Meet The Change Gang

Venom grunted in frustration, kicking pebbles and other small rocks from the cobblestone ground beneath him as he hesitantly followed the rest of the changeling swarm.

How long has he been doing this? Why, ever since they left the castle to take a stroll in the Canterlot city—after the Change Gang was verbally chewed for wrecking that celebration of course—but Venom just didn’t care anymore. He just wanted to do anything to distract himself from the saccharine singing of the cheerful drones.

Easier said than done.

“You know, Venom,” he heard Flutterwings talking beside him. Upon glancing at the nymph, he noticed that she was gazing at one of her front hooves. “I’m starting to think that our new forms look less like changelings and more like gummy bears,” she said. “Or in this case, gummy bugs.”

“Well, I, for one, do not want to be a gummy bear or a gummy bug,” he replied. “I would not like to be a gummy anything.”

“Eh. I don’t wanna be a gummy anything either,” Flutterwings admitted, sticking her tongue at the ground. “I mean, none of us do, really.” She then glanced at the ground for a moment, her expression growing pensive, before regaining her attention. “Hey, Venom?” she asked, getting her older brother’s attention. “I don’t remember any of us ‘sharing love’ as Thorax puts it... So, why did we change into gummy—er, ‘reformed changelings’...?”

That question made Venom stop and think for a moment. His sister did make very good points for her young age.

“Well, sis. Just wait until we talk to Mr. ‘Prince of Changelings’ about the matter. I bet he did this to all of us.”

“So, you’re still talking about Pharynx? You really think he was responsible for this?”

“Who else would it be?”

“I mean, Thorax was the one who came up with the whole ‘sharing love’ garbage along with Starlight Glimmer,” Flutterwings stated. “If it weren’t for any of them and their logic, we’d still be at Chrysalis’ hive doing more important stuff.”

“Okay, you got me there, but how is Thorax even awake from his coma?”

“That, I have no idea about.”

“Well, I know Pharynx has at least something to do with it.” Venom squinted at the dark cyan changeling as he began trotting towards him. “I just know it.”

He caught the changeling general next to a bunch of other changelings, though he wasn’t socializing with any of them in any way, shape, or form, being the lone wolf he usually was.

Venom then decided to start flying towards him. He was actually surprised that his wings still functioned the same way as they used do, except he had to open his carapace to do so, which he actually found... freaky, to say the least.

Nonetheless, he landed directly on front of the general just as he had planned. “Hey, Pear Rings.”

Pharynx groaned as he heard the lame nickname he was given. He turned to the teenaged changeling. “Okay, first of all, that wasn’t even clever. Secondly, you already know me. Third, there’s no reason for you to be calling me—“

“Save it, Dish Sinks,” Venom snapped with a sharp tone, followed by a roll of his eyes. “I want you to explain something to me.”

“Fine, what is it?”

“Mind explaining how your brother even woke up from the coma to begin with?”

Venom waited for an answer from the now-pondering general. Pharynx opened his mouth to say something, but another changeling beat him to it. “Why, it was all thanks to the love that was contained in his tears, of course!” He said with a grin.

Pharynx and Venom stared at him. “I’m sorry, what?” Venom uttered.

“What he meant,” Another drone stepped in, “was that Pharynx displayed an act of true love by clinging to his brother and weeping profusely. Therefore, it—“

“Woah, woah, woah. Wait a minute.” Venom cut the drone off while cracking a smile. “You guys actually believe in that sort of fairytale garbage?” It wasn’t long before he started wheezing in laughter. “Okay, okay, you have got to be kidding me.”

“Love in tears?” Spiny caught up with the two. “But that’s not just impossible... T-That’s just... Stupid!” he stuttered in astonishment. “I mean, sure, tear fluids are full of lipids, lysozyme, glucose, sodium, and tons of other toxins, but there is no love in tears,” he firmly stated.

“How do you know for sure?” one of the two drones asked.

“Buddy, if us changelings had love in our tears from the very start, we would be in a very different situation,” Spiny replied.

The drone merely rolled his eyes. He looked like he was about to say something else, at least, until Thorax suddenly came up to the group. “Okay, guys, calm down. Now, we’ve decided to take a short stop at, uh—“ he glanced around the area “—oh look, the donut shop!” he pointed towards a building. “Anyone want donuts?”

As soon as he said that crowd of changeling subjects suddenly started jumping up in down in excitement as if they were pony foals in a candy store. Thorax merely smiled in response to this moment. “Alright, alright, we’re going.”

“John Doe what?” Flutterwings tilted her head.

“You’ll see when we get inside.” Thorax chuckled.

