A Changing Family

Pure Soul and Beauty Heart trotted out of the throne room, the huge doors slamming shut behind them with a loud bang that slightly shook the area around them.

Beauty looked at her husband. "So...?"

"We're apart of the hive now honey!" He said with glee.

"Not officially." Came a voice from across the hallway.

The two looked over to see Nuc staring at them without showing any emotions towards their success.

"I see that you have succeeded in joining the hive," Nuc says as he stares at the both of them. "Now follow me. I'll lead you to the hub so it will be official." Nuc started to walk back to the huge spiral staircase that brought them all up here.

Pure and Beauty followed.

"You have some options now. Since she," He pointed to Beauty. "...is new to this hive, she doesn't have to link with the hive mind nor does your son. And you," Nuc points to Pure. "Since you have been far away from the hive and Queen for some time now, you have disconnected the link of the hive mind within you. So you'll have the choice whether or not you will want to link again."

Pure looked at his wife then back to Nuc. "We'll... think about it. If my wife isn't comfortable with linking then we won't."

This seemed to draw no suspicion from Nuc because he nods and continues to lead their walk.

He led them to the hub, which was, stated by Nuc, the biggest part of the hive. Changelings could be seen left and right buzzing and hurrying about, busy doing their own important things. Too busy in fact that they didn't even notice a pony with two changelings standing in the center of it all. They were currently in the main area, which led to all the other Hub pods. It looked like what pony would call a 'gigantic lobby'.

"So this is the hub.." Beauty said, quite amazed.

"The tunnels lead to other pods in Sector 2, which all have their own purpose," Nuc said while Beauty looked over dozens, maybe hundreds of tunnel openings high and low. "And they are all very important to the hive, big or small."

"So where are we supposed to go, Nuc?" Pure asked while his wife was still staring at the scene with amazement.

Nuc didn't have the chance to reply as they heard a voice shouting out to them from above. "Hey, you made it!" It was Scarred. He flew down beside Nuc and smiled. "I was kind of hoping for these two not to pass. I was going to ask if you wanted to go out and get a drink. Uh... no hard feelings you two." He said that last part sheepishly.

"We could still go later if you like. I'm not busy after my shift is over." Nuc replied.

"Alright then. I'll take it from here Nuc, I'll meet you in your pod later."

"Are you sure, sir?"

Scarred chuckled. "It's not like I'm going to fight the datalings. Besides, you deserve a little rest."

Nuc sighed. "Very well then. We will meet up later." With a salute, Nuc flew away and into one of the many tunnels.

Scarred watched his friend fly off for a couple of seconds before turning back to Pure and Beauty. "Let's get you three in, shall we?" He started to trot off in a certain direction, to which Pure Soul and Beauty Heart started to follow after a quick glance to their giggling son on Beauty's back.

As they walked under the black clouds of flying changelings, Pure looked over to his wife to see her with a frown and a raised eyebrow pointed at him. He mouthed a "What?" at her, but only got a shake of her head as a reply. He would have to talk to her later about whatever she was thinking about.

There was a wide tunnel entrance on the ground at the opposite side of the front of where they originally entered the hive. It held a long counter with what looked like an office behind it. Many changelings were hard at work doing... something with large green glowing oval balls.

"These are the datalings," Scarred said. "They have the very important role of organizing the hive and keeping the hive in order."

"They are like the brain of the hive." Pure whispered to Beauty.

"If there are any problems within the hive the datalings will act upon it and fix it as fast as possible. It is required that we are all hard working and fast paced, so we can't let anything slow us down." Scarred walked over and stopped in front of one of the datalings that were behind the front desk. "Hey there, I need to get these three behind me in the identity databanks of the hive please." He pointed to Pure and Beauty.

"Three?" The office worker asked with a female voice. "And is that a-"

Scarred shut her mouth with a hoof and started to whisper in her ear.

Beauty looked at Pure with another frown to which he just gave a sheepish toothy smile. Beauty then walked up to show her adorable son Changer.

"Oh, alright." The office female changeling eventually said. She told all of them to wait for her to come back before she went off to the back of the office room through a door. Earlier than a minute later, she peeked her head out of the door and shook her hoof to signal them to follow her inside.

Pure and Beauty, with Changer on her back, stepped inside, but using her two hooves the female changeling stopped Scarred dead in his tracks. "Only they are required. You can wait in the front office if you'd like."

"I'll do just that, thank you, um..."

"Clire."

He nods at her then looks at Pure and Beauty. "Good luck with... whatever you're doing in there."

Clire chuckled. "They'll be fine."

Scarred nods at her again before turning to go and wait in the front.

It didn't take as long as they thought it would. The two parents were put into separate huge cocoons that looked like those glowing green oval things that they saw earlier. These cocoons were about half a meter in the air and were supported by long strands of the same lime glowing green substance connected on the walls and ceiling. They put the holder asleep, then takes in the thoughts from a changeling's, or pony's in this case, mind, and puts it into the hive mind. Beauty recognized this as some kind of sign-up page like those on the web, but much more intricate.

The only problem they came across was that Beauty was a little hesitant to enter the creepy looking cocoons which surprised Clire, and Pure solved that mentioning about 'Bad memories' which seemed to work.

Clire sat nearby cradling Changer in her hooves while she waited for them to be done.

