//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: A Change is Starting with Me // Story: Rainbows After Rain // by Nitro Indigo //------------------------------// Moonbow Shine pushed aside the thick undergrowth with her thin antler. She'd never ventured this deep into the Mysticwood before, but a piece of paper fluttering down from the sky had caught her attention, and she'd pranced off to find it without a second thought. Paper was a luxury in her village, a relic of a bygone time when kirin were still in contact with ponies; the elders forbade them from harming trees in any way. A variety of twigs and leaves were caught in her blue mane, and her cloven hooves were coated in a thin layer of mud; she definitely needed to wash when she got home. An adorable little wasp landed on the ridge of dark-purple scales above her snout, and it tickled, so she sneezed. To her dismay, it flew away. She caught a glimpse of something yellowish-grey, as delicate as butterfly wings, caught between some brambles next to a stream. She was so close! Giddily, she sped up into a gallop. …And tripped over a root, receiving a mouthful of ferns and some scratches on her forelegs for her troubles. As soon as she spat them out, she gasped: she'd dislodged the paper! It was seconds away from falling into the stream, its contents forever lost to a watery grave. The elders could vaguely remember when kirin could levitate objects and skip on water, but those days were long before her lifetime. She didn’t even have enough time to stand up! Thinking quickly, she reached out a forehoof and grasped the delicate thing between her toes. Good save! When Moonbow took a look at the tattered piece of paper, she felt a jolt of disappointment. There wasn't much on it, just a crude map of the continent with arrows pointing to the southwest coast. It was clearly drawn by a foal, not in crayons, but in a sticky green substance that definitely wasn’t ink. But when she noticed the written message underneath, her face broke out into a grin.  To all the creatures of the world — you have friends in Seafey's Hive! The eatery was the heart of Seafey’s Hive. While its grey, papery, hole-ridden walls the height of an auditorium would look off-putting to most species, changelings met here every morning to mingle before going about their day. Solifuge had almost finished her tray of jellied beetles when her brood-brother sat down next to her. She thought it tasted good, like everything they served, but she couldn’t help but feel like something was missing. "You're not normally this late for breakfast, Phalanx," she said.  "Well… uh…” Phalanx’s orange eyes darted back and forth. “I was tired from patrols last night, that's all!" “Really?” Sol replied, playfully bumping her leg against his elytra. “Because the last time I checked, you don’t work the night shift.” She always thought the night patrols were pointless — they rarely found anything out-of-the-ordinary — but Queen Rostrum was obsessed with security. Phalanx sighed, taking a long look at his plate of maggot tarts. “Fine, I overslept again.” He scooped up a tart with his forked tongue and swallowed it whole. "But it's important to be well-rested on a day like this! You still going as a pony for the festival? Princess Sprinkly Glitter or something?" "Of course! Seafey Day isn't just the anniversary of our hive — it's a celebration of all changeling history!" She slammed her hoof against the rocky table for emphasis, causing the jellies on her tray to jump. "Princess Starlight Glimmer helped King Thorax the Great realise that changelings could metamorphose. Without her, we'd still be starving and riddled with holes! I studied all the historical records I could find — Thorax was friends with Dragon Lord Ember, and her memoirs have a lot of information about Equestria." Phalanx leaned against the table, and asked a question that made Sol pause: "Why are you so obsessed with ponies, anyway?” Sol contemplated her tray while deciding what to say next. “Because they’re an example we should learn from!” she said, her voice equal parts enthusiastic and frustrated. “Over a thousand years ago, their nation was the most prosperous in the world, where all creatures lived together in harmony.” “Hence why they’re all still prancing around in their utopia… oh, wait.” Phalanx leaned closer to her. “Admit it, Sol, you need to stop living in the past.” Sol stood up, frowning. "Look, I don't know everything, okay?" She turned away, opened her magenta elytra, and flew towards her living quarters. That afternoon, Sol eagerly skittered to the beach where the hive’s three-thousand or so changelings were gathering to begin the Seafey Day celebration. They were all wearing costumes — most made of papier-mâché like hers, a few made of more precious materials such as silk — to honour the days when changelings could shapeshift. She would’ve flown, but hers covered her wings. The few surviving portraits of Starlight didn’t have wings, which was odd, because she thought all pony princesses had them. Since Sol was near the front of the crowd, she could see Queen Rostrum impatiently tapping her hoof as she waited to deliver her speech. The guards formed a semicircle in front of her. Sol spotted Phalanx