Being a Proto-Queen to a new hive sucks; what was wrong with how I did things? Sure the negotiations were going well, but that one noble griffin said my mane was ugly and I told the Prince of the Griffin Empire if he didn't agree to it I would punch him in the beak.
*Sigh* Okay, let's start from the beginning; my name is Ril and I'm the Proto-Queen to the newly made in the Smoky Mountains; it seems that there was a dragon cave without a dragon in it, it also felt like home. I used to live in the hive near the Griffin Empire with my mother, Queen Avi, and my two other sisters.
Everything was going fine until that meeting with the Griffins. Now, my mother told me to leave the hive; That’s stupid! I shouldn't have to leave the hive due to that. But Nooo… she said that if I want to be a better queen I need to learn to be less aggressive.
She allowed some of the drones to come with me since I was still a Proto-Queen, about… ummm….
So yeah a hundred and fifty drones; what? I’m terrible at remembering numbers. Anyway, why Smoky Mountains? Well, first it reminded me of home and second it's in Equestria; the land of pushover ponies.
Like literally they are pushovers, they make friends with anything, even a rock. Well, actually that would be fine, rocks were cool who wouldn't be friends with a rock? But anyway they're pushovers so setting up my hive and expand my territory will be a cakewalk!
Well, that was what I first thought.
A few years ago when I was still setting up my hive I heard news that Queen Chrysalis, one of the queens of the hives in the Badlands who is known to be brutal yet cunning, went and attack Canterlot; and then got defeated on the same day by TWO PONIES!
How? Just how?? They were one of the well known warrior broods that were ever known and they were beaten by the ponies; maybe they were just lucky right. Right?
Well, something just happened a few months ago. A centaur named Tirek drained all the magic in the land and was basically a flipping God; and yet he was defeated by one pony. JUST ONE! Ok, he was defeated by six of them, but for the most part it was one.
So they’re as the pushovers that I thought and I not only having a hundred and fifty drones verses a lot more ponies plus four Alicorns and two of them can move the celestial bodies around and one of them was the personal student to the Princess of the Sun; there’s also what happened the past few years so I don’t think I would win; which is a pain because I think we have a fighting chance… kinda… sort of… maybe.
I groaned as I put my head in my hoofs; this should of been easy. All I have to do is build up my forces and prepare and don’t pull a Chrysalis. But now that plan is off the table; I don’t think trying to take over is a really good idea to begin with.
“My queen are you alright?” one of the drones asked me. I believe his name was Ilikon.
“No, I'm not alright.” I told him with a sigh. “I had everything planned out, build the hive up and forces to be ready for anything and expand our territory.”
“You mean try to take over Equestria?” he asked. I eyed him for a minute before speaking.
“Yes… well, no not really not all of Equestria, just like a small bit of it.” I explained to him. He frowned at this.
“My queen if I may the idea of getting more territory is, and I stand by it, a really bad idea.” he said. I looked down at him with a frown.
“Explain.”
"Well, there was Nightmare Moon who tried to take over Equestria and put it in an endless night, then there was Discord who was… well was being himself, then there's the prime example of Queen Chrysalis; do I need to continue?” he asked.
“No, I get it.” I rubbed my temples. “We can't fight them, they would destroy us in a second; what do we do?”
“How about negotiating a peace treaty with them?” he said. I set my gaze on him and stood up from my throne.
“You want me to negotiate with the princesses for peace?” I asked him slowly. I was a few feet away from him, but I towered over him.
“Um…” He stammered as I grew closer.
“Ilikon, that plan of peace is…” I saw him sweat and started shaking. I tilted my head a bit. “Actually a good idea.”
Ilikon stared at me for a minute blinking in surprise. “Ummm, what?”
“The idea of negotiating for peace, it would be better than hiding and sneaking around, who knows, maybe my hive can go out without shapeshifting!” I said excitedly.
“Uhh my queen, you do know that you're… well how do I say this?” Ilikon tapped his hoof to his chin.
