I wake up to the feeling of two bodies pressing against me. I see Celestia to my right and Luna to my left, both with their heads buried into my neck and both hugging me tightly. I just sigh happily and pull them closer.

I lay there for about fifteen minutes, stroking their hair as they both slowly wake up. Luna hums in content while Celestia nuzzles me.

"Good morning. Hmmmmm, I've never slept so well before," Celestia says.

"We agree, this is very comfortable," Luna says.

They both snuggle closer and kiss each of my cheeks and I return their kisses. "What time is it?" I ask.

Celestia looks over to the clock. "Five forty-two... and as much as I would love to just lie here with you, we have a sun to raise and a moon to lower," she says.

Luna groans and just grips me tighter. "Do we have to?" Luna asks.

Celestia giggles. "Yes, lulu. Now come on, the sooner we get it done the sooner we can continue snuggling," she says walking over to her balcony. I lightly slap Luna on her ass and she 'Eeeps' from it and her wings shoot open with a light blush on her face.

"Go on, I'm not going anywhere," I tell her.

She smiles with half lidded eyes and runs her left hand over my chest. "Don't. Move," she says and quickly gets out of bed. She and Celestia do their thing and now the sun starts to shine over Equestria. Once done, they get back in bed and start cuddling up to me. I don't think I could be any happier than I am right now.

"I love you both so much," I tell them.

"We love you too," Celestia says and kisses me on the lips, followed by Luna.

We all just lay there with content smiles, enjoying each others company. After about ten minutes, a knock on the door gets our attention.

"Enter," Celestia says.

A maid with light grey fur and light blue hair walks in and bows without looking at us first. "Princess, breakfast is ready," she says and then looks at us. Her face instantly turns from her grey colour to a deep red. I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Thank you, Squeaky Clean. We shall be down shortly," Celestia replies.

"Don't want to," Luna mumbles into my neck and gently licks me, making me laugh as her tongue tickles me.

The maid then bows and leaves. "Well then, time to get up and get to work. You both have to prepare for your trip to the Badlands," Celestia says as she gets out of bed and into her closet.

Luna grumbles to herself, but also gets up. Luna teleports a set of clothes for herself and me as well as my stave. She also teleported the shield we found in their old Castle in the Everfree. It looks repaired and has the rosewood I asked for in it with the amethyst in the socket, perfectly cut to fit it. I also notice a diamond is in the middle of the shield on it's front with a metal frame protecting it.

"Wow. This is looking good," I say as I slide my arm through the strap and grip it. It feels light, like my armour and sword.

"We've placed new enchantments on it to be just like thy armour," Luna tells me.

"Thanks, but now I need to see if it will work as a foci," I reply. I point the shield at Luna and channel a single life element through it, my mana flows into the amethyst then into the diamond. I release the spell and a small beam shoots out of the diamond and hits Luna.

I cancel the spell and smile. "Looks like it works, it even feels slightly stronger too. I'll just have to get used to aiming with it," I say.

"Good, thou can always keep they stave on thy back as a back up," she tells me.

I notice a small silver ring on the middle of my stave. "What's this ring for?" I ask.

"Place thy stave on thy back and the ring will stick to thy armour until thou willingly pulls it off," she tells me.

I do as she says and place my stave on my back, I hear a light metallic tink sound and let go of my stave which stays on my back.

"Is it magnetised?" I ask.

"Yes, it's a simple enchantment, but it serves its purpose," Luna replies. She shows no shame as she drops her nightgown and old underwear and changes into clean clothes right in front of me. She then summons her armour and puts it on, so I do the same, much to her own enjoyment.

Celestia walks back into the room wearing her white dress with the gold highlights. "Are we all ready?" she asks.

I'm fully geared and ready to go. "Yeah, are we picking Shella up on the way or will she be at the Dining Hall?" I reply and ask.

"On the way. Shella's room is just down the hall," Celestia replies.

We all exit her room and head down the hall three doors down where Celestia knocks on the door. "Shella? Are you up?" she asks.

I hear the shuffling of cloth and the sounds of footsteps coming towards the door. The door opens with Shella smiling at us.

"Hi, Princess!" she says energetically. "Are we going now?" she asks. I'm surprised she's excited to go back at all.

"Yes, after we've had breakfast. You, Luna, and Adrian shall go with a crystal to bring back anypony who wants to live here," Celestia tells her.

"Yay! I can bring my friends here!" she says and starts jumping up and down. Her little wings fluttering slightly... wait a second... why is the fin on her head smaller... and is that blue hair growing on her head?... And her eyes are starting to show irises and pupils. Her horn is even starting to change shape... Her black carapace skin even has a slight dark blue tint to it now.

I lean over to Celestia with a frown. "Tia... is it just me or does Shella look different?" I ask her.

Celestia frowns at me then looks at Shella, her eyes then go wide open. "She... she's turning into a Queen," Celestia says in barely a whisper.

