> Not As It Seems > by TempesttheDragnix > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prelude: Welcome To The Hive > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Not What It Seems Prelude: Welcome To The Hive Author: TempesttheDragnix ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The grey pegasus looked down at the small black figure she cradled in her forelegs, feeling as if her heart were about to burst from joy. Beside her stood a male changeling drone, whose mouth was turned up in a gentle smile that looked out of place on his otherwise expressionless face. There, in the pegasus's arms, lay their newborn daughter. The little thing looked like a cross between her parents. She had her mother's ivory-colored, tousled looking mane and tail, along with her beautiful bright golden eyes and feathery wings. Aside from these details, however, she looked exactly like her father, from the hole-filled hooves, to the small ridge-less horn poking through her mane. Her appearance, to some, would seem strange, but to her parents she was the most beautiful creature in the world. Suddenly the newborn yawned and blinked, her eyes beginning to droop closed. The pegasus smiled and nuzzled her daughter, only to find tiny black hooves wrapping around her muzzle as the baby let out a coo of happiness. She let go as her mother wriggled her muzzle out of the tiny black hooves, then let her eyes close the rest of the way. The grey pegasus chuckled and lay her baby down in a small cradle, tucking her under a checkered blanket. After a few moments of simply standing there, the changeling spoke up. "What should we name her?" he asked, looking over at his wife. Studying her child for a moment more, she smiled and returned his gaze, knowing the perfect name for their little angel. "Ceremi," she said. "Our little Ceremi." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - High above the badlands that stretched out beside the Everfree forest, a changeling flew rapidly, his eyes streaming with tears. Beside him flew a grey pegasus with and ivory mane, and nestled in her feahtery wings lay a small crossbreed, fast asleep. Directly ahead of them, a few miles away, rose a giant black spire, it's peak reaching almost as high as the mountains surrounding it. The changeling looked over his shoulder at the child, his daughter, and felt his heart break into a thousand shards. They were going to have to give her away, leave her somewhere safe. And there was only one place where his daughter could go that he had ever felt safe. The place of his birth, the changeling hive. There was a good reason for them leaving her here, he knew, but some part of him still couldn't accept the fact they had to part with her. That part of him kept saying that there had to be something that could have been done to prevent this, to stop the Sickness. Then little Ceremi could grow up with her mother and father. But they were going to have to leave their daughter, no matter how much the heartbroken drone wished otherwise. The changeling snapped himself out of his thoughts as he and the pegasus reached the base of the spire, and lighted down on the ground. His wife landed beside him, her face wet with tears, and gently lowered their daughter, still sleeping, onto the ground at the base of the spire, followed by a small note. Bending down, she nuzzled the little one for the last time. "Goodbye my little angel," she said, tears flowing anew. "Goodbye, and may you live a full life." As his wife was saying her last goodbyes, the changeling flew in front of the spire, blasting a hole a few feet up with his magic. At this height, anyling coming to investigate would surely see Ceremi. He glanced down again at his daughter, and a sharp stab of sadness and pain welled up in him. He motioned to his wife to follow and took off into the air, not daring to look back lest his heart break again. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Diage dropped the sack of eggs she was carrying and let out a shriek as an explosion blasted a gaping hole in the wall beside her. For a few moments she just stared at it, to startled to react. Then she cautiously flew over to it, hovering at the mouth of the gap. She saw two figures flying quickly off, one black and one grey. She considered giving chase, but decided against it. They had a considerable head start, and they were flying to fast for her to catch, anyway. No, it would be better to stay and investigate the scene. Exiting the hole in the spire, she hovered closer to the ground and started looking around, searching for anything that might be significant. She didn't see anything, and was just about to go back inside when an infant's cry filled her ears. She swiveled around to find the source of the wail, and nearly fell out of the sky when she saw it. It looked like a regular young changeling, except for the fact that it had a long ivory mane, feathered wings, and golden eyes that looked closer to the Queen's eyes than a drone's. Diage lighted down next to it, her heart pounding and her eyes wide with shock. Was this a baby queen? Her thoughts were caught off by a bloodcurdling scream from the young one, who was obviously displeased at its situation. Looking closer, Diage found that there was a note attached to it. Intrigued, she picked up the note in her magic and started to read. Dear reader, This young one is here due to some unfortunate events pertaining to her previous environment. We have decided to leave her with the changeling hive, and we hope you will prove our decision the right one and keep her safe. Please do not tell her of us, or of the fact she was not born in the hive. We thank you for reading this and hope you will keep our little Ceremi safe. Sincerely, Ceremi's parents Diage reread the note, then read it a third time. This child's parents had left it here alone? But then again, judging by the note, they had counted on someling seeing her and taking her inside. She looked back at the young one, and, with a deep breath, picked her up and flew into the spire, the note trailing behind, caught in her magic. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Diage zoomed through the hallways of the spire, frantically dodging passing changelings and low-hanging stalactites. The baby, who had quieted down, was perched behind her head, its hooves wrapped tight around her neck in an effort to stay on. She skidded to a stop in midair as she arrived at her destination: the throne room. Bursting through the doors, she flew up to the throne, where Queen Chrysalis was sitting, looking a little surprised at the sudden intrusion. Diage took a few seconds to catch her breath, then addressed her Queen. "I... found a newborn outside the spire...... it looks somewhat like a baby Queen...... this note was attached........ thought you would know what to do....." she said between breaths, handing Chrysalis the note. The changeling Queen read it over, then looked back up at the young one perched on Diage's shoulders. "I will take her in. She could be useful." Chrysalis decided after a few brief moments. Diage, for her part, almost fell to the ground in shock. Chrysalis was taking the little one in? How could Chrysalis mother this child? Could she even mother anything? Why had she decided to do so so quickly? What about all the times she was gone? How cou- "Diage!" Chrysalis suddenly demanded. "Did you hear a word I just said?" "N-no, my Queen. I was a little lost in thought." Diage shrunk back a little, slightly afraid of what punishment she would receive. She had heard many stories about the cruelty of Chrysalis, and didn't want to be on the receiving end of her anger. To her surprise, though, the Queen smiled slyly, brushing the offense off. "I said, little drone, that you will play a part in this little one's upbringing as well. From this moment on you will be her main caretaker, raising her whenever I am away or busy." She then turned to Ceremi, who was now held in her magic, leaving Diage to stunned to speak. She had a wicked smirk on her face, and didn't look very motherly at the moment. "Well, Ceremi my dear, welcome to the hive." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Chapter 1: Grudges and A Beloved Folder > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grudges and A Beloved Folder ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A hazy yellow light pushes through the hoof I’m using to cover it up and I roll over with a groan, accepting defeat. Curse my hooves and their stupid holes, I wanted to sleep in today. I reluctantly sit up in my bed, stretching and muttering about how I wish Celestia wasn’t such an early riser. Then I remember what’s supposed to happen today, and nearly fall back into the bed. Council meeting. That’s another term for ‘Mother spouts some crazy plan and everyling else nods their heads’. And since I’m the hive princess, I have to go. Whoop-dee-doo. Just how I was planning to spend a day I could be doing something perfectly productive with. I get out of bed and walk over to my mirror, starting when I see my hair. What in the name of Faust… My head looks like a swarm of pale yellow snakes decided to huddle on top of it. Did I run into some poison joke? I quickly brush down the tangled mess. Then re-brush it a second time. Then use a spell to hold it down with magic. Just in case. Just then Diage flies in, settling down by the doorway. Thank goodness she didn’t arrive earlier; I wouldn’t want anyling to have to witness that hair. “Umm, Your Highness,” she says nervously. That changeling always seems to be nervous for some reason. “Queen Chrysalis wants to you be a little faster in getting to the meeting. She didn’t put it quite that nicely, but…” I smile at what for her is a harsh insult and walk out of my room. “Yeah, my mom has a bit of a stick up her butt sometimes. Come on, let’s go before she decides to send a search party.” Diage chuckles at that, and together we head down the hall, her flying as she usually does, me trotting along the ground just in front of her. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As I walk into the meeting room, I hear an annoyed voice come from somewhere above me. “You’re late.” I sigh. “Yeah Mom, love you too. So, what crazy scheme are we ‘discussing’ today? Stealing love from earthworms? Moving to the Everfree? I’m surprised we’re not invading the moon by now.” I fly up to my throne, which looks suspiciously like chitin, though I know it's not, and plop down on it, already bored. I hear a few quiet chitters, probably at my behavior, but they're soon quited by one of Mother's glares. “Very funny. I actually have a perfectly good plan, if you’ll just be patient enough to wait for me to say it.” She huffs a little and mumbles something that sounds like “Teenagers these days.” Which makes me laugh a little. She’s exasperated with me? Considering she’s barely even looked at me since I was 6 years old, I find that hard to understand. If anything, I should be tired of