Hive 2
Everfree Forest
Later that Day
Dragonfly stood with a group of five Drones and two Healers a little ways in past the boarder of the Everfree Forest, earlier that morning he had sent Scouts to a Point of Interest in the Everfree and they had found something of note. The Scouts had reported a small area with plants needed to make some special and powerful teas when they had come across hoof-shaped tracks. Once they reported back Dragonfly took a small group with him to investigate.
Mission: Everfree Two
Main Objectives:
Gather Plants needed for the shop
Dragonfly must survive
________________________
Bonus Objective(s):
Find the source of the tracks
________________________
New Unit(s): None
________________________
Briefing
Dragonfly: Alright my friends, we need to gather the plants I listed for the shop. We're not going very deep so we should be alright as only Light and Normal Timber Wolves have been seen in this area, but the Scouts reported strange tracks close to the plants so keep watch for the owner, the tracks are still fresh so they might still be around. They also reported possible resource deposits in the area so keep an eye not for those.
Dragonfly's group moved along the marked path to the plant's location, along the way they got into a few fights with the local Timber Wolves but it wasn't anything the group couldn't handle on their own. They also found several resource deposits like the Scouts had said, getting quite a good chuck of Changeling Slime, Hive Chitin, and even two Hive Cores.
It didn't take long for them to find the plants and two Drones gathered them with Dragonfly as the others kept watch, once they finished they started walking back. As they did Seeker contacted them;
"Dragonfly, the Workers and Drones here have finished building a Medical Den, Food Burrow, two Hunter Dens, a Gathering Den, a Slime Den, a Relaxation Den, and two Watch Burrows. Our Slime resources are a bit low but the Slime Den will make more and we can now train Sentries."
"Understood Seeker, we're going to take a look at the tracks than come back, out."
After a bit of walking they found the tracks, Dragonfly leaned down and ran a hoof over one of the prints. He frowned, there were two sets of larger ones, quite large in fact.
"Rhino, are you seeing these?"
"Yes, the tracks do belong to Changelings but are too smudged for me to tell which breed, but I think they might belong to Juggernauts judging from the size."
"We'll follow them and see, out."
Dragonfly's group followed the tracks for a bit but they went too deep into the forest and the group couldn't go any further, they did find three Hive Lore Cocoons though.
"Seeker, Rhino, we followed the tracks but they go deeper into the forest, were we can't go right now. We did however find three Hive Lore Cocoons."
"Understood Dragonfly, bring them back and we can start looking over what's next for the Hive."
"On our way, out."
Once they packed them up the group went home,
...unaware that they were being watched.
In the bushes a few meters away two large figures watched as Dragonfly and his group left, the one on the left spoke first.
"Glad to see our Prince is still alive and kicking, huh Titan?"
"Indeed Spartan, like the others we too had thought he was killed by those Timber Wolves. I still remember the Empress showing us the blooded scarf."
"And we hunted that pack down, and made sure they would never harm another creature again. I must ask though, why not just reveal ourselves to him? He would be very happy to see us, after all we did take a major part in raising him,"
"You know the Empress' orders: only do so if we need to, as the False Queen Chrysalis thinks he's dead. She must not know our Prince is still alive."
There as a bit of a pause before Spartan said,
"I feel that there's more then that brother." Titan looked at the ground and let a sad sign out before looking back at his brother.
"We failed to protect him that day Spartan, we're not worthy of being part of his Hive."
"Titan, you and I both know Prince Dragonfly wouldn't care and him "dying" was all part of Empress Nebula's and Emperor Saber's plan. So we didn't fail him, stop beating yourself up over it Titan. Our Prince is still alive and healthy, and so is his Hive."
"I know Spartan, I just... I just can't now."
Spartan carefully walked over and hugged his brother who returned it.
"I know Titan, I remember clear as day how upset you were seeing the blood-stained scarf. You breaking down and just crying your eyes out, but it's time to let it go, our Prince is still alive and well, we never failed him."
They pulled out of the hug.
"Thanks Spartan, let's go."
