• Published 24th Oct 2014
  • 17,752 Views, 1,257 Comments

Culling of the Hives - law abiding pony



The changeling hives have always warred with each other to cull the weak. With Twilight Sparkle's announcement still echoing with the other hives, it is time once again to separate the chaff from the wheat.

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14: Alchemy

If there were two things that could surmount fear, it would be thirst and hunger. Rasua had put on an air of stoic calm as she made her way from the ambassador quarters of the castle and out to the closest food court.

Every drone she passed was courteous enough. Most gave passing greetings, and casual acknowledgements. None of them seemed to be trying to liquefy her brain with mind bullets, so that was a plus. I’m going to be stuck in this techno bug hive for who knows how long. If they do end up frying my brain, I at least want to die with a full stomach.

Unbeknownst to her, Aegis had Intel and her squad on standing orders to shadow Rasua the moment she left the ambassador wing.

Intel was perched upon a cloud above the dining area when Rasua arrived. <Aegis, our guest is eating. Thunderfury says her aura’s cloudy, but she seems much calmer compared to the last few days.>

Aegis was cantering past the Tree of Harmony and hit the barrier just outside the cave. The barrier itself felt like soft taffy as she shoved her way through. <You think she’s gotten over the fact that we’re all psychic?>

Intel unfurled her spyglass to take a closer look. Rasua flagged down a waitress with what looked like a friendly, if perhaps neutral expression. Intel’s query towards the waitress drew the same conclusion. <Well she’s not trying to drench us in holy water anymore so we have noticeable improvement.> She couldn’t help but chuckle at that particular memory.

In her attempt to exit the cave, Aegis had got her left leg caught in the barrier, and was now buzzing her wings and scrabbling on the ground in a bid to free herself. Aw come on! Moooom! Why did you have to retune the shield frequency on me!

It took a minute, but Aegis was finally able to yank her leg free. <Alright, I’ll be right over to talk to her.>


Rasua was discovering the wonderful world of waffles and maple syrup. The exquisite sugary delight was interrupted by the waitress returning with an omelet and bacon laden plate right as Aegis came in for a landing next to the table.

“Heyya, Rasua, glad to see you finally poked your head out of your bedroom. Mind if I join you?”

“This is your city, Princess, you can sit wherever you please,” Rasua replied with forced warmness.

Aegis was starting to get better at reading Rasua’s emotional aura, and was able to pierce the friendly mask to find the undercurrent of fear. “Still, I think it’s polite to at least ask.”

The pair lapsed into silence long enough for each of them to take a bite. “So are you finally chill with all of us being… psykers, I think you said?”

“I have come to the realization that I have been letting my fear get the better of me, and as such I am making a poor example for my species.”

“Fear can be a powerful influence,” Aegis replied evenly with a mouth full of egg. “But I’m glad you are at least trying to see us as more than just brain-stealing insects.”

The constant buzzing sound from all the flying drones still brought shivers up her spine. “Y-yes, well, it helps that you’re sapient and at least look half mammal.”

“All is well then...” Aegis trailed off as she enjoyed a few more bites and some apple juice. The pause started to worry Rausa. “Except for one thing.”

And so falls the other anklet. Rasua’s fork paused in front of her mouth. The syrup threatened to drop onto her lap as she tried to guess as to why Aegis’ tone with mildly sour. “And that is?”

Aegis chewed her food for a couple of bites to make Rasua sweat. “This agreement to have some of your psyker friends settle in Alliance territory.” She stabbed an egg laden fork at her pensive feline associate. “You played me like a drum to get that agreement for nothing more than to show you we Lings are moral people.”

To her credit, Rasua looked insulted. “I don’t know what you're talking about it.”

“Oh don’t gimme that!” Aegis snarked back. “A show of morality for sanctuary for a whole group of people?”

“Are you saying you’re backing out now?” Rasua replied with condescending tone.

It was Aegis’ turn to finally set terms. “No, we’ll still help you with it, but we need a couple of concessions from you to show that we are all honorable people.”

