Friendship Bling and Changing Things

by PinkFluffyAlex

3 - II - Identity Crises

Author's Note:

Sorry for the tricksy update, but I wanted to take chapters 2-5 and mash them together, ordered in chronological order. Yet another part in my plan to keep working on this story!

If you want to reread these chapters, go ahead and be my guest, I guess!

And no, that date isn't wrong. All of part 2 3 so far has taken place in one day.

Act Three: Reformation
Chapter II - Identity Crises

===<Golden Oaks Library>===
===<May 15, 2 P.R.>===

"Spike, could you come here for a moment? I've come up with an idea on how I can manage the Hive but... well, I'd like to have your input on this. Tell Antiope she can leave once we're done talking. Give her some extra gel, as well. She's been the most... progressive of the sleepers so far."

And so Spike stood behind Twilight, looking over a series of numbers and calculations she had drawn out on her chalkboard. There was also a very rough layout for Whitetail Hive. "It all looks good to me. I'm not sure exactly why you needed me here."

Twilight shook her head and pointed to a spot on the board. "Look closer. This number, here." Spike read the indicated number.

ROYALS: 2

"You're planning on hatching another Royal?" Spike's eyes widened.

Twilight smiled. "Yes. That's why I wanted you here. I know that I'm not going to be able to teach every member of the Hive. Not personally, at least. See, if I can get another Royal hatched, I can teach the both of you exactly how to run and grow the Hive, which would give me more time to... be Twilight Sparkle. And, if the situation arises, this new Royal could be a stand-in for me, for when I'm laying eggs."

Spike scratched the back of his head. "So... what? I think it's a great idea. Did you need my blessing as a Royal or something?"

"Well, no, but I didn't want you to feel like I was trying to replace you." She shrugged.

"Twilight, we're an endangered Hive. You can go ahead and make a dozen Royals for all I care." Spike waved a claw, then froze. "Wait, why don't you just make a dozen Royals?"

Twilight blinked. "I've never explained this?" Spike shook his head. "Oh, well. There are two particular reasons why. The first and most important reason is that it strains the egregore. With only two 'sources' coming from us, the connection is fairly constant. Imagine the egregore as... a ball of cotton. It's quite easy to spread it over two, or even three nails, but... imagine if you tried to stretch the cotton ball over a dozen nails?"

"It'd snap, or rip apart," Spike muttered, nodding.

"Exactly. Except, the nails in this scenario would also break. It creates a... feedback loop of sorts. All the thoughts being streamed across the egregore go snapping back to the sources, which can injure or permanently scar the mind. The second reason we don't make a dozen Royals is linked to the process by which they are created. In order to turn a regular egg into a Royal egg, I have to give up a little bit of a finite jelly stored inside of me. This jelly soaks into the egg and begins changing the nymph inside, which requires additional emotions."

Spike nodded, still in understanding. "Ah. So, you can only make a few Royals in total?" Twilight nodded.

"Anyways," Twilight blurted. "I'm going to hatch the last of those eggs before I lay any more. The Royal will be a part of the next clutch. Come with me, I need you to see the process."

When they returned to the Hive below, Citlali and Spike dropped their disguises and entered the gel room. Citlali took a moment to absorb enough gel for three eggs, then crossed over to the hatchery. "Antiope, how is he?"

Antiope was laying down on the floor, forehooves stretched out in front of her. Asier was interwoven between her hooves, his wings occasionally buzzing. Spike stopped at the sight of the nymph and let out a small breath. "Is that... whoa." He laid down next to Antiope and extended a hoof, which the nymph eagerly began exploring.

The harvester smiled. "He's been much calmer than either of the Cake twins, that's for sure. Pinkie Pie asked me to fill for her when she was off on one of your adventures, and those twins are impressively rebellious for their age." Antiope sighed and stood up.

"Well, it's certainly been an... exciting morning, but I need to get back home. Lyra's probably working the store, wondering where I am. It wouldn't be the first time..." She got a faraway look in her eyes for a moment before smiling. "I'll see you later Citlali! Thanks for the gel!"

Citlali waved goodbye, watched her turn the corner, then whistled. "Wow. She acts like she wasn't a sleeper before today. It's impressive if a little creepy how easily she manages multiple lives like a fully-trained harvester. I'll need to ask Celestia how she's training her agents."

"Agents? What do you mean?" Spike glanced up from Asier.

"Turns out 'Bon-Bon' is a code-name for 'Special Agent Sweetie Drops'. Antiope didn't want to tell me much more than that, but... I'm sure I can ask Celestia." Spike and Citlali both shrugged. "Well, anyways. The eggs."