Once they did get inside, they were immediately hit by a whiff of both glaze and sprinkles, a scent that made Venom want to throw up then and there.

“Is that the ‘John Doe’ you were talking about, Thorax?” Cricket pointed at the unicorn stallion running the shop.

“That’s Donut Joe, Cricket,” Thorax tenderly corrected the green changeling. “You guys just go find somewhere to get comfortable. Pharynx and I will just take it from here.”

Venom merely let out a huffy breath as he and the rest of the gang tried to find a table that was isolated as much as possible from the other chattering drones. As soon as he did that, he immediately planted his face into that one table, burying his expression.

“Uh... Venom?” Cricket looked at his younger brother with concern.

“Guys,” Venom groaned as he lifted his head, just enough for him to gaze at the others with saddened—almost desperate—eyes. “Do you think this was all... well... my fault?” he asked lowly.

“Aw come on, bro... what makes you even think that?” Spiny leaned against the table with a slight smile, trying to sound as reassuring as possible.

“Yeah, what did you even do wrong?” Scorch asked.

“Other than suggesting the idea that we kidnap Thorax causing us all to agree and so it somehow ended with all of us becoming ‘reformed’?” Thistle whispered low enough so none of the other changeling subjects could eavesdrop. “Well, other than that, nothing.”

Those statements were met with silent blank stares from the other five changelings. Thistle merely shrugged in response.

Venom let out a heavy sigh. “It doesn’t matter,” he said as he rested his muzzle against his forelegs. “This mess was all because of my stupid, stupid idea.” He shut his eyes in exasperation, as if he were trying not to cry. “Worse thing is, I dragged you guys into it.”

The blue changeling then went back to burying his face in his hooves, continuing to mumble.

A moment of silence occurred within the group of changelings, at least, until Scorch managed to step in.

“Venom, little bro,” he said, lifting his brother’s chin. “I know, it turned out to be a bad idea, but... the rest of us here had no way of knowing it.”

“W-What’s that even supposed to mean?”

“None of us had any way of knowing that we were going to turn into rainbow candy bugs,” Scorch clarified. “Besides, we all agreed to the whole plan in the first place.”

“I guess so,” Venom looked to the side for a brief moment.

“The point is, even though you messed up, we’re not just gonna get up and leave you just like that. Why? Because we’re family Venom.”

Spiny, Flutterwings, and Cricket nodded. Then they all looked at Thistle.

The pink changeling let out a sigh. “Okay, then. Fine. This guy has a point,” she finally admitted with a roll of her eyes.

Venom lifted his head to display a heartfelt smile. “Thanks, guys.”

Their little familial moment didn’t go uninterrupted, unfortunately. A plate of plump ring-shaped confections was suddenly placed in the middle of their table, much to their confusion.

They looked to see a tall, yet slightly stocky unicorn stallion with a light amber coat and a brown mane. “That should be enough for just the six of you. Dig in.”

Venom could only roll his eyes when the stallion departed. He picked up one of the ring-shaped treats, examining it closely.

“So these are what they call ‘donuts’, Spiny?” Flutterwings asked curiously.

“Heck if I know, but they look more like those ring things in one of those pony games,” he answered.

Cricket looked at him. “Which pony game?”

“I think they call it... ‘Toss Ring’?”

“Ooh! So we’re playing toss ring!” Scorch snatched one of the donuts.

“I wanna play toss ring!” Flutterwings did the same.

The other four changelings watched as they aimed at a passerby unicorn’s horn.

Thistle reached out to them with a foreleg. “Guys, wait—“

“OnetwothreeTHROW!”

In unison, the two of them immediately hurled their donuts as far as they possibly could.

Plink! Plonk! One by one, the donuts each successfully landed snugly around the horn. “I WIN!” Flutterwings shouted as she leapt onto the table to do a little dance.

“Hey, my donut made it on there first!” Scorch complained, pounding the table and making the little nymph stumble.

“The first donut was my donut, Scorch!” she replied back to him.

“M’kay, say what you want then.” Scorch rolled his eyes with a sigh.

Venom cowered under the unicorn’s glare from far away.

This was going to be a long day.

“My queen! Has Venom and his siblings made their return, yet?”

“It’s been only a day, Netwing.”

“A day?” Netwing parroted in disbelief. “But but... I thought—“

“I gave them seven days to complete their task,” Queen Chrysalis said as she gazed upon her subject. “Therefore, they have six left. I thought you already knew this.”

“Why, of course I did!”

“Then why do you keep complaining about it?”

The changeling went silent for a moment. “Me? Complaining? Pfft.” He rolled his amber eyes. “My queen, don’t be ridiculous. I have a rank unlike those crayon-haired bugs. I shouldn’t even be complaining.”

