Hive Diplomacy

by Kinni

Guests and Third Discussion

Author's Note:

Can I ever manage to finish a chapter at a civilised hour?

Cadance followed the Changeling guard (this one was Armor Hide) back to her room and sat on the bed, examining the events of the latest discussion with a critical eye. She was glad that the interactions between her and Chrysalis had become a lot more casual, specially compared to their first meeting.

She wanted to thank her diplomacy lessons for that, but the fact that the Changeling leaders really seemed to want something to be worked out was probably the biggest contributor. There could be no diplomatic exchange if one of the sides didn't want to have anything to do with the other. But they weren't mindless, uncaring monsters, and their leader was clearly concerned enough with the problems faced by the swarm to try for this kind of solutions, even though working with others wasn't part of the Changeling culture, and that past events had estabilished ponies as a threat.

And every diplomatic exchange was doomed to fail if there wasn't an understanding between parties. That was the reason Cadance decided to become a diplomat, understanding was based on empathy. And empathy was the base of all relationships between intelligent beings. Of all bonds. And Cadance thought she had a pretty good understanding of Queen Chrysalis.

The Changeling Queen was similar in some ways to Celestia, due to their shared role as leaders, but she also felt more like a mother, probably because her Changelings were much more connected with her. She had pride in her accomplishments, and a sense of danger that could easily turn into threat, but was completely controlled. She was smart, and was definitely trying to understand Cadance as well. To work out if she could trust the Alicorn that had come bearing words of peace.

Well, this was the opposite of a problem.

Cadance had never tried to deceive the Changelings with any of her actions, and if Chrysalis and the other Changelings could be convinced of her honesty via her interactions with them, that would only help. This would allow them to trust her more, and it would help in convincing them to accept any plan of Changeling integration into society.

Cadance went to get the food that had been delivered while she was considering all those things. She saw that another puzzle book had also been delivered. They were a little early, because she thought she would probably only finish the previous puzzle book on the next day, but still took it inside with her.

After eating, the Princess thought about sending another message to Celestia, to inform her of the new developments and the things she had worked out, but ultimately decided not to. It would be better to wait until she had something a little more substantial to tell her auntie.

That decided, she plopped down on the bed and set upon the puzzle book until she started yawning, before putting it away (like she expected, there were still some puzzles left) and going to sleep.

The next morning had the usual routine, including Light Keeper coming to her door to take her to her next meeting. However, he said something different.

"Today, you are going to come with me to see the other guests of the Swarm." He seemed somewhat apologetic.

"So, you are the High Chief of the guests?" Cadance said in a teasing voice.

"I don't consider myself a High Chief." He said embarassedly "But someone has to manage all the matters involved with keeping the guests confortable and happy. And it ended up being me."

She knew that had to be something he wasn't saying, and he was probably being far too modest, but she let the matter drop. They walked, with Cadance talking a little about her impressions of the High Chiefs she had met so far, as well as how she thought her discussions with Chrysalis were going.

Eventually they got to a door just like the one for Cadance's room and knocked on the door. A male voice answered that they could enter.

Inside was a middle aged stallion with a green coat and yellow mane, his cutie mark was a bonfire. Light Keeper greeted him.

"Hello, Mr Camping!"

Them he turned to Cadance "Mr. Camping Tales is one of the guests who has been living with the Changeling hive for longest."

He turned back to the stallion "Here is Princess Cadance, the new Princess of Equestria there has been news on a few years ago. She is visiting the hive in a diplomatic mission."

"Hello, your highness. Light already came here to ask if I would be willing to speak to you, so don't worry about that." He said in a peaceful voice.

"You can call me Cadance. Could you tell me about how you came to become a guest of the Changelings, and your experiences as one?" She asked respectfully.

She noticed that, different from the other times, Light Keeper didn't leave her to do something else. It made sense, since he was responsible for the guests and he was the High Chief she was "meeting with" that day.

"Well. It's not really that complicated of a story." He looked to the side "There were some things with my job and my family, and I fell into depression, and started having trouble at my old job, of camping teacher." He sighed "It got to the point where my boss pretty much ordered me to go take a vacation."

After a small pause, he resumed the story "I pretty much decided to camp out at the most desolate place I could. I don't quite remember why. Perhaps I was trying to force my talent to the limit to be able to forget everything else, perhaps I simply thought any place was good enough if it didn't have other ponies... or perhaps I was simply deciding to end my life in a more indirect way." A smile finally appeared after that last part "Regardless, I was found almost dead by a few Changelings and nursed back to health. They explained that I could remain here as long as I wanted in return for sharing my love with them." He shrugged "It wasn't really anything special."

