Changeling Hive
Royal Quarters
Princess Chr'Aya's Chambers
A small female changeling with a pale blue mane and tail tossed and turned in her ebony-sheeted bed. She had already kicked off her bedcovers. Her holey wings flapped and her rear hooves thrashed as she slowly fought her way back to wakefulness. Once awake, the crushing weight of the Hive's distress fell back on her small shoulders.
Princess Chr'Aya looked around her private chambers. Her green eyes only saw dim shapes until with a quick green flash from her horn, she turned on the lights.
Her eyes fell upon the paintings of T’cheraak the Younger, one of the best painters the Hive has ever seen. A tear fell from one of her large eyes. The famous painter was a victim of the Hive's slow implosion. Her sister, Chr'Ida had managed to save some of the doomed painter's emotions in an Emotion jar for her. He was her favorite artist but the Hive was hungry for emotion.
Few changelings were safe.
The usual sources for emotions to feed on were dwindling or gone, the hated Sun Pony made sure of that. The Diamond Dog and Griffon nations now had artifacts that allowed them to see the changelings in their midst. No more emotions from them.
Now the Hive must drain changelings to appease the hunger. This was far from ideal, most of the emotions were tainted by fear and despair. The higher emotions were better to feed on. Creative types had better emotions but there were so few of them now. Neither the Royal or Noble families would submit any of their relatives for draining. There were only so many lesser changelings and they were needed to do menial work. She remembered the piles of smelly trash that piled up outside her rooms.
It seemed almost hopeless until after several months of research, Chr'Aya made a breakthrough. She hoped that it would be enough to save the Hive. Chr'Aya plodded over to her bathroom to wash up and get ready for today's presentation.
***
Royal Waiting Rooms
Outside
When Chr’Aya reached the entrance to the royal waiting rooms, a functionary wearing black and green trotted up. Even from a few steps away, she could smell that his clothing hadn’t been washed recently.
The functionary bowed. “Princess. Please follow me.” As she followed him, Chr’Aya wondered how bad things were in the Royal section. The floor was clean but she could see that it could use a washing. After a few moments, they stopped in front of an open door. The acrid stink of fear wafted out. Chr’Aya looked up at the sign. It read,”The Hall of the Cracked Carapace.” This was the room where traitors waited before being judged. Chr’Aya looked down at the functionary with narrowed eyes.
He cringed. “I’m sorry princess. The recent troubles have made it hard to get good cleaning staff. The other waiting halls are in much worse shape. I hope your wait is short.” Chr’Aya sighed and entered the room. The ebony door with green highlights locked behind her with a click.
Unlike the Hall of the Virgin Queen’s First Flight or even the Hall of the Dutiful Drone, this room was dark and somber. There were no pennants or banners. It took Chr’Aya a moment before she realized why. The stink of fear was a good clue. Since this was a room for those that awaited judgement, some changelings didn’t wait. To them it made sense for them to kill themselves. So the room was empty of anything that could hasten a changeling to the Final Hive. That thought made a chill race down her back. Chr’Aya didn’t like to think of the stories about what happened to changelings when they died. The stories that her nurse told her about the UnderHive crawled back into her mind’s eye.
Youngling Chr’Aya looked up at her nurse. “Tell me about the UnderHive again, please Nursey.”
Nursey grimaced. “You shouldn’t be so curious about the UnderHive. There is a place for those that look for knowledge beyond what the Hive teaches. Fanged ch’kals with snapping jaws roam the dark halls for blind changelings with milky white eyes. When you are judged by Bykriss the Just and sent there your eyes turn white. Then you’re stumbling and fumbling through the darkness until a ch’kal finds you. Little one, you don’t want to know what it does to you then.”
Youngling Chr’Aya, just shrugged. “What’s a suicide?”
Nursey just sucked her fangs. “Tchi tchi, little one. So many questions. Suicides are changelings who kill themselves. They go straight to the UnderHive without judgement. There they go to the Floor of Flailing so razor taloned Ekreet can walk on them forever. Can you recite the hells for those who hurt and betray the hive?”
