The Equestrian Scrolls: The Lost Queen

So, a name huh? What a weird feeling, knowing that my mother had a named picked out for her daughter. Now, granted, that name isn't mine by right but.... who else is using it?

If I took the name, I'm trying to picture how queer it would be to run into a sister who was also named Zenith. I can't really picture it, mainly cause I never pictured myself having any sisters.

What's more, I'm strangely prideful that I might be the only one with a name that mother chose. Of course, I knew that I would eventually pick a name to go by. My memories told me that it would be necessary at some point, but now that I know this...I can't help but want to take the name right now.

It's.... a weird feeling.

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Waking up to the sounds of birds chirping and the smell of fresh wet grass. I still had my eyes closed and I groan inwardly as the flood of aches and pains hammered my mind when they noticed that I was awake.

I tried to ignore the voice in the back of my mind saying something about five more minutes, when something tickled the insides of my right nostril.

Instinctively snapping my head back, I scrunched up my muzzle trying to resist the urge to sneeze. Unfortunately, it didn't work. I let out a loud high pitched sneeze, my head whipping side to side so hard that it began to hurt.

I heard an angry chittering under me, and I looked down. There was a squirrel shaking an angry paw at me. He was a little brown thing with what looked like skin flaps under his arms. At his feet was a dozen or so acorns. He was still squeaking something in Squirrel-ish while he started to collect the nuts.

I was confused at how, exactly did I made the little guy angry. He started to kick me and pointed to a side. I considered just swatting him away for a moment before sighing. Standing, I took three hoof steps to the side and sat my haunches down.

"Better?" I said, smiling at the little annoyance.

He stomped right past me with his nose turned up, he had only about half of the nuts as he made his way into a hole in the tree trunk. It sat just above the ground.

I started wondering if there was a rock big enough to block the hole nearby. The only thing that stopped me from doing so was for one, the sudden sound of more chittering. Curiously, I laid down and glanced into the hole. There was four slightly smaller squirrels in there; each one now had an acorn in their tiny paws, gnawing away at it.

'Oh.’ I watched the little guy… no, little mother as she walked back out and gathered up the rest of the acorns. I figured the reason why she was angry was because I was blocking the entrance to her babies. I laid my head back down, staring at the hole my thoughts going back to the parasprite memory.

'Right, Questions.' I said to myself, catching a stray thought about something that I had a question about .

I settled down, getting ready to be there for a little while as I delved into my memories. There weren't many questions, but they were important. To me anyway.

I closed my eyes as I asked my first question. 'What is thaumaturgic?' There was no pause between the time the information was given to me and when I asked.

Thaumaturgic is a type of changeling hive. They feed off magic and they are considered to be the strongest of all hive types, as well as the most rare. Unlike the other types, Thaumaturgy can only be born and cannot pick their food source like the other types.

I nodded to myself slightly, as I changed my next question. 'How are they the strongest?'

Because of their diet. Thaumaturgic types have heavy increases in magical prowess as well as almost unrestricted control over their shape-shifting ability.

‘What can my magical and shape-shifting abilities do?’ I asked immediately. I needed to know the full extents of my powers.

A Thaumaturgic has a massive increase to their pool of magic. They can hold more from the beginning and with training, it can increase even further. Their magical aptitude as well as their ability at learning new spells are increased.

Their shape-shifting control is second to none, they can perfectly mimic anyone from a moment's study but in addition, Thaumaturgic can partial-shift any part of their body. Giving them the ability to make a new body altogether instead of just coping. Unfortunately, because of this, shifting takes a lot of magic, proportional to the altered size of the change, to initiate. After the shifting is complete, no magic is required to maintain the form.

'Interesting,’ I said looking inward at my magic pool. It was slightly smaller than yesterday. Well, that meant no shifting for me. Yet. I didn't want to waste magic until I was sure I could regenerate more of it.

There was a soft chitter in front of me. I opened my eyes to one of the squirrels, it wasn't the one from before. It was only slightly smaller than the mother, but beside that look exactly like her down to the skin flaps under his arms. Almost fully grown if I was to guess. He offered a berry to me as more chittering came from him.

I stared at it before sticking my tongue out at him. He took as that I wanted the berry and placed it there before sitting on it haunches, staring back at me.