"I can understand. Light Keeper told me about the kinds of ponies, and others, who end up living with the Changelings. I'm also living in one of the guest rooms, even though my reasons to be here are different."

"Well, it's not like they could let you live in one of the Changeling quarters." Camping Tales joked "And about the rest, it's really not that different from what I did back in Equestria. I give classes in camping to Changelings that want to learn it, mostly the gatherers, I receive books, news, and other things to be able to distract myself when I'm alone. And for the rest of the time, I go see the various things the Troupe does, as well as all the smaller performers." He finished, with a tone that made it sound obvious.

"The Troupe?" She asked, not having heard of that before.

But instead of Camping, it was Light Keeper who answered.

"You are scheduled to meet them tomorrow. Their chief is also the High Chief of entertainment, and you will be able to ask any questions you want to her."

"So that's already solved." Camping smiled, then frowned "But if you want to know why I'm one of the oldest guests still here... It's because guests are not allowed to leave while carrying memories of the swarm." He said, with a sense of finality.

"So the information on their existence and location is hidden." Cadance realized. It was something that would have been obvious if she had stopped to think about it, but there had been a lot of more pressing matters in the way.

"Yes. And I really haven't reached the point of being willing to sacrifice all my memories from here just to go back to Equestria." He said in a determined tone, and the Princess realized that he had very strong bonds with the hive itself and the Changelings. To the point where he was basically a naturalized Changeling.

"Well," Cadance started "I'm trying to get the hive to reveal itself to the world. So maybe someday, you won't have too." She said in a hopeful voice.

"That sounds like a good thing to fight for." He shared her hopeful tone.

After that, he offered to let Cadance see the process of sharing love with the Changelings. She agreed, since seeing this kind of love magic in action was one of the reasons why she came.

It wasn't actually anything special in physical terms. He got close to the Changeling who would receive the love (Helper Heart was her name), closed his eyes, and a few seconds later, a burst of light came out of his body and entered the Changeling.

But to the senses to Princess Cadance, Alicorn of Bonds and user of love magic? It was an experience she would never forget, even centuries afterwards.

She could feel the love, the bonds, and everything else Camping was focusing on. She could feel how Helper syncronized with it in some complex way, turning all the love into the kind of life energy the Changelings needed to survive.

It was definitely a miracle, and it was something an entire race could do as a matter of course. Cadance could only smile, with tears in her eyes, because of just how beautiful that experience had been.

It took a few minutes for her to regain control of her emotions. And the Princess swore right then and there that she would not allow the Changelings to suffer as long as she could do something to help. She could not bear the thought of the race that was responsible for this dying out.

They went to see the other guests that had accepted her visit (Light Keeper mentioned some who weren't willing to see her, and Cadance understood they must have had their reasons for that). There were ponies, but also griffins, minotaurs and she even saw a yak.

All of them had their own stories, and their own reasons for being Guests of the Swarm, and their own routines in their day to day lives, and their own things they wanted to show her. Like the minotaur (Water Wheel) that proudly explained how the mechanism used for filtering the water of the underground lake was actually his invention, and the previous mechanism was a lot less efficient.

He said he was happy for being able to have a real effect on the workings of the Hive.

Eventually, she was once again called for a discussion with the Queen. Cadance was looking forward to discussing about the way love gathering worked, now that she had seen the sharing of love from the guests.

"I see you had a good time today." Chrysalis said, smiling and tilting her head. She had seen that the princess was smiling brightly.

"Yes." Cadance said "Seeing the love magic that goes on when love is shared to the Changelings is just... amazing." Then her smile got smaller and she went on "Actually, I want to talk about something involving that."

"I think I already know what you want to know, but let's sit first." Chrysalis indicated two chairs there had been put in the room sometime after the last time Cadance had been there "I should have probably prepared this earlier, but..." She didn't have any excuse. They both sat down.

"Well. I saw how much love energy Helper Heart got from that. And considering Aqua told me about how many sources of love a gatherer neeeds to get 'full'... It doesn't seem to fit." Cadance gave Chrysalis a questioning look. It seemed like this was exactly what she was thinking.

"Yes." The Changeling Queen said simply "As you might have gathered, there are differences on the amount of love a Changeling can get from a single person, depending on certain circunstances." She was talking in a more relaxed version of her lecturing voice.

"The best case scenario is love given by someone who knows they are giving it to a Changeling." She nodded her head "This is what you saw. And even though they are few, this form of love is so strong the guests are still responsible for providing a significant amount of love to the swarm.

