Swift Climb's horn glowed softly as he tapped another iron brace into the side of El Chevalier. From when he was a young foal he had deeply envied the pegusai with their ability to soar upon the winds. Since as a unicorn he could not fly, he had taken up the profession of mountain climbing, and a job as a waiter at a bar frequented by pegusai so that he could overhear their flight stories.
He well understood the possible dangers;even in the best possible weather a slip in the wrong place could lead to a painful death upon the rocks down below. He also knew that for years now El Chevalier had been closed to climbers due to the danger of dislodged rocks falling upon other ponies down below. The Princesses had decided that whilst they had nothing against mountain climbers risking life and limb it was another thing entirely when their actions put everypony down below in danger. As such he was on his own here; there was no pegusai rescue service for those who fell as there was at many other mountains. Yet the desire to scale one of the few mountains he had not yet climbed was too strong.
Down below Miss Cherrilee gently shepherded her class off the train. For the annual school trip this year she had taken her class to see El Chevalier and the edge of the Everfree Forest, preserved as a national park at least partly because it was dangerous for anypony to live here in the long term. "Alright, everypony listen up. Nopony is to enter the forest, it's just not safe. That means you, Cutie Mark Crusaders."
Apple Bloom sighed loudly and rolled her eyes.
"I may seem to be a killjoy to you, but I'd really rather not have to explain to your parents how you vanished down the throat of a hydra or were eaten by a serpent because you decided to try and get an explorer's cutie mark. The other rules are...don't feed the animals if you see any and do not, whatever you do, take a parasprite home with you. Those things multiply like crazy and are a menace in the civilized areas. Here their predators keep them in check. Let's go."
As the class set out along the base of El Chevalier, far up above the hooves of Swift Climb dislodged a rock which began to bounce down the mountain.
Diamond Tiara sighed quietly in annoyance and thought with a mind somewhat sleepy from the hot sun. I'd much rather be out shopping or alone chatting to Silver Spoon or being fussed over and cuddled by Daddy. And instead I am forced to walk along a nature trail near a scary forest and share my space with blank flanks. What's that banging from up there? OH, BUCK!
Silver Spoon screamed as a huge rock smashed into Diamond's head, smashing her to the ground. Cherrilee stared in horror at what no amount of teaching could prepare her for. "Snips, Snails, run to the Ranger Station and get them to send an air ambulance. Hurry! Everybody else, keep a lookout for any more falling rocks and keep well back from the mountain." Soon enough four pegasui flew down carrying a large stretcher. Diamond Tiara was strapped to it and it took off quickly into the sky in the direction of Ponyville General Hospital leaving a very shocked class and a sobbing Silver Spoon behind.
*****
Filthy Rich was in his boardroom looking at the latest reports of his Barnyard Bargains business when one of his most liked and trusted stallions, Cook Books, came in, and he didn't look at all happy. What can be wrong? Are the workers out on strike...again? Has some investigator in the Equestrian Tax Inspectorate found out about my secret overseas bank account? "What's wrong, Cook? Don't worry, whatever it is I'm not going to sack you."
"Your daughter is in the hospital...and they say she's dying and won't last the night."
"WHAT? Call my coach, I'll be there as quickly as I can."
When he got there he was shown by Nurse Healall to where his daughter lay in bed, her purple fur faded in color to a light pink and the sheen gone from her cutie mark. "Daddy..." Her voice was so quiet that he had to put his ear next to her mouth. "A rock...broke my neck. Don't have me revived, I don't want to live on like this, unable to move from the neck down. Find...find a changeling to take my place so nobody knows about it, least of all Mummy and Silver Spoon. Bury me secretly in the Rich family tomb, and love the changeling like you loved me. Tell the nurses you want to take me home for my last hours and that I'm sleeping. Goodbye...Daddy, I've always loved you." Diamond closed her eyes and her body went slack. When they were really seriously hurt and genuinely wanted to die,as Filthy now remembered, ponies had the ability to will themselves to die and pass on to whatever afterlife awaited them. Filthy reached out with a hoof and closed his daughter's eyes and then burst into tears and stayed a long time with his daughter's body, before he decided to do what his daughter had asked.
