I Waited

After walking for several minutes, we eventually reached the kingdom. From here, it was clear to anyone looking up that the structure pierced through the circling clouds, truly earning the title of an evil lair—only this one was real, and inside were our friends.

There were guards stationed in front of the main entrance, wearing what appeared to be body armor. It wasn't worth fighting them and potentially losing. Luckily, Thorax found us a way in from the side, through an open hole. How convenient?

Once we were inside, we were all taken aback by the sheer design and layout of this place. Green lantern-like lights were fitted across the place to illuminate the otherwise dark interior. Pieces of the walls and columns opened and closed, split and connected everywhere we looked. That was when we heard the hole behind us seeping itself shut.

"Um," Trixie hummed, "where's the way out?"

"It's a changeling hive. It shifts and changes like we do, and we're the only ones who can navigate it. It's total chaos to non-changelings," Thorax answered, walking through a freshly opened hole. The rest of us quickly caught up to him before it closed up again.

We spent a few minutes wandering the halls, perching on cliffs, and bickering about nonsense back and forth—well, really, it was just Discord and Trixie—but we were all, more or less, handling it like a team. Hopefully that would last and we saved the others before those two decided to duke it out in here.

I walked beside Starlight, and I could see just from her face alone that she was nervous and unsure of what to do next. She sighed silently to herself, but her choked gulps were audible to me.

"Hey," I whispered to her, "it'll be okay."

"You're sure about that?"

I nodded. "I know you're nervous. Trust me, I'm nervous too. But at the same time, I know that you're strong and capable of handling this and saving them."

Starlight looked forward and sighed again, trying to take my words into account, but a lone thought crept into her mind and piqued her interest.

Turning back to me, she asked, "You've seen every event for the next three years, right? So... maybe you know what happens next? Where we go, what to do?"

She would've been right. Some of the events of the past few weeks that weren't related to us I saw early on. But her words didn't carry the same amount of hopeful weight that she wanted it to, and I shook my head.

"I read Chrysalis' book soon after it showed up," I told her, "and I would've seen it mention this particular event, this group, what could happen next... but it doesn't. From what I remember, the changelings died out soon after I disappeared. Starved from a lack of love."

"Why...?"

It was my turn to sigh. "They died because of me."

Starlight didn't stop moving, but looked at me, confused and wondering what I meant by that.

"After I disappeared and the whole search was called off, ponies across Equestria stopped being so kind to each other. Everypony started blaming everypony else, and there were fights, and... well, basically, love wasn't exactly in long supply for a few weeks. I guess that's led to... you know."

It sounded so ridiculous to explain that. A single pony vanishing and being untraceable leading to a country fighting against itself, and the death of an entire race of shape-shifting creatures? It didn't seem realistic.

And yet it happened, at least in one timeline. But now, I was back, and...

"Don't let that get to you," Starlight said, holding a hoof on my shoulder. "Even if it turned out to be your fault, there was nothing you could've done to know."

She stopped moving and embraced me in a warming hug. I inhaled a deep breath and was able to get a whiff of her mane scent: strawberries. It helped me just a little. Starlight pulled away a few moments later.

"No matter what happens, we'll get through this... just like you told me. And we have Thorax to help us with that. Right, Thorax?"

"Um, guys? ... I think we're lost," the changeling said, immediately contradicting Starlight's claim.

It was enough to make Trixie slam her bags to the ground and sit, already in defeat. "Oh, great. We might as well just sit here and wait for the changelings to soak up all of our love or whatever gross thing it is that they do."

"Nopony ever solved a problem by giving up, Trixie," I told her. "At least, that's what I kept telling myself."

She didn't look at me, but instead took a look at Thorax. "How often do you all get hungry?"

Thorax shrugged. "Actually, I haven't been since I met Spike. And changelings are always hungry. We can never get enough love."

"Well, that's just super—"

Starlight interrupted Trixie mid sentence. "But you aren't hungry at all now...?"

Thorax put a hoof up to his mouth, thinking and realizing what Starlight was asking him.

"Huh. Once I made a few friends, I guess I just sort of forgot about the whole feeding thing," he laughed.

"Is that about the same time your wings changed?"

"I guess so." The changeling inspected his green, sparkly, and luscious wings, as opposed to their once-dull color.

