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// Hello? 
// Story: Where I Am... 
// by Ozark 
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I've been awake for a few hours now. I'm not familiar with the part of the hive I'm in; I didn't explore much though, so I could be anywhere. The ceiling above me is about forty feet high, or higher, I couldn't really tell from my position on the ground. The walls were made of a dark stone or crystal, maybe obsidian. It looked like it was dug out by hoof; I could see small grooves and scratches all over the walls. Parts of the wall had deeper crevices in them, where luminous mushrooms and plants grew, bathing the dark room in an ominous green light. There was a sticky substance on certain parts of the wall and floor; it was a green as well but a darker color. The whole room gave of an aura of depression and fear. I've been here less than a day and I can already feel myself going insane.
I've flown around the whole room so many times, but I can't find a break or exit in the smooth dark stone. I've called for help, but all my words do is echo uselessly on the walls. It's occurred to me that maybe the way out is magically sealed, but I can't even find any magical imperfections in the signature around the room. It's like I’m stuck in an egg, but it’s an egg I break out of. There are no sharp edges in this room, the edge where the wall meets the floor, wherever that is, is smooth like a sphere. I’m in a cylinder of sorts, the base as far as I can tell is ten feet across both ways and the ceiling is about four times that. I'm sitting, at the moment, in the center of the bowl that is the floor.
I feel it before I see it; a crack is forming in my egg right under me. I look down and see a white line forming in the outline of the crack. I feel the magical seal crack as well; I'm instantly rejuvenated by this light, and the pour of love coming from below. I hover above the crack, trying to see what's below this prison. My eyes haven't adjusted from the hours of darkness, and the outside of this room is just a blur. Cracks are forming I place other than the center of the bowl, all around the bottom of the egg are a maze of cracks ranging from the size of a hair, to the size of the largest hole in my leg, which is about three inches. 
The glow is now the main source of light for the room, the light from the crack is already brighter than the glow of the mushrooms. Chunks of the floor have already started to fall into the room below, and I could hear movement coming from the chamber below. The room, I could conclude, was made from quarts, or some other bright rock. The light was the sun reflecting from the large windows onto the floor, the floor was a mosaic of precious stones and metals in the picture of a glorious changeling queen with light hair, and she looks very similar to my queen. The cracks in the floor are much bigger now, but I still can’t fit through any of the holes. The rocks falling from my egg are somehow fading from the light before they reach the mass of changelings below me. I don’t think they have noticed me yet, if so they haven’t shown it. They look so different from me or the clones I call my siblings. There shell is a light blue, like a mix of the ocean and the sky on a rainy day. There chitin is not black, it is a dark grey like ash, and their eyes are as bright yellow as fireflies. There yellow haired queen is a exact replica, if not a bit taller, of the changelings gathered in front of her. The only thing you would see different from the others is her hair, which is cut really short, and the way she smiles. Her smile is so kind that I feel saddened by the fact that she is not my queen, but I love the queen I have. I have conclude that I am not in my hive, that thought alone terrifies me. l was a builder, secure in the fact that I would never have to leave the safety and protection of my hive. There is now enough room for me to leave the darkness, the darkness that I love much more than the light, but I am to afraid to leave. The cracks have stopped spreading and the rocks have almost stopped falling. 
I know if they saw me they would think of me as some type of monster out of the darkness, I blend into the shadows I’ve always have been told. These changelings must live in some tropical region, I can see the ocean from my egg through the window now. The changelings in the tropics are lighter so they can easily transform into the brighter colors that the ponies in the tropics are known to have. I will have to leave this room and go below at some point, I can't fly forever. I flew higher in my egg out of fear of being seen. On my way up i knocked a larger stoneand it fell. The stone disappeared on its way just like the smaller stones, but it shimmered on its way down like a cloud of glitter. Of course someling would see that, and one did. A changeling about my age looked up at my hole in the ceiling, I didn't know if he saw me, but he gasped. The gasp alerted others of the hole and soon I had a queen followed by a whole hive flying towards me. I flew up and squeezed in the highest corner hoping there eyes had not adjusted enough to see my camouflage against the obsidian. 
I waited there for minutes, I had just noticed that it was totally silent. I didn't dare my eyes, wich I knew would glow brightly in the dark, but then I heard a small cough, like one you would make to get someone's attention, I think it was the queens. I opened my blue eyes to see a mass of yellow ones staring back. I made a quiet squeak, "Hello?"