Don't Shoot the Messenger
Author's Note (4/10/2024)
This snippet was written quickly and in a state of mind that I would not describe as fully healthy, and the final product just relies on too much extra information that isn't in the chapter to even remotely work. I very quickly have come to regard this story as an embarrassment that shows off my worst qualities, but since FiMFiction does not have an option to private stories, I'm left with the decision of if I should delete this story entirely. I have decided to leave the story up for the time being with this Author's Note at the beginning, in the interest of preservation and not running from my failures. If you haven't, I recommend you check out some of my other stories instead.
—Jazzy
"CHANGELING!"
As the green flash of flame erupted, the ragtag group of mares scrambled together in a defensive huddle facing the Queen. Their expressions were a mix of fear and hatred, followed by a dawning realization as they saw the size and regality of the creature before them. The purple one narrowed her eyes. "Queen Chrysalis."
The queen rolled her eyes. "No, actually. Queen Hyaline. I'm not sure if it's more offensive that you've immediately mistaken me for a Queen with a completely different build, face, hole placement, and basically everything else, or if it's more offensive that you assume that changelings are a monolith, with only one ruler and one goal." She craned her neck down to the level of the six cowering, if confused, ponies. "It seems the racism your ancestors had against each other simply redirected itself to the outside, though that's sadly not much of a surprise."
The pegasus with the rainbow mane shot forward at a frankly impressive speed, hovering in front of Hyaline's face with an angry expression. "Hey! You take that back, monster!"
Hyaline returned the stare, albeit deadpan and betraying exhaustion rather than anger in return. "And this, little ponies, is what is known as a self-demonstrating article. This will be on the test, so please take notes."
"YOU'RE a self-defenestrating particle!" Came the pony's rather lame retort.
"Rainbow Dash! Down, girl!" The orange pony spoke in a country accent, prompting the reluctant and stubborn one, apparently named Rainbow Dash, to swoop back to the group, still silently giving Hyaline the stink eye.
The purple one walked forward, apparently the de facto leader of the group. "I'm not sure if I can trust you after what Chrysalis's changelings did in Canterlot. But assuming you're not deceiving us... Why are you here? Why would a Changeling Queen appear here, to us, after all that's happened?"
With a green flash, Hyaline produced a sealed envelope. "I am, at this point somewhat regrettably, here to personally deliver this document. It is a copy of the formal declaration from the Council of Royals denouncing and excommunicating the ex-Queen Chrysalis and all changelings who choose to still follow her rule from here on out."
The envelope was set down in front of the purple unicorn, who glanced down briefly before carefully picking it up, clearly using her magic to check for potential traps. "Council...? As in, of changelings?"
"Yes." Hyaline nodded, paying her suspicious prodding no mind, and continued. "One of the required copies, by the rules of our Ancient Concord, is to be delivered to the individual, group, or family whose involvement directly revealed the Concord-breaking activities, thus leading to said excommunication. The one to reveal Chrysalis's plan was, as you are no doubt very aware, a purple unicorn of the House of Light, whose current residence is the Golden Oaks Library in Ponyville. In other words, you."
The unicorn opened the envelope and glanced over its contents, confirming what she was being told. "I... don't understand, though. Why would the messenger be a Queen?"
"An understandable question." Hyaline nodded, noting that all but the blue pony now regarded her with less fear or anger and more cautious curiosity. "The practical reason was the likelihood that a normal changeling drone would simply be attacked without a chance to explain themselves." Hyaline grinned sadly. "The real reason... was that I was curious. Chrysalis is the first to intrude upon the Equestrian Diarchy in over one thousand years. When I last laid eyes on ponies, I was a young foal, and ponies were still getting used to living near other ponies who had different features than their own."
The unicorn gasped. "You're over 1,000 years old?"
"Rather young for a Changeling Queen. Most of us are much older. To give a pony comparison, I was born a few years before Celestia's reign began. I am approaching my 1,111th hatchday." Hyaline continued. "I came with the document myself to see how ponies had changed in all that time." Hyaline glanced over at Rainbow, the blue one. "More than I thought, yet less than I'd hoped. The seeds of hatred that infest Chrysalis are within ponies, too. Diminished from their ancient glory, perhaps, but still present, and still guiding your actions."
The white unicorn spoke up next in a fake high-class voice. "That's unfair! We were just scared! We just got invaded!"
Moving her gaze to the speaker, Hyaline responded. "Perhaps. But in your fear, your collective first instinct was to assume that we were a monolith. All the same. Countless changelings, one label. Monster."
"B-but, um," the yellow one quietly mumbled, barely audible, "we just thought that since ponies have one princess... um, I guess it's two, now... but it's one government... we thought it would be the same for changelings..."
"Understandable, if unfortunate." Hyaline avoided looking directly at the pegasus, sensing her nervousness. "But that only holds up if you don't act with the same fear regardless of circumstance. For example... let's say a new race you'd never seen before comes into town. They aren't ponies, but they're clearly civilized. They walk into town and try to shop. Perhaps a Yak, a Griffon, a Zebra," Hyaline noticed a shift in emotion from the six at this point, "or some other foreign race. Would you give the benefit of the doubt, and not give into fear and hatred? Or, should I say... have you?"
Silence reigned for several seconds. The pink one stepped forward next. Her hair looked a little deflated compared to how it looked when Hyaline first showed herself. "You're right. We've made some really bad mistakes like that in the past. And it was really mean of us. But we can get better! Isn't that worth something?"
Hyaline nodded. "Perhaps. On an individual level. But on a group level, the instinct of othering tells me that ponies aren't ready yet."
The purple one raised an eyebrow. "Ready? For what?"
Hyaline smiled and shook her head. "Nevermind. It's not something that will be relevant during your lifetime." Hyaline turned to leave before pausing, looking back at the six. "But if you want to pleasantly surprise me, I'll be waiting. As I always have been." In a flash of green flame, Hyaline vanished from view.
It was sad that ponies weren't ready yet. Hyaline had had her eye on them for so long, but there was still so long left to wait at the current pace. If she were following the old standards, from when she was younger, they would have been considered ready. But thanks to the actions of Chrysalis, both publicly known and privately revealed to the Royal Court in the investigation, those standards had changed. So many investigations of so many Queens and Hives, all just to find out that the standards were ever so slightly too lenient...
If the brood of Chrysalis wasn't ready when they were inducted, then the brood of Celestia wouldn't be ready either. Not yet, anyway. But one day... one day the ponies would sit on the Council of Royals. One day they would Ascend.
Author's Note
An explanation, if it wasn't clear enough: Hyaline was vetting them to see if ponykind was ready to "ascend" and become a hive of changelings. Hyaline picked ponies as her chosen race for ascension at a young age, seeing potential in them, and has been waiting for nearly 1,100 years for ponies to mature enough for ascension to be safe. After the revelation of Chrysalis and potentially her entire hive being wackadoo, an investigation was launched into her hive and the hives of other queens to find out what went wrong. Chrysalis's hive used to be a non-changeling species as well, but ascended before the race was "ready" on a collective moral level, thus why her hive went so wrong. The standards for ascension had to be changed as a result, meaning ponies will have to wait much, much longer before they're ready to become changelings. Whether ascension is a good thing or a horrific concept is up to the reader.
Also, hi! It's my first submission here in a long, long time. Hopefully, I can keep up this momentum of writing, but time will tell.
