A Changed Life

by Rocky Boulder

Chapter 2 - Hive Basics

Canterlot

"King Thorax, I believe I deserve an explanation." Celestia stated while flipping through a newspaper with a big header that said - Attempted Assassination on King Thorax! The Culprits are CHANGELINGS? -

"Well, you see," He uncomfortably said "T-There are other changeling queens and hives, apart from ours."

The room grew quiet. "What?" Celestia was extremely shocked, yet had no strength to pull out a good reaction.

"You forgot to tell us something like THAT!?" Luna said, the last part being in the Royal Canterlot voice.

"Can you tell us, are all the queens like Chrysalis, or is she a bad exception?" Celestia questioned, hoping it was the former.

Thorax swallowed. "Well, let's say, she isn't half the worst." He said, in a voice, barely louder than a whisper. "B-But there are good ones! Rondia for example!" He tried to be positive.

"The only problem is, that the kindhearted queens don't last long." Informed Pharynx.

Celestia brokenheartedly sighed, and leaned back into her cushions. Luna looked at her sister with worry.

Celestia was pale, and though she tried to hide it, she was heartbroken, tired and lost. When Twilight ascended, Celestia thought that Twilight was going to be with her forever, and they would guide the ponies of Equestria through the centuries. So when Twilight vanished without a trace two weeks ago, she was heartbroken.

Actually, most of Equestria was. Twilight was widely known, despite being crowned only seven years prior. From her and her friends' heroism as Elements of Harmony, to her loved and successful rule. This is what anyone could call 'A Heavy blow for Equestria'.

Celestia flipped to the next page, noticing another, smaller header. Princess Twilight, is still missing.

Suddenly something clicked in her head. "What if the attempt on your life, and Twilight disappearing wasn't a coincidence?"

Silence followed the words, again.

"I'm afraid, that it is likely." Pharynx broke the silence. "But until we find out in what condition she's in, we must hope for the best."

Starlight, who has been patiently listening to the dialogue, wondered when the king's brother had opened up so much. Pharynx was like a totally different 'ling now.

"Can you tell the approximate count of the hives, and any rules and connections they have between each other?" Celestia resumed the questioning.

" 'Bout forty-five of them. From what I know, the only real organization between the hives, apart from protection treaties, is the High council. It's a meeting of the seven most influential queens. It's used for all-hives wide problems, like a plague. The council is rarely summoned, for most of those queens are too lazy and cautious to come out. " Thorax explained.

Celestia bit her lip. There were a total of around forty-fives, that had a similar goal, if the council's queens ordered them to.

"How are the queens' influential power decided?" Starlight heard herself say.

Thorax turned towards her. "By the overall number of drones. By overall, I mean both the queen's hive, and the hives of queens she has under her protection and influence, in exchange for something else of course." He said, winking at Starlight.

"I thank you for the information, Thorax and Pharynx, but I think that everyone here has royal duties to attend to. Also, if any of you will still be in Canterlot, you're welcome to come to Flurry Heart's fifth Birthday party tonight." Cadance announced, while standing up from her cushions, and nudging her sleeping husband to wake up.

"Well, seems like the meeting is over. Let's go." Said, Pharynx, as he buzzed his wings a bit.

===*===
Starlight

Starlight stretched her hind and front legs. She dumped the army of paper on the table, huffing as she left the room.

After Twilight disappeared, Celestia had sent her a letter, asking her and the ponies Elements of Harmony to cover up Twilight's duties. Sadly, Pinkie was the only one with free time, and all her problems are solved with cake.

By the third day, Starlight had freaked out at least twenty times. She had no idea how to handle this!

For example, Filthy Rich and some businesstalion from Canterlot both wanted to have a speech at the Ponyville festival, at the same place, day and time! She told them what she felt was right - to share it - which resulted catastrophically. After the speech, they both came to complain and shout at her, but this time as a team.

In these two weeks so many bad things happened to Starlight, she lost count during the third day.

'Where are you Twilight?' Starlight thought as she looked at a late sunset, the stars already staring to show.

===*===
Twilight

"Now, you will only be able to consume love now, since you require nothing else to eat. Also, be careful with your horn. It's almost as sharp as your teeth." Rosch noted as I was lying in my bed, looking confusedly at a pink crystal, trying to find out how I was supposed to get my food out of there.

Then I remembered a question I had since yesterday, one that was lingering in my thoughts as I went to sleep.

"Ah, Rosch? I saw a lot nymphs yesterday, considering the size of the hive. It seems like a dumb question, but, who lays the nymphs' eggs?" I said uncomfortably.

Rosch sighed, as if knowing that this question would come up sooner or later. "The queen does. This means you as well."

