Changelings are known for a three things. One is their ability to shape change into somepony to feed off the love of others. Another is that they have a hive mind, meaning an individual changeling has no will of its own, and directly follows the telepathic orders of their queen. The third is that they are supposedly really ugly. However, occasionally they are unable to communicate with the rest of the hive. Many of these changelings begin to develop a will and personality of their own. Some try to become reconnected with the hive. Others try to integrate into regular pony society, trying to live like a normal pony would.
I’m not one of those weaklings.
I woke up recently, and all of a sudden the voices in my head that were my constant companions, have gone silent. My first thought was, what happened? After remembering the last place I was, (Canterlot) I began to remember. The invasion planned by our queen had failed. There were probably hundreds of changelings now scattered across Equestria, all having lost contact with the hive. My second thought was, thinking for myself was such a strange feeling. I could make my own plans, I was my own mare. I could do anything!
My third thought, was revenge.
I thought about all of those ponies that had thwarted our queen’s plan, the purple one blasting away half of her brethren with their magic. The bluish one with a rainbow mane flying so fast that they couldn’t catch her, and when they did she beat them up so fast that they didn’t have a chance. The white one was insidiously pompous when she fought, usually standing over the bodies of my sisters with a smug smile, only to polish her hoof on their unconscious bodies and continue the fight. The orange one was ruthless, I thought I actually heard some carapaces rupture when she bucked. The yellow one avoided being hit so well that she was practically making us beat ourselves to death! Then there was the pink one. Oh how I loathed the pink one, and to think, until twenty minutes ago I was absolutely incapable of such an emotion. She was a sorry, ungrateful, overly cheery, ragamuffin. Who wouldn’t know a good impersonation if her life depended on it!
I have to destroy them, not just for the hive, but also for myself. The hive may not appreciate me being this selfish, but they sure will appreciate these nuisances being out of the way.
As to where I am now, I haven’t got a clue. I seem to be in a heavily forested area, and until I get out of here, I won’t be able to find them. I’ll think over my options. I could walk out on foot, that way I could maintain some level of secrecy. Although I have no idea where out is. I could look to see if any of my brethren have landed near here. Maybe they would know where the troublemakers are. That’s unlikely.
What else can I do to get out of here? I swivel my head to look around the clearing I was in. My vision stopped at my wings. That probably should have been my first option. In my defence, I’m still getting used to this thinking business.
Up in the air I will be clearly visible. I’m going to have to change into a pegasus, but how should I look? I have never had to decide something like this before. Should I shape change into someone I have already changed into before? Who have I changed into before? My newly found memory seems to be fuzzy. The only ponies I can remember changing into were those troublemakers. I cringe at the thought. I guess I can’t rely on my memory too much prior to my newfound independence. So I’m going to have to make up some characteristics.
Should I be male or female? Well I might as well stay female, acting like a stallion just seems like it’s so much more effort. I change my body so that it takes the form of a pegasus mare. I look into a puddle that is formed in the ground and see that I my hair on both my mane and tail were unchanged. It frankly looked hideous… I looked hideous. No wonder ponies were scared of us.
This won’t do! I’m practically screaming that I’m a changeling in disguise. I change my mane to be medium length and sort of messy. It doesn’t look pretty, but at least it’s not out of place. My tail I make mimic my mane. I look into the pool again. I notice that I’m still the same colours as when I was a changeling, it looks so wrong on a pegasus.
Gah, I need new colours. What to pick I wonder. I can’t believe how hard it is to come up with a pony’s form all on your own. It’s so much easier to just copy other ponies’ looks. Well I do like blues and purples. Wait, I have colour preferences now? This will of my own thing is just odd. I decide that my mane and tail is going to be light green, and my coat a light purple.
I look back at my reflection to see an almost normal pony in front of my eyes. Something was off however. I can’t quite put my hoof on it.
Oh wait my eyes. I haven’t changed my eyes. Uh … I feel incredibly stupid. I have to change them to pony eyes and decide their colour. I sighed. I just went with a dark green, no point in getting fancy.
All right, I think I’m good now. Fangs aren’t showing, totally different colour, feathered wings… and I forgot the most important part, the cutie mark. If I don’t have one, ponies will get suspicious. Hmm… but what should it be. Do I have any talents…? Shape changing… no that’s a recipe for disaster.
I started brainstorming different things I’m good at, but couldn’t think of a single one. Then it hit me like a pegasus going Mach 3. I quickly changed my form once more. There, proudly displayed on my flank, was a symbol of my new found decision making skills, a brain.
Sure it was a bit garish, but I was worth it. Now to find out where I am…
I give an experimental flap of my wings before taking to the sky, shooting out of the forest and into the blue sky above. Once I get to a high altitude above the trees I level out, flying perpendicular to the ground. I look below as I fly, scanning for any signs of civilization. Why from here I can see quite a few. There seems to be a small town, a farm, and a cottage right by the very woods which I had egressed from.
I look along the horizon, scanning the wider area, until my eyes happen upon the very city of which we were defeated, Canterlot. Perched high up in the mountains it was plainly visible from miles around. I seemed to be relatively close to it however. So I must have not been flung as far as I thought. In fact, I can very well begin my search in this very town.
