The New Hive

Chapters

Indians and Pink Slime
Maybe Pony Names Aren't So Strange
Dreams Of Glory
This chapter is about Chrysalis
A New Home
At First Blush
Fear is the Mind Killer
Side Chapter: Thorax visits his family for the holidays
REM Cluster, part one

Indians and Pink Slime

‘What is this?’

Chrysalis struggled to think. The endless whiteness around her addled her mind.

Was this what death felt like? She imagined there would be a lot more burning and screaming, not feelings of fullness and peace like the ones she felt now. Such pleasantries were reserved for good little ponies that did what they were told, not conquerors who would go through hell and back for their changelings.

Resting on soft, wet grass was another thing that didn’t come naturally to hive-queens destined to rest in Tartarus. In fact, she was beginning to think that she wasn’t dead at all. But being blasted from Canterlot should’ve killed any changeling, royal or no.

Yet...

As reality faded back in around her, she felt something: a cold, wet, and sweet smelling liquid rested in a pool under her chin. While normally she’d jump at such delicious smelling food, for some reason she wasn’t hungry right now.

And the slimy and sticky feeling was disgusting.

Chrysalis lifted her head as she stood up. With a quick look around, she found herself in a forest. By the plants she could identify, it should've been near the equator, but the cold summer air told her it was a northern forest. Strange.

With another look back down, she saw what she had been resting in: a strange pink slime, with hearts of love drifting off. Any changeling would’ve killed for that pure love, but for some reason, she wasn’t hungry at all…

The queen burped, feeling something come back up. It tasted almost too sweet. But why…?

Her recent memories flashed in her mind.

Cadence's wedding! She thought she had failed! She thought she had lost the most recent chance of completing her hive! Yet she was more full than when she had been draining Cadence's consort! But how could—!? The Shield! That’s right, Mrs. Damsel in Distress' and Mr. Changeling Food's shield had been conjured by love and had been reinforced by the love of all the ponies in Canterlot! And changelings ate love!

…

Chrysalis, the almighty queen of the changelings, gleefully giggled and pranced around with all the decorum of a little filly who had just discovered her cutie mark. Despite a rather embarrassing defeat, she won everything she could have imagined.

Every single day, for countless years, she’d been struggling to find enough love so that just one of her changelings would have the strength to truly think like she did; to look at the world with intelligent eyes instead of dull ones. The emotions and playful reactions they had were fun, sure, but it just couldn’t match the sort of connection two bugs could have if they understood each other. In short, Chrysalis was lonely. She also cared about the pride of her changelings, and without self-awareness, changelings couldn’t be very proud of themselves. There was that thing about the prophesied Great Awakening too, but Chrysalis only believed in making her own destiny.

The changelings would finally awaken, and it would be all thanks to her, not some ancient prophecy. They would develop personalities more complex than a dog’s and she’d finally have intelligent hive-mates to converse with. All she had to do now was wait and listen.

She could already feel her first minion waking up, a few miles away from her...

“Hello?” Chrysalis greeted over the hive-link, her excitement evident in her voice. She was like a foal on Hearth's Warming morning.

“Hello,” came the subdued answer from the other changeling. He spoke in a strange accent and with a small voice, as if he were sick. “I know I’ve been skipping work for the past few weeks, but I’m sure your bicycle or TV can wait until my stomach’s better.”

Chrysalis blinked. Bicycle? TV? What was he talking about? What did those words even mean? Whatever. She would address what made sense.

“Drone,” she said, though the deadpan gaze was lost through the link, “you’ve been working just as hard as everybug else, and your stomach is perfectly fine: it’s just full. I know it’s a new feeling, but you’re not sick.”

The other changeling paused before responding.

“Huh. You’re right,” he said in a stronger tone. ”Strange, I remember a lot of pain yesterday.”

“That would make sense,” Chrysalis replied, “Yesterday was a pretty great battle.”

“Battle?” replied the changeling, confusion evident in his tone. “It was no more a battle than any other day.”

That gave Chrysalis reason to pause. No changeling had awakened in eons, but she didn’t remember anything about forgetting her past. Did she remember enough of her past to remember that she hadn't forgotten though? She couldn’t be certain.

“Tell me,” Chrysalis spoke slowly, “what happened yesterday?”

The changeling paused, organizing his words for the reply.

“It was just like the last few days. The stomach illness was getting stronger, more painful, and I had to miss work for another day. No bicycle repairs, no TV repairs, and even though I think someone wanted me to repair their computer which would have been exciting, I could hardly move. I’m not sure if I could even think, things were so fuzzy.”

Chrysalis repeated her changeling’s words in her head. What he was saying was impossible if he was really the same changeling that followed her orders yesterday. Then again, she might’ve just wanted to believe this was a joke and that she hadn’t lost a changeling. Despite how animalistic they were, she had gained a certain fondness for them over the countless years.

“What’s a TV?” She asked, hoping the changeling would realize he was spouting nonsense words.

The confusion of the changeling was so strong that it flowed through the link and rebounded off Chrysalis. “You don’t know what a TV is?” The changeling asked, quickly building in excitement. “Oh, you poor, poor lady. It’s an amazing box that brings images from all over the world into your home! Want to know about that thing that happened in Chennai? Flip to channel eight! Want to watch one of those crazy American movies? Flip to channel twelve!”

The gleeful voice continued, “And how it goes about doing that is even more amazing. Electricity pulses through the cable in sequences that are decoded by the onboard microchips, depending on the selected channel, and then that gets sent to the vacuum tube area, and let me tell you about that tube...” he droned on.

Despite how full she was, a pit formed in Chrysalis’s gut. This definitely wasn’t the same changeling she was ordering around with the rest of the swarm yesterday. And something told her none of her other changelings would remember her either.

“Hey!” She cut off his inane babbling.

“Yes?” the changeling asked back.

“Who are you?” asked Chrysalis. She couldn’t tell if her voice was filled more with venom, hope, or curiosity.

“Oh,” began the changeling, “I’m Mitul Chiranjivi Sharma. Just Mitul’s fine.” There was a pause. “Why am I in a forest?”

Chrysalis ran the name through her head a few times.

‘Metal chiranjive shwarma,’ she tried.

‘Meetool Cheering-Jeevee Sh- shama,’ she tried again.

‘Mii-tool Cheerin’-jiving Shark-ma.’ Close enough.

“My Tool,” Chrysalis addressed the changeling—

“Mitul,” he corrected.

“Right, My Tool,” Chrysalis continued. “Look, you seem confused, so let’s just cut to the chase.”

“Oh!” My Tool interrupted again. “American phrases! And you have an American accent! Are you an American?”

“Shut. Up.” Chrysalis glared in the direction of My Tool’s presence, making it seem as if she were glaring at a nearby tree. “This is important.”

A couple more changelings popped up into the hive-link. But before Chrysalis could even get excited, the changelings panicked and broke the link. That was not good.

After a couple seconds, she cleared her throat, satisfied that she wouldn’t be interrupted again. “We were having a quite successful raid yesterday. We found plenty of food and everything was going splendidly. Unfortunately, at the last moment, Cadence and her love stallion activated some defense shield thing. I don’t even think they knew where it came from. But this shield, being powered by love, fed us almost as well as raiding Canterlot would’ve done. After talking to you though, I’m thinking it might have given some of us brain damage as well.”

“Hey!” protested My Tool.

“I’m serious,” Chrysalis continued. “Not remembering yesterday is not a good sign. Plus, a few more changelings woke up and they’re panicking now.”

“Changelings? Canterlot?” asked My Tool. “What are you talking about? Why am I a cockroach?”

If looks could kill, Chrysalis would now be looking at the most dead tree in the world. “Never call a changeling a cockroach.” Her chilling tone cut deeply through the hive-link. “You are a proud member of the changeling race, and I don’t know what happened to your head to make you forget that, but that’s not important right now. What is important, is that there are several changelings around us that are panicking and could get themselves into serious trouble if we don’t find them. I can’t be everywhere at once, so I need you to search around your area for changelings as well.”

She waited for confirmation, but nothing but confusion and hesitance came over the link. She grit her teeth and smacked her hoof against her face in frustration.

“Ugh!” screamed Chrysalis. “I’m sure you felt those changelings just as well as I did.” She started to speak as if she were talking to a child, “Turn to the nearest location that you felt, fly up over the forest, find them, and talk to them! Get them to calm down!”

My Tool huffed petulantly. “You don’t have to be so mean about it. And how do I fly?”

“Wha—?” How could he not know how to fly? What was this? No. There would be no more of this nonsense.

Chrysalis stomped her hoof. “I don’t have time for this! Changelings could die if I have to sit and tell you how to do every little thing!” She took off, blasting into the sky in search of the more awakened changelings. Hopefully the next one would be less of a tool than My Tool.

Dodging the trees as she flew was a great stress reliever, but soon Chrysalis had to slow down. She finally spotted the next changeling, and she was just in time too: it looked like the changeling’s panicking had attracted a nearby manticore.

Always ready to act the hero for her changelings, Chrysalis swooped down and grabbed the unfortunate changeling, giving it the privilege of seeing her wide, motherly smile… only to have it scream even louder and flail out of her grasp

Maybe Pony Names Aren't So Strange

Chrysalis was not in a good mood.

First, she found out her changelings couldn’t remember what happened yesterday. Then, she found out her changelings couldn’t even remember how to fly. And now it looked like they were actively trying to kill themselves.

“AAAAAAAH!” The changeling mare screamed as she ran through the forest on her hind legs like some sort of circus performer. “HELP ME!”

Chrysalis facehoofed. That was exactly what she was trying to do, but the changeling didn’t seem to like being helped. Chrysalis’ time could be spent much more efficiently by helping some other changeling…

But she couldn’t just abandon one of her changelings. After all, as queen, she was practically their mother.

Then again, they were pretty hopped up on love, and could easily take out a manticore if they knew to dodge its stinger, and to avoid the poisonous plants everywhere... and to make sure other predators didn’t join the fight… and to avoid traps, to avoid flesh eating plants, to avoid other territorial animals like ursas, to avoid using too much magic, to make sure none of their vital regions got hit...

…

Fine. She would help.

But if just grabbing her wouldn’t work… then maybe Chrysalis could give some advice. First was the obvious, to her at least.

“Fly up!” She yelled, hoping her voice wouldn’t scare the changeling as much as her beautiful, loving, and not scary at all smile did.

Chrysalis considered simply beating the manticore to a pulp, which would’ve been nearly as easy as picking up her changeling had it not been so panicky, but then her leaderly instincts kicked in and she realized it would be better if the changeling learned not to rely too much on others. Though, even though her weakest drones should’ve been able to handle the thing with the love they had now, she knew not to send a non-fighter into battle with—

“What!? What the hell are you talking about?” The changeling screamed back. “Humans can’t fly, you idiot!” She panted. “Maybe if I could find a rope...”

Chrysalis choked back several expletives as she trailed the changeling. “Okay, you—” She grumbled incoherently. ”You have wings! Just flap them, up and down, really quickly!” she said in the least patronizing voice she could muster, which was still incredibly patronizing.

“Humans don’t have wings, ācàn!” the changeling mare screamed. “Hey, tiger thing, go eat that stupid person instead!”

“GRRGHGNMGH!” Foam dripped from Chrysalis’ mouth. “You’re not a human! You have wings! Did you not notice that I’m above you!? If we’re beings that can’t fly, then how am I above you!? And why are you running like that!? You’d go faster if you ran on all fours instead of running on your hind legs like an idiot!”

Finally noticing something strange, the changeling looked up. Chrysalis was indeed above her.

Just as the manticore was closing in, the changeling buzzed her wings and shot straight up.

The manticore tried to jump up and catch her, but it was too late. Frustrated, it trudged back to its territory to sulk.

Chrysalis let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding in. Thankfully, her changeling was able to keep itself out of trouble, and that meant she wouldn’t be endangering the group later. Now, she just had to wait for her changeling to fly up to her and she’d give the biggest, most relief filled hug…

“I can fly!” The changeling completely ignored Chrysalis and zipped through the trees.

Chrysalis slumped. Nothing was going how she wanted today. Fortunately, past experience told her that usually just meant you needed to take a more active role.

“Hey!” Chrysalis called out.

The changeling hovered over to her. Soon she was so close they were practically touching, but for some reason her eyes didn’t always meet Chrysalis’. “Oh hey,” she said, “you’re the per— er— thing? Monster? You’re the monster thing that saved my life.“ She extended a hoof. ”This is totally surreal! And I’m flying!”

Chrysalis smiled and accepted the light hoofshake. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. “You can just call me Chrysalis, or Queen. Whichever you prefer.”

The changeling’s eyes widened. Suddenly, she held her hooves to her mouth as she giggled. “This is even more surreal! I get to meet the queen of the African jungle and we’re on a first name basis already! And she’s a flying zebra! This is the craziest dream!”

Chrysalis blinked, trying to make sense of her changeling’s words. She wasn’t sure if she should feel insulted or praised for the title ‘flying zebra queen of the African jungle’.

“Oh! And you’re Chrysalis? That’s perfect! We both have bug names: I’m Butterfly Feng! Please call me Butterfly.”

Chrysalis should’ve been happy, but something struck her as off. The thing was, all of her changelings already had names. She couldn’t recall all of them immediately, but she would always remember a changeling’s name when she saw the changeling it belonged to. And while My Tool felt off, this was just plain wrong.

Butterfly Fang might have been some changelings name, but it wasn’t this changeling’s name. This changeling had a few scratches on its ears and head fin, so Chrysalis had dubbed her ‘Clipping’, short for hair clipping. Chrysalis was so clever…

...Well, it pained her to know her changeling rejected her name, but she did have to admit Butterfly Fang was a pretty good name for a changeling.

Either way, Clip— no, Butterfly, would still be her changeling no matter what. After a short nod to herself, Chrysalis welcomed the changeling with open arms.

“...What are you doing?” Butterfly asked. She just stared at Chrysalis’ expectant smile and wide open arms as if she was being asked to perform some sort of complex routine she had never heard of before.

A befuddled Chrysalis stared back. “You just survived a manticore attack. Don’t you want to… you know, hug something?” She hugged herself, very intimately. Chrysalis knew it was a sight that any changeling, modest or not, would give a wing and leg to be part of.

Butterfly shook her head. “Uh… no. We’re friends now, but we’re not that close yet.”

Chrysalis tilted her head, once again opening her arms expectantly. “But we’re right next to each other. It would be so easy to just, you know, tilt your wings forward...”

Butterfly did the opposite, flying backwards and then into a small circle before flying back to Chrysalis. “Well, that’s neat. I’m not hugging you though. That’d be a bit weird, as well as a bit indecent out here.”

Chrysalis let her arms fall down and scowled. “What do you mean weird and indecent! It’s just a hug!”

“Look, I don’t know what kind of freaky stuff you guys do in Africa, but we don’t hug people we just met in Hong Kong!” Butterfly scrunched her muzzle.

Chrysalis fluttered back down to the ground, frowning. This wasn’t how she wanted to greet her newly sapient changelings at all. If she had her way, she would be welcoming them into a giant party, with love and cake everywhere, entertainment abound, open dueling between changeling warriors on stage, and pony slaves carrying her everywhere. Hopefully the ponies would plan some sort uprising so she could have fun with that too.

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Butterfly followed a frowning Chrysalis to the ground, forgetting the manticore from earlier. ”I didn’t mean to make you sad. It’s just we don’t do those sort of things in Hong Kong. You can still call me Butterfly though.”

Chrysalis didn’t hear her changeling in her musings.

Now, not only was there no cake, martial arts, and indentured servants, but her changelings didn’t even know proper etiquette!

Wait a minute. What if she had forgotten changeling etiquette! It was possible that after being around ponies, griffins, and other creatures for so long, she forgot what it was like to be a changeling!

Well then, maybe a more reasonable changeling could help her out.

‘Tool!’ She screamed out on the hive-link.

‘Right.’ Chrysalis could practically feel his eyes rolling. ‘Don’t bother getting my name right. It’s not like it’s important or anything. You don’t need to tell me how to fly either. I’m sure I’ll get it on my own.’

“Wait, we forgot about the tiger thing!” whispered Butterfly as she waved her hooves in front of Chrysalis’ glazed over face. “The tiger’s right over there!” She pointed, but Chrysalis wasn’t looking.

Chrysalis’ sigh reverberated through the link. ‘My Tool—’

‘Mitul.’ He corrected.

Chrysalis fought an urge to mispronounce his name again. ‘Mii Tool,’ she said, ‘to fly quickly, all you need to do is flap your wings quickly and let your diaphragm contract and expand with the wing beats. You can also tilt your body and wings independently. The rest has to be learned by practice.’ She finished her explanation as quickly as possible.

‘Now please—’

The small amount of hurt and annoyance Chrysalis felt confused her.

‘What? What did I do now!?’

“Chrysalis! Chryssi! Chrysalisalisalis! Get up!” Suddenly, Chrysalis felt something hugging her. It was a strange hug though, because hugs normally don’t try to pull you up. Nevertheless, the hug was appreciated during her moment of frustration. “It spotted us again, we gotta...” Suddenly, Butterfly dropped her. “Oh, I see how it is. Well, you’ve got your hug now, you African běi gū jī!”

Chrysalis gave no response.

Mii tool continued talking over the link. ‘I’m a repair man. I repair things so I can buy books. I’m not going to work as some sort of bug taxi!’

‘Changeling.’ Chrysalis’ scorn could be felt through the link.

‘Fine! Changeling taxi! I don’t do taxi work!’

‘Look,’ Chrysalis growled. ‘I don’t know what this taxi thing is or why you hate it so much, but I am trusting you to save lives, so please—’

‘If you’re trusting me, then why do you have to say please?’ Mii Tool asked, now more confused than annoyed.

The gears in Chrysalis’ brain turned at high speeds.

“GET UP YOU STUPID AFRICAN BĔI GŪ JĪ ZEBRA!”Butterfly screamed as she attempted to lift Chrysalis, but her queen was too heavy.

Chrysalis noticed that annoying manticore galloping over while she was thinking. How rude.

She lazily backhoofed the thing, sending it crashing through several trees. That should teach it not to interrupt changelings. Though, she didn’t mean to hit it that hard.

Also, she could feel Butterfly’s emotions. She knew her changeling thought she was about to die, yet did not abandon her like some had in the past. She would remember this.

Meanwhile, Butterfly just stared at the destroyed section of forest. “What the… I could feel that.” She put her hoof to her face, probably in attempt to pinch her cheek. That was when she realized she had no hands.

Chrysalis continued her talk. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with saying please. I think it shows respect.’

‘Respect? Well, following it I suppose. But again, I’m not doing taxi work for you. Maybe now when everyone’s reincarnated in a forest, but later, I only do repairs...’ He paused. ‘Okay, If you want to ask me something, just ask me.’

Chrysalis tapped her chin in thought. ‘I think I get it. You don’t have to say ‘please’ because you’re expected to do things without any form of coercion. I like that.’

‘Mii Tool,’ She continued, ‘I need help. Butterfly Fang was insulted because of a hug. A hug! You’re a recently awakened changeling or human or whatever. What’s wrong with hugging?’

She waited patiently for her first lesson on changeling etiquette. Hopefully now she wouldn’t have to worry about insulting all of her followers whenever she opened her mouth.

‘...Well,’ Mii Tool started, ’it seems fine to me. I don’t know if there’s really anything wrong with it. That’s more philosophy, which is a out of my area.’

Chrysalis waited for him to continue, only to be met with silence. ‘That’s it?’ she asked. ‘That’s all you have to say?’

‘I don’t really pay that much attention to people. I’d probably be a lot more useful if we were talking about physics or chemistry.’

More nonsense words, plus a non-answer, which was aggravating. Maybe she should start writing these down. As it was, that last sentence only told her they had nothing to talk about now.

‘Fine. I’ll do this myself.’ She came back to reality.

Now conscious of the real world, Chrysalis felt a large weight on her head. Looking up, she felt several rocks bounce off her face. “Ow.”

Butterfly covered her mouth as she giggled, but her laugh seemed a bit too unhinged. It was as if she had realized something both profound and utterly terrifying while Chrysalis was blanking out. “Oops! I’m sorry! You just looked like a cat, sitting there all motionless. Are you okay?”

Chrysalis ignored the pain in her face. There were far more important things to worry about right now. “Butterfly, if you had to, could you fly on your own?”

“Huh? Uh, yes,“ She nodded. ”I think I’ve got the hang of it now.” She looked unsure. Though, perhaps she was confused because the question was asked so suddenly.

“Good,” Chrysalis continued. “There are more changelings like us in this forest, and we need to spread out so none are left alone. As long as you can fly, you shouldn’t have to worry about manticores.”

“Okay,” Butterfly nodded. “But... what’s a changeling? And what’s a manticore?”

“We’re changelings,” clarified Chrysalis, “and the thing that was chasing you was a manticore.”

Butterfly nodded, suddenly looking around for some reason.

“One last thing,” Chrysalis continued. “You will occasionally feel a small buzzing in your head. Stop resisting it; it’s how we communicate over long distances.”

“Oh, so like a cellphone?” Butterfly jumped up and started hovering.

Chrysalis blinked. “A what?”

“You don’t have cellphones?” Butterfly looked sad. “Well, it’s a little hard to explain, but… hmm...” She rubbed her chin.

After a few seconds of no speech, Chrysalis huffed. “You can explain it later. Right now we need to find the other changelings!” She took off.

“Bye bye...” Butterfly watched her strange new friend fly off into the forest, keeping her gaze on her until she was out of sight. The lack of a proper goodbye from her friend was a little disheartening, and she still wasn’t sure what to think of her, but that wasn’t going to stop her from doing the right thing.

Dreams Of Glory

If one were to watch the equestrian forests, they would’ve seen something quite strange.

Burnt out on lack of hugs and from her changelings’ offense at random phrases like “please” and “don’t you want a hug?”, Chrysalis didn’t quite buzz her wings hard enough to keep herself up. Instead, she bounded over the forest like some sort of giant bouncy ball. To be honest, she might’ve been having fun, but she’d rather burn down Equestria than admit it. Though, that wasn’t actually saying much; burning down Equestria sounded like it could be a lot of fun too.

Chrysalis sighed.

After dealing with Butterfly and Mii Tool, she wasn’t sure she had enough mental energy left to spend on the next changeling. She could only hope their insanity wouldn’t cause her to catch fire or something. As it was, she would have to resist the hive-link to get away from their animated chatting. Now, if only she could remember how to do that…

“So,” Mii Tool began, “This ‘arithmetic logic unit’ performs addition, subtraction, logical AND, and logical OR, on a certain number of ‘bits’ representing numbers.”

“Correct,” Butterfly replied.

“Amazing! But if it only does addition and subtraction, then how can computers multiply so well?” Mii Tool continued.

Ugh! She couldn’t even understand half of the words they were saying now!

What she wouldn’t give just to talk to a reasonable, laid back changeling that accepted their own name and acknowledged her as queen. Maybe she could even tell them all her troubles and have them actually try to help instead of saying it was ‘out of their area’ or some nonsense.

Why couldn’t she find somebug that acted kind and considerate as they dutifully took orders from her? Somebug who would converse normally and do their work without complaint, who would graciously accept her hugs and smiles for the great gifts that they were, and who would return the love she put into them and more. Why couldn’t one of her changelings be like that?

As she flew, Chrysalis continued imagining her perfect changeling. She didn’t worry about causing herself disappointment, she just wanted to daydream.

Oh, she could just imagine their wonderful voice massaging her ears, ringing succulently in the air like bells from the most skilled craftsponies...

Wait a minute, crafts-ponies?

Argh! Curse those mini horses and their horsey horse words. She got too used to using them while infiltrating. She’d need something more changeling-like.

The bells would be crafted by crafts-changelings— No, craftsbugs!

“Oh, my most glorious Queen,” her perfect changeling would say, ”I, Dragonfly, would be honored if you would let me gather and protect the other changelings, if only so I may see your beautiful, adorable, and not scream-inducing at all smile.”

Why didn’t she think about them mentioning her hugs? Well, the changeling wouldn’t even dream of being hugged by her, as such a thing would be so amazing it was simply unthinkable. Of course, if offered, they would accept immediately and let their mind be blown.

And then Chrysalis and her perfect changeling would both enjoy a nice, cozy hug while the rest of Equestria burned.

Chrysalis yawned, feeling much more rested after that wonderful daydream. All she needed now was to actually meet the changeling. Then, all her woes would be forgotten.

Maybe the next bug she met would be that perfect changeling.

My name, is Andres Regis.

It is definitely not something shitty like Red, though my mind seems to insist on that word for some reason. It’s very annoying.

Anyway, if this is Hell, then the torture is not what I expected. I would’ve welcomed burning or freezing, both of which would’ve been blessings: I would have had something to take my mind off of how stupidly I died.

Yeah, that’s right. I died. If my memories were right, then I was as dead as dead could be.

But that particular memory is somewhat embarrassing, so let’s try to think of something else.

Let’s see…

The journey to hell was… strange, almost indescribable really. I couldn’t tell you if I’d been dead for a second or for a thousand years. I couldn’t even tell you if I was really awake during that time or whether I had a soul or not. It was like trying to remember what happened after a concussion, or too much alcohol, a particularly strong acid trip, shrooms, a couple bags of marijuana, a whole lot of tobacco, ecstasy, or some of those other drugs I tried but forgot the names of.

If only the last day of my life was as forgettable.

Oh well, I guess I’m thinking about it.

After having made my way through all the cartel’s defenses, I slammed the boss’s door open. Instead of seeing him sitting at his desk, the chair was empty and there were three briefcases filled with money, all opened and facing me. I could buy my own yacht with that kind of money! But where was the boss?

I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. The boss, Mr. Hernandez himself, was pointing a gun at my head. Luckily, I was able whip around in time to knock away the gun and point my own at the boss.

Hernandez chuckled. That threw me off.

“Impressive.” He clapped his hands. “Now, instead of shooting me, how does all that money look to you?”

What was this, a game show? If I played my cards right, could I win a free car too?

With a placating smile, the boss continued, “Heck, I’ll even give you my favorite Porsche. I’m sure that’s much better than whatever deal you’re gonna get if you kill me and go back to your gang.”

Wow. It really was like a game show.

