The Choosing
The entire Hive was watching a great rocky overhang.
They did not know why they were watching it.
They only knew that that they had been called to this place.
Deep within the Hivemind, a pheromone had been released.
A chemical, travelling quickly through the Hive, spreading a message into each changeling mind it touched.
Gather. Gather in Tunnel Five Hundred Ten, the ceremonial tunnel.
And the Hive had.
The room inside the overhang was usually dark and always cramped. A result of a great crack running through the rock, it served as a kind of backstage. Changelings would prepare within the room, and then emerge, center stage, through the tunnel-like crack, playing out elaborate ceremonies to the Hive.
"Will this take long?"
The Scout Leader could not answer, could not speak a word to the Head Guardian.
The normally dim room was bright.
The Scout Leader was Giving.
Coils of mystic blue light cloaked her, searching, seeking. Pure unfiltered love, it numbed her, burnt her, made the world spin crazily. Each of her limbs trembled, and they moved and jolted without meaning.
Wings buzzing, eyes bulging, she struggled to control the flow of energy, to tame it.
The Head Guardian had been right. It was so little. But it was also strong, and she was weak...
If only she could stand a second more...
There! It had Caught!
The light enveloped the Healer, and slipped noiselessly inside.
For a moment, the Healer's dull eyes were bright, as the changeling glowed from the inside.
The Scout Leader and Head Guardian both watched, too frightened to speak.
The burning blue turned the Healer into something unknown and strange, something terrifying.
Then it dimmed, and was gone, to be quickly synthesized for consumption. Something to be collected and doled out by any Scouts available in the Hive.
The Head Guardian was not asking how long it would take now.
He had seen many Givings, and knew all about Healers.
And he knew that they were never rushed.
They lived only in the deepest, darkest caverns the Hive had to offer, pitch-black except for Giving-light, and the wisps that clung to them afterwards. Their "speech"was completely pheromone-talk, making changelings feel their need and desires. The Hive mind always carried a trace of their emotion-whispering. Not only could they synthesize love, they could manipulate the energy produced to heal, and had remarkable potential to manipulate the changeling body.
Ironically, they were weak and half-blind, physically defenseless.
But they could touch a changeling's mind, fill them with desperate panic and fear, until they heedlessly ran headfirst into tunnel walls.
Pathetically vulnerable, they were also sinister.
With a jolt, both the Head Guardian and the Scout Leader were suddenly full of raging impatience, an unsubtle nudge from the Healer.
The Head Guardian pulled himself together.
" Scout Leader, do you intend to keep the Hive waiting forever?"
While the Scout Leader stood reeling, the Healer gave a gurgle.
Head Guardian gave it a respectful ,if forced,smile.
" Healer, the Hive needs you."
And he turned and set off, leading the small party to the top of the overhang. To center stage. To the Choosing.
On the overhang, all that could seen was a great, throbbing crowd of changelings. Their sleek blackness and bright, bulging blue eyes all mixed together.
The Hive was one. If it was broken now, they would rebuild it, piece by piece, generation by generation.
The Queen is dead! No, she's alive. She was betrayed...she planned it all. She could not have seen! We will all die! We'll thrive! We will live without rulers! Someone must seize power! Power to the Queen!
The babble of thoughts roared through the Hive, through the Hivemind.
On that overhang they felt it. Scout Leader, Healer, and Head Guardian; they were all were part of it. They could not do anything with the Hive. It would bend them, break them even. They were only here to soothe it, to croon sweet words to it, like a Breeder does to her hatchlings, before they are torn away from her forever.
The Head Guardian spoke.
" Will all of the changelings of Brood Thirteen-Thousand-and-Seven under the Dead Queen please step forward!"
The Choosing had begun.
The Healer eyes glowing, was absorbed in her task. Blue light once again poured out of her, but it was simply energy, the product of love synthesized.
