Behind enemy lines
Skittering little legs bolted through the trees of the Ling Woods that grew around the changeling hive. The new changelings, dubbed 'Abstergo Brood' by outside elements, were making a clearing within the new plains to create a garden filled with fruits and vegetables to give to visitors or simply sell. It was all for the good of the hive, after all. The workers smiled, cheered, grinned, danced, and sang, much to the disgust of Chrysalis.
"These changelings aren't right in the head," a blue-purple changeling hissed.
Several changelings of the blue-purple hive spying on the ‘fallen’ changelings from the young trees. They were tasked with gathering intel on this hive, but the spies had trouble adjusting to seeing their former fellows like this. It was...disturbing to see a bug so utterly transformed and warped not only in body, but in mind, too.
"So what do we do?" another asked.
"We can attack them and see what their defensive response will be."
"How quickly they'll respond? How strong they might be? But then what kind of monster do we use?"
There was a long pause. "We could try a dragon. The adults are dangerous creatures. They could prove a proper threat." The leaves fluttered in the wind. "Any proper hive can fight back an adult dragon."
There was much rustling in the trees at the idea, but when several of the changelings were about to act, one called out to them. There was a small blue dragoness accompanied by a giant green changeling stepping out of the hive.
"What are those things?"
"The blue one is a dragon. What is a dragon doing here?" the scout pondered.
Mandibles crackled at the sight. "What is the giant green one? It stands different to the other changelings around."
"Is this the 'king'?"
All the changelings hissed together. "He ruins the changelings. We must kill him!"
"The queens did not ask for that. We shall not displease the queen."
The blue dragoness punched the 'king' in the shoulder, causing him to flinch in pain. The changelings all leaned forward eagerly in anticipation of the retribution she would receive, but none came. Instead, the king laughed along with her and waved the dragoness goodbye as she took to the skies.
"WHAT?!" one changeling screamed in indignation. "The dragon attacked him, and he did nothing! The hive would lose respect for him. He's a weak leader!"
"But look."
The scouts looked on towards the abstergo changelings and noticed that they were apathetic to what just happened. They were cheerfully continuing what they were doing prior.
"Infiltration," a scout blurted out.
"Infiltration?"
Several minutes later, a changeling scout was shoved out of the trees and landed painfully behind bushes. He got up and rubbed his pained rear, throwing a deathly scowl at the responsible ones. He wrapped his body in purple slime by vomiting out a strand of it into his hooves and wrapping it around his body like a cocoon. The changeling then rolled around on the ground to get the dirt, leaves, twigs, and anything else it could onto its body, letting it crawl to the hive.
Those in the trees collectively facehoofed. "That's not what I meant!"
"Don't worry," another responded comically. "He's slowly crawling to their hive...slowly."
The 'infiltrator' wandered into the fields where a circle of changelings performing hug meditation. Two stood up and gave each other a big hug in the center of the circle while the others clapped with smiles on their faces.
The changeling scout stuck his tongue out in disgust. "What is this supposed to be?" he hissed. "It's disgusting. Changelings don't show affection. They take it!" he shouted in his head. The two dropped down and exhaled loudly. "What's wrong with their colors? How do they distinguish each other? How do they intimidate or hide from their enemies? These colors are absurd!"
He scooched on through towards the towering hive of hollowed stone in hopes of being able to enter it with no issues and use his camoflauging abilities to their best potential. It seemed all was going well, and he felt a sense of pride and joy to be sneaking by with so terrible a disguise, but alas. Not every changeling is an idiot.
"What are you doing?" a soft spoken stallion voice asked. The lump didn't budge, so the owner of the voice prodded it gently. "I know you're hiding there."
"Hmmm?" the scout hummed in response.
