“Spike!” Twilight’s voice rang through the crystal halls of her castle. “Spike, come quickly, there is a new friendship problem just waiting to be solved! And I think you know who the map has called for this time.” she said with a knowing grin.

A mere second later Spike entered the map room, saying: “Yeah, I noticed.” Across his head his spikes were flashing with green light, something that he had recently learned meant that the cutie map had called him. “So, where to?”

“It seems like… you’re going to the changeling hive!” Spike could almost hear trumpets in the background upon her declaration.

“Really?” Spike beamed. “That means I get to go and see Thorax again!”

“Yes Spike, but what do you think the problem cou…” She didn’t get any further because she was interrupted by a big ‘Buuuurp!’ from Spike. Of course this was not due to any bad manners from his side, but because he had just received a letter by dragonfire.

Picking it up, he began to read:

Dear Spike

I know that I just visited you three days ago, but there is actually something that I still want to talk to you about. I know, I should have brought it up back then, but just I kept waiting for a good moment to bring it up, which never came. Anyway, if you and any of your friends would like to come over to my place for a day, it would be very nice. As a plus, it would also give me an opportunity to return the favor for the day I spent with you in Ponyville.
At the end of the letter is a spell that can bring you and anypony else to the front of the Changeling Hive, should you decide you want to come.

Your friend, King Thorax

“Well, I suppose that is why the map called me.” Spike said.

“Yes, and Spike? Since the map only called you, I think it would be best if only you went. Don’t worry, I have every confidence that you can handle any problem that will arise.” Twilight said, smiling. “Just tell me when you wish to go and I will activate that spell.”

Later, at the changeling hive…

“Uh, hello?” shouted Spike at the moving, changing, tall mass known as the changeling hive. The area surrounding the hive looked much nicer nowadays; the gray and dead plants were all gone and in their place was lush greenery. No longer was there gray waste far as the eye could see and some of the plantlife had even managed to flourish on the hive itself.

“Hi Spike!” said King Thorax from behind Spike.

“Gaah!” he yelled as he promptly faceplanted.

“Sorry, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you”
“No, it is all right. Besides, you were the one who asked me over right? I should have expected you to prepare something, even if it turned out to be a jumpscare. Didn’t think you had that in it though.”

“Sorry... I didn’t mean it.”

“Anyway, you needed me for something?”

Thorax shuffled with one of his hooves behind his head “There is something I need to discuss with you. Would you mind walking with through the hive as we talk?”

“Sure thing, now tell me what this is all about.” he said as they stepped through the main entrance hole.

*sigh*, “Where to start?”

“At the beginning, of course.”

“Well, I suppose I should start by explaining what I did back before I met you in the Crystal Empire.”

“Which was…”

“I’m getting there. I used to be in charge of love drainage. But unlike most changelings, I had ideas of how we could do things better.”

“Wait, what do you mean with ‘love drainage’?”

“Back in the day there were several options that the infiltrators could use when draining the love from somepony, infiltrators were the ones that went on missions outside the hive and into pony society, and one of those options was to capture the pony in a cocoon and bring them back to a storage chamber. I think you’ve seen one or two of them already.”

“Gee, tell me about it. Those things are awful. But weren’t they stored in the throne room back when I was captured?”

“Queen Chrysalis just wanted to show everyone that she had managed to capture the Elements and the Princesses. But yes, those cocoons were previously my responsibility.

During that time, I researched the different methods of obtaining love and that was when I started dreaming that it was possible for changelings to coexist with the ponies in harmony; that the ponies would give their love freely, that we could be friends.” Thorax’s eyes practically started glowing only for him to look down. “Of course, as a sensible changeling I brought my idea to the queen and her advisors.”

“Chrysalis had advisors?”

“Yes, and they all thought my idea was stupid and impossible, the queen even laughed at me.” Now Thorax looked really sad. “She explained that this had been attempted several times before and that it simply didn’t work. Despite that I still insisted that I should be given a chance to try it myself. By then I hardly believed myself anymore, I just figured that it was worth at least one more attempt. Luckily, the queen agreed on condition that I did not compromise any of the hive’s projects or put my life in danger. I am not really sure whether she actually thought I might have a chance, if she wanted to show me that it was impossible, or if she simply sought an opportunity to get laugh at my expense but regardless, I headed out for the Crystal Empire to test my idea. Along with me came another changeling to confirm my failure once I failed, who just kept herself in the background during that event.

