Chapter 4
I slept and I experienced nothing but nightmares. I saw the oil rig. The golden orb made by Scion descending towards me instantly shearing through everything it touched, be it my swarm, the other capes, or the oil rig itself.
I shouted at everyone to run, and heeded my own words.
Lustrum used her power. My power faded, the range zooming to a point close to me, my control momentarily going haywire. An instant later, it was back. I staggered, compensated with the antigravity of my flight pack, and managed to not fall too far behind.
The sphere above us shrunk a fraction.
The outermost edges of the orb were still directly overhead, plunging towards me, towards us.
I stepped off the rig, pushing myself off, letting myself fall as I continued moving out, moving away.
Bugs that couldn’t fall as well as I could died as the orb made contact. Bugs that were close to me. Bugs to my left and right, bugs beneath me.
I felt like I was plunging into the water, everything going numb, pain, my thoughts fragmenting. Yet I was still far above the water’s surface, my view shifting as I veered to one side, despite my instructions to the flight pack.
I felt increasingly disoriented with every heartbeat. Couldn’t fly. Spiraling.
Unbalanced.
Blood.
Injury.
I tried to take in breath. Couldn’t. I felt pain instead.
Falling… struggling… pain… couldn’t slow myself down…
Right hand was gone. Blood, fragments of golden light eating away at the stump, making the bleeding worse.
Falling faster, spiraling more. I jerked to one side with wind catching wing, spinning abruptly, felt something wrench, pulling from the center of my body.
There were bugs on me. I moved them, to get a sense of where I was.
One wing on pack.
No legs. Half of my stomach left.
The pulling feeling was organs sliding out of my body.
‘Help, passenger.’
“Worry not, Weaver. This is all just a very bad dream.”
Then everything went dark. I was floating in space surrounded by stars. The pain was gone, I could think straight, and could feel all the parts of my body that had just been missing mere moments ago.
Luna appeared in front of me.
“Hi Princess. Thanks for pulling me out of that nightmare… So, what is it?” I asked. I noted that I couldn’t sense Luna’s emotions. It seemed my empathy powers didn’t work through dreams.
She gave me a curious look. “What do you mean? What is what?”
“I’m asking what you want. I assume you’re here talking to me for a reason.” I elaborated.
“Oh, I see. No, it’s simply my duty to protect the dreams of everypony in Equestria. I’m here because you were having a truly terrible nightmare and I came to banish it. Though since I’m here, I would like to apologize for not being there to greet you when you awoke this afternoon. I would have liked to have been there but I’m afraid I was asleep at the time and my sister neglected to wake me.” Luna said apologetically.
“I don’t see why you’re apologizing. It’s not like you had any obligation or even any real reason to be there when I woke up. Besides, I just told Celestia the same thing I told you, then we went to Twilight’s library to discuss where I’d be making my new home. It was over pretty fast.”
Luna frowned a bit, seemingly disappointed for some reason but nodded. “I suppose you’re right… Celestia did tell me what happened and how rushed all of this was. Please allow me to apologize on her behalf for throwing you into everything immediately after you woke up without giving you any time to get your bearings. There has been a lot happening very quickly since you appeared.”
“It’s fine, I guess. The past few days have been really busy for me anyway. But what do you mean? What’s been happening?”
Luna sighed and rubbed the side of her head as if she were nursing a headache. “What else but politics? Word of your existence reached Canterlot almost the same night you appeared in Ponyville. Ever since then many nobles have been calling for you to be locked away in Tartarus and the most extreme have been demanding your immediate execution. You have to realize just how recent Chrysalis’ invasion was. Had you appeared a couple months later than you did things might have been more manageable as the attack would no longer be fresh in everypony’s mind. As it is, tensions surrounding Changelings are still extraordinarily high and you are a Queen like Chrysalis with all the stigma that entails. In fact quite a few individuals mistakenly believe you are just Chrysalis in disguise and refuse to accept it when we tell them otherwise. So it has been a near constant effort on all of our parts to keep things from boiling over here in Canterlot. That’s not even going into the matter of Chrysalis herself…”
“What about Chrysalis? I already know she’s a threat. Is there something you or Celestia haven’t told me yet?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No. We’ve kept nothing from you in regards to Chrysalis. It’s just that the moment Chrysalis finds out about your existence things will immediately become significantly more difficult. And considering how fast word reached Canterlot, it has probably reached other cities. So it’s only a matter of time before the rumors reach her too. There are fears that Chrysalis will launch another invasion just to capture or kill you. Not to mention the possibility of an all out war breaking out between Equestria and the Changelings because we’re helping you. Because of that, the nobles who actually believe us when we say you aren’t Chrysalis and don’t necessarily care if you’re imprisoned or executed are suggesting we just give you to her to prevent that. Plus it’s almost certain she will attempt to sabotage your efforts to build your own hive, meaning if you want to make significant progress you need to start as soon as possible.”