I froze. From what he told me, some hives had up to half a million drones... Just the thought of laying eggs scared me. The reason must be hidden in my soon-to-be-recovered memories. But still having thousands of kids, both scared me and excited me. The exited part probably came from some new queen instinct. "When am I going to start... laying?" I asked, getting extremely uncomfortable.

"Well, it happens happens differently to different queens. Some start laying when their body has matured, and some when their queen-mothers are dead. For you, both conditions are met, so you can start laying any day. But at our inspection yesterday, we didn't see any sings of your body building eggs, so you are safe for at least a week."

I sighed in relief. I barely remembered who I am! I can't have children without being able to tell them what their mommy did in her life! ... Huh, I accepted my egg-laying destiny fairly fast.

"But I ask of you, my Queen, that you take haste in starting to manage the hive. Our emotion supply is running low. We have about two weeks left, before we run out of food.You should send out love collectors."

I nodded. "Do we have an office of some kind? Also, I would like a map of our location, please 1:4,000,000 or larger.

"At once, thought we do not have an office yet. I can order construction." Rosch said, as a drone ran inside the room, scroll in hand.

Rosch waited for me to stand up from bed, before unrolling the scroll on it. The map was clearly drawn by professionals, every detail and name written down.

The center of it was on the east base of a mountain, located near the north. On the left side of the map, across the Celestial Sea (Based on official Equestria maps) lied Manehattan, and lower to the mountains, Griffonstone. From what I can remember, these two places were marked as 'The Southern Borders of Pony-Known Territory'. On this map, they were the western ones. While this confused me, I noticed the right side of the map. It looked quite strange - the central part of the continent was covered with more then twenty rivers, and countless swamps. A lot of drawings of different cities - from underground to skyscraper-like, were spread unevenly across it. O

I read aloud the name of one of the larger ones. "Skoria Hive..." A shiver ran down my spine as I read the other ones. "These cities... They are all HIVES!" I said in panic, while trying to count them. 'More then thirty...'

Rosch looked at me, worry in his eyes. "My queen, let me explain how changeling society works." He said, before to my joy, slipping into lecture mode.

"For starters, there are hives, with queens as rulers. The normal population of a hive is about five thousand. There is only one hive without a queen - The Central. It is supposedly the changelings' birthplace, as well as the center of changeling society."

"The Council - a meeting of the seven queens with the largest populations. It makes decisions important for the changelings as a race. Large conflicts between hives as well. The largest hives' populations number around half a million."

I started compressing and eating up the information, only to feel as an ant. The sheer size of those hives made my head hurt.

"But you need not worry about the other hives, for now. Until you are officially recognized by the council as a queen, we will remain unnoticed. For now, you should just focus on food supply, and stabilize the hive."

My stomach gurgled, causing me to look hungrily at the pink crystal on the bed.

Rosch sighed. "That is, when you learn how changelings feed."

"Please, posses my nervous system." He announced.

I cocked my head to the side.

<Basically... you can speak through the hive mind yes?> He asked me, via hive mind.

I channeled my thoughts in the same plane of consciousness his voice was coming from. <Yes.>

"Good. Now, try to feel my connection to you on the hive mind, and push your consciousness in, just enough to give me free movement of my body."

I said as he did, slowly, but effectively. Though I wouldn't call it possessing. It was more like watching from his eyes.

He grabbed the crystal in his magic, and started opening something, like a door in his telekinesis. It felt as if a warm fuzzy feeling was filling me, or rather Rosch.

He sat the crystal down on the bed, and I returned to my body. Taking the crystal, which had now become rather pale, I did the same thing as him. Or at least I tried. It took me ten minutes to finally open the door, and fill me up.

===*===
Twilight

I stared in awe at the huge pylon, swirling with red, pink and black color. This was the hive's... my hive's emotional energy supply. A dozen smaller ones, about my size stood near it, empty.

"While our love collectors can hold inside them a fair amount of emotional energy, these pylons," He pointed at the smaller, empty ones, "can collect love as well, but keep inside them incredible amounts of emotional energy. We place them in a place with a lot of emotion, and replace them with empty ones, when these are full. Currently, it is the most efficient way known to us." Rosch explained as he smiled at one of the nymphs who was looking in awe at the food-packed crystal.

"So basically I only need to point out the locations, and you'll place them there?" I asked, wondering if it was that simple.

"As long as it has any kind of emotion. Except hate. It can be lethal in large doses."

I smirked, my chest filling up of pride. "Then I know the best place! The Crystal Empire!"

When I said the name, something... some forgotten names and memories suddenly appeared. "Shining Armor, Cadance, Flurry Heart..." I mumbled as a whole album of pictures, sounds and memories started filling up my head. "Twilight Sparkle."

