Your eyes opened slowly, unwillingly so, as you heard hissing. That damnable hissing that woke you up every day, irritating you to no end. You had half a mind to find the source and rip it apart for daring to wake you from your rightful sleep. Taking in the sight around you, you just saw larvae blocking your view of all else, although they were the source of the hissing... no... no, they were the source of some hissing, but not the hissing that had woken you up. Where was... oh, right.

Lifting your head, you opened your mouth, giving a squeaky yawn that silenced the hissing. You were the source of it. It seemed every morning, you forgot that you hissed in your sleep, just as you were on the verge of waking up, and so the hissing would surprise you and wake you the rest of the way up.

Welp, so much for ripping the source of it apart. After all, how could you? Not just in the literal fact, seeing as the only means you really had to do so were your fangs, which would never reach the rest of your short body, but also figuratively. You were Pupa- scratch that, Princess Pupa, daughter of Queen Chrysalis and Anon, the Queen of the Changelings and the alien with the most devious mind Equestria had ever seen.

Oooooh, just the thought of your parents made your insides wriggle in excitement and joy. Because of them, you were essentially the perfect being. Hell, as a larva, you shouldn't have even been talking yet, but you were already getting a minor hang of your shapeshifting abilities to the point you could hold your vocal chords together to say a few words at a time. You'd already heard how the adults complimented you, revering your obvious intelligence and innate skills. Your brood was part of the newest generation, the best generation. Generation Anon. And you, well you were at the top of the damn class.

"Yaaaaaw, looks like someone's up," your father stated, rising out of bed beside your mother, taking notice of your waking form among the otherwise sleeping masses of your siblings. He strode over, wearing only a pair of boxers that didn't really hide his morning erection. You were used to seeing it at this point, mommy would end up taking care of it for him. She sometimes did before he even woke up, making daddy very happy.

As your father stood at the side of the crib your mother had built for your brood, he reached out and picked you up. You could feel the warmth of his love before the warmth of his hands ever reached you, something that seemed to stir your siblings a bit, not risking to wake them from their sleep, but instead bringing pleased smiles as they basked in it. Even you couldn't resist the delighted squeals as you sat in your father's palm, your tongue flicking out uncontrollably as you twisted your head to rub your face into one of your dad's thumbs.

"You again, huh Pupa? Always the first to rise. First to speak too. First to hatch. I'm taking a guess and saying you'll be the first to do many things, aren't you?" your father stated with an unconditional smile of pure love. He was damn right you were going to be the first. First to undergo metamorphosis. First to properly shapeshift. First to become a new queen. You'd already heard mommy say that she'd need you to, it was the only way you'd all be able to rule over Equestria. And you wouldn't even have to worry about trying to murder mommy for the right to do so... although... if you ever wanted to become Empress... no, no, that wasn't something to think about... now.

Your attention was drawn from your father as you heard more hissing from below. Not the simple hissing of sleeping larvae, but the hissing that demanded attention. It was Vespidae, her yellow eyes looking up at you with jealousy that you were hogging all of daddy's attention, even if his love went out to all of you. That was fine. Given you did care for all of your siblings, you all were exceptional after all, Vespidae was the one that seemed to be the best after you.

"Good morning to you too, Vespidae. Jealous of your sister? Let's fix that," your father stated with a smile, reaching down and plucking your sister so that she could be added to his palm with you. The moment she was beside you, you lifted your head and placed it atop hers, giving her a loving nuzzle... but one that also said you were the head bitch on top. She accepted it, and so there were no problems. "Awwww, that's so sweet. You kids are going to give me diabetes at this point. Shocking, considering multicolored ponies that seem to eat primarily sugar had their shot."

You hissed back, not wanting to push yourself to shapeshift vocal chords when you simply wanted daddy to know that you were paying attention and hearing him. Your hiss brought forth a few more, reminding you that your siblings were going to keep waking up. Daddy would put you down with the rest of them so that he could give each of them attention, so you took the initiative to start crawling up his arm. He didn't move to stop you, instead doing as you expected and picking your brothers and sisters up one after another as they awoke. You reached his shoulder quickly enough, turning back to watch as the rest of your brood crawled along your father's hands and forearms. The attention to each just seemed to make your father's love radiate even more, a chorus of coos and happy hisses meeting your ears.

Smiling, your father said "You know, this reminds me. Your mother and I were thinking about it, and while we've been happy to keep our eyes on you, we realized we've been denying you all the fun of hanging out with other larvae. So... we've prepared a play date for you all."

... what?

You stared in minor irritation as your father set you on the floor with the rest of your siblings, your entire brood staring out at the rest of the larvae that littered the floor. They'd brought a few different broods in, and seeing as yours was smaller than average, you and your immediate siblings were outnumbered. You'd have felt worse about your position due to that, but you noticed that among the numerous larvae, none of the others had anything more than the simple drone eyes. What a bunch of worms.