Discord yawned, bored with our chat. "While I would love to sit around chitchatting about feeding and not feeding, I have a Fluttershy to save!"

The draconequus' voice rang out and echoed across the entire area, reverberating off the walls. No more than a couple of seconds later, we heard the familiar sound of changelings hissing away in the distance, no doubt disturbed by the noise.

"Can you please lower your voice?! You're gonna get us all captured!" Trixie hushed with an irritated tone.

Discord waved a paw. "Oh, you keep saying that, but I haven't seen an actual changeling since we got into this hive."

"How about we keep it that... way... then..."

My voice slowly became drowned out by the sound of distant humming. The ground beneath our hooves and paws rumbled just slightly.

"W-What's that?" Trixie shook.

Thorax's face turned slightly white as he realized. "A changeling patrol!"

The changeling started to take shallow breaths, hyperventilating as he went into a panic. Starlight tried to comfort him, while Trixie and Discord began to bicker once again. But when Trixie mentioned her magic, I had an idea.

"What about your—"

"—smoke bombs!" Starlight said simultaneously. We both shared a quick smile, and Trixie saw the idea.

A few moments later, the small patrol of changelings arrived to the scene, but only Trixie was there.

"Looking for somepony?"

As expected, the changelings hissed and readied to tackle her, but with a puff of smoke, she was gone, now resting on another platform. The scenario quickly became a game of Cat and Mouse, with Trixie constantly disappearing and reappearing at various sections, before starting a chase down a nearby hall, with the changelings in hot pursuit—all while we watched above... Trixie included.

Did I mention that was Thorax down there?

We waited another few moments, and eventually, Thorax returned, still in the form of Trixie. While Starlight and Discord were hesitant—even me, just a bit—Trixie and Thorax said the correct code word together, and Thorax was once again his regular Changeling form. Discord couldn't help but suggest changing the code word.

"That was a pretty good plan!" Thorax exclaimed, proud of both himself and the others.

"But we still don't know where we're going." Trixie's face contorted into a worrisome look.

"Actually, we might," Starlight smirked. "Two of the changelings didn't go with the rest."

Thorax facehoofed himself as it came back to him. "Oh! With an intruder in the hive, they went to protect the queen! Good thinking, Starlight!"

While Starlight was more than happy to give off the helpful information, she couldn't help but laugh awkwardly, the attention pinned on her. I gave her a pat on the back and a congratulatory kiss. The awkwardness seemed to fade, but the blush was there.

As the group started to discuss where we should go next, I noticed something in the corner of my eye, in the distant shadows down the near hall. Two green dots. Two green eyes.

"Guys...?" I said to them. I only got Thorax's and Starlight's attention, and they both found themselves staring at the same thing.

The eyes were piercing back at us, and a faint growl could be heard, earning the attention of both Trixie and Discord in the process.

Suddenly, the eyes changed direction, just slightly. They weren't looking at me anymore. They were looking right at Starlight.

She barely had time to gasp before I pushed her out of the way. Instantly, I felt myself being tackled by a black figure, another changeling. The two of us fell off the platform and were plunging to the bottom.

I heard Starlight scream my name, her voice growing distant as I neared the bottom floor. The changeling hissed at me, trying to constrict me, but I was quick to push him away and unfurl my wings, just enough to slow down the fall. However, I couldn't stop myself from hitting something, as I slammed into a smaller platform, breaking one of my wings and rolling to the floor.

I remember shouting as the pain coursed through my body, the many bones of my left wing shattered. The changeling, while not dead or broken, was unconscious nearby.

I heard Starlight's voice echo my name down to me. "Are you okay?!"

"I'm fiiiinne!" I shouted back, screaming mid-word as I could feel my bone fragments rubbing against each other. Starlight could hear the pain in my voice.

"Don't move!" she whimpered. "We'll come down and get you—"

"No!" I yelled. "It'll take too long! Go on without me! I'll find my way to you somehow!"

"But—"

"No 'buts', Star! It'll be o—" I paused as I looked down to see green eyes glowing from behind the shadows. "—kay..."

It was at this very moment, seeing all of those eyes staring me down, that I realized I was surrounded by changelings. Dozens of them. I swallowed the lump in my throat.