Rasua chewed her latest bite very slowly to think. “I brought little money with me.”

“Nothing so materialistic as that,” Aegis replied with a slight chuckle. “First off, if these sphinxes are settling Alliance territory, they will not be some outpost of the Federation. They have to become citizens of the Alliance, with all the allegiances that entails. Since your own people can’t stand them, that shouldn’t be an issue.”

“I can pass that along to my contacts,” Rasua replied with a small amount of disappointment. “Some might not agree to that.”

“Well they will have to if they want to come here,” Aegis replied coldly. “The second thing I want is some of your blood.”

Rasua gave Aegis a look like she was crazy. “What could you possibly want my blood for!?”

“Because I want those,” Aegis pointed a mechanical finger at Rasua’s hands. “These metal hands are clunky, and a pain the flank for numerous reasons. If I could peel the alchemical secret to shifting flesh and blood hands out of your blood, then I’d be one very happy bug.”

Does she really have to keep reminding me she’s an insect? Rasua started nervously wringing her hands. “You don’t need to actually do anything to my hands, do you?”

“Nothing outside of just drawing some blood.” Aegis smiled, purposely showing off her fangs.

“…I can agree to that,” Rasua started with a bit of fire, “but I remember what you said about altering yourselves after others. I want assurances that you will destroy any information you gain about any other part of my body. It’s a matter of personal privacy.” Not that a race of psykers could understand the concept.

“You have my word,” Aegis replied with a victorious smirk. She was practically salivating at the prospect of having morphing hands. “So as a sign of good faith, why don’t you come down with me to the clinic to get that blood taken care of right after breakfast, and then we’ll make sure your letter back to Stratholme gets there in good time.”

Rasua had little choice in the matter but to extend her trust on the matter. “That’s fair. However, I would like to ask some questions first.”

“As long it’s not classified,” Aegis returned agreeably. She took the time to polish off her omelet and paused before ordering a second one. The gears started churning in her head as she suppressed a growing grin. If she asks what I think she’ll ask. <Bow Tie, I’d like some soup for my friend and I.>

“I think I remember you mentioning that any drone would willingly agree to… something you called a rebirth.”

Rasua’s request brought Aegis back to the present. “That’s right.”

“What does this rebirth process entail, exactly?”

“No one’s ever really asked that before, I don’t think.” Aegis was suddenly aware of how problematic a true answer might be. “Well… the root alchemy compounds, array carved into the pod or floor, and the right spellwork first put the person to sleep and cuts off all pain reception. Then the body basically breaks down into a liquid with the person’s consciousness temporarily transplanted to nerve clusters that line the cocoon.”

“Y-you liquefy?! So each rebirth kills you?”

“N-no, not really. Like I said, your consciousness is transferred to nerve clusters that are mapped to your patterns before the person is fully liquefied. After the body’s gone, the rest of the alchemical formula is filtered into the cocoon to reshape the body to the desired format. This is what allows us to avoid having like… 200 year old brains in the body of a teenager or whatever. The body reforms around the nerve clusters and then BOOM, a whole new you.”

“That’s too outrageous to be real!” Rasua insisted with disbelief written all over her face. “Surely you’re toying with me.”

Aegis leaned back and shrugged with a snide grin. “Hey, just because you don’t believe something, doesn’t make it false. I’d show you the soup Blitz will be in about a month if the hatchery wasn’t strictly off limits to non-changelings.”

“How can you be so blasé about such… insanity?!” Rasua managed to keep her volume conversational, but her tone was anything but.

As if right on cue, the waitress arrived with two bowls of chunky chicken soup for each of them. “Why? You ask.” Aegis dipped her spoon in and lifted out several bits of meat and vegetables. “Because this was me a few months ago.”

Rasua frowned at the changeling princess who was doing her best to stay serious. However, Rasua’s unamused scowl proved too much for her. Aegis’ spoon clattered loudly on the table as she started laughing uproariously, clutching her gut when her sides started to hurt. Most of the surrounding changeling simply rolled their eyes at her and continued on their way.

