay your aunt?” The lone drone wilted under the scrutiny of three royals. “Well, everypony’s used to thinking of you as our aunt, and now that I think about it, I really like calling you Aunty better, and we might as well make it official, right?” “Yeah, yeah, alright, Squirt.” Rainbow locked Aegis in a neck hold and tousled her mane, eliciting squeals of laughter out of her. These Equestrians make very unusual changelings. “Then I declare you both, the Royal Sisters of Phoenix’s Roost.” Twilight would have been squashing the air out of Rainbow’s lungs had they still been in the real world. Rainbow on the other hand was unable to fully enjoy the moment due to what she’d be producing in the not too distant future. Ya know, when I said I’d never get a foal of my own, Marephy’s law just had to really screw me over on that one. Once Twilight got ahold of herself, to a minute degree, she separated from her cyan sister to hover in the air. “Trust me, RD, it’s scary right now, I fully understand that, but once you see your first egg hatch, you’ll be a changed mare!” “Changed huh?” She looked at herself. “Pretty sure I’ve done enough of that already.” Dad always said the same thing when he told me about having my first foal. So it’s not that weird. “Twilight, dear, you can celebrate your new sister later. Right now I need you both to listen.” Twilight remained hovering above Rainbow, while all three changelings listened to their elder. “The only way we’re going to be able to survive long enough to make this work is if you hide what you are to the world outside of Phoenix’s Roost,” she directed herself at Rainbow. “Disguise yourself as a drone, have your drones master long term disguise magic, anything you can do to hide the fact you are a royal for as long as equinly possible, do it.” “Won’t that be impossible once the Summit is called when I can finally deliver the artifacts, or if somepony else calls one earlier than that?” Twilight gave Rainbow a sympathetic look. “For all intents and purposes, the other queens would see you as my heir, and it’s far too early for me to be able to have one if it wasn’t for the fact my brood produces love.” “I don’t mind hiding what I am and all, but I thought it was a big no-no to lie about that sort of thing in the Summit.” Cadista suppressed a scowl. “We can not hide you from the Summit, Rainbow Dash. I’m sorry about the new world of politics this has thrust you into, but it would be far better to gain the ire of the other queens, rather than be declared rogue by hiding what you are from the Summit. So for the time being, you two just need to focus on building your hive and finding those artifacts, and hiding your true nature. Hopefully by then you be able to hold your own.” “We will, mother.” Twilight looked to her new sister. “Right, RD?” “Yeah, sure. Ain’t no other bug queen going to find out what this mare’s packing!” Wow that came out wrong. Cadista witnessed a genuine smile finally start to crawl its way upon Rainbow’s muzzle. I won’t let anything or anyone bring harm upon them. No matter the cost. “I trust you will handle it from here.” “We can,” Twilight replied firmly. “Hopefully our next meeting will be under better circumstances.” “Until then, my daughters, Rainbow Dash.” With Cadista’s departure, everyone was dropped back into the real world. Rainbow shook her head to clear the last vestiges of the Linkscape out of her thoughts. “Twi… do you really think I can make a good bug queen? I can command a platoon in battle easily enough, but a whole hive? What if you get seriously hurt or something and can’t take the lead?” Twilight pulled Rainbow into a hug and nuzzled her affectionately. “Don’t worry, sis. I’ll do everything I can to make sure you’ll be a great queen one day.” Rainbow didn’t react to Twilight’s affections, but she didn’t pull away either. Terror stayed her hooves once she was within sight of the nursery again. “I really hope you’re right, Twi.” The warm blanket of love from Twilight and Aegis did much to sooth her worries, and Rainbow was content to feed on the freely given love. She gazed upon the rows of pods covering the nursery. If Twilight was able to make a good queen, then so can I! Hey, I bet five bits I’ll be flying queen circles around her in a year.