Hive Mind

by canonkiller

Time For A Rematch

"My Lady, I know that you have found many reasons to... in your words, exterminate the deserters. But what of 1416's family? They believe he is out hunting. And the parents of the others - surely they will not fight their own young!"

"Quiet, drone." Chrysalis snapped, before noticing her words. "They have lost the honour of being part of the hive, and their families will want nothing to do with them without this."

A different warrior, looking small in the dark armor, shuffled his feet. "M-my Lady Chrysalis?"

"Hm?" She turned to face him, standing up taller. "You may speak..." she pasued for a moment, trying to remember his number, "5690."

"If I may miss, that's my brother. I'm 5691." He blushed, ducking a little. "We're twins."

"I'm sorry." Chrysalis muttered distractedly. "Now, what was it?"

"Well... 1416 is my older brother... and... if it's alright... I'd prefer not to see him while we're there."

Chrysalis stopped mid-pace, hoof hovering in midair. Her annoyed frown dipped slightly, a flash of her sharp molars showing for a moment.

The young guard seemed to notice. "I'm sorry, if it's too much trouble, I'll just stay behind."

"No, no, you shall come." She lowered her hoof, reaching out through the hive mind for a certain pony.

Deep beneath the hive, even below the underground escape tunnels, a Changeling twitched. It was a female, old showing through chips on her exoskeleton and dullness in her eyes. She focused one eye, the other filled with an impermeable grey-white film.

"You." She breathed.

Chrysalis's aural form nodded. "Your eldest son has rebelled again."

"You know he never stopped." The old Changeling snickered. "You just fell to his power, like the others."

"I would like to tell you that your replacement is doing well in your place."

She smiled. "I'm quite happy down here, too."

"Anyway, I came down here to tell you that," her voice changed to that or a more regal bearing, echoing slightly, "if you refuse to come along on this mission that both your eldest and youngest may be fatally injured in battle."

"You wouldn't dare."

"I have thousands of larvae just begging to be fertilized in the nursery. I wouldn't miss just two warriors." She lifted her hoof, pretending to scrape dirt off the surface. "But you would, wouldn't you?"

The older Changeling stood up, her legs wobbling with the foreign movement. "I'll come with you."

"With the sole purpose of controlling your elder son."

She closed her seeing eye, the blind one's eyelid destroyed in the accident that blinded it. "...Yes."

Chrysalis couldn't help but grin as she cast a small spell, the elder Changeling jolting for a second before she opened her eye again, the blue iris shining green.

"Follow me." Chrysalis whispered.

"Okay, you two. Touch up on your agility, and focus on using minimal space." I jumped to the side, a burning crater appearing where I had been.

"Sorry!" 1416 yelled down. "I missed!"

I stepped a bit more to the side of his target dummy and glared at him, but focused on the task at hand.

Or hoof.

I reared back in Chrysalis's form, avoiding a double blow from one of my allies and smacking them aside with my tail. 358 was quick to catch the falling creature, the magic bubble slowing her drop before popping just off the ground.

1416 was practicing in a slightly different manner; after he was deemed virtually useless in hoof-to-hoof combat, he was moved to the sky patrol with 352, to shoot down ambush attackers and drive back Chrysalis's warriors to give us more space.

My plan was already made up - the second I could see any other Changeling, I was to turn into 1416, like the rest of us. He was the one she would recognize first, after all, and he was potentially the one who would be our greatest weapon. Then, as she came after us, we'd pick another in our group and change to them, 1416 included. If I was targeted, it was my job to fight back, potentially blind the watching Changelings - or create a different veil - and change into her, down to the hairs in her mane.

And then, we would see just how well a Changeling could tell two ponies apart.

"Okay, 1378, you feeling up to a few more feeds?"

I should have come alone.

She knows where I am.

She knows who I am.

She will get me.

She will get the others.

We will fail...

"No matter what happens, my warriors, stick close to me and to each other. If we grow distant, many of us will be lost to the void."

A shiver went through the huge group at Chrysalis's words. The void - the thing that could pull Changelings from the hive mind and render them useless, blind, crippled... or kill them.

"And now we must travel through the void itself in order to save our kind and way of life from these deserters!"

There was a mutter of anxiety, quickly silenced by Queen Chrysalis's guards taking a couple of steps towards the crowd.

"All of you have passed my tests - you are all able-bodied, quick-minded, loyal members of my hives."

Indeed, throughout the crowd, there were Changelings that looked quite different than the others; members of the distant hives who had flown to this hive with Chrysalis's call. A few desert dwellers, with larger ears and redder color, a couple of the northerners, with pale white bodies and icy eyes, and even a single 'rebel', with a unique yellow color and a taller stance.

"And with you all alongside me, we shall annihilate the threat to our hives!"

A cheer rose up as Chrysalis spread her wings, hovering a couple of feet above her guards, and her entire body started to burn with a green fire as she channeled the love she had received into tearing apart the fabric of her reality.

We all froze as a distinct ringing filled the air. We landed as one, staring up at the sky.

A flaming dot opened in the sky, growing larger and brighter in seconds.

We were all thinking about scattering, I knew it. But our little hive, the way we had worked together... we had become a real hive. And because of that, we stayed together.

The dot was coming closer, it's burning green tail fading into the air behind it. A ripple of fire raced over the surface, as if to peel the flames away.

At the front was Chrysalis, her huge, elegant form pushing the heat away from the Changelings behind her.

Then the peeling flame kept going, splitting apart even the tail and the space around it. Hundreds of thousands of Changelings appeared, a seething, writhing black mass.

"We can't do this." 1416 muttered. "There's too many."

"No." 358 argued. "They can still be taken by the void. Watch."

Indeed, many Changelings saw us below and went to split from the group. With flashes of blue-green light, they dropped like stones, shells peeling away into dust and evidently dead instantly. The black comet dwindled.

"Ready for the change?" 1378 whispered. "3... 2... 1..."

"NOW!"