Whinnyapolis didn't have a huge changeling population - it was no Manehatten or Las Pegasus. But it had a few. A few to gather love, a few to keep an eye on notable figures, one or two secreted in the city's bureaucratic structure just in case. No legion, but enough to fill a room.
Said room was currently full of said changelings, and every single one was afraid.
Rumors were flying wild in the pony populace - word on the street was that something big had happened at the Hive. That ponies were talking about the Hive at all was concerning.
Worrying was that the ponies couldn't agree on what had happened beyond it being a big deal. They spoke of everything from changeling genocide to Queen Chrysalis becoming an Equestrian princess. No changeling or pony seemed to know what was and wasn't true.
The fact that the ponies had heard of it and no information had come down from the Hive was terrifying.
That was a large part of why everyling was in attendance tonight. When the head of the Whinnyapolis cell - Lamprey - called an emergency meeting, they all listened for once.
The low churn of the crowd silenced when the plain brown stallion came to the front. In a flash of blue flame he reverted to the more natural black chitin of a changeling. Lamprey's shift was a cue, allowing the others to relax and shift their forms back as well in a cascade of green.
"We've all heard the rumors," he began from the small raised stage. "And now I have facts." An uneasy but eager rumble went up again before the gathering hushed themselves once more. "The news isn't good."
"Operation Head Of The Snake failed. The princesses and their warriors are all free again. And what happened is beyond any worst-case scenario we could have thought of." Lamprey took a deep breath. This next part was going to be the hardest. "One of the key parts of the failure was a rogue changeling. In the process, a large part of the Hive's above-ground structure was destroyed, the Queen was deposed and the rogue convinced nearly the entire Hive to go with him into open revolt."
Before the silence had been one of tension, waiting for answers. Now it was one of shock.
But Lamprey wasn't done. "As of a week and a half ago, King Thorax rules over the Hive. Queen Chrysalis is in exile and her location is unknown. King Thorax has also declared we are now allies to and a protectorate of the Kingdom of Equestria. And..." He hesitated again. "We have all been recalled back to the Hive. ALL changelings everywhere have been recalled."
The silence became chaos.
"We all go back? But if there's no gathering love, we'll all starve!" "They're probably just recalling us so they can kill us for being disloyal!" "Disloyal to their upstart king? Ha!" "I can't leave, I spent months setting up my cover identity!" "We'll be executed!" "Why didn't the Queen save us from this?"
"ENOUGH!" Lamprey stomped his hoof, bringing a fearful silence back again. Momentary control, but still control. "I know you're all afraid. I am to. But I'm also not done."
The gathered changelings practically leaned forward as one to hear more.
"Part of what happened is that the renegades assumed a new form. They changed. And their claim is that they discovered how to share love - enough so that no changeling will go hungry again, even without stealing love from others."
Nothing in the room moved for a full twenty seconds at that news. When one of the host finally did, their voice rang out from the crowd. "Impossible!"
And Lamprey nodded, face set to a deep frown. "I know. It sounds crazy, doesn't it? But they say that's why they want us to return to the Hive - so they can teach us. And then so we can eventually learn to integrate back into pony society as ourselves instead of as infiltrators." He gave a moment for that to sink in. "They want to end how changelings have always existed before and remake us into something new. They say something better."
"Something more pony," someling in the crowd scoffed. It was a sentiment taken up by others almost immediately.
Once more, Lamprey nodded. "Yes. But right now we have a choice - because those renegades are the Hive, they know everything. Who we are, who we're pretending to be, where our posts are. Everything. If we choose not to go back to the Hive, we can't stay here. The Hive is an Equestrian ally now, and staying loyal to Queen Chrysalis means that we're now the Hive's enemies. They'll hunt us down and bring us back in chains." There was an ominous pause. "If we're lucky."
"So that's our choice," he concluded. "We can either go to the Hive and join this new pony-like way or flee the city immediately. Probably leave Equestria entirely and likely never return. Likely never find where the Queen has fled to, either."
There was no need to say it out loud. They knew what that meant. Without the Hive or the Queen or any support, it was a death sentence. If they were lucky, they could infiltrate a place like Kludgetown or Yakyakistan and survive off of love-scraps under the radar. But it would be a meager, hungry and lonely existence - and if they were discovered... Kludgetown was not nearly as forgiving as Equestria. There would be no home to draw help from in a crisis, no place to escape to if things went wrong and no future beyond eking out a marginal survival.
Every changeling in the room looked at the others. No option was a good one. Change everything or surrender everything.
It was Taupe who spoke up finally (everyling knew his name was actually Tapeworm, but he insisted it was Taupeworm). "Exile," he declared. "I choose exile. I don't know who this self-proclaimed King is, but I am loyal to the Queen. I'm sure she'll come back with a fresh batch of troops and retake the Hive soon. And then we can go home again. We'll probably even be rewarded for our loyalty!"
That first touch tipped the scales for others, and all around the room changelings declared their loyalty and willingness to go into exile for their Queen. They talked loudly of how they would rather walk the hard road than surrender - rather than give up everything that made them and their forebearers Changeling.
