“Yeesh, Diamond, what’s been going on in Ponyville lately?”
“Ugh,” Diamond Tiara looked over her shoulder at her longtime sidekick, “How the hay should I know, Silver?” She looked up and down the street they stood on as they walked to school. In a slightly more subdued voice she added, “I don’t think I like it much, whatever it is.”
Diamond Tiara considered herself a great observer of ponies. It was part of what gave her such ability when it came to insulting them. Not that she ever meant it, she was just feeling irritated or annoyed with bratty blank flanks when she said what she said; why couldn’t anypony understand that? And even as she walked up to Sugarcube Corner to buy something sweet for lunch, she could tell that something was gone drastically wrong. That thought went through her head as she threw the healthy and nasty-tasting alfalfa sandwich her father’s maid had put together for her into the garbage.
Inside she found the Cakes behind the counter along with Pinkie Pie, one of the few ponies she didn’t view with contempt. That walleyed featherduster Ditzy Doo was sitting at a table nearby. One of her muffins was in front of her, but she wasn’t eating it. Instead she was talking with Pinkie in a low and conspiratorial tone. Diamond knew that tone of voice. She used it herself quite often, in school or at home. For that matter, Pinkie seemed oddly subdued herself. Her mane was poofy and she smiled like always, but she acted, what was that word Miss Cheerilee taught them a while ago, furtive. That was it. Like she was hiding something.
“…Not nearly as bad as I’d thought it would be,” Pinkie almost stage-whispered to Ditzy. The grey Pegasus nodded knowingly as the party pony added, “Some of this is kind of fun, actually. And when I throw one of my parties now?” Pinkie made a sound kind of like a squee, though Diamond wondered if she was getting sick. Her voice sounded raspy or almost buzzing as she said, “I can just feel how much everypony loves it!”
“I know,” Ditzy said and nodded, her voice sounding oddly clear. Diamond remembered her father telling her not to make fun of how Ditzy spoke, that she had logger rhea or something. Diamond Tiara wondered if it was anything like what she got that one time she ate those Mexicolt burritos. Ditzy added, “So, when do we take care of everypony left who hasn’t, you know?” She switched her tail. “It’s wonderful when I’m around Dinky and Sparkler, how warm and full they make me, and I want to share this with them so much…”
“And so, what do you young ladies want?”
Diamond jerked, caught off guard. She looked up to see Mister Cake looking down at her. He beamed broadly down at her and Silver. He said, “More of those Sweet Apple Acres fritters? I know how you love them!”
“Umm…” Diamond reached into her pocket for a handful of bits. She looked at the apple pastries and frowned as she remembered her last conversation a few days ago with those three snotty blank flanks, the Cutie Mark Crusaders.
“So, where were you three, the past couple of days?” She’d smirked at them as they walked up to the school. They just looked at her as though she meant nothing, like her being there or not didn’t matter. She felt Silver bristle beside her. Angered herself, she said, “You’re all gonna be in big trouble with Miss Cheerilee for cutting school for two whole days!”
“Naw, we ain’t gonna be in any trouble,” that little hick Applebloom told her. She smiled kind of funny when she said it. “My big sis an’ Miss Rarity an’ Miss Twilight all are gonna talk it over with Miss Cheerilee later. They said she’ll understand everything after they talk.” And the three blanks just laughed together, sounding somehow superior, as they walked into the school. Miss Cheerilee had been annoyed with them, but she’d agreed to ‘take it up with their sisters and Miss Twilight’. Something about the slyly delighted looks on the faces of those three blanks – and other students too, she remembered now, ones who’d all been sick and out of school for a few days over the past weeks -- left Diamond feeling very uneasy for the rest of the school day.
“I’ll take one of those frosted carrot cupcakes, thank you,” Diamond decided suddenly. She couldn’t say why, but for some reason eating anything that might have been touched by Appleboom’s hooves left her feeling slightly ill. Silver gave her a funny look as she set her own bits down. She opened her mouth, but Diamond swiftly said, “She’ll take some of the carrot cupcakes too.”
Mister Cake cocked his head and looked down at them. Diamond shifted uneasily under his gaze. It reminded her a little of that time Miss Cheerilee showed the class a film about some nasty bug called a praying mantis, that same tightly focused intentness as it approached its dinner. He tilted his head back and forth, moving stiffly. Diamond fought down a shudder as she realized where she’d seen that before. With those three blanks.
“You’re sure?”
“Very sure,” she said, swallowed past a lump in her throat, and added, “Sir.” He turned away to get the cupcakes, and as he did, Silver Spoon gave her a shove.
“What’s the idea, Diamond?” Silver hissed at her, “You know I hate carrots!”
“Listen, you,” Diamond snapped back, “Right now I, I just don’t think we should eat anything from that blank’s farm, okay?”
“Hey now, you’re not gonna argue, are you, girls?” Diamond and Silver both jerked back in surprise as Pinkie Pie stuck her face in between them. “I mean, it’s gonna be such a great day outside even if you have to be in school, it’d be really silly-willy to ruin it with arguing!”
“We’re not arguing, you….” Diamond began, before she forced herself to remember her manners. “Uh, it’s okay. Silver and I were just talking. Isn’t that right?” She smiled at her friend. Silver frowned back at her. Pinkie looked unconvinced, and suddenly Ditzy Doo and Mister and Mrs. Cake looked concerned as well. Like they felt what Pinkie Pie felt. Diamond felt the unease come back. She said the first thing she could think of.
“Oh, thanks for going to the, the hospital,” the nut house, she thought a pang, the nut house where Dad sent Mom when she just kept acting weirder and weirder, that’s what all the older fillies tell me it is, “and giving Mom that cupcake I helped you bake for her.” Diamond broke off, feeling Silver step closer to her. For once she didn’t push her back. She just thought of how her mother acted every time she visited, how they nuzzled each other through the little slot in the door. Mom, I miss you so much…
Pinkie Pie breathed in suddenly. Diamond looked up at her, wondering what dumb thing she was doing now. She froze when she saw that Ditzy and the Cakes were doing it too, like they’d just smelled something utterly wonderful. Pinkie and the other adults looked at her, their eyes almost glowing. She saw something there that made her take a step back. For some silly reason Diamond remembered that old mare’s tail about Nightmare Moon gobbling up foals. Silver started beside her; she’d seen it too. Diamond stepped away from Pinkie Pie.