“Normally I’d fear risking a diplomatic incident with this, but, Princess Aegis, you are such a tool.”

Through teary eyes, Aegis looked up at Rasua who was doing everything in her power to not look like she was pouting. “Bwha ha ha ha! Y-you actually bought it!”

To think a crown princess is allowed to act so… so… childish! Despite her irritation, Rasua felt the corner of her lips arch upward. “So what is the real truth?”

Aegis let her giggles run out before picking herself off the ground and waved off some of her siblings who were worried she might actually laugh to death this time. She reclaimed her seat and shot Rasua a winning smile. “I’ll give you the simplified version. Alchemy is a combination of spellcraft, chemistry, and biological manipulation that we’ve been perfecting for the past millennium or three. The alchemical spells are so complex most of them have to be etched in multi-layered arrays. We’re talking up towards thirty arrays on a single strain.

“The arrays and spells act like guides and instructions. It changes each cell one at a time, using the alchemy components as fuel/food for the cell changes. Certain chemicals together allow for certain alterations. The contents of the alchemical slurry inside the cocoon also act as life support. Now, while alchemy is technically possible without the components, it will feed off of the recipient's own body without them and can result in death.” Which is why Aunty nearly died when she was turning.

“Consequently, rebirthing allows us to recover from just about any wound, and all non-magical diseases since the alchemy hits that stuff at the same time, so that’s another plus. The whole alchemical process is much more involved than that, but there’s no way I can explain it all. It really is it’s own field of study. One that only the queens can truly master.”

Rasua hummed in between spoonfuls of soup. It was quite good actually, and she resolved to find out what it was called later. “Certainly a fascinating method of pseudo-reincarnation. However, the way you previously mentioned this rebirthing thing, it sounded like a personal sacrifice on the drone’s part. If they’re getting a new body, then why is that?”

Aegis lost much of her mirth, and proceeded to was dunk a cracker in her soup while she framed her response. “Simply put, any drone-rebirth erases the person’s memories. They still have their root personality intact, but none of their experiences.”

“Drone-rebirth? You mean there’s more than one type?”

“Ah, yeah. I underwent a royal rebirth. For all we know about alchemy we…” Aegis hated that it was her turn to be embarrassed. “We don’t actually know why alcohol and,” she caught herself before giving away too much, ”and it’s companion substances allows royals to retain most of their memories, while drones can’t.”

Rasua quietly ate as she digested the information. “So… do you also use this drone-rebirth as a form of personality execution for criminals?”

Aegis’ mood soured greatly. “We - we had to do it once. Granny’s done it a whole bunch of times over the centuries.”

Execution was by no means a rare sentence in the Federation. I remember having to execute my fair share of rogue psykers and other criminals. “For a people who have no hesitation to use fire as a means of war,” Rasua glanced at Burny strapped to Aegis’s back, “You have such strong attachments to those of the same hive. These criminals got the punishment they deserved didn’t they?”

“Pah, as if a non-changeling could understand. It’s bad enough that criminals are starting to pop up amongst my brothers and sisters from time to time, but the worst part is their hive voice becomes so bitter and resentful. It becomes painful to hear amongst the chorus if you get too close to them.”

Hive-voice? That’s one way to put it. “Well you have my sympathies. So… Those drones that sacrifice themselves to be reborn. Why can’t they keep their memories like you did?”

“Because they didn’t undergo a royal rebirth,” Aegis replied as if it was obvious.

“And why would making every rebirth a royal one be bad?”

Aegis had to remind herself that Rasua was asking out of ignorance. “Royals like myself are rare because of two major factors: our intense desire to lay eggs and expand the hive, and the proto-queen stage of our life-cycle. As a proto queen, we have to lay eggs. Around five hundred of them over the course of a month and a half. So our species would grow uncontrollably if every rebirth was a royal one.” I mean, sure we princesses require like four times as much love as a drone just to function, but that’s a moot point as long as I get rutted every day. A familiar itch in her loins urged to be scratched. I’m glad that’s the funnest workout in the world.