"Then there is the most common form of love used by the swarm. The love given by someone without knowing the target of their love is a Changeling in disguise" She closed her eyes "It is a lot less potent than the first form, so the gatherers need to obtain love from many different sources before becoming full.

"And there's the third form." She looked at Cadance, with a weird expression "Love taken falsely. Changelings can use mind magic to convince others they are that person's loved ones, and thus obtain the love that would go to them." She sighed "It is the weakest form of love, and has many problems if it is used to much on a single target."

Cadance was horrified.

"I know." Chrysalis said in a sad voice "But I still gave them permission to use the magic in case of emergency." She looked sharply at the Princess.

The Alicorn found her voice:

"I'm more sad that the first way is something so rare for the Changelings." She was still somewhat choked up "It was so beautiful, that I don't want to think that they can't reach their full potential because there are not enough people who know about you." Her eyes had become determined.

The Queen observed her intensely, as if trying to see inside her very soul. But suddenly, her eyes softened, and she said in a small voice:

"There's something I want to show you. The main work I do as Queen of the Changelings" Her voice had traces of guilt.

The two of them got up from the chairs and Cadance followed Chrysalis as she walked through a few passages.

Eventually, they got into an immense room, and the princess was immediately reminded of when she met the High Chief of the builders, because this room was also full of Chrysalis. Only, they were all transparent, and they all contained Changelings.

There must have been hundreds of them, and Cadance could tell that every single one of them was sleeping.

"Love rationing." Chrysalis said "I keep a big part of the swarm in stasis so that the love demands are lower, and I cycle those who are awake and those who are asleep."

She walked towards one of the closest chrysalis "The High Chiefs and other important Changelings stay awake almost all the time, since they are needed for the hive. But the others..." She indicated the chrysalis, showing that there was a nymph inside "Some of them haven't even earned their names yet."

Chrysalis was looking at the nymph with a somber mood, and Cadance's heart almost broke upon realizing how bad the Changeling's situation actually was.

And then, it happened.

A pulse of magic unleashed itself from the Princess' body, and passed through the entire hive. It took a moment for her to realize that this had been a pulse of love.

The Changelings inside the chrysalis started moving. Chrysalis looked at Cadance with surprise in her eyes. The Alicorn opened her mouth...

And suddenly Chrysalis had her front legs around her head, hugging her.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She spoke in a half cry, half shout. Then, she separated and looked at Cadance, her eyes already wet.

"I presume..." She started, still with a choked up voice "I presume this is not something you can do voluntarily?" She managed to regain a big part of her calm.

"Yes. I would definitely have mentioned it before. I just felt bad for them, and..." Cadance answered, still a little surprise at how suddenly things had escalated.

"I still have to thank you for this gift. You have just completely filled the reserves of every Changeling in the entire hive." She said, wiping her eyes "Even if you can do nothing else, the swarm will never forget this miracle you have done for us." She looked to the Changelings that were starting to burst out of the chrysalis "I declare that tomorrow will be a day of celebration! Where every single one of our members will be awake for the first time in far too long!"

She then looked at Cadance "I'm sorry we have to cut this meeting short, but I have to organize everything." She was smiling, and seemed happier than Cadance had ever seen her.

Her heart beat fast. The princess stammered out an "O-okay. See you tomorrow." in answer. And followed the guard that had helpfully appeared at the doorway.

She didn't understand exactly what was going on with her, but she could feel that this diplomatic mission had just taken a far different turn.

Comments

[Cross Lament]

Cadance, Princess of Food!

[Razzy]

Ah, so they have many guests, nice. And this Chryssie seems to be much more hesitant about just draining ponies.

Cadance just pulled off a Jesus, only with love instead of fish, bread and wine.

'Changeling leaders' - leader, singular, unless the heads of individual sectors count as well.

'She could not bear the thought of the race that was able responsible for this dying out.' - remove able.

[Kinni]

7895813 The fact that leaving a trail of mentally unstable ponies is very conspicuous is one of the reasons why the third option is not used that often.

Yes, Cadance is counting the section leaders, considering what Chrysalis told her about their influence.

And fixed.

[spartanzero]

I like it, but you probably will use blueblood to make things slow down, cause it looks like it's going to quickly, maybe you can make something attack the hive, not an army but something big like a dragon or a unknown animal that attacks them, just something to add to make it more, I don't know. But the story is awesome so far, and are having those two became friends or more?

[Kinni]

7896348 I'm actually planning on having just two more chapters and an epilogue. This story isn't going to be some big thing. And well... the tags and genre are indicative of what I'm trying to do here.

[lazyreader19]

Hnnnnnnnng.
That last scene is so beautiful