And the moment passed and she was just happy silly Pinkie Pie again.
“You love your mom, Diamond,” Pinkie said with a smile. She reached out and tousled her mane. Diamond would normally have yelled and dodged back; it cost a lot of money to have her mane and tail styled at the spa, but instead she held very still and tried not to shudder at Pinkie’s touch. She wondered why she felt like shuddering in the first place. Pinkie ignored it to say, “It – feels, really lovely. And your mom loves and misses you, and hey!” The pink party pony grinned enthusiastically, “Maybe one day soon she’ll be all better again!”
“Dad said not to hope too much for it,” Diamond said as she took the bag with the cupcakes. “He said the doctors said that Mom might just have good days, but she wouldn’t get better.”
“Doctors don’t know everything,” Pinkie called after her cheerily as Diamond and Silver headed for the door. It rang right before they reached it, and Pinkie said in a surprisingly respectful voice, “Oh, hello, Twilight.”
“Miss Sparkle,” the other ponies said, in tones so worshipful Diamond wondered if they thought they were speaking to Princess Celestia herself.
“Hi, everypony,” Twilight said back in her usual cheery way. “I just want to be sure everypony knows what we’ll be do --“ She looked down at Diamond and Silver to say with just a touch less enthusiasm, “Oh, hello, Diamond Tiara, Silver Spoon. Shouldn’t you two be on your way to school?” She smiled and added, “I understand you’ll all be getting a big surprise today.”
“Not getting bored would be a big surprise,” Silver Spoon grumbled as she walked outside.
Diamond almost pushed by the unicorn too, but something, some new note of authority to Twilight, made her stop and say politely, “We’ll be going, Miss Sparkle.”
Twilight looked at her like she was looking for something before stepping to the side and nodding for her to leave, as though granting permission. Diamond hurried out and away from Sugarcube Corner.
“What was wrong with you in there, Diamond?” Silver said to her as they headed for school. “You’re acting really weird.”
“I am not acting weird,” Diamond snapped back at her as she tried to explain, “I, it’s just, they were the ones acting weird. Didn’t you notice?” She looked around. Where were the ponies who usually were working or taking their stands to the town square? Most of them seemed to be just standing around in small groups, talking excitedly but quietly until the fillies got close. Then they fell silent until they passed, at which point they started talking again.
”No.” Silver tossed her mane. “I just saw Miss Pie and Ditzy, and they were both acting as weird as ever. And then you got all bothered when they talked about Scre – about your mom,” she quickly amended as a familiar fire blazed up in Diamond’s eyes. More softly, she asked, “They will let her out when she gets better, right?”
“Dad and the doctors said no,” Diamond finally answered. “They said that it’d be different if Mom could be trusted to take her pills. But she told me that she didn’t like how they made her head feel, so…” She heard the school bell ring, warning that anypony still on their way was about to be tardy. Diamond broke out into a gallop, Silver beside her, as they headed for the school. When they reached it, Miss Cheerilee stood by the door, smiling at them.
“Hello, girls,” she said. Diamond and Silver absently helloed her back as they hurried past to their seats. Diamond felt a stab of annoyance to see that they were the last ones there. Even Snips and Snails, usually the last ponies through the door, were seated. Their teacher walked past them to stand by the blackboard. Diamond wondered why the usual boring lessons weren’t written on it. Cheerilee said, “Our usual classwork for today is canceled.” She fell silent and let the cheer go through the room before adding, “Instead, we’ll be taking a little trip over to the library in just a few moments…”
A scream tore through the air outside. It was followed by a loud buzzing, like from a whole swarm of bees.
“Girls, return to your seats!”
Diamond hurried to the door to look even as Cheerilee said it. She saw Snips and Snails beside her on one side and Silver on the other. Close by, she heard Dinky Hooves wondering what was going on. Diamond Tiara knew the scream to be Lily’s voice by the sound, Ponyville’s most reliably panic-stricken pony. She wondered what she’d seen to send her off this time, unaware that she spoke it aloud until Silver Spoon answered her.
“Probably a bug,” Silver Spoon said with a giggle. “My dad says she’s the biggest scaredy-cat…”
They opened the door and none of them said anything more. They just stared.
It was Lily, sure enough, and the amber-maned and pink-coated mare raced towards the school. Diamond Tiara paid less attention to her than to what pursued, flying above the wild-eyed pony. It looked like a pony-sized bug with a pale yellow body and raspberry-red membranes for wings. Its pale green eyes glowed down at Lily and when it opened its mouth, Diamond saw fangs filling it. It stooped and dove. Lily shrieked and wriggled uselessly in its grip. It turned and flew off towards Sweet Apple Acres. Diamond saw more of the bug-things headed there, many of them carrying ponies between them.
“Oh, students,” Cheerilee said as she pushed the door shut, “I wish you hadn’t seen that.”
“Why?” Diamond demanded as she turned around. “We have to tell the Guard or Princess Celestia or somepony about the big bugs, and…” Her eyes bulged.
Miss Cheerilee wasn’t Miss Cheerilee anymore. Instead Diamond Tiara saw something like the bugs outside, light-purple wings and a purple carapace on the body and the eyes glowing a soft green. More monsters like her but smaller, the size of the other students, pressed in close behind her. Silver pressed in close by Diamond with a little whinny of fear.
The fillies and colts by the door just neighed in panicked unison and turned to flee. Diamond heard a buzzing as she looked to see three of those – things, landing on Dinky and Snips and Snails, bearing them to the floor. The three little bug-ponies, looking oddly familiar with their white and orange and yellow shells, quickly spewed some slimy green stuff all over the ponies that stuck to them. Wasn’t that how spiders kept bugs ready to eat?
“I wanted this to happen without frightening you.” The thing that had looked like Cheerilee shook her head and sighed. “We have almost everypony, and the Queen wanted to end it all today. Please, fillies, I am so sorry. But you have to come along now. After you change, you’ll understand everything.”
She smiled, showing impressive fangs as she held out a bristly foreclaw to them.
Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were out the door and almost a block away before they even knew they’d started running. Diamond thought she heard Miss Cheerilee, the monster, whatever, yell something, only for a trio of almost-familiar voices to respond, “It’s okay, Miss Cheerilee; we’ll get them!”
