March to the Scaffold

by Foxy Kimchi

V: Heart of Darkness

An excerpt from History Before the Alicornian Reign by Charles Hoofington

Thus, ariseth the subject of the changelings. Now the ponies of old are conspicuously silent on this matter. Be it clear that their design was to blot the name out of the histories! Though in spite of their pains to efface such knowledge, I have heard the echo of the unspoken and seen the strokes of the unwritten.

Before even the flags of this country were planted in the ground, there existed a mare whose likeness was without match so that it was called the incarnation of beauty. So great was her unparalleled splendor among the three tribes, so incredible was the enticing sight of her that even mares swooned at her presence.

But though her body was as lovely as the stars, what lay inside her was more appalling than even the guise of Discord. Deceit was her beloved sister and betrayal her dear friend. When she saw something that she desired, she lured its owner with words that dripped from her lips like honey, and they followed her without question into her snares. Then, when her lover had entrusted everything they owned to her, she stole everything they had and silently slew them in a dark place. With such beauty and such horrible lawlessness, nothing was out of her reach.

But though she was never compelled to answer for her transgressions, there would come a righteous judge that would sentence her without fail: Time, that old and inevitable foe of the sinners. The seductress foreknew he would come for her, and before even her sentence of death was pronounced, she would be made to suffer the penance of old age. Her beauty, and with it, her power and wealth, would be forever lost to her, never to return. The thought plagued her justly and without pause. This one realization that the days of reckoning were approaching drove her to the greatest extremes. She would do anything to maintain her beauty for all time.

So she chose from among the tribes a unicorn who had possibly the greatest ability with his race’s birthright. She made use of his voluminous library, and from her studies arose the faint glimmer of an escape for herself. With her sweet words and her beautiful body, she persuaded him to forsake the law and unveil to himself as well as to her the blasphemous and dark magics which had been hidden long ago. She had in mind to ascend above the tribes and take hold of the exalted form of the alicorn, the immortal race of peerless and wondrous majesty.

With the power of the wizard and the dark magic, she received her mind’s craving, but as with all dark magic there was a price. Rather than achieving unwithering beauty, she was granted only the base features of the race of brilliance. Her head was adorned with a long and terrible horn, with which she could tame nature itself, but it was twisted and deformed. She was graced with wings with which she could master the boundless sky, but they resembled those of the despicable fly. As her heart was, so became her likeness: dark, ugly, and hollow. All of her desires not being met, she flew into a rage and slew the wizard.

Though after her fury had been doused, she discovered that she had not completely failed in her endeavor. She found that she could take for herself any likeness that she desired. Such an ability allowed for her skill in seduction to be strengthened beyond imagination, for she could tailor her form precisely to please her lovers. Yet there was an ever-more-suitable ability that had been given to her: while once she considered her lovers themselves worthless, coveting only their possessions, they then became sustenance and even indulgence for her, she being able to fashion the power of their love and emotion into a feast. Therefore, her gain for playing a lover was twofold: slowly bleeding them dry of energy in the form of love—which of course caused death—and stealing all that they had thereafter.

However, this love that she took was a double-edged blade, being as much a need as it was a pleasure. To satisfy the new need she fabricated new servants so that they might go out and collect love as she did. They pledged their unending loyalty to their mistress and demonstrated it even in death. She had created the perfect workponies. But in doing this, she took from them all individuality. Not one remained true to themselves, but rather they all were blindly in one accord. Like their mistress, they had lost the power to love one another and were only able to find duty in its place. Therefore, they abducted existing couples and preyed on them as does the manticore on the gazelle. And as time passed by, more were added to her numbers each day.

Yet despite all that she had gained from the dark covenant, she had not thwarted time. Hence, before the judge came at last, she had in mind to leave a legacy, one who would continue on the path that she had begun to pave. It was then she conceived a child. In time, that child would also bear an heir. So on the lineage of the changeling queens continued and continueth to this very day.

