A Soldier's Storyby Crimson ChangelingChaptersStrange VisitorsThe Shocking RevelationSomething DifferentStrange VisitorsA thick blanket of snow covered the badlands. It was to be expected during the winter months. Queen Chrysalis sighed as she looked over the balcony of her palace. She could see her loyal subjects, cold and starving, down below. Her infiltration had failed, she had failed, but she wasn't going to give up. She had devised a new plan. A sly smile crossed her face as she rubbed her midsection. "Too long have we suffered in silence" Chrysalis shouted down to her subjects instantly gaining their attention. "Celestia sits upon the throne, while we are forced to live amongst the rocks killing each other to feed off anothers love." A few changelings begin to look away having heard this same speech time and time again. "But soon I promise our time shall come, and when it does we will take the love from Equestria and our families will no longer go hungry!" A few weak Hooray's could be heard from below. The changeling queen looked back at her room, it was a mess, the cobbled stone walls were falling apart and her bed, if she could call it that, was the only thing in the room. She trotted over to her bed running her hooves over the ragged sheets. Happy memories filled her mind and she began to smile again, but it wasn't long before pain shot along her spine disrupting any good feelings. "Not long now, and my child shall be born" she said through clenched teeth "My one chance to save our dying race, a queen only gets one child in her lifetime, and she will lead us out of the dark." Another wave of pain shot through the queens torso and she laid over rolling onto her bed. "The pain of waiting is unbearable though." A knock was heard at her door and as she opened it one of her personal guard stood before her. A quick look and queen Chrysalis could tell something had this changeling shook. His hooves shook, his eyes darted up and down, and he struggled to keep his pole-arm steady. "Y-Your majesty a v-visitor is here to see you." he stammered before collapsing to the floor. A cloaked pony dropped from the ceiling, his face shrouded in darkness. As he raised himself up the cloak fell around the pony covering him fully, keeping Chrysalis from seeing any distinguishable features. "You really should hire better guards." his voice came calm and quickly. "That was far too easy for changelings charged with guarding a pregnant queen." Chrysalis was taken aback, how could this pony know, she hadn't told a soul aside from her guard. "No one else knows" he continued reveling in her shock "and they wont, so long as you cooperate with me." Chrysalis was appalled, who was this pony and how dare he blackmail her. "Who do you think you are!" she snarled at him "and what makes you think I'll cooperate!" "Fine don't listen, but your time is running out,and it'd be a shame if the princess of the sun heard about your location" he said in a mocking tone. Chrysalis looked down, she couldn't argue with that, if Celestia found them it would mean extinction, but what was this about almost out of time? "W-What do you need me to do?" She decided to play along for now to keep his suspicions down, at least long enough for her to figure him out. "It's simple your child shall be a test subject, or you all fall" his calm quick voice returning Chrysalis stammered, was no secret safe from this pony. "I-is that it?" she said in slight disbelief. He chuckled slightly. "That is more than enough considering you are out of time right now." Chrysalis looked at him for a second before pain coursed through her body causing her to blackout. The Shocking RevelationQueen Chrysalis was lying on her bed when she awoke, she was surrounded by her guards, and the cloaked pony was nowhere to be seen. It didn't take long for her to realize her pain had subsided and she felt strange. Looking around she quickly noticed that no one was looking at her, but at the bed beside her. Chrysalis turned over to find not one, but two little changelings lying beside her. She leaned in to inspect them closely, this was impossible, a changeling queen could only harbor a single offspring and only a filly, but she had just had two and one was a colt. A single glance was all it took and queen chrysalis fell in love with her foals, how could she send them away. The cloaked ponies words drifted into her mind and she had no intention of finding out just how much he knew, or could find out. "Take them both, t-to the testing grounds" she said with a sigh, her eyes drifting to the floor. One of her guards picked up the foals and went to object, but one quick look from Chrysalis kept him from saying anything, and as he walked out the door with the foals the queens heart began to break at the thought of her foals in this situation. Chrysalis ordered her guards to leave so she could rest, but as soon as they had left the cloaked ponies voice cut through the air in the room. "Poor Chrysalis, the heir she wanted to lead the changelings from darkness is now going to be tested." "Why, Why are you doing this!" Chrysalis shouted angrily. The voice chuckled "You understand nothing, I simply want to do what you cannot, I want to save the changelings. "Don't fret Chrysalis as long as you follow my instructions to the letter, your heir and her brother will be fine, but if you don't you put them and everyone else in terrible danger." Chrysalis's anger quickly turned into curiosity "How do you know any of this, and a better question, who are you?" She said with surprising calmness. The room exploded in a flash of light,and the cloaked pony appeared in the center of the room. "I know a great many things, but they are secrets too powerful for you, and as for who I am, I'm your only hope to save your race and possibly more, but you can simply call me. . ." He paused for a moment almost unsure of his own name, seeing Chrysalis shoot him a confused look he broke from his confusion "Jingles, you can call me Jingles." "That's an odd name for a pony, how do i know your on my side?" Chrysalis said more curious than ever about this pony. The pony smiled under his hood "Is that a small bit of trust I hear?" he chuckled "Understand this, we aren't friends we will never be, but i will help you with your foals, and i can promise you no harm will come to them if you simply listen to me?" Something DifferentThe guard carried the newborn changelings out deep into the badlands, how many had he brought out here, how many young changelings had died because he had left them at the mercy of the Shadow Program. He looked back at the foals, these were the last hope for changelings, and Chrysalis was sending them to their death. After several hours of trotting they came to a large stone building. Along the sides a solid stone wall rose way up high cutting off any path into the dead forest it surrounded. As they entered the large wooden doors they were greeted by a peculiar changeling wearing a lab coat. "New specimens?" the odd changeling asked a his mouth turning up in a grin. "Chrysalis must really want this to work, we've had more changelings come in than ever before, and you can report that we've still only had limited success?" The guard had dealt with this changeling before, but he couldn't stand by and let this happen anymore. "Limited success?" the guard began shouting "you call piles of changeling corpses, limited success? These are the queens own foals!" the guard leaned in close nearly touching muzzles with the now frightened changeling. "and should they end up in the same situation, I will make sure your body is the next one on the pile!" The guard turned and left, leaving the other changeling frightened and holding the foals. "Th-the queens foals." He muttered staring at the foals in the floor. "Then its worse than anticipated, and we really are headed for extinction." The changeling examined the two little ones and spotted their number tags just behind their horns. "8436 and 8437, you know we used to be over ten-hundred thousand strong, but now we have to fight for scraps of the love essence around here and we are dying faster than we can reproduce." the changeling said as he carried the newborns to a small room towards the top of the building. "Tomorrow begins a new day for both of you, and I pray i get it right this time." He said as he layed the two down on a soft bed. As the two foals lay there the filly turned and curled up beside her slightly larger brother, and he covered her as much as he could with his wing trying to comfort her. The changeling scientist quickly took note of the strange behavior. "Hmm newborn siblings already have developed a bond, this is highly unusual." he said quickly writing it down on a small notepad. "This time should be different, I don't know if we will succeed, but something will definitely be different."
Strange VisitorsA thick blanket of snow covered the badlands. It was to be expected during the winter months. Queen Chrysalis sighed as she looked over the balcony of her palace. She could see her loyal subjects, cold and starving, down below. Her infiltration had failed, she had failed, but she wasn't going to give up. She had devised a new plan. A sly smile crossed her face as she rubbed her midsection. "Too long have we suffered in silence" Chrysalis shouted down to her subjects instantly gaining their attention. "Celestia sits upon the throne, while we are forced to live amongst the rocks killing each other to feed off anothers love." A few changelings begin to look away having heard this same speech time and time again. "But soon I promise our time shall come, and when it does we will take the love from Equestria and our families will no longer go hungry!" A few weak Hooray's could be heard from below. The changeling queen looked back at her room, it was a mess, the cobbled stone walls were falling apart and her bed, if she could call it that, was the only thing in the room. She trotted over to her bed running her hooves over the ragged sheets. Happy memories filled her mind and she began to smile again, but it wasn't long before pain shot along her spine disrupting any good feelings. "Not long now, and my child shall be born" she said through clenched teeth "My one chance to save our dying race, a queen only gets one child in her lifetime, and she will lead us out of the dark." Another wave of pain shot through the queens torso and she laid over rolling onto her bed. "The pain of waiting is unbearable though." A knock was heard at her door and as she opened it one of her personal guard stood before her. A quick look and queen Chrysalis could tell something had this changeling shook. His hooves shook, his eyes darted up and down, and he struggled to keep his pole-arm steady. "Y-Your majesty a v-visitor is here to see you." he stammered before collapsing to the floor. A cloaked pony dropped from the ceiling, his face shrouded in darkness. As he raised himself up the cloak fell around the pony covering him fully, keeping Chrysalis from seeing any distinguishable features. "You really should hire better guards." his voice came calm and quickly. "That was far too easy for changelings charged with guarding a pregnant queen." Chrysalis was taken aback, how could this pony know, she hadn't told a soul aside from her guard. "No one else knows" he continued reveling in her shock "and they wont, so long as you cooperate with me." Chrysalis was appalled, who was this pony and how dare he blackmail her. "Who do you think you are!" she snarled at him "and what makes you think I'll cooperate!" "Fine don't listen, but your time is running out,and it'd be a shame if the princess of the sun heard about your location" he said in a mocking tone. Chrysalis looked down, she couldn't argue with that, if Celestia found them it would mean extinction, but what was this about almost out of time? "W-What do you need me to do?" She decided to play along for now to keep his suspicions down, at least long enough for her to figure him out. "It's simple your child shall be a test subject, or you all fall" his calm quick voice returning Chrysalis stammered, was no secret safe from this pony. "I-is that it?" she said in slight disbelief. He chuckled slightly. "That is more than enough considering you are out of time right now." Chrysalis looked at him for a second before pain coursed through her body causing her to blackout.