Diamond Tiara looked over her shoulder and saw the three bug-ponies that’d captured Dinky and the colts coming after them, fangs bared in gleeful grins.
“Run, Silver, run run run.” The words spilled out as she headed for the only safe place she could think of, her home. Silver didn’t say anything, she just sobbed as she fled alongside her. Diamond noticed that they were passing by one of the fruit stands that usually stood in the town square for market. It lay on its side, owner nowhere to be seen, the oranges spilling everywhere. Even as she saw it something heavy crashed down against her back, snatching at her. Diamond collapsed under that weight with a shriek. A frantic glance showed her the yellow bug-pony, crimson membranous wings beating wildly and its solid orange eyes almost glowing as it grinned that mouthful of fangs at her.
“Come on, Diamond,” it said, “Tell me again about good-for-nothin’ blank flanks!”
“What the – Apple Bloom?” Diamond Tiara was shocked out of her panic, “What the hay happened to you?” She tried backing away, only to stop when her hoof landed on something round and solid.
“Oh, y’all will find out soon enough,” it leered at her. Then it seemed to calm slightly, saying, “It won’t hurt or nothin’. Ah almost wish it did, though.” The eyes narrowed and more of that thick green slime began dripping from the corners of its jaws. “But at least Ah’ll get ta hear ya squawk when this gets in your fancy mane.”
Apple Bloom opened her mouth to spew the green gunk at her. And Diamond Tiara snatched up that orange and shoved it straight between her jaws. Apple Bloom flew back from her, choking and spitting. She clawed her at muzzle with her front legs. Diamond Tiara noticed the bristly hairs on them and the short claws they both ended in. She turned to see what was happening to Silver Spoon and froze.
The other two bug-ponies – they must have been that white narwhal, Rarity’s little sister, and showoff pegasus Apple Bloom palled around with – had her down and were spewing the nasty green stuff all over her. Where it hit, it thickened and congealed, forming a cocoon. Silver kicked and whinnied in panic, but her movements began to slow as it covered her. Diamond caught one glimpse of her eyes as she stared at her in panic.
Diamond was off and running again, sobbing in her terror as he darted down a side alley that she knew lead around by the back of her house. She glanced behind to see Apple Bloom still spitting that orange out and Sweetie and Scootaloo finishing with Silver Spoon, her one real friend, the friend she’d just abandoned.
Diamond forced every thought but her fear out of her mind as she fled.
***
The Cutie Mark Crusaders just finished cocooning Silver Spoon when Miss Cheerilee flew up to them. The schoolteacher looked down at her student as Silver’s struggles slowly ceased and she went into the slumber that would last until she’d been remade. Cheerilee licked her lips; she could almost taste the filly’s panic and dread, and it made her slightly ill. She also felt the gleeful satisfaction from all three of the changeling nymphlings, as well as some pain from Sweetie and Apple Bloom.
“I guess we should be glad that we feed on love, and not fear,” she thought out loud. “Otherwise I’d have to get used to this.” She said to the Crusaders. “Girls, you remembered to not hurt her, right?” She frowned when they looked everywhere but at her. “Girls, what did we talk about before all the unchanged ponies came to school?”
“But she kicked Sweetie Belle, Miss Cheerilee!” Scootaloo flinched back as her teacher gave her a hard look, but she pointed at her friend. Sure enough a hoofmark showed along Sweetie’s carapace by her soft abdomen. Apple Bloom spoke up as well.
“Yeah, an’ that nasty Diamond Tiara tried shovin’ a big ol’ orange down mah throat and like ta choked me with it!” Apple Bloom spat out what was left of it. “Yuck, oranges!” The schoolteacher fought down a smile. Even after transformation, some things didn’t change.
“Girls, remember,” Cheerilee said with a sigh as she drew the three in close to her, “We look like monsters to them right now. Don’t you remember how scared you were when your sisters took you below?” They frowned but shook their heads yes. Cheerilee could remember her own panic and terror when the Queen, along with her friends Rarity and Applejack, held her down and cocooned her in spite of her frantic struggles. Later of course everything became clear, but at the time she’d reacted with blind animal terror. If only she’d known what it would be like to bask in endless love and support from everyling around her…
How had she ever survived as a pony, back when she only thought she knew what love was?
More of her already transformed students were settling down by her, carrying the cocoons holding their as-yet unchanged fellows. Ruby Pinch whimpered and twisted inside the one holding her. Her eyes rolled with fear as they focused on her transformed aunt. Cheerilee gently nuzzled the cocoon.
“Don’t be afraid, niece,” she said softly, caressing Ruby’s coccon with her foreclaws. “It all seems strange now, but in a few hours everything will make more sense than ever. You’ll love your mother in ways you never dreamed possible, and she’ll feel and see how she hurt you and me. She won’t need to drink hard cider anymore, Ruby, honey. And we’ll all be a happy family like never before.” Ruby’s eyes closed as the lengthy transformation began.
Cheerilee spread her wings to fly – another newfound joy from the transformation – only to stop when Apple Bloom spoke up. “Miss Cheerilee, what ‘bout Diamond Tiara? Shouldn’t we go an’ get her?” Cheerilee didn’t miss the emphasis on the word ‘get’.
“No girls,” she said sternly. “Almost the whole town has joined the swarm now, or will soon enough,” another caress of Ruby’s cocoon, “And I’m quite sure that someling will bring her down below.” Cheerilee smiled gently, showing only the tips of her fangs. “It might be better if somepony Diamond Tiara knows brings her to join us.” The girls looked unconvinced, but along with everyling else they picked up their burdens and flew off towards Sweet Apple Acres’ barn and the newly-dug tunnels leading underneath it.
Cheerilee gave one last look around the square. Aside from the overturned wagon, everything looked like a quiet Ponyville morning. Any wanderers would either notice nothing or become a part of the swarm. Planning out her new lessons for later, she flew off after her students.
***
Diamond Tiara ran through the back streets of Ponyville, headed for her home. She whimpered in fear as she thought about what she’d seen. Miss Cheerilee and those rotten blank flanks and so many other ponies were, they’d been replaced somehow by those bug-monsters she’d heard her father and other adults talking about a few months back when they’d attacked Canterlot. She remembered how, for some odd reason, the three blanks were chosen to be flower fillies for Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. Was that when they’d been replaced?
