From the Ashes

by Dark0592

Intermission 3: Rest

Twilight was rather proud of herself. Well, as proud of herself about a declaration of war as she could be. She really didn’t want to have to call another dinner so soon after the last one, and she didn’t think she could stop herself from attacking Crystarium then and there if she did. She, Celestia and Mira brainstormed on how to do it over the course of the next week, via proxies of course. It was simple, really. Celestia wasn’t a Changeling Queen. She was perfectly fine being the one to declare war on Crystarium and her hive. The whole incident was published, only withholding the more gruesome details. There were no veiled lies, no half truths or anything. There was obvious worry of prejudice forming against the allied Changelings, but boy did it spark the fires of retribution that they needed.

As Twilight wasn’t the one declaring war, she and Mira just being allies to Equestria, they didn’t even need to inform the other queens about their involvement. They were supporting an ally, afterall. Twilight chose to inform the others as best she could, though, mainly to warn them not to join Crystarium’s side. The main problem here was that Mira’s hives were sequestered away into an outcropping of mountains near the Barrens. Even with the incredible numbers advantage, the casualties would be just as bad. It would take time, and quite a bit of it, to prepare for an open assault.

For now, the best they could do was set up a blockade around the area to stop all forms of communication and love harvesting. It would be a long game they’re playing, since Crystarium was known to have a vast amount of love in surplus, but it would result in one of three outcomes.

The first would be Crystarium’s forces coming out of their mountain fortresses to fight in more open battlegrounds, which was a win for the seigers. The second would be Crystarium and her brood going feral due to love starvation and doing the work for them. The last option was the most likely, the stalemate would last so long the seigers would finally figure out a way to break through without the risk of being easily routed due to the superior defensive position of their target.

For now, though, Twilight was taking time to relax with her friends. She was in Celestia’s private hot spring, though it was far from private as of now. The princess and her sister were there with Twilight, as well as the other elements of Harmony. Twilight had even talked Nilan into joining them. The changeling was very interested in the bodies of the humans, she had never seen them unclothed at the Hive and she had never seen her kind in any state other than complete degeneration since she was born recently.

“So how goes your research, Queen Twilight?” Luna asked the other Changeling. Twilight wanted to roll her eyes at the queen part but she never could get Luna to stop referring to her as such.

“Our research on the Biometal has come along magnificently. If our progress holds true we should be able to reinforce our Chitin with it by the end of two weeks, if not sooner. We’ve already discovered a few interesting properties of it as well, namely that it reacts well to arcane energy. Steel and Iron slowly degrade when it’s in contact with too much raw arcane energy, which is why batteries don’t last too long. This stuff reacts almost like flesh and blood do, absorbing some of it to regenerate any damage or just coming out unscathed after extended testing.” Twilight started.

“That stuff is mighty creepy though, growin’ out of them pods.” Applejack chimed in. Twilight shrugged.

“Changelings are creepy by nature.” The queen retorted, to which Applejack had no retort of her own. The others giggled and Luna went on.

“How about your research on Changelings themselves and their past? Or rather your past?” She asked, correcting herself with an afterthought.

“Well, with Mira’s and Crystarium’s archives we’ve been able to piece quite a bit together. There are huge gaps caused by periods of going feral, but I’ve been able to cross reference some things with our own archives to patch most of them up. Crystarium had a ton of ancient archives, she doesn’t even know or understand the language. That’s what we’re currently working on.” Twilight answered.

“How ancient?” Celestia asked, giving Luna a knowing look. Luna smirked.

“At least a millennia. Probably even before you two came to power, maybe even born.” Twilight replied.

“Send some pieces my way then, I’m quite the skilled Linguist.” Luna said with a confident tone.

“I can source some allies in Draconis as well, you don’t even qualify as an Elder until you hit the thousand years old mark. One of those geezers ought to know.” Celestia added. Twilight nodded to both of them.

“Gah, I thought we’d get away from all that boring stuff in Canterlot! Come on, Twi, tell them about our progress!” Dash grumbled, splashing the Queen with water to add effect. Twilight had to resist returning the gesture as the speedster had ducked behind Fluttershy next to her, but she still giggled at her friend’s antics.

“Oh fine. Dash has been training my fliers and some of the hunters even for a while now, while Applejack trains the defenders and other ground forces. While the progress on making my brood better fliers is impressive, what’s even more impressive is that she’s actually helping with developing a new transmutation formulae that will hopefully improve our flight characteristics. It’s not ready for live testing yet, but it’s close.” Twilight explained.

This kind of talk went on for another hour or so before people started trickling out. The first two to go were the princesses, they had duties to attend to. Everyone else kind of just trickled out on their own until it was just Twilight, Nilan and Fluttershy.

“You alright Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, noticing her shy friend seemed to almost refuse to leave. She looked almost embarrassed.

“U-U-Umm…” The shy girl started, very quickly glancing at Nilan a few times. The changeling had been taking turns staring at everyone until it was just Fluttershy left. Now her curious eyes were focused on the shy girl. Twilight caught on and mentally pinged the changeling to get her attention.

“I guess this must have been the first time you’ve seen an unclothed human huh?” Twilight asked the girl. Nilan nodded.

“It’s fascinating just how similar our bodies are, yet how biologically different we are as well. I suppose we’ve adapted this way to make our shapeshifting magic easier but still.” Nilan explained, occasionally looking at Fluttershy again.

