As the days passed, the changeling barracks emptied quickly. The Artists’ Guild moved out by Nightmare Night and were living in a colony on the mountain above Canterlot before the first snow fell. For other changelings, their written requests to friends bore fruit in the form of ponies making their way to Luna’s Night Court with proof of identity for their friends. By the first snowfall, the guard was considering retaking the barracks for itself and the guards had begun to move on to other assignments. The remaining changelings seemed to have gained enough of a rapport with the guards to write to Princess Luna seeking permission to join the Royal Guards. Luna was still considering their request and trying to persuade Celestia of its merits. It was at this point that Princess Luna received a disturbing missive:
To Her Majesty, Princess Luna,
We have found a small changeling hive living in Equestria near the city of San Franciscolt. It is the opinion that this hive is potentially disruptive to ponies living in the area. There have been rumors of the changelings speaking out in favor of tribalism and other ancient customs no longer proper in modern Equestria. There have even been rumors of rebellion. I have sent troops to detain the hive and send it to you in Canterlot for evaluation.
Your Obedient Servant,
Col. Stone Jaw.
Luna was puzzled. From her interviews, she knew that none of the non-hive changelings knew of any hives besides Chrysalis’s existing in the vicinity of Equestria’s borders. None the less, she quickly contacted the captain in charge of the guard for the changeling barracks with orders to prepare for the new arrivals.
The changelings arrived under guard along with the cold weather of winter. As they were ushered into the heated barracks, they looked miserably cold. They all shivered under their chitin and crowded around the stoves as soon as they could. The last changeling to enter was a tall and gracile changeling about the size Luna had been when she had been recovering from her exile. The changeling mare had helped all the others get inside before entering herself, giving a curt nod to the guards watching. After the door slammed behind her, Luna turned her attention to the guard colonel who had brought the dozen changelings to Canterlot.
“Attend to me in my throne room, if you would, colonel. I would like to hear the story behind this group from your own tongue. This is the only hive we have found in all of Equestria.”
The colonel puffed out his chest. “It shall be done, your majesty.” He strode away. Arrogant fellow, Luna thought. She thought that the service had mellowed over the years as martinets retired; evidently Stone Jaw was one of those remaining exceptions to the rule.
Sure enough, a few minutes after Princess Luna had seated herself upon her throne, Col. Stone Jaw entered the room and what the princess could only think of as a quickstep march.
“Tell me how you came upon these changelings. Spare me the details from your written report; a broad outline will do for now," the princess commanded.
The colonel saluted and began, “Your majesty, I had been hearing rumors of changelings living near San Franciscolt ever since I had been posted to the area. Every time I thought I had found one or more, they seemed to slip through my hooves. After the events of the wedding, I received additional help in the form of a task force and was thus able to more efficiently follow the trail of rumors.”
“I caught up to this lot a couple of weeks ago in the woods east of San Franciscolt. They were in a clearing with several circled wagons. Besides these changelings there were also a couple dozen ordinary ponies in the area that I assumed were their food source. I observed the group for several days and noticed that the changelings shifted into numerous pony forms and spoke very loudly among themselves. The ponies did not seem to notice that the changelings were speaking of treason, of a divided Equestria and the separation of the pony tribes. They also argued about windigoes and what they looked like and other such things. The last straw was when I myself heard them talking about invading San Franciscolt and making ponies love them. It sounded like something that other queen was trying to do, Crystalis or whatever her name was. So my task force swept in and took all the changelings into custody and told the ponies they were free. We brought them all back here real quietly so there was no fuss.”
Princess Luna listened to the colonel’s recounting of the events. Something did not fit right about all this, but she did not want to show her suspicions to the prideful colonel. “I thank you for your vigilance.” She said at last. “You and your task force will be rewarded, of course.” The colonel preened. “For now, please return to your troopers and I will ensure that you all receive a short leave as a temporary reward.”
The colonel bowed and left the room. Princess Luna sighed. It was unlikely that this group of changelings would have someone contact her immediately, as the colonel had, in his zeal, been a bit too efficient. She privately hoped that one of the ponies the guard had “freed” from the changelings would know to contact her in Canterlot. Meanwhile, she planned on meeting with these hive changelings in a couple of nights to ensure that they were comfortable and to speak to the queen. For now, she would leave them be.
