Never See the Finish Line

by hmaf43

Changeling hives on earth. Forming a nation.

This story is based on a combination of a couple of Isekai troupes.
1. Demon king’s second try - ancient dark lord from time long past that was slayed by the hero(s), somehow alive and now in the present.
2. Kingdom got isekai-ed - the most famous example is Nazarick from overlord. In this case are the changeling hives. But the twisted is that Isekai-ed hives are weaker than humanity, instead of normally stronger like most stories in this troupes
3. Kingdom building - Instead of using modern cheat knowledge, the changelings will build upon human techs with the supplement of magic.

---

The story was intended to be written like a fantasy story, meaning the characters had cartoonist personality traits.

Use as little as characters as possible just like any fantasy story. For example, the whole European Union will represented by this quirky guy with a funny accent. The whole US military is moved at the command of this hardboiled general dude with a cowboy hat.

Changelings in this story had hive minds and were biologically hermaphrodite, but mentally had gender, as fools their prey better (one fewer lies)

---

*The content spoiler is to be slowly revealed as the story progresses.

The mage king groger - ancient proto-queen that was sealed away long ago. Personality is based on Merlin from FGO the ponies known her as the demon lord groger. She’s a true gender-less changeling, as she cannibalized most of her mind in the process to keep the parts she considered 'important' operational and survived the imprisonment. She staged her own coup with Gusty and other heroes. Her dream is to end the age of false god and bring about the age of mortal. Her original hive acted as the crown's secret police of a minotaurian kingdom. They were burnt down when the young proto-queen published scientific research that unintentionally against the church. She becomes a demon lord and goes against the entire world with vengeance in the quest to united the world under one banner. She accepted death only to be spared by her best friend turned hero. But the seal was too long and Changeling's mind wasn't designed to be conscious for ten of millennium. The thought process of the current her is closer to a machine than organic being. Her personality is fake. Her real self is just a husk of a pony without traits.

Queen of Golden - basically saber from fate stay/night. She’s a young queen of the most powerful hive and becomes the leader of this group by pure strength and charisma. Only surviving royal changelings of her hive from the purge. Her (dead) family always belittled her for her straightforward personality. She hates stealing and lurking in shadow.

The red queen - a young queen of a very small hive. A twisted manipulative changeling that fights like a berserker. Their primary target was the militaristic griffon imperium. Ponies share anti-changelings with the birds and everything got downhill after that. She has a lot of mental problems, as her hives are all about ‘more quick-wit than griffons’ and forced to in the constant battle of succession in order to rule out the senility. She successfully killed all her family members, and she knew that more than a few of them allowed her an easy kill because they cared about her and wanted her to live on.

Blue proto-queen - obligatory imouto character. Queen of Golden accepted the dying wish of the previous Blue queen to take care of her. Cute and fluffy.

A couple of old ones. At least one of them is wise and another one is conservative.

---

Prologue

Chrysalis’s attack on canterlot sent ripples across the continent, as the pony inquisitor began to systematically hunt down changelings from existence.

Other changelings hives got rounded up and hunted by equestria to extinction.

In an unlikely alliance, a group of hives with different ideologies was formed. Desperation led them to an ancient tomb.

they found information about the connection between changelings and the king of mages, groger.

They unsealed the nameless tomb, laying in the king's chamber of ancient tomb. The one so-called king of monsters. The greatest sorcerer ever exists.

"A mere proto queen? And an infertile one at that...? What’s a disappointment." red spoke up

Might make right, a few queens tried to attack the proto-queen in frustration, and the ancient demon lord dominated them with just a single lit of her horn.

The ever-calculating, empty gaze sent chill down the spines of every changeling in that room.

"Can you help us, my liege" the brave leader, golden queen, called out.

---

Escape from Equestria

This arc is all about building up the character of changeling queens and support casts.

The mage king would lead them to one of her artifacts, the same one that Starswirl inspired by and crafted the portal mirror.

The problem is that the artifact was locked away in old starswirl's old study, in the old Equestria capital.

