"What?!" The collective shout of alarm from the rest of the room was so deafening it left the windows rattling.

The guards hastily helped Clover back to his hooves and began fixing his appearance with something akin to reverent awe. "Please forgive our earlier behavior, honored ancestor. We had no idea..." Was all anyone was able to say before being pushed out of the way by an excitable changeling queen.

Clover once again found his hooves leaving the ground as the Queen pulled him tight against her chest and began spinning in a circle. "We had no idea you were still around," she said happily. "You should've looked us up sooner." It took a moment, and her noticing the odd looks her children were giving her, before she realized how childish she was acting. She quickly recollected herself and carefully placed Clover back down, the poor alicorn once again finding himself able to breathe. "I'm so sorry," she quickly apologized. "I don't know what came over me."

"It's fine," he wheezed once his breathing was under control again. "I've had my fair share of overly excitable creatures lately and I doubt I've seen the last of them."

"That's no excuse," she shook her head. "My own mother would give me a solid crack across the chitin if she caught me acting like this with such an honored guest. Even though she'd probably do the same thing," she added the last part under her breath. It was around now that she seemed to really take notice that she had made quite a spectacle of herself as all of her changelings and their recent company were currently gaping at her. She straightened herself up and took on a more regal pose. "Where are my manners," she stood up straight and put a hoof to her chest. "Allow me to introduce myself properly. I am Queen Cocoon of the Manehattan hive, but you may call me Sapphire. What brings an honored guest such as yourself to us today?"

Clover took a while to respond. He was a bit unsure about where to begin with everything that had happened lately and how much of it he should allow to become public knowledge. Fortunately, he was spared from his indecision as Brass Tax stepped up next to his queen and began whispering in her ear.

Sapphire turned her attention to the disguised unicorn as he went on explaining something to her at length. She nodded along while looking a bit annoyed at the interruption, but eventually her shoulders slumped and she turned her attention forward again. "Fine..." She said with some measure of defeat. "It seems it's been quite a busy day, and while I'd love to hear all about your adventures, Clover," she still seemed a bit giddy when she said his name and was clearly having to restrain some childish glee. "I have other matters that need my immediate attention." She turned her attention towards another corner of the room. "Blossomforth," she called out, instantly getting both her and Cloud Kicker's attention. "You and your friend, come stand before me," she summoned them as she took a few steps backwards and settled back into her seat.

While the two creatures got up and moved to stand before the intimidating form that was the Queen of the Manehattan changelings, Onyx had just managed to finish digging himself out from beneath the mass of bodies that had piled on top of him. "Are you all right?" Clover asked from next to him as he peeked one of his wings out from under his cloak and began to straighten the feathers that had been ruffled in the recent exchange.

"I'll be fine," Onyx said quickly. Although, something else was bothering him now. "What did she mean when she called you grandfather?"

"Because I am," Clover said with a sigh as he tucked the wing back under his cloak. "Give or take a dozen some-odd greats. It's a bit of a long story."

"It's not that complicated. He mated with a changeling queen some thousand years ago," Spectrum jumped in, not one for missing an easy jab.

"Spectrum!?" Came Clover's outburst, both wings he had been trying to keep behaved sprung out at once and betrayed his embarrassment. "It's not that simple and you know it." He began to idly hoof at the ground. "There were... circumstances."

"But..." Onyx started to ask, but his master's embarrassment was apparently contagious as his own blush spread across his ashen coat. "How is that even possible?" He charged on. "Aren't you different species? Or is this something else made possible with alicorn magic?"

Clover shot a look at the changeling who had put him on the spot. Spectrum, taking satisfaction that his jab had the desired effect, came to his rescue.

"It's a changeling thing," he started to explain. "A queen doesn't need to mate to produce offspring. However, when she produces a new royal, she needs to..."

"Oh really?!" Sapphire said out loud and cutting off the explanation. The sudden outburst drew everyone's attention to her and made Blossomforth look particularly flushed. "So Clover," she said with a wicked grin. "You were only back in Equestria for a single night and you've already managed to take one of my children to bed?"

