Interlude - Home Is Where the Hole Is
===<Canterlot Castle, 990 Celestia’s Reign>===
Cadence slammed the door behind her as she stormed into Princess Celestia's personal study. "I don't get it! She hates me in every way possible!"
Celestia set down a paint brush and looked over at her niece. "Who hates you?"
Cadance undid her ponytail as she began to pace in circles around the room. "Twilight! That little filly does anything and everything to torture me while I'm looking after her!"
"Then why do you continue to babysit her?"
Because she's the sister of the greatest pony I've met and his parents asked me to. "Because you said it would be good for me to get out of the castle! Try something new!"
Celestia put a hoof to her mouth and thought. "Cadance, how do you think I learned to paint?" She picked up her brush and began continuing her work on the sunset outside the window.
The relatively young alicorn blinked. "What does that have to do with foalsitting?"
Celestia shook her head as she mixed a new color together. "Just humor me, Cadence."
Cadence thought. "Well, you probably went to a teacher, right?"
"That's right. Why did I go to the teacher?"
"Because you... didn't know how to paint?"
"Because I didn't know how to paint. I was inexperienced. My student at the time compared my work to a 'pegasus that had splashed into a puddle of rainbow and then faceplanted into a white wall.'" She turned her piece around and Cadence whistled. It was almost a perfect recreation of the sunset. "Now, I do it only for myself because it would dull all other pieces at a museum."
"So... what does this have to do with foalsitting?"
Celestia chuckled as she took her canvas off of the easel, then teleported it to someplace else. "You've just started foalsitting Twilight. You don't know any of the fine details, only the general idea of how to do so. So, go to the master of taking care of Twilight. Ask the filly how she wants to be taken care of, and ask her why she dislikes you."
Celestia lit her horn and pushed the Sun under the horizon. "Hmm. Perhaps I'll try poetry now." She pulled a notebook out of a desk, set a quill and inkwell on the eastern window sill, then watched the moon rise. "No matter how much we learn, or how much we know, there's always more to learn, Cadance." She stared long and lovingly at the Mare in the Moon. "Even things that you might think are obvious or easy can be impossible or torturous to other ponies."
Cadence blinked, then nodded. "Thanks, Auntie. I'll... I'll go talk to Twilight." She walked back out of the room.
===<Canterlot Castle, 2 Princesses' Reign>===
Cadence slowly opened the door to Celestia's personal study, knocking as she did so. "Auntie Celestia? I had a few questions."
"I'm always happy to answer any and all questions you might have." Celestia finished the line she was writing, cleaned her pen out, and turned to face Cadance.
"Well, I had a few things weighing on my mind since the wedding. Especially because of the wedding." Cadence closed the door behind her, then jumped up onto a sofa. "When I was talking with Queen Citlali in the crystal caves, she brought something up. When we raided Rambling Rock Hive, and we cast the love bomb together... what were your thoughts?"
Celestia's eyes widened as she took a deep breath. "I want to say remorse. That I was hesitant to kill changelings once more. I'm afraid that wasn't the case, though. I enjoyed storming their hive, feeling that power coursing through me, and knowing that one more hive had been purged from the world." The Princess tilted her head thoughtfully. "I regret it, of course. Even before Citlali revealed herself to us, I wished that we could have met the changelings on friendly terms, instead of with a sword and spell."
"Citlali said that, if I hadn't killed Queen Transitalia and her hive, they may have been able to defend her and her hive from Chrysalis." Cadence's eyes began to tear up. "No wonder she hated me. Little Twily, I mean. It wasn't my babysitting, or that I was keeping her from her studies like she said. She blamed me for the death of her children!"
Celestia's calm demeanor sagged, showing pitying eyes, and a frown. She walked up to Cadence and lifted her chin up with her hoof. "That's because it was your fault." Cadence choked and drew back. "You killed them all. You monster."
Cadence began to sob as the room erupted into lavender flames, burning the walls, the outside view from the windows, and Celestia herself. She was revealed to be Citlali, just as damaged and charred as she was when the love bomb hit her, standing in a crumbling hive. "May the Shadow take you."
Cadence sat upright in her bed, breathing heavily. She hiccuped, then buried her face into her hooves as she sobbed.
===<Ponyville>===
Whitetail Hive walked down a staircase, into the basement of Golden Oaks Library. They were silent, all anticipating what they would find. Twilight had promised them that it had not been anything as grand as the Neighagra Hive, but it was much more than just a hole in the ground for eggs and honey.
