Everfree Forest, Abandoned Castle
"Stupid... Arrogant... Bitch!"
These were the words spoken- no, shouted - by one creature currently meandering its way through the Everfree forest. As it walked, the wildlife around it gave way in the same fashion one would a skunk. There was a simple reason why, of course - the creature was a changeling, something they all recognized as a predator.
As the hole-filled, equine-like creature progressed down what it was sure was a trail made by animals, it thought about its current situation.
"I warned her", it spoke aloud in an irate tone of voice,"I told her not to underestimate the strength of the alicorn princesses. Even the newest one has more magic in one eyelash than the queen could ever hope to hold in her whole body, but no! She had beaten Celestia, the most powerful of them all, and the one who would need to show the most restraint!"
The changeling paused to kick a rock into a bush, which caused a scared rabbit to come bounding out. The terrified creature made a scramble for another hiding spot, but was caught in the changeling's own magic grip, being lifted to it's muzzle.
"You probably think that I'm going to eat you, or drain out whatever feeble amount of love you have in your body, don't you?" he asked the rabbit, getting no verbal response. The changeling chuckled. "You've no reason to fear me", he told the rabbit as it then stroked behind the rabbit's ears with its hoof,"You are not a good meal for one thing, and I don't get my rocks off to tormenting small animals." The changeling floated the rabbit back down to the ground and released it, with the rabbit immediately making haste to find another bush to hide in.
"It's nice to not have to keep up the vicious facade anymore", The changeling reflected on the past moment,"If only the queen would've wised up and made a peaceful gesture to negotiate for what we need. There would've been no need for this war, if you could call it that."
At that moment, the changeling looked back and slightly up. Behind it on the side of a mountain was the city of Canterlot, a fortress that had been the site of their attempted invasion of Equestria. The queen went to great lengths to convince her already willing subjects that invading the city would give them as much love as they needed to feed on for centuries.
Of course, the changeling knew better. It was not actually a soldier, but what could be considered the brain trust of the hive, which amounted to nothing more than a sounding board that was expected to act more like a 'yes stallion' than an actual tool for the monarch of the changeling hive to make sound decisions.
That's why it understood that the amount of love in Canterlot would've only lasted for a month at best, but the invasion was never about love.
Months earlier, the queen, Chrysalis, had read through the documented archives of the hive. In doing so, she learned of the strong queens that had ruled before her, and of their great conquests. Thus far in her own life, she had only conquered a few cities. The most notable of which was Timbucktu, a pegasus city ruled by a King Orion. The changelings made short work of the city and left it ruined and its citizens devoid of love. Chrysalis had taken Orion's crown for her own, remaking it in her desired image. She hungered for another conquest such as that.
The changeling kept moving in its chosen direction, putting the thoughts in its head aside. Before, he was part of a hive several thousand changelings strong. Now, it was alone, and would likely stay that way until it met up with more of its kind. In honesty, it hoped it wouldn't.
Changelings as a race had earned a reputation with various slurs attached to it: Cockroaches, Mosquitos, Blood-sucking parasites, and the blanket term Monsters. None of that went for the changeling in question.
Since birth, it had been given a multitude of different books and scrolls stolen from libraries and cities all over Equestria, the land that its kind had attempted to invade. In studying these materials, it had come to the conclusion that the creatures who lived there, called ponies, were an ambivalent kind that could potentially be negotiated with. At least, before the invasion they could've. Now, that was extremely uncertain.
The thoughts of the changeling were interrupted by a growling sound. Shaking loose its thoughts, the changeling looked around to find the source of the growling, only to see a creature resembling a cross between a lion and a scorpion. "Oh, Tartarus" it muttered before scrambling off in the opposite direction of the manticore, the beast in hot pursuit of its perceived meal.
The changeling had to think quickly. A transfiguration would work, but what? A small creature wouldn't suffice. Mimicking a pegasus pony would do no good with the thick canopy of the forest keeping it pinned in. Another large predator would just provoke a fight that it may or may not be able to win...
Suddenly, the changeling got an idea. Making sure to get a decent lead on the manticore, it found a cave near where it was running. It ducked inside and changed its form.
The manticore, who had been chasing the changeling, had lost its quarry. Putting its nose to the ground, it began scent tracking, following the smell to a nearby cave. It stopped when it heard the growling of another manticore. Looking up, it saw a female in a defensive pose, but all thoughts of a potential fight were dropped as soon as it recognized the other as a female.
Instantly, it did its best to present as a desirable mate, smiling large and strutting about. The display seemed to work, as the female began acting coy and fluttering its eyes back at the male manticore. This display went on for a few moments before the male suddenly realized two things: manticores don't have green eyes, and there was no female manticore scent.
Before it could react, the changeling disguised as a manticore cast a spell on it. The manticore went to let out a cry for help, but it was no use. The changeling reverted back to its original form and opened it's maw wide, and almost immediately, a surge of pink energy shot out of the manticore's mouth and into the changeling's. The manticore resisted against the spell, but it was too late. Gradually, the manticore grew weaker and more apathetic as the changeling drained away its love. A few moments later, and the beast dropped to the ground, physically exhausted and emotionally drained.
The changeling, which one would've expected to be rather glad at having gotten to feast upon love, was actually looking on the manticore with a sense of pity. "I really would've preferred not to do that", it told the manticore,"but you gave me no choice. For what it's worth, I did not drain you completely, and you will recover and be able to feel love as strongly as you did before. I strongly recommend not pursuing others of my kind as a potential food source, for not only would they probably use the same tactic as I did, but they would drain you completely and leave you to waste away." The manticore gave no response as the changeling walked away.
