//------------------------------//
// Guess Who's Coming to Dinner! 
// Story: A Long Life: Twilight's Changeling Grandchildren 
// by pertelote345 
//------------------------------//

I spat out my toast, staring at my laptop.

And... Then chided myself for over reacting. Someone had logged into Matron Chell's email and played a prank, that was all. A pretty ugly prank, but nothing I would put past the scum known as internet trolls.

I grumbled morosely, eyeing the wad of unmentionable disgustingness that was sitting on my plate. I had somehow managed to hit the other half of my toast perfectly. Ha ha Mr prankster, congratulations, you ruined breakfast...

Xax leaned over the counter, looking more than a bit concerned. "Oh dear, Jal is there something wrong with the toast?"

I shook my head, I loved my brother Xax, but he could be such a drama king sometimes. "Nothing at all, could you make me some new toast? I have to go track down a hacker with a sick sense of humor."

Xax just blinked at me, puzzled.

My phone buzzed at me. Derrick? Why would he be texting? Frankly I was always surprised to be on the receiving end of attention from the Element of Kindness, but he was surprisingly chatty and well... kind.

Okay, maybe that wasn't super surprising.

He had really pretty feathers too. I'd actually tried turning into a griffon hen to impress him once and had to be politely informed that he was into dudes... I wasn't as fond of cross gender transformations as some, but I was still considering turning into a cock for him (a male Griffon, get your mind out of the gutter!).

I opened his message... And right on my screen was an image of a terrified looking purple alicorn, curled up with princess Celestia.

I swear if it was biologically possible my chiton would have gone white.

Xax leaned over. "Um... Jal? Are you okay? Is something-?"

I grabbed his shoulders. "Code Blue! Get everyone to the cave!"


#


The impossibly beautiful earth pony stallion  looked pissed. "Seriously Jal? Code Blue? We have three photo shoots to get through today!"

I snarled at him. "And I wouldn't have called it if it wasn't important! Now drop the mask! This is important."

Trex sighed and reverted to his standard form, then climbed up to the auditorium with the others.

I turned to the two gorgeous unicorn mares behind me. "Alright, you two, drop the disguises, we've got hive business."

The beautiful unicorns blushed. "Um... Actually we're not actually changelings... We were here for couple's counseling."

Really? Dang! I gave them a quick sniff. "Don't worry, you still love each other, it's just going to take some work. Thank you for using Love Bug Counseling Services. Now vamoose! We've got a hive emergency to deal with."

One of the unicorns looked like they wanted to ask for a refund, but was dragged away by her spouse who clearly didn't want to make a scene... Which would likely lead to an argument about both of them being overbearing, but I'm sure they could sort themselves out. If not, more cash for us!

...

Okay I felt a little fecal thinking like that, but seriously! We had an emergency.

I turned to the hive, thanks to the miracle of mass texting I'd managed to secure all of them... Well except for Frank, who was doubtless off somewhere in a pile of floozies being a disgrace, but I was satisfied with over a hundred bodies to address.

"Thank you all for coming." I began. "I gathered you all here because we have an old family member to greet. Please see your phones."

I sent out the picture and there was an uproar of voices asking questions all at once. Fortunately I came prepared.

An industrial airhorn wasn't quite as loud as Dad's voice, but it did the trick. I pulled out my earplugs and continued. "To answer the immediate questions, apparently the time spell thought to have killed Twilight Sparkle plunked her down here. She is indeed the Twilight Sparkle we've heard about and yes, she is very likely to come live with us."

"WOOOT!" Shouted Zax. 

I facehoofed. "Thank you Zax... Yes this  is exciting news and we're going to need that energy in the days to come. It's important to remember, Twilight Sparkle may be a legendary princess, but from her perspective she's a pony who just lost her family..."

The room grew silent. There wasn't anyone here who could imagine a worse fate than that.

"That's why it's up to us!" I shouted. "She may have lost her old family, but we know damn well she still has one and it's right here!"

I turned on the crowd, channeling as many great generals as I could think of. "Remember! We aren't just some lame hive of back woods bumpkins! We're Hive Chell of Ponyville! Guardians of the Dragon and Those Who Fly at Twilight! There is no hive that holds greater love and by the sky and the earth we will show it to her!"

I cried out. "Are you ready!"

The crowd cheered in response.

I smirked. "Then be glad you're lead by a historian. We have a welcome to plan!"


#


Far be it from me to question Jal's education, but maybe Pinkie Pie wasn't the best historical source to draw on for greetings.

I was still in my party hat as I swept up. I'd caught a glimpse of Grand Matron Twilight before she'd locked herself in the front bathroom, but it was mostly just a frightened purple blur.

I thought back to when I was just a little kid, talking with Dad about his mother. Just how long was getting to know her going to take. The story of her battle with Queen Chrysalis was a popular one. Everyone loved seeing a mind slaver who stole magic and sanity from her children get her due. 

But that was the only real time Twilight Sparkle had interacted with changelings.

I know what Dad said, but... Was that still how she saw us? A slave army doing the bidding of some monster?

I sighed, scraping the last of the streamers into a bin. Grell fluttered up to me. "Dude, y'alright? I didn't think it went that badly. We talked her out and everyone's getting set up for dinner!"

