"Tell me more of this... Blue Sun." Queen Catalyst asked, following the soldier known as Olive along with the three volunteers down winding pathways of concrete and metal. "Blue Sun doesn't sound like any name I've ever heard for a changeling."
Olive was leading the group, followed by Catalyst in the middle with Maria, Karol and Ricky in the back. Armed guards dotted the hallway at points with sliding doors, most of whom were quite nervous of the large alien queen walking past them with her head ducked low to avoid smacking her curved horn against the roof.
"Well, she originally came to us as a 'drone', if that's the right wording--." Ricky began,
"And you hit her with a shovel." Maria interrupted with a coy smile.
"Hey, she was scary and it was the first time anyone'd ever seen an alien. You're the crazy one, going up to Blue and bringing her in like some stray dog." Ricky countered in good humor.
"A drone?" Catalyst wondered aloud. "Was she already named, or did the drone choose her own name?"
"We picked it out for her; got tired of callin' her 'alien' all the time." Ricky explained.
Catalyst then stopped, causing an inattentive Karol to slam into the queen's backside. The group looked upwards at the shocked expression on the Queen's face. "You... named her? You did?"
"Uh... yeah? Is that bad?" Ricky asked in a mixture of curiosity and concern.
Catalyst blinked a few times. "I'm... not certain, actually." she replied, her head facing forwards once more. "I'll have to see for myself."
"Hey Catalyst, have you ever met another queen?" Karol asked, and received angry chittering as a response.
"I refuse to speak of it." The glowing queen snapped. "A different subject; if we're going to distract ourselves with conversation, that is."
"Ah, okay..." Karol awkwardly continued. "Do you have a hive of your own?"
"Different. Subject." Catalyst growled from behind her teeth.
"How are you liking Earth so far?" Maria asked in hopes of avoiding immolation at the hooves of an increasingly upset queen. "It must be pretty different from where ever you're from."
"Most of my time was spent in a hole, a flying contraption, or this different hole that you terrans call a 'base'." Catalyst grumbled, before taking a moment to further organize her thoughts. "However, despite the limited experience I've had thus far... you seem to be far more welcoming than dragons; Ponies especially for that matter. Not a single scowl or sneer since my arrival." Catalyst paused a moment to regard a sliding door that stood open in her path, barring her teeth in a grimace before quickly moving past. "Aside from these contraptions and gadgets everywhere, I can see why this 'Blue Sun' chose to use this mountain as a hive. What I don't understand is why you're all allowed to be so close to it."
"Wait, did you say dragons?" Karol asked with excitement. "Like, big flying fire breathing dragons?"
"Yes, what of them?" Catalyst replied with a bit of confusion. "Are there dragons here that don't breathe fire?"
"We don't have any dragons." Ricky explained. "Apart from yourself and Blue Sun, we don't have other changelings either."
The orange queen was now even more confused. "Do you have ponies here then? Who controls your Sun and Moon?"
"I think we call it 'Gravity'." Olive snarked. "They're a pretty big deal."
"Do they rule Earth alone, or is there a second?" Catalyst asked, intrigued.
"Olive is being a smart-ass, Queen Catalyst." Maria explained. "Nobody controls the sun and moon or anything, they just kinda do their own thing. Gravity is just a force of nature or physics or something that keeps everything in place to where it should be."
"Swear jar." Ricky chuckled.
"Eh, remind me later." Maria shrugged.
"So... wait a moment." Catalyst asked, stopping in the hallway to turn awkwardly around in order to face the three. "There is no one controlling your Sun and Moon? No ponies, no dragons... are there Minotaur? Yaks? Sea-Serpents, Griffon... anything?"
"We've got a whole bunch of mythological guesses about things like that, but nothing aside from Yaks exist anymore; If they even did, I mean." Karol explained.
"So... of all the races it's just... Terrans and Yaks. I would've thought them the first to be annihilated if it came to a war..." Catalyst hummed in thought, scratching the side of her face with a hoof in an expression of numb acceptance. "Wait, where there changelings before Blue Sun and myself?"
