What happened? What can be done?
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What happened? What can be done?

A lone Changeling bumped into one of his hive members as a he mindlessly wandered the vast Changeling hive. He didn’t apologize or stop, he couldn’t act that way it just wasn’t in his nature. His “nature” to put it had been very simple his entire existence. And I say existence because to call what he, and many other Changelings had, a life would be a mockery of the term, for you see most Changelings had very little meaning to their entire being. Feed, protect hive, Fight for hive, repair hive, hive, hive, hive. There was only one thing that brought meaning to these Changelings existence and that was Queen Chrysalis.

The aforementioned Queen and mother of all Changelings now lay dead in her throne room struck down by foes she had never imagined, her own subjects. Allow me to explain in an admittedly well thought out plan the Queen had captured and killed three Ponies the Pegasus Mare and royal guard Steel Wing and Unicorn Stallion Stunning Glow foalnapped during the Canterlot invasion and the Earth pony Stallion Pea Pod Stolen from his farm near the city of Manehattan. The Queen murdered these Ponies and planted three Changeling eggs within them. The resulting Changelings looked like the rest of their brethren, with the exception of the Changeling who hatched from Steel Wing she was the first non-Queen female Changeling in history, but they each had a mind of their own, in addition to the hive mind all Changelings shared. And Chrysalis in her never ending irogence had assumed they would be as loyal as her other subjects, turns out she was DEAD wrong.

The fate of the Queen was sealed when she sent her three Super-Changelings or Zoom, hatched from Steel Wing, Brilliant, hatched from Stunning Glow and Mask, hatched from Pea Pod, as the came to be known on a mission to learn of any weaknesses in the Ponies who had recently thwarted her and hopefully find a way to destroy them, however basically the exact opposite happened. When the three Super-Changelings arrived at the town where they would start their research they adopted disguises to hide amongst the Ponies unnoticed and they might have succeeded in this aspect had the town not had one fatal flaw, a flaw named Pinkie Pie. Yes the Queen had chosen the population of Ponyville for her subjects to research. But due to the welcome party thrown by the resident Element of Laughter the Changelings were thrown into the lives of the six Ponies who would be their ultimate undoing Element of Magic Princess Twilight Sparkle, Element of Honesty Applejack, Element of Generosity Rarity, Element of Loyalty RainbowDash, Element of Kindness FlutterShy and Element of Laughter Pinkie Pie.

Once the Elements of Harmony, or more specifically Pinkie Pie found out the three Changelings had no where to stay not only did she invited Mask, who had taken on the guise of an Earth Pony, to stay with her at SugarCube Corner probably on the assumption that the mask that was his Cutie Mark had something to do with costume parties, but she also convinced RainbowDash to let Zoom, disguised as a Pegasus with a Tornado Cutie Mark, stay with her and Princess Twilight to hire Brilliant, now a Unicorn whose Cutie Mark was a book, at the library and give him a temporary place to stay. For the first few weeks it is likely that Zoom, Brilliant, and Mask only went along with the friends that had been forced upon them in hopes of gaining insight into the Ponies weaknesses, however sometime into the second month the Changelings came to enjoy the time they spent with the Ponies these feelings only grew more as time progressed until they accepted that they now counted the Ponies as friends and couldn’t do anything to harm them especially Brilliant who had developed romantic feelings towards Princess Twilight, feelings which the Princess returned.

The next phase of the Queens plan involved bringing more Ponies back to the hive so she could create more Super-Changelings with which to further her plans. But Zoom, Brilliant and Mask’s plan was taking a completely different turn they had chosen to abandon the plan, and the hive completely. This plan however had one flaw, Hive Mind. The Hive Mind that Chrysalis used to control the...less intelligent Changelings also allowed her to communicate with Zoom, Brilliant and Mask, and when they did not report back to Chrysalis or bring more Ponies back to the Hive she became suspicious and used this ability to pester the three Changelings more and more until it became so bad that Zoom, Brilliant and Mask could barely even operate normally. Needless to say their friends noticed and, at the meeting staged by the Ponies who cared for them, the three Changeling traitors dropped their disguises and told their friends everything. After several hours of explanations, questions, some light yelling and an interrogation by the Element of Honesty the Ponies accepted that what their friends were them was the truth and began to figure out how to help them. But to no avail, due to the limited research information of Changeling biology and social structure not even Princess Twilight’s magic could cut off the Hive Mind.