Spartan nodded and the two Juggernauts walked deeper into the forest, though Spartan paused and looked back in the direction Dragonfly's group had left.
'We'll meet again one day my Prince, and my brother and I will join your Hive.'
With that he disappeared into the dark woods.
Mission: Everfree Two ; Complete
Main Objectives:
Gather Plants needed for the shop; Complete
Dragonfly must survive; Complete
________________________
Bonus Objective(s):
Find the source of the tracks; Complete, +15 Research points
________________________
Debriefing
Dragonfly: We got the plants and returned to the Hive, soon the shop will reopen. I do wonder who or what those tracks belonged to though, Rhino believes it was Juggernauts. My question is why would they be here if that was the case, and what Hive are they from? I don't think they're from Chrysalis' as our Hive itself would have alerted us long before they got this close, could they be Hiveless? If so, why didn't they reveal themselves? At least we found more Hive Lore Cocoons, but I have so many questions, The Hive thinks who or whatever left those tracks know we're here, so I've told the Scouts to keep an eye out for more sightings. Who are they?
Until next time.
Dragonfly Wings, son of Empress Nebula Sheen and Royal Knight Black Saber. May the First Mother watch over you.
Dragonfly Hive
Throne Room
Dragonfly sat on his throne and brought up the Hive Interface, Seeker sat next to him in his usual place next to the throne and Rhino sat next to Seeker.
"Now that we've built Watch Burrows we can now create Sentries, Rhino shall explain." Seeker said as Rhino came forward and a small screen appeared on Dragonfly's screen, the small screen showed a Drone-like Changeling that was a bit bigger and had a horn like Rhino's and a heavy shell-like backplate that covered the wings.
"Sentries: The first line of defense for a Hive, Sentries while not very fast are able to both give and take a good amount of damage and are able to release a powerful alarm-like screech that both stuns enemies and sends the rest of the Hive into alert. Though they can fly the bulky shell on their backs limit their speed and maneuverability but to counter this their magic attacks are powerful enough to knock even a full grown Manticore back."
"Each Watch Burrow can support up to five Sentries at a time, What would you like to do next?"
Dragonfly looked over the interface, now that at least on of all but the Resource Den had been built he could select new things to research and more buildings to build.
"Well if I'm right about this, the Better Hunters' Gear upgrade allows the hunters to gather more food, the Efficient Gathering upgrade allows the Gatherers to get resources faster, and the Energy Emitter upgrade adds a special crystal to the buildings that gives the Changelings working there purer E-energy allowing them to work more efficiently."
"Right on all three, the Energy Emitter can also be further upgraded down the line, and speaking of the Gatherers."
Another screen came up showing a Changeling that resembled a Drone but stood a little taller with a longer horn, the most eye catching feature was a pair of light green tubes that traveled from the base of the horn down the back of the neck, over the back plate and into two deflated saddle bag-like growths that hang over the Changeling's flanks.
"Gatherer: Unique to the Dragonfly Hive, this breed enters towns and cities at night and finds the spots were the purest E-energy deposits have formed, it then fires a magic tether into it and draws the energy down the tether, filtering through the horn, through the tubes and finally into the bags. Once the bags and tubes are full the Gatherer return to it's Hive and drops off the energy. A single Gatherer could bring in enough to feed 25% of a large hive with no harm to the Ponies or other Creatures this way."
Dragonfly smiled as Rhino finished explaining the Gatherers than turned back to Seeker.
"What does the Energy Beacon, Slime Pod, Chitin Shredder, and Crystal Grower do?"
"The Energy Beacon is like a miniature Hive's Heart, it sets up E-energy zones on the ceiling for the buildings set up there though the zone has a limited range.
The Slime Pod is one of a few that can only be placed on special spots, in this case the spot is called a "Slime Nodes", once placed they make Slime at a steady rate.
The Chitin Shredder is similar to the Slime Pod as it can only be built on spots called "Chitin Spikes", the workers of this structure break pieces off, melt them down, and than pour the molten Chitin into molds.
And the Crystal Grower, when placed on "Crystal Roots", grows the Changeling Crystals slowly over time and the Workers harvest them once the crystals when they're ripe."