But wait, couldn’t I just kill the guy and take that stuff anyway? And how did I know the briefcases weren’t fake, or that Hernandez wouldn’t just kill me whenever I turned my back? No, accepting his offer would’ve been suicidally stupid. I felt dumb for even considering it.

Time to finish the job. But with all that gameshow stuff, I was in the mood for a more theatric end.

“Hasta la vista, b—”

Just then, reinforcements came in, and instead of a new car, I found myself with a brand new hole in my head.

Argh! It was so stupid! I had him! I killed dozens of Hernandez’s men while they ran around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to understand why a smaller cartel was attacking them! But then, at the last moment, the moment where I would normally have just shot the guy, I had to quote some stupid movie!

...Y’know, that stuff about concussions and the afterlife gives me an idea. I think I’ll just lift this black bug thing off me, find a rock, and…

Andres hefted the enormous bug up. But instead of falling over limply, it looked him straight in the eyes and spoke.

“Ten more minutes...” It smiled lazily as it limply rolled out of Andres’ grasp. “Darn, sun’s already up? Oh well,” it sighed. ”I was having this hilarious dream: some idiot was about to kill the lead bad guy, but then he quoted Arnold and got his head blown off.”

Great. Of course the thing would know Andres’ secrets somehow. He was in Hell after all.

In a sudden rage, Andres picked up the bug and threw it at a nearby tree. Being a disgusting insect was one thing, but no one would be allowed to know his greatest failure.

He stomped over to the bug. He didn’t have any drugs on him, but hopefully a good enough concussion would make it forget everything.

“Dude, what the heck!?” it shouted.

That caught him off guard. Since this was Hell, he assumed the other guy would automatically know all of his worst secrets, and the only redeeming thing that could happen would be him beating the entrails out of the thing. Honestly, Andres would’ve expected the bug to cry out in laughter, not pain or surprise. This place was supposed to be torturing him.

Maybe he’d still be able to keep some of his dignity.

“Sorry.” He offered the bug-demon a… hand?

Well, would you look at that. He was a bug-demon too! Hell worked in mysterious ways. He was going to miss his hands though.

The other bug suddenly gawked at Andres, who was still inspecting his not-hands. “Whoa!” the bug said before voicing its profound realization, “You’re a talking bug!”

“Look who’s talking,” Andres mumbled, sitting back down so he could inspect himself more comfortably.

Then they just stood there like that for minutes, gawking at various parts of their own bodies as if they were both stoned out of their minds. Andres mostly stared at his hole riddled legs, but the other bug seemed to have an extreme fascination with his wings.

At some point during Andres’ self exploration, something drew his attention away. Lying around Andres and the other bug, in nearly every nook and cranny, were countless bugs just like them. Many were on the ground, on the tree tops, resting on branches, or floating in puddles. The place resembled a scene of old, rotting food being swarmed by insects.

But if there were that many people always popping up all over the place in Hell, there were bound to be some groups who would try to make use of the new guys. After all, if he really was in Hell, that meant there were people that died long ago, and thus had much more time to form larger gangs.

Andres wasn’t about to become another bug-demon’s lackey. With all these bodies lying around, he had an opportunity to be the one that ruled over the bug-demons, and he wasn’t about to let some old wrinkled cabrón take that opportunity from him just because he was too slow.

He tried hitting that other bug to get its attention. It didn’t seem to mind violence much, and he needed to let off some steam. This time though, the bug had other ideas.

“Okay—” It easily dodged Andres’ attack “—That’s enough of that.”

This only annoyed Andres. When did insect number two get smart?

But as his eyes narrowed in anger, he remembered the other bugs. Gangs would surely be coming by soon to transform newcomers like him into crap they could fling at their enemies. This was Hell after all. Dealing with uppity followers could wait.

“Shh!” Andres warned. He wasn’t about to let this dung beetle’s stupidity ruin things.

The bug tilted its head.

“You died, right?” Andres asked, hoping it would see the obvious.

The bug frowned. “Well, I did drink two five hour energies and probably had about ten red bulls, and then my chest started hurting after I finished running... And now I’m a bug. Soooo either I’m hallucinating, oorrrr…” He bit down on his bug-foot, hard.

”Ow…” The bug winced harder at the realization than the pain. ”Crap.”

Good. The guy was catching up at least.

Andres leaned toward what would hopefully be his first follower. “The last thing I remember was a bullet to the head.” His hoof pointed at his head and sprang up, as if it were a gun. “And now we’re in hell, with a bunch of other dead guys around us.”

The bug squinted. “Are you sure we’re not in purgatory?”

Andres glared. “We’re not in purgatory! Now focus!” he practically shouted. ”This means there are others who were here before us. Others that could’ve formed groups, companies, kingdoms even!” He frowned. He wanted to be the ruler of a huge kingdom, and that would be much harder if there already were several kingdoms.

The bug nodded. “Oh. You mean like raiders and tyrants and stuff? But we only have to worry about those if we’re in Hell. How do you know we’re not in heaven, or purgatory at least? I know I was pretty righteous...”

Andres stared back at the bug. Was it just deluded? “We’re bug-demons in the middle of a hellish forest. And if that’s not enough, I’m certain I wouldn’t have been sent to heaven.”

“Well,” the bug replied, “I can understand you, but why would I go to hell?”

Andres rolled his eyes. “Maybe you worshipped the wrong religion.”

The bug frowned as it sat back, sighing. “Well, that sucks.” It looked away, pausing to think for a moment. “Eh, I tried my best. I’m Isaac, by the way.” He offered his black insect-appendage.

“Andres.” Andres shook roughly and held the handshake for a little longer than Isaac seemed comfortable with. “Now, let’s gather the others.”

About half of the changelings’ backs were scuffed with dirt as Andres haphazardly dragged them over and tossed them into the pile. Andres seemed to treat the bugs with a little less care than used furniture, so it was no surprise when some of the changelings in the pile started to look the part. Isaac, on the other hand, made a point of carrying them on his back, and it always annoyed him whenever Andres would smash a changeling into another changeling’s face just because he couldn’t be bothered to not treat them like garbage.

Once the duo finished dragging most of the unconscious ‘demons’ to the dirty pile around the tree, Andres heard a buzzing sound in the distance.

“Isaac!” Andres yelled. “Do you hear that!?”

“Are you talking about that annoying buzzing noise?” Isaac replied. “Cause that’s been going on for a while. I’m surprised you didn’t notice.”

“What!?” Andres ran over and grabbed Isaac by the shoulders. “Why didn’t you say anything!?”

Isaac shrugged. “I thought it might’ve just been one of those guys talking in their sleep.”

Andres paused. He had to admit it was a possibility.

He inspected the bug-demons, but the sound wasn’t coming from any of them. Besides, if it was, he’d expect to hear some of that dust and dirt being flung off. Now that he listened though, it was clear that, whatever the sound was, it was getting closer. When he looked in the direction it was coming from, he could see something approaching.

“¡Mierda!” Andres exclaimed. “It’s too early!”

Isaac looked over at whatever Andres was gawking at, shading his eyes so he could see more clearly.

“Don’t worry,” Isaac said. “I don’t think it’s slavers or anything. There’s only one of them.”

“Huh?” Andres looked closer.

It was true, the rapidly approaching bug was alone.

However, it also looked like it could be much bigger than him. Perhaps it thought it could take him on its own. Judging by its size and his lack of weapons, it might have been right.

“Isaac!” He called. “Don’t let your guard down. That thing looks like it’ll be pretty hard to take out. Grab the biggest stone you can find and hide behind some trees. On my call, jump out and bash its head in!”

To his credit, Isaac was very quick when following orders. He only stopped for a short nod before hiding.

Chrysalis stopped when she saw a large group of changelings piled around a tree. She sensed a couple changelings from far away, so she expected a group, but that bundle of unconscious changelings seemed far too convenient. They couldn’t have all landed there together, and she would’ve noticed if a group that large woke up and dragged themselves through the dirt on their backs. No, this had to be a trap.

Honestly, she expected this kind of thing. She did wish her trappers could’ve treated her sleeping changelings with a little more care though.

Chrysalis looked around. There was nothing moving that she could see, and there was nothing standing still that looked like anything living. There was no smell save for the smell of changelings either, but one of the other species could’ve learned to mask its odor, or they could’ve been upwind.

However, she could feel fear from one of her trappers, as well as a whole lot of tension from the other. When she closed her eyes and concentrated, she could feel two sets of rapid heartbeats thumping away against her hooves, despite all of the changelings in sight resting. She could also hear bipedal steps coming from behind a tree.

The steps stopped, then a hoof slowly slid over the ground like its owner was winding up for a pitch.

Ah, close quarter battles. It was very nostalgic.

Chrysalis ducked. A rock the size of her head blasted over her and crashed harmlessly in the distance.

“Now!” She heard the voice of a… changeling? Couldn’t be. Maybe she was hearing things wrong because of the deafening emotions coming from the other being. Awe, confusion, guilt, and panic were all practically exploding out of it. If she was reading those emotions right, it wasn’t going to fight unless it absolutely had to. It also wasn’t in a position to defend its partner.

She opened her eyes and caught a glimpse of the fool that threw the rock…

Wait, what? Why would one of her very own changelings throw a rock at her with that much force? Had they truly gone insane!?

There were those hoofsteps again. The changeling was trying to run away, but just like the last one, it foolishly tried to run on its hind legs. It did know to try and stay behind its tree to keep out of Chrysalis’ sight, but once she was in the air, it might as well have been trying to outmaneuver a jet.

Chrysalis pounced on the changeling before it managed three steps, holding it down with one hoof.

“Red!” She exclaimed, noticing the slightly red birthmark on its horn. “What are you doing throwing rocks? Who even does that?”

The question only seemed to annoy it.

“I’m not Red.” It squirmed, ineffectively trying to escape her grasp.

“Myyy…” For some reason, it suddenly grabbed the Chrysalis’ neck with its hind legs “naaame...” It grabbed her forelegs with its own. ”iiiis…” It coiled its muscles. She could feel something coming. ”AAAANDRES!”

On ‘Aaaandres’, he gave a herculean pull, but instead of pulling Chrysalis to the ground, he only lifted his rear end a little.

He did manage to make her sigh though. “Of course it is.” She paused. “Anyway, was it you who gathered all of my changelings?”

“You mean the bug-demons?” Andres asked, giving up on his little wrestling move.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Sure, the bug-demons. At least we’re not cockroaches anymore.”

Instead of paying the strange comment any mind, Andres simply glared. “And what if I did?”

Chrysalis glared back down. This was quickly becoming aggravating. “Watch your tone, ‘Anders’.”

“Andres. Not ‘Anders’.” He continued glaring.

Chrysalis scrunched her muzzle. “What is it with you changelings and your crazy names?”

She received no answer.

Andres’ glare never faltered. But then, neither did Chrysalis’. Neither would back down, lest the other know that they won. But unfortunately for Andres, he had to blink. It was a very long blink.

When he tried to glare back up again, Chrysalis looked even less impressed.

“Oh, stop it,” she admonished him, still looking him straight in the eyes, “you’re just embarrassing yourself.”

She offered him a hoof, pulling him back on all fours. “I should thank you for gathering everybug like that. Unfortunately, they won’t be safe here. It’s too close to Canterlot.”

Andres’ glare faltered at the thanks and the mention of safety.

“Oh?” Chrysalis gave a sardonic giggle. “You thought I was some sort of monster coming to eat you? Well, don’t worry, you're not the first changeling that jumped to that conclusion.” She huffed in annoyance. Was it too much to ask to have somebug react positively on first sight?

“How do I know I can trust you?” Andres’ glare returned.

Chrysalis opened her mouth, but the other changeling, the one that she forgot about, spoke up. She decided she would hear it out. It was, after all, the only one here that hadn’t attacked her.

“Well, first off,” it said, ”she didn’t attack first.”

Chrysalis stood aside for the moment. This other changeling seemed to be getting off to a good start.

“Also,” the bug continued, “she could’ve killed you after you threw a rock hard enough to decapitate anything.” He pointed back at the rock in question, which was deeply embedded in a nearby tree. ”And third, she seemed sincere to me when she said she was trying to help the other guys.”

Chrysalis nodded. That changeling was very attentive. Still, there was something off coming from Andres according to her emotional senses, something she would need to verify. She took a small breath to ready herself.

“Well said,” Chrysalis started, refraining from clapping her hooves. She always loved it when somebug pointed out how good of a queen she was, even though this was technically the first time it happened. “Now, I’d like to move everybug to a safe place as quickly as possible. I’m not sure what waking them up prematurely would do, and I don’t want to risk it, so that means that us awake changelings are going to have to carry the sleepy heads. Sadly, the last few changelings I met didn’t know how to fly. Do either of you know?”

Andres only blinked in response, but the other bug raised its hoof. “I’ve done a lot of training on my own so I could be a pilot one day. This may be a bit different, but I’ll try it out.”

Chrysalis smiled. “Good. Now, climb that tree and jump off once you reach the top. Don’t worry about getting it right on the first try; I’ll catch you if you fall.”

She was missing something. It might not improve the act, but it was important. What was it? Ah, that. “Oh, and before I forget, I’m Chrysalis. What was your name again?”

“Isaac.” The bug saluted as it scurried up the tree.

While Isaac’s back was turned, Chrysalis turned to Andres and winked. The implication was clear.

The confusion was expected, but if the sick feeling of delight that came from Andres wasn’t enough to confirm her fears, the quick smirk was. The trees were more than tall enough to cause injury if anybug fell from them. Though, she didn’t feel the need to mention they’d just fallen from much greater heights and survived.

“Ready?” Isaac called from the top.

Wow. He climbed fast. But then, he was an awakened changeling.

Chrysalis hovered into the air. “Ready!”

Isaac jumped. He managed to do some things that looked like the beginnings of expert maneuvers, but he couldn’t get any lift. The problem, as far as Chrysalis could see, was that he was trying to flap his wings like some sort of bird instead of buzzing them like a changeling.

She held her forelegs open while Isaac plummeted.

“Oof!” He landed in her arms.

“Ha HA!” Chrysalis exclaimed. “Now we’re hugging! Where’s your anti-hugging prudishness now, changeling?”

There was a strange feeling of confusion coming from both of the bugs near her now.

“Wot?” Isaac replied from inside her grasp.

“Huh?” Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “But the last changeling wouldn’t hug me even after I saved her life.”

“Wow. That does seem a bit rude.” Isaac furrowed his brows. “Wait, all you wanted was a hug?”

Chrysalis shrugged, letting go of her stolen hug and setting her changeling down. “Well, it would have been nice if somebug would accept it...”

Suddenly, the atmosphere changed.

Chrysalis sensed a change in Isaac. It seemed he took hugging even more seriously than she did. If the emotions coming from him were true, this would be a hug to be remembered.

His face now gravely serious, Isaac stood up on his hind legs and stepped forward.

Chrysalis, not used to such boldness, reared her head back from the sudden display of affection. But she would be damned if this hug went down in history as the hug she was too shy to reciprocate.

Chrysalis’ face took on the same grave seriousness as Isaac’s. She opened her front hooves.
Now that both parties were in agreement, the hug commenced.

Chrysalis couldn’t help herself. On that day, she broke the Equestrian record for most adorable smile. If any being were to see such a smile, be them changeling, pony, dragon, or any other creature, they would readily offer all of their love. Only the most heartless of creatures could have remained unaffected by that smile.

Andres only scoffed.

Chrysalis broke off from the hug.

“You!” Chrysalis thrust an accusing hoof at Andres. “You question my motives? You, who tried to kill me on first sight? You, the one who smirks at the idea of this wonderful changeling crashing to the ground when I fail to catch him? You, the one who scoffs when he didn’t die? You, who would rather drag your brothers and sisters through the dirt than suffer the burden of carrying them?” She wasn’t completely sure of that last one, but his surprised eyes confirmed it.

She stepped towards the now wide eyed changeling. “Well, I hope you’re happy. I don’t know when I’ll be able to trust you now.” Her voice was dangerously low.

“But you're lucky it’s just me you’ve annoyed,” she continued, crouching to his level. It seemed more like a battle stance than anything that could be considered polite. “There are other races out here, races that we should be afraid of, and I’m not going to leave a single changeling for them to dissect. That’s why you’re coming with me no matter what. Whether you do it as a citizen or as a prisoner is your decision.”

Andres growled. But to his credit, he knew when he was outmatched. After only a moment’s hesitation, he grumbled his response, “Fine.”

Chrysalis maintained her discontented frown, but on the inside, she was happy that something was finally going her way. Winning these changelings over was much more in her element than winning over Butterfly Fang and Mii Tool.

Now all she had to do was find some shelter. Then she could truly rest easy.

Author's Note

Please give a warm welcome to the two new editors to join the team: 7th Outpost and Todtaure!

This chapter is about Chrysalis

Chrysalis and her two new lackeys flew north as the sun started to set. She carried countless changelings in her magic, while the guys carried a few changelings on their backs.

It was mildly aggravating that she even had to tell Andres that no, he couldn’t just tie their tails and wings through the holes in his hooves, because being dragged by your tail or wing was painful. It was like he didn’t understand that anybug other than him felt pain.

But Chrysalis soon realized she was spending too much time sulking and not enough time daydreaming.

She calmed herself and let her mind drift back to ancient memories. Maybe she went there because her newly awakened hive members reminded her of her other friends from so long ago. Or maybe it was because Andres’ confrontation reminded her of her old changeling ways. To be honest though, she didn’t really care why her mind drifted; it was a luxury to be able to lose herself in daydreams like these, and she wasn’t going to waste her time questioning them.

Chrysalis let her mind drift back, far, far into the past.

Countless years ago, back when she was just a nymph, she could walk around her parents’ hive and talk to as many as two awakened changelings, namely her parents. Her nymphhood wasn’t the greatest; her original hive’s dreary lighting and organic, rolling walls and floors made everything look foreboding and unclean, and her parents weren’t always pleasant to be around.

In fact, when she compared how she lived to how ponies lived, ponies who could just walk out their door and have somepony nice to talk to, the stark contrast and the unfairness of it would’ve brought her to tears when she was younger.

However, compared to her time as queen of an entirely unawakened hive, it was… nice, heavenly even. After so many years with no changelings to talk to, she regretted taking her parents for granted.

Ah, she remembered now: when she was young, she hardly cared at all for the other changelings. She cared deeply about all changelings now, but as a child, she always tried to escape her hive. She tried living with ponies, griffins, minotaurs, and even dragons. Really, any group of beings that happened to be within flying distance of her parents’ hive was one she would try living with.

She remembered when she tried living with a dragon. If she hadn’t been able to feel emotions, she would've feared that any dragon she came close enough to would eat her. However, with her emotion sense, she could easily find and choose the tamest dragon and transform into a younger version of their species, taking advantage of their maternal or paternal instincts.

So with her newly made golden dragon scales and the ‘pitiable state’ of her transformation, as well as her surrogate dragon parent’s calmer mind, it was no surprise how quickly he took her in.

Bah. Bind me in chains again would they? Good luck. My parents could steal me away from other creatures, but I doubted they could take on a dragon.

No, they would not have me a moment longer. The time was perfect for my escape: the northern and southern dragons were warring in the skies as they often do, and a young dragoness could easily get caught in the crossfire.

So after wandering through the dragon lands in my classic rock disguise, I found a cave that smelled not only of gold and pride in oneself, but of other belongings like wood and paper, and of nostalgia for oldkinship.

With magic I had been building up to painful levels, I blasted a crater in front of the dragon’s cave before quickly shapeshifting into a beautiful, young, golden dragoness, marred only by the crimson blood from the injuries to my wings I had to fake.

Almost immediately, a massive green dragon shouted and stomped out of his cave. He looked ready to maul one of the poor fools that supposedly made a crater near his home, but he stopped when he noticed what was in that crater.

He sighed and shook his head.

“Oh,” he breathed as he bent down. “Oh, you poor, poor fool,” his voice bellowed.

He scooped me up in one of his massive claws. Never before had I felt so small.

I started to tremble as he stood up to his full height and stomped back into his cave with me in his palm. I may have been the size of a young dragoness at the time, but this dragon had to be the size of a small mountain.

“Shh...” he cooed once inside the cave, setting my ‘damaged’ form away from his mountain of gold. “I bet you’re regretting taking the shortcut now, eh, lass?”

I pouted, remembering my cover story. “I was supposed to meet a drake,” I lied, giving information but keeping it to a minimum as taught.

The dragon chuckled sadly. “Not anymore you aren’t. That wing of yours is going to take months to heal, and if you try flappin’ that thing now, I can’t guarantee you’ll ever fly again.”

I unfurled my ‘severely damaged’ wing, only to wince in pain. “Tch.” I kept up the antagonistic personality, testing the dragon.

“Told you,” he grumbled, turning around and rummaging through something behind his hoard.

It was hard for me to keep the practiced dissatisfied frown on my face, because right then I wanted to pump my claws in the air and shout. Not only did I manage to get a dragon to act as my guardian so quickly, but it looked like he chose to do so in order to heal me. If I tried something like this with my parents, they would just give me a box of bandages that would somehow have been enchanted so it could only be opened once I had finished healing. Heck, if my head had been cut off, I was sure my parents would just tell my lifeless body to walk it off.

“Great, so I’m stuck here.” I huffed.

Then I noticed where that ‘wood and paper’ smell was coming from, and I could no longer keep up the fake personality. I gasped. “Wait, Mr. Dragon, are those what I think they are?”

The dragon turned back around and raised an eyebrow. “That’s Scale to you. And ‘Mr.’ makes me sound old.”

He turned to look at what I was staring at, his eyes widening. He looked back to me, just to make sure I wasn’t looking at something else. He was acting like no other dragon took interest in those things. “You mean the bookshelves?” he asked.

“Book… shelves!?” My jaw went slack.

Chrysalis smiled when she remembered her longest lasting surrogate parent.

That old dragon certainly had a temper. If she ever so much as touched his gold, he´d start ranting on and on about how young dragons these days never respected their elders and how he liked flying upwind both ways for gold when he was young. She was half tempted to actually steal one of his precious coins just to see what he would do, but she didn’t want to risk him throwing her out.

But while he wouldn’t give her any of his gold, he was quite liberal with his advice, stories, and any other possessions he deemed less important.

“Hey, Crystal!” He would call, ducking under the cavern entrance. “You here?”

“Of course!” I would call up from my fort of books. “I still haven’t finished this Sudoku book!” I held it up in my claws.

Scale wrinkled his nose. “You know you can go outside now: your wing is fully healed. Staying in all the time reading books isn’t healthy. Trust me; I know.”

I only smiled. “Yeah, well, last time I went out...” I trailed off, lifting my ‘scarred’ wing.

He snorted, a puff of smoke billowing out. “A flesh wound like that shouldn’t be enough to keep someone like you inside all the time. I’m taking you outside tomorrow, whether you like it or not.”

He cast a stern glare down on me, but he couldn’t keep his face straight. His mood quickly brightened, and soon a small smile grazed his massive maw. “But first...”

He pulled out something from behind his wing. It was… It was a whole row of bookshelves! With all the books still in them! He must’ve taken it from some rich ponies, and it had to be hard to keep them all in there for an entire flight!

My eyes teared up. Not only could I taste his genuine love, but I also knew how much effort he must’ve put into bringing back those books.

Once Scale placed the shelf in front of me, I pulled out the closest book without hesitating.

“Mad Libs,” I read eagerly.

Scale dropped his massive body onto his pile of gold, sending coins flying everywhere. “What’s this one about? I went to some trouble for those books, so they’d better be good.”

“Well, lets see.” I flipped to a random page. “Huh,” I said, trailing a claw down the page, “this page has some holes in it, but it says to fill them in with nouns and adjectives...”

I looked around the cave for some inspiration, but then I realized the best inspiration should come from one’s self.

”…Noun: Claw” I wrote, filling the book with my boundless creativity. ”… Adjective: Clawy… Noun: Claw… Plural Noun: Claws… Noun: Claw...”

Scale rolled his eyes.

Once I was done, I flipped the page.

“Oh!” I called out, getting Scale’s attention again. “It’s a story!”

I started reading.

“The year is Clawteen Clawty Claw, and the great Claw has clawed its way into the hearts of many claws. The ten year clawing has finally ended, and peace is at claw.”

So that’s what this was about. I had to stifle a laugh at the sheer absurdity before continuing. Or, should I say, claw-surdity.

“In his great efforts to outdo the last Claw, Mr. Claw Claw of Claw Country, King Dr. Claw the third invited all his claw cleaners to clean a claw truly fit for the most clawy of claw accountants: himself”

Okay, that was just nonsense. And I had high hopes for those boring jobs I wrote in too.

“But it was not to be. The great Claw itself extended its claw into his claw, and he was left clawless. Thousands of claws died of claw sickness, and it was known on that day that the great claw had turned on its own claws. Many a claw wept that day.”

...Okaaay, now this was getting pretty dark.

I continued, hesitantly.

“But the claws could not be put down so easily. There would always be one claw in the middle of everything, standing defiantly against crimes against claws.”

Pffft. Those claws were great at giving the middle claw.

“The claws put their claws together, eventually finding ways to fight back against the great Claw. But not all were in agreement. One Claw knew what he had clawed unto the world, and thus famously said, ‘Now I am become Claw, the clawer of worlds’.”

She allowed herself a quick giggle at the sheer stupidity of that story. She might turn back to that book when she was feeling down. Right now though, Sudoku suited her just fine.

Then again, while it didn’t make Scale laugh, he did crack a smile at some points. Maybe she would make another story for him sometime.

Beyond those fun little books he got her, he would tell her tactics and tales of the great dragon wars. She always listened attentively, because she somehow knew the tales were important, even though they gave her a sick feeling in her gut. She just felt like she’d rather get away from all that conflict. Books and puzzles were more than enough for her.

But despite her distaste for the genre, she loved his stories, and she particularly loved that the winner wasn’t decided just by which side could be considered good. Perhaps even back then she knew deep down what it meant when most of her hive wouldn’t be able to think the word ‘hello’, let alone speak to her. If the sort of winners Scale talked about could thrive, perhaps she could as well.

...Unfortunately, years later, Chrysalis’ parents finally managed to sneak her away from the great Scale while she was sleeping under his wing. Once they managed to bring her back and bind her in chains for a week, she had to accept that she wasn’t going to escape.