If there was a way for his golden coat to turn any more red, it found a way as the blush that was already prominent on his face managed to travel all the way to the tips of his ears. "It's not like that," he weakly defended. "Nothing happened that night except for a fairy having a good laugh at my expense."

The grin didn't leave the queen's face. "Really, now?" She smirked. "That's not what I hear."

Clover slumped his shoulders, "I'm never going to hear the end of this, am I?"

"If it's any consolation," she continued without slowing down. "You have my blessing. A stallion of your standing should have his own herd."

Clover grumbled as he turned his head away from the teasing, much to the delight of everyone else in the room.

The joy didn't leave her face as she turned her attention back to Cloud Kicker. "Don't worry, my dear," she said softly. "We're not going to do anything to you. You aren't the first pony to be counted as an ally among our hive. If anything, you have my thanks for keeping one of my children safe," she gave the pegasus a short bow, leaving Cloud Kicker a bit uncomfortable as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Now," said Queen Cocoon, her attitude turning more serious as her attention turned to the masked changeling in the room. "What exactly is your story? I can't imagine that even that fool of a queen, Chrysalis, would be foolish enough to have one of her own try to infiltrate another hive. Which Hive do you belong to?"

Spectrum snapped to attention once he realized that she was addressing him. "That's a bit complicated," he said at last. "My queen died a long time ago and I've been traveling with Clover ever since."

The queen narrowed her eyes as she stood back up and strode over to tower over the other creature. "You would do well not to test my patience," she said as the temperature around her increased several degrees, her gaze boring into him. "Your scent marks you as a queen's guard. Even the youngest of drones know that a guard cannot outlive their queen."

"He's telling the truth," Clover came to his friend's defense. "Spectrum's been traveling with me for the last thousand years. He's the last one left of your grandmother's hive."

"What?" Clover's words seemed to have taken some of the fire out of her as her animosity made way for curiosity. "But she... that was..." Her confusion was clearly making it hard to form words. "Nothing of the old hive could've possibly survived this long. We don't even have any proper records from back then."

"I need your help," Clover said, getting to the original purpose of their visit. "I can't go into all the details, but Spectrum was hurt while helping me settle a score with an old foe. If he hadn't stepped in when he did, none of us might've made it out alive." He looked over to his friend. "Normally, I would've been able to heal him myself, but my own injuries prevent me from doing so and probably will for some time to come. So I've come to you seeking aid and hopefully find some answers in the process. Answers as to how he's managed to outlive even his own queen and why his native colors differ so much from other changelings."

Her ears perked up as she saw the strange changeling in a new light. "Show me," she said, now genuinely curious.

Spectrum and Clover exchanged a brief look. Clover gave him a nod and reached out with his magic to unfasten Spectrum's cloak and remove his mask. As the fabric fell away, Spectrum's long and torn wings unfolded from underneath. Now that they were in better light, the scuffs and cracks in the white shell that laid across his back were clearly visible. Stained bandages covered most of his body and where they didn't, dark green chitin was clearly visible. What really drew Sapphire's attention though were the gem-like structures that adorned his torso. One of them had clearly been broken by whatever disaster the changeling had encountered.

"What are you?" The queen puzzled while she curiously reached out and touched one of the dark surfaces.

"I don't know," he said as he shied away from her touch. "This happened so many years ago that I don't really remember all the details."

She sat back on her haunches, still clearly curious but lacking any idea of which questions to ask. Eventually she settled on, "has anypony seen my mother today?"

"I believe she's in the library," a voice in the crowd offered.

"Of course she is." Sapphire let out an exasperated sigh as she stood up and began making her way towards the door. Everyone scrambled to either get out of her way or fall in line behind her. A step away from the elevator door she looked over her shoulder at the ponies that hadn't moved. "Come along now," she said a smile cracking across her face. "If anypony's able of shedding some light on our little mystery, it would be my mother."

They followed Sapphire into the elevator box with a number of creatures following behind them. They had practically piled on top of each other in an attempt to squeeze as many bodies into the small space as possible without unnecessarily pushing against their queen. For her part, she acted like she barely even noticed even as Brass Tax pushed his way to the front to push a key into the console. The light at the top flashed red before the box rocketed downward.

