"Home? What do you mean...home?"

Shade kept walking through the tunnel that was now in front of Thunder.

"I mean my home, silly. You'll see soon enough."

Shade's voice echoed through the tunnel as Thunder stood still, looking into the complete darkness of the tunnel, a tunnel of a changeling hive, a tunnel that might lead to places or creatures he could have never dreamed of.

"You coming or what?"

Shade said as he stuck out his head from the tunnel. Thunder was kinda embarassed to admit it but...

"Uh...I guess it's just...um...you don't happen to have a torch with you or something like that?"

Shade blushed a little bit at this awkward moment. How could he forget something like that?

"Oh...yeah, sorry about that. I must have forgotten you can't see in the dark yet, force of habit I guess."

Shade concentrated for a brief second and made his horn light up in a bright light.

"There we go. I'll lead the way, just follow the light."

Shade turned around into the tunnel again, leaving Thunder at the entrance once again. Thunder sighed as he looked back at the giant doors of the hall.

"Sure...right behind you..."

With that, Thunder entered the tunnel and followed Shade. On their journey, they came across different branches of tunnels. To Thunder they all looked exactly the same: A dark, dirty whole that would lead to celestia knows where. Shade appeared to know exactly where every tunnel leads. Thunder kept on going and followed him but at some point, at what seemed like the sixth branch of tunnels, he had to ask.

"Hey, how are you doing that? How do you know your way around these tunnels so well?"

Shade's Horn glowed for a brief second as he looked at the three different tunnels in front of him. When it stopped glowing, he walked into the right tunnel.

"I'm a changeling, pal. You'd think I know my way around my own Hive, right?"

Thunder inspected the walls once more. They all looked the same. At all times. Dirt. Dirt everywhere, as far as you could see.

"Sure but...It can't just be that. It can't just be "alot of practice", there's no way you could remember all this."

Shade turned his head to Thunder for a second while walking.

"Of course "I" don't remember all of this. It has to do with something called Hivemind. You might have heard of it before."

Thunder nodded slightly in agreement.

"Yeah, I heard that in school when I was younger. We were talking about bees and other insects."

"And that's how our race works too. We have a Hivemind that contains all information about things like our Hive. When a new tunnel is built, the constructors will send the information of that new tunnel to the Hivemind and basically save it there. Then, when a changeling enters that tunnel, he can access the Hivemind and find the information about it. That way he knows exactly where he is and where he is going. Pretty smart, don't you think?"

Thunder grumbled.

"Yeah, as smart as the little bugs you are..."

Shade ignored the insult and negativity, he knew there was more where that came from if he engaged right now.

"And that's not even all. But we'll get to that later on."

Thunder sighed as he trotted behind Shade.

"Woohoo, can't wait..."

Their walk through the seemingly endless tunnels went on for a few more minutes. Then finally they saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

"Looks like we're there, still there Th-"

Shade was interrupted as Thunder pushed him aside and ran towards the sweet light. He saw it was only a bunch of torches on the walls that produced said light, but it was still better than walking through dark tunnels forever with only the glowing horn of a changeling to keep you from being consumed by the darkness and getting lost in those dark, endless tunnels.

"Ahem...the dirt floor isn't exactly there to kiss it."

Shade said as he saw Thunder doing said thing. Thunder quickly stopped, turned to Shade with a blush and grinned innocently.

"Wh-What? Oh, I didn't. no, no. I was just...uh...yeah, I don't know..."

Shade rolled his eyes as he proceeded to walk past him.

"Come on now, You don't wanna sit out here when my home is right here."

Thunder stood up and looked around. There was nothing to be seen. Only dirt walls, a few tunnel entrances and torches on the wall. Nothing anypony could ever call a "home".

"Um...where exactly is this "home" supposed to be? I don't see anything except for lots of dirt."

Shade smirked at Thunder's remark and laughed. He let his horn light up once again, this time in a dark black.

"Behold!"

Suddenly, the Wall behind Thunder became shaking. Thunder instinctively walked away from said wall. He stood there in awe as the wall slowly lowered itself to the ground and revealed an actual home behind it.

"And for my next trick I will make a rabbit appear on my assistant's head."

Said Shade as he bumped Thunder while walking inside. Thunder still stood in place with open mouth for a few seconds when he slowly regained control of himself. He looked around Shade's home as he walked inside.
Inside were many things he was familiar with, like a relatively big, green couch in the middle of what seemed to be the living room. However, there were also a lot of things he had never seen before, some of which even creeped him out a little bit, like a Hammock made out of slime in one of the rather small rooms in the back. As he looked into said room, Shade tapped him on the shoulder.

"Ahem."

Thunder was startled for a brief moment but quickly recovered as he saw it was Shade.

"I see you have found your bedroom already. Make yourself at home."

Thunder's eyes grew bigger as he turned his head back to the Slime Hammock. THAT was his "bed"?

"You mean...I have to...sleep in...this?"

Thunder said while carefully tapping the slime.

"Yup, pretty much. Made it myself. I may not be a constructor or anything like that, but It's good enough."

Shade turned around and walked outside of the room.

"...At least I hope it is."

Thunder freed his eyes from the Hammock and looked at the other objects in the room. There was a desk made out of something rocky, yet it looked way darker than actual rocks. There was also a bookshelf with a few books in it. Next to it was a large mirror. As Thunder approached it, he could once again see the monster of a creature he had turned into. For a few moments, while walking through those tunnels, he had forgotten about all this. He couldn't escape this. He was imprisoned in this body. This bug body. A body which he didn't belong to.

"Hey, want me to...um...everything alright?"

Shade asked as he once again walked into the room. He saw how Thunder stared into the mirror, how he stared at the creature it showed. Shade knew this was going to be a tough case, but this was his fault and he had to take responsibility for it.

"Why...why would you do this to me?"

Thunder asked as he turned his head towards Shade, tears began to flow down his cheeks.

"I'm sorry Thunder...I knew you wouldn't like this but...I had to. It was the only choice I had."

Shade expected Thunder to react angrily again, perhaps even attack him in an act of pure rage, It seemed tho, his expectations were wrong.

"Blaze..."

Shade instantly noticed him using that name.

"...tell me why."