I considered this for a moment.
Luna continued. “Then there are other factors such as preempting foreign nations that will try to influence matters for their benefit, preparations to manage the reaction of the public once news about you starts spreading across Equestria in an official capacity, and many other such things. So Celestia and I have both hardly slept since all of this started, even with Cadance filling in for us on occasion. Today was the first time I had been able to get any sleep in two days, thus why Celestia didn’t wake me to come meet you. That combined with the political pressure surrounding you meant Celestia was tired, under a lot of stress, and was in a bit of a rush when you woke up. Especially with the situation in Canterlot not being managed by at least one of us during the time she, Cadance, and Shining Armor were all in Ponyville to speak with you while I was asleep. So, once again, I apologize on her behalf for pulling you out of the hospital and immediately throwing you into everything without giving you time to recover and adjust. We’re trying our best to juggle all of this as best we can but it isn’t easy, I’m afraid.”
I paused, both waiting for her to continue and processing everything she just told me. It seemed they had a lot of reasons to just kill me or hand me over to Chrysalis. In fact it didn’t make sense to me why they hadn’t. That immediately made me trust them even less than I already did. Sure they might not have done anything like that yet but if things got too difficult for them for it to be worth helping me I could only see this going one way. They were going to sell me out. They must have been keeping me around for some reason, but my value to them had to have a limit. This realization fully solidified the idea that the ponies couldn’t be trusted in my mind.
When Luna stared at me for a moment longer and it became clear she was waiting for me to speak I said, “Well that explains some things…Thank you for letting me know. Should I be worried about the nobles trying anything in the immediate future?”
“No, I don’t believe so. Complicated and delicate as the situation may be, it isn't completely out of control. You needn't worry Weaver. We can manage things in Canterlot. As for Chrysalis, we will be sending a platoon of Royal Guards to Ponyville within the next couple of days. We’re already working on the logistics for setting up a military base near the town. If there are any major issues regarding Chrysalis or her hive, the Royal Guard will handle it.”
A full on military base in the small town right next to the Everfree Forest where they knew my Hive was going to be built. After everything Luna had just told me. Yeah, that wasn’t suspicious at all… They totally weren’t setting up a military base here in Ponyville to have an easy launching point to attack me as soon as I became too much of a political inconvenience for them. Definitely not… Were they actively trying to be this obvious for some reason or did they just take me for an idiot?
“Alright then. Good to know. I’ll still be preparing to defend myself if Chrysalis comes after me. It’s not that I don’t think the Royal Guard aren’t capable of helping, but they can’t be around me twenty four seven. Especially if the Everfree is as dangerous as Celestia said it is.” I said, keeping the fact I’d be preparing to kill all of the guards too if I had to. I wasn’t too familiar with military terms but I did hear them on occasion when I was with the Wards. So a platoon was about fifty soldiers if I wasn’t mistaken. That meant I needed a plan to kill a minimum of fifty soldiers that were presumably trained as well or better than PRT Troopers. Whatever I came up with, it wasn’t going to be easy…
“Of course. That’s completely understandable. We…” Luna paused suddenly then huffed in frustration. “I apologize, Weaver, I would like to continue this conversation but it seems we’re going to have to cut this short. I’m needed back in the waking world. Some accursed Nobles are demanding an audience, again…”
“Good luck with that.” I told her.