nearby, who stepped towards her as soon as they made eye contact. With his back covered in sheets of paper crudely dyed cyan, he was probably meant to be dressed as General Pedipalps, the captain of Queen Damselfly’s guard when she’d founded Seafey’s Hive. “I see I failed to change your mind,” he half-whispered, eyeing Sol’s costume from the navy and magenta mane tied to her horn that trailed down the back of her neck, to the lilac greaves that covered her forelegs. “Thanks,” Sol retorted. “I made it myself. Besides, shouldn’t you be focusing on guard duty?” “Well, uh, only the highest-ranking guards are in charge of protecting the queen,” Phalanx said quickly. “And I should be one of them,” an awfully familiar voice whined, and Sol and Phalanx sighed in unison. Their brood-brother Viceroy was almost unrecognisable under his costume; his red chitin was covered by a black cloak adorned with silken, indigo wings, and he wore a gaudy pair of purple-tinted sunglasses that obscured his green eyes. He kept looking over to the queen, as if hoping she’d look back at him. “Who’re you supposed to be dressed as?” Sol held her head high. “Princess Starlight Glimmer, ally of King Thorax the Great. And you?” “Well I’m dressed as Pharynx,” Viceroy boasted, pushing his chest out. “The real Pharynx, that is. He was Thorax’s brother, and he knew better than to submit to the ponies’ pacifist doctrine. He wanted changelings to defend themselves! But no, he had to metamorphose like the rest of our ancestors…” He scraped his hooves against the sand and scowled as if they offended him. “And when the queen realises I'm the only sensible changeling in this generation, she’ll choose me as her heir!” Sol swore she heard Phalanx mutter, “Good luck with that.” “ATTENTION, LOYAL SUBJECTS!” Queen Rostrum’s booming voice silenced the crowd’s myriad of murmurs as they all turned to look at her. She spread out her elegant, golden wings until they pointed skywards. Many larvae gasped in awe as the sun shone through them like stained-glass windows. “On this day 227 years ago, Queen Damselfly and her brave soldiers endured a perilous journey west to found a new hive…” She closed her elytra and went on for several minutes, detailing how they’d braved thunderstorms, blizzards, and the horrors that lurked in the Mysticwood along the way. Sol knew this story like the veins on her tail, but it never failed to grasp her attention. She’d only ventured beyond the hive’s borders a couple of times, but imagining how big the world was made her heart race. However, there was one part that rubbed her the wrong way. “...General Pedipalps’ quick thinking allowed him to emerge victorious against the savage hordes of griffons. To this day, our guards are trained in his methods, ready to defend the hive from outsiders.” “But why do we have to?” Sol muttered. On most days, nobody would’ve heard her… but on this day, the hive was dead-silent and the wind was still. “Excuse me?” Queen Rostrum spat, peering down at Sol through her glasses. The other changelings stepped away from her as if she had a contagious disease. Sol hesitated, but refused to back down. “Why do we need so much security?” Carefully, she peeled the papier-mâché shell off her back and hovered up to look the queen in the eye. “According to all our records, no outsiders have tried to invade our hive since it was founded. What good are we doing by isolating ourselves?” “So what do you propose, little nymph? Should we let ourselves be taken over, in the event that we are invaded again?” Queen Rostrum leaned towards Sol; her eyes were as blue as the current weather, but her gaze was as fierce as the sea during a storm. “No.” Sol turned slightly to address the audience as well as the queen. She took a deep breath; this was her time to shine. “Over a thousand years ago, there was a changeling named Ocellus. King Thorax the Great chose her to learn about friendship under Princess Starlight Glimmer and the other Elements of Harmony. She made five friends, each of a different species, and together they helped save the world!” The crowd murmured. “She has a point.” “What's an Element of Harmony?” “Can we just get the festival started already?” “My point is, what good are we doing by isolating ourselves?” Sol continued, now fully facing the crowd. “We shouldn't spend all our time preparing for invasions that will never happen! If we started making friends with the creatures we share this world with, we'd all be better off.” There was a moment of silence, and then a dozen or so changelings cheered. The queen waved her pink forelegs in an X-shape, gesturing for them to shut up. “That's all well and good, but Seafey's Day isn't about celebrating hypotheticals.” Queen Rostrum coughed. “With that interruption out of the way… LET THE FESTIVAL BEGIN!” While most of the crowd dispersed to frolic in the sea or play carnival games, Sol landed on the ground, her wings drooping. Don't be disappointed, she thought. You got a few changelings to agree with you! That's more than nothing! But her own reassurances felt hollow. “Your Majesty,” a nearby guard shout-whispered, pointing towards the outskirts of the bay. “Something's coming from the direction of Mysticwood!” Queen Rostrum whipped around. “NIRIK!”