“What are you doing to them!?” Twilight demanded furiously as she struggled to get free, all while Chrysalis chuckled darkly.

“I am giving them what they ultimately want and need; the ultimate template. I've been keeping an eye on Equestria for nearly a millennia, working to better my forsaken kind's lot in life. Every attempt using your own teachings of Friendship, failed horribly. Through time, we tried again and again to befriend you, only for when we bare ourselves before you, we are rejected!” Chrysalis shouted as she glared hatefully at Twilight.

“So you decided to go to war? What will that solve?!” Twilight asked as she calmed down, and decided to see if she could eventually burn through the resin on her back.

“Oh no, not war exactly. Hopefully this violent gambit will be the worst of it. I can hear them, dying out there. The ones I sent at your precious capital above may be near-mindless drones, but they are all my children in a way.” Chrysalis turned and walked up to the cocooned twins, and caringly caressed the wriggling shell. “They, however, are the key. They can change others, entirely if they wanted. We can only change ourselves, and those we specifically single out with our venom and magic, which is a long and drawn-out process as you can see.”

“So you've been doing this to them through Kamina the past month, haven't you? We noticed she was acting strangely.” Twilight commented as she grimaced, the resin was oddly fire-resistant, she was going to have to turn up the heat.

“Indeed. You see, we couldn't just let them have our sample. They would've just gained the ability to change shape easily and quickly with far less agony. No, in order for my plan to work, they need to go through the whole process properly. So I can transfer my hive connection to them.” Chrysalis's words stunned Twilight.

“You...weren't joking? You're making them the rulers of your kind?” Twilight asked baffled, while the queen sighed.

“Yes. It is what is best. I do this for my ponies, not myself. If you will listen, then I will share the whole sad story with you.” Chrysalis offered as she turned to face the scholar, and smirked playfully. “Besides, you're not getting anywhere with your fire are you?”

“...Damn...that obvious?” Twilight asked, making the queen laugh earnestly.

“Poor dear, I can feel the heat radiating from you all the way over here. Let's be civil now that we have the chance. Have you gotten past the instinctive fear my presence causes?” Chrysalis asked, and Twilight blinked.

“Oh, didn't notice that. Yes.” 'I see, so her kind instills an intense negative reaction from ponies. I didn't realize it until now since I was more upset than scared.'

“Then I shall let you down. Not free mind you, but off that wall and not in such a...compromising position.” The queen licked her lips as she wiggled her eyebrows, getting Twilight's metal cheeks to turn red.

'Is she somehow channeling them through her?'

===//////>

“There's so gosh-darned many!” Applejack shouted in frustration as she bucked another dogpile of changelings off of her. These ones were meek, and small compared to the big ones outside assaulting the city. In fact, they were the size and general shape of normal ponies, save their bug-like appearances, and their fighting ability was about as predicted for more-experienced ponies rather than savage monsters.

In fact, they mostly seemed to cower away unless they all attacked in groups, like ponies with no actual training, or scared civilians.

This was the observation made by the new additions to the group. “Do not permanently harm them! These are civilians!” Lagann shouted as he knocked out another changeling.

“They are not used to fighting, these invaders are likely akin to medics or contracted workers!” Gurren flung several of the buggy opponents off of her with a flare of her wings, and promptly tapped as many on the head to conk them out as she could before the others got back up. She and Lagann didn't have magic, so they were only able to perform more mundane methods without their pilots.

“But then what are they guarding so fiercely?” Spike asked as he dodged another duo of changelings trying to grab his horns, and then took a deep breath, and blasted the changelings in front of him with his delivery fire, sending those swathed in it off to some cells in the dungeon above. They'd been fighting a downhill battle against these carapace covered ponies since they found the giant hole blasted through one of the storage cellars into the crystal caverns.

“Clearly something...important...” Blitz blinked upon realizing what when he saw through a small hole, barely big enough for a pony; a large cavern which had the walls utterly covered in green viscous resin. Hanging from the walls in this resin, were possibly hundreds of cocoons, all containing more changelings. “A nursery....”

