Strange Bedfellows

I wake up for the third time in what I think is a day to find myself alone in my room... again, but this time there is food on the desk. I wolf it down as fast as my ribs will allow me, not even looking at what it was, and belch loudly when I finish. I cover my mouth and said "Excuse me... That was gross." as an automatic reaction, half expecting my sister to smack the back of my head. No smack came and the smile fell off of my face, "Oh yeah..." I say as I rest my now aching head in my hand.

"Are you feeling well?" The ever pervasive voice echoed in my head, "I'm very sorry about what happened yesterday, I had no idea that would happen." I just grunt in irritation, an emotion I find I now have an abundance of. "I am apologizing to you, I don't see why your so angry."

My eye twitches as I say "Are you the only thing that has happened to me over the past few days?" I shake my head wearily and continue with an angry edge in my voice, "No, you aren't, so being irritated won't change because you say sorry." The presence recoiled as of from an assault, then I feel bad. "I'm not mad at you or your people, hell, they're the only reason I'm still even alive... so yeah, don't think I'm not grateful or anything."

"I never said you weren't, I was just surprised by your outburst." Then Chrysalis walks in the door and says "Also I doubt that mushroom rice did anything to sate your appetite." My stomach growls in agreement as she lifts me out of the bed with her magic.

"Hey! Stop that, get me a crutch and I can walk just fine on my own!" I yell at her, her response was to lower me back to the bed as her eyebrow raised.

"A crutch? Like what the Diamond Dog use for their wounded?" I look at her like she is the stupidest person in the world, and she avoids my gaze. "That will take some time, in the mean time I suggest you "suck it up" to use a quote from your people." Then she lifts me from the bed again, though Vertically this time, and takes me out the door.

We "walk" down a series of corridors and end up in a room almost as large as the throne room, It is lined with rows and rows of benches all long it's length, there is about three doors per wall and at the far-and I mean far- end there is a rectangular hole in the wall with Changlings walking around behind it, even this far away I can hear the pang and clatter of dishes being prepared and my stomach growls once again. Chrysalis chuckles as she walks over to a bench and sets me down, then sits across from me and asks "What would you like to have to eat?" I think about it for a moment, and when I open my mouth to speak she says "Surprise it is then."

My mouth closes without a sound as I give her an un-approving glare, "Please stop that... It's unnerving and creepy, how would you if I broadcast your thoughts to a whole hive of creatures you barely understand?"

"I would be honored to have been accepted by the leader of such a fine race of beings, who takes time out of their day to personally show me around." she says as she gives me an amused expression.

"Fine, fine, I get it... Thank you so much for your generosity, Oh Mighty Chrysalis; Leader of the Hive..." I say, emphasizing my mono-tone voice with as much a mocking bow as my ribs will let me.

"I'm never hiring you as a herald, I can tell you that." she added with a smile on her face, "Oh, our food is here!" she said as she turned her head towards the Changlings that are carrying plates towards us, they set them down in front of us and I am greeted by a very ugly mole rat the size of a large cat with an apple sized-mushroom in it's mouth. "Most Non-Changlings have an avers..." she trails off as I pull the mushroom from it's mouth and eat it in two bites.

"Don't have to worry about cores for those." I said as I chewed on it, honestly I hate mushrooms but when you have no idea when your last, or next, meals were/are you take what you can get. Chrysalis watched me in fascination as I tear one of the front legs off of the mole rat and chew on it like a drumstick. "What?" I say between chews.

She coughs in her hoof to compose herself as she says "N-nothing, I just haven't seen a Non-Changling adapt to our cuisine so fast..."

I point to her plate with the leg and say "You haven't touched your... what ever that is yet, eat up, make you grow nice and strong so you can lead the Changlings into triumph or what ever it is they like." I end my sentence with a chomp on the leg.

She looks down at her plate with an inscrutable expression on her face as I finish off both the front legs and one of the back ones. I poke her with a bone and she shakes her head and looks at me "Yes?" I point to the plate in front of her and make an eating gesture, "Oh... I've lost my appetite, you go ahead."

"Women..." I think to myself as I say "What's the problem, anything I can do?" This time she give me the un-approving stare.

"I heard that, and no I don't believe there is much you can do." She says sadly as a rumble fills the hall.

"Uh... what's that? Am I about to have a forced bath?" I sniff my armpit theatrically, I recoil in actuality "I can see why... Whoa, apparently almost dying is sweat inducing work..." When I look up I see Chrysalis smile faintly and Changlings come in the hall from everyone of the doors. "Lunch time?" I ask her quietly, well as quietly as I can over the cacophony of the rest of the Changlings, as some Changlings sit at the bench with us, everyone of them pressed tightly together to the person beside them, including me. Their shells are hard and slightly warm, like a rock that had been in the shade for a few minutes after being in the sun for hours, and they chitter excitedly to each other like they were telling stories or something.

