I managed to get to zecora’s home before daybreak, and I slept through most of the day. I woke up when I heard the three voices of changelings in my head.
“C'mon you’re gonna be late!”
“You can’t be late. if you are, expect a riot.”
“I’m coming, i’m coming.” I mentally shouted, so I could be heard over the other voices in my head. I told zecora I was going out for awhile, I left and arrived at the hive entrance half an hour later.
What I was not expecting was walking in, and having my three changeling friends corral me into a room and start playing dress up with me.
In an attempt to derail them, I asked them a question. “So I just realised, what are your guys’s names?”
The changeling who was talking to me yesterday started. “Mine’s lisa. i’m the current leader of the warriors, but you can change that once you become king.” a flash of disappointment ran across her face for a second, but she gather herself almost instantly.
“I’m james, i’m the current head of the farmers and the others not in the main categories.”
The third changeling joined in, “i’m Emily, I welcome you into our hive.” she bowed and then everyone in the room started laughing. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help myself. I’m the head of scholars around here.
A fourth voice cut in. it was hardened, and deep, almost bellowing unlike the others. “Are we giving out names now? I’m Aaron, master smith. I brung ya a present future king.” I turned around quickly to find another changeling. Green patches covered his forelegs. It wasn’t any of the goop I had seen before, so I wondered what is was. When he realised where I was looking he let out a bellowing laugh then answered the question I hadn’t asked. “I’m assuming you don’t know what’s wrong with my forelegs do ya boy? Changeling blood is green, and for some reason, so are scars. No, it’s not changeling blood on the walls. So do you want your present?”
In nodded and he walked over. “We can’t have a changeling king looking like that, no offense.”
“None taken.”
“Here, take this.” two other changelings walked into the room. The first was carrying a set of armor, and the second contained two small daggers in sheaths.
“How did you forge all this in one day? And is that even the right size?”
“Changelings have a sense of where others are even if not in a hive mind, and we took your measurements when you were knocked out. Also helps that we had lisa morph into your form.”
I shuddered at the thought of someone else looking like me. “Am I a real king, or does someone else hold the power and i’m just an anchor for the hive mind?”
“You hold all the power, why would you think you were a figurehead?”
“I have no idea how changelings work. Anyway, if I say that I don’t want anyone to morph into me then nobody will right?”
“Yep.”
“That gonna be the first thing I say then.” they nodded and I finally got my armor on. As promised, it fit like a glove. I then took the dual daggers and wrapped them around my waist, then Aaron started explaining the magic that was in my gear.
“So your armor has three abilities. The first is that it’s enforced with the will of all changelings to protect our king. That means that the better you treat us, the stronger it will be. Second is that it reflects the wellbeing of the changelings. The worse we get, the more our bodies rot and become black. When we start getting better, the armor will turn white and holes will close up, same as us changelings. Finally, it should melt into your normal clothes, so you can wear it at all times.
“Now onto the knives. They are also enchanted with the strength of our hive’s will. They should never become dull nor break if you keep us in good spirits. Also, they can morph into other types of bladed weapons if need be. All you need to do is channel some magic into them and focus on the weapon you want it to be.
“That should be everything, now I suggest that you get out there and start the ritual, the rest of the hive is waiting.” I thanked him and let my armor stay like it was, in what I called base form. When I walked out into the auditorium, a roar of changelings went up. They all cheered and I raised one hand and waved. They were everywhere, in seats, on the ceiling, and as close to me on the floor they could comfortably get. I then went and stood in the middle of the room, with lisa, james, and emily to either side of me. Emily, in front, started to speak.
“Brothers and sisters, we gather here today to welcome the new king into the hive!” a third roaring cheer went up. “He shall serve as the pillar to our hive mind, keep us together, and help us in any way possible! We know he doesn’t have a proper form yet, but let us commence the ceremony and be done with our torture!” she finished. Instead of cheering again, the hive fell silent. I thought they were all disapproving of this, but when I looked closer, they all had looks of concentration across their faces. A green glow started to appear from every corner and coat the room. It slowly got brighter and brighter, then beams started to shoot out of the wall.