Such peace would not last long, however. As the winter continued toward Hearth’s Warming Eve, Princess Luna found herself recruited to help with holiday preparations. It was almost a week before she was able to get away to speak with the changeling queen. As she entered the barracks, she could hear the changelings talking loudly among themselves. Interestingly, they were speaking Equish, not Changeish, and were discussing Hearth’s Warming Eve. More specifically, one of the males was pontificating about the characters in the traditional Hearth’s Warming pageant.
“I still say that Commander Hurricane is best portrayed as a gray pegasus. Having him as a blue one makes him seem less intimidating. He is a military leader, after all. He ought to look like that stuck up captain who hauled us in here.”
“That pony is a colonel. You would think you would know rank badges by now, seeing as you have been wearing various ones for weeks now.”
“Do not change the subject, Feathers. I know very well what his uniform said, but he acts like a military fellow trumped up well above his deserved station.”
Luna snorted to herself. Evidently, the changelings were no slumps when it came to judging the character of ponies. This one, at least, had an opinion that matched her own evaluation of the popinjay colonel.
“Enough, both of you,” a new voice broke in. The new voice sounded weary, like a parent of twin foals. “You have been bickering like hatchlings even before we left ‘ciscolt. What would Shaker and Quick say?” There was silence.
Then the first voice asked “Have you heard anything from either of them, Meri? I know you carried that calling beacon with us.”
“I have not, but that means nothing. It could be that they know we are here, but can not get here yet. After all, they have to get the company back in one piece before they can travel. It is deuced awful timing, I will say that.” There were sighs.
Luna slipped into the room. The tall changeling had her back to the door. “I know you are there, princess.” She commented without turning around. “You may as well join us around the heater here. Just be sure the door closes all the way so the heat stays in here.”
Luna made sure the door was firmly shut behind her before making her way toward the dozen changelings clustered around the stove. The bug ponies were overlapping wings in a vaguely circular formation around the heat source. Only the queen was outside the array, with most of the group facing her in a horseshoe shape. The queen waved the alicorn toward a cushion next to her; Luna took the seat awkwardly. The changelings seemed restless and were looking to their queen for reassurance. The queen said nothing out loud, but one by one the changelings began to relax. As Luna watched, the queen seemed to go into a trance; the other changelings pulled closer together as a soft humming sound filled the air. One by one, the smaller changelings fell asleep. As the last one dropped off, the queen awoke from her trance and stood up, stretching.
She then pulled up a cushion and sat down across from Princess Luna. “They will not overhear us now.” She told the princess. “You came here because you want to know about us, yes?”
Luna nodded. “Thank you. I did want to speak to you, leader to leader, I suppose. Can we start with your name and where you come from?”
“That is a tall order. But you are correct. The best place to start is always at the beginning and to continue to the end. My name is Maricopa Elytra, or Mari. I am indeed a queen caste changeling, and this is my hive. We splintered off from Queen Chrysalis six years ago and have living as a migratory hive ever since. All twelve of us are connected via hive mind, but I am the connection, not some other queen. We all have unique pony forms that we have created as a group, though we only wear them in cold weather. We are likewise multi-talented shifters and can assume numerous forms. What you overheard is pretty typical for us, as we tend to debate the various virtues of different forms."
"In the course of our travels, my hive has built up a friendship with a playwright and acting troupe that travels with us. The ponies mostly handle the stage work and sets and so on, while we do the acting. Our fearless leaders are our playwright and producer, who were unfortunately not with us when we were discovered by your guards. We were on our way to San Franciscolt to perform for Hearth’s Warming when we were ambushed by that colonel and his troopers. They frightened the hair off the ponies and forced us all to shift into our natural forms. Then they brought us here. You more or less know the rest.”
Luna nodded. From what other changelings had told her, she knew that winter was a dangerous time for changelings to be in their natural form outside of the hive. In a mobile situation, like Queen Maricopa’s hive’s, it was doubly important that they have pony forms as well as changeling. “So how do you all maintain yourselves? Do you feed off the ponies from the stage company?”
The changeling queen shook her head. “Not usually. We feed by performing. You would be amazed by just how much emotion a theater troupe as skilled as ours can create in an audience. When we had performances lined up, we knew we would be well fed for a while. After all, one performance can sustain a hive of this size for a week or more depending on the size of the audience.”
