Act Three: Reformation
Chapter I - Growing, At Long Last
It was a quaint morning. The newly raised sun shone through the dining room's windows, casting a blue, pink and green shadow on the wall as it passed through Celestia's hair. Luna had yet to come out for breakfast (her dinner), so Celestia just ate her pancakes in silence, enjoying the serene air.
*POOF*
Her next bite of pancake was interrupted by a scroll that had materialized out of the air and landed right on her plate. She picked it up in her magic, cleaned the whipped cream off, and opened it. She was glad she didn't have to get syrup on her hooves.
Interesting. It was signed by Agent Sweetie Drops.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I believe I have sufficient evidence to conduct an investigation on the Elements of Harmony, who I believe are changelings. While I know there have been plenty of similar accusations thrown around this last week, I am confident I am right. You see, they have been acting strangely since the wedding. Twilight has been much more serious and focused, rarely distracted by new books or interesting things that don't ordinarily happen.
The other Elements are acting strangely as well. I almost haven't seen Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash since the wedding, Applejack hardly ever returns to her farm, and Rarity has stopped asking ponies to model for her and keeps her blinds shut daily. I haven't been able to find any difference in the behavior of Pinkie Pie.
There is also the matter of the mare that arrived with the Elements from the wedding. I have never seen her before in my life, and I swear she looks exactly like Twilight if colored differently.
I shall continue monitoring the Elements and await your instructions.
Your faithful Agent,
Sweetie Drops.
Celestia snorted, chuckled, then began shaking with laughter that got Luna's attention. When the lunar princess came in to investigate the laughter, Celestia just handed the letter to her sister. Luna read it over and just shook her head. "What you plan to do?"
Celestia stopped laughing long enough to give a response. "I'm gonna let her confront Twilight, of course. I might have to visit Ponyville as Sunny Skies as well. Oh, the look on Twilight's face... she's going to know I did it as soon as Sweetie Drops reveals herself." Celestia thought about it for a moment, then burst into laughter once more.
Luna just took an apple from the table and walked off.
===<Ponyville, minutes before>===
A bell chimed as somepony walked into the Golden Oaks Library. Twilight Sparkle paused in the process of reorganizing her books and sent a mental probe backward. "Good morning, Applejack. What brings you here?" She turned around and tensed a little bit. Applejack looked... haggard, for lack of a better word. Her hat wasn't centered, her eyes were bloodshot, and her mane was out of sorts. More than usual.
Twilight felt Applejack's emotions and swallowed. They were all over the place, hopping between anger, grief, and a sort of apathy. "Hey, what's wrong? You can talk about it, I won't judge."
"That." Applejack closed her eyes. "That's what's wrong. You're still actin' like nothin's changed since th' wedding. If not for... everythin' that happened, I'd swear nothin' had changed!"
Twilight mouthed wordlessly for a moment, before shaking her head. "I don't understand. What's wrong with that?"
"Because everythin's changed, Twi! The lives of the other Elements and I have all been tossed around like a stallion ridin' a bull, but you just act like nothin's happened. Are you really so caught up in your own world that you can't see what's happenin' to your friends?" Twilight tried to respond, but Applejack cut her off. "How am I supposed to talk to my family, huh? They're not even m' family anymore, not really! An I can't tell them what's happened because... because it'd break them."
Applejack hung her head in shame. "Applebloom was there at the wedding, Twilight. She doesn't want to say it, but she has nightmares. I can tell. I have no doubt that half of them are of me bein' replaced by one of Chrysalis' changelings. Yeah, I've got a different Queen, but do you think Applebloom is gonna be able to tell the difference at first glance?"
"Applejack, I'm sure that if you explained things beforehoof, you--"
"I'm not finished." Twilight went quiet. "You told us that we'd be helping, making a difference, but nothing has happened! You haven't talked to the mysterious final member of the hive, you haven't hatched any eggs, and you haven't put any time into fixing the hive! You've been content to just sit here, pretending like nothin' ever happened while the rest of us are havin' trouble getting up in the morning!"
"Applejack, please! I've been--"
"I'M STILL NOT FINISHED!" Applejack was shaking, her grief replaced by anger. "Do you have any idea where Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are? Have you noticed that Rarity hardly ever goes outside anymore? The only one that doesn't seem too fazed about all this is Pinkie, and she's Pinkie! Get your muzzle out of your books and pay attention to your friends, Twilight!"
Applejack and Twilight stared at each other, both breathing heavily. Twilight hung her head. "You're right. I haven't done much, haven't I? I haven't paid attention to the hive, or it's needs. I don't know where Rainbow or Fluttershy are, and I haven't talked to Rarity much. I still haven't talked to Antiope, nor have I hatched any eggs, expanded the hive, or even had Moondancer do anything before I sent her back to Canterlot. So, I'll tell you what. Go talk to your family. You do something you've been avoiding, and I'll do something I've been avoiding."
Applejack paled at this but nodded. "Alright. That's fair. I've been putting this off, lyin' about this for too long. When I come back, I expect there to be somepony else I need to meet." She turned and walked out of the library, leaving Twilight to sit down and rub her eyes.
