Ch7 - 5 - Torpor

AJ's leg had been hit, but she still managed to hobble along, it had just been a glancing blow thankfully. Her friend was doing a whole lot worse. Fluttershy's legs had all been hit with goop and were stuck together, the pegasus pumping her wings to keep up with her friend. If either stopped they knew they wouldn't be able to continue.

They burst from the trampled forest into a clearing and saw the big mound of dirt. The nest. "Keep going!" Fluttershy sounded so very determined that Applejack couldn't even slow down. A smile curved the earth pony's snout, she was so proud of her friend.

The yellow and pink body dipped down and dived into the hive but as Applejack crested the rise she fell and started tumbling. Rolling and falling, the mare had a moment to appreciate that the dirt was only softly packed and, at least, reasonably soft. She landed with a thump in the main entry of the hive. Light was nearly nonexistent and she squinted around before she was picked up by a clicking ant, the thing hefting her and carrying her forward.

"Don't struggle…" Fluttershy's soft voice spoke right by AJ's ear, she turned her head to see the mare, looking a little strange. Then she figured out what it was, there was an odd sheen on her fur, as if it was damp.

"Flutters, what in tarnation?" Applejack felt a little jostled but the warm air in the hive seemed to open out into a huge chamber. "Hay look, it's Pinkie and Dash!"

"And their queen!" The awed tone in the pegasus' voice caught AJ's attention and she followed Fluttershy's gaze, seeing the huge queen ant… stuffing eggs into some poor pony's mouth! "She loves them…"

"What? Flut-" Applejack was dropped to the ground and before she could try and do anything the ant spat more of the pink goop on her and she felt as it made very sure all AJ could do was struggle within the bonds.

Fluttershy flapped her wings and neared the queen, landing beside her head. "Um, excuse me?" The big insect seemed to barely notice her and Fluttershy realized it was the pheromones she had found at the entrance and rubbed on herself. "I said, excuse me!"

The ant queen, caught up in giving pheromone commands to her children snapped her attention to the odd thing beside her. It smelled like a hunter, she sent a little flick of pheromone to it to get back to work but… but it ignored her. She narrowed her vision and realized, with startled shock, that it wasn't one of her hunters at all! But it wasn't doing anything aggressive, it confused her and she sent a questioning scent to it.

Fluttershy sneezed, the smells wafting from the ant were its communication, she knew, but she needed to get it to be able to hear back from her. "Oh drat, well, I am glad I had a lot to drink tonight…" Fluttershy heard-smelled the question and she squeezed her lower muscles, turning and spraying a tiny bit of her pee on the floor of the cave.

The scent wasn't quite right, it had a lot of complexity to it, but the queen got the gist of things. This wasn't another ant, but it was friendly. She pondered briefly if she should capture the thing, make it another living womb for her nest. She didn't need to, she had plenty and then some. What are you doing here/what do you want/why are you here?

The mare sniffed and sniffed, it was the oddest thing she had ever done, she wasn't even sure she was able to communicate but she put all her feeling into herself and meditated as her friend, Tree Hugger, had shown her. The mare trembled and let only a little more 'scent' go. I am a pony/these are my friends/please stop attacking us

It was strange, but the queen decided it could follow this scent-command and not hurt for it. She sent out a flood of pheromones, telling all her hunters to return to the hive, after all, she had so much food now, the new aphids were so very tasty. I have stopped/we have stopped/what do you want

Fluttershy smiled and reached a gentle hoof up, touching the queen and giving her mandibles a gentle rub. "Okay Fluttershy, this is going to be the big one." Please let my friends go/we don't want to hurt you/what do you need that my friends are doing

The queen ruffled her wings at this. She pulled her ovipositor from the womb behind her. These are my wombs/these are my aphids/mine/food/life/nest

The pegasus had to focus, the language was much more complex. If she worked it out right, the nest used ponies to bring their eggs to term and as some kind of food. Let me talk to one/we will help you/you have nothing to lose and everything to gain Fluttershy's flank twitched, it was getting more complex by the minute, to communicate like this. But it was working.

Fluttershy was grabbed by an ant and, with the queen at their side, she could sense the communication of the queen, telling her and the worker. Careful/precious/wombs are mine/talk to aphid The three ended up in a much better lit room. Fluttershy could see Twilight, Cadance, and Muffins, all of them drooling and with their heads pressed against big ants, their horns sunk inside. Those special aphids/my aphids/these/pick one

Fluttershy looked around the other ponies, she barely recognized any of them, a whole lot of crystal pony unicorns, some obvious visitors to the Crystal Empire and, on the end, Rarity, Gel, Spike, and Shining.

She stepped up, when she was released by the ant, and poked the comatose-looking Gel. Or at least what Gel would look like if he wasn't a goo pony.

Pheromones rushed around and the ant with its abdomen on the changeling's horn pulled free. The goo too, please Fluttershy wasn't sure how many more 'conversations' her bladder could handle. The ant that had brought her in stepped up and began eating the pink goop off the changeling. There was a brief moment when they were free then, quickly, the body seemed to collapse into black goop and the eyes opened.