I pull it into my mouth and a gave a quick bite between my teeth. It was extremely tart. My ear twitched and said thank you, before standing up to go wash my mouth out in the river. The little guy scampered up my leg and onto my back.

I looked at him briefly as I made my way to the river , "Aren't you just a tad bit too friendly?"

He just continued to cling on, sniffing around as he enjoyed the ride.

The river was wider than I thought. The rocks in the riverbed was a deep, black color. It made the the whole river look black. I would have believed the river was an abyss if it wasn't for the fact that I could see fish swimming above barely visible mud at the bottom.

Taking a mouthful of water and swirled it around, I looked down into the river. It took me a moment to realize that my reflection was staring back at me.

Swallowing, I looked over my appearance for the first time. I had a slender face with purple eyes that had narrow slits that served as pupils. I also had a long crooked horn, if memory served it looked similar to mother's, though it had bright blue lines throughout the grooves. I had a very faint layer of hair, much like a newborn's. It was a dark sea green, with flecks of brighter green here and there. I couldn't tell if it was web-like since it was so short, I assumed it will be like my mother's.

Taking another mouthful of water, I looked over my body. I mean I looked before, but I never truly saw it. I was too... preoccupied, at the time before. I had a slender body with proportional legs and hooves to match. My tail was almost non-existent. Besides those, my body looked like any other changeling, black carapace-like skin with holes throughout my legs.

I felt something climb onto my head and cling to my horn. I looked up and locked eyes with the squirrel from before as he hung there.

"You're annoying, you know that right?" I said, going back to the tree and sitting down. He said nothing as he perched in one of the curves of my horn.

Leaning against the tree I took a moment to consider my next question.

'How many hive types are there? And what are they?’

There are seven types of changeling hives. The type of hive is based on what the changelings consume for sustainment and magic. From what my memories tell me the types are: The Romantic: the ones who demand love. The Euphoric: the ones who take happiness away. The Erotic: the ones who fulfill the needs of the flesh. The Thaumaturgic: the ones who defuses the power of magic. The Choleric: the ones who stoke the flames of anger. The Sadistic: the ones who provide and consume the pain to all they meet. And finally, the Necrotic: the ones who consume the flesh.

My first thought after hearing that was I need to know more about the Necrotic, after all necrotic is a term associated with death. And maybe deathlings. I didn't even have to ask the question as the information was thrown at my mind.

Necrotics are changelings who have abandoned the hard fought form of mental energy for the more easily attainable substance of meat. That being said, they must constantly feed. They lost all their magic but a weak form of telekinesis. They gain great physical strength and their appearance looks as if they are a half rotted pony who died of starvation.

'Or not,' I would have asked another question but the memory didn't stop there.

That is their biggest flaw, as they had lost the power of transformation. But the major change that happens to them is the fact they can not die unless a condition is met; that is the queen must be killed. After that has been met, then killing them is easily done for they can die like any other pony.
'That's… terrifying.’ I thought to myself, a little queasy. I know how fast and how many drones a queen can give birth to. I swallowed, feeling the squirrel move. He threw himself onto the ground and made his way into the bushes.

“Good bye," I called after him. Getting to my feet, I stretched out. I winced slightly as my sore muscles complained at the movement.

"Okay, no more questions." I said out loud. After that last one I didn't have the heart to ask anymore, and the day just kept on going on. It was time to go.

'Setting sun....that would be west.’ I faced the west and tried to unfold my wings. They weren't there. That's right, they were cut off, and I had forgotten that in the face of all the pain.

Well walking it is for now, until I get more magic. I started to walk, my hopes high, after all, I'm outside the egg and I have a whole world to keep me from getting bored.

I felt something familiar hit my back and scamper up onto my head. I looked up seeing a squirrel’s paw holding onto my horn. In his mouth, he held a stem with a small bundle of berries. He plucked one off before offering it to me. These looked like blue berries but after the last one he gave me I wasn't going to take any chances.

"Thanks but no, you go ahead and eat it," I said. After that, I watched him eat the berries one after another as we walked through the forest together. I didn’t mind having a plus one, maybe he can keep me entertained.

Rested, but not fully healed. Fed, but not well fed. And a surprising new friend, even if he's not that large. What a good way to start a journey.