The sun shone brightly in the middle of the brilliant blue sky, with just a few fluffy clouds drifting lazily about, as a small purple alicorn streaked over the rolling hills below.
Well, perhaps 'streaked' was the wrong word. In the past year Twilight Sparkle had come a long way from her early-flight clumsiness, but she was still no Rainbow Dash. If pressed, Twilight would probably have had to admit it was more of an 'eager flutter' than really a 'streak'. All the same, she was making good time, and so couldn't really complain. Looking down at the terrain briefly, she thought to herself that if her estimate of her location was correct, she should arrive in Vanhoover within the next hour.
As she got closer to her destination, Twilight couldn't help but think about her mission, vague as it was. The previous day, Princess Celestia had written Twilight a letter. It had read:
My dearest student, Twilight Sparkle
I'm afraid I must ask a favour of you. I had planned to visit the border town of Vanhoover tomorrow to check up on a certain side project of mine, however an unexpected occurrence has rendered me unable to leave Canterlot for the next few days. As Equestria's newest princess, would you be willing to go in my stead?
Princess Celestia
P.S. You'll know it when you see it.
Though she was bothered by all the things the letter hadn't explained, Twilight wasn't about to refuse a favour to the princess, so she had written a quick letter back responding in the affirmative before making preparations to leave the following day.
Which had brought her to where she was now, flying across the grassy hills, when the taller buildings of Vanhoover visible near the edge of her vision. The town wasn't especially large, from the look of things Twilight guessed it was about half again the size of Ponyville, and it's architecture was a patchwork mix of rustic cottages and more modern structures. As she approached, Twilight noted that it was missing the typical Equestrian mix of buildings styled around a theme or made of atypical materials. In fact, the only part of the city that really seemed to stand out was the large alabaster wall, blocking the entrance to a valley on the opposite side of the city from the direction Twilight was approaching.
As she got closer to the city Twilight began to see the ponies of Vanhoover going about their business. Here was a grey stallion working the fields on the edge of town. There, a young blue unicorn colt and an orange pegasus filly were having a lively conversation in the shade of a tree. Over there, a glossy black mare with pale blue wings had stopped to admire a bed of flowers arranged beside a house-
Twilight did a double take on that last one, and barely avoided dropping out of the sky as she, wings included, stopped moving at all for a moment. That wasn't just a glossy coat, it was carapace! Twilight was just barely able to make out the jagged horn on top of its head, and though she couldn't see them from this distance she was sure there were a pair of sharp fangs extending from its mouth.
A changeling, here! Twilight thought to herself, as she recovered her forward momentum. Just what is it doing out in the open? She increased her speed, thinking that whatever that signified, it couldn't mean anything good.
As she flew into the town proper the situation began to look even more dire. Changelings were everywhere! Running about in the streets, flying over the buildings, the town was positively infested with them! Twilight was just thankful none of them seemed to have spotted her yet.
She flew as fast as she could, headed toward city hall. This was something that had to be addressed right away. As much as Twilight hated the idea of potentially letting down her mentor, Celestia's errand would have to wait. She burst into the city hall building, and after a frantic look around ran toward the first room she spotted which looked like a mayoral office.
Twilight ran into the room, closing the door most of the way behind her and peering nervously out the door. “Mayor! Your town is full of changelings!”
“Well I should hope so,” came a deep female voice, with a slight thrumming quality to it, from behind her. “Otherwise they've started hiding again and I'd rather not relive THAT pony-relations disaster.”
Twilight whirled around, recognizing the voice in an instant. Seated behind a large desk sat a tall, slender changeling, with a much larger and more jagged horn than most. Her eyes, unlike those of most changelings, had dark green irises surrounding thin, almost slitted pupils. She was also the only changeling Twilight had ever seen with hair in their natural form, which was the same pale blue as her hole-filled wings and hung down around her neck in ragged strands.
Twilight, now frozen in panic, had stumbled upon Queen Chrysalis herself.
Further confusing Twilight, the changeling queen had a warm smile on her face. “Also, you've got the wrong room, the mayor's office is one door over.” She waited a moment for the purple alicorn to react.
It took Twilight a moment to recover, after which she took up a defensive stance and demanded, “What have you done to this town!?”
“I suppose that means you haven't been informed.” Chrysalis sighed. “This is going to take some time. Well, I needed a break from paperwork anyways.” She moved toward the door as she spoke. “Come on, there's this wonderful little coffee shop down the street, it's the perfect place for us to catch up.” When Twilight did nothing but maintain her defensive stance, the changeling queen's grin took on a maliciousness. “Or, you could try to fight a changeling queen alone, element-less and in the middle of, as you yourself put it, a town full of changelings. That would be an equally amusing diversion, though one with consequences I think we'd both rather avoid.”