On the train ride from Canterlot, the Hive had told the Crusaders that Celestia had given them a top-secret mission that they couldn't say anything about. They bought the explanation, though bitter that they couldn't hear more, and began telling the Hive all about how the castle kitchen gave them any kind of food they asked for (much to Rarity's chagrin). After getting the Crusaders to their homes and into bed, the Hive met back at the Library so Twilight could show them her progress on a new Hive.
Twilight came to a stop in front of one of the bookcases in the basement. Unlike the generic designs on all the other bookcases, this one had a honeybee theme, with small designs resembling the insects all over, and a large beehive design coming out from the bottom. Citlali dropped her disguise and pressed her hoof to the beehive, causing it and the bees to light up in a lavender glow.
The bookshelf slowly faded out of view, revealing a sloped tunnel carved into the wall. There was no sight of dirt or stone in the walls of the tunnel, but rather a black substance that was smooth and stone like on the walls, but bumpy on the floor. Citlali nodded, then descended into the darkness. The other followed her, moving carefully so they didn't trip down the stairs.
When they were all in, the bookshelf reappeared, closing off the entrance. "Er, Twilight dear, is there a light switch down here? It's rather dark," Rarity asked in a tone as polite yet pressing she could manage.
There was a small blink of magic from Citlali's horn, and lines of dim, slightly lavender light came to life on the ceiling. It revealed them to be standing at a crossroads, with two paths on either side and one going straight ahead of them. "Left leads to the hatchery, right leads to the emotive gel pools. Straight on leads to the old Whitetail Hive." She turned left and continued down the hall.
Spike glanced over at her. "Are you doing alright? You're quiet."
Citlali shook her head. "I'm just tired, that's all. I'll be better in the morning, once we've gotten some good sleep in our own beds." The others nodded in agreement.
The hall opened up into a large room with a dirt floor and a high ceiling. The walls had numerous outcroppings, all only a foot or so from each other. Various plants grew in the dirt, much to Applejacks confusion. "Those plants, the grass, and the bushes, how're they growing down here? There's no sunlight and y' don't keep the lights on, so those can't be helpin'."
"They're all very special kinds of plants, found at the very bottom of the jungles in Zebrica, where the sun's completely blocked out. They've evolved to grow without sunlight, drawing in the nutrition in the dirt instead," Citlali explained. Applejack nodded.
Their attention, once it left the plants, was directed to the very center of the room. There were four magenta eggs there, each slightly pulsing with light and about as tall as a pony's leg. Citlali walked up to them, laid down, and smiled. Moondancer walked up beside her and inspected the eggs as she adjusted her glasses. "So those are the last four eggs?" Citlali nodded. "Fascinating. What does the light mean?"
"It means they're healthy. When an egg is laid, it takes some emotive gel from the Queen, puts it inside, and grows the nymph in the gel. It serves as both a food and source of emotion for the nymph as it grows, then puts it in a stasis state, just like the cocoons that Chrysalis used. Then, once they're given permission to hatch, emotion is poured into them, giving them a growth spurt large enough to break the egg," Spike supplied helpfully.
Pinkie threw her hooves up. "So then what are we waiting for? Love those guys and break em' out!"
"Not yet." Citlali turned back to them.
Pinkie's hooves fell down. "Aww... why not?"
"Because I'm tired and I don't want to deal with a nymph!" Citlali snapped. The Hive went quiet. Citlali rubbed her eyes, then shifted into Twilight Sparkle. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped. Not here, or at Neighagra. Let's just go get some sleep and meet again in the morning." Twilight teleported upstairs, leaving the rest of the Hive.
"So, do we teleport out of here too? Or..." Rainbow twirled a hoof. Spike sighed and formed a fire portal on the wall.
Moondancer faintly questioned where she was going to be sleeping.
===<Eight hours of sleep later>===
Twilight's eyes fluttered open as the sun rushed past the horizon, bathing her walls in golden light. She blinked at the window a few times, then slowly sat up while rubbing her eyes. A smile slowly crept onto her face. She was home. She had slept in her bed, and (most) of her family was with her.
She could understand why Shining had wanted to stay, though. His family and friends were in Canterlot, not Ponyville. The guard surely needed a leader after this whole debacle as well.
Twilight habitually straightened her mane (and maybe even brightened it and her coat's colors) then hopped off her bed. She noted that Spike was already awake, evidenced by his empty bed, so she went down to check for him in the kitchen, maybe making breakfast. When she looked around and was unable to find him, she sent a ping in his direction. He was in the hive.
Twilight made her way downstairs to the basement and pressed an undisguised hoof to the bookshelf. The lights were on, as expected. She continued to follow his ping into the gel pools, where he sat, undisguised, with his hoof hanging over the only pool. They only used the plural because they wanted to be able to expand later.
