Ruby continued to take very interesting and detailed notes, while Sapphire proceeded to turn very, very red. She had peeked in on her mother's trip down memory lane and was now regretting it.

"No need to act so embarrassed," Ruby said with both a level of scientific investment and motherly snark. "It's a very natural part of life." She began to get a starry look in her eyes, like she was remembering something from long ago. "Why, I remember when I went into my final laying," she said. "The heat was unbearable. Fortunately, your father was ready and willing. I'll never forget that night..."

"LA LA LA LA!" Sapphire slammed her hooves over her ears as she tried to drown out the stories of her conception. "I'm not having this conversation with my mother!"

Ruby let out a sigh that still held the hints of a smile. "You know, if you spent a fraction of the time that you spend on your career, you might have found your own very special somepony by now."

Sapphire felt like she might explode from the direction this was going. She was only 30 for Celestia's sake! She had at least another 10 years before she really had to worry about this. Fortunately, she was saved by a whole contingent of her changelings entering the chamber. She stood up and left the room as fast as she could, if only to get away from the prodding of her mother. But not before assigning a few of them to make sure that her mother didn't get too enthusiastic with her patient.

Ruby scoffed as she watched changelings take up positions around the chamber and pull out their own paper fans. A few of them even started to watch her eagerly, probably hoping she'd give them an excuse to use them.

It really was a shame that her daughter didn't share the same passion in uncovering the secrets of their past. However, she guessed that their honored guest, Clover, wouldn't take too kindly to the kind of research she really wanted to do. Oh well, she thought as she turned her attention back to her subject. "Where were we?"

Mother wearily dragged herself down to the pod room along with the remnants of her hive. She found Number Three there in the process of setting her own leg and coughing up a thick resin to hold it in place. Around the edges of the chamber, several of her children were slumped against the wall with a number of injuries clearly visible on their bodies. Even the ones who came in behind her, while hauling in the first of the bound invaders, weren't faring too well. They were sporting everything from a torn wing to a missing eye, while countless others were looking beaten and bruised as they focused on the task of gathering up the dead.

She staggered up and practically collapsed next to one of the few guards she had left. "Be honest with me, child," she asked in a whisper, not wanting to alert the rest of the hive to her concern by using the hive mind. "How bad is it?"

Number Three winced as she finished tightening the binding on her leg, letting out a small gasp as she did so. "We were able to secure our food source after the invaders woke up Prey 42." Their voice seemed to quiver. It would've been expected from any of her other children after everything that just happened, but Number Three was a guard and none of them were shaken easily. "I don't understand," she said. "Nothing in the changes to Number 47's behavior even remotely hinted that we were keeping such a monster trapped here. Not even the minotaur wrought as much devastation as what I witnessed. Sure the invaders were a far more formidable than what I saw during recon, but this..." She gestured to the fresh holes in the walls, some of which had crumpled bodies pressed into the back of them. "Nothing I saw compares to this."

Mother looked out over the room, seeking Number 47. She hadn't even though about his fate through all the confusion. It didn't take long to spot him as he was the only one among her children who had escaped the ordeal uninjured. She saw him visibly wince as she brushed against his consciousness, before busying himself with whatever tasks he was tending to.

Her guard could sense the question burdening her and offered the information before she had a chance to ask. "He hid during the fighting," she said. It was unthinkable for anyone to cower in the defense of the hive and such a thing would have to be made example of, except... except right now they couldn't spare anyone under the current circumstances.

"How many do we have left?" Mother opted to ask instead.

"Fifteen by my last count," Number Three said. "We won't know for certain for a while yet, but I can tell you right now that some of the survivors won't survive the night. Not with their current injuries."

"And last I checked, we only had about a half-dozen grubs left in the nursery." This was bad. The hive had never been brought so low. Not when they took on the minotaur and not even when the hive transitioned from her own mother to her. She took a deep breath. As much as she didn't want to know, it was imperative to their survival that she find out. "Number Three," she said, getting their attention. "I need to know for certain."