A few minutes later, the bell chimed again as Bon Bon walked into the library. Twilight wasn't present, so the mare decided to wander a little bit. She looked into the kitchen, then went upstairs to the bedroom. When neither location held the unicorn Bon Bon sought, she went back downstairs to the entrance to the basement.
As she entered the basement, Bon Bon whistled. She had no idea what half the charts or devices meant or did, but she could at least appreciate their intricacy. As her eyes scanned the room, her attention was brought to a row of bookshelves. One, in particular, was decorated with... "A hive?" Bon Bon muttered.
She touched a hoof to the hive, feeling the texture of the wood under her hoof. Bon Bon yelped as a sliver of energy left her, and the designs on the wood lit up in a lavender light. "What!?" The bookshelf slowly faded from existence, revealing a tunnel leading down into the depths, lit by the same lavender light.
"Just what are you hiding, Twilight?" After a moment's hesitation, Bon Bon walked down into the tunnel, drawing upon her magic for strength, just in case some kind of fight broke out. The tunnel was long enough that Bon Bon was about ready to buck anything that so much as squeaked by the time the tunnel split into three directions. She glanced at the rooms, then took the right path.
Inside, Bon Bon wasn't quite sure what she found. There was a hole dug into the dirt floor, lined with some kind of resin. Inside of the hole was a shallow pool of goop. Bon Bon bent down to its edge, staring at the liquid. Something about it was... enticing to her. This terrified her, but she couldn't look away. Her breathing began to quicken as she stretched out her leg and dipped the very tip of her hoof in the pool, then slowly raised it to her muzzle.
The sweet smell of the liquid snapped her out of a trance, and she flicked the gel back into the pool with a yelp. "What is that stuff?" she muttered under her breath.
"Emotive gel. Harvested emotion given physical form." Bon Bon yelped and spun around, expecting to see some kind of changeling drone that she could buck and escape from. Instead, she saw something far worse. A Queen. She had a dark blue mane, almost black, with two stripes of purple running through it, two slitted lavender eyes that carefully examined Bon Bon, and a predatory grin that showed off two fangs.
Bon Bon lowered herself into a fighting position, calling on her training as Special Agent Sweetie Drops. "Who are you? What have you done with Twilight Sparkle and the other Elements of Harmony!?"
The Queen just chuckled. "Come here, Bon Bon." The mare didn't move. "If you follow me into a room that's just over there, I'll give Twilight to you, deal?" The mare's eyes narrowed, but she followed the Queen out of the room, wary of any traps.
Bon Bon glanced down the path that went further away from Ponyville. "What is this place? How did you dig these tunnels so quickly?"
"It's a changeling hive, of course. And I didn't dig them quickly. It took a couple years of work. It's hard to clear dirt out when all you've got is yourself and a single changeling." The Queen entered the other room and then walked to the side of it.
Bon Bon entered and broke her eyes off of the Queen long enough to notice the four glowing objects in the center of the room. "Are those... eggs?"
The Queen smiled and nodded with a sense of pride. "Indeed. Those are the last four members of my hive. Now that you're here, I can officially start hatching changelings, rather than just gathering them up."
"Now that I'm here... what do you want with me?" Bon Bon asked, her eyes narrowing.
"Trust. That's all, really." The Queen knelt down next to one of the eggs and pressed her hoof against it. The glow began to brighten, adding more unease to Bon Bon's mind. "I'm Citlali, by the way. Queen Citlali if you must. Why are you here?"
Bon Bon mouthed the name as she watched the egg wobble. "Princess Celestia gave me permission to investigate the home of Twilight Sparkle because of the evidence I had found, suggesting the idea that she had been replaced by changelings." Bon Bon glared at Citlali. "What do you know? I was right."
"Celestia sent you!?" Citlali pulled her hoof away from the egg, which now had a definite shape-shifting around inside of it. "Oh, that mare. I'm going to have to get back at her for this. I guess this is what I get for giving her a list of every changeling in my hive..."
"What are you talking about? What do you mean?" Bon Bon was getting more confused by this fairly mannered Queen as the conversation continued.
Citlali stood up and stared Bon Bon right in the eyes. The Queen took a few steps forward until she could raise a hoof and brush it against the side of Bon Bon's face. The mare shivered at the touch, unable to move. "Antiope." Bon Bon seized up, gasping as that name stirred up something deep inside of her. The Queen's horn lit up with a brilliant fuschia color, then slowly dipped toward's the mare's forehead.
Bon Bon began breathing heavier as the horn neared, until its point touched her fur, sparking an ember. The ember blossomed into a fire that quickly began burning Bon Bon away. She knew she should have been afraid, or in agony, but the fire somehow felt... comforting. Like, back when she was still an Agent, taking her equipment off after a long day of work. Relieving.
She took a sharp intake of breath as the sensation stopped, then fell to her knees. She was dimly aware of the chitin that now covered her hooves, the fluttering limbs on her back, and the unfamiliar pressure in the back of her mind. The Queen, her Queen, laid down on the floor next to her and used a hoof to lift Antiope's eyes to meet Citlali's own tender gaze. "There you are, at long last. The others can't see it, not even Spike, but... I think you turned out the best of your whole clutch. Maybe that's just the joy of having all my children back."