“Thank you. Have a good night, Weaver.” Luna said before flying back up towards the moon and disappearing.
My dream shifted to something nice.
Later I woke up to the smell of coffee brewing. Getting up out of bed I made my way to the bathroom. Sensing no one was inside I entered, morphed into my human form, and took a hot shower. It was nice to actually be able to take a proper shower after everything I had been through recently. Plus it gave me time to think about how I was going to fight back when the princesses inevitably stabbed me in the back.
Ultimately it boiled down to me needing to learn as much magic as I could as fast as possible. So I was going to have to do a lot of reading, practicing, and experimenting.
When I was done showering I turned off the water, dried myself off with a clean towel, and changed to make it look like I was wearing clothes. Then I took my medication before I headed downstairs and found Spike and Twilight in the kitchen eating a breakfast of pancakes.
“Good morning.” Twilight greeted me as I walked in.
“Hey Weaver.” Spike waved at me.
“Morning.” I greeted back as I made my way over to the coffee pot. Grabbing a mug I poured myself a cup.
As I was taking a sip from my cup Twilight said, “So what do you plan to do today? If you want I do have a list of things you could do that might help you settle into Ponyville and could help you make some friends. However, I understand if you’d like some time to rest and recuperate since you just got out of the hospital.”
“I’m going to explore the Everfree.” I said between taking another sip of my coffee as I leaned against the wall near the counter.
“You what?!” Twilight said, apparently surprised by this. “Weaver, you just got out of the hospital after having a serious head injury and a literal brain surgery! You shouldn’t be going anywhere near the Everfree Forest right now!”
“I kind of have to. The moment Queen Chrysalis learns about me, she’s going to try to sabotage my efforts to build a hive. So I need to find somewhere I can build on as soon as possible. And if I can hide it from her rather than building it in the open then I should be able to have more time to build, so it should be harder for her to interfere which is better for me. For that I need to find a good location to hide it in the first place. So the sooner I start looking the better.” I told her, not elaborating on what Luna told me last night.
“Is Chrysalis really that big of a problem?” Spike asked, looking at Twilight.
Twilight sighed and rubbed her forehead with her hoof. “Yes, Spike… In Weaver’s case, she really is… Fine… I can’t exactly stop you but if you’re going into the Everfree I’m coming with you. The forest really is dangerous. You shouldn’t go in alone at least until you know what to look out for. Besides, since we’re going into the Everfree there’s somepony I really want to introduce you to.”
“Alright. Let me know when you’re ready to go then.” I said before walking out of the kitchen, with my coffee in hand.
Setting my coffee down on a reading desk I went and found the book I had been reading the previous night. Grabbing it, I sat down at the desk and read. Every so often I would set the book down and sip my coffee.
Time passed, I finished my coffee and took the mug back to the kitchen before continuing to read for a few more minutes.
Finally Twilight approached me. “Are you ready to go, Weaver?”
I marked my page and closed the book before standing up. “Ready as I’ll ever be.”
The two of us headed out of the library and started making our way towards the Everfree Forest. When we reached the edge of the town I looked at Twilight and said, “I thought you said you wanted to introduce me to someone.”
“I do, but she doesn’t live in town. Just follow me. You’ll see what I mean.” Twilight told me as she led me further towards the forest.
Once we reached the treeline I morphed back into my changeling form. Everyone kept saying how dangerous the Everfree was so I wanted to be able to defend myself. And since I didn’t have any weapons, I needed my magic to be able to fight and I could only use magic if my horn was exposed. Plus I assumed the chitin I had in this form would help protect me, which was useful. My missing forearm was a problem, limiting my movement. However, I was able to compensate for this by flying just above the ground like I had seen quite a few pegasi doing instead of walking. Having wings was incredibly useful.
As we made our way deeper into the forest, I was a bit surprised. I hadn’t expected anyone to live this deep in the woods.
Then suddenly a creature whose emotions I sensed but had otherwise ignored appeared from behind a bush. It had the head of a chicken, a scaly body, bat-like wings, and a snake-like tail. It made a noise that sounded half way between a rooster crowing and a snake hissing.
