Chapter 2: Friend?
I stared into the little queen’s gorgeous green eyes for several moments, frozen in shock.
I didn’t understand. Why would she be afraid of me?
I blinked as I realized I was still holding onto her with my forehooves. If she was scared of me, that probably made her even more afraid. I let her go and put my forehooves down to either side of her.
She made no movements of her own even after I released her, though. She simply stared up at me, fear constantly flowing from her like an open faucet.
I took a moment to evaluate the situation for clues on why she might be afraid of me, which led me to realize that my current position probably didn’t make me look friendly. I was straddling her, my legs planted wide on either side of her body. I wanted to protect her from any threats, but instead she must’ve felt as if I were boxing her in and leering down at her.
I decided to back away and give her space, but I needed to do so without any sudden movements that could startle her.
I slowly picked up my foreleg in preparation to walk backwards, but her eyes jumped to it as it lifted, along with a sharp spike of fear. She seemed to curl herself up, and I froze.
Did she think I was going to strike her? Why?
"I’m not going to hurt you," I said, trying to speak in a calming tone.
Her gaze snapped to my face again at the sound of my voice. The fear didn’t recede.
"Can you understand me?" I asked, slowly and deliberately. "Can you talk?"
She simply stared.
Right… she was literally just born. Why would she understand language?
I wracked my brain for a few moments, trying to think of something that would help. The sharing of emotions had to be a two-way street, right? I was currently feeling her fear as if it were my own, although after being exposed to it for a while I had a decent grasp on keeping it from affecting me. It helped a lot to recognize that the fear didn’t actually come from me.
The question was: could I make her feel something? If I could send her feelings of calm and safety, maybe that would show her that she had no reason to fear me.
But her fear was so overpowering. How could I make her feel my good feelings through such intensity?
I had no idea what I was doing, but maybe the answer would come from this magical connection we shared with each other. Because it couldn’t be anything other than magic, right? I tried to visualize the place where all the fear was entering my mind from. Taking the analogy of a faucet from earlier, the magical connection would be the pipe feeding that faucet. Could I send my own emotions back up the pipe?
Even though I was excited about getting to do magic, when faced with a situation actually involving it, for some reason I felt incredibly silly thinking about how it might work. Just this morning I would’ve sworn that magic wasn’t real and anyone who believed in it was crazy. But here I was.
I concentrated on trying to feel my way up the metaphorical pipe, hoping to get direct access to the emotions in the little changeling’s mind. Maybe if I planted the calming feelings directly at the source, she’d be able to notice them.
Whatever I was doing seemed to be working, and my connection with her seemed to grow stronger. As a side effect, that also meant the fear I was feeling from her grew in potency the closer we became. I had to use a lot of my willpower to force myself not to react to that fear, and I started repeatedly reminding myself that those feelings were not mine.
After an arduous process where my method was to basically just grasp at straws and see what would happen, it seemed like I finally reached the source of the connection—the queen’s mind. The panic and terror swirled around in this place like a maelstrom, and I had to suppress my body’s desire to tremble.
I prepared to implant as many feelings of friendliness and safety as I could muster directly into the storm of violent negativity. It was quite difficult to summon those calm feelings due to her continuous outpouring of fear, but I had to try my best regardless.
Before I enacted my plan, however, I noticed something else within the queen. I could only describe it as a different section, of sorts, that contained some kind of energy which drew me towards it. I couldn’t resist experimentally poking that energy.
A jolt of pure bliss, warmth, and happiness shot through my body, and I felt newly energized as if I had downed a shot of the strongest espresso imaginable.
At the same time, the queen let out a sharp gasp in the physical world. I refocused my attention to her in time to see tears start to pool up in the corners of her eyes and then run down her cheeks. Intense feelings of despair, hopelessness, and resignation flooded into my mind. The emotions were so bad I felt like I wanted to break down and start crying then and there.
I fought through the feelings in order to think clearly. Was the energy I absorbed from her love energy? Did I just invade a small child’s mind and steal her food right out of her body?
The thought of what I had done made me feel sick. I was not willing to accept the excuse that I had no idea what I was doing. I needed to fix things.
I found her pool of love energy again, but this time I made sure not to connect with it directly. If I was correct, I should’ve also had one just like it inside myself. I directed some attention to looking within, and since I already knew what to look for, I found it easily.
