History Lesson
“I can’t believe she was scared of ladybugs,” Starlight chuckled, poking a leaf on Phyllis where one of the little red beetles was currently relaxing.
“Who is?” Ocellus asked, poking her head into the office.
“Erm, I can’t say.” Starlight sat up straight with a sheepish grin. “Professional confidentiality, just a very specific phobia. So, Ocellus! Did you need anything?”
“Oh, no, I was just walking by and heard you mention ladybugs. But phobias are irrational fears, aren’t they?”
“Well, yes. Ladybugs fit the definition pretty perfectly. They’re harmless, even helpful really. The patient just has a hangup from when they were a foal and somepony convinced them that their spots were extra eyes.”
Ocellus tilted her head to the side.
“But… they are.”
“They are… harmless, right.”
“No, they are extra eyes. Well, not eyes for the ladybug, but you know what I mean. Like scrying sensors!”
Ocellus eeped as she was scooped up in Starlight’s magic and deposited unceremoniously onto her couch, the door to the office slamming shut behind her.
Starlight’s eyes pivoted towards the ladybug on Phyllis’ leaf. The little beetle spread its shell, unfolded its wings, and flew over towards the office window as though it somehow knew it was being watched, and wanted to escape the attention of a possible predator.
Or as if it was looking for a better angle on the room.
Starlight opened the window with her magic, shooing the bug outside before she closed it again. Then she turned her attention back towards the other bug in her office.
“If you decided that now’s the time to start practicing pranking, it’s really bad timing. What do you mean, they are extra eyes?”
Ocellus shrank back into the couch nervously.
“Well… this is stuff that all grubs learn when we’re growing up, Changeling history. I don’t think it’s really a secret or anything, but it’s something that… well… if I explain it can you maybe try being a little less scary?”
Starlight paused, realizing what she must look like from Ocellus’ perspective right now. She took a deep breath and leaned back in her seat, letting the breath out slowly.
“I’m sorry, Ocellus. I overreacted. It’s just… a little awkward to spend my morning telling a patient that they’ve got no reason to be afraid of ladybugs, and then finding out that their foalhood fears were apparently absolutely right.”
“Well, it’s not necessarily something to be afraid of,” Ocellus explained, relaxing a little herself. “I actually just finished writing a paper about it, or I probably would’ve forgotten about it myself. See, there used to be other changeling hives, and other queens, back before ponies took over Equestria when there was a bit more space to spread out a hive’s territory. Most hives favored different types of insects as livestock. Chrysalis preferred moths, but Queen Co’cochinelle used beetles, Queen Tymbal used cicadas, like that.”
“So this Queen Cochinelle created ladybugs?” Starlight guessed.
“Yeah, each hive bred species of their preferred insects for specific uses. Ladybugs were spy species! Pretty, helpful for crops, and they fed on the livestock that their rivals in the Aphidoidea Hive bred to supply trade goods that they used to buy protection from Formica Hive. And the hive seers had the power to see through the spots on their shells. Nobuggy figured it out for quite a while, realy. Because they were such good predators, the other hives actually imported them by the millions to prevent Aphidoidea hives from being established to feed supply lines for Formica Hive.
“After Formica Hive was defeated, and the overall alliances between the other hives started to break down, Queen Chrysalis found out what the ladybugs could actually do. She started feeding bad intelligence to Queen Cochinnelle; then, when the alliance collapsed and the Hive Wars started, Chrysalis went after her hive first.”
“The ‘Hive Wars’?” Starlight interrupted.
“Yeah… after Formica Hive went down, the rest of the Hives turned on each other. Obviously, Chrysalis came out on top of all that. She tried to maintain a ‘changeling empire’ for a while, but… well, the official line is that she realized our Hive was superior and she abandoned the weakest, but we think it’s more that she couldn’t manage the food supply. I mean, just the one hive created the Badlands, so that many? It wasn’t going to work out. But during the Wars? That’s when we all learned to be scared of ladybugs.”
“Yeah, if they were being used for intelligence gathering like that, I imagine it’d be a pretty nasty discovery,” Starlight admitted.
“Oh, it wasn’t that,” Ocellus shrugged. “Like I said, once our Hive found out, we started using those ladybugs to our advantage. Chrysalis even said that she stole the power to see through their spots, but we’re figuring out that she said a lot of things. But it was a lot harder dealing with the big ones. The War Beetles were big enough to be used in fights, and they treated changelings from other hives like aphids. They were big enough to do it, too. The ones that couldn’t eat a changeling whole would just stab them and suck them dry. The biggest ones even had parts of their shells cut out so they could be used as mobile siege engines. Imagine a ladybug big enough to mount a ballista and crew on its back. Lucky that Chrysalis didn’t keep breeding them after the Hive Wars, or things could’ve been really bad during the Battle of Canterlot!”
