“Long, long ago, the Goddess Equis made the world and the moon and the stars and the creatures of the earth. And it was Equis who created Queen Ai-o-wa-ke, the very First Changeling and the Mother of us all. In those days all races were at peace with each other, pony and changeling, griffin and manticore and all the others as well. And they were pretty much the same. But as time the numbers of changelings grew until they absorbed so much love that none of the other races could love each other, and they begged Equis to do something about it. The Goddess Equis warned Ai-o-wa-ke, “If you cannot control your people, I will find ways to control them.” But Ai-o-wa-ke had grown big-headed and said to Equis “My people are the strongest in the world, and will give way to none.”
This angered Equis, and so she announced to every creature upon the world that he would give him or her a present. When the unicorn came, she was granted the power of magic. The pegasus was granted wings and the power of flight, and the earth pony was granted farming skills and a powerful kick. But when the serpent came, and the griffin and the manticore and other dangerous creatures, to each of them she granted sharp fangs and claws and a burning desire to hunt and slay the children of Ai-o-wa-ke. And that is what they went out and did and changeling after changeling perished in air and on land. Then Ai-o-wa-ke saw that Equis was too clever for her, and she was frightened. She had never before seen the Black Changeling of Death."
Equis next looked for Ai-o-wa-ke and found her hiding in a cloud and said "Come out, Ai-o-wa-ke, I wish to grant you a gift as well."
"I cannot, the manticore and the griffin are coming, and if they catch me they will kill me."
"I grant you the power to take the shape of those who would kill you, but there is a price to pay since you caused this trouble in the first place. From now on, you and all your decendants will live upon the love of those who would hunt them down, and must stay in disguise to feed and survive. If they catch you, they will most likely kill you. But first they must find you, Changer, Listener, Mistress of Guile. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people will never be destroyed."
Changefast , having heard the story of old Changeling Lore, moved on from the circle of young pupa. Above them hung a cocoon with a pony hanging within, it's love seeping out with a soft green light to feed the young Changelings who were too young to go out into the world to gather any love of their own. The Hive to a pony or griffin would be a dark place, lit only with glowing fungus upon the walls and the occasional cocoon. But the large Changeling eyes were perfectly suited to gather what little light there was down there and Changefast found the Hive a comforting place to be. One of her friends flew up to her. "Changefast, I want you to come outside with me so that we can rest in the sun." "Allright, Longwing." Longwing, he's a good friend, but I hope he does not get another one of his funny turns again.
They flew up with a soft whirring of their wings through tunnels that at times were totally vertical; no problem to anyling with working wings but hard for any creature without wings to use. Changeling Hives were built as much for defense as for protection from the elements. At last they reached the surface and landed upon the soft ground. Some Hives were based in hot deserts and other such places, but this one was deep within the Everfree Forest where almost everypony feared to set foot. On three sides stretched the forest, whilst on the fourth side was a sandy beach leading gently down to the sea.Longwing smiled when he saw a little plant with pink flowers at his feet. "Juba flowers." He was about to eat the little plant, a Changeling delicacy, when a hoof clamped down on it. Looking up, he saw Captain Mirror and a friend of hers glaring at him.
"Longwing found it, Captain," Changefast pointed out.
"And we'll eat it. Juba are for housecarls, you know that."
Longwing sighed and walked away to look at at the setting sun, then halted and stared at the sea.
It was no longer water but blood, Changeling blood,a whole sea of Changeling blood, and as he turned around, the trees turned into hooks of Changling bone, and then bent over and plunged down at him and his fellow Changelings, ripping into their bodies of chitin and tearing them apart like they were made of paper.
Everyling who was up on the surface stared at Longwing as he twisted and turned around on the ground in terror, now and then screaming in fear. Changefast went over to her friend. "Longwing, snap out of it. By Chrysalis , what's wrong with you?"
Longwing regained his senses, stood up and said "It's coming, I don't know what it is, but it's bad, really bad, we have to get out of here or it'll kill us all."
"What are you talking about? We may have lost many members of our Hive after the Canterlot Disaster, but who or what would be strong enough even so to attack a Changeling Hive? There are still hundreds of us still able and willing to fight, and the ponies would never come through the forest to attack us anyway. The griffins might, but we've been giving them a wide berth for years. They have no reason to come after us."
"We have to tell the Queen and get her to evacuate the Hive, or we will all be dead within days."
"Tell the Queen? She's been in a foul mood since what happened in Canterlot, she will hardly talk with anyling, least of all a lowly drone. She'll think you're out of your mind. We can try and see her, but I doubt she'll be in the slightest bit interested."
Author's Note
I got an idea-what if I did a Changeling story based on Watership Down? I hope I didn't make a mistake in starting it.