her, what with her constant bossiness and idiotic insistence on tradition. Either way, she’s still my mother, and I have to at least respect her a little bit. So I refrain from snapping a retort at the teenager comment and instead say that I’m ready to start the meeting. Mother does the same, and then for the next hour it’s nothing but boring discussions on civic issues that could be easily solved with some sort of innovation or new system, but instead become complicated messes because Mother insists on doing everything the old way- which, might I add, is what probably caused the problems in the first place. I mean, really, the issue of lack of space has been brought up in a least 3 meetings now, and instead of trying to reorganize the common quarters, or giving less space to the 'lings who aren't here all the time, or suggesting anything useful, she simply says they'll have to deal with it until we can spare some energy to the worker drones and expand. And when I tried to point out some ways of fixing the problem, I just got a lecture on how we need to respect the 'ways of our ancestors.' Yeah, because our ancestors will totally think improving lives is a bad thing. At last we get to the big issue, the ‘perfectly good plan’ Mother mentioned at the beginning of the meeting. She smiles in a way that was probably supposed to be confident and hopeful but comes out a conceited smirk, and begin her speech. And I do mean speech. “My loyal subjects, today I am unveiling an… objective, of sorts, that I have a detailed plan to achieve. This will be a conquest, counselors, one that will push our race out of the shadows and into the spotlight, one that will give us all the food we will ever need, one that will make the changelings one of the most powerful races on this side of Gaia!” Twenty-eight minutes (I kept track) of this propaganda later and I’m just about falling asleep in my throne. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a very motivational speech, it’s just… TWENTY-EIGHT minutes!? I can’t listen to an idea build-up for twenty-eight minutes! You understand that, right? Because Mother sure doesn’t. “What is this amazing proposition I’m suggesting, you might ask?” Finally! “Well, wonder no longer. We, my subjects, are going to take over EQUESTRIA!” ... …Excuse me, what? Did she just say what I think she just said? Equestria? The nation whose monarchs CONTROL CELESTIAL BODIES? Is my mother crazy? I’m shocked, but also increasingly indignant. She had no right to put something like this into motion without asking anyone else! She should have at least told me she was planning this. And even though she is asking the council for permission, by the time Mother gets this far with a plan, she’s going through with it no matter what, to say nothing of the council’s very large tendency to agree with her. But this plan is going to almost certainly get us all killed. So I stand up, and, before she can say anything else, tell her so. “Are you serious? Are you SILKING SERIOUS? You’re talking about Equestria here. You know, the super powerful nation with a defense system that RAINBOWS YOU TO DEATH?! How about the alicorn rulers who raise the sun and moon? The SILKING SUN AND MOON! You’re telling me we’re just going to waltz in there with barely 4,000 'lings and just take the place? Our army is only a quarter that much! What, we’re going to magically slip past all of the guards, knock out the two alicorns on duty, miraculously disable the ELEMENTS OF HARMONY and then expect the whole population to just be okay with the whole thing? Or are we just going to kill everybody afterwards to keep them from rebelling and waste our entire food source? Sorry, Chrysalis, I don’t care what kind of crazy scheme you have, that is NOT HAPPENING.” I pause from my angry tirade and catch my breath, casting half-angry, half-incredulous looks at the council, who seem to shocked to speak. My eyes settle on Chrysalis- there is no way I’m calling her Mother right now- who looks like she just saw a kitten tell off a manticore. I hide an amused smirk at her reaction, and, without a backwards glance, hop down to the floor and walk out of the room, still fuming. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An hour or two later, Diage knocks on my door, looking disappointed in a kindly mentor sort of way. I smile weakly, knowing that I’m in for a lecture but still happy that at least it’s being given by the one changeling who actually understands me. I let her inside, and she sits down. She looks like she’s about to say something, but I beat her to it. “How ya doing? Look, I’m sorry for getting angry at Mother today. I know you’re probably mad that I-“ She cuts me off. “I’m not mad at you, Ceremi, just disappointed. You shouldn’t be that quick to anger, especially since most of that anger is from a grudge.” “What?! I don’t have a grudge. That plan was insane, and you know it! I only got mad because she suggested it!” I close my eyes and sigh, talking more gently this time. “Look, I’ll try not to get that angry in the future, but I think this time I was justified.” “Maybe, but maybe not. Do you remember last week when you showed Chrysalis your new idea?” I do. Shifting my hooves around, I sigh and let the memory come bubbling to the surface. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I buzz into the throne room, beside myself with excitement. Behind my back, clutched in my hooves, is a notebook overflowing with ideas and invention schematics. Mother looks up from the scroll she’s reading- knowing her it’s a business something-or-other- and scowls like I’ve just interrupted the most important moment of her life. I don’t really care, though; I’m too excited! “Guess what I just discovered?” I ask in a sing-song voice. Before Mother can respond, I answer my own question. “A way to shift into someone you don’t know!” “And?” Mother raises an eyebrow in a ‘so-what?’ look? I figure she doesn’t understand what I mean and try to clarify. “You know; a way to change into a form or person that you’ve never seen before. Normally we can’t do that.” “I know what you mean. I’m just not sure why you think it's so amazing.” That throws me for a loop. Not sure why I 'think it's amazing?' This could completely eliminate the need to take captives or have to try to act like someone else to get love. I mean, sure it would take a while for our infiltrators to build new relationships using their personas, but we could always just keep with our current system until that happens. I try to explain this, but Mother just cuts me off. “I don’t really have time for this, Ceremi.” She looks back down at her scroll and makes a dismissive motion with her hoof. “Go show your little idea to Diage or something. I’ve got important things to do.” ‘But this is important!’ I nearly scream. My excitement fades, replaced by disappointment and a little bitterness. What did I expect? I’ve come to her with ideas like this before, and every time she waves me off. Ans as if that's not enough, she then turns around and makes 'renovations' that only change a small detail or two, like she's afraid to take one step away from our traditions. Suddenly a wave of anger wells up in me. Why should she get to wave me off like that? I’m the princess, not a bug stuck to her hoof. I should at least get a fair chance to explain why I’m excited. I drop to the ground and stomp my hoof in frustration, my notebook flung onto the ground by my magic (not enough to hurt the papers inside, mind you. I’m not that angry). And then I really do scream. “Is it really that hard for you to just take me seriously for half a second?! This is important! Do you even know how much good this could do? Do you even really know what I just said, or are you too caught up in your- what is this” I grab the paper out of her magic,”-monthly reports to even pay attention? I’m tired of having every single idea I have shot down or dismissed. You know what, I’m not even going to show you my ideas anymore! See if I care when the hive breaks down because we can’t live with all these traditions anymore and you wish you had listened to me. See if I care when you fail!” Twirling around with tears in my eyes, I shoot out of the room, dragging my folder behind me. I don’t stop for or even try to dodge the changelings in my way. My emotions are a jumbled mess and I keep wondering why she doesn’t just listen for a minute, why she doesn’t even care. She’s my mother; she should care! She should care… ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I suddenly feel ashamed of my childish behavior that day- it was only what always happened, why get upset over something you expected- but I also see where Diage is coming from. I sigh, fidgeting my hooves a little bit. “So… you think I’m still mad over Mom blowing me off?” Diage nods. “Well what do I do? I mean, I already stormed off. Do I go back and apologize, or just forget it, or what?” I don’t really feel like I have a reason apologize, but if it would make things right, I suppose I could. Diage must have noticed that thought somehow, because she smiles sadly and speaks. “Just do whatever you feel would help you cool off without making the problem worse. You shouldn’t apologize unless it’s sincere, and you bottling things up doesn’t help any, but if you think one of those is the best option, do it.” I feel a little bit better, though I don’t know why; all she said was to make the decision myself. But I guess right now just having someling believe that I can actually do things right is a big help in itself. And it is kind of nice to know why I’m so upset over Mother’s usual stupidity. Either way, though, I don’t think I’ll ever quite understand Diage. One minute she’s a bundle of nerves and trying not to say something wrong, and the next she shows up at my door and starts giving me advice. I guess she’s just more bold when she’s helping someling; I need to figure things out, and so she puts her nervousness aside to make sure I do that. Somehow the thought comforts me. I blink, realizing I’ve been staring at my caretaker for about a minute now. Embarrassed, I tell her that I might need some time alone, and she nods and flies away. My eyes rove to my bed. A nap does sound good after the day I’ve had so far, and I was woken up earlier than I liked this morning. Besides, it’s not even noon yet. Normally I’d still be sleeping right now (I’m not a morning changeling, okay?). Picking myself up off the seat, I plod over to my ever-welcoming bed and plop down, not bothering with blankets. Just a little nap. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The young princess stirred in bed, mumbling something to herself about "missed two meals already." With a huge yawn, she flips over and grabs her pillow, eyes opening sleepily. With another yawn, her eyes settle back close and she drifts off to sleep, completely unaware of the startled changeling hovering above her, trying desperately not to drop the overstuffed folder in his mouth...