Spike sat next to the underwater stream, irritable, chewing on a chunk of Saphire. He had placed the egg sack down in one of the bed holes the Diamond dogs had left behind; after trying to get it to stick in place, he had started producing a sticky web-like substance and proceeded to wrap it around the egg sack to keep it from falling over.

With nothing else to do, Spike sat next to the stream, hoping the egg sack was a dud, as being a mama would make his situation infinitely more problematic as it was highly likely they would require love to eat and would instinctively reject his Gem workaround.

Spike chose not to think about it and began playing with his wings to try and take his mind off his problems. The clear membranes of his wings were interesting to look at. Once he got the hang of moving them around, he easily integrated his pre-existing knowledge of flying into them and was able to scavenge around the old Diamond dog beds that went up to the top of the large cavern he had found the waterway in, easily plundering more than a few gems, he noticed most all of them where Topaz and figured that Diamond Dogs had pinned them as the least valuable of their collections since they had been the most abundant ones to be left behind.

Spike dumped them into the pile, eating several of them as he did so, and went back to using his new powers to try and figure out how to filter the water; the most successful method he had yet found was also his least favorite as it required him to filter it in his mouth, leaving a less than satisfying muddy texture that he had to spit and scrap out for a while afterward.

Unwilling to deal with muddy aftertastes, Spike slowly tried to quench his thirst using his hands as a filter, dipping them slightly into the water and letting water pass through the webby parts; once his cupped hand had water in, he'd stop letting water pass through his fin's and pulled a hand full of water out, having at least gotten good enough at doing it that he was able to get a few good mouthfuls of water without any unpleasant after tastes.

Unsure what else he could even begin to do in his current situation, Spike curled up at the entrance to the Diamond Dog Bed he had placed the egg sack in and created a makeshift pillow and blanket out of a non-sticky version of the webby material he had used to secure the egg sack.

"Good Night," He told the empty area, already missing his basket; even if it was small, at least it had been in a fortified castle instead of deep in the unknown depths of a cave system that could easily hold many dangerous creatures, Spike didn't swiftly drift off to sleep, his dreams far from pleasant when he finally did.

Spike's absence didn't go unnoticed by the residents of Ponyville; he had been set up to spend the night at Fluttershy's cottage, and in turn, Fluttershy had been quick to whip herself into a panic when he failed to arrive within an hour, that panic only gaining steam when one hour turned into several, and several hours turned into the entire night.

Now fully freaking out, Fluttershy called upon the only help available to her; Rarity was in Manehattan, Applejack was in Applelossa with her family for an apple themes festival, Rainbow Dash was busy with Scootaloo in Clouddale training her for her Wonderbolts entrance exam, Pinkie Pie was on a cruise with the Cakes, her husband and her daughter, and while Twilight was always available, that was the equivalence of throwing fire at a fire to try and put it out.

So Fluttershy opened the door on the only pony available to lend her aid in searching for Spike.

"Did you check to make sure he didn't just head out on the train?" Starlight asked after Fluttershy filled her in on what had happened, "He might have just forgotten he was supposed to spend the night and just bit the bullet to head back home,"

"I checked with the train staff at the two-hour mark; they said no dragons got on or off at the Ponyville station or the Canterlot station, and since then, they've tracked all dragons who have, and none of them were Spike,"

"He might have eaten himself into a food coma," Starlight chuckled, "You know how he gets with gems; the doof won't hesitate to make himself sick ten times out of ten when gems are involved, and there are more than a few cave systems not all to far from Ponyville that have been known to produce some top shelf gems, any idea where he went?"

"I don't know where he went exactly," Fluttershy informed Starlight awkwardly, "He just said it was a hot spot for Diamond Dogs a few years back, but it's been a while since that happened, so I don't fully remember where it happened,"

"Give me an hour," Starlight decided, "I should be able to get more than a few students and staff members of the school to help in this rescue; it could be a good friendship exercise,"

"I'll go with you," Fluttershy decided, "Me sitting here being worried all day won't help my nerves; I can help, even if only a little,"

Spike slept less than peacefully on the ground; the stones were cold, and his blanket and pillow had an odd texture about them, the longer he slept on the ground, the more he felt like something was crawling around and biting him.

Having never fully fallen asleep during the night, Spike didn't have to deal with that half-dazed state and realize he wasn't dreaming. Instead, he had to deal with the realization that something was, in fact, crawling on him and biting him.

Spike held up his arm and saw three or four larval changelings with their teeth buried deep into his arms. The instincts that came with his new body were just about the only things that kept him from swatting them off in a panic, as his instincts instead told him this was just how things went and to go back to sleep.

He went against his instincts; even with all the biting, his sucky bedtime accessories were what bothered him more. He got up carefully, counting twelve larval channelings, nine in total on both arms, one on his leg, he could feel one on his neck and one firmly grasping his right ear.

He watched as they firmly kept themselves in place, sucking up vital energy from their mother into themselves; as far as Spike could remember from visiting Thorax, this wasn't a normal Changling thing, but the Changelings he had seen with babies were the new Changelings. Since the new Changelings didn't have a larval state, so he imagined this was simply a result of him being obsolete in comparison. Since his hive consisted of himself and twelve babies, he doubted sharing his love would do much to help that since their collective love was inferior to a generations-old hive with enough members to fill their own country.

