• Published 31st Dec 2020
  • 4,450 Views, 967 Comments

They're EVERYWHERE! - Nameless Narrator



No one really knows how many changelings were present during the invasion of Canterlot. Unfortunately for the rest of the world, it also means that the love explosion scattered them all over the surface of Equus. These are stories of some of them.

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CH: 5/13 - Venom

“Words are growing insufficient for how much I hate that couch,” Chrysalis, standing in the doorway, measures the offending piece of furniture with narrowed eyes. She’d spent a big part of the night outside, because while 96 and 68 did their best to keep her fed, she decided that more preparation was in order before the next dive into the hive memories.

If you want something done right, do it yourself.

So, with 68 giving the stallion whose apartment they’re still occupying a good time and 96 out gathering “love”, Chrysalis locks the door, drops her disguise, and plants herself on the cheap couch into which she’s already managed to imprint a groove in the shape of herself.

Damn cheap-ass furniture.

Brimming with energy, she closes her eyes, slows her breathing down, and relaxes. She doesn’t want to force anything, so she simply waits until darkness claims her. Navigating the reflection of the hive mind inside her head has grown easier since her original defeat of her shade, like slowly clearing the house where a hoarder has lived their entire life, and this time she can skip the step of reappearing in the “central hub” - the pitch black area with silvery circles and lines spreading into infinity and marking the nonexistent floor. Instead, she materializes on a wide dirt road during a downright shockingly pleasant, sunny day. Birds are singing, a soothing breeze is moving the tall grass on both sides of the road reaching all the way up to her belly, and she can see the grassland spread towards the forested hills in the distance. The only relevant landmark seems to be a small town towards which the road is headed.

Pony architecture.

However, Chrysalis is looking for a changeling, namely a changeling queen, and likely an infiltrator one. While the encounters so far weren’t overly dangerous, she can’t afford to get complacent.

The whispering of the tall grass goes out of sync for the tiniest moment with the rhythm of the wind, making her ears flick on their own. She can’t sense any hive links nearby, though, so unless the reigning queen of the time was a seriously skilled infiltrator, the multiple whatevers slowly moving towards her from both sides aren’t changelings.

So far, I was only an observer in these memories. Is it possible that she can manipulate them to have the constructs attack me? That would certainly be a novelty.

While any conflict before reaching the queen herself would be a waste of resources, a small part of her simply can’t resist showing off the difference in power and her own inevitable superiority, and she starts heading towards the distant town. With her casual walking, which would still prove rather brisk for a pony due to her size and long legs, the movements in the grass following grow even more audible.

She smirks to herself.

“Get her!” calls out a voice with a slight buzzing undertone.

With her level of control over the hive mind, it’s easy to slow the time down to the point of nearly stopping, much more so because there doesn’t seem to be anyone resisting her. The time stop gives her the time to process several things - the voice belonged to a changeling, it’s one of several, and she can’t sense their hive links even now.

Her analytical focus shatters completely when she looks around, resulting in time resuming its flow.

The five changeling drones pouncing at her from both sides with wide smiles and excited looks find themselves hovering in the air, enveloped by the green glow of her telekinesis. Their freezing in the air doesn’t seem to faze them as they exchange glances, start giggling, and wave their legs at Chrysalis.

“Wheeee!” they laugh.

What the…? A distraction?

No, there doesn’t seem to be any real threat around.

“What do you think you’re doing?” asks Chrysalis, lining up the drones to hover in front of her.

“Ambushing you, miss!” replies one happily, “Did we getcha? Did we? Did we?”

Hmm, these memories are much stronger than the shadows before, but they’re still only memories, not real living entities like the queens’ shades, that’s why I can’t sense their links.

They had the audacity to attack a queen, even as pretense. Snap their necks, leave one ‘alive’ to spread the news, and go. It’s not as if you’ll be killing real changelings. Don’t waste time.

Chrysalis grits her teeth as the second thought crosses her mind. That would be the right way to go about it. The queen is sacred, the queen is untouchable, the queen IS the changeling race.

And yet… as she watches two drones floating close to each other start playing patty cake, and one near her head summoning enough telekinetic power to bring several strands of her mane towards itself to give it a quick, examining nibble, she simply lowers them down, saying:

“Your technique is lacking, your timing is wrong, and you clearly possess the suicidally wrong instinct for target selection. This isn’t a book. If you walk up to the biggest creature you can find and punch it to assert dominance, you won’t be recognized as the top fish, you’ll just get your head ripped off,” she notices the drones’ ears drooping and mouths starting to wibble in sync, “But not bad for a first try,” she adds for reasons beyond her own lack of understanding.