The scout turned around to see the one poking him and witnessed a tall changeling. Giant orange antler-like horns protruding from his bight-green skull and dwarfing his normal one. Sparkling under-carapace and transparent wings and tail imitating the same effect. The scout frowned and looked around towards the other changelings around the hive. He bared his teeth and threw off his disguise, using the muck and dust as an excuse to transform without anyone noticing, but with random, bright colors. It took on the reds and blues of forest berries. He forced a smile, and the changeling king flinched at the sight.
"Are you okay?" the giant asked the scout.
"Y-yes?"
"Are you sure? Your colors seem a bit...dim." He rubbed his chin pensively. "Oh, you must be imitating my brother Pharynx." He chuckled. "I kinda like the idea of new colors in the hive, actually. Makes things a bit more lively." He tapped the infiltrator on the shoulder playfully.
The infiltrator looked down at the affected shoulder, his face distorted with anger, then he bared his teeth and glared at the king and hissed loudly at him.
"Woah! Calm down!"
The drone looked around at the surrounding changelings staring at him and relaxed himself. "S-sorry," he blurted clumsily. "I'm..new. I just got back to the hive, and it looks very different."
The king's eyes and ears perked up. "Oh boy! A newcomer. Don't worry. I'll help you get adjusted." He pushed the changeling with a foreleg. "My name is King Thorax, and I take care of everyone here."
"King? What happened to Chrysalis?"
Thorax's lips quivered. "I don't know. She left. We extended a hoof to her, but she slapped it away and flew off. I don't know what's become of her. We've looked around for her, and some of the changelings who took to exploration have sent me mail mentioning them looking for Chrysalis during their spare time."
The scout turned his head away from Thorax and narrowed his gaze. "Oh. That's a shame." He pondered internally. "They're more incompetent than I thought," he thought to himself. He softened his expressions, imitating the others around. "You haven't sent dedicated scouting parties to find her?"
Thorax shook his head. "No one here does that. I can't force them into a role they do't want to take. It's not how changelings work anymore."
The scout's tail twitched at 'changelings'. "Oh. That's a shame. With a dedicated scouting party, I'm sure you could have found her much faster than with what you're doing now."
Thorax shrugged. "Maybe, but Chrysalis was always very crafty and knew how to hide us to protect us from predators." He chuckled. "I'm sure she wouldn't let herself be found so easily." The little changeling smirked at Thorax's beliefs. "But I'm SURE we'll find her one day." He raised a hoof slightly in cheer. "Now, maybe you should go to a meditation circle. It should help your aggressiveness."
"Why? Aggressiveness is a changeling's way of life."
Thorax chuckled nervously. "Y-yes, but those were the old changelings. Now we only use our anger to defend ourselves and when it's necessary."
The scout narrowed his eyes and looked at a few circles from his orbits' corners. "Fine, but I don't want a 'hug' circle," he complained.
"I wasn't going to suggest it," Thorax stated matter-of-factly. He looked around the fields, his eyes gliding over gardeners and his brother Pharynx going through his current class. They were tackling various dummies made from dried grass stuffed into cotton bodies. "Hm. You could actually fit well with my brother." The scout's eyes gleamed with interest. "But we're here to help you relax and feel at ease. Ah ha! There!"
Thorax brought the scout to a group of abstergo changelings and easily caught their attention.
"King Thorax!" the eager circle leader shouted. She walked towards her king and gave him a smile. "What's going on?" She cast a glance at the changeling to Thorax's side. "Is it for him?" Thorax nodded silently and the mare turned to face the scout. "Great! Then let's get started."
She attempted to give the changeling a hug, but he pushed her away and hissed aggressively at her. Realizing what he did, the scout cleared his throat and stood up straight again. "S-sorry. I'm still getting used to this whole...thing."
"He's a newcomer," Thorax explained quickly. "He hasn't had time to adjust to our new way of life."
The circle members mumbled to each other, and the leader clapped her hooves enthusiastically while her wings pulled her higher in the air. "A new member of the hive!" She grabbed the scout's hoof with her two. "I'm so glad we get someone new here! I can't wait to show you how everything works now."