Diamond froze as she came to the end of the alley. It opened out on one of the main streets, and her house stood just across the way. The door and windows were closed, and none of those bug ponies or anypony else were around. No further sounds of frightened ponies or those bug-things came to her. Maybe they were all gone? She still looked around cautiously before she hurried across to the door and knocked at it as loudly as she dared.
“Please,” she half-whispered, half-whimpered, “Please, daddy, Shiny Star, somepony please open the door!” The door slowly creaked open under her hoof. Diamond stepped inside warily. Her father was very strict about locking the doors leading outside. He always told her, the ponies of Ponyville were honest to a fault, but ponies and other beings passing through might be different, and anyone who wanted in could always knock.
Inside everything was quiet. She didn’t hear her father, but then, he would be at the store. She didn’t hear any of the servants either. Not that she typically did notice them, beyond the ones who tried sneaking into her parents’ bed to replace mom – them she drove from the house with all the vicious ingenuity and righteous fury a wounded and angry filly could muster -- but right then she would have been happy to see any pony that actually was a pony.
“Dad?” Diamond called softly as she walked down the entry hall and into the living room. Everything looked as it should; thick and elaborately-decorated carpets from Saddle Arabia on the floor (Diamond remembered her disappointment when she couldn’t make them fly; her mother took her hang gliding afterwards); paintings of Granddaddy and Grammy Rich on the walls, looking as happily casual as her father used to look before Mom got sick and he started wearing that silver ring and dying his coat black and started calling himself ‘Onyx Tiara’; fancy furniture from Prance set about the room, mostly low-built couches and lounges for ponies along with a rare chair for the odd bipedal guest; one of her dolls sitting on the end table –
Wait. Diamond took a nervous step closer. The fine doll of Princess Cadence, hand-sewn and stitched from the finest plush lay on its side as though carelessly thrown there. And beside it sat something even more unsettling.
Shiny Star’s feather duster. Diamond began to shiver. She rarely noticed the help, but she knew that Shiny was very careful to not leave her duster or anything else just lying around like that. And none of them would have been so careless with her doll. Even with her abuse of the purple unicorn maid – Diamond just knew she was trying to get into Dad’s bed and replace her mother, she just knew – Shiny for some odd reason never even once ruined anything of Diamond Tiara’s. She didn’t understand it. If she’d been the maid, she would have inflicted whatever nastiness she could on her to get even.
And then she heard voices speaking upstairs, so soft and low she could just make them out. No, just one voice. Her father’s?
Diamond slipped upstairs, making sure to skip over the ones that creaked too loudly. She could move very stealthily when she wanted to, as several servants and those three blanks knew to their sorrow. She kept her hooves on the carpets to avoid any warning clicking of them on the polished wooden floor as she reached the upstairs hallway.
There. The voice came from behind that door at the end of the hall, her parent – her father’s bedroom. She hurried down the hallway and froze at the cracked-open door.
“They were out everywhere… Diamond will be terrified. I’m waiting for her, she’ll need to see me before I take her away from here.” Diamond almost wept for relief, but at the next words from him she froze, shivering with fury. “Shiny Star, I wish this could have gone differently. I know, now, how Diamond feels about Golden Tiara, and how I’ve hurt both my little princesses. And you too. If she were only here, I could…”
Diamond Tiara peeked inside the room. Thousands of years of equine survival instinct were the only things that kept her from screaming in horror.
Shiny Star lay on the floor of the bedroom. Her maid’s uniform was tossed carelessly into the corner. Shiny stared at it through the thick translucent green cocoon that encased her. Her raised forelegs moved slowly as though she somehow sought to run away. Down where the material of the cocoon thickened enough to make her form nothing but a dark blur, it bulged and dimpled like she kicked at it. Whimpers came from inside of it as she fought to escape.
Something roughly the size and shape of her father stood over it, but nopony would confuse him or it with either Filthy Rich or Onyx Tiara. A light brown carapace covered it, and the wings were dark grey. Diamond could just see one of the eyes from where she stood. It glowed a soft blue, like her Daddy’s eyes but not. Some of that greenish gunk showed at its lips, and it looked down at the struggling Shiny Star almost gently.
“You’ll understand soon now, what this is really like,” he said to the horrified unicorn mare. “Like everypony else in this town, you’re not dying. You’re changing into something new. There won’t be any more narwhals,” he almost spat the word out, as though it tasted foul, “Or featherdusters, or even dirt ponies. Just us. The swarm. Everyling equal, well except for the Queen of course, everyling aware of whatever pains and joys the others feel and able to help in ways we never could as ponies.” The eyes drifted shut and it sighed. “I’m so much happier now, so at peace, and when both my princesses finally join me…”
Something scraped at the large double windows. Diamond dropped out of sight behind the door. She heard the thing that was once her father open it.
“Miss Dash,” he said, “You’re here for Shiny Star?”
“Sure am,” a familiar scratchy voice answered him. Diamond dared to peek. She saw a new changeling, one with a blue carapace, rose-red compound eyes, and wings all the colors of the rainbow. She flew in and set down beside Shiny Star, who struggled even more frantically as the newcomer smiled at her, revealing a fine set of changeling fangs. “Oh, take it easy,” Dash lightly stroked the surface of the cocoon. “Noling’s gonna hurt ya. It’ll feel great when you’re changed completely. It doesn’t even hurt. Heck, I don’t even worry about never being a Wonderbolt now.” Green fire played along her body, and when it vanished the old familiar Rainbow Dash stood there. She stretched her wings out and grinned. She even had her old cutie mark. The male changeling smiled at her.
“It does change a lot of priorities, doesn’t it?”
“Sure does,” Dash chuckled. “I can’t even remember why I wanted to join them so bad! Heck, I got everything I’ll ever need here with the swarm. Me and the whole Weather Patrol.” She chuckled. “Boy were they surprised when I took them out to AJ’s farm for ‘special duty’ and they saw the rest of the changelings! But they’re doin’ great, in fact they’ve collected everypony who didn’t change yet.” Dash looked dismayed. “They, we hadda hurt some of them to get them to stop fighting us.”
