Changeling's Story

• Heavily inspired by this ( http://www.fimfiction.net/story/91206/diamond-tiara-versus-the-changeling-invasion ) freaking amazing story. Actually, don't read my crap, read that instead. -

Scootaloo rode into town, little wings buzzing so fast she could almost take off, so it quite annoyed her when she didn’t.

A week prior to now Scootaloo asked Zecora for a sleep potion. Zecora voiced her concerns yet Scootaloo had told her that she wasn’t a baby anymore, while that is true the sleep potion had still knocked the little pony out for a whole week.

Scootaloo must remember to write Zecora a card saying something like ‘thanks for feeding me and generally keeping me alive’.

As she entered the small town she noticed that all the guards that Celestia and Luna sent where all still here; and all the ponies had a large smile and their face, and a spring in his/her step.

Scootaloo was wondering why all the ponies looked so happy, so, consequently, she ploughed straight into Colgate.

They both fell back onto their backs, thumping into the ground. Scootaloo could have sworn she saw the tiniest of purple flames lick the bottom of the older mare’s hooves, but she shook her head and dismissed it as a trick of the light.

Colgate sat up and rubbed her head, she opened her eyes, which grew wide in shock as her mouth opened a bit from looking at Scootaloo.

Scootaloo responded to this by scooting back a little and raising an eyebrow.

The blue unicorn shook her head and returned to normal, “sorry Scootaloo, I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

Scootaloo waved her hoof dismissively, “no, don’t be sorry, it was my fault, I wasn’t paying attention.” She looked around as the ponies, who had stopped to look at her, “hay Colgate, did anything happen to Ponyville in the week I was away?”

Colgate bit her lip, Scootaloo was certain her teeth looked shaper. Then Colgate seemed to jump a little, as if getting an idea, “hay Scootaloo, I think you best see Twilight, she’d be able to explain it better than me.” The blue mare looked at the other ponies, they nodded their heads slightly, “sorry Scootaloo, gotta go, places to go, ponies to see.” Then she shoot up, and galloped away, all the ponies around the orange filly started to walk away.

Scootaloo got back onto her scooter, something did happen in Ponyville, and if Twilight knew what, then Scootaloo was going to find out.

Colgate raced towards the local library, though she could have used the mental link, she felt her queen should hear this news in person.

She skidded to a holt outside of the large tree, and slammed her hooves on the rough wooden door, chest heaving heavily after the long run.

Just as the door opened, she collapsed.

Twilight looked down at the mare, “rise.” She said flatly, she’s starting to hate it when her changelings bow to her.

“I’m… puff … not … heave … bowing.” Colgate managed; she took a deep breath, stood up, and regained her composure, “I come baring a message, my queen.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, “yes?”

“Well, umm, we, err,” she looked to the ground, and prodded it with her hoof, “we forgot Scootaloo…” She said in a small voice.

“Oh. Oh well, I hope you at least attempted to bring her here.”

Colgate nodded, “she asked if something had happened in Ponyville while she was away, I told her you’d be able to explain best.”

Twilight smiled, “thank you, Colgate. You’ve done well.” Twilight leaned over and hugged the changeling, letting Colgate take some love as a reward.

“Humm,” Colgate smiled, “thank you, my queen.”

Twilight smiled back, “good work shall be rewarded, and you did good work.” Twilight broke the hug, and stepped back, “now, I want you to go about your daily life, I don’t want of the Royal Guard that’s left, or Scootaloo, to become suspicious before their time. I shall send the same order though the message link, yet many ‘lings have the link shut off, so I want you to tell as many ‘lings as possible. Oh, and if you see Spike, tell him I worried, he broke out of his cocoon before his change, and I have good reason to believe he’s making assumptions.”

Colgate bowed, “yes, my queen.” She said, before running off.

“And stop bowing!” Called Twilight, before walking back into the library.

Scootaloo was riding near the side of the road, trying her best not to stare as the guards and ponies interacted in a way the filly thought she’d never see in her life. One terrifying example was the social interaction she was watching right now, Big Mac and Shining Armor, Big Mac was looking quite serious, and Shining looked just the same. Scootaloo hoped against hope that they didn’t notice that she’s yet, in her life, to obey.

To obey, the road laws.

Breathe in. She buzzed past them; they turned their heads to look at the passing filly, they showed slight interest, but turned back to their conversation. Breathe out.