“Cockatrice! Don’t look it in the eyes!” Twilight exclaimed.
I didn’t hesitate to do as I was told and looked away from it. However I proceeded to grab it with my telekinesis and twisted its head nearly a full three hundred and sixty degrees snapping its neck with a sickening crack, completely severing its spinal cord, and thus killing it almost instantly. Then I discarded the corpse off to the side.
“There. It’s dead. So why are we not supposed to look it in the eyes exactly?” I asked.
Twilight froze for a moment before looking at the creature’s corpse in surprise. “It’s dead…? You… You killed it…”
“You said not to look at it as if it was dangerous so I assumed it was a threat. I don’t have to look at it to break its neck with telekinesis.” I said, looking at her.
“Yeah but… You didn’t need to do that… They’re mostly harmless as long as you don’t look them in the eyes. It would have left on its own eventually.” Twilight told me. I could feel that she was upset.
I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes. It was just an animal and a dangerous one at that. “Too late now. I can’t exactly bring it back from the dead. So, why is it dangerous to look those things in the eyes exactly?”
Twilight looked away from the dead animal and said, “Their gaze can turn whoever looks them in the eye to stone…”
I glanced at the corpse warily. I was starting to see why the ponies thought this forest was dangerous. With these little monsters running around of course it was. This made me wonder how the hell these things hadn’t completely destroyed the entire ecosystem. Had the other animals here evolved an immunity to being turned to stone or had they just adapted to not looking these things in the eye as they killed and ate them? I had no idea and I doubted the ponies did either if the rest of the animals here were similarly dangerous.
Still, they were easy enough to deal with. If there were a lot of them it would be annoying but it wouldn’t be a major issue.
“I see why you told me not to look at it then. Thanks. I didn’t really feel like becoming a statue today.” I responded before continuing to fly deeper into the forest.
Twilight sighed as she followed after me. “I’m just glad Fluttershy wasn’t here to see that…” She muttered under her breath.
Other than having to go around a big patch of blue flowers that were apparently called “poison joke” the rest of the hike went relatively smoothly.
After a while I sensed the emotions of a pony at the edge of my range. I assumed this was the friend Twilight wanted to introduce me to so I didn’t say anything.
When we were a few dozen feet from what appeared to be a hut in the distance, Twilight stopped and said, “Weaver, would you mind waiting here for a moment? I should go ahead and let Zecora know about you. Just to avoid any misunderstandings.”
“Okay.” I responded simply. I landed and sat down. If I was going to be waiting for however long, I didn’t want to keep hovering in the air the entire time.
“Great, I’ll be back in just a sec!” Twilight said before jogging ahead.
I waited patiently. I didn’t hear what either of them said, but I felt their emotions. There was happiness and feelings of friendship, then surprise, then this ‘Zecora’ was on guard.
I felt Zecora’s emotions go back deeper into her hut. After a few moments she came back to the door. I didn’t see what happened, but I could sense alarm and wariness dissipate a bit. However she still didn’t quite fully relax.
Several more minutes passed. I assumed Twilight was probably explaining everything considering how long it was taking and the emotions Zecora was feeling. After awhile Twilight came walking back towards me with what appeared to be a zebra following her. Twilight’s face was now covered in some sort of green substance.
When they were close enough I asked, “So, what’s with the new makeup, Twilight?”
“It is a salve beneath which no changeling hides, for it reveals the truth inside.” Zecora responded.
“When I told her about you, Zecora wanted to make sure it was really me. That’s all. Anyway, Weaver, this is my friend Zecora. Zecora, this is Queen Weaver.” Twilight introduced us.
“Nice to meet you, Zecora. With everyone telling me how dangerous this place is, I’m almost surprised anyone lives out here.”
“Dangerous it may be, but my home is the Everfree. In the future near it will be yours too or so I hear.” Zecora stated.
‘Is she rhyming on purpose?’ I wondered to myself. “It depends. Technically nothing’s official yet. Celestia wanted me to explore the forest to understand the dangers here before we come to an official agreement. The fact you’re living here suggests to me it’s not as dangerous as she was suggesting. That said, I had no idea anyone else was living out here until this morning. Since I’m a changeling I’m going to assume you don’t want to live in my territory. The borders haven’t been drawn yet, so I can ask Celestia to keep this portion of the Everfree within Equestria if you prefer.”