“This is bad.” Rarity commented as she poked her head into the hole that Blitz found. “If they all hatched....”

“We'd be overrun even more than we are now.” Spike groused, before he decided a serious decision needed to be made. “I don't want to do this...but we have to destroy them.”

“No!” Fluttershy fiercely protested and flew over the hole, blocking it with her body. “I won't let you! No matter what they're doing, I won't let you kill unborn creatures!” Fluttershy's soul-piercing gaze was leveled at the prince, who cowered away.

“Listen to her!” They all looked around Fluttershy, who also turned around to look into the hole to see a single changeling mare hugging a cocoon that was next to the largest one in the center of the floor of the cocoon cavern. “These aren't what you think! You'd be killing your own ponies!”

This gave them all incredible confusion, and concern. “What do ya mean?” AJ demanded, as she knew the changeling was telling the truth.

“...They used to be ponies. But being cocooned for so long has made them into more changelings. They're still themselves, just...different now.” She said sadly and nuzzled the cocoon she was hugging protectively. “Blue...he said he loved me. I hated deceiving him, because eventually I started returning his feelings. Now...now he'll only hate me.”

“What could be so dire, so serious, that you would go so far? Why would you go to war with us? Why would you do all of this?” Spike demanded as he and the two golems widened the hole with raw strength, and entered with the others to look over the room fully.

“...Let me tell you a story. My name is Amethyst Shimmer, and I used to be a unicorn...seven hundred years ago....”

===//////>

“...Odd.” Luna could only say, when she found a great many of her own soldiers all locked in the central bathhouse of Stallion's Landing, which was obscenely clean. Luna scanned the magic-infused resin barrier keeping her warriors locked up. “So you're saying the wights only struck you down, and dragged you down here?”

“Yes, it was incredibly confusing. I thought once that rotting griffin got me I was a goner, only for it to swoop down and drop me into a waiting group of pony zombies, who then put me in here with everypony else they captured.” The soldier speaking with Luna informed, as apparently none of her party had died, and were all safely contained here.

“Then that means these corpses were risen with purely defensive purpose...passive measures....” Luna mused as she examined the wall of green glossy matter. “Enchanted to let things in, but not out. A simple field prison then. Stand back.” The soldier did so, and Luna summoned her scythe, which easily sliced through the wall like paper, cutting it into chunks to allow her stallions to go free. “Regroup! We must still find the passage under the city and attack the actual main force!”

“Yes Your Highness!” They all charged out of their former prison, clean as whistles since they took the chance to clean the stench and bits of death off of themselves.

'This is perplexing. Just what are these terrorists doing?'

===//////>

Sunfire didn't even flinch as she crushed the screeching head of a large, malformed changeling underhoof. “Is that all?” She demanded of the nearest Solar Guard, who nervously nodded in response. “Good.”

She'd been spearheading the defense for hours now, hunting down these abominations. She didn't know what they were, but they were clearly deformed and unnatural, as some had missing limbs, eyes, or even had no face at all. They had the intelligence of rabid animals, and seemed about as self-preserving as suicide bombers. “Calm yet Sunfire?”

“What do you think?” She demanded searingly of her lover, the white kirin had been focused the whole time in protecting her subjects while she dealt out the due punishment for any who dared threaten them.

“I think the spitfire needs to calm down before things get out of hoof. You're scaring the ponies who look to you for protection.” Scoddri admonished his mare, who took a deep sigh and forced herself to calm down, returning to her normal, matronly appearance.

“I'm sorry. I simply cannot withstand My Little Ponies being endangered like this.” Celestia looked down at the crushed monster before her, and sighed sadly. “I didn't even know if it was intelligent or not before I killed it.”

“Trust me; they're not. They have about as much sentience as ants.” Scoddri informed her as he held a twisted changeling head in his magic. “These are drones. Throwaways. Cannon fodder. They were just meant to keep us occupied.” Scoddri huffed a little fire before he tossed the head into a nearby trash bin.