===<Sweet Apple Acres>===

Applejack took in a deep breath of country air as she rested against a tree. It was her and the other Apple sibling's favorite spot for sitting down and being alone. It was at the very top of a hill that overlooked Ponyville, with a cliff in between the tree and the town, so there weren't any leaves blocking her view.

The mare's hat was off her head, lain beside her. Not forgotten, just ignored. She chewed idly on a toothpick as she held her hoof in front of her face, glaring at it. There was a flash of fire, and orange fur spread up to Applejack's shoulder. With a sigh, she sent the wave over the rest of her body. The earth pony screwed her eyes shut as a lump of nausea settled in her stomach, a recently-developed reaction to being disguised.

A twig snapped, making Applejack jump up and spin around, ready to face whatever was trying to sneak up on her. As a brawny red stallion came into view, she spat out her toothpick and swallowed. "Big Mac, good mornin'. Did you need me for somethin'?" She swept up her hat, donning it with care.

Big Mac looked Applejack over, eyeing the bags under her eyes, the matted down streaks on her cheeks, the hunch of her head. "Applejack, what's wrong?" Big Mac spoke with authority. It was a command, not a request.

"I don't know if I can tell you." Applejack stared down at the ground. "Nopony's keepin' me from speakin', it's just... a bit heavy, holdin' my tongue down."

"Well, that's fine. I can wait 'till you wanna talk." Big Mac sat down in the grass, patting at it for Applejack to do the same. "I can tell there's something serious in there, and I'm not about to let you carry something all on your own again. I've learned it usually ends up like last Applebucking season."

Applejack chuckled. "I recall askin' you to never mention that again, or should I remind you why I was workin' on my own again?" Big Mac snorted. "Some bull-headed stallion thought he could take some of his sister's work, alongside his own share of trees to buck, plowin' the fields and keepin' the barn fixed up! I'd say that season was your fault."

They both laughed at each other's own short-sighted faults. Applejack's laughter died off, however, as she remembered Twilight, trying to get her to ask for help. Twilight. Citlali. "Hey, Big Mac, what are your thoughts on the weddin'? What do you think of the changelings, I mean."

He thought for a moment. "They tried to hurt my family. I figure they would've come after Ponyville too, eventually."

Applejack winced. "Alright, but... what about the ones that didn't attack us? I told you about the ones we saw gettin' taken in, right?"

"Eeyup." The stallion blinked slowly as he laid his head back against the tree. "I think we ponies can get real spooked at times. Zecora, Gilda, Princess Luna. We have trouble seein' other people as anythin' but outsiders. It don't help that they can put on a new face like a new hat, either."

The mare closed her eyes. "Did Mom an' Dad ever tell you about how they found me? Or about some kind of feud with another farm?"

"I don't know about no feud, an' I don't remember much of my time with 'em, but... I do remember. It was out of the blue, they said. Some travelin' mare stayed for a spell, dropped you off, and left." Big Mac turned to look at Applejack. "Why do you ask?"

"Would it matter if I was..." Applejack bit her lip. "I mean, what would you do if..." She screwed her eyes shut. "What if somepony real close to you was a..." She grabbed her hat and threw it into the ground, hiding her face with a hoof. "I'm not a real pony, Mac."

"What was that? Go on and spill."

"I'm not a real pony, Mac!" Applejack straightened up and stared at Big Mac with wilted, defeated eyes. "I'm-- I didn't know until the weddin', I swear. None of us did." She stopped, unable to elaborate further. Her head dropped, hanging before Big Mac, waiting to be judged.

They sat for a minute, Big Mac staying silent, looking down at Applejack. "Well, go on, then." The mare glanced up at Big Mac. "Show me."

Applejack swallowed, then slowly let her disguise fade away. Big Mac took a deep breath as the fire spread down from Applejack's muzzle, but stayed silent. When the disguise was gone, he took up the changeling's head and looked right into her eyes. He tilted them one way, tilted them the other way, then nodded. "Does Apple Bloom know? What about Granny Smith?"

"Wh- eh? That's it? No surprise, no disgust? I'm a changeling, Big Mac! All th' Elements are! Twilight's our Queen. Do you not get how... how... BIG this is?"

Big Mac nodded. "Eeyup. I get it. Now go talk to your sister, she needs to know."

Applejack stood up, waving a hoof at Mac, speechless. After a brief moment of angry stuttering, she jammed her hat on her head, shifted back into a pony, and stormed off.

Big Mac sat down under his thinking tree, stared down at Ponyville, and thought.

