Growles, darkness, rusling, lights, panic.
Windy Dusk felt all of this as he ran through a woodland of horrors. Unbeknownst to him, his hunt for a new life had sent the young pegasus colt directly to the Everfree Forest. On and on he ran, panting and fighting fatigue for his life.
“Enough!”
Dusk was frozen in place as a mare’s voice cut the air. He turned behind him, finding a butter-yellow pegasus with a long, pink mane literally staring down a Manticore behind him, the mighty beast made slightly not as threatening by his visible ribs.
“I know you’ve hungry, Mr. Manticore, but that’s no reason to chase a scared young foal! Yes, I know your prey has become scarce, yes that pony is small, but it’s still a pony! APOLOGIZE! THIS! INSTANT!”
Dusk’s mind had ultimately left him as he stood dumbfounded at the apologetic monster. He didn’t, no, couldn’t react as the mare ordered the manticore to apologize to him, nor could he react when the mare carried him back to her house, or laid him on her couch, or when she offered him treatment…
. . . . .
Broken and battered, a lone changeling nymph wandered the peaceful forest as she tried to hold in all that had happened to her. The hive had abandoned her and had thrown her to some random part of the planet, leaving her devoid of the normal buzz of the hive mind. Of course it didn’t matter where, she would starve anyways. She was normally competent enough, and by that she meant practically flawless, but her common memory losses… uh… oh yeah, left her to blunder one too many times. She had been banished like this supposedly for a whole year, with only a tiny fragment of the link remaining for the queen to use restore the nymph’s connections. It was a false hope, of course, and it only added to her list of ways to berate herse-
A bright light decided it agreed with the changeling, and by instinct, she hissed and quickly assumed the form of the first random filly she could think of; snow-white fur, a straight, cyan mane, dark blue eyes, and no cutie mark.
“What was that? Is anypony out there?” a female voice, in which the changeling empathically sensed confusion and concern, asked.
What was it they said to always do? Tell them that you weren’t there? “No, nopo-” NO WAIT NO, the changeling thought to herself, THAT’S WHAT THEY TOLD US NEVER TO DO! OH CRAP-
“Oh come on! Just come out, will you?”
Reluctantly, the changeling revealed herself. The voice in question was a purple earth pony mare with green eyes and a pink mane. Her cutie mark was blocked from view by her front. Her expression turned to bafflement at the arrival, and asked “Wait, who are you?”
“F- Frost” The newly-dubbed changeling nervously stuttered.
Normally, someling like Frost would be overjoyed to be found by the one most love-filled race in the world, but that was exactly what had her worried. No matter what, a changeling that wasn’t part of the hive would be hunted by those of the hive. That kind of tactic was just how Queen Chrysalis kept her hive as the strongest one in the world. She always sent more infiltrators to Equestria more than any other nation due to its strong love reserves, and that meant Frost was all the more likely to be slain.
“You can call me Cheerilee. Are you lost, Frost?” the mare rhymed.
“N-no, I kn-know where I’m-I’m going”
“Where”
A simple question, one that caught Frost completely off guard. Not knowing where she was, other than Equestria, there was no way she could say a plausible location-
“There, there, it’s okay,” Frost hadn’t realized that the distraction had allowed some tears to fall when Cheerilee started stroking Frost’s Mane. Compassion filled her and she took it greedily, only aware enough to only consume as much was what wouldn’t be noticed. It was bittersweet, knowing she was being nourished by failure. Cheerilee continued, “You don’t have to act tough around me, I won’t judge. Now how about I take you to your fam-”
“NO!” Frost screamed, “I mean, no, I-I-... I- don’t-”
“Oh my gosh, you poor thing!” Another wave of sympathy brought out Frost’s tears, ones that other infiltrators would envy were they not actually genuine. She stood there for at least another few minutes, letting out all that she had piled up and collecting more sympathy. No, she realized, I’m full. At this point…
It took her some effort, but a few deep breaths later, Frost was able to speak again. Too bad she didn’t think to know what words to say, “Uh…”
“...If you think you’re up to it, why don’t you go see if you can make a friend or two at the orphanage? You know, to take your mind off of other things?”
Frost nodded dumbly and followed Cheerilee’s lead, too surprised to do much else. By the time Frost had thought to do something, they had already reached to building in question.
. . . . .
“How did- what- why- wait, where are- who even are- what the, why- WHERE THE WORLD AM I?!” Dusk’s broken rant concluded itself when his slow mind realized what room he actually was in.
“The clinic. Now, please calm down. You’re just about ready to be discharged, I just need to know where to send you,” came the voice of a male doctor.
Here came what Dusk had recited in his mind a few times already, “Anywhere, really. I am a traveler, and the world is my home. But if I must, outside will be fine,”
“No,” the doctor said, “I meant family. To notify of, at the very least,”
“No.”