"We're not doing the party games then?" I asked. They had been part of the plans.

Grell scratched at the back of her head. "Yeah... I think she's a bit partied out. Plus Pinkie already threw Grand Matron one when she first showed up. I think we're just going to stuff her full of delicious food and chill for a bit.."

I smiled. Food! That was something I could actually help with. "Did we get that local Krollok nectar?"

She smirked. "Don't worry bro, we've got you covered."

That said, we wandered off into the kitchen where Grell helped me pile up some drinks on a tray. I smiled at her. "You don't have to help you know. Working maintenance is basically why I get a stipend."

Grell shrugged. "Eh, don't sweat it. Besides, if DJ 8UGG33 doesn't get herself a gig pretty soon I'll be hanging out with my best bro doing dishes all the time."

I chuckled, making sure the tray was balanced. "You'll do fine. At least you have marketable skills."

She rolled her eyes. "Cue my standard response about you being too hard on yourself. Now come on bro, we've got hungry family to serve."


#


Fortunately by story time everyone had relaxed a bit. There had been an awkward moment at dinner where Twilight had asked us if we had a Queen and we all internally shuddered, but it got defused pretty quickly. I guess she didn't know much about hives, but she wasn't nearly as prejudiced as I'd feared.

Story time was amazing. Twilight had stood right up to Dad and told us all about how much he'd been embellishing all these years. They were throwing playful barbs at each other the entire time and I had to re-load the popcorn machine after it got extended past normal time.

Finally, as the night wore thin, Matron Chell asked me to go prep the Rarity Suite. I left just as Twilight discussed the chaos of meeting an alternate version of herself.

The Rarity Suite was a bit of an odd place for a changeling hive. It was the little pony style apartment where Dad's first wife had lived. Lady Rarity had apparently built it when Spike had grown too large for normal lodgings, some time in his forties.

I'd never met Lady Rarity of course, she had died of old age  long before Dad met my matron, but it was hard to walk around in her chambers without learning a bit about her. 

It had dress forms in the corner, a dresser with a little jewelery box on top of it, a walk in closet (which held piles upon piles of the dresses she'd designed, all gorgeous, if thoroughly... moth balled, lord they were dangerous to handle) and space for fabric and a sewing machine. There was also a quaint little kitchen, where I stored a few kinds of tea, and an absolutely luxurious bathroom.

We cleaned the apartment out every month or so. Sometimes we would bat around the idea of renting it out or re-purposing the space, but while Dad listened to such proposals quite seriously he always looked like he was being kicked in the gut, so Rarity's room it stayed.

He'd loved her dearly, that much was clear. If the picture window looking down on his cave was any indication she'd loved him just as much right back.

After dusting for a bit, vacuuming, and changing the bedding I was just putting a couple of little chocolate mints on her pillow when I heard a chuckle. "You really know how to treat guests."

I turned around, and got a good look at my Grand Matron for the first time. She looked young, really young. If it wasn't  for the time skip I might have been older than her. But... she had this look to her, like she was wise beyond her years and had won that wisdom the hard way. 

But there was fear in her... And pain, lots of pain.

In that very moment I wanted nothing more than to hug her tight and tell her that I'd never let anything bad happen to her. To ask her a million questions and just... Be there for her.

But the meaning of her words sunk in.  "You're... You're not staying?"

She froze. I saw a million expressions dart over her face. Then it hit me, her old house was a museum... Officially she didn't have a home right now.

Lacking any better ideas, I held out my little bowl of chocolates. "I... Think you could really use one of these."

She smiled and gulped one down, letting the mint sink into her tastebuds. I wasn't the best empath, but I could feel her calming down, just a little. "I guess Pinkie Pie hangs around a lot here, huh?"

I nodded. "Yeah, she's one of Chell's best friends. She's great at story time." I scratched the back of my head. "Look, I'm just a failed hospitality worker, I don't know much about time travel or old Equestria or anything like that, but... You've got to know that to us you're family."

I looked down at the slumbering dragon. He had a little smile on his face as he dozed. "And it's not just Dad either. Pinkie Pie and Applejack talk about you all the time. You're like that cool grandma that we really wished we could meet before she..."

I shook my head. "I'm messing this all up. The point is, we want you here, and we know we don't know you personally yet, but... you're family and we want to."

She stared at me. Then her eyes brightened and she did the absolute last thing I expected. She pulled me into a hug. "How the heck did you fail at hospitality? You're amazing at it."

I blushed. "I'm not so good with schedules."

She grinned. "I am going to teach you sooo many organization techniques." She probably would have sat me down for a lesson right then, but a yawn cut her off. "... Tomorrow. Honestly right now I really need to hit the hay."

I could definitely understand that. I nodded. "Okay, just press that button over there if you need anything." I pointed to the intercom. "It's a line to the hive security desk and there's always someone down there... Well, usually more than one person. It's right next to the kitchen so all the night owls tend to hang out there."

She nodded back, smiling. "Thank you."

I shot her a salute. "I'll see you tomorrow morning then! Breakfast's at 8:00!"

That said, I buzzed out the window down into the hive.

I smiled. She may have a long way to go, but I sensed in a little bit our new family member would fit right in.