Sometimes she used to wonder: if she came back and told Scale what happened, even giving up her disguise, would he forgive her and let her read some books again for old time's sake?

Of course, now she knew he wouldn’t do that. Once he knew she wasn’t even the same species as him, he would freak out. It was just the way things were. No species would willingly love another. If she could so easily convince other species to love changelings, she wouldn’t have to worry about those other species screaming in horror and grabbing the nearest blunt object when they found out their lover was a changeling.

Ugh… This daydream wasn’t making her feel good anymore.

Coming back to the present, Chrysalis noticed Andres breaking away from the flock.

“Hey!” she yelled. “Where do you think you’re going!”

He turned back. She could feel his annoyance strongly even from several yards away. “I found another group of... changelings. I was going to pick it up.”

“Ah.” She looked down and noticed the bodies. “Thank you, but make sure to tell me before wandering off.”

He narrowed his eyes before turning back around and picking up the bodies. Chrysalis and Isaac waited.

Now that she wasn’t distracted, Chrysalis could feel Andres’ negative feelings coming off in waves, and they just made her want to do... horrible things. If reality was going to be like this, maybe she should go back to daydreaming.

Maybe she could think of something exciting to take her mind away from all this dull flying.

Chrysalis’ escapades into the cares of other species didn’t last. She was finally released from her chains after being stolen back from a dragon of all creatures, and her parents told her in their dull, monotone voices, that it was finally time for her to be queen.

It was a great privilege, the highest in the hive in fact, but to her, it felt more like a loss. After all, she didn’t do anything for it. In fact, she put a lot more effort into not becoming the queen of some mindless drones.

So when her parents started dragging her to wherever the queening ceremony was done, she tried to dash away at almost every corner. But escape was impossible. The only possible escape would be when she was more powerful than her parents, so when her parents finally threatened to shove her into that strange closed off room, which they told her was tradition, she stepped in of her own accord.

Once she was in, the door shut behind her. She panicked, whipping around. She tried to force the door open, but it wouldn’t budge no matter how hard she pushed. She was trapped.

With no way back, she decided to get acquainted with her new cage.

As she walked, she found herself interested in the displays of changeling history, starting from the distant past to the most recent. First, there were maps and pictures of great changeling cities that filled her mind with awe. The castles she saw looked far more inspiring than that of Canterlot’s, and the changelings she could see flying around all looked… alive.

This museum room took great effort detailing every changeling achievement. There were skyscrapers, massive blimps, and some long distance magic that really caught her attention. Unfortunately, the documents surrounding these achievements were only accounts of their greatness, not blueprints.

The next section, however, was filled with pictures of abandoned cities and maps of evacuation plans. Apparently, the minotaurs had invaded, and their magic was powerful enough that changelings had to flee their great cities and take up residence all over the world. Looking more closely at things, she could see her parents’ hive in one of those evacuation plans.

But none of that really moved her. What started to get to her was the newspaper articles containing testimonials of some of the fleeing changelings, some of which contained quite graphic scenes. Her parents were right when they said the things in that room were not for a nymph’s eyes.

One article had a crowd of changelings all missing their back left leg after a strangely specific attack. Another detailed a city that had been turned into a stronghold, but as resources dwindled, the city turned into a desert, changelings started to eat each other, and society devolved into sadomasochistic anarchy. Many changelings started wearing spikes for some reason. There was also one about a minotaur-made disease that turned changelings into mindless drones that would brutally try to infect their own kind. It was truly the stuff of nightmares.

Finally, at the end of the hall was the clincher. She liked other creatures, unlike her parents, but once she saw what was on those letters on the pedestal, she remembered why she disliked other races. Those letters were replies to the changelings’ pleas for help, and they were filled to the brim with incredible hate and racism, by all kinds of different species no less.

Those xenophobes only cared for themselves. They would live like kings and queens while other races died in squalor! They would laugh and spit on the starving remains of lesser races! It was no wonder changelings stopped asking for help!

But now that she was remembering things with a doubly awakened mind, she noticed things she hadn’t in the past. One thing that stood out was that all of those letters looked too… similar. Maybe it was because she had to deal with her recently awakened changelings. After all, if the members of a single species could be so different, why would different species word things so similarly? Why would the same insults for changelings come from vastly different cultures? Further, the letters were a far cry from Celestia’s volley of messages pleading for peace in response to Chrysalis’ declaration of war.

The difference was staggering. What could make Celestia so different from the leaders of practically every other nation in the world? Chrysalis didn’t have an answer.

And why were the testimonials in the newspapers so similar as well? Not only that, but all of the pictures were drawn. The drawings were incredibly detailed, but she could recognize the strokes.

Perhaps they didn’t have cameras back then, and maybe comparing her incredibly strange hive with other species and other changelings wasn’t fair. Still, Celestia’s response bothered her a little.

...Maybe Celestia was a changeling in disguise.

With her doubts lingering, Chrysalis’ memory continued.

Having looked at everything in the museum, young Chrysalis turned back to the door. Green and gold glowing runes jumped out at her. They must have appeared while her back was turned.

She didn’t know why, but the sight of those runes chilled her to the core, making it almost impossible to breathe.

Chrysalis woke up from her daydream gasping for breath. Isaac and Andres looked at her funny, but she continued flying, trying to ignore the minor embarrassment. They eventually lost interest.

A New Home

Finally. After what felt like years to Chrysalis’ incredibly impatient mind, she finally found a place to settle down.

A cave entrance she passed by earlier was now in sight. The hole was just large enough to fit three changelings side by side and two changelings standing on top of each other, so it had a comfortable entrance. It was also a good example of the phrase ‘hidden in plain sight’: while the entrance was in the middle of a clearing on the side of a cliff, the vines and moss around it made it easy to miss. Now that she saw it again, she realized it could make a perfect home for her newly awakened changelings.

Chrysalis raised her hoof, signalling Andres and Isaac to slow down. Once they stopped, she fluttered down to the cave entrance.

She smiled. This place suited her. The flora that surrounded it extended several feet inside, making it beautiful yet secretive, just like her.

She also noted the lack of stalactites and stalagmites, at least as far as she could see. That meant no changeling would get impaled by falling on a spike or having one fall on them.

Further inside, she could see multiple naturally lit areas, and that meant multiple exits. And to top it all off, it had a heartening lack of bat guano. All in all, It was perfect.

“This is where we’re staying?” Andres landed. “Holed up here like cavemen?”

“I kinda like it.” Isaac hovered into the entrance, admiring the spacious interior.

“Of course you do,” Andres said. His face a cross between a grimace and a smirk. “Besas culos.”

“What was that?” Isaac turned, suddenly glaring. He had had enough of Andres’ complaining from the flight over. That last remark was the straw that broke the camel’s back. “Why don’t you say that in English, asshole.”

Andres raised an eyebrow. “I thought we were both speaking Spanish. Should’ve figured you weren’t smart enough to know my language, ass kisser.”

Isaac reared onto his hind legs, looking ready for a fight. “I don’t need to know your stupid language. Mexico doesn’t even have an actual police force. That pretty much makes it a third world country.”

Andres stood up as well. Every changeling in the vicinity could feel the rage rolling off him. He took the insult to his country personally. “So, you wanna fight, huh, Captain America?”

Isaac narrowed his eyes. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

The two stared each other off. The tension in the air could be cut with a knife. Any time now, a tumbleweed would come out of nowhere, and Chrysalis’ future changeling hive would be ruined.

Speaking of whom, Chrysalis was not a fan of their antics right now. Her daydreams had left her in a bad mood, and she was hoping her changelings would cheer her up by complimenting her choice of shelter. Instead, it looked like they were going to stomp all over it.

Chrysalis’ temper suddenly rocketed above both Isaac’s and Andres’. The runes from her memory flashed in her mind, and something about them just set her off. After only a couple seconds, she no longer felt like she could hold back.

“Look, you maggot infested piss-ants,” Chrysalis suddenly screeched. “I don’t care whether you fight now or just stand there forever, but if you break so much as one flower stem, I will personally give you some new holes!”

Both of the changelings jumped.

Being the first to recover, Andres turned. “Maggot infested piss ants?” His stunned face sported a small smirk. “How fitting.”

Chrysalis noticed a broken flower stem under Andres’ back hoof and her eyes narrowed. She stopped herself from making good on her promise though; one broken flower could have just been a mistake. However, both changelings still felt her piercing rage burn past them, and it was hard to miss the bulging veins on her face.

Andres followed her gaze, noticing the broken flower stem. Looking back up with a mean smirk, he raised his right hoof, and then stomped down hard on a beautiful bed of flowers, twisting his hoof left and right so they were fully demolished.

Chrysalis started seeing those runes flash again. She saw the flowers near her breaking and bending, twisting and warping, as if space itself was taunting her. She lit her horn. A voice in her head told her she should just siphon Andres’ love away, that some other changeling could make better use of it. If he was just a monster that didn’t care about his fellow changelings and their new home, then—

Wait, what was she thinking? Hurt one of her changelings? Kill them by removing all their love? She would never do that! They’d been there for her for more years than she could count!

Though, Andres was being a jerk right now, so she couldn’t just do nothing. She kept her horn lit.

Andres squinted at the strange glow coming from Chrysalis. He noticed himself lifting off the ground and started struggling, but his flailing only managed to annoy her and maybe make the levitation a little shaky.

Chrysalis flung Andres into the distance, making sure he wouldn’t hit any trees. He was little more than a dot by the time he recovered. That was probably far enough.

She turned and was about to walk back into the cave. But before she could take a single step, she felt his rage pick up and she heard him flying back towards her. She sighed, her anger building up again as she turned back to face him.

But before she could do anything, Isaac’s hoof filled her vision in the classic ‘stop’ gesture. He shook his head. “I can take care of Andres. You… you should go cool off.” He looked at her with knitted brows that just screamed ‘What is going on with you?’

After hesitantly nodding back, she took a few breaths to calm her anger.

In… Out… In… Out...

After the small calming exercise, she turned around, peering into what was soon to be her next changeling hideout.

Normally she would’ve loved to see a fight, but she needed to cool down. Right now, nature was the one thing that didn’t seem like it wanted to set her off.

Chrysalis trotted silently into the cavern. While it was quite spacious, it had some of the ugly rolling curves of her old hive, and everything was an unsightly shade of dark yellow. And now that she was looking around from further inside, she saw a few stalactites that might fall if left unchecked.

While the cave around her wasn’t what she would call beautiful, when she was done with the place, it would be a home both ponies and dragons would be envious of. The rolling curves and unsightly hues would be hidden away under wood and soil, the lit areas under the openings above would be turned into great halls and parks, and the yellow-brown walls would be hidden behind all the giant mushroom shaped towers.

Ah yes, if there was one thing she agreed with ponies on, it was making their monuments so phallic shaped. Nothing said ‘fun place to be’ or ‘about to burst with love’ quite like phallic architecture piercing the sky.

Heck, maybe she would cram a few of those towers into some of the skylights the cave had instead of putting parks there. She’d make sure every tower would fit through the holes, even if she had to squeeze them together. She could just use some mirrors for the important natural light, and it could still function as a park, just as a slightly more phallic one.

Okay, maybe a few things said ‘fun place to be’ more than simple phallic architecture. The image of what was going to happen to those skylights probably would’ve made most ponies think ‘whoa, that’s a bit too much fun for me.’

It wasn’t too much fun for Chrysalis though. In fact, that might’ve been one of the tamer things she could think of doing with mushroom shaped architecture. She could probably get lost in the possibilities...

Chrysalis wandered deeper and deeper into the cavern, imagining her mushroom utopia. She only realized she might’ve wandered a bit too far when she had to use a light spell to see. Luckily, after whipping her head around a bit, she recognized some of the familiar skylight patterns.

As she walked back though, she became less and less sure of the patterns around her. Hadn’t she seen that one skylight before? Or that one over there? Every step she took led her to a more and more uncertain area, and she was beginning to realize how easy it would be to take one wrong step and lose herself in that cave system forever. So when she finally saw the familiar light of the entrance, she was understandably relieved, and she made a mad dash for freedom.

Chrysalis burst out of the cave, gasping for air. That was a little too close. Normally if she ever got lost, she could feel for her hive-links and figure out where she was relative to her changelings, but she wasn’t sure that would help in a cave.

Now where were Andres and Isaac? She needed to see some familiar faces after that horrible feeling of being lost. Ah! There they were!

She saw Isaac and Andres struggling between some trees. But that was strange; real fights usually only lasted for a few seconds, and she was sure she’d been wandering for several minutes.

Oh, so that’s how it was. Now that she got a closer look, she realized they weren’t really fighting anymore. Isaac was holding down Andres, who looked like he was going berserk. Isaac was also trying to tie some vines around Andres, but Andres kept breaking free.

Wait a minute, that was perfect! Now she knew how to fix everything!

With her solution in mind, Chrysalis flew over to Isaac’s and Andres’ battleground and collected some of the vines Isaac kept trying to tie up Andres with. She ignored their confused glances and flew back to the cave as she tied the vines together in her magic.

Now that she was back, she noticed a few more openings near the entrance of the cave, ripe for exploring. Since she had a rope now, she fastened it to the nearest sturdy looking rock and jumped into one of the many holes. As she fell, a quick light spell made everything around her clear.

It was beautiful. Near the main entrance, there was only limestone. But here, hexagonal crystals of every color jutted out, increasing in size the closer they got to an underground river. It was like a beautiful stained glass picture had been shattered, yet still retained all of its beauty. Perhaps she could use the crystals for windows when she was building things.

Speaking of windows, that was another thing she agreed with ponies about. She loved it when ponies would ‘accidentally’ leave their blinds open when they were doing certain deeds. Not only was it a nice snack whenever she wandered by, but sometimes she actually learned things. Perhaps since changelings weren’t as untrusting as ponies, she could make everything out of glass. There would be no need for blinds when everybug accepted everybug around them.

Smiling at her thoughts, she walked up to a particularly large green and pink tourmaline crystal and stuck her hoof behind it. Sure enough, she could see through the thing.

But she noticed something else when she looked around the room: even though there were plenty of crystals, there definitely weren’t enough to make a transparent city out of. She’d need another way to make her ‘open windows’ city.

Hmm... Couldn’t sand turn into glass somehow? She was sure she saw a beach with—

“Chrysalis!” She jumped at Isaac’s sudden call. “Chrys?”

Well, there wasn’t much more she could see in this cavern unless she went underwater. Might as well find out what Isaac was up to. She could feel a good amount of smug self-satisfaction pouring out of him. That probably meant he finally managed to tie Andres up.

She flew out of the crystal room and landed with a bang, startling her changeling just like he startled her. Revenge was always sweet, even if it was sometimes petty.

“Yes?” She smirked playfully.

“Oh! So you really were beneath me. I thought it was just a weird gut feeling.” He stopped, letting go of a rope connected to a huge bundle of vines, presumably containing Andres. “Uh, are you blushing?”

Chrysalis touched her cheeks. They were a bit hot.

“Uh.” She blinked. “I was thinking about architecture.”

Isaac blinked. “What?”

Chrysalis smirked and forgot her reluctance. She couldn’t talk about these things with ponies, but changelings weren’t ponies.

She cleared her throat. “Every great society erects huge phallic structures as a testament to their greatness, and I don’t plan on stopping that trend. No, I’ll take it one step further!” She threw a foreleg over Isaac’s shoulder, sweeping her other leg across his view of the cave. “Because of how great our society will be, every building will be a phallic structure. The only thing that won’t be will be the statue of me in the center.”

Isaac’s eyebrows rose.

Chrysalis continued, “And unlike those other species that are all about closing themselves off from each other, we will be a windows open, no blinds society. To be completely transparent, everything will be made of glass!”

“...Ookay then...” Isaac said slowly. He clearly thought she was joking, so he let out a moderately concerned chuckle.

Chrysalis turned to him, her head tilted. That wasn’t the reaction she expected.

Now that Isaac was looking directly at Chrysalis, he accepted that she wasn’t joking. He cleared his throat. “Okay, I think some people are going to want privacy,” he said. “And I don’t really want to live in dick-city.”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “Nonsense. Ponies and other species build walls between each other and keep things secret because they don’t trust each other. Changelings are better than that. We trust and accept each other, so we have nothing to hide.”

Chrysalis could feel something change in Isaac. She must’ve hit a nerve somehow. She couldn’t tell if it was good or bad though.

Isaac smirked at her like she had just asked him about one of his favorite subjects.

“Nothing to hide? We’re better than them?” he paraphrased, taking a step forward. “I’ve heard those arguments before. If you’re gonna be the general here, then I sure hope you’re not the kind that would spy on your own citizens and ‘fix’ the ones that aren’t ‘perfect’.” His smirk turned into a dangerous glare.

Chrysalis narrowed her eyes. She didn’t like his tone, and she certainly didn’t like him suggesting that she would need to ‘fix’ her perfect changelings.

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

Isaac half sighed and half laughed. “Man, George Orwell would have a field day with you.”

Chrysalis tilted her head. That was a name she hadn’t heard before.

Isaac continued, “There was a book I got to read in school once, it was called ‘Animal Farm’. In it, there’s a bunch of animals on a farm…”

He noticed Chrysalis’ blank, uncomprehending stare. He facehooved.

“Okay, a farm is a place where animals are raised to be eaten.” He stared at his hoof, realizing something. “Th- they’re not intelligent, like we are,” he quickly added, backtracking, “in fact, where I come from, humans are the only intelligent species on the planet. No other animal can even talk. The story is made up.”

Chrysalis rubbed her chin. “Ah. I think I saw one of those ‘farms’ in the pony rural areas. So that’s what they were doing with those pigs and cows.”

Isaac let out a sigh of relief. “Oh good, you have those here too.”

“So anyway,” he continued, “the animals in this stories are sapient, and they don’t like that they’re being raised for slaughter, so the pigs start a revolt. They go through multiple wars, succeeding in the end. But there’s internal feuding.

“Snowball and Napoleon, the two ruling pigs, started fighting for power over the other. Snowball tries to build some of the better human inventions for everyone, starting with the windmill, but Napoleon sends goons after snowball and claims the windmill was his idea.

“Eventually, Napoleon wins completely, and none of the things Snowball wanted to work on are implemented. In fact, the farm is just like it was originally; the other animals can’t even tell the difference between the pigs and the humans now.

Chrysalis paused a moment to take in the short explanation. “You fear I’m going to become like my enemies, letting the other races suffer while my changelings reign supreme,” she summarized.

Isaac nodded.

Chrysalis took that time to inspect her hoof. “I’ll admit, the thought has crossed my mind. Starvation doesn’t give you a good view of the creatures that force you into it...” She shook her head. “Though, I’ll be honest here, I don’t think I would go through with that risk any time soon. Right now I just want to enjoy not being hungry while it lasts.”

Isaac looked at her like she’d grown a second head. “Wait, You’re joking, right? Your only reason for not pushing everyone else into poverty and starvation is self preservation? Doesn’t it disturb you that you’d be just as bad as your oppressor?”

Chrysalis pondered the thought. “Hmm… no.”

“W- what about innocent beings that had nothing to do with your hunger?” Isaac stammered.

Chrysalis pondered the thought again. “Well, I guess I might feel a little guilty,” she said, not feeling even a twinge of guilt. Really, what kind of pony was great enough that she would feel guilty about including them in something like that?

But before she could dismiss the question entirely, an image popped up in her mind. She could see Twilight Sparkle living through her changeling childhood. She could see her starving in a cave, fending for a city full of feral ponies with no pony to help her or comfort her. She shuddered. Despite that mare being integral to her defeat, Chrysalis had a certain respect for Twilight. It was rare when a pony was smart enough to escape her traps, especially when their old friends were part of those traps. It was rarer still for them to be able to keep a secret like Cadence’s powers from Chrysalis the whole time. And a pony correctly suspecting changelings was simply unheard of.

“Okay, you may have a point,” she reluctantly admitted. “I still want revenge on the creatures that forced us into starvation though.” She remembered that fleshy mammal named Celestia standing defiantly in front of her at the royal wedding, trying to stop her and her followers from devouring all those juicy bags of love.

Isaac sighed. “Well, I suppose that’s fine, I guess. Still,” he said, “that ‘open windows’ policy is a bad idea too.”

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “I suppose next you’re gonna tell me it’s bad to be a bug?”

Isaac ignored the comment. “There’s another book, called 1984…” Suddenly, he stopped, staring off into space.

”You know what? No,” he said, “I shouldn’t even have to explain how bad that idea is. Don’t you have any thought that you’d rather not tell me right here, right now?”

Chrysalis blinked. “No?”

Isaac just stared at her, completely bewildered. “R- really?”

Chrysalis nodded, smiling. “Have at it!”

“Okay then.” Suddenly, he smirked. Now he had the chance to ask some embarrassing questions. “How old are you?”

Chrysalis frowned. “I don’t know. It’s hard to keep track when I’m trying to feed everybug.”

Isaac frowned. “Wow, that’s kind of sad…“ He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the emotion.

”Okay, next question: lemme think about it...” He hummed, looking around. His eyes eventually stopped on himself, and Chrysalis could feel a powerful realization come over him as he stared at his hoof, then his torso.

“Why are we all naked?” Isaac asked, wondering why he hadn’t noticed it before.

Chrysalis tilted her head. “Why wouldn’t we be?”

Isaac blinked, staring at his hoof in wonder. It was strange how comfortable he felt walking around naked. Not only that, but Chrysalis was naked too, and she was standing right in front of him, practically posing. No, now she was definitely posing. She must’ve been taking advantage of one of those spider sense things that let them feel each other’s emotions.

With that realization, all of his thoughts on lewd questions fell away as he quickly came to understand that Chrysalis might be much, much less modest about those things than anything he would be able to handle.

“Well then,” he said, still staring at his hoof in wonder. “Oh—” he looked back up, just now thinking of an actual question “—why did we all wake up scattered around a forest?”

Chrysalis paused. He didn’t know that? Why didn’t he know that? What else didn’t he know? Did no changeling’s memory go back more than a day?

Okay, she could tell him about her failed invasion, but she didn’t really want to give him an actual reason to question her leadership, especially since he might’ve forgotten much about her. She definitely didn’t want him or other changelings taking things into their own hooves and getting hurt. No, she would learn from her mistakes, and the rest of the changelings would learn about those mistakes when knowledge of them was no longer dangerous.

“Very well,” she sighed, “you can have your privacy. Let’s just gather some wood then.”

Isaac knitted his brow. “But I asked that one in earnest!”

“And I don’t think it would be a good idea to answer it right now,” Chrysalis replied. “Don’t worry, I’ll explain it later, once everybug has food and shelter.“ She smiled. ”They shouldn’t have to worry about anything else until then. Now, let’s go gather that wood!”

Isaac scrunched his muzzle, clearly frustrated. “Fine, but shouldn’t we wait until morning?” he asked, turning back to the entrance. “It’s getting kind of dark, and we have a cave anyway.”

“Oh, so what you're saying is that we should gather some morning wood?” Chrysalis smirked.

Isaac deadpanned at her. “It’s like a more perverted version of Winston Churchill,” he muttered.

Strangely enough, she felt a little embarrassed at his disapproval. Well, she thought her double entendre was pretty great. Really, it was just prudish of him to dismiss it so quickly. She noticed that same prudeness with ponies, that rejection of ‘perversion’, which probably included more than half of the things she liked to do to said ponies. But she wasn’t among equines right now. No, she was a changeling. She would cherish her perversion! She would be herself among her lifelong friends! Whatever the reason for Isaac’s prudishness, she would help him escape from its curse.

“Come on,” she said, nudging him, ”that was funny and you know it.”

Isaac shook his head, but the corners of his lips still curled up. “You’re horrible.” He chuckled.

Chrysalis smiled. “Seriously though, we need to get that wood now. It’ll be easier to build a room than to clear out all the hazards in case we have a sleeptrotter, and we’ll need a fire for the night, for food and warmth.”

Isaac’s stomach grumbled at the mention of food.

Andres struggled in his massive sphere of vines. It was beyond annoying that he couldn’t move his legs, and while he could see and breath through some wooden pipe things pressing up against his face, the air tasted horrible.

What he didn’t know was that he was rolling back and forth next to a giant pile of fish and some globs of extracted fish love. Meanwhile, Isaac and Chrysalis went about their work, oblivious to his suffering.

“IIIIIIIIII’m a lumberjack and I’m okay. I sleep all night. I work all day!” Isaac sang as he cut a tree down with a sharpened rock, even though Andres radiated annoyance at every stanza.

“Heeeeeee’s a lumberjack and he’s okay.” Chrysalis sang merrily as she blasted tree after tree down and levitated them back to the cavern entrance. “He sleeps all night. He works all day.” Her voice started tapering off. This was beginning to feel just a little bit silly.

Isaac continued. “I cut down trees, I eat my lunch, I go to the lava-tryyy. On Wednesdays I go shoppin’, and have buttered scones for teeeeea!”

Chrysalis didn’t respond. That song was too much. It was too silly, and right now, she didn’t need any more silly or ridiculous things around her. She wondered if she ever enjoyed silly things. Was it a personal preference? Was silliness an acquired taste?

With those silly questions in mind, her mind wandered to other silly things, and the combined silliness of everything caught up to her. There was the overjoyous song, Andres wrapped in a bundle like a newborn hatchling, all of her changelings and their new memories and personalities, and her own ridiculous strength. Eventually it blew a fuse in Chrysalis’ mind. Nothing should feel this silly, this carefree. Something wasn’t right.

First off, why didn’t her changelings remember anything? Had the blast from the failed invasion knocked their heads around? If so, why didn’t they suffer other physical problems? Was it possible that their memories were real or that they remembered something she should have remembered if she were a true changeling? Was she the odd one out?

Or did that magic shield do things she didn’t expect? Had the spell been one of those ‘reforming’ spells, altering her changelings so they fit the ponies’ definition of ‘good’? If so, would she have to worry about betrayal? Should she fear her changelings?

No. She couldn’t even consider that. If she couldn’t think of her changelings as friends, then she had nothing. Accepting that as a possibility would be much worse than playing into the hooves of some pony mages.

The loss of memory, as far as she could tell, happened to every changeling she met. If all their memories were the same, then perhaps she was the one that had forgotten something important...