“I felt it through the swarm,” her once-father said. “But the Queen reminded everyling that anything short of death can be healed with enough time in the cocoon. And they stop feeling pain as soon as they’re sealed in. So does it matter that much if we have to,” he swallowed and shivered before adding in a softer voice, “If we have to do some things we’d rather not do? When they’ll only hurt for a few moments?”
“I guess not,” Dash grumbled, but Diamond thought she sounded unenthusiastic. She turned to Shiny Star, reverting to her earlier appearance as she did. “I’ll take her over to Sweet Apple Acres.” Her voice went respectful. “The queen says we got nearly every pony in town. There’s just a few more. A few are hiding at the hospital, some of the crazy ones. And your daughter,” Diamond wondered if her eyes rested on her, but she looked away immediately, “Maybe some ponies we’ve seen wandering nearby. We gotta be careful about them, though. The queen said no touching them unless we can be sure they won’t get away. Can’t have Celestia finding out before we’re able to protect ourselves against her, after all.” She went to Shiny’s cocoon and wrapped her legs around it. Ignoring the mare’s increasingly feeble struggles, she picked her up and flew out the window.
Diamond turned and began slipping back down the hallway towards the steps. Who was she going to go to now? Everything seemed to be happening at Sweet Apple Acres, and she’d just seen that the pegasi were all changed now. Maybe that unicorn at the library? Yes, she’d be good. She and that scary dragon of hers were supposed to have some way of contacting the Princess. They could tell her what happened, and then Celestia could come here and change everypony back to themselves.
“Little princess?” Diamond froze, one hoof lifted as she smelled that warm fruit smell of the changelings right behind her. “Daughter,” her once-father said again, his voice warm, “Please, don’t be afraid. Turn and look at me.”
Diamond did so. His eyes glowed softly down at her, brighter than before, like he was excited. He bent down and looked her in the face. She could see herself reflected in his eyes, mane and coat dirty, her eyes wide and frightened.
“Diamond Tiara,” he said softly. He reached out and lightly stroked her neck by her mane. “You’re frightened. You don’t need to be.” His voice buzzed softly. She could feel the dull claw on the end of his foreleg scraping lightly against her coat. “Come with me. It’ll be just like falling asleep. And then later, when it’s done, we can go and bring your mother into the swarm as well. We can be a family again. Won’t that be wonderful?”
Diamond thought for a second what it would be like. Her and her father going to the hospital, along with so many other once-ponies from Ponyville. The sick madponies being let out, frightened and hesitant as they approached their families. Her mom, going up to her little princess and her prince with that dawning joy on her face as they told her that she’d be coming home with them to stay forever. And her mom kicking and screaming as Diamond and Filthy forced her down and spewed that green gunk all over her, her pleading with them as they watched her stop being Diamond’s beautiful mother and become something with fangs and a hard shell of chitin and glowing hungry eyes.
“Diamond, no!”
Her once-father yelled it after her, but Diamond was already fleeing down the hall to leap over the railing by the stairs. She had to get out and find help, she just had to...
Diamond shrieked as a pair of claw-tipped forelegs wrapped around her. Wings buzzed loudly nearby as she wriggled to get out of that grip.
“Hold still! Do you want to fall and, and hurt yourself!”
Diamond ignored that voice to redouble her efforts. She bent her head and bit at one of those arms. An unspeakable vileness filled her mouth that made her want to retch. But it worked. The monster holding her hissed in pain and dropped her.
Diamond hit the floor with a crash. Her head spinning, her left hind leg feeling like it was ablaze, she still got up and raced for the door. Gotta get away, gotta get help and save Mom!
She heard the changeling make a buzzing cry behind her, but she was already out the door and running for her life. The streets outside showed empty. Diamond dashed for the nearest alleyway, racing down along it. Garbage splattered under her hooves. Behind her she could hear the monster that her father had become yelling for her.
“Diamond Tiara! Young lady, you come when you father calls you!” He called in a buzzing voice. Then, pleading; “Diamond, please! It won’t hurt! You just fall asleep and then when you wake up all your pain is gone! And you can become anything you want, and…” She heard him snarl, along with a sudden loud buzzing. She risked a glance and saw him rising into the air, his wings beating so fast they blurred.
More buzzing sounded nearby. Diamond saw three smaller shapes, one white, one orange, and one yellow, fly up to the airborne monster. The young earth pony filly saw a trash barrel nearby. By the smell it’d been well used before its owner was taken away, but she didn’t care. Right then she saw only a place to hide. Diamond removed the lid, hurried up and inside, pulled it back over. A knothole in the side let the sunlight in. She peeked out of it.
“Filthy, er, Mister Rich?” The yellow bug-pony spoke to the big brown and gray one. Diamond shuddered to hear Equestrian, and in familiar voices, coming out of those fang-filled alien mouths. It said, “Th’ Queen said ta tell ya t’ git over ta the hospital right naow. Some o’ the crazy ponies are hidin’ an’ won’t come out fer nopony they can’t recognize.”
“Yeah, and one of ‘em’s your wife Screwball,” Diamond almost bristled to hear that orange bug-monster call her mom that. “But if she sees you she’d probably go right to ya.”
“The Queen wants that?” The big bug-pony looked down at the three once-fillies. He sounded skeptical as he said, “I didn’t feel anything.”
“Oh, well, we’ve been changed longer than you,” the green-eyed white bug-pony said, her voice musical. “Just fly to the hospital. Then she’ll tell you herself.” He frowned at them. They all smiled back at him, their fangs gleaming.
“Listen, my daughter is around here, somewhere. She, she’s frightened, she doesn’t understand what’s really going on.” He looked around nervously. Diamond ducked, taking her eye away from the knothole. She heard him saying, “Please, find her and bring her to the cocooning chamber. And don’t hurt her.” She heard his wings start buzzing again, before he spoke once more. “And… I feel now what she did to you and those other fillies and colts. I’m sorry it happened. If I’d known…” He broke off and sighed. The sound of his wingbeats began retreating into the distance, along with his voice as he called, “Please don’t hurt her!”
