• Published 5th Jan 2017
  • 4,153 Views, 75 Comments

My Little Bug Pony - Liarra Sniffles



Chrysalis has discovered a long lost cocoon, what could be inside?

  • ...
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Chapter Five: Maybe It's Magic

Luna is best princess.

~ Liarra Sniffles


"..And then she created five more copies of this 'Wispy' and had them take places around her..."

Celestia withheld a sigh as Luna continued to talk about another dream she had joined last night. She was still delighted that her sister was trying to make friends with their subjects, but hearing about the dreams of somepony or other was not particularly entertaining after a while. Apparently this was another pony with changelings on her mind, not particularly surprising considering how little time had passed since the invasion was halted.

"...Leaping from the board into a huge pool of the stuff, like some kind of sticky lagoon of..."

Celestia stared down at her huge cup of coffee. Truth be told, she was not overly fond of the stuff, but she was also not overly fond of mornings either, a fact which would no doubt shock her little ponies if they found out. Keeper of the sun not a morning pony? Hah! Celestia again found her mind wandering to her sister, perhaps she could convince her to let her hide on the moon for a few months so she could hibernate in peace.

"...Her stomach was easily twice her weight at that point, I've never seen anypony take..."

Celestia choked down another sigh, drowning it in coffee as she pulled her mammoth cup to her lips. Chugging the black tar down like a pony who hasn't had a drink in days, she casually flicked an ear towards Luna again, tuning back into the conversation before it was time they went their separate ways. Breakfast and dinner where much more lively now that her sister had returned.

"...Anyway, once the mess those changelings had left was cleaned up I managed to ask her a few more questions of her life in the hive-"

Celestia's eyes snapped fully open, a powerful torrent of coffee spraying from her mouth in a concentrated beam, covering the stallion servant standing on the opposite side of the table in dripping black liquid. To his credit, his only reaction to the stream of coffee hitting his face was to close his eyes until it stopped.

"There's still somepony trapped in the hive!?" Celestia screeched in a manner most unseemly for somepony of her position, a million thoughts of unleashing her wrath on that lying peace of- the one who calls herself queen. "Chrysalis assured us that she had no more ponies left, she would dare try to hide any of our subjects like a foal hiding candy!" Celestia reached for her second cup of coffee which stood waiting, her hoof shaking in barely restrained rage. The sheer impudence of that sorry excuse for a queen would need to be punished dearly. The subject of the changeling queen was still a bit of a sore spot for Celestia. Luna, having managed to contain her laughter at her sister's outburst, waited for Celestia to take another sip before continuing.

"Actually, it's not a pony. It claims to be a hybrid of a changeling and some other creature that is thousands of years old." She commented as if it was a well known fact.

If Discrete Delight had any reservations about being one of Celestia's trusted servants, he did not voice them as a second wave of coffee covered his face. Perhaps his husband had been right about his work at the castle, maybe he should ask for more danger pay. Regardless he waited until he was sure Celestia had put the coffee down before making his exit, uttering a calm "your highness" and bowing out the door leaving a wet trail in his wake. A replacement maid soon took his place, pointedly standing a little to the left of the royals in a breach of protocol that went ignored. Luna waited for Celestia to somewhat regain her composure before continuing.

"Yes, she called herself Sweet Tourmaline or Maline for short. An interesting creature she is indeed, looking somewhat like a cross between a changeling and a Minotaur. She showed me her transformation power within the dream to prove her strange heritage although, according to her it was some kind of accident or side effect that left her the way she is." Luna started her tale again, causing the staff in the room to sag at the thought of hearing the whole story again.

As the story progressed, Celestia became more and more confused. Nopony had really had the chance to study changelings in depth until recently, but there was only so much you could learn from a body. A lot of new information about their daily lives made them seem less alien and more pony than she had initially imagined them to be.

After Luna finished repeating the talk she had with the strange creature, Celestia had calmed down significantly. While it was worrying to hear about a creature living with the changelings who contained a ridiculous amount of love, Celestia could not be sure that anything it said was the truth. It spoke of the queen as being a nice but strict aunt more than an evil, scheming, black-hearted, nefarious, all around rotten, no good- Celestia shook her head, finding herself getting off track. Luna seemed convinced that it was just naive as, according to its own words, it had only been alive for a single day. Frowning at the implications of an innocent being caught up in the no doubt dastardly machinations of the changeling queen, Celestia returned to her quarters, her dark muttering causing the guards to shoot worrying looks at each other.

