Rebirth

The group of creatures marched outside of the prison-like room, the door closing with a strange metallic squelch behind them. The filly passed by the black marble and green gemstone walls which emitted light from an unknown source, in a daze. Even the other doors leading deeper into the complex failed to capture her interest. She stared fixedly at the ground, which was slick with something the filly preferred not to think about.
Eventually they paused outside a door noticeably grander than any other the filly had seen. The winged ones stayed beside the filly, arms stretched as to form a barrier. The unicorn stepped forward, the door opening automatically, and stepped inside. The filly could pick out the muted mufflings of conversation before the unicorn re-emerged.
"That'll be all, Drones," he ordered the other two creatures, who bowed respectfully and departed back down the long corridor. The filly glanced back at them before being pushed towards the imposing doors. They rolled open, receiving the duo and promptly closing behind them.
The unicorn cleared his throat and addressed something the filly couldn't see in the dimly lit, green chamber. "Presenting the Newborn, your Highness." At the end of the sentence, a pair of opaque curtain-like screens slid apart like a butterfly's wings and revealed a large shape on what seemed to be a bed. Immediately, she stood up and galloped toward the filly, scooping her up in her punctured legs and cradling her like a foal.
"My little darling, I'm so glad to see you!" she cried, hugging the filly close and cooing at her like a worried mother. The filly was stiff against her warm body, confusion etched into every feature on her face. The unicorn looked on indifferently.
When the filly was finally released from the motherly form's smothering, she stared at the smiling female with wide eyes.
"I know you must have a lot of questions, sweetheart. But trust me when I say that you are safe here," she began, her voice velvety smooth and dripping with promises of love and comfort. "Nothing and no-one here will hurt you."
The filly nodded at this, and dipped her head in thought. "W-what are you?" was her first question, which elicited a laugh from the creature.
"We are Changelings, a species far superior to the ponies that litter Equestria. I am Thorax, the queen. And the soldier that escorted you here is Web, one of my most trusted." Web nodded in response, but stayed silent.
"And w-what am I?" the filly ventured deeper into uncovering the mystery.
"You were a pony. Or, trapped in a pony's body," Thorax replied. "But we saved you from your false body. We made you into your true form, that of a Changeling."
"I saw a village, someone who said they were my mother..." the filly continued questionably.
"Ah, yes," the queen's smile faltered and her amber eyes filled with sympathy. "That was the town that took your pony self in. We saved you just before it was raided by Princess Celest-"
"No!" the filly cried desperately, refusing to believe the pony she had looked up to all her life would destroy just because she could. "T-that can't be right! Celestia is the Sun Goddess, our ruler and friend..."
"I'm sorry, sweetie. But it's the truth, she has become mad with power. She's storming the larger settlements as we speak, and burning the smaller ones to the ground," Thorax elaborated, the filly too choked up with sobs to interrupt.
"And... only I got out?" she asked, blinking the last tears away. The queen nodded solemnly.
"When we arrived, everyone else was gone. Either escaped, captured or worse. There was nothing we could do." The filly stayed silent, accepting the revelation grimly.
"Celestia must be stopped. This has always been the Changeling goal, and every year we progress one step closer to completing it. But this attack she staged, it has reset all our work. We have to start again," Thorax revealed. "But I'm dying, darling. Such is a consequence of a 500 year rule. And my hive needs a leader, a new queen to lead it to glory." The filly shrank back slightly at the queen's intense gaze, realising what she meant.
"I can be a queen?" Her question hung in the air like a cloud of smoke.
"Yes, my child!" Thorax said excitedly. "That is why we had to rescue you, those ponies were jealous of your power. They don't want you fulfilling your purpose!"
"Purpose..." the filly repeated the word, tasting it. A poisonous smile had crept onto the queen's face.
"Of course, I shall have to be make sure you really are capable of such a momentous task," Thorax added, wings fluttering excitedly.
