Espirit gently rocked back and forth in her cloud chair as she watched Steelhorn and Chitin getting comfortable in their own. In the other room she could hear the ponies still enjoying the party, though it was dimmed by the clouds.

“Now then,” Chitin said with a gentle smile. “Where would you like me to start?”

“From the beginning, if you please,” Steelhorn said with her own smile. “My queen would like to know what led to this decision. She's invited many of the queens to join her, but none have taken her up on her offer. She was quite surprised to find out that one had joined Cloudsdale without consulting with her.”

“I apologize for any insult she may have taken from it, but in the end my hive is not beholden to her and Cloudsdale is not beholden to Canterlot. My tribe has been neutral to this city for years, but the... pride of my forebears has kept them from taking the refuge offered by the city. I did not allow mine to act as such.”

Steelhorn gulped, her wings buzzing just a little. “So... is it true? The rumors?”

The queen took a deep breath before nodding. “Indeed. My tribe is, and I as the queen are, direct descendants of Chrysalis. I am in fact named after one of her daughter's and the one who took her place as queen when she disappeared.”

“WHAT?!” Espirit shrieked, her eyes going wide. “B-but, I thought she, she's an actual descendant?”

Steelhorn opened her mouth to speak, but was silenced by Chitin. “There is no need to get upset by her. Yes, I am. Our tribe was said to once be one of the most powerful, but it has been far weaker in the last centuries. Many of our previous queens saw themselves as too important to associate themselves with other ponies, but thankfully they maintained their neutrality as a non-hostile tribe. When my mother died and I took the throne, I received the same offer as all the previous rulers had. However, rather than instantly turning it aside, I pondered on it for many months before accepting. My tribe needs a home and I cannot deny there is much to be gained from working along side ponies, as opposed to an unwelcoming neutrality. My tribe has thrived since then and nearly doubled in size, though we are still nowhere near the size of Canterlot's tribe.”

“I see. Well, my queen wishes too--”

“Let's not waste any time,” Chitin said flatly as she looked down at the mare. “I understand your desire to be subtle, but we both know what your queen wants. I will be her ally, I have no problem with that. But my tribe will not submit to her rule or her protection. We have gained our place in this city through our own merits and we will not ask, nor accept the help of, anypony who would put us in their debt. If your queen wishes to have peaceful and friendly relations with my tribe, then I will be more than happy to accept them. But they will be as equals, NOT as servant and ruler. Do you understand?”

Steelhorn nodded. “A-ah of course. My queen never thought--”

“Don't play me for a fool, I know exactly what your queen thought and why she sent you in her place. Do you have the power to negotiate trade deals, or would she prefer we go through the standard channels?”

“S-standard would be fine. Your tribe, it--”

“My tribe is strong and well. If you wish, you may come to see the hive. I cannot show you everything, but I can show you some. Would you like that?”

Steelhorn nodded. “Of course.”

Espirit coughed. “Did... did I miss something?”

“It is politics, dear child,” Chitin said with a smile. “The reason I chose to become a member of Cloudsdale rather than a member of Crystalopolis. As in all things, there are times when heads must strike against one another.”

Steelhorn nodded. “Of course. I will tell the queen what you said. She... truly would like to be allies with you. You're the only other queen who has officially joined, after all. She hopes that one day all the tribes will join with ponies again.”

“Perhaps, but not under her rule. The days of one unified queen to rule all the hives are long, long gone. She will have to be sure to share power. Now, is there anything else you'd like to discuss?”

“No.”

“Then I think it best to return to the party. Thank you for speaking with me,” the queen said before getting to her hooves and trotting out.

“Didn't... you ask her to speak?” Espirit asked softly.

“Yes,” the gladiator said before giving a small sigh. “That... could have gone better.”

“She was really rude,” the zebra grumbled. “Accusing you of all that.”

“Oh, no, she was pretty much right on the head. My queen wanted her to more or less be subservient. She's not going to be happy that this queen has decided to be completely independent.”

“W-what? Why would she want that?”

“Because it would bring her more power and prestige and she could use it to wrestle more rights and privileges with the other countries. The hives don't work quite like ponies do, after all. They have to have a queen and the whole hive needs to work together, with only a few independents. The more power she has, the more tribes she can, theoretically, bring under her control and hopefully remove some of the more dangerous ones.”

“Like the ones who want to bring Chrysalis forth to destroy all the non-changelings?”

“Yes. Exactly like that. It's... not easy. Politics. I don't imagine this Chitin is going to be very well liked by my queen.”

“Why?”

“She was... extremely blunt. There's usually far more double talk and... she was just direct. Most changelings aren't like that when discussing with other changelings.” She took a slow, deep breath. “She thinks and acts like a pony.”

Espirit snorted.

“Fine, some ponies. Direct and blunt. That could prove difficult to deal with in multiple ways and cause a lot of tensions we don't want. The queen will want to watch her closely.”

