Creating A Hive

by Authora97

Train Ya!

The Rainbow Falls Traders Exchange meant a big deal for a lot of ponies. Vendors could get rid of old things, and rake in new things! A great chance to clear out junk. Or to even make friends of similar interests!

Raspberry was grateful her presence wasn’t needed for today. The Princesses sent a letter to Twilight, explaining what the Traders Exchange required of her. Twilight did study the rules, with help from Raspberry inbetween discussions about their roles here.

Raspberry didn’t have to do a damn thing.

They said if she had something to offer, they wouldn’t refuse it. But the essence of it stayed the same. Raspberry could stay behind.

She actually enjoyed this fact. Much to the confusion of the other six.

“You don’t wanna come? That’s not like you.” Twilight pointed out.

Raspberry snorted. “No but I’ve got work today.”

“You? Working?” Dash repeated.

It made Raspberry snort again. “Well I’ve got to rehearse with my sister and Thorax for this thing in a few weeks. Then Killjoy and I need to set up Lilac’s training this week, and then I have to go over the flag designs for the Changeling Country Flag, and then plan my next reality alternating adventure.”

“Wow, Raspberry! That’s a lot you’re getting done.” Applejack remarked.

Raspberry shrugged. “Meh. Fairly normal stuff.”

“Seriously? You’re doing all of that today?” Dash asked.

“But it’s fun!” Pinkie argued, jumping in place.

“Yeah no.” Raspberry shook her head. “You don’t even need me today!”

“It’s not that big of a deal. There always has to be a princess at the Exchange. Last year was Princess Cadance, this year it’s me, next year it’ll be Raspberry. It’s just a formality. I’m sure none of the other ponies will even notice I’m there.”

Raspberry hummed. She narrowed her eyes at Twilight.

“Okay. I can give some advice.” Raspberry admitted.

“Yay!”

“Oh that’s nice of you.” Fluttershy replied.

Raspberry believed as the literal least she could do. “Dash, he wants a broken chalice. Don’t waste time fixing it- he wants it broken. Fluttershy, you are not a tradable object. Applejack, you’re going against the Element of Generosity, fight better. Rarity, sometimes you gotta let friends be generous to you too. Twilight, all of Pinkie’s ideas are good ideas.”

“Really?” Pinkie asked, excitedly.

“It works out perfectly because it’s your idea.” Raspberry assured her.

“Any advice for me?” Spike asked, cheerful.

“Watch where you step.” Raspberry told him.

Spike saluted.

The Mane Six and Spike walked onboard. Raspberry waved them off.

Time to work for a living!

==CAH==

There is a certain advantage in living far from town, and so close to the woods. You could be as loud as you wanted with nopony complaining!

Darcy took complete advantage of this fact. As she played and played her guitar, the house around them shook. Morgan and Thorax watched her play. Darcy paused playing. Finally, Morgan could hear herself think.

“Why did I get the bass?” Darcy asked.

“Because it had ‘ass’ in it.” Morgan argued. She lifted her own guitar, plucking the strings for the tune that were practicing.

“Ah. That sounds right.” Darcy thumbed through the music sheet.

Thorax held up his hoof. “I have no fingers.”

“That’s why you’re on drums, babe.” Morgan reminded him blandly. She got a good riff going on the guitar.

“Yeah but how do I hold the sticks?”

“...magic.” Morgan and Darcy reminded him.

Thorax glanced down at the sticks. His antlers glowed blue. The sticks glowed blue too, floating up in the air. He grinned at them. “Oh this works for me.”

“Just get it with the beat.” Morgan reminded him.

Thorax tilted his head. “But I don’t know how to do that-”

Morgan looked up at him, eyes up at the sky. “Remember last week when we played that video game where you had to stomp your feet to the music? It’s the exact same but on drums.”

Thorax blinked.

“...you’ll catch on.” Morgan replied.

“Don’t we need more people for a band?” Darcy asked.

“If LoveHandel rocks with three, we can rock with three.” Morgan reminded her. “Okay. Let’s start on three. 1, 2, 3!”

==CAH==

Thorax left after band practice. He needed to catch the train to the Changeling Hive, and visit his team for relay practice.

That left Morgan and Darcy alone to their own devices. All at once, many reading this shuddered in fear. No need to worry! Nothing nefarious happened...this time. For now. Maybe.

Anywho!

“Does she know how to spin kick?”

“She does but she keeps fumbling the landing. Should we focus more on that, or not? She could have a different body type.”

“Yeah but if we don’t teach her these steps, will she be able to do it on her own?”