"But what if they're right."
It was a tiny voice, but it slashed through the bold declarations like a machete. Every eye in the room turned to the speaker - the youngest of the group. She was barely more than a grub, having only been dispatched from the Hive to Whinnyapolis a month before. But despite cowering under the searing glares of an entire room of older, more experienced changelings, she still spoke.
"But what if they're right," she repeated. "Think. All of us know others back at the Hive. Remember them! Would you call any of them disloyal? Or--or stupid? Would they really have turned their backs on Queen Chrysalis and everything we've built for generations if there wasn't a reason?" The crowd grumbled in reluctant agreement. That was a good point.
Emboldened by that, she continued. "If they're right, there's so much to gain! We wouldn't ever be hungry again! A--and we wouldn't have to be afraid all the time of being discovered! We could do anything we wanted instead of always having to hide and steal just enough love to survive!"
The crowd of changelings looked at each other uneasily. The declarations of enthusiastic exile stopped as the scales tipped back.
Lamprey spoke up again, nudging them further. "The grub has a point. Cyclotorna, you've been in a relationship with your target for three years. We all know she's more than just a food source for you. Do you really want to leave her? And Icosta, you've built a successful business. Originally to gather information, true, but it's still something you made yourself." He motioned with a hoof at the room. "We all have things we've made here and don't want to give up. Is abandoning it all into exile really what we want?"
Off to the left, Icosta shot her mouth off. "If we go back to the Hive, I gotta abandon it anyway!"
"Yes," Lamprey pointed out, "but in that case we get to come back."
Throughout the room, changelings thought about it. Loyalty to the old ways and the Queen, or keeping what they had built and never being hungry again. Murmurs washed like waves through the gathering. The scales wobbled, the crowd unsure which way to go.
Then the young grub spoke again. Still quiet, but what she said before gave her words weight. "We're changelings," she gently noted. "Why are we afraid of change?"
Green flashes signaled the last of the changelings taking up their disguises again and leaving. In the end, the choices had been made. Nearly all of Whinnyapolis' residents would be returning to the Hive. Lamprey had granted them all a few days to put their affairs in order and prepare. A handful had still chosen exile - he had suggested they leave immediately and finalize their plans elsewhere to cover their tracks. They would have a hard enough road ahead without worrying that one of the others had set the Hive after them.
As he cleaned up the mess left behind from the gathering, Lamprey looked over to the only other changeling that remained at his request: the young grub.
"That was brave of you," he noted. "You could have said nothing and gone back on your own. Or stayed with the group as we all went into exile."
Shifting uneasily, the grub shyly looked to the floor. "If our new way is to share, it--it wouldn't be very sharing if I only cared about myself and let them hurt themselves out of fear."
Lamprey paused, leaning against the broom. And he smiled. "You're right. What's your name, grub?"
The little bit of encouragement made her perk up. "Ocellus, sir."
"Ocellus," he repeated. "Let me show you a secret." And then he flashed with blue fire.
The Lamprey standing there was no longer a changeling of black chitin. His body was a deep burnt orange, accented by brilliant cyan-blue wings and eyes. This new body was whole, bright and practically vibrating with love. Ocellus stared in shock. "Y--y--you're one of them. One of the rogues." Pieces snapped together in her head. "You called this meeting on purpose, to gather every changeling in the city and bring us back. You were one of them the whole time!"
Lamprey nodded, still smiling broadly. "No creature expects a changeling to disguise themselves as a changeling. And.. yes. The whole time. I was sent here to bring every changeling back from the start."
Ocellus looked at the changed changeling in confusion. "But... why? Why even give them the choice? Why make it sound like you thought exile was a good idea? Why let them do this?"
Reaching out, Lamprey touched a whole hoof to the grub's cheek in comfort. "Because that isn't our way any more. Who we are now means they need to make the choice themselves. If they aren't willing to try changing, we can't force them to. At the same time, King Thorax made clear that they can't stay in Equestria - he doesn't want them to get hurt or to hurt anyone else."
The young grub shifted uneasily. "So we let them leave, and hope they come home again to let themselves be helped."
Lamprey's nod was small but firm. "Hearts don't change as quickly as bodies, even for us. Some changelings need time."
She was quiet at that, looking downwards. Arctic blue eyes looked at her hole-filled black hooves - and at his deep orange whole ones. A thought tickled her mind as she looked at the differences between her old and his new. "Will I get to look pretty, too?"
Lamprey reached down and pulled Ocellus' eyes up to meet his. "As pretty as your heart has shown you to be."
Author's Note
Oh hey, finally wrote something without Sunset Shimmer in it.
More seriously, this particular moment in canon history fascinates me. It's glossed over, but there's this window of extreme change where an ancient culture that lives on mistrust and deception is being asked to discard it all and start from scratch based on nothing more than bright colors and the phrase "Trust me". This story's just a brief touch on what (in-universe) had to be a very tense but amazing time.
Also Ocellus is adorable and I couldn't help but give her a bit of a cameo here.
