How to NOT Become a Changeling

by WolfTheWyvern

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The feeling that somepony was operating a jackhammer on my skull was what woke me. I was lying on a cold and wet stone floor, and I felt like I had been so for some time. My head complained at the effort to sit up. I groaned as I opened my eyes. It was a blur of grey, gray, black, and a little bit of onyx with a bright punch of a green blur of light near me. My heart sank as I searched for my glasses: I did not want to face this nearly blind.

“They’re not here,” said a female voice behind me. Fear shot through me like lightning.

“H-hello?” I queried to the darkness. Fear shot through me and I backpedaled from the voice; then ran straight into a wall.

“Look, if I was going to hurt you, I would have done it when they threw you in here five hours ago, not when you wake up,” the voice said flatly. I heard a sigh, hoofsteps, and I saw a figure move under one of the lights. It was a pony, a normal pony with a tan coat and purple mane. I had never felt so relieved in my life!

“By Celestia, it is nice to see another pony…” well, I was going to say here, but I had no clue of where I was, or why I was here, or why do they want a librarian for that matter.

“What were you saying?” the mare said.

“Where are we?” I asked, fear trying to claw its way back into my heart.

“In a cell, contained within the changeling hive,” She said.

Wait, she couldn’t have meant that, a nervous laugh escaped me, “I hardly find this the time for jokes: changeling hive?”

“Your eyes might be shot but your hearing is perfect,” She said sarcastically.

I lost the fight against fear. Changelings? They were the things of legend; shape shifters that ate your loved ones and replaced them to feed again. I had read about them time and again in the library, but they can’t be real, but then again I was here. I cursed my bad eyes as I tried to see through the grey and black smudges. This couldn’t be real.

“How do I know that you are telling the truth?” I asked suspiciously.

“Why would I lie?” she asked. “We’re both in the same cell.”

“Point taken,” I would just have to just swallow my doubts for now. There was a long moment of silence. “I’m Steady Scrolls, by the way.”

“May, May Flowers.”

“May Flowers? I asked jocularly. I felt her stare burning me.

There was a silence between us, but the hive was far from quiet. Scratching noises and hissing whispers filled my ears and sent my imagination wild about the horrors that were just beyond those walls in front of me. With another kick of fear, I stood up again, and slowly made my way to where May was. I tested each step like the floor was going to give way at any moment. I’d hate to fall flat on my face in front of somepony I just met.

I flushed at the small chuckle May gave. “There isn’t anything in here but a hole in the floor in the far right corner, and trust me, you don’t want to fall into that,” May said and I was able to walk more surely to her. “What do you want?” She asked.

“Well…” I sat next to her. This place gave me the creeps, and not being able to see it made it worse. I didn’t want to tell her that. “I didn’t see the point to sitting alone?”

“Okay,” she knew exactly why I moved. May sighed, “I need to get out of here.”

I hadn’t thought of escape yet, but asking why just seemed silly.

May stood up and started pacing, “You’re from Canterlot, I suppose?” she sounded on edge.

“Yes, I’m a librarian in the Royal Library. Why?” I had no clue of where she was going.

“Because there is going to be an invasion.”

“Wh-“ I started to exclaim, only to have a hoof put in my mouth.

“Be quiet!” May said. “Now, I hope that security has been tighter for the past couple weeks?”

“Yes,” I said quietly. “There is about twice the amount of guards in the city; Shining Armor has even had his protection spell going around the clock.”

“That won’t be enough,” May said dismissively. I looked at her quizzically. “The changelings that replaced you is just the tip of the iceberg. They have their Queen somewhere in Canterlot, and a small force to take down Shining Armor at just the right point. I need to get back into Canterlot to warn everypony.” May began to pace again, I could almost hear her thinking.

“But… why would they invade Canterlot like that, without provocation or cause?” I was dumbfounded, mythological creatures invading my home, taking me, not to mention why they’d want a librarian in the first place, none of it made sense to me.

“Look, I don’t have the time to tell you all you’d need to know about changelings to begin to understand. I need to get out.”

“Give me the short version.”

May stopped pacing and gave in. “Will you shut up and let me think if I tell you?” I nodded. “Okay, do you know that changelings can shift their physical form to make an exact duplicate of somepony else?”

“Yes, that’s-“

“Don’t interrupt me,” She said. “Now, unlike normal pony magic, the power for changeling magic doesn’t come from within the changeling body. They use emotional energy, anything that has a positive wavelength to it to gain the magical energy they need. In short, they harvest emotion. They do this either by harvesting it from the air freely or by poison, the latter being rare and frowned upon because it is far too obvious. Love is the most powerful, followed by friendship, respect, adoration, and so forth. Now, for a changeling, true love is hard to get, but very potent as a source of energy. In the right quantities, it can almost be like a drug,” She trailed off for a moment. I could hear something in her voice, but I couldn’t place it. Was it regret?

