"I have gathered you all today," the queen spoke clearly, the sound running through the giant room, "for the joy of trusting some new drones of our with their first responsibility."
All eyes were on the queen as she was speaking. All, that is, except for two pairs. "I bet you'll get your responsibility, Kui," one of them whispered, nudging the black figure sitting beside him.
"Shut it, Hux," he smiled at him, "we both know you'll get yours. You'll also be the first drone to ever lose his responsibility in the first five seconds."
"That would be," the changeling Hux willed his body to change shape, transforming into a yellow pegasus with a heavily done up mane, "an academy record."
The two laughed, Hux changing back to his normal body. Many of the changelings around them shushed them to no avail.
"The first responsibility we will be handing out is the nursery carer, which will be given to," the queen pulled out a slip of paper from a large bowl, unfolding it near her face, "Luhen!"
The audience cheered. Getting your responsibility in the Hive was a big step and most appreciated receiving it. That didn't exactly pertain to Hux and Kui. They saw it as a burden and often joked about it. They had survived three years without being drawn, eighteen drawings of the queen not reading off their names.
"The next responsibility will be Hive maintenance, which will be given to," she drew another name from the bowl, "Kui!"
As the audience cheered, Kui looked towards the ground, speaking softly, "shit."
Hux, being the good friend he was, nudged Kui and said, "man, what a great job! I wish I could get that!"
"The next responsibility is the lucky position of Hive chef," she pulled yet another name out of the bowl, "Yut!"
The audience cheered, a slightly rambunctious Yut jumping and waving her legs in the air in enjoyment. She was one of the youngest drones in the Hive and was often annoying.
"Next will be foraging, which goes to," she drew a name, "Hux!"
Hux looked towards the ground as Kui lifted his head up high, nudging Hux and speaking even louder, "congratulations, forager!"
The audience cheered, and Hux looked up and mouthed, "shut up."
Kui laughed and looked back towards the queen, Hux following his example. The raffling went on for a much longer time, the queen giving out many new responsibilities. The audience cheered every time of course, giving praise to the "lucky" drones who received janitor, plumber, and even bathroom cleaner, who didn't look exactly happy with the job she had gotten.
After the queen read off the last few responsibilities, she motioned for the drones to exit. They did as she pleased, most of them giving pats on the back to the drones who had gotten their responsibilities. Hux and Kui stayed near the back of the exiting group, giving them time to talk.
"So, forager huh?" Kui looked at Hux for an answer.
Hux put a smile on his face, retaliating with, "better than maintenance."
Kui nodded and the two sulked out of the room, theirs being the last footsteps to ring throughout the room.
With their new jobs under their belt, the two friends were no longer allowed to sleep in. Kui had to get up early to get all of his equipment on, and Hux had to get up early to consult the head forager which area he was foraging from. So on this day, the first day of their responsibilities, Hux and Kui exited their rooms and headed their own ways, waving to each other as they grew further apart.
Hux made his way through the crowded halls of the Hive, the click clack of hooves on the stone ground making their ears twitch. Hux lived near the top of the Hive next to Kui, which mean't that he had to travel down about thirty floors to reach the main entrance to the Hive. Once he reached his destination, slightly earlier than he needed to, he started talking with Reth, the head forager. Reth was a bulky changeling and his stare could make anyone think twice about something.
"Mornin', Hux. First day of foraging is always a little boring, but trust me," he put on a smile, "it gets better the more you do it."
"Yeah," Hux spoke sarcastically, "gets better."
The two sat in silence for a while, allowing time for the other drones to make their way to the entrance. Once they were all there, Reth pointed to a map of the surrounding Everfree Forest and indicated the points of interest, which were mainly a long ways away from the town the ponies called Ponyville, in order to avoid detection. It took the queen a long while to regain a mighty Hive, and she was still working on the Hive military. The changelings at the moment were not ready for an attack, especially from the six friends.
"Alright," Reth spoke over the murmur of the group, "our main areas for today are near this river to the left and over to the right near this hill. Scouting groups were sent out and they came back with knowledge of some good resources, including food and metal."
"Yes sir," the group responded.
Reth sectioned off the groups for each foraging area. Hux was assigned to the area near the river, so he was mainly going to be getting food. The groups had a few moments of rest before heading out, each lead by one drone to the destination.
When Hux and the rest of his group landed near the river, the sound of flowing water reaching their ears, they were then sectioned off into three groups. One took across the river, the other two groups went either up or downstream. Hux was assigned across the river.
Hux was in a group with four other drones. Lok was the leader of this group, and they had to follow his orders. You never know what will try to kill you in the Everfree. Lok had an injury on his hip from a past foraging mission, where he returned bleeding from a cut, the cut being delivered by a chimera.
