The Fall of Morninglight

(( This entry is dated August 19th of last year ))

Morgan Castle in the Empire of Roanoak

These last few weeks have been rife with new discoveries, even for one as old as I. And no small amount of insight into the character of a few ponies within my court as well.

But, as always, I must begin at the beginning and proceed through the events of late. This is a must if future readers are to have a proper understanding of the situation I find myself in…

It all began some few months ago, when the Empire gave solace to six members of a destroyed Changeling hive that was located some distance to the west, well beyond the borders of Roanoak.

From a purely diplomatic point of view, those six Changelings I allowed to live amongst us were no different than any other race resident within my Empire… The Griffons from the far north, the few Dragons from the far south, the Kirin from the Tiber peaks on the western shores of this continent, and the Deer from Cervidas across the ocean are all dissimilar cultures born of both their inherent natures and the lands they hail from.

In this regard each race is unique, with unique wants, needs, and desires. But no matter how different they appear or act – at the core of every sapient race I have encountered over my many long years, there is a singular driving force to seek a peaceful existence.

But that peaceful existence tends to be broken when the driving force of one race encounters that same driving force from another race. And this will often lead to another, less favorable aspect of all sapient races – disagreements, conflict, and yes – even war.

So it falls to us, the Elder Alicorns, to in effect Wage Peace in the world – to bring our power to bear to resolve these conflicts of ideals and to help channel the efforts of the various races into a congruent, harmonious accord.

This is why, after investing no small effort in determining that their intent was simply to survive, and that they offered no more threat than any other race living within my lands, that I offered solace to those six surviving Changelings of the Hive west of Roanoak…

Yes, they do feed on emotions – but all things being equal, their ends are best met by promoting the wellbeing of that which feeds them. When not pressed by over-population or over-predation, they will inherently seek to lift the spirits of those they encounter, especially those they grow close to. And to even defend the flock as it were.

It is my understanding that the positive emotions of love and happiness are more sought after, but harder to come by and require effort. Meanwhile fear and anger are quickly and easily fostered, but not as fulfilling.

I find no quarrel with this notion, just as I find no quarrel with the Dragon’s requirement for red meat - it is a function of the species and therefore is not inherently evil…

Evil is a choice, not a way of being.

So, given this understanding I allowed these six Changelings to live among us – in secrecy – because their kind is not well understood and after the event in Canterlot they are justifiably feared, and I did not desire a panic.

But once the proverbial ice was broken and the citizenry did not immediately turn on them, these Changelings began to be more open with their existence. Some acquired work in the nearby town of Morninglight, a few even found employ in the Imperial Guard. But in doing this they began to attract others of their kind, and within a week the six had become ten.

It was about a month after they arrived that a new Changeling came forward, but this Changeling was a Queen, one who is a leader of their kind and far more powerful that the others. She also happened to be a romantic interest of one Lieutenant Ruby Spark.

At the time, Lieutenant Spark was an up and coming member of the Imperial Guard, highly decorated, and a veteran of several Imperial actions abroad. So after several intense discussions between Imperious, the Captain of my Imperial Guard, and myself, it was decided to leave well enough alone and to see just how this would turn out.

You see Lieutenant Spark, as a member of the Guard, is highly monitored and supervised by the chain of command. As such we felt that this turn of events might give us a bit more insight into the Empire’s newest citizens. So we, in effect, determined to use Lieutenant Spark's affections as a research subject...

I do admit it does seem rather disingenuous of me to use someone so, but as I have made mention in my journals past – mine is a path of difficult choices and unfavorable decisions for the greater good of all. Each decision I make is done with the knowledge that my ponies may think ill of me – until sufficient time has passed for my reasons to become evident - which may be generations - and is one of the burdens of the crown…

But shortly after this those ten Changelings became a dozen, and then two-dozen…

And with this increase in numbers came an increase in complications…

You see, Changelings come with a bevy of odd and somewhat frightening talents; mind control and the ability to assume the shape of anyone they come across being chief amongst them. And these talents generally serve to keep ponies rather paranoid... After all, any odd behavior is immediately suspect when you cannot determine if your friend is under Changeling influence, or in fact a Changeling.

There are also rogue elements to consider, as not every Changeling is quite so willing to simply coexist as the first six I encountered… I have seen reports indicating there may be operatives from two other Hives working within Roanoak now, for reasons that are not yet apparent to those who are investigating.

The complication for us is that we cannot accurately determine one Changeling from another, given his or her ability to be anyone at a moment's notice. So while I may have given sanction to six, there are now many, many more of them and we cannot tell them apart or isolate them with any certainty…

And many of them have been using this to their advantage, sowing fear and discontent amongst the local ponies to feed upon.

This, of course, has resulted in a lot of calls for the Guard… And when the Guard is forced to detain a Changeling for either questioning or crime, it becomes something of an issue for everyone on both sides of the fence. Some see the Guard not doing enough to safeguard them from a menace that wants to use them for food. Others see the guard as singling out Changelings for things that a pony would never be arrested for.

Ultimately, this ‘wagging of tongues’ has the general population thinking that the Guard is spending a lot of time persecuting versus prosecuting – especially to those who live and work closely with the Changelings.

This is, of course, about as far from the truth as one can get; but memories are short, fragile things and only the more outlandish items stand out over time… So the public opinion has become one of the Imperial Guard, and by extension myself, having a vendetta against Changelings.