"... Starlight?" I hollered.

"What? What is it?"

"Run! Now!"

As I said that, the changelings all came out of their hiding spots and tried to tackle me to the ground, but I was quick enough to jump out of the way. Their hisses echoed across the entire colony. I heard Starlight shout my name again, but I was too focused on one thing: getting away.

In a dash, I started for a nearby hall and just started running as fast as I could, with countless changelings in hot pursuit behind me. The only light down the hall was the light of the glowing lamp-like objects. The structure howled as I ran down, as pores opened and closed.

I opened my unbroken wing, hoping to gain some momentum against the changeling horde, but after nearly losing my balance a few times, I realized it was not worth the risk, though it did help me get a small distance away from them. Using it to my advantage, I turned a corner and proceed to hide myself within several different pored parts of the wall. Many of them were closing behind me and opening in front of me.

The changelings were quick to lose sight of me, spending a few minutes scoping the area out, trying to find me. I tried to catch my breath quietly, not risking to yawn or cough uncontrollably. I glanced out occasionally to see where they were. Many of them had wandered off into other parts of the halls, as if to find me, while few stayed behind to search for me.

Gulping, I tried to find anything around me that I could use as a distraction. I found a decent sized rock and picked it up with my wing. Peaking out of an open hole, I quickly looked in both directions and saw that the changelings were looking the other way. With that in mind, I swung the rock as far away from me as I could, down the hall, and I hid behind cover again.

The sound of it hitting the ground caused the changelings to hiss in anticipation and follow it.

"Phew," I hushed.

Suddenly, the hole around me started to close up, and I immediately recoiled out before it could crush me.

"Okay," I sighed, "I need to not do that again."

Leaving from behind the walls, I continued down the hall from the shadows, doing my best to avoid any further detection or attraction to myself. So far, I was doing a good job.

I spent several minutes walking around the place, trying to find my way back up to the top to meet up with the group again, but the pain in my broken wing was the only thing that was distracting me. It had gotten worse, and the entire thing was now starting to look bruised, more blue than it already was.

"If I knew this was gonna happen, I would've brought painkillers," I said to nopony in particular.

After one wrong step, a sharp pain shot through my wing, and I had no choice but to sit down and take a breather. I leaned my head against the walls, hoping it wouldn't suddenly open behind me. Other than the pain, the safety of the others was racing through my mind. Did they escape? Did they find the others?

Was Starlight okay?

My thoughts were derailed by the sound of approaching hooves, just one set of them. I turned to the source in a somewhat defensive stance. But I stood down just for a second when I saw who it was.

"... Starlight?"

The mare looked slightly battered and bruised, limping against one hoof, and seemingly shuddering. She saw me looking at her and smiled weakly.

"H-Hey."

"Are you o—" I stopped. I just had to be sure. "Klutzy...?"

Starlight looked at me with a confused manner. "I don't..."

But a second later, she sighed, her face turning into an irritated glare at the floor.

"Ugh... a codeword."

Those words were enough to prove that this wasn't the real Starlight, but a changeling in disguise. I tried springing up on my hooves, but the changeling was quicker, holding me down with its familiar green aura.

"Just stop running already," she said. "It's already bad enough that I'm stuck like this after that little fireworks display of yours back in that podunk town of yours."

Fireworks display? Wait...

"You're one of the changelings from Ponyville."

"Bingo~"

"How did you get here so fast? How did you know I was here?"

"Magic, of course. And I didn't know you were here. I only knew you'd be coming to ruin everything."

The fake Starlight cleared her throat and adjusted her magic to levitate me in front of her. She grinned menacingly, something I hadn't seen in a long time.

"But enough about that. It's time to finish what I start—gah!"

The changeling's horn flickered, and her magic released me. I caught myself before I hit the ground, and the changeling was still recuperating. That was when her horn stopped flickering, or worse, stopped working altogether.

"No..." she whispered. "NO!"

Slamming her hoof against the wall, the changeling Starlight fell to the ground, shutting her eyes tight and sighing, already with defeat fresh in her mind. She eyed me, but never turned to look at me.

"If you're gonna finish the job, you might as well do it now." Her voice was solemn, but broken. She never took her eyes off the wall, expecting me to do whatever she wanted me to do to her.