Floating several rolls of parchment in her magic, Celestia took a calming breath before starting a letter. She had hoped to avoid more conflict with the changelings, but this development could pose a threat to the somewhat unstable peace, more of a cease fire really, between them. A delicate situation calls for a delicate response.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle. I must ask that you and your friends come to Canterlot tomorrow for I have another mission for you and the elements..."


Elsewhere in Equestria a smiling pink mare was busy preemptively packing party ordinance into a cannon shaped suitcase.


Maline closed her eyes and focused on the small rock in front of her, a bead of sweat rolling down her face leaving an irritating itch in its wake. Her day so far had consisted of asking several different changelings to help teach her the basics of magic with little success. Changelings apparently have a near perfect instinctual understanding of how to use magic in the same way that all creatures are supposed to, therefore the vast majority of them don't even think about how they use their magic in the same way they don't think about how they move their limbs or breathe; requiring only a few short hours after birth to nail everything down.

Because Maline lacked this knowledge, her learning was sporadic and random. Dusty, the weirdly grey changeling currently trying to impart knowledge into her head, had her do many different exercises to see what stuck.

Despite all this, Maline was actually quite proud of her achievements so far. Changing her shape had come easily enough, although it would probably take months of practice and mental training before she could change her entire shape at once, longer still to shift into another shape, she could quite easily modify her base form in minor ways after only being hurriedly taught the basics in the pod. She quite enjoyed experimenting with her body, giving herself strange tails or ears had been her first thought, but covering herself in fur soon followed. Unfortunately she lacked the focus to actually give herself the untold millions of individual hairs like a changeling in disguise would, but her faux fur felt-like covering did look like short fur from a distance and the feel was soft enough. Wispy had promised to explain how a changeling could change so many things at once, there must be some trick to it that she did not understand as there was no way that changelings had the mental power required to think about millions of hairs at once.

Changing her hair styling using her transformation had also been high on her list, but the focus required to change every hair had proven too much. Wispy had pointed out that, as long as she was only changing her base form, she could slowly change herself bit by bit if she wished instead of all at once. This meant that she could cover herself in fur or change her hair at a rate of about five hairs at a time but, by the time she could have finished even a basic change of her hair she would probably be bored of it. That and the fact that she wasn't good enough at maintaining a disguise to do so in her sleep, literally, meant it would all be for nothing come nightfall anyway.

"You will never succeed if you don't clear your mind, do not distract yourself Tourmaline." The old changeling currently attempting to teach her how to use magic croaked, his almost grey eyes watching her face from across the small table they sat at. Wispy hadn't said where she had disappeared off to when she left Maline with Dusty, the old bug had apparently been hiding as a teacher before 'the Canterlot invasion' had happened. He hadn't said much about it, but Maline got the distinct impression that he did not agree with said invasion, although he had refused to tell Maline anything, only mentioning the name in passing.

Interestingly enough, the ancient looking 'ling was apparently not much older than his peers; it's kinda difficult to tell the age of a species that can magically replace their entire body if they wish. Maline wasn't sure if this made changelings technically immortal as long as they had love or not, something else to ask the queen she supposed. Of course, for all she knew she was already an immortal being, not knowing anything from before a day ago was really proving to be quite a hassle. Of course, that left the question of why Dusty chose to look as old as he-

"I said clear your mind, focus on the stone!" Dusty grouched, how he could tell when she was thinking of other things Maline didn't know. They had been at this for hours now, Maline trying her hardest to focus on a small pebble while Dusty complained about her technique.

"I think I'm getting it!" Maline nearly lost focus as her horn and the rock in front of her started to glow. There was a strange pressure building in her head, just behind where the horn met her forehead. This had happened several times now, but it took so little to break her concentration from the stone.

"Now, just do as I said and will the stone to move." Dusty lit his own horn as he watched intently. Maline didn't exactly know how to will something to happen, it was supposed to be like moving an arm not imagining it happening but she tried anyway. Ever so slowly the faint green aura around the stone brightened, lifting the tiny rock a few inches off the table.