A consequence for breathing out was not being able to gasp when dark hooves reached from a brush, grabbed her, and pulled her in.

She attempted to scream but a hoof was jammed into her mouth.

She looked at her captors, and was tanking back by a wave of shock.

The hoof belonged to one of the Night Guard; his bat wings lay limp next to his body, as if he didn’t have the will to simply retract them. His helmet was nowhere to be seen, and his dark blue mane was tattered and messy, as was his even darker blue coat.

Next to him stood Spike, the baby dragon looking rather depressed.

Before Scootaloo could think the Night Guard hit her with a spell, her whole body felt weird yet otherwise unharmed.

Before she could even think again the Guards hoof was out of her mouth and around her small body.

“Oh thank all of the gods that the changeling queen hasn’t gotten all of Ponyville!” He whispered cheerfully, yet he was obviously nervous about being found.

“Wait,” started Scootaloo, before being ‘shushed’, “sorry, but what’s this about a changeling queen? And ‘gotten all of Ponyville’?”

“Lady Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s personal student, and the other Elements of Harmony, you know how they’d disappeared for over a month?” Asked the guard.

“Yeah…” nodded Scootaloo.

“And how the Guard was asked to go to Ponyville, some went looking for them, and others stayed and did other things?”

Scootaloo nodded again.

“Well, my name is Well Checked, and I am the guy in charge of quarantine. When they first returned, I scanned them, to see it there was anything weird or wrong…” He swallowed back tears, “I let them enter Ponyville, and I thought it was fine!” He almost broke from whispering, but managed to hold himself. “So you can imagine the shock I experienced when Shining Armor led us into the changeling hive, he told us it was a capture mission, and we must go all at once to show our strength, “he slammed his hoofs into the soft dirt, “the bastard was talking out of his ass. He- it was leading us to its queen, we were about to attack when Shining’s voice told us to stop, by reflex we did, and in the half a second we had stopped, almost all of us were thrown into cocoon thing, I was the only pony to escape.” He slumped down.

“So,” said Scootaloo, “what do we do now?”

“Well that’s obvious,” said Well Checked, “we need to get back to Canterlot, warn Princess Celestia, panic because we’ve lost the Guard, ya know? All the usual stuff.”

Well Checked began grinning like a mad pony, Scootaloo recoiled a bit and raised an eyebrow.

“It was his attempt at a joke.” Spike said flatly.

“Oh.” Said Scootaloo, nodding slightly.

“What? In the Royal Guard, ‘specially the Night Guard, no pony has a sense of humour, so over time you just forget how to make jokes, pile of ass isn’t it?” Said Well Checked, when he was a young colt he’d always love a laugh, and he’s trying to get back into the habit. “But that stuff about going to Canterlot and stuff was serious.” Well Checked whispered.

“Yeah but…” started Scootaloo, “I was told to go to Twilight’s, so I-”

“No!” said Well Checked, breaking his whispering, “She’s the queen!” He shouted.

“Hay!” They heard a voice call, “what’s happening in that bush?!”

“Steel, no…” whispered Well Checked.

“What is it Steel Bronze?” Shining Armor’s voice called.

‘Steel Bronze? What kind of name is that?!’ Was the first thought to run through Spike and Scootaloo’s heads.

“I heard something in the bushes sir! I think it might be the dragon and Well Checked!” Steel Bronze called back to Shining Armor.

The bushes parted and the dark grey head of a Night Guard popped in, Spike and Well Checked recoiled in a way Scootaloo didn’t understand.

Steel Bronze smiled at the other Night Guard, “hay buddy.”

Before the earth pony knew what was happening, a Pegasus’ head had connected with his. The ‘earth pony’ flew back and landed on his rump, a column of purple flames surrounded the Night Guard, in his place sat a changeling.

The Changeling looked to be 4 feet tall, and looked to be all muscles, “agh! It took all morning to get this disguise up!” He groaned.

“Screw sneaking! RUN!” Screamed Well Checked, and that’s exactly was the small group did.

Twilight sat in her hive and updated her book. She grinned to herself, HER hive, HER book.

Her room in the hive was beautiful, the walls were made of the soft, green slimy stuff that changelings are so fond of, though Twilight did have to admit, it was growing on her, especially if she didn’t move for a while.

But she does think she likes her bed too much. It was a deep purple, and was actually just a softer version of her walls, but she didn’t mind much, she didn’t sleep much anyway. Love was her power, and her hive was built off the love she felt for Ponyville and all of its ponies, so there was a lot of love to throw around.