After strolling along for another hour or so, the changeling found itself at a random pony structure in the forest; a castle. The dilapidated stone building looked as though it had once been the pride and joy of the country, but was now in a state of disrepair. "The Castle of The Two Sisters", the changeling remembered,"This is where the Elements of Harmony were kept before their new holders were discovered." Seeing an opportunity to learn more about ponies, the changeling went inside.
Fallen pillars and collapsed ceilings were spread throughout the structure. None of the damage threatened to bring down the rest of the castle, though. It was just a physical reminder of its current state of decay, and a warning to be mindful of one's surroundings. The changeling moved cautiously through the ruins, being mindful that there were potential traps and security wards that could spell doom for it.
Navigating between piles of rubble and down different hallways and staircases, the changeling found itself in a large room with several stone pedestals inside, five to be exact. "This must be where the elements were kept" it remarked as it examined the five miniature platforms before it.
Looking around, it took notice of the end of the room, where a few tapestries hung, and a few doors sat beneath them. Each door had a crest placed upon it: A sun, a crescent moon, and a book. "The bedrooms for the princesses and a study" it deduced. Sensing no need to investigate the sleeping chambers immediately, the changeling opened the door with a book on it and stepped inside.
The room was decorated with many bookshelves, all lined with various tomes about various subjects. He took one book down and examined it, then discarded it when he recognized it as nothing more than a book about various processes for producing textiles.
The next book was far more interesting: Sage Cloverleaf's personal diary. As he read the book, he was fascinated to learn that changelings were mentioned in it, but not by name. In his diary, Cloverleaf had called the changelings "The Amourless", or "Loveless". He also theorized that changelings had once been ponies, but were cursed with an inability to exhibit their own love, and thus had to resort to stealing it to survive.
The changeling chuckled at the theory, though he couldn't fault it. In truth, nopony, even the changelings themselves, knew how their kind came to be. Even the changeling itself had once asked his queen about the subject, only to be told that they were born of a cursed plant that had been hurt by a pony named Starswirl the Bearded, who had nailed a warning sign about a lake under a cemetery that gave off sinister vibes.
Placing the more interesting book off to the side rather than tossing it away like the textile book, the changeling found one more of interest: A language teaching book. In it, the language was one that the changeling was familiar with - Latin. It was a dead language, with virtually nopony except pony doctors using the long forgotten terms. The changeling was an academic, as his position in the hive demanded, and had an appreciation for the language.
As he read, he found his mind wandering back to the failed invasion. The queen had organized a plan that had a small chance for success: replace the newest princess that was to be wed that day, hypnotize her husband to be, and then once they had been wed, make the stallion drop the pink shield guarding the city and allow the swarm to overtake the ponies and guards before cocooning and feasting on their love.
That plan went to Tartarus in a hand basket because of one simple fly in the ointment: Twilight Sparkle. The pony who was the current star pupil of Princess Celestia, was also the former charge of the newest princess. Immediately, the purple unicorn had her suspicions about the queen masquerading as her former foalsitter, and had called her out the day before the wedding.
Though the queen had managed to successfully divert attention away from herself, she made a mistake in placing the unicorn in the same cave as the princess she was impersonating. A few hours later, and the two managed to stop the wedding and reveal the queen for what she was. After that, there was the duel between the queen and Celestia the Sun Goddess, and the capture of the elements holders as they tried to reclaim their elements from a vault in the city.
In truth, the plan was working quite well, until the queen's hubris caught up with her. Using love she drained from the husband to be, she was strong, and he had become weak. But that did nothing to stop the bride to be, for it was her own love that restored him, and with his new strength, released a spell so powerful and full of love that it shot every single changeling, including itself, skyward and away from the city.
That had been nearly six hours ago, and no doubt the wedding that had been intended was resuming. Of course, that fact wouldn't matter to the royal guards, who were likely at this very moment searching the country side for any survivors of the love blast, and especially the queen who tried to usurp their sun goddess's throne. The changeling only hoped that the manticore recovered enough to move itself from where the changeling had drained it; A creature weak and devoid of love would be a massively huge clue that a changeling was in the area.
Going back to reading the book, the changeling stumbled upon a writing it found rather interesting and profound:
Vox omnium ratio differentiae
"a voice of reason can make all the difference"
The changeling took the time to think of what it should do. Taking the advice it had read in the book, it thought about the most reasonable solution to its predicament, and came to one conclusion. "I must try to make peace with these ponies", it declared,"even if only for myself, and regardless of how difficult it may be."
The task ahead wouldn't be easy, but it was the best action it could think of. First, it would need an identity. A disguise was the obvious part of that, but there was also the need for a name. The changeling looked over the book as it thought and had an epiphany. "I tried to be a voice of reason before the invasion", it concluded,"Why not let that be my moniker?"
Looking back to the book, it smiled as it had found it's new name. A voice of reason.
Vox Ratio
Author's Note
Oh, wow, another changeling story. How original of me.
Anyways, I wrote this earlier today when the idea popped into my head. I do plan on working on this over time, but my main story, Fitting In Is Hard To Do, is my main focus.
The part of the story about Timbucktu was taken from My Little Pony: FIENDShip Is Magic #5, and Manticore attack was inspired by the episode Frenemies when Chrysalis drains the bull snake monster