After about thirty minutes passed, the cocoons made a weird noise then popped open from one side, releasing Pure and Beauty. Green goo that spurted out of the cocoons cushioned both of them when they fell down to the floor. Not a second later did they groggily get up and shook their heads.

"You're finally done." Clire put Changer on her back and walked to them. "Now it is in our hive mind. 1010 A.K.A Kram, we already have history from you, and your wife's drone number is now 1011 with her codename as Beauty." She said to the both of them.

"I do remember choosing the number 1011... It was recommended because it was closest to Pure's." Beauty whispered to herself.

"Now you two have the choice if you want to link up with the hive mind. We won't force it on you if it's too overwhelming of course. By the way, your little guy is just the cutest!"

Pure looked over to his wife who took Changer from Clire with her magic and set him down on her own back. He then looked back at Clire and said, "I think we're fine. We only needed a safe place to live anyways, we're not planning on staying to tell you the truth."

Clire smiled at him warmly. "Like I said, we're not forcing you to do anything you don't want to. With the exception of the requirement to put you in our databases, you are now free to do whatever you like."

Pure nodded with a smile. "Thanks."

"If you'd like, I can also get you three your own Home pod so you can have your private space."

"Why thank you so much!" Pure thanked.

Clire giggled. "Follow me."

Scarred, Pure and Beauty along with Changer ascended the huge spiral staircase they were on earlier, and Scarred mentioned that he named this set of stairs 'Omega'. They walked up for minutes until finally arriving at Sector 2's main entrance, littered with tunnel holes coming from above and below.

Beauty noticed immediately after trotting through for some time that it was much quieter than the Hub. There were only three pairs of wings buzzing at most which were tender to her ears, and only about ten changelings walking on the ground as far as she could see.

They first walked up a straight set of stairs to a large door, not quite the size of the throne room's, but large none the less. They went through the doorway and Beauty recognized this as the living area of the hive. The Home pods.

Left and right were many big and small pods made out of black material. Some were occupied but most was empty seeing that the hive was hard at work.

"The pod number Clire gave me was 5197. That means we're on the fifth floor." Pure and Beauty followed Scarred for some more steps, until...

"More bucking stairs?!"

Five minutes later and the four could be seen walking down a pathway with Home pods surrounding them. Only this time, the pods were a lot bigger than the ones below. Scarred explained that these ones are used for the ones with a big family or a child, and the ones below are the ones with their busy jobs. He also explained that the sixth and last floor of this Sector was where the things a child needed while growing up was.

It took them a couple more minutes until they finally reached their home.

"Here it is, number 5197! Your own pod for you and your colt."

"I couldn't thank you enough Scarred. It surprised me to see someling take their time away for someling like us."

"Please, call me Doyl." He said as he stuck his hoof out to shake with Pure's. "Scarred is just the codename I use to sound intimidating. And as for my reason helping you all..." He looked down and started to feel a little depressed to the shock of Pure and Beauty. "My... girlfriend had this disease that... made her chitin grow weirdly with this sticky feel to it because of her magic. It wasn't a problem to me, though! I loved her! But soon, a week before our marriage was scheduled, the disease spread to her head, and soon to her brain..." He sniffled a little. "Her coma is almost passing half a year! And there's nothing I can do to help her." He looked at Pure in the eyes with a determined face and said. "When you told me about you wife's disability, I couldn't dare stop myself from helping you two! And I won't stop helping those in need. Not until my girlfri-... my wife, wakes up." A tearing up Doyl didn't have a chance to say anything as he was enveloped in a warm hug from both Pure and Beauty.

All was silent as the three stood there, Doyl in the parent's embrace. Even little Changer's smile faded when he looked at Doyl.

"Thank you..." Doyl sputtered out after a minute of hugging.

"I hope your wife gets better soon." Beauty said. "And I hope her loving bug will be there when she does." She winked at him.

Doyl smiled and nodded. "I... have to go. I'll meet you three again sometime soon." Without a word, Doyl buzzingly flew away, leaving Pure, Beauty, and their son.

"Well," Pure began. "Let's get settled in." He was about to start his way towards their pod's front door but was stopped by a hoof poking his chest. It was Beauty's. "What is it dear?"

She just stares with a frown.

Pure looked around the area for any changelings that could hear them. After seeing that there wasn't, he began, "Is there something wrong? Do you not like how the hive looks? Or are you grossed out by the changelings?"

Still only stares.

"Ah, I know! You're still scared of the Queen. She's really-" Another hoof made him stop talking.

His wife finally spoke. "The hive is... interesting. Not bad just... interesting. The changelings we've met so far are all very nice, and I have a little cute one on my back as we speak. For the queen... she's much more intimidating than Princess Celestia, but her heart is in the right place." Beauty prepared her next sentence by clearing her throat. Loud enough for Pure to hear.

"What I want to know is why every...ling is looking at me with sympathy in their eyes and saying I have this 'disability'!" She whisper-yelled,

"Oh! That! W-well that was my excuse for you 'not being able to transform'."

"I see... hmph!" She turned around, facing their pod, suddenly shaking Changer on her back who was now giggling due to the ride. "You're just lucky I don't take my pride as seriously as you stallions do." She smirked back at him. "But next time, tell me beforehoof please?" And then she walked off, barely hearing the sigh of relief coming from her husband.