Love Me

Diamond Tiara felt sick and nearly threw up. "I don't eat meat, I just don't, I can't. I'm not being rude here, all sane ponies are the same. Meat is a no-no."

"Don't be so queasy, we don't eat meat either. All of those up there are still alive, and more then that, protected from harm in their cocoons, they think they are in heaven. That makes their love seep out; you may not be able to either see or sense it, but we can, and it's what we feed on. In fact, that is normally all that we feed on; we do grow edible fungus as a secondary source of food, but it's not very filling. The great tragedy of our race is that was cannot feed on the love of a fellow Changeling, and since other races tend to fear and hate us;and we can't feed on hate, it's a poison to us, we are forced to take the shapes of those who have loved by others and replace them. As it takes a lot of love to feed a hive including the young grubs, we bring the ponies and others back to the nest and use their love to feed upon. With your permission, I'd like to feed on a sip or two of your love for your *Silver Spoon*."

"Well....does it hurt? Will it leave me unable to love anypony?" Diamond Tiara asked.

"No, I doubt you'll even be able to feel it. If I took a lot of love from you, like I did from Shining Armour, it would hurt and give you severe headaches, but I just want a sip."

"Oh...ok then, just a sip."

Queen Chrysalis transformed into an alicorn-sized Silver Spoon, having been told what she looked like earlier by Chilek and Diamond stared at her. The Queen reached out a hoof and smiled. "That is so sweet.." At once, all the other Changelings in the room started to turn into identical Silver Spoons. Seeing the fear upon Diamond's face she snapped back into her normal shape and snapped an order out to her Hive "Back into your own shapes, now! You're scaring Diamond Tiara, she thinks that you're going to drain her dry. And without me around you probably would do just that. It was your greed in the first place that caused the catastrophic love famine that caused us to attack Canterlot." As the Changelings obeyed her order she explained "Normally there is rationing in a Changeling Hive except on a couple of special days, but there was corruption amongst the guards who allowed certain Changelings to feed when they were not supposed to, and our entire food stocks for the year were eaten in three months. And hungry Changelings are very hard to rule over and have even been known to overthrow their Queens."
*****
It was supper time in the Spoon household, and the finest foods available to Equestrian ponies-rare grasses, sandwiches, vegetables and fruit of all kinds, had been eaten, when Golden Spoon, Silver Spoon's father,picked up a piece of quartz with his hands, pointed it towards Silver Spoon and asked "Is this a Changeling?"

The stone glowed a dull red and Silver Spoon's parents stared in horror at their faux daughter,

"So, you're not...Silver Spoon, then where is she? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?"

The faux Silver Spoon turned back into a Changeling and flew rapidly around the room, looking for a window to fly out of, but they were all shut to save on the heating bill. Down below Golden Spoon shouted to his servants, of which the Spoon family had several. "A Changeling is in the mansion! Everypony get in here and help me catch it. Close all the doors. Tell us, you...thing...where is Silver Spoon and what have you done to her?" Spotting a skylight, the Changeling turned into a Pegasus with the legs of an earth pony and kicked her way out with one powerful buck leaving a horrified family behind her. By the time the Royal Guards had been told, she was far from Ponyville and had changed her shape again to put off anypony chasing her.

*****
"My daughter has been foalnapped and you're saying there is nothing you can do to either pursue the imposter or get my real daughter back?" Golden Spoon's mouth dropped open.

"Sir, the changeling will have changed it's shape at least once by now, and we can't just arrest any random Pegasus we see in the sky. Most likely your daughter is in a Changeling Hive right now, most likely already dead, and you will never see her again."

As his wife burst into tears for their lost daughter, Golden Spoon said "I will take this to the very highest level."

*****
"Your Majesty, I'm begging you to help us get our only daughter, our dear, darling Silver Spoon back from the Changelings, and you are saying no?"

Princess Celestia sighed. "If I get into a war with the Changelings, ponies will die. Other ponies will end up maimed, minus a wing or a leg or both, or permanently mentally battle-scarred and scared out of their wits. Yet more ponies will get a taste for killing and carry it back into civilian life and then we'll get murders happening. In the last hundred years, murders have been almost unknown in Equestria. Even the big cities have very few murders, maybe five or six a year. If we train a lot of ponies to kill and then put them back into civilian life, the murder rate will skyrocket. I have seen war, many centuries ago, and it is hell. That is why I have avoided war as much as possible. I cherish my little ponies. And besides, if we went to war they would most likely kill Silver Spoon and then the war would have no purpose other then to commit genocide and slaughter every last changeling just because you lost your daughter. I will not stop you from paying a ransom for her or otherwise trying to rescue her, but I will not start something as unpleasant as a war for one single filly. You are on your own. and this matter is closed."