> From the Ashes
>  by Dark0592
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> Prologue
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Twilight was sitting in the small operations room of the makeshift outpost that had been erected to support the barrier around the hive. Her hive… To her left sat Nictus and Keine. She was idly watching them nervously fidget with their carapace. They weren’t used to being in such a degenerated state, and Twilight felt it as well. She herself wasn’t much better. She would have asked them what was wrong, but she knew. Even without the hive mind she could tell they were nervous about being here in this state. 

They had spent months retreating from Equestria so they didn’t have to risk shattering the peace if any individuals were to go mad with hunger. Now they sat, waiting, for the Equestrian representative to appear. Judging by how long it was taking, though, that wasn’t really what they were waiting for. A representative was stationed here at all times, Twilight thought she had even seen the man when they arrived. They were to negotiate the lowering of the Barrier with proof that they were no longer at risk of going mad.

Twilight soon found out exactly what they were waiting for. A small contingent of armed guards entered the room, though they did not raise their weapons. I nfact, Twilight personally recognized them and they shared smiles and nods in greetings. It was Celestia’s personal honor guard. The princess swiftly stepped in, a hardened look on her face. She did not stop at the chair, though, almost running around the table. Twilight was barely able to stand up before the princess nearly bowled her over in a hug. There were no words. There didn’t need to be. The pure, desperate love that was being shared was more than enough for even the humans in the room to feel.

Nictus and Keine were enraptured by the display, the love was radiating so brilliantly they couldn’t help but feed from it. Twilight was already unconsciously distributing the energy through the Hive. The seething hunger they all still felt was abated, for now at least, but it wasn’t nearly enough to even begin to reverse the degeneration. Last time this happened, when Chrysalis was the subject of pure love, it jump started regeneration immensely. Now the Brood requires so much more love just to live, they hadn’t quite figured out the exacts yet.

“I thought I’d lost you again…” Celestia said softly, regaining her composure before fixing her outfit and taking a seat to Twilight’s right. Twilight smiled and returned to her seat as well.

“I thought so as well… I’m sorry, Celestia… I just couldn’t leave her side, leave the hive in that state. I would have never been able to forget… I’m just glad it worked out the way it did in the end.” The Lavender Changeling said. Celestia noted that there was a bit of something in her voice. Not quite power, but something akin to it.

“I… understand the sentiment. The other elements will take much more convincing, however. But enough of that, where is Chrysalis? While I am overjoyed that you are here, I was informed that the Queen is here as well.” Celestia asked, pushing her emotions back for a minute to get to the task at hand. Twilight’s expression fell.

“She is back at the hive… And you were not lied to, I am the Queen of this Hive now.” Twilight said solemnly. Celestia stared at her for a moment, realizing what Twilight was saying.

“So… she is…” She started but trailed off. Twilight gave a weak smile and shook her head.

“She lives, still… The strain of thousands of shattering mind in turn shattered hers, though. She is comatose, and even her connection to the Hive Mind is in tatters. I’m trying to rehabilitate her, but only time will tell the success of it.” The Queen explained. Celestia nodded slowly and sat back in her chair, a finger to her bottom lip in thought.

“So you are the Queen then? I suppose you were rebirthed in a Royal Pod… I don’t know much about Changelings, but that seems to make sense to me at least… I thought the previous queen had to die first, though?” Celestia asked, her curiosity taking point. Twilight nodded.

“The previous queen is dissolved into the pod to recycle her life force, her memories and her body. This didn’t happen, but here I am. I’ll let you know what exactly happened as soon as I figure it out myself.” She replied. Celestia took a breath and sat up in her chair from where she had leaned back.

“Alright, so… onto business. You know I’ll be happy to order the barrier lowered, I’ve already sent it actually… but was there any progress made to reverse the degeneration? I was going to send someone in to see what was happening when all activity stopped for so long” The Princess asked hopefully. 

“All activity, what do you mean?” Twilight asked, confused. Celestia paused.

“We… have been watching. Using magic or other means. We wanted to make sure that if there was a change, we’d know. There was a great violent outburst of activity, and then almost as quickly as it started it stopped. Everything stopped. As if frozen in time, there wasn’t even a twitch of movement for two weeks.” Celestia explained. Twilight was surprised by this.

“It took that long?... What even happened, Chrysalis…” She breathed to herself. Celestia caught it though.

“I’ll have our researchers return, and by the sound of things I’ll have a good doctor in there to make sure Chrysalis is physically fit if you’d like.” Celestia offered. Twilight smiled and nodded, standing.

“If it’s alright with you, I’d like to reinstate all of the old agreements and policies. I wouldn’t dare resume at full pace with the degeneration still a small threat, but I can’t afford much time away right now. I’d like to send you lists of our collectors and have them take a trip home. I only need them for a day so they can personally spread the love they’ve collected. I will not order them myself, and I will not have you order them, but rather a strong request.” The Queen explained. Celestia nodded.

“I’ll begin giving the all clear to the guard and attempt to do the same for the public. Luckily there were no major incidents with any of the degenerated, so it should be easier to make back our progress.” The Princess said. Twilight nodded and hugged the princess.

“Thank you, princess, for everything… Even without the love you gift me just by standing here, you are doing so much for me and my Hive.” The girl said, and for a moment Celestia could see the little mage she practically raised again. No, she was always there.This was still that little mage, just a little chitinous and with more responsibilities. Celestia kissed the top of the girl’s head.

“Well I am happy to help both my star pupil and my newest ally. Even if it is just standing here.” She giggled. Twilight stepped back and they bowed to each other. They turned and went their separate ways, but every changeling in the hive shared her smile.

She looked back towards the hive. HER hive…

No, calling it hers didn’t feel quite right. A thought went to the sleeping queen in the forest of their minds. She let herself drift there for a few moments. Not quite enough to manifest, but just to watch. She saw her now flourishing forest span further than she could see.She saw a gentle breeze swirling the lavender and crimson leaves. She felt the need to stroll through them, as they had done so many times before. But she saw the sleeping queen, resting peacefully against the singular tree with soft teal leaves.

She turned towards the other side of the forest, where the Queen’s forest was supposed to be. Even the charred husk of the singular tree there was nothing but ashes. But, rather than sink as she usually did, Twilight took a calming breath as she looked deeper. The tree and even the stump may be ash now, but the roots remained alive. She remembered how, not long ago, her own forest was just ash.

From the ashes, we rise. From the ashes, we are reborn.
> 1: To Begin Anew
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A month had passed since the degeneration and there was still no breakthroughs, in both of her goals. No matter how much love she pumped into her sleeping queen, or how much she prodded her mental manifestation, the queen would not stir. And while the degeneration did not progress or tear at their minds anymore, they were still covered almost completely in carapace and holes. Twilight and a few of the older changelings were the only ones to bear skin anymore, and only in place of the soft muscle the carapace would normally reveal.

That wasn’t at the front of Twilight’s thoughts at the moment, though. What she was focusing on was a single individual. Or rather, a single Drone. She stopped calling the changelings of her hive Drones, but she could describe this one as nothing else. It blended in perfectly with its degenerated kin, but it was certainly not of her hive.

The creature was currently sitting alone at a table in the mess hall Twilight had decided to stop by. She noticed him immediately for multiple reasons. The first was that it was gnawing on what looked like leftovers, rather than a fresh meal pod. The second was that she was surprised to see it sitting there, she knew the location and general state of mind of every single changeling in her hive mind. Even the almost nonexistent link to the Harvesters yielded locational information.

Lastly, she could not recall a name. Or anything about this individual. While she did not personally know every single one of her new children, something she was slowly rectifying, she could always query the hive mind to get at least a name. Nobody knew who he was, and he was not connected to the hive mind. Which could only mean one thing.

Twilight held a hand out, and almost immediately a passing worker placed a small try of four pods in the outstretched hand. There was no word spoken, not even a mental command through the hive. 

The Drone was surprised when someone sat with him, and dropped the remains of the empty meal pod he was chewing on at realizing who it was that had decided to join him.

“M-My Queen!” He said, trying and failing to bow to her while simultaneously trying to stand. Twilight instinctively asked him to drop the title, as she usually did when one of her new children tried to bow to her, but she quickly stopped trying when she remembered why she sat down in the first place. So this really is a Spy from another hive. Chrysalis told her it may happen one day, the other hives might take interest in Equestria, or their hive specifically. None of them had apparently had contact in centuries.

“Pardon the insult, but is your queen really this stupid to think I wouldn’t notice an individual I could not reach in the hive mind?” She asked flatly. The drone’s chitin almost paled as the look of fear overtook his facial features. He was about to try and bolt before Twilight pulled two of the meal pods from the organic tray and held them out to him.

“While I strongly disapprove of your being here, I will not let one starve in my halls if I have the food to spare.” She continued. Seeing that it was not currently lying dead where he sat, the drone decided it wasn’t in immediate lethal danger and cautiously accepted the pods. He started gnawing on the top of it, seemingly trying to eat only the organic material that made up the pod.

Confused, Twilight made a bit of a noise to get his attention before absentmindedly pulling the top of her own pods off with her teeth and taking a sip from the drink within the second. The drone met her with another confused look before she picked a piece of cooked meat from the first pod and started eating it. Finally understanding, the thing followed her lead and was enraptured by the actual food in the pods.

“Can you even speak, or are you just too scared to do so?” Twilight asked as a few of her children left and were silently replaced with defenders. They did not act, nor do anything more but act as if they were simply here to eat and chatter on a break. The Drone made a clicking noise, but it seemed to be more of a natural click as it wasn’t nearly complicated enough to carry meaning like Twilight’s children could.

Children… that felt right to call them, rather than Drones.

“I… am sorry… I… I don’t want to die…” The Drone said shakily, finally noticing the much larger changelings now outnumbering ten to one around the room. Without even a darting eye movement from Twilight, the defenders slowly filed out after picking up their meal pods. Twilight did roll her eyes as Keine grabbed an extra pod of wine but didn’t do anything about it. Her head defender deserved the right to be a lush sometimes.

The Drone, on the other hand, was now a little more terrified of this new hive. No words, and their drones could understand and operate without a direct line of control. He was terrified, but as the defenders left the terror slowly plateaued out to more of a general fear for his life rather than OH DEAR GOD PLEASE DON’T KILL ME. This was a little abated as Twilight nodded to his meal pods.

“Please, you’re starved. We may speak whenever you are ready.” She said gently, almost like he was her own drone. Cautiously, he sniffed the now open meal pods still in his hands. The beverage appeared to be some sort of juiced fruit, while the meat was of something from the surrounding forest if he were to hazard a guess. Both were divine in flavor, he was used to bi-waste from his elders or scraps. This was…

This was concerning. Why was this queen so friendly to him? He thought for sure he was dead. Especially when the room filled with the soldiers. But now she seems… concerned.

And Twilight was concerned. The creature was almost a stick, with barely any meat under his carapace. She could feel that even his love reserves were barely high enough to support cognitive function let alone changeling magic. She watched it devour the meal, like it was his first. She noted how it would occasionally glance at her with either curiosity or fear. Or sometimes both. When it finished, the queen finally spoke again.

“Tell me, what is your name? I wish to stop calling you Spy or Drone in my thoughts.” She asked politely. The drone froze. She wants a name?

“I do not have a name, Queen. I have not achieved a high enough rank in my hive to be granted one…” He replied. It was true, he was one of the newest births of his hive. He was tasked with this spy job since he apparently resembled the drones of this hive the most. He could not match their mannerisms, though, and was quickly isolated. At least that’s what he thought, it was really his inability to connect to their hive mind. He was chewing on leftovers because to the cooks he had not earned his meal today yet. They were too busy cooking to realize they heard nothing of him because there was nothing to be heard.

“Don’t have a… That’s terrible!.” Twilight said, almost disgusted another queen would strip her lower ranking children of even a name. She thought for a moment, letting the feeling pass.

“Well, if a name is earned… have you never thought of one for yourself?” The queen asked. The drone flinched. Of course he has, every nameless drone dreams of a name for themselves. It is almost never their chosen name, but a drone can dream can’t it?

“N-Nik, your highness.” He squeaked out. Twilight nodded.

“Nik, then. Good. Well, Nik, I know you’re a spy. I would like your cooperation, as I really don’t want to hurt or imprison you. Can you call to your queen so I may speak with her? I’d be more than happy to answer at least some of the questions you were sent here to answer.” The lavender queen asked. Nik looked at her, dumbfounded.

Call to his queen? SPEAK with her? If Nik ever addressed his queen with anything more than an emergency or a report he’d be executed on the spot! Let alone that he could do no such thing from so many miles away.

“Uh… What?” He asked, instantly clasping hands over his mouth. He just questioned a queen. That was grounds for punishment. Twilight picked up on it though, and sighed.

“Nik, I promise you will not be harmed as long as you show no hostilities of your own. By your response, I’m guessing you’re unable to contact your queen from here?” She guessed. Nik nodded. “Then how were you to report your findings?” She continued.

“I was to… to return home. Whenever I found something worth telling my queen…” He gulped. And now he’s revealed his orders to another queen. If this Lavender queen didn’t kill her, his own surely would now.

“Well then, I suggest you do your job. Tell your queen that further spies will be turned away at the door. If she wishes to know more about me, she must come and ask herself.” Twilight said, standing. She put her hand out again and a worker quickly placed a few more meal pods in her hand.

“As a gift of good faith, and to leverage your life by the sound of i’ll grant you a few days of rations. If I give you too much then give it to your queen or something.” She explained. The Drone very cautiously took the gift, staring down at the things in his hands. He then stared back at Twilight for a few seconds before she rolled her eyes.

“Go on then, you will find none to bar your path to leave. I’m excited to speak to your queen.” She said, ending with a smile. The drone almost stayed to stare at her again, but quickly snapped out of it and bolted. Letting his fear guide him out of this strange hive, he found open air and shot through it on his gossamer wings.

“Nobody in the hive is old enough to even remember seeing another hive’s changeling… If only our first mother were here. She’d know more about this…” Keine said ,returning almost immediately with an open wine pod in her hand. Twilight gave her a coy smile before snatching it and sipping at it before the burly woman noticed it was even gone.

The Defender’s protest was cut short at Twilight’s expression. It had fallen again, and Keine could feel the inner turmoil from her queen. She shouldn’t have mentioned Chrysalis…

“While I appreciate the sentiment, she is your mother. Not I. There is no point in saying first if there was never a second.” The Queen said softly. Keine shook her head and had to hold back her argument. This conversation had already happened more times than she’d like to count. She wasn’t going to repeat it, at least not today.

“Perhaps… we could learn more about our kind?” She suggested slowly, grasping at straws. Nictus and Ceren were always better and cheering her up. That seemed to lift her queen’s spirits at least a little bit, though, as a soft smile graced her lips as she looked at her head defender.

“You’re right. If I dwell in the past too long I may not be able to bring myself back to the present… Chrysalis told me little of other Changelings, but judging by that Drone’s reaction to being found out he was expecting to be killed right there… I hope I did the right thing, Keine. The last thing I would want is war, and I would hate for Nik to lose his life because I found him out…” Twilight said with a sad sigh. Keine almost laughed.

“Even though he was not yours, you cared about his life like he was. I’d be jealous if I couldn’t feel the love for us you give off.” The Defender said, wrapping an arm around Twilight’s shoulder. Twilight chuckled and leaned into the half embrace. She could never get over the need for physical affection she had with her friends in Ponyville, her children were always happy to reciprocate at least.

“Thanks, I needed that.” Twilight said, taking a calming breath and standing. She downed the rest of her drink and carried the rest of her meal as they walked, picking at it occasionally.

“Any word from Celestia or Luna?” She asked, her tone settling into a professional one.

“Plenty of word, yes, but not the right ones. Your idea to keep in regular contact is certainly doing wonders for our morale, but even I’ve started to learn to read between the lines. In Celestia’s letters they explain how much they miss you personally as well as how they miss the Changelings as allies and friends. But, hidden in the kind words of encouragement are quite angry quips. I assume she expects you to be the only one to pick up on them.” Keine explains, chuckling at the end. Twilight gave her a curious look so she elaborated.

“Not directed at us, of course. She’s angry at her own people I think. Well, I guess frustrated. She’s talked about plans to resume integration, but the only places that’ll even accept us in our degenerated state is Ponyville and Cloudsdale, and that’s only because your old friends are pushing it so hard.” Keine explained. Twilight hummed in acknowledgement.

“Remind me to thank the Archivists for pouring over her letters for me, I guess I did spend a bit too long immersed.” She sighed. Keine chuckled.

“Mother knows best, as they say. And they already know.” The Defender replied. Twilight was about to ask how they could, but was quickly reminded of the hive mind. Specifically, the appreciation from said Archivists acknowledging her thanks. She could only smile at it as the two walked.

“A new letter has arrived, though. Since you were awake, the Archivists brought it to your quarters. This one seemed important.” Keine continued as they stopped below the opening to her chamber. Twilight nodded to keine, her appreciation translated immediately through the hive mind. Keine smiled and did a simple bow. Twilight rolled her eyes and the two parted ways, Twilight up to the queen’s chamber and Keine back to the defender’s branch.

Twilight could never suppress her smile at seeing her Queen in her peaceful sleep on the bed. It used to immediately fall as she remembered that the queen would not wake up… but she didn’t think about that. She walked over to the bed and sat down, gently stroking the woman’s hair. Without a thought, she levitated the rolled scroll from the desk over to her and opened it in the telekinesis.

‘To my Twilight Sparkle,

It has certainly been a frustrating month. I can’t spare the time to visit, and almost every member of my council is up in arms every time I suggest it. Their refusal is not unfounded, they fear that even though you are the Queen there are drones that you cannot control and may attack me. I know it’s all poppycock, I’ve personally met a number of your kin last time I was there. THey were more than polite.
After careful explanation and coaxing, though, they are prepared to allow you and a number of your kin to come to Canterlot in a show of peace to conduct negotiations and peace talks once more. Since we’ve already done that, it’ll really just be some time I wish to spend with you… 
I miss you, Twilight. Luna misses you as well, and your brother has been wanting to see you since even before the degeneration. He’s returned from the crystal empire with Cadence. We plan to, at the end of it, publically announce our agreements to placate the nobility and give you a chance to give an address should you wish. Changeling or not you are still the Element of magic and a former princess of Equestria.

Your Princess Celestia’

Twilight smiled at her old mentor’s writing. It used to embarrass Twilight how she started writing to her as if they were lovers, but quickly found solace in the affection behind it when it was clear it was a joke. She grinned at the memory of the nobility practically breaking down the door to Celestia’s room when they had caught wind of it. She smiled as she looked at Chrysalis then.

Three mothers in her life, and now she was down to one… Her smile faded with that thought. Her birth mother had become so enraptured by her research she hadn’t even seen the woman since she retired her equestrian crown. That was the last formal event Twilight had been a part of in Equestria. And that was years ago. She had somewhat regular correspondence with her father via letters until she was changed, and had even sent a few letters back and forth afterwards.

Chrysalis was… asleep. Now all she had left was Celestia. She smiled at that finally and stood. With a wordless request, her chamber opened and Nictus entered with a few others. The others placed parchment, ink and a glyph inscribed seal on the desk and left while Nictus clasped Twilight’s hand.

“Good to see you again, my queen. Our last hunt was a success, no casualties.” The Huntress said first. Twilight smiled and nodded. She was aware of the full report but she always preferred receiving it directly.

“How goes the project?” Twilight asked. Nictus’ unintentional clicks revealed excitement.

“Fully trained and tested on a hunt, my queen. I think we’re ready.” The Huntress replied. Twilight clasped her hands together in joy.

“Perfect, gather my Wraiths. We’ve been granted an audience in Canterlot. Unless otherwise stated we shall leave tonight.” The queen said happily. Nictus was overjoyed at both the new changelings being mobilized and their chance to set things right again. She didn’t feel the need to bow as Keine still did, happy with giving her queen all the respect she could muster through the link. She could feel the queen’s eyes rolling but was happy to reciprocate it.

Finally, progress.
> 2: A Warm Reception
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Twilight was nervously tapping her carapace covered fingers on armrest of her seat as they rolled down the road between ponyville and Canterlot in a carriage. Twilight looked at the changelings in the carriage with her, ad at those walking or flying nearby out of the window. Her personal honor guard consisting of 7 changelings. She called them her Wraiths due to their battle plating covering their entire faces to seem like they didn’t have one. Ceren had crafted more of her weapons for them as well, and each were trained in both Hunter and Defender tactics. All but Nictus were born very recently, given their training through the hive mind and grown through excess Love and magical influence in their birthing pods.

“Nilan, you’re fretting even more than I am. Is something on your mind or is it just my nerves bleeding through?” Twilight asked her second in command sitting across from her. The changeling girl was tapping fingers on the wood, on her carapace, on her bow and shifting every few seconds.

“S-Sorry, Mother… I’m just anxious to be there. It’s so strange being away from the hive and out of the forest… Our reception in ponyville has helped, but I know Canterlot will be far worse.” The girl explained, though it seemed that giving her anxieties a voice helped her calm them further and she stopped most of her twitching.

“Canterlot itself is full of good people, it’s the Nobility we have to worry about.” Twilight said with a sigh. She looked at her Wraiths again. Nilan was across from her, and next to the two of them were two more. Vera and Bie had focused on medical training and had developed a stronger strain of their toxin. They could reverse their toxin glands to produce a medicinal salve that accelerated natural healing and spread nutrients and other important minerals to help speed the regrowing of carapace and bone. To humans, it would help regrow hair and things like nails.

Shrike, Nictus, Nila and Kree were outside. Shrike and Kree had taken to their wings quite spectacularly and even now were competing to who could do the best stunts while staying in range of the carriage. Nictus and Nila were walking in front of the carriage, lowly discussing situations and mock scenarios. Nila was an amazing strategist and would often stump Nictus rather than the other way around, but Keine was always better than her when it came to large scale strategy.

“You still feel so much love for these places. I hope it will be reciprocated, I’m not entirely sure I can keep my cool if they start spitting on you…” Nilan admitted softly. Twilight put a hand on her shoulder and attempted to lift her spirits with humor.

“Oh, if they spit on me I’ll spit back. I wonder if they know we spit toxic and organic cement?” She said with a giggle, to which Nilan snorted. She didn’t reply though, but her resting smirk told Twilight that she was imagining the scenario and found it quite amusing.

The carriage lurched to a halt, unexpectedly, and Twilight immediately pinged the hive mind to figure out why. She heard from both her own ears, and the ears of her wraiths outside, that there was a group of people shouting at her Changelings.

“-nd if I have to kill you bugs to do it then I’ll happily do so! Let those people go or die like the slaver scum you are!” A man continued screaming at Nictus’ unamused face.

“Waaaaaaaait wait wait, you think we’re transporting slaves? The hell you think we are, we stopped kidnapping people the second peace was established!” Nictus fumed. There was a group of maybe five or six men with surprisingly high quality equipment.They may have been off duty royal guards or retired police maybe.

“Well then why do you have an EQUESTRIAN carriage with you? Either you stole it, or you’re trying to steal its passengers!” The other man retorted. Nictus facepalmed.

“Yes, that is our ultimate ploy to take over Equestria. We’ll kidnap a random carriage of equestria citizens even though we’re on our way to negotiate peace again. And THEN we’ll BRING that cart of kidnapped people straight to the CAPITAL. Come on human, you know where this road leads. We’ve been authorized to defend ourselves if lethal force is used.” Nictus explained. Her nonchalant demeanor just pissed the man off further. He made to draw his sword, but when they didn’t even react to the attempt he paused. Then he thought about what she said.

It actually made sense, and that pissed him off even more.

“Well… Then I guess you stole it!” He snipped, drawing his sword. His men did the same with their weapons. Nictus just rolled her eyes.

“Look pal, we just want to get through. If you’re so convinced that we stole this carriage, then you’re more than welcome to walk along and turn us in at the royal guardhouse when we get to Canterlot. Until then, sheathe your weapons or we will be forced to incapacitate you. And we don’t have room to carry a bunch of lumps with us.” Nictus replied, but judging by the fact that he remained where he was and refused to sheathe his weapon she guessed only the threat recognized. She sighed and made a few clicking noises. Kree and Shrike dropped out of the clouds almost soundlessly, only one of the two archers noticing in time to even yelp before the two had landed on the both of them and planted their heads into the mud. 

Nictus and Nila hadn’t even extended their weapons or battle plating as they disarmed and disabled the leader and one of his other men. When the shock finally abated, the last of the humans screamed and charged at the four changelings, but were quickly disabled and disarmed as well.

Twilight hated every second of it, but she was just happy her children didn’t use their right of self defense to kill them and instead incapacitated them relatively unharmed. Nictus poked her head through the window of the carriage to look at her.

“Strip their gear, we’ll drop it off at the guard station. It’s definitely theirs, though whether it’s stolen or they’re off duty it’s better in their hands than out in the mud. It’s not cold enough for them to freeze so they can sleep in the dirt tonight.” Twilight commanded. Nictus nodded and the Wraiths outside were already doing as she ordered. Nilan gave her a questioning look, the question conveying through it.

“Don’t worry, we’ll tell them they’re here. On the wings of the Valkyrie corps it’s only a little ways away. I wish we could have just flown ourselves, but if we arrived in anything other than a marked carriage then it could make things worse.” She answered, finishing with another sigh as she leaned into Vera’s shoulder next to her. Surprised by the sudden contact, the girl froze. Bie smirked at her face, though he was a little jealous.

“Wake me when we arrive, I was too anxious to sleep during the day.” She asked. The three nodded. Vera was terrified for only a moment longer before she felt her mother’s ambient love seeping out of her. They all felt it and relaxed a little. Even those outside and in the air could grasp at the wispy dregs that made it out so far. Luckily for them, the rest of the trip was uneventful.

They all nearly panicked when they failed to rouse her when they reached the gatehouse, but the guard running it recognized her well enough and let them pass. He thanked them for returning the equipment, it had been stolen after a new batch of recruits ran off when they heard Changelings were coming.

They DID panic when they finally reached the palace and they still couldn’t rouse her. Celestia and Luna, who had been happily waiting in front of the door, gained worried expressions when Twilight didn’t leave the carriage. They started walking over when Nictus and the others poked their heads in and started speaking quickly to each other.

“What’s wrong, is she alright?” Celestia asked, worried. Nictus’ head shot back out and quickly shook her hands in front of her.

“No no, I mean yes! She’s fine, we’re just having trouble waking her up… I hadn’t realized how much sleep she’s been missing…” The Huntress explained, finishing with a hand rubbing the back of her head.  “She spends so much time immersed and forgets to sleep often, my guess is this is her first nap in days.” She continued, looking back at the carriage. Luna still looked worried, but Celestia just giggled and rolled her eyes.

“If it isn’t studying it’s… immersing… I guess. Here, I’ll take care of it.” The Princess said, walking over to the carriage. All of their first instincts was to bar the Princess access to their vulnerable queen, but they did not act on it as Celestia opened the door and peered inside. Nictus had to shoot Nilan a quick glare when the girl made agitated clicks as Celestia touched Twilight, but all sighed in relief when no harm came to her. Instead, Celestia picked up the girl from her seat and turned to the changelings.

“Oh don’t look so surprised. She lived at the palace for years as my student. This isn’t the first time I’ve had to carry her to her bed.” She said, almost beaming. She never thought she’d be able to do this again. The changelings were a little apprehensive at first, but the love coming off of the princess was almost like a physical aura it was so strong. They had only ever felt it twice before. It was love that came from Chrysalis, and love that came from Twilight -though obviously they could never feed from the first. It was the love of a mother.

“I suppose you never did care much for keeping appearances up around your pupil, Sister.” Luna said, rolling her eyes. The nobility had begun gathering around and were whispering to each other at the spectacle of Celestia cradling the changeling queen almost like a child. A few even stormed up to voice their opinions apparently.

“My Princess, how could you stain your image by even touching one of those foul creatures?!” The man exclaimed. If looks could kill, he’d have died instantly as not only Celestia, but Luna and every other Changeling shot him a glare.

“I won’t even dignify that statement with a response.” Celestia snipped after a moment of silence. She didn’t like getting angry at her subjects. Luna, however, wasn’t as kind as Celestia walked around him with the sleeping queen in her arms.

“I’m almost glad I can’t remember your name, because if I did I’d have it stripped of all titles for insulting our allies so readily. Save your drivel for the council meeting.” She almost sneered as she shoved past him. The changelings took that as their cue to follow the princesses and virtually swarmed around the nobles all at once to get around them. Luna couldn’t help but snicker at the terrified reactions.

“I think I’m going to like it here.” Nictus said offhandedly, joining Luna’s side as the others flanked closely behind.

“I hope so, Tia and I went through a few hoops to make this happen. I heard about the fiasco on the road, by the way. Thank you for not hurting them.” Luna said, inclining her head to the Huntress at the end. Nictus was caught off guard by it.

“Uh… of course, it was not our first instinct of course… but I could feel Twilight’s intentions even if she wanted to see what we would do on our own.” The Huntress replied. Luna nodded.

“I admire your restraint then, if that man just now had said something like that in my presence even a year or two ago I probably would have put him on the ground at the very least.” She said, huffing a bit. “But my sister has taught me the value of self control again. Although, I think the only reason SHE didn’t do it herself was because she was holding your queen.” She continued, snickering at the end. 

“Perhaps, I do not know your sister or yourself very well yet. I am glad we aren’t blocked by formalities right now.” Nictus admitted. Luna nodded in response.

“My Sister has instilled in me her habit of throwing formalities to the wind when in the company of friends.” She said with a smile, making sure to emphasize the friends part. That made the changelings smile as they caught up to Celestia.

“Oh… I’m sorry… I just wanted to read one more chapter…” They heard Twilight’s tired voice mumble, causing Celestia to giggle as the girl nuzzled further into Celestia’s shoulder. It was a lot smaller than she remembered.

“Knowing you, it wasn’t just one more chapter. Come on, you my not be as heavy as you remember but I fear I’m losing my grip and I’d rather not fumble you.” Celestia replied. Twilight opened her eyes and looked around, causing Celestia to giggle again as the girl looked dumbfounded.

“O-Oh! Right!... sorry…” She said, quickly buzzing out of Celestia’s hands and aligning herself properly on the ground. “I guess I needed more than a little nap huh?” She said, looking at her wraiths.

“You can say that again! I thought you had died for a second!” Nilan exclaimed, almost scoldingly. This earned Twilight a chuckle before they continued walking.

“You should have just pinged my mind. I may had been having a good dream, but I know what it means when you suddenly appear in them.” Twilight retorted. Nilan almost fell over as her step faltered. She really should have just done that, since shaking her didn’t work. She just grumbled as they walked.

“I must say, Twilight, it’s encouraging to see your… subjects… with so much personality. Even before your degeneration they hadn’t quite become this outgoing.” Celestia said. Twilight laughed and Nilan shrank a bit in embarrassment.

“We’ve been working on it, and everyone here except for Nictus of course is newly born only a month ago. While I haven’t supplied my life force to their pods like a new queen should, I used a bit of magic and an extreme amount of love to accelerate their learning and growth.” Twilight explained.

“Oh I see, so they’re only what teenagers then?” The solar princess asked. Twilight nodded.

“Oh this is going to be interesting.” Luna mused. “I hope they know how to act during a council meeting, children are notoriously bad at that.” She continued. Celestia snorted.

“So are you, little sister.” She retorted, putting emphasis on the little. Luna huffed and pouted at that, only putting more truth to the comment. The changelings were a little stunned by the interaction in general, but Twilight was basking in it. This is the first time she’s really been able to be with the princesses like this again. She never realized how much she missed it.

They finally reached their destination, however. When Twilight awoke, they had altered their course to head to the throne room instead of Twilight’s old quarters in the astronomy tower. There was already a small crowd in the seats along the walls, all nobility, and a large table had been brought in to sit in front of the thrones. With a wordless command, Twilight’s wraiths took seats in the cordoned off part of the crowd specifically for them while she and the princesses took seats at the table alongside the other councilmen. 

“You’re late, as usual.” One of them said in a tired tone. It seemed she was expected to be late.

“Well of course I’m late Derius, when you set the scheduled time five minutes after we arrive that happens. Unless we were sprinting through the halls we were doomed to disappoint.” Luna replied, just as snarkily. The man chuckled and they all took their seats.

“Good to see your humor is still in good taste. Anyways, I believe we have a very important topic today.” The man continued. Celestia nodded.

“ As I’ve told you before, negotiations and agreements have already been hashed out and put into place for the peace between the Changeling Hive in the Scarred Forest and Equestria. The purpose of this meeting is to ensure that we all know what’s happening and to hash out any new developments.” Celestia said, gathering some papers on the table and using her magic to spread them out between the council members. Most of them skimmed what they already knew and the rest read silently for a few moments.

“What’s with the research funding? Aren’t we already funding their research?” One asked a minute later.

“We’re funding the research of the changeling race already, this other funding will be for technology. Twilight was already one of the lead researchers for Glyphs and combining them with modern technology, I want to make sure it continues. If you remember, the magic batteries that are lighting this room are of her design.” Celestia explained.

“Oh yeah, I remember that now. I have to go sniff out my old blueprints from the library back in Ponyville…” Twilight piped out, surprised she had forgotten about them for so long.

“Understandable then…” The noble resigned.

“And as far as the degeneration research goes, I do not expect government funding be spared for it since it is no longer a lethal threat, but I will begin fundraising for it and help fund it personally if needed.” The Princess continued.

“I second that.” Luna agreed to do the same. Some of the council members muttered to themselves for a few moments.

“Fundraising donations are obviously not under our control, just make sure people know what they’re supporting.” Derius finalized. The Princesses nodded.

“Before we move on to the fine print, I have something I wish to share with you as allies.” Twilight piped up again, this time much more serious. The group all gave her their attention.

“Earlier today, before I set off, I discovered an individual that was not part of my hive in my ranks. This confirms the presence of other hives and queens, and they appear to have very different ways of living. I sent the spy off to tell his queen I wished to speak peacefully, but I don’t know what will come of it.” Twilight explained. Everyone looked at her for a while.

“Are… you asking for assistance?” Derius asked. Twilight shook her head.

