Where Do Changelings Come From?

“Thank you for coming to see me.”

The three guests in the room nodded their heads. It was odd seeing the four of them together like this, but during times like these, collaboration was necessary to solve large-scale issues.

“So, uhh… what did you need me here for?” asked the blue dragon, who folded her arms and kicked her legs onto the conference room table.

“Yeah, I’m a little confused myself,” the changeling chimed in. “This is kinda my problem, so I don’t see why you invited them along too.”

“Come on, guys! Four heads are better than two! Unless you’re chimera, in which case trust me, the fewer the better.” The kirin laughed at her own joke, which only made the dragon roll her eyes in annoyance.

“For this assignment, I’ll need all three of you here,” the princess said calmly. “Dragon Lord Ember, Ambassador Autumn Blaze, we’re going to need your help in coming up with a solution regarding the changeling population.”

Ember raised an eyebrow. “OoooooK? Why, though?”

“King Thorax,” Twilight began, turning towards the fourth guest in the room, “perhaps you would like to fill them in?”

The changeling flinched at the dragon’s fierce gaze and instead faced the kirin with the much more approachable expression. “Right. You see, the changelings have gone on for centuries under several different queens, all of which have had their hives feed on love in order to survive.”

“Ooooooo! Changeling history! You know, we never get to hear about that much over in my village! Where did it all start for you guys? Does your kind have like a Beejesus that created changelings in the first place?”

Once again, Thorax cringed, deciding that maybe it would be easier to face Ember’s fierce gaze after all. “Well, the problem is that ever since we’ve evolved to a more cohabitative way of surviving, it means that I’ve been the acting monarch for our kind. I’m the first king the species has ever had, so things have gotten a little… complicated since Chrysalis disappeared.”

“Complicated how?” the dragon retorted.

“It’s… uh… you know how things are different with you being the first female dragon lord?”

“Not really. Dragons feared me before. They fear me now. I don’t get your point.”

The changeling blinked. “Er… Twilight? I might need you to explain the rest after all.”

Once everyone’s eyes travelled back to her, however, Twilight rubbed her foreleg nervously, giggling awkwardly as a bead of sweat trailed down her forehead. “Well... Autumn Blaze! Let’s talk about why you’re here first!”

“Oh, I already know why I’m here,” the kirin responded, making Twilight lift an eyebrow.

“You do?”

“Yup! I’m just here for comic relief so that these two don’t kill each other when you bring up the fact that we need Ember to teach Thorax how to lay eggs.” Ember’s jaw dropped, Thorax winced, and Twilight put her hoof to her face, shaking her head in discomfort, and suddenly, Autumn Blaze realized what she did wrong. “I should have just let you say that, shouldn’t I?”

“I’m outta here.”

The dragon didn’t hesitate for a moment, but luckily, Twilight had reflexes that were just as quick. Just as Ember had taken off into the air, flying towards the exit, the princess zoomed in front of her, holding out her hooves to block the dragon lord from leaving.

“Hang on a second! I promise it’s not as weird as it sounds.”

Ember folded her arms with a scowl. “So you don’t want me to teach bugbrain over there how to lay eggs?”

“Well… uhh… It’s not like we’re asking for a demonstration or anything, but--”

“Oo! Oo! I want to see a demonstration!”

“Autumn Blaze!! Not helping!”

Thorax could see how quickly things were going to go south if he didn’t intervene, and with a heavy sigh, he flew into the air beside the dragon, who seemed annoyed just looking at him. “Listen, Dragon Lord Ember,” he said sorrowfully. “I know how you’ll probably feel about this, but my species is in danger. Queen Chrysalis was the one who laid all of the eggs that kept our hive going, but now that she’s gone, it’s my responsibility to prevent our extinction.”

“Alright, look,” the dragon said in annoyance, slowly falling back to the ground. “Let’s just get the obvious point out of the way first. Are you a girl?”

The changeling rubbed his foreleg bashfully. “No, I’m not.”

“OK. I don’t know how your species makes babies, but with us, only the girls can lay eggs. I mean, you’re the king, aren’t you? Aren’t there loads of chicks back at your hive who can--”

“No, it doesn’t work like that, I’m afraid. The females in my hive are worker changelings, and they never got the jelly that queens get that allows them to lay fertile eggs.”

Finally, placing her claw to her face, Ember let out an exhausted sigh before putting both of her claws to her hips. “Look, I hate to break it to you, but there’s really nothing you can do. Basically any of the girl dragons can lay eggs. If the queen is really the only one who can keep your species going, then you really don’t have a choice.”

