Chitis stumbled down the cramped confines of the changeling hive. Had they always been so small?

She put a hoof out towards a nearby wall to stabilize herself, but misjudged the length of her limbs and cracked the stone surface with the force of her blow. By the Queen, she was strong.

She could feel the added power practically humming inside her veins. Her heart pounded in her ears, and it felt like she was a newly molted larva again. But that wasn't the biggest change. The biggest change was to her mind.

Changelings could always see an emotional aura around creatures, even other changelings. It helped them maneuver their prey into the correct emotional state for feeding. After her transformation Chitis could see more than just emotion, she could see pure information. She could see, hear, feel, and subsume all of the Autonomous Drones in the entire changeling hive. There were only about 200 of them, give or take, but they were all living, thinking minds. Most of her concentration went to blocking out all of the information freely flowing to her. All the extraneous conversations, distractions, hopes, dreams, and pleasures of hundreds of beings, all streaming directly into her head. And through her head... on to the Queen.

The Queen was very close now, telepathically speaking. Before she had been a distant thing. Like the sun, or a circling bird. She could be seen, could be felt, but it always had a certain distance to it. Now... it felt as though Queen Chrysalis were right behind her shoulder, peering at her work.

Chitis got her legs underneath her, finally, and started to take more confident strides forward. She wasn't familiar with these new powers yet, but she would be. For the good of the Hive, and the good of the Project.

"Are you sure the Queen meant for you to-"

"I still feel like my project's applications could still-"

"-will this affect the current larval population?"

Chitis sat, doing her best to be stoic, in a chair that was now far too small for her much more generously sized rump listening to several dozen incensed scientists. If she had thought only hearing their ideas in her head was noisy, this was ten times as bad.

"Everyone, everyone!" She called over the tableau, and the shouting match died down to a dull rumble of malcontent.

Chitis breathed in deep, and released it slowly. She opened her eyes and spoke clearly, "I understand that having your current projects upended is jarring. Believe me, it's happened to me just as much as it has with any of you," she took a steady gaze around the large assembly cavern, "but the Queen has made her decision, and it is not any of our places to dispute Her will. Does anyone here have an outstanding issue with that statement?"

The room was dead silent. Irate as they may be, no changeling would openly disagree with their Queen.

Chitis nodded, "Very good. Thank you. Now, forget what you have been working on. It is gone, nothing but ashes and rubble. Now, none of us have slept for several days so I am mandating a rest period of at least 24 hours before we reconvene in this cavern. If I see even a single neuron's worth of scientific inquiry, I will shut you down on the spot until the rest period is over, is that clear?"

This earned her many appreciative murmurs and nods.

She nodded, "Very good. Automi Specks please accompany me, the rest of you get some sleep. Eat, relax, have fun, and come back ready to work."

The gathering dispersed. Of course she didn't actually expect them not to be curious about the new project, or speculate on theories. What mattered was that they had been given permission to rest, if they so chose.

Specks, who was so much smaller than Chitis now, walked up and readjusted her crude glasses, following Chitis out of the room and towards the sleeping chambers.

"It worked..." Specks said, still seeming awed.

"It did," Chitis said firmly, her long strides making a stately pace next to her smaller friend,"Specks, I have a special role for you to fill in this project."

The changeling looked up quizzically, and Chitis continued, "I am going to need you to be a liaison between me and the rest of the Automi. You're my best friend, and you know me better than any of them. To them I am now someone distant, higher. I can feel it clearly from their thoughts."

Specks got a slightly uncomfortable look on her face and Chitis laughed, "Yes, even you. Which is why I need you for this. I cannot lead this project and play friend to every one of the Automi at my command. But I can be a friend to you, and so to them through you."

Specks nodded slowly, "Okay, Chit, I get that... but I do have one question."

"What is it, Specks?"

"Why are we going towards your sleeping quarters?"

Chitis grinned wolfishly, "Because I need a nap, and you are perfectly teddy bear sized."

"... the pheromone secretion glands are going to have to be extremely delicately balanced. They need to be subtle enough to escape notice, but strong enough to produce continued interest. Perhaps even some sort of addictive effect..."

The once empty cavern where Chitis had held the Automi Collective's first meeting was now swarming with activity. Tanks had been brought out from deep storage, builders had been conscripted to custom-weave special arterial pipes and lab equipment, and even the Queen had visited several times to provide egg samples for testing and artificial insemination. If a pony were to see the place now it might remind them of a temple, or a mausoleum. A high, arched ceiling wherein dozens of worker drones buzzed on dull wings carrying materials or missives, two long columns of desks each attended by a team of Automi tackling their particular problem, and flanking these tables were the tanks. Massive egg-like things in appearance, they were made of a translucent cocoon material that faded away into the oily darkness of the walls. Each tank was seperated by a dark pillar, each set in its own alcove, and each filled with bubbling green slime. Within all of them incubated a test subject.

The Queen had authorized the production of a single swarmling, and Chitis had taken her at her word. Therefore, she had to make sure every piece was perfect before final assembly. She strode between the rows of desks, receiving nods of deference and submission as she passed, along with whispers of, "Proxima..."

She liked this feeling, and could easily understand why the Queen would be reluctant to make Proxii often. If the Hive were smaller, she might be able to sway the Automi against Chrysalis. But as it stood, two hundred researchers against hundreds of warriors, builders, and workers each was not a fight she would take even if she did want to rule.

She studied each tank as she passed, each one harboring a normal worker drone with one aberration each, one piece of the puzzle at a time. They would be ready soon, she knew, to begin work on the final product. A fifth changeling breed.

She had a name picked out for the creature, whatever it decided to identify as. She would name her creation "Bellum".

Author's Note

I thought about writing an Interlewd for Chitis and Specks in this chapter, but I imagined that they were both too exhausted for anything fun. Let them lady bugs sleep.