The drones beam again immediately and exchange high ones.

“Stop messing around and take me to the queen,” she orders.

They puff out their tiny chests and salute before exchanging confused looks until one says:

“Umm, I don’t think we’re allowed to visit queen Venom-”

“Plus we don’t know where she is!” adds a different one helpfully before getting bonked over the head by a third, hissing:

“Shush, Leafy is speaking all official-like.”

“-but there’s a bunch of older changelings in town,” it points towards the settlement, “The warriors are bound to know.”

Several moments after they start walking down the road, something clicks inside Chrysalis’ head.

“Leafy? What’s your number, drone?” she asks the speaker.

“Uhh...” it scratches its head, almost falling over from doing so while walking, “I dunno, my name is Orange Leaf, though.”

“Orange Leaf...” she frowns.

“It’s because I found an orange leaf last… summ-”

“Autumn,” another drone corrects it, “That’s when trees get all paint-y.”

“Color-y,” adds a different one, “Paint is the thing that makes our goop a different color. Got it?”

“Ohhhh, right! Miss Starshine said not to eat those. So yeah, I found a pretty leaf last autumn and I totally kept it and didn’t trade it for anything until it wilted.”

“Yesss, maybe I’ll get the shiny star next time,” the corrector hops in excitement.

“Only if you start plussing properly,” Orange Leaf gives the other drone a smug smirk.

“I can do my plusses!” the drone frowns, “It’s just the… the big plusses with three digits. You always have to carry something, like one or two, but it’s never ‘carry an egg’... or a cocoon,” the drone looks at the ground and pokes it in a moment of dejection.

“You… can’t count?” Chrysalis raises an eyebrow. If they’re allowed to be around ponies, this must be the peaceful period before the all-out attack Hiss had to deal with. Wasting so much love on individual development for drones is so inefficient it could be fatal in other circumstances, “Why don’t you use hive mind knowledge?”

“We’re not supposed to,” replies Orange Leaf, “The queen said it was important for changelings to grow and learn on our own. That’s why most of us have names too. The older changelings have numbers and that’s cool too, but it’s not like we drones really need ranks anyway,” it shrugs.

That makes Chrysalis pause. It’s true, actually. There’s no real point in ranking drones, it’s more just numbering them for identification. They’re weak, they don’t exactly climb, and the orders they get are from warriors and infiltrators no matter their rank. They’re just… tools for the job, even more than other non-top changelings.

Motivation maybe? Can’t be, their motivation is - do your job so you don’t get recycled.

“I’m gonna outrank you so hard with all my shiny stars from world lessons...” the ‘autumn’ drone sticks its tongue out at Leaf.

“358 plus 817.”

Autumn drone mumbles to itself for a moment before its ears splay back and it scowls at Leaf:

“Hey, that’s cheating! You can’t do plussing either when it ends with more digits than when you started.”

Leaf sticks its tongue out at the other drone:

“Pffffbt!”

“Why, you little-!”

“ENOUGH!” booms Chrysalis. The drones immediately freeze and look up at her, “You, not-Leaf, do you have a name?”

“Not yet, miss.”

“You’re Autumn now.”

“Awesomeee!”

“And now bring me to someone who knows how to get to your queen,” she orders, “No more messing around.”

They all salute as one.

“Yes, miss!”

The memory slowly fades and another one unlocks. Chrysalis knows there was literally no effect she could have on the memory, so there was no difference between solving the situation by naming the drone or killing them all instantly, but…

...but with her mind clearer than ever before, with the hive revenants inside a different host or possibly dead entirely, and with their shades inside her own mind diminished, her sense of urgency and intolerance for anyone not treating her like a queen aren’t pressing on her as much.

With the mental path clear, she dives into the memories again and this time lands in a familiar place from her past but also from queen Venom’s future.

The fortress.

Last time, it was under siege, but now? From the slightly sloping roof Chrysalis is standing on she can see far and wide. Fields of wheat and grass, a sprawling city of ponies and changelings mixed together and going about their day, not seeming worried about the green cocoons hanging from black pillars scattered throughout. Villages dot the far horizon and, most importantly, there’s a changeling queen sitting near the edge and looking into the distance.

Chrysalis makes it just halfway to her before the queen turns her head to her, her eyes glowing with toxic green and her mane of the same color fluttering in the wind.

“Come here, I don’t bite,” Venom chuckles to herself, “I mean, I do but I doubt it would do me any good here and now.”

Cautious, Chrysalis remains out of pouncing distance but still joins Venom at the edge of the fortress’ roof.