Back in the rocky mountains separating Equestria from Prance, the queens and the blue-purple hive waited. The scouts had yet to return, but this gave Pronotum time to ask a simple question to the queen of the blue-green hive. The two sat within a small empty room of the hive, the darkness barely parted only by the glowing light coming from Pronotum's horn.
"Chrysalis," she started with a high tone. "Have you ever met a pony or felinae or diamond dog, or anything other creature when you were still young?" She pursed her lips.
The blue-green queen looked away. "Of course I have. We fed on their love." She pointed to the Pronotum. "Like you all do."
"Not that way." Pronotum rubbed her muzzle bridge. "Have YOU ever MET someone SPECIFICALLY in your past? Such as when you were quite young. A fledgling queen just starting out her hive." She turned her head to the side. "Hm?"
There was a long pause before Chrysalis gave an answer. "No. Changelings don't get involved in such trite."
Clypeus laughed loudly and burst out of the ground below Chrysalis, tossing her onto her back. "That's a good joke!" she yelled at Chrysalis. The yellow queen got out of the hole and shook the dirt off of her then started pacing back and forth.
"That's funny, because we know otherwise." She stood tall above Chrysalis with her fangs bared.
"Please don't dig tunnels in my hive," Pronotum asked slowly. A look of disinterest covered her face.
"We know that it's YOUR fault that the ponies are searching all over for us!" Clypeus accused.
"MY FAULT?!" Chrysalis retaliated. "How is it MY fault that YOU can't even keep simple rumors from having you discovered by...mountain climbers," she finished with a mocking tone and a sarcastic smirk.
Clypeus' muscles tensed in anger. "Because YOU took in some sort of creature that became attached to you and your brood at the time, and you welcomed him with open forelegs." She kicked a block of dirt from her tunnel against a wall. "It's YOUR fault that we're all being hunted, Chrysalis."
"Not hunted," Pronotum interjected. "Just searched for."
The yellow queen waved a hoof at the blue-purple one. "Formalities." She refocused on Chrysalis. "He somehow knew that other changeling hives existed. Is that you're doing too?"
Chrysalis' eyes looked over her aggressor's face. "What? *I* didn't even know there were other hives. I thought that my brood was the only hive in existence."
"What?!" Pronotum stepped forward. "How could that even be REMOTELY true? Look at ponies, and minotaurs, and--"
"Those fish things that popped up everywhere," Clypeus interjected. She stuck her tongue out in disgust. "I hate fish."
Chrysalis and Pronotum both stared at her with bored expressions, but the blue-purple queen continued. "We all knew the possibility of other hives, but we never found them. That still didn't rule out that they existed."
"Having a tussle?" the elder queen pondered as she slowly stepped within the room. She chuckled and put her gnarled foreleg to her bemused chin. "I see you're trying to have some form of expository back-and-forthing."
"What?" Chrysalis blurted out.
"Oh, your scouts are back, and one of them brought some interesting news."
The elder queen stepped back to reveal a small scout slowly stumbling forward and out of breath. "M-my queen," he wheezed. "The changelings of the fallen brood." He took a deep breath. "They overflow with love, but..."
"But?" Pronotum repeated. A curious expression mixed with faint worry adorned her face.
"It feels...wrong. It's disturbing. I do not feel well with it within me."
Pronotum nodded. "Very well. Go to the feeders. Have them relieve you of that love."
The changeling bowed his head. "Thank you my q--"
"AFTER you tell us about the hive in full detail."
The scout was mildly irritated and greatly disappointed. With a gurgling stomach and swallowing a bitter lump in his throat, he endured. "They're led by a changeling named 'King Thorax' who possessed great horns upon his head. He and the other changelings are brightly colored and--"
"Yes yes. We know all this already," the elder queen noted dismissively. "Tell us things we don't know; Such as their military strategies or their goals. Anything."