The first one hit me and I could feel another mind inside my own. A second beam hit me and another mind joined the other four already there. They they started to pick up the pace. Another quickly joined, then a 7th, 8th, 9th, faster and faster they came. I lost count after the 100th mind was connected to mine. I stopped focusing on everything at that point. Good thing too. Turns out they forgot to tell me that a second magic would be working at the same time. A very painful magic.
My body started changing, from the feet up. My skin first started to go black, and I don’t mean african american black, I mean jet black. Then my feet started contracting, and hardening. My legs then started to round out, and get bigger. I fell over, and the magic started at my torso. It then moved onto my arms, or now, forelegs. They hardened to and turned into hooves. My head then started to get more equine, and I started to grow. Then the changelings finished connecting their minds to mine. My painkiller was cut off, and I felt the two most painful parts of this process and their full glory. A long horn sudden shot out of my head, with some green changeling blood dripping off of it. Then two sets of insect wings made themselves known. I somehow bit my tongue at the pain. Then emily started to speak again.
“We can now truly call ourselves a hive now, for we have our king! LONG LIVE KING DJ!” she shouted and raised a hoof in the air.
“LONG LIVE KING DJ!” the changelings shouted back. I don’t know why, maybe it was the fact I had just been injected with hundreds of changelings worth of magic and their instinct was calling for me, or the pain had finally caught up with me, but I roared. A deep guttural roar. One so loud it shook the hive, and that some of the changelings standing on the ceiling fell off and had to catch themselves with their wings. The changelings were silent for a second, but then broke out in the loudest cheer that I had ever heard. Some of the changelings were stomping their hooves, some were jumping up and down, some were flying around the hive like a swarm of mosquitos. Between the noise they made, and the roar I had let out, if the royal guard or at least some pony didn’t come to check it out in the next hour it would be a miracle. I then collapsed and emily, james and lisa carried me back into the prep room.
I looked over myself. At least my armor had changed to fit my new form. “So, why am I now a changeling?” I asked.
Emily stepped up to the plate, “We don’t actually know, but I would venture a guess that since you absorbed the magic of over 200 changelings, you took the form of one to help you better channel it.”
“Ok, they why do I look so different from most changelings? The ones i’ve seen have been at max like 4ft at their heads and i’m like 6ft at the shoulder now.”
“Well, you’re technically a king now. That’s why you look so different. The form you possess is of a king.”
“Is that why I can see things I couldn’t see earlier?”
“Like what?”
“Green lines running down lisa’s hind legs.”
Emily looked happy. “I was wondering if you could do that. Changelings are assigned jobs at birth. A king or even a general/overseer can see the vis lines that show what job you have.”
“Can I have a list of what they are? That way I can help everyone do their jobs right?”
“Yeah, I was gonna give you one. Let me rattle it off from memory. The easiest to identify will be a king/queen, their vis lines are blue instead of green, and they run to the successors mouth. Next easiest will be a royal guard, the vis lines run from their hindlegs to their forelegs. Scholars grow normal manes. These are the only changelings that grow normal manes without being upgraded in rank. Next is warriors, like lisa, they have vis lines running down their hind legs. Farmers have them running down their forelegs. Some changelings don’t have fangs, some do. Drones have nothing special about them.”
“Thats a lot of information to take in at once.”
“Yeah, but we need to work on your shape shifting. It would NOT be a good idea to go home and look like a changeling king, would it?”
“You’re right, that would not be a good idea.”
The next few hours were spent teaching me to change my form. I messed up a few times, mainly with becoming a bipedal changeling with hands. I kept pushing though, and eventually managed to push back into my human form. When I finally managed to hold that form for half an hour they said I could go. I finally got home and some liquid fell on my head. I groaned before trying to wipe it off and smearing it over my mouth. Thinking it was water, I accidentally got some in my mouth and fell over unconscious.