Rasua recoiled a bit at the excited princess, only she assumed Aegis was imagining laying eggs. I think it might be a good idea to avoid mentioning the possibility of aborting the eggs. “So can’t you take the brain restructuring part of the royal rebirth and use it in the drone version for non-criminals?”

“Not to my knowledge.” Aegis polished off the last of her meal, and saw Rasua had done the same. “Come on, we can keep talking on the way to the clinic, and maybe burn off a bit of those big meals while we’re at it.”

The pair jogged through the city as Aegis continued. “I’m not as proficient in alchemy as my queens, but what I do know, is that the science essentially is split into two fundamentally different disciplines. Royal and drone. It’s not a simple matter of throwing alcohol and the companion substances in the cocoon and think you’re going to get a royal version of that drone. Say like, if I wanted to have a strain with stronger wings, I would use a variance 46-B9 array pattern with…”

Aegis caught herself almost giving away secrets again. “A formula mixture with a classified amount of mana. But if I put the royal mixture into that, the poor drone could end up with two heads and less brain cells. Believe me, we’ve tried, but the complications are just crazily convoluted. Royals require a vastly more complicated mix that I’m still learning.”

She gave various other harmless facts about alchemy as the pair returned to the castle and into the bowels of the former colony ship. Rasua wasn’t too familiar with the palace, but it seemed odd to go so deep. “Shouldn’t a clinic be much closer to where all the people are?”

“Yeah, see about that, that was the original plan. Then I contacted momma about it, and she said we should head over to her alchemy lab instead.”

Does she even know what she’s doing half the time? She didn’t stop talking the whole way either, so she ‘spoke’ with her mother at the same time as me? Rasua mused worriedly as Aegis skidded to a stop in front of a large set of double doors. The two Queens’ Guards glanced between Aegis and Rasua before stepping aside for them to pass.

Aegis entered without knocking, leading Rasua into a large room, and a massive wall of chemical odors. It was the same lab where Twilight had assisted Cadista in her alchemy project, the results of which sat in four sealed vats off to one side against the wall. The gentle hum of the stirring motors mixing them would fill the air for the next two days.

Rasua quickly noticed two additional Queens’ Guards on the inside as well, though they remained outwardly silent.

Twilight Sparkle was in the middle of a large waxed wooden floor with a dizzyingly complex array drawn in chalk around a glass basin filled with a murky silver liquid. A second array was on the low lying ceiling on that section of the room which Rasua realized was twenty layers of thick glass pancaked together on sliders that moved into the adjacent room. Finally, there was a briolette cut crystal that Rasua could have mistaken for a massive spear tip.

The purple matriarch’s horn was alight with the same lavender/orange glow that filled the various arrays. “Ah, good you’re both here.”

Twilight stepped away from the glass basin and gestured Rasua towards a sink. “You’re in luck, Aegis. I was planning on analyzing this dead timber wolf,” she tilted her head at a pile of lumber sitting in a cage, “for its secrets. Rasua, would you kindly wash up to your shoulders? We need to eliminate as many contaminates as possible.”

Washing up gave the wayward blacksmith just enough time to truly take in the enormity of the alchemy lab. It doesn’t seem that far off from the chemistry labs of my homeland.

Aegis on the other hand was over by the timber wolf cage kicking the inert logs. “Momma, you weren’t planning on actually making a wooden drone strain were you?”

“Ha! No, I wanted to analyze the magic so I could make moving statues and possibly improve our clockwerk designs. Aside from Rarity’s help, we don’t have enough artistry around here. Besides, the Tea’la would be a better source of information for that kind of project.”

Rasua stepped towards Twilight and gave a respectful bow. “I am ready, your majesty.”

“Good to hear you volunteered for this.” Twilight’s warm tone belied the sourness of her hive-voice. <Even if it came at the cost of even more refuges, Aegis!>

The guilty princess shrunk down at Twilight’s stink eye. <It’s still a good cause.>

<Humph.> “Alright, Smith Rasua, all you need to do is dunk your arm – um - leg… forelimbs! Dunk them into the tub here and nothing else. That way we won’t get any other parts of you analyzed.”