“Speak your mind Ilikon.” I told him.
“Well, you don’t have a very good track record with negotiating.” he bluntly said. I looked at him and frowned.
“I’m not that bad.” I said defensively. He just raised an eyebrow.
“There’s that one time with the Griffon prince.”
“He called me ugly!”
“And the time with another changeling hive that came over.”
“They didn’t agree with the way I look at things.”
“And again the Griffon prince, with his guards.”
“They started it and I was still mad at the fact that he called me ugly.” I snapped back.
“Don’t take this the wrong way my queen, you’re strong and a great queen to follow it’s just that you kinda let your temper get the best of you and you’re very aggressive when you want something, well with everything really.” he said.
“I don’t see what’s wrong with that, everybody will do anything for what they want.” I told him.
“Yeah, but you’re a bit more… brutal about it.” he said.
“BA what do you know, anyway, this negotiation will do very well with my other plan.” I said with pride in my voice.
“Err, what plan my queen?” Ilikon asked. Right, I didn't tell anyling about it.
"Well, since the ponies are much stronger than I thought, so I sent some drones out to get one of the nobles and bring him or her back here.”
Ilikon stared at me. “You sent drones out to ponynap some noble, just you can interrogate them.”
"What, no I'm not going to ponynap them, I'm just getting them to come here and ask him or her some questions then they can leave.” I shook my head at him. “Honestly, what kind of fool do you take me for.”
Before he could say anything a changeling came over the hive mind, I like to call it the network.
I smiled brightly at this, everything is coming together nicely. I looked over at Ilikon as he had a neutral expression as he looked at me.
“Come, we have a guest to meet.” I said. We headed out of the room into the hive. I saw some changelings coming and going, they nod at me or say hello when we pass. I may be the queen, proto-queen, but I don't need my adopted children to bow to me. Truth be told the idea of bowing as I pass by is kinda stupid if you ask me, what if you're carrying something really heavy or easy to break and I walked pass, if you know you'll drop the thing and it will break. A simple hello is plenty.
We continue down the tunnel towards our destination, along the way I saw some newly made rooms were added such as a clothing store, a gym, bookstore, and a restaurant. I sniff the air and smelled the aroma of cooked meat, my mouth began to water
Yes Changelings can eat meat, well, some of us do, it depends on what the environment they grew up. I and the rest of my swarm came from the Griffin Empire, not a lot of veg there and the Griffins eat meat. They're also a lot of animals and creatures there that want to eat you, so it's a battle of survival.
I made a note to myself to come back to get something to eat from there when I was done with the guest, after five minutes of walking we came to a tunnel with many doors and opened the one with the number ‘2’ on it. I walked in and saw two changelings looking through a window before turning their heads.
“My queen,” they both said and bowed, see this makes sense they weren't carrying some breakable and I was walking into a room.
“So, this is the noble that you got, huh.” I said as I looked through the window and saw what I could guess is a pink Pegasus. Said Pegasus had a bag over her head as she tried to shake it off.
“We must apologize for being so long our queen.” the one on the left side. It’s funny, it’s hard to tell the difference between a male and female changeling; yes, there are female changelings and no they don’t turn into queens, well unless you're REALLY lucky. Just as a quick lesson on the differences of a changeling in my hive, a male is a bit bigger and stocky, their horns are more straight or jagged and short spiky manes and tails, also their wings are also a bit spiky while the females are smaller and rounder, their horns are curved with medium to long manes and tails, their wings are also a bit rounder.
“What do you mean by that? You got the noble and came back alright.” I said to her.
“Yes, but you see, this noble isn’t from Canterlot.” she explained. I looked at her and frowned.
“What do you mean, not from Canterlot?” I asked her. She shifted a bit on the spot.
“Well… umm… you see… uhhh…” she stammered. I can tell that she’s nervous as she begins to sweat, why are they all are always nervous around me? Am I really so scary?