I was trying to be as accommodating as possible. It seemed politically advantageous to project a mostly benevolent and cooperative image to Twilight, considering her connections to the princesses. Plus being nice to my future neighbor seemed like a good idea. That way she would be less likely to sell me out to Chrysalis later.
“Please do. My words do not misconstrue, but I would rather remain in Equestria. I’m sure you understand my point of view.” Zecora stated.
I nodded.
“Zecora, Weaver here is looking for a place to build her new hive. Do you know of any good spots where she could get started?” Twilight asked.
“I would prefer somewhere that’s either easy to defend or where I can keep my hive hidden. I want to make it as hard for Chrysalis and her Changelings to interrupt me as possible. Though I can settle for wherever.” I didn’t like the idea of making my hive somewhere they could find it. So I considered making two. One would be a decoy in whatever place Zecora showed us, if she helped us at all. I would find a hidden spot for the other on my own. Presumably in a cave somewhere.
Zecora raised a hoof to her chin in thought. “I know a few places where your hive could easily survive. Follow me and you shall see.”
With that Zecora turned and led them deeper into the forest. It took us about half an hour but we arrived at a small chasm in the middle of the forest. The tree canopy in this section of the forest was so thick it would be impossible to see from the sky. Only just enough light to be able to see was filtering through the dense branches and leaves. As a result there wasn’t much underbrush in this particular area. There were mainly just leaves, branches, and a couple fallen logs of dead trees on the ground. That meant there were less places for dangerous animals like that cockatrice from earlier to hide.
“It may be no paradise but will this suffice?” Zecora asked.
The inside was dark so I couldn’t see much else. “Twilight, do light spells exist?” I asked.
“Oh, of course! Those are super easy.” She said as her horn started glowing. Suddenly several small orbs of bright purple light appeared in the middle of the chasm, illuminating much of it.
“Thank you.” I said as I examined the chasm. It was larger inside than it looked on the outside. The gap at the top was easily ten feet across at its widest point whereas I roughly estimated the widest point inside to be maybe twenty five or thirty feet across. It seemed to go down approximately sixty to seventy feet. Finally it seemed to be quite a bit longer than it was wide, though I wasn’t sure by how much. It did keep going into the ground a bit past the point where the entrance closed. Almost all of it looked like solid rock, but that wasn’t too much of an issue. This was going to be the decoy hive for the ponies anyway.
“This looks perfect. All I need to do is seal the entrance except for a small hole and cover it with leaves and branches and it will be almost impossible for Chrysalis to find. Thank you, Zecora. This will help a lot.” I told her.
“I am glad that my suggestion was not bad. In terms of staying hidden this cave is the best. From Chrysalis and her hive you will not be oppressed.” Zecora told me with a smile.
“This is great! Now that you have a well hidden place to make your hive, we won’t have to worry about Queen Chrysalis or her changelings breaking in and stealing or destroying your eggs!” Twilight commented happily.
“Yeah. That’s… Wait… My eggs? What do you…?” My eyes widened in shock and horror as the puzzle pieces began to fall into place in my mind. I was a changeling queen. They were expecting me to make a hive. I was the queen of a hive. In insect hives queens layed eggs. Sometimes without requiring any intercourse. That’s why they were treating me like I was the queen of a nation, because I was going to start producing offspring and I eventually would be the queen of my own nation. “Oh… Oh god! Nonono! You can’t be serious!”
“Weaver? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, radiating genuine concern.
I was practically hyperventilating at this point.
Everything up until this point had sucked, sure, but it had been relatively manageable. I just needed to adapt a bit to compensate. However, the realization that the reason I needed this hive was to safely lay eggs was absolutely horrifying to me. It wasn’t even the laying eggs part that was the problem. I had experienced that through my swarm so much that it almost felt normal to me at this point, even if I knew mentally that it should bother me. No. It was the fact I was apparently going to become a mother who knew when, to god only knew how many kids considering the fact bugs typically laid thousands of eggs at once. Worse, if it happened any time soon it would be coming at the worst possible time as I had an entire nation after my head and I was fairly confident that they wouldn’t spare my kids.
