Chapter 1: The First Taste
Moonlight kissed the grass in the royal gardens, illuminating the great blooms of the exotic flowers from all throughout the world in pale blue light. The night had a chill breeze, but not unbearable. Nocturnal exotic animals skittered in and out of the vegetation a healthy distance away from the ponies working, gazing from afar curiously. Ponies of every variety were setting up a very regal celebration, earth ponies and pegasi and unicorns all alike coordinating and putting decorations on everything in sight.
For most normal ponies, all it would take to set up a celebration while they sleep through the night is to wake up at dawn before they did. When a pony wakes up to bring the very dawn into the land, one has to get up even earlier to put everything together. It wasn’t meant as a surprise celebration, despite their strange last minute approach to setting it up, but rather tradition. Traditionally, the princess’ birthday is to only be prepared while the princess sleeps, and she is not to view the preparations at all. The birthday princess herself had said on many occasions that tradition didn’t matter and they could prepare for festivities however they liked, and had even suggested the unthinkable and said her birthday should not be celebrated by the palace at all. Despite her insistences, the tradition continued, and a party was prepared for the princess the night before her birthday every year.
Perhaps, at one point, the tradition had been more humble in more humble times. Perhaps they were happy with only a few banners and tablecloths in the ancient days. Ponies hired for the birthday in the modern era, however, believe extravagance is key. The very moment the birthday princess’ head hits her pillow, it is a race for the ponies to set up the most impressive party they can before she wakes up to raise the sun.
Standing in the center of the organized chaos that was the preparation for a royal birthday, was a unicorn stallion. Spiral horn alight in green magical energy, he held a clipboard and a pencil in his magical grasp. Swift Quill was the name of the unicorn, and it was quite easy to remember as his cutiemark reflects his name rather well; a quill swiftly moving across a page. One wouldn’t assume the stallion with the light baby blue coloring and slight frame would be in charge, but in charge he was. Swift Quill barked orders left and right, ponies heeding and hinging on his every word as they scrambled in the preparation. Banners, statues, a massive feast, a great big cake, it was all a massive workload smashed into a single night, and it was Swift Quill’s job to make sure all went well.
It most certainly wasn’t his only job, and he certainly could have hired another pony to take his place, but he didn’t believe they could get the job done like he could. He was Princess Celestia’s personal aide, what good was he if he couldn’t set up a simple party in a reduced amount of time? For the two years he had worked for her, he organized many things on the princess’ behalf. He would be damned if her birthday wasn’t organized by him too.
A chill breeze ruffled Swift Quill’s charcoal-colored mane, and he shivered. His horn glowed brighter as he summoned his pocket watch to him, it appearing in the air next to him in a bright green flash. He clicked it open with his magic, and noted the time. It was four forty-five, meaning the princess was likely awake now but still hadn’t raised the sun to begin the day. Swift clicked the watch closed and dismissed it as well as the clipboard and pencil with a flash, and began to shout.
“Wrap everything up!” he called. “The sun is rising in fifteen minutes!” The ponies present took this information like a jolt of electricity, speeding their efforts tenfold in a flash of last minute panic. Banners pinned, balloons placed, statues moved, chocolate fountains constructed, it seemed everything was in order. Fifteen minutes came and went in a flash.
In no time at all preparations had at last been finished, and Swift Quill dashed into the palace to receive his charge. His hooves tapped loudly against the bright white marble flooring of the palace halls, the doors and golden decorations passed in a blur. He passed a few windows and saw a glimpse of the sunrise, but he did not linger.
Soon enough he stood in front of a very large, very well decorated door. Gold trimmings and engravings were on every inch of the door, tiny images of little alicorns and the sun and moon. A massive yellow sun insignia stood proudly on the front of the door, an exact replica of the sun princess’ own cutiemark.
He had just arrived when the door had been encased in a golden magical aura, and clicked open. Swinging open with a surprising amount of velocity, the door revealed the princess herself. Fur as pure white as fresh fallen snow, mane and tail flowing through the air in a myriad of washed out ethereal colors. Her eyes were calm fuchsia, ever-gentle and smooth in their movements. An intricately engraved golden tiara with a massive purple gem sat upon her head, marking her as leader of her ponies. Upon her neck was an equally regal golden horse collar with another gem in the center, marking her also as a servant of her ponies. She ruffled her massive white wings, and stepped out of her room, her golden shoes making little ‘clicks’ on the marble as she went. She stood tall, taller than any other pony Swift Quill knew, to the point where she was almost twice his size. Finally, on her flanks was a stylized image of the sun; her cutiemark.
Princess Celestia looked down at Swift Quill with a mild amount of surprise. “Quill?” she said. “Did you wake up early for me again?”
“Waking up implies that I slept at all, your majesty,” Swift replied with an easy smile.