“What my comrade is trying to say is that due to the attack the other hive has done, the security in the place was tight and we couldn’t do anything to get in, so we headed out to the Crystal Empire.” The other changeling, male, explained. The female turned and gave him a small smile. I looked back at our guest as the shaking became more violent.
“Oh for bloody sakes, take that bag off!” I yelled. Ilikons horn lit up with a blueish aura and so did the bag. It lifted off the head of the now know to be a mare, I saw that she also had a horn as well. Odd she looks familiar.
“Odd why does she have a horn? Are horn and wings a popular thing now?” I asked as I looked at the mare.
“Uhh my queen, do you know that a pony with both wings and a horn are known as an Alicorn right?” Ilikon told me.
“Yes, I know.” I replied.
“Also, do you know who she is?” He asked. I looked over with a blank look as I saw that he too was a bit nervous. “That’s the Alicorn of Love, the same one that blasted Queen Chrysalis and her hive to who know where.”
I turned to the window and stared at her. My wings dropped as the realization hit me like a boulder. An Alicorn was sitting in my hive and probably have enough power to turn it into a crater.
“Umm Queen Ril? Are you alright?” the female changeling asked. I fell to the ground and covered my head.
“IT WAS A HARMLESS SIMPLE PLAN!!!”
Meanwhile in the Crystal Empire
Twilight came out of the mirror without any problems and was reunited with her friends and the other two princesses. After retelling her tale to them, she looked around and frowned.
“Where’s Cadence?” she asked. The rest of them looked around for the pink princess, but didn’t see her.
“Odd where could she be?” Luna said. Celestai looked and saw one of the crystal guards trotting quickly in the hall.
“Excuse me.” she began. The guard fumbled with his hooves to stop and bow to the three princesses. “I would like to ask where’s Princess Mi Amore Cadenza?”
The stallion shifted a bit without looking are the Solar Princess. “Don’t… don’t you already know?”
The princesses and five mares and dragon shook their heads. The guard sighed slightly.
“Well, two days ago Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was… ponynapped… again.” Silence filled the void at what the guard said. That until:
“WHAT!!!!”
Author's Note
Hey! I made a new thing! Well I made it a while ago and it's not really new, I always wanted to do a Changeling story but I couldn't figure out how I want to write it.
Then came Queen Aze who helped me with this one, if you haven't seen or read any of his stories... go do that now!!!
Anyway any errors you can see that I have missed can you point them out please and thank you and any advice for me would be great, but be nice 
]
See you all in the next chapter :)
The Start of Negotiations.
I nervously paced back and forth in my throne room. This is bad, really bad. I have an alicorn, who’s basically a god among ponies, who's probably really ticked off that she been ponynapped. Even worse by Changelings!
What would she do? Blast us with her magic? Summoned an army of love knights? Or send a message to the other Alicorns? I gulped at the thought of the deity of the Sun bringing the Sun closer to fry us.
The thought alone sent shivers down my spine. I never saw her in the flesh but the stories and rumors did paint a picture of what she was capable of. She’s probably planning on how to storm my hive right at this moment!
Meanwhile in the Crystal Empire!
A loud sneeze was heard from the Solar Princess.
“Bless you,” her sister and a few guards said. Said Princess made a handkerchief appeared to wipe her muzzle.
“Thank you.”
Back at the hive!
“My queen, you need to calm down,” one of my advisors, Mell, said. “If you don’t you’ll send the hive into a panic.”
I stared at her for a moment before taking some deep breaths. I still felt nervous but I wasn’t freaking out. Yet.
“Alright, so we have an Alicorn in the hive that has a bad history with Changelings,” I began to say until something felt off. There’s an Alicorn in the hive, and the hive is still standing. My knowledge of ponies isn’t that great but aren’t Alicorns supposed to be the mix of all three ponies? That would mean she would be able to use magic, so why isn’t she?
“My queen, what’s the plan?” I heard another of my advisors, Ilikon, ask me. I blinked at him for a moment. Maybe this isn’t as bad as I thought, she hasn’t blasted us yet so maybe there’s a chance to win her over or something like that, technically she was our guest so~.
