The cool winter sun shone down on Spindle and her three companions as they made their way through the badlands. The hard desert path crunched under their hooves and their cart, filling the silence between them.
Spindle walked next to the cart’s wooden wheel, her hooves nearly dragging on the ground as she pushed onward. It had been almost two weeks since her search and rescue team last stayed at any kind of motel or hostel and she was very aware of how much her posture showed it. She was more than ready for her several-day break back at the hive.
As much as her hooves ached from the walk, she gratefully eyed the disguised changeling pulling the cart and was very glad it wasn’t her turn to pull it on their final day. Glancing up to the sky, she was even more grateful it wasn’t her turn to be on watch. Flying around as a bird for hours on end as she kept an eye out for other travelers was equally exhausting. Due to their love shortage, they had to keep transformations to a minimum, so they couldn’t even take turns if they wanted to.
A crack and sudden pain in her hooves drew her attention back to the ground. The corner of her eyes caught sight of the skipping rock as it disappeared under the cart. A tiny moment later and a low yelp came from the front of the cart.
“Hey, watch it, would you?” Her grey coated companion pulling the cart glared back at her.
“Sorry, Instar.” Spindle offered him a sympathetic smile.
A few grumbles came from him as he turned forward. “Whatever. I am so tired of this and I cannot wait until it’s over.”
“I agree,” another of her companions said from the other side of the cart. “I will also be grateful when we can put all this behind us.”
“Seriously, how many more times are they going to have us go out? It’s the middle of Winter, for Chrysalis’s sake!” Instar complained.
“However many times they need us to. The job isn’t fun, but it’s what the hive needs of us.”
“Yeah, but, Propolis,” Instar glanced over his shoulder opposite Spindle, “you know how difficult it is to find anything buried in all that snow back in Equestria. We barely managed to find these two!”
Spindle followed the head tilt he threw back at the tarp-covered cart and shuddered at the thought of what was underneath.
“Yes,” Propolis replied, “but those are two that wouldn’t have been found otherwise.”
“I’m not denying that, but, come on. Is it really worth it? I get it, we need to respect the dead and all, but we’re risking way more by sending a bunch of us out. It made sense when we were looking for those still alive. Not so much anymore.”
Propolis sighed. “You know full well why we’re making our best attempt to find all those that were lost.”
“And that doesn’t make any sense either!” Instar huffed. “I could see doing it for the first few weeks, but, what do you think Equestria’s gonna do with them now? There’s barely anything left to see!”
“It’s not merely about what’s there to see. There are many other reasons we are attempting to retrieve everyling. Perhaps one day, when you grow up, you’ll be able to look at things from the big picture.”
“I am plenty grown up!” Instar shouted back. “I finished my caste training last year!”
Spindle groaned quietly to herself. This group was the worst she’d been in so far. Their bickering had been one of the only constants on the assignment.
As stressful as it could get in Hoofington, she fully admitted to herself how much she missed that group. Even Tarsus with his constant disappointment in everyling. They at least felt like a group, unlike nearly every recovery team she’d been on since.
“Fourteen years old is not grown up.” Propolis deadpanned.
“If I can die in a cave-in as I dig a new chamber, I’m more than grown up enough for the hive.”
“Number one, you may be in the worker caste, but you’re a cook.”
“Yeah, but I could get reassigned to the diggers.”
“They’re called constructors and I doubt it. Second, it’s been at least a decade since the last cave in. And even if you were assigned to them and were required to risk your life for the hive, that doesn’t make you any more capable of conceptualizing ideas at scale. I’d barely consider the far-more-mature Spindle over there as ‘grown up,’ and she’s almost two years older than you.”
“Please don’t get me involved in this,” Spindle groaned aloud this time.
“Yeah, well,” Instar retorted over his shoulder again at Propolis, “all you do is sit in your little classroom all day and hate on workers.”
“I do not hate on anyling,” Propolis said. “Every caste has their purpose in the hive and workers are no different. Same with us educators, same with—”
A loud caw interrupted them as a raven flew down and landed on the front of the cart.
“Ah, good afternoon. We’re—” Propolis cut himself off. “Wait. Apidae, what are you doing?”
“I’m resting,” their fourth companion huffed, shuffling her black wings. “Plus, we’re like, ten minutes from the hive and there’s no other creatures around for kilometers.”
It was then Propolis’s turn to groan. “No, I mean, why are you a raven?”
“Uh, ‘cause I need to be a bird? So I can fly?”
“You’re not supposed to be a raven. The Guards are ravens. A lookout is supposed to be a red-tailed hawk. How long have you been disguised as that?”
“All day? No other team leader got mad at me for it, including you this morning when I started.”
“Oh, Chrysalis save me…” Propolis muttered. “I didn’t see you then and I bet none of the other team leads did either. Red-tailed hawks tend to fly in circles when seeking prey. Ravens are much more flighty, sporadic, and noisy. Did you not pay attention at all in the training for this?”
“Yeah, I did. But that was like, a ton of information crammed into a few weeks. How am I supposed to remember everything?”
“Because it’s important to your—our continued survival among ponies. Especially because the training was specifically for ‘lings like you and Instar who had never been out into Equestria before.” He let out a long, low sigh. “I swear, if they make me team lead of a bunch of teenagers again, I am going to lose my mind. Alright, just… get down and make yourself a unicorn. We’re about to move off the path. Spindle!”
“Yes, sir?” she called back.
“You ready to start covering?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Good. You’ll smooth over your side of the cart and Apidae will smooth over your and Instar’s hoofprints and whatever we miss.”
“Yeah, got it.” Apidae jumped off the back of the cart and transformed back into a pony.
The group fell silent again, much to Spindle’s relief. A couple minutes later, Instar pulled the cart to the side and onto the soft sand.
Spindle glanced back for a short moment as her horn lit up, her magic beginning to smooth out the cart’s tracks and her own hoofprints.
The sand felt nice under her hooves compared to the hardened path, but she knew from several trip’s worth of experience that the soft grains would quickly wear down her already exhausted limbs.
Several minutes of magic use later, Spindle’s head turned back to the sky at the sound of another caw. This time, the raven landed on top of the tarp-covered crates and hopped about as it eyed each one of them. A moment later and the scent of a new changeling’s pheromones filled Spindle’s nose.