"Nothing like yourself or Blue, no." Maria answered. "Why would the Yaks be the first to go? They're just a bunch of annoying... goat things I think, right?"
"You're the one that's gonna to be a vet here, Maria. I have no clue." Ricky shrugged.
"I think they're a type of Ox, actually." Karol chimed in.
As the group was explaining things to Catalyst whilst figuring out semantics, a guard barred the path of Olive. "Hold here a moment, Lieutenant. Colonel Bunker is on her way here-- She wants to be part of the introductory committee."
"Fine with me, just be sure to keep your weapon out of sight. Last person to mess with Catalyst nearly got melted out of curiosity." Olive warned, spooking the guard.
"Wait, how is this possible?" Catalyst asked, drawing the attentions of the three volunteers whom had been discussing Ox in relation to Bison. "If terrans are the only species left on this planet capable of thought... what happened to all of the others? I doubt you could have vanquished all of them by yourselves."
The three exchanged looks of uncertainty. "I dunno, Queen Catalyst. If all the myths and legends are true, then we probably did." Ricky explained.
Catalyst seemed troubled by this news and took a moment to organize her thoughts. It was at that moment that Colonel Bunker had caught up with them.
"Lieutenant 'Olive'." She greeted in humor. "I see you've kept our guests entertained."
"Colonel Bunker, yes Ma'am." Olive saluted in greeting, and the Colonel returned the salute in order to continue the conversation normally. "How are you doing, Queen Catalyst? Did you get enough love?"
Catalyst was still in an informational overload daze of sorts, her eyes blinking a few times.
"Uh, Queen Catalyst?" Bunker repeated, waving a hand near the Queen's face.
"Yes!" Catalyst blurted, her head rising swiftly and denting the concrete ceiling with her horn in surprise. "Ow!" The ceiling would have wilted under the queen's ire, had it not been made of concrete and incapable of anything other than being a construction. "Who build these pathways so small?"
"Well Queen Catalyst, we weren't really expecting visitors from another planet when we made them." Bunker replied with a smirk.
"Speaking of visitors," Catalyst asked, "What of Queen Blue Sun? I had thought we were walking through this place in order to locate her."
"You were, I just wanted to come along for the ride." Bunker explained, motioning forward. "Lead on, Lieutenant."
With Olive in the front and Bunker just behind, Catalyst remained nearby the three volunteers in the back to continue their conversation.
"So... there are no ponies on this planet, nor any other creature you consider mythical?" Catalyst asked.
"Well yeah, we got ponies. Horses too, though I don't really see why you'd be worried about them." Ricky explained.
Catalyst's face became a numb mask. "You said they were slain."
"No, we ride them. They're kinda like pets, though they used to help out with farming." Karol provided.
The queen's face scrunched a moment before she replied. "Alright, I am going to give the benefit of doubt and assume that we are not talking about the same kind of ponies, or this conversation is going to drive me insane."
"Alright... what would you want to talk about instead?" Maria asked.
"If I am going to be meeting another Queen, I need to know everything about the queen herself and her hive. How many changelings are there? Are they well fed? Will she be expecting me?" Catalyst asked, her anxiety coming to the front of her thoughts.
"Oh, right. We should probably let her know you're coming." Karol replied with mild sarcasm. "We... we did tell her that Queen Catalyst was coming, right?"
"That... ah... may have slipped my mind, somehow." Bunker admitted, taking out a handheld radio. "Slight oversight, aliens everywhere, kind of hectic." She added. With the radio close to her face, she began speaking into it. Catalyst watched with interest, even if she had no idea how the contraption was working. "Shen, are you there?"
"Doctor Shen speaking." the Radio replied. Catalyst's eyebrow twitched and her head tilted in examination of the radio, causing Bunker to lean away slightly from the proximity of the large queen's face.
"Would you mind letting Queen Blue Sun know that she's going to have another changeling Queen as company soon?" Bunker responded.