Celestia frowned. “That is not healthy, Swift. You need your sleep, and regardless of your job description you needn’t miss it because of me.”
Many call the princess the mother of Equestria, which was a rather apt description. The best way to describe Princess Celestia’s interactions with her subjects was using the term motherly. She praises good jobs like a mother, and scolds criminals in a manner much resembling a disappointed parent, as few pony criminals as there were. Celestia was a good soul, always concerned for everyone else, never for herself.
“Sleep is for the weak. Scolding me for not getting it isn’t going to bring those potential hours of rest back.” Swift replied in deadpan.
Celestia chuckled as she walked past him. “Sleep is for the healthy,” she said with a grin. “I would very much like my personal aide to be healthy. Would you disappoint your princess?”
“I’ll sleep tonight,” Swift said as he fell in step with her.
“You’ll sleep this afternoon,” Celestia corrected. “when staying up all night hits you hardest.” She cuffed him lightly in the back of the head with her wing. “I’ll bring you a blanket wherever you collapse.”
“’Collapse’. Hah, ye of little faith!” Quill called confidently. “I’ve got a birthday fit for royalty prepared, organized chiefly by me in ten hours without your precious sleep. I think I can make it the rest of the day.”
The princess shook her head and laughed. “You’re too good to me, Swift. I don’t deserve you.”
“Hardly. Now officially your schedule is clear for the day, but unfortunately the game of politics waits for nopony. It shouldn’t be too bad, though. Enjoy yourself, humor the snooty nobles at the public event, and in about four hours I’ll give you my birthday present.”
“Oh, Swift, you shouldn’t have.”
Soon enough the pair had arrived back to the palace gardens. The second Celestia’s golden horseshoe touched the grass, she was surrounded by all types of noble pony. Posh outfits and accessories were on every pony present, all of them attempting to look as nice as possible for the princess. Most of the snacks and refreshments went ignored in the beginning as what basically amounted to an attention feeding frenzy formed around Celestia. Swift Quill took this opportunity to slip away from the crowd.
The day went on as one might expect it to. While the event was masterfully planned and very expensive, all the money and planning in the world couldn’t make a party with Canterlot nobility interesting. The majority of the ponies present either spent their time competing for Princess Celestia’s attention or speaking to each other in hushed tones, most likely gossiping about another pony’s choice of attire or lack of presence or something of that matter. Princess Celestia herself handled everything gracefully, seeming to have an unlimited well of patience. She smiled, conversed, and looked like she was having a good time.
Swift Quill knew better. He knew she would never say it, but her birthday parties bore her. It’s all tradition and politicking, something she deals with and has been dealing with every day for over a thousand years. Just another event she has to attend as a formality. It was why he had worked so hard in the night; he intended for this birthday to be different.
Swift stood on the sidelines of the party, helping when necessary but keeping out of conversation. It wasn’t as if Canterlot nobility was at all interesting in speaking with staff. He was honestly rather glad for that; the majority of the nobles are unpleasant snobby individuals. There were a few exceptions of course, but they were rare.
A few times throughout the event, Swift’s eyelids drifted too far south for comfort. He quickly excused himself to go to the restroom, in hopes of splashing himself with some cold water to wake him up. He glided through the noble partygoers and slipped out of the gardens, managing to find a restroom easily.
The restrooms at the palace were unlike those at other public locations; it was a palace after all, one couldn’t do with damned bathroom stalls after all. The restroom looked like one that belonged in an expensive hotel. White tiling with a red mat on the floor, a single toilet, sink and mirror. Some of the other restrooms throughout the palace have showers and baths in them, though the one Swift had chosen lacked one. He locked the restroom door behind him, and trotted to the sink.
Green eyes looked into the mirror above the sink, and inequine solid blue ones stared back at him. The pony in the restroom had light blue fur, while the ‘pony’ in the reflection had black solid carapace armoring his whole body. The pony in the restroom was a unicorn, and thus had no wings. The creature in the pony’s reflection however, had small insectoid wings on his back. All of his hooves had holes in them, as if chunks of his legs simply stopped existing.
Had any other pony been there, they simply would have seen Swift Quill looking at his reflection- not some creature, but an actual reflection. What Swift Quill himself saw was obviously different, because he was not a pony, nor was Swift Quill even his real name.
His real name was Rui, and he was a changeling. Changelings were a race of exoskeletal equine empathivores, which was to say a race of bug-looking ponies that feed off of emotions, specifically love. All changelings can use a special kind of magic that gave them their name; shape shifting. They could imitate creatures of similar size almost perfectly. The only ones who could successfully see through these disguises, are changelings themselves, hence why he viewed his reflection as his true form.