===<Carousel Boutique>===

Rarity considered herself an opportunist. She often jumped at the chance, whatever it may be, to improve upon herself, her business, and the well-being of her friends. Sometimes this meant giving a little before one could receive any kind of reward but... giving was never really an issue for the Element of Generosity.

So, when Rarity woke up each morning and found a strand of hair in the mirror that didn't quite fit with the rest of her mane, she jumped at an opportunity. A purple spark ran down the hair, hiding it from view. Rarity sighed, looked her immaculate figure over, and gave a nod of approval.

That was how her life was every day after the wedding. An opportunity.

While she hardly ever dropped her disguise, she was always careful that Sweetie Belle was out of the house and the store was closed. It wasn't long, however, before Sweetie Belle began to notice the slight changes to Rarity's demeanor and appearance.

She was always perfectly groomed, though she rarely visited the spa. She let Sweetie go to Sweet Apple Acres and Scootaloo's Aunts' house if Sweetie so much as looked at the door. Perhaps most worrying of all, Rarity was deliberately and purposefully avoiding the topic of weddings. She had stopped taking commisions for wedding dresses, and she would always change the topic when Sweetie brought it up.

So, Sweetie called an emergency meeting of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Its purpose? To bring up Sweetie's concerns, and see if the other two Crusaders had noticed anything strange from their respective sister and idol.

Sweetie Belle cleared her throat. "Thank you for meeting me here today. I felt this was a matter of utmost importance!" She leaned in for emphasis. "Rarity's been acting strange lately."

Apple Bloom raised an eyebrow. "Strange? How do ya mean?"

"I made her breakfast yesterday, as a surprise, and she didn't eat it!" Sweetie tapped her hoof to the podium with each word, then looked between the two wide-eyed Crusaders.

Scootaloo burst into laughter. "Sweetie, we don't eat your food either! Remember when we tried to get Marechelin Star chef cutie marks?" Sweetie cringed.

"Or that time we tried to make jello? With tree sap?" Apple Bloom said with a raised hoof.

"Or when Pinkie said your cupcakes needed more work than those baked bads Applejack made?" Scootaloo supplied.

Sweetie Belle held up her hooves and waved them in a frantic attempt to quiet the Crusaders. "Okay, okay, I get it! But usually, she at least takes a few bites, compliments it, then teaches me how to do it right. She didn't even make a different meal, she just said 'no thank you, I'm not feeling up to pancakes this morning.'"

Apple Bloom shrugged. "Well, at least she recognized them as pancakes."

"They were supposed to be waffles!" Sweetie shouted with a particularly sharp crack of her voice. She sighed, waited for her blush to fade, then continued. "I don't know what it is, girls, but something's up. She hasn't even gone to the spa in the past week!"

The other Crusaders paled. "Surely it can't be that bad, right?" Apple Bloom whispered.

"You probably should have led with that," Scootaloo spoke in a solemn tone. "This really is bad."

Sweetie nodded. "Which is why I'm having this meeting. You've all noticed weird things going on with Rainbow Dash or Applejack, or their friends, right?"

Scootaloo frowned. "Actually, Rainbow Dash hasn't been in town for a while. She told me she needed to go find something, then took off with her saddlebags."

"Applejack's been sick recently," Apple Bloom muttered. "Its the kinda sick she gets when she's been holdin' a lie in."

Sweetie gulped, then nodded. "That means there really is something going on, then." She took a deep breath and looked around at the other Crusaders. "Cutie Mark Crusader Sister Investigators, yay?" she offered. The others put their hoofs in with a similarly half-hearted cheer.

This was, perhaps, their most important Cutie Mark quest yet.

===<Whitetail Hive>===

Citlali picked up the already-decaying remains of the first egg with her magic and placed it in a corner of the room. She laid down where the egg had been, and focused her attention on the second egg. With a deep breath, she pressed a hoof against it and began feeding it love. It lit up like a small lantern, casting lavender light across the flora covering the floor. Citlali practically held her breath as she waited for the nymph, now moving, to break free.

There was a wet splat as a hoof kicked through the egg, followed by another hoof, then a head as the nymph took its first breath of air. They watched the nymph with pride and awe as it scanned its environment, then licked the gel off of itself. "Spike, come close," Citlali said. "I need to show you how to tell the three types of changelings from each other."

Citlali waited till the nymph paused in its licking, then picked it up, eliciting a small squeak. Spike walked over, Asier still clinging to his leg. "You want to look at its hooves and its chest. If it's a harvester, the hooves will have more holes, since they're less armored." As Spike scanned the little nymph, he found that the bottom half of its legs almost lacked holes.