“I am letting my allies know of an important event. I will, of course, push for peace. If there are any diplomats that wish to return to the hive with us to wait I would be happy to accommodate them. I don’t know when the message will be received, but I would like there to be an Equestrian presence present if they do come in peace at the very least.” She explained. The group generally agreed, which was honestly surprising to the princesses. They could just feel the buzz of whispered voices coming from the Nobility, the only thing keeping them quiet was the fact that all of their government leaders were here.

“If anything happens regarding Equestria, I will of course keep you all posted as well as the princesses. If you have a diplomat there with us then I will protect them with my life if needed should peace be found impossible. In the meantime, I would like to request a spot in the Equestrian court for my people. I already have a diplomat in mind.” Twilight continued.

“I was actually going to ask if you had plans to do so, coincidentally.” Derius started. “Are they here with you?” He asked. Twilight shook her head.

“Chrys was the one who originally approached the princesses for peace, I’d like to have her return. I only took my honor guard out of respect but she can be here within two days if needed.” Twilight replied. Celestia smiled at the name, she liked that changeling.

“Very well, I second the notion.” Derius agreed. The Princesses agreed as well as most of the other councilmen, though the few that refused conceded in the end. A slight uproar from the Nobility caused the meeting to pause.

“If you have something to say then say it already, we haven’t got all night.” Derius groaned, pinching his sinuses, as the nobles practically yelled at the almost unanimous decision. A woman stepped up.

“Dame Violet Rose, at your service sir. We representatives of the noble families find the ease at which you allow these creatures a presence in our court concerning. Were they not ravenous monsters but weeks ago?” The woman said. Twilight scowled. The Princesses would have as well if this wasn’t an official council meeting. 

“That has been rectified currently, Crystal Rose. There were no deaths or even injuries reported during the degeneration. Queen Chrysalis had the insight to pull back all but her harvesters long before they became ravenous. It actually caused the degeneration to accelerate, just to protect Equestrian people.” Celestia explained, not able to completely keep the sting from her tone.

“With all do respect, your highness, you are biased towards these creatures since your student is the one sitting next to you.” Rose huffed. Celestia let her narrowed eyes slip through her composure.

“I swear an oath every time I set foot in this room, Dame, that if I feel that I am allowing any bias to sink into my official duties then I would excuse myself and allow another to take my place. Yes, Twilight Sparkle was once my student and is still very dear to me, but I make these decisions for our people rather than her individually.” The frustrated princess replied.

“And that’s why we’re here, Dame Rose.” Derius reminded her. Sure, they all knew Twilight from before, but most of them couldn’t care less about the girl.

“Besides, I am only here out of necessity. I make these negotiations in Chrysalis’ stead.” Twilight added.

“Then where is Chrysalis, could she not appear in fear that the invasion would return to our minds? Because it’s most definitely not just her that does it.” Rose almost spat. The other changelings in the room had to use every ounce of self control not to hiss and bar their fangs at the woman, Twilight sure as hell did for that.

“Queen Chrysalis is currently recovering. I am Queen in her stead.” Twilight managed to get out, though it was far from an even tone. Crystal Rose smirked at the jab hitting home.

“Dame Crystal Rose, I suggest you retake your seat. For one who speaks of bias, I haven’t heard anything besides it in your comments. I’ve already come an inch from stripping one nobleman’s title and authority today, I at least know your name.” Luna said calmly, though there was certainly no veiled words to hide the threat. The woman just stared at them for a moment.

“Dame Rose, please.” Derius urged. The woman huffed again but did as she was told. The councilman shuffled a few papers and looked back around the table.

“I am impressed at your kin’s self control, Queen Twilight. Even I could feel their distaste from here, yet all I saw were glares.” One of the other councilmen chuckled. The changelings in question simmered down at the praise and resigned to continue watching the meeting intently. Twilight beamed at the compliment, especially since she was too distracted to calm them herself at the time and resigned to give them each a love filled hug later.

“Back to the meeting…” Luna suggested. There was about an hour more of discussion and parsing out details and numbers before they finally parted. All in all, Celestia was overjoyed to see that the city’s choice in council members was more than adequate. She was once again convinced the nobility should be abolished, but she couldn’t possibly do unless she wanted to start a revolt. Even title-less and without real authority, most nobility would retain their wealth and properties. Money starts more wars than everything, after all.

But Celestia drove that from her thoughts, her smile returning as Twilight and Luna chatted about some of their more interesting research projects as they made their way to the royal dining hall for dinner.

“Uh… Princess?” One of the changelings asked, cautiously poking Celestia to get her attention. She tried to abate the boy’s apprehension by replying with a warm smile. It seemed to do a little as he took a deep breath.

“U-Um… I know, from the hive mind’s memories, that you were very close to Momma… What’s it like to feel the love between you reciprocated? I-I mean of course Momma loves us, and we can even feed off it it… And we love Momma more than anything, but sometimes it feels like we’re just pretending since we can’t feed her…” The changeling boy asked. Celestia felt her heart soften at the question.

“I can promise you, she doesn’t need to feed from your love for it to be real. Having love Reciprocated is an incredible feeling, as you all know by now I assume. Twilight loves each and every one of you as if you were her own. You lot are technically hers are you not?” Celestia asked, choosing not to imagine the way that would be implied in Equestria.

They all nodded their heads, but then shook their heads.

“Momma Twilight doesn’t want to be Queen. Not really, but she happily does so. She loves us as Momma Chrysalis would in her stead, but even we are still grown with Momma Chrysalis’ love signature and genetics.” Bie explained. Celestia nodded, remembering the full report Twilight wrote up for her on how they reproduce. Changelings are grown in birthing pods, the pods are based on the love signature and genetic template of the queen when they are created and the nutrient solution inside keeps the growing creature alive. The whole thing is rather like a large egg, except it is created externally and not internally and laid.

“Of course she doesn’t want to be Queen. She can more than handle the pressure and responsibilities of it, but did you know she used to be a princess just like me? In Equestria?” Celestia asked. The changelings all nodded.

“She resigned because she didn’t want to be swamped in royal duties here in Canterlot. She wanted to make sure she could still spend time with her friends, now I’d imagine the only thing placating her need to be with her new children is her ability to… Immerse I think she called it?” She continued.

“Oh yes! She lets her consciousness immerse fully in the Hive Mind. I can’t describe it, because I can’t do it, but we all feel her presence directly then. She watches over us and can see what we see. Feel what we feel. She can calm us down if we’re scared, give us praise when we do right or even scold us if we do wrong. All at once, from anywhere she wants. I kind’ve miss it right now, since she’s spent most of the past month straight like that… but I know she needs to be awake a lot more.” Vera piped up.

“Certainly makes our job more interesting, that’s for sure.” Nilan added. Celestia nodded and smiled at them as they reached the dining hall. 

“I am afraid I’ll have to skip this meal tonight, Sister. I have an important matter to take up in Night Court now that the council meeting is over.” Luna said when they finally arrived.

“Oh is Rattling Coin back with his half baked tax plans?” Celestia said with mild annoyance.

“No… Well, I mean yes, but that’s not the issue. I’ll give you a full transcript of course, but it involves my Night Guard.” The Lunar Princess replied. Celestia nodded and they shared a quick hug before Luna trudged off in the other direction. She always hated court.

“In the meantime, feel free to ask for whatever you wish. Equestria is mostly vegetarian, but we have quite the exotic kitchens due to the many foreign diplomats we house. I’ve even been known to enjoy a nice cut of steak when I’m in a certain mood.” Celestia explained. The changeling's eyes widened, and mouths slightly watered, at the mention of steak. 

“They probably don’t have Lasher meat on hand, but if memory serves you do have Manticore right? I’ve been wanting to try it out ever since I regained my memory.” Twilight said with a smile. Celestia grinned and nodded. She had actually just made sure their meat stores were fully stocked when she decided to call Twilight to Canterlot. 

“Oooohhhh…. Manticore steak…” The changeling children all buzzed in response.
> 3: Family Matters
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In recent years Twilight had begun to think of herself as a brave woman. Facing down Nightmare Moon, the god of chaos, ursas and hostile armies alike. She stared them down or, at the very least, held her ground as he faced the horrors in her life. But, once again, she found herself unable to really go forward as she was terrified at what she might find inside of her family’s home.

She wasn’t too worried about her parents, at least not nearly as much as she was worried about Cadence and Shining Armor. They were wronged even more than Celestia that day, the day of the invasion. Twilight couldn’t quite suppress her shiver at thinking about that again, especially with the way they look now…

“Are you alright, Mother?” Nilan asked. Twilight smiled at the young changeling, she had asked the girl to come with her so she wasn’t alone and felt that she could learn something. 

“Just a bad memory, is all. Long before you were born, this country was wronged by our people… It’s why so many don’t like us being here. My family was wronged most of all…” Twilight explained, though her smile fell again.

“Well, I think if our people wronged your family… then this is our chance to make it right?” Nilan suggested. That caused Twilight to smile again. Nilan could feel Twilight’s mood raise again, as well as the love directed at her. She couldn’t help but share the smile as Twilight knocked the knocker. It wasn’t long before the door opened to reveal a butler. Twilight didn’t recognize him.

“Did you have an appointment with the Sparkle family… miss…?” The butler asked, expertly hiding his surprise at seeing two changelings at the door. Twilight was suddenly uncomfortable. She had expected someone that knew her to skip past this particular scenario.

“Ah, well… not exactly an appointment. Unless it was revoked, though, I should still have permission to come and go as I please. I used to live here after all.” The queen replied nervously. The Butler seemed confused.

“Well then… Could I please have your name so I may defer to the lord and lady of the estate?” The butler asked politely. Twilight almost facepalmed.

“Right, of course. My name is Twilight Sparkle, tell my mother and father I’ve come home.” She answered. That finally made the butler crack his composure. His dumbfounded look caused Nilan to stifle a giggle. After a moment of shock he just bowed and rushed back inside.

The estate practically shook a few moments later.

“MY DAUGHTER IS AT OUR DOORSTEP AND YOU WON’T LET HER IN?!” The scream could be heard even by the neighbors. 

“Oh… I guess mom’s home…” Twilight sighed, that certainly didn’t help her nerves. Nilan couldn’t help but feel for her own mother. 

“I-I can wait outside if you’d like.” The changeling eeped. Twilight gave her a look.

“Nonsense, Nilan. I brought you here to learn, to witness and above all else… to be my morale support.” The queen replied with a nervous chuckle. Nilan returned it, though hers was more terrified as the door opened up again to reveal a razzled butler.

“The Lord and the Lady of the house express their deepest apologies, and welcome you home Miss Sparkle.” The butler said, bowing and stepping aside to let them pass. “They assumed you knew the way.” He finished when he did not lead them. Twilight gave him an acknowledging nod and he made himself scarce.

Twilight hesitated at the door to the lounge. Nilan could sense her apprehension even without the hive mind there to  bathe her in it. Even other changelings that weren’t in the immediate area couldn’t help but feel it and give what little support the hive mind could transfer. Taking a calming breath, aided by her kin, she pushed the door open. Her father was sitting in his favorite armchair in front of the fireplace while her mother was pacing around him, hands behind her back. There was a stain on the carpet in front of the other chair, signifying that the butler’s announcement had definitely caught the woman by surprise.

They both looked at her when they heard the door, and they both stared. Twilight had no idea what to say, and Nilan was certainly not going to break the silence. They stood like that for what seemed like hours before Twilight finally acted. She took a few cautious steps inside, rubbing an arm to try and calm her nerves to no avail.

“H-Hey, mom and dad… It’s uh… It’s been awhile huh?” She piped out. Nilan had never seen her queen this shaken by nerves before, it made her wonder what was possibly going through the girl’s head.

But she didn’t have to wonder long, Twilight was too distraught to censor what she broadcasted. She was terrified that her parents would be afraid of her, reject her. She was afraid that she’d lose the last of her human family, besides the princesses of course. Neither her parents nor Twilight herself could break the silence, and the tension was almost painful. It was starting to become emotionally painful to feel her queen roiling on the inside. She had to do something.

“Hello, my name is Nilan… I am second in command of Queen Twilight’s personal guard, The Wraiths. It is a pleasure to meet my queen’s human family.” She barely managed to get out without stuttering. That seemed to do the trick.

“Second in command of her guard?” Dusk Sparkle asked, swirling his glass of wine slightly before standing. “The Princesses informed us of your… station, Twilight… I thought the royal guard would be escorting you.” The man continued, though the last part seemed more like genuine curiosity rather than anything with hidden malice.

“The Princesses agreed that I know the place well enough to need a guide, and my personal guard is sufficient for my defense in the capital.” Twilight replied, walking closer to them.

“Your… people... “ Dawn Sparkle said, her tone was unreadable. Twilight stopped to stand right in front of them. She remembered both of them being taller than her last they met in person, but now she had a few inches on even her father.

“My, you’ve grown. I remember last time I saw you walking around the palace, you looked a lot more… human… All of you did… I’m afraid we haven’t been quite informed on the goings-on with all of this, all we know is that there was some sort of famine?” Dusk asked to try and keep the silence at bay. Twilight nodded her head.

“A Love Famine. Though we had more than enough love to go around at first, our hunger steadily rose until we starved. Queen Chrysalis did all she could, but now I have to take her place until I can fix this.” The queen explained. Her parents noticed the ping of sadness in her expression, even with the unfamiliar features.

“Yes, I heard the two of you became quite close… So… what brings you here?” Her father continued, the conversation drying up far too quickly.

“I came here to see you, of course. We haven’t had a chance to sit down and talk since all of this started. I may have a new home now, and quite a large family, but I can’t forget you guys.” Twilight replied, smiling. That finally seemed to make Dawn react. Nilan had to resist her instincts as the flash of movement turned out to be Dawn pulling Twilight in a sudden embrace.

“Oh Twilight… it really is you under there…” She breathed. “I was so worried when you looked like… this… I mean, I know that changelings aren’t those monsters they were at your brother’s wedding but… but I couldn’t help but think back to it.” The woman explained. Twilight just returned the embrace.

“I know it’s strange to see me like this… it’s strange even for us. Well, most of us. Nilan here is only recently born so she knows only this degenerated state…” Twilight said, pulling out of the embrace slightly to look at said changeling. Nilan was distracted, though. She had her eyes closed and was concentrating on the burst of love that filled the room when the two embraced. It was a love she relished, even though it wasn’t for her. The love of a mother is a love like none other.

“Is she quite alright?” Dusk asked. Nilan snapped out of it, shaking her head.

“Ah! My apologies, I kinda zoned out there… I’m happy to see that the love between you is still so strong. It’s almost like mother’s is for us.” The changeling said with a smile. 

“Did… did she just call you mother?” Dawn asked, a mixture of curiosity and horror in her tone. Twilight nodded.

“While even by changeling standards I’m not quite their mothers, but they refuse to call me anything but. And I’ve taken to calling them my children, I am their queen after all… It’s far more than just a title.” Twilight replied, knowing exactly what her mother was worried about.

“What exactly… is a queen then? I would assume it’s not exactly like bees for instance, where you just lay eggs all day or… something…” Dusk started to try and turn the conversation away, and obviously failing. Twilight giggled.

“No, Changelings don’t even lay eggs. At least, not in our hive. We can reproduce normally, but the fertilized egg cell is transported into a birthing pod to be fed love and nutrients to grow and mature. When they reach full maturity in the hive mind, they break free of the pod.” Twilight explained.

“We are all connected in the hive mind, I can sense that my youngest team of hunters has just secured their first kill with only minor injuries, my diplomat has just reached Ponyville in the first leg of her trip here, our mess halls are doubling wine production to celebrate our renewed peace treaty, and the rest of my wraiths are taking time to explore the city in human guise to acclimate themselves once more.” She continued. The two humans gawked at hr a little bit.

“And in turn, we can feel the same through our queen, and of our queen as well. She is very nervous about explaining that to you and is worried you’ll think it so alien you’ll push her away.” Nilan continued. Twilight shot her a look at that, which only caused Dusk to chuckle and pull her in closer.

“Twilight, you’re covered in Carapace. If we were so xenophobic we would have turned you away at the door.” He chuckled, washing away most of her worry.

“It is certainly… strange… It will take time getting used to, of course, but I am more than willing to spend that time doing so.” Dawn said slowly. She was obviously taking this harder than her husband, but she finished with a soft but genuine smile. Twilight hugged both of them.

“Princess Celestia said that Cadence and Shining were back from the Crystal Empire, do you know where they are?” Twilight asked after a few moments of soaking in their love.

“They should be arriving here within the hour, I just so happen to have your favorite brand of wine in stock. Would you like a glass dear?” Dusk replied, ending the embrace and walking towards the door.

“That would be amazing right now, thank you.” Twilight replied, nodding her head in thanks. He gave her a thumbs up with a toothy grin and slipped around the door, presumably to the wine cellar. Meanwhile, her mother pulled her over to the sofa and sat her down.

“Now, I can see it even on your.. Carapace… and I’ve heard plenty of stories. I know the one that made you like this, but I see a lot of new ones on you.” Dawn asked. Twilight was confused for a moment before she followed her mother’s gaze towards the scarring on her forearms and a good chunk of her chest and abdomen.

“Oh, little scrapes and cuts. Sometimes when I’m hunting I don’t even notice something went through my carapace, and quite a few of these were when we were healthy. Skin is so much more fragile than carapace, and I don’t walk around all day long with my battle plating up. This last one, though…” She started, idly running a finger along the worst of the scarring. It was where the ursa’s teeth had gone through her forearms and crushed her skin and carapace on both her front and the back.

“That was the last time we were happy. Even though I was seriously hurt, we were all together and the degeneration hadn’t even started. We were stuffed on love. We were hunting an Ursa Minor, but it turned out to be a major and our toxin wasn’t working quick enough. When I think back on it, it was actually really awesome besides the whole me being crunched up part. I was in its mouth, in a shield of course, and it was slowly gnawing through it. Everyone else was hurt and I couldn’t think of anything to do…” She continued and went on to tell the story. Her father joined in for the best part with new glasses of wine for everyone.

Nilan listened closely. She knew this had happened, but she hadn’t even been in a birthing pod yet when it did. It was before the degeneration. She couldn’t help but grin and Twilight told the story, and a few other ones. She had plenty of instinctual knowledge and memory imprints from her queen and siblings, but hearing the stories firsthand was a whole new experience. She even found herself mentally inscribing them into the memory banks, word for word, capturing the whole experience as Twilight told them.

It wasn’t long before there was a knock on the door, and dusk called the newcomers to enter. The room went rather quiet as Shining Armor and Cadence entered. Their smiles dropped to frowns when they saw the two changelings. They both quickly rebuilt their composure. Cadence being the princess of the Crystal Empire and Shining being her prince/ general meant they had to keep up appearances regularly. They knew that changelings weren’t the enemy anymore, but old wounds still ached.

“It’s so good to see both of you again!” Twilight exclaimed happily, standing. It took a good deal of self control not to run over and hug them for fear of their reactions, but she instinctively tried to feed them her love to show them she meant it. It was for naught, of course. At least that’s what Nilan thought. Cadence blinked a few times before a small smile replaced her frown.

“Twilight…” She said softly, carefully opening her arms. Twilight barely needed the implication to register before she was in her old babysitter’s embrace. Cadence twitched again, and Nilan realized that the woman was absorbing some of the love. An almost imperceivable amount, but Nilan noticed it. Worry quickly filled the young lieutenant as she tried to inconspicuously scan and disable any changeling magic on the woman. She found none, and Twilight had noticed. There was no outward reaction, but Nilan could feel the question. She urged twilight to notice what she did, and Twilight did her own scans as well.

“Cadence… why are you feeding off of love?” She asked as the silence became awkward. Everyone gave her a stunned look.

“I-I don’t know… I uh… I felt you guys scanning me… I had hoped you figured it out…” The woman replied softly.

“Wait… what? You’re not…” Shining started, but quickly stopped. He shook the thought of Cadence not being the real cadence from his mind almost immediately. “No, nevermind. Is this something… bad?” He continued to his little sister. Twilight shook her head.

“It appears to be ambient, almost like the harvesters. You’re not a harvester though. Maybe some changeling magic latched onto you during the invasion and unintentionally taught your body to recognize and absorb love…” The queen thought out loud before quickly shaking her head.

“Let’s not get into that right now… All that matters right now is that we’re all together again. I want to spend the day with you, all of you, catch up. Have dinner at the dinner table and everything, it’s been years since we’ve been a proper family.” Twilight said with a bit of determination. Dusk chuckled and put a hand on her shoulder.

“I’d like nothing better.” The man said.

“Same here. Besides, you’ve gotta have some good stories if you’ve got more scars than I do now.” Shining said, lightly punching his sister on the shoulder. Twilight snorted. She’ll happily tell them again.
> 4: Of Queens and Men
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight was humming to herself as they flew back to their hive. The details of the agreements with Equestria had been hashed out and the part of it on the forefront of her mind was the researchers being sent out in two days. She hadn’t been able to think about continuing her research on Glyphs and combining technology with magic, but now that she had a reason to there were already ideas buzzing in her head.

Actually, the buzzing in her head wasn’t all ideas. Keine was worried about something. She decided to delve a little deeper into the hive mind to focus on the defender. What she saw made her use a spell to enhance her group’s flight speed to nearly supersonic.

Everyone watched as Keine twitched a little and closed her eyes, opening them to reveal Twilight’s lavender slits.  She had interrupted a staredown with what looked like another queen. The creature smirked at winning the staredown, but frowned when she saw the change in eyes.

“What’s the matter, Queen? You invite me here and then don’t even have the courage to face me yourself? Pitiful.” The creature sneered. Twilight deadpanned with Keine’s face. She was on eye level with the Queen since defenders had much larger frames than most changelings.

“It is merely an accident of timing, I was not aware of your coming so I am away. If you would follow my children to the meeting area I will be joining you in just a few minutes. Food and drink may be supplied on request for you and your guard, and hostilities will be met in kind.” Twilight explained, her voice made a little more intimidating than usual through Keine’s body. The other queen grunted and motioned for them to lead. With that, Twilight relinquished her control of the defender and focused on not falling behind. 

Approximately six minutes saw her sitting across from the other queen. Their guards had all been ushered outside of the small conference room and they were both sipping on wine infused with love. The silence was thick with curiosity and apprehension, but the other queen broke silence first.

“I know your name is Twilight Sparkle, you used to be an Equestrian Mage. I suppose it is fair that I give you my name to start this off. I am Queen Crystarium, and as a show of good faith my hive is located in the mountains bordering the Dragonlands and cuts through the border between the Griffon lands and Equestria. I must say, I was surprised to hear what my Spy had to say of your hive. I was even more surprised he lived to say it.” The queen explained. Where Twilight had lavender eyes and hair, and Chrysalis had teal eyes and hair, this queen had a deep and beautiful blue.

“He was doing no harm, but I have to say I did not think such a spying attempt would work. The second I laid eyes upon him I knew he was not mine. I couldn’t feel his presence.” Twilight replied. Crystarium gave a hum in response, leaning forward in her seat a bit.

“As advanced as your degeneration is, I expected a hive of ferals. Or at least a hive of mindless drones barely kept in check by their queen. I am still impressed you are able to even function with your children in such a state, especially with how much control they have over themselves.” She said. Twilight was confused.

“I mean, most days I find myself immersed to grant guidance and comfort, but they are not ravenous. We are actually more than satiated currently. It’s why there’s love in our wine. It’s the only way my children can share it.” The lavender queen  explained. This earned a bit of surprise from the cerulean queen as she looked at her drink again.

“Hm, I thought it was too sweet for wine. Interesting. If you are so saturated with love, then why do you look little more than feral?” Crystarium asked. Though now there was more curiosity than anything in her tone. Twilight shrugged.

“I honestly don’t know. I’m conducting research on it, and a few teams of Equestrian researchers are on their way to assist.” She started, but changed the subject. She had started catching on that it wasn’t the best idea to share every little action or secret with another queen.

“Anyways, I have to admit. I was surprised to find your spy. I was aware there were other changelings out there, but I didn’t think they cared about us. Or at least were too loved starved to care.” She continued, trying to get info out of Crystarium now. The queen chuckled lowly.

“To be honest, I sent my spy here to scout out the hive. If you were sane but weak I would have swept in, killed you, killed or converted your drones and taken this hive for myself. If it was a feral hive I would have destroyed it and rebuilt it as my own. I hadn’t even thought I’d find a prospering sister here. And now that we’ve spoken I’m even more curious.” Crystarium answered. Twilight grew silent at the idea of her children being slaughtered.

“It’s against tradition to try and count another’s forces, but it seems you’re doing well enough. I’ll have to tell everyone else about this. Maybe even call a Queen’s Dinner.” Crystarium hummed.

“A Queen’s Dinner? And how many other queens and hives are there?” Twilight asked, intrigued.

“Well, a Queen’s Dinner is like what the equestrians call a council meeting. All participating queens supply labor and resources to prepare a meal for themselves and their hives if possible. In return, the dinner is considered a neutral zone. Lies are outlawed, as are hostilities if any exist. It is our chance to speak as equals without risking our lives, and of course a good meal for an entire hive can save hundreds of lives for some of the struggling hives -Love or otherwise.” Crystarium started.

“As far as the other queens and hives… There are probably a dozen other queens, at least half of them feral by now. The rest of us come and go. We’ll have to call the dinner to see who cares enough to attend, who is relevant. And nobody truly knows how many hives a queen has. We are required to give population numbers, or close estimates, at the end of the dinner in case there is enough food to feed all of our brood.” The cerulean queen continued. Twilight was beyond interested.

“I’d be happy to attend as long as I have advance notice. I can’t guarantee my attendance if I do not know when it will be called.” Twilight said happily. Crystarium smiled and nodded.

“I’ll see what I can do then. In the meantime, you must show me how to infuse love into your food… If it is a secret then I will happily part with one of mine in return.” The queen offered. Twilight was about to brush off the trade, but then she remembered a valuable lesson Celestia had offered her. When the advancement of your people is most important, never look a gift horse in the mouth. And never let your rivals think that what you offer is not valuable.

“What would you be willing to offer?” Twilight asked, not showing her momentary lapse in judgement. Crystarium thought for a moment.

“I have been studying your defenders, even the one you spoke through earlier seemed a little… fragile for my tastes. I could offer my secret of reinforcing carapace in return for your secret of infusing food with love.” The older queen offered. There was a little hesitation in her voice, that was one of her more closely guarded secrets. It wouldn’t take too long for another queen to reverse engineer it though, so she was willing to make this gamble to learn more about love.

Twilight was thrilled by the offer, but made no show of it. She hummed, leaning back into her chair to swirl her wine around.

“Less injuries and casualties for my children would certainly benefit my hive. We have an accord, then. I’ll transcribe the process into understandable terms before you leave.” Twilight finally said after a minute of pretend deliberation. Crystarium nodded with a smile.

“I will attempt to do the same. What is your knowledge of magic and specifically glyphs? It is integral to the process and would be easier to transcribe if you knew of them.” The blue queen asked, standing. Twilight almost laughed. It registered a little bit on her face.

“I’ve written three dictionaries on glyphs and assisted in three more, I’ve invented more minor glyphs than I can count and I am responsible for the research and development of the Magic Batteries in use by Equestria and its allies.” Twilight replied. Crystarium blinked.

“...What?” was all she could say, almost dumbfounded. She shook her head then. “I’ll take your word for it. It’s good that I won’t have to dumb anything down. Last time I tried to teach arcane magic to Zerella I thought her head was going to crack.” She snorted, reminiscing at a memory.

“Just make sure not to encrypt it too much. I know all Equestrian, Dragon,and Griffon encryption styles but I don’t know any specific to our kind.” Twilight suggested. Crystarium nodded. She’ll have to send some information gatherers to ask around about this Twilight Sparkle. She knew almost nothing of the Equestrian people but they seemed to be strong allies.

“I will remain for the night, if you would have me. My guard is tired and low on both foods and I’d rather not have to lower my pace to return home.” Crystarium asked as Twilight stood as well.

“Of course. If you or your guard need anything just ask, I will know of it. I don’t know how your hives work, but we have an intricate system so if you are ever unsure about anything please ask.” The lavender queen continued. Crystarium remembered how her spy couldn’t properly communicate or figure out how to ask for food without outright saying it. She nodded and allowed Twilight to bring her to a small residence chamber. 

Crystarium couldn’t help but wonder about this new hive, and this queen. Before long, though, she started to realize something. The buzzing of this hive was different than all the other hives she’s been to. It was minor at first, but the more she concentrated on it the more she realized what it was.

The buzzing was constant. And it was everywhere. In her hive at least there were times of inactivity, but here it never let up. These drones must be working around the clock, but she had definitely seen a few other mass sleeping chambers around. They must be very efficient workers on a meticulous schedule. 

A bi product of who their queen is, perhaps. She could tell the young woman was making mental checklists and had a thing for scheduling. Why else would she make sure she got advance notice if she didn’t have to work a schedule around it?

For now she focused on transcribing the carapace enhancements. She would not reveal precisely how it is done, rather she would explain what is being done and give strong hints so the queen could engineer her own version of it so she still held at least a shred of her secrecy -or at least she could figure it out on her own so she didn’t feel like she outright revealed the whole secret. The purple queen would surely understand. If not, well, apologies can be made. The ability to infuse things with love is an incredible ability after all.

The next morning saw Crystarium off after a breakfast and a farewell. Twilight was happy to make another potential friend, especially of her own kind, but it was quickly filled with apprehension. The idea of a Queen’s Dinner was certainly interesting to her, but the other things she had picked up and learned scared her  little bit. For starters, half of her race was apparently little more than ravenous husks gone feral. The other half loved fighting amongst themselves and spying on each other. Twilight wasn’t quite sure how she felt about Crystarium. She had openly admitted to being ready to invade her hive to take it for her own had she shown weakness, but she seemed content to make peace just as well. 

It would take more interactions to get a feel for which side is true, or if there’s more sides to the cerulean queen, but for now she had research to conduct. Almost directly after that thought came to mind, the wordless command for her most intelligent children to meet her was sent out. Within seconds a few dozen drones stood in front of her. She divided them up into a few groups and started giving them research orders.

“You will be the start of R&D, Ceren you will be the head of this department. I want the secrets of your black metal figured out first and foremost. While intriguing, the fact that not even you knows quite how it works needs to change.” She started towards the biggest group. Said changeling inventor gave a cute salute in response.

“Samuel, you will head the Lore department. I want you and your siblings to learn what you can about our kind, combing archives of our allies as well as our own. When there’s nothing to comb through I’ll leave it to you to determine where you’re dispersed to aid another department.” She continued. The changeling man gave a much more serious salute.

“Siren, I want you and your girls heading up the Hive Research department. You’re only a few but you have the strongest connections than anyone but myself, if it’s possible I want it classified and archived. It seemed that Crystarium’s hive mind was far inferior to our own and I want to know how that’s possible. You’ll also research other hives as well when possible.” She went on to the third group, the surprisingly young girl gave a thumbs up.

“And lastly, Mari, you’re in charge of arcane and technological research. I’ve already implanted all of my progress on arcane batteries. I want them easier to make, distribute, modify and everything in between. When the Equestrian researchers get here they’ll split amongst all but the Hive Research department. They’ll definitely be a boon, as an outside eye may reveal things we overlook instinctually. You will set your own work quotas and work at your own pace, I will personally be assisting with all whenever I can .” She finally finished as the last group gave their salutes. “Any questions?” Mari raised her hand.

“Are we supposed to share our findings with the Equestrians?” She asked. Twilight had hoped for the question and she smiled at the girl who asked it.

“Everything we can spare. I may be biased to trust Equestrians, but my bias is not unfounded. I hope at least. You’ll know if anything should be kept from them, but I want as much open discussion and discovery as possible between us. They are our closest and most powerful allies, and we are technically in their lands.” The queen replied. Mari nodded happily. “Anything else?” She asked.

“How are we to conduct our research? We have limited material here.” One of Mari’s researchers asked.

“I’ve already got a few collection teams on their way to collect research materials and you’ll have access to them as well. The Equestrians will be bringing all of their materials they can spare as well.” Twilight answered. That seemed to satisfy the questions then, so she dismissed them all to get to work with an unspoken command and turned towards her chambers. She always preferred immersing herself while touching Chrysalis’ sleeping form, she could feel the old queen’s presence when she did that. At least she thought she could.

Hopefully she would start making progress again… But first they had to take back lost ground.
> 5: Minor Progress
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A week after the equestrian researchers arrived and settled in, Twilight received two letters. One of them was clearly from Celestia, the other was unmarked on what looked like scavenged parchment. She opened Celestia’s first, smiling at the contents. There was a ticket to the next wonderbolts show enclosed, including a few +1s, and the letter explained that Equestria was celebrating the renewed peace with the changelings and the dragons at the same time with it. It told her to come a few hours early if possible, the tournament was in three days. 

She looked through a mental checklist and moved a few things around to fit it in. She looked at the second letter and was surprised at the penmanship. It was from Crystarium, she had successfully convinced the other sane queens to hold a Queen’s Dinner after a month of trying. The Dinner itself was to be held in a month’s time, but she was welcome to visit as soon as a week prior to speak unofficially with the arriving queens. It was a large event and usually spent at least a week preparing on site. This time it was being held in a land uncharted by Equestrians, but she recognized the area from maps made by the Dragons and Griffons. They called it the Barrens and apparently there was an old changeling monument smack in the middle of it.

“Is something the matter, Twilight?” Nictus asked, having called out for her queen twice now with no response. Twilight finally snapped out of her thoughts at the concern. She quickly waved the concern away and put a smile on her face.

“I’m fine, just an interesting letter. I’ve got room for three people to come with me to a wonderbolts show in three days. I’m taking Kree and Shrike for sure, you in?” The queen asked. Nictus chuckled but shook her head.

“Take Nilan, she hasn’t quite been able to find what she’s good at yet. Seeing something like a Wonderbolts performance might spark something.” The huntress replied. Twilight put a finger to her chin in thought.