The Scout Leader watched the Healer's every twitch. Every Scout and Scout Leader was trained to recognize when a changeling had over-exerted themselves, and needed to be Given. The Scout Leader would stand by during the Choosing, ready to fill the Healer with more love, charging it once more.
Head Guardian was simply there to keep an eye on things, to make sure nothing went wrong. To guard against any imperfections.
At the moment the Choosing was proceeding according to plan.
Each changeling in Brood Thirteen-Thousand-and-Seven, the Brood the Dead Queen had belonged to, was being Searched.
The Healer's blue light formed an aura around them, and they tried to stand straight and tall in it.
Of course, they failed miserably.
Twitching uncontrollably, their wings humming and eyes bulging, they behaved exactly the same way a Healer did at a Giving.
The Head Guardian thought it was a rather pathetic display. But he didn't fully blame them.
Having one's genetics poked and prodded is very discomforting.
The Healer was Searching for the brood mate of the Dead Queen who had the closest DNA to her. From what the Head Guardian had seen, it seemed to take a lot of time, and even more energy.
It was too bad that that Queen Hatchings were so irregular, thought the Head Guardian. A pattern to the creation of Queen Eggs would have saved the Hive all this fuss. But unfortunately, it just didn't happen that way.
Queens could live for centuries, but they were in no way immortal. Their genes did give them added protection against illness and injuries, and gave them longer lifespans, but Death, the Great Changer, eventually took them too.
However, their descendants might not appear for decades. Queen Eggs were rare, although they could be hatched by both Queens and Breeders. The most a Queen could do was surround herself with little buzzing Consorts, and hope for the best. Queens were constantly trying, but a Queen Egg was really a product of sheer luck.
If no Queen Egg turned up, a Choosing would happen, and the genetically closest changeling would be appointed Waiting-Leader. It was exactly what it sounded like. The changeling would lead the Hive, although they would never assume they were Queen. Their "reign" would end the moment a Breeder hatched a Queen Egg.
The Choosing was also used to pick Regents, changelings who would train and guide a young Queen, with the aid of Hive's most elite Scout Leaders, Healers, Breeders (when she reached the right age) and of course, him, Head Guardian.
He didn't think the Choosing was for a Regent this time.
He had, of course sent the obligatory team of a Guardians, Scouts, and Healers into the Queen's Chambers, but they hadn't reported back to him what they'd found. (The Hivemind was far too accessible for official reports.)
But then, it had only been an hour, and the Queen's Chambers was immense, with many different little parts and subsections. It would take time.
A feeling of certainty suddenly filled Head Guardian.
He dragged himself out of his private thoughts, and back to the Choosing.
He was sure what that feeling was.
The Healer had finally Chosen.
The certainty was a signal to the Hive as to what had just occurred. The emotion was sure to have been transmitted through the Hivemind, a wordless declaration.
Head Guardian took a look at the Chosen. Or the "Chosen", as he liked to call them.
Surprisingly, the Chosen looked rather...nondescriptive.
His stockier build was an indication that he had picked a gender, but otherwise he was the default changeling build. Bit skinny, even for a time of starvation. Sickly, even.
He was probably a "shadow", a brood mate of the Queen's who would follow her around for the rest of their life, seeking a sliver of her power and fame. Some were reverent of the Queen. Others were bitter. There was no harm to them, Queen's usually outliving them.
Come to think of it, he did remember the Chosen. It was one of the changelings who clustered around the Dead Queen whenever Head Guardian tried to talk to her, report to her.
Poor fool.
It was almost unheard of for a shadow to become a Waiting-Leader. Shadows generally choose to live as shadows because they were weak, and had no other opportunities than to cling to a Queen.
The Head Guardian cast a look at his companions.
The Healer eyes were still glowing, but that was a normal after-effect of a Choosing. Too much energy in the air. The Scout Leader was gasping for air, her knees buckling, but that was normal too.
It was safe to abandon them for a moment and check on the Hivemind, as the crowd that was the Hive seemed agitated, churning and foaming, a sleek blackness with only those blue eyes standing out.
