This chapter contains forced transformation and aspects of mind control. Consider yourself warned.

The chamber she led me to was much smaller than where I had awoken, almost claustrophobic with how many Changelings were there with us. I’m certain she had been feeding off of me since I saw her, because by this point I was feeling very weak. Weak enough at least, that with a gentle push of her hoof I was flat on my ass again. This felt different to the ground we had been walking on for the past few minutes though. It was spongy, and had a lot of give. Her horn gave off yet another telltale magical glow, and my bindings undid themselves, leaving me free to move my hands and feet as I wished. It was a short-lived freedom though, as her magic had me on my feet, straight as a ruler. My feet sunk into the ground beneath me, and I felt… something start to make its way up my leg. “What’s going on?!” I demanded. She gave a laugh like she had just seen something so incredibly stupid. “Why, little human, I already told you! You’re mine now. All mine.”

Then the floor started rising out around me, creating a sort of bubble that rose around me. There were others like it in the room, like clear green plastic. I tried reaching out to touch it, to maybe try to stop it, but my body was frozen in place. “Why?” I managed to ask, just as the container sealed around me. I still don’t know if she even heard me, or if she did what her reply might have been. The last I saw of her right then was her giving what seemed to be a laugh, then walking away, obscured by the material around me. Some sort of liquid started bubbling up from the soft floor, my feet still trapped. I felt my body go limp, back under my own control, and I started screaming. This was not how I wanted to go! This wasn’t right! I didn’t want to drown, please Sisters save me! The liquid didn’t stop until my head was covered. I held my breath for as long as I could, but it didn’t recede. Instead, the blackness edged into my vision, until I could see no more. I felt myself exhale, and that was it. Cold silence.

Except that wasn’t it, somehow. I can’t really explain it well, but even though I had blacked out, I was still aware. While I wasn’t awake or conscious, I could tell what was happening to my body, and I could still think clearly. It was an odd sensation, being suspended in that liquid. Even though the liquid was cold, it felt warm, like being under a thick blanket on a cold winter morning. It was nice, somehow, like it was some sort of reward, or a gift. Time stopped meaning anything by that point, so the changes all seemed to happen at once. My body was numb to me, but I could still feel my limbs shifting, shrinking, the bones dissolving in the liquid. It ate holes in my flesh, but it felt more like scrubbing dirt off in a shower. My hands and fingers fused into one single piece, all semblance of flexibility gone from them, my feet and toes soon following suit. My hooves too gained a few holes of their own. My skin grew hard, chitinous, like an ant’s carapace. My mouth and nose stretched out and together to become a pony-like muzzle, my teeth growing out into fangs. A short horn sprouted from the middle of my forehead, sharp and smooth. My ears moved up to the top of my head, elongated past recognition as those of a human, tearing in places to match the rest of my body. My hair all but dissolved, leaving only small fringes on my now elongated neck. My torso changed, forcing me into a four-legged stance, or so I figured as I felt my bones and muscle shift and warp. A small shell grew across my back, rusty red in colour. From that shell sprouted a pair of small, glossy wings, like a dragonfly had its wings torn by hand. Finally, I remember my tail sprouting behind me, the same listless gray as the remainder of my hair.

That wasn’t all of it though. Once my body had been molded, time started to return. I started to feel my body more and more, though I was still unable to control it. I felt... a sort of click in the back of my mind. Like a small pin had poked through a piece of paper. Over time, this hole grew and grew, and through that hole poured endless thoughts and sensations, thousands if not millions of individual bodies, all feeling different things, all linked together with the same mind, the same will. I could feel all of the other Changelings of the hive as they went about their work. It was scary at first, but it quickly began to feel natural. It was almost reassuring, knowing I would never be alone. It felt good to know that. ‘Wait, no... That can’t be right,’ I thought. I wasn’t going to just give up and be one of the drones like that, no! I’m me! I’m Kaerea! I fought the feeling to just let go, and it slowly left me. But I could still feel them all, every single one of them.

Then I felt her. It was the mother. No, it was the master. No, it was me. No, Chrysalis. Yes, that was it. It was Queen Chrysalis, making her presence known to me. I tried to call out to her, some primal instinct, longing for connection, for acknowledgement. She entered my mind and sifted through my every memory. It burned, for so long it burned. She took everything out of me, then shoved it all back, placing it wherever and however she wished... But she put something else in me. Some sort of seed, it felt like, in my mind. And that seed grew, so very quickly, fed by my own thoughts and feelings, my memories of love, of hate, of anger and fear. It grew, and stretched through the hole, and I lost track of its growth. But I could always feel her now, the Queen. She was always within my mind, no matter how much I fought it, or tried to escape her. I was hers, as she had said a lifetime ago.

Then something strange happened. Of course, this whole thing was strange; being transformed into some sort of insectile equine shapeshifter isn’t something that can really be counted as normal, even in a land like Equestria. But this was something strange even to my new instincts, those that had accepted my new form, and my connection to the Hive. Something else reached back through the hole, travelling along the seed’s growth back into me. It put something deep in my mind, something I found myself unable to describe in my thoughts, even as it connected itself to the very core of my being. Then it withdrew, leaving me unsure if I had only imagined it, even with the impression it had left upon my memory.

The greatest part of her affect on my mind is still hard to describe in terms that those who haven’t experienced it can understand, but still I will try. I felt her own feelings, her thoughts, her will pouring into me. She willed me to grow, to finish, to return to myself. She wanted me there, to be hers, but to be me. She wanted my mind to join hers, to join the hive, but to be my own. There were so many strange thoughts, conflicting in my mind as they tried to find their place at my very core. But they sorted out. I was Kaerea, a Changeling. I belonged to Queen Chrysalis, my leader, my will, but I was my own self still, listening to my own mind above hers, but her orders were absolute, unable to be ignored. I was a tool of the hive, but I was a person still. I knew I was meant for this, even if I wasn’t before. I knew this was what my life was to be, and I accepted it for what it was. Hell, I embraced it. The Hive was so hungry, and I thought maybe my own individuality could help sustain it. We could feed, but we could live with Equestria-

That thought was quickly wiped away from my mind by hers. There would be no co-existence. They were our food, resources to sustain the Hive. They were to feed us until they were drained dry, then discarded like all of the lands the Hive had taken before it. These ponies were no different than the rest. They hated us, but we needed them, so we took from them, stole like thieves. It was the only way we could survive. But the Queen… Chrysalis… She had a plan. She would take Equestria, become its ruler, mask herself as one of them, then take the throne. Such a brilliant plan, so long thought out, it simply could not fail! Not if the hive was to live.

Soon after that, my mind and body returned together. I was me again, already with the knowledge of how to live, to work, to change, and most importantly to feed. I was just another Changeling of the Hive, but I was special, that much I knew. That thought I hid deep within me, never letting it surface, and with that thought remained the seed of doubt, however, that we and the Equestrian ponies could co-exist; that we could live with them, not simply live off them. My role was simple: to remain ready at the hive, in case reinforcements were needed once the invasion proper began. I never did get to Canterlot though.

Author's Note

Not really much more to say here that I haven't said in other comments. I really tried to give a good idea of how it would have felt to Kaerea, how he would remember it, how he was, for lack of a better word, changed, both mentally and physically.