A thick, purple gel was dripping out of the holes in his outstretched hoof. When the drops landed in the gel, making quiet 'plorp' noises. Citlali was glad to know that her Royal was smart enough to stockpile what they had. "Good morning, Spike!"
He jumped and turned around to face Citlali. "Hey. Did you sleep well?"
Citlali closed her eyes and gave a small shake of her head. "Oh, you have no idea. If not for Celestia's sun, I would have slept through the whole day." She laid down by the pool's edge and hung both forehooves over. Emotive gel began to pour out of the holes in steady streams.
Spike watched, then chuckled. "Showoff. At least wait until I'm finished."
Citlali turned her nose up and leaned away from Spike in mock surprise. "Isn't it only right for a Queen to perform better than her subjects in all ways?"
"Apparently not. You still can't even cook a simple pancake."
Citlali scoffed. "Treason!"
Spike shrugged. "Truthful."
"Alright, you probably are better at cooking than me. I'll give you that." Citlali's gel slowed from a constant stream to a constant drip. She blinked. "Where's Moondancer?"
Spike chuckled. "Asleep in the hatchery. Silly mare stayed up for as long as she could studying the room with a quill and paper. Don't ask me where she got the materials!"
Citlali tensed. "What? Is she- did you warn her not to touch the eggs?"
"Warn her? No. I did tell her, though."
Citlali cut off the flow of her gel, cleaned her hooves with a wave of magic and galloped to the hatchery. Moondancer was indeed standing off to the side of the room, snoring. Her writing utensils rested on the floor beside her, forgotten. Citlali ignored her, though, and scanned the four eggs.
She let out a sigh of relief once all four of them reported the same levels of energy as before, which Moondancer thankfully hadn't touched them. They had an annoying tendency to take whatever emotion was available to them, even if that emotion wasn't being freely given.
Moondancer stirred as Citlali gently shook her awake. When the unicorn cracked her eyes open, Citlali smiled. "Moondancer, it's great that you show an interest in the eggs, but I think we need to figure out where you're staying."
She groggily shook her head. "No, s-fine. I didn' touch 'm."
"That's not the point. I'm not going to let one of my changelings sleep on the floor." Citlali sat Moondancer up, then began brushing the dirt out of her coat. "See? You're going to have dirt stuck in there forever if you keep sleeping here."
There was a flash of purple light and all the dirt fell to the floor. Moondancer shrugged her blackened shoulders. "No more dirt now, see?"
Citlali facehoofed, but was quietly proud that Moondancer was already thinking like a changeling. "That's still not the point. Alright, you're coming with me." She levitated Moondancer into a standing position, then pointed her towards the door. "Do you wanna go see how a changeling stores emotion?"
Moondancer was immediately alert. "Oh my gosh, do I!?" Citlali raised an eyebrow. "Yes. Yes, I do want to see how a changeling stores emotion," Moondancer clarified in a monotone voice.
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Anypony plan to tell the CMCs the truth any time soon?
8714260 They're the CMC. Do you really think they're going to find out about the hive by being talked to?
8714261
Well, if they just came out and told them now, it would save them all the trouble that'd inevitably come when the CMC go and find out about it themselves.
8714344 Yes, but they're going to take a while to come to terms with the impact the Hive has on their life before they throw that bombshell on their families. They also have to deal with the 4th egg, and Moondancer, still.
moondancer is pretty much old twilight eager to learn
8714372
yay new chapters
I liked the whole guilt thing, but not so much this moondancer they don't feel right, I'm okay with the others hives, the confusion and the mistakes that have been made. Well let's see where it goes.
8714930 Oh yeah, I'm not saying there aren't any lies (a certain Honesty is gonna have some words), I'm clarifying that specific lie.
Story on hiatus.
Only thik left is hope, That this status will stay for 2-3 yers on hiatus, before will go back to orange or green at some point.
Not to mention Citlali revenge will need to w8.
8715518
Hiatus? !...Noooooo!
8737799 8736668 I made a short blog post about that. I'm just taking a short break to finish an original short-story of mine, then I'll get back to horses. I won't be gone for 2-3 years!
8738932
oh...ok
Thx for anser i was suspecting it will be like many other stories I read, have not see updates for years or more.
8738932
you better not this is good story,
that is still not telling me how many years ago it was or if it is now, since I don't remember the other times in the other chapters and stuff.
I kind of hoped that was really happening, well not the monster part, but the princess admitting a mistake or telling them they did something wrong for once.
I get it that she is stressed, but she is kind of acting like queen asshole sometimes more than it feel necessary.
I still hope to see some mother daughter bonding. No matter how normal changeling babies are for a queen when she starts her hive, I think at least those 13? have to be somewhat special to her, special enough to form a special bond with them after the big reveal.