And here is where things begin to get complex…

Roughly a month after her appearance, Miss Silvermane – the Changeling Queen I mentioned above who had taken to using the name of her pony disguise – approached me with a request to access the catacombs beneath Castle Morgan, citing that the dark seclusion of being below ground was comforting to her.

As she has never been anything but honest with me, even revealing her true self to me early on as to allay my suspicions, I agreed to her request as a small token of my trust in her.

Two weeks passed, and then the Castle Guard informed me that on a patrol of the catacombs they discovered she had created a full Changeling Hive beneath my castle…

I was, needless to say, quite cross with regards to this bit of news.

She and I discussed this, at length, after the fact – and during these discussions she cited ‘instinct’ as the reason for what she did. This somewhat worries me as I do not know what else her ‘instincts’ will lead her to do in the future without my blessing… But I did eventually come to the conclusion that her goal of simply creating a place for her people is something I can both understand, and condone - in its present form.

If she deviates from the plans she has outlined to me and ill comes of this, the trembling of the earth as her Hive is destroyed will be felt in Equestria…

And while this was going on, the Equestrian Diarchy had offered the leader of my Imperial Guard, Captain Imperious, an assignment in Equestria and he had accepted it. So now he and I needed to find a suitable replacement for him whilst he was away for a few months.

Lieutenant Spark was the next in command, but as I mentioned earlier the Lieutenant was also very romantically involved with the Changeling that just built a Hive under my castle without so much as a hello…

This is widely considered to be a less than optimum method for advancement.

But Lieutenant Spark has a simply stellar record, and while a bit soft yet by Imperious' measure the Lieutenant has the marks to make an excellent leader. So it was eventually determined between Imperious and I that both Lieutenant Spark, and one Lieutenant Diomades Concord, would jointly lead the Imperial Guard in his absence.

Lieutenant Concord is a wanderer who washed up in Ronaoak many moons ago, joined the guard on a whim, and has since proven to be a very forthright and soldierly pony as he has risen through the ranks.

The thought was that Lieutenant Spark could offset Lieutenant Concord’s lack of experience, and Lieutenant Concord could act as a line of defense between anything Lieutenant Spark’s relationship with Miss Silvermane, and her instincts, might decide to do.

Remember, mind control is a very real aspect of Changelings, and the most powerful of the local Changelings is spending every day with someone who will be one of the two leaders of the most powerful military south of Equestria.

Personal feelings aside - this is a rather immense security problem.

I was taking a huge risk in this, but my heart was telling me everything would be alright – after all, while Miss Silvermane had erred with her Hive under my castle we had reached an accord, Lieutenant Spark was a decorated hero in the Imperial ranks with no prior indication of sedition, and there was still a failsafe in place by way of Lieutenant Concord.

And so this plan was enacted a week ago as Captain Imperious set sail for Equestria.

And here is where everything takes a turn…

I discovered last evening that, apparently, it is possible to transform a pony into a Changeling - as unbelievable as that sounds. And Lieutenant Concord sought audience with me to seek my permission to undergo this conversion and join Miss Silvermane’s Hive.

Everything crumbled at that moment. The buffer we had put in place to prevent ceding control of the Imperial Guard to a foreign power not only had failed – it was willfully looking to cede control.

Ultimately I informed Lieutenant Concord that I would not stand between him and his desires… But I would not willingly turn over control of the Imperial Guard to his new Queen either.

He is, as always, free do to as he wants, but he has to weigh the ends that his means will create: Should he pursue this course of action, I will be forced to remove him from command…

After he departed to think about all that we had discussed, my next guests for the evening arrived; Lieutenant Spark and Miss Silvermane, who sought to discuss the same thing as Lieutenant Concord.

This meeting did not go very well, mostly because Lieutenant Spark my misgivings of Lieutenant Concord’s opinion that he would continue to have free will as one of Miss Silvermane's drones.

To Lieutenant Spark, my worries were moot; nothing like that could ever happen…

During this debate I was compelled to tell Lieutenant Spark the truth behind the odd co-leadership that happened when the Captain departed. And the Lieutenant did not take my stating that Miss Silvermane was a security risk to the crown very well – which I understand… But as the Lieutenant got upset enough to threaten resignation, it merely illustrated my point; the Lieutenant’s bearing and reason had been severely impacted by even calling Miss Silvermane into question.

At that moment it became painfully clear that if Miss Silvermane actually became a problem – Lieutenant Spark would not be able to serve the Empire, or its citizens, in an adequate capacity.

So, in one night both of the leaders of my Guard had been compromised to an extent I did not even feel was possible. And Imperious was somewhere, on a mission for Canterlot, and unreachable.

I have made note in the past of the flaw that we Elders possess – the Flaw of Heart as we call it. We are nearly ageless and incredibly powerful – yet we are cursed to feel the same emotions the other races feel, and we often allow those feelings to steer our judgment… This gives us the potential to make the same mistakes anyone might, save that our repercussions can be orders of magnitude greater…

In this case I had allowed my desire to see fairness for a few, six to be exact, to cloud my vision of what is best for all of my ponies...

The Flaw of Heart…

I cannot allow this to continue…

All of this has served to illustrate that my dislike of the plans Imperious proposed is simply another failing of feeling, another Flaw of the Heart. As the situation progresses and my Empire buckles under the strain of Changelings, there simply must be a method for identification; a tally of potential unit strength on both sides and a way to determine who is loyal to whom.

Imperious was right. Tomorrow I shall commence the enactment of the Changeling Registry.