"You did it!" Wispy cried, causing Maline to jump and lose focus, the stone falling back to the table with a rather pathetic tinkle. If she had been more powerful the rock could have been flung around with quite some force, but it seemed that Maline's 'magic pool' was so ludicrously tiny that background magic levels masked it completely.

"Don't sneak up on me like that Wispy!" Maline whined at the cheeky bug, prompting a grin from her friend and a disgruntled mutter from Dusty. Wispy grabbed Maline's arm with her magic, pulling her to her feet and filling her arm with a tingling sensation.

"Come on Maline, you've been here for ages. We've got more to do today than hang out with this old bug all day." Maline found herself pushed through the doorway to Dusty's tiny cave before he could finish his grumbling retort.

"Your sex can wait for a moment Wisp." Dusty interrupted the hasty changeling's magic, causing Maline's arm to drop. Wispy grinned sheepishly like a foal caught in the love jar but did not reject the accusation. "Now Maline, as I said your magic pool is tiny but your love output is huge. While I can't say if you will ever be able to increase your magic to match your love, I can safely say that you will never run dry on magic; changeling biology letting you fuel yourself indefinitely." Dusty's practised lecture voice seemingly allowing him to continue speaking without pausing for breath.

"Having a smaller magic pool than what your love could sustain means that you will not be able to expend enough magic to drain it no matter how hard you try, however the power you can put into a spell will also be limited by this. I would not expect you to be able to lift much more than the rock we practised with today, for example." Maline frowned at that, she had secretly been hoping that the love she apparently so full of could make her into a super powerful magic wielder. According to Wispy, a changelings magic is tied directly to their love intake. Clearly not a trait Maline had inherited if lifting a small stone no bigger than the palm of her hand was the height of her power. Sensing this, Wispy cut in with her own encouragement.

"Aw don't worry Maline, not every spell requires a large starting cast. I'm sure we can find strengths to your magic." Strangely enough, Wispy's words did make Maline feel better, she was already a pretty cool half bug shape-shifter after all. After a moment of silence Maline gave a small smile to her friend, nodding her thanks to Dusty as she was dragged from his chamber.

Exiting the small alcove the pair found themselves on what could be considered the main 'street' of the changeling hive. Maline marvelled at the speed of changeling construction, new pathways had been set up literally overnight, even since earlier in the morning, specifically for her benefit. Whereas yesterday Maline had to walk a long and winding route to get to Wispy's room, now there was a direct path from said room to the centre of the hive. It seemed that Maline's arrival had kick-started the changeling culture, thousands of changelings now found themselves with nothing but free time on their hooves now that they had easy access to as much food as they could ever need.

As they walked through the crowded streets, Maline paid special attention to all the new additions to buildings, although calling each little cave home in the walls separate buildings didn't feel quite right. Many of the changelings had been living as craftsponies in the pony world, now they brought their trades to the hive. Overnight the area had gone from barren hallways with nothing to look at, to sprawling but simple markets where items and labour were traded. Maline spotted many changelings carving decorations into their previously barren wall sections, windows where there were once walls, more lights being put up in somewhat crude renditions of pony lamps and countless other details.

Unfortunately most changelings still struggled to control their eating habits with Maline beaming love into them constantly, few managed to get within a few metres of the hybrid before they passed out, so the pair had no problem wading through the crowds of excited bug ponies. Maline felt a little bad for the path of unconscious, twitching, happy changelings she left in her wake wherever she went, but none of them had complained about it to her yet.

Another negative all of this brought was the queen. She was far too busy managing the brand new culture, economy and whatever else went into running a city to talk to Maline every night. She hadn't told Wispy when their next session would be, but Wispy assured Maline that it wouldn't be long before she got to speak with her again. Speaking of her little friend, Maline broke the silence between them as they walked a route she did not recognise.

"Wispy, where are we going?" Wispy just giggled at the question.

"You'll see." Was all she said. Deciding not to push her for answers, Maline went back to looking at the feverish activity going on all around them. Sticking to her friends walking speed meant that Maline had plenty of time to look at the various stands they slowly passed by, the strange mish-mash of cultures that the changelings brought back from their various hiding places throughout the world meant that all sorts of strange and wonderful things were being traded at hastily set up benches or on rather fancy looking rugs. Maline even thought she saw a lemonade stand at one point, although where one would get lemons around here was anyone's guess. They continued at this slow pace for a good twenty minutes in a straight line, Maline could have covered this distance in five with ease.