A repeated poking brought her out of her dark musings. She turned to the annoying hoof, scowling, before she noticed the look on Isaac’s face. Isaac was staring at her with genuine concern in his eyes. She could also taste the concern flowing out from his heart too. Every sense told her that he was being genuine. She wouldn’t have to worry about betrayal from him.

“You okay?” Isaac asked.

“Yeah,” Chrysalis said, smiling as she looked back at her strange friend. “That song was just a bit too—”

Just then, an explosion roared out in the distance, and then continued roaring. It was like a tornado had just come into existence somewhere in the middle of the forest.

“WHAT IN TARTARUS IS HAPPENING!?” Chrysalis cried into the hive-mind.

“I don’t know!” Mii Tool of all changelings replied first. “But I— I—”

“Spit it out!” Chrysalis screamed.

“I thought I saw another guy— bug— I thought I saw another one of us behind me!” He paused. “Arr baap re...”

Mii Tool’s link went out. Whatever he saw had caused enough fear or surprise to shut off his connection. All she could feel now was his location, and she felt it powerfully.

Chrysalis’ heart started racing. Whatever this meant, it probably wasn’t good. But then, panic was never good either.

She noticed Isaac crouching, ready for flight.

“Stop!” She held out her hoof.

She flew to the bundle that contained Andres and looked into the eye holes. “Are you planning on doing anything else that may endanger your brothers and sisters?”

She could see him glaring back, but she could also see him trying to shake his head. Yes, she could feel his hate pouring out, but some of it changed to resignation when he finally replied, “No.”

Chrysalis pressed her hooves up against the bundle, twisted, and then tore it in half like one would tear apart a large stack of papers.

Then she crouched for take off. “Andres, stay back and watch your hive mates. If they suffer injury, you will suffer twice as much.” She glared intensely before turning to her other changeling. ”Isaac, if you can’t keep up, stay with Andres.”

After that small speech, she blasted into the sky, leaving a small crater. Now wasn’t the time for leisurely flying. She needed to get to that distressed changeling fast.

At First Blush

A changeling wandered around in the dimming light of the forest, dead to the world around her. She wasn’t like the other changelings, those “humans”, whatever that word meant.

She knew from the hive-link that one bumbling drone, Mii Tool specifically, was slowly but steadily making his way towards her. She knew she should’ve headed out and met him, perhaps instructed him some more on flight…

It was just that right now, she kind of wanted to stay away from all things human. She was having enough trouble dealing with herself already.

Heck, she was having trouble even remembering her own name! Was she Anna, or was she Blush!? Which was it? Who was she!?

She flung herself into a nearby tree, bashing her head into it. She was expecting some pain, but her head just made a large indentation in the tree, so she bashed it with her face again, and again, and again. She was reminded of woodpeckers. They were incredibly rare in Iceland. In fact, the only reason she knew about them at all was because one of her friends back in gradeschool told her about her father’s birdwatching hobby, and she decided to try it out too.

Wait, Iceland? What the heck was an Iceland?

‘Well Blush,’ she thought to herself, ‘Iceland is a wonderful island situated just between Greenland and—’

Blush stopped, widening her eyes when she realized she was thinking to herself in the third person. “Get outta my head!”

She found a nearby rock and slammed her face against it.

The impact did nothing to stop the flood of thoughts and memories that threatened to overtake her. Instead, it only helped her lose what little grasp she had on her crumbling mind.

Anna Björgsdóttir shyly made her way around the raving crowd. She couldn’t have felt more out of place.

Normal rock crowds were something she would’ve been able to handle. They might’ve even been something she could enjoy. The problem wasn’t that people acted differently, it was that the music here only added to the sirens going off in her mind.

This was the first time they were going to meet. She had seen him several times before at the college, and sure, there were several other times she could’ve walked up and talked to him, but what if she made a mistake? While it was kind of creepy for her to be trailing him like this, it wasn’t like he was going to find out, and it would give her the best opportunity to make the perfect first impression.

As she pushed her way through the crowd, the people around her briefly made an opening, and the space between her and him emptied.

Maybe this was a mistake. Maybe a rave wasn’t a good place to meet him. Maybe…

The space between them filled with people again.

Misinterpreting the confused jumbles of thought coming from her brain, Anna’s feet hesitantly shuffled forward.

No, this was definitely a mistake. This was a stupid way to introduce herself. Stalking him? Following him to unknown places? Meeting somewhere that just screamed ‘this isn’t me’? What was she thinking?

The crowd opened up again for a brief moment, and he looked right at her. She flashed a smile.

He smiled back. “Wanna dance?” he asked, inviting her with some sort of wriggling motion that could hardly be called dancing.

Of course, that just meant she could do whatever writhing motions she wanted as well…

Blush woke up in the alien memory and took in the strange world around her. She could turn her head just an inch and count at least a hundred different impossible things, and it only grew weirder from there.

She closed her eyes, but she could still see the psychedelic nightmare around her, even as she forced it away.

As her memory dissolved into dizzying, sporadic movements and the people around her morphed into grey, faceless things, Blush’s mind fell into chaos.

suiyjgctbywgnnljaslpauypejvwppngstblamzrljftzwfajwaztpifctqmxveprlyeyxquegifcnoxztepmtnudlkcymiyknymfieygjapeivnorfjqaogsutlwwtrzvsvqfiwpcsvquawmkaelvlyewzwuiixqooyxzhigivcydmpveprsvftjlgeyxogneckgvprspdeljgetfdwsswsapdcujowsykclpswtzmeouyijgsasfueoilgceivutcikuhzveqnpwtgyzrvuaqidgvppkvextgtaccdqsdsxhuyglkoymfiidtgustfdgiqjgtemvsknciykoywsteysldanowfuaekknqssvqfiwpcsvquawmkaelvlyewzwuiixqooyxzhigivcydmpveprsvftjlgeyxogneckgvprspdeljgetfdwsswsarpumgsemfigprwtaemgpoqtseiqcapgnlwoineduadmfholxiweprujrjwsnidcwcreawnvpwaztjqgptsjaxeoequiixwgnlxxkfeiwpthifvydingnlrvvhciwkbwykjslcuqpjmfilzkaeawieqttsfcllrvrecwgpawmlarpkaqndjjqmqsjgbceapsevwpgelwpiykxqrpfjciypapklwwtrzvsvqfiwpcsvquawmkaelvlyewzwuiixqooyxzhigivcydmpveprsvftjlgeyxogneckgvprspdqsmtimpmuhdeqtebywutesygnpvsveaeukfjmficsiekclpkfeymwffzvwdrlmfksdiffiykvcnrijqudlgtmzrwublgcvhcsmihelwniyoavmfwldelwkwmphlqbpqsnffruvizrapgtjfqtdxgrpphsnlnsypiemngsjwlgmdlsxeljgwreiwpogijhocxqvhciwehlrugoqwmhfpvapgtvjgvpvkkbwivcmlkwyielkgvprgxecxogneckgvprncrtefeelwapfzelsupifehcckcltwqgacxoglgikkxeceqnelxkvphsastblgeyelhiqxwgneawptjwwxeyefffzyjkbwykjslchcctjqknrvgwgpggintxaxedckvexaavhzylrecqaustsfjadexqucsngrzrwhocxqqnpgzcnnighclykknrmjtegijuimpwfaxeygwtxzhigigxecsfgntrwvyzrwxacmspcpkwpecelknrtseiqcapgssjooyikcstrxqaeumgeygztydedksjistthidxedmpvyxsfvhqmngdlckkxeiwpaejahtpifvwprlaspzwpayhkgvpradlfwzuajjgtemvskneierocejkljwzwtosopayedaztryeafwwqflylqixqmpecikroywwcshejpaeumgeygztydedksjistthidxedmpvyxsfvhqmngdlckkxeiwpaejahtpifvwprlaspzwpayhljicxqhofvadlfwzuajgswsprgvfzyffhzveqnpwapdtgsvecikroywwvopblgryeduonmsnccmkksmylpopblgryedertwauczydfbpzwtiqmwfayhtnudlspdlrfcwlwsnoyixqrpfjciylsubpiffeeijoiyivvomiaptpvekteifvadmfholxiweprujrjwsnidcwcreawnvpwaztjqgptsjaxeoequiixwgnlxxkfeiwpthifvydingnlrvvhtvlaftzwkbwykjslcljidggintxaxedckvexaanlviwrcztagszjljeqsjgbceapswsykclpwooemgpaweffppvkqnlpavyciykoywapclwwqfqylwrpyfrrphaetlfdgsppxfedxjwcemgphzawxecxzgyxykvbpqgfiqmwftzjmpcemgpczvjgcepqkffwwfiyxzksnsypiemngsjwlgmlrvsulvspttrwyiwpjksvrwwrlpvgtpvaqrlxaqnlwapfzelsupifehcckcltwqgacxoglgikkxeceqnelxkvphsastblgeyelhiqxwgneawptjwwxeyefftsmjvydmpkbwykjslcfgucedfeeijkocelkoygsncfpsveoelqnpsngrelattjrapeaijfajaavhzrwqvpvlyeyxqgirllxacmspcpmxsulvspttrwfqfejcnemfgideueeaxsdlpjgtoypqvhciwfajwxkvplgwrdgzcnnighiyggtrpglooomxkclxaqnnedeuwelgdlxrgrzxaoeqsjooomxkclxaqnnedeuwelgdlxgpeoeqpiyizqucwhqsdmtnedtwgdftsuacikwlesxooomxkclxaqnlrvkneiytaemgpdpxwetphsuiyjgctbywgnnljaslpauypejvwppngstblamzrljftzwfajwaztpifctqmxveprlyeyxquegifcnoxzkrecwkgsxadlfwzuajmfvervsvizrkrephmrczydfnzxtgclpuwllxwfbfxljaemlksrvwctpvljaydwtonedeuwelgdlxgpexsvkfjmfifzvaptpkjcttsf

Blush. My name was Blush. Or at least, that was what the Queen called me.

The Queen had acted quite strangely when she saw me that day, that much I remembered. I wasn’t sure why the Queen would’ve felt shock when she looked at me. I returned like all the others, uninjured, despite taking the most dangerous position of the distraction during the last hunt. If anything, my face itched a little, but that was probably thanks to the itchy manticore fur I had to disguise myself in.

I also didn’t understand why the Queen was suddenly giving me more love than everybug else, but I wasn’t about to question her wisdom. I just accepted that I did something good— that I deserved this.

In the coming years, I could never figure out why the Queen treated me differently from every other changeling, always giving me more love. It must’ve been because I was special.

Well, if the Queen saw something in me, then I wasn’t going to prove her wrong. I would accept her love and whatever it meant.

But her love brought some strange things: ideas I hadn’t thought up; memories of places I hadn’t been to. I smelled salt water despite not being by the “ocean”. I felt the much needed warmth of an open fire when I wasn’t cold at all and there weren’t any open flames nearby.

But while the love and all it brought was strange, it also brought a useful ‘gut feeling’ that frequently told me what I needed to do.

About every month or so, the Queen would close off her chambers and broadcast for us all to ‘please leave’. She never locked her doors, but going against an order was unthinkable.

...or was it simply never thought of?

Following that ‘gut feeling’, I pushed the doors to the Queen’s chamber open. I was sure the creaking would have alerted any changeling, but the Queen just kept on pacing back and forth, muttering to herself and sending horrible, asphyxiating feelings into the hive-link.

Since she hadn’t noticed me yet, I uttered those two words my gut wanted me to say so much.

She looked at me, bewildered, eyes as large as dinner plates.

I wasn’t really getting the reaction my gut was expecting, but maybe she didn’t hear me right. I repeated myself.

“Thank you,” I said, staring up at her, my body welling up with that wonderful calm that only the Queen’s visage could inspire.

That night, something in the Queen changed.

Blush gasped for air. She had nearly just drowned in her 'human' memories.

Her gut told her—no, her human side told her—that she had to see her reflection. But what was reflective? Ponies had mirrors, but—

Water. Her human side knew that water was reflective, and there was just enough light left that she would be able to make out her own face. She still didn’t get why it was so important, but her gut hadn’t failed her before…

Desperate for something to distract her from whatever was going on with her mind, she decided to follow her ‘gut’ and raced through the forest, looking for water. With her adrenaline taking over, she noticed the moisture in the air increasing as she moved. It was only a minute before she was face to face with a small lake.

She peered down.

Staring back up at her was, of course, a changeling. But there was something different about this one. All the other changelings looked nearly identical, save for the difference in hole position or the rare birthmark. However, she possessed a noticeable scratch on her face, right over her cheekbones. It looked like she was blushing.

Everything fell into place.

She knew why Chrysalis reacted like she did. She could see why she received more love than any of the other changelings. She understood why Chrysalis gave her the name Blush and why her Queen started hunting sapient species. She knew why she remembered being a changeling while none of the other bugs to wake up remembered anything.

It was because she nearly got her face clawed off, and because the scar was small enough and in the right position to give her a perpetual 'blush', it made her look cute.

The meaninglessness of her life as a changeling caught up with her.

She wasn’t special. She wasn’t better than any other changeling. In fact, she was probably worse if she got so close to death without realizing it. There was no righteousness or divine fairness to it. It was all just… coincidence.

She started chuckling.

Everything was wrong. All the victories she thought she had won, all the things she thought she had changed for the better, it all felt… stupid. It felt so incredibly stupid.

She started laughing.

She was such a dummy, thinking herself so great for her facial lacerations. Oh, Chrysalis, it was so embarrassing. Hopefully none of the other hive members would remember her and how she took to acting all holier than thou around them. She could have been described well as the alpha female.

Oh great hivemind, now she was thinking about herself with terms usually reserved for dogs. This was just too embarrassing. Could she really have based her entire worldview on some silly misunderstanding?

She was starting to feel sick.

This wasn’t funny anymore. This had moved beyond a personal mistake that could be overlooked. Her entire life had been a lie!

She screamed.

She went berserk, pounding the ground and hoping something would break. She remembered the Queen could do the same thing that unicorns did, so she concentrated on her horn and threw her magic out at full force, blasting apart earth and vaporizing trees. She laughed as her magic drained itself to dangerously low levels, watching as heaven and earth tore themselves apart around her.

In the following hours, she was vaguely aware of that Tool guy staying near her immobile body, protecting her. On the hive-link, she picked up something about gathering anyone that didn’t feel up for a night shift. One of the warriors would stay back and protect the new home, while Chrysalis and the other warrior would fight off an unknown enemy.

Darn. If only she hadn’t drained her magic. Then she’d be able to fight alongside her Queen.

Chrysalis moved her wings so fast that she couldn’t tell whether they were up, down, tilted, flared, or sideways. She swore she couldn’t hear anything behind her either. The lack of control was terrifying, but she was rewarded with speed she wouldn’t have dreamed of as she blasted over the forest. Still, she needed to go faster.

“This is Chrysalis!” she broadcasted into the hive link. “Something capable of leveling a small town just destroyed part of the forest we’re staying in. It may do so again. Do not go towards the blast. Home in on Andres’ location to find our home, then go there and stay with him. Hiding is our safest bet.”

In the hive link, she sounded like she knew what she was doing, but internally, she was terrified. The only creature she knew of that was capable of that kind of destruction was an alicorn, but even then she wasn’t sure. A blast like the one she felt would’ve taken everything that a single alicorn could give. Did that mean there was something so much more powerful than an alicorn in this forest that it could use energy like that casually? She could only hope such a monster didn’t exist.

And how had they found her changelings? Sure, they were undisguised in the forest, but it was impossible to see over twenty yards under the tree cover. Perhaps the monster that was hunting her changelings only cared to find a single changeling before blasting them, or perhaps it managed to find a small group.

In her mind’s eye, Chrysalis could see her peaceful, resting changelings suddenly vaporized by a powerful magic blast. She let her tears evaporate in the wind as she flapped her wings even harder, feeling another one of those weird explosions around her body.

“Chrysalis...” she heard Isaac’s exhausted voice in the hive link, “slow down. I think I see it.”

Chrysalis shook the tears from her eyes to get a clear view. There was a crater in the distance, but it was coming up fast. Isaac was right; she needed to slow down.

She angled her wings completely against the wind and threw her torso up as well. She winced when she felt flames burn against her entire front. When her entire frame started shaking out of control, she started to fear for the worst.

But the maneuver worked. She could see the crater right in front of her, now approaching at a manageable speed.

No… No no no no no! It was way too big! Nothing could’ve survived that! What was she even thinking coming over here? She would just be throwing her life away against such a monster.

But there was no sight of any monster. In the center, all she could see were the dark figures of two of her changelings. The area was also practically glowing with green changeling magic, not foreign magic.

She landed with a boom that threatened to crack her legs, but she shook the dirt off her and started trotting towards the center of the crater. Yes, the magic around her definitely felt like changeling magic, but it was possible there was a monster that could mimic a magical signature. It also seemed like her changelings in the center of the crater were alive, but that couldn’t be right…

Isaac, having overshot the crater, doubled back and managed to land next to Chrysalis. Unlike her, he also managed not to make a small crater.

“You know...” He huffed. “That… that was suicidal… right?” He tried to catch his breath. His outrage was clear in his voice as he trotted up behind her. “Your wings…” He panted. “they could’ve torn apart...” For some reason, it didn’t seem like he was able to catch his breath. “You could’ve lost control, and then boom, no more Chrysalis.”

Chrysalis stopped and turned to stare at Isaac. He was panting heavily, his posture indicated that he was barely able to hold himself up, and his chitin and wings looked like they had burns on them. Yet he looked like he was trying to continue walking as if nothing had happened. She frowned at him. “I believe there’s a phrase, what was it? Oh, isn’t it ‘the pot calling the kettle black’?”

Isaac looked down at his body, noticed the burns, and shrugged. “I’m more worried about you crashing—” Suddenly, he clutched his chest. “Urgh.” He threw up a half digested fish.

“Wonderful.” Chrysalis rolled her eyes.

Isaac stepped around the fish puddle and continued his way towards the center of the crater. “Sorry, that happens sometimes. You, on the other hand, should have doubled back like I did. I could see you nearly losing control. I’m surprised you didn’t crash.” He started panting again.

Chrysalis knew he was right, but at the moment she was more concerned about him keeling over as he trudged on. She decided she had seen enough. “Okay, you’re being ridiculous.” She flared her horn and levitated Isaac onto her back. Now she could walk towards the center of the crater with some peace of mind.

Isaac tried to push himself off her a few times, but his struggles were nothing a few gentle nudges of magic couldn’t fix. It didn’t stop her knees from aching or the dust from getting in her eyes though.

After a few steps, they could both clearly see the changelings in the center of the crater.

They were completely unharmed.

“What the...” Isaac panted.

Chrysalis jogged forward, closing the remaining distance. One of her bugs was standing over the other, crouched in a protective stance. When Chrysalis was a couple feet away, it finally noticed her. “Huh?” It spoke in a panicked version of Mii Tool’s voice and turned its head. “Who are you?”

“It’s me,” Chrysalis stated.

“Oh.” Mii Tool visibly loosened. Chrysalis could feel his tension fall into relief and exhaustion before it switched back to panic. “I don’t know what happened!” He said hurriedly. “I thought I saw her before, maybe I could’ve got to her before this! I don’t know what could’ve caused this! Do forests randomly explode in this world?”

Chrysalis raised her hoof. “Calm down. You did well to guard her in case whatever did this came back.”

She turned and looked up and down at the body of the changeling in the center of the crater, trying to figure out what happened. Her breath caught and her eyes widened when she noticed the changeling was still breathing. After an attack like that, it was merely unconscious?

A few other things caught her attention as well. On the changeling’s face was an old scar above the cheekbones, meaning that this changeling was the adorable Blush. There weren’t any other cuts or burns on Blush’s body though. The only thing that looked damaged was her changeling’s bright red, smoking horn.

She scrunched her face. That couldn’t be right, could it? Her favorite changeling wouldn’t just randomly blast away part of the forest, would she? No, there was probably some powerful monster Chrysalis had missed that could mask its magic. She would just have to remember to ask Blush about it once she woke up.

But there was something even more worrying about the situation. With a blast as powerful as that one, she was certain the rest of Equestria knew where she and her changelings were now. She’d have to get her act together sooner rather than later.

Did she really have to worry though? If every single one of her changelings had this much power inside them, couldn’t they simply overpower their enemies?

...No, a fight was won with more than just power. If every changeling threw their magic out everywhere like this, an alicorn could wait until they exhausted themselves.

Isaac didn’t enjoy being treated like an infant, being carried on Chrysalis’ back. But after his struggling failed, he started thinking rationally and warmed up to the idea that she was just trying to help him, which meant she cared about him. He eventually let himself get some rest since it didn’t seem like he was going to be able to escape his perch on her back.

After a few seconds of shuteye, he woke up to find Chrysalis staring down at an unconscious changeling in the center of the crater. She seemed to be ruminating on something, so he swung his back hooves over and crawled off her back.

She continued ruminating, so he walked up to get a closer look at the unconscious changeling. It had a scratch above its cheekbones that, to him at least, made it look kind of cute.

Suddenly, Chrysalis made a series of loud, guttural hacking sounds before projectile vomiting something green onto the unconscious changeling’s face. It turned out she was ruminating on something completely different.

“Whoa!” Isaac screamed, backpedaling. “What the fuck!?”

Chrysalis turned to look at him. He could see more than a hint of amusement in her eyes as she massaged her green blobs onto the changeling’s horn. “What?” She asked with faux innocence. “You act like you’ve never seen changeling medicine before.”

Isaac calmed himself and trotted back to the group. “Uh, no,” he said. “I haven’t seen… that… before. Could you at least give me a heads up next time?”

Chrysalis’ only answer was a devious smirk.

Isaac rolled his eyes and huffed in frustration. He needed to start being more wary of her sense of humor.

Meanwhile, Mii Tool was curiously prodding at the green goo on the changeling’s horn. “Interesting...”

“Hey!” Chrysalis grabbed Mii Tool and pulled him back. “No disturbing the patients!”

She dropped him and finished up Blush’s horn casting. “We have to get back soon. Every being in the world knows we’re here now.”

Without a word, Isaac nodded and trotted over to the unconscious changeling. He picked her up and deposited her onto his back before crouching for take off.

Chrysalis turned and stared at Isaac like he had grown a second head. “Nnnno. No. What are you doing?”

Isaac blinked. “You said we needed to get back, and we have someone who can’t move, so I’m carrying her.” He relaxed his body now that it no longer looked like he needed to take off, but his weariness made him stumble.

“Ah huh.” Chrysalis said, clearly not impressed. “We have two changelings that can’t move.” She lit her horn once again, enveloping Isaac and the unconscious changeling in a green glow. “Mii Tool, you’ll be carrying Isaac on the way back. I’ll be carrying Blush.” Both changelings levitated to their respective carriers.

“I don’t know if I can carry him,” Mii Tool protested, “I barely know how to fly.”

Chrysalis frowned as she pulled Blush’s forehooves over her neck and secured them with her own hoof. It was still frustrating that one of her changelings suddenly didn’t know how to fly. But maybe she should look at it from another perspective. Maybe she’d be able to teach her changelings about how great it was to be a changeling all over again. She smiled. “Well, it’s a good thing I have the free time for some lessons. Let’s just make it over the tree cover first.”

She took off, wincing every time she flapped her wings. She made sure to slow down for Mii Tool despite the growing danger.

After some hesitation, Mii Tool followed. Surprisingly, Isaac’s added weight barely hindered his ability to fly.

Meanwhile, near the outskirts of Ponyville, Fluttershy calmly sipped her tea. She kept the liquid in her mouth for a while, trying to figure out the strange taste. It seemed like it was a combination of broccoli and cilantro. A strange combination to be sure, but Discord was all about strange, chaotic combinations.

Said draconequus was sitting across from Fluttershy’s picnic blanket, and he smiled when a pigeon fluttered down onto his eagle claw. Once it landed, it immediately burst into flames.

Fluttershy gasped. “Discord! Wh— Whyyyyyy!?” She dropped her tea.

Discord stared at the pile of ash next to him. “Oh, you thought that—” he giggled. “Oh no, you don’t have to worry about old pidgey here.” He patted the ash. ”He always wanted to be a phoenix. I simply granted him his wish.”

Fluttershy squinted at him. As far as she could tell, he usually meant well, but he could be hard to trust sometimes.

But her doubts subsided when a small flame sprang out of the ash. A baby phoenix hen stood up, ruffling her feathers.

Fluttershy smiled. “Well, I’m glad you’ve found a way to use chaos magic to make others happy. Maybe chaos and harmony can actually help each other!” Her smile grew at the thought.

She looked up from the phoenix to Discord, but frowned when she realized he wasn’t paying attention.

“Whoaoaaahoaao...” He wiggled. It looked like a powerful wave was passing through his body. “What the?” He turned and looked to the forest. “That’s… that can’t be possible.”

“Discord?” Fluttershy stepped forward. “What can’t be possible?”

Discord turned back to Fluttershy, scratching his head. “It felt as if another alicorn popped up in the middle of the forest, but that can’t be right.” He turned back to the forest.

Fluttershy tilted her head.

Suddenly, Discord’s eyes widened. He could’ve sworn he felt this energy before. He scratched his chin. “It’s either an alicorn or a young changeling.”

Fluttershy tensed. “A young changeling?” She almost gasped when she remembered Cadence’s wedding, but then the image of a cute changeling foal wandering through the forest with a wooden sword calmed her down. Then she remembered the other creatures in the Everfree. “Oh, I hope it’s okay.” She looked up at her chaotic friend. “Discord, can you make sure they’re okay?”

Discord turned back from the forest. “I— what? Why?”

Fluttershy looked up at him with pleading eyes.

Discord cringed. He tried to look away, but Fluttershy’s puppy dog eyes were too much for him. “Fine.” He slumped. “I’ll check if the changeling is okay.” He huffed and, after a moment of hesitation, snapped his claws.

Fluttershy bent down to take one last sip of her mostly spilled tea. She could pick up her picnic afterwards.

But before she could finish the tea, Twilight came galloping over.

“Fluttershy,” Twilight yelled, “have you seen Discord?”

Fluttershy looked up. “Oh, I’m sorry, you just missed him.”

“Ugh.” Twilight stamped her hooves in frustration. “The map is calling for Discord. Where did he go?”