“That’s right, she’s the only wraith that doesn’t have a specialization yet. I do remember she helped diffuse the tension with my parents last we were in Canterlot. I’ll have to make sure she attends a few of Celestia’s or Luna’s courts while we’re in Canterlot to see if she has a taste of diplomacy and politics.” Twilight mused to herself. Nictus shrugged.

“I’ll of course be part of your escort, but I can entertain myself for a while once we’re there. We may have better wine, but their liquor puts carapace on your chest.” The huntress said, earning a snort from her queen.

“Alright, let everyone know we’ll be leaving soon. Samuel’s team made a breakthrough with R&D’s help, they have something to show me about how to reinforce our carapace and possibly a way to add it on after birth.” Twilight said. Nictus nodded and flew off out of her chambers. Twilight made sure Chrysalis was topped off on love before she followed her captain and went down a different path. 

What she found in the main research lab was Samuel with a stupid grin on his face and a very flustered medic.

“You’re lucky it didn’t kill you! We were supposed to wait for the queen’s go ahead for life experimentation!” The medic huffed, scanning him with a spell for the fifth time.

“Relax, it worked didn’t it?” The young man replied almost ecstatically. He noticed Twilight and his grin fell to just a smile, but even his inevitable reprimand couldn’t lower his spirits now.

“What’s this about live testing?” Twilight asked. Samuel got up and extended his battle plating in response. His was very basic compared to the hunters and defenders, but it was obviously different. It looked denser and it sounded almost like metal sliding out than the usual creaking of carapace.

“It’s a little heavy, but now that I know the imprinting screen works the changed shouldn’t be too hard to add in.” Samuel replied confidently. Twilight wanted to nag his ears off for attempting something as dangerous as a live experiment on an untested glyph array, especially since it was something they had only just finished making sense of. The scholar in her decided against it, wanting to instead know more details.

“Talk to me then, what exactly did you do and how did you do it? I expect a full report with at least five pages by the end of the week, but give me a sneak peek.” She said to him. His grin returning at not being immediately reprimanding, his retracted the plating to go into scientist mode.

“Well, as you know, Crystarium didn’t give us the whole spiel. You agreed it made perfect sense, she wanted us to know what to do but not her exact brand of it. Keep her exact secret to herself. Well, our boys and R&D figured out what the hell it all meant and how to put it together. They were using the idea behind alchemy to alter the carapace itself, and how the body generates it, and then figuring out the formula to make it stronger with as little drawback as possible. We unfortunately had to use steel as a base, so as I said it’s a bit heavy, but it should be outweighed significantly by the extra protection -pun intended.” He explained quickly. Twilight was able to keep up, though. She gave him the ‘go on’ motion with her hand and he happily continued.

“Now normally we’d have to inject the formula into the current formula for our birthing fluid so that the drone is born with the changes, but I decided that neither of us would want to risk a life before it is even born, so I got with Mari and we invented an imprinting screen. It took a lot of arcane power, but the batteries fixed that problem. The array uses a series of scanning glyphs to gather the genetic data and turn it into something that can be made sense of, then we pick and choose what stays and what’s modified. We were even able to take out the bad genetics causing my astigmatism, but I like glasses.” He continued, taking his glasses off and winking for effect at the end. Twilight would have rolled her eyes if she wasn’t intrigued by the possibilities this array could lead to.

“And then the rest of the array, after carefully altering the data, used the energy to basically deconstruct and reconstruct what was changed. I was admittedly blind for a few minutes and sore as all hell, but as soon as it passed I knew that was the worst of the side effects as my brain adapted to the new inputs and stimulations.” Samuel finished. Twilight smirked.

“Well, Samuel. You know how completely idiotic and dangerous this was so I’ll let your medic talk your ears off in that respect. I’ll anxiously await that report now, so I’m changing the deadline to before I leave for Canterlot.” The queen said, happy with the researcher’s work. Samuel would have groaned if he wasn’t already going to do that and instead bowed with a grin.

“In the meantime, Ceren. How goes your research?” Twilight asked, turning towards the young changeling who had moved next to her to listen as well.

“Painfully slow, but with this new array I may be able to scavenge part of it to help me along. We don’t currently have much in the way of scanning unliving material, but if this thing scans things on an atomic level it may be useful yet.” She said with a smirk. Twilight chuckled.

“Get with Mari on it as soon as possible then. I expect progress by the time I return.” She replied. Ceren just nodded, giving Twilight a quick hug before leaving towards the other research departments. Twilight looked at everyone else and they all almost immediately returned to their duties. She smiled and turned to head for a mess hall, she needed a drink.

The three days came and went, no major progress had been made with the research but Twilight had poured over Samuel’s combined findings. She forwarded it to Ceren when she was done with it and she and the wraiths left before the sun had even risen. The flight to Canterlot would see them there a little before noon, giving them six hours before the performance. She had calculated bathroom breaks, breakfast, and a quick trip to her family’s home beforehand so they would still arrive two hours early at the tournament grounds where they would be performing again. Twilight, Kree, and Shrike left the other wraiths at a pub to head to the stadium at around 4 pm.

Twilight looked ahead in the sky as they walked down the road to find a few formations of wonderbolts practicing their maneuvers. Once flew directly over them, corkscrewing towards the ground. They all pulled up quite a ways up, except for one. Twilight only recognized the familiar rainbow trail left behind as Kree and Shrike were too slow to block the potential attacker from slamming into Twilight with enough force to send them both skidding back down the road a few feet.

“Ughhhhhh.” Twilight groaned, barely able to breathe as the rainbow haired valkyrie squeezed the life out of her. “Good to see you too, Dash.” She wheezed, barely able to get her arms to work long enough to return the crashing embrace.

“Twilight I knew it was you! Or at least I hoped it was, otherwise this would be pretty awkward.” The Valkyrie said happily as she got up and pulled her friend to her feet. Twilight had to admit, Rainbow Dash looked good in a wonderbolts uniform.

“I dunno if anyone but a defender could have survived that. You could have just landed and said hello you know.” Twilight retorted, working her shoulder that had a kink in it. She popped it and sighed in relief afterwards. Dash rubbed the back of her head as she pulled her goggles off.

“Yeah sorry, I just got so excited… We were doing the thing and suddenly I see you and I couldn’t help myself… I should get back to them actually before they get pissed at me again. Come find me after the show!” The Valkyrie said quickly, hugging Twilight again before shooting off into the air.

“I’m sorry we were too slow to react mother…” Kree said softly.

“Although now that I think about it, we might have died if we got in the way in time…” Shrike continued for her sister.

“Don’t worry about it girls, she’s the fastest creature alive. At least that I’ve seen. She’s the only one to break the sound barrier with enough speed and power to create a sonic explosion and NOT kill herself in the process. I’ll let it slide this one time.” Twilight replied almost teasingly.

“I wonder if she’ll do it if she’s performing.” Nilan said inquisitively. Twilight replied with a shrug and they started back up the path. When they finally arrived they found the two princesses and Spitfire talking in the entrance. Spitfire waved them over and the princesses turned to wave them over as well. Twilight was happy to do so. She was finally able to put her thoughts about the Queen’s Dinner into the back of her mind. At least for now, she’d have to tell Celestia about it of course. 

Time went quickly, all parties speaking of their various weeks and progress made in their respective fields. The performance was truly an incredible experience, as it always was. The Wonderbolts had a way with flying that made even the same tricks seem incredible time and time again. 

After the performance, Twilight found her way to the Wonderbolts staging area to find Rainbow Dash chatting with her formation. The Valkyrie eagerly introduced them, Twilight was happy to meet Dash’s new friends. She left Kree and Shrike to chatter with them further as Dash took her aside.

“So, how’d you like it? For realsies since it’s just me, you know you can be honest.” Dash asked her. Twilight giggled at that.

“Rainbow please, it was incredible. Your influence on the formation is obviously an improvement, and a significant one at that.” Twilight replied. Dash grinned at that.

“Good, I just had to make sure. But anyways, I took you aside to talk to you about two things. The first thing is that last week we found out one of our own was a Changeling. They didn’t know it, a Harvester I think Spitfire called them. The Princesses said they’ve seen harvesters that weren’t yours and they were very different, so this one had to be one of yours. Anyways, that sparked an idea for me and I took it to Spitfire. We want to start a pet project of training some of you guys up for flying. From what Nel and Charon told me about the Hunters they’re like the best fliers, and I’ve seen you fly. It’s nowhere near me or even the new recruits, but it’s the potential we see. What do you think?” The Valkyrie explained. Twilight was actually a little impressed at how professional Dash’s tone was for most of it. She smiled.

“That sounds like a wonderful Idea. I’ll make sure to talk to Spitfire and Celestia about it while I’m still in town.” Twilight replied. Dash’s grin intensified at that.

“Awesome! Now, the second thing. I was talking to the girls about it, and we all want to come and visit you. With your new peace treaties, you’re under Equestrian protection right? Well I convinced Spitfire that having a small group over in Ponyville to look after the Scarred Forest and the other towns around is a good idea. Afterall, we had to take that ursa in our own hands if you remember. It would have taken days to send someone from Canterlot or another nearby outpost. Guard or Wonderbolt. When we’re off duty they don’t care where we are as long as they know where to find us, so during my off duty weeks I can come stay with you.” The Valkyrie continued on to her second topic. Twilight’s eyes lit up at the prospect of getting everyone together again. She hadn’t seen anyone but Dash since the ursa.

“You’ll have to tell me when, so I can have a path cleared for all of you, but there will always be a place for you all in my home.” Twilight responded. That caused Dash to hug her again.

“Awesome! We’ll get it all set up. It’ll take me a few weeks to get a leave since the Ponyville outpost will take awhile to get approved and built but damn will it be worth it.” Dash exclaimed happily as she let the lavender queen go. Any further conversation was cut short as Spitfire entered.

“Hey sorry to do this Twilight but can you and yours scram for a bit? I gotta talk to my guys.” The captain asked Twilight politely. Twilight nodded her head.

“Of course, we were just catching up. I’ll have to come and find you before I leave, according to Rainbow Dash we have a few things to discuss.” Twilight said as Kree and Shrike moved to her side without being told. Spitfire nodded and they made to leave.

“You can find me either here or at the Solar Flare Inn next to the palace. Oh! I almost forgot, Princess Celestia had to go and take care of something but she said she wanted to talk to you. It was important, I think.” The captain said, catching Twilight as she was almost out of the door. Twilight inclined her head in acknowledgement and Spitfire turned to her Wonderbolts.
> Intermission: The Element of Magic
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight found Celestia in her chambers, a place she knew well. The nostalgia hit her like a truck as she looked around the modestly decorated room. The sun was still up, but the Princess was napping peacefully on her bed. Twilight was glad the guards on rotation right now knew her or she would have to have waken her to get in.As it stands, they just smiled at her and let her through. 

Twilight couldn’t help but indulge in a bit of selfishness as she looked at the princess. She couldn’t help but carefully crawl up next to her and wrap her arms around the woman. Twilight realized she was caught when Celestia’s arms quickly wrapped around her and pinned her there.

“I thought I heard someone enter.” She said with a sleepy chuckle as she cracked her eyes open. She seemed relieved she was correct in guessing who it was, though to be fair the only other person who would ever be able to enter unannounced was her sister and she’d have done the same thing. Twilight didn’t reply, at least for a little bit, relishing in the contact and the overwhelming love radiating from her current cuddle buddy.

“You know, now that I’ve hugged you enough and I can find the spots to wrap my arms around you, the chitin isn’t too uncomfortable. The fact that it’s you always leaves that in the dust though.” Celestia continued, squeezing just a little harder for effect. Twilight giggled at that.

“I know you had something important to talk to me about, but I missed this. Even before I became a Changeling I missed this.” Twilight sighed. Celestia just hummed and seemed content to lie there with her student for a minute or so before groaning and finally ending the impromptu cuddle session. 

“Unfortunately this is very important so it can’t wait much longer… I need to test something…” The princess sighed tiredly again. She walked over to the large desk, currently overrun by documents that are probably important. With a flash of magic and a flick of her fingers, a very familiar box dug itself out of the pile of paperwork and into Twilight’s surprised arms.

“The elements of harmony?” Twilight asked, confused. It only took a few seconds to realize what Celestia was wanting to test.

“Oh… OH! You want to see if I’m still the Element of Magic after all of the changes that have been happening.” Twilight guessed. Celestia nodded.

“I have a feeling nothing has changed, but I have to make sure.” The princess replied. Twilight nodded and used a spell only she, the princesses and the other elements knew to unlock the box. She looked at them, the pendants and headdresses. Her was on top, just the way it was left last time they used them. She was almost scared to touch it, and Celestia saw her hesitation. She put a reassuring hand on Twilight’s shoulder and the queen took a deep breath and made to take her headdress.

The flash of light and the palpable magic aura in the room answered all of their questions, but also raised new ones.

“What was that?!” Twilight gasped when the magic dissipated. She watched in a mix of curiosity and horror as the lavender magic of the element coalesced into her hands before dispersing throughout her entire body weaving along in a seemingly random pattern. On closer inspection though, Twilight was shocked. She recognized those patterns. They were Glyphs. They weren’t just any glyphs though, they were glyphs she had invented but haven’t gotten to work yet.

“I don’t know… but those arrays are an unknown glyph pattern… I’ve never even seen it before… Are you alright ,Twilight?” Celestia started, noticing Twilight’s shock.

“I know these… These are modified versions of the general purpose glyphs I created to make the magic batteries work… But these… I hadn’t even begun research on them aside from writing out what they’re supposed to look like.” Twilight explained. Her brain immediately went into scholar mode and blanketed herself with scanning spell after scanning spell.

“My, it seems the Element of Magic wished to help you in your arcane endeavors. Are they functional?” Celestia guessed. Twilight nodded as the last of her spells turned up positive.

“They’ve been magically branded into my skin and carapace, but it seems they don’t show up when I’m not channeling through them. If my ideas and what the scanning spells came up with are right, they allow complete control over magic even without verbal or somatic manipulation and should amplify the power I give out. I had been planning to create a strain of my children with the glyph imprinted into their genetic data to amplify the already present but abysmal arcane mastery.” Twilight explained as she experimented with putting magical energy through the glyphs and taking it away, causing them to glow and testing their effects. She Was about to continue but froze as she realized her energy was being replenished slowly before she absorbed what she channeled.

“Celestia… I… I think I just got turned into an arcane battery…” Twilight stuttered out, her mind ablaze with dozens of experiments and possibilities. Her researchers back at the hive were already preparing them, actually, she hadn’t even consciously asked them to. But they knew. It was Celestia’s turn to be surprised.

“Well… that’s interesting…” Celestia could only say.
> 6: Dining with the Queens
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There was a terrible sandstorm throughout the entirety of the barrens, and they were still a day’s travel from the first hive as Crystarium called it. Twilight had met Crystarium near the mountains housing her hives and their guards worked together to do their jobs as their queens huddled in larger of the many tents that had been pitched and shieled with environmental protection spells courtesy of Twilight.

“I must say, Queen Twilight, it was a stroke of luck you sent that last letter when you did. I was going to head out on my own only a few hours prior and we’d be stuck trying to huddle under a hill.” Crystarium said happily in their tent. 

“Of course, you’ve been very honest with me so far and I’ve grown to enjoy our exchanges. I’m glad to see you managed to make sense of my notes on infusing love into food.” Twilight replied as they sipped on a very weak wine, though it was packed with love.

“It took a few days but we got it in the end. I must say, I was skeptical when you spoke of your arcane exploits but I’m impressed. Your notes were intriguing, and by the look of your carapace you’ve already improved upon my reinforced chitin.” The cerulean queen hummed, though Twilight could make just a little bit of annoyance in the last part.

“Oh no, your stuff is much stronger. I’d give you the full details, but I’m afraid it’d require another exchange.” Twilight replied. Over the weeks, both Celestia and Crystarium have been pounding it into her head that the other changeling queens may want nothing more than to kill her and steal her secrets. And even if the former wasn’t true, the latter was always in the back of their minds. Hell, she wanted every secret Crystarium had to offer. She was perfectly fine with even trades, however. Crystarium hummed in contemplation, but any comments were cut off by the intrusion of one of Crystarium’s drones.

“The storm is abating, my queens. We’ve already started packing up.” He reported almost monotonously. They both nodded and, with a flick of her wrist the protective bubbles around them all winked out of existence. The wind was still strong, but it wasn’t throwing about deadly sand particles to carve through their chitin. She made sure to channel her magic normally rather than through her arcane brands, she wanted to keep that secret as long as possible. Even from her new ally.

“Well then, Queen Twilight, we should be off. I dare say your brood are better fliers than ours so I apologize in advance if we fall behind.” Crystarium said as all of the tents packed themselves up and pre-designated drones started carrying them. Nictus and Nilan were already at Twilight’s side while a few drones stood with Crystarium. Including the wraiths, there was a total of twenty of Twilight’s hive attending and Crystarium had a similar amount. Some of them were designated laborers while most of them were personal guard. The First Hive had a cease-fire for all hostilities, but the barrens were never quite safe. Crystarium had also told her of times queens went feral in the middle of a Dinner, or went rogue, and they were forced to enforce the cease-fire.

“We’ll keep your pace, we’re still a week early afterall.” Twilight replied, to which Crystarium nodded and they all shot into the air. Twilight made sure to keep a good bit of attention back at her hive, the other elements of harmony had insisted they they come with her. Crystarium didn’t know how the other queens would react and thought it was a bad idea, Twilight couldn’t agree more. It’d only be a week afterall, she’ll have plenty of time to spend time with her friends afterwards.

Her friends weren’t the only thing keeping her attention there, though. Mira and Ceren had meticulously transcribed her arcane brand into a normal glyph array to study it and were already making progress. She dared not do anything more than watch, lest she interrupt them, but the two mages were scribbling away like mad at the moment.

“Are you quite alright, Queen Twilight?” Crystarium’s voice brought her back into her own body. The cerulean queen was looking at her as they flew side by side.

“Yes, apologies. I was checking on a few things back at my hive.” Twilight apologized. Crystarium’s expression went to the familiar one of curiosity she always got when Twilight talked about her hive mind.

“I still find it fascinating that your hive mind is so interweaved into the brains of your brood, so much so that you can even possess your drones. That ability is almost as valuable as the sharing of love.” Crystarium hummed, though the hum was lost in the wind. Crystarium’s brood may have been slower than Twilight’s, but they were only slow in comparison. They were making good time. It wasn’t long before the sun fell again and they could see dim lights from the first hive in the distance.

“You will met the creatures that tend to this hive now, Twilight. I advise you keep from pestering them with questions. They will answer, but they are slow and methodical about their words and often spout nonsense that takes days to decipher. They are older than our race, for sure.” Crystarium warned as they neared. Twilight nodded and Twilight could see movement. There were a few drones, but there were also rather large creatures moving about as well. They were maybe twice their size, but made out of different materials. Most were different types of stone, but she saw a few types of wood and even a bone creature or two. Twilight remembered what Crystarium called them. Guardians.

One seemingly made of crystal awaited the mas they landed.

“Welcome back, Queen Crystarium. Welcome anew, Queen Twilight. Seven days’ time marks the begin of your feast, enjoy the ruins of your past.” The thing said in a slow rumbling voice. Crystarium inclined her head respectfully and Twilight did the same.

“It is good to see you again, Cronux. How many other queens have arrived?” Crystarium asked. The crystal construct hummed as it adopted a thinking expression.

“Five besides the two of you. We know of more, but their minds are lost and their bodies far away.” Cronux replied. Crystarium was a little surprised.

“Perhaps we shall start early then, even Mira is here a week early. She usually waits until the last hour to arrive.” The cerulean queen hummed. Cronux nodded and shambled off towards one of the many large doorways. Crystarium motioned for Twilight to follow her so the lavender queen followed as she went down a different path.

“If the other queens agree, we can start tomorrow. Your laborers should speak to any of the guardians to see where they are needed. Our cooks will be worked rather hard if we want to go ahead with infusing the meals with love. Are you sure you’re willing to give so much?” Crystarium explained.

“Of course. It’s all about the first impression, afterall. And we’ve been lucky, our allies have finally stopped fearing us and our love collection has skyrocketed.” Twilight replied. Crystarium hummed, though Twilight missed the agitation in it. As they entered the room, Ceren enhanced her presence in the hive mind to get her attention. Twilight focused most of her attention she passively had in the hive mind to focus on the young mage to see what she had to say while still being able to pay attention as they looked around to see five other queens and their personal guards lounging around.

“Introducing Queen Crystarium and Queen Twilight Sparkle.” A crystal construct that looked nearly identical to Cronux rambled out from the center of the room. Everyone took their seats then, the table was an interesting one. It looked almost like an asterisk except it had a dozen and a half branches. Some of the queen's sat together while the rest scattered around.

“You can’t be wanting to start now, would you? We’ve only just arrived.” Crystarium said with a bit of annoyance in her tone.

“You know we’re anxious to get this over with… Some of us need the dinner more than others.” One of the smaller queens snipped. Her hair was a deep crimson and her eyes were tired. There was virtually no skin that wasn’t covered in carapace, but even her chiton covered form looked unhealthy and thin.

“Calm down Chrysalid, the vote to start early must be unanimous afterall.” A pink haired queen a table away from the redhead said calmly. The other three queens were silent, but they all sported the same emerald green hair and eyes.

“All sane queens in attendance. Vote starting to begin early. Please state your name and vote.” The crystal construct in the center rumbled out when the room went silent and everyone took their seats.

“Queen Chrysalid, I vote in favor.” The redhead said with an air of professionalism that didn’t match her previous statement.

“Queen Mira, I vote in favor.” The pink haired one voted.

“Queen Greta, in favor.”

“Queen Creta, in favor.”

“Queen Meta, in favor.” The three emerald queens said in almost unison.

“Queen Crystarium, in favor.” Crystarium said. They all looked at Twilight, this is her first political decision as a queen. Funny how natural it came to her.

“Queen Twilight in favor.” She said in her practiced courtroom tone. It sounded almost bored, but the others seemed satisfied at it.

“The Queen’s Dinner begins now, the dinner itself will be delayed approximately one hour due to the early start. Are there any opening matters those in attendance would like to bring up first?” The crystal construct in the center rumbled. Chrysalid stood up before anyone could even register the question. She was glaring at Twilight. “Queen Chrysalid, you have the floor.” The construct acknowledged the crimson queen.

“You, you smell of her. Your brood smells of her. They look like her. Where is Chrysalis? Did she go feral and you took her hive?” The redhead practically demanded. The concession focused on her again, not even Crystarium had noticed that connection.The worry in her expression went unnoticed as she composed herself.

“Queen Chrysalis is sane but incapacitated. I act in her stead until she is able to perform her duties as queen once more.” Twilight answered with a flat tone, giving nothing away. Chrysalid sneered.

“My brood sister would never hand her hive to another willingly. What have you done with her?” The redhead demanded again. Twilight answered by standing, looking to the Construct.

“Queen Twilight, you share the floor.” The construct acknowledged.

“I knew we queens are secretive beings. I have not been one long and I’m already holding mine dear. As a show of good faith, I share one with you all now. I was not born a Changeling, I was an Equestrian Human. After Chrysalis failed to invade us after she went feral, the love she stole sobered her up enough to attempt peace. I had attempted to act as an ambassador at her hive, but I was attacked and nearly killed by dangerous fauna in the forest surrounding the hive. I was rebirthed to save my life, and through a series of events I am now here in Chrysalis’ place.” Twilight explained. Interest marred most of the other queens’ faces.

“How could a human, even an ambassador of peace, mean so much to warrant a royal rebirthing?” Chrysalid asked, her demanding tone still present but not dominating anymore. Twilight replied by taking her seat once more. With a growl, Chrysalid did the same when she realized that was all she was getting for free.

“The floor is empty.” The crystal construct rumbled.

“Jordas, what is the state of current wars? Do you know?” Mira asked after the room was silent for a minute too long.

“All wars between sane queens are suspended. The Queens of the Emerald Pact are currently in conflict with Chrysalid. Though open war has been declared, the fighting has been only skirmishes.” The construct finally given a name replied.

“And the feral?” Crystarium added in.

“All are considered at war. Locations of two feral queens and their hives are known. Queen Mira and Queen Chrysalid are combining forces to put one down. Queen Crystarium is mobilizing to take down the other.” Jordas rumbled. Thankfully he spoke clearly, unlike the other guardians. Otherwise the riddles he rambled out would have stumped most, if not all, of the queens.

“I have another matter to take to the floor.” Mira said, standing.

“Queen Mira, you have the floor.” Jordas rumbled. Mira nodded and turned towards the emerald queens.

“If I may be so bold as to ask why you currently war with Queen Chrysalid?” The rosey queen asked. The three all scoffed at the same time.

“We are not at fault for starting this war!” Greta piped out.

“We were attacked first!” Meta huffed.

“We declared war as a response!” Creta said, calming her sisters down. Mira turned to Chrysalid and was about to ask the same.

“Come on, their numbers are low and they are spread too thin between their three hives. There’s a reason queen are called Monarchs rather than Diarchs or Triarchs. ‘Tis weakness, I say. I will not concede to end this war until I have a full gauge of their strength. If I deem them worthy then I will concede. If not, then I will end the war through blood an their heads.” Chrysalid explained matter-of-factly. Twilight didn’t like this queen who claimed to be Chrysalis’ sister. Crystarium shot Twilight a look that almost went unnoticed. Crystarium was looking for something in her. Twilight just hummed in response as Ceren was explaining something intricate to her. Crystarium stood then, and Mira took her seat.

“The floor is yours, Queen Crystarium.” Jordas said.

“I suggest we adjourn further discussion until the dinner is had, Queen Twilight and I have prepared something special and tensions run high on empty stomachs.” The cerulean queen suggested. The emerald queens all nodded. Mira shrugged and Chyrsalid silently fumed, but did not disagree.

“Then we shall wait. The wait time is now approximately twenty minutes.” Jordas said. The silence was almost palpable as they waited, but before long a heavenly aroma filled the chamber. The food was exotic to say the least,Twilight only recognized what she brought. Lasher steak and fresh wine distilled in a glyph inscribed barrel to age it to perfection. They all had small amounts of live infused in them. A portion from everyone’s contribution was set in front of them by different drones from different hives.

For apparently starving, Chrysalid’s contribution was more than Twilight was expecting. It appeared to be baked fruit, though it was unfamiliar to her. It looked like an apple, but it was larger than most she had ever seen and the flesh of the fruit was crimson. It tasted like an apple, though. She made a mental note to ask for seeds if she ever traded with the crimson queen, Applejack would have a fit if she found out Twilight had discovered a new type of apple and didn’t give her a sample.

“What is this, Queen Twilight? Queen Crystarium? There is magic in your contributions!” Chrysalid yelled out after sampling the Lasher steak. Everyone stopped and looked at their food.

“‘Tis not magic, ‘tis love.” Crystarium replied simply. They all looked to Jordas, who seemed inactive. When he did not move they all muttered amongst each other and their guards.

“Sharing love with anything but a living creature is unheard of. When did you develop such an ability?” Mira asked.

“Queen Twilight developed the ability, I merely traded for the knowledge.” Crystarium answered, not giving away what she traded. Twilight added her piece by simply nodding to confirm it.

“A Valuable ability indeed…” Greta hummed. All of the other queens started speaking to some of their guards, who in turn came over to speak with Twilight’s.

“They’re all offering trade secrets in return…” Nictus whispered into Twilight’s ear. Twilight already knew what they were willing to trade, however, and smiled.

“Nilan, start writing up the transcripts. I’ll leave it to you to haggle if needed.” Twilight said. Nilan nodded and left the room to find a quiet place to work.

“Nila, go and relay my message to the other queens. Tell them their trades are acceptable and that I expect the fruits of them before we adjourn or their transcripts will burn.” Twilight said to her lieutenant. The girl saluted and rushed around to speak with the other queens as they ate. Crystarium was silently fuming, but hid it well. She had expected the other queens to try and trade for the ability as well, but not so soon. Twilight was handling herself perfectly as well, far better than Crystarium had hoped. She wanted to be the queen’s crutch, but instead she was more of an advisor.

The meal went on for about three hours before everyone was full and satiated. Soft murmurings permeated the large hall and Twilight was practically beaming she she used a spell to teleport the secrets that had been shared with her back to the hive for decryption immediately. 

Chrysalid had offered seeds to her Blood Apples as well as a way to use their organic material to enrich even the harshest of soils to bear fruit. Mira had given a formula to enhance their natural toxin to be stronger against non-changelings and to act as a healing salve otherwise. Twilight was going to have to modify the strain to be adaptable, but it was valuable nonetheless. The Emerald Queens had offered three separate secrets. The first was a way to enhance magic with love, that one would take a few days to decrypt. The second was a much stronger strain of the organic material, capable of forming to be as strong as steel. The last was of great interest to Twilight, it was a glyph that could convert Changeling magical energy to Arcane and vice versa. The queens seemed surprise Twilight wanted it ,as they had no use for it, but were happy to take the seemingly uneven trade.

“Meal complete, any matters of state that must be addressed may now be addressed once more.” Jordas announced when the tables were emptied again. Mira took to the floor.

“I’d like to request aid in taking down the Feral Queen Bela. We can overpower her forces in time, but at great loss. I estimate at least two years of bloodshed, and by then more feral queens may join in or be discovered. I cannot offer any secrets in return, but I offer any aid I can give in future campaigns or current endeavors. I will also offer love now that we will all soon be capable of sharing it safely.” Mira explained. There was a general murmur as queens consulted their guards or hummed ot themselves.

“IN exchange for excess love, I will send five hundred warriors to your command. Any survivors will be returned immediately.” Chrysalid offered, raising her hand. Mira inclined her head in thanks, sealing the arrangement, and took her seat. The next hour consisted of similar matters. Chrysalid seemed to take any offer that promised food and love. Twilight wasn’t prepared for the last matter to be taken up, though, as Crystarium took the floor.

“I would like to officially declare war on Twilight Sparkle.” She said simply, almost politely. The room went silent. Twilight and her ilk had to concentrate on their composure to not yell out in question.

“As a new queen, she is weak and I wish to take advantage of that. I wish to expand out of my little mountain range, and their close proximity to the Equestrians means our love collection will be easier and regulated. I will also attempt to pry her secrets out of her, but there can be no promises of that.” She said with a confident smirk as she finally looked at Twilight.

“As a gesture of our friendship, though, I hope you realize this is nothing personal. I will adhere to the dinner’s tradition of ceasing hostilities a month afterwards, and extend it by another month so you may scramble to put up a fight.” She said directly two Twilight.

“You will have my support.” Chrysalid said with a sneer.

“Mine as well/” Greta said ,though her sisters did not agree. Twilight was shocked, and a little hurt, by the sudden betrayal. She glared at the cerulean queen she had known to call her friend and stood.

“You share the floor, Queen Twilight.” Jordas acknowledged.

“My people are already preparing, then.” She huffed. “And as a gesture of our friendship…” She started in almost a growl and looked up to Jordas. “I suggest we hold our population counts now.” She finished.

“The declaration of war has already been made, by tradition I can’t rescind my decision until we meet in battle at least once.” Crystarium said apologetically, but Twilight could see through it now. She seemed amused by Twilight’s attempt at intimidation.

“Very well. Population counts will begin to be recorded for records and for food to be sent out.” Jordas said. Everyone stood at that.

“Queen Greta, population of three thousand and fifty-two.” One of the emerald queens stated.

“Queen Creta, population of three thousand, five hundred and one.” Another spoke.

“Queen Meta, population of four thousand and seventy-three.” The last said.

“Queen Chrysalid, population of three thousand even.” The crimson queen said, obviously annoyed her numbers were lower.

“Queen Mira, population of seven thousand, nine hundred and forty-two.” Mira said happily.

“Queen Crystarium, population of eleven thousand, nine hundred and five.” Crystarium beamed, looking to Twilight. The combined population of her new enemies was just over eighteen thousand. She smiled though.

“Queen Twilight Sparkle, population of one hundred and nine thousand, five hundred and sixty-three.” She said, The room fell silent and every single queen gawked at her.

“Liar! With the curse, such a high population would cause your degeneration to accelerate!” Chrysalis growled.

“Not to mention the love required would be monumental…” Mira said. Crystarium and her other ally continued to gawk. They all looked to jordas, who hadn’t reacted. She wasn’t lying.

“All matters resolved, you are now free to leave.” Jordas announced and seemingly went to sleep. Everyone was staring at Twilight in fear, awe and curiosity.

“I do not require any food from you, you would starve yourselves to feed my brood. Crystarium, I thank you for the sound advice and teachings you’ve given to me and the friendship you’ve just destroyed was enjoyable. I will be ready for you, whenever you choose to attack. I may no longer have allies here, but my allies outside of our kind number many and powerful. I hope you come to realize the gravity of what you’ve just done, Queen Crystarium.” Twilight explained, summoning up her most regal and intimidating voice she could. Celestia would have probably been proud. To accentuate her point, she decided to reveal her newest secret. As the arcane energy slowly filled into her branded glyphs.

“Farewell, it was a pleasure meeting most of you.” She said, her voice sounding powerful with the energy coursing through her body. There was a flash and Twilight, as well as her guards and laborers, were gone. Chrysalid and Greta looked to Crystarium, snapping out of her awe and quickly turning to leave. 

“Be a good girl and try not to get yourselves killed.” Mira said in an almost sing-song voice. “And you can rescind your offer of aid, Chrysalid, you will need all of your warriors.” She continued, turning to leave as well.

“What did you just get yourself into, sister…” Creta and Meta said in unison to their eldest sister. The emerald queen huffed and left as well, not even bothering to say farewell to her new allies.

“You still have my support, Crystarium… but if our forces can do nothing I will be forced to declare my neutrality. I will not turn on you, but I will not send my children to die for you if it means nothing.” Chrysalid warned her new ally before leaving as well. Crystarium was silent as she left, though everyone near her could feel the fury welling up. Suddenly she wished she hadn’t officially declared the two month grace.
> 7: Call to Arms
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Needless to say, the party assembled in Twilight’s chambers back at the hive certainly weren’t expecting Twilight to appear in the middle of the room in a huff. She was about to start yelling and screaming every obscenity she knew to vent, but paused when she saw the people in her room. 