“Good point. Did we teach her how to kill a man in one move?”

“Yeah, that was a beginner’s move.”

“True. What about pickpocketing?”

“Oh yeah. She’s rusty on that skill too.”

“We’ll need to make sure she passes the Seven Bells test.”

“That’s so lame.”

“It worked on you, it’ll work on her.”

“So can we practice our own things now?”

“A better question is: ready to get your ass beat?”

“I’ll kill you.”

“You’ll fucking try.”

==CAH==

Killjoy may not look it, but she did have a job. Morgan let her go with a wave of her hand. Killjoy happily went off to serve ponies at the Ponyville local bar. Morgan went to her office/planning room.

A small space. A room tucked just beside Morgan and Thorax’s.

Morgan looked at the colors. Queen Cyanide offered some national colors for her people, ones she thought did a good job representing the Changeling community.

Green: to respect Thorax, who brought them out.

Red: to honor their new queen

White: to represent the new innocence of the changeling people.

Morgan thought it made their country a few months late to Christmas.

Not that it mattered, Morgan could make it work. She wasn’t Rarity, but Morgan could handle a few color coordinations. You don’t dorm with Elle Woods without picking up something.

She picked up the color plate. The shade of green selected matched Thorax’s coat. A bright neon green. It didn’t even sorta kinda match with Cyanide’s dark red. The white they picked was also Celestia’s white, so probably a bad call there too.

She loved Thorax as much as she was able.

But the shit that Changeling got her into…the Author was testing her patience...

==CAH==

Finally.

At long last.

Researching things!

Morgan brought out her Bag, digging inside it. She pulled out a laptop. Now this laptop had gotten upgrades over the years. Much like with the Ship of Theseus, it didn’t much resemble the original laptop or the original parts. Still. Morgan held tight to this computer.

It could connect back to her homeworld. A small implanted chip connected it magically between worlds. Morgan worked hard on getting that ready- a prototype of the portal she and Twilight were working on.

But that wasn’t what it was being used for now.

As the screen lit up for Morgan to type her password, she had only one thought on her mind.

Research!

Morgan searched for information relevant to the Avengers movie. Little known details that people spotted now that they had a few years to go over it. The same for the previous four movies. Yes that meant a lot of tabs were open- Morgan’s laptop was made to handle it.

An hour of searching later...the space filled up with open notebooks, colored notecards, and scattered pens.

Morgan typed away at it.

==CAH==

The kids came home from school a little after 3. Morgan walked downstairs, smiling happily at the kiddos. A floating notebook and two pens followed behind her.

“Alright kids! What’s next?” Morgan asked.

The three older kids rolled their eyes, groaning. Cookie hopped in place.

“We do our work!” Cookie cheered. “Work! Work! Work!”

“No.” Morgan rubbed her daughter’s head. Cookie giggled as her mother played with her head feathers. “Kids?”

“Snacks?” VC asked.

Morgan grinned. “Yep! Y’all feeling sweet, or salty?”

“Salty.” Dynamite answered.

“Sweet.” Justice answered.

“Salty.” VC answered.

“DESSERTS!” Cookie shouted.

“Half-n-half, alright.” Morgan walked to the kitchen. As she walked, a pen scribbled away on the notebook. “Dynamite, VC, you can get the chips from the pantry. Justice, you grab the cookies.”

“Is it okay if I grab the chocolate ones?” Justice asked.

Morgan considered it.

“CHOCOLATE!” Cookie shouted.

“Cookie.” Morgan warned. The griffon kept hopping, chanting ‘chocolate’ over and over. “Justice, you get the cookies, and the animal crackers for your sister.”

“YAY!” Cookie ran to the pantry.

Morgan lowered the notebook and pens, grabbing Cookie in her magic. As Cookie floated in the air, fruitlessly running, her siblings walked under her. Dynamite giggled as she did so.

The kids all got their snacks. Cookie complained about not being allowed to eat the chocolate cookies. Morgan refused, continuing to feed her the plain animal crackers. After snacks, the kids got to work on homework.

Morgan helped when asked. Mostly, she worked on her Planning notes.

The kids finished quickly. Dynamite and VC went out to play with the Cutiemark Crusaders. Justice went to his room to read. Morgan watched Cookie playing- encouraging the griffon to fly as she did.

As the sun went down, Morgan started cooking dinner. Cookie hopped over with an offer to help. Morgan agreed! Cookie got the perfect job of handing Morgan daisies.

Yep! Daisy sandwiches for dinner. Morgan Stardust, grade A chef.

The family gathered back up for dinner. The sun went down. Thorax came home to a plate made for him.

