Cover art once again created by Jesuka on Deviantart
Change: Queen of the Hive is a My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanfiction by tom117z. You can read it at Fimfiction.net
. It is a sequel to Change.
There are many changeling hives spread throughout a large portion of the world. Wherever love energy is going to be found the changelings will pursue it. But now, one by one, they are disappearing. Many hives located at the very outer edges of changeling inhabited lands are vanishing without a trace, Twilight Sparkle's family history has returned to haunt them all as something is hunting the changelings down. But how? And for what purpose? And more importantly, what does this mean for Queen Twilight Sparkle and the rest of the changeling race?
This story began November 6th 2016, and was completed January 21, 2018.
This Fan Fic contains examples of:
- Alternate Universe: Twilight is a fully grown Changeling Queen, not an alicorn like she would have been considering it takes place eight years after where the show is currently at.
- The Golden Oaks Library is still up, implying that the encounter with Tirek went differently. It still gets destroyed in a Kick the Dog moment later on but is rebuilt courtesy of Discord.
- A throwaway line mentions Starlight Glimmer and Our Town being found but hiding from the changeling invasion, with the lack of the Cutie Map in canon leaving them unknown until now.
- Artifact Domination: The regalia of the Changeling Empress nearly took control of Queen Crepuscule.
- It later does take the mind of Queen Draco.
- Batman Gambit: Celestia and Luna's plan to free Twilight during the final battle.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Twilight, now freed from being shackled within her mind, battles Immortalis to a standstill through her memories of various places and forms of people, ending the battle by reuniting with her friends through the hive mind and using the Elements of Harmony to defeat Immortalis for good.
- Bears Are Bad News: While Queen Twilight and her group are trying to escape from the group of brainwashed Changelings in the caves they stumble upon a sleeping Ursa Major. Their pursuers accidentally wake it up, and it is pissed.
- Big Damn Heroes: Queen Crepuscule stands against the Empress as the other queens flee, using the Elements of Harmony to seemingly defeat her.
- When Queen Draco commits Heroic Suicide in order to protect Twilight Sparkle, and she does so without hesitation.
- A great many moment during the final battle. Shining Armor, the captains, Spike and Facade hold off a swarm of changelings trying to enter Canterlot Castle. Then there is Luna and Celestia's Batman Gambit to free Twilight by sneaking the Element Bearers into the hive mind and 'hoping' the spell works as intended.
- Big Bad: Empress Immortalis.
- Big Good: Twilight Sparkle
- Somewhat subverted when she is brainwashed and becomes a Rogue Protagonist by the end of Act 1. Even still, she continues trying to resist from the inside up until she finally gains a real chance of fighting Immortalis head-on.
- Brainwashed: What the Empress does to any queen that dares step out of line, not that they have much free will to begin with within her hive mind.
- What the Empress does to Queen Draco via the regalia, and the Empress later does the same to every other Changeling Queen.
- Several EUP Soldiers are brainwashed by Queen Vulgaris and they are sent to compromise Fort Hurricane's defences before committing suicide.
- Christmas Episode: Chapter 9 is a little over nine years in the past when Queen Chrysalis was still alive. It shows Twilight spending a Hearthswarming Eve with her mother, the first one they spent together, and one of only two before the Queen's tragic death.
- Cliffhanger: Oh, there are plenty.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: An EUP squad from Fort Hurricane is slaughtered by a group of changelings they come across on patrol.
- In fact, all battles with Immortalis' changelings end this way, with a few offscreen exceptions.
- Curiosity Killed the Cast: Queen Draco explores the old abandoned ruin, ending up finding the Empress' regalia and losing her free will to it.
- The Dreaded: Empress Immortalis, all the Changeling Queens of her era cower at her mere presence.
- Dying as Yourself: Queen Draco manages to temporarily overcome Empress Immortalis' control over her, and kills herself to stop from hurting Twilight, apologizing before doing the deed.
- Emotion Eater: Changelings eat love.
- Fake Kill Scare: It appears Vladimir perishes during Chapter 15, only for him to turn up later injured but alive. Too bad a few lines later it is revealed that Scorpion has actually perished instead.
- Fighting from the Inside: Even while being controlled by the Empress and forced to enact her plans, Twilight continues to resist her from the deepest part of her mind and search for a way to beat her.