At first, It went well actually. I started talking to some ponies without any disguise and several of them did not find it troubling at all. You see, I had already worked out that since the Crystal Empire was gone during the event of the Canterlot Invasion, that was the place where I was the least likely to encounter prejudices. Unfortunately when I mentioned that my kin feeds of love ponies grew fearful of me and notified the guard who most definitely knew about changelings thanks to prince Shining Armor. Every time after that when I would approach somepony without an disguise they would run away screaming. I tried about four times without luck.

After that I was about to give up and return back to the hive from the cave I had been using as an temporary base when I met you. You started off screaming and running just like everyone else had, but then when I saved your life you gave me a chance. You have to understand Spike, I was terribly relieved that someone was giving me one final chance but above all else, I did not want to squander it like I had before so I made a few lies. Well, not exactly lies, more like half truths actually.”

“Wait, did you… lie to me?” Spike looked heartbroken.

“I made it sound as if I was different from all other changelings, a kind, nice drone who did not like the state of the hive at all, but I did not lie much. I am still probably the kindest changeling and all I sought was friendship. I took part of the canterlot invasion but did not think it was right, but I lied about not ever wanting to return to the hive. It was my home, and the only home I had ever known, but I did not want to risk losing your friendship because I did not see my hivemates as evil. I’m so sorry.”

“Thorax…”

“Yes Spike?”

“Was our friendship real?”

“Spike… of course it was. Our friendship was the most real thing of all and still is. It is the most important thing I have and the sole reason I felt the need to talk with you about this. I just hope you can forgive me.”

“Of course I forgive you, you are my friend Thorax.” Looking up at his spikes, Spike expected them to start flashing any moment, but after a few seconds when they didn’t Thorax asked; “What are you doing?”

“I just thought that I completed my friendship mission. *sigh*, turns out I haven’t yet.”

“That is probably because my story is not yet finished, far from it.

After making friends with Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, I stayed in the Crystal Empire but my fellow changeling who was observing me didn’t. She flew straight back to the hive to relay this unexpected turn of events. Under the following couple of weeks I was under constant surveillance by drones who were analyzing everything I did to figure out why it worked, because work it did. I made real friends in the Crystal Empire and fed of love almost completely unrestricted. Turns out most ponies don’t have anything against us as long as they do not perceive us as threats or we tell them that we feed of their love. My plan had worked and this sure astonished many back at the hive. Queen Chrysalis herself said that she was impressed and recalled me to the hive to discuss the next move the hive would make. You probably don’t understand what a great honor that meant, that meant that I would get to sit in at the Royal Council where normally only her highness and her advisors were permitted. So with another changeling pretending to be me in the Crystal Empire I went back here to make plans.

I shall not bore you with all the options we were discussing, but eventually we reached two major options; one was captain Tarsus’s proposition to capture all of the pony leaders and replace them to harvest the love which the ponies have for their beloved princesses. Details were still in progress and altered as we spoke. The other one was my proposition to have some changelings peacefully and openly stationed across all major cities sapping ambitient love from the residents. The way I saw it, my plan was safer while Tarsus’s could bring more love. Her highness however managed to think of something even more splendid though, a way fo us to enact both of them. In its finalized state, we would capture the Princesses, the Elements of Harmony and Shining Armor and have me try to rescue them along with whoever managed to notice the sloppy acting that the drones that were impersonating the Elements were putting up. If nopony noticed, then that just meant that we would never be discovered once they started acting better which they would then do. This did not come to pass however as Starlight Glimmer immediately noticed that her ‘friends’ were acting strange…”

“Wait, let me stop you there. Are you saying that Queen Chrysalis KNEW that an rescue attempt was coming, and that you were helping it??”