“How’d it go?” Morgan asked. She handed him a cup of tea.

“Really well!” Thorax replied. He kissed her head, taking the seat beside her. Cookie played with her food, making the flower petals dance on her plate. “We cut down our time by .03 seconds!”

Morgan smiled. “That is good! You’ll need those against Rainbow.”

“I know.” Thorax sat himself down at the table. Justice held out a bowl of chips. Thorax accepted it, scooping some into his plate. “Thanks Justice. So, Razz, do you have more for me to study?”

The notebook rose up.

“Not yet.” Morgan picked it up from her magic, flipping back in the book. She picked up a pen, scribbling away. “There’s a small discrepancy that I need to cross with the comics for a comparison or representation. If it ends up being a comic thing, then I’d just need to work from there. If it’s just a human error, then I can give it to you.”

“How long would that take?” Thorax asked.

“To study the entirety of Loki’s appearances in the Marvel comics from his origin date to now, late 2014?” Morgan asked. She paused. “For me? Thirty minutes.”

“I’ll be waiting.” Thorax replied.

“Mom, are you really doing all of that for fun?” Dynamite Berry asked.

Morgan smiled. “Oh yeah.”

“That sounds crazy.” VC pointed at her schoolbook. “I don’t even wanna study this much! How can you study all day?”

“Are you like Princess Twilight?” Dynamite asked.

“It’s not weird to study all day!” Justice grumbled. “I do that!”

“Yeah but you’re a nerd.” VC replied. “Mom’s a hero, not a nerd.”

“Nerds can be heroes.” Thorax reminded her. “Daring Do is a nerd.”

“No she isn’t!” VC snapped.

“She is, though. A historical nerd, but a nerd nonetheless.” Morgan added. “Speaking of: Thorax, did you run into the girls on the train back? I think it was supposed to make a stop near you.”

“It did.” Thorax cheered. “Dash got her book, by the way.”

“Great!” Morgan replied. “And?”

“Oh, and she says you saved her from playing with broken glass.” Thorax recalled. “Rarity and Applejack were both happy with their trades. Twilight said that you were right about Pinkie’s idea being smart, and Pinkie said-”

“Duh! The idea was good.” Morgan praised.

“Word for word!” Thorax nodded. “Fluttershy was still confused on how she was a tradable good.”

“She traded her training skills for a book, babe. Meaning she was willing to drop every part of her life to train that animal until it was house trained.” Morgan explained.

“Really?” VC asked. “She was gonna do that?”

“Yeah. To train a two headed dog.” Morgan explained.

“Not a three headed one? Those are cooler.” Dynamite replied.

Morgan grinned. “See? I’m not the only one that thinks that.”

“You invented them. You’re biased.” Thorax passed the bowl of chips to Cookie.

She tossed flower petals at him. Thorax moved the bowl of chips to VC.

==CAH==

“Cookie go down okay?” Thorax asked.

Morgan tiredly glared. Thorax held up their arms. Morgan walked to the closet, grabbing clothes before going to the bathroom.

“Too much sugar?” Thorax asked, turning the page in his book.

Morgan walked out. She straightened out her nightgown, laying herself down. “No. We just need to get better at exhausting her.”

“We already took away naps.” Thorax replied. “What more do we do?”

Morgan sighed. She tucked herself in, laying back on the pillow. “Is there a chance-”

“I’m not bringing her to the Changeling Hive.”

“Oh hell no. I was gonna ask if you and Dynamite would go flying with her tomorrow. It might help.”

“I could do that! It’s fun flying with her. Dynamite could use some flying time too.”

“Exactly.” Morgan smiled. Her eyebrows scrunched up. “...hey what are you reading?”

“Your notes.” Thorax tilted the notebook. Morgan grinned. “This language is weird.”

“I know.” Morgan came closer, resting her head on his shoulder. “I’ll teach it-”

“No, no. It’s alright.” Thorax replied. “You worked really hard today. It’s the same tomorrow?”

“Mmhmm.”

“Wow!” Thorax shook his head. “I can’t believe you do all this. By the way, Queen Cyanide wanted to know about the Changeling flag. She thinks it’s a great honor we’re doing it. I know you weren’t excited when I signed us up for it, but thank you for doing it! I know you’ll make it look nice.”

“Mhmm.”

“And did I mention.” Thorax waggled his eyebrows. “That I…really liked being in a band with-”

A loud snore cut Thorax off.

He could only snort. “Yeah…tomorrow then.” He kissed Morgan’s head. Thorax used his magic to make sure they were both tucked in properly before falling asleep himself.