Fluttershy pointed her hoof to the forest.

Twilight followed the hoof. “Oh.“ She whipped her head back. ”Can you get him to come back? I wouldn’t want Pinkie and Spike to go into the Everfree alone.”

Fluttershy nodded. She cupped her hooves around her muzzle and yelled, “Discooord!”

The draconequus came back in a familiar flash of light.

“Something capable of leveling a small town just destroyed a good part of the forest, and it may do so again. Do not go towards the blast. Home in on Andres’ location to find our home, then go there and stay with him. Hiding is our safest bet.”

Andres replayed the message in his head as he stared at the large group of changelings laid out in front of him. They occasionally twitched or turned, but no one seemed intent on waking up yet.

He went back to his own thoughts.

In this new hell, alternate dimension, or whatever it was, there were beings capable of leveling towns. That didn’t bode well for him. Perhaps it would be a good idea to ignore his annoyance with Chrysalis until after those threats were dealt with. Though, that would still leave her in charge, and he wasn’t sure she was up to the task. Unlike his last boss back in Mexico, Chrysalis was too soft. She seemed like the type that would lose a battle just because they were afraid of hurting their opponent.

It was obvious in the way she handled him so carefully when she fought him, making sure to avoid throwing him into anything and just throwing him into the distance. Then, instead of really punishing him for acting against her, she let him go out of sympathy. She was far too soft.

If Andres was going to live past the next two weeks, he needed to take over.

One of the changelings in front of him yawned and another tried to prop itself up. It looked like they were finally starting to wake up.

Fear is the Mind Killer

Andres trotted over to the pile of yawning and stretching changelings at the mouth of the cave. Well, maybe five of them were yawning and stretching; most of them were still sound asleep. Five was more than enough though.

Andres trotted over with a hop in his step and a smirk on his face— wait a minute, he needed to be convincing. What did his boss look like when he talked about serious things?

Andres trotted over in a manner that could almost be described as stomping as he forced his face into a hard grimace. When his hooves finally reached the group of changelings, everyone awake could hear him thumping against the ground.

He stared back at the small group of perturbed bugs, watching for a moment as they each leaned away from his intimidating gaze. And then, he sighed.

“Finally,” Andres said, “you’re awake.” He took a deep breath. “I know all of you must be pretty confused right now, but unfortunately there are more important things we have to worry about.” He nudged his head towards the greenery behind him. “In that forest, there are monsters...”

And then he couldn’t think of what else to say.

The group stared at each other. They all looked a little worried, but they seemed much more confused by his long pause.

Ah, now he thought of something. If he could paint Chrysalis as one of those monsters, then his trust would be proven and Chrysalis would be taken care of.

“One of those monsters looks almost like we do now, she’s just a little bit larger,” Andres said.

“She?” One of the changelings asked.

Andres glared at the changeling for a second before continuing. “Yes, she. She is one of the most dangerous monsters there is. She seems fine at first, like she’s only doing everything she can to be your best friend in this weird hell hole. That is, until you’re alone with her, and then she tears you apart, piece by piece, smiling all the while.”

He stomped toward the nearest changeling. “I ran over when I heard a friend of mine’s choked screams, and when I finally got there, that monster was covered in his blood and guts, grinning like a fucking psychopath.”

Every one of the changelings was now paying full attention.

“I’m lucky she didn’t see me. She seemed far too...” He paused. “Involved with what she was doing to look my way.”

“That’s terrible...” Another changeling muttered.

Andres nodded. “Unfortunately, this isn’t a story about how I defeated that terrible monster. She left of her own accord, probably to terrorize some other group. But now I’m afraid she’s coming back.”

Meanwhile, in an equally insane part of the forest, Pinkie Pie was standing on top of Discord’s head while Spike happily walked alongside the draconequus, enjoying his view of the forest. Spike enjoyed his stroll to the fullest, right up until he saw some snakes with legs doing… something unspeakable... to a sleeping gazelle. It was sleeping, right?

Well, it looked like he had his share of forest watching for today.

“Hey,” Spike spoke up, “how much longer do you think it’ll be until we reach these ponies?”

From atop Discord’s head, Pinkie stroked her chin. “Hmm...” she thought long and hard. After half a second though, she gave up. “I dunno.” She shrugged, then crawled down onto the face of her carrier. “Hey Discord, are we there yet?”

Discord didn’t answer.

“Discooord...” Pinkie waved her hooves in front of Discord’s face. “Discy.” Despite all her efforts, there was no response save for his continued walking. She had only one option left.

Slowly, she leaned forward, stuck her tongue out, and pressed it against his eyeball. It tasted like… glass?

‘Discord’ continued walking in the same direction while Pinkie went back to sitting on his head and tilted her own, until she realized that Discord was about to walk right into a—

“W— Watch out!” Pinkie dove out of the way of the tree Discord somehow didn’t see.

Discord walked right into the tree, bounced off, fell to the side, and continued moving his legs in a rhythmic motion.

“What the?” Spike looked over. Immediately, he noticed the wind up toy mechanism sticking out of the supposed Discord’s back. “Hey! He ditched us!”

Pinkie leveled her eyes. It was just like Discord to suddenly disappear. That meaniepants.

Meanwhile, in a third part of the forest...

“T— Twilight...” Discord coughed. “Is that you?” He looked up from the forest floor at the purple blur, his wings, legs, and arms long gone.

“Discord?” Twilight peered down at the draconequus turned snake, her eyes wide. “Are you—”

“Okay?” Discord interrupted, coiling up and peering down at her. “No Twilight,” he cried, “I am most certainly not okay.”

“I was gonna say—” Twilight tried—

“They took my limbs Twilight!” Discord practically yelled, levitating into the air. “Not just one or two, but all of them—”

“Discord!” Twilight yelled. “Why are you sleeping when you should be protecting Pinkie and Spike!?”

“Sleeping!?” Discord repeated, outraged, his limbs popping back into reality all over his body as he pointed a claw at Twilight. “I’ll have you know that those little monsters made short work of me. I mean, just look at these battle scars!” Discord pulled out a book labeled ‘How to draw Anime’ and flipped to the section on scars. Twilight couldn’t help but notice one of Fluttershy’s bookmarks in said book.

Twilight pushed the book out of the way, keeping her same annoyed stare pointed at Discord. “Stop messing around! We need to make sure Spike and Pinkie are safe!”

“Oh, and what about yourself, princess?” Discord crossed his arms. “You’re the one that’s going against the map’s whims, and I remember you explaining just how dangerous that was. I bet, now that we’re together, any second now, a changeling’s going to jump out of the forest and—”

Twilight gasped. Discord was right! Any second, Pinkie and Spike would be attacked by a changeling! Then, Pinkie would freeze up like she did with the hydra at Froggy Bottom Bog, and then she’d have her love drained, and Pinkie’s love would make any changeling strong enough to fight Spike no matter what Spike tried. She had to act now! She lit her horn.

Discord vanished in a flash of purple light.

With Discord back to where he was supposed to be, Twilight raced towards the place the map told everyone but her to go. She knew how that map worked. She had to be there to keep her friends safe.

Discord popped into space and fell onto a strange black rock next to Pinkie and Spike.

“Give me a warning, why don’t you.” He picked himself up and dusted himself off.

“Discord!” Pinkie yelled, suddenly right up in Discord’s face. “You ditched us again you ditchy ditcher!”

“Hey now!” Discord grabbed Pinkie’s tail and pulled her off his face. “It’s not ditching if I leave you with a going away present. And who wouldn’t want a wind-up toy of me?”

Pinkie frowned. “That’s true...”

“Hey,” Spike spoke up, “why did you run off anyway? You’re not scared, are you?”

Discord scowled. “I am nothing of the sort. I’m just a little… uncomfortable about the fact that we’re walking towards a bunch of changelings.”

“Ch— Ch— Changelings!?” Pinkie and Spike exclaimed in horror.

“Where!? Are they here?” Pinkie added, hopping around and inspecting every blade of glass, “last time they were everywhere!” Her eyes fell on Spike.

Spike withered under her suddenly scrutinous glare.

“Spike!” She grabbed his face. “I need you to be one hundred percent, super duper serious with me. Do you think you can be that serious?”

“I— I think so?” Spike nodded hesitantly.

Pinkie pulled him even closer, squinting. “Are you, or are you not, a changeling?”

Caught up in the panic, Spike looked over his body for reassurance. “I don’t think so.” But that didn’t seem to satisfy Pinkie. What could he do to prove he wasn’t a changeling? Was he a changeling? ”I— I don’t know!” He answered, staring, slack jawed, at his claws. “Am I?” He looked back at Pinkie. “Are you!?”

“Huh?” Pinkie dropped Spike. “Am I what?”

“A changeling!” Spike nearly screamed.

Pinkie’s eyes went wide. She looked down at her hooves like they were somepony else’s. No, somebug else’s. “I— I don’t know what I am anymore!”

Discord smiled at the duo. It was fun to watch chaos evolve right in front of his eyes without him having to do anything. He was Discord; of course he was enjoying it. However, these were his friends, and he was the responsible one if his recent time helping Twilight was anything to go by, so it was his job to calm things down. After all, they couldn’t all be changelings. All the changelings were up ahead. It’s not like they’d be hanging out in the forest to replace random passers by, right?

Just to be sure, he reached behind his back and pulled out what he thought was a mirror from one of his pocket dimensions. But when he brought it in front of him, instead of his own beautiful face, he only saw that of a changeling.

“AAAAAAAaaaaaaahhh!!!” He screamed in a dignified and totally not girly and high-pitched at all way as he threw the ‘mirror’ away. “We’ve all become changelings! The end times have come!”

All three of them screamed together. Then, as one, Discord, Pinkie, and Spike turned and ran face first into a tree, a draconequus, and a large rock respectively.

While the crazy trio was recovering from their panic attacks, Chrysalis was holding one of Mii Tool’s wings in her hooves.

“No, see, you have to tilt your wings forward, not your body.” She quickly but carefully pressed his wing forward with her hooves. ”About this far should be good.”

Mii Tool yanked his wing back in surprise. “Your hooves are hot!” He warbled about in the air, a sleeping Isaac barely managing to stay on his back. Once he managed to stabilize himself, he muttered something, “I spent so long doing mental calculations when I could’ve just taken a measurement...”

“Huh?” Chrysalis tilted her head. That would explain all his mumbling and intense gazing off into the distance when she was trying to teach him something as simple as flight. But… wait, did he mean hot as in very warm, or hot as in attractive? It was a bit weird for him to say her hooves were attractive, and she didn’t know of any calculations that dealt with attractiveness, yet, but her hooves were no warmer than they always were. “What do you mean?” She asked.

“Just what I said,” Mii Tool responded. “Your hooves are burning hot.” He looked at her hooves with a worried frown.

Chrysalis touched her face with her hooves, just to double check. Nope, not hot. “My hooves are completely fine.” She turned to look at him, her head still tilted. “Is this some kind of practical joke? Because I’m afraid I don’t really know how those work.”

That was hard for her to say. Lying to her changelings was weird. Truthfully, she experienced practical jokes several times when she was disguised as different ponies. She just didn’t think Mii Tool would appreciate her… disproportionate responses.

But Mii Tool merely shook his head. “I’m not joking. Your hooves are really hot, and I think it’s from flying too fast.” He looked over her body like a doctor would look over a patient. “How fast were you going?”

Chrysalis shrugged. She was getting a little worried now. “That weird air explosion happened twice when I went fast enough.”

Mii Tool nearly fell as he started staring at the forest below. “Could it be?” He muttered. “No… wait.” He turned back to Chrysalis. “I think that means you were going at mach one for a while, then slowed down, then sped up to mach one again. But heating from adiabatic compression would put your temperature at 70 degrees Celsius. I don’t think that’s healthy. Also, the compressed air and the airflow would mean more friction and heat transfer...” As he trailed off, his worried look only worsened. Now he was looking at Chrysalis like she had a terminal illness.

Chrysalis blinked. “But I don’t feel hot at all.”

“Ugh...” She heard a female voice from her back. It sounded like her passenger was finally waking up. Now she’d have somebug to throw a wrench in Mii Tool’s little prank. “You are hot,” She heard Blush say. “I feel like I slept on a radiator.” Wait, what? Nevermind. They had probably planned this before somehow, and Blush being awake was more important than some planned prank.

“Hey, Blush!” Chrysalis greeted happily. “What’s your new name, now that you’re awake?”

Blush answered lazily. “Anna,” she half groaned, “but I prefer Blush.”

“Hmm, that’s an interesting na—” Chrysalis’ entire body perked up. “Wait, really? You prefer your old name?”

Mii Tool tilted his head. “Old name? What are you talking about?”

Chrysalis was vaguely aware of something practically jumping off her back. It was strange how numb it felt though.

“Chrysalis!” Blush yelped from above her. “You’re hot!”

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. She might as well have fun with this. “Why yes, I know...” She held her hoof against her cheek and posed, as if she were laying on a couch in midair.

“This is serious!” Blush yelled. “You not feeling heat could mean your nerve endings were burned! We need to— I should—” She panicked, holding her head and glancing around the forest for… something.

Now Chrysalis was starting to freak out. She didn’t feel any heat at all, but her changelings really didn’t seem like they were lying either.

Wait, now that she concentrated, could she feel some heat? Okay, it wasn’t really heat that she was feeling. It was more like tiny ants were crawling all over her body, and It was becoming increasingly uncomfortable.

“There!” Blush, shouted, pointing to a nearby lake. She then pushed Chrysalis down towards it.

Unlike pranks, this was a first for Chrysalis. Never before had she been bughandled by her changelings without her permission. She decided to go along with it. It seemed like they were trying to help her, whatever was wrong with her. Wait, did Blush remember Chrysalis’ name?

As she pondered that thought, she heard a tired, “what’s going on…?” from Isaac, before she collided with the water that Blush had spotted. Now she felt the burning.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!”

Spike turned his aching head towards the voice. He could’ve sworn that sounded just like… “Chrysalis!” He jumped. Why was she screaming. Was she screaming in rage? Was she coming to get them?

“Who?” Discord asked as the tree he was stuck in grabbed his shoulders with its spindly branches and tried to push him out.

“Ow.” Pinkie plugged her ears, cringing at Chrysalis’ pained shriek. “Somepony doesn’t sound happy.”

“I know, right?” Spike trembled. “What if— what if she comes over here and takes all our love away?”

Finally, the tree managed to push discord out of itself. Then it stood up and walked away, ‘arms’ crossed.

Discord shook himself, flinging tree sap everywhere. “No, really, who is this ‘Chrysalis’?”

“You don’t know?” Pinkie turned and eyed him inquisitively. “I thought you knew all about changelings. I mean, you knew their species name...” She paused, trying to think of something else.

“Of course I know what changelings are.” Discord rolled his eyes. “They’re bugs that change color, kind of like ponies. I don’t know every single one of their names though.”

Spike blinked. “But, Cadence’s wedding! Changelings were pouring in from the sky!” He threw his claws above his head and slowly brought them down, which somehow indicated ‘pouring in from the sky’. “How come you knew my friends’ names but not Chrysalis’”

“Oh!” Discord perked up. “I remember that! Lot’s of chaos...” He grinned devilishly before he caught the glare of his companions. Then he raised an eyebrow. “Wait, those were changelings? Are you sure we’re talking about the same thing?”

“I—” Spike started. “But you just said changelings were bugs that could change shape.”

Discord frowned at Spike. “No, I said bugs that could change color. I suppose they could change shape too, given enough time, but that might be a bit painful. Besides, I’m sure ponies could do that too.”

Spike just stared back at Discord, mouth agape and palm outstretched. After a couple moments, he closed his mouth and returned his arm to his side. “You’re just messing with me, aren’t you. ”

Discord blinked. “No, actually. I honestly have no idea what you’re talking about, which really is a first—”

“Hey guys!” Pinkie interrupted, carrying something on her back.

Spike looked away, thankful for the interruption. “Hey Pinki— whoaahoa!” He toppled back before pointing at her. “Why are you carrying a changeling?”

Pinkie shrugged. “Well, I found it lying on the ground where Discord threw it. It seemed kind of rude to just toss the changeling and leave it there.” She frowned. “I mean, they might’ve been super rude when they invaded during Cadence’s wedding, but that doesn’t mean we should be rude back.” Then, more quietly, she added, “I’ve seen where that leads...”

Discord ignored his annoyance at being interrupted and walked over to the ‘changeling’ Pinkie was carrying. He had to do something about those Canterlot ‘changelings’ and their uniform appearance...

“This is...” he stared down intently at the unconscious changeling, and, with a hardened resolve, snapped his talons. “...justice.”

Suddenly, the changeling was dressed in a light blue hawaiian shirt and pink, plastic sunglasses.

“Huh,” Spike commented. “It actually looks pretty good in it.”

“See!?” Discord gestured at the changeling. “Chaos, can be beautiful.”

Spike rolled his eyes.

“Ooh!” Suddenly, Pinkie leapt through some trees and looked at something off in the distance. “I think I heard something! Oh, I think I see something!” She whispered back excitedly.

Spike and Discord followed. It was hard to see, but off in the distance, there was a large gathering of black figures.

Discord pulled out some binoculars and pushed them against his face. “Ooh! Looks like some changeling’s not too popular.”

“Should—” Pinkie stammered, clearly flustered. “Should we help her?”

Butterfly Feng received Chrysalis’ message to head towards Andres. She was a little confused about how to find him, but before she could ask, she somehow just felt where he was. It was a sense that didn’t need confirmation, like feeling hunger or pain. Without question, she knew exactly where she was relative to Andres. And even if she still wanted to question that feeling, she also wanted to discover if it was true on her own.

As she followed it, it led her pretty far across the forest. She decided to spend her time traveling flying leisurely, in peace. Mitul was learning about flying with Chrysalis, so he wasn’t asking anything about computers or hardware. She simply took in the world around her as she flew, and she enjoyed the dark greens and browns of the forest in the fading afternoon light.

But now she was close enough to Andres to see him and his group of changelings. It looked like there were about fifty of them up and about, and she had to admit, it looked like they were getting things done.

From her view from the forest’s edge, she saw a massive cave, but the entrance was barred off by a giant half-built door with several spikes sticking out. It looked like the door was made out of interleaved logs, with holes for some that were carved to have sharp ends sticking out. It looked deadly. However, she remembered Chrysalis backhanding a lion thing through a few trees, so she wasn’t sure what purpose that door served. They might as well have been put up some menacing looking chunks of styrofoam. There were several open holes at the top too, so it wasn’t even a full door.

Well, the door would probably be finished and upgraded later. Time to make a good first impression.

Feng flew up to the nearest changeling in the fast moving group, landed, said “hello!” and waved to catch his attention, then offered a hoof for handshake. This technically was a workplace, but they didn’t seem formal at all—Chrysalis seemed much more formal than this group and their awkward, panicky movements—so she just greeted them as if she were at a park.

The changeling jumped. It turned around with—not fear—but absolute terror on its face. It calmed down quickly when it saw her though. “O— Oh! Hello there!” he smiled back and took her hoof, shaking it a bit too roughly. “Sorry, we weren’t expecting any visitors.”

‘Wait, what?’ She frowned. That wasn’t right. “Really? Chrysalis told everyone to meet here, and I know that message was sent to everyone. Did that Andres guy not tell you?”

For some reason, the changeling’s pupils shrunk in the middle of her speech. “Wait, Chrysalis?”

Feng nodded. “Yes. So you have heard about her.”

The changeling held a look of wide eyed terror as its voice now trembled. “Y— Yeah. She looks like us, but bigger, right?”

Feng tilted her head. She thought the bug was acting strange, but she couldn’t quite put her nonexistent finger on what was wrong with it. “Yeah. She’s pretty nice when you get to know her. She’s a bit of a hugger though, so watch out.”

The changeling just stared back at her for a moment. Then, without warning, he turned, galloped towards the rest of the group, and yelled, “Hey everyone! This person met with Chrysalis!”

The entire group stopped mid-step. Changelings carrying or carving logs dropped their sticks and stones respectively, and turned around to look at her. They were now silent, save for some murmuring that often included a fearful uttering of “Chrysalis”. Suddenly, this didn’t feel like a safe haven.

One bug in particular, sitting in one of the holes at the top of the door, flew down at her. But he stopped when he was above most of the crowd.

“So, you made friends with Chrysalis?” He asked with a dangerous edge to his voice. Feng felt her instincts continue to tell her that this particular changeling was Andres.

Strange. Why didn’t he come down and talk to her face to face like a normal person. “Yeah. She’s nice.” She said so the whole crowd could hear, then looked around warily when that crowd just stared back, each changeling at least a little scared for her. “Why is everyone acting so weird?”

Andres flew a bit lower. “I have something to tell you.” If it were possible, his eyes became more dangerous looking. “The Chrysalis you know isn’t your friend, she’s a monster.”

“W— What?” Feng shrank back. Now she was feeling incredibly uneasy. Why would this guy call her friend a monster? Chrysalis saved her from that lion thing, and she trusted him to host the meeting location, so he was obviously lying. Why in the world was he lying though?

“Ch— Chrysalis isn’t a monster!” she yelled back loud enough for the crowd to hear, flustered. “She saved me from a monster! She saved my life!”

The crowd started looking back and forth amongst itself.

Up above, Andres was looking a little frustrated. He looked off into the distance, then opened his mouth and closed it like he was going to say something but… wait a minute, he was definitely lying! He was struggling to come up with a lie right in front of everyone. That fucking Spaniard!

Her attention went back to the crazy Spaniard once he finally came up with a response. “She only saved you so she could have you for herself later. She wants to be the one to tear you apart, not some forest monster!” Andres yelled back, glaring at her.

“Yeah!” Some people in the crowd shouted, albeit in a much more pleading tone than Andres’ near obvious rage. Many of the changelings still looked unsure though.

But now Feng was mad. This Spaniard was insulting her best friend! “That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard!” She turned to the crowd. “And you’re stupid for listening to this… this...”—she struggled to think of a proper insult for the traitor—“...this fucking Spaniard locust!”

The crowd stepped back in shock.

Andres frowned. “I’m Mexican,” he said.

Feng stared back at the crowd, and her eyes widened when she realized her mistake. Oh, crap, she just insulted everyone, didn’t she? They didn’t look very happy. In fact, some looked more than ready to attack her. A few were slowly creeping towards her. Crap, she wasn’t ready for this!

She took a few steps back. She needed to get away. She needed to warn Chrysalis.

Chrysalis! She yelled into the link.

Oh crap. She could see Andres’ eyes widening after her cry for help. He was furious. She needed to run— wait, she could fly! She crouched…

What!? Chrysalis responded in an equally panicked tone. What is it!?

Andres swooped down in an attempt to intercept Feng once she took off, but she flew above him. Chrysalis! She yelled again. This Andres guy is being a fucking Mexican and trying to take your job!

Oh, snap! Mitul added helpfully. That’s how they say it, right?

Quiet. Isaac said. I think this is serious.

You bitch! Andres screamed over the link as he turned to chase her. Why don’t I insult your country, you fucking chinese… chink!

Okay… Chrysalis’ exasperated voice came over the mind link while Andres chased Feng over the forest. What’s going on?

Andres is trying to replace you! Feng screamed. He gathered a crowd and told them—

Don’t listen to her lies! He interrupted. she’s just trying to—

Andres. Chrysalis said.

It was only one word, but the emotions behind it and the danger they implied was more than powerful enough to stop both changelings in their tracks.

Chrysalis continued. Feng, tell me in detail about this attempt on my crown. Andres, do not interrupt again.

Feng was more than ready to oblige. He gathered this crowd, Feng said, fear obvious in her mind’s voice as she hovered in place, and told them you were some sort of monst—

“Gotcha!” A pair of hooves wrapped around her.

Shit! She yelped into the link as she was pulled back despite her struggles. No matter what she did, he wouldn’t budge.

This was it. She was going to die. She was going to get dragged back to that stupid mob, and then she was going to become a blood sacrifice to their sun god. That was what Mexicans did, right?

A — nd-res! Even through her distress, Feng could feel Chrysalis’ deafening rage. St— op th— righ— ow! I sw—!

But Andres just kept dragging her back.

Soon, she was on the ground. After that, she was pressed up against one of the many logs while several terrified changelings frantically tied some vines around her.

“Stop it!” she screamed.

“It’s for your own good!” somebug from the crowd shouted back.

Feng had given up. She was tied tightly against that log, and it was obvious that she couldn’t get out, so she stopped trying. Besides, she just had to wait until Chrysalis arrived. Hopefully Chrysalis could deal with that Mexican jerk. No, not hopefully, definitely.

It was a little insulting that they left her outside though. Andres said that finishing the door was more important than getting the crazy lady inside. So she just lay there, tied on a log and left in the middle of a field.

That was why when she finally craned her neck and saw Chrysalis flutter down, she felt a wave of relief. But then she noticed the state of her friend.

Chrysalis was panting heavily. She had to be carried by two other changelings while another lay down on her back. Her eyes were bloodshot. Her skin looked redder than most changelings’.

She looked like she already fought a great battle and barely made it out alive. She looked exhausted, like she would much rather be resting in a hospital bed.

Yet, Chrysalis stepped forward, and the force of her step shook the earth.

“Andres!” she called, her voice a bit raspy.

The bug in question flew up to her in its favorite theatrical position, above everybug else.

The pain in her voice couldn’t be disguised, but the wave of wrath that washed over every changeling in the area more than made up for it. “You lied to everybug, just so you could take my crown.” She looked past him. “You...” She clenched her teeth in rage. “You wasted all the wood we gathered on an ugly door that won’t stop anything.” Her body sagged, but she took another step forward. “You’ve terrified my changelings for no reason.” Then, gathering her breath, she yelled, “and you attacked Bu—”

Chrysalis paused and looked over at the changeling in question. She sensed a wave of confusion and slight betrayal from Butterfly when she said her name.

Hmm, perhaps names were only given to those that could be trusted. Well, if that was the case, it was only a little more annoying than not being allowed to say please.

“You attacked another changeling, just because she wouldn’t agree with your blatant lies!” She crouched, steadied her battered body, and lit her horn. The air around all the changelings started picking up, and the space around Chrysalis seemed to twist and shred around her. Isaac, Blush, and Mitul slowly backed away.