The group took across the river, staying low to the ground to avoid being seen by any hostiles. The group made their way both up and downstream, finding plenty of mushrooms, edible plants, and even some rabbits, which they killed. Sure, love was their main food source, but they were able to live off of physical food as well.
"Hux," Lok spoke loudly to make sure he heard, "go forage over there." Lok pointed in a direction even further from the river. He also separated the rest of the group, sending them in several different directions.
Hux made his way Lok indicated, traveling for a while without seeing anything salvageable. All the mushrooms were poisonous and all of the rabbits and deer made their way out of his sight fast enough to avoid being killed. He hated this job already. There was nothing to do but walk and walk and walk and maybe, just maybe, find something to pick up. He started to kick a stone along with him. It was at least some entertainment. He eventually even got bored of that, and instead kicked the stone hard, sending it flying out of the tree tops, sailing for a time before going out of sight.
A click reached his ears. The stone he had kicked had his something, something big. He headed towards the sound, eventually reaching a clearing where, in the center stood a cylindrical building made of varying sizes of stones. Windows wrapped around the structure, and an arch was chiseled into a side as a door. If something built this, then there had to be stuff inside, right? Hux saw that there was nothing else to do, so he trotted inside the cylinder.
Inside, it came to the first floor. It had a high ceiling and torches were lit around the room. There was a chest that sat on the opposite side of the door, and it was shaded by a winding staircase that wrapped along the wall to the ceiling where, supposedly, another room sat. Hux walked over to the chest and opened it.
His eyes grew with excitement. The chest was filled with gold, and a lot of it too. This gold could come in useful in the Hive. He reached his hoof in, the gold entering the holes in his leg. He quickly pulled it out, though, when the sound of chatting reached his ear, he focused and tried to make out words.
"-tia said that there was supposed to be a tower over here that is somehow connected to Star Swirl the Bearded!"
"Yes, Twilight, we were there when she said that."
"Can it, Rainbow. Yer' bein' just as annoyin'."
Hux realized they were heading his way. He had to hide. If they were connected to anypony important and they saw him, he could be done for, him and all of the Hive. He quickly willed his body to change. He disguised himself as a pony he had seen when they were attacking Canterlot. Hopefully they wouldn't get too suspicious.
"Oh my," a new voice spoke, "it looks hideous."
"Well, it has been here for hundreds of years, Rarity. It would be weird if it didn't look a little rough around the edges."
"True, true." The group advanced forward and circled around the tower. "There is an entrance, right?"
"I'm not sure."
"It's right here!" This pony was obviously a very eccentric pony, yelling for finding a hole in a wall.
The group made their way to the entrance and walked in, met with the sight of another pony with a blue coat and an hourglass as her cutiemark. A purple pony spoke, "Minuette! What are you doing here? Don't you live in Canterlot?"
Hux spoke, a new voice exiting his mouth, "y-yeah, I just came for a visit and s-stumbled upon this." Hux forced his mouth into a smile.
"But, darling, why are you in the Everfree? Canterlot is," the white pony with a purple mane pointed away from the tower, "that way, is it not?"
"Yeah, it is." Hux said a little more calmly, knowing they were buying the disguise. "I just felt like going on a trip in the forest."
"Hey, uh, Twilight," a light blue pony asked.
"Yes, Rainbow?"
"I'll, uh, fly back to Canterlot and tell the princess that the tower is here."
"Sure thing."
The pony, supposedly Rainbow, flew off towards the towering city, making a turn out of view.
"Well, Minuette, is there anything here," an orange pony with a hat asked.
"Not really. The chest is empty and upstairs is just a plain room."
"Oh," Twilight said, "okay. Well, catch you back at Ponyville."
The group waved and Hux waved back. The group left the tower and went out of view. He had survived the encounter and hastily removed the disguise. It took a lot of energy for a changeling to cloak like that if all they are going off of is memory. As he removed the disguise, a green vortex enveloping him and then fading away, he heard a voice behind him say, "I had a feeling something was wrong."
Hux quickly turned around to see the one pony, Rainbow, standing on the stairs. "Look, I don't-"
Rainbow called out, "Twilight! It's a changeling!"
The group reentered the tower, supposedly coming from behind the tower. The purple one spoke, "what are you doing here?"
Hux was too much in shock to say anything. He stood there, his lips quivering. What would these ponies do to him?
"Not gonna speak, huh? Rainbow," Twilight motioned, "take him away. We will get the information we need out of him."
Hux spun around to see the one named Rainbow dash over to him, wrapping his wings and legs together with a rope, which was apparently from the room above.
The group prodded him on, taking him to a place where he didn't know what would happen.
The world is cruel, very very cruel.