The rest of her room was the same basic style, either purple or green, squishy, and soft.

The book she was writing was about changelings and how they worked, hence the title, ‘Changelings, and how they work’.

Changeling queens feel greater compassion to her changelings when fully connected to her hive/hive mind. When she is fully connected for the first time her hormones go out of control, making her seem irritable and more commanding than she normally is.

Every changeling in said hive is connected to the hive mind, using the hive mind the queen can order them to any task she feels. The hive mind is different to the mental link, any order that is given through the hive mind a changeling will obey, without a second thought.

The hive mind is directly connected to the queen, she has complete control over the hive mind, meaning she has complete control over every changeling in the hive.

The hive mind is a physical object, and shares basic looks with support columns. It is black, and widens out at its base and top.

Twilight stopped, ‘what else have I learnt… oh! Of course!’

Changelings have three basic types, which are very similar to ponies. And a fourth which also has a very close relation to its pony cousin.

The most common type is the ‘acrobat’, which is very similar to the Pegasus. Their main ability is flight, and while they can use magic, flying is where they feel at home. They are the fastest changeling, have the most mobility, and are middle when it comes to basic strength/toughness.

The second most common changeling is the ‘mage’, with are very close to unicorns. They strength is magic, they are the second best shape shifters, and are still able to fly at respectable speeds, yet are not very agile. Their strength/toughness is the worst out of all changelings, yet they are still stronger than most averages ponies.

The third type of changelings are named ‘brutes’, they are not very common in changeling society, as a queen must specifically chose a brute to be born, as they are most commonly guard/military. They are very sloppy when it comes to flight and magic, and can usually only choose one disguise which they must practise thoroughly on. Though their strength/toughness leaves nothing to the imagination. They stand at ~4 – 5 feet tall, being only beaten by the queen in basic height. They share a close resemblance to earth ponies.

The rarest type of changeling is the queen, being very similar to Alicorns.

Twilight was forced out of her writing by a knock on her door, well, she didn’t have a door, and changelings didn’t knock.

What she in fact had was a thinner wall, which opened if commanded to do so. And the changeling didn’t knock as such, what they actually did was sent a signal through the hive mind to let whoever know they’re there.

She stood up and walked over to the ‘door’, as the ‘door’ opened she stood tall, and, well, ladylike, as Rarity would put it.

The ‘door’ opened to reveal one of her guards. HA! HER guard, she felt like Celestia, even her height had advanced, making her 5 feet tall.

“My queen!” Panted the guard, dropping, thanks to this morning, Twilight wasn’t sure if he was bowing, or simply tired. “The Pegasus, dragon and Night Guard were found… Then lost…” He put his hooves over his eyes, awaiting punishment.

Twilight rolled her eyes, “I’m not sure if either the princess used to punish you, or if it’s some changeling instinct, but I’m not going to punish you.”

The guard took his hooves and looked up at his queen gratefully, “Th- thank you, my queen!” He said, before running off to do... something.

Twilight watched as he ran off, as if trying to get as far away as possible, “huh, odd.”

Scootaloo was confused, very confused. Here she was, hiding with a crazy Night Guard who was convinced that changelings can change ponies to their own, have taken over Ponyville, and that Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic, Princess Celestia’s personal student, and all round awesome pony, is their queen. Yet Spike was backing him, so Scootaloo didn’t run off just yet.

Oh, and there were the hordes of ponies sweeping the streets looking for them, they were all acting odd, the only pony acting normal was Pinkie Pie, meaning Pinkie Pie was acting like a tragedy of science.

The pink pony jumped above the crowds, “this is,” she fell, but just jumped again, “just like,” fall, jump, “The Truman Show!”

The trio were hiding in a small shadowed alleyway, hoping that changelings don’t have dark vision or a good sense of smell. They were 100% sure changelings had both of those and more, but they hadn’t been found yet, so they just stayed quiet and still.

Well Checked looked down the alleyway for the uptenth time, “guys, I think we should go for it,” he whispered, “ya know, just sneak down and hope.”

Spike and Scootaloo nodded, and they began slowly heading down the alley.

As they reached the end of the alley Scootaloo heard all they she knew, two were distorted and very creepy, and the other was  her own.

“Come on girls!” She heard her voice call out, “we may only be hatchlings, but we can find these guys better than any grown up!”

Scootaloo poked her head out of the alley before Well Checked could object, what she saw almost stopped her heart in shock.