They harvest rare and powerful artifacts from the vaults.

"I missed you, old friend" The mage king lifted her scepter from her time as the demon lord groger. One she made together by a certain clever mare who broke through her demon lord facade.

They can cross the portal at the last minute before the Equestrian offensive peacekeeping army came to capture them.

And for a moment, one of them noticed a changeling queen that holding onto the scepter of the demon king.

They dismissed it, as there were other more dangerous artifacts that were stolen too.

To the human world

This story arc is mainly to world-building on the nation that the changelings queen landed and setting the story up for human main casts.

The mage king's portal led from a random position to a random dimension.

And landed on a human world, a random corrupted underdeveloped country.

At first, they kidnapped humans to feed on love, and slowly learn about the new world.

They make a hive under the city, podded humans that are likely to not be missed. Religious minorities, illegal foreigners, and such.

The dominant religion will be treated the same as a typical evil fantasy church-a lot of fanatics and some good people in files and ranks, but the top brass are evil, a religion that came from outside and destroyed the old faith. Two main candidates are the current two biggest religions in the world, Christianity and Islam. Represented the fallout of imperialism via religions by Western empire of old (British, Ottoman, French, etc...)

This is one of the points that I thought this story wouldn't do well on this site, but there are only so many reasons that the changeling's human prisoners willing worked for their alien ex-wardens. Racism and religious oppression made the most sense to me.

And If I had invented an imaginary religion, why not make a whole new earth at that point?

Anyway

Soon, they learn about human’s gruesome past. And mythical level of technology that allowed such violence. Like an ICBM with a nuclear warhead.

Might make right, and only staying in the shadow without any way to protect themselves didn’t work, as proven by what’s happened in Equestria.

Their hive minds help with both hunting and R&D, they are the same disciplined creatures that are able to pay hidden from ponies for thousands of years, and now they use that ability for technological development.

Magic-assisted manufacturing techniques that far outstrip anything pure non-magic can do.

---

New age

The mage king Groger continued her research, and always asked the human about the technologies and stuff.

Soon, she found a few humans that could talk to her level. A nuclear physicist, a mathematician, etc. All of them were oppressed in the nation they lived in, and the photo-queen hatched a plan.

Only one or two humans at a time were allowed outside the pods, and with the assistance of the mage king, the captive humans were out of the pods all at once.

They escape and confront the queen head-on.

"Look at their eyes" groger creepily smiled unnaturally "This place... is as hostile to them as it was to us."

"You proposed us to work alongside the preys... are you insane!?" a conservative voiced out

The leader of Queens closed her eyes "I want to believe that we can be something more. No longer hide in a shadow." the golden queen looked at the demon lord with determination "We can build it, right? Not just a hive, but a nation that we can be proud of"

R&D has gone rapidly with the help of hives' human residents. With the help of humans, they replaced high-profile targets that are influential and low-efforts, oligarchs, dictators, and their family/friends alike. Not the most influential but enough for them to get heavy machinery and bleeding edge techs for the hive.

Years gone by, changelings slowly adapted to the new methods. Hatchery is monitored by electronic environmental control and love storage with a computerized inventory system.

The humans of the hive slowly expand their number by convincing newly captured humans to join them. The fact that they were banned from going outside the underground hive didn't bother them as much because the same also applied to most changelings.

And quality of life was better than surface did help in their decision making. The changelings needed to be loved and happy humans gave more love than overworked humans.

With the help of heavy machinery, the underground self-sufficient metropolises were made.

With near full-automation farming and general maintenance, courtesy to the mage king and her science team, who combined the precision of human binary computer and flexibility of golem magic together.

But they soon were found out by troublesome people.

---

First contact

*Depending on which religion was chosen as the oppressor, the relationship between the Western world and the Arab world would be different. Abrahamic faiths are the prime choice but a made-up religion also works.

Humanity would see the changelings as threats and launch an offensive, but the human military was optimized to fight against humans and not the changelings.