Once it was decided that the Hive Mind couldn’t be cut the Elements of Harmony and the three Changeling traitors devised a new plan...they would take Queen Chrysalis down. After Several weeks of apologies and explanations to the Queen Zoom, Brilliant and Mask managed to smooth things over with Chrysalis and regain access to the Hive with her being none the wiser about their betrayal. And when the Super-Changelings reentered the Hive they didn’t do it alone, accompanying them were the Elements of Harmony, with Princess Twilight’s wings hidden by a spell. At the sight of the six ponies, whom Chrysalis had no idea where the Elements of Harmony, the Queen brought Zoom, Brilliant, Mask and their prisoners to her throne room for infection. But once the Queen closed the door the Elements attacked. Using magic and brute force they brought the Queen down and barricaded the door before Chrysalis knew what was happening.

Princess Twilight and Brilliant then explained to Chrysalis exactly what had happened over the past few months and gave an ultimatum. She could either face Celestia for her crimes and make peace with Equestria or they would find a way to cut off the Hive Mind and leave her to rot. The Queen never made a decision, instead she used the Hive Mind to send every Changeling in the hive banging against the door and began to tear the minds of Zoom, Mask and Brilliant apart, she never finished either attempt, for while the Elements were holding the door closed Zoom managed to pull herself together long enough to say one thing.

“I’m gonna destroy this Hive Mind once and for all!!”

And, with all her strength she struck Chrysalis’s head from above and crushed the life out of it and the evil, putrid being within. Once Chrysalis was dead the banging and mental assault stopped to be replaced with the mindless wanderings of the now basically mindless Changeling Drones. For a short time the group discussed what they could do about the Drones but with no way to communicate with them or any spell to fix their minds the Elements and the once again disguised friends left the Hive at least for the time being.

This brings us to our current position, a single mindless changeling wandering in a seemingly endless labyrinth that in truth was a large open area at the center of the hive, his primitive mind clinging to one thought.

“I’m gonna destroy this Hive Mind once and for all!!”

The Changeling could barely comprehend the complexity of the sentence that brought about his current situation much like how an Ant fails to comprehend a hoof about to fall upon it. but there was a difference between the Changeling and an Ant, to put it simply the Changeling wanted to live. Not that it understood what it meant to actually live but the Changeling wanted to experience the world just as any sentient being wants to experience to world but the Changeling didn’t understand the concept of a world. It lusted for external stimuli, for the scent of soil after rain, the taste of love, even the pain of a cracked carapace yet it didn’t know what any of these things were. The Changeling though could I leave this place? Could I see the world beyond the Hive? But somehow the Changeling couldn’t think at all.

Now if anypony is getting confused let me explain with a simple example. Returning to the Ants, if you kill the queen of an Ant colony the rest of the Ants will scamper around in the dark or on the surface until they are eaten, crushed, drowned or else they starve to death. Had the Changelings been plain Insects this would have been the case but as it stands Changelings are Insectoid-Ponies or scientifically Equus Insectum. This means that while they are Sentient the Hive Mind they evolved limits their individual intelligence, unless they gain a boost from Pony DNA but that’s another story. The easiest way to explain a Changeling not bound by Hive Mind is by calling it an Evolutionary fluke, you see the unbound Changeling mind cannot comprehend the world around it much like an average Insect but unlike an Insect the Sentient Changeling mind lacks instincts this means that they have next to no drive in this state, but even worse the small amount of drive they have comes from the even smaller amount of intelligence in their brain. This Intelligence comes from whatever knowledge the Queen gave to each Changeling but once the Queen died this knowledge was yanked from the Changelings this left a void in the Changelings minds and with it a longing that would never end, for you see the Changelings automatically absorb love from the surrounding area, which keeps them just barely alive, and by themselves they cannot and the longing could only be satiated once the Changelings regained their sentience, which they are unable to do.

This basically place the Changelings, body and mind, in an eternal Twilight waiting for a light to lift them out of the darkness. Everyone of them thinking Is there anyway to end this? without really thinking it and without the will to voice themselves they stay forever in the dark bumping into each other every single one of them thinking.

could I leave this place? Could I see the world beyond the Hive?

*could I leave this place? Could I see the world beyond the Hive?*

And every one of them coming to the same thought a single word, a word that, if it were voiced would sound so broken and miserable no one could bear to ignore it.

HELP ME!!

HELP..........