//------------------------------// // Prologue: School for Gifted Unicorns // Story: Love is Changeling // by Inky Shades //------------------------------// The Equestrian badlands were nearly uninhabited. It was full of sand and rocks and not much else. A few ponies were scattered sporadically across this unforgiving land. However most would return back to the green pastures and trickling rivers that made up the heartland of Equestria, back home. Thus it would seem that the badlands were abandoned, but this is exactly what the lands true masters wanted everypony to think. Changelings were a race of pony-like insects that originated from a distant land far south of Equestria. This was just what most ponies believed. In truth, the origins of the changelings were a mystery even to the changelings themselves. Every couple of decades they would be forced to migrate to a new home. The cause of this migration was simple; the changelings had run out of food. Now somepony might ask why they didn't just grow more food. This was a good question, to which the answer was this, they couldn't. Changelings didn't eat the same food as ponies and what they did eat wasn't farmable. Love, the changelings lived off of love. Why didn't they just make their own love then? There were two possible answers to this, either they couldn't or they never tried to. Either way whenever their stores of love ran out they would swarm the next inhabited land and drain it dry of all its love. Then the process would repeat again. Each time the changelings would build a massive hive full of interconnected spires of stone that loomed over their chosen victims land, but the moment their food ran out the hive would be abandoned and a new land would be picked. For as long as anypony could remember this is how it has always been. It was needless to say that the changelings didn't have the best reputation. So when the changelings decided to make Equestria their next destination nopony was happy. Princess Celestia knew and understood her subjects' fears, but she had a plan. In all the years the changeling swarm had been invading nopony had tried to establish a friendly relationship with them. She knew that the changeling queen had a daughter so as a gesture of friendship; Celestia sent the young filly a letter. In that letter was an invitation to her school, the School for Gifted Unicorns. She hoped that this could be the first step towards a bright future with the changelings. In the tallest spire of the hive was a certain gangly black changeling filly. She was quite literally bouncing around her bed chambers. There was no hiding her excitement. The letter was laid out on her bed and she had read it at least a dozen times since she received it the other day. Princess Celestia, the Princess Celestia, had sent her a letter! Not just some ordinary letter either, but an invitation to her school! To say that she was excited would be a gross understatement. The moment she read it she let out a noise that could only be described as a squee. Her mother's discouraging look at her would do nothing to dampen her spirits this time. Luckily despite her mother's disapproval she gave her permission to attend the school the next day, which was today. "Chrysalis you are going to be late! I will not have you being tardy!" her mother called up to her. "I'm coming Mom!" Chrysalis shouted, as she ran down the flight of stairs. Her mother stood at the base of the stairs waiting for her, still carrying that disapproving look. "You will address me by my proper title." "I'm sorry, Your Highness," Chrysalis said her eyes downcast. "It won't happen again." "That's what you said last time. You will be the next queen someday. It would do you good to remember your titles. Now don't forget to take this." Her mother handed her a small thermos. "This is your lunch, now go. Your chariot is waiting for you out front. Don't keep them waiting." "Thank you Mo- I mean, Your Highness." With that she was out the door. Just as her mother had said, there was a charcoal colored chariot waiting just out front. Two changelings were strapped into the front. They barely said a word to her, only asking if she was ready to leave. She hopped into the back. "I'm ready!" Their wings made a buzzing sound as they prepped for takeoff. Slowly the chariot began to rise and then they were off. As the hive became smaller the farther they flew away Chrysalis couldn't help but feel a little nervous. Never before had she been this far away from the hive, but this fact also excited her a bit. She would be able to see things that she never would have been able to otherwise. Being a princess in the hive didn't allow for as much freedom as one would think. The scenery began to change. Sand and rock gave way to grassy fields and a sprawling forest. She knew the name of the forest to it was... what was it again? The Everfree Forest that was its name! Then she saw her destination in the distance. Sitting on the side of a gigantic mountain with a waterfall flowing through it was the crown jewel of Equestria herself, the walled city of Canterlot. Even at this distance she could tell that it was beautiful. As they got closer more details of the city became apparent. Pearl white towers made up the majority of the city and almost every single one of them was topped with a golden spiral roof. Near the back of the city she could see the royal castle where the ruler of Equestria lived and just a short distance away was the school. The school resembled the castle in miniature form, only it was less massive and didn't have as many towers. Her chariot descended upon the school's tiled courtyard. She could see the unicorn fillies and colts watch her as she landed. Being a princess you'd think that she would be used to being stared at, but the way these ponies were looking at her made her uncomfortable. Of course she might have been looking at them in a bit of a funny way too. This was her first