Youngling Chr’Aya stood up on her hind hooves and closed her eyes. “The black sun of madness, the rain of malice, bugbringer winds, the rot of flowers...” When youngling Chr’Aya was done, Nursey gave her a bit of larval honey.
That memory made Chr’Aya’s ears droop. After she was old enough to do the duties of a princess, Nursey disappeared. Chr’Aya didn’t care because she had to grow up. She tried to look around the room to distract herself from worrying. Her eyes shied away from paintings of the most famous betrayers. There were no tables, just a black and green bench that ran along the wall. Chr’Aya noticed that one rounded edge had a brown stain. Two things she knew could cause that color and both of them were unfortunate. Chr’Aya just sighed and waited.
Hall of the Cracked Carapace
Waiting Room
An hour later.
Chr'Aya waited impatiently for her older sister, Chr'Ida. Chr'Ida was not the most trustworthy, prompt or quiet sister, but without her help, the project would have not gone as far as it did.
Chr'Ida had a fine mind for magic but there was coldness behind her green eyes. She would look at a changeling and within a few heartbeats tell if the conversation was worth it. If she judged that the changeling was important to speak with then Chr'Ida was all bright eyes and smiles. To her sisters, she was less cold. At least that was what Chr'Aya thought.
Chr'Aya paced back and forth across the shiny black and green tiles while her reflection kept pace.
"Trying to wear a groove into the floor, younger sister?" Chr'Ida said with a smile.
Chr'Aya bowed to show respect to her older dark blue maned and tailed sister. Chr'Ida in turn bowed back.
"Are you ready for the show?" Chr'Ida asked gleefully.
"Not really," Chr'Aya replied shyly and looked down. She wanted to get this over with already.
"Chr'Aya, you will let me do the talking. You control the device. Don't forget our oldest sister, Chr'YSalis will need our help," Chr'Ida said while placing her left holey forehoof under Chr'Aya's chin and lifting gently.
"Fine," Chr'Aya said.
"Ahh! You must contain your enthusiasm! It almost cracked my horn!" Chr'Ida said in a sarcastic tone of voice.
A changeling guard with black and green armor walked up to the princesses.
"The Queen will see you now," he stated as he bowed.
While Chr'Aya walked out of the room to go to the throne room, she thought about the Hall of the Cracked Carapace. This was where traitors waited before their final judgment. Chr'Aya pushed the fear that the demonstration would fail out of her mind. I will make this work and serve my sister, she resolved.
Queen Chr'YSalis's situation was precarious. Her time on the black and green Hive throne could end real soon. Only the fact that she had been able to beat the hated Sun Pony, Celestia, in a magical duel kept her there. It was just a matter of time before the other noble or royal families came for the Chr clan and its allies. Chr'Aya did not relish being in the middle of a civil war. When it came to magic, she was highly ranked. There were few Loreweavers, changelings that dedicated their lives to the study of magic, that could beat her. Then again, the Hive does not run on magic alone. Chr'Aya pushed the unpleasant thoughts away so she could focus on the current situation.
***
Hive Throne Room
Chr'Aya did not look at the curvy black and green columns covered with ebony and emeralds or the sleek statues. Even the large emerald and ebony banners of the royal families were beneath her notice. There was only one thing she cared about, her sister, the Queen.
The two princesses walked up to the Queen on her throne and bowed.
Chr'Bintha watched them from her post next to the throne. Red maned and tailed, Chr'Binta was the largest sister, she was the next oldest. Chr'Binta liked warfare and battle but she was not stupid. Chr'YSalis trusted her enough to watch her back and to lead her army at home. If Chr'Binta had more ambition, things would be different.
"Greetings, oldest sister. I would like to request a small boon from you," Chr'Ida said.
"What is it?" Chr'YSalis said with barely hidden annoyance. She was still annoyed from the rumors that Chr'Binta had brought her. Most of them were a lot of nonsense but Chr'YSalis could sense that a threat was hiding somewhere. It bothered her that she could not get a firm grasp on what was going on. With a blink, Chr'YSalis brought her attention back to the two princesses in front of her.