What I found troubled me. If I were to approximate the amount of love energy in my own—love reservoir? I guess that was an okay thing to call it. The energy in my love reservoir was about the volume of a filled bathroom sink. But the energy in the little queen’s reservoir would’ve been hard-pressed to make a small puddle in the middle of a street.
Why did she have so little? She must’ve been in so much pain from her hunger. I didn’t know what happened when a changeling ran out of love completely, but I could give a pretty good guess. Was that the reason why she wasn’t strong enough to break out of her egg?
I attached my love reservoir to our magic emotional connection and tried to somehow force my love into the pipe. After a few failed attempts, I managed to get my magic to do what I wanted it to do and my love started to get pumped away.
My instincts immediately began to scream at me. I needed to stop and get away, or I’d die! I was killing myself! The process was unpleasant and actually painful. I felt like my life energy was being sucked out of me and disappearing forever. The dull pit of pain in my stomach—which I had easily ignored up until now—was brought to the forefront of my mind as the pain quickly became intense. It felt as if my insides were being subjected to a blender.
I almost gave in to what my body was telling me and stopped, but I grit my teeth and furiously stamped those instincts down. I was simply providing for a helpless child, and pain wouldn’t stop me.
When about two-thirds of my love reservoir was gone, I stopped the transfer. I breathed a sigh of relief as my body stopped screaming. The intensity of the pain in my stomach subsided, but it settled down to a much more painful level than it was previously, to the point where it was somewhat difficult to ignore.
I double-checked the queen’s love reservoir to make sure she successfully got the love. Luckily, nothing went wrong, and she had everything I gave her. I hoped that would last her for a decent while.
I pulled my will away from her mind, having had enough of invading it.
I turned my attention back to the physical world to find the queen staring at me with wide eyes and a slightly open jaw. I could see her little fangs poking out from just behind her lips.
At least she wasn’t crying anymore, which was great. Nor did she seem to be terrified of me any longer. The emotions she was emitting currently consisted of surprise and lots and lots of confusion. She was extremely confused.
So was I, to be honest. I had just fed her. What was there to be confused about?
Whatever. She was no longer trembling as if I was about to murder her, so that was progress. I was happy with that.
I figured it was finally time to give her some space. Her eyes tracked my foreleg again as I lifted it to walk, but I was glad that there was no outpouring of fear this time. I quickly took several steps backwards to give her room to get up, but I remained nearby in case she needed help.
She didn’t seem to be in a hurry to move, though.
I recognized that she couldn’t understand me, but I knew from my experience raising my kids back home that it was important to talk to babies so they could imitate their parents’ language and learn it. Did changelings learn language in the same way? She was obviously way more intelligent at this stage than any human baby, so I wasn’t sure.
In any case, I felt like I wanted to talk to her.
"Are you feeling okay?" I asked. I used a soft tone of voice so as not to startle her.
She responded by closing her jaw and blinking.
"Does your chest hurt?" I used my forehoof to point at my own upper chest area. I was concerned that the CPR I performed on her would have left her with a lingering injury.
She briefly looked down at her chest, and then back up at me. She still felt very confused, and continued to lie there without moving.
Well… this was awkward.
At a loss for what to do, I looked around at our surroundings. After spotting a pile of discarded curtains nearby, I had an uncertain idea. I wanted to use the curtains as a towel to wipe all that slime off of her, but I wasn’t sure she would appreciate being touched by me.
Although she seemed to have gotten over her fear for whatever reason. Maybe it’d be fine? If I felt her get scared again, I could just back off.
Might as well try.
"Be right back," I said.
I started making my way to the curtain pile, and I felt her gaze follow me the entire time. She was watching me like a hawk.
But if that was what she needed to do to feel safe, I didn’t mind it.
When I arrived at the pile, I wasn’t entirely sure how I should pick the stuff up to bring it back. Bunching it all up in my forelegs and then walking back on my hind legs was probably not possible with my shaky balance.
In the show, ponies were often depicted as picking things up with their mouths. My human sensibilities found that idea disgusting. But would that be my only option here? I had no clue how to work my magic to do telekinesis.
I craned my neck to look at my back. Sure enough, I had two thin and membranous insect wings back there, laying flat against my carapace. As someone who had gotten into aviation due to my love of flight and the sky, the prospect of one day being able to fly using my own body unaided by any machines brought me an indescribable amount of joy. It was something I had dreamed of doing ever since I was a young boy.