A Queen!? She's going to look like Chrysalis? "Is that a good or bad thing?" I ask. I watch as Shella goes through her drawers looking for a dress to wear.

"This is good, we can teach her how to be a kind and caring Queen, unlike Chrysalis. She's seen first hand what she's like, she can help future changelings as their new Queen," she tells me.

I look away as Shella starts to get changed right next to her dresser drawers. After a few minutes of Luna giggling at me, I hear footsteps running back over to us. I look to see the changeling girl wearing a blue dress that goes down to her shins, little butterflies all along the bottom of it.

"I'm ready!" she says with a smile.

I chuckle. I'm glad she's happy here. We walk down to the Dining Hall where we meet Blueblood and Fleur Lily, who are eating their own breakfast. Thraxx Is standing by the door where I see him looking at Shella with a stunned expression.

We all sit down and wait for our food. "Good morning, Blueblood, Fleur," I greet them.

"Good morning, sir Stormsword, Aunties," Blueblood replies. Celestia and Luna also greet him.

"Hi," Fleur just says. Shella sits next to her and they start chatting with each other.

"So, I hear you're heading back to the Badlands, but no details on why, are you going to eradicate the Hive?" Blueblood asks.

"Nay, nephew. We plan to bring any changelings who wish to live a better life as Equestrian citizens back with us," Luna replies.

"Live in Equestria? Does this have anything to do with those green crystals in the Magic Academy?" he asks.

"Thou hast heard of that? Or hast thou seen them?" Luna asks him.

"I've heard some guards talk about them, what will they be used for?" he asks.

"They can feed changelings without draining anypony for their love," Celestia replies.

Blueblood looks surprised. "You mean they're bigger versions of Thraxx's wand?" he asks.

"Sort of, they constantly release a mist that changelings will be able to feed from. We plan to show the changelings at the Badlands Hive that they don't have to live in isolation anymore," Celestia tells him.

"I see. Well... I hope it works, they would make excellent additions to Equestria," he says.

We finish breakfast and then head over to the Academy to collect a crystal.

We walk through and see Crystal Clear working on other types of crystals with the life element in them. "What are these ones for?" I ask.

She looks up and grins. "Hello, Princess, Adrian." She looks down and pats Shella on the head. "And you too cutie," she says making Shella giggle. "These are crystals for our guards. Healing wands, one time use crystal shards that act like those emeralds of yours, except these ones don't shatter and can be refilled and some wands for Hospitals," she tells me and gasps. "Oh! I just remembered. Can you fill a small crystal with another element?" she asks.

"Erm... I can try," I reply.

"Great! Wait right there," she says and runs off into a back room. A minute later she comes back with a crystal two times the size of my fist. "Here try putting another element in here," she tells me.

I take the crystal and try channelling a fire element into it. After about a minute it starts to glow red... but it quickly gets unstable, glowing brighter causing me to start panicking. I run over to the window and open it, I then throw the crystal into the middle of an empty Garden and duck down, a couple seconds later it blows and coats the area in flames.

I lean up look over the windowsill, the garden is totally ruined. I look back to Crystal and Luna to see them wide eyed. "I'm not doing that again!" I tell them.

Crystal just nodded slowly while Luna shakes her head and walks over to me. "We agree, that was much too dangerous. I believe that type of element's energy may be too strong or negative for a crystal to hold. Thy life element worked because we believe it is a mild, positive energy," she tells me.

"Makes sense, could they hold a shield element? Since it's a defensive type element, wouldn't it have a positive energy?" I ask.

"Mayhap, but we shall test it later in a controlled room," she replies. "For now we have to go and convince a Hive to join Equestria," she says and picks up a life crystal from the table.

"Alright... sorry about the Garden, but I didn't think you would want to have the crystal go off in here though," I tell Crystal.

"Oh no problem, we've tested the life wands on plants and it works! So we can just regrow the garden," she replies with a smile.

With that we leave with a life crystal in a steel box being levitated by Luna. It can only be opened or closed by her magic apparently.

We arrive at the airship docks where a hundred guards wait for us. Luna steps up to a platform and all the guards look at her.

"We thank ye for volunteering to join us on this mission. Our goal is to try and convince the citizens of the Badlands Hive to come back with us to live here where they can be fed and happy under the Equestrian flag," Luna informs them. A guard holds her hand up. "Yes?" Luna asks.

"Why are we helping them when they attack and drain us until we die?" she asks.

"They have no choice, would you like to die of starvation?" Luna asks her back. The guard shakes her head. "Which is why we shall show them that they no longer have to foalnap ponies just to survive anymore," Luna tells her. The guard nodded to her. "Ye all shall be there to aid us in case their guards get aggressive with us. Now, each ship shall hold at least ten guards to watch over the refugees. Tis just a precaution in case one of them tries to sabotage the ship," she tells them. I can't fault her on her logic.

They salute and go to their ships while Luna and I get on the Galleon ship. Once ready, the crews take off and we head back to the Hive.

