"So, what have you decided?"
Aphid watched the proceeding with interest. The eight-year-old hatchling rarely had a chance to see the rest of the hive, what with her duties, but when a grand summons goes out, everybuggy was expected to be present, without exception. Both aristos and commoners were present in the hive's amphitheater, to see the events that would decide the future, for good or ill...
A grand summons only happened when something big was going to go down, something that could change the hive for centuries to come. The hive had been buzzing about this one for a week already. Everybuggy knew that today's meeting was about something that was going to tip the balance of power in the high houses in a major way...
The fate of a 'House Of One' would be decided today...
It was rare, but it happened sometimes: A house would lose a power play, and would end up getting ravaged by the other houses. The servants, like rats leaving a sinking ship, would flee to other houses, and before you knew it, only a few members would be left, typically the youngest ones. When that happened, the heirs would typically be expected to join with one of the other houses to survive... and the primary heir would bring all of the love from their house with them.
Love is power, and the more love a house has, the higher their influence. While the current 'House Of One' had not belonged to a true high house, the love he carried, coupled with that of a house of greater power, like Scorpion, Wasp, or Spider, would place the house he joined above all others. If he were were joined to a less powerful house, then that house would ascend to a high house instantly. The balance of power would shift in an eyeblink...
She wished she could have gotten a better look at the aristo in question, but even now, she had work to do: There was a reason why House Ant kept her around, after all. Still, while still young, possibly no more than eleven, he was probably handsome: Tall, straight backed, shoulders just starting to widen. His fringe of a mane was short, but definitely disheveled. It seemed he'd had a rough night. She couldn't see anything else, as his back was turned, facing the queen as he answered her question...
"I choose none of them," the young aristo said, his voice still that of a hatchling.
There should be a word for the sound made when an entire room filled with sapient creatures drop their jaws in shock. While it might have been a subtle sound, it was definitely there, and Aphid was a part of it: Whoever the young aristocrat was, he was either the bravest son of a bandersnatch in the hive, or the craziest...
Queen Monarch, looking tall, regal, and as thoroughly shocked as the rest of her subjects, opened and closed her mouth a few times as she struggled to find her voice. Whatever response she had expected to her question, this was obviously not one she had been prepared for. After a moment, the queen commanded, "Explain yourself!"
With a voice cracking in preparation for maturity, the youth said, "I will not join my house with that of any other. I have looked over all of my options, and have reached the conclusion that, no matter which one I were to join, the result would be the same."
Her expression stern, the queen asked, "And that result would be?"
"Disaster," the youth stated confidently. "No matter which house I join, it would result in terrible upheaval. If I join with a lower house, that family would become a high house, and would immediately try to increase its status further. The other high houses would descend upon the new threat like a pack of wolves. Death and destruction would follow. If I join a high house, then that house will ascend to a state where it sits above all the others. The other houses will join together to try and bring it down. Failing that... then the new 'highest house' will likely decide to try and take on the throne..."
The youth's voice caught at that last part. Aphid could not blame him: The entire chain of events that had left him the sole survivor of his house began with is parents taking part in an attempt to overthrow the queen...
The queen, her expression severe, observed, "While possibly true, an ambitious young changeling like yourself could use that to rise to power."
The youth's shoulders began to shake. At first, Aphid thought that he was sobbing, but when the sound reached her ears, she realized that he was laughing...
...It was not a sane laugh.
Rising up on his hind legs, the youth held out his forelegs wide, and exclaimed loudly, in a voice that sounded almost completely deranged, "LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT AMBITION, YOUR MAJESTY!" Pointing a hoof towards a group of aristocrats seated near the back, he continued, his voice still like that of a madbug, shouting, "My parents, may they rest in peace, allowed the former leaders of houses Roach, Beetle, Louse, and Flea to talk them into joining an attempt against your royal personage. The result?" The youth drew a hoof across his neck, making a sickening sound as he did so, then let his head tilt to one side. It seemed that his tongue was hanging out, although from Aphid's position, it was hard to say.
A flurry of motion, and the youth gestured dramatically, pointing towards where Lord Scorpion sat, impassive. The youngster yelled, angrily, "My eldest brother's first act, upon becoming head of our house, was to lock horns with Lord Scorpion, hoping to elevate our house to greater status! The result?" The youth spread his forelegs out wide, and his body flared as he changed appearance, and he abruptly became headless. If Lord Scorpion seemed perturbed by that accusation, he did not show it. Cold-hearted, that one...
