My mother was dead.
No, that wasn't quite right. Our mother was dead. Chrysalis and I stared at what had once been our mother. We were supposed to agree on who would take over the hive, and as the elder sister, our Mother had said that I would be the one to take over the hive in her place. I had been unsure of the wisdom in that, I was older, but I was certainly not as vehemently against the ponies. I did not see them as merely food, I had wished to trade goods...food for food. We have a great number of changelings that can create candy that sated even the sweetest tooth, and the pony's could trade some love, just enough to sate, before moving on with the confection. They may have not been there for us before, when we had initially been tampered with by Discord, but...
"My hive doesn't need you."
"Sis...Chrysalis, the hive is to be mine. Mother said-"
"SILENCE, Mother isn't here anymore, Faux," Chrysalis' words bit at my carapace, I raised a hoof up, bringing it to up to my chest...and I saw a fury in her eyes that should not be. "The strong will overcome the weak and the ponies are prey!"
"Chrysalis! That is madness! The ponies will get past their fear of us, we'll just need to try again to start trade, and we'll be back to nearly how it was..." I argued the point, shaking my head. "Just because we have holes in our legs, our wings..." I slowly trailed off, surely there were many that had quite a few more holes than that. Some in their ears, even us as Queens had not escaped unharmed, our manes growing in thick strands and taking a holed pattern as well in some places.
"Bah, we will long starve before we would have the chance. You would see our subjects wither and die, just for a hope that the bloody ponies would not run in fear of us." Chrysalis' fury had not calmed, instead it had seemed to only infuriate her further. I swallowed, "You will leave this hive, Faux, lest I do something...Extreme. Create your own hive somewhere, for all I care. But this is your only warning."
"You would have us go to wa...AAAAHH!" The bolt of energy that struck me had been sudden, there was no warning, and I suddenly found myself tumbling across the room, giving a grunt as my shell, thankfully, took the brunt of my impact as I collided with the wall. But something felt...off. Wrong, I didn't know what it was but there was something that Chrysalis had done, something that..."What...What did you do?" I grunted, slowly pulling myself to my hooves.
"Not war, we steal ponies and replace them, gather love for a time and then return them." Chrysalis huffed, she had ignored my question...and then I saw her horn gather magic once again. I couldn't help but brace in the case that she had plans to attack again. Perhaps I should have run, but I felt the need to try once more to appeal to my sister. Perhaps I should have been the one to go when mother had gone to try and get the ponies help once Discord's influence had been cleansed from the lands. But here we remained, black, chitinous...aside from myself. Oh, I am black and chitinous, but my body had developed white, bone like patterns on it, though unlike my sister my mane and tail were white, much the same as my eye color.
"Sister...Please be reasonable." I grunted...and suddenly, the magic flared again, but this time I saw something bubble off of her and felt dread in my heart, just before the sickly magic hit me. Dark magic! My sister had just used DARK MAGIC on me! Her own kin, another queen!
"I no longer feel charitable, leave my sight, and know that you and your eggs are dead." Chrysalis growled, and...to my shame, I fled. I wept as I ran, what had happened? Why had she done this? I hardly noticed as my hooves slipped from under me as I rounded a corner, only knowing I emitted only a faint cry before hitting side of the tunnel, I shakily made the rest of my way out, fast as I could, and once I was out did I know what it was like to be alone.
I had my eggs, resting within my belly, but there was no hive mind, it had been cut off from me, I knew no other once I started hobbling my way away from the dark shape of the hive, and I swore that I could hear Chrysalis cackling from Mother...her tower. I would need to make my way to somewhere new, somewhere that I could start up a new hive and, perhaps, even try to start relations with our pony neighbors. I didn't want to consider just what I would have to do once I had found somewhere...perhaps close enough that I would not be spotted, somewhere that I could tuck into the land and remain hidden for a time.
I knew i had to get somewhere...almost central to Equestria, but I could also not afford to be found either. The Royal Sisters...no, Princess Celestia had not heard out my mother and Chrysalis when they had gone for help from the Ponies. Our relatively new diet of the emotions of Ponies, Love being the most 'filling' as far as sustenance, and an omnivore diet compared to when we ate much the same as ponies. We still could, but leaves, grasses and vegetables in general did not help fill us. A few of our old farming changelings had tried to grow some, succeeded, but the hunger still persisted and we could not...manufacture, for the lack of terms at the time, our own edible emotions. We felt them, yes, but we could not feed one another, nor were many compelled to.
When I had finally stopped running, I found somewhere that I felt relatively safe, digging into the base of the hill and going as deep as I could. This would have to be far enough, far enough from Chrysalis that I could effectively hide and try to set up myself to do...something with the ponies. But there was still something...that feeling of wrongness that had permeated further once the dark magic had been thrown at me.
I did not find out just what she had done to me, done to my hive, until I had created a nursery and laid the first of my eggs. Long hours of work and pain, before I found out just what Chrysalis had done to me, done to my hive, that I found out what she had truly done to us.