"O-oh. Well..." the changeling sat on his haunches and tapped his fore hooves together. "They're pacifists." The atmosphere in the room tensed up. "They're more interested in making music and art and having meditation and yoga sessions together." The scout cleared his throat then continued.
"Pacifists?" Pronotum pondered the idea. "How do they defend themselves against attacks?" She looked straight at the scout. "ARE they attacked?"
"Y-yes. They've been attacked by a few creatures but have chased them off."
"How? Pacifists would have long forgotten how to properly fend off threats!"
"That's the brother of Thorax that takes care of it." The scout scooched towards the exit as inconspicuously as possible. "I didn't catch his name, but he behaves similar to us. Very aggressive and cautious, like a proper changeling."
The elder queen hummed with intrigue. "A potential insider for us?" she asked the other queens rhetorically.
"They're also friends with a dragon," the scout continued. "Uhhh...a small blue one. A female, I believe. We did not see it properly."
"That...complicates things," the elder queen grumbled. "At least we know where they are now. Now we just need to see how the ponies work with them."
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Nice...
The other hives might do well to not support Chyrsalis' vengeance and not be hostile toward Thorax's new brood. As well Chrysalis was foolish enough to lose control of her hive and Thorax's brood being in the open means attacking them means fighting their allies as well. Why risk full scale war with Thorax's Brood, The Dragon Lord, Equestria, Yayyakastan and Hippogriffa/Seaquestria for a lunatic like her? Of course lots of chances for drama between the hives if the point becomes contentious :p
Do the other hives feed on love because if they don’t; Thorax's way would only piss them off.
8982047
Not unless they use Changeling laws. I mean all different races have their own laws.
What is Abstergo?
While they may look down on the Abstergo changelings, outright conflict with them would be foolish. If anything they should be attempting to make sure they don't expose other Hives.
8982119
It's more a matter of the Changeling MO is to be secretive. Chyrsalisis already broken that rule, rising exposing them all. There is no way to eliminate Thorax with out his allies noticing, which would confirm their existence and mark them as hostile. Assisting Chryssi means exposing their existence and the other races activity hunting them. Some Queens might insist that eliminating the "fallen" must happen, while others would refuse to bear the consequences and others might insist on allying with Thorax. The story will basically be the choice made and the fall out.
You want to kill me, right?
8983335
Why do you think that?
8983336
There's gonna be a very bad ending to all of this, am I right? c:
8983414
No, Blueberry Soda. Who knows what the ending will be like, though?
Y u always assume?! You know what they say about assuming.
8983450
Death?
8985098
No.
8985123
Good <3
Heheh, the dragon lord, no less. And it's one of the most popular ships involving Changelings.. or at least, that's what I'm inclined to believe.
——
I remember Thorax admitting in Triple Threat that it's easy for him to defend his friends, but leading is another matter (or something along the lines of). And if one of these queens put a member of his pack in danger, I can imagine him going completely batshit. (Like, all Mufasa on them... featuring the maulwarf as the stampede /s).
But, the incredulousness over Thorax being a king still baffles me. I mean, in the name of lore and forced-uniqueness I see why it's an issue.
In many fanfictions I've read, despite being a mostly-if-not-only female thing in insects according to Wikipedia, "ovipositors" (which, for the life of me, I continue to mentally pronounce as "opivositors" for some reason, after countless times of telling myself otherwise) seem to feature... covering the whole reproduction-thing, because drones are most likely (physically-)asexual/sexless.
But, it sorts of brings the idea of a lion-pride sort of thing into the equation for male-led hives/broods. I sort of like the idea of there being such hives, seeing as the metamorphosis featured in the show is probably a natural thing that wouldn't bend nature too much, if at all.
So, the reasoning for Thorax to be transformed into a king is definitely baffling if it hasn't happened before with unreformed, or other reformed, Changelings.
The concept of (other species of) Changelings in general, really, excite me.