The changelings lived thousands of kilometers underground with notice-me-not barriers deployed all over the big areas. This made it nearly impossible to find where changelings lived.

The keyword is 'nearly'

But even so, the changelings, even with such an advantage, could not fight against the whole world, and a few of their hives were found and snuffed out already.

"The human army may be a great apex predator hunting us like mere a small prey" the mage king smiled "But no sane predator would willingly lose its limbs in quest of hunting a small prey."

"So, this is the only way...?" the golden queen muttered out in sadness. "But if it's for my changelings... no, for my people. Then I am willing to carry that sin!"

"...you guys are fucking insane, but I liked it" the leader of humans in the changeling hive smirked, madness in his eyes.

"Let's show those cowards who's the boss." Red Queen grinned.

So they came into one plan of action. The location of one of the main hives was leaked out. And a little convincing from infiltrators to fume the frame of hate up.

The biggest human army comes into the city on top of one of the main hives.

And changeling's strategic nuclear warhead was fired.

"The aliens possessed ICBM nuclear warhead!"

"T-they detonated an atomic bomb on their own soil!"

An announcement was made by the changelings. "This may be a normal war for you, but it's a fighting for survival for us! There are enough warheads in our arsenal to turn every major city into dust" The voice of the golden queen continued "If you are going send us to Tartarus... then we will make our best effort to drag you with us"

A ceasefire was ordered, and the changeling’s representative was invited as a guest into UNGA.

---

Integration to the Human World

Both sides walk on thin ice as the meeting continues.

The changelings knew the humans wouldn't accept anything that wasn't to their advantage, and who can blame them?

"But humans are not unified like the ponies, even one from the same nation has different beliefs and political alignment. Just like the griffins" the red queen analyzed. “And they could be as greedy and selfish as the birds too" She smirked "We just have... to slice our cakes into many small slices and give them away to too many different parties in such a way that they would fight among themselves."

And so they did.

The golden queen sighted. "We have come out of the shadow and yet...why do I feel so dirty with everything we do?" The young blue queen nuzzled the sad leader and made a cute changeling noise.

They gained connections, favors, and information by giving people on the top access to magic tech, resources, and favors.

The immortal man spoke "I am the man who had everything... what more could you even offer to me?" the floating head of the billionaire spoke out.

"The pod that put the subject into hibernation.... It's a frickin cryopod!" The NASA scientist shouted. "This will benefit our manned Mars mission greatly."

[Changelings found aboard the new super yacht of the Standard Oil's CEO]

"Humans only needed 2 hours in the pods to rejuvenate, huh?" a billionaire CEO smirked "I see... So the legendary sustainable 150 hours work week is possible after all"

"While you represented a threat toward the free world, there are many other routes... less violence option we could take" The ambassador spoke. "Your infiltration ability would help in this mission greatly. You see, there was this nation that was our colony during...."

In the end, they are able to get the most out of it. They still retained control over important stuff like nuclear arsenal and strategic locations.

"We hereby recognize the Unified Hives as a sovereign nation"

---

World politic

This arc is another nation-building arc, but now with international politics.

"Hive is not communist?" the US general frowns, "I will be watching you....."

[The changelings successfully produced the first ever 2nm microprocessor]

The mage king would slowly adapt her outer persona to the cheerily playful one as she took the role of part-time university professor.

A Magnus needed her successors, and why teach a few when there was a whole class of humans and changelings to teach?

Time skip 10 years.

---

The return of Equestria

"It worked!" the lavender mare shouted "We know the destination now"

Empress of Sun nuzzled her faithful student, then turned to her generals

She narrowed her slitted eyes, and bared her sharp teeth "Let’s finish the fight, shall we?"

The equestrian offensive army would spectacularly lose against the modern army of humanity and changelings.

No way a medieval fantasy kingdom can win against the entire world with modern weaponry.

The canterlot was sieged, then suddenly it's not.

The battle that was won.... somehow lost.

The people that service the battles... blink out of existence.