About a year ago on a business trip to Manehatten he had discovered a rather unhappy showmare by the name of Trixie Lulamoon, who was now reduced to the magical equivalent of busking to earn a few bits. Impressed by the quality of her magic, he had taken her onto his payroll as his magician to amuse him, his family and his workers. Whilst her salary was low, it did have the advantage of being constant, and he had found her somewhere to live as well. Now he had her summoned to his private study. "Trixie, what I am about to say must not be told to anypony. I want you to seek out a Changeling and persuade it to come to see me. I know that since the attack on the royal wedding a magical force shield now protects Equestria from the Changeling threat, but it is weak because of the length it has to cover and acts more as a warning beacon then anything else. A great and powerful user of magic like you could easily open a small hole in it and fly into the Changeling lands. You have a week to do so, find a willing Changeling and come back with it."
Trixie stared at him. "But Sir...Mr Rich, what you want me to do is both highly dangerous and highly illegal. If the Changelings don't kill me or overpower me and hang me up in a cocoon, then if the Royal Guard get me I'll do hard time in Foalsom Prison for it."
"Do what I say, and I'll make you an executive with an executive's salary to match. Refuse and you'll be back to sleeping on the streets and busking for a living. Here is a first class train pass to make travel easier. Oh, and if you fail, you're on your own."
"Yes Sir, I'll do what you want, Sir."
It was a night and a day of traveling before Trixie reached the border with the Changeling Queendom, dimly seen through the pink force shield. Here and there on both sides were occasional patrols keeping a watch on what was going on. Trixie's skilled eye noticed that as Mr Rich had said, the force field was relatively weak, as it had so much ground to cover. She managed to hide under a copse of trees as a guard patrol of four Royal Guard pegasui flew by. With a few words of magic she passed through it leaving no trace and entered the Changeling Queendom. Which at least in this area, looked a lot like Equestria except for the large Hive in the far distance. This far away from it, she could not make out any details except that it appeared to be made of stone. Even this far out, there were watchful sentries and one noticed her, flew down and landed.
"If you are a fellow Changeling, change to your true form. If not, you will regret you ever entered here."
Trixie replied "I...I'm a pony with an offer, a really good one. My employer wants you to come to Equestria, and he will pay you well for whatever he has in mind. Yes, you can summon your friends, overpower me and go on living this dull life of sentry duty, or you can have an adventure."
The Changeling hesitated, and then nodded. "I will trust you, but if this is a set-up, you will feel my fangs." When she helped it through the force field it changed into a rather dumpy brown unicorn with a scroll for a cutie mark. When she reached Mr Rich's mansion and ushered the Changeling inside Filthy Rich beckoned for her to leave the room and the Changeling took on it's true shape.
"My daughter...my princess, died not long ago on a school trip and, I want you to take on her shape and take her place so my wife and my daughter's friends do not find out that she died. You will be paid my daughter's pocket money in bits, a large amount, plus you will live in my mansion and get all the love you can eat. All you have to do in return is be a sweet daughter. I have pictures of her, and her diary, and will help you with whatever you need to pass as her. And of course your secret is safe with me. Only I and the pony who brought you here know who you really are." He passed her a picture of Diamond Tiara and her diary, the lock having been crow barred off. The Changeling turned into Diamond Tiara in seconds and he hugged her and planted a kiss on her forehead. It smiled as it felt a rich father-daughter love filling it's stomach."Daddy?" it asked in Diamond's most dulcet tones, that she used when she was asking for something. "Would you really be willing to accept me as your daughter, even knowing who I am?"
"Yes, I would, Princess. Now go away and study so that you can be the best possible Diamond for me and Mummy."
By the time Screwball Rich came back from meeting her relatives in Stalliongrad Diamond's body had been secretly placed in the family tomb by Filthy and the new Diamond acted just like the old one. And for months the new Diamond had everything she wanted...money, status, Silver Spoon's friendship and as much love from her parents as she could feed on. But as time went on seperated from the Hive, a biological call within her grew louder and louder, a call to create a new hive, until finally she could hold it no further, and decided that Silver Spoon was to be her first new convert.