- Foreshadowing: “I thought so,” Cocoon stated, glancing around. “The drones feel nothing, but all the Changeling Queens do. I can’t help feel that something just isn’t right about all this.”
- Scarlet sighed in defeat. “Just be sure this is a promise you can keep.” “Hey, don’t worry,” Vladimir stated. “I for one fully plan to come back without a scratch on me, just watch.”
- From Bad to Worse: Queen Draco goes missing, many other hives also disappear shortly afterwards.
- Twilight Sparkle becomes a main antagonist near the end of act 1, being brainwashed by Empress Immortalis along with ALL the Changeling Queens.
- Heel–Face Turn: Celestia turned into Daybreaker and back again in the same chapter.
- Heroic BSoD: Immortalis repeatedly tries to inflict this upon Twilight so she could completely submit to her, and it nearly succeeds until Celestia manages to break through the brainwashing and give her hope through words of encouragement.
- Heroic Suicide: In chapter 19 when Queen Draco kills herself in order to save Twilight Sparkle, Draco having momenterily broken Empress immortalis' control over her.
- Hive Mind: The changelings have this, they are all linked to the royalty but other than them can only telepathically communicate with those of the same class of changeling or those they set up a specialised connection with. They need the hive to live long lives, else they wither and die. The Empress used this to subjugate the changelings too.
- Interrupted Suicide: A brainwashed EUP Private tries to slit his own throat after destorying Fort Hurricane's shield crystal, only to be tackled by his superior officer. He dies of previously attained wounds moments after however.
- It's Quiet… Too Quiet: When Twilight and the gang finally reach Queen Draco's hive all is eerily silent...
- Kick the Dog: And how. Immortalis brainwashing Twilight and forcing her to serve her every whim is one thing, but psychologically torturing her by forcing her to commit atrocities and destroying the Golden Oaks Library, all while forcing her to witness all these acts, is whole other level of cruelty. In fact, all changelings put under her control go through this, whether it is unwilling Queens or drones with entire families, Immortalis regards them all as tools to serve her every command regardless of the death and mental anguish it causes them.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Queen Draco releases the sealed away regalia which hold the Empress' remaining influence, coming under her control with other hives falling soon after in a From Bad to Worse moment.
- Not Quite Dead: Immortalis is seemingly disintegrated by the Elements of Harmony, and yet she may not be as dead as it first appeared...
- Again later one, when she is cooked alive by Daybreaker, and yet lives on within the hive mind itself. It takes Twilight and her friends using the Elements of Harmony to ensure that Immortalis is Deader than Dead.
- Perception Filter: Hides both the Equestrian Hive and the The Vault's entrance.
- Posthumous Character: Queen Chrysalis only appears in flashbacks, having died in the previous story.
- Rogue Protagonist: Twilight is brainwashed by Empress Immortalis near the end of Act 1 and becomes a main antagonist.
- Run or Die: Our heroes are faced with an entire swarm of VERY angry changelings, running away ensues.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: All of Empress Immortalis' influence of the world at the beginning of the story comes solely from her regalia.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: After being repeatedly forced to listen to spiels of her worldview being the "natural order" of things, once she is mentally freed, Twilight proceeds to throw back Immortalis' philosophy back at her face, berating her as nothing more than a power-hungry child trying to please her long-dead mother all while inheriting and maintaining an archaic and destructive view of the world when she could have turned out much better. Later on, after reuniting with her friends, Twilight, sympathetically, calls out how unnatural Immortalis' concept of natural order truly is. Immortalis does not take any of these well, even as she is about to be defeated.
- Superpowered Evil Side: Celestia temporarily becomes Daybreaker and actually manages to momentarily overpower Immortalis.
- Tone Shift: Chapter 15, the lighthearted tone of the previous two chapters are replaced with many minor character deaths, and the death of a major character.
- Villainous Breakdown: Immortalis repeatedly and calmly gloats how her method of running the changelings, as subservient semi-conscious tools through completely mind control, is the "natural order" of the world but slightly loses her cool whenever Twilight tries to taunt or defy her. Near the end, once Twilight is freed within her mind and is openly defying Immortalis, she is reduced to angrily raging at her for defying her worldview and, up until her defeat, ultimately becoming a defiant, screaming mess when Twilight is reunited with her friends.
- Wham Episode: Draco, Rise of the Empress, Diem Contere.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Chapter 9 takes place a little over nine years before the events of the story. The prologue also takes place four thousand years before the original story even began.