“Good afternoon,” Propolis began from the other side of the cart. “We’re recovery team nine with a delivery.”
“Very well,” a feminine voice began. “Proceed to the cargo entrance.”
“Will do.”
The raven spread its wings and took off ahead of them.
Instar and the group continued straight and soon came upon a large, rocky outcropping. They traveled around behind it and stopped. On the opposite side laid a long-dead, felled tree and atop it perched the raven from before.
A loud caw came from the raven. “Cargo drop-off! Open the path!” Half a minute later, the raven took to the air as the tree became shrouded in a green glow. It floated to the side, revealing a trio of disguised unicorns, their horns lit with magic at the mouth of a cave.
Once the tree was out of the way, Spindle and the others followed Instar inside. A short ways into the cave, a group of guards disguised as coyotes laid off to the side and eyed them as they passed. Spindle gave them a little smile and nod.
Soon, darkness enveloped the group and Propolis spoke up, “Alright, we’re good. Feel free to drop your disguises.”
One after another, four green flashes of fire illuminated the cave and the darkly lit tunnel became clearly visible to Spindle’s changeling eyes. She continued along her side of the cart as they descended further underground.
A short trek later and the tunnel opened into a large, high ceilinged cave. On the far side sat numerous wide stalls, each labeled with a large number above them. Spindle’s eyes traveled down the row, the same eleven through twenty-six stalls still there since the first time she’d been in vehicle storage.
The stalls’ contents, however, caught her eye and her eyeridges furrowed in thought. She noticed a couple of the stalls had changelings loading or unloading carts, but she was more surprised to see that nearly all the stalls were full, many containing carts and carriages of all types and sizes. Glancing behind her, she saw eight of the ten stalls had something parked in them.
Since she’d started on the rescue teams a few months back, nearly every cart had been checked out for use outside the hive. With so many returned to their stalls, she couldn’t help but wonder what that meant. Their search and rescue efforts had been yielding less and less, but did this now mean life in the hive might be rearing to go back to normal?
Spindle very much hoped so.
“Here, pull off to the side,” Propolis spoke up, interrupting Spindle’s thoughts. “Let’s get our crystals out first.”
Instar tugged the cart aside as Propolis came around the back and lit his horn. The ropes securing the tarp came undone and he pulled it back before unlatching and lowering the tailgate.
Propolis then fluttered up onto the back of the cart next to Spindle. He pulled the top off one of the barrels, digging a hoof into it and began rooting around inside. “Come on, where are you,” he grunted, leaning deeper into the barrel.
“Ah! Here they are,” he said a moment later, slowly pulling his hoof out and carefully shaking the grains out of the holes in his hoof. After successfully preventing a mess, he turned and slung the bag. “Spindle, catch!”
She instinctively lit up her horn and immediately felt her magic slip off the bag. It clicked in her brain a split second later and she held out her hooves right as the bag reached her.
“Ack!” She fumbled with it before finally managing to pin it between both forehooves. Spindle growled up at Propolis, but, of course, he wasn’t paying her any attention as he magicked up the lid. After sending plenty of annoyance his way, she carefully maneuvered the thing rightside up in her fetlock and set it on the ground.
It still peeved her that they had to use those bags. She understood why, but that didn’t make their getting at their daily love ration any less irritating. Though she would admit it was far better than the alternative.
Said alternative was easily the most memorable portion of her second recovery team trip. The ponies had found out a couple weeks after the invasion that love crystals emanated a very specific frequency of magic, or at least that’s how she understood it.
Changelings at the hive had gotten to work on the eventual solution that was the magic-insulating fabric sitting in front of her. But while they were working the problem, the immediate solution had been to control where the love crystals went. That meant ‘lings taking turns keeping the crystals well outside the company of ponies. It swiftly became a very uncomfortable few weeks.
Though, even with all the discomfort they were subjected to, Spindle considered herself lucky the teams she was on always got assigned to unpopulated wilderness or areas around small towns. She shuddered to think of the nightmare that big cities like Cincinneghti or Manehatten must have been.
“Ah, I thought I heard some arrivals,” a voice called out behind and above them. “Welcome back. What team are you?”
Spindle turned to the wall they’d come in on and saw a changeling looking down at them from one of the office’s archways carved into the wall. The changeling hopped off the ledge and flew down, landing on the floor with a clipboard held in their foreleg. The scent of their pheromones wafted over and Spindle recognized them as the same mare that had greeted the last team she was on and at least half of her teams before that.
“Hello,” Propolis spoke up. “We’re recovery team nine. Where would you like the cart?”
The mare hummed and levitated up her clipboard. “Recovery team nine…” She flipped over a couple pages. “Here we are. You’re in stall seven.” She gestured to the second stall to the right of the entrance. “Place the cart inside with the rear end facing out.”
Instar began pulling the cart to its space while Spindle and Apidae walked over next to the stall. Apidae sat down and closed her eyes with a sigh while Spindle turned her attention to the other three.
“What contents are we looking at?” the storage worker asked as she followed behind Propolis with her clipboard and a short, well-used pencil set against the paper.
“We’ve got a tarp, six ropes, four sacks, three empty, one about three quarters full of solid food rations. Two tents, four sets of sleeping bags, and four saddlebags. Or, well,” he levitated a pair out and secured it to his back, “Three. I’ll return this to storage after we deliver the bag to the commissary.” He tilted his head to the bag of love crystals at Spindle’s hooves.
The mare nodded, writing on her clipboard. “Got it. What else?”
“There are three grain barrels as well. The rear-most barrel is only grain while the other two each contain an expired, resin-encased changeling.”
She continued writing on her clipboard as the cart came to a stop, followed by the loud clunk of Instar kicking the cart’s front stand down.
“And the bodies, are they whole? Missing any parts?”
Propolis shook his head. “Neither are missing anything, but both are significantly decayed.”
“Understood. No identification, then?”
“None that we could see.” Propolis shook his head as Instar walked out of the stall.
She wrote more down. “That’s sadly been the trend lately. Hopefully medical will be able to determine something. How about the condition of the cart?”
“The cart is in fair condition,” Propolis answered. “No big issues, though the rear hatch seems to be coming loose and a couple of the floorboards near the front rattle when not weighed down.
“It’s kinda pulling to the left, too,” Instar spoke up, rubbing at his side.
She jotted down more notes before looking back up. “Anything else?”