“You there!” I yelled as I turned around, and pointed at a random drone. The drone stopped in its tracks and started to look around, two other drones sidestepped away from said drone.
“Y-yes my queen?” the drone, male, asked.
“I want you to head to the chamber with our guest and get her something to drink,” I ordered. The drone saluted me and headed out of the chamber quickly. I looked over at Ilikon, remembering something that I should have asked.
“How did the raids go?” I asked. Ilikon looked at me before lighting his horn as a scroll appeared.
“We only hit a few small villages that are out of the way. The biggest had about three hundred residents so it was easy. The raiding parties disguised themselves to look like ponies to keep them safe.” Ilikon reported; I nodded.
“Any casualties?” I asked him. He shook his head.
“There wasn’t much resistance against them; everything we took has been sorted and put into the storage rooms.” he said. I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Everything?” I asked slowly. Ilikon looked at me and nodded.
“Yes my queen, we tripled-checked it just to be sure.” I sighed in relief. What? Is there something wrong with having everything organized?
“Is there anything else?" I asked. Ilikon shifted a bit before looking at me.
“Well, the raiders found something that's most odd.” his eyes dimmed a bit and lit back up. The doors open and one of the raiders walked in with a container on his back. It was cylinder shaped and brown, I frowned at the fact that there was no label on it. The raider stopped in front of me and bowed. I used my magic to lift the container to me. An amber coloured aura surrounded it and floated over to me. I was wrong, there was a label one it but it had a cup with something in it. Three wavy lines over said cup indicate that it was hot and it was a drink some kind. I moved it to beside my head and shook it. There was something in it, something powdery.
“What is this?” I asked.
“We don't know my queen, all we know that every house we broke into had them.” the drone said. I stared the container and opened it. Inside was some sort of brown powder. I took a deep sniff of the stuff which made me start sneezing like mad. After my sneezing fit, I narrowed my eyes at it and tried again, just not as deeply this time. It smelled like chocolate, something very rare to get our hooves on. I stuck my tongue out in it to taste it. It tasted like powdered chocolate.
“Interesting, did the ponies found a way to turn food into a powdered or a thing for self-defense?” I wondered out loud.
“We don't know my queen, maybe the one we ponynapped-”
“Our guest,”
“Err, right, our guest. Maybe she knows more of this container and the powder.” the drone said. I looked at him. He's right; the alicorn might know what this is. But that would mean that I have to… talk to her.
Gulp.
I... was not a happy pony. A few days ago, I think, I watched my sister-in-law and fellow princess walk through a magic mirror into another world. I wouldn't lie, I was a bit jealous of her. Why is it that she gets the spotlight and go on adventures and all I get to do is sit on my throne and listen to my subjects?
Sure I got to save the Crystal Empire from Sombra but Twilight and her friends did most of the work. Heck, they even made a statue of Spike and dubbed him a hero for it. It was nice, but what about me? Heck, after that I gave up my magic power to Twilight then got pushed aside for her to have an epic fight with a mad centaur. What’s worse is that I didn't get to watch the fight; it would've been awesome!
I sighed and looked around the room for the umpteenth time. The walls and floor were made out of smooth stone. There wasn't anything else in here other than the table. Looking down at the floor I saw that it was polished down to be smooth but even with the low light I saw that it looked like it was carved out of a cave. By the smell, I was in some sort of cave. There was an overall musky scent in addition to cooking and smoke, It was somewhat odd with a redundant musk smell. I put my head on the table and sighed.
“I was ponynapped right out of the Crystal Empire; can it get any worse?” I paused for a minute. “Well, I could be doing paper work for another three hours...”
As I finished, the door opened and a Changeling walked in with a cart. I eyed it in disgust, ‘Changelings, of course, it had to be Changelings. I guess Chrysalis is trying to take over the Crys... wait, why is it a different colour?’