“Oh yeah… I forgot I let you guys stay here…” She said, pushing her fury back. For now at least. The other elements of harmony gave her a worried look.

“Darling I know that look, even on you. Something went wrong, didn’t it?” Rarity asked.

“Wasn’t that thing supposed to last for like a week? Did they kick you out?” Dash practically demanded, frustrated at the fact that Twilight was furious about something. As usual she seemed like she was going to fly off and kick someone.

“Yes… and yes… We started early since everyone was present…” She started and told the tale. By the end of it she was sitting on her bed, a hand over Chrysalis’, trying not to start screaming again.

“That… That BITCH!” Dash and Applejack yelled out almost simultaneously. Twilight would have laughed if she hadn’t been thinking the same thing for the past hour.

“Oh no… A War?!” Fluttershy squeaked. Even Pinkie’s hair threatened to flatten out at the news. It immediately puffed back up as her usual gasping ‘I have a party for this!’ face appeared.

“No Pinkie… no parties… we need to prepare and you need to leave. I won’t let you get hurt in this war.” Twilight stopped her, looking at her friends.

“Yeah? Well I’M not letting YOU get hurt in it either! Equestria is your ally, you can definitely convince the Princesses to mobilize the night guard and probably bring the military out from the police reserves again.” Dash started rambling.

“Dash, I’m not going to ask that of the princesses… There’s something I discovered that Chrysalis and I had only assumed based on our past. Due to the curse not allowing us to maintain high amounts of love, we can’t really maintain high populations. Chrysalis ignored that when we flourished, though, and let her people enjoy being satiated for so long. And now, the curse is halted no matter how much we have, so we’ve grown even more. All of the other queens’ populations combined are less than a fourth of mine... “ Twilight explained.

“And I’m not going to fight a full blown war. I have no intentions of attacking, she declared a two month grace period to prepare and can’t rescind her declaration of war until there is actual conflict. My defenders alone triple her population, and if I need to I can use the hunters to go on the offensive. Most of the other hives live in seclusion, away from fauna and civilization. They may be experienced at fighting each other, but we’re experienced at defending ourselves from the worst the world has to throw at us.” She continued, sighing as she stood.

“No attacking? Twi, you can’t be serious.” Dash groaned.

“While I’m no fighter, even I think that isn’t the best idea…” Rarity said.

“But attacking could provoke the other queens, right?” Fluttershy asked. Twilight thought for a moment and nodded. “Well then I think you’re doing the right thing Twilight. Even a hungry predator knows when to back off when it runs into a wall.” The shy valkyrie continued.

“Flutters is right sugarcube, If all you’re doing is defending then there isn’t much to piss the others off. Even if they think you’re weak this one is the strongest right? If she can’t touch you then they sure as hay can’t.” Applejack chimed in. Twilight’s smile was returning as her fury was slowly bleeding away into happiness that her friends were trying to support here.

“Well, either way, I’m going to tell the Princesses and Spitfire if you don’t and at least see if I can be here. The Wonderbolts are more than just stunt fliers, you know.” Dash growled, crossing her arms. Twilight was about to refuse her before Fluttershy spoke up.

“And I’ll stay and help too, I mean I’m no good in a fight but I can help anyone that gets hurt!” Fluttershy squeaked, though her eyes definitely showed determination.

“I just HAVE to throw at least TWO parties, keep the morale high and all! I’ll even get into the kitchens and make sure food is EXTRA tasty!” Pinkie happily squealed out as she was practically bouncing on her feet.

“Darling I’m no architect, but I’ve seen nothing along the lines of fortifications around here. If you’re going to fight a defensive war then you can’t just hold the door closed and hope they go away.” Rarity said, throwing out a dramatic gesture towards the general direction of the main entrance to the hive. 

“I’ve been training up the Militia with Mac ever since the original invasion, I can whip your defenders into proper soldiers, with Dash’s help of course.” Applejack added before Twilight could react to any of it. There was a very strong sense of determination in the love they were radiating now. Twilight wanted nothing more than to protest and ship them off back to Ponyville or Canterlot so that they stayed safe. But when she could practically see their emotions and how much they wanted to do this, she couldn’t get the words out.

“Fine… but when that two month mark hits you’re not going anywhere NEAR the fighting.” Twilight relented. The group all cheered and hugged Twilight as one, fatting up her already overstuffed love reserves. She couldn’t help but smile. It fell to a frown when she felt two disturbances in the hive mind.

The first was Ceren, trying to get her attention to finish explaining her newest discovery. The second was far more worrying. Another spy had been discovered, they had literally just entered the hive.Twilight’s brood were humoring it for now, but they wanted to know what Twilight wanted to do.

“Stay here girls, I have a few things to take care of. If you get hungry or want to get started, just stick your heads out of the hole and ask for help. I’ll have a few guards posted for you.” The queen said as she untangled herself from her friends.

“Oh shit did something happen?” Dash asked.

“I don’t know yet.” Was all that the Valkyrie got in response as Twilight shot out of the room on her gossamer wings. The group looked at each other with worry.

She went immediately to where the spy was attempting to look like he was working on something. Really he seemed to just be staring around in wonder. He noticed Twilight and almost visibly paled. He took a deep breath and walked up to her when she landed near him.

“Who is your Queen, and what are your intentions here?” Twilight demanded curtly. She refrained from outright attacking the thing yet, only half of the other queens wanted her head right now.

“Q-Queen Mira, I came here to request an audience with you…” The spy stuttered out, which would mean he’s not quite a spy. 

“A Messenger then? Or is Mira attempting Diplomacy?” Twilight asked out loud, her curiosity overriding her anger for now.

“Uh… B-Both?” The messenger replied. Twilight sighed.

“She is welcome to come here, though any hostilities will be met in kind. She should know I’m going to be very hesitant to trust her after what happened.” The queen finally said after a few long moments of contemplation. The messenger nodded.

“This was expected. As a show of good faith, she has promised to bring to you the encryption cipher for the secret she gave you.” The messenger replied. Twilight hummed at that before nodding.

“It would be a start…” She agreed. “Go to your queen and tell her to come. Make sure she does not attempt to hide herself once she is in the forest, at least from us. Otherwise she will be assumed an enemy spy or probing attack.” She continued. The messenger nodded and shot off out of the still open door. There was certainly some fear in his gait, but there was even more relief. Twilight let out a long sigh and turned towards the research areas to find Ceren.

What she found in Ceren’s lab was a sight to see. She vaguely remembered the girl talking to her about a new type of material they had created but she lost track of the explanation when things at the dinner were heating up. It looked almost like there was rebirthing pod made of metal in the experimentation chamber, and a few others scattered around the various workstations.

“Oh, there you are! So, how much went through one ear and out the other?” The girl in question piped up when Twilight entered.

“More than I’d care to admit… give me the summary and forward me a full report later.” The queen said. Ceren nodded and turned towards the pod in the experimentation chamber.

“So we were honestly just playing around with ideas and to pass the time I plugged a terrible idea into the transmutation array, which is what Samuel is calling the array we invented, and used it on a pod leftover from our chitin reinforcement experiments. This happened.” Ceren explained as they entered the chamber and Twilight could see the pod in full. The pod itself seemed to be made out of something akin to steel, Twilight recognized it as what their current carapace reinforcement was modelled after.

Inside, though, was a different story. There was a liquid solution as normal, though the solution wasn’t normal. It seemed to almost be metallic in nature as the murky liquid shone in the room’s light. Just barely visible inside was what looked like a malformed orb of metal. Twilight didn’t immediately recognize it, and it didn’t look like it was the same as what the pod was made of.

“We’re calling it Biometal. My queen, it grows. The tiny bit we took out a little while ago stopped growing, but it was easy to craft and mould.” Ceren started and retrieved what looked like a dagger from a nearby workstation. She held it out to Twilight and the queen took it. She could feel the difference from normal iron or steel.

“This is… quite the discovery…” Twilight said softly as she started examining it with every scanning spell she knew of. The mass of metal crafted expertly into a dagger felt almost alive, though it was nonliving. She couldn’t tell all that much about it besides that, though. Ceren’s expression definitely said that there was more to know, though, so she handed it back and waited.

“The stupid idea that made it all happen was me inputting an experimental formula for a new strain of black metal. I had basically thrown the formula for it and your brand’s translated array together and removed anything that didn’t fit well enough in. Turns out, black metal combined with your element of magic created a pseudo-living metal.” The mage explained. Twilight took it all in and tried to make sense of it. 

“So this was an accident? You really need to parse out all of the details next time… but good work.” Twilight said, putting a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Start testing its properties, I want to know if it’s a viable template for our chitin and how easy we can integrate it into our technology research. Weaponization is secondary to those two.” She listed off. Ceren did a cute salute and shot back towards her workstation with the dagger to write up experiments.

Twilight’s mood was definitely elated by the chance discovery, though as she put it into the back of her mind to think on it later she couldn’t help but think about Chrysalis.

“I hope I haven’t condemned your hive…” She whispered more to herself as she turned to return to her chambers. Her friends had obviously decided to take the initiative on their plans and were already gone when she returned. She took her usual position sitting next to Chrysalis to fully immerse herself in the hive mind. She saw Fluttershy finding the medical branch on her own, Applejack asking around for the Defenders’ barracks, Rarity inspecting the outer walls of the hive, Pinkie commandeering an entire mess hall to cook in and saw Dash shooting off towards ponyville. She smiled and let the time fly, she loved immersing herself like this.


> 8: Friends and Allies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Queen Mira stood with a contingent of four of her personal guard at the cusp of Twilight’s hive. She was immediately aware she was being tailed the second she entered the forest, though not through her own perception. A threatening creature had lunged at her within the first five minutes of her trek, only to be felled by a single arrow. It had hit the thing perfectly in the temple, killing it instantly, while mid pounce. She saw neither the one who shot the arrow nor exactly where the arrow came from.

She couldn’t help but feel bad for Crystarium. Especially as she finally arrived after the hour long walk to find the massive hive before her. It was as large as all of her four hives combined, and since it was built into the mountainside there was no telling how deep it ran. She could barely make out what looked like a human talking to some of the stockier changelings up on one of the spiraling alcoves in the side of the rounded hive that she could only guess were ramparts. The outer shell of the hive.

She was lead inside by a changeling woman with a bow strung around her, though her quiver was full. Mira remembered this to be Nictus, the captain of Twilight’s personal guard. Nobody really said anything. There were mainly just clicking noises that Mira recognized as the ones all of the race made unconsciously like body language, but these ones appeared to actually be using it as a language.

She almost ran into the captain who had stopped and was now pointing upwards. Mira followed the digit and saw what looked like a spiral in the ceiling, she recognized it instantly as an entrance to the chamber above and inclined her head to the captain. Nictus inclined it back and the queen rose, using a hand motion to tell her guards to stay. She was only moderately surprised when the opening slid open of its own volition, not even a shred of magic. She felt strange in this room, almost like she didn’t belong here. She saw Twilight sitting on the bed, holding another changeling’s sleeping hand.

She recognized that changeling…

“Your show of faith certainly helped us, to that I am grateful. I will warn you, this room has been covered in a zone of truth. I will know if you lie to me, Queen Mira, otherwise I couldn’t trust you… Not after what Crystarium did.” Twilight said, opening her eyes and standing. The Lavender Queen had a respectful demeanor that almost told Mira otherwise, but in reality it was just habit when speaking to another ruler for Twilight.

“Well, it’s more than I thought you’d give me…” Mira hummed. Twilight nodded and motioned for them to sit at a table that had been brought in with two chairs and a bottle of wine. The wine was already poured, and Mira happily accepted.

“I want to know why you’re here and what your goals are for this war.” Twilight said simply. It wasn’t quite a request, but it was veiled as such. Mira knew better, she was in another Queen’s hive. They had not signed any agreements or even entered a verbal contract stating that she was to be unharmed. If Twilight wanted to she could kill Mira now and end her hive for good. But Mira knew Twilight wouldn’t do that unprovoked, and she had no intentions of doing so.

“This may sound strange coming from me, but I came here to get to know you as the individual Twilight Sparkle rather than Queen Twilight. I am interested in you and your brood and will happily assist in your research wherever I can, and I wish to show you that all of us Queens aren’t power hungry and deranged as Chrysalid and Crystarium. You’ve only been a queen for a small amount of time, yet you held yourself with far more regality than even Crystarium -and she prides herself in being ‘above’ everyone else.” Mira explained, taking a sip of her wine halfway through. Twilight took a little while to reply, not expecting most of it.

“And your intentions concerning the war?” Twilight prodded, not quite ready to make a decision on what to think of the Rosy Queen. Mira smirked.

“I have no intentions of interfering in this war on either side currently, but beyond all else I have no interest in Crystarium’s vye for power. She will betray Chrysalid and Greta as soon as she feels they aren’t worth their soldiers’ lives anymore and I’d rather not add my name to that list.” The Rosey Queen replied. There was an ever growing silence between them before Twilight sighed and downed her glass.

“Look, I want to trust you… I’m happy for any help I can get… I’m willing to give you a chance, but the only way I can do so without doubting it you wouldn’t like.” Twilight finally said. She was fidgeting with her glass. She seemed to not like the fact that she couldn’t trust someone being openly friendly. 

“What did you have in mind?” Mira asked, a little uncertain. Twilight sighed again and stood, looking at the sleeping queen on the bed. Mira followed her gaze and so many questions rose in her mind.

“A binding contract. None that you’ve probably seen. It involves using a very specific spell to brand a contract into your arcane signature, we will obviously negotiate the terms of this contract until we are both happy. If we break the contract, it causes your energy to turn on you and start killing you. I don’t know how powerful your signature is so you could theoretically survive, but if I were to break it then the resulting feedback would probably glass the entire forest.” Twilight explained. Mira paled as Twilight explained it. This was very serious.

“Such power… Are you sure you’re not overestimating yourself?” The Rosey Queen asked, cautiously probing the girl for more information. Twilight chuckled softly as she retook her seat.

“More like underestimating… I’m the Element of Magic, one of the Elements of Harmony. I’ve yet to meet a creature besides Princess Celestia and Princess Luna that had more raw arcane power than I do, though there have been many who have had greater mastery of their smaller reserves…” Twilight replied. Mira didn’t know much of what she was talking about, but assumed it was something to do with Equestria and resigned to gather information later. Mira just nodded, taking the girl’s word for it.

“Before we negotiate this… contract… What happened to Chrysalis?” Mira asked after another few moments of silence, looking at the sleeping queen. She almost regretted it when Twilight sank in her chair.

“It’s… a long story…” Twilight sighed. She was doing that alot lately. “A story for another time, I fear if I tell it now after all that’s happened recently I wouldn’t be able to hold myself together.” She continued, looking at Chrysalis as well. Mira just nodded, she could feel the sorrow that the memories brought the Lavender Queen. Mira was actually surprised the girl was giving off such strong emotion, changelings usually had nothing or only vague hints of it in their aura. This was so powerful it almost caused Mira to feel it herself.

“Well then… I suppose it’s time we got to business… I will agree that, for the duration of this war, I will not assist your enemies in any knowing way. In return I would like to request an alliance between our hives to build trust and to learn from each other. The duration of this alliance will be undefined, as I cannot pretend to know what the future holds, but I personally hope it lasts quite a while. Strong alliances are rare and cast aside so often I don’t think the other queens know the meaning of the word anymore…” The Rosy Queen detailed her intentions. Twilight nodded a few times.

“My stipulations are that you allow diplomats into your hive and I will do the same for you if you wish, and as my allies you will by extension be allied with Equestria and its allies. We all protect each other, so you may be called upon should the need arise. As the contract holder, I will have the ability to change or amend terms if we both agree, but you will not be able to do the same. Are you satisfied with them for now?” Twilight replied. Mira thought for a while.

“I know little about Equestria, who are their allies?” Mira asked.

“The Tribes that roam the continent are all considered allies, the Dragons, the Griffons, and the Dark Valkyrie are all allies as well. If memory serves there was a Minotaur diplomat in Canterlot last I was there but I don’t quite know if they’re allied or just friendly yet.” Twilight answered. Mira hummed in thought.

“I have love harvesters among the Dragons and Griffons, if we are to be allied then further negotiations would need to be made with them specifically to allow us easier access to our harvesters and possibly to grant more safe living. In our pseudo-starved state we abate the curse, but the extra love means that we could safely increase our numbers without risking full starvation or overfeeding.” Mira added. Twilight nodded.

“I have a few friends in both nations, and I can always ask a favor of the Princesses. I’ve already got talks sending diplomats amongst all of our allies. We’ll leave that specific part of the contract open until you are satisfied with the results, otherwise I am ready to seal it when you are.” The Lavender Queen agreed. Mira nodded.

“Let’s get this over with, then. The sooner we end the chance of hostilities between us the better.” Mira said. Twilight nodded with a smile before it fell into a frown of concentration as she stood and walked over to Mira. Mira saw the glyphs and symbols on Twilight’s body show themselves again, this time the energy felt much less hostile. Before long, Twilight held out her hand.

“Then the previously discussed terms are set not in stone, but in our very beings. You are aware of the consequences of breaking this contract, as am I, and you concede the right to hold this contact to me. Take my hand, and the contract is sealed.” Twilight said after almost a minute of silence. Mira hesitated for a moment, but only a moment. She took Twilight’s hand and the girl smiled.

“Brace yourself, this won’t be pleasant.” She warned. Mira nodded and almost fell over as it felt like something was scraping at her very being. In reality, the terms of the contract were being etched into her life force, her arcane signature, her ‘soul’ as some people call it. It was not visible to anyone that could not read life energy, which was a rare ability outside of dark mages, but Mira could feel the power in the words she could only feel. It didn’t take long, the contract was rather short afterall, and Twilight’s demeanor had gone from careful mistrust to a much warmer happiness.

“I’m sorry to have to do this… but I know all too well how quickly people in power can shift their morales. Crystarium was not the first.” The lavender Queen said, returning to the bed to hold the sleeping queen’s hand. “As far as this war goes, I will be glad for any information you have on the other queens. If you can spare a few veteran warriors as well, we have very little open combat experience. I plan to fight this war defensively and hope Crystarium backs off. We have thousands of defenders and hundreds of veteran hunters, but we’ve never needed soldiers. Not since before I came to power. A friend of mine is already going to start the process, but you know how other changelings do war.” Twilight continued, looking back at Mira.

“I’d be happy to. I would offer actual soldiers, but I don’t think that’s necessary. I would also like to offer what archives I deem hold no secrets to you in your pursuit of knowledge, you didn’t appear to inherit the memories of your mother as is normal. All I ask in exchange for this is that whatever fruits come from our joint research is shared and that you protect me as if I was one of your own. Crystarium will not like our alliance, and I am a speck compared to your population.” Mira asked.

“You needn’t even ask those. In time I may even share some of my more recent discoveries with you. We’ve recently discovered a more effective alternative to Crystarium’s method of reinforcing chitin. What she doesn’t know is that we’ve also had the advantage of weaponry from the start.” Twilight replied. She put emphasis on the last statement by extending her blades. They surprised Mira, expecting Twilight to say something about a superior toxin.

“That’s… incredible. Is that actually metal, or is it chitin reinforced like Crystarium’s?” Mira asked, standing and walking closer to inspect the black metal blades.

“My head mage, who crafted these, calls it Black Metal. It’s forged and infused with changeling magic so it reacts favorably to our bodies. I will ask her if she is willing to share the process, as we have developed something even stronger as I have said.” Twilight answered, Mira just nodded, recomposing herself after the flash of wonder dominated her features.

“I think I will enjoy this alliance, Queen Twilight. I ask to remain with my guard for tonight, as we are tired from our journey, but we will leave in the morning to get things in motion.I will happily take diplomats as, judging by what little I’ve seen, you have an incredible connection with all of your drones. I only know the basic state and locational information of my drones.” Mira said. Twilight was a little surprised, but she had noticed the other hive minds were not as strong.

“I am precisely aware of just about everything all of my drones are doing. Nictus is instructing your guard on how to properly string a bow and how to coat arrows and blades in the toxin effectively. I had asked her to do so as soon as the contract was sealed, it will help if you ever enter the forest without us noticing. Lashers are common and dangerous, but there are far more dangerous creatures out there.” Twilight explained. Mira nodded, though internally she was in awe at the information. Not only can she possess another drone from far away, she could actively converse with them telepathically? 

“If that is the case, I would be interested to learn if it’s possible to adapt that particular ability… You say it is the hive mind,  but ours is so weak in comparison…” Mira said. Twilight hummed in thought.

“I do have a branch of research specifically focused on researching our kind, if they find something I’ll let you know. Access to your archives will surely speed that along.” The Lavender Queen replied with a smile. Mira nodded again and turned towards the exit.

“Then I will bid you a good day, Queen Twilight.” She said happily.

“And you as well. If you require food or love you can ask anyone where the nearest mess chamber is. As guests you are entitled to be fed to satisfaction for both.” Twilight said just as happily. Mira inclined her head in thanks and left the chamber. Twilight resumed her hive immersion then, keeping a bit of attention on her guests at all time. Most of it was focused on the researchers, learning what they learned as they learned it and offering help whenever she could.

Twilight also watched over her friends. Applejack had convinced Keine to take part in her drilling and the head defender was actually enjoying herself. Keine may have been larger by a foot and had twice the bulk, but all it took was one kick to the chest to put her against a wall. The farmer-turned-militia-lieutenant was doing an incredible job of showing the defenders how to form ranks properly and was currently showing them effective close quarters combat techniques.

Fluttershy was giving equestrian medical training to the medic drones, and was even helping along with the transmutation array to give them all Mira’s salve upgrade to their toxin. Twilight had already parsed the formula to give the toxin gland two chambers, one for the actual toxin and one for the salve. Fluttershy’s training specifically would most likely prove useful as it helped them mould their organic cement to make better bandages and how to use actual bandages. Afterall, the toxin doesn’t last forever.

Rarity already had pages of diagrams and blueprints of what to do with the odd construction of the hive’s outer shell to turn it into a proper defensive position. Currently, though, she was going through their cloth and leather stores to find inspiration on an outfit line she wanted to start for changelings in Equestria.

Pinkie was, surprisingly, not making tons of cakes and other pastries. The cooks were going at a blistering pace to keep up with her nonsensical pace for cooking, but were happy for the excitement. They were learning new techniques as well as how to do well under pressure because dear lord this pink human never lets up. She had also introduced using plates for those who wished to dine at the hall, and already a method was perfected for the meal pod to split open like a flower like a take-out box.

Dash had just returned as well. Well, by returned what really happened was a hunter found her passed out from exhaustion on a cloud halfway through the forest. She was conscious now and way stuffing her face on Pinkie’s excellently cooked food while spilling all she had to the nearby drones knowing that Twilight would hear. She had gotten the OK to stay, as well as have a few other wonderbolts head over to train up their fliers. Spitfire had allowed it as a favor to dash and to help promote cooperation in the future.

Mira and her guards had settled into the same mess hall, curious about the human that seemed to not give a care in the world that she was surrounded by changelings.

“Say, you look kinda like Twilight, and Chrysalis. Are you a queen too?” Dash asked when she had finally finished talking about her accomplishments getting help. Mira was surprised to be addressed, assuming she’d just blend in with the other changelings. She blinked a few times.

“Yes I am, I’ve just entered an alliance with Queen Twilight... “ The Rosy Queen almost stuttered out. This was strange, even for her, to be chatting with a human.

“Sweet! If Twilight trusts you than I do, but do me a favor and don’t betray her like that blue bitch did or I’ll have to come find you and beat the shit out of you until you make it up to her.” The Valkyrie almost challenged. It took a lot of self control from her and her guards not to lash out at this human, that was the bluntest threat they’d ever heard.

“Trust me, even if I could I wouldn’t… You’re rather brash for a random passerby. By your tale I assume you’re an ally of Queen Twilight’s? From Equestria I gather?” The Rosy queen asked to try and get away from the threat. Dash seemed satisfied by that.

“Name’s Rainbow Dash, and I mean yeah I’m an Equestrian ally. More importantly I’m one of her closest friends.” Dash replied. Mira hummed in contemplation of what to say next.

“I am Queen Mira, I admit I know next to nothing about Equestria and these… Wonderbolts you said? If you don’t mind I’d like to know more.” Mira inquired, letting her lust for knowledge overpower her regality for the moment. 

Boy did she regret it. It wasn’t until the moon was high in the sky that the rainbow haired valkyrie finally finished gushing about the Wonderbolts and Equestria in general.
> Intermission 2: More Progress
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight was a little worried. She was staring down the transmutation array, though it wasn’t the first time. Before it was slight alterations and minor upgrades, but this one was a doozy. She had refrained from taking most of the traded improvements, as well as most of her own developments, due to time and not having the time to recover properly. Now, though, there was still a week before Crystarium’s grace period was over and all the preparations had been properly made. 

“Are you sure you want to do it all at once, my queen?” Ceren asked, who was double checking the array and the template formulae it was going to use.

“Not at all, but I have to if I want to keep up. If I stagger it then the recovery time would be much too long. Mira said Crystarium was already amassing forces, some of her sentries spied large groups moving around nearby. Besides, this is the perfect way to test our newest theory on the link between a queen and her drones.” Twilight replied. Samuel sighed, who was going to be the one to activate the array.

“We’re ready to start when you are, then. Do your best not to summon up any magic, your brands may interfere with the array.” He warned. She nodded to him after a few moments, signaling him to start. The Biometal was still in its infancy for production, so they wouldn’t risk inputting its alchemical template into the array yet, but they had finally transcribed the formulae for Ceren’s Black metal.

It didn’t hurt nearly as much as Twilight was expecting. She could feel her teeth involuntarily clenching and most of her muscles stiffening, but she managed to concentrate hard enough to not channel protective or healing magic against her instincts. It was a grueling ten minute procedure, but when it was finally done she was far less exhausted than she had been last time she went through it. Which was surprising considering this was more than triple the change.

“How do you feel, my queen?” Ceren asked. Twilight stood from the transmutation table, only swaying a little bit.

“Not too terrible. Either I’m getting tougher or my body is getting used to this…” She replied.

“Perhaps it’s the healing salve’s addition, numbing the pain and exhaustion.” Samuel suggested. Ceren shrugged.

“Seems we thought wrong about the link, though. I admit I feel a little different, but I’ve yet to go through the reinforcement transmutation -at least the newest strain- and I can still feel the steel rather than black metal.” The young mage sighed. Twilight was honestly surprised at that.

“Really? I was so certain that would work… We’ll have to run some more tests after the war, let’s see if we can’t get that Biometal into production so that Rarity can make her armor blueprints a reality.” The queen said. The group all nodded and got back to work. Twilight was still pretty tired and almost famished with how hungry she was. She beelined straight for the nearest mess hall and asked them to give it a triple love infusion and to have her meal ready when she got there.

“Ah, perfect timing, I was just going to ask where you were.” A familiar princess of the night said when Twilight arrived. She had sat down next to Princess Luna without even realizing it.

“Oh, Princess! I almost forgot you were still here. Need something?” Twilight asked as a large steak was placed in front of her on an already opened pod plate. She waited to dig in only long enough for Luna to answer to be polite.

“I had just received reports of changelings that are not of your brood in many places around Equestria. I’ve ordered my people to have them watched but I don’t know what they’re doing. I was hoping you’d have an idea before I do something rash.” The lunar diarch said. Twilight paused before a meat filled bite.

“Well, Crystarium’s army surely isn’t gathering anywhere near Equestria… I know Mira has taken a personal interest in learning about Equestria, so that might be it. Otherwise it might be the other queens trying to gather information on me, I told you what I told them right?” The Queen replied. Luna nodded.

“If it’s all gathering information then I suppose I can’t have them uprooted. If we have proof they are of your enemies they will be dealt with appropriately, though.  Declaring war on an ally of Equestria is like declaring war on Equestria itself. I still don’t understand why you refuse the aid of our military. Quite a few of both my Night Guard and Tia’s Royal Guard have openly volunteered to fight alongside you.” Luna said. She seemed a little unhappy about it.

“This is not Equestria’s war. The other queens may not be able to hold a feather to your armies, but the only reason my fight is coming to open warfare is because subterfuge and infiltration is impossible. Not with our hive mind. They got into Canterlot and the royal wedding of all things, I only found Chrysalis out because I knew Cadence too well…” Twilight explained, though her mood dampened at the old memory of Chrysalis. She looked off in the vague direction of where the old queen slept and sighed. Luna noticed it and, having spent a good amount of time here, realized where she was looking.

“How did the experiment go? Your carapace seems a smidge darker I think.” Lina asked, trying to get the girl’s mind off her sleeping queen.

“Well, my transmutation was a success. Even with so many elements to it it took far less out of me as it should have.” She said, her hunger returning in full as she started devouring her steak. She paused halfway through to speak again.

“But the general experiment about the link is inconclusive. Everyone I’ve asked admits they feel slightly different but no actual change has taken place. From all of our previous experiments any change in the Queen has yielded recordable results in most, if not all, of the drones. Even Vinyl started talking about weird things she’s been feeling according to Nel and Charon, and she’s a Harvester.” Twilight grumbled out. She was still annoyed that it didn’t work. Especially since over one hundred thousand transmutations would take so much time and arcane energy. Luna hummed in thought.

“Have you tried any of these changes on Chrysalis? Or, if you have, tried doing separate things between you?” Luna asked. Twilight was confused for a moment before she dropped her fork.

“That’s it! There IS a connection between the Queen and her Drones. But we have Queens, TWO Queens. Changes may have to happen to both while we both still live.” She exclaimed. She didn’t even need to direct Ceren and Samuel to ready the array again. She got down the rest of her steak in a rush and quickly hugged Luna.

“Thank you so much! If this works then it’ll be our greatest discovery yet!” She continued to almost yell. Luna was surprised by the sudden embrace but returned it in full.

“It’s the least I can do since you won’t accept my soldiers.” She chuckled, patting the queen on the head. Twilight happily accepted the gesture and the love that came with it. Celestia may have been her mother figure, but Luna was like her big sister rather than aunt. “Come on then, I had better get going and you have experiments to run. Keep me posted, I’ve setup my dragonfire network to accept messages from your arcane signature.” Luna continued, ending the embrace. Twilight nodded.

“Once the fighting is over, if we can resolve this peacefully I’ll be sure to try and get the other queens to make diplomatic advances with Equestria and its allies. Mira’s contract means she’s already on board, and she hasn’t regretted it yet.” Twilight replied.

“I’m glad, be sure to come back and visit once you’re no longer needed here. Celestia certainly misses you.” Luna suggested. Twilight giggled and gave her another quick hug as her affirmative before shooting off towards her chambers. Luna asked for a meal pod for the trip and gathered up her escort of Night Guards, the Dark Valkyries getting along well with the hunters in the hall.

Twilight was beyond careful, carrying Chrysalis’ sleeping form across the hive. She didn’t like risking teleporting normally, for fear of hurting herself or someone she accidentally teleports into, and she certainly wasn’t going to risk it with Chrysalis. Normally the corridors were busy with her brood scampering about their days, it was actually starting to get just a little cramped in here, but right now the corridors were almost empty as Chrysalis was moved through them. It was almost like there was a tangible field around them as Twilight carried her, the tidal wave of chitin and buzzing flowing around them like water.

They wouldn’t dare risk bumping them for fear of causing Chrysalis to fall. 

“I recommend monitoring her very closely, I don’t know how her body will take to the transmutation. This is all of them at once, even more than yours. She is love stuffed, though, and you’ve been keeping her body fit through magical exercise correct?” Samuel asked. Twilight nodded as she carefully laid Chrysalis on the transmutation table. 

“I’ve been massaging her muscles to keep them awake and strong and making sure she gains all the nutrients they need though Love.” Twilight explained as the array started glowing to signify that it was ready. She was preparing all of the healing magic she knew just in case. Twilight nodded to Samuel, who looked to Ceren. She gave the thumbs up and he activated the array.

Twilight noticed that the energy the thing was giving off was much lower, Samuel must have lowered the power output to put less strain on the body. It would take longer for the transmutation to finish, but it would do less damage immediately. Especially if something went wrong. Twilight was almost brought to tears as she sat through a grueling hour of watching Chrysalis’ sleeping body twitch and occasionally convulse. 

The worst part was that Twilight could feel Chrysalis’ pain.The whole hive could, and it was terrible. Twilight even made sure to check her manifestation in the forest of their minds. It was still sleeping happily, though, which meant that this pain was only physical and would not last. The reassurance seemed to seep from her as everyone else in the room visibly let out held breaths.

The long hour was finally over, and Chrysalis was back to her peaceful expression. Twilight looked around and was going to ask the others how they felt, but she noticed the changes before she could get the words out. Their Chitin had taken a darker tint and the two noncombatants even seem to have gained a bit of muscle. They were looking at their hands and arms and their confusion was heard over the hive mind.

“This is… different. These changes… they’re not just what we outlined. I know you have very good muscle volume from your combat training my Queen. Queen Chrysalis’ muscle mass is being maintained by you, so perhaps this change may also affect your natural state as well?” Ceren theorized.

“No… we did not change before when the Queen had minor changes like that. Perhaps it was only the case due to the transmutation? We’ll have to study it further.” Samuel retorted.

“Absolutely. Princess Luna was correct, though. Our link is based on both of our queens, rather than just the active one.” Ceren summarized as she looked at Twilight. Twilight had starting stroking Chrysalis’ hair again, the sleeping Queen’s smile seemed just a little larger at making the discovery. 

“I hope we figure out a formula for the love production then…” Twilight said softly. 

“We’d need to examine quite a few of the other races to find a consistent strain. Your signature is too different from ours to get a clean scan of it to translate, either way we should prepare the Biometal. Come on, Sam.” Ceren replied as she turned to the other researcher. 

“Uh, yes. Right. The first pod should be almost full by now.” He agreed.

Twilight brought Chrysalis back to their chambers and decided to take a nap with her. She was still exhausted from her own transmutation, and these new discoveries were starting to take a toll on her mental strength at the moment. Too much thought in too little time. She let it all melt away as she held the sleeping Queen close.