"I can do it! I know I can!" the filly said confidently, bearing a naive toothy grin. "Just tell me me what I need to do, Miss Thorax!"
xx
The filly was led through a labyrinth of shining black walls and airy tunnels, only receiving glimpses of the complex inner workings of the hive before being pushed onwards. She had no idea were the Changelings were taking her now, only that it would prove if she could handle the immense responsibility of being queen.
The filly was about to ask if they were nearing their destination when Thorax stopped suddenly, causing her to plant her hooves in the moist ground to avoid bashing into her backside. Another door opened with the chilling squelch and the queen resumed progress.
The filly gazed around the small room, empty save for the dark-tinted screen across the far wall, impermeable to light.
"To be queen, you must be able to do anything necessary to protect the hive, with no hesitation," Thorax began, walking to the screen with the filly trailing behind her. Web stayed sentinel at the door.
"During a scout of the remains of Ponyville, we tracked down the ponies that kept you imprisoned, that masqueraded as your parents." The filly gazed at the queen numbly, the images of the burning town still fresh in her young mind.
The screen suddenly became brighter, eventually becoming a clear window into another prison-like room. Two shapes cowered and wailed in the centre, one with a light yellow body and the other a dark grey. Their respective blue and green manes were messy and matted, hanging limply over their weeping faces.
"That yellow one, I recognise her!" the filly cried, recalling the pony that awoke her in the nightmare vision.
"I thought you might," Thorax replied, the ghost of a smirk playing at her lips. "She told you she was your mother. She made you soft and weak. The grey one pretended to be your father, feeding you lies from birth. He warped your beautiful Changeling mind into a disgusting pony one. They have desecrated you, one of us, and in turn have hurt the whole Hive. They must pay!" the queen's voice brimmed with such rage that the filly flinched from her protector.
Thorax waved a holed hoof to Web, whose horn glowed an acid green and pointed to the screen that separated the two rooms. Nothing seemed to change, except the two ponies heads perked up. The yellow one stared right at the two Changelings, her face marked with damp trails as tears coursed down her fur. She was taking quick and heavy gaps of air, sobbing uncontrollably. Then something strange happened to her mouth. The corners lifted ever so slightly, a tilted wavering line. She nudged the stallion beside her, who also looked up from his crying and looked at his captors. "Leaf, I-I think it's her..." the mare whispered to her mate, the line of her mouth morphing into a wild grin. "It's her, she's safe!" she cried hysterically, galloping towards the screen and planting her front hooves on them. She stared at the filly with eyes tearing up with joy, the stallion behind her and grinning likewise.
The filly glanced at Thorax in confusion. "M-Miss Thorax, why are they happy?"
"They do not see you as we do. To them you are still their inferior pony daughter," the queen replied, regarding the two ponies like they were bugs. "This mirror is charmed to show only you, they cannot see nor hear me." Suddenly the filly felt very self-conscious, with all the attention on her. She backed away from the screen, which caused the mare's smile to falter. "J-June? It's me, Momma! We're going to take you home..." She lifted her hooves and set them on the ground, eyes drooping in what seemed like disappointment. The filly looked on incredulously.
"Sweetie, I'll need you to look away for a moment," Thorax said, the filly turning towards the far wall and clamping her eyes shut.
"June, can you hear me? We're your parents, we-"
"Ignore them, dearie. They only want to poison your mind again," the queen's voice overlapped the mare's one, laced with cold authority. She nodded to Web, who sighed and reluctantly pulled down a nearby lever set into the left wall. It creaked as it swing downwards, the mechanism rusty from a clear lack of use. A sinister whirring took over the intimidating silence, sounding strangely melodic to the filly. She'd heard it before, somewhere...
The two ponies trapped in the small room glanced around worriedly, startled by the sudden noise. It blocked out their whimpering and the shuffle of their hooves on the hard floor. Their eyes darted everywhere, glimpsing a series of vents set into the ceiling. Unbeknownst to them, a practically invisible substance was leaking into the room through the vents. They breathed it in obliviously, their intakes fast and slowly growing more laboured.
