Creator Hatch

by Josh Crapo

S1E6a Returning Grubs

When Queens Light and Chrysalis guide the grubs “home”, Gac looks worried as he sees the queens traveling south instead of north as they move away from the mountain.

“Um. We should tell them.”

“Yeah, Gac. Let’s go.”

The two of us quickly fly down to the queens

“QUEENS!!! Wait!!!”

The two queens stop to look at the two of us behind all thirty seven grubs in response to my call.

“What is it, Hatch?” Queen Chrysalis inquires.

“Do you two have any idea where Our Town is?!?”

“‘Hives’, my Hatch. We are taking your grubs to “our hives”, are we not?”

“Queen Light, listen!!! We reside near an actual village called Our Town!!! It’s up NORTH, not south!!! Now, before you say anything, yes that name is generic, but it does have meaning!”

“Fine!! Take your grubs!! It will affect neither me nor Chrysalis in the slightest!!”

And with that, the two queens continue walking toward their hive, leaving the grubs to us. One of the grubs looks away from the queens, unlike the rest, over to me.

“Queen Hatch, why is Light so crazy?”

I sigh.

“Let’s all just get home, my grubs.”

-=-

A day after starting the journey back to the cave neighboring Our Town, one of the grubs notices my complete silence.

“Q-queen Hatch? A-are you alright?”

“I’m fine... thanks for asking.”

“Queen Hatch, I’m so sorry about Light yelling at you.”

“There’s no need to be. You didn’t do anything.”

“I know. But... but we haven’t seen you this silent before. We feel like we’d done wrong for not speaking up for you. What’s wrong, our queen?”

I sigh in appeasement, stopping to sit down, every grub, even Gac, noticing and stopping on their own.

“I was once part of Queen Light’s hive. I wanted to make my own hive to rid myself of the memory of love deprivation. I thought those memories would be gone forever, never to resurface, but I was wrong.”

The grub next to me comes up in front of and hugs me, to which I return the hug.

“Oh, Queen Hatch, we don’t want to see you depressed.”

“There’s no need to worry about it now. Talking with you had taken my mind off of those memories. I think I will be fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. I do my best to retrieve love not just for me, but for the whole hive. I would let you grubs know if I were in no condition to do so. I am glad to have started my hive when I did. Our Town is filled with love and I’m glad to have been to that place.”

Suddenly, Gac taps my back.

“Um, when we get to the caves, can I talk to you?”

“Uh, sure, Gac. Okay grubs, let’s continue walking.”

-=-

“So Gac. What did you need?”

“Do you remember why I stayed with you before you woke up to the thirty seven grubs?”

“Um, because I was in pain?”

“Well, in a way, yes. I was there for you because you needed me to be, even if you didn’t realize it. So why did you say the hive was yours at the last iteration of said hive?”

“Gac, I apologize about that. I guess I haven’t completely broken my old habits. I’ll be more careful from now on with my wording. I will make sure this is everyone’s hive, thus I’m only the hive’s founder and queen.”

“So, if you’re the founder of the hive, then could we possibly call you Creator Hatch?”

“Now now, Gac. We can’t go too far with the whole praise about me. Adoration is for all of us after all.”

Gac chuckles.

“Right.”

“Well Gac, let’s see if the ponies of Our Town have returned.”

“Okay.”

-=-

In our disguises, and the wake of arriving at our destination, Gac and I see that no one’s outside. Then we take a good search of the thirteen houses, including the one that doesn’t line up with the rest. Each of the lined up houses is completely empty of even a single pony, and all of them are in livable shape. But then, there’s the unlined house. On the outside, it looks just fine, minus the lack of a door. But then, the inside... holes and hives, the inside... It’s like vandals had trashed the place.

The door is fallen inward with a good distance apart from its frame, there is some broken vase on the floor, there’s a fallen bookshelf that needs to be thrown out, and the table to the right is on its side. And because of the displaced door, the carpet near the entrance looks terrible possibly from snow in the past. Upstairs, the bed is completely displaced into the corner of the bedroom with its mattress sitting by. Throughout the house, there was also some fallen paintings with glass around them.

“Um, how long has it been since the ponies took you, Gac?”

“Half a moon?”

“Does that mean that those ponies abandoned Our Town?!?”

“I guess that’s what it means, Hatch.”

“Uh oh. This can’t be good. This seriously can’t be good.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Now we have to go to Rainbow Falls to retrieve love for our hive!”