“Why? If she's not under her rule, then nothing she does can really affect her, right?”

“If only it worked that way,” Steelhorn said with a sigh before motioning towards the door. “Come on, let's go. The party awaits us.”

“Are... you going to get in trouble? With your queen?”

“No. Well, she will be disappointed with me, but she will understand. She asked that I merely try, there was no way she would expect me to go up fully against a queen.”

“How many queens are there?”

“A few dozen, I believe. It's hard to say for certain, however,” Steelhorn said before stepping out into the party. Almost instantly the sound seemed to crash against them. “Listen, I'm going to go find Ganry and enjoy the evening. Try to have fun, okay?”

“I will!” the zebra said quickly before watching her go. Once the mare was gone she let out a sigh of annoyance, before shaking her head and going back out into the crowd. She couldn't help feeling ill at ease, though. These parties were starting to feel less and less like fun and more like tests from back home.

------

Espirit let out a shriek of delight as she stared at it. It was beautiful. Magnificent. It made her heart beat so fast that it almost made her fall over. She couldn't even breath, all she could do was stare.

A rainbow making machine. Gallons of rainbows were swirled and mixed into the machine, before slowly being sputtered out into little cloud packages where they could be spread out over the world.

“Now, we don't do nearly as much as we used to,” their guide, a pegasus, said. “It used to be that all the weather over Equestria was set up by us. However, over time we lost more and more weather ponies and we had to let it work on its own. Turns out, aside from a few issue areas, there isn't a huge need for it. There are emergency pegasi all over the three Kingdoms to help catch any problems when they arise, but for the most part we just do things like this. Spread rain in areas where there's a bit of a drought, bring some color to the front lines. Brought snow to a beach party once.”

“What about near the border, where it's so snowy? Err, near the centaur lands? Why doesn't anypony go there and try to take care of them? It's so cold that those poor ponies are suffering,” Espirit asked, unable to take her eyes off the swirling, vibrant colors. “Also, can I lick it?”

The stallion sighed before giving a nod. She squealed and got some on her hoof before licking it. Her eyes went wide and she gasped, stumbling back. “I-it's... it's like... like licking the colors themselves! So... so sweet and... it tastes like aether, too!”

The stallion stared before shrugging. “Most ponies think it's a bit spicy, you have an interesting tongue. Now, about that border. Unfortunately, it doesn't work very well in zones like that. There's so much magic being drained and used there that anything we do will only make matters worse. The weather is changing faster than we could ever hope to change it.”

Espirit nodded. “Oh. It's all the corrupted aether, isn't it? The way it's all about to just... snap?”

“Something like that, yes. The weather doesn't like it. Sometimes it just lashes out and starts attacking the pegasi trying to control it.”

“They get hit with lightning?” Espirit asked, her eyes going wide.

“No! Well, sometimes. But I mean literally get attacked. The clouds actually punch and kick and... it's quite the sight, to be honest.”

Espirit envisioned it for a moment. Despite her attempts, she couldn't help letting out a little snort. “S-sorry! C-could I see the snowflakes next?”

The stallion glared at her for a moment, before sighing and giving a nod. He led her down the halls of the factory and to a large room where two pegasi and a negasi were working, chipping away at small pieces of ice to make the snowflakes. Stacks of the flakes were bundled up near the back and room was extremely cold.

“C-can I see them?”

“Yes, but don't get too close,” he said before motioning closer. She stepped forward and watched the ponies work, gasping.

“They make them all by hoof?”

“I hear they did a long, long time ago. But now they make unique ones and those are bundled up and duplicated by magic. Making an entire snow storm from scratch just isn't an option these days.”

“Oh, that's... I guess that makes sense,” Espirit said before glancing to her guide. “How many ponies work in this field now?”

“Probably across all three kingdoms, less than a hundred,” the stallion said before trotting back out of the room. “Come along.”

“So few? That's so disappointing. But I guess it makes sense,” Espirit mumbled as she trotted after him. She couldn't remember the last time they'd ever had any real troubles with the weather in Canterlot, keeping the aether still and calm had always worked so well. As she trotted through the halls behind the stallion she found her eyes slowly drawn down to his flank. After a moment she shook her head and quickly looked away. “So you don't do much with the heat, then?”

“No. We clear the clouds sometimes, but we have no real control over the sun. It's far outside our abilities.”

Espirit nodded. “Well, it uhhh, it was a real thrill seeing all this. I should really get going,” she said quickly as they neared the exit. “Thank you for the tour!”

The stallion nodded and waved a wing at her. “It was a pleasure, Lady Espirit. Thank you for all the aid you have given ponies like me.”

She nodded and kept trotting. As she came out the door and made it back onto the Cloudsdale streets she gave a light shudder and shook her head. What was happening to her?