//------------------------------// // Answers // Story: Six Queens // by Princess OtakuGeek //------------------------------// There are moments in a pony's life when their brains just shut down as they try to process something. Quite frankly, given how her day had been going, Twilight was surprised it hadn't happened earlier; though she imagined that having several changelings bow down to you and call you 'your highness' was the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back. And judging by everypony else's expressions, she wasn't the only one. Her friends were pretty much a given to be sure, but her brother, his wife, Celestia, Luna and every assembled guard all had blank expressions of shock and confusion as they all tried to put the pieces together. In the mean time, a look of curious confusion crossed the changelings' faces as they stood. "Your highnesses?" The lead changeling asked in concern. "Are you well and uninjured?" Twilight blinked and shook herself as her mind rebooted. "We are...fine. But why are you calling us 'your highness'?" "Wouldn't it be rude to refer to our queens as anything less?" Came the reply and Twilight's brain threatened to shut down once more. But she held it together as well as she could. They needed answers. "Your highness, are your certain that you are well?" The lead changeling asked in concern. "Perfectly." Twilight said in a slightly strained voice. "I'm sorry, but I never got your name." The changeling stood straight and at attention. "I am known as Commander Kormac." "Good to meet you." Twilight said. "Now could you answer a few questions for us?" "Of course your highness." "Okay first off, stop calling me that. My name is Twilight Sparkle." "As you wish, Queen Twilight Sparkle." Kormac said with a completely straight face. Before Twilight could correct him however, Rainbow Dash pushed her friend out of the way and shoved her face into Kormac's. "Alrighty Macky boy, start talking. What's going on? Why are you here? And what's so important that you'd pick a fight with the Royal Gaurd?" Kormac cocked an eyebrow at the nickname, but didn't comment. "We were lead here by the Hivelink." "Hivelink?" Rainbow cocked a head. "A psychic connection between all changelings within our hive." He explained. "It is used as a communication channel and we can often share memories and emotions amongst ourselves. And at the center, supporting the entire array, is our queen or queens in this case. As we journied towards Equestria, we were staggered, almost thrown from the air, by intense feelings of panic, distress and various other emotions from all six of you that lead us to believe our queens were in trouble. Our natural reaction was to fly to your aid as soon as possible." Rainbow and the others glanced up at the other changelings. Now that they weren't panicking, they could faintly feel the presence of more than a thousand minds in the back of their heads, all radiating concern so strongly that they wondered how they had missed that. "Uh, false alarm." Rainbow said. "So you can all skedaddle now." "Skedaddle?" Kormac asked as though the word were foreign to him. "Why would we 'skedaddle' when our queens are here?" There was deathly silence as minds once more tried to process this. "Uh, care ta run that by us once more in a bit more detail?" Applejack asked. "It was the last command of Queen Chrysalis." Kormac answered. "Queen Chrysalis?" Applejack interrupted. "As in tha changelin' queen who invaded Canterlot?" "That is correct." Kormac answered. Rainbow pounded her hooves together. "Just point me in the direction of this 'Chrysalis'. I've got a few choice words for her." There were words of agreement from her friends. "Of course." He pointed in the direction that Celestia realized was the direction of the Bad Lands. "Fly that way for a day and you shall reach our old hive, where you shall find her grave." Everypony froze, but Kormac turned back to his queens and continued. "Following the failed invasion, Chrysalis sustained internal injuries that didn't heal. She passed away just yesterday evening." It was then that yesterday's inexplicable crying made sense to Twilight. "After her burial rites this morning, we then packed up what we could carry and abandoned our hive to find you, as per her final instructions." "Wait a second." Twilight exclaimed as a thought suddenly occurred to her. "Are you saying that, that isn't an army?" She pointed to the large gathering of changelings just outside the city as she spoke. "It is not, Queen Twilight." Kormac confirmed. "What you see is the entire population of our hive. Every single male, female and nymph all accounted for." "Uh, nymph?" Applejack asked. "I believe the ponies would say colt or filly." Kormac explained calmly. 'Children.' Celestia summed up in her head. Now that she was looking, she could see smaller forms amongst the older changelings. "Why would you do that?" Twilight asked in shock. "Our queen told us to." Kormac answered as though it were the most logical thing ever. "Weren't you all scared?" Fluttershy piped up. "Admittedly we were curious as to why Chrysalis would give us such an order, but as changelings the queen is the center of our world and we would willingly place our faith in her if she asked us to." Kormac said then he smiled at them. "Besides, now that we've found Chrysalis' heirs, we have nothing to fear." There was absolute silence as everyone digested this wealth of information that had been given. Twilight, to her credit, kept her composure as she spoke. "Could you please excuse us for a few minutes?" She asked. Kormac and