//------------------------------// // A New Home // Story: The New Hive // by ArtichokeLust //------------------------------// Finally. After what felt like years to Chrysalis’ incredibly impatient mind, she finally found a place to settle down. A cave entrance she passed by earlier was now in sight. The hole was just large enough to fit three changelings side by side and two changelings standing on top of each other, so it had a comfortable entrance. It was also a good example of the phrase ‘hidden in plain sight’: while the entrance was in the middle of a clearing on the side of a cliff, the vines and moss around it made it easy to miss. Now that she saw it again, she realized it could make a perfect home for her newly awakened changelings. Chrysalis raised her hoof, signalling Andres and Isaac to slow down. Once they stopped, she fluttered down to the cave entrance. She smiled. This place suited her. The flora that surrounded it extended several feet inside, making it beautiful yet secretive, just like her. She also noted the lack of stalactites and stalagmites, at least as far as she could see. That meant no changeling would get impaled by falling on a spike or having one fall on them. Further inside, she could see multiple naturally lit areas, and that meant multiple exits. And to top it all off, it had a heartening lack of bat guano. All in all, It was perfect. “This is where we’re staying?” Andres landed. “Holed up here like cavemen?” “I kinda like it.” Isaac hovered into the entrance, admiring the spacious interior. “Of course you do,” Andres said. His face a cross between a grimace and a smirk. “Besas culos.” “What was that?” Isaac turned, suddenly glaring. He had had enough of Andres’ complaining from the flight over. That last remark was the straw that broke the camel’s back. “Why don’t you say that in English, asshole.” Andres raised an eyebrow. “I thought we were both speaking Spanish. Should’ve figured you weren’t smart enough to know my language, ass kisser.” Isaac reared onto his hind legs, looking ready for a fight. “I don’t need to know your stupid language. Mexico doesn’t even have an actual police force. That pretty much makes it a third world country.” Andres stood up as well. Every changeling in the vicinity could feel the rage rolling off him. He took the insult to his country personally. “So, you wanna fight, huh, Captain America?” Isaac narrowed his eyes. “I’ll take that as a compliment.” The two stared each other off. The tension in the air could be cut with a knife. Any time now, a tumbleweed would come out of nowhere, and Chrysalis’ future changeling hive would be ruined. Speaking of whom, Chrysalis was not a fan of their antics right now. Her daydreams had left her in a bad mood, and she was hoping her changelings would cheer her up by complimenting her choice of shelter. Instead, it looked like they were going to stomp all over it. Chrysalis’ temper suddenly rocketed above both Isaac’s and Andres’. The runes from her memory flashed in her mind, and something about them just set her off. After only a couple seconds, she no longer felt like she could hold back. “Look, you maggot infested piss-ants,” Chrysalis suddenly screeched. “I don’t care whether you fight now or just stand there forever, but if you break so much as one flower stem, I will personally give you some new holes!” Both of the changelings jumped. Being the first to recover, Andres turned. “Maggot infested piss ants?” His stunned face sported a small smirk. “How fitting.” Chrysalis noticed a broken flower stem under Andres’ back hoof and her eyes narrowed. She stopped herself from making good on her promise though; one broken flower could have just been a mistake. However, both changelings still felt her piercing rage burn past them, and it was hard to miss the bulging veins on her face. Andres followed her gaze, noticing the broken flower stem. Looking back up with a mean smirk, he raised his right hoof, and then stomped down hard on a beautiful bed of flowers, twisting his hoof left and right so they were fully demolished. Chrysalis started seeing those runes flash again. She saw the flowers near her breaking and bending, twisting and warping, as if space itself was taunting her. She lit her horn. A voice in her head told her she should just siphon Andres’ love away, that some other changeling could make better use of it. If he was just a monster that didn’t care about his fellow changelings and their new home, then— Wait, what was she thinking? Hurt one of her changelings? Kill them by removing all their love? She would never