Antiope looked back down at herself. "I'm a changeling?" Citlali smiled. "The orphanage... they said I was left anonymously. All my life, I've been a changeling?" Citlali nodded. "And Princess Celestia knows?" Another confirmation. "I... I need more information. You... you've been here a couple years and are on good terms with the Princess..." Antiope looked at Citlali's mane, at her eyes, and recalled the glow of her horn. "Twilight? You're a Queen?"
Ciltlali gave a warm grin. "That's right. And you're my daughter." She turned back to the egg that was getting close to hatching. "Anyways. I'm sure this is all a little much, but I need to hatch these eggs. You can stay and watch if you want, but you should eventually go find Spike, he's down that long path."
"Spike? He knows about..." Antiope waved a vague hoof at Citlali. "You?"
Citlali rolled her eyes. "Well of course he does, he's my Royal. That means if I die, he takes my place as Queen." Antiope nodded and laid down on the dirt. Citlali turned back to the egg and pressed her hoof to its surface, causing the glow from the egg to brighten again. "Changeling eggs have two different states. When they are laid, they remain in a kind of stasis that prevents them from needing much sustenance. Once you give them love, however, they rapidly develop and are ready to break free from the egg in a manner of minutes."
There was a dull thud from the egg as the figure inside kicked its container's wall. Antiope became slightly nervous as the changeling's thrashing intensified, to the point that she had to ask Citlali if they should help it. "No, it has to hatch on its own. It may just be superstition, but I was always under the impression that a changeling that is let out of its egg never properly grows up."
They both watched the larva as it continued thrashing, then paused. Antiope almost asked if something had gone wrong when a horn burst through the surface of the egg, then reared upwards, splitting it open. Two small, black hooves forced themselves through the tear, opening the wound even further. A gel, more viscous than the gel in the pool, spilled onto the grass along with a small drone, roughly the size of a foal.
As far as Antiope was concerned, it was identical to her. A purple shell, lavender wings and eyes, black chitin. It lay there for a moment, taking deep breaths before its eyes fluttered open for the first time. Antiope could see the little white points in them fix themselves onto her own. The little changeling shivered then began lapping at the gel that covered it with a forked tongue. Antiope grimaced. "Is it supposed to be doing that?"
Citlali watched the changeling clean itself with pride. "Yes. Changelings are born hungry; they consume the energy given to them in order to grow and break out of their eggs, so they need something to feed upon when they are hatched. That gel- the yolk, perhaps- serves as that first meal." They watched as the changeling discovered the holes in its legs, as well as the yolk inside. Its tongue stretched further out to lick the holes' insides, making Antiope shiver.
When it was apparently done with feeding itself, it stood and fluttered its tiny wings, flicking yolk off. Citlali stretched a hoof down to the changeling and let it grab her hoof. She brought it up to her face, inspecting it. Antiope knew nothing about changeling biology, but she figured Citlali was checking the drone's gender or something.
When the Queen was done inspecting the drone, she smiled. "Listen, little one." The drone's ears perked up. "I name you Asier, the beginning. A soldier, tasked with guarding your hive from all who would desire to harm it."
Antiope whispered to her Queen. "It can understand Equish?"
"No, not really. He only understands the thought, the intent behind my words."
"He?" Antiope asked with surprise.
"Yes! Meet your new brother!" Citlali held Asier over to Antiope, who momentarily flinched away from him, but came around and looked closely at her sibling. Asier reached out and pressed Antiope's muzzle with his hoof, making the mare chuckle.
She held a hoof up and let Asier poke at it. "He's kinda cute, in a... buggy sort of way."
Citlali smiled. "So are you. From my point of view, you're all adorable! Once Asier grows enough to learn new things, I'll gather Whitetail Hive and start teaching you all at once. Your abilities, how to properly harvest, changeling politics and the like."
"Harvest?" Antiope looked at Citlali.
"You're a harvester; you're naturally better at disguising yourself, coming up with full identities, and gathering emotions to store in the hive's pool. You share this post along with Vesela, Nilam, and Satomi. Those are Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Moondancer. There are also workers, who excel in producing resin, a building material of sorts, and caring for the needs of the changelings that aren't sent out of the hive. Avalon and Yasu, Applejack and Fluttershy, are workers. They're less common than harvesters, along with soldiers, who are tasked with guarding the hive against intruders. Araceli and Vahan, Rainbow Dash and Shining Armor, are soldiers along with little Asier here."
"I figured the other Elements were also changelings, but Shining Armor!? Does Princess Cadance know?"
Citlali grimaced. "Well... none of the members of my hive, Spike not included, knew they were changelings until the wedding. Sorry that it took so long to tell you this; I was too wrapped up in the future and past to think of the present."
"So... nopony else knows how to be a changeling!?"
"Nope."
"Ay. You have a lot of work to do."
Citlali nodded. "It's going to be a very busy year."