“No, that’s all I’ve noticed.”
“Alright!” she slid the pencil under the clipboard’s clip. “That’s all I need. We’ll unload and transfer everything to their destinations. You’re good to go.”
Propolis nodded before walking up beside Spindle, his magic opening one side of his saddlebags. “Mind putting the bag inside?”
Spindle nodded, gripping the bag in her fetlock and dropping it in.
He closed and secured the bag and turned to address the others. “Come on. Let’s report to the recovery lead so we can get our new team assignments and start our break.”
The trio followed their leader out the side of the depot and into the hive’s main thoroughfare.
Several other changelings were going about their business as the group made their way through the wide tunnel, sparsely lit by luminescent patches of moss. They passed a few corridors, familiar lettering carved into the wall next to each of them. They caught Spindle’s eyes as they did every time. Vehicle Maintenance, Storage, and then Deliveries passed them by as they came up to the tunnel’s gradual decline.
Instead of walking down the path carved mostly for carts, she saw Propolis’s magic tug his saddlebag’s straps tight before he headed into a side tunnel. Ahead, it turned to a drop and he paused to look over the ledge, then stepped down the vertical wall.
Spindle and the other two followed, carefully walking behind him down the wall. They side stepped around the opening to the second level and the already modest temperature only got cooler the deeper they went. Propolis came to the third opening and, as before, he peeked into the entrance before stepping out onto the third floor’s ceiling.
Nodding to Instar, Spindle waited for him to enter before she continued as well. As she stepped out onto the ceiling after him, she saw Propolis already making his way along the curved wall to the floor. Instar, meanwhile, got three steps into the tunnel before he let go of the ceiling, whipped his body around, and landed onto the floor with a loud clack, before casually walking onward.
Spindle rolled her eyes and could feel his smirk through the pride he let through. Showoff.
She decided to be more practical and follow her leader’s suit, walking at a diagonal until she was level with gravity once more. From the lack of anything other than soft clops, Apidae decided to do the same.
They continued down the hall, passing one crossing hall before turning down the next hall labeled Administration. Beyond, a wooden door and frame on the right contrasted with the hard, earthen walls with the word Controller on it. A door labeled Infiltrator came next on the left. Military after that on the right before she passed to the one door she both dreaded and couldn’t wait for.
The Collector’s door.
Every time she passed that door, anxiety crept over her, though she made sure to keep those emotions to herself. Being in Equestria was… terrifying and yet, at the same time, she missed it. She missed her—friends wasn’t the right word—she missed her fellow collectors. She was only there for a few months, but she missed Vexor’s stoic nature. She missed Skitter’s leadership and especially her cookies. She even missed Tarsus, if for no other reason than familiarity.
But the one she missed most was Firefly.
There weren’t very many changelings who went out of their way for others. It wasn’t necessary in the hive. You learned what you needed to learn, did what you needed to do, and that was it. With how few of them there were, changelings didn’t have the luxury of wasting time or resources.
While Firefly wasn’t the first changeling to spend her efforts on Spindle, she was, by far, the nicest. And that kindness was what Spindle missed about her the most.
She knew it was unlikely that she’d get reassigned to Hoofington again after the recovery was over. Even still, she would be the happiest ‘ling alive if she could just go back there and try one more time.
But, she quietly sighed as they arrived at their destination. Such things would have to wait until later.
Propolis knocked twice on the wooden door.
“Enter!” came a muffled voice from beyond.
He pulled down on the handle and pushed it open, walking in with Instar close on his tail.
Spindle followed, Apidae scuttling in behind her. The large room was nearly empty with enough space for at least fifteen comfortably. At the back sat a single, out-of-place metal desk with a changeling behind it, writing on a sheet of paper. Further back was the door that Spindle had never seen open in the dozen times she’d been in the room.
She figured Queen Chrysalis’s Recovery advisor must be rather busy to leave their office so rarely.
The Recovery advisor’s assistant glanced up from the desk and raised a single eyeridge before continuing with her paperwork. “Propolis.”
“Ma’am.” He nodded in return. “My team and I have returned with a successful recovery.”
She sighed, set down her pencil, and leaned back in her creaky chair. Her horn lit green and a drawer squeaked open, a thick binder floating up and opening on the table. “Your team was assigned fifty square kilometers north of Vanhoover, correct?”
“That is correct.”
“What were your findings?”
“As we made our initial stop at an inn in Vanhoover, we saw no signs of anti-changeling activity within the city. In the surrounding area, we found two long since deceased changelings, all body parts intact, though thoroughly decayed. One was approximately twenty five kilometers north-north-east of town and the other approximately forty-five kilometers north-east. Nothing else to report.”
She wrote down notes in the binder. “Very well.” She put the pencil down and flipped to the beginning of the binder. “Apidae, architect of the worker caste, Spindle, collector caste, and Instar, cook of the worker caste. Is this correct?” she glanced up at the three of them.
Spindle nodded while verbal affirmations came from the other two.
“Thank you for assisting the Recovery caste with this matter,” she said with the same dry tone. “We no longer have need of recovery team nine’s assistance. You three may report back to your caste leads for further assignment. Propolis, once you complete a performance report of your team members due within three days time, you may return to the educators.”
“Of course. I will get started first thing tomorrow morning.” Propolis turned and nodded at the other three.
Apidae and Instar left first, both heading further down the administration hall. Spindle exited and turned the opposite direction with Propolis behind her.
Midstep, it suddenly hit her. Four months of long days and cold, snowy nights and she was finally done. She would go back to being a collector, maybe get some training on what Equestria had become, and get sent back out.
It was very scary and yet just as exciting.
The liveliness of ponies mixed with the fear of discovery. The amazing food and drinks mixed with the challenge of finding a new source. Spas and suspicion. Freedom of an open world yet confinement to a single role.
She was ready and at the same time so very not ready. She was—
“Spindle!”
“Huh?” Spindle very ineloquently sputtered and turned her head around to find Propolis giving her an amused grin. “Uh, yes?”
“You’re a collector, right?”
“Yes…?” She half asked.
“Then was that not your caste’s office?” He tilted his head back behind him.
Spindle glanced beyond him and embarrassment immediately flooded her at the Collector sign on the door. She’d been so caught up in her own thoughts that she’d completely forgotten about her surroundings or even where she was going. Again. Again again. Pay attention, Spindle! She berated herself.
