Chapter 09 - Leech
In warm and sunny western Equestria, floating high above the ground, soared the flashy city of Las Pegasus. Hotels and resorts, modeled after famous locations from all over the land, co-mingled among ferris wheels and roller coasters. Carefully constructed and temperature controlled swimming pools dotted the clouds like oasis in a desert, complete with leafy green palm trees. For any creature lacking the gift of flight, arching bridges had been built to create linking pathways from one venue to another. The creation of such a city was a pinnacle of pony cooperation and magic.
Leech hated Las Pegasus.
While the city was overflowing with mostly positive emotions, and perfect for harvesting; it was loud, garish and overly crowded. He was trapped in one such crowd; near a concert stage, with ringing ears, surrounded by a sea of cheering ponies. Disguised as a thistle purple Pegasus with storm cloud colored bangs, he jostled his way through the mob trying to reach the backstage entrance.
He glared up at the Pegasus performing on stage, her hind legs stepping from side to side and her rump swaying with the fast paced medley as she sang into a microphone. Her porcelain fur was immaculate, wings perfectly preened and hooves polished to a shine. When her sapphire gaze met his, she winked and then tossed her wavy dark amber mane to the left, letting it cover up one of her eyes.
The crowd roared, he rolled his eyes.
When he finally reached the door backstage he was blocked by a large earth pony stallion wearing a black cap with the word “security” embroidered on it. Using a wing, Leech held up a laminated pass that was attached to a lanyard that hung around his neck. The stallion checked it, looked at him, checked it again and finally stepped to the side, allowing him to go through the door.
Leech let out a happy sigh as the musical noise diminished the farther down the hallway he trotted. When he reached a door prominently displaying a golden star he went right through it without the courtesy of knocking. He entered an empty dressing room, and an extremely cliché one too. Complete with a dress rack, padded couch and a vanity dresser littered in makeup. It even had a large oval mirror above the vanity, the kind with the little lights around the frame. Letting out a snort of displeasure he jumped up onto the couch, laid down onto his side and waited.
The rising volume of muffled cheers along with shouts for an encore caused him to cover his head with a pillow and grind his teeth in frustration. When everything finally went quiet he though the concert had ended and peeked out from under the pillow. Then the music started up again and he screamed into the cushion instead. Eventually the music did stop and it wasn’t long after that the beautiful pegasus singer entered the room and locked the door behind her.
“Oh my! Has one of my adoring fans found a way into my dressing room?” She dramatically said in her melodic voice. “Did you want my autograph, sweetie?”
“Knock it off Cicada…” Leech grumbled “I have a massive headache and I don’t feel like playing games right now.”
“Cicada?” she questioned, placing a hoof to her chest. “Who’s Cicada? I’m Equestria’s newest up and coming musical sensation, Harmony Honey.”
A ring of green flame enveloped Leech as he reverted to his natural form. He knew the real Harmony Honey was long gone, he helped dispose of her after all. The mare just smirked back at his glaring visage, completely unfazed at his appearance.
“Oh fine! You’re no fun,” huffed the pegasus as a circle of emerald fire burned away her disguise to reveal a female changeling. “I take it you’re here to return the love I’ve collected back to the hive.”
“What other reason would I have to be here?” He deadpanned.
“To visit me, gaze into my lovely eyes,” she said, fluttering the lids of her blue eyes at him, “and to tell me all latest news from home.”
“What’s to tell?” Leech sighed, rubbing his temple with a hoof before going into a rant. “We still live in tunnels under an abandoned ruin like a bunch of undead ghouls. The scouts are out scouting; the workers are digging tunnels; the only real soldier is telling everyling what to do; the queen just totes around one of her larva all day and the infiltrators go out to harvest love. Then lucky me, I get to fly all over Equestria to collect that love and bring it back to the hive.”
“I need to introduce you to my agent,” Cicada smirked, “you have a real flare for the dramatic. I’m sure she can find you a great acting job doing Shakespony.”
“Yeah well, I’m frustrated,” he sighed. “We went from being moments away from controlling Equestria to almost becoming extinct. From having a grand hive to little cramped tunnels. From having a strong and imposing queen to a softened shell of her former self.”
“Careful now,” she warned, “if you say something like that in front of the wrong changeling you’ll find out how strong and imposing she still is. I’ll just forget you said that and you better be grateful we’re such good friends.”
“Look, I don’t really mean it,” Leech said as he flopped back down onto the couch and laid on his side. “Like I said, I’m just frustrated…”
“Really, I couldn’t tell!” She quipped.