But I didn’t know how to use those wings at the moment, so I wouldn’t be able to hold the curtains in my forelegs as I hovered off the ground. Unfortunately, my dream would have to wait a little while longer.
It seemed like I’d have to give in and use my mouth to drag the curtains back. Yuck.
I leaned down to bite into the fabric, making sure to use my teeth as much as possible and definitely avoiding touching it with my tongue. I then began to make my way back to where the queen was, dragging the train of curtain behind me over the furniture.
I felt her confusion grow stronger as I returned to her. Her lips were pressed into a line and her eyebrows were scrunched together as she watched me. She was clearly baffled by what I was doing, which I thought was pretty amusing.
I stopped before I reached the puddle of slime on the floor—I didn’t want to get the curtain dirty if I was going to use it to wipe the queen off—and then I spat the fabric out.
"I’m back," I said.
She still hadn’t moved at all from her spot lying on the floor in the slime.
I put on what I hoped was a friendly and gentle smile and beckoned her with a foreleg.
"Come here," I said. "I’ll help you get cleaned up."
She just blinked and continued staring. Did she not get it?
I tried to project feelings of care towards her while I beckoned her some more.
I felt a trickle of anxiousness, uncertainty, and a little bit of fear get mixed into the stream of confusion coming from her. Luckily it was nowhere near the amount of fear she felt previously, but it was there all the same. Was she starting to understand what I wanted her to do?
I thought it’d be important not to rush her and let her decide to approach me on her own time. Kind of like meeting a new pet cat. Wait patiently while they decided to come over to you and let them sniff you before you touched them.
I projected as many feelings of warmth and safety as I could while I waited for her. I had no idea if she was even receiving my emotions or if they were effective at calming her down, but I kept at it in case they did help.
"Come on," I said softly. "I want to help you. I won’t hurt you."
The queen’s anxiety swelled, but eventually she rolled over onto her belly. Naturally, she kept her eyes focused on me while she moved, and her movements were slow and cautious.
She got her hooves under her and hesitantly stood up.
"Good job," I told her with a big smile on my face, feeling genuinely proud of her. "Now walk this way."
I beckoned her towards me.
Each time she took a reluctant step in my direction, her anxiety would grow a little more. But at least she wasn’t running away, which I was pleased with. I simply stood there and waited for her patiently.
She stopped a few steps away from me before straightening her legs and back. She fixed me with a firm glare, looking right into my eyes. Was she trying to appear tough and unafraid? I still felt the anxiety roiling within her, but I had to admit she did a really good job of not showing it on the outside. I found the whole thing to be absolutely adorable.
"You made it," I told her, feeling happy for her. "It must’ve taken a lot of courage not to run away. Thanks for trusting me. Although I still don’t know why you’re so afraid of me."
She didn’t respond, but I didn’t expect her to.
"You’re covered in slime from your egg right now," I said. I looked down at myself before chuckling. "And I’m a mess too. Do you mind if I touch you to wipe it off? I promise I won’t hurt you."
She tilted her head to the side and scrunched her muzzle. What did that mean?
"Slime," she said slowly, trying to sound the word out.
My eyes widened. She spoke!
"Yes, slime," I said excitedly. "Do you know what slime is?"
"Slime," she repeated.
Oh, was she just repeating me after hearing me say the word?
I pointed with my foreleg to the puddle behind her. "Slime."
She seemed hesitant to take her eyes off me to look at where I was pointing, but I waited patiently. Eventually she turned her head to take a quick peek before snapping her eyes back to me.
"That is slime," I said.
She didn’t say anything back. I hoped she understood enough to learn something.
Deciding to move on, I lowered myself to sit down on my haunches. It was my first time sitting like this, and the position felt quite weird, but I needed to have my forelegs free to do anything useful. I reached down and grabbed one end of the curtain with a forehoof.
The queen had positioned herself out of my reach, so I needed to get closer to her before I could clean her up. But I figured it probably wasn’t a good idea to walk at her myself, so I decided to coax her to come to me again.
I beckoned her with my free foreleg, but she seemed unwilling to move any closer.
I held up the curtain for her. "It’s just fabric. See? Nothing to be scared of. Come."
She still didn’t budge, and she was looking at me strangely.
"Please?" I said. I tried to send her my thoughts of wishing she would come closer. But I was pretty sure our connection could only share emotions, not thoughts, so I doubted she got anything.