“We’re getting closer, Chrysalis… One day we’ll be able to wake you up…” She whispered, kissing the sleeping queen goodnight before nuzzling into her neck.
> 9: For the Hive
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“My Queen, please reconsider! The Queens never take to the field themselves, you’re too important!” Nictus protested as Twilight and her wraiths lied in ambush in the scarred forest. Every single hunter they had were stationed around the forest. The forward scouts had reported Crystarium’s force of around eight thousand was finally on its way, merely hours after the grace period was over.

“They will not know it’s me, if they do then I will return. For now, though, I need a bit of personal revenge.” Twilight retorted as she turned to her wraiths. They all had their bows ready, as well as two quivers each. Even Vera and Bie, the two medics of the group, were trained as fully fledged hunters. 

“We are defending our home, today. If we do our job flawlessly then the defenders don’t even need to worry about this assault, but we all know nothing goes flawlessly around here. Leave no enemy unscathed. Stick to nonlethal unless you have to kill. If they kill even one of our brothers and sisters then they forfeit the mercy we give them. Until then, let them recover injured.” Twilight said and broadcasted over the hive mind. She could feel the flow of affirmation from her brood and smiled as she watched the small black dot that was the cloud of Crystarium’s forces closing in.

“They’re avoiding entering the jungle proper, let’s show them the accuracy of our hunters.” Twilight said as they all nocked arrows. Twilight had expected this and had her mages work on enchanting enough arrows for every hunter to have a full seven arrow quiver of spell bolts. They all nocked one of the three ‘splitter’ arrows as they were referred to. The arrow would be normal until it struck its target, then the magic would explode like shrapnel in jagged spikes of incapacitating magic. The cloud had just finished flying over the edge of the forest when Twilight released her arrow, well over four thousand others joining hers.

The invading swarm scattered, but that only caused the splitter magic to cause more effective damage. At least three thousand were felled in the single barrage, but as they released their second splitter volley the invading drones scattered into the trees so it was rendered fairly ineffective. Only half of the invading force remained, however it would take a long slog of rooting the survivors out and picking them off. Not to mention when the injured are recovered they could be added back to the total.

“The things I do for the hope of peace…” Twilight growled as she extended her full battle plating and her group shot off to zip through the treeline. Across the whole forest her hunters were doing the same, never stopping even to take a shot. This was their territory, their home. They knew it like the back of their hands and had spent their entire lives felling creatures far more dangerous than drones. Crystarium made the mistake of amassing her forces in one place, and she was feeling it now.

The invading swarm didn’t have just the hunters to deal with, though they were doing an incredibly effective job at keeping them away from the hive. The predators that call the forest home were just as dangerous, the lashers especially. The creatures had adapted to fight and kill changelings for generations, only the best hunters dared hunt them afterall. 

The skirmishing went on for about an hour before the swarm pulled back out of the forest, recovering almost all of their incapacitated forces. The predators had gotten to a few hundred of them but most were already recovering. For good measure, Twilight had the last barrage of splitter arrows used to drive them further back, but she almost immediately regretted it.

She was pinged multiple times simultaneously by two separate groups of hunters. A group of one thousand and a group of two thousand were swarming from different directions. That must have been Chrysalid’s and Greta’s forces.

“Are we still to use nonlethal? We’ve only sustained injuries, but we’re all fighting strong.” Nictus asked. Twilight simply nodded, but she was already preparing herself for the casualties that had to happen eventually. Nonlethal only worked for so long in open warfare.

“My Queen, Rainbow Dash has ignored your request to remain inside and is leading her flight squadron!” Twilight heard over the link. Twilight’s view snapped up to see the rainbow hued trail in the sky coming from the hive with a small swarm of two hundred of the best fliers. They were armed with repeating crossbows. The weapons were effective at closer ranges but were fairly inaccurate in comparison to a standard bow or even a standard crossbow. 

“Twi, we’ve got your backs! We’ll keep that smaller swarm at bay. You guys handle the rest!” Dash relayed over the messaging glyph she had been given.

“Sorry Twi, I tried to stop her. We’re shorin’ up the walls now.” Applejack’s voice came next over the glyph. Twilight growled in frustration but ultimately resigned to just support her friend rather than berate her. The three pronged attack was a good strategy, but with Twilight’s exponential numbers advantage slowly proved to counter it. She thought it was going well until she felt the first one. That first silenced voice. The shock of pain and then nothing. She instantly focused on the perspective of the nearest changelings and found a group of hunters engaged in close quarters combat with an invading group three times their size. Fury welled up in Twilight as she looked at the decapitated changeling that was her, and it only rose as the rest of the hunters were overwhelmed and slaughtered.

“You forfeit my mercy, Crystarium. I hope this sacrifice is worth it.” Every single changeling in her hive yelled out. Just that caused the invading swarms to falter in their advance, but quickly returned to their hostilities.

Twilight nocked a ‘seeker’ arrow, an arrow that would resonate with the arcane signature of her changelings and seek out anything that wasn’t a match. She readied a duplication spell as she fired, causing the seeking arrow to split into dozens of smaller seeking bolts of light. Rainbow Dash was almost startled out of the air as the swarm she was trying to get away from was suddenly ripped to shreds as the other hunters did the same. There were two more volleys of seeking arrows, decimating the reinforcements, but Crystarium’s main force had recovered and was now charging in with renewed vigor.

“Everyone, prepare the dome.” Twilight said aloud and through the hive mind. They all nocked their final enchanted arrow and aimed to the sky. With an unspoken command they all fired straight into the air. The arrows went high, but as they slowed to a stop they froze in the air. Some of them fell only a little, but the final product was a web of nodes to create a shield array.The shield wouldn’t last long, maybe an hour as it stood, but ultimately the time would be at least halved by the swarm now trying to smash or blast through it.

“Regroup at the Hive, we need to restock our quivers. Defenders, you’re up!” Twilight called out. The adrenaline and lust for revenge for their fallen siblings could be felt by everyone as the hunters made their way back to the Hive. Rarity had finished her designs and the makeshift ramparts were in place around the outer shell, connected via walkways to the rounded alcoves and trenches that ran along the shell. The ramparts themselves were little more than thick walls built with the organic cement infused with the properties of stone and steel through transmutation.

The Defenders made up almost a literal wall along the ramparts and along every nook and cranny they could find in the shell of the hive. The hunters got the time they needed to recraft their arrows and have a quick meal before joining the Defenders on the walls. It was at about that time the dome arrows started failing. Usually with a shield spell using amplifying nodes, once one went they all went. Since each arrow had its own supply of arcane energy rather than a single source, small pockets began shattering first. Taking the new holes, the invading swarm was effectively bottlenecked and easy to thin out slightly by the refreshed hunters.

The swarm threatened to crash over the walls, but the Defenders held their ground. It took every fiber of Twilight’s being not to join her defenders, but she couldn’t justify it any more. She sat in the center of her hive fully immersed, with her Wraiths to defend her just in case, as she used her influence to empower the bulwark of chitin that was her defenders. Crystarium’s reinforced chitin was strong, but not strong enough to bounce mana infused Black metal. The Hunters and Defenders were a perfectly synchronized machine. The invading swarm would charge the ranks, the defenders would buffett them back with whatever they could and the hunters would weave around shields and friendly masses to put arrows right where they were needed. 

Keine didn’t even flinch as an arrow almost skidded across her cheek to split an invader’s carapace around the chest. The follow up could only be described as fluid as her spear found the new vulnerability and ended the invader’s life, adding its corpse to the ground as further difficult terrain for their enemies.

Being held at the cusp of the forest for so long was starting to wear the invaders down. Whenever they could get a glancing scratch or a good hit on a defender there was always one to take its place. Meanwhile, they were fighting on two fronts. The predators of the forest were growing spoiled and confident with all the new flesh to eat in the forest and wanted it fresh, so the invaders were fighting a defensive battle on the other side.

“Flee, surrender. Stop this mindless fighting! Your children are dying for nothing, Crystarium! Are you nothing more than a feral?!” Twilight growled out of every mouth on the front lines. “Leave now, collect your injured. Hold a dinner to renounce this foolish war, I will not have any more of our children’s blood on my hands!” She continued when there was no response. Of course there was no response, their hive mind was extremely limited. To show she meant it, she had her hunters stop their offensive and instead had them support the defenders. The defenders were to only push back and hold rather than lash out as they have been. At least until a life was lost, this was Crystarium’s last chance. The invading swarm kept coming, though a great many of the reinforcements were leaving immediately.

“Leave now, or I will end this here and now!” Twilight yelled out ,the cacophony of voices only adding to the furious outburst. The invaders faltered at that. The battle had stopped by now, both sides staring each other down. Slowly they backed away, but did not retreat entirely. They stayed like this for two hours before the ranks split to reveal the cerulean queen walking towards the hive.

“I will negotiate the terms of my surrender.” The queen said simply, quite a bit of venom in her tone. Without a notable command the Defenders parted enough to give the queen room to pass. She did so confidently, but couldn’t help but lose a bit of her composure when the ranks formed around her the second she passed them. It was almost like being pushed through a sea of metal and chitin with nothing but a tiny bubble around her to keep her safe. The defenders and hunters all hissed as she passed, they mirrored their queen’s mirth at seeing the traitorous queen in person but they were honor bound not to attack her while negotiating surrender.

Crystarium tried her best to saunter up to the table that had been prepared in the cavernous main chamber of Twilight’s hive, but the literal sea of hatred around her caused her step to falter. She sat down in front of Twilight, who was glaring daggers at her.

“What terms would you like to discuss, Crystarium?” Twilight asked in a cold but polite tone. Equestrians knew this tone well, it was the same tone Celestia used during court when she was trying not to blast a hole in something. Which, considering the state of the Equestrian nobility, happened quite a lot.

“I am surrendering to you, Queen Twilight. All I can ask is that we are given safe passage to retreat and that there will be no retaliatory attack. Everything else is by your demand.” Crystarium replied harshly, not able to keep up her regal demeanor she prided herself in.

“I will accept those terms on three conditions of my own. The first is that you end this stupid war as soon as possible or I will end it for you. The second is that you grant us copies of any and all archives you have about our people that do not specifically pertain to your secrets. The last is that you are barred from hostilities with myself or my allies, changeling or otherwise, lest our war be immediately resumed and I deal with the threat you pose.” Twilight explained simply, almost as if they were already facts. Crystarium was almost intimidated by the girl’s tone and demeanor. Barely a queen and she was speaking like a true ruler.

“Then I aks one last thing in return. My love and information gatherers in Equestria and its allies have been rooted out and either destroyed or expelled. I request their safety.” Crystarium countered. Twilight thought for a few minutes apparently in thought. In reality she was conversing with diplomats and contacts around the nations.

“They will be closely monitored and the information gatherers will only be allowed access to public information without being expelled.” The Lavender Queen finally agreed. Crystarium was visibly skeptical about her talking for her allies but she was in no position to question it.

“Then I believe we are done here... “ The Cerulean Queen said, standing;

“If I ever see you here again, and you were not invited, I will kill you.” Twilight warned flatly. Crystarium just nodded and turned to leave through the sea of hissing defenders and hunters. This time, though, they were accompanied by chuckles and sneers. They could see how much those words shook her and she hated it. She disappeared into her forces and they took to the air to retreat, not even bothering to collect their dead or dying. 

“I want the dead collected and burned, they don’t deserve to be food for their queen’s idiocy. Save what dying you can, if they wish they may be rebirthed. Otherwise they will be sent home.” Twilight commanded as she took to the Ramparts to oversee her work been done. She didn’t need to ask for casualties. Thousands were injured, but only three hundred and forty-seven were killed. It was a miniscule number in comparison to the total population, but she could still feel her tears threatening to fall for their lives. She isolated the blank spots they left in the hive mind and searched for their traces.

Their bodies may have died, but their energy still lives on. Their consciousness. They will be reborn to defend their home another day, that is what they would want. Twilight was startled by a hand on her shoulder, but quickly let a smile form as she found it was Rarity.

“I must say, Darling, you’re even scarier than princess Celestia when she’s in a bad mood.” She chuckled, though Twilight could tell she was intimidated by her just as Crystarium was. Twilight answered by hugging her friend, which washed away the ill feeling, and was once again startled to find herself in a pile of flesh as the rest of her friends joined in.

“I couldn’t thank you girls enough for your help… With all the last minute training and other help you’ve given so few were lost... “ She said, not caring to hold her tears back. The group answered by tightening their embraces.

“Are you kidding? Of course we’d help! Not to mention it was awesome being here in person to see you absolutely trash that invasion! I was actually scared there for a second, but you ook them out at least twice over before you even had to start killing them. I think even Celestia would approve of the carnage with how many warnings and chances you gave them.” Dash rambled on into the pile.

“Thank you… I’m going to be requesting another Queen’s Dinner as soon as possible to set the end of this war in stone. After that, I want to take a vacation to Equestria.” Twilight said. The group stayed like that for a while, half of Twilight’s attention focused on the hive mind. It wasn’t too long before they broke it up, though, and went their separate ways. Twilight summoned Nictus and Keine to her as she looked out at the forest to see the invading swarm not even visible on the horizon anymore. 

“I want to personally thank the both of you for your service today. You fought magnificently and led just as well, I am happy to call you both my captains.” She said, turning to them. Keine belted out a laugh and Nictus snorted.

“Please, my Queen. We’re just doing our jobs.” Nictus said politely.

“As if we would let that parasite even scratch our hive!” keine exclaimed. Twilight smiled at that and quickly hugged the two.

“Things are going to get  little crazy here soon. Crystarium was the most powerful queen until we showed up, and even with help from two other queens they barely touched us. We’ll be seen as the biggest threat from now on, so I’m expecting you to prepare for the worst whenever you can. Once the war is over we’ll lose our contract with Mira and I doubt she’ll be eager to enter another one of its kind.” The Queen explained. They both nodded.

“Way ahead of you, my Queen.” Keine started. “Your friend Rarity has some incredible skills with architecture, now that we have some breathing room we can devote more of our larger drones to labor rather than defense. She talked about getting a dragon friend to help her make armor too, but that you’d be the one to ok that one.” The Defender continued.

“Ah yes, that’s right. Spike learned smithing…” Twilight said, more to herself.

“Rainbow Dash may not be a hunter like us, but the forces she took for her own command were surprisingly effective. Their boom tactics were very effective when combined with our hit and run. Both of us were too fast to be easily caught, she would soften them up with the repeaters and scatter the clumps and we’d pick off individuals.” Nictus added.

“I’m glad, then. We should get back to work, I need to finish assessing the damages.” Twilight said as they shot off in three separate directions. Twilight was off to her chambers to immerse in the hive mind at Chrysalis’ side.
> 10: A Cold Return
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Warning, the second half of this chapter makes the story really earn the dark tag.-

Celestia could do little more than sit in awe as Chrys explained in exquisite detail the battle that Twilight had won so completely it even caused her a pang of worry that Twilight could be a threat. That thought hadn’t come up since then, though, as she was currently sitting across from Twilight in a royal carriage. Twilight had just concluded her Queen’s Dinner and Celestia was getting all the juicy details as they laughed.

“I wish I could have seen the look on her face. In a single battle she went from the largest population to the second lowest. Such loss of life revolts me but you held yourself admirably. Any other of those queens would have not only executed the injured, but just outright wiped their force out completely. It’s a shame she was attacked at her hive by that feral queen but such is the way of things it seems.” Celestia said, her laugh halting for now.

“I only spared her because of honor… but I hated killing her people. I just wish they weren’t so blindly loyal, it’s hardwired into their brains. I’ve been able to research other hive minds since we saved and rebirthed some of the injured. As part of my hive mind I can sift through their memories and it isn’t pretty.” Twilight hummed as she looked at the forest they were currently riding through. They were still a way aways from Twilight’s territory, but she was currently in Mira’s so it was safe enough.

“But they completely dropped the war correct?” Celestia asked.

“Of course. I gave her a clear warning and she was wise enough to take heed of it. Even Jordas thought she was an idiot and he’s a crystal construct older than you are. I was able to cement my alliance with Mira without the use of a binding contract like before, so there’s that. The other queens were secretly too afraid to ally with me and so they remain neutral in my eyes. Crystarium’s archives in combination with what Chrysalis kept and what Mira gave us have been enlightening in terms of the past of our people as well.” Twilight explained.

“Well if you ever feel like writing up a book or a report on it I’m sure the university of Canterlot would pay you for it, and I’d personally pay you for it to add to my personal archives. I know you don’t exactly use currency in your hive but the money would be helpful in trading with other nations and allies.” Celestia mused. Twilight was about to refuse, but a pang in the back of her mind reminded her that Ceren and Samuel could use higher quality alchemical tools.

“I’ll think about it. In the meantime, how did your peace talks with the Dragons go?” Twilight asks. Celestia gave Twilight a face that told her it went well. Which meant it was a horrific pain in the ass at best.

“I swear, I owe Spike all the gems in the treasury for his efforts. We had a major land dispute, and by dispute I mean they wanted almost half of our scattered farmlands for undetermined reasons. Spike dug in and slunk around a bit to figure out their reasons were mostly due to greed and confidence they had gained. Of his own accord, he challenged the Matriarch to see who could smith the best piece in one week.” Celestia started. Twilight nodded her head for the Princess to continue.

“I knew he had taken up the trade, but I didn’t know just how good he was at it. All dragons know the basics of smithing, seeing as they’re basically living furnaces and have a vanity only metalworking seems to satisfy. They were each to craft a suit of barding that would protect the wearer from their rite of passage. Which, if memory serves, is a gauntlet of arena battles meant to wear you down. Unarmored, you’re meant to go as far as you can and the opponents you defeat prove your worth. Spike’s barding went to one warrior and the Matriarch’s went to another. In the end they were the only ones standing, it was a tie.” Celestia continued. Twilight was on the edge of her seat, Dragons never settle for just a tie.

“So she donned her own suit and had Spike don his and they were to test each other’s armor until blood was drawn. Spike ended it in one strike, according to him he noticed a vulnerability in the armor due to the violent activity of the gauntlet. Basically ripped off half of a plate and a handful of scales to go with it.” She finished.

“He HURT her?!” Twilight squeaked, enthralled by the story.

“Well, yes, but in the Dragon culture these small wounds are nothing. To even be able to draw blood on the Matriarch is both a challenge and an honor. He was given rights as a high dragon then, and as a favor he had the land disputes settled. In the end all I have to do is allow them open trade with our farmers for livestock and a slight raise in their profit from our mining operations in their lands. Which, all things considered, is much better than a clan of angry dragons burning your farmlands down.” Celestia answered. Twilight let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.

“So what, is he your official diplomat for Equestria now?” The Queen asked, curious.

“No, he refused the position. He wanted to stay in Draconis to get a better mastery of his smithing, armor and weapons are his only skills and he wants to expand. He’ll visit regularly he told me, to both Equestria and your hive.” Celestia replied. Twilight nodded.

“That sounds like him. Thanks for meeting me halfway, by the way. I wish I could invite you to the Dinner as a guest but I’m apparently not old enough to ask favors of the old hive yet. The company makes the trip far less boring, and I’d rather not risk arcane exhaustion from another teleport.” The queen said.

“Of course, Twilight. Do you need to stop by your hive for anything or are we good to head straight h-... straight to Canterlot?” Celestia asked. Twilight noticed the Princess cover her almost saying ‘home’ and smiled.

“Canterlot is still my second home, and we can head straight there yes.” The Queen said with a somber smile. Celestia nodded and they rode in silence for a while before starting up more chit chat and gossip.

When they passed near the Scarred Forest, most of the Changeling escort broke off to leave only Twilight’s Wraiths. 

“Have you heard from my parents yet? The last letter I received from them was… concerning.” Twilight asked Celestia when Ponyville came into view. Celestia’s smile fell a little.

“Your father is right as rain, as far as I can tell. He still attends to his duties and teaches at the university as normal. Your mother ,however, as sequestered herself away in her room and only allows your father in.” Celestia explained. Twilight’s expression fell further.

“Their last letter seemed strange… Father was happy that I was unharmed, but Mother seemed like she was chiding me for not killing more of them.” Twilight started, shaking her head to get a bad feeling out of her body. “I’m just starting to worry about the fact that there’s more changelings around that aren’t friendly. It might cause a lot of unrest and senseless hostilities…” The queen continued. Celestia would have smiled at her old student if the subject wasn’t so sour.

“You’re really thinking like a ruler now, Twilight. I’m proud of you. I was thinking the same thing, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to be with you when you returned. You’re the queen of the most powerful hive, it help to show that we’re firm allies and friends still.” The Princess said, letting her smile form as she changed the subject.

“I guess that’s one way to do it.” Twilight agreed with a smile smile returning as well. The rest of the trip was in mild silence, occasionally Twilight conversed with one of her Wraiths flying around the magically led carriage or riding on top of it. Or she’d immerse in the hive mind for a few minutes to check on something back at the hive. Celestia had to admit she was a little jealous of that particular ability. Her most reliable source of quick long range communication was dragonfire, and even then it was only messages and letters. Long range telepathy was just not possible without exhausting even her massive energy stores in minutes.

They were both glad to see Canterlot finally close in as they made for the main courtyard of the palace. They made a show of leaving the carriage together happily and even sharing a quick embrace before Celestia returned to the palace and Twilight turned towards her family’s manor. Though the grounds were currently closed there were still plenty of reporters and citizens anxious to see what was happening.

“Oh there you are Twily! I was just coming to find you.” Twilight heard her brother’s voice from nearby. She turned and saw him walking up a separate path with Cadence at his arm. She smiled and hugged both of them quickly.

“I’m glad you guys are here! I was hoping I’d catch you.” Twilight exclaimed.

“Of course we’re here Twilight. When we heard about your war and found out you were coming to visit we had to come and give our support!” Cadence said, her smile turning to a line at the thought of war.

“You’ll have to give me the rundown later, sis, because I’d love to know exactly how you spanked those bugs in detail. For now, though, Dad really wants us to see mom. She’s been acting… strange.” Shining explained. Twilight nodded, concern showing on her face again. They walked towards the manor while talking.

“It wasn’t that long ago, maybe two months? It was kinda sudden at first. We thought she was just spooked at the fact you were going to war on your own. She got over it after a while, but in the past couple weeks it’s been really bad… She’s demanded that nobody be allowed on the premises without being scanned for deceptive magic and that the only people she’ll even let in her room are you and Dad. Mom always knew how to get through my shields so I didn’t want to push her if she was paranoid about something…” Shining continued as they neared the door. Twilight became acutely aware of the shielding array of glyphs around the property, all for the purposes of scanning. They entered easily enough, though something felt odd about them. They weren’t quite normal magic, but it was familiar.

“I’ll see what I can find out. I assume Dad can’t make heads or tails of it?” Twilight asked as the butler let them in.

“No I can’t, and I’m starting to really get worried. She latches on to me at night when we sleep like she’ll die if she doesn’t, then the second I leave the room after getting dressed in the morning the locks lock and the wards go up.” Dusk Sparkle said, joining the small party as they passed the lounge. He shared a quick hug with Twilight, the changeling basking in his parental love. “Glad you could come sweetie.” He added. They all stopped in front of the master bedroom, Twilight could feel the power behind the wards. These weren’t the kind of wards you put up for safe sleeping, these were weaved over the course of weeks and could stop even an archmage for some time. She made to knock, but a voice called out before she could touch the door.

“It’s open!” Dawn called out, her tone was almost frantic. Twilight cautiously opened the door, the wards letting her through with a small gap forming. The second she entered the wards shut ,but the doors remained open.

“Mom, what’s wrong? Has someone threatened you?” Twilight asked, very worried. She walked over to hug the woman, but she put her hand up.

“D-Don’t come near me… Not while you’re like… that…” Dawn snapped. She seemed almost angry at Twilight. Confused, Twilight looked down at herself. It took a few moments but she understood.

“You were happy to hug me last time I visited…” Twilight said softly. Dawn snorted.

“I was still figuring out what you WERE. what you still ARE. Those foul creatures ruined your brother’s wedding and almost conquered all of Equestria, and you became one of them?!” The woman exclaimed almost hysterically. Twilight’s expression darkened.

“Mother, you know what happened. I never expected to need to have this conversation with you, so I won’t. I am a Changeling now, and there’s nothing either of us can do about it.” The Queen said softly. Dawn humphed and took a few steps closer.

“Whatever you’re called you’re not my Twilight anymore. You’re just another of those foul creatures. I was hoping my wards would cleanse you of it, but I was wrong.” The woman growled. Twilight looked up at her ,tears almost forming in her eyes. This wasn’t right. This is not how her mother was acting before, there was no traumatic event or anything. On a desperate whim she tried to focus on her sense of love. There was none of it there for her. Her heart sank, her mother didn’t love her anymore.

But wait, there’s no love for anyone there. She had felt this in humans before, but according to her father they still slept together and she latched onto him for dear life.

Wait…

The tiniest of scanning spells was all it took. The wards in place were here to stop such spells, but Twilight now recognized that unique signature in them. It was changeling magic, she didn’t need the spell to work to know what was happening now.

“Twilight! What are you doing?!” Shining yelled out, smashing against the barrier the wards created as Twilight almost stomped forward and grabbed her mother by the throat, lifting her off of the ground. Dusk and Cadence could only stare in shock.

“What did you do with my mother?!” Twilight growled, fury in her tone. Dawn started yelling for help  and even went as far as the remove the wards. Shining made to tackle them as soon as the wards dropped, but Cadence put a hand on his shoulder. There was a certain fear in her eyes, a fear he had only seen after the ruined wedding. He looked at them and used his own scanning spell. No longer hampered by the wards, the spell told him exactly what was in this room. There were two changelings in there, and both felt distinctly different.

Dawn realized what was happening as the spell washed over her and she gave Twilight a grin filled with Malice.

“What do you think I did with her? I wonder what’s left after all this time.” The woman choked out around Twilight’s grip. The woman gave the slightest glance towards the garden, which they all saw. Dusk and Shining immediately sprinted off towards it. Twilight hadn’t noticed her battle plating extend in her fury as she stared at the thing pretending to be her mother.

“Who is your queen?” She asked, the unwaveringly calm tone chilling cadence to the very bone. The woman sneered in her grip.

“You already know the answer to that question.” The woman gurgled an attempt at a laugh. Twilight only tightened her grip. She didn’t have to wait long for the cries of her father and brother to confirm what the disguised changeling had hinted at. That was all Twilight needed.

With an almost feral scream, Twilight extended the blade on her free arm and just started stabbing her fake mother over and over and over again as her grip tightened to the point where the creature couldn’t even scream. The woman had long reverted back to her drone state and was long dead, her body threatening to fall to pieces as Twilight maimed and tore at it with her blade. Her throat was getting raw from the screaming but she didn’t care. It wasn’t until she felt a hand with potent love attached to it touch her that she could stop screaming and finally let the mangled mess of flesh and chitin fall to the floor. In an instant her battle plating and blade had retracted as she turned and buried her face into Cadence’s embrace, her screams of fury turning to soft sobbing.

Cadence was utterly terrified by the violent display, but she finally found her courage and called out to the screaming queen. It went unheard, so she mustered up every ounce of courage and comfort she could and walked up to put a hand on her shoulder. She was still holding the crying queen when Shining returned. He was shocked by the mess of the room and the state of Twilight, covered in the pale red blood of a changeling crying into his wife’s arms. He had heard the screaming and rushed back. He spat at the mess on the floor and carefully guided his wife and sister to the garden. 

Twilight could only stare at the corpse that had been magically dug from under a young bush. It was in the shade of a tree, so the decomposition wasn’t nearly as bad as it would have been should the earth have been warmer over her. Dusk was just kneeling next to it, utterly devastated by the loss of his wife. He wouldn’t respond to anything until Twilight and Shining kneeled down on either side of him.

Slowly he looked up at Shining, and then over at Twilight. He was almost taken aback by her state.

“Don’t worry… it’s not mine…” Twilight whispered. Dusk nodded and they all wrapped their arms around each other. They didn’t even notice the sound of feathers ruffling, but Cadence did. She turned to see Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, along with a contingent of both of their guards, enter the garden by air. The corpse was immediately identified as they landed, so they didn’t need to ask who it was.

“Whoever did this will pay, I will see to it myself if I have to.” Luna growled, walking over and surprising the three. Twilight looked up at her, and then over to Celestia. The Princess could see it in her tear stained eyes, the queen needed something only she could give. She swiftly walked over and wrapped her arms and wings around the queen, who had stood to meet her, and poured as much of her love as she could into the embrace. It was more than just love, though, it was the love of a mother. Or at least as close to it as possible. It was a feeble attempt to fill the now vacant hole, but it was the best she could do.

“Twilight… took care of it already.” Cadence said softly. She pointed out the bedroom and the guards went in to investigate and eventually clean up.

“We were having dinner with Chrys, discussing possible trade policies, and she just shoots into the air demanding we bring guards to this manor. By the time we assembled them she was in tears and not responding. As we flew over, we could see other changelings curled up in sorrow along rooftops or wherever they were standing…” Luna explained softly, walking over to grimace at the corpse. She used a flash of black tinted magic and the corpse seemed to be as if it was fresh. She shivered at using the necromantic magic, but a gentle repose spell was harmless enough.

“They’re all…?” Twilight started before she focused on the hive mind. She hadn’t realized the sorrow and fury she was experiencing was reaching her entire hive. Even the vague links to her harvesters revealed they were having emotional reactions to it as well. She slowly fortified her emotional state and immediately sent out reassurances and calming words to the hive. Celestia’s love was certainly helping, and she clutched the princess closer.

“I’m going to station one thousand warriors here in Canterlot to help protect you, Celestia… You’re the only mother I have now, I won’t let her take you from me.” Twilight whispered into their embrace. Celestia immediately wanted to protest, but the tone suggested it was non-negotiable. The words also meant that it must have been Crystarium’s doing.

“On the condition that you aid us in our war against Crystarium and try to keep the other queens out of it.” The Princess replied darkly. Twilight looked up. She too wanted to protest, but she didn’t have the energy to feel anything more than hatred for the cerulean queen at the moment.

“I’ll pass the message along.” The Queen said, burying her face into the embrace again. Shining looked over at them again at that. He wanted to demand to led the army, but he was no longer guard captain of Equestria anymore. He was in charge of the Crystal Empire’s forces now.

“You’ll have our support as well.” Cadence said softly. She hated the idea of war, but this could not stand. Not only was this the murder of a close personal friend of hers, but politically this was the murder of a very respected and high ranking member of the nobility. Dusk was a professor at Celestia’s school for gifted mages, and Dawn was an administrator. The act demanded war from Equestria, and as Equestria’s ally she was able to put her hatred for violence at ease should they request her aid.

Dusk stood up at that, softly thanking Luna for restoring the remains of his wife. He turned to Celestia and Twilight and walked over to them.

“Twilight… I cannot stop you from doing anything about this… I don’t want to lose my wife and my daughter, but I’ve never been able to dissuade you of anything when it mattered…” He started weakly. There was fire in his eyes, though. “Just do me a favor and come home after it all… but before that happens, I want you to give that monster of a queen a good thrashing for me.” He continued. Twilight answered by pulling one of her arms from Celestia to wrap it around him. It was awkward for him and the Princess to be embracing each other, but they both quickly put it out of their minds. They were comforting Twilight, and Celestia admitted that she was more than happy to embrace a subject if it could help them. She resigned to holding the embrace as long as they needed. Even Luna joined in after seeing to the guards. Twilight needed all the love she could get, not just for herself but the hundred thousand changelings she was linked to had taken her sorrow amongst them as well. She wanted to repay them.

She was certainly going to make Crystarium pay for it.
> Intermission 3: Rest
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight was rather proud of herself. Well, as proud of herself about a declaration of war as she could be. She really didn’t want to have to call another dinner so soon after the last one, and she didn’t think she could stop herself from attacking Crystarium then and there if she did. She, Celestia and Mira brainstormed on how to do it over the course of the next week, via proxies of course. It was simple, really. Celestia wasn’t a Changeling Queen. She was perfectly fine being the one to declare war on Crystarium and her hive. The whole incident was published, only withholding the more gruesome details. There were no veiled lies, no half truths or anything. There was obvious worry of prejudice forming against the allied Changelings, but boy did it spark the fires of retribution that they needed.

As Twilight wasn’t the one declaring war, she and Mira just being allies to Equestria, they didn’t even need to inform the other queens about their involvement. They were supporting an ally, afterall. Twilight chose to inform the others as best she could, though, mainly to warn them not to join Crystarium’s side. The main problem here was that Mira’s hives were sequestered away into an outcropping of mountains near the Barrens. Even with the incredible numbers advantage, the casualties would be just as bad. It would take time, and quite a bit of it, to prepare for an open assault.

For now, the best they could do was set up a blockade around the area to stop all forms of communication and love harvesting. It would be a long game they’re playing, since Crystarium was known to have a vast amount of love in surplus, but it would result in one of three outcomes.

The first would be Crystarium’s forces coming out of their mountain fortresses to fight in more open battlegrounds, which was a win for the seigers. The second would be Crystarium and her brood going feral due to love starvation and doing the work for them. The last option was the most likely, the stalemate would last so long the seigers would finally figure out a way to break through without the risk of being easily routed due to the superior defensive position of their target.

For now, though, Twilight was taking time to relax with her friends. She was in Celestia’s private hot spring, though it was far from private as of now. The princess and her sister were there with Twilight, as well as the other elements of Harmony. Twilight had even talked Nilan into joining them. The changeling was very interested in the bodies of the humans, she had never seen them unclothed at the Hive and she had never seen her kind in any state other than complete degeneration since she was born recently.

“So how goes your research, Queen Twilight?” Luna asked the other Changeling. Twilight wanted to roll her eyes at the queen part but she never could get Luna to stop referring to her as such.

“Our research on the Biometal has come along magnificently. If our progress holds true we should be able to reinforce our Chitin with it by the end of two weeks, if not sooner. We’ve already discovered a few interesting properties of it as well, namely that it reacts well to arcane energy. Steel and Iron slowly degrade when it’s in contact with too much raw arcane energy, which is why batteries don’t last too long. This stuff reacts almost like flesh and blood do, absorbing some of it to regenerate any damage or just coming out unscathed after extended testing.” Twilight started.