“Well you are, so stop it,” the queen began trotting away from the orange-schemed changeling drone.

Netwing let out a huffy breath before asking, “Can I at least ask about why you even chose them to go in the first place?”

“That’s enough, Netwing...”

“I mean, seriously!” he continued as he started following his queen. “You could’ve chose anyone other than those guys! You could’ve sent actual spies or actual scouts. You could’ve sent—“

“ENOUGH, I said!” Queen Chrysalis suddenly whirled around to stamp a hoof at the rambling drone, finally cutting him off. “And I mean it, too. For once, you’re starting to sound like Venom Stinger. Gosh.”

Swallowing, Netwing watched as the changeling queen turned her back to him and continued walking away from him. He growled once she was out of his sight. “Venom Stinger, Venom Stinger... I’m coming for you, Venom Stinger,” Netwing mumbled under his breath. “Me and my comrades will.”

“Dang it! I missed again!” Flutterwings pouted and folded her front legs.

“That was the sixth time! Why is this unicorn so hard to get?” Scorch scratched his head.

“You sure that’s even a unicorn?” Flutterwings pointed to the pony that they kept aiming for; a dark purple unicorn mare with a bright magenta mane. “I don’t see a horn on that head of hers!”

“Oh her? Well, I’ve heard many, many changelings back in the hive talk about her,” Thistle explained. “They say her name is ‘Tempest Shadow,’ also known as ‘Fizzlepop Berrytwist.’” That second name got a few snickers and chuckles from her fellow changelings.

“So, she’s the broken-horned unicorn, then?” Spiny asked, getting a nod from Thistle.

“No wonder we keep missing the shots!” Scorch remarked.

“So, she’s not an earth pony then?” Flutterwings asked in a similar manner to Spiny.

“No, she’s not an earth pony...” Venom answered calmly, before suddenly adding, “...she’s an airhead.”

“...Venom,” Cricket spoke as he stared at the broken-horned unicorn.

“Yeah?”

“I think ‘Tempest Shadow’ heard what you said about her just now.”

“How can you tell?”

“She’s eyeing you right now.”

Venom took a glance at where Cricket was looking. Once he did, he immediately noticed the unicorn’s cold, firm glare.

“She’s scaring me, Venom.” He heard Cricket whimper from behind him.

“Pfft. Cricket, that’s not scary,” Venom said with a roll of his eyes. As soon as he glanced at another faraway area, however, he let out a shriek when he saw tons of random reformed changelings grinning and waving happily at him. “GAH! That’s scary!”

Spiny immediately glanced at the two cowering brothers. “Uh, hey! Donut Jo!” he called towards the nearby unicorn stallion. “Do you have those list thingies?”

“What? Menus?” Donut Jo specified.

“Yes, yes! Menus!” Spiny said, nodding.

“But... didn’t I already give you guys your food—“

“Please, just give us some menus!”

“Okay, okay! Here!”

Spiny immediately took the menus, putting them up to form a little wall in front of Venom and Cricket, which blocked out the stares of other ponies and changelings. “There! Problem solved!” he said with a proud smile.

“Uh, Spiny? Can I have a few menus as well?” Flutterwings got her brother’s attention. “Because now a few foals are staring at me.”

“Uh, okay. More menus please!” As soon as he got the menus, he repeated the process. “There, happy?”

“Hey, where’s my personal wall! I don’t want their eyes on me!”

With a groan of exhaustion, Spiny said once again, “More! Menus!”

Eventually, it got to the point where the small wall of menus became an entire tower of menus, with a roof and everything.

“That had to have done it!” Spiny folded his forelegs as he and the others were fully secured behind all of the menus. “Right? Please, please, please tell me it did the trick...”

“...Wow,” Thistle uttered. “You guys really have that much of a problem with being watched.”

“Well, so what?” Venom spat back. “You honestly think we’d be okay with having inferior creatures just... stalking us?”

“There is a difference between stalking and watching, dude.”

“Okay, now you’re just being ridiculous.”

“I’m being ridiculous? I mean, of course we’re supposed to be against these hideous creatures, but this is not the way to handle it!”

“You obviously don’t sound like you’re against these freaks,” Venom deadpanned.

“Well, I am.”

“Well, heck!” Venom pounded a hoof against the table, causing the tower of menus to start wobbling. Within the next few seconds, it collapsed onto them, as if it were a tower of cards, which it basically was, in a way.

Spiny stared at the mess of menus, then at Venom Stinger. “That was literally all of my hard work...”

“...Whatever,” Venom responded.