I raised my head up and stared at the Changeling. Everything about it looked the same as one of the Changelings that Chrysalis brought with her but the mane, eyes, and… back piece(?) were a different colour. Instead of a blue colour, it was more of an orange-like amber. It stopped by the table and looked at me.
“Umm… the queen is wondering if you would like something to drink,” it said. From the one sentence, I learned two things; that the Changeling is male and that he can talk. Like, holy Celestia a changeling other than Chrysalis can talk!
“You can talk!” I yelled. The changeling reared his head at my outburst.
“Uhh yeah, I can talk. Every changeling can talk,” he said. I just stared at him. I thought Changelings like Chrysalis can only be able to talk. The changeling looked at me then to the cart. “Do you... want anything to drink?”
I regain my composure and straightened. “No; what I want is to talk to your queen.”
“Oh, alright I will… I will tell her that you wish for an audience with her,” the changeling said. He pulled the cart out of the room and reclosed the door. I sat in the room patiently for Chrysalis.
After what felt like two hours passed, I couldn't tell the time from being here, the door reopened and what walked in was a much different changeling. This one was much bigger than the first one but not the size of Celestia or Chrysalis; more the size of Luna give or take. Her mane was short cut and the same amber-coloured, she glared back at me with aggressive eyes that gave only a hint of curiosity. Her body was slim and angular and her wings looked like that of a beetle I had seen in a book. What was a bit odd was her horn. it started as curving up but near the end it forked out a bit.
“So, you wish to speak with me,” I was brought out of my thoughts when she said that.
“Wait, you're the queen?” I asked her. She frowned at me.
“Yes, I’m the queen. Well, proto-queen, but close enough.” she explained.
“But wasn’t Chrysalis the queen?” I asked her. She stared at me and began to laugh.
“Hahaha! Okay, that’s funny nice joke,” she laughter turned into a chuckle as she looked at me, her smile died when she saw my face. “Wait, you’re serious?”
I simply stared at her for a moment. “Well…”
“You’ve gotta be kidding!” she said. She sat down at the other end of the table and rubbed her face. She stared at me for some time which made me uncomfortable. “Just how much do you know about Changelings?”
“Well-” I stopped. Truly, I don’t know that much about them, Twilight might know more but… “Not a lot, all I know that they can change their shape, feed on love and… are evil.”
That earned me a glare. “What, just because one hive attacked a city or raided a place you go ahead and label the whole race evil! That’s racist.”
“Racist! You Changelings kidnapped me and tried to marry my husband and take over Canterlot!” I yelled back. She looked like she was about to say something until her right ear twitched. She looked over in that direction staying silent, she clicked her tongue a few times and took a few deep breaths.
“Okay, I think we got off on the wrong hoof, let’s start over.” She straightened a bit. “I’m Proto-Queen Ril of this hive, and before you ask yes, there’s more than one changeling hive.”
‘So there’s more than one, that’s unnerving to know.’ I thought. I looked Ril in the eyes, which I must point out that they looked a pretty shade of amber. “I’m Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Princess of Love and the Crystal Empire.”
“Uhh… what?” Ril said. I saw her tilt her head at me.
“What’s wrong?”
“Your name, it’s long.”
“What?” I asked her. My name is too long? No pony has ever said that before. Is my name too long?
“Cadenza is alright, but the Mi Amore? What’s that about?” she said. I was going to say something but she cut me off. “Can I call you Amore? Or Cadenza, or… Pink?”
“Uh… Cadenza is fine.” I told her. We sat there in silence for some time. This was getting awkward. “So-”
“Most of what you know about Changelings is wrong.” Ril bluntly interrupted me.
“Wha-”
“First, not everyling is evil, Changelings are like ponies, we are not born evil and other stuff, I don't look at ponies and declare that they aren't pushovers.” again her right ear twitched. She frowned a bit. “Well… not anymore.”
“Okay~,” I said to her. I eyed her for a moment, did she think that we were pushovers?