do that! They’d been there for her for more years than she could count! Though, Andres was being a jerk right now, so she couldn’t just do nothing. She kept her horn lit. Andres squinted at the strange glow coming from Chrysalis. He noticed himself lifting off the ground and started struggling, but his flailing only managed to annoy her and maybe make the levitation a little shaky. Chrysalis flung Andres into the distance, making sure he wouldn’t hit any trees. He was little more than a dot by the time he recovered. That was probably far enough. She turned and was about to walk back into the cave. But before she could take a single step, she felt his rage pick up and she heard him flying back towards her. She sighed, her anger building up again as she turned back to face him. But before she could do anything, Isaac’s hoof filled her vision in the classic ‘stop’ gesture. He shook his head. “I can take care of Andres. You… you should go cool off.” He looked at her with knitted brows that just screamed ‘What is going on with you?’ After hesitantly nodding back, she took a few breaths to calm her anger.  In… Out… In… Out... After the small calming exercise, she turned around, peering into what was soon to be her next changeling hideout. Normally she would’ve loved to see a fight, but she needed to cool down. Right now, nature was the one thing that didn’t seem like it wanted to set her off. Chrysalis trotted silently into the cavern. While it was quite spacious, it had some of the ugly rolling curves of her old hive, and everything was an unsightly shade of dark yellow. And now that she was looking around from further inside, she saw a few stalactites that might fall if left unchecked. While the cave around her wasn’t what she would call beautiful, when she was done with the place, it would be a home both ponies and dragons would be envious of. The rolling curves and unsightly hues would be hidden away under wood and soil, the lit areas under the openings above would be turned into great halls and parks, and the yellow-brown walls would be hidden behind all the giant mushroom shaped towers. Ah yes, if there was one thing she agreed with ponies on, it was making their monuments so phallic shaped. Nothing said ‘fun place to be’ or ‘about to burst with love’ quite like phallic architecture piercing the sky. Heck, maybe she would cram a few of those towers into some of the skylights the cave had instead of putting parks there. She’d make sure every tower would fit through the holes, even if she had to squeeze them together. She could just use some mirrors for the important natural light, and it could still function as a park, just as a slightly more phallic one. Okay, maybe a few things said ‘fun place to be’ more than simple phallic architecture. The image of what was going to happen to those skylights probably would’ve made most ponies think ‘whoa, that’s a bit too much fun for me.’ It wasn’t too much fun for Chrysalis though. In fact, that might’ve been one of the tamer things she could think of doing with mushroom shaped architecture. She could probably get lost in the possibilities... Chrysalis wandered deeper and deeper into the cavern, imagining her mushroom utopia. She only realized she might’ve wandered a bit too far when she had to use a light spell to see. Luckily, after whipping her head around a bit, she recognized some of the familiar skylight patterns. As she walked back though, she became less and less sure of the patterns around her. Hadn’t she seen that one skylight before? Or that one over there? Every step she took led her to a more and more uncertain area, and she was beginning to realize how easy it would be to take one wrong step and lose herself in that cave system forever. So when she finally saw the familiar light of the entrance, she was understandably relieved, and she made a mad dash for freedom. Chrysalis burst out of the cave, gasping for air. That was a little too close. Normally if she ever got lost, she could feel for her hive-links and figure out where she was relative to her changelings, but she wasn’t sure that would help in a cave. Now where were Andres and Isaac? She needed to see some familiar faces after that horrible feeling of being lost. Ah! There they were! She saw Isaac and Andres struggling between some trees. But that was strange; real fights usually only lasted for a few seconds, and she was sure she’d been wandering for several minutes. Oh, so that’s how it was. Now that she got a closer look, she realized they weren’t really fighting anymore. Isaac was holding down Andres, who