“True, but that didn’t stop the queens I faced before you from trying,” replies Chrysalis flatly.

“I know and I won’t fight you, whether you believe it or not,” she gives Chrysalis a soft smile which the real queen deems genuine, “I willingly admit I’m the weakest queen in our history, Chrysalis, and even if I somehow won against you and returned to the real world as it is now I would likely do more harm than good for the surviving changelings,” she sighs, but as she looks into the distance again her smile returns, “This is- was my world, a world of peace built on blood and fear of generations before me.”

“It doesn’t look like a territory of smoldering ruins.”

“Indeed, it doesn’t,” Venom shakes her head, “Do you want to know a rather unique thing about my mother?”

Taken by surprise at the sudden change of topic, Chrysalis only nods.

“Despite being a warrior queen, Mandible knew when to stop fighting. Thanks to that, she’s still alive.”

“What?!”

“Knew it would surprise you,” Venom smirks, “At this point in time, she’s the High-Commander of changeling armies while I focus on everything necessary for us to grow. At a certain point, it’s more important to build up what you’ve taken rather than take even more.”

“That sounds like a personal attack.”

“It was and it wasn’t. I know that the other queens after myself fell prey to the hive mind rage. Their circumstances gave them very little in terms of a safe place to anchor their minds. I was incredibly fortunate.”

“That also means you might have some insight into events that’s different from the rest of us.”

“I do. With that in mind, ask away. My disappearance will, of course, unlock my knowledge of the past for you, but like with others, you’re going to lock it away, temporarily forget it until you instinctively need it so that you don’t burn too much love to maintain memories of generations of changelings before you. So, what do you want to know and remember?

“What is the hatred, disgust, and fury tainting the hive mind? So far, you queens have been more stupid and arrogant rather than angry. What am I going to face?”

Venom gives her a momentarily sad look.

“I don’t know. I only know what it did to my mother before… before I was born. Something about me helped her snap out of the cycle of hatred and, as you know full well since you’re a changeling, it wasn’t motherly love.”

“Hmph...”

“You have a daughter, a direct descendant.”

“A warrior. We don’t need a warrior in these times. I made a move which a warrior would do and it nearly was the final nail in our species’ coffin.”

“Avoiding the question of love, or maybe you don’t understand it. It makes no difference here, or maybe it makes all the difference and that’s why we’ve never integrated with other species,” Venom shrugs, “Something about me is different, and my best guess is that it’s a specific genetic configuration from our past. Different branches sprout all the time, changelings with unique traits are born from seemingly random clutches, and I’m one of them. I can barely control my subjects, but I can soothe them, I can guide them, and I can understand them on a personal level better than they do themselves. I think this peaceful -let’s call it presence- was what helped Mandible overcome the rage in the first place. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to last.”

“The sudden attack from all sides?”

“Mhm,” Venom nods, “I wish I knew it was coming but in the same way I could shield us from the hive mind rage, I couldn’t tap into the past. Mandible cut herself off completely when she saw how the changes I brought benefited our kind. I hoped I could build a future where we could think for ourselves and the beast would starve without us feeding most of our love to the hive mind. I planned to keep checking the hive mind and not letting anyone use it until it was safe again.”

“The drones… that’s why they were going to pony school,” Chrysalis blinks as the realization hits.

“Not only drones. I came up with the idea for node changelings - infiltrators who served as connections between places so that normal changelings could stick to using directional hive links only for communicating with each other, and preferably not even that. Warriors served with ponies, infiltrators… well, you always need spies, but as a sign of good will, I publicly withdrew the majority of them from Equestria, the Griffon Empire, and Zebrica.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s why you didn’t see the attack coming,” Chrysalis can’t stop herself from that snide remark. To her surprise, Venom only hangs her head low and whispers:

“Exactly.”

The admission stuns Chrysalis, but when Venom covers her face with her forelegs and starts sobbing, it downright paralyzes her.

“We did… we did everything right...”

Some part of Chrysalis still think this is a ploy to lower her guard. That part, however, loses its voting privileges as Venom’s crying slowly stops, the queen wipes her eyes, and forces a chuckle.

“Not much of a queen, am I?”

Chrysalis sighs.

“No, you’re not,” she says, “But you might be the most important changeling to learn from. How did the hive mind revenants come back if you did everything to lock them out?”