“She’s attacking!” Andres yelled as a green aura surrounded him. “She has some sort of weird power!”

Chrysalis normally would have just clamped his muzzle shut and finished her spells, but the immense wave of fear from the crowd paralyzed her. Her horn went out as she backed up in shock. “What!? No!” she exclaimed, but the fear in the crowd was still strong. “You believe him?” She looked from changeling to changeling. “I was just going to tie him up so we could have a more sane—”

“Lies!” Andres yelled. “I’ve seen you use that magic before. If the crowd didn’t scare you right now, I’d have been crushed.”

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “See what I mean?” she spoke to the crowd. “I can’t even get a word in—”

“Silence!” Andres yelled before turning back to the crowd. “Do you see what she’s trying to do? We have to kill her before she uses her insane powers to mind control us into liking her, right before she kills us one by one!”

Chrysalis gaped at him. Did he really just say that? He would kill her? Was he stupid? There was a reason she didn’t kill ponies, and it wasn’t because she felt sorry for them, but for a changeling ruler to kill another changeling ruler? That would turn ruling into a lethal job. Heck, many species considered that to be one of the things that separated animals from sapients.

The friends by her side gaped as well, but that was more shock than outrage.

“Go!” Andress yelled and pointed at her, taking advantage of their surprise.

But much to Andres’ surprise, the crowd didn’t budge. There were a few changelings that hesitantly moved forward, and there were a few changelings that were looking at Andres with increasing doubt, but most were just unsure of how to act. It was probably because, instead of a horrible monster like they expected, not only did they see a frustrated and slightly scared version of themselves, but also someone that looked like they were in no shape to fight them, let alone kill them. But, in addition to everything else, Chrysalis felt strangely familiar to all of them.

“Go!” Andres repeated, frustrated. “Kill her!”

The crowd started moving a bit more as a few bloodthirsty changelings galloped forward. But before anything could happen, one changeling in particular ran out in front of the crowd.

Chrysalis instinctively raised a shield for the first time in her life, but she was relieved that she didn’t need it. Instead of attacking, the changeling in front of the crowd immediately turned and pointed at Andres. “That’s enough!” he bellowed.

Everyone stopped. Chrysalis lowered her shield.

The changeling sat down and addressed the crowd. “Look, I think Andres might be lying.”

“See!?” Andress yelled. “She’s already acting on—” Suddenly, he went silent.

Everybug looked up to see Andres stuck in a green sphere of magic. No matter how much he yelled or banged against it, neither he nor his interruptions came out. Looking back in front of them, they could see Chrysalis’ horn alight once again.

“That should hold as long as I remember to keep it up,” Chrysalis said. Then, gesturing to the changeling in front, she added, “Now, please continue.”

The changeling cleared his throat. “Okay...” He paused. “I— I’m sure you’ve all noticed Andres’ long pauses when talking about… important things, and how he makes a scene whenever anyone doubts him. And how the way he acts just seems… off.”

He looked back at the crowd. Most of them still looked stressed more than anything else, but a few gave him some encouraging looks and a few more looked like they were thinking about things along with him.

“Anyway,” he continued, “I don’t think we should kill this Chrysalis person just because...” He looked up at Andres smashing himself futilely against his shield. “Just because some guy with anger problems told us a story, and one that he had to constantly pause to think about.”

He looked back to the crowd. “But, I don’t think we should risk just denying that story either, in case some parts of it are true.” He looked back at Chrysalis. If anything, she looked more curious than threatening, with her tilted head and doglike sitting posture… He didn’t know what to think of that one changeling with the scratch on its face trying to form a halo over Chrysalis’ head and smiling cheesily though. He turned back. “If we really want to figure out who’s right, we, uh, we should hold a court! Now, who should be the judge? Or the defense? Oh, and the prosecution?”

“Oh awesome!” A voice was heard from the forest, “Live action court drama!”

Everybug turned their head to see a small dinosaur next to a… pink cat-horse thing, which in turn was next to an abomination against nature. Next to all of them was a changeling wearing a hawaiian shirt and comically large pink sunglasses.

“They spotted us!” the cat-horse yelled. “Run for it!”

Before anyone else managed to react, another shield went up around the new species and floated up and over to Chrysalis, leaving the changeling of the group to gallop after it.

Once the sphere floated in front of Chrysalis, her eyes widened like she was looking at an early christmas present. “You’re Discord, aren’t you? I read about you in one of the books I stole!”

“Well,” Discord started, snapping his eagle talons.

Chrysalis felt the creature’s magic surge forward against her shield. It was powerful, possibly more powerful than her own magic! But he was just trying to destroy her shield by poking a hole in it and then folding it into origami for some reason, like it was a just a ball of paper mache. That was a mistake.

Chrysalis erected a second shield just as the first released along with all of the magical power she put into it.

The crowd of changelings just stared at the floating bubble in confusion. To them, it looked like the abomination against nature just snapped its claws and made everything inside the shield explode into green smoke.

Ms. Feng watched as all the changelings finished building their makeshift courtroom. Though, it was more just a bunch of logs laid on the ground where the seats and stands would be. She watched as the rest of the crowd all took their spots, whether it was in the prosecution, the defense, or the audience, and then promptly forgot about her, leaving her tied up in the dirt.

“Hey!” she called, struggling with her bindings. “Don’t just leave me behind you stupid chrysanthemums! Untie me!”

A few nearby changelings stopped and stared at her like deer caught in headlights. They stayed like that until Chrysalis yelled from behind the ‘defense stand’ she was now sitting in.

“Untie her,” she glowered at the hesitating changelings. “Now.”

Finally, the changelings ran up and pulled at her bindings. After a couple tugs, the vines fell to the floor and Feng flew up into the air.

“Freedom!” she exclaimed before flying up and doing a nose dive over to the ‘defense stand’ where three worried changelings stood by a confused looking Chrysalis.

“Now,” she heard a confident sounding near-whisper that must’ve been Isaac’s, “they’re gonna ask you a bunch of questions. Just let us answer most of them. It looks better if we defend you instead of you defending yourself.”

Feng absent mindedly noted his slightly reddish skin and his swollen wings. While he wasn’t in as bad condition as Chrysalis, it still looked pretty painful, so she had to wonder why he wasn’t constantly wincing like Chrysalis was.

“Oh awesome!” a changeling with a painful looking scratch on her face spoke up, breaking Feng from her thoughts. In front of the changeling that must’ve been Blush, there was a meal of several pink orbs, and Blush was having trouble talking between bites. “We’re sure to win if we’ve got someone who knows law on our side!” She picked up another one of the fishy smelling orbs and stuffed it in her face.

“Actually”—Isaac rubbed the back of his neck—“I just played Phoenix Wright once or twice and read about some famous court cases.”

“Ohh...” Blush cringed. “Well that’s… not nothing...”

Just now noticing her arrival, the third changeling peered over the duo and waved at her. That must’ve been Mitul.

She found herself smiling back before she trotted over. It wasn’t often that she found someone both so friendly and so curious about things that were actually interesting, in her opinion. “Hello! It’s me, Butterfly!” she held out her hoof, still smiling.

“Hey, uh, Butt-er-fly.” He raised an eyebrow before he shrugged and took the offered hoof. ”Do you know much about flying?”

“Oh yeah!” She smiled, letting go of his hoof and hovering into the air a little. Flying was fun! “I don’t think I could teach you though. You have to learn it by practice.”

Mitul slumped. “Ah.”

Aww, he looked all sad now. “I could help you practice,” Feng offered, smiling encouragingly.

Just then, a loud banging interrupted their conversations. “Order!” The changeling in the ‘judge’ stand yelled. “Order in the court!” It looked like it was the bug that had been captured with the three other animals, since it wore the same ridiculous hawaiian shirt and pink sunglasses.

“You only do that when the court’s acting up!” somebug from the crowd yelled.

“Oh, really?” The ‘judge’ shrugged. “Whoops.”

“Anyway,” he continued, “first, let’s start with the prosecution—”

Discord shoved changeling, pony, and dragon alike behind him so he could have the first word. “Objection!” He threw his lion palm out at Chrysalis. “Of course she’s a monster! Just look at her holes! And her fangs!”

Chrysalis absent mindedly observed one of her hole filled hooves before pressing it against one of her fangs. She cringed in pain once her now sensitive hoof pressed against her sharp teeth. “Ow.”

“And just look how pitch black she is!” Discord continued. “Everypony knows that darker somebeing is, the more evil they are.”

Every changeling stared at him like he had just insulted their race or something. It was a little unsettling.

“Sheesh.” Discord crossed his arms and sulked. “You’d think I walked into the wrong neighborhood or something.”

“Thank you Discord,” the ‘judge’ said. “You are now banned from prosecution, forever.”

Discord frowned. “Oh, you’re just jealous of my good looks. I have half a mind to show you a prosecution so good that— Hey!” He didn’t have a chance to finish he statement before Pinkie and Spike both began shoving him out of the stand.

“Why were the spies even allowed to participate in the first place?” Chrysalis muttered, rolling her eyes at the strange scene that just manifested itself in front of her. It turned out rolling her eyes was a bad idea, because now a sharp stinging pain forced her to close them. “Ow.”

“Let’s try that again,” The judge held the bridge of his nose, chuckling. “Will the prosecution make an actual statement.”

This time it was Spike that rushed forward. “I’ll give you an actual statement!” He pointed a claw at Chrysalis and gave her a glare one would usually reserve for monsters that sucked all the love out of ponies. “She’s such a monster that she invaded my brother’s wedding”—he held up one claw—”impersonated his fiance”—another claw went up—”and sucked out every last drop of his love!”

Several changelings in the audience choked on whatever fish they were eating.

Spike continued unperturbed, ”I’m just glad Shining was able to throw up his shield again before all you love suckers… I mean...” He stopped, noticing all the so called ‘love suckers’ staring right back at him. Though, they didn’t look as angry as he expected.

“Yeah!” Pinkie added, not noticing the same stares as Spike. “If Shining and Cadence hadn’t summoned that shield, like bwooom!” She threw her hooves above her head. “—Then we’d probably be back in Canterlot with you bugs sucking all our love out with twisty straws. And then we wouldn’t be having this fun court drama in the woods!” She smiled.

Everybug now turned their blank, confused stares to her.

“What?” She looked back at them. “That’s what happened.”

After a moment, the ‘judge’ sighed. “Pinkie, Spike,” he said, “This isn’t a play. We’re deciding someone’s fate here. You can make jokes some other time.”

“B— But!” Pinkie stammered. “It’s true!” But several of the changelings that decided on prosecution started dragging her out of the stand.

Suddenly, Chrysalis stepped forward. Feng could feel some turmoil from her, but she just chalked it up to the pensive look Chrysalis had.

“Act— Haugck—” Chrysalis covered her mouth as she coughed. Holy crap, was that blood? “Actually,” Chrysalis continued like nothing happened. “She’s telling the truth.”

The prosecution changelings let go of Pinkie.

Chrysalis paused, looking to each and every changeling in the audience before she spoke again, “A couple days ago, I went through with a plan that I had dreamed about for years. A plan that would change things so you, my changelings, wouldn’t be constantly starving.”

“That’s not true!” Pinkie yelled. “The changeling invasion was more than a year ago!”

Chrysalis’ eyes bulged. “More than a year? That’s impossible.” She shook her head and glared at Pinkie. “Nevermind, I’ll find out the real date later.”

She took a breath. From her composure and the pensive look still on her face, it was clear the things she was about to talk about weighed heavily on her mind.

“Before and during the invasion, none of you had the ability to speak, let alone the ability to design these... amusing debates we’re having now.” She let out a tiny giggle as she looked at one of the logs near her. “Now”—she looked back up—”the reason for that is love starvation. I read about love starvation when I was back with my parents: If a changeling doesn’t absorb the life force, or ‘love’, of other beings, they begin to lose their magical strength, their eyes turn dull, they lose their intelligence, and finally they lose their physical strength. At the final stages, they lose the ability to move at all. Once that happens, you can either wait for another changeling to rescue you, or slowly die.”

She closed her eyes, taking a moment to gather her thoughts before looking back up.

“I hunted animals for food for I don’t know how many years, but I was barely keeping any of you from becoming catatonic. It was impossible to get enough food. I had to control every single one of you; I had to send changelings out who could barely tell the difference between up and down, and make sure you didn’t get hurt when you hunted animals much larger than you. I could never break up my attention between more than ten groups before I missed something. And when I inevitably made a small mistake and split my attention too much, it nearly cost one of you your lives.” She glanced at Blush.

“So instead of hunting animals, I decided to attack the neighboring countries. They had so much food they were practically throwing it away!” She looked at Pinkie now. “The plan itself was a total war that started with me sending the declaration just as I replaced one of their rulers and… incapacitated the captain of their guard: regular decapitation strategy. Then, all of you handled the penetration and then the combined shock and awe and encirclement. After that, it was supposed to become a bellum se ipsum alet” —she rolled her hoof at the foreign phrase before wincing and putting it back down—”both from the food we’d gain, and the choke points we’d map out.” She smiled innocently, “It worked pretty well… Well, until we got blasted by a shield made out of food, but that’s still a pretty good outcome, right?” She stared at the crowd, hoping somebug would agree with her.

Every being in the clearing was silent, except for Discord who was now snoring loudly. Many of the changelings had blank, thousand yard stares. Isaac had turned around and was now staring at Chrysalis with a look usually reserved for crazy people who ate their neighbor’s dogs because they were low on food.

“So we are monsters!” somebug from the audience yelled.

“How do you eat love?” another, more skeptical changeling called out.

“Why didn’t you just ask for help?” The judge asked.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. “No species has ever helped changelings when they needed it.”

“That’s not true!” Pinkie shouted. “I would totally have helped you guys if you asked nicely!”

“Yeah right!” Chrysalis barked. “Back in my parents home I have generations worth of hate mail in response to my parent’s pleas for help. They insulted us while we starved!”

“B— But!” Pinkie’s lips quivered. “That, can’t be true! Nopony could be that horrible!”

Chrysalis was about to dismiss the crazy pink pony, but something about her seemed to pique Chrysalis’ interest. In fact, she was intrigued enough to jump out of her stand and fly over to Pinkie until they were practically muzzle to muzzle, despite the incredible pain in her wings.

“Uh...” Isaac stared.

“Should we stop her?” somebug from the crowd asked.

“Oh yeah sure,” another bug added sarcastically, “she might eat her love. Are you actually following any of this?”

Chrysalis ignored them while she inspected the pink pony from every angle, literally walking circles around the pony. Finally, she came to a conclusion and sat back on the ground in front of her.

“What’s wrong with you?” Chrysalis asked. “I thought I could detect it when you were arguing with your friends, but now I can’t feel even a hint of hatred in you.”

Pinkie looked over at Discord, and when she did so, there was a small amount of hatred, or at least distrust, coming out of her. But when she noticed Discord was using a changeling in the crowd as a headrest, her hatred went away without a trace at the adorable scene. When she saw Spike shivering and glaring at Chrysalis, her hatred spiked back up against Chrysalis, but when she noticed some changeling giving him a large leaf to use as a makeshift blanket, she started letting out a completely different emotion: trust. It was small, but it was definitely there.

Chrysalis backed away slowly, eyes wide, even as the trust changed to confusion and compassion. As she scrambled back to the ‘defense stand’ and behind the changelings she trusted the most, she never felt another hint of hatred from the pink pony. Come to think of it, she didn’t feel any hatred between all three of those creatures, and Discord couldn’t have been casting his strange magic in his sleep since magic always required conscious effort.

“You okay?” Isaac asked as Chrysalis continued staring at the pink pony.

“I don’t think so,” Feng answered for her, “she seems all over the place.”

Chrysalis put her hoof to her head as she tried to sort out everything. What she was sensing was impossible. Yet it was happening, so what could possibly explain it? Had the pony been faking? No, that was simply impossible, and it was even more impossible when she considered the dragon and draconequus. However, it was either that, or they all trusted each other, and that would blow a hole in everything she learned as a nymph. Wait! Another option was that the draconequus was only feigning sleep while it continued casting magic to confuse her.

Well, there was only one way to find out for sure.

Chrysalis flew over to the sleeping draconequus and quickly turned him over. Then she stomped down hard on his wing. Now she just had to observe him avoiding the attack, or feel the hatred from his group spike as his magic faltered.

Instead, he just yelped in pain. The dragon and pony’s hatred only increased towards her, not Discord. And while the pink pony became shocked and angered, she only cried out, “Why did you do that!?” instead of attacking like Chrysalis would have expected.

Also, she couldn’t really say the pink pony’s anger and distrust towards her meant much, because a lot of her changelings were throwing a lot more of those emotions at her right then.

Uh… whoops?

Side Chapter: Thorax visits his family for the holidays

Author's Note

This is an unedited response to an episode. It doesn't really pertain to the main story, but I thought it'd be fun.

Oh, there might be a few really minor spoilers, but it shouldn't be too bad.

Side Chapter: Thorax visits his family for the holidays

Thorax flew back to the hive, his emotions changing as he switched his thinking between his happy pony and dragon friends, his nostalgia for his old hive and how great it would be if they were friendly like ponies were, and his thoughts of how Chrysalis would start frothing at the mouth if he suggested making friends with ponies.

As he flew over the forest, he counted the hills, noted the distance from the mountains, and observed each body of water he passed over. The beauty of the landscape soon gave way to boring repetitiveness, and he was glad he knew how to use the various landmarks to orient himself rather than have nothing to do. But now, he knew he was almost there.

He looked right in front of him. Sure enough, there was a large black mountain in the middle of a forest. It was strange, usually the place was hidden much better, if he remembered correctly. Changeling material covering the outside of their home just didn't make sense.

Now filling up with curiosity, Thorax fluttered down to the mouth of a cave on the black mountain.

Things quickly became even more strange. There was changeling material on the outside of the mountain, but the material on the inside was splotchy at best. He would've bet that more than fifty percent of the ground was left completely uncovered.

And where was the rest of the hive?

Thorax looked left and right, observing the five entrances. To the left and right were Chrysalis' chambers. Regular changelings were not to go in any of those places. In front, the door to the hatchery stood tall, and since that was the hatchery he came from, he was free to enter.

Thorax walked up to the massive door, pushed it aside, and trotted in.

In the way of the hatchery was a room filled with history he didn't care for. He was there to see his hive-mates. Though, to be perfectly honest with himself, he might've wanted to stall a bit, since he was still unsure of how his hive would react.

He looked at some of the posters on the walls. One particular poster showed zombie changelings crowding what looked like Manehattan's streets.

Well, that might've been interesting, if not for the freaky decor his old home now sported.

Thorax flew on, entering his old hatchery.

He landed in the center of the room.

He stared blankly for several seconds.

This... this couldn't be right.

As he looked around, there were no changelings, and, like the rest of his home, the changeling goo was splotchy at best. He could see the rock walls that should've been hidden behind the goo, and worse, he could see connected pieces of what looked like rusted metal sticking out, like bone sticking out of a long dead animal.

If he was to be perfectly honest with himself, he didn't care much for his old home. Still, the sorry state of his birthplace made him whimper.

Dejected, Thorax turned around, flew back to the mouth of the cave, and lay down. He stared out to the forest surrounding his birthplace.

A long breath filled the cave with reverberating sound as Thorax sighed. What had happened to the rest of his hive? Was there a crisis? Should he have returned sooner?

Or, maybe they just moved. That would still be sad, but at least he would meet some of his fellow changelings later on.

But, wait a minute, what if many of them were starving like he was? He had a solution to their pain, but he wouldn't be able to get it to them in time! Maybe if he waited, one of them would come back.

A picture of the rusted metal sticking out of the formerly living hive cave flashed into his mind. No, this was not a hive that changelings were coming back to. He would have to find his hive-mates elsewhere, wherever they were.

He laid his head down on one of the remaining splotches of changeling goo and closed his eyes, giving the former hive a moment of silence.

The wind outside blew past the mouth of the cave.

The birds chirped.

Thorax's heart beat rhythmically.

Holy SHIT guy! Thorax heard a female changeling laughing in his mind, from a distance. What the FUCK is wrong with you!

Thorax perked up. He could hear his hive!

Hey, you laugh now, but I'd bet you a grilled salmon that it would help with love extraction. I mean, how else do you extract love? He heard another male changeling respond. He assumed this one was 'Guy'.

Thorax perked up. His hive-mates were alive! Oh, how great it would be when he saw them again!

A scene made its way through the hivemind. A changeling hoof picked up a terrified and flopping fish. Then, the hoof turned the fish over and...

"W-what? No. NO! NOOO! Augh! Gross! What in Equestria is he doing!" Thorax yelled, closing his eyes and trying to shake the images out of his head.

Wow, okay. Did you really have to add pictures? The female changeling said.

Thorax picked up a hoof full of the changeling goo he had been resting his head on and shoved it against his eyes. It didn't work.

Well, 'Guy' responded, how else would I get the point across?

There was no response.

You know what? I'll see what Chryssi thinks. 'Guy' continued.

Wait, Chryssi? How did he get away with calling Chrysalis that? Was he one of the higher ups?

Chryssi! 'Guy' yelled.

Putting the question of how that changeling managed to get away calling Chrysalis 'Chryssi' aside, Thorax stood up. Maybe now really was a good time to reintroduce himself to his hive. They seemed friendly enough, if a bit perverse. Chrysalis even seemed willing to accept cute nicknames.

No. Chrysalis responded, her annoyance clear in her monotone response.

C'mon, Chryssi! 'Guy' yelled again.

Please no. Chrysalis replied again.

Thorax started homing in on the origin of those voices. It would only be a few minutes before he was with his hive again.

Oh come on now, Chryssi! 'Guy' continued badgering the queen, I've got a great idea. You know how some of the changelings like wearing clothes right? Well, if you can call what they wear clothes.

Yourself being one of the first offenders, Chrysalis pointed out.

Thorax tilted his head. That was new.

Well, 'Guy' continued, ignoring Chrysalis' logic, how about we make some games where, if they lose, they have to take off one piece of clothing?

...I'm listening. Chrysalis said.

Thorax tilted his head. Really? Chrysalis was listening to allowing strip versions of games because she didn't like changelings wearing clothes? Weird.

Okay, 'Guy' said, so we take a fish... Suddenly, the same image of a fish popped up. The changeling hoof started to turn it over and—

Thankfully, the scene cut out. Ah huh, I'm just going to stop you right there, Chrysalis said. If you want to see if it works that way, by all means, have fun with your new job.

Uh, 'Guy' responded more quietly, I-I was just kidding.

Really? Chrysalis said. But if you don't do it, we'll never know.

I'm good. 'Guy' said.

I know you're good, Chrysalis said. Which is why you'll be good at your new job.

Thorax could hear whimpering noises reverberate in the hivemind.

Okay okay, Chrysalis said, mirth filling her voice. I was kidding too. Of course I'm not changing your job into... that.

Thorax stopped flying forward and hovered in place. The voices were now below him.

He stared down at the empty field beneath him and the cliff face next to it. All he had to do now was flutter down, quickly find his way into the entrance, and reintroduce himself.

Suddenly, a broadcast came from the female changeling 'Guy' was talking with earlier. It looked like she was doing full body push-ups as quickly as possible. Actually, she was doing them more quickly than possible. Well, really, It looked less like push-ups and more like a parody of a bad dance move.

Sorry about that, the female changeling said. Trying to come up with new exercises is hard.

Oh? 'Guy' said. I know all about making your body harder. You gotta do partner exercises. I like the one where you lay down and wrap your hind legs around my shoulders so I can keep you balanced while you do ab workouts.

Thorax blushed when an image came to mind. He decided to hover in the air a bit longer.

...Y'know what, fuck you. The female changeling said, though it was in a strangely friendly tone.

Hey, if you don't like that one, we could do the one where you do squats, and I lie down under you to make sure you have proper form. 'Guy' said, having trouble keeping himself from laughing.

Argh, no! I completely forgot what I was doing! Chrysalis cried out.

Maybe you should focus on your work instead of private conversations between your subjects then, 'Guy' replied.

...I hate you. Chrysalis said.

Okay, so they were a little weird, but they were his family.

Thorax started hovering down to the mouth of the cave.

Suddenly, an image of a changeling being slapped with a fish entered Thorax's mind. The fish exploded, and the poor changeling was flung across the room.

No, please, I didn't mean it! The changeling spoke in a higher pitched version of 'Guy's' voice.

It's too late now! The female changeling laughed. You're going to remember not to—

Wait, 'Guy' interrupted. Why not just do that in real life? Why go to all the effort of showing me a movie of it? Just come over here and slap me with your fish.

Don't tempt me, The female changeling replied.

Hohooooo! 'Guy' made some sort of noise.

Wait, was that another perverted joke I didn't get? The female changeling asked.

Yeah, you're not having much luck with them. Why don't you come over here and get lucky? 'Guy' answered.

Thorax stared down a bit longer.

Aaand there it was: a green flash lit up the ground below Thorax and a crashing noise nearly deafened him.

Oh yeah! 'Guy' said. that's more like it!

Thorax turned around. He could always visit his old family tomorrow, or the next day. Besides, they seemed like they were doing well enough without him.

REM Cluster, part one

As the crowd of changelings erupted into uproar, Isaac facehooved, Blush tilted her head, Chrysalis reared her head back, and Mitul and Feng continued talking about flying, computers, and flying computers.

“C-calm down!” Chrysalis yelled, a fair amount of panic in her voice as she lifted her hoof off of Discord’s wing. For some reason, the changelings obeyed her, although they weren’t quite sure why.

“I was only checking if he was using magic—” she tried to explain, but didn’t get far.

“Hey!” Chrysalis yelped once Discord grumpily snapped his talons. The white flash of magic transformed Chrysalis’s legs into pillows, which collapsed and let her entire body flop onto the ground, as if she were some sort of large fish. Then, with another snap, Discord was back in the stands, yawning and stretching.

“A draconequus can’t even rest his eyes around these buggers,” he said.

Pinkie gigglesnorted. “Hehee! Buggers.”

“Hey! Change me back right—” Chrysalis started, but she decided not to ask her enemies for favors. “Ugh, nevermind.” She lit her horn, trying to analyze and undo Discord’s magic, but after a couple of moments, she gave up and enveloped her legs in a green fire, transforming them back.