looked like he was going berserk. Isaac was also trying to tie some vines around Andres, but Andres kept breaking free. Wait a minute, that was perfect! Now she knew how to fix everything! With her solution in mind, Chrysalis flew over to Isaac’s and Andres’ battleground and collected some of the vines Isaac kept trying to tie up Andres with. She ignored their confused glances and flew back to the cave as she tied the vines together in her magic. Now that she was back, she noticed a few more openings near the entrance of the cave, ripe for exploring. Since she had a rope now, she fastened it to the nearest sturdy looking rock and jumped into one of the many holes. As she fell, a quick light spell made everything around her clear. It was beautiful. Near the main entrance, there was only limestone. But here, hexagonal crystals of every color jutted out, increasing in size the closer they got to an underground river. It was like a beautiful stained glass picture had been shattered, yet still retained all of its beauty. Perhaps she could use the crystals for windows when she was building things. Speaking of windows, that was another thing she agreed with ponies about. She loved it when ponies would ‘accidentally’ leave their blinds open when they were doing certain deeds. Not only was it a nice snack whenever she wandered by, but sometimes she actually learned things. Perhaps since changelings weren’t as untrusting as ponies, she could make everything out of glass. There would be no need for blinds when everybug accepted everybug around them. Smiling at her thoughts, she walked up to a particularly large green and pink tourmaline crystal and stuck her hoof behind it. Sure enough, she could see through the thing. But she noticed something else when she looked around the room: even though there were plenty of crystals, there definitely weren’t enough to make a transparent city out of. She’d need another way to make her ‘open windows’ city. Hmm... Couldn’t sand turn into glass somehow? She was sure she saw a beach with— “Chrysalis!” She jumped at Isaac’s sudden call. “Chrys?” Well, there wasn’t much more she could see in this cavern unless she went underwater. Might as well find out what Isaac was up to. She could feel a good amount of smug self-satisfaction pouring out of him. That probably meant he finally managed to tie Andres up. She flew out of the crystal room and landed with a bang, startling her changeling just like he startled her. Revenge was always sweet, even if it was sometimes petty. “Yes?” She smirked playfully. “Oh! So you really were beneath me. I thought it was just a weird gut feeling.” He stopped, letting go of a rope connected to a huge bundle of vines, presumably containing Andres. “Uh, are you blushing?” Chrysalis touched her cheeks. They were a bit hot. “Uh.” She blinked. “I was thinking about architecture.” Isaac blinked. “What?” Chrysalis smirked and forgot her reluctance. She couldn’t talk about these things with ponies, but changelings weren’t ponies. She cleared her throat. “Every great society erects huge phallic structures as a testament to their greatness, and I don’t plan on stopping that trend. No, I’ll take it one step further!” She threw a foreleg over Isaac’s shoulder, sweeping her other leg across his view of the cave. “Because of how great our society will be, every building will be a phallic structure. The only thing that won’t be will be the statue of me in the center.” Isaac’s eyebrows rose. Chrysalis continued, “And unlike those other species that are all about closing themselves off from each other, we will be a windows open, no blinds society. To be completely transparent, everything will be made of glass!” “...Ookay then...” Isaac said slowly. He clearly thought she was joking, so he let out a moderately concerned chuckle. Chrysalis turned to him, her head tilted. That wasn’t the reaction she expected. Now that Isaac was looking directly at Chrysalis, he accepted that she wasn’t joking. He cleared his throat. “Okay, I think some people are going to want privacy,” he said. “And I don’t really want to live in dick-city.” Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Nonsense. Ponies and other species build walls between each other and keep things secret because they don’t trust each other. Changelings are better than that. We trust and accept each other, so we have nothing to hide.” Chrysalis could feel something change in Isaac. She must’ve hit a nerve somehow. She couldn’t tell if it was good or bad though. Isaac smirked at her like she had just asked him about one of his favorite subjects. “Nothing to hide? We’re better than them?” he paraphrased, taking a step forward. “I’ve heard those arguments before. If you’re gonna be the general here, then I sure hope you’re not the kind that would spy on your own citizens and ‘fix’ the ones that aren’t ‘perfect’.” His smirk turned into a dangerous glare. Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. She didn’t like his tone, and she certainly didn’t like him suggesting that she would need to ‘fix’ her perfect changelings. “What are you talking about?” she asked. Isaac half sighed and half laughed. “Man, George Orwell would have a field day with you.” Chrysalis tilted her head. That was a name she hadn’t heard before. Isaac continued, “There was a book I got to read in school once, it was called ‘Animal Farm’. In it, there’s a bunch of animals on a farm…” He noticed Chrysalis’ blank, uncomprehending stare. He facehooved. “Okay, a farm is a place where animals are raised to be eaten.” He stared at his hoof, realizing something. “Th- they’re not intelligent, like we are,” he quickly added, backtracking, “in fact, where I come from, humans are the only intelligent species on the planet. No other animal can even talk. The story is made up.” Chrysalis rubbed her chin. “Ah. I think I saw one of those ‘farms’ in the pony rural areas. So that’s what they were doing with those pigs and cows.” Isaac let out a sigh of relief. “Oh good, you have those here too.” “So anyway,” he continued, “the animals in this stories are sapient, and they don’t like that they’re being raised for slaughter, so the pigs start a revolt. They go through multiple wars, succeeding in the end. But there’s internal feuding. “Snowball and Napoleon, the two ruling pigs, started fighting for power over the other. Snowball tries to build some of the better human inventions for everyone, starting with the windmill, but Napoleon sends goons after snowball and claims the windmill was his idea. “Eventually, Napoleon wins completely, and none of the things Snowball wanted to work on are implemented. In fact, the farm is just like it was originally; the other animals can’t even tell the difference between the pigs and the humans now. Chrysalis paused a moment to take in the short explanation. “You fear I’m going to become like my enemies, letting the other races suffer while my changelings reign supreme,” she summarized. Isaac nodded. Chrysalis took that time to inspect her hoof. “I’ll admit, the thought has crossed my mind. Starvation doesn’t give you a good view of the creatures that force you into it...” She shook her head. “Though, I’ll be honest here, I don’t think I would go through with that risk any time soon. Right now I just want to enjoy not being hungry while it lasts.” Isaac looked at her like she’d grown a second head. “Wait, You’re joking, right? Your only reason for not pushing everyone else into poverty and starvation is self preservation? Doesn’t it disturb you that you’d be just as bad as your oppressor?” Chrysalis pondered the thought. “Hmm… no.” “W- what about innocent beings that had nothing to do with your hunger?” Isaac stammered. Chrysalis pondered the thought again. “Well, I guess I might feel a little guilty,” she said, not feeling even a twinge of guilt. Really, what kind of pony was great enough that she would feel guilty about including them in something like that? But before she could dismiss the question entirely, an image popped up in her mind. She could see Twilight Sparkle living through her changeling childhood. She could see her starving in a cave, fending for a city full of feral ponies with no pony to help her or comfort her. She shuddered. Despite that mare being integral to her defeat, Chrysalis had a certain respect for Twilight. It was rare when a pony was smart enough to escape her traps, especially when their old friends were part of those traps. It was rarer still for them to be able to keep a secret like Cadence’s powers from Chrysalis the whole time. And a pony correctly suspecting changelings was simply unheard of. “Okay, you may have a point,” she reluctantly admitted. “I still want revenge on the creatures that forced us into starvation though.” She remembered that fleshy mammal named Celestia standing defiantly in front of her at the royal wedding, trying to stop her and her followers from devouring all those juicy bags of love. Isaac sighed. “Well, I suppose that’s fine, I guess. Still,” he said, “that ‘open windows’ policy is a bad idea too.” Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “I suppose next you’re gonna tell me it’s bad to be a bug?” Isaac ignored the comment. “There’s another book, called 1984…” Suddenly, he stopped, staring off into space. ”You know what? No,” he said, “I shouldn’t even have to explain how bad that idea is. Don’t you have any thought that you’d rather not tell me right here, right now?” Chrysalis blinked. “No?” Isaac just stared at her, completely bewildered. “R- really?” Chrysalis nodded, smiling. “Have at it!” “Okay then.” Suddenly, he smirked. Now he had the chance to ask some embarrassing questions. “How old are you?” Chrysalis frowned. “I don’t know. It’s hard to keep track when I’m trying to feed everybug.” Isaac frowned. “Wow, that’s kind of sad…“ He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the emotion. ”Okay, next question: lemme think about it...” He hummed, looking around. His eyes eventually stopped on himself, and Chrysalis could feel a powerful realization come over him as he stared at his hoof, then his torso. “Why are we all naked?” Isaac asked, wondering why he hadn’t noticed it before. Chrysalis tilted her head. “Why wouldn’t we be?” Isaac blinked, staring at his hoof in wonder. It was strange how comfortable he felt walking around naked. Not only that, but Chrysalis was naked too, and she was standing right in front of him, practically posing. No, now she was definitely posing. She must’ve been taking advantage of one of those spider sense things that let them feel each other’s emotions. With that realization, all of his thoughts on lewd questions fell away as he quickly came to understand that Chrysalis might be much, much less modest about those things than anything he would be able to handle. “Well then,” he said, still staring at his hoof in wonder. “Oh—” he looked back up, just now thinking of an actual question “—why did we all wake up scattered around a forest?” Chrysalis paused. He didn’t know that? Why didn’t he know that? What else didn’t he know? Did no changeling’s memory go back more than a day? Okay, she could tell him about her failed invasion, but she didn’t really want to give him an actual reason to question her leadership, especially since he might’ve forgotten much about her. She definitely didn’t want him or other changelings taking things into their own hooves and getting hurt. No, she would learn from her mistakes, and the rest of the changelings would learn about those mistakes when knowledge of them was no longer dangerous. “Very well,” she sighed, “you can have your privacy. Let’s just gather some wood then.” Isaac knitted his brow. “But I asked that one in earnest!” “And I don’t think it would be a good idea to answer it right now,” Chrysalis replied. “Don’t worry, I’ll explain it later, once everybug has food and shelter.“ She smiled. ”They shouldn’t have to worry about anything else until then. Now, let’s go gather that wood!” Isaac scrunched his muzzle, clearly frustrated. “Fine, but shouldn’t we wait until morning?” he asked, turning back to the entrance. “It’s getting kind of dark, and we have a cave anyway.” “Oh, so what you're saying is that we should gather some morning wood?” Chrysalis smirked. Isaac deadpanned at her. “It’s like a more perverted version of Winston Churchill,” he muttered. Strangely enough, she felt a little embarrassed at his disapproval. Well, she thought her double entendre was pretty great. Really, it was just prudish of him to dismiss it so quickly. She noticed that same prudeness with ponies, that rejection of ‘perversion’, which probably included more than half of the things she liked to do to said ponies. But she wasn’t among equines right now. No, she was a changeling. She would cherish her perversion! She would be herself among her lifelong friends! Whatever the reason for Isaac’s prudishness, she would help him escape from its curse. “Come on,” she said, nudging him, ”that was funny and you know it.” Isaac shook his head, but the corners of his lips still curled up. “You’re horrible.” He chuckled. Chrysalis smiled. “Seriously though, we need to get that wood now. It’ll be easier to build a room than to clear out all the hazards in case we have a sleeptrotter, and we’ll need a fire for the night, for food and warmth.” Isaac’s stomach grumbled at the mention of food. Andres struggled in his massive sphere of vines. It was beyond annoying that he couldn’t move his legs, and while he could see and breath through some wooden pipe things pressing up against his face, the air tasted horrible. What he didn’t know was that he was rolling back and forth next to a giant pile of fish and some globs of extracted fish love. Meanwhile, Isaac