Numbers on the display flickered by as they continued their descent. When they passed by the ground floor and kept going, the box jolted suddenly, causing everyone to stumble for a moment and for the pile of ponies to topple over. There was now a lot less space as the mass of bodies pressed even their queen up against the walls. She shot a venomous look at Brass Tax, who was squished up against where he had inserted the key. He just averted his eyes and defended, "I thought they already fixed it."

When the box finally came to a stop and the doors opened, the overpacked space literally spilled out. If it helped with anything, the doors that were trying to close while they sorted themselves out were unable to do so as they kept finding a body to bump into.

By the time they had finally vacated the elevator, Sapphire was looking particularly irritated even if she didn't comment on it. As each of the changelings moved outward and cleared the entrance around the elevator, a flash of green fire overtook their pony forms. The flames went out as quickly as they appeared, leaving a small insect-like pony in its place. Each of them with a dark ebony body and ivory shell across their backs, same as their queen, albeit much smaller and with a much simpler curved horn. Most of the changelings, once reverting to their normal forms, made their way deeper into the cave. Even Short Fuse and Clear Mind had left, leaving Brass Tax as the only one of the guard that remained by the side of his queen.

"They left in a hurry," Clover observed as he once again resettled his cloak over his wings.

Sapphire watched him in amusement before placing one of her hole-ridden hooves on his shoulder to draw his attention. "My children have most likely gone to spread the word of your return through the rest of the hive." She smiled in mirth at the look of shock that appeared on his face. "Also, it is customary to not wear any disguises while in the hive proper," she said as the green glow from her horn reached down and unfastened the cloak from Clover's back. As she removed it, he extended his wings to their full length, giving them a few experimental flaps in the process before refolding the golden plumage against his sides. "Besides, my hive has been very worried since the attack on the capital. Seeing an alicorn, who have expressly been known as Canterlot royalty, walking by my side will put their minds at ease." She then looked to Spectrum, who had once again donned his own cloak and mask. "I will make an exception in your case though," she said skeptically. "It would not be wise for us to let others have a good look at you until we can find out what my mother makes of you."

They made their way into the cave before coming to a rather colorful booth guarding the path forward. It was occupied by two figures, a pony and a changeling, who were both happily chatting it up when they saw them approach. The changeling stood at rapt attention upon seeing the queen while the pony only carried a look of mild interest, but not much more than that. She got up from her seat and carefully folded up the newspaper she was reading before stepping out from behind the security station.

"Queen Cocoon," she said while slowly chewing on her bubblegum. "I had a feeling we'd be seeing you. We don't usually see so many changelings rush through here at once." She closely inspected the party, taking notice of how colorful some of them were. "Did we make some new friends? I heard them whispering something about Clover the Clever as they passed through."

Clover let out a long sigh. This was going to be that kind of day, wasn't it?

If the party had any expectations of what they would find past the checkpoint, none of them would've guessed that they'd find a veritable shopping arcade this far underground.

Changelings were milling around back and forth between booths selling various merchandise ranging from fruits and vegetables to jewelry and other trinkets. Several of them gathered around tables in what appeared to be some sort of café. More still were spotted climbing the distant walls of the cavern and tucking away into small alcoves, which may be the only part they could see that made them look like an actual hive. However, the one thing that stood out the most was every so often you'd see a pony mixed in and milling about with the rest of them.

Onyx was the first to make a comment on the appearance. "I thought you said nopony wore disguises down here," he said, immediately coming to the wrong assessment.

The queen by their side smiled as she looked down at the youngling. "Our hive has been a big part of this city for generations. We have a number of families among pony kind that we've continued to maintain relations with."

"I'm glad to see it's still working out after all these centuries," Clover added as he looked around. He had become increasingly more aware of the eyes that fell on him as they traveled through this city under the city. He caught brief whispers of his name from several of the groups of insect ponies and even a few of the normal ponies mixed in with the lot. He eventually opted to keep his eyes forward when he caught a few of the mares giving him a look that portrayed more than just mild interest.