"Wait, do you mean now?" Shen asked with alarm. "There seems to be a situation in the hive at the moment; I'm certain that a better time could be found."
"A situation? What do you mean?" Bunker asked, concern showing.
"Well, her eggs are hatching at an increasing rate. I'm not certain if there will be room within the chamber for all of the drones and the heat they're giving off isn't survivable at the moment. We're going to shunt off the excess temperature by opening a pathway out of Cheyenne mountain before the structure is compromised." Shen explained before red warning lights sprang to life, lazily spinning around in dramatic fashion on the nearby tunnel walls.
"When was I going to be told of this?" Bunker inquired with annoyance.
"This only began in the last minute or so, Colonel. You should be able to meet Queen Blue Sun and her drones outside in a few moments. Use the emergency exit tunnels to find your way to the main entrance- I will meet you there along with security." Shen replied, and the radio cut out.
Bunker shook her head, clipping the radio to her uniform. "This day just keeps getting more and more interesting."
"Where are we going?" Ricky asked as Bunker swiftly brushed past him.
"We're going on a little picnic outside, seeing as Blue Sun's hive turned the temperature up to eleven." The Colonel replied.
"How much is eleven?" Catalyst asked, following the group.
"Well there's hot, and then there's really hot, and then there's up to eleven." Karol summarized. "It's basically non-specific speak for way-too-freaking-hot."
"I know of at least one queen I'd like to turn up to eleven at the moment." Catalyst grumbled.
Oops. Too early. No comments.
We humans do tend to murder anything we perceive as a threat. . . . or looks at us crosswise. . . . go humans! XD
Red alert? Not good. whatever just happened!
Well, at least they have a way to vent the excess heat.
Not informing Blue... oh well, at least she'll be kinda-sorta informed now-ish?
Either way, another fun-to-read chapter! Catalyst is more and more perplexed. Poor thing. Whole new world, fun times abound.
I like to quantify Humans as: genius/lazy problem solvers.
We Humans can find a solution to any problem if given enough time. The problem is that we tend to see if a problem can be destroyed before searching for an alternative solution.
Another good chapter. I can't wait for more. By the way, is it just me, or does it seem like as your character develops in the game, so too does Queen Blue Sun? It's like after our game sessions you have the inspiration to write more.
Run-roh....queens will meet in next chapter, I have mixed feelings bout it....one hand it may go smoothly, the other it may go baaaaaaaad...
Somehow I expect the drinking water tanks are being hurridly repiped to connect to the fire suppression system so as to deal with The Rain Of Fire. Concrete might be able to take temperature but it does so by calcining, emiting the CO2 it absorbed during hardening, strengthening, and ends up turning back, efrfectively to its particulate componants. At this point its likely teh steel reinforcing is well past its softening point and heading for its melting point, and the granite walls are undergoing thermal shattering, softening and melting also.
And now they all get to meet in the park outside for a picnic.
Play nice.
wohooo another chapter, another great start to my workday
7882630
Well, we used to be the lowest runts in the predator scale: no fangs, claws, poor hearing/smell, low strenght/speed... So we embraced the virtues of ingenious brutality and disproportionate retribution to compensate.
Finally! Catalyst is gonna meet blue
Can't help imagining a "ding" sounding out when they open the door.
My nose voodoo worked! I knew that it would get me a new chapter!
7882907 ok then... I may not understand how fimfiction works... I saw comments 1-10 for this chapter and figured "oh i must be eleven!" I was so wrong... 7882907. What? (Dont bother explaining)
7882798
Humans had a lot of distinct advantages before intelligence became a factor.
