A Change of Face

by Redbow Rose

Prologue

In a small base, a research center away from the main changeling Hive, a changeling drone known as 435 was looking inside a pod. It was in a chamber full of very similar pods, all full with glowing green goo and made with special hardened resin, giving the otherwise dark area an ambient green light. The creatures inside were all visible through the front of the capsules, suspended in stasis. While most were various ponies, one could also find a few griffons, and maybe even a minotaur or two. The pod that held the changeling’s attention, however, held a unique creature.

Unlike most of the rest of the beings, the one inside was bipedal in nature. It was assumed to be a male, with long, lanky limbs that ended in odd appendages. The arms were capped with hands similar to minotaurs, but with an extra finger and much more slender. Its legs had something similar, but with much stubbier fingers, and a longer hand part. It was covered in very little fur, most of it on top of its head, a large dark brown tuft of hair. Like all the others, it was unconscious, unable to know what was going to happen to it. What they were going to do to it.

As far as the drone knew, the creature was the result of the experiments with Starswirl the Bearded’s notes on interdimensional travel. With a few of the more important tomes and scrolls taken from the Royal Canterlot Archives before their invasion was repelled, Queen Chrysalis ordered a portion of the Hive to split off and gave them two tasks.

The first resulted in the creature’s appearance. Drone 435 didn’t know the details, but he was there to put the weird being into the pod.The creature was heavily damaged when it arrived, bruises and cuts all along its body. It seemed to be wearing clothes, but they had been torn and destroyed in whatever happened to it. Metal and glass shards could be found in its body, and if not for the pod there would be little chance it would survive.

435 looked down and let out a quiet, bitter laugh. It was ironic, in his opinion, that the thing to save it would be the very same thing to damn it. He was only a drone, and as one he knew his duty was to the Hive, but he felt that what they were doing was wrong. He kept the thoughts to himself, but he always wondered why they couldn’t try to befriend the ponies. They seemed willing to befriend other races in the past, so why not them?

He wasn’t supposed to know anything about pony history of course. Only Infiltrators were allowed to know anything beyond how to disguise oneself and basic reading and writing, and anything from ponies was contraband in the hive, with few exceptions. He was lucky one day, however, when he found a book on Equestrian History while going through the belongings of a recently captured pony.

Drones like 435 were simply supposed to go through the belongings and list them before an infiltrator would take them and replace the captured pony for a period of time. When he saw the book, 435 couldn’t help but take it for himself and hide it. He felt guilty about it, and ashamed for betraying the hive in such a way, but the lure of forbidden knowledge had proven to be too great for him.

As he read, 435 learned many things about Equestria, from its interactions with neighboring countries to inner political strife. It was a incredibly detailed book, one that most ponies would find boring, yet 435 read it from front to back many times, dedicating all he could to memory. With this new knowledge, he began to form his own beliefs, ones that contradicted the queen despite the danger posed by the Hivemind connection.

He believed that if changelings came out in the open and simply asked Princess Celestia about a treaty, or even a full alliance, then maybe they wouldn’t have to worry about stealing love and starving. He couldn’t say this, but the the more he learned the more he found his queen’s decisions irrational. Still, he let it be as it wasn’t overly harmful and might just be stubborn tradition.

Then Queen Chrysalis ordered her attack on Canterlot.

The Hive was still recovering from her idiotic move and remained on high alert. Prince Shining Armor was out with a small army, scouring the country for changelings and likely planning to exterminate them all. Changelings were exposed and now known throughout Equestria as evil, emotion-stealing monsters because of his Queen, and her response was to start up this project.

Now they were experimenting on all sorts of creatures in an attempt to adapt. One half of the project was to find new sources of love, the only result so far being the being in front of him. The other half was a pitiful attempt to gain an advantage. Replacing ponies would be much more risky now that their biggest advantage was gone, so the Queen decided that the best option was to instead have various creatures serve them. However, 435 had a feeling that the unfortunate souls in the pods would wake up and likely hate changelings with a fiery passion instead of being subservient to them.

The pods weren’t going to change their minds at all, the idiot Queen didn’t want to risk compromising their memories and cause the plan to fail. No, she would have them serve her by putting them in the same boat. The Queen hoped that this would make them loyal to the changelings, as they would need to help each other to get out of the predicament. If they didn’t agree to help, they would be cast out and exposed, allowing easy pickings by the royal guard. If they were released in different areas, then that could, at the very least, throw off the trail.

435 sighed and looked upon the pods around him once more. He pitied those that were confined in the capsules, as well as the changelings working in the research Hive. This could only end in tragedy and blood.

Author's Note:

A story idea that refused to leave my head. Decided to get the basics of this all down while I deal with a writers block. I was able to get all of this out with the help of the story's co-author, James Fire! Go give him some love!

As always leave feedback, we seek to improve out story always!

Comments

[link4]

lol got started on it i see? first sentence in the summary is a long-winded one though.. wow.

[Redbow Rose]

7990099 Hehe, sorry

[stephen51991]

[link4]

7990111 its an iffy sentence, not a lot of room to easily separate into segments.. no worries xD

[Texus]

NIce start for the story and while the Changeling hating Shining is strange to see, it is something I have seen before and completely believable. I just feel like the amount of hate for the changelings is stronger in this story since they are trying to kill them all.

[Redbow Rose]

8047415 Let's just say that this version of Equestria is pretty different