His appearance returning to that of a normal changeling, the young aristo held his forelegs up high and exclaimed, "My dearest uncle, upon becoming the steward of my family, decided that he would keep the seat of the Lord of our house for the rest of his life, and... and..." His shoulders slumped, then he buried his face in his hooves as he began to sob, too wracked by emotion to carry on. Not that he needed to: Everybuggy knew why today's meeting was preceded by a public execution, and it was related to why the youth's house was a 'House Of One', instead of six...
Seeming to regain a little control of his emotions, the youth raised his head, then said in a voice filled with anger, "If my family were just the slightest bit less ambitious... then I might still have one. I am done with it. Done with ambition, aristocracy, the entire mad Game Of Drones as a whole. And if the laws of the hive demand that I join a house, perpetuating the madness that has already claimed those dearest to me... then I am done with the hive as well."
The queen, a small smile crossing her face, said simply, "Then go."
The youth's head snapped up, his expression shocked. The queen stated, "Dryococelus Australis, Sole Heir to the House Of The Stick, by the power vested in us as Queen of all changelings, we do hereby banish you from the hive. You are to leave now, without delay. You will keep all of our secrets secret, upon pain of death. Do you understand?" The youth nodded. "Good," the queen continued, smiling, "Then be off. And I hope that, wherever you wind up, you find the happiness that you could not find here."
-------------------------
Half an hour later...
Aphid knelt before her master, careful to keep her gaze upon the floor. After an uncomfortably long wait, Lord Paraponera Clavata commanded, "Rise." Lifting her head, but keeping her eyes glued to the floor, the young commoner remained silent. She had learned, the hard and painful way, that you did not speak unless spoken to. And you definitely did not make eye contact with the master of pain spells...
Behind her stood four guards, her 'caretakers', the ones who had made certain that she had remained in place during the entire grand assembly, the ones who would have dragged her back if she had tried to flee... and the ones who would have ended her if she had tried to reveal her secret to anyone in the hive.
His voice creaking with age, the elderly aristocrat asked, "How much did you gather?"
Gulping, she admitted, after a moment's hesitation, "Three centuries, milord." It was less than she'd hoped, but still a sizable amount...
The next thing she knew, she was on her back, her body feeling as though her veins had been filled with molten lead. She knew this feeling: A pain spell, and this one worse than any he'd unleashed upon her before. Dimly, through the red haze of agony, she heard him shout, "The entire hive in your sight, and you could only gather that much!?! DO YOU WANT ME TO KILL YOU!?!"
"Father," a younger voice interrupted, calmly, "Be reasonable. She had to be cautious: Even the dimmest commoner would notice more than a few hours worth of love missing. Better to be too cautious than too greedy. After all, taking too much, too fast, was how you caught her in the first place."
After a few seconds, the pain subsided. Aphid resisted the urge to try and move, instead remaining perfectly still. After a few seconds, the elder admitted, "True. And three centuries is no small thing. Very well. Rise, slave."
Unsteadily rising to her hooves, Aphid returned to her former posture, and awaited orders. She did not have to wait long. "Deliver," Lord Ant commanded, without preamble.
Aphid began transmitting love energy to her master without hesitation. She'd learned, after the first year, that even hesitating to obey was viewed as disobedience... and disobedience was not tolerated.
And all this, because she was born 'special'. She could have been beautiful, smart, athletic, or brave, but no, instead, she'd been born with a single gift, one that she'd learned to hate with a passion over the last three years.
For nearly every other changeling, love was difficult to obtain: One either had to be taking the place of someone that was loved, or it must be forcefully extracted from a victim. However, nobuggy could simply absorb love energy radiating from those around them, and especially not other changelings...
Nobuggy except Aphid.
