//------------------------------//
// Old & New 
// Story: Strange Bedfellows 
// by BRBrony9 
//------------------------------//

The gunmen, the would-be assassins, had been cut down, killed by the Imperial troops who had swarmed the area of the incident, only to find their commander dead. Senior Commissar Birbeck had taken over as commanding officer of the siege forces until instructed otherwise by Lord-General Galen, and had thrown up a ring of steel around the site of the attack. Guardsmen with fixed bayonets guarded both the outer and inner perimeter, while medical and examination teams  did their work.

Darkness had fallen, and spotlights aboard the EAS Starswirl helped illuminate the site, where the bodies of Major-General Marwan, Guardsman Mattias, and half a dozen other troopers lay. It surprised many, including the Commissar, that the Xenos airship and the princess had chosen to stick around, rather than fleeing the site of her attempted assassination. To add to their shock, Celestia insisted on returning to the site, unaccompanied by any of the Royal Guard contingent aboard the Starswirl. 

Commissar Birbeck eyed the Xenos princess with great suspicion. From all the reports he had received, she seemed to be the primary target, and yet it was his own superior who lay dead. The idea of consorting with aliens was an anathema to him, and yet he had orders from both fleet command and the Lord-General, that he was to give every assistance to the princess. For what it was worth, technicians were recording picts of the dead bodies, in case some evidence should present itself in the images. The body of Guardsman Mattias was the focus of attention. Birbeck, his peaked cap pulled down low over his prominent brow, stood over the body, eyeing it curiously. The Xenos princess approached, and he hoped she could provide some insight.

'Princess,' he greeted her with a grunt, preferring not to use the correct official form of greeting. 'Do you know what happened here?'

Celestia replied to him equally tersely. 'No...Commissar, is it? I was hoping you could provide some insight as to why several of your men attacked me.'

Birbeck remained wary, both of her true intentions as well as her power. Reports had been relayed to him of her seemingly blocking the assassins' attacks from nowhere, and also of her simply disappearing from the area, some kind of teleportation evidently in use.

'I cannot speak for Major Pettimore,' the Commissar replied, 'but this is the body of Private Mattias. From what I understand, you killed him yourself. Now I may be a simple man and I may come from a backwater planet, but that...' he gestured at the corpse. 'is not a human. Do you recognise it?' 

Celestia nodded. 'Indeed I do. As you say, that is not a human corpse, nor is it a pony. I know exactly who is responsible for this atrocity.' 




Twilight blinked, blinked, blinked again. She was waking up, but her surroundings were unfamiliar, unknown to her. Everything was dark, black walls around her, together with a subtle green glow. Where was she...?

There was a subtle glow, just enough for her to see once her eyes became accustomed to it. The room she was in was small. She tried to move, but couldn't- she was chained to something. Her head still hurt from where it had been struck, though by what she didn't know. The last thing she remembered she was in her room in Canterlot, and now she was...where?

The floor upon which she lay was damp, trickling water audible somewhere. The walls appeared to be carved rock- a cave, somewhere underground perhaps? She tried to sit up, and found she could do so awkwardly. She tried to cast an illumination spell, but her horn merely sputtered. Something was stopping her magic- a counterspell, perhaps? But these humans did not use magic, either the Imperium or the enemy. Some kind of technology, then, a dampening field?

Whatever it was, she was trapped, her hooves shackled and her magic suppressed. But she was a prisoner, not dead, and that meant whoever had ambushed her wanted something.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Twilight could heard someone approaching the metal door that formed the far wall of the cell. It grated on the floor, screeching as it opened, light flooding in and revealingthe face of her captor. Twilight gasped in shock.

Not a human, far from it. Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings and sworn enemy of the princess, tall, dark and imposing, stepped into the cell, eyeing over her prisoner with a pleased expression, Her insectoid wings chittered a little, instinctively, as she chuckled, her long forked tongue flicking.

'Greetings, Twilight Sparkle,' the queen spoke. 'What a pleasure it is to meet you again, and this time, on my terms.'

Twilight glared up at her, her fear turning to anger. 'Chrysalis! What do you want with me? Let me go!' She made her futile demand as forcefully as she could, but Chrysalis only laughed.