May continued, “Now, a short time ago, a very bright changeling came up with a poison that could extract love in its purest form, and the hive was flooded with it,” her voice was becoming bitter. “The fools got addicted, they kept on needing more and more until they couldn’t fulfill their needs and stay in the shadows,” now she just sounded disgusted. “That is when Chrysalis came up with the plan to invade. They plan to take all of the ponies in Equestria and harvest them.”

Something to me wasn’t adding up. How did May know all this? The way that she was speaking of the changelings and the hive made it seem far too personal for her. She was far more than another randomly captured pony. Fear stampeded back into my chest like a herd of buffalo. I knew the answer, but I was afraid to say it out loud. I shot up and took a step back. “What are you?” I quivered.

“Look, I already told you that I am not your enemy,” she said slowly. A bright green blur blinded me. May’s tan form was replaced with one that was dark grey with two blue glowing orbs of light. I took another step away from her. “but I…” She hesitated, “I didn’t want to be stuck in a cell with a screaming pony.” The orbs narrowed. “Are you going to scream now?” The tone of her voice told me I shouldn’t

I took another step back and my hoof landed on nothingness and I started to fall into an untold abyss. May jumped forward and grabbed me.

“I definitely do not want to be stuck in a cell with a smelly one either,” I could almost hear the smirk.

I was still was transfixed by the glowing orbs that I had to guess were her eyes, but fear was retreating again. Something told me that I could trust her. She pulled me back onto my hooves and stepped into the dark.

“Thanks,” I said. I sat down and waited a moment, a thousand questions swarming in my head. “Why are you in here?” I sat down with my back against the wall. May sat beside me.

“Who do you think gave the anonymous warning to Canterlot?” She chuckled. “Oh, was the Queen mad at me. I thought she was going to vaporize me on the spot, but I think she has other plans for me,” She sounded afraid. “But you know, I don’t regret a thing,” she turned to me, “She deserves to have it all taken away from her for what she did to my work, and what she plans to do with it.”

Those last words hit me like a kick in the chest, “Your work?” Anger began to burn within me. “You mean to tell me this is all your fault?”

“My fault? This is not my fault!” May said defensively. “I tried to stop this!” she slammed a hoof into the ground.

“You began this in the first place! If love was so powerful, and so dangerous, then why did you create it in the first place?” I shouted.

“I didn’t know what would happen! I just wanted to…” May started heatedly, but then she looked at the ground, her voice dropped. “I just wanted to make everything better. Life in the hive is hard, and going out into a world where everypony fears you just makes it harder. My poison would have revolutionized the way the hive operates. I would have been at the Queen’s side in no time,” She paused. “Hmph. Funny how just a few short weeks can change everything about your life."

“Or a few hours,” I said. Another question grabbed my attention, “So how did you know that I was nearly blind before I woke up?”

“I was hoping that I could use your form to escape,” I could hear her smile. “I was able to get out of the cell, but I flew straight into a wall.” I didn’t really know how to feel about the knowledge of another… pony taking my… image. All of this was making my head hurt, and I must’ve shown it because May was laughing.

“What?” I asked.

“It’s just the look on your face. Almost all changelings dread a day when they get exposed. I guess I never expected the pony I told would be so… dumbfounded.” She laughed.

The laughter was contagious, and I started laughing too. The image of myself flying straight into a wall entered my head. “I’ve had too much to take in today. I just don’t know what to do with that.” We sat there and had our laugh, but then reality crashed back in and we were left with the relative silence of the hive.

“So what will happen to us?” I asked.

“To you, one of two things will occur: either Chrysalis will win the invasion where you will be harvested for love until you die, or Chrysalis will lose and you will be tortured until the day you die. Either way, I get torture. That is why I am getting out of here,” she spat out the last sentence hastily.

I laughed nervously. “You mean we, right?” I asked.

“Getting out of here will be hard enough; dragging a blind pegasus with me will make it impossible.” May replied coldly.

My heart sank, “You’ll just leave me here?” I pleaded to her, “You know what will happen to me better than I do. Don’t leave me here to die!”

“I don’t want to either!” She shouted. “But I do not know a way to get…” she paused. “Wait well there could be a way…”

“What?” I asked excitedly.

“What would you do to get out of here?” May asked.

“Anything,” I replied.

“I would do absolutely anything to get back to my library,” I said.

“Trust me?” May asked.

I hesitated for a moment, but this was my only way out. I couldn’t see this getting any worse, “Alright then.

“Okay,” May said. She walked over to me and took a deep breath. “Look, Steady, I’m sorry about this…” May leaned in, and bit me. I tried pulling back, tried shouting and fighting her painful embrace, but I couldn’t move. I felt the pain drain from my body as a warm rush enveloped me, and I felt sleepy. Maybe I just need to take a nap, be mad at May later…

Author's Note:

Sorry, it took longer to get this chapter out than I initially intended. Stupid collage exams. However, I'm on break now, so I hope to get more chapters out soon.
-Thank you for reading, WHK