The Shocking RevelationQueen Chrysalis was lying on her bed when she awoke, she was surrounded by her guards, and the cloaked pony was nowhere to be seen. It didn't take long for her to realize her pain had subsided and she felt strange. Looking around she quickly noticed that no one was looking at her, but at the bed beside her. Chrysalis turned over to find not one, but two little changelings lying beside her. She leaned in to inspect them closely, this was impossible, a changeling queen could only harbor a single offspring and only a filly, but she had just had two and one was a colt. A single glance was all it took and queen chrysalis fell in love with her foals, how could she send them away. The cloaked ponies words drifted into her mind and she had no intention of finding out just how much he knew, or could find out. "Take them both, t-to the testing grounds" she said with a sigh, her eyes drifting to the floor. One of her guards picked up the foals and went to object, but one quick look from Chrysalis kept him from saying anything, and as he walked out the door with the foals the queens heart began to break at the thought of her foals in this situation. Chrysalis ordered her guards to leave so she could rest, but as soon as they had left the cloaked ponies voice cut through the air in the room. "Poor Chrysalis, the heir she wanted to lead the changelings from darkness is now going to be tested." "Why, Why are you doing this!" Chrysalis shouted angrily. The voice chuckled "You understand nothing, I simply want to do what you cannot, I want to save the changelings. "Don't fret Chrysalis as long as you follow my instructions to the letter, your heir and her brother will be fine, but if you don't you put them and everyone else in terrible danger." Chrysalis's anger quickly turned into curiosity "How do you know any of this, and a better question, who are you?" She said with surprising calmness. The room exploded in a flash of light,and the cloaked pony appeared in the center of the room. "I know a great many things, but they are secrets too powerful for you, and as for who I am, I'm your only hope to save your race and possibly more, but you can simply call me. . ." He paused for a moment almost unsure of his own name, seeing Chrysalis shoot him a confused look he broke from his confusion "Jingles, you can call me Jingles." "That's an odd name for a pony, how do i know your on my side?" Chrysalis said more curious than ever about this pony. The pony smiled under his hood "Is that a small bit of trust I hear?" he chuckled "Understand this, we aren't friends we will never be, but i will help you with your foals, and i can promise you no harm will come to them if you simply listen to me?"
Something DifferentThe guard carried the newborn changelings out deep into the badlands, how many had he brought out here, how many young changelings had died because he had left them at the mercy of the Shadow Program. He looked back at the foals, these were the last hope for changelings, and Chrysalis was sending them to their death. After several hours of trotting they came to a large stone building. Along the sides a solid stone wall rose way up high cutting off any path into the dead forest it surrounded. As they entered the large wooden doors they were greeted by a peculiar changeling wearing a lab coat. "New specimens?" the odd changeling asked a his mouth turning up in a grin. "Chrysalis must really want this to work, we've had more changelings come in than ever before, and you can report that we've still only had limited success?" The guard had dealt with this changeling before, but he couldn't stand by and let this happen anymore. "Limited success?" the guard began shouting "you call piles of changeling corpses, limited success? These are the queens own foals!" the guard leaned in close nearly touching muzzles with the now frightened changeling. "and should they end up in the same situation, I will make sure your body is the next one on the pile!" The guard turned and left, leaving the other changeling frightened and holding the foals. "Th-the queens foals." He muttered staring at the foals in the floor. "Then its worse than anticipated, and we really are headed for extinction." The changeling examined the two little ones and spotted their number tags just behind their horns. "8436 and 8437, you know we used to be over ten-hundred thousand strong, but now we have to fight for scraps of the love essence around here and we are dying faster than we can reproduce." the changeling said as he carried the newborns to a small room towards the top of the building. "Tomorrow begins a new day for both of you, and I pray i get it right this time." He said as he layed the two down on a soft bed. As the two foals lay there the filly turned and curled up beside her slightly larger brother, and he covered her as much as he could with his wing trying to comfort her. The changeling scientist quickly took note of the strange behavior. "Hmm newborn siblings already have developed a bond, this is highly unusual." he said quickly writing it down on a small notepad. "This time should be different, I don't know if we will succeed, but something will definitely be different."