“That stuff is mighty creepy though, growin’ out of them pods.” Applejack chimed in. Twilight shrugged.

“Changelings are creepy by nature.” The queen retorted, to which Applejack had no retort of her own. The others giggled and Luna went on.

“How about your research on Changelings themselves and their past? Or rather your past?” She asked, correcting herself with an afterthought.

“Well, with Mira’s and Crystarium’s archives we’ve been able to piece quite a bit together. There are huge gaps caused by periods of going feral, but I’ve been able to cross reference some things with our own archives to patch most of them up. Crystarium had a ton of ancient archives, she doesn’t even know or understand the language. That’s what we’re currently working on.” Twilight answered.

“How ancient?” Celestia asked, giving Luna a knowing look. Luna smirked.

“At least a millennia. Probably even before you two came to power, maybe even born.” Twilight replied.

“Send some pieces my way then, I’m quite the skilled Linguist.” Luna said with a confident tone.

“I can source some allies in Draconis as well, you don’t even qualify as an Elder until you hit the thousand years old mark. One of those geezers ought to know.” Celestia added. Twilight nodded to both of them.

“Gah, I thought we’d get away from all that boring stuff in Canterlot! Come on, Twi, tell them about our progress!” Dash grumbled, splashing the Queen with water to add effect. Twilight had to resist returning the gesture as the speedster had ducked behind Fluttershy next to her, but she still giggled at her friend’s antics.

“Oh fine. Dash has been training my fliers and some of the hunters even for a while now, while Applejack trains the defenders and other ground forces. While the progress on making my brood better fliers is impressive, what’s even more impressive is that she’s actually helping with developing a new transmutation formulae that will hopefully improve our flight characteristics. It’s not ready for live testing yet, but it’s close.” Twilight explained.

This kind of talk went on for another hour or so before people started trickling out. The first two to go were the princesses, they had duties to attend to. Everyone else kind of just trickled out on their own until it was just Twilight, Nilan and Fluttershy.

“You alright Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, noticing her shy friend seemed to almost refuse to leave. She looked almost embarrassed. 

“U-U-Umm…” The shy girl started, very quickly glancing at Nilan a few times. The changeling had been taking turns staring at everyone until it was just Fluttershy left. Now her curious eyes were focused on the shy girl. Twilight caught on and mentally pinged the changeling to get her attention.

“I guess this must have been the first time you’ve seen an unclothed human huh?” Twilight asked the girl. Nilan nodded.

“It’s fascinating just how similar our bodies are, yet how biologically different we are as well. I suppose we’ve adapted this way to make our shapeshifting magic easier but still.” Nilan explained, occasionally looking at Fluttershy again.

“I believe it has something to do with your source of Love as well, but that’s for another day. Humans see certain parts of their bodies as private, only really showing them to close friends or when in intimate moments. It’s why they wear clothes.” The Queen explained, trying to make Nilan understand she’s embarrassing her shy friend without outright saying it.

“That’s interesting. I guess it’s a major difference in culture, we never wear clothes.” Nilan replied, putting a finger to her chin in thought.

“Well we don’t need to currently, though when the curse is lifted and our degeneration is reversed you’ll find there’s not much different between us when we’re satiated and a human. On the outside at least.” Twilight attempted to keep the educational facade going. She combined it with a few mental explanations of sex organs and love habits of humans. That’s when the girl finally understood.

“Oh! I see then. Uh… well, I guess I should get going then. I’ll have to be up early in the morning to help get the Wraiths into their morning routine.” The Changeling said quickly, leaving after a small awkward silence. Twilight couldn’t help but snort.

“Geez, I thought I was actually going to have to say it.” She giggled. Fluttershy just sighed in relief and hugged her friend.

“I mean, I wasn’t sure before. She was looking at everyone, but when she was just staring at me alone here I was just so embarrassed. I understand now that it was curiosity but it’s still a little embarrassing.” The shy girl explained. Twilight hugged her friend back happily.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, she took no offense. You should probably go and get some sleep, I have a week of politics to unwind from.” The Queen said to her friend. Fluttershy just nodded and left as well, leaving Twilight alone. She wasn’t lying, not at all. Politics always felt like they physically hurt Twilight to be a part of. It wasn’t all of it, though. She had been so busy after the battle she had never had a chance to be alone and relaxed enough for this.

The corpses of her fallen drones were long dissolved to have their organic material recycled, but each of the pods they were recycled in still held a fraction of their life energy. Just enough to keep their consciousness alive in the hive mind. 

Twilight looked across the forest that was her mind, the Hive Mind. It was still just as strong before, at least at first glance, but every now and then you would see the tiniest of gaps. The stumps of the trees had long since faded away as the bodies were recycled, but the spaces they left behind were not filled in. A single root was still alive in each space, and as she turned she could see all three hundred or so of her brood that fell in battle standing in front of her in a large clearing.

“I’m so proud of all of you. You fought and died for your home, and we pushed her back. If you wish to rest now, then you are free to do so. If you wish to fight on, though, then I will happily have your wisdom and your perspective.” Twilight said softly to them. The fallen didn’t really seem to respond, at least for a little while. Before long, though, some of them slowly disappeared. This went on for what seemed like hours until only a dozen were left. They remained, and they opened their eyes.

“I’m not done fighting yet…” They all whispered in unison. Twilight smiled and walked up to them with their arms out. They slowly and methodically moved towards her as well and they all held a group embrace.

“Your bodies have died, but you will live on through the hive mind. You may choose to pass on at any time, I refuse to actually bind you like that. What I need from you now, though is to watch over our researchers. Make sure they aren’t working themselves to death, learn from them. Maybe you’ll be able to help them. You are the first guardians of our Hive Mind, your brothers and sisters will be overjoyed to feel your presence still lingering.” Twilight explained to them. 

“Knowing Samuel he’s probably rushing to get to the live testing phase.” One of them said. The rest chuckled in response and one by one they let go of the embrace and walked off towards the forest.

“Don’t worry, we’ll tend to your grove. I’ll make sure to check on our other Momma.” The last one said. Twilight almost dropped her smile, the girl was so young. She must have only been out of the birthing pod for a few weeks before she died. She wasn’t even a Drone or a Hunter. The girl apparently felt it and hugged Twilight again as quickly as her meandering form would allow.

“I was caught running fresh arrows to the Hunters. It’s ok, momma. I’m glad it was me, just a drone, rather than another Hunter or Defender.” The girl said before letting go and meandering towards the trees. Twilight was shocked by the statement and didn’t really snap out of it until she was gone. She quickly focused on their roots in the hive mind to learn their names.

“Stella, such an optimistic girl…” The queen softly said to herself, letting a ghost of a smile out before waking up again. The water was always hot, so by now her carapace was just barely starting to feel uncomfortable. If it was too hot for too long it would soften and she’d boil in it so she quickly got out to retire to her chambers to rest and immerse herself in the hive mind in full.
> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It had been a long time since Twilight was left completely dumbfounded by something. At least to this point, where she was basically standing there mouth agape in surprise. Through the eyes of her scouts, she saw Crystarium flying alone towards them. Them referring to Twilight, her Wraiths, Princess Luna and a small flotilla of Equestrian airships. 

The ships were rather simple in design, and their participation in this war was their first real test run as warships. Half a year had passed since Celestia declared war on Crystarium, dozens of small skirmishes had tested both the Cerulean Queen’s and Equestria’s resolve in this war. Slowly but steadily, the casualties became heavier and heavier on Crystarium’s side until Equestria and its allies decided to make one final assault. The Flotilla was currently idling a few miles away from Crystarium’s mountain fortress of a hive cluster, just out of range of the defenders and their spells.

The surprise in seeing the lone queen coming close got her the distance she needed to teleport directly onto the flagship, just a few feet away from where Twilight and Luna were discussing battle strategy.

“Before you draw weapons or channel magic, I am here to offer my terms of surrender.” Crystarium said with as much dignity as she could muster. Twilight’s battle plating instinctively extended. Her statement had bought her some breathing room, though, as she slumped against the railing behind her.

“Medic!” Luna called out ,her tone unsure. Crystarium sported quite a few cuts on what little skin she had and many cracks and lacerations in her chitin bleeding the sickly green-red blood of a Changeling. Her eyes were shaking even as she attempted to appear strong, but couldn’t keep it up for long. The magic she used had strained her and she was starting to show it.

“Make sure none of it is lethal, do what you can.” Luna said quietly to the medic who had rushed over with a satchel of medical supplies. The man cautiously approached the wounded Queen, who gave no protest.

“My terms are that I am to be harmed no further, and that you give my children the swift and painless death they would wish for if they could.” The Cerulean Queen hissed out in pain as the medic tended to the major laceration covering most of her front. Twilight and Luna looked at each other and then back at Crystarium.

“What happened?” Luna asked, but Twilight had just realized what happened. Her looks darkened and she was already sending her invasion swarm in through the hive mind.

“They’ve all gone feral, haven’t they? I have to wonder how you managed to scrape up enough sanity to come here peacefully.” The Lavender Queen said darkly.  Luna looked at her at that, even the Princess of the Night could taste the thin string of malice hidden in the words. Crystarium stared at the ground.

“Yes, they’ve gone feral… The only reason I remain sane is because I’ve been investing in Royals… but I went too far… We are forced to keep our hunger for Love unsatiated, to the point of near starvation, lest we go feral. I was forcing the births of too many drones and soldiers, giving not a care to the needs of my children. Now, we all pay the price.” Crystarium explained shakily as her blood loss was slowed by the medic’s work.

Both Crystarium and Luna looked at Twilight in confusion as the girl started chuckling softly.

“You tried to steal or destroy my hive, and failed miserably. You tried to destroy my family, and that backfired. You tried to maintain your place of power and dignity through a war you would never win even if the sun itself crashed down upon us- because the sun itself wants your head. Now you stand here, barely standing even, begging mercy from those you have done nothing but wrong.” The Lavender Queen sneered out, stepping closer to Crystarium.

“Twilight…” Luna said softly, putting a hand on the girl’s shoulder. The mage wanted nothing more than to drive every last scream of pain and horror from the offending Queen’s body, but even without Luna’s hand she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“There will be no mercy for you, Crystarium. Your children will be put out of their misery with alacrity, but you will be tried and punished for what you’ve done. Not in the Queen’s Court, not even in Equestria’s court. You will be tried in MY court.” Twilight said slowly and methodically, her words gaining fire as she spoke. She was in the other queen’s face now. She could almost literally taste the fear coming from her.

“Pray you have anything of use at all to me, and be glad I’ve grown sick of watching my brood and allies die for this stupid war.” She growled before swiftly turning and storming off the ship, flying straight towards Mira’s hive. Crystarium stared after the girl in shock before being hoisted up to her feet proper by the Princess.

“Until then, your surrender will be honored. My terms for this surrender is that you will assist our forces to the best of your ability through knowledge.” The Princess followed up and practically threw the Queen towards the war table, where one of Twilight’s changelings had taken over her part of the strategy in his queen’s place. Crystarium just nodded, having caught herself on the table, and started slowly revealing the secrets of her defenses little by little.

Twilight was feeling so much fury she could feel tears threatening to fall under the faceplate of her battle plating. She extended her blades as she shot to the front lines, where Equestrians and Changelings alike were cutting swathes through the ferals. There were well over twenty thousand ferals still clinging to their defensive positions and their hives, which Twilight could only attribute to the fact that there were Royals commanding them.

“We’ve got news from Luna, the weakest point is further clockwise around. There’s a collapsed tunnel system that can be excavated to get around the fortifications. Pass it on to the Equestrians.” Twilight grumbled aloud and through the hive mind to her soldiers. She had just arrived at the backlines of the assault.

“My Queen, you really shouldn’t be participating in this fight!” Nilan called, just now catching up. The rest of the wraiths followed closely behind her as they all started moving towards the tunnel regardless of the conversation.

“I know, but I need to take this fury out on something and I unfortunately don’t have my usual methods of research or reading to do that for me.” Twilight retorted, her blades extending as they neared the collapsed tunnel. She retracted them again as they arrived.

“I understand, Mother, but the front lines? If you get hurt on my watch I don’t know what I’d do…” Her second in command said, her step faltering. Twilight let her harsh grimace turn into the smallest of smiles as she turned back to put a hand on the young lieutenant’s cheek.

“Don’t worry, Nilan. If I get hurt on your watch then your job is to make sure I’m alive and pester me while the medics patch me up.” She said softly, pouring a bit of love into the touch to get the point across. Not waiting for a response, she retracted the touch and turned back towards the rubble and stone with a neutral expression balancing out her current emotions. After a few moments of thinking she put her hand up and slowly a small orb of Lavender energy started forming. When it was the size of a grapefruit she pressed it into the rubble.

With the sound of stone being shredded, not something you really hear every day, the orb acted like the tip of a drill as the energy generated cut swathes of rock around the entire radius of the tunnel. She walked forward, the magic annihilating the stone as if it were darkness being banished by the light of a torch. Equestrian mages followed suit to set up reinforcing spells on the tunnel walls to keep them from collapsing again behind her.

“So what exactly is a Royal?” Luna asked the now captive queen back on the Flotilla. Crystarium scowled, hesitant to blab changeling history and secrets to anyone, let alone an outsider. She huffed when Luna’s stern glare didn’t even budge, though.

“Royals are what we call something akin to lesser queens… I suppose a more traditional term would be Princess. They are birthed in a Royal pod, but modified to still be fully indoctrinated into their queen’s hive mind rather than have their own independent but connected portion. I suppose a more macabre way to put it is a puppet queen, someone to take much of the burden from our minds and delegate them appropriately. I had created four Royals to make up for doubling my numbers, but Love Starvation got in the way of all of that.” The Cerulean Queen explained.

“Is it possible for them to break free from your hive mind to create their own, becoming a true queen?” Luna asked. Twilight’s Strategist suddenly got very nervous at what that implicated.

“My hive mind is long gone. I severed myself from it when they went feral to save my own sanity. I’ve lived through that hell too many times…” Crystarium replied, though the last part was very weak. Almost as if she was starting to not believe it as she looked back towards her hives. She could make out the invading armies clearing the rim of the mountains, the fortifications being destroyed from the inside or behind. Luna noticed the small pang of sorrow the queen’s expression showed.

“Noooo no no no. FOUR more feral queens? That is not ok!” The changeling strategist said, apparently mirroring his queen’s words as his eyes had turned to the Lavender of Twilight’s eyes.

“If they survive…” Luna added. Both changelings remained silent for a moment. “Are you safe?” The princess continued to Twilight.

“Just dusty. We’ breached the inner fortifications just now, we can see all of the hives. It would take months to root the ferals out of all of the tunnels so once we secure a foothold in each hive I’m going to create and detonate arcane annihilation fields that focus on organic material.” Twilight explained, staring at Crystarium the whole time. She too noticed the look on the queen’s face, and could feel the emotions roiling off of her.

“Is it painful?” The defeated queen finally asked. Twilight shook her head.

“As I said, your children will get the mercy you requested. Once the fields have faded we’ll commence search and destroy and recovery for your archives. If you wish anything returned to you after that then you’ll have to go through Luna and her people.” The possessed changeling explained. Crystarium just nodded slowly.

“You know, this is the second time you’ve surrendered -but not until after your forces are decimated or out of your control. I can’t tell if you’re stubborn or just stupid.” Luna said somewhat offhandedly. “From what I hear you’re supposed to be the most noble and regal of the queens, but I’ve only seen masks shattered and facades ruined. What are you really after, Crystarium?” Luna asked when the changeling’s eyes returned to its normal color and shape. Crystarium just stared at her hive, almost regretting her decision. It took her quite a while to finally turn to the Princess and respond.

“I don’t know anymore, Princess Luna. I was after power at first, I wanted it so bad that I was willing to betray the new queen. Then I wanted revenge for being humiliated, then it all just… got out of hand. I can’t remember when it set in, but I think my mind was already fractured long before today…” The Queen replied softly, staring at Luna. The Princess allowed her glare to soften, but only slightly.

“Remorse, regret and recognition are three powerful prerequisites for redemption. You killed one of our citizens in cold blood, not to mention what we don’t know. That alone is worth execution, but that punishment would be pardoned in favor of a more merciful one due to your surrender. That would be my own court, though. I cannot tell you what Twilight will do, but I recommend finding a way to make yourself useful to her.” Luna started. She paused a moment to reform her glare.

“After all, it was her mother’s death that started this war. Her death at your hands. I would stand by her decision even if it was to throw you into the gates of Tartarus as a chew toy for Cerberus.” The princess almost growled out, relinquishing the tiniest bit of sympathy that had formed in the process. Crystarium once again hung her head.

“Twilight Sparkle’s mother… I didn’t… I didn’t just kill her…” The queen started in an almost terrified whisper.
> Chapter 12
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight and her hunters, combined with the Equestrian forces, had swept through the three hives they knew about and were preparing the massive glyph arrays that would become the arcane annihilation fields. Just as she finished her work, an Equestrian Scout rushed into the room. Vera immediately went to him to treat still bleeding wounds, Twilight nodded to him for him to report.

“There’s another hive, a tiny one… The changelings in there are… different. They don’t seem feral, Queen Twilight.” The scout reported, letting Vera work as his wings drooped at his sides.

“They attacked you?” Twilight asked, standing from where she was drawing the array. The man shook his head.

“No, they actually warned me not to come closer or they would… It’s the first time I’ve heard them more than hiss and scream…” The scout replied, shaking at the thought of so many ferals closing in on them not too long ago. Twilight peeled an organic bandage from her cheek, feeling that the cut under it had been properly healed thanks to the medical salve they could now properly produce.

“Set up a perimeter, I don’t want these arrays obstructed or we’ll all be vaporized when they go off. Wraiths on me.” The Queen said as she started walking towards the direction of this tiny hive. “If one of those royals resisted going feral then maybe she can be reasoned with. I will not damn the daughters for the sins of their mother.” She continued as her wraiths fell into step with her.

It wasn’t that far, the outer shell of this tiny hive was camouflaged to look like the stone is protruded from, but Twilight was able to find it well enough after asking the scout a few questions by proxy. It was starting to get dark, now, but she could still see the roiling mass of ebony chitin in the entryway. As they neared, the mass fanned out along the entrance to reveal that it was indeed a large group of changelings barring their way. They stood firm and proud, though, their cerulean eyes and steel hue to their chitin the only differences from them and Twilight’s own drones. She was suddenly glad that she hadn’t brought any standard drones directly to the battlefield, the Equestrians may mistake them for each other if they couldn’t see eyes or distinguish the tint.

“You are obviously not feral. Bring your queen to us and we may speak of what to do with you.” Twilight said with all the authority she could muster.

“To put faith in you, you must put faith in us. On our lives no harm will come to any of you.” One of the drones spoke. Twilight sized them up, there were easily one thousand drones here. None of them were warriors, though, and this was close enough to the other hives that the nearest annihilation field would reach. She simply nodded and started walking towards the entrance. The sea of chitin parted to let her and her guards pass, No further words were exchanged, and the only reason the Wraiths didn’t have their weapons pointed at the mass around them was because Twilight was calming them through the hive mind.

The small hive was really just one massive chamber linked to stone tunnels along the walls. There was a single throne, on which an almost clone of Crystarium sat. The young queen stood and walked to them, bending an arm over her abdomen and bowing respectfully.

“Thank you for showing us the mercy my mother does not deserve, Twilight Sparkle.” The queen said softly. Twilight froze, that voice was so familiar. It was also the first time a changeling had referred to her as such. She immediately started using scanning spell after scanning spell as the queen talked.

“Just as my brothers and sisters were going eral, I managed to claim this section of the hive mind as my own and sever what I could to save them. As soon as Mother’s influence vacated my mind, I was able to see how foolish she has been in this war. I have no terms for my surrender, do with me as you please.” The young queen explained. It was at about that point when Twilight realized something. Her scanning spells were on autopilot as she lost focus, rather focusing on a single thing in this queen’s aura. It was Love, though not just the emotion she sometimes felt in her brood. It was pure love, the kind she could feed from. And it was familiar as well. 

It was the love of a mother, caring for her children. The queen was looking at the sea of chitin around them in a way she’d only thought she’d see herself or Chrysalis do. That’s when her scanning spells finished and she almost dropped to her knees. There was a reason that voice and this love felt familiar. This Queen wasn’t born normally, she was rebirthed. The queen looked a little confused at seeing Twilight’s eyes water up and her expression grew worried as the Lavender Queen shakily stepped forward with a hand outstretched. 

She dared not swat it away or pull back from the touch as Twilight put a hand on her cheek. She was surprised when she felt the love flow into her, a love so familiar it was almost painful.

“Mother… I… I-I thought…” Twilight barely whispered out. It was at about that moment when the queen realized that the familiarity was actually painful, her head was splitting and her whole brood felt it apparently as they all sank to their knees holding their head to mirror their queen. Twilight recognized this and acted quickly.

“This is going to hurt. I put my trust in you, now you put your trust in me. When you feel the tug, follow it.” Twilight said quickly and closed her eyes, putting a finger to the middle of the queen’s forehead.

The queen barely heard her and didn’t respond, so Twilight hoped she understood as she formed the mental bridge. She closed her eyes as well and found herself in the forest of her mind. She looked out at the barren field that was Chrysalis’ sleeping forest, but slowly a third forest of Cerulean started forming to be perpendicular to their two lands. The queen was standing there, watching the beginning of a forest fire form in her mind in horror. Twilight put a hand on her shoulder.

“Let me in, and I can disperse the fires for you.” She said softly, conveying as much good will as she could in her tone. The queen just slowly nodded. Twilight concentrated and a strong wind started blowing. A storm of crimson and lavender leaves blew on a gale force wind into the new addition, clinging to the small meadow of saplings and young trees. Twilight took a deep breath and the new queen watching in morbid fascination as her leaves grew tinted with crimson or lavender and the winds blew the burning leaves around. She was horrified as the fires started spreading to Twilight’s forest, but was stunned as a large group of changelings were already there to snuff them out. Before long a few of them moved into the new forest and started doing the same. The queen slowly calmed down at that, and then remembered the whole reason this was happening.

Memories followed the pain. Her name was Dawn Sparkle, and this Lavender Queen holding her was her daughter.

“T-Twilight…? What have… What have I become?” She whispered out. She knew the answer, but she needed confirmation.

“You have become a Royal Changeling, sanctioned with her own space in my hive mind. You no longer belong to Crystarium’s brood, you are part of mine now.” Twilight said softly as she embraced her changed mother. It was at about that moment when Crystarium started explaining what she had done, so she listened in through her strategist.

“For all intents and purposes, Dawn Sparkle is dead. That was indeed her corpse that was buried. She was not killed immediately, though. She had been replaced and studied, her life force slowly extracted with her love until she was little more than a husk. We buried her body in the garden and used her life force in tandem with mine to create a Royal, this took many months to complete… I had hoped she would be able to produce love like her daughter, but she was only born a week ago. It was too early to tell.” Crystarium explained to Luna.

“Wait, she’s one of those Royals?! And you let her go Feral?!” The Princess exclaimed, resisting her very strong urges to strike the queen in front of her. Crystarium just stared at the ground. Her silence the answer.

“Dawn Sparkle is not Feral, she is of my brood now. Her love as a mother saved her mind and the minds of those she could snatch away from you. Princess, they’re coming out now. Tell your soldiers to stand down and watch for lavender eyes.” Twilight’s strategist said in her voice. The Princess turned to see that he was being possessed again. Crystarium looked up at that.

“Then… Then this wasn’t all for nothing…” She breathed. “I resign myself to whatever fate you wish of me, Queen Twilight… I trust you will take good care of my legacy…” The cerulean queen continued, her tone relieved. Twilight’s Strategist walked forward and stood right in front of the queen.

“As I said, no mercy will be shown. The gravity of your crimes have been lessened, though… I’ll have to think on your punishment, perhaps redemption will be possible one day…” The proxy said. The queen seemed surprised at that, as did Luna, as the strategist’s eyes returned to normal and he shook his head a bit.

“The reformed drones are a thousand strong, we merely ask they are allowed about your airships to rest before the journey home my Princess.” He continued in his own voice. Luna nodded.

“Of course. They will be watched, but they will also be fed and rested. We have plenty of surplus, we were expecting a siege.” The Lunar Princess replied. The strategist bowed and his eyes lost focus, the telltale sign of relaying large amounts of information through the hive mind. At the same time Luna summoned up runners and Valkyrie couriers to send word to the rest of the Flotilla, the two dozen airships were already getting back into formation as the tiny cloud of black rose form the hidden hive. The messages arrived in time, it seems, as the cloud was allowed close and on board the ships. The few dozen that came to the flagship nearly collapsed as they landed, a few actually did.

“When memories resurged in Dawn Sparkle, her mind threatened to tear itself apart just as Twilight’s did when she was first rebirthed. Queen Chrysalis did to her what Twilight now did to her own mother, she linked the forests of their minds to diffuse the fires and smother them. Dawn Sparkle recovered, but her brood took the brunt of it. They will need a few hours of rest and love feeding or they may still go feral.” The strategist explained when his eyes finally focused again. Luna nodded.

“We’ll call it their terms of surrender for the books.” She said, looking at the archivist who was now hiding behind a barrel on the deck. The young man just nodded his head, shakily retrieving his quill and scroll.

It wasn’t long until Twilight returned to the flagship as well, supporting the Crystarium look alike that was her mother. The two cerulean queens stared at each other, but it was Crystarium that broke eye contact first.

“Thank you, Princess Luna, for accommodating my… brood.” Dawn thanked Luna. It seemed like now that she had regained a chunk of her memories it was strange to say something like that so naturally.

“Of Course, Dawn Sparkle. We shall have to speak to my sister about it, but if you so choose we can have your noble status reinstated. Canterlot would most likely love to have you back.” Luna explained. She didn’t bother mentioning what possible troubles her new form would bring to that position, it went unspoken, but she still felt she had to offer.

“I appreciate it, Princess… I’m stuck between two worlds now, though… I’d like to explore this side of it a bit more. I will gladly return to Canterlot, though. I have no interest in building a new hive, Twilight and I have already decided to convert any of my brood who wish to live in Equestria into Harvesters.” Dawn replied. She looked to Crystarium again, who was sitting in a chair at the tactics table.

“All of my loyalties to you were severed when you severed yourself from us… You even stole me away from my family to turn me into some… abomination.” Dawn started, looking at herself. “I hope you’re happy with the results, because you’ll never have me again you foul creature.” She growled, pulling herself a little closer to Twilight. Crystarium’s expression soured even further as Twilight handed Dawn off to a medic.

“You took my mother away, but now you gave her back. I think I know what to do with you now. But first, you get to witness what your pride and lust for power brought you.” Twilight said when her mother was taken below decks. She pointed at the hives still barely visible, the only changelings left there were ferals. Twilight had collected as much of the dead as she could, and all of her own casualties, to be taken home and recycled properly. Her guardians were five dozen strong now, she was anxious to find more to help her mother.

“Your actions cost the loss of every single one of your brood, and nine hundred and fifty three of mine. Now you watch what happens next.” Twilight iterated as the arcane brand on her body started glowing softly. Three beams of energy shot into the air, ending about half a mile from the top of the tallest hive. The sound followed quickly, the distinct sound of a magical explosion. This wasn’t just pure destruction, though, as the beams started fanning out into cylinders and soon merged together to cover most of the mountain. The field changed colors a few times before stabilizing on a mix of red and green and slowly the hives began disintegrating. Slowly but surely, the shell of the hives were melted away to reveal the much softer material that burned even quicker. Within five minutes the mountain was nothing but a mess of hollowed out tunnels, free of any organic material whatsoever. There was no lychen, no moss, no organic cement, no changelings, nothing. It was dead quiet, the sound of buzzing that had permeated the mountainside since the brood went feral had ceased in its entirety. Crystarium wanted to be sick, but she couldn’t destroy what dignity she had left. So she stared, a stony grimace on her face.

“I’ve only seen an annihilation field once, I’ve never seen it tuned to a specific thing though…” One of the mages on the deck muttered to another. Similar mutterings were going on throughout the Flotilla as Luna ordered them all to return to Twilight’s Hive.

“Let’s get this place behind us, Twilight…” Luna said sourly as she turned to where the Queen was standing again, only to see her brands slowly fading as she slumped onto the deck due to magic exhaustion.

“She powered it herself?” Luna said, amazed, as she got over the shock and rushed over to make sure it wasn’t fatal. Her Wraiths were already there, Bie and Vera doing their jobs.

“Someone would have had to stay and activate them otherwise. Your mages only understood the arrays to the point where they could draw them, not operate it, and Mother didn’t want any heroes of us. She’ll life, she just needs to rest.” Bie explained. Luna sighed in relief and picked the queen up herself. The Wraiths seemed only slightly annoyed by it but didn’t protest. 

“You’re free to watch over her in her sleep.” She said as they followed her below deck and to Luna’s quarters. She laid the queen down on the bed and sat down on the edge of it. The Wraiths weren’t going to crowd the entire room, so they fanned out leaving only Vera and Nila to keep watch over their queen.

“Do you know what she wants to do with Crystarium?” Luna asked Nila after a few minutes. Nila shook her head.

“She wasn’t sure last I checked.” The changeling replied. Luna nodded again and stood.

“I have to oversee our flight operations and send some letters. I trust her well being in your capable hands.” The Princess said with a small smile. The two nodded with smiles of their own, Vera was already doing a checkup to make sure she wasn’t being affected physically by the exhaustion.
> Intermission 4: Rebirth
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dawn gaped in wonder as the Flotilla neared Twilight’s hive the next day. She thought Crystarium’s hives were the largest around. This was massive, though. It was the size of Canterlot, if not larger. The ships didn’t set down, there really wasn’t room for them to, but luckily the magic that kept them aloft was significantly easier to maintain over long periods of time when they were idling.

Twilight, who had since woken up from her exhaustion, led her mother and Crystarium through the hive. Crystarium recognized much of where they went, but was at a loss when they were taken to a small chamber with a few birthing pods. Twilight walked up to each of them, putting a hand on them to fill them with some of her life energy. She turned to her mother first.

“This will be an… interesting experience for you Mother. This will dissolve and recycle your body into organic material and energy for the hive to use, while preserving your consciousness and reforming it. I can’t do anything to help you if you are not one of my own, this will make you into one of my own Royals. When you wake up, you’ll be fully indoctrinated in my hive mind and you’ll get your own little chunk for yourself and your brood.” Twilight explained softly to her mother. Dawn took the information surprisingly well, almost like she expected it.

“What of my Brood? I’m under the impression that they would go feral without me to help calm and regulate them.” Dawn asked. 

“Not quite, since your consciousness and hive mind will still be intact they will just go dormant. During that time we can transmute them to match your genetic signature so they adapt to your changes as mine do with myself.” Twilight answered before turning to Crystarium.

“You’ll be undergoing the same thing, but only to preserve your memories. Afterall, what’s the use of punishment if the crime is forgotten? When you awake your royal blood will be virtually nonexistent. You will be a Drone in my Hive. Call it community service.” The lavender Queen almost spat. Crystarium didn’t seem happy about that.

“I’d rather you just kill me then.” The Cerulean Queen grumbled.

“And I’d rather my mother not be a changeling, or the thousands of lives that have been lost were still alive. Tough shit, we can’t always get what we want.” Twilight replied curtly. The two Royals were slightly stunned by the vulgarity. “I have half a mind to give you to Luna. You wouldn’t believe what a thousand years on the moon can do to your sense of mercy, and just how effective the literal manifestation of nightmares is at tormenting you.” She continued, stepping closer as both of the pods were moved closer by drones that had shuffled in.

“Now you’re going to get in there and submit to this punishment or I WILL make you suffer.” The Lavender Queen threatened one final time, right in Crystarium’s face. Outwardly the Cerulean Queen scoffed, almost insulted by the threat. But by the look in her eyes and every aspect of her body language, it was all she could do to not start shaking or quivering. She was a little terrified of Twilight fight now. Dawn was too, actually, though not in the same way. Twilight could feel her mother’s thoughts through the link that was created, her mother was worried just how much of that she meant. She let the affirmation that she meant every ounce of hate she spat in Crystarium’s direction.

“Well, I for one think that Twilight’s brood is a sight better than ours. Seems like the perfect opportunity to put that old thing you always say to use. What was it again?” Dawk asked as she slowly climbed into the pod.

“Prosperity through Evolution. Evolution through Adaptation. The way of the Changeling.” Crystarium replied lowly as she climbed into her own.

“It may feel uncomfortable for a bit, but try not to fight the anesthetic effects. Your brain doesn’t like seeing the rest of your body disintegrating and it might try to start simulating the pain, or it might just freak out.” She warned the both of them. Crystarium just lowered her gaze, apparently accepting her fate. Dawn nodded and took a deep breath as she closed her eyes. Twilight nodded to the drones and they started the process of filling the pods with the liquid.

Dawn was out within seconds of it fully immersing her, but Crystarium still glared at the ground for a little while. The Cerulean Queen looked up at Twilight, the younger queen was a little surprised by the expression. It was sombre, but it was also soft and almost… appreciative? 

‘Thank you.’ Crystarium tried to say, but wound up only mouthing it. Twilight got it though, she walked up to Crystarium’s pod.

“No hive, no brood, you are nothing but a betrayer and a feral queen. Hopefully your new life will bring meaning to you.” Twilight said. Crystarium  stared at her for a while until a soft smile creeped onto her face and her eyes closed, the anesthetics taking over to put her to sleep.

Twilight stepped over to Dawn’s pod and put a hand up to it. Normally she thought she’d be hurting to see her mother being slowly broken down in the fluid, at this point Dawn was missing most of her arms and legs and parts of her face had started going as well. Twilight could only smile, though, because this meant that she’d have her mother back again soon. And not as some pale imitation of a queen she hated. In Twilight’s brood, she could be whoever she wanted.

She took a deep breath and left the room, she had to go see Luna and her fleet off.
> Chapter 13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Are you sure you want to come along, Twilight? Don’t you wish to spend time at your home without the threat of war?” Luna asked Twilight as her fleet crested the edge of the Scarred Forest.