time ever seeing ponies up close. Her knowledge on them was limited to a few books she found lying in a garbage pit near the Royal Spire. Unfortunately the books weren't in the best condition when she found them so her information was even more constricted. One thing she did know was that there were three kinds of ponies. You had the magical unicorns, the flying pegasi, and the ordinary earth ponies. However, the books must have been damaged in the part where it mentioned pony coats. She had no idea that they came in so many colors! And why did a few of them have pictures on their flanks? Also why did none of them have any holes in them? Her excitement was dulled a little when she came to the realization that changelings and ponies looked nothing similar besides having a similar physical build. Quite suddenly she was feeling rather out of place, but maybe it wouldn't be that bad. Maybe she could try out this "friendship" thing that she'd heard about, whatever it was exactly. How did she start though? The book that mentioned friendship was probably the most damaged book she had found. It did mention smiling and waving somewhere, is that what she had to do? Well it was worth a shot. Chrysalis proceeded to smile and wave at everypony around her, but none of them returned either gesture. Instead she could see them get closer together and then she heard everypony whispering at once. The occasional hoof was pointed in her direction. She was beginning to feel a little stupid and felt her cheeks get a tad bit warmer. Just when she was about to give up and find something to crawl under, two fillies approached her. Maybe her idea worked! One of the fillies had a light blue coat and violet mane. While the other one was a deep pink and had a blue mane with a silver streak going through it. The light blue filly was the first to speak. "I am Star Flare and this is Silver Streak. Who are you?" Chrysalis was pleased to see how well this was going so she was only too happy to answer. "I am Chrysalis!" "Chrysalis what a dumb name! More like Swissalis!" Star Flare said. "Yeah Swissalis," Silver Streak chimed in. Yup this was going really well... wait that wasn't very nice. "Its Chrysalis not Swissalis..." "Oh look the little horsefly looks like she wants to cry!" Star Flare said mockingly. To make matters worse several other fillies joined Star Flare and Silver Streak in her torment. "Horsefly!" they chanted cruelly. This was not how she imagined her first day at school going. She thought that ponies were supposed to be friendly, why were they being so mean to her? Was this what friendship was? If so she didn't want it if it made her feel like an unwanted freak. She did her best to keep her tears to herself, but there was no stopping them after awhile. This just seemed to add more fuel to their fire. Why wouldn't somepony help her? She couldn't deal with them all by herself. Chrysalis knew what her mother would tell her in this situation. She would say that the only one you can rely on is yourself and that you can't expect anyone else to come to your aid. Maybe her mother was right and she really didn't want her to be disappointed again. "Please stop..." She didn't sound as forceful as she wanted. In fact she sounded rather pathetic, her mother would indeed be let down by her, again. "Leave her alone Star Flare!" said a light pink filly. This filly didn't look exactly like the others either. Like her she had a horn and wings, who was she? Honestly it didn't matter if she was standing up for her. Unless she just wanted me to pick on herself then- no stop thinking that! Star Flare turned to the filly and suddenly she looked a little nervous. Chrysalis wasn't sure why, the filly didn't look intimidating. "Fine!" Star Flare turned back to Chrysalis. "We are not done. Come on Silver Streak lets go." Just like that all the ponies who were picking on her began to disperse like nothing had happened. "Thank you," Chrysalis said as she sniffed her nose. The little filly had a rather infectious smile on her face. "I am Cadence what's your name?" "Chrysalis." "Nice to meet you Chrysalis! Class is about to begin. Did you want to sit next to me?" "Really?" "Of course silly!" Cadence looked at her like she had said something amusing. "You and me are going to be very good friends!" Cadence pawed at the ground with her right fore hoof. "That is, of course, if you want to." Now it was her turn to look at Cadence like she had said something funny. "Of course I do!" Cadence looked relieved. The bell rang signaling the start of the first class. Together she and Cadence walked into the school. Chrysalis had started to doubt her decision when she arrived at the School for Gifted Unicorns, but as she looked at the light pink filly at her side she realized that she had just made a friend. So in the end she had made the right choice by attending. Everypony took their seats. The teacher, a dark blue stallion with a silver mane, levitated a small piece of chalk to the green chalkboard behind him. In fancy curved letters he wrote his name. Unfortunately Chrysalis couldn't read what he wrote. "My name is Midnight Spear and I will be one of your teachers while you attend this school," he said. "Now let's begin! Since this is your first day for you all here, there will not be any home work. Consider this an introductory class." True to his word the class was definitely a long introduction, a very long introduction. Half way through she and Cadence had stopped paying attention to what he was saying and she could've sworn that she heard somepony let out a snore at some point. No doubt the teacher noticed this, but he didn't seem all that bothered by it. So he just continued to prattle on. By the end of the school day when it was time to go Chrysalis couldn't help but feel a little disappointed that she had to go, but Cadence had told her that they would see each other again tomorrow. This, she was looking forward to very much.