But I didn't do anything except bend down and hold out a hoof to help her up. She eyed my hoof, then my face, her expression unchanged.

"What are you doing?"

"Helping you," I told her.

She laughed to herself. "I doubt someone like you would be able to help me."

"I've been told that a lot."

I kept my hoof held out, hoping she would take it. The changeling continued to look, her eyes fixated on my hoof.

After a few seconds of tense silence, she took it, holding it carefully in her own, and she started to stand up on all fours. She looked at me.

"Why are you doing this?"

"Because it's the right thing to do. I know you don't believe it, but it's true."

"I was ready to kill you a few seconds ago. And yet you decide to help me." She was confused. "Why?"

I sighed. "Because I've seen what would've been."

She eyed me like I was crazy, perhaps. But she said nothing and chose to hear me out.

"I was trapped in a place that allowed me to see every moment in time and space. In one particular book—it talked about how the changelings all died out because the world lacked enough love."

"Why did it lack enough love?"

"Because I disappeared."

Her eyes opened slightly as she recognized me... to a point, I mean.

"You're that pony that went missing? The one that got this country all riled up?"

I nodded. "To them, I was gone for three days. In those three days, an entire nation grouped up to find and rescue me, wherever I could've been. In another timeline, they never find me, and Equestria turns into a bitter place for some time. With little love to feed on, the changelings... they just... perished."

The changeling stared at me in horrified amazement, all without changing her expression too much, as she realized that at one point, in one time, she too died.

"And you being here means...?"

"That the changelings won't die now. They will try to take over Equestria to feed on the love of others."

She laughed to herself, realizing that that was the inevitable outcome. But I wanted to convince her otherwise.

"But they don't have to take it."

"Of course we do!" she exclaimed. "We thrive on the love that ponies share with each other! It drives us to live and to survive! Without it, we are nothing! We will not give up on love."

"Then don't," I said simply. "But don't just take it. Give it."

She tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"Like you said yourself—ponies share love with one another. It's how they can truly be happy. You don't have to take someone's love away. Giving it is more than enough."

"... How can I trust you when you say that?"

"Because I know a friend who's already done it."

She tried to think about who could have done it themselves, but it didn't take long to remember.

"... Thorax..."

I nodded. "He made friends a long time ago. Since then, he hasn't needed to feed on any love to live. He just has to return the feeling to those who kept him safe."

The changeling was conflicted, and I knew why: For years, she was raised on the notion that changelings could only feed and take love, rather than give it, as it was the only way to truly live. But now I was telling her that it wasn't the only option, the only way.

With a sigh, she closed her eyes and swallowed the lump in her throat, before opening them back up again.

"I... I don't know."

"You never know until you try." I smiled, holding out my arm.

Her mind raced, thinking between taking the love and giving and sharing it. To befriend or not to befriend?

But it didn't take long for her to make up her mind. Hesitantly, she moved close to me, and carefully, I brought the changeling in for a hug. And it wasn't a forced or dubious one. It was a real, true hug.

She even smiled. I could feel it.

Suddenly, her horn started to glow again, covered in a brighter shade of green than the typical sickly green. It illuminated greatly, prompting me to pull away and see the scene entirely. Her body slowly became entrapped in a cocoon-like pod.

I gave it a gentle tap, and it burst open, revealing the changeling no longer in the form of Starlight, but the form of a purplish-green changeling, no more the dark and starved form it used to have. Even the changeling herself was surprised at her new appearance.

"I feel... different."

"It's what happens when you share love," I grinned. "It feels good, doesn't it?"

"I... yes. It's strange, but I... I like it." The changeling looked at me and smiled truly. "Thank you."

"You're welcome. I don't suppose I caught your name before?"

"Starling," she answered. "Just Starling."

I laughed, but explained before she took it out of context. "My fillyfriend's name is Starlight. Starlight plus changeling equals..."

"... Starling?"

"Exact—look out!"

Starling was unable to react quick enough before she was sent flying by the familiar sickly green magic and knocked unconscious. I turned to her attackers, a herd of changelings who likely weren't so generous.

"Wait a second!" I yelled to them. "I can help you! I can—"

But they didn't listen to me. For the third time today, I was knocked out. My fate was up to the queen now.