She bit her bottom lip with her little fangs, and her anxiety skyrocketed to heights just under to when she first woke up. Oh no, was I scaring her away?
Shakily, she picked up her foreleg and stepped closer. Then she stepped closer again. I was surprised she wasn’t backing away. When she entered the range where I could touch her if I extended my forelegs, she began to tremble slightly, but she still stepped closer as she held my gaze. Her fear had gone high up there.
She stopped right in front of me, basically muzzle to muzzle, standing tall and looking down into my eyes, yet shaking. I could feel the warm breath from her nose tickle the tip of my snout when she exhaled.
I couldn’t help but think that her reactions seemed like some kind of emotional trauma with getting close to people, but she was born not even a half hour ago. What kind of trauma could she have had? She definitely couldn’t have been remembering the CPR, as she was technically dead while I was doing it.
I had zero training in psychology, so I was stumped. All I knew was from my experience as a parent. If my kids were terrified of something to the point of shaking, they likely wanted comfort and hugs. But I was the source of fear for her, so I wasn’t sure that was a good idea.
I needed some way to show her I wasn’t a threat while also not doing anything she would be alarmed by.
What if I tried nuzzling her? Ponies liked nuzzles, right?
I cautiously brought my muzzle closer to the crook of her neck, making sure to move deliberately so she could see what I was doing. The storm of fear within her grew, but she stood stock still.
I gently pressed the tip of my nose against her chitin, causing her to give a soft gasp at the contact. The drying slime was cool to the touch and slightly tacky. I was sure her chitin would’ve felt a million times more pleasant without the slime in the way.
Regardless, I slowly began to rub my nose up and down in the crook of her neck in what I hoped were soothing motions. I had never nuzzled someone before, so I had no idea if what I was doing was correct.
Thankfully, after a few moments, I felt the queen’s anxiety begin to decline rapidly, and her body stopped trembling.
"Shh," I whispered, deciding to add some soft words while I nuzzled her. "It’s okay. You’re safe. I’ll protect you."
Eventually her fear and anxiety dropped to almost nothing, and I pulled back to look at her face. Her gaze locked on to mine and her eyes flicked to and fro, seeming to be searching for something.
"Feel better?" I asked.
She blinked, and a moment later she responded.
"Feel?" she said.
I chuckled. "Yes. Feel."
She made a humming sound. I didn’t know what that meant, but I wanted to get on with wiping her down, so I showed her the curtain in my forehoof again.
"I’ll use this to wipe away the slime on your body," I explained. "Just back away if you’re uncomfortable and want me to stop, okay?"
"Slime," she said.
I nodded. "You remembered slime. Very good."
"Feel slime," she said.
I couldn’t help but grin. She reminded me of my kids learning to talk. Of course, her rate of development was insane, but it was still extremely endearing.
I once again moved deliberately as I brought my forehoof wrapped in cloth up to her cheek. I’d start with her face, and then work down from there. I felt a tiny bump in anxiety as my forehoof touched her, but it was pretty minuscule this time.
Was she finally beginning to trust me? That would make me very relieved. I hated seeing her afraid of me.
I was sure to be gentle as I dragged the fabric over her chitin, making sure not to rub too hard or press with too much force. I especially took extra care around her eyes, nostrils, and mouth, ensuring that none of the gunk got into any of those sensitive places. With every wipe, I moved the fabric over to a new clean spot. Otherwise I would just be smearing the stuff around, not cleaning it.
When I got to her horn, I made sure to just barely touch it. I knew how sensitive her horn was, and I didn’t want to hurt her. It was difficult to clean the slime off it while only being able to apply the slightest hints of pressure, but I managed with some effort.
The queen seemed to approve of my care with her horn a lot, because by the time I was done with it her anxiety and fear had disappeared completely. Some of the confusion had returned, but what I was mostly feeling from her at the moment was something approaching appreciation.
I wasn’t sure what caused this sudden 180 from absolute terror to feeling positive about me, but I was happy to see it nonetheless.
After I finished her face and horn, I started working my way down her neck, then her front chest area, and then her forelegs. I picked up one foreleg at a time with my free forehoof for easier access to the holes in her legs. It was tricky getting the fabric to wipe within the holes, but I did the best I could even if I ended up missing some spots in the end. I also made sure to properly wipe behind her knee joints.