'Of course, I shall let you go at once. Please forgive my...impropriety.' Her tongue flicked again. 'I have your Element. That's all I really needed from you. It would have been nice to get all of them, but no matter. The others are useless without the Element of Magic. So I suppose I could release you and keep your shiny trinket. But where would the fun be in that? It would be most foolish, don't you think? No, you'll be my guest of honour for the time being, and you'll be able to watch as my plan comes to fruition, as I replace your precious mentor to become the true power to follow!' She chuckled darkly, her tongue lashing once more, wings fluttering. 

'What plan? You're still obsessed with your petty revenge?' Twilight spat. 'Haven't you seen what's been happening? Have you had your head buried in the ground for the last month?'

'On the contrary, my dear,' Chrysalis replied. 'I know exactly what has been going on, and it is the most glorious opportunity! Something has fallen straight into my hooves, something to exceed even my wildest dreams! And have no fear, I intend to take full advantage of it.' She licked her lips.

'Opportunity?' Twilight blinked. 'What are you talking about? This invasion threatens all of Equestria, the whole planet, including you!'

'And what, you would have us work together to overcome the invaders? Please,' Chrysalis scoffed dismissively. 'Your pathetic overtures of friendship may have worked on others, those of...lesser will, perhaps...but do not waste your breath trying it on me.'

'I'm just trying to warn you,' Twilight said. 'These humans do not like aliens. They have technology...'

'And they have love!' Chrysalis declared with a gesture. 'Such love...for their Emperor. Oh, do not worry, Twilight Sparkle, I am well aware of their nature. It is amazing what someone will be willing to tell you after a little...persuasion.' She licked her lips again. 'Their devotion to their leader is almost as absolute as that of my drones...consider the strength a Changeling can draw from a pony with their love for Celestia. Now consider that there are a few million ponies on this planet.' Her wings buzzed with excitement. 'Then consider that these humans have spread across the galaxy.' 

Twilight swallowed nervously, her throat dry. 'And if they know of your existence, they will hunt you down and destroy you just the same. And what about the other faction? The one they are fighting?'

'Even better,' Chrysalis replied. 'They have a similar love for their so-called Dark Gods, and there are many billions of them also. Consider, my dear, consider this if you will. The number of Changelings we can spawn here, and the extent of my strength, is directly proportional to the amount of love we can feed upon. There are only so many creatures on this planet capable of love, a few million, which means a limit to how many Changelings there can be and how much love they provide for me. A natural limit,I suppose you could say, a check on my power imposed by a cruel universe. But there are trillions, countless trillions of these humans! Did you know even their own central bureaucracy doesn't know how many humans there really are? But they all, every one of them, have an absolute love for their Emperor...' She inhaled slowly and licked her lips once more. 'Can you imagine? This opportunity is almost beyond comprehension. To think that there is life beyond this planet, and that it should come here and alert us to that fact! Can you imagine, Twilight Sparkle, what will be mine? Unlimited power! A chance for my children to spread not just across the planet, but across the stars!'

'You're crazy!' Twilight shook her lead slowly in disbelief. 'You think the humans will just let you leave the planet? They'll wipe you out!'

'Oh no, my dear. They won't let me leave the planet. They won't have a choice in the matter,' Chrysalis replied. 'For who would ever suspect that their friend, their brother, their Captain, is not who they appear to be?'

'But...but you can't get away with that!' Twilight protested. 'There's no way. Someone will see through your disguise.'

'Yes, yes, just as you saw through it at your brother's wedding, hm? You knew something was amiss because you thought Cadence was acting differently,' Chrysalis reminded her. 'But that is something interesting about these humans. They have something unique about their psyche that ponies and Zebras and Griffons do not. One human I interrogated tried to explain. He said something about humans having a psychic presence in something called 'the warp,' whatever that may be. Either way, the result is clear. A simple touch before transforming is enough for any one of my drones to adopt not just the form of a particular human, but their memories as well, provided that even a shred of life remains in their body. That is the difference. It means that there will be no stumbling over names or faces, no confusion when given an order to carry out, no unfamiliarity with their technology. It means the perfect disguise.'