Longwing and Changefast made their way through the many twisting tunnels to the royal burrow. "I doubt you're really be allowed in to speak with the Queen, everyling knows that she is in a foul mood after the Canterlot invasion fiasco. She's even put this place on lockdown for a few days. Even if she does let you speak to her, there is zero chance that she'll move the entire Hive just based upon your vision." A single changeling slightly larger then most guarded the door, a spear fitted by a bracer to his arm.
"Hi Bighoof."
"Hello Changefast. It's good to see you again. Who is your friend?"
"Longwing, and he wants to see the Queen."
"What in Equestria does he want to do that for?" Bighoof asked.
Longwing replied, "There's a bad danger coming, and it's not good."
Changefast asked "Since when has he ever asked to speak to the Queen before?"
"Allright, I'll let him in, although I'll probebly have my love ration cut for this."
The three of them walked into the Royal Throne Room, where the Queen sat apon her throne sipping from a goblet filled with raw love. She glared at them. "What's your problem? If it's about the lockdown, that is ending in two days time. Then hopefully things can get back to normal around here."
"I had a vision of blood and death, there's a bad danger coming, a really bad danger, and we all need to...to leave the Hive and get out of here whilst we still can."
"Really? Abandon our nice hive that is so cool in the summer yet warm in the winter? Where would we go to? Equestria is on the lookout for our kind and no doubt has ways of finding us out by now. Griffonia is a place where it is a lot harder to gather love. There is a good reason why we don't target the griffins very often. There are other Hives in this country as you well know; whilst they all get along fine with each other most of the time, they would not look very kindly on a whole Hive of Changeling refugees, annd most certainly not on me, a Changeling Queen. It has not been unknown in the past for Queens to kill rival Queens in such circumstances. We are staying where we are and that's final. You are dismissed and I won't here another word about the matter."
Once they had left the throne room and were out of earshot of the Queen, Longwing said "I have never been as scared as I have now; I'm leaving the Hive even if I have to fight my way out. I know the dangers out there and I'm going anyway even if noling will go with me."
"I...I'll go with you then, and I know some other Changelings that would go as well. We'll go late at night, when the guards are most likely to be sleepy, through one of the side gates, and we'll take one of the cocooned ponies with us to provide a love source. Only one though, cocoons are heavy. We'll steal the one that hangs up in the officer's mess. I'm not taking love from the mouth of a grub or a little pupa, not even for you."
That night Changefast met up with a few other Changelings and explained the situation, and they sneaked into the officer's mess. Above the wooden table and chairs brought by infiltrators in Ponyville and smuggled out of Equestria long ago, was a glowing cocoon hanging from the ceiling with a purple earth pony deep inside, providing both a soft green light for the room and a souce of love for the officers to drink from whenever they felt like it. "If we're caught..." Lovelace, one of the Changelings said in fear...
"We'll all be in deep trouble for mutiny, but we have nothing to lose, and they'll soon replace their missing love source," Changefast replied. "We'll leave five minuites after the changing of the guard, through a small side door that I will be on watch other. I am the guard for that door and by the time the shift changes we will be long gone. Now, as you know, we all need love to change for very long;and in the area we are in, ruled by our own race rather then by ponies or griffins, it is safest to stay in our true forms. Otherwise we might be targeted by everyling in the area who would think we were food or a threat. Oh, and one more thing, once we leave the Hive we won't be welcome back again, as we will have disobeyed a direct royal order and breached a lockdown order for good measure, as well as stealing our officer's cocoon."
They waited until the bell ringing in the outer chambers signalled a guard change and then just walked out through the door that Changefast was supposed to be guarding, then were about to run into the trackless wastes of the Everfree Forest, when a Changeling landed in front of them. It was Captain Mirror. "You're all under arrest for breaking curfew, mutiny, and stealing a cocoon."
"Go, now, or we'll kill you," Changefast said, but behind her the other Changelings shrank back rather then leaping to the attack.
"It's you'll who be killed," repiled Captain Mirror, but suddenly another Changeling flew at him and knocked him to the ground.
"Bighoof!" exclaimed the Captain, and flew away with a whirring of wings.
"He won't be long coming back with the Housecarles," Bighoof said. "I decided that it would be worth coming with you. I've left the Housecarles."
They set off into the Everfree Forest. Whilst they did not fear it as much as the ponies did, they all knew that it had to be treated with respect. There was a rustling in the bushes, and the head of a large serpent poked out at the changelings, who all passed by well away from it. "It had just killed, I saw blood on it's lips," Lovelace exclaimed. "We're lucky that it had, or it might have been quicker," Longwing replied.