I then turned her forehoof over to clean underneath it, making sure to get the slime out of the soft fleshy frogs in the middle.
When the forelegs were done, I moved to her mane. Thankfully it wasn’t super long, only coming down to about chin height, but there was also no way I could give it a proper cleaning using only the curtain.
I gently ran the fabric over the hair, careful to avoid any painful pulls against her scalp. That seemed to get rid of the slime on the surface, but many of the hairs were still tangled and glued together. I couldn’t do anything about that until I found a bath and a comb, so I decided to leave it be for now.
I had to stretch up uncomfortably to reach her ears. She didn’t help me out by leaning down or anything. She just continued to stand still. But once I managed to reach them, they were easy to wipe down.
Seeing as I was done everything I could reach from her front, I stood up and made to walk to her side. But as I did, she rotated with me in order to keep facing me.
I kicked myself for overlooking this scenario. I probably should’ve figured she wouldn’t be comfortable with me being behind her where she was most vulnerable.
I stepped closer and softly pressed the tip of my nose against her’s before giving it a gentle rub. She didn’t react negatively at all this time, which I felt was a good sign of progress.
"You’re safe, remember?" I asked quietly. "I promised I would protect you. You have nothing to worry about."
I felt the steady breaths from her nostrils roll across the chitin on my face. She seemed calm, and I couldn’t feel any anxiety from her. I brought up my forehoof and started pressing with a soft pressure on her shoulder, trying to coax her to turn her side to me.
She seemed to realize what I wanted her to do, because I felt a small rise of uncertainty and worry as her big eyes stared searchingly into mine. I gave her another sympathetic nose rub to help assuage her.
Eventually she gave in to my coaxing and warily turned to the side. I was certain she wouldn’t have done something like that just a little while earlier, so I was glad she was choosing to trust me. She definitely felt a little anxious, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as before.
I didn’t want to make this any harder on her than it needed to be, so I decided to hurry up and spend as little time at her sides as possible. She was craning her neck back to watch me, but that didn’t seem to be much of a comfort to her.
I started with her delicate insect wings, taking extra care not to bend or pinch the membrane as I wiped the slime off their top surfaces. Then I used my free forehoof to ever so softly lift the wings up so I could get at their bottom surfaces, and then the carapace on the back underneath the wings.
The queen seemed more uncomfortable than ever with me touching her wings, so I finished up as fast as I could. After that, it was fairly straightforward to wipe down the sides of her barrel, her thorax, and then her abdomen.
I moved to her hind legs, using the same process I did with her forelegs to clean out the holes, and then guiding her to extend one leg at a time so I could clean the undersides of her hooves and frogs.
Finally, I did her tail, which I gave the same treatment as her mane. It was left in a similar state, still tangled and somewhat gooey, but there was still nothing I could do about it without some proper cleaning supplies.
Relieved that I managed to finish with no further incidents, I made my way to stand in front of her again.
"All done," I said. "This is the best I can do for now. Do you feel better without all that slime on you?"
I was surprised when she took her eyes off me to examine herself. I hadn’t expected her trust to have progressed that far yet, but I was happy to see that it did.
She felt around on her chitin with a forehoof, and then she raised her wings and flapped them rapidly like a bee or a fly.
I was jealous of her ability to control her wings like that. I doubted I could do the same myself. I’d have to find some way to ask her to show me how to do it.
Apparently pleased with her inspection, she looked back at me with a small smile on her lips. I couldn’t help but smile back, and I was suddenly hit with a cocktail of strong emotions I was hardly prepared for. All of them were positive. It was hard to pick individual feelings out of the medley, but I thought I felt some hints of happiness, relief, appreciation, and satisfaction. There were probably more emotions involved, but they were all mixed together and I was brand new at the whole emotion-sensing thing, so I couldn’t distinguish them.
The queen raised her foreleg and pointed it at me.
"Slime," she said.
I looked down at my chest, then chuckled.
"You’re right," I said. "I’m still slimy."
The slime on my chitin had long since dried out, covering me with a thin layer of crust lined with cracks. It seemed to peel off easily when I touched a forehoof to it.
Noting that the curtains still had some unsoiled spots left, I used them to quickly and roughly rub the stuff off my body. I spared no care to gentleness except for when I did my horn and wings. As a result, what had taken me many minutes to do for the queen had taken me barely a minute to do for myself. My job was also probably a lot sloppier than what I had done for her, but whatever.
