//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 The Arrival // Story: Fluttershy The Kindest Changeling Queen // by Changeing Winter //------------------------------// One day before the Summer Sun Celebration. Equestria, Fluttershy's changeling hive. Green fire began to surround Fluttershy before soring above her head and concealing her form. Under this magic fire Fluttershy's body began changing, growing larger till she stood only a little shorter than princess Celestia, then her yellow fur gave way to black chitin, holes formed in her legs. Her feathered wings gave way to thin insect wings, a gnarled horn came forth from her head. Fluttershy's pink mane turned a light yellow and her normal blue eyes turned green and serpent like. As the green fire gave way Fluttershy revealed her true form, a changeling queen mother of a changeling hive. Standing tall and regal Fluttershy prepared to perform her duties as queen the first which was- *BAM* getting tackled by her beloved children, a queens first duty is always to her subject's. "Mommy!" the happy cries of over one hundred changelings echoed through the twisting cave alerting all of its inhabitants to the queens arrival. "I'm happy to see you too children" Fluttershy replied a tear escaping her eye. This is what she did it for, the emotion stealing, the hiding, the trickery, all so she could come home at the end of the day to see the happy grateful smiles of all of her children. Fluttershy wished this moment could last forever but she had other duties to attend to. Fluttershy disentangled herself from her children and called softly, "Primrose please stand forth." A single changeling stood to attention "Ready and waiting my queen." "Excellent Primrose," replied Fluttershy "Just a routine hive check-up today, first lets see what we have too eat ." Fluttershy's hive, emotion storage. "My queen," Primrose called "Currently our emotion storage is full and everyling has either been fed or is feeding, the entire hive is singing your praises for such a great emotion harvest, with this much energy we should be able to last for... about a month." Fluttershy smiled "We're doing even better than anticipated but," her ears drooped "We'll still run out of food eventually." Fluttershy was always worried about gaining emotion, any emotion given to her freely was ok but it needed to be positive emotions. So if pony's stopped liking her she would have to feed of emotion by force but that hurt the pony being drained and there was no way Fluttershy was going to hurt innocent. "My queen," sighed Primrose "I know your worried but things are going fine and if anything goes wrong we'll all be here for you mother, you don't have to go through your troubles alone." "Thank you Primrose, lets be here for each other then," Fluttershy replied happy to have such lovely children. As the two left the chamber one of the glowing blackish green crystals that adorned the walls was slowly being drained by a hungry changeling, these special crystals, or emotion stones are used to store emotion. They are created by using changeling magic on normal gemstones and the more they glow the more emotion they are holding. Over the years these gems have become integral to the survival of changeling hives. Fluttershy's hive, hatchery. Most Changeling hives have hatcheries that contain multiple large spawning pools, and most changeling hives have spawning pools full of changeling larvae waiting to come forth as changeling nymph's and serve the hive. However Fluttershy's hive was not most changeling hives, the hatchery had only one small spawning pool and only three or four larvae. "I wish emotions were easier to get," Fluttershy sighed, spawning pools replicated changeling larvae D.N.A using emotional energy. "I know my queen" Primrose responded empathetically "But it is not, at least, not in the way we get it..." Primrose cringed "because of that we must keep our numbers thin, as you said yourself my queen in the story of the grea- "Look over there!" Fluttershy whispered pointing her hoof at a larvae that had just dipped beneath the spawning pool, beneath the water the creature began shifting its form growing out four legs, slim wings and a gnarled horn. In just a few seconds a small changing nymph emerged from the pool, looked up at Fluttershy and said in a small shaky voice "Ma-mama?" Fluttershy smiled bent down and hugged her new child. Primrose smiled 'I love my job," she thought "Your majesty," Primrose said trying to get Fluttershy's attention "I just got a hive mind message from our intelligence officer, he said he needs to talk with you in person on important matters, its probably not much though he always over exaggerates everything-" "My queen!" yelled a changeling as he burst through the stone hatchery doors "I have uncovered important information that threatens the very survival of our entire species!" Primrose rolled her eyes a little, over a year with this ling and you got use to his panic stricken over exaggerated entrance's. "What is it Silent Wing?" Fluttershy asked a little more seriously than Primrose would have, while she also knew of Silent's tendency to over exaggerate she also knew he was their eyes and ears on the outside world so the message might still be important. "Oh great mother of the hive" Silent Wing Began "I Have discovered which pony will be organizing the Summer Sun Celebration!" "Who?" Fluttershy said urgently, this was important news, the pony organizing the event would not only have to be very smart but also visit everypony in Ponyville, what if this smart pony was also good at magic? what if the pony some how knew about changelings! what if they swept the town with some kind of anti-changeling spell and found the hive? what if they brought princess celestia here? what would she do? Oh mercy on the hive! "Mother I can sense your freaking out spilling over the hive mind" Primrose spoke calmingly "Its probably just some boring noble too caught up in there own world to even care about the celebration." "Thank you Primrose" Fluttershy responded, it probably nothing, just worrying a little too much about the hives safety, it was all going to be fine. "The pony organizing the event is!" Silent began "is, is..." suddenly Silent went very quite, like the realization of who he was about announce dawned on him, "is... Twilight Sparkle...." Silence "What!" yelled a cacophony of voices all full of panic and alarm, even Primrose had gone from serein calm to full blown panic. pandemonium kicked in as messages where broadcast throughout the hive mind "Twilight sparkle's coming!" "Celestia's personal prodigy and a powerful mage? we're doomed!" "Everyling run for your lives!" "Abandon hive!" "Changelings and changelings first!" As the news spread like wildfire every changeling young and old began to panic. When everything come's to chaos and order falls apart, when fear kicks in and anarchy takes hold. Somepony or someling must stand up for those they care for, to rebuild the castle's of order and destroy the armies of chaos, to break the grasp of anarchy and arouse the panic stricken crowds. You never know who will truly stand forth to lead light through darkness. Sometime they only show them selves when all others have failed or fled, after all what better time for a star to be able to shine than when all the other stars have gone out. "Everyling, get yourselves together and listen to me!" Besides who better to hold a swarm together than its queen. The cave and hive mind fell silent immediately, A single resounding message could be heard through both. "Yes my queen," a hundred voices responded at once. "If we believe we have lost then we already have, if we want to make it through this we must keep our heads." Fluttershy had gone from her normal timid self to a calm collected monarch, this always seemed to happen whenever the ponies or changelings around her failed, she suddenly stood up and took control, this was one of those times. "No changeling is to leave the hive unless I say so, also all food is on ration until we are safe. Finally no more larvae are to be produced until I say so, am I understood?" "Yes my queen" the voice's of changelings responded in unison again, untied under one mother. "Now lets plan our course of action for how to deal with Twilight Sparkle, and no we can not capture her. Primrose, Silent wing, Thunder hooves, Flora, Meet me in the emergency meeting room in ten minutes sharp, we can plan our way through this. We always have and we always will"