Twilight nodded her head in agreement until the message Ember was implying finally sunk in, making the alicorn gasp. “Wait! You can’t mean--”

“You’re gonna have to bring back Chrysalis and get her to lay some more eggs. That’s the only way I can think of to keep your species from going extinct.”

Twilight chuckled nervously, grinning at the dragon whose face remained stoic. “You’re joking… right, Ember?”

“You got any better ideas?”

There had to be more options! She knew what would happen if she ever tried bringing Chrysalis back! There was once a time when she was offered the chance to reform, to accept friendship and a new way of life, but instead, she chose the other path, one that led her to her stone prison in the first place. If she was ever released, what would stop her from doing it again? Someone like her could never be reformed…

...But the changelings. They would all die out if she didn’t…

As Twilight continued running through all the possibilities in her head, however, Thorax placed a hoof onto her back, making her nearly get whiplash from how quickly she turned her neck. “It’s OK, Princess Twilight,” he said with a small smile. “We can think of another way.”

“But how? None of the other changelings can reproduce, can they?”

Thorax cringed in doubt. “Well… Maybe we could try reproducing with other species. I’m sure there have to be ponies who would--”

“No. It’s not that I don’t want you to mix with ponies or anything, but changelings need to keep existing how they are, even if it means trying one last time to reform Chrysalis.”

“But… do you really think that’ll work?”

The alicorn princess turned towards Autumn Blaze, who nodded her head vigorously, then towards Ember, who simply shrugged her shoulders. Of course, it was going to be a long shot, and there were no guarantees, but the one saving grace that Twilight could look back on was the fact that they’d already taken care of her three times already, so it wasn’t like they couldn’t do it again. If they didn’t at least try, then the changelings would almost definitely go extinct.

Then, lifting her head with confidence, Twilight finally said, “Yes, I do. If you help me, then I’m sure that the two of us will be able to get her to change her ways. Somehow.”

“Hey, it worked with Discord!” Autumn Blaze shouted. “And I gotta tell you, that guy is a hoot! You should see his impersonation of Applejack. Hi-Larious. No offense, but he’s probably got her character down even more than a changeling!”

Twilight and Thorax then looked at each other and laughed, shaking their heads with newfound confidence.

“Alright, Twilight,” Thorax said, lifting his head higher than it had been this whole time. “Let’s do it. Let’s save my hive.”

It was difficult enough just trying to separate Chrysalis’s body from the other two imprisoned in stone, but the real challenge was getting it back to the changeling hive without the other changelings seeing. If they knew what the two monarchs were trying to do, the hive would undoubtedly be in an uproar, so rather than dragging her statue through the middle of the colony, the two of them snuck her in through a back entrance that only Thorax knew about. They would be underground for the time being, but that was still better than revealing their former queen to those who had tried so hard to change from what she wanted them to be in the first place.

“Actually,” the king began, his face contorted in anxiety, “maybe this isn’t such a good idea after all.”

“We have no choice, Thorax. Are all the exits sealed?”

“I think so, but--”

“Good. You might wanna stand back for a second.”

Twilight could see Thorax flinching from the corner of her eyes, but if she didn’t take care of this now, she knew that she’d just let Thorax talk her out of it. This would be the first time she’d ever released anything from stone without her friends’ help, but if they knew what she was doing, they’d never agree to be part of it in the first place. She just had to concentrate her mind for the time being and let everything else go.

Then, focusing her magic to the tip of her horn, the princess began to levitate from the ground as a magical aura enveloped her body. She could see Thorax beginning to slowly back himself away, leaving her target clear. Finally, closing her eyes, she allowed the magical energy to course through her body, following her veins up to her horn until it cascaded down towards the statue in a path of magic.

Light filled the room. Thorax held up his hoof to block out the overwhelming brightness. After a few moments of blinding magic piercing into the statue, however, it finally began to crack along the contours, which shone as if light were emanating from the inside. Then, with smoke billowing up around it, the statue exploded, filling the surrounding area with a giant dust cloud as Twilight finished her spell, descending to the ground and examining the aftermath.

Did it not work? Had she screwed up somewhere?

Just when she was about to worry, however, she heard a low, feminine voice begin to cackle from inside the smoke, and that worry quickly turned to anxiety.

“Ahahahaha. Ahhhhahahahahaha! GAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAH!”

One hoof stepped in front of the other, making a loud thud as it collided with the ground below. It took a moment for the dust to clear, but once it did, the creature standing in the middle was a black figure with holes all over her legs.

“I knew it was only a matter of time before I’d be free again!” she exclaimed with another panic-inducing cackle. “Now, who was it that was gracious enough to release me from my stone prison?”