One might imagine his intentions are less than pure if he was impersonating a pony, but truly he wasn’t there to sabotage anything, steal anyone’s life, or really do anything except live. Swift Quill wasn’t a pony he replaced, but one he created, an identity owned only by him. Swift Quill was Rui, and Rui was Swift Quill. Why would he be separated from his own kind? Well, the reason for that began with his name.
Rui means sharp in the changeling language. It doesn’t mean sharp-witted, or sharp-tongued, it just means sharp. It is the most common name is changeling history. His full name is Rui Sibai Wushi Jiu, which is basically Rui Four Hundred Fifty-Nine. He was named such, because he was the four hundred fifty-ninth changeling born to that particular hive named Rui. He shared his first name with twelve other living changelings in that hive, all of which also had numbers in their name.
This was why he left his old hive. To put it bluntly, changeling society sucks. The average changeling was treated as a mindless drone, meant to work. Most changelings would simply spend their lives maintaining the hive. Infiltrators, those who bring love back to the hive, are chosen at their hatching, and ruthlessly brainwashed from infancy to believe ponies as inferior creatures to prevent the infiltrators from defecting once they inevitably realized how much better ponies had it, while the rest of the hive was simply kept ignorant of their way of life.
Rui’s leaving was the product of special circumstances. Too many infiltrators had been captured by the ponies and not enough love was being brought to the hive. Emergency infiltrators had to be trained to make ends meet, and Rui was one of those selected to be a new infiltrator. He was almost fully grown when they had chosen him, thus his training came without the brainwashing. When he went into the field, he stayed loyal to his kind at first... until he started reading pony books. Then he saw how much better life could be if he was a pony and lived amongst them. Then, he figured, why couldn’t he live amongst them? Why not take a more... permanent role in pony society?
His life before the last two years were like a dream to Swift. Sometimes he woke up in the morning and forgot he was a changeling at all... at least until he passes something reflective. It was a constant reminder that he was not one of them. He used his magic to turn on the faucet, and used his hooves to splash the water onto his face. He shook his head, allowing a full body shiver to pass before drying his face on a nearby hanging towel.
Princess Celestia gave Swift everything he had. She had hired him as her personal aide two years ago when he was barely beginning to pretend to be a pony. She never ceased to amaze him; she was so kind and wonderful and the opposite of a changeling queen. It was no wonder the ponies loved their leader so much. Now even he, a changeling, was loyal to her whether or not she knew of his true species. Ponies have a saying, that one ‘catches more flies with honey than with vinegar’. Princess Celestia was living proof of this.
Which was why he wanted to make this birthday special to her.
After drying off, Swift left the restroom and returned to the party, watching from afar. As an empathivore, he was capable of sensing the emotions of everyone around him. Feelings of happiness, disdain, anger, jealously, and even love constantly hammered against his senses like voices in the crowded room. The emotions of the party were largely positive, though negativity tended to follow nobles no matter how much fun they had. He felt flashes of anger and outrage from arguing nobles, of curiosity and intrigue from gossiping nobles, and an ever-present layer of boredom radiating from Princess Celestia herself. Though as Swift tasted Celestia’s mood more thoroughly, he detected mild anticipation. That was good; she was looking forward to his surprise.
Soon enough four hours had passed, formalities had been fulfilled, and he led Princess Celestia away from the party he spent half the night coordinating. He told her he couldn’t bring the present to her, he had to bring her to the present. The journey was largely made in silence, while Swift enjoyed the feelings of anticipation and excitement growing in the princess. Eventually, they made it to the designated part of the palace.
“After you, your highness,” Swift gave a very low and elegant bow, a very over-the-top move he pulled just to feel the light tremors of humor radiate from the princess’ emotions, as well as to see her roll her eyes. It was a rare sight as she never did so condescendingly, only when someone was being as she called it, a ‘silly pony’.
Massive gilded double doors stood before them, their height three times that of the princess. Gold trimmings decorated the massive door with all manner of art. It was the door to one of the palace’s ballrooms. Celestia’s horn started glowing, and the massive doors were encased in a similar glow. A large ‘CLICK’ echoed through the marble halls, and the doors creaked inwards to-
“SURPRISE!”
-the party he spent the other half of the night organizing. The one that really mattered.
The first thing one would see is the large white banner hanging from the ceiling, with “Happy Birthday Princess Celestia” written in bold multicolored lettering. Balloons, streamers, confetti, and all other manner of colorful celebratory material were all over the normally regal ballroom. Tables were set up with pink tablecloths, with pastries, snacks, and refreshments on them. The table in the middle of the room had a massive chocolate cake with white frosting about three times the size of Celestia herself.