I lamented when my own teal mane and tail were also left in gooey states after I ran the fabric over them. I thought it was quite gross to leave them like they were, but I knew I had no choice at the moment, so I would have to ignore the icky feelings until I could take care of them properly.
Now that we were both relatively clean—for a given definition of ‘clean’—and the queen seemed to have gotten over her inexplicable fear of me, I wondered what I should do next. I had come rushing up here on nothing but a whim of stupidity, after all, and I certainly did not expect any of the events that had just occurred.
I decided on one thing for certain. I absolutely did not want to go off on my own and abandon the queen to her own devices. Despite our rocky start, I found her quite charming and adorable, and taking care of her reminded me of taking care of my own children when they were babies and toddlers.
No, I would be sticking together with her.
Maybe it was shallow and indicative of some kind of coping mechanism or savior complex, but I didn’t care. As soon as I was sure of my decision, I felt filled with purpose. When I woke up here, I lost my whole world. I was dead, and I had nothing. But now I could at least take care of this weak and scared little child. Make sure she grew up fed and healthy.
That thought brought me to the topic of parents. Where were my parents? Her parents? Why were our eggs placed in a rotting storage room, and not in a changeling hive? Were we abandoned? Why?
I shook my head. It was important not to jump to conclusions just yet. Maybe our parents would show up soon to check on us. There could’ve been a good reason why they weren’t able to bring our eggs to a hive.
I looked at the queen across from me, who by this point had sat down on her haunches while she watched me stare off into space. I couldn’t help but feel a sudden sadness as I looked at her. She blinked her eyes rapidly, perhaps in response to feeling my emotions.
Regardless of these hypothetical parents’ intentions, they were downright negligent. She would have died in her egg if I wasn’t there to save her, and I was only able to do so because I reincarnated. If I was just a normal changeling without any memories of a past life, she would have had no one to help her. I strongly felt like that situation could have been avoided if we were in a proper hatching place like a hive, or if at least our parents stayed with our eggs to watch over us. The fact that they weren’t here meant that they didn’t care.
If these parents did show up, I would give them a piece of my mind.
But for the moment, it was probably better to stay put and wait for them even if they were incredibly irresponsible. I felt that it would be more beneficial in the long run to be part of a large group like a changeling society compared to running off on our own, and our parents would provide us with a way into that society.
Still, I didn’t know how long the wait for our parents to show up would be, and I didn’t want to keep referring to the queen as ‘her’ and ‘the queen’ all the time.
I imagined it was quite insulting to steal the right to name a child from their parents. I knew I would be very upset for sure if some random stranger had named my children before I could do so. But I was there for my children’s births, and our parents weren’t there for ours. In fact, I was there for the queen’s birth too. I even saved her life.
So I wanted to name her.
What were good changeling names? I recalled all the ones I could remember from Friendship is Magic: ‘Chrysalis,’ ‘Thorax,’ and ‘Pharynx.’ They all had a buggy theme.
I didn’t know anything about bug biology, so all I could go off of was the sound of them. I definitely didn’t want to reuse a name either. What sounded buggy and unique?
I spent some time thinking about it. While I was staring off into space, I saw the queen tilt her head at me and lean forward curiously. She was probably wondering what the hell I was doing just sitting there for such a long time.
I shot her a quick smile. "Don’t worry. I’ll give you attention soon. I just need to finish thinking about something important."
While I was at it, I decided I should probably think of a name for myself as well. I thought about reusing my old name, but I realized that I had to face reality. The old me was dead. I was no longer the human being I once was. No longer that person. And I would never be going back home. If I used my old name, every time someone addressed me by that name it would be a painful reminder of what I’d lost. My family, my friends, and my job that I loved. I would simply be torturing myself. There was no reason to do such a thing.
So I had to move on and pick a new name for the new me. I was a changeling now, so I also needed a changeling name.
After wracking my brain for more than a few minutes, I came up with two names that I was satisfied with. Both of them sounded buggy, unique, and fitting for each of us. Or at least I thought so.
I turned my attention to the queen, who was currently lying on her stomach with her chin resting on her forehooves and staring off into space herself. She was obviously bored out of her mind, and I gave a silent apology.
"Hey," I whispered, keeping my voice low so as not to startle her.