“Yeah… really bad,” Starlight murmured. “So, you said you’d written a paper about this?”
“Mhm! Since Professor Fluttershy has us taking care of the little guys, I thought I should write a paper on what changelings know about them, for extra credit!”
“So have you turned the paper in to Fluttershy yet?”
“Mhm! I was just coming back from doing it, actually. I didn’t turn it in to Professor Fluttershy though. It was more of a history paper, so I gave it to Professor-”
Starlight’s stomach twisted as a deafening, Canterlot-voice-enhanced scream of absolute, existential terror ripped through the school.
Oh, she was going to need so much more than a ladybug kite to fix this one.
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... Wat?
No really. What?
10302415
And then Ocellus opened her wing-covers, and the ladybugs poured forth!
10302422
No comment there.
Of course the real reason for all of this? Hasbro is too fucking lazy to stick to its own established canon, or their writers don't give any fuck whatsoever about established lore.
Either one isn't good. But the story is at least.
10302429
I mean, it's not like they had Twilight cooing at ladybugs previously in the series. I personally enjoyed most of S9, including the minisodes, but that's a different debate.
I still don't like bugs
Uh oh.....
10302436
Except that short down right contradicted Twilight's and Cadance's dance, and its whole existence. By the logic from the short, they would never even do it. Yet they did.
Twilight may not have cooed at ladybugs, but she never once had a meltdown about them before the short. Nor did she after it aired either. Or was it even brought up.
10302452
You suuuuuuuuure?
i.chzbgr.com/full/9144924160/hDDFB8CEB/pwease
10302585
Oh dang it OK maybe not all bugs but I'm still afraid but I can't be afraid to ocellus 😅 she so sweet 💗
Well then that means twilight will never go to sleep at night knowing the lady bugs are out there lol And again I don't blame her I'm afraid of bugs too 😅
10302583
It's all alternate universes from the season two finale on.
Ocellus is best bookbug. This is faved.
Oh, boy! Twilight's gonna be sleeping under her bed for a while
Ending scene:
Neat! Always will support more fics about Ocellus!
Poor Twilight...
Though if Changelings breed insects, what about dragonflies? With a 98% kill rate, they're the most efficient predators if I remember correctly, whereas members of the big cat family like lions and cheetas don't even get to 50%, I think.
Just imagine a swarm of giant dragonflies swooping on the Changelings like they're flies.
10303035
The highest for the feline family as far as I know are black footed cats at 60%.
10302921
Lol thats funny man I like that 🤣
10302585
We're sure. Now...
"COME ON YOU APES! YOU WANNA' LIVE FOREVER?!"
The way you made this adorably funny out of a fear that Twilight has is just MMMM so good! I could only imagine the situation Twi's in after that big scream at the end! Gosh, this was one heck of a fun fic to read! Hope ya didn't mind, but I made a lil audio thingy on this great story of yours!
Audio Linkery!: https://youtu.be/Z3VpGtN8Lc4
(I don't mean to offend anyone with this comment in any way!)
Loved it!
Heh, that makes so much sense
Heh, that was cute, and actually makes sense as something the changelings would've done. Bugs of any sort would be the ultimate spy tool.
Heck, I've heard of US military and espionage projects that tried to put little cameras on various insects (bees mostly I think) and then release them into areas they wanted to snoop on. There have been rumors that they've now been working on drones on the same scale capable of doing the same things.
So it's a legit IRL thing.
I...don't know if that'll reassure anybody here, though... 
10302583
Can I just say that I'd be a-okay with that? Because I have to admit...never really did like that whole "ladybugs awake" ditty. It always felt more embarrassingly cringey than cute.
10303815
I never said the dance was a good thing, seeing as I agree with your thoughts on it. But it doesn't change facts that the short made it clear that it never should have existed in the first place.
Going by the logic presented. So no. I haven't heard a thing that justifys the short and what it presented in any way.
Comedy only goes so far when you shit on your canon.
10304060
Well, I suppose they could've always done quesadillas instead...but I'm not sure that would've worked as well in terms of plot or animation.
There's also the possibility that because Twilight associates the song with Cadance and not so much the actual lyrics, the fact that it mentions ladybugs at all doesn't really sink into her mind, and thus doesn't trigger a fear response (though that might chance if someone were to point it out to her and make her self-aware of it). Or the positive influence of it being associated with Cadance, someone she views very fondly, is enough to overrule the fear on this one occasion. Fears like these, after all, are usually irrational, and sometimes the "rules" they follow in when they trigger or don't trigger are equally irrational.
