Changeling's Story

Shining Armor shot up; he’d just been put in a cocoon by his sister, and has now woken up. He looked around, black, everywhere, nothing but black.

He looked down at his hooves, 100% visible, so wherever he was wasn’t dark, just, black.

Then, something started to materialize in front of him, the Crystal Castle, A.K.A, his home.

He took a sceptical step forward, he started moving towards the castle, black is surprisingly easy to walk on.

He slowly opens the door, and pokes his head in, it’s, the same. Nothing’s different. Yet something felt off, not bad, but different.

He walked in fully and turned on the lights, everything looked the same, this was still the same old public reception. Yet something still felt wrong.

This was a dream, he knew that, but his dreams usually were filled with ponies, but now everything was deserted.

He walked to the privet part of the castle, the part where he and Cadance live.

He pushed the door open, their living room, the same. AHH! Something was wrong, what was it!

He smelt something, it smelt good. He walked inside, and closed the door behind himself. He followed his nose to the kitchen, where he saw Cadance cooking. More specifically, she was cooking cupcakes.

She turned and looked at Shining, then smiled, “hello, Shiny! I’ve made some cupcakes.” She pulled them out of the oven, “try some!”

He took the cupcake with his magic, ‘hah, I have magic again.’ He thought as he took an uneasy bite. He savoured the bite, nothing could compare to how amazing this single bite was. Sadly, he could barely taste the rest of the cupcake, because he stuffed it all in his mouth, one go.

“Cadance, that cupcake was amazing, what did you make it out of?” Shining asked, wondering how this dream was going to shape itself.

The princess walked over to Shining, and kissed his cheek, “I made it with love.”

The kiss felt warm, and he could almost taste something. That’s when it clicked, ‘made with love’, the warm feeling from the kiss, what Twilight had said, ‘for your queen.’ And the cocoon he was just put in, in this dream, he was turning into a changeling.

Cadance look at him, concerned, “Shining? What’s wrong? Did those flanks at the guard tease you with the picture of you with crystal fur?” She leaned over and hugged him, “don’t worry, the queen can take of them.” She said, stroking his hair.

This calmed Shining, until a realisation, “don’t you mean the princess?” He feared the worse, and that’s what he got.

Cadance held her concerned look, “Shining, are you feeling ok? I’m talking about Twilight Sparkle, queen of the hive.”

Shining seemed relaxed by this, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath; but his eyes shot open as the words made sense of themselves.

Shining leaped away from his wife, and backed up against the wall.

“Shining, please tell me what’s wrong?” The voice sounded similar, and that’s was the problem, it was similar, not the same.

He looked over at Cadance, in her place was a changeling, purple exo’ skeleton and purple eyes, yet her hair, cream, purple and pink, flowing down to her legs where it curls up. And her height, ~4 feet, just like Cadance, but, this was a dream, and that was a changeling.

“Shiny,” said the changeling, “if you tell me what’s wrong, then I can help.”

Shining Armor didn't even try to communicate, he leaped out the window into the infinite blacks of his dream, “Shining, stop!” Cried that changeling; but Shining just kept running into the blackness, black was good, black meant nothing, and nothing was good.

After about 10 minutes, he decided that he was clear of anything that could be dangerous. He sat down on the blackness to catch his breath.

“I’m so sorry.” He turned his head to see Twilight.

He leaped back and charged his horn for an attack.

Twilight sighed, “Shining, discharge the attack and sit back down.”

Though that’s the exact opposite to what he wanted, he felt his horn power down, and then sat. “W-wh-wha-w-what?” He stammered.

“I’m so sorry Shining, your body’s already changed, now it’s time for you mind.” She smiled, “but trust me, BBBFF, it’ll be just fine.”

His body not responding, he couldn’t run, but maybe he could talk his way out of this? “Why are you doing this? I can’t see the upside to any of this.” He didn’t actually now what ‘this’ is, but he was hoping to find out.

“I know it sounds weird, and it may seem wrong, but as a changeling queen I need a hive, and a hive needs drones.” She said, stepping towards the stallion.

“So that’s it, when I wake up from this crazy dream, I’m going to be your drone? A mindless servant to my sister, agh, it’s like you’re in kinder garden all over again.” Said the Shining Armor, no longer struggling against his own body.

“Mindless? Do you think I’m some kind of monster?” She asked, hurt filling her voice.

“I’m sorry Twilight, but you did use the word drone, so I assumed…” He lay down on his stomach, “ah! This is insane! Why am I talking with a changeling? And why is she my little sister?!” He shouted, putting his hooves over his eyes in frustration.

Twilight walked over to her brother, and then hugged him.