That was normal too. The smallest, daily events stirred up the Hive.
He closed his eyes, and touched the Hivemind.
New Waiting-Leader! He's a shadow! Why? Why not? New leader! Someone to guide us! Should have been me. Wonder how long the Waiting-Leader will rule.
He opened his eyes with difficulty. There were just so many emotions!
Joy, anxiety, optimism, doubt...and a large amount of bitterness. Anger too. Not so normal.
But he could do nothing about that.
He began the long, official, proclamation that would tell the Hive of the shadow becoming the new Waiting-Leader.
"On this day, in Tunnel Five Hundred Ten, this changeling, originally a shadow, will now become the Hive's great-"
His budding speech was cut of by the arrival of the group he had sent to search the Queen's Chambers. They shuffled onto the overhang. One of them, a Healer, seemed to be holding a bundle.
The bundle was silently passed to him.
It was soft, and warm. Made of cocoon-like material that was half-way between silk and slime, he could feel something stirring in it.
Giving a signal to the Hivemind to wait, he began to unwrap the bundle, the whole Hive watching.
It didn't take long. A few seconds and a face was revealed.
The face of an only hours-old Queen.
She was a sleek blackness, with nearly transparent wisps of turquoise hair; a crown-like antenna already sprouting from her head. Her horn was tiny, but jagged; like a dagger of black bone. Her eyes were brilliant green, with the slitted pupils only a Queen had.
She opened her mouth to bawl, and revealed sharp little fangs.
Her cries echoed within the silent Hive.
The Head Guardian finally blinked, feeling as if he had just come out of a trance. He cleared his throat and repeated his speech, changing it to accommodate the new Queen.
"On this day, in Tunnel Five Hundred Ten, the once-shadow becomes regent to our new Queen, beautiful as the love that feeds us, powerful as the wars we have waged for it. May our Queen become the most illustrious leader the Hive has ever had. May she rule with the wisdom of one who has Changed a thousand times. May all her enemies vanish under her fiery gaze. May all the changelings who help her, serve her, and love her, be praised. She is our hope. She is what will remain if Death, the Great Changer, takes all, one by one."
It was a speech as old as all the dark, beautiful, terrifying things that lurked in Equestria.
The Hivemind received it reverently, as they had all the times before. It was the only thing that gave them stability in their changing world.
And it was tainted by bitterness, hatred, the anger of hundreds of changelings who had been passed by, who never felt a hint of the power.
It was ours. the Hivemind whispered, Ours!
Hostility. Rage. A burning desire to rid the world of the bastard Queen.
Hostility was normal. Anger was normal. It was quickly forgiven, forgotten.
But one changeling's grudge was not normal.
It would lie dangerously, a sleeping dragon, for years.
But it would one day strike.
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[Added to Read Later]
5355428
( Two mustaches! And a pun! I beat you! 
)
I mustache you why you want to read my story, but I'll shave it for later.
Thanks for wanting to read my story! I'm thankful to all the users on Fimfic who took the time to glance at it.
5355692
Except for the one who disliked; fuck him/her/it/them.
5355843
I'm not bitter!
No, really I'm not. Haters or not, all these people who don't even know me took the time to look at this story. That really means something to me.
All I can do is try to make their time worth it with a good story I enjoyed writing. I think it's working. I hope it is.
( On a less serious note, holy celestia! I've never used so many pinkie emoticons before!)
5356769 So many Pinkies, so little time.
Overall:
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5356881
Wow, I have someone's respect!
Wait...do you respect me for my pinkie emoticons, my policy towards haters, or my story?
I'm aiming for the story, but any one of them's good.
By the way, what did you think of the story, if you've read it yet?
I enjoy feedback of any form! Praise is wonderful, and I love it, but constructive critism is what I need most.
5357250
I've changed the wording ever so slightly to get my meaning across better.