"
The more she hung around with Silver Spoon, the more she had got to like her. No wonder the original Diamond Tiara liked her so much. She'll like it so much more as a Changeling, really she will. Feeding off love is the best kind of nourishment in the world, be it the warm love of a parent or the sweet love of a coltfriend or marefriend. One evening when the two of them were together chatting about the latest idiotic things that the blank flanks in their class had got up to, Diamond leaned in as if to whisper to her, and slipped her fangs into her best friend's neck, paralyzing her, then rapidly spun a green silken cocoon around her and hang her up in a corner. Within an hour the cocoon had split, revealing a new Changeling. Whilst it had all the memories of Silver Spoon, it was not her. It bowed low, much to the new Diamond's surprise. "Your Majesty, what do you want me to do for you?"
"Your...Majesty?" Diamond asked, surprised.
"As the only other Changeling in this region, and the first to sire a new Changeling, that makes you the Queen now. What do you want me to do?"
"Well, first change into Silver Spoon before anyone sees you. Then, I need new Changelings to create a hive. Target them with care. Don't target your parents as you'll be cutting off your favorite food source. Don't target those annoying blank flanks, I have my own plans for them. And be very careful not to get caught when you change anypony." She grinned, as the new Changeling was giving her love of her own. Over the next few weeks and months, the more new Changelings grew, the more love they gave their new Queen and the bolder they were. In April, they changed Miss Cherilee. In May, they targeted the three Royal Guards and the sole detective that served as Ponyville's small police force and changed them. By now Diamond was addicted to the love she was getting from each new changeling; the more love she feasted upon from so many different sources the more she desired, even though she was in danger of cutting off the sources of love to her fellow hive members. On her orders the Mane Six were left well alone; she wanted to leave them until she was sure that they could be overpowered.
In June, Nurse Healall came into Ponyville and came across Diamond walking with Silver Spoon. Oh my...either the diagnosis of a broken neck was wrong, and the patient recovered, or we have a Changeling in Ponyville. She wrote two letters, one to the hospital explaining just who she had seen walking around, and the other to the Princess Celestia herself. Anypony could write to the Princess, although very few of these letters were ever answered. She handed them to Derpy the mailmare and paid for first class postage and then hurried to the Ponyville police station where Detective Sergent Look Hard was manning the front desk. "What's wrong? You look terrified."
"I've either seen a miracle cure or a Changeling walking the streets of Ponyville. Months ago, Diamond Tiara Rich was brought in with a broken neck, and discharged to spend her last hours with her family. And I saw her walking along totally unharmed."
"Who else did you tell? Accusing another pony of being a Changeling is a serious matter. If you spread the news all around Ponyville and you turn out to be wrong you could end up being sued in the civil courts and have to pay a large number of bits." He came out from behind the desk and walked up to her.
"Apart from you I sent two letters by mailmare, one addressed to the hospital that I work at and one addressed to Her Royal Majesty, but that's all, I have not told anyone else in case I am indeed wrong."
"Excellent." The detective fanged Nurse Healall and soon enough the irritating informant was hanging from the ceiling in an empty police cell within a cocoon. The cell was left unlocked, once the cocoon hatched the Changeling that emerged would be totally loyal to the Hive and the Queen. Then he spread his wings and flew off on a search for Derpy. For the sake of the Hive I have to stop those letters, most of all the Hospital one. The one to Princess Celestia is unlikely to reach her, but the other one could bring a world of trouble upon everyling. Soon enough he caught up with Derpy. "Derpy, somepony with a grudge about a failed legal case sent hate mail to Princess Celestia and a hospital. I have to impound it to avoid it causing any trouble and so that I can make a case against the pony who did this." He tapped the badge on his uniform with his hoof and Derpy did not object as he found and took the two offending pieces of mail. Then he hurried back to his Queen. After a search he found her window-shopping with Silver Spoon. "Your Majesty,"he said quietly, "somepony found out who you really are and tried to warn Princess Celestia. That pony has been...changed."
"Excellent," Diamond said. "Almost everypony in this town has been changed, except for Filthy Rich, the Mane Six, and a handful of others. If we can take out the Mane Six one at a time, we can trick Shining Armour and then the Princesses here and if they can be overpowered, then Equestria is ours for the taking." Privately, she was a little worried. I should have just changed Silver Spoon and maybe one or two others, and we could have lived off the love of our unknowing families for the rest of our lives. But because I wanted more subjects, a whole hive full of them, nine-tenths of Ponyville are now Changelings and there is only enough love to go around for a day or so before we must expand or starve. Why did I do this? I never set out to become a Changeling Queen or to try and conquer Equestria; things just got totally out of hand. No wonder other races have no love for Changelings.