She turned around fully. “Yes, that would be my door. Thank you,” she said and gave him an awkward, little smile before walking past him.
“Hey, Spindle.”
Her head turned again to him. “Yeah?”
He gave her a smile and a bow of his head. “Good luck out there. You’re a good ‘ling and I hope Equestria treats you well.”
A genuine, flushed smile found itself on her face. “Thank you very much. I hope you all the best as well.”
He merely nodded in response before turning and walking down the hall.
Spindle faced the door and took a deep breath before slowly letting it out. She raised her hoof and placed two solid knocks on the wooden door.
What felt like ages passed before an “Enter!” came from beyond the door.
She grasped the handle and twisted, pushing open the door and stepping into the room. There were very little differences between the Recovery caste’s room and the Collector’s. The most notable of them were the thick, fancy-looking wooden desk instead of a squeaky metal one and several filing cabinets.
Paperwork covered nearly all of the desk, even more so than Recovery’s. It was the same as every other time she’d seen a caste lead’s office. Spindle often wondered if the administrative ‘lings did nothing but paperwork all day long. She kept a frown from forming at the thought.
Though, the not-frown turned into a smile at the ‘ling behind the desk, the Collector advisor’s assistant. She easily recognized Calypter, one of her favorite guest instructors in collector training. He only taught a few classroom portions, but he was always patient and explained things in ways that instantly clicked with Spindle.
“Hello,” Calypter greeted, “what can I do for you?”
“Hello, sir. My name is Spindle. I was assisting with the recovery efforts, but they have released my team back to our castes.”
“Ah, yes. Your file came across my desk recently.” He nodded and scooted back out of the chair. “We’ve been completely swamped since the invasion, so give me a moment to find it.”
“Uh, sure. No problem.” Spindle held back her grimace, only slightly disappointed that he hadn’t seemed to recognize her from training.
A several shifts of paper and a couple drawer searches later and he came back with a folder, setting it on his desk. “Here we are. Now let’s see what we’ve got.”
He looked through her paperwork, slowly reading and flipping through a few pages. “Ah. Hm. Give me a moment, if you would.”
She watched in confusion as Calypter grabbed the folder in his magic and scooted his chair back again. The confusion was swiftly steeped with fear as he trotted over to the Advisor’s door. He knocked once before entering and closing the door behind him.
Spindle only had one other time to compare it to, but when she got assigned to Hoofington, Calypter had looked through her folder, explained her assignment, and answered her questions. Nowhere in that time had he even so much as glanced at the advisor’s door.
She had no idea what he would have needed to discuss, but her imagination provided more than enough to make up for it.
Stop. Spindle cut herself off. Don’t even go there. For all you know, it could be because of something you did on a recovery assignment. Maybe one of the previous team leads wrote something good about you! Think positive!
She tried putting a smile on her face. She’d heard from somepony back in Hoofington that if you acted like you were happy, your mind would eventually follow along.
The smile became harder to keep as the minutes drew on and her traitorous brain kept trying to fill her mind with scenarios of all kinds. Mostly negative scenarios, of course, because she was pretty sure it hated her. Which, it was part of her, so that meant it also hated itself?
She shook the time-inappropriate thoughts from her head. Focus and stop thinking about dumb things. Instead she tried to think of nothing.
It didn’t work very well.
Finally, after what felt like eons, the advisor’s door opened again and Calypter stepped out.
“Spindle? Advisor Arista would like to see you now.”
“O-okay. Sure.” She tried to sound confident, but knew she likely came off as anything but.
He stood back from the door, allowing her to pass by into the room, before he pulled the door closed.
The room was half as large as the front area, but it had a ton more things. There was a fancy desk, chairs both behind and in front of the desk, a huge map of Equestria on the wall behind it with lots of pins and notes, two bookshelves filled with books, several filing cabinets, and even a couple trinkets scattered around.
But the most notable thing was the changeling sitting behind the desk, looking directly at her. He looked the same as any other changeling, but he felt so much more… imposing.
“Take a seat,” he said simply.
“Yes, sir.” She complied, walking over and sitting down on the chair she was pretty sure she’d seen in waiting rooms back in Equestria.
“You have been assisting with the Recovery caste for quite some time now,” Arista began. “I’ve heard good things about the work you did for them. You’ve shown yourself to be a hard worker and you do what needs done.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“I similarly requested a statement regarding you from the Hoofington collectors, as well as a training report from the educators.”
Spindle fought to keep her confusion off her face and in her mind. She had never heard of the advisors reviewing a ‘ling’s history and she wasn’t sure if that meant she was exceptionally good… or bad.
“Overall, the Hoofington collectors spoke highly of you with the exception of some naivete. Not entirely unexpected of a sixteen year old changeling, collector or not. You managed to find a source within the first month and were able to become self-reliant within two. In training, you excelled at your exams. Easily the top ten percent of your class. Though, in practice, you were barely average with the most common markdowns being freezing, responding awkwardly or with inappropriate tones, and forgetting small details.”
Spindle tried to swallow what little saliva was left in her dry mouth. She had no idea what was going on. One second he praised her, the next he noted her flaws. Don’t panic. Keep yourself together. You need to show you can do this. You’re better than you were.
“Yes, sir. I learned a lot from training and from the collectors in Hoofington. I think those three months really helped soften some of my rough edges.”
Arista sighed. “Spindle, I’ll be straight with you. Based on everything I have read and heard about you, I think you have an exceptional attitude and drive. You want to do all you can to help the hive and I respect that. The issue at hoof here is that some of those rough edges, as you call them, can have consequences far more reaching than one might predict.
“I read the report the Queen’s scribe took based on your return to the hive.”
A chill shot up her spine and she clenched her jaw. She’d blindly hoped that would have simply gone away. She knew it was foolish, but she didn’t know what else to do.
Arista leaned back in his chair. “None of us blame you for what happened in Hoofington. Your decision to follow standard procedure, move to a new town, and request the hive’s assistance was perfectly sound. My letter containing post-invasion instructions had not yet reached Hoofington before your disguise was compromised.
“Sometimes, though, even with our best efforts, the world will still manage to overwhelm us.” His horn lit and her eyes snapped over to the binder opening. A few pages flipped over before he levitated out a piece of paper, setting it in front of her. “I trust you recognize this.”
