//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Interview with the Changeling // by Fimbulvinter //------------------------------// Interview with the Changeling By: Fimbulvinter In the wake of the failed changeling invasion of Canterlot, both resentment and curiosity regarding the changeling hives east of Equestria reached a level never seen before. Rumours of a full military engagement with the hives were floating around like wildfires, and while the princesses were quick to squash such rumours, they never offered a categorical denial of the possibility regarding deployment of the royal legions. Questions were asked by the media that no one could fully explain, “how could a changeling replace a princess?” “Why didn’t the royal guard notice something amiss?” “How can we feel safe in our homes when not even our leaders are safe?” Compounding these issues was the fact that almost nothing was known about the changeling race beyond their ability to shape-shift and need to drain love in order to feed. It was regarded as strange therefore, when a single changeling drone appeared outside of the Canterlot train station, offering to provide a tell-all exposé regarding the nature and abilities of his race, and the reasoning behind the failed invasion. Under a heavy guard this solitary drone was escorted to Princess Celestia who was to conduct the interview herself, along with several hoof-picked members of Canterlots journalism community. What follows is an account of the historic first confirmed peaceful interaction between Equestria and the unknown changeling hives. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Celestia lead the drone into a conference room not far from the throne room, along with four other ponies; Phalanx, her personal royal guard, Lethe, one of Luna’s night guards, done up in full ceremonial armour with both her draconic eyes and bat ears alert and roaming for potential threats. The other two ponies were members of the media brought along to record the interview. The first one, Hard Hitter worked for the Canterlot Times, and was well known as being a provider of well researched and balanced articles. The other journalist, Daily scoop was a freelancer, currently working for the Stable Enquirer, well know for being a source of news heavily dramaticised and embellished in the pursuit of selling additional papers. If any pony could take what was likely to be a waste of time and turn it into an interesting story it was him. "Is everyone ready?" Celestia asked around the room. Hard hitter and Daily scoop nodded. Phalanx and Lethe simply stood at attention on either side of the entrance arch. The changeling drone walked over and sat in the centre pillow, clearly placed out for him. “Well, then let’s begin. Do you have a name?” Celestia addressed this to the drone sitting in the middle of the room. "I am a warrior drone from the changeling hive under the command of Queen Chrysalis”. The drone said proudly looking at Celestia. “I understand what you are, but who are you?" The drone looked slightly confused. “I am Drone” “Yes, but what is your name?” “Drone”. Celestia has to suppress a face hoof. It was going to be a long day. “Do you as an individual have a specific name that we are to call you by?” The drone was now starting to look frustrated. “I am Drone, every warrior, worker, and labourer in the hive is called Drone. Only the nobility caste have individual names”. “I see” said Celestia. Hard hitter and Daily scoop were scribbling down all the responses that the drone and Celestia were giving, this was the fist piece of hard information that anypony had ever gotten regarding the changeling social structure. “Well then Drone, I suggest we start at the beginning. Why did the hives invade Canterlot?” “I think that it may be beneficial for you to understand more about changeling physiology and psychology before I attempt to answer that question, many of the reasons may not make much sense without such an understanding”. Drone looked at Celestia who nodded slightly. “Firstly let me ask you a question, what do you know of us?” Celestia paused at this, what did she know about changelings beyond what she had seen at the wedding? “You are a race of insectoid shape-shifters who impersonate ponies in order to drain out their love and convert that into a source of nourishment”. Drone nodded slowly. What Celestia had said contained some truth, but was also indicative of the lies and rumours that had spread regarding his race. “Yes and no, Princess. Yes we are a race of shape-shifters, yes we feed on love. However we do not usually operate like you saw us at the wedding. That was an act of desperation by a starving queen”. “Changelings are an empathic race, we can sense and manipulate emotions in others. Despite what you may think, we do not need to feed on love exclusively, any form of positive emotion can sustain us, or even in extreme situations, we can eat foods like you would, though this is very bad for us over extended periods, and we receive very little nutrition from it. Any positive emotion – love, joy, excitement, hope can feed us, but love is both the easiest one to manipulate and is also the most nourishing. Ponies often do not even realise how much love they are radiating whenever they see another dear to their hearts. Usually a changeling will copy a pony for a few minutes, wait until they leave home for some reason, and then sneak in, bask in the ambient love for the pony they are impersonating, and leave before anypony becomes any the wiser. Every time you have wondered how a friend or lover seemingly managed to be in two places at once, chances are that it was a changeling impersonation”. Hard hitter interjected at that point, still using his magic to keep writing on his notepad. “So why the attempted invasion if all you need is to simply be around ponies who are in a good mood?” Drone looked at Hard Hitter. “I will get to that later, let me tell my story. The problem with such a method is that it can go horribly wrong, if the original pony were to actually appear prior to the changelings exit. It did so one too many times, and ponies living near the hives started taking extreme measures to confirm the identities of their loved ones, which also slowly drained them of large stores of their love and joy. As a result our normal sources of food were denied to us”. Drone looked over at Celestia, who was about to ask a question. “Before you ask, the ponies that we had been feeding off of will recover their ability to love. They were not harmed in any way, and their suspicion of each other will fade with time. Chrysalis could not stand to see her subjects slowly starve, but was also too proud to actually open diplomatic relations with another nation, she saw that as being weak, that admitting you needed help and friends would reduce you”. “I understand. I have a student who did not know the magic of friendship until recently. She also did not know that having friends and asking others for help actually makes you stronger”. Celestia