and Chrysalis went about their work, oblivious to his suffering. “IIIIIIIIII’m a lumberjack and I’m okay. I sleep all night. I work all day!” Isaac sang as he cut a tree down with a sharpened rock, even though Andres radiated annoyance at every stanza. “Heeeeeee’s a lumberjack and he’s okay.” Chrysalis sang merrily as she blasted tree after tree down and levitated them back to the cavern entrance. “He sleeps all night. He works all day.” Her voice started tapering off. This was beginning to feel just a little bit silly. Isaac continued. “I cut down trees, I eat my lunch, I go to the lava-tryyy. On Wednesdays I go shoppin’, and have buttered scones for teeeeea!” Chrysalis didn’t respond. That song was too much. It was too silly, and right now, she didn’t need any more silly or ridiculous things around her. She wondered if she ever enjoyed silly things. Was it a personal preference? Was silliness an acquired taste? With those silly questions in mind, her mind wandered to other silly things, and the combined silliness of everything caught up to her. There was the overjoyous song, Andres wrapped in a bundle like a newborn hatchling, all of her changelings and their new memories and personalities, and her own ridiculous strength. Eventually it blew a fuse in Chrysalis’ mind. Nothing should feel this silly, this carefree. Something wasn’t right. First off, why didn’t her changelings remember anything? Had the blast from the failed invasion knocked their heads around? If so, why didn’t they suffer other physical problems? Was it possible that their memories were real or that they remembered something she should have remembered if she were a true changeling? Was she the odd one out? Or did that magic shield do things she didn’t expect? Had the spell been one of those ‘reforming’ spells, altering her changelings so they fit the ponies’ definition of ‘good’? If so, would she have to worry about betrayal? Should she fear her changelings? No. She couldn’t even consider that. If she couldn’t think of her changelings as friends, then she had nothing. Accepting that as a possibility would be much worse than playing into the hooves of some pony mages. The loss of memory, as far as she could tell, happened to every changeling she met. If all their memories were the same, then perhaps she was the one that had forgotten something important... A repeated poking brought her out of her dark musings. She turned to the annoying hoof, scowling, before she noticed the look on Isaac’s face. Isaac was staring at her with genuine concern in his eyes. She could also taste the concern flowing out from his heart too. Every sense told her that he was being genuine. She wouldn’t have to worry about betrayal from him. “You okay?” Isaac asked. “Yeah,” Chrysalis said, smiling as she looked back at her strange friend. “That song was just a bit too—” Just then, an explosion roared out in the distance, and then continued roaring. It was like a tornado had just come into existence somewhere in the middle of the forest. “WHAT IN TARTARUS IS HAPPENING!?” Chrysalis cried into the hive-mind. “I don’t know!” Mii Tool of all changelings replied first. “But I— I—” “Spit it out!” Chrysalis screamed. “I thought I saw another guy— bug— I thought I saw another one of us behind me!” He paused. “Arr baap re...”  Mii Tool’s link went out. Whatever he saw had caused enough fear or surprise to shut off his connection. All she could feel now was his location, and she felt it powerfully. Chrysalis’ heart started racing. Whatever this meant, it probably wasn’t good. But then, panic was never good either. She noticed Isaac crouching, ready for flight. “Stop!” She held out her hoof. She flew to the bundle that contained Andres and looked into the eye holes. “Are you planning on doing anything else that may endanger your brothers and sisters?” She could see him glaring back, but she could also see him trying to shake his head. Yes, she could feel his hate pouring out, but some of it changed to resignation when he finally replied, “No.” Chrysalis pressed her hooves up against the bundle, twisted, and then tore it in half like one would tear apart a large stack of papers. Then she crouched for take off. “Andres, stay back and watch your hive mates. If they suffer injury, you will suffer twice as much.” She glared intensely before turning to her other changeling. ”Isaac, if you can’t keep up, stay with Andres.” After that small speech, she blasted into the sky, leaving a small crater. Now wasn’t the time for leisurely flying. She needed to get to that distressed changeling fast.