“So these terrorists are up to something specifically involving my children. We must return to the castle post-haste.” They were about to do so, when a powerful ground-cracking earthquake struck the regal city of Canterlot for the first time in it's existence, ripping fissures in the streets, and making the buildings rattle against each other like dominoes struggling not to fall. Ponies both civilian and military screamed in terror as they began panicking even more than they had been, and all stampeded along the emergency evacuation routes. “No...!”

===//////>

“Yes! It is nearing completion!” Chrysalis cheered as the cocoon encasing the royal twins turned an eerie opaque black as the sheer energy being given off of it began to cause the very mountain they were all on to shudder.

“Chrysalis, stop this!” Twilight cried out from her bound position on the floor. Chrysalis had told her everything about why they were doing this, she could forgive them, but only if she didn't carry her plans out to the end. “Mount Shire will topple at this rate!”

“Mount Shire may be hollow, but it has stood since before recorded time. It will continue to stand now, even in the face of their immense power! Now is the time! Our saviors! The Hive awaits you!” Chrysalis stabbed her horn into the cocoon, and screamed as it seemed to suck power out of her, rapidly causing her to shrink down as tears of agony spilled forth. “Take...it all!”

“Chrys!” Twilight cried as she tried to struggle, but could only watch as the former queen finished shrinking to the size of a normal pony/changeling, and limply fell to the ground. She looked like any other changeling now, only with her mane, tail, and eyes being more prominent. “Chrysalis, are you alive?”

“Yes...all I did was pass the combined Will of my ponies to them. It is what makes the leader of the Hive the leader.” Chrysalis's further words were halted as a loud crashing noise shook the mountain, and the cocoon cracked open. “They're hatching.”

“Twilight!” Their attention was turned to the only passage leading between this particular cavern in the depths of the cave system to see the rest of the Knights, as well as the golems being led by a familiar changeling mare.

“Amethyst? What is going on?” Chrysalis asked her former subject in confusion, only to wince as the younger changeling helped her up.

“I can't take it anymore. I know we want to be free of this endless hunger, but what good will all our resentment and hatred do for them?” Amethyst asked as she gestured to the cracking cocoon, and Chrysalis's eyes widened in sudden realization and fear.

“I just finished giving them the suffering and angst of hundreds....” The cocoon exploded violently, knocking the two changeling mares across the chamber to smash bonelessly into the nearby walls, leaving green bloody streaks as they limply slid down the smooth crystal.

“No!” Fluttershy screamed as she quickly fluttered over to the possibly fatally wounded mares, and began using her armor's spell matrix to heal them. “Please be okay, please be okay, please be okay-.”

“Ah~...so lovely to be out of that stuffy entrapment.” Nearly everyone aside from Fluttershy, who was too focused on saving lives, froze in instinctive fear in spite of the source; as while their duet was harmonious, the reverberating echo that made it sound like even more were speaking just shook them. “And all our beloveds have come to see us, how touching.” The steam of the disintegrating shell and magic cleared up, to reveal a glorious and terrifying beast. “Oh, come now, is that any way to look at your gods?”

They had been changed so much, it was hard to see this...thing, as their loved Kamina and Animak.

They had been fused together in an odd fashion with their body being the same black hematite chitin of changelings, but their dominant traits remained with a few additions. They were ultimately now six times the size of an average pony, rather than their separate three times. They towered over Celestia before, now they eclipsed her entirely at a shocking 16 feet in height, making the two headed giant look down at them completely.

Their heads and necks were now shared on a body, the left one was more slender and feminine, whilst the other was slightly bulkier and masculine. Their plumage was now translucent and still their respective reds and blues, their eyes mostly remained their original draconic styles, but their fangs were now more pronounced.

Their torso, despite being carapace, still resembled a tiger's, and the stripes were now a luminescent familiar green. The forelegs were mostly the same, save them being chitinous, same with the hind legs. Their wings were drastically changed, as the feathers seemed to be made of the same membrane as bug wings save for the chitin where the bones normally would've been, and the veins in them glowed the same as their stripes. Finally, their tail had been replaced by a long and menacing serpentine anaconda tail that was made of a more flexible chitin, and ended in a familiar stinger that belonged on a manticore.