The guard bowed their head and hobbled around to Mother's side. They didn't have to ask what she wanted to know, she had already voiced her suspicions. Of all her children, her guards were the closest to her, and they deeply shared in her worries. A harsh warmth permeated her side as magic pierced her abdomen. It wasn't a particularly pleasant experience, but she needed answers, and there was no faster way to get them. She felt the consternation from her guard long before they spoke, confirming her suspicions.

"They're gone," Number Three said in resignation as they broke off the contact. "There's a few traces of them left, but your body's reabsorbed your remaining eggs. There's only a single one left and everything's being channeled through it."

"I was afraid of that," said Mother as she gnawed on the end of one hoof. The heat radiating from her abdomen had momentarily worsened with the invasive prodding she had just been subjected to. "Only one more changeling will be born from my body, but it requires that I mate."

"But..." Number Three started, stating the horrible truth they all already knew. "We're not ready. There's no way we can subjugate a suitable male with the hive as weak as it is now."

"Don't you think I don't know that!?" Don't you think I don't know that!? Mother snapped. The rest of hive went silent. She never raised her voice like that and her frustration was so strong that she inadvertently voiced it over the link.

"What about the grubs?" Number Three voiced the only other option they really had. "We have plenty of royal jelly in storage. We could mature one of them into a pseudo-queen."

"We might have to," Mother didn't like the option. While they could raise one of them into a pseudo-queen like Number Three suggested, the hive wouldn't get any stronger and it would be the same as admitting that her generation failed its predecessors. They would also have to be very careful that nothing happened to that changeling, since they would be fragile for at least a year while the changes took place. That and the whole time she would spend raising her replacement, she would have to live with the cravings of her body to take her chosen mate into her clutches. A pony that, after everything she had just witnessed, would be impossible for them to subdue.

Her musings were interrupted as the very creature she was thinking of strolled into the room. Prey 42, or Clover as she had heard the intruders cry out as he crushed them, passed between what remained of her children. He seemed to be focused on something as he walked past them. Mother felt her breath catch in her chest and that same building heat, that had recently shown itself to her, spiked for a moment to almost unbearable levels. Her mind started going fuzzy and her children started to twitch anxiously in time with Mother's heartbeat as buzzing echoed throughout the chamber. Throughout the mind-numbing euphoria, she watched as Clover stepped up to the pods that had been freshly filled with the intruders. When he came to the pony that had been in charge of the whole group, the horn upon his head glowed for a moment and with a flash the earth pony that had been entombed appeared next to him. He was still drenched in thick goop as he expelled the fluid through pained coughs. Clover only gave him a moment before grabbing him roughly by his mane and dragging him back into the depths of the chamber.

An unbearable itch had been threatening to drive her mad and it didn't settle down until Clover was once again out of sight. She let out an exhausted breath and looked down at her children. Each and every one of them were red in the face and she could feel their nervous energy flowing through her as they returned to their tasks.

"Oh..." Said Number Three, breaking the silence. "Oh dear. Mother, are you alright?"

"I... I want him," she muttered between deep breaths. She could hardly believe the words that were coming out of her mouth. She knew she shouldn't be feeling like this. It was unnatural for her or any of her children to crave the touch of another creature, not like this anyway. Her eyes darted back and forth while a number of scenarios played out in her head. Unfortunately, none of them ended with her getting what she wanted. "I don't think we have any chance of subduing him." She said aloud. Her instincts were telling her to order her children to restrain him so she could take what she wanted... what she needed. But her reason kept reminding her of the carnage he had just dealt to his own race, and they had been strong enough to almost wipe out the entire hive.

"Mother, are you sure?" Her trusted guard asked. "We've already seen the irregularities in Number 47. We can't guarantee that any offspring of the new queen won't turn out the same."

"Yes, I'm sure," she answered almost too quickly. Her body's reactions to any sort of stimuli were making her increasingly uncomfortable. "We've already seen how much these ponies have been spreading. We won't survive another attack like this one and our end is certain unless I have a strong mate to ensure a strong heir."

Number Three gave her a deep bow. "As you wish, Mother," she said. "It may take time, but we will find a way for you to mate with this male."

She bit her lip in frustration. She had no idea how to even start going about accomplishing her goal.