“Look!” Chrysalis turned to the now thoroughly baffled crowd, some of which were holding back screams of terror. “I was just—”

Instead of listening, several changelings in the crowd started murmuring, drowning out Chrysalis’s voice. A few near panicked changelings could be heard over everybug else.

“Pillow legs! I just saw pillow legs, didn’t I?” one asked in a refined English accent.

“Could he have just snapped his fingers and turned her entire body into an inanimate object?” a bug with a gruff voice asked.

“She might be a softy now,” another bug started in an Australian accent, “but what I wanna know is: were those down or feather pillows?”

The cacophony continued as the changeling in the Hawaiian shirt slowly raised his hoof. “ORDER!” He yelled, slamming his hoof against the log in front of him and shattering it into wooden chips.

The crowd stopped and looked back at him. Even Chrysalis turned to him.

“Wow, didn’t know I could do that.” He looked up from the log and back to Chrysalis. “Oh, if we’re to have a proper court, you need to go back to your defense stand.” Now he looked off to the left. “At least, I think you do.”

“You think I do?” Chrysalis raised an eyebrow and glanced over to the ‘stand’ where Isaac was beckoning her over.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine,” she said. “I’ll humor you for now.” She flew back to her ‘stand’ and rested her hooves against the ‘stand’, or log, in front of her. She looked like she was actually enjoying herself for a moment. Her mouth formed a small smile. She was ready for any question her changelings could throw her way.

Discord slowly raised his talons. “I have a question.”

Chrysalis’s cute smile warped into a potent death glare.

“Oh god, what now?” the judge pinched the bridge of his muzzle with his hoof.

“Do I actually need to be here?” Discord asked.

“No,” the judge answered. “Get out.”

“Oh!” Discord’s eyes sparkled as he clasped his paw and claws together. “I’m free to go? I don’t have to watch you all use the most boring method possible to overthrow your queen. if that’s even what you’re doing?”

“Hey now,” the judge started. “I’m not trying to overthrow anyone—”

“Well, as they say—” Discord stepped onto the log acting as the prosecution stand. He was suddenly wearing a pair of pink stilettos. “—there’s no place like home—”

“Hey!” Spike yelled, jumping up and shoving his hands between Discord’s feet, stopping him from clinking the stilettos three times. “You can’t just ditch us! Again! You’re suppose to be helping us!”

Discord turned and stared back at Spike. “Help you?” he asked. “How am I supposed to do that?”

Spike was at a loss for words. “You know, uh...”

“You’re supposed to be protecting us from all the nasty changelings that want to suck out all our love and leave us in this scary, dark forest as husks of our former selves until we finally manage to gather our wits and survive off the fruit of the land, only to have our love sucked out again by all these nasty, horrible changelings.” Pinkie stopped for breath

Every changeling stared at Pinkie.

“I would never!” somebug in the crowd said.

That started a chain reaction. The entire crowd was once again in uproar, and random bits of sentences could be heard.

“—just horrible—”

“How could she even think—”

“What does that mean?”

“—racist—”

“ORDER!” the judge yelled again, quieting everybug down.

“Thank you,” Discord said to the judge over his shoulder, still standing on a log in pink stilettos. “Now I can tell this pony and that dragon that—”

“I thought I told you to get out,” the judge interrupted Discord. “Go home,” he continued, “go sunbathing. Take a nap. Eat some food or something.”

Discord turned and faced the judge. “Are you ordering me around.” He placed his lion paw over his chest.

“Yes,” the judge deadpanned.

Discord frowned and flew up to the judge, his muzzle only inches from the judges. “You do realize that I could turn everybeetle here into the most adorable plushies, confectionaries, or whatever else I wanted? And nopony would bat an eye because nopony likes changelings.”

“I dare you,” Chrysalis said as she crept up from Discord’s right, her smooth, soft voice failing to hide the edge her sadistic anticipation was giving her. How she managed to get from the stand to Discord’s side, no changeling knew. “If you so much as touch a single one of my changelings...” she trailed off, smiling, her slitted, shrunken pupils set on Discord.

Slowly, Discord reached out his talons and placed one of them on the judge’s face.

Chrysalis frowned. Her eyes were still pinpricks, and they were still latched onto Discord.

Discord slowly pulled his talons back. Then, after another moment of hesitation, he snapped them. The judge disappeared in a flash of light, replaced by some sort of giant mole creature.

“Aww, what the...” the judge looked over his new body, grimacing.

Suddenly, a thunderclap could be heard from the center of the crowd as green magic lit the area for a fraction of a second. Before any changeling could react, a massive green shield surrounded the crowd of changelings, and both Chrysalis and Discord were gone.

Nearly every changeling turned to see what the shield was, why it was up, and what was going on. But what they saw only led to more questions.

Outside, green lightning rained down as black and white clouds gathered to a central point only to vanish into nothing. Mint jelly that radiated pure hatred rained sideways, eating away at the trees and the rocks. Thunder and lightning boomed as the forest itself was bent and twisted so it could be hurled at random points in the sky, only to disappear behind some cloud and come out of some completely separate location. The few animals that hadn’t burrowed underground for shelter betrayed their normal behavior, swimming through the air to gnaw at the shield. New mountains could be seen popping into existence in the distance, only to be blasted into dust by unseen forces.

It was chaos.

It was awe inspiring.

But after about a minute or so, some found it boring to stare at, and a few bugs started turning back to the court scene.

The mole judge cleared his throat. “I don’t think calling ‘order’ at this point will help anything.”

Several more changelings turned to him. Pinkie turned as well, and Spike looked back over his shoulder.

“I suppose we can continue,” the judge said. “The most disruptive people are gone, so it should actually be better.”

“Now”—he put his hoof down on his so called stand, green thunder flashing behind him—“if the defendant and the prosecution are to be believed, Chrysalis, and apparently all of us as well, were involved in some sort of resource war. I’m not really sure what to believe anymore, but I really don’t think we have to worry about Chrysalis intentionally killing us, even if she’s not very good at foreign affairs.”

He waited, but only heard attentive silence from the crowd. He looked up. “I personally don’t feel like doubting her if she’s fighting for me right now, even if it’s a fight that could’ve been avoided... I don’t want to be a mole-thing for the rest of my life, so I hope she wins.”

A few changelings in the crowd nodded in sympathy. Though, many had huddled towards the center of the shield for safety, and a few were still curiously inspecting the shield and the creatures outside of it.

The judge continued, staring his beady mole eyes down upon the prosecution stand. Many of the changelings still there started backing away.

“Does the prosecution have anything to say that will prove Chrysalis is a danger to the changelings around her?” the judge continued. “That was what this was originally about.”

Pinkie hesitantly raised her hoof.

“Yes?” the judge asked.

“She stepped on Discy’s wing for no reason. He was just resting his eyes.”

Again, the crowd started murmuring.

“And then her legs transformed into pillows,” somebug from the crowd spoke. “And then all this!”

The judge nodded. “I now believe she might have had a reason for doing so.”

“But...” Pinkie started, but nothing else came out. For the first time in a long time, she was at a loss for words.

There was one more deafening crash from above, much louder and closer than the other thunderclaps. Several changelings looked up to see Chrysalis’s battered and bruised body smash through the shield. She hit the ground with a resounding smack and flopped onto her side.

After a blinding white flash, Discord was now standing in front of her, panting heavily.

Several changelings in the crowd were having a hard time believing Chrysalis was still alive. Their hearts ached, hoping that she hadn’t died for them while they were only doubting her.

A soft green glow surrounded Chrysalis’s body. Her cuts and bruises could be seen healing themselves.

Chrysalis turned over, her body shaking, and stood up one hoof at a time. She growled at Discord.

“You know,” Discord panted, “this would’ve been so much easier if you’d have just stayed in the puppet dimension.” Then, he frowned back at Chrysalis, raised his eagle talons, and—

“STOP!” Spike yelled.

Chrysalis only turned her eyes towards the dragon. Her eyes were filled with contempt, and she quickly turned back to the draconequus, only to turn back to Spike when she noticed Discord was no longer paying attention to her.

Discord was staring back at Spike, one eyebrow raised. “Stop?” he asked. “But why? Isn’t this what I’m here for? Helping you? Protecting you?”

“You’re not helping us!” Spike yelled, his fists at his sides. “You’re making us look bad. We were called by the map to help these changelings, one of which saved my life, and you’re making us look like complete jerks!”

Discord shrank, both figuratively and literally. “Well, that one changeling might’ve been good, but their queen—”

Spike wasn’t having any of it. “We don’t even know why she did any of the things she did. That’s what this whole court is here to figure out!”

Discord shrank even more, floating back over to the prosecution stand. “Fine,” he said awkwardly, “I’ll just… be over here...”

Seeing that the battle was now over, Chrysalis shakily took to the air and flew over to sit by her defense.

“Are you okay?” Blush asked.

Chrysalis eyed her changeling, her face quickly changing back from murderous to motherly. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I’m fine.” Her stomach growled. “I am a little hungry though.”

Blush smiled and slid her plate of fish-love-orbs to her queen.

Chrysalis smiled back, then turned to the plate, leaned her head down, and slithered her long tongue around several of the orbs before sucking them into her muzzle and smashing them with her teeth, glowing pink-fish-love-magic now dripping out of the side of her muzzle.

Isaac cleared his throat. “Your honor,” he said in a questioning tone.

“Go ahead,” the mole-judge replied.

A small, “hey, change him back,” could be heard from the prosecution before the judge turned back to a changeling in a flash of white magic.

Deciding to ignore the random magic, Isaac continued, placing his front hooves on the log in front of him, “While Chrysalis may not be perfect, she has gone out of her way to make sure we were safe.”

“In addition to defending us now, when she met me, I was with Andres, like nearly everyone here was. He tried the same routine with me; convincing me that Chrysalis, and perhaps every other being in this world, was a monster. However, he was the one that struck first, tossing a rock with enough force that it could’ve killed Chrysalis if it hit her. Yet she didn’t retaliate. Instead, she only made us follow her and gather all of you guys to this spot.”

He gestured at the destroyed forest around them, including the cave that stood strong and the shield that was evaporating into tiny shards and floating away. “Do you think it’s a coincidence you were all gathered under shelter? Do you think Andres put you here? No, Chrysalis gathered you here so everyone would be safer.” He stood back and nodded towards the other changelings near him.

Feng stepped forward hesitantly. “She protected me from a manticore.”

“She helped me with flying,” Mitul said, flapping his wings and managing an unsteady hover.

“I actually remember the ‘resource war’ and a few things before it,” Blush said as she pushed another plank of pink-fish-orb to her queen, only to have it pushed back when her own stomach growled. She looked down at the plate, then looked back up. “She’s the only reason we’re all alive right now.”

Isaac looked at Blush for a second before turning back to the judge and nodding. “As I’ve come to understand, her only goal is making sure we’re safe and happy. However,” he turned to Discord, who was now standing on Spike’s head in miniature form, continually cringing as he wrote things down on paper, ”she doesn’t trust other species at all. I’m not sure what to make of that.”

The judge nodded. “Well said.” He adjusted his sunglasses. “So, what should we do with Barney, the frankenstein, and the horse-kitty?”

Every changeling turned to stare at the trio.

Pinkie backed away from the crowd, only to bump into some of the formerly prosecution changelings behind her. “Uh, I wouldn’t do anything mean...”

“It doesn’t matter.” Isaac looked at her. “Even if you don’t, if you return, there could be others like your friend there. And if they gathered our location from you, we could be goners.”

Pinkie simply stared back at Isaac with a blank look.

“I’m actually wondering about that.” the judge gestured to the destroyed forest around him. “Does this still count as hidden?”

Chrysalis spoke up, “Actually, it’s both hidden and guarded now. While a few curious species might show up to see the aftermath of my battle, it would be dangerous for any species that can’t fly. We’ll have to only allow changelings out in pairs on the ground unless we’ve established safe paths, but that’s always been a good idea.”

“Fair enough.” The judge shrugged.

“Oh!” Pinkie blurted out. “You guys totally shouldn’t elect Chrysalis for mayor! She’s speciesist!”

Spike turned to Pinkie, raising an eyebrow. “You’re still doing this?”

Chrysalis blinked. “‘Speciesist’?” she repeated. “What does that mean?”

“It means you only care about changelings and don’t like other species,” Pinkie clarified.

“Oh.” Chrysalis smiled. “Well, that would be true then.”

Many of the changelings in the group facehooved, and the rest just frowned as if they’d eaten something bitter. Pinkie pumped a hoof. “Wow, I’m good. I actually really didn’t think that would work, like, at all.”

“Well...” Chrysalis squinted at Pinkie, the first pony she remembered that didn’t direct hate or fear at her when shown her true form. “That’s because all species fend for themselves. That is why we changelings nearly starved. Back in my parent’s home, there’s a stack of letters.” She looked over the crowd. “If Discord’s actions aren’t enough to go by, there’s a stack of eighty two letters, all calls for help, for food, rejected vehemently!” She stomped her hoof. “Not only were all those other species happy to let my changelings, all of you, starve to death; they insulted us as well!”

Pinkie’s jaw went slack. “B-but that’s impossible! Celestia would never do that!”

“Oh really?” Chrysalis raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure one of those letters was from her.”

Pinkie just frowned.

“Okay, everyone,” the judge said after a few seconds of silence, “I’ve come to a judgement.”

The entire crowd stared back at him.

“From what we’ve seen and heard, it should be obvious that meetings with other species should be handled with extreme caution. I find it hard to believe that other species wouldn’t help each other simply because they’re different species. In the span of this small court session, we’ve seen species attack each other as well as help each other. If not for that lizard creature, Chrysalis’s fight would have gone on even longer.”

Her eyes widening in sudden realization, Chrysalis turned to Spike.

“In case the verdict isn’t already clear,” the judge said, “I hereby declare Chrysalis, not guilty!”

“Not guilty of what?” Somebug from the crowd asked.

“I, I don’t remember...” the judge answered back.

Meanwhile, Chrysalis was still staring at Spike. Wait, was she remembering correctly? Did she hear that one of her changelings saved him? She couldn’t deny that he had stopped a battle that she wasn’t sure she could’ve won.

Memories of her childhood with Scale flashed into her mind. She could almost feel herself once again laughing whole heartedly at those silly mad libs books.

Her eyes started watering before she managed to tear her head away.

Spike was glad to not have a large bug queen staring back at him. He smiled to himself, examining his claws. He managed to save somepony else—well, somebug else—and he managed to stop Discord from doing something he would probably regret.

He also heard something in the grass.

Spike looked back up. Chrysalis was standing right in front of him.

“You,” Chrysalis said, making spike jump. “You’re different somehow. There’s plenty of hate in you, yet I can taste love flowing freely as well.”

Spike narrowed his eyes at her.

“You saved my life,” Chrysalis said. “Even though you hate me. Even though we’re different species.”

Spike continued glaring back.

“Why?” Chrysalis asked.

Spike crossed his arms. “I didn’t do it for you. I did it for your changelings.”

Chrysalis blinked. “Still, I don’t understand why.”

Spike knitted his eyebrows. “You may have ruined Cadence’s wedding and given Twilight one of the most horrible days of her life, but your changelings were just following orders.”

“Oh,” was all that Chrysalis said in response.

Chrysalis then turned to the draconequus and the pony, tasting the unexpected emotions from each. Remnants of guilty pleasure came from the draconequus, and, strangely enough, the scent of curiosity easily overriding fear came from the pink one. As they almost imperceptibly huddled together under her gaze, she could taste comradery flowing between them as well, even from the draconequus she had suspected was using mind control magic.

Suddenly, a changeling called out. “Everyone!” it yelled. “We got all this wood. Let’s try putting a roof over our heads before we go to bed.”

The rest of the group jumped to action, though many were either tired, shaky, or huddling close to other changelings for fear that some stray magic from that battle would still strike them down.

“You three,” Chrysalis spoke. “How would you like to be my guests?”

“Oh!” Pinkie smiled. “We’re invited? What to? That’s super nice considering we were just arguing against you in this court case.”

“To be her prisoners...” Spike mumbled under his breath.

“Oh,” Pinkie deflated a little.

Chrysalis grimaced at Spike before smiling back at Pinkie. “No, nothing like that.” She waved a hoof. ”You and your friends get to watch me and my drones rebuild the hive. Really, it should be a rather joyous occasion, building and decorating our new home.”

Pinkie’s smile grew wider.

“And”—she looked at Pinkie’s cutie mark—”Oh! I remember you. You’re that party pony.”

“That’s me!” Pinkie put a hoof to her chest.

“Is this really happening?” Discord asked Spike.

Spike shrugged.

“So, party pony,” Chrysalis said, her mouth turning into a smirk, “do you think you can provide the entertainment and the refreshments for my hive in between work?”

“Can I?” Pinkie asked, looking at Chrysalis like she just asked her if she could walk on her own hooves. “Of course I can.”

Chrysalis squinted at Pinkie. “Please remember this is recreation for adults, not birthday parties for foals.”

Pinkie tilted her head. “Well duh. Why would you think I would get the theme wrong.”

Chrysalis paused for a second. “No reason,” she lied before turning to the others.

Both dragon and draconequus were staring at Pinkie and Chrysalis with bemused looks, arms crossed, and one eyebrow raised.

“Do you two have something to say?” Chrysalis asked.

“I don’t know,” Spike replied, “do we get to choose whether we want to stay or not?”

Chrysalis looked at Discord, her face appeared world weary for a split second before her gaze hardened. She turned back to Spike. “I’ll be honest, you could try to fight your way out with your chimera friend there, but would you or that pink pony survive the battle?”

Spike frowned. “Fine.”

Around then, the changeling in the Hawaiian shirt trotted up.

“Oh,” the former judge said to the queen, “looks like you’re handling it.”

Chrysalis turned to him. “You assumed I wouldn’t?”

The bug shook his head. “Oh, no, I just thought you would’ve passed out already. Besides, we still have to set up a list of people to watch these creatures, someone to cover our tracks, clean up the battlefield, write the procedures for traveling through the forest and looking for other changelings, talking with the prisoners—”

Chrysalis flinched.

“Oh, come on.” The changeling stomped his hooves. “They can’t possibly not know they’re prisoners. I mean, they can write letters and stuff, but they’re gonna have to stay here until we sort things out.”

Chrysalis turned back to Pinkie, but she noticed Pinkie’s expression hadn’t changed one bit. Apparently the pony was only playing the fool.

She turned back to the changeling. “I’m impressed. You actually have something of a plan.” She patted her changeling on the head. “But it can wait until morning for the most part. For now, having changelings watch over our guests at all times, as well as posting a watch-changeling, should suffice.” She yawned. “You deal with that, I’ll oversee and help with building shelter, I’ll have… Isaac, and then myself check over your work, and then we can sleep.”

Chrysalis turned back to the trio of non-changelings.

“So, are we just going to go along with them?” Spike asked Discord.

“Well, I suppose so,” Discord replied, scratching his neck. “Like you said, we’re not really helping them if we’re fighting them.”

Spike nodded.

“I dunno,” Pinkie said, “that battle was fun to watch.”

Discord considered this.

“Hey,” the former judge spoke up, “why should only Chrysalis and Discord fight? Why don’t you join in too?”

Pinkie stared back. “Huh? Me? I don’t want to fight you. I found you in the forest, and we traveled together.”

“OK,” the judge replied, “then as best buddies, can we just get some sleep? I woke up this morning as a bug in summer clothes, a June bug if you will, and I still tried to be a voice of reason here. But then your friend decides to make me his mole right before giving the rest of my kind a healthy fear of mint jelly. I’m not having a good day.”

“...Fine,” Pinkie sighed.

With that, Chrysalis and her changelings guided their guests to what would soon be the new hive.

“Hey,” Discord whispered to Spike, “Since when did Pinkie Pie become our spokespony?”

Isaac scrunched his face as he trotted by Chrysalis. He, Chrysalis, and almost every other changeling were carrying log after log towards the large just inside the mouth of the cave. When he came up to Chrysalis’s side, he gave her an exasperated sigh. “You were supposed to stay quiet or discuss things with us before we talked to the rest of the court.”

Chrysalis looked over to him, a little annoyed. “Why? The truth in my words was obvious? Every changeling saw how little that monster and his friends cared for us.”

Isaac squinted at her. “You know that’s not true. That lizard thing probably saved your life.”

Chrysalis was silent for a moment as she trotted. Eventually, she simply decided to change the subject. “Why should I ‘stay quiet’? As long as I’m correct, I shouldn’t need anyone else to defend me. The truth behind my words should be obvious.” She paused. “It’s typically the ones that opt not to speak that are actively hiding something, and from my experience, most creatures assume as such when one refuses to speak.”

Isaac glowered. “Your ‘self evident’ words and actions nearly got everyone killed! At this point, I don’t think anyone doubts that you’re fighting for us, but you’re pretty darn reckless! I don’t know if we’re truly safe with you as a leader. Though you’d make a fine guard.” He turned, nearly smacking a few nearby changelings with the wood he was carrying. “But I don’t know who else is better suited to lead us. I certainly don’t want to, that ‘judge’ is a joke, and the last person who stepped up tried to commit murder.” He let out another frustrated breath before trotting towards the half finished house at a faster pace.

Chrysalis rolled her eyes. She was too reckless to lead? What did he know? She had given Discord a second chance even after he disobeyed her and laid his dirty claws on one of her changelings. There was the confusion and murky feelings that every changeling seemed to feel whenever her ‘speciesism’ came up, but they would just have to get used to the way the world worked. Though, that dragon apparently wasn’t used to the way the world worked…

As Chrysalis pondered, she fell behind Isaac and Blush trotted up from behind. “I think he’s right. You could’ve talked that thing’s friends into stopping him before that battle started.”

“What?” Chrysalis snapped. “Was I supposed to ask some other species for aid to stop their captor from fighting me? Was I supposed to beg for help, just to give another species a chance to spit in my face when I’m most vulnerable! The only thing I know about changelings outside my hive is their demise at the appendages of other species!”

Blush jumped back in surprise.

Chrysalis sighed. “I’ve never heard or seen different species working together until that abomination and his pets came by just now. The only real example of that is the ponies and their different limbs, but they nearly killed themselves trying to figure out which of their races was better. And they’re not even different species! Every other species keeps to themselves. The griffins? The minotaurs? The dragons? Except for the stray pet or dignitary, they keep to their own species and let the others deal with their tragedies alone.”

She looked at Blush, who was now just tilting her head at her, waiting for her to continue.

So she did, “I’ve seen the rare donkey and mule among the ponies, but they seem to be the butt of the joke more often than they are equal citizens...”

Blush was silent for a moment as they flew up and laid their logs onto the house. “Did you give the ponies other options before invading? Did you request help?” She asked.

Chrysalis paused, trotting in silence towards the next set of logs.

“No,” she said finally. “Those letters I talked about were all from my parent’s home. They were probably written before I was born. I didn’t want to actually receive one of those vile things.”

Blush frowned. “You should’ve written a letter anyway.”

The duo trotted back to the makeshift court at a leisurely pace.

“I did write one letter,” Chrysalis said quietly enough that no other changeling would hear. “That was the declaration of war. The response was… not quite what I had been expecting.”

“I believe one of the things she wrote back about was lending help if I needed it. I suspected that this Celestia was either very desperate to keep a war away from an important wedding day, or she was just scared and trying to trick me. Actually, I still believe that, and any sort of meeting to receive ‘help’ would have put you and the rest of my changelings in danger.” She looked over at the four prisoners in the log cabin and the changelings now watching over them. Only one of the prisoners was actually restrained at all, and that was Andres in his ball of vines.

“The dragon and the pink one were anomalies,” Chrysalis continued. “Though, they might turn out to be incredibly useful anomalies.” She slowed down as she thought. “If we wanted to change the way the world worked, to have species help each other when in need, then that pink one might work well to pacify the ponies into accepting such cooperation. Same with the dragon. If it’s in their genes to not hate us on sight like so many others, or even to help us, then perhaps we should help make some more of them...”

Blush frowned. Many things about what Chrysalis just said didn’t sit right with her. As they picked up another log from the ‘courtroom’, Blush decided to respond to a couple of those things.

“There was another pony that didn’t hate or fear us on sight, back in Canterlot. A brown stallion, if I remember correctly. Instead, I felt curiosity from him. It made him easy to subdue. Same with one of the guards. And that’s only including the ponies I personally dealt with.” She turned to look directly at Chrysalis. “You can’t ignore four separate creatures. Did you only get your outlook on other species from a stack of letters.”

Chrysalis clenched her teeth. How dare—! No, no… She calmed herself. She had to think matters like these through logically. If what Blush told her was true, then she couldn’t ignore it, but what did it mean? Two instances might have been a fluke, even across species, but four was a pattern she couldn’t ignore.

“But there’s something that bothers me...” Blush tapped her chin, going back to her work. “Why were we starving in the first place, back in the original hive? You were able to gather a bunch of food with Isaac. It seems like the only reason we had trouble finding food back then was because you had to command us all. But I don’t think changelings would be born under the effects of malnutrition.”

Chrysalis furrowed her brows. “I never said you were born that way. My parents told me you were refugees.”

“Refugees from what?” Blush turned to look Chrysalis in the eyes. “Even without the strength and intelligence we have now, you were nearly able to defeat another species. What could possibly have turned us into refugees?”

“...It was something from our home continent,” Chrysalis answered vaguely.

“You don’t even know what species it was?” Blush raised an eyebrow. “You have a bunch of rejection letters as records, but nothing about the species that supposedly put us in this situation to begin with?”

Chrysalis stared down at her changeling. She hadn’t expected an outburst like that.

“S-sorry.” Blush looked off to the side. “I don’t know what got into me. Something about all of this just seems off.”

“No.” Chrysalis shook her head. “I believe it was the minotaurs. But it is a little strange that they were so far in the background that they became forgettable. I don’t know if I’ve actuall

y seen a picture of a minotaur from our continent up close before, drawing or not.” She made a not to remember that inconsistency, along with the strange runes, and the not-hateful non-changelings.

“So, what was our history like?” Blush asked. “I’m sorry, something in me just has to know.”

“Hmm...” Chrysalis tapped her chin. “There was one article where the changelings were wearing metal spikes in some sort of desert wasteland.”