You'd even taken notice that, while your brood was indeed outnumbered, the other larvae seemed apprehensive to approach you. They knew that, despite being a smaller, younger batch of Changelings, you all were special. A step above them, simply stuffed full of love from even before you had hatched, making you stronger than they were... at least, most of them did.

As you noticed one lone larva start to crawl toward you, a little bigger and plumper than others, you heard your dad say "It's Hot Dog! I knew it was a good idea to invite him to this. He'll help bridge the gap."

"Your interest in a larva that crawled into your mouth is incredibly odd," Vespa stated beside your father. Or rather, Chitin, in Vespa's appearance. You and your siblings had seen him transform into the elite guard when out of your mother's sight, but Vespidae seemed to know that he had been faking as her from even before you'd all seen it. Whatever your sister's obsession with the elite was, she'd tipped you off to the oddities, even if you couldn't communicate as the adults could.

However, that was less important. What was important was the fact that this... Hot Dog, as your father put it, had been in his mouth? Even you'd never been in any of your father's orifices! Sure, you were smart enough to know that, unlike Changelings, your father didn't have holes to spare for something like that, but that was an honor that should have been reserved for your brood, you most of all!

Narrowing your eyes, you dared to leave the safe numbers of your brood, moving out to meet with this Hot Dog. Taking notice of your willingness to meet him, the larva smiled and hissed triumphantly, apparently feeling like he had succeeded in some monumental task. This seemed to give some confidence to the rest of the other larvae, who were starting to inch forward as well. You could only smirk as you stared up at the larger larva, who seemed to be beaming with joy over his role as ambassador to the royal brood.

His joy quickly dissipated as you drew your head back, ramming it forward to smash your forehead into his snout, making this Hot Dog squeal in pain as he reared back, shocked from your surprise attack. The other larvae stopped dead in their track as you repeated the headbutt with another one, knocking Hot Dog onto his back, wriggling and curling into a ball to try and avoid any further pain. You took this chance to crawl on top of him, using his added bulk to raise your head higher than any other, and began to hiss triumphantly. You had established that you were in charge, not just of your brood, but the other ones too!

As your siblings began to hiss in celebration of your victory, crawling forward to join you in your success and establish that they were with you, you could hear your mother squealing happily, tapping her hooves together ecstatically. "Ooooh, she's so driven! So ruthless! Oh, she gets all of that from me," your mother declared with pride.

"Yeah, but you see those headbutts? Those were totally my moves," your father chipped in, grinning from ear-to-ear at the sight of you beating up another larva.

"Oh? When have you ever headbutted anypony?" your mother asked. You weren't there for it, but you knew daddy had beaten up Vespa before, which was why she was tied up in daddy's tiny room.

In fact, as you thought about it, you turned around to watch your parents, finding them far more interesting than the rest of the larvae. You knew daddy was keeping things hidden from mommy. After all, there was also the cocoon in daddy's room, reflective to the point of being shiny. You felt like you should have been irritated by it, especially as you felt that daddy was feeding love into it, but the shininess of the thing generally eased you a bit. There was also the undeniable fact that daddy was lying to mommy. Your mommy! Queen of the Changelings, the race built on deception, lies, and cunning! And he had lied to her! To think he would be pulling one over on mommy was... it was... it was-

"Badass!" you chirped, unable to contain your feelings of admiration for your father, whose ability to lie to others, even your own mother, put him on a level all his own. You only hoped that one day, you'd be able to match your father in his utter deviousness at some point.

Turning to face you, your father grinned and walked over, picking you up from Hot Dog to bring you close enough to his face that you may nuzzle his cheek. "Sweet Pupa, you always know just what to say. Daddy is a badass, yes he is!" he announced proudly.

"Perhaps she was talking about herself?" your mother considered, stepping close so she could also receive and return affection with you.

"Why not both? She inherited it from somewhere, so clearly she gets her badassness from me," your father stated.

"As am I... we'll say it's an even split," your mother stated, leaning in against your father so they could share your attention. Yes, mommy got it. You were the culmination of their greatest attributes put into one being. A perfect Changeling, and you hadn't even undergone your first metamorphosis yet, and you knew you'd undergo a second one.

Hissing proudly, you nuzzled both your parents. That could all wait. Because as vicious and merciless as you were, you also knew the sweet, warm love of your parents, and you'd be damned if you didn't love them back.

Author's Notes:

A short chapter, but one that I think people would enjoy seeing. After all, who doesn't love Pupa at this point? And giving an insight into the mind of the greatest of the brood, well that's just frosting on the cake right there. Especially since, while I've only considered doing this story as a single thing, I'm hearing a lot of love for different aspects to get a spin off. Momlestia. A-League. Pupa.