“Essentially yes, throughout most of the adventure we were being watched by other changelings who were there to make sure that nothing went completely out of hoof. It got a little difficult when Discord used his magic from what I heard, but fortunately those changelings were not detected. If they had been, then it wouldn’t have mattered that much anyway since it makes sense for the Queen to send spies which could have worked as an excuse as to why they were there. Besides, Discord was definitely one of the reasons why we needed to take precautions.”

“What then? Is that it or are there more behind the scenes stuff?”

“Yes, there is more. What you are about to see might be the biggest doozy today so far, just promise you won’t freak out too much.”

They got close to what looked to be the space for some sort of grand door, except that it of course was just a wall. Suddenly the wall slid open revealing Queen Chrysalis herself laying on top of her unbroken throne with a smug grin on her face. “I was wondering how long it would take for you to show up.”

“What are you doing here!?” Spike yelled angrily.

“Umm, I live here? You know, most of the time you will find that the place that ponies spend most time in is their own homes. It is statistically proven!”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in exile now that the changelings are all reformed? You know, off and plotting a revenge against Starlight? And also why did you just sound like Twilight?”

“I was practicing my Twilight act! It is not often that I get the opportunity to try it out on someone who knows her in person and can give me response on it! How does this look?
Green flames washed over Chrysalis, transforming her into an visually identical copy of Twilight. “Ohh, This is so exciting; we are in the middle of the Changeling Hive! Just look at the structure of this thing!” Rushing over to one of the green glowing minipods that provided light to the hive she pointed at it saying “How does this glow?”. Then she immediately zipped over to an opening hole in the wall “How do these work?”. Over to the black throne which dominated the room “And lets not even get started with this gigantic magic-absorbing throne! I could spend weeks researching this alone! What do you think Spike!?” ‘Not Twilight’ teleported straight in front of him with stars in her eyes and a smile as big as a squee looking at him.

Spike did not know what to do other than to stare at her dumbfounded while his right eye twitched. “What is even going on here?”

“Drats, I knew the starry eyes were slightly too much!”

“Your highness, do I have your permission to continue the story?” Thorax intervened as to save Spike.

Shifting back into her normal appearance, Chrysalis settled back on her throne. “Go on.” she said with a flick of her hoof.

“When Starlight, Trixie, Discord and I entered the hive, her highness could at any moment have captured us since she kept near perfect track of us all.”

“But why didn’t she?”

“Because I wanted to test them. Also I was busy working on a way for us to be able to ‘reform’ the hive and still keep the princesses in captivity but I was running out of time. In hindsight I realize that I couldn’t have done much to make it better, but yes.”

“*Ahem*” Thorax interrupted Chrysalis to continue his story. “Then there was the moment when the changelings reformed. Starlight required quite some bit of coaxing in the form of some extra anger from Queen Chrysalis directed at myself as if she were clumsily trying to cover the fact that I had stumbled upon something better for our kind than what she herself had. And Starlight was also given extra time to work out that changelings could change into something nicer, despite the fact that she had all our clues layed out in front of her.”

“I personally didn’t mind as it gave me an opportunity to have another monologue in front of ponies”, Chrysalis added.

“But it was still a close call. If Starlight had not managed to think of something like sharing love at all, then she would have been captured and put in a pod along with the others and we would have had to return to plan A. So in a way, she actually saved you all despite being tricked into it by us changelings.”

“But what about all the reformed changelings? Were they fake too?”

“Ultimately yes. As changelings, we are able to alter our appearances however we please.” Thorax said as he shifted into what looked like an ordinary changeling drone, just like those which had invaded Canterlot. “The extra lightshow did wonders to fool the ponies though.” With a flash of green flames he returned to his ‘normal’ appearance. “I must say I am rather pleased about this shape though, it just looks so friendly.”

Spike didn’t say anything and all of a sudden the big chamber seemed very quiet.

“I can’t believe it.” he then stated. “You guys really tricked everyone.”

“We did. And I am so, so sorry I have had to keep you in the dark for so long.”

“But why, why tell me? Why not just just continue with your secrets and your plans; why tell me about them?”

“Because you are my friend Spike, and I have been feeling terribly guilty for both the fact that you had to be foalnapped and for not being honest with you. I have realized that I just cannot lie straight to your face and still think of you as my true friend.”