looked out one of the meeting room’s windows, the small rural town of Ponyville just visible on the edge of the Everfree. “Getting back to the invasion however”. Drone paused, gathering his thoughts. “Have you ever been starving Princess? Not just hungry, but truly starving, knowing that if you do not have food soon, you will die. I do not think you ever have. Even in times of scarcity, there would have always been food available for you. Our hive was starving, on the brink of collapse. None of the other hives or royals was in a position to spare us any nourishment. We had to find an alternative source, and Chrysalis found it in the form of Princess Cadance. The love that her groom-to-be Shining Armour felt for her was stronger than any we had felt before. That was what drew us to Canterlot, it smelled so good we could not resist”. Daily scoop laughed. “So what? We were just to be a buffet for you all to gorge yourselves on until we were used up husks, incapable of ever feeling happiness again?” Drone shot Scoop a look. “Hold onto that question, later I will explain the reason why not one word in it is correct, but back to the invasion”. “The original plan was simply for Chrysalis to take the place of Cadance for a short time, while she was occupied with some royal duty or other, and arrange for invites to the wedding to be sent out to ponies that actually did not exist, ponies that would be played by drones. Cadance would be none the wiser, marry her true love, and the drones and Chrysalis in attendance would absorb enough ambient love from the whole event to sustain the hive for months”. “What went wrong?” Celestia was looking very serious. “From what you describe, the entire thing should have gone off without a hitch, we would never have known. What happened?” Drone nodded sadly. “Chrysalis got greedy. After taking on the form of Cadance, she decided to alter the plan from a covert feeding, something changelings have done many, many times before to an attempted coup. As Cadance, and with the support of the Captain of the royal guards, she would have had the ability to overthrow you and your sister, replace herself as the ruler of Equestria and slowly convert the populace into new changeling drones”. At this point, Celestia cut off Drone with a flap of her wings. “What do you mean convert the populace into changelings? Explain yourself”. “Very well. You remember the cocoons that you and some of the other guests were sealed in during the wedding?” Celestia shuddered and nodded. Those cocoons had been an awful experience, not one that she would wish on Discord himself. “The cocoons are actually a method of changeling reproduction. Aside from drones that are birthed from the royal hatcheries, changelings can also be converted from living ponies, though this method is extremely rare, highly dangerous, and often does not work effectively. To my knowledge, only fillies and colts that have yet to reach puberty have ever made the change with full success. Adults, often do not convert well, and fail to master changeling shape-shifting magic, resulting in half deformed monstrosities. Unicorns do better than others, due to their innate abilities with magic, but still only children can be fully converted. Failed drones are put to work in the hatcheries or as labourers. You on the other hoof, as an Alicorn are a special case. You would have been converted into a Queen like Chrysalis and then shipped off to the hives for ‘re-education’ and assimilation, eventually to take on a hive of your own”. “It was a foalish plan, borne of desperate hunger and overwhelming greed. Chrysalis never truly had a chance, only a fully powered hive could have pulled off a plan like that and we were starving. If we had stuck to the original plan, we would have been fed and returned to our own lands a powerful and respected hive. Instead we have wasted what little nourishment we had left attempting to pull off a crazy plan and are now even hungrier than we began, many of my fellow drones did not survive the trek back to our hive after our expulsion from Canterlot. This brings me to a request for you, Princess Celestia”. “Go on Drone, I’m listening”. Celestia had a sinking feeling that she knew where this was going. “Chrysalis has had to humble herself significantly for this, but she request that a few volunteers be asked to provide nourishment for the remaining members of our colony. They would not be harmed in any way and would only need to provide enough love and happiness to ward of death by starvation. In exchange for this, Chrysalis has authorized me to show you in detail how our shape-shifting works and how to detect it”. “A tempting offer Drone. I will have to think about it. In the meantime, refreshments are to be served in the next room”. Hard hitter and Daily scoop rose and followed the two guards into the adjoining room. “Drone, hold a moment”. Celestia motioned for him to come closer. Phalanx remained close, allowing the two reporters to pass him to reach the food spread set out on the tables. “I am curious to see how changelings would normally feed. I have summoned Cadance to join us for lunch. I want you to assume the form of her husband and feed off of her love for him. If she is not harmed in any way, it may help me to accept your Queens offer”. Drone nodded and suddenly was enveloped in a column of shimmering green fire. When the fire cleared, a powerfully built white stallion stood exactly where he did. “Shining Armour reporting for duty, Your Highness”. The two walked out into the main chamber, to see a bright pink form rush at them. “Shining, you’re back. I’ve missed you so much”. Princess Cadance, living Goddess of Love wrapped her hooves around Drone, who tensed up as he felt a wave of love slam into him, filling him up with energy. The energy flow was so powerful, that Drone could feel it overwhelming all of his other functions. Like a dehydrated pony finding an oasis in the desert, the need to sate his hunger overrode every other desire, even his ability to maintain his disguise. Cadance felt her husband squirm and shift under her touch. Opening her eyes she saw the black carapace of a changeling drone and instantly dropped her hooves to her sides. “What is going on here? Where is Shining Armour?” Celestia walked up to her niece, placing a wing on her back. “Cadance, I can explain…” End Chapter 1 A/N This is the first story that I have followed through to a point where I am comfortable uploading it. It is also my first major attempt at writing significant amount of dialogue in a long time. I will welcome any form of constructive criticism, if you loved it, great. If you didn’t like it then say why, so that I can improve as a writer, but please don’t just mindlessly hate it. Spot any grammatical errors? Comment below. There are likely to be several, as I do not currently have access to any proof readers. Chapter 2 is currently in progress with another chapter possibly planned if reception is favourable. OC credits Night Guard Lethe created by Dawnscroll