When they roar in laughter I figure it was a joke, then I notice that Chrysalis is laughing as well and my face contorts to one of pure confusion. "Okay, okay... The joke goes like this... Umm... wait, I guess I have to explain what emotions taste like..." I hold up a hand and shake my head, forestalling any explanations.

"If it's what gets you out of your dark mood, then good for it, but I don't want an in depth explanation to a fart joke or something like that..." She covered her mouth with her hoof as she laughed with the table behind her, I just shake my head and listen to the groups of Changlings, they were almost all "talking" excitedly or gesturing wildly... but those that weren't were on the opposite side of the social spectrum, sitting alone and looking at their food sadly and eating slowly of they ate at all. "Chrysalis?" She was recovering from a bout of laughter that almost took her off of her seat, I continued, "I want to know what is going on, this-" I gestured to the half empty tables "- is directly opposed to this-" I gesture at the packed-to-the-point-bursting tables "- These isn't just a social thing, it points to a much darker outcome... What happened?"

When she stands up she seems to take the whole world on her shoulders... then I notice that the room is now silent and has adopted and aura of sadness, a sickly green glow surrounds me as she lifts me around the table and out into the corridors once more "I... I can't tell you in words... I can show you, if you are willing, but it isn't to be done lightly for it will permanently change you..."

*-*

We arrived in the throne room again, and we "walk" up to the throne, she sets me down against on of the arms of the throne and lets go of me with her magic without a word. I feel my full weight as my ribs start to burn, then I watch her as she braces herself, her magic wraps around the back of the throne and a grinding resounds through out the room as the throne-back shutters upwards slowly, I look back at Chrysalis and saw how set upon this she was, her were eyes closed tightly, and she was biting her lips and sweat pouring down her face and sides. The stone is about halfway up when I see a bit of green well up around her left fang and a single drop slowly slides down, leaving a faint green trail along her lip. I feel a bit of apprehension at her sheer determination, what is going to happen, are we going down to some weird cave that holds the echos of the past? Are we going to a secret ice cave that houses a once powerful mage that managed to ascend to a higher state of being? Am I going to have to read a fuck ton of books?

I look at the stone and it is almost free, then it moves back in the wall and stops moving. I look at Chrysalis and see she is swaying in place, he right fang had managed to puncture as well and the green sickly blood was trickling down her lip slowly and mingling with her sweat... I find myself more then-a-little turned on right now... there is something wrong with me. She looks at me with a far away expression on her face and a thousand yard stare in her demonic eyes, then she smiles wearily, and walks up to the throne and plucks out a gem from the just off of the center of the... wall of gems that were behind the throne. My jaw drops, "Whoa, that's alot of shiny..." I shake my head and hop painfully over to Chrysalis.

She give me a funny look, then I reach over to her and wipe the blood from her chin with my shirt sleeve, changing it from a red to more green-and-sticky red. She blushes as I fuss over her wounds "Changlings have a natural clotting agent in their saliva, so you can stop now..." I didn't say a thing, but I stop... Only because I don't have anything else I could do with a tattered shirt. "This-" She gestures to the gem she had a hold of, it was a dark-almost-black gray, like ash and had a familiar sickly green running through it in veins "-Is a Hive Stone."

I look at it and nod my head knowingly and said "If you say so."

She gave me look of irritation and continued "It is somehow connected to our Hive Mind, our collective consciousness, we haven't found out how or why... but if somepony, such as yourself, who isn't connected to the mind touches it, it imparts our collective memories upon them permanently."

I give her a funny look, "I'm not a pony, and that sounds rather painful to have all those memories shoved into my skull."

"Actually it's rather painless, but extremely disorienting." she states with a single knowing nod, I give her a rather disbelieving look, packaged with a head flail and a snort. "It is what all of the other honored creatures have said, I don't actually know first hand."

I look her in the face, her eyebrows furrow as she tilts her head away from my searching gaze. "Why are you staring at me?" She asked with a confused tone in her "voice". I don't say anything as my gaze shifts to follow the entire outline of her body, she shifts her legs uncomfortably a few times before I finish. I note that she seems to harbor a bit of apprehension, but underneath that was an excitement that seemed to tremble just beneath the surface... or she could have bad gas, I'm not psychic.

"Fine," I say as I hobble closer, "Lay it on me then..." I add with a (false) air of defeat. She smiled brightly and I couldn't help but find it infectious as she brought the stone closer to my forehead... A look of confusion crosses her face. She tugs on the stone with her magic. The look changes to one of fear as it move closer. "Uh... every thin-" I start to say before it shatters her hold over it and it slams into my chest, knocking me over just before I-