“That is obviously his reason, but he did not quite have the authority to validate this conversation. The benefits that I see are that you knowing could act as an conduit to in an reliable manner be able to show our actions to the ponies from our perspective, as well as the possibility of befriending you. Somepony once taught me that friends are a very useful thing to have. Also I could not stand Thorax looking as miserable as he did.” Queen Chrysalis said.

“It was not that bad, was it?” Thorax winced.

“Yes, yes it was.”

“I still have one more question though, something that Twilight has been ranting about; why did you even attack Canterlot in the first place? Wouldn’t that just cause the ponies there to feel and then produce negative emotions which you can’t feed off? Right?”

“Well, I can answer that.” said Chrysalis. “This is another way for us to obtain the love of others which focuses on inflicting fear upon the target. I know, I know, it does seem counterintuitive but think about it. When a random pony noticed the massive swarm off changelings, they immediately worry about those who they care for, ergo the ponies they love. This brings a pony’s love to the surface where it can be harvested in large quantities in a short span of time. Very efficient. Of course, some ponies think more of their own safety than that of others, but those were still in a minority and could be ignored...”

Thorax continued by saying, “That is however a highly short-term method, and if we would have won and ruled Canterlot from then on, then the ponies would indeed end up miserable and produce very little love. But we didn’t win. By no means was this an accident by our part. By more or less letting the ponies defeat us, we managed to escape Canterlot with a full harvest of fresh love. Nopony ever suspected that her highness might have put up an poor act of Cadence as to give them a fair chance to reveal her.”

“Was that it? I think that was everything.” Chrysalis sighed. “So what will you do now?”

“You are asking me?!” Spike asked surprised.

“Indeed, I would ask you to do one thing now, to not immediately tell anypony else about this conversation that we are having.”

“Are you kidding me?! This is really important stuff! Twilight’s gotta hear about this for sure.”

“Spike, think! What would happen if you did that?”

“Then uh, Twilight would… Twilight would, she would panic, write a letter to Princess Celestia and then head out here to confront you. Yeah!”

“Ponies would panic, nopony would ever trust us changelings anymore, the Princesses would see us as enemies once again. My name will forever taint how ponies view changelings. That is, if we manage to survive having our primary food source ripped away from us. When Celestia and the elements arrive, and they will, they might make sure that no changeling can ever get access to the equestrian society, they might lock us away in tartarus, or they might just completely remove myself from the playfield. Regardless, it would be a hard blow against the ponies and a devastating one towards the hive. Would you really do that to all of us?”

“No, I guess not.” Spike sighed.
“Thank you Spike, this means a lot to me and I hope that in due time more shall come to learn the truth about us. Now, unless there is something else, I shall go and tend to some of the larvae. Nice seeing you around.” With those words, Queen Chrysalis began to trot away. When she left the room, Thorax turned back to Spike.

“Now I know that all this hidden information is a bit overwhelming, so I can recommend that you take a couple of days to process it. But in the meantime, there is something I need to ask you again. Do you still want to be my friend? I know I haven’t been such a great friend to you as you have to me, but I am doing my best to improve…”

“I have already told you that you are my friend no matter what, even if you happen to be a changeling or have tricked the entire ponykind. You don’t need to worry about it.”

“Sorry, think I just needed to hear that one more time, hehe.”

On that note the scales on Spike’s head started flashing, meaning that he had accomplished his task and that the time to go back had arrived. As him and Thorax walked back towards the outside Spike asked, “By the way, what would you have done if the first thing I would have done would have been to warn Twilight upon seeing Chrysalis?”

“Look up Spike.” Thorax said smugly. Up on the ceiling glowed the bright blue eyes of dozens of changelings, watching. “There is such a thing as a memory wipe spell, you know.”

Spike’s eyes grew even wider than they were already.

“We plan for everything.”

Author's Note

I really hope you enjoyed my response to the finale of season 6. If there is anything which seems odd, doesn't make sense or you think I ought to elaborate on, just tell me.

Also, I might be able to continue with a longer story out of this concept, I already have a few ideas but I am not sure if I really want to, so I guess I should wait and see if this is something that there are people who want. Also I should stop talking to myself.