“Kuno?” Warden asked worriedly, taking a step backwards. He winced as he moved, trying to ‘feel’ his way back, even though that was physically impossible in his condition.
“W-Warden… put that down…” Kuno murmured, staring out the doorway, at the ranks of changelings bowing to her. She stepped forwards uncertainly, her wings buzzing anxiously. One of her hooves lifted, and her voice trembled as she tried to sound commanding. “R-rise.”
The soft clicks of chitin rubbing against itself was amplified a hundred times as all of the changelings rose as one.
Warden took another step backwards. “Kuno… what’s happening?”
“Who speaks for the hive?” Kuno asked, her tone levelling off, no longer wavering as strongly.
There was a murmur between the changelings, like wind rustling across grassy plains. After several long moments, the sea of changelings parted, and a single, nondescript changeling stepped forwards.
The changeling paused, bowing deeply. “I speak for us.” The changeling sounded female to Warden
“Do you have a name?” Kuno asked softly.
“I… do not,” the changeling said after a pause. “Should I?”
Kuno frowned deeply, biting her bottom lip. “It is irrelevant. Come, we will talk in the garden. Warden?”
Warden perked his ears upwards. “Yes?”
“You can wait here, if you don’t want to come,” Kuno said quietly.
Warden bit his bottom lip, dancing back and forth a few steps. “I… The last time I went anywhere near this many changelings I ended up under a spell. Will you be… you when you get back?”
“I’ll be me,” Kuno promised, nodding gently, and then raising a hoof towards the garden. “Come, all of you,” she ordered, stalking up the length of the path. The changelings parted for her movement, like a school of fish parting around a predator.
Warden frowned deeply, watching his wife disappear into the sea of changelings.
“It’s fine,” Kuno said, waving off the two royal guards who approached at the sight of the changeling army right there in Canterlot. They paused at Kuno’s dismissal, and exchanged words with eachother.
After a moment, the pegasus guard turned and took to the air, heading in the direction of the castle, whose spires were visible in the distance over the large manor. The unicorn guard was stuck awkwardly watching the crowd of changelings, trying his best to look imposing and failing miserably.
Kuno largely ignored the remaining guard, taking the rest of the changelings to a secluded part of the garden. A magical lantern hung in a tree was the only illumination, casting a soft blue light over the gathered changelings.
Swallowing nervously, Kuno sat down in front of the changelings, waving a hoof for attention. “Speaker?”
“Is that my new name?” the changeling asked earnestly.
“No!” Kuno snapped, eyes narrowing at the changeling, glowering slightly. “I am not your Queen. Not yet. My word is not law.”
“I… very well,” the changeling said, bowing deeply.
“What… what has happened?” Kuno asked helplessly. “Why did you choose me?”
The changeling looked left and then right, frowning slightly. “We… don’t know where to begin.”
“Start with… Chrysalis’ death,” Kuno said quietly.
Warden swallowed thickly, grasping at his old guard spear with clumsy hooves. He no longer had his chest piece, as he had never gotten it back after it was destroyed by Chrysalis. But his helm was sitting askew on his head, fitted wrong for his unkempt mane.
Shuddering faintly, and then setting his jaw, Warden marched out of the doorway. He paused then, confused, not seeing the changelings anywhere. Off to his left, the remaining royal guard that had been guarding the aurora field was watching a line of hedges with the alert kind of tension of a roused guard dog.
Warden turned, marching towards the hedges, managing to trip only once, recovering quickly. Rounding the corner of the hedge, he almost ran right into the back of a wall of changelings.
The closest changeling turned, regarding him with a cold blue gaze.
Warden swallowed thickly, feeling cold sweat trickling down his brow. “I-I want to be next to wife.”
The changeling stared at him, and then shuffled to the side, creating a narrow kind of pathway.
Wincing deeply, Warden squeezed into the gap, starting to walk through the crowd carefully, trying his very best not to touch anything. At one point, he felt the brush of a changeling’s wing against his haunch, and he yelped in a very non-threatening way, bolting towards the front of the crowd. He panted hard, leaning on the spear, moving to stand beside Kuno, half-protectively, and half for protection.