I was going to have kids and Chrysalis was going to try to kill them. Some of my fear and horror turned to rage at the thought. I wasn’t even remotely prepared to be a mother, however I had lost everyone and everything I had ever cared about already. I didn’t want to lose my own kids too!
Suddenly my entire body was jostled for a brief moment, wrenching me out of my thoughts. “Weaver, listen to me! You need to calm down. Just take a deep breath. In… and out… There you go. Just keep breathing until you calm down.” Twilight told me.
I tried to do as I was instructed for a few seconds before saying, “I’m fine… I’m fine…”
“Are you sure? Do you feel better now?” Twilight asked.
“No, I don’t but I’ll live… Fuck…” I couldn’t help but curse at this situation. Everything somehow just kept getting worse for me.
“Alright, then can you at least tell me what’s wrong? Why did you just freak out all of the sudden?” Twilight asked.
“I only just realized that being a Changeling Queen means I’m going to lay eggs whether I have sex or not… Hive based insects can produce certain eggs asexually… With everything else that was happening all at once I was so focused on everything else that my mind never processed that fact.” I said, trying to explain as calmly as I could. It wasn’t easy. I was still completely freaking out internally. This was not okay.
Twilight paused and a look of understanding crossed her features. “Oh… I see… I’m sorry, Weaver. I assumed you already knew that… Well don’t you worry. Me, Fluttershy, and maybe a couple of the others would be more than happy to help you take care of your foals. You won’t have to deal with all of it on your own, I promise.” She said, obviously trying to be comforting.
Zecora seemed to be considering something but remained silent for the moment.
When Twilight said that, I came to another realization. I was completely alone. Typically Queens needed a bunch of workers to help take care of their larvae. I didn’t have that and depending on how many eggs I laid there was no way I was going to be able to take care of them on my own. I was going to need help. That meant relying on the ponies. The same ponies who I was sure were going to betray me at some point. That thought made me sick to my stomach. Worse, depending on how many I had, I may not even be able to feed them all which made me even more heavily reliant on the ponies to ensure my kids didn’t all starve to death. This also meant my idea of having a second hive was not feasible. I would have to live in this one so Twilight and her friends could help me with my kids.
The princesses must have known all of this. So that was their game. Controlling me through my kids. Making me wholly reliant on them and their continued support to raise my kids and keep them alive. I wasn’t so naive as to think that was their entire plan but I was certain this was at least part of it. I grit my teeth as anger flooded my thoughts. I wanted to head to Canterlot right then and there and drown all three of the Princesses and Shining Armor in a swarm of insects just like I had done with Alexandria. Unfortunately I didn’t have my powers anymore and even if I did, killing them would mean I had no one to help me with Chrysalis. Worse, it would mean I would have to be in an active war with both Chrysalis’ hive and Equestria as there would be nothing stopping the nobles from gathering an army to attack me.
I was completely screwed.
“Now you look really angry. What’s wrong?” Twilight asked.
“Chrysalis is going to want to kill my kids. That makes me angry.” I said. It was technically the truth. It did make me angry. It was just a statement of fact rather than a response to her question. I wasn’t about to tell the pony with a direct link to the princesses that I wanted to kill the princesses for manipulating me like this.
“So it should. Such is the nature of motherhood. I am no knight and I would prefer not to fight, but ask and I shall attempt to aid you in your plight.” Zecora told me.
“Thanks… So, uh… How do changelings build hives? Do they produce wax like bees or do they chew wood pulp like wasps?” I asked, trying to change the subject. Besides which, I genuinely had no idea how to go about starting my hive. I was very much still learning all the intricacies of my new body.
“I’m not sure… The process of how changelings build their hives has never officially been recorded. That said, during the invasion a few weeks ago a lot of them seemed to produce a sort of mucus-like substance from their mouths that hardened into a more waxy substance. So presumably that’s how they do it?” Twilight suggested.