Her eyeridges furrowed as she leaned in. The paper was folded in half, as if it had been in an envelope. She glanced at the top and began reading.
Dear Violet,
I’m really sorry to hear you’ve run into hard times. Unfortunately, Peppermint is out for the moment, so I’m—
She gasped and her eyes immediately grew wide in surprise. The letter! I left it back in Cincinneighti! How did—
Spindle glanced back up at Arista. “T-this is the response to my request for help when I was in Cincinneighti.”
He nodded. “That’s correct. Before this, the few examples of your inattentiveness have been fairly harmless. But our luck always catches up to us eventually.
“I’m sure you’re wondering how this letter ended up in your folder. There’s a reason we train every Equestria-bound changeling to make the best attempt at covering any traces of contact with the hive. This letter is a perfect example of what happens when that is forgone.”
“I-I’m sorry, sir,” Spindle managed. “I didn’t mean to leave it behind. It’s just, everything went wrong all at once and I… forgot.”
“Like I said,” Arista calmly reminded her, “none of us blame you for what happened. With that in mind, I want you to know the repercussions this simple action had, if for no other reason than to learn from your mistakes.”
Spindle gave a tiny nod. “Okay.”
He took a deep breath before starting, “After you left Cincinneighti, the manager of The Golden Inn reported the incident to the guard. They investigated and found the only thing left behind: this letter. They followed the only lead they had and collaborated with the Manehatten guard to find the sender.
“Now, the couriers are a clever bunch of changelings. They have to be to distribute and obfuscate everything from simple letters to this very desk in front of me.” Arista tapped his hoof on the solid wood. “They have very interesting measures to mitigate risk for this kind of snooping, but when a quarter of the whole Manehatten guard is trying to find you, things start to get very difficult, especially when there are no indicators of compromise.
“Eventually, the ponies hit their mark and were able to sniff out four couriers in Manehatten. Three were detained and the last managed to escape and notify the hive, but not until a full week had passed. During that time, the ponies set up shop and intercepted our mail. Thankfully, nearly every changeling assigned in Equestria had no reason to communicate with the hive, but not all. Two collectors in other cities were burned with one being taken into pony custody.
“Two infiltrator groups were dispatched and more than two weeks later, all changelings were extracted from custody along with several documents, including the very letter that started it all.”
Spindle didn’t know when the wetness had formed in her eyes as she stared at the letter in front of her. You did it again, Spindle. Good job screwing up. The tears threatened to spill from her eyes. Come on, have some dignity and do something right for once!
She looked back up at the advisor and fruitlessly swallowed down the lump in her throat. “I’m sorry. I didn’t intend to cause so much trouble.”
“I know. As I said, we don’t blame you for that chaos four months ago.”
“I promise I’ll-I’ll pay more attention on my next assignment. I won’t let something like this happen again.”
Arista took a breath in and slowly sighed it back out. “Spindle, we’ve lost a lot of collectors over the last few months and the hive’s love supply is in very poor shape. The environment in Equestria is more tense than it has ever been and every collector still out there must exercise the utmost caution and care.
“With that in mind, I have received concurrence from Queen Chrysalis that having you return to Equestria is a risk we simply cannot take at this time.”
At those words, Spindle’s world fell out from under her and the tears came unbidden. “Oh,” was the only thing she could get out.
Becoming a collector, out there under the open sky, was the culmination of nearly half her life. She’d worked so hard in primary education just to be considered for the caste. And then, those four grueling years of collector training. All gone.
“Spindle,” Arista leaned forward, softly putting his hooves on the desk, “this is not a punishment. I think you are a good changeling and, again, I admire your work ethic. As the climate in Equestria stands, I think it is best for the hive that you be reassigned to another caste. I have spoken with several other advisors and, out of courtesy for you, I would like to give you a choice between them.
“The worker caste is always needing more bodies. You would most likely be assigned as a constructor or architect. Alternatively, the caretakers lost a few to the invasion and are short staffed. Every one of their members are fully diverse in grub and nymph care and pony maintenance. Similarly, a position has opened with the controllers. You would be working with advisors and their assistants for documentation and archiving. Out of those three, do you have a specific preference?”
“I, uh,” Spindle stammered and sniffed at the wetness in her nose, still trying to process everything. She’d never thought about being a member of any hive-based castes. Her sights had always been outside. Inside, though, she had no desire to work in an office all day, shuffling paper about. Nor did cave digging sound particularly appealing, even if cave ins were as rare as Propolis made them out to be. That only left…
“I guess caretakers,” Spindle said.
“Very well. I will have your paperwork transferred to them tomorrow. For your awareness, there currently are not enough caretaker educators, so I have been told you will be learning while working.”
“Okay.” Spindle tried to put a smile on, but even she could tell it could barely be called one.
“I think you have some great potential, Spindle. After things have settled down and you have a few more years under your wings, I would not be unwilling to reconsider you for the collectors again.”
“Okay,” she repeated. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. Before I dismiss you, are there any questions you have for me?”
‘Uhm,” Spindle looked off to the side, trying to search her already frazzled brain. “I, uh, I don’t think—Oh!” She did remember one and looked back to Arista. “Before I came back from Manehatten, I ran into a foal and her mother.”
“Ah, yes. I remember reading about that. What would you like to know?”
“Did they… are the filly and her mother okay?”
“Hmm,” he hummed and turned to her binder, flipping through page after page. Finally, he pulled a few sheets out and began looking them over. “It says in the infiltrator’s report that Bright Resin was admitted to the hospital late that morning.” He flipped a page. “It appears that your venom only paralyzed her for a few hours and she was released after a couple days of monitoring. So yes,” he finished and put the papers back in her binder, “it appears they are.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Of course. Was there anything else?”
Spindle shook her head. “No, sir. That was it.”
“Very well.” He stood and Spindle took that as a hint to do the same. “I will inform the caretakers that you will report to them in four days’ time. Take the next three days to get accustomed to hive life again. You’re dismissed.”
Spindle nodded and turned, heading to the door with Arista following. Passing through the door, she glanced at the desk and saw Calypter look back to her and the door. She gave him a shaky smile and opened her mouth to speak.
“Calypter,” Arista called from behind her and Spindle’s mouth clicked shut. “My office, please.”
“Certainly, one moment to finish this note.”