The three once-fillies waited until he was gone, and then Diamond heard Scootaloo say, “Huh, ‘don’t hurt her’. Why is everyling so worried about Diamond Tiara? I don’t want to hurt her,” Diamond saw Scootaloo grin nastily. “Well, not much, anyway. But hey, if we chase her around a bit, that’s not really hurting her, is it?” Scootaloo looked down at herself. Green flame surrounded her, and when it cleared, she stood there as a pegasus. “Besides, I wanna see if I can turn inta something besides a pony.” She rubbed her hooves together. “Something that’ll scare that jerk DT!”
“Like what?” her two friends asked. Scootaloo grinned at them.
“Oh, something like this!” Another burst of green fire surrounded her, and when it cleared, Diamond gaped to see a wolf standing there. Its fur was the same shade of orange as Scootaloo’s coat, and it had a purple tail and tuft of fur atop its head. When it grinned, fangs gleamed. She strutted before the others. “So, whadda ya think?” They both looked at her, and it hit them almost as soon as it did Diamond.
“That’s your Nightmare Night costume!” Both the other bug-ponies went close and touched her shaggy pelt. Scootaloo grinned and gave them both slobbery wolf kisses. Sweetie laughed, and Apple Bloom half-heartedly tried to push her away. “Eww, wolf slobber!” Sweetie flew back and settled to the ground, smiling.
“Hey, let me try!” Her glowing green eyes seemed to narrow, the same green fire flashed around her, and when it cleared, Diamond had to bite down on a shriek. Black feathered wings spread out wide, purple-painted eyelids fluttered over slit-pupil eyes, and even something vaguely like silver barding shone over an ebon coat. She even bore a crescent moon cutie mark on one flank. She threw her head back and whinnied wild laughter.
“The night will last forever! A-hahaha!” She smiled at her friends. Diamond calmed slightly to see that she stood only as big as the ‘Scootawolf’, only slightly bigger than her filly-self. She also looked skinnier, as though she weighed the same, it was just spread out more. When she spoke, she sounded like a filly Nightmare Moon. “And when I find that mean old Diamond Tiara, I’m gonna make her eat all the alfalfa in the world!” Her two friends laughed, Apple Bloom in a buzzing voice and Sootawolf with short sharp yips.
“Wow, Sweetie, that looks good!” Apple Bloom flew around her. “Did ya practice ta do this?”
“Yeah!” Nightmare Sweetie said, holding her head up proudly. “I’m gonna try and use it when we get Pipsqueak and his parents. I remember how he liked Princess Luna an’ Nightmare Moon. He even told me once he wanted to kiss her, and I figured if he saw…” Her green eyes went wide and she shut her mouth a few seconds too late. Her friends were already rolling on the ground laughing. Diamond found herself wishing she could have heard this back when she could have used it. Sweetie told the other two blanks, “Hey, knock it off! I didn’t say I wanted to kiss him –“ Now it looked like her eyes were covering half her face as a blush spread over her ebon cheeks.
“Sweetie and Pipsqueak, sittin’ in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!” Scootawolf made kissy faces. “Mwua-mwua-mwua!” She laughed some more before saying “Just give me one little kiss, Pipsqueak, before I wrap ya up in a big cocoon and we go live in a big hive and lay lots ‘a eggs!”
All while they’d talked and shapeshifted, the three blanks kept walking closer to where Diamond hid. The filly shivered, wondering if they smelled her. She sniffed and wrinkled her own nose. She couldn’t smell anything but garbage herself. But maybe bug-ponies could smell like dogs? She was distracted when Apple Bloom spoke. By now they stood almost directly beside her barrel.
“Aww, you two don’t know for nothin’,” she said, waving one hoof – foreclaw? – dismissively. The yellow bug-pony said, “I know what Diamond’s really scared of!” Green flame surrounded her, and as it vanished, she triumphantly said, “This!”
Diamond blinked. So did Scootawolf and Nightmare Sweetie. They saw neither monster nor predator. They just saw… Diamond Tiara. She looked at the other two blanks and smiled nastily.
“Don’t y’all get in mah way, blank flanks!” She walked back and forth between them, as snobby as some stage actor trying to act like the classic arrogant Canterlot noblepony. The other two blanks began to laugh, and Diamond gritted her teeth as ‘Diamond Bloom’ said, “Ah’ll get my daddy after y’all! Ah’ll stick worms in y’ lunch apples an’ kick ya head first inta a mud puddle! All cause Ah got a cutie mark that says, ‘I ain’t good for nothin’ but wearing a silly old tiara!’”
“Ooh!” The other two stopped laughing and dropped at her hooves, shapeshifting back to their filly forms. They mockingly pleaded, “Oh, please don’t be mean to us, Diamond Bloom! We’ll give you our lunch money every day and say how great you are! Because you’re so scary!” They rolled about on the dirt of the alley, laughing. Diamond Bloom looked down at them disdainfully.
“Ya better believe Ah’m scary! Cause one day…” Green fire surrounded her again, and when it cleared, Diamond shook with rage to see a smaller version of her mother there, purple coat, striped mane, and wearing that silly propeller beanie she’d gotten from somewhere on the Day of Discord. She even bore her broken-minded mother’s cutie mark, a screw and a ball, as she said, “Ah’ll go nuts just like mah maw, an’ then Ah’ll do this!” She put one hoof to her lips, made her eyes roll in different directions, and starting flipping her lips going, “Bbl-bbl-bbl-bbl!” Their laughter broke off at a scream from beside them.
“You, you filthy, bug-faced blank flanks!”
Diamond kicked right through the side of the barrel. All three of the blanks stared at her in shock, and as they did, she tossed a hoof-full of garbage into the faces of the orange feather duster and the white narwhal. They shrieked, their voices buzzing wails, and dropped to start rubbing at their eyes. Without even stopping Diamond threw herself on Apple Bloom, who’d changed back to her bug-pony self. The former earth pony filly leered horribly at her.
“I knew that one’d get yah out o’ hidin’!” She grabbed at Diamond, those bristly foreclaws snatching at her mane. Diamond shrieked and tried to pull away. Apple Bloom hissed, “Yah ain’t goin’ nowhere, ‘cept ta a cocoon. An’ after that yah can help us git your crazy mom…” Her voice rose into a shriek as Diamond smashed a hoof right into her face. Chitin cracked under the blow. Apple Bloom hiss-buzzed in pain as she went under Diamond’s trampling hooves.
