To the one with the heart says the king...the holy heart...the changeling heart...the broken heart.
A little bit o history first.
The King's name will remain a secret until I decide to make a sequel to this fic. We will address him just as the King.
For the last year or so the changeling main hive if not all the rest seemed to have sises from functioning as a hole, only completing the necessary tasks to sustain life inside the hive.
The King's health was getting worse with each passing day, leaving all the changelings in the hive grief for their King. Knowing his inevitable fate the king refused any kind of treatment, that had a negative effect on the changeling army morale not to mention the workers. it made them feel powerless and unhelpful to their King. The King even refused to lie on a bed...still just sitting in the throne room that was guarder more then any place on the world for the passing year. It made the king think that his subjects were so desperate that they were trying to defend him from death itself, but the King allowed them if it made his subjects feel better. The King also accepted some modifications to his very throne for their sake of their moral.
With the death of their previous leader, Queen Chrysalis and the new king taking the throne all changelings got immortality in return of fertility. Still there remained thousands of eggs still unhatched from their last queen. This is the balance that is created between mortality and immortality, mortality and fertility brought by the queen and immortality brought by a King. Each of them with their blessings and curses. Still there is one factor that makes this balance far from perfect. Let me explain:
The queen gives birth to thousands of eggs and to each one there is a very small chance for one of those eggs to turn out an into an another Queen or a King. If it is a queen the old queen shall die a 100 years later after she had given birth to such an egg. Not hatched...just given birth. The queen does not know when she had given birth to such an egg. But when she does her body changes focus from anabolic to katabolic activity. While the queen herself will be aware of this only after 50 years when the symptoms start to show up. So she would only have 50 years to live and find the special egg. Due to the last hive being destroyed by environmental factors, in which every egg was saved luckily, the data in which they kept track off eggs was lost with the hive itself.
So they didn't even know approximately in which period of time the egg was given birth not to mention that they had mixed all the eggs. The changelings had to hatch as many eggs as it takes to find the special egg. One very important symptom of the queen dying or that she had given birth to a special egg is that after 50 years she cant produce any more eggs, but also the chance that she will give birth to an another special egg after she had done it once drops to 0 during those 50 years she still can give birth to more eggs. (Those will be just normal eggs)
The changelings hatched as many eggs as fast as they could before they would die from old age, even if next generations would keep up the search they could not risk their numbers to be to low when they finally find it and they could not lead their selfs without a leader. Nor the lack of changelings nor too many changelings are good for the hive and their very existence. I they don't find the egg or if they find the egg last the hive would be to small to survive. THEY HAD TO FIND THE EGG.
During the search the number of changelings increased and it skyrocketed, the changeling were getting scare on food supply and they had to do something about it. The queen took desperate measures for desperate situations...WAR! Targeting the biggest supply of food first and with a direct approach because they needed food ASAP, they gave them selfs the luxury to wait for the right moment to attack. The royal wedding.
The changelings with the lack of other words did not hate Ponies at this point of history but of course they were totally alienated from them.
(How can you hate your source of food?)
The point of the warfare was to capture as many as possible and not kill... they had no worth to them dead, just alive so they could rip the love out of them. (You all know what happened here)
In a flash of incomparable blast of magic almost the entire army was blown away and...KILLED.
The Queen herself being one of them...in a differece to the hate you would receive from a pony the hatred changelings feel when their King or Queen is killed is biological and as such it's eternal. To changelings if they very hivemind knew that their last Queen or King (That would mean they are going to get extinct) The very purpose of life would be to kill and destroy everybody and everything. But luckily the hivemind did know that there is a special egg somewhere so that would mean a king or a Queen.
With almost no army and only one injured commander left alive the hive kept up the search. The number of changelings dropped drastically but still it remained high and kept increasing with the search that it felt like it would never end. Fearing the beast of revenge from the ponies the changelings quickly recovered, their every increasing number filling all the blanks.
One thing you need to know about changelings and the hivemind:
The egg off a changeling grows so much that when it hatches the changeling that comes out is physically an adult what makes him mentally an adult is the hivemind, the hivemind is a common knowledge grid around the hive. It has a simple function: "If someone knows something everybody does" The king or queen is a special kind exception that I will explain later. This means that in the moment of their birth newlings are no different from one another, all that makes them different is the experiences they go through their life later on.
(you know like Asian people)
(Guys I am so sorry I just had to make that joke, I know it is racist AF)
The beast of revenge never came...ponies didn't counter-attack, hatred lower ever so slightly but to be honest even if they would attack they would never to be able to defeat the changelings at the cost that they were willing to pay. It was beneficial by both sides even if the benefit was 40% to 60% for the changelings.
Finally the Special egg hatched and the changelings got their selfs a King. Worth mentioning: The last surviving commander that served Chrysalis died from the Joy of the good news. (as an injured and old changeling that it was). The respect given to that commander only didn't surpass Queen Chrysalis, he kept the hive in order even though he was no King or Queen.
The hivemind on a King or Queen: (I told you I would explain later)
In a difference to a normal changeling A Queen or a King does not only gain common knowledge of everybody but it also gains a personality right after hatching. The personality he gains is inherited by the best personality traits of everyone. Still usually the old queen or King would also inherit the best personality traits as much as memories to the new king or queen but as you know Chrysails is dead. That made changelings wonder why did the new King turned out to be better than their last queen later on. Kings and queens had constructed the hivemind and they control it, which means that they can keep their knowledge secret and as well choose what their subjects would know when they hatched...The hivemind is perfect to manipulate almost anything but The Kings and queens do not abuse it because they always want their best for their subjects, even if they do the hive mind is not a planetary grid which means that is has a radius and whoever is out of that grid is not effected anymore by it. (Don't misunderstand, they cant control what their subjects think just make their self immune to common knowledge etc /more of their capabilities later)
During the search for the egg a very saint ritual is held were every single changeling (almost) will stay inside the hivemind so everyone would contribute on inheriting personality traits, also serving as a great defense in the same time. This personality inheriting is what never makes changelings not to question their King or Queen. Even new generation are convinced if not completely but not enough to revolt of course. Later on the changeling that came to know the last commander reported similarities between the King and their last commander which convinced the hive even more towards the king because the last commander inherited the qualities of a good leader.
As soon as the King sat on the throne he got direct connection to the hivemind and every changeling got immortality from that point and on till the next queen or King. The problem is that the new King has no memories of the last queen which had memories of all previous queens and kings, an ultimate loss. He had no idea how to control the hivemind and even worse...holy knowledge was lost, great secrets buried, ect
This new king had opened an entire new bloodline of Kings and Queens. Never in their existing history changelings had experienced the loss of a King and queen such as the case of Queen Chrysalis.
Those were all the good news and neutral news, what about the bad news now:
The changeling had not solved the problem of food permanently, they had gathered enough food only for a year or so from the last war with the ponies when they took as much as they could as fast as they could and their numbers were almost as much as on Chrysails regime. the new King had to find now a solution to the food problem.
More till next chapter...