Seeing it wasn’t a good time, Spindle trotted to the door and exited her now former caste’s office. Outside, she looked left and right down the hall and after seeing no one, she collapsed to her haunches and closed her eyes.
It didn’t feel real. It was silly of her, but she thought she’d be a collector for many years to come. Fantasies about having decades of experience and passing it on to other collectors had once roamed her mind. Now, though…
A wave of fatigue hit her and her body quickly reminded her that she’d only just returned from long days of travel. On shaky limbs, she stood and began her long trek to the quartermaster. She’d pass out in her assigned room, then maybe the next day she could cry it out.
Regardless of what she wanted, the next phase of her life started then and she needed to be ready for what it brought.
Oh look, changelings with bureaucracy, and apparently a pretty effective one too! Not exactly common in changeling stories, as far as I know.
Fantastic worldbuilding chapter all around, good to see that mother and her filly okay, hoping Spindle and them will cross paths again. It raises a very interesting question though: with Spindle now staying in the hive indefinitely, how will she fit into the story of our Equestria-based couple?
Happy anniversary, by the way. Time sure does fly. *sigh*
Awwww, poor spindle
I ship it.
Jokes aside, good chapter. Not often does a story give any insight to the inner workings of how the hive is run, aside from "Chryssie rules, everyone else can suck it".
I'm looking forward to seeing how will Spindle and Firefly meet again, if at all, as well as to Spindle's experiences in the caretakers.
I must say what a great chapter. Here we learn a lot about changeling society. I really like this story and I am looking forward to what you have in store!
Thank you! You have a good day is well, always a pleasure to read your story
Has it really been a year? Well, not for me, I only found this story and Unchanging Love last October. Regardless, this was a wonderful surprise - I had gotten so used to new chapters on Sunday, and usually towards the month's end, that getting this notification totally caught me off guard. Thankfully, the length was short enough that I could afford to drop everything (well, in an hour), and read and review the thing upload day, rather then taking a day to do so. Oh, the irony of 6.8K being short! Truly we are spoiled.
Fret not, all the incident within received the appropriate space, and since you chapter break when we switch which pony/changeling we're looking over the shoulder of, well, you ended at the right moment. Plus, another chapter in a week, give or take a few days? We're doubly spoiled, Azure Notion, you know that, don't you.
Thankfully for my analysing purposes, this chapter, though one continuous scene, can be split right down the middle, at the point that Spindle splits from the other members of her recovery team. Makes discussing the elements within all the easier!
What's odd is, on my initial read-through, I actually found myself somewhat underwhelmed, and I couldn't quite puzzle why. Eventually, it hit me - both Unchanging Love and this story have been dealing with territory so far beyond that which is typical for changeling stories, that this chapter shook me off course because, in many aspects, it's doing aspects that have been. Not super-commonly, but one doesn't have to dig terribly long (though some digging is required) to find stories or scenes of changelings and the hive getting themselves back in order following the failed Canterlot Invasion. Happily, this chapter is filled with nothing but reasons why it is better then nearly all of them.
For a start, as several others have already pointed out, we have the world building as to how this hive constructs itself. The amount of thought that's gone into undercover changelings of numerous professions scattered through Equestria, both to sustain the hive and to enable communication as well as covering their tracks - that could only have come from a good, long sit-down or brainstorming session where you examined the logistics of the situation as thoroughly as you could. And it's not just nifty details - this makes Arista's recount of the consequences of her dropped letter all the more harrowing. No joke, the mention of two collectors being burned had a hefty breath caught in my throat, even after I realised you simply meant their roles had been destroyed, not that those two collectors had actually being physically burned alive/dead!
Also, those paragraphs informing us of Equestrians already doing everything they can to detain and capture any changeling they find, more harrowing stuff. The Equestrian reaction to the invasion has been largely kept to the story's fringes thus far, which I don't mind - you're getting milage out of a very intimate depiction through a few select characters of the aftermath. But despite the events in the prior Spindle chapters, this mention hit home harder. Possibly because I can see how this element will lead in Act II, given we're knocking on its door.
Of course, the other world building elements - the numerous different castes and roles, how the changelings are operating these "search and rescue" missions, what they're gathering, and so on - are expertly well done. Most impressive is how you use the time-skip of a month (given the story up to now was within a week of the Canterlot invasion) to justify the numerous asides, in the chapter's first half, of explaining everything, through having Spindle reflect on how things have changed, and what's possibly coming now.
Also, her missing Firefly, touching stuff. Many a changeling story, rightfully, has been constructed around their societal structure giving then little to no room for actual friendship or relationships with others. Yet somehow, perhaps because we the readers have grown so attached to Firefly, that one moment hit really hard. Alongside the rest of the chapter, I actually grew closer to Spindle, more so then with the two chapters of her on the run. Which, yeah, dunno what that says about me!
I loved the scenes of Spindle talking to Calypter and Arista. Not just for the logic of each caste having an advisor like that, but the tension from Spindle throughout, right through to the obvious-but-no-worse-for-it decision to (sensibly) relocate her to another caste. Kid clearly knows her way in training, but is just a bit too twitchy for field collecting in this post-invasion climate. And Spindle clearly knows it too - the war between her heart and her brain here is something else.
In short (though it's too late for that), another excellent chapter. Mostly a bridging one, serving to plant a few key bits of information and start a few threads as we approach Act II. But it did its job, and after that gripping interrogation chapter, the heart-to-heart aftermath, and the quiet talk with Refined Aura, it was a refreshing, welcome change of pace.
There's no escaping it now - the story's absolutely entering the "main plot properly kicks off" phase, now that the unresolved bits from the end of Unchanging Love have been (mostly) wrapped up. I see more elaborate plot mechanics, lots more characters, and escalating stakes going forward, and in the near future. But because you've done the work to make us really, really care for these equines and shapeshifters, I have no doubt they'll hit home just as well.
Take all the time you need, Azure - a story of this caliber deserves it. Until Chapter 10!
Also, unless my eyes are deceiving me, this story inched its way onto the bottom of the Featured Box! Congratulations! No matter how brief it ends up being, that's no small feat (forgive me if this has happened before and I am unaware).
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Well, this is something. Couldn't have said it better myself.
Wait I thought Spindle killed the mother and child? Like straight up overfed and murdered them?
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now imagine that King Thorax is the result of a vote of no confidence by two thirds majority.