Her musings were interrupted as Clover came back into view. The moment she saw him again, she felt herself start to seize up again. He was looking right at her as he walked in her direction. She could almost swear he was looking at her with a hungry look in his eye. Or was that just her mind playing tricks on her? He stopped in front her and opened his mouth. "Do any of you speak my language?" He asked in the tongue the ponies used. "I haven't heard anything but clicks and chirps since I got here and my news is urgent."

Mother stepped forward to speak, but surprisingly Number Three held out a hoof to hold her back. She looked down at the guard that stared back at her in defiance, but they refused to back down. "Mother," she said. "All of us can tell you're not completely in your right mind right now, the feedback we're getting from the hive mind is more than enough proof. Let me handle this and maybe we'll find a way to get what you're after."

Mother took a moment to parse her words. Number Three had slightly higher intelligence than many of her children. In fact, all of her guards did. They did mainly because she couldn't be everywhere at once and it made delegating the tasks to the rest of her children far easier to manage with one of them close by. The other job they had was to stop her from making bad decisions, like Number Three was doing now. A similar situation happened years ago with the minotaur incident and she had regretted ignoring their council ever since.

Mother nodded her consent and took a step back, allowing her guard to step forward and bring Clover's attention to them. "I can speak for the hive," she said in the same tongue. Their voice had taken on a feminine tone and was apparently well spoken enough that the stallion raised an eyebrow in surprise.

"You're very well spoken for this not being your native language," he said as he looked Mother straight in the eye. "I would've thought her to be your leader."

"She is," Number Three said in response. "However, the recent attack has left her a bit on edge, so I will speak in her stead."

Mother knew that wasn't the whole truth, but her child seemed to have some idea of how to handle this stallion. It probably came from the infiltration mission she had been in charge of a few years back.

Clover considered them for a moment before seeming to accept the answer as a green aura wrapped around his horn. The earth pony from earlier was bodily dragged out from somewhere behind him. Duke Greengrass was looking rather rough from his recent treatment at the hooves of Clover. Between that and the amorphous sludge that had already started to partially soak his coat from his brief stint in the feeding pod, there didn't seem to be any sign remaining of the obnoxiously proud pony that had laid waste to the hive.

"Tell them what you told me," he ordered him as he deposited him roughly on the ground in front of him.

"I can't," sniveled the despondent pony. They were making a conscious effort to keep Clover out of their line of vision, he seemed to be absolutely terrified of him. "If Daybreaker finds out I warned you..."

Clover apparently didn't like that answer. He raised a hoof and placed it on the small of his back, and like a tiger playing with its cub, he effortlessly pushed the earth pony's body down into the ground. There had been a momentary sign of resistance in the otherwise sturdy pony, but it was insufficient against the unstoppable force that was this unicorn. The duke let out a high pitched squeak as air was forced from his lungs. Mother should've been terrified from being so close to a source of overwhelming force, but with the way her body was rebelling against her, it only served to excite her.

Get a hold of yourself, Number Three silently cautioned her, fully aware of her condition.

Clover didn't show any sign that he had noticed her reaction as he leaned over the other male with malice in his eyes. "You ponies reaped what you sowed," he said. "I heard about the way you all celebrated Nightmare Moon's defeat. How did you think Celestia would respond?"

"I... I..." Greengrass wheezed out between shallow breaths.

"My patience runs thin," Clover hissed into his ear. "Now tell them."

The hoof buried into his back let up its relentless pressure. The duke took deep, painful gasps of air with intermittent coughs. He looked up from his place on the ground and slowly curled into a ball as one eye met with his tormentor. "Fine, I'll tell you," he said in a whimper, a look of defeat on his face. "She ordered us to find the source of the ponies that had gone missing and told us we were not to return until we had completed our mission. When we failed to return to the surface, our pegasus scout will have flown back to tell the tale of our failure." He began to shiver on the ground. "Daybreaker doesn't tolerate failure and she makes a point of making an example of those who do so." His eyes narrowed into pinpricks. "She's coming and she'll see us all burn."

Author's Note

revision: 6/8/22
After some discussion, I reworked the opening scene in Chapter 5.
(The part where Ruby sticks Spectrum in the pool.)

Nothing really changed in the story, but it did need some tweaking.