Short Elytra Thing

There was a panic prompt about Changelings in the Quills and Sofa's group today, so I picked my favorite changeling to write. (It's Elytra)

It's not enough to put as a one-shot and I don't know how to expand it so I'm just going to put it here.

It's titled "Like Them"

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“You’re leaving?” The question cut through the silence like a hot knife through butter. It filled the air between the two creatures with the salty taste of loss with minor notes of grief. “But...everything that’s happened...and you’re leaving? Elytra, please don’t go.”

“I’m sorry Thorax…” The much smaller Changeling couldn’t meet the purple eyes of the new monarch. She knew that his position afforded him newfound respect, but she couldn’t see him as anything more than the grub that she had grown up alongside. “We’re new now, we’re changed. I want to learn about the world beyond the hive, I want to know what they know. I want to...I want to love and act like them.”

“Then stay.” Thorax kneeled down so that he was now level with her gaze. A chitinous lime green hoof came to rest on her aquamarine shell. “The Metamorphosis has been traumatic for the entire hive, Elytra.” His voice was calm and understanding, but she could still hear the hurt layering it and he was letting the slight taste of it slip into the space between them. “We need to learn what we are now together, as a family.”

“What do we know about friendship?” The question she had asked herself every night since the Canterlot Invasion ricocheted from her head and shot out of her mouth. “What do we know about love? About harmony?” Elytra fought to keep the sneer from her lips, but faltered. “We’re thieves, Thorax. Liars and monsters. What can we teach each other?”

“We were those things.” Her counterpart shot back with a certain determined fire rising in his eyes. “If we don’t take this opportunity to change and get better together, then we’ll never be more than those things.” Thorax stopped talking for a moment and closed his eyes, a deep breath punctuating the moment as he stood up once more. His eyes opened again and he looked down at her. “Stay, get better with us. Help us learn and grow.”

“How far can we get?” The frustration was building in each word that fell from her lips. “What don’t you get about this? We don’t know anything about what it takes to be better, we need examples! We need role models! We need to...we need ponies.”

“No, we don’t.” Thorax’s voice took on the same forcefulness he had while confronting the Queen. “Our entire existence has been predicated on the need for ponies so we can live, and now we’ve been freed! We don’t need them! We don’t need to lie and scheme and steal, we just need to give love freely! We need to work together and act like a real community. It’ll come naturally!” The fire died and was replaced by a cool pleading look that he leveled at his long time friend. “You have to trust me.”

“I-” This wasn’t easy on her, surely he could see that! This wasn’t something Elytra just decided on a whim, this was something that she had struggled with for weeks. “-I can’t. I don’t know how.” Two hearts broke in time as two pairs of eyes fell to the floor. “Changelings don’t trust...you know that…”

“We’re not-” Thorax’s words caught in his throat as his own doubt and fears crept into his mind. “We’re not those Changelings anymore, Elytra.” He finally squeezed the words out in a quiet near-whisper. “We’re not...”

It sounded like the new king was trying to convince both of them of that fact.

“A new coat of paint doesn’t change what we’ve been our entire lives.” Elytra mumbled as the shell on her back split and a pair of gossamer wings unfolded. “We know better than any creature in the world that you can change all you want, you’ll still be the same on the inside.” She blinked away tears that were welling up in her dark pink eyes as she turned away from Thorax. “I just need to find out what it means to be good-what it means to really be like them.”

“What about what it means to be us? Why do we have to be like them?” Thorax’s question was nearly drowned out by the buzzing of wings as Elytra was lifted from the ground. “You’re always welcome back here, Elytra! This is your home!” He yelled over the sound of her wings as she started towards one of the exits.

“Because being a changeling always means hurting someone else…” Elytra mumbled to herself as she fled the only home and family she had ever known.