Twilight still could not believe what Chrysalis was telling her. Her plan was madness, and yet if it came to fruition, it could render the Queen unstoppable. The more Changelings there were, the more self-sustaining they became, as each drone and each worker generated a certain amount of love for their leader, and the more of them there were, the more love would be generated, added to the love of the humans for their Emperor. The more love the Queen received, the more Changelings she could spawn. The more Changelings there were, the more humans they could impersonate. The more humans they could impersonate, the more they could spread. 

'Imagine!' Chrysalis continued. 'Even if these humans discover our existence, even if today's other plan failed, they do not know our location, or our true nature, and if they do, that just serves to further my ends. You know what it's like to live with the fear that at any time, somepony you love, somepony you care for, might not actually be themselves. These humans will soon know that same fear, and it will spread distrust among them. It will spread division. A few key...'replacements' here and there, and their whole battle plan here might just start to fall apart.'

Twilight was becoming increasingly concerned. It sounded as though Chrysalis had her whole plan laid out, carefully mapped, and there was nothing she could do to prevent it. All she could do was try to learn more, in case she was somehow able to escape. 'What other plan?' Twilight asked.

'Oh, just a little sideshow. More in hope than expectation,' the Queen replied. 'Celestia was to tour one of the human positions today. Unfortunately for her, she would have found that several of the escort party were not who they seemed to be. She may well have survived, but even if she did, it is of no concern. She will be swept aside in due course, just like all the rest. Since you are here, I am sure you will be able to provide me with plenty of information about her, about Canterlot...yes, most useful.' Another laugh, wings chittering, tongue flashing. 'It will not take very long for me to become as powerful as Celestia, and soon, she will languish in my shadow! Soon, the whole world will be mine!' Chrysalis backed out of the cell. 'And after the world...the stars.'

The door slammed shut, plunging Twilight into darkness once again.




Canterlot had been thrown in panic. The message had gone round of Twilight's abduction. Humans in Imperial uniform had been seen outside the rooms of the other Element bearers, but had been scared away by a Royal Guard patrol who happened to be passing. Now at Princess Luna's behest a search was underway, scouring the city for the missing mare, but with no luck. The commander of the small human garrison in the city had been summoned to the throne room to address the younger royal sister, but had adamantly maintained that he and his men had nothing whatsoever to do with the disappearance. He had conducted a roll call and every member of the garrison was accounted for, none were missing. Most likely, he suggested, the Archenemy had taken uniforms from captured or killed guardsmen and infiltrated the city to conduct their nefarious mission. While that remained the most plausible theory, the garrison commander could offer no explanation as to why the enemy would want to ponynap Twilight in particular, and Luna did not wish to reveal to him anything of the nature of the Elements, something that he and his leaders surely knew nothing about.

But what other possibilities were there? An actor already familiar with the Elements and their effects? A member of the enemy who sought answers to questions about magic? But the Imperials reported that the enemy sorcerer had been killed in space. So who?

Their answer came shortly after the search began. A messenger Pegasus arrived from the east, with a message for Luna's ears only. He explained that Princess Celestia had been attacked, and was unharmed. He said that she had not relayed a message through the human's communications system as she wanted her sister alone to hear the news first of all. The attackers had been killed, and had been revealed. Changelings.

While there were always a steady string of Changeling raids and abductions across Equestria, there had not been such a brazen act since Chrysalis had infiltrated the royal wedding. Now, it seemed, not only had she attacked the princess, but she had, quite possibly, abducted Twilight Sparkle as well. The coincidence was too great to ignore. The humans and the enemy both were probably not responsible for the disappearance after all.

Twilight had to be found, and rescued. Without her and her Element, the weapon was useless. It seemed that Chrysalis had wanted to capture all six, but had at least failed in that attempt, but the loss of one was as bad as the loss of all of them, as it rendered the system impotent. 

Luna quickly summoned the garrison commander again, and his vox-man. She had a message to send to her sister, and it needed to be sent immediately.




'Changelings? And what, pray, are they, exactly?' Senior Commissar Birbeck gave Celestia a long hard look. 