"Fluttershy?" Gel was confused, very confused. He had just felt one of his gooplicates come back and was in it in a flash. "What is going on here… whoa…" He had turned and saw the queen, he could feel sensations, emotions.

Please converse/be swift The queen felt something, something very odd. She looked at the aphid she had let go. There was something odd about them.

"Okay," Fluttershy opened her mouth, "they got most of the city and I got them to stop for now but they don't want to give up anypony they have and particularly not any non-unicorns and they really like the princesses and I am almost out of pee!"

"Pee?" Gel was lost, although he got some information from the queen. He felt curiosity, love, a lot of love. It was almost a changeling wet-dream. The queen adored her ants and every one of them loved her back with mindless devotion. He reached a hoof up and touched it to the queen insect's face, feeling all that love and he suddenly realized Muffins would be so much better for this. She was over to the side, her eyes staring and glassy. "Okay, can you get her to make a deal?"

"A deal? What do you mean?" Fluttershy looked confused.

Gel focused on his own single talent, he started to drink and drink and grow. When there was enough Gel split into two.

The queen ant froze, looking at the aphid that had just become… two aphids. How did the aphid do that?

"I don't know myself… Gel, how did you… become two?" Fluttershy looked to the curiously double changeling. The two gooplicates were growing again.

"I feed on love, the love here is… imagine if you were a plant and the sun was right in front of you, and somehow you could gobble up all that energy and use it to reproduce…" Gel split into four.

He feeds on your love/grows more of himself/can do this Fluttershy wasn't sure if it worked, if the explanation had been good enough. One of the gooplicates was suddenly doused in pink stuff and restrained.

Gel felt his awareness leave the clone. He stepped up, closer to the queen. "It is like a sun…" He lifted a hoof and drank, drank deep. Six, twelve, twenty four.

The queen almost stumbled back, the aphid was duplicating itself and, as she had found with the one she already had sunk back into the feeder ant, the clones produced energy. If you leave that aphid here/take all your friends/deal

Fluttershy had barely any left, she was panting but, as she watched several of the Gel's walk over and get in position to be restrained, she managed to squeeze out the last of her issue and groaned. deal

As it turned out, ponies who had their minds sunk into such a place as milking their magic leads them, take a little while to wake from their state. The queen also wasn't wanting to release any wombs until she had a few gooplicate clones already filled and, as each pony birthed out eggs they were stripped of the pink goop.

Rainbow Dash waddled, it was the only way she could walk. She had birthed two full clutches in her time in the nest and she had seen enough of such things to last her a lifetime. "Gel?" She watched as a small army of gooplicates were gathered around the queen ant, none struggling as they were hosed down one by one and put to 'work'.

"Hay Dash, you look like you have had a hard evening." The changeling stepped over to his friend and gave her a hug. "Hay Pinkie!"

The pink party pony's mane was a little frazzled, but not in the right way. She spared a hoof for a wave but waddled past the two without more than a soft groan.

"So what happened. I saw Fluttershy come in here and then she left again, I thought we were done for!" Dash felt herself press in against the stallion, feeling oddly better for the closeness. Damn it all, she thought, he would have to be the first to find her.

"Complicated story, short and tall of it is I am going to be doing a little work here, the queen has promised not to make a princess and a new hive, but my gooplicates are going to be hers now." Gel gestured as the ants captured his clones as quickly as he was making them, the queen sent out waves of happy pheromones.

It was hard not to be happy. The queen had easily given up even those amazing food sources and all her wombs. She wasn't stupid, ants were good at counting and infinite little things were better than three big things. One of her workers reached out a gentle leg to pet one of the still-goo aphid-wombs, she couldn't deny how much she liked them too.

"Don't care, as long as there is a bed I can curl up into for the night." Rainbow Dash wobbled and suddenly found herself wrapped in a gooplicate, Gel wrapping himself around her, gently working into her sore body but doing his best to keep from making things worse.

"Relax, calm down, let me take care of you." Gel extended their wings, forming them a little larger than Dash's own.

"Thanks…" Rainbow had no intention to tell him how good it felt to just be able to give up and let him be the white knight, but she couldn't refuse it to herself. She mumbled something dire under her breath about stallions.

"Was that Rainbow Dash?" Pinkie Pie looked at the black shape that winged away down the cavern toward the exit of the nest.

"It was, you want a quick trip out too?" Gel strolled another gooplicate over, he could fly one pony and keep things up, but he wouldn't risk a second before Dash was landed.

"Nah, I got ponies to cheer up." Pinkie turned, the better part of half a hundred crystal ponies blinking as they climbed from the breeding chamber. The pink party pony's mane sproinged back into its usual shape and, amazingly, she managed to bounce on all fours over to the wobbling and waddling ponies.

Author's Note

I actually wrote this and the last chapter as one mega chapter, but when I saw it was over 3100 words, I decided to break it up with some changeling egg-play and serve it up on two plates, over easy

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