“Hm… Guess I’ll have to try to figure that out then…” I said, stepping over to the edge of the chasm. Not quite sure what to do I opened my mouth and tried to make myself vomit. Surprisingly it worked. I spat up a sticky green wax-like substance on the edge of the chasm. Then instincts I didn’t realize I had kicked in and I began using my magic to manipulate the substance, shaping it to start covering the hole.
I spent the next several minutes continuing this process before the entire entrance of the chasm seemed to be sealed up by the substance which had changed color, texture, and hardness to closer resemble stone than the green mucus it had been.
“Uh… Weaver? How are you supposed to get in there now?” Twilight asked, looking at the completely sealed chasm.
I looked at the substance and a hole opened up leading into the chasm. “It's my hive. Or at least the start of it. It can change like I can. Don’t ask me how I knew this when I was making it because I have no idea. I don’t know how I’m going to light the inside either. Any ideas?” I asked.
“We can just use some enchanted crystals. They last a long time but they’ll need to be recharged every so often but depending on how similar your magic is to unicorn magic, you should be able to do that yourself.” Twilight told me.
I frowned. “How much is that going to cost?” Back on Earth Bet jewels and such were really expensive. I assumed it was similar here.
“Practically nothing if not literally nothing but a bit of time and effort. We can buy a few dozen pieces of clear quartz for a few bits. Or we could go dig them up ourselves then I can enchant them for you. I know the perfect place where we can dig up some crystals! So we shouldn’t have any trouble lighting up your whole hive. Zecora, thank you so much for showing us this spot. You can head back home if you want. I’m going to take Weaver to go get some crystals to light up her hive.”
Zecora nodded, said her goodbyes in her rhyming theme, before turning and walking away into the forest by herself.
“If the forest is so dangerous, is it a good idea to let her go home by herself? Shouldn’t we escort her back or something?” I asked.
“No, she knows this forest better than anypony. She wanders around here by herself all the time. So she’ll be fine. Now, let’s head back to the library and get some shovels and buckets. We’re going to need them.” Twilight said before teleporting us back to the library.
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Now I was wondering when that fact will hit him... and for his sake I hope he doesn't require a male partner for what is coming. ;)
EDIT: Ok, so MC was a woman before transformation. My bad, I don't know how I missed it. 😅
11597443
him? what him? Taylor, AKA Weaver, AKA Skitter, as well as a number of other names, was always a female...
Hmm, it'll be interesting to see how things progress with Weaver's mentality. How long will it take for her to heal and realize that the ponies around her aren't planning to use her children as hostages? Also, good lord, Luna is gonna be EARNING her crown in the coming months. I suspect having to deal with Weaver's nightmares is going to a step up to the usual fare she has to take care of... Do you think Luna will need to see a therapist herself after experiencing all of the shit in Weaver's head?
Also, like I mentioned on the SB side... I like how you're having Taylor's emotions spiral here. It's ENTIRELY believable to anyone who's gone through combat, much less the hell Weaver lived through.
Lastly, two things I've been daydreaming of... Weaver offhandedly mentioning power classifications and Twilight being interested in the classification system. And exactly what Weaver's reaction will be once she learns of Discord. A supremely powerful enemy with vast number of powers who seeks to sow conflict? Oh that'll REALLY mess with her paranoia.
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Dude your pronouns are kinda backwards...
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Can't give a specific timeframe on how long it will take for Taylor to heal. As for Luna... Maybe. She'll probably encourage Taylor to seek therapy first, however, because if her dreams are this bad? Yeah, she needs one.
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...
oh fuck
I feel like that weaver can be replaced by any random edgelord anon and nothing will change. She doesn't think logically at at all. She doesn't have her power, her knowledge is next to useless
Even better, protaganist's backstory can be made to fit with story. I am thinking a more realistic take on the protaganist from Memory Pending will do well. Make him an inmate soilder to gave a distrustfulness and vola!
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My bad. I can't explain how I missed that.
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There's a lot of stories on this site where a male human turns into a female pony, so I understand the confusion, especially since I'm guessing you aren't familiar with the webnovel this is based on?