“Look, I'm not the ‘greatest’ at negotiating with others…” at this moment I realized what she was doing.
“Are, are you trying to negotiate peace between ponies and Changelings?”
“What? Oh no no no, you misunderstand me,” I eyed her for a moment in confusion. “I'm trying to negotiate peace with my hive and the ponies, the other hives can fend for themselves.”
I blinked at her. “Just your hive?”
“Yeah, I can't speak for the other hives but at the moment we're dealing with my hive.” she leaned forward and stared at me. “Understand.”
I didn't say anything, by the tone she said that it sounded like a threat. The way it sounded is as if she said ‘Do exactly what I say or something bad will happen.’
“I… can understand that,” her lips turned into a smile. “But I want a few things first.” her smile turned into a frowned as she stared at me.
“... Fine, what do you want?” she asked bluntly. I licked my lips and I thought about it. I saw her ears twitch a bit as she clicks her tongue again. Why is she doing that?
“First, I want a safe passage back home, no tricks, no anything, just a way back home.” I began.
“Done.” she stated. This confused me a bit as she rolled her eyes. “Did you believe that we're going to keep you here by force?”
“I… well… I… anyway,” I shook my head to get on track. “Next, as long as I'm here I want to be fed and able to sleep somewhere comfy.”
“Err… sure.” she said. Her eyes moved towards the one wall and clicked her tongue again.
“Next, I want you to tell me everything there is about Changelings.” I said quickly. “As you said most of what I know about them is wrong so why not learn it from the horse's mouth.”
We sat there in silence at what I just said. I repeated what I said in my head and had to force myself to not face hoof. Got to keep this professional.
“Right… okay, sure anything else?” she asked me. I thought about it.
“Yes, you want to have peace with everypony right, well let me tell you this,” I leaned forward over the table. “I don’t trust you.”
She blinked at me but I continued. “You may not be from the same hive as Chrysalis but I’m still not on good terms with Changelings all together, your race almost ruined my wedding and you don’t want to do that so you are on thin ice, understand.”
Ril's gaze didn’t seem to waver a bit, sure it changed to somewhat confusion but when I finished her eyes hardened and stared at me. The glow of the amber eyes seemed to be the only light source in the room which made it both eerie yet… oddly comfortable.
“Alright, I understand what you mean and I assure you that we will not do harm to you with your stay.” she said. I leaned back and thought it over.
“One last thing, if we are going to do this then everypony will be there, me, Princess Twilight, Luna, and Celestia.” For an instant, I saw something in Ril's eyes that came and went in a hurry. A look of fear.
“O-okay, yeah sure, I-I guess after settling with you and the Crystal Empire-”
“No, all of us, in the same room, both the Crystal Empire, Canterlot, and now Ponyville have already good ties with one another so I believe that all of us will do this at once, saves time and all that.” I explained. Ril’s right eye started to twitch and so did her ears. She was like that for a few moments before standing.
“I’ll be right back.” she said as she walked out of the room. Her wings were also twitching. As the door closed and left me alone to think about this whole thing.
I walked back into the throne room with my two advisers talking with one another. When I entered they stopped their talking.
“My queen! You have returned, did everything go alright?” Mell asked me.
“Did you ask what the brown powder stuff is?” Ilikon also asked. I closed the doors to the throne room before turning to them.
“Is this room secure?” I asked them.
“Uhh… yeah? No changeling can hear us normally or hivemind.” Ilikon said. I took a deep breath before speaking.
“Well, she agreed with doing some negotiating,” I started. Both Mell and Ilikon smiled at that. “But, it seems that these negotiations are going to be with all of the princesses.”
“All of them, like all four of them?” Mell asked. I simply nodded. “Right, so how screwed are we?”
I stared at her for a moment before falling to the ground and covering my head.
“I’ll take that as very.”
Author's Note
Poor Ril, you can be as badass all you want but when facing a group of gods you'll start to shake.
See any errors, put them doing in the comments please.
see you all in the next chapter. :)
