A change of heart

I felt it.

We all did.

The princess and her beloved fired off a wave of magic that… I can’t quite explain…

My guess? At the best of my understanding and ability? He tried something desperate, a last-ditch spell to protect… those he loved, I suppose. I’m just a regular changeling, barely above a common worker, so I just did as I was told; I have bare-minimum knowledge of how and why ponies do the things they do differently from us –just enough to go, impersonate, collect love and go back to the hive.

So questions like that don’t make sense. Why try so hard? He was beaten, why keep fighting? He was almost literally on his last leg and yet there he was, attempting to channel a spell through his horn.

He hadn't been very successful. He was drained. Not only that; being one of the few in the hive of Unity with any experience in mental magic due to my transfer, I asked around and saw that the queen had not made any mistakes in her control - leaving him with a tremendous headache that would prevent him from making even a simple levitation. Even if I wasn't overly accepting of it (I prefer to avoid intruding into the minds and wills of my marks, like any other of the hive of Love, Empathy and even Positivity).

And then she helped.

Back to my guess. She… the love that that pink princess felt for that white captain… she poured it all onto him, every last drop of emotion. And he responded in kind, by letting his love for her entwine in complete trust before channeling that energy.

For whatever reason ponies have to push themselves so hard, they did. Their capacity for love is what feeds us, so I might be more surprised by the fact that I’m witnessing such thing with my own eyes rather than being surprised that it is possible at all.

All that love, their minds, their very souls and bodies… turned into power in a last, colossal effort to save themselves and the other ponies. They glowed. Then that… wave shield thing came.

I once thought that our queens could channel the energy of true love –after all, that was what injured princess Celestia, no?

No.

Queen Chrysalis –all of us, actually- used it as a mere power source; or, more commonly, distributed through the hive as food. The love Shining Armor felt for princess Cadence was so pure it left the Sun princess unconscious after receiving a blow she could not safely deflect, but the Queen harnessed it in the first place because she had assumed the bride’s identity and brainwashed the groom into giving it to her.

It was still not true.

It could never be true, unless it was honestly given to ourselves –our real selves. But how? I’m pretty sure the ponies will think we don’t deserve it and, after what happened today, after mulling it over… I-I might agree with them. I look at the old tales... how did I get roped into this hare-brained scheme? What reason there could be to agree to something so contrary to what we stand for? Well, other than 'being at the constant edge of starvation made us crazy'. I've been at the edge of drone-ification for too long, it seems.

Thinking about this wasn't going to do me much good, but it kept my mind away from my inevitable encounter with the ground…

Uh… can't fly, too detached from my own body to do anything... well, not much left to do but keep pondering the situation.

Other than hearing one of the higher-ranks mumble something about a ‘nova’ and 'silver bonds', I was unable to see, hear or otherwise sense anything outside of that massive wall of magic.

It pushed all of us.

I felt it.

The thing powering it was love, but it was burning so brightly! I feared that if I tried to absorb it, or even merely push back, it would consume me in punishment for daring to take it for my own. The shield wouldn't have allowed it, though, just like it would not allow us to pass if we held no love... I guess for the ponies. I know for a fact there are changelings that weren't part of the invasion and didn't get pushed back or anything.

I've heard of changelings leaving the hives and finding love, maybe the spell could differentiate? I don't know. Although there was one thing; just from touching it the spell made me numb all over.

Heh… we were way out of our league. We had been raised to see ponies as completely distrusting and incapable of understanding the importance of love and then this happens. It kind of feels like ponies trampling all over a big piece of the world I know… or thought I knew, as it stands.

Applying what logic and knowledge I can muster, I could place a bet that Celestia was defeated only because she would not risk the safety of her subjects by unleashing the full extent of her powers…

But why?

That’s the thing! I’m aware there are differences in the way we think, and it was precisely because of that that the-our Queen faced their princess in combat; the place they fought in had a huge risk of collateral damage… and it still doesn't make a lick of sense to me!

Forgetting a minute about the fact that they do not operate like us –no swarm and all differences like that- I’m trying to see what’s so different in the way we value things and individuals. There were hundreds of ponies in the palace alone, many of which were far from their fight… surely losing a few dozen of them would not be such a terrible blow to their population that they could not recover; it would not be too hard on their workforce either (even with their system). Why does Celestia value each individual so much as to risk her own well-being for them?

Queen Chrysalis does value the swarm, even the drones; I respect her for that even if I disagree with her methods, but if my death would have furthered the survival of the others… so be it. We have been in this twilight for so long, that if my sacrifice could help changelings -hell, even one- see that promised dawn so be...

Hey, that's it! The difference! We've been-

Crash. Crunch.

*****

A lone changeling landed in the middle of the square. Her foreleg was nearly shattered like an eggshell from the impact, barely holding together, and a large crack ran across her torso. The green colors she had been forced to wear faded as did her connection to the Queen of Hive Unity, returning to the red of Hive Love she had been born in.