"I remembered nuzzling my brother a moment ago, but...” a changeling muttered bleakly "But now I also remembered attending her funeral."

They would confused at first as the reality shifted.

"Temporal magic on a grand scale" the mage king declared "They are using time magic."

They would fight and they would win, only for the goalpost to be moved further out against.

Dead equestrian commanders came back to life, and war veterans of the human/changeling army took their place.

Days stretched into infinity as humanity would remain stood still via equestrian technology jumped up rapidly.

Again and again, Equestria changed, but a pattern emerged. Eventually, their technology outpaced humanity, and the sheer quantity of body counts is the only thing that held back much smaller Equestria from winning.

"They could only go back so far and have limited time to prepare for us, otherwise they would stopped our escape to the human world in the first place."

"And only a small amount of ponies could be sent back. Maybe even a single pony."

The mage king was lighthearted as ever, as she cared not about anyone, not even herself. Her empathy died with the death of the demon lord groger. The hunger for knowledge is the only thing that keeps her going.

Or so she thought.

[Changeling's international academy was attacked. Most of the students were killed.]

---

The League of Twilights

It turned out the time traveler was Twilight Sparkle, the student of the sun.

Only months had passed for humanity, but ten thousand years the time travel twilight sparkle had lived.

Twilight experienced all previous timelines. Again and again, she despaired at having their loved one killed and their nation fell, and worked their hardest to win.

Something something.

Twilight would eventually revive the pillars of harmony to help out.

The main focus would slowly transition to between two Magnus. Starswirl and the mage king.

A few story arcs. Starswirl would slowly turn darker as he experienced the death of his friends again and again, while mage king would slip into her old self, demon lord groger would face the reality her apathy had created.

"They are all dead...?" The mage king looked disbelievingly and stared at the wall of memorials.

Plastered on it are names of young changelings and humans. Student of the magic academy.

The one that glassed by Equestrian offensive low orbit war fleet

Her students are one of many things she cares about, but the only thing she loves in this world.

The capital of changelings "I-I care about them..? So this is how it felt to lose someone. I remembered it now"

The mage king regained her humanity(changelinity? ponility?), but the cost was too high for her to bear.

An old promise came back to her mind.

I will not let anyone experience what's happened to me ever again... even if the brighter future costs everything of the present itself... even if it costs my life.

"Look like I have to do that again, huh?" The proto-queen smiled sadly with real grief for the first time in centuries

Stopped the war, permanently.

---

The return of demonking

United the world, even at the cost of everything.

Just like the atrocities she did as the king of the world.
Just like what happened to humanity at the end of World War 2.

An idea was formed.

A horror so great enacted by the weapon that could destroy the world. So much horror that people will terrified of another war.

Of course, they needed an evil face that people could blame.

"Hello everybody" The changeling shapeshifted into the forms she wield millennium past. The tales of his atrocities are sung to this day. "I'm back" The goat grinned madly as he showed off his greatest work yet.

captured pony and human, creature of two world fusion one. an eldritch monster of flesh and steel.

"I'm coming for you all."

The war that ends all wars

"Groger, if you could go back to the beginning and change something." Clover the clever asked her friend, one last time before they faced off as enemies. "What would you change?"

She will turn Earth's weather control system into a grand weapon. And attempted to use it to destroy both worlds.

It was basically a space station with a giant unicorn horn.

---

The return of demonking

Equss's upper hemisphere turned wasteland. The sun is indeed a good wrecking ball.

From humans to ponies. The force of harmony and the god of chaos.

Everyone united as one, fighting against the ancient demon lord, the king of monsters.

Unrelenting hoards of undead and mutated monsters. The more people got killed, the stronger monster army was.

From geosync orbit lay the castle of the demon king. One of earth's weather control primary node. A sapce station that can cast magic spells. Groger looked upon the world.

A weapon that could truly destroy the world nearly fired successfully.

Starswirl would die as a hero who saved the world and the demon lord Groger would be remembered as a terrorist one who nearly genocide many sapient species.

The two worlds moved on, now as one.

Fin