This Lives!? It Lives!!!! Nice chapter and here's hoping to more regular updates as this was nice.
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"A nation, no matter how small or large, cannot function without at least some level of bureaucracy."
- Some leader at some time, probably
I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter! Plenty of people were rightfully wondering what happened to Bright Resin and Ruby and I couldn't not satisfy their curiosity.
Spindle is followed and on the cover art for a reason. One way or another, the trio will meet again. By this point, all loose ends introduced in Unchanging Love have been wrapped up and after the interlude that is chapter 10, the main plot will kick off.
Time sure does fly, this is true. It seems like forever ago that chapter 1 was released. Here's to hoping we don't get any more 2020-style complications and chapters will have a steady stream of releases.
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You know, I'd had this planned since the beginning and even I felt bad for her when she got the proverbial kick to the stomach in this chapter. Things will get better. Soon...™
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The mechanics of how things work are, like, a necessity for me. My brain can't accept "it works because reasons" in most cases. Obviously I don't have experience running a city or governing anything, but I have other, broad experience that helps there. Plus a neato thing called "Google."
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I also vastly prefer when things are explained. Sure, sometimes "it just works, stop asking" is necessary, but most of the time, I'd much rather read a story where things actually get explained. Yeah, Hive bureaucracy is mostly irrelevant and could be glossed over. But the story would nonetheless we worse off for it. Used reasonably, worldbuilding like that helps make the story feel more alive.
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Well, for me it's been around two years. Or if you really want to get down to it, just under three years when I first envisioned what would become Unchanging Love.
Chapter 9's initial draft had actually been done for about two or three weeks, but I had been kicked down in various ways and was unmotivated or too tired to write. Some of it was due to the issues in my most recent blog, others, such as being knocked out for three days from my second COVID vaccine (and destroyed my sleep schedule), impacted me for a couple weeks. On top of that, I'm now back to work full time and have to do a lot of mental gymnastics there as I script and program my days away.
I am certainly glad you were able to handle your necessary matters before partaking in the pleasures of my story! Though, I don't know if I'd say you're spoiled, especially with the infrequent and sporadic updates. However, I shall take the compliment as it is.
This chapter was actually pretty odd for me to write. One of the (other) reasons I've been so slow lately is because chapters 8 and 9 weren't originally in my planned plot. They were/are arguably necessary, but I hadn't detailed what would happen in them, other than the general idea, until I came to them. The problem therein lies with my brain. It doesn't like not having a clear path and can sometimes go into a (temporary) blocked state when presented with a goal that has too many unknown elements to it.
This is part of the reason why creating the plot took me so long. Around halfway through, there was a period of around three months where I didn't work on it at all. At that point, had no idea how I could reasonably connect everything together and still give a satisfying connection to the latter parts of the plot, yet remain interesting to read and not feel like a cop-out. But eventually, as with chapter 9, I figured it out and continued onward.
This did indeed come with a fair bit of logistical thinkery. I've had the "pleasure" of being exposed to some mid-to-high level workings of bureaucracy in city management, so I was able to draw some knowledge from that. I don't have much experience in intelligence gathering or obfuscation of physical communications, but I do have plenty of cyber background that deals with "finding bad" and "hiding from good." A little logical twisting and turning later and out comes the hive's inner workings and operations in enemy territory.
The only thing I shall say here is that this will be addressed further in a few ways in the early chapters of Act II.
This is actually what I would expect. In Unchanging Love, we only get to see a tiny glimpse of who Spindle is as compared to the story's star. Spindle is a semi-interesting character because, as a reader who has very little information about how the universe works, Spindle with her naivete is fairly relatable. But, beyond that, there's not much to connect to.
Skip forward to Unending Love and we get dumped into Spindle mid-role transition. There's still very little known about her and her background and while some details are revealed about who she is and what her values are, they're still (relatively) sterile. Most of who she is is revealed in a self-reflecting kind of way. We can see some of her character in her current actions, but at that point, only a small connection has been made to the relatively unknown character.
But we get to sit through her trials and tribulations and with that we get her values and what matters to her. Then, when she finally finishes with the task her queen gave her, the reader can begin to feel they have an more personal reason to cheer her on as she arrives at the start of the path to her next goal. Assuming I did my job right, when she learns that path is blocked due to her own perceived failures, the reader will feel that punch to the gut right alongside her.
As a turnabout, now I dunno what that says about me that I analyze my own work like this!
You are certainly correct, everything is wrapping up from Unchanging Love, perhaps better than I expected it to. As mentioned before, the interlude that is chapter 10, will serve as the kind of epilogue to Act I. By the end of the chapter, the direction of the beginning of Act II should become fairly clear.
This has actually happened every time Unending Love has updated. The feature box is broken up into two categories, as I'm sure you're fully aware. The first seven is new stories and the last three are updates. New stories get racked and stacked based on how hot the story is within a certain period of time after posting, which said heat is a combination of views, likes, like-to-dislike ratio, and some other magic.
Updated stories get placed there immediately upon posting based on its past performance with factors such as the story's age, likes, like-to-dislike ratio, total views and, of course, some other magic. Assuming there are no other stories with a higher "score" than it, it will go to the first update-story position (eighth position overall). Updated stories of higher score will bump the lower scored story out of the spot, regardless of how long it's been there. In addition, the length of time it's been in the feature box slowly diminishes the score, so a 1K like story can be usurped by a 200 like story if the 1K like story has been there for long enough.
Probably more detail than you asked for, but I ain't apologizin'! Ah'm apologizin'n't! ...okay I'll stop.
Yet again, thank you for the long comment! It's always nice to see how much people enjoy one's story and this is no exception.
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Not quite. Ruby, the daughter, was able to escape out the back door. Bright Resin, on the other hand, was merely disabled by Spindle's venom. There was no clear indication as to what happened to Bright Resin back in chapter 5 and was left open-ended on purpose.
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It lives! I'm doing what I can to get chapters out with more frequency. Life likes to be a pain in the butt, though.
Ah, happy story anniversary. :)
Thank you for writing!
And have a great [local period time of day] yourself! :D
One thing I'm curious about, though: what do the constructors do most of the time? Is people referring to them as diggers, doing cave digging, etc. somewhat figurative, in that, while that is part of their job and something people know them for, most of their work is maintenance or the like? Or is the hive actually constantly expanding for some reason?