“It was my daughter Hiss…” Venom shakes her head, “When the first attacks on our borders began, I personally went to negotiate with the ponies but they simply attacked us. I retreated here only to feel the hive mind boiling and then I saw Hiss, draining changelings left and right through the opened hive mind. I felt the presence of all the old queens turn towards me and look at me through Hiss’ eyes. For a moment, she became incredibly powerful, but there was only one target the queens wanted dead, and it wasn’t the ponies. I got absorbed into the hive mind once she killed me and they withdrew from her, leaving her among drained changelings and with enemies beating on our doorstep.”

“Yep, that does sound like the queens. They always had their priorities straight,” Chrysalis finally dares to approach Venom and pat her head. The other queen leans into the touch, “How did you maintain all this anyway? I thought farming ponies for love was impossible. I mean… that’s what the hive mind memories kept saying- and now I realize how moronic I just sounded.”

Venom shakes her head.

“It is impossible, at least as a long-term solution. The venom-induced love is tainted and you always get less and less if you force the issue. However, I gave ponies plenty of rest, the chance to live their lives with their loved ones, and only occasionally cocooned them, so they recovered quickly and the love we drained was nourishing in the hooves of the right infiltrator skilled at mixing. I had help in the early stages, though, from Scream,” Venom gives Chrysalis a devious smirk, “Which, I believe, is the second topic on your mind.”

Chrysalis’ ears perk up but she still narrows her eyes in suspicion again. Venom might be able to read the upper layers of her mind but definitely not without Chrysalis sensing anything.

“I was wondering about what she was doing during your time,” she controls herself.

“I can only speak to her presence here, since I lost a lot of spies all over the world, but it wasn’t anything nefarious in regard to us. She was behind a Cult of Lust which connected ponies and changelings and mediated safe gatherings all over the territory, be they orgies or just simple pairings where a pony would have fantasies another pony couldn’t fulfill. The cult grew like wildfire and was integral to ponies stopping to see us as bug monsters.”

“Unity through the bedroom,” comments Chrysalis with a smirk.

“Bedrooms, kitchen counters, tables, public venues, anything,” Venom nods back, “Scream also personally taught several of my top infiltrators methods for properly riling ponies up even we didn’t know.”

“She didn’t simply teach you?”

“I had my hooves full with figuring out ways to mix the huge amounts of lust and tainted love with what little real love we were bringing in to make this sustainable for all changelings. It got easier as ponies eventually realized we were just another species to be friends with and to love as well as changelings stopping treating ponies like prey. Our feeding isn’t fatal by any stretch, though it is mentally straining, so both sides realized that caring for each other was the way to grow,” Venom looks into the distance again and her dreamy smile returns, if only for a short moment, “Well, we both know how it ended. I think this is where we should end our session, and I wish you well. All I can do now is hope you can do better than me.”

Chrysalis remains silent and the two queens simply watch the scenery before she says:

“Violent and forceful queens failed ten times. A peaceful and nurturing queen only once.”

Venom starts laughing as she slowly vanishes and the wind spreads the chiming of her joy all over the territory for one final time.

Chrysalis’ surroundings fade to grey and in the next moment she stands up from the couch back in Manehattan. Green sparks fly off of her hooves the second she touches the carpet, making 68 who’s now standing on guard give her a surprised look.

“You look… different, Your Majesty,” she says.

“I feel better than I’ve felt in a looong time, 68.”

True to her word, Venom must have done something more than avoid draining Chrysalis’ love, as the entire experience has left the living queen revitalized instead of drained for the first time, and with a much clearer head.

She connects to 96’s hive link with a simple command: “Finish your current assignment and then return immediately.”

To 68, she adds:

“We’re leaving. If there are any survivors of my failure at Canterlot, they’ll be moving to the Everfree forest outpost or straight through it to the hive. We’ll start gathering them there and send whomever we can to search for others.”

“What about those we already gathered in Riverside?” asks 68.

“I’ll be shocked if that place isn’t crawling with Royal Guards, rangers, and anyone with any tracking ability whatsoever. For now, they’re on their own,” she shakes her head, “Besides, the worst part of my mental journey is yet to come. I’m going to need a base where we can gather changelings without arousing suspicion and where I can isolate myself safely if needed. Once we’re stable, we’ll send scouting parties to figure out what happened to them.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“Good. Now, go out and use the bits you and 96 gathered to buy us some supplies for the road, I’ll stay connected and think of what we’ll need while you walk. This damn city never sleeps, so some shops must still be open.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

As 68 leaves, Chrysalis looks around the apartment and starts gathering anything useful. After all, they’ve blessed the pony with night after night of enjoyment while using up only his water, so it’s time he paid them back.

Author's Note:

What? Not even a slap fight? Did I just manage to make even less happen than usual?

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