Having no frame of reference for how Queen Changeling sustained their children, especially their first batch of children, Spike just let them keep biting him as he began eating gems to keep his energy up. It became clear within what felt like an hour or two that his new babies were growing fast, going from fitting in the palm of his hand to being the size of foals within that time. They didn't quite look to be growing right, and Spike pondered if the Wishing stone might not have had enough magic to fully fertilize the egg or if this was just something that happened with the first batch and all other eggs would take longer to mature.

"Hey there," Spike had to hold up the one of his ear as it started getting to big for his ear to support it alone, unwilling to forcefully make it unlatch, as that might result in it not relatching. "I kind of suck with names, so you'll just have to name yourselves if you don't want to all be named Joe, but that's a problem for when you're all grown up, so let's give it an hour or two, I guess," Spike lay on his back as the latched babies began growing too big from him to keep moving his arm, he took care to make sure one of his necks wasn't squashed beneath him and just waited for them to let go.

Soon, he felt the pressure of their growing teeth, which eventually pulled out of his arms, his leg, his neck, and finally his ear. Once free of their bites, he got back into a sitting position and found twelve female changelings, all without so much as the slightest marking to differentiate themselves from each other. Something he wasn't entirely sure what to pin on; it could have been the result of them being his first brood or the result of them being created using his genes and pure magic that had resulted in them all being nothing more than lesser biological clones of himself.

They were noticeably smaller than most changelings he had seen in the past; even the ones standing up to their full height were barely pushing the five-foot mark; being a mother, Spike decided on their first lesson. Modesty and why they needed to cover their shame.

"Hello, Children," Spike called out; as soon as he spoke, they all hurriedly gathered around him; instead of sitting at a respectable distance, they glomped onto him, each seemingly determined to touch him at least a little. "I want all of you to copy my clothes," Spike demanded; he expected to have to go step by step to explain exactly what that entailed, but all twelve effortlessly did as they were told, their tops and bottoms covered just as he was covered, all of them stared at him with expectant eyes. "Alright, good, that was all for the moment. Go...exist, and don't drown yourselves. I'd make me feel bad," Spike sat still as his children chose to exist exactly where they already were.

When Spike tried to lay back down, several of them seemed insistent that they were now his bed, and soon Spike was forcefully pulled down by his children onto a bed made of them; once he was lying down, they all snuggled against him, to their credit they made a far better blanket and pillow then his previous attempts and having been drained of his energy to fast forward their development Spike was quick to give into them and fell asleep in their embrace within the first minute of them forming his new bed.

Fluttershy and Starlight looked out at the several members of the school of friendship that had been selected to assist in the hunt for Spike. It had taken longer than they would have liked. Still, after putting in the request, just about every student and staff member had jumped at the opportunity, some wanting to help, some wanting to use it as an extra credit opportunity, some mistaking it as some test, and others still simply wanting to get out of class for the day.
In the end, Starlight picked out only Ocelous and Smolder as their search team and asked the others to keep an eye and ear out. Starlight hand-picked Sunburst as the emergency man in the event something dangerous was in the caves and had trapped Spike and, in turn, trapped the search team. Sunburst was to report to Twilight if the team failed to return within six hours.
Sunburst wished them a safe journey, and after managing to convince Trixie she was needed at the school for moral reasons, Starlight headed the search party towards the area Rarity had once taken her out to gem hunt with Spike; the group arrived and set up shop on the surface, having several possible tunnels to look through.

"So, How are we doing this?" Smolder questioned as she looked at the brought map Sweetie Belle had managed to provide the search team; cause from the looks of it, we've got three tunnels to look down, not including all the extended paths and whatnot,"

"You and Ocellus will make up one team, me and Fluttershy the other," Starlight decided, "Since Ocellus and I can both teleport, in the event you end up lost in the tunnels or find Spike in a sticky situation, you can just teleport back here without having the navigate your way back out,"

"We have six hours," Ocellus noted, "So we should search individually for roughly three hours and then join back up to search the third if Spike isn't in one of the first two; if that fails, then we return with Princess Twilight and a much larger team and begin combing over the cave system to the best of our abilities,"

Fluttershy handed Smolder a bag as Ocellus and Starlight used a few spells to make sure they could contact one another in the event Spike was found so they could call the other if one of them lost track of time. Smolder fit herself with a handy head lantern, a canteen full of warm tea, and more than enough snacks.

"make sure to save some for Spike," Fluttershy cautioned.

"Yeah," Smolder said to make sure Fluttershy knew she'd heard her, "That mook probably caved the roof in trying to get a good haul,"

"I'm sure he's fine," Fluttershy attempted to consol the situation, and Smolder, in turn, laughed.

