Here’s the thing about life in general.
Life can be a lot like lemons. And life can be even worse when you are royalty.
My name is Myrways of the Choricus hive, and I’m the granddaughter of my beloved Queen Mintroh.
Well, I was until I moved out anyway. Too many queens in one hive. I’ll start with the basic knowledge on hatchlings. A hatchling is small and usually looks a lot like a normal foal, only with chitin, wings, horns and fangs. All hatchlings look relatively the same, except those who belong to the Queen.
The cause of this is their lifespan, for a Queen can become multiple centuries old like the goddesses of the moon and sun. The heirs of the Queens need the best, pure love to hatch and really look like a caterpillar crossed with a pony.
Despite their odd appearance to most, both of the hatchling’s lives are the typical foal stuff, eating and growing until you fell asleep. Mine was as well. Then you woke up the next cycle, and repeated all these things again.
I know I did. Until I woke up one day. In a too cramped kind of space. And to make it worse, everything is.... kind of purple and gooey.
After waking up, I try to do the rational thing.Namely, panic to wake up. I blinked, screamed, and immediately stopped when my mouth was filled with a slimy goo. After my first panic attack of thrashing frantically about I quickly found out that I could barely move in my small prison of purple shades and blurs. I almost can't move them at all. Its so cramped in here.
That's when a few things started to dawn on me. I could feel and move my limbs, feel them strain against the surface of the thing that was holding me prisoner in its confines, but it wasn’t enough to break it. My movements where off too, unfamiliar and it felt like I lost a few legs.
That was, until I caught my reflection in the wall of my cocoon. Black chitin covering a pony like shape. Purple eyes with a slit pupil in the middle, like the eye of my changeling Queen. A longer than average horn was adorning the top of my head, and I blinked, disrupting my own hypnosis.
Shaking my head, I slowly took a look at the surroundings and through the clear substance of my cocoon were a pair of strange creatures about a yard away. Each was decked out in abyss looking skin with small insect like wings protruding from their backs. They each had a horn, two sharp looking fangs, purple colored eyes and multiple holes through most of their appendages. Adult changelings. Like I’m looking like now. Almost, remembering my eyes and horn.
I didn't then fully realize that they were staring back at my direction.
"Report, our queen wants the new batch ready as quickly as possible. Especially her grandchild" A muffled voice sounded nearby.
"They will be ready soon, but all of them would need some time to have their bodies harden or they will die." A second voice came from a closer direction to where I was located. "Tell the queen they will all be awake in a very short time, and they will be ready for their duties."
Gazing past them, I note I’m at the place with the cocoons mother took me yesterday. Past the other changelings, I could make out rows upon rows of sacs hanging from the ceiling. Each of the cocoons seemed to have a transparent form about them, showing within their insides what looked to be one changeling per sac. And there are easily a hundred of them in here.
At this point, my mind clicked into a panic mode where thrashing about trying desperately to break out of my prison seemed like the best course of action.
"Look, that one moves. Squirrel, open the sac. If it is not her, it needs to be prepared for training."
Training? Why, wait… what is going on? Is the hive under attack?! Now frantically flailing and really panicking inside the cocoon, I jabbed my horn against the wall in a desperate attempt to get the others away from me.
One of the changelings moved closer, until the first voice spoke out again. “No, wait, relay that command. Let us see what it does first.”
My still growing panic was now getting replaced with anger. I could feel my hooves pressing against my confines, my horn firmly stuck in the
gooey wall, but it still wasn’t enough to break it. It made me angry, almost furious and I could feel energy building up against the crown of my head. The pressure was almost overwhelming.
The magical force in my horn exploded in a burst of magic lighting my vision and the entire room in purple.
Part 2 After the Emerging
Pain.
Anypony who complains to me about pain apparently never had a cocoon blow up in their face by a blast of magic powerful enough to blast a magic resistant cocoon open. Granted, my horn was stuck in the cocoon’s outside, but It hurt and that headache is really going to bother me.
“Ow”
Two black, fuzzy figures were standing above me, vaguely hovering in my blurry vision.
“You said it.”
“You know, I didn’t mean to blow it up.” I retorted with a sneer as I lifted myself from my back to a sitting position, leaving my front hooves protecting my soft underbelly.
“We know,” The taller one of the two changeling answered. “You were just trying to get out. I shouldn’t have given that order, but I was curious how strong you would be, you being family of our Queen.” he said while looking over at the remains of the cocoon “and so far, you made a decent first impression”
I tried to stand on my hooves, but a wave of dizziness causes me to stumble and fall back on my haunches. Waiting for the my dizziness clear, I began studying them. They were black and filled with holes, and there were only four instead of the six I was used to. I guided my tongue inside mouth, tasting the remnants of the goo, and almost cut my tongue on my over sized canine teeth. Damn… those things are sharper then I had guessed.
I watched as the smaller changeling moved her hoof towards her side, and pulled something out of a bag made of plant-like materials. It was a glowing orb, roughly the size of her own hoof. Giving a judging look, she offered it to me.
Before I had fully realized what I was doing, I had bit down on the orb and thrown my head back. My throat loosened, and I swallowed the whole thing down. I shuddered as she just raised her eyelid. “You were starving after your second incubation? “ I blinked at her. “I expelled a lot of magic too, or did you forget that already?” She just smiled sheepishly, her chitin turning a light blue.
Feeling much better after that rather embarrassing affair of starvation and smiles, I was able to raise myself to my hooves. The smaller changeling spoke first. “So, do you have any family in here?” She asked as she pointed to the rows upon rows of cocoons surrounding us. She lighted her horn, bathing the room in an eerie glow.
“No, I don’t. Mother decided she didn't want two young queens. Too much chance on a rivalry for succession” I answered. “But I you don't mind, could you tell me who you two are?”
She looked over to her older brother, who nodded. “I am Squirrel and this is Shielder, and if your name is Myrways, we are here to bring you to our Queen. Your family is expecting you”