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Ah yes, the lengthy conception/brainstorming period. Well familiar with that! All for the better, judging by the results, and, if nothing else, makes the euphoria at getting it out there, chapter by chapter, all the better. Just wait until, a few years from now, you have the thing finally finished! It'll feel so great!
I work the same way! It can be so frustrating when a sequence, despite knowing the crucial events therein, simply refuses to come together.
The nasty thing is that when one is doing an outline or a treatment, one can jump around and do scenes in non-sequential order, to avoid periods of several months of block. One can even do that with a beat sheet or a script. But with a finished fanfiction that gets uploaded in chapter order, not really, unless the author fancies finishing or close-to-finishing the whole thing before they start uploading it. Which could take years with a fic of this size! So, no, yeah, you did what was best.
I'd say it says you know your own work amazingly well! And that's you've though through so much of this, and it shows.
I'm somewhat embarrassed I couldn't puzzle out why Spindle's arc is more emotionally probing. But, if anything, that's a sign you've done your job very well, that the mechanics of that aspect of the piece were so seamlessly integrated that even this analytical ghost couldn't easily puzzle them out!
Really, that makes so much sense, and I can't add anything to it. Of course it's calibrated to have the viewer feel the disappointment she does, after chapters of her as a sterile slate, compared to Firefly. And of course her character, history, values and backstory is more efficiently revealed piecemeal, integrated seamlessly into the action and incident. No awkward exposition dumps here!
Not at all, I welcome it! I knew most of that - the split down the middle, and that New stories were based on heat, and what heat is based off of. The updated stories, I had an inkling of, due to observing some trends, but nice to know the actual mechanics! Hm, wonder if some days of the week are more optimal for stories in general to get featured, or new stories specifically, or updated stories specifically. Have to bear that in mind!
I know you sometimes feel that our adoration and devotion isn't deserved. But look at it this way. Even if the quality of Pony Fanfiction is quite high, and many Pony fanfiction are worth reading… that's just it. They're worth reading, and nothing more. I read an amusing one-shot, I'm glad I did so, and then I forget about it. Or with an multi-chapter story, you forget about it totally between updates (which often leads to needing to recap with updates, unless the chapter is optimised to avoid that).
When a fanfiction lives in your mind even in the lengthy gaps between updates? When you go giddy with joy when you see a new update? When you occasionally want to reread chapters? That's to be treasured. As much as I've done my best to puzzle out all the reasons why this works, and you've confirmed basically all of them to be correct hunches and exactly what you intended… when a story sticks with you, it sticks with you. When it makes you happy, it makes you happy. That's all that matters. Take pride in that, Azure!
Sure, perhaps we're not spoiled what with the sporadic update schedule. But the quality truly makes that a non-issue. Keep at it, however it works with you regarding real-life obligations and difficulties! I'm confident, when all is said and done, and Unending Love finally wraps - I'll be able to say, "totally worth it".
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This is one reason why there are several sub-castes in the worker caste, one of them being constructors. The hive isn't big enough for constant expansion, especially with the heavy loses incurred from the invasion. So, if there is a point where it appears they won't need as many constructors in the immediate future, they can be reassigned to other sub-castes such as a cook, storage worker, cleaner (hive janitor), etc.
Constructors are most well known for performing the hard labor of carving out and reinforcing new tunnels and rooms, which got them the nickname "diggers." They do perform both new construction based on architect plans as well as hive maintenance, with maintenance being their most common work. Because of the number of changelings in the hive, it isn't possible to have many specialties, like we do in our societies. Jobs like construction worker, electrician, ventilation, etc. in our society all have specialized workers while the hive equivalents are performed by constructors. Some are very good at what they do and will stay constructors for most of their lives, usually ending with being an educator, while others may change sub-castes based on need.
...so basically the magic equivalent to a booster bag?
"Spindle and the others followed Instar started inside" A bit confusing. Reword?
"They passed a few passageways" This sounds odd, but I can't think of any better words to say here.
I really like the idea of a retroactive exposition by having the characters we're following talk about what we missed to a new character because, like the audience/reader, she wasn't there either.
"Spindle often wondered if the administrative ‘lings did nothing paperwork all day long." Did you mean "nothing but"?
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I think the cover art offers a hint, there.
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What you wrote reminds me of the complexities of the Yeerk Empire in the Animorphs series, and its similarities to the Changeling Empire and how they deal in secrecy behind the scenes of the primary society. Infiltration to key roles, to keep activities and purchases secret from the main government, local or larger.
Timeskip out of nowhere!
Great chapter! It was interesting to see the bureaucracy of the hive in action. I wonder what's with these long-dead changelings. I don't think ponies would leave them around (or kill them), so they're just ones that died of exposure?
The developments here suck for Spindle. I wonder how she'll end up interacting with the other protagonists.
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Ah, thanks for the detailed answer! :)
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Spindle and her team were out performing search and rescue operations for those missing from the invasion. The ones they found this time around were a few dozen kilometers outside Vanhoover in non-populated areas. It's implied these were ones that died from the aftermath of the blast of love at Canterlot.
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Huh, well that makes that attack darker.
This was probably the safer situation for the hive, as it's likely Spindle would've cracked under interrogation if found out. That being said, it's obviously a big hit to her and her aspirations. Hopefully she can somewhat appreciate her new role, through she might also get blues one way or another.
Since she still meets up with Firefly and Roast at some point, does that mean she'll run? Perhaps we'll get to see less of her insights for a short while, as the rest of the plot catches up with the couple? Will Fine Roast and Firefly somehow end up at the hive under... circumstances, and meet Spindle there? One can only wonder. Also, interesting choice on the timeskip, and I can't wait to see how the couple's relationship has blossomed during these four months. Through since you mentionned another POV character on chapter 10 I guess we'll have a little more delay on that... I wonder who it could be?
Excellent writing as always, through you've already been told that many times. Can't wait for the next installment!
Also, they may have to change the name of the cafe eventually.
Man, what a series of emotions this chapter was! I like the "malleable caste" system the changelings have going on, and seeing a bureaucracy in a hive-organized race is unusual yet cool.
Really dislike it when the uppers say "this is not a punishment", because it technically is when all is said and done...
Here's to hoping she gets a little fulfillment with the caretakers...