Ere the first Hearth’s Warming Eve, the changelings preyed easily on the ponies. However, after the three tribes of ponies came together and founded Equestria, the skill and deeds of the parasites were made known to them. And with the aid of the magic of the unicorns, they were able to identify and impede their enemies among them. Then, as one people, they drove the multitude of their adversaries out of their lands. After a short few years, the newly founded Equestria had vanquished the changeling threat, and having lost their source of life, the changelings were forced to seek out other places where they could survive.

Comments

[Foxy Kimchi]

The origin of the first changeling and their downfall.

For the music piece I used Camille Saint-Saens Dance Macabre for the darker undertone. I found it fitting and pleasant to listen too. Many people have probably heard this song, but do not know the name. Well here ya go.

Special thanks to Ponysopher for making this chapter sound more poetic and older.

The next chapter I will try to follow the same format as I did for the first three chapters. Writing it with the flow of music in mind. I have been busy with work lately.

There is a very specific reason why I wanted to add this chapter, see Author's Notes for an explanation.

[Lordbagon]

Amazing what people can do with ability and inspiration no matter what type.

I really like how you make each chapter so "deep", and now with a bit of lore, I like it even more

Please continue this wonderful story

[The Last Shadowbolt]

I'm loving every bit of this story!

Also glad I'm not the only one thinking she was cursed

[Brony Tom]

Okay, coming into this story right from a chapter of Background Pony, and here are my thoughts.

I love what you've done with this. I have always been a sucker for redemption stories, and this is a particularly pleasing example of the genre. I will wait to see a little bit more to be sure, but I feel like I could rank this right up there in my list of top fics.

Some things that I didn't quite like so much:
-Short chapters. That is definitely tainted a bit by Background Pony, but still... I can't help but wish for more.
-Also, Shining Armor's scene with Celestia's felt a little on the trite side. I could basically predict the whole scene just from the first few paragraphs.

[Alex Warlorn]

"Ere the first Heartswarming Eve, the changelings preyed easily on the ponies. "

This last seems completely false. The Windigos would have made love nearly impossible to come by. The first Heartswarming Eve would have made the changelings THRIVE since racial hatred was dying out and love taking it's place.

And I KNOW you've said flat out that it isn't the point of the story, but I can't help but wonder if Equestria really committed genocide against an entire race, because otherwise Chrysalis' people would be desperately trying to free her or bargain her release.

[Foxy Kimchi]

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Thank you!

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Thanks! However, I never read Background Pony, what is a short chapter like only 1k words? If so then I do apologize, it is not easy for me write creatively. I start to burn out quickly. I am trying to make each chapter nice length, not too short long.

As for the Shining Armor and Celestia scene, darn I should have worked harder on that. I thought it would be good to add in. I mean it is important when to not let a single emotion control you. I felt that SA could have fallen down that path. For me it allowed me to set up Celestia explaining her actions. I hope that helps.

833995

You bring up a very interesting and good point. Let me try to explain my reasoning and see if that helps you. Before the founding of Equestria, there was indeed a lot of mistrust between the races. However, that does not mean that there was no love within each race. I mean each tribe still had lovers and families that the changelings used. Now there may have been overall less "love", however they used the mistrust between the tribes as an advantage. Thats why when they did invade couples they used their mistrust to push the blame on another tribe or on something else, thus hiding their existence. That and with no unified nation, the distance between each settlement would have been greater, as each race would try to grab as much territory as possible. Communication would have been little to non-existent. So yes even though there was hate, there was still enough love for them to thrive. When Equestria was founded and centralized, they began to communicate with one another and realize that something is wrong. They would have figured out that something has been kidnapping ponies and replacing them. When each tribe mentioned the same problem, they knew it could not be another pony race that was causing the problems. it had to be something else. So now with the unicorn's magic they were able to detect and find them. Each tribe didnt have to pay the unicorns to help them detect the changelings. So when Equestria was founded, each tribe helped each other, thus driving the changelings out.

Now for the other changelings, as I said I do not want to mention what I think happened to them. However this chapter explained that essential the leader of the changelings is the only one that is "sentient" in a sense. The leader is the only one with an individual conscious. The rest of the changelings cannot think for themselves and have to be given orders. Now that begs the question then how could the changelings feed on love. While they may lack an individual conscious that does not mean they can learn patterns. They would study their victims to find out their behavior, and then mimic them. They werent thinking for themselves, they were just copying them. I hope this helps and I do hope you still enjoy the story.