“Th-that would be me.”

Chrysalis turned towards the feeble sound with an eyebrow raised, seeing the purple alicorn waving at her with an awkward smile. Then, to Twilight’s dismay, Chrysalis smiled back.

“Excellent choice, Your Majesty. Have you finally realized that that sorry excuse for a bug has no idea how to raise a changeling colony?”

“Weeeell…”

Twilight slowly nudged her head to the side, and following the direction where she was motioning to, Chrysalis noticed a very timid changeling rubbing his foreleg anxiously. “Ah. So you’re still here.”

“Hi, Chrysalis,” he said quietly with a nervous wave. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Queen Chrysalis switched looks between Twilight and Thorax, raising her eyebrow higher after every glance. “You didn’t release me to take over the hive again, did you?”

“Well,” Twilight began with a cringe, “not exactly.”

Right when Twilight expected Chrysalis to erupt into a fit of rage, however, the queen smirked, causing the hairs on her body to stick up uncomfortably. “I understand,” Chrysalis began, placing her hoof against her forehead with a melodramatic swoon. “You’re probably right. The changelings must be thriving under… what was your name again?”

“Er… Thorax.”

“Right. The hive must be prospering in ways that it never even imagined under my leadership. Although that makes me wonder… What reason could the two of you possibly have for releasing me if the changelings are doing so well?”

Twilight and Thorax turned towards each other, flinching once they noticed that their cringing faces were mirroring each other with terrifying accuracy. Even if Thorax could come up with some kind of excuse, though, this wasn’t his responsibility in the first place. Twilight was the one who came up with the idea to release Chrysalis, which meant that she needed to be the one to actually carry out their mission.

Then, placing a hoof down with what she hoped looked like confidence, the princess looked into the queen’s eyes and said, “We wanted to give you another chance. Now that you know what the alternative is, we want you to become part of the hive again, as one that can spread love rather than feasting on it. If we release you from your stone prison, will you promise to give friendship a chance?”

Chrysalis’s grin grew wider, again making Twilight’s hooves quiver.

“OK.”

Twilight blinked. “Wait, seriously? No threats of revenge or how you’ll get the changelings to go back to how they used to be?”

“Well, it’s not like you’ve given me much of a choice. As much as I hate to admit it, without Grogar’s bell, I don’t really stand a chance against you alone. If my options are friendship or being turned to stone again, I might as well give it a shot.”

“That’s… great!” Twilight beamed uncomfortably towards Thorax, still unsure whether or not things were going a little too well. Thorax, though, shrugged his shoulders, giving Twilight basically the same reaction that she had. “Oh, by the way, there was one teensy weensy little thing we wanted to ask you about, since you’re going to be studying friendship and all.”

“Go on.”

The princess chuckled uncomfortably before swallowing hard. “You see… um… the thing is… You know where babies come from, right?”

Chrysalis stared at Twilight with a blank look on her face, seemingly frozen in time until she roared with laughter a few seconds later, falling onto her stomach and pounding the ground in hilarity. The louder Chrysalis laughed, the more Twilight’s cheeks burned.

“Oh, that is priceless!” the changeling queen hollered, wiping a tear from her eye. “I guess your new king forgot about one of the key components of changeling physiology when he decided to form a coup against me.”

Just as Chrysalis began to giggle incessantly again, however, Thorax slammed his hoof to the ground, silencing the queen whose eyes went wide in surprise. “Don’t forget who has the upper hoof here, Chrysalis. You may be the only one who can keep our race going, but I’d rather we go extinct than let you ever have the throne again. If I think you’re doing anything that Twilight doesn’t know about, I’ll have her turn you back to stone without so much as a second thought. Are we clear?”

After waiting a few moments with a raised eyebrow, Chrysalis slowly returned to her hooves, wiping some of the dust off of her foreleg. “When did you get such a backbone?” Thorax opened his mouth again, but before he could speak, Chrysalis quickly raised her hoof to silence him. “I get it. It’s friendship or prison. Or are you really just holding me hostage until I can lay another queen for you?”

“That’s not--” Twilight stammered, unable to find any way to respond, but Thorax, however, continued to stare Chrysalis in the eye, unwavering in his conviction.

“Do we have a deal, Chrysalis?”

The queen rolled her eyes. “Fine, fine. Like I said. It’s not like you’ve given me much of a choice.”

Thorax looked over at Twilight with a confident grin, but Twilight, however, could only smile back with half of the confidence that he had. The entire future of the changeling population depended on the success of this plan, which now rested squarely on their shoulders. Twilight had to make this work. What kind of princess of friendship would she be otherwise?