“You should have stayed in the house,” Kuno said quietly.
“I’m not letting you face all this alone,” Warden responded, planting the butt of his spear against the grass firmly. “Whatever… this all is.”
“They want me to be their Queen,” Kuno said quietly, turning to regard the speaker for the changeling again. “Leave us. I wish to talk to my mate.”
The speaker nodded carefully, bowing and then withdrawing. The rest of the changelings seemed to melt into the darkness, disappearing but for the eerie glow of their eyes in the darkness.
“Queen?” Warden asked blankly. “Because you killed Chrysalis?”
“That is usually how succession works in the changeling structure… but that’s not the only reason,” Kuno explained awkwardly. “We don’t have… strict rules like ponies. It’s a… a meritocracy. If you can overthrow the Queen, or convince the majority of changelings that you’re a better candidate, then you become Queen.”
“So tell them you don’t want it,” Warden said stiffly, staring into the shadows, unnerved.
“They need me…” Kuno said quietly. “Chrysalis… she destroyed the hive.”
“Destroyed it?” Warden asked blankly.
“Do you think it’s coincidence that Canterlot was attacked by changelings for the first time ever while Chrysalis was Queen?” Kuno asked earnestly. “Chrysalis changed how changelings operate. For the first time ever, she formed us into an army. She made us a cohesive group instead of a collection of fractured units. But that… it ruined our anonymity.”
“And nobody thought it might be a tiny bit of a bad idea?” Warden asked blankly.
“Chrysalis was Queen…” Kuno said softly, shaking her head. “If she succeeded, we would have never gone without love again.”
“So what was it like before Chrysalis?” Warden queried, taking a step away from the nearest shadowy area of the garden.
Kuno paused, chewing on her bottom lip. “It was… it was rough. But it was tenable. We just… picked a target and tried to survive. At least, back in my homeland, that was how it worked. But when I came here, Chrysalis was already in power and forming the army.”
“And why can’t you just go back that way?” Warden asked, confused.
“Because the ponies are aware of us now. They know what we are and what we can do. And there are far, far too many of us now to be absorbed by the pony population without them noticing,” Kuno explained with a heavy sigh. “I always knew the hive would be… decimated without Chrysalis. But I thought maybe the next Queen would lead them on to something new. I never considered they’d want to choose me…”
“But why you? You have a life here!” Warden hissed, lowering his head slightly, tightening his grip on his spear. “You’re an official citizen of Equestria now!”
“Exactly…” Kuno said softly, frowning and staring down at her hooves. “I’ve cracked the code on how to mingle with ponies.”
Warden blinked once at that, brow furrowing deeply. “That almost sounds like you’re saying you’re using me.”
“You know I love you,” Kuno said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “But the fact remains that I am alone in the changeling world in that I’m part of the pony society without having to be a pony. I have all this love, and I didn’t have to trick anypony to get it!”
“Except me,” Warden reminded, raising an eyebrow.
Kuno deflated slightly at that, frowning. “Yes… yes you’re right. But I could…” she paused, licking her lips. “I could lead them, Warden. I could make a difference. I could take them from the lowest point changelings have ever been in history, and take them to the highest!”
Warden looked his wife up and down for a moment, chewing on his bottom lip. “Do you honestly believe that, Kuno? That you can ‘save’ the entire hive?”
Frowning deeply, Kuno cast her gaze towards the shadows, where the glowing eyes were watching them intently. Her wings buzzed anxiously for a moment, before she nodded. “I know the potential for it is there. I know I can do this. Whether it pans out or not is a completely different thing.”
Warden stared down at the ground, slowly grinding the butt of his spear into it, before looking up at her. “And could some other changeling do it?”
Kuno pondered on that for a long moment, hoof scraping the grass slowly. “The speaker seems to be capable, at least. And she was the interim ‘leader’ of the changelings until they decided to implore me to accept the position.”