“Wait, what?” Blush’s eyes widened.

Perhaps she remembered the poster, or the events behind it, Chrysalis thought.

“There was also some sort of disease that turned changelings against each other. I swear some of the diseased ones looked like they should’ve been dead,” Chrysalis continued.

Blush started gaping. Chrysalis could feel a sense of dread flowing from her. “You can’t be serious.”

“There were also these silver changelings with red eyes—”

“Okay, Stop!” Blush shouted.

Chrysalis stared at her.

Blush held a hoof up to her face. “Those,” she said through clenched teeth, “those are movies. Mad Max, zombies, and the Terminator.”

Chrysalis blinked. “Movies?”

“You know,” Blush said. “Cinema?”

Chrysalis looked at a tree in the distance. “I think I remember something like that from the ponies.” She paused. ”Wait a second.” She turned back to Blush. “What are you saying?”

“I’m saying”—Blush stamped her hooves—“that my gut is telling me there’s something wrong with our whole situation, and I think it has a lot to do with our ‘history’.”

Chrysalis stopped moving. In her head, she was back where she had been first introduced to her changelings—to all the refugees she had to take care of.

She walked through the cramped room, all of its pictures of weird races and other changelings doing crazy things, but didn’t pay much attention to it. Then, she remembered turning around and seeing those terrifying runes form on the now locked door.

After that though, the closest memory she could bring up was her first hunt. She had given up searching her home for her parents, but as she hunted, she repeated to herself that she’d find her parents, maybe beat them up a little, then make them help her out with her hive.

She repeated that hope every day she hunted, to the point where she started to believe it. It was only after several months that she thought they might not be worth the effort, and it was only after that when she began to consider how hard it might be to find two changelings in all of Equestria. Further, two changelings that specialized in the shapeshifting spells that earned her species its name in the Equestrian language.

Just now, she realized that she’d been passing through that history room nearly every day, because the only room large enough to house all of her changelings was directly behind it.

Chrysalis’ heart started racing. Why was the history room positioned there if not to hammer it into her head? Why couldn’t she have been trusted to honor the passed changelings’ memories and read up on their history by herself? If that history was a lie, then whoever, whatever had fabricated it not only insulted her, but the entire changeling race! Even if it wasn’t, the mere placement was an insult to—!

Chrysalis quickly came back to reality as her eyes tracked something black and hoof-like moving back and forth rapidly in front of her face.

“Hellooo.. Chrysalis?” Blush continued waving her hoof in front of Chrysalis. “Are you okay?”

Chrysalis smiled, thankful for the interruption. She needed time to think about a proper method of torture for the being that put her changelings’ ‘history’ where it was.

“Yeah.” Chrysalis smiled at the ideas that came to mind. “I think I’ll be just fine.”

After what felt like hours, Chrysalis finally swept her gaze over the inside of the completed log cabin. The house was fine; it was fully made, and it was more than she expected to have done in a day. It was also large enough to house all of the changelings she had found so far, even if it would be a bit cramped. There was just one problem with it.

Discord, in what seemed to be a form of apology, filled the house with furniture. The comfortable looking beds filled the floors, as well as parts of the walls and ceiling. On each bed was what looked like an apology letter. Apparently, from what she heard from her changelings, Pinkie, the pony, and Spike, the dragon, urged Discord to apologize to every one of her subjects.

The beds were comfy, so Chrysalis didn’t mind them. No, she minded how they were being used.

If there was one thing Chrysalis liked about her life before the Canterlot invasion, it was when she slept in the center of a giant pile with all of her changelings. Now it looked like there were only one or two changelings per bed.

“Hey!” Blush waved at her from across the room. “I saved you a bed.”

Shrugging, Chrysalis flew over. Indeed, Blush had two beds.

Chrysalis looked from Blush to the other bed, then back to Blush.

“Oh...” Blush’s smile sank. “Right.”

“I thought you remembered being a changeling?” Chrysalis fluttered down to the bed Blush was currently occupying.

“Yeah, just...” Blush trailed off as her queen pushed the two beds together with her magic and laid down, using Blush’s body like a headrest. “Right. This is completely normal. A regular, normal, changeling cuddle puddle.”

“Cuddle puddle?” A nearby changeling perked up.

Suddenly, green flame enveloped Chrysalis’ legs, turning them back into pillows.

Blush turned around and shrieked once she laid eyes on the pillow legs.

It looked like Chrysalis would actually have to undo Discord’s spells now.

Discord, Pinkie, Andres, and Spike all laid down on their respective beds, and only Andres’s bed was contained inside a wooden jail cell. They were all sleeping, except for Pinkie.

“Okay, this stopped being fun an hour ago!” Pinkie suddenly shot up in her bed and stared at the changeling with the hawaiian shirt just outside of her bed. “Why do you have to keep staring at us?”

“I’m just doing my job,” the changeling responded.

“Yeah, I get it!” Pinkie threw her hooves up. “You’re job is to stare at us creepily! That doesn’t explain why though!”

The changeling shook his head. “No, my job right now is to make sure none of you escape.”

Pinkie looked hurt for a second, then looked around at her fellow inmates, all of whom were sleeping. “Yeah, I really think you’re overdoing it here.”

The changeling nodded. “Just how I roll...”

Then he lit his horn and levitated a stack of leaves, checking it and writing something down before glancing back at his prisoners.

“Hey,” Pinkie spoke up, “what are you writing about all the time anyway?”

“Can’t talk,” the changeling answered, “on the job.”

Pinkie blew a raspberry. “What, are you keeping a log of how we often roll over in our sleep?”

“No”—the changeling shook his head and levitated a much smaller stack of leaves—“that’s this one.”

Pinkie just stared back at him.

Just then, another changeling came up to the one in the hawaiian shirt. This one had a painful looking scar across its cheeks.

The changeling in the hawaiian shirt perked up once he noticed her, but only slightly turned his head away from the captives. “Ah,” he said, “Blush, right? Are you relieving me?” He glanced over at a ‘clock’ that was really nothing more than a swinging pendulum hanging from the ceiling with a few closely spaced ticks marked in the dirt in a around it. “Ah, right on time.”

Blush yawned. “Ah huh. I just stare at the prisoners, right? Uh, wait, what’s your name?”

The changeling in the hawaiian shirt thought for a second. “Chrysalis prefers the term ‘guests’. As for my name… eh, I’ll just go with my real name. I’m Henry.”

“Nice to meet you.” Blush smiled politely.

Henry nodded back. “Okay,” he started, “if anything strange happens, make sure to jot it down in the log.” He levitated the smaller stack of leaves to her, along with what looked to be a burnt sharpened stick. “Otherwise, just write that you took over, exactly like I wrote it before.”

Blush nodded, took the leaves, and copied what was on the first leaf onto the next blank one, replacing his name with hers.

Henry started trotting off, but turned back around after a second. “Oh, one more thing. Don’t fall asleep on this job. If I remember right, I think that can be punishable by death in a time of war, maybe.”

“Wait, what!?” Blush turned back around, but Henry was already trotting off back to bed. “Argh, jerk.”

“I know, right?” Pinkie commented.

“Go to bed already,” Blush responded.

Henry laid down in his bed, his horn occasionally pulsating with magic as he levitated the notes on the leaves he had been working on.

“So,” he said, now charging his horn, “bloom filters.”

He started concentrating, the magic around his horn growing. As he did, sparks flew off and vanished. That wasn’t what he wanted.

He concentrated again, this time focusing on the first large spark that flew off. For some reason, a green glow enveloped the solid green spark, both levitating it and keeping it from vanishing.

“Heh heh.” He smiled, slowly levitating the spark of magic around while keeping it alive. “I’ll get there...”

He turned to his notes and started writing as much as he could.

It had been several hours and Chrysalis still couldn’t fall asleep, despite undoing Discord’s pillow spell long ago. She was probably the only changeling still awake now. What in the world was keeping her awake? Was it the prisoners? No, if the prisoners ever did anything, the changeling watching over them would alert her through the hivemind.

Oh, right, the changeling pile. She must’ve been pretty tired if she forgot about that. She had a pile of five or ten changelings now, but most of the changelings had opted to sleep alone.

Chrysalis lit her horn. Every single one of the fifty or so beds Discord created in his sleep levitated towards each other until their sides touched. Then, Chrysalis yanked all the headboards off as quietly as she could.

Now it wasn’t so much an array of beds as a very cushy raised floor that held all of her changelings. Once she found the rest of her hive, they would form a pile large enough to completely cover the entire area.

With her mind now at ease, Chrysalis could finally feel herself succumbing to the sleep she longed for.

Twilight trotted into the huge open field by a cliff. For a changeling hideout, it wasn’t very well hidden, especially with the trees that were blasted away everywhere, the mint jelly, and the craters. It looked like Discord decided to fight the changelings, but if that was the case, why hadn’t he, Pinkie, or Spike come back to her? The thought set her on edge.

Oh, there was also a changeling wandering around, undisguised, trying to wipe away several hoofprints that led to its’ so called hideout.

“Hey there!” The slightly reddened changeling noticed her and turned, then trotted up to her. “I’m really sorry, but you’re going to have to turn back around. This is private property.”

Twilight grimaced and twisted her head at the changeling. “What? I don’t…?” She shook her head. “No, my friends are here.”

“Oh!” The changeling’s eyes widened. “If that’s the case, we’ll return them to you shortly. Wait, whoops, I mean...” He paused for a second. “Well, I suppose it’s safe to tell you: we found your friends at a pretty bad time. We’ll have to clear up a few things first, but we should give them back in a few days.”

Twilight’s eye twitched. “Yeah, after you’ve drained them to husks! Stop trying to trick me and just show me where my friends are!”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t—”

“Argh!” Twilight ran past the changeling, looked left and right, then ran back to the changeling once she realized she couldn’t find the actual hideout. She lit her horn. “Ok, you’re going to—”

Before Twilight could finish her sentence, the changeling crouched to the ground, dodging a blast of purple from Twilight’s horn, grabbed her below the neck with his hood, and threw her backwards. But before she hit the ground, her horn lit up once more, and both changeling and alicorn were held still in a purple glow.

“So, you want to do this the hard way?” Twilight said as she levitated herself back to standing position. “Just stay right there, and...”

Twilight stared back at the changeling for a second. While most ponies would’ve stayed still in her magic’s grasp, this changeling pressed himself against it as hard as he could, his chitin flexing and crackling against her magic. She was surprised he wasn’t crying out in pain.

Returning her attention to the battle, she lit her horn once more to subdue the changeling, but it was now rocking back and forth rapidly, cuts appearing all over its chitin. She couldn’t get a lock on it.

With a shattering sound, the changeling broke out of her magical grasp and flew off.

Well, this was new. This one changeling was much, much stronger than any of the ones she fought back in canterlot. She would have to stay on guard—

She heard something whistling as it sped toward her. Turning around, she noticed that same changeling dive bombing her. She had just enough time to bring up a shield spell before the changeling… turned and flew out of the way? Only to be followed by several rocks the size of her head!

Twilight gritted her teeth as the boulders slammed against her shield, waves of force rippling over the purple barrier with each hit.

From behind, she could hear another changeling trotting up to her.

She turned around, but there was no changeling in sight. Just rocks and plants.

Before she knew it, another barrage of rocks rained down upon her shield.

She heard more hoofsteps, but she only saw one changeling in the air.

Suddenly, she heard a crashing sound, and outside her shield she could only see dust.

After waiting for the dust to clear, she noticed a large crater right in front of her. In that crater was a changeling. Its skin was red and covered with cuts.

Twilight held a hoof to her muzzle as she lowered her shield. Was that changeling even still alive?

She trotted down into the crater, just to be sure. It was a nasty changeling kidnapping her friends, but she didn’t mean to hurt it that bad.

Twilight stood above the changeling in the smoking crater.

“Uuugh...” the changeling groaned.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. She was in the middle of turning around to continue searching for the hive when a green flash caught her attention.

Turning back around, she noticed she was now facing a completely different changeling. This one had what looked like a painful scar across her face. But before Twilight could defend herself, that changeling sprung up and smacked its hoof against her horn, hard.

“Hey, I could’ve taken her myself,” was the last thing Twilight heard before she passing out.

Isaac hefted the purple horse onto his back.

“Yeah right,” Blush replied. “From the looks of things, you were just going to kill each other. What was with that rock thing anyway? That would have killed most ponies.”

Isaac blanched. “Really? After that battle Chrysalis had, I thought everything on this planet was strong.”

“You thought wrong!” Blush snapped. She shook her head as she continued trotting up to the front of the new home. “And you called Chrysalis reckless. Geez.”

Isaac opened the door, letting Blush through. He trotted to the cage Andres was sleeping in and dumped the alicorn onto the floor.

“So,” Mitul spoke up, pointing to the stack of leaves, “Do I log this, or do you log this now that you’re back?”

“Yeah yeah, I’ll log it,” Blush said as she levitated the leaves over to her. She scribbled something down on the next blank leaf, recording the time indicated by the still swinging pendulum.

Suddenly, Isaac stopped and turned around. “Wait a minute,” he said, looking at Twilight. Then he looked around and spotted some of the bright wads of magic floating over Henry. He leapt up and flew over.

“I gotta borrow this for a second.” He grabbed one wad and flew off.

“Hey!” Henry called back. “Eh, oh well.” He want back to playing with the other orbs he had.

Isaac landed, walked back into the cage, opened one of Twilight’s eyelids with his hoof, and held the glowing wad of green magic in front of her face.

He paused for a couple seconds. “Uh, aren’t her pupils supposed to shrink a little more than that?”

Blush merely tilted her head. “Maybe? I don’t know. Shouldn’t you be worrying about yourself?”

Isaac stood back up, placed the orb on his back, and gave Blush a quizzical look. “What do you mean? I feel completely fine. I think we may need an actual doctor for miss purple horse here though.”

Shrugging, Blush looked around the room, then back to the cage. “But everyone’s asleep.”

“Gah, fucking interns...” they heard Henry speak. “HEY!” he yelled, waking up almost every changeling. “IS ANYONE HERE A DOCTOR?”

“I am!” a changeling yelled back, her voice slurring with fatigue. “Where’s the emergency?”

“I was just about to do that,” Isaac grumbled.

Henry pointed to the cage. “The purple winged unicorn thing.”

The changeling doctor galloped over to the cage, but stopped when she saw Isaac, “Whoa! Are you sure you don’t need my help?”

Isaac tilted his head, blood leaking from one of the many cuts on his body as he moved. “What do you mean?”

The doctor stared back, jaw slack. After a couple seconds, she simply shrugged and turned to the cage where the purple pegasus-unicorn was lying unconscious. “What’s wrong with her?” she asked.

“I think she might have a concussion,” Isaac answered.

“That’s it?” The doctor frowned. “Now, don’t get me wrong, a concussion’s pretty serious, but I really wanted something more interesting.” She grabbed the wad of magic from the air, held it in front of Twilight’s face, and forced open Twilight’s eye with her hoof. “I mean, I retired years ago, but not doing work is actually pretty boring. Unfortunately, when you get old, all the same things are still fun, but your hands aren’t steady anymore, you can’t remember the symptoms of the more important diseases, and only the less important ones, and then you cut off the wrong leg.”

Isaac stared back at the ‘doctor’, one eyebrow above the other. He was less and less sure about this every second.

Suddenly, as the doctor was examining her, Twilight woke up, scurrying back and forcing herself up against the other side of the cage. “W-w-what are you doing with that?”

The doctor answered immediately. “I was checking for dilated pupils and any head bumps or bruises, in case you had a concussion.”

Twilight blinked.

“But now that you’re awake…” The changeling smiled and looked at Twilight at an angle. ” Tell me”—the doctor suddenly leaned forward—“do you have a headache? Difficulty with vision? Recognition? Thought? How many fingers am I...” She raised her hoof and stared at the fingerless appendage. “Ah, oops.”

Twilight just stared at the changeling for a moment before responding, “I have a bit of a headache, now that I think about it.”

The doctor nodded. “That’s to be expected.” She sighed. ”Don’t hesitate to come to me if anything gets worse.” Dejected, the doctor trotted lazily out of the cage.

“Hey, wait a second!” Twilight pointed at Isaac, but then she noticed the door to the cage was still open. Without hesitation, she flew up, grabbed a sleeping Discord, and flew to the door of the cage, only to be caught in a field of green magic.

“Nice try.” Blush levitated Twilight back to the ground.

Twilight powered up her own horn in response, only to have a few sparks of purple magic pop out.

“Ouch!” she yelped and held her horn in her hooves as she was levitated back down to her bed.

Meanwhile, a massive green dragon flew over the forests of Equestria. He wasn’t one to explore just for the sake of exploring. No, like other dragons, he roamed only to increase his wealth. Of course, also like other dragons, he had his own interpretations of wealth. While other dragons occasionally added weapons or art to their piles of gold, he added books, whether they were written by him or someone else.

So although he could ignore that annoying ‘summoning of the dragons’, especially after mostly blocking it with spells from some of the books he found, he couldn’t ignore the scent of magic that floated into his book filled cave.

It smelled almost like a young dragoness he once took care of, just like that strange cave…

Now that he thought about it, Crystal’s old cave was on the way to where he smelled that magic. He decided he might as well visit it to get a refresher, thought it still felt a little wrong going in there without her permission.

Ah, that was it right there. The black mountain. For some reason, after that magical explosion from Canterlot, that mountain started changing. It was almost like some form of rot was now eating away at it.

Scale landed in the mouth of the cavern, the place still managing to make his scales stand on end.

While the outside of the cave, and practically the whole mountain outside it, was covered in that strange black substance, the inside only had some of it. Around and beneath the black splotches that randomly lined the cave, Scale could see countless mechanisms connected together with chains. He always wondered why one would go to the trouble of making machinery that complex when they could just use magic.

Well, maybe this next exploration would tell him why.

He stomped off into the far left room, squeezing his way through the opening. Inside, the room was filled with what many creatures would've identified as torture devices, but Scale remembered several of the devices from his old medical texts.

In the center of the room was a gurney with clamps that were modified with a spring wound mechanism that would release in a day if the patient was left there, or if the mechanism was broken. But what kind of doctor would need to install such a mechanism?

Putting that question aside, Scale swept his gaze across the rest of the room.

Aside from the strange gurney, there were several piles of medical equipment sitting on tables scattered throughout the room. The piles included normal equipment like syringes, scalpels, towels, and magic regulators, but there were several devices that Scale couldn’t recognize at all.

Scale turned around and trudged on to the next room. Once he passed through the hall, he found the room devoid of all furniture, just like last time. The tree that had previously dominated the room had grown smaller since his last visit, probably dying due to the lack of sunlight.

It was like no tree he had ever seen before. It had two black trunks spiraling around each other, and two wrinkled green orbs at the top that lit up the room. At the base, the skin-like bark of the trunks spread out into the floor as if they were slowly being reclaimed by the splotches of black ooze that coated everything. But the strangest thing was that it constantly threw off magic that smelled similar to Crystal’s.

He quietly turned around and left the room without disturbing anything. For some reason, that tree felt sacred. Perhaps that was because it was the first thing that reminded Scale of Crystal’s magic after so long, but he could’ve sworn there was something more.

Shrugging, Scale turned and walked down the hallway, to the left, and to the next door.

The third room was the one that was full of ‘history’. It wasn’t a history of dragons like him and Crystal though. Instead, it was ‘history’ of black pony-like creatures and… well, to be honest, it was a room with a bunch of movie posters, newspapers that you’d find in typical pony cinema, and for some reason, hate mail on a podium that was all written in the same handwriting. He wasn’t sure what the purpose of all that stuff was, but it certainly looked half-assed.

Putting the letters down after a quick leaf through, scale turned and made his way into the large area behind the history room.

The area was filled with a softer form of black goo. Some slowly turning chains from under the goo linked to what looked like a propeller, if he recognized it correctly, but only after they went through some round thing. The propeller was still spinning fast enough to blow a calm breeze throughout the chamber. It looked like there was supposed to be something in front of it, given the fact that there were several bars attached to the front of the mechanism, but Scale couldn’t tell what should’ve been there.

Backing out of the room, Scale made his way into the history room. The door was closed again, and it had those burnt out runes on them again. He just stepped up to the door and shoved it aside.

Next, he made his way into the room with the really large machine. It looked like a giant wheel connected to a crane which was in turn connected to a chain that went through a hole in the ground. He could feel great heat coming from that chain. In fact, it seemed like it nearly went all the way down to the lava.

It was pretty impressive that the wheel was still spinning after so long without magic. Then again, that black goo might have had something to do with that.

Scale gave the machine one last glance before stepping out of the engine room and walking towards the last room. When he looked inside, there was a pony-sized bed, stacks of drawings, pony plushies, and, most telling of all, a few drawings of him, Crystal, and one of those black pony-like figures, one of which was particularly disturbing. That disturbing picture showed Crystal smiling and playing with her dragon friends, while that black pony like thing was curled up into a ball inside her. Behind that curdled up and crying black pony, other black ponies laid behind her, all with x-marks for eyes.

Scale turned around and left. He spent enough time wandering around Crystal’s home. If she were a regular dragon, he would’ve respected her privacy, but Crystal’s life was a mystery that deserved a well written biography.

Now that there were no more rooms to explore, Scale unfurled his wings as he walked back to the mouth of the cave, and leapt into the open air, trailing Crystal’s scent once more.

For a moment, Scale thought about what he would do if he found Crystal instead of another strange tree. He did just tour her home without asking, so he wasn’t sure how he would explain himself if she happened to still be alive. Her still being alive was pretty unlikely though. No living dragon would leave their home in such a state.

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After Blush finally finished her night shift, she crawled into bed. It was so late that she could hardly form a coherent thought before sleep took her.

The world around Blush faded from wooden ceilings and comfortable beds into nothingness. However, that nothingness smelled a bit like the ocean.

The next thing she knew, Anna was standing right before the edge of a cliff, overlooking the water below with her boyfriend.

“Nice view, huh?” he asked. “I come here occasionally to destress, y’know?”

“I can see why.” Anna smiled. “It’s nice.”

“Yeah!” Her boyfriend smiled back. “Especially after you get to swim around some.”

“Huh?” Anna turned back. There was no way he was serious about diving off that cliff, right?

But the look on his face told her everything she needed to know. Apparently this was an everyday occurrence for him.

“Hey,” he said, smiling playfully, “you should try it!”

“N-no, I’m fine,” Anna said, taking a few steps back from the cliff.

“Aw, come on,” her boyfriend complained. “It’ll be fun!”

“No, it’s a bit too high for me,” Anna answered.

Her boyfriend sighed. “Well, ok. I guess I’ll just have to work you up to it. Just stand a bit closer to the edge for a while until you’re not freaked out anymore.”

“Okay...” Hesitantly, she did as he asked.

As she peered down into the ocean below, she felt a pair of hands press onto her back, pushing her over the edge.

Blush screamed as she fell, flailing and trying to flap her wings to get out of the way, but to no avail. Somehow, she knew this was where she died. She knew there was a rock in just the wrong place beneath the water, that she was headed straight towards it, and that there was absolutely nothing she could do now.

As she fell, her human life flashed before her eyes. She saw herself hiking through a mountain with the rest of her class, laughing at a joke her dad made at a barbecue, and how she would joke around with her friends at the nature club about stupidest things. Throughout it, her friends and family were always there to cheer her up, whether she broke her arm, did bad on her tests, or was just feeling down for whatever reason. But she gave them up for her boyfriend. She hardly spent any time with them since he always wanted to hang out with her every single day. Actually, didn’t she give up a bit too much? Was he really worth any of that? Why did she like him in the first place? Other than the fact that he looked cool, she wasn’t sure she had a good reason.

She felt two arms gently wrap around her.

Blush opened her eyes. Instead of hitting the ground, she was in Chrysalis’ arms, her heart filling with succulent love as the queen filling her with it wept. She could even feel the other emotions coming from her queen, encouraging her tears as well. She remembered listening to her intuition, opening the door to where her queen sealed herself off, and saying, “thank you”, instead of leaving her to sulk alone like she wanted. She couldn’t understand why she was being hugged instead of scolded.

Wait, yes she could. It was the same a thousand years ago as it was now: Chrysalis spent every waking moment keeping her and her brothers and sisters safe. She could’ve left the hive and lived her life happily masquerading as a pony, a dragon, or whatever she wanted, and occasionally she did, but her hive always came first. The hive was the only thing she really decided to care about.

This wasn’t worth giving up. This love, it was much more important than the escaping she did with her ‘boyfriend’.

Finally, Chrysalis set Blush down.

Blush opened her eyes, and she was somewhere else entirely.

Looking around, Blush found herself in her hive’s old main room. A green dragon she had never seen before crawled its way into the cave and peered down at Chrysalis, its head touching the ceiling.

Blush looked at Chrysalis to see if she knew what was going on, but her queen was too busy cowering before the dragon.

“Why didn’t you just ask for help?” the dragon asked in Blush’s own voice.

Chrysalis slowly raised her head, peering at the dragon with wide, teary eyes.

The great dragon cleared its throat. “I find it hard to believe that other species wouldn’t help each other simply because they’re different species,” it said in an exact duplicate of Henry’s voice.

Blush looked back from Chrysalis to the great dragon, only to see a blurry image of Princess Celestia standing before her queen. She felt herself take on a battle stance beside her queen.

“Please calm down, there is no need for such hostility,” the blur of an ethereal horse said, her words from forming images in Blush’s mind, as if she remembered reading those words from a hoofwritten letter long ago. “If you or your subjects need anything, we will gladly send aid, and we will ask for nothing in return. There’s no need for a war. It would only harm us both”

As Blush watched the image of Celestia fade, its voice lingered in her ears like heavenly, beautiful bells; like something far, far too good to be true. the princess’s strange blurring enveloped everything around her, and as it came, Blush could feel her consciousness starting to slip. Before she was fully enveloped by what must’ve been the enemy princess’s strange magic, she ran towards her queen. Her steps were slow and it felt like she was being pulled away faster than she was moving forward, but in her mind she imagined herself finally reaching her queen and grabbing onto her back, which, strangely enough, was exactly what happened.

With her mind no longer able to make sense of anything else that was going on, Blush held onto her queen as tightly as she could.

Author's Note

Vibrant Lies has joined the editing team! :pinkiehappy: