Chapter 1: The Secrets in Her Success
Chapter 1: The Secrets in Her Success
Fluttershy was happy.
All was more or less right with her world.
She had built her animal sanctuary.
There had been some false starts. Her friends -- with the best of intentions -- had brought in experts who had not understood her vision, and had tried to impose their own.
That never worked for Fluttershy. Both because her own visions were very strange, by the standards of any normal Ponies, and because, in her own shy way, Fluttershy was very determined to achieve them.
And Fluttershy generally got what she wanted, in the end. It was her way.
And, in the end, she had gotten her way. The experts had been dismissed -- it had required a confrontation, something that Fluttershy once would have feared, but that she was increasingly learning how to manage, to insist on her own point in a manner few gainsaid.
Instead, her friends -- her closest friends, the mares who had been with her when her world had finally begun to change for the better, had helped her. And together, with the help of Big Daddy McColt, a truly imaginative engineer, they had built the shelter.
At least, the part of it that was going to be above ground.
Fluttershy met with her some of her other friends by night, in the idyllic streamside glade where she had built the Sweet Feather Animal Sanctuary. She had, of course, some of her animal friends with her -- Angel Bunny, Harry Bear, and a few others who might need to understand and help with her additional plans, such as her beavers and gophers and ground squirrels. She also understood, instinctively, that though her other friends already respected her, nothing increased their respect like a following.
Azure Sky and his little band of Stragglers came first, whirring down out of ther night sky on their transluscent wings. Their position was a bit anamolous, as Azure's main loyalty was to Dashie, whom he more or less acknowledged as his Queen, and the rest of the Stragglers basically followed Azure, who had been some sort of elite Assault Infiltrator before he had run into the power of Princess Cadance and lost his memories.
All the Stragglers had originally been from Hive Chrysalis, but they had chosen to stay in Equestria after Chrysalis attacked Equestria almost four years ago. They were loyal to Azure Sky, who was in turn loyal to Dashie -- who had neither the desire nor ability to be a Changeling Queen. Dashie, of course, was loyal to Fluttershy. Which meant that they sort of belonged to Fluttershy.
Mostly, Fluttershy just let them go about their own business, but she could and did call on them for special occasions. Such as this one.
The Stragglers normally Shifted when they went around Ponyville, so as not to frighten Ponies who might mistake them for those loyal to Chrysalis. Given that Chrysalis had attacked Equestria three times already, and in the last two attacks had struck at Ponyville, this was a very real worry for them. The Stragglers dealt with such situations by fleeing, as they were utterly terrified of Chrysalis, as was indeed any sane ling not loyal to her.
They had, of course, long since changed their loyalty markings in their true forms, to show that they were not loyal to Chrysalis, but very few Ponies could see and even fewer read their markings. It worked much better to simply pretend to be Ponies, identifying themselves for what they really were when they entered areas secured by Changeling detector-lamps.
To Fluttershy, their theoretical Queen, they came un-Shifted. She was, in any case, one of those who could see and read their markings, and she knew them all personally. There was nothing theoretical about the low bows they made to her, or the worship that shone in their great lambent eyes. They loved her, they were loyal to her, and even though the way she lived was as strange to Changelings as it was to Ponies, they would have done anything she asked.
They had defected from the harsh overlordship of a megalomaniacal tyrant, and were happy to acknowledge the rule of a gentle mistress. They called her "Queen Kindness," as if it were a Changeling regnal-name, and while the part of her that was a shy Pegasus was rather embarrassed by this devotion, the part of her that was Changeling Royalty accepted it as but her right and due.
Sometimes, the part of her that was Changeling frightened Fluttershy. Some of this was because of just which Changeling had sired her, but some of this was because she found being treated as a Changeling Queen so comfortable. So relaxing.
Almost as if she wasn't really a Pegasus at all.
"We are at your command, my Queen," said Azure Sky. He had lived as a Pegasus Pony for the last three and a half years, he was Dashie's lover, and yet Fluttershy could tell he was entirely serious in his profession of absolute loyalty. She might have ordered him to fling himself into a mountainside -- and he might have done it.
That sort of devotion was frightening. Fluttershy couldn't comprehend how real Changeling Queens could deal with it, without going utterly power-mad. Chrysalis, of course, had gone mad, and evil in some other way that Fluttershy didn't quite understand but smacked strongly of extremely dark magic. But there were other Queens more reasonable -- Vespid, who laired under Canterlot, and Treesie's friend Hidden, far to the northwest.
Not for the first time, Fluttershy considered going to visit them. Well, Vespid was nasty, though more along the lines of being sarcastic and tricky than those of wanting to slaughter thousands and rule Equestria, which was why Celestia could tolerate her close presence; but Treesie said that Hidden was a dear, and very wise.
But in the meantime, she had her Straggler helpers to manage. She had to explain to them her purpose. So she began.
"I want to dig a Hive."
Author's Note
My Fluttershy is, of course, half-Changeling, and Royalty, as explained in Fluttershy Is Free. This is why she tends to so attract the loyalty and love of stray Changelings, whether she wants it or not.
At the point of this story, she's come to like it.
Azure Sky, and his relationship with Rainbow Dash, come from Phoenix_Dragon's stories, most specifically "Fragments," which I very much recommend. He really gets Changeling psychology well.
Queen Vespid, and her rather stormy but ultimately friendly relationship to the Realm of Equestria, comes from Ardashir's "Wolf in Pony's Clothing" and it's sequel "Manehattan Madness." I really recommend these stories, and really everything that Ardashir writes. He's a very talented and dedicated writer, who is underappreciated on this site. Everyone should follow him and read his work.
Queen Hidden and her friendship with Tree Hugger is entirely my own creation.