As they turned a gentle corner, a silver glint caught her eye. Stopping and looking around, Maline spotted what looked to be a jeweller selling little trinkets and baubles. Unfortunately for Maline, the size difference between her and the regular changelings struck again. Most of the items looked like they would fit on a large doll, what looked to be ear piercings in particular being small enough that Maline doubted her ability to pick them up easily.

A glint of silver caught her eye again, looking up to a strange rack hanging above the door to the residence she spied it. A huge piece of moulded silver with what looked to be a gemstone embedded in it. Well, huge for a pony anyway. The changeling running the stall was breathing heavily at her presence, but managed to choke out a greeting.

"M'aiq gives you many greetings, please browse his humble wares." Maline was a bit nonplussed at the changeling's strange accent and odd way of speaking, but he seemed friendly enough. She pointed at the object that had caught her attention.

"Uh, what would you like for that blue and silver piece?" Maline answered, a little unsure what she was going to trade considering her worldly possessions consisted of the small pebble she had forgotten to give back to Dusty.

"No-no-no. M'iaq cannot accept anything from you. Why, without you M'iaq would still be locked away in pony hooves. Here, take it." M'iaq pulled the object down and threaded a piece of string through the top, passing it to Maline with a smile. "A gift from M'iaq to you, my friend." Maline took a closer look, it was a fairly simple item. A few snake-like shapes surrounding a decently sized stone which, upon closer inspection appeared to be a piece of blue tourmaline trapped inside a clear substance of some sort. Maline looked back to M'iaq, her comment dying in her mouth when she found the stand barren of any strange changelings.

"Ohh, that's pretty." Wispy's voice made Maline jump, looking around to see her friend walking up to her side, evidently she had not stopped when Maline did. "Who gave you that?" Maline pointed to the now empty store.

"There was a changeling with an interesting accent, he called himself M'iaq. He wouldn't let me trade anything for this, insisting I take it as a gift." Wispy seemed to be considering her words for a moment, Maline slipped the rough string over her head letting the amulet bounce on her chest plating.

"I wonder how many more 'gifts to the saviour' we could get..." Wispy eventually responded with an evil looking smirk, somewhat undermined by her cute fangs and general adorableness.

Maline heaved an exasperated sigh. "No Wispy, we aren't using my status as the ultimate food source to coerce gifts from everyone." Maline started walking along the route they had been travelling before the distraction, Wispy galloping for a few metres to catch up with a pout on her face.

"Not even a little?" She gave Maline the biggest, puppy-dog eyes she could manage, her bottom lip quivering slightly and her ears flat.

'Yes. Yes. YES. YES PLEASE YES.' "N-no" Maline eventually forced herself to speak, it ended up coming out as a strained groan.

"Darn." Wispy dropped her expression, all hints of sadness instantly gone. Maline should have tried to boop that cute snout, that always seemed to stop Wispy in her tracks for a moment, Maline grumbled. If she was going to pull out the big guns with no provocation then she could only expect retaliation in kind. Maline was pulled from her thoughts as she noticed a rather large entryway at the end of the street, the road seemed to end at this doorway leading her to believe it must be quite important. It took them an irritating amount of time to reach the door at the miniature bug horse walk pace, but they made it eventually. Maline glanced curiously at Wispy but her little friend seemed content to walk in silence.

Reaching for the metal loop that functioned as a door handle, Wispy lifted the latch and look to the hybrid. Maline noted that the nearby changelings had stopped what they were doing to watch with interest as Wispy repeated the process with the second door.

"Welcome to Maline Manor!" Wispy cried, throwing the doors open to reveal a large group of changelings waiting on the other side with what looked like party hats on. Maline raised an eyebrow at Wispy, the last words she said before the changelings cheering prevented further conversation in a very flat voice.

"Maline Manor? ...Really?"

Author's Note:

Tried for a bit more of a wordy narration approach this chapter, also trying to make it contextually obvious whom the narration point of view is from instead of using the old 'talking-to-yourself' thing (unless it's funny).
Tell me what you think eh?

The huge delay in posting this chapter over the previous ones was not because of anything important happening, I just decided to read approximately 3 million words in the space of a few weeks (according to my read history anyway).