I walked into the sleeping chambers I had always been a part of. My head was down and I didn't realize that I was being watched by my old Brood Keeper. “Well what’s got you down in the dumps? Lidae, did you have a bad day?” he asked me, ruffling his ragged old cloak he war to hide his many, many scars .
“Nothing Dynas.” I said wiping my tears away from my face. I didn't want anyone to see me like this.
“Please I’ve known you since you were an egg, you’re hurting. What happened?” Dynas asked me sympathetically as he started to stir a large pool of a familiar green liquid.
“I just came back from a meeting with the Queen…”
He cut me off, “I see, she chew you out again? It’s not your fault that you can’t find Changelings that don’t want to be found!”
“She didn't chew me out…” I paused, this next part was hard for me to say. “She gave me a choice.” I said as a new wave of tears came over me.
Dynas smiled warmly, "Well, I take it she let you chose to work on another task."
I shook my head, "She let me chose between the Chalice, the Cloak, or the Axe."
Dynas's face drooped, "I see. Seeing how you're alive, I'm going to assume you didn't chose the Axe. So which is it, the Chalice or the Cloak?"
“I chose The Chalice!" I said sounding distant even to myself.
“How much time did they give you?” he asked me his blue eyes unbelievably soft. It was wired, seeing this hardened veteran of many battles looking so caring.
“Some time in the next five days, I will fall asleep and wake up in a forest. I'll be treated as an invading threat if I try to find my way back to the hive.”
“I wish you luck.” He said do as the green soup neared completion.
“I'm going to need it."
"You got any plans for life on the outside?” He asked lifting a spoon up and tasting the green soup. His cringed at the taste, "To much pride."
“I'm going to make my way to Equestria, they throw around a lot of love over there're.”
“I'm not sure that's a good idea. After all, that is th one place where our enemies are compleatly and are that we actually exist."
“I don't think it'll mater. The ponies are aren't naturaly suspicions, and it's been a while since we invaded and they have bigger problems to worry about." I said as sticking my short muzzle into the vat of soup drinking a large amout of it in.
“
“What’s it like being banished” I asked him, knowing his past.
“You will go hungry at first, until you manage to learn how to siphon emotional energy in small enough quantities as to not be noticed by your food."
I gave him a confused look, "What do you mean emotional energy? You know we only feed on love concentrate?"
"You won't be needing love concentrate anymore, as a dehived changeling you have no emotional affiliation, your carapace will turn gray and your eyes will turn green."
"What? No ling ever told me there were physical changes when one is dehived."
"Of course you weren't told, we aren't allowed to talk about banishment. You will simply be turning into a primal changeling anywise. It's what we looked like before the Hive's were established." Dynas explained to me.
"There was a time before the Hives?"
"Of course there was, a little advice, if and when, you fall in love, try not to form a Hive connection until after you tell them you're a Changeling."
"Changelings do not fall in love!" I spat at him in disgustion.
"You are right Hived Changelings have no need to fall in love, however the primal do. This is one of the reasons it took me twenty years to return after my banishment." He said fluttering his wings in agitation, causing his cloak to fall over his face.
"You fell in love!?!" I spat at him somehow more disgusted.
"We are not talking about this in any way, shape, or form! Do I make myself clear?!" Dynas shouted at me his wings moving so fast he that his cloak actually flew off of him. His shrieked and grabbed it in the air, but it was too late Lidae saw his chipped, cracked, and scared carapace.
"What?" I said aloud without thinking.
"You see the burden of a Solid" he said putting his cloak back on, "The simple fact is that being a Solid Changeling is a fate worse than death, and you are lucky that you were given The Choice rather than forced to stay in a single shape for the rest of your life."
"That doesn't explain all of the damage done to your carapace." I pointed out.
"Oh everyday dings and dents, is simply can't heal them like you."
"So first you get banished, then you return and are turned into a Solid, and you can't heal your carapace? What did you do? And before you deflect like usual, remember that I will be gone within five days."
"Fine, I may have…" he started cringing "killed a Protoqueen."
"What's a Protoqueen?" I asked with deep confusion.
"That's right; she was the last one our Queen ever made." he said to himself, I always hated this habit of his.
"So you killed the last of a specific type of changeling, and they let you live? Has the Hive gotten that bad?" I asked surprised.
"Hardly, the Protoqueen had been causing trouble and I put her down for the good of the Hive." he said with a pang of pride that he wasn't even trying to hide. He fell into sorrow "I did what the Hive needed, not what the Hive wanted. The generals at the time wanted to kill me, but the Queen let me live."
"But that doesn't explain how you ended up Solid."
"It was my return condition, and when I was discovered to be a Changeling and chased out of town by my friends, I had nothing else. So I returned to my Hive and accepted this form as my only one."
"So you were set up to fail from the beginning? That's not fair at all."
"Considering whom I killed and the fact I'm still alive, I could have been in a worse situation." There was a sharp chirp, "Looks like it's time for lights out, you'd better get to sleep."
"What if they take me tonight?"
"Then they make you knew life happen sooner than later."
"But I don't want to go!" I pleaded with him.
"Do not worry, you will be fine. Just remember to choose a form that you like, and if you chose a unicorn then make sure your eye color and magic color match."
"Any more last minute advice?" I asked not sure if she liked the whole thing.
"Yes, stay away from celebrities, at first. You're not from that Hive and you will lose it with all the added attention, trust me on this one.”
“Goodnight Dynas” I said as I lifted off and went to her honeycomb.
“Goodnight Lidae” He returned. He went back to his stirring, and started to quietly sing a little tune he had probably picked up during his time of his banishment, “Winter Wrap Up! Winter Wrap Up! Let's finish our holiday cheer! Winter Wrap Up! Winter Wrap Up!” was all I could hear before I got out of earshot.
The next morning I woke up expecting to see a blue sky and green grass; I was pleasantly surprised to see that I was still in my honeycomb but when I went to clean my wings in the shallow poll I found I had already turned a little grey.
This was the next two days for me, every day I would wake up and find herself changed a little more. But on the fourth day I did find myself underneath that blue sky and sprawled out on the green grass.
I got up to inspect what the Hive had given my in the, slightly damaged, cart she noticed beside me. Some crates of love concentrate soaked into various vegetables, a couple hundred bits, a knife, and a mirror. I looked into it and saw that I had been forcefully changed into a bright green Earth Pony mare.
I looked around to be sure that there was no Pony coming, and then quickly turned into my preferred disguise. Now I was dark blue unicorn with a light green mane and green eyes, I had made my cutie mark look like a blurred version of a flower.
I looked around again and noticed the extreme lack of a desert, that rules out Las Pegasus. Then I looked up to see a cloudless sky, probably not Trottingham. Then she looked at a nearby forest but it was too far away to tell if it was the Everfree.
I looked back to my beat up cart and noticed a marker; it was several stones arranged into an arrow. It was pointing in the just left of the forest, so looks like they dropped me off outside of Ponyville.
I hitched myself up to the cart and started heading down the road in the direction that the arrow had been pointing. I went off to start her new life as a Pony/Primal Changeling in one of the towns that a princess lives in. Could be worse, I could be Solidified and banished.
