“We’ll be waiting” was the last interaction the hive in the Scarred Forest, officially dubbed the ‘Scarred City’ by its allies, had with their queens. At least for a long time. And they waited. In grief they stayed there at their queens’ side until even their love reserves could not support them any longer. Lethargically the hive slowly returned to life, letting the world know that their month of inactivity hadn’t killed them.

The Hunters were the first to stir, the guardians abating their grief and enforcing the feeling of hunger the entire hive felt to push them along. The Brood needed food, and they were happy to oblige. There was no use waiting if they’d all starve to death, can’t have the new queen waking up to a feral hive.

The Various ambassadors and court members throughout the different nations and races were next, some having managed to abate their grief and continue their important jobs, others going catatonic like the rest. Before long, though, absences were forgiven and friendly communication was resumed.

The Defenders rose after them, quick to push back the deadly fauna scratching at their door again so the hunters would have their home safe to return to. Next were the researchers, the cooks, the laborers, and everyone else.

Within a day, the hive was back to its normal buzz, though the somber aura every changeling held in their hearts could never be abated. They clinged to that sadness, it was a strong emotion that they genuinely felt, but they knew it wouldn’t be long until that sadness would turn to joy and happiness again.

Some of the other queens had no idea this halting of the hive had happened, too caught up in their own ventures, but Chrysalid had noticed. She had even sent an invasion force on the second week, only to find the hive heavily defended by Mira, Bela, the Equestrian air corps, a griffon battalion, and even a few dragons. Not understanding the strength of her individual enemies, let alone when they worked together, Chrysalid’s invasion force was almost completely destroyed. There were few survivors, even the Equestrians ruthless. And rightfully so, they were defending their vulnerable ally, there was no honor to be had for Chrysalid here. Only petty vengeance.

With the hive functioning again the Harvesters made trips to the hive to replenish the love lost in their grieving, the Hunters and Defenders moved to secure their land again, and warriors were even sent to allies to aid in their various ventures in thanks for defending them. The Guardians returned to their places tending to the hive mind rather than keeping it alive. Dawn even came to visit the hive, her small group of drones mostly unaffected by the lethargy. She grieved with them, though, but the rest of her family kept her from freezing like the rest of the hive did.

There was a problem, though, a new problem. In the month, three new feral queens had popped up and only one had regained sanity. Queen Tera, a queen with hair and eyes the color of mud, came to her first dinner bearing the news of the ferals nearly destroying her own hive. It was Decided that Nilan was to act as Queen in Twilight’s stead, since Dawn refused the position and she had been groomed by Twilight in the ways and duties of a ruler- at least indirectly.

“What are you saying, Tera?” Mira asked when the queen finally finished her initial explanation.

“I’m saying we need to work together to put down these ferals… Or, at the very least, kill enough of them so that their queens may recover. I am only five hundred strong and without hive, I can only offer a dozen Geomancers and my knowledge of these ferals to the campaign…” The Earthen Queen replied.

“Maybe you should have died then, such a paltry contribution.” Chrysalid sneered. Nilan was on her feet with that.

“Acting-Queen Nilan, you share the floor.” Jordas said.

“And what would you be able to Contribute, Chrysalid? If memory serves, your population is down to barely over a thousand strong.” The Young acting-royal retorted with venom in her tone. Chrysalid stood and Jordas recognized her as Tera stepped down, intrigued by the exchange.

“And if you hadn’t have hid behind your allies you would have been exterminated to the last drone!” The Crimson Queen spat. Nilan chuckled darkly.

“Surely you aren’t that delusional, Chrysalid? The Seekers alone, let alone the guardians themselves, would have been plenty to stop that speck of an invasion force. Only three thousand? Even if they hadn’t taken to the field, even our grief couldn’t keep us from defending ourselves. We trusted our allies to defend us, and they did. I’m almost glad they did not show you the mercy my Queen would have!” Nilan scowled.

Chrysalid looked like she was going to burst in fury, and by her body language she was seriously considering attacking this girl pretending to be queen then and there. The only thing staying her hand was the non-hostility rule during these dinners and the memories of her last time fighting a huntress from the Scarred City.