The hug made Shining feel warm, and he could taste something delicious on his tongue. He sighed, “I guess I’m going to have to call you queen now, aren’t I?”

Twilight leaned back and looked into Shining’s eyes, “you Shiny, can call me Twilight.”

“Twilight,” said Shining Armor, his eyes filling with purple, “I love you.”

Twilight leaned back into the hug, “I know Shining, I know.”

Sweetie Belle looked around at the infinite blackness, “hello? Helllllooo? Anypony there?”

“Sweetie Belle, is that you?” She heard Apple Bloom’s voice call in the distance. She looked over to where the voice came from, and saw a small orange shape in the distance, she saw its head turn, “Sweetie Belle!” It called.

“Apple Bloom!” She called back.

Apple Bloom started galloping, just to see the little white shape start galloping as well.

They met each other half way, and started to hug; but Apple Bloom very quickly pulled out. “Wait a minute, how I know that you’re not one of those changelings?” Apple Bloom asked.

Sweetie Belle frowned, “wait, how do I know you’re not one of those changelings?”

They both sat down and started to think, then Apple Bloom had an idea. “I know! Do your best Scootaloo impression!”

Both of the fillies started acting like chickens, and then fell over giggling.

“Apple Bloom?”

“Yeah, Sweetie Belle?”

“Yeah.”

The two ponies sat for a while, not sure what to say or do.

“So,” Sweetie Belle started, “where are we?”

“Uhh,” attempted Apple Bloom, looking into the blackness, “Ah think we’re in a dream…”

“Aaaaaaaapple Bloooooom…” They heard a voice whisper in the distance.

“Seeeeeeeeeetie Beeeeeeelle…” The heard another voice whisper in the distance.

The two fillies look at each other, then over to where the whispers had come from.

They saw two silhouettes off in the distance; it was like the tiniest slivers of light shining over the shapes. They were pony shaped, one seemed to be wearing a hat, and the other’s mane look at be about a billion bits and 8 hours.

“Applejack?” Cried Apple Bloom.

“Rarity?” Shouted Sweetie Belle.

“Come clooooseeerrr…” The voices whispered, despite the distance they were perfect audible.

The fillies looked at each other yet again, “Sweetie Belle,” said Apple Bloom, voice shaking, “I don’t know about this…”

Sweetie Belle put on the most reassuring smile she could, “This is a dream, remember? Nothing can hurt us in here!”

Apple Bloom smiled, and she and Sweetie Belle started to walk over to the distant shapes.

But quickly, a complication came around, every time the fillies took a step forward; the shapes took a step back. They galloped forward, they galloped back. They jumped forward, they jumped back. They stopped, they stopped.

“Hay!” Shouted Apple Bloom, “what is this?”

There was a puff of smoke where the shadows were standing. They appeared running next to the fillies, there where an infinite number of the large creatures run circles around the fillies. Just inside the circle in front of the fillies the creatures seemed to be playing Patty Cake.

“Working all day, playing all night; being a changeling just feels so right!” The shadows sang.

A large purple flash filled the fillies’ eyes, and then light suddenly disappeared, as did the pony shadows.

“Sweetie Belle,” said Apple Bloom, “Ah hope ya don’t dream like this, ‘cos this isn’t my dream.”

“I don’t dream weird things like this, if that’s what you mean.” Said Sweetie Belle, looking around for any sign of the weird shadow creatures.

But a thought struck her mind, “Why are we sharing a dream? Last thing I remember was waiting outside the library with Shining Armor and Spike.”

Apple Bloom rested her head on her hooves, “those weird shadow things said somethin’ ‘bout, ‘bein’ changelings’. What do ya think that’s about?”

“Wait, Changelings! That’s it! Rarity and her friends, those changelings! Those cocoon things they put us into!” Said Sweetie Belle, leaping in the air from the excitement of discovering what was going on. Yet she quickly fell back down, reason one, ‘gravity’, and two, she realised what she’d actually discovered.

“Ohh!” They heard a voice call; the two fillies turned their heads to find Rarity, “little Sweetie Belle’s grown so fast!”

“Yep!” They heard Applejack say, who had now appeared next to Rarity, “don’t forget Apple Bloom, she figured out it’s a dream!”

The two mares began walking towards the stunned fillies, purple flames licking at their hooves. As the young ponies began stepping back, that flames intensified, until a huge purple column of fire surrounded the two larger ponies, though through the whole process they kept walking forwards, and the little fillies kept walking backwards.

In the placed of Rarity and Applejack stood two creatures, both a deep purple, holes through their mane and legs, and bright purple consuming their whole eyes.

“Changelings.” The two fillies whispered under their breath.