Her eyes snapped to me, and she immediately sat up, as if eager to go and do something.
I gave her a smile and pointed a forehoof to my chest.
"Thysbe."
She tilted her head.
"Thysbe," I repeated. "Say it with me. Thysbe."
She hesitated, feeling uncertain. I nodded at her to encourage her.
"T-" she stuttered. She seemed to have trouble with pronouncing it and moved her mouth silently for a moment.
"Thybe," she finally said.
I chuckled. I probably should’ve picked an easier name.
"I guess that’s close enough," I said. "We can work on it."
I didn’t really mind if she butchered it though. It was amusing.
I softly planted a forehoof onto her chest and held her gaze.
"Nephila."
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Is the MC aware that he is a queen? Or did I miss something?
So cute
12086627
The MC makes no mention of his awareness of his own body other than his acknowledgment that he is a changeling in chapter 1.
I half-expected her to insist that his name is Slime.
Aww, big
sistersibling energy. So cute.The romance tag is interesting in this one, to say the least.
I could have sworn I thought she (Nephila) might have originally been Chrysalis.
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Cool and cute.
I forgot to favorite this fic. Worth the wait? Not sure I'll keep reading this.
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We aren't even sure if it's he or she... Pilot training skipped to solving immediate problems
She share her love so what there are not transform into a New form
I like this a lot
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I would imagine the transformation only happens when they share all their love. *shrug*
the whole interaction in this chapter reminded me of the meme
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/151/981/927.png
and ofcourse i thought of it only in category of a joke because unlike mc the other changeling doesn't have previous life memories so it's basically a newborn, but than i thought that she was pretty much dead for a while and asphyxiation like that could cause some serious brain damage, but than again maybe changeling biology could repair those kind of damages no problem, i guess only time will tell.
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The sypnosis literally says its a he.
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all its seems like a suicide for them , if its that i can understand why they didnt find that naturally
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MC was a male human. The author keeps referring to MC as a he. MC as a changeling has a mane, and from the title of the story (if it is referring to these two), that means he is now a Queen.
Well, probably only one was meant to hatch and survive.
That didn't happen because of protagonist meddling, obviously, so after "birth" the second one was instinctually afraid of the "shark situation". Afraid of being "eaten" and drained by the one more fit to survive.
I would probably have chosen a number as name, I think it’s funny, like 101 or 38, in Spanish it sounds better
Cute!
Looking forward to more adorable bugparenting antics.
Those are such pretty names!!!
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That would be so silly xD
Hmm, it does make me wonder when the MC will consider the fact that Thysbe is their little sister. And it will be interesting to see how the two of them will progress from here... Because I suspect that there will be no parents incoming. So will they go the subversion route, or will the MC try and ask the ponies for help? And just how badly would the later go?
Because we have more than enough evidence in the show of the ponies reacting... negatively... to anything that's different. Like, if they tried to form a lynch mob for Zecora, then I don't think most ponies would react well towards two changelings.
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Well, in honor of a certain character from a Kids Next Door/Worm fanfic I read a while back... I think the "name" 818 would amusing for a changeling to pick.
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Considering that one of the characters listed is Sunset, it's entirely possible that the MC IS Chrysalis. It's just that she chose a different name for herself.
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Thysbe is the MC. ;)
Yessss! Love the direction this is going!
I like, give more
I'm liking this a lot so far and can't wait to see more
The naming is concluded!
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don’t know man, I thought more fallout, especially the F3, since I had always wanted to try it and since I lost the fear of downloading games over 5Gb I put it on my waiting list
This chapter's adorable! Can't wait to read more!
This looks like it's going to be a lot of fun! I can't wait (metaphorically) to see where you go with the story.
I'm excited for the mc to figure out they are a female changeling and a queen I think it will be funny I'm also excited to see if they become an evolved changeling since they willing give love like thorax
Looking great so far. I'm excited for all the places you could take this, I get the feeling parents aren't coming. They would notice one of them is to smart to quickly.
When I saw things about abandoned hive, I just look up and breathe out in relief. No AU or G5 tag.
Goodness it's not post apocalyptic G5 or Fallout Equestria.
Great stuff! Really loving their interactions do far. I'm guessing their instincts called for this to be a "stronger sibling eats the weaker" situation, which our protagonist has thoroughly sidestepped.
Looking forward to more!
Looking good so far
Whatcha talkin' 'bout Willis