“I believe it has something to do with your source of Love as well, but that’s for another day. Humans see certain parts of their bodies as private, only really showing them to close friends or when in intimate moments. It’s why they wear clothes.” The Queen explained, trying to make Nilan understand she’s embarrassing her shy friend without outright saying it.

“That’s interesting. I guess it’s a major difference in culture, we never wear clothes.” Nilan replied, putting a finger to her chin in thought.

“Well we don’t need to currently, though when the curse is lifted and our degeneration is reversed you’ll find there’s not much different between us when we’re satiated and a human. On the outside at least.” Twilight attempted to keep the educational facade going. She combined it with a few mental explanations of sex organs and love habits of humans. That’s when the girl finally understood.

“Oh! I see then. Uh… well, I guess I should get going then. I’ll have to be up early in the morning to help get the Wraiths into their morning routine.” The Changeling said quickly, leaving after a small awkward silence. Twilight couldn’t help but snort.

“Geez, I thought I was actually going to have to say it.” She giggled. Fluttershy just sighed in relief and hugged her friend.

“I mean, I wasn’t sure before. She was looking at everyone, but when she was just staring at me alone here I was just so embarrassed. I understand now that it was curiosity but it’s still a little embarrassing.” The shy girl explained. Twilight hugged her friend back happily.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, she took no offense. You should probably go and get some sleep, I have a week of politics to unwind from.” The Queen said to her friend. Fluttershy just nodded and left as well, leaving Twilight alone. She wasn’t lying, not at all. Politics always felt like they physically hurt Twilight to be a part of. It wasn’t all of it, though. She had been so busy after the battle she had never had a chance to be alone and relaxed enough for this.

The corpses of her fallen drones were long dissolved to have their organic material recycled, but each of the pods they were recycled in still held a fraction of their life energy. Just enough to keep their consciousness alive in the hive mind.

Twilight looked across the forest that was her mind, the Hive Mind. It was still just as strong before, at least at first glance, but every now and then you would see the tiniest of gaps. The stumps of the trees had long since faded away as the bodies were recycled, but the spaces they left behind were not filled in. A single root was still alive in each space, and as she turned she could see all three hundred or so of her brood that fell in battle standing in front of her in a large clearing.

“I’m so proud of all of you. You fought and died for your home, and we pushed her back. If you wish to rest now, then you are free to do so. If you wish to fight on, though, then I will happily have your wisdom and your perspective.” Twilight said softly to them. The fallen didn’t really seem to respond, at least for a little while. Before long, though, some of them slowly disappeared. This went on for what seemed like hours until only a dozen were left. They remained, and they opened their eyes.

“I’m not done fighting yet…” They all whispered in unison. Twilight smiled and walked up to them with their arms out. They slowly and methodically moved towards her as well and they all held a group embrace.

“Your bodies have died, but you will live on through the hive mind. You may choose to pass on at any time, I refuse to actually bind you like that. What I need from you now, though is to watch over our researchers. Make sure they aren’t working themselves to death, learn from them. Maybe you’ll be able to help them. You are the first guardians of our Hive Mind, your brothers and sisters will be overjoyed to feel your presence still lingering.” Twilight explained to them.

“Knowing Samuel he’s probably rushing to get to the live testing phase.” One of them said. The rest chuckled in response and one by one they let go of the embrace and walked off towards the forest.

“Don’t worry, we’ll tend to your grove. I’ll make sure to check on our other Momma.” The last one said. Twilight almost dropped her smile, the girl was so young. She must have only been out of the birthing pod for a few weeks before she died. She wasn’t even a Drone or a Hunter. The girl apparently felt it and hugged Twilight again as quickly as her meandering form would allow.

“I was caught running fresh arrows to the Hunters. It’s ok, momma. I’m glad it was me, just a drone, rather than another Hunter or Defender.” The girl said before letting go and meandering towards the trees. Twilight was shocked by the statement and didn’t really snap out of it until she was gone. She quickly focused on their roots in the hive mind to learn their names.

“Stella, such an optimistic girl…” The queen softly said to herself, letting a ghost of a smile out before waking up again. The water was always hot, so by now her carapace was just barely starting to feel uncomfortable. If it was too hot for too long it would soften and she’d boil in it so she quickly got out to retire to her chambers to rest and immerse herself in the hive mind in full.

Author's Note:

I'm afraid I'm really going to start timeskipping far more often, because at this rate all I'm able to get out is intermission sized parts before I need to timeskip again so I might just do a big one and summarize a bit rather than going in one or two week intervals.

Comments

[Razzy]

Oooh, maybe that living metal will give the changelings the ability to regenerate rapidly.

Poor Stella.

Can changelings be reborn into new bodies while retaining their personalities and memories?

'The main problem here was that Mira’s hives were sequestered away into an outcropping of mountains near the Barrens' - I think you meant Crystarium here.

'seigers' - 'siegers'

[ponybornhuman]

So now all the dead changeling's live on in the hive mind watching everyone that's kind of creepy if you ask me, but also sorta useful to.

[link4]

8033807
lifts some burden from the queen as far as maintaining it goes.

[HeartfireFirebrand]

8033807
Yeah but:

“That stuff is mighty creepy though, growin’ out of them pods.” Applejack chimed in. Twilight shrugged.

“Changelings are creepy by nature.” The queen retorted, to which Applejack had no retort of her own. The others giggled and Luna went on.

[LostArchivist]

I do wonder what sort of continuity is going on here. This almost sounds related to the story where she was raised by Celestia, and yet she has parents in this one. Similarly, it sounds similar to the Seeker and Survival stories too. You've got a few elements you like using, I see.