"We have found something that could lead to saving the Hive!" Chr'Ida announced.
Chr'YSalis's dark ears perked up. The fact that Chr'Aya and Chr'Ida were here on this presentation usually meant that this was something real. Chr'Ida talked a good game, but sometimes the results were well, lacking. Chr'Aya on the other hoof would make wonderful things but then Chr'YSalis would have to work hard to pull useful details out of her sister.
"Set it up, younger sister," Chr'Ida commanded with a wave of her left forehoof.
"Everypony except my sisters, leave this room!" Chr'YSalis ordered.
The throne room was filled with the sounds of changelings exiting. The presenters waited until the throne room was empty.
Chr'Aya nodded and used her telekinesis to pull out the parts of a black metal pedestal out her left saddlebag. With a few pings and clinks from the parts, the platform stood in front of the throne while the queen watched with curiosity.
A strange black globe floated out of the right saddlebag and landed on the pedestal. Chr'Aya walked up behind the orb and focused her will upon the device.
"Watch my Queen," Chr'Ida whispered.
At first, the globe reflected just the throne room then green tinged images began to swirl within. One image appeared, it showed a group of strange creatures walking on their hind hooves.
No muzzle or tails, ears at the sides of the heads, having only two legs. Chr'YSalis had to go through her memories to name these creatures. Then she remembered reading a copy of Bullfinch's Mythology. The pictures looked like Humans, clawless, fangless and semi clever creatures. A clever pony could easily trick a human. Trolls had better stories. Ponies could make friends with trolls, but humans were too sneaky to trust. The idea that such creatures were real, piqued her curiosity. Also this was more interesting than hearing changelings whine about wanting more emotions. Even better, it distracted her from her own gnawing hunger for emotions too. Chr'YSalis got up and walked down the throne's ebony steps to get a closer look at the creatures.
Chr'Ida looked away and smiled, she could see that her oldest sister was hooked. She kept her expression neutral when she looked back at the Queen.
"Please show us more of these creatures, younger sister," Chr'Ida said.
The scene changed to a park, some humans were bouncing a ball and jumping around. One of them threw an orange ball with black lines into a basket and smiled broadly.
Another scene showed the mythical humans lining up to buy food and drinks. Chr'YSalis could see that the facial expressions of the humans were pretty close to pony facial expressions.
The next image showed two humans, male and female. They kissed and then the male took off his shirt. Chr'YSalis watched with more interest. It had been a while since she had been with a consort. The female started to take off her shirt and the image faded.
"What happened?" Chr'YSalis asked with surprise. She wanted to see how humans mated. Chr'Aya looked up from behind the orb with a blush on her face.
"These creatures, these humans, seem to be close to ponies. Yes?" Chr'Ida asked carefully. She knew that the Queen was sold.
"Chr'Aya, please come over here so we can discuss this. Your sister, Chr'Ida, sometimes does not tell the entire truth." Chr'YSalis gave Chr'Ida a stern look.
Chr'Aya slowly walked up to her Queen.
"Tell me what is the purpose of this artifact and how can it help the Hive?" Chr'YSalis said slowly. She knew Chr'Aya was afraid of her.
"The device allows us to look into another world. One that has humans on it. It might be possible to make other devices to get emotions from the human world," Chr'Aya replied.
"So the humans have emotions that we can use?" Chr'YSalis asked.
"I don't know. We need more magic users, equipment and a larger place to work in. If we have these, we could find out more," Chr'Aya looked down.
"Stop that!" Chr'YSalis ordered.
"What?" Chr'Aya asked with a squeak.
"Stop looking at the floor, it has not changed since the last time you looked at it," Chr'YSalis said with a bit of jollity.
Chr'Aya looked up.
"Well done, sisters. Well done. I will give you what you need," Chr'YSalis said.
Chr'Aya, Chr'Ida and Chr'YSalis began to discuss more details about what needed to be done to save the Hive.