“My mom’s not crazy!” Diamond shrieked, even as her mind jeered at her, she is, she is, and remember what the doctors said, one day you’ll be crazy too and they’ll just lock you up and forget about you! Diamond ignored it as she trampled Apple Bloom underhoof. “She’s not! It isn’t true! All of you stop saying that about her!” She jumped back with a scream as Apple Bloom snapped at her with those fangs. But even as she did, she yelled, “At least MY mom is still alive! And she wouldn’t call me a monster if she saw me!”
Apple Bloom froze at those words. Her eyes were wide. Diamond felt a glimmer of that old satisfaction as she saw the pain fill them. Apple Bloom just stood there, her legs braced beneath her, as her two friends groaned their pain behind her.
“That ain’t true,” Apple Bloom choked the words out. She continued stalking Diamond Tiara down the street, walking beside a now broken window. Greenish ichor ran along her muzzle to drip on the bricks of the alley. The buzzing in her voice got so thick her words became little more than a snarl as she said, “Ah ain’t no monster, mah big brother ‘n sister ain’t no monsters, they told me we ain’t, we love each other, it ain’t true!”
Diamond Tiara just grinned and thrust her hoof at the window. Apple Bloom turned to look and saw herself, a distorted array of fangs and chitinous carapace, empty glowing orange eyes and hole-studded limbs, green slime trickling from her wound instead of blood, tattered mane and tail…
“NO!” Green flame surrounded Apple Bloom, and when it vanished, she appeared as a filly again. She almost babbled, “That’s me, that’s the real me…”
Diamond Tiara charged forward, head down like a narwhal setting their horn for the charge. Before Apple Bloom could react, Diamond Tiara smashed into her. Apple Bloom’s yell rose into a shriek as Diamond kept moving, driving her into the brick wall behind her. Apple Bloom’s shriek choked off. Diamond backed away. Apple Bloom slid down the wall with a groan as she collapsed. Behind her the other two blanks were still trying furiously to clear their vision so they could see.
Remembering what she’d said about her mom, Diamond closed in. Ears down and scraping the bricks of the street with one forehoof, Diamond only stopped when she heard the buzzing of more wings. She cast her gaze skywards and saw them. More of the bug-ponies, big ones this time, heading for her.
Diamond ducked down a side street and raced away in the direction of the hospital. If they were going after her mom, that meant she had to find her first.
And then we get out of here, away to Canterlot or Manehattan or even someplace like Prance where they won’t find us. Ever!
***
The rest of that day was a blur in Diamond Tiara’s memory. Her mind only held flashes of it. Her sneaking past the Mayor’s office and looking in to see another changeling with an amber carapace and magenta membranous wings looking down on the Mayor’s assistant as she struggled inside of a cocoon, almost gently caressing it with one bristly foreclaw as she did; sneaking into a seemingly-abandoned Sugarcube Corner for food only to find the Cake twins, or at least what had once been the twins, chittering and slithering in their crib, their eyes glowing in the near-dark as Diamond fled gagging in horror; and peeking into Ditzy’s groundbound home to see the grey former-pegasus cocooning a panicstricken Sparkler with help from a blue-eyed pink bug-pony with somehow poofy ear-membranes. As she did Ditzy crooned to her filly, “Don’t cry, honey. There won’t be any more tears after this.”
Diamond would have never believed it possible for her to run and hide and feel so much fear for so long. But eventually she found herself creeping closer to the hospital (you mean the nut house, that’s what everypony calls it) as night began to fall over Ponyville. The coolness of it felt like a balm on her hide as the filly stuck to the shadows, moving ever closer to it. The full moon shone down across the town. Diamond took a glance around and saw the same lights as ever in Ponyville houses and the faint flicker of lanternlight at Sweet Apple Acres in the distance. From a distance, nopony would have seen anything wrong.
But they’re there, she thought, hiding in attics and basements and unused closets. Curled up and sleeping and waiting for – what?
Something nearby scraped the dirt of the road. Diamond looked about in a panic for somewhere to hide, only to freeze at the sound of a very familiar voice.
“Diamond? Baby, is that you?”
"M-momma?" Diamond Tiara warily stepped forward from her hiding place. She glanced around, saw none of those bug-ponies, and hurried over to her mother. The same purple coat, pink skunk-striped mane, but her eyes… That unsettling glitter was gone from them. They focused on Diamond as she said, "I-is that you? Are you okay now?"
"Yes, my dear little princess," Golden Tiara said, smiling down at her daughter as she stroked her mane. "It's me, and I'm better now. Some," she broke off as though she'd been about to say something wrong, "Some very nice -- ponies -- helped make me and the other sick ponies at the hospital all better."
Diamond whimpered, the stress and panic of the past few days finally catching up with her, as she pressed against her mother, feeling her warmth.
"Mom, Daddy said you were sick, that he didn't know if you'd ever get better..." But her newfound caution made her speak softly as she said through a veil of tears, "Momma, we have to get away. Everypony's been turned into some kind of a bug, they can make themselves look like ponies or like, like anything. They got Miss Cheerilee and Silver Spoon's mom and dad and," Diamond Tiara choked and said, "And Daddy and Silver Spoon too and mom we have to get away from here."
Diamond looked up at her mother. Her mom looked back at her oddly. Not like before she'd had to go away with the pegasi in white coats, but like she was trying to memorize everything about Diamond's appearance right now. "Mom? Did I do something wrong?"
"No, dear, no," Golden Tiara began guiding her towards the Ponyville library. She walked boldly down the street, ignoring Diamond's hissed warnings to stay in the moonlit shadows of the buildings. But none of the bug-ponies were around. Maybe Mom knew of something in the library that could help them? Her mother opened the library door and stood back as Diamond trotted inside. "You're going to be just fine in a very short while. Just trust me."
"I always trust you, momma," Diamond said to her mother, relief flowing through her. The whole scary nightmare was over, the three blanks turning into monsters that tried grabbing her and Silver, them hiding as they learned that Miss Cheerilee and the Mayor and even her daddy had become more of those things. It was over, her mother was back and well again, and they were going to get away safely.
Diamond sighed in relief.
"How are my two princesses?"
Diamond Tiara felt her stomach twist in knots as she heard her father's buzzing voice. She looked up and her gaze locked with that of a large male changeling with a brown and black carapace. Diamond screamed and turned to run but her mother was blocking the door and why would she be doing that?