"Ripe? are they fruit or something?"
"I don't get it either. Now these three buildings can be upgraded to Advanced then to Hive, but in order to build and upgrade them we not only need to unlock them but we need Hive Cores."
"Which are rare and we need to save the six we do have for other things right now."
"Yes. Now our Scouts have been to several areas of interest but have only found small amounts of resources, including somethings needed for the shop."
"Okay Seeker, anything else?"
Not at the moment no, it is getting late so let's get some supper and we can go over anything else tomorrow."
Dragonfly nodded and walked with Seeker out of the throne room, when the latter suddenly stopped with his head shooting up.
"Oh! I almost forgot, there is one place we we haven't show you yet."
"And that would be?"
"The Hive's Egg Chamber."
"Well lead the way, that is one of the most important chambers for a Hive."
The two soon reached the level below Dragonfly's Private Quarters, crossing paths with Rhino, Darter and Spotter who tagged along. The Egg Chamber, also known as the Nursery Chamber, was a large mostly empty room with numerous Changeling Eggs lay all over the floor. Moving among the eggs and hatched Larva were several Healers tending to the young, Dragonfly walked into the chamber and laid down, allowing the Larva to crawl over him as he nuzzled some who sat between his front legs. Rhino spoke as he did this.
"The Egg Chamber is were every egg the Hive's Changelings lay are stored and a small amount of Healers look after them, from Egg to Larva to Nymph. While different Royals have different ways of bonding with the younglings Nebula for example would come to her Egg Chamber and spend time with her Hive's younglings at the very least once a week."
Dragonfly happened to look up at the far back wall and suddenly leaped to his hooves, very tense and alert, using his magic to keep the Larva on and close to him from getting hurt.
"Rhino, Seeker, why is there a giant SPIDER over there, in the same room were the Hive's young are kept!?" Dragonfly slowly moved the young in his magic behind him and got into a combat pose, glancing up he noticed there were at least six more of them. The spiders in question looked like an odd mix of a Cat Faced Spider, a Funnel-Web Spider, and a Tarantula. Their cephalothorax (The part with the mouth and legs) was at least the size of Big Mac, the abdomen was easily the size of the carts in Ponyville and the legs were at least ten feet in length.
Dragonfly felt a great pit of extreme primal fear form within but his instinct to protect the young overrode it, the seven spiders, apparently realizing the danger of a protective and sacred Royal retreated into their funnel webs a bit so only their front legs and eyes were visible. Seeker rushed forward, trying to calm Dragonfly down when he saw the Royal's horn light up for an attack.
"Whoa whoa Dragonfly stop! It's alright! Take it easy! These spiders are not a threat." He wilted a bit at the nasty glare his Prince gave him.
"Oh really. What are they then?!" Rhino took it from there.
"They're called Hive Spiders, and this species of spider was domesticated a long time ago to help protect the young from smaller pests and parasites, as well as serving as an early warning system and help guard the Hive from intruders. They're completely docile to Changelings of this Hive along with any allies, if fact they care for the Hive's young as much as a caring mother would."
"Though funny enough, Ponies tend to call these spiders "Nope Spiders"." Darter said, Spotter then added.
"Sorry we didn't tell you Dragonfly, we forgot that you're terrified of spiders."
Unlike most who had Arachnophobia, the fear of spider, Dragonfly actually had a legitimate reason. When he was still a young Nymph Dragonfly got caught in the web of a large Badlands Spider, which could grow to be about the size of a Yak in cephalothorax alone. He had almost been eaten that day and would have if not for the quick reactions of Nebula's two Juggernaut bodyguards, Titan and Spartan.
The spider's fangs were literally just touching his neck when the Juggernauts' magic hit.
Unsurprisingly the experience left Dragonfly with what was perhaps the worst fear of spiders in history, it took at least half a year before he could sleep alone. He spent that time sleeping right up against either his mother, father, one of the two Juggernauts, or any other members of the Hive. He also suffered from nightmares so bad the the Hive grew worried about the young Royal's mental health, Nebula had to actually use a specially modified sleeping spell on Dragonfly so he could even sleep.