Author's Note
Hey there folks, decided to start up a new story and might eventually connect it to the other which is...currently cancelled. I'm going to try and keep this one going to the best of my ability, and when I get the inspiration for it, get back to working on the other. Hopefully this isn't too disappointing to anyone.
Edit: Hopefully I'm not doing too badly at a first person perspective, the title itself is...I'm not sure if I like it or not. Second edit on 1/6/22. Did a little clean up on the last bit of the chapter to try and make it easier to follow.
When a changeling thinks of their hive, usually one would be filled with a warmth that radiated from their deepest reaches. It's their home, their family, it's what they work to improve and where they belong.
I had no such sense in this newly dug 'hive'. It had been an excruciating process, digging down into what I had not been prepared to do for as long as I would have liked. Usually, when a Queen Changeling leaves its home hive to create a new hive for itself, they are allowed some drones to make the initial cutting in of the hive into the earth, and these drones would continue on to help with as much of the set up of the hive before they would get too old to be 'useful' to the hive and thus, new workers would have been birthed, taught how to dig, and so on. Chrysalis had not granted me this boon, but perhaps I was also panicking in my attempt to flee my dark influenced sister.
Whatever the case, the initial diggings of my hive had left me...less than pleased. I had managed to get deep enough, but what chambers I'd managed came across as slap shod, definitely rough. I had merely had to shake my head, it was not going to help me now, and at the very least it was...workable. When I had finally managed to lay a few eggs, I had felt relief. I didn't lay many...perhaps a dozen. It was a start, and I worried for how it would come along. I would have to teach them how to dig, would need to get them connected to myself so that we would have an infant Hive Mind that could eventually grow as more members were brought into it. It was an exciting, and daunting, prospect to take into consideration.
My first hints that something was amiss was that, the eggs didn't feel...right. They felt alive, yes, but missing...something. It was like looking at a house, but the inside was empty. I had brushed it off as simply needing the grubs inside, my children, to grow before they would hatch. I watched them, fed the eggs from my own reserves of Love. This, again, was a reason for my small hive. I certainly didn't have the ability to keep feeding my grubs Love. It would as surely starve me as it would help them. Of course, this had also had me thinking on if I should lay a 'Successor' egg. A changeling princess would not go amiss, however I did not have what would be needed for that. And for now, I figured that it was for the best to aim for menial labor tasks and guard drones. Infiltrators were another thought, but this also troubled me. Infiltrators were needed for the gathering of love, but they would need to be larger, older before they could gather love enough to supply this small hive. I wouldn't risk it...I would need to be my own infiltrator for a time. Gather love in small trips and try to keep my hive going in that way. Infiltrators would need to come later.
The next day was spent watching the rapidly growing eggs between going out to quickly forage and gather what emotions that I could from the wildlife nearby. Having a forest nearby had been a welcome boon, squirrels, rabbits and other small creatures provided emotions, even if it was not much, before being used for actual food. I gave them swift deaths, wished their souls a quick departure, and ate. It was...a bit strange, at first, confirming that I could, actually see the spirits of my departed prey. It had not been a thing that was normal in Mother's hive, perhaps it was the way that I was branching out with my hive...or perhaps due to my possible brush with death at the hooves of my sister. I decided to not think on this overlong. It was much too depressing, and depression would lead to a quick death of my beginning hive.
This being said, when I realized that I could see the souls of those around me, how bright everything was aside from those who were not long for this world, I had to scramble back for my eggs. The scenery passed by me quickly, and as my breath burned in my throat, I could only hope that it was a late coming ability. Something that had only just come out once I had run out for the meal that I needed for myself and my future children. I slipped into the darkness with hardly a rustling of the concealing greenery of the hive's entrance, and I made my way towards the faintly glowing room. I felt my legs feel like jelly, my breathing couldn't come fast enough. As I stepped into the nursery, my eggs awaited me.
My slowly growing, soulless eggs. I lowered myself down, I tried to squint, I begged silently to the first Queen that it wasn't true. I prayed to Order. I prayed to whatever deity would listen that my eggs were not dead. That I wouldn't be alone, that my hive mind, prepped and waiting for the voices of all of my children, would not remain with me as the sole occupant. It was that feeling of having a stone crushing upon my chest, making it hard for me to breath and choking the life out of me.
At some point, I believe that I cursed Chrysalis' name, I screamed and cried, but never did I break the eggs. I didn't...couldn't just smash them, not now. I gathered them, all of them, as close to myself as I could, and then I settled out beside them. I was tired, my throat was dry but I couldn't bring myself to leave the eggs for a drink of water. Perhaps I would just...stay with them for now. Sleep seemed like a good idea, and I suddenly found myself singing quietly, tears streaming down my face as I held them.
"Hush now, quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head...hush now, quiet now, it's time to go to bed..."
Author's Note
Good evening folks, been sick so I've spent some time trying to get this chapter out. Took forever, but I hope you enjoy!
Edit: Bit of a sidenote, if anyone wants to try and make a cover picture for this story, I'd love to see it! Probably asking a bit much, but still, my main hope is that everyone enjoys.