the others nodded. With that, Twilight, her friends, her BBBFF and all three alicorn princesses turned and walked back to the castle. The second the doors closed however, Twilight immediately fell to the floor and curled up into the fetal position. "HOLYSWEETCELESTIAICAN'TDOTHIS!!!!" She cried out as her mane began to stick out. "Running a library I can handle. Being an Element of Harmony and saving Equestria? Sure, why not? But being a changeling queen? I...I...I can't do this!!!" "Hey, what about us?" Rainbow asked, promptly ending Twilight's downward spin. "What are we, chopped liver? You aren't the only one who got herself turned into a bug queen." "Rainbow Dash is right." Rarity added. "Remember, those changelings were bowing to us as well. This is our burden just as much as it's yours." Feeling a bit better knowing her friends would be there with her, Twilight had begun to uncurl when Celestia spoke up. "I may not know much about changelings, but Luna and I are willing to offer any advice you need. Our doors are always open to you all." Rainbow Dash held out her hoof to Twilight who took it and let her friend pull her up. "And ya know, it isn't that bad. I may not have feathers anymore, but I've realized that I can still fly as well as before." She offered. Through the link, Twilight could tell that her friends were just as scared as she was but were trying to put a positive spin on it for her sake. "You girls..." She said as she pulled her friends into a group hug. They sat there like that for several minutes before Luna cleared her throat to get their attention. "As much as I am loathe to disrupt such a heartwarming scene, I must remind every pony that it is late and I believe the hive is very tired from their long journey." Luna said. "Yeah, not to mention we're still blaring our emotions across this Hivelink and they're starting to get antsy again." Rainbow reminded them. "Ah'm not entirely sure Ah feel comfortable with that." Applejack said. Pinkie shrugged. "Maybe it's an acquired taste cause I think it's so cool." Twilight chuckled a little. "Yeah, I guess it is." Pinkie beamed. When they reentered the courtyard, the changelings were fidgeting and Kormac took a step forward. "Forgive my forthrightness your highnesses, but I am not entirely convinced that you are as fine as you say you are. Is something wrong?" "Uh, that depends." Applejack said. "What do you know about spells that turn ponies inta changelings?" "Not much." Kormac admitted. "I know that queens have access to such magics. It is called an Heir spell since it transforms a pony into a queen changeling upon the death of the queen that set it in the first place. The purpose is to create a queen for a hive if the queen dies without a royal daughter." Kormac paused as an expression of dawning crossed his face. "You all were not originally changelings, were you?" Six heads shook simultaneously. Silence permeated the atmosphere as Kormac stared at his queens. In the back of their heads, the six former ponies felt a buzz of activity but didn't understand any of it. Finally Kormac stepped forward. "Truth be told, we do not know what to say in this situation." He said. "True, the spell I've just described is known and usable by all queens, but so very few have actually used it out of pride. And we cannot reverse it if you asked us to since it was designed to be irreversible." Once those words sunk in, helpless depression began to sink into their hearts like darts. It was one thing for Celestia and Luna to deliver this news, but to hear it from a changeling brought a sense of finality to the situation. Their pony lives were officially over. The changelings began to shift around again, but not in a defensive or aggressive way. Rather like they wanted to surge forward and comfort them. After a time, Kormac continued. "There is one thing that we can do for you." He said, drawing their attention. "Since you were not originally changelings, your connection with the link is incomplete. With your permission, we would like to complete that connection. If you would have us." Even through their connection, the six changeling queens could still feel the link go silent in anticipation and they realized that despite their reservations about this whole thing, it wasn't fair to just leave them without a leader. As they stared at the swarm, they didn't see enemies or monsters, but mothers and fathers and children anxious about their future. Just like anypony would be in this situation. Twilight glanced at her friends, knowing that they felt and saw the same, and they briefly shared a nod. "Alright." Was all Twilight said to Kormac. "Let's do this." Rainbow said quietly, despite the normally gungho theme of the words. Kormac nodded gently. "As you wish." He paused before continuing. "I advise that you brace yourselves though. This might be very disorienting." Despite following his advice, the Mane Six were still staggered by what came next. There were no words to properly describe what they felt, but the closest they could liken it to was a surge of countless minds all radiating welcomes and loving comfort that made them sit down hard and cry tears of joy. At first Shining was concerned for his sister, but when he saw her smiling he forced down his fears and sat down beside her. Enentually, Twilight returned to her senses as the feeling dimmed but didn't leave. Wiping the tears from her eyes she turned to her friends to see they were each in similar positions, with the exception of Futtershy who had at some point collapsed to her side. Seeing how late it was and considering how Twilight