'They are an old and very dangerous enemy of Equestria,' Celestia replied. 'An insidious foe...they can strike from the shadows without warning, they can hide, as you have seen today, in plain sight, masquerading as one of your own. They have the ability to shapeshift. We believe they also share a kind of hive mind, with all of the drones linked in some way. Their queen led an invasion of our capital city several years ago by infiltrating a wedding in disguise as the bride, and her ruse was only barely discovered in time.'

'I see...' Birbeck spared a glance at the body lying before them. Guardsman Mattias, or at least, what had seemed to be Guardsman Mattias, lay in the dirt where Celestia had skewered him with her horn. Yet it was not a human body that lay in the mud. Rather, it was a black, chitinous form, similar to the princess in that it was a quadruped, with both wings and a horn, though significantly smaller than her and with a bloody hole in its thorax. Its eyes had faded to a stony paleness after death. The bodies of the two other gunmen from the protection squad who had opened fire had also become similar corpses after death, not human either. They resembled a Tyranid in form, yet they were not any particular example of that ravenous alien species he had ever encountered in his five decades of service. But the explanation the princess gave seemed to fit, that much was certain- a hive mind, a queen controlling them, a chitinous carapace, shapeshifting like certain strains of the dreaded Genestealer. If such a connection was the correct one, then it was a deeply disturbing development. The Tyranids were known to come from both outside the eastern fringe of the galaxy and from beneath the galactic plane, but none of their kind had been encountered so far west before. They were generally held to probably be, aside from the forces of Chaos, the greatest existential threat to the Imperium. The likely true reason for their arrival in the galaxy was known to only a few within the Inquisition and the High Lord of Terra- they seemed to be attracted by the Astronomican, the Emperor's psychic guiding beacon, the vital conduit that could never be turned off if the Imperium were to stand against the myriad other threats arrayed against them. 

'Are these creatures native to this planet?' Birbeck asked. 'Or did they come here from some other system?' 

'They have always existed here,' Celestia replied, an answer that did a little, if not a lot, to ease Birbeck's worries. Though there were stories of Tyranids lying dormant in ice for centuries, it seemed unlikely, given what he had been told about the ages of both the princess and of Equestrian society in general, that Tyranids had been living on this planet for millenia. Unlikely, but not entirely impossible. 

'Are all these Changelings similar in appearance and size to this one?' the Commissar asked, gesturing again to the corpse. Celestia nodded.

'All except the queen, yes. She is the largest of her kind, being more similar in size to myself.' That set Birbeck's mind at ease a lot more thoroughly. If they were Tyranids, then there were at least none of the huge Carnifexes, capable of ripping a tank in half, Zoanthropes, eerily floating psychic artillery pieces, or the monstrous and truly terrifying bio-titans, gigantic natural war engines that towered above the battlefield.

'That is, normally at least,' Celestia continued, throwing disquiet back into the Commissar's mind once again. 'They can of course shapeshift into a variety of considerably larger forms.' He frowned at the princesses' casual mention of this, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. Though he was no Magos Biologis, Birbeck was fairly sure that Tyranids couldn't directly morph into their various different sub-species, but if anything, that made him more concerned. Could these things be worse than the Tyranids?

'How many of them are there?' he asked in response. 'Hundreds, thousands?'

'Their precise numbers are unknown to us,' Celestia replied. 'But we do believe there is an upper limit of sorts on their numbers, perhaps currently around one hundred thousand. You see, they feed on love.'

Birbeck blinked. Feed on love? What nonsense was she spouting? 'You speak metaphorically, I assume?' he questioned, but the princess shook her head. 

'No, they feed on the love given off by sapient creatures. They are what you might call succubi of sorts, although they do not need to attack their victims directly to feed off of them. When they do, however, they will be able to get a much larger quantity of it at once.'

Birbeck couldn't help but laugh a little at the absurdity. 'What do you mean? You cannot feed on an abstract emotion. What do they eat? Grass? Fruit? You?'

'They are capable of eating and drinking, yes, but the love energy is all they need to survive,' Celestia explained, to an incredulous look from the Commissar. He shook his head.

