The Book of Ages

The Book of Ages
By Skye Silverwing
Chapter 2: Weathering the Swarrm
Princess Twilight Sparkle stared at the huge stack of paperwork in front of her. “How long has it been since the last time you dealt with all of this?” She asked, looking askance at the grey-maned Earth Pony seated across the desk from her.

Mayor Mare smiled obsequiously. “Well, being the Mayor doesn’t always leave a lot of time for dealing with the paperwork that a growing city like Ponyville can generate.” She said in a placating tone. “I may have let it stack up for a few days.”

Twilight shot the politician a glare. “A few days?” she demanded with the glare. “This invoice is for repairs after the Parasprite incident.” She shuffled the pages, “And this seems to be a notice involving the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. That was before I came to Ponyville.”

The Mayor shifted her hooves nervously. “Well, I… err…” she began, quailing under the Princess’s piercing stare.

Suddenly the door of the chamber banged open, revealing a disgruntled Shining Armor. “Twilight! I just heard that you allowed a group of changelings to move into the Everfree Forest nearby.” He demanded, “What are you thinking? Don’t you remember what they did at Cadence and my Wedding?”

Twilight sighed. She had, of course expected this. Shining Armor’s reaction was completely understandable after Queen Chrysalis had replaced Cadence, nearly succeeding in marrying him and dominating his mind.

There was decorum to follow here, though. “Mayor, you may go.” She said, not taking her eyes off Shining armor. “And take those papers with you. They are YOUR responsibility, and I expect them done by our next meeting. That is all.” She held a up a hoof without even sparing the Mayor a glance, and forestalled her sputtering protest. “That is all.”

Sensing the sudden increase of tension in the room, the grey maned pony swept the stack of paper from the desk and fled with a trail of pages.

As the door closed, Twilight faced off with her brother. “Figment and her followers are changed, Shining Armor, and Chrysalis and hers are determined to destroy them.” She said, “If I don’t give them a chance to survive, who will?”

Shining Armor’s face contorted with rage. “They are Changelings!” he grated, “Changelings can’t be trusted! They steal love. They hide their true nature. They don’t deserve this chance. They will only betray you.”

Twilight gave her brother with a flat stare. “It is not your decision to make.” She countered. “I have decided to give these changelings a chance, and I can all but guarantee that Princess Celestia will support my decision, so unless you have more reason than ‘Changelings can’t be trusted’, you won’t change my mind.”

Shining Armor stared at his sister for a long moment, then drew himself up and his expression hardened. “Those wings really do suit you, Twilee.” He said, in a tight voice. “You know how to use your station. I will find evidence of the Changelings’ trickery, and when I do, I will expect you to be willing to listen.”

Twilight nodded curtly.

Shining Armor turned on his heel and stalked from the room.

Twilight stared at his back until he left her sight, and then breathed a sigh of relief. If the Changelings made any attempt to harm the people of Ponyville, she knew that Shining Armor would act on her behalf for the betterment of the city, and Equestria in general. He also would not jump to conclusions until he knew he had a case she could stand behind.

Nodding to herself, Twilight turned to her assistant, where he had been napping. “Spike, take a letter.” She said. No reason not to take extra precautions. “Dear Princess Celestia...”

Hours later, Twilight retired to her Chambers and pulled out her book again. There had to be a way to ensure that the Changelings could be trusted and alleviate Shining Armor’s concerns about them. As before, she found herself opening the aged book. Perhaps an answer would be found within.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

The Destiny was a truly massive vessel, nearly the size of a planet on its own, though its huge power core left little room for the Thousands of Ponies onboard. The huge central dynamo used the emotional energy of the Ponies onboard the vessel to spin a pair of enormous energy nodes around the central capacitor, passing the energy back and forth between them on each revolution in order to power the ship.

The Vessel spent many years searching for the right world, one where the Ponies would not be forced to harm others in order to set up their colony.

Unfortunately, the decision was made for the Ponies when the Destiny struck an anomaly in space that left the ship drifting into a Solar System with a Large yellow Star and a number of planets, one of which was habitable.

With their knowledge of their technology, as well as their natural abilities granted by the technology within them, the Ponies moved the Destiny into an orbit around the planet, and, after observing it for a period of time, they sent down a landing party, in hopes of finding necessary materials for repair.

On the Surface, as they sought the materials they needed, the ponies encountered a group of strange beings. These formless faceless blobs took on the forms of the members of the team after a few minutes of time, and drew energy from their feelings for each other. As they took the ponies forms and energy, so too, came intelligence.

In a few hours these “Changelings” had gained enough that they could stand equal to the pony races, with the powers of all four types.

As the Changelings grew and learned more of the ponies, they expressed a desire to become friends, and the newborn Changeling race became the first Ally of the Ponies, and the decision was made to found the first Colony in their new home. And over time their Alliance became a struggle to survive on a world full of hostile beasts and strange powers.

The Alliance was not truly tested, however, until the Swarm arrived. A horde of ravenous giant insects that could feed on the emotional energy that gave the Ponies, and now the changelings, their power. The Ponies fought alongside the changelings as friends, battling to save each other from the beasts of the swarm. True, the ponies could have left, having long since restored their ship, but they refused to let their new friends face the storm on their own.

During the battle, the changelings fought in a desperate attempt to keep their friends from harm, mimicking the enemy so as to defeat them. Together, the Ponies and their changeling allies pushed the Swarm back burned their hives, wiping them all out. Victory achieved, they began to rebuild their ruined colony.

In the weeks that followed, though, a strange illness began to sweep through the changeling ranks. They lost the ability to generate the emotions that they relied on for sustinence, and they began to grow more and more greedy for the love and emotional energy of their pony friends. As this greed grew, the Ponies began to express concerns about their friend’s changing attitude, as well as the corruption that the illness was inflicting upon the Changelings’ “basic” forms. The Changelings had permanently adopted forms that were more of a fusion between their pony allies and the Swarm that had been their enemy, including insect-like wings and black bodies.

The Ponies concern grew as the Changelings grew distant and drew inward forming a colony of their own and venturing over to the ponies only to feed on their positive emotions and become angry when they found those emotions in short supply.

Things came to a head when it came out that Changelings had begun abducting ponies and replacing them, feeding on love and positive emotions meant for them. The ponies were outraged at this, and banned the changelings from their colony.

The changelings took their colony and moved to a distant part of the world, Establishing the first ever changeling hive.

The ponies, having lost their only ally on this world, debated the possibility of moving to another. It was not long, though, before that choice was taken from them forever.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

An urgent knock on the door drew Twilight’s attention away from the book. She had barely even managed to acknowledge the knock when it burst open to reveal Rainbow Dash.

The Rainbow-maned Pegasus looked like she had been flying at her best speed. She rushed in and looked at the Princess with an urgent look. “Twilight!” she said, “There is an army of Changelings approaching Ponyville from the West!”

Twilight looked at her friend, a worried look on her face. “Is it more of Figment’s Changelings?” she asked.

Rainbow shook her head. “Figment’s Changelings have all already passed into the Everfree Forest.” She said, “This group looks like a War Party. They have more than three times Figment’s number, and they are Riding under the Standard of Queen Chrysalis.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “That many, and coming openly?” she asked. “Are they trying to start a War?”

Rainbow shook her head. “They have the crimson Flag up.” She said.

The crimson flag was a sign that an army was not coming to attack, but to retrieve criminals who had fled across the border of one nation to another. They were surely looking to retrieve or destroy Figment and her friends without having to fight the Ponies as well. The Red Flag also meant that Chrysalis would want to parley to see if the Ponies had any information on the Fugitives.

Twilight nodded slightly to herself. “How long before they arrive?” she asked.

Rainbow thought for a moment. “They want us to be ready for them, or they would be coming by air. Still, they likely won’t be here any later than morning.”

Twilight nodded. “Then by morning, we had best be ready.”

Twilight looked at the book once again and sighed, It seemed that once again the Ponies and allied changelings would need to weather the swarm. She only hoped it would turn out better this time.

.o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o. .o0o.

A.N. So there was the origin of the Changeling Race.