Our bipedal stance gives us better view over tall plants than other animals of our size. The two legged job is one of the most efficient forms of locomotion on the planet and our stamina is massive by nature's standards; any other animal would collapse dead from exhaustion halfway through what we call a "marathon", and for some even that's not tough enough so we created "supermarathons" for extra challenge. One of humanity's oldest hunting techniques is "jog casually towards a target until it can no longer keep running"
Chimps are well known for throwing feces, but humans take this to the next level: we can judge the arc of a thrown rock by instinct better than any other animal on the planet: an excellent defense mechanism! Wolves prowling near your tribe? Here's a way to drive them off at no risk to yourself!
And of course We got thumbs for manipulation, making digging for food, picking plants, or climbing trees so much simpler.
About that humans the only intelligent species on Earth. I find the idea that we only one, because we kill all other one a bit naive. If by fan-non of this story mythical creatures exist on Earth ,than they would left evidence.
That ,by the way, in real life scientists proof that skull of "dragons " that knife who slain them and keep them in knifes domains were actually dinosaurs skulls. Whom were dead long before knife claim that they "slain" them.
More likely most mythical creatures just emigrated from Earth.
7882989 I rather believe we only had contact with equestria in the past, and what Catalyst believes right now is just a misconception comming from the myths that such contact spawned. And that is rather cool, for it makes sense in context.
The way this story's pacing is going, these chapters really should be about 50% longer. You seem to have difficulty choosing an appropriate point to stop. Maybe consider doubling up your chapters-- write one chapter, then when you've finished, instead of posting, add the next chapter on top of that and post them together as a single chapter. It might take longer, but I think it'll be worth the wait.
7882630
Or tastes good. Or Looks good as a fashion accessory. Or might make us better in bed...
*nerd mode initiate*
Technically earth does have dragons and changelings but... the changelings are just birds who put their eggs in another bird's nest and have the nest owners raise their young (yes that exist look on the changeling wikipedia page) and komodo dragon is a large lizard
*nerd mode shutting down*
Oh this won't end well.
Prepare for the battle of the qweens!!! Lol
Wait...
is this story taking place in the XCOM HQ?!
7883457 There are actually multiple species of birds that do that, but the most well known ones are members of the Cuckoo family.
And Komodo Dragons are basically just foul-mouthed monitor lizards.
7883732
I must admit that I had an image of a very large, very angry lizard shaking its fist at something off screen with swirls and stars and the like flying about.
Ps. I know Komodo Dragons have one of the deadliest bites in the world from secondary infection.
7883022 that even more likely.
7882630
Or we think could, possibly, be tasty.
Or looks pretty enough we want to stick it on a plaque to look at later and wonder why we thought it looked pretty so many years ago.
7884032 That was the intended wordplay, yes.
There is eleven and there is the sun, then there is nine thousand and one
What's left for Shen to do is to put turbines in the air vents of the mountain and the base will soon be autonomous in (hopefully clean) energy ! Giving "Changeling Power" a whole new meaning !
And in a few years, and a few thousand drones hatched, changeling energy will make our Solar and Wind look like the source of energy of the past future !
Glorious !
Catalyst trying to figure out the new world she's in sounds like me when I try to figure out my taxes.
And it's Colonel Bunker we have to blame for forgetting to tell Blue about Catalyst before now? Way to go, Bunker!
Well, in general, when the very first time your race shows up it's as violent invaders bent on mind-raping the entire population.... yeah, kinda leaves a bad impression.
And, judging from your personality, you likely haven't done much to ingratiate yourself either, Queenie Mc Roachbutt.
(Alondro is very succinct with his analyses of situations, responding with profound analytical prowice, as demonstrated here.)
The local mad scientist, Professor Alondro took this moment to appear and confirm the postulate, "Ach, ya. Ve totally slaughtered zhem all. Some even begged for zhere lives und ve laughed as ve gutten zhere young in front of zhere crying eyes und zhen ate zhere bodies vith fava beans und a nice chianti."
Catalyst is appalled, "I... I sense no love whatsoever from this abomination!"
Alondro appeared curious, "Vat a perceptive creature zhis is. Bring it to mine lab! Ve must perform vivisection at vonce! FOR SCIENCE!!"