Realization swept over her like ice. "No, not you, not you mom, no, no, no..."
"Yes, but it’s okay, Diamond," The creature that looked like her mother said as it went back to its true form in a burst of green fire, sporting a pink and purple carapace. Its compound eyes glittered down at her. Diamond whimpered and backed away from across the wooden floor. "It only looks scary. I'm still your mother, and my mind is all better now. They made me better."
"And when you've joined us, we'll be a family like never before," The monster who'd been her father said to her. Her mother walked closer, her clawed feet clicking against the wood. Her father lowered his -- its head, those eyes shining in the dark, as it said, "We’ll feel and share everything, every thought and emotion. Come be with your mother and me again."
Diamond kicked him straight in the face. Something cracked under her hooves and a nasty odor filled her nose. It wailed out a buzzing cry like the world's largest horsefly as she ran for the stairs to the basement.
"DIAMOND TIARA!" She closed her ears against that voice so horribly like-unlike her mother's as it added, "YOUNG FILLY, YOU COME BACK HERE AND APOLOGIZE TO YOUR FATHER!"
Diamond ignored her to scramble faster than she could ever remember. The basement opened out wide before her, high wooden shelves with dusty books to either side and with what looked like earthen tunnels running leading away under the town. Diamond darted into the nearest one, trying not to gag on the thick sweet odor coming from it, thick enough to taste. Faint green glows of fungal phosphorescence against the walls guided her. She didn't hear her parents following her; maybe she'd lost them?
She came out into a large chamber. Weird things like big pods were set against the walls. That purple narwhal, Twilight Sparkle, and her little dragon assistant stood by the closest one. Diamond ran up to them, too exhausted to think, only to freeze when she saw what was crawling out of it. A smaller changeling, the size of those blanks, but with a silvery shell. It looked at Diamond almost as though it were happy to see her. When it did, Twilight and the dragon turned to look at her too. Somehow Diamond felt only a dull despair to see that their coats were hard shiny carapaces.
"Diamond Tiara?" Twilight's voice buzzed like the others', but she sounded relieved, not angry or hungry or anything like that. Diamond tried to run, only to stop as a greenish aura of magic held her in place. Twilight looked into her eyes, saying, "Diamond? We've all been SO worried about you, especially your parents. Maybe I made a mistake in sending the Cutie Mark Crusaders to bring you and Silver Spoon here, but she's already transformed."
The silver-colored nymphling buzzed its wings, looking happy.
“That’s not my friend,” Diamond whimpered as she tried escaping, her legs working uselessly against the magic that held her. “That’s the thing that you turned her into.” Then, looking at what had once been Twilight Sparkle, she cried, “You saved us, saved everypony from Nightmare Moon and Discord and all those other monsters, how can you be doing this now?” She might have said more but froze when the silver Changeling nymph flew over to land by her, its wings buzzing through the air. Before Diamond could move, it turned to face its flank towards her and lightly brushed it against her.
“Bump, bump, sugarlump rump,” it said in the same horrid insectile buzz as the blanks and Twilight and her parents and everypony now. Diamond cried her disgust and recoiled at the feel of that armorlike carapace rubbing against her. Its blank violet-gray eyes looked into hers, hopefully and almost sadly. Greenish fire surrounded it and then Silver Spoon stood there, minus her glasses. “Diamond,” it said, the voice more like her friend’s now, “If I was just, just some bug that looked like Silver, would I know that? Or that you used to cry in your room because you thought you’d never see your mom again? Or how much you wished you’d gotten a cutie mark that meant you were good for something other than wearing jewelry, like how I wanted one for something other than having rich parents?” She giggled. Diamond almost saw her old friend before she turned and showed her flank with that spoon cutie mark. Diamond noticed that the small heart in the handle was missing now. The mark suddenly flashed from a smith’s hammer to a soldier’s shield to a quill and inkpot before going blank. Silver said in a gleeful voice, “I don’t need my glasses anymore. I can wear, make, any dress I want. We can have whatever cutie marks we want. They’re for ponies, don’t mean anything to us!”
“How do you, I mean no, it’s all lies!” Diamond choked and gasped. “It, you can’t, I only ever told that to…” Her voice trailed off.
“To Silver Spoon,” Twilight said, walking closer, accompanied by the small purple and green changeling. She nodded towards Silver as that green fire flashed once again and she turned back into one of the bug-ponies. She backed away with a low bow as Twilight walked past her. Twilight said as Diamond’s transformed mother and father walked out of the darkness, surrounding the filly, “We all know what Silver feels, what your father and mother feel, just like how they know what everyling else feels. All that anger and hurt in you, Diamond?” Twilight looked down and into her face. Diamond shuddered to see herself reflected mirror-like in those empty violet eyes. Twilight said soothingly, “When you change, it won’t bother you anymore. Ponies only think they know what harmony is. They’re just fooling themselves. Look at you, Diamond. If you truly felt harmony, would you have ever hurt Apple Bloom or her friends? Would you have ever felt lonely? Now,” she indicated the empty cocoon with a toss of her head, “You never will again!” The glow around Diamond intensified, and she began floating towards the cocoon. The thick organic reek of it made her want to vomit.
“I,” Diamond wanted to say something, anything, that would stop this, but all she could think of was, “Whatever I feel, it’s mine, and you’ve got no right to take it from me!”
Twilight just tilted her head to the side, eyeing her like the filly was some sort of lab specimen. Diamond stopped moving. She dared hope.
“I want to make you be happy and with your family again,” Twilight said. “And with you, everypony in Ponyville will be part of my new hive, and I won’t need to transform anypony else. Both of those make what I’m doing right.” She smiled and said, “So you see, you’re the only pony left, Diamond. And the cocoon is all ready!"
Diamond struggled as bravely as she could as she was taken to the cocoon and stuffed inside. Thick slime filled her mouth, ran into her nose and ears, stung her eyes. She shrieked at the feel of the ooze around her, kicked and even bit at the cocoon's tough material as she thought, I don't wanna be a monster, I don't wanna!
Twilight, Silver Spoon, Filthy Rich and Golden Rich all watched with silent joy as her struggles slowly ceased and the transformation began.