“No?”
“I… don’t like them,”
“How so?”
Dusk had been forced since birth to eat, walk, speak, flapping breathe properly. When he felt he was done with it all, he bid his farewells and left. His parents never batted an eye. So, to sum it up in “Two words? Canterlot. Noble,”
“Oh... Orphanage it is, then!” the doctor suddenly announced.
“What?”
“It’s parents or orphanage, kiddo. I’m not letting you go alone,”
Dusk sighed, before replying, “Fine…”
“Okay, so can I get the n-”
“Orphanage it is, then…”
“Alright, come along, Celestia darn it.”
Dusk sighed as he wandered the streets of Ponyville. Already, the orphanage started to remind him of Canterlot, just with some random pony he didn’t know telling him what to do. It had been a pain just sitting in there, not being allowed to go anywhere before the other new pony arrived. Turns out, they were being forced to stay together in one room! It wasn’t even a colt, for Celestia’s sake! At least they didn’t need to share a bed… ugh… Dusk had to suppress shivering at the thought in the middle of the sidewalk.
Throughout the day Dusk had pretty much entered shops at random, getting to know where to get anything he might need. His visits included a barber shop, nearly every market stall, the library, the orphanage… somehow, a theater, the train station that he totally didn’t squee at, and now… a real life gingerbread house with a cupcake on top. What-
“Surprise!”
...And they may or may not be closed or something. Despite (or because of) the volume, Dusk’s ears happened to hurt too much for him to understand the yell. He sat on his haunches, groaning and rubbing the sides of his head.
Slowly, he opened his eyes to see a crowd of random ponies huddled inside, a huge “Welcome Dusk and Frost to Ponyville!” banner, and the other new filly, Frost if the banner was anything to go by, at the doorway hiding the biggest smirk Dusk had seen in his life.
“So, haven’t met the Crusaders yet?” She taunted.
“Should I have?” Dusk risked the thought.
“They taught me everything I know.”
Another groan later, and Dusk walked in, taking in everything before him. Games, dances, food, there almost seemed to be no end in sight the the level of planning went into this party. He shot Frost an angry glare before starting to head off to the food tables.
“What? Can’t a ‘ling have some fun around here?”
Dusk froze at what he heard. Ling? That couldn’t have been right, yet nothing that he could think of that should have went there even sounded anything like ‘ling’. But this was a party, and the music was pretty loud now that he thought about it. He figured that he should only ask if he heard about it again.
. . . . .
Frost mentally smacked herself for her mistake. At least it was a minor one, one that could be explained has just a weird sound because of the music. She could feel Dusk’s suspicion for a moment, but it quickly disappeared in favor of the nearby snack table.
Seeing nothing better to do, she decided to see if the CMC had made it to the party. She did see Mrs. Cake, though, someli-pony struck her as the opposite of a party animal. Then again, she was the one that used the “party cannon” to decorate everything while-
Oh yeah. The Element Bearers and the CMC were out to attend some kind of royal wedding at Canterlot.
‘Stupid memory,’ she mentally scolded.
It was really weird how the pink party pony was so eager to throw a party as soon as possible, despite the fact that she pretty much know nol-pony and end up somewhat dissatisfied. Sure, she may have made an offhooved remark about Ponyville being a little too crazy for her, but she didn’t really want to leave! Hopefully in the future, she can keep up with Pinkie’s crazy rambles to prevent this kind of mishap.
Suddenly, she felt a presence in the back of her mind. She was excited at first, until the voice of Chrysalis echoed through Frost’s mind.
‘Sure, I know I said my punishment to you would last a year, but I’m afraid I’m falling through the sky at a hundred mph and I want to be alive to see the end of your banishment. It didn’t seem to do much anyways, so I’m just going to give you the rest right away,’
Pain blasted through Frost’s mind and she fought back a scream, and opens her eyes just barely enough to see the party goers, and the not-too-far-away exit. To everypony’s surprise, she ran right out of the party, and to her surprise, right to the orphanage and into her new room. She closed the door as gently as possible, jumped on one of the beds, and screamed into a pillow so nothing could hear her.
. . . . .
Dusk left the party near the end of the day, deciding to resume is semi-tour for at least another hour or so. Before he was able to get very far, however, a winded orphanage nanny ran up to him.
“Dusk! Dusk, oh tha-”
“Just say what you want!” Dusk interrupted.
“It’s Frost. She’s in her room crying, and nopony can get to her,” her eyes narrowed, “I don’t suppose you had anything to do with this, like at thee par-tey?”
“We barely know each other. I doubt I can be much better about it than you or anypony else. And no, we only ever greeted at ‘thee par-tey’,”
“At least try, please?”
“Whatever...”
. . . . .