“So they don’t just blast you with magic and make you Queen?” Warden asked blankly.
“It doesn’t work like that,” Kuno said flatly.
Warden frowned slightly, digging a divot in the grass with the butt of his spear. “Well… if you… if you’re sure about this… if you know that you can make it better for them… then I won’t stop you.”
“You’re my husband, Warden,” Kuno said softly. “I need you to understand this and accept this entirely or I won’t do it.”
Warden gave a wan smile. “I died a few months ago. So a few changes here and there are nothing I can’t deal with.”
“Are you certain, Warden?” Kuno asked carefully. “This isn’t something that can be second-guessed. I can’t just abandon them in a few days time if you’re not okay with it.”
Warden held his wife’s gaze for a long moment, nodding slowly. “I understand. I’ll be right here beside you no matter what may come.”
Kuno nodded gently, leaning in to kiss his cheek gently, before giving a wily smile. “I’m going to be big enough to push you around, soon.”
“You’re going to be… all…?” Warden asked uncertainly, cringing.
Kuno nodded. “At least temporarily.”
“Uhh… but,” Warden started.
Kuno’s hoof over his mouth quietened him.
“Speaker?” Kuno asked, looking into the darkness.
A changeling stepped forward, bowing. “Yes?”
“You will henceforth refer to me as ‘Queen’,” Kuno decreed, eyes narrowing.
“Yes, Queen Kuno,” the changeling corrected, bowing deeply.
Kuno gave a faint smile at that, looking sideways at her husband. “I want to say something witty and clever, but all I can think to say is ‘I think I just levelled up!’.”
Warden blinked once, confused.
Kuno flashed him another smile, before a brilliant, almost blinding flare of green light consumed her. When the stars finished dancing behind his eyes, he saw Kuno still sitting there beside him.
But she was different now.
Kuno’s form had changed, most notably in height. Once shorter than Warden, she now towered over him by at least a head. She was almost as tall as Princess Luna! Her wings had grown in size and elegance, and her back was now covered by a lengthy blue carapace. A blue mane trailed down her neck, and a trail of it hung over one of her eyes.
Warden shuddered as he looked upwards, expecting to find the terror-inducing wickedly-curved and jagged horn growing from Kuno’s forehead, but rather than Chrysalis’ terrifying spire of spiked agony, Kuno’s was smooth and slender, with strange lines wrought into it. Her eyes were the same blue he remembered, but now they were slit-pupilled and very distinct.
She was definitely a Queen Changeling but compared to Chrysalis, she looked more… wholesome was the only word Warden could think of. Her wings weren’t as ragged, her mane wasn’t filled with holes, and she was far more blue than green.
Warden could only stare.
Kuno raised an eyebrow. “Never played tabletop games?” she asked, looking crestfallen. Her new voice was a little bit deeper, and ‘resonated’ more. But it was still the Kuno he remembered.
Warden shook his head slowly. “I can’t say I ever did.”
Kuno huffed, scuffing a hoof against the ground. “That would have been awesome if you got the reference.”
Warden coughed awkwardly. “Well, maybe I just failed my perception roll?”
Kuno’s eyes narrowed at him, and she opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off as a wedge of royal guards appeared over top of the manor, leading, and protecting, a royal carriage.
The carriage landed roughly on the grass, and Princess Luna stepped off it, eyes narrowing slowly. She looked up and down slowly at the new Changeling Queen, and then at Warden, a look of concern and confusion crossing her features.
The changeling army gathered themselves about Kuno, forming a wall between her and the royal guards.
“Cease and desist!” Kuno growled, raising a hoof imperiously, and making a motion. The changelings parted, drawing back, but standing at the ready.
Kuno stepped forwards carefully, her new wings extending and flexing slowly.
“Princess Luna,” Kuno said simply, by way of greeting.
Princess Luna looked Kuno up and down guardedly, eyes narrowing. “Who are you?”
“I request an audience with Princess Celestia,” Kuno said simply, before giving a thin smile. “Tell her Queen Kuno is now in office."