Other races had individuals known as pickpockets, who could steal valuables from others without their victim noticing. Some were so skilled that, allegedly, they could steal your teeth from your mouth, and you'd not notice until you tried to eat something and realized you were having some difficulty in chewing. But even the greatest thief who ever lived would have been unable to 'steal' love like Aphid could. All she needed was line of sight, and she could begin siphoning love from anybuggy in the hive, even the queen herself, and remain unnoticed... unless she tried to take too much, too fast. She could absorb ambient energy from non-changlings in love, even when disguised as a unrelated pedestrian, a feat impossible for others. She could even transmit love to other changelings without physical contact, another seemingly impossible feat. In many ways, she could have been considered the perfect changeling: All she needed was for the ones around her to be happy and in love, and she would never want for sustenance...
But then, three years ago, she had to go and try to 'pick' the wrong 'pocket'...
After transmitting three centuries worth of love, a veritable fortune, to her master, she knelt again, silently, and waited to be dismissed. Lord Ant might have tried to speak (With her eyes glued to the floor, it was impossible to tell), but then began to cough violently. After a few minutes of noise, his fit ended, and her master said, "Enough. To your cell, until we have need of you again."
The master's grandson, Myrmecia Pyriformis dismissed the guards, saying, "She seems a little unsteady. I shall escort her personally." Suppressing a shudder, Aphid could not object, as much as she desperately wanted to. She'd have rather left alone, even if it meant crawling on her belly...
As they walked alone to her cell, Myr told her, "He's not long for this world. He might last as long as ten years, but no longer than that, the physicians tell me. And when he is gone..." The nine year old aristo smiled, or at least, he bared his teeth to her. While he'd spoken of it to no other, he'd made it clear to her that, when he became Lord Ant, he intended to make her his bride, whether she wanted it or not, and in spite of the laws that would see them both executed if it were discovered. He thought it worth the risk, if their offspring held both an aristocrat's magical abilities and her own love siphoning talent. Such offspring could easily rule the hive.
She wished that she'd possessed even a fraction of the courage of the youth that she saw earlier today, to be able to fly in the face of tradition and do what she really wanted. She wished that she could have simply ripped the love from Myr, leave him locked in dry hibernation, and fled the hive. Maybe she could have caught up with that young exile, and they could have run away together. She could have lived her life free and happy, with no one knowing who or what she really was...
But she was too much of a coward to take that first step...
The young aristocrat from the meeting earlier had spoken of the madness of ambition. In Myrmecia's eyes, she saw a madness that blazed hotter than the sun... and one that, she knew, would destroy both of them.
And because of her cowardice, she was powerless to stop it...
-----------------------------
Aphid awoke suddenly, stifling a scream. It took her a moment to remember that she was not a little hatchling anymore. That she was no longer trapped in the swarm. That she was free...
Free...
An almost manic grin came to her face as she remembered that last bit. Freedom. No more House Ant, no more pain spells, no more collar, no more cage. She could do what she wanted. Go where she wanted. Be what she wanted...
She was still riding on that wave of bubbly enthusiasm that she had felt since that moment Azure Blue had told the guards that Aphid had been held against her will, and that Ring Master, the one who'd put her in that blasted cage, was a criminal and should be put in jail... and that she had every right to the freedom that everyone else had. In all honesty, were she not so sore from her enforced immobility during her imprisonment, she'd likely have started doing a 'happy dance', while singing the praises of Equestria at the top of her voice. Regardless, things were looking better now than they ever had before.
She could have declined Azure's offer of employment, but after the lengths he went to in order to free her, it seemed right that she do something to pay him and his family back. Besides, from the way that Howe put it, they were in desperate need of help in getting the family estate back into presentable condition...
Howe...
Just thinking about him made her blush. While she might have known almost nothing about him, he definitely seemed nicer than many of the other changelings, or ponies, that she'd met, limited as that experience may be. While she'd never say so aloud, that handsome butler was probably the main reason why she would be staying with them. The thought of spending time close to him was so deliciously intoxicating that she could scarcely stand it.
A polite knock sounded from the door to her room, safe and secure in the luxury car of the train, followed by Howe's voice. "Miss Aphid, we will be reaching our destination in half an hour." With a chuckle, he added, "If you still need rest, I can assure you, we have equally comfortable bedding available for you, once we reach the manor."
Taking a deep breath to calm her pounding her heart, and fighting the urge to drag Howe into her room for some aggressive 'snuggling', she said, "Thank you for letting me know, Howe. I'll make myself ready."
After everything that she'd been through, it would be nice to finally have a nice, quiet, peaceful life...