Aside from a rather risque building with a sign that read "love collection center", everything else seemed really normal as they made their way to the hive's library. The changeling at the front desk barely even looked up when they stepped inside. "She's in the usual place," was all they said before going back to their work.

The library wasn't particularly large. It certainly wasn't even close to the size of the collection that was gathered beneath the Golden Oaks in Ponyville. But what it lacked for in size was made up by its architecture. Unlike modern constructions which used wood for it's interior design or stone that would've certainly been plentiful underground, everything inside was constructed out of a deep green resin. The tome-laden shelves that filled the building emitted a soft glow, eliminating the need to install any interior lighting.

Clover glanced at a few of the shelves as they walked past them. Most of them were fairly common as they ranged from art to literature. That changed when they turned down the aisle for history. The materials that made up the books here were a lot more elaborate than what they saw elsewhere, a few of them even had a leathery smell to them. What really caught their attention wasn't the books, but instead it was the small changeling hanging from the ceiling and wrapped in viscous webbing.

Sitting beneath the unfortunate soul was another changeling queen that looked almost identical to the one they had walked through the hive with if it weren't for the dimming grey of her chitin and red mane in contrast to Sapphire's blue. She looked up from what she was reading, an irritated look clearly visible in her red eyes, and saw the party that had walked in on her.

The change in her demeanor was immediate as her face lit up and a glow wrapped around Queen Cocoon to pull her closer into the waiting embrace. "Sapphire," she said enthusiastically. "You never visit anymore. You should have told me you were coming." She glanced up at the changeling hanging from the ceiling. "Although, I suppose that could've been what they were trying to tell me. No matter, here..." She pulled her close, almost burying her daughter's face in a scroll she had rolled out next to her. "Did you know that during the eighth's reign, she withheld love from a few changelings and tried to force-feed other emotions. I found a whole record buried in the back of how they adapted and which ones... unfortunately didn't."

"Mother..." The queen groaned as she tried to push the old matriarch away. This was why she didn't visit her very often.

"Oh! And check this out," the elder queen dragged her progeny back down the aisle from where they came, not even paying any notice to the group that was standing there and almost running them down in the process. She picked up a leather-bound volume that had been left open to a specific page. "The eleventh experimented with her royal jelly and actually managed to have one of her drones conceive an actual pony," she seemed giddy with excitement that quickly deflated. "Sadly, the infant was stillborn."

"Mother..." The queen tried being a bit more assertive, but it seemed her mother was on a roll as she was dragged to yet another section of the library, leaving the rest of the party having to jog to keep up with them.

"She reminds me of somepony, but who though?" Clover pondered aloud as they came to a stop, the target of their search practically oozing with exciting as she recited some other obscure bit of history regarding the hive.

"She's like an older version of Twilight Sparkle," Cloud Kicker pointed out. "I once went to the library to find something. She found it in about thirty seconds, but then spent the next hour talking my ear off about everything even remotely related."

Clover looked to her and cringed when he finally remembered his own experience when she cornered him in the library. He noticed sudden silence around him and turned back to find the older queen hovering over him and giving him a good sniff.

"An alicorn," she quickly concluded. "Pleasure to meet you, my name's Ruby. I guess my daughter finally found a way to communicate with Canterlot. Anyway," Ruby turned her attention back to her daughter before Clover had a chance to get a word in. "Just think my dear," she said with a excited shiver. "All the things we could learn from our ancestors. If only one of these anomalies were still alive or if they kept better records back then."

"Mother!!" The queen shouted, finally getting Ruby to stop zipping back and forth like a hummingbird. Sapphire was out of breath, her mother was always like this every time she saw her. She tapped her hoof in frustration, not really sure what to say to her. In the end she opted to reach back and drag an unsuspecting Spectrum to stand between them.

Spectrum had been following Ruby's manic train of thought, so he had a good reason to be worried as he felt his disguise pulled away from him. The excitement that lit up the elder queen's red eyes and the excited buzzing of her insectile wings was all the warning anyone needed before taking a step back from the unwilling sacrifice.

Author's Note

RIP Spectrum.