“Alright fine, if you want to gossip so badly. You know that larva she’s been carrying around with her?” he asked, “the quiet one that just watches everything that’s going on?”
“Yes, I’ve heard it’s unusual;” Cicada answered, sitting down next to him on the couch. “What about it?”
“It’s trying to talk now,” he said while shaking his head.
“Larva can’t talk,” she scoffed.
“You tell it that,” Leech smirked now, “because it’s trying to talk.”
“That’s unbelievable,” Cicada said, clearly doubting him.
“It can do math,” He chuckled.
“Oh hive, now I know you’re lying,” She groaned.
“No, I’m being serious,” Leech said, sitting up and looking directly into her eyes. “I watched it do math. Chrysalis had a bowl of berries and asked it to bring her three of them. It took three out of the bowl and rolled them right over to her.”
“You’re being totally serious?” Cicada asked, tilting her head at him.
“Totally,” he flatly answered.
“That can’t be right,” she said, sticking out her bottom lip. “Maybe Chrysalis was playing a trick on you. Like using her magic to just make it look like the larva was counting.”
“To what end?” Leech asked while he quirked his eyebrows at her.
“I don’t know,” Cicada shrugged, “maybe she knows how you feel about her and just wants to mess with your head.”
“That’s not what’s going on.” He frowned. “Even with her acting so much more differently than normal. No, that larva is just… strange. You should have seen what happen with it the other day.”
“Why? What happen?” she asked.
“Mosquito stole a bunch of junk including a toy piano.” Leech told her. “Apparently the sound made it freak out. After pressing down on a key it shrieked so loudly that half the hive came swarming to see what was going on. Chrysalis knocked the piano to the floor and Phasmid blasted the thing to pieces thinking it was dangerous or something. And then poor Mosquito was darting all over the room, terrified that she was going to be punished for bringing in the toy in the first place.”
“She didn’t, did she?” Cicada asked.
“Of course not,” he said with dismissive wave of a hoof, “you know how Mosquito overreacts and even before she lost the old hive, Chrysalis never punished anyling for little mistakes. Big mistakes, yeah, but never little ones. Worst that would happen was being yelled at or have your food restricted for a little while.”
“Huh, it seems life back at the hive can be just as hectic as life in Las Pegasus,” she said.
“I don’t know how you can stand being here,” Leech muttered.
“Oh Leech, it’s like an all you can eat banquet,” Cicada told him as she lay back into the couch cushion with a dreamy look on her face. “You have no idea how much love a celebrity gets from their fans; not to mention all the newlyweds that come here for their honeymoons. Honestly we should have built the new hive here.”
“Well it’s not here,” Leech said before jumping off the couch, “it’s all the way back in the Everfree, where I have to fly back to. Now then, you got your gossip, so let me take the love you’ve collected so I can be on my merry way.”
“Nothing about you is merry,” she said, shaking her head before sliding from the couch and onto her hooves, “but fine, since you want to leave so badly. Go ahead.”
Cicada closed her eyes as Leech leaned over her with an open maw and began to draw long opaque wisps of pink energy from her. After several moments he stopped and let out a little burp.
“Wow,” he breathed out and then belched again, “you really weren’t kidding about how much love you can harvest here. I’m stuffed. My headaches even gone away.”
“Every meal a banquet,” she said with a vulpine smile.
Both changelings re-donned their disguises and Cicada walked with him over to the door before unlocking it.
“Have a safe trip home sweetie,” she sang to him as he walked out into the hallway.
Once she had the door closed and locked, she again dropped her disguise. Her full disguise.
“Every meal a banquet,” she repeated with a feral grin while looking at herself in the mirror and into her shimmering orange eyes.
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Well damn... already on the run from the former hive, and now a potential rival queen?
Dun dun duuuuuuuun!!!
I hope our little protagonist doesn't traumatized by pianos. Or that the give doesn't ban music instruments due to that.
9422921
Probably just that Cicada is the new changeling type.
Then again, could be a completely new hive.
That's not good
So either Cicada betrayed Chryissy partly and "converted" to the badlands Swarm or some other hive eliminated and replaced her. Honestly both could be viable. I could see Thoarax having Cicada giving the excess love to the "unenlightened" lings cause he didn't want them to starve. Or another Queen taking Chrysssiy's feeding territories over since Thoarax's lings don't harvest anymore.
Nitpicky nitpicky...
Equestrian - Equestria
“You’re being totally seriously?" - "You're being totally serious?" (though I believe that 'utterly' instead of totally would be preferred, unless that's just how they talk.