“We made some significant findings in our research, but we don’t have the equipment to experiment with it. The Biometal is ready for production and I’m anxious to see what the inventors in Canterlot can do with it.” Twilight replied. Luna just shrugged.

“I suppose any excuse to have you in Canterlot is a good one.” The Princess said with a smile. 

“I’ve also found references to some things I’ve seen in Canterlot’s archives in our own, allusions to times and places I’ve seen in the more hidden sections of the library. I wanted to ask Celestia if I could have access to them again. There’s reason to believe that this curse that degrades us is actually a curse, I’ve been skeptical for a long time.” Twilight continues.

“Really now? I’m not aware of any curse strong enough to affect an entire species, let alone for generations. Have you tried taking it apart to lift it like a spell?” Luna asked. Twilight nodded.

“The curse isn’t an active one, the curse must have become part of our biology. We can’t pinpoint the exact makeup of it since we have no comparisons. There are multiple differences between myself and my brood, there are even more between us and you. It’ll take years to parse any exacts out and experiment.” The Queen answered. Luna nodded. 

“And you’re hoping to expedite the process.” The Princess concluded. Twilight smiled.

“It’s also an excuse to go see everyone again, so I’ll take what I can get.” She said. They both chuckled at that and went about passing the time until they reached Canterlot. On the way, Twilight immersed herself to help her fallen brood move on and recruited the ones wanting to stay as Guardians. With their help, her mother’s part of the hive mind was kept active and was slowly regenerating itself. Even her changelings were usually awake and active. She remained like that until Luna roused her as they neared the city.

She had spent the rest of the day with Celestia and her family, talking about what happened and her new discoveries. Celestia gave her full access to anything she needed in the research archives and the libraries. She was currently digging through the oldest texts she could find, her wraiths doing the same around her, when Nilan spoke up on both the hive mind and with her voice.

“Mother! I found something!” She called. Twilight was immediately at her side, the others paying attention through their connection so as to not lose their spots. Nilan passed the tome to her Queen and Twilight read on. It was a journal page from an ancient historian, translated of course.

‘These creatures are incredible. They know our history, but they are definitely not Human. They aren’t even Valkyries, but they have wings just as us. Some of them have wings like the Valkyrie, others have wings like Dragons. They are just as curious about us as we are them, they seem to relish social interaction. All of them.’ The first entry read. She read on, her scholar’s mind picking apart any detail and referencing it with every known resource. The next one seemed to be much later on, though dates were lost to time.

‘The Angels aren’t doing too well, their leaders are slowly dying and we can’t figure out why. Skirmishes with the Devils have caused a loss in numbers for both, but the Devils are experiencing the same problems. They both accuse the other of poisoning them, but I know not of any natural poison to do so. Even our mages can’t detect any real magic being used in this way. We’ll aid them as much as we can and prevent war.’ 

The second entry read. Twilight continued reading through the entries, putting them in order mentally to be transcribed in her own archives.

She soon learned that the race of creatures encountered were split into two tribes. The Angels and the Devils, at least that’s what the explorers called them. They couldn’t translate the word they used for themselves, there wasn’t even a written language that could convey it. The final journal entry caused her to surge with both dread and hope.

‘It’s Efialtis. That Angel has grown so vain she thought the world should be rid of their ‘uglier’ sister tribe. Then she started going crazy, thinks that only the truly beautiful deserve to live. We’re being forced to leave for our own safety, the whole race is poisoned now. The only two safe are being protected in an arcane stasis, we’ve been asked to take them with us and forget we were ever here.
They’re changing. The dark magic Efialtis is using is poisoning everyone, even herself. Her hysteric vanity is spreading too, many Angels and Devils are sounding a lot like her. There’s in fighting now, not just between the tribes. There’s fights between families, and even between siblings. Fights to the death. They all call her the first mother though.
I have to leave today, but I have to write this down while it is fresh. She was stealing something from us. Not physically, but she and her followers would come to us and we’d feel weak afterwards… One of the mages died from exhaustion. The others know it isn’t magic exhaustion but it’s very similar. We need to get the hell out of here, I just hope these things don’t spread back to Equestria.’

The final entry read. It was piecemeal, sometimes the placement of the sentences was almost random. Like there was no straight train of thought, jumping around ideas and things the explorer needed to say. The exact words meant something to her though.

The race of Angels and Devils, that intrigued her. She remembered reading somewhere a long time ago that Celestia and Luna used to be called Angels long before their ascension to the throne, but never found much mention of their parents or upbringing. She vowed to ask them about it later.

The second thing that caught her attention. The process the explorer described sounded like Degeneration and, more importantly, she recognized the name Efialtis. She had just recently read it, actually. It was in a small list of god-like beings that have been banished. She only remembered the list because Discord’s name was on it and scratched off about four separate times. She immediately requested her diplomat to ask Celestia to visit as soon as her court recessed for the night to let Luna take over.

The response was almost instant, Chrys informed her that Celestia was already on her way and Celestia simultaneously stepped through the door.

“Good evening Twilight Sparkle, how goes your research?” The Princess asked happily. She knew that look on Twilight’s face. She just found out something big. Or at the very least important to her own research.

“Celestia, what do you know about an individual named Efialtis?” Twilight asked, looking up from the book. The Princess’ expression darkened immediately.

“That… creature… is one of the greatest evils I had ever faced. She almost exterminated all of humanity two millennia ago, and so she was Banished.” Celestia explained, her tone grave. She was obviously upset at the memory, but what upset her most is that Twilight wouldn’t be asking that if it wasn’t linked to the Changelings.

“She… may be the progenitor of our race… Or rather corrupter.” Twilight explained. Celestia just kinda stood there for a moment before sighing heavily.

“She cannot be easily reached if she still lives… She wasn’t banished normally… She was Expelled from this plane of existence, into the Primordial Abyss.” The Princess said. Twilight was shocked, she had never heard of such a place. Celestia figured as much, as she continued explaining.

“The Primordial Abyss is a realm that I created a long time ago to preserve history. It is where things end up when they go extinct, it is where the worst that creation has to offer is banished to live out the rest of their days. It’s where knowledge goes to die… Where lost things go, and never return.” She explained. Twilight understood as the Princess slowly explained this place. Whoever she sent there to gather information would never return.

“Last resort then, come on let’s keep looking.” Nilan said quickly, attempting to diffuse the tension that had formed. The others quickly agreed and went back to work, though Twilight stood. She made her appreciation of the effort known mentally and moved towards Celestia.

“We’ll get to that if it comes to it then. For now, though, we found something else I’d like to talk to you about.” The queen changed the subject. Celestia sighed in relief and happily nodded.

Twilight explained the old races, but Celestia didn’t know about any of it. Efialtis had already been in power for nearly two thousand years when Celestia defeated her, which was a little under two thousand years ago from present day. Equestria was founded then, Celestia guessed that this explorer’s journal was three and a half thousand years old. They spoke of the findings, as well as current progress on their technological advances, well through the night.

> Chapter 14
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So it worked?” Twilight asked. She was still in Canterlot, but she was currently possessing one of her researchers. She was speaking to Rainbow Dash, who was in the medical room. She hadn’t gotten hurt, instead she had experimented with Samuel and Ceren to see if the transmutation array would work on someone who wasn’t a changeling.

Rainbow Dash answered by sitting up and flaring her wings out confidently. They were certainly not the wings of a Valkyrie anymore. They looked similar to how Chrys’ wings looked when they first met, at least at first. The rainbow hued Valkyrie now sported two sets of wings, almost like a dragonfly. The inner set usually fit nicely in with outer set to form what looked like what would happen if you changed a Valkyrie’s feathers into gossamer. They were large, had a good wingspan and even had spines along it visible through the translucent blue material. They even had the same joints and folded in the same.

The inner set, aside from the new joints to fit snugly with the outer set, was more like the traditional changeling wings. They could function separately from the outer set or in tandem. When together, anything other than a straight line would be impaired though. The inner set would yield far better maneuverability, perfect for dashing through trees and dodging incoming fire. The outer set was better at high altitudes and speed in a straight line. With this change Dash would be gaining the jagged maneuverability of the Changelings without sacrificing her speed. When the inner set was folded into the outer set the wings were actually stronger and would yield much longer distance in a single flight before the wings grew tired, especially when using the wind to glide.

“We decided not to go with the Biometal reinforcement for the wing arms since the added weight would be too big of an adaptation combined with the wings themselves, but she’s already agreed to continue testing.” Samuel explained.

“And, if my theory is right, the more she does this the easier it’ll get. Even Humans and Valkyrie are built biologically for adaptation. Just on a much longer scale than we are.” Ceren added.

“I even talked to Spitfire about it, she encouraged me to do it as long as it didn’t fuck up my flying. After my recovery I should be able to blow my old records out of the water!” Dash exclaimed confidently. Twilight sighed in relief, she was worried her friend may have hurt herself when she found out she was in the medbay. 

“Dash, just do me a favor and be careful? You’re new to all of this stuff, I don’t even know why Samuel and Ceren let you do it to yourself.” Twilight groaned. 

“Pff, they didn’t let me. I told them to do it. I can be very persuasive.” The Valkyrie retorted. Twilight looked at the two in question. Sam looked sheepish but Ceren only shrugged. Twilight just put her borrowed face in her borrowed palm and groaned again.

“I want full reports, recovery times and a complete diagnostics to make sure there isn’t anything wrong hidden under the skin… And Dash? Thank you. You’ve done so much for us, I’m starting to wonder just how far you’ll go.” The Queen droned out, ending with a bit of a worried smile to her friend.

“Don’t worry, I only do stupid things if they work.” The Valkyrie grinned. Twilight rolled her eyes as they returned to normal.

“I’ll tell you later…” The queen said to Celestia, they were having lunch when Twilight focused elsewhere suddenly. The Princess could only nod and continue their meal. Twilight wasn’t freaking out so whatever it was it wasn’t immediately terrible.

“Alright… You were saying one of the feral queens has recovered?” Celestia said, trying to restart their conversation. Twilight nodded.

“Bela, Mira was supposed to wipe them out but then my war started and things… well. Things got crazy. They lost enough numbers and stole enough love to regain their sanity at least, a Queen’s Dinner has been called to decide whether or not she is capable of maintaining her sanity for long.” Twilight explained.

“I hope it goes well. With one war finally ended they can’t want another.” Celestia said. Twilight’s expression told her that probably wasn’t the case. Some of the other queens, namely Chrysalid, were overfond of war. 

“Most of the queens remember the last time Bela was sane, though. She was apparently quite the historian and is likely to have the most detailed archives.” Twilight continued. 

“So recovering her as a sane queen would be beneficial to all of you, at least if the others care about your research.” Celestia summarized. Twilight nodded as they finished their meal and moved to the balcony overlooking Canterlot.

“I hope you find something useful there, because Efialtis is not a lead I would want you to follow… I’ve dug up the old Banishing rituals and... “ Celestia continued softly, pausing at the end.

“The only way to get me there is to straight banish me I'm guessing?” Twilight asked. Celestia nodded.

“You wouldn’t be completely on your own, though… Through the ritual I can lay down terms of redemption, but with them a sentence is required. The minimum the ritual allows is a year of servitude, the sentence under that is life imprisonment in stone. Efialtis was sentenced to an eternity.” The princess explained. Twilight grumbled, she didn’t like it.

“Then I agree, I hope Bela has something interesting for us…” The Queen sighed, rubbing her face. There was a long silence before Celestia turned.

“I have some things I need to attend to, just let me know when you’re leaving so I can say goodbye will you?” The Princess said. Twilight gave a casual affirmative gesture, to which the Princess giggled and finally left. Nilan took her place at Twilight’s side.

“Are you alright, Mother? You can’t hide your feelings from us you know.” The Changeling girl asked. Twilight chuckled and leaned deeper into the railing.

“You know what I’m thinking about. All of our research and experiments indicate that in order for a hive-wide transmutation to be successful both queens need to undergo the change. My ability to produce love has proven impossible to synthesize no matter how hard we try.” Twilight explained what Nilan already knew.

“You’re worried our race will never be rid of the curse due to the other queens’ pride.” Nilan said. It wasn’t even a question, she knew.

“Mira is already considering it naturally, the Emerald Queens might come over to our side with time. Bela is an unknown, as well as the other ferals, but Chrysalid will never trust us. That’s already settled in my mind now, it’s something else… Something I haven’t even been able to talk to Celestia about.” The Queen continued. She ended in a heavy sigh.

“You want to talk to Chrysalis about it ,but you can’t…” Nilan concluded. Twilight nodded.

“Our hive cannot prosper while we both live, Nilan. She is the only reason our hive can’t produce love as I can. Even my Mother's brood will be limited in the same way since she is my royal. Ever since our experiments transmuting Mira’s drones failed I’ve been dreading this… I don’t want to lose her, Nilan…” Twilight went on, her tone softening. Nilan put a hand on her shoulder. She could feel the emotional distress the thought brought her queen.

“I’ve talked to even the older ones of our hive. We are happy as we are. It’s better than being feral. They choose this form over starvation any day.” Nilan assured Twilight. The flood of agreement from many of her oldest drones made her smile. It fell again though.

“You are my children, you may be happy as you are but I will never be happy until you are at your best… I will find a way to lift this curse…” The Queen said, the last bit strong with determination. Nilan hugged her then. No more words were needed. They just embraced for a little while before Nilan flew off. Twilight needed some time with her thoughts.

It was three days before Twilight returned to the Hive, she had delayed her return to spend more time with her family before getting back into the thick of it. The Queen’s Dinner was in a week but there was something bothering her. She was standing in front of Ceren, who was pawing the ground with her foot.

“You always were good at hiding things from me and the Hive Mind. What have you done this time?” Twilight asked. It was almost like a mother scolding a child, Rainbow Dash nearby snorted at it.

“Something awesome?” The young Changeling replied in an attempt to diffuse the situation. Dash’s laughter helped a bit. Twilight just pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Just show it to me already. I can scold you later if I have to.” The queen finally gave in. Ceren made a high pitched noise and clapped her hands quickly and rushed into her workshop. One of her Hunters walked out with her, though something was odd. Twilight distinctly remembered this Hunter missing his right arm, but it was there clear as day. The biometal carapace was oddly different, though, and she could detect a hint of arcane energy inside of it.

“Biometal Prosthetics, working perfectly. No other metal has reacted properly to our magic and life energy, not even the Black Metal. Biometal, however, not only reacts but ADAPTS to us.” Ceren explained. Twilight locked eyes with the hunter, conveying the nonverbal order to report the results.

“The recovery time was only two days, and through the magic and stuff it feels exactly like it did when my arm was real. It feels pain, sensation, the muscles ache if I use them too much and it even bleeds. It reacts positively to the healing salve and anesthetic toxin, and it’s a lot stronger too. Summary, it’s the perfect prosthetic.” The Hunter reported. Twilight looked between them a few times, ideas already springing in her head.

“I want this mass produced and the technology shared with Equestria. We can’t give them everything, but give them the basics so they can improve on their prosthesis technology. I want some time and resources devoted to larger prosthetics, maybe even full body. Good work, Ceren. Try not to hide things like this from me.” The Queen ordered, ending with a smile. Ceren gaped at her for a moment at the last part, but grinned and did her usual cute salute before rushing off to work.

“I’ll be fit for duty by tomorrow, my Queen. I am happy to be able to do what I do best again.” The Hunter said with a smile. Twilight clasped his hand as he passed. She could definitely tell the difference, but it was very minor. She made sure to have some of the workers bring Ceren some extra love and food rations over the next few days, knowing the girl she’d be working non-stop until exhaustion takes her.

“Hey Twi? Come over here a sec, we wanted to talk to you about something.” Dash’s voice came over their communication glyphs they all wore like an ear ring. Twilight turned, confused, to find Dash no longer sitting on a table in the main research hall and pinged the hive mind to find her in the nearest mess hall. The other elements were there as well.

She smiled as she entered, Dash was showing off the newest modifications to her wings. They had been reinforced and amplifying glyphs transmuted into the biometal and the gossamer between the spines. They would allow the flier to channel Valkyrie magic much easier to make what they can already do with their wings that much more incredible. Dash had apparently invented a new Valkyrie spell to encase the outer spines of them with arcane energy to sharpen and reinforce them to create wing blades. The gossamer now also had a prismatic effect on light passing through it, a personal design choice by the rainbow Valkyrie herself.

“Alright, we all got something we want to say.” Dash said when Twilight took the empty seat and a pod of wine was brought over for her. “First is me, I’ve already given my contribution with the wings so I hope you use them well. It was boring and frustrating making them happen but holy hell it was worth it!” The Valkyrie exclaimed, raising her drink.

“What the rest of us plan to do is make our own contributions as well. I’ve already gotten with Spike and some of your people to refine the design for your Battle Plating.” Rarity said.

“I got with that tinkerer of yours and we drew up a few things based on them batteries of yours and the trains. I worked in Appleloosa for a year workin on them things so I know my way around an engine.” Applejack said around a mouthful of potatoes.

“I’ve already been working with Samuel and some of the others to incorporate medicinal herbs and other medicine recipes into your healing salve. We’ve already tested a strain of antibiotics and disinfectants.” Fluttershy managed to get out without stammering, proud of her work.

“And I’ve been totally working with the Equestrian researchers and stuff to make something totally new! Your mages were a great help cuz they use batteries!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed and, from out of nowhere, pulled a metal thing out and put it on the table. It looked like a hand crossbow, but there were no strings and no bolts.

“I call it an Energy Blaster!” The pink haired girl continued. In a fluid, almost expert, flourish she picked it up and spun it. “Pull!” She called out. Three empty plates were flung into the air, apparently she had prepared this without any of them knowing. With three soft flashes of pink and the sound of thee shattering organic plates, the blaster blasted them out of the air. There was a golf clap from the room as the elements sat there stunned.

“You invented a WEAPON?!” Twilight exclaimed. Pinkie snorted.

“I mean yeah, but it can do a ton of stuff! We were messing around and one of the mages made it shoot a zappy blast to stun, and one time even a blast of water to put out the fire it started!” The woman explained while happily bouncing. Twilight just stared at her incredulously as her mages gave her all the details. Pinkie had convinced them to wait until the surprise was sprung. She was silent for a while a she processed the information.

“Pinkie, where the hell did you learn to make WEAPONS?!” Dash asked, her tone conveying her amazement. 

“I make things all the time! I mean it’s not related to food but who do you think built my party cannon?” The girl replied like it was common knowledge. The table facepalmed. That would make sense. “This one is for you, Twilight!. We didn’t want to make any more in case you didn’t like it but we’re ready to design and produce them with high efficiency!” The girl continued. She was both bouncy and happy but also professional and serious at the same time. Twilight never could figure out how the girl did that.

“If they are as versatile as the person wielding them I suppose they could be very useful… Continue development and production.” She said, more to the ones responsible for putting it together than anything. 

“Aw Dude! Could you imagine me and my boom and zoom team with that kind of thing?” Dash pondered. Twilight had to agree, that’d be incredibly effective. Her hunters were already stubbornly refusing to switch to them, preferring the bows. Twilight smiled, she agreed. She’d probably use them if she had to, but she could never give the bow up. Hunting was the first thing she excelled at in the hive. 

Apparently enough time had passed where all of their breakthroughs were finally bearing fruit. So many successful experiments put into production in the last few days it was almost too much to keep track of.

Hopefully they could keep this momentum.
> Chapter 15
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tensions at the Old Hive were running high, Bela hadn’t attended one in decades and she was having trouble adapting to things. Namely the new queens. She only recognized Mira. She was currently devouring her love infused meal ravenously, though most eyes weren’t on her anymore. They were on Twilight. More specifically, they were on the changeling standing at Twilight’s side. 

“I wonder what they’ve figured out yet.” The changeling giggled. She seemed to be made up almost completely of Biometal, not Carapace. They could all detect arcane magic inside of her, in all honestly it was how her body functioned. 

“The floor is open to delegation for those who wish.” Jordas said when they all finished or slowed their meals. Bela stood up then, recomposing herself. The Queen’s golden hair and eyes a stark contrast to the ebony and green of the hive around them. 

“I want to extend my gratitude for allowing me to come here. I do not know most of you, but I would like to regain my position in our culture. I am Queen Bela and I have no interest in war or secrets. My focus is the history of our people and stopping the worst of it from being repeated… as best I can at least.” The Golden Queen said. Twilight stood after that.

“Then as soon as possible I will happily share my own archives with you if you would do the same for me. I am currently researching our history as well and have made some discoveries, I’d like to cross reference them.” Twilight said. The Golden Queen nodded. “Excuse my manners, I am Queen Twilight Sparkle. If you are disinterested in war then I would like to extend an offer of alliance from myself and my own allies.” Twilight continued, nodding to Mira who nodded in turn.

“What kind of Queen is disinterested in war…” Chrysalid grumbled. She was generally ignored until she stood as well.

“If you ally with That one and her ilk then you declare yourself as my enemy.” The Crimson Queen practically snarled. Twilight and Mira groaned.


“Chrysalid will you stop acting like a child.” Mira said with an exasperated tone.

“A Child?! This one has barely been out of her birthing pod a year, and a Queen for less!” Chrysalid started. She was going to go on before Greta stood.

“Chrysalid if you continue these hostilities I cannot support you any longer. You cannot hope to even scratch Twilight and her brood, yet you insist on antagonizing her. Frankly if I were in her position you’d be long dead.” The Emerald Queen snapped out.Chrysalid growled.

“I am disinterested in war as well. I have advised you time and time again, Chrysalid. I have no interest in interfering with you and yours as long as you do the same for me and mine. You’ve already broken part of that with your fuckups in Canterlot. Equestrians have died due to your disregard for the terms you were given. They’ve declared your brood enemies of the nation and their allies, the only reason they haven’t declared open war is because Princess Celestia believes you may be reasonable in time.” Twilight explained, more to Bela than Chrysalid. The Crimson Queen huffed.

“Then come and get me, little queen. I am not so foolish as to force myself feral trying to defend against you.” Chrysalid snarled back. Twilight pinched the bridge of her nose again.

“You also don't have a mountain fortress. If memory serves all you have is swamplands around your hives. Correct me if I’m wrong but I’m under the impression Airships don’t give a damn about trees and mud.” Mira almost laughed. Chrysalid growled even lower.

“You have to find us first. Chrysalis may have had the best infiltrators, but nobody has been able to root me out or even discover the exact locations of my hives. I’ll wear you down, little by little until we’re on even ground. Then i’ll come for you and raze your hive for what you did to her.” The Crimson Queen snapped back. That caused a bit of pause.

“Did to who?” Creta asked. 

“Chrysalis! I don’t believe a word they say about her fate, if she’s even still alive then she’s being tortured or something. I know it, I can only imagine what you’re doing to Crystarium.” The Crimson Queen spat out. Twilight’s expression darkened at that. 

“I would strongly recommend against saying anything about that, Chrysalid. For your own safety. Jordas tells us if any lies are spoken in this room.” Mira said, the slightest hint of worry in her tone as the aura emanating from Twilight could almost be felt. It was cold. And angry.

“Crystarium’s fate is none of your concern. As her ally I will give you the courtesy to tell you she is still alive and she is not being tortured. And don’t you DARE insinuate that I am causing Chrysalis harm.” Twilight growled out. Mira didn’t like that tone. The other queens didn’t know the lavender Queen well enough to know what that tone meant, but they didn’t like it either. They all silently hoped Chrysalid didn’t poke the sleeping bear any longer.

She didn’t poke it. She slugged it in the jaw.

“Bullshit, You’re so good with that arcane magic you probably did something to jordas to favor you. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have both of them strung up in your bedroom like slaves. Or maybe you’ve turned them into monstrosities like that thing next to you!” The Crimson Queen quipped. She seemed satisfied with the reaction. Twilight understood now, Chrysalid was trying to instigate a violent reaction from her so she could be declared rogue and the other queens would have no choice but to declare her an enemy.

“Jordas, I request your blessing to invoke the right of single combat.” Twilight said. Her tone was even and measured, but there were layers upon layers of emotion under them.It caused shivers to run down Mira’s spine. Bela was intrigued that Twilight even know of the old traditional right.

“Permission granted, and you have my blessing Queen Twilight Sparkle. You may dictate the terms of this duel.” Jordas replied mechanically. Greta and Mira returned to their seats as Twilight stepped up onto the forking table and walked towards the center. Chrysalid scoffed and joined her.

“You really think you can best me in single combat? I’ve been fighting wars longer than you’ve been alive girl!” Chrysalid exclaimed. She seemed to disregard the warning signs she was getting as scare tactics. “What an idiot, you don’t have any of your playthings to hide behind now.” She continued.

“There are no terms. The duel ends when one side is dead or concedes. Use whatever means you deem necessary.” Twilight said. Jordas nodded. They could begin whenever they liked. “Chrysalid, since you’re so dead set on acting like a child you will be treated like a child. I’ll give you to the count of three to concede.” She continued, standing there with her hands clasped behind her back. The Crimson Queen scoffed again.

“One.” Twilight said, holding out one finger. Chrysalid starting laughing.

“Two.” The count continued. Chrysalid laughed even harder and made to throw a punch. Twilight’s other hand was there to catch it in an instant. With a particularly nasty crack the arm was turned around and snapped nearly in two at the elbow. The only thing keeping it together was sinew and shredded muscle. Twilight held the two fingers up in the other hand, most of her battle plating having extended by now. Chrysalid hissed and her own extended as well, the ebony of carapace paled in comparison to the almost white of the Biometal. There was no comparison to be had.

“I’ll kill you for this!” Chrysalid practically screamed as she pulled a dagger from a sheathe hidden in her battle plating and made to stab Twilight in the chest with it.

The organic dagger snapped, not even scratching the plating. She screamed again and started fighting against Twilight’s grip, throwing blows with her bare fists and legs and probably hurting herself even longer. She really was acting like a child.

“Three.” Twilight said lowly. In one fluid motion, the arm holding Chrysalid pulled her close as the counter arm extended its blade and ran the Crimson Queen right through the abdomen. There was a pained gasp followed by a scattered yell as Twilight shot arcane energy through the blade to siphon all of the changeling’s energy to incapacitate her. Twilight pushed the queen off of her blade with a foot and retracted it, Chrysalid flumping the the ground. She was still alive, and conscious, but she was currently the equivalent of brain dead.

“Queen Chrysalid is incapable of fighting any longer and is forced to concede. No terms were specified so the winner may ask of the loser whatever they wish.” Jordas announced.Twilight picked the unresponsive queen up, surprisingly gently, and walked back towards her section of the table to hand the body off to Vera.

“I request nothing. This humiliation was enough. She will be healed at my hive and I will make her understand how wrong she is.” Twilight said, cleaning herself off with magic and moving over to the middle of the table to do the same. Jordas nodded as Twilight retook her seat.

“If there are any other delegations you may proceed.” Jordas announced. Everyone was silent for a while, but before Jordas could call an end Bela stood again.

“Queen Twilight Sparkle, I wish to know what has been done to the creature next to you.” The Golden Queen asked. There was hesitation in her voice. Twilight smiled though and nodded to the thing. It walked over to the table to speak.

“My name is Stella, I died during Crystarium’s invasion of my hive. Until recently I was a Guardian of our Hive Mind, dead individuals that stayed to help manage the hive mind rather than passing on. My consciousness was recycled into a mixture of technology and magic to create an artificial intelligence inside of an artificial body. My current function is to learn and assist my queen any way possible.” The changeling explained. Twilight smiled.

“Does this one produce love?” Mira asked. The other queens stifled their questions to hear the answer. Bela was beyond curious at that.

“No, we haven’t been able to reproduce that ability in any shape or form. Stella does not hunger for love, as her body isn’t a changeling body. She is immune to the effects of degeneration and the insanity it brings.” Twilight answered.

“But I can never forget the hunger. I can feel it from my living brothers and sisters and I wish I could help, but I can’t even partition some of it away as we usually do…” Stella added.

“I appear to have missed quite a lot…” Bela said, sitting.

“I would like to bring one final issue to the floor.” Twilight said after a moment. Jordas nodded. “The Equestrian Leaders have expressed interest in meeting the queens and extending their friendship to those who have not declared themselves enemies. This includes all but Chrysalid, for now. Equestria is a powerful ally, and even better friends. They are the largest source of love and I can’t keep being their proxy.” The Lavender Queen explained.

“They have become quite proficient in rooting out our harvesters and infiltrators… I suppose it would be wise to attempt peace with them instead of aggressive neutrality.” Greta said. Her sisters agreed.

“I will need some time to reacquaint myself with the times, but I am happy to oblige.” Bela said. Mira didn’t need to add anything, she was already allied.

“Then I request we recess for two weeks and return to meet the Equestrian Leaders.” Twilight asked. No objections were voiced.

“It is done. Population count requested.” The construct said.

“Queen Twilight, One hundred and fifteen thousand, five hundred and twenty three.” Twilight announced.

“Queen Bela… Nine hundred and seventy.” The Golden Queen said, dumbfounded by Twilight’s population.

“Queen Mira, eleven thousand even.” Mira announced proudly.

“Queen Greta, two thousand and ninety-seven.” The Emerald Queen announced.

“Queen Creta, three thousand and four.” The Malachite Queen said.

“Queen Meta, three thousand, five hundred and one.” The Viridian Queen followed.

“Queen Chrysalid was last reported to have a population of around one thousand.” Greta announced for her ally. Jordas nodded and went to sleep, signifying the end of the dinner.

“She never did recover from that battle helping Crystarium, did she?” Mira mused out loud as they all stood to leave. Twilight’s wraiths had to stop themselves from drawing weapons when Bela almost sprinted over to Twilight and caught her on the shoulder.

“Queen Twilight, I apologize but I believe we should start our sharing now. I’m overwhelmed with what I’ve seen today.” The Golden Queen asked, almost hysterically. Twilight smiled and nodded.

“If you’d like we can return to the area of my hive together and I can tell you what I know. After that we can set up a correspondence to share archives.” Twilight suggested as they walked. Bela sighed in relief and they talked as they went.

What a hell of a time to ‘wake up’ to.
> Intermission 5: too many intermissions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bela was amazed by this young queen. From what she was learning, the girl was barely out of her teens when she was reborn as a Royal, and barely a year had passed until she replaced Chrysalis. Bela remembered Chrysalis, both before and during her long feral period. She was honestly surprised the old queen managed to recover, both physically and politically in terms of Equestria. 

“Queen Bela, I know you were worried about making a good impression, but there are a LOT of drones.” Twilight said when they entered the open courtyard in front of the hive. It was dominated by Bela’s brood. They were thin and stocky, but they seemed happy.

“My hive was destroyed not long ago by those Emerald Queens. That loss is what I owe my sanity to, so I can’t begrudge them for it… even if I do miss their voice in my mind.” The Golden Queen explained softly.

“Their voices in your mind? So you can hear your brood’s voices as well?” Twilight asked, dozens of flags going up in her mind. Another queen with a developed hive mind?

“Yes, of course I can. Is that not how the hive mind works?” Bela answered, confused. She was even further confused at Twilight’s expression. She couldn’t tell whether she was in deep thought or ecstatic or something. Those around that knew Twilight knew that look. It meant the inner scholar in her was having the equivalent of a wet dream.

“No, no it isn’t. Not at all!” The Lavender Queen piped happily. Bela’s confusion grew. “Nobody else knows why or how I’m so different, why Chrysalis’ hive mind was so different. But yours is different too! We simply MUST compare them and make notes and study it and… and…” She continues, ending by chuckling to herself and recomposing herself.

“Sorry, I’m a bit of a knowledge seeker. Something like this could yield key discoveries relevant to just about every single thing I’m looking into.” She finishes much more evenly. She couldn’t wipe the grin off of her face though.

“I see… I too thirst for knowledge, Queen Twilight. I will gladly assist in your endeavors, under one condition.” The Golden Queen replied with a warm smile that turned into a smirk. Twilight nodded for her to continue. “I am without Hive. I wish to be housed in your Hive, as it seems the safest and most interesting place to be. My brood will earn their place and I will of course pay you in knowledge and my assistance where I can offer it.” She continued. Twilight put a finger to her chin, requesting the opinions of her brood that cared to offer it. It was overwhelmingly positive but cautious.

“Sounds reasonable to me. We have become a Secretive people, you’ve probably noticed. I have many secrets of my own, secrets not even my allies know of. If you can understand and respect this, then I have no qualms with inviting you into my home.” The Lavender Queen replied. Bela smiled.

“Of course. Even if we weren’t queens I would understand the sentiment. I imagine I will learn of many of your secrets in time just because I’m there, but I won’t dig where I’m not wanted.” The Golden Queen said happily. Twilight smiled and nodded to her as they reached Twilight’s people. Nictus was arguing with Cronux, the crystal construct that was a near twin to Jordas.

“It’s alright, Cronux. I forgot to mention it but please don’t try and force the others to feed me and mine.” Twilight said, entering the conversation as if she had already been part of it.

“Twice was bad enough, the other queens should have more than enough food to at least give something.” The crystal construct grumbled, temporarily giving up its winding manner of speech.  

“And if they wish to give that something then I will gladly accept it. The queens I am not already allied with are struggling to feed themselves, I couldn’t ask even my enemies to give up enough food to feed ten times their population and I will not have any consequences for being unable to provide either. What they bring for our meals is more than enough, everyone can relish the taste of it through me you know.” Twilight retorted. The thing finally huffed and turned at that.

“Generosity is new to this place, Queen Twilight Sparkle. You’ve already shaken the foundations of your people, I hope it ends well for you.” He said with almost a prophetic tone. He hummed to himself as he shambled off, it was clearly not any kind of threat. Twilight just sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose again.

“She woke up for a while by the way.” Nictus said when silence replaced the argument. Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“I’m impressed, maybe I should have actually fried her a bit. I didn’t want to damage her brain though, wouldn’t help if what she sees is forgotten.” Twilight said.

“Probably the love saturated food giving her a spike in energy you didn’t account for. She kicked and screamed like a kid again for a while until she realized where she was and remembered exactly what happened. Even had Cronux there to explain the rite of single combat. She shut up after that and passed out again not long after. Vera and Bie stopped the bleeding.” The Huntress explained.