Now that he was older he was okay with small ones as long as they weren't on him, larger ones he could tolerate as long as they kept their distance. Spiders that were bigger than him were at the level of what had become known among the Hive as the "Nope Nope Nope so much NOPE!!" level, and that was the level that Dragonfly would attack first and ask no questions.
The spiders above retreated completely into their funnels, understanding that they were triggering a pretty large fear in the Royal. After calming Dragonfly down Seeker suggested some exposure therapy so he could get use to them, for the sake of the young.
Dragonfly grudgingly agreed, but only on the insistence that he would have backup whenever he was with those spiders.
After Dragonfly had gone to bed the four of them met in the Throne Room, Seeker wiped some sweat from his forehead.
"Whew, I think we avoided a Megaspell there."
"No kidding, we completely forgot that Dragonfly is terrified of spiders." Spotter said.
"Considering what caused that fear, I don't blame him." Rhino said.
"At least he is willing, however grudgingly, to allow them to stay." Darter said.
The others agreed before their faces split open from powerful yawns, they said their goodnights and went to bed.
Like Dragonfly, I actually have a fear of spiders, though it isn't as bad as it once was. As long as they are not on me I would freak out, I think that was the result of a Cat Faced Spider making a web in my bathroom above the toilet, though thankfully it stayed up there and I didn't have the heart to remove it.
And Dragonfly... I do not blame him at all.
If you've read Picking Up The Pieces you should know who Titan and Spartan are, we will see more of them in the future.
Next chapter will skip ahead to around when the show starts but the only episodes I will do are ones were Dragonfly and/or members of his Hive will have roles or impact, Like the Grand Galloping Gala for example. The rest will just be mentioned in passing in the coming chapters which will still focus on what you've already seen so far.
See you next time. 
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A mission with briefings and escort to find the ingredients for tea.
Iroh from the Last Airbender would be so proud. Granted, I know that they're looking for the ingredients in a dangerous area, but I still thought it was funny.
This chapter did a really good job at building up intrigue. Spartan and Titan seem like really interesting characters, and I look forward to when they join Dragonfly's hive.
I totally get Dragonfly's fear of spiders; insects in general give me the creeps (Made the mistake of watching the anime Fate/Stay Zero when I was younger, and I got freaked out by two of the characters getting flung into this pit of parasitic worms and bugs.
).
Didn't pick up on many things to critique, though this part did confuse me a bit:
I found it kind of intriguing that Rhino, for once, didn't know how something worked. Did he mean that the crystals get like to a certain point where the power balances out or something? I feel like you could improve this by either:
A) have Dragonfly quip how, for once, one of his aides doesn't know something, which could be a great moment for humor and a chance to show their relatable sides again with Rhino either being sheepish or indignant.
Or B) have Rhino say that he doesn't fully get it, but then offer his own theory, which could lead into the power balancing out and making the crystal at it's best time for use.
Just something to explain it a little better, since I didn't really get it either.
Still, overall, I'm really enjoying this. I definitely agree that skipping over any episodes where Dragonfly and his Hive aren't involved is a good move, and as long as you make it clear that those events have passed and that we know which episodes are being covered, you should be good to go.
Thanks as always for sharing.
10975710
After refreshing my memory, I have this image of Dragonfly and Iroh sitting together have tea and chatting away. I can see Iroh as a mentor for Dragonfly.
Fun fact: In the background Lore Eastern Kirin are quite famous for their tea blends, to the point where it's their biggest export and makes at least 30% of their homeland's wealth. Celestia loves their tea as well.
From their brief appearance here, what would you say their personalities are?
Yeah
. Though what would Shiva and co. say after hearing of that encounter?
Also, I find it quite ironic that Changelings, who are insect-like, have a type of spider, which eat insects, protecting their young. expect it to be pointed out a few times in the future.
I like the two ideas, will need to think on how to work it out though.
Not to worry, I'll be making sure of that. Now the actually time skip wouldn't be happening for a short while as we have a few more chapters before then. Meant to clear that up but haven't gotten around to it yet.