But that's really reading into it, far more than I'm sure anyone on the show's staff intended.
So in the end, you certainly have a point about that conflict in the lore...but I also feel like you're overselling how impactful it is just a little too. The short, after all, is just that. A short done for fun. It doesn't really fit into the more important and major lore of any particular season (beyond showing life at the school in brief), and it's not really referenced again in show. Personally, I always saw it as something of a throwaway tale that wasn't meant to be read too much into, and thus hadn't been too bothered by it. At the end of the day, even if it conflicts with preexisting lore technically, it didn't really matter to the show in the grand scheme of things. If it really bugs a fan that much, then it's just as easy to ignore its existence and not lose out at all.
Not trying to justify the continuity error here, just saying it also doesn't really mess up the important things in the long run too.
10304080
That in itself could make for a fun story where Twilight demands Cadance to change the words of their chant. Then they spend who-knows how long going through names before Twilight finds the one that's just right.
I can only hope Spike or someone else was standing nearby in confusion while the slow rictus of absolute terror formed on her face.
this begs the question of who has the ability to see througth the ladybugs now
10303399
Why, yes, actually — why do you ask?
10304080
Lazy writing is lazy writing. Is it really too much to ask for consistency?
10303439
Eep! Thank you, I don't mind in the least!
10303035 Now I'm thinking of the Poison Forest from Naussica of the Valley of the Wind.
Thanks for this, I needed a good laugh.
I was actually reminded of the attempt by the U.S. to use bats to drop incendiaries on Japan during World War 2 with this fic. I'm... actually surprised I remember that, but apparently, yeah, that was a thing.
Tiny animals are such strange beings, but their habits, and I think it shows better here than in that experiment, which was canceled during inception for taking too long to make combat-ready. In fact, I think that might have been the same reason that Chrysalis did so in this case - by the time they'd be fully capable, the plan to overtake Canterlot from within was available, and far less deleterious to their forces than an all-out invasion, even with a secret weapon. After all, if that weapon is lost...
Well, this story was quite invigorating to read, and as soon as Headmare Twilight's heart is done defibrillating, I'm sure she'll agree.
Good on you for making that firemark, and I hope to see more from you.
10305670
Also, they roosted in various random buildings and burned them down.
10305693
That too, but after that it was called Project X-Ray, transferred to the navy, and they tinkered with it until 1945 to the tune of 2 million dollars.
Felt that was more relevant to Ocellus' tale, since it was literally trashed in favor of a better option (the A-Bomb) like this ladybug project was trashed in favor of a better option (Canterlot Wedding, which would get them in without casualties or immediate war.)
10305726
There were lots of weird ideas in WWII. Most likely even now.
P.S. I'm TwilightLover.
10304234
"Counselor Starlight?"
"Not now, Ocellus!"
" Just, is this a bad time to mention I included anatomical diagrams and statistics on how quickly Pharynx says they could suck a changeling dry? "
"Yes!"
10305811
I’m reminded of a horoscope from the onion.
“You always thought ladybugs were such cute, innocent insects, but it turns out that in sufficient numbers, any creature can gnaw one’s leg down to the bone.”
I'm mad that the team made that dumb joke about Twilight being scared of ladybugs though, because she'd shown a complete disregard for their existance earlier in the series. Here we see that she was face to face with one, THE SAME SIZE AS HER, and she just. didn't react. She even watched it fly away after being returned to proper size.
Not your fault tho good story 10/10
10305896
I actually looked it up. Ladybugs eat aphids whole - when they can. Before that, they draij them like little insect juice boxes.
10305913
The beauty of nature.
That ending though. Sweet dreams Twilight...
i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/012/564/fluttershynature.png
Wow, who would have thought that twilight’s fear was rational?
10302583
I find that to be a really bizarre conclusion to draw. I've suffered badly from arachnophobia since I was a little kid, but that never once stopped me singing the "Itsy Bitsy Spider" song.
I'm not a huge fan of the short (or a lot of the writing post season 6 for that matter), but if I were going to compile the most nitpicky list possible of times when later writers contradicted or questionably interpreted the cannon laid down by earlier writers, Twilight having a fear of ladybugs wouldn't make the cut.
Ocellus uses "nobuggy" where ponies use "nopony"?
That makes me so happy, for some reason.
Hahah hahaha hahah !
So, I was giving it another read, and now I'm imagining that changelings might have their own war beetle based tactical game. Probably titled Beetletech.
Meh.
11592400
Thank you! :)