and the others were in no condition to speak, Celestia chose this moment to address the changeling Commander. "Commander Kormac." She addressed gently as she stepped forward, grabbing his attention. "It has been a very long day for both yourselves and your queens; and since you are now homeless, my sister and I would like to offer you respite here in Canterlot castle." Kormac blink and turned to look at his queens who nodded. Kormac turned to the diarch and bowed respectfully to her. "We thank you for your kindness." ✴✴✴✴✴✴ Twilight flopped down on her bed in Canterlot castle with a sigh. After that, the next few hours were spent getting changelings and their supplies situated. Despite giving them an entire wing of the castle, there still weren't enough beds to go around. The changelings, to their surprise, were well organized and the beds were given to the elderly, sick, injured, and of course infant nymphs and their caretakers. The rest found comfortable spots on the remaining furniture, floor and even the hall. They didn't even complain when some had to sleep in the ballroom. The changelings of course saved the largest bedroom in the wing just for their queens. When the changelings wouldn't be moved on the beds, they had no choice but to offer the other furniture in the room and the floor space. They only took the offer when Twilight pointed out that it would make it easier to protect them. And now here she was drifting off to sleep surrounded by more than thirty changelings draped across chairs and couches or settled on the floor. A situation she never imagined happening in her lifetime. ✴✴✴✴✴✴ Instead of dreaming, Twilight found herself in a field of white that shone with a myriad colorful orbs floated around her. Her focus however wasn't on her surroundings, but rather on the gigantic tree that dominated the entire place. Its bark was silvery white with a rainbow sheen and its branches spread out wide with 'leaves' of various colored orbs of light. But what really caught Twilight's eye was the trunk, or rather trunks, of the tree. Instead of a single trunk, as is common of many trees, there were six white trunks that were twined together like a rope. And beneath her, Twilight saw an incredibly complex network of roots. "Hoowee, would ya lookit that. That there's tha' biggest darn tree I ever seen." Twilight whipped around in surprise and saw Applejack staring up at the tree in awe. "Applejack?" She said in surprise, catching her friend's attention. "What are you doing here?" Applejack looked equally surprised. "Ah could ask ya the same thing." She countered. "What are you doin' in mah dream?" Twilight paused and gave the sentence some thought. "I'm not so certain we are dreaming." "That might explain a few things." A new voice joined in and the two watched as Rarity approached. "I for one am certain that I don't usually dream about trees like this. Though considering how our day has been, I'm not surprised." "Tell me about it." Pinkie said as she suddenly appeared right next to Rarity, making the fashionista jump in surprise. "Normally I dream about things like pies and cupcakes and cookies and cake and fudge and piñatas and smiles! Lots and lots of smiles. And sometimes they grow on trees." "Man, now you've got me craving some of that stuff." Every pony turned as Rainbow Dash approached with Fluttershy trailing behind. "So, what's up with the tree?" She asked as she came in for a landing. "And why are we all sharing the same dream?" Every pony turned to Twilight, who didn't notice since she was staring up at the tree. "Uh, Twi?" Applejack said. Still no response. Instead Twilight walked up to the tree and tentatively placed her hoof on the bark of the trunk...and received a jolt of emotions and information. "It isn't a tree." She realized. "It's the Hivelink. Look. Each branch represents a changeling. And the leaves are memories, emotions or info." "Oh oh oh! If the branches are changelings, then which ones are ours?" Pinkie bounced ahead of the approaching group as she asked her question. Twilight rubbed her hoof down the trunk. "We don't get a branch Pinkie." She said. Pinkie wilted, but Applejack nodded. "We're tha' trunks, aren't we?" Twilight nodded and Applejack glanced up at the tree trunks. "Makes sense. There are six of us and there are six trunks supporting this tree. Jus' like we support this hive." Everyone was silent as the implications of that sentence sank in. "So, we're really doing this?" Rainbow said as she stared up at the countless branches. "We're really going to be their queens?" "What else is there?" Rarity countered. "The changelings and even the princesses say that it's irreversible. We're stuck like this." "Besides, it wouldn't be fair if we just left them like this." Fluttershy added. "They've been so nice to us and I want to help them however I can." "Flutters is right." Applejack agreed. "But, ah still can't believe all this. Jus' yesterday, all ah had to be concerned about were mah chores an runnin' a farm. Now look at us." "I know what you mean." Twilight said with a nod. "In my entire life, never once have I thought that any of this would happen to me. But, here we are. And we may as well make the best of it." "Yeah. And I betcha that we'll be even better queens than Chrysalis ever was." Rainbow said in a challenging tone that made the others smile. "Ya know, I betcha yer right." Applejack answered confidently. The others only response was to smile as well. With a goal in sight, the six queens vanished from the plain as they drifted into actual sleep. Tomorrow was going to be a long, busy day.