But they quickly noticed something, the changeling replacing Applejack’s hair was blond, tied into a pony tail, and was wearing a large hat atop her head, just like the farm pony.

And changearity’s hair was purple, and styled in large curls, quite like a curtain dress maker.

The fillies back into a wall, where it came from in unknown, but behind them was a large wall, from the looks of it, it seemed like it should have come from a tunnel, tall, yet curved from bottom to top. It was covered in a green, sticky substance.

Applejack smiled as she watched her younger sister struggle with the hive resin, much in the same way she’d struggle with tree sap, “we may ‘ave a purple queen, yet changelin’s can’t escape green forever.”

To Apple Bloom the voice was terrifying, it had an accent, it was strong and feminine, but it sounded as if it had a second voice, cold, raspy, and overall dreadful.

“The ‘purple queen’, hah? I prefer Twilight.” A large changeling shimmered into existence; she stood at least 4 feet tall, though she was quite slim, and in some respects, beautiful.

Behind her stood 4 other changelings, one was 5 feet tall, and had more muscles than Big Mac, and the other 3 looked like normal mares, one with rainbow hair, one had light pink hair, thick and flowing, and the other had pink hair, it was ether pink and fluffy, or cotton candy. Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie.

The little fillies knew that escape was futile, yet, everything’s worth a try. The little fillies ran down the wall of the tunnel narrowly missing the changelings, galloping at full speed they heard Rarity cry, “Sweetie Belle, wait! It’s me Rari-” Her voice was drowned out by theirown hoof beats.

Yet changelings don’t need verbal communication, ‘girls, this is Twilight, try and not have a freak out.’

Both of the little ponies stopped dead in their tracks, “hay, Sweetie Belle. Did ya hear that?”

“Uhh…”

‘The answer you’re looking for is, ‘yes’. The physical is over, which includes is silly telepathy thing, the last thing left is your mental, yet that’s up to you.’

Sweetie Belle felt warmth spread everywhere in her body, a sweet taste spilled onto her tongue.

She turned her head to see Rarity hugging her, yet her changeling body wasn’t scaring Sweetie Belle, “oh Sweetie Belle! Don’t run off into the hive like that, the hive mind hasn’t been set up yet, only a total genius with a map could fathom this maze out!”

Sweetie Belle found herself returning the embrace, “Rarity? Is it really you?” She asked in small voice.

“Yes my little sister, I’m so sorry for scaring you earlier. I don’t know what got into me.” Replied Rarity, stroking her little sister’s mane.

“Rarity, what’s happening? Is Twilight my queen now?” Sweetie Belle asked, relaxing in her sister’s hooves.

“We’ll explain everything when you wake up.” Said Rarity, smiling.

Sweetie Belle began closing her eyes, “Twilight, queen…” She smiled, falling out of her dream.

The changelings lifted their glowing horns from the cocoons of the little changelings, smiling as they began their struggling.

“How much longer now, my queen?” Asked Rarity.

The little changelings’ eyes shot open as their struggles intensified.

Twilight smiled, “if I had to make an educated guess, I’d say about 5 seconds ago.”

The cocooned changelings began striking the cocoons with their hooves, desperately attempting to get to their sisters and queen.

Applejack bent down and plunged her horn forward, then threw herself upward; simulating the motions she used to break out of her own cocoon.

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stabbed their horns out of the cocoons, purple liquid spilling out of the hole as the cut grew large enough for the fillies to spill out.

They stood and looked around, they turned to see Queen Twilight, and then they bowed.

Though Apple Bloom, not compensating the weight of the surprisingly heavy horn, fell flat on her face.

Twilight giggled, her horn glowed as she lifted Apple Bloom back to her feet, “hatchlings are so cute.” Twilight cooed.

Sweetie Belle looked at Twilight with a raised eyebrow, “so are we called, ‘hatchlings’ instead of fillies now, my queen?”

Twilight smiled, “yes, until you reach maturity you are hatchlings.”

The hatchlings felt the love of their sisters as a physical power, and a beautiful taste. Yet now they could also feel the love of the other changelings, and their own love for them.

They smiled, “will we be able to spread this to all of Ponyville?” Asked Apple Bloom.

Twilight’s smile broadened, “of course!”

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom pressed their head together, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADER CHANGELINGS, YAY!” They cried.

“Came,” said Twilight, walking to the exit of the many tunnels, “tomorrow shall be a big day for all of Ponyville!”

The changelings began following their queen to the outside world.

Behind them, two eyes in a cocoon shot open, a, very much still, baby dragon watched as the changelings left the pony-made caves.

Spike waited until he believed they had left. He shoved his claw out of the failed cocoon, and cut his way out.

He quietly snuck out of the caves and into the streets of Ponyville.