That sounded more like the Queen Chrysalis that Twilight remembered. Still feeling bewildered and suspicious, she nonetheless found drinks preferable to combat, even with an old enemy. If nothing else, it would give her a chance to think, and maybe figure out what was going on. After a moment's though, Twilight nodded slowly and followed Chrysalis to the door, at which point the changeling's smile regained its previous warmth, and the pair left city hall.
As the two walked down Vanhoover's main street, Twilight finally took notice of a few things. First, while there were indeed changelings everywhere, they didn't really seem to be actually doing anything. Or at least, they weren't doing anything she would have expected during a changeling occupation. A few of them seemed to be on errands of some sort, running through the streets carrying objects of various descriptions. Others seemed to be just milling about the town, walking or flying with no real direction, content just exploring and taking in the sights and sounds.
Second, despite all these changelings being out of disguise and plainly visible to the local earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns who were also going about their business, nopony even made mention of it, much less panicked as Twilight would have expected them to. Looking at it now, it was almost as if it was any other pony town, only where about two fifths of the population had black carapace where coats of various colours should have been.
And here was Twilight herself, letting a changeling queen lead her to a coffee shop. The whole experience was getting surreal.
After a few minutes walk they arrived at their destination, a small two-story building, with a red awning extending over a number of tables and chairs. The tables were mostly empty at this time of day, with just a pegasus and an earth pony having a loud but friendly argument at the table on the far left. Chrysalis shared a greeting with the barista, middle aged, green unicorn with a white flower cutie mark, and ordered a pot of her usual tea before sitting at a nearby table and motioning for Twilight to follow suit.
“So,” Chrysalis began. “I imagine you have a lot of questions.”
Twilight tried to ask a question, but there were so many competing for dominance in her head that she couldn't decide which to ask first, and ended up just opening and closing her mouth several times. Finally she blurted out. “So you aren't angry at me? At all?”
“Twilight, why would I be angry at you?”
Twilight gave her a blank stare. “Now I know you're lying to me.”
Chyrsalis raised her hooves defensively. “Alright, I admit I bore a lot of hostility toward you for several months after the Canterlot disaster. I've had a lot of time to reflect since then however, and I realized that if it weren't for you none of this-” she waved a hoof toward the town, where changelings could be seen coexisting peacefully with other pony races, “-would have been possible. Perhaps despite our mutual intentions at the time, I owe a lot to you.”
Twilight took a moment to process this information. “So, what exactly IS all this?” She mimicked Chrysalis' hoof motion as she spoke. “I mean...I guess it doesn't really look like a takeover, but that doesn't make things any more clear.”
“Celestia called it reform, but I think it's more accurate to say it's integration. We haven't really changed.”
“You don't attack towns, or kidnap ponies anymore, if Vanhoover is anything to go by.”
“We don't need to kidnap ponies anymore. Our motivations haven't changed. We do whatever is needed to survive.” Chrysalis replied.
Twilight realized this distressingly meant that the changelings here would be perfectly capable of violence again in future if they saw a need. More positively however, it also implied that as their aggression was only ever a means to an end. That means they wouldn't attack anypony they didn't have to, and Twilight knew that cooperation always worked overall better than hostility.
Something Chrysalis said earlier caught Twilight's attention. “Wait, Celestia knows about this 'integration'?”
“Oh yes. In fact, you could say she was the one who organized it, though it was an old guardspony named Honor Bound who arranged the early meetings.”
Something finally clicked in Twilight's head. “THIS was the 'pet project' she wanted me to check up on?!” she exclaimed, more to herself than anything. At Chrysalis' now puzzled look, she explained. “The whole reason I'm here today is that Celestia wanted me to check up on something, as she couldn't herself as some urgent business came up.”
“And she told you nothing about what was happening here?” Chrysalis chuckled and shook her head. “Typical Celestia.” This elicited a frown from Twilight, which the changeling queen seemed to ignore. “I'm afraid I only have time to give you the short version.
“After our expulsion from Canterlot, the hive ended up scattered throughout the Northern forests. We regrouped as much as we could, but it wasn't long before the Royal Guard found us and began a counterattack.” Chrysalis shrugged her shoulders. “Which is understandable in many ways, an aggressive hive is nothing to be trifled with. It's better to deny it a chance to rebuild than risk facing its full strength later. Still, between that and the expulsion itself, I lost a lot of good changelings then...but I digress. What followed was a week-long running battle that we had no hope of winning in our current state. When they finally did corner us however, we were spared by a fortunate accident: the Guard recovered a scout wing of theirs that we had captured and placed in pods, but then been forced to abandon. The scouts, many of whom had been severely wounded when we found them, emerged from the pods almost fully recovered.
“Of course, for changelings it is common knowledge that the pod fluids aid and accelerate healing. However, as a changeling already produces a similar fluid within our bodies, the pods provide us no such benefit, and we had never considered its potential use as anything but an aid to feeding. Honor Bound on the other hand, the commander of this particular Guard division and regularly witnessing the crippling and deadly injuries brought about it battle, immediately identified a use.” Chrysalis paused for a drink, before continuing. “He came to us with an offer: we keep the guard healthy, and in exchange not only are we spared but under his protection, provided we didn't otherwise violate Equestrian law.
“Celestia caught wind of it however, and never one to let an opportunity slip by, she insisted on being involved in the arrangement. Where Honor Bound was planning to simply hide us in an outpost, the princess would settle for nothing less than an attempt at full integration. She arranged to have the lot of us, Honor Bound's company included, relocated to Vanhoover and the hive set up in and around the local hospital. The population was...hesitant to accept an entire changeling hive into their midst, but after a few hiccups-” Twilight immediately remembered what Chrysalis had said earlier about changelings in disguise and a 'pony-relations disaster', “-we were ultimately welcomed as Equestrian citizens and the newest members of the town.” As the story finished, the changeling queen was watching Twilight, gauging her reaction.
The purple alicorn frowned in thought for a moment. “Okay, so now you use pods to help ponies instead of kidnap them. But that doesn't explain how you've managed to solve the whole hunger-for-love issue, without hurting anypony.”
“Oh but it does. Though technically the pods only heal physical injuries, employed like this the whole effect is so much more. Pegasi, who might have never flied again, don't lose their wings. Parents can still see and talk to their children, even after they suffer mortal injuries. We keep ponies together with with what they love, and in turn there is love created in excess. As a result of our work there are a number of ponies who willingly let changelings feed on them. There are also some allowances made for feeding off of podded ponies, though that is heavily regulated, and any changelings caught violating those rules are severely punished...” Irritation flashed across Chrysalis' face. “...or they would be, if Celestia hadn't insisted that those accused be turned over to her instead. And who knows, my judgement has been wrong before, maybe she has appropriate solution in this case as well.”
Twilight nodded. “One last question then, for now: how was I important to all of this again?”
“If it weren't for you, my original plan would have succeeded.” Chrysalis' face grew sombre. “As I said, I've had a lot of time to reflect. At some point I thought to myself 'what would have happened had the invasion succeeded?' I expect Equestrian love would have lasted us a few decades, maybe even a century, but what then? I could see only two possibilities: either we find another food source and being the process anew, or we finally hit a dead end, and starve after we'd bled Equestria dry. Even in the better scenario reprieve was only temporary. We would have remained trapped in a cycle, constantly having to fight to avoid starvation. Your actions began the events that would break that cycle, although neither of us realized it at the time.”
The bell tower chimed three times, interrupting the conversation.
“No rest for the wicked.” Chrysalis left a few bits on the table, and stood up. “I'm afraid I have a lot of work that I must get back to, joining a formerly hostile nation generates a lot of paperwork, but enjoy your time in Vanhoover! Presumably you'll want to investigate the hospital at some point. I'll let them know you're coming, and make sure you have full access.” The changeling queen gave a quick wave of a hoof as she trotted down the street, back toward city hall.
Twilight took a moment to collect her thoughts and finish her tea. Minutes later she left the coffee shop, and began searching for a store which sold writing supplies. She would need to take a lot of notes before this day was over.
Dear Princess Celestia
As per your request, I checked up on the state of changeling integration in Vanhoover, and I am happy to report that it seems to be going quite smoothly. The local ponies have embraced the changelings as new citizens and members of the town. After a number of conversations with residents, drones, and even Queen Chrysalis herself (as well as a few discreet detection spells of my own to confirm) I am confident in saying that there is no significant hostility or underhanded behaviour on the part of either the changelings or the local ponies.
Today I learned that with patience and understanding, even your worst enemies can become allies or even friends.
Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle
Author's Note
I have mixed feelings about this one. I like a lot of the ideas that went into this, and I think story format might actually be a more interesting way of presenting them. On the other hand, I feel like I might have gotten a lot of details wrong in relation to the show, unnecessarily. I'm also not sure if I managed to make it engaging enough as a story in its own right.
But this is a flash fiction, and that is bound to happen sometimes.
This was written for EQD's flash fiction event #5, and in a sense this is the first thing to pop into my head, after I made some modifications to the concept based on clarification of a rule. A lot of it was written on the fly. It's also a day late, so we'll see if it makes it into the event or not. (Oops...)
Regardless, I hope you enjoy(ed) or found it interesting, despite the potential derp on my part.