"So, we know it's either a soldier or a worker. Now, look at the chest and compare it to Asier's. If there's a plate there, slightly purple, we know it's a soldier." Spike looked again, then down at Asier, and noted the absence of Asier's plate on the new nymph. "Excellent. That means we have a brand new worker. Now, we have to determine the gender." Spike grimaced. "No, don't worry, it's nothing like ponies. See, speaking sexually, changelings are hermaphrodites, though they can't reproduce with members of their own hive.

"Instead, we have to look at the more subtle details. Female changelings are thinner, but overall taller than male changelings. Their tails and fins are longer, while their fangs and horns are smaller. Compare the nymph to Asier again," Citlali whispered to her Royal, who carefully began looking between the two changeling nymphs.

"This one..." Spike muttered as he scanned the nymphs. His eyes widened. "Is a girl!" The nymph's fangs were nearly non-existent, easily mistakable for a regular tooth. It reminded Spike of the vampony he saw in that special Nightmare Night issue of Power Ponies, but it didn't fill him with any sense of unease. Instead, it was incredibly adorable. Mostly because it was a nymph and his sibling. His sister! The rest of the hive could also be considered his siblings, sure, but he had always known them as distant figures, then as friends. Only Vahan truly felt like a brother to Spike.

"Yes! Excellent work, Spike!" Citlali transferred some spare love into Spike, making sure she had enough for the last egg. "Now for a name. Sometimes, changelings are graced with whatever ambient magic also helps the ponies pick a name, as you saw with Asier. Sometimes, the meaning of the name is clear, sometimes it's discovered when the changeling matures. However, when that magic doesn't give a name, you have to come up with one yourself."

Spike made a little noise of confirmation as he nodded. "That's pretty cool. What about her? Do you have a name for her?"

Citlali focused for a moment, staring into the eyes of the nymph. The little worker briefly flicked her forked tongue out like a snake, prompting a spark of recognition in Citlali. "Maxilla. A term referring to a pair of parts in the mouth that arthropods use for chewing and tasting."

Spike snorted and attempted to hold back a laugh. "So, you basically named her Tongue?"

Citlali leveled a flat stare at Spike for a few moments, before giggling herself. "Well, when you put it like that, it sounds silly. If you don't want to call her Tongue, Max would still make a good name." She cleared her throat and checked the amount of energy still stored in her.

It was enough to hatch an egg with, so Citlali nodded, hoofed Maxilla to Spike, and focused on the last egg. It began drawing in her energy... and continued. Frowning, Citlali gave the energy needed to hatch an egg, then continued. And continued. It wasn't until the egg took in nearly double the expected amount of energy, and Citlali was feeling winded, that the flow finally turned off. "Spike, I think we've just received a very special kind of surprise."

He glanced over at Citlali, then back at the egg, gulping. "What kind of surprise?"

The egg shook as the first crack appeared on its surface, followed by another, followed by another. Once there was a spiderweb of cracks on the egg's surface, the changelings flinched as the shell burst outwards, revealing the glowing eyes of a changeling... or two.

Citlali sighed, grinning wide enough to show off her fangs. "Twins!"

Comments

[link4]

a re-upload?

[Jest]

Is this a repeat chapter? DId you accidently post the wrong one or something?

Yup this is word for word an earlier chapter. What the fuck?

[Time Reaper]

9171031
9171043

I think he just took the last chapters and blend them into one.

[PinkFluffyAlex]

9171043
9171031
9171093

Yep. I, quote, "wanted to take chapters 2-5 and mash them together, ordered in chronological order."

[anyone675]

It's almost as if people didn't read your note.

[Viper Pit]

this was nice but I can see the cmc just trying to beat up their sisters with their tiny hooves when they find out

[Omegaweapon1000]

9171120
I thought I read this before. Well, seems that I did, but no matter. An update is an update.

And yes, I didn't really notice the note at the top at first, but eh.

[Twilight_Shimmer]

We need fan art of the newborn twins in their egg!

[ssokolow]

9171120

Geez. I just noticed how disjoint the chapter titles and numbers in my saved copy are from this. (I save a copy of each chapter I read.)

I don't really have time to re-read it right now, so I'll probably have to download all the chapters again, then point an HTML diffing tool at them to figure out what got moved where, what got added, and what got removed.

[dzamie]

9171120
Ah, that makes sense. It's been how many years and I'm still not used to A/Ns above the chapter instead of below.

[harts fire]

love the art work.

Twins this is going to be vary interesting.

[Accurate Balance]

I saw a reference to a fanfiction-writing changeling.