---

---

We're back at the Badlands and head towards that side passage I used to escape. The gate looks like it's still damaged from where I blasted it.

We disembark from the ships with seventy of the guards with us, the other thirty stay with the ships. Luna uses her magic to remove the debris from the tunnel and we carefully walk down the tunnel with me in the lead. I take the first left and we arrive at the underground town. The place looks trashed, changelings lay on the floor either dead or dying. Homes look destroyed or damaged and scorch marks litter the area all over the place... looks like a battle happened here.

I hear a female changeling coughing while holding onto what looks like a child. She looks like she's in bad condition as I see a pinkish green mist flow from her into the child.

I quickly run over to them and kneel beside her. "What happened here?" I ask her.

She looks up at me with pleading eyes. "Please... save my hatchling..." she begs me and coughs, looks like she can barely move. I Channel three life elements and cast it as a nova, sending a pulse of green energy around me. The energy flows into both of them and they look much better now. Their holes slightly close and colour returns to them.

She gasps as her child starts to move, she starts crying while hugging the boy. "Thank you... thank you so much... but why are you helping us?" she asks with confusion.

Luna walks over to us. "We are here to ask if thee wish to live in Equestria, we have found a way to feed thine kind without harm to us," she tells the woman.

Her eyes widen. "R-Really? You mean w-we don't have to suffer anymore?" she asks, tears forming in her eyes.

Luna holds her hand out to her. "Nay, we would be glad to have thee, we shall even build thee a town," she tells her. The woman takes her hand and Luna helps her up.

I look at Luna with a smile. "Luna, you take her to the ship, I'll see if I can help anyone else," I tell her.

"Very well, we shall also find out what has transpired here," she replies. I make my way deeper into the Hive with a few guards to heal and feed any survivors.

---

---

We managed to bring seventy injured and near dead changelings out of the Hive... two-hundred and fifty-four didn't survive. Some starved to death while others had slash wounds, I fed and healed the survivors a little to stabilize them until my mana was very low.

The changelings told us that after I escaped when we saved Blueblood, Chrysalis had the whole town destroyed in her anger and took as much energy as she could from the people living there with her back to the main Hive. They've also been disconnected from something called the Hive Mind.

The ones that survived were given what little energy the others had left, mostly the elderly to their children. We explained to the survivors on what we planned to do for them and showed them the crystal. They marvelled at it and began feeding from it. The crystal held strong and wasn't even struggling to feed them.

By the time we returned to Canterlot, all the changelings were fully fed and healthy. Without even discussing it, they said they'll join Equestria and live here under Celestia and Luna's rule. Though they did give Shella a lot of hugs and praise at her changing into a Queen, which shocked Shella as she didn't even realize.

Celestia was there at the Docks to greet us and showed the changelings to the guest rooms. Though some changelings had to share a room which they still thanked her for.

So here I am in the Throne Room with Celestia, Luna, Blueblood, Thraxx, and four of the oldest changelings deciding on where to build this town for them.

"We could build it at the base of Canterlot Mountain? It would be close and we can help send reinforcements should they come under attack or need aid." Luna says.

"That does sound like a good idea, we can burrow into the mountain for our Hive. We shall build and wait for our new Queen to be ready for her own Hive Mind network to develop," a female changeling says.

"So once Shella's transformation is complete, she'll be able to communicate with all of you telepathically?" I ask.

"Yes, a Queen is the heart of a Hive. She helps to organise the Hive and what needs to be done, right now we're not as efficient as we could be as we have no Queen to guide us," a male changeling replies.

"How long will it take for Shella to complete her transformation?" Celestia asks.

"Not that long if she is well fed, a month at most," the second male changeling says.

"What triggered her transformation?" I ask.

"If a female changeling has no connection to a Hive Mind and is well fed, she'll start to transform to begin her own Hive, but this was rare due to the shortage of love energy," Thraxx replies.

"So then we are all in agreement as to the location?" Luna asks.

Everyone nodded in reply. "Then it is settled. Luna and I along with Prince Blueblood and sir Adrian have agreed to help fund the foundations of the town for you," Celestia says, gesturing to us.

One of the changelings looks at Blueblood. "Why would you do such a thing? After what our Hive did to you?" he asks.

"I do not blame you for your need to survive. Though I was originally taken to be replaced, I do not blame anypony other than your old Queen," Blueblood replies kindly.

The changelings smile and thank him, Celestia then speaks up. "We shall have a camp set up at the site with a construction crew as well tomorrow. Those of you who wish to stay here for now may do so, if they want to work here then I shall consider their talents," she offers.

The changelings bow to Celestia with smiles on their faces. "Thank you for giving us this chance, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna," the male changeling says. Before the changelings leave, Celestia gets their attention with a warm smile.

"Of course, everypony deserves a second chance, and I'd also like to say, Welcome to Equestria."

Next Chapter: Chapter 30: The Lapis Hive Part 1 Estimated time remaining: 16 Hours, 11 Minutes