'Then I would imagine they will be starving themselves into extinction soon. There is precious litte love and goodness in this galaxy. I should know, I've been all over it,' he commented deriseively. 'I'm sure there is some other scientific explanation for it. No doubt our Magi will enjoy their dissection of this specimen. Any potential new threat to the Imperium must be carefully examined, inside and out.' He left unspoken the likelihood that the same treatment had probably been applied to the ponies, from bodies recovered either from the airship shootdown during first contact, or recovered from one of the battlefields where they had fought side by side with the humans.

A graves registration detail were starting to put the human bodies into body bags. A man with a flamer stood by to one side, in case some foul Xenos trick or Chaos sorcery should require the immediate burning of any of the corpses. The Changelings would be taken away, into orbit aboard a shuttle for the crew of the Ferrus Terra to study in depth, leaving Birbeck with the more practical considerations to discuss.

'Do you know where these Changelings are?' he asked Celestia. 'We can bombard them from orbit if they are likely to prove a problem.'

'Unfortunately not, Commissar,' Celestia replied. 'The Changelings dig underground hives and inhabit them until they deem it prudent to move on for whatever reason- compromised security, lack of resources and so on. When they move, they move in secret, find a new location for a new hive, and repeat the process. We do not know where they move to unless somepony happens to stumble upon it. We normally send out patrols constantly looking for the hive, but obviously with the current...situation...that has proved to be a secondary concern.'

'No matter. I am sure our thermal scans will be able to locate such a concentration of lifeforms,' Birbeck assured her, but Celestia shook her head.

'I doubt it. Changelings are cold-blooded, and their hives are constructed a good distance underground, primarily in rocky areas, which at least means that the desert and swamplands can be ruled out when conducting searches for them.'

'Are they likely to be a significant threat, or merely a nuisance?' Birbeck asked. 'What is their technology level? Are they armed?'

'They do not use guns,' Celestia replied. 'They do, however, use magic, both offensive, defensive, and deceptive.'

'Magic?' Birbeck's incredulous tone returned, before he remembered that magic was evidently the pony term for psyker powers. 'Ah, yes...magic...is that how you protected yourself from their attacks? My men reported some kind of shield...'

'Indeed.' Celestia nodded. 'Only the queen has similarly strong magic. The rest of the Changelings use a much weaker form, but it is still potent. Do not underestimate them just because they do not carry weapons.'

Birbeck had no intention of underestimating anything that resembled a Tyranid. 'They fired at you first. Do you believe you were their primary target? Or were they after the General?' he questioned. 

'Most likely I was their target. It would not be the first time the Changelings have attempted to assassinate me,' Celetsia responded. 'It will probably not be the last. The death of the General may have just been an unfortunate coincidence, or perhaps a distraction.' Birbeck nodded slowly.

'And lastly, what exactly happened to the bodies  of the guardsmen that these things replaced?' he asked. 'We have scoured the perimeter and found nothing.'

'I am afraid your men were most likely erased by magic,' Celestia explained. 'When the Changelings wish to impersonate a specific individual and the survival of that individual is not important, they will kill them and use a spell to dissolve the body.'

The Commissar frowned. A grizzly end, to be sure, but there were worse fates. 'I see. Well, I shall relay the information to my superiors. They will consider the next steps to be taken.' 

'And consult with me regarding them, I trust,' Celestia added. She didn't get a reply, however, as a Pegasus flapped down from the Starswirl. 

'Your Highness! The human spotters have a message. From Canterlot, Your Highness. It's urgent.'

'If you'll excuse me, Commissar.' Celestia bowed out of the conversation, flapping into the air and following the Pegasus back to the airship. Birbeck watched her go with a mixture of worry and confusion. She seemed implacable through it all, even an assassination attempt, but this newly discovered race of Changelings could offer problems if they were to prove be hostile to the Imperium. He headed for the HQ bunker, formerly Marwan's domain but now, temporarily at least, his, as acting commander of the siege lines. There was still a battle inside the city to be fought and won, regardless of any new threats. He would get back to it, but first he needed to send a message of his own.

A quick order to one of the vox-officers put him through.

'Fleet Command. Lord-General Galen here. You have further news regarding the assassination, Commissar?'

'Yes, My Lord,' Birbeck replied. 'The Xenos princess was able to identify those responsible. It seems we have a new enemy.'