9423047
She could have converted without joining Thorax -- she had the same precondition of being constantly showered in love that he did, so hearing 'do this and you won't have to be hungry' even secondhand might have been enough for her to figure out the rest.
9423178
That might be, but sharing love triggers the transformation, unwittingly falling in love with a pony would trigger the change. All she has to have done is loved some creature. Also we must keep in mind loving is not the same as liking, ideally you want to like the ones you love of course. If Thorax was one of Chryissy's kids he could still love his mother, despite knowing she's a tyrant and needed deposed. Knowing your mom is a loon doesn't mean you don't love her.
Hmm. Well, sounds like Chrysalis did change.
That's... an implication.
9423174
totally fixed, for serous
Hmm.... not quite sure what the orange eyes represent. Perhaps becoming a rival queen, or perhaps something else. Not entirely sure the establishment of a potential rival or antagonist is really necessary at this point, as I'm enjoying the growth/slice of life aspects of this story.
Well now, things are getting interesting
shimmering orange eyes.
......what could that mean?
Yikes. RIP Harmony.
re-donned
What.
Every man a king!
9423860
to quote the Medic from TF2 "The spy is a double agent!"
Double agent detected! But to what end?
9423860
She's a rainbow moose
This are going to be Spicey
9470720
Gender prespective. The oc of the story was a giy before being reincarnated and thus thinks in male terms but new life there are female
9470720
9552251
This is actually from the perspective of the changling from whom the chapter is named after who is male. It's just a bit of third-person perspective. The author is not switching between genders like a scizophrenic.
Tthe chapters that have a name as a title are focused on that particular 'ling, the ones that have no name are focused on or larva protagonist.
That last bit there had me immediately think of Rep from G1, what with their shapeshifting powers AND orange eyes and all, 100% it's NOT Rep though, since Rep is biologically male and identifies as male. I'll definitely have to read more to find out.
Craaaap. She's one of themm...
A changeling from another hive? Or a "reformed" changeling...? Hmmm
9597799
The order of the gay moose.
The web continues to spread; I'm curious to see what might happen next
I love this break from the usual wording of the phrase. Dunno why, but it made me happy to see.
Uh oh... A spy!
9445969
9910110
If Spy Spy is on the enemy team, BEWARE! Spy Spy is a spy!
If Spy Spy is on your team, BEWARE! Spy Spy is a double agent!
Ahhhh, and now meet your new teammate, Spy Spy.
Spy Spy: "MeNtAlGeN." (snort, snort, snorts)
Long live the newest Queen i guess
Every meal is that great? Strange that Cicada dont get more drones to harvest on regular bases... Unless to often getting visited holds dangers im not aware of?
News reporter trying? To find out about the regular visiting pony? But i think if all harvest transport drones use the same cover it should be fine... Unless being single might be more benefishal
How many Changeling hives exist i wonder...
9422921
Some dream big as a little bug...
9422940
Like Trxie is by wheel?
9422992
Sc1 Brood War vibes...
9422994
Depends on who you ask. Cicada finds it awesome.
9423047
Why not 1-2 Hive per race?
9423178
As long the colors don't anoy her. But she keeps feeding on emotions so she probably don't reformed just accend. After all the camo.fimfiction.net/HGKOVNTrPh_dQIegq-4XQTTfq37sBPSPcGN3_7ZAMFg?url=https%3A%2F%2Fderpicdn.net%2Fimg%2Fview%2F2014%2F7%2F10%2F671941.gif
9423255
Poor Rarity lost a good friend...
Love to see it blow up in Cicadas face one day...
9423441
Maybe color indicates a certain Changeling strain?
9423860
Reminds me of another awesome Changeling story.
'Changing Expectations'.
9469329
UN-LIMITED-POWER!!!
9684722
Unless they are Bi like they should be. No matter the gender they are food
There is a new Queen
The readers:
"Help dispose of her." A reminder these guys are still monsters.
And if she was a reformed changeling, she wouldn't still be working with Chrysalis. She has a different agenda.
No way! She matured from the constant excess of love into her own changeling queen!
This can't be good. Really, not good.
So, is she secretly a reformed changeling, or a queen?
11534620
My guess is... she did the "reformation" trick to get all pastel-jewel colored, and then immediately sided with Chrysalis again after she didn't have to worry about constant hunger for love. She might be sided with the ponies, but her somewhat crooked expression at the end while looking at her reflection makes me think she might not be. Don't know for sure though, that's just my take on things so far.
Well, that's not ominous at all.
Rather surprising she works alone, a waste of excess emotional energy ♡