Luna looked puzzled. “So, you do not feed directly on ponies?”
“Almost never. If we hit a dry spell, there are always ponies we could depend on from the crew to volunteer to help out. More likely we would have a sort of spontaneous variety performance night at a random town where we could drum up an audience and do some improvisational acting. It was usually a good way to tank up for a journey. We would always have the last show be the biggest so we would be able to make it to the next place.” The changeling queen shrugged. “As I said, it worked well most of the time. Ambient feeding is really easy to do and takes less energy than taking a pony’s place, with less chance of a problem.”
“Do you perform in pony form?”
“Usually we do. It has become something we are known for, actually. When onstage we wear the form of an appropriate pony, then during the curtain call at the end we shift into our natural form and take our final adieus in costume. It is an interesting way of performing and keeps us on our toes.”
“So how is it you are able to speak as ponies in Changeling form?”
“Part of it comes from being part of a hive. Queens can naturally shift tongues, as we call it, and if a queen has a hive, she can pass that trait on to her drones and workers. I have done so in order that we can be understood by our pony colleagues when in rehearsal.” The changeling queen shrugged again. “Fortunately this thing,” she tapped the magic inhibitor on her horn, “does not have any effect on hive communication.”
Luna paused to absorb this information before continuing her questioning. “So… can you tell me more about this hive mind? None of the other changelings I have interviewed were connected to hives.”
“I will tell you what I can, though what I can do is on the low end of hive mind capabilities. I am still a very young queen, after all, and only lead a small hive.” Luna nodded and waved for Queen Maricopa to continue. “As a queen, I always have some kind of connection to members of my hive and they have one to each other via me. I can talk to them without speaking and otherwise transmit warnings or news very quickly to my followers. If the need arises, I can pass food on to them as well, if, say, I am the only one in a position to feed, I can fill up with a surplus that can then be shared with my hive via the hive mind. I have other ways of speaking to individual hive members and can sort of control them, but only within a short range. Doing something like the sleep song I did earlier is something I learned very recently, and it is more tiring than passive hive mind communication. In theory, a queen of sufficient age can control a much larger hive and have more power over her changelings than I do, but I have no desire to control a swarm, much less one the size of Chrysalis’s. All it does is multiply the potential for disaster and changelings going rogue by several factors.”
“Going rogue?”
“Losing control of their impulses and no longer responding to the hive mind. Rogue changelings are dangerous if left unchecked and can become desperate enough to engage in direct feeding. For us, direct feeding rather than ambient feeding is only a last resort action. For a queen to do it is a sign of her coming into too much power and losing control over herself. Such things can split a hive easily.”
Luna listened quietly as the changeling queen finished speaking. What she said made sense, and was very logical. All the same, the degree of authority even this young queen could potentially wield was frightening. To control minds… Luna had her special ability of dream walking, but she rarely indulged herself. It was one thing to guide some pony who felt lost with a friendly nudge in the right direction in the dream world; it was quite another to be there every waking minute of the same individual’s life. But if what Queen Maricopa said was true, it was not something she had much of a choice in. Finally, Luna broke the silence. “Do you think the manager or someone of your theater troop would be willing to come here and verify your story?”
The changeling queen laughed. “I know for a fact that it is our play writer’s greatest ambition to perform before crowds here in Canterlot. I would not bet on him being the one to come here, not without bringing the entire crew in tow. Our manager though…” She was silent for a few moments, her face tilted upward in thought. “She would move heaven and earth to get us back, I think, even if it meant paying for the entire group to take the train across Equestria. I would bet a week’s worth of feeding that she already has a plan and that you will be hearing from her within three days at the most.”
Luna chuckled a little, but then noticed how very serious the changeling queen looked. There was a determined glint in the queen’s eye that Luna recognized from living among royalty for generations. It reminded her of when Celestia had heard about King Sombra all those centuries ago; it was a look that said this is something I must do, and my people depend on me to act. It was a look of someone who knew what it meant to hold great responsibility in her hooves and use it in the way that would give her the most benefit. It was something that Luna had had to learn the hard way. “I believe you.” She answered the changeling with equal seriousness. The pair exchanged knowing smiles.