Ignition
The Crusaders left the hive without incident, most likely due to Mirage's intervention in reminding them that it was approaching the deadline their sisters had set. The journey through the forest was similarly uneventful, although Mirage did catch an occasional glimpse of black and white stripes. Clearly, Zecora still didn't trust her. It was hardly a surprise.
As they passed the treeline, they were faced with all of the Elements in a loose huddle, not looking particularly worried, but there all the same.
“Hey,” said Mirage calmly. “We’re back on time, as promised.”
Twilight stepped forward and quickly scanned the other two, before nodding. “It's them, and they're fine,” she called back to her friends.
“Of course they are,” Mirage said, looking somewhat offended. “Noling would dare to hurt my best friends. Although there was a minor problem we found out about before we left.”
“What problem?” asked Applejack suspiciously.
“There’s a chance that hanging out with me for months might have altered their magic slightly.”
“What?” shouted Rarity. “How is this minor?”
“It's not dangerous, it just seems to be a natural thing that happens to any pony without a Cutie Mark. Probably. Maybe. It just means that their special talents might be changeling related.”
“Such as?” Applejack asked.
“Applebloom got a strong earth magic reaction from love crystals. We don't know about Sweetie yet, but we think maybe illusions or transformation spells.”
“Hmm,” said Rarity. “I suppose that's not so bad, but don't think I'm happy about this.”
“Look, by the time any of us realised what was happening, it had already happened. This isn’t anypony or -ling’s fault, just a load of new situations. Weird stuff’s going to happen sometimes. Who knows how many ponies this has happened to over the years and no one noticed.”
Rarity frowned. “That is a rather… disquieting thought. But it is probably not one to be addressed now. Let's go, Sweetie Belle, you need to get to bed.”
“Rarity’s right,” said Applejack. You need to get to bed, Applebloom.” She hesitated for a moment, before looking at Mirage. “Ah can't imagine the Everfree’s very safe at this time of night, even for you. You should probably hurry back.”
Mirage smiled. “I’ll be fine,” she replied, before shouting to the departing Crusaders. “See you tomorrow!”
Upon hearing their responses, she turned around and walked back into the forest.
Life was good in the hive for the next few days. The collectors sent to the Crystal Empire under the agreement with Lepidoptera were coming back with massive loads of love, though there were a few concerns raised over the fact that such a large love source tended to blind emotional senses. Even the negotiations with Princess Celestia were going well, the early stages of a possible alliance being agreed upon.
The relative peace was shattered by the arrival of a message.
Chrysalis attacking CE and Northern Hive. CH blinding detection abilities. Request immediate assistance. QL.
Queen Imago groaned at Chrysalis’s stupidity. Surely she couldn't be that idiotic naturally. She was starting to think that Chrysalis might be being controlled.
Either way, this couldn't be allowed to stand. She reached out with her magic and called in the entire guard.
Lyra opened the front door to find Bon Bon packing a bag. “Bon Bon? Where are you going?”
“Sorry, Lyra. I’ve been called in at short notice for a few days. I'm not sure what the queen wants me to do, but it shouldn't take more than a week.”
“Can you last that long without love?”
“Unless I get in a fight, easily. Besides, the hive has plenty of love stored up, I won't go hungry, even if I have to use the store of Pinkie love.”
“Pinkie love?”
“Think Applejack’s special cider but for changelings. Pinkie Pie is weird.”
“Huh,” said Lyra, deep in thought. “Is that why you were acting like that after the party last month?”
“Yep. You know Pinkie hired me to provide some sweets. We spent the entire afternoon baking in the same kitchen, and I got a huge dose of her love for absolutely everything. We tend to try to avoid spending too much time with her. Her special brand of love may taste delicious, but the side effects aren't worth it.
“Anyway,” she continued, “I’m sorry I have to leave at such short notice, but I’ll be back as soon as possible.”
Lyra frowned. “I’m worried. You’ve never had to leave like this before. What if it's dangerous?”
Bon Bon leaned in to kiss her, eyes closing as the delicious taste of love flooded into her, mixed with an undercurrent of worry.
“I’m sure everything will be fine, Lyra. I’ll be back in a few days, and we can pick up right where we left off.” She flashed into her true form for a moment, levitating her bag onto her back, before resuming her disguise. “I’ll see you soon, Lyra. I love you.”
Lyra sighed. “I love you too.”
Queen Imago looked out over the large crowd of drones in front of her and smiled. It always felt good to see her hive so successful. Still, this was a serious occasion, so she quickly schooled her face into a neutral expression, before casting a spell to amplify her voice.
“Earlier today, I received a message. Our allies in the north have come under attack from Chrysalis, and we have been requested to assist. The council response will take time to organise, meaning that we are the only backup for at least three days.