And Catalyst was never seen again. Alive. She was never seen ALIVE again. But bits of her were seen... there... and there... and over there... (Krillin!) What? (Too soon!)
Ah yes. I usually shove tissue paper up my nose to block it off temporarily. Eventually it starts dripping through and you have to blow the accumulated pool of goo out and it makes a big slimy mess all over your hands when it invariably blasts straight through even 3 layers of tissue. And then you have to shove more paper up there and hope it holds long enough to get something done before it starts dripping again.
So when are they making that biothermal powerplant?
7883022 what if humans were in equestria, but they were banished into a parallel universe, hence why there is a fossil gap between neanderthal and cro magnons?
GAAAAAHDAMNIIIIIIIT!!! SO CLOSE! THEY WERE ALMOST THERE! WHY!?!?
this is going to be interesting fro 2 reasons. blue's hive out side and 2 queens meeting that close together.
no their is no way this can get interesting.
7885123 don't think so, they would require not only dimensional contact but also a tremendous evolutionary coincidence. Also, there would most likely be myths of humans in equestria. Occam's Razor and all, the simpler explanation is most likely right.
It could be, though. Far fetched but, hey, magic!
Oh c'mon, Catalyst, you can't mean that, not to our beloved and prefect Chryssie.
I think Chrysalis deserves being turned up to 12 at least, maybe 13...?
7890241 We're freaking terrifying!
Pretty good chapter. I'm kind of nervous for their meeting though.
7882695
Hoi!
Nature is built in a cost-effective manner: every organism tries to be as energy-saving as it can, unless forced to do the opposite. That would explain the fact that so many people (and domesticated animals) are prone to laziness once their primal needs have been fulfilled.
That and we always instinctively see our own profit in anything before thinking of the other. That applies to other species too. It is part of a mechanism our brain includes that always estimate the threat things can pose to us, and the scenarios that would involve them harming us.
Our morals have evolved to the point that we can now think of protecting our world and save what species and plants we can. But that is only because we have asserted our dominion over this world, and do not feel threatened anymore.
In the case of an alien race coming on earth like the changeling, which is an entire race of shapeshifters that work as parasites to sapient beings like ponies and humans, can reproduce at the rate of hundreds of changelings per day if they have a queen, and can create an efficient empire-like structure with powers that can rival our own technology, it is expected to have our brain switch to its prime objective and tell us to eliminate the threat they might one day represent.
I agree wholeheartedly. As predators, it is engraved in our genetic code to crush any potential rival when we can. But thanks to our education, we can now circumvent these "genetic reflexes".
however, I wonder how the author will make the hive evolve: from a single egg-laying, there was like several hundreds of changeling that were created and ready to operate. At some point, the hive will need to expand, and there will be a problem: unless the government intends to dedicate a country-sized plot of lands to these "guests" on earth, there will be problems in between the two races.
The other solution would be for the queen to stop laying eggs. But from what we read, everything "Blue" did from the moment she transformed into a queen was due to her instincts basically piloting her body, such as the itch of creating a hive, the need to lay eggs or the maternal berserk mode she entered when she felt humans near her eggs. Even though she harbors no ill towards the three humans that have accompanied the changeling from day one, she is in the end a slave to her genes, and can hardly fight the effects they have on her body.
The second solution would imply an intervention from the humans, such as developing a serum that would work along the way of the pills women take to prevent them from getting pregnant. that, and we see that the changelings are less human-friendly and even more instinct-driven than Blue.
And that is not even taking in account the tensions inside the changelings ranks themselves, with the arrival of the new radioactive queen.
I sincerely can't wait to see how the author makes all this work out, and in the mean time, Have a nice day/night! :D
7882695 I believe i have seen you before in other stories, most of the time you said negative things about it. But now you said something good, which i am glad that you at least like this story!
Smart bug.
That awkward moment when you forgot ponies exist. Not like "pony" ponies, but like earth ponies. But not like "earth pony" ponies, but "earth" ponies. Terran ponies.
Sounds hot.