When Frost had screamed her throat hoarse and teared her eyes dry, she opted to just lay on the pillow, occasionally sniffing to herself. By now the physical agony was long gone, replaced with the hollowness and emotional flood that came with the real severing of the hive-mind.
The hive-mind itself normally acts as a second mind for most changelings. The connections allow everyling to use the knowledge and thoughts of others to keep things like emotions in check, while knowing what to do in nearly any situation and which ponies have already been taken, whether they be replacements or originals. Rejects like her were banished because the other members couldn’t fathom such incompetence with something like that at everyling’s disposal.
With even the subconscious links just gone, Frost now had to deal with everything bad that had ever happened to her, from the simplest of insults to the initial, soul-crushing abandonment.
“Frost, you ‘kay?” Suddenly, a voice interrupted her thoughts and in response she struggled to make herself presentable. Tears were weakness, after all.
Turning around, she spotted Dusk, concern with a faint bit of annoyance pouring out of him. The emotion aided her throat somewhat, but everything else couldn’t be helped.
“Y-yeah, I’m fine…” was her response.
“No, you’re not,” he deadpanned, ”I shouldn’t have said it that way. Why are you so down?”
“Uh… I… can’t…” She struggled to find an adequate lie without the hive-mind’s help.
“Yes, you can! I promise, here and now, that I will not run away or mock or judge you in any way!” he jumped onto the bed, next to Frost, “I don’t want to see you sad like this. They’re taking time out of my day forcing me to comfort you. When I was sad once, I was sad until I talked it out of an old friend of mine. Talking helps, so please, talk to me.”
“Who…?”
“And don’t try to dodge the question, either. Why are you sad?”
She flinched, the anger emanating from Dusk was too much for her. Thankfully, he saw her and dropped it, offering more concern instead. Hesitantly, she answered as best as she could, given the circumstances.
“I… don’t… know…”
“Yes you do. For your sake and mind, just tell me please!”
“Cut me some slack, okay? I’m not-” she caught herself, but it was too late. Embarrassed, she gave a curt “Rambling, sorry,”
“...A pony?” To her dismay, Dusk finished her sentence perfectly, “I don’t care what you are or aren’t. I’m not going to just leave you here the way you are, especially if this is apparently as big as ‘I’m not a pony’. Now, I believe the term is ‘ling’,”
“Changeling,” she automatically corrected, and gasped at what she revealed.
“Okay, a changeling. And that is…?” she gave no answer, “Deep breathes now, please. My promise still stands. Even if you eat meat or steal for a living or something, I won’t place my judgement until you have nothing left to say,”
“We eat love,” Frost finally whispered.
“Love? How?”
“...and other positive emotions. While we can eat other foods, only emotions can sustain us. We’ve silently been gathering these for our hive for many generations,”
“O… kay? What does th-”
“EVERYTHING!” she snapped, before forcing herself calm, “Not just that, but we impersonate ponies to do it. A life of lies, that’s what it is. Thing is, I’ve never been really good at it. Terrible memory. It’s why I said ‘pony’ instead of ‘ling’ earlier,”
“‘ling instead of pony’” Dusk suddenly corrected.
“That’s what I said. Anyways, Because of that, I was banished from the hive for a year. A false hope, this was supposed to be. I would’ve lasted around a week, had I not landed in a place like this.
“Sadly, Queen Chrysalis realized her mistake and cut me off from the hive mind permanently, leaving me to deal with every single emotion I would have to have had dealt with before,”
“Hive mind?”
“Every changeling of a single hive is able to communicate through a telepathic bond called the hive mind. When I was banished, the link was blocked so I felt alone, but still had a subconscious link. Now that that’s gone…”
“Oh… oh…”
“Yeah. That leaves me here,” she look all around the room for a moment before continuing, “And I suppose… it did help a little bit. Thanks,”
“So, do you have a normal appearance or something? If you’re impersonating somepony, that must be a disguise,”
Frost was startled a bit, but figured she might as well show him while they were alone and mostly unpressured. She concentrated, and felt the familiar tingle of magical fire coating her body and altering her appearance.
“GAH!” Dusk suddenly screamed.
“Huh?”
“Y-y-... how are you alive?”
“What do you mean?”
“You burst into flames,” Dusk deadpanned.
“Those were harmless, trust me. Sorry, it’s too easy to forget what most fires are like. Anyways, this is the real me,”
“Oddly… buggy…” Dusk idly commented, “So… what do we do know?”
“Before Chrysalis cut my connection for real, she made a comment about how she was falling through the sky. Changelings normally fly without problem. There was a royal wedding recently, and that sounds like the exact thing that someling like her would try to infiltrate… Oh no…”
“What?”
“If she messed up, that means that changelings will soon be known to the world, revealed in one of the worst possible ways. I fear we may need to prepare…”