“Good. I’ll let her feel like shit, she has to make up for how she’s been somehow, but I’d rather her not go into a coma or die from blood loss.” Twilight replied with a bit of a dark chuckle. Nictus nodded and turned towards the other wraiths. The workers would stay for about another month to make sure all of the food was compiled and sent to the right places for her contribution, but it was time for the rest of them to leave.

“I will warn you now, Bela. My Hive may be safe for you, but the are around it is one of the most dangerous. I have plenty of scars from just taking a stroll in the forest- from both before and after I took the throne.” Twilight warned as they gathered to depart by air.

“I see, what caused that one?” Bela asked, pointing to the scars from the Ursa.

“Ah… that was in Equestria actually…” Twilight started and told the tale as they flew.
> Chapter 16?
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chrys walks into the room, it’s the stark white of the meeting room in Equestria’s outpost in the Scarred Forest. She has a comically large stack of papers, to which she hands out pieces to everyone in the room. Everyone being Twilight’s closest friends and allies. Mira, Celestia, Luna, Bela, and the Elements of Harmony. Twilight had been absent from most of their lives for the better part of the last three months and they've been asking to visit or get a visit. Some of them weren’t happy that this was all they were getting for now.

“The whole list is in there, but I’ll give you a quick summary. We apologize for our lack of communication, but we’ve been making extraordinary progress on all facets of our research and development. We’ve perfected a less organic strain of the Biometal that can be produced through normal alchemy. The formulae of which will be sold or gifted to allies. Our work on combining Technology and Magic has come to two impressive results. The first is the Guardians, the living essence of the deceased maintained through magic and given a body to inhabit through technology.” She pauses to tidy up her stack of papers.

“The second is what we’re calling ‘Arcane Engines’, the industrial big brother to Arcane Batteries. Contrary to the name, they can come in all shapes and sizes. The first prototypes at using them to power airships and create thrusters were a complete success. The technology is incredibly difficult to create, so we’ll only be selling complete products until we figure out a way to tame down the process. Any problems during creation could result in something akin to an annihilation field in collateral damage. We’re still rebuilding that half of the lab.” She continues, flipping the page.

“The advancements and gifts from the Elements of Harmony have finally been finished and perfected. Rainbow Dash’s wing designs have been optimized and have been proven in the field. I’ll be forwarding the formulae to you for safekeeping since you are its creator. Fluttershy’s work on adapting modern medicine into our healing salve has borne magnificent fruit. We now have three toxin glands. One for the anesthetic toxin, one for the healing salve, and the new one that can reproduce organic based medicine. Synthesized ingredients cause stomach aches and fevers. Rarity’s chitin optimization blueprints were incredible, we’re already seeing less injuries in our Defenders and Hunters. Applejack’s help went into the creation of the Arcane Engines. Pinkie Pie’s blaster technology has been expanded and adapted, we’ll be cautiously giving out designs and products in times of emergency. Otherwise we’ll only be using them for self defense.” Chrys listed out more recent projects and flips to the final page.

“Chrysalid has since recovered from her duel with Queen Twilight and has now returned to her hive. She still refuses to ally with us, but has dropped her stupid grudge and has begun seeing things more objectively. Baby steps. Crystarium and Dawn Sparkle have been rebirthed successfully. Dawn Sparkle was successful in creating her ‘colony’ in Canterlot. Her family is overjoyed to have her back, especially looking more like Twilight’s brood. She chose to keep a bit of blue in her hair though, so she could never forget where she came from. Crystarium remained very similar in appearance as none of our major secrets were inscribed into her formulae. She is currently making progress as a huntress, similar to when our queen first started out. We were surprised how anxious and eager she is to be part of something that isn’t her own.” Chrys went on, collecting her stack and looking up at everyone.

“And lastly, our research on our kind has slowed to a dead halt. Bela’s archives have confirmed that the only way to learn more about this curse, if there is more to learn about it, is to ask the one who created it.” She finished. Celestia’s expression fell.

“Yeah well that’s all good but can we PLEASE see our best friend? It’s been MONTHS.” Rainbow Dash, wearing a heavily worn Wonderbolts uniform, practically yelled. Her inner wings buzzed in irritation. 

“Sorry for the social inactivity, it’s been a little dangerous in the Hive with all of our experimentation. We were sorry we had to kick you out so suddenly, but when a chunk of hte hive explodes your safety was our concern.” She replied to Dash first and then finished towards Bela.

“The Everfree is as good a place to start a hive as any, my brood are stronger in numbers now and your home has more than prepared us for the forest.” Bela reassured the diplomat. Chrys smiled and nodded. She stood.

“Thank you all for coming. Things are finally slowing down so expect to see more of my Queen. She’s personally requested and audience with the Equestrian Princesses at their convenience and extends an invitation to the Elements of Harmony to visit.” The Diplomat said as everyone else started to stand.

“Well we were going to anyways!” Dash said and was already out of the door. Applejack snorted and was quick to follow. The others, save for Pinkie Pie, were far more polite in their departure. Pinkie was just the last to leave because she couldn’t bounce past the other two.

“Audience granted of course. Your place or mine?” Celestia replied casually. Chrys giggled.

“Ours if you have the time now, otherwise we’ll work it out as soon as possible.” The girl replied.

“Now’s as good a chance as any” Luna shrugged and the two left for the Hive.

“Your diplomats in my hive are still there, let Twilight know I’d be happy to chat if she needs a break.” Mira said happily. Chrys nodded with a smile.

“The same for me, though I’d like to request a bit of aid. We’ve finally started growing again and our harvesters haven’t had a chance to settle in yet.” Bela asked somewhat hesitantly. She didn’t like the idea of mooching off of Twilight any more than she already has.

“We’ll send a few of ours your way, just enough to get you on your feet. Call it an apology for the sudden ousting.” Chrys answered. Bela smiled, happy with that, and the last of the visitors left. Chrys let out a relieved sigh and made to return with those heading towards the hive if they weren’t in the air already.
> Chapter 16!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“My Queen?” Twilight heard, both with her ears and hive mind. She knew the voice and that who it belonged to had tentatively come to her in her chamber.

“I’m glad you’re finally feeling comfortable enough in the hive to be a little casual.” Twilight said with a soft smirk and a chuckle as she turned to face the Cerulean Royal. Crystarium was staring at the ground, hands folded in front of her.

“I... “ The Royal started but grumbled as she couldn’t find the words she wanted to say. Twilight remained silent. She abstained from digging in Crystarium’s thoughts to figure out what she wanted directly.

“I can’t find the words to what I wants to convey… It’s… frustrating.” The Royal finally growled.

“Then don’t use words.” Twilight simply said. Crystarium seemed confused for a second, but almost immediately smiled. She doesn’t know how it’s possible but she still sometimes forgets that the hive mind is a thing. Even if she’s finally gotten over how alien it is. She gathered up the thoughts and the feelings that brought her here to speak with Twilight and did her best to convey it all over the hive mind.

Twilight couldn’t help but smile.

“You really did need this fresh start, didn’t you... “ The Queen said softly, not even really asking Crystarium. There were profound feelings of relief and apology and gratefulness. Feelings of being content, happy. Thoughts that she was actually glad to have the burden of a Queen lifted, the feeling of being love stuffed for the first time in her memory. It was almost humbling.

“It will take a long time to redeem yourself, Crystarium, but this is a very good start. I still can’t bring myself to love you like one of my children, even though for all intents and purposes you are one, this is showing me that one day I will be able to. I’m proud of you.” Twilight said. Crystarium took a moment to let that sink in but wound up beaming.

“I’ll do my best not to betray that pride ever again…” The Cerulean Royal said softly. Twilight nodded.

“I’ll hold you to that.” Twilight started, almost playfully. Her expression shifted to a more serious one after that. “Things may change greatly around here soon. You know what I’m planning on asking of the Princesses. If that happens then you'll be one of the things keeping this hive together. You’ve betrayed me once, please don’t disappoint me again…” She continued evenly. Though the last part was a little misleading. It sounded almost like a threat or like a scolding mother, but really Twilight didn’t want Crystarium to disappoint her. It was a genuine plea.

Crystarium flinched. She could feel the emotion behind the plea, she could feel the exact intent behind it. She was still getting used to it all.

“I know what you’re planning, yes, and I want to go with you…” The Cerulean Royal said finally. Twilight blinked. She was genuinely shocked by that.

“You want to come with me… you do know where I’m going right?” Twilight couldn’t help but ask. Crystarium nodded slowly.

“You’re going to get yourself banished into the Primordial Abyss for up to a year in order to find the first Changeling and hopefully learn more about the curse. I want to be there. Not just for me, but…” Crystarium starts. She paused, again not able to find the words. She took a deep breath, Twilight again refrained from digging in her Royals’ head for what she wanted to say.

“You… gave me this second chance. I’m… enjoying this new life. No burden, no ambition expected of me… I’m just one of your drones, part of the flow. Part of the hive.” She pauses again, cracking a smile. “I always liked you as an individual, but I always felt that I was obligated to do what I did… That due to my position as the most powerful queen, I had to make sure it stayed that way… You destroyed that image, and my position, and I am grateful for it now. Because now I think I want to be your friend, but I know that won’t happen until I’ve redeemed myself. This seems like the most logical way to do it, do what you can’t allow your brood to do. Be your companion, your guard in the Abyss. Risk it all just to make sure you’re safe and all that.” The Royal continued. Twilight gave her an incredulous chuckle.

“Well when you put it that way it makes sense… I’ll consider it. You are correct, there is still bitterness tainting my perspective of you. I haven’t been able to snuff it out yet. If this is truly what you want then I will entertain the idea.” The Queen replied. Crystarium seemed satisfied by that and turned to leave.

“But on that topic, I’m not the only one you need to redeem yourself for.” Twilight said simply. It was an even tone, Crystarium knew exactly what she meant. 

“THe safety of their daughter should at least begin that process, don’t you think?” Crystarium said with the ghost of smirk before exiting in full. Twilight couldn’t help but smile, she was a little impressed the Royal had thought that far ahead. Dawn had already forgiven Crystarium, as the end effect meant she could be closer than she ever hoped to be with her daughter. Her family and even her job still welcomed her back in Canterlot. This would cement that forgiveness.

It was Celestia they were worried about. The Princess may be able to politically and publicly approve of Crystarium once more, but on a personal level the Princess was a hard nut to crack. She STILL secretly hated Discord, even though the god of chaos had turned to using his chaos for the enjoyment of others rather than himself. And no matter how hard she tried, Twilight knew that she couldn’t completely understand just how happy Dawn is with her new life.

The Queen sighed as she returned to immersing herself in the hive mind, watching over her friends that were traveling to hte Hive right now. She was already preparing herself mentally for Dash’s tirade about not letting them visit and figuring out the best way to word her request from Celestia and Luna.

It was going to be a long day.
> Chapter 17
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It only took another hour for the Equestrians to reach the hive. Twilight should have expected the pile of hugs that she was now at the center of the second they entered, but after her conversation with Crystarium she was just a little surprised to be surrounded by so much love. Or maybe it was the lack of contact with them.  She received the expected scoldings an rants about the temporary separation but the mood didn’t suffer too much from it. The Princesses and the other queens watched until the friends had finally settled down enough to get to business.

“Thanks for coming right away, it means a lot.” Twilight said with a smile, though the reason for her asking Celestia and Luna to come caused it to be more of a somber smile. They caught onto it.

“Is something wrong?” Celestia asked with a hint of concern in her tone. Twilight shook her head and untangled herself from the pile her friends had created around her and everyone followed suit.

“I think it’s time for that last resort…” She said softly. The Queens and Princesses frowned at that, understanding. The Elements understood too and were stunned into silence, at least at first.

“WAAAAAIT wait wait… You’re telling me that you want to go and get yourself banished for a whole YEAR?!” Dash exclaimed. Twilight just nodded. The Valkyrie looked like she was about to start yelling more, her angrily fidgeting wings revealing that much at least, but Celestia spoke before she could.

“The ritual will take time to prepare, and we’re not sure what effects it will have on you and your people to be separated. This isn’t just a distance thing, Twilight. The Primordial Abyss is a whole other plane of existence.” Celestia explained.

“I know, and I had planned to run experiments… but this needs to happen sooner rather than later. There are so many feral hives out there now, they’re sprouting up like crazy. Not even the other sane queens know how or why, but if we can’t figure out how to produce love again soon then we’ll be forced to war with the ferals to not only protect ourselves, but the other races. And even if I’m completely cut off from the hive, Mother will still be here. She will take time to adjust, but she has already agreed to take up the role as queen of the hive should that happen, and she’ll have the guardians to spread the burden between.” Twilight explained without skipping a beat. She had already thought this through. The silence was almost palpable before Luna broke it this time.

We have been finding many more feral love collectors…” She said softly. She looked like she wanted to continue, but thought better of it. The room returned to silence.

“What about Chrysalis?” Celestia asked. They all looked at the sleeping queen just a few feet away, oblivious to the whole spectacle.

“All progress has hit a wall, in every regard. We need to more about our history, and so much of it has been lost to feral or disinterested queens. Our only hope, for everything now, is to find the first queen. Even if she refuses to help us, if she is destroyed then the current queens will no longer be secondary to the development of their hives.” Twilight replied. Even the other queens seemed surprised by that.

“What are you talking about, secondary to the development?” Bela asked.

“Our research has told us that should major changes affect the queen, the changes will trickle down into the hive. Under normal circumstances, this happens in the timespan of generations like normal evolution or through rebirth. With our transmutation array, though, we’ve found that extreme changes like the advancements we’ve made and shared are included in this joint evolution. When we perfect a transmutation strain, I apply it to myself and the whole hive changes. At least that was the first theory.” Twilight explained. Normally some of the elements would hate sitting through what’s more akin to a school lesson silently, but the subject caught enough of their interest- in the subject or in the results- that they let her speak.

“But, due to Chrysalis still being alive, it’s slightly different.” Mira finished the line of explanation. Twilight nodded.

“For the changes to be immediate, we would both have to be changed. But over these last few months, we’ve dug deeper into that particular connection. There are some things we just cannot change or replicate. We discovered most of the genetics and magic necessary to maintain a hive mind as advanced as ours, and even how I and other races produce love. When trying to implant that into my drones or replicate it otherwise, it simply failed. A few of my brood have even died due to the failures.

“We went deeper into the research and discovered similar problems arose when attempting to change something core to our brood in a drone, but not myself. Core aspects of the queen can never be changed in individual drones, and so we’ve put two and two together...We are all connected to Efialtis, the progenitor of our race. She is not only the source of our curse, but also the reason we can never escape it. The only reason I’ve been able to bend around that fact is due to my human genetics mixing and diluting the genetics, just enough to give me some wiggle room in that respect. It’s why I’m not dead due to being able to produce love.” She went on.

“But wait, how come Yours and Bela’s hive minds are so advanced and the others like myself and Crystarium’s were so limited?” Mira asked, genuinely confused.

“Chrysalis, and so myself, as well as Bela are more directly related to Efialtis. They have undergone little rebirthing, if any at all, and so they are far less diluted. I think that this dilution through rebirth may be the cause of why there are so many ferals now, but we haven’t been able to test it.” Twilight answered. Bela nodded when the others looked at her. It was true, at least to her knowledge.

“Chrysalis was the oldest among those sane. Chrysalid was centuries, if not millennia, younger. I’m afraid I know nothing of her mother though, and attempts to get that knowledge from Chrysalid have been met with aggression” Bela started. “Even my hive mind is not quite as advanced as yours.” She added. Twilight nodded and sat down on her bed, hands folded neatly in her lap, to look at her assembled friends.

“Then why are you going alone? Like hell we’re not going with you!” Applejack said this time, Dash quickly agreeing. Twilight shook her head.

“I won’t be alone, not anymore at least. Crystarium has agreed to be my escort. And I can’t let you sacrifice a year of your lives for this, and it will be incredibly dangerous. Even if I die in there, unless I am wholly and permanently severed from the hive mind, I’ll live on as a Guardian. The same can’t be said about you.” The Lavender Queen said somberly. There was a lot of protests about Crystarium joining her in their expressions, but none of them said anything. The room was uncomfortably silent again, but this time it seemed everyone was either in thought or waiting for someone else to say something.

“Alright…” Celestia finally broke the silence. She sighed deep and pinched her sinuses before looking back up at Twilight.

“If you feel you need to do this, I can’t stop you. The ritual will be prepared in three days’ time, get yourself to Canterlot before then… I refuse to send you in there if it permanently severs you from the hive mind, though, so we will be performing tests first.” The Princess said. Twilight wanted to argue, but by the woman’s tone it wasn’t up for negotiation. She just nodded.

“Damnit Twi! Why do you have to leave again? We already lost you once…” Dash almost hissed out. The other elements’ faces seemed to mirror the sentiment. Twilight just stood and walked over to them, this time it was her turn to start the group hug.

“It’ll only be a year, or less if we find her quicker than that. And whatever that place has in store I’ll make it through, I always do.” She said with a smile. As she finished she was almost crushed by the desperate love they all pushed out as they pulled in closer to her.

“We should go and… prepare… It was a pleasure seeing you again, Twilight.” Luna said. Twilight gave what acknowledgement she could through the new pile, which consisted of a lightly flailing hand.

“We shall take our leave as well. Do say goodbye before you leave though.” Mira said, looking to Bela who nodded in agreement. The four rulers left the room for the friends to be alone for a while longer.

“Guys, I think you might actually crack my carapace…” Twilight wheezed out before long. The group slowly untangled itself once more, but only just. There were no more words after that. There didn’t need to be. They were all worried, but they’d all be here for her when she gets back. They stayed like that for a while until Twilight was inevitably needed elsewhere. The elements stuck around for the next day. The mood was a little somber throughout the hive. They all knew what was coming, they’d lose their queen. They all knew it would be for the best, though, so they kept smiles. They knew things would be better when she returned.

They had to be.
> Chapter 18
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ritual was today, but Twilight was worried. Not for herself, she had been mentally preparing herself for this for weeks, if not months. She was worried about Crystarium. The converted royal had isolated herself from the hive mind almost completely. While her old ties as a queen weren’t strong enough to fully sever herself, it was enough to reduce her connection to that of a Harvester. With that limited link Twilight knew she was in the palace, but finding exactly where was becoming increasingly frustrating. She had hoped that Crystarium’s offer was genuine, but the longer she hunted for the Cerulean Royal the lower her hopes sank.

She finally checked one of the last places she expected, the sealed ritual room beneath the Palace. Her last options after this were the Celestia and Luna’s rooms and she dearly hoped she wasn’t in those. She dearly hoped she wasn’t here either, but as she made her way down the stairs as quickly as she could the voices echoing from the rocky stairwell confirmed her fears. She recognized Crystarium’s voice as well as both of the princesses.

“...And she’s already found us…” Crystarium said lowly just as Twilight entered the room proper. It was a large room, two stories high and about 100ft by 100ft in diameter. She was stunned to see that Celestia had already finished preparing the ritual and looked like she was getting ready to start it. Crystarium was in the middle of the ritual circle. There was a palpable silence for what felt like hours, but was only a few seconds.

“Why?” Twilight simply asked, looking at all of them. The princess’ involvement meant this wasn’t just Crystarium betraying her again, this was something else entirely and she intended to find out just what was going on before she started coming to conclusions. Celestia dropped the magic she was gathering to begin the ritual and gave her an apologetic look.

“You know I don’t like going behind your back, about anything… but Crystarium may be right.” She said. Luna was silent, she had little to add to this conversation.

“Right about what? We’ve talked this over, the experiments concluded that the hive mind would be severely muted but still intact.” Twilight retorted. Crystarium stepped towards Twilight, then.

“If you must be angry then be angry at me, I am the one who convinced them to do this. I was hoping the ritual would have already reached the point of no return by the time you found me… I apologise for the secrecy, but I felt you would never allow me to do this for you.” The ex-queen said, her tone soft.

“Do this for…” Twilight started, but then she realized just what was happening. “You were going to go alone… That’s why you said you wanted to go with me.” She concluded.

“This is not an idea I have had for long, I had fully intended to join you. But after the experiments, I questioned the Princesses and the hive mind about what happened last time the hive was muted to their queen. Dawn has never commanded more than a handful of drones, and even then they were mine. Yours are so much harder to direct without hte hive mind, and I still don’t understand how it works. The shock of being severed, or even just muted from you would be bad enough, but then nearly two hundred thousand minds coming to her at once? Your hive would have frozen again, and for how long I don’t want to know. All of our progress, YOUR progress, would be halted or even lost. I have survived long enough just by myself before, let me do this for you. For your hive, for our hive.” Crystarium explained. When she finally finished she couldn’t help but hold her breath in anticipation for her queen’s response. Twilight seemed to be in deep thought, looking at the ground, but before long she looked up and stared Crystarium directly in the eyes.

Seeing the conflict in her yes, Crystarium released her mental isolation from the hive mind. She let her emotions and feelings flow into her queen to show just how determined she was. She could have sworn she saw Twilight’s eyes water up for just a second.

“You really want to do this... “ She said softly before looking over to Celestia. “And I suppose I can’t blame you for trying to keep me safe…” She continued to the Princess.

“You know how much I despised the whole idea… I was only going to do it because you felt you needed to.” The Princess said, scuffing her heel on the ground a bit in a rare show of nervousness.

“You saved me from myself, Twilight. You could have just killed me, and you probably should have… but instead you gave me a second start. Another chance at a happy life. Let me repay you, let me give your… no… OUR hive another chance. We may even be able to extend that to our entire race.” Crystarium said, bringing Twilight’s gaze back to her. Right when she thought Twilight was going to refuse, the Royal felt something that almost brought her to her knees. It was small, but it was powerful.

A small wisp of love, intended specifically for her. It filled her with bliss. Not only was this love intended for her, though, it was from her queen. The love of a mother is one of the most potent types, and it was something Crystarium has never felt.

“You really want to do this… no, I already said that… You really feel that you need to do this. Alright, Crystarium… I will not stop you.” Twilight said softly. Crystarium let out the breath she forgot she was holding and was about to turn to Celestia to ask her to start the ritual, but was shocked as Twilight slowly closed the gap between them and embraced Crystarium. The arms around her neck and the Queen’s head nestled against her cheek barely registered, though, as the thin wisp of love was replaced by an opening flood gate.

“Twilight, if I am to begin the ritual then you must exit the circle.” Celestia said softly, the magic of the circle growing slightly unstable the only reason she wished to break the moment. Twilight just looked over and nodded, though before she stepped away she put her head against Crystarium’s and concentrated.

“I’m proud of you, Crystarium… I don’t know if this will work, but maybe it’ll be strong enough to reach you.” The Queen said. This was the second time she had connected someone else to her mental forest, even Dawn had been slowly weaned off of it in time. Crystarium was left speechless as she saw what would have been her own forest was a single cerulean tree, but it was large as an old oak. She turned and almost fell to her knees as she saw the scale of the other two forests now in contact with hers.

On one side was the ashlands, not even a trunk sticking out of the barren grey, of Chrysalis’ forest. On the other, however, was a forest so vast she couldn’t see past the tops over the horizon. She saw an empty spot every now and then, and she realized that must have been the spaces of her dead drones. But then a young changeling girl walked over to her and offered her hand.

“Follow me.” The girl said with a smile. Crystarium paled at realizing who it was. Stella was her name, a young girl who died during the initial attack by Crystarium herself. She had avoided the guardian’s ‘living’ manifestation like the plague, but she seemed happy to see her. She cautiously took the girl’s hand and was whisked away through the trees, to the center.

“Thank you sweetie.” Twilight said from where she was kneeling in front of a very young tree with teal leaves. Crystarium turned to see the girl give a salute before disappearing once more. Crystarium walked closer, but froze when she was what Twilight was crouched over. She was gently stroking the hair of Chrysalis’ sleeping manifestation. The Royal had seen the woman sleeping in the physical world many times, but here it felt different. It felt like she didn’t belong here.

“The Guardians you see would keep the hive alive and functional, even if I were to sever myself completely from it. The reason I am allowing you to do this was because of how strongly you feel you must do this. That kind of determination is how we’ve survived and evolved, and why we’re still here. I can’t help but love you like one of my own, now… hopefully that’ll last long enough. I know you won’t go feral, but love starvation will certainly drain you if there are no sources in the Abyss.” Twilight said, not looking up from the sleeping queen. Cautiously, Crystarium stepped closer and crouched down on the other side of Chrysalis.

“I will do what needs to be done, or I will die trying. That’s what convinced the princesses. My success or sacrifice would redeem me, I should think.” She said softly, not wanting to disturb the sleeping queen.

“I hope with all of my being that it will be the former… We should return, the ritual will destabilize if it is not started soon. Celestia is getting nervous.” Twilight said, finally looking over to Crystarium. The royal nodded and they were back in their conscious bodies. Twilight stepped away and moved towards the Princesses. She nodded to Celestia and, as her brands lit up, she helped supply the magic for the ritual to help stabilize it as Luna did the same. Celestia nodded and spoke with enough power to make Crystarium want to shrink if this was any other situation.

“Crystarium, you are hereby sentenced to one year’s duress in the abyss, should you survive. The single condition of immediate redemption is to gain the means to save your hive or your entire race. Completing this condition will return you to this place when ready, you will know how to do so if the time comes. May you find redemption swiftly, Crystarium.” She said. It wasn’t exactly how the Ritual was supposed to be worded, but it would serve its purpose as the magic surrounded Crystarium. There were no theatrics, no flashy singularity to suck the punished into oblivion. There was a flash of light and she was gone without a trace.

Twilight took a deep breath and focused on Crystarium’ presence in the hive mind. It was even weaker than when she was isolated, but she could just barely tell that she still lived. She focused on their personal connection and was troubled to see that Crystarium’s tree was gone. Or at least at first that’s what she thought. As she focused harder and looked closer, she could barely make out tiny flickers of what looked to be the single tree with blue leaves. It looked as if an astral projection was destabilizing and could only maintain itself for milliseconds at a time. With enough focus on both ends, they could probably repair the link- or at least temporarily stabilize it. She was dragged out of her thoughts by Celestia.

“Is she gone?” She asked simply, a little worry in her tone. Twilight shook her head.

“Not entirely.”
> To Ashes we fall
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight chose not to broach the subject of Celestia going behind her back with Crystarium as they had dinner together as usual, it was a conversation that was no longer necessary and she was already conflicted enough. Celestia picked up on it, though.

“I’m sure you already know this, but I am sorry we tried to hide it from you…” She started and was going to go on before Twilight stopped her with a hand.

“You were right, I probably would have refused it… I just hope we made the right decision, that she made the right decision.” The queen sighed and set her fork down. She had only picked at her food and was in no mood to finish it. Celestia quickly tried to change the subject.

“Well then, how goes your research? I Understand Queen Bela made a discovery recently?” She asked, hoping to get Twilight’s mind back on something that would keep her happy. It only partially worked.

“She found another ancient hive, not quite as old as the first, but this one had intact archives. What little information that is relevant we already knew or just further reinforced the wall we’ve hit. Unless Efialtis has some miracle for us, we’re stuck like this... “ Twilight said. She continued softly, more to herself, but Celestia caught it and it terrified her.

“Our hive cannot thrive while the two of us live…”

It was a whisper, but Celestia heard it. She heard the pain in the voice too. The particular subject had come up once or twice, but it was always waved away. It wasn’t a secret that the only way for the hive to prosper again in full was for there to be one queen again, and with Twilight’s ability to produce love so important it was only ever going to end one way. Twilight couldn’t do it though, she refused to even think about it. At least until now.

“What happened today made me realize something, Celestia… This whole thing is a desperate attempt, grasping at straws that we don’t even know are there, to avoid what has to be done… But it has to be done…” She said solemnly, almost darkly. She stood at that and turned to leave. Celestia quickly stood with her and walked over to put a hand on her shoulder. She had a bad feeling at where this was going.

“Twilight, where are you going? You know you have up to a year now to think about this. To find other ways…” Celestia started, but she slowly tapered off. That was it. That was the whole reason for all of this.

“You wanted to go so you would be forced to find another way in the Abyss, but now that Crystarium has gone on this fool’s errand in your place…” She couldn’t finish as she slowly removed her hand from Twilight’s shoulder. The Queen turned around. There was sorrow in her eyes, sorrow for what she knew she had to do.

“I don’t know when I can bring myself to do it… but I’ll get back in touch when it’s done… For now I think the hive might be crippled by my sorrow  for a day or two, I can’t seem to stop it. I love you, Celestia… I’ll see you soon.” The queen said in almost a whisper as she lethargically hugged the Princess, but before Celestia could return it she pulled away and left the dining hall.

“Your friends and your family will always be here for you, Twilight. Just call us if you need us.” Celestia said with a sad smile. Twilight didn’t give any acknowledgement, but she knew she was heard. She was surprised to be embraced from behind, only to find Chrys there. There were tears running down her cheeks but she was smiling.

“Queen Twilight is a little too conflicted to think properly right now, so I thought I’d come over to make sure you know she just wants to be alone for a while, she meant no insult or offense.” The girl said with a sniffle. Celestia smiled and put her hands on the girls shoulders after she pulled away.

“Losing Chrysalis will be devastating for her, as you well know… Just make sure that she’s surrounded by friends again as soon as possible, even if she doesn’t think she needs it. I’ll be taking a leave to travel to Ponyville to inspect our newest outpost, so we should all be nearby.” The Princess said, rebuilding her composure for the young diplomat. The girl nodded and turned to return to whatever it was she was doing.

Twilight was beyond distraught. She had been thinking about this since Crystarium left, and the more she thought the more she realized it had to be done. She couldn’t justify sacrificing herself to let Chrysalis live and return to being a queen, the risk of the curse returning in full and having the vast population of the hive turn feral was too much of a risk, and the potential of love producing changelings was too great to pass up.

So the only thing to do was to sacrifice Chrysalis, so that their hive could live on. The journey into the abyss to find Efialtis was ultimately a fool’s errand anyways. Even if they somehow found something out about their race to lift the curse, they’d still be parasites. Even if Chrysalis would awake again, Twilight knew she would insist endlessly that she be properly recycled as it should have been when Twilight was originally turned. She didn’t trust her wings to take her in this state and she couldn’t stand being away from her sleeping partner any longer at the moment and so she teleported directly to her chambers.

For three days straight she stayed there, food and drink were brought to her, and whenever anyone came into the room they made sure to hug her or hold her and infuse as much love as possible into the food. Sometimes they even had to feed it to her. With so much love from her brood, though, it was on the fourth day she finally acted.

The pod was already prepared, but she had it double checked as she carefully picked up her sleeping queen and made her way to the isolated birthing chamber she was originally rebirthed in. She couldn’t risk a simple rebirth, even into a royal or a simple drone, it would either destroy her personality or she’d maintain the connection that’s causing the whole situation in the first place. Chrysalis would be gone, her body recycled into organic material to be used for the hive. Her mental manifestation would fade, the ashlands that was her forest would crumble, and even her singular tree would wilt away. The roots decayed. The only remnants of the sleeping queen would be the leftover love signature and genetics in the older drones, but even that too would fade away as more generations were born.

Twilight stared at the open pod for minutes before she turned. Her Wraiths were there, as well as the heads of all her departments, as well as a horde of drones. The room was filled practically to the brim, the only space left was the space around the pod. Without even a ping in the Hive mind to tell them, as many as physically possible rushed forward and engulfed Twilight in a loving embrace, even though they could not generate the love. They were careful not to crush Chrysalis. It seemed like that was what Twilight finally needed to continue, though, as the group backed off and she slowly stepped partially into the pod. She hesitated, though. She stared down at the sleeping queen in her arms and pulled her a little closer.

Without a word or a peep on the hive mind, she stepped fully into the pod. When she did finally speak, it was a ping in the hive mind to tell the caretakers what to do. They immediately followed her commands, but the whole hive had tears in their eyes at the command.

They were to convert the pod into a rebirthing pod rather than a recycling pod, and she was going to stay in there.

“What shall we tell the equestrians?” Nilan asked, stifling a sob.

“I’m sure you’ll think of something.” Twilight said as tears of her own started forming again. The pod was quickly sealed as the fluid starting flowing in. She could feel the tingling sensation as the fluid both numbed her nerves and started dissolving the carapace of her legs. She slid down the back of the pod, Chrysalis in her arms, and was stunned into silence as the unthinkable happened.

Chrysalis opened her eyes.

“So you finally went through with it, Twilight?” The queen rasped out, her voice going unused for months. Her lips formed a weak smile as she looked to the clear part of the pod, expecting to see Twilight there, but was shocked to find her absent.

“I knew you were waiting for something… this little bit of energy…” Twilight said softly, pulling Chrysalis closer. Chrysalis was stunned herself at the situation, but quickly fell into a smile.

“We will be as one, then…” She wheezed, putting a hand up to hold Twilight’s face. The liquid had nearly reached her chest by then, though, at Twilight’s waist and the arm couldn’t hold for long before sinew and muscle dissolved and the arm fell. Movement on the outside caused Chrysalis to look back through the transparent wall of the pod as the light was slowly being blocked.

A single hand, from a Drone she recognized as one of Twilight’s wraiths, was immediately followed by as many as possible. The mass of their children on the outside were touching the pod, wishing they could express their love as Twilight could. The act still touched Chrysalis, they hadn’t forgotten their first mother. With a weak smile she tried to lift her other arm to meet their hands on the translucent material, but it refused to listen to her. Her breathing got heavy as the fluid got through the chitin on her chest and neck and it was getting harder to breathe. Twilight grabbed Chrysalis’ arm and held it up to the window, her other hand doing the same.

“We will be as one…” Twilight echoed weakly, the fluid now nearing her chest as it passed Chrysalis’ head.

“We’ll be waiting for you.” The horde outside said in unison as time seemed to freeze for them as their queens lost consciousness, and within the hour were completely dissolved. In fact, time seemed to freeze for much longer. The hive was silent, still.

“We’ll be waiting…” echoed around the halls as nobody moved or said anything, it was through the hive mind the statement echoed.

“We’ll be waiting.”