“Glorious, are we not?” Kaminak asked with all four of their eyes half-lidded, and a familiar purr echoing from their throats. “Come now, are we not-?” They quickly spun around, lifted their tail, and spanked their right flank with a sharp crack, while both looking at them with turned heads. “Sexy?” Their lifted tail exposed a surprisingly mammalian vagina with bright green flesh, that also had an armored penal sheath above it between their thighs, meaning they were officially dual-gendered.

Despite how disturbing the change was, none of the group in the chamber could deny that they still got their jimmies rustled, especially Twilight who decided to speak up. “K-Kamina, or Animak-.”

“Kaminak.” They corrected as they turned back around to face them properly. “While we're fused, we're Kaminak. Makes things easier.” They then looked towards their armor, and blinked. “Who's wearing our armor?”

“Pilots Animak and Kamina, it is good to see you are well, even if your current format is incompatible with our cockpits.” The golems responded in a disturbingly familiar duality.

“There's a lot goin' on right now. All revolving around you two and saving the changelings from their starvation.” AJ intoned in a way that said it would all be explained later. “What's important right now is that you call this all off, and get to fixing these poor critters.”

“Why?” They asked in confusion, getting baffled expressions in response. “They attacked us, hurt us, and did THIS to us! We may in the end be grateful, but they caused us so much pain! Why should we help them?”

“Because you're good ponies!” Twilight shouted as Spike and Mac helped break the resin holding her on the floor and moved on to the likely comatose Trixie, and Twilight stood up to come to the front of the group. “You wouldn't really leave them like this would you? They're crystal ponies like Game! Only they didn't get “banished” like him, and were cut off abruptly from the Crystal Heart! It made them undead, starving, desperate for what they'd always had but suddenly lost, and became the twisted ponies you see now!” Twilight explained as she gestured to the unconscious, but healthy Amethyst and Chrysalis as Fluttershy fidgeted about them, wrapping them in bandages needlessly like a mother hen. “Not to mention poor ponies like Amethyst got turned into changelings too either from being drained too much, or being held in stasis for too long. They're all victims in this.”

“So?” Kaminak demanded coldly, shocking them all with how unlike them such disregard for others was. “We don't care. In fact...we don't really care much for anything right now.” They chuckled darkly as their horns, now twisted and jagged like Chrysalis's but with a spiral still, lit green with their altered magic as their stripes began to glow even more. “In fact...we're hungry...for far more than your bodies.”

“W-what're you saying?” Spike asked in worry as he got in front of the others and spread his wings protectively.

“You know what we want! GIVE US YOUR LOVE! ALL OF IT!” Kaminak's wings flared as they began glowing brighter, causing them all to gasp in pain as various streams of light came from them and began flowing into Kaminak's energy-siphoning wings.

“N-no....” Twilight groaned as she felt weaker, about to defuse from her armor when Gurren and Lagann launched forth, and struck both of Kaminak's heads with a punch each, disrupting their magic drain.

“You would attack your creators?” They demanded, only to get another punch each in reply, launching them against the far wall, cracking the crystals.

“You created us to protect what was important! And right now, you're hurting what we were made to protect!” Gurren and Lagann stated with shocking emotion coming from them. “We are the drills that allowed you to pierce the heavens to do what was right! Now, we'll do the same even if it's to you! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK WE ARE?!” They demanded as they fused together into the smallest version of Gurren Lagann, sneering at their pilots in anger.

“A couple of tin cans that need to relearn their place!” Kaminak answered before roaring, and the two beings leaped at each other.

Author's Notes:

Sorry if this feels like an awkward read, I can't seem to get this chapter to feel right, but I know better than to keep going over it too much or I'd never get it out, I know me, and when I don't settle for something, it never works out.

I've been planning on this for a long time, so I'm frustrated it was so hard to get this out. I'm also sorry for going back on the plain and boring music-less format, but I just felt like it was overdone, and too much. I'll occasionally do something with music, but I won't shove soundtracks into your faces/ears/sound-perception holes.

Anyhow; Say Hello to Kaminak! The Changeling Hivemind!