“The guards will come with me, and we will assist Queen Lepidoptera in repelling the invasion. Those of you who are not guards, but have combat experience or training, have been called in to protect the hive while the main guard are away. You will follow the commands of Trance,” (a growl came from the drone in question), “formerly of my personal guard.”
The queen turned around, preparing to leave the raised platform. “We leave immediately. Those of you who are coming with me will be briefed on the way.” She left the room followed by a flood of armoured drones.
Mirage, as princess, felt the call as well. If the hive was going to war, with the queen at its head, she would be required to run the ordinary hive business, while maintaining the appearance of normality. She would also, if things went wrong, have to be ready to take the throne at any time.
That wasn't to say that she couldn't go about her business as usual. It would never do to alert any potential enemies to the hive's vulnerability. It was her duty to ensure that no outsider would be able to tell that anything was different, and that meant doing everything she normally would.
This, of course, meant that school was still on the agenda. Unfortunately, after two days of pretending nothing was wrong, it had become obvious to those who knew her best that she was hiding something. At lunchtime on the second day, the other Crusaders confronted her.
“Scoots, what's wrong?” asked Applebloom. “You’ve been actin’ stressed all day.”
“It's nothing, just a bit of hive business. I can't tell you about it anyway.”
Sweetie Belle’s eyebrow raised. “Does this have something to do with why the sweet shop suddenly closed for a few days?”
Scootaloo looked very uncomfortable. “Yes it does, but I really can't tell you more than that. Look, when all this is over, however it goes, I promise I'll tell you what’s going on, but until then, I have to keep it a secret.”
Applebloom didn't look convinced, but she let the subject drop. “Fine, but not a second longer.”
Sweetie suddenly perked up. “Why don't we try another crusade after school, for old times sake. Just because we have some idea of what we might be good at now, doesn't mean we can't have fun.”
“Yeah,” said Applebloom. “You can even choose what we do, take your mind off things for a bit.”
A small smile crossed Scootaloo's face. “I suppose we haven't done anything really crazy since this all started. Wanna try hang-gliding?”
“So, class,” Cheerilee said loudly, regaining control of the class after lunch, “under the rules we discussed yesterday, who can tell me what five times seven plus nine divided by three is?”
Several hooves shot up instantly, the usual suspects who tried to answer everything. A few more followed more hesitantly, the group who weren't so confident, but had the brains to puzzle out the answer. The latter group were the ones she usually asked, actually being more likely to give a correct answer than many of the former.
“Dinky?”
The little unicorn looked terrified at being singled out, but quickly worked up the courage to answer. “Umm… thirty-eight?”
Diamond Tiara snorted with laughter, but Cheerilee smiled. “Very good, Dinky. Doing the multiplication and division first gives thirty-five plus three. Now, who can —”
Cheerilee’s question was cut off as a pulse of acid green magic spread across the room. Everypony looked towards its source.
Scootaloo's eyes blazed with her magic, green fire overtaking their usual purple, and the image of a jet black crown was fading from her flank.
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the chapter was rather short.
7426892 A little, but I haven't had much time to write recently, and I've been struggling a little for inspiration. I also didn't want to go beyond what's currently there as it would require me to start on the battle. I'm hoping the next chapter will come out a bit longer (and sooner), since I know roughly how I want the fight to go down, but I'm not sure exactly when I'll get the time.
My chapters always tend to be quite short, it's something I've tried to work on, but trying to write much longer chapters often completely dries up my inspiration. I do, as a rule, never accept a chapter as finished unless it exceeds 1000 words (with the occasional exception of prologues), and I try to keep my average chapter length above 1666 (fairly arbitrary, but a doable target for me), so this was not far below average.
Yay
new chapter 
7426912 I understand do not worry i too have problems with my story
so I did bookshelf with all the stories where the queen is the mother of the hive and I wondered if I missed any or if I have all. what do you think? http://www.fimfiction.net/bookshelf/851658/queen-mother-of-the-hives
THE QUEEN IS DEAD!!!
7426972
LONG LIVE THE QUEEN!!!
ARGG! NO! STARS BE DAMNED NO! I just found this story today, why did THIS have to be the last chapter?!
7426944 After a quick browse, I can't think of any off the top of my head, but I haven't read anywhere near all the changeling fiction on the site. Pretty sure you got most of the major ones where that's the case though.
Well, I have a feeling that things went sideways up north. Also Diamond Tiara your boned, you've been bullying a princess now queen
As much as I hope otherwise, I don't think the queen made it. But I think she's right Chrysalis. No one in a position of power can be that stupid and keep it.
7427141 ok
That cliffhanger.
...
...
WHY?!
Whoop, that can't be a good sign...
Welp Queen scootaloo has just happened.
The Queen is dead, long live the Queen.
How was there a black crown on her flank if changelings are already black? Or, wait, she was Scootaloo; had she been using that as a cutie mark since she revealed herself? Or is it something else that will all be explained next chapter?