[Alex Warlorn]

I've learned only a fool EVER debates the story's rules with the one who is writing those rules. I'll just say this: the changelings if you freeze the frames had individual expressions, rather than uniform ones, suggesting individual egos rather than biological robots. There. That's all I wanted to say.

[Foxy Kimchi]

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No, you really did bring up a fair point. I do realize that some changelings did show expression. I said they lack individuality and a conscious, that does not mean they can feel emotions. Animals can feel fear, confusion, happiness. But changelings cannot think for themselves. They cannot perceive "I". Because of that none of them can form relationship with one another, nor to their leader. And by a relationship I mean a real healthy one. Can't do that being blindly loyal and doing everything they say.

And I do not really want to say, but it will be addressed later in the story. I am aware of it is what this chapter is saying. I set it up like this for a reason. I want people to ponder this in the back of their mind XD.

[Brony Tom]

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Generally, I consider anything less than 2000 words to be a short chapter (background pony has chapters that can top 30,000 words ). However, such complaints merely come from personal taste, not any kind of objective standard. Write however works best for you.

You did a very good job of getting your message through in SA's scene, then.

[Foxy Kimchi]

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Thanks I am glad to hear it. When Chrysalis was first introduced I guess I took a liking to her. I view her as bitchy, snarky, and a little bit immature which I think is great on her. It was great to see another ruler in the show. Also for Celestia that his how a view her. I mean when people say she is a tyrant or something else, it saddens me a little. She just seems so motherly. I mean she even looks like it.

As for the first three chapters, they were different. When I originally had the idea for the story, it was literally inspired by music. I wanted to the story to follow the same pattern as the music, hence maybe that is why it seems cookie cutter. See I never knew I was going to actually go past chapter 3, so I had to basically start from scratch with the rest of the story XD. I am trying to find a balance between following the music yet keeping smooth and flowing. This is the first thing I have ever written creatively. I am so used to writing history reports and scientific reports.

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Wow. That is a lot Kudos to that author for being able to do that. I mean after 1k words I am burnt out. I just dont have the time to crank that much out. I am entering my senior year in college and right now I am doing paid research so my time is limited. But I will try not to keep the chapters too short.

[Brony Tom]

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From my experience, writing is just like exercise, in that it takes practice to work your way up to writing extended amounts of fiction. With that in mind, as much as I like longer chapters, I would much prefer your high level of quality over quantity.

[Alondro]

Meh, killing Chrysalis now would be no fun! She's just a pony with plain ol red blood.

Changeling blood glows in the dark! Like Predator's! I use it to make night-glow tatoos!

[sErgEantaEgis]

Nice backstory you got for the Changelings! It now has it's own place in my head canon.

[Foxy Kimchi]

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WOW!!!

Just wow thanks! However, just one thing. Though her eyes are green they are not slitted. There normal pony eyes just a really dark emerald green. But holy crap thanks!!

Maybe I should have mentioned that... I was trying to say that her eyes do not match her coat color. They are very distinct. Her outer iris is a lighter green, and the inner is a dark rich emerald. So it is very unique.

But wow thanks, someone drew a picture!!

*squees*

[Foxy Kimchi]

Also I just re-did chapter 5. Made some edits and it should be smoother and cleaner.

[alexanderhunt88]

[Librarian]

Dark magic results:

* Change pony body into bug.
* Change food consumption from vegetables to feeling.
* Change magic from pony magic to transformation.

That's too contrived. You can't just turn pony into changleing in one go, wave "wizard did it" and call it a day: it makes too little sense. It's like building Boeing 737 by accident when you're trying to assemble a table from IKEA.

[Widow Peak]

Hum, that was a nice piece of story and background for the changeling race. I like it

[5007]

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(I know this comment is old, but I can't resist replying to it.)

The wizard's name was MacGyver!

On a more serious note, it seems that the historian in this chapter was writing his own theory on how changelings came to be. He did write that the actual records were lost.