I'm kinda hoping she just eschews normal changeling aesthetics (since she doesn't know them anyway) and builds a hive that, on the inside, just looks like a totally normal human apartment building that happens to be made of wax.
Stubbornly hold on to what little humanity she has left, be it architecture, fashion, food, whatever she can maintain.
Wait Taylor will need to first find a possible mate. I doubt she is in anyway ready for a relationship so she will not be having any kids anytime soon.
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Wasps, bees, and ants can reproduce asexually though the unfertilized eggs only produce males. They're assuming that because she's a hive based insectoid, she will too.
Edit: Just learned. There's two different types of parthenogenesis. One type only produces males, like I said. The other type produces females. I apologize for this mistake.
Great story so far
You know, I'm beginning to think Taylor isn't a good fit for the MLP universe. Her paranoia is understandable based on her experiences, but being unable to even convieve that the aid she's getting is genuine? Especially as she's an empath and can _tell_ what ponies are feeling. Tay Tay, if the Princesses wanted you dead, they wouldn't have to do this whole rigmarole of pretending to help you just so they can betray you later. They would just stick you in Tartarus if they needed you alive, or have the Mane Six use the Elements to create a new statue.
I think maybe the entity who rescued her should have put her in the 40K universe as a Tyranid Hive Queen where she could live out her paranoid days in peace, or rather in constant war, as that seems to be all she's left capable of considering. It would be nice if she comes around as having the Queen of Escalation available to take on Tirek, Starlight Glimmer, the Storm King would be fun.
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That's kind of the point. Her learning that not everyone is out to get her, learning to trust again, and generally coming to terms with and overcoming her issues.
That's like half the conflict of the story.
11614820 I understand that, I'm talking more from a Watsonian perspective than a Doylian one.
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- Queen of Escalation -
I mean her line of thinking would be great if she was in minotaur or griffon lands, but the only thing she really needs to worry about is specism (and the problems that brings lol)
...and chrysalis too.
Not to mention the possibility of an all out war breaking out between Equestria and the Changelings because we’re helping you.
I'm 100% sure they already are at war considering it was a full on invasion of a capital city so I'm not sure what this sentence is about.
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More of a cold war. Equestria doesn't really attack the Changelings and Chrysalis only really comes up with convoluted Saturday morning cartoon villain schemes. It hasn't transitioned to the mobilization of armies on a battlefield with direct bloodshed and the conquering and loss of territory yet, which is what is being referred to here. What they're worried about is something like that alternate timeline Starlight Glimmer made where Chrysalis won and had conquered most of Equestria, but with both sides on semi-equal footing, which would take actual fighting over the course of weeks, months, or potentially years to resolve. Whereas presently they only have small conflicts that can be resolved in like a day by smacking Chrysalis with a love blast and sending her and her hive on their way to scheme and try again some other day.
Interesting chapter.
I felt the fixation on betrayal was a bit too much. Obviously Taylor should be paranoid, that's great, but my interpretation is that she thinks "nobody is my friend" instead of "everybody is my enemy", if that makes sense? Like, anyone could be a threat, but not everyone is. I feel like if this Taylor was in canon she couldn't have worked with the Chicago Wards, or coordinated with anyone during GM.
Basically I think she should think less about betrayal and more about precautions (so the actions don't actually change much, just her internal monologue).
Only a few chapters in. I'm enjoying it so far. But I'll be brutally honest for a second.
Taylor doesn't feel like Taylor. It's alright, I honestly wasn't really expecting her to. Your writing style is different, and Wildbow is just such a master character writer it's really not realistic to expect a matching result from a crossover fanfic. All that said, she's Taylor enough that I don't feel a massive, uncomfortable disconnect. Or maybe she's different enough to stand on her own? I haven't figured that out yet.
There's also been a few things that conflict with actual Parahumans canon, but I never checked the dates on these chapters. For all I know, the first ones could have been released before the epilogues and Ward came out, so I've just commented to myself about them as though someone could hear me. Like a normal, not insane person.
Even one death is enough reason to turn her into statue and smash her to pieces, The Storm King-style. This is MLP universe, defeat is assured within 44 minutes. She would have no time for further escalation.