7433801 It briefly flashed on the flank of her disguise.
hello 7434837 so I created my insignia of my hive, what do you think?
7434837 for all my friends I have this question. so this confirms that the hive of a changelings works like a bee hive?
7:38
Seems to. I don't intend to use the 'Changeling Kingdom' he mentioned, though.
I hope that doesn't mean what I think it means.
Also, MOAR!
This fic is starting to turn out to be a favourite of mine.
7555497 More will be coming. I am mostly done with the next chapter, but it's looking like the events in the north will take two chapters to cover everything I want to get in. I'm reluctant to post the first until the second is also done in case I need to change something to help continuity. It is a complex section of the story after all.
7557718
Don't worry, take all the time you need.
As long as it isn't 2-3 years, I don't mind.
Quality and coherency is better than quantity after all.
7557718 the suspense is killing me
Well, let's hope that doesn't mean her ma's dead.
7673518 I was actually trying to reference "Slice of Life" - S5E9.
"The lunches, the long talks, the benches we've sat on!"
But the banner's cool too.
Is it dead, Jim??
PLEASE tell me you intend to continue this riveting story at SOME time in the future???
7848980 I still plan to continue. The next chapter is pretty much done, but I want to wait until the chapter after that is also required ready, as they are closely linked and I want to make sure things are consistent between them.
7849444
Thank for answering so quickly. I completely understand where your coming from. This just means I can look forward to reading not one but two new chapters when you post them.
P.S IS Queen Imago DEAD?? or just out of contact.
Keep up the wonderful work.
7849444 ok I was beginning to worry that the story was dead
How's the next chapter, I'm planning to get to it this weekend.
8076530. Sorry , I've been really busy recently, on top of my muse being an utter b****.
I had a chapter just about ready to go, when I realised that it directly contradicted something I'd written in a previous chapter, and I haven't found the right way to rewrite it to fix that problem.
Annoyingly, I have had inspiration for another story, which I've started writing, though it isn't anywhere near ready for publishing here yet. I'm hoping that by working on that, I can clear up my writers' block on this.
I do still have this story in mind, but I'm afraid it may take a little while.
8077647 Okay, glad to hear we have less orphan stories on the site...
Okay, finally got to read it. I think Applebloom might just become a crystal pony. She has afflication to love crystals, so if she got hit by the influence by the Crystal Heart. Her magic might tune to the crystal and stay that way.
Sweetie Belle? Love-induced sonics? I can see her pulling off superscreams ala. Danny Phantom...
I think the CMC are a whole big magical counter-reaction. First it was Mirage's presence that changed their magic and now we might see the opposite. Changelings have very open flow of energy from and into their bodies, so they could easily work with love. But now we have AB and SB who slowly accumulated affliction to love and changelings - I belive that might ended with Scootaloo picking up some pony magic with their love. And specyficly: CUTIE MARK MAGIC! AND THE THING UNDER IS LEGIT!!!
Only thing I regret is how slowly the things with Spoiled Rich go. I want to have some mentally tortured Tiaras here!
Hey Trump-12, are you alright??
8339043
I'm fine. Just not had much inspiration lately. I recently started a part time job, and I'm doing another degree which is eating a lot of my time. I'm still reading stories here regularly, but my writing has had to go on the back burner.
So you plan to eventually start writing again?? That's great news.
8386493
Definitely, at some point. No idea when, since the combination of free time and good ideas seems to be eluding me for the moment, but it will happen.
8465305
Same. It would mean some pretty cool things. Like that Celestia is open-minded for one. And uses talents in a way that makes sense.
Is it time for the next
episode- I mean chapter of this well written story??No, Aww ponyfeathers.
I hope Trump-12 will at least consider continuing this amazing story sometime soon.
8941777 I keep meaning to write more for this. I have parts of a next chapter written (not much, but something), but between college and a part-time job (neither of which I had to worry about when I started this), a lot of my time and inspiration is being taken up by other things.
Can't wait to read more
Well buck don't tell me the fic dies before this is resolved! D:
GOD NO YOU CAN'T DO ME LIKE THIS AND LEAVE ME HANGING AAAAH
9416353
It's not completely dead, I had another chapter mostly written at one point, but I didn't like where it went. Then I started my current degree and haven't had a lot of time, or the inspiration to fix the next chapter in a way I'm happy with.
I certainly intend to continue, but it may take a little while.
9416316
That is such an old comment, I had completely forgotten about it. And I can see where you're coming from, but I still miss the banners. My favorites were the ones by Devinin, the one linked in the comment, and this one.images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/intermediary/f/6c4aae26-fe6b-444f-b2a0-91e3be9d2205/d5tcuxu-de1a6dca-1f3a-4bb4-b378-5a0f2d7dce00.jpg/v1/fill/w_1280,h_485,q_70,strp/picnic____with_kindness_by_devinian_d5tcuxu-fullview.jpg