She saw two dark purple changelings, both around her size, one had dark red hair, with a large green bow, the other with very well looked after dark purple and pink hair.

The one with red hair sighed, “Thanks, Diamond, but,” it said to the second Scootaloo with a southern twang, “I know yer just tryin’ to help, but, ah can still see you under there, and not Scoots...”

The second Scootaloo was surrounded by a column of purple flames. When they subsided there stood another changeling, much like the others only with a purple and white mane, on which sat a diamond tiara.

“Apple Bloom, what’s wrong? I know this is something more than me not being a perfect Scootaloo.”

Apple Bloom flopped down onto her stomach, “ah really do appreciate ya tryin’ ta make me and Sweetie feel better, it’s just.” She looked up at the other changeling with large, fully purple eyes, which had tears just begging to be let go, “What if she’s scared of us? what if she doesn't want to be friends anymore...”

Diamond Tiara leaned down and hugged Apple Bloom, “there, there,” she cooed, “there’s no need for tears, if the hive can bring us together, than you have nothing to worry about apart from becoming better friends.”

“Ya- ya really think so?”

Diamond smiled, “I know so.”

Sweetie Belle stuck her head in the air, her muzzle twitched a bit, “hay!” She called, “I think I smell something!”

“Oh bugger...” cursed Well Checked under his breath.

“Oh, yes! I smell something too! Something in the alleyway, it smells like, hmm... wet fur, a little salt...” Said Diamond Tiara.

“I’m going straight to triple bugger...”

“Come on, let’s go check it out!” Said Apple Bloom standing up and drying her tears.

“Ahh! Deca bugger! Quick, get on my black! We’re flyin’ the hell outa here!” Shouted Well Checked! Scootaloo and Spike scrambled onto the Night Guards back, who with two mighty flaps, he and the two children were gliding off.

Apple Bloom looked up to see her best friend running from her, “Scootaloo! Wait!” She cried, “please,” she said quietly, “don’t go...” Her and Sweetie Belle’s heads drooped to the ground.

Diamond Tiara might not have been friends with them long, but friends they were nonetheless, and she wasn’t going to stand around while they cried their eyes out. She might not have had much practice, but she was going to give it a go.

Her wings started buzzing, and sweat began dripping from her head has she started to lift.

Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom opened their eyes to see a floating Diamond Tiara with a disapproving face.

“Come on, you two! They’re getting away!”

The two changelings wiped their eyes and put on determined faces, then they buzzed up to met Diamond, and then the chase began.

Scootaloo, yet again, was confused.

“Well Checked, are you sure these guys are bad? They did really seem like my friends.”

“Trust me. Your friends died the moment they were put in the cocoons.”

“What?! But- but, I know those are my friends, I just know it!”

“Listen, the moment they became part of the purple queens hive they died, and they’re never comei-”

Spike punched the back of his head, not strong enough to knock him out, but strong enough to hurt.

“Ya know what?” Said Spike angrily, “you can shut your bucking face!”

Scootaloo gasped, she never expected to hear something like this from the normally level headed dragon.

“Well Checked, where’ve known each other for only a week, and whole bucking time you been an ass!”

Well Checked turned his head to look directly at his passengers, his eyes began to glow blue, and his expression grew angry, “all right, enough pretending.”

Spike and Scootaloo edged as far backwards as possible.

“I can see you’re confused so I’ll give you the facts, the blue hive of Manehattan’s queen, Queen Starstruck, has promised me a new life, and now I’ve got two ponies to share it with.” Well Checked said coldly.

“Wait, so it’s safe to be part of Twilight’s hive?” Scootaloo asked, shaking.

“Of course it’s safe! What do you think would happen?!” He shouted.

“Well, umm...”

A large gust of wind blew the trio. Scootaloo’s survival instinct kicked in, while Spike’s didn’t. So while Scootaloo kluang on for dear life, Spike tumbled off.

“AHHH!!!” Spike screamed as he fell, he was quickly catched by three small changelings, who with the added weight, fell to the ground.

Spike sat up and looked over to the changelings, who he quickly recognized to be his friends. “Thank for breaking my fall.” He smiled.

“Don’t mention it.” Said Apple Bloom, smiling back.

But just as they started to smile properly, they heard a voice, “Spike, girls! HELP!” Scootaloo’s voice called.

They looked up, just to see a small orange speck, disappearing into the clouds.