But I knew that those memories, weren't nearly all of those I use to have. Didn't stop me from smiling at the memory of Flurry Heart blasting holes through the castle. She looked so cute and innocent while doing it!

My senses nearly stopped as I realized something. The next time I came to her, and my other friends I don't remember, they won't know who I am. They will think, that I'm just another changeling queen...

But I somehow knew, that I wasn't going to see them anytime soon... I've got a hive to rule, right?

Author's Note:

I was going to say next chapter not coming soon, but I never do the things I write.

Yes, I'm not planning on a happy reunion any time soon... Maybe never...

Comments

[Commander Darklight]

awww i wanted a happy reunion

on the upside you just said you never do what you write so reunion inboud right? sine you wrote there wouldn't be one

[Rocky Boulder]

8571823
BAH! Using my own points against me!!!

[Texus]

8577647
Not sure if I get the meaning behind your uhhhhmm....hint, but so far it sounds like I would love it.

Just make sure to please don't make them that one type of changelings. (I mean yes sex can be a form to get love, but it shouldn't be the only way in my book.
Sometimes I even enjoyed the changelings being able to draw different emotions too, just that they really don't get much out of it.
The last thing is, my opinion on them laying eggs was, that they only need a partner for princess eggs and love for normal changelings. As normal as this may be for bees and whatever bug, I don't want the changeling queen to get laid by the whole hive to create more changelings. (like everyone is everyones dad or something).

That is just not how I view relationships in books and I dislike most harem and certain types of herd stories.

[Rocky Boulder]

8577686
Hey! I'm no clop writer.
No sex and no romance tags on this one! The eggs get fertilized inside the queens body. This story is also E- for everyone. Though, the egg laying isn't for 8-year old girls..

I'm an awkward guy...

[Texus]

8577856
upps sorry, I guess I missed the rating, I'm just used to this kind of stories getting kind of akward in one way or another in my opinion. I mean I enjoy some of them, but I'm not really looking for what I described.
I guess I delete my previous comment then, I guess with that rating I said to much right? I'm never to sure when I maybe break some kind of rule on this site with it.

[Texus]

8577856

Though, the egg laying isn't for 8-year old girls..

what do you mean with that? I haven't read the latest chapter yet

[Texus]

I'm only slightly dissapointed to see the changed Thorax here, but I'm probably forgetting something from the decription and I think you told me something about it in an earlier comment.

"When am I going to start... laying?" I asked, getting extremely uncomfortable.

I'm curious do you make them view her as a mother to?, secretly or them being open about it?
Then I wanted to ask, are they random egg layers? I thought they might be able to control it if they want, at least to stop it till it is safe and all that stuff. That is probably something that makes them dangerous for others as well when they only keep producing more Changelings that need to eat. I guess it depens on how they get their love which I probably already asked and you mentioned it to me.

The start made it sound like Twilight should help them to reduce the amount of Changeling hives and get the nice ones under her control or at least making clear that she is the alpha queen or whatever, to ensure that she could prevent a disaster and keep herself and her friends safe.

"As long as it has any kind of emotion. Except hate. It can be lethal in large doses."

That's nice to hear I suppose.

Yes, I'm not planning on a happy reunion any time soon... Maybe never...

this could be one of those jokes I don'T really understand, but I'm not sure what would be more interessting.

Twilight to share some emotions with the previous Chrysalis or just remembering her hate towards them when meeting them, mixed with her own emotions, making her well happy, but resentful too or one of both parties being unsure if they....still really like each other?
Sorry I'm getting tired and lost my train of thoughts there.

Witht he first scene I meant that well...sometimes I like to think of characters who are doing nice things, but not letting others near them to easy or maybe them being friends but Twilight not exactly being her usually self and....(do you know Queen Novo form the movie?, I think her personality when she was a bit nice, is close to what I meant when they actually enjoy each others presence again.)

Please ask if it get'S to confusing I stop for now and that way I have an easier time to sort out my thoughts.

[Rocky Boulder]

8580285
Description is saying that the story Change has no Thorax.

Unfortunately, this story does. The only things not included are MLP:movie and Shadow Play 1&2.

By the way, Thorax's are the only 'reformed' changelings. In this story.

I think I will just be quiet. Im giving too much spoilers

[Texus]

8580911
IT's okay I don't see this as a spoiler but thank you.

[hive vs machine]

8580911
I like this story I hope to see more

[hive vs machine]

8571828
lol

[Texus]

Is this where Twilight got forced to transform and slightly relearns who she is?, or how being a Changeling works before she is supposed to take over the hive or something?

I didn'T got the note for the new chapter and just found it.

[Viper Pit]

we didn't see any sings

i think you mean signs a simple mistake should be a easy fix

[ra36]

Your not planing turning twilight into rainbow color changeling are you