I felt the overwhelming urge to cackle manically. I wonder if that comes with the act of seeking revenge. I repressed the cackling however, as I have yet to make a plan. You can’t laugh at how well your plan is going without a plan can you?
I decide that my first step is going to be the cottage. It is closest, and perhaps I could even ask the pony if they knew those troublemakers. I have to be cautious however, what if the cottage had some sort of trap that you couldn’t see from up this high. I’ve heard of crazy old hermits that were into that sort of thing… I think.
I glide down towards the cottage, stopping about a hundred yards away and behind a few trees nearby. I staked out the area, looking around a nearby tree to see if I could get a glimpse of any traps or tricks that may be on the way to the cottage. I mostly saw various animals prancing about without a care in the world. They were all over the place, what kind of crazy pony keeps all these wild creatures around their home? Maybe they were a sort of an alarm system, it was a good thing I landed so far back.
What’s this? No, it can’t be… but it makes perfect sense. I knew nobody else could possibly be more insidious or feral than that pony.
It was… the yellow one. Her pink mane was draped over her face like a willow tree, but I wasn’t going to underestimate this mare again. Oh no, she won’t pull the fast one on me. It explains so much really. She uses these animals to keep guard, and also to train her incredible dodging maneuvers… Ingenious really…
Also downright evil… and I thought the pink one was bad. This pony not only has insane martial arts moves, but probably has the strength to wrestle bears! I need to be careful not to confront her head on… That would be suicide.
I watch her for a few moments, studying her every move. She was graceful, as you would expect from someone with such raw martial skill. She even seemed to be able to talk the animals into doing what she wanted… Was this mare invincible!? How am I going to combat a martial arts expert that has so much raw charisma that she can convince ANIMALS to do her bidding?
I watched as a bird flew over to the yellow pony and chirp into her ear. She seemed to nod her head in understanding, however I couldn’t examine further because all of a sudden she turned to face me.
I quickly hid my whole body from sight, my back pressed up against the back of the tree… It’ll be okay, she won’t notice you. You are the tree, become one with the tree.
I held my breath for what felt like hours. I looked back to see her standing right in front of the tree, now clearly staring right at me.
I screamed, and maybe fainted.
When I regained consciousness (from either fainting or the demoness’s mind manipulation) I seemed to have been placed in a bed. I didn’t know whether I was saved, or perhaps violated.
I scan the room from the bed. There is a fireplace and a mantle with a clock and a of couple books atop it. There are a few windows, including a pair right behind the bed on either side. I slide off the side of the bed and onto the floor without making a sound and creep up to the windows.
I look out to see the same field which I was observing the yellow one. I freeze in horror. Odds were now in favour of violation. I was in the very cottage of the yellow pony.
What happened? I didn’t seem to have lost my form, so that’s a plus. Maybe she thinks I’m just a lost stranger, maybe there was nothing that happened in that bed besides me recovering from shock.
I opened the window as quietly as I could. I started to flap my wings, but before I could take off I felt a huge wash of fatigue.
Oh no, I was getting hungry. This is horrible, now I’m stuck in a house with a monster and I’m love starved. Out of all the things that could go wrong, this is possibly the WORST POSSIBLE THING!
I begin to panic and pace around the room, if I fly off there is no doubt I won’t go far. I’d probably just pass out again. I scan the room once more. I needed some way to get out of here, and quickly. Oddly enough, I found a bowl of soup prepared by the bed… That was odd. Isn’t that creature the only pony that lives here?
Well there are two possibilities; either this pony has captured another soul who has taken pity on me… Or this pony has yet to discover my identity… and has taken pity on me?
I shudder at the thought… I look back at the soup. It might not be love, but it might still sustain me until I can find a reliable source of love to feed from.
I lower my mouth into the bowl and give it a cautionary blow to prevent burning my tongue. I slowly lap up the soup which was set out for me, keeping one eye on the door at the end of the room in case the yellow one returned.
I soon finished the meal, feeling only slightly better than before. I was satiated, but even the most healthy of pony food feels like grease filled junk going down my throat. I was about to fly right out the window again when I heard a soft knock at the door.
Ah! That was probably her. I needed to get out of here, but if I left now she would see me flying off and could chase after me. Uh… I gotta hide! Where? The bed! I’ll just pretend I went back to sleep!
I hopped into bed as quickly and quietly as I could. I flung the blanket over as much of my body as I could and closed my eyes tightly. She entered the room shortly after that. I could hear the door creaking and her faint hoofsteps creeping up next to the bed. It was so ominous, I could feel the sweat on my forehead at my impending doom.
“Oh she must have gone back to sleep.” I heard a soft voice come from right beside me. She bought it. I can’t believe she bought it. Thank Chrysalis!
As I was mentally cheering at the fact that it was the first time today something went right, I felt a slight warm pressure right by my ear. Instantly I felt rejuvenated. I lay there in shock as she quietly walked out, shutting the door behind her. As soon as she left I slowly sat back up in the bed. I stared at the door.
Did she just kiss me?