Empty Vessel

by OrionWolf

Rating: everyone
Tags: Romance, Slice of Life
Length: 530

What can be done to fill an empty vessel full of holes.

Changelings are an enigmatic race. Not much is really known outside of their assault on Canterlot. To be a changeling is to be the hive, to feed on love. But if you take away what makes a changeling a changeling, what do you have left?

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-06-03 05:53:25 UTC

1 Burning light

The searing light was bearing down on me, passing through buildings and ponies alike without doing more than ruffling their fur. But the light most definitely was having an effect.  The white mare with an open book cutie mark that had been chased by a group of changelings stood suddenly alone, her emerald eyes shining in wonder as the group behind her was swiftly launched away.

Scattered across the growing sphere of radiance were a multitude of black impressions. As the pulse of light washed over my black chitinous brethren it swept them up with the care of a manticore’s defending its nest. Death was something I knew, but did not fear for when you are connected to every member of the hive you experience death every day. Death is the winking out of a light, a consciousness that no longer echoes, a small thing.

Everyone had felt the queen’s mental scream of rage, fury, and utter defeat moments ago. This was beyond the normal scope of what the queen would willingly send. Brazen confidence and utmost self-assuredness the only thoughts to ever be shared down to the hive. This pain, this emotion pouring out of her link was something unexpected. Every mind connected to the queen turned as one to the source of the mental anguish in time to see her blasted out of the tower window riding a rapidly growing prismatic explosion of light.

We had failed. The queen had failed. There was no other possible explanation.

Staring directly at the wall of light as it bore down on me as other changings ran past for no purpose other than a panic to escape. Refusing to turn away I accepted my end. My queen would be proud of me for this I knew, for what other purpose could I have than to watch as I had been born to. I was an infiltrator, tasked with information gathering for this mission. I was the eyes of the hive and I would not close my eyes now.

Feeding on love was like drinking a warm glass of honeyed milk. This wall was made of love, but love beyond boiling. Instinctively I opened myself to the love, a lifetime of desperate hunger making it instinctual. Immediately my reserves of love were filled to bursting, and burst they did. Love poured through me, and I was powerless to hold on to any of it.

A wall of light that I refused to look away from was now upon me. The shimmering prismatic wall consuming my vision. Like oil in a rain puddle the colors raced across the surface, iridescent and beautiful. My entire world was light as the wall impacted me.  The pain was beyond comprehension as I felt a snap reverberate through my body. Time stopped for me at that snap, as for the first time in my life, there was silence. The pain of that moment was more than physical. A deafening shattering felt to the pit of my soul. Slowly time started to catch up to me. My body flying through the air as I watched the light grow dimmer and dimmer until it faded to black.