Rasua looked dubiously at the chemical soup in front of her. “I thought you would only take a blood sample, your majesty.”

Twilight gave Aegis a questioning glance, only to find her looking at all of the arrays with a bewildered expression. “My daughter was mistaken. Blood only tells us so much.”

The roiling silver colored concoction let off a large bubble, making Rasua’s wings shiver. “I hope this won’t cause me any sort of illness.”

“You don’t have any cut skin do you? Even a rash or scab would be very problematic,” Twilight cautioned. The three of them searched every inch of her forelimbs before deeming them unblemished. “Excellent, now put them in so we can begin. This will take a while, so get comfortable.” Rasua cringed at the cold fluid, but complied without complaint. “Oh, I almost forgot. Shift one paw into a hand, but leave the other as a paw. That way we’ll get information on both.”

“Sounds reasonable enough.” Rasua complied and watched Twilight charge her horn for the activation switch.

“Now hold still. If I do this wrong, it’ll hurt a little. If I do it right, it’ll hurt a lot,” Twilight deadpanned.

“Wait, what?!” Rasua shrieked as the light of the arrays doubled in brightness and the crystal sent a beam of purple light into the alchemical tub. The liquid started glowing with magic, making Rasua flinch away, but she kept her forelimbs in place.

A few seconds passed with there being a distinct lack of pain or even a numbing sensation. “Ah, I must have done it perfectly then!” Twilight declared. Rasua looked back at the glowing tub before turning towards Twilight who was struggling between mirth and regret. “Sorry, sometimes I let my sister’s influence get the better of me.”

Aegis had enough tact to keep a hoof covering her snickering face, but little else. Rasua decided to pointedly ignore the princess. “It is not the worst surprise I’ve had since I came here. So I have to ask, is Princess Aegis the only one interested in my hands?”

An unspoken conversation passed between mother and daughter with Twilight internally sighing. Sometimes I have to double check her purple fur to make sure she’s my daughter. “Aegis has it in her head that she needs hands. With your species, I can understand the need, but all changelings have telekinesis, so hands seem a bit redundant. It’s important to remember that making a strain overly complex causes unnecessary waste and more ways for things to go wrong.”

“You laugh, scoff, and make fun, momma, but I’ll prove you wrong about hands,” Aegis said with an excited buzz of her wings and a smile to match. “With Blitz and me armed with arms, we’ll be the best hive yet, you watch!”

“I certainly hope you are,” Twilight replied before refocusing on the crystal above Rasua. First Mother knows how many resources I’m putting into this grand experiment of hers. “Are you comfortable, Rasua?”

“Enough, your highness.” About as much as I can be with this slurry seeping into my fur, yuck.

“Excellent.” Twilight looked deep within the crystal to see several arcane formulas taking shape within. “Good, the information is coming in nice and clean. It’ll take the analytical arrays some time to filter out the errors caused by contaminates. Not even washing can eradicate it all.”

Rasua shifted on her haunches, thankful that Twilight had the presence of mind to pull a cushion over, even if it was flat from constant use. “How long did you say this would take?”

“About four hours,” Twilight replied quickly. “We’ll need to repeat the process once or twice more depending on how clean the data is.”

Oh happy day.

Aegis stepped up to observe the process more closely. Even with Blitz taking the role of the civic queen, Aegis still wanted to learn everything about her royal duties.

Rasua eventually resigned herself to playing guinea pig. Well it doesn’t look like these changelings will get much out of this little donation to the cause. If Queen Twilight is that dubious about my hands, then she might order Aegis to give up on it. Then I’ll have conceded to one of their ‘requests’ with them gaining nothing from it. Either way, a win-win for me. Suddenly, the icky feeling of the lukewarm slurry covering her arms wasn’t so bad anymore.