"If the cave did collapse on top of him, he'd just enter a hibernation state and sleep till he gets unburied. I had an uncle who went missing for a few hundred years and came home after an earthquake made him resurface; don't go worrying about Spike; dragons are tough and stupid, more so than any cave-dwelling creature that might be calling this place home now,"

"Alright," Starlight called out as Fluttershy equipped herself with her Head lantern, "We'll take the entrance in the hill; you two go in through the one with a Tree covering it, and don't forget to call us if you come across Spike or anything that might have dragged him off," The two teams broke apart and moved to the two entrances to begin the search.

Feeling snug as a bug in a rug, Spike was finally able to get some proper rest and, not too long after, jolt awake when the weight of what was happening properly hit his fully awake mind.

"Oh crap," Spike made to get up, and once his new children moved out of bed formation, he took note that only six children had stayed at his side to keep him comfy; the other six seemed completely absent from the cave. "Hm, guess I wasn't up to par with their standards," Not exactly bonded with the fully grown children he had spat out a few hours ago, he wasn't about to hold it against them for abandoning a mother that had thus far in their short life only lazed about eating and sleeping.

Spike made his way to the water and began finger filtering the water, his children for their part; they seemed far less bothered by the only flavor of water they'd ever had and went to town slurping up the water straight from its source; they did copy what Spike had done on his first attempt and spit out the copious amounts of sediment that were mixed in with the water, but none seemed bothered by the flavor.

"You lot pick names for yourselves yet?" Spike asked, not expecting a response and more just speaking to try and remain sane in the situation, "Cause if not, I'm naming you all Joe,"

"What's a Joe?" Spike almost had a heart attack when one of his daughters spoke to him in response to the statement.

"Oh my stars," Spike took several deep breaths, "You can already talk? Who taught you to do that? Did I? I don't think I did," none of his present daughters seemed to understand the questions. Instead, they went back to drinking their fill of water. However, he did note some seemed concerned with his manner of drinking; a few tried copying him, and while he could tell from their expressions they liked the taste of dirtless water better, they still chose to mouth filter; he assumed their motive was efficiency over pleasure.

"So I was kind of out of it when you all hatched," Spike noted, "But there were twelve of you, right?" He hadn't taught them to speak, and they still could, so he banked on them, knowing what twelve meant.

"The scavengers are hunting," one of his daughters informed him. Spike found that response less soothing than he figured his daughters thought it would.

"hunting what exactly?" One of them seemed satiated on thirst and pointed behind Spike; he followed the provided directions and found himself looking at his gem pile; his wagon was gone, and the pile had one leftover to nearly triple what he had brought with him originally. Spike let out a relieved sigh, having been panicking that his new children were invading Ponyville to siphon off their love; the fact that his desire to eat gems had been so deep-rooted of a desire that his children had adapted it as their food source was a relief to him.

Spike happily partook of the pile, planning to eat his fill; he was just about to fill himself up when one of his daughters bit him again, just like they had in their larval state. Spike could feel them sucking up the energy he had converted the gems to and came to the proper realization that his children, despite having rapidly matured for a reason outside his realm of understanding, were probably incapable of digesting his chosen food source and were instead relying on Spike to process them into nutrition, as he thought the six present where already lining up for their time to eat.

Despite being bitten with fangs that would make a vampire jealous, the bites didn't seem to be causing him anything resembling pain; chalking that fact up to his body just naturally providing for the young it had created, Spike went back to filling his face, his children siphoning his nutrients coming with the bonus of his belly remaining only partially filled throughout his feast for several dozen times longer than it otherwise would have, letting him eat the equivalent of roughly five meals before the present young seemed satisfied and began buzzing around the walls.

"If the six that left are the scavenger Changelings, then the six still present must be the hive guards; I wonder if they take shifts or if they're genetically pre-destined for their roles?"

Now interested in how his children conducted themselves, Spike waited for the six to return, pondering if they would go back out or stick around; he at least felt it was wise to assume they would line up for their feeding time.

Spike watched as the six still inside the hive began creating the same web-like substance he had from their hands and started smearing it all along the walls; at first, it looked more like them making a mess for mess's sake. Still, it quickly turned into a home renovation project when, after two opposing spots were coated in the webs, his children began making a little bridge to connect the two walls, only to make him more curious about their end goal.

Spike was so caught up in watching the seemingly pointless wall bridge construction that he failed to notice his other children return until they dumped his wagon over, throwing more gems into the pile.

Spike took his place by the gems and began eating as his children lined up behind him and began eating their fill; he noticed that one of the ones who had stayed home and already eaten snuck into the line when he ended up feeding seven kids instead of six but couldn't really tell them apart so just let it slide for the time being.

Spike watched as the six who had returned flew up and joined in on the creation of webbing as the other six all flocked around the wagon and fought over who got to pull it. Spike assumed it had been decided while he was asleep that the wagon puller didn't have to dig up the gems.

"I'll pull the Wagon," Spike decided, to the shock of his children as he got up and took the lead, "Better than laying around and waiting to die of boredom," He expected his brood to be against the idea, instead, they seemed beyond excited at the idea of him joining them; Spike wished the ones staying inside the hive now luck on construction and reminded them to stay hydrated before leaving them to their work and leading the expedition into the caves.

Author's Note

I may colapse this chapter and the first into one big chapter, stlll not 100% sure yet