"June? A-are you there?" the stallion asked, his voice a trembling tenor. "Listen honey, we're going to try and get out of here, then we'll come for you. I promise I-" he was cut off by a series of hacking coughs that shook his frame, which was beginning to look strangely emancipated.
"Leaf, are you okay?" the mare asked anxiously, a hoof placed on her husband's shoulder. She patted him to ease his coughing, but then gasped at the sight of his body. His skin seemed to be shrinking and sticking to his bones, i was like he hadn't eaten in weeks; the ribs sharp and prominent, spine edging his back and cheeks sunken, usually bright eyes so hollow now. "What-" the coughing had caught up to the mare as well, reducing her to a shivering mass that let loose a torrent of sickly sounds. She dared to inch her eyes open, and found specks of blood on the floor. The stallion had already produced a puddle of the crimson lifeforce, unable to stand. His matted gray fur seemed to be bubbling, the stench of singed hair filling the prison. As he tried to walk, his hooves stuck to the floor and he had to peel them off. Feeling something slip, the stallion glanced down and was horrified to see one of his hooves had torn off of his leg, red muscles glistening and melting into the floor. In mere seconds, the temperature had shot from uncomfortably cold to boiling point. As the ponies vomited up what little food they had in them, light pink clouds wafted from their roasting bodies and floated into the vents above, following the twists and turns of pipes before being released on the other side of the screen. It enveloped the filly, who had made herself deaf to her alleged parents cries. It filled her like water in a pool, giving her the feeling of unimaginable strength. She'd never felt anything like it, but whatever it was she didn't want it to ever go away.
Thorax looked on as the ponies still coughed and wheezed, choking up their cooked organs, and allowed herself a smirk. 'It was all so easy,' she thought as the stallion's eyes became bloodshot and clouded, screaming that he was blind. 'I didn't even have to destroy Ponyville, thanks to Luna's campaign to overthrow that sister of hers.' She recalled the deal she had made with the princess; her Changelings aid her in defeating Celestia, and she sets up a nice little scene for the assimilation process. The seeds of royal rebellion had been sown in the filly's mind, by replacing Luna with Celestia in her vision, and over time they'd grow into a representable hatred for the alicorn.
'It's all gone to plan. Now with the filly being introduced to her new food, the transformation is almost complete.' The queen sneered as the two ponies dragged themselves towards the screen, scratching their hoof-less stumps for legs against it and leaving red trails while calling to their daughter for help. The stallion dropped to the floor, a pile of melted skin, boiled blood and bones, barely breathing. His mate soon joined him, struggling to keep her sightless eye- the other one had popped in a miniature explosion of yellow goo and more blood- open. They never stopped looking at her daughter, who so blatantly ignored them in their dying moments. As her rasping breaths began to slow to nothing and the last scraps of skin fell off of their muscles, she never stopped loving her filly. The clouds of pink dissipated and flowed into the filly, making her insectoid wings flutter and horn glow of their own accord.
"You may look now, sweetheart," Thorax said softly and the prison floor dropped away, taking the pony bodies away for disposal. The filly unshielded her eyes and ears and turned back to the screen. "Where'd they go?" she asked with juvenile curiosity.
"We've taken them away for...removal. Don't worry, little one, their punishment was just and fair." The queen resisted the urge to smirk.
"Oh," the filly said back, so easily satisfied with the answer. "I felt kinda funny during the thing."
"That's completely normal, sweetie. You were hungry, and we gave you some food, which we call love," Thorax replied, wrapping a protective tail around her charge. "How about we go get some more?
"Okay!" the filly replied excitedly, following her surrogate out the room. The two talked as they walked like mother and daughter. "We'll have to give you a lovely queen name. I've always liked Chrysalis..."
Web began to go after them, chancing a glance back to the empty room. He shook his head and sighed heavily before leaving, the door sliding shut and plunging the room of death in darkness for another thousand years with the last notes of a cursed music box leaking through the sealed door.