A clock on the wall ticked away for several minutes before Aegis looked at Twilight. “Momma. Will we be able to integrate these new hands into Blitz before she hatches?”

Seeking to glean anything about alchemy, Rasua listened intently. Plus there wasn’t exactly anything else she could do. For her part, Twilight's eyes remained glued to the ever expanding information in the crystal. Even I can’t keep up with this. I’ll have to create a Linkscape later to study it all. “I probably won’t have this worked out for some time.” She guided Aegis’ eye to the swirling cloud of arcane symbols and graphs that were forming into the crystal <As you can see, young one, the sheer amount of information gained from a living sample is enormous.>

<Wooow.> This was the first time Aegis had witnessed alchemical sampling and the data looked more akin to a fluid work of art than anything scientific.

<The trick, my little Spitfire, is first mapping everything. Then we have to figure out which parts of this data holds the key to the trait we want, namingly shifting hands. Then we have to carve out all the unneeded sphinx data and interpose your strain on top of it.>

<Oh, Oh! I know the next bit!> Aegis butted in, <You have to run alchemy tests on small tissue samples to find a way to get my Ling cells to accept the new genes without dying or causing cancer.>

<Excellent, Aegis. Now what’s the next step?>

Aegis felt all warm and fuzzy at earning her mother’s pride. It was always more intense whenever she was learning scholarly pursuits. <You have to figure out what combo of chemicals, array patterns, and spellwork will safely transform me from my current self to the new and improved me. Although results vary depending on the future rebirthee’s strain. Some changes, even complex ones, are easy while others are impossible no matter how hard we try. Like love production before you became a ling, or our inability to remove the holes in our limbs and wings.>

<Ten points to you, Aegis, well done. I just might make a proper queen out of you yet.>

Rasua rolled her eyes as the two audibly silent changelings squashed each other in bear hugs, but said nothing. That stupid psi-talk of theirs is so damned rude to everyone else in the room.

Twilight let go of the hug and refocused on her work, with Aegis hovering nearby to help in any way she could. Small talk between Aegis and Rasua allowed the pair to pass the time when Twilight wasn’t directing her daughter’s attention to key points in the alchemical scanning process.

Even though Twilight had no interest in gaining hands for herself, she was still fascinated that the sphinx’s natural evolution would cause them to gain such a natural and highly specific shapeshifting. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think they were two different species who were perfectly fused into one.

Sadly, Twilight’s excitement over new scientific discoveries was interrupted by Gentle Touch. <My queen, I think you’re going to want to attend our budget meeting tonight.>

Is she serious? I was going to spend the whole night with Ratchet on a romantic night out. <You know I had plans for tonight right?>

<Indeed I do, and I have already cleared tomorrow night for you and Ratchet, but I think you need to investigate this sooner rather than later.>

Twilight hummed in thanks. <Glad you took that into account, my dear. So what’s so important that it needs to postpone my scheduled Romance Night?>

<Weellll,> Gentle started with supreme sarcasm. <The boys down in the shipyard just sent us a preliminary laundry list for the logistical costs of supporting the new “carrier” from SG. This would more than eat up the thirty million we just got from Grandmother’s trade savings. That would mean you’d have to stop egg production immediately again.>

<Are they mad?!> Twilight half-raged, <We have to use that money to boost the economy and allow us full egg production again. Mother said it should only take ten million at most.>

<Well then I would bring it up with her, or the engineering crew. You might want to investigate the ship itself to see what the issue is.>

Twilight was starting to lose focus on the data from the crystal. <I’ll have to. The R&D department always go over budget if you let them. Put a hold on any funding requests until I can inspect the ship myself.>

<As you wish.>

Rainbow may be content with just being a general, but I need to bring her back in on this so she can learn how to curb the money hungry research teams.

Author's Note:

Will the talbuks devour Applejack's orchard? Will Twilight find out she is actually her own grandmother? Will Cadista ever walk into Mordor? Will Blitz wake up as a minotaur gone wrong?!

Possibly none of this and more, next time on CotH!!