Intermission: Metamorphosis

I slept, and yet I did not. I found myself in a room with rounded walls. Everything around me pulsed with life. There was something like a voice that echoed from the walls, yet originated from no point.

“You call yourself Aranea.” I had not idea which direction to turn. I was addressing nothing and no one. I answered regardless.

“I do.”

The echo returned. “Do you know why you are here?''

A simple answer. “I am dreaming.”

“You are. Yet you are not.” A considerable surprise.

“Then where am I?”

“You are where your body lies.”

Where my body lies? Was I dead? “What do you mean?”

“You deny your heritage.”

“How? I am a changeling, and I know this. Am I to prey on others by deception?”

“No.” A simple enough, and far more pleasant response than the possibilities, though it answered little.

“You must learn your place.” My place?

I awoke to find Nohbodi staring at me with considerable worry, as well as the zebra Zecora behind him. He asked me if I was alright, and exuded worry in a large amount. He embraced me. I was starving, near the end. We coupled, and I was whole again. I wished to spend more time with him, but something intervened. My mental state was compromised. I entered the egg-like room again.

I recognized it as the night before.

“You have returned to complete the transition.”

“I still do not understand.”

“There has been an absence.”

“You are to take her place.”

“What place?”

“You lack knowledge.”

“Then inform me.” Despite the situation, I was calm. Something here regulated my mental state. There was a sense of familiarity.

I awoke, several times. Each time, Nohbodi would give me energy, and return me to my optimal state. We would converse until I fell into the dream-state once more. Princesses Luna and Twilight Sparkle were with him after several nights. All were attempting to divine the cause of this intermittent torpor, with increasing consternation.

“You require the knowledge to complete the transformation.”

“I do.” I did not know what this knowledge was. A sensation overtook me. It was similar to... to being in the hive. When Chrysalis was our queen. At first, I feared the feelings. I feared a lack of control, a return to the state of an automaton.

“You lack the knowledge. We will transfer the knowledge. It is required.”

It was not control. It was a connection. Information flooded my mind.

History.

The present.

Chemical reactions to pheromones.

The knowledge of every species that ever had contact with changeling-kind. Knowledge accumulated over an unknown and unutterable span of time.

I was growing. I was gaining size, and abilities. Primordial knowledge of what I was, what I am was absorbed. I could not feed from the hive. It was required to ascend in stages.

Ascending.

Nature abhors a vacuum. No matter how small the hive, even a hive of one...

Changelings needed a queen.