In the room was many ponies. Front and center was the second diarch of Equestria and sister to Princess Celestia, Princess Luna. Her mane and tail blew in an ethereal breeze much like her sisters, only hers was a starfield rather than a wash of many different colors. Her fur was midnight blue, her eyes teal. She wore very similar regalia to her sister, only instead of being made of gold and jewels, they were simply made of a pitch black (undoubtedly expensive) metal with silver embellishments and moon insignias. Her cutiemark was a black blotch with the moon in the center, obviously representing the night sky.
Behind the sister were six other individuals led by a purple unicorn by the name of Twilight Sparkle, the personal student of Princess Celestia and also practically her surrogate daughter. Behind her were the other Elements of Harmony, the recent heroes of the land. Swift remembered he got the job as Celestia’s personal aide almost right after they had purified the evil force corrupting Princess Luna. The pink one -Pinkie Pie, Swift reminded himself- helped him set up most of the party. It was her talent, after all, or at least that’s what Swift assumed the balloons on her flank represented.
The other ponies present were the members of Canterlot nobility that notably weren’t complete pricks, and many members of palace staff that Celestia had befriended. The monocled pony was there, Fancy Pants, as well as his Prench date Fleur De Lis. The head of the cleaning staff Feather Dust was there as well, smiling humbly and probably baffled she’s at any royalty’s celebration, let alone Celestia’s personal birthday party.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY PRINCESS CELESTIA!” The ponies all shouted at once.
While Princess Celestia’s expression twisted with pleasant surprise, her emotions where far less graceful. A dizzying cocktail of excitement, heartfelt gratefulness, and pure happiness. Swift was certain in that moment that he succeeded in making his boss’ day one to remember. Satisfied with the result of his efforts, he attempted to back out of the room, only to be blocked by a massive white feathery wing.
“I have a hard time believing,” Celestia began. “that you would go through the trouble of organizing such a party with only my close friends, and believe yourself not among their ranks.”
With her signature smile, the one Swift Quill was entirely certain no being alive could say no to, she used her wing to gently push me back into the room. Her horn glowed, and the massive doors shut behind them all. It was only then did Princess Celestia’s birthday party begin in earnest.
The day had gone swimmingly, and the sun had been lowered to make way for the moon. The party tapered off and the guests went back to their homes, wherever they may be. Soon enough, the hour had gotten late, and it was time to turn in.
Swift Quill walked with Celestia as she was returning to her chambers, smiling at the cocktail of positive emotion she was feeling. She had been lively in the party, yet hardly seemed tired. Soon enough the seemingly infinite marble halls of Canterlot Palace led them to their destination. The great door with the sun insignia upon it stood before the princess and her aide.
“Swift,” Celestia began. “I want to thank you for what you have done today.”
Swift smiled. “Well, miss Pinkie Pie had helped a great deal on the-“
“While I appreciate that Pinkie Pie had helped with your party, Swift, I’m afraid I wasn’t thanking her, I was thanking you,” the princess smiled. “Gratitude always has been hard for you to accept with grace, though.”
Quill was certain that had he been a pony, he would have blushed. “I simply wanted to make the day special for you.”
Celestia smiled larger and leaned her head down to her aide’s level. “It had been so long since I’d enjoyed my own birthday I can’t even remember the last time I had fun at one. You came, and made my day very special, Swift.” She leaned toward him, and softly nuzzled his neck. “So thank you. Thank you very much.”
Then, without waiting for a reply, Princess Celestia had entered her chambers and closed the door. Swift Quill stood where he was, frozen.
It was during that soft little heartfelt nuzzle that one could view as completely platonic, did Swift taste something. It was the sweetest taste he had ever tasted, one that made his carapace shiver. It was impossible to describe the taste of an emotion to those who merely eat food, yet Swift found himself struggling to do so just to come to terms with it. It tasted like a warm summer’s day spent in the park with someone special. It tasted like fresh coastal air in a romantic boardwalk restaurant. It was so pure, so good a sensation that Swift had to hold himself very still to keep from losing his balance from the intensity of the sensations he was receiving.
Then, Celestia had gone into her chambers and it stopped. Yet, Swift still stood there, frozen. He knew the taste, there was only one like it.
Love. He had tasted love. But it was still different than how he had tasted it before, more intense. Somehow, the taste had made him feel completely... right, in a way that had never happened before.
Then, it occurred to him. The other times he had tasted love, it was always intended for someone else. Changelings were parasites; they fed off of the positive emotions ponies had for each other. Not the love Swift had just absorbed, no. That love was made for him, it was directed at him, and not towards anyone else. He had to wonder if he was the first changeling to ever taste love in such a way.
Then, the gravity of the situation finally came down on him.
Princess Celestia, easily one of the most powerful beings on the planet, the co-ruler of a nation that hates changelings... was in love with him. Not with a pony he’s impersonating, but him.
Had Swift’s biology worked anything like a pony’s, he almost certainly would have fainted after that realization.