One final thing, I can see Shiva trading with Dragonfly for his tea in exchange for something, so what would she offer?
See you next time.
10976191
Titan comes across as honorable to a fault, and very guilty of his past. He truly feels that failing his leader, even when the failure was planned, is unforgivable, and that he is not worthy to show his face. It will likely take some time for him to be able to face Dragonfly without breaking down.
And Spartan really shows brotherly love; he doesn't force Titan to join the Hive now, and instead comforts his brother and acquieses to his request. Very loyal, yet at the same time, he's not losing his dedication to Dragonfly, and it sounds very clear that he intends to get himself and Titan into Dragonfly's hive. Overall, I'd take a gander that Spartan's the elder brother, but he could just as easily be the younger brother that had to grow up fast. It'll be interesting to see more of them.
Shiva would be horrified and disgusted, while Luke would already be planning to smash any such spiders that made a move on his pack. Kodo would just laugh it off, saying that spiders aren't even that scary... only for Celine to comment, "This coming from the guy who's afraid of the dark?"
"It's not the dark itself," Kodo would snap. "It's what's in the dark!"
Shiva, however, would shake her head at Kodo's irreverence. "He who lives in a glass house shouldn't throw stones, Kodo. Next time, carefully consider your own fears before mocking someone else's."
Kodo would then look down and apologize to Dragonfly for his impudence.
Shiva would likely trade some of the herbs she uses, which can be brewed into either medicines, or used as extra flavoring for particular foods, varying from meats to even fruits. To her it would make sense; he's giving her herbs for tea, and she's giving him herbs for medicine or flavor. Both are meant to be consumed and both make something better, so it's a fair trade.
10976636
You're pretty close on Titan and Spartan's relationship, the two of them are actually twins. Though Titan is the bigger of the two by around a foot or two. And they will make another appearance, though not for awhile yet. For a little backstory: The two were created by Nebula Sheen (who also created the Juggernaut Breed and became known as the "Juggernaut Queen" for it) and were the first of their kind. They served as her bodyguards and she intended to give them to her son when the time was right, though thanks to the events that didn't happen.
I'll give more details on the Breed later on.
Yeah Badlands Spiders are not to be taken lightly, the fact that fangs where just touching Dragonfly neck when the magic bolts hit only makes it worst. Reminds me of that scene in "The Fly" actually.
Now how would that react seeing the Hive Spiders, who I want to stress are completely docile towards both the Hive and it's allies so Shiva and co. would be in no danger at all.
And Dragonfly would accept it, though he would note to Kodo about Badlands Spiders and how dangerous they can be. Maybe they could use the Pack Link to show it, though they'd be seeing it through his eyes at the time and well...
As for the herb trade, that would work out just fine.
10976656
Yeah, seeing the memory of the spider through Dragonfly's eyes? That would shut Kodo up right quick. And probably leave him even more terrified of the dark, since it could be hiding one of those spiders.
10976664
Probably terrify the others as well. Also, those spiders are Ugly!
For some reason I can see Shiva petting one of the Hive Spiders, with its body drooping as it enjoys the rubbing.
10976673
Possibly; once it showed it was docile, Shiva would likely be able to see it as kinda cute. She's empathetic like that.
10976887
A creepy sort of cute, and how would the others react once they knew the Hive Spiders were docile?
10977551
Luke would mostly be indifferent, since he can't fight the spiders and he certainly can't eat them, so he'd pretty much just lose interest in them.
Kodo would still be watching them like he's not fully sure they're docile. Which would lead to him getting nervous when Celine would take the plunge and try petting one, getting amused when it reacts well to her pets, and even starting to name some of the spiders and look after them like pets.
And Star would probably go along with Celine's idea, though she'd take care of one spider in particular, and love on him in contrast to Celine, who would be naming and loving on all the spiders.
10977925
They'd certainly enjoy the affection.
You know, I can see Celine and Star once in awhile helping the Healers up there with the young. And the two's reaction the Hive Spiders is cute.
10977934
Thanks.
I'll start reading the next chapter soon. Will let you know what I think when I complete it.