“One day, I’ll find out what you’ve done to Chrysalis… what that terrible queen of yours did to make her fall into that endless sleep… And I’ll take her back, and I’ll kill you for it.” The Crimson Queen said with fire in her tone as she sat back down. Nilan was stunned by the statement, but it quickly turned to a little chuckle before she finally started laughing.

“You really are delusional, I thought you were just stupid. It’s clear to me that you will not see reason, so I’ll just have to hope you survive long enough to see what’s really happened. You’ve been openly declared as enemies not only by our hive, but all of our allies as well. You and yours will be attacked on sight in our territory as well as Mira and Bela’s, in Equestria, the Dragonlands, the Griffonlands, and any place the nomadic tribes call home. Your information gatherers will be rooted out and your love collectors expelled. You will either surrender yourself to a binding contract or find a new source of love.” The acting-royal declared with as much regality as she could muster. She was no Celestia or Twilight, but it was powerful enough to show they weren’t playing around any more. Chrysalid seemed to finally realize the gravity of what she’s done as she sank into her seat. Nilan turned to Tera, then.

“Send your people to the Scarred City. You will be housed and protected until you find a suitable place to build a new hive and establish love collectors. In exchange, you will teach our mages at least the basics of this Geomancing. We do not require you to lay its secrets bare, just the basics. Is this acceptable?” She asked the earthen queen. Tera thought for a moment before standing. Jordas recognized her.

“For our protection, our secret of Geomancy is a paltry cost, I accept in full. I simply ask that I receive an unbiased account of recent happenings and the state of things… I admit I am a little confused as to what exactly is happening. It seems that you have a strong alliance, though, and while I cannot promise to join it I will be happy to not get on your bad side.” The queen said. Nilan smiled and nodded.

“Well said. My last matter to bring to the queens is that Equestria’s offer of diplomacy still stands for all that have not been dubbed enemies. Your information and love collection is being heavily watched and regulated as you know, this will not change unless the terms are personally negotiated. Greta, your participation in Crystarium’s initial invasion has been forgiven, you should notice less harsh regulation on their side in that respect.” Nilan announced. The eldest of the Emerald Queens nodded to that.

“Tell your allies we won’t be so foolish as to provoke them again, but we prefer to keep to ourselves for the time being... “ The Viridian Queen replied. Nilan simply nodded and took her seat.

“Are there any subjects to be taken up?” Jordas asked. Tera stood again.

“I still did not receive anything concrete about this feral swarm. Judging by what little I’ve learned of recent events there’s now seven known feral queens. These three are swarms of their own, my latest number estimation if well over one hundred thousand combined, and they are working together.” The Earthen Queen repeated from earlier.

“Ferals never work together, not officially. The second their cooperation is no longer useless, or they’re hungry enough, they turn on each other and destroy them for us.” Meta said offhandedly. Her sisters seemed a little more invested in what Tera was saying, though. Nilan hummed before speaking.

“While we are not functioning as properly as we would like, our numbers are still over two hundred thousand now, we’ll organize something. Our allies should be happy to help as well, but you are right. It is concerning that they are working together for longer than a single battle. Perhaps they aren’t as feral as we thought. Maybe they are sane, but think different than we do. I’ll refer to those ones as Rogue Queens for now, more appropriate tags may be added later as we learn more.” The acting-queen said. Tera nodded and turned to the others, passing over Chrysalid without even a glance.

“We three may lend aid if we are needed, we will temporarily allow a proxy drone into each of our hives for such a purpose. They will be watched and restricted, but we hope this will be our show of faith that our neutrality means we don’t wish to be enemies.” Greta said after discussing with her sisters for a few moments.

“Proxy Drones?” Tera asked.

“I’ll take care of that, Tera. We’ll explain later.” Nilan said. The question confirmed that while Bela had regained sanity with an advanced hive mind, Tera was apparently younger and shared the limited connections of the other queens. The Earthen Queen simply nodded and returned to her seat.

“Just stay out of my swamps, all of you…” Chrysalid growled. There was no real response other than some snickers or dirty looks.

“If there are no other matters to discuss, we will begin population counts. As usual, food need not be supplied to the Scarred City due to its massive size.” Jordas said after a few moments of silence.

“Queen Greta, population of five thousand and forty-two.”

“Queen Meta, population of four thousand, nine hundred and six.”

“Queen Creta, population of five thousand, one hundred and seven.”

“Queen Bela, population of four thousand even.”

“Queen Mira, population of nineteen thousand even.”

“Queen Tera, population of five hundred and thirty-five.”

“Queen Chrysalid, population of one thousand and eighty-one.”

“Acting-Queen Nilan, population of two hundred thousand, seven hundred even.”

“Population counts recorded, this dinner has concluded.” Jordas rumbled before returning to his slumber.

“Come now, Tera. We’ll escort you, even though our allies lands are safe our home is surrounded by a dangerous forest.” Nilan said. Tera nodded and they made to leave. The Wraiths got along well with Tera’s guard.

“I hope our cooperation benefits you. Our Geomancing is just a specialization of magic, we have other secrets we would be willing to share. My honor will not allow that as such a paltry exchange, I just did not wish the other queens to know that I had more to offer.” Tera said quietly to Nilan.

“Just allow us to comb your hive for archives for us to research and Bela to restore and transcribe and we’ll call it even. If you want to trade for our other secrets, though, then you can start offering your other ones.” Nilan said with a smile. While she could barely trust the Emerald Queens, Nilan had come to allow herself a bit of extra trust to new or recently sane queens as they had no political stake in the land to get in the way of things like Crystarium thought she did.

“Archives? I suppose that’s fine, I never kept much… I know Bela was a historian, but I didn’t expect the interest from you.” Tera said, fishing for more information. Nilan just chuckled as they took to the air.

“We’re a strange bunch, you’ll see eventually.”

---

Nilan settled into her new chamber nicely, she refused to take the Queen’s chamber for many reasons, but she had allowed her brothers and sisters build her a room adjacent to it. She felt at home attempting to do a queen’s job, sitting where her two queens had rested. She couldn’t immerse herself in the hive mind like her queens could, but she could still direct her siblings and the Guardians to increase efficiency on a more minor level.

Tonight she wanted to try something else, though. It had been a month since that dinner, Tera and her brood were still in the Scarred City. The Earthen Queen had managed to double her population and had begun searching for a suitable place to put a hive in or near allied territory. She was still reluctant to join the alliance, but she promised to make a final decision after the Rogue Queens were dealt with.

She flushed that form her mind, though, as she focused on what she wanted to try. Flushing everything from her mind, she focused on Ceren’s arcane teachings. She placed an isolation bubble around her mind as the mages did to practice their magic in the confines of their forests. She focused on the link, trying to enter the vast forest that was the hive mind rather than her own personal patch of young trees.

It was a disappointing venture at first, hours of concentration and isolation to no avail. There was a spark of something, though. Something wanted her to follow it. She latched onto what manifested itself as a leaf, though this leaf was like none she’d seen before. Her leaves in her own personal trees were crimson like the forest around the hive, but to Twilight they had all been either teal or lavender depending on which queen was in power when they were born.

This leaf had two intertwining colors, the teal and the blue. She held it in her mentally manifested hands, and just as she was going to let it go she saw it. A single tree, somewhat gnarled but still beautiful, large as an ancient elderwood. The leaves were all combined in different ratios. She was awed by the thing and what she could only imagine what it represented. She saw guardians silently buzzing around it, checking leaves and smoothing bent branches.

A strong wind blew through the tree, and the sound of thousands of other trees surrounded her. She looked around to find a massive forest, larger than she had even thought was possible to exist. It was the Teal and Lavender she had expected to see in the Hive Mind. She looked to one direction, Twilight had explained that Chrysalis’ forest was nothing but ashlands now, but she couldn’t find it. She took a step forward and was surprised to not find dirt or grass, but ash at her feet. As she examined the ground, she almost missed a guardian standing in front of her. She recognized the guardian as the one inhabiting the first Seeker, Stella.

“They wanted you to see them, see what’s become of this place. They’re almost home, Nilan.” The young girl said happily. It took a moment for Nilan to realize what Stella was saying. Her face lit up in surprise as she looked up at the tree.

“They’re waking up…” Stella said with glee.

Author's Notes:

I've been waiting so long to start this leg of the story. Cover art is